Ballad Of The Heros

by orphan_account

Summary:

Linked Universe one shots, everyone will eventually be Centric. A taste of what’s to come:

“Legend, I swear to Hylia if you talk about your feet hurting one more goddam time I’m going to eat your spine.” Warriors hissed from beneath his scarf. This comment was met with an abrupt snicker from Wind, who’s hand was clasped in Warriors.

Legend grumbled under his breath and scowled. “Oh shut up your like five years old.” Times eye twitched, this bickering had been ongoing since they left camp that morning. Which was six hours ago. Six. Six whole hours. Times eye twitched again.

Notes:

This first one is Sky centric, we love our soft boy, and if anyone has requests I’m happy to fill them :)

Chapter 1: Sky Goes Home

“Legend, I swear to Hylia if you talk about your feet hurting one more goddam time I’m going to eat your spine.” Warriors hissed from beneath his scarf. This comment was met with an abrupt snicker from Wind, who’s hand was clasped in Warriors.

Legend grumbled under his breath and scowled. “Oh shut up your like five years old.” Times eye twitched, this bickering had been ongoing since they left camp that morning. Which was six hours ago. Six. Six whole hours. Times eye twitched again.

“You joke about my age again, and I will remove your teeth.” The scary thing about this, other than the statement itself, was Winds uncannily straight face as he said it. Legend shuddered and shut up. Time clenched then unclenched his fist. Sky, ever the mediator, gave Time a quick glance, he could sense the impending rage.

Time breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth, silence, beautiful silence at last.

“Squash faced bokoblin..” Uttered Warriors under his breath. Times singular eye snapped open.

“If you don’t all shut up I am going TO KILL SOMEBODY EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.” Time bellowed at the three idiots positioned at the front. Sky smoothly intervened.

With a soft smile on his face Sky opened his mouth. “If everyone doesn’t calm down I am going to one, get everyone to speak about their feelings. Two, give all parties involved hugs. And three, talk about Sun until my voice stops working, again.” This was finished with Sky’s famously sweet smile. However it felt more malicious In this context. And honestly Wind was debating starting something just for one of Skys hugs, they’re legendary for a reason.

However the threat of Sky’s impending Zelda rant session caused everyone to shut up, even those not involved.

Four shuddered at just the mention of Suns name. “Not again..” A single “Hylia have mercy on us all.” Was uttered from the rancher.

Without warning a purple portal rippled into existence, an uneasy murmur sounded throughout the group, quickly dispelled as Legend pushed Warriors through.

“Better him than me.” Legend said with a shrug when met with an outraged cry from the group.

Time felt like crying.

——————————————————————————————

“Anyone recognise this wor-“ Time was cut off by an exited squeal from the resident Sky dweller.

“MY HYRULE THIS ONES MINE!” Sky sprinted forwards and was immediately tackled by an enormous red mass. The group of hero’s immediately equipped their weapons, horrified by Sky’s screams.

“Wait what in Hylia’s name? Is.. Is Sky.. Is he laughing?” Whispered a concerned Wild. The other hero’s lowered their weapons in confusion. Sky slowly stood up, although the writhing red mass was still attached to him.

“Everyone meet my other half: Apple.” Everyone looked at the giant bird, or should I say lofting with wonder, until the moment was ruined by Legend snorting.

“I’m sorry you called your giant red loftwing-“ he paused to gasp for air. “Ap-App-“ he wheezed again. “I don’t think I can even say it, holy mother of Hylia, you named it apple?”

Legend was met with Sky’s Pissed off stare. “I was ten legend.” Snickers went round the group with the odd ‘apple’ being mentioned. Sky promptly turned on his heel and dived off the cliff top.

“SKY OH MY HYLIA IS HE-“ Wind immediately burst into tears and the group stood still in a shocked, somber silence.

Sky emerged from the cliff on Apple. “Why does everyone look so.. sad?” The resident soft boy said. Everyone immediately looked up and chaos ensued mainly Time dragging sky off of his loftwing and to the nearest tree. The group strained their ears to hear, overjoyed they weren’t getting a Time™ lecture. They made out:

“Cliffs...stupid....dumbass.....care about you.....careful.....Wind.....heights...” However not necessarily in that order. Sky came back with a red face and immediately apologised before hugging Wind , who was still sniffling.

“Well I should take you all up to Skyloft eh?” A still red faced Sky said.

“Haha Sky’s almost as red as his loftwing, a terrible look for you, Sky.” Warriors decided the glare he got was entirely worth it.

——————————————————————————————

As soon as they got up to Skyloft they were greeted with Hyrule immediately emptying his guts all over the grass. “That’s gross.” Legend sighed then went to help Hyrule like the soft boy he is.

Hyrule groaned from the floor. “I don’t think heights agree with me.” An exasperated legend just held his head in his hands. “You don’t think?”

Then, for the second time that day, Sky was tackled by a red, feral beast. He really wasn’t having a good day, was he?

“Link!” Groose squealed fondly, wrapping Sky in a warm embrace.

“Groose.” Sky said less fondly. Then began to un-pry Grooses fingers from around him.

“Do you know where sun- sorry I mean Zelda is?” Groose looked at Sky confused.

“You disappear for months and I’m not even getting an explanation?”

Sky shuffled his feet guiltily then shook his head. Groose just shook his head then pointed towards the academy, and Sky gave him a warm smile in return, before booking it that way, an entourage of hero’s hot on his heels.

Sky burst through the doors, expecting a romantic reunion with Zelda and went to give her a hug and peck accordingly, what he wasn’t expecting however, was a slap. Said slap echoed around the room and Warriors winced with sympathy, for he to had been slapped by many women.

“First you leave without telling me where your going, I thought you dead for Hylias sake, then you barge in here like nothings wrong and expect a kiss and loving reunion! Well you’ve got some nerve Link, that’s no way to treat your fiancé is it? I should give you back this ring..” The Hero’s, including Sky, had mixed reactions to this ranging from.

“What the fuck Sky’s engaged?” (Legend) to:

“Oop- don’t look like he will be much longer, sorry bud.” (Warriors). And of course Sky, who promptly burst into tears. Twilight awkwardly reached out to console Sky who in turn insisted he was fine, like he didn’t have tears and snot running down his face.

Time calmly intervened. “Ma’m I’m afraid Sky didn’t have a choice in leaving, in fact none of us have, us in question being the hero’s throughout the ages, you see...” Time then continued to explain the happenings to Sun, who looked increasing guilty, and happened a look towards Sky, who had given up his insistence of being fine and was being held by Twilight and Wild. The latter, whom was glaring at Sun.

Sun shuffled towards the trio on the floor and gently took Sky’s jaw in her hand and turned his puffy face towards her, a red handprint already blossoming on his face.

“Oh you numpty, I’m sorry come here..” and with that Sun kissed Sky sweetly.

“Ew get a room...” which was shortly followed by:

“Legend for Hylias sake you ruined the goddam moment.”

Chapter 2: Warriors Feelings On Mask

Summary:

Ok I need to tell ya’ll this, this chapter is really dark and I didn’t mean for it to like omg- it’s In no way fluffy and there is lots of hurt no comfort, however no character death.

There is however an attempted suicide so if that triggers you, please please please skip this chapter, and if it’s any consolation this will be the only angst work in here.

Also if you face any of the problems Wars faces please speak to someone about it 🥺. <3

The camp was unusually quiet, for the previous battle was a hard one, full of black-blooded monsters and a well planned ambush. The Links hadn’t been high on luck lately, and they all seemed both emotionally and physically drained. All but one of the boys were seemingly fast asleep. Said boy was wearing a royal blue scarf and holding a journal in his delicate hands, drawing in it with soft strokes. The boy sighed a sad, pitiful thing and added the final details to his sketch.

The sketch in question seemed to be of a young boy, his entire face lit up with a childlike wonder, and hand reaching towards someone. A singular mask hung on his belt. The sad sigh turned into a wistful one as the scarf clad boy whispered “I still miss you, cretin.” under his breath.

A new addition was added the page, suddenly and without warning, the addition being a singular teardrop that hit the page, and blurred the young boys features.

“Get a grip Wars..” The boy whispered to himself as he quickly shoved his knuckles into his eyes, a futile attempt to stop the tears. The boy ‘Wars’ then tossed the journal into the fire. As the journal burned, so did all of Warriors hopes at ever seeing his gremlin protégée, and he felt a little part of him die. After all after six months without another Link, what was there to hope for?

The next Link in line for watch duty blearily opened his eyes and pushed a pink strand out of his eyes, before trudging past Wars without a second glance, ready for the gruelling middle shift.

And well, if Warriors cried himself to sleep that night, and the next, and the next. No one cared enough to notice.

———————————————————————————————————————

Another day, another forced smile. Warriors didn’t know how much longer he could keep this up, he knew he wasn’t doing a good job at it, and that none of the Links seemed to notice? That hurt. A deep aching hurt he felt right at his core. It left a hollow feeling deep inside him, making the one left by mask even bigger. He felt like if he didn’t control it, he would be consumed by the hole inside of him. So he turned his mental wounds into physical wounds. Warriors isn’t naive he knows he has a problem, one that could kill him if he isn’t careful, but that brought up a different problem. Would it really be that bad if it killed him? Who would even miss him?

Warriors was pulled out of his procrastination by a voice calling his name.

“-ars.. warri-... Warriors!.” Time shot him a concerned look, hiding his worry behind a carefully crafted mask, like the ones he used to carry when he was a boy.

Legend huffed an amused snort. “Pretty boy was probably thinking about all the ladies waiting for him in his Hyrule.” Warriors shut himself off from all human contact after Mask’s departure, but Legend didn’t need to know that. So Warriors mustered up a smirk.

“Jealous that my company is actually pleasurable enough to attract the ladies, Legend?” An amused chuckle came from Twilight, who was scouting ahead. And an indignant gasp came from Legend, and the boys fell back into a comfortable silence.

Yet Time was concerned about one of his boys. He hadn’t missed the haunted, far away looks Warriors wore sometimes, or that he’d always wear long sleeved tunics even on the hottest of days. Warriors would always play this of as the need to ‘Always look fashionable, unlike you group of gremlins.’ Time wanted to believe it. Badly. For who wanted their father figure to be hurting? Not to mention how Warriors was always seeming to get hurt, and when he was, refusing red potions.

This new Wars was a contrast to the one Time saw when he was still in his mask wearing days. That Wars seemed so full of life and love, always making time for his gremlin son he’d unofficially adopted, and loved by all. This Wars seemed like, as mean as it was to say it, a shell of his old self.

———————————————————————————————————————

The sun was a blazing ball of fire in the sky, the trees swaying therapeutically in a calm relaxing breeze. The day was beautiful, perfect even, the Links were finally relaxing in Wilds Hyrule, in a calm place called Luerin. Wind was ecstatic at the seaside village and immediately dragged Wild and whoever he could find into an epic water battle. However Warriors was nowhere to be found.

It had been months since Warriors had burned his journal, and the gaping hole had only been growing in that time. By now Impa would have forced Wars to see someone, but alas Impa was not here. So Warriors sat in the clearing alone. Left with the most dangerous enemy he would ever encounter. His mind. A glass vial rolled around Wars hand, the cloudy liquid inside sloshing about the bottle. He’d ran out of antidepressant potions 2 Hyrules ago, and this seemed to be his only saviour. He downed the bottle in less than five minutes, and hit the ground in two.

Time was the one who eventually found him, his anguished wails piercing the hearts of anyone in range. Twilight found him cradling Warriors body, gently brushing his hair out of his face while whispering, “Dumbass big bro.” Like a mantra over and over again as his tears fell to the ground bellow. Twilight took in a strangled breath before screaming for Hyrule, who arrived in record time, Legend hot on his heels.

Hyrule shoved Time aside and checked for a pulse, which was there, but barley. And focused on sending all his healing magic into Warriors, going well past his reserves. Legend for once, was rendered speechless, seeing one of his closest friends lying motionless on the floor, paler than the moon, cerulean eyes staring up at the sky, unaware. Someone was screaming, he noticed distantly that it was him.

———————————————————————————————————————

Warriors woke up. Wait. Warriors woke up. He wasn’t supposed to wake up! He made sure of it himself! Why was he awake? Why why why why whywhywhywhywhy.

“He’s awake.” An exhausted Hyrule states and immediate chaos broke out, before it was ended by Legend holding up a familiar bottle, tears in his eyes.

“Would you like to explain this?” Warriors felt like he was going to throw up, this, added to the panic before caused his breathing to speed up, but he wasn’t getting any air. Why wasn’t he getting any air!?!?

Suddenly he was surrounded by Time, who was shaking and crying.

“Why didn’t you say anything? You really are a dumbass, big bro.” And with that sentence, the world around Warriors seemed to stop. He slowly extracted himself from Times arms and looked him in the eyes. Familiar ocean blue eyes. Before a harsh slap echoed around the camp. Warriors was seething with rage.

“You mean to tell me, you remembered me and you didn’t say anything?” The camp was full of confused stares, and a trembling Warriors.

“ANSWER ME.” He was shaking with tears now, snot running down his face as he ugly cried.

A very quiet and uncharacteristically timid. “Yes.” Emerged from Time.

Warriors crying was abruptly cut off, an eerily blank face replacing it. One Time, Impa, and Artemis has taken to calling Warriors war face, the mask he wears when he can’t bear it anymore, like when he was betrayed by his own men and had to cut them down.

“Get out of my sight.” Time went to protest, weakly holding a hand out towards him. To grab onto his scarf, to bring back the Warriors he knew.

The other Links looked on at the pair uneasily, not knowing whether to bring up the issue of Warriors attempted suicide, or Time and Warriors apparently knowing each other prior to the current adventure.

Suddenly and without warning a purple portal opened up, swallowing the group whole.

Notes:

Ayo homies at least it was an open ending so ya’ll can decide what happens? But this is the last angst piece I’m doing unless it’s requested, thinking about maybe doing my boy Time next?

Chapter 3: Intermission

Summary:

Just a filler chapter, as I’m not going to be able to update for a little while :/

“Sky no, you are not allowed to keep the cucco, and I’m telling you right now I don’t care if it’s cute, it’s a hell-spawn.” Four hissed in Sky’s direction, before he was interrupted by a rustling sound emerging from the bushes, and Winds face, uncharacteristically nervous,

“Guys I think something is wrong with time..”

Wind shuffled on his feet nervously. The other boys looked towards him, concern etched on their features, until, finally, someone spoke up. Twilight cleared his throat and uncertainty asked.

“Wind... what’s wrong with Time?”

Nervously, Winds eyes darted around the other hero’s faces.

“Uh well there’s something wrong with his.... face.” Twilight looked at Wind in utter confusion, as did the three other boys by the campfire. Twilight stood up and walked north, before being stopped by Legend.

“Twi- you’re.. you’re going the wrong way.” Twilight turned around at Legends statement.

“Right.. I knew that I was just testing if you knew that.!” Legend sighed indignantly before heading in the direction Wind had arrived from, with Twilight hovering anxiously behind him

•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:••:•.•:•.•: ✦✧✦✧•:•:•:•:•:•:••:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•

Legend parted the bushes cautiously and quietly with his hands, as not to startle Time. The man in question whom was sat with his back to the hero’s, back vibrating softly.

Twilight fell through the bushes with a loud rustle and a groan of pain, Time turned around.

Legend shrieked.

“What in the name of Hylia is wrong with your face Time!?” Time just continued doing it. It being, a weird movement of his face. His lips where stretched showing his teeth and his cheeks were rounded, with small dimples on either side.

Twilight sat up and looked from Time to Legend. Before opening his mouth and saying. “What’s wrong I don’t see anything wrong with Time?” Legends mouth gaped open unattractively and he gestured wildly at Times face.

“I don’t- what are you trying to?” Twilight just said, still on the floor looking up at them both. Time was still silent stood there and Legend was just staring at Time, seemingly broken.

“He- he- his face Twi! His face!” Twilight still just looked at the two in utter confusion.

“You mean his smile Legend?”

This, this, was the sentence that broke Time. He burst out cackling pointing at Legends, actually quite scared face, and Twilights of utter confusion.

“Wild please tell me you got that on video..” Before he dissolved back into laughing, and the resident Wild child emerged from the bushes, holding up his slate victoriously.

“You- You absolute gremlins!” Legend cried as he chased after Wild, who was in the process of whooping and yelling.

“I GOT IT, HOLY HYLIA I GOT IT!l”

•:•:•:•:•:•:••:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•✦✧✦✧ •:•:•:•:•:•:••:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•

Legend sighed, this was the seventh time (haha time) that Wild had showed the group the video, and Warriors, the absolute bumpkin, was still giggling at it. Leaning on a laughing Sky for support.

“Honestly Warriors I expected this from you, but Sky. Really?”

Sky just started giggling again, a look of complete joy on his face. And Legend just couldn’t bring himself to be mad at Sky. But Time and Wild. They were about to feel the full force of his grudge holding skills. However he, and the rest of the boys knew that within a week, he’d be giving out affection like there was no tomorrow, like the soft boy he is. (That affection would probably consist of an awkward tap on the shoulder and a heartfelt: “Idiot.”)

“No but seriously is me smiling that rare?” Time grumbled from behind the fire.

“Bite. Me”

Notes:

please leave kudos and comments they fuel me. <3 <3

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Linked Universe Works