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Time confides in him when they sit by the fire during watch, and Warriors has never felt so heartbroken for someone he has never met. Sure, he had met a young-looking version of Time, but that was Mask, and that was apparently a kid that had already gone through two quests, and been aged up and then aged back down again.
He remembers all the times Mask complained about “not being a kid,” or that “he was an adult,” during the war, and he remembers how many times he had brushed him off, before he had finally been told off for ignoring the kid by Proxi. Wars thought he had understood then, but he was so far off at the time. Turns out, while Mask had shared an overview of his first adventure, and how he had been sent back to the past at the end of it, and that he was older than he looked, he had never even heard a peep about the second adventure, past the fact that is where the Masks came from. He knows Mask had been older than he looked, but there had been a grave underestimation of just how much older Mask was.
Turns out Time has no idea how old he actually is because of this second adventure, and that only through long talks with Malon have they worked out a rough estimate.
Wars had thought that he knew Time, especially as a kid when he was Mask. In all actuality, he had never met the real kid-version of Time, and for all the times he felt bad about sending Mask into an active warzone because he was a kid, there was an even younger version of Link walking out of the forest for the first time like a lamb being led to slaughter. For how innocent he thought Mask was, there was a truly innocent version of Link seeing a stalchild for the first time and not understanding why it was attacking him of all things.
He wonders how hard it was for him to defeat his first boss monster, how hurt he would have gotten. Warriors wonders if there are any scars.
All of a sudden he wants to swaddle the old man into a blanket, hold him close, and never let him out of his sight again. Wars looks up from the fire back to Time, who regards him with a vulnerable look, waiting to see how Warriors respond, still dependent on his reaction to things even now that he is a real adult. Wars wonders that, despite all those extra trauma-inducing years that cloud their knowledge of his real age, if Time ever truly got to be a child, or if he ever truly grew up?
Wars scoots closer to Time and, ever so gently, gathers him into a hug. He uses his hand to guide Time’s head to his shoulder and feels his hair on his cheek.
“I’m so sorry they ever asked that of you, Time.” He whispers into his ear, brows furrowed as he uses all his energy to squeeze as much love into his brother as he can. “Any of it, all of it for that matter, you should have never been asked to do that.”
“You know I had to do it Captain, it was my duty as the hero. There was no other way.” Time whispers back to him, voice shaky with exhaustion and resignation.
All Warriors can think of is a boy younger than ten, led by nothing other than a fairy and a dying wish. He thinks about how that boy was long dead, how Mask and then Time had taken his place, he thinks about how that boy never had the chance to grow up. Sometimes, he hates that Hylia asks so much of them, that she allows her heroes to be as young as they are.
“You also should have been allowed to be a kid. They never even gave you a chance and you still rose to the challenge.” he chuckles wetly, a huff rising from Time as the man pulls from the embrace. Wars backs away to meet his gaze, Time’s eyes glossy with emotion as he smiles.
“You gave me a chance, Wars,” he confesses, and Wars just might start crying.
“I sent you to war. I know you were much older than you looked, but that doesn't change the fact that I was no better than anyone else asking you to fight evil when you were still so young.” He feels the guilt welling deep in his gut, and he wishes all of a sudden more than anything that he could be granted the ability to go back in time. He would gladly take all of Time’s burdens away from him just so he could get the opportunity to be a kid again, to know his real age again.
“You gave me someone to look up to, damn it, you taught me to read, Captain! If it weren’t for you and Tune I don’t know if I would have made it after Termina. I was so fucked up after all of that I don’t know if I ever would have survived to adulthood at all.” Time insists, leaning closer to Warriors.
“Don’t say that Time, you’re just gonna make me feel worse.” Wars really feels the tears now, he already knows that by the end of their watch they will both just be a puddle of tears.
‘After all the time travel and the battle on the moon, I was so disconnected from reality I don’t know how I would have survived past my return to Hyrule.” Time huffs, emotion flooding his voice. “As bad as the war was, it gave me something other than Termina and the past to focus on, and it brought me back to the present. I learned to live in the moment again because of you, Wars.”
Warriors is properly crying now, and he fears that it was inevitable from the beginning.
“I don’t think I’ll ever stop being upset about all of this, Time. I wish you had someone better to pull you back into yourself, maybe not on a battleground eras away from your own.” Warriors replies with defeat, he can admit that Mask grew a lot while he was in the war, but it appeared to be less growth, and more recovery. Time has a tear streaking down his face now, too, and Wars gets the feeling that, after their watch, he will have a cuddle buddy.
Time just laughs, the two of them know they will never truly agree on what the best course of action should have been, but they know better than anyone how much worse it is to dwell on the past, and how important it is to look to the future.
When their watch finally comes to an end, he wakes up Twilight (who was a little confused as to why both Warriors and Time were awake), and goes to lay down as Time shyly pulls his bedroll closer from where it had already been laying out nearby. Wars extends his well worn blanket to Time who bundles in against him. While Wars will never truly understand the enigma who is the Old Man, he fears not even the Old Man himself truly understands himself, he feels like he knows Time so much better than he once believed he did.
Time, despite his dark thoughts, laughs silently to himself from his spot against Wars. (And to think he still doesn’t know about the horrors of the Kakariko well).