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Four can’t concentrate on the book in front of them at all. The words are all blurring together and scrambling. The color’s voices are all blending in a monotone chant in the back of their head. Their head pounds and it takes every ounce of them not to let a tear run down their face. They screw their eyes shut for a second, trying to stop the stinging.
“Four? Four,” Someone calls their name, “Link?”
Four’s eyes shoot open and they sit up— when did they lay down?— rubbing at their eyes and hissing at the sudden light, even though it’s only the dim campfire.
There’s a blob of green and brown in front of them. It takes a moment, but Four recognizes it as Hyrule. They look worried and their hands are raised like they’re about to perform the life spell.
“Four?” They ask hesitantly.
Why were they so confused? “Yeah?”
Hyrule sighs in relief, “Can I touch you?”
Four nods, frowning in confusion as Hyrule presses the back of their hand gently to Four’s forehead. They can see the rest of the chain watching from a distance, obviously confused. And concerned.
“No fever,” Hyrule frowned, “Are you feeling okay?”
Four raises an eyebrow, “Uhhh…” They can’t really think of an answer. Their brain hurts, “I think so, why?”
Hyrule stares at them, “You just passed out,” they say, “Completely random. Fell over for like, 30 seconds.”
“I did?”
“Y-Yeah.”
Four can feel the eyes of their brothers, burning into them. Their face flushes as they let out a soft, “Oh.” How did they fall asleep without even noticing? Come to think of it— when did they last sleep? There was last night when the colors wouldn’t stop talking. The night before, when there was an argument between Warriors and Legend that’d put them so on edge that they hadn’t slept. Plus, when they’d had third watch the night before that.
That’s what? 60-ish hours with no sleep? Four doesn’t know. That’s gotta be bad.
They watch quietly as Hyrule waves away the rest of the group, whispering to Time something like, “I’ll deal with it.” And the traveler turns to them.
“Have you been sleeping all right?” Hyrule asks.
Four must’ve taken too long to respond, because Hyrule sighs and says, “You need to get some rest.”
Four flushes and looks at the ground. They hadn’t meant to go this long without sleeping.
“Sorry,” They mutter.
It’s not like anyone knows about the colors, anyway. They’ve got no excuse.
Hyrule smiles weakly, “It’s okay. Just try to get some sleep.” They nudge Four’s shoulder gently, “No night watch ‘till you’ve got at least 9 hours of sleep.”
Four just nods. Hyrule leaves them to their thoughts.