Work Text:
One of the very first things Warriors had said to him when they’d reunited was how shocked he was that Time carried around such a heavy sword, considering how quick he’d been in his youth, and how little sense it made for him to be wielding such a weapon with how bad his shoulder was. Immediately he’d gotten defensive; his body didn’t possess the ability to move as fast as it had when he was a child, nor was he small enough to dart between enemies like he once could.
“Are- Are you calling me out of sh- shape?” He’d asked his brother, blinking hard as he’d done so.
“What??” Warriors had choked, eyes bugging out of his head. “No! Oh my gods, Sprite-”
The captain had frantically explained that he’d just meant such a large weapon significantly slowed Time down as he’d observed over the course of their battles, and put a great deal of strain on his body, as it would anyone who wielded it. He’d gone on to say that something a bit shorter or more light weight would allow him to be faster while still enabling his powerful strikes, making him more efficient on the field.
Time hadn’t seen an issue with his speed, thank you very much, and he certainly hadn’t been upset about it either when he argued with his brother that he was perfectly fine. He liked his sword. There was no issue, and he’d been doing just fine, despite… well, perhaps just to spite his brother.
He was starting to see the problem now. Or rather, it had been his inability to see the problem, coming at him in the form of a very angry moblin swinging at his head, that made him realize that maybe, just maybe, Warriors had had a point. Maybe he was slowed down by his armor and his sword.
Time hadn’t been able to dodge fast enough, he hadn’t been able to lift his sword to swing it in time either. The sound of the club making contact with his skull was so ridiculous that as he crumpled to the ground in a heap, barely clinging onto consciousness, he couldn’t help but let out an odd little giggle. It wasn’t funny at all, but the sound just slipped out of him for some reason before he could stop it. The grass beneath him swam as he went down and it felt like he was falling for ages before he felt something solid slam into him, forcing his shoulder out of place.
That definitely should’ve hurt. His head should also hurt, but it felt like he was on a nice little cloud somewhere very far away, but underwater, and also surrounded by bees. Very loud, very buzzy bees. It was all he could hear. They wouldn’t leave him alone.
That wasn’t very nice of them.
A weird cry hit his ears, bringing with it a pain that stabbed through his brain, followed by words he couldn’t make out over the buzzing. He’d expected the flash of pain to disappear, having seemingly come out of nowhere, but it didn’t, instead growing worse and worse until he felt like his skull had exploded and the only thing keeping it together was a hope and a prayer. Vibrant blue flooded his vision and he worried he’d somehow ended up at sea with how his weightless body was suddenly being rocked, but some little voice in his head somewhere told him that was impossible because water was cold and this was warm.
The buzzing continued, constant and so overwhelming it drowned out nearly all his other senses. All he knew was pain, the rocking, and those damned bees.
The voice came again, this time much closer, and he squeezed his eye shut and whimpered involuntarily as fingers prodded his skull. He couldn’t even hear what was being said to him over the buzzing, but it sounded like the voice was yelling at him, it was too loud to be anything but yelling. He didn’t like that, and the bees, despite their own inability to shut up, probably would not like shouting either.
His head was pulsing, he could feel his heartbeat behind his eye and it hurt so badly he was sure he’d become physically ill. Or maybe the nausea was because he was in a boat, off at sea. He always felt sick when he was on those things.
But no… He couldn’t be on the water. Was he in a boat? He wasn’t supposed to be. He didn’t like boats, or those damned bees that wouldn’t stop buzzing.
Weakly, he tried to swat at them, desperate to get them to shut up so his agony could end, but all he managed to do was wave his hand a little so of course the bees didn’t listen.
The voice spoke again, and he was rocked some more by the strange blue wave he’d seen.
“Shhhh…” He grumbled out, brow furrowing in pain. “The beesss… y’re g- gonna ups- upset ‘em.”
It was a miracle he hadn’t been stung with how close to his ears the angry bees must be for them to be buzzing so loud.
Something very, very warm pressed against his head, and before he could cry out in anguish, the feeling spread through him and his eye fluttered open with a startled gasp. The bees were a bit quieter now, and he could hear a soft voice over the buzzing.
“You’re alright, you’re okay.”
His vision was still swimming, stomach still churning, and he couldn’t make anything out besides the bright sky above and the occasional glimpse of that vibrant blue, but he could hear. Something in the back of his mind told him he KNEW that blue, but his head hurt too much for thinking.
“I got you, you’re okay. Just breathe.”
He had no idea where he was or what was happening but he decided he trusted the voice since his pain had decreased significantly because of whatever it had done, so he listened and took a deep breath. He didn’t know who was holding him, only that he felt safe in their arms, so they must not be a boat at all. Time let his eye drift closed again and breathed slowly, wondering who this voice was that they had such a way with the bees.
Warriors never, never never never wanted to watch anyone get hit in the head with a moblin club again. He didn’t think he’d be getting any uninterrupted sleep anytime soon, not that he’d been getting that before, but now whenever he closed his eyes he was sure he’d see nothing but how his little brother’s head had practically exploded on impact when the moblin had hit him.
He wasn’t sure a sound like that had ever torn itself from him before, he screamed so loud his chest ached from the force of it and his throat felt raw when he swallowed. Warriors’s hands flew over his mouth as he froze, unable to unsee the spray of red that had just shot out from his brother. Before he could truly process if he’d really seen what he had, two fairies flew around Time’s head, knitting the damaged bone and skin back together before he’d officially died. His brother’s body fell into the grass with a loud thud, healed by magic before he even hit the ground.
The part of him that had been trained in field medicine, the soldier who’d seen much worse than this sprung to life while the older brother in him remained frozen, and before he knew it he was at Time’s side, carefully pulling his shoulders and upper back into his lap so he could get a decent look at what damage had been left.
His fingers grew sticky with blood, and he felt it seep into his trousers and stain the skin of his thighs but he couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. There was so much red his eyes felt like they were burning, staring at the thick blond hair that had been stained so thoroughly on the side of his little brother’s head. The smell of it was so strong he could practically taste it, and Warriors had to swallow down the nausea that rose up. Shaking hands gently searched for the remaining injury, carefully poking and prodding, but he couldn’t find so much as a scrape anywhere. The fairies had worked their magic and completely reconstructed the side of Time’s head that had been smashed in, all this blood must’ve been what came out of him before that had happened.
Goddesses fucking bless those fairies…
“Sprite?” He murmured, knowing that even with how wonderfully his brother’s head had been pieced back together, it would most certainly still hurt. Not to mention any other injuries he might’ve obtained during the fight or by smacking into the dirt as hard as he had.
Time’s brow furrowed and his hand swatted at something. Assuming he was mad at the touch, Warriors removed his hands from his little brother’s hair and softly called his name again, right as Hyrule dropped down next to him, breathless.
“Shhh…” Time grumbled, looking a bit paler than he had a second ago. ”The beesss… y’re g- gonna ups- upset ‘em.”
Warriors blinked in shock, so stunned by the odd sentence that it forced him to pull back for a moment and he distantly started to grow aware of how dizzy he was becoming. He was relieved that his brother’s brain wasn’t so damaged he couldn’t speak, though still a bit worried due to a distinct lack of bees that Time seemed so convinced were nearby. But that was a problem for when his brother was a little more awake. The eye that had fluttered open looked so very far away, and it felt more like Time was staring through him rather than at him.
The traveler, still out of breath from running across the entire field, didn’t waste another second. Once Hyrule was no longer gasping for air, he gently touched Time’s forehead, pouring as much healing magic into the man’s body as he dared.
“You’re alright,” Warriors mumbled when his brother’s breathing picked up as Time must’ve registered how much pain he was still in. “You’re okay.”
He felt a bit like the ground was spinning every time he moved his head, but he shoved it to the back of his mind. He needed to focus on his brother right now.
“I got you, you’re okay. Just breathe.”
There wasn’t an immediate answer, Time just continued to look near him for a few moments, but eventually his body relaxed in Warriors’s arms and his eye drifted closed again.
He was sure staring up at the bright sky was painful, so he was glad Time’s eye wasn’t open, but at the same time he didn’t want to risk his brother falling asleep. Not after how brutally he’d just been injured. Not after a head injury this extreme.
It was a fucking miracle how well the fairies had been able to put his skull back together, if they hadn’t been there… the captain would be looking at several different pieces of his brother’s head right now. He tried to stop himself from imagining the graphic reality they’d very narrowly just escaped, but it was hard to do when he’d seen with his own eyes what had happened a split second before Time had been healed.
His heart was pounding so hard in his chest and he suddenly became aware of how heavy he felt and how difficult it was to stay upright. Warriors’s vision started to blur and he let his head drop to his brother’s chest as he let out a quiet sob, feeling quite faint as his brain replayed the impact over and over again.
“Captain. Captain, sit up.”
Strong hands gently pulled him upright and he was so barely conscious that he didn’t even have the energy to jump at being unexpectedly grabbed. He was leaned back against something warm and solid, and something was fanning air in his direction to keep him cool while he struggled to breathe and get enough oxygen to his brain. His head fell back against a shoulder, forcing his neck into an odd and uncomfortable position, and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly as he fought to stay awake.
The world around him felt fuzzy in a way he wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with, but his foggy mind couldn’t piece together why this was happening to him right now. He’d eaten enough food today, and it wasn’t like he wasn’t surrounded by blood and violence constantly so surely this wasn’t happening to him because of that…?
The weight from his lap was lifted and he felt his heart skip a beat as panic seized him. He tried to sit upright and check on Time, reaching out blindly for his brother, but whoever he was leaning against held him steady. They didn’t even struggle to hold him back with how sluggishly he was moving.
“What the fuck happened to ‘im?” A higher voice shrieked, sounding muddled as though he were underwater.
“You ain’t gotta be so loud,” the person behind him said softly, and Warriors could almost feel the voice go through him from where his back was pressed to their chest.
“He don’t be lookin’ right, what’s with ‘is face?? Is he hurt??”
His chest heaved as he fought to get enough air, panting so hard he completely missed whatever the person behind him’s answer was.
“Never thought I’d live to see the day Warriors swooned,” he heard a raspy voice tease from somewhere in front of him. Something in the back of his mind soothed the annoyance that immediately rose up in him at the words. They weren’t meant to be cruel, they were laced with worry.
“He just watched Time’s head get split open,” a softer voice said. “I think if I’d seen it, I’d pass out too.”
“‘M not unc… uncon…scious yet,” he groaned, his dry throat causing him to choke.
“Water?”
He thought he was so out of it that he’d misheard the last word, but then came the sound of someone passing something to whoever was holding him up and his head was maneuvered around so he wouldn’t choke when the rim of a flask was pressed to his lips.
Warriors hadn’t realized just how thirsty he was, and he drank gratefully until it was pulled away from him. He let out a confused sound, wishing he could’ve had more.
“Don’t wantcha to make yourself sick,” Twilight said softly, because it was the rancher he was leaning against, he recognized that now.
His eyes fluttered open and he blinked hard at all the others crowded around. He was still dizzy, but slowly he felt his surroundings come back into focus as he got further away from the brink of fainting.
“There he is.” Sky’s blurry face dropped in front of his, seemingly out of nowhere, and Warriors couldn’t stop himself from jumping. “You’ve got some color back in your face, that’s good.”
As his body became more cooperative and his brain started working again, all of the fear and panic came rushing back into him and he sat up too quickly, trying to get a glimpse of Time.
“Woah!! Hey!”
The rancher was right behind him to catch him when the sudden movement was too much for his body to handle in its present state and a wave of dizziness had him falling back down.
“He’s fine, we’ve got ‘im,” Twilight assured him. “Just take a moment, don’t move too fast.”
“His- his head-” Warriors argued, still trying to push himself up. He couldn’t let Time fall asleep, he’d had his eye closed, he was going to fall asleep.
“Rulie’s got ‘im,” his brother told him gently but firmly.
“The battle-” he gasped, continuing to struggle in the rancher’s grip. They were in danger, there were other monsters! His breathing picked up as he came to the realization that with how dizzy he still was, he wouldn’t be able to protect himself or the others.
“It’s okay, it’s all okay, War,” Sky chimed in, popping back into his line of sight. Warriors hadn’t even noticed how the chosen hero had ducked away for a moment. “Legend and Rulie got Time, Wild and Four are investigating the field, we can still see them don’t worry. And the rest of us are right here.”
“We be alright, Cap’n,” the little sailor chirped from just beside him. “No scrapes er bruises we cannae handle on our own.”
“You just lay down for a bit,” Sky told him, his voice soft and soothing. “Take a moment. Rancher and I have everything under control, I promise.”
He wanted so badly to protest, to make sure he could see they were all okay with his own two eyes, but laying under the hot sun with how spacey he still felt wasn’t making him feel any better.
Twilight shuffled backwards, managing to shift how he was sitting without jostling Warriors around too much, and the captain found himself laying on his back in the grass with his head in the rancher’s lap before he had time to process how he was being moved. Once he was laying down, any mental resolve he had to stay conscious left him. Exhaustion crashed over him and he let his eyes drift shut, allowing himself to rest for just a few minutes.
Someone was talking to him, and it wasn’t the nice voice who’d calmed the wrath of the bees. He was lying on solid ground now, no longer gently rocked by the vibrant wave of blue, and he cracked his eye open in confusion when his brain started picking out more voices.
“Bless Ordona,” came a relieved whimper from somewhere above him, and after blinking a few times Time realized he could perfectly make out his descendant's face, his vision was no longer blurred. After a few more blinks he noticed it wasn’t just Twilight he could see, but Legend and Hyrule as well, all leaning over him in concern.
“Oh thank fuck,” Legend wheezed out, flopping down and disappearing from sight while Twilight called to one of the others to fetch the captain.
“Wh- Huh?” He choked out, fighting to push himself up on his elbows and failing spectacularly. The rancher frantically shot out a hand to catch his head, letting out a panicked shout as he did.
“You have no idea how lucky you are,” Hyrule frowned at him while Time stared blankly up at him. “You should absolutely be dead right now.”
“Rulie!” Twilight snapped at him with a pointed look. “He don’t need to know that right now! He ain’t been awake n’ with us five minutes yet! Give ‘im a second!”
The words felt like they bounced around in his aching skull, floating around in his mind without sticking anywhere so he could process them.
“You have your five minutes to wake him up enough before War comes running back here acting like he’s all of our mother,” Legend grumbled from where he was most likely sprawled out on the ground just out of sight, and it was the mention of the captain that jolted Time’s brain back into functioning.
The vibrant blue. The voice that had quieted that horrible buzzing.
“W- Whereis ‘e?” His words slurred together as he pushed himself up, much more successfully this time, though his head pounded so awfully at the sudden change he almost fell over again. Twilight put a hand on his back to keep him upright as he raised a trembling hand to his forehead.
“With Sky and Wind, they took him to get firewood. He was getting a bit…” Hyrule started but found himself trailing off as he searched for the right word.
“Annoying,” the veteran offered, not moving at all from his spot in the grass. He let out a sigh before he continued in a much more serious tone. “You know how he gets when he gets too stressed out and worried and he can’t do anything about it.”
Time did know, he knew better than any of the others how Warriors got. ‘Annoying’ was a bit harsh, though not a word he himself hadn’t thrown in the captain’s face in his youth. ‘Intense’ was probably how he would describe it now, the way Warriors was prone to hovering and pacing, wringing his hands and tearing at his nails when there was nothing he could do but stand around feeling useless.
“They gave him something to do, because he was just working himself up here sitting around doing nothing,” Legend continued with a sigh. “He was getting so stressed out he started micromanaging everything again so we thought it might be good to give him an axe and have him go hit shit to get some of his anxious energy out. Gonna be honest, I don’t think it’ll help, but I didn’t have a better idea, so...”
It was hard for him to wrap his head around all the information being given to him. Time was still dizzy and rather nauseous and not all of it was making sense to him, there were so many words that had just been spoken and he’d only been able to latch onto a few.
“Why’s he… Why… st- st- stress…?”
He forced himself to shut his mouth after trying to get out what he meant in as few words as possible. It had always been hard for him to speak, he’d struggled with getting the words out of his mouth and not stumbling over them his whole life. It had gotten easier to hide his stutter as he’d grown older, but with how disoriented he was currently it felt like all the progress he’d made was gone.
“You um…” Twilight gulped awkwardly. “Well… Y’got hit in the head. Real hard.”
“Well I think he still has enough brain cells left to have gathered THAT much,” Hyrule grumbled under his breath and Time raised an eyebrow at him while Legend let out an exasperated sigh as he finally dragged himself up into a sitting position.
“What didja want me to say??” The rancher cried. “‘Yer head exploded n’ War saw all the little pieces of yer skull go flyin’ and he didn’t take too kindly to it’??”
The second those words had left his mouth, Twilight clamped a hand over his mouth and stared at Time with very wide eyes. Time did not react to that information how he should have, he didn’t think he was processing it correctly because he just stared at his descendant and squinted instead of doing something a normal person might do at such news. Like panic.
His head had… exploded?
Well, it would certainly explain why it hurt so bad, and why he was so disoriented. Though not why he was still alive.
A voice in the distance grew steadily louder as it approached, and it didn’t quite click in Time’s recently unexploded brain that it was Warriors until his brother dropped to his knees down in front of him and squeezed the life out of him. He felt very spacey as he patted the captain on the back, his thoughts buzzing around in his mind but obscured from him by a thick layer of fog, making it impossible for him to comprehend them.
There was only one thing he could think of to ask.
“Ok... ‘kay?” He poked Warriors in the side as he whispered, hoping his brother would back up so he could look him over.
He got his wish, but the captain didn’t answer his question, instead gently holding Time’s head in his hands as if it were a miracle it was still in one piece. Which it probably was.
His brother stared straight into his eye, making him a bit uncomfortable. “Don’t you ever do that again.”
Time didn’t really remember what it was that he’d done, but he nodded, earning him a kiss on the forehead. He blinked in shock when he realized the captain’s hands were shaking a bit where they were pressed to his face, but before he could even think to question it, Warriors had pulled him close again. He was pressed against the solid warmth of another being and arms wrapped securely around his back, bringing him back twenty years to how the captain would hold him when Time was shaken up after battles.
He’d have to talk to Warriors once he had thoughts again; Twilight, Hyrule, and Legend as well. But for now, he was content to lean against his brother, listening to the captain’s pounding heart start to slow as Time’s presence brought him all the comfort he needed.