Chapter Text
It was nice being able to return home to his own era, to see the rolling fields of green welcome him and feel the gentle breeze blowing through his hair as it guided him back to where he belonged. Having spent so much of his childhood feeling out of place it was comforting to know now that he had a place to return to, with a wife who loved and missed him. Time had known he wouldn’t be able to stay for long, he never could, but even getting to sleep in his own bed for a single night, secure in the knowledge that he was safe on the ranch with Malon, had brought him a sense of peace few other things could.
He hadn’t wanted to leave, had he been a more selfish man he wouldn’t have, but upon his return to his home era the postman had given him summons from his queen that Time simply couldn’t ignore. Her letter had been vague and when he’d shown it to Warriors, his captain had frowned at her phrasing as well, but the message was clear enough: Something was wrong and he needed to head to Castletown to investigate it, though whether he’d find news of the black blooded monsters as specifically mentioned in Zelda’s loopy handwriting or something wrong with the queen herself, he had no idea.
Time thought it unfair to drag the others along with him, especially given how exhausted they all were, so he and the captain set off on their own, giving the others a chance to rest at the ranch for a few days while they went on a simple trip to the city. At least that was how they phrased it to the others: a simple trip to check in with the queen, because otherwise their companions would’ve spent more time arguing with them or they’d even have tried to come along. He and Warriors had spent an entire night looking over the queen’s letter and they’d decided that in case it was some kind of trap, it would be best to leave the others where they could be safe. The two of them had gone on more than their fair share of suicide missions in the past during the War of Eras, and compared to some of the other positions they’d found themselves in, this would be a piece of cake. They were well used to how the other fought and with just the two of them they’d be able to get in and out if the situation turned into any kind of stealth mission, something that would just not be feasible with seven others.
Of course he’d told Malon everything that was happening, he didn’t keep secrets from her, and he wasn’t technically lying to the boys either because it was supposed to be just a simple trip. But if the captain picked up on his same suspicions before Time had even voiced them, then it was likely something truly might go awry. In which case it was better to be safe than sorry and leave the others home, even if they’d most certainly give them both an earful if they ever discovered the truth. Or rather, given their nosy nature and the fact that none of them were stupid, when they discovered the truth.
They were sure to be in for a lecture upon their return…
The journey to Castletown wasn’t too long from the ranch, two days by horse if they didn’t run into any trouble, and there was a small town between the two places that they’d been able to stop at for the night to rest. It wasn’t the usual town Time stayed in, he was able to go much faster when he traveled on his own and Epona was much better at handling long distances than the horse he’d leant Warriors for the trip, so they’d been forced to stop closer to the ranch than Time was used to. There was one small inn for them to stay in, which wasn’t a problem at all because the innkeeper seemed nice enough and they’d even been able to score two beds despite the sheer number of other guests there that night. It’d been such a long time since he’d been able to spread out on a mattress and take up as much space as he wanted, and Time absolutely took advantage of it.
He’d been stupid enough to let Warriors keep him up late chatting, but it had been nice to have a moment alone with his brother after what felt like ages and he’d let the time get away from him. He’d missed the captain, despite how he spent nearly every day with him now, and part of Time missed how things used to be. The war had been hell on them both and he was glad to be finished with it, but the quiet moments with his brother that stood out to him so clearly through the violence had been so precious to him. They’d kept him going in the years following his return to his own era and in desperation to feel that close to his brother again, he stayed up far later than he should’ve.
He should’ve known the captain would still be waking him up early, insistent on sticking to their schedule so they could reach Castletown by nightfall.
The covers were rather violently yanked off of him, and Time woke up with a startled shriek to find his brother grinning at him like an idiot from the foot of the bed.
“Rise and shine, dumbass!” Warriors cackled, ducking when he hurled a pillow at his head.
Happy as he’d been to see the captain again after the war, he was not too thrilled to once again be subjected to the asshole’s horrible methods of waking him up. At least he was far too heavy now for his brother to string him upside down by the ankles to drag him out of bed.
“I hope you explode,” he groaned, letting his head flop back down onto the mattress, a pathetic grunt coming from him when he remembered too late that the pillow wasn’t there to cushion his neck.
“Yeah, yeah,” his brother laughed, tossing him back his pillow and letting out a snort when it hit Time in the face. “C’mon, we’re getting breakfast and then I want to ask questions around town, see if we can find out anything before we get to Castletown.”
“Five more minutes,” he grumbled, rolling onto his stomach and burying his face in the bed.
He screeched when Warriors poked him in the side. “Come on, Sprite. We have shit to do.”
“I fucking hate you,” Time huffed as he pushed himself up on slightly shaking arms. “You’re horrible.”
Shooting a glare over at the captain, he found his brother now leaned against the doorframe giving him his best flashy grin. The one he usually reserved for people at the bar he wanted to get a little extra information out of. That smug, charming grin that almost always got him what he wanted because it already said ‘I won’.
“Horrible,” he muttered again, brushing his hair out of his eyes and twisting into a sitting position.
“Yes, yes,” Warriors sighed dramatically. “I’m insufferable, I know, but you still need to get your lazy ass out of bed.”
The sound the captain made when the pillow nailed him in the face would keep Time going for the next few weeks, and he took great pride in how his brother’s hair had gotten a little disheveled.
“I will be downstairs,” Warriors sniffed, trying to straighten himself out with a pout. “Join me when you’re done acting like a five year old.”
“Oh, so you can hit me but when I throw a pillow back at you it's the end of the world??” He squawked as his brother opened the door and headed out, closing it behind him with a huff.
Time wanted to curl back up on the surprisingly plush mattress and go back to sleep, but he knew if he wasn’t downstairs in less than half an hour the captain would be back and a lot less kind about getting him up. Besides, they really did have work to do and the faster they could search town for whatever the captain wanted and get to the castle and check on Zelda, the sooner he could get back to the ranch and his wife. And the others. They were important too.
So, with a whine and an irritated groan, Time forced himself to his feet and began to freshen up for the day. He stumbled a little when he first stood up, his heart racing at the change in his position causing him to feel a little light headed, but he pushed through his discomfort and managed to not fall over as he headed over to the little table where his bag was.
It felt weird not putting it on, but it also felt weird walking around a small town in full armor that would most definitely draw unnecessary attention to him, so Time left his armor where he’d stashed it under the bed the previous night. The captain had left behind his scarf and shoulder pauldron most likely for the same reason, though Time knew his brother had put on his mail under his tunic for protection, just in case. It was still visible, and it was not exactly silent, but Time figured it was better than nothing and so he followed in Warriors’s footsteps. At the very least it wouldn’t be as obvious, and it would help him feel a little safer.
When he headed downstairs he found the captain sitting at a small table in a corner, already pushing eggs around his plate and frowning at them as if his breakfast had somehow wronged him. Although he’d done a good job at attempting to make it look otherwise, it was clear to Time at least that he’d yet to actually eat any of it. A second plate of eggs and fruits sat at the empty seat across from him, completely untouched, and he smiled when he realized that must be for him.
Warriors’s head snapped up when he heard Time approaching, and the weird expression that had been on his face melted away as he broke into a smile.
“There you are,” his brother snorted, taking a bite of his food. “Thought you’d gone back to sleep and I was going to have to come get you.”
He kicked at the captain’s shin under the table as he sat down, earning himself a smack to the hand he’d foolishly allowed to rest right in Warriors’s reach. “OW?!”
The captain scoffed at him. “Don’t kick me.”
“You slapped me??”
“You’re causing a scene,” his brother scolded as he blinked up at him innocently and shovelled more eggs into his mouth. There was absolutely no one looking at them, their little squabble hadn’t drawn a single person’s attention because it’d been drowned out by the low chatter filling the room. The captain was just being a fuck.
Time had a violent urge to kick him again, but that was exactly what Warriors wanted from him so he very maturely stabbed a grape with his fork and aggressively bit it off instead. It felt like his brother won anyway, because the captain smirked and tipped his head to the side as he chewed with a frankly evil little gleam in his eye.
“What is it you wanted to look at?” He asked, barely restraining himself from bouncing a grape off Warriors’s forehead.
Whatever little shit mood that had taken over his brother disappeared and the look on the captain’s face grew more serious as his eyes widened and he quickly swallowed his food so he could answer.
“I thought it might be worth it to ask around about the black blooded monsters,” Warriors told him, reaching for his water to take a quick sip before he continued. “Zelda made it seem like it might be a big issue, in her letter, and I know we’re still a day away from the city but maybe people out here are close enough to have an idea of what’s going on.”
Time hummed, taking a bite of his eggs. It wasn’t a bad idea at all to try to get some clue about what they were about to walk into.
“I was going to ask the innkeeper before we headed out,” the captain shrugged, tapping his fingers against the table as his brow furrowed in thought. “I figured with the amount of travelers he sees maybe he’ll know something, and if not we could ask around town.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he nodded. The urge to kick his brother one more time, just to get the final hit was still incredibly strong, but unfortunately he had to be an adult and accept there were just some things he could no longer get away with now that he wasn’t twelve.
Twenty years ago he would’ve kicked him again. And probably hit him with the grape too, just for good measure.
They finished up their breakfast mostly in silence, occasionally making a comment about how they hoped it didn’t rain on them again today like it had yesterday afternoon, and when they’d finished Warriors stood up with his plate and headed over to where the innkeeper stood behind the bar, Time following close behind him.
His brother cleared his throat politely to get the man’s attention, and he whipped around with a startled look on his face before his eyes landed on the captain.
“Thank you for the food, Sir,” Warriors smiled at him kindly, setting his plate and glass in the box of dirty dishes as the sign instructed before taking Time’s out of his hands and doing the same.
“No problem,” the innkeeper waved a hand at him dismissively, reaching for a plate from the stack to wash. His hand accidentally bumped a glass that had been placed just in front of it on the edge of the counter and before Time or the captain could react, it tumbled to the ground and shattered at Warriors’s feet.
“M- My apologies,” his brother stammered out, blinking in shock at the glass on the floor.
The man just let out an exhausted sigh, washing the plate he’d grabbed as if nothing had happened. “It’s alright, young man. Not yer fault people can’t put things back where they’s s’pposed t’ go. Was there somethin’ you needed?”
“Ah, yes, actually. I had a question,” Warriors told him, taking a step to the side so he could lean his forearm on the empty counter space. “My brother and I were just coming through on a hunting trip, it’s not often we’re able to spend much time together now that we’ve both grown up and started our own lives, you know.” The captain let out a cheery laugh, and Time nodded along with the story he was spinning. “It’s a yearly tradition we picked up from our father.”
It always shocked him when people believed they were related, that they were family. Well, Warriors was family to him as far as Time was concerned; he’d been there for him when no one else had and he’d had such a positive lasting impact on him that Time would eternally be grateful for. Some in the captain’s era also recognized them as family, like Athena and Impa, because Warriors had signed papers to become his legal guardian back at the beginning of the war and was recognized as his parent by the few who knew about those papers. But as much as Time loved him and as much as he called him his brother, he and the captain really looked nothing alike.
Which didn’t matter to him at all, it just continuously surprised him that the same people who gave him questioning stares for claiming blood relation to Twilight, who looked so similar to him that when he first met the young man he’d been terrified he was somehow looking at his and Malon’s son, didn’t even question the lie that he was the captain’s brother. Warriors’s skin had a darker tone to begin with, but Time was so pale that standing right next to him made the difference even more obvious, and the captain’s hair was very obviously dyed blond because he hadn’t been bothered to touch up his roots in the past month. They didn’t even share the same eye color. There was nothing that made him physically similar to the captain whatsoever, and he genuinely wondered why Warriors kept using the ‘brothers’ story as his go-to lie when there was no way he also wasn’t aware it was almost entirely unbelievable. Close friends was a relationship between the two of them he could believe, maybe even cousins, but the fact that people kept believing that they shared the same parents absolutely baffled him.
And once again, the lie had somehow worked. Maybe because Warriors’s charming smile and sweet way with words made him so believable that people would just trust him even if he told them he was the gods damned queen. Time really couldn’t figure out another explanation.
“It’s very sweet you two are still close,” the innkeeper told them, drying off the plate after he’d rinsed off the soap. “I ain’t seen my brother in twenty, thirty years. Fucker’s still alive, I know ‘e is, just ain’t seen him. What’s it you two’re huntin’?”
His brother let out a quiet laugh, and Time watched in amusement as Warriors made himself look uncertain. “Well, that’s the thing. We’re not entirely sure.”
“How ain’t you sure what it is yer after??” The man looked at them suspiciously, and he had to stop himself from raising an eyebrow at the captain as well.
“It’s all part of the game,” Warriors sighed. “We find something to go after and we follow it for a while, it’s not something specific we’re hunting.”
‘Oh, you clever bastard,’ Time thought to himself as he realized exactly what his brother was up to.
“So yer trackin’ somethin’?” The innkeeper questioned, reaching for a glass to clean.
The captain’s warm, confident smile returned. “Yessir. We’re not sure what it is yet, but it’s big and it leaves rather odd prints. We thought it might have come by here, which is why we stopped here for the night. That, and also we needed to restock on supplies.”
By not giving a solid answer of what they were looking for, Warriors was forcing the innkeeper to think about any large beast or animal or strange thing that had passed by recently instead of narrowing his mind to only one possible solution. His brother was a damn genius.
“I’d just wanted to ask you if you’d noticed any weird things in the past few days or so,” the captain continued, casually checking his nails. “I’m wondering if maybe we’re tracking some kind of monster or something, which would be terribly exciting, but probably best to find it sooner or later if that is the case.”
“Nothing much weird ‘round these parts,” the man behind the bar grumbled as he tried to recall anything that might help them, drying off a glass and sticking it back on a shelf behind him. “‘Less y’ count Sal, but he ain’t no monster an’ I dunno if weird really covers what’s wrong with ‘im.”
“How do you mean?” Warriors asked with a frown, leaning further over the counter.
The man let out a sigh, shaking his head as he reached for another glass to clean. “Been here longer ‘n all ‘a us, so ‘course I got some respect for th’ guy, but e’er since the shit that went down with…” He ducked his head incredibly close to theirs and looked around before whispering, “‘You know who’, an’ with all those soldiers that died… His son was one ‘a ‘em. Ain’t been the same since.”
Time clenched his teeth and tried to keep his breathing as neutral as possible. Taking down Ganondorf had not been easy. The havoc that’d been unleashed on the kingdom after he’d been sent seven years into his past to warn Zelda about the potential future had still cost many their lives even if the overall destruction to the kingdom had been reduced, and that was a weight he carried with him every single day. After all he’d been through and after all he’d done, it still hadn’t been enough to save everyone.
Of course his brother recognized some shift in him, despite his best attempts to hide it, and the captain subtly reached out and rested a hand on his back.
‘Not your fault, Sprite.’ He didn’t have to say it out loud for the message to be received.
His brother carried a similar guilt, he knew Warriors blamed himself for each and every life that had been lost during the War of Eras. The captain knew exactly what he was feeling, and just like Time had done for him several times he was being hypocritical and trying to comfort him. They’d keep telling the other the lives lost weren't their fault till the end of time while simultaneously carrying around a burden that wasn’t solely theirs to bear. Time wasn’t sure how to break the cycle, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to forgive himself and he didn’t think he’d be able to get his brother to forgive himself either, but he appreciated the captain’s effort to make him feel better anyway.
“Well, surely an elderly man can’t be causing the problems we’re looking for,” Warriors smiled at the innkeeper, laying his palm flat against the counter as a gesture that he was about to end the conversation, but the man narrowed his eyes at the captain in a way that made them both pause.
“Said yer lookin’ f’r weird?” He asked, shaking his head and backing away a step. “If y’ really are lookin’ for trouble, Sal’ll have weird for ya. Keeps sayin’ somethin’ about the beasts with black blood, keeps sayin’ they walk amongst us. None a’ us really believe ‘im, but that’s ‘bout all I got for you boys.”
Time felt his brother’s arm tense against his back, and his own heart skipped a beat. They’d been dealing with black blooded monsters for months and ever since the day Twilight had been injured, an unknown shapeshifter. Old Sal wasn’t sounding as crazy to him as the innkeeper believed him to be.
“Thank you, Sir,” Warriors nodded. “Where might we find Sal?”
“This time a’ day?” The man blew out a puff of air, tapping his foot as he thought long and hard. “Maybe in ‘is barn? ‘is place is straight down this street till the road bends, then make a right and head down till y’ see the big ol’ oak tree an’ ‘is is the barn just beyond that.”
“Thank you,” the captain repeated, quickly bowing his head as a way of saying goodbye before patting Time on the back and heading towards the door, barely giving him enough time to thank the innkeeper himself before he had to sprint after his brother.
He wasn’t able to catch up to him until after he’d exited the building and been forced to break into a light jog, and even then he had to call to the captain to get him to wait.
“Sorry,” Warriors laughed lightly, wincing as Time glared at him while he caught his breath. The gentle breeze made the air around them much colder than he’d anticipated, and he shivered when the wind blew by, brushing his bangs straight into his face.
“I know y’ wanna get to Castletown fast, but y’ don’t have to run there,” he panted as he pushed his hair behind his ear, narrowing his eye further at the way the captain raised his eyebrow in amusement. “What?”
“Nothing, nothing,” his brother waved him off as he resumed walking, the corner of his mouth turning down in an attempt to control his smile.
“What??” Time demanded, falling in step beside him and crossing his arms over his chest. It was shockingly warmer once they were out of the shadow of the building and under the sunlight, but it was still a bit chilly, even with the buildings to shield them somewhat from the full force of the wind.
The captain, asshole that he was, completely changed the topic and ignored him. “Why do you think Sal’s the only one who’s seen the black blooded monsters?”
He bit his tongue to hold back an annoyed remark at his brother’s antics, and forced himself to think about the question for a moment. In most of the towns they’d visited across the eras, if the people had seen black blooded monsters it was usually because their town or village had been attacked and monsters had been slain in order to defend it. But for an elderly man who the town considered weird and crazy to have been the only one aware of the very real danger? It didn’t make sense.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted after a few minutes, staring at the road as it passed under his feet.
“Think it’s possible…?” Warriors trailed off and then shook his head. “No… Those things are sometimes a struggle for us, they’re too strong for one older man to take down all on his own.”
“Maybe he had help?” Time suggested, gently grabbing the captain’s elbow to steer him when the path veered to the right so he didn’t walk straight off the road. His brother must’ve been deeper in thought than he’d initially assumed because Warriors didn’t even react, he just kept thinking out loud.
“No,” his brother mumbled, sounding a bit spacey as he rubbed his thumb against the side of his pointer finger to help himself focus. “If he had help he’d have one other person who believes him, and if that person died then I’m assuming the innkeeper would’ve mentioned someone in the town being killed. If Sal, or anyone else, had successfully been able to wound the monster and that's how they know about the black blood, where’s the blade that hurt it? It’d have the blood on it, and that’d be evidence he could use.”
“The innkeeper said Sal is convinced there are people around town who are actually monsters,” Time reminded him, looking for the large oak tree the innkeeper had told them about before looking down and kicking a little pebble along the street. It was actually rather nice outside when the winds stayed still for a moment, he had a feeling it’d be quite pleasant in the afternoon and hopefully not too hot while they finished their journey to Castletown. “What reason would he have to believe that?”
“I’m not sure,” the captain sighed, blinking as he pulled himself out of his thoughts. “I think we’ll just have to ask him and pray he tells us.”
“You think we should be worried he won’t?” His eyebrows raised in alarm, looking away from the large oak tree growing closer to spare a glance at his brother.
Wind ruffled loose blond curls and Warriors shrugged, quickly brushing his hair out of his eyes before wrapping his arms around himself. “I think we need to make it clear immediately that we believe him and that we don’t think he’s crazy. Maybe he is a little crazy. I’m sure losing his son and the stress of being called the town weirdo hasn’t been the most wonderful thing for him to deal with, but I believe there has to be at least some truth in what he’s saying and if we come off as being accusatory or he thinks we’re mocking him, he won’t tell us anything.”
He nodded in agreement, even though the captain wasn’t looking at him. “Making up black blooded monsters on the spot would be quite impressive, I believe he saw something.”
“Maybe he saw them near Castletown?” Warriors suggested, carefully stepping over the large puddle that lay right where the road to Sal’s barn split off the main path. He grimaced and let out a little huff when his heel hit the edge of the water and he heard it splash the back of his boot. “Zelda wrote you saying she’d seen them, maybe Sal wasn’t here when he saw them and he’s just worried simply because they exist.”
“Maybe,” Time sighed, and they finished their trek up to the big barn in silence.
The barn sat on a rather large plot of land, with fenced off fields stretching behind it where Time could see a few animals wandering. It was clearly the oldest building in the entire town, making him think that maybe the town had been built around to include it. The wooden structure creaked gently in the wind, and despite the paint peeling off it in large chunks, the area around it had been nicely taken care of. Poor Sal probably just had a difficult time caring for the well worn wood, and it seemed as though maybe after his son had died, it was just him who lived out here.
He called Sal’s name a few times as they grew nearer before knocking on the thick wood of the barn door and poking his head in to search for the man. Nothing but a couple startled cows blinked back at him, and with a groan he turned around to face the captain. “He’s not in the barn.”
“He could still be around here somewhere,” his brother rested his hands on his hips as he looked around, hazel eyes widening when they came to rest on a small house just up the hill. “I’ll go knock on his door, you check if he’s behind the barn or with the animals somewhere else.”
He wasn’t the fondest of splitting up, but they were just searching for an old man in a little old town that hadn’t seen anything suspicious recently. The captain was more than capable of taking care of himself, he’d be fine on his own. Though Time couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. It’d been an itchy feeling slowly growing across the back of his neck all morning and at first he’d figured it was because he felt underdressed without his armor, or maybe just the way everything in the town felt too peaceful to be real, but it’d only been growing stronger as he and Warriors had approached Sal’s barn just to find only cows.
He forced himself to take a deep breath and give his brother a nod. The captain was always armed, even if it didn’t look like it, and he knew Warriors could defend himself if he needed to. It was fine.
“Shout if you need me, or if you find him,” Time sighed, turning on his heel and heading behind the barn after the captain nodded and told him to do the same.
The ground beneath his boots was still damp from the heavy rains yesterday, and it squelched beneath his feet as he stepped off the path. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sensation, he was used to it at the ranch, but the audible squissssh sent a shiver up his spine and he couldn’t stop himself from shuddering. He needed to calm himself down, he was freaking himself out over nothing.
Maybe this was just his guilt over lying to their other companions popping up and making him feel bad? Yeah, that had to be it. He just felt bad for looking all those boys in the eyes and telling them he was just going on a quick little trip.
He needed to take a deep breath and relax. He could apologize to them when he saw them in a few days.
He’d almost completely calmed himself down and the sheep out back were coming into his line of sight when a cut off scream followed by a lower, anguished yell caused his heart to stop in his chest. His body moved on autopilot, he wasn’t even paying attention to the sharp pains shooting straight into his hips every time his foot slammed into the uneven ground, the only thought on his mind was getting to Warriors.
“CAPTAIN?!”
The little house came into sight quite quickly but his eyes refused to process the blob of green on the ground in front of the stairs or the man standing over it until he’d reached his brother’s side and dropped down next to him and it became undeniable that the man in the dirt was Warriors. The front of the captain’s tunic was stained with blood, gushing from a slice across his throat that thin, trembling fingers were desperately trying to press against.
“What happened??” He cried, hands shaking as they hovered over Warriors’s body, so shocked he was unsure what to do.
“I’m… I’m so sorry,” the old man, who he assumed was Sal, whispered above him, and Time heard the sound of a blade clattering to the ground beside him. “I… He snuck up on me, I didn’t mean to…”
He ignored the old man’s rambling, completely focused on his brother writhing on the ground in front of him. A horrible gurgling sound came out of him and Time scooped him up and cradled him to his chest, unsure what else to do. It made him ill to realize how little Warriors felt in his arms. He knew he’d grown taller than the captain, but he hadn’t properly realized how small his big brother was until this moment. Hazel eyes stared at him, glassy and wide with fear, looking for some kind of comfort and finding only the horrified expression on Time’s face when a sudden realization punched him in the throat.
All their supplies were back at the inn. They’d left all of their supplies back at the inn.
“No, no, no no no,” he whimpered, slapping at his belt anyway and begging the gods to just let a pouch with a healing potion in it materialize. “You can’t… Not like this.”
The captain had made it through so much and he’d only just started feeling alive again. Time had been there when the light in his brother’s eyes had been snuffed out and in the past months he’d spent with him he’d been overjoyed to realize it was back, his real laugh and real smile returning with it. Warriors had made so much progress healing, it was unfair for his life to be cut short now. This couldn’t be happening.
A bloodstained hand gripped weakly at his wrist, and Time shook his head so hard he made himself dizzy.
“Don’t,” he growled, unable to even see his brother’s face through his tears. “Don’t you fucking dare, Link. You can’t leave me, not like this. You have to st- You… You have to sss…”
He bit his lip in frustration when he got stuck on the stupid word, and he only cried harder when he felt the captain’s thumb lightly brush across his wrist in some fucked up attempt to comfort him. Warriors was dying and still his brother was thinking of him.
“H- Hold on, jus-” He let out a shuddering breath, gripping Warriors tighter. The body in his arms felt so terrifyingly fragile, but he wasn’t sure what else to do. The captain always knew what to do and he couldn’t tell him because his throat had been slit. He had no idea how to save his brother’s life, he’d never felt so helpless.
Time blinked away the tears from his eye so he could actually see the captain, and when his vision cleared he felt something in him die as he was met with empty hazel eyes staring up at the sky, unseeing.