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Time was five Kokiri years when he had to leave the forest. It was the only home he had ever known, bursting with green, green, green as far as the eye could see and wrapping around him like a sentient womb. He never had to worry about getting lost, even without a fairy. The music and the wild, festivally pink sprites would always wisp around his hair and carry him wherever he needed to go, and sometimes the skullkids would play tag with them all on rainy days when there wasn’t much else to do beyond hide underneath massive canopies.
He was five years old four Kokiri years later, too. He didn’t understand at first-- too confused as to what the light sage meant and too overwhelmed with his new… everything. Navi had been sleeping with him, and his entire body was somehow wrong in ways his young mind never did learn to comprehend. His chest was too flat and his body too long, baby fat replaced in muscle he hadn’t even dreamt of earning. Someone had cut his hair without his permission, and it made something like rotten leaves burrow into his stomach and take root.
And then he was in the temple of time, and the strange man was gone, and Time still felt as if someone had stolen something precious from him.
(He would later come to define the term as “violation” instead of “stealing,” but if the boot fit.)
Hyrule castle and the town both smelt of rotten bone and dead animal, and he tried to sneak as quietly past the redeads as he could as they shambled around; a mockery of hylian life and puppets with no strings. His nose burned and the Kokiri markings across his skin itched in fear of the unnatural wrongness that had taken hold of Hyrule. There was no sun here, and it made him hunger.
Time passed like the river flowed, and slowly his newborn life as an adult faded into something unknown. To this day he could never know if it was a good thing or bad-- the damage had never been done, but he had been forgotten once more. Neither Hyrule nor Termina remembered him beyond his masks, and sometimes he wondered if he would be permitted the chance to put one on and never take it off.
(That awful rotting had followed him into his false-childhood as well, an innate uncomfortability that let him know very well that every shape he would ever form would be wrong and ugly, all masculine angles and nothing else. It was in his marrow.)
Somehow the road had led him here: at an unknown age surrounded by eight unique versions of himself that had survived just as he did. He imagined it was supposed to make him feel better, as if someone else finally understood, but it only made the gap in the air that much larger. They had never felt the woods in their veins, had been blessed to avoid such a fate. Legend, Twilight, Wild, none of them would live watching as fairies and hylians alike shriveled up like dead plants around them.
(He did not know his age because of time travel, but also because he did not age correctly. He was maybe fifteen Kokiri years, but had never bothered to learn how to read the complex Hylian calendar and therefore could not translate it for the others or Malon. Time simply knew his age would drag on long after the rest and into the next generations to come, and that the music inside him would only stop when the forest connected to him did.)
Time shifted in his blankets, the scrape of cotton loud in the otherwise silent clearing they had found. A dull fire was still crackling, and while Twilight had claimed first watch he didn’t bother to turn and glance at his mentor as the elder sighed. He squeezed his eye closed as best he could, willing sleep to come slowly but surely.
Eventually he dozed off, but never slipped into anything deeper than that. He would wake up every shift change, and though it wasn’t his turn that night he would find himself straining to hear for any telltale sign of an attack, a strange paranoia gripping his bones and gnawing at his joints. The skin on his face felt clammy and hot but he shivered anyway, and the air seemed to bite him like keese even as he tossed and turned through the meager rest he managed.
In the morning, he woke up to a palm on his face with a violent jerk, hand flying up to snatch a thick boned wrist in a strong grip even as a chorus of familiar voices cooed apologies and frantic explanations at him.
“Just me- damn your grip is strong- Time, it’s just me.” A bleary eye opened slowly, and Time heard more than saw Twilight wince at whatever he saw. “You’re sick, Time.” It was said more so as a fact than an observation, and he was confused.
He opened his mouth to speak, but something caught in his throat instead and he found himself cured up coughing hoarsely. It sounded like a bark, and someone murmured sympathetically behind him as he tried to catch his breath. “What?” He eventually managed, squinting up at Twilight. “I was fine last night?” Dear God, his voice sounded awful - like he had tried to eat a Goron rock roast.
“Sometimes it just happens like that!” Hyrule chimed in somewhere behind Legend, before nudging his way towards Time like he was a dangerous animal. (The irony of that when Twilight was standing right there did not leave him.) “Do you mind if I poke around and see if I can help?” The question was as nauseatingly cheerful as always.
Time grunted, before wincing at the sharp pain. He opened his mouth to try again, thought on the merits of even bothering, before sighing with a shrug and beginning to sign. ‘Go ahead, I guess. I feel like I got hit by a hinox. Again .’
‘You can sign too?’
Time blinked at Wild’s enthusiasm, before softening as much as the stiffness in his muscles would let him. ‘ Yeah-- easier for me, honestly.’
Legend arked a brow at that, crossing his arms. “Now, why didn’t you just let us know? I’m an asshole but I’m not that much of one,” he elbowed Warriors with a concerning amount of violence when the man mumbled a counter under his breath, before continuing. “It’ll be easiest on your chest right now, anyway. You sound like garbage.”
Hyrule hummed in agreement somewhere behind Time, and the Kokiri could only sit there helplessly as all the incarnations shuffled around him and stared. He blinked, ‘ I am an adult, you know that right? You don’t need to coddle me.’
“You say that as if I didn’t literally catch you trying to outlimp Hyrule so he wouldn’t touch your leg last week.” Wind nodded rapidly in agreement, and Time struggled to ignore the flush he could feel joining the fever red of his face. “There’s nothing wrong with needing help, you know.” Four thankfully continued as if he didn’t see the man’s expression, before pointing an accusing finger at him. “You’ve done the same for the rest of us, now you’re stuck with the same treatment.”
‘ Besides, you didn’t even tell us talking was hard for you too. You’d be upset with me if I did something like that.’
He didn’t have a response to that, instead looking somewhere to Legend’s left with a grumble in Kokiri and a shrug. He knew it was childish, but he felt it was deserved with how awful he felt at the moment. There was a hollow like ache behind his sternum, and every breath he took rasped like it was caught on something in his throat. He could feel Hyrule pressing against random parts of his back and ribs, murmuring to himself.
“Do you want to lay back down?” That was Twilight, to his right.
‘ Not tired. I’ll start feeling better if I can move around, anyway.’
Hyrule had to interrupt right then, of course. “No, I’m with Twi. Sorry, Time, but you really will feel better after some more rest. Plus it gives me and Wild time to whip up some chilly tonics and red potion.”
‘Is all that really necessary? It’s just a chest cold. I typically get one at least once a year, anyway.’
Hyrule stared at him for a few long seconds, before looking at Twilight helplessly. “That’s not normal.” Time tilted his head, frowning. “That’s actually.. Really weird? Normally you’d build up an immunity to something if you kept catching it. Time, do you have lung problems?”
‘No? I’ve never had any health problems.’
The look Hyrule sent him spoke otherwise, but he thankfully let it go with a sigh. “Please try to rest?” And then he leaned forward, voice barely a whisper. “If not because you want to, then for Wind? You know how much he looks up to you.”
Damnit.
‘... Fine.’ He was scowling, but Hyrule didn’t seem to give two shits, beaming at him before moving to stand and bustle over to the fireplace. The others thankfully began to slink away at his acceptance as well, Wild moving over to the fireplace as well while Legend and Warriors snapped at each other and attempted to plan out the rest of the week’s rations. Nothing unusual, beyond the fact that Twilight was slowly scooting closer and closer and Time could almost see his tail wagging-- ignoring that he only had a tail a quarter of the time.
‘I know what you’re going to ask, and no. You’ll catch whatever I have.”
“Awh, but I grew up on a farm. If I catch this after all the bludgeonings my immune system’s had through the years then I deserve it.” He shrugged, shuffling the heavy pelt on his back until he was holding it in his hands. A rare sight. “‘Sides, I’ve been told I’m pretty warm, and you’re shaking.”
He was shaking-?
Time glanced down at his hands, staring and betrayed as they trembled on his lap. When did he start shaking?
Twilight huffed in mock offense, before moving and lugging a heavy arm around his shoulders anyway. Time jumped in surprise at its grip, before he suddenly found himself horizontal, head propped on the other’s bicep like a muscled pillow. “Don’t be so damn hard on yourself, Four already said it once but you’d do the same thing for me if I was sick.”
‘ This is different.’ Maybe he signed with more agitation than normal, but could anyone blame him at this point. He stared up through the canopy they were under and wearily begged the sun to come out from behind it’s rain heavy clouds. Days like this made him miss skullkid more and more as he aged, and the magic under his skin was restless for light.
“Oh? Pray tell, how exactly is it different?” Twilight didn’t sounds as amused as he once was, more… mildly annoyed and moderately concerned. Time realized with a small grimace that it was the exact tone he used on the other eight when they were being stupid.
‘You don’t need to take care of me. I’m the leader, and I already said once that I’m used to this.’
Another arm slung around his stomach and he slapped at it in irritation. “That’s the dumbest reason I’ve heard yet, and I had to deal with Legend while he had the flu. Just let yourself rest. I know I ain’t Malon, but I’m comfortable enough.”
Time wanted to keep arguing. He really did. But then Twilight somehow started humming a song he really shouldn’t have known and before Time realized it his eyes were slinking shut and sleep was dragging him under like a veil. The last thing he could remember was someone pressing something cool to his forehead, and fingers dragging through his hair.
(He could remember Saria crooning the same song, voice like a hummingbird and touch like a mother.)
Time didn’t dream, and he only woke up God knew how long later, to Twilight gently shaking him and someone pressing a cold clothes across his forehead and exposed ear. Someone murmured above him, and he grunted in annoyance when his breathing pillow decided it was time to sit up.
“I’m sorry-- I need you to drink these, then you can go back to sleep, promise.” The soft voice belonged to Hyrule, his sluggish mind supplied, and he nodded shakily as a warm vial was pressed to his lips. The elixir was bitter on his tongue and tasted faintly of burning, and he made a small face as he swallowed.
“He’s shaking pretty bad…” Someone (Sky?) muttered behind him, but his eye wasn’t cooperating well enough to see and Hyrule was pressing another bottle to his mouth, this one thick and familiar. Red potion. It tasted like the usual burnt hair, and Time tried to keep it down as Twilight jostled against him in an attempt to lay him back down. “Careful, Twi. He’s probably queasy from that fever. It’s really high.” He didn’t recognize that voice, nor did he understand Twilight’s response, too busy dozing back off and coughing lightly.
(Time is twenty Kokiri years old and he knows why he gets sick. The trees and faery dust and vivid, never setting sun would be a boon to anyone, but his markings glow and his eyes are like gems because of them and when he leaves the forest it does not kill him, but sends him to his knees unable to breathe instead. Only God kept him alive the first time, and Navi learnt fast never to stray too far lest her magic begin to siphon away from him. Kokiri weren’t meant to survive by themselves, let alone by themselves in an outside world full of wood smoke and animal rot and hylian stench.)
He wakes up again for much of the same, except this time Hyrule sounds more worried than cheerful and he can taste blood in his mouth from a coughing fit he doesn’t remember. He can’t quite hear what anyone is saying, the words underwater, slurring out a rough question after a moment. “Ꮭ ᏱᎪᎵᎦ?”
The voices stop, and instead of a response Time feels more vials pressed into his mouth and the same hands in his hair, before he’s unconscious again.
The final time he wakes up, it’s to a throbbing migraine and the taste of potion and grit in his mouth. His tongue is sticking to his gums, and when he moves he can feel a layer of sweat forcing all his clothes to cling to him. They rub against the Kokiri markings running like veins under his skin and it almost hurts, but before he can sit up hands are pressed against his shoulders and Twilight’s face fills his vision. “Do not sit up.” His voice is shockingly stern, and while Time doesn’t attempt to again he remains confused.
‘What happened?’ Twilight seemed pleased at the signing for a moment, before his face fell slightly.
“You got… really sick, really fast.” It was a poor explanation and they both knew it, but a voice interrupted them before Time could raise his hands.
“Old man, if you ever scare us like that again I’ll make sure I’m the one to turn you into a stalfos, got it?” Legend sounded irate, and as Time looked up he was surprised to meet swollen eyes and an angry flush. “You’re not fucking moving until you’re completely recovered, either. Don’t even bother.”
Time blinked slowly, still confused. Hyrule finally came to his rescue, setting a calming hand against Legend’s shoulder and moving up to his side. “You got pretty bad, Time.” The man could see the sympathy on his face, barely hiding a strain in his eyes. “We almost had to carry you to the nearest town, it was so bad. Your fever kept getting higher and higher until last night.” Time felt his brows raise, vaguely impressed. “Thankfully, Wild managed to make an even stronger chilly tonic and it broke late last night. I bet you still feel rank, though?”
‘ My chest still hurts, as well as my head.’ Hyrule nodded, urging him to continue. ‘ I supposed I didn’t realize how ill I was until it was too late. I’m sorry I worried everyone.’
Twilight chuffed at that, before Hyrule frowned delicately. “Don’t apologize. None of us can predict when we really get sick, Time. Just know we’re here for whenever you feel ill. You don’t need to hide it-- I know you wouldn’t want us to.”
The hero of time scratched the back of his neck, sheepish. Everyone seemed to find that amusing, because he could hear chuckles from just about every corner of the camp. Before he could really formulate a response Wild walked over, toting a bowl with a determined look on his face. He shoved it in Time’s hands with little pomp, signing rapidly. ‘I made bone broth because it helps boost immune response, and I made a faery tonic too. I know you keep them on you, so I know there’s something about them that makes you feel healthier. You will eat both.” The ominous furrow between the teen’s brows bespoke a terrible fate if he didn’t obey, and the Kokiri nodded slowly-- amused and somewhat afraid for his well being.
“Eat that and get some more sleep, alright? With the faery tonic, you should be in the clear completely. Sky will stay with you, so don’t worry if you need him to get one of us.” Wild nodded aggressively besides Hyrule, and Legend muttered a brusque affirmative from where he had wandered over with Four to watch Wind and Warriors bicker.
‘ ... Thank you.’
“Always, Time.” Hyrule grinned at him, more blinding than the sun, before he was gone to break up whatever Warriors had started. Twilight was nowhere to be seen, likely on patrol as ‘Wolfie’ to make sure nothing broke into their makeshift camp, and Sky was a patient and calming presence beside him.
“Say, Time?” The skydweller hummed, waiting for Time to look up from the broth to continue. “I know you keep secrets about yourself from everyone, and you shouldn’t feel pressured to tell anyone what isn’t their business, but I just want you to know you’re not alone, okay?” Time blinked at him, shocked. The words were so genuine it almost hurt, and for a moment all he could see was Saria staring back at him.
He set the broth down delicately against a nearby rock, before thinking over what to sign. ‘ I appreciate it.’ he began, smiling faintly at Sky’s happy nod. ‘ It is less a secret, more difficult to explain.’
“Try me. I think I’ll be most likely to understand out of the rest of them.” There was a playful challenge in Sky’s eyes, and who was Time to pass up a bet?
‘ Do you know what Kokiri are?’