Warriors Gets His Nickname

Warriors gets his nickname

Hi I’m not updating long fics even though I want to, I’m instead writing more short Incredibles au stuff *collapses*. I’ll update other things eventually I promise ;-;

This is the furthest back fic I’ve written I think— Time is only a teenager, and Warriors is very smol. Time goes by Time because he got sick of them both being Link, but Warriors doesn’t have a nickname yet. I think that’s all the background you really need though, so I’ll stop and just let you read already.

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Link held tight to Time’s hand as they walked down the sidewalk, headed towards the corner stand where Time knew they could get lunch for cheap. He usually skipped lunch himself, or just nibbled something small, but since it was the weekend, Link wasn’t in school and he had to get him something.

Time looked down at his little brother, Link trotting along beside him. He was nearly drowning in his too-big scarf, and Time flipped it around his neck one more time so he wouldn’t trip on it, Link giving him a little smile.

Time sighed to himself.

He was still figuring out how to deal with having a kid as his responsibility, but... he was making it work. He’d managed to get Link in a preschool on weekdays, and was working on a more permanent place for them to stay besides “in this nice tree” or “in the backseat of the car”. Nobody believed him when he said he was old enough to rent an apartment when he tried though, so it was usually still the backseat of the car for them.

But in general, Time didn’t usually feel like screaming, and was able to keep Link happy, so he was counting the whole thing as at least a partial success.

He seriously needed to find a nickname for the kid though— two Links was two too many.

Why did you name him after me, Mom? he thought as he watched Link jump over a slushy puddle. Why did you leave him with me? Surely you knew someone who who would do a better job? Someone who’s an adult? I’m his brother, but that doesn’t mean I know how to raise him.

A crashing sound made Time’s ears prick, and the thoughts he’d been repeatedly having ever since he’d met Link fled as he turned towards a tiny side street, one that ran behind several shops.

He tugged Link over towards the alley, suspicion in every step. That hadn’t just sounded like a normal dropping-something crash to him. And sure enough, he found a newly shattered window that led into a pawn shop, a shadow disappearing into the shelves inside.

“...bad guy?” Link asked, and Time nodded, already looking for a spot to switch into his super suit.

“Bad guy. A crazy one too, breaking and entering in broad daylight. Looks like somebody doesn’t know that stealing is wrong,” he said with a tsk, and Link let out a small giggle.

Time quickly ducked behind a dumpster to change, and emerged moments later, flexing his hands in his gloves. Link gave him an interested look, and Time suddenly remembered that he couldn’t very well bring his four-year-old brother inside with him.

“...Right,” Time sighed, then scooped Link up and quickly deposited him behind the same dumpster he’d changed behind. “Stay here, don’t let him or anyone see you. I’ll take care of him but don’t come out until I come get you.”

Link frowned, worry pinching at his eyebrows, and Time tucked his scarf a little more tightly around him.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry,” Time assured, but Link kept frowning.

“Hurt?”

“I won’t get hurt. And even if I do I can handle it, but I need to not worry about you while I fight. Stay here,” Time said firmly, then turned and jumped into the shattered window before his brother could argue.

He spotted the robber within seconds, the man breaking open a glass case with all sorts of valuables stored inside. Time put his little brother out of his mind for now, and crept closer, then abruptly cleared his throat. The man jumped at the noise and whipped around, brandishing a crowbar and staring at him.

“I don’t think those belong to you,” Time said with a smirk, and the man swung, Time nimbly jumping out of the way.

“Fierce Deity,” the man spat, and Time gave him a mocking bow.

“At your service. Put the fancy gold watches back.”

The man laughed, then his eyes narrowed behind the reptilian mask he wore. “Dinolfos of the Lizal gang doesn’t take orders from you.”

“Fine,” Time sighed, rolling his eyes. “I guess we’re doing this the hard way.”

He threw a punch towards Dinolfos, which the robber neatly avoided, and the two began to fight, weaving around each other and dodging attacks.

Dinolfos was surprisingly skilled at avoiding Time’s punches, and Time had barely landed any hits after several minutes. Dinolfos on the other hand, had grazed him at least twice now, and annoyance began to swell in Time’s chest. He wasn’t incapacitated from the hits, but he didn’t like where this was going.

He fought faster, managing to knock the crowbar from Dinolfos’s hand, and the battle sped up without the weapon in the mix, kicks and punches just barely grazing both of them.

This guy is fast, Time thought, lunging out of the way of a punch that likely would have given him a bloody nose. How is he so fast?! Argh.

Time managed a swing that connected with Dinalfos’s shoulder, and he reeled back, shouting in anger as he lunged for Time. Time once again dodged out of the way, and noticed with a smirk that his opponent’s swings were getting more wild.

He backed up to give himself some space, easily dodging the angry punches thrown at him. Time stuck his tongue out as Dinolfos missed again, and his opponent let out a roar of frustration as Time continued to easily avoid his angered strikes.

Until Time stumbled on the dropped crowbar.

His foot slipped and Dinolfos lunged, kicking Time right in the chest and knocking the breath out of him as he was thrown straight through the broken window. He went flying into some trash cans at the end of the alley, and heard Link gasp from his hiding spot, but his chest was tight, too tight for him to sit up or even move, just lie there and gasp for breath.

Dinolfos’s foot had caught him at exactly the wrong angle, and knocked every bit of air from his lungs.

Footsteps ran over, and Time opened his eyes with a cough, expecting to see Dinolfos with his weapon raised above his head, ready to strike.

Instead he saw Link standing protectively in front of him, arms held out as if to shield Time despite his tiny size.

Dinolfos laughed.

“Is this your sidekick, Deity?” he guffawed, looking down at Link as he stalked forward. “He is tiny! Were you so desperate for help that you thought even a baby would be better than nothing?”

He continued to laugh, and Link glared up at him, his hands clenching into fists. Time tried his best to catch his breath and get to his feet, but his lungs refused to work, no matter how he gasped. Stupid lungs, come on!

The very air temperature seemed to drop all of a sudden, and a flare of panic hit Time as the robber stepped towards Link. No no no no no—

Dinolfos lunged for him, but Link blasted a spurt of ice from his hands, hitting Dinolfos in the legs. He yelped in surprise, and before he could recover, Link sprayed more ice at him, trailing up his legs and hitting his arms as well.

The shots were clumsy, and it was obvious Link didn’t have much practice, but Dinolfos was completely stuck by the time he finished, and unable to grab his weapon.

Or move, for that matter.

“You brat!” Dinolfos hissed, glaring at where Link stood. “How dare you? I am of the Lizalfos pack, son of Dinal, leader of the Lower Lizards, Master of—!”

Link shot a bit of ice over his mouth, making his face flush with anger.

Time finally managed to get some air into his lungs, and he rolled over, looking up at Dinolfos and Link with an impressed expression.

“Huh,” Time wheezed, still trying to fully catch his breath. Partially from the kick, but mostly from the remaining panic of seeing his little brother nearly be attacked while he just gasped for breath on the pavement.

Sloppy, too sloppy, you should have put him further away, he barely knows how to use his powers he could’ve been hurt he could have been ki—

Time sighed, and winced as he put a hand to his chest and lightly rubbed. He was definitely going to have a bruise tomorrow. “We’ll have to talk about your listening skills kiddo, but... nice work. You’re quite the little warrior, huh?”

His brother’s face positively lit up at his words, and he pointed to himself, some snowflakes settling in his hair.

“Warriors,” he said proudly, and Time snorted, slowly getting to his knees.

“Warrior, kid. No S.”

“Warriors!”

“There’s only one of you, there’s no S,” Time argued back as he stood, but the kid just kept chattering ‘Warriors’ to himself, over and over. A vein bulged in Dinalfos’ forehead, and Time snorted, shaking his head.

He had been thinking about finding a nickname earlier... I suppose there are worse ones out there.

“Well come on, ‘Warriors’, let’s go get lunch. Frosty here can just hang around until the police show up,” he said, ruffling Link’s hair.

Link beamed, and took the hand Time offered him as they stepped out of the alleyway and walked down the street, leaving Dinolfos behind in the alley.

Dinolfos yelled a curse behind them that was entirely unintelligible.

A Cinnamon Mask

Warnings: A panic attack happens, and a character being poisoned in the past is strongly alluded to.

1/3 fics!

The fire in the hearth crackled, filling the comfortable silence. The Chain had stopped their current trek through the snowy land of Hebra to rest, and Wild had guided them to the Hebra Trailhead Lodge, which was luckily devoid of its common patrons, allowing all nine of them and their various gear to fit inside the small cabin.

Wind had commandeered the bed, wrapped in various extra blankets with the remnants of a spicy elixir in the bottle he held. Being from a tropical climate and constantly under the sun, the pirate was not acclimated to cold weather. Next to him was Sky, the knight happy to be resting under a roof, even if the cold had little to no effect on him. A perk of growing up and living on an island in the sky.

One. Two.

The others were faring better than the sailor, even Legend, with his lack of pants. He claimed to be used to weather extremes, and refused to elaborate further. Sat on either side of him were Hyrule and Four, the two seemingly content to help him repair rips in their clothes.

Three. Four. Five.

On top of the barrels next to the hearth was a pile of Time’s armor, the man in question slipping on the warm doublet Wild had offered over his own tunic- the cold metal of his armor would do no good to keep Time warm. A quiet conversation with Warriors and Twilight was held as Wild piped in from where he was making something in the pot.

Six. Seven. Eight. Counting himself, 9.

Time adjusted the warm doublet, it surprisingly fit, with no tightness around his shoulders, a common issue for him. He kneeled down to reach his pack, digging around to find the thick blanket that had been packed (but knowing Malon, she probably put an extra one or two in).

A sharp whistle broke through the quiet atmosphere, demanding attention to the hearth, where Wild stood with six steaming mugs and Twilight behind him with three.

“I made us some hot chocolate, it’s a recipe I learned from Uma in Hateno,” appreciative murmurs rose, “And don’t worry, Twilight didn’t do any of the making.” That drew a few laughs from the heroes as the two proceeded to pass out the drinks.

Nodding his thanks, Time wrapped his hands around the mug, feeling both the warmth and the craftsmanship of it. Must be one of the mugs Sky carved, judging by the intricate patterns and steady lines.

“It smells good,” Wind took a sip, “and it tastes good too! I don’t think I’ve ever had this before!” The sailor’s hands were wrapped tightly around the mug, likely attempting to leech the heat out.

“It’d be a mite strange if you’d’ve had this before, being from a warm climate and such.” Twilight was nursing his own mug, as he sat down next to Sky.

The conversation flowed easily as Wild’s hot cocoa loosened the grip of any remaining cold, at some point turning onto the topic of stories from their adventures.

“There’s no way! That’s impossible!” Four shouted, face painted in complete disbelief.

“It’s not impossible, I’ve done it! When we next get to my Hyrule, I’ll ask Gor Coron and see if he would be up for another round.”

“You’re telling me you sumo wrestled a Goron? The people that are partially made of rock? Those guys?” Legend seemed skeptical, his left eyebrow lifted up.

Twilight struggled to defend himself as the younger heroes ganged up on him, poking and prodding for answers, or in Legend’s case, trying to get him to “tell the truth”.

A choked whine snapped Time’s attention away from the conversation, his ears flicking as he turned to face the direction of the noise.

He was met with a wide-eyed Warriors, staring down at the mug that rested in his tight yet trembling grip. In one motion, his grip loosened and the mug clattered to the floor, spraying the (now cold) hot cocoa across the floor.

Another choked off whine, and Time slowly advanced towards the captain, keeping his hands in view, as if he were approaching an easily-spooked horse. One foot stepped on a creaky floorboard and Warriors’ head whipped up, still wide-eyed, but Time could better see his expression.

Pure and utter panic.

Watching him carefully, the elder hero noticed that the younger had positioned himself into a position where he could both attack and defend, likely done subconsciously. Time raised both his hands up, showing he was unarmed.

“Captain… what happened?” In a flash of blue Time was knocked to the ground, and Warriors had effectively cornered himself, the panic in his eyes brighter. The war hero trembled as he brandished his sword.

A pair of calloused hands helped Time back upright, “Why did he attack you?” The rancher mumbled, gaze locked onto the captain.

“He’s panicking, that’s what. Something set him off.”

A few heads swiveled to the veteran, who only shrugged and gave a non-committal noise.

Warriors was muttering something, and Time strained his ears to try and catch what he was saying.

“Poison… trust… cinnamon…”

The rest was too mumbled to understand. It seemed his descendant had also heard what Warriors had been muttering, as he tilted his head in confusion.

“Poison? Cinnamon? What is he-“

“Fuck.”

All 7 heads snapped to the veteran, whose ears were pinned against his head, a look of recognition in his eyes. He growled.

“He thinks his drink was poisoned.”

“What?” Wild stared at Legend, a quizzical, yet worried, expression adorning his face.

“Cinnamon. It’s used to mask the taste and smell of poisons.” Legend explained.

“How do-“

“Not the time, Rulie.”

Time wracked his brain for something, for anything, when he landed on a moment a few weeks back, when he and the captain were up for watch.

Shit.

“I know what happened,” several heads turned to look at him, “he thinks we tried to poison him.” He turned his eye back to Warriors, the panic still evident in his gaze.

Again, he shuffled forward, palms held upward in a placating gesture. Warriors pressed himself further into the corner, his breathing picking up and hitching on every other breath.

“Link.”

The utterance of his actual name snapped Warriors partially back into reality, gaze now finally realizing Time.

“There you are. Link, listen, we aren’t trying to hurt you.”

Time advanced forward again, now within reaching distance of Warriors, and he slowly descended onto his knees, the joints creaking in protest.

“Can I touch you?” He waited until Warriors processed the question.

A nod.

Settling his hands on the captain’s knees, he started tapping an easy rhythm.

“Steady yourself. In for 4… hold for 7… out for 4…” Warriors copied his directions, breath hitching a few times, but steadily evening out.

“There we go. You’re okay. What are 5 things you can see?”

“You, the bed, the others, Sky’s shield, mugs.”

His rhythm continued.

“Good, now, 4 things you can touch?”

“The floor, my sword, my scarf, the wall.”

The breaths evened out more.

“3 things you can hear?”

“The fire, the wind, and creaking wood.”

Warriors’ eyes lost their panicked sheen.

“Almost there. 2 things you can smell?”

“Fire, and- and cinnamon.”

Time kept up his tapping.

“1 thing you can taste?”

“Nothing. I think I burnt my tongue.”

A quiet sigh of relief flooded through the group, who chuckled at Warriors’ comment. Time breathed deeply out his nose, stopping his rhythm and instead gripping at the captain’s knees. A scarred hand rested over his and squeezed.

“Better now, Captain?”

Another squeeze.

“Thanks to you, old man.” He chuckled and stood up, joints clicking as he went, offering Warriors a hand and pulling the hero up.

“So-“

“Shut up. Don’t apologize, damn it.”

“Legend…”

“No, Wars. You had a completely valid reaction to something. Don’t go fucking apologizing for it.” The vet snapped, crossing his arms tightly. Warriors crossed the room and set a hand on the pink hair.

“…Nice to know you care, pricker bush.” His hand was a blur as he messed up the vet’s hair, who squeaked and batted at his arm.

Time watched as they laughed at the two’s antics, a small grin on his face.

Warriors wasn’t fully okay, his hands still held a slight tremble and his eyes still a tad too wide. But Time knew that with time (ha), and his brothers, that the captain would be as right as rain sooner than later.

I wish I could go back to the Cambrian period.

for the LU discord weekly prompt "lyricstuck" :)

song is The Moon Will Sing by the Crane Wives (and it was my #1 most listened to song this year BY FAR lol)

design #9 - warriors (linked universe)