Chapter Text
He won’t admit it, but so many jumps in a row has wiped Wild out . It’s less about physical effort, and more about the emotional high he’s been riding all day. It’s great, and it’s a lot, but he wants to collapse somewhere. He can wait until nighttime, though.
Four follows Wild up the steps to Time and Malon’s porch, then through the front door. Four’s arrival means that everyone‘s here. Everyone, plus Malon and Dawn and Sun, which is everyone minus Marin, Wild thinks. And Flora, but she’s on her way.
They’ve all settled down around the dining table with coffee and sandwiches, mostly of the Legend’s-jam variety. Finished pies and bread and salads and dips wait on the counter, ready to be devoured the next day.
Wind’s the first to notice them walk in, and he punches the air with a cheer. “Hey! It’s Four!”
Most of them look over to call out greetings, though Legend and Warriors are arguing about …bees?… and barely turn to wave. Wild snorts and plops himself down on the bench next to Twilight, bumping their shoulders as he reaches for one of the sandwiches.
Four dumps his bag and shoes in the pile by the door and glances over the stack of weapons, since most of them brought one or two. He looks up to raise his eyebrows at Twilight, who quickly looks away and tries in vain to hide behind Wild.
“I haven’t had time,” Twilight says, attempting to stave off Four’s disappointment at his lacking sword maintenance.
“No time, our foot.” Four snorts as he takes the chair they’ve left for him. He stands on the seat to pull one of the platters of sandwiches closer to him. His first bite is literally half the sandwich.
Wild smiles as he finishes up his own first sandwich. The sweet jam and honey soak into the crevices of his teeth, where he knows he’ll be tasting it for hours. He grabs another sandwich, while Twilight stands to refill coffee mugs. Nobody can stop smiling, even Legend, who’s trying really hard to frown.
“Hi, Four!” Hyrule’s sitting right next to him on a bench that also holds Dawn. “It’s good to see you, how are you?”
Four swallows his bite. “Fantastic. We’re so glad to be here, we’ve missed you all so much. Nice hair, by the way.”
As he has every time someone has commented on it, Hyrule turns pink. “Thanks.”
Wild suspects that everyone knows that Hyrule will blush, and that’s part of why they compliment his hair. Not that it doesn’t deserve compliments. Wild almost wishes his own hair had curls like that, though it would be harder to take care of. The blush is a reason for the compliment, all on its own.
“We’re also very glad to see that your hand is still attached,” Four adds.
Hyrule rubs his face. “Will you all never let me live that down? It was once!”
“…twice,” Dawn corrects with a smile on her face, and Wind cackles. “The same hand.”
“You didn’t mention that in your letters,” Time says dryly, nodding his thanks as Twilight comes around with the coffee. Wild shakes his head as Twilight gets to him, turning the caffeine down.
“It wasn’t important,” Hyrule pouts. He hides his face behind his mug.
Four takes a mug of his own and starts in on another sandwich. “Pretty sure that does qualify as important, actually. Anyone have any other very important things to tell us before we get mad at you?”
The table goes quiet. Wild keeps chewing—his only news involves his arm, and him and Flora figuring out some tech. Everyone knows all that by now. They wouldn’t be here if not for the tech, and his arm is pretty obvious.
“I have reading glasses?” Twilight volunteers, sitting back down. “Um…”
Wind cackles. “You’re getting old.”
“No, I’m not!”
“That doesn’t excuse you from Blue’s wrath about your sword,” Four says, laughing, “but Vio has reading glasses, too, so…”
“Vio has glasses?” Hyrule asks, sounding confused. “But Four doesn’t?”
Four shakes his head and sounds a little defensive. “It’s not that bad, honestly. We told him to stop reading in the dark, but noooo .”
Wild sees Sky stand up and head for the pile of bags at the door as the chatter breaks out again. Sun and Dawn seem to be getting along swimmingly, chatting about their respective Hyrules and the things Heroes do. Dawn’s clearly shy, but Sun is nice, and Dawn is starting to break out of her shell a bit.
After digging in his bag for a second, Sky approaches the table again with a stack of paper in his hands, the envelopes Wild had seen him filling. Sky interrupts Time and Four’s conversation when he drops envelopes on the table in front of them. He continues around the group, giving one to Hyrule, Wind, Wild, Twilight, Legend, and Warriors. The last envelope hits the table just as Time opens his.
Malon gasps and takes the paper out of Time’s hands. “Sky, is this your handwriting? It’s beautiful!”
“Thank you, Miss Malon,” Sky says, sitting back down by Sun. “I’ve written out way too many of these, the last few days.”
“You’re really getting married,” Legend says, staring down at his own envelope as if he still can’t believe it.
Wild pulls his own announcement out of the envelope and tilts it back and forth to admire the way the golden ink in the corners shimmers.
Twilight laughs once. “Hey. We can actually go. We can actually go!”
“Yeah, we can,” Wild agrees, yawning. “Yaaaay.” He hopes he sounds excited enough. He is very excited. He's just tired, too.
“Why did you wait so long to hand these out?” Wind asks, half-dismayed and half-delighted.
“Hey, I came clean once everyone was here! I don’t want Four mad at me any more than you do.” Sky laughs and takes Sun’s hand on top of the table.
“We can’t be mad at you,” Four tells him. “These are beautiful.” He leans over to compare his announcement to Hyrule’s. Wild glances at Twilight’s to do the same—besides a few differences in the flourishes and the fact that they were obviously handwritten, they look virtually the same. His eyelids are drooping in the absence of coffee, but it’s getting late anyway, so… it’s fine.
Warriors agrees. “Top-notch work, Sky, really. You have training in calligraphy, too?”
“I taught him everything he knows,” Sun says with a grin, bumping her shoulder up against Sky’s.
Sky looks embarrassed. “My hand hurts from doing it all.”
“Oh!” Warriors perks up with a positively evil expression. “On that note, I have a few bits of advice for—”
“Okay,” Time interrupts, standing with a somewhat panicked tone in his voice. Wild sniggers, propping his head up on his hands as he struggles to stay awake.
Wind’s own giggles chorus in. “No, no, I wanna hear this, old man. Buzzkill.”
With a groan, Hyrule drops his head onto the table. “Wiiiiind,” he says, voice muffled. The points of his ears turn bright red.
“I think it’s time for bed,” Twilight decides, speaking over Warriors trying to give ‘advice’ again.
Wild agrees. The world unfocuses, and he finds himself leaning up against Twilight, a not-uncommon habit for him, two years ago. His shoulder feels the same, if a bit less furry. “Mhmm…”
Other people are saying things, and Wild’s so glad to hear them, but he can’t keep his eyes open or his ears focused. Someone’s laughing. Wild can’t tell who.
He’s already fallen asleep.