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"Rupee for your thoughts?"
The question from thin air almost had Wars jumping out of his skin. He looked up at the owner of the voice. Wild was perched in the tree they had elected to sleep in for the night. Why a tree he had no idea.
"Why are you awake?"
The champion gave him a look. "My watch started about an hour ago, you forgot to wake me."
Wars blinked, "Oh, sorry."
"It's fine." Wild hoped down out of the tree and sat on the log across from the captain. "What's up?"
He gave them a vacant stare. "Huh?"
"You didn't wake me for my shift and were staring into the fire as if held the answers to the universe. What’s up? "
Warriors let out a sigh. "I just miss home, that's all." More specifically he missed his daughter and husband, but he wasn't about to tell Wild that. At least they were in his Hyrule, couple days out from Castle Town, but still, almost home.
They gave him a look of sympathy. "I get that." A strange look came into their eyes and they gave a deep sigh. "By the Goddesses, do I get that."
Something about their tone and the look on their face reminded Warriors of Time when the old man was thinking of his wife. It reminded him of what he was feeling currently.
"Are you married?" The words were out of his mouth faster than he could process the recognition.
The other hero smirked. "Don't tell Twi."
That caught Wars of guard. "Wait, wait," he held up a hand, "You're telling me that Twilight, your mentor, doesn't know that you're MARRIED ?!"
"There are a lot of things that he doesn't know about me." They gave a half-hearted chuckle and a shrug. "It's his own fault really. He knows it's been longer for me then it has for him since we last saw each other but he won't actually ask me about what's happened."
Oh, that made since actually. Hylia knows he had done the same thing with Time, at least until the portals had dropped the Chain at the ranch. Come to think of it, Wild was very much not the very skittish, highly feral, impossibly traumatized hero that the Rancher had told them would be joining. Was Wild still feral? Yes, but they were more civilized than not, very much not how their mentor said they would act. Were they also impossibly traumatized? Probably, they were a chosen hero after all, but they seemed to have come to terms with it, grown past it even. For such change to have happened, just how long had it been?
“17 years.”
Wars froze, “That question was supposed to stay in my head.”
Wild shrugged. “I figured but thought I’d give you an answer anyway.”
“Oh.” A pause. “Wait, if it’s been 17 years, how old are you? Cause Twi said that you were probably in your early to mid twenties, but he didn’t tell us how old you were during your quest so…” He didn’t mean to start rambling but he did. He was tired, okay, sue him.
His short ramble got a laugh out of the other. “Oh of course he thinks I’m more than a decade younger than I actually am.” …Or it was that. But a decade and some change younger would mean…
“You’re in your late-THIRTIES?! ”
That got another laugh. “37 to be specific. Although, technically speaking I’m also 140.”
Warriors did not know what to do with that information. This would make Wild the second eldest, regardless of which one was their mental age. This also meant, well he didn’t know what else it meant, but it definitely meant something.
Wild continued speaking, “Which means I’m old enough to be Wind’s, Hyrule’s, and possibly Four and Legend's parent.”
That’s what it meant.
Wars put his face in his hands and let out a word-less scream of distress. He could practically feel his brain imploding. Wild, like the little shit they were, seemed to find his suffering amusing. “You trying to wake the camp?”
He gave them a desperate look of pain. “Shut up, please?”
“No, anyways… What about you”
Warriors hesitated. “What about me?”
“Are you married?”
He froze, yet again. “Yes…”
“To whom?”
“Uh- Not someone we’re likely to run into.”
That got an eyebrow raise, “We’re not likely to meet your spouse? Your spouse , the person you married. We’re not likely to meet them? At all? Even though we are in your Hyrule, on the way to your house? Are you sure about that?”
Welp, he tried. “I just- I don’t know.”
The older (now that was a strange thought) hero let out an understanding hum. “You’re worried it won’t go over well.”
“Am-,” he blinked a couple of times, “Am I that easy to read?”
“Not normally, but it is after midnight.”
Oh, that made sense. “I should probably let you take your watch, shouldn’t I?”
“Probably or we could talk about our spouses until we have to wake Legend.”
The scarfed hero paused and considered his options. On one hand, he could do the responsible thing, letting Wild take their watch and go to sleep. On the other, he could talk about his husband, which he’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to do. The second option also gave him more information on Wild, who was about as cryptic about themselves as the old man.
It was a no brainer. He was going to regret not going to sleep, but oh well. At least he wasn’t pulling an all-nighter.