Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s wet.

It is the first rain in days, pattering against the leaves of the forest. One of the few noises alongside the squishing and squelching of mud underneath their boots. It’s almost a crime, Time thinks, how the goddesses above could send rains down upon them after so many sunny days, which they spent recuperating. The faces of his comrades are drawn in, and they were absolutely silent as they searched for shelter. Time tries to keep himself from shivering, as he leads the others, his body tired and aching. The wetness makes his joints start to feel sore and inflamed, and he is reminded of how old he was, and how easy things used to be.

Legend breaks the silence by complaining how they should have stayed at the tavern at least for another day. No one says anything. It’s so dreary that no one has the energy to do so. Warriors is sharing his scarf with Legend, their elbows bumping against each other as they huddled close under the bright blue fabric. Wild has his face half covered in a dark pelt, somber, more serious than anything Time has seen since meeting the spirited young man. 

Hyrule finds a cave nearby, and they all quickly huddle together in the darkness, only slivers of light illuminating the entrance.

They take a small break to catch their breaths. Time takes a seat on the rugged surface below him, letting out breath of air as the soreness in his bones eases. Wind takes a seat near him, and looks downcast. Time stretches an arm out to rest on the teenager’s shoulder, nudging him to come closer. He’s shivering a bit against Time’s armor as he shuffles closer to the older man. Four joins them, squeezing their youngest in between the two of them, and lets out a soft sigh while looking forlorn towards the cave mouth. 

“When do you think the rain will stop?” Wind asks, voice muffled as his head rests in the crook of his arms. Time squeezes his shoulder gently, as a reassurance. 

“The clouds outside looked pretty dark and large.” Sky answered, his sailcloth wrapped around him tightly.  “Maybe in a few hours it will lighten up.” He looks smaller than he really is under the wet cloth, or maybe it’s the darkness. 

It’s probably best to start a fire going, or they’ll end up freezing to death. “Traveler? How’s the condition of the cave?”

Hyrule looks up from the floor, “I checked it earlier. Sturdy, can stand against a small fire inside.” He looks towards the entrance. “If we keep it near the entrance we should be safe from rock fall and smoke.”

Time turns to Wild, finding the young man furthest from the group pressed to the wall. He cannot see the scarred man’s expression, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he was in a semi-sort of daze. For the last few days he’s been alternating between a panicked or anguished state, to either being completely despondent, eyes glazed over.

“Champion?” Time calls out gingerly, like talking to a wounded animal.

Wild makes a slight noise as he slowly turns his head towards Time, nodding, before taking his slate from his hip. A blue glow lights up the inside of the cave for a second, before logs and firestarters collapse on the ground. 

They set up a small campfire right next to the mouth of the cave, smoke softly billowing out into the rain. It feels oddly quiet, but it doesn’t seem necessary to talk. Time’s been steeling up his nerves for days. He already has the words ready in his thoughts, his expectations of their reactions, and the consequences. 

“When are we going to talk about Twilight?” Legend asks, voice echoing in the cave. His eyes are glistening, but Time can’t tell if it's from anger or sadness. He’s got his hands balled up on his knees, hugging them tightly to himself. 

Time feels Wind twitch against him, and from Time’s peripheral, he sees the teenagers all stiffen up. It is probably the first time they’ve seen death to someone so close, so personal, in front of their eyes. Someone that they could not bring back with the miracles of their goddesses. No one says anything to Legend’s question, the wound too fresh in their minds to think about it.

He’s dealt with loss before, familiar to it like an old friend. It still leaves a bitter taste in his mouth, despite having already grown accustomed to it. He’s come to acceptance over the years, but not like this. 

“Are we just going to not talk about it?” Legend persists, raising his voice gradually, “It’s been a week! Are we just going to fucking ignore it? Pretend it didn’t happen? He died!” 

“Legend!” Hyrule gasps, surprised at the sudden anger coming from his companion sitting next to him.

Time feels short staccato breaths from the boy under his arm, and he squeezes him gently, opening his mouth to calm the teenager across from him, but the captain beats him to it.

“Veteran! Calm down!” Warriors snapped, he gets a hand on Legend’s arm, but then gets shoved away. 

“Stop it! Stop. Don’t tell me to calm down! You didn’t even try to do anything!” Legend snarls, eyes looking more suspiciously wet, “You didn’t even cry! You didn’t even do anything! You just told us all to shut up when—” He chokes up, eyes blurry and lost in memory.

When Twilight suddenly passed in the midst of the night, it was a domino of bad reactions only becoming worse as the news arrived to each member of the group. The youngest, who had never seen death of a loved one before, was crying and holding onto the body, clenching on the blankets slack on Twilight’s corpse, begging for the rancher to come back. Time and Warriors had to bodily drag Wind off, punching and failing to make them let him go. 

Wild was next to join them. He was crushed, half in denial and then stuck within his own memories. Legend was surprisingly the first one amongst the younger teens to adjust the quickest, silently lifting the covers over Twilight’s head when the others were trying to calm the emotionally compromised members of the group. Four and Sky were quiet, the last to join and solemn. 

It felt like a blur in his memories, Time thinks, how Twilight’s passing broke down all the foundations of the group, leaving behind a bare scaffold of properly functioning men and boys. 

They all unanimously agreed to cremate the body and bring him back to his home world.

In the present, Warriors’ nostrils flare in anger, and he rounds onto the boy, “Listen here, kid, I don’t need to make an emotional public outcry over—”

Unbeknownst to the others, Warriors left the village and stood vigil for the entire night, performing a bonfire for the rancher. His hands were shaking so viciously when setting the pyre on fire that Time had to assist him. (“ When men die in the war, we take their bodies and swords and burn them together.” Warriors rasped, voice hoarse from disuse, “It’s the greatest honor we can do for them, knights that is, to send them above with their swords.”) Legend didn’t cough up the sword after Wild claimed Twilight’s pelt, refusing to even let the others know where it was. The captain instead burned straw and wood in place for their fallen member.

He stood there until dawn, finally moving when Time came back out to drag him back to the town to rehydrate and rest.

While the younger man hasn’t shed tears or anger, he hasn’t been the same since. Despite all that, it doesn’t mean he had the right to rebuke the others for their ways of coping, Time thinks.

“They have a right, Captain.” Time interrupts carefully, looking at the younger man steadily. 

“A right for what?” Four asks, eyes wide at the escalation of emotion occurring, he’s close to standing up, as if bracing himself for a physical conflict. 

“They—no. You are all allowed,” Time starts, closing his eye, wondering if this is what he’s telling them or himself, “To react however you want. To cry. To shout. To yell. You’re allowed.” He shrugs, trying to keep it lighthearted. “You can even eat goron spice, if you'd like.”

Wind starts breathing normally again, and Time gives his blessing to the goddesses above.

Time never felt so old, so tired, after he finally got everyone to eat and rest. He didn’t register the death until the day after, when he walked into Twilight’s room and didn’t see his body there. Time remembers sitting by the bedside, seeing short brown hairs littered on the pillow, gripping his hands tightly on his knees. 

A blue object sticks out from his pocket, shining.

The ocarina was glittering under dawn’s light, as if mocking him. Aren’t you sorry? That you didn’t choose the right decisions? Come on, Hero. The answer is here, in front of you. The song of time hauntingly humming softly, barely audible.

He snaps out of the memory at Warriors’ sigh.

 “Fuck,” The captain groans, ruffling his wet slicken hair up, “My bad, I can make an ass out of myself sometimes.” The tenseness and anger in shoulders relaxing, backing down into a slight slouch.

Time sees it, in his gait and energy. There is a greater lack of enthusiasm and energy, now that the peer that was closest in age to him has left. He misses it, Time thinks, like a pig. Malon once told him that pigs grow best when there is another to butt heads with and compete. A piglet alone only becomes skinnier, smaller, and much more lonely. 

Warriors wouldn’t have been easy to anger usually, or to purposely pick a fight with, but perhaps this was his way to cope.

“You’re an ass all the time,” Legend mutters, closing into himself once more. The older man doesn’t fall for the bait though, and they both fall back into an uncomfortable silence. 

“Well… It’s not like any of us could have done anything.” Wind says, voice wavering, “It’s not like we could turn back time.”Time almost stiffens, feeling his blood run cold at the thought, and wonders if Wind knew anything. The ringing, the music of that goddess forbidden song, one he promised to never use again, playing over and over in his ears. He looks down at the child in the crook of his arm. Wind’s eyes were red from the tears from earlier, but nothing shows that he knows . Time’s heart slows down again, and he looks up from the boy.

He makes eye contact with Wild, and he blinks at the young man, wondering what Wild was thinking. For the first time since Twilight’s death, the champion’s eyes are focused and alert, and Time feels sweat roll down his neck. The older teenager finally breaks away eye contact, covering his face with Twilight’s pelt, turning his body closer to the fire. Time swallows, mouth dry. Inside he knows something is wrong, and his earlier panic transforms into worry.

“Not like any one of us can turn back time.” Four comments quietly, eyes looking away and down at the ground.

“Even if we could, it doesn’t mean that this situation could be solved,” Time speaks up, voice a bit gritty, “Sometimes, the goddesses destined certain events without us having a say, for the better or worse.”

It’s terribly awkward, Time thinks, how bad Wild is when it comes to confrontation.

Ever since the incident in the cave, Time can feel the other’s eyes on him, as if asking him, hey, look at me . However, when the teen was chasing or tailing prey, he became one with the nature around him, concealing his presence like a predator. But goddesses above, he cannot, for the love of his life, tail a person to converse. 

Maybe it was due to him losing the majority of his skills and memories from sleeping a hundred years that resulted in him being terrible at this. Or maybe he was always like this. Either way, Time’s still having trouble pretending he didn’t notice Wild obviously trying to catch him alone.

Also, he still hasn’t gotten the courage to address his greatest concern. 

It comes and goes, starting as small intrusive thoughts throughout the day. When he’s getting water from a stream, preparing food, or staring out at a large expanse of golden wildgrass, wondering if he would see two little pointed ears sticking up from the greenery.

The thought of that makes him feel brittle, like dry dirt crackling up as young plants burst out from the crust, full of vigor and life. It doesn’t feel right, because there are only withering plants around him, falling apart on soil that can’t provide them what they need.

In the midst of all that, he has to stand tall and proud, someone with greatness to lead the way. But in truth, he is terribly worn out, and for older men like him, whose legacies are already engraved into thousands of futures ahead of him, he should be settled down whilst the young forge ahead with their passions and a bright future. 

Instead, he is humbled by only failed expectations and disappointment, emptiness like a desert drought from the lost potential of those he took from.

Twilight came into his life like a burst of color and stood for Time’s own hopes, humbling him as he came to learn about the young man’s experiences and history. While the older man felt normalized by having so many heroes amongst his side, sharing stories so similar to his, Twilight brought to him true mediocrity. 

Men his age are desperate to keep themselves in high esteem, trying to add accomplishments one after another to their lists before their joints fail them and their minds deteriorate from old age. He never saw it that way, approaching his late thirties. If anything, he wanted something, someone, to tell him to put his sword down. With the kids beside him, he only feels that he must keep it raised, forever on guard and standing sentinel for a new danger that may or may not approach.

The marked young man gave Time hope that there was a future for him and Malon, one where they could raise children that weren’t destined to save worlds, or fight for their lives, or be scapegoated children that adults wouldn’t listen to. Maybe they would be kids whose only concerns would be everyday unremarkable issues that others could relate to. Maybe struggling with telling a girl their crush, or thinking about attending school. 

Or those with big dreams, hoping to help make the world a better place, like Twilight.

He was gold, and Time tarnished him. Squandered his future and life, just by getting too close, putting too many expectations on him, when the man was his own person, already experienced so much, and barely knew him.

Time hasn’t gotten much time to lament, which was fine. He’s got plenty of years left to do that. He also already has an assortment of different demons to haunt him at night, what’s one more added to that going to do?

He can hear the haunting tune of time from the ocarina during late hours of the night, the soft tunes in his head repeating in his head as the goosebumps litter his arms. It tempts him, making him long for the lost presence, for their ninth member. 

It is still stiflingly quiet in their group, since the ones normally making the most noise have sombered down. Wind confessed to him that it didn’t feel right to be having a good time when Twilight couldn’t be there with them, happy together. Time understood this. He understood it very well, and he hopes this will be the last time Wind will ever feel this pain. 

“Old man?”

Time snaps out his thoughts, and blinks, staring back at Warriors, who raised a brow at the older man.

“Is there something you need, Captain?”

“Oh, just wanted to know if you wanted to hang your bags up in the trees. There may or may not be foxes out, checking out if there’s goods.” Warriors eyes look straight as his own, then flicker towards his right. Time blinks, confused.

He repeats the gesture again, and Time glances in that direction and sees Wild with his back towards them. The champion keeps looking at you. Time nods, letting the captain know he understands.

“You might want to go find a good spot to deal with it.” He finished with a huff, readjusting his scarf before walking away. Settle the problem already, old man. The captain stops in his tracks, “Don’t worry ‘bout the camp, Old man. Just get at it.” No need to coddle them.

Time sighs and stretches his arms, easing out the aches. It’s strange almost being told off by Warriors like this, who absolutely abhors getting “emotionally chummy” unless it meant juicy gossip. He doesn’t go out of his way to do things like this, not one for grounding the emotions of the group. That was Twilight’s role. Time’s stomach churns at the thought.

The knight walks off from the forest clearing, following his way to the sound of bubbling water nearby. In minutes, he already has a shadow tailing from behind, footsteps feather light several feet behind him. Far enough to be out of range of sight, but close enough to hear. He should be far enough to do this without being seen. 

Time continues to walk, and takes the mask of scents out from his tunic, gingerly placing the mask on his face. Taking a deep breath, he checks his surroundings, the smell of the earthy dirt, animal territorial scents, and a very faint, faint, pleasant smell of morning dew on grass. He tries to recall who in the group has this smell, but he’s sure it isn’t the champion. The boy carried a slightly heavier odor mixed with the hazy scent of summer. Even with Twilight’s pelt, it should not change his scent in that manner.

Confused, he slips the mask back into his tunic, ears strained to hear if there is a change of pace from the person following him. The closest to that smell was either Sky or Four, unless someone else’s scent changed since the last time he checked them. But what would they want from him? Voice concern? Or maybe their fears? 

When he reaches the river bank, he takes a moment, before turning around and calling out to his shadow. “You can come out.”

The bushes and forestry remain silent, and Time wonders if he really is getting rusty as he said to the boys long ago. But then the bushes shudder, and one of the boys comes out.

“I wasn’t quite expecting you,” Time points out mildly, “You could do with a little more practice with your trailing.”

“I wasn’t trying to come at you silently,” Four smiles, “If you really wanted me to catch you off guard, I definitely could next time I want to talk with you.”

Time chuffs, and nods. He crosses his arms, armor plates clinking against each other. “What do you need from me?” He tries to steady himself. Despite the nonchalant gait he carried himself at the moment, he was concerned. 

Four’s face steels itself into a firm expression, and Time knows in that brief moment before the boy opened his mouth that things were not going to be good.

“Back in the cave a few days ago,” Four starts, and immediately Time can foresee the words that are coming right after that, stomach dropping. “You reacted pretty poorly. Never before did I see that.”

Time sighs, shoulders shrugging in defeat. “And I thought only the champion noticed.”

Four smiles, but it's not the warm ones he normally has. He looks tired, a little bit older than he should be. It looks like the ones that Time sees himself have, staring long in a mirror or the riverside at dawn. Wondering what a future would be like if he did things differently.

The thing with having the power of time was, you could never be satisfied. It’s an addiction that holds you hostage, never letting go. 

“Well. I’m sure he did. You were so focused on the others, that you didn’t pay attention to me. Never seen your face go that white before.” He trails off, smile disappearing. “But I was curious about it. Why? Why this time talking about regrets, did you react like that?”

Time looks at Four, and he wonders if he should tell him everything. Four looks at him, eyes focused and steady at his own. Time thinks, if he were to tell Four what he wanted to tell to the others, that day in the cave, what were the consequences? If not the boy before him, who would he tell? When would he tell them?

He takes the gambit. 

“You recall the timeshifting device I have, the ocarina, correct?” Time starts mildly, taking out the ocarina. Four’s eyes light up in recognition, and Time continues. “The ocarina’s ability for time travel can only be possible when powered by the goddesses.”

He looks up from the ocarina, and sees Four’s eyebrows shoot up from the realization. 

“You can’t possibly mean—“

Time nods gravely. “Since Twilight’s passing, I’ve been hearing it sing.”

Four’s eyes flick down at the ocarina, then back up at Time’s eyes. He comes closer, “May I hold it?”

Time immediately wants to say no, hoarding the little blue ocarina like a dragon with its treasure, but rationalizes with himself. He places it in smaller hands, murmuring to the teen to be careful.

Four holds the ocarina, and he frowns. “Not hearing anything in particular. But it does have a funny aura. Maybe your goddesses have something in store for you for your future?”

The older man closes his eyes, close to begging the goddess of time to let him go already, to stop with the meddling of time and using him as her vessel. How many more worlds will he split? How many more Twilights and Winds will he create with his sheer arrogance and indignity?

“I’m not even sure myself if the goddess of time wants me to turn back time to save Twilight. Perhaps a Triforce holder is needed to protect the world he left.” Time confesses, unsure of the purpose of this vague message from the goddesses. If the princess was here, perhaps she would have an answer. 

“What do you mean, turn back time to save Twilight?”

Four and Time sharply turn to the newcomer to the conversation, caught off guard from their intense discussion.

Wild stood there, eyes wide, looking between Four and Time. 

“How much did you hear?” Time asks carefully. Out of all of the members of the crew, the champion was the last one that needed to hear about this.

The young man swallows, lips moving but nothing coming out. He’s never been good at articulating his thoughts, preferring to stay quiet and remain alone while ruminating. 

“Can-Can you really go back?” Wild stammers, finally clearly articulating loud enough for the two of them to hear. His eyes are round and large, breath irregular, and Time knows the young man is not in his right mind. He quickly walks over, and holds him by the shoulders, firm but gentle.

“Champion, focus on me.” Time says sternly, turning the shorter man towards him and gently shaking him. Finding the man’s eyes starting to focus again, he continues, “Are we calm now?”

“Yeah,” Wild says absentmindedly, as if trying to confirm with himself if he was alright, before firmly replying, “Yeah. I’m fine.” His eyes were clear of haze, but his lips were trembling, forming a thin fine line. 

Time breathes out heavily, air pushing out through his nose, “What part did you hear up to?”

Wild looks at him reluctantly, as if not sure what to tell him, before he confesses. “I was following Four, and… I listened the whole time.” He looks a bit worried, as if he was going to get punished for eavesdropping. 

It’s better this way, because Time’s not sure himself if he could repeat what he said earlier again. “This is fine, champion. In fact, it will be easier to explain everything.” He nods, then turns to Four, “We should include the rest of the group in this. I believe it's time to finally talk about this.” 

Wild and Four look similar to Malon’s little nephew and nieces after seeing him demonstrate his sword skills once, eyes wide and mouths open, surprised. Or perhaps they were unsure of what he’s planning. Or maybe it's just that his secretive nature is slowly peeling away now that he’s put into a corner like this.

He’s not even sure if it’s worth telling them more about himself if he isn’t even going to share the same timeline with them soon.

They make their way back to the clearing, with the two boys followed behind him pensively. He’s not sure if they’re all emotionally capable of handling this information, especially with the champion and sailor. Despite them being heroes themselves, those who have never forfeited under the threat of death and destruction, they were all challenges of the same caliber. Physical combat and a fight for survival. Those were never decisions. Those were the choices forced upon them.

But giving them the right to make a decision whether or not to break reality as they know it, for a chance that does not even guarantee they could save one person— could they do it? Could they sleep at night, at peace with themselves, knowing the consequences? Would they actually understand? Or will they leap off because of youthful ignorance, or worse, because they think it’s what he would do. 

And he did. And although he wasn’t with these boys their whole lives, he knows they would do the exact same thing he did. Time feels sick at the thought of that, pulse racing underneath his armor as he approaches the clearing, the captain coming into view. 

The man has gathered the others in the camp, all discussing something with serious expressions. Time can barely hear them, but by the time he’s in hearing distance, they all turn their attention to the three finally rejoining the group.

Time nods to Warriors, a silent thank you for the captain holding onto the reins while he was gone, he gets a quick smile in return. 

He breathes in deep, steadying himself before diving right in, “If you’re all available, I have something I need to tell you all.”

Immediately in the corner of his eye, he sees Wind looking confused yet Time watches him quickly check the other member’s faces to check whenever or not the older members were aware. It only reminds him how young the boy was, and yet how mature — he had to become — he is.

“No worries,” Sky says casually, moving to sit down, legs flopped out in front of him. “We weren’t really doing much.” He would believe that Sky was feeling relaxed, had it not been for him making the equivalent of  snow angels in the dirt with his legs. Despite doing it so slowly, he knows that the older teen fidgets when he’s stressed.

The boys all sit down slowly, tentative, and Time hopes his body isn’t betraying the uncertainty he’s feeling right now.

“Since Twilight has left us, I’ve obtained a chance to turn back time.” Time says, stopping for a moment to let the words digest. Wind has his mouth open, and his big blue eyes are wide like circles. Even Sky and Legend look shocked, before they start contemplating the meaning of his words, sharing a look.

Warriors is the first to say something, his eyes slightly narrowed, “I’m sensing a but here.”

“What but? If he can turn back time, we can save Twilight!” Wind exclaims, his hands gesturing to Time, “He said before that only the Goddess of Time can activate the ability in his ocarina, so this means the goddess has heard our thoughts and is lending us a hand!”

“When did he mention that?” Warriors asks sharply, as he looks over to Time. He looks close to giving Time a stink eye, as if disapproving that he’s been hiding secrets again. 

Time puts a hand up, signaling for a pause in the conversation. “I have a timeshifting device that allows me to go forwards or backwards in time, which, from my experience, doesn't change other people’s timelines, and is exclusive to the only one I’m in. I also can’t bring other people with me while traveling in time.” 

He takes out the ocarina from his pocket, shining in the light, “I can only use this ocarina when the Goddess of Time allows for it, by playing the Song of Time. This allows me to travel to the past in order to prevent devastating events in the future.”

Wind looks pointedly towards Warriors, as if saying, see, what did I tell you?

“We still don’t know if saving Twilight is what Time’s goddess wants,” Legend adds, a little scowl on his face, “ Don’t be so quick to jump to conclusions. We haven’t gotten a clear directive of why or how Time suddenly has this power now. We can’t assume what we want is what his goddess wants too.” 

Hyrule nods to this, and Time almost finds it endearing how similar the two are.

“We shouldn’t be too hasty to be pessimistic,” Sky comments, trying to lighten up the hostility, “As you said, we don’t know his goddess’ intentions, but who’s to say they are not good ones? The goddess I know has never, ever put me in peril or done anything to hurt me. Who here has been harmed by one of their deities?”

The question causes the group to remain silent, as fellow heroes look amongst each other to see if anyone would volunteer to answer.

“I’m not familiar with any goddesses or gods,” Legend replies, a contemplating look on his face, “So I’m not too sure if I want to place my hopes so soon on something I haven’t personally seen yet.”

Sky nods understandingly, before he continues, “I can understand that, and you’re right. I haven’t heard of a Goddess of Time before. But I think this is an opportunity that his goddess would like us to venture to. Regardless of the results, I think that this is meant for our growth or progression in eliminating the evils that plague our worlds.”

“But Time is the only one who can time travel, and it may be dangerous to go alone…” Hyrule says softly, still hesitant. 

“Are you saying you want to abandon Twilight?” Wild suddenly says, and Time reflexively puts a hand on the back of the teenager’s neck, gently resting there, but ready to grab him in case he starts anything.

Hyrule doesn’t rise up to the bait, but calmly responds in the same soft tone, “I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is, what if we lose both Time and Twilight?”

Four’s face scrunches up in concern. He looks at Time, as if wondering what the correct opinion was. The small hero was always a bit too considerate of how others felt. 

“If Time’s goddess has given her blessing, then it's most likely she will not let her hero die. He has mentioned before he split the timeline many times, and he had reached success. It’s unlikely that death will happen,” Sky proposes, also trying to defuse the situation. 

“If Time doesn’t go, I will go myself,” Wild says loudly, “A chance like this will never come again. I am not letting this go!”

“Calm down, everyone.” Time steps in, moving the hand on the teen’s neck down to the spot between his shoulder blades, patting gently. “It wouldn’t work. As the traveler said, only I can go back. I do not know what the goddess intends for me. All I know is that I am capable of traveling back in time now with the ocarina. I wanted to let you all know and get a consensus on whether or not to try it.”

They all simmer down, the noise ceasing quickly. The severity of the situation came to light, realizing each and every one of them had the say in the decision that could change their futures.

“Of course I’m going to say go back in time,” Wild speaks up in seconds, face determined. 

Time sighs at this, “No wonder you never got completely wrecked by a head wound. Your skull is too thick.”

Wild scowls, “Not this time old man. I’m not tolerating it. You’re telling me that I should live on knowing I left someone behind? Because of a few risks? If any of us died, I know he would do the same for us.”

Wind’s energy comes back to him, and joins in. “Yeah! I literally did everything in my power to save my sister, and Twilight is my brother. I would be a coward to say no.”

Legend starts to hesitate on his stance, watching Wild and Wind band together in enthusiasm they haven’t seen in a while.

“I don’t think it will hurt to try. I believe if worst comes to worst, Time can simply travel back to our timeline. We will know then that we’ve tried our best.” Four comments, nodding. “I don’t think Time’s goddess would be so cruel to ditch him in an unknown time.”

Sky perks up at the change of heart, “Our goddesses may be mysterious, but they have what’s best in mind.”

“Seriously, fine.” Legend throws his hands up, “Your positivity is so contagious, I’m just going to say yes before I start spewing some stupid bullshit.”

“What he means is, go for it and that he’s hoping for the best.” Hyrule teases, and gets swatted for it by the veteran. He turns to face Time, “Just play it safe, and do what you think is best. We trust you.”

Time’s heart skips a beat at that, but he tries to ignore it, facing their last member who hasn’t said a single word the whole time. 

“What do you think, Captain?” Time asks, bringing the attention to the scarfed man.

“Scarfie stayed silent the whole time? Crazy.” Legend mutters to Hyrule, who smiles slightly at that.

“I think it’s a shit idea.” Warriors says bluntly. He doesn’t have a smile or frown on his face, as if purposely schooling his expression. “Personally? We should let the man die the way he did.”

“The fuck?” Wild shouts at Warriors, and Time grabs him by the back of the teen’s cape, “Did you fucking hear what you said?” He can literally feel the teen’s furiously heaving breaths from under his grip.

“Wild,” Time says warningly. He’s never been good at diffusing situations with words, especially for things that were personal. 

“I know what I fucking said,” Warriors replies back, arms crossed and frowning now. “And I fucking meant it.”

“How can you live knowing that you’re here because of your comrades' sacrifices? Giving up the chance to save one of them? Saying it's better that they died the way they did?” Wild continues, going a bit hoarse. His eyes are wet, but his face is scrunched up in anger and frustration. “How the hell can you say that? Twilight—He didn’t even get to say anything… before he just went! That’s messed up!”

“Wild!” Time reprimands, grounding the teenager closer to his side, “Control yourself! This is not meant to be an argument.” 

“I’m fully aware of what I’m saying.” Warriors snaps, angry. “There are far worse ways to go, and passing in one’s sleep is a merciful death.” But then his expression collapses into something more mellow, as if he’s straining for words to say. His shaped brows furrow up in frustration. “He died an honorable death, trying to protect his comrades. Going back makes his sacrifices worthless.”  

The other man turns his face away from the rest of them, before he gets up and walks off, leaving the conversation completely. Wild gets flustered for a second, not sure what to do, and a bit in shock at what just happened. 

“Sheesh.” Wind comments at Warrior’s retreating back, “Never seen him get that mad.”

“It looks like it's six to one in agreement, bossman.” Hryule says, joining Time's side, giving Wild a pat on the shoulder while passing through. “What do you think?”

Time pinches the bridge between his nose, sighing. “I told you not to call me that.”

“But you are, especially right now. You’re the only one who can go back in time. It’s your decision.” Four says, appraising Time. “Why ask us?”

“Would you prefer it if I didn’t?” Time asked back, evading the question, “It’s only fair we discuss this together, since this situation involves all of us” And I’m not sure if I alone could make the right judgment for this.

Time watches the rest of them nod in acknowledgement, and some start talking under hush whispers. The campsite is filled with a lull of chattering, the first time in days. Time looks past the forest line, where Warriors left. He excused himself from the group quietly before following after the man.

The path that Warriors leaves is obvious. Flattened grass marks his previous footsteps, along with cracked sticks littering the forest floor. By the time he’s caught up to the younger man, he finds him sitting on a fallen tree, foliage and fungus growing on the bark creating a colorful painting. The light from above comes through in a splatter of bright, illuminating paint across his face. Despite looking serene like a fairy tale fantasy, Time is sure internally the other man is feeling the opposite.

“You alright, captain?” Time feels it's easier to be casual with the younger man compared to the others, that Warriors understands the pressures of responsibility on their shoulders, with men following orders to their potential deaths.

“Yeah, sometimes kids get on my nerves.” Warriors combs his hair with his fingers, fixing up his golden locks. “God damn annoying sometimes. They need to learn to control their emotions, not the other way around. ‘specially the champion. Got a good head on him normally, but when it comes to shit like this, he’s a cucco without a head.” 

Time smiles slightly at this, the captain complaining was a good sign his mood was getting better. “The poor boy’s gone through enough. Haven’t we all?”

Warriors blows air out of nose, huffing, crossing his arms in disagreement. He seems sullen, or maybe he just didn’t like everyone jumping in the bandwagon to have Time sent in the past.

“Rupee for your thoughts?” Time asks, taking a seat near the other, close enough to be seen as friendly but far enough to respect the other’s personal space. He’s never shown too much compassion outwardly, and he’s afraid if he started now, he might startle Warriors instead. 

“You want to know how I feel about whether or not you should time travel, right?” Warriors asks, looking at his fingernails nonchalantly, “Does it matter what I say? It’s your decision after all.”

“I would like this to be a group decision, since this will change the future.” Time says, then a tad bit awkwardly, “Well, I’ve done this before. So it’ll be fine for the most part, if we all chose this path.”

Warriors raise a brow to that statement, looking up for the first time.

“It will turn out fine.” Time stresses out.

The man makes a prayer gesture exaggeratedly, eyes rolling in the process. “I don’t think a prayer is enough to help you after you jinxed yourself. But I tried. Shit will most likely hit the fan,” Warriors mutters, before laughing to himself. Time wants to laugh at that too, remembering when Wind used a deku leaf to blast away the horse shit Wild was trying to throw at him, only for it to backlash and splatter over him instead. But he’s trying to prove a point here.

“Shit. will not. Hit the fan.” Time heatedly emphasizes.

“Shit will not hit the fan,” Warriors mocks in a faux deeper tone before he says normally, “Stop jinxing yourself, old man.”

Time lets out a soft chuckle, fingers pressed to his forehead as he tries to cover his face with his hand. He hears Warriors laugh to his side, and it makes him smile harder.

“Can’t you be a little more optimistic for me? You’re the young one; you should have more hopes and dreams. Or do you not want me to go?” He asks lightheartedly. 

But that isn’t the right question, and Warriors’ easy smile washes away.

“If I said I didn’t, would that stop you?” The captain asks softly, voice barely above a whisper. If it wasn’t for Time facing Warriors at that moment, he wouldn’t have caught it. He hesitates, and Warriors furrows his brow at this, then simply sighs. Time looks at him, trying to scrutinize the younger man, not understanding his reaction.

“I haven’t gotten a straight answer out of you yet.” Time starts slowly, “If that’s what you want then I’ll respect it.”

“Just let the past me know if shit hits the fan.” He waves a hand at him, dismissively.

Time frowns, “Captain, I’m not sure if I understand you correctly.”

Warriors just crosses his arms and looks away to the side, not at Time’s face directly anymore.

“Could you elaborate what you mean? What is your opinion on this?” 

Warriors relents a bit, flexing his fingers a bit before uncrossing his arms. “When you time travel, what happens to the future? What kind of changes?”

Time takes a moment to think, and he remembers Termina’s unsettling sadness amongst the village citizens. He remembers the strangeness and disorientation of having memories no one else did. 

“It’s… when you alter a past event, events that exist afterwards are adjusted. People’s memories will change to adjust to a change in the timeline. They won’t remember anything from before the change in the past.”

“So we won’t remember anything?”

Time nods briskly.

“I hate it.” Warriors declares, “That’s the equivalent of making our memories worthless. Of Twilight’s sacrifice worthless and everything we did together worthless. In the end, everything can be rewritten.”

“That’s one way to look at it.” Time admits, feeling empathy deep in his bones. It’s what he mourns over on some nights, running away from abandoned timelines to self servingly fuel his own ego and desires. “But it helps knowing it’s for a better future.”

Warriors only looks more upset at him, and Time doesn’t know what to do, frowning a bit. He looks at Time suspiciously for a second, before looking away.

"Despite how poor the memories are, I don’t want to forget this. Rewriting time along with altering our memories— I don’t want anything doing that— it’s like our memories were mistakes. We don’t even know how far you’re going to go back,” Warriors stops, and Time tries to interrupt, to give him an explanation to get rid of that look of his face. “Like I— we did something wrong.”

He looks at Time, like he’s searching for the answer on Time’s face. “You're not being forced back. Here you’re given a choice. Why?"  

It’s a simple question, but felt like he was asking so much more than just why . Why did you want to risk it all? Why are you choosing to throw away this?

Time tries to make it not sound recited, despite having done so nights before. “The power to go back in time is to serve the goddess and the sages, complete our roles as chosen heroes, along with saving a comrade.” 

“What if the goddesses don’t care for Twilight, and have something else planned? What are you going to do then? Is it really worth it to save Twilight? We’re essentially losing two people now to this!” The captain looks like he’s on the edge of rising onto his hackles, starting to pull at his hair. Time starts to sweat, not sure if he could handle this. He’s never seen Warriors on the edge like this, looking so distraught and yet somehow resentful. 

“Twilight,” Time says slowly, trying to find the right words, but he keeps it short.  “Isn’t just a fundamental member of this group, he deserves to live a much longer life. He has people to return to.” He tries to reassure Warriors again,  “And I said earlier, I’ve done this before. I’m the Hero of Time for a reason.”

“Is that what you say to try to convince yourself? Because that’s what it sounds like to me.”

"Excuse me?" Time asks, lips pressed into a thin line. He feels frustration and indignation rising up in his chest. 

"You would never do this for the rest of us." Warriors states angrily, "It's always been him. I don't know what it is, but you—" His eyes open wide, round like circles, before he deflates in seconds, and just looks tired. 

"I've always followed your orders, always listened to you, always, always— you ask to jump? immediately I ask, how high? I—" Warriors shoulders slump deeply. "I was never going to— there was no competition. Never is, when it comes to blood." 

Time freezes in place, but quickly recovers, trying to do something, anything, to salvage whatever this is.

"I didn't ever see it like that. I didn't know if I could— how to tell anyone—" 

Warriors smiles ruefully, "I would have listened." 

Time feels his throat dry up, eyes a bit itchy, almost watering. "I've only found out recently, I've never treated any of you differently. Never.”

He closes his eyes tightly, keeping the warmth behind closed lids. “And I have no intentions of doing so even now." When he opens his eyes, he finds the other man doesn't look very convinced. 

"Just make sure to take care of yourself." Warriors' gaze sadly softens for a fraction, closing off for discussion. He readjusts the scarf, covering his face a little, just enough so Time can’t see his expression. “I'll see you soon, I guess."

He turned away first, distance separating them as the captain made his way back to camp. 

It takes a while, but Time finally gets the feeling that's gutted him. He's never had many people leave him before, and if they did, it's usually death that takes his loved ones, with his heart churning in pain and throat hoarse from screaming or crying. It takes a few moments for him to pinpoint what this scene was. 

This is Warriors, trying to walk away. 

They agree amongst themselves later that Time will leave the following morning. They tell him that he should sleep and skip his night shift, but Time lies awake anyways. 

He thinks about Warriors, and wonders how he didn’t notice it earlier, his attempts at vying for Time’s approval. Taking on responsibilities not for his own pride, but for validation. Time looks over at Warrior’s bedroll, back pointedly facing him.

They didn’t get to talk much, not after what happened in the forest. Warriors just went back to camp and agreed (conceded) to the majority, before busying himself with Legend to hunt for game.

Warriors has essentially given up everything between them, Time thinks. He gets mad at the thought, how petty the captain was, doing this at the very end. But the guilt immediately sinks down to the base of his gut.

It feels hypocritical to feel loss, longing, and anger, when he was doing the same exact thing to the captain.

Warriors simply beat him to burying this future before he could. The captain really is the most tactical amongst all of them.

All of this, because of Twilight.

Time swears to himself he will make it right, for the both of them tomorrow morning.

“Are you sure we don’t need to pack anything for you?” Wild asks, almost akin to fretting as he has his bag opened up, potions and other things almost spilling out.

“No, it wouldn’t make a difference. I can only use the resources that I have in the past.” Time says, starting to untie the ocarina from his waist.

Legend sneaks to Wild’s side, “You think we could stuff him with potions, and have him keep the buffs when he gets to the other side?” The older teenager has a collection of magic spells and potions out, a rare display of sympathy and direct involvement. Time thinks it’s endearing, to watch the veteran worry over him in his own way, touched by the gesture. 

“Please do not use me as your test subject, it wouldn’t retain anyways.” Time says, amused, “I don’t want to end up throwing up from the potion whiplash.”

“How about magic?” Hyrule asks eagerly, coming closer, and Time can feel wisps of little tickles of magic under his pauldrons as Hryule places his hands on them. “I wonder what happens if I just add a little strength and speed—”

“I’m not sure if you want to do that; it might mess with the time magic he’ll be using to travel to the past.” Four suggests while steering Hyrule off of Time, but the brunette finds the older man's arms and latches on. Four lets go of Hyrule, but he too, remains close by.

Sky tries to help get the kids off Time, and Time decides to indulge them a little. He makes eye contact with Sky, shaking his head, making the older teenager relent. 

“I’ll see you boys soon,” Time says, starting to pull away, only to be pulled back in when Wind throws himself at him. Next comes Four, taking in an arm, and then the rest of them pile up. Time holds them tightly, choosing to yield to them as he’s smothered in a long hug. He sees Sky in his periphery, looking like he wanted to be part of it, too. 

Time unclenches his fists and waggles his fingers to the older teenager, welcoming him in the group. The boy almost runs towards him, squeezing his larger body in between the squirming participants. 

When he’s released reluctantly, he’s bombarded with verbal encouragement and care. He listens to each one, smiling nervously. As everyone’s got their last words in, Time knows its time.

He puts the ocarina to his lips, and plays.

Chapter Text

Time hears the sound of crickets and rustling of clothing before his body fully readjusts, feeling a tad bit lethargic. He keeps his eyes shut until the feeling goes away, and finally opens his eye.

He’s lying down on his bed roll, facing towards the rising sun. The sky is a pretty pink mixed with light blues and purples, white clouds scattered across with pastel hues. Rolling over to his side, his breath hitches. 

Twilight rests across him, the lines of his face relaxed, none wiser of what the day has in store for him. His eyes are slightly covered by the black fur pelt he was using as a makeshift pillow. His cheeks were pink and full, unlike the last moments Time recalls, where his face had started to sink in and pale drastically. He’s got a little drool leaking out of the corner of his mouth, and Time feels the corners of his lips quirk up at the sight. It feels so unreal and tranquil while Time’s own heart beats to the rise and fall of this boy’s peaceful breaths.

If only this moment can last forever.

Time rolls over onto his side to sit up, prepared to face the day with a huff.

“You need a hand getting up, old man?”

Time turns around, and finds Hyrule sitting a bit behind him. The traveler’s knapsack on his lap as he pulls out a change of clothes. Time has already forgotten most of the events and conversations that occurred in the past weeks, so he chooses to ignore the teasing comment. He has more pressing matters at hand.

“You look kind of tired. Is your age catching up to you?” Hyrule continues. Time touches his face, wondering if his lethargy showed that obviously. The traveler takes his silence as a yes, and he softens up. “You want some tea? I can get some brewing. I think Wild left the tea pot out last night.”

Time shrugs at that, busying himself looking through his own bag, recounting his arrows, potions, and other supplies. He’s not sure if any of his masks will be useful, but there is plenty of time to think about it now, and he is a patient man. 

If he recalls correctly, the monsters started to arrive when they passed a set of ruins, starting with a stalfo jumping from above onto him. Afterwards, lizalfos and other stalfos joined the ambush, with the black lizalfos slipping in and out to seperate and occupy each member of the party. From the details Warriors, Sky, and Wind supplied him, Twilight had left the group to chase after the black lizalfos, before returning as a wolf to pin the monster down. 

It’s when at it’s last legs does the black lizalfos become the iron knuckle, catching Twilight off guard and slicing through his midsection.

It will be ideal to keep Twilight within the group, and prevent him from chasing after the black lizalfos. Time will have to tell the boys to take this more seriously, especially keep their distance from the lizalfos incase it changes its form. He’ll have to place them in optimal positions to prevent the ambush from surrounding them and minimize the damage. He has the chances now to set things right to prevent anyone from being left behind.

“Time?”

Time blinks, snapping out of his stupor, and looks up. Hyrule stands before him with two mugs, steam rising out of them steadily. He looks down at the older man inquisitively, creases around his warm brown eyes, as if he was worried.

“Is there something you need, Traveler?”

“No, just wanted to let you know the tea is done.” Hyrule places the mug into Time’s hands, and Time murmurs his gratitude, “By the way, do you think it's time to wake up the others?”

Time scans the rest of the group, finding them still fast asleep. It might be better to start moving early so they could get an advantage against the monsters’ ambush, and arrive in the nearby town earlier to rest in case there might be wounds.

“A sound idea,” he agrees after taking a sip of the warm tea, relishing the heat as it goes down his throat and warms his core. Time goes over to wake up the heroes near him, and upon kneeling down to one of the resting bodies, he hesitates.

Warriors lies on his back, his rich blue scarf covering the top half of his face, as if using it as an eye mask to block out the morning rays. He has a frown on his face, as if irked by a bad dream. It reminds Time of the dispute he had previously with the man, and he can vividly see the sad smile the captain gave him before Time’s departure.

He gently runs his fingers through the younger man’s feather soft and glossy hair. The frown goes away, relaxing at the touch. Seeing that reaction  makes Time smile slightly, before feeling regretful that he left on such awful terms.  I’ll get it right this time, he thinks, and quickly pulls his hand away. Putting a hand on Warrior’s shoulder, he pats him gently awake. 

The captain groans and swats at Time’s arm fruitlessly, and the older man dodges the halfhearted blow. 

“Get up, captain. Time to enjoy the fresh morning air,” Time calls out, before moving onto his next target, Sky, who is notoriously even harder to get up. He hears several swear words behind him as Warriors rolls out of his bedroll.

Time calls Sky’s name as he nudges boy, whose head is tipped back and has an arm thrown over his head. The boy makes an affronted noise and tries to hide under his sailcloth. 

“Why are we up so early?” Time hears Wind complain from the other side of camp, their youngest blearily blinking the fogginess out of his eyes. “The sun is barely even up!”

“Early preparations for the day,” He explains, as he makes it over to Wild next, who’s already stirring from the noise. The boy lies on his bedroll, golden locks messily tangled over his face. He lurches forwards quickly, as if in a sudden realization.

 “Fuck! I forgot to prepare for breakfast last night!” He looks up, and sees Time, shock dissolving into embarrassment and apologetic. “Uh, is it ok if we have oatmeal again?” 

Food is food, and he doesn’t have any breakfast ideas that particularly stand out. “It doesn’t really matter to me. Your cooking is great either way.”

“Hey Time! The neckwear trio don’t want to wake up!” Legend calls out, as both him and Hyrule pull at Warrior’s scarf, wrapped around the man’s head. He’s still trying to sleep in peace but is ultimately struggling in vain. Wind joins them after noticing the struggle, pouncing on Warriors torso, and grabbing at the man’s head.

“What the fuck! Why are all of you going after me?” Warriors shouts, pushing at the grabby hands pulling at his hair and scarf, “Not the hair, Wind, fucking hell— There’s literally two other people who you can be bothering, go after them, not me!”

“Sky’s already awake, and he’s just lying there, so there’s no point bothering him.” Hyrule says, snickering as Warriors unsuccessfully bats at him, “Also it’s not as fun to watch him struggle.” 

“Sorry, captain.” Sky chimes in, setting up and taking the sailcloth off his body, smoothing out the wrinkles. The whole group knows not to mess with the sailcloth, a precious belonging with a great amount of pure sentimental value. Unlike the captain’s scarf, the sailcloth came directly woven from Sky’s beloved, so that contributes to the general reluctance surrounding the item. “It’s either you or me, and I kinda don’t want it to be me.”

“What happened to the cloth brother solidarity?” Warriors hisses out, as he finally gets up to grab at the teenagers, missing completely. Hyrule, Legend, and Wind bounce out of the older man’s grasp and laugh at him. “You traitor!”

Sky shakes his head solemnly. “Can’t be a traitor if I was never part of it.”

Warriors loses in the end, and the blue scarf gets pulled out of his grip. Getting desperate, he calls out for the only known neutral. “Four! Four, I know you’re not busy, don’t just stand there! Get over here and help me!”

“I think I'm rather busy at the moment. Please don’t mind me.” Four replies pleasantly, folding up his bedroll. The captain looks over to Wild pleadingly, who only gives him a stink eye.

“Got a taste of your own medicine, didn’t you, Captain?” Wild replies, sticking his nose up and turning away, busying himself with his slate.

The captain throws his hands up in the air. “Are you still angry about that? Come on!”

Time smiles a bit at the display before him, feeling at peace and ease watching them play around. He forgets, sometimes, how they are only teenagers who learned how to fit the shoes of adults, for adults. He lets himself rest his eyes on them fooling around together for another moment, before turning to wake up their last member, who was somehow still sleeping despite the ruckus. He walks over and kneels beside Twilight, breath hitching as he reveals the face hidden in the fur pelt. 

He stares at the boy, tracing the outline of his face, the little sunspots trailing across his cheeks like a tiny galaxy along with small scars and scratches, putting them into memory. It’s a hard habit to fix, Time thinks, doing this as if Twilight is going to disappear any second now.

He braves forwards and grabs the boy’s shoulder, almost sighing out loud in relief at the warmth seeping out from the body.

“Wake up, ranch hand. It’s morning.”

Twilight’s eyelids flicker, adjusting to the light, before he murmurs something inaudible. Time nudges him again. He looks up at Time, before asking, “Where…?” He coughs, clearing his throat.

“Easy there. Need water?”

“No… Just… confused. Where are we?” His eyes look unfocused, unable to settle on one object as they darted about. 

“Wow, you look like shit!” Wind comments, seemingly bored of harassing Warriors. He sticks his face into Twilight’s. “What happened to you last night? Bad shift?” 

Time puts an arm out between Twilight and Wind, giving the younger boy a suggestion to give the rancher some space. Wind quickly gets the cue and backs up, eyes still owlishly looking at Twilight, wondering what was going on.

“I don’t really remember.” Twilight frowns, and he tries to untangle himself from his sleeping roll. He looks down at his clothes, patting at his chest as if looking for something.

“Easy,” Time reminds Twilight, patting his cheek, “Look at me. Keep your focus on me first. Follow my voice.” The younger man follows through with his instructions, looking less confused and calmer, “We’re on our way following the black lizalfos, the one that’s been creating the portals. Do you recall that?”

Recognition lights up in the farmhand’s eyes, and he nods slowly. “Good. Get some water, and get prepared for the day. You too, sailor.” Time gets up, feeling slightly lost when he pulls away from Twilight. He turns away, only to find Warriors watching him silently with keen, interested eyes.

“Wow, so the ranch hand gets the nice and sweet bedside wake up call, but I get these three little bastards on me.” Warriors comments, smiling casually, unaware of Time caressing his hair minutes ago. He’s regained his scarf back, and he is dressed in his tunic and spaulder now. 

Time never thought about it carefully how, whilst in conversations when the captain was merely an observer, Warrior’s attention was drawn to him. Not in a way that was blatant staring, the kind that makes his spine crawl. He is simply observing casually so that it was hard to realize there was anything more beyond that. He realizes now how subtle Warriors had been, hiding his admiration and attention underneath his casualness and confidence. He would have never guessed that the young man did want his attention as a mentor and a close companion, or maybe even a familial figure. It’s a good thing that he knows now. 

Time takes a second to think of something to respond with. It would be weird and wrong if he suddenly treated him with the same reaction he would with Twilight. Feeling a bit playful, he responds in a way that could only be said to the captain specifically, and would be received well. 

He gives Warriors a slightly rakish grin, “Don’t get too jealous. I’ll give you a nice good morning kiss next time, captain.”

Warriors sputters for a moment, before he and the rest of the campground goes wild with laughter, no one expecting Time to respond like that. Pretending as if nothing happened, he goes to assist Wild for meal prep for the day. He can avoid the others while busying himself with mundane tasks, giving him blessed silence to plan how to deal with the monsters.

It goes like this.

They head on the same path as before, but with Time separating the group into two with Time leading the first group of three, and the rest following parallel and behind. He has Wind and Sky, while Warriors leads the second flank from behind. He initially got weird looks and confusion, but didn't get questioned much. He spoke to Warriors privately beforehand, preparing him for his role to lead the second flank (“ I need you to watch the ranch hand, captain. He may try to run off and deal with the threats alone, along with the champion. Can I trust you with this?”). Time recalls the eagerness and confident smile the other had, and how the captain reassured Time all would go well.

It works out for the most part. Time allows Wind to intercept the first stalfos’ blow, letting him take care of it, while clearing out the rest of the enemies in front of them side to side with Sky. Without the ambush from behind, it is much easier to single out the black lizalfos from scurrying between scuffles like it did last time.

He keeps the monsters off of the two with him, increasing his presence in the swordfight much more than the last time; finer techniques and carefulness being seen right before the two boys’ eyes.

When the others rejoin from behind, looking a bit worn for wear, but all alive, Time presses the advantage, pushing the black lizalfos backwards with Din’s fire, coating the sword in flames. 

It ends up running away, fatally injured. But it isn’t enough to determine if it’s dead, especially given the fact it escaped the clutches of death before.

The most important thing is, everyone is alive. The other monsters are decimated into bits and pieces, black blood soaking the earth’s crust below their feet.

Sky has several small cuts on his arms, and Wind still has scratches on his back from being shoved. Time himself feels his arms sore and his spine ache from excessive movement, but it's numbed mostly by adrenaline and sheer relief at the sight of all the boys alive and relatively well. 

He lets out a sigh, and starts to tend to his wounds. The others begin to as well, and red potions start making their appearance.

“Did you see that? The old man was so fucking cool! Ack!” Wind exclaims, yelping midway as Hyrule puts down on a gauze pad a bit too hard on his skin. “He went all woooom ! Sliced through everything with this big swing! Like, it was so huge! The range!” He makes a sweeping gesture, standing up to emphasize the dramatics of it.

“Go wooom your ass back down,” Hyrule complains, looking amused despite sounding irked, “I can’t bandage your back like this if you keep moving!”

The sailor looks apologetic for a second, before returning back to the story, “And then did another slice, and it smashed through the armor of the lizalfos, like, completely broke it down with a blam !”

“I don’t think I could win in a fight with you after seeing that display,” Sky says, and Time looks up from his work to see Sky looking at him. “That was really impressive. Did you learn that from somewhere?”

“You pick up a lot of things on the road,” Time evades, trying to give the brunette an easy smile. “By the way, what was that with your sword earlier when it collided with the black lizalfos?”

Sky perks up at the reminder, and then frowns slightly. “I remember… there was something about his weapon! The master sword—” He stops for a brief second, as if trying to find the words to describe what happened. “It’s—It’s like she fought her own battle when we clashed with the shadow.”

Time replays that in his head, thinking what the implications of that observation meant. The black lizalfos did not care too much about its body, getting pierced and stabbed on multiple occasions. Falling off a cliff didn’t stop it either. Perhaps the sword itself wields special powers, similar to the Master Sword? He knows it wields cursed energy, the reason for Twilight’s fatal wounds, but the details are too vague.

He thinks about it carefully, then looks back up to observe the rest of the heroes. Wild is hovering near Sky, a curious expression on his face as he’s trying to peer around the other to look at the Master Sword. Sky is walking careful circles around the champion, a wary expression on his face. It seems he hasn’t forgiven Wild for the previous mishap of him temporarily breaking the sword. It looks to him that these two came out rather well from the fight, already relaxed and bickering.

Hyrule and Legend look a bit more battered, holding empty potion flasks amongst themselves. Warriors looks fairly worn out too, fretting over the nicks and slices on his skin, complaining how they are going to leave scars. Near him, Twilight is a bit out of breath, eyes lethargic, but he stands tall while petting Epona. It seems Warriors held up to his promise. 

He makes eye contact with the captain, giving him a nod, and the captain sends a wink back. 

Probably Sky, Wild, Twilight, and Four were the only ones with scrapes and bruises for wounds.

“Time, I think we should head to town.” Wild suggests, seemingly having given up on pursuing Sky about the Master Sword. He comes over to Time, and gestures to the empty flasks in the other heroes’ hands. “We’re down half our healing supplies. Also, I kind of realized we’re gonna be out of food in about four days.”

Warriors turns to the two of them. “I’m gonna have to second that. We’re lucky that the formation today helped cut down those monsters. If we were all together like usual, it would have gone poorly. Regardless, the ambush still took its toll on us.” 

Legend clicks his tongue, joining the conversation. “It fucking sucks that the stupid lizard ran away. I want it dead already.”

“We will have another chance. I have a feeling we will see that lizalfos again eventually.” Time interrupts, noticing that the sun was setting. He almost automatically walks into the direction of the nearby village, before catching himself. It would raise too many questions if he suddenly knew where the town was. He turns to face Twilight, who was tending to Epona. He can send Twilight with the two other people who know his furry problem to scout ahead. They can lead the group to the village without suspicion while keeping themselves safe with numbers.

“Twilight, Four, Wild. Would you three like to scout ahead?” Time asks, but while looking at the rancher’s unfocused eyes, he changes his mind. “Nevermind. Twilight, if your wounds aren’t well. We can rest here and wait for the others to come back.”

“I can do it.” Twilight protests firmly before anyone could make complaints. “I’m confident that there’s a path past these hills. I’ll check it out with Four and Wild.” He stares at Time, making eye contact, his eyes determined. 

Time raises a brow at that, making Twilight huff in annoyance before emphasizing again, “I’m fine!” 

The rancher pulls at Epona’s reins, walking off and leaving no room for arguments. He goes in the direction of the village, “scouting” ahead to look for it. Time feels anxious watching from behind, heart beating faster as the boy gets out of his vision. He tells himself Twilight will be fine, that with Four and Wild, they should be safe.

He lets out a breath of air that was welling up in his chest, and prays that the rest of the day goes well without having to bring out the ocarina.

When they finally hit the couches at the inn, all with full bellies and fresh baths, Time feels like his heart can finally get a break. He tries to resist the urge to flop onto the soft sofa unceremoniously, all his muscles aching and sore, body begging to relax.

He watches the boys play and reenact scenes from earlier today, of Time’s sword fighting, Wild’s bowmanship, and of tales of the Master Sword in Sky’s hands. Eventually the stories go everywhere, and Warriors is in the spotlight now, amusing the teenagers with a fun story from the barracks when he was just a trainee wet behind the ears. The boys’ cheeks are flushed from smiling, and when Wild hollers out a loud and boisterous laugh, Time can see the scars and scratches on his face become thin lines.  

He has a mug of warm tea in his hands, and Twilight is by his side away from the commotion as Time murmurs short stories of how his skills came to be. The younger man is a comfortable distance away from Time, just close enough to hear his voice under the loud laughter around them, but far enough for personal space.

He inches closer to indolently wrap an arm around the younger man, who looks up at him in surprise. Time just is just about to pull away, nervous that he made a poor decision, but then Twilight leans against him. He can’t help but freeze a bit at that reaction, not sure what to do next. The only person he openly felt comfortable to touch and make contact with is Malon. Something about her kindness and gentle touch makes him feel weak in his knees and wanting to be enveloped in her care. He suddenly craves to hold her once again.

Twilight is far different from Malon, with a harder muscle structure than her. He can feel the younger man’s shoulder muscles contracting under his hand, built like an ox. It feels weird. Is this how Malon feels when she holds him?

He gets pulled out of his thoughts when Twilight makes a stifled noise.

“This feels alright?” Time asks slowly, using the hand wrapped around the boy to pat his shoulder. Twilight laughs softly, a bit shaky, eyes drifting off as if thinking of something else. He then directly turns to the older man, smiling like as if Time was a kid caught doing something stupid before the younger man shakes his head.

“Feels like home.” Twilight says, turning his attention back to the others. Time’s initial embarrassment slowly relaxes into serenity, and doesn’t fight the urge to smile.

They fall into a comfortable silence, as if settling into their own skins.

It feels hard to let go of Twilight, Time noted, when they all dispersed to their own rooms for the night.

When Time wakes, the fog of sleep is still persistent as he blinks stupidly. It’s oddly bright for an inn room, and there’s a lot more green than he last remembered. He smells the sweet scent of grass and morning dew, and thinks did someone open the windows? But that doesn’t make sense. There’s no one else in this room besides Twilight, and if he wanted fresh air, he would have left to go outside. When he finally orientates himself and gets a hold on his surroundings, he realizes the bed beneath him is actually his bedroll on dirt and gravel.

Around him, there is a forest clearing, the same from the morning before. He can hear the crickets, the rustling of clothes— Hyrule’s if he predicts correctly.

“Shit,” Time mutters to himself angrily, “meet fan.”

Time isn’t sure what went wrong, and he’s confident that he didn’t play the ocarina the night before. He doesn’t know what the meaning of this is. So he goes through the motions again, wondering if perhaps letting the black lizalfos get away was the wrong option. 

It was near chaos this time, as he had multiple new realizations in the span of minutes whilst fighting the monsters again. 

The numbers of monsters were doubling due to them preventing the black lizalfos from escaping. Desperate, it howled in agony before summoning further hordes of monsters, stalfos and lizalfos rushing at them from the bushes. Additionally, the black lizalfos could transform between its forms, switching to the iron knuckle to neutralize a fatal attack, before switching back to its lizalfos form to run away or get a quick attack in.

It was a sudden shock to find out Four’s sword encases the power to split one person into four, surprising them all when three additional members join them to fight (“Where did all the shorties come from?” Legend gritted out, to which the blue Four shouted, “Speak for yourself!”) Their help was greatly appreciated, and they’re able to keep up with the sudden onslaught of new monsters joining the fray against them.

Additionally, they got to see Hyrule perform wickedly impressive magic upon their enemies, all powerful lightning and rumbling thunder, leaving static and the taste of ozone in the air. Legend and Sky, who were standing closest to Hyrule when he performed the spell, ended up with their hair sticking up at all angles from the excess charge. Thankfully, it was finally enough to paralyze the lizard from changing forms and limiting its movements.

This time he kills the black lizalfos with the help of Sky and Four, who pin the limbs of it down, and Time swings his blade straight through its neck, clean and smooth. 

All at the expense of his own arm.

Four’s eyes almost fly out his sockets as he and Hyrule try to reattach Time’s right arm. Sky furiously smashes the sword in the black lizalfos’ grasp. Wind is cringing away from the blood gushing out from what’s left of Time’s arm, but staring with morbid curiosity. Wild and Warriors are taking down the last of the enemies without impunity.

Twilight looks downright horrified, pale faced while frozen in place, his eyes going back and forth at the torn off arm and at Time’s stump, as if going through a thousand scenarios in his head. 

Time tries to give him a reassuring smile, “Now this matches,” he jokes as he uses his good arm to point at his stump and his right eye.

Legend slaps a hand across the back of his for that, and it's the first time he ever seen the boy use physical force to express himself. He almost gasps from the shock, but the pain keeps him in check. The veteran tries to give him painkillers of some sort, which he refuses vehemently. For a second, Time thought the young teen was going to punch him across the face for that.

It’s pure agony, as Time tries to breathe evenly. The stump of what was his right arm was torn off by the claws of the black lizalfos, a latch ditch attempt to kill him before Time’s blade went through its neck. It feels like a constant searing pain that makes him want to pass the hell out. But he would rather be awake and aware than lethargically struggling to maintain consciousness under medicine. He still needs to be awake and make sure they get through this day all together alive.

When he finds out he gets the same room number as Twilight’s prior to the time loop, he snorts, getting questionable looks from the others.  

He goes to bed, miserable, and he wonders if he should play the ocarina the next morning. 

He looks at Twilight and Wind sitting by his bedside, who have fallen asleep from exhaustion. Wind is curled up on the sheets near his last arm, blonde curls tickling him every time the boy breathed. Twilight is still somehow sitting upright, as if even in his sleep he was focused to stay vigilant. 

It would be inconvenient to continue the rest of his life like this, but it's a sacrifice he can make if it means the boys can return home safely. 

He doesn’t get that choice.

Time wakes again on his bed roll on the forest floor, crickets chirping and Hyrule moving around preparing for the morning, his missing arm back in place. He can still feel the tingly sensation of the lost limb, aching for a moment as if reminding him not to forget.

He sighs.

It takes another three tries to kill the black lizalfos without any major wounds. The first time, Twilight takes a blow for him out of the blue, preventing him from losing an arm this time around. But he ends up in an almost identical situation as before time traveling. 

He remembers berating the farmhand for his foolishness, hands bloodied and soaked in red as Time tries to reduce the bleeding, but then the young man just laughs, not explaining why he jumped in the way. 

The next one causes Wind to lose an eye (“Hey! Now I look like you!” The sailor hisses out to him midst the pain, trying to be lighthearted). The irony of it was almost funny, how he said similar words a couple loops earlier. But he doesn’t find the heart to rebuke Wind as the crushing guilt silences him, thinking about how his mistakes caused the boy the same pain he has. Living with one eye is not as easy as he makes it seem to be.

The third attempt results in one of the four quadruplets being stabbed —the green one— and the red and blue ones go near hysterical. The three left behind remain catatonic and unresponsive for the rest of the day, and Time wishes he could scrub the memory out his head. 

It's on the fourth try, making it the sixth day back in time, that the group successfully bypasses the ambush and the black lizalfo, with all members alive and well. Considering how many times he had to restart in Termina, this wasn’t so bad.

He splurges a bit at the tavern that night, buying hearty meals, a pie and other desserts for everyone. Time doesn’t get questioned for the sudden generosity, fortunately. Instead, when he sits down next to Twilight on the couch, the young man readily slides over and leans against him without being prompted. 

Time stiffens for a brief second before relaxing into the touch. It feels more comfortable than it did the first time they sat here, but he feels something about it this time feels slightly off. 

He doesn’t think about it too much, drunk off happiness and relief.

Time wakes up to a groan, and for a second, he thinks he’s at the tavern, sharing a room with one of the boys. Hope flitters in his chest like a caged bird, pecking at the bars. But the metaphorical bird gets crushed, wings clipped and falling uselessly when he opens his eyes and sees the familiar forest floor.

He tries not to think too hard about the disappointment festering in his chest.

“Hyrule?” Time calls out, “Is something the matter?”

“Wasn’t me, bossman,” Hyrule casually replies, and Time almost interrupts to remind him not to call him that. “Was the rancher.”

He swerves his head to look at Twilight, whose mutterings are muffled under the pelt he was using to smother himself with. “Ignore me! I— Uh. I thought of something embarrassing.”

Time raises a brow. He doesn’t recall Twilight doing this in the past six mornings. He watches the rancher roll over, back facing him. He can’t help but feel Twilight’s behavior was oddly suspicious.

“How about I brew some tea?” Hyrule asks, closing his knapsack and putting it away, “Should we wake up the others?”

“Yes, that is a good idea,” Time trails off as he looks at Twilight again, who just came out of the safety of his wolf pelt, now looking at Time’s right arm.

He examines Twilight carefully, unsure what the other was doing, who is eyeing him up again as if checking for something. It doesn’t line up to his behavior the last six days, which was Time walking over to wake him up. Unless…

Twilight looks startled, caught in the act of staring, and is now looking away rapidly. He hastily gets out of his sleeping roll and begins to pack for the day. It takes Time a moment to realize he was frowning outwardly.

“Calm down, Twilight.” He calls out, getting out of his bed roll and puts his shoes on to walk over to the ranch hand. “Is there something wrong?”

Twilight hesitates as he stuffs his sleeping gear into his bag, eyes flickering up at Time’s before shifting to his surroundings, and finally at Hyrule, before settling to look down. His reaction reminds Time of Malon, when someone’s being too overly friendly or pushy, and she’s trying to find the most sociable and nicest way to excuse herself out of the conversation while not hurting anyone’s feelings.

“Can I talk to you about something later?” Twilight whispers after looking up again, confirming that the traveler wasn’t paying attention to them. Time’s heart races, but he schools his expression, trying to not alarm the other. He feels queasy at the thought of his suspicions coming true. He nods quickly, and goes to wake the rest up.

They blaze through the monsters. Time is used to their attack pattern after six tries of trial and error, so he can lead much more effectively and how to strike them efficiently. He keeps an eye on Twilight this time, and sure enough, he easily pierces through the crowd as stalfos and lizalfos fail to get the jump on him. He sticks close to Time, covering his side, especially on his right arm.

Heart filled with dread, he wonders how he didn’t notice it before.

They arrive at the inn victorious, and Time again takes the couch, reclining back with a mug of hot tea. Again, Warriors is in the center of attention, retelling another story of one of his battles.

Twilight joins him, the sofa giving in to the added weight for a moment as the young man sits down. He’s fiddling with the cuffs of his undershirt, nervous. 

Time takes a sip of tea, waiting for Twilight to make his move. He seems uncomfortable and unable to look at Time, eyes on the others. Or maybe he just thought Time wouldn’t believe him, or worse, be able to help him. Which Time knows he can’t, if what he thinks is happening is actually happening. But what Twilight doesn’t know won’t kill him. 

“Do you want to talk somewhere more private?” Time asks, bringing his mug back down, not trusting himself to keep it in a steady grip, putting it on a side table nearby. He stands up, ready to leave.

Twilight blinks, as if coming out of a daydream, “Yeah, if that’s alright with you.”

Time opens his mouth to suggest his inn room, but this time around, he’s bunking with Warriors, and as much as he finds the man responsible and a great second in command, he is far too nosy for these sorts of things. He’ll bet rupees that right now, the scarfed hero has an eye on the two of them, wondering what they were privately talking about in hushed tones.

“You’re sharing with the champion and the sailor, right?” 

“Yes, I was thinking we should head to my inn room since they’re going to be out here for a while.” Twilight nods in affirmation before whispering. “Don’t turn around, but Legend got an eye on you.” 

Time ignores the warning, and turns to face the others, since the exit to their inn rooms was behind them. Twilight makes a low groaning sound from behind him, followed by the sound of a hand hitting skin.

“Already going to bed, old man?” Legend calls out, smiling mischievously. “It’s too early!”

“Yep. Need to get extra sleep for this old, old body,” Time replies, waving them off. “You boys enjoy your youth and have fun.”

“And what about Twilight?” Hyrule asks, curiously looking over Legend’s shoulder. 

Twilight shrugs, “Just wanted to go sort out my bag. Been collecting too much junk.”

Four gives a look at Time, as if asking him if Twilight was being serious. Time shrugs at the younger teenager, and makes a mental note to help improve Twilight’s evasion skills for another time. He didn’t really mind the others knowing if he’s going on a private talk with one of them, as long as they respect his privacy. But now he doesn’t want to encourage ideas of favoritism.

He pats Twilight on the back, nudging him to go forwards, and Time follows behind. When they reach the inn room, he closes the door shut, and takes a seat in the nearest chair, sighing as the tingling sensation in his spine dissipates. He isn’t lying most of the time when talking about being old. 

He’s also never been one for small talk, so he dives straight in.

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

Twilight looks nervous upon being asked, and Time tries to push off the mounting dread that is rising up from the pits of his stomach. He tries to smile reassuringly to Twilight, who’s unaware of the existing disturbance in Time’s thoughts.

“Come on, you don’t need to be stressed out. Just wanted to know what’s up.” 

The rancher sucks in a breath, before saying, “I think I’m some sort of time problem.”

Time swallows, his heart skipped a beat as the reply settles the conflict in his head. The anxiousness from earlier swept over like leaves in the wind, replaced by a feeling of unsettling disappointment and hot shame at his failure. If only he had noticed earlier, then Twilight wouldn’t have gone through the pain of being hit by the iron knuckle. Again. He doesn’t doesn’t even want to start deciphering what this could mean, and he feels incredibly exhausted as he adds another mystery to the list.

He rubs at his face tiredly. “A time problem… Can you explain?”

“I keep ending up repeating the same day —today— over again. I go to bed in the tavern for example, and then I wake up at the forest clearing where we were this morning.  And then events and monsters we encounter are the same, or barely different—” Twilight starts, frowning in frustration. “We keep fighting the monsters each day, and defeat them all the same. I tried to do different things to see if the day would change, but it didn't work.”

“When did this start?”

“Six days ago.” Twilight’s eyes are clear and he is looking straight at Time, posture firm and standing tall. He has no reason to think the boy was lying to him. It’s exactly the same time he started as well. It shouldn’t be possible that Twilight is experiencing time travel the same way he is. 

Unless it was the ocarina’s fault. But he’s checked it before, upon waking wondering what he did wrong. There were no issues, but perhaps he can try playing it again later in the secrecy of the night.

Time thinks carefully, juggling the options before him, before deciding to confess his participation in the loop as well. “I’ve been experiencing the same thing. Time looping for six days.”

Twilight’s eyes grow round, “So then—”

He nods, and Twilight suddenly looks relieved, tension easing out from his gait, before he suddenly throws himself at Time. 

Letting out a soft wheeze of surprise at the sudden weight on top of him, Time hesitates for a second from shock, before he wraps his arms around the younger man, unsure what to do next. He buries his face into Twilight’s thick brown locks, his senses being filled with the scent of rich, woodsy teakwood. Time rubs his back reassuringly, holding him a little tighter. I hope I’m doing this right, he thinks to himself. Reassuring other people has never been his forte, and Twilight is still slightly trembling in his grasp. 

“I thought I was going crazy!” Twilight says shakily, breathing in short staccato breaths. His voice is slightly muffled from where he was pushed up against the space between his neck and shoulder. His fists are clenching the Time’s clothes tightly into balls of cloth. “I didn’t know what’s happening— Why suddenly, I couldn’t get past today. Didn’t think anyone would believe me—”

Time closes his eye to this. He has memories of being a fighter, a friend, a confidant, and so much more without having those events ever existing in time, all sealed away by a sword. The things that made up the majority of his life hidden away as if to be a secret he has to die with. He never thought he could indulge himself to tell another person, jealously guarding his secrets and grief until Malon came along. 

“It’s going to be alright, Twilight.” He murmurs softly, “I believe you. We’re going to fix this.”

Twilight breaks the embrace, pulling away as he looks at Time with desperate, red-rimmed eyes. “How do we stop this?”

Time breathes in, eye closed to stop and think what to say to him. His eye meets with Twilight’s, but he struggles to find words. He can’t crush the boy’s hopes, telling him that Time himself didn’t have an answer to that.  What Twilight needs now, is confidence in himself, or at least in Time. 

But he’s never been strong enough. He spent seven years asleep because of this fact. 

“First, let’s go over what we know.”

It takes a few hours to finish discussing the details between them. Twilight presents a great amount of detail in his explanations and descriptions of the last six days. Additionally, he provides a few conjunctures and experiments to try out the next day.  They ended up having to move to the drawing room, replacing the rest of the boys who were going to bed, trying out one of Twilight’s ideas.

He ended up suggesting to see that if they stay up all night, they might be able to locate the specifics when the loop repeats, or how. Time doubts it will work, but there aren’t any consequences for trying besides being a bit cranky the next day.

It’s an oddly weird feeling , Time thinks, having someone else who was able to share the same strange experience of having no control— trying to move onto a new today but unable to. He feels a mix of relief and frustration, and it only sends him further into turmoil. Guiltiness trickles in like a stream in his thoughts, feeling ill that he relishes someone close to him, someone who understands him a bit more than the rest, is able to share the same horrid experience so he doesn’t have to suffer alone.

Twilight is sitting across from him at a table now, rambling how he didn’t realize all this time that the Time was going through the same loop, and how it was so obvious now that Time really is the Hero of Time. His arms were gesticulating with enthusiasm, a small smile on his face, more hopeful and happier than earlier.

“How did you maintain consistency each time, is my question.” Twilight asks, eyes looking at Time in awe. “I can’t even remember what I said to you yesterday morning, but you’ve been waking up everyone and talking to them in the same order each day!”

“It’s easier to stick to routines than come up with something new.” Time says, and he thinks about the months he spent in Termina. Even now, he feels he could recite every word he spoke there easily like a written play script.

Twilight smiles, eyes twinkling playfully, “Maybe old dogs really can’t learn new tricks.”

“This dog doesn’t need new tricks if the old ones work perfectly fine,” Time snorts, he toys with a glass of water in his right hand. 

The gesture makes Twilight’s hands across him freeze, and Time looks up to get a better look at the man.

“Your arm,” Twilight starts slowly, as if recollecting his thoughts, “when you lost your arm— Does it still hurt?”

Time blinks, and he remembers the splitting pain blooming from the leftover stump of his right arm, sending quick streams of pain throughout his shoulder to the rest of his body on that day. He reflexively holds onto his arm, reassuring himself it's still there.

It’s the wrong move, and Twilight’s expression crumbles. “I’m sorry.”

Hastily, Time moves his hand away off his arm. “It doesn’t hurt. What happened to my arm has been erased, and so did the pain. It wasn’t your fault. There’s no need to apologize.”

Twilight’s face still looks pinched, and he places his hand on Time’s forearm, as if to reassure himself it’s still there. Time carefully watches him, unsure what to do next.

“And you?” He asks, trying to make eye contact with Twilight. “You were stabbed quite hard yourself previously.” 

Twilight lets out a sordid laugh. “Not my first time.” 

Time freezes at that, because that phrase could mean so many things. But it's the first time hearing Twilight himself resign to such a statement, that it can’t be some sort of figurative speech. He was one to say things purposely and honestly. 

“What do you mean?” He interupts sternly, “You didn’t get stabbed more than once in the loop if my memory is correct.”

“Oh, I remember getting sliced before all of this.” Twilight gives him a sidelong glance, taking his hand back from Time’s arm to wave casually, like trying to brush the thought away. Time’s heart fills up with a familiar sense of fear when he hears those words, but it gets worse. “It was by that black lizalfos, turned into an iron knuckle—”

The rancher stops himself suddenly, and the cold anxiety in Time’s veins doubles down. 

He waits for Twilight to continue, but the boy doesn’t finish his sentence no matter how long Time waits. He wants to shake the boy like a ragdoll, make him spit out the words so he can at least get rid of the anxiety wracking him. Twilight’s got a strange look in his eye that makes him look like he’s out of place, confused, and tired . It looks terrifyingly wrong, and for a second, he thinks he’s in Termina again. Cremia’s vacant expression is overlapping Twilight’s face, the one she had while watching the moon fall from the sky with her little sister in her arms, sleeping peacefully and unaware of the moon’s descent.

“The iron knuckle— what about it?” Time prompts shakily, trying to get a reaction, but Twilight quietly hums under his breath. His boy isn’t someone to ignore or drop a conversation midway, always polite and kind, so emotionally empathetic and aware. He feels terrified that something has gone wrong— that he’s about to lose Twilight again.

“Twilight?” He tries to coax again, and finally, this time, Twilight looks back at him.

“Yes?”

Time clears his throat. “I was just saying, what was that about an iron knuckle?”

“Oh… Yeah. I think that after that…” Twilight huffs, resting his head on his fist. “Forget it. It’s not important.”

It's funny, hearing those words that he once said to Malon, frustrated and upset that he couldn’t express the thoughts in his head, giving up. He tries to remember what she said to him, to coax and help him get the right words out. He remembers she took his hands in hers, and rubbed little warm circles on them.

He takes Twilight’s free hand, calloused heavily from farm work and fighting, and slowly tries to follow according to his memory.

“Hey,” Time says quietly, “What you experienced, what you felt, they’re important. Even if no one else can remember them.”

Twilight gives him a warbled smile, and lets out a shaky sigh. “I don’t know. I don’t even want to remember it myself.” He rubs the back of his head, before settling back into his previous position, a little more slumped than before.

“Want to talk about it?”

Twilight opens his mouth, but then it closes. He repeats the motion for a few times, before he makes a defeated look. “Maybe another time.” 

“Another time, then.” Time nods, and they fall silent. He can feel his ears warm from embarrassment. He berates himself for expecting this to have gone the same way it did with Malon. But he should have known better. If Twilight really is his own descendent, then he should have inherited the same stubbornness Time has.

The plan doesn’t work, and they end up passing out and waking up at the forest clearing again. Unfortunately, the lethargy is brought over as well, so the two of them hog the tea in the morning for caffeine. Time remembers Hyrule looking slightly weirded out at the two bleary eyed men slouched over the fire with mugs held close to their chests like dragons with their hoard. When Warriors tried to take a sip from Twilight’s mug, the rancher simply bared his teeth out, lips peeled back and canines revealed as a warning ( “Damn, woke up on the wrong side today? Chill out!” Warriors complained ).

Time and Twilight continue to experiment, doing everything except for self-inflicted pain or death ( “I swear to all the goddesses or whatever there is out there, if you try anything that makes you hurt, I’m going to double it.” Twilight points accusatory in Time’s face). It becomes a new routine for them, and Time finds himself adjusting to this new life quicker than he thought he would. 

They once tried to retrieve the black lizalfos sword, trying to figure out if it was the source of the problem. The biggest hassle was the fact they only had one day to make a thorough examination. It takes multiple days of Four repeatedly looking at the sword, with the help of Twilight by his side (to give him answers that Four gave to them from the previous days), before they come to the conclusion it wasn’t the source of the problem.

Twilight’s been finding it terribly frustrating, and Time tries to console him each time when one of their ideas doesn't work.

“It could be worse.” Time says one time, both of them sitting in the dark of the inn, a single candle lighting up their faces, casting dark silhouettes behind them.

Twilight looks at him with a disbelieving frown. “How?”

Time hesitates, not sure whether to give him the serious answer of the lighthearted one. “I mean, it could be worse if we had to eat the champion’s dubious mushroom omelet every morning.”

It was only once they ate it, only because Wild refused to let the weird mushrooms he collected in a different timeline go to waste, despite being told by everyone not to. He ended up spitefully putting the shrooms in their breakfast omelets the following morning, resulting in everyone having cramps for the rest of the day. The scarred teenager has never lived it down since. 

The ranch hand puts his hands down on the table swiftly. “I am so fucking tired of having oatmeal in the morning.” He snaps suddenly, not even realizing he just swore. “ It’s been over two months worth of looping of oatmeal! I don’t care if it’s fruit or nut or whatever oatmeal! I am sick of it! I hate, hate, hate it!” 

Every time Twilight has tried to cajole Wild into making something else for breakfast, he either gets the champion confused at Twilight’s insistence, upset because he thinks that Twilight doesn’t like Wild’s recipe, or annoyed at the rancher’s pestering. One time Twilight managed all three, resulting in Wild putting acorns into Twilight’s bowl to his misery.

Time tries to stifle a laugh, but Twilight only gets more upset. “You don’t even like oatmeal! How come you haven’t tried to change his mind?”

The older man shrugs, “I… don’t really mind? I would like to eat something else for a change, but it’s not like oatmeal tastes that bad.” He’s not fond of the weird lumpy texture on his tongue, but he’s eaten worse things, or gone without eating at all. He’s simply grateful for a meal and not having to make it himself.

It also helps that he’s been conditioned that if he refuses the food that the food provider makes (Malon), he ends up with no meal, having to wash the dishes shamefully alone by himself, and Malon exuding a discontent aura for the rest of the day. 

His descendent rolls his eyes. “One of these days, I’m going to get him to change the breakfast.”

“At least lunch and dinner are different.”

“Fair. I’ll give you that.” Twilight huffs, before complaining again, “I want something home cooked instead for once. The inn’s food doesn’t taste as good as Wild’s. Maybe on the next reset we can have something else besides take out for dinner. Don’t you want something different?”

Time passively nods, not willing to tell the other he’s been purposely ordering tavern food for a reason.

“It’s really weird though, that you haven’t said a word about dinner. You usually don’t like spending money.” Twilight looks at Time suspiciously.

He turns away from looking directly at Twilight’s face. “I’ll get the money back the next morning anyways.”

The movement does get noticed though, and Twilight accuses, “You’re hiding something!” 

The deepest parts of Time’s defenses stir, uncomfortable at how he was being spoken to with such familiarity. He breathes out a short breath, catching himself and soothing the urge away.  

He makes a note how much closer and friendlier Twilight has been getting with him, speaking his thoughts out more often than not. Going up to him for physical touches, or to ask his opinions on everything and anything. For stories, or advice, or training. It’s a weird feeling to have someone in his space nearly at all times of the day now, when he spent the majority of his life alone ever since—.

He doesn’t finish the thought. He’s not ready to open up that wound again.

Time looks at Twilight dead in the eyes, lips pressed together in a firm, straight line. “Why would I be hiding something?” 

The ranch hand doesn’t say anything for a moment, squinting at him and rubbing his fingers together, as if thinking intensely. But he’s always been a bright boy, and Twilight makes a soft “ah-ha” at his newfound realization.

“You sly old man! You’ve been avoiding the dishes all this time!” Twilight exclaims, before looking disappointed in him. “Every day I find out new things about how incredibly lazy you are.”

“Can’t fault a man for not wanting to do the dishes just because he’s been looping on his chore day.” Time defends, crossing his arms, feeling all but seven years old when Saria caught him trying to jar a fairy to bring home with him in his treehouse. He was upset when Mido helpfully pointed out his lack of fairy partner, and that no fairy wanted to be with him. At that time, he childishly thought if he could bring one home with him, it'd be his companion.

Mido would be so jealous now, how fairies flock to Time without even being prompted.

“If I can't have a non-oatmeal breakfast, then I’ll at least get a dinner I want to eat.” Twilight promises. 

“I should have never said anything.” Time sighs, turning his head away from the rancher, who starts laughing. “I can’t believe you’ve done this.”

Twilight looks at him with a mirth twinkling in his eyes, lips pulled back in a brilliant smile. He looks much happier than before, openly sharing himself like this. And Time can’t help but laugh as well, feeling his lips pull back into a happy smile. It’s the kind of happiness that makes him feel he could get drunk on, like vintage milk. But it doesn’t have the same fuzziness that clogs his ears and makes the periphery blurry. A good, pure kind of happiness.

He hopes it doesn’t end.

Chapter Text

“Wild, please, stop jiggling the rod like that. You’re going to disturb all the fish,” Twilight pleads, the third time since Wild has thrown his fishing line into the river. The rancher looks like halfway between strangling the teenager or throwing himself into the river.

Wild turns to Twilight with all the innocence in the world printed on his face. “What? I’m doing what you told me to do.” He’s got both hands on the fishing rod, giving it huge lurches, sending violent vibrations down the line and into the water. “I’m jerking it so that the fish thinks it's live bait, like you said.” 

“Lightly,” Twilight emphasizes, “Just a small flick here and there! Not making the whole thing flail around like—” He imitates Wild and jerks the fishing rod in his hands so hard that Time scooches away to avoid water splashing. It’s been five repeats trying to teach Wild to fish, and it feels like it’s getting worse each time. 

“Why do I even need to flick the rod or move it around? Look at Time! He’s not even doing anything to his rod and he’s still catching fish!” Wild points at Time, who pointedly looks away, not wanting to get involved in this mess.

Twilight sighs, irritation written on his face. “Mind your own business. He— I don’t know what he’s doing, but whatever it is, it’s working. But we don’t know how it works, and right now we’re working on you.”

Wild looks displeased with this answer, and he leans over Twilight and calls out to Time. “Hey Time, can you teach me to fish?”

Unbeknownst to Wild, he already tried. It ended up with both Twilight and Wild performing the walk of shame back to camp, eyes watery and Time unable to talk to anyone for the rest of the day without losing his shit. 

It was the first time he snapped his own fishing pole.

“If you can’t even learn from Twilight, what makes you think you could learn from me?” Time says bluntly, reeling in another fish. He’s not going to go through that again.

Wild sighs, “I hate this way of fishing. It’s boring.”

“This is the proper way to fish without getting into the water.” Twilight tries to reason, “What if it’s winter and you can’t dive in? How are you going to get fish?”

The scarred teen stares at the rancher like he’s stupid. “Who eats fish in the winter?”

Twilight looks heavenward, “Never mind. I give up. Do what you want.”

“Don’t dive in the water right now, I’m still fishing.” Time interrupts just as he sees Wild drop his fishing rod and start to take his shirt off, as if preparing to jump in the river. Slouching, the teenager drops his arms and he puts the tackle and bait back into the box.

“It’s just simple fishing… How can you not understand it?” Twilight mutters under his breath, but Wild catches it anyway, turning around and crossing his arms at the brunette.

“Hey, you’re talking a lot of shit for someone who’s not cooking tonight.” Wild points out, “Also, you already complained about the breakfast today. We hadn’t had oatmeal in three days. That’s enough time in between to have it again!”

Time has to turn his face away to keep Wild and Twilight from seeing his smile. It’s unexplainable how funny it was, how many times Twilight has failed to convince Wild to change their breakfast option without embarrassing himself or without telling Wild what the real reason was. 

Twilight already has a tell-tale blush creeping up his neck, and he knows it’s ridiculous to argue back so he crosses his arms and looks away. They both look so stupid now, crossing their arms at each other like children, that Time accidentally lets out a muffled laugh, shoulders quaking. 

“This isn’t funny!” Both of them round on Time at the same time, before looking a bit miffed a second later at the realization. Time is about to further tease them, but is interrupted by another voice.

“What isn’t funny?” 

The three of them turn to face their newcomer, Legend, who has Warriors following from behind. Both of them are walking over with logs and twigs of firewood wrapped up in his arms for the campfire tonight.

The only reason why they were out in the wilderness was because of Twilight’s insistence of continuing the journey after defeating the monsters to seek portals or changes in the continuity. It’s been one week of taking different paths or trails, with not a single portal or disturbance in sight. Time is not particularly pleased, not just by the lack of progress, but also that he’s been spoiled with having warm clean sheets for a night and having a hot bath to soothe his body for several weeks. But Twilight is working diligently at this plan so the least he could do is to support him.

“Twilight is complaining about my oatmeal. Again!” Wild says to the two of them, his pitch slightly high, sounding like a little child tattling on his older sibling to his parents. “There’s nothing wrong with my oatmeal, right?”

Legends gives the champion’s words some thought, head angled just so, before replying, “I don’t know about that. You could do better with those skills of yours instead of just using them to make oatmeal for breakfast.”

Making a betrayed look, Wild goes to turn towards Warriors, as if seeking salvation.

“I’m not a fan of oatmeal. Too many times eating that at the barracks.” Warriors shakes his head. “Yours is good, but I'd like to eat something else if I had a choice.”

Wild looks down at his hands, a devastated expression on his face as if coming to the realization that it wasn’t just the fact that no one liked oatmeal. It was also that everyone was just being polite by eating it anyways. If Time cared enough about cooking, maybe he could emphasize, but right now he doesn’t want to get involved in this pitiful display. He’s content watching from the sidelines.

“It’s just oatmeal. Come on, Wild.” Twilight says, coming closer to the champion as he tries to soothe the young adult. “Wild. Listen. I’m sorry, but it’s not the end of the world just because we don’t want to eat oatmeal that much.”

“Can’t believe out of all the things, oatmeal is what gets you?” Legend snorts into his fist before continuing. “Lame.”

Wild side steps away from Twilight at that, marching back towards the area they set up camp, seemingly upset. He pauses for a second before he turns back, a frown on his face. “You know what? Bold words for all of you guys who don’t even cook! My oatmeal is GREAT. Go find something else to eat tonight!”

Time frowns, he didn’t fish all of this for nothing. “I think your oatmeal is delightful, Wild.”

Wild gives him a small smile and a thumbs up, before immediately switching back to the scowl and saluting to the rest of them with a single finger. Twilight puts his face into his hands, but it fails to hide his red tipped ears.

Legend and Warriors share a confused look. 

“You don’t even like oatmeal, Time.” Twilight says, voice muffled as he still hides his face from the embarrassment. “That’s misleading.”

“I may not like it, but you have to admit the champion’s oatmeal is definitely a class of its own.” Time says pleasantly, starting to put away the fishing tackle and bait.

“What is up with this whole oatmeal talk anyway?” Legends asks, still baffled at the conversation. His green eyes quickly dart between the three of them, “Did the champion put something in your breakfast?”

“Maybe it was acorns.” Warriors casually comments, and Time sees Twilight stiffen up for a second. He blinks at the rancher, not understanding the problem. “He did that before I think, to me.” 

“What did you do to piss him off?” The veteran asks, looking curious and amused at the thought of the captain’s misery.

Warriors shrugged, “Called his swordsmanship ass. Tried to practice with him, but teaching him is like teaching a donkey. Yelled at him for being sloppy. Ended up having pieces of pinecones or something in my dinner. I would have expected this kind of thing to happen if— I don’t know, I was married and pissed off my spouse. That champion is kind of passive aggressive.”

Time raises a brow at the captain, “I think you three should be looking for something to eat tonight instead of standing around.”

“Oh, come on old man. You’ve got more fish than you need. Why don’t you take some off your hands and let us handle the load?” Warriors winks, and Time blankly looks at him. 

“I want to eat what Wild is making tonight, thank you very much.”

Twilight still has his eyes trailed on Warriors, looking at him funny. “I could make something for us, I guess… But don’t expect anything fantastic..”

“Can’t be as bad as Hyrule’s food. I mean, that pumpkin soup of yours is pretty good.” Legend comments, “If you cook that tonight, I wouldn’t mind at all.”

“I’ll think of something.” Twilight says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Oh, by the way, Time.” He gives Time a pleading and antsy look, like he’s holding in a secret he can’t keep it in any longer. It seems that after multitudes of repeating the same day, the rancher has lessened his tact and his sensitivity, taking less time to for subtlety. “Could I grab you real quick to ask you something?”

Time nods, and he looks at the other two still here, who are looking at Twilight, wondering what was up with the sudden request for privacy. “We will catch up with you later. Let Wild know the fish is coming in a few minutes.”

Legends gives them a shrug and turns around, while Warriors lets his eyes linger on them for a second longer, before joining the teenager back to camp.

It is not even a full minute of their silhouettes leaving their vision when Twilight bursts.

“ IthinkWarriorsisalsointhetimeloopasus !”

Time blinks, not sure if he was processing what the rancher said correctly. “Excuse me, could you say that again?”

“I think Warriors is time looping with us!” Twilight exclaims, and he starts gesticulating with his hands in a semi-sort of frenzy, as if he’s not sure what to do with himself. “You see, he just mentioned acorns in my oatmeal, which was only two weeks ago when that happened!”

“And?” Time prompts, still not able to connect the two lines of logic here. He knows better not to get excited over such small things, especially with events that occurred a long duration ago. Sometimes phrases that seem to line up with something of a repeat from before are usually not indicators of another person's time looping.

“Ok. But that’s not just the only evidence.” Twilight says, more hushed now, face serious. “Have you noticed everyday, Warriors have a new insult or some sort of dialogue? Even when we do the exact same thing, he has something new to say!”

Time tries to recall such events, but Twilight and Warriors bicker so often, he can’t recall each moment quite well. Maybe the rancher is just stressed. Seeing his unconvinced face, Twilight continues to press on.

“Look. Every morning when you come to wake me up when I don’t wake up early, he always comments about how I get special treatment. But he always says it in a different way.” Time nods to this, confirming to himself that this is true, and starts feeling a sense of anxiousness once again back when he was suspecting Twilight of time looping.

But Warriors isn’t someone to keep secrets. He is the one insisting on everyone to be open and trust one another, especially if it regards the fates of others. It seems incredibly unlikely that Warriors was time looping alongside them and chose not to say anything, despite the two of them making it obvious at times that they knew things others did not. Especially with the looping allowing him to be more familiar with him, Time can confidently say if the captain was time-looping, his first reaction would be to be vocal and ask around.

Time lets out a breath of air in relief, closing his eyes as he settles the turmoil within.

Twilight continues on passionately, oblivious to Time’s thoughts. “—Then he would throw in a couple of jabs at you or me. But they’ve never been the same insults. It’s impossible unless he’s actually aware of saying the previous lines before.”

“What the fuck.” Time says out loud dryly, trying to be supportive but lacking the energy to do so. It’s starting to feel more like an asinine conspiracy theory, but he can’t argue back or else Twilight will continue like a child whining for candy until he agrees. He can only have so much energy for this kind of rambling, especially not after complaining about oatmeal for hours on end.

“I’m gonna get him tomorrow. I swear if he’s been watching me argue with Wild all this time and hasn’t done a single thing to help, I’m going to throttle him.” Twilight says seriously. “Come on! We gotta get back to camp and investigate further until then.”

Time lets out a sigh, envying Twilight’s youth and enthusiasm.

When Time wakes up the following morning, Twilight is already hastily putting away his sleeping gear, all jitters and excited energy oozing out of him. Even Hyrule is interested in the sudden vigor in Twilight’s movements so early in the morning, head turned while he pauses his current task. While Twilight enjoyed waking up in the early mornings, he usually would laze in his sleeping roll for a good few minutes until someone nudged him up. 

Time is barely finished putting his boots on when Twilight goes over to Warriors to wake him up, roughly nudging him. Warriors makes an irked groan, before trying to roll away from the source of his annoyance.

“Hey, wake up,” Twilight says, taking the end of the blue scarf tangled around Warriors and slapping him with it. Time blinks at the sudden harshness at the gesture, unsure if he was still sleepfogged, and suddenly just manifested that in his vision. Warriors lightly groans, and tries to roll away from his assailant.  When Twilight repeats the gesture, Time starts to wonder if he missed anything between the two for Twilight to act like that. He can’t see the rancher’s face, back faced to Time as he squatted in front of Warriors, so it’s hard to tell what he was thinking.

Warriors finally takes action, sitting up and cursing profanities under his breath. When he looks up at Twilight, he’s surprised. “What the hell? What’s wrong with you?”

Time hears soft muttering, too faint for him to make out what exactly Twilight was saying. He looks up from rolling up his sleeping gear and makes eye-contact with Warriors. The captain is squinting at him like he wants answers. Time shrugs towards the captain, not sure how else to convey that he has no clue what was happening. 

The others are beginning to stir, and Hyrule is starting to pay closer attention to the two bickering in hushed tones, about to get up from where he was sitting, so Time intervenes.

“Boys, is something the matter?”

Twilight turns around quickly, and looks slightly guilty as he mouths out to Time, “help me” while at the same time Warriors is mouthing, “What the fuck?” They both look ridiculous with their confused expressions, and Time starts to pity them.

He pinches the bridge between his eyes, trying to ease the pressure that was already building up so early in the morning. Getting up from the ground, he tilts his head to the direction out of the campsite before turning to Hyrule also looking confused. “Give us a moment. Feel free to start breakfast without us.”

Time walks forwards, leading the two boys out of the clearing somewhere away from prying ears. Once they are far enough, Time turns around to the two men behind him. Warriors looks miffed and confused at why he was being dragged out here, combing the knots out of his hair with his fingers. Meanwhile, Twilight seems like he’s about to vibrate out of his own skin from nervousness, or maybe excitement.

“What were you two doing this morning?”

Warriors immediately responds, not bother to mask his irk, “I didn’t do anything! He just woke me up like an asshole! It was completely uncalled for. Then he goes to ask me about acorns.” He looks at Time, looking completely bewildered. “What acorns? Did Wild put weird shit in your dinner last night?”

“Stop making it sound so wrong, I didn’t ask you that specifically! Twilight pitches back, trying to keep his calm. But it doesn’t see to work, and the young man raises a finger at Warriors. “Also you weren’t waking up, and told me to fuck off.” The two start to look at each other heatedly, fists balled up tightly.

Time knows he’s far from being the epitome of subtlety or able to deduce hidden meanings of language and social interactions, but goddesses be damned, is Twilight even worse. Maybe Malon’s expressive and social skills got washed out along with the red hair.

“Here’s the easy way to deal with this.” He starts, before looking at Warriors, “Ignore the acorns or whatever Twilight told you. Have you noticed anything particularly strange recently?”

Warriors eyes narrow, the earlier annoyance and sleepiness in his eyes gone. His eyes quickly dart between Time and Twilight, before finally settling back on Time. If Time’s suspicions are right, then Warrior has already pieced together that they knew something.

“Something like that.” The captain says carefully, and his lips press into a thin line. “I suspected you guys were bound to come to me about something. About time, actually.”

Time is stunned into silence, unsure what to say. He was so confident earlier that Warriors couldn’t have known anything, and now is being proved wrong. His heart pounds loudly, about to beat out of his own chest. 

It doesn’t make sense though , he thinks to himself and tries to keep calm. He needs a clear answer before he can make this conclusion that perhaps they weren’t the only ones in the loop.

Twilight looks so thrilled, on the other hand. Finally, one of his conjectures has come to be true, and he starts spilling. 

“So you’re really time looping like us? You bastard, how come you didn’t say anything? When did you start looping? How did you know?”

Warriors gives him a dead stare, before he snickers. “Timelooping? That’s a funny joke.” He starts to laugh, and Twilight’s face is frozen between a wavering smile and confusion. He blinks a couple of times, before looking at Time for verification, before he looks back at Warriors. 

“What? What do you mean by a joke?”

“Hey, hey, you don’t need to put up the front anymore, guys.” Warriors makes a pacifying gesture, both hands waving. He wheezes slightly, still trying to catch his breath. It’s then Time realizes the captain really has no clue, and he feels his entire body relax as lets out the breath he’s been unknowingly holding the whole time.

Twilight’s confusion dissolves quickly into an unhappy frown, shoulders stiffened up, and his steel blue eyes boring straight into Warriors’ own crystal blue irises, and Time cannot tell if he’s angry or upset. “It’s not a joke.”

Warriors doesn’t get the memo though. “What gave you the idea to come out here and prank me like this? Legend? But he doesn’t know much about time travel. Unless—”

Twilight puts his hand on the captain’s shoulder, interrupting him, and then shakes him lightly. “Captain, I’m being serious here.”

Warriors blinks, and then looks at the rancher appraisingly. The happy glint in his eyes fade along with his lighthearted smile. “So, you are.”

“I was this close to throttling you,” Twilight says with a mild glare, showing the captain his fingers almost pinched together. “

“In my defense, you were being really strange and pushy this morning. Kind of antsy too.” Warriors deflects, and then looks at Time. “Both of you were kind of weird so I thought maybe you lost a dare to one of the boys and dragged Time in.”

“I figured it was easier to get you alone if I was being straightforward!”

“You don’t ask people this kind of deep stuff the second they wake up!” Warriors exclaims and he gestures at himself, “I am not even out of my sleepwear and you dragged me out here! I shouldn’t even be explaining myself. You!” He points at Twilight accusingly, and then at Time, “And you! This is a huge secret.”

Twilight looks at Time pleadingly, and Time sighs, answering for the two of them. “We suspected you were part of the time loop, based on your actions in the past few days.” Warriors brows furrow at that, a calculating gaze in his eyes as he looks between Time and Twilight, who sheepishly shrugs at Warriors. “Apologies for the inconvenience, Captain, but we would like your help.”

Almost immediately, Warriors straightens up and shakes off the invisible dust of his sleeping tunic, easily stepping into his role. Despite the lack of attire, he carries himself with the grace and authority of a second-in-command. 

“Have you told anyone else yet, or am I the first?”

“The first, actually.” Time admits, and Warriors huffs, not particularly pleased, but not upset enough to comment on it further.

“Well, it's good you came to me first.” Warriors looks slightly smug at this answer, before he quickly comes back down from the high of validation. “When did you start, and how long is the duration of the loop?”

“We’ve been looping for several dozen days, repeating the same twenty-four hours over and over.” It’s been roughly four months, maybe a little over, but Warriors doesn’t need the exact numbers, especially if he’s going to forget it in less than twenty four hours from now.

The captain squints at Time, hesitant to trust him, before turning to Twilight. “Is this true?”

Twilight startles, and glances at Time for a brief second. “Y-yeah.”

“Give me the real numbers, not estimates.” 

“It’s been over four months.”

Warriors arches a brow and prompts, “Try again.”

The rancher slouches in further, murmuring miserably, “Seven months. Seven months and a half. Near two thirds.”

“What?” Warriors exclaims, startled.

“What ?!” Time nearly says out loud, more than just startled. It couldn’t be. It’s impossible.

“You wait over half a year to talk to someone about this?” Warriors points a finger accusingly at Twilight and Time, alternating between the two of them as if he couldn’t pick who he wanted to be mad at. He settles on Time, and the older man suspects this is because Twilight is giving the captain a very miserable look, and it's hard to be mad at someone who looks pathetic. “Time? Are you insane?”

There’s a lot of things wrong with him, so he’s not sure what Warriors means. His head is filled with so many things, as if he’s got pampas grass invading in his head, making his thoughts feel heavy and fuzzy. “Pardon?”

Warriors already has his mouth open, ready to fire off before suddenly stopping himself, giving himself a moment to think before he tutts. Time knows when he sees the rant incoming, starting with a sputter trying to gather one’s thoughts, before completely going in.

“I can’t believe this. I am at a loss for words—”

“Yeah, I see that,” Time says before he can stop himself.

Warriors gives him a dangerous look, brandishing a finger in his direction, as if telling him don’t test me , before continuing. “You’ve been stuck in a loop for over half a year without asking anyone for help, trying to figure it out alone despite not having knowledge of time travel. Which is beyond insane. I’m surprised you two haven’t lost your marbles yet.” Twilight lets out a little affronted “hey” at that. 

The captain merely shoots a glare over his shoulder at Twilight. “Don’t hey me. I bet Time’s the one who insisted on keeping this a secret. You’re a pushover and a bad liar.”

Time has to resist the urge to roll his eye, while Twilight walks over to Time’s side and hides slightly behind his broader shoulders.  The rancher turns his head to Time and loudly whispers, “I wouldn’t have asked him if he was going to be this annoying. Nosy—”

“You’ve been a bad influence on him, old man. First the secrets?” Warriors clicks his tongue disapprovingly, “Look at him! He’s dissing me right in front of me as if I’m not here, and you aren’t even telling him to stop!”

Time almost snickers at that. Warriors would be distraught at how much shittalking Twilight does behind the captains back, with most of it being Twilight trying to get the captain to be nicer to the kids instead of using bullying as a form of attention giving. He also has to admit, it’s funny to see the captain, icon of cool, calm, and “handsome,” look this frazzled.

“Freedom of speech, captain.” Time replies back, and Twilight wears a slightly smug expression on his face for not being rebuked.

“Fuck you.” Warriors bites out, and he starts to brush his hair with his fingers, seemingly anxious. “Arrogance is not a good look on any of you. Spill the details already. ” 

“Does it matter?” Twilight asks, starting to take Warriors a bit more seriously. “We’ve been looping the same day over and over again. We don’t know how it started, nor if there are any specific patterns besides Time and I experiencing it together. You’ll forget all this by midnight. ”

Time still hasn’t told Twilight that the only reason why the time loop started was because of the ocarina and the Song of Time. But it hasn’t worked ever since he first played it, trapped in this loop with the rancher. He swallows, feeling a bit ill at the thought of keeping this detail away from Twilight. 

But the captain doesn’t say anything. He simply places his head on his chin and thinks, eyes focused on Twilight before finally moving to Time, staring for just a moment longer.

It doesn’t take long before he makes a decision. Warriors looks at the rancher, and gestures to him. “Twilight, can you go back to camp and give me and Time a moment? It’ll be quick.”

Time blinks and turns to Twilight, who looks slightly upset under the scrutinizing gaze of Warriors and at the dismissal.

“What’s so important that I have to go?” Twilight protests, and he looks at Time for support. It’s usually the other heroes that get dismissed when Time and Twilight want to talk. Perhaps being on the other end for the first time in a while is alarming to the rancher.

Time glances at Warriors, who is frowning at Twilight’s reaction, the lines of his neck slightly taut, as if he seemed displeased. Eventually he turns to look at Time, waiting for the older man’s decision. 

It would probably be better to keep Twilight out of the conversation, if he wants to maximize the help that Warriors could possibly give.

He turns to Twilight. “We’ll meet back up with you later.”

The rancher gives him a slightly betrayed look, lips on the verge of frowning outright, but he turns away before Time could see fully. The two wait until Twilight fully leaves. Time will have to talk low and quick, in case Twilight might turn around with his other form and take advantage of his hearing abilities that come with it.

“Alright, this is a long story, captain. And I hope you can understand that what is said here between you and me stays between you and me.” Time says, going straight to the point, and Warriors’ eyes widen at the suddenness.

“I can’t—”

He already expected the reaction, but he doesn’t want to keep both of them here for long, lest Twilight gets impatient and curious about what they were conversing about. He needs to divert the rancher’s attention elsewhere, away from this for the time being before Time gets his bearings straight and figures out how to leave this loop alive.

“We might just be trapped in this forever then, captain. Unless we kill ourselves” Time interrupts.

Warriors bites his lip, a pinched expression on his face. “Fine.” 

Time feels a pang of guilt for putting him in between a rock and a hard place, but it has to be done. He won’t remember it anyways. He knows the captain hates keeping secrets (mostly the part dealing with the responsibility of it), especially when they concern other people’s lives. But this is different.

It feels unburdening, as he tells Warriors everything, body light as the weight of the burden holding these secrets all come out.

“When Twilight said we don’t know how it started,” Time begins, and Warriors lips flatten into a firm line, “That wasn’t true. I know how it started. Twilight has already died once, slain by the black lizalfos. We had his body cremated and turned into ash.”

Warriors’ eyebrows raise further and further as Time speaks, but he hasn’t heard the full story of it just yet. “I turned back time to bring him back alive. Usually what happens is time continues to pass normally. But this time when I turned back time, I’ve been repeating the day that Twilight got the wound that killed him the first time.”

“Wait. This time?”

Time feels the edges of his lip quirk up. “Hero of Time for a reason, remember?”

The captain is completely gaping now, and he’s blinking rapidly as if he can’t believe his own ears, and to be honest, it sounds like Time’s insane even to himself. He continues on though, as his story isn’t finished.

“He remembers dying the first time around, which never happened to people who have died before when I used the Song of Time to go back in time. Time loops never happened when I used this song. I can only suspect that something went wrong due to Twilight, since he’s the only one who is being dragged with me in this loop.”

“Time. Time- I- do you understand what you’re saying?” Warriors stumbles, breathing heavily, as he takes a step forward.

“This stays between us.” He carefully reminds.

“This loop- It’s probably centered on Twilight. You need to tell him this. It’s not time you’re messing with here, it's souls!” Warriors says, rushed and his pupils in his eyes are so, so small in the sea of blue. “You can’t drag people out from death- That’s- I’m not even religious but Time, this is—”

“Captain!” Time interrupts, trying to keep himself from getting peeved at what Warriors is insinuating, “I know the consequences, and I’ve dealt with them before. I am the Hero of Time for a reason—”

“You’re not listening to me! You’re not dealing with just time now, since you’re looping and it’s centered on Twilight! You’re not the center of it, Mister Hero of Time.” He points, jabbing Time in the chest with his index finger. “This is Twilight’s problem, and you’re the interloper. You have to tell him, Time!”

“If I tell him he’s going to kill himself.” Time says, not raising his voice and holding back the frustration at Warriors’ lack of understanding. Even if he did start yelling, the captain can reach higher decibels, and worse, would attract the attention of the others. “That is not going to happen.”

“You need to trust in him, Time! Explain to him how you feel, and that you don’t want him to die! You can’t hide this from him though. It’s wrong!” The captain hisses, the faint scars that he tried so hard to hide along the sides of his neck angrily stretching, making him look even more furious. “I swear if you don’t tell him, I’ll—”

Warriors gasps, and he looks behind him in surprise, finding his back touching a tree. He turns to face Time, and is struck between shock and anger. It’s then that Time realizes that he’s got the shorter man caged in. Time stiffens, and then backs away quickly, but the damage has been done.

“I can’t believe it,” Warriors hisses, “I had a feeling when I saw it earlier— but you’re goners. Sick! You’re keeping him here, in the dark while he’s going around blindly trusting you.”

“You should know well that sometimes all of us have to keep secrets to protect those we need to protect.” Time says, feeling the irritation at its breaking point, and by the time he notices the ugly rotten part of his thoughts slips out, it’s too late. “Isn’t that the same for you? You and Zelda telling Lana that Cia succumbed to the darkness from Ganondorf’s corruption, but you both knew the truth.”

Warriors eyes widen, going entirely still, voice barely above a whisper.

“How do you know that?”

“Are you going to tell her?” Time asks, sidestepping the question. He already knows the answer though, that Zelda and Warriors swore on their lives to never let Lana know.

He drawn this secret out of the captain after multiple nights of cajoling him and getting enough alcohol into his system. It started as curiosity first when Warriors muttered a woman’s name with a certain look on his face. It was the sort of look filled with grief and anguish calcified hard into a man’s heart, carried to the grave. 

Gradually and patiently, Time uncovered snippets every other night, gathering  names, places, and memories like they were glittering trinkets, hoarding them away in his mind’s palace. It eventually didn’t take long to connect the pieces together and figure out what Warriors was afraid of. 

He would have tried to resolve Warriors’ internal conflict, similar to what he did for the residents of Termina, but there was no point if the captain was going to forget everything. 

It’s a good thing though, because Warriors will never remember Time wielding the other’s secret as a weapon.

It’s a shame he wasn’t able to figure out anything he didn’t already know from this situation.

“But- We never told anyone—” He’s stammering, a fresh line of sweat rolling down his face, bright crystal blue eyes staring into his own. His earlier energy and feistiness washed out like a campfire under heavy downpour. 

“How? How did—” Warriors stops, abruptly, eyes looking off to the side of Time’s face, eyes like a sky clouded. Time gives him a moment to connect the dots, giving the other time to think. It’s the least he can do after wringing out the captain’s old wounds like pulling at the stitchings of a child’s stuffed toy, fluff and feathers bursting.

It doesn’t take long, and the sharp and clear glint in the captain’s eye returns. He looks at Time warily, as if he was going to lunge and tear Warriors apart. 

“How did you get that out of me?”

Time doesn’t answer his question, seeing there was nothing he could say to resolve any of their conflicts. There is no point in continuing this. “You can go ahead and tell Twilight if you want once you find your own answer first.”

He leaves Warriors behind, going back to camp alone.

The rest of the day is spent preventing Warriors from interacting with Twilight directly, and even his attempts to talk to Twilight get snubbed as the rancher is sore from being dismissed by the captain.

His behavior does not go unnoticed by the older boys. Sky once patted Warriors’ arm, questioning the captain’s pestering for Twilight’s attention, but Warriors simply pasted a smile on his face and directed the conversation elsewhere. It almost seems like the captain’s charismatic leadership is backfiring on him now, as the other boys notice right away when he tries to change from routine. Additionally, he’s struggling to keep his composure as if nothing is wrong. He’s being forced to not only help manage the group, but also be a face that shows order and confidence.

Time can see the frustration in the captain’s gait though, with shoulders hiked up a little bit higher than normally. It makes him feel a bit guilty that he’s caused Warrior so much turmoil by confiding in the captain.

He’ll use this mistake and the knowledge he garnered to provide a better path next time.

By nightfall, Warriors seemingly gives up trying to corner Twilight. He proceeds on with chores and talking with the other boys, entertaining them halfheartedly. But Time doesn’t let his guard down. They still have roughly eight hours until the reset officially happens, and Warriors could be biding his time, pretending to have given up now.

It stings.

How he’s reduced to watching on the sidelines warily, treating the man not as one of his boys, but someone to watch out for. He felt this sort of feeling towards only Ingo in the past. He saw the man at his worst and saw how he treats others. Despite Malon’s plentiful open forgiveness of his rude behavior and encouragement for Time to let go, he can’t find it in him to change.

He has only gotten used to the disappointment fresh like a wound from Warriors, and wonders for a moment how things turned out this way, despite his efforts. 

A few minutes into the first night shift is when Warriors’ finally makes his move.

Time’s sitting in front of the campfire, legs crossed and tucked underneath one another, as he gauges the captain. He doesn’t appear armed or aggressive, only approaching in his sleeping wear. Time has his own sword in arm’s reach, but he won’t draw it, even if Warriors does try anything. 

It is one thing he swore to never do, to raise a sword against him. He lowers his head, shame biting at him with newfound fervor now that Warriors was in front of him.

The captain takes a seat across from him, but his bright blue gaze is looking far away from Time. He’s slouched in, unlike himself at all, holding himself gingerly as if hunched in waiting for a blow. He looks brittle and stiff, like a carved statue about to crumble under the slightest pressure.

“I haven’t found an answer to my own situation.” The captain says quietly.

Time looks up, giving Warriors his full gaze, but the other man still looks down at the fire, and away from Time. The warm glow made his face bear all the lines and faint dips on his face, making him look older than he seemed. Surprisingly, he looks less afraid and angry than the older man expected.

“But I know I won’t be able to. I’m not that clever, or brave.” Warriors pauses, and then he looks up at Time’s face after moments that felt like hours, making Time want to stretch out of stiffness. “I want you to be a better man that I couldn’t be.”

The captain presses, and Time can’t find the motivation to stop him. Not with him looking resigned, instead of the anger the older man expected. The milky orange luminescence from the flame colors his eyes hazy, almost hopeless-like.

Time has seen so many faces and expressions, some permanently etched into physical forms to be burdens carried and worn. But he had never seen this one before. It feels bone-deep and gut-wrenching wrong. 

 “I know for sure I would never tell anyone that secret, but considering you’ve been watching all this time for over seven months, I can assume you connected enough pieces to get an understanding of what I’ve done.”

“But let me correct you on something,” Warriors says sternly, steely looking into Time’s eye. “I didn’t kill her. She wanted me to. She took her own life because I was indecisive.”

“She didn’t want Lana to see her, the greatest humiliation and failure that everyone associates her with. Even if she wasn’t a warrior or soldier, she knew about our customs. I think she wanted to go with a sword- or wand in her hand.”

“I denied her that, Time. I denied her right to have her peace.”

Time wants to look away, the rawness in the captain’s voice and eyes too hard to bear.

“If worst comes to worst, let Twilight have his peace. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I made.”

He struggles to find the words he wants to say, I’m sorry I’m not as strong as you think I am. I’m not capable of handling this with so many people. I’ve never wanted this— but it comes out as, “My mistakes aren’t your responsibility, Warriors.”

The captain closes his eyes and looks heavenward. He runs his fingers through his hair, messing his warm golden locks before letting out a frustrated sigh. “I just… want you to be the good man I know you are. I know you can do better. You can do better if you just stop being so fucking scared.”

He realizes now that Warriors’ is angry, hurt, and beyond disappointed. The man’s fists on his lap were trembling from frustration. 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t live up to your expectations.” Time says genuinely, gaze steadily holding Warriors’. There’s nothing he can do for Warriors now without lying or telling him everything with only a few hours before the captain forgets everything. 

If only they had more time.

“Time…” Warriors trails off into a sordid laugh, “Don’t apologize. It was my fault for expecting so much from you.” He pauses, biting his lip for a second. “At the very least… I just hope you don’t learn how to hurt Twilight so much to the point he resents you. You’ve hurt enough people including yourself.”

He gets up slowly, and gives Time one last look. It’s not one Time is familiar with, but he can register that the captain just looks sad.  “Good night and farewell.” He leaves the warm glow of the fire, now a silhouette in the darkness.

The silence of the night doesn’t aid him with his thoughts in his solitude. He can’t stop thinking about Warriors, looking so similar to the first time he walked away from Time, such a similar look as before, admitting his loss.

The ever-present guilt only gnawing and digging its fangs in harder now, and Time wonders how his life has gotten to this point of sick perversion. 

Time spends two days straight feeling as if he was mowed over by a herd of cuccos, trudging through the days with a weary heart. At the very least though, Warriors is none wiser of the events that happened before, happily taking charge as Time gives him instructions for the day’s plan. In addition, Twilight isn’t mentioning the confrontation with Warriors as well, which eases some of the burdens on his back.

By now they don’t even bother to run straight into the monster ambush, choosing to assassinate the black lizalfos instead with Twilight as the decoy and Time as the shooter from afar. It took a few tries to perfect the method, trying to not shoot Twilight as his wolf form while pinning the lizalfos, but eventually they got it right. 

He feels a quick flare of satisfaction when the arrow he shoots goes straight into the lizalfo’s neck, and he hears the splintering of its spine, muffled a bit by the distance between them. Time barely breaks a sweat, only the tips of his fingers and palms warm from holding his bow in position. Seeing Twilight transform back to his bipedal form and confirm the kill, Time climbs his way down his perch to join the younger man.

“Nice shot.” Twilight compliments after shifting back, “I don’t think it even felt pain from that one.” 

He nods, and looks down at the remains of the monster. It deserved it, and more. He has plenty of days to dish out more though.

Time doesn’t have the mood to say anything else to Twilight, and it's been relatively quiet for two days while going through their routine. Twilight hasn’t spoken a word about what happened that day when they confronted Warriors as well, simply keeping company with Wild and Hyrule, but he seems to be in fair spirits so far.

It’s hard though, trying to find motivation to do anything else but be worried. Days seem to pass even slower now, having only his thoughts to accompany him. He doesn’t count the conversations he has with the others, running on the bare minimum of responses to their questions or to their comments. Time didn’t spend much time talking to them often even before the loop, and there is no reason for him to strike up conversation.

By the time night comes, he is still busy thinking about his own dilemmas, head aching. He thinks about the ocarina, and how no matter how many times he plays the Song of Time, time does not move forwards nor backwards. He is stuck here, along with Twilight, unable to break this loop. He’s holding it in his hands now, after another private session of playing it. He doesn’t have any solutions.

Besides the last idea he has: breaking the ocarina.

He holds it above the ground with no soft cushioning, and he feels it slip out of his hands slowly.

Panic flares up in his chest, veins freezing at the thought of the ocarina broken, blue fragments scattering. He grips the ocarina in a tight grip and brings it back close to his person.

It shouldn’t matter anymore, since he doesn’t use ocarina for its intended purposes these days. If it doesn’t break the time loop, he will just have the ocarina returned to him on the following day, so it’s unreasonable to be scared. And even if he doesn’t, he still has Saria’s. 

Something ugly in him denies this though, refusing to allow the blue ocarina to be smashed. It angrily snarls and furiously claws at him, choking, a compulsion to keep it hidden and safe forever. 

He wonders if this is what Termina has done to him. Made him into a mess of a person who’s soul dabbled too much into places it shouldn’t, giving so many pieces of himself to lost spirits that he doesn’t have enough left for himself, filling the empty space with regrets and shame. He feels like a wild animal biting at anything that comes too close to the few possessions he has left. 

Termina has only brought him memories of a hazy, stifling red sky and the grim smile of the moon, craters littered across its surface. On bad nights he can smell the ozone and feel the earth rumble under its strength, waves of heat and crushing pressure right before the impact, burning his skin and searing the pain into his body for years. He remembers the Garo, burning themselves in front of him to crisp upon failure to kill him. He can’t help but tear up whenever he gets too close to a fire, remembering the crackling as the smell of ash and burnt flesh permeated the air. On worse nights, he can remember Romani’s lifeless stare, caused by missing a single shot and resulting in her capture, taken away to the sky. 

They’re his wounds and mistakes, even if no one remembers them. But he knows they cannot be denied by the proof of the ocarina in his hands. It’s the last memory he has of Clock Town.

He doesn’t realize how hard he’s breathing, until he feels a hand on his upper arm. He startles slightly, looking up at who was touching him.

“Hey, your breathing is kind of funny.” Twilight asks, lines forming between his eyebrows from worry. “Are you okay?”

Time gets a few calm breaths before he talks, “I’m fine… Just thinking about memories.”

“You want to talk about it?”

Biting his lips, Time thinks about it. He’s only ever had Malon, and her openness and kindness to believe him, to understand, when the rest of the world couldn’t.

He’s about to follow his instinct and refuse Twilight. But when he looks up at him, and he sees— he doesn’t see pity. It’s not something along the lines of sadness, or a stone-like face that hides the despair and aches deep inside. But the rancher is not smiling either, not as if trying to not be overly friendly or seemingly fake. It takes him a moment to put his finger on it, how much it reminds him of someone, and then he figures it out. 

It’s the same look Malon had when he introduced her to his memories of Termina, earnestly looking at him with a kindness that is so sincere that he can just yield to his grief under her watch, safe enough to let it overwhelm him and mourn for once in his life.

But this is his boy, and he can’t crush him just yet by telling him his ancestor’s failures. He deserves to still enjoy the purity and innocence of youth and hope, even if it’s a lie.

So he gives the watered down version, enough that he can relent to confessing.

“I was in a loop like this once.” Time starts carefully, clenching his hands, remembering that he was sitting down, Twilight across the small table from him. They’re propped up next to a window sill, the sunset glowing down, casting an orange pink hue lovingly on their faces. It’s hard to remember things these days when time doesn’t flow. “It was a three day loop, one that I could actually control by playing the Song of Time, a gift from the princess. I had to keep repeating those three days endlessly, until I found a way to save a town from destruction.”

Twilight has his eyes closed shut, as if thinking inquisitively. But nothing he does betray his emotions, so Time continues, trying to push away the hope for his understanding. He stumbles through the general details of Termina, about Kafei and Anju, Pamela and her father, Cremia and Romani, and the eerie Happy Mask Salesman. He explains the stifling air of Termina, the strange way the land was split into four regions, with the center being the old, tall clocktower. 

“It was tremendously difficult. I was naive and young, and caused a lot of suffering because of this. It wasn’t as simple as defeating a single enemy, like Ganondorf. Having to help mend the conflicts between the citizens and people in the town, navigating through their words and reactions carefully to create the perfect scenarios where everyone was happy— that was the way to save Termina. It was unlike anything I ever experienced.”

He stops for a moment, realizing he was rambling. His mouth is dry as he takes a deep breath, shuddering from the intensity of it. 

“I still dream of it, sometimes. When I wake from those dreams, I look up at the sky, or out the window, just to check if I’m here or there.” Time looks out the window, down at the dimly lit courtyard. “I spent so long teaching myself it is no longer there anymore, only in my memories.” He remembers achingly every waking moment after leaving Termina, wondering if it was real, a dream, some sort of curse, or just a hallucination. The doubt, the fear, and the uncertainty for the future.

“Oh hell, Time.” Twilight mutters, he straightens up from his slouched position, where he was resting his chin on his hands. “You miss it.” 

“I don’t. Termina was made from a child’s warped desires by Majora.” Time says, and hates himself for it, lying. “It was hard, gruesome, depressing, and intrusive.”  He feels a lump in his throat and tries to clear his throat. He feels relief and terror at the truth, limbs going weak as his muscles finally stop contracting, despite his chest feeling like theyre being crushed under the weight of a boulder. 

It feels right even though his whole life he’s been denying this particular part of him, trying to fit in his current reality and cope from the experience of traveling through space and time. At times he thought it was easier living in Termina, despite the moon looming above his head everyday, and the suffering of the residents and especially Skull Kid. 

He learned to hate himself for it. 

He doesn’t expect anyone to understand, and he doesn’t expect to learn to live with it.

“It’s ok. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Twilight murmurs softly, “And there’s nothing wrong with missing it now.” 

Time struggles to say something, but Twilight just levels him a stare, as if thinking Time was going to lie to himself again.

He shudders while letting out a deep breath, feeling relieved at the outward admission, and lets the quietness of the night take over.

They stay like that for a while, until Twilight suddenly breaks the silence.

“You know, talking about the past and dreams made me think about something.”

Time turns his head to look at Twilight. He’s got his head looking forwards, looking at the sky where stars and the moon shine innocently in the night sky. He has a certain cadence in his voice that sounds like it's trembling slightly, and he looks smaller than he usually appears. Maybe it’s because the wolf pelt was taken off, and he’s bare to the world with just his tunic and his boots.

“I keep having this dream. That I was stuck in a bed, with bandages wrapped all over me. Hyrule and you kept fussing over me but my head was so fuzzy I couldn’t hear anything.”

The younger man pauses, and he looks towards Time. His expression is caught between distraught and confusion, and Time feels his blood chill and drain from his face.

"I just wanted to tell them, don't worry about me." Twilight softly whispers, "I don’t know how I knew… But I think I was dying. Dead already. All of them were in my face, one by one, and I just wanted to tell them how proud I was. To fight by their side, to be their brother."

He gets a glossy look in his eye, and Time looks down at his skin, wondering where the vibrating and humming sensation was coming from. 

"I'm sure Wild will probably crawl into himself and hide away, but I would like him to know he should express himself, and that pushing everyone away is just going to make him more alone. It's already lonely enough that we are born and die alone in this world, you know?"

Time nods, looking up at the starry sky above. 

"And Wind... He's a good kid. Pure heart, and lots of faith in the world. I just want him to know how to protect himself from others too. Sometimes people can hurt each other unintentionally, and how we cope and work with it makes a big difference.” 

Time is about to nod off again, but something faint and golden ike catches his attention in the periphery of his vision. 

He looks at Twilight, and his breath hitches.

Little fragments of dust are dissipating from his hair, incredibly faint and subtle. When they break away from Twilight's body, they turn into faint golden particles. They float up into the sky like dandelion seeds, and when one passes by Time’s ear, making a chiming sound, he chokes. He cups one in his hands, trapping it, and puts it up to his ear, a familiar song playing.

His head is racing as he turns back to Twilight, now noticing that the particles are fading away and not returning to Twilight’s body, while he is none wiser of what is happening to him.

The older man looks at Twilight's eyes, and the rancher has that far away expression again, barely covered by his chestnut hair. It’s the exact same one he had when he was talking about his first death. The first one that took him away from Time before the time loop.

"Twilight?" Time asks shakily, and when he doesn't get a response, he shakes his boy. "Twilight!" 

Almost immediately, the faded parts of his body are filled in as if nothing ever happened, and the weird look in the rancher's eyes disappears.

"Yeah? What's up?"

Time feels his throat dry, not sure what to tell him. He knows he should. It’s the right thing to do— it’s the only choice he should make right now.

"Do you want to go to bed? It's getting late."Twilight blinks slowly, as if drowsy or out of it. Then he makes a mild smile and nods. He gets up like a lost little lamb, looking around with careful movements. Time wipes the moisture  built up from the nervousness and stress from his hands on to his shirt, before he steadies Twilight with a hand on his back and guides him back to his room.

Time lies awake the whole night, unable to fall asleep with only more questions left unanswered. 

It takes him a while to think about what to do next. He spends a few days like a listless soul, hiding and burying himself in his spirit like a cesspool of bitter helplessness and stinging anger. It’s such a familiar feeling now. He’s almost comforted at his misery being the only constant that he could rely on.

Out of morbid curiosity, he tries it again, to coax Twilight to talk about the dream. He orchestrates it in a safe setting a few days later from their discussion, starting the conversation while fishing. He brings up the topic minutes before Warriors and Legend come to interrupt them (they ditched Wild because he cannot fish for the love of his life still, and so there’s no witnesses). It’s enough time to catch if the phenomenon occurs again, and enough time for interruptions to stop the worst from happening.

The plan works out relatively well, and again, Twilight looks none wiser, eyes hazy and far away, as if unconscious or in a dream. He stops midway talking about Hyrule and how he just hopes the other hero wouldn’t crush himself over his failure to heal Twilight, when Warriors and Legend interrupts. 

Seeing it again, Time realizes he knows that light, the golden brightness, and that song outrageously sounding so peaceful despite the thundering in his heart when he listened to it again. He should be the only one besides Queen Zelda to know that song, and he knows what the implications mean, especially seeing the Song of Time no longer works for him.

Time chokes at the thought, but it’s too late, and the realization unfurls like a blooming flower. There are only two ways this can go, and both don’t end well. It either means he’s the one trapped in the loop, while Twilight can move on. Or it means Twilight is the loop, and none of them can leave unless he goes forwards.

He doesn’t know what to do. Because for some reason, he knows deep down that if Twilight really can leave the loop, there’s no future to go to because he is dead there. Shifting backwards into the past doesn’t make sense either, since there’s nothing to fix. Additionally, the spell has already been cast to go into the past, so it can only go forwards now. But this is worse. 

Both situations need Twilight to accept death.

And he would, if it means Time can leave. But he can’t accept this. He’s not going to leave anyone behind, not while he’s still alive. 

Time is taking the first watch of the night alone, despite Twilight’s insistence to take the watch together. 

He glances down at Twilight, sleeping peacefully on the ground in his sleeping roll. He’s facing forwards up to the night sky, serene. If Time tells Twilight this information, he will most definitely choose death without hesitation, especially with those dreams of his death urging him forwards.

Had it been ten years ago, before he tied the knot with Malon, before he finally learned to crawl out of the dark recessiveness of his very being and stop letting the misery pollute everything in his head— he would have put himself out of his own misery in Twilight’s stead. Especially if he placed himself in his early twenties, comparing himself and his life to Twilight. And it wouldn’t just be Twilight— anyone who he crosses paths with that has a family to return to— he won’t leave behind if there is a sliver of hope to save them even if the expense is his own life. 

But he is no longer that same man, because he can’t afford to break Malon’s heart. He is no longer alone. And with the hopes of the eight boys that are still relying on him, the grip it has on him now goes deeper in bones, going so deep it feels suffocating. 

For some reason though, despite everything, he still feels lonely.

Time wakes up to the sound of leaves crunching along the forest floor. “This is strange.” Sky says, his sailcloth wrapped around him tightly, protecting him from the cold grasp of the night breeze. “Guess even the most rigid of swordsmen can fall asleep on duty.”

“I was just resting my eyes,” Time mutters, tilting his head to crack his neck, making a satisfying popping sound. He straightens up his back, pretending he wasn’t slouched over and closing his eyes.

Sky takes a seat next to him, legs stretched out before him as he leans towards the fire. “Didn’t know snoring comes along with resting eyes territory.”

“I don’t snore.”

The younger man doesn’t answer him, humming as he puts his hands out closer to the fire. The young man’s brown locks glow like honey under the flame, and light his irises a warm gold. 

They sit there quietly for a few beats, until Time turns his head and asks, “What concerns you—”

“You don’t have to ask that every time someone sits next to you.” Sky interrupts, voice calm and soothing.

Even when he raises his voice, Sky has the sort of voice that is of a soft tenor, light and airy but is accompanied with a strong set of lungs that really shows when the man’s temper flares.

Time raises a brow at Sky, who continues when he realizes Time isn’t going to respond. “You don’t have to keep constantly watching out for the others.”

It isn’t like Sky to come up to him for something like this. “What do you need to come to me for, that the others don’t have then?”

“Maybe I just wanted to ask if you were okay.”

Time pauses, and thinks about it. He gets asked that question every so often from Twilight, and when at home on Lon Lon Ranch, from Malon as well. It’s still ingrained in his being, that he’s not used to hearing the words. Nobody asked him that in Kokiri Forest, or in Hyrule Castletown when he wandered in out of breath as a child searching for the Princess. The closest he had was Navi, asking him if he wanted to talk to her. She would listen to him murmur quietly, struggling to vocalize his thoughts along with getting his throat to work properly for pronouncing the words. 

He remembers quiet sunsets, arms tucked under his chin and legs far longer than he was used to right under his arms, admitting to Navi he was scared. Time can still recall the reeking odor of the ReDeads, with their corpse-like bodies stumbling around from his hiding spot for the night, asking Navi if they were going to be ok. 

When he thinks about it now, he wonders if Navi was scared too.

Time snaps back to awareness when he realizes Sky is staring at him, finding his mouth dry. 

“Just have some thoughts about the future.”

"Oh?" Sky perks up a bit, turning away from the fire and towards Time. Even in the dark he can see the keen interest the younger man has. He probably wasn't expecting Time to bite. "Mind if you could share?"

He takes a moment to collect his thoughts, wondering where to start. 

"It doesn't have to be anything concrete. Could be, you know, hypothetical." Sky adds softly, as if concerned that Time was pulling back now from the offer. He waits, respectfully smiling and giving him space.

"Hypothetically," Time starts, feeling awkward because none of this is hypothetical, and he's never talked to Sky on personal levels this far. "Hypothetically, if you were presented two choices, but with both leading to complex and unfavorable circumstances— assuming you have no other choice to accept them— what do you do?"

The chosen hero tilts his head slightly, considering. "You would have to choose the least worst one." He chuckles a bit, before he speaks again. "A bit obvious, yeah. But I feel there's something else you're not telling me."

Time sighs. "It involves another person. Maybe dealing with life or death. I have a choice to help keep them alive, but... you know how it is trying to protect someone who doesn't need protecting."

"Is it your wife?" Sky asks, eyes lit with concern.

Time doesn't correct him, and avoids looking at Twilight, who's mumbling in his sleep. 

"I don't want them to know. I'm sure they're going to be furious if they find out, and they might stick themselves into more trouble if I let them try to solve it themselves."

Sky nods in acknowledgement, and Time can see the sympathy from the younger man's gaze. The boy once shared with him his own adventure, searching for Zelda frantically and trying to prevent her from being kidnapped and killed. Sky shared his short story after a song he played on his harp, a wistful tone in his voice as he longs for home.

"Is the problem imminent?"

Depends how long he can keep Twilight from finding out. "Not really."

"Well," Sky starts, heaving out a sigh. "I think perhaps you shouldn't worry too much. No one can see the future, and sometimes, getting your head too focused in the future makes you forget the present."

Time nods in agreement, and feels a bit at ease hearing those words. 

"Sometimes it's important to savor the moment, and just to put your best efforts. Knowing you’ve done everything you can— it's enough." Sky says quietly, and holds the master sword tightly at this, looking at it with a forlorn gaze.

Sky mentioned the sword spirit once, with great joy and endearment, how she guided him as a mentor and friend. How she was the reason for peace in his homeland. 

Time wonders how Sky can bear with it all, knowing that his comrade, partner, and mentor forever sleeps in that sword. He can't help but feel envious of that, and wonders if Navi ever felt the same way about him.

"Thank you for your words, Sky." Time says softly, and tries to not think about Navi. That's another wound to address for another day.  "It relieves me that I could confide in another person."

Sky beams. "Oh, no worries. You shouldn't be too afraid. There always is a tomorrow, Time."

Time laughs out loud, surprising himself and Sky— but eventually Sky joins him, both covering their mouths to not wake the others. It's almost sad though, how Sky does not know the real reason for Time's laughter. 

"Guess that was kind of cheesy." The younger man confesses.

The older man shakes his head, still feeling high and fuzzy from the sudden amusement. He gets up with a grunt, and brushes off the dirt under his tunic. "I guess I'll be going to sleep. Have a good night, Sky."

"Good night to you too. See you in the morning." 

Time smiles again at those words, feeling a bit whimsical, before turning away.

When he wakes the next morning, he doesn't feel the ache in his bones as much as the days before. 

There's still time. They can find a solution to this mess later. Instead, he should just enjoy this moment in time. 

The idea comes to him, when he watches Wild and Wind spar — ladle verses spoon — as Wind tries to scoop in some sort of suspicious powder into the breakfast. He assumes Twilight has something to do with it, as the other watches with great interest, fist jerking up in the air in triumph when Wind successfully wins the battle of utensils and successfully dumps whatever he wanted in the pot.

He approaches Twilight in midday, when the boys were getting lazy and relaxing after a hearty lunch, some taking naps under the warmth of the sun's rays like lazy felines stretched across the ground.

"Hey," Time calls out to Twilight, who's sitting on the ground, fiddling with the horse call tied around his neck. Twilight looks up, and when he sees Time, his whole body perks up, eyes bright with curiosity. 

"Need something?" Twilight asks, standing up. His messy locks ruffle in the wind as he gets up, walking to cut down the distance between them.

"Busy?"

"No, not at all!" Twilight says a bit quickly, before he rubs the back of his neck, "Actually, I was wondering where you been these days? Though we're together the whole day, I didn't really get the chance to talk with you like normally."

Time hides a laugh behind his fist. "Missed me much?" 

Twilight quickly elbows him from the side, hard muscle and bone hitting his arm swiftly. He lets out a hiss of pain before laughing out loud at the rancher's embarrassment. 

"Let's see," Time says casually, and goes around to Twilight's back, and raps his knuckles against the sword's sheath resting on the rancher's back. "I was thinking of teaching you a few tricks. I think they might be useful." 

If Twilight was brightened up earlier he was positively beaming now. He quickly goes to grab his bag near Wild, who is playing some sort of tactical game with Warriors, using stones and twigs on the ground. They chat for a moment, before Wild waves to Twilight as the rancher leaves to accompany Time elsewhere to train.

Time smiles, and thinks to himself he's making the right choice.

Chapter Text

Wind is a fourteen year-old teenager who lives on a quaint little island with his sister and grandmother. He doesn’t have any parents, from what Time knows, but he has many close friends to fill up that gap, like Tetra and her crew. He wears the brightest smile that compliments his bright pants. While he claims he’s a pirate, he still has the sweet kindness only one could have from living in a small and warm community despite the swears and brashness. 

Time notices the boy is intensely watching Twilight and Warriors spar, both of them having long taken off their top layers of armor, simply in their tunics. The captain’s neat pile of clothing next to Twilight’s scattered one is a funny contrast to Time as he sits next to them. Warriors has a fine layer of dirt on his face and arms, stuck on by his own perspiration. Twilight seems to be in a similar situation, but more on his arms than his face. They’re a blur of footwork and swordplay, and the dirt below them is darkened from their movements and sweat.

Warriors is sort of on the defensive, as if curious and beckoning Twilight to react. It seems he noticed that Twilight’s fighting style has changed, and he’s being cautious now. To him, it's merely been a week since their last spar, but for Twilight, who’s had plenty of time in the loop to improve his swordsmanship, it’s been far longer. Before, the young man would have clashed against the Captain’s strikes, intending to beat. But now he dodges or goes along with the strike, offsetting some of the force and using it to his advantage. 

Suddenly, the captain swiftly backs away, out of reach from Twilight and completely disengaging the fight as he lowers his sword. 

“Hm? Looks like the farm boy learned how to dance!” Warriors teases while side eyeing Time. The older man notices the captain is trying to control his heavy breaths, talking to disguise how tired he really is. “I wonder who taught you all that."

Wind quickly picks up the gesture. He turns to Time with all the enthusiasm and admiration in his eyes. “Can you teach me that too?”

Time makes a note to himself - for future reference, after they’ve left the loop. “Mm. I guess we can start some drills tomorrow.”

“Fuck yeah!” Wind exclaims, fist pumping the air. To the young boy’s side, Wild looks eager, but a little more composed. He is probably feeling shy and not wanting to seem too enthused. 

Time turns back to the spar, and finds Warriors has re-engaged along with changing up his attack pattern, now more on the aggressive, but quicker, like a hummingbird. He looks like he’s trying to agitate Twilight. 

It doesn’t take long until Twilight gets flustered and takes the bait, clashing back with a heavier blow.

Warriors initially lunges forwards to counter it, but quickly sidesteps to the side, narrowly dodging the blade, and steps in past Twilight’s guard. He thrusts his sword forwards.

The rancher narrowly dodges Warriors’ thrust, the sword’s edge barely grazing his collar. Despite the blades being dulled for practice, Time can see slivers of hair fall from one of Twilight’s sideburns.

His boy stays focused though, despite his pinkening face and scrunched up brows. Eventually he does get the upper hand, and sends Warriors sprawling on the ground with a well-timed blow. 

The fight is over.

Time gets up from his seat on the log and picks up the two piles of clothing on the way. Upon noticing him approaching, the two immediately start shrugging off dirt and fixing up their clothes. 

He holds out their garments, and Twilight eagerly comes forward, grabbing them messily, while Warriors takes his more carefully, smoothing out the wrinkles. It’s interesting to see how two young men with such similar lives can behave with such completely different mannerisms.

“So? How did I do?” Twilight asks as he wipes his face on a rag from his pile. He looks fairly fatigued. Time barely catches the grossed out look on Legend’s face as the rancher wipes his sweat and dirt onto the already worn-out looking rag of cloth.

“Did alright. But you can do better,” Time says mildly. “You need to work on your calm a bit more. You got flustered after the captain changed forms, and became impatient. We need to work on your flexibility to handle changes in battle.”

Twilight sighs.

“That was totally sick! It’s been like, only a couple weeks since you and Wild sparred?” Wind says, eyes wide and excited. “How did you improve so much?

Wild goes over and claps a hand on Twilight’s shoulder, smiling wide. “Nice haircut! I hope you’re going to share what you've been learning with the rest of the class.”

Twilight gives them a short laugh, pinching the rough ends of what remains of one of his sideburns in embarrassment as a red flush crawls up his neck. Time lets out a small smile seeing the three of them talk and laugh amongst themselves. He turns to Warriors, who’s in conversation with Sky. 

The captain catches Time’s eye, and stares for a second longer before turning back to Sky. It takes the older man a second to think, before he realizes oh, the captain is expecting comments or critique as well.

He’s familiar enough with how Warriors fights, sparring with him on several occasions through the loop. While the other man fights with mostly light strikes, it’s a red herring to act as fatigue or lack of stamina. It’s easy to fall for, especially when a fight drags too long. He’s sure most of those who fought the captain lost because they underestimated his pretty face and slim physique. But he can quickly swap from the usual quick and light blows to a flurry of heavy hitting swings like a wasp, overwhelming his opponents with only a few strikes. 

“Your fighting technique is more focused on flexibility and how to position yourself optimally, reflecting and deflecting. But you’re going to need to learn to center and ground yourself better, especially if you want the opponent to be baited into striking. You can’t buckle under weight as easily as you did this time,” Time says, shrugging a shoulder. “There isn’t much advice I can give you, since how we fight differs greatly. You won’t be able to maximize the way I fight.”

Warriors looks slightly crestfallen once he says there isn’t really much help he can give, yet it’s the truth. The Captain could probably pick up a few tricks, but they won’t be revolutionary to improve his technique. Time would rather have the other man maintain his current swordplay technique, seeing as its the royal standard of training, than change it to what Time hashed together over the course of his life. Most of what Time knows are heavy strikes that require more core strength and muscle rather than speed. Warriors would have to change his diet to accommodate, and that’s the most difficult part besides adjusting his current style and training.

Time pauses, realizing he hasn’t said anything in a while, and then lets a smile creep across his face to ease the flow of the conversation. “Though, if you find a way to put on more weight, we can fix that.”

Warriors flushes in embarrassment as Sky lets out a loud laugh, and Warriors elbows him in the gut. He would always complain that there was never enough food around and that’s the reason why he was so thin (“And dainty,” Legends mocks, “Oh look at me swinging my sword like a graceful ribbon dancer! OooOOH!”). Then Wild would perk up and ask if he should make more food for dinner, and Warriors would say yes, like a liar. Later at night he would not contribute to finishing the extra food, saying he was full. Twilight would happily take seconds for himself. This would then further the cycle of Warriors complaining Twilight always eats everything like a pig who leaves nothing for the rest of them.

“Don’t-“ Sky struggles between laughs, pushing Warriors away from him. “Don’t elbow me with your twiggy arms! It tickles!”

“Faron’s tits, why did you have to chose now to be a fucking smartass?” Warriors says hotly, and elbows Sky again. “No one asked for your opinion!”

While the two bicker, Time looks over to Legend, Hyrule, and Four, who are sharing sunflower seeds amongst themselves, watching the rest of them with interest. They haven’t said anything at all to Time, simply speaking quietly to one another.

“Want to have a bout, boys?” Time invites. He doesn't think they will take up his offer, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

Hyrule is much more conserved in how much he interacts with the rest. Even despite Time’s best efforts through the loop, the brunette isn’t too interested in being part of the activity. He seems to find more comfort watching from the sidelines. Even when part of a conversation, Time hasn’t gotten much out of the traveler. But today, he looks a bit more interested in getting involved, leaning forwards as he watches the rest of them.

Hyrule raises a hand, and Time almost feels like a teacher at that reaction. “Actually, I was interested in where you learned your sword fighting from.” 

Time thinks about the few books and papers he remembers Saria and the other children picked up in the forest, left behind by lost travelers. The stories used to have colorful depictions of the art of sword fighting. They weren’t really useful, but it gave way to the idea of sword fighting in the first place. The signposts in the forest didn’t really explain swordplay well enough that Time can source them. Navi didn’t have many ideas beyond the basics either, and instead encouraged him to talk to other people to find out more about swordplay.

So he settles with this answer. “Myself.”

“From manuscripts or books?” Four asks, curious as well.

Time shakes his head. “We didn’t have any readings of that sort in the forest.”

“How can that be?” Legend joins in, looking confused. “How about the person who raised you? Shouldn’t they have taught you things?”

“Taught me wisdom and ethics. But he was no swordsman.” 

By now the rest of the boys have rejoined back together as one big group, and are listening in attentively.

“Is he a sage?”

“No, he’s a tree,” Time says, and the three boys blink simultaneously. When he doesn’t respond to their questioning looks, they turn to Twilight, as if demanding an explanation from the rancher. It’s almost cute how the boys think that Twilight has the answer any time they can’t get it out of him. 

Twilight looks at Time, and if Time wasn’t so determined to keep the facade up, he would have burst out laughing at how hard Twilight is trying to figure him out. 

Twilight squints slightly, as if telepathically trying to reel the answer out of Time’s brain. Seeing that he hasn’t come up with anything yet, Time thinks it's about time to wrap things up.

“Alright boys, we should get going. We still got a few hours before sunset. Let’s get ready for the evening. If there is still time before dark, we can practice again later.” 

Time gets asked again.

He should have known the boys weren’t going to drop it this time, especially since they were idling around now, with free time on their hands to do some investigating. 

“A tree as a father… How does that work?” Twilight asks. They’re sitting up on the thick branches of a tree, tying their bags up for the night. The climb up must have reminded Twilight about what he said earlier.

Time gives him a wary look. “You know he wasn’t my real father, right?”

“Obviously!” Twilight exclaims, looking embarrassed and Time snorts. “I meant as in, what was it like?”

Time hums. The Deku Tree was their guardian, and, with his deep baritone voice and calm demeanor, a pillar of safety and comfort. It’s hard to make comparisons or explain what it was like in context to a normal Hylian, seeing as he doesn’t know what a typical Hylian father would do for a child. He has seen how Talon and Malon interact, yes, but that's from the view of a bystander, not as a child.

“There were a lot of us, but he was always fair and calm. Always speaking in a polite tone. We didn’t call him our father. He was our guardian, and we were sort of raised mostly by the community.”

“So the other adults in the village?”

“No,” Time says, closing his eyes. “There weren’t any adults.”

“So a bunch of teenagers?” Twilight sounds incredulous, and he stops tying, rope held motionless in his hands.

“We were all children.”

Twilight’s eyes bug out. “Kids raising kids? With a single tree?”

“Kokiri are different. They’re forever children,” Time defends as he picks at the lint on the canvas bag he’s tied around the tree branch above him. He tries to ignore the bitter aftertaste in his mouth.

“Wow. I’m pretty sure childhood is consistent in all worlds. so I don’t think kids grow to six feet.”

“I know. I’m a Hylian whose parents died in war. I was adopted by them,” Time says, and he tries not to think about how Mido, even now, couldn’t recognize him. “I found out when I was sixteen.”

Twilight frowns, but it doesn’t cover the fact that he sounds incredibly judgemental. “That must have been very shocking.”

“I was still mentally nine, you know? And I thought the Master Sword artificially changed me for the time being.” Time sighs. “I guess in hindsight it makes sense that I wasn't a Kokiri. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have survived outside of the forest.”

“What do you mean?”

“They say it's dangerous for Kokiri to be outside of the forest. That they would disappear upon leaving. It was a good way to scare kids into staying inside. None of us wanted to die.”

Time remembers being dared once by the other boys to go to the forest’s edge, and that he wouldn’t because he’s a scaredycat. If he did though, Mido would accept him as his friend. Saria ended up tattling to the Deku Tree when she caught Time trying to sneak out at the last rays of sunset. He remembers the tight hot feeling in his chest when Mido pointed out that he can’t just hide behind Saria all the time like a loser. He remembers being really, really desperate that night to prove himself. 

“I didn’t think about it too much when I crossed the other side and nothing happened. It might have been the stress of seeing the Deku Tree perish and having to complete his last request that made me not realize the implications at the time.”

Twilight sighs. “That fucking sucks, man. And I thought my life was complicated.”

“It does fucking suck,” Time nods with utter seriousness.

“So… those kids. They don’t recognize you at all?”

He remembers accidentally visiting once after another desperate search to find Navi. It stings when he remembers Mido refers to him as the weird guy again, and that the rest of the kids were clambering over him and poking at him, curious about what this strange Hylian is doing here in their home.

He found his little treehouse, still empty after all these years and kept in the same exact condition he left it. The little monster and tiny knight on the trunk of the tree were still continuing their forever-fight, exactly how he remembered it. Everything was maintained exactly as he left it years ago, still being mourned over for the lost owner.

“No. No they don’t.” 

He closes his eyes, and mourns for himself too.

Twilight doesn’t mention anything afterwards, and they continue training day after day for the lack of anything better to do. He seems to be struggling to get past the next stage, getting distracted in the middle of a fight and aiming for blows a bit too heavily, injuring himself.

An awkward parry leaves a scratch on Twilight’s arm, cutting through his gloves and nicking skin. Warriors immediately drops his sword to his side and rushes over to check the wound.

“It’s just a scratch,” the rancher mutters, scowling. “Don’t worry about the glove, it’ll get fixed soon.”

The captain gives him a weird look, but doesn’t press. He shoots Time a concerned look as Twilight leaves the sparring circle and goes to his bag. Time shrugs, and watches as Wild and Four go over to Twilight, conversing too low for Time to be able to hear from where he is.

“Is it me, or is Twilight in a sort of mood today?” Hyrule asks, whispering lightly between Sky and Warriors. 

“How so?” Time asks, curious as to what Hyrule is seeing.

“He just… seems to be really frustrated, I think.” Hyrule makes a vague gesture, as if trying to further explain what he means. “Like, just mad, but not at anything in particular. If you know what I mean.”

“I was going to say he looked out of it while fighting Warriors,” Sky joins in. “I think for a moment he was daydreaming or something. Maybe he didn’t get enough sleep?”

“Maybe. I hope it's just an off day. We can’t be traveling with him like this. Too much of a risk,” Warriors comments, brushing down his tunic and sheathing his sword. “He barely ducked out the last one. A second later and he wouldn’t have an arm anymore, if this had been a real fight.”

Time nods. He’ll go check on Twilight a little later. 

Wild walks over, lips flattened in a thin line as he has his hands balled up in fists. Four walks behind him, having to take more strides due to Wild’s longer legs.

“Why do you look like you ate a lemon?” Warriors asks as he lets out a laugh. “What happened?”

“Don’t know. Twilight just got frustrated and walked off in the middle of us talking.” Wild combs his fingers through his hair, letting out a sigh. “He just seemed… so unhappy. I don’t know.”

“Sheesh. I’ll talk to him,” Warriors says, and lets out a huff. “Dumb cowboy getting all huffy in his boots out of the blue.”

“If you don’t mind captain, I’ll go talk to him.” Time interrupts, looking at the bag Twilight left behind. He must not be too far, if he left his things behind. The boy will return soon. “For now let’s prepare what we need before sunset.”

“Sure thing, I’ll let you handle it,” Warriors lazily waves off.

Time lingers for a bit, watching the spot where Twilight left, and hopes that it really is just an off day.

Twilight avoids him for the rest of the night along with everyone else. He doesn’t talk, doesn’t do anything outside of his share of chores. The rest of the boys walk on eggshells around the unhappy rancher, some occasionally trying to cheer him up with a smile or by talking to him. Twilight always engages half heartedly, a weak smile on his face before he moves away slowly to remove himself from the conversation.

When they’re just about to go to bed, Twilight asks for the last shift, and Time starts to feel something really is wrong if Twilight is going straight to sleep to skip to the beginning of the loop. They usually spend the first or second shift together to talk. 

Time gathers his resolve and makes his way to the younger man, who’s rolled out his sleeping roll next to Wild’s, still dedicated to sleeping near his friend. Though, there's a bigger gap between them normally, and if they want to talk, one of them is going to have to get out of bed to walk over to the other. But Wild seems a bit cheered up now, seeing that his companion wasn’t too mad from earlier, and is now talking to him again. The two young men whisper to each other, leaning so close that honey and chestnut hairs were almost tangled in one another. 

Time watches Wild’s face carefully, seeing that he cannot see Twilight’s face from this position. The champion looks confused as lines form between his brows. Soon his face contorts into concern as Twilight abruptly gets up and goes into his bedroll, covering his face with his blankets and his fur pelt. Wild’s shoulders slouch, and he looks like he wants to continue the conversation with Twilight, not yet finished. When he looks up, he makes eye-contact with Time.

The older man makes his way over to Wild, and takes a seat on the ground beside the young man. He looks over to Twilight, checking if his back is still turned, before he whispers to Wild.

“Everything alright?”

Wild looks at Twilight, biting his lip, as if not sure what to say. “I’m not really sure.”

“What were you two talking about?”

“I just asked him if he’s feeling okay, and then he said he was fine. Not the normal fine, but like,” Wild makes a vague gesture with his hands, “like he’s just saying it because it’s easier, you know?”

Time nods, and Wild continues his train of thought. 

“He didn’t look fine. He just seems so tired, like he doesn’t want to be here. Or anywhere. Not even interested in anything. Asked him what he wanted to eat tomorrow, and he said whatever. He usually has a lot of ideas, or suggestions. He just-” 

Wild makes a frustrated noise, and shakes his head, hands balled up in fists as he loses the words to complete his thoughts.

“What did he say?”

“He said we can talk about it tomorrow morning, and that he wants to sleep. What’s the rush? I don’t get it.”

Time closes his eyes and takes a breath. He claps a hand on Wild’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it too much. Sometimes some situations are hard to understand just on the surface.  Get some rest for tonight. We’ll talk more tomorrow and try to figure it out then. Better two heads than one, right?”

Wild nods, but doesn’t look completely reassured, saying weakly, “I never seen him like this before.”

“Same here,” Time confesses sincerely, probably the first time not putting up a front to Wild. The champion still doesn’t get ready for bed, still looking saddened. 

“Do you want me to tuck you in?” Time teases, and finally that gets a reaction from the younger man. “Pass you your teddy bear?”

Wild makes a choking noise before he dives under his own blankets, “No! Good night!”

Time laughs, and it garners looks from the other side of the campsite. He quiets down quickly, but still trembles.

“By the way, it wouldn’t be a teddy bear. Bears actually aren’t really cuddly because their fur is too coarse. It would be a korok,” Wild petulantly says, and turns over in his sleeping roll, his back facing Time.

He almost rolls on the ground from stifling his laughter.

The next morning Twilight doesn’t get out of his sleeping roll. Even when Legend, Wind, and Hyrule target him after successfully kicking Warriors out of bed, Twilight doesn’t react until Time forces him out. It sends them all into confusion, and the whole day is spent awkwardly pretending nothing is wrong.

The hole left by Twilight’s inactivity and disinterest makes it feel incredibly eerie, like still waters. There’s no one to connect the members together, as there is less friendly conversations and engagement between the nine of them. Even though the captain and the veteran tend to be chatty, it isn’t the same.

It’s when Twilight starts playing with his food at dinner in the inn (a hearty and warm meal of pumpkin soup that usually entices the younger man’s appetite) before getting up to go use the restroom, that Time thinks it's time to have an intervention. 

Twilight can’t continue avoiding him forever.

He follows Twilight, excusing himself from the table as well to use the bathroom, and tails Twilight. The younger man passes the restroom and goes straight to the room he’s sharing with Wild and the younger members of the group.

“Twilight, mind if we talk for a bit?” 

The young man goes entirely still for a moment, and when the silence draws on for too long, Time starts to feel awkward, heat crawling up his neck to his face. 

“If not, then tomorrow is fine-”

“Yeah,” Twilight interrupts, and the hall is too dim to see his expression. “We can talk.” 

Time jerks his head towards the exit. “Let’s head outside.”

They take a seat outside on a bench near the inn, the moon shining brightly, illuminating their faces in an ethereal light. It feels incredibly serene, especially with the cool night air blowing through his hair. 

Twilight’s slightly slouched, legs spread carelessly, and the bright blue of his irises seems almost diluted and milky under the moonlight. Time’s almost afraid to ask how the younger man’s been feeling, looking so tired beyond his age. 

“I haven’t gotten the chance to talk to you in a while,” Time starts, watching Twilight carefully, afraid to blink. “Is everything alright? Did you want something else to eat for dinner?”

“Mm… I guess.” He shrugs, not looking up still. “Maybe.” 

“You haven’t even complained about oatmeal for almost a week now,” Time tries to tease out, but he only gets a huff from Twilight. “Something’s up.”

He waits, giving the younger man some time to respond. But as seconds pass, he eventually decides to go straight in. “I think we need to talk about your behavior in the last week. What’s going on?”

“I’ve been fine;” Twilight says, and there’s a beat of silence. He curls his fingers around the armrest of the bench. “What did I do wrong?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong;” Time says immediately, correcting the boy. But then he doesn’t know where to go next. 

“So?” Twilight says, nearly snapping. Time can feel the irritation slowly oozing out of the rancher, shoulders starting to hunch up defensively.

Time takes a deep breath, and his shoulders move up and down in a sigh. “If it’s about the loop-”

“Are we getting something else for dinner or what?” Twilight asks loudly, and rests his chin on his palm, leaning away from Time and looking directly opposite from him. 

“Twilight;” Time starts, leaning over to squeeze the other’s shoulder gently, “what’s wrong?”

The rancher doesn’t budge, and Time can’t see his expression from this position, but he can feel the muscles underneath Twilight’s clothes tense up. So he tries something else.

He lets go of Twilight’s shoulder, and sits up. “Well… We should head back in then if it's something you don’t feel like you can tell me. At least talk to the other boys. I know you’re fond of the champion. Maybe you should talk to him about it at the very least. He’s been worried about you too.” He gets ready to stand, and to leave Twilight on the bench, alone, but stops when he feels fingers wrap around his wrist.

“Wait. Just give me a moment, okay?” Twilight pleads sofly, and tightens his grip. “Just don’t go yet.”

Time’s heart twinges at the way the younger man looks at him with furrowed brows and a vulnerable expression. He sits back down and Twilight slides closer to him, almost shoulder to shoulder. They sit there quietly, contrasting to the sound of crickets and the bushes rustling with the wind. 

“I just don’t know if it's worth living the same day over and over again,” Twilight confesses. “I don’t feel like doing anything. There’s no point, and I’m tired of doing it all over again and not being able to expect something new.  I don’t see the point in waking up.”

Time almost flinches and interjects, trying to keep his voice gentle so as to not scare the younger man. “Do you want to die?”

“I don’t know. Do I want to be dead? Is it better for me if I'm dead? Maybe.” Twilight’s face scrunches up, as he tries to think. “I just don’t want to be here anymore. Does that make sense?”

Time swallows, suddenly feeling his palms become sweaty, and he clenches his fingers into fists. It’s as if someone dunked his head in cold cold water, and all the sounds around him are muffled and distorted. The crickets chirping warps into rickety gears clanging against each other, the bushes rustling turns into some sort of strange chattering that he can’t make out, and the wind whistles a strange song. 

He doesn’t even recognize his own voice, until his ears pop and he finally starts to hear something, and he thinks it’s his own voice repeating over and over again. Even then, it is terribly low and he can’t make out any of the words. He’s got something in his arms too, and he can’t really figure out what it is, but it's not close enough to see clearly. So he brings it closer to him, and holds it tightly. It is when it moves that the world suddenly is clear again. And he hears himself clearly-

“You’re not alone. You’re going to be okay. I’m still here. I’m always going to be here for you. I’ll fix it. It’s nothing new, and you’re going to get through this -”

Time stops suddenly, feeling sick as he tries to let his gyros settle and orientate himself. He stiffens up when he hears a soft wheeze from under him. Blinking, he finds Twilight, face buried in the nook of his shoulder and completely pressed into his chest as Time’s own arms compress the young man against his body. 

“Can’t breathe,” Twilight wheezes and is patting at his bicep, and he lets go of his boy quickly.

“Are you alright?” He realizes that Twilight is breathing heavily, chest heaving up and down, and Time feels his heart drop like a stone to his stomach.

“I’m fine. I-I’m sorry, Time.”

“What is there to be sorry for?” Time asks, starting to feel his ears flush as his chest feels hot from embarrassment and confusion. “I should be the one to apologize!”

“No- I-” Twilight stammers, and his eyes look suspiciously wet as they try to look everywhere but at Time. Time wonders for a moment, at how he looks right now, facing Twilight. “I just wasn’t thinking. I’ll try harder.”

Time tries to give him a smile, and Twilight only looks more unnerved, so Time just keeps his gaze steady, pretending as if he wasn’t weak in the knees right now, afraid to stand in case the breeze takes him with it.

“You’re alive.” 

“Yeah.”

Time nods. “Everything will be alright.”

Twilight gives him a wobbly smile back. “Okay.”

They don’t talk about it.

The days crawl slowly, even with Time taking some time to disappear from the group to try a few slightly more dangerous ideas. 

The Fierce Deity mask doesn’t seem to work, or respond to him, despite him putting it on multiple times. He wonders if the Deity is even here in this cursed plane of existence, with how hollow and empty the mask feels right now.

He’s starting to feel more on edge with every day that passes, anxiety clinging and crawling up his spine closer and closer to his heart to suffocate it. 

He doesn’t know what to do.

Twilight seems to be a little stranger as well, coming to check on him instead of the other way around. Sometimes even insisting to stay close, as if he’s scared. The first time it happened it startled Time, making him wonder if he did anything to Twilight the other night, or said something to him that he doesn’t remember. But when he asks Twilight, the rancher gives him a vague answer, or avoids it.

So they don’t talk about it. 

But Time learns to make due with it. With everything. It’s better than Twilight asking him if he has any ideas or knows anything about the time loop, or his experiences. 

“Is there anything else you could tell me about time travel? Anything that could help us?” 

He would shake his head, and then smile wanly with his teeth clenched.

So they continue marching in place, nowhere to go. 

Time prays that hopefully Twilight can learn to make due with it too.

“You had the whole Triforce? To yourself?”

Time lifts his head up from cutting potatoes with Wild. He sees Twilight and the boys surrounding Hyrule, who looks embarrassed, a heavy pink flush covering his face and long ears. They twitch when Wind pokes his head closer to Hyrule’s left hand, as if examining if the brunett’s triforce is still there.

“Well, it was only temporary. I was sort of rewarded with it and made a wish.”

“You made a what ?” Warriors exclaims, and his eyes widen. “What do you mean you made a wish?”

“The Triforce can make like, anything come true, you know? Power, wealth, love… anything,” Hyrule explains, and he gives a sad smile. “It’s why Ganon did everything he could to get it, no matter who got in the way.”

“Yeah, I mean. Isn’t it the same for you guys?” Legend asks, and the rest of the boys shake their heads.

“Nope.” Wind shrugs, “I was told that the triforce will bring forth unimaginable powers. It’s why Ganon wanted it so badly so he could rise above and get powers like a god.”

“How is it even possible to get all the pieces?” Twilight asks, perked up and interested. “Could you use just one piece to activate anything?”

“One piece? It’s powerful alright, but it’s not on the same level as the power from the whole thing. You have to get all the pieces to really activate the full force of what the Triforce is capable of. And it is possible, but just hard. The royal family is in possession of mine.” Hyrule says as he shakes his head. 

Twilight deflates at that and rubs his hand absentmindedly. There’s a faint, dim glow that seems to illuminate from his left hand, but when Time blinks, it’s gone.

Maybe he’s just tired.

It looks like Wild is starting to get interested, and he stops swirling the ladle in the pot over the campfire, looking over the other side owlishly. 

He turns to Time and asks him innocently, “What’s a Triforce?”

“Pieces of the golden trio, the Goddesses Din, Farore, and Nayru,” Time recites smoothly from memory. “They represent Power, Courage, and Wisdom respectively. The pieces together as the whole Triforce looks like this-” Time says and points to the Triforce symbol on his chestplate.

Wild makes a little oh , before he gives Time a contemplative look. “Yeah. I was wondering about that. I remember Zelda- I mean, Flora, had that when she blasted Calamity Ganon out of existence. I thought maybe you were a representative of the Triforce before we formally introduced ourselves.”

Time laughs, he only got the Triforce piece by pulling the Master Sword from its pedestal. He wouldn’t know anything more about the Triforce, and still doesn’t know much about the piece. “No, I wouldn’t know anything about the Triforce pieces themselves, besides the folklore and what my Princess has told me herself.” 

“Mmh, we don’t have anything like that at all where I’m from,” Four chimes in. “We have Force, and Force gems, that are our power source. I think it's better that we have that power more evenly balanced than, say, three pieces.”

Wild laughs, “Yeah, then we wouldn’t really need heroes right? Everyone’s got a fair chance to make a better world they want to see.”

Time smiles, and wonders what the world would be like if there wasn’t a Master Sword or a Triforce. But then wonders if he would ever have met Malon, if there was no need for a hero, or need for him to leave the Lost Woods. So he counts his blessings, and continues cutting.

“If you could make a wish, what would it be?”

He doesn’t realize that the question is being directed to him, until Wild elbows him gently.

“Hm?”

Warriors looks at him with an eager expression, “Well old man, don’t you have anything you would wish for if you could?”

“Why me?” Time asks back. “I’ve got everything I want already.”

The scarfed man rolls his eyes. “Oh please, we know you got the woman of your dreams and a nice cozy home. But don’t you have anything else you want? I don’t know, world peace?”

I'd like to get out of this time loop with my descendent intact. Or fix the thousands of mistakes I made, or just wish I wasn’t- is not an answer Time can say out loud, but he can work with something else.

“Well. I'd like to wish that people gave me socks for presents instead of fishing rods for once. Or well, stop giving me some kind of stick.”

The boys laugh at that, and the conversation eases into something more lively now, comments on Time’s real age and bickering again.

Just when he thinks Twilight is getting better, the younger man’s mood plummets down again out of the blue.

He’s got his arms crossed, and despite sitting next to Time and supposedly in a conversation with him and Warriors, he’s got a slight frown on his lips and slanted eyes. As if he was uncomfortable, or wanted to get out of there.

Time nudges Twilight while Warriors is talking to Sky now, inviting him into the discussion.

“Are you feeling alright? Do you want to leave?”

Twilight startles slightly, eyes widen slightly as he gasps softly. “You want me to go?”

Time hesitates, and he doesn’t know what Twilight wants from him. Is he uncomfortable? Does he want to leave? Is he upset? Why would he want to leave? There’s no reason to leave.

“I didn’t say that. I was asking if you want to leave the conversation.”

The rancher swallows and he bites his lip. It’s as if he doesn’t want to leave, but he doesn’t seem to be feeling good, with how the lines along his face seem to tense from stress. So Time does what he thinks he can do to help.

He slings an arm and tucks Twilight closer to his side before resting his arm over the other man’s shoulder. “Stay.”

The younger man sighs softly and leans in, nodding against Time’s shoulder. Time can feel his side warming up from the additional body heat.

“Wow, getting cuddles from the old man? Looks quite snug and warm!” Legend teases. 

Warriors ungracefully snorts at that comment. “Can I get some too?” 

Time opens his mouth to retort, wondering why now they all have to pay attention to him and Twilight, but Twilight beats him to it. “There isn’t room for you here. If you want someone to lean on, go over to Legend, he’s right there.” The rancher grips the older man’s tunic edge and pulls Time closer to him.

“It isn’t that cold. And what kind of warmth is there with all that armor?” Warriors asks, and then looks over with a quizzing look. “Maybe you’re catching a cold?” 

“With all that clothing? It’s hot! How are you sitting so close together like that?” Sky joins in, and suddenly Twilight’s grip is getting tighter. In the corner of Time’s eye, he can see the irritation bleed off from the rancher’s body. 

“If he isn’t feeling too well, then let him rest and don’t bother him further,” Time says firmly, and the rest quiet down. They tentatively look at each other, concerned, before trying to busy themselves. He ignores it, and focuses on Twilight, whose eyes are lowered, but the lines between his brows haven’t faded yet.

It feels like the young man wants to burrow himself into Time, with how close his head is nearing the nook of the older man’s neck, as if anxious and insecure. Time raises a hand to Twilight’s forehead, brushing hazelnut locks out of the way and resting a hand there. He doesn’t seem to have a fever, so perhaps it’s an issue of how he’s feeling. 

So he takes his ocarina out, and starts to play a song. 

He starts out with a stutter first, and berates himself for forgetting the notes. He can hear Saria telling him to promise to remember her song, and can hear her nagging him gently in that soft voice of hers.

Time gets so focused playing it, by the time he finishes the song, he doesn’t realize that Twilight is sitting upright and watching him with his eyes widened and mouth slightly ajar,  in awe.

“What kind of song is that?”

“It was my friend’s song. Saria’s.”

The rancher pauses. “Was?”

“We cannot live in the same world as each other.” Time explains, the same one Saria did, as a sage. “But… she is alive. Will always be, as long as peace remains.”

“... It’s beautiful.” Twilight says quietly, sobering up a bit.

“It is. She always said if I needed to hear her voice, I should play this song. It brought a lot of happiness to people.”

“Thanks for sharing. It made me feel better.”

Time nods, smiling genuinely. Her song always had that effect on people, it is loved by so many, especially to the gorons. He thinks about Darunia and feels his belly churn from homesickness.

“Can I try playing it?” Twilight asks, and Time blinks, surprised at the inquiry.

“Hm? Do you know how to play an ocarina?”

Twilight flushes a bit. “Not really, but I had this song nagging in my head for a while. I wanted to try it out.”

Time passes the ocarina to him gently. “Careful, it is very important to me.”

Twilight looks him in the eye and nods. He gingerly picks up the ocarina, turning it over in his hands to look at it. He doesn’t say anything before putting it up to his lips. His fingers run over the holes, as if uncertain where to place themselves, before he tries a note. Time patiently listens to the broken notes that come out from the rancher, wondering what on earth the younger man is doing. 

He wonders how he managed to master so many songs, and if he sounded the same when Saria was first teaching him her song. The fairy ocarina was much smaller than the Ocarina of Time, so it was easier learning songs on it. But now, it is a bit too small for his hands.

The hands of an adult.

He doesn’t notice he’s drifting off into his memories, when he hears a familiar set of pitches. He startles back into consciousness, the color of the surroundings vivid once again and the sounds of the world no longer muffled.

Twilight’s got a concentrated look on his face, as he plays the same three notes over and over. The familiar feeling of dread overtakes his body, and the melody sounds like glass shattering to him instead of its usual soothing rhythm. It feels like his muscles have completely frozen up in him, and he is watching Twilight struggling and slowly progressing further in the song, horrified.

When Twilight glances up to look at Time, he startles, and hastily puts the ocarina down from his lips.

“Sorry! I didn’t- I was trying to find out if I could play this song I’ve been thinking about. But I guess it sounds really horrible.” The rancher nervously laughs and tries to shrug. “I’m sorry if it was bad.”

Time almost forgets to breathe, what does he mean by that? How does he know that melody? He swallows, and responds hoarsely, “No, it wasn’t bad at all.”

“But why did you look-”

“I just had a memory of something from a long time ago. Don’t worry about it,” Time hurriedly says, and he hastily takes the ocarina back from Twilight, who reaches out for it as Time takes it away. “Just don’t play that song again. Alright?”

Twilight lips form into a thin line, as if not happy about that.

“Alright?” Time presses once more, firmer this time, and squeezes Twilight’s hand. “Don’t.”

The rancher gives in with a slight grimace, before nodding reluctantly. They stay quiet for a moment, Time waiting for a verbal response. It doesn’t take long for Twilight to realize the older man’s dissatisfaction, so he gives Time a wobbly smile. “Sorry. I won’t do it again.”

It makes Time’s heart squeeze unpleasantly, looking at Twilight have that shadow of misery on his face again. So he relents a bit. “It’s ok. Just remember to listen to me.” He squeezes Twilight’s hand gently this time, and gives him a reassuring smile.

“Why don’t I teach you a different song? This one is a bit different, but it can be useful.”

Time teaches him all of the songs he knows, minus the Song of Time. 

Twilight doesn’t seem to be satisfied though, and occasionally, Time catches him humming to the tune of the Song of Time, making him feel ill. It doesn’t make sense how the younger man knows that song. It shouldn’t exist anywhere beyond the knowledge of the Royal Family, and Twilight had never known about that song before.

So how does he know?

Curiosity is killing him, and he knows it’s killing Twilight as well. The rancher often gives the ocarina a second look whenever it's in arm's reach stringing alongside Time’s belt. Even when practicing on the ocarina, he seems to find the finger placement for the first note of the Song of Time instead of his intended song.

But Twilight knows not to try. He dutifully listens to Time and doesn’t play the notes of that song ever again.

Even though Time’s confident that the song wouldn’t do anything under Twilight’s playing, he doesn’t know for sure if it just might change the flow of time. He doesn’t want to risk it either. It’s better to be here instead of somewhere else, lost in the timeline.

“If there’s songs to speed up time like the Sun’s Song, is there a song that does the opposite?” 

He blinks, and Time picks his head up and looks at Twilight. “Come again?”

Twilight fumbles with the ocarina in his fingers, looking down passively, as if shy to ask again. “If there’s a song that speeds up time, is there a song that slows down time?”

Time hesitates. The melody is the exact opposite of the Song of Time, and he knows Twilight is bright enough to put the pieces together, even if he isn’t as musically talented as the other heroes. Or Twilight could simply ask Legend, and the younger man could pinpoint the similarities in the Inverted Song of Time and the Song of Time in seconds.

“I mean,” Twilight says shyly, looking away from Time.  “I figure if there is one, it’ll be a bit more enjoyable to have a longer day for us, so we don’t have to repeat the fight with the monsters. Right?”

Time swallows, and he wonders if he should reconsider. 

“If not, it’s fine,” Twilight says quickly, before Time could say anything. The younger man looks down and sighs softly, his soft locks hiding his face.

“There is one,” Time blurts out, and sticks his hand out to Twilight for the ocarina. “It’s a bit of a strange rhythm, so teaching it early isn’t ideal.”

Twilight looks up at him, steel eyes lit up in interest, and he eagerly hands the ocarina back to Time.

He breathes in deeply before bringing the ocarina to his lips, fingers hovering over the first note for a moment as he recalls the notes. He tries to ignore the sudden pick up in speed of his heart beating. 

As he plays the song he can feel the air warp around him, and the wind starts to sluggishly traverse through the atmosphere. The notes are loud, but not enough to smother the sound of each breath he takes, the metal of his armored plates sliding against each other with each moment, or his heartbeat.

When he finishes the song, he notices sweat dripping down the back of his neck. He coughs lightly into his fist, trying to ease the nauseous feeling out of his chest. 

“It feels a little weird. The air tastes a bit different,” Twilight comments after a few moments of quiet. He isn’t looking at Time, and it’s incredibly strange. He always makes eye contact with him, unless he’s not happy.

“How so?” Time asks, but upon seeing Twilight not respond soon enough, he tries to tease the younger man. “Maybe the magic isn’t rubbing right with your furry problem?”

“Time,” Twilight says slowly, and the older man’s heart skips a beat in anxious anticipation. “That song sounds kind of familiar. Kind of the opposite of the other song.”

Time doesn’t flinch, but it is a near damned thing. And he curses silently when Twilight lifts his head up, and his eyes start to look at him without kindness, and instead seemingly with suspicion. 

“What is that other song, Time? The one you told me not to-”

He interrupts him before the younger man can finish, words coming out rushed. “I thought I said we aren’t going to talk about it.” 

It comes out harsher than he expected, and Twilight’s blank expression starts to crumble. “But- you said not to play it. I’m just asking. It- If there’s a speed up time song and a slow down time song, then isn’t there a-”

“No,” Time vehemently says, and he immediately regrets playing the Inverted Song of Time. It would have been easier to keep Twilight's curiosity at bay if he didn’t. “We aren’t going to play that song.”

Twilight’s face scrunches up, dark brows furrowed up, leaving thick lines in between them. “Why? Why can’t you just tell me? What’s wrong with that?”

“Twilight,” Time says warningly one last time, and starts to put the ocarina away, far from Twilight’s hands. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”

“Please! Time, just what is it? I need to know! I won’t ask anything else!”

He starts to turn and walk away.

“Is it a time traveling song?”

He pointedly ignores him, but Twilight follows him, and he can hear the hasty patter of footsteps behind him.

The younger man starts to sound desperate. “Why aren’t you answering me?”

Time replies as calmly as he can, without facing the rancher. “I told you, I’m not having this conversation.”

Fingers latch onto the back of his tunic, and he can feel Twilight pressing himself against the back of Time, halting him in place. “Please, just tell me! I promise I’ll be better!”

“Asking for a promise of trust isn’t going to mean I can trust you,” Time sighs, and tries to peel off the fingers digging into his arms, trying to pull him backwards. 

Twilight mutters something inaudible into his armor, and his grip gets tighter.

Time can ignore him right now and just leave, escaping with his anxieties, lick his wounds, and get another day to restart and fix this mess with a clearer mind. But.

But he chooses to stay, and listen to his curiosities despite the way his heart is rapidly beating in his chest and the sweat building up around the column of his neck.

“What did you say?”

The rancher doesn’t say anything for a few moments, and Time anxiously readjusts his gloves. 

Twilight’s voice wavers from behind him. “Are you hiding something from me?” 

Time looks up at the sky, and follows a line of clouds lazily floating through the sky. He takes a breath. He can’t let it get to him now, the grief and panic that’s uncoiling in his gut and making his breathing funny. 

“That song was given to me by the Princess. It shouldn’t exist anywhere, only to die with the Princess and me,” Time starts, and then it hits him, how he can formulate this mistake into something useful. He pushes out of Twilight’s grasp and continues to walk briskly. “If you knew the song already, and what it does, why didn’t you tell me? You can’t have known that. Unless you already know what the future is like. Then why bother?”

“I didn’t know what it was!” Twilight protests, and he runs and blocks Time’s path. His eyes are wide, eyes dilated, and hair stuck to his face from sweat. “I just- I just kept hearing it over and over in my dreams and I wasn’t sure! I was afraid . I promise I’m not lying! I’m not hiding anything from you! I just want to try it and see if we can finally end this cycle!”

“Then why insist you have to do it? It won’t work,” Time nearly snaps, and sidesteps him. “The nature of this time loop doesn’t allow it. Forget it.” 

“Just listen to me! Don’t leave! Just let me try!” Twilight shouts and he lunges at Time, aiming for the ocarina. Time barely grabs Twilight’s hands in time. 

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Time warns, holding Twilight’s wrists with his own hands like prisoners cuffs.

Twilight tries to wrangle himself out of Time’s grip, until they fall onto the ground from Twilight pushing forwards, and continue to wrestle. Time takes advantage of his larger figure and leverages his entire body weight on top of Twilight, pressing him face down into the ground, until the younger man stops wiggling and fighting.

His face is blotchy red, and he looks crossed between furious and upset, with how his eyes seem to be smothering with anger and tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. 

“Stop with the tantrum. I already did everything I could, and I don’t appreciate being doubted. I want to get out of this mess as much as you do!” Time hisses, irked and uncomfortable as he feels his body ache as Twilight resists. He takes a moment to catch his breath as Twilight starts to lose the fight in him, slowing down his struggles. Time’s throat is still dry and hoarse, but he tries to be gentle as he asks, “Are you going to behave?”

Twilight doesn’t say anything, and Time puts on more pressure until he hears the younger man wince. “Are you going to be good? Or do I have to leave you out here and tie you down to a tree alone?”

The rancher jolts, stiffening up from underneath him. It’s an agonizing minute before he finally whispers, “I’ll be good.”

Time releases his grip and Twilight sags onto the ground, eyes closed as he breathes heavily onto the dirt. Seeing the scratches and dirt along the boy’s face from being pressed down makes his gut sick and filled up with shame. Time kneels down and leans Twilight against his body. He combs his fingers through Twilight’s locks, gently scratching his scalp and whispering soothing reassurances of how much he cares for his boy and just how much he wants him to be good.

Twilight stays quiet the whole time, hiding his face in the nook of Time’s neck and gripping his own body tightly.

Time plays the Song of Inverted Time again to reverse its effects, a bitter taste on his tongue when he finishes. 

They stay out there, until one of the other boys comes to retrieve them, Twilight leaving the comfort of Time’s hands to Wild, as the scarred hero tends to Twilight’s wounds.

He tries not to scoff at it. There’s no point wasting anyone’s time if the wounds are going to be removed without a hint of the fight by midnight.

The only thing he was concerned of was Twilight and Wild whispering quietly to themselves in their own little bubble, and reluctantly distances himself when Warriors berates him to stop worrying.

Time can feel that sinking, spiraling feeling again of something going to go wrong, but exhaustion takes over, and he forgets as he shuts his eyes for the night.

When Time wakes up, he tries to shake off the irrational fear crawling up his spine. He sits up and looks over to Twilight.

He isn’t there.  

Time lets out a gasp, as he feels his blood freeze and his body stiffen up. He turns and scans the rest of the camp, looking for that distinctive light hazel hair and fluff mane of fur.

He isn’t here.

Time rolls out of his bedroll, quickly equipping his gear, nearly snarling when the plated armor straps give him some difficulty in his rush. When he reaches out to find the string wrapped around the ocarina, only to find nothing but air, he freezes.

He turns his head slowly towards the only possible witness. “Hyrule, did you see where Twilight went?” 

“He left for the woods over there. Said he needed to take a leak,” Hyrule replies back, pointing at the direction he indicated before tilting his head inquisitively, “Why? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing,” Time lies easily. “I think he took something from my things by accident. Thank you.”

Once he makes it into the forest tree line he breaks into a sprint as his head rings in fear, and he can barely hear the sound of the bushes crumbling away as he breaks through their branches, blood roaring in his ears. 

He loves the forest, loves it with every fiber of his being since his first clear memories as a child. He loves the comfort it brings to him, with its lush foliage and vivid greens of life and vitality. They were easy to hide in, and it was easy to find interesting things to entertain him. The variety of shapes in the form of branches and tree trunks were fun to climb and play on, and the vines and flora added texture and natural toys.

But now at this moment, he doesn’t want to see a single blade of grass as his frustration continues to build at the never ending branches and leaves in sight. They were all nuisances in his way trying to find where his wayward son had gone.

When he hears the faint melody of music, he stops in his tracks, straining his ears. He can barely hear the notes clearly, but he doesn’t need to think hard about it. It’s obvious what song that damned boy is playing. 

Time runs towards the direction of the music, muscles on fire and begging for a break. 

By the time he breaks through the last of the greenery standing between Twilight and him, the song is near finished, and his heart drops as he sees Twilight part the ocarina from his lips. 

He has his back leaning against a tree as dappled light coming from above by the morning light dances across his face. 

“What did you do?” 

Twilight jerks and looks up, sloppily trying to hide the ocarina under his arm, warily looking up at Time. “What I was trying to do a long time ago.”

Time heaves out a heavy sigh before he rebukes the younger man.“I told you not to play that song!”

“Why? What are you afraid of?” Twilight asks, nostrils flaring as he starts getting frustrated. “Why won’t you tell me?” 

“Because you don’t need to know,” Time grits out, hands balling up into fists. “Why can’t you accept that?”

“It’s clearly something to do with this time loop! You keep dodging every time I ask and-“ Twilight suddenly stops and his breath hitches. “Were you making this time loop this whole time?”

Time flinches. “No! Why would I do that?”

“Because you’re a liar! You hide everything from me and tell me not to worry about it!”

“I never lied to you about the Song of Time!”

Twilight gets flustered for a bit, and he stops to think for a moment, before firing back. “Alright. You didn’t, but you do that thing where you don’t lie but you’re not telling the truth either!”

“I only did it to protect you! I didn’t start the time loop!”

“How would you protect me then in the loop? How does that make sense unless you’re trying to prevent-“ Twilight starts to breathe rapidly, eyes darting about as he looks at Time’s face, his cheeks paling. 

“Oh goddess, am I dead?” he whispers as he starts to raise his hands to cradle his own head in them, knees weak as he slowly slumps down the tree he is leaning on.

“Get a grip Twilight! You aren’t dead! You’re alive!” Time shouts, and grabs Twilight by his shoulders and shakes him. 

“No! No! No!” Twilight hoarsely cries out. “Leave me alone I know I died! I know! I felt it!”

“Stop! Stop shouting!” Time hisses out and tries to muffle Twilight’s howling with his own voice.

“I see it every night! I did! I died that day!”

“Twilight, look at me!” Time tries as he takes a hand to cup Twilight’s cheek gently. “You’re safe, you’re alive!”

Twilight starts to hiccup, breathing in short staccato breaths as his fingers scrabble over his abdomen, uselessly grabbing at his tunic. His eyes are glossy and vacant, and the scene before Time right now looks too much like that little Kokiri child who saw his own desperate reflection in the dark eyes of the pearly moon. 

“I’m dead. I’m already dead, and I’m in fucking hell!” he chokes out from in between gasps for air from underneath his hands, and Time’s heart breaks.

Time shakes Twilight again desperately, “No you’re not dead! We can fix this Twilight. I can fix this, just calm down!”

Twilight mutely shakes his head, his trembling fingers finally finding purpose and reaching up to cover their owner’s face.

“Please Twilight, get it together. Just be good for a little longer for me.”

He doesn’t respond.

The rustle of bushes behind him jerks Time out of his dismay, and he turns around to look. If it’s one of the boys or worse-

He finds snarling fangs and sharp claws across from him.

Monsters.

The noise must have attracted them here, and seeing that Time can’t count how many- it’s probably an ambush and not simply stray stalfos that haven’t been vanquished by the dawn’s rays.

“Twilight, get up, we have company,” Time hisses as he draws his sword. He uses his elbow to nudge the boy when he doesn't hear the rancher move to get his own sword.

“Twilight?”

Time doesn’t get the chance to turn around as the monsters lunge to attack. 

He gets down several numbers of stalfos and lizalfos, chunks of flesh and cracked bones on the forest floor littering the forest floor. The fight is quiet, only the sound of swords meeting one another and flesh meeting each other with clangs and thwacks . He can’t use any of his larger scale attacks, afraid to hurt the shell-shocked boy behind him. 

“Twilight,” Time grits out while batting away another lizalfos that tries to lunge under his left arm to swipe his weakened ward. He lets out a muffled groan as another batters into him harshly from the opposite side, it’s sword scraping his armor and leaving a large gash in it.  “Get up and fight!!”

Finally he hears the sound of a sword being unsheathed behind him, and seconds later Twilight finally joins the fray. 

It’s already been a good ten minutes in the fight, and Time is wheezing heavily, chest heaving with every breath he takes, and he can feel his arms burn from exhaustion and his right side aching with bruises. He’s bleeding freely from several long nicks and bruises decorating his arms, and the blood is starting to drip down his gloves and soak the leather.

He makes a mistake though, right at the end of the fight, to look away and at Twilight.

It’s as if time slowed down, and he’s watching Twilight lunge at him and push him backwards, when he sees a serrated sword find its way straight through the boy’s left lumbar and through his right chest. Twilight opens his mouth to scream something at him, but nothing comes out. There’s so much blood that it splatters on Time’s own armor and his own face, and his eyes are blown so wide, that he looks like a grotesque chuchu.

Time snaps out of his shock as Twilight wetly coughs, and he can feel warmth on his face as the blood splatters onto his face.

He swings his sword and decapitates the stalfos, dropping his sword immediately after it falls to helplessly cradle Twilight in his arms, pulling him close, almost to the point of hugging as his thoughts start to fall apart and he doesn’t know what to do- there’s just so much blood and Twilight is paling so rapidly that his lips are starting to purple and he’s feeling so useless and small-

“Just let me go.”

Time sucks in a deep breath, realizing how much his throat and lungs hurt from holding it in for so long. He doesn’t realize Twilight spoke until he looks at him and sees his lips tremble as he tries to speak more.

Hands shaking, Time takes out red potions and a fairy, and pulls out the sword from behind, letting out warbled mutterings of sorry while wincing as Twilight gurgles out a scream. 

“I’ll fix this. I’ll save you Twilight. We can fix this,” Time says as his hands shake while opening the fairy bottle, letting the fairy out to heal the rancher. He opens the red potion next, cradling Twilight’s head with one hand and pouring it into his mouth slowly.

Seconds pass and he realizes that it’s not healing the wound, Time takes a shuddering breath and quickly searches for the ocarina. If anything, he can just slow time down, or using a healing song - it’s been his salvation and his strongest weapon- and he absolutely cannot, cannot, cannot let Twilight-

“Looking for this?” Twilight coughs out, seemingly a bit better as the focus in his eyes is present and his voice seems to have come back, while holding up the ocarina.

Or, the shards of what’s left of it.

“No,” Time says hollowly, bracing himself as he puts his hands down on the ground. The world feels like it's spinning as the headache starts to spread down his spine and his eyes start to sting. “No, no, no. No, you didn’t.”

“I-I was meant to die, Time!” Twilight scowls, blood running from his wounds and lips, coating his teeth in blood as he bares them against Time. “A-And still am!”

“I can’t accept that, Twilight!” Time yells out, now putting his efforts to desperately stop the bleeding. “Stop talking, the wound bleeds more!” His head is pounding from the anger and devastation he feels, looking at the blood and broken shards of his ocarina in Twilight’s hands. 

He doesn’t have the option to travel back in time to fix this mess he made, and he isn’t sure if he is willing to face the future like this. He’s terrified, and watching Twilight bleed to death in front of him- It feels like the world is marching at its own pace so quickly that Time is stuck watching from afar as everything is taken away from him.

He didn’t go through days upon days of looping to end up like this. It’s supposed to be like Termina, where everyone ends up happy and making memories worth suffering and living for, to have a conclusive finale to their issues or their stories. Through the fire, the ice cold, the sheer pain of being crushed alive, solely for the sake of another day to live- it was worth it.

But this? Every waking moment, he’s going to have to live with Twilight’s life stained on his own hands, his own son of flesh and blood even if not of this timeline who he swore to give a good life, a better life than what his wretched one started as.

“Yo-You’re going to have to accept this, Time,” Twilight wheezes harshly, struggling to breathe. “You can’t keep me here forever.”

It’s almost maddening, how his heart beat is furiously thundering away. He feels warmth on his face, and realizes he’s crying, as drops fall from his face onto Twilight. His head is completely bowed over. Time can smell the rich and putrid smell of drying blood in his boy’s tunic. It’s so intense he doesn’t know if he can forget it- or if Malon will help scrub it out of his head just like the other disturbing memories that have him sleepless every so often.

If she forgives him for letting their own descendent get slaughtered.

It suddenly dawns on him, a trickle of glee vaporizing the agony and pain throbbing in his head. 

The fierce thudding of his heart seems to have disappeared, and there's a soft buzzing noise that’s blocking out all the noisy sounds of the forest. Gone was the invisible weight on his chest, and he feels so free.

In his euphoric haze, he hears a faint thud and looks down. Oh . There’s a large piece of metal on the forest floor besides Twilight. It looks familiar. He can’t seem to remember what it is at the moment, and dismisses it.

A noise distracts him, and he looks up. Twilight’s eyes are wide and brows raised almost to his hairline. His face looks comedic, almost warped and muddled. His mouth’s moving but it sounds like a bunch of random muffled noise as if they were underwater.

He barely registers the slick sound of flesh and blood being sliced, and a wet, wet feeling blossoming in his chest. The pain makes him double over, heaving. He finds a familiar blade stuck through his left lung. He turns his head slightly, and sees a familiar lizalfos before he collapses to the side of Twilight. 

He closes his eyes, and lets the darkness take him, the sounds of the world blurry and whittling down to nothing.