Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Time half-heartedly kicked at the small rock in the path as he walked on, curious to see how long he’d be able to keep going with it before he nudged it so far off the road that it wasn’t worth fetching or until he grew bored of it. He wasn’t in the mood for chatting as many of the others were doing, and it gave him something to do for entertainment besides listen to snippets of conversation and the sound of eight other pairs of boots against dirt.

They’d been told of increased monster activity south of the village they’d spent the previous night in, and the sweet older woman who’d expressed her concerns to them had been relieved when they’d promised her they’d check it out but after walking for hours they’d yet to come across anything. Time had started wondering if somehow they’d gotten turned around and had wandered off in the wrong direction, but when he’d brought up his worries an hour ago the captain had assured him they were following the lady’s instructions perfectly.

“We’re following the path, exactly as she said, and we can’t be going the wrong way,” Warriors had sighed, brushing his hair out of his face before pointing at the sky where the sun had started to duck behind a cloud. “The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so we have to be moving south.”

Time knew how the sun worked and he’d grumbled as such to the captain, as well as several additional comments that he’d grown up in the damn woods and wasn’t an idiot, all which had earned him a friendly swat. Years ago, during the war, he might’ve slapped his brother right back, but he’d found himself too tired to do so and with too many thoughts swirling around his brain. And besides, if he changed his mind at any point, Warriors was always close by. He hadn’t missed how the captain now always seemed to station himself behind his right shoulder, and he knew it was because his brother was well aware of his glass right eye and lack of vision on that side. He was touched by the man’s attention to detail and it made him feel safer to know the captain always had his back.

Though Warriors’s confirmation that he wasn’t crazy and that they were going the right way hadn’t been the comfort he’d needed it to be, because the woman had made it seem like the monsters were nearby. They’d been travelling so long Time was starting to worry they’d somehow passed them and left the village vulnerable, or that they were being stalked by the beasts, or that maybe this was all a trap. It was too quiet, the world around them seemed too still, and he knew very well that when nature made no sound something was very wrong. 

But nothing had happened. Nothing had happened for hours. 

So distracted by his thoughts, he’d stopped paying attention to where he’d kicked his small rock and ended up stepping on it, letting out a small sound of alarm when his foot slid off it and caused him to stumble. He managed to regain his balance and avoid slamming into the ground, but he wouldn’t have been able to do it without the hand that’d grabbed his shoulder to steady him.

“Careful, irmãozinho,” the captain laughed, but Time could see concern in the hazel eyes scanning over him. “Don’t need you falling and messing up your shoulder again.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled, glaring at the innocent little rock he’d tripped over before kicking it off the path. 

“Something on your mind?” his brother asked, no doubt knowing exactly what was troubling him but trying to give him a chance to talk about it anyway. 

Time could just tell him no. He knew Warriors would go away if he did, but he felt bad lying to him and he didn’t particularly want the captain to leave either. He just also didn’t want to keep repeating how he couldn’t relax because the world around them felt weird. There was this irritating itch in the base of his spine like he’d just watched someone draw their bow but after several long hours they’d yet to release it and he still didn’t know what the target was.

It was annoying.

Before he had a chance to properly think of how to answer the captain, a shout from the back startled him from his thoughts.

“War!” the champion called. “C’mere, I need your opinion on something!!”

“Wild, can’t you see I’m in the middle of something?” Warriors responded with a huff, turning around and no doubt giving him an irritated look. 

“Wild’s trying to tell me I’m wrong about something,” Legend yelled, cupping his mouth with his hands. “You have to help me!”

“Go.” Time waved his hand in a dismissive motion. “I’m alright, and we both know Wild’ll start blowing things up if he gets bored enough.”

He didn’t miss how his brother frowned at him, but the captain didn’t argue with him and headed off towards where Wild and the veteran were grinning with a little too much excitement on their faces for his comfort. They were both incredibly intelligent individuals, but whenever they put their heads together Time found himself fearing for himself and whatever property was nearby. He’d one time caught them plotting to use an ice rod to freeze a glass in his home on the ranch instead of getting ice from the ice box to chill their water. One of those was a lot easier and a lot less destructive than the other, and Wild and Legend had stared at him with wide eyes like he was some kind of genius when he’d reminded them that ice was a thing that existed outside of magic.

They were going places for sure, with brains like they had, just maybe not together-

Fully prepared for something chaotic to happen when Warriors was added to that mix, he simply sighed when he turned around after hearing a shriek, ready to find the captain looking offended or Legend looking betrayed, but instead his eye caught a quick flash of gold before landing on Wild and the veteran just standing there with their mouths open in shock. They weren’t the only ones, everyone except for him had already turned around and was staring at the spot where the captain had been standing just a second ago, because Warriors was no longer there. The captain was nowhere in sight, there wasn’t any trace of him at all. 

He was simply gone.

Link wanted to celebrate when he finally saw Lana, though he wished he had a better reason to see her again. He felt a little weird asking for a favour when they haven’t spoken face to face for so long but if anybody understood why he needed to get back to the others, it would be Lana. He wished they could sit and chat for a bit, especially since he found out more about his vampirism, but they didn’t really have time for a lot of idle chatter.

“Zelda said you need to go back to the others, yes?” she asked with a smile that didn’t seem quite natural to him.

“Yeah, this was the only way to get them to leave me behind to recover,” he answered, looking down at her hands. She had her tome, which she was frantically looking through. “Is it ready?”

“Almost! Looking for your group is harder than it may seem.” 

That was his cue to shut up and let her work. Link imagined it couldn’t be easy to figure out where the shadow decided to go, and that was assuming that the others stayed in the same era the whole time he was recovering. They must have gone to another era at some point. He waited quietly for Lana to finish until she suddenly turned to him, holding one of her hands up while she had her tome in the other other. 

“Ready?” 

“Ready.” 

Lana’s tome glowed as she made a circular motion with her free hand, then spun on her heels. A golden outer ring appeared, with three overlapping rings in the middle. He only had a moment to watch as the rings glowed brighter, summoning one more ring that opened up to a golden portal that obscured Lana. All the gold made his eyes sting, especially since it was like the golden light that burned him in the first place, but nonetheless, he walked through. 

As soon as he stepped out of the portal, Link was first hit with a blast of cold air and the moon hanging in the sky. The time of day didn’t seem quite right to him but he didn’t need his mask when the moon was out, so he wasn’t going to question it too much. He took it off and shoved it in his bag for later, but he decided to keep his new gloves that covered his fingers on for a little extra comfort. He didn’t really need them to deal with the cold but it was still nice to have them.

There was no sign of the others. He couldn’t see them, he couldn’t hear them, and he couldn’t smell any of them either. It was just him, a lot of snow, and some trees. Maybe Lana couldn’t put him right beside his brothers, which would be annoying, but he could look for them. It’s been well over a month since he last saw them, what is a few more hours on top of it? Link picked a direction and walked, sniffing the air and watching his surroundings as he trudged through the snow.

He walked for what he guessed was about fifteen minutes or so before an unexpected scent hit his nose. It was... some sort of citrus. Oranges, maybe? It wasn’t a scent he associated with any of his brothers but it meant that somebody was with him on the mountain. It wasn’t like an orange tree could grow on a snowy mountain, so the only reason why he could smell oranges had to be because somebody had oranges. It was the best lead he had so far, so he began trailing it, going from tree to tree until he could actually see somebody in the distance.

The smell of oranges was coming from them. Perhaps it was because of his time with the chain and because of the war, but he felt the need to give the figure a nickname until he knew them better. Unfortunately for them, all Link knew of them was that they had oranges. Wind and Legend would never let him live it down if they found out he decided to call somebody Oranges, but they didn’t have to know. 

Link made out a blue scarf before he hid behind the tree again. It reminded him of his own scarf, as it was also long and blue, though he didn’t get the best look at it before he had to hide. He could also hear Oranges talking to themselves but he couldn’t pick out any familiar words. They paused, looked around, and continued walking. Link waited until he was sure they were far enough ahead that he could sneak to another tree without being noticed. He wished he could float like other vampires could as it would have been a lot quieter, but he made it to the next tree without the person turning around.

Oranges paused again, so Link slipped behind the tree for cover once again. He couldn’t tell if they knew he was following them, if they were just as lost as he was, or if it was some sort of combination of the two. He took a chance and peeked around the tree to watch them. They moved a little bit, but they were looking around, looking into the canopy of branches above them and side to side. Oranges was definitely lost. They both were.

But that didn’t mean he could trust them to help. 

When Oranges continued, so did he. The pace was slow, his target moving slowly and methodically. Link followed them until they found a clearing, a spot on the mountain that was absent of trees for him to hide behind if Oranges continued forward. Link had no choice but to stay where he was if he wanted to remain hidden but if he did, he would lose track of them. 

They turned around. 

“Who are you, and why are you following me?”

Chapter Text

Warriors wasn’t sure what had just happened to him. Everything around him was spinning so fast he couldn’t see, though at a certain point the colors and jumbled blurs of what had previously been his companions around him morphed into tall dark shapes before disappearing completely and leaving him with nothing. He probably would’ve been much more freaked out about that if he weren’t currently so distracted by the fact that he couldn’t tell which direction his body was falling in and the nausea that was welling up in his throat.

There was absolutely nothing he could do to help himself, he was so disoriented he couldn’t fully remember what he’d been doing mere seconds ago. He knew he’d been walking towards Wild and Legend, but he couldn’t recall what’d happened between that and him now trying not to be ill as he fell through time and space because it had to have been a portal that’d swallowed him up. That was the only experience this felt comparable to. Portals usually left him feeling terribly nauseous and turned around, but this was a whole other level. He felt like he’d been stuck in a bottle and then shaken around, but instead of slamming against the sides, the bottle just kept turning while he fell freely through the air.

Usually he walked through portals and stepped through them willingly. Maybe this time was so horrible because he’d fallen right into it.

Warriors suddenly felt his legs sink through something ice cold and he let out a startled scream. Though the sound was cut short because in his terror and desperation to regain control over his own body, he tilted forwards, causing his chest to slam into something slightly harder than what he was falling through and knock the air out of his lungs. Spots flooded his vision before he’d been able to regain it, and he tried not to panic as he fought to wiggle out of whatever had ensnared him. His movements were a bit sluggish since he was worried that moving too quickly would aggravate his poor stomach further, but it was quickly starting to settle now that he wasn’t flopping around through a portal like a rag doll anymore.

He let out a horrible sounding wheeze as he clawed at whatever he could reach, confused by how the ground burned the exposed tips of his fingers and moved without much force as he dug his hands into it. A thought flashed through his mind that he’d fallen through ice, it was the only thing he could think of to explain the sudden cold that had consumed him and sand moved through fingers in a somewhat similar manner to whatever this substance was, but that didn’t make much sense. If he really had fallen in water he would’ve sunk to the bottom by now and there wouldn’t be sand scattered on top of the ice. Whatever he’d fallen into he hadn’t sunk any further into it since he’d landed, and even if his hands could move through it, his legs were definitely stuck. 

Feeling horribly vulnerable and exposed, and desperately needing to escape whatever he was trapped in, Warriors started blinking hard and rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to get the spots to go away as fast as he could. The longer he spent not being able to see the harder it was to keep his breathing even.

It took him a little longer than it should’ve to realize his vision had returned, because he’d been expecting the sun to still be above his head and he hadn’t quite realized the field of white right before him was snow wasn’t his eyes playing tricks on him. 

Oh. It was snow. He’d been dropped in the snow so hard that his legs had sunk right into it and he’d fallen on his stomach over the slope of the rest of the snow bank.

“Tá de brincadeira comigo?” Warriors groaned as he used his arms to try to push himself up so he could start to wiggle his legs free. “Are you fucking kidding me.”

He shivered as he struggled, trying to work fast so his clothes didn’t end up too wet but it was hard to dig himself out with how far he’d sunk into the bank. His irritated squirming wasn’t doing much and it felt like using his hands to push the snow away from him and make a bigger hole to climb out of was barely doing anything either, and he was starting to feel overwhelmed. With nothing better to do as he fought to free himself, he looked past the snow bank at his surroundings and grumbled in discomfort when he realized he’d fallen in a little clearing in what looked to be a forest, which would explain why it’d been so difficult for him to realize he’d gotten his vision back. Dark trunks blocked him from seeing much past where he was and he could only make out that they were trunks when he squinted because otherwise they looked like a dark void with no way of seeing what might be in there. He wasn’t a tall person to begin with but being buried up to mid thigh in the snow made the trees seemingly tower even higher above him, and his heart beat faster in his chest as he was left feeling a bit like a trapped bug.

He needed to get out of the damn snow.

He needed to find the others.

This wouldn’t be the first time they’d gotten a bit separated when going through portals. Warriors had a theory that it was because the portals opened a gate between them and universal coordinates and the planet’s constant movement caused the location of the portal to shift on the actual planet, but Legend had quickly shot him down and called him an idiot over it when he’d mentioned that to the others, so the settled upon explanation was just ‘magical complications’. When Warriors next had time to kill and access to Zelda’s library and the castle telescope, he was going to spend so much time trying to prove his theory, or at the very least try to observe other possible solutions, because he might have a lot written out in his journal but he didn’t have the whole-

HIS JOURNAL.

Warriors started fighting harder to get himself out of the snow, needing more than anything to save his journal from getting damaged by the snow. The voice of reason in the back of his mind told him it was secure in the pouch on his belt and therefore the pages wouldn’t get wet, but the possibility of it being damaged had entered his mind and he wouldn’t be able to calm himself until he’d ‘saved it’. He had everything in that journal: all his notes on things he learned as he traveled through time, poorly done sketches of interesting things he’d never seen before, strategies and notes on his companions’ strengths and weaknesses which he’d willingly shared with them when they asked for tips on how to improve, letters to and from his family back home, thoughts he’d wanted to remember to dwell on when he had more time to do so, maps of the stars and how they were different across eras…

That book was an extension of his brain and it was as important to him as his own physical form. 

He let out a triumphant cry when he felt his legs start to move, and it didn't take much longer for him to be able to crawl out of the snow and scramble to his feet. Patting himself down and trying not to shake too hard in the cold, he was relieved to discover his clothing wasn’t too wet. He must’ve been trapped for a much shorter period of time than he’d thought, in his panic it’d felt like forever but he wouldn’t be shocked to discover it’d only been a minute or two.

Checking for his own peace of mind that his journal was unharmed, he tucked his scarf tighter around himself and looked again at the trees to try to determine what direction he should go in. They were too tall for him to see anything over and the clouds must’ve been covering the stars and moon because the sky looked completely dark, giving him no real hint of where he could be or what direction he should go in, so he decided to just start walking because he didn’t feel safe staying put. 

He knew better than to call out for his friends, he didn’t know what else might be in these woods with him, but he was annoyed and cold and miserable, and so he found himself grumbling about his situation under his breath. Why couldn’t they have stayed on the nice sunny path looking for monsters? Why had he been dropped in the snow? He hated the snow, sure it was pretty from afar but it was horribly cold and Warriors really wasn’t a fan of that. The others liked to tease him for getting cold so quickly, but it simply wasn’t his fault he wasn’t used to it. The small village where he’d grown up was warm and sunny, he’d never even seen snow until he was sixteen years old and stuck in the Castletown barracks after joining the army. He hadn’t been warned just how cold it could get.

“Isso é tao estúpido,” he sighed, watching for any movement as he walked through the trees. 

Whining about his situation was useless, it wasn’t going to bring the sun closer and melt the snow, but it made him feel a little better even if no one was around to listen to it and so he continued to complain as he walked on, searching for his friends and praying they’d show up soon.

He kept his voice down, barely whispering to himself as he struggled through the snow so that he’d still be able to hear over his own words, but he found himself falling completely silent when he sensed something behind him. If it were one of his friends, they’d call out to him, knowing he didn’t have eyes on the back of his head, but whatever it was didn’t make a sound. Warriors knew he could be overly paranoid but this time he was sure he wasn’t overreacting because as he kept walking, the thing behind him continued to follow silently, close enough that he was sure it was able to see him. 

His friends wouldn’t pull a prank on him like this, but a monster would’ve attacked by now.

Unsure of what else to do, he kept walking, growing increasingly more unsettled as his stalker stuck by him. Spotting a break in the trees didn’t bring him as much peace as he would’ve liked, but he headed towards it and tried not to groan when mountains became visible. He wouldn’t be getting away from the cold any time soon, but maybe his stalker would stay in the forest. At least the open field and increased ability to see would make him feel a bit safer than being stuck where things could hide from him in the cover of the shadows.

Confused, annoyed, and more freaked out than he wanted to admit to himself, Warriors walked exactly thirty more steps, out of the trees and into the open snow, before he whipped around and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring into the woods.

“Who are you, and why are you following me?”

Shit, they knew he was there. Oh well. There was no point in hiding when he was already found out. Link slowly walked out from behind the tree with his hands up in the air. He didn’t know Oranges and he still didn’t know enough about them even after following them, but he didn’t want to scare away a potential ally by drawing his sword. If Oranges attacked, Link was sure he could draw his sword in time to defend himself. At the absolute worst, he could use his powers, but he preferred to keep that a secret if he could.

“My name is Link,” he started, as he tried to find a good enough excuse for following Oranges around. He didn’t really have a reason that didn’t sound suspicious. “And.... you just happened to the only other person I saw?”

Now that Link was closer and Oranges was in the moonlight, he could see that Oranges looked masculine and he was also wearing a green tunic with a low neckline that happened to be trimmed with gold. It was remarkably similar to his own tunic. He could also seem some blue under his bracers, though Oranges’ fingers were tucked into that blue scarf he noticed before. They didn’t have the same face – Oranges had scars on his face that he didn’t have and his hair didn’t look to be the same shade of blonde, though his eyebrows were suspiciously dark so maybe his hair wasn’t blonde to begin with – but they were wearing pretty similar clothing.

“L- What??” Oranges blinked at him.

“My name is Link,” he repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Is that a problem?” Maybe he was in one of those in-between eras but one where one of their stories was known. Maybe it was even his story, if the scarf was of any indication, but something didn’t seem quite right about that. Maybe the scarf was something that could become a tradition, but the tunic too? The blue gloves under the bracer? It was a bit much for tradition. 

Oranges narrowed his eyes in confusion and slowly answered, “No, not an issue. I’m looking for my friends, have you seen anyone around here?”

“Only you, but I’m looking for somebody named Lana. If you wear that scarf, maybe the name is familiar? At any rate, we both have a goal, so maybe we can help each other out.” Link wasn’t sure he could trust Oranges but they might as well team up. There was no point in going their separate ways when they were both looking for people.

Oranges gave him a weird look and clutched his scarf around himself tighter. “You know Lana?”

The gears in Link’s head were turning. He definitely knew Lana, and that was on top of their very similar clothing. He also had a weird reaction to his name. He felt like he had pieces to a game but he couldn’t figure out what game they belonged to. If he wanted more clues though, he would have to continue to answer questions so he could ask questions himself. 

“She’s the whole reason I’m here. I don’t think she meant to send me here though, so I want to find her and we can try again. Maybe she can help you find your friends,” he answered with an awkward smile. He hoped Lana could get it right the second time. He wasn't exactly mad that this first attempt didn’t seem to take him to his brothers like he wanted, but he was kind of annoyed. If he couldn’t find Lana in time, then he would need to find some blood and if Oranges did agree to work together, then he would have to leave him behind to find some. He didn’t want Oranges to know about his vampirism. 

“Yeah…” Oranges said slowly, looking him up and down as if he were trying to figure him out. Or maybe he was looking for weapons. “I’m looking for eight of them, it’s a large group. I’m assuming they’re close because we usually travel together so it doesn’t make much sense for me to be here without them.”

He was looking for a group of eight. Suddenly, everything clicked. 

He first thought that Oranges may have come after him, that Oranges’ clothing was based on his own, but if he was looking for his own group of eight, then he was probably looking at somebody who held the same title as him but in a completely different timeline. Link and his brothers were already aware that there were different timelines because of Time, so who was to say there weren’t more? Maybe infinitely more?

Link shook his head. He was not going to contemplate that right now. He had to focus on Oranges and he had to focus on getting to Lana so he they could both reunite with their brothers. Focus on the present. He was going too far ahead of himself as it was! Link hadn’t even confirmed with Oranges that he was also the Hero of Warriors. 

“Is your name Link? Is the rest of your group also named Link? Do you and the rest of your group have to use weird nicknames like… say, Time and Legend? Names based on Hero titles made the most amount of sense, no?” Link asked with a smirk.

Oranges’ face twitched as he tried to keep his expression controlled, but he failed to maintain his look of composure and hide the fact that what Link had just said to him had more than startled him. The man looked a bit like he’d seen a ghost, and he spent several long seconds before he responded to the question with one of his own.

“Who are you and how do you know that?” 

“I’m Link, the Hero of Warriors. You’re also Link, the Hero of Warriors, no? Our clothing is strangely similar, we both know Lana, and I also want to reunite with a group of eight people who sometimes make me want to scream but I still love them. Let me show you something,” he said as he lowered his arms. The gloves made it a little harder to remove the bracer on his left arm but he managed it. Next, he took his glove off by sticking a little bit of it in his mouth and pulling his arm out of it, then he had to awkwardly grab it with his right hand, which was still holding the bracer. 

He held his arm up and slowly turned it to show Oranges all of the burn scars he got from Volga. He even turned his hand so that the back of it faced Oranges, but the divine mark on it was hard to see even with good lighting, so he didn’t expect him to see it. “I got all of these scars because I tried to protect Impa from Volga. The Triforce of Courage activated, but not in time for me to walk away unscathed. I still got burned, but Impa was fine. It could have been a lot worse. Does that sound familiar?” 

Oranges stared at him with wide eyes, shifting his arms a bit where they were holding his scarf almost as if to protect his own left arm. He seemed frozen for a moment as his eyes flicked back and forth between Link’s face and the scar on his arm before he let out a strange sounding laugh, raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“Nao acredito, isso é ridículo,” he grumbled under his breath before letting his hand fall back to his side. “Yeah. That sounds familiar. They call me the Hero of Warriors too.”

Link titled his head slightly. When he first heard Oranges say something he couldn’t understand, he thought it had something to do with the fact that he was far away and couldn’t hear him clearly, but no, it was a whole different language. 

“I guess that’s one difference between us, only one of those words sounded familiar,” he mumbled as he shook his head. “What about you? Do you have something you can share that only I would know?”

“Uh… I don’t- What can I say that isn’t public knowledge?” Oranges let out a sigh but he at least looked a little less on edge. “Proxi…? She was a big help to me during the war, she helped me communicate because when I came to Castletown after joining the army, I struggled to understand their language so she translated for me until I felt confident enough to speak on my own. Also, I met the spirit of the master sword, I think she was…? Her name wa- Her name is Fi? Any of that familiar to you?”

Link nodded. “Proxi help me a lot too, just not in the same way,” he said quietly with a fond smile. Proxi didn’t have to translate for him the same way Oranges would have needed her to, but he struggled to speak clearly after his sudden promotion. He was so afraid of fucking up that he had a hard time saying anything at all. “And, yes! Fi! It was just me and Proxi who went to Skyloft, and Fi helped us out when we found her. We were on the surface when…” 

He stopped. He wasn’t sure he could say the word 'traitor' without losing his cool. He was trying to keep Oranges on his side and if he did lose cool, he might not be able to hide his vampirism. He distracted himself by putting his glove and bracer back on, since his arm was actually starting to get a little cold and he already proved his point. 

“So… truce? I’m sure if we work together, we can find Lana and get back to our brothers. We have more important things to do than be stuck on a snowy mountain.” 

“Truce,” Oranges agreed, shivering as he held out a hand for Link to shake. “I fucking hate the snow.”

Link couldn't help but laugh as he took Oranges’ hand.

Chapter Text

Warriors pulled his scarf tighter around himself, tucking his chin under where he’d bunched up some of the fabric near his face so he could protect as much of his skin as possible from the biting cold. It was bad enough he’d ended up separated from the others and dumped on a mountain in the snow, he didn’t need to end up getting frostbite too. The tips of his ears burned and his toes felt miserably frozen in his boots but there wasn’t much he could do to protect them, other than maybe clamp his hands around the sides of his head but that’d make it difficult to hear and he didn’t want to hinder that. He could barely see, it was so dark out, he didn’t want to make himself even more vulnerable.

He had taken out both sets of his earrings, the metal starting to burn in his ears and make him a little too conscious of its presence in his flesh, so he’d stuffed them in one of the pouches on his belt as he’d followed behind… the other Hero of Warriors. 

Gods, this was so weird. He still wasn’t sure what to think about it. It was clear the other man wasn’t lying, he knew way too much for him to be lying and once they’d agreed to a truce and to help each other off the mountain he’d seemed completely disinterested in Warriors. If he’d wanted to hurt him or something he probably would’ve done it by now, and he’d have no motivation that Warriors could imagine to try to impersonate him other than to cause harm so he was content to believe this other Link was telling the truth. But that really didn’t make it any less strange. He wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept of alternate timelines, but this didn’t feel like him from some other reality. It was hard to see in the light just from the moon, but this man was visibly paler than he was, and his hair looked like it was naturally blond unlike Warriors’s own hair that he had to keep dyeing to maintain that color and aggressively straighten every morning to keep up his appearance. Facially they didn’t look anything alike either. This was clearly a completely different person, who was just also the Hero of Warriors…?

His head hurt.

“What should I call you?” He decided to break the silence after a while, grimacing when his foot sank a little too quickly into the snow and caused his knee to bend too far backwards to be comfortable. “Since we’ll be working together until we can get off this godsforsaken mountain.”

The other Link slowed his pace. “Well, the others call me Warriors, so that might not help at all. Your group must call you Warriors too, right?” 

“They do,” he sighed, not quite sure what else he was expecting to hear, “but they also call me War as a nickname of sorts.”

“War is better than the name I had for you,” the other Link said as he stopped and turned his head towards Warriors. “I’ve been mentally calling you Oranges this whole time.” 

He burst out laughing, brows furrowing in slight confusion. “How’d you know I like oranges? I don’t think I even have any on me, the others- My friends like to tease me for eating them all the time. You a fan too?”

“You smell like oranges,” he stated simply. “I guess you eat them that much that the smell sticks around even when you don’t have any. They aren’t my favourite, but they’re alright.” 

Warriors blinked in shock, and discreetly tried to sniff at his scarf to see if he could pick up the familiar scent of his comfort fruit. Maybe he was just so used to being around it that his brain couldn’t register the faint smell anymore?

“Huh…” He trailed off, wishing he could stop shivering but his bones felt like they were frozen and he was so cold it was difficult to think about too many things at once. 

He had no idea how the other man looked so unbothered by the temperature. His face was a little red but he wasn’t shaking like Warriors was and, yes, he knew he wasn’t as used to colder temperatures like some people were, having grown up in the southern most part of the kingdom, but for fuck’s sake it was literally freezing out and this guy was just standing there. 

He needed to get back on track and probably mentally stop calling him the ‘other guy’.

“I guess I’ll just call you Warriors if that’s alright for you.” It felt weird to use what had come to feel like his name for someone else, but this whole situation felt weird so he was really just going to have to get used to it. “And I guess you can call me War.” 

“Sounds good to me,” Warriors said, but he didn’t take his eyes off of War. He glanced up and down like he was studying him. “Do you need another layer? I can spare my scarf if you need it.” 

He was shocked at the offer, he wasn’t used to kindness from strangers, and while normally he might’ve been more suspicious or refused and lied that he was fine, he was so horribly uncomfortable and grateful for any chance of warmth.

“Are you not cold…?” War made himself ask first to check, not wanting to be greedy.

Warriors shook his head as he reached under his cloak. It didn’t take him long before he started pulling it off of himself, then offered it to War. “I don’t get cold too easily. You, on the other hand, look kind of rough.” 

If he were less focused on trying to suppress his violent shivering maybe he would’ve felt offended.

“Thank you,” he nodded, hoping he sounded as genuine as he meant to as he gratefully took the scarf (pretty much identical to his own) and pulled it around himself. It was hard to keep his voice steady with how he was shaking. 

Why the fuck couldn’t he have been dumped off at the beach. Or literally anywhere else?

Warriors watched War pull the scarf around himself, then he looked ahead. If War was struggling in the cold, then they really had to get off the mountain for his sake. Warriors was strangely fine. Nobody told him that vampires were resistant to the cold but he couldn’t think of any other reason why he wasn’t a shivering mess like War was. He had gloves that covered his fingers and an extra cloak, but he had a feeling that he could take both off and still not be as bad off. 

He decided to pick up the pace again. They had to find a way down before War froze to death on him. Well, maybe that was a bit of exaggeration on his part but he didn’t want to stay around and find out either. 

The two of them stayed silent after War took his scarf but Warriors didn’t mind it too much. He was trying to focus on the gradual but downward slope ahead of them, making sure there wasn’t anything dangerous ahead of them or anything dangerous under their feet. The last thing they needed was to be attacked while they were in an environment that limited their mobility. Warriors was sure that War was a capable fighter but he wasn’t going to fight at his best when the snow was so deep. 

There was a rustle in the trees around him. Warriors stopped and scanned the environment. There was a shadow in front of them. A deer, maybe? It wasn’t in the moonlight but further back within the tree. 

“Do you see that?” 

War squinted at the shadow, or at least he thought that’s what he was doing before it became a bit obvious he was just staring at their surroundings in general, searching for something.

“I heard it,” War mumbled, still trying to find it.

“But you don’t see it?” he asked as he pointed at it. He knew it was in the shadows but it couldn’t have been that hard to see. A second later, it moved, stepping into the moonlight to sniff at one of the trees. It was just a deer, thankfully. It was cute actually, and he was kind of excited that he could get so close to it without it running away or running aggressively towards him. Maybe he could add deer to the very short list of animals that didn’t hate his guts.

“Oh!! It’s a deer!” War said, following his finger with his eyes to where it was.

“Oh, there’s another one way back there. Do you see it?” Warriors asked, pointing at the smaller one. This one was further back, hiding within the shadows. It was smaller than the one sniffing at the tree in the moonlight, so maybe they were looking at a mother and its fawn. “I think it’s a mother and a baby! I guess this mountain isn’t too bad after all.”

“I don’t…” War grumbled, tilting his head and ducking a bit to try to see what he was talking about. “I just see the one.”

“It’s in the shadow,” he added, like it might have been helpful but Warriors was beginning to wonder if it was. He quickly ran his tongue over his teeth, making sure he didn’t have his fangs out, but he didn’t feel any of his fangs. He wasn’t using his vampire powers to see it. Sure, the second one was kind of hard to see but somebody with average vision should be able make it out. “Your eyesight isn’t the best, is it?”

War looked like he was going to argue with him, he opened his mouth a few times and sputtered before defensively getting out, “It’s dark outside. It’s the middle of the night, it’s hard to see.”

Warriors supposed that could be true. Maybe it was just really hard for him to see in the dark. He could see the deer in the moonlight, so perhaps he really did just need more light. He took a deep breath. 

“We should try to find some shelter and continue down the mountain when there’s more light. Hopefully, the sun will make it a little warmer too,” he added. War could argue about his eyesight or lack thereof, but he couldn’t argue about being cold. The sun would be worse for Warriors, but that was hardly new. He was used to travelling in the sun, even though he was tired and he had to take a lot more precautions against the sun than anyone else had to. He could manage it and it seemed like it was the better option for War. 

Warriors didn’t wait for an answer. He moved around the deer as he didn’t want to startle the, and scanned the landscape for somewhere to hide in for a while. He moved on when there wasn’t anything obvious to him. He didn’t stop to wait for War or even look back to see if he was keeping up. He just trusted that the other man could just follow behind in the path he made through the snow. After ten minutes of searching, he considered maybe going back up the mountain for a better vantage point, and maybe use his powers if he really couldn’t see anything. 

But then he found it, a small cave. He ran over and quickly looked inside. Warriors could see the back, which was both a good sign and a bad sign. They would be alone in the cave, which was good, but it wasn’t as deep as he would like. They would be out of the snow but deeper would have been further away from the snow. Oh well, it was the best they had. Warriors turned around and quickly spotted War. He lagged behind a little bit but thankfully, he managed to keep up. He gestured at the cave and ducked inside, since the mouth of the cave was just a little shorter than he was but the ceiling was higher on the inside. 

“If we’re going to be working together, I’d like it if you didn’t leave me behind,” he said firmly but not unkindly as he walked past Warriors and pressed his back against the wall of the cave before sliding down to sit. War kept the scarves wrapped around himself tightly, only loosening them for a brief moment so he could bring his legs up to his chest and wrap those in the fabric too. His lips looked a little blue but hopefully he’d warm up soon now that they had some kind of shelter.

Warriors looked out at the mouth of the cave one more time and once he was satisfied that there wasn’t anything weird out there, he joined War at the far wall, settling his sheathed sword down against the wall, removed his bag, and then sat down. Without saying anything in response to War, he opened it up and dug inside, pulling out his bedroll from the bottom and an extra blanket that he promptly threw at the other hero. He didn’t have anything else that could provide warmth, unless one could count his fingerless gloves, but to his shock, he had far more food than he expected. Warriors didn’t remember packing any of the dried fruits, nuts, and jerky that he found and he knew the vampires didn’t give him any. 

He pulled out a piece of jerky for himself. “I don’t know if you have any food but it looks like Zelda and Impa decided to stuff my bag. You’re welcomed to it if I'm not awake,” he mumbled as he closed his bag and shoved the jerky in his mouth. He ate it as he set up his bedroll and slipped inside. His blanket would have made him comfortable, especially since he still had to wear all of his layers to be warm enough, but he figured War needed it more. 

“Just as a warning, my friends say I don’t wake up well,” he mumbled once he finished eating the jerky. 

War gave him a hum of acknowledgment. He really hadn’t done much besides mumble out a shocked ‘thanks’ when the blanket had been thrown at him, but at least his shivering had stopped and he looked a little less like he was about to freeze to death.

Warriors spared one more glance in War’s direction before he shoved the dagger necklace into his mouth. He didn’t know when he would get to taste blood again but the necklace was a nice distraction for now. Satisfied that War wasn’t going to die if he fell asleep, he closed his eyes and let himself drift to sleep. 

War grumbled as he tried to curl up tighter while also figuring out how he could blindly dig into the pouch on his belt where his emergency snacks were. He probably should’ve attempted to eat something earlier but he was so disoriented with being dropped in the middle of the night when it’d just been the afternoon for him and then he’d been too cold to want to expose his fingers to the frosty air. And he was paying the price for going so long without food because he was already feeling dizzy and a bit nauseous.

He really wanted to find the others, it was rare someone got lost for this long after they went through a portal and he couldn’t imagine how much they were stressed out over having him just disappear like he had. The stupid little voice in the back of his head that hated him tried to convince him maybe the chain could finally know peace without him there always running his mouth, but he’d spent enough time with his friends to be able to firmly push that aside because he knew they loved him. He didn’t understand why, but he knew they’d be upset if something happened to him and he felt guilty about that.

Letting out a tired sigh, he successfully managed to grab a handful of cashews and bring them up to his mouth without having to bring his whole hand out of the bunch of fabrics wrapped around him. Belatedly he froze, already having eaten a few before a worried thought crossed his mind about Warriors having a nut allergy. He knew Wind couldn’t have peanuts without having a horrible life threatening reaction to them, but the first time he’d really been exposed to an allergy like that was Tune in the war so until he’d started hanging around Wind again he’d sort of forgotten that was a possibility. And since Wind could have cashews with no problem it’d completely escaped his mind that apparently, according to the little sailor, there were people who were allergic to them.

He’d have to ask Warriors in the morning to double check. He’d hate to kill the guy on accident, he’d feel horrible about it for the rest of his life.

War didn’t remember falling asleep, it almost felt like he hadn’t gone to bed at all. It’d been so hard for him to get any kind of comfortable, his lower back and hips had decided to start aching and make it impossible for him to sit or lay down without being in pain so he’d ended up just curling into a ball on the ground anyway and at some point he must’ve passed out because the front of the cave was now a lot lighter than before. 

Which meant that now it was time to start moving and get away from this horrible mountain.

He didn’t want to get up. It’d mean poking his legs out of the scarves and blanket covering him and he finally didn’t feel like his insides had frozen, but he forced himself to push himself to his feet anyway, letting out a small groan when his back popped. War was going to blame sleeping on a cave floor for that one, and not the fact that getting beat up by monsters frequently was probably just bad for one’s joints.

Shooting a glance over at his new companion, he found the guy still fast asleep with some kind of necklace in his mouth. War hadn’t even noticed he was wearing one, and seeing the chain made him instinctively reach up around his own neck to feel if the one he wore was still there. The metal had warmed up from resting against his skin and he no longer felt it freezing him, but his mother’s ring was still, in fact, around his neck and he let out a sigh of relief.

“Warriors?” He called, wincing at how weird it felt to say his own name to call someone else. “We should head out now. Make the best use of the daylight, and all that.”

Warriors didn’t move or react at all .

“Link?” He tried, stepping closer to him and speaking a little louder. War was already starting to feel cold now that he’d gotten up and he really wanted to start moving, but Warriors must not have been joking when he said he slept deeply. “It’s morning now.”

Still no reaction.

War didn’t like invading people’s personal space, he didn’t like when people invaded his personal space. He didn’t like being touched by strangers, or anyone without warning, and he didn’t like doing to others what he didn’t like have being done to him, but he really did not want to spend all day in this cave and he needed Warriors to wake up. So, after shouting his name a couple more times, he gently reached out with his foot and nudged the sleeping man’s ankle.

Warriors let out a threatening hiss, akin to the sound geese made when somebody walked too close to their nest, and turned away from in his bedroll aggressively He pulled his legs up and settled quickly, but not without hissing under his breath one more time. 

War sighed and backed up. That was a fair reaction, he wouldn’t want to get up either. It’d been a good long minute since someone had hissed at him, though it didn’t really catch him off guard. He’d been growled at before by soldiers he tried to wake, wanting to make sure they hadn’t passed in their sleep, he’d been barked at by some just wanting to scare him off and get some extra rest. Legend had accidentally kicked him last week when he tried to wake the kid up, and he used to have to physically drag Mask off his cot to get his brother awake.

It would probably be for the best to just let Warriors wake in his own time. So War sat back down and tried to get comfortable for however long he’d have to wait.

Chapter Text

When Warriors woke up, he could see light spilling into their cave. He groaned, spat the necklace out of his mouth and sat up. He swore to himself when he saw that War was already awake, tucked at the back of the cave with the blanket and both scarves. Shit, he must have wasted a bunch of time sleeping when War was awake and ready to go. First, he took his mask out and laid it on the ground beside him, then he quickly packed away his bedroll and stuffed it into the bottom of his bag. 

He came upon all the extra snacks in his bag again. Like he did before he fell asleep, he took a piece of jerky for himself, then turned to War. “Have you eaten?”

“Had a few cashews,” he shrugged before looking at him with a frown. “You don’t have an issue with them, do you?”

“No,” he answered, unsure if War was asking if he was allergic to them or if he had some personal vendetta against them. Neither one of those was true, but he was worried that all War ate were cashews. He doubted that they were close enough for him to try to get War to eat more without him getting annoyed or frustrated though. If they had similar experiences during the war, then he also probably dealt with traitors and assassination attempts, and as far as Warriors knew, War was a hylian. Those attempts could actually kill him. He wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell the other Link that he understood what it was like to be in his shoes, so he held his tongue. 

The last thing he needed to pack was his blanket, but that could wait until the absolute last moment. Instead, he focused on putting his mask on. 

“I have really sensitive skin. If I don’t completely cover up, my skin will be peeling in a couple of hours,” he explained.

War looked at him in horror. “From the sun?”

“Yeah, if I spend too much time in the sun, my skin peels and I start looking like one of Wild’s red bokoblins. One time, I got alarming big blisters that not even Hyrule’s magic could heal. All from the sun.” 

The other man just blinked at him, mouth opening slightly. “That’s awful . I’m not sure I’ve ever been sunburnt before, but Ma- my brother has.”

“Really? Not even as a kid?” He understood that War wasn’t a vampire like he was but he had a hard time believing that War never got a sunburn, not even a small one. He had sunburns when he was a kid and before he was cursed, he still had to spread lotion all over his face to prevent burns. He was definitely paler than War was though, maybe that’s what made all the difference. 

“No, not even then,” War shook his head. “I’ve always just tanned.”

That was unfair, but he didn’t say that out loud. He burned but he wasn’t freezing like War was, so they were kind of even in a weird way. He retrieved his blanket, stuffed it into his bag, and secured it close. 

“I’ve wasted enough time. We should get going.” 

They continued down the mountain again. It was a little warmer now with the sun out, which was hopefully better for War, but Warriors encountered a new problem. The snow was reflecting the light from the sun right into his eyes, so while the mask protected his face, his eyes stung. He had a hard time looking at the snow, which unfortunately, was everywhere. He had no doubt that it was bright for War but it was way too bright for him. He tried to pull the hood of his cloak forward to shield his eyes but it didn’t help much when the light didn’t come from above. 

“For fuck’s sake,” he grumbled under his breath. 

“Are you alright?” War asked, adjusting his scarf around himself with a shiver.

“The sun is too bright. It hurts my eyes,” he answered as he squinted behind his mask. He had to find something to focus on that didn’t hurt his eyes as much… which would be War. He could just watch War and try to ignore the damn snow. “I’m going behind you, alright?” 

The other man looked a little uncomfortable at the idea, but he nodded anyway. “Yeah, I’ll lead then.”

Warriors slowed down and stepped behind War. It definitely helped but he could feel some tension that wasn’t there just a minute ago. He was usually alright with silence but with a stranger who he could tell didn’t exactly trust him, it was unbearable. 

“So… back in the cave, you mentioned a brother. What is he like?” he asked. Briefly, he wondered if he was talking about a small kid that was tied to his hip in the war, but he decided to leave it up to War. The last thing he wanted to do was to upset the man he was currently stuck with. 

“He’s, um…” War started, grabbing the hem of his scarf and anxiously rubbing his fingers over the embroidery. “He was a sweet kid, a bit angry and impulsive and a lot of people only saw that. The world put a lot of pressure on his shoulders and he went through a lot, but he’s one of the kindest men I know. He’s not so little anymore, he’s fuckin’ taller than me which is just… absolutely fucked up, but he’ll always be my baby brother, I guess. I’m not related to him by blood, but I’m technically his legal guardian still- In my era anyways.”

“Mask, right? It really is unfair that he got so tall,” Warriors said as he rolled his eyes. He wasn’t even a bit taller, he really had to go and show off. “I really wished he didn’t get dragged into it though. That wasn’t a place for children.” 

“Yeah, Mask,” War nodded. “Forgot you might’ve known him too. I’m grateful every day that I had him, and that I get to know him still, but gods, I wish he’d never had to see the things he had. He deserves better.”

Warriors bit the inside of his cheeks. In his era, Mask not only had to deal with a war, but he also had to deal with Warriors’ vampirism. Both Mask and Tune were there when he had to get hauled away from the castle because he finally succumbed to a curse he didn’t know he had. They dealt with a bloodthirsty vampire and a war. Time didn’t seem to hold it against him but he wished that Mask didn’t see him. He wished he wasn’t a vampire at all. 

“Were you also really young when the war started? I mean, the others were younger when they had to start their adventures but I was barely an adult when the war started. I wasn’t ready for everything that a war entails and I definitely wasn’t ready for… her.”

War froze in his tracks at those last few words, standing completely still for a moment. 

“Sorry, I should have known that was a sensitive topic…” 

“I was drafted at fifteen, war started a few months before I turned eighteen,” War sniffed, completely ignoring what he’d just said as he wrapped his arms impossibly tighter around himself and resumed walking. He wasn’t crying, but he sounded a bit rattled even though he was clearly trying to seem unaffected. “Didn’t end until a few weeks before I turned twenty one. What about you?”

“Fifteen…” Warriors paused, giving War some room before he decided to trail behind him again. He couldn’t help but to feel that he completely fucked up any chance of gaining War’s trust. “I signed up when I was eighteen because I didn’t know where else to go. The war ended when I was about twenty. It’s been about three years since.”

“You signed up?” The other man turned his head to raise an eyebrow at him curiously. 

Warriors nodded, though he wasn’t sure why that was so surprising to War. It sounded like War didn’t have a choice but was it really so odd for somebody to turn up to a job that basically took anybody who showed up?  “Yeah, some of the larger towns have recruiting stations. I just went to one of those and I got sent to the barracks near Castletown for training. I thought drafts only happened in wartime…” 

“Our king made several… interesting decisions in the years leading up to his death,” War grumbled. “There was a lot of tension, especially in the south, because he encroached on a lot of land that didn’t belong to him, and as you can imagine, the other kingdoms weren’t too thrilled. There were soldiers coming through my village constantly, trying to convince us to join them as if my village wasn’t stolen by-” He cut himself off with an irritated sigh. “That was before I was born, but the tension remained for a long time and the king was preparing for an all out war even before Ganon and everyone fighting for him stepped into the picture. There were a few breakout battles here and there, that’s how I lost my father, but I guess the one good thing about Hyrule being so ready to go to war with someone was that our soldiers were well trained when war did break out.”

Even though he’d tried to end his rant on a positive note, War still looked incredibly pissed off. It seemed like he had much more to say but had intentionally cut himself short. Warriors wasn’t sure if it was a good sign or a bad sign for their strange relationship though. Was it a good thing that he felt like he could say all of that or a bad sign that he couldn’t say more? 

“We were caught off guard, we had to do a draft in the middle of the war, and of course, a lot of those people didn't make it because we didn’t have enough time to train them…” Warriors trailed off, still trying to process everything War told him. He didn’t like the idea of a draft that wasn’t in the middle of a war, but he couldn't help but to wonder how many lives could have been saved if his army was as prepared as War’s army was. “I’m not even sure I would have made it if it wasn’t for the Triforce.” 

“Gods, I most certainly wouldn’t have,” the other man huffed. “Besides Volga nearly burning my ass to a crisp, it’s saved my life so many other times. I wasn’t even meant to be all that involved in combat. They initially trained me as a field medic until they needed more men and I guess I didn’t suck too bad with a sword so they decided to throw me into more combat training. But going up against the shit the war threw at me? I don’t think any normal man could’ve taken that on without magical aid.” 

“Magic, and somebody who isn’t afraid to tell you that you’re being an idiot helps a lot too,” he said with a smile, though War wouldn’t see it behind his mask. “Mask was good at that. He didn’t have a filter.” 

Suddenly, he paused. Something was odd. He couldn’t put a finger on what bothered him but something made anxiety bubble in his chest. 

“Something doesn’t feel right.” 

“What do you-” War turned to frown at him but he didn’t get to finish his sentence. A figure resembling some sort of humanoid icicle burst from the snow. It looked almost skeletal, although it lacked a proper ribcage. Its head was also far too narrow and triangular to be a person’s skull. Warriors barely had a moment to understand what he was looking at before whatever it was summoned a very large and very sharp spear made of ice, seemingly from the air itself. He looked behind him and found that there wasn’t just one - there were four.

“What is that??” War gasped, dropping the second scarf from around his shoulders so he could draw his sword. His own scarf was incredibly important to him so he felt a bit bad about leaving Warriors’ in the snow, but he didn’t have time to secure it so it wouldn’t hinder his movement. Maybe he should’ve been smarter about that earlier, but it was too late now. He’d been aware there might have been monsters the second he ended up on the mountain, but he’d never seen anything quite like these things before and he certainly hadn’t been expecting them. They’d come straight out of the ground without warning, rising up taller and taller until they towered over him.

Warriors drew his own sword. “I’ve never seen these before,” he answered. “Maybe they’re like stalfos?”

Humming in agreement, he tightened his grip on his sword and set his focus on the monster closest to him. He was a little pissed he didn’t have his fire rod with him, it would’ve been much better for getting rid of walking icicles than smacking them with a sword, but he didn’t have much of a choice. The majority of his belongings were with his pack which the others had because he hadn’t anticipated being separated from them, or being without them for this long. 

War lunged forward towards the nearest icicle man before it could come at him , swinging his sword at its middle in hopes it would come apart as easily as a stalfos, but he was unprepared for how quickly they could move. Something hard smacked into his side and he didn’t realize it was the side of the creature’s ice spear until he was already landing flat on his ass in the snow.

“I’m assuming these things aren’t infected?” he grumbled, scrambling to his feet to avoid the spear that was suddenly thrown at his head. He could worry about how bruised his ribs were and how cold he was later. “They’re entirely made of ice, looks like, so I don’t think they have blood?”

“Looks like one of those monsters that are annoying regardless of whether or not they’re infected,” Warriors hissed as he swung his sword at one of them, striking it in the middle, but he swore out loud when it didn’t immediately die. He barely managed to roll out of the way as a spear sailed over his head and landed in the snow behind him. “Well, fuck,” he said as he stood up.  

“Damn spears are getting annoying,” War sighed, making another attempt to smack his sword into the icicle man’s middle. 

While he initially failed to hit it, he did make contact with its spear and the ice shattered, spraying shards everywhere and leaving the thing open for him to whack a few times. On the third strike he was scared for a moment that his sword had gotten trapped in the ice, but with some force he was able to quickly wrench it free and slam it into the creature a fourth time. He let out a triumphant shout when the icicle man exploded.

“We just have to brute force it, huh?” Warriors responded as he charged towards the icicle man he attacked earlier but he was forced to stop and raise his shield to block its attack. Part of the spear shattered against his shield, so Warriors lowered it quickly and struck it in the same spot he did before until it also shattered. 

“Gods,” War huffed, “I guess so.”

The stupid icicle men were a bit annoying and there were still two more. Every time they lunged towards him or a spear went flying at his face he felt a bit of a chill, and he was getting annoyed with the amount of ducking he had to do to keep his head on his shoulders. They weren’t too hard to hack apart, but War found it difficult to get to the other ones when they kept throwing things at him. One of the icicle men raised its spear but before it could throw it, Warriors turned quickly and attacked it from behind. It paused, unable to turn around to attack Warriors, giving the other hero the opportunity to destroy it. 

“Think you can get behind the last one if I distract it?” 

“Yeah,” he nodded, slowly creeping up behind the creature while its attention remained on Warriors, who approached it with his sword raised. 

It was hard to see what the other man was doing, he was somewhat blocked by the icicle creature and War wasn’t paying much attention to him, more focused on his target. But whatever Warriors was doing was working because the monster seemingly forgot he existed, allowing him to successfully sneak behind it and slam his sword into its ice ‘spine’ enough times to shatter it in seconds. Warriors shot him a thumbs up and moved his hand to sheath his sword when he suddenly paused, looking beyond War. 

“War - fuck!” he shouted suddenly, running towards him. 

He froze. He wasn’t sure what else to do when another person came running at him so fast. He didn’t used to react so horribly, monsters coming at him was nothing new and he never found himself standing around like an idiot when they came at him, but for some reason he just found himself staring at Warriors when the other man called out. He’d always prided himself in his fast reflexes, his inability to be shaken or scared while on the battlefield had saved his life countless times, but monsters were predictable in a way that people were not. He knew monsters would mindlessly rip him to shreds, but hylians could be far more cruel.

Warriors came running at him and his stupid ass brain’s instinct was to scream at him that his new friend was going to hurt him.

The other hero was terrifyingly fast, or maybe War’s sense of time was just fucked up as he stood there, but Warriors had crossed over to him in no time and shoved him to the ground. He let out a startled sound as he fell, twisting awkwardly as he went down to avoid landing flat on his back. Arms raised to protect his face, he waited for some sort of hit to come, but when it didn’t and he heard the other man run past him, he frowned in confusion.

Behind him Warriors gasped, then swore again. War flipped himself around as fast as he could, heart pounding, and when his eyes landed on the other hero, guilt and horror slammed into him. Another icicle man had risen from the snow and its spear was no longer in its hand, but rather poking out of Warriors. He lifted the mask off of the bottom half of his face, then spat some blood out of his mouth. He let his mask fall back onto his face, then tried to take a few steps forward before falling to his knees. 

“I’ll be fine… kill that thing.” 

Anger burned through him, quickly replacing the shame and terror, and War found himself scrambling to his feet and racing at the damned creature, sword raised. It must not have been prepared for his fury, because it did practically nothing to defend itself while he hacked it to pieces, screaming as he did. Once it exploded and he had a chance to scan the snow surrounding them for any signs of a secret sixth one, War turned to the other hero, chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath and keep his emotions under control.

“What the fuck was that?” he demanded, voice coming out much colder than he’d meant for it to. But despite his anger causing his bad hand to start shaking, he ran over to Warriors and carefully knelt beside him, reaching for his medic’s kit on his belt to see what he might possibly have to help. He could think about pulling the ice spear from him in a minute, he needed to know if he had anything that could help him stop the bleeding once he removed it.

“This would really hurt you, or even kill you,” Warriors answered as his hand curled around the ice spear. With a grunt, he pulled it out and tossed it away, though it didn’t make it very far. “It’s better me than you. This won’t kill me.” 

War let out a strangled noise, somewhere between a curse in his native language and a genuine scream of anger. “WHAT THE FUCK??”

He hadn’t even properly registered the last part of what Warriors had said, he’d been too distracted by watching the man rip out the only thing stopping him from bleeding to death. He knew he didn’t have his good supplies, surgeons tools and a single roll of bandages wouldn’t do shit to heal whatever internal damage had been the result of getting impaled. Warriors had just sealed his fate by ripping out that spear and War was so pissed and upset he wanted to rip his hair out.

They’d just met, he’d just met this man, why the fuck had he gone and taken such a hit for him?? He didn’t understand it, he didn’t understand why soldiers had thrown their lives away for him during the war either. He hated it, he wasn’t worth it. He could fight his own battles and he deserved to deal with the consequences of being so universally hated. People needed to stop stepping in for him.

He was so tired of bringing death and destruction whenever he went. This was his fault, he should’ve been able to hear the icicle man behind him. He should’ve been faster and been able to stop Warriors from getting impaled. He should’ve taken that hit, it was meant for him.

And to think for a moment he’d been worried that Warriors had suddenly turned on him… Gods, he was such an asshole and now this man was going to die all because of him.

“I don’t want to explain it all out here, so you're just going to have to trust me, okay? I’ll be fine. This isn’t even the worst impalement I’ve had. The bleeding should slow down soon…” he mumbled, patting his wound.

War sputtered in outrage, cutting himself off and scoffing before he went to try again but he completely lost his train of thought when he looked up at the other man’s mask, at the eyes that were looking out of it and noticed they were bright yellow with blood red rims. He admittedly hadn’t paid too much attention to Warriors’s eye color earlier, but he was pretty sure they’d been a sky blue. Not… Not whatever this was.

Warriors tensed up, then looked away quickly, looking down at this wound again. “We need to get going and find some shelter. I think we both need some rest. Can you help me up?”  

“You were impaled…” He felt like he was out of breath still, and he also recognized that his head felt like it was spinning now that his shock had eaten up his anger. Stating the obvious made him feel stupid but he didn’t know what else to say, he couldn’t wrap his mind around the situation. Why had Warriors’ eyes changed color??

“Yes, and it hurts and I need some bl-food and rest, then it’ll be like it never happened. Are we getting out of here or not?” he asked, raising his voice. 

His ears drooped in shame at the harsh tone and he let out a sigh. He was putting Warriors’s life at further risk by just sitting around and doing nothing. Gods, he needed to get it together, he was a trained field medic for Farore’s sake. He wasn’t useless.

“I have bandages,” War told him, pulling out a simple roll. “It’s not much but it could help slow the bleeding.”

Warriors was quiet for a moment, then he let out a sigh and raised his arms slightly. “Okay, bandages first, then we get going.” 

He nodded, frowning at the wound for a moment before unrolling the bandages a little and tearing a good piece of it off. After folding it a few times to create a flat surface, careful to keep his fingers from touching one side of it too much so it remained clean, he carefully pulled at the hole in the other man’s tunic so he could get the bandage as close to the wound as possible.

“Sorry if it hurts,” he muttered as a warning before he pressed it against Warriors’s stab wound. Warriors hissed in pain but he managed to keep himself still. 

“It’s fine,” he mumbled. 

“Can you just…?” War trailed off, trying to think of the best way to wrap the wound without the bandage he’d just set against the other man’s skin falling out of place. “Can you hold it? Here?” He very lightly tapped one of the top corners that he knew was over unaffected skin. He was sure it was still tender there, but it would be a good place for Warriors to hold it. “Just so I can wrap it and it’ll stay in place.”

Warriors let out a sigh, but he pressed a couple of bloody fingers over the corner. 

He didn’t appreciate how irritated with him the other man seemed, but he held his tongue because it was his fault Warriors had gotten hurt in the first place and tied the bandage in place as quickly as he could. When he finished, he immediately got to his feet and turned around, squinting as he walked around the area they’d just been fighting in. His eyes quickly landed on rich royal blue and he bent down to grab it, letting out a small grunt when the motion made his side ache. 

War didn’t waste time getting back to Warriors, holding out the scarf to him when he reached him in a gesture for him to take it.

Warriors took it. He ran his fingers over the cloth for a moment before he quickly tossed it around his neck and tied it in place with a quick knot. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “Are we good to leave now?” 

“What do you think would be the easiest way for me to get you to your feet?” he asked, letting out a slightly shaky breath. He was sure part of that was genuinely due to the cold, but he was also exhausted and relieved that Warriors didn’t seem as annoyed with him anymore. “I can try to get behind you and help just lift you up so you don’t have to strain yourself.”

“Sounds good to me,” Warriors said as he lifted his arms up.

War moved behind him, bending his knees and trying to keep his back straight before he hooked his arms under the other hero’s and began to lift him. His legs shook a little and for a terrifying moment he thought he might fall backwards or drop Warriors, but he forced himself to push through the strain he felt and got the man upright. Once Warriors had his feet under him, he allowed himself to take a quick step back to adjust his stance, and while he moved his arms he still kept a grip on the other hero in case he suddenly pitched forward and fell. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to pick him up again if Warriors fell.

“You good?” He asked, trying to suppress a shiver.

“Good as I can be,” he answered. “Hopefully we can find another cave or something… then I can explain why I’m not dead right now.” 

War was definitely very curious to find out, and to get an explanation as to why his eyes were yellow, but he didn’t say anything in response, instead just humming in acknowledgment. He let Warriors drape an arm over his right shoulder, so that his side that had been whacked by the spear wasn’t pressed against the other man, and carefully they began to walk. It was a bit tricky due to the snow, the looser stuff would shift and sink under his boots and threaten to send him off balance, but they managed to not fall. 

He wasn’t sure how long they spent walking. Neither of them spoke, he wasn’t in the mood for it much and Warriors was probably in enough pain that he didn’t want to waste his energy talking, and while he didn’t mind the silence at a certain point, the feeling of being so close to another person was making his skin burn. The close proximity helped shield him from some of the wind and he wasn’t as cold as he had been, but he’d started wanting a bit of personal space after a while. Not that he would take it, because there was nowhere for him to go and he wouldn’t abandon Warriors. He didn’t know what the other man thought of him, he wasn’t sure he liked him much, but he still couldn’t imagine abandoning him. Especially not after he’d taken this hit for War.

They weren’t the same person and they certainly didn’t live identical lives, but they were both the Hero of Warriors, so War wanted to trust him. And in however much time they had to work together for, he wanted Warriors to be able to trust him too.

At a certain point he started wondering if it would’ve been worth it to back track and see if there were any caves that they’d passed before the icicle men had appeared, since all he was seeing was the big snowy nothingness, but eventually a small shape appeared in the distance. He squinted, praying his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him and that it really was a little traveler’s cabin that sat in the distance.

“I think things are finally looking up,” Warriors said with a laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see a cabin before.” 

“Maybe the gods can show mercy after all,” he groaned in relief, already dreaming of starting a nice fire to curl up by. But excited as he was, he didn’t push Warriors to walk any faster than they had been, not wanting to hurt him. The cabin wasn’t going anywhere, and it appeared to be one of those cabins in the mountains for travelers to stay at so long as they replaced supplies and helped keep the place nice. And, judging by the lack of smoke from the chimney, it was unoccupied.

Oh, oh, the gods were being kind to them indeed.

When they reached the door that had a welcome sign hanging from it, War kicked at it to mimic a knock just in case there was someone in there, and when there was absolutely no response he used the hand that wasn’t helping hold up Warriors to open the door before shuffling them both inside. It was a decent sized cabin, the main space they’d entered was clean and tidy looking and he could see at least two rooms that branched off from it. He could’ve plopped Warriors down in one of the chairs around the wooden table, but he figured the other man might not want to move around much once he sat so War pushed him a little farther until they got to another room that contained two beds.

“Here,” he said, moving from Warriors’ side so he could help him sit more easily. 

Warriors sighed as he started removing his cloak and scarf, tossing them both towards the foot of the bed. He stopped at the tunic and picked at the bandages. “Do you have any more bandages? They’re not necessary but I don’t want to get blood on the bed.”

War raised an eyebrow at him in confusion, but nodded. “I have some more, yeah.” 

He ducked his head to look into the pouch on his belt he knew held the rest of the roll and found himself blinking away spots when the action made him dizzy. Eating exclusively cashews for so long was starting to cause problems, he’d need to get himself a real meal soon if he didn’t want his blood sugar causing issues, but that’d be a problem for after he helped Warriors.

“Do you want my help?” He asked, a little awkwardly because he didn’t want to bother the other hero now that he finally didn’t seem to be irritated by him. “I can clean it up for you and bandage it properly now.”

Warriors took off the mask and added it to the pile he had at the end of the bed. “Yeah, go ahead. I’m sorry I was irritated earlier, I just wanted to get moving. Besides, I think you need to look at it before we start talking.” 

He didn’t think it’d be possible to get any more confused but War found himself growing more and more curious the more vague and strange Warriors continued to be.

“It’s alright, you were impaled,” he said as he waved his hand. “I wouldn’t be in a chatty mood either.”

Warriors untied the knot keeping his bandages together and began unravelling them, then suddenly paused and chewed on his lip. “How did you do this?” he asked. 

“I just tucked the…” War started by trailed off when he glanced up at the other man’s face and caught sight of what looked like fangs.  

“I thought these were outside of my tunic,” he said with a frown as he fiddled with the bandages again. “Oh, there we go.” It took him a minute to get the bandages off completely, but once he did, he started removing his belts and boots. 

“I tucked the one piece inside, so it was sitting more firmly against the wound instead of fabric from your tunic or your chain mail,” War tried again, speaking slowly as he just stared at the other hero’s fangs. 

“Ah. I know how to treat some wounds but I never specialized in it. I barely do anything for mine anymore anyway, it’s for the others,” he said as pulled the tunic over his head, then added it to the pile. He bit his lips again and let out a hiss of pain. “I’m going to need help with the chain mail.” 

What in the fuck did he mean by that???

“Y- Yeah, of course,” he blinked, taking a few steps forward to help. 

Taking chain mail off another person wasn’t something he was completely unused to, having had to help out his fellow soldiers more than once when they were unable to do it themselves, but it was a little difficult due to his aching side. He really should take a look at that soon, but he just sighed and set Warriors’s mail on the foot of the bed by his other things.

Warriors got the final layer, his undershirt, off on his own. He poked at his wound. “You said you would clean it earlier, but I only really need the bandages. Infection isn’t something I have to worry about, but it is inconvenient if there is debris in it.”  

“That…” He gasped, bending down so he could get a better look at the wound. Warriors had been impaled and even with him having aid from War, he’d walked himself to the cabin. There should be far more blood coming from him, and with just a simple bandage holding him together he shouldn’t even have made it as far as he had. The wound was still bleeding, but there was far more dried blood scabbing over the mess than was… normal. “That’s not…? You should be bleeding far more than that, what the fuck??”

“I told you it would slow down,” he started. “It’s all because I’m a… I’m a vampire. Or, half-vampire, actually. My body regenerates from basically anything, all the way back to how I was before I got turned into a vampire. As long as I’m not burnt into nothing, decapitated, staked through the heart, or starved, I will survive and heal from anything. I’ve taken way worse for other people. If I have to be a monster… I might as well be a useful one.” 

War sat down hard, blinking in confusion. There was no way he’d heard him right. “…What?”

“I’m a vampire. I need to drink blood to live and also keep me sane. That’s what the fangs are for. I don’t think the eyes have to be so weird but that’s just the way they are when my fangs are out… They’re, uh, usually retractable, and that’s why my eyes haven’t always been like this, but because I’m injured…” Warriors looked away, focusing on his pile of clothing at the end of the bed. “I’m going to need blood sooner rather than later. I can heal on my own, but I also need blood and rest to do so.” 

His head hurt so bad, and he was struggling to fully wrap his mind around everything. He’d heard of vampires before, he was pretty sure. The name sounded familiar at least, he’d probably read about them from a book in the castle library, but he had so many questions. Though those were going to have to wait, because not only did Warriors seem a little uncomfortable, he actively had a hole in him. And to fix that he’d need… blood. And the only source of that around here was War.

This man had just saved his life… This was the least he could do.

It took no time at all to get his bracer off and roll up his sleeve, and he held out his whole right arm towards Warriors. “How do I give it to you?”

“I just have to bite you, but… I’m not biting somebody who only ate cashews the entire time we've been together. If you faint on me, I am throwing your ass off the mountain,” Warriors said, as he grabbed for his bag. He hissed again, but once retrieved, he opened it up and dug through it. First, he pulled out that extra blanket, then his bedroll, and then finally, some leather satchels. “There’s dried fruit, more nuts, and jerky. Take your pick.” 

“Hey!” War cried out as he pushed himself up onto his knees, so overwhelmed by just everything that he was starting to feel a bit stressed. “Stop moving around so much and let me bandage that for you first. You can set up your shit in a minute.”

“Most of that is for you! I felt you shivering, figured you can have the extra shit to sleep with. But fine, bandages first, then you eat so I can eat,” Warriors answered with a huff as he rolled his eyes. 

He needed to just stop fucking talking maybe because he sure was making himself out to be both an asshole and an idiot. War felt his cheeks burn in shame and he kept his jaw firmly shut as he grabbed his bandage roll and wrapped it around Warriors, making sure it was secure but not too tight. When he finished he sat back down with a small sigh, staring awkwardly down at his hands. 

Warriors sighed. “You need to eat a little bit if I’m going to drink your blood. I don’t want my stupid diet to hurt people.” 

“Alright,” he muttered, accepting one of the leather satchels from the other hero and taking a couple pieces of jerky. It was dead silent while he ate, leaving him alone with his shame and guilt, and the second he was done chewing he held out his arm to Warriors again. He wasn’t super eager to have his blood drained from his body, even if part of him was very curious to know what that’d even feel like. This was about paying back Warriors. 

Warriors took his wrist. “It’s going to hurt, and if you feel dizzy at all, just twist my ear. Sky does it all the time, it works pretty well,” he said as he brought War’s wrist closer to his mouth. At first, he just placed his fangs on the inside of his wrist, then he bit down. 

He hadn’t really gotten the time to grumble out that he was already a bit dizzy, and the second Warriors’ fangs pierced his skin he found himself trying not to jolt in shock. The other hero was right, it did hurt, but it also just felt fucking weird. Of course he’d gotten wounded before and nearly bled out, but this felt strange and more than a little different. It didn’t take long for him to get uncomfortable with the feeling of hands clamped around his wrist, but he didn’t feel like he was in danger of passing out so he didn’t pull away.

War wasn’t sure how long he’d sat there, but he noticed himself starting to feel a bit ill. A wave of nausea washed over him and he grit his teeth, but he didn’t bother to tap Warriors on the head until he started seeing spots and feeling like he was swaying a little. 

Warriors pulled his fangs out, then angled his wrist slightly so he could lick the remaining blood off his wrist before he let go. He licked more blood off his lips and teeth. 

“Are you alright?” 

War nodded, immediately wishing he hadn’t when the motion made the world around him feel like it was moving. He had barely enough strength in the arm that hadn’t been bitten to lower him safely down to lay on the floor instead of crashing into it, letting the one that had been bitten flop to the ground uselessly above his head. His spine popped audibly as he sprawled out on the floor, and he groaned when some of the pain in his lower back disappeared. The spots in his vision weren’t clearing, but they weren’t getting any bigger so he’d take the win where he could.

“Ah - fuck. Did I take too much?” The bed creaked as Warriors shifted, then he swore again and his foot brushed against War’s leg. “Don’t lie to me. Are you okay?” 

The back of his neck felt incredibly hot, and if he didn’t feel so gross and miserable he might’ve been a little grateful that he finally didn’t feel frozen. But at least he had some idea as to what was wrong, he knew he felt like this when his blood sugar was too low and it’d make sense that after losing blood his sugar would be low. He hadn’t eaten that long before Warriors bit him, probably not long enough, and he’d been feeling like shit for most of the day. He needed a real meal… 

He wasn’t really in the mood to eat though, he was so nauseated he wanted to close his eyes and melt into the floor.

“War? You still conscious? You look just as bad as Twilight when he fainted on me.” 

“Yeah,” he croaked out, grimacing when it felt like his stomach did a flip. He hadn’t felt this bad in a while, he really needed to eat something before it got worse. “…Food?”

“Yeah, dried fruit or more jerky?” he asked. The bed creaked again as Warriors retrieved his bag. “Sorry it’s not more.” 

“Fruit,” War mumbled, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. “I need the sugar.”

“That’s this satchel,” he said as put the open bag beside War’s hand. 

He didn’t say anything, he didn’t want to make himself feel more ill, so he just stuck a shaking hand in the little bag and grabbed a few pieces to bring up to his mouth, keeping his eyes closed. It felt a little weird to just lay there chewing, listening to Warriors breathe right above him, but he couldn’t exactly do anything to strike up a conversation in his current position and the other hero didn’t seem too interested in chatting anyway. That didn’t make War any less curious about the whole vampire thing, but he’d have to ask about that later and when he didn’t worry so much about just pissing him off. 

“If you’re alright, I think I’m going to pass out now,” Warriors mumbled. He didn’t see Warriors climb back into bed but he definitely heard him. “I tend to sleep for a long time when I’m regenerating. Don’t worry if it’s been like twelve hours and I’m still sleeping.” 

He let out some sound of acknowledgement, not yet daring to open his eyes. The back of his skull was starting to hurt from how it was resting on the floorboards but he remained still, unwilling to risk making his nausea worse. War just laid there and waited for the dried fruit to help him feel less awful, unable to stop himself from missing Time when he realized the last time he’d ended on the ground like this, his brother had been there to help him. He really hoped the others weren’t too worried about him, and that he could find them soon.

When his stomach finally settled and he didn’t feel as shaky, he still gave himself a few minutes before he dared to push himself into a sitting position. The motion made him feel a little ill and he panicked for a split second before the nausea disappeared again once he rested his shoulders and head against the side of the mattress. He probably should’ve opened his eyes first, but he didn’t have too much time to beat himself up for being an idiot because the change in position reminded his body how freezing cold it was and he realized maybe some of his shaking had actually been shivering. 

“Fuck…” He sighed, running a hand down his face. 

He spared a glance down at his right arm and wasn’t entirely sure what to think of the two little marks where he’d been bitten. They looked like they’d be able to scab over on their own, the blood already drying, so he figured it’d be fine to just leave them.

Taking a moment to eat some of his emergency cashews and make sure his legs weren’t going to give out from underneath him, he pushed himself up to his feet as soon as it felt reasonable to do so. He let out a pained and confused sound when he felt an ache in his side before he remembered he’d been smacked by a spear and groaned. He should probably check on that before he rested, but he should probably also check on Warriors first. 

Warriors was, as he’d said he’d be, completely passed out on the bed, his belongings still thrown at the foot of it where they had been last time War had seen them. He frowned at the bloody tunic and shirt, wondering for a moment if the other man would be mad at him for mending them for him. That would definitely be a later activity, War was still feeling a bit gross and more than that he was tired , but he grabbed the ruined clothes in one arm to put them aside for when he felt like working on them. Before he left the bedroom he grabbed Warriors’s cloak with his free hand and gently pulled it up over the sleeping man. It was clear at this point that he didn’t feel temperature the same that War did, maybe that was because of the vampire thing or maybe he was just fucking weird like Twilight was, but he wanted to make sure Warriors didn’t get too cold.

After checking to make sure the other hero was breathing normally and seemed okay, War headed into the main room, setting Warriors’s shirt and tunic on a table before almost crying in joy when his eyes landed on a stack of logs by the fireplace as well as the tools he’d need to start a fire. He was so excited about the idea of warmth and not being so fucking cold that he moved a little too fast and felt his head spin, but he didn’t care because the dizziness wasn’t enough to stop him from setting up the fire. 

In no time at all, he felt the air start to warm around him and he let out a happy sigh, eyelids falling half closed. He forced himself back up on his feet and over to where Warriors had laid out the bedroll and blanket for him to borrow before he could fall asleep, and hurried back to set up a nice little spot by the fire. 

Being warm and not horribly frozen was so nice… He was never going to take it for granted again.

War really didn’t want to take his tunic off, he didn’t want to expose his bare skin to the air and feel cold again, but it’d be nice to get rid of his chain mail and he really did need to check his ribs and make sure the didn’t look too fucked up so he peeled his layers off slowly, grumbling the whole time. Shivering and continuing to whine to himself about absolutely nothing, he decided he didn’t need to fully take off his undershirt and could instead just lift it up to look at his poor ribs. It was hard to twist his neck at the right angle to see without a mirror but none of them looked crooked or bent out of place, which was lovely because he was forever scarred by the time during the war he’d looked down at his own smashed rib cage and ever since then he didn’t fuck around about the possibility of broken ribs. The skin was certainly a bit red, and him pressing on it did hurt, but he didn’t feel the bone shifting at all and so he figured they’d be fine so long as another icicle man didn’t decide to treat him like a punching bag. Or any other kind of monster.

The warmth from the fire was making him a bit sleepy and even though he’d spent so much time arguing to himself about how cold he was, he found himself too lazy to put his green tunic back on and instead wrapped himself in his scarf and Warriors’s blanket before laying down to rest his eyes. If the other hero was going to be unconscious for several hours there was no reason he couldn’t get a good nap in.

Chapter Text

It took him a second to remember where he was and how he got there. He quickly sat up and looked around, hoping to see War nearby, but he was nowhere to be seen. Well, he supposed he couldn't really expect the other man to stay around in the bedroom while he slept for who knows how long. He thought maybe War would be sleeping in the other bed but it didn’t look like anyone slept in it at all. 

Well, fuck, there was a blanket on that bed too. War could have taken that one. Warriors didn’t need to offer his blanket, he just did it without thinking because that’s what he did in the cave. Maybe War liked his blanket better but the other man used his cloak to give Warriors additional warmth. He was touched that the War thought of him, especially after Warriors got irritated with him, but there was another blanket. 

He sat up. He should go look for the other hero, though he doubted that he went far. He stood up and slipped into his boots, then went to the end of the bed to grab his shirt. 

Warriors didn’t remember folding his things at all. He was pretty sure he just tossed everything in that general direction, eager to get it all off so he could get some sleep. Maybe War folded it for some reason? Either way, he found his shirt in the pile and frowned in confusion. There should have been a big hole in his shirt and there should have been a lot of blood too, but he didn’t find any of that. It took him a minute to even find the stitches. Warriors knew how to sew but he didn’t think he could do as good of a job as War did. He quickly put it on and headed towards the main room where the fireplace was. 

War was in front of the fireplace, writing something down. He wasn’t sure what to say to him. 

“Thanks for fixing my shirt,” he started. He figured it was a decent way to start a conversation. It was polite and it also didn’t mention the time of day because he had no idea how long he slept for. 

“Of course,” War looked up and gave him a small smile before turning back down to his journal. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel like I should be asking you that… but I’m fine. I think I might need another day before I’m fully healed, but I’m fine.” He tried to study War for a little longer, trying to see how he was doing. He didn't look like he was a corpse on the floor, so he must have been feeling better. “What about you?” 

“I’m alright,” the other hero said quietly, finishing up whatever it was he was writing before closing his book and turning on the floor to face him. “Sorry if I worried you, I didn’t think that would happen. It’s not your fault or anything, I just have uh… Blood sugar issues. If you need more of my blood in the future it won’t be a problem if I prepare for it better.”

Huh, blood sugar issues. He wouldn’t have guessed, especially since War tasted like most people did. “I’m kind of surprised that blood sugar doesn’t really affect the taste,” he said out loud as he located a chair to sit on. He appreciated how warm the room was because of the fire but he didn’t want to sit anywhere near it. “I’m… sure you have a lot of questions about the whole vampire thing. You can ask anything you want, but if it makes me uncomfortable, I’m not going to answer it.” 

“I do have questions,” War picked his scarf up from the floor and wrapped it around his shoulders, though he stayed seated on the floor near the fire instead of joining him in the other chair, “but I don’t want to pry. Whatever you want to tell me, I’ll listen.”

Warriors raised an eyebrow. “Really? The first question my Wind asked me was if I could get drunk drinking a drunk person’s blood, so I’m kind of surprised that I’m the one leading this conversation. Do you have a general topic at least? I have to admit, I don’t really know where to start.”

“Can you?” War asked in a somewhat joking tone. “Get drunk that way, I mean.”

“Yes, actually. It doesn’t even take that long before I feel it… that or Twilight was just that drunk. Twilight was drunk but I was the one who got the hangover. It’s not fair!” 

The other hero let out a small laugh. “I should’ve been able to guess Twilight would test something like that.” War paused for a moment, looking down at his hands before speaking again. “If you don’t mind my asking, what… happened? I don’t know much about vampires, like at all, but I don’t think people are born as vampires.”

“You’re right, people are made into vampires, mostly by other vampires. I only met other vampires after I got turned though. I’m the weird one who got cursed instead and I think you can take a guess as to who cursed me,” he answered with a slight growl. He wasn’t mad at War, nor did he think the question was unfair. It was just a reminder he didn’t exactly like but he calmed himself down quickly. After all, it wasn’t War’s fault that he was reminded of Cia - it was his own. “That’s also how I only ended up being half -vampire though. The Triforce prevented me from turning into a full vampire.” 

The other hero stared at him in confusion for a moment before Warriors watched as it clicked in his brain. War’s eyes went wide with either horror or fear, he couldn’t quite tell, and he saw some of the color leave his face as War pulled his scarf tighter around himself. 

“When you…” War tried to mumble out, rubbing his thumb over the scarf’s embroidered edge. “When you mentioned her earlier, I… I don’t know, I thought maybe there might’ve been a timeline where she left one of us alone. Where she didn’t-” He cut himself off and forced himself to take a deep breath. “But she cursed you…? Cia?”

Warriors wondered if their experiences with Cia were also different. They were different people with the same role, but were Cia and Lana also different people, or were they same people in all the different timelines? Did Cia try over and over again, doomed to chase down the Hero of Warriors until she got one of them, or was there a Cia for every Hero of Warriors? Meeting War brought up a lot of questions that he knew he would never get an answer for and he wasn’t quite sure he liked thinking about it. There was certainly some existential dread that came with thinking about potentially infinite timelines. 

“She did,” he answered quietly. “When we had our final fight, she hit me with a weird spell. I didn’t feel anything until we got back to the castle, and even then, I just thought I must have been sick with something. We eventually discovered that it wasn’t just an illness when I tried to attack my allies… I don’t even remember that night.” 

“That’s awful,” War whispered, tilting his chin down to stare at his lap instead. 

“I was pretty fortunate though. I don’t think I actually hurt anybody that night, and I did wake up in a manor full of real vampires. They helped me learn how to blend in and how to take care of myself.” All things considered, it could have gone way worse. He could have seriously hurt somebody in his starved state. Mask and Tune were both there and both of them were in danger. He was also lucky that Zelda knew the vampires at all so he could be mentored. They weren’t entirely useful, at least where his powers were concerned, but he wouldn’t have been able to hide his vampirism and defeat Ganondorf without their help. 

“Are there a lot of other vampires in your era?” the other hero asked. “Or- Well, I guess in your timeline…? I feel like if there were vampires around in my timeline people would know about it.” He fell silent for a second and Warriors almost had a chance to answer him before War shook his head and let out a sigh. “Actually no, some of the people I’m surrounded by are so stupid they couldn’t see the painfully obvious if it smacked them in the face, there very well could be vampires.”

“So, they would only notice if I bit somebody?” he asked with a smirk that showed off all his fangs.  “To be fair though, the vampires in my era don’t engage with the public at all, so they aren’t exactly public knowledge. They live in the basement of the manor, so even if there was some fancy event there, most people wouldn’t go into the basement. There’s a hylian family that lives in the rest of the manor and they take care of all the nobility things for them. There are only five of them, six if you include me. There’s supposedly a lot of them outside of Hyrule though.”

“So most other hylians are unaware of vampires in the kingdom?” War looked up at him again and raised an eyebrow. “Or is it more that they’re unaware that vampires exist?”

“More the latter, I think. I think there’s only four fellow soldiers who know and I don’t remember who they all are so I don’t even know how they know, then there’s Impa, Proxi, and Zelda. The others know too, of course. Outside of that, I’ve never heard anyone say anything about vampires, and Zelda and the vampires insisted that I needed to do my best to keep my vampirism a secret. There’s nothing stopping people from leaving and coming back with the knowledge of vampires, but I haven’t heard of that happening.” 

It did come in handy, though. If the assassins knew about vampires, how to kill them, and that he was a vampire, they could actually manage to kill him. He was hard to kill to begin with but if they knew to stake him through the heart, that’s what they would try. A decapitation would be a bit too messy for them. 

“Huh…” The other hero nodded. He was quiet for a moment, brows furrowed as he thought, before he spoke again. “So about the whole you getting impaled thing, and you needing my blood…?”

“Most things can’t kill me,” Warriors said with another smirk. It was a weird thing to brag about but his hardiness was the silver lining that he needed to focus on. “One of the only things I like about being a vampire is that I can take all the bad hits because I only need blood and sleep to heal. My body also heals until I’m back to the way I was when I was first cursed. I once had my arm cut off, I once shattered all the bones in my legs and hips, and that wasn’t even the first time I was impaled. I healed from all of that just fine. I took that hit because I knew I would be fine. You wouldn’t be.” 

The regeneration was easy to talk about but the reason why he needed blood wasn’t as easy to talk about. Warriors knew he had to be honest about his hunger because his hunger was the one thing that could put War in danger. What if War wanted nothing to do with him after that? 

“As for the blood… it’s the only thing I technically need to live. I can eat solid food but that’s just optional. I need blood for my powers to work and I also need it to… stay aware of myself…”

War’s head tilted to the side and he looked a little more confused. “What do you mean by that?” 

Warriors felt a pinch of annoyance bubble up in his chest but he took a deep breath and calmed himself. He could see why War needed some clarification but it still irked him. It wasn’t War’s fault - his annoyance was probably a result of being a baby vampire who can’t handle his stupid emotions. 

War deserved to know who he was travelling with, so he took another deep breath. “If I get too hungry or too angry, the vampire instincts kick in instead and… I can’t tell friend from foe. I’m just… not there.”

“Like dissociating or…?”

“I don’t know…” He never really thought of trying to put a name to it. Warriors was too busy trying to figure out how to prevent it from happening at all. “All I know is that I’m a danger to other people.” 

“Do you need more?” War asked genuinely, pushing his sleeve up and holding out his arm. “You said you’re not fully healed yet, and that you need blood to heal. I won’t fall over this time, I ate something recently.”

“It should be fine,” Warriors said as he shook his head. He appreciated the offer, especially since War didn't seem deterred at all even after everything he said. War knew there was a possibility that he could lose control and didn’t run out the door, but that could because War hated the cold so much that he would rather stay with a potentially dangerous vampire than go back outside.  “I’ll keep healing with what you already gave me. Besides, we should save it if we end up staying together longer than expected. Filling food can stave off the hunger for a week or so if I don’t use my powers or get hurt again, but we basically only have snacks. I'll probably need blood again in another three days or so." 

The other hero frowned slightly, he almost looked worried. “Are you sure?” 

“Positive. You might be my only source of blood for a few days and you need it too. It doesn’t even hurt that much,” he said as he stood up suddenly and pulled up his shirt. “Want to look?”

“Alright,” War shrugged. “Can’t deny that I’m curious to see how fast you’ve healed up.”

Warriors stayed still and held his shirt up as War unravelled the bandages. When the other hero pulled the last of it away, Warriors looked down. He was happy to see that it went from a large circular wound to a smaller, more linear wound. It looked like he was slashed with a knife, not that he was impaled by a giant icicle. It still looked kind of deep but it was still far better than it was before. 

“It might be more like half a day but we might as well stay the whole day again," Warriors mumbled. 

War didn’t seem to have heard him, he was too busy staring at the injury in amazement. “Gods, that’s incredible. Are you in a lot of pain still or is it feeling better?”

“It’s better than it was but it still hurts a little bit,” Warriors answered as he let go of his shirt, letting it fall back down while War was still looking at it so he could sit back down. He was feeling a lot better but he was still kind of tired, so he wasn’t exactly in the mood to stand for more than he had to. 

“Is there anything I could do to help?” the other hero asked, fixing how his scarf laid around his shoulders before pointing at where Warriors’s wound was now covered. “Not just with this, but just… With any of the vampire things. Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Remember how I said earlier that my skin is sensitive to sunlight? That’s a vampire thing. I’m only half-vampire, so I can actually tolerate some sunlight, but the sun reflecting off the snow kind of burns my eyes. I also tend to be a lot more alert at night than I am during the day. I have super speed and strength, and I can walk on walls, but I would need to drink blood again because using my powers makes me hungry…” Warriors paused as he thought about what else War could possibly need to know. He wasn’t used to listing it all off because the others were told pieces at a time or figured things out on their own. “Any sort of light magic is basically sunlight to me but I doubt we will run into any of that up here. The others just let me sleep, I’ve bitten Wild once when he tried to wake me up…” 

He was sure he was missing something but he figured that was at least a good start.  

“Wait, one more thing. I fucking hate garlic. I hated it before I was cursed and now it smells ten times worse. Farore should have skipped them. If there’s one good about this mountain, it would be that garlic can’t fucking grow up here.” 

“You can climb walls?” War’s eyes widened. 

Warriors blinked, but he stood up and walked up to the wall with the least amount of things on it. He only really did it the one time but he took a deep breath, focused on the wall, and focused on what he wanted to do. He put a foot on the wall, then a hand to hoist himself up, and then another foot. With both feet on the wall, he took his hand off and walked up until he was standing on the ceiling. 

“This is only the second time I’ve done it!” he said with a laugh. He actually managed to do it again! 

“Holy shit??” War gasped, eyes wide. “That’s amazing!!”

“I thought I didn’t really have powers at first but…” Warriors trailed off when he realized that something didn’t quite feel right and he couldn’t figure out what it was until he was airborne for a split second before he hit the floor. He somehow avoided landing on his neck but his back wasn’t so lucky. “I didn’t know I could fall.” 

There was the sound of fabric being tossed aside before War appeared right next to him. “Are you alright?”

Warriors felt his face and ears burn. He fucking fell. He rarely ever felt like showing off his powers and the one time he did, he fucking fell. He wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. At least nobody from his group saw, otherwise they wouldn’t let him live it down unless he snapped at them. 

Was he fine though? He could wiggle his fingers and toe without any pain, so it didn’t feel like he broke anything other than his ego. His back was sore and he was sure it would bruise if he didn’t drink more blood, but he didn’t really want to drink more from War when he already had a drink from him. War promised he would be okay but that didn’t mean Warriors liked the idea. He might delay them again if he didn’t drink any blood, though. 

“I might need a little bit more blood,” he said quietly as he used his arm to hide his face. “A sip,” he added.

War wordlessly held out his arm again, sleeve still rolled up, and sat down on the floor instead of just crouching next to him.

Warriors moved his arm to face War. He was just like his brothers, ready to feed him at the drop of a hat. He could see why War offered him blood before when he had a giant hole in his stomach, but he couldn’t quite understand why War was still so quick to feed him when that hole was mostly healed. 

“You’re awfully quick with that aren’t you?” he mumbled as he sat up, his back protesting as he did so. He grabbed War’s arm, noting the two scabbed over holes he made before. Those holes always  made him feel a little shitty, even though the people he bit didn’t ever complain but for once, they were going to work in his favour. He extended his nails into claws and as gently as he could, he scratched one of the wounds open and gave War’s arm a good squeeze. When Warriors was satisfied with the blood pooling to the surface, he licked it up. He squeezed War’s arms a few more times until he could feel the ache in his back dull. He dropped his arm. 

War raised his forearm to his face to look at it, frowning slightly at it as he watched, likely to see if the bleeding would stop on its own before he looked back up at Warriors. “Feeling better?”

Warriors nodded as he settled down on the floor again, staring up at the ceiling he fell down from. He still couldn’t believe he fucking fell. Was it just a thing that happened to him? He seemed to be the only one who struggled with his powers. “Do you mind if I ask you questions?” 

“Go ahead,” the other hero shrugged, heading back to his spot near the fire and pulling his scarf around his shoulders again. “I think that’s fair after I sat here asking you a bunch of personal shit.” 

“What language were you speaking before? When we were outside. I’ve never heard anyone speak it.”

“Oh, it’s… um…” War trailed off as he thought about his response. “My mother wasn’t from Hyrule, and well… Technically she didn’t move there from her village, the kingdom of Hyrule kinda… Took over… But yeah, me and my sisters weren’t raised speaking Hyrulian Common. We didn’t really think we’d ever need it, I mean we were taught a little but not enough to really be fluent. I wasn’t able to really hold a full conversation in it confidently until after I’d spent a few years in the army. I still think my Common could improve, I feel like I don’t get my words right sometimes.”

Warriors hummed. He didn’t exactly answer the question but he had a feeling that War wasn’t going to be completely forward about it. Oh well, best he could was move on to a different question and hope he didn’t offend him. 

“Sisters, huh? How big is your family?” 

“Two older sisters, my twin, and three younger ones,” he said casually as if that weren’t a lot of people. “Plus my mother. My oldest sister has kids now, I know my nephew just turned ten recently.”

“That’s…” He wanted to say it was unfair but that would be kind of rude. “A lot more family than I have. Remember how I said I signed up for the military? That’s because my aunt kicked me out as soon as I was old enough to enlist.” 

War frowned, looking a bit sad and confused. “She kicked you out?”

“She never really liked me so she got rid of me as soon as she could. She just felt obligated to take care of me, I guess. At least one of us has a loving family,” he said, keeping his tone light. He wasn’t mad at War. He wasn’t even sure that he was that mad at his aunt anymore, as he didn’t spare her much thought these days. It was only in quiet moments when he reflected on his past did he think of her and well, he had other people to direct his ire at. He didn’t have the energy to be mad at his aunt when it was Cia who cursed him and dropped all the pressure on his shoulders. 

“I’m sorry,” War said quietly. “Do you have other people back home? Like friends or a partner or someone? Someone to, I dunno, talk to or just spend time with?”

“Zelda, Impa, Proxi… and the vampires say I will always have a home with them, so that’s probably where I will go when I can’t hide the fact that I don’t age. There’s only two of them that give me the cold shoulder sometimes but I think they’re warming up to me.” At the very least, they tolerated him. He could live with that. “Do you have a partner, if you don’t mind me asking?” 

“I- Uh-” The other hero’s face flushed and he looked genuinely stuck on what to say. “Sort- No…? No. I have a friend, but not- I have friends. More than one.” War’s eyes went wide and his face turned even more red. “NOT LIKE- I mean I just- I have people who are friends, from the army and Zelda and yeah. Gods…”

Warriors burst out laughing. “You’re not so convincing. Is that how you talk to them?” he asked when he finally caught his breath. He winced in pain and put a hand over his wound. That hurt and it was completely his fault for laughing, but how could he not? It sounded like he had a little puppy crush! It was kind of cute.

“NO,” War groaned, burying his face in his hands. “He- I’ve known them for five years, we’re friends. We are friends, they like asking me shit about my travels whenever I get back and they know where my rooms are in the castle.” After a split second the other hero raised his head in a panic. “That sounded- I just mean they’ve met my cats. I have two cats, they’re hairless so they require a lot of care and one of them is a pain during bathtime so it’s nice to sometimes have help so she doesn’t hurt herself in the tub.”

Warriors thought that he was done laughing but War wasn’t helping himself and he had to hold his wound to help the pain as he started laughing again. “You keep digging yourself a hole. I don’t think you’re convincing anyone at home, except for maybe your ‘friend’.”  

“He is my friend!!” War argued, crossing his arms over his chest as he frowned at him. “But that doesn’t matter, are you alright? You look like you’re in pain.”

Warriors frowned and lifted his hand to pull his shirt up. There was a little bit of blood from the wound that wasn’t there before. He must have laughed so hard he reopened it a little bit. He scowled at it like it decided to do that on its own and not because he had any part in it. He also just realized that he didn’t get War to wrap it up again. He was going to have to wash the shirt again . 

“Apparently not!” he said, raising his voice in annoyance. 

“Shit,” War let out as he pushed himself to his feet and went to where his bags and belt were laying on the table, rummaging around for his roll of bandages before walking over. “Do you want me to wrap that for you or do you want to do it while I wash the blood out of your shirt?”

“I’ll wrap it, I guess,” he mumbled. Usually, he wouldn’t even bother but clearly, he was starting to push himself. He never really had this problem but he supposed that his brothers were just good at keeping him in one place and relatively still until he regenerated. They knew him better than War did, and well, he would be lying if he said he didn’t like showing off to War a little bit so he was willing to move more than he usually did. 

“Alright,” the other hero said, holding out one hand for Warriors’s shirt while offering him the bandage roll with the other. Warriors took his shirt off and exchanged it for the roll of bandages. He focused on wrapping them around his wound, frowning as he did so. They were just bandages but for some reason, he felt as though War did a better job with them. He tied it off and frowned again at the roll. There wasn’t a lot of it left, so he had to stop fucking around until it healed. 

Maybe he had some in his own bag and he just didn’t notice. He would have to look again. 

“Is there anything else I can do?” War called back to him as he headed towards the door, grumbling and cursing when he opened it, to grab a handful of snow and use it to wash the stain out of Warriors’ shirt. 

“I think I’m just going to go back to sleep for a bit,” he said quietly as he stood up and started to head back to the bedroom. “I should actually let this regenerate.”

He didn’t wait for War to respond. He kept the door open so that the fire could keep the room warm, not that he really needed it, but it was nice to be warm when it was so cold outside. He let his head hit the pillow and closed his eyes.

War had been back inside the cabin for the past fifteen minutes now, with the door shut firmly behind him and locked, but he was still shivering. Being inside with a nice warm fire had been wonderful, even if he was still a little chilly when he didn’t have his scarf wrapped around him, but stepping outside even for a moment had frozen him. His bones felt cold, and his hands kept shaking as a direct result of his shivering as he sat on the floor by the fire eating a little snack.

He was going to need more cashews soon, he was running out…

Warriors’ shirt was on the ground next to him, laid out so that the wet spot from the snow would hopefully dry faster near the heat. He was happy he’d been able to get the bloodstain out of the fabric though he felt bad his misfortune and inability to get his shit together had been so funny to the other hero that he’d literally hurt himself laughing over it.

War frowned at the shirt as he thought about all they’d talked about. The vampire thing aside, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Warriors had said after he’d questioned the man about his aunt that had kicked him out. War did have a loving family, one he was incredibly grateful for, and Warriors’ comment about that had hit him like a slap to the face because he had a wonderful family who loved and missed him and he hadn’t seen any of them but his twin sister in thirteen years. He hadn’t gone home since he’d first left, he didn’t feel like he could go back after everything that had happened during the war, and he felt horribly guilty and selfish that he had them but wouldn’t go home when Warriors didn’t have any family. He missed his mother terribly but the idea of her not liking who he’d become and him no longer belonging at home kept him away. He didn’t know what he’d do with himself if he lost them because they wanted the person he was back then more than they wanted the broken man he’d become.

Turning his gaze to the fire with a sigh, he forced himself to think about something else. He’d spent over the past decade worrying about that, making himself upset over it again now was just useless and stupid when he could be more productive. 

War grabbed his journal from the spot he’d set it aside and opened it up to a fresh page. He had barely known anything about vampires two days ago, and while he still didn’t know a whole lot, he had a start. He had some information about what could help Warriors, what the other hero needed to heal and survive, as well as what was dangerous to him. It’d be a good idea for him to write down as much as he could of what Warriors had told him so he didn’t forget. He had no idea how long they’d be traveling together, but with no sign of his brothers and being trapped on the mountain as they were he could safely assume he’d be with him for at least a little bit. He wanted to make sure the other Hero of Warriors had what he needed to be healthy and taken care of in the time they spent together, and so, with genuinely nothing better to do, he got to writing. 

Chapter Text

War opened his eyes with a wince, but he didn’t last very long before deciding maybe he should just close his eyes again and bury his face in his scarf. He’d fallen asleep at some point late last night, he wasn’t sure when, but his head ached and his fingers and toes felt cold because the fire had burned out, leaving him laying on the floor for no good reason. There was a bedroom with two beds and yet here he was on the floor, granted he did have Warriors’s bedroll, but gods he could’ve had a mattress. 

As he adjusted to being awake he became increasingly more aware of the ache in the hip he was resting on and his lower back, and as much as he didn’t want to move he needed to shift to get some of the pressure off his hip or it was going to drive him insane. He was not prepared for the sound his back made when he did move, the loud pop startled him even if it did help with some of the pain.

“Pelo amor das deusas,” War groaned, flopping around until he was face down. He really wanted to go back to sleep but the light coming in through the small window told him it was time to get moving, time to go look for his brothers. Even if it was horribly cold and miserable and awful outside.

Forcing himself up on shaky arms, he tried to stretch a little. His body ached more than usual, he was sure the temperature had something to do with it, but there wasn’t much else he could do besides gently stretch out his muscles and get dressed properly so he could get off this damned mountain. He worked quickly to get ready, driven by the knowledge that the more layers he put on himself the warmer he’d be, and when he’d finished he grabbed a few of his last cashews and popped them in his mouth before double checking that he had all his things ready to go. 

Not for the first time he wished he had all his things and that they weren’t with the others. He had nothing to use to straighten his messy curls and nothing to comb through them with besides his own fingers, which was better than nothing but still not the best at getting tangles out. He hadn’t been able to shave or have access to his makeup since he’d gotten dumped in that damn snow bank, so his scars were on full display and he was sure he looked like absolute shit. He missed his routine and being able to care for himself properly, and his things, and his brothers. 

Hopefully he could find them soon.

“Warriors?” he called when he was truly finished getting himself together, trying not to yawn as he twisted his head to glance at the bedroom. “You up?”

“Yeah, I just need a couple of minutes,” he called back. 

“Alright, take your time,” War told him, looking around the cabin to see if there was anything to tidy up while he waited. Within a couple of minutes, Warriors emerged from the bedroom, wearing his cloak and mask. He had his scarf in one hand. 

“You can borrow the scarf again if you pin it down this time,” he said simply. 

“Oh, thanks,” War blinked, taking the scarf from him before handing over Warriors' bedroll and blanket. “Thanks for letting me borrow these.”

Warriors nodded at him, then shoved both of them into his bag. “Did you eat anything yet? I still have some dried fruit. You need to keep your sugar up, right?” 

“Yeah,” he sighed, pinning the second scarf into place and making sure it wouldn’t move as he straightened out the fabric. “I had a little but I’m starting to run out of cashews, I have maybe seven left.”

Warriors stared at him, sighed, and headed towards the door. “I guess we should get going then,” he said as he opened it and walked through it, only to come back to the door a few seconds later. “Hey, War! How fast do you want to get off the mountain?” 

He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself with a small grumble when the cold air hit him. Oh, it was going to be a long day of walking through awful, horrible snow again, wasn’t it. “As fast as possible.”

“Now that you know that I’m a vampire, I have an idea! We can jump down the mountain and look for a town when we’re away from the cold!” he said, disappearing from the door again. 

“…What?” War called out in confusion as he went after him, grimacing when he fully left the warmth of the cabin. He shut the door behind him and turned to raise and eyebrow at Warriors when he caught sight of him again.

“I told you I have super strength and speed, right? It means I’m pretty good at jumping… kind of like using focus spirit without any of the magic. I think there’s enough solid surface to land on down the side of the mountain,” he said as he walked closer to the edge of the mountain. “I can carry you on my back.” 

War frowned as he thought about the offer. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being carried. He usually wasn’t the biggest fan of physical contact, not since the war, but it was either that or stand here and freeze to death. He could already feel his toes getting cold in his boots again… And if they did find a small town at the bottom of the mountain he could buy a real meal and maybe a warmer shirt. 

“Okay,” he said quietly, keeping his arms wrapped tightly around his middle as he stood there shaking in the cold.

Warriors bent down so that his knees were touching the snow. “Get on.” 

He could not remember the last time he’d crawled onto someone’s back like this, it must’ve been when he was younger and his oldest sister gave him a boost to grab something out of a tree. He’d jumped on Twilight a few times just to mess with the rancher and knock him over, but that was more him throwing himself at his brother, not safely getting onto his back with the intention of not pushing him to the ground. Warriors held his legs, then stood up and walked back to the cabin then turned around. 

“I just need a little room,” he explained. Then he ran and leapt over the mountain. The first landing was rough since Warriors slipped and for a second, they lurched to the side, but Warriors corrected himself quickly and jumped again. The second jump was further and higher than the first, so it took him longer to land and he only landed for a second before he jumped again. Warriors started laughing. 

War was doing his absolute best to not scream or accidentally strangle the other hero with how tight he was holding on. It somehow had not crossed his mind that hopping down a mountain would include sailing through the air like this and he felt dizzy. The few times he’d been to Skyloft he’d had to hold onto a wall or Sky to avoid being a shaky mess because his brain kept telling him the floating island would plummet to the ground or he’d fall off and every time Warriors tipped a little too far to one side he felt his heart skip a beat. Watching the world fly past them at uncontrollable speeds felt overwhelming and he ended up squeezing his eyes shut, putting all of his focus into holding on and not screaming in terror. Every time Warriors landed he was reminded of the ache in his ribs, and he tried to distract himself with that. It was only half working.

After what felt like a long time, but must have only been a minute or two, Warriors slowed down and then skidded to a halt. For a moment, he just stood in the same spot, probably to catch his breath. 

“Isn’t it nice to see some fucking dirt?” Warriors asked quietly. 

War slid off him and stumbled back, his shaking legs leading him to fall flat on his ass with a grunt but he didn’t care because he was on the ground and it was solid and that was beautiful. And it was dirt, it wasn’t covered in fucking snow!! It was still a little chilly but it was far warmer down here than it had been where the cabin was and War was so relieved he could’ve cried. 

“I think I need a minute,” he muttered, clutching a hand to his aching side and breathing a little heavily as if he’d been the one to leap down a mountain while carrying a full grown man.

“Agreed,” Warriors mumbled as he plopped himself down on the ground. “That was exhausting… and now I’m kind of hungry. I think I can hunt for food later though.” 

“Do you need anything from me?” War offered, stretching his legs out in front of him.

“No, let’s wait for a bit. There might be monsters down here too and if they’re not infected, I can drink from them. Their blood isn’t as tasty as people’s blood but it’ll do.” 

“You can taste the difference?” he asked in surprise.

“Yeah, monster blood and people or animal blood taste different. There isn’t really a difference between animal and people. Well, some people taste a little different… “ he paused and hummed to himself. “With monsters, I think stronger monsters taste better. Lynels tasted better than moblins, at any rate.”  

“Huh…” 

War let out a sigh, digging through one of the pouches on his belt for his earrings so he could put them back in now that it wasn’t freezing cold. It felt weird not wearing them, and he was paranoid he’d lose them or they’d fall out of their pouch somehow. He frowned when he pulled out three pairs of earrings, not having realized he had an extra pair on him, and ended up putting in the same ones he’d been wearing previously since the third pair were slightly bigger and less easy to sleep in. He had no intention of taking them out again soon, but if for some reason he felt like it, he did now have an extra pair. 

“When you were jumping down, did you see how far the town is?” He asked, clicking his last earring into place and making sure it wouldn’t come loose before fiddling with the hem of his scarf.

“We can get there before sundown, I think, assuming nothing goes horribly wrong. We’re both Link though, so something might go horribly wrong,” he said with a sigh as he stood up. “Are you ready to go?”

War let out a small laugh. Things did tend to go horribly wrong, but if there was one other thing that came along with being a Link was the ability to somehow make it through the impossible.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” he answered, pushing himself to his feet and straightening out his clothes. 

Warriors quickly pulled a piece of jerky out of his bag, lifted his mask up to shove it into his mouth, and put the mask back down. He motioned for War to follow as he started down the path. “Say… how did you end up on the mountain in the first place? Now that we know each other better.” 

“I don’t really remember,” he admitted as he came to walk beside him. “I mean the portals usually show up where everyone can see them and we go through together but- I was walking with Time and then Wild called me back because he and Legend needed something and next thing I knew I was half buried in a snow bank. I spent some time digging myself out of it and then I found you. I haven’t seen the others since.” War let out a slightly shaky breath before adding very quietly, “I’m not even sure if they’re here… I only assumed they were because we’ve never been separated like this before, but… um…”

Fuck, why did he suddenly feel so upset? He felt stupid for it, even worse for the way his eyes burned as they threatened to tear up, but honestly being separated from the others like this for so long was just digging straight into his fear that he didn’t belong with them, that he wasn’t a worthy enough hero and the gods had finally seen that and sent him away. The longer he spent without any sight of them the louder the voice in his head got that his fears were true.

Warriors paused, standing still in the middle of the path. “So you haven’t been on the mountain long before you realized I was following you… I wonder if this is somehow my fault, at least partially. I walked through a portal Lana made for me and I ended up on the mountain and if you weren’t there long, then we must have gotten there at the same time.” 

“Lana made you a portal?” War stopped, turning to look at him. 

Warriors looked at his own feet instead of his face. “I got injured pretty badly. You saw how fast I healed from getting impaled, right? It took me over a month to completely heal from those injuries and get back into shape, so I was pretty bad off. I had to tell my group to leave me behind because a portal appeared and I was still bedbound. When I was well enough to travel, I had to go to Lana so she could make me a portal. I didn’t want to wait for a portal to come back to my era to reunite with everybody. I’m not with my idiots, so clearly, something went horribly wrong.” 

“We’re both missing our friends and somehow ended up here with each other, wherever ‘here’ is…” He frowned. “I’ve been mapping out the constellations and such of each era I’ve traveled in so far. Stars don’t move much in our lifetimes but they do over hundreds and thousands of years. I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out about where on the timeline we are after each portal, give or take several hundred years, and the stars are a good pointer for direction. They make it easy to find Hyrule Castle. When it gets darker I can see if maybe we’re some time close to home, or maybe your friends if you know which era they’re in?”

“I don’t have a clue where or when they could be right now. It’s been like a month since I’ve seen them,” he said quietly. “They could have moved through a couple of eras by now. I think maybe trying to get the castle would be our best bet though. If one of our groups is miraculously with us in this era, then the castle would be somewhere they’re heading towards too. It’s the best landmark.” 

“We’ll find them,” War told him. “And I don’t care if we find my friends first, I’ll make sure you get back to yours.”

“How so? You think your group can handle two of us long enough for me to find my group? If your Legend is like my Legend, he’s going to explode.” 

He burst out laughing. “Oh he will, he saw my twin sister and cried ‘There’s two of him!!’ and I thought he was going to lose it right then and there. But he’ll just have to suck it up because I’m not going to leave you behind.”

Turning back around to keep walking, he took a good few steps before he realized he didn’t hear Warriors moving behind him. He looked back to find the other hero exactly where he left him and his brows furrowed in concern.

“You alright?”

“You keep offering your blood and now you’re making this promise… why?”

“You told me you needed the blood to heal, you were only injured because of me so I want to make sure you’re alright,” his frown deepened as he walked closer to Warriors. “Plus you shared your snacks with me so it’s only fair I share what I can with you. And why wouldn’t I help you find your friends? It seems cruel to just leave you here alone.”

“My snacks aren’t as big of a deal as your blood. You need that to live! And I understand why you feed me the first time around but you still keep being nice and I don’t… I can be dangerous. Monterous. I don’t know why people keep being nice to me.” 

“Anyone can be dangerous,” War crossed his arms over his chest, though he made sure to keep his tone calm and gentle. “I don’t think you’re as monstrous as you think you are. I have no doubt that the vampire thing is a heavy burden for you to carry, but your willingness to show kindness to a complete stranger like me,” he paused for a moment to point to Warriors’s scarf still pinned around his neck, laying on top of his own, “shows me you’re not a bad person. I’m going to help you find your friends because you deserve to be able to see them again after so long, gods know I’d be devastated to go so long without them, and I don’t mind giving you my blood because you didn’t take enough to hurt me. You could’ve, you could’ve killed me if you wanted but you didn’t.”

“I have done that before though! Somebody insulted my group and almost hurt them just to get to me and I tore her fucking throat out. That’s what monsters do, War. They tear people’s throats with their teeth. I didn’t even mean to kill her like that, I just lost control for a second and that’s all it took. That’s all it takes…” Warriors said, his chest heaving as he did so. “And the others have had to restrain me before for other reasons. I don’t know if I ever hurt any of them but it’s not like they would actually tell me if I did. They don’t even want to knock me out when I completely lose it again, even though it would be safer for them.” 

War tried not to let his shock show visibly on his face, it seemed like that wouldn’t do anything helpful for the other hero. He himself had killed people before, hylians in the war as well as the occasional assassin in self defense, and while he was aware of their circumstances being incredibly different, he understood the guilt. 

“If your friends are anything like mine,” he said slowly, thinking carefully about his choice of words, “they care about you a lot. They probably don’t want to hurt you.”

“I don’t want to hurt them either and I don’t want to hurt you, but it doesn’t matter how often I warn them, they just don’t seem to take it seriously. They just keep being nice and understanding when I don’t always deserve it,” he mumbled, looking down at his feet. His breathing did seem calmer though. “If I do lose control while we’re together, you’ll protect yourself, right?” 

“I’ll protect myself,” War promised, biting his tongue before he could keep talking and say that he wouldn’t hurt the other hero unless it was one hundred percent necessary. He wouldn’t stand there and let Warriors attack him, but he wouldn’t draw a weapon to fight him unless he absolutely had to. 

Warriors studied his face, then he nodded. “We should get going. I’ve delayed us enough.” 

Stupid vampire emotions. Warriors used to have pretty good control over his emotions in that he could shove them down when they were a hindrance and feel them later when he was alone and safe.  It also helped that back then, while he was put into many situations where he had to kill or be killed himself, he was always aware of what he was doing and why. There wasn’t a hole in his memory that his mind couldn’t go wild with. His curse threw everything out of the window - he lost that control, he had gaps in his memory and nobody wanted to fill him in, and he sometimes snapped at people who didn’t deserve it. 

Warriors didn’t mean to go as far as he did, he was just caught up in his stupid emotions being amplified by the fact that he was a young vampire. He should have just accepted War’s kindness and now everything was awkward. He was walking beside War but he wasn’t looking at him or talking to him. He just didn’t know what to say to the other hero. Warriors didn’t think he was wrong… but he also didn’t think War was wrong either.

“Hey,” the other hero whispered, holding out an arm to stop him as he frowned and looked around. “I think we may have company.”

“Huh?” Warriors barely processed the fact that they stopped walking, let alone the fact that War said something. He didn’t realize that he was so distracted. He could have walked off a cliff without noticing. He looked up from the arm stopping him and by the time he noticed that War was right, there was company, said company jumped out in front of them. Dinolfos. Before Warriors could draw his sword, one of them was charging towards them.

War drew his sword in seconds, rushing forward to knock the monster out of the way. It stumbled to the side with an annoyed cry and War didn’t give it the chance to recover, swinging at it while it was on the ground.

Right, he couldn’t just stand there and let War fight them all on his own. He didn’t know how or why War intended on making sure he found his brothers but he had to survive in order to do so. Warriors wasn’t going to let another hero die or get seriously injured just because he was distracted. He withdrew his sword and jumped, attacking a dinolfos that darted out into the path. His first strike didn’t kill it, but it did reveal something useful - they weren’t infected. 

There were only three of them, and two heroes. It would be a quick battle if all went well, then Warriors could drink some blood so that his trip down the mountain didn’t make him hungry later. It jumped back and with a huff, spat out a stream of fire. Warriors growled as he was forced to jump back. He knew fire wouldn’t immediately kill him but he still appreciated a healthy distance from it. Once it was done, he raised his sword and stabbed it through the chest. 

War finished off the dinolfos he’d knocked down before straightening up and turning to look at him. He’d opened his mouth to say something to him but then his gaze shifted slightly to the left, looking over at his shoulder instead, and he rushed at Warriors' side without warning.

“Look out!” 

War swung his sword and managed to block a strike from hitting him. The monster swiped at the other hero with its armored arm, successfully hitting him in the side and pulling a pained noise from the man, but War didn’t let that knock him too far off balance and instead raised his weapon again to whack the dinolfos harder. It only took him a few strikes before it fell to the ground and when he was sure it was going to stay down, War turned to him, hand clutching his left side.

“Are you alright?” he panted, giving the area around them a quick glance for any more monsters before he sheathed his sword and used his now free hand to brush messy curls out of his face.

Warriors looked down at the dinoflos beside him, then back at War. He swallowed hard. War saved him, probably in exchange for when Warriors saved his life, but he wasn’t going to question it or say it out loud. 

“Yes, thanks,” he said, looking down at the dead dinolfos again. It was still bleeding, wasting delicious and precious blood. “Um, can you turn around? I don’t like being watched when I’m drinking from monsters.” 

“Yeah,” the other hero wheezed, turning his back.

Once Warriors was sure that War wasn’t going to turn around, he stuck his sword into the ground, and knelt down beside it to lift its body up so he had better access to its neck. He slid his mask up so it was sitting on top of his head and then bit into it. He let himself get distracted again though this time, he was focusing on the blood filling his mouth because unlike with people, he didn’t need to be careful with monsters. It was the only time where Warriors felt alright indulging in his vampire instincts, drinking until he was full or until the monster had no more blood to give. Ideally, he would have killed it by draining it of all its blood because there was something about the struggle that the vampire enjoyed but his rational mind was horrified by. It was a bit more than Warriors was comfortable with showing to anybody, so he appreciated the fact that War didn’t turn around. 

When he couldn’t get anymore blood, he dropped the body and drew his sword out of the ground. With a swift swing, he cut its head from its shoulders. He licked what he could off his face and fangs, but was forced to go into his bag for a rag to wipe the rest of his face off. When he was satisfied that he was cleaned up, he retracted his fangs and lowered his mask down to his face. 

“I’m good now. We can keep going,” Warriors said simply. “Thanks for the save. I shouldn’t have been so distracted. At least one of us was paying attention.” 

“No problem,” War smiled, breathing a bit shallowly. 

“Are you alright?” Warriors asked, raising an eyebrow. He knew that he got hit during the battle but it didn’t look serious. 

“I’m not sure,” the other hero winced, keeping his hand pressed to his side. “I got hit the other day. I’d checked and it was only bruised and it wasn’t anything more than an irritating ache, it wasn’t messing with my ability to move, but the dinolfos hit me right where the icicle man did and it hurts to breathe.”

The longer he went on talking the more out of breath and pained he sounded. His ribs could be bruised, or maybe even broken, but for War’s sake, Warriors hoped that they were just bruised. Bruised ribs were still a bitch but there were fewer complications. 

“You probably need a potion, and if we had one, we would have used it already,” Warriors said with a sigh. “This might hurt, but how about I carry you on my back again? I can use my powers and get us there faster. In the very least, even if they don’t have any potions, we can get a bed and real food. I think you need a bit more than cashews to heal. The choice will be yours, though.” 

War looked nervous and he didn’t move his hand from his ribs, but he was also starting to look a little pale like his sugar was low, and he must’ve been feeling that because he let out a quiet, “Okay.”

He got down on a knee like he did before and when War felt secure on his back, he pushed out his fangs again and started down the path. At first, he was just jogging but within a minute, he worked himself up to a run. It wasn’t quite at his full speed because he didn’t want to exhaust himself too quickly, but he was still running faster than the average hylian could. He had to pace himself, otherwise he was jostling War no reason. He focused on his own breathing but he did notice that War wasn’t holding on as tightly as he was before. The other hero seemed tense but perhaps that was because his ribs hurt. He was definitely quieter too, but that was fine with him. Warriors couldn’t exactly afford to waste his breath. 

He didn’t know how long he ran for but eventually, Warriors saw buildings in the distance. Finally, the village! He slowed down and eventually stopped just outside of it. He retracted his fangs and lowered himself so that War could get off his back instead of falling off like he did last time. Warriors’ legs burned and it felt like he was back on square one in terms of how much blood he needed, but War’s health came first. A good meal could go a long way and buy him a few days, so he wasn’t too concerned about where he was getting blood next. 

“Can you walk on your own?” he asked War. 

“Yeah,” the other hero gasped, grinding his teeth and holding his hand back to his ribs.

Warriors watched him for a moment, but there was no reason not to trust him. He decided to walk behind him, far enough back to give him a little room but close enough that he could help him if War started to struggle. Thankfully, they didn’t have to walk too far to find a small market in the village with several stalls lining the street. It was a stand shrouded in purple cloth that caught Warriors’ attention.

“I think that’s our shop,” he said quietly to War as he left his side to investigate. He could see the bottles from the street but it was only when he was at the counter did he find that there were a lot of different potions. There were the green ones that he knew were used for magic, thankfully some red health ones, and also some blue ones that didn’t look to be the same colour as the ones that Wild made, and many more potions of other different colours. 

He purchased a couple of the red ones and passed one to War. He stuffed the other into his bag. 

“Thank you,” he breathed, uncorking it and taking a few sips. 

“Okay, next is the inn,” Warriors mumbled as he gave War a quick look over. 

“One moment, please,” the other hero groaned, taking another sip of the potion before he dared to press on his ribs and test how they felt. “Alright, should be fine.”

Warriors raised an eyebrow. The one good thing about a mask was that War couldn’t see him making weird expressions behind it. The other hero did look better though, so Warriors trusted that he was being honest. The only problem now was that Warriors didn’t even know where to begin to look for an inn. The village didn’t seem that big but a lot of the buildings just sort of looked the same. He picked a direction and began walking, making sure that he was slow enough to actually study the buildings and for War to keep up with him. Warriors learned from the cave hunt that he shouldn’t get too far ahead of himself. 

After a couple of minutes, they came across some buildings with signs that Warriors could almost read. A lot of the letters looked similar but not exactly the same as the script he knew from home. It was like deciphering bad penmanship where he could pick out some of the letters, but the rest looked like it could be a bunch of different letters at the same time or like a completely new letter. He turned to War. 

“Can you read this?” he asked in a whisper. He didn’t like admitting he couldn’t read out loud, but to be fair to him, he could read his own script just fine! He was probably looking at a precursor to his script, if he had to guess.  

War frowned at the sign, then squinted at it, and he opened his mouth to answer but his stomach growled instead. The other hero very quickly looked around with a huff before his eyes landed on a building not too far from them. “Forget the sign, I found the inn.”

“Huh? How?” Warriors asked as he followed War. 

“They tend to have moon signs over them,” he shrugged, pointing up at a sign above a door three buildings down. “At least a lot of them in the eras I’ve been to have seemed to have those signs.”

“...oh,” he mumbled. Now he felt a little silly. He never really noticed, and though he wasn’t the one usually looking for inns, he felt like he should have noticed. “Are we getting our own rooms? Sometimes, I wake up and one of the others is in the room with me. I think they just want to make sure I don’t… look different to civilians.” Sometimes, he woke up with his fangs out. He hated it but he also hoped that when he was on his own after their adventure was over, his fangs would behave and not pop out whenever they felt like it. He was sure that wasn’t actually the case but it sure felt like they had a mind of their own. 

“Do you want your own room?” War asked, turning to look at him with an open, genuine expression on his face. 

“I’m not used to falling asleep on my own,” he admitted. “I would prefer to share a room. Besides, if we save on rooms, we can spend more on food and I think we both deserve a nice, hot meal.” 

“Sounds good to me,” the other hero nodded, “I think I’d do just about anything for a real meal right now.”

Once they got to the inn, they were greeted by a man at the desk and the smell of cooked food wafting into the lobby. Oh, that smell was delightful. It was a welcome smell after two days or so of being in the mountain surviving off of blood and dried snacks. He quickly paid for the room and headed for the attached tavern that the innkeeper pointed out. It was early enough in the day where the room wasn’t completely packed, so it was easy enough for them to find a table and sit down. He took his mask off and put it into his bag. 

They were silent as they waited for food but once they got it, Warriors immediately dug in. The meat he got was basically raw and only lightly cooked on the outside but that was what he asked for. He was sure it was a little odd for the cooks, but raw meat helped him the most, and he would have gone for entirely raw meat if it was socially acceptable. He did get cooked rice and vegetables to go with it though, which he happily ate once he was done with his meat. 

For someone who had just been saying how hungry he was, War ate very little of the food on his plate. He’d taken maybe one bite of rice before just sitting there pushing food around and occasionally lifting his empty fork from near the meat and vegetables halfway towards his mouth before going back to pushing things around. Warriors raised an eyebrow. 

“Did they get your food wrong?” he asked. 

“N- No,” War answered a little too quickly, almost dropping his fork. 

“You okay?” he asked. He hoped he didn’t say the wrong thing. The man only had cashews, a piece of jerky, and some dried fruit the whole time they were on the mountain. Warriors didn’t get really ahead on the blood he needed since he ended up using his powers more than he thought he would, but at least he could say he ate something. The fact that War had yet to really eat the meal that he really needed was concerning. 

“Mhm.” The other hero still wouldn’t look up from his plate. “It’s… um. It’s still too hot…?”

“It’s still too hot? Like your friend is just your friend , right?” he asked, his voice deadpan. 

War inhaled too quickly and immediately started choking, his face going more than a bit red though it was unclear if that had to do with Warriors’ comment or his sudden lack of air. He watched the man’s eyes go wide as he fought to breathe normally again before War reached for his drink to take a sip and then started nervously rubbing at his throat.

“H- They are my friend,” War croaked out, though he looked less upset about it now than he had last time. He just seemed… uncomfortable, like something was bothering him. “We are friends.”

Warriors simply nodded. He probably wasn’t ever going to get more than that but he didn’t want to keep pushing. It was funny at first but teasing him further would feel wrong. Warriors glanced down at his own plate. Maybe he’s just worried about the food itself. People tried to poison his meals in the past and it was only because he was a vampire that nothing ended up happening to him, much to the confusion of his would be assassins. It was probably likely that War also had assassins after him.

“One thing I forgot to mention is that poisons don’t really work on me,” he said, making sure to keep his voice low. “People have tried in the past but since I’m a vampire, it’s not one of the things that can kill me. I can still taste it though. I know exactly what hemlock tastes like for example, but I just thought we hired a really bad cook at first. I figured it out later when he was so confused as to why I wasn’t dead yet that he confessed to his crime. It’s not exactly a fun discovery, but it is a useful one.” 

“…You what?” War blinked at him in shock, but some of the tension in his shoulders disappeared.

“Four different people tried to poison me with hemlock but it just kind of makes me sleepy,” Warriors answered with a shrug. “I’m pretty good at tasting it now. I can tell who it was because they just look so confused. Sometimes when I taste it, I stay around for longer than needed just to fuck with them.” 

The other hero frowned at him, thinking about what he’d said before glancing down at his mostly untouched food.

“Hemlock is bitter. In my opinion, the food tastes fine,” Warriors said quietly as stuck another carrot into his mouth. 

“Oh.” War looked embarrassed, but he stopped pushing his food around his plate and began actually eating.

Warriors cracked a small smile but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to accidentally upset War when he just convinced the man that the food was safe to eat. Warriors understood why eating food could be difficult because if wasn’t a vampire, he would have died. It wouldn’t have been Cia or Ganondorf that took him out, it would have been hemlock.

Now that he felt more comfortable, War seemed to have no issue with actually eating his food. It didn’t take him long to clear his plate, he was hungry enough to eat everything rather quickly. When he finished, he set his fork down and glanced up at Warriors.

“D’you mind if I order a drink?” He asked.

“No, go ahead,” he mumbled. He doubted the tavern had what he liked so he didn’t really see himself drinking anything during their stay, but he didn’t care if War felt like drinking. The man was an adult, he could do whatever he wanted. 

War wasn’t as nervous to taste his drink as he had been his food. The second he got his whiskey he’d started drinking it, taking a few sips between staring down at the amber liquid. 

“So, what is your friend like? Did you meet them in the army?” he asked, keeping his voice neutral this time. He teased War enough about his “friend” but in all that teasing, he didn’t actually really take everything War said before in. Regardless of what their relationship was like, having a true friend was a challenge when one had to constantly keep an eye out for assassins.

War quickly looked up at him, though his face wasn’t quite so red as it had been all the other times Warriors had brought up his friend. “No, I didn’t meet them in the army actually. H- They were a soldier, fought in the war, but we never really crossed paths until later. They retired due to injury, I didn’t meet them until around a year after the war ended.”

Warriors frowned. “Are they okay? Maybe things were different in your era, but in mine, you had to be quite injured before you were allowed to leave.” 

“He’s doing better now but in the last battle of the war, he broke his spine in more than a few places,” the other hero frowned at his drink. “Explosion caught him and he was far enough away to avoid being badly burned, but the force threw him into a wall. He wouldn’t be walking still if it weren’t for the sheer amount of magic and potions that were used on him, but he deals with chronic pain now. Zelda let him leave because the war was over, he needed time to heal, and he has other duties to attend to.”

Warriors found himself covering the lower half of his face with his hand, trying to hide some of the shock. It was hard for him to imagine a regular person getting back up from that. Maybe he was a vampire long enough to forget how well regular people could heal - he was always so worried about preventing those sorts of injuries in the first place. 

One thing did catch his attention though. “Zelda personally let him go?” 

“Mhm,” War hummed, taking a quick sip before he spoke. “When the war first broke out there were a lot of noblemen who blamed me for all of it, something that made Zelda really upset because she kept insisting it wasn’t my fault, and a lot of them ended up revealing they weren’t the best people. We had a lot of traitors, we’re still trying to weed them all out, but from the beginning there were a handful of noblemen who showed unwavering loyalty. My friend is the son of one of the dukes who has always had Zelda’s back and supported her decisions throughout the war. She knows my friend well, and she has other things she has him do now. But yes, she personally let him go from the army.”

Being blamed for the war was definitely a familiar feeling. “And he fought the whole time until that last battle?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. They had nobles in the army too, but they didn’t fight on the frontlines. They liked to try to influence from behind, running supply chains and trying to have a say in strategic decisions. They didn’t want to risk their lives unless they weren’t in line to inherit their estate. “Most of the nobles in my era were never on the front lines… just the ones who had something to prove to an older sibling.” 

“Most nobles in my era weren’t either,” the other hero huffed. “Most of them are the most self centered, stuck up, horrific people I’ve ever met in my life who’d rather let hundreds of people die for them than take accountability for one single mistake. But Si- My friend isn’t like that. He signed up for the army at around sixteen I think he said, he’d been trained before then I think he always intended to join, and I think he would’ve stayed as a soldier longer had he not been injured and had his father’s health not started to decline.” War frowned as he took another sip. “My friend fights for what he believes in, he doesn’t think his life is worth any more than anyone else’s and he argues a lot with the other noblemen on the council whenever they start spewing bullshit, and some of them really don’t like him for that.”

Why didn’t he get a guy like that in his era? Unless, he did and that person just didn’t survive the war. “I’m glad you have a friend like that,” he said quietly. He couldn’t really say he was close to anyone outside of his brothers and Zelda, Impa, and Proxi. He trusted the other vampires but it wasn’t like they were close friends or anything like that. He found it kind of hard to befriend people when he knew he was going to outlive them all. 

“Me too,” War murmured. “I’m… I’m very lucky to have him. He met me when I was truly at my worst and he’s been incredibly patient with me, I’m glad he stuck around.”

“Does your group know him?” 

“Mask does,” he sighed before letting out a small laugh. “Can’t get anything past him anymore even if I tried, but I managed to convince the others he was a friend from work, and also a woman…? Just so they wouldn’t get on me about it.”

Warriors smirked but hid it behind his hand. “I can’t imagine why you would want to do that.”

War narrowed his eyes at him but there was no real heat in his stare. “He is a friend, seriously. It’s just… also a bit complicated and a lot of a mess, and I don’t want to explain all that to all the others so it was easier to just shut it down. Wind only found out in the first place because the fucker went snooping through my mail and then he went and announced to everyone that I had a girl back home, my friend has a gender neutral name, instead of minding his own business.”

“I would throw my Wind off the mountain if he went through my mail. Hardly any of it gets to me untampered but still,” he mumbled. Unfortunately, most of his mail went through the military and they were known to strike parts of letters out if the information was deemed too sensitive to leave the military. It was annoying but still, he didn’t need anyone else going through his letters. 

“I have no idea how he even read it,” War scoffed, throwing a hand up in the air. “Our written Common doesn’t have the same fucking alphabet! His native language is similar enough to mine that sometimes if we speak slowly we can kinda understand each other, but the written language is different and again my era’s Common doesn’t have the same alphabet as his. I have no clue how the fuck he did it.” The other hero sighed before downing the rest of his drink in one gulp. Then he looked back at Warriors. “Time to head up?”

“Sure,” he mumbled as he grabbed his bag and fished out the key to see what their room number actually was. Thankfully, War didn’t need any help getting up to the stairs and soon enough, they found their room on the second floor. Their room was basic. It had two beds with thick blankets, a window with curtains on the far end of the room, and a night stand with a lantern they could light between the two beds. There was a single painting of the mountain on the wall on the opposite side of the room as the beds and under it was another small table and aside from the blankets, it was the only bit of colour in the room. There was a door that led somewhere else but Warriors guessed that it might have been some sort of bathroom. 

“I’ll take the window bed,” he said as he threw his bag onto the end of it. He figured War wouldn’t want the bed beside the possibly drafty window. The first thing he did was close the curtains, then he got out of his boots and put them at the end of his bed. 

“Works for me,” War shrugged, setting his things down on the foot of the bed closer to the door before unpinning the scarves from around his neck. He set his own on the bed behind him, but he gathered Warriors’s in his arms so it didn’t drag on the floor before handing it over to him. “Are you needing more blood or anything?”

Warriors took the scarf and draped it over the footboard of his bed. War always seemed quick to offer his blood but this time, he actually kind of needed it. He would have been fine if he and War walked to the town or village or whatever they were in, but Warriors used his powers to get him the help he needed faster. It was like he never drank from the dinolfos. Warriors frowned. The raw meat helped but it wasn’t a replacement for blood. 

“I do but… Nevermind. I’ll have a drink.” 

War raised an eyebrow at him as he worked to get his bracer off his right arm, but he didn’t voice whatever question he might’ve had and instead rolled up his sleeve and sat on the edge of Warriors’s bed when he was ready, holding out his arm. Warriors took his wrist and summoned his fangs. He didn’t feel the need to warn War this time since they went through this once already, so he picked a spot without any marks and bit into his wrist. 

Drinking War’s blood on the same day as a monster’s blood almost made it tastier when he had something very recent to compare it to. It was like having dessert after burning supper. He drank until he counted down to zero, then he withdrew his fangs and licked whatever blood pooled until the bleeding slowed down. 

Warriors licked his lips and fangs, then fell backwards onto his bed with his arms folded on top of his chest. He closed his eyes for a moment before he opened them again and settled on staring at the ceiling.  At least he was going to sleep well tonight. Well, he was going to sleep well in the first place because he was at an inn but had a drink now, courtesy of War. He probably should have told him… but had he not already told him? He should be aware, unless he forgot, and then he wouldn’t be aware. 

“You know I sleep a lot, right?” he asked War. “Like a lot?” 

“Yeah?” The other hero twisted so he could look at him and raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m not the only weird one here,” he mumbled from a frown. “But alcohol makes me sleepy. I wanna sleep in tomorrow. We got time, right?” 

War blinked at him in confusion for a moment before he quickly glanced down at his arm and the two puncture marks in it. “You were really being serious about being able to get drunk from people’s blood??”

“You thought I was lying?” Warriors asked with a pout. “Why would I have any reason to lie? I believed everything you said… well, I still don’t think your friend is only your friend but I believe that you believe that.” 

“I didn’t think you were lying,” War laughed, “I just thought you might’ve been pulling my leg or something, or… I don’t know, that you were joking. I have a hard time telling tone sometimes.“

“Well, now you know and now you’re banished from my bed,” Warriors mumbled, lifting a hand to point at the other bed in the room. “That’s where non-believers go!”

The other hero let out a fake scoff of offense, raising a hand to his heart. 

“First you bite me and then you banish me? I’m so hurt!!” War sniffed before he got up and threw himself on the other bed face down. 

“Yes, banished… but I may give you the opportunity to prove yourself later…. Depends on how I feel,” he mumbled slowly, though he couldn’t hold back the giggle that escaped. His body felt heavy now and he had the feeling that he probably felt more drunk than War did, and it was War’s fault! Well, he knew what he was getting into. It was War who didn’t. He laughed again. He told War, it wasn’t his fault War didn’t believe him. He had no right to be surprised. “War, do you even feel drunk?” 

“Nope,” the other hero laughed, flipping over onto his side so he could look at him. “Not even a little bit tipsy.”

“ What ? That is so fucking rude,” Warriors said with a hiss as he reached over for a pillow and threw it into War’s general direction before he realized he needed that later and his body felt so heavy. “Wait, I need that…” 

War giggled at him, but he did throw the pillow back, though it landed directly on top of him.

“This is why you’ve been banished,” Warriors growled as he put his pillow back and slowly pulled his legs up so they were on the bed. He needed to get somewhat comfortable before he fell asleep, but then he remembered something! He kicked his leg out and tried to get up, only to faceplant into the bed. Why did he try to get up again? He didn’t have to sit up to talk to War. “War. I remember something…” 

The other man raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah?”

“Last time… or well, the only other time I got drunk like this, I ended up under Malon’s kitchen table. You shouldn’t let me go under the table. Wild was very mad about it but like… the floor felt really nice, you know?” 

War looked a little more serious as he frowned in concern. “Do I need to worry about you wandering off outside of this room?”

“Maybe! I don’t know. I don’t know why I went under the table the first time. I fell asleep in the bedroom. Also, Twilight drank way, way, way more than you did but he’s a boring drunk. His words, not mine, but I agree with him.” 

“Hm, yeah,” he shrugged. “Whenever I’ve gone drinking with Twi he just goes quiet and then gets overstimulated. Sky on the other hand- Not that he can drink much or often, he’s not really supposed to be drinking at all apparently, I just found out- But gods when he did he was the funniest person alive, I’m convinced. Do my best to stop him now, or just remind him to not have a lot, but I miss him.”

Warriors hid a yawn behind his arm. “Wars… we’ll find them. We’ll both find our stupid brothers. Just not today, I’m sleepy…” he mumbled slowly. 

“Yeah, we will.” War gave him a small crooked smile. “But you get some rest.”

“Okay,” he mumbled as he got himself comfortable underneath the blanket and closed his eyes. “‘Night, War.”

Chapter Text

Once he was sure Warriors was asleep and wasn’t likely to wander off, War left the inn, making sure the door to their room was shut firmly behind him and locked. He couldn’t believe such a small amount of his blood had really been enough to have an effect on the other hero, especially since he hadn’t been feeling much of anything at all. He’d wanted a few more glasses of whiskey, he’d say he more than earned them after all this, but waking up hungover hadn’t sounded too appealing and so he’d simply gone with the one. He knew the more he had the more he was tempted to keep going, and after enough years of just trying anything to ignore his trauma and feel peace for five seconds, he knew he could firmly cut himself off at one with no issue.

Stepping outside into the cold night air reminded him that while they may be out of the mountains, they hadn’t quite made it to the warm weather. He could see his breath in the air in front of him and he wasn’t quite frozen, but he was uncomfortable enough to make him wish he’d still had Warriors’s scarf around his shoulders.

Maybe he should buy a slightly warmer tunic. 

It was late, but not too late that all the shops had closed, and thank the gods for that because War wanted nothing more than to stock up on his medical supplies he’d run out of, and buying a new razor so he could finally fix up his appearance to how he preferred would be wonderful as well. He ended up finding a kind old man running a small supply shop, and hit there first. The man didn’t think twice about selling him as many bandage rolls as he purchased, for which War was grateful, though it made him wonder what other kind of people traveled through if he wasn’t coming off as strange.

“Will that be all for you?” The kind man asked after War had fished the proper amount of rupees out of his wallet and handed them over.

“As far as buying goes, yes,” he smiled politely and grabbed the razor, potions, bandages, and other supplies from the counter. “Though, I was wondering if you could maybe tell me about where I am? My friend and I went on a hike up in the mountains and I’m afraid we got incredibly disoriented.”

“You’re in Hyrule Kingdom,” the shop owner confirmed, which War was glad of, “up in the north west area.”

“Ah,” War nodded, “thank you.”

“Hyrule Castle is a good few day’s journey from here by horse,” the man added. “I wouldn’t recommend walking, not this time of year and not with all the monsters around.”

War frowned at that. “Have there been more than usual?”

“Not really?” He shrugged. “They’re just there , y’know? And they’re strong, do be careful young man.”

“I will,” War smiled again, bowing his head as he wished the old shopkeeper goodbye. “Thank you for your help!”

Another small shop just a few minutes down was selling clothing items, and he happily bought a thicker tunic as well as some gloves that would cover his fingertips. He didn’t own a pair of those so he rationalized his purchase by telling himself that the tunic would be useful to him every time it was cold until the thing wore out, and that his fingers would very much be thanking him for saving them from getting frostbite.

Bidding the kind young woman running that shop a good night, he walked further until he hit a place selling snacks for travelers and restocked his little cashew pouch. War also caved and bought a small bag of dried apricots because they looked so good and the lady behind the counter was very convincing and he knew they’d be good for his blood sugar when it got too low. He was very lucky he’d still had his wallet on him when he’d gotten pulled through that portal.

With snacks on his mind, he caught sight of a small stand selling fish and went over to buy one. Warriors seemed to have quite the interesting appetite given that he’d basically had raw meat for dinner, and while War wasn’t sure if his new friend would also appreciate fish, it was the only kind of meat he saw being sold and he wanted to make sure the other hero could have a snack for the road as well. And if he hated it, War could always cook it so that it wouldn’t go to waste.

Eventually he got too cold to continue strolling the streets, though it was quite relaxing and he would’ve loved to keep going if only it were warmer, and he headed back to the inn. Warriors was still sleeping exactly as he’d left him, and War set his new purchases on the bed he’d picked before grabbing some of the supplies he’d purchased and heading into the small attached bathroom. Washing his face felt quite nice, as did finally getting to shave. He liked feeling more like himself, it was nice being able to feel a little bit confident in his appearance again even if he didn’t have with him his usual makeup he used to cover his freckles and scars.

Oh well, he was almost completely past the point of caring about that. It made him anxious sometimes, feeling so exposed and stared at because he knew eyes would flick to the marks dug across his cheek and the smaller scar on his chin, but Warriors had seemed so over his existence when they first met and had barely looked at him much so War felt safe assuming the other hero wouldn’t give a fuck if he even noticed. 

The scars bothered him far less than his hair, anyway. The moisture in the air from the snow had had it curling back up as if it’d never been straightened at all, which was annoying because it made it harder to manage. He didn’t like how his curls really just stood up wherever they wanted and refused to lay nicely when he didn’t have his good hair products with him to get them to even somewhat behave. Equally as distressing were his dark brown roots, only becoming more and more obvious every day. He’d meant to color them a few days before the portal had taken him and landed him with Warriors but things kept popping up and stopping him, or he’d been too tired, and now there was nothing he could do about it.

He set his hands down on the counter with a very loud sigh. There was nothing he could do about it, so he really should stop fussing about it.

It didn’t take him too much longer to finish getting himself feeling somewhat closer to normal as he got ready for bed. He spared a quick glance at his ribs as he changed into his new tunic and was delighted to discover that they didn’t even hurt when he lightly pressed on them. They’d been healed up quite nicely.

Straightening out his tunic he left the small bathroom and put his things away before he opened the little window in their room and looked up at the stars visible in the only partly cloudy night sky. He wasn’t quite so tired yet, so he might as well make himself useful and look at his star maps and see if he could figure out around when they were before he fell asleep.

“Wake up.” It was a voice Warriors knew but not he could immediately place why he knew it. It was soft and feminine but it wasn’t Zelda’s. He cracked his eyes open and found himself sitting on his knees in a grassy field. A pair of hands lifted his chin up. “Look at what you did.” 

Oh, he remembered that voice now. His aunt. He looked up and found her looking down at him. She was wearing a white blouse stained with red and a long red skirt. Warriors looked enough like his aunt that they used to be mistaken for mother and son, which he supposed only made her resent him even more. Her eyes were more grey than blue but their hair was the same colour of blonde, though her hair was longer and more wavy. He always thought she was pretty, but she got angry whenever anyone called her pretty. After the war, he could better understand why that might have been the case but when he was just a kid, he didn’t understand why. 

“Look at what you did,” she repeated, forcing his head down so that he was looking ahead of him. 

Lying flat on his back in a pool of blood was War. He was facing him, so Warriors could see the blood coating his face, how his skin was devoid of all colour, and his eyes were rolled up into his head. He couldn’t see all of the wound since it was on the opposite side of his neck, but he could see that he was missing part of his neck.

“War…?” 

“You tore his throat out like the monster you are. Though… I suppose you did warn him. It was his fault that he stuck around, isn’t it?” 

“I… didn’t…” 

“But you did. Why is that so odd to you? He’s not the first person you’ve killed like that.” 

War said he would defend himself. He promised. He didn’t know War for long but surely, the man would have defended himself. He had his own people to return to, he wouldn’t break his promise. 

“Warriors?”

“Why do you think I wanted you out of the house so badly? I needed to protect my own children. You would have torn their throats out too if I hadn’t. .” 

“But…” He wouldn’t do that. He was amicable with his cousins. Warriors wouldn’t tear their throats out.

But he did tear out War’s throat and War didn’t deserve that.

“Hey, wake up.”

“You’ve always been a monster, Link.” 

“I didn’t kill him.” 

“What do you call that then?”

Warriors found himself staring at War, hoping that wasn’t something he was missing. Maybe War wasn’t dead. Maybe if he watched closely enough, he would see the man twitch but even with his sharp eyes, he didn’t see anything from War. He was well and truly dead and it was all his fault.

“Link!” 

Warriors’ eyes snapped open and his first instinct was to move away from whatever was touching his arm. He didn’t have a lot of room so he found himself with his back against the headboard and his chest rumbling with a hiss. It took him a second to realize that it was just War, who had a healthy colour to his skin, focused eyes, and not a drop of blood on him. His neck was thankfully whole. “You’re… fine…”

“What happened?” War asked, frowning at him in concern.

Warriors took a deep breath but he felt his eyes sting. “Just a nightmare, thankfully…” Just a nightmare was putting it lightly though. It was something that could happen if he wasn’t careful enough. He could kill War and that was enough to make his chest and face hurt.  He had no idea why his aunt was there but there was once somebody else in War’s spot. He did kill somebody like that even though he didn’t mean to kill anybody like that. Warriors palmed at his eyes, trying to stop them from tearing up. 

Why was he so shaken up? 

“Are you alr-“ The other hero cut himself off, letting out a small sigh before trying again. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“You were dead…. And it was all my fault…” he mumbled, drawing his knees up to his chest so he could hide his face behind them. “Your throat was…” 

“I’m okay,” War assured him. “Nothing’s happened to me, or to you. We’re just at the inn, yeah?”

Warriors looked up from his knees. They were at the inn. He knew that, though War saying it out loud did make it sink in that yes, he was at the inn. He wasn’t in some field with his aunt that he hadn’t seen in five years. War did look fine. Maybe a little tired, but that was a far cry from dead. His chest still felt really tight though and his eyes were still wet. War was fine but he couldn’t get the image out of his head. It was still something that could happen. 

“I tore your throat out. In my dream. You were dead.” 

The other hero blinked at him in shock, wasting just a second before he responded, “You haven’t hurt me, I’m alright.”

“But I could. That could happen. It already happened once,” he mumbled into his knees. 

“I promised you earlier I wouldn’t let that happen, remember?” War’s tone stayed gentle and kind despite what they were talking about.

“I… guess I have a hard time believing that,” Warriors admitted, wrapping his hands around his legs and squeezing them tightly. “My brothers argued with me about it and you seem like you’re just as nice as they are.” 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” War told him, “but that doesn’t mean I’ll just stand here and let you hurt me. I’ll protect myself. I know we haven’t known each other that long, but do you trust I’ll keep my word?”

“I guess you haven’t given me a reason not to,” he said quietly. When he thought about it, he probably trusted War to keep that promise more than he trusted his brothers. He loved them but they were far too nice to him sometimes. He felt like they didn’t listen to him and they were kind of stuck in their current mindset of making sure he didn’t get hurt when he was worried about them . War was kind of like that but there was something different about him that he couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was the fact that they both held the same title? 

“Do you want to talk about your nightmare?” War offered, carefully sitting down at the foot of his bed as if he were expecting Warriors to tell him to get off. “You don’t have to, but I’ll listen if you do.”

Warriors frowned and squeezed his legs again, just to keep his hands busy. “You were dead but for some reason, my aunt was there too. I don’t know why, it’s been like five years since she kicked me out and we haven’t spoken since. She kept calling me a monster. I can see now that she couldn't have known about any of that, that I am a vampire and could tear somebody’s throat out, but in the dream, it made sense that she was worried about it. She said I could have done that to my cousins and that’s why she kicked me out. You said I am probably not as monstrous as I think but… my mind keeps coming up with all of these scenarios anyway.” 

“Our minds tend to think the worst of us,” the other hero said quietly. “And I meant what I said. I don’t think you’re the monster you think you are, and your aunt was unkind for kicking you out how she did.”

War hasn’t seen him at his worst, so it was easy for him to say that he wasn’t monstrous but he didn’t say that out loud. He could very well change his mind if he saw what a vampire with no sense could do. The other hero did seem sincere though and Warriors could almost believe him. He was beginning to feel a bit too vulnerable and emotionally raw to answer him, so he glanced at the window his bed was beside. It wasn’t morning yet, but it definitely a lot later than he remembered it being. 

“War, have you been here the whole time?”

“No- I uh… I went around town for a little bit after you fell asleep,” he admitted. “Wanted to stock up on some supplies and also get an idea of where we were. I’ve only been back a few hours.”

“So you have more than cashews now?” Warriors mumbled, hiding his smirk behind his knees. “Did you find out anything useful?” 

“Got cashews and dried fruit,” War snorted. “But also more bandages for my med kit, a decent idea of where we are on the timeline, and directions to Hyrule Castle. And also something for you.” The other man pointed across the room to where he had something packaged quite nicely resting on a small table. “It’s a fish.”

Warriors lifted his head up when War mentioned the package. He got out of bed, located his bag, and looked for anything he could use to store blood. He had the potion bottles but they still had potion in them and he didn’t want the taste of potion to ruin the taste of blood. He found a flask that he had no memory of getting and looked far too fancy to be one he would have picked himself - perhaps it was another surprise from Zelda or Impa. They already snuck in food so a flask wasn’t completely out of the question. He couldn’t really see into it but it looked clean. 

With the flask in hand, he walked over to the package. He could only really smell the fish once he got close so it must have been packaged well. He took the package, sat on the floor, and unwrapped his gift, leaving the packaging under the fish. The only problem with the flask was that it had a narrow opening, so once he cut it open a bit with a fang, he had to awkwardly press the flask against the fish while also holding the fish up to collect blood without getting it all over the floor. 

As he waited for gravity to do what gravity did best, he looked up at War. “Where’s the castle, then? Far away?” 

“Well…” The other hero sighed, rubbing his eye with a fist as he tried to hold back a yawn. “It’s not… close. It’ll take some time to get to assuming we’re able to make good progress and not get caught in anything.”

Warriors rolled his eyes before he went back to focusing on collecting blood from his fish. They were both Heroes, so they were bound to get into more trouble. A smooth journey was simply not possible for them, especially since they already had to stop for monsters twice in the short time they’re known each other. “I don’t need to remind you that we’re not that lucky, right?” 

War let out a short, slightly crazy sounding laugh. “No, no you do not.”

“Did you find out anything else? You said something about looking at the stars.” 

“I did!” The other hero suddenly looked a little more awake, and he pushed himself off of Warriors’s bed so he could scurry over to his things and grab a thick journal that Warriors had seen him writing in before. War then joined him on the floor, sitting with his legs crossed and flipping through the journal with a frown on his face before he found what he was looking for and set the book down in front of him to what looked like a hand drawn map of the sky. “So every single era I’ve been to and visited so far I’ve tried to map out the stars and constellations while I was on watch. Fun thing about stars is they’re not exactly permanent, they can exhaust themselves and run out of fuel and burn out or just collapse on themselves! They can also explode which causes them to appear to shine so brightly that we can sometimes see them during the day.”

Warriors blinked at him. He liked the enthusiasm and the fact that War had interests outside of military life but he had a hard time following. He was sure if he wasn’t busy trying to make sure he didn’t have to lick blood off the floor, he could follow along better. He let him talk as he squeezed his fish, trying to see how much blood it still had. 

“Anyway,” War cleared his throat awkwardly, “stars aren’t permanent. They can also shift around in the sky, they have their own gravitational paths that they follow, but they move quite slowly. In our lifetimes we won’t be able to really notice it, but over hundreds and hundreds and even thousands of years, you can see…” The other man paused so he could point out a constellation on the page that was held open, giving Warriors time to look at it before he flipped to a different page and pointed to the same constellation. “Avis’s eye is the brightest star in the constellation and that’s how you find her in the sky most of the time, but as you can see slowly the stars in her are shifting and a couple of them are gone if you look at her in, say, Wild’s era.” War flipped through some more hand drawn maps to show him the same constellation again but, as he said, with some missing stars and in a slightly different shape. “Fun fact that I learned, she comes from Sky’s loftwing, the constellation does. She was just some loftwing to them in his era, I guess, but over time her myth and her story became his. My sisters told me about her when I was little, it was very cool getting to realize Avis was real and to actually meet her. Her name is Scarlet, she’s cool.”

“Huh, never thought about the fact that there would be constellations that have something to do with our brothers,” he mumbled as he awkwardly set the fish down to close the cap on his flask. When he was sure it wouldn’t leak, he set it down and picked up his fish again, summoning his fangs and biting right into the underside. Raw fish wasn’t his favourite as far as raw things went, and he did prefer them without their scales, but he was too tired and a little too hungover to really care about that. He could bite through the scales just fine like a bigger fish could. He swallowed and looked up at War, expecting him to continue. 

“There are quite a few constellations with myths from them, actually.” The other hero flipped through a few more pages before he froze, shook his head, and flipped back to where he’d opened up his book originally with a small sigh. “I need to stop getting off track. To answer your question: I think we’re somewhere between Twilight’s era and, well… ours. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when we are because when stars shift, it’s only noticeable after hundreds and hundreds of years, but that’s my estimate at least. And judging by the position of Nayru’s star, Hyrule Castle should be south east from here.”

“So we can yell at Twilight for those weird icicle guys. I guess that explains those and the dinolfos. Those ones looked kind of like ours but I don’t think we have the ice guys,” he mumbled as he took another bite of his fish.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen those things before in my life,” War grumbled. “Definitely going to ask Twi about them when I see him.”

“Have you ever gone to a mountain like that in our era? Maybe we do have them and we just… never noticed,” he asked as he swallowed hard. “The temperatures don’t bother me but trudging through the snow isn’t fun.” If only he could figure out how to float. That’s something the other vampires can do.

“Sid- My friend lives in the mountains, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like those fucks while visiting him, but I honestly don’t spend much time outside or go very high up in the mountains because I fucking hate snow,” War grumbled out, crossing his arms over his chest. He opened his mouth to probably keep going on about how much he hated the cold but froze when he noticed the fish in Warriors’s hands. Frowning in confusion, he asked very slowly, “Are you… Are you eating that with the scales on it…?”

“I don’t feel like taking the scales off. I’m tired, kind of hungover, and I just want a snack,” he answered, looking at War in the eyes as he took another bite out of his fish. 

“Y- You could’ve just asked ,” War sounded almost hurt. “I would’ve taken them off for you? That cannot feel good in your mouth- That has to be uncomfortable…”

“Wild’s had me bite stranger things than fish scales,” he said with a shrug. “One time, he had me bite a sword just to see if I could but you know, it tasted kind of like blood so I kept a piece in my mouth after it shattered and Four did not appreciate that. Scales aren’t that bad in comparison. I can bite through them just fine.” 

“What the…?” War blinked at him before he shook his head and his face fell back to a neutral expression and he mumbled to himself, “Y’know what? I can’t judge. I chew my pens and it’s such a problem that Impa has started brushing them with something that tastes awful because she’s worried I’ll break a tooth biting the ends. And I don’t even have an excuse.”

“Sometimes, biting or chewing on something just feels good. It’s soothing. That’s why I have my necklace - Four made it so I could suck on something, and it’s made of iron so it does taste kind of like blood too. Speaking of biting though, I bite in my sleep and Legend woke up with a bunch of shallow bite marks on his neck, so I’m not allowed to sleep beside him anymore since his blood makes me sick.” He went back to taking another bite out of his fish, though he was starting to encounter bone and fins, which he wasn’t quite willing to eat.

“Hylian blood can make you sick?” War raised an eyebrow in concern.

“Yeah, specifically people who are magically inclined… like Zelda having light magic. Even if it’s just in blood, it still harms me. Zelda’s blood burned my tongue. Legend’s blood makes me sick because he’s related to his Zelda. He has just enough light blood in his blood that it doesn’t burn me, so I can drink it without getting burned, but it still makes me throw up if I do.”

“Ah… That makes sense,” the other hero frowned. “Is it just light magic? Or can you not drink from like, Mask too? With him being so… Well, magically weird is a good way to sum it up I think.”

Warriors tilted his head in confusion, frowning as he did so. He didn’t taste anything odd in Time’s blood, nor did he get any odd side effects from it. His blood helped him with his intense hunger, so it was beneficial for him. Honestly, he didn’t know why he didn’t drink from Time more often since Twilight was still on his shit list for passing out on him. He definitely had some magic but Warriors supposed that it wasn’t something that affected his blood, at least not enough for it to affect him. 

“I… what? His blood was fine. Legend’s makes me sick, Hyrule will not let me try his, and the rest are fine. Actually, Wild’s blood tastes slightly different but that’s about it.”

“Huh…” War shrugged, shifting around to lean his back up against the bed he’d picked. “Wild’s blood tasting weird makes sense, he’s… I’m not entirely sure he’s alive, actually.”

First, Time was weird, and now Wild was also weird. Okay, his brothers were also weird, but War’s brothers seemed extra weird. Warriors found himself getting concerned. Was War tired or was his adventure with his brothers somehow extra fucked up? He kind of hoped he was tired and War and his brothers were okay. 

“I mean, he died but he seems plenty alive to me. I’ve had blood from stiff, dead, monsters and his blood doesn’t taste like stale, dead blood. His blood tastes kind of like minty blueberry. Like, blueberry, but it kinda makes your mouth a little cold like mint does. What the fuck is wrong with your Wild? Sorry, that sounds rude but… what?” 

“I don’t know,” War sighed, blinking slowly. “He’s weird, sometimes he doesn’t really breathe. Sometimes his heart doesn’t really beat either. He’s just kinda there doing his own thing and he’s a lil’ messed up, probably. No, definitely, but that’s okay, I still love him even if his eyes are a little freaky and glow.” He paused before clarifying, “Not all the time, only sometimes.”

Warriors couldn’t help but to just stare before he put the fish back down on the wrapper that he kept on the floor so he could hold his head in his hands. His head hurt and he wasn't sure if it was because of the alcohol in War’s blood from earlier or if it was because he couldn’t wrap his head around their conversation. He knew Heroes weren’t exactly normal - adventures kind of just beat any sort of normal they might have had right out of them. His brothers sounded like normal, non-magical people  in comparison to War’s brothers. He felt like he wouldn’t be the weirdest one in the room if he was with War’s brothers. He believed War too. War didn’t seem like a liar. 

He lifted his head and started wrapping up his half-eaten fish, hoping that it would still be good by the time he woke up in the morning. In the very least, he drained some blood from it, so it wasn’t a complete waste if he only ate half of it. When it was wrapped, he stood up and put it back on the table. 

“I think we should just… go to sleep.” 

“Mmm… Yeah,” the other hero mumbled, but he didn’t make an effort to get off the floor.

“Are you just going to sleep on the floor again when there’s a nice bed right there?” He was sure that War didn’t sleep on the bed in the cabin and War didn’t have a bedroll in the cave, so he must have slept on the ground with nothing more than a blanket to cushion himself against the ground. Maybe he liked the floor but Warriors wasn’t immune to joint pain and his back hurt thinking about War sleeping on the floor again. 

War turned his head slowly to look at the bed he’d picked with a frown. “Floor’s gonna hurt my back.”

“Better get up then,” Warriors mumbled, bending down to offer a hand.

War mumbled out something he couldn’t understand, probably some form of ‘Thanks’, and took his hand, letting him pull him to his feet. Keeping his hand on War’s hand, he guided him to his own bed, then returned to his own bed. He figured War could handle the final step of climbing into his bed. If it was one of his brothers, he might have shoved him into the bed since they sometimes manhandled him into a bed, but he wasn’t sure if he was on that sort of level of playful teasing with War. 

“Good night, War,” he mumbled, hoping that he would be free of any sort of dreams when he fell asleep again.

Chapter Text

Warriors woke up pretty early in the morning, for him at least. He knew he tended to sleep pretty late when he was renting an inn room, but he also went to bed early so he figured that was what the difference was. War was still in the room and still on his bed, though it took Warriors a second to realize that he was actually awake too. 

He sat up and rubbed at his eyes, only for his face to sting a bit as he did so. He glared at the window and at the light that the curtains didn’t completely block. He supposed it was his fault for being close to the window but Warriors thought he would have been safe if he closed the curtains. It might have been enough if his skin wasn’t more sensitive than usual. 

“Fuck,” he muttered. He just got up and already had things to swear about. 

“You alright?”

Warriors turned to look at him. “Is my face really burnt or just mildly burnt? I thought the curtains would have blocked more sun.” 

War squinted at him, tilting his head to the side. “Uhhh… You do look a little pink, yeah.”

Warriors cursed again and rolled out of bed to go look for his bag. He had some lotion from Zelda and that usually made his burns feel better while he healed and once he found it, he retreated to a darker corner of the room and started applying a thin coat to his face. “Have you gotten food yet?” he asked. 

“No,” the other hero sighed, sitting up and stretching until his back popped. Warriors winced. “I haven’t been awake all that long.” 

“You should probably eat something before we go. I’m going to stay here and finish my fish… and maybe open the window for a little bit.” He was sure he could stomach the fish even if it wasn’t as fresh as it was before, but he didn’t really want the room to smell like fish when they left. That was just rude. 

“You sure?” War asked, pushing himself to his feet with a slight grimace as his spine continued to make cracking sounds. “I could bring you up something if you like?”

“I’m sure. The fish should be enough,” he mumbled. He wasn’t sure if he convinced War that he was definitely happy with the fish because in truth, some bacon sounded wonderful, but he didn’t want to trouble War and he also didn’t waste the fish that War bought. He couldn’t eat on the road when he needed to wear the mask, so… fish it was. Maybe next time they found themselves in a town, he could have some bacon. 

“Alright…” 

The other hero quickly freshened himself up, most of his time spent fussing over his curls and getting them to lay flat which they seem to refuse to do. The longer they’d spent together, the curlier War’s hair had gotten, and getting snowed on and knocked into snow banks certainly hadn’t helped keep it straight. Either he didn’t have whatever he used to straighten his hair with on him or he simply decided he didn’t care because once he was done grumbling and accomplishing close to nothing, War was out the door.

With War gone, Warriors opened the window quickly before going back to the part of the room where there wasn’t a lot of light. He grabbed the wrapped fish, unwrapped it, and bit down. Now that he was more awake and sober, he did spend some time scratching some of the scales off with his extended claws and he also got rid of everything about the fish he had no plans on eating - the fins, bones, and the head. 

Eating a fish with his bare hands made him feel quite uncivilized, more like the monster he sometimes felt like, but it really was the easiest way to eat at the moment so he did his best to shove all of those feelings down. War didn’t seem to care and while he knew some of his brothers would tease him a little, others like Hyrule and Wild would probably join right in. Warriors ended up finishing the fish faster than he expected, and suddenly, he kind of wished that he did ask War to bring up the bacon after all. 

The door opened much sooner than he was expecting it to, and War stepped in with a whole plate of food.

“I know you said you didn’t want any,” the other hero said as he walked over, setting a second plate Warriors hadn’t noticed down on the table between the two beds before carefully nudging some bacon and sausage onto it with a clean fork, “but I brought you some fresh food if you’re still hungry.”

It took more self control than he expected to not rush at the man and hug him. Instead, he wrapped up all the parts of the fish he didn’t want to discard later, closed the window so that War wouldn’t freeze to death, and then grabbed the second plate. He sat down on the floor between the beds, still taking care to stay out of the sun. 

“Thanks… I was hungrier than I expected,” he mumbled before he shoved some bacon into his mouth. How did War even know he wanted bacon? Maybe he just assumed he liked meat since he also got him a fish. “Did I tell you that I liked meat?”

“I don’t think you did,” War admitted, “but I noticed you seem to like it. And also I got down there and smelled the bacon and almost cried, and maybe that’s because I ate too many cashews for too long and Wild never cooks bacon, but I got excited and figured you’d like some too.”

“My Wild doesn’t cook bacon either. I don’t think he really even has bacon to ever cook. He does always set aside raw meat for me to eat but I have to say, raw bacon would not be the same,” he said, then got to work on cleaning off his plate. He needed the bacon more than he thought he did. It really did hit a spot and satisfied a craving he didn’t even know he still had because he figured that the fish would have helped kill any of the vampire cravings. Maybe he wanted bacon just because he wanted bacon.  

“Cooked bacon is better?” War asked, taking a bite of some of the food on his plate. “I mean… It is to me, for sure, but you don’t have an issue with raw meat…? How does that work? If you don’t mind the question.”

“So, being half-vampire means that I can still eat food, and if I eat food, it means I don’t have to drink blood quite as often. Raw meat makes me feel even better than cooked food. If I’m craving blood, raw meat can satisfy the cravings for a bit. It takes the edge off. Food and raw meat doesn’t replace blood of course, but they still help.” 

“Oh interesting,” War hummed. “Should we bring some with us for you? Or am I enough to keep you not hungry?”

“I have some blood from the fish you bought, so I should be alright for a little bit. As long as I don’t go too crazy with my powers, the bacon will help too,” he answered as he stood up and started getting ready while War finished his breakfast. He winced when put the mask on his already slightly burnt face but everything else went on painlessly and quickly. “You ready to go?” 

“Yup!” The other hero nodded, straightening out his tunic before grabbing all his things.

They two of them left together, returning their used plates and key on their way out. Once they were outside, Warriors turned to War and asked, “What direction are we heading in?” 

“South east.” The other hero pointed at a rather large tree some ways away. “Which should be that direction.”

They walked roughly side by side and it wasn’t long before they were back on the road, leaving civilization behind. They were also leaving the mountain behind, which was always a bonus and he hoped for War’s sake that the weather would improve the closer they got to the castle. For now, it was still a little chilly. 

“We might have to camp out on the road,” Warriors said suddenly as the thought entered his mind. They were very lucky with their shelters as of late - a cave that was big for both of them, a cabin in the middle of fucking nowhere, and an actual inn. “Surely, we’re not lucky enough to reach another town or village tonight.” 

“Yeah, we’ve been pretty lucky so far in terms of shelter,” War sighed. “My friends and I usually set up camp and take watch in shifts.”

Warriors nodded. “So do mine… but we usually have three shifts where we get breaks and there’s only two of us. That’s functional but not ideal.” What other choice did they have though? It wasn’t like monsters would be nice and just leave them alone because they were tired and sleeping. Somebody had to be on watch. 

“How do we want to split up watch?” the other hero asked. “I personally think it’d be better to get less sleep in one solid chunk than to be switching who’s awake every few hours but that’s just me.”

“I agree. I tend to be more alert at night and sleepier in the morning… as I’m sure you might have noticed,” he mumbled. “It would be easier for me to stay awake and take the first shift. Does that work for you or do you need the first shift?” 

“That’d be alright with me,” War agreed. “I usually tend to wake early anyway.”

“And whoever is sleeping gets the bedroll.”

They travelled for a few hours without any incident. Sometime in the afternoon, they took a quick break where Warriors covered his head with his scarf so he could apply more lotion to his poor face, and ate a quick snack without the mask on. After their break, they travelled until the sun was setting, entertaining themselves with smalltalk as they made themselves a small camp. War got a fire going, Warriors set up the bedroll, and he took out his snack bag to eat some jerky. 

War pulled out more of his damn cashews. Warriors glared at the cashews but he kept his mouth shut. It wasn’t like they had much more than that. Based on what War said earlier, the only other thing he would have was dried fruit, which was more filling but not by much. Their best bet was finding more towns and villages on their way to the castle. 

When the sun was gone and the stars were visible, he found himself looking up at them. 

“You know, I’ve never really considered the stars before. They look nice but I never really gave them much thought.” 

“Really?” War asked. “I used to look at them with my sisters. We’d sneak up on the roof after Ma went to bed, I’m pretty sure she was well aware and just pretended she didn’t know, and I’d sit there and listen to my older sisters tell the stories of the constellations. Then when they decided they were too old, it was up to me to keep the tradition going.”

“Huh, that’s why you like them so much,” he mumbled. He never had anyone that would do that with him. His aunt would never have allowed it, partially because she kept them all in the house at night and even his cousins would have gotten in trouble if they went out on the roof. That was just his childhood though - he could have considered the stars during the war and while travelling with his brothers. He looked at them while he was on watch just to have something to look at but he never really tried to find constellations. “It sounded interesting when you talked about it though.” 

The other hero laughed. “Really? Legend usually tells me to ‘shut the fuck up’.”

“Legend can probably stand to shut the fuck up a little bit, if I’m being honest. I got bored the last time we explored a dungeon because he was one of the ones who couldn’t agree on how to solve a puzzle. It was the first time I got to really explore one because I shattered my legs in the other one and I just wanted to get out of there so badly.” 

“Y- You what??” War gasped in horror, staring at him with wide eyes.

“The floor broke under Four and I went after him. It was a long drop and it wasn’t a soft landing. Four was alright though, that was the important part. Bones heal as well as flesh does, but I couldn’t explore the dungeon,” he explained simply, as if it was something that happened to somebody else. “Are you still surprised by the things I can heal from?” 

“I think I keep temporarily forgetting that you can heal as fast as you do,” War blinked.

“It’s the medic in you. Any injury worries you, doesn’t it?” he asked with a shrug. “Speaking of injuries I've gotten though, I got my arm cut off once and I had full use of it the next day. The only problem was that Legend and Hyrule had to pick stitches out of my arm because I regenerated over them, and every time they stabbed my arm with a needle, I kept regenerating over that.”

“Oh my gods,” War whispered, raising a hand to cover his mouth, staring at him in horror before he let it fall so he could speak again. “But you… you still feel pain, right? That’s not affected at all, you feel pain like I or anyone else would?”

Warriors nodded. “Yeah, I can heal from pretty much anything but until it fully heals, it does hurt. It hurts a lot, actually,” he said with a frown. “As long as the others are safe though… then all that pain is worth it. You’re a medic, think about how those sorts of injuries would affect regular people.” 

The other hero frowned at him. “The pain isn’t healthy for you either.”

“It’s temporary . If any of the others got hurt like I have, that could affect them for the rest of their lives. It’s logical for me to take those bad hits.” 

War didn’t look very happy, he actually looked quite sad, but he didn’t seem to know how to argue with that. “You’re worth more than a shield, you know.”

“You sound like them,” he mumbled. He simply didn’t know what else to say. Warriors wasn’t interested in a deeper conversation about his feelings and he didn’t want War to push him on it. He always thought that his regeneration was a silver lining to all of the danger he posed to everybody around him. His brothers always seemed to hate it when he tried to be realistic with them and he had a feeling War was going to be similar. 

“You must love them a lot if you’re willing to hurt yourself like that for them.”

“I do,” he said quietly. Warriors looked away from him and turned his gaze back up the stars and tried to find anything that looked like a picture. That’s what constellations were, right? 

“You, um,” War cleared his throat. “You good to take watch? I wanna make sure I can get enough sleep so I don’t end up with a headache tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Get some rest.” 

He watched War crawl into the bed roll. Warriors kept his eyes on the sky. 

Warriors was tired, which was to be expected since it was pretty early in the morning and he was packing up his blanket and bedroll. After the two of them ate something - Warriors had to turn around so the sun was on his back in order to eat - they were back on the road. They walked in an awkward silence that Warriors wanted to break, but he didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t also just feel awkward. 

He still felt raw too. He probably wouldn’t be able to make interesting conversation anyway.

They took a break around noon. Warriors lifted his mask to eat some jerky and some of his dried fruit. He also sniffed his flask of blood and capped it again when he was satisfied with the smell. When War was done, the two of them were back on the road, where they travelled for about an hour before Warriors noticed that something in the sky seemed a little hazy. He couldn’t tell for sure without pushing his fangs out, but it was either a weird cloud or smoke. 

“I smell smoke,” War told him, confirming his guess. He was glad somebody didn’t have to wear a mask that made it hard to smell anything. 

“Probably a camp of some sort then, either made by people or by monsters. Should we take a look?” 

“Don’t want to leave monsters running loose this close to a town,” the other hero nodded.

Getting to the campsite meant they had to take a slight detour off the main path they were travelling on and onto a thinner path that ran through a thicket of trees and bushes. If Warriors had to guess, they were travelling on a path created by animals so he had some doubts that people were at the campsite they were looking for. However, he felt like Wild and Hyrule would have taken them through a path like this, so it wasn’t impossible that there were people on at the end. Eventually, the path began to widen and open up more, and Warriors could see something dark moving at the end of the path. 

War took cover behind a tree while Warriors used his powers to jump into it. With his fangs out, he could see that the dark shapes were in fact darknuts walking around the edges of a camp, filled with weird, purple monsters with silver hair and pants in the middle milling around a large campfire. Bokoblins, maybe? He thought they looked kind of familiar but he couldn’t exactly put a finger on it. 

“Twilight’s darknuts. I hate those fuckers,” Warriors said, just loud enough for War to hear him. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever come across them,” the other hero admitted. “They look annoying.”

Warriors huffed. “They are . They become vulnerable when you knock their armour off, but when you do that, they become faster. It’s hard to see but they have two swords - that giant one and a slimmer one. When they decide to sacrifice defense for speed, they will throw that giant sword and attack with the slimmer one while you’re distracted. One is annoying, but I see three… and then we have those purple guys in the middle.” 

“What the fuck, ” War sighed. 

“I don’t think the purple guys are a danger but the darknuts outnumber us and they’re pretty dangerous. It was actually a fight against them where my group found out about my vampire powers because I had to use them to save everybody. I might have to use them here too… Unless you have a trick up your sleeve?”  

“I have my focus spirit and that’s about it,” he admitted, looking down at his boots. “And I put us at a disadvantage because I’ve never fought those things before.”

Warriors nodded as he watched the darknuts walk around the perimeter of the camp. “Does it exhaust you to use it? I think we should ignore the purple ones for now, and…” He paused as he tried to think. No matter how he tried to organize the two of them in his head, there was no way they could cover all three darknuts, and that was assuming the purple ones stayed out of the fight. No matter what, they were outnumbered. “I guess I use my vampires powers and you do whatever you can with focus spirit. How about we focus on one each to start? That’s still really dangerous but I can’t think of anything else.” 

“I wish I had my bow…” War grumbled under his breath before he froze, tilting his chin back up to look at him. “How good is your aim?”

“I’m not Wild but I can hit a target,” he mumbled as he reached for one of the satchels on his belt. He didn’t have all his weapons or tools on him but he did have his bow on him and a few arrows. He didn’t have many arrows though since he wasn’t usually the one shooting anything - Wild was the best archer and Warriors had been comfortable leaving all the shooting up to him. “I don’t have a lot of arrows though.” 

“How many do you have?” The other hero asked. “I have seven daggers, and I’m not a wonderful shot but I’m thinking we take out the bokoblins as quickly and quietly as we can before letting the darknuts see us.”

“Good idea,” he said as he counted his arrows. “I only have five. That gives us twelve tries. That’s more than enough.” 

Warriors shifted his position a bit, making sure he had enough room to move and could still balance on the tree branch. Wild made it look really easy but he managed. He nocked an arrow and pulled the string back. “Ready?” he asked as he glanced down to watch War. 

War pulled a small dagger from his boot and another from a hidden spot in his armor. “Ready.”

Warriors took a deep breath, aimed his arrow, and released it. It found its target, going straight through the neck of what he was now sure was a purple bokoblin. Black blood sprayed out of the wound. “Shit. They’re infected,” he said as he nocked the next arrow and shot down another bokoblin. 

“Damn it,” War cursed, hurling a dagger at a bokoblin and nailing it in the forehead.

The darknuts were definitely beginning to notice too. All three of them were looking in their general direction and one of them was even beginning to walk into their direction. The other two that were still at camp were making it harder for Warriors to see the bokoblins since they seemed to be trying to guard them, but a smarter bokoblin was thankfully still kind of dumb. Warriors shot one that walked out from behind a darknut, hitting it between the eyes. 

There were still three of them to kill but they were still hiding behind the darknuts and Warriors couldn’t line up a shot. War crept past him after quickly grabbing his dagger from the bokoblin he hit, heading through the bushes in an attempt to sneak behind the darknuts without them noticing. He was thankful that he didn’t have to communicate with him, he could just see what needed to be done. 

Warriors put the bow and arrow away, trusting that War could handle the bokoblins, and hopped out of the tree. The darknut continued to approach him but it didn’t pick up its pace at all. He slowly removed his sword from its sheath and put his shield on his arm, then approached the darknut. 

War tightened his grip around the dagger in his hand, carefully moving up behind the closest of the three bokoblins. He wasn’t used to sneaking around like this, he usually relied on his speed to take down a lot of enemies as quickly as possible, but he had no idea how those darknuts worked and he didn’t want to fight a brand new monster while dealing with a swarm as well. And honestly as far as sneaking was going, he was doing pretty well. 

He rustled the grass near him in an attempt to lure the closest monster to him before ducking behind a tree trunk, and to his surprise it worked and the beast walked over towards him curiously. It hadn’t spotted him and that seemed to make it upset because it stomped over, looking around wildly as it swung its club at its side. When it drew close enough, and far enough from the others that War felt sure its friends wouldn’t notice, he threw his dagger as hard as he could at it and fought the urge to cheer when yet again he nailed it right in the forehead, knocking it dead. His aim wasn’t usually this good but if the gods had decided to give him a break then he wasn’t going to question it.

Luring out the second one was just as easy. He crept back towards where the two bokoblins were standing around, stopping to pull his dagger from the dead one’s face, and repeated the same thing he’d done to get the other one to follow him. Though this time, the monster found the corpse of its friend and War had to very quickly slash its throat before it could call out and warn the others. 

In the distance, he could hear the sound of metal clashing against metal. Warriors was probably fighting with one of those darknuts but he couldn’t afford to take his eyes off the task at hand to go see what he was doing. 

Killing the third bokoblin should’ve been the easiest, seeing as it was the only one left, but War had been so focused on keeping himself quiet and watching the monster for signs it’d heard him that he wasn’t fully listening for what might be doing the same to him until it was almost too late.

He heard the clanking of armored feet against hard ground and whipped around fast enough that he was able to see the darknut swing its weapon down at him and move out of the way, though he wasn’t quick enough to avoid the blow entirely. Him leaping to the side had been enough to save him from being chopped in half, but the flat part of the monster’s blade slammed into his bad knee, sending him to the ground with a cry he couldn’t hold back. 

War immediately started scrambling to get up, but his leg was throbbing and it was difficult to get his feet under him and he ended up just flipping onto his back and trying to push himself away before the darknut could swing at him again.

The darknut raised its sword over its head but before it could bring it down, a blur crashed into it, tackling it to the ground with a roll. Warriors was sitting on top of the darknut, using his bare hands to tear its armour off its body. Somehow, he managed to get his hands around its neck. The darknut thrashed and tried to get him off but Warriors stayed until War heard a loud crack and it went limp. 

His breath felt like it’d caught in his throat, the fear from the feeling of a monster getting so close to killing him just now catching up with him in addition to the slight fear of just how strong and powerful the other hero was. Warriors had just snapped a darknut’s neck with his bare hands as if it’d been nothing.

Had the other man just been holding back before? Or had War just not fully realized his strength?

Metal clinked together again as the last darknut approached. Warriors spun his head around to face it and in a split second, he was on his feet with a guttural hiss. He leapt at the final darknut with his right arm outstretched but in a split second, the darknut dropped its larger sword and reached for that other sword that Warriors warned about him earlier. Before War could understand what was happening, there was a severed arm on the ground. Warriors hissed in pain but it didn’t stop him. He still used his other arm to yank some of its armour onto the ground. 

When War’s brain finally caught up with his eyes and he registered that Warriors’s arm had just been sliced off of him and now laid on the fucking ground, he thought he might be ill. 

Warriors kicked the darknuts knee and knocked it over. Instead of continuing to tear away at its armour, he was stomping on it. 

“Warriors??” War tried to push himself up again but when he put pressure on his knee it sent pain shooting up through his hip and he fell down again with a whimper. He needed a healing potion before he got killed.

The other hero didn’t seem to have heard him, he just kept moving even though he was down a limb. Something akin to a smile appeared on his lips when he seemingly gave the darknut a break… only to reposition himself at its neck with his foot raised. War looked away but he heard the crack. 

Something didn’t feel right and a chill ran down his spine.

“Warriors?” he called again, digging through one of the pouches on his belt for a potion. That time, Warriors did respond, or at least he looked at War with his yellow and red eyes. At first, he had a blank look in his eyes but after a moment, Warriors seemed to recognize him and his gaze seemed to soften. He took a deep breath as he looked at their surroundings before his eyes suddenly rolled up into his head and he collapsed to the ground. 

“Shit!”

He ripped the cork out of the potion and downed it as fast as he could, pushing through the pain to get to his feet and run to Warriors as fast as he could. His knee protested by almost completely giving out on him and sending him to the ground, but he managed to stay upright even if he stumbled into a tree. For some reason the bokoblin he’d been trying to kill had been completely oblivious to all its friends being taken out, but War stumbling and crying out had gotten its attention and it wasn’t too pleased when it turned around and found War to be the only one standing.

It raised its club, aiming to beat him back into the ground, and ran towards him, but it barely made it a few steps before War’s dagger found itself stabbed through the monster’s skull. 

He loved that dagger, it’d been a gift from Mask for one of his birthdays during the war and he really didn’t want to forget it, but Warriors was more important than a weapon and the man had just lost a fucking arm . He’d just have to try to remember to grab it before they left. 

War had seen a lot during the war, a lot of horrific injuries and brutal infection. He’d seen things that had caused older, more experienced soldiers to be sick on sight. Severed limbs weren’t new to him, so despite how terrified he’d been and how ill his fear was making him feel, he shoved it all aside and focused on the task at hand. He wasn’t sure if Warriors had mentioned whether or not bleeding out could kill him but that didn’t really matter, he had to assume that it would. He had to calm himself down and immediately get working on saving his new friend. 

First thing he needed to do was find Warriors’s arm, which was thankfully not too difficult. It’d fallen to the ground on the other side of the dead darknut and War carefully picked it up, trying not to let his anxiety fueled nausea take over him again. Normally he would’ve completely forgotten about the arm and spent his efforts trying to stop the bleeding and wrap up what was left of the limb as best as he could, but Warriors had mentioned earlier he’d lost his arm before and used it fine the next day. So, even though he really felt like he had no idea what he was doing, he was going to try to reattach it.

He had to amputate an arm before, how hard could putting one back on be…?

He could do this, everything was fine. Everything was going to be fine.

War took in several deep breaths to keep himself together as he walked over to the other hero and carefully sat down, trying not to aggravate his stupid knee. Warriors looked dead, completely still and lying in a mess of his own blood, but before War even pressed his uncontrollably shaking fingers to the pulse point in his neck to check, he could see the subtle rise and fall of the other hero’s chest to tell him he was still alive.

“Oh thank fuck,” he sighed, setting the arm down next to him, which felt incredibly weird to think about the fact that he was handling his friend’s detached limb.

It was very much weirder that he planned to reattach it.

Crazier that it might work.

War let out a very strange sounding laugh before smacking the heel of his palm into his forehead with a groan as if that was going to get through to his brain that he needed to stop thinking and start doing. He didn’t want to discover if vampires could bleed out and die by watching it happen because he still felt freaked out by how he’d almost let a darknut kill him, and the strange empty way Warriors had stared at him, and also watching his fucking arm fly off. He was better than this, his emotions didn’t usually distract him so much when he needed to save people. What was wrong with him??

He’d anticipated struggling to get Warriors’s tunics and chainmail off of him since the other man was a little bigger and taller than him and was completely unable to help, unconscious as he was, but he’d figured it would at least be easier with only one arm to have to maneuver. The mask, cloak, scarf, and all his gear wasn’t too hard to get off and set aside because Warriors’s entire body weight either wasn’t resting on them or his gear was just easy to slide out from underneath him, but the second War actually had to lift him up, he found himself struggling. It was probably because he was just one person working on his own and also because he was sitting on Warriors’s bad side that made it so difficult for him, but it took a lot of effort to get just one layer off of him and by the time he’d finally gotten the chain mail off, War’s frustration bubbling up inside him made him want to stand up and scream. It was getting difficult for him to keep ignoring how overwhelmed he was by not just the situation at hand, but every little thing around him, and some voice in the back of his mind kept telling him to get up and walk off his nervous energy before he started shaking again but he didn’t have time for that. 

He forced himself to think about how lucky he was that Warriors had passed out in the shade and not out in the sunlight, because he never would’ve been able to carry him out of the sun and the poor man would’ve been horribly burnt as well.

Even though he was out cold, War took care to make sure he wasn’t setting Warriors back down too roughly or moving him around too fast despite the fact that it was genuinely hell on what felt like his entire body to hold him upright for that long and also wrestle fabric off him. He probably could’ve cut off the last shirt, it certainly would’ve been faster, but then he would’ve been the one who had to sew it back up and he already had to sew an arm back on and also a few sleeves.

He was very grateful that he didn’t have to worry too much about infection with Warriors because the second he set him down for the final time and tossed the last shirt to the side, he could get right to attempting to line his arm back up. It’d been cut off right above the elbow and right when War was about to gently push the limb back together, he froze. What if he didn’t angle it quite right and he completely fucked up Warriors’s arm permanently because it had been turned a few degrees and made his life harder and more difficult than it needed to be?

He leaned back as he wiped his bloody hands off on his trousers before blinding pawing at his belt for his medical kit, squinting at how he’d lined the arm up. He… He couldn’t tell if it looked right. 

War glanced down at Warriors’s other arm, which wasn’t very helpful because he stared at it hard enough that that one looked a little weird to him too and he got even more confused and upset about the one that he was supposed to be reattaching. Eventually he forced himself to move forward, because he was going to do everything he could to just make sure Warriors still had two arms by the end of the day and that was really the best he could do.

After rolling up his sleeves, he got his tools ready. He was starting to feel that fake calm he’d felt every time his medic skills were needed to fix friends and soldiers, the kind of calm that left him feeling detached from reality in some ways. It would’ve freaked him out if he’d been able to be freaked out.

It only took him one try to thread the needle, and then he was able to get to work carefully putting Warriors’s arm back on. His hands stayed steady, and usually his stitches were precise and good at holding together flesh and fabric alike, but he knew with his friend’s accelerated healing, the thread would be a pain in the ass to dig out should the arm heal and even if it didn’t heal, so he only did what he felt strictly necessary to keep the arm in place and stop it from rotating. The real things holding Warriors back together were the bandages. War had no intention of letting the other hero sit up or move until he was sure the arm was attaching itself, so he didn’t have to worry too much about gravity just pulling it off. Instead he just had to secure it and create a strong enough pull with tightly stretched bandages to keep the arm firmly pressed against itself so there wasn’t a gap.

In his somewhat numb feeling state he found himself thinking that he wasn’t sure what he’d do with himself if Warriors woke up in a bad mood because one arm was a little longer than the other.

Once he’d finished putting his friend back together he laid Warriors’s scarf over him so the other hero wouldn’t get cold and pushed himself to his feet to go grab his dagger. He felt so weird standing that he barely registered his throbbing knee, he just kept putting one foot in front of the other almost as if he were being controlled by someone else until he’d reached the weapon, and then he made his way right back. He lasted all of two minutes staring off into the distance before the panic threatened to come back, so to distract himself he picked up Warriors’s tunic and put himself to work reattaching that arm too.

Chapter Text

The first thing Warriors was aware of when he woke up was pain. His entire body ached but there was a sharp pain in his arm. That was weird. He couldn’t really remember what he did to it so he didn’t know why it hurt so much. He couldn’t even feel his fingers on that side, just the pain in his biceps. It also took him too long to realize that he wasn’t wearing a shirt nor did he have his mask on his face. He had his scarf laid over him like a blanket so he didn’t feel like he was burning, but where the fuck did his things go? What the fuck happened? He could remember bokoblins and darknuts, then War crying out in pain. 

His mind was just blank after that, kind of like when he lost control. 

“War?” he called out, unable to completely keep the rising panic out of his voice. He had to be okay. He just had to be okay. Warriors wouldn’t forgive himself if he lost control and hurt War. He called out for the other hero again when he didn’t immediately respond. He groaned as he tried to sit up so he could better see what shape he was in.

“Hey, hey.” War appeared hovering over him within seconds, gently pushing him down and stopping him from moving. “No sitting up until I know your arm isn’t going to fall off.”

War… looked alright. Physically at least. He tried to look for injuries on the other man but it was hard to see anything when Warriors’ back was on the ground. “My arm?”

“Darknut sliced it off,” he said quietly, and Warriors realized he’d yet to actually look him in the eyes. There was something off about War. He’d sat back down once he was sure Warriors wasn’t going to try to sit up again and drew his legs to his chest, resting his chin on his knees and staring out across the monster camp they’d both cleared. The other hero had his moments of being oddly silent, as much as he liked to talk about the things he was interested in he was usually content to stay quiet, but this felt weird even for him.

He bit his lips. “Are you okay?” he asked quietly. He wasn’t sure if War was going to be receptive to answering but he figured he could at least try to see if he would humour him. He couldn’t help but to be worried about him, and unless War’s strange behaviour had something to do with what happened when Warriors lost control, then everything that was wrong with himself could wait. War was currently more important to him. 

The other hero was quiet for a little too long before he answered, his voice still softer than normal. “I- I’m fine.”

Warriors frowned and let out a sigh. Okay, War was going to keep his secrets then. Well, he supposed they were still kind of new to each other, even if Warriors thought they were closer than that. 

“Can you get my bag? I have some blood in a flask,” he asked, trying to push away the slight sting he felt. He should focus on making sure he was going to get better if he was going to be of any use to anybody. War might be out of it but he did seem pretty determined to keep him from sitting up, so he was stuck until he got some blood and rest. 

The other hero just nodded and when he handed him his bag, taking care to lay it next to his good arm so he’d be able to reach into it easier, Warriors noticed the slight shaking of his hands. Warriors felt for his flask and took it out but he frowned when he realized he would need help opening it. He couldn’t get the cap off with one arm. 

“Can you open it? And can I sit up just a little bit to drink it?” 

War took the flask from him carefully, staring down at the cap as he worked on it. “I can prop your head up but I don’t want you moving in any way that’s going to pull your arm off the ground and potentially leave it there.”

“That’s fine,” he answered, keeping himself from saying more. He was sure War would not appreciate it if he pointed out that he cared more about that arm than Warriors himself did. War could always try again if his arm did end up falling off for the second time that day, but he supposed that wasn’t exactly a fun time for him. 

The other hero handed him back his flask, making sure he had a good grip on it before carefully lifting his head up and tucking his cloak beneath him to try to make him as comfortable as possible. It was weird that he was being so gentle and so quiet at the same time and this time when he was done helping him he didn’t back so far away, he stayed close. Warriors watched him for a second before he tipped blood in the flask into his mouth. 

It wasn’t the most comfortable way to drink blood but it was a lot better than being completely flat on the ground. Once he drank all the blood he could get out of the flask, he set it down beside him. His eyelids felt heavy again but he resisted the urge to fall asleep right then and there. 

“What happened, exactly? I can’t remember much. I remember fighting the first darknut while you went off to fight those bokoblins but nothing after that.” 

War still wouldn’t look him in the eyes, instead checking on his arm and pulling his scarf back up over him so his good arm wasn’t sticking out from underneath it. “I um… I got two of the bokoblins no problem, and I didn’t realize one of the darknuts had spotted me but it had and it hit me down. I couldn’t get back up, and I think it would’ve killed me if you hadn’t attacked it. And then you lost your arm but you didn’t really let that stop you until you killed the darknut.”

That officially confirmed that he lost control then. Maybe that was why War wouldn’t look at him. He knew he could be a little brutal when he indulged in his instincts, so he couldn’t imagine how terrifying he must have looked when it was his instincts running the show. As much as War reminded him of his brothers, War had never been around him when he was like… that . He shouldn’t expect him to stay calm after seeing what a mindless vampire could do. His brothers knew what to do, even if he disagreed with their methods, but War wouldn’t. 

“What happened after they died?” 

War started breathing a little heavier and he shook his head, letting his hands fall in his lap. “Killed the last bokoblin. Put your arm back on. Been sitting here.”

“Are you scared of me? I lost control, that’s why I can’t remember what happened, but I wouldn’t blame you if you were.” 

“Oh, that’s what that was?” He could see War frown, even if he didn’t tilt his head up, and the other hero was silent for a moment before he must’ve remembered that he’d been asked a question and he added, “No, I’m not afraid of you.”

“That’s it?” Warriors asked, the infliction in his voice raising slightly in annoyance. He didn’t know what was wrong with War, and that being a little annoyed wasn’t going to help, but it felt like War was barely there and War wouldn’t tell him what was wrong. It was obvious he wasn’t fine! “I thought you would have a question at least. You seemed so interested in the rest of the vampire bullshit. What happened to that?”

“I… I’m sorry, I don’t-” The other hero flinched and forced himself to take a deep breath, and it sounded shaky as he exhaled. He watched War seem to struggle to speak, just staring down at his hands as he ran his fingers over the hem of his tunic until he could get himself together enough to say something else. “I am interested.”

“You’re barely present enough to be interested. You said you’re fine but that’s obviously not true. I thought we were at the point where we could talk to each other… Is that not the case?” he asked, his voice shaking slightly. He didn’t know War for long but he thought that after everything they went through, War trusted him. It hurt a little to know that War could be so clearly troubled but still try to pass it off like he was fine . 

War’s breathing started getting faster again and he rested his forehead in his hands, fingers curling in his hair and pulling it tight. “I’m sorry, I am interested.”

“We can talk about the vampire bullshit later…” he said, looking away from War for a brief moment. He could tell he went too far. If he was well enough, he would have gotten up for a walk to cool his head and give War the chance to do the same but he was basically stuck on the ground if he wanted his arm to regenerate. Unless War decided to walk away, then he was stuck with the suffocating tension. “Look, I’m sorry that I went so far but you can’t keep pretending that nothing is wrong right now. I lost my arm, not my eyes.” 

The other hero started to sound like he was gasping for air and he curled in on himself further, loosening the fabric around his throat as he did.

“...War?” he asked gently. He almost sat up to comfort him but then he remembered how War reacted the last time he tried to sit up and thought better of it. The last thing he needed was to stress the man out even more. “War… please just tell me what’s wrong.” 

“I can’t breathe,” he wheezed, his hands starting to tremble where he was gripping his hair. It was a miracle he hadn’t ripped it out with how hard he was pulling on the roots.

“War, look at me. Just copy me, okay?” he said as he started slowing down his own breathing, exaggerating the movement in his chest as he did so. The last time he had to help somebody through a breathing exercise was a long time ago but found that being the one doing the deep breathing was a refreshing change. “Sit down and copy me, War.” 

The other hero finally looked at him and Warriors saw the genuine panic in his eyes, though he was staring at him strangely as if he wasn’t able to properly focus on him. He couldn’t tell if War was even trying to copy him, he was still breathing too fast, but he’d at least made an effort to sit more upright to make it easier for his lungs to get air and he’d released his grip on his hair in favor of anxiously scratching at his forearm.

Warriors kept it up for a couple of more minutes before he started relaxing. He hesitated before saying anything, since it was his annoyance in the first place that sent War over the edge. If he kept his mouth shut or just went back to sleep to let his arm heal, War might have been able to work out whatever was wrong with him on his own. 

“War, I’m sorry.” 

He hadn’t really noticed before how pale War had gotten since he’d been avoiding looking at him, but it was much more obvious now that the color had returned to his face just how off he’d looked a moment ago. The other hero’s hands still trembled slightly but he was breathing much better now, and there was only a second of silence that passed before he was able to answer him.

“It’s okay, you don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“I could have controlled my tone better…” he mumbled. “Do you want to talk about it?” 

“I let that darknut sneak up on me,” War said very softly, “and you got hurt again because of it.”

“I don’t remember how I got hurt, and not being able to remember is probably why I got hurt. Besides, even if you did notice, you might have still struggled since you never faced them before. I might have still gotten hurt anyway because I don’t regret getting hurt like this. I’d do it again,” he answered before realizing that his words might not have been what War wanted to hear. He didn’t seem too happy about Warriors getting hurt when they talked about it the night before. 

“I should’ve noticed it,” War shook his head, his breathing starting to get faster again. “I should’ve noticed it, things aren’t supposed to sneak up on me like that, I’m supposed to notice them.”

“War,” he started. “They were infected and there was a lot going on. It was two of us and ten of them. We can’t notice everything when we’re outnumbered. It’s okay to rely on allies, you know. You have your brothers, your friend, Zelda and Impa, and right now, you have me and my stupidly sturdy body.” 

He almost laughed at himself. If Legend heard him say that, he would laugh at him and call him a hypocrite. Warriors supposed he needed to hear it too.  

“Your arm’s only still on ‘cause I know medical shit,” War grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. He genuinely looked like he might cry.

“It’s theoretically possible for it to just grow back. I haven’t been keen on trying it out but my body should go back to the point where I was cursed and I had two arms back then! Speaking of my arm though, do we still have potions? It might help.” 

The other man frowned at him and Warriors could see the tears well up in his eyes, but he dug through his supplies to get him a healing potion and even uncorked it for him before handing it over. Warriors took it with his left arm and drank about half of what was in the bottle before setting it down beside him. There was a strange itch in his other arm that made him wince but he resisted the urge to scratch at it and ruin War’s work. 

“War, I meant what I said earlier about how I should have watched my tone. I was annoyed because I was worried, but I’m not upset with you and I’m grateful that you keep patching me up.” 

“It’s really the least I can do since I haven’t been very helpful otherwise,” he laughed dryly, rubbing at his eyes. “I’m just glad you aren’t dead and that you didn’t bleed to death or something because I was so slow getting your arm back on.”

“You’ve been helpful! You saved me from the dinolfos when I was distracted and you came up with the plan to take most of those bokoblins down before we got into real trouble. You also went shopping because I was too tired and drunk to do that…” he said with a laugh. He turned his head to look at the injured arm and tried to flex his fingers. He couldn’t really move his fingers but he could feel them - sort of. Instead of the nothing he felt earlier, his entire arm just kind of tingly like he fell asleep with it trapped under his body. It was rather uncomfortable but he tried his best to just ignore it. “Where are we going tonight? We can’t camp here.” 

“I don’t know,” War mumbled. “I want to get out of here, but you need to heal and we have no idea how far the next town is.”

Warriors couldn’t exactly disagree. He made a little progress if he could feel the tingling in his arm but he didn’t want to lose any progress if it arm wasn’t really attached to his body at the moment. There was a chance that only the nerves in his arm regenerated and none of the flesh or bone did. 

“How many stitches did you use?” he asked. 

“I wasn’t really counting,” the other man admitted, “I was just mainly trying to prevent your arm from turning or coming off again. I also didn’t want you to heal over them or something.”

Warriors was a little surprised he remembered that. Regardless though, it sounded like he used the bare minimum, which would explain why War didn’t want him to move it. “I’m alright with you adding more stitches, whatever gets us out of here faster. We would just have to watch them and take them out before I regenerate over them.” 

War frowned, seeming like he wanted to argue against it, but he must’ve really wanted to move on because all he said was, “It’s going to hurt to add more and you’re going to have to be incredibly careful with it while you’re walking.”

“I will do my best! And maybe a sling wouldn’t hurt,” he said as he poked at his bad arm with his good arm to test the sensation more. The pins and needles feeling was definitely still there, and it felt sharp where he poked it. “There is some feeling in there. I can’t really move my fingers but I can feel it when I poke it.” 

“I should probably get to work then before you get too much feeling back.”

War carefully unwrapped his arm, lifting him up slightly so he could undo the part he’d secured around his chest and shoulder, and his frown deepened as he stared at the injury. He was kind of surprised by how few stitches War ended up using but he wasn’t surprised by the rest of it. It was a clean cut, which he was grateful for, but he was disappointed that it didn’t look like it was attached to his body at all. He could feel the part that didn’t look attached but he could understand why War was so anxious about him sitting up.  

“Can I have you drink the rest of the healing potion before I work on this?” War asked, pulling out his tools from his medical kit. Warriors simply nodded and grabbed the uncapped bottle he set down before with his good arm. He didn’t really see the purpose but didn’t want to cause anymore problems for War. He could string a sentence together again but Warriors was still worried about him. When he was done, he put the bottle back down. 

War’s hands were perfectly steady as he threaded his needle, which was reassuring to see after how they’d been shaking, and he apologized and gave him a little warning before he touched his arm and got started. Warriors winced and took a deep breath, but he stayed as still as possible. 

“Sorry,” the other hero sighed as he very carefully moved his arm to get a better angle.

“It’s fine. I suggested it.” 

War was quick at least and his work was very neat. His speed wasn’t the result of reckless desperation to finish as soon as possible, but rather just from the fact that he seemed very experienced and well skilled. When he finished, he didn’t slice the thread as close to the knot as he had previously, instead leaving it a bit longer and mumbling something about how it’d make it easier to find in case Warriors healed over the stitches. The other man was very focused on his work, and Warriors couldn’t tell if he was talking to him or himself as he went through what he was doing out loud as he bandaged him back up. It was interesting how well he was able to not just protect the wound but also secure his arm, wrapping bandages across his chest and around his opposite shoulder to reduce strain on the limb where it still wasn’t properly attached to itself, even before he attempted to create a proper sling.

Warriors didn’t say it out loud, just in case he broke the other man’s focus, but couldn’t help but to think about the difficulty of putting all of his gear and clothes back on. He wasn’t conscious of his decision to save War and he certainly didn’t regret it, but he felt a little bad for making the other hero work so much. He fixed his arm twice and then he was probably going to have to get him up and get dressed. 

It made him miss Time - there was something about Time helping him with the aftermath of vampire bullshit that just felt more comforting. War was doing great for somebody who only very recently learned what a vampire was but Time was just different. 

“Hmmm… I don’t want you getting up before I make a sling for your arm,” War said slowly, glaring down at the injury as he thought about what to do next, “but that would make it quite difficult for you to get dressed.”

“I would need help getting dressed regardless. I would like the sling over my clothes but honestly, I’ll be fine with whatever you think is best.” 

“Do you think we should even try to put that arm through a sleeve?” the other hero asked.

He shook his head. If he wanted the sling over his clothes, his arm would need to go through a sleeve and his arm hurt enough with War being as gentle as he possibly could be. “When you put it that way, then no. We’ll put clothes on top.” 

“So sling first, then clothes?” War checked with him.

Warriors nodded. It wasn’t what he would have liked but he could live with it. He would rather have his arm sit awkwardly under his clothes than fight to get his arm in and out of the sleeves. 

“Okay,” War sighed, pausing for a moment as he considered the best way to do this. “I’m going to lift your arm up and bend it, and then I’m going to have you hold on to it so I can help you sit up, okay?”

He nodded again, and the other hero picked his arm up, trying his best to support it properly so it didn’t come off.

“I want you to take your palm and hold your elbow like this,” War trailed off as he moved Warriors’s good arm to do what he wanted him to do, “and I need you to just hold that firmly and push up a little if you can. And then I’m just going to…” He moved Warriors’s bad hand so that the forearm of his recently attached arm was supported by the one that had not been disconnected from his body, making his arms look like they were crossed. Warriors winced again as his bad arm was repositioned but he just let out another deep breath through his mouth to push through it. “And I need you to hold that and not drop it.”

“Got it,” he mumbled. Watching War work made Warriors wonder how often he took care of wounds that were similar since he seemed so practiced. He could understand why he was doing everything he did, but Warriors wasn’t sure if he could be as confident under pressure since he only had the basics under his belt. Maybe he wasn’t busy sticking arms back on but Warriors guessed he was probably more familiar with broken bones. “Do you have your patients do this often?” he asked with a tilt of his head. 

The other hero let out a small laugh. “Well, this is certainly the first time I’ve ever reattached an arm, but I’ve dealt with a lot that have been broken or dislocated.” He paused to give him a quick warning, “This isn’t going to feel nice,” before he carefully got his arms far enough under Warriors to help pull him into a sitting position.

Warriors gasped, then bit his lips. “You were right, that was not nice,” he grumbled. It did feel good to finally sit up though. “So… how does it feel to work on a half-vampire? My brothers still act like I’m a regular person sometimes, but other times they’ll just cover the wound, shove blood down my throat, tuck me in, then leave me alone for a while to sleep.”

“It’s different for sure,” War admitted, keeping one hand on him to hold him steady while he grabbed his roll of bandages with the other, “and I don’t mean that in a bad way or something. I’m very grateful you’re so resistant to infection or else this could’ve ended very poorly for you, and it’s rather nice that I don’t have to worry too much about you bleeding out since you do heal so quickly.”

“I don’t think I can die of blood loss anyway. My body has always slowed or stopped the bleeding pretty quickly,” he said, awkwardly shrugging with the side of his body that War wasn’t working on. “I don’t know what would happen if I ever ran out of blood but if it could kill me, the other vampires would have said so.”

“Well, don’t go trying to find out what does happen because it probably sucks and I imagine you’d feel like shit,” War grumbled and moved Warriors’s good arm away when he thought the bad one was secured properly, though he kept fiddling with the sling. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t test everything. We aren’t testing to see if I can regrow a limb, after all,” Warriors muttered. He glanced down at the sling as War fiddled with it. “Are we good? I would like to get going before I fall asleep.” 

The other man glared at his arm, double checking everything to make sure it was really secure before he nodded and wordlessly helped him pull his shirt over his head and get his good arm through it.

“No chain mail?” War asked, though it didn’t seem a question so much as him informing Warriors that putting on chain mail would be a gods awful idea but making it sound nicer, like Warriors had an option to choose it.

“No, no chain mail. I think I only need the shirt and tunic.” Warriors looked down at the scarf, thinking about whether or not he wanted to wear it. It meant a lot to him but at the same time, it was one more thing that War had to help him with and he was beginning to get annoyed at the fact that he needed this sort of help. They could have been back on the road a long time ago if he didn’t lose control. 

War just nodded again, and helped him pull on the rest of what he needed, then helped him to his feet. He’d seemed much more present when he’d been talking or working on his arm, but now the other hero seemed almost distracted. It wasn’t quite like earlier when he’d had that empty look in his eyes, but it felt like War was almost more focused on listening to their surroundings and trying to pay attention to as many things as possible to such a point that it made him unable to truly focus on anything.

They had to backtrack to find the main road again. They walked in silence, since War was distracted and Warriors was beginning to get really tired. When he thought about it, he was surprised that he was still awake. Usually, he would have fallen asleep as soon as he had some blood but the fact that he didn’t was starting to catch up with him. All Warriors could really do was to keep putting one foot in front of the other. 

He didn’t know how much time passed when he heard something that made him lift his head. He could hear hooves. When Warriors looked back, he could see a horse drawn wagon being driven by two women. He stayed where he was, watching as the wagon stopped beside them. 

“You two heading to town?” one of the women asked. “We can give you a ride. We’re going to pick something up and you two look… kind of…” 

“Rough,” the other woman answered. “You two look like wet cats.” 

“Shhh, be nice!”  

War stood very stiffly beside him, arms wrapped around his middle, and he kept his mouth shut.

Warriors looked between them and War, then nodded. “We would appreciate it,” he answered as he headed to the back of the wagon. He managed to find something to grab with his good arm, then he used the small step on the back of the wagon to pull himself up. It took him a second to figure out how to fall forward into the wagon so he could get in it without falling off of the wagon but once he did, he grabbed the side of it to pull himself forward to make room for War. 

The other hero climbed in quickly behind him, wrapping his scarf around himself and sitting as far to the side as possible to give Warriors more room. Warriors stretched out his legs as much as he could, then he used his good arm as a pillow as the two women urged their horses on. 

He didn’t realize he nodded off until War was shaking his leg. He blinked at the other man until he remembered that they were riding in a wagon on the way to a town. Warriors managed to sit up on his own and he took a moment to look around. They were completely surrounded by buildings, some looking to be homes and others looking to be large businesses with people constantly entering and exiting them. They were also surrounded by people talking amongst themselves or walking around the wagon to go on with their day. He had no idea how the two women managed to squeeze their horses and wagon inside. 

“Thanks again for the ride,” Warriors mumbled as he fished out his wallet and handed them a few purple rupees. One of them looked strangely alarmed at his offering while the other woman, the one who said they looked like wet cats, took them with no problems. 

Getting off the wagon wasn’t as hard as getting on in the first place - he sort of just slid off of it and landed on his feet. He waited for a second for War to jump down and once they were both on the ground, they started looking for the inn. This time, Warriors knew to look for a moon on a sign and while the town they were now in was bigger than the other, they found it easily enough. The inn happened to be one of the biggest buildings in town. 

Warriors fought to stay awake as they paid for a single room with two beds and dragged themselves up to the stairs to their room. Warriors took his boots and mask off and collapsed into the first bed he found, groaning when he landed on his bad arm. 

“Should I take the stitches out?” War asked quietly after he’d sat down on his bed.

“Probably,” he mumbled into the pillow. The pillow was nice and he didn’t want to move but he forced himself to roll over so he was on his back.

“I’m assuming you need help with your tunic again?” 

He frowned. “I don’t want to get up but yes,” he answered. He knew he had to get it over with if he didn’t want to get stabbed in the arm a bunch of times to dig for the stitches. He hated that the first time around and Warriors didn’t want a repeat. 

War was at least quick. It didn’t take him long to gently remove his tunic or undo the sling and bandages, despite how long he’d spent putting them in place, and the stitches weren’t too hard to get out either. 

“Sorry if this hurts,” the other hero whispered before gently touching the skin around the wound, far enough away that it didn’t feel like he was sticking his fingers in it, but close enough to probably try to see how deep the cut looked. Warriors hissed in pain. He couldn’t feel too much of his arm before but he could definitely feel it now. 

He watched War carefully grab his bad hand and lightly squeeze it. “Can you feel that?”

“Yeah,” he answered, taking a moment to try and wiggle his fingers under War’s hand. All of War’s hard work before definitely paid off now - he could move his fingers. He felt War’s hand and he could move his fingers. Everything hurt and ached and he had a lot of healing left to do, but even he was impressed with how well his arm healed in the short time that it did. 

“Oh good, I was going to ask you to try to move your fingers next,” the other hero sighed. “Did it take a whole lot of effort to do?”

Warriors glared at him but shook his head. “No, not a lot. It hurts but it wasn’t hard to do.” 

War looked a little upset at his reaction to the question, but he didn’t say anything about it. He just nodded and grabbed his roll of bandages to wrap the wound with, only covering the actual injury, satisfied that Warriors’s arm seemed well attached enough.

“Thanks again for patching me up,” Warriors said quietly as he pulled up the blanket to cover himself. Once his head hit the pillow, he fell asleep. 

War didn’t wait for much of a reaction from Warriors after he’d wrapped up his arm, immediately going to set the rest of the bandage roll on the small table nearby before practically throwing his body on the second bed. He heard the other hero’s mumbled thanks as he hit the mattress, and he just hummed in acknowledgment as he curled up facing the wall, worried his voice would shake if he dared to try to speak. He was so overwhelmed by everything that he was scared he’d start crying, and he really didn’t want to, but he didn’t know how else the ball of emotions that felt like it was about to blow up in his chest would resolve itself because he didn’t think he had any other outlet for it.

He missed Time, he didn’t know what to do with himself and his little brother was always good at helping him calm down when he was hyper aware of every little thing and desperate for his thoughts to shut up for five minutes. The feeling of his chain mail digging into his hip might’ve been more overwhelming if it was the only thing bothering him but with how his mind kept screaming at him for fucking up, telling him how irritated Warriors must be with him, and how he could hear a fly buzzing around as well as footsteps and voices below him, the pain was a distraction from how all the noise made his skin feel like it was burning. 

He was struggling to keep his breathing even and that was just making him feel worse because the dizzier he got the more scared he felt, and eventually he just reached a breaking point where he scrambled into a sitting position, tearing his belt and outer tunic off so he could wiggle out of his chain mail and dump it on the floor, just so he could feel like he could breathe.

Today had been too much, and he felt absolutely fucking stupid for falling apart because he’d dealt with and seen so much worse, but he had no control of how ill his stress was making him feel and he found he couldn’t keep himself from really crying anymore. He’d seen worse injuries before, and while holding someone's severed arm had been upsetting it wasn’t even the first time that had happened, but he’d never reattached an arm before and that had been new and stressful. Not to mention how annoyed Warriors had seemed, which was so completely fair because War could only imagine the amount of pain the other hero was in, but he had so many other things on his mind that with everything all stacked up he just hadn’t been able to handle it properly.

Everything felt so out of sorts, everything was so different. And it wasn’t that he was having a bad time traveling with Warriors, apart from all the times he and the other man found themselves in real trouble. He quite liked the other hero, he enjoyed his company, but he felt like such a bother sometimes and it was difficult learning to read a new person. With the added stress of being torn away from his brothers unexpectedly, the itchy anxiousness he’d been able to shove down for so long refused to continue to be contained. It was hard for anything to be reliable on the road, and he did like adventuring, but he was missing the familiarity of people he knew and the comfort of a routine he couldn’t follow because he didn’t have his things with him.

His friends had all his shit, and he was just lucky he still had his scarf because cold aside he didn’t think he’d be able to handle being in a new place without it there to bring him comfort. He felt so stupid for getting so upset, and he hated himself for actually crying over everything, but he was just so overstimulated he didn’t know what to do. He felt so useless, and he didn’t know when the guilt that he’d done this to Warriors would leave him alone but he really wished it would because it was starting to make him feel sick. What kind of hero was he that he’d gotten so distracted that someone else had been forced to take such a hit for him just to save his life?

It must’ve been hours that he sat there, tears running down his face as he hugged his knees and tried to get out of the downward spiral his thoughts were hellbent on staying in. His knee still ached, but he didn’t have the energy to get up and take a sip of potion to fix it, he wasn’t even sure he really wanted to. It’d be a waste of supplies to fix something that only bothered him a little when Warriors needed his whole arm to reattach itself.

His brothers would’ve called him stupid for thinking like that, but they weren’t here right now so War gently lowered himself down so he could curl up facing the wall. It was no doubt close to morning, and knowing himself if he tried to sleep now he wouldn’t wake up early enough tomorrow to be helpful, so he decided he’d just stay up all night but that was much more difficult than he’d thought it would be because his eyelids grew so heavy. The strain it took to keep them open caused his eyes to cross, and eventually he just gave up and let them close, feeling some of the tension in his body disappear when his eyes stopped feeling like they were burning. 

Maybe sleep would do him some good… He didn’t want to make Warriors upset with him again because he was incapable of acting like himself, and he’d only keep feeling like shit if he forced himself to stay awake longer and prevented himself from resting. His last thought before he gave up and let himself drift off was a hope that Warriors wouldn’t be too upset with him if he ended up oversleeping.

Chapter Text

Warriors woke up on his side and buried his blankets. It was a little annoying to have to dig himself out but he didn’t wake up with any burns, so that was a bonus. He tested his arm and satisfied that it seemed completely attached and painless, he slowly got out of bed, grabbed his bloodied clothing and headed to the attached bathroom to do his best to wash out all the bloodstains. He didn’t have everything he usually used to get blood out but he felt like he needed to try something .

When he figured that he did the best that he could for the stains, Warriors draped everything over the footboard of his bed to dry a bit before he headed out. He quickly checked on War, who was still curled up and facing the wall, then hid in the dark corner of the room to eat some of his snacks while he waited for his clothes to dry. 

War was still asleep when Warriors figured that the shirt and cloak were dry enough to wear. It wasn’t the most comfortable to wear damp clothing but he didn’t have anything else to wear since he didn’t think he would be away from his brothers for so long. He put his boots on, grabbed his bag and mask, then headed downstairs. 

“Oh, you’re the one who had the bad arm yesterday!” somebody said as he neared the front door. He turned around to find a kind looking couple at the front desk. They were both on the shorter end and going grey, but they had deep smile lines and a soft expression. Warriors couldn’t really remember them since he was so tired the previous day, but they must have been there yesterday too if they knew about his arm. 

“Oh, yeah, nothing that a potion and some sleep couldn’t fix,” he answered with a smile. 

“Will you and your friend be down for dinner? There’s also a bathhouse across the street. My sister owns it and I can’t recommend it enough,” the man added. “Nothing will heal a person like a warm meal and a nice bath after.” 

“A bathhouse…” Warriors whispered to himself. It sounded like the goddesses knew they were being too harsh lately and decided to give them another break. If he wasn't standing in front of people, he probably would have cried. “That sounds divine…” 

“We’ll knock when dinner is ready! The bathhouse is open late so you can spend a few hours relaxing after dinner. We would have told you last night, but we wanted to leave you two alone last night since you looked so rough…” the lady said. 

“Yeah, I didn’t stay awake for long anyway,” he admitted. He also didn’t know how War would have handled it last night with how distant he seemed. He wasn’t even sure War was feeling better today but he would drag him to dinner and the bathhouse by his ankles if he had to. “A knock would be appreciated.” 

The two of them nodded and waved as he left. Warriors quickly put the mask on his face, noted where the bathhouse was, then started exploring. He didn’t really have a destination in mind. He wanted to stock up on more arrows but he was also craving some fresh fruit after spending so much time on the road with just dried fruit. He also couldn’t really go wrong with more potions because anything he didn’t use on his journey with War could be used for his brothers when he finally reunited with them. Maybe he could also grab a souvenir so they had something to remember each other by. 

He first found a shop that seemed to be dedicated to combat as it sold potions, weapons, armour, and everything they needed to maintain those. Warriors could have easily spent all day in there checking out everything that the shop had to offer but he controlled himself. He stocked up on arrows, potions, some polish for his sword, a cloth to use just for the polish, and some extra chain mail rings to fix his chain mail with since it still had a hole in it from when he got impaled on the mountain. He knew how to repair it, he just didn’t have the replacement rings to do so. 

After that, he found a jewellery store. Warriors wasn’t sure if that would be the best place to look for a souvenir but he figured he could give it a chance. He immediately felt out of place with the bloodstains that he couldn’t quite get out of his clothes but he was left alone to browse the pieces. There were a bunch of pieces with finely cut gems but there were also a bunch of plainer pieces that were only metal. He didn’t think War was the kind of person to wear a lot of things with precious gems in them, and part of that was the reality of their job, so he kept away from those. 

After about ten minutes of browsing, Warriors found the perfect thing and nearly burst out laughing as soon as he saw it. They were two gold necklaces on two separate and simple chains, but the charms were half a heart that formed a whole heart when put together. There was some writing on each heart but he could only decipher the word ‘best’ on one of them. He could only guess that the other said ‘friends’. It was incredibly cheesy and childish, probably something meant for children to buy for their best friends, but it might get a smile out of War and it was cheap enough to try. The shopkeeper must have seen everything because they didn’t even raise an eyebrow. They simply accepted his rupees and wrapped it up for him. 

The last thing Warriors was on the look out for was fresh fruit. He didn’t know if the fresh fruit was possible so he tried not to get his hopes up too much. The temperature was warmer where they were at, compared to the previous town, but he didn’t know enough about growing anything to know if the change in temperature was enough. Maybe they grew things indoors? Maybe they shipped from somewhere else? Eventually, he found a shop selling food and wandered inside. 

To his delight, there was fruit! The best part was that there were oranges . He didn’t forget that War said that oranges were his favourite fruit, so he grabbed as many as he could. When one of the workers saw him, they offered him a crate to borrow. He put a small watermelon in, some apples, oranges, and some plums. Warriors paid and promised to bring the crate back as soon as he could. It was too heavy on his reattached arm, so he had to carry it on his good arm and just use the bad arm to support the crate from the top. 

He headed back to the inn and dropped off everything, leaving the fruit on his bed. He spared War a glance. War had yet to move from where Warriors last saw him. Was this what it was like with him and his brothers? Were they also really worried about him when he was sleeping in one spot for so long? 

He returned the crate and then came back to their room, this time with a borrowed cutting board and knife from the innkeepers for the watermelon. Warriors set those on the table and found himself hovering at War’s bed, debating on how he should wake him up. It was about noon now and he figured that War should probably wake up and eat something. He didn’t know when he went to sleep but if War’s last meal was with him, then that was a small snack for lunch the previous day.

“Hey, War. It’s time to wake up. I found oranges!” 

The other hero made a small grumbling sound and curled in tighter on himself. 

“War. Link. We have oranges.” This time, he raised his voice a bit. He didn’t want to touch War if he could help it because he had no idea how he would react to that. Was this what his brothers dealt with when he was sleeping? 

No, he had to be way worse. No wonder why they just let him sleep.

War slowly uncurled, stretching out his legs as he turned his head to slowly blink at him. He looked a bit pale and out of it, but the latter could be because he’d just opened his eyes and was still waking up.

“Orange?” he asked, quickly grabbing one from his bed and holding it out for War to grab. 

The other man stared at him for a second before his brain caught up with what was in front of him and he gently grabbed the orange. “Thanks.”

“How are you feeling?” he asked as made sure the cutting board wouldn’t fall off the table if he applied some pressure. He grabbed the small watermelon and the knife and got to work. He never cut a watermelon before but he watched Wild do it before, so how hard could it possibly be? 

“I’m not sure, ‘m a little dizzy,” War mumbled, struggling for a second to peel his orange before he was able to get his nail in it. He was also struggling to keep himself propped up on an elbow and open the fruit at the same time so he flopped back down with a small ‘ oof’ to keep working on it. 

“I spoke to the innkeepers this morning,” Warriors started as continued to cut the watermelon, this time cutting triangles into what he sliced before. “They said they’ll knock when dinner is ready and then after that, there’s a bathhouse just across the street. I think we could both use an evening to relax a bit after… all that.” 

War looked a little more awake at that and popped an orange slice into his mouth after he whispered, “Bathhouse??”

“Yeah! They said they would have told us about last night but we looked like shit so they left us alone. They didn’t use the word ‘shit’, of course. Anyway, they should be open late, so once we have dinner, then we can relax for a few hours. I don’t know about you, but I feel like a warm bath is what we need after spending all that time out in the snow…” Warriors paused. How long ago was that? Three nights? Four? It was starting to feel like it was blurring together. The mountain felt so long ago but it wasn’t even a week. 

The other hero nodded, eating another orange slice and closing his eyes for a moment. “Being warm would be nice.”

Warriors finished cutting up what he could of the watermelon. He wasn’t as neat as Wild was but he didn’t think it looked too bad for his first time cutting a watermelon. “You always want to be warm,” Warriors mumbled as he took a slice of watermelon. “I’m just looking forward to a normal bath. I feel like I’m still covered in my own blood.” 

“Hm, yeah, that’s not very pleasant,” War muttered. “Arm feel okay?”

“I can’t do any heavy lifting with it but otherwise, yes,” Warriors answered, holding his arm and wiggling all of his fingers for War to see. “Wait, I didn’t pick up anything with blood when I was in the market. I bought a cheesy souvenir for us but I didn’t get any blood.” 

“You can have some of mine if you…” The other hero started to say before he fully registered what all Warriors had said and he opened his eyes as he very softly added, “You what?”

Warriors didn’t say anything and instead grabbed his bag, pulling out the wrapped up little box he got from the jewellery store. He unwrapped it but the sight of the two half heart necklaces nestled so neatly inside the little box cracked him up, forcing him to pass the box over to War so he could laugh into his hand. 

War took the box carefully, looking into it in confusion before he realized what it was and his eyes widened. He looked both extremely touched and like he was trying not to burst out laughing.

“I want the half that I can actually read,” Warriors said once he calmed down. 

“Which half is that?” The other man asked, pushing himself up into a sitting position so he could reach out to show Warriors the box again, but once he’d gotten himself upright he turned even paler and almost immediately started tipping back down. 

Warriors grabbed the box and placed it on the bed beside War. “Shit, are you alright? Is it the blood sugar?” he asked quietly. 

War groaned as he slowly lowered himself back down with slightly shaky arms. “Yeah, I’ll be fine, don't worry about it. Just need food.”

Warriors chewed on his lip, then gestured to all the fruit he brought up to their room before sitting down on the floor, careful to stay more in the shadows of the room. “Have your pick. It’s not like we have anywhere we have to be right now.”

“Actually, can you grab my bag…?” War sounded like he felt horribly guilty for asking him to do something. “I have dried apricots and those have a lot of sugar in them and it’s easy to eat a lot of them fast.”

Warriors supposed that made sense, so he fetched his bag and passed it over without opening it. “You’re still going to help me eat everything, right?” he asked as he grabbed another piece of watermelon. It was the only fruit he was really worried about because everything else could be eaten over the next couple of days. Maybe it was because his Wild was particular about food that he was now worried about wasting any of it. 

The other hero hummed in agreement, still looking absolutely horrible as he dug through his bag for his snacks. “Yeah, I just need to eat something right now before I throw up or pass out or somethin’ because I’m feeling not so great right now, I don’t think the cashews I had last night were enough-”

The fucking cashews. Warriors bit his lips though. The last thing he wanted was for War to feel odd about one of the only things he seemed comfortable with eating, so he kept his mouth shut. “Did you eat anything after I passed out? If you skipped dinner, it’s been about a day since you last ate.” 

“I had some cashews, uh…” War paused to think for a moment. “I’m not sure how late it was when I fell asleep or what time it is now but I had some. After you crashed.”

“How often should you be eating something?” Warriors asked. As much as he disliked the cashews and how comfortable War seemed to be with eating only cashews when they weren’t in a town, he knew he had to work with what he had. Maybe War needed more breaks or needed more reminders. Sometimes, Warriors forgot he needed blood and he didn’t figure out he needed blood until he realized that he wasn’t feeling full from meals anymore. 

“I don’t know,” War mumbled, trying to curl up on his side while moving incredibly slowly, most likely so he didn’t upset his stomach more. “I’ve been able to get away with not eating for a while before but other times it feels like if I go over two or three hours then I’m screwed. I’m usually better about eating.”

“When you’re with your group?” he asked quietly. 

The other hero stared at him in confusion, starting to eat his dried fruit.

“Never mind,” Warriors mumbled as he turned focus back onto the box on the bed. He got up and took it, removing them from the box so he could put both halves together since he never did do that at the store. Warriors wasn’t sure why he was surprised that they actually fit together, he did get them at a fine jewellery store. The edges that separated the two hearts wasn’t a straight edge but instead, they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. War was probably not yet in the condition to sit up and look at them yet but he set the one he couldn’t actually read on the bed near War’s head. “I think they say best friends, but the only word I can actually read is ‘best’.”  

War carefully grabbed it, trying to see if he could read what it said but it didn’t seem like he was able to either. “I have what the others’ written Common looks like in my journal, just keys to their alphabets, don’t know if I mentioned that earlier or not, so I can try to figure it out once I can sit up but um… Thank you.” He tightened his hand around it and looked up at Warriors with a very genuine expression that made buying them completely worth it. “It means a lot to me that you thought of me.”

“I wish we met under better circumstances that didn’t involve getting stuck on a mountain but… I’m glad we met,” Warriors said with a gentle smile.

“Me too,” War said quietly. “This has been nice when we aren’t getting beat up by monsters.”

“Speaking of those monsters though…” he started, glancing up at War to see if he was following along, “isn’t it weird that they were infected?” 

The other hero nodded, reaching back for his orange to finish the rest of it.

“If they were infected, that means the shadow is here or was here. Maybe that means there’s a group of heroes with a missing brother here.” 

War’s eyes widened. “Oh my gods!! Yeah! If the shadow is here then they should be too!”

Warriors nodded eagerly. “One of us will still be out of luck but the other should have a reunion soon. Do you think we should keep going towards the castle then? It’s still a landmark and maybe those monsters were waiting for orders or something. They don’t usually sit in a camp like that.”

“Definitely,” War agreed. “I wouldn’t be shocked to find more of them in this area. And yeah, we should keep going for the castle. If either of our group of friends is here they’d probably head there.”

“The last thing we need is more monsters,” he said with a sigh. “Yesterday was bad enough and that’s just the parts I can actually remember. I doubt we can get to the castle without another encounter though.” 

“Yeah…” The other hero frowned, popping another orange slice in his mouth. He was quiet for a moment while he chewed, somewhat slowly, but once he swallowed he very softly mumbled, “I’m sorry about yesterday, I really am.”

“For what?  Shouldn’t I be the one apologizing? I pushed you when it was clear you didn’t really feel like talking,” Warriors mumbled as stood up so he could sit beside War on his bed instead of on the floor. He grabbed another piece of watermelon. War moved his feet under the covers to make more room for him.

“I, um…” He started, pausing as he tried to push himself up to rest against the headboard. “No, you don’t need to apologize for that. I’m really sorry for freaking out like that and I should’ve been more honest, because I made you feel bad.”

War wasn’t wrong. Warriors did feel bad about it. He still wasn’t entirely confident with speaking to War because he didn’t want to make him freak out again. He had to be feeling better if he was talking but Warriors was still trying to be cautious. “I don’t exactly blame you for having that sort of reaction. It didn’t really feel like you were… there, I guess. Do you… mind being honest now? I thought we were close enough for that but maybe I misread whatever we have going on right now.” 

“I trust you,” War said very firmly. “I do, I trust you. And I don’t mind being honest with you, I just…” He trailed off, letting out a huge sigh before looking down at his hands and continuing. “Ever since the war, I just… I don’t know, I find myself zoning out…? That doesn’t feel like the best way to describe it but I’m not sure what else to call it. Impa calls it dissociating but I don’t really like calling it that… I guess that’s what it is, though.” 

War paused for a little bit, seemingly very interested in his nails, and Warriors noticed the slight shake in his left hand. The other hero either didn’t notice it or didn’t care about it because he continued. “They trained me to be a field medic, I know I’ve told you, so I’ve seen some awful things before. I’ve seen people die because I wasn’t fast enough to save them, with sword or tool. I’ve had to stop soldiers from ripping each other to shreds over an argument because I needed them to heal, I’ve had to push people away because when they see their friends in critical condition like that they get fussy and they get in the way and they make it harder for me to do my job. It’s, um… It became very necessary for me to learn how to work in the moment and be affected by things later, because if I let myself get affected in the moment then that’s another life lost and more blood on my hands.” 

“Did you reach a point where you couldn’t push it away anymore? I used to be able to do that too but since I got cursed, I’ve lost that control over my emotions. It’s hard to shove them away for later. I can still do that sometimes but other times, when I see people that I care about are in danger and I just… lose it,” Warriors said, focusing on finishing his watermelon so he could eat another slice. 

“I don’t know,” War addressed his question, speaking very quietly. “I know I get really overwhelmed easily, which… I don’t like to admit because I feel stupid saying it, but I think it was just everything happening all at once. I almost died because I let something sneak up on me, and the last thing that did that…” He drew his knees up close to his chest and wrapped his arms around them tightly. 

“I don’t need to know if that makes you feel better,” Warriors said quietly. 

“Thanks,” the other hero whispered, resting his chin on his knees as he took a deep, steadying breath. 

Warriors watched for him a moment, seeing if he was going to say anything else before he grabbed a plum to eat. “Have you been feeling better today, though? You still seemed kind of out of it but maybe you were just tired.”

“Eating helped,” he mumbled, and Warriors saw that War did seem to have some color back in his face. “I do feel a little better, just kinda… drained, I guess. What about you? Not just your arm, but with the losing control thing?”

“I still don’t remember what happened and to be honest, it freaks me out a little. It’s really easy to try and fill in blanks from what little I can gather.The others never tell me much,” Warriors answered with a shrug. Sometimes, as much as he wanted to know, he wondered if he was better off not knowing. Maybe the others didn’t tell him because he did do something they didn’t want him to know about. “They’re doing what they think is best and maybe they’re right. I wouldn’t know.” 

“Do you want me to tell you?” War asked softly.

“I guess if you’re offering, I couldn’t have done anything that bad. Let’s hear it.” He took a bite out of his plum, then found himself scrambling for a rag from his bag. He completely underestimated how juicy they were. It was exactly what he was craving but Warriors wished they were a little less messy. 

“I don’t know what happened before this because I was trying to get the bokoblins out of the way and you were behind me,” he told him, “but one of the darknuts snuck up on me and I didn’t really notice until it was too late. I managed to avoid getting my leg cut in half but it hit my knee with the flat of the blade and I couldn’t get up, and then you showed up and you snapped its neck with your bare hands.”

“I didn’t know I could do that to a darknut,” Warriors mumbled quietly. He couldn’t say he was shocked but it was still unpleasant to hear. 

“I didn’t either,” War blinked. “I didn’t think that was even possible, I th- I thought I was going to die but you killed it. And then you didn’t get very far with the last one before it took your arm off, but you really didn’t let that stop you and I was frozen like a fucking idiot while you took it down with one arm. And once it was dead I called you and you turned around and stared at me, an’ you just stared at me for a second and then you just…” The other hero trailed off with a frown.

Warriors frowned. “Just what?”

“…Did you lose control of your vampire powers because of me?”

Warriors blinked at him, then felt his cheeks burn a little. “Yeah… I heard you scream and that was it. I can’t remember anything after that. I didn’t hurt you, right?” 

“No,” War shook his head, “no. You just- After the darknuts were dead you stared at me and then passed out and then I killed the last stupid bokoblin and put your arm back on. You’ve never hurt me.”

Warriors tried to think about what he knew regarding his loss of control. He knew he tended to lose control because of some external factors like black blood and dark magic. He knew he lost control when he felt like people he cared about were in danger. He thought he knew he couldn’t distinguish between friend and foe, so why didn’t he attack War? He knew he had to protect him but he was mindless when he lost control. He did protect Twilight once but he also attacked the others, and he didn’t wake up near Twilight, so he kind of assumed that distance and the fact that the others were there to distract him was what kept him safe. 

“I don’t know why I didn’t attack you. I’m glad I didn’t but that doesn’t make sense.” 

“What do you mean?” War asked, brows furrowing in confusion.

“I knew I had to protect you but I know I’ve attacked my brothers before. They had to restrain me because I didn’t recognize them. If I couldn’t recognize my brothers and attacked them… then why didn't I attack you?” Warriors pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. Was it because he knew he had to protect War? If Twilight happened to be awake, would he have recognized him too? 

“Maybe because you lost an arm and reached a limit…?” The other hero suggested.

“Maybe. The last time I lost an arm, I was in control, and I did end up passing out partially because I lost an arm. The other reason was because I wasn’t used to my powers back then, so they exhausted me. I’m better at that now but my powers are still exhausting even today.” Warriors felt like something was still missing but exhaustion would have played a role no matter what. He thought about it as he continued to eat his plum. Maybe he was just too exhausted to attack War. Warriors had to use his powers a lot lately since it was just the two of them. 

“Oh, do you need blood?” War asked. “It’s been a bit?”

“I should drink some blood. I’m surprised my arm is actually healed right now since I drank more potion than I did blood.” He finished off his plum, then flexed his fingers on the arm he lost. There really wasn’t any pain left and it wasn’t even a full day since he lost it. He supposed that he didn’t need as much blood if he had enough potion to make up the difference. Warriors was sure Wild would help him test it out. 

War held out his right arm, sleeve already rolled up, offering it to him. He bit War enough that he should know the routine, so Warriors didn’t hesitate to summon his fangs and bring his wrist to his mouth. Once he had his fangs where he wanted them, he pressed down and began filling his mouth with blood. It was so warm and fresh . The fish blood was good but it was a day old and it didn’t taste as good as War’s fresh and warm blood. 

The other hero tapped him on the head after a little bit. “I’m feeling a little dizzy.”

Warriors retracted his fangs and like he did all the other times he bit War, he licked his wrist until no more blood pooled to the surface of his skin. He couldn’t get quite as much blood from War but every bit helped, so he wasn’t in the position to complain.

“Sorry,” War mumbled, resting back against the headboard and closing his eyes.

“As long as you’re relatively okay,” he said quietly as he rubbed his eyes. Warriors was exhausted but he wasn’t injured anymore, so he didn’t expect the blood to make feel sleepier. Maybe there was still some healing left to do, even if all he felt was an ache if he tried to carry too much. “Your blood had the opposite effect.” 

“Hm?” The other hero let out a confused hum, blindly reaching for the pouch of his cashews.

“I need a nap,” he mumbled as he set his head down beside War’s legs. “I thought your blood would wake me up. I guess this is what I get for staying awake for so long after I drank the fish blood.” 

“Oh,” War whispered. “Well, we have beds.”

“I’m already comfortable here,” he mumbled as he closed his eyes. He meant to just close his eyes for a little bit or just take a little power nap like he did on the road sometimes, but he woke up to War calling his name. 

He lifted his head and blinked at War before the smell of cooked food registered in his brain. 

“Dinner already? How long has it been?” he asked as he sat up. Dinner was brought on a tray that was sitting beside the watermelon he cut earlier but he reached for the watermelon first, intending to finish it before he ate anything else.

“Uh,” War sighed, pushing his hair out of his face, “I’m not sure. I think maybe three hours? I fell asleep too-”

“It’s a good thing we have a safe place to sleep in for another night then. Having to do a watch would not be good for either one of us right now,” Warriors said. War did look a little rough earlier, so he was actually glad he got some sleep too. He still looked a little paler than usual but hopefully, an actual meal and a bath after would do both of them some wonders. 

“Yeah, and I much prefer getting to have pillows instead of sleeping on the ground.”

“You going to grab a plate?” Warriors asked as he went for another slice of watermelon. 

War nodded, reaching towards the tray their dinner had been brought on. There were plates full of rice and meats and steamed vegetables for them to grab what they wanted from, but War picked up a little soup bowl first, holding it carefully with two hands as he settled back against the headboard. 

While War focused on his bowl, Warriors finished what he could have the watermelon, leaving only the rinds and the two halves he couldn’t really eat, so he quickly brought the cutting board, the knife, and the rinds back downstairs. When the rinds were discarded and the board and knife returned, he came back upstairs and grabbed his share of dinner. He found himself gravitating towards the meat, adding some of each kind to his plate before filling his plate up with rice and vegetables. 

“Do you have something on your mind or are just tired? You’re still kind of quiet,” Warriors asked as he stuffed some of the meat into his mouth. He wasn’t sure if War would humour him but did seem to be more honest with him today, so maybe he would. 

“I am tired,” War admitted. “I just feel kinda exhausted and gross, but I’ve also been thinking about my cats… I miss them, I haven’t seen them in a while.”

Right. Cats. He did bring them up before when Warriors was too busy laughing at him to ask about them. “Must be nice to have a pet. Most animals either flee or attack me. Apparently, the existence of vampires is very offensive to them. Who is taking care of your cats while you’re gone?” 

“A few different people,” the other hero told him, pausing to sip at his soup. “Sometimes I have a buddy of mine from the army watch them, usually when I’m only gone for a few days, but Zelda also checks in on them from time to time if she has a moment. My sister also watches them, so does my uh- friend. He’s not really around for long enough to watch them long term but they really like him so it’s easiest when he takes care of them.” He stared into his bowl for a moment before adding, “I’m sorry animals don’t like you.”

“If only it was a simple dislike. I’ve been chased by a dog, Twilight won’t sit with me if he’s transformed, a cat has attacked me and so have bees, and I almost got killed by one of the goats from Ordon. It charged it at me and those things are huge! That thing fucking hated me. Twilight doesn’t think the goat would have killed me but I swear, it would have found a way!”

War looked at him with wide eyes. “O- Oh my gods?? Why do they want you dead??”

“I don’t know why! I just know that animals don’t like vampires for some reason. I guess Twilight could tell me but he never has. Luckily, horses don’t seem to hate me, which is weird because they’re afraid of a lot of things, and possums like me? I haven’t even heard of them until Twilight saw me with one in my lap. Cuccos haven’t out right attacked me until I hissed at them but they just kept staring at me with their beady little eyes.” 

“Not a fan of cuccos. My sister, Linkle specifically, used to chase me with them,” War grumbled before his voice softened. “But I’m glad horses like you, the war probably would’ve been difficult if they didn’t since there were so many of them around.”

“There’s no army without horses,” Warriors agreed. He was lucky horses didn’t seem to care one way or another. His relationship with Epona was basically the same before and after getting cursed and he was grateful that he could still ride her without an issue. “It’s embarrassing at the ranch though. Talon and Malon don’t know and Talon thinks I’m scared of the animals because I try to avoid them so they don’t try and attack me. I also sleep in all the time because I can’t help it and I can only imagine what they think of that.”

“Malon doesn’t know?” War asked, setting his soup bowl back on the tray so he could grab a plate.

He shook his head. “Time said she wouldn’t care, and I don’t think she would, but I don’t want to risk it right now. I don’t think I could handle it if we were wrong and she does care about it.” 

“In my experience,” the other hero said very slowly, frowning down at his empty plate as he’d frozen while getting himself some rice, “Malon is very kind, and very understanding. And patient. You don’t have to tell her anything you don’t want to, obviously, but…” War sighed, moving again and scooping up a good sized portion of rice. 

“I know. I’m just scared of losing what we have. My mom died when I was young and I didn’t really know her. I don’t even really remember her. My aunt never really liked me and kicked me out as soon as she could. Malon is the only person in my life who probably wouldn’t get mad if I accidentally called her mom,” he mumbled, shoving his vegetables around a bit before he ate them.

“Do you get to see her often?” War asked softly.

“Malon? Often enough, I guess. We’ve been to the ranch quite a few times and we tend to stay for a few days at a time. I’m never telling Talon about the whole vampire thing but I do want to tell Malon one day. I know it would make my life easier if I didn’t have to hide it from her. It’s just… hard.” 

“I… Well, I don’t understand your specific situation,” War said, “but I get being scared to tell people you really appreciate something because you’re worried they’ll treat you differently or something. If… If the Malon you know is anything like the one I know, I don’t think your being a vampire would change her opinion of you.”

Warriors let War’s words hang for a moment. He appreciated what War said but even though he wanted to tell Malon, he didn’t think he was ready for it, so he didn’t really want to talk about it anymore. Once he cleaned his plate and grabbed some more food, he tried to think about a topic that would take some attention off of him for a bit

“What are your cats like?”

“They’re very sweet,” War told him, poking at his rice. “One of them sleeps up by me when I’m home. She likes to rub her head against my face and doesn’t really have a concept of personal space but it’s okay because I love her. The other one is more affectionate in general, she likes other people besides me, and she likes to play with my pens but only while I’m sitting at my desk trying to get work done.”

“What are their names?” he asked “And I think you once in the cabin said they were naked?”

“They are hairless, they are not naked,” War looked up at him with a sad frown. “They have little sweaters, I knit them sweaters so they don’t get cold, and their names are Rosie and Delilah. Rosie’s the friendlier one and Delilah is the one who sleeps by me.”

“What’s the difference?” he asked with a frown of his own. He wasn’t paying attention the first time Warriors brought it up because he was too busy laughing about his ‘friend’ but he didn’t understand why War would be upset about it. 

“…I guess there isn’t really one,” War huffed, ducking his head and resuming picking at his food. “I mean naked suggests they have no clothes…? Which they do but y’know they’re cats so it doesn’t matter but Legend calls them bald. And he calls them raw chickens. And it makes me upset and he knows it makes me upset which is why he keeps doing it and he makes fun of me for making them sweaters…” He looked back up at Warriors with big hazel eyes. “They get cold. I’d be a horrible cat owner if I just let them freeze! So I make them sweaters to keep them warm.”

“I’m sure they appreciate it. I don’t know cats too well because they try to murder me but I’m sure if they didn’t like the sweaters, they wouldn’t keep wearing them,” he said with a shrug. From what he knew of cats, they were animals that didn’t have a problem letting people know when they were unhappy. “Where does somebody even find two nake- hairless cats?” 

“They step into the sweaters when I hold them like… Open…? For them to crawl into? So they definitely don’t hate them, Legend just likes to watch me get upset,” the other hero grumbled. “And I found them in the rubble of a destroyed village. Natural disaster hit, all the people who lived there were evacuated safely for the most part and I was sent to make sure everyone really was out and I just found them. Delilah was trapped under a small rock, it was pressing a bit on her leg and Rosie was just standing by her. I don’t think I would’ve seen them if she wasn’t meowing at me…” War’s voice got very quiet with that sentence. “I tried to find who they belonged to, but no one claimed them or even seemed to recognize them so I figured they could come with me for a bit. I’d meant to give them a good home, where they’d have someone stable to take care of them, but they got really attached to me and selfishly I didn’t want to give them away, so. I still have them. Almost seven years later.”

Warriors raised an eyebrow. “Nobody recognized them in the village you found them in? That’s… odd. It sounds like they’re good for you though. Do they approve of your friend ?” he asked with a smirk.

War rolled his eyes but he also let out a laugh. “They do, Delilah doesn’t like most people and by that I mean she actively dislikes most people but she’ll curl up on his lap, and then Rosie just likes people who are nice to her. And yeah I’ve always thought it was weird that no one from that village claimed to have ever seen them before.” 

“Do you ever think your cats are trying to give you a hint?” 

“To what?” War blinked at him.

“Animals are a good judge of character. If Delilah hates people but likes your friend, then you basically have her approval to take your friendship to the next level. Maybe with a ring.” 

He saw the moment it clicked in War’s brain what he was saying because the other man’s face went red. “S- She doesn’t- Okay, she doesn’t hate everyone, she likes my sister. And Zelda. Not as much as Si- My friend, but she likes other people!”

“Are you interested in your Zelda? Otherwise, you only named people you wouldn’t date anyway, so that still leaves your friend as the one Deliliah approves of. I think you should listen to her. She sounds like she’s a smart cat.” 

“I’m not interested in my Zelda, I’m not interested in women,” War mumbled, going quiet for a moment before he realized what he’d said and also that he’d done nothing but basically agree with him, and then he started stumbling over his words. “H- Hold on- I mean that-”

“Mean what, War?” Warriors understood why his Legend liked to tease him so much. War just made it so easy. His reactions were gold .  “What is his name, anyway? Simon? Silas? Silvestor? Maybe Sid? Wait no, that’s usually a nickname for longer names like Sidney. How about Sigurd? He’s a noble, right, they usually have long and fancy names like… Siegfried .” 

“SIEGFRIED??” War burst out laughing, holding a hand to his chest when he ended up starting to cough. “Oh my gods! No! No, no, it’s Sidney. His name is Sidney.” 

“I was beginning to wonder if I would get to know this guy’s name. Now I know which name to use to tease you even more,” Warriors said with a grin that included his fangs before he quickly retracted them in case somebody else walked in on them.

“Do you control when your fangs show?” War asked curiously, staring at him with wide but nonjudgmental eyes. “I notice they’re there sometimes but not always.” He paused for a second before very quickly adding, “Sorry if that was an invasive question- I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything.”

“I can mostly control it. They’re always out when I have some bad injuries and I can’t retract them until the injuries start getting better and sometimes they just kind of slip out around my brothers and they have to remind me to put them away. There’s also the blood moon in Wild’s era…” he trailed off, debating on if he wanted to get into that . War saw what he was like without control already so the story shouldn’t catch him too offguard, but Warriors didn’t really like thinking about it. “I can control them any other time, though.” 

“Is it uncomfortable to like, hide them?”

He shook his head. “No, it only gets uncomfortable if I take them out and put them back a lot in quick succession. Sometimes I don’t even feel them coming out, I have to feel for them with my tongue,” he answered as he cleaned off his plate. 

“Huh, I assumed maybe it’d feel weird to keep them hidden like that.” War ate a little more of his food.

“If I’m being honest… I don’t even know where they go,” he said quietly. It was weird to say out loud but he would have died of embarrassment if he admitted it to his brothers. “I can feel them but I don’t know if the structure of my jaw changed to make space for them when they’re not out. They’re also sharper! My teeth when they’re not out aren’t that sharp.”

“I mean it makes sense you’re not sure where they go,” War shrugged, “since you can’t see inside your own mouth, you know? It’s really cool that you have so much control over them.”

“You think so? I struggled to control them at first. It took me like a week to figure out how to put them away. It’s the most basic skill a vampire needs but it took me a long time to figure it out.” He frowned. It was just one of those ways where he wasn’t like other vampires. Other vampires didn’t need to be told how their powers worked. They just knew. Warriors was the only one who struggled and had to figure it out on his own.

“Yeah, I do,” War nodded with a small smile. “And it’s okay if it took you longer, you figured it out eventually.”

He rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t allowed to leave my room until I could. Part of it was making sure I was well fed because I was in danger of starving to death when I met the other vampires. It’s like being injured, I wouldn’t have been able to retract my fangs until I was better. The other part was that they took it as a sign that I wouldn’t be able to control myself around regular people if I couldn’t control my fangs. Their hired help are all hylians, so I was a danger to all of them until I figured it out.” 

“Ah,” the other hero said softly.

“All that, and sometimes I still slip up and everybody can tell because of the stupid not-Hylian eyes,” Warriors continued, barely registering the fact that War said anything at all. 

“I think they look cool,” War told him. “They’re very unique, and I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I think they’re pretty.”

Warriors felt his cheeks and ears burn. Not even his brothers complimented his eyes before. They never said anything bad about them but they didn’t compliment them either. His eyes were just… there. “You can’t be serious. You actually like them?” 

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I wouldn’t lie to you and say I did if I really didn’t think so.”

Warriors put his empty plate down and used his hands to cover his eyes even though his fangs were not out, so he was just covering his blue eyes. “You’re not creeped out by them?” 

“Not at all,” War answered, and he could practically hear the concerned frown in his voice. “Has someone told you they’re creepy?”

“I thought they were at first. Even I had to get used to them! My brothers had to get used to them. They’re so fucking yellow that they almost glow in the dark. It’s fucking weird,” he said as he kept his eyes covered with his hands. 

He heard War shift on the bed, probably to sit up more. “I bet them looking different so suddenly, completely out of your control, after so long of you being used to them being blue was upsetting. I can’t imagine what that must’ve felt like, but I don’t think they’re weird.”

Warriors groaned. The other hero couldn’t be serious. He was doing that ‘being understanding thing’ though, so he probably was serious. He couldn’t understand the appeal. “Why must you be so nice and understanding?” he asked, completely aware that War couldn’t see him rolling his eyes with his hands covered. 

“Because you deserve someone being kind to you?” The other hero sounded confused. “But also I know what it feels like to look different from everyone else and to be treated differently because of it.”

Warriors dropped his hands away from his face. “Most people can’t tell unless I have my fangs out anyway. It’s the things that I have done or can do that worry me more. There’s a reason why young vampires have to stay with older vampires for an entire century. They can’t be trusted to stay in control. That’s one of the very few ways where I’m actually like other vampires and it’s because I can kill people without remembering it. It’s a wonder you’re still around.” 

“I’m a little hard to kill,” War joked, but there was a weird tone in his voice that made it sound like he didn’t find it quite so funny as he was trying to make it seem. “Many have tried, all have failed.”

Warriors blinked at him. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t that . He couldn’t really argue against it either. War was still alive and he probably managed it without losing body parts and breaking all the bones in his legs. “I think I’m the one who is supposed to say that,” Warriors said quietly once his brain caught up. 

“You ever tried to fuck with someone who tried to kill you?” War asked, staring at him wide eyes and a slightly empty look that told him it was a very impulsive question. “Like… Since you don’t die from things that would certainly kill someone else.”

“I’ve stuck around for hours after getting ‘poisoned’ with hemlock. As soon as I taste it, I clear the rest of my evening so that the person who did it can see me up and talking somebody’s ear off when I should have been dead two hours ago. They tend to give themselves away after that because they can’t hide the utter confusion on their face,” he said with a shrug. "It's almost too bad that people haven’t tried to out right attack me since I got cursed. It would be kind of funny at this point.” 

The other hero covered his mouth with his hand. “Oh my gods, what did they even do when they saw you were fine??”

“One of them confessed in front of Impa and he’s in prison now. He was poisoning me for a week straight but I just thought he was bad at cooking. He confronted me about it because he was so confused. The other two knew to keep their mouths shut so they’re still free but one of them kept offering me more poisoned snacks and then stared at me from the kitchen. The other sulked and left like I broke their heart or something,” Warriors answered simply. “I guess I kind of did break their heart by not dying.” 

“I’m glad you’re not dead,” War said. “But gods… You just thought he couldn’t cook??”

“I didn’t know what hemlock tasted like before that! What else was I supposed to think?” Warriors asked, throwing his hands up. “At least I know now!” 

The other hero looked back down at his plate and mumbled under his breath, “Yeah, I guess that’s fair.”  

“Are you done eating? I don’t know about you, but I can really use that bath.” He glanced at the plate in War’s hand, then decided to get up and clean the fruit off of his bed so he didn’t have to do it later. There was still plenty of time for them to go to the bathhouse if War was still hungry but Warriors felt… gross.

War nodded, sticking his plate on the little table next to him. “I’m done.”

“Then let’s take all of this down and get going!”

Chapter Text

It didn’t take them a long time to clean up the dishes and carry them downstairs, and since they didn’t really have anything with them to bring to the bathhouse they just headed down once they’d gathered up all the plates. War had been so out of it when they’d arrived that he really didn’t remember the innkeepers but they seemed very kind and he thanked them for bringing them dinner. 

“We’ll be back for another night after we check out the bathhouse. You two have done a lot for us, so I can’t wait to see what any place you recommend has for us.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal! We’re just happy that you two seem better today! Go enjoy the bathhouse, our niece will be here when you get back,” the woman said, making a shooing motion with her hands.  

War waved goodbye and thanked her again as he followed Warriors out the door, trusting the other hero knew where he was going. It turned out that the bathhouse was essentially right across the street, but even though their walk was short, War was able to take a minute to really look at the small town. It didn’t look too different from the other they’d been in, but it was still nice to have a chance to look around, scanning the shops and houses and watching as people passed by. He didn’t think he’d have time to explore, since he’d probably go to bed right after the bathhouse and then they’d be leaving the following morning, so this was probably as much of a look as he was going to get.

It wasn’t too cold yet, the sun was still in the sky even if it was setting, but thankfully they’d stepped foot into the warm bathhouse before War felt the need to pull his scarf around himself. 

It’d been too long since he’d been able to have a real bath, and War was very excited for a real chance to wash his hair and feel clean and just relax and not have to worry about anything for a minute. He still felt a bit overwhelmed from the previous day and he wanted the lingering anxious feeling and tension in his shoulders gone.

He followed Warriors all the way up to the front counter, stopping beside him and digging through his belt pouch for his wallet in hopes that the other hero could do the talking if he paid for everything.

War didn’t catch the first part of their conversation but he heard Warriors inquire about the rooms. “Is it just communal or are there any private rooms?” 

“We have one private bath available. They aren’t as big but it can fit the two of you. They are more expensive, however,” the lady explained. “It’s only fifty for the communal baths but it’ll be two hundred for a private room.” 

“The cost isn’t a concern. We’ll take it.” 

“Great! The door will be locked, so this will be your key to get in and out, but the employees will have a copy just in case of an emergency. The bath is yours until you sign out. You’re welcomed to any of the supplies in the room but we ask that you leave all bags and clothing you came in with in the changing rooms, there will be something clean for you to change into. We will knock fifteen minutes before closing. Any questions?” she asked as placed a key on the counter and turned a book, along with something to write with, towards them. 

“I’m alright,” Warriors said simply as he started to write his name in the book. 

War shook his head for his answer, putting the two hundred rupees on the counter, and once that was all finished up he followed Warriors to the changing room, delighted to discover that it got warmer the further in they walked. 

The changing room was just for the two of them, which was a relief to War because he felt safe leaving his stuff around the other hero and he wasn’t sure he’d feel the same way leaving his belongings around a bunch of people he didn’t know. Warriors really had no need to take anything from him, if he’d wanted to he would’ve done it already, not that War had ever really thought he would take any of his things. He trusted the other man. He really did, which felt weird considering they hadn’t known each other long, but at this point with what they’d been through together he’d definitely call Warriors a friend. 

War was very grateful that the other hero had requested the private bath. He didn’t like people staring at him, he didn’t like being observed really, and he allowed most of his brothers to assume he was insecure about the great number of scars that covered his torso because if that was a satisfying enough answer for them then they’d never ask for the real one. Of course the smart nosy ones figured it out anyway, that being almost all of the fuckers at this point, that it wasn’t the scars War was insecure about but rather the way he physically looked. He knew he should just be grateful he had a body that functioned at all after everything he’d been through, but he hated how thin he looked. He’d always been on the scrawny side, he’d gotten teased for it in the army when he’d first been drafted because there’d been boys his age who were double his size, but no matter how hard he pushed himself he’d never been able to grow to look like them.

The war had made it all worse, with food becoming difficult to get sometimes and then him being afraid to eat it because of the poisons, and he’d ended up losing weight he couldn’t afford to lose during those years of hell. Once everything had ended, he hadn’t miraculously gotten better. In all honesty his paranoia had just gotten worse and he’d found himself in a pit at rock bottom for a whole year before he’d finally been able to start healing and making good progress, but his progress wasn’t enough. It was never enough. It was a struggle to keep his weight up and stay in a healthy range and every time he slipped back out of it, he wanted to scream and rip his hair out. 

He knew he had a smaller, narrower frame than all those other army friends of his he’d ever compared himself to, but it was so unfair that they didn’t seem to struggle to look healthy and be strong. He felt pathetic calling himself a hero standing next to men who looked the part. 

The noblemen sure gave him hell for being as small as he was, making their stupid remarks behind his back when they knew he could hear them talk about how weak he looked. Of course there were also those who told him he shouldn’t want to gain weight and be healthier because he ‘looked pretty’, as if that was the whole point of him and he was good for nothing else. To just sit there and be some pretty, delicate little thing that someone could stick on a shelf somewhere. It made him feel ill every time.

He didn’t like how visible his bones were, or how clearly defined his muscles were due to lack of anything to cover them up, and he didn’t like when people stared at him. He didn’t like when he could hear the comments they were thinking in his own brain.

While he’d left his pauldron and bracers back at the inn as well as the majority of his things, he still had his belt and a few of the daggers he always kept on his person. It was a small town full of seemingly very nice people, but he just didn’t feel safe without some of them. He didn’t really feel safe without at least one on his person at all times but he didn’t want the water to cause damage to the one he always had with him, as that specific blade had been a gift, so as he changed out of his dirty clothes he begrudgingly removed it from where it was strapped against his thigh. Warriors had proven a good few times now that he was more than capable of tearing apart a monster with his bare hands, so War would just have to force himself to relax and trust that the other hero could protect him if gods forbid something fucking happened.

Grabbing a robe and wrapping it around himself tightly as if that would suddenly fix how he felt about his physical appearance, War made it exactly two steps towards the door to the bath before a chill ran down his spine and his heart started to race, forcing him to turn around and go grab his dagger. He was almost as superstitious about bringing that thing with him everywhere as he was about his mother’s ring that he wore around his neck and refused to take off. It wasn’t even that he thought he’d need to use it, it just had to come with him. 

The gods just couldn’t have let him be normal, could they?

He put the dagger into the pocket of the robe, not wanting Warriors to think he was weird any more than he already did, picked up a couple of towels, and then finally headed over to the bath.

Warriors was already in the bath, wearing just a towel around his waist. He had his head titled back, using his robes as a pillow. He looked almost like he was sleeping but when War stepped into the room, he lifted his head up. 

“The water is so warm. You’ll love it,” he mumbled, letting out a contented sigh as he put his head back on the robe pillow. 

Fucking genius- War felt stupid for never having thought to do that in all the times he’d ever gone to a bathhouse. 

He forced himself to take a calm, deep breath so he didn’t start panicking over the intrusive thought of Warriors making fun of how he was able to see his bones, and scrambled into the water the second he’d taken the robe off and set his towels down. 

Warriors didn’t move. He kept his head on his makeshift pillow. “What the fuck are you doing over there?” he asked, though there wasn’t a hint of annoyance in his voice. He seemed too relaxed to care too much. 

“…Getting in the bath??” War blinked at him, grateful the other hero wasn’t really looking at him so he had a minute to fix his towels into a pillow.

“It sounded like you were very eager to get in here,” he explained. “I can’t blame you. It’s fucking divine. It’s a good thing we can be here for a while.” 

Eager, yes. Not anxious. Definitely not anxious. He could go with eager.

“You know me,” he tried to sound calm and normal, “I’m always freezing my ass off. Wasn’t going to waste time getting in the warm water.”

“I think that’s one of the first things you made clear from the start. You’re Link and you hate the snow,” he mumbled. He was still sitting in the tub with his eyes closed, like he was half-asleep. “That mountain did suck though. I don’t think I will ever miss snow. I’ve seen enough and I can’t even die of old age.” 

“Snow’s horrible…” he huffed, letting himself sink further into the water. It felt wonderful on his aching knee. “It’s cold and wet and I don’t see the point of it. In another life I’m pretty sure I was some little lizard on a nice warm rock somewhere living my best life.”

“Didn’t you say that Sidney lives up in the mountains?” 

“Yeah, he does,” War nodded, letting his eyes start to drift closed. The water really was nice.

“If you ever marry him, are you going to live up there with him or would you drag him somewhere else?” Warriors asked that goofy grin he always had whenever he was teasing him. 

He… He’d never actually thought about that… He’d only just recently come to the conclusion that he did genuinely have feelings for his friend and that maybe he did deserve to have something he wanted, and every aspect of his life was so controlled he’d never really had the time to imagine what a future with someone would look like. To be fair to him, it wasn’t like Sidney really had the option to move in with him anywhere. War just lived in the castle because Zelda wanted to keep him close, and Sidney had a whole castle he was inheriting.

“I don’t think I could drag him somewhere else,” he mumbled. 

“Is he getting the estate?” Warriors asked. “He better give you the best blankets and the most insulated room in the estate. Assuming you actually marry him, of course.” 

“He is, yeah.”  War let out a small laugh. “I know you don’t like to believe me much when I say he’s just a friend, but as of right now that is what he is. H- How I feel doesn’t really change that he’s just my friend. So, I have no idea what the future holds.”

Warriors lifted his head, raising an eyebrow at War. “What do you mean by that? About how you feel not changing anything?”

“Like… What if he doesn’t actually want anything… with me,” he said quietly, starting to pick anxiously at his fingernails. “I’ve known him five years, and I’ve had a chance to have something, but… I didn’t take it.”

“Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to ask.” Warriors sat up straighter and ran a wet hand through his hand. He kept his eyes down, looking at the bottom of the tub. “I know it’s not easy to be vulnerable like that, but you might regret it if that chance is still there and you didn’t realize it because you didn’t ask.” 

“I know,” he whispered, really finding his nails interesting. They needed to be cut shorter.

“Huh….” Warriors said suddenly. War looked up and found Warriors looking at his own burn scar in what seemed to be in fascination before he turned his gaze towards him. “You have more burn scars than me.” 

His eyes immediately went to the other hero’s left arm, noticing that the burn scars stopped in the middle of his bicep, and that they were just on his arm.

War stared down at himself as if his scar had suddenly changed up on him and then stared back at Warriors, genuinely confused that he’d never noticed before. His own burn scar from Volga stretched over a large portion of skin. When the flames had been shot at him he’d turned sideways, raising his arm to protect himself and curling inward, so the fire had hit his hand and outer arm but also his side, stretching down from the middle of his ribs to his hip and down to his upper thigh on the left side of his body. The severity of the burn varied depending on the location, the part on his thigh and hip had healed decently well and had only left a faint mark, but he’d suffered nerve damage in places over his ribs and his arm where he had been too badly burnt. The texture of the skin was different, it couldn’t grow hair because the flesh had been so damaged that the roots had been destroyed, and it made it difficult for him to regulate his temperature. Impa had warned him he’d been more likely to overheat. 

He had to wrap Warriors up when the other hero had been impaled a few days ago and he’d just reattached his arm for him, though in his defense it’d been the right one that’d fallen off. But he still couldn’t believe he’d been so distracted he’d completely missed how much less skin Warriors’s burn scar covered.

“I think I have more scars than you in general,” he mumbled, crossing his arms over his stomach to hide one of his bigger ones. Specifically, the one he’d gotten from taking a sword straight through him for Mask the last time he’d seen the kid during the war before he’d had to send him away.

“I think you’re right. I got most of my bad injuries after I got cursed and you know, I don’t scar anymore,” Warriors said, holding up the arm that was cut off. “Not even a mark left. You can’t tell that it got cut off just yesterday.” 

It genuinely was remarkable that he’d been able to heal like that. It didn’t matter if War definitely knew by now that Warriors would heal up just fine, he was amazed at being able to see it with his own eyes. The arm really did look completely fine, he certainly wouldn’t have ever guessed something had happened to it.

He wasn’t exactly jealous that Warriors didn’t have as many scars as him, not only because he knew that the reason the other hero didn’t scar had affected his life in so many other ways but also because he genuinely didn’t feel ashamed that he’d been injured and the marks of those injuries lingered. It was proof he’d survived, proof the war was real, and proof to himself that he’d fought to protect as many people as he could. But he knew the people in his era found it difficult to look at him and recognize how the war had changed him. They could ignore how it’d destroyed the person he’d been the day he’d been drafted because they couldn’t see inside his head, but the visible marks on his skin were less ignorable. The scars were a very violent reminder that the kingdom had dropped so much pressure on a child they told themselves was invincible, and that their hero had been hurt badly. When he didn’t carefully cover the scars on his face, there were people who stared at him not with looks of ‘those scars are proud marks of triumph despite everything’, but rather awkward, pitying stares that cried ‘we could’ve done better but we didn’t’. He didn’t like how people looked at him like that, and that was the only reason he wished there’d been no visual signs he’d ever fought for his life and the lives of every hylian in the kingdom on the front lines.

“Do your scars affect your daily life at all?” he asked quietly. “You definitely have enough scar tissue to have complications. My burn scars don’t bother me much now but they used to feel tight.”

“A bit, yeah,” he admitted. “The burn one makes it hard for me to cool down because where a lot of the skin is damaged, I can’t sweat, so my body can’t regulate its temperature very well sometimes. Which was really upsetting to find out about because the heat didn’t used to bother me as much as my fellow soldiers since I was so used to it. That skin also gets really dry and irritated and it feels weird to move and sometimes it’s just so tight feeling it hurts, so I’m usually pretty good about keeping it from getting too dry.” Warriors didn’t need to know his skin had been bothering him the past few days, and he also didn’t need to know that War was so used to feeling like shit that he’d been successfully ignoring it because it’d do him no good to sit around moping since there was nothing he could do about it anyway. “Have a few others that make movement slightly difficult when the scar tissue gets irritated. Some occasionally just hurt because the wounds were deep and I had to mostly heal the old fashioned way. I wouldn’t be surprised if my insides were all messed up and scarred too…”

He really was lucky that the wound he’d gotten when he’d been impaled hadn’t been any worse than it was. In the seven years it’d been since he’d been run through, the only problem with the injury he’d had was that it ached sometimes when the weather got too extreme or if he overworked himself. His organs were all functioning properly to his knowledge, definitely thanks to the sheer amount of magic that’d been used to keep him alive and fighting. It must’ve cured him enough that the part left to heal with natural time hadn’t been anything too deep. 

“Do you need anything for them? Lotion used to help my burn scar at least.” Warriors began to settle a bit, once again leaning his head back to rest it on his robe made pillow. “Assuming they’ve been bothering you, I guess.”

“Yeah, I usually have a lotion I put on them,” War sighed, “it’s just with my friends, along with my hair stuff and my makeup and the rest of my belongings.”

He frowned, adjusting how his arms were crossed over his middle. He knew part of why he’d been so overwhelmed and off because he was really struggling with having lost such a huge part of his routine and being separated from his things, as well as his brothers, but he found it stupid that he was so okay with not wearing makeup because he genuinely didn’t care if Warriors saw his scars and freckles and all the little things he usually tried to cover up. It wasn’t that making him upset, it really wasn’t, it was the fact that it was a step missing from his routine. He’d really been trying to take care of his hair and skin, for his own sanity but also his comfort, and it was annoying that he was so far from his things.

“Oh yeah, we should go see what they have for that.” Warriors groaned as he stood up, stretched, and quickly tossed his robe over himself as he slowly walked over to a shelf full of different bottles. 

War should probably get up and go look too but he was comfortable in the warm water and he didn’t want Warriors to look at him. Not that the other hero hadn’t already and instead of making fun of him or telling him to eat something, had pointed out how their scars were different but it was hard for his rational brain to get his emotions under control sometimes. He hated how he looked and he’d much prefer not having a physical form at all, but unfortunately he had to exist in the physical world so here he was. 

He forced himself to just get over it and scrambled out of the water as fast as he could, snatching up his robe and wrapping it around himself at an alarming speed as he scurried after Warriors. 

There was a shockingly large selection of products to choose from, a bunch of different soaps in a variety of different scents, and War’s jaw dropped when he saw a bottle of shampoo with a very familiar label on it. It wasn’t the one he used now, but it was a formula he was familiar with and one he knew would be good for his hair type. That was a rare find. 

He almost squealed when he found there was a good conditioner too.

Warriors also seemed to have found something he liked too. He was holding two bottles in the crook of his arm, along with a cloth draped across his forearm, but he was still scanning the shelves. “How do you feel about adding some bubbles or something? Oh, maybe bath salts?” 

“Bubbles are good,” War answered a little too quickly to sound nonchalant and not very interested. Warriors nodded and picked another bottle from the shelf before returning to the tub. 

He sat the bottles and cloth down by the side of the tub where he was soaking before, then uncapped one of the bottles and walked around the tub, holding the bottle upside down over it as he finished his lap. Once he seemed satisfied, he put the cap back on, reset his robe pillow, and stepped back in. 

War was quick to hop back in the water, not just because he didn’t want to be left standing there for long but also because the water had been so nice and warm that he’d started to get cold, even if he had had his robe around him. He was really going to hate the walk back to the inn.

He sank down far enough that the water came just below his chin and let out a sigh, just enjoying the nice warmth again. 

“I can’t think of the last time I had a bubble bath,” Warriors said, shaking his hand in the water to make bubbles. 

War paused to think, waving his own hands in the water to watch the bubbles appear and staring at them with wide eyes for a moment before he could get his thoughts together. “I think for me it was a few months…? We haven’t been to my era in a while and I ran out of the, like, bubble bath stuff a bit ago and haven’t had time to buy more. Since the war ended Zelda really gets on my ass about taking care of myself, and she tells me that self care isn’t just making sure you don’t die but also doing things that you like. So whenever I get sad I guess I just…? Have a bubble bath…?”

Warriors paused for a moment before he suddenly dunked his head underwater and came back up with bubbles in his hair. “Maybe I should try that when I get home. I have some years left at the castle before I will have to leave, so I should make the best use of those baths while I can enjoy it.” 

“You live in the castle too? My friends thought that was ‘weird’ when I told them I did, except for Wind who found it cool. And also Mask because he’s Mask,” War laughed, “I’ve done much weirder things. He’s judged me for far more.”

Warriors nodded. “I was just living in the barracks because I didn’t have anywhere else to go and when Zelda found out, she made me move into the castle. It’s definitely a lot better than living in the barracks and Zelda likes to say it’s helpful to have a hero nearby whenever anybody asks about it.”

“She kinda did the same thing with me,” War said quietly. “She’d said she wanted me close to have the hero nearby so she could feel protected, but I know that bit is bullshit because she could beat my ass in a sparring match any day of the week. I think she was worried about me and wanted to keep me close so she could just… Keep an eye on me.”

“Even if she couldn’t take care of herself, she still has Impa. Impa is scary. I think she was one of the ones who… handled me when I lost control the first time. At any rate, between the two of them, I don’t think I’m needed but…” He paused, chewing on his lip for a bit before he continued, “I do know that she’s pretty concerned about me and the vampire shit.” 

“Impa is scary,” War agreed, “but she’s also very protective and kind. She’s helped me a lot, with a lot of things.”

“I know my Impa cares a lot but she’s a little… blunt, I guess,” Warriors mumbled as he opened one of his bottles and dumped a handful of its contents into his hand before he started running it through his hair. “She gave me good advice but I wasn’t ready to listen to it.” 

“She’s very good at doing that,” he sighed, moving to grab the bottles he’d brought and start working on his hair as well. He knew it took a long time to care for it properly and he didn’t want Warriors to be standing around doing nothing because he’d wasted time just enjoying the water. “Giving advice you’re not ready to follow. My Impa knows me well enough to know it’ll take me a minute to realize she’s right, and she’s always waiting there to tell me again when I’m ready to hear it. I appreciate her patience. She may not always be the best at expressing that she cares with words, but her patience is a reminder that she does.”

“I know she does,” Warriors said with a sigh as he looked away from War and settled for looking at a wall instead. “I can even admit she was right but it was about my vampirism and I wasn’t feeling so great about it.”  

“What do you mean?” he asked, working soap through his hair.

“I really don’t want to talk about it,” he said, keeping his eyes off of it. 

War felt his heart skip a beat in his chest, and he had to force himself to sound normal when he said, “That’s alright, you don’t have to.”

Warriors finally looked up at him again, but he only gave him a nod before he started washing his hair again. 

Full on dread welled up in him and War tried very hard not to let it show outwardly because he felt irritated with himself. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how Warriors had snapped at him last night, saying how he’d been shocked War hadn’t asked him a question since he’d been ‘so interested in the rest of the vampire bullshit’.

Those words had kept repeating in his head all night, and the entire journey from where he’d reattached Warriors’s arm to the little town where they now were. He was terrified that his inability to keep himself together had permanently made some part of Warriors irritated with him. The other hero had been nice to him today, he’d even gotten him the necklace which War now wore around his neck with the chain that held his mother’s ring, but he still felt horrible. He was interested in what Warriors had to share with him and he wanted the other man to feel like he was being listened to when he spoke. It had been his initial worry upon hearing those words that Warriors was pissed at him for not being able to focus, but the more he thought the more he got scared that that comment had been born from a frustration that War was too interested. That War’s curiosity and desire to understand something unknown so he could know how best to help had made his new friend feel like a specimen on display somewhere to be studied.

He knew exactly what it felt like to feel studied by other people, and the mere idea that he’d made Warriors feel that way made him burn with shame. 

“Can I ask why you wear the ring around your neck and not on your finger?” Warriors asked suddenly and very quietly. 

War almost jumped when he was pulled from his thoughts, but he ended up just sucking in a quick breath instead as he looked down at the two chains around his neck, the one Warriors had just given him and the one he’d been wearing since he was fifteen. 

“It’s my ma’s,” he said softly, rinsing the soap from his hands and grabbing the ring to look at it. “It doesn’t fit me, but she gave it to me the day I had to leave because she said it would keep me safe and I didn’t want to lose it, so...”

“Is it her wedding ring?” 

He nodded. “Yeah, apparently my father told her it’d keep her safe wherever he had to leave and she wanted to pass that protection on to me. I think I mentioned before that my father is gone. I don’t know what happened to his.”

“She wanted to protect you because you got drafted. That still seems weird to me,” he said quietly. 

“She didn’t want me to go,” War mumbled, trying not to think about how his mother had held him tightly, pressing a hand firmly over his ear that hadn’t been up against her shoulder so he couldn’t hear what she’d said as she argued with the guards not to take him, because he didn’t want to end up crying in front of Warriors. “She fought really hard against it but she didn’t really have a choice. I didn’t really have a choice. Some kids my age tried to run or hide but it didn’t really work, and I didn’t want to make things harder for myself than they needed to be so that morning I said goodbye and she knew there was nothing she could do, so she just insisted I take this.” It was a little hard to see the little details of the ring with how his vision was blurring with unshed tears, but he just kept staring down at it anyway for a long pause before adding very quietly, “I don’t know if there’s really anything special about it at all but it’s really important to me.”

Warriors frowned at him. “It’s a good thing you have a mother who cares about you so much. I don’t have a lot of memories of my mom but I think she would have been like yours. I think I would remember if she was anything like my aunt.” 

“I’d share her with you if I could,” War sniffed, trying to discreetly wipe at his face. “I think she’d like you, my ma. There were a lot of us growing up and we were all weird in our own ways but she was always really gentle with each of us, making sure we got what we needed no matter how ridiculous it might’ve seemed to anyone else.”

“You think your mom would like me? What about your siblings?”

“I think they would, yeah,” he nodded. “Estella gives everyone a hard time because she’s an asshole, but I still think she’d like you. She used to throw me around when we were really little… I didn’t play much with her then if I could avoid it-”

Warriors raised an eyebrow at him. “Does she have, um, redeeming qualities? Like, I would throw Wind around but only if he actually liked it. I feel like he would go for it a couple of times.” 

“To be fair I was like five and she was seven,” War laughed. “But yeah, she’s very protective and she’d make sure the old dogs didn’t jump on me back when I was terrified of them. And she carried me back to the house once when I’d fallen hard out of a tree and broke my leg. I think I was like… eight? Maybe? I don’t remember.”

“For some reason, I’m not surprised that you broke your leg that way,” Warriors mumbled, then he stuck his head back in the water to rinse his hair out. 

“Linkle dared me to climb it to prove I wasn’t scared,” he grumbled. “I did fucking climb it, I just struggled to get back down and then I fucking fell…”

Warriors smiled at him and even laughed to himself. “I get that. I once broke my nose because Legend dared me to. I didn’t have the excuse of being eight though.” 

“Oh?” War raised an eyebrow, wincing when he got soap in his eye.

“It involves a vampire thing I don’t think I told you about because I don’t think it’s something we need to worry about. I can’t enter a private home without permission. There’s an invisible wall that appears and I can’t go through it until I get an invitation. I have no idea why!” Warriors shrugged. “Anyway, Legend dared me to run into one of those invisible walls. I broke my nose, gave myself a good bump on the head, and Time and Hyrule lectured me about hurting myself on a dare.” 

“So it’s literally like a wall for you? If you don’t have permission?” he wondered, belatedly cursing himself for potentially being too nosy.

Warriors grabbed the cloth, soaked it, and rubbed at his arm perhaps a bit too aggressively. “Yeah. I can do pushups off of it. The first time we went to Wild’s house, he was unconscious and couldn’t give me permission, so I had to sleep in the inn because I physically couldn’t enter his house.” 

“Oh wow.” War blinked before ducking to wash the soap out of his hair. 

He was too nervous to ask more about how that worked, he didn’t want to make the other hero upset by asking too much, so he just focused on washing his hair. And gods, was it so nice really getting to work on his hair. Maybe if he was lucky, since he’d found a good shampoo, they’d also have some other products for him when he got out of the bath and started drying it. His curls had been an absolute mess the past few days, it’d be nice to get them to actually look good. 

War spent much more time on his hair than the rest of him, taking care to soap it up twice just so it would actually feel clean to him before running the conditioner through his curls. It was a little difficult because they’d tangle, but he managed, and it was somewhat soothing to work on. But he did also need to scrub his body, so he forced himself to move on and try to hurry so he wasn’t holding Warriors up. He was also getting a bit tired, and the warm water was making it difficult to keep his eyes open, but he knew he had to still work on his hair after he got out of the bath so he couldn’t let himself even start to drift off. There was also the fear of drowning.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but is there a reason why you dye your hair? Your natural colour is really nice and dyeing takes a lot of work,” Warriors muttered as he started to lather soap into his skin. 

War opened and closed his mouth a few times in shock. He knew he needed to fix up his roots and that a considerable amount of brown was showing, but he was so used to the weird stares or lack of comment that a compliment about his hair had taken him completely off guard.

“O- Oh, um…” he stammered out. “I guess I got kinda…? Convinced? To dye it? Back when I’d first joined the army, and I guess I just kept dyeing it because y’know, this is what the hero is expected to look like.”

Warriors chewed on his lips again. His face was a little red but War couldn’t tell if that was from the warm water or something else. “Do you still believe that after meeting the other heroes?” 

“No, not really,” he admitted. Meeting Sky, Hylia’s chosen hero, had been a shock because Sky looked more similar to him than he did to that image of the pale, blond, blue eyed hero that War had been compared to and made to feel bad about not being his whole life. Twilight looked like him too, and he didn’t think either of them were any less capable and deserving of the title of hero for it.

For some reason he struggled to apply that logic to himself. He felt trapped, because he created an image of himself after what he’d been told the hero should be and now he didn’t feel like he could break from it.

“Only three of my friends are naturally blond, and I’m not sure Legend fully counts because his hair has a real red tone to it,” he added in a grumble under his breath. 

Again, Warriors was chewing on his lips as he scrubbed his body down. When he was done, he put his head back on the pillow he made. “Have you ever thought of letting the colour grow out one day? I know nobles are generally snobby and might give you a hard time about it but maybe there will be a time when you don’t have to talk to them as much.” 

“I’d like to…” War said very quietly. “I, uh…” He trailed off, not really sure how to say that he didn’t really feel like himself or that he missed looking like his mother. He and Linkle, as they’d grown up, had turned out looking exactly like her and it was hard to recognize her face in his own when he didn’t look like him. Sometimes that made him feel horrible, like he’d lost a huge piece of himself, other times he couldn’t bare to think about his mother because of how much he missed her and not seeing her in his own reflection was the only thing that kept him from feeling insane.

“I don’t know if you’re looking for advice but maybe let your hair grow out while you’re with your brothers. I have a hard time believing they would care that much and it can’t be easy to bleach your hair on the road. It’s hard enough to find a body of water to bathe in sometimes,” Warriors muttered. He sounded kind of annoyed. 

“Yeah, it is.” War nervously crossed his arms over his middle again, really hoping the other hero was mad about how hard it was to bathe on the road and that he wasn’t irritated with War and his stupidity.

“And I can’t even enjoy it when the water outside is warmer because that’s a lot of skin to expose to the sun. I would come out looking like a bokoblin or a cooked lobster,” Warriors said with a hiss, throwing his arm out of the water as he did so. “I have to bathe at night but when I disappear for an hour or two, the others think I’m looking for blood and I’m not! That’s not even getting into the fact that some bodies of water are sacred and burn the fuck out of me.”

“Sacred things burn you?” War asked with a small frown. 

“Sacred things are basically sunlight. The only exception is the master sword and that’s because I won’t get burned immediately. It takes a couple of hours,” he said quietly as he lifted his head up to look at War. “Have you ever been to one of those springs in Twilight’s that are turquoise? There’s one right outside of Ordon.” 

“I have, yeah,” he nodded.

“You know how some of them are kind of deep?” 

“Did… Did you fall in…?” he asked very slowly, a little worried about saying the wrong thing.

“I was pushed in by our favourite shadow. The vampires said I probably would have died if I was a full vampire but because I’m only half, I was able to make a full recovery. It only took like a month for me to see again,” Warriors said with a frown.  

War was horrified, and it was hard for him to control his expression. “Oh my gods, I’m… I’m so sorry.”

“Those were the injuries that I needed more time to heal from. The shadow recovered faster than I did so my brothers had to leave me behind to carry on with the mission,” he mumbled, then looked away from War. “My brothers don’t know that I’m alright now.” 

“We’re going to find them,” War promised. He’d do whatever it took to make sure of it.

Warriors didn’t say anything but he did give War a small smile, which was an improvement over what happened the last time he made that promise to the other hero. 

He took a deep breath, trying to keep himself calm, and finished washing up before quickly pulling himself out of the water and wrapping himself tightly in the robe. Almost losing his balance when he bent down, he somehow managed to stay upright and grabbed a towel for his hair.

“Are we leaving now?” Warriors asked as he turned around to also pull himself out of the tub. He wrapped himself in his robe, grabbed all the supplies he used for his bath and put them back on the shelf. As he started to head back to the changing room though, he let out a sudden yelp as his foot slipped out from underneath him and he fell forward. He didn’t get his hands out in front of him, so he landed face first on the wet floor. 

War jumped at the sound, clasping a hand over his mouth as he carefully walked over, not wanting to slip himself because he wouldn’t be very useful to Warriors if he did. “Are… Are you alright?”

Warriors groaned as he slowly and very carefully lifted himself off of the floor a bit, resting on his forearm. Blood was dripping from his nose and it was already dripping on the floor. “I just took a fucking bath!” he hissed as he tried in vain to use his free hand to cover up his nose so it wouldn’t drip more blood onto the floor. 

“Oh shit,” he mumbled, crouching down next to the other hero. “Think it’s broken? Do you want me to look at it?”

“Please,” Warriors mumbled quietly as he drew his hand away from his nose.

He had a feeling it was broken the second he looked at it and saw it was already starting to swell. It wasn’t too bad yet, but it was definitely a little swollen. Warriors’s nose didn’t look crooked, at least not that he could see.

“Can I touch?” he asked, wanting to try to assess how bad it was. War knew the other hero would be able to heal faster than the normal person, but that might end up being a bad thing if something in his nose had moved into a bad spot that would cause breathing problems for him or something.

“Go ahead,” he mumbled, lifting his head up so that it was more or less parallel with the floor. He didn’t tilt his head back but he didn’t tilt it forward either. 

It made it incredibly difficult for War, it would’ve been much easier if he was sitting up, but he didn’t wanna push it with the things he was asking of the other hero so he just took extra care to be careful despite the fact that Warriors was still on the ground. He didn’t want to put any pressure on Warriors’s nose in case that majorly fucked something up, so he just gently brushed his finger along the side of it, trying to feel for any bump that shouldn’t be there or to see if it he could feel it shift at all. Sure enough, he felt something under the skin as he got closer to the tip of Warriors’s nose, and he grimaced when he heard a small sound as it shifted slightly.

“Can you breathe in slowly for me?”

Warriors stayed quiet but he did as he was told, breathing slowly but deeply through his nose and breathing out of his mouth. 

“Did that feel alright? Could you get enough air through both sides?”

Warriors took another deep breath as he tried to force himself to sit up. “Well enough,” he mumbled quietly. 

War helped him sit, making sure he didn’t fall back down. “I need you to be fully honest and descriptive if you can, because it’s definitely broken and it might be okay to heal on its own because it doesn’t look crooked or anything, but if you can’t breathe well then it might not be aligned as well as it looks.”

He let out a sigh, and took another deep breath. “It’s a little harder to breathe on the left side than the right side,” he admitted. 

“Okay,” War whispered, trying to look at his nose from another angle to see if he was missing anything. “We should clean up and head back, I’ll try to get a better look at it there as long as you can still breathe.”

“Yeah… sounds good,” Warriors mumbled quietly, trying to wipe some of the blood away with his hands before he stood up. “Ugh, I don’t want to use any of their towels. I think I have some rags in my bag…” 

“Do you want me to go grab them for you?” he asked, getting to his feet himself.

“Yeah, I’m going to wash my face.” Carefully, he headed back to the tub. 

War nodded in response, heading back to the changing area where they’d left their things so he could grab the other hero’s bag. The rags were towards the top, and he was grateful for it because he felt weird going through Warriors’s things even if he’d been given permission to get something for him. He headed back to the bath as soon as he’d grabbed them and held them up so the other hero could see as he came closer.

“I can help clean up?” he offered, pointing at where there was blood on the floor.

“Give me one first,” Warriors mumbled, holding his arm out. 

War handed it to him, wanting to make sure he actually got it and it didn't end up in the water before he went to go clean up the floor. There was a decent amount of blood on the tile, but War was pretty sure there’d been even more of it on Warriors himself. It wasn’t too hard to clean, nothing a few rags couldn’t handle, and by the time he’d finished wiping it up it looked like Warriors was about done washing his face.

“The bleeding stopped at least. Did I get all of it?” Warriors asked once he returned from the tub. 

He nodded, folding up the rags so that he wouldn’t get blood on anything else as he walked over to grab the bottles he’d borrowed so he could stick them back up on the shelf with the other products where he’d found them. With his hand still lingering on one of the bottles, he noticed another product meant to be left in to help with curly hair. The corner of his mouth turned down in a frown, it would be nice to really take the time to take care of his hair so it didn’t look horrible and feel horrible, but he needed to make sure his friend's face was okay, and that was kind of more important.

“I’ll be waiting in the changing room,” Warriors said, grumbling something else to himself that War couldn’t quite hear before the other hero disappeared. 

“Right behind you,” War called, backing away from the shelf and following after him. He wasn’t sure what to do with the bloody rags so he just held on to them, setting them on the bench so he could properly dry himself off and change. He wished he would’ve had the time to get some of that product but he knew he could take forever with his hair, so he just scrunched his curls with the towel to dry them and prayed they wouldn’t look to awful when he woke up in the morning. 

Warriors finished changing first. “It was still a nice time despite breaking my fucking nose,” he said. “Lost my arm and broke my nose. What fucking luck.”

“I’m really sorry,” War said softly. It took him a little longer because he had to put his dagger back in its spot against his thigh and bundle himself up to brace the cold air, but he hurried to get himself together so Warriors wouldn’t have to wait.

The other hero shrugged as he grabbed the bloody rags and shoved them into his bag. “None of it is your fault.” 

Hands now free, War anxiously cracked his knuckles and grumbled very quietly, “Well, arguably it is my fault you lost your arm.”

“Nope,” Warriors answered without any hesitation. He looked over War quickly, then stepped out into the hallway. Warriors handed the key back at the front desk and signed his name in the book again. With nothing else left to do with the bathhouse, they headed outside. 

With his hair still wet, the cold was genuinely miserable, and War pulled his scarf tighter around himself as he shivered. Stupid mountain towns and the way they could make him feel like his bones had frozen. It didn’t seem to matter that the inn was just across the street, without the sun in the sky to provide any kind of warmth he’d found himself freezing. He was still shaking a little bit even after they’d gotten back up to the room, which he found stupid and annoying because he was out of the cold, why couldn’t he warm up?

“Blanket?” War turned around and found Warriors holding out the blanket he had the whole time he knew the man. “I can see you shaking. I only really need the one on my bed.” 

“Oh, thanks,” he whispered as he took it, wrapping it tightly around his shoulders before adding with a dry laugh, “Not sure why I’m incapable of staying warm.”

“We went from somewhere really nice and warm to outside, which is kind of cold. You might have not been as cold if the change wasn’t so drastic,” Warriors said with a shrug as he took his boots off and hopped onto his bed. He rubbed at his eyes and winced when his hand got too close to his nose. “Do we still have potions?”

“We do, yeah,” War mumbled, heading over to the things he’d left behind and pulling out a half filled bottle for the other hero. “Is it okay if I look at it again? Just to make sure I didn’t miss something seriously wrong with it? I don’t want it to like heal wrong or something.”

Warriors nodded, grabbing the bottle but he just kept it in his hands instead of opening it. “Let’s see how bad it is, I guess. I think my body would fix it if it did heal wrong since I should always go back to the way I was when I was cursed, but I don’t want to find out how it would do that.” 

“Can you tilt your head back?” He asked, wanting to try to see if there was any reason why Warriors was having trouble breathing from one side of his nose.

Warriors quietly did as he asked. “How bad is it?”

It was hard to see because of how dark it was in the room, even with some light, but War was good at making educated guesses at this point. “The one side does look a little smaller than the other, either because of swelling or you have a deviated septum. It’s hard to tell.”

“Really? Fuck,” he mumbled to himself. “I don’t think a potion would fix it if it’s a deviated septum but my face hurts. Blood might be better, so maybe I should just wait.” He chewed on his lips as he thought about it. 

“You think it would heal up properly if you got blood?” War wanted to clarify.

“I already had some today,” he said, looking War in the eyes with a frown. “But yes, it might work better. Maybe I’ll take a potion tomorrow if my face still hurts when I wake up.”

“Is there some reason you can’t have more?” He raised an eyebrow curiously. “Because I don’t mind if you need some, you didn’t get that much from me earlier anyway and I don’t want you to fuck up your nose or something.”

Warriors rolled his eyes and passed the potion bottle back. “It’s not that I can’t have more, it’s that you’re still my only reliable source of blood and I can’t just drain you of it whenever I get hurt, nor will it make my regeneration go much faster when I already had some. What I took already should help, my body just needs some time.” 

The potion bottle felt heavy in his hand and he felt bad for irritating his friend, but he refused to let the jumbled up distressing things he was feeling show on his face so he just quietly said, “Oh, okay. I understand.”

Warriors opened his mouth to say something, then shut his mouth and settled for biting his lips with his fangs. “Are you good if I go to sleep now?” he asked quietly. 

He nodded, already on his way to his own bed because he’d been exhausted when he woke up that morning and doing nothing all day hadn’t done much to fix that for him. War almost never went to bed with wet hair, in fact he actively had something against it and would force himself to stay up until his body just quit on him to avoid it, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. He just wanted to sleep, and his hair was probably going to be a frizzy mess anyway so what did it really matter.

“Sleep well, War,” Warriors said. 

“You too,” he mumbled, crawling into bed and curling up, facing the wall. “And thanks again for the blanket.”

He couldn’t hear if Warriors responded because the second he laid his head down he was out.

Chapter Text

Warriors woke up feeling strangely… supported. He had a pillow under his head, which he was clutching tightly with his right hand while his left arm was underneath it. Along his back, he could feel something not quite solid but oddly sturdy. Instead of trying to figure out what that was, his first instinct was to look for War, who thankfully wasn’t far. He was curled up on his bed, facing the wall. 

Once he confirmed that War was in the room, he tried to look outside their window to see what time it was but all he could see were dark clouds and rain pouring down the side of the window. 

“War?” he called out. 

He couldn’t tell if the other hero was awake or not, he just watched as War shifted around a little before falling still again. Maybe the other hero went to bed late and that was why he had a hard time getting up. Either way though, he thought it was interesting that War was the one who had a hard time waking up lately. 

Warriors groaned as he slowly sat up. It turned out that the sturdy thing behind his back was his bedroll and some pillows all rolled up in an extra blanket. Once he was out of bed, he located a mirror in their room to see how his face was doing after he broke his nose. He yelped in surprise when he found his yellow and red eyes staring back at him. 

War shot straight up at the noise, eyes wide and dagger in hand as he looked wildly around the room before he saw Warriors and let out a sigh, slumping back against his pillows.

“Sorry,” he said slowly as he retracted his fangs. 

“Ai minhas deusas.” The other hero’s words slurred together a little as he grumbled. “You okay?”

“I didn’t know my fangs were out so I wasn’t expecting to see the weird vampire eyes in the mirror,” he answered with a frown. “It’s nothing. You can go back to sleep if you want.” 

“How’s your nose?” War asked with a small groan as he pushed himself to be more upright, squinting at him as he did.

“It doesn’t hurt but I only just got up, so I haven’t really looked at it. It’s still a little harder to breathe from the left side but it's easier to breathe today than it was yesterday,” he muttered as he turned around to glare at himself in the mirror again before deciding that maybe War should be the one looking at it. Warriors had no idea if it looked better because he didn’t look at his reflection the night before, so he didn’t have anything to compare it to. “Did you want to look at it?”

“Yeah,” War nodded, moving his legs under the covers and gesturing for Warriors to come to him. Warriors walked over and sat on his bed, pulling his legs up so he was sitting with his legs crossed and facing War. 

He felt kind of bad for making War work on him again. It was starting to feel like he couldn’t have a day where he wasn’t injured or recovering from being injured in some way. He didn’t regret taking bad hits for War but did he really have to slip? It felt a little silly to bust his nose from a slip when the last two injuries were for a good reason. 

“You don’t mind, right?”

“Of course not,” War frowned. “I want to make sure you’re alright. Do you mind if I touch?”

He nodded. “I think you spent more time patching me up then we spent travelling so far. I don’t regret taking bad hits but who breaks their nose slipping on the floor?” 

“Well, I think it was you who said it earlier,” War laughed as he gently reached up to feel his nose. “We’re Links, shit goes wrong.”

Warriors resisted the urge to roll his eyes at him. “What’s the damage?” 

“I’m not feeling the bump I was yesterday,” he told him, the teasing tone completely gone from his voice, and he tilted his head to get a better look, “but I think you do have a deviated septum. The swelling’s gone down enough that I don’t think it could be that anymore.”

“Well fuck,” he mumbled. Warriors was sure that his body would do whatever it did when it needed to regenerate but he didn’t know what that would look like for a deviated septum. Maybe he only felt better because the swelling went down and not because it straightened itself out at all. “I’m guessing there’s nothing you can do to help it?” 

“Only thing I can do at this point is offer blood and hope your body can heal it on its own,” War sighed. 

“You really like offering blood, don’t you? My brothers are the same, though,” he mumbled, tapping his fingers against his leg. 

“It doesn’t hurt me and you need it,” the other hero frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why wouldn’t I offer something I have that could help you?”

“The bite itself might not hurt that much but you still need it too. Not having blood kills people! Honestly, I’ve been kind of spoiled. I usually just hunt for monsters and that gets rid of a threat and feeds me,” he said with a shrug. “It’s kind that you offer it but you need to mind your health too.”

“I’m fine, I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t think I could afford to give you blood.”

“And Twilight thought the same thing and he fucking fainted. I thought I seriously hurt him even though I didn’t drink much of it but he just forgot he was injured before and only had enough blood to feel fine. He didn’t remember that he didn’t have enough to spare,” Warriors said quietly, trying to keep his voice calm and controlled. He didn’t want War to think he was mad at him when he was just concerned. He was concerned for a while, he just did a bad job sounding concerned as of late. 

“I’m not the rancher,” War grumbled. “And I haven’t been injured in any way you don’t know about. I’m fine and you need it, and I know you’ll stop if I tell you to.”

Warriors wasn’t sure if he was able to hide the shock on his face. He explained why he was concerned and it felt like War barely acknowledged it and just seemed annoyed instead. He kind of felt like he was being reprimanded for just being concerned. He did his best to school his expression but even though he was trying to look calm and collected, he wasn’t even sure what to say. All he could really do was bite his lips. 

“I’m sorry,” the other hero whispered, shifting away on the bed so he could pull his legs up to his chest. “I… Fuck. I’m sorry.”

“It’s… fine,” he mumbled slowly. It really wasn’t - he couldn’t help but to feel hurt, but he didn’t think War could handle it if he said that out loud. He already looked crushed. He tried to offer a smile and brush it all off. “I’m used to looking for other sources of blood anyway and I don’t really feel like I need it right now anyway. It can wait a little.” 

“Okay,” War said so softly he almost missed it.

“You…” He took a deep breath, trying to find his next words. “You know that I’m just… concerned, right? I’m not mad, I’m just concerned. Like, how I’m doing is not the only thing that matters here. It’s also how you’re doing… and you don’t seem to be doing that good…” 

“Oh…” he watched War’s eyes widen in shock. He really must’ve thought Warriors was upset with him. Now he had an idea of how War must have been feeling. 

“I’m sorry if I ever gave you the impression that I was mad. I’ve been in a lot of pain from everything that’s been happening lately but I shouldn’t have taken any of that out on you because you were just trying to help. I’m still just trying to get used to getting help at all…” He looked away from War. He was starting to feel horribly raw and vulnerable and he hated it, but he couldn’t stand the idea that War was probably internalizing all of that too. 

“I know you’ve been in a lot of pain,” War said quietly, “and that’s not your fault. You’ve been a lot kinder to me than a lot of the soldiers I’ve worked on before, I mean gods, you haven’t thrown anything at my head or grabbed me by the neck because I fucked something up, not that I think you would do either of those things because you’re much kinder than that. I don’t know why I’ve been so bothered by a few words. I guess they just really got in my head and they won’t leave.” War started anxiously pulling his shirt collar further away from his neck as he spoke.

“Which words? What did I say that bothered you so much?” he asked gently. 

“I think it was the comment from the other day about me not being interested in the vampire stuff,” the other man whispered, letting his chin rest on his knees as he stared blankly across the room.

Oh. That one. He should have guessed. He knew he crossed a line with that. Warriors knew that he should haven’t said it as soon as he said it but then he kept going. It wasn’t his best moment. 

“I shouldn’t have been so snippy about it but I said that because it was really weird that you didn’t seem all that interested in it at that moment. Like, it just… felt wrong. You went from listening to everything I had to say about it and asking questions to sounding like you didn’t really care. You also said that you were fine but I knew you couldn’t be if there was something new you could learn about vampires and you didn’t really say anything about it…” He chewed on his lips again with fangs he didn’t realize slipped out again. 

“I don’t want to make you feel like people back home make me feel,” War mumbled, raising a hand to anxiously scratch at his forearm. “Like… Like you’re just some problem that needs to be solved that no one knows what to do with. I just wanted to help, I just want to help. I’m interested because I want to understand so I don’t do something that would hurt you, but I was too overwhelmed the other day to really do much and I don’t even remember much of what ended up happening. You only got hurt because of me and this is the second time.”

“I can’t say it was a conscious choice the second time around but I would have done the same thing if I was in control. You don’t have to punish yourself for my choices, War,” Warriors said, still trying to be gentle since he knew that War didn’t exactly feel great about the fact that he needed to be helped at all during a battle. “For what it’s worth though, I never got the feeling that I was a problem that needs to be solved or anything like that. My brothers are much the same… Sometimes, talking and comparing notes are the only way I get to learn anything about myself. I’m the only half-vampire anybody knows about, so all most people can do is guess things about me.”

“Oh,” he whispered, but his fingers kept scratching at his arm and Warriors wondered if he was even aware he was starting to leave marks where his nails irritated the skin.

“War, be careful with your arm.” He held out his hand out but then he thought better of it and shoved it his hands into his lap. He still wasn’t sure if War liked touch and it wasn’t the time or place to figure that out.

War jumped, sticking his hand on the bed next to him and staring down at his scratched up forearm in shock.

“Is there any way I can help? You helped me a lot, surely I can return the favour somehow?” Warriors asked. 

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I feel stupid, and I was an ass, and I shouldn’t need help.”

“I forgive you and really, I don’t mind you asking me about all the vampire stuff. If I don’t want to answer, or if I find it annoying, I will let you know.” That wasn’t much of a solution though, was it? It felt like more of the same conversation that wasn’t helping him. Maybe if he was scratching himself, keeping his hands busy might help? “Do you want something to work on, maybe? My chain mail is still broken from the icicle and I did buy extra rings to repair it…”

“Yeah,” War sniffed, running his hands down his face before letting out a sigh. “Yeah, I can fix that for you.”

Warriors didn’t say anything as he got off the bed and went to his own where his chain mail was hanging off against the footboard. He carried that over to War, then fetched his bag to look for the small satchel of rings that he purchased just the day before. It took longer than he would care to admit to find them, since his bad habit of just shoving everything into his bag somehow shuffled the replacement rings to the bottom of it.

“There we go!” he exclaimed as he held up his prize and tossed it onto War’s bed. “You need me to step out for a bit?”

“You don’t have to stay,” the other hero said quietly, “if you’d rather go out and explore or do something else.”

Warriors simply nodded. “I’ll be back by dinner.” With that, he walked out of the room. Since it looked dark and rainy outside of the window, he didn’t think he needed his mask, so he left without it. He didn’t plan on going too far, so he could always go back to the inn if he felt his face tingle. He stepped out of the inn and just sat outside of it under the overhanging roof, watching the rain from the safety of a dry spot and the oddly empty street. 

His brothers always complained about the rain, especially if they were in Wild’s era, but he never really minded it. The chances of sun and rain being present weren’t zero, he saw the horrid mix before, but it didn’t happen often. Sure, Warrior got wet and sometimes the rain ruined his hair, but rain usually meant that he got a break from the sun. He appreciated the break back then and he appreciated it even more after the spring in Twilight’s era burnt a good portion of his skin off. 

He didn’t know how long he spent outside before the inn door opened and one of the innkeepers poked her head out and smiled when she spotted him. “Oh good, you didn’t go far. Dinner is ready.” 

“Dinner?” he asked quietly. How long was he asleep for? Warriors wasn’t awake for that long so he must have slept in pretty late. He couldn’t believe War let him sleep in for that long. 

“It’s about five in the evening. Come in, we have soup! Perfect for a rainy day, don’t you think?” 

“Yeah.” He nodded. Soup and rain were quite the pair. Warriors followed her back inside where there was already a tray with two bowls of soup on it. 

“I’ll carry it to your room, just keep the door open for me, alright?” she asked with a smile. Warriors only nodded again. He was still a little surprised that the innkeepers were so nice. It wasn’t exactly a small place, so he wasn’t sure how they found the time to be so personable with all of their visitors. 

Once he got up to their room, he slowly opened the door and held it out. “Dinner, apparently,” he explained as the innkeeper walked in and set their tray down by all the fruit Warriors left on that table. 

“Enjoy your dinner!” she said with a wave before she left the room and closed the door behind her. 

“I was going to stay out longer…” 

“It’s okay,” War said softly, still working on fixing his chainmail, “you can go back out later if you want?”

“Only if you need more space,” Warriors said as he took one of the bowls and sat down on the floor with his back pressed against War’s bed. The soup was still pretty hot and knowing his luck lately, he didn’t want to risk spilling any of it on War’s bed. The floor would be easier to clean up, at least. The soup seemed to be made of just vegetables and beans but it was still really creamy and there were still some carrots that hadn’t gone completely soft, so he had something he could still chew on. “I wasn’t doing much outside anyway. I just like sitting outside in the rain sometimes since it’s a break from the sun.” 

“I don’t mind if you stay,” War told him, “but if you were enjoying the rain, don’t feel like you can’t go back. You deserve to enjoy being outside without having to worry.”

“It would be better if I had somebody to talk to,” he said without thinking much of it. He shoved another spoon of soup into his mouth before adding, “I also had no idea it was near dinner time. How late did I sleep in?” 

“I wasn’t really paying attention to the time,” War mumbled, setting the chainmail aside so he could grab his soup bowl, “I’m sorry. I woke up and I checked on you and then I went back to sleep.”

“It’s fine. My brothers never wake me up and you probably needed it. They don’t have an excuse,” Warriors grumbled, rolling his eyes. “We probably should stay inside during rain anyway. We definitely would have found monsters and then we would have to fight in mud. Quite frankly, I don’t even trust myself with soup on the bed right now.”

“I think another night in a bed could be good for both of us,” the other hero said quietly.

It would mean more delays for them but he agreed. They were both exhausted and at least for Warriors, it wasn’t entirely because of all the recent injuries he had. “Did we pay for another night in bed?”

“I did,” he nodded, “yes.”

“Oh,” he said simply. Maybe it really was because of the rain and not because he slept in. If War went back to sleep, he must have paid some time ago. He wouldn’t know how late Warriors ended up sleeping. “I guess that’s why they knew to make sure we got a serving of dinner.”

“I didn’t know how late you would be sleeping so I paid for an extra night, I figured even if we didn’t stay another full night it’d be nice to have the option to and the innkeepers really have been so kind…” War mumbled, stirring his soup around in the bowl. “And I didn’t want to wake you because admittedly I’ve been feeling like shit, plus I woke up with an awful headache this morning, so I took an opportunity to rest while you slept so you could heal.”

Warriors always hated being the reason why the others had to stay put for a day but it was hard to argue when he wasn’t the only one who needed a break. He didn’t always believe it when the others said they needed a break but with War, he could. 

“Well, I guess if both need it, then it isn’t a bad idea. If we’re both well enough, we really should get moving again tomorrow after breakfast.” Hopefully, he won't sleep in again. He didn’t usually sleep in like that twice in a row but ‘usually’ didn’t seem to matter so much on this adventure. 

They ate in silence for a moment before War spoke again. “I really am sorry for what I said earlier. I didn’t mean to be dismissive, I didn’t think what I said would come out sounding like that.”

“You’re forgiven,” he said. “Really, it’s alright. I know you were just concerned and trying to help.” He was hurt by the dismissive tone but he was still truly glad that War was supportive of his vampirism. War could have decided that it was too much to deal with and left him behind. “I am also concerned. I can’t stand the thought of my stupid curse hurting people.” 

“You said Twilight passed out?” War asked quietly.

He nodded but he stared in his bowl of soup instead of looking at War. “It turned out that he didn’t have blood to spare but I thought I seriously hurt him, that I went overboard and drank too much and somehow missed all the signs. The others want me to be open about my needs but sometimes I have a hard time trusting that they’ll be honest with me. I just don’t want to hurt anybody. That would actually make me a monster and not just feel like one.” 

“I’m sorry,” the other hero whispered. “That must’ve been terrifying.”

“It was and I just yelled at everybody and left for a few hours to clear my head. I thought he lied just to please me, like my health is more important than his when I have options. He just forgot but the whole thing could have been avoided if he was honest about getting injured in the first place,” he said before stuffing more soup into his mouth. It was hard to completely blame Twilight for what happened, especially since he did seem truly sorry, but Warriors couldn’t help but to still be a little upset with how avoidable it was. He had no idea why Twilight thought it was a good idea to hide an injury.

“Your health is important too but yeah I understand why you were frustrated.” War took a small sip of his soup.

“It didn’t have to be his blood. If I knew, I would have asked Time or Sky instead. I could have also asked Wild since he always has blood from monsters on him in case I really fuck up. We can make it work without anybody sacrificing their health but being sacrificial idiots is kind of a Link thing.” 

“Oh yeah,” War frowned, “you normally have a bunch of people you can get blood from.” 

“And Wild always gets blood when he’s harvesting from monsters. I guess I haven’t really adjusted to not having them around to help me yet…” he mumbled. Logically, he knew he only had War and whatever blood they happened to find along the way, but he hadn’t truly appreciated the fact that all his brothers had their little ways of helping him. 

“Ah…” the other hero said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

They sat in silence after that, finishing their dinner and putting the bowls back on the tray for Warriors to take down. When he came back, War was working on his chain mail again, so he just sat on his own bed and just watched. “I feel like I wasted the whole day sleeping for that long.” 

“It’s okay,” War gave him a small smile, “I wasn’t lying when I said I needed the rest too. Besides, you warned me you sleep a lot.”

“Oh, when I said I don’t wake up well? Sleeping for a long time is part of it but not all of it,” he said. 

War raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh?”

He bit his lips as he tried to think of the best way to explain it. Warriors knew he should warn him because it could easily happen again. “I’ve bitten Wild once when he tried to wake me up but apparently he suspected I would do that because he wore bracers that my fangs couldn’t get through. Maybe I’ve tried to bite him more times but I’m only aware of the one time because I woke up with his arm in my mouth.”

The other hero stared at him with wide eyes. “You’ve bitten people in your sleep?”

“One person that I’m aware of and Wild was very determined to wake me up. He said I was asleep for two days straight, so it was probably a good thing that he did wake me up…” he explained with a shrug.  “But I did bite him for doing it.” 

Big hazel eyes still stared at him in shock, and it was difficult to tell if War was more startled about the fact that he’d slept for two days or still over the fact that he’d bitten Wild.

He felt his ears warm up a bit but he continued, “Actually, now that I think about it, everybody probably just lets me sleep so that they don’t get bitten even though it only happened once. It’s also fortunate that I’ve been able to wake up without much prompting lately.” 

“Do you just…? Not like being woken up…?” War asked.

“Nope,” he answered, shaking his head. “But my vampire mentor thinks it has something to do with me being only half-vampire. I know I need sleep to heal but sleeping as much as I do sometimes isn’t normal for hylians and apparently, it’s not normal for vampires either. Just one of those things that people can only speculate about. It would be nice if I knew why so I can plan around it. Zelda and Impa have to make excuses for me if there is a day where I just can’t wake up on time to do any of my duties.”

Warriors bit his lips again, this time hard enough to taste some blood. He was lucky that he had Zelda and Impa with him back home and that he had his brothers to cover for him when needed but he wished they didn’t need to do that. 

“Is there anything that makes you more tired than usual? Or does the exhaustion just catch up with you sometimes?” War asked carefully, like he was still a little nervous about asking questions now.

“Mostly the latter, I think. Sometimes I can go quite a few days with only three to five hours of sleep every night and barely feel tired, and then there are days where I wake up at like four in the afternoon. I don’t feel super tired the night or before or anything, I just don’t wake up in the morning,” he answered with a simple shrug. He didn’t really mind that War asked so he tried to keep his expressions neutral. “I always sleep longer in safe places, like the ranch or an inn, and I already told you that I need sleep in order to heal. I guess that’s what happened today since I broke my nose.” 

“Huh,” War frowned as he thought about what Warriors just said. “I kinda do that too, I mean with the not sleeping a whole lot and then sleeping much longer in safe places. Obviously it’s not the exact same but… Maybe to an extent some of that is just because of the kind of lives we live. But if your body needs sleep it needs sleep, I don’t mind waiting for you to get the rest you need.”

“Maybe if I woke up before noon and we still had some time to travel. It would take us a long time to get to the castle if we waste a whole day because I slept in,” he huffed as he ran a hand through his hair. He could only hope that he didn’t need too many crash days but he would feel awful if he kept dragging them behind. 

“Are you feeling better? Physically? After getting so much sleep?” War asked.

“I don’t really feel that much different but maybe that’s just because I haven’t really done anything today. That or… I really did need this extra day. A lot has happened in just the past two days alone.” Usually, he just had one big injury to heal from but he lost an arm and broke his nose. Before that, he was impaled by an icicle. It was a lot of injuries to heal from and just this week alone. 

“I also mean with your nose and your arm, and how they’re feeling,” the other hero added, looking back down at the chain mail he was working on.

“Oh… Arm is alright I guess. The only thing I couldn’t really do was hold something heavy on it yesterday so it should be fine now. Nose is still fucked since it’s harder to breathe on my left still. I guess it doesn’t hurt that much but you saw it,” he mumbled, raising a hand to press his fingers against his nose. Touching it wasn’t that bad but it wasn’t painless either. 

“I’m glad it’s hurting less,” War mumbled.

Warriors nodded, stretched himself out so he was on his side, and let his mind wander for a little bit as he watched War work. He didn’t seem to be close to finishing but the icicle did do a lot of damage both to him and his chain mail. 

He tried to think back to what War asked earlier - was it more than just exhaustion that made him the sleepiest Link in the group? He thought he knew all of the factors but there could just be something that slipped his mind. He was half-vampire, which his mentor thought was a contributing factor, he didn’t always give himself the rest he needed, and he needed it to heal. He was also a young vampire, practically a baby in comparison to all the vampires in the estate. 

“Maybe one of the reasons why I sleep a lot is because I’m a baby vampire. Maybe baby vampires are like baby hylians and they spend a great deal of their day sleeping.” 

“You’re a baby vampire?” War asked, glancing over at him quickly as he fiddled with a chain link.

“War, vampires can live for several centuries. The younger ones in Hyrule are at least a few centuries old. I’ve been a vampire for three years.” 

“Oh.” He blinked. “I guess that does make you pretty young for a vampire.”

“Supposedly, a lot of stuff should get easier for me when I’m older but that’s a whole ninety-seven years away. Maybe I’ll sleep less but I should have better control over myself… However, nobody has time to wait for that,” he mumbled as he turned in bed so he was facing the ceiling instead, resting his arms on his chest as he did so. 

“I didn’t realize vampires lived so long,” War said quietly. “It must be weird to imagine what you can do with all that time.”

“Vampires can’t die of old age. We just don’t age. I’m going to look like I’m twenty until something else kills me,” Warriors said with a sigh. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I have to leave the military in a few years when people will start noticing I don’t age. I have a lot of time but I can’t even fathom what to do with it all.”

“You have the other vampires right? So you won’t be alone?” the other hero asked, frowning at him.

Warriors let out a sigh. He wouldn’t be alone, he knew he always had a home with the vampire, but that didn’t give him something to do. “I do but they mostly just stay at their estate. I’m used to travelling around a lot, you know? I have a place to go and a support system but there’s still the question of what I could be doing… or even should be doing.” 

“I understand being used to traveling a lot, and not wanting to stay in one place too long. Maybe you could still do that?”

“Just travel without a goal?” he asked quietly. He never really considered travelling just for travelling sake. Warriors always had somewhere he needed to go, something that he needed to do at one location or another. He was always sent around for battles, to protect supplies going to one fort or another, or do whatever the military needed him to do. His current adventure with his brothers was a bit more meandering than he was used to but they always had the goal of finding a place to rest or resupply or finding clues somewhere. They had a goal, just not a clear way to reach it. With War, they were going to the castle. There was always a destination.

“I mean you could,” War shrugged. “Or you could keep doing what it is we do and fight monsters. Those seem to always be around, so you don’t get bored.”

“I guess,” he mumbled, but he wasn’t entirely sold on it. It was definitely better than just sitting around at the estate if he ever felt restless but he couldn’t help but to wonder if there was something else for him. Warriors was a vampiric hero. He found it hard to believe the gods wouldn’t do something with that fact… or maybe something about it. “Speaking of travelling though, how about we explore this place one more time?” 

“Sure,” War nodded, looking Warriors’s chainmail over quickly before setting it down and standing up so he could straighten out his tunic. “Anywhere in particular you wanted to go?”

“Maybe a tavern or something? It’s been a while since I’ve had alcohol that I actually drank myself,” Warriors said as he sat up and hopped to his feet. “Are you well enough to go?” 

“I’m alright,” the other hero told him, “and I’m always down for a drink.”

Warriors didn’t know War well enough to know if that was a problem or not. It wasn’t uncommon for people in his era to cope with alcohol and he doubted it was different in War’s era. However, he was inclined to trust War - he only had one drink the one time Warriors did see him drink. 

“Let’s go then. I’m sure the innkeepers will tell us where to find it if we ask.”

As it turned out the tavern wasn’t too far from the inn. It was further than the bathhouse was, but it was still on the main road of the town, which War was thankful for because it was still a bit wet outside even if it wasn’t raining as hard as it had been earlier. He walked a little too quickly to get there and get out of the rain, causing his knee to ache, but he didn’t really care and he didn’t stop until he reached the door, pulling it open and holding it so Warriors could go inside.

“Do you want a table or do you want to sit up at the bar?” he asked as he pushed his messy curls out of his face and let the door close behind him.

“I prefer the table. It’s more private and we can see the door better,” he answered as he looked around the bar. “I guess we don’t have to worry too much about the door in a time where nobody knows us though.” 

“Table is good,” War nodded. On top of the reasons Warriors had given, it was also just quieter and he wasn’t sure he was in the mood to be next to the people up at the bar. He could practically hear exactly what they were saying from all the way over at the door if he bothered to focus on their conversation, and he much preferred to have a little table in a corner somewhere.

Once they sat down he spent a minute thinking about what he was in the mood for. He did really enjoy his whiskey, but maybe they’d have a good wine or something for him. Ultimately he ended up deciding on a whiskey and Warriors got a bottle of wine, and while he waited for that he grabbed a few cashews out of his bag to chew on and stared at the wall.

Warriors glanced at the cashews with a quirked eyebrow. “More cashews, huh? You like them that much?” 

“Used to also keep peanuts,” he sighed, “but Wind is very allergic to those and I don’t wanna hurt him so, just the cashews now.”

“Sometimes I think if you could survive eating only cashews and oranges, that’s what you would do,” Warriors said with a sigh. 

“I don’t think you’d be happy to learn I did eat exclusively oranges for several days in a row on multiple different occasions,” War mumbled under his breath without thinking. 

“What? How do you not die or get sick from malnutrition?” Warriors asked quietly, though a little sternly. “I can get away with that since there’s only one thing I actually need but it was hard to stick to only that.” 

“I did get sick,” he huffed, propping an elbow up on the table so he could rest his chin against his palm. “I just physically couldn’t eat anything else and it was hard enough for me to eat the oranges as it was. It’s not like I do it on purpose, I don’t want to be stuck feeling weak and useless and sick all the time. I’d rather be able to eat like a normal person, but sometimes that’s hard so I do my best to make sure I’m getting something.”

Warriors frowned but he had a look in his eyes that War couldn’t quite read. “Sorry,” he mumbled. After a moment of hesitation, he continued, “Do you think our war experiences are different? Since you ended up with more scars from Volga, maybe there’s more that’s different?” 

“Yeah, I guess they could be,” War frowned. It was weird to think about how they went through something so similar, but with how they were two very different people and how one thing was already so different, it was easy to think that maybe their experiences had been different as well. “It would make sense if they were.”

“We lost against Ganondorf at the castle,” Warriors started as he winced, “because Zelda accidentally shot me with one of her light arrows and I was… you know… cursed.” 

“Oh shit,” War whispered. “Did he take the triforce from you too?”

Warriors nodded. “Luckily, it didn’t change the nature of the curse, but Zelda got me good. It took a while to recover from that and Hyrule was in danger the entire time I was stuck in bed.”

“That’s really awful, I’m so sorry,” he said quietly. He’d been caught by friendly fire more times than he could count but he’d never had to worry about a curse making things worse.

“Were you defeated too? At that point, it was my second time facing that bastard. The first time, we were just buying some time but the second time, when it counted, we lost,” Warriors mumbled, glancing at the bar. 

“By Ganondorf? Yeah, he threw me into the ground and took the triforce from me,” he sighed, leaving out the part of it where he’d been beaten within an inch of his life and Ganondorf only left him on the ground like he had because he hadn’t expected War to survive. War hadn’t expected to survive either. “By force. I put up as best a fight I could but it wasn’t enough. Took a long time to recover well enough to start thinking of how I was going to get the triforce away from him, we had limited healing supplies.” 

“That kind of sounds personal. Were you on the ground already when you had to fight back?” Warriors asked slowly, glaring at the bar at the bar now.

He nodded, but before he could open his mouth to speak someone from the bar had come up and set their drinks down for them, apologizing for the wait before rushing away to deal with a rather loud duo up at the bar. Warriors immediately took the glass they brought him and poured some wine into it. 

“Want to toast to something?” Warriors asked, swirling the wine in his glass. 

“Like what?” War asked, picking up his whiskey.

“Friendship? Getting to meet each other at all even though the circumstances fucking suck?” 

“The circumstances are definitely not ideal,” he laughed, “but this has been fun. The in-between moments when we’re not actively fighting for our lives, at least.”

Warriors held his glass out. “To the in-betweens that don’t suck and making a new friend with the same hero title,” he said with a wide smile.

“Hell yeah,” War grinned as he lightly touched the glasses together before taking a good sip. “Oh that’s fucking good. I needed that.”

Warriors chugged his wine back, drinking the entire glass in one go before lowering the glass to fill it up again. He swirled it in his hand but used his right arm to hold up his head on his fist. “Wine’s good too,” he said with a laugh. “Did you have Wind in the war too? Except he’s older than he is now? We called him Tune because he was always humming something. He doesn’t do it much right now though, so I guess he picks up the habit in his future.” 

“I did!” He nodded, taking another sip of his whiskey. “We called him Tune too, kid was two years younger than me then. It’s weird now that he’s so little… Bet Mask feels even weirder about it though- Tune always had this gorgeous long curly hair, and I was always so impressed by it because gods he took care of it well, and when I first met Wind he had his cut very short. He said he kept it that way so it didn’t become a mess but that he wished it could be longer, and it took me a few months to realize it but I’m the reason Tune knew so much about taking care of his hair because he picked it all up from me as Wind. It’s weird to think about how I knew him when he was older first…”

Warriors smiled at him again. “Time and I apparently taught Tune everything he knows about vam- the curse, and Tune was the one who kind of taught us a lot about the curse. I learned a lot from my mentor of course but Tune was the one who really helped to provide the context, I guess. He also knew what I needed before I was aware of it and he always had… materials available when I needed it. I fucking hate time travel sometimes,” he mumbled, chugging his glass back again. He didn’t down the whole thing but he drank a good two thirds of it. 

“He was really good with my blood sugar issues,” War snorted, “and I never even fucking questioned it because I just assumed Mask told him. First time I nearly passed out in front of him he just got me something to eat and sat with me until I could stand back up, and I thought absolutely nothing of it. It never crossed my mind he would’ve already known me, because of time travel shit. The first time I fell in front of Mask the poor kid lost it, granted so did I because I didn’t really have a good grasp of what was happening to me at that point- But no, I just assumed Mask told Tune about it.”

“Wait, so Tune wasn’t there at all when you nearly passed out in front of Mask?” Warriors asked, glancing at his drink like it was responsible for his confusion. 

“No, he hadn’t shown up yet,” he sighed. “He appeared around April after I’d turned nineteen, after I’d defeated the sorceress and we’d all thought the war was over for a moment just to find out that no, it wasn’t. He didn’t stay the whole time either, not that that was up to him because the portal just showed up to take him home and there wasn’t much he could do about it. I’d always worried about him, he was so upset he had to leave and I thought for years he must’ve been in his own era wondering what happened to us, but with Wind seeing me as I am now he must’ve known everything would be okay for the kingdom in the end.”

Warriors raised an eyebrow and chewed on his lips for a moment. “How long did he actually stay then? He came with us after we had to separate into three parties, so he was with us through the worst of it and so was Mask. I wasn’t cursed when he came.”

“A total of thirteen months, I think,” War frowned, having to think for a moment. “Mask was with me through the worst parts of that war. I tried really hard to be someone who was steady and reliable for him, but he noticed me starting to lose it at times and he’s always been a sweet kid even if he has trouble showing it and he’d do small things for me that really meant the world. Still made me upset that I couldn’t be better for him… but… I appreciated when he brought me fruits or just little rocks or flowers he thought I’d like.”

“I think you were still the best he had, maybe even to adulthood because Talon is just kind of… there,” Warriors said with a shrug. “Sad to think that the war is probably where he meets an adult who actually cares about his wellbeing. In my era, Impa had to help me take care of him. He turned out alright anyway, but is that because of me or is it in spite of everything?” He finished off the last third of his glasses and refilled. 

“He was so… angry, at first,” he mumbled, staring down at his drink. “I had a hard time understanding him, like the words he spoke. He had a thick accent I wasn’t familiar with and my Common wasn’t the best when I met him, and I think that frustrated him but eventually I started getting better and he had more patience for me. I did my best to make sure he got three meals every day, and I did everything I could to keep him alive but also let him have some fun. A war is no place for children, I didn’t want his entire childhood to be full of memories of bloodshed and misery and I know he had a tough time before he stumbled into my hands but I wanted to make sure he could actually just be a kid. I just feel bad he still felt he had to take care of me.”

Warriors frowned, swishing the wine in his glass again. “Has he told you that he felt like he had to take care of you?”

“No,” War said quietly, “he’s never said anything like that to me, but I know he worried about me a lot and that he still does, and he had to put up with me being weird and unstable.” He finished up the last of his whiskey and immediately wished he had more. “I just feel like I should’ve been better for him.”

“When people care about other people, they don’t ‘put up with them’, War. People ‘put up with’ something they don’t like or find annoying. Yeah, still not the ideal environment to grow up with but if he stuck around and he’s still fussing, it means he cares,” Warriors mumbled, then knocked back his glass again.

“I know he cares,” he sighed, setting his glass on the table and crossing his arms, “and I’m grateful for that. I just…” 

He felt like he didn’t deserve it. He felt like he’d barely been able to do the bare minimum for his brother and he was grateful that Time cared about him as much as he did but War struggled to feel like he was good enough for that. 

“I pushed him away,” War whispered. “The portal came to take him home during the last battle against Ganondorf, the last battle of the war, and the kid didn’t want to go. He wanted to stay, and I couldn’t convince him to leave and he begged me to let him stay and I told him fine. I’d been hurt pretty bad and I didn’t think we were going to win, I was sure then that that portal showed up to take him home and save his life so he didn’t die with the rest of us. So after I told him fine he could stay and he let his guard down, I pushed him. Right through the portal. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look of betrayal on his face. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again… I’ve felt horrible about it for the past seven years.”

“Have you talked to him about it or have you been feeling bad for the past seven years without knowing how he feels about it now?”

“We’ve talked about it a little,” he grumbled. “I recognized him the second I saw him again but he didn’t say anything to me so I assumed either he didn’t recognize me or he was still angry about what I did. And for a while we didn’t really speak about it but eventually it got hard not to. He was mainly just worried, he had no idea if I’d survived… I’d been stabbed through right before I pushed him away, and I think that was part of why he didn’t want to leave.”

War didn’t particularly want to think too hard on all the ways he’d ever let his brother down, and he didn’t want Warriors to feel bad for him for feeling so awful so he let out a loud sigh and ordered a bottle of wine for himself when the same person who’d dropped their drinks off came back to check on them. 

“So…” Warriors started with a sip of his wine. “Did you also know Ravio from the war? Weird bunny guy and also knows Legend somehow?”

“I did, yeah,” he nodded. “He wasn’t around a whole lot but he’d pop in every now and then.” 

Ravio had somehow known his real last name and had called him that upon seeing him for the first time during the war, and to this day War still didn’t know how he’d ever found that out.

“He helped with our supply lines. He wasn’t on the front lines very often,” Warriors mumbled. “But apparently he knew I was cursed and just didn’t tell me until we met again at Legend’s house.”

“Oh really?” War raised an eyebrow before turning to thank the person who brought him his wine as they set it on the table for him.

“Apparently Lorule is full of people like me so he knew all the signs,” he said with a shrug as he drank the rest of his wine. He didn’t refill his glass though and instead, took another drink right from the bottle. “Also, his blood is actually… it’s the best. There’s no competition. It’s just the best.” 

“What makes it the best?” he asked, taking a rather large sip of his own drink

“Everything… I dunno,” Warriors slurred. “You don’t drink blood, I don’t think you would get it. But like, you know… like giving a cat fish or something.” 

“Hmm, that’s fair,” he shrugged, finishing off his first glass of wine and going to pour himself more. He was starting to feel a little tipsy but he didn’t particularly care, and Warriors didn’t seem to either.

Warriors took another gulp straight from the bottle again. “I think it’s ‘cause Legend’s blood makes me throw up and Ravio and Lorule are, like opposites to Hyrule I think? Ravio tried to explain it to me once. Anyway, the opposite of blood that makes me sick is blood that makes me feel amazing, right?” 

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

Before War could think to say anything else, the loud voices behind them turned to shouts and the sound of shattering glass had him turning around in his seat to face the bar where one man had grabbed another and pinned him against the counter. The poor bartender working looked terrified, a younger looking man who might’ve been new on the job, and the kid didn’t do anything but stand there as a fight broke out and more things shattered.

“Do our heroic duties include bar fights?” Warriors grumbled, putting the bottle down as he slid his chair back, an answer to his own question. 

“I think tonight it does,” War sighed, getting to his feet and rushing over to stop the one man from beating the shit out of the guy pinned to the counter. He had no idea what had sparked the fight, and that wasn’t really any of his business, but he didn’t want the poor people working at the tavern to have to deal with a huge mess. The two men had been pretty drunk when he and Warriors had walked into the tavern, War was willing to bet they could solve their issues in the morning once they’d spent some time away from the alcohol.

In his mind he would’ve been able to get between the two and tell them to knock it off, maybe there would’ve been a little arguing but ultimately the fighting would’ve stopped. Instead he hadn’t even been able to get a word in. The bigger man had seen him coming out of the corner of his eye, and without letting the other guy up off the counter, he punched War across the face so hard he fell into a table before landing on his ass on the floor, stunned.

“Okay, okay, you think you’re one tough guy, don’t you?” Warriors growled as he grabbed the bigger man’s arm and pulled him off the other man, throwing him to the floor as he did so. He straddled the other man and grabbed both of his wrists to pin them above his head. He was using strength that War knew Warriors only possessed with his vampire powers. 

The entire left side of War’s face ached, and he wasn’t sure if his face felt wet because the blow had caused his eyes to water or if he was bleeding but he forced himself back up onto his feet, ignoring how his legs shook and how he stumbled a little. The guy who’d been pinned to the counter leapt up and tried to run at the other man but War stopped him, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him back.

“Hey,” he said sharply. “You know that guy?”

“Yes, I know that guy,” the man spat at him.

“Fight about it tomorrow when you’re not drunk.” War let out a grunt when the man ran at him, crashing into him, but he’d sort of been expecting it and was able to hold him back. The guy was definitely stronger than he was, and it was only because he’d drank so much that he’d become a bit uncoordinated that War was able to stop him for a moment, but he did do so successfully until someone else came to help him.

The man didn’t stop struggling. He threw a few punches at War, mainly nailing him in the side because he was unable to get his arms up any higher and at one point he tried to knee him in the stomach but he was stopped by someone who’d come to ‘escort’ him out. War stood there and panted as the man was dragged away, screaming something about how this was unfair between shouts at the guy who’d pinned him to the bar about how he’d get him back later. 

Gods, his face was really starting to throb.

Warriors was still straddling the other guy and he didn’t get up until a couple of other people decided to help out too. The other hero hesitated but they must have said something because he finally let the man go and got off so the other two people could handle him. After watching them for a moment, he joined War and gestured towards their table, which was miraculously still upright. 

“Wanna sit down? You look rough.” 

“Really?” He winced, heading towards the table with every intention of taking a big sip of wine. “How bad is it…”

“You’re waking up with a black eye tomorrow. It’s already pretty red,” Warriors answered. Once they were seated, Warriors drank more from the bottle. “You think anybody is sober enough to notice the weird cursed eyes?” 

“Absolutely not, no,” War grumbled, upset about his poor face. He poured himself a nice full glass and drank about half of it in one go. “They probably would’ve said something immediately if they had.”

Warriors held out his bottle. “Oh good. How about another toast? To both of us getting our faces fucked in this town,” he said with a laugh. 

War just grabbed the bottle and hit it against Warriors’s, no longer really caring if he was drinking out of the glass or not. He was drinking all the wine either way, it didn’t really matter what he drank it out of. “I think you and I have the shittiest luck of anyone I know.”

“But also strangely we have good luck too. Like, we did find a cabin in the middle of fucking nowhere on a mountain of all places,” Warriors said with a shrug. “And we also somehow got a ride here. I think the bad luck gets balanced out so really… we have neutral luck.” 

He frowned at his bottle of wine. “Everything is either really horrible or shockingly and almost impossibly good. Would you think I’m selfish for wishing for a day where everything was just… quiet? Where I didn’t have to do anything or owe anyone anything and I could just kind of exist? I feel selfish for wanting that… I know our role as hero is important and I do my best but it’d be nice to just not be important for a day. And for the gods and monsters to recognize I’m not important either, just for twenty four hours.”

“Maybe each of us owes them a certain amount of time where we are perpetually on duty until one day, we aren’t, and we won’t know that we aren’t on duty until years later when we realize it’s been too quiet lately. It’s not like we get a heads up that we are on duty, everything just falls apart all of a sudden,” Warriors said with a hum, shaking his bottle in place of swirling the wine around in his glass. 

“You think one day it’ll just be over?” War asked quietly. “That we can just reach a point where we can do what we want to do for once…?”

Warriors nodded, held up one finger as he took another swig from his bottle, then continued, “Yeah, it’ll just take us a while for us to realize that we can finally do whatever we want to do. We won’t get a sign from the goddesses or something, I don’t think they’ll work like that, but I don’t think we’ll fight our whole lives, you know? Like, I don’t think any of us has stories of another of us dying young and tragically, at least the version of the other heroes we are travelling since the old man did something fucking weird.” 

“I’ve had nightmares that this is it,” he admitted, “that this is all I’m good for. Fighting and doing what I’m told because I can’t do anything else. I think I’ve reached a point where I don’t know what I can be outside of this, you know? Some days I feel like a puppet and I’m sick of the control, I don’t ever want to feel like I belong to someone whether its one person or the whole army, but other days I don’t feel like anything at all because I don’t know what to do with myself. Is there anything outside of this??”

War ran his hands down his face, letting out a shaky sigh (and also a hiss when his hand hit his injured cheek before reaching to take a drink from the bottle.

“It might help if we start doing our own thing and then we’re doing something we like doing before we realize we’re still doing that thing we like to do and we haven’t been called on some big adventure. I dunno, I just feel like in the absence of exciting stories of each other’s deaths, we’re going to die doing something boring. Or at least you probably die doing something boring since I’m cursed and all,” he mumbled, leaning back in his chair as he took yet another drink. “If we wait for a sign, we’ll end up wasting time, you know?”

“I just don’t want to be trapped…” he murmured. “I don’t want to feel trapped, by anything or anyone.”

He couldn’t remember the last time he truly felt unburdened, even as a kid he carried around grief from having lost his father or he was worrying about his younger sisters or the soldiers walking around his village. There was just a heavy weight in his chest of a bunch of horrible feelings that felt like it would never go away.

Warriors hummed. “I really don’t think it'll be forever, War. I really think you’ll catch a real break in the future. Might be something you have to work on though. I can offer what I think is best but I dunno what your life is really like outside of what you’ve said.” He shrugged and glared down at the opening of his bottle. “Fuck, it’s almost empty.” 

“I’m sorry, I think I’m a mess,” he mumbled, drinking more from his own bottle. He didn’t think he was even that drunk yet and already he was working himself up and starting to let the paranoia that he was a failure and that he was broken get to him. He just didn’t feel like a person after the war, after Cia.

He smacked the heel of his palm hard into his forehead at that thought, he needed to not think about that.

“What’s that about?” Warriors asked with a quirked eyebrow before finishing off his bottle and putting the empty bottle down on the table with more force than necessary. 

“Nothing,” he whispered, trying desperately to think about anything else while he violently cursed at himself in his own head for opening that mental can of worms. He took another nice long drink from his bottle of wine and it was only when he set it down that he realized it was essentially empty. He must’ve been drinking much more of it than he’d thought…

Time would probably be disappointed in him. Zelda certainly would be.

“We’re going to be fucked tomorrow,” Warriors mumbled with a frown. “Wanna head back before we can’t make it back ourselves?”

“Yeah, that’ll be for the best,” he sniffed, rubbing his good eye with the heel of his palm as he took in a deep breath. He swayed a little once he got to his feet but thankfully the table was there to steady him, and he first headed over to the poor bartender to pay him for the drinks and give him a little extra for witnessing his first bar fight before heading towards the door.

Of course it was uncomfortably cold, and he crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled as he headed back towards the inn.

“My legs are heavy,” Warriors mumbled. Suddenly, he turned to War and laughed. “The wine didn’t make you feel warm and toasty?”

“Feel a little warm,” he admitted. And he was tired, but he was always a little tired. “But still cold… I’m from a place that never fucking saw snow… This is too cold.” He turned to Warriors with a pout that made his injured face hurt.

“I don’t even remember the last time I got super cold. I don’t actually know for sure if it’s a vampire perk or not but I haven’t gotten that cold even with all the snow,” he said with another laugh, which he quickly stopped doing when he had to suddenly correct himself. “I remember the desert though. Deserts suck. I hate them.” 

“Deserts are horrible,” War huffed, tripping over his feet a little and trying his best not to completely fall down. “I don’t burn, I mean my scars are a little sensitive, but I get overheated fast.”

He pushed open the front door of the inn, starting to feel the exhaustion really catch up with him and he struggled to keep his eyes all the way open. Getting up the stairs was harder than it should’ve been, but he’d also downed an entire bottle of wine so it was really his fault. At least he didn’t fall down and managed to get to the room okay, throwing himself on the nearest surface because being upright wasn’t really agreeing with him anymore.

Warriors kicked his boots off and quickly joined him, settling down beside him. “The other bed is too far,” he mumbled quietly. 

War just kicked his boots off too and let himself melt into the mattress. “We can just stay here, that’s fine.”

If Warriors said anything else to him he didn’t hear it because the second his eyes closed his ears stopped working too, and then he just passed out and fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Warriors woke up to throbbing pain and his back against something hard. He knew he made it to bed last night and he knew he was sharing it with War, so there was no way he fell asleep on the floor. He stayed where he was at first, just to orient himself before trying to see if he injured himself because nothing about their adventure to the castle was allowed to be easy. He groaned and sat up, feeling the back of his head. There was no blood but it definitely ached. 

War’s face popped over the edge of the bed and he frowned, pointing down at him with a finger. “Ow?”

Warriors raised an eyebrow at him but he nodded anyway. “Ow,” he agreed as he felt under his nose. There wasn’t any blood there either, so bumped his head but he didn’t break his nose again and that was good enough for him. “You?” 

The other hero nodded as he disappeared from view with a groan, and Warriors was only able to see War throw his arms up over what he assumed was his face from his angle on the floor. 

Why did he drink an entire bottle of wine? His body still felt kind of heavy and they had to leave today because they couldn’t spend a fourth night in town, no matter how kind the innkeepers were. With a deep breath, he tried to get up to his feet but all Warriors managed to do was climb up the bed so that he could plop face first on the bed. Any other time, he would be more careful with his nose but it didn’t hurt, so he didn’t really care. It should correct itself eventually.  

War didn’t move, he just let out another groan.

“War, we fucked up last night,” he said as he turned his head so that he wasn’t just talking to the bedsheets. “And we gotta leave today.”

“I don’t feel good,” the other hero mumbled. 

“What kind of ‘don’t feel good’? Low sugar kind or the drinking whiskey and a whole bottle of wine in one sitting kind?” Warriors asked. Warriors wasn’t much better since he had a whole bottle too but War did drink more than he did. He had an extra glass on top of the wine. “Maybe both?” 

“I don’t know,” he whined, “I haven’t drinked… Drinked…? Drunk…? Fuck it, I haven’t had that much in a while. I don’t remember.”

Warriors pushed himself off the bed and stumbled his way towards War’s head to get a better look at him. He was pale, the kind of pale that reminded Warriors of the few times he drank from War and he immediately lost all the colour in his face. “Do you still have your apricots?” he asked as he looked around the room. 

“Mhm, I think there’s some left,” War mumbled. “You want some?”

“What? No, you need them,” Warriors said with a roll of his eyes. “You’re the low sugar kind of pale. Now where the fuck is your bag?” He had to bend down and to get it from the floor but once he had it, he placed it on War’s chest.  

“Oh,” the other hero said quietly, bringing both hands down to dig through the pouch where he kept his snacks, revealing to Warriors a very swollen looking black eye from where he’d been hit last night. Warriors winced. 

“Can you see out of that eye?” Warriors asked. “Do you have a potion in your bag?” 

“Hurts,” War grumbled out before he shoved a dried apricot into his mouth. “An’ yeah, I should..?” He dug around his things to try to find out.

“Take the potion next,” he mumbled as he slowly sat down on the bed and leaned his head back onto the wall for support. It hurt, he did hit it falling out of the bed, but it still made him feel better. “Maybe it looks worse because your sugar is low but it looks pretty bad.”

“I’ll take it once ‘m not worried I’ll throw it up,” War groaned, gently turning himself onto his side so he could curl up on the mattress.

Warriors hummed, deciding against saying anything because he didn’t want to be the one to push War over the edge if he was feeling nauseous. Besides, it gave him a chance to try to clear his muddled head. He still couldn’t believe he drank so much but he also couldn’t believe that he acted so differently. When he drank from War’s blood, he could remember laughing and goofing around. When he drank from the bottle, he wasn’t quite as silly. He didn’t plan on getting super drunk often but he was interested in seeing if blood made such a difference. 

When he didn’t feel quite as bad, he hopped off the bed and started cleaning up and taking stock of what he had in his bag. He still had fruit sitting around their room and he packed the apples and oranges but left the plums and a rag since they needed to be eaten soon and he figured he would take care of it on the road. He found the other half heart necklace but Warriors was hesitant to wear it - if he had it around his neck, it was probably going to end up in his mouth. For now, it was safer in his bag. He had to put the small satchel of chain mail rings into his bag but he had nearly everything else. The only thing not in his bag were the extra arrows but he knew where they were at. 

Once everything was secured, he closed his bag. “You feel any better?” Warriors asked. 

“A little,” War said quietly. There was a bit more color in his face now, making his black eye look a little better because it didn’t stand out so much, but he was shaking a little, still curled up on his side with his eyes closed. “Sorry.”

He definitely had some time to eat at least. He grabbed a rag and bit into one of the plums he left out to eat on the road. Warriors finished it before speaking up again. 

“Take your time. I don’t mind waiting for you to get better. We don’t know when we’ll find another town, so we would be idiots if we left when one of us isn’t feeling great.” Warriors could only hope that they would find another inn to rent but he knew it was unlikely, so they had to prepare to make camp and that included making sure War felt relatively okay when they left. Besides, he knew War would do the same if he didn’t feel well. “When you’re feeling less shitty, we still have oranges to help keep your sugar up.” 

“We do?” The other hero sounded excited even though his voice was weak and his energy was low. “Fuck yeah…”

“We also have plums that need to be eaten today because they’ll go bad soon, and I don’t know if you like apples but we have some of those too,” Warriors said with a shrug. “We should leave today but it looks like we have a lot of sunlight left.” 

“I like apples and plums,” he mumbled, carefully trying to push himself up on shaky arms. “What time is it…?”

“Well, not quite noon yet, so maybe around ten or eleven? I’m not as good at keeping time like the old man is,” he answered. He would go check to see where the sun actually was instead of trying to judge by the shadows in their room but that would involve him actually looking at the sun and he didn’t enjoy that even when his tolerance towards it was better. 

“Mmm… Yeah that fuckin’ kid always knows the exact time, not sure how he does it,” War groaned as he twisted himself to fully sit up. He swayed just a little, blinking hard as he tried to steady himself, but he didn’t fall back down. “Farore up above, I don’t think I should ever drink that much again, no thank you. Never. No.” He dug through his snack pouch for some more of his dried fruits and cashews and popped them into his mouth with a sigh.

Warriors sighed. “We should have eaten something there. Or had some water after. We drank a lot and then did absolutely nothing to help ourselves after. In hindsight, we should have split a bottle instead of having our own. At least the others will never find out.” Warriors should have known better, it wasn’t like he was new at drinking and he drank at enough fancy parties to know how to pace himself. 

“Why are we stupid?” he whined, swinging his legs off the edge of the bed. War’s curls were an absolute mess from all the flopping around he’d been doing since he woke up and he looked a little pathetic with his one eye still swollen shut. 

He shook his head. “We were left unsupervised.” 

He was mostly joking but if he had one of the others around or if he was with Impa, he knew he wouldn’t have drunk a whole bottle himself. He knew he shouldn’t need somebody around to keep him from himself and he usually didn’t need somebody to tell not to drink so much, so he wasn’t sure why he kept drinking. 

War grumbled something he couldn’t understand under his breath before grabbing his healing potion and taking a sip. The swelling immediately went down around his eye and the awful dark color faded but it still looked a little irritated, though War didn’t drink any more and instead put the potion away for later.

“Can you see out of it now?” Warriors asked with a frown. 

“Yeah,” he winced as he gently touched the slightly bruised skin. “It’s a little sore but it’ll heal up. I don’t want to waste any more potion when, knowing us, we’ll be needing it soon.”

Warriors rolled his eyes, not at War but at their slightly fucked up situation. “We should save them for you anyway. You’re the one who has the chance to go home with a permanent injury. I will take some if we need to get moving, but the bulk of it should be for you.” 

“Just because you’ll heal doesn’t mean you don’t still feel pain,” War frowned. “If you need a potion it’s fine.”

He took a deep breath and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Warriors wasn’t getting back into that conversation again because he knew they would just go around in circles. They both seemed to care about each other more than they cared about themselves. “Are you feeling well enough to eat breakfast or lunch or whatever might be downstairs? We should eat before we leave.” 

“Yeah,” War nodded, “and that should help, too. It’d probably be good for me to eat something before we go.”

“I’ll be back,” Warriors mumbled as he stood up and headed out of their room and downstairs. It didn’t take him long to find one of the innkeepers at the counter. It was the man. 

“Is everything alright? We heard a thud.” 

“I just fell out of bed but I’m fine,” he answered. “This is our last day here but we were wondering if you had anything for us to eat before we leave.” 

“Of course! We’ll be up with something soon!” 

Warriors thanked him and returned to their room, keeping their door ajar. “They’re bringing something up, don’t know what it is but we haven’t had a bad meal here yet,” he said with a shrug. 

“They’ve been very kind to us,” War sighed as he fought with his hair in front of the mirror.

“It’s almost too bad we have to leave. I wouldn’t mind staying longer if we could get away with it,” he said, then watched as the door was pushed open further. 

“It’s not quite lunch yet but we have some leftover pastries from breakfast that we warmed up and we had coffee brewing, so I brought you each a cup with some sugar and cream,” the man said as he put the tray down on their table. “Enjoy!”

Warriors immediately grabbed a cup of coffee and added some sugar, using a little spoon to stir it in. Sometimes, he got teased for drinking coffee that was more sugar than coffee but he liked sweets, what was he supposed to do? 

“Thank you!” War smiled at the man before grabbing the second cup, taking a sip of his very plain coffee.

“Just plain?” Warriors asked with a tilt of his head. “Um, not judging, just curious.” 

“I didn’t ever drink coffee until after I’d been drafted, and everyone said it’d help me feel awake and have more energy so I’d tried it and it didn’t have that effect at all. And it tasted terrible,” the other hero mumbled. “But I realized during the war that it made my mind quieter and I could focus better on battle plans, so I got used to drinking it. We didn’t have sugar or cream during the war, so I'm used to having it without. I eventually adjusted to the taste.”

“I had no idea coffee could do that,” he mumbled. “It makes me feel a little more awake but not enough that I need it every morning like some of the soldiers I fought with. There were some soldiers that couldn’t focus on anything I said until they had some coffee. I just like the way it tastes with some sugar or some chocolate.”

“I have been told I have an incredibly fucked up brain so I just assume I’m always the problem or I’m always the weird one,” War sighed. “But I don’t think I’ve ever put chocolate in coffee before, I didn’t realize that was an option.”

“It’s pretty good if you want to try it when you get home. I’m sure there are plenty of people who don’t feel anything from coffee though,” he said as he took a big sip of his own coffee. “Who the fuck said you have a fucked up brain?” 

“A lot of people…” War grumbled. “My old commanding officer mainly, but some of the noblemen too.”

“I can punch them for you,” he said without thinking. He wasn’t sure where that came from, it wasn’t really like him to say that out loud, but he never took kindly to anybody insulting the people he cared about. “If I ever end up in your era, I can punch them.” 

The other hero burst out laughing and smiled. “He’d deserve it. Mask gave him hell during the war for me, for better or worse, and the guy lost his rank because of everything, but I reckon he’s still around.”

Lost rank? That didn’t happen often, at least not often enough. Even when people didn’t deserve their rank, they always managed to hold on to it. “What did he do to lose rank? It doesn’t happen often in my era.” 

“…Um, well there was the torture training and him calling me not very nice things to my face, and behind my back,” War blinked, reaching to grab a pastry, “…and then what I have now realized was abuse…? He also wanted to hand me over to Cia and that was what finally got him kicked, haha.”

Warriors bit his lips in an effort to keep his jaw shut but then he realized he had a coffee to drink, so he sipped at that instead until he could process his thoughts. He couldn’t believe what he just heard. He heard similar sentiments among the troops but most of his superiors either didn’t care about him or at least cared enough about their jobs to help him. The only exceptions were the turncoats but they didn’t abuse him before attacking him. 

“He only lost rank after that?” Warriors asked quietly. “How is ‘still around’?” 

“I’ve seen him around Castletown in the taverns in the lower city,” he mumbled. “He’s not actually allowed in the city at all, technically. He faces severe punishment if he’s caught, but I’ve seen him at a bar once a few years ago. I didn’t report him because I was drunk off my ass and thought I hallucinated him, but later after I really thought about it I’m sure of what I saw.”

“That’s so fucked up,” Warriors mumbled. If he had to guess, War’s former superior probably didn’t think he did anything wrong. He probably thought what happened to him was unfair and wasn’t some sort of consequence for his actions. Warriors was familiar enough with people like that - people who thought things happened to them, not that they did something to deserve it. 

He finished his coffee and grabbed a pastry, which looked to be some sort of flakey bun that was surprisingly sweet for something that didn’t have any filling. 

“The worst I had were the turncoats. A couple of the leaders were my supervisors but the rest were my equals. They didn’t abuse me or anything like they did to you, they just suddenly attacked. I’m not sure what I did to anger them.” 

“I had some of those too,” War sighed. “First time they turned on us it was so overwhelming we almost lost the battle, I almost died that day. Rodgers, my old commanding officer, made excuses for some of them and helped a few escape punishment. It’s hard to tell who’s fucking side he was really on. He hated my ass and wanted me gone but he was fiercely loyal to the crown apart from everything he did. The other turncoats thought Zel was unfit to lead us and that her father had been doing a better job.”

Warriors frowned at him. “I think many of mine were just mad about the war and took it out on me instead. I don’t think they wanted to hand me over to Cia though. I think they want an eye for an eye, like my death would somehow make up for everything they lost. It doesn’t make sense to me but grief does things to people.” 

“I understand why everyone was so angry, with all the lives that were lost, but it took me years to start to think that the way I was treated was unfair,” War whispered. “A lot of people took advantage of me, of my inexperience with the army and just… I guess how young I was too. I didn’t realize how things were supposed to work. I didn’t realize that it’s not common for soldiers to go through torture training, Sidney was genuinely horrified when I casually brought that one up, or for captains to have to make the decisions I had to make. There was really and truly a point where I believed that turning myself in would be the best option and for most of the war I carried this guilt that if I wasn’t so selfish, I could stop everything. I felt guilty when the assassination attempts failed, and even now that I’ve realized how fucked it is that I was feeling bad for just being alive. I don’t think I’ll ever not feel guilty for having to kill turncoats to save my own life or Mask’s. I’ve heard some of my friends say how they feel like awful people for having to kill beasts, but most days I feel irredeemable for having taken hylian lives. The war really was a fucked up thing.”

“I don’t… feel that bad about killing people,” Warriors said quietly, chewing on his pastry before continuing, “I think I told you that I once killed somebody by tearing their throat out. I only felt bad about the manner of death. I’m still upset that I killed them with my powers and I have this little blank in my memory. I’m not that upset that I killed them, I’m just upset that I didn’t use my sword and I killed them like a monster would. I’m scared that I’ll kill somebody else and not remember it. I was going to kill them for trying to poison my brothers though.” 

“I just feel like those turncoats wouldn’t be dead, that no one would have died in that war if it weren’t for my existence,” War mumbled. “I would never have been a soldier and this wouldn’t be weighing on me so heavily if Cia or the gods or whoever just hadn’t picked some poor person to suffer like this. And it’s selfish of me to even be sitting here like ‘why me’ because if not me, then it’s you. It’s someone.”

“And there’s probably ‘someone’ who didn’t make out the other side like we did. Maybe they got killed by their turncoats, maybe Cia did get them after all, or maybe some freak accident resulted in them just dying in a field somewhere. For better or for worse, we made it,” Warriors said with a shrug, as he finished his pastry and grabbed another. Of course they would find something morbid to talk about while eating breakfast and drinking coffee. 

War was silent for a long moment, just holding on to his still uneaten pastry and staring at whatever spot on the floor he’d been finding so interesting for the past several minutes, eyes wide in what was probably shock. 

“Like, for every hero that did survive, there’s probably one that didn’t, or some sort of alternate reality where one we do know died,” Warriors continued. “The old man did some sort of fuckery that made Wind’s timeline, so maybe there’s more examples we just don’t know about.” 

“It’s weird to think about us or any of the others fully failing…” War said quietly, taking a small bite from the corner of his pastry. “I mean there were battles lost in the war, and moments where I got my ass handed to me but you and I both succeeded in the end. Even with everything we went through, we’re still here. It’s strange to think there could be a timeline where we’ve died because things went differently. Or Time, or Sky, or Twilight, or any of the others.”

“We can’t imagine it because they’re actually here with us and well, we’re here, wherever or whenever the fuck ‘here’ is,” he said with a shrug. “I guess for me, I can imagine all the close calls before the curse and I can see somebody failing there. Sometimes, it’s just dumb luck that we survived.” 

“Yeah…” War took another bite of his pastry. 

They finished breakfast in silence. War took their dishes down while Warriors tripled checked that he cleaned up all of his things and they were packed in the most optimal way. He didn’t want to pack War’s things because he wasn’t sure how he liked it and even after everything together, he wasn’t comfortable going through his things. 

When War returned, Warriors was ready to go. “I’ll wait for you outside. I don’t want to crowd you.” 

“Alright,” the other hero said quietly, “I’ll be down shortly.”

Warriors bid the innkeepers goodbye, which was strangely emotional for him. He didn’t expect to get so attached to them so he felt truly sad to leave them. He headed outside and as he ate a plum in the shadow of the inn, he took stock of all the shops he could see from his spot at the side of the road trying to think if they needed to stop at any of them before they left town. 

He was taken out of his thoughts when he thought he saw blue fabric entering the inn from the corner of his eye. It looked the same scarf he and War had, but War was supposed to be leaving the inn, not going back into it. Maybe he did go back in just to say goodbye. Maybe he forgot something, though that didn’t seem like War. He was sure War was thorough about packing up like he was - it was a military thing.

Then he actually saw War, coming from the same direction from the inn but not from the inn. Odd. Maybe it was just the light then. Maybe he just fucking imagined it.

“Those innkeepers might be the sweetest people alive,” the other hero sighed as he came to a stop beside him.

Warriors blinked at him. “Yeah, I’m kind of sad to leave them,” he said quietly. “We good to go?”

War nodded, fixing how his scarf laid around his neck. Warriors looked back at the inn one last time, that mysterious blue scarf still in mind, then walked alongside War as they finally left the inn and the village behind. 

Maybe he should’ve been paying more attention to everything around them, but War had accidentally gotten quite distracted by the sound of the dirt and rocks crunching under his boots as he and Warriors headed further and further from town. It wasn’t like up on the mountain where it’d been hard to see anything because everything was just white with snow. On one side of the road they were traveling down, there was a forest they seemed to be heading for and on the other side was just an endless sea of grass, but there still wasn’t much of anything. There weren’t many little animals, there weren’t even too many bugs because the region they were in was still a little chilly. Maybe they’d ended up in this era during the winter months somehow.

That might not be the most likely, considering how much warmer it was down here than on the mountains, but it could also just be a warm winter. War didn’t know.

He was a little upset he hadn’t been able to wrestle his hair into something presentable looking. His curls were an absolute mess and had been for days, and he really wished he’d been able to get some kind of product in it to help him out but he hadn’t gotten the chance to at the bath house and he hadn’t been thinking to look if any of the small stores in the town sold any hair products. Back during the war when his hair decided to be an asshole like this all he did was shove his hat over his head and everything was fine, but he didn’t have that as an option right now. He knew if Time or one of the others were here they’d tell him he looked fine, but his hair was too out of control for his liking and he just wasn’t happy with it.

He really missed his friends. It was nice getting a chance to work with someone new and he was enjoying Warriors’s company and getting to know the guy, but he wondered how his friends were doing and if they were worried about where he’d gone. When he traveled with so many people, no one questioned when he fell silent, but with Warriors he wondered how his silence was interpreted by the other hero. He was starting to understand him a little better after how much time they’d spent together, but Warriors was still a little hard for him to read and he was still worried about annoying him somehow. 

Maybe he should ask him about his friends? So Warriors didn’t think there was something wrong with him for being so quiet and also because War was genuinely curious to know how different their friends could be given how different they were.

“How long have you been traveling with your group?” he asked, glancing over at the other hero.

“I… don’t even know,” he said quietly. “It’s all so blended together that I can’t even really tell anymore. I think it’s been less than a year but that’s not helpful at all, sorry. Uh… what about you?” 

“It’s hard to keep track of time when we’re bouncing all over the place but it’s been around eleven months,” War answered, looking back down at the rocks in the path. “We’ve celebrated everyone’s birthday at least once by now, except for mine. Shit really always falls apart around my gods damned birthday.” He let out a genuine laugh. Or maybe it was that shit really liked to fall apart at the very end of the calendar year for no reason and so he just got included in all that mess. “I almost had a full blown breakdown last year when that portal showed up in my room, and I’d been absolutely shocked to find a bunch of other dudes named Link on the other side.”

“Even after the war where you met two other Links?” he asked. “I wasn’t the most shocked but I was still trying to hide my vampirism, so I was distracted by other things, I suppose.” 

“I mean it was still alarming to walk out of my bedroom and into a portal to find just a handful of dudes all like ‘Hi we’re Link!’ and I was so tired of all the ‘chosen by fate’ hero business I almost told them that wasn’t my name so I could just go home,” he grumbled. He was well aware that he was probably specifically chosen for all the bullshit by the gods and that his name had absolutely nothing to do with it, but he did sometimes wonder if he hadn’t taken his father’s name when he got drafted if he would’ve been left alone. “How long did you hide your vampirism from them, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Only for a couple of months. Looking back on it, I’m shocked that I managed to keep it hidden for that long and I only got away with it because only Time knew what a vampire was,” he said with a shrug. “I once came back to camp covered in blood because I hunted but I was expecting Time to be on watch so I wasn’t careful. Thankfully, Legend was too tired to care about it. I think Time helped a little bit because if he’s not concerned, then the others weren’t that concerned either. Actually, that’s still true...” 

“Yeah, Time’s accidentally helped me get away with being weird and too quiet because if he doesn’t question something, no one else does. It’s a little odd how that works out,” he sighed. “I’m glad you have your friends now to help you with the vampire stuff.”

Warriors laughed awkwardly. “I’m still trying to get used to that. They’re really good about picking things up and knowing when I need something without me having to say it. Time usually knows exactly what I need because he was around when I got cursed. I should have been honest with them from the start, it would have been a lot easier. They found out in a similar way you found out actually.” 

“Oh really?” he asked.

“We were fighting nine infected darknuts. Sky went down, and Legend was trying to save him but that put him in danger too, so I had to use my powers to save them.” He paused, like he was debating on whether or not he was going to continue. He must have decided because he took a deep breath and said, “Now, using my powers was the smart thing… the not so smart thing was thinking I could use the shadow’s power. Black blood tastes vile, by the way. Luckily, Time knew how to restrain me so nobody other than Sky got hurt in that battle, but it was definitely the dumbest way I’ve lost control.” 

“So the black blood made you lose control?” War decided to push a little, unsure if that was the best idea but he did want to know. 

He nodded. “Yeah, and so did the blood moon. External sources of dark magic overwhelm me, I guess. I had more control with the black moon but it was definitely a struggle. Luckily, with both black blood and the blood moon, direct contact with the master sword seems to fix it. Black blood is easy to avoid and I know what the blood moon feels like before it comes now,” he answered. At least he didn't seem bothered or upset. 

“Oh I didn’t even think about what a blood moon could do,” War blinked. “Mask doesn’t like them, they freak him out, but I didn’t even consider the effects it might have on a vampire.”

“I didn’t know what was going on at first. I knew something was weird because all of a sudden, my fangs came out and I couldn’t retract them. I stepped away, so I don’t know how my Mask felt about it but he never said anything about it. He might have been more worried about me and Hyrule because he followed me and I was struggling to stay in control. It might have gone pretty bad if Wild and Sky didn’t come find us. Fucking blood moon made me hungry though,” Warriors added with a hiss. 

“Seems like they were all pretty accepting about the vampirism when they found out, even though you lost control?” 

“I’m always more upset about losing control than they are,” he mumbled. “Even if I attack them, they’re never upset with me. I couldn’t be upset with them if they weren’t themselves and attacked me but I dunno, I guess I’m always waiting for them to change their mind or something. It seems too good to be true that none of them have a problem with it.” 

“It’s not intentional,” War frowned, “if they’re anything like my friends then it makes sense to me why they wouldn’t have a problem with it. They care about you and they know you don’t mean it.”

After a moment of hesitation, he simply nodded. “I can’t argue against that. They’re some of the most stubborn people I know, and that includes being stubborn about how much they care. Sometimes, we bicker about it.”

“Bicker?” he asked before he could stop himself, letting his curiosity take over. Warriors had seemed fine with the questions today so maybe he really didn't mind.

“About how to best deal with me. I think they need to be more careful because I can hurt one of them pretty badly but they seem pretty confident that they know what they’re doing and have everything handled without needing to hurt me in return. I don’t remember anything so maybe they’ve been fine. I just worry, you know? What if they’re downplaying something I did?” 

“I mean I don’t know your friends, but I don’t think mine would ever do something like that. I doubt anyone who cares about you would do something like that,” War mumbled, digging through the pouch on his belt for some of his cashews. He was almost out, which was devastating. He’d need to buy more. “I know we’re two completely different people, but do you think our friends are more similar…? Or do you think it’s like with us and they’re all different?”

Warriors blinked at him like the question caught him off guard. It took him a moment to answer. “From what you’ve said, I think they’re different like we are. They probably have similar experiences like we do if they’re all the same heroes, but I don’t think they're the same people. Your group sounded stranger than mine, that’s for sure.”

“Really?” He raised an eyebrow. Sure his brothers were certainly a bit weird but it was hard to imagine them… normal.

“I think you said you weren’t sure if your Wild was entirely alive. That automatically makes him stranger than my Wild,” Warriors mumbled.

“Oh yeah,” he let out a small laugh. “Wild’s an interesting one. Let me tell you, it was a real shock to watch him get knocked unconscious the first time mid battle, and I rushed to his side as soon as I could and found no pulse. And while I still had my fingers to his pulse point he sat right up and just looked at me before downing maybe half a potion and running off like everything was fine. Turns out his heart doesn’t always beat and he doesn’t always breathe either and both of these things are fine, apparently.”

“Even my heart beats and you’ve seen the sort of things I can heal from. I just feel like if I was in a room full of your brothers, I wouldn’t be the weirdest one there and I drink blood,” Warriors said with a sigh. 

“I think all my brothers have at least one thing going on, like Mask’s hip frequently just pops out of place and we have to stop and help him out with that and that’s not even the strange thing, that’s actually easily explainable. What is weird though is that sometimes he just gives off this… this energy, this very strong magical presence that feels far older and far more powerful than he is and it’s almost terrifying,” War sighed. It only wasn’t scary to him because Time was still his little brother and he could never be afraid of him, but it was still unnerving that sometimes he felt like he’d found himself in the presence of a god. “Wild is… Wild. Twilight needs to do his specific things in his routine so he can actually sit down and rest, plus he gets major energy boosts where he needs to run around. Hyrule has some strange spells he knows and is a little too good at magic for some random Hylian but I’m not going to be the one to question him about that. And I’ll be honest I really don’t know what’s going on with Four.”

“Has Mask used the, well… mask, during the War?” Warriors asked, his tone suddenly much more serious than it was before. 

“He did, that’s part of why his hips and shoulders pop out so much,” he grumbled. “He overused the masks when he was younger while he was growing and now his bones don’t really like to stay in place because they’re so used to moving into different places, at least that’s how he explained it to me.”

“But did he use the one that kind of looks like him? He said that one had a deity in it.” 

“Yeah, I know the Deity, and he has his markings on his face now,” War mumbled. “Well, at least on one side of his face. He told me he was wearing the mask and got in a bad fight and was struck across the face, that’s how he lost his eye too. It’s gone, he has a glass prosthetic and a large portion of that half of his face was paralyzed by the injury, and he told me the mask was shattered and the Fierce Deity is gone.” 

War wasn’t sure he believed that, especially with the strange magical power he picked up from his brother, but he couldn’t exactly push when he was keeping secrets of his own. He could pretend to believe Time’s story since his brother was doing the same for him.

He couldn’t see Warriors’ expression since he was wearing his mask but his silence felt heavy. “The mask… broke,” he said simply, like he was trying to understand what War said.

“Mhm, he said it was shattered,” he repeated. 

“Do you think it’s that simple?” he asked quietly. “He never said what happened to the Deity once the thing containing it broke?” 

“No, he didn’t,” War whispered. “And I can’t help but think that the god would’ve chosen him as its new vessel, with the mask gone, but I’m not going to push and demand answers when there are things he asks me about that I can’t bring myself to tell him.”

Warriors considered his words with a tilt of his head. “That makes sense. I wonder why it needs a vessel though. I thought it was just sealed away. Ganondorf didn’t need a vessel once all the seals on him broke, so I can’t help but to wonder what the difference is.” 

“I don’t know,” he sighed, “it’s just the only theory I have. If Mask was the deity when the mask shattered maybe it just stayed with him? There are times his energy feels too ancient and strong for a normal hylian, and sure Sky also feels like that and he’s never encountered the Deity before, but I can’t think of how else this might’ve happened.” Thinking about it made his head hurt sometimes.

“I think my Time still has the mask but he also has the markings and he’s also blind on that side. He hasn’t used it or said anything about it but I know he wouldn’t just keep it at home. I have to assume that no news just means things haven’t changed but maybe that logic is flawed,” Warriors mumbled. “I think that means there might be more than one deity.” 

War frowned. “Do you think there are really more than one? Or maybe it’s the same deity facing a different fate across timelines? Do you think our gods are the same? Even though we’re different?”

“Perhaps, but my crazy idea is that we’re looking at an infinite amount of timelines where small choices that don’t seem important can make another timeline where there might be more heroes that we share a title with,” he said, waving his hands around as he did so. “I’m not even positive if we both know the same Lana and Cia, or if there are multiple of them too. Like, is there Cia and Lana for every Hero of Warriors or is there just one of each and Cia is forced to constantly hunt down the Hero of Warriors like she’s never met one of us? Both of those suck!”

The idea of multiple Cias was almost enough to make him physically ill, and he started pulling the fabric away from his neck with a shaking hand so he didn’t end up coughing and choking like he was being strangled. If there really was more than one Cia, could all of them see through the timelines and spy on the same Link? What was stopping a Cia from another timeline from finding and coming after him? If there was more than one of her, who's to say there couldn’t end up being another war? What was even keeping her in her own timeline?

“Do you think there’s a version of me in your era since we’re not the same person?” Warriors asked suddenly like he didn’t really think what he was saying. “Like, if you go home, will there be a non-vampire version of me there? Maybe he looks a little older because he might actually age and I’m stuck looking like I’m twenty for the rest of my life.” 

War took in a deep breath to calm himself before thinking. “Huh… I’ve seen a lot of soldiers over the past seven years and I don’t have the best memory of the ones I didn’t regularly fight beside, so I’m not sure if I remember ever having seen your face… I wonder if we could find each other?”

“We might not be able to look until we can't see each other anymore though,” Warriors grumbled, looking away with his shoulders drooping. 

Oh… Right. Warriors couldn’t come with him when he got his brothers back, this entire time they’d been actively working towards a way to put themselves back with their own friends and then they’d never see each other again. 

They hadn’t even really spent that much time together and War had already gotten a bit attached to his new friend.

“I’d like to think any version of me that’s out there would be incredibly chill,” he said quietly, really hoping that what he was about to say wasn’t weird or didn’t make Warriors upset. “I came from a small village and without the draft I’m not sure if I would’ve stayed and helped my Ma with our shop or if I still would’ve ended up in the army, but if he’s still me just without the hero shit, I’d like to think he’d be friendly.”

Warriors kept his eyes off of him. “I don’t even know what any other version of me would be like. Maybe he would always just be a soldier.” 

“My era did have the draft,” War mumbled, “so whatever version of you that’s in my era might’ve been drafted. Was there anything you would’ve wanted to be? Had you not joined the army?”

He stopped walking. “I can’t even think about what I want to do when I can’t be in the military anymore, let alone what I would have done if I never joined in the first place,” he grumbled. “Sorry… that’s not your fault.” 

War froze just a step ahead of him, turning to look at him as he spoke and feeling his ears flick down in shock. He hadn’t meant to ask a sensitive question. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Warriors mumbled, walking ahead of him. “It’s not your fault my childhood sucked and was uninspiring.”

No, it wasn’t, but that didn’t mean War didn’t feel like an ass for asking something that brought up feelings of frustration, and he’d heard enough about Warriors’s aunt to realize he probably shouldn’t have asked something like that. He should’ve expected that answer.

He didn’t say anything as he followed after Warriors, he just adjusted his shirt collar to keep it further away from his neck and headed back down the little path towards the forest, staring back down at the rocks he’d found so interesting earlier.

They walked on in silence for a very long time, War wasn’t sure what to say and Warriors didn’t speak to him either, and without either of them calling for a break they just kept moving until the sun started to set and it became a good idea to set up camp before it was too dark. They’d found a nice little spot just into the forest, where the trees weren’t too thick yet but it felt somewhat protected. War wasn’t the biggest fan of not being able to see a wide area around him, but the trees blocking his view meant they were also blocking any monsters’ view of him. 

Warriors seemed very interested in the trees though. He stood at the foot of one of them and was looking up into it. “They look very sturdy,” he said out loud. “It’s been a while since I could hang from a tree.” 

War raised an eyebrow and let out a curious hum as he fussed with his things, setting up a little spot for himself against the trunk of a different tree.

“Vampires don’t get motion sick, so sometimes I uh… just spend an entire watch hanging upside down in a tree. I honestly don’t know why I do it, other than it being surprisingly comfortable… I guess,” he said with a nervous laugh. 

“You can hang upside down for that long?” He blinked. “That’s cool.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t give me a headache or hurt the back of my knees or anything,” he added, turning his head towards War. “And I can use my powers to just hop into the tree. I don’t really need to climb it.”  

“How high can you jump?” War asked carefully, a little nervous to be asking questions again.

Warriors shrugged, bent his knees, and jumped, disappearing into the canopy. Leaves rustled, probably as Warriors adjusted himself in the tree. “About this high?” he called out. 

War couldn’t even see him. He stood up and spun around staring up at the trees, trying to spot his friend. “Holy shit!”

“Can you see me or do I have to stick my arm out?” Warriors asked over the rustling of more leaves. “I’m moving a branch.”  

He could make out the branch once it started shaking, but it was so high up he never would’ve guessed Warriors got all the way up there. “I see you!”

“Great, I’m coming down now. I don’t know where you are but you might want to move,” Warriors warned. War stepped back so he wasn’t near the tree. It rustled a couple of times and he could see some of the branches move, then suddenly, Warriors hopped out of the tree and landed on both of his feet. He rose to his feet like nothing happened. 

“That’s really fucking cool that you can do that,” War blinked.

“You think so?” he asked, looking at War with his yellow and red eyes. “I had to train with one of the full vampires after my brothers left and it doesn’t seem so impressive after seeing what he can do. He looks like he’s sixteen and he’s grumpier than Legend, but he regularly kicks my ass. He’s one of the ones that only tolerates me.” 

“Yeah,” he nodded. “It’s cool. Do you want to take watch first again? I know it’s a bit early but I figured we should try to get as much sleep as we can since we have to keep watch tonight.”

“Yeah, I can take first watch. I’m not that tired right now,” he said quietly, almost gently. With a small smile, he added, “Have a good rest, War. I’ll wake you up later.”  

“Alright,” he mumbled, moving to get himself comfortable for the night. “Thanks.”

Chapter Text

Warriors hated mornings, not entirely because he was a vampire, but it definitely played a big role. It used to be a lot easier to wake up since he just got used to waking up early when he was living in the barracks. After becoming a vampire though, opening his eyes in the morning always felt like a fight, even if he felt awake enough by the time he started his morning routine. 

Breakfast was the fruit Warriors still in his bag. He finished the last of the plums while War had an orange and by the time they were back on the road again, it was only a few hours after sunrise. Compared to the day before, they were pretty early. 

“You think we’ll find a town today?” Warriors asked. He felt bad that he snapped at War the day before but he still wanted to talk and smooth out the bump in their friendship, or at least talk enough to put it behind them. 

“It would be nice if we did,” War sighed. “I think with how close the last two were, maybe we will find one today or tomorrow.”

“While we were on the mountain, I thought we would spend more time sleeping outside than we have,” Warriors admitted. “Just think of how long it would have taken to get off the mountain if I didn’t use my powers. We’d be so behind.” 

“It would’ve taken us forever to get down safely, with all the snow and how steep it was,” the other hero nodded. “And I know you’re probably sick of me saying how much I don’t like the cold and snow, but I genuinely don’t think I would’ve been able to stay on that mountain much longer without suffering some real consequences, so… Thanks.”

“I was worried about how you would handle the cold too,” Warriors said quietly. He joked about it in his head but behind it, there was genuine concern. “It helped that you handled the whole vampire thing pretty well too. I don’t think I would have ever offered to use my powers to get off unless you were actively dying if you didn’t take it so well.” 

War looked a little surprised by that, like the idea that he wouldn’t have been accepting had never crossed his mind at all. 

“I don’t always know how people will take it. I think I’ll always be nervous, even though nobody has actually stopped being friends with me because of it. I need blood to live, it sounds kind of weird, doesn’t it? Like, if you didn’t know what a vampire was, wouldn’t it sound weird?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. 

“I had no idea really what a vampire was before I met you, and I mean yeah, it was unusual hearing that you needed blood to heal but I didn’t find it that weird,” War blinked at him. 

Warriors laughed. “Perhaps I shouldn’t ask another hero. If we described the war to civilians from another era, they would just think we have an active imagination even though it was our reality.” 

“Oh for sure,” War let out a small laugh, “I think we’ve seen so much crazy shit that there’s no such thing as weird anymore.”

“If there is a weird, it’s really fucking weird then. Or maybe there’s something we find weird that civilians would find completely normal because we don’t know what normal is anymore.” Was he rambling too much now? He was rambling before War asked a question he wasn’t prepared to answer. He swallowed. War didn’t mean anything by it. It was a perfectly normal question so he wasn’t sure why he even got upset with it. 

Warriors just had to keep a cool mind. That’s all. Just stay relaxed and then he wouldn’t snap at War again. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve all completely forgotten what normal is supposed to be,” the other hero snorted.

“That’s probably true for everybody who survived that war too. What if there is another war? I don’t even know what a normal war looks like. I guess that’s both a good thing and a bad thing, but still. I’m used to a military that had backup and experience from other heroes. Basic training could have never prepared us for a war with time travel involved.” 

“We were on our own for a while before anyone from a different era showed up and it really was overwhelming,” War said quietly. “Most of the army was decently well trained since we’d been expecting a war with a neighboring kingdom for a long time but a lot of people who’d been recently drafted just didn’t have enough training and we had to quickly solve political issues while dealing with all the monster attacks and Zelda ‘disappearing’. I really hope there’s not another war any time soon, that was all just… A lot.”

“Somehow, I forgot that Zelda ‘disappeared’. It feels so long ago,” he said with a frown. When he thought back on the war, Zelda’s little disappearing act barely registered. He knew it was something that happened but there were other moments that simply stuck out to him even more. “I remember the war for getting betrayed, for getting cursed, and for accidentally getting shot by Zelda. I also remember it for all the time-displaced heroes I met.”

“I choose to remember it for giving me my brother,” War mumbled. “And also, I’ll never forget the sheer amount of lives it took, but apart from honoring those who didn’t make it home and doing my best to help rebuild what parts of the kingdom were destroyed, I force myself not to think too much about it. Or, rather, the worst parts of it. I did enough of that right when the war first ended, I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened and it almost consumed me completely.”

“It’s been seven years since the war ended for you, right?” Warriors asked. 

War nodded, letting out a soft hum. 

“You’ve lived more life after the war than I have.” He kept his tone neutral. It was neither a good thing or a bad thing, just a fact. There was more time for wounds to scar and more little distractions to keep his mind occupied, though it was hard to say what sort of distractions War got when he still lived in the castle and still had to act as a hero. “What have you been doing in the last seven years?” 

“A lot of different things,” the other hero told him. “The war brought a lot of physical destruction to towns and villages across the kingdom, not to mention the number of lives it took and the economic effects. A lot of people lost their homes and a lot of children lost their parents, so I spent quite a lot of time ensuring those people were taken care of. I was there in the villages making sure progress was actually being made to rebuild, I made sure nothing was blocking the trade routes anymore, and I did my best to ensure those children weren’t all just shoved somewhere and ignored. I tried to find any relatives for them, or just some familiar faces who’d be willing to take them in and when I couldn’t do that I found them a place to stay with someone I trust will take care of them. The court wasn’t particularly fond of that, but they’re all a bunch of greedy bastards anyway and I can do what I want with my money.” War let out a sigh before continuing. “Other than that I have my duties as a captain in the queen’s army and also her unofficial but at this point sort of official advisor, and I spend a good majority of my time wishing I could argue with the court that no we don’t need a king and it certainly shouldn’t be me but unfortunately I’m there to be seen and not heard in those meetings so I’m not really supposed to talk.”

“They want you to be king?” He didn’t think War would be a bad king or anything since he did seem to genuinely care about people but he already knew that War wasn’t interested in being with his Zelda like that and he knew War wanted a break. Also, it didn’t seem like the nobility liked him that much, if what War said while they were eating breakfast at the inn was of any indication. Were these different nobles or did the same guys who hate him also want him to be king? 

“They do, which is hilarious because these are the same assholes hiring people to come and kill me,” War rolled his eyes. “I’m well aware it’s not me they actually want, they want the other kingdoms to hear that Hyrule’s king is a goddess chosen hero. They don’t care about anything else, they’re trying to make the kingdom look stronger and apparently they’re willing to put up with their hatred to do it.”

“I’ve always wondered how much other countries even care about the heroes here. Vampires abroad care about the princesses because they can smite vampires if they really feel like it, and they also care about evil coming back because they will live long enough to see more than one hero. I don’t think they care about the heroes themselves,” he said with a shrug. It wasn’t exactly true - the vampires in Hyrule cared about him, but they didn’t care much about him being a hero other than knowing that they couldn’t treat him like they might treat other baby vampires. His title brought implications but not the kind of implications that War had to worry about in his era. 

“The other kingdoms in my era only seem to care if it ends up impacting them. I think they respect the hero’s strength or whatever but they wouldn’t really care if Hyrule’s king was a ‘hero’ or not. I think the court is mostly fucking full of themselves and want to use the image of a hero as long as they can in whatever ways they can make it benefit them,” War grumbled. “They treat ‘the hero’ and myself very differently.”

Warriors frowned, though it wasn’t like War could see it behind his mask. He was about to ask about his Zelda when he happened to glance at the forest they were walking beside. He stopped in his tracks. Within the forest, he could see what looked to be spider webs… a lot of spider webs. It was mostly strung along the trees, from branch to branch and tree to tree, but he could see some webs on the bushes too. 

“What. The. Fuck.” 

“Oh no… No no no no no…” War whispered, eyes widening as he took in just how much the webs covered. 

“I take it you don’t like spiders,” Warriors mumbled. He couldn’t say he was a fan either but if there was a big enough spider to do that or enough of them to do that, then they needed to check it out. “If our hero duties include bar fights, they include freaky spiders too.” 

“I don’t like them at all, I don’t care how big they are,” the other man grumbled as he very reluctantly took a step forward towards the webs. “I’m sure the tiny ones are harmless or whatever and if they leave me alone I let them be, but they freak me the fuck out.”

Warriors stepped ahead of War and he was the first to break the treeline and enter the forest. It was eerie, to say the least. Forests were usually darker since the canopy blocked out some of the sun but the webs, combined with the canopies, made it much darker than usual. It was also far too quiet. Warriors could see the webs but he couldn’t see any of the spiders that made them, nor could he hear them. 

Then he saw something move from the canopy, scurrying away to another tree. It was the shape of a spider but it was far too large. He could kind of remember fighting a big spider but he couldn’t quite place where he fought one, and he definitely didn’t know if it had a name other than ‘spider’. Warriors could only stand there and watch it. 

War whipped around at the sound of the leaves rustling above them, trying to find where the noise had come from. 

“That’s… one big fucking spider,” Warriors whispered as he spotted a second also within a tree, starring at him with far too many eyes. “They’re in the trees.” 

The other hero turned towards him slowly before looking up at where he was. Warriors could tell when he spotted them because War let out a muffled shriek after he’d clamped his hand over his own mouth. 

Warriors jumped back as more of the giant spiders emerged from the brush, raising a couple of their giant legs threateningly. There was still movement above them too, with spiders running along the branches and the webs between them. Warriors couldn’t count them all but there had to be at least ten giant fucking spiders. 

He decided to take the mask off his face and shove it into his bag. He didn’t really need it in a forest covered in webs, so he didn’t want to risk damaging it in a fight if he didn’t have to. With it safe in his bag, he turned to War. “Let’s split up. I’ll go to the trees, and you fight the ones on the ground.”

Warriors didn’t wait for an answer. He summoned his fangs, withdrew his sword and used his powers to jump into the trees.

Everything was horrible, everything was so awful, and if Warriors wasn’t there with him and if his life wasn’t legitimately in danger, he probably would’ve just sat down and cried. He’d been severely understating his dislike for spiders because he didn’t really want Warriors to realize how absolutely irrational it was. Tiny little spider, huge fucking skulltula, it didn’t matter. His entire life he’d been terrified of the damn things, and he really had no reason to be because until he’d started traveling with his friends, he’d never even been attacked by one. 

This was genuinely the most horrible scenario imaginable: There were gigantic spiders and they wanted to fucking kill him.

When the first one descended from the trees, something took over in his brain and he just ran at it, screaming as he swung his sword at the damn thing. And then he just kept swinging. He wasn’t sure he’d ever moved that fast before in his life and he was so freaked out he didn’t even feel himself tiring. Each swing would knock the spider back a little bit and when it came back at him, he was already frantically swinging to knock it back again and again until eventually it fell backwards and War wasted no time in driving his sword straight through the middle of it.

He felt absolutely no relief or satisfaction because he knew there were more and he didn’t think he’d be able to calm his racing heart until they were all dead. 

“Watch out!” Warriors shouted from above as one of the skulltulas came crashing down from above though thankfully, it was already dead. 

Two live ones dropped after it and War rushed at them before they could get him first. It was overwhelming having to focus on two skulltulas while also trying to keep an eye out to make sure one didn’t come from behind him. He was barely able to hit one back before the other one came at him, and he couldn’t call Warriors for help because he didn’t want to distract him from all the spiders still up in the trees.

By sheer luck he managed to flip one over and drive his sword through it, but he had to quickly leap out of the way when a web shot at him.

“What the hell??” he shouted, running to duck behind a tree when another web came flying his way.

Why… Why did it have to be spiders… Why did it have to be him?? Twilight actually liked these fucks, well… Maybe not the skulltulas but he wasn’t scared to death of them, he’d pick up tiny spiders with his bare hands and War didn’t know how he could do it.

He heard something drop behind him and he didn’t even think before he swung. The fact that it very well could’ve been Warriors didn’t even cross his mind until his sword bounced off another spider. The other hero probably knew better than to sneak up behind someone in the middle of a fight but War still felt a little bad as he beat the spider to death with his blade, and once that fucker had been stabbed through he decided to just run at the other one and hit it too. The sooner he got this bullshit over with, the sooner he could go sit down somewhere and just breathe. 

The skulltula must’ve been a bit confused, if it could even feel confused, as to why some little hylian had started sprinting at it full speed with a sword when said hylian had been cowering behind a tree just seconds ago because it didn’t even attempt to shoot a web at him. It didn’t do much of anything but stand there as War flipped it over and killed it.

“Incoming!” Warriors shouted once again as another dead skulltula dropped from the canopy. 

War didn’t realize the other hero was practically above him and his heart rate went up so quickly he could’ve passed out when the thing dropped right in front of his face, so close to him that he felt his hair move. He probably would’ve cried if he hadn’t been so completely shocked, but also he really didn’t have time for that because the skulltulas were really starting to get annoyed about their dead friends and two more dropped down to torment him.

With no small amount of terrified shouting, he was able to kill one before tripping over his own feet and slamming into the forest floor with a loud cry. He quickly flipped himself over so he wasn’t crawling defenselessly on the ground, and as he struggled to get away he quickly glanced up in the trees to find three spiders staring down at him. It wasn’t easy to see up in the trees, he couldn’t make out Warriors at all but since he didn’t think the other man would just sit around and watch him fight for his life, he was forced to assume there were even more up there.

The skulltula on the ground ran at him and he let out some strange sound of distress as he scrambled backwards. It was coming at him way too fast for comfort and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get to his feet in time, but he fucking refused to die like this so he swung his sword at it anyway. Somehow, someway, he managed to stab it from underneath and the way he twisted his blade free of the monster was enough to kill the thing.

Before War could take another breath, he heard Warriors cry out and there was a loud thud as something hit the ground. 

“Warriors??” he shouted, looking up to try to find his friend, just in time to watch four skulltulas descend from the trees. 

Fuck fuck fuck, he’d only counted three before!! 

War ran to try to put some space between himself and the spiders, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to take all of them by himself and he needed time to come up with a plan, but as he moved and got a better view of the clearing, his eyes landed on something that filled him completely with dread.

Warriors was laying on the ground in the middle of the group of skulltulas, head turned away from him and arms bound to his side with webs. His friend must’ve fallen from the trees, and he wasn’t moving from where he’d landed on his stomach.

War knew the other hero could take a lot of damage but… With how still he was and considering the height he’d just fallen from, War was more than worried. He forced himself to take a deep breath and slow his frantic thoughts because now he couldn’t really afford to be running around like an idiot scared out of his mind, he needed to get to his friend as fast as possible.

“C’mere,” he yelled to get the spiders’ attention so none of them would go after Warriors. He had to make himself look really interesting somehow, he didn’t think the skulltulas would want to go after a moving target when there was one that wouldn’t be moving also right there, but War was going to make them want to go after him more. 

He didn’t really have any sort of item use to get their attention, his fire rod would’ve been nice but Wild was holding on to it for him, but there was one thing he knew he always had that could potentially keep the spiders from getting bored and decide they’d rather eat Warriors than deal with him. He’d just have to work quickly because he didn’t know how long he could hold his focus spirit with how low his magic felt.

Raising his sword and feeling the magic start to flow through him, War used his increased speed to run at the spider furthest away from his friend. He hoped that by attacking that one and not charging at them that he wouldn’t push the other skulltulas towards Warriors, and he prayed that a glowing golden blur would be shocking enough to the monsters that they’d want to chase him and he’d completely capture their attention.

He knew he didn’t have long before he ran out of energy so he moved as fast as he could, using his enhanced speed to beat back the skulltulas and flip them over when they scurried after him. It’d been so long since he’d felt magic flowing through him like this. He’d forgotten what it was like to be this strong. He’d avoided using his focus spirit around his friends because he knew how it made him feel after, but he refused to let Warriors get killed by some spider. He didn’t know if getting eaten was something vampires could survive but he was going to assume that it wasn’t, and he was going to protect his friend.

It took nothing at all to kill two more skulltulas, and he knew when he turned to face the last one that his focus spirit was about to break, so he didn’t even raise his blade. He just stood there with a smirk on his face as golden light exploded around him, evaporating the spider.

War almost fell over when he moved to run to his friend, his vision was spotty and the world was spinning, but through the power of sheer determination he convinced his legs that they did know how to work and he didn’t stop until he dropped to his knees at Warriors’s side.

“Warriors?” he called, hands hovering over the other hero for a second before he gently rolled him over, trying to tear the webs off him as he did.

His friend was unresponsive, and War’s eyes widened when he saw blood staining his hair and dripping across his forehead from a wound just at his hairline. There was dirt all over him too from him slamming into the ground, and as War carefully felt for his pulse he noticed a bite on his neck. 

“Oh fuck…” he whispered, looking back up at Warriors’s face for any sign of the other hero starting to wake up. The longer Warriors laid there not moving, the worse War felt. “Warriors? Warriors, can you hear me?”

The first thing Warriors became aware of was a throbbing headache that made his stomach twist. The second thing he became aware of was somebody calling his name. With great effort, he opened his eyes but closed them quickly when the extra little bit of light in the forest made his headache worse. He opened his eyes again, though much slower to let himself adjust better. 

He opened his mouth to respond but even that took more effort than it should have. Warriors tried to move his fingers and toes and he found that while he could, it didn’t feel right. His arms and legs were numb, so it wasn’t exactly painless to move them to begin with, but it also felt like there was a brief pause of some sort between his limbs and his brain, like it took a second for his body to realize that he wanted to move it. 

Warriors forced himself to think about what he could remember. He could remember being surprised that those giant fucking spiders could shoot web at him. He could remember one of them touching him along his neck while he was struggling. He could remember the struggle and the weight of the spider on him making him fall. Was it the spider? Was that why it felt weird to move? Did it do something to him? He knew that spiders could be venomous. 

Shouldn’t be resistant to venom? He could consume hemlock. Why would venom affect him?

Warriors could move his eyes just fine at least. He could see War. At least he wasn’t alone when moving was hard and exhausting. 

“... War?”

“Hey,” the other man offered him a small smile. “Good to see you recognize me, you fell from pretty high up and hit your head.”

Oh, well that explained the headache. He groaned, partially in frustration at how heavy and slow his body felt, but trying to talk was making his nausea worse. “It’s… hard to move,” he finally spat out, moving his hand so that it was closer to War. “Shouldn’t… happen." 

“What do you mean?” War frowned, digging through one of the pockets on his belt for something.

What was the easiest way to describe it? Warriors couldn’t say much at a time, both because he found it difficult and because he didn’t want to get sick. “Feels heavy,” was what he settled for. 

“You’re shaking a bit and you’re not looking so good,” the other hero told him gently, “I’m starting to think maybe vampires aren’t so immune to skulltula venom. What do you think would help right now? Blood? I have a potion too.” War held it up for him to see.

“...Venom?” he asked quietly. Did they bite him after all? How could venom affect him? He was pretty much immune to hemlock and that tended to kill people a lot faster than venom. Shouldn’t it be weaker and thus something he should be able to shrug off? 

“You’ve got a bite on your neck,” War confirmed. 

“No,” he said firmly. Warriors didn’t want to believe that he was feeling any effects from venom. He might have only been half-vampire but if hemlock couldn’t affect him, he had a hard time believing that venom could. He tried to force himself to sit up but only managed to push himself up a little bit before his head spun and he felt a sharp pain in his chest. His arms lacked the strength to keep himself up so they buckled and he found himself flat on his back again. “No…” 

“It’s okay,” the other hero said softly. “Try not to move around so much, you might’ve broken something when you fell, I didn’t have time to check. What do you think would help more, blood or healing potion?”

“Blood but.. Don’t know…” He didn’t know if he could really drink at all. It was hard to speak, so he wasn’t sure he could bite and draw blood as it might require more coordination than he was capable of at the moment. He also wasn’t sure if he could retract his fangs quickly enough if War started to feel bad. 

War stared at him for a second, trying to figure out what he meant before he asked, “You don’t think you can drink? Is it that you don’t think you can swallow? Because I can hold you up if that’s what you need.”

Warriors could feel his eyes sting from the tears that were beginning to form. He couldn’t believe he was being affected by venom and he couldn’t believe that he was in a position where he didn’t think he could drink the very thing he needed to feel better. “Can’t drink,” he answered, biting his lips to keep the tears back. He reached for War again, his hand finding the other hero’s pant leg. 

War slowly moved towards him, giving Warriors plenty of time to say something if he didn’t want to be touched and when he didn’t tell him to stop, War came closer and gently lifted him up so he could hold him in a careful hug. He didn’t have the strength to really return the hug but he rested his throbbing head on War’s shoulder. 

The last time he was hugged like that, it was because he lost control and Time held him until he passed out from exhaustion. It was weird to think that he was being hugged for a similar reason, that he needed to be consoled because of the lack of control he had over his own body. 

Warriors didn’t say anything and War didn’t either but he didn’t mind too much. The hug was comforting enough and honestly, said enough. He had his doubts before about War leaving him but they were all more or less erased now. 

It took several minutes for him to relax enough to be able to think. He needed to figure out a way to drink blood that didn’t need a lot of coordination on his part. “I can… maybe… lick blood.” 

“Yeah?” War carefully shifted him a little to free one of his arms.

“Yeah… not hard… to do,” he mumbled. He was beginning to feel dizzy now and for a second, he was worried that the venom could be affecting him more before Warriors remembered he also hit his head. He found himself wishing that it was his head making him dizzy. 

“Are you okay if I move you a little bit so you can drink easier? And so I can use my arms?” 

Warriors considered it for a moment. He was dizzy but he was going to feel bad either way, so he might as well be in a position that would actually help. “Go ahead.” 

The other hero was very gentle as he sat him upright, making sure he didn’t move him too quickly and taking care to support his head so it didn’t flop over and hurt his neck or make him even dizzier. War shifted behind him before letting Warriors slowly tip backwards until he was leaning against him, and then he took off his right bracer and rolled up his sleeve. 

“You need me to do it or you got it?” War asked, holding his arm up.

Warriors responded by extending his claws. It took more effort than he wanted to admit to get one of his claws close enough to War’s arm to scratch him and make a little bit of blood pool to the surface of his skin. War moved his arm closer to his mouth, allowing him to lick it up. Without him having to say so, War squeezed his arm and let Warriors lick up more blood. Once War’s arm began to scab, Warrior decided that he had enough for now, so he settled himself against War. 

The other hero shifted a little behind him, leaning back slightly and using both arms to hold himself upright. “Better?”

He closed his eyes. “I need a few minutes.” 

“I’ll let you sleep all you want but first you need to tell me if you think the venom is still an issue.” War’s voice was firm though it also kept a gentle tone.

“Hmmm, probably not. ‘Lena said that… vampires don’t die slowly,” he mumbled, forcing his eyes open as if that would give War more confidence. He wasn’t sure if it did. “Just wake me up later.” 

“Alright,” the other hero said softly, moving him carefully to rest more comfortably on the ground. 

Warriors closed his eyes again and let himself drift into a light slumber. When War called his name to wake him up, he felt like it was too soon and he just wanted to go back to sleep, but he forced his eyes open for War’s benefit. “How long has it been?” he asked quietly. 

“About an hour,” he told him, “I just wanted to check on you. How’s your head?”

“I’m not as dizzy,” he answered. “And it’s easier to talk, so I should be able to drink blood now. I was worried I wasn’t coordinated enough before.”

“That’s good,” War sighed. “I was going to let you sleep longer but I was worried you might’ve been concussed.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. I still have a headache,” he mumbled as he tried to sit himself up again. Warriors’ arms shook with the effort and he managed to sit up for all of three seconds before his spinning head made him feel nauseous and he had to lie down again. He groaned. “Too fast.”

“Do you want me to help you up?” War offered. “Or do you need to lay down for a minute?”

“Help me up, please,” he answered. “Before you do though… Uhhh… I think it would be easiest for me if I could bite your neck. I know it’s a big ask but I think it’s the best way to support me while I drink.” 

The other hero’s eyes started to widen before War’s face froze, and then after a split second it relaxed back into a neutral expression. 

“Okay,” he said quietly, loosening his scarf and collar and pulling them away from the side of his neck.

“I’m surprised you’re agreeing to this. I appreciate it but you know you can say no, right?” 

“I know,” War mumbled, giving him a small smile as he reached down to pick him off the ground and lean him against him so Warriors’s head was resting on his shoulder. “Just… Can you not grab my neck, please…? I’m okay with you biting it, but… Can you please not hold it?”

“Yeah, I can do that. Let me know when you need me to stop, okay?” Well, he knew War knew that but it didn’t hurt to remind him, especially since he really liked drinking from the neck. He first steadied himself by putting a hand over War’s upper bicep on the opposite side, then placed his fangs on his neck, hesitating for a moment before piercing the skin. 

War’s blood wasn’t special but it was still very good, and it almost seemed to taste better when it came from so close to his heart. It was pleasantly warm and fresh, and it was easy to get a lot of it into his mouth quickly. He kept drinking until he felt War tap him on the top of his head, so he retracted his fangs and just rested his head on War’ shoulder. There was still blood on War’s neck and while Warriors hated letting blood go to waste, he didn’t think War would appreciate people licking his neck. His arm was one thing, but War unsurprisingly felt vulnerable about his neck, so he left it alone. 

“Thanks,” the other hero whispered. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, I still need some time though. I’m sorry this is taking so long,” Warriors mumbled. “I don’t even know why the venom affects me.” 

“It’s alright,” War told him, gently resting his head on top of Warriors’s. “You don’t need to apologize for that.”

“I am stopping us from getting away from dead spiders,” he said, rolling his eyes at the situation he found himself in. “I don’t even know why I’m so affected by spider venom of all things. Hemlock only makes me a little sleepy. Hemlock kills people a lot faster. I don't like it.”

“Has anything ever affected you like this before?”

“No. Hemlock doesn’t do this to me, and Legend’s blood made me feel like shit but not to this extent,” Warriors mumbled. “Even if Legend’s blood did something like this to me, at least I know it’s because of the light magic, which I doubt this venom has.” 

“Yeah…” War sighed. “Is there anything else that hurts besides your head?”

“My chest hurt when I tried to sit up earlier. I wouldn’t be surprised if I broke some ribs.” The pain was starting to dull though. Maybe if he was lucky, he only bruised them so there wasn’t much that needed to heal but if he learned anything on this particular adventure, it was that he was rarely so lucky.

“Did you need more rest or do you think a healing potion could help get you up?” War asked, lifting his head up. “I want you to take as much time as you need so you don’t hurt yourself, but we should also get away from here before it starts getting dark.”

The potion would probably do good for his chest but he wasn’t sure if it would help the muscle weakness, so Warriors decided to try and move his fingers and toes. It was easier to move but he didn’t think he was at the point where he could walk yet. “I don’t think it would hurt. It would help my chest, at least.”

“Yeah? Do you need help or do you think you could sit up by yourself?” 

Warriors hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out whether or not he was actually strong enough for that. “I don’t want to try to sit up right on my own right now,” he finally answered. 

“Okay.” War adjusted how he was sitting so he could still support Warriors and grab the healing potion from the pocket on his belt again. “Do you want to drink this now or do you need a minute?”

“I think I can drink it now. I haven’t felt sick since I had more blood.” 

“That’s good,” he said as he handed him the little bottle. Warriors took and while his arm shook a little, he was strong enough to hold it up and drink. He didn’t want to use the entire potion but War was right about the fact that they should move to a better spot before they lost daylight, so he drank the entire thing and passed the bottle back. 

“How much time do we have?”

“Probably around five hours,” the other hero told him, shoving the empty bottle back in his pocket. “You can get a little more sleep if that’s what you need.”

“I think I do,” he admitted. Warriors wasn’t as tired as he was before but the sleep was something he needed to heal and he knew better than to fight it. “Can you help me down?” 

War let out a small hum and gently lowered him back down to the ground before unpinning his own scarf and folding it up, and then gently tucking it under Warriors’s head.

“Don’t let me sleep too long. I think I only need an hour or two…” Warriors mumbled as he closed his eyes and let himself drift again. Like last time, he opened his eyes again when he heard War calling his name. Without thinking, he sat up like he would have done any other time he woke up before he remembered that sitting up was hard to do before his nap. He felt surprisingly alright. His chest still hurt a bit and his arms and legs felt a little sore but he could move them without an issue. 

“How are you feeling?” War asked, closing up his journal and putting it away.

Warriors didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stood up just to see if he could and see if he could keep himself balanced. He took a step forward. “Sore, but well enough to get going. How long did you let me sleep this time?” 

“Closer to two hours,” the other hero said, pushing himself to his feet and going to grab his scarf off the ground. 

“So about three hours left to see if we can find a town.” It wasn’t impossible to find a town at this point but he didn’t want to get his hopes up. “Is my face alright?” he asked as he tried to feel along his hairline to find the wound. 

War nodded. “You’re looking a lot better too, you were a bit pale earlier.”

“Really? Paler than I already am?” he asked with a quirked eyebrow as he dug it into his bag for his mask. Once he found it, he put it on his face and pulled his cloak on. “Ready to go?”

“Ready,” War responded, pinning his scarf in place so it was far away from his neck and would stay there.

Getting out the webby forest wasn’t too difficult thankfully, though he did find himself worried about how regular animals would fare in the forest now that the spiders changed it but they had to move on. Maybe a good rain would displace some of it. They found themselves back on the road, leaving the forest and all the dead spiders behind. 

Warriors couldn’t say he was in a very chatty mood, but found himself opening his mouth to speak anyway. “Thanks for everything back there,” he started. In the very least, War deserved that. 

“Of course,” War said quietly. “I’m glad I could help.”

“Are you feeling okay after I drank your blood? It seems to hit you hard whenever I do that,” he asked with a frown that War couldn’t see behind his mask. 

“After some rest, yeah,” the other hero nodded. “I was a bit dizzy earlier but I had some of the rest of my dried apricots so I’m feeling alright now.”

“Do you need an orange? We still have some, I think. If not, I have apples. They need to be eaten anyway.” 

“That would be good I think, thank you.” War gave him a small smile.

Warriors stopped walking for a second in order to dig through his bag for a couple of the oranges. He only took one of them out but he kept one on the top of his bag to keep it handy in case War wanted a second one. Once he found the orange, he passed to War. “Here you go, Oranges.” 

War let out a laugh as he took it, smiling wider. “Thanks.”

They walked in silence after that, with the exception of Warriors passing along another orange for War to eat as they walked. Much to Warriors’ amazement, they did in fact, find a town just as the sun was beginning to set.

“I think I figured it out. If we go through absolute shit, we will find a town to sleep it off,” Warriors said, mostly to himself but he was loud enough for War to hear.

“How nice of the gods to let us find rest after throwing at us the worst thing they can think of,” the other hero sighed.

Well, Warriors was sure they could do worse than send them to fight spiders, but he wasn’t going to challenge them and say it out loud. “We should be thankful they give us rest. We don’t want them to change their minds, after all,” he said as they walked into town. “Are we buying dinner tonight?”  

“I need to,” War mumbled. “If you’re not in the mood for that and would rather sleep that’s alright but I should really eat something before I go to bed.”

“I think I will just sleep,” he said after thinking about it. He already had blood so the last thing he really needed to feel completely better was sleep. “We’ll check in first though and make sure the innkeepers know we’re together.” 

The town was a bit smaller than the second but still bigger than the first town they found right beside the freezing mountain, so the inn wasn’t hard to find but it took them a good ten minutes to walk there. They went up to their room together, where War dropped off his things and left again, but Warriors stayed. He took a quick look in the mirror he saw in the room and if War thought he looked better, he hated to see how he looked before. He was still paler than usual and he was starting to go dark under his eyes.

And his nose still wasn’t completely straight. 

Warriors rolled his eyes at his reflection, removed his layers until he was just wearing his undershirt and pants, and slipped into bed.

Chapter Text

For the first time in a good while, War didn’t wake up with a headache. He was so used to it that when his eyes first opened he spent a moment frowning up at the blurry ceiling wondering why he felt weird before his tired thoughts could work fast enough to put together that it was because he didn’t feel like shit. Which was also strange considering the whiskey he’d drank after dinner and how awful he’d been feeling most of yesterday afternoon.

He’d been incredibly lucky that he’d had a small amount of snacks left in his bag that he’d been able to eat while Warriors napped and recovered, otherwise War was sure he would’ve ended up passing out. Between having used his focus spirit and giving blood to his vampire friend twice, he’d gotten rather dizzy and while Warriors had been taking his last nap before they’d gotten moving, War had just laid on the ground next to him and stared up at the trees. It had the added benefit of not just helping him feel better, but also letting him make sure no skulltulas decided to come back for a hylian sized snack while they were vulnerable. 

He had been feeling better after some rest and with the oranges Warriors had given him as they walked, and also after having gotten to eat a full dinner, but he didn’t expect to actually be feeling good when he woke up. War didn’t think he could even feel the near constant ache in his lower back anymore. Maybe the mattresses in this inn were magical, or maybe he’d immediately feel miserable once he sat up, he wasn’t sure. 

There wasn’t any real rush to get to his feet, a quick glance at the little bit of window he hadn’t covered completely with the curtain last night told him it was still fairly early in the morning and War didn’t expect Warriors to wake up for quite a while, but War was used to getting up early. He liked being up to watch the sun start to rise, it gave him time to appreciate the quiet before people started to wake and it gave him time to properly prepare for his day and feel ready to go. Routine had been something he’d been missing since he’d been separated from his brothers, and he had a feeling (or rather a hope) that falling back into his familiar morning patterns might make him feel better.

So with a small sigh, War carefully pushed himself upright, and frowned in confusion when still no headache appeared. 

“Huh… Weird.” He mumbled to himself, getting to his feet and slowly stretching to wake himself up more. 

He knew better by now than to dwell on little miracles like this for too long because they’d find some insane way to disappear, so instead of continuing to stand around thinking about it he headed over to the window to look out at the small town, cracking it open a little. It’d been nice feeling the weather warm up the further south they travelled as he and Warriors had left the mountains, and even though the morning air was a bit chilly, War figured it should end up being a tolerable temperature later in the day. He stood there for a moment, leaning against the wall, just watching people start to appear and begin their days. The sound of the birds chirping slowly became accompanied by the sounds of small carts being rolled across stone as the stand owners down in the market set up and by soft chattering as the town began to wake up.

It was so much more peaceful than what he observed from his own window back in Castletown. A huge city like that had been somewhat difficult for him to adjust to when he’d moved there, it was so much busier and louder than what he’d been used to. When he’d first been drafted and stayed in the barracks with other soldiers around his age, he’d never really seen that many people before in one spot, and on rare occasions when he’d been allowed to just walk around the city it’d been so overwhelming because of the sheer amount of things going on. There were so many people, many speaking languages he’d never heard before and the majority had been speaking a language he was supposed to have known, and it’d felt so cramped. The streets were always busy and packed and people were always coming and going as if they were running late. And even now, close to thirteen years later, when he could actually speak Common and with his rooms in the castle decently far away from the noise of the city, it was still a lot.

War much preferred small towns like this. This was far more familiar to him, quiet little places where most people knew each other and helped out their neighbors, and said ‘Hi’ to familiar faces every morning. 

Turning away from the window with a small sigh, he looked over to where Warriors was still sound asleep. He seemed decently comfortable, curled up on his side with an arm slung over one of his pillows, but War walked closer just to check on him and make sure he looked okay. Yesterday had been rough for him, not that losing an arm and being impaled had been easy or fun, but Warriors had reacted to both of those injuries with annoyance. With the skulltula venom he’d almost looked scared, if not incredibly overwhelmed, which was understandable considering he hadn’t known something like that could affect him. 

After confirming that his friend was still breathing and that the pillow wasn’t squished against his face in a way that might prevent him from continuing to do so, War walked away to let him sleep, heading to freshen himself up for the day. His hair was still bothering him quite a bit, he had nothing to straighten it with and nothing to help make it less frizzy and messy looking, but he did what he could to make his curls look presentable. He was likely never going to be happy with them until the next time he was able to wash them and use the proper products or until he could straighten them again, so he forced himself to turn away from the mirror before he lost it and cut them all off.

Getting dressed took less time than usual, simply because he didn’t bother with his bracers, gloves, pauldron, sword, or really anything that made him look like he was actively heading off to fight something. In his experience traveling with his brothers, that only made the townspeople more anxious and rather suspicious of him, and since he could assume that he’d at least have a few hours to explore before Warriors woke up, he really didn’t need those things. His paranoia had him keeping his chainmail on as well as some of his hidden daggers because there really was no guarantee that nothing would happen, but those weren’t visible to anyone who didn’t know they were there.

War also made the decision to leave his scarf behind, folding it up nicely and leaving it on his bed with the pin resting on top, gently running his fingers over the embroidery at the end before stepping away. He’d been just as shocked with himself as Warriors had been yesterday when he’d told the other hero he was okay with him drinking from his neck, he usually hated feeling anything touch it which was why his scarf was always so firmly pinned in place and why every shirt he owned was either loose around the neck or cut to be that way. He hadn’t lied to Warriors when he’d told him he could bite him, and he’d appreciated how Warriors had seemingly double checked to make sure he really was fine with it and how the other hero had let go the second War had told him too, but he’d gotten a little overwhelmed and it would be nice to have a small break from things near his neck until he could fully calm himself down. Luckily his hair just covered the two little marks because he’d pulled his collar wide open enough that some curious person otherwise might’ve seen them and gotten confused. 

Or maybe the people in this era did know about vampires and seeing those marks on his neck could anger them and make them not trust Warriors and himself. Just because War hadn’t had a real idea of what a vampire was before he’d met his friend didn’t mean everyone else was the same as him.

He’d ended up fixing his collar before leaving the room, making sure to tightly close the curtains and lock the door behind him, so that it was closer to the sides of his neck. Just in case. The feeling of the fabric brushing against his skin bothered him a bit and he wasn’t even sure if there was a real risk or if this was something Warriors would just laugh at him about later, but he’d much rather be safe than sorry. He’d never forgive himself if he did something that ended up hurting his friend.

War wasn’t quite in the mood for breakfast just yet, so he politely declined the innkeepers’ offer when they saw him come down stairs before heading outside to explore. He shivered slightly in the cold, but with the thicker tunic he’d bought a few days ago and the fact that it was still early, he knew he’d warm up if he just started moving. And the first place he found himself walking to was a small little store that sold all kinds of berries, dried fruits, and nuts for him to restock his bag with. The peanuts certainly called to him, but even though Wind wasn’t around him War didn’t buy them and instead settled on getting more cashews and dried apricots, this time a large enough serving of each to hopefully last him a long while.

When he pulled out his wallet to pay, he blinked at it in shock. He knew he didn’t have access to all of his money, since the good majority of it was back home in his era and the large chunk he’d taken out for travel was being stored with the rest of his belongings in Wild’s slate, but he hadn’t realized the small amount he’d had had gotten so low. He supposed it made sense, since they’d stayed several nights at inns and he’d paid for the bathhouse, and they’d gone to eat and drink and War had restocked his supplies, but this meant that either they soon wouldn’t be able to afford supplies and food or he was going to have to find a way to get the rest of his money. 

He thanked the shop keeper as he took his snacks and tucked them in his snack pouch on his belt, and then headed to another small store nearby because he knew they needed more healing potions. Making sure they didn’t die on the road was a good use of his money, and after buying a few bottles he headed back to the inn so he could leave them with the rest of his things and fully count out how much he had left.

Warriors hadn’t moved much in the time he’d been gone and he still seemed to be doing fine, so War left him to sleep while he emptied his wallet and tried to calculate how much longer they could keep going like this. He had no idea how much Warriors had on him, but just with what he had they could afford a few more nights at an inn and a few supply restocks before he ran out. And without him knowing how much longer they’d be traveling together, such a low amount of rupees was enough to have him a little concerned since he wasn’t sure how he could go about getting more.

Though it seemed as if the gods were feeling a bit generous towards him today, because after he’d left the inn again to go back out and explore the town he didn’t get too far before a frantic and stressed out man crashed right into him, having run around a tight corner without seeing that War was there. They both landed a little roughly on the stone, and War was a bit rattled from the sudden impact but his racing heart started to calm down when the man began apologizing profusely as he helped War to his feet. 

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, sir,” he said, reaching to brush War off before War gently held his hands out to stop him.

“It’s alright,” he told him, giving the man a small smile. “Is something wrong?”

“My cuccos,” the poor guy wailed in distress, reaching up to grip his hair. “I woke up this morning and my fence was wide open and they were gone!”

“Do you need help looking for them?” War offered, since he really had nothing better to do and he’d feel horrible walking away knowing this man was left searching the town all by himself.

“That would be wonderful,” he sniffed, “thank you so much. There are six of them total, and I live in the small house just behind the weapons shop if you’d be so kind as to just stick them in the pen there.”

“Of course,” War nodded and reached out to shake the man’s hand when he held it out to him. “I’ll do my best.”

With a new goal for the day, he walked further into the small town, keeping his eye out for the fluffy white birds. He’d never been the biggest fan of cuccos, Linkle used to chase him around with them when they were little, but he knew if he didn’t hurt them in anyway they wouldn’t become aggressive, so when he found the first one wandering an alley with a bucket trapped on its head he gently scooped the thing up with no issue.

“Adventure’s over, little guy,” he sighed as he took the bucket off the cucco’s head. 

The bird of course just stared at him, not necessarily with a look of gratitude for granting it its sight back, but it also didn’t look like it wanted to peck his eyes out so that was a win in War’s book. 

It wasn’t too hard to locate the weapons shop or shuffle between the buildings to reach the pen the man had told him about, and on his way from the alley where he’d found the first cucco to the pen he’d found another just splashing around in a puddle and scooped that one up too. Carefully sticking both birds back in the pen, he made sure the door would close firmly behind him so they wouldn’t get out and make him chase them down again. He’d honestly expected this to be a little more difficult, given how distressed the man had been, but maybe the guy was just really upset over having lost his animals to the point it made it difficult for him to search properly. War could understand that to a degree, if he ever lost Rosie or Delilah he’d probably just shut down and cry.

Cucco number three was also rather close to the pen, War found the bird inspecting the flower pot outside a nearby house and quickly snatched it. This one had been a little more upset with him than the previous two, but ultimately it took almost nothing for him to pick it up and bring it home. 

The fourth he found towards the entrance of town, staring out across the path towards the forest like it was considering starting a new life there and War quickly put an end to those thoughts by scooping it up as well, and he found the fifth one on the way back trapped inside an open barrel. He’d heard a strange sound as he’d passed it, and he wasn’t sure what had possessed him to go back and double check, but he was glad he did because he found a little cucco in there running into the wooden sides of the barrel.

“How’d you even get in there??” He mumbled to himself, staring down at the bird in confusion as he struggled to reach down far enough to get it out while also keeping his grip on the other cucco. 

The one in the barrel wasn’t the most helpful creature, in fact every time he tried to get his hand under it to grab it in a way that would be supportive and not painful, it bolted to another wall of its self made prison, making it that much harder to grab. Eventually War just gave up, noting the location of the damned thing and deciding to come back for it once he had two free hands. He dropped off number four, grateful to see all the cuccos he’d already caught were still in there, and he headed back to the barrel with a sigh but to his absolute shock when he got there the bird was gone.

“What the fuck??” He gasped out, poking his entire head into the barrel to make sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him, but no. The cucco was gone. And he was positive it was the same barrel because he’d made sure to note it was the one against the side of the tavern. “Where did you go??”

“Excuse me?” A soft voice behind him startled him and War jumped away from the barrel, looking around with wide eyes until he saw an older woman standing there.

“Oh, I’m sorry ma’am, I was just-” He started rambling, feeling the need to explain himself. “There was a cucco in that barrel just a minute ago and I couldn’t get it at the time so I thought I’d just come back for it but now it’s gone.”

The woman laughed at him and War couldn’t quite tell if she didn’t believe him and thought he was ridiculous or if the cuccos got out so frequently that this was a common occurrence, but he felt the tips of his ears burn and he stood there awkwardly until she’d stopped laughing enough to speak.

“Oh George and his silly birds,” she sighed, and War relaxed a little. “He goes in there to talk to them sometimes and then at night he gets so tired he forgets to lock the door to keep them in! It’s very kind of you to be helping him.”

“Well, he seemed very upset and I didn’t want to make him look for them all on his own,” War told her. “And I’ve already found four of them in what, just under an hour?”

“It’s still kind of you,” she smiled. “Anyways, I’d seen you pass by a few times and well… You’re just a bit taller than I am and I was wondering if you could help me grab a few things I can’t quite reach, when you have a minute.”

“Sure!” War agreed, brushing his hands off on his tunic and trying to straighten himself out a little. He didn’t really consider himself to be tall but the woman was clearly shorter than he was and if there was something she couldn’t reach, he might as well do his best to get it. “If it’ll only take a minute, I might as well do it now.” He wasn’t sure how long it would take him to find the last two cuccos and he didn’t want this poor lady to be left needing someone’s help when it seemed like she just had a quick task for him.

“Thank you so much,” her smile widened as she gestured for him to follow her into the tavern. “My nephew usually helps me but he’s feeling a bit under the weather right now, and there’s just this big heavy pot I can’t seem to get.”

She led him towards the kitchen storage area where the big door was already propped open, and pointed up at the pot in question. It certainly was a bit high up, but War could just reach his fingers into the space between the pot and the handle if he lifted his heels off of the ground and he carefully pulled it off the shelf, making sure to have one hand ready to catch the bottom of it so the full weight of the pot didn’t come crashing down on his head. It was probably a little too heavy for him to be lifting like that, but he got it off the shelf without dropping it or letting it fall on someone, and he even carried it onto the counter for the lady so she didn’t have to lift it.

“Oh, you’re amazing,” she beamed at him. “Thank you so much.”

“It was no trouble at all,” War assured her, trying not to look as out of breath as he felt.

The woman dug around in her pocket for a moment before holding something out to him. “Here, for your troubles. I insist.”

His eyes widened when he realized she was trying to pay him five rupees just for that. “Ma’am, you don’t need to-”

“I insist,” she repeated, practically shoving the money in his hand and making it clear there was no chance for him to argue. 

War felt bad for getting paid for doing absolutely nothing, but the woman was quite stubborn and he did kind of need the money, so he thanked her before leaving the tavern and resuming his hunt for the cuccos. Which ended up being a bit easier than he’d thought it might be because right as he stepped outside he almost trampled one, and he let out a startled sound. 

The bird didn’t appreciate nearly getting squished, nor did it like the noise he made, so it bolted off across the street, heading into the alleyway. 

“Oh no you don’t,” he grumbled, quickly shoving the rupees into his wallet as he took off after the cucco. 

It’d been such a long while since he’d found himself chasing after those things, he’d forgotten just how fast the fuckers could be, though he was frequently told by the people in his life that he was the fastest runner they’d ever seen and eventually he did catch up with the bird and grab it. It wasn’t happy with him, it kept struggling to break free and squawking at him, but War kept his grip on it until he set it in the pen and slammed the door.

“Alright,” he sighed, “one more.”

In his search for the last cucco, he found himself getting pulled aside for some other small jobs around the town. One of the wheels on a small cart had popped off and the old man pulling it hadn’t had the strength to firmly attach it back on, so War bent down and helped him and the man had been insistent that he take three rupees for it. A younger man with a broken leg had woken up after the postman had come around to collect letters to be sent and had paid War five rupees to run after the guy and get the letter to him. A sweet couple newer to town had found themselves in a state of distress because they’d torn a blanket they intended to gift to a friend and the only seamstress in town was too busy to assist them, so War had spent a few hours mending it to the best of his ability and they’d forced him to take a rather large amount of money for it.

“I can’t possibly take this,” he shook his head, trying to give back the hundred rupees they’d handed him.

“You did such a beautiful job,” one of the women insisted, “far better than what we could’ve done ourselves, and if we’d taken it to a shop anywhere we would’ve paid more.”

“This is an awful lot,” War said quietly. He’d spent a long time sitting in the shade working on it, but the only other thing he had to be doing was searching for that damned cucco so he didn’t really think he deserved that much. 

“Please,” the other woman pushed his hand back towards him. 

He wasn’t sure how he felt about not being listened to, it made him quite anxious when he refused something and people pushed him anyway, but there was nothing he could say that was successfully changing their minds and eventually they just walked away leaving him standing there in the street. He felt bad accepting money, he knew he’d technically earned it, but with the sheer amount he made from his job that he believed was so excessive, he felt bad taking from other people. And technically he and Warriors did need money right now, but he still didn’t feel like he really deserved it. Some little voice in the back of his head always told him it was stealing to accept money from people simply for just being a good person and helping out.

“Sir?” A voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he blinked a few times before his eyes landed on a small stand to his left. When she noticed him looking at her, the lady behind the stand smiled at him. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he gave her a friendly wave as he headed over. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Oh, no,” she laughed, “I was just wondering if there were other kinds of needlework you did besides sew? I was watching you mend that blanket, and you did such an amazing job with it.”

War felt his cheeks grow hot, he wasn’t really used to people complimenting his work and while he’d grown up being taught those skills because it’d been intended to be a profession, it was certainly more of a hobby now. 

“Um… Y-yeah, I do some other stuff. Do you need me to-”

The woman cut him off again with a friendly smile, “No, no. I just wanted to give you this.” She reached across the stand to give him a small bag, and when he opened it he found some different yarns and spools of thread neatly packed together. “I know a craftsman when I see one, you may have been running around chasing cuccos all day but you looked truly relaxed while you were working on that blanket.”

He had no idea what to say, he was actually feeling a little overwhelmed. Usually if people from the eras he’d visited assumed something about him they correctly guessed he was a soldier, more often than not because of how he dressed but he’d also been told he always looked tense and ‘on guard’. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the lady’s observation that he’d seemed calm while working on something familiar to him, he couldn’t help but think about the fact that had he never been a soldier he probably would’ve stuck with needlework.

“How much do I owe you for this?” He asked, not oblivious to how his vision was slightly starting to blur.

“Nothing at all,” the lady told him, and War’s heart sank because he couldn’t take all she’d given him for free. “These are all scrap pieces left over from projects that I can’t quite sell since they’re smaller bundles than what else I offer, but there’s still plenty there to make something with. I myself have no need for them, so I was planning on just giving them away anyway and it would make me happy to see them go to someone who needs them.”

“Are you sure…?” War asked slowly, unable to tell if she was just lying to make him feel better.

“Very sure,” she nodded. 

“Thank you,” he said quietly, trying not to actually start crying. It’d been a while since he’d been able to knit something, and yarn was never really a priority for him on the road when there were more important things to buy. 

“Of course,” the kind woman smiled. “Have a good rest of your day, and don’t wear yourself out too much looking for those cuccos.”

He let out a small laugh as he backed away, “I won’t. You have a good day as well!”

Since his hands were now full with the bag he’d been given, he decided to stop by the inn again to drop it off and check on Warriors. He’d been periodically checking in on him all day, just to make sure he was still living and also to see if he’d woken up yet, but when he opened the door to their room he found him still asleep. The other hero had moved a bit since he’d last seen him, now sprawled out across the bed, but he was still very much unconscious. War frowned slightly, placing his bag down next to his scarf and walking over to get a better look at his friend. He knew Warriors would be sleeping for a long time, and he’d been told ‘a long time’ could apparently mean days, but he was still a bit worried because it was getting close to dinner and the other hero had shown no signs of waking up.

He wasn’t sure if he should wake him up at all, Warriors needed to heal so the sleep was good for him, but War didn’t know if it’d be a good idea to get him up so he could talk to him and make sure he was feeling okay before letting him go back to sleep if he wanted. He’d been decently sure that the risk of the venom killing him wasn’t something he needed to worry about anymore, but he couldn’t stop his thoughts from telling him he should make sure his friend was alive before leaving him again so War gently pressed his fingers to Warriors’s pulse point.

He was aware his hands could be cold sometimes, but the other hero had been so clearly gone to the world that War jumped when after he felt a few steady beats beneath his fingers, Warriors’s head rolled in his direction and he hissed at him. It wasn’t even the first time he’d been hissed at but the reaction had been so unexpected it’d startled him, and then of course once he’d yanked his hand away his friend went back to sleeping just as deeply as he had been.

Well. Definitely alive, then. Maybe War just worried too much…

Confident that Warriors would be fine for the time being, he headed back out to find the last fucking cucco. He’d really thought he would’ve found the thing by now, and he had no proof but he was convinced it was the same little shit that’d been hiding from him in that barrel. He was starting to feel a bit hungry, he had stopped around noon to get a bite to eat and he’d had some snacks throughout the day so it wasn’t that he felt like his sugar was low, but he refused to stop until he found that last bird.

He searched in all the barrels again, he went down every alley, he looked under every crate, he tried asking people if they’d seen a cucco recently and they all said no. He’d even run into the man who’d lost them, George, and asked if he’d somehow found the bird and not told War about it but George wasn’t having any luck either. War didn't consider himself to be a quitter, and he refused to stop until he found the bird, but his back was seriously starting to ache and he was getting more than a bit frustrated. 

It was when he’d gotten down on his hands and knees to peer into the tiniest corner imaginable that he’d found the cucco. It stared at him smugly, he didn’t have to guess if cuccos could feel smug he knew it in his heart, and did nothing but just sit there as he twisted his shoulders and neck into the most uncomfortable angle to grab it by the foot and pull it out from between the rocks and crates it’d hid behind. He was still gentle with the bird, as pissed off as he was he’d never hurt an animal, but anyone passing by wouldn’t have assumed he was being as careful as he was because the cucco started thrashing and squawking and pecking at him like he was killing it, and War screamed in frustration and pain every time it hit his poor fingers. It took a while to get a good grasp on it and it was a fight to carry it up the street and all the way back home, but he finally did and he threw the door to the pen open for the last time before chucking in the bird and closing it. 

Once it’d landed amongst its friends, the cucco turned and looked at him in what War assumed was the closest thing to a glare a cucco could manage, but at this point he didn’t give a shit. He’d spent all day looking for that fucker and now that his brain knew he’d completed his task, a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

“Oh! There you are!” George sounded quite cheery as he skipped up to where War was leaning his back against the pen door, panting a bit. “And you got all my cuccos!! Oh thank you! Thank you so much!! Here!!”

For the first time that day, War didn’t argue when the man handed him fifty rupees for his troubles. He just thanked him, assured him his evil little birds were ‘no problem to find’, and then started making his way back towards the inn with the intent to eat dinner and go to bed. Though he only made it about halfway before a teary eyed little girl stepped right into his path. She was trying very hard not to hyperventilate or start loudly sobbing, and he couldn’t help but feel weird about the fact that none of the other townspeople were questioning why she was crying or offering to help her, considering how friendly they’d been to him all day.

Forcing his exhaustion and frustration to the side so she wouldn’t pick up on it, War crouched down a little to her level. “Hey, what’s going on?”

The little girl turned to stare at him with the biggest, saddest eyes he’d ever seen and sniffled, “It’s my cat. She’s stuck in a tree and I can’t get her to come down.”

War frowned, looking around to see if there was anyone else acknowledging this crying child. He was well aware that he was new in town and didn’t want to look like he was kidnapping someone’s kid, though he hoped with all he’d done for the townspeople today they wouldn’t assume the worst of him, but he couldn’t seem to find anyone who might’ve been responsible for watching her. He knew better than to ask where her parents were, he didn’t want her to have to tell them if they were dead or something, but with no one else even paying attention to the fact that she was close to just sitting down in the middle of the street and having a breakdown, he supposed he’d have to be the one to help her.

“Can you tell me where she is and I’ll try to get her for you?” He offered, and the little girl nodded, taking his hand and leading him down the main road to the edge of town.

He hated the part of his brain that screamed at him that this could be a trap of some kind, but with the way his life tended to go he wouldn’t be surprised. He’d been having a more than lucky day, people had been incredibly kind to him and he’d been having fun helping people out, so it really was just about time for something to go horribly wrong but when the little girl stopped in front of a tree, sure enough there was a cat in it. Unfortunately for him, though, it was an incredibly tall tree and he knew enough about cats at this point to know there was no way in hell the little creature was coming down. He’d have to go grab it.

“She’s up there,” the girl pointed to where he’d already seen the cat. “She won’t get down.”

“It’s okay,” he tried not to sigh too loudly, or let the kid know that he was terrified over the idea of climbing up that high. “I’ll get her.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to climb things, in fact he was actually quite good at it. He was used to climbing the roof with his sisters as a kid, he’d climbed up more than a few vine walls and trees in order to get to a higher surface, War just wasn’t a fan of the height part of climbing. It made him feel dizzy and incredibly nauseous, and he knew it was an irrational fear but there was genuinely nothing he hated more than being stuck up somewhere high.

And yet, because no one else would, he found himself slowly working his way up the tree to rescue this poor girl’s cat. 

Getting up was never the hard part, and to his surprise, grabbing the cat hadn’t been either. The poor creature was so ready to come down to the ground that she didn’t fuss much when War reached for her. He’d given her plenty of time to sniff his hand and waited until she allowed him to pet her head before he picked her up, and then she remained fairly calm when War held her close to his chest so she wouldn’t fall.

Getting back down, however, with one less hand, a cat, and shaking legs, was incredibly difficult. He wished he could close his eyes so he didn’t have to see how small the town looked from all the way up where he was, but he needed to be able to see where his feet were going so he didn’t fall to his death. The little girl’s cheers were completely drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in his ears, and he was freaking out so badly he almost fell a few times. But eventually he made his way to solid ground, even if he barely remembered how the fuck he’d done it, and he kept his smile straight and steady just long enough until the girl was distracted by having her cat back in her arms before he let himself take some deep, grounding breaths. 

The little girl ran off after thanking him over and over again, and he was glad he’d been able to get her her cat back but his hands didn’t stop shaking until he’d made it all the way back to the inn and sat down to eat, several hours later than he’d planned to. Dinner was wonderful, and he made sure he told the innkeepers that when he’d finished before he headed back up to his room for the evening. To absolutely no surprise, Warriors was still dead asleep, this time curled back up on his side. He didn’t move at all the entire time War spent getting himself ready for bed, or even when War accidentally ran right into the wall.

“Well, Warriors,” he sighed as he crawled into his own bed, exhausted after such a long day of doing things. “I hope you feel better when you wake up.”

Of course there was no answer, he wasn’t expecting one, so War just made himself comfortable and let himself drift off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Warriors felt pretty good when he woke up. His muscles were a little sore but he chalked it up sleeping in or perhaps, he slept in a weird position. He stretched, sat up, and stretched some more, before he finally looked around the room and spotted War in the other bed. He was leaning against the headboard with his scarf around his shoulders like a blanket, knitting. He didn’t know War had knitting needles or yarn but he did have thread and a regular needle, so what did he know? 

“What time is it?” he asked as he reached for his bag to grab an apple. He was surprisingly hungry and he just had blood yesterday. 

War had been so focused on what he was working on he must not have noticed him waking up, because he jumped a little when Warriors spoke. “Oh hey! It’s a little before noon, close to ten. How are you feeling?”

“Mostly just hungry. I just had blood yesterday, so I don’t know what the problem is,” he answered as he bit into an apple that he pulled out of his bag. 

“Two days ago,” War said gently.

Warriors must have heard him wrong. Two days? He slept for a while sometimes but the only time he slept for more than a day was when he used his vampire powers and focus spirit at the same time. Even when most of his body was burned, the other vampires woke him up to make him drink blood a few times a day, at least. “Sorry?” 

“It’s been two days,” the other hero repeated. “You were pretty sound asleep yesterday so I just let you rest.”

Warriors could only stare until his brain completely processed what War actually said. “I wasted so much time…” he mumbled once he found himself able to speak again. “What did you even do while I was sleeping all day?” 

“Quite a lot, actually-” War blinked at him. “I got some more healing potions for us, and also we’re up a hundred and sixty three rupees.”

Huh, he never thought about the fact that they might have been running low on rupees. Warriors quickly finished his apple, then located his wallet to count what he had left. He only had two hundred or so, which was enough for a few days at an inn, maybe more if they went to a particularly cheap inn. Maybe they should start being more frugal with their savings and camp outside more. “How did you manage to do that?” 

“I just kinda walked around and helped some people out with a couple things,” he shrugged. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a small town and not treated as a hero or seen as a soldier, and I think I missed being part of a little community like this so when people asked me if I could help out, I did. Granted back in my village people never paid me for doing little things, but the townspeople here are very generous and refused to let me say no.”

“Sounds you got your wish then. You were just some guy for a day,” Warriors said with a smile. “I guess you wouldn’t have gotten that if I was awake yesterday.” It didn’t feel like they wasted a whole day if War got to enjoy being helpful to strangers. Besides, he probably really needed it between his head injury, the venom, his stupid broken nose, and whatever made his chest hurt. 

“Oh… I guess I did,” War frowned down at his yarn for a moment as he thought about it before shaking his head a little as if to clear his mind and turning back to look at him. “Did the blood and all the sleep help?”

“Yeah, I feel pretty good,” he answered, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice. It was the best he felt since he left the vampire estate.  “I’m just a little sore from sleeping for so long. It’s nothing a walk can’t fix.” 

“That’s good! I’m glad you’re feeling okay,” War gave him a genuine, crooked smile. “Do you want to get breakfast before we go or are you good with your fruits?”

“Maybe we should be more frugal,” Warriors mumbled. “How many rupees do you have after you helped the town?” 

“Around four hundred,” War estimated. I calculated a few more nights at inns with meals plus a few supply runs yesterday morning before I earned anything.”

“And I have two hundred… I suppose breakfast wouldn’t hurt then.” He was pretty hungry, after all. He’s been through worse, like when he decided to cut out solid food for five weeks. However, if he had more food, then he wouldn’t need blood as often and he would rather not leave town without eating something that was filling. He got up to make himself look presentable, which took more time than he liked since spending a whole day in bed fucked up his hair. “Huh, my nose is fixed now,” Warriors noted when he judged himself in the mirror for one last time. 

“Hey that’s good!” War said from behind him, working on packing up his own things and getting ready to go out.

They left when Warriors was sure they had everything and paid for one last meal at the inn, which they ate in one of the common areas. Warriors got himself bacon and sausages while War got eggs and sausages. 

Leaving town was a little awkward, however. They ran into people War helped while he was busy sleeping in bed all day. There was a man who thanked War for helping him find his cuccos and assuring him that they were all all accounted for today and there was a little girl who thanked him again for getting her cat down. War didn’t say what he did to help people but it sounded like he did a lot more than he let on. However, the most awkward thing was a covered, horse drawn wagon that was blocking their exit out of town. There was a man and two women standing around the wagon who were too busy arguing with each other to move their wagon. 

“Look, it can be very dangerous out there! Didn’t you hear that there were monsters in the forest? We would be stupid if we left without being armed,” the man said. 

“We’ll be in big trouble if we’re late again!” one of the women, one who had dark and wavy brown hair, shouted. The man looked ready to argue again when the other women, who looked to be related to the man with her auburn hair, laid eyes on them. 

“You guys have swords!” 

That was enough for the other two to pause and look at them. Warriors awkwardly cleared his throat. 

“Where are you two headed?” the man asked. 

“Castletown,” he answered. 

“Good. Our stop is on the way. We’ll pay you to accompany us.” 

“Where are you headed?” War asked, trying to seem casual but Warriors knew him well enough by now that he could tell he was more than a bit suspicious. 

“Just the next town but it’s a whole day of walking away and we’ve been hearing weird things about the forest lately. One man said he saw giant spiders just three days ago!” the dark haired woman answered. “We’ll make it worth your time and we’re headed the same anyway.” 

Warriors glanced at War and when War caught his gaze, he offered a quick nod. 

“Alright, we’ll escort you to the next town. We’ll discuss the price later,” Warriors answered. All three of them lit up. 

“Thank you, thank you, we’ll make it worth your time!” the man said. “My name is Dale. This is my daughter, Amy,” he said, gesturing towards the woman who noticed they were armed, “and this is Karla, my business partner.” 

“My name is Link,” Warriors said, eyeing War. Was he going to use Link as well or was he going to pick some other name? He just hoped that whatever name he picked, he didn't pick War or Warriors. Those names only made sense to the two of them. 

“Eleno,” War said a little too easily to have made it up. “We’ll make sure you all arrive there safely.”

Warriors tilted his head at him but he didn’t say anything. If it was important, War would tell him later. 

“Let’s get going, shall we?” Karla said, jumping up to the front of the wagon to steer the horses. Much to their credit, Dale and Amy stayed on the ground with them. All four of them kept to the side of the wagon, not too far in front that they would miss anything sneaking up from behind and not too far back that Karla or the horses could get hurt before they could attack back. 

“That’s a fancy mask you have there,” Amy said to break the silence. He wasn’t sure how War was feeling exactly, but he didn’t mind entertaining their temporary group if War wanted to keep to himself. 

“Thanks. My friends made it for me. My skin is sensitive to the sun, so I have to keep it covered.” 

“Ohhh,” she mumbled. “They must care a lot then.” 

“They do. I haven’t seen them in a while with all the travelling I do but we still keep in touch.”

“I get that. We travel a lot for business too,” she added. “Dad and I are from a village south of Castletown. Karla’s from a different town but her hometown isn’t too far from ours.” 

“Business really brings you all the way up here?” Warriors asked. 

“We trade in fabrics, dyes, leathers, and other such materials. We help supply all the tailors and seamstresses across Hyrule. We also sometimes sell their goods on their behalf and we take a cut of the profit,” Dale explained. 

That seemed to get War’s interest a little bit. “All across the kingdom?”

“Yeah, it’s a lot of work. It’s the family business for both of us. We have more children, siblings, and cousins running all over the kingdom securing contracts and making other deliveries,” Karla answered from her spot on the front. “We’re supposed to be on our way home by now but most people up here don’t suggest travelling right now because of the monsters. You two are doing us a big favour.” 

“Have the monsters been worse than usual?” War asked her.

“Up here? Yes. I heard that a lot of people are getting attacked by skeletons on this stretch of road and I’ve heard that people noticed a lot of skulltulas nesting in the forest on the other side of town. We were here a month ago and the roads were relatively safe!” Karla grumbled. “I’m going to see if my kids are interested in picking up a sword when I get home!”

Warriors glanced at War. It definitely seemed like they were still following the shadow and he couldn’t help but to wonder if the shadow went all the way to the castle or not. If the shadow was causing problems in other parts of the kingdoms, he wouldn’t be comfortable leaving without cleaning it all up.  

Judging by the way War stared back at him, he felt the same way.

“It’s always good to know how to defend yourself,” the other hero said as he turned back towards Karla, “though I do hope the area becomes safe again.”

“Hopefully. We’re three days late on this shipment as it is,” Dale added. “Say, is that why you two picked up the sword? To defend yourselves?” 

“Something like that,” Warriors answered. “We’re travellers who got separated from our friends, and we would have died a long time ago if we couldn’t defend ourselves.” It wasn’t that far from the truth.

“Admirable trait, that is. We could use more people like you around. The knights mostly just keep to Castletown these days. They only go out if the royal family allows it.” 

Ah. Twilight did have a poor opinion of the knights in his era but if War was correct with his estimation, then they were in an era sometime after Twilight’s. He wondered if the knights were still the way Twilight described or if they improved but the royal family was holding them back. Either way, he didn’t like it.

“Well, if it helps you feel better, we did take care of the skulltulas. Well, mostly, Eleno,” he said. It felt weird calling him something other than War at this point. “There are people out there who use their talent to help other people.” 

“Is the royal family aware of how many monsters there are around?” War asked with a small frown.

Karla shrugged. “I doubt it would make a difference if they knew or not. Unless the monsters show up on their door or attack somebody important, they won’t care. The previous Queen cared about the people. Her son does not.” 

War huffed out a laugh. “Gods forbid he do his job protecting the people of the kingdom instead of just sitting in luxury all day getting nothing done.”

Warriors had a feeling that if he and War were alone, the other hero would have much more to say. He didn’t have anything good about the king in his era, from the few times War said anything about him, so Warriors had a feeling that War was holding himself back in a conversation about a bad king in a different era. Warriors couldn’t disagree with him either. The king in his era wasn’t in the picture anymore but the War’s king sounded awful and the king their current companions had to deal with also sounded awful. 

“So is there anybody to help you?” Warriors asked. 

“Gorons help us sometimes if there are monsters near Death Mountain or Kakariko,” Amy answered. “And there are some warriors in the south that come from Ordon but they only take care of monsters near Faron or Ordon. They don’t like the current king either, so they refuse to go any closer.” 

“It’s good there’s someone to help,” War mumbled. “Though I’m sorry your king won’t defend you as he should.”

Karla shrugged. “I guess the silver lining is that he doesn’t really get in our way either. It’s like the rest of the kingdom doesn’t exist outside of Castletown. At least we’re not paying more taxes just to get a whole lot of nothing in return.”

“I take it you two haven’t been in Hyrule for a long time if you’re surprised,” Dale added. 

“Yeah, it’s been a while,” Warriors mumbled, looking at War once again. “Our parents are friends and we moved out of the kingdom when we were young.”

The other hero nodded to agree. “It’s been a little strange being back, there are a lot of things that have changed or that we aren’t used to.”

“Where did you guys grow up?” Amy asked with a tilt of her head. 

“Just a small bit past the southern edge of Hyrule Kingdom,” War answered. “There are quite a few small villages there, and it’s nice and warm too.”

“Sounds like a nice spot for vacation after spending so long up here,” Dale said quietly, but loudly enough that Karla still heard him. 

“We gotta make it back first and with all these monsters around…” 

“I think these two have it handled. Not that we can relax of course, but I feel safe with these two.” 

Warriors blinked at Dale but otherwise, tried to keep the shock from appearing on his face. He could never quite get over a civilian saying that they felt safe in his hands. They didn’t know him or his background but in his opinion, that made Dale’s comment seem more genuine. 

They kept up with small talk. Sometimes the three of them asked questions about the two of them but at some point, conversation turned back to their business. Warriors could sew and could appreciate fine fabric and how to work with them. His aunt taught him how to sew and it was one of the few times he could remember where she was patient and encouraging, so sewing never really brought up bad memories for him. 

War was better at sewing than Warriors was and he was interested in their business when it was first brought up, so Warriors wasn’t surprised that War had more questions when conversation when the conversation cycled back to what was in the wagon. 

When the sun was beginning to dip too low for Warriors’ liking, they ultimately decided to set up camp and make their way to town early in the morning. When they found a nice place, Karla and Dale set up a fire and began preparing dinner while Amy and War secured the horses. Warriors set up the bedroll and blanket he had for him and War to share. 

“Eleno and I have a watch schedule, so we’ll keep an eye out for monsters while you sleep. We don’t mind,” Warriors said.

“We’re very used to it,” War added, “we’ll let you know if there’s any trouble.”

Dale simply nodded. Warriors honestly expected a little bit more push back. He wondered what they did for sleep when the roads were safe - did they always manage to reach town? “Well, the least we can do is feed you then. It’ll be a simple rice dish but it will fill you up.”

“What’s the schedule? You both get enough sleep, right?” Karla asked, raising an eyebrow at them. 

Warriors nodded. “I get the first watch and we switch half way through the night. It’s not ideal but it works.” 

“We do try to sleep in towns when we can, but when we’re not able to this works fine,” the other hero agreed.

“Do you ever find trouble?” 

“Not since we came back,” Warriors answered with a shake of his head. “But you never know, so we always have somebody on watch just in case, even if it seems safe.” 

Honestly, it was a shock that they haven’t run into anything at night so far. Everything they encountered they found during the day, when they were awake and alert. Of course, that could change based on the fact that Karla said skeletons were spotted. In Wild’s era at least, they always popped out at night, so Warriors wouldn’t be surprised if they were attacked at night. 

Suddenly, Amy appeared beside him and War, holding a large pot in her hands. “Can one of you come down to the stream with me?” 

War glanced at him quickly before pushing himself to his feet with a small nod. “Sure.”

“Can you fill my flask too?” Warriors asked as he grabbed his bag to fetch it. He only ever filled it with enough water to rinse all the blood he had in there before out but he should probably be drinking more water while he was in front of regular people. He wasn’t sure how ‘normal’ he looked to these people so far but regular people drank water, not blood. Once he had it, he tossed it to War before he could walk too far away. War caught it easily and left with Amy. 

It was only when War left did he realize that he could take his mask off too. He shoved it into his bag. He also took the hood off his head. 

“I was wondering when you would take that off,” Karla mumbled. “Are you sure that mask is the only way to protect your skin? It must be annoying to have it on all the time.” 

“The mask isn’t too bad. I’m used to it,” he answered. “I’ve tried lotions and just the hood of my cloak but I still got burned.” 

“That’s too bad. I can’t imagine having to hide from the sun all the time,” Karla added. For a moment, Warrior was afraid that they thought that his sensitivity was too strange, but she didn’t seem to dwell on it. “The important part is that you found something that works for you.” 

Warriors just nodded. She didn’t need to know that it was his friends that did it all for him and if it was just him, he would just use the lotion and continue to bitch about his face getting burned all the time. His brothers got him the cloak and Zelda, Impa, and Proxi helped him with the mask. They made sure that he had something to protect himself with. 

Amy and War returned. The pot Amy had was placed on top of the fire while War passed his flask back to him. Karla, Dale, and Amy were focused on dinner, so when Warriors thought that they weren’t paying attention to the two heroes, Warriors whispered to War, “Are you going to eat their dinner?” 

“I don’t know,” War mumbled. “They seem nice and friendly enough, and it’d be weird of them to try to kill us since they want our protection, but…” 

“Do you want me to taste it first?” he asked, again only loud enough for War to hear. “We need to keep our strength up.” 

“That would be nice, thank you,” the other hero said quietly.

“Does it help to watch them prepare it?” 

“It does,” he nodded. “I just don’t want to hover over them so I’m trying to watch from here.”

Warriors decided to stop talking so that War could focus. Eventually, dinner was served - it was rice served with some vegetables cut into small pieces and eggs. It smelled good to him and after eating a small amount to see if he could taste anything odd in it, he started shoveling it into his mouth. They were right - it was simple but filling and also tasty. 

War seemed to understand that it was safe because he slowly started eating as well, and after a good few bites he looked up towards their temporary traveling companions and said, “This is wonderful, thank you.”

Karla simply nodded while Dale continued, “You guys are doing us the bigger favour, the least we can do is feed you until we make it to town and pay you properly.” 

“How much were you thinking of paying us?” Warriors asked. He would take anything they had since he wasn’t quite comfortable with the amount they had, but he was still curious. 

“We can spare three hundred so for each of you, it would be one-fifty that sounds alright with you,” Karla said with a shrug. 

War blinked in surprise and quickly swallowed his food. “That’s more than alright.”

“Great. It’s all yours as soon as we get into town. For now, eat up since you two have a long night ahead of you.” 

It didn’t take long for everybody but Warriors to start preparing to sleep once they ate all the rice and cleaned up. Eventually, it was just Warriors and the fire, which he tossed some more sticks into. He kept his sword and shield beside him, just in case he needed them. 

Warriors had nothing to do but think. He tried to think about what his brothers could be doing without him and whether they missed him as much as he missed them. He thought what it would be like when he was finally reunited with them and he would inevitably have to leave War and probably never see him again. He got attached to the other hero and he wasn’t really ready to never see him again. Warriors wished he could have both - his new friend and his brothers. 

But eventually, he would have neither. 

Eventually, he would only have the vampires. 

Then he heard a sound that was out of place from the fire and the soft breathing of his companions. He shot to his feet, putting his shield on his arm and withdrawing his sword from its sheath. He could hear a branch snapping and a distinctive rattling that reminded him of bones grinding against each other. It only took him a couple of seconds to spot the first stalfos… and what looked like a weird skeletal dog. Once he spotted the first one, he could see more and more and he quickly realized that they were at risk of being surrounded. 

“We have company!” he shouted loudly, putting his sword back into its sheath in favour of pulling out his bow and firing an arrow through the skull of one of the stalfos. Until War was also in action, he didn’t feel comfortable attacking them with his sword, but he could take a few of them out with some arrows. 

The other hero was up on his feet in a matter of seconds, drawing his sword and looking around until his eyes landed on the monsters around them.

“Oh, these guys,” he mumbled.

“Ever seen the dogs?” Warriors asked as he looked behind him. The other three obviously couldn’t be as quick as war veterans but they were moving into the wagon for shelter. Good. That meant they just needed to defend the wagon and defend the horses. “Cover the wagon, I’ll protect the horses.” 

“Got it,” War gave him a quick nod before sprinting towards the wagon. Warriors fired a couple more arrows, then put his bow and arrows away to move towards the horses, withdrawing his sword as he did so. They were already anxious, not because of Warriors and his vampirism, but because they knew there was trouble. He wanted to soothe them but that could wait until there wasn’t any more danger. 

He was beside the horses for all of two seconds before the skeletal dogs began to close in. The regular stalfos seemed to be focused on War and the wagon but the dogs were after him and the horses. They were easily killed by a slash of his sword. 

Okay, so not exactly a challenge.

More of the skeletal dogs approached but Warriors took care of them before they could look at the horses the wrong way. 

War seemed to be having an easy time getting rid of the stalfos. He didn’t let them get anywhere near the wagon, his blade went right through them and had them falling to pieces.

Despite how easy they were to kill, there was an annoying amount of them. Warriors could see how travellers, like their companions, would struggle with the sheer number of them. However, to Warriors - and probably War - they were just a nuisance. An annoyance. A warm up. He was sure War also dealt with mobs that only had numbers on their side and while they could become overwhelming, the stalfos and their weird dogs did not get to that point. 

Warriors killed the last skeletal dog he could see, keeping his sword out just in case another snuck up on him. He spotted War killing the last stalfos. 

“See any more?” he shouted to War. 

“No!” the other hero answered, squinting into the distance to see if he could find any more. “I think that’s it.”

It took a moment for Warriors to remember that War’s eyesight wasn’t the best and he probably should have known better than to ask War if he could see anything. However, he couldn’t see anything either, even after very briefly summoning his fangs before their companions could exit the wagon. He retracted them when he was satisfied that they were in the clear. 

“Let them know they’re safe to leave,” Warriors called out before putting his sword away and turning towards the horses. “It’s okay, they’re gone now,” he said gently as he gently started petting the horse that seemed to be the most anxious. 

He could hear War telling their companions that the monsters were gone before they stepped out of the wagon, looking around to check for themselves. Warriors wanted to stay around the horses and help them but he went and joined them. 

“I don’t think more will come and the camp will be safe but it’s also covered in bones and might not be comfortable,” Warriors said, gesturing towards the remains of the stalfos. “Also, the horses are still anxious, so if we are moving, we need to calm them down first.” 

“I can help,” Amy said, heading towards the horses. 

“If you think it’s safe, I think we can just clean up a bit,” Karla said with a sigh. “Thanks for all that, by the way. We would have been in a lot of trouble without you two.” 

“It’s not a problem,” Warriors said as he started picking up bones and chucking them away from the camp. 

War joined him, grabbing some of the bones and tossing them as far as he could. “I’m scared of cursing us by saying it outloud, but that was shockingly… not very hard.”

“I think this might be the first fight where neither one of us got hit,” Warriors said with a nod as he threw more bones. It would have been fun to see how far he could throw them with his vampire powers but he knew better than to get into that kind of trouble. “I think we were owed an easy fight. One of these fights had to be easy.” 

“Five rupees says next fight is back to the same old near death experience with us getting our asses beat,” the other hero joked.

“Come on, that’s too easy,” Warriors said with a laugh. Then, quietly, he added, “The real bet is what kind of injury I’ll get next.” 

“‘None’ would be ideal,” War sighed, “but it’s us and we aren’t lucky enough to make it through two fights without anything happening.”

“No injuries may be ideal but not likely,” he mumbled. “Are you good take watch once we get this clean enough? I don’t think you have much time to fall asleep before you have to get up anyway.”

“Yeah that’s fine,” War nodded, standing up straight before twisting to the side to crack his back so he could go back to throwing more bones. 

Warriors winced. His hearing was not something based on whether or not his fangs were out, so War cracking his back was pretty loud to him. “You good?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. 

War blinked at him in confusion. “Yes?”

“It was loud…” Warriors said with a frown before he went back to throwing bones. 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the other hero looked at him a little concerned. Warriors wasn’t sure what that was about.

“It’s fine,” he mumbled as he just focused on clearing up the camp. Since Amy was still busy with the horses, though they seemed much happier, it was the four of them cleaning up camp but it didn’t take too long for them to get the area around the fire and their bedrolls clean. “You’ll make sure nobody else wakes me up, right?” 

“Yeah,” War nodded. “Do you want me to wake you up around when they start to get up?”

“Yeah, just because you’re understanding doesn’t mean they’ll be. They’re already late, I don’t want to delay them any further,” Warriors answered quietly. He was thankful that War was understanding but that was at least in part because War knew why he needed the sleep. He knew he was a vampire that needed sleep to heal. “Or have to explain what a vampire is because I hissed at them.” 

“Got it,” War gave him a small smile. 

Warriors tucked himself into bed, just as he saw their temporary companions begin to settle back down for sleep too. He glanced at War one more time, curled up so that his face was hidden in his arm, and fell asleep. 

“Link,” he heard War call. “Link, it’s time to wake up.”

Warriors groaned, forcing his eyes open as he did so. He blinked at War, confused as to why the other hero was calling him Link before his mind caught up and he remembered that they were travelling with civilians. “What time is it?” he grumbled, burying his head in his arms again. 

“Seven,” the other hero told him. “Sorry it’s so early, you wanted to make sure you were up before the others were fully awake.”

Right, he did want to wake up early so that they wouldn’t see any possible signs of his vampirism. He knew how he could in the morning when he didn’t feel like waking up even though he really needed to. He sighed and slowly forced himself to sit up, rubbing at his eyes as he did so. Now that he was upright, he could see that their travelling companions were still in their bedrolls. 

“Do you think they’ll eat breakfast or just get going?” he asked, throwing his scarf over his head to shield himself from the sun. 

“I have no idea,” War sighed, fixing his tunic and straightening out his collar to make himself look presentable for the day. “If you’re out of the fruits you had, I have some things I got from town if you want something to eat?”

“I think I have a couple of apples,” Warriors mumbled as reached for his bag and looked through it. “Yeah, just two left. Want one?”

“I don’t want to eat the rest of your food,” he said quietly.

Warriors decided not to argue with him and insist on it. He knew War had his own stash for snacks and he wasn’t going to mention the fact that he could always drink blood out loud. He ate both of the apples and put the mask on his face.

“You guys ready to go?” Dale asked. “We should be able to get to town by noon, so we’re going to skip breakfast and eat lunch when we get there.” 

“Almost,” Warriors responded, getting off the bedroll so he could pack it up. 

War got to his feet and did a quick check around the area to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything. “I think we’re all set.”

It didn’t take long before they were on the road again. This time, Dale and Amy were up on the wagon with the horses while Karla walked beside them. 

“You two really are good with a sword,” she said simply. 

“We’ve been at it for a few years. Eleno’s been at it longer than me though.”

“That’s just because I’m older,” War added. “But yeah it’s been a while since we first picked up a sword.”

She hummed. “I thought you two were about the same age.” 

“No, he’s a few years older,” Warriors answered. “Not by much, but still.” In the very least, War was old enough to be out of the war longer than Warriors had been enlisted for. His entire military career fit into the pocket of time where War ended the war but decided to stay in the military. 

“Oh, yeah?” she asked. 

The other hero nodded. “Our parents wanted us to be able to defend ourselves from monsters if we ever needed to, so they made sure we wouldn’t be defenseless before they sent us off. But obviously they didn’t want to tell us all about the monsters when we were too young, so, I learned first.”

“Your parents sound like smart people,” Karla said with a smile. Warriors was glad he was wearing a mask so he could hide the frown on his face. He was sure his parents would have wanted him to be able to protect himself. He knew his parents wanted him to be safe, otherwise he would have ended up in an orphanage or something instead of with his aunt, which he liked to tell himself would have been worse. He never starved and his aunt never hit him.

Warriors glanced at War. “Yeah, they are,” he answered, trying his best to sound convincing. He hoped he didn’t come across as the orphan that he was. 

“Do you two have any tips for beginners? Assuming one of our kids wants to pick up swordplay, of course.”

War was quiet for a moment as he thought before he answered her. “I’d suggest first getting used to swinging around something if they don’t have any experience at all, it’s important to be able to move with a sword and to be able to swing it quickly and it would be good to first practice with something that isn’t sharp. They could also work on hitting a target in the right places, whether that be a dummy or a dead tree it doesn’t really matter, just practicing getting the blade to the points they want to. Also sparring: working with a moving, unpredictable target is incredibly helpful. I was first taught with wooden training swords and while you can still hit someone pretty good with them, you at least don’t risk cutting a friend.”

“And how long did it take before you felt like you were skilled enough to go out on your own? Personally, I’m not confident until I’ve done something with consequences a lot,” Karla said quietly before continuing, “I know it’s not comparable, but I didn’t feel confident making sales until I’ve made some sales.”

“Hmm…” War frowned, “The fact that I knew there would probably never be a situation where I was completely alone helped with my confidence when I was younger, but I’d say it took me a few years until I really felt sure of my ability to fully protect myself.”

Warriors nodded. He didn’t have much to add, not that he was in the mood to talk much anyway. 

“Hopefully, we have more than one kid who is interested then. It’s too bad we can’t hire you two. We might have to ask one of those swordsmen from Ordon.” 

“Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, Karla. Somebody has to say yes, first,” Dale said from his spot on the front. She hummed and let out a sigh. 

When Karla had turned away from them, War waved his arm a little to try to get his attention and once Warriors looked over at him he mouthed, “You okay?”

Warriors wasn’t sure if War knew sign, or that they shared common signs, but he figured it was a good time to try. If War didn’t understand, they could talk later when they were alone. “Don’t like talking about my parents,” he signed to War while Karla was still looking away from them. 

“I’m sorry,” the other hero signed back, looking at him with concern though he could also see the guilt on his face.

“Not your fault,” he responded back with his hands. 

There weren’t as many conversations after that, or at least not any that War and Warriors needed to participate in. Karla, Dale, and Amy got busy talking about what they needed to do when they got home and if they needed to hire more help to get there or if they should risk it and hope that they’ve left the monsters behind by now. War left him alone to stew in his thoughts too. Warriors knew that he wasn’t doing the best job at managing his emotions. He was lucky that War still talked to him after all the times he snapped at the man. 

“Looks like we’re here!” Dale announced. Warriors looked up. They were at the gates of the town. “We can’t thank you two enough.”

“Open your hands,” Karla said, fetching a bag from Dale and pulling something out before returning it to him. She walked up to them and dropped three purple rupees into each hand. “As promised.” 

“Thank you. It really wasn’t a problem though and it was nice meeting you,” Warriors said simply. He had enough time to keep his voice steady. 

“I wish you luck on the rest of your travels,” War smiled. “Thank you for cooking for us.”

“Be safe!” Amy called out. 

“Good luck to you too,” Karla said with a smile, giving them all one last wave but Dale got the horses going again and they went into town. 

“Let’s find an inn. I could use a nap,” Warriors mumbled. He had to wake up early, yes, but the conversation about parents made him feel drained. He wasn’t sure how he went so long without thinking of his aunt or parents before but he kind of wished he could go back to being able to leave them in the past. 

“Sounds good,” War nodded, heading down the main street of the town. Warriors kept an eye out for the moon symbol he came to expect from an inn and pointed it out to War once he found it. They quickly went inside, only to find the innkeeper looking up from their book at them and back down again. He let out a sigh once he did so. Warriors couldn’t help but to worry that maybe they didn’t have any rooms left for them.

“I only have rooms with single beds. Sorry if that’s a problem. I can offer a discount for the inconvenience though.” 

“We’ll take the discount,” Warriors answered. He had to sleep in cramped spaces before and he already did sleep in the same bed as War a couple of times. They could handle it. He paid, they got their keys, and went up a small set of stairs to find their room. Their room didn’t look too bad. The bed, which was in the centre of the room, looked to be a bit bigger than the other single beds that they had in the other inns. There were a couple of small tables with a chair at each and an empty chest at the foot of the bed to put their stuff into. 

Warriors wasted no time in getting his extra layers off, putting them inside the chest as he did so. He crawled into bed. “Wake me up for dinner, okay?” 

“Around six sound good?” The other hero asked, “Or would you want to eat later?”

“Six sounds good,” he said. He might even wake up before then. He wasn’t injured or anything, he was just emotionally drained. “Don’t have too much fun while I’m out.” 

If War responded, he didn’t hear it. He fell asleep quickly.

Chapter Text

War sat towards the foot of the bed, partially because he wanted to give Warriors some space but also because there was a thin line of sunlight from a break in the curtains, far enough from the bed that his vampire friend wasn’t at risk of being burnt but close enough that he could swing his legs and feel a little bit of warmth. He hadn’t wanted to go too far from the inn, even if he hadn’t wanted to take a nap. He was still tired from walking around so much and only getting half a night’s sleep, so he found himself just relaxing and pulled out the yarn he’d been given so he could knit. 

There were a lot of things that were very hard for him to remember, things that frustrated him because it made no sense how he could forget something that had happened directly to him, but as messed up as his memory was he, for some reason, never forgot the exact size to make the sweaters for his dear cats. That information was so firmly stuck in his brain he didn’t think he’d ever forget it. So he sat there and he worked on his little project, letting himself relax and enjoy the peaceful silence, until it grew close to six and it was time to wake the other hero up.

He felt a bit responsible for making Warriors upset earlier, and he didn’t want to hover too much but he did want to make sure his friend was alright. He was just also a little worried about saying the wrong thing and making Warriors even more upset, even if he probably had deserved it the last several times, he didn’t want the other hero to snap at him. 

“Warriors?” he called, packing up what he was working on and turning to look at his friend. “You wanted me to wake you up for dinner.”

Warriors groaned and stretched his legs before he rolled over onto his back. “Six already?” 

“It is, yeah,” War nodded, pushing himself to his feet. “Do you want me to go out and bring you something? If not, I think we can probably find a tavern?”

“I’m not quite awake if you don’t mind getting something,” Warriors mumbled as he sat up. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m so tired.” 

“That’s alright,” he told him, trying to keep his expression neutral as his concern grew. “Is there anything in particular you’re hungry for?”

“Something with meat, I think. Vegetables are nice too, of course.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” War offered him a smile before heading out of their room, shutting the door softly behind him. 

Maybe Warriors really was just tired, he understood the exhaustion that came after being overwhelmed, but he couldn’t completely shake the worry that there was something else going on. He didn’t think the other hero would lie to him, at least he hoped at this point that he wouldn’t, so he just had to trust that if there really was something going on that Warriors would tell him if it was something he needed to know.

It didn’t take him too long to find a place to grab some food, a small little place that let him take both their meals ‘for the road’ with no issue. He got some pastries filled with ground beef and vegetables, and based on how much they’d eaten previous nights and given that the pastries were kind of small,he thought that they could each have two. On his way back he passed a small stand selling fruits. They all looked wonderfully fresh, and when War’s eyes landed on the plums he ended up buying a few. He was pretty sure Warriors liked plums, the other hero hadn’t really said anything about it but War had seen him have some so he knew at least that his friend didn’t hate them. And he also knew Warriors had just eaten his last two apples, so even if the pastries were enough for him for dinner, he could maybe save the plums for the road.

It was a little difficult to hold their dinner and all the plums he’d bought and open doors at the same time, but he hadn’t been called creative during the war for nothing so he found a way. He was at a bit of a disadvantage since his left hand was weak, especially after a whole afternoon of knitting. His wrist had been aching and his hand had been trembling all evening, and the weight of their dinner and the plums was more than that hand could grip at the moment without dropping. He couldn’t quite grab the doorknob either but he managed to balance the plums on his forearm, holding them against his chest, and use the two fingers he could afford to spare from the hand that was actively holding the small bag with their dinner to open the door.

And honestly he’d never felt more accomplished in his life.

Well… That probably wasn’t true, but he was so excited by his success and it was hard to think of a time he’d last felt proud of himself so he took the win for what it was. The innkeepers gave him a weird look that clearly read, “Why didn’t you just knock, we could’ve gotten the door for you?” but they didn’t say anything as he carefully made his way up the stairs to excitedly open another door.

He felt fucking awesome when he succeeded a second time, and he used his foot to push the door shut behind him as he entered their room. 

Warriors raised an eyebrow at him. He was thankfully starting to look more awake and he perked up even more when War walked in. “I could have opened the door for you,” he said. 

“It’s alright,” he moved slowly so the plums wouldn’t fall, “I got it. I found us some pastries that have beef and vegetables in them, if that’s alright, and I also got you some plums.”

Warriors blinked at him in surprise, like he was surprised that War thought to get him something other than dinner. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

“Are you feeling a little better?” War asked as he set everything down on the bed so he could dig into the bag and get the other hero his food. 

“Not as tired now,” he answered. “I don’t think there’s a physical reason for it. I think I’m just emotionally worn out. I’ve been thinking about things I haven’t thought about in a long time. I haven’t thought about my aunt in five years before this and I haven’t really thought about my parents in maybe a decade and a half? It was long before the war, at any rate.” 

“Ah.” War passed him a pastry as he sat down on the mattress. He knew some of that thinking had to have been caused by his questions over the past week, if not all of it. He should’ve realized by now that Warriors didn’t like talking about his family, and he’d been so focused on coming up with believable half truths to tell Karla that he hadn’t stopped to think about how claiming that their parents had taught them to fight might make his friend feel.

“I got busy thinking of other things. It wasn’t long after I enlisted that the war started so I didn’t have time to think about my parents or my aunt. The only people who think about family during a war are people who have family waiting for them. After the war, it was and still is the vampirism, and now we’re chasing a shadow with a bunch of other heroes. Maybe it’s only affecting me now because I didn’t think about any of it before…” Warriors mumbled.

“It is hard to think about other things in the middle of war, and with other things going on,” he said quietly. He’d had his own issues with procrastinating his own thoughts just for them to overwhelm him later. “Was there something particular about this morning that bothered you?”

“It was when Karla said that our parents sound like smart people,” he said slowly, taking a bite out of his pastry. “I don’t know if they were smart or not. I don’t know much about them at all and I don’t really remember them either. I was just a small kid when I moved in with my aunt. I am sure they would have wanted me to be safe, and I’m sure my aunt was the best option there was, but it’s not like I know that for sure. I just have to guess.”

“It’s hard missing someone you never really knew, or I guess someone you don’t have many memories of,” War spoke softly, grabbing one of the pastries for himself. “I know our situations aren’t the same but I do understand what that feeling is like, losing a parent when you’re that young.”

Warriors frowned at him, then ate more of his pastry. “Your father?” he asked quietly when he was done. 

“Yeah,” he nodded, taking a small bite of food before continuing. “My Ma never talked about him much, I think it was really hard for her to, and I only really have a couple memories of him. It’s… They feel more like strong feelings than real memories, mostly, but that’s all I really have for what I know about him.”

War offered the other hero the bag that held the other two pastries, in case he was still hungry.

Warriors took another pastry. “That’s all I have too. I can’t really remember what they looked like but I do remember being happy with them. I think I would like to know more about them but I honestly don’t know if I have family other than my aunt and my cousins, and they were born after I moved in.” 

“Have you tried maybe looking at records?” he suggested. “Like, the ones that should have people’s full names as well as their relations and age and all that stuff. If you know where your parents lived you might be able to look for them and find other people from your family, if that was something you wanted to do.”

“I never thought to use the fact that I live at the castle to go look at records like that,” Warriors mumbled, chewing his lips in thought. “Like, isn’t that a whole job at the castle? Like the royal archive keeper? I’m sure there is somebody there who is familiar with them at least.” 

“There should definitely be someone there to help you find the records,” War nodded, taking another bite of his pastry. “If you want to look for them, you won’t have to do it alone.”

“I wouldn’t even know where to start if I tried to do it alone. Finding these records would be half the battle,” Warriors said. “It would kill some time though. I think even the vampires have a library, I just never went there.” 

“I really like the castle library, it’s a good place to just sit and think.” He’d spent so much time in there at one point that Zelda went straight there to check for him and didn’t bother coming to his rooms. “I’d never really seen that many books in one spot until I accidentally wandered in there one day-”

“Since you seem to like books so much, have you gone to libraries in other eras?” Warriors asked, taking a bite out of his pastry. 

“I have!” War smiled. “I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the others’ languages were written, since the characters can be slightly different with their Common depending on the era and I made some keys in my journal in case I ever forgot or got messed up. There’s been some books in the library back home that I couldn’t read because I couldn’t understand them, and it was making me upset because over the past six or so years I’ve been making a real effort to try to learn more languages so I can read more of the kingdom’s history and more about our neighbors as well but there was always someone to help me learn to read those and figure them out. But there was one damn book I couldn’t figure out and it was pissing me off because the characters were like nothing I’d ever seen before and I was having trouble figuring out which way the lines were even meant to be read and then I was exploring the surface towns Sky and his people have been building and I stumbled upon some of their books and I almost screamed when I recognized the letters. Apparently Sky could read them! They’re not the characters his Common uses now, but he’s just as insane as I am and he learned how to read the older script.”

“Did you ever drag him to the library to read that book for you?” he asked with a tilt of his head. 

“We haven’t been back to my era since I realized he could read it…” War grumbled, scowling down at his pastry. “But I did also have him help me write a basic character key down, though I’m not so confident in my ability to use it on my own. Interestingly enough, it’s not just another alphabet but an entirely different, like… structure of Common that’s almost completely disappeared, apart from the one book my era has for some reason. You can trace a lot of how our language has evolved over the centuries because it does evolve, like sometimes languages become influenced by others, but that one is so weird because the structure and way it’s written don’t work the same as the written Common Sky grew up using. The spoken language, however, is similar enough that it sounds more like a different dialect than a completely different language. Even though our alphabets may look different from, say, Sky’s, you would still read the sentences the same way. Of course the language sounds old because it is, because Skyloft is old, but it still mostly functions in the same way. That Common doesn’t. All the words are pronounced mostly the same way, it’s just written so differently.”

“So it’s kind of a dead end?” Warriors asked with a slight frown. 

“Yeah! It’s almost as if the written language was just completely reinvented one day,” he nodded. “Sky has his theories that it might’ve happened when the people were moved from the surface up to Skyloft and I guess that could make sense.”

Warriors tilted his head slightly, rolling his eyes up slightly as he thought. “Oh yeah, if it’s pronounced the same, then that would make sense. Like, they lost the script but it stayed alive verbally until a new script was developed.” 

“It’s the only thing I can really think of,” he sighed. “I’m dying to know what’s in that book back in my era, for some reason the kingdom’s history wasn’t very accurately documented which is why I’ve been trying so hard to learn from other eras and that book… Even if it doesn’t have ancient records or anything it’ll still tell me something.”

“It might be something that everybody finds boring… like tax records. I’m sure something like that is still important but it’s not going to capture the hearts of the population,” he said with a shrug as he ate more of the pastry. 

“Oh I’m sure, even if there were something interesting in it there will be people who just don’t care. There are also a good number of historians in Castletown who are incredibly sick of me and my rambling and they’re not going to appreciate having to look at me again when I have more things to tell them.” War let out a huff. “They don’t appreciate it very much when I correct them, or tell them things they didn’t know, and they’re going to hate it if I can figure out a way to read that book.”

“So the nobles hate you and so do the historians,” Warriors mumbled, his eyes suddenly yellow and red, and War wondered if his friend was aware of it. “They don’t have to take it so personally and you have the lived experience of actually being in other eras.” 

“I think in general most people find me incredibly irritating,” he tried to joke, though it really did seem that way sometimes. The noblemen hated him because he was so different from them, he knew that was the real reason and not only because some of them still blamed him for the war, and it made sense that some of the historians got upset with him because people who are used to having other people just believe whatever words come out of their mouths don’t appreciate being corrected. It didn’t matter how much evidence he brought to the table, they were just irritated by him because they didn’t like being wrong. Though War had always wondered if maybe he was just insufferable because even as a kid he’d had a grouchy older neighbor who would get annoyed with him over little things. 

“I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with them. If I’m ever in your era, I will bite them for you,” Warriors said plainly, finishing off his pastry once he was done talking. 

“Some of them definitely deserve it. Is it just my era where the noblemen are pretty much all the most insufferable, selfish group of men you’ve ever met in your life or are they like that for you as well?” War sighed, realizing he’d been spending much more time talking than eating.

He shrugged. “Mine suck too because of their priorities but they tend to give me some space. I don’t know if they can feel something subtle from my vampirism or not but since I got cursed, they’ve become a lot less… upfront about being rude.” 

“Huh… For me they’ve just gotten better at making the things that come out of their mouths seem nicer even though they’re definitely getting worse,” he grumbled. “Like their tone is better controlled.” 

War took a bit of his food and tried to stop himself from going down that path of thought. He’d actually been feeling pretty decent this evening and everyone they’d run into during their time together had been pretty kind to them, almost unusually so. He should spend more time focusing on that instead of the people who he one day wouldn’t be able to avoid because he’d be back in his era for good.

“Is it easier to eat with the fangs?” War asked his friend, wanting to change the topic and wondering if the other hero knew they were out. 

Warriors blinked at him like he grew a second head, then ran his tongue over his fangs. “Fuck! It happened again,” he growled as he retracted his fangs. “I swear that they have a mind of their own sometimes. They haven’t been out long, have they?” 

“No, just a few minutes,” he told him with a confused frown. “…Do you not like having them out?”

“Not without me knowing! What if a civilian sees them? I don’t mind you seeing them but I’m trying to keep a secret. The fact that I don’t notice them sometimes means that the secret isn’t safe and then the two vampires that only tolerate me would definitely make me regret blowing the secret,” Warriors said quickly, though his voice was quieter. “Besides, what if people see them and freak out?” 

“I’m sure if it’s ever a small slip up you’d be able to retract them before anyone could notice,” War told him softly, hoping he didn’t come off as dismissive. He could see how that would be incredibly stressful for the other hero, not knowing if his eyes were showing either, and how it could land him in a dangerous situation, but he’d really only noticed himself because he was sitting so close to his friend. If people were unaware vampires existed, with how blue Warriors’s eyes were, the other hero might genuinely be able to argue that they were just really reflecting the light if he was ever accused of them looking weird and he could probably lie and say there was something in his mouth if his fangs were noticed. There are just some people who aren’t very perceptive, but even so, that didn’t completely eliminate the risk. And if Warriors ever found himself in that situation there was no guarantee he wouldn’t be too stressed to lie his way out.

“Do you actually think that would work? The eyes are pretty noticeable.” He didn’t sound particularly upset but he was still quieter than usual. 

“Your eyes are incredibly blue and they’re light enough that if you were standing close to a light source or something that could be enough to make them look a different color because of the reflection,” War told him. “You could probably get away with using that as an excuse, if anyone even questioned it in the first place because most people tend to assume they saw something incorrectly as opposed to throwing out accusations immediately.”

“I suppose that’s true. Maybe I’m just overestimating people. I used to be very aware of whether or not my fangs were out but that was before I met my brothers and got pretty comfortable with them. Sometimes they have to remind me,” Warriors grumbled, though he made it sound like he was just annoyed rather than truly upset. 

“It’s good they’ve got your back like that,” he offered his friend a small smile, “and I got you too. If we’re ever out walking and I notice them I’ll let you know.”

Warriors’ cheeks and the tips of his ears turned pink. “Thanks,” he said quietly. “It seems to happen the most when I wake up. Sometimes they come out when I’m sleeping, I guess maybe because of a dream or something. I’m actually surprised they didn’t come out at all when I slept for like a day and a half.” 

“Oh really?” War asked, giving the other hero the opportunity to talk more about that if he wanted to, and he tried to focus on finishing his dinner.

He shrugged. “The other time I slept for that long was because I used my vampire powers and focus spirit at the same time. I was just really exhausted. I think that’s what happened here too - there was the head injury, the venom, the deviated septum, and bruised or cracked ribs. All at the same time. I’ve had my fangs come out while I was sleeping when I had a lot less going on. Sometimes I go to bed feeling perfectly fine and then I wake up with fangs.” 

“Do you feel better by the way?” War turned off topic for a quick moment. “Like, in terms of all the injuries you’ve recovered from, are you feeling alright?”

Warriors nodded eagerly. “I felt pretty good when we left the last village. I didn’t have any injuries when we left. I think sleeping for a day and a half really helped, even though it was very surprising to learn that I slept that long.” 

“You clearly really needed it,” he shrugged. “I’m glad you’re feeling alright, I know we’re used to getting a little beat up but it’s also important to make sure we actually heal.”

“I think I only had the deviated septum when we found those skulltulas but falling did a lot of damage,” he said with a frown. “I usually have one big injury. I don’t think any of them would have made me sleep so long on their own, but together…”

“Even I would probably be down longer if I were healing from several injuries as opposed to just one,” War told him, grabbing the bag on the bed between them so he could get his other pastry. “That’s kinda just how bodies work, and it seems like sleeping for you is really important for healing so that makes sense to me. I was a little worried when you didn’t wake up but you were alive, breathing well, and you seemed fine so I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Sorry. I didn’t even mean to sleep for that long, let alone make you worry about it.” The frown was still on his face but there was something else that he couldn’t quite place. “Do you have any theories about why I need more sleep? My vampire mentor said it must have something to do with the fact that I’m half vampire but she didn’t say why that could be the case.” 

“I don’t know much about vampires but I do think you being a younger vampire could have something to do with it.” Young hylians slept an awful lot too, so that matched up logically in his brain. “I think it could also be because we live such an active lifestyle? I’m not so sure about how things are going with your friends but with mine I feel like we’re always running around and getting ready to fight something and it’s frankly exhausting. It could also just be a you thing, like Four can sleep for sixteen hours straight if we let him and that’s just him, or something else, like Sky has to take a herb blend twice a day and it makes him even more tired than he would be otherwise.”

“I don’t need to take anything like your Sky does. I guess you could technically count blood, but to me, it’s food. We are pretty active though. We’re usually on the move, unless I’m sleeping or somebody is sick or injured.” 

He nodded slowly as he took a large bite from his second pastry. Maybe it’d just been a while since he’d had anything similar, but they were really good and he’d quite enjoyed the first one even if he’d been so distracted rambling that he hadn’t been paying much attention to the flavor.

“Do you want to get out of the inn after you’re done eating? I know we should probably be a little frugal but it would be nice if we could find another bathhouse,” Warriors suggested with a shrug. “And I promise I won’t break my nose this time.” 

War let out a small laugh before he could stop himself. “Yeah, that sounds nice.”

He quickly finished up his dinner as Warriors took the plums he’d given him and packed them away for later, and then he reorganized his things a little to make sure he had everything he’d need. Triple checking to make sure he really did have his wallet, War checked with the other hero to see if he was also ready to head out before he opened their door and made his way towards the stairs.

It turned out that there was a bathhouse after all. It wasn’t hard for them to find since they got directions from the innkeepers, but it was more tucked away than the other one was. It was situated on a side road and it blended in with all the homes around it at first until they found the sign that indicated it was a business. 

The rules were largely the same as the other one they went to but Warriors was surprised to find that it didn’t actually have a communal bath. It had a lot of smaller private rooms that were meant for a small group at most. It was also cheaper than the other one - they could rent a whole room with supplies for a hundred rupees, but if they did bring their own shampoos and conditioners, it would have been cheaper. War seemed happy to pay, so Warriors signed in and got their key. 

Warriors was the first to change and grab his robe and once again, he was the first in the tub with his robe turned pillow tucked behind his head. He settled his head against it and closed his eyes. The water felt fucking magical and a bathhouse was one of the only ways he got to truly enjoy a bath. If they had to bathe outside, he usually had to wait until night when the water wasn’t quite as warm and he didn’t get as much time as he wanted to wash his hair and just enjoy soaking. 

He heard War step into the tub and let out a relaxed sigh, but Warriors didn’t lift his head. 

“Still nice even though we’re in a warmer place,” Warriors mumbled. “Don’t let me fall asleep though, otherwise I won’t have time for my hair.” It wasn’t like he needed a lot of time for his hair - it was wavy but still short enough where it didn’t need much outside of a quality shampoo and conditioner - but he still needed to clean up. He still felt like he was kind of dirty from falling out of the trees. 

“Okay,” War’s response sounded like he too was half awake. “Gods, do you think we’ll get somewhere that’s actually warm and not just not cold as fuck? It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve been in an era and a part of the kingdom where it’s like… summer.”

“It’s not that cold anymore,” Warriors mumbled. “It’s not exactly warm but I wouldn’t say it’s cold either. Maybe just a little chilly.” 

“It’s cold to me,” the other hero whined. “I keep thinking to myself that after so many years of experiencing freezing cold winters maybe I’ll get used to it but no!”

Warriors couldn’t help but to laugh. He understood where War was coming from but for some reason, he found his whining kind of funny. “Sorry, I know you hate it but I… admire your passion for your hatred,” he said once he found the right word for it. “How warm is your home town that this is cold to you?”  

“I mean it's like… Like the summers in Castletown are around how home is when it’s like… autumn,” War grumbled. “Though the last few years Castletown has gotten quite hot, but still not as warm as my village does.”

“Like, when you’re in bed all day with the fire going? No, I guess that’s more of a winter thing, isn’t it? I always have the fire going when the leaves change colour just because it feels more comfortable, even if I don’t really need to warm up. It still feels nice to be in bed when the fire is going.” Warriors supposed it just reminded him of safety. He could remember spending his autumn nights in front of the fireplace when he was a kid and it also reminded him of the ranch. 

“I used to think winters back home were cold until I fucking left…” War sighed. “I guess they’d be comparable to like… maybe spring or early summer in Castletown?? I’ve since learned that winters can be much, much worse. I spend as much time near the fire as I can when it’s cold out, it feels nice and I like the sound of it. It’s relaxing.”

“Are you saying your winter was the kind of temperature where you just need to wear long sleeves or something?” Warriors could now better appreciate why War hated the snow so much though. If he thought that was bad, then snow would definitely be a shock. 

“I mean I used to be sitting there in multiple layers, but yeah I guess at it’s coldest it was just the temperature where you’d start to consider wearing something a little warmer,” the other hero huffed. “Twilight would argue with me if he were here and say that’s still sleeveless top weather because for some reason he’s always hot, it’ll be freezing out and he’ll somehow be too hot and complaining about it.”

“Like, your definition of freezing or is everybody except for Twilight cold too?” he asked. Warriors had some resistance to the cold but he wondered how he matched up to War’s Twilight. His Twilight ran warm too but he never complained that it was too hot. 

“Well… A bit of both?” War said slowly. “Wind and I tend to be the ones who feel cold first, and by the time I personally consider it freezing then Four, Hyrule, and Legend have made some comment about it being a little ‘chilly’. But Twilight is also the last one of us to ever complain about it being too cold, we’ve found ourselves trapped on a mountain before and my fingers were literally turning colors they shouldn’t have been and Twilight was genuinely comfortable in just his tunic. He’d given me his pelt because I’d reached a point where I’d gotten so cold I stopped shivering-”

Warriors lifted his head off of his robes, staring at War with raised eyebrows. “Seriously?” he asked with his mouth hanging open slightly. “Does it have something to do with the necklace or is there something else?” 

“I thought it might be that at first, but I genuinely think it’s just Twilight,” War shook his head. He looked much more relaxed than he had the last time they’d gone to a bathhouse, he didn’t have that look on his face like he was going to explode if Warriors looked in his general direction for too long. “And he doesn’t come from some village in like, the mountains or somewhere freezing cold or something! Ordon is definitely on the warmer side of places we’ve visited so it’s not like he’s super used to freezing weather! He just isn’t really that bothered by the cold unless it’s extreme.”

“Ordon is definitely warmer than this place. My Twilight runs a little warm but your Twilight seems ridiculous,” Warriors mumbled. He wondered if there was something about his own chain that made them possibly stranger than War’s but he couldn’t immediately come up with anything. He was probably stranger than War, thanks to his curse, but that was about it. Though, War did seem quite comfortable with that other name he used in front of Karla. “Wait, I just remembered something. Is Link not your name?” 

“Oh, yeah, it’s not,” the other hero said, sinking a little further into the water.

“Where did the name Link come from?” he asked with a confused frown. He wasn’t exactly surprised that there was a hero who had a name other than Link for some reason but it was odd that he picked it up later. “If I remember that first night on the mountain right, you still go by Link, no?”

“Technically it comes from my father,” War told him quietly, “but it’s also just like… What do you call it, a second name?? Is that right?? It’s part of my full name, just not what I was called by my family growing up. Or, well, they still call me ‘Eleno’, and so do a few other people. People in Castletown and the army do call me ‘Link’, though, so I do go by that more now.”

“You mean a middle name? Like your name is Eleno Link… whatever your family name is?” 

“It’s not really a ‘middle’ name because it’s not really in the middle…? But I guess that’s the word I was looking for,” the other hero shrugged. “I have both my mother and father’s family names as part of my full one, though when I was drafted I ended up shortening my name and then taking my paternal grandmother’s family name, because that’s what my father had done when he was in the army and having that family connection was very helpful. And they like me so I count it as a win, they were very welcoming when I showed up in the military.”

“Helpful in what way?” Nobody seemed to care much for his last name even if it had quite a few syllables like noble names did. Nobody even batted an eye at his first name until they noticed he caught onto swordplay quickly, though he was sure that nobody thought he was the hero at that point. 

“Well, the current Lord Barclay is a baron and I was quite lost and overwhelmed when I found myself in Castletown, especially because I barely knew anyone. There were only a few other boys from my village who I was able to keep in contact with until we all got separated when the war broke out, so apart from occasionally seeing their friendly faces I was alone. But claiming relation to a nobleman does tend to draw the attention of certain people when you come from an incredibly small village in the very far south, and once it was determined that I was not lying, I was just a somewhat distant relative, Lord Barclay did his best to help me where he could. He’s my second cousin and he’s a good few years older than I am, and he supported me when the war started and everyone was initially debating if I should be tossed over to the sorceress or if we should keep fighting to win the war,” he let out a small sigh before continuing. “We’re not exactly close, our first several conversations were difficult because my Common wasn’t very good but it’s easier to talk with him now and I’m grateful he’s had my back all these years.”

Eleno or Link Barclay. He wasn’t sure if there was a Lord Barclay in his era since he didn’t make it a habit of memorizing the names of people he found annoying and didn’t see very often, but it would be a start to see if he could find the non-hero version of War in his era. It wouldn’t be the same as having War around but he was still curious to see what the non-hero version of his new friend would be up to if he did exist. 

“I’m glad you had somebody like that,” Warriors said quietly. “And since you’ve shared so much about your name, mine is Link Alexander. No middle name but my aunt didn’t give any to her children either, so maybe it’s just something my family decided not to do.” 

“I think most of my friends don’t have second names either,” War shrugged. “Mask technically is just ‘Link’. I- I don’t actually know if he has a surname right now- All his letters from Malon are just addressed to ‘Link’.”

“Did he marry her in your era? I wouldn’t be surprised if the crown gave him Malon’s last name in their records if he did, but I can see him knowing the crown did that and just not using it anyway,” Warriors said as he started getting out of the tub to see what sort of supplies were available. 

“He did marry her, yeah.” The other hero let out an irritated grumbling sound as he pulled himself out of the warm water. 

Warriors walked carefully to the shelf and looked at the products available. He kind of wondered if he should let War pick out what he needed first but he figured that their hair probably had different needs since his hair was only wavy while War’s hair was curly, so they probably didn’t need the same products. Warriors found the same bottles he used the last time he was at the bathhouse and knowing that they worked for him before, decided to grab them. 

There wasn’t anything for a bubble bath, which was a little disappointing. “You find everything you need?” Warriors asked as he watched War study the shelf. 

The other hero narrowed his eyes at one particular bottle before he slowly reached for it, two already tucked in his arm. “Yes, I think so.”

“Do you see anything for a bubble bath? I couldn’t find anything but I might have just missed it. I don’t even see bath salts.” It wouldn’t ruin the bath or anything but the bubble bath was so nice last time. He needed a little bit of whimsy in his life. 

“Uhhhh….” War scanned the shelves, sticking the third bottle he’d grabbed into one of the pockets in the robe he’d thrown on. “Oh! It was tucked behind other things.” He reached behind a group of several tall bottles for a smaller one labeled ‘Bubble Soap’. 

“Well damn, you have a good eye for detail,” Warriors said with a small smile as shuffled the two bottles he had into his right hand so he could take the bottle from War’s hand. He wanted to be the one to pour into the tub, though he didn’t know why he found it fun. He put his shampoo and conditioner down beside his robes, then opened the tall bottle and poured a generous amount into the tub.  Before stepping back into the pool, he stuck his hand inside the water and swished it around until bubbles appeared. Once he was satisfied with the amount of bubbles he got, he capped it and stepped back into the tub.

“I would have been disappointed if we had a regular, not-bubble bath,” Warriors mumbled as War took his robe off and stepped into the tub. “I think I’ve come to like them.” 

“Yeah?” The other hero laughed, giving him a crooked smile. “They are pretty awesome.”

“I haven’t had a lot of bubble baths but I liked the one we had last time,” he answered. He had enough of them to know that motion activated the bubbles but that was about it. “I don’t think I enjoyed them before, but that might just be because I don’t often have the time or the opportunity to enjoy a bath. Especially a warm bath these days.”

“Yeah, it’s hard to find a spot to get a real bath while on the road,” War let out a sigh. “With my friends I feel like we’re lucky if we can find a river or something just so I can have some source of water to get the blood stains and dirt off my skin, and it was like that during the war too.”

“It’s the same with us. Sometimes when we do have a water source, it isn’t really big enough or deep enough to, you know, really sit and enjoy a bath. You’re just dumping cold water on yourself. It’s not fun. We always did what we had to with the water source we had… I miss them a lot.” 

“Warm baths? Or your friends?” War asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“My friends. The bathes too, but mostly my friends,” he said with a frown. He was making progress with War but it felt like there were forces trying to keep them from reaching Lana. “I know we’re getting closer but there have been so many obstacles.” 

“Yeah…” War said quietly, looking down at all the bubbles. “You haven’t seen them in quite a while, right? I think you told me?”

“It’s been a month and probably a week now,” he answered. They didn’t know he was alright either. They were out there worrying about him and he was having a bubble bath. “But I’m going to miss you too when we both go home. It feels like I can’t really win.” 

The other hero looked somewhere between shocked and touched. “I’m going to miss you a lot too. It’s crazy to think that we’re only here right now, together, because something weird happened.”

“Maybe it’s not out of the question to have Lana do this again but on purpose? If she can do it by accident, maybe she can do it on purpose.” Warriors doubted that she would but he didn’t want to say that it could never happen. It was unlikely but not impossible. 

“She kinda owes me…” War grumbled before he looked up and blinked at him. “If she can do this on purpose then I could probably convince her to.”

“She owes you?” he asked once he dunked his head underwater to get his hair wet. 

“She sure does-” War’s small frown turned into a scowl. “She did something that… Well, really it was the fact that she didn’t do something- Anyway, she felt so horrible she told me she owed me any favor I could ask of her, as long as it’s within her power to make the thing happen. She did also say it has to be within reason but I think that was more to stop me from asking her something that would land her in serious trouble. I think asking to hop to a different era for the afternoon would be fine considering that’s what I’ve been doing for the better part of a year, traveling through time.”

“That’s true. If you did end up coming to my era, there are three vampires who would probably love to answer any question you have. Actually, one of them might end up asking you a bunch of questions. He’s interested in Hyrule and all the heroes. He’s from Labrynna, I think, and he’s a scholar. Hyrule is still new and interesting to him, somehow,” Warriors said with a shrug as poured some shampoo onto his hand to lather into his hair. 

“Oh really?” Whatever anger, or hurt, or frustration that’d taken over the other hero disappeared and he stared at Warriors with a curious expression on his face. “I’ve never been to Labrynna… I’ve heard a little about it and also read a small amount, but I don’t really get to travel outside of Hyrule which is a real shame because there’s so much world to explore. It’d be interesting to talk with other vampires! And also just to see how different your era is from mine.”

“Two of them are from Holodrum, two of them come from Laybrynna, and then Elena, my mentor, was from Hyrule and then she went to Labrynna and came back. All of them have round ears except for Elena…” He paused as he lathered his hair. “Huh, Elena and Eleno. I didn’t fucking realize your names were so similar!” 

“Yeah, they are,” War let out a small laugh before wetting his hair so he could start washing it properly. “Is it just the six of you? Or are there other vampires where you live?”

“Just the six of us in Hyrule. There are more in my era, they just don’t live in Hyrule so I haven’t met them. Most vampires actually avoid Hyrule all together and I think Elena being a Hylian vampire in particular is the only reason why anybody followed her here. She knows all the stories and the legends, so she knows what vampires need to avoid. I’m lucky she was around, otherwise I would have had to deal with the curse on my own,” he said with a frown. He didn’t like to think about where he would be if it wasn’t for Elena and the other vampires teaching him how to blend in. There was a good chance that he wouldn’t be here with War, trying to get back home. 

“Legends and stories?” The other hero asked, working the shampoo through his curls. “Like about the kinds of things that you can do or do the hylians in your era have like… legends about vampires? I saw vampires mentioned in a small book in my Castletown library but I don’t know if it’s common for people to know about them.”

“Well, I meant that she knows about us and our brothers. She knows about the heroes, the princesses, and about the evil we need to banish. She knew what it meant that I was the hero… and also a vampire,” he answered, then dunk his head back into the water to rinse. “She actually threatened me the first time we talked. She basically said that if I wasn’t going to learn how to keep vampires a secret, she was going to kill me, hero or not. Our relationship is pretty good now, though!” 

“O- Oh!” War’s genuine shock caused his voice to sound higher than usual and he stood there for a second frozen, staring at him with wide eyes. 

“Well, she had to make sure there wasn’t an out of control vampire running around. I think even Zelda or Impa would have reached the same decision if I was a danger to people like that,” Warriors said quickly. He hoped he didn’t give War a bad impression of Elena since he would have been truly lost without her. She was the only reason why he got through the war as a vampire. 

“I, um… Well-” The other hero struggled for a moment with what to say, and while he did start moving again, his eyes were still a little too wide as he looked at him. “I’m glad you two are closer now.”

“She’s always offered help when I needed it and asked for it. I wouldn’t have been prepared to defeat Ganondorf without her and I wouldn’t have recovered so well without her and the other vampires shoving blood down my throat when I couldn’t feed myself… I’m not sure if this is helping,” he mumbled under his breath. 

“Helping what?” War asked, rinsing the soap from the ends of his hair.

Oh yeah, he kept forgetting that War’s hearing was actually pretty good. “Well, I don’t want you to have a bad impression of Elena but I think I’m just… overexplaining it,” he said with a frown, his shoulders drooping as he sat awkwardly in the tub.

“If you trust her and you have a good relationship with her, I trust your judgment,” War told him. “She seems important to you, and I’m glad you’ve had her to help you. Truly.”

Warriors let out a relieved sigh and he started to work the conditioner through his hair. “I was surprised too. She didn’t give me a lot of time to let it all sink in before she said that. In hindsight, I think she was justified but I definitely wasn’t happy that she said that. I was kind of a brat back then too, so it’s not like I gave her the best impression of me. We got to talk more when I was recovering.” 

“I can’t even imagine how stressed you were with the war going on and then suddenly finding yourself to be a vampire,” the other hero said with a small frown. “It’s good you were able to talk with her more once you had some time to adjust to everything.”

“At least it was when Cia was already defeated and Ganondorf was just acting in the background. The timing was still bad but it could have been a lot worse. At least I had some time to try and get it under control and figure out how to actually drink blood. Marcus, he’s one of the vampires that only tolerates me, taught how to hunt monsters so that’s how I managed my hunger throughout the war. There’s always monsters around.” 

“Why don’t the other vampires… seem to like you much?” War asked slowly. 

Warriors chewed on his lips as he recalled what Elena said about them. “Elena just thinks it’s because they don’t like the idea of the dynamics of their group changing. They’ve been together in Hyrule for a while, so I’m just a new element that they don’t know how to deal with. I don’t think they actually hate me or anything but they’re not in a hurry to learn more about me… and I guess that’s fine. We have decades to learn about each other.”

“Ah… That makes sense, I guess,” he said quietly, pouring more shampoo into his hand so he could soap up his hair again. “I remember being irritated when my youngest sister was born, because I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the fact there was another one of us. But we got closer as we got older, so maybe the same will be true for you too.”

“Hopefully. I figured out that Marcus just really likes to spar with people and I feel like we got a little closer when he was helping me get back into shape after I recovered from all of those burns. I don’t really have a good read on the last one though,” he mumbled. Luckily, he could probably ask the others what  she was interested in but when he was at the point in his life where the estate was the only place he had left, he could at least get closer to Marcus. 

“You were able to stay with them while you healed?”

He nodded. “My brothers found the portal that the shadow left behind when it was fleeing from the light spirit. That portal took them to my era and close enough to Elena’s manor. I don’t know how they found the vampires or if the vampires found them first, but I have my own room there so I could stay until I recovered. I think I told you before that it took me a month to heal from those burns and my brothers couldn’t stay the whole time but that's only because the vampires found a portal.”

“Yeah, you did mention that,” War said with a concerned frown before taking a moment to rinse all the soap from his hair. “I’m glad you had a place to stay with them, that’s insanely lucky that you were able to go there.”

“Legend said something about the shadow not being able to think straight after the spirit retaliated. I haven’t told you about the burns right?” He rinsed the conditioner out of his hair but sighed when he realized he forgot to grab something to actually scrub himself with. He would go back for that in a moment. He just wanted to soak and enjoy the warm water a little longer. 

“You’d said something about not being able to see?” The other hero reached for the ledge for another bottle, probably conditioner, before pouring some in his hand and running it through his hair. “And you’d said that you were pushed.”

“I was blind because the water burned my eyes. I also lost the tip of my ears, parts of my nose, had holes burned through my cheeks, my fingers were burned down to the bone, and the rest of my body had second and third degree burns. I also swallowed some of the water when I was struggling to find my way out, so some of my internal organs were damaged too. I think only my feet somehow ended up being relatively alright. If I recall correctly, they only had first degree burns.” He swallowed harshly when he realized just how many details he gave out. Warriors wasn’t bothered by the fact that War would know but he did worry that it might have been more than War would have liked to hear. “But as I can see, I’m fine now.” 

War was staring at him with his mouth open in shock, eyes wide as he took a minute to process what he’d just heard. He decided to just let War think while he got out of the tub and went back to the supplies with the shampoo and conditioner in hand. He was done with those, so he might as well put them back. He took longer than he actually needed to pick out something for his skin and a rag to scrub himself with before he returned to the tub and stepped inside. 

“I… I can’t even begin to imagine how much pain you must’ve been in, I’m so sorry,” the other hero whispered, looking only slightly less horrified than he had when Warriors left him.

“I wasn’t really conscious for a lot of that. The vampires woke me up a few times a day to drink a little bit of blood but I can’t remember much until I started feeling well enough to try and talk. I think they debrided the burns to remove all the charred flesh and Hyrule also used his magic when he could. Proxi was there too, she was able to interpret for me,” he said with a small smile. “She never left the room.” 

“Yeah?” War’s face finally started to relax. “She must’ve been worried, though I bet still somewhat happy to see you.”

“I think she would have preferred to see me in a better condition but I’m glad she came anyway. She came from the castle just for me when she heard I was in bad shape and she definitely made things a lot less lonely. My sight was the last thing to come back, so she was also my eyes for a bit there,” he said as he put some of the liquid soap on the rag and started to scrub his body down. “I had the others and the vampires too but Proxi knew me the longest.” 

“How’d she first find you?” War asked, still messing with whatever product was in his hair. “Like… How did you meet her, I guess?”

“On the battlefield near the castle. I was still just a trainee but I decided to go out and fight anyway when I heard that we were under attack. I saved her from some monsters. We’ve been together since the first day of the war. This adventure with the shadow has kept us separated unless we end up near the castle for a visit but I always visit when I can. I don’t know where I would be without her,” he explained as he finished washing himself. He once again settled for just existing in the tub with his head on the robes. 

“Me neither,” War let out a small sigh. “She’s a very dear friend.”

“Did you meet in a similar manner?” Warriors asked. 

“I first met her a bit before the war started,” the other hero shook his head. “I spent a lot of time by myself when I was first drafted, I couldn’t really understand what people were saying so whenever we had ‘free time’ before we were meant to sleep, I’d just wander because it wasn’t like I could talk with anyone. And I think I had some blueberries on me or something and she just came up to me and I offered her one and it turned out she could understand me, which was a surprise, and she talked with me for a little. She didn’t stick around much initially, not till I saved her from some monsters on the day the war started, like you did. But after that she stuck with me, and because it became more necessary for me to interact with other people because of the whole hero shit, she helped translate things for me and spoke for me until I could handle it myself.”

“Proxi had to speak for me too but that was because I didn’t have the confidence to speak for myself during the war. I went from trainee to captain as soon as it was confirmed that I was the hero and I was really scared of saying the wrong thing. I found it difficult to speak at all until I got more experience. Proxi had to speak for me during all those times,” he explained quietly. It wasn’t the easiest thing for him to admit but he figured if there was anybody who could understand, it would be War. He knew that the others had periods of silence in their lives too but War was the one who understood what it was like to be a captain during an ugly war and who understood the pressure of being the object of desire during said war. 

“I struggle a bit with that too,” War admitted. “It’s easier to speak around people I don’t feel like I have to impress, or be perfect in front of. Though I’ve had moments where I get so overwhelmed I feel like I’m being choked and I just can’t get any words to come out, to anyone.”

“Is that what happened in the forest when I lost my arm?” he asked quietly. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” 

“Mhm,” War nodded, rinsing his hair before just leaning back for a moment. “Or at least it was certainly starting to get to that point. I could still force myself to say something, it was hard but I could speak with you. There was just a lot going on in my head all at once and it was hard to not feel like I was drowning in all of it- But definitely nowhere close to the worst the feeling something out of my control is stopping me from speaking has ever been.”

Warriors frowned but since he was facing the ceiling, War wouldn’t be able to see it. “If that wasn’t the worst, I would hate to see what the worst was. I felt like I had no idea what I was doing when you were panicking but I guess I haven't been easy for you to handle all the time either.” 

“Eleven days, not a single word, and when I finally could force myself to say something my voice sounded absolutely horrible and I kept losing it. That would’ve been the worst,” the other hero mumbled, letting out a deep sigh before continuing. “You did more than enough, sometimes I really do just need to stop and calm down for a moment. It sounds fucking stupid but I do forget how breathing works sometimes…”

Even though he was curious, he didn’t think it was a good thing to pry. He couldn’t imagine what could put his friend into a state like that and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. He lifted his head up and looked at War. “I’m glad it helped then. I was scared of making things worse. It’s been a long time since I had to walk somebody through a breathing exercise and I was the one who made things worse to begin with.”  

“Oh?” War asked, rubbing at his collarbone before moving his hand to fiddle with the ring around his neck instead.

“Well, you know. I said things that didn’t need to be said when I knew you were doing so great. I should kept my fucking mouth shut but I kept pushing anyway. I knew I fucked up but I didn’t stop…” 

“Your arm had just got cut off,” the other hero frowned, “it’s understandable that you were frustrated.”

“Being frustrated didn’t help,” he mumbled. Why did he even bring it up again? Warriors was just going to feel bad that he snapped and War was going to be nice and understanding even though he didn’t deserve it. “I appreciate that you’re so kind to me but… I don’t deserve it. At least not for that.” 

“I don’t understand,” War stared at him, looking genuinely confused. “Why would I be unkind to you over that?”

“I don’t think unkind is the right word,” he said, looking into the bubbles instead. “I wasn’t kind to you. I feel like if somebody pushed me into a panic attack, I would forgive them, but I would still be upset that it happened. I’m still not happy that Twilight scared me. I’m not mean to him about it but like… I’m not exactly nice about it either. I guess I can’t understand why you would be nice to me for doing that.” 

“Link, I was so overwhelmed the panic attack was going to happen anyway,” War told him gently. “That’s not your fault at all, I freaked myself out because I let that darknut sneak up on me and then I got stressed because it felt like everything was spiraling out of my control. And I was still struggling to adjust to being here, with you, without most of my things or anything familiar at all, and it all just kind of hit me at once. I was a bit hurt by what you said, sure, but I don’t think you said it with the intention to be cruel or something, so why would I hold it against you?”

Warriors bit his lips with fangs that he didn’t realize came out, but he still bit his lips even as the fangs scratched them. “I… guess I don’t know…” he said quietly. “It just feels like you should.” 

“I don’t,” the other hero shook his head. “I don’t hold it against you. I never did, it’s okay.”

He dug his fangs into his lips and just sat there. It was difficult for him to let it all go but if War forgave him and didn’t hold it against him, then he shouldn’t hold it against himself either. He knew he shouldn’t but Warriors found it difficult to just forgive himself for it too. It was just easier to continue to beat himself up over it. 

“Truly?” he asked once he was able to dislodge his fangs from his lips. They bled a little but Warriors just ran his tongue over his lips so the blood wouldn’t drip onto his chin. 

“Truly. I’m not upset with you, I promise.” 

Warriors resisted the urge to bite and chew his lips again, so he retracted his fangs. Instead, he settled for breathing in and out until he was calm enough to shove all of the emotions he didn’t want to deal with away. He even shook his head, like that would help shake them out of his mind. He stayed quiet as he finished cleaning and he ran his hand through his hair again to see how it felt. 

“Thanks, War,” he said quietly. Warriors wasn’t quite sure what else to say though. The only thing he was sure of was that he was feeling pretty tired again. 

“Of course,” War gave him a small smile.

“I’m really tired again though. I feel a little lighter but…” Emotions were exhausting. Warriors didn’t say the last part out loud and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to, even though he was sure that War would understand. He shook his head again. “Are you nearly done?” 

“Yeah, I can hurry up,” the other hero told him. 

Warriors waved his hand and leaned his head back on his robe pillow. “You don’t need to rush, I don’t mind soaking for a while longer.”

“Oh, alright.” He heard War move to get out of the water, wrapping his robe around himself before walking right past him. Warriors closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. He didn’t realize he drifted off to sleep until War was calling his name. When he cracked his eyes open and rolled his head to face him, he found War sitting beside him with his legs in the water. “Ready?”

“Huh?” Warriors groaned as he lifted his head off his robe pillow and straightened himself out a bit. “How long has it been?” 

“Like… Ten, fifteen minutes?” He guessed. “Not that long.”

Fuck, he knew he was tired but he didn’t expect to drift off so quickly. He stretched and slowly stepped out of the tub, putting his robe on as he did so. He looked down, expecting to find the soap and the rag he used but apparently War already cleaned up for him and he didn’t notice.

 “I’m ready,” he said as very slowly and very carefully made his way to the changing room. He let out a sigh of relief when he made it onto flooring that he was sure he wouldn’t slip on. “Look at that. An incident free day at the bathhouse.” 

“Well, don’t say that,” War laughed as he followed after him, “we haven’t left yet. Don’t curse us.”

Warriors frowned at him and then quickly changed back into his clothing. What if he did just curse them? He knew how their luck worked. He knew it swung between completely awful and amazing and so far, it seemed to be on the amazing side. Maybe he just encouraged it to swing towards awful again.

“Let’s get out of here,” he mumbled. 

“You feeling alright?” War asked, double checking to make sure he had everything he’d walked in with before looking at him with poorly masked concern. 

Warriors bit his lips, trying to figure out how much he wanted to tell War. He already knew that he was bothered when War tried to say he was fine when he wasn’t. He would be fucking hypocrite if he wasn’t honest to War after all of that.  "I'm still bothered by our earlier conversation. I just need some time, I think.” 

“Oh, alright,” he said quietly, grabbing the door and pulling it open for him once they were ready to leave.

He hoped that War wasn’t too upset with him as he exited their room and signed them out in the book. When they left the bathhouse and walked back to the inn, Warriors could kind of understand why War was whining about the cold now. He didn’t think it was really cold out when they walked to the bathhouse but after leaving the nice, warm bathhouse with damp hair, he thought it was kind of cold. 

“I think I’m just going to go to bed once we get back. It’ll mess up my hair but I’m just tired right now.” 

“Do you want to sleep in tomorrow?” War asked. He had his arms wrapped tightly around his middle as he fought against shivering.

“If it’s alright. I don’t want to hold us up though.” 

“Take as much time as you need,” he told him, trying to walk a little faster to reach the inn sooner.

“I guess I will then,” he answered as he sped up to match War’s pace. It didn’t take long for them to reach the inn at that rate and once Warriors got all his extra layers off, he claimed his side of the bed. He bid Warriors a good night and fell asleep.