Work Text:
Sky loved to fly.
It was as simple as that, he had always flown since as far back as he could remember. Flying was necessary for any skyloftians, being able to fly was a gift from hylia herself, wings created from the feathers of loftwings, the avian race on skyloft was gifted a feather from a loftwing when born. Each person, at around two years old, would sit in the same temple, knelt infront of the hylia statue as an elder pressed the blessed feather against their spines, soon after, their wings would grow. Sure, it wasn't natural, but it was necessary, to survive on skyloft, you had to fly, those who refused to get their wings permanently grounded with those whose wings refused to grow, an uncommon occasion on the small sky islands.
When Sky had first found out wars had wings, he had assumed that he was part of the unlucky few whos wings didnt manage to grow, but no. warriors wings had been stunted in growth due to wearing a constant wing binder during school, and during training for the royal army. His mother, or the woman who acted like his mother, insisted no one was to know of his wings, and had made for him a corset of a sort, binding his wings flat to his back, stopping their growth. Sky thanked hylia everyday his wings grew.
Sky felt free when he flew, he would often soar above the rest of the chain, sure he would have to fly circles around them, making sure he stayed near them at all times. He would often see warriors gazing up at him, as if jealous of skys ability to fly, whilst he remained grounded. Wild sometimes joined him whilst flying, hyrule usually by his side. Wilds unique ability to fly with no wings continued to confuse him, every time he saw the boy floating in air, as if riding on the clouds, he tended to let his mind wander as to how it worked. Unfortunately, they couldn't fly very high with wild, his ability was good, yes, but it was limited.
The first time he had been grounded was during his mission, he had been attacked and injured his wing, preventing him from flying for at least a week. The second time he had nearly died, his wing getting dislocated from landing improperly, causing him to fall off skyloft. Thank Hylia that Sun had caught him on time. Now was by far the worst, he sat in a cave with warriors and four with him, both attempting to lift large rocks away from his fragile wings.
“You doing ok down there?” wars asked, he threw a rock behind him, nearly hitting green with the flying boulder. Green tossed him a distressed look before returning to grabbing some rocks off sky. Unfortunately, sky had been completely trapped under rocks, using his wings to protect his friends from the cave in hadn't been the best idea per say, but it was all he had.
Vio stood off to the side, they had deemed him resident ‘make sure sky’s wings don't get broken’ which unfortunately, was going poorly thus far. Vio gently ran a hand over Skys exposed wings, causing the chosen hero to wince at the painful motion. Retracting his hand, vio looked up at warriors, who was still lifting rocks alongside his brothers.
“At Least two broken so far.” he reported, dusting off his hands. “Hollow bones arent the best when it comes to protecting people. ” sky gave him a defeated look, resting his head on his arms.
“Your very comforting vio.” sky said blandly, vio shrugged.
“I was being nice about it, I could give you my estimate how long you will remain out of the sky for.” he said matter-a-factly. Sky cringed at his words, his pain in his wings preventing him from saying anything more. “Which is around a month so far if we can't get to hyrule soon. If we can get heals soon it could be half a month? But that's only counting for the parts of your wing thats uncovered thus far.” blue glared at his brother.
“It really shows how red got all the empathy here.” vio sighed at his words, the group was all aware of each color's lack of ability to do some things, vio unfortunately suffered from a lack of empathy, red, who was overly empathetic, and so on. “Can you get to getting the rocks off yet or are you going to continue to bless us with your anxiety inducing statistics?” vio picked up the rock closest to him reluctantly, his eyes constantly scanning skys wings as he worked, his face falling slightly as he touched his wing once more.
“Don't say it.” sky said through gritted teeth, vio opened and closed his mouth, reminding sky an awful lot of those fish that wind had showed him in his era. “Just… don't.” he said miserably.
“Apologies?” vio said in a questioning voice, turning to warriors, who raised an eyebrow at the purple tuniced man. “Your the one telling us what our jobs are, should i join this part of the job or…?” warriors nodded, throwing a rock behind him again.
“Just worry about taking the rocks off for now on, then you can check ok?” warriors said tiredly, that's right, wars had taken two shifts the night before due to wind passing out, and wars taking over for him. Wars had not minded then, but surely he minded now that he was running on three hours of sleep.
Nearly an hour was what it took to take all the rocks off, minding Skys brittle bones. If they weren't careful, some of the rocks could have fallen and hit sky, possibly killing him if they weren't careful. Thankfully, he hadn't managed to get his anymore with the careful guidance of warriors. Sky sat up for the first time in at least an hour, his head spinning as he leaned against the cave wall, ignoring the pain in his broken wings. Vio was sat next to him, carefully feeling each bone for any break, according to the rest of the colors, vio had learned to do it while he was away from the group for a while. According to vio, he had sustained multiple injuries during his time away, he had learned it out of his instinct to survive whatever happened during his time away.
Sky didn’t ever miss the side eye the rest of the colors seemed to give him, Vio obviously chose to ignore their stares, but was most definitely aware of it. Vio continued to run his hands down his wings, once in a while fixing a feather that stood out of place.
“Warriors can you come check this one? i believe it’s a hairline fracture but i can’t tell.” Vios exhausted voice came out, warriors obliged, his hands a lot less gentle with sky’s wings then Vios had been.
“I believe your correct vio.” He nodded solemnly. “Sky I can do my best to splint it but it won’t be very pretty until Hyrule gets his hands on you.” Sky sighed, running a hand through his hair, at this point he could hear vios occasionally, two months? Three? Under his breath, it wasn’t meant for sky to hear, but unfortunately he did.
“Can we get moving? It already caved in once, who’s to say it won’t happen again.” Green pointed out, dragging red away from a particularly shiny rock that had caught his eyes. Warriors dusted off his pants and stood next to blue, who hissed in response.
“Good idea green, sky can you stand?” sky grunted in response, using the wall to stand carefully, the pain in his wings and ribs nearly caused him to double over in pain. “I’ll take it as a kinda?” Vio backed away from sky, he wasn’t preferential to people touching him as much as some of the other colors, red being the most touchy of all of them, constantly clinging onto at least one of the chain members. Warriors glanced back at vio before putting an arm under his shoulder, taking his weight without jostling his shoulder too much.
“Vio the other side please?” Vios face showed he would want literally anything but that, but took sky’s other side reluctantly, any contact besides on their shoulders causing him to shudder and flinch away from the others. “Alright, which way should we go? Both ways seem dangerous to me.” He summoned fire on his hand, holding it up to the tunnel in front of them.
“Best way would be that way, there’s a breeze coming from there.” Sky said, glancing to where warriors was lifting the fire to. “Other way is further into the cave.”
“What breeze?” blue asked, he had red clinging to him desperately on his side, the slightly curled hair of the red tuniced one smudged in dirt and grime.
“I don’t feel anything.” Red said from his spot next to blue, “vio? Green?” Green shook his head, vio blankly stared ahead before also shaking his head. “Is something up there vio?”
“I could have sworn I saw… nevermind.” He blinked rapidly before turning to sky, “I trust you on this, if there’s a breeze, we should head that way, it could be an opening or some sort of opening.”
The group followed sky’s directions towards the breeze, I don’t know why they can’t feel it, its not even a weak breeze. Sky mused, warriors light casting shadows around the group, Skys and warriors shadow was obviously there, but as for four, no shadow was put off besides vios, he chose not to dwell on this fact, but caught warriors watching the shadows as well. Green caught on soon after, looking at vio accusingly.
“Vio why do you have your shadow?”
“ What?” Vio asked, he looked around him, before his eyes fell on his own shadow, the shadow impossibly waved to Vio, who’s eyes widened with momentary panic before he narrowed his eyes at it, he ducked under Skys arm, the younger touching the wall where his shadow stood.
“Vio.” Blue warned.
“Think he made the cave, well, cave in?” Blue asked, vio glared at him before turning back to sky and warriors.
“Nevermind, let’s continue. Green take over please.” Green took skys other side where vio had once been, the group now watching vios shadow as it danced behind him, not literally, but seeing how it moved on its own, it probably could.
They continued down the path, coming across an opening where the breeze felt the strongest it had ever been, the others still didn’t feel the breeze, only looking around the cave. It held a mossy floor and interior, flowers and vines growing all about. A small broken down camp stood before them, fire no longer lit, looking as if it hadn’t for a long time. Warriors set sky down on a particularly soft patch of moss, lighting the fire in the center, a panicked yelp filled the air, coming from behind vio. The group turned to face the source of the sound only to be met with a purple haired man, a black hat trailing behind him as he stood next to vio, his darker skin clinging to vios pale skin, his clawed hands holding vios hands tightly.
“Who-“ warriors began, only to be interrupted by the newcomer.
“Vio ! Oh it’s been so long . I was wondering when I could come out! How are you?” He continued to rapid fire questions at the confused blond infront of him. “Who’s those people.” He pointed at sky and warriors, a clawed hand turning vios shoulder and forcing him to face them, his form hiding behind vio who shook slightly. Vios' form was unlike how they usually held himself, confident, calm, not worried. Now they stood before the group, arms face dumbfounded, arms hanging limply at his sides, not fiddling with his outfit or his sword, vios shadow grabbed his forearm and upper arm with a tight hold, looking over his shoulder suspiciously.
“I’m warriors.” Wars stated, his sword in hand, but held to the ground. “That’s sky. I’m assuming you know four right?'' Shadow laughed loudly, his pointed teeth shining brightly against the dark light.
“Of course I know them. Blue, the one who got frozen, green got that massage, and red. Got his sword stolen.” Blue glared at the shadow in mock annoyance.
“And you are…?”
“Vios boyfriend.” He stated wasting no time on a thought. “Technically I’m called shadow link, I promise I’m not dark link.” Vio froze, eyes darting around the cave before they turned a bright red, pushing shadow off them.
“How are you….” Their ears lowered slightly in embarrassment. “Hes… safe. Dont worry.” Warriors gave him one last suspicious look before turning to green.
“So if he’s dating one of you does that mean -“ green shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“They started dating during our adventure with the four swords and such. It was kinda concerning the circumstances they got together under but we learned to not question their trauma bond.” Green shrugged, despite his attempt to look calm, his eyes betrayed him, watching shadow as he clung onto vio. sitting on the moss carpet beneath them, taking his sword out along with a sharpening stone, four claimed it had a name but sky hadn’t bothered to learn it.
“Anyone have food or are we skipping dinner?” Sky yawned, laying down on the awfully comfortable moss, his broken wings splaying behind him. They could deal with this later, sky wanted food.
“I have an apple?” Warriors said helpfully, the group groaned, no dinner it was then. “Whatever, don’t have the apple.” He took a bite of the apple, “do we wait until the group catch’s up with us? I mean that’s what we did with wild and time all that time ago.”
“We don’t have wilds materials, we can’t really handle waiting for long.” Sky sighed, “besides there’s more cave ahead, we can get through that and probably escape that way.” The others say similarly close to the warmth of the fire pit, shadow clinging tightly to vio who stared glumly at the fire.
“We can eat the moss by the way.” He said suddenly, anxiety leaking into his voice. he picked up a handful of the stuff, examining it carefully. “Moss doesn’t have any toxins, and as long as we clean off any dirt we should be fine. It has quite a lot of sugar in it so we can live off it if needed.” He picked at the moss with practiced hands, showing the clean moss he had pried off of the floor.
“I remember you hated moss.” Shadow plucked the moss out of vio’s hand, taking a bite of it, dirt and all. “On the other hand, I thought it was very good.” Sky watched in horror as he ate the rest of the moss that vio had been picking through, he whipped off his mouth with a smile on his face. “Don’t look so shocked… sky right? Yeah, sky. Didn’t always have a good food source, so we had to improvise.”
“All of you had to eat moss?” sky said incredulously, red green and blue shook their heads, red pointing at vio.
“Only vio. And shadow I guess.” She sighed, “we relied on the minish a lot, it’s thanks to them we lived to be honest.” Red picked at some of the moss by her feet, looking less then thrilled to have to eat the moss.
“But you all were together I thought.” Warriors insisted, “why couldn’t vio eat with them? can you not turn into a minish?” Vio shook his head.
“I can. It’s not… it’s not that really.”
“Vio did some things solo.” Green informed them, he had a handful of moss he was now picking at. “Wars do you have any more apples?”
“Oh now you want some apples.” Warriors grumbled, taking out enough for the group, “wild let me use his stash so I grabbed a bunch a bit ago, if their damaged don’t blame me, it’s better then moss.” He threw the core behind him, landing on the moss with a quiet noise barely noticeable. Sky groaned as he picked himself up from the ground, his wings ached. Infact, most of his body hurt, with how many rocks crashed on them, he wouldn’t doubt he was covered in bruises by morning come.
The colors took their apples gratefully, the group falling to silence as they ate their small, but well needed meal. They counted their food supplies and water levels, all had around half a container besides shadow, who claimed he didn't need to drink water, nor eat. But infact he did it since he enjoyed it. The six, now seven of them, agreed sleeping would be nice and all, but getting out of there and getting hyrules help for sky was more important at the moment. With a makeshift splint made by warriors, the group trudged on through the cave, interrupted\ only by shadows giggling and chatting with vio, which seemed very one sided at the second.
By an hour into the walk, the others had started to feel the wind as well, light barely showing through the rocks ahead of them as they reached an opening in the ground. The open air never felt so good in sky’s opinion, if it weren’t for his broken wings he would have jumped for joy. The open Forrest around them was dense, so dense in fact that they couldn’t see through it for the most part. The cave had opened into a clearing, the only visible clearing in the dark Forrest around them.
“Well isn’t this great.” Shadow commented, looking at the lit area from his spot in the cave. “Can someone cover me for just about ten seconds? Thanks sky!” He grabbed sky, he stood dumbfounded, before walking to the tree line, shadow walking beside him in the shadow of his own.
“Alright, where to next?” Warriors said, “everywhere has this thick brush, and i think those are thorn bushes over there.” he examined the bushes carefully, reaching a hand into the brush and pulling out a cut up hand, holding it up to sky.
“You didn't have to do that. We could see the thorns wars.” sky said blandly, warriors rolled his eyes at him, holding his hand out once again to sky.
“Its not that, look, i grabbed this one.” sky took his hand with his own looking at the thorn held in warriors hand, black liquid oozed out of the thorn from where it had hit warriors armor. “Remind you of anything?”
“Gimmie!” Shadow grabbed the thorn out of warriors hands, startling him. Vio stood behind him in the trees, holding a mushroom dripping with the same ooze. “See! I told you everythings cursed!" Shadow handed the thorn to Vios reluctant hand, who held them up next to one another. “So? Is it the same?”
“Shadow you should really ask before-” Green started, before being interrupted by vio.
“It is. Its the same,” vio pulled out a cloth from his pocket, the cloth had splatters of black blood over it, he put the three items next to one another, laying them on the ground. “Look, same shade, same everything. But why would these plants be infected?” vio crouched next to the plants they had laid out, shadow hovered over their shoulder, hiding in the small shadows that the trees had cast over their boyfriend.
“Maybe its because of a certain someone being here.” warriors whispered, only loud enough for Sky to hear, sky nodded at him, glancing at the shadow like figure of four that stood over Vio, vio himself tensed up at every moment that shadow made behind them, whether it just be messing with their hair, or fixing vios shirt, vio looked nervous. Which was weird to think seeing as the purple member of the chain seemed to always be the most calm and composed, even more then warriors or time.
“You think?” sky whispered back, glancing at shadow once more. “What even happened. Plus, where are the rest of the chain?” warriors shrugged.
“Come on vio, it's not too bad! I think running around in the woods would have been fun! Plus we could find some cool mushrooms!” shadow said suddenly, the groups heads spun around to face the two, vio was struggling against shadows grip on his wrist,his attempt to drag them into the forest was failing miserably.
“Let go shadow!” vios eyes were wide as they strained against Shadows hold. “Im trying to figure this out, give me a minute.” shadow finally let go of their arms, sulking back into the forrest in disappointment. Vio sighed and used a knife they had produced from their pouch, cutting the mushroom in half. The mushroom spurted out some inky blood, spilling all over the grass, which promptly decayed under the mushroom.
“Well that's new.” sky pointed out, warriors nodded at him.
“You can say that again, what would happen if someone touched it?” warriors idly wondered aloud. Vio pulled off his archers gloves, something only him and wild actually owned, which confused most of the chain. Sky remembered asking what it was when he first saw wild using them, he had explained it was used for when he was using a bow and arrow, vio had similarly explained it to him, his own looking similar yet alot more worn down, since he had been using it alot longer then wild had been, his only a year old compared to around six years.
Vio dropped the glove off onto the grass beneath them, reaching a hand to the blood only to meet a myriad of panicked voices, including skys own pained grunt. Vio looked up at the group, his hand still hovering over the blood.
“Vio don't touch it! You saw what it did to the ground!” red shrieked, grabbing vios hand away from the black ooze. His brother gave a questioning look towards him, staring at the group with an expression that just read why.
“If we touch it in this controlled environment, we could know the dangers of the black blood to us. Its never done this before right? So why not test it.” vio slapped his hand away, now that shadow wasn't hanging onto him, he seemed to be a lot more like their usual color they had grown to know and love. Vio shoved his hand into the puddle of blood, cringing back in pain as he removed his hand.
“Vio! Are you ok?” shadow called from the trees, vio grit his teeth, examining his hand carefully. Black tendrils of blood trailed along his hand, around the tendrils his skin was red and angry, the burns looked similar to those of a burn from acid, something sky had seen once due to wilds own curiosity.
“Im. fine.” he said, examining the burns carefully, “so it does affect any life form, not only plants. Im guessing its an acid of a sort? Shadow do you recognise this?” shadow bounded forward, leaning over vios shoulder and grabbing his hand, ignoring his flinch.
“Hmmm…” He ran a finger down the burns on vios hand, ignoring the pained cry that vio barely managed to hold back, “it looks like my blood, but different?” blue rolled his eyes at shadows statement, “my blood has more of a purple tint, this looks a bit more red.” he sniffed the blood on vios hand, “it smells weird.”
“Its blood. ” warriors stated calmly, shadow rolled his eyes. “Vio we should really make sure-”
“Hush. but, Yeah no shit, but like- it smells really weird. Like not like hylian blood, or my blood. I don't know what it is.” He sat back, slightly away from vio. “That’s part of dark links whole thing right? The black blood?”
“Yeah, apparently wilds world also has all black blood, but we’re not sure how connected that is.” Warriors explained, peaking into the brush once more. “Yeah there’s no way of getting out right now, cutting those branches will get that black ooze everywhere, and we can’t risk a bunch of acid burns.” Warriors sighed, defeated. “With sky out of flying, we’re kinda trapped here for a bit.”
“Welp, get comfortable, hopefully the chain finds us soon.” Blue laid on the floor, hands behind his head ina mock pillow fashion.
“ If they find us.” red said mournfully, clutching desperately onto greens tunic. Green had seemingly accepted his brothers non stop holding onto him and settled onto the floor next to red.
“They should be able to, its not Hylia would put us in different worlds right?” warriors settled next to sky, dragging him to the floor next to him. “Dont move im going to fix your feathers. Might make it a bit more comfortable.” Sky wished he could spread his wings for warriors, but with all the broken bones, the simplist movements were tortured and near impossible. “I’ll move them ok? Just- don’t scream?” No promises he wanted to say, but no words came out.
“I could try and shrink to minish form and check out the area outside of the thorns, see if anyone’s there?” Vio suggested, shaking off shadow once more.
“It seems dangerous, let blue do it! We can’t let you risk yourself.” Shadow stated, appearing in the shadow closest to blue and dragging him to his feet, grabbing him and slowly dragging him into the thorny woods behind bim.
“Absolutely not! its vios idea so vio does it. End of story.” He shoved shadow away from him, sitting further from the shadowy ground.
“Better idea! Me and vio both go! ill protect him from any danger, and we get some alone time- “
“I’ll be going alone.” Said a quiet voice, where vio stood now sat a small minish with a purple cloak, “I’ll be back within the hour. If I’m not back by then, send blue after me.” He quickly scampered into the bushes, avoiding the thorns before disappearing from their line of veiw.
“It’s almost like he’s trying to avoid me.” Shadow commented, the group groaned, this would be a long hour.
—
How was shadow back? Vios only thought ran about their head almost as quickly as he scampered through the bushes, their hand ached from the severe burns they had sustained from the black blood. Their sword no longer the impressive size it usually was, now the size of a toothpick, ineffective against anything but monsters their size, which based on this world? There wouldn’t be any his size.
Once they reached a good distance away from the thorns and the group, they finally retransformed into their normal form, sinking down against the nearest tree. Fuck. He fully thought, their shoulder burned from where shadow had touched them, their entire body burned from where he had placed his ganon made hands on them. They could still hear the words ‘my boyfriend’ ringing in the back of their head. It had been six years since they dated, if you could even call it that. The two were a partnership, vio had agreed to date him during it, mistaking his feelings of longing for his brothers as want for shadow. Realistically, it made no sense, but vio during that time was different.
Vio had been starved during that time, beaten bloody and broken by Vaati when he practiced for his inevitable fight with his brothers. He spent over a month pretending to be on shadows side, only three days in had shadow asked to date, before long, shadow would grab him, hold onto him at all times, the burning of physical touch hurt. He hated the feeling of others even looking at him most of the time, his brothers tending to avoid looking at him if possible. Only because they cared. Shadow had continually held his hand, hugging him, holding him as if vio was his lifeline, which at times was true. Vio would often use his shield to cast a shadow over him, allowing him to explore the world more.
The first time shadow had kissed him, he had a panic attack. Shadow had pranced off after the kiss, probably to report to Vaati on where the rest of four was. But left his own boyfriend, his best friend, in a daze, unable to even understand what had happened. He remembered hiding in his room for days, unable to comprehend what shadow had done, did he curse him? Does he know? Was thoughts that had crossed his head, fours body and mind was only twelve at maximum, maybe even less. They were never sure, with so much Happening, they had lost track of their own age for a while, now they only guessed they were eighteen.
Vio didn’t understand why he didn’t enjoy physical contact, realistically, he should like contact, their brothers all liked it, red was like shadow, he clung to the others like a moth to light. Green and blue tried to claim they hated it, but always clung to others whenever they could. Vio just outright dented any physical contact, anyone who touched him would receive a glare, then slapping their hand away or anything of the sort to get them far from vio. But why couldn’t he touch others? Why was it that every time someone even had a feather-like touch to his skin, he felt like he was burning. Like every touch was a raging fire against his skin that had been rendered invulnerable to said fire?
He hasn’t noticed the cuts that he kept digging his fingers into, the large scars running down his arms in the common way he would hold himself, the gauges in his skin held a red tone on the healed over scars, one’s he had started when they first split, when the four got separated and he joined Vaati. He remembered the first time it bleed horribly was after shadow gave him a hug, he agreed to be his boyfriend, and during a later panic attack, had caused deep gauges in his arms. It had taken months for them to scar over, over the years they reopened many times. Most of the time due to his brothers grabbing him, or due to a PTSD attack as red had deemed it. (See? He didn’t know everything blue, he was absolutely clueless when it came to his own mental health!)
The red angry gashes didn’t bleed, although he could have sworn his hand were covered in blood. He swore he saw red droplets beading up and running down his hand, tracing the lines of his new burns along his hand. The red blood soon turned to black, vios eyes widened as his panic furthered, retracting his hands and whipping them against his tunic, the black smearing and spreading across his tunic. Nearly half of his tunic was covered by the time he was able to move again, ripping off his over tunic in a panic, throwing it far away from him. His fingertips slowly but surely faded into a black color similar to the blood smeared on his shirt, corrupted. The places where shadow had touched him burned even more he couldn’t see from the hot fire he felt in his arms, his shoulders, his lips- no? Shadow didn’t kiss him? Yet he felt the sensation he once felt with him, the burning panic and sensation over his mouth from the kiss that shadow had given him.
He felt it along his back, the burning spreading in certain spots, around his ankle where shadow had lifted it once, noticing his limp. He has wrapped and splinted the ankle for Vio, holding it all the while. His wrists ached, shadow had grabbed them once before he kissed vio, shoving him against the wall so he wouldn’t move. He remembered how much he hated it, how bad his arms burned that day. How he couldn’t move for an hour from his spot on the floor, covering his mouth and gripping his hair as he tried not to make a sound while he panicked. Shadow always was quick, it never escalated past kissing, they were kids. Yet shadow saw him as a full adult, as most adults saw him. They would always remind themselves that shadow grew up around adults who forced him to act like he was twenty rather then twelve like them. Shadow had claimed he saw couples doing it when he went to a bar once, that's where he learned that move. Why he was slowed in a bar still concerned vio to that day.
His entire torso hurt, memories of shadow hugging him from behind, scaring him after long days of basically torture. They had once punched him, drawing his sword in panic before realizing who it had been. He didn't stop apologizing for days after that. Shadow would go onto snuggle with him at night, holding him tightly from behind as if to assure that he has his back. Quite literally a lot of the time.
The scars along his arms ached, the scars on his legs from where Vaati had snapped them, letting bones make their way through his skin before healing him with some sort of dark magic, the dark markings had faded for the most part over time, yet still remained there, enough that vio couldn’t take off his shirt or any part of his outfit around people, even in emergency’s. Shadow had traced the dark magic lines along his scars, along his own self inflicted scars as well, tracing stars around his scars. Each line was remembered, each line burning into his skin like a hot iron. Yet, no mark was left along his skin. He felt his face burn, hand prints along his cheeks from where shadow had held him once, making him look directly into his eyes as vio had panicked about his brothers, he thought he may have killed Green accidentally.
He felt his hands burn the most, they had held hands all to often, he never liked holding hands, his brothers tried to all to often, commonly grasping at his hand when in need of their own comfort. Vio couldn't give that comfort, Vio wasn't a ‘comforting’ person, more often then not he lacked the common ability to tell what people were feeling at times, his brothers tried so hard to get some sort of advice from him, something of the sort that could help. But vio couldn't, he didn't understand common hylian emotions most of the time. Sure he had his own, he did feel things unlike what some thought. Unlike what vaati had thought. Vaati had assumed he was emotionless, assumed he couldn't feel a single thing, saw his brothers as weak and emotional, saw him as… heartless and cold. The calm and collected one, the only one with brains, he was the only one that really mattered in Vaatis eyes, he wouldn't be a liability like he had claimed red to be, to emotional, to feeling as vaati had put it.
He wasn't a hot head like blue was, he wouldn't do anything rash, he thought of his moves before he made them, calculating each carefully, making out each possible move he could do, what he thinks they could end with. Blue always thought his overthinking was ridiculous, always criticizing how he would shout out moves to make, which way to strike. He remembered many times he and blue had fought over how much he overthought the fights, how much he would direct whoever controlled the body at the second. Red had always appreciated it, but more often then not he wouldn't be incharge during battles. Green didn't comment much on it, but blue was very vocal on his thoughts.
Green was seen as too weak, he wasn't partially one specific thing like the others, he wasn't the brains or the brawns like vio or blue, he wasn't the main emotional one like red, he was just link. Green was the closest thing to the original link they had, he was the jack of all trades, master of none sort of situation. He had the strength, the fiery passion, only second to Blue himself. He was emotional, feeling and showing alot more feelings then the others, only red beating him in that. He was smart, he was the only person vio could talk to when it was on the subject of strategies, or on the subject of literally anything above basic level knowledge. Green was genuinely, a smart guy, only second to Vio himself. But that wasn't good enough for Vaati, nothing was ever good enough for Vaati. No matter how much Vio tried to impress him, even if just to lessen punishments and training for a day, he never satisfied Vaatis wants, he couldn't beat Shadow as easily as Vaati wanted him to. He couldn't always accurately predict the rest of fours position like Vaati so wanted him to.
Yet Vaati had seen him as fit for being taken, to be on his side, to ‘bring him to the shadows.’ As Vaati had put it, despite him not being the strongest, he was seen as the one necessary to his plan. Vio felt a dull cold nip at his ears, the feeling of Vaatis hand gripping his ear tightly as he dragged him out of his room, bringing him to training on multiple occasions. He felt the dull cold on top of the burning heat of where shadow had held him, he almost wanted to go back into the burning heat, wanting the cold numbness across his body to disappear. Whilst the warmth of shadows touches were unbearable, the now membrane of Vaati's hands, his fists, anything, chilled him to the bone. Why now? Why was this happening now?
Vio had never been able to explain what they had gone through during his time with Vaati, the others of four had asked time and time again, begging him to explain what he had to do just to help them take Vaati down. How were you supposed to explain that you were denied the basic human needs, food, sleep, a safe place to live. How was he supposed to tell him what Vaati had done to him?
Vio wasn't good with words other than explaining facts, explaining books, explaining what each thing meant. They could explain the entire history of Skyloft better than Sky even could, they could explain the exact makeup of plants, what they did, what creatures were allergic to them. They could explain philosophies of all sorts, could recite prophecies from the past. But they could never find the words to explain what they went through with Vaati. His brothers had seen his panic, his moments where he would just sit there, staring at his hands while he tried to think, trying to comprehend what had happened. They had begged him to tell them what was wrong, what happened, just so they could help, yet he just couldn't find the words.
Vio was cold.
He was freezing. The familiar chill of vaati's hold gripped over him just like it had back when he was working with him. The hold that he dreaded, the hold that had held onto him tightly for a month of his life. He didn't like that hold, they didn't enjoy the cold. Or was it hot? Was the touch so hot, so burning that it felt cold? He often had wondered that, whether it truly was cold or too hot for his body to comprehend. Their brothers had questioned him on why he panicked the first time he had been in the cold again. How do you tell people that someone feels cold? That every time they touched Vio it felt to leave a cold mark on him? How do you explain to someone that every touch they made left a residual feeling? That touching him left electrical sparks running though his nervous system, left a burning sensation on his skin?
No matter how much he researched, he couldn't find anything on what was going on with him, he looked, he searched. Yet nothing could tell him outright, this is what is wrong with you. Now heres how to help you. Nothing like that of course, because why would it ever be that easy for him?
—
“So, what happened? Like– between them?”
“Huh?” green turned to Sky, looking at him in confusion. “Oh, Vio and Shadow right?” he glanced at the spot that shadow had disappeared to.
“Yeah, Shadow seems to think their dating right? But vio looks super uncomfortable. I've never seen him like that.” warriors nods at skys words, they hadn't known vio for long, nor any of the colors, but they understood the general way that each of the colors acted. Vio never acted like this, he was calm, collected, sarcastic nearly all the time. Yet, this entire time, since Shadow had gotten there, he hasn't made a sarcastic remark once.
“Their not dating.” Blue said suddenly, taking a sip from his waterskin. “I don't think vio ever even liked him.” he shrugged. “Besides, even if he did, Shadow died, or at least we thought he had died.”
“How did they even get together? I mean isn't he like- your dark link or something?” red nodded. He had his head on blues lap, the later, who usually would push him off, was braiding his hair as he spoke.
“Vio left us for a while. A month right? He joined on Shadows side, or rather, Vaati's side, to try and get information on how to take them down.” green explained, picking at his nails from his spot at the fire they had set up. “They still refuse to tell us what happened while they were with them. All we know is that since then, Vio changed a lot.” green plucked a few blades of grass out of the ground, tearing it up slowly. “I mean i get it, we were split from one person right? Reds emotional, Blues the brute, and vios the brains. He's genius ya know?” he laughed slightly. “But emotionally? Hes an idiot, took us months to even get him to tell us that he was scared of the dark, even though it was obvious.”
“A man who was dating a shadow, is scared of the dark?” Sky said incredulously.
“I think shadows the reason that hes scared of the dark.” Blue stated, tying off the braid on reds head. “Its one of the only things he told us.”
“What else did he tell you?”
“You know how we said he ate moss earlier? He had told us that he had to eat alot of weird things to survive. Moss, leaves, berries he was hoping wasnt poison. Thats all he said.” green hummed, tossing a few pieces of torn grass into the fire. “We were eating great in comparison, Reds our resident chef, i mean not as good as wild, no offense, but he was decant enough that we could live. Anyways, red was making genuine food for us each night you know?”
“Your being a bit nice about decant.” blue groaned. “Unseasoned meat, flatbread, and eggs isnt decant after months of eating it.” red swatted at blues hand lightly, his face holding a mock sad expression.
“At Least it wasn't the pancakes.”
“At Least it wasn't your pancakes.”
—-
“Vio?” was he hearing things? Vio vaguely looked around the area near him, head spinning from the pain coating his body, he couldn't register who had called for him, the mystery voice getting louder and louder as whoever it was got closer. Didn't i tell them that i was doing this alone? He idly wondered, dragging his hands off his arms, the red angry marks from his nails marking up the skin around his scars now blaring in his face.
“hey! Vio! You wouldn't believe all the trouble i just ran into trying to find you!” shadow. Of course it was him. Shadow crouched in front of him, grabbing his wrists, a burning sensation once more filling his arms, electrical currents seemed to run through his hands as the tight grip on his hands only seemed to get tighter. “Hey, what gives? I thought you were lookin around the area for us? Why are ya just sitting here moping?'' Shadow laughed lightly. “Last time i saw you like this was when we were with Vaati!” let go. Vio couldn't bring himself to speak, frozen in pain as the cold faded out, replaced by an idle burning sensation only on his arms. Only worsening by the second.
“Woah were you crying?” shadow grabbed his cheek, lifting his face to look at him, had he been crying? Vio hasn’t noticed. They lifted a hand to their cheek, finding wetness under his eyes. He scrubbed his eyes wildly, ignoring the electrical shock like feel as he violently hid the little emotion he had shown. Shadow sat down in front of him, moving closer too vio slightly. He held his hands tightly, preventing him from gripping at his oh so scared up arms like he always had.
“Vio what-“
“ Don't touch me. ” Their voice was weak, barely coming out as more then a whimper. His voice never had sounded so weak, he had never sounded so vulnerable.
“Vio.” Shadow retracted his hands with a hurt look on his face. “Did i do something—? Did you not want them to know what—“ shadow said quickly, his eyes widening in panic as he stared at Vio.
“It burns. ” Vio managed out, his arms flew to grip along the scarred marks on his arms, shadows eyes followed them, but didn’t make any move to touch him in fear of causing more panic to them.
“Your hand?” Shadow guessed. Vio shook their head. “Did you get hurt somewhere else?” He said in sudden alarm, vio shook his head once more. “Vio i don't understand, what’s going on?”
“It burns when you touch me.” Vio choked out a sob, he finally admitted it aloud, the one thing he had never been able to say. “It burns when anyone touches me.” Shadow froze, eyes narrowing as he tried to make sense of what vio had said.
“It… burns?” He muttered, looking at his own hands. “It doesn’t actually leave a mark right? Im not actually burning you right?!” Shadows mutters turned into panicked shouts, no doubt herd from the camp. “Vio please tell me i'm not doing that.”
“Your not- burning my skin, but it feels like it. Every touch… it makes it worse. My brothers, the chain, you, anyone.” Vio stated, breathing deeply as he tried to regain his composure, “i've tried… i've tried to figure out why it hurts, but there's nothing.” He inhaled sharply, the pain in his wrists had begun to fade slowly like the rest of the burns had faded.
“Let me get this straight.” Shadow coughs, “every time someone touches you it feels like you're being burnt alive. And you told… no one?”
“I didn’t want them to see me as.. less? As broken. I mean, who can't handle a hug? A simple high five? Some days i can't even deal with metal touching my skin,or most fabrics, how are you supposed to hear that and not think I was crazy?” Vio said glumly, his nails dug deeper into his arms, “some days i can't even let my own skin touch itself, i tried to move my hair and it burned.” He laughed humorlessly.
“Your not fucking broken vio.” Shadow said matter of factly. “We’re all a little messed up from the adventure. I mean you’ve seen your brothers right? They didn’t get off Scot free either right? So why wouldn’t they be broken if you were? Wait no that came out wrong, you get what im saying right?” Shadow looked as if he was physically restraining himself from hugging vio, it was a common tactic he had when he was comforting people. As a shadow, he clung to things, he was always attached to four in some way, he needed to be touching people at all times, yet here vio was, someone who if he did touch, he would cause physical pain to.
“Shadow while i appreciate the sentiment, its fine. You can tell me its all wrong.” He sighed, numbly looking at shadow. “You know i've snuck into libraries in many other Hyrules, right? Just seeing if they figured out what it was later on, twilights hyrule didn’t, Legend and Hyrule’s hyrule didn’t. Times didn’t, warriors didn’t. Sky’s obviously didn’t. Winds doesn’t have libraries, and we haven’t seen wilds, but based on what i've seen so far, nothing will change.” He felt the burn of his own hands touching his skin slowly fading in, he retracted his hands and let them lay by his sides, a worried glance crossed over Shadows face.
“When we visit there, I’ll help you search ok?” Shadow said, his eyes sad with guilt of causing Vio so much pain. “Ill even help you tell the others ok? Even if its just one at a time.” Shadow promised, standing up and dusting himself off. “Now do you want to stay here, get back to camp to sleep? It’s almost been an hour, i looked around earlier and didn’t see anything so i think that ends that.” Shadow went to offer vio his hand before cringing away, backing up slightly as he saw the instant flaw in his method. “Does it hurt if its through fabric?”
“Depends.” Vio said roughly, standing with the aid of the tree. “What fabric, how much pressure, how long.” Vio waved his hand as if to motion that the list went on, which in fact it did. “Where their touching me, with what body part.” He dusted off some moss and dirt from his tunic and pants, cringing as a burning sensation filled his hands before dying back down.
“We should really have a doctor check all of this out.” Shadow commented idly, pushing back a branch from in front of him. “Maybe they could help.” Vio shrugged, pulling his knife out and looking at himself, thankfully his face wasn’t very puffy, sure it had slight tinges of red around his eyes and nose, but otherwise he looked normal. Shadow pushed back some thorns in front of them, not minding how the thorns pierced his skin. No bloody marks or trails left behind on shadow, perks of not being fully there. Vio Made his way through the small path cleared by shadow, nearly resorting to turn into a minish multiple times when the thorns got to close for comfort.
Eventually they made it back to camp, the group quietly talking amongst themselves as they noticed their arrival. They waved at them, motioning for them to sit near the fire.
“Anything close?” Warriors asked.
“Not that we saw. All Forrest and thorns. Best chance is to go back through the cave and go check out the other end, it has to be better then here right?” Shadow said, stopping vio from saying anything. “Vio ill get your sleeping bag ok? Where do you keep it?” Vio pulled a small floor bed out of his bag, one the size of his minish form. Whilst most of four would stay in hylian form at night, opting to share with one of the other chain members most nights if they were seperated. Vio liked to find a small tree hole and stay in minish form, it was away from others and none of his brothers tended to sleep in the form, or bother finding him until morning. Shadow raised an eyebrow at it before sighing.
“I sleep in minish form, its nicer that way.” He walked over to one of the tree stumps in the clearing, that one in particular had a small hole around the bottom that he deemed was made by a minish before it was abandoned. The familiar ripping feeling as his body dissolved into light before reappearing in the small form he picked up the blanket and cot with a little difficulty, pushing it into the house, which by now he deemed 100% minish made. No one was in said house, thankfully it looked abandoned. He dropped it near the exit and made the bed to how he always liked it. He heard the idle chatter among the group before they all set up their own beds. Before long it was silent besides the occasional snore from sky.
Finally. Some peace, and quiet.