Chapter Text
Link Warwick "Wars" Thibaut was only twenty eight and already he had been honorably discharged from the military, from a position as a captain no less. It had been about a year now, but he still sometimes woke up sweating with the phantom taste of blood on his tongue. He still had to take deep breaths when he heard the sound of a car backfiring, and on Independence Day he had borrowed a pair of noise cancelling headphones from the anxious young man who lived down the hall so that the festive explosions didn't set him off. He still carried a pocket knife, though he'd long abandoned firearms, and he tried not to dress too outstandingly. He would rather not draw attention to himself, no matter how vain he used to be.
Every morning he got up and looked at himself in the mirror. He contemplated the hero he wanted to become when he was a child, and the man he was in battle, and he mourned his fallen men. His fallen brothers. But it was all in the past, and he had done as much good as he could do. They called him a hero, had him awarded by the princess herself, then told him that he was a loose cannon, and here he was. Every morning, as he remembered that label, he smiled at himself.
"Alright, you loose cannon," Wars would mutter to no one. "Let's have some fun today."
He'd gotten a job, of course, when he got back home. It'd been so long since he'd had anyone to lean on, and he certainly wasn't ready to try starting now, so he only stayed in the provided vet housing until he found an apartment for himself. It wasn't the nicest place he could stay, perhaps, but it was all his own. The anxious young man who lived in the apartment to his right sometimes played music a little too loudly, but Wars had never been able to so much as think to go over and ask him to turn it down before the volume would lower drastically. Hyrule, as he called himself, was polite like that. The woman who lived on Wars' other side was an odd one, but other than her daily offers for Wars to come in and have some homemade juice, she didn't bother him either. Cotera was rather quirky, of course, and seemed to mean nothing scandalous by her offers.
The quiet little grocery outlet Wars had found to work in only seemed to have one regular customer, and a surprisingly small clientele otherwise, but this customer was a peach. Once, Wars asked her why she didn't buy any milk, and the woman chuckled, pointed at the brand label on the milk and said, "That's my ranch." Wars' coworkers, Beedle and Ravio, had chuckled and admitted they didn't know Miss Lon by her face at first either. Wars thought he liked Miss Lon quite a bit.
Still, you can take the man out of the army, but you can't take the army out of the man. He was a little more wary of his surroundings than most others in his home city, and it was for this reason that he was all too aware when he started being followed. When he left his apartment building, he felt eyes on the back of his neck. He'd looked around as subtly as possible, catching sight of a woman with silver dyed hair and crystal earrings by the bus station. At first, he had dismissed her, but as he began the walk to his workplace, she began to walk in the same direction.
Wars clocked in, greeted Ravio who was already on shift, and then got right to work. Several times during the day, he looked across the street and spotted that same woman, silver hair, crystal earrings.
"Wars," Ravio spoke up when Beedle had come in and was taking over his register, still tying his apron. Wars looked up, offering Ravio a curious smile. Ravio gestured out the store windows. "That woman's been looking over here all day. Do you know her?"
"She doesn't look familiar, no," Wars said, releasing a heavy sigh. Beedle gasped.
"How long has she been out there!?" He asked, leaning over the checkout counter to get a good look at her.
"She followed me here from my apartment building this morning," Wars explained. "I'm getting a bit worried by now."
"Just worried!?" Ravio exclaimed, and he and Beedle exchanged exaggerated looks of horror. Wars felt less dramatic when he was around the pair. "Wars, Captain, please . This is a real terror! At least be distraught !"
"Distraught isn't exactly my style," Wars said, managing a grin.
Beedle's eyes were wide as he shook his head, almost looking like a bobblehead. "Wars, maybe you should call the police!"
"Ugh, you'd trust the police to handle this, Beedle?" Ravio asked, moving his hand as if he were clutching a string of pearls, rather than his blue striped scarf.
"Well- well who else are you supposed to call when you're being stalked!?" Beedle floundered, waving his hands exaggeratedly.
" Anyone but the pigs!" Ravio huffed, folding his arms.
Wars laughed. Somehow, even with the prickling feeling of eyes on his back, the two dramatic sales clerks made him feel lighter.
"Careful who you call a pig, you know, some of those men are serving their country to the best of their abilities," Wars cautioned. Ravio pouted at him.
"Fine, Mister Government Advocate," Ravio teased. "I'm going to restock the shelves."
"You mean shuffle through the aisles looking for something to reorganize?" Wars asked, and Beedle snickered. Today had been a very slow day, and they hadn't gotten many customers.
"Haha," Ravio huffed. He went off towards the storage room to grab a dolly, leaving Wars and Beedle at the cash registers.
Wars looked out the store window again, frowning as he spotted the silver haired woman sipping from a drink. She'd had a coffee in a white mug earlier, and was now drinking something in a clear cup with frothy white foam. It seemed she intended to wait in the café until he left. He sighed, thinking over his options.
He could call the police, but unless she actually did something to him there wouldn’t be much they could do about it. He supposed they could help him get a restraining order, but again she wasn’t exactly aggressing in any way, and he was sure he’d need to have due cause for something like that. Wars supposed he was going to have to ask Artemis about it.
When he was getting out of work, after he’d said his goodbyes to Beedle and Ravio, he noticed the woman closing a book and exiting the little café, taking the same route as Wars even from across the street.
Wars was beginning to grow more concerned about his new stalker, and he decided to take the long way home to try and figure out what to do about her. She already knew his building, but he didn't want her following him inside and figuring out his apartment number. So Wars walked to the park, trying to gage the woman's objective. He couldn’t tell why she was following him, but she seemed to be following him alone, so it couldn’t be that she was trying to corner him for information. Unless following him was the information, and she was some sort of scout.
The park was, upsettingly, nearly empty. There would be no way to lose the woman in the crowd, and for all Wars liked to call his home a city, it was never all that crowded either. Today especially seemed barren, and Wars was growing nervous.
Wars made his way over to a bench to one side of the park, taking a seat and pulling out his phone to look busy. The woman lingered at the edge of the park, and Wars could feel his pulse just under his ears. Then, she began to make her way towards his bench, smoothing her jacket down as she did. She was going to attempt to engage with him.
Wars lowered his phone, looking around the park for a solution to his sudden problem. There was a group of picnic goers spread out on a blanket under the trees. A few teenagers were tossing around a neon colored football. A young man with a large dog was entering the park from the other side. Wait.
The young man was looking at his phone, one hand on his enormous dog's leash. He had long silky blonde tresses, not too different in shade than Wars' hair, and he was dressed in a much too large sweater in a simple baby blue color. He looked nice enough. And a dog like that would scare off anyone with ill intentions, surely.
Wars surged to his feet, breaking into a jog and forcing a brilliant smile. Please play along, please play along, please play along . "Hey, baby brother!"
The young man's head snapped up and Wars winced as he noticed the burn scars that crawled up his neck and sat at the edge of his jaw. More startling though was the fact that he really did look like he could be Wars' brother. He had bright cerulean eyes that swept over him in curious befuddlement, a smooth an aristocratic chin, a slim nose. He was softer looking than Wars was, with curves where Wars had angles, but they looked similar enough.
Wars opened up his arms as he approached. "Come on, nothing for your big brother Wars?"
The young man smiled back, though it looked more obviously forced than Wars' own attempt at joviality. "Uh, I don't really like touch. Uh, anymore."
"Ah," Wars dropped his arms, feeling like an ass. This guy was being nice enough not to immediately break the cover, Wars didn't need to force him to do anything outside his comfort zone. "Well, I'm glad I bumped into you, I was just thinking we hadn't talked in a while."
The young man furrowed his brow, looking around the park for a moment before looking back at him. "Um. Right. About- about two years, I think?"
"Sounds right to me," Wars said easily. It was a bit long for family, but it would do. The dog barked and the young man blinked, looking down at him before looking back up at Wars.
"Right, you haven't met Wolf. Uh, Wolf, say hi," the young man said. The wolfhound immediately began sniffing Wars' legs, like he'd been waiting for the invitation. Wars chuckled.
"Hi, Wolf," Wars greeted. He looked back at the young man. "Lady with silver hair, is she still hanging around?"
The young man's eyebrows furrowed again, confused.
"She was following me, it's why I came up to you," Wars said in a low voice. The young man's eyebrows raised, and he scanned the park again.
"She's gone," he said. He looked back at Wars, his eyes darting over the features of his face. "Sorry, are we…?"
"You really saved me there," Wars said, as he offered his hand palm up for Wolf to sniffle at. He glanced over his shoulder finally, and sure enough she was gone. "I don't know what she wanted, but she's been following me all day."
"Oh," the young man's face was entirely unreadable. " Oh . Um. Sorry if I'm- sorry, it's just when I woke up the doctors said I didn't have a family."
Wars thoughts hurtled to a stop suddenly. He looked at the young man, unable to make himself say anything, or ask anything. The young man floundered, his eyes skittering away from Wars like looking at him hurt.
"Sorry, sorry, I don't mean- I just mean, I can't remember anything from before March 3rd, I woke up at the General Hospital, so really if- if we're brothers, I don't remember you. It's not personal , I just-" the young man looked entirely too distraught as he spoke, and honestly Wars was beginning to feel it too. This was the worst timeline. He was the worst kind of person. He had to fix this immediately.
"No, I'm sorry, this is a huge misunderstanding," Wars interrupted, and the young man looked at him with watery eyes. "We're not brothers, I've never met you before today, I was just acting in case my stalker was listening. Sorry, I thought you'd catch on, I didn't think… well."
The young man curled his fingers in the fur on Wolf's head. "Oh."
"You believed it even though the doctors said you didn't have any family?" Wars asked, his brain still processing everything he'd just learned.
"Um. Well, they said I didn't have any family that they could call ," the young man explained, tugging on the ends of his long hair. "I might have, like, some family out there."
"Family that doesn't care, you mean," Wars stated blankly. This guy had thought Wars was some estranged family member. Wars was suddenly desperately glad he cleared things up as quickly as possible.
"I mean, it'd be better than drifting alone, wouldn't it?"
Hylia above , if that weren't the saddest thing Wars had ever heard. "What's your name?"
"Link Wilde," the young man offered, like he was rattling off something he memorized. Wars couldn't help a snicker, and the young man - Link - looked sheepish."That's- that's what my ID says."
Wars laughed a little louder. "Well, Link Wilde, that's a fantastic coincidence. I'm Link Warwick Thibaut, your new big brother. You can just call me Wars."
Link Wilde blinked, wide eyed for a moment. Then he burst out laughing too. "Two Links! Well, you might as well call me Wilde then, can't go stealing your name."
"Wilde, Wars, and Wolf," Wars declared. "What a family we make."
Wilde looked at him, all sunshine and smiles. Wars fought the urge to sling an arm over his shoulders and tousle his hair. He'd already been told Wilde didn't like to be touched. "You’d really want to be my brother?”
“Well, hey, you can get to know me, and I can get to know you, and we’ll both have someone in our corner for once. I don’t see any downsides,” Wars offered. Wilde’s smile grew, getting a little bit lopsided.
“There’s not much about me to know, but hey, what’s one more person I have to meet? At least you won’t miss the person I was everytime I do something I wouldn’t have before,” Wilde said agreeably.
“Are there a lot of people you have to relearn?” Wars asked.
“Just a couple. Apparently I’m a family friend of my doctor’s. I’m staying with her until I can be completely unmonitored,” Wilde explained.
“Oh, are you at risk of anything?”
“Impa’s worried I might have memory lapses. I don’t think I’ve had any yet, and it’s been a few months since I woke up, but my flashbacks are pretty intense, so she’s also monitoring those.” Wilde carded his fingers through Wolf’s fur carefully. “Wolf’s been trained to take care of me during flashbacks, though, so the doc’s helping me look for a place of my own.”
“Oh, he’s a service dog?” Wars asked, looking down at Wolf. Wolf snuffled up at him and Wars smiled back.
“Yeah. Do you have any pets?” Wilde asked, as he played with the ends of his golden hair. He had the wateriest blue eyes Wars had ever seen, and they were filled with a sincere sparkle that had him feeling guilty for no reason whatsoever.
“Not really. I haven’t thought about it, honestly, but I guess that maybe a cat wouldn’t be so bad. Nothing as big as Wolf here, though, I don’t think he’d fit in my apartment. What breed is he, anyway?”
“Wolf’s part wolfhound, part husky, and half groenendael.”
Wars blinked, raising his eyebrows. “I… recognize two of those words.”
Wilde barked a laugh. “He’s a mixed breed.”
“Right. Well, he’s certainly a handsome one, and I’m sure he wants to keep his walk going,” Wars said. “I’ve gotta get home, myself, but can we swap numbers? I gotta keep in contact with my new baby brother.”
Wilde perked up. “Yes! Yeah! Let me just-” Wilde fumbled through his pockets, pulling out a rather bulky looking phone case and opening it up to the contacts list. He offered it to Wars. The list was terribly empty, with only three numbers listed. Impa, Paya, and Purah, whoever they were.
“Not a lot of people to talk to here,” Wars commented.
“My old phone was unsalvageable, and apparently most of my friends died in the accident,” Wilde said, his smile dampening. Wars winced.
“Well, to new friends,” Wars said, putting in his number and naming the contact Big Brother . Wilde nodded, his huge and expressive eyes glistening sadly.
“New friends,” he agreed, accepting his phone back. Before Wars could begin to walk away, Wilde lifted his phone and snapped a picture of him. Wars blinked, and Wilde grinned at him. "Pics or it didn't happen, right?"
Wars snorted. "Got any pictures of life before?"
"There's not a whole lot. Apparently I wasn't big on documenting my memories until I woke up with nothing to remind me of who I was," Wilde explained, a certain amount of humor in his tone leading Wars to the conclusion that he was making light of his struggles.
"Then I guess you've got plausible deniability," he joked. Best to keep the mood jovial, after all. He looked down at Wolf, smiling. "You two have a nice walk, alright?"
"Stay safe on the way home," Wilde cautioned. "That lady… something's off with her."
Tell me about it , Wars didn't say. Instead he smiled warmly. "Text me, okay? We'll keep in touch."
With a small wave at both Wilde and Wolf, he turned on his heel and left. He stayed alert as he made his way back through the city to his home, but there was no sign of the woman, and no one else seemed to be tailing him. Wars wasn't sure if that meant she was working alone.
He just reached the floor his apartment was on when he bumped into his neighbor on the stairs, anxious with wild brown curls and big brown eyes. They were just as big and watery as Wilde's, now that Wars was looking.
"Hey, 'Rule, are you okay?" Wars asked.
"I'm fine," Hyrule said, speaking too quickly for it to be the honest truth. Wars let it slide, though. Hyrule was a private person, and they didn't really talk all that much. Wars was turning to walk past him, when Hyrule's lips pursed like he had something he wanted to say. Wars paused, lifting his eyebrows. Hyrule didn't meet his eyes as he said, "A woman came by looking for you."
Wars felt ice in his veins.
"She didn't know what apartment you were in, and none of us wanted to tell her," the anxious brunette mumbled. His eyes skittered over the walls of the hallway like he wanted to be doing anything but this. "She didn't take that very well."
"What did she look like?" Wars asked. "Silver hair? Crystal jewelry?"
Hyrule nodded and Wars cursed. He hurried to his apartment, entering and slamming the door behind him. He winced at the loud thud. He hoped his neighbor didn't think he was angry at him or something. Wars placed his hands on the counter in his kitchen, trying to stop the shaking of his arms before it could really start.
She was still following him . She had been in the building, asking the neighbors where he lived. If she came enough times, she might even figure it out through the process of elimination. What did she want ? Who was she?
Maybe it was just the mild PTSD from the war that was making him fear the worst. Maybe she just needed his help. But then, she had backed off of tailing him directly when he'd been with Wilde. But what could she want from him? He was a regular man, as much as he'd once believed otherwise.
His phone vibrated from where he'd dropped it on the countertop. Wars swallowed, picking it up and checking his messages.
Wilde had sent him a string of photos. An artful picture of a flower blooming amongst the autumnal bushes, a photograph of a group of leaves organized in a color gradient on black concrete, Wolf with a large maple leaf between his eyes on his snout, and lastly the color of the sunset sky. Under the photographs was a message saying simply, making some memories .
It was simple, silly things. Things Wilde wanted to remember even though they weren't big or important. Wars grinned.
Another message popped up on the screen.
This is Wilde btw .
Wars laughed, typing out a response so that Wilde knew the number was right.