Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Wind wakes up the camp is already bustling with wide awake heroes preparing for their day, but instead of opening his eyes, Wind shuts them closed tighter. As he does so, he swears he can see the glowing red eyes of the lizalfos again, staring into his soul. The red swirls in his mind's eye and makes the boy stiffen in his place.

"You're not even a real hero, are you?" the voice of the lizalfos still lingers in his mind, making Wind wince at the memory. He was a real hero. He was.

Just because he hadn't been chosen by the goddesses didn't mean he wasn't a real hero... right? He had wielded the master sword. He had used the triforce of courage.

"You can leave right now...."

The lizalfos' threats replay in Wind's mind, making him shiver, so he pulls the blankets over his head once more. He wouldn't leave, he wouldn't. Nope. he was staying right where he was with the other heroes.

But would the lizalfos carry out his threat and hurt the others- no, kill them, if he didn't leave? Would it be his fault if they died on this journey?

Wind doesn't want everything to be his fault again. Not again. Please... never again. The boy swears he can still hear the Captain's screams and Mask's sobs ringing in his ears. Wind presses his hands to his ears as though it’ll stop his memories from overwhelming him.

If he follows the plan everything will be fine. If he had followed the plan everything should have been fine....

He shuffles in his bedroll, seeking the familiar warmth of Warriors. The blonde isn't there though, and Wind has to hold back tears. The Captain was fine. The war was over. Everyone was safe.

 He guesses it’s normal for Wars to be up before him, but there goes his one sense of emotional comfort, damnit. Wind rolls over and groans, his side aching as he does so. Oh, yeah. He had gotten injured in their last battle and hadn't had to stand up for a couple hours. Getting up was going to hurt. Not as much as it hurt when he was getting stabbed though.

Guess one night of sleep and a red potion didn't heal anyone overnight, unfortunately. He can feel the stitches in his side, and they dig uncomfortably into his skin. His sleep had been light, and Wind still feels like crap as he blinks his eyes open slowly. You know what, crap was too light of a word. He feels like he was run over by a horse or something and then thrown into the Great Sea from off of the spirals in the Forsaken Fortress.

Eh, maybe he'll just stay in bed until someone forced him out of it. Not like they knew he was awake, and Cyclos did this bedroll feel so good right now despite all of the bad thoughts crowding his head.

 Last night and the day before had been absolute hell... he's pretty sure he almost died so that should warrant being able to stay in bed a bit longer. Nobody had the right to wake him up after almost bleeding out and getting strangled by a monster.

"Hey sailor! You awake?" a voice calls from above him. "Wild's finished making breakfast, and you don't get any if you don't get your lazy ass out of bed."

Never-mind, he spoke too soon. Wind rolls over onto his back and sits up as quickly as he possibly can, eyes wide open. Someone reprimands the person who woke him up, but Wind pays no mind. He can practically taste the sweet scent coming from the pot that Wild's standing over, bent over and holding a ladle to his mouth. His stomach rumbles. Guess he was hungry. No surprise there, really. Warriors says he could eat like a horse.

Wind turns to Legend, who looks just as exhausted as Wind feels, and apparently the one who woke him up. "What did he make?" Wind asks, his voice excited.

"Eager, are we?" Legend sighs, rolling his eyes with a fond look in them. "Wild made some fancy dish I can't name. Not sure why he spent so much time cooking breakfast, but it looks decent."

If Legend says it's decent that means it's amazing.

Wind can't help it, he stands up, maybe a little too quickly because his side flares up in pain for a moment and his head rushes with dizziness, but no matter. He needs to have some of whatever Wild had just made. It's worth getting dizzy over!

Apparently, Wars disagrees though, because as soon as Wind starts to walk completely normally over to the cooking pot, Wars grabs his wrist and catches him.

Catches him because Wind most defiantly did not almost fall over flat on his face, nope! Not at all!

"You good?" Wars asks as he rights Wind, placing him back on his feet.

Wind's face does not darken in a blush, and if anyone accused his face of doing so, then they obviously were blind. It was dark in this cave after-all despite the fact that the early morning light was shining right into the cave's mouth.

"Yeah, yeah!" he nods, continuing his walk over to where Wild stirs the pot. "I'm good, just a bit dizzy, is all."

Wars frowns but doesn't press further, which is a relief. Wind really is only dizzy and tired. Not the nicest combo, but breakfast would fix it all!

"Alright, you go eat something now, I'm going to check in on Time. He left to patrol a bit earlier and should be back soon." Warriors says before turning around, scarf following him with a swish.

Wind doesn't have time to respond, but it's not a big deal because Warriors is already out of sight by the time the thought occurs to him. Ah, oh well.

"Morning, kid." Twilight says, waving from where he's packing up his bag. Wind pipes a small good morning back as he skips over to where Wild was cooking.

The silver pot has a light liquid in it, with a couple slices of bread dipped into it. On another pan, there's pieces of bread cooking with the liquid soaked over them. Next to Wild there are a couple of finished plates, and on each are four pieces of bread topped with berries, syrup and fluffy whipped cream alongside cream cheese.

Wind reaches a finger out to dip into the pot before having his hand smacked away from it with a spoon.

"What was that for?" Wind pouts, glaring at Wild halfheartedly.

Wild chuckles. "No taste testing the batter, 'cause I have a plate ready for you already."

Oh, oops. "Ah, thanks champ!" Wind smiles as Wild hands him a plate and he goes over to sit next to Hyrule, Four, and Legend.

Hyrule and Four say good morning as well, then the former insists on checking on Wind's wounds.

"I'm fine, traveler!" Wind says, pulling away slightly before immediately feeling guilty as he sees Hyrule's crestfallen face.

Wind pouts and rolls his eyes. "Fine.. go ahead and check. But you did a good job, so I’m sure I’m all good.”

Hyrule beams and Wind's face reddens as he eats his food.

Breakfast is short, but delicious. Despite that though, Wind can only manage to shove down half his meal. For some reason he just can't shake off the feeling of dread and stress that weigh on his shoulders. He had been fine when he first woke up, but by the end of breakfast Wind wasn't feeling good, emotionally or physically. His side ached painfully, like little pins were poking at it constantly and his head was pounding. The sailor doesn't pity Four's migraines at all.

Sky helps Wind pack his stuff up and Wind doesn't complain because his side hurts too much to bend over and roll up his pack.... and he doesn't feel like arguing with Sky, not after he gave him the look.

Legend lends Wind one of his tunics since the vet was still repairing his ripped blue lobster tunic. The tunic is green, but Wind doesn't mind even though he'd sort of swore of wearing green after his first adventure. His first tunic was unbearably itchy when he was sailing, and it had gotten too small for him to wear. Thankfully Legend wasn't much larger than Wind, so the vet's tunic fits comfortably on Wind. But still, green. Ugh.

Afterwards when Time and Warriors trail back into the cave, slightly wet due to the light sprinkling that continued throughout the night, Wild announces that they'll heading out to Hateno since it's the closest village to them and they need to restock on supplies.

Wind picks up his sword and sheathes it on his back before latching on his shield and joining Warriors and Sky where they stand, ready to go.

"We leaving now?" Wind asks as the camp is all but put-away. Legend and Four are strapping on their shields and coming to join the group as well.

"Yup." Wild says, strolling up to the front of the group, pots and pans put away neatly in his slate, "We'll be heading North-East to get to Hateno. Shouldn't take too long, we camped really close to the inn due to the fact that it started raining and Wind was injured."

Wind winces. He still feels kind of bad about that. Fortunately, neither Warriors nor Sky had scolded him yet, so he probably wouldn't be getting in trouble for that until they got to Hateno, even though he really should be scolded about it. This wasn't the first time he'd almost killed someone because of his rash decisions.

"Yeah, what was up with that, sailor? You usually don't stray from the battle plan." Legend says as he and Four join the group of heroes at the mouth of the cave.

Dang! Why'd the vet have to go and bring it up?

"I don't want to be rude but... it was really scary seeing you so beat up... good thing I was there to cover Wars, otherwise today might not have been so good." Hyrule says sheepishly, fidgeting with his hands. "I don't think I've ever seen you so pale..." he whispers.

There’s a silence among the heroes.

Hyrule's saying the quiet part out loud. Nobody mentioned it throughout the morning, but they were all worried sick about Wind throughout the night.

Now Wind still feels bad about that.

“I was real worried there too kid,” Twilight puts in, “Didn’t wanna say it out loud, bu’ you’ve gotta be more careful.”

Wind cringes. Did everyone think he had been that bad? He’d already considered the battle a personal failure, but boy did it hurt a lot more to hear it from someone else.

“Well-“  Wind begins,

"It was irresponsible of him, but I'll talk to him later about it, so no need to worry everyone." Warriors butts in to Wind's relief. "Now should we get going?" Wild nods in response to Wars.

"Sounds good. Everyone ready?"

There's a chorus of agreements in response to Wild's declaration.

Hopefully everyone can just drop it and forget about it for the rest of the day. The sailor doesn't think he can handle feeling worse than he already does about the whole situation. Wind's headache is getting worse and he wants to get going. Hopefully he can walk there without collapsing, he doesn't need to be a burden to the other heroes.

They're at risk enough with him being in the group if the lizalfos' threats are legitimate.

But Wind won't let anything bad happen to his brothers. He couldn't, not if he could prevent it.

---

So, about the not collapsing thing. Yeah, didn't work out too well. For the first twenty minutes Wind had been fine. His feet hurt and his side was cramping up badly, not helped by the stitches at all, but he had been alright.

His head still hurt like hell though.

Wind had begun to trail behind the group but kept catching up so nobody had noticed right away. Then he could barely take another step. It came all on him at the same time, this overbearing weight that seemed to press down on his shoulders, pushing him to the ground. Wind collapsed in the mud and smeared his face and hands with the cold, goopy stuff as he sneezed. If Wind hadn't felt like crying before, he sure did now. Tears threaten to fall out of his eyes, welling up painfully behind them. He blinks them away though as he struggles to lift himself out of the mud. He can hear the shouts of worry from his brothers, especially from Wars, Sky and Twilight approaching him. All the emotions that Wind has been keeping in that morning want to release themselves, but he holds it all in as Twilight hauls him to his feet.

"You alright, sailor? That was quite a fall." Twilight asks, wiping some of the mud off Wind's face, expression worried but calm.

Guilt throbs in Wind's chest. Argh! Why couldn't he do things right? He didn't want to seem incompetent in front of the other heroes. He didn't want to seem like he was just a little kid... playing at being hero. Wind shakes those thoughts away as soon as he has them. Nope, no feeling like this. Bad thoughts! Bad feelings! He should be able to control them better. So why can't he?

"Fine..." Wind breathes out, gasping for air. He only realizes now how hard it is to breathe, and how many black dots dance across his vision. "All... all good!" he says, huffing a bit.

Twilight doesn't seem convinced, and neither do any of the other heroes.

"Bullsh*t!" he hears Legend shout from ahead of him.

Twilight winces. "Not t' agree wit' the vet, but yeah, y'don' look too peachy. I reckon y' need a break. Want me t' carry ya'?" the ranch-hand offers.

Warriors and Sky both agree with Twilight, to Wind's dismay.

He doesn't need to be carried! He's fine. What if theres an ambush? What if someone gets hurt because Wind couldn't take care of himself? What if...

"I'm fine." Wind spits out, crossing his arms. As though the gods want to prove Wind wrong, when he tries to take a step to prove his point he nearly falls right over again. This time, Sky catches him.

"I think you should probably take up the rancher's offer, bud." Sky says, shooting him a sympathetic smile. "You're still recovering, afterall." The look Sky sends Wind is enough to have him freeze where he's standing.

Wind shivers and sneezes, mentally berating himself as he does so. "....Fine." he agrees quietly. There was not way he was arguing with Sky. Nope, no thank you.

"Good." Sky smiles.

Ugh, still intimidating. Somehow Sky had taken the scariest Link spot, despite him being the sweetest one as well. Maybe that made him all the scarier when he wanted to be.

Wind sometimes envied that trait of Sky's.

"Well then sailor, get o'er 'ere." Twi says, bending down so Wind can hop onto his back.

Well, hop onto is a bit of an overstatement. Wind feels his legs almost give out again when he tries to take a step, and Sky catches him yet again. Instead, the Skyloftian helps him position himself on Twi's back before the group begins walking again.

---

Wind tries his best not to feel guilty for slowing everyone down. Nobody would like it if he said anything out loud. There was a strict no blaming yourself rule for something you couldn't control.

The only thing was, could Wind control if the group was attacked or not? If the lizalfos' threats were true....

---

Everything is his fault. He thought if he stayed with the group, if he didn't leave, everything would be fine. The lizalfos couldn't hold that much power. It couldn't.

Once again, the world proves Wind wrong. So utterly wrong.

They were ambushed just outside of Hateno as soon as they passed the Dueling Peak's stables. It couldn't be a coincidence.

Pandemonium unleashed around the group of heroes as lizalfos, bokoblins, moblins and tektites burst out around them.

But the moblins weren't from Wild's era, no these ones were larger and had golden piercings. They were from Wind's era.

Shit. Way to get a message across.

"Twilight! Get the sailor out of here!" Warriors shouts from the front of the group as he unsheathes his sword and charges at the hoard of monsters. Time, Legend, Four and Hyrule immediately follow Warriors, but Twilight turns around and runs in the direction Wild points him in.

Twilight doesn't question Warriors' advice at all and goes as quickly as he possibly can without jostling Wind too much.

Arrows fly past Wind's head as the two make a mad dash towards Hateno Village, away from the attacking monsters.

'Watch out!" Hyrule's yell is far and Wind barely hears it, but Twilight does.

The rancher rolls right of the way of a huge silver ax as it lodges itself into the ground next to him and Wind.

That was too close.

"You good up there, sailor?" Twilight grunts as he repositions Wind on his back. The wind pushes the sailor's blonde hair back and wipes it clear of sweat.

"Yeah" Wind gulps, wrapping his arms around the rancher's shoulders a bit tighter.

He wanted this to be over- please.

This was all his fault. Twilight couldn't make it to Hateno fast enough with Wind on his back. Wind was being such a burden. All he wanted was to help the heroes. He wanted to be worth something. Worth staying for.

Twilight jumps over a large rock and Wind almost let's go when he lands. Hateno is in view now and

There's a scream in the distance behind the two as they make it to the gate.

Wind wants to cry, but instead he buries his face in Twilight's wolf pelt, smothering his emotions along with his face.

Just as Twilight begins to slow down, three arrows fly in the air and dig themselves into Twi's shoulder.

Twilight falls down with a shriek, shocked, and Wind falls along with him.

---

Wind feels like shit as he sits in his chair of the shared inn room with Four and Sky. The two other heroes are fast asleep already.Wind in the other hand hasn’t been able to sleep a wink.

He still has a headache...but he's less tired than before, for some reason.

And on top of that, Four and Twilight are injured. Four went down when he was clubbed in the head after being slashed across the chest by a spear. The smithy was fine, but he had a concussion.

Twilight was alright, the arrows had just startled him. The two had gotten up quickly only to see Time killing the bokoblin archer that had shot at Twilight.

Warriors hadn't ended up giving Wind that lecture he had promised, instead taking care of Four and the others who had received minor injuries.

All's well that ends well, the group had agreed during their hastily made dinner.

Wind doesn't agree. This wasn't over, and it wasn't going to end well.

This was all his fault. What if it happened again? Nobody should have been hurt today. What if they were hurt worse the next time this happened? What if... what if someone died?

Wind doesn't want to leave the other heroes. The thought makes him cry. Tears are welling up in his eyes as he stares at the crescent moon, sitting in the uncomfortable chair.

Why was this so hard?

Wind knows what he has to do. He can't stop and watch as his brothers get hurt!

So, he won't.

Wind pushes himself up, ignoring the lingering pain in his side before crossing the room. He doesn't bother to be quiet, Four and Sky are out cold anyways. They wouldn't wake up even if Wild set off a bomb.

The sailor grabs his discarded bag, and his sword and shield, strapping them on. Legend had finished repairing his tunic, so he takes it from the pile of bags as well, shoving it in his own bag. Hopefully the vet wouldn't mind if Wind took his green tunic. Wind didn't want to take it off yet... and it may be his only reminder of this journey if things were going to go his way. Before he leaves, Wind takes a piece of paper out of Sky's notebook and scrawls a quick note. He doesn't bother to explain everything too much. They're better off without him there endangering them.

Then he pulls out a woolen tunic that Sky had lended him a few weeks prior and pulls it over his head when he puts the notebook away.

The sailor sighs and pauses at the doorway when he makes his way to it. He looks at Four and Sky's peaceful, relaxed faces and tries to memorize them as he does so. Who knows if he'll ever see them again?

Maybe he’s being rash, and maybe he’s being stupid, but Wind can’t think of a better solution.

He couldn’t tell anyone else about what the lizalfos had said, because as much as he doesn’t want to believe it, people could change their minds about others quickly enough.

He's not sure how long he pauses at the doorframe, but when he leaves, he feels as though it wasn't long enough.  

The sailor slips out unnoticed into the moonlit town and leaves under the veil of the night.