Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Two years have passed, two years to the month. It’s a long time—about seven hundred days, sixty-three million some-odd seconds. Everyone is just a little bit different, a little older and a little taller. 

Despite the years and the changes, Time finds that his boys are still utterly predictable when it comes to waking up. 

Warriors and Twilight are up with the sun, ready and willing to help Time and Malon begin their daily chores. Or, more accurately, Twilight actually helps milk the cows and fill the pig troughs, while Warriors tries for about five minutes and spends the rest of the hour chatting. 

“You’re not helping very much,” Twilight says, picking up the milk bucket and taking it over to the larger tub. “Hands too soft, pretty boy?”

“I admit, my good sir,” Warriors excuses with a grin, “I’m out of practice with all this hard labor. My muscles are finely honed for the fine art of combat.”

Twilight scoffs. “Oh really? Hopefully your finely honed muscles won’t protest too much if I ask you to move these buckets, huh?”

“Alas, they just might.”

Time and Malon share an eye roll, then Malon heads inside, and Time leans up against a wall by the water pump where Twilight’s rinsing his boots. The previous night’s rain has turned much of the dirt on the ranch to mud, though it’s drying now. 

“Hey, Wars,” Time calls. “Come grab some buckets and help me fill up the horse’s water.”

Warriors turns with a winning smile, his teeth and his hair glowing in the morning fog. “So sorry, old man. Like I just told Twi here, I’m a little out of practice.”

“Afraid of an honest day’s work?” Time straightens. 

“I do plenty of honest work,” Warriors shoots back, “training and organizing. It’s very hard.”

“Prove it.” Time throws a dented metal bucket at Warriors’s head. He knows from experience that depth perception is very important to tracking things through the air, but Warriors has learned, and manages to catch the bucket before it messes up his hair. 

Warriors grumbles but helps to fill up the buckets, and the two of them head out to the stables to water the horses. Though Time supervises, Warriors doesn’t miss when he reaches for things or dumps water. He’s adjusted well to missing an eye, and Time’s proud of him. 

Wild’s out of bed next. He’s not the earliest riser—especially after being so tired that he falls asleep on Twilight’s shoulder, like he did last night—but he wanted a feast today, and a feast he’s clearly going to make. He’s begun the day with stacks of French toast, humming to himself as he goes. The smell of cooked eggs drifts through the house. 

Wild looks up when Twilight, Time, and Warriors get back into the kitchen, and points at them with the wooden paddle he’s using to flip the toast. 

“Wash your hands,” he orders. “And then eat as much as you can handle.” 

“But what if I want to save room for dinner?” Twilight laughs, dunking his hands in the basin. 

Wild considers that. “I guess that’s all right. But don’t you dare even think about being hungry.” 

Time gets handed a plate of toast topped with what looks like yet more of Legend’s strawberry jam, and takes the spot next to Malon on the couch. An empty plate smeared with jam and sugar sits in front of her on the coffee table. 

“I’ve been told to relax,” she informs him, drinking orange juice and settling into his side. She’s a warm weight that makes this all feel so right. 

“Good.” Time smiles back and starts in on his toast. He’s missed the way Wild can turn any plain dish into the most delicious thing he’s ever eaten. This is no exception. 

Summoned by the smell of breakfast—Wild started some bacon at Twilight’s pestering and coffee at Warriors’s—Wind and Four come downstairs. They like to wake up on the earlier side of things, but clearly took the opportunity to sleep in a bit. 

Wind’s bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, his hair an absolute mess. He dances from foot to foot as he stacks toast on a plate, six high. “French toast French toast French toast ,” he sings in time with the percussive noise of his feet—step clunk step clunk step clunk . 

“There’s plenty,” Wild assures him, moving the powdered sugar out of reach. 

“Good. I’m gonna eat so much.” Wind heads to the table, balancing his stack of toast. Time sees that his walking pattern is a little altered, not quite a limp, but not as even as it used to be. It certainly didn’t stop him from running into the house yesterday, though. Wind doesn’t even seem to notice as he sits down. 

Four is a bit more bleary. He doesn’t beeline for the counter and the breakfast buffet, but kicks a stool over toward Wind. He pulls a comb from his pocket and starts to detangle Wind’s hair, which is actually a bit longer than Time realized last night. 

The touch startles Wind, but as soon as he sees Four, he turns back ground. 

“If you grow it, you gotta take care of it. Take it from us, matted hair sucks,” Four says, sounding a bit annoyed. He pulls the comb through Wind’s sun-bleached hair gently. 

“You sound a bit annoyed.” Wind smiles. He doesn’t move his head as he eats, though. 

Four sighs, separates Wind’s hair into three parts, and starts braiding. “Annoyed, yeah. We can’t decide what toppings we want.”

“You can have as much as you want, Four,” Wild calls from the kitchen. “Seriously. Everyone brought bread to share, there is so much.” 

After a short pause, Four laughs. “Duh. Who says we have to decide?”

He ties off Wind’s hair in a neat braid and kicks the stool away. It takes him two seconds to split, without the sword in his hand, and two more for Red to lead the charge toward the food. Time recalls Four explaining, the first time anybody had seen him split, that splits take longer when he’s out of practice or out of sync. The split just now is the fastest Time has ever seen, and he hopes that it means Four’s not hiding it anymore. 

Vio stays behind to sit down on a bench, and asks Twilight across from him something about the… shadow realm? That sounds a little bit concerning, not that he doesn’t trust them. He can’t quite make out what they’re saying. Twilight shrugs and answers, looking sad but not miserable. Vio nods, his shoulders falling an inch in clear disappointment. 

Thump.

A loud sound from upstairs, followed by laughter, makes everyone jump. Time and Warriors exchange a glance, and decide as one that there’s nothing to worry about. After a bit of muffled yelling, the door to the boy’s room opens, and Sky stumbles down the stairs. His hair’s a nest, and he hasn’t changed out of his ancient sleeping clothes. 

“You’re up early,” Twilight says, hiding a grin behind a bite of bacon. 

Sky tries and fails to look disgruntled as he leans on the counter. He reaches over Red’s head to get a plate. “ Someone decided it would be hilarious to tip the mattress over. While I was still on it.” 

“It was hilarious, in fact,” says Sun as she skips down the stairs. Her hair is combed and her dress is mostly unwrinkled. She smiles at the room. “Good morning, everyone.” 

“Morning, Sun,” Time says. He finishes with his toast and sits back to soak in the morning sunshine streaming through the windows. 

Warriors can’t keep his laugh contained. It’s a wonderful sound that sends smiles all around the room. “Aw, Sky, you found yourself an early bird. I like you, Sun.” 

“And you didn’t before?” Sun stops Sky from leaving the kitchen, inspecting his plate. “Hm, you forgot your jam.” 

“Wait, what? Hey, no, I didn’t forget—”

“Yes, you did, you’re useless in the mornings.” She drops a spoonful of strawberry jam on top of his stack of French toast. 

Sky grumbles a thanks and sits at the end of the table. Instead of eating, he sets his head on the table and appears to fall back asleep. Sun takes a plate of her own, greeting Twilight on his way back for seconds, and sits between Sky’s chair and the bench all of Four has taken over. She ruffles Sky’s hair. 

“What a mess,” she says, tsking over the state of it. 

“Have you tried hair gel? There are some lovely scents and strengths I can suggest.” Warriors waves from across the table. 

Sun tilts her head. “No, I don’t think so. Would that help?”

“Hm…” Warriors looks over Sky with a critical eye. “Probably not, now that I think about it.” 

“What you need is industrial glue,” Blue pipes up, squished between Vio and Red. He’s ripping up his plain French toast and dipping into a glass of chocolate milk. Time has no idea why. Perhaps Blue’s just trying to establish anarchy, that would be in character. 

Vio steals a bite of toast from Blue, making Blue scowl. “Or a razor. That would fix the problem.” He doesn’t have a plate, himself, hence the stealing, but someone brought him a glass of orange juice. 

“I think it’s cute,” Red says with a nod. Powdered sugar and jam smears on his cheek as he takes another bite that seems far too big for his mouth. He looks like a chipmunk as he chews, to an eye roll from Vio.

“Or he could do a normal thing and just comb it like everyone else.” Green’s French toast is just topped with pools of butter and syrup, but his feet swing just as happily as Red’s. 

“Comb it and then use hair gel,” Warriors corrects. He sips at his coffee, drinking from a wooden cup Sky carved years ago. 

Sun laughs. “Good luck getting him to do that much.” She starts in on her own French toast. 

Legend arrives without fanfare, taking his time on the stairs with an almost-sour expression on his face. He’s still using his cane today, but Time can tell that he’s limping far less gingerly. Yesterday, Time had been upstairs when Wild got back with Legend, so he had an uninterrupted view through the rainy window for Legend’s struggle to cross the field. Time regrets not leaving the beacon inside the house. 

Luckily, he looks better today, a bit less grouchy and a little more put-together. Time has no doubt that Legend can and will pick up the sword again if called to do so, as much as he’d gripe and complain about it.

“Hey, look who it is,” Warriors says, leaning back in his chair. “You and Wild match.”

“Yes, he looks great,” Legend snaps. He stops in the kitchen to load up a plate of his own. 

Wild spins  around with the biggest smile on his face. The edge of his tunic flares out, accentuating how short it is and how much his legs are not covered. “Aw, Legend, you say the nicest things!”

“Tch.” Even Legend, apparently, is not immune to the allure of his own jam, and drops a healthy spoonful on top of his toast. 

Malon starts to get up as Legend sits down, and Time knows exactly what she wants to do. He grabs her arm and pulls her back down, standing himself. 

“I got it,” he tells her, picking up their empty plates as she gapes after him. 

Wild smiles at Time as he comes over to start on the dishes that are beginning to pile up by the basin. Wild’s keeping the kitchen pretty organized, slowing down on the French toast now that almost everyone is down here. After a minute, Twilight finishes with his third helping of bacon and comes to help with the dishes, too, rolling up his sleeves and plunging his hands into the soapy water. 

“Good morning,” calls Hyrule as he hops down the stairs. “Hope we’re not too late!” His hair is done a bit different today, and Dawn follows him, blushing as red as her hair at the way everyone turns to say hello. 

“Nah, not at all, dig in,” Wild says, gesturing to the breakfast buffet still spread across the countertops. 

Dawn looks a little intimidated at the sight of all the food, so Hyrule puts a plate together for her, going easy on the amount. He grins when he finds the powdered sugar and, like Red, shakes a very liberal amount on his food. Time remembers that Hyrule’s letters mentioned that his and Dawn’s kingdom has been healing, but food is still a bit scarce as people learn how to work the land again. He hopes that Dawn doesn’t stay intimidated. 

“About time you showed up,” Legend grumbles at him. 

“Morning meditation takes even longer, now, you magic-less fool,” Hyrule says, trying to adopt the haughty-noble tone that Warriors mocks sometimes. 

Legend snorts. “Who said I’m magic-less? I’ll have you know that my definitely very last adventure taught me a bit.” 

More than one person looks at him. Wind pauses from where he’s been stacking silverware on top of Sky’s head. Sky looks up blearily for a few seconds before putting his head back down. 

“What?” Legend draws the word out, sounding defensive. “I can learn new things!”

The groups falls into a familiar pattern, talking over each other with enthusiasm, teasing and fretting and sharing thoughts. Time listens with half a smile on his face. Despite his efforts, Malon returns to the kitchen with a few used dishes she’d stolen from the table. Wild quickly shoos her out. 

Warriors teases Sky about… marital activities…  every time he wakes up, but never says anything crass to Sun, and doesn’t tease Hyrule and Dawn the same way. Legend insults Warriors with everything new he can think of except for Warriors’s lost eye. Wind has apparently learned the value of a good pun, so he and Green have an impromptu pun-off on the subject of missing limbs. Sky dozes off again.

Before they can decide who the winner is, but after Time and Twilight finish with the dishes, Wild turns a pot upside down and bangs on it with reckless abandon. 

Sky startles awake again at the noise, making the new stack of silverware balanced on his head crash to the floor. 

“Attention!” Wild says, sounding as commanding as the captain of a ship. Conversations stall. “The day’s cooking is about to begin. Dawn, has Hyrule learned anything about cooking?” 

Dawn turns pink and laughs as attention turns to her. “Not at all. I can give him bread and jam and he turns it into a mess.” 

Hyrule covers his flaming face with his hands. 

Wild nods, though he grins, too, his old scars warping slightly. “Then let it be known that Hyrule, Dawn, Sun, and Malon are hereby banished from the kitchen and the house! Unless it starts to rain, then you can come in. I’ve got the rest of you on shifts in the kitchen, Malon helped me make the schedule. 

“We’re eating at six. Flora’s coming at some point before that, keep an eye out for her. Until then—out to the porch! First shift: Green, Wars, and Twi.” 

Time laughs at how formal Wild’s being, but he helps herd everyone not assigned first shift outside to the porch. The girls take the chairs by the outside table—old, mismatched carpentering projects of Time’s that he deemed safe to use, but not nice enough for the kitchen. Time leaves the girls be and finds a spot to observe on the porch stairs. Sky’s still half-asleep and sprawls out on the damp grass in the sun. The yard is wide and vibrant. 

“Ah, this is gonna be a great day,” Wind says, plopping down by Sky. He grins up toward the bright blue sky, which promises warm weather and not a hint of rain. 

Vio sits next to them, too, a box in his hands. “Wind, can I take your leg off to check it over?” 

Wind blinks at him. “Sure, if someone goes to grab my crutches so I’m not stuck here.” 

“I got it!” Red volunteers, running back inside. 

Blue sets himself up on a different part of the porch, a kit of his own spread out alongside swords and shields. Time squints—had someone pulled out his old armor? That doesn’t need maintenance, he’s probably (hopefully) not going to use it again. Still, Blue seems intent on polishing it up, and Time will not bother him. 

Legend and Hyrule block up the rest of the porch stairs, and Hyrule immediately starts asking Legend more about what he’d meant by his last adventure “teaching him a bit” about magic. Legend’s cagey, but can never resist Hyrule’s curiosity. 

The sun marches across the sky, shifting the shadows. Wild keeps the kitchen bustling, and comes out occasionally to bring out drinks and snacks. Time likes the drink that tastes like the way pine needles smell. When Wild puts a little bowl full of mixed nuts down, Time takes the entire thing and sits back down on the porch steps. 

When the sun finally clears the roof, a little less than an hour later, Sky finally stretches and sits up. He lifts his arms above his head, and Time can hear an elbow crack. He looks around, and his eyes land on Time. 

“Hey, Time!” Sky calls over Vio, Red, and Wind discussing piracy next to him. “Care for a spar?”

From the moment Malon suggested a big family dinner and Wild enthusiastically agreed, Time had known this was coming. He’s definitely out of practice, which he can’t seem to feel bad about, but he had taken a day to go over some old forms this last week. 

So Time hands the mostly empty bowl of nuts to Hyrule next to him and stands up. “Do you think you can beat me?”

Sky laughs and hops to his feet. “Guess we’ll find out!”

“Be careful,” Malon says as they pass the girls to go get their equipment from Blue. 

“We will be.” Time sets a hand on her shoulder for a moment. She touches his fingers and lets him go. 

Blue’s scowling, over here on the other side of the shaded porch. His hands are absolutely filthy, now, but the silvery metal in his “finished” pile gleams like moonlight. He gestures to one of the swords laying off to the side as Sky and Time approach. 

“I knew Sky would want to spar, but I didn’t expect Time to be the one to agree,” he says. “Yours is finished, Sky, but not yours, Time.”

“That’s all right,” Time says, reaching for the sword he’s grown used to. 

“Hey, no, use someone else’s,” Blue snaps. “What part of ‘yours isn’t finished’ didn’t you understand?”

Sky laughs as he picks up his own sword—not the Master Sword, but it has a similar shape, and Time assumes that the balance is the same, too. “Sorry, Time.”

“You can use mine,” Hyrule calls, looking over at the commotion from the porch steps. “It’s kind of like your small ones.”

“Thank you.” Time picks Hyrule’s familiar magic sword out of the finished ones, and Blue nods in satisfaction. 

Red, hearing about the upcoming spar, has begun to lay loose rocks and sticks on the lawn in a wide circle. Sky and Time help finish it, then stand across from each other in the midmorning light. Time takes a moment to roll up his sleeves and release the top button of his shirt. 

“Have you kept up?” Sky asks, entering a starting stance with a casual smile. A breeze ruffles his hair. 

Time matches him with a self-taught stance of his own. “A little. Have you?” 

“I’m a teacher at the academy now, of course I have!”

They begin the bout with a mutual attack. Time hadn’t expected to win, but he’s still a little surprised at how quickly he gets beaten. Sky’s always been good, probably the best among them when it comes to formal swordplay, but he’s even better, now. 

“Are you warmed up, now?” Sky teases when Time catches his breath after being beaten.

Time can’t help but laugh. “Seems like it. Rematch?” He can tell Sky’s raring to go.

“You’re on!”

When Time finds himself on the ground for the second time, he takes Sky’s offered hand to stand but declines a third round. 

“Guess I’m getting too old for this,” he says by way of explanation. Sky laughs again.

Red volunteers to go next, and when he’s had his fill, Wind finally manages to wheedle Vio into giving him his leg back for a bit so he can go at it with Sky. 

“I guess it’ll be useful to watch how you use it to fight,” Vio says, relenting. 

Time’s actually very impressed, watching Wind and Sky spar from the shade of the porch. Wind is as mobile as ever, and his extra adventure taught him a lot. Both he and Sky have gotten better, and it shows. Wind is very, very excited to show off the weaponry that Four has apparently installed inside his leg. Vio sits on the sidelines, taking notes, while Red and Hyrule cheer for both of them.

After it’s been a bit over two hours since Wild banished them from the house, the first kitchen shift ends. Green, Twilight, and Warriors are all too happy to trash talk from the sidelines when they come outside. 

Twilight pauses on the porch steps, weaving around Time, Legend, and Hyrule. “Wild says it’s Time, Legend, and Red next,” he says, loud enough for Red to hear, too. 

Time gets to his feet. Legend and Red is certainly… a pairing. “Come on, Red,” he calls. He offers Legend a hand up, but Legend scowls up at him and doesn’t take it. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Legend braces himself and stands to follow Red and Time inside.

It takes Time a moment for his eyes to adjust inside the shade of the house. Pots and pans simmer and bubble on the stove, and Wild closes the oven.

He beckons them inside with a smile. “Hey, guys! Thanks for helping.”

“Not like we had a choice,” Legend grumbles, but he seems pleased when Wild compliments the way he deals with fruit. Legend gets drink- and snack-making duty, and takes it seriously. 

Wild gives Time a knife and mostly has him cutting up potatoes and vegetables, though Time does get a break to mash potatoes instead. Red doesn’t know a lot about cooking, so Wild puts him on monitoring the temperature of the stove and oven, which Red does surprisingly well.

The two hours fly by. When Time emerges into the sunshine again, the boys not on kitchen duty have put together some kind of game in the field. They’re kicking and throwing around a few sewn sacks of beans. Time can’t tell what the rules are, but it appears that Malon’s keeping score. He takes a chair next to her in the shade, and even watching her pad of paper, he can’t figure it out. 

Vio has hold of Wind’s leg again, making more dramatic adjustments if the tools scattered around him and grease on his hands is any indication, but Wind’s in the middle of the game, swinging on crutches almost as fast as Twilight is running. According to Malon’s scorekeeping, Wind is currently winning. Sky, Twilight, Hyrule, and Green are all doing all right, but Warriors is losing. 

“Sky and Wind and Blue,” Red calls out, skipping out of the house. “You’re next! Come on, Blue, I’ll finish up.”

Though he grumbles and is generally grouchy about it, Blue cedes his spot and heads inside. Sky takes a bean bag to the face and gracefully ducks out of the game to follow him. 

Wind’s breathing hard, flushed. He looks like he’s been having the time of his life. Going up the few steps to the porch with his crutches looks a little awkward from Time’s perspective, but Wind doesn’t hesitate. He pauses by the table, looking down at Malon’s paper. 

He pumps a fist in the air. “I won! Ha, take that, Wars!” 

Warriors rolls his eyes and dives to catch a bean bag as Wind heads inside. He misses, and ends up face down on the grass, much to Green’s delight. 

“Come play with us!” Hyrule calls out to Legend, who’s taken his spot on the porch steps again. 

“I don’t even know what you’re playing,” Legend says with a huff. 

“I don’t, either!” 

Legend shakes his head. “Thanks, but no.”

Next to Time, Sun suddenly stands up, her arm looped into Dawn’s. “We’ll play!”

“We will?” Dawn says, looking intimidated. “I mean… all right. We’ll play.” 

Sun pulls Dawn past Time and Legend down the stairs, then picks up her skirts and ties them off to the side. She’s showing a good amount of leg, but doesn’t seem bothered by it. Warriors turns red, though, and Twilight laughs a bit nervously.

“Come at me,” Sun challenges. 

Dawn and Hyrule exchange a look, also turning red. But Hyrule picks up one of the bean bags and tosses it into the air. 

There’s a mad rush to get at it, Warriors and Green and Sun all diving at the same time. Time can tell that the two boys are trying to play it a bit kinder, but Sun is ruthless, and emerges from the pile victorious with the bean bag in her hand. She throws it right to Dawn, who catches it with wide eyes and starts running. 

After a few minutes, it’s obvious that both Sun and Dawn are more athletic than Time thought. Once Dawn gets over herself a bit, she’s every bit as competitive as Sun seems to be, determined to win. Sun pulls ahead in points, and Warriors drops even further behind. Red cheers from his work, and Vio doesn’t even seem to notice. They take a break once the heat of the day really sets in, getting drinks and cooling off by the water pump.

“Who’s winning?” Twilight yells over at the porch.

“Sun!” Malon calls back.

Sun cheers and uses her hands to direct the spray of the water pump to soak Twilight’s pants. Green cackles, though droplets fall on his hair, too.

A brief flash from the beacon under the tree draws everyone’s attention and pauses the friendly water fight. A semi-familiar figure appears, but it doesn’t take much guesswork to figure out who that is. Flora pulls her hood back, revealing hair cut to her chin.

“Welcome to the party!” Warriors says, and Flora makes her way over to the water pump, hooking her own slate on her belt. Warriors gives introductions for the girls, who’ve never met each other. 

“She’s not wearing a tunic like Wild’s,” Malon observes, sipping at her strawberry lemonade. 

Time crunches on a few nuts. “When he said it was the current fashion trend, either that was a lie or it doesn’t apply to the princess.”

“She is wearing pants, though. I didn’t expect that.”

“She’s always worn pants,” Time says. He avoids the peanuts to find the pistachios, a task that only gets harder as he eats more and more of the pistachios. 

“Was her hair always that short?” Malon asks. 

“No, it was just as long as Sun’s when I last saw her.”

The water break quickly devolves into a water fight, and then bean bags start flying through the air again. Flora joins in, either picking up on the rules quickly or, like Hyrule, just throwing things around because it’s fun. Time doesn’t think this is really a team game, but Flora, Dawn, and Sun join forces anyway.

“Hey, that was my catch!” Warriors shouts at some point. 

“Was it?” Flora yells back, throwing one bean bag at Sun and one at Dawn. The girls take them and run—where, Time has no idea. He still can’t exactly follow the way Malon’s tracking points, though she’s been trying to explain it to him. He’s moderately sure that Warriors was the one to teach everyone the game, which makes it even sadder that he’s losing so badly.

“Get back here!” Green charges past, his shout making a nearby cow low in alarm and step farther into the pasture, away from the fence. 

Though summer is on its way out, it isn’t dark by the time Wild brings his pot out to the porch and bangs on it again. Malon puts her hand on her heart and laughs, but the game doesn’t immediately stop. 

Hyrule’s set to catch a throw from Twilight, which, if Time’s right, would be a good end to the game. Dawn runs forward, charging for Hyrule with her skirts flying. She tackles him to the ground just in time for Flora to slide in and catch the bean bag first. 

“Score!” Sun cheers, her arms in the air. Flora throws a bean bag for a last time, right into Twilight’s forehead. 

“Flora!” Wild puts his hands on his hips. He’s wearing an apron and holding kitchen implements, so his expression of mock outrage makes him look a bit like a mother scolding her kid for coming home late. “You got here and didn’t even tell me?” 

Flora grins, breathing hard. “Yep. We… we won, though!”

“I’m very proud. Come on, guys, it’s time for dinner!”

Time stacks a few empty glasses and bowls of snacks on a tray and bats Malon’s hands away from the handles. He picks it up himself and waits to watch everyone grab their things and flow inside. The chatter seems to grow louder inside the house, contained within four walls rather than the big blue sky. He sets the tray down near the sink.

“Hello, everyone! Sun, what did you do to your skirt?” Sky finishes setting the table with a final adjustment to a fork and rushes over, his face turning bright red. 

Sun laughs and unties her skirts, then spins a few times to smooth the dress out. “We were playing! I couldn’t do it in a skirt! Though Dawn was doing just fine. Tell me your secrets, Dawn!”

“Oh, um… I don’t really know…”

Blue picks the last fork back up and rubs it with a cloth, holding it up to the light from the window with a scowl. He apparently deems it shiny enough and puts it back down in an even line. 

“Wow, Blue, obsessive much?” Green teases on his way past, and Blue just turns his scowl on his brother. 

Wind sits backwards on a bench and puts up with Vio giving him very, very detailed instructions as they work together to put his leg back on. “No, I can’t do it up that tight, Vio, my knee swells as the day goes on.”

“You can always adjust it, but tighter will give you more control during the day.”

“Adjusting takes so long , though!”

“Tough luck, Wind, stop being lazy. I’ll take that under consideration, though, and see if I can make it easier for later models.”

“All I’m saying is that I know what I would look like with green hair, and it’s not pretty.” Legend says loudly, drawing Time’s attention next as he kicks a chair out.

Warriors rolls his eyes and shakes his head, though he’s smiling. “It would set off your eyes, and potentially compliment the pink you still haven’t gotten rid of. I know what I’m talking about, Legend.”

“I’ll do it after you do it.”

“Is that a promise?” Warriors has a glint in his eye. Time doesn’t think he’d ever actually dye his hair green, it really wouldn’t look that great, but he doesn’t put it past Warriors to figure out how to trick Legend into doing it.

Legend narrows his eyes and sits. “No.” 

“Killjoy,” Warriors shoots back, taking a seat of his own near Wind. 

All of Four sits on the bench to Wind’s other side. They’re arguing a bit, too, as they do. Once again, Time wonders how these disparate beings manage to combine into the most level-headed Link of them all. He’d like to meet their Zelda someday, see what she thinks of it.

Flora leans up against the counter to catch Wild up on the last day and a half. She mentions Akkala and Sidon and Hebra, people and places that Time half-remembers from those long days spent trekking through their massive Hyrule. He wouldn’t mind visiting again, he thinks. It’s a perfect place for Wild and Flora, explorers and scholars in their own ways, but Time’s glad he doesn’t live there full-time. Wild chats back as he carries a few more dishes to the table, then takes his seat at a corner near the kitchen. Flora all but climbs over him to get to her own seat.

“Wash your hands,” Dawn says to Hyrule, coming into the kitchen behind Time. 

“For what? They’re not dirty.” Hyrule looks down at his hands as if looking for actual dirt. Knowing him, he is. Time shakes his head fondly and gets out of the way for Dawn to poke Hyrule farther into the kitchen. 

Sky and Sun slip past Wild and Flora to sit down. Sun whispers something into Sky’s ear that makes him blush again. Twilight comes out of the hallway, his hair throwing droplets, and plops down by Legend. 

It all smells delicious. They’ve been gorging on light snacks all day, but the potatoes and fried greens and fragrant bread make Time’s mouth water anyway. He picks up a bowl of rolls and takes it to the groaning table, slipping his arm between Legend and Green to lay it down in a place it mostly fits. He stands in front of one of the chairs at the head of the table, but doesn’t quite sit down yet. 

Once everyone has settled in their places, they look up at him with trepidation.

“I’m not going to make a speech,” Time assures them all. “I’m just as eager as you are. I just want you to know that I’m glad we’re together. Dig in.”