Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Legend tightly gripped Hyrule’s hand as they entered the doctor’s office. It was 100%, totally, only for Hyrule’s comfort and not his own. After all, ‘Rule had never been in a doctor’s office and was probably scared stiff right now.

At his side, Hyrule marveled at the bright cartoon animals painted on the pediatrician's walls in annoying contrast to Legend’s internal monologue.

Their new foster dad (“Call me Time!” He’d said, “or Mr. Lon if you’re feeling fancy”) trailed after them. A presence that was probably meant to be comforting but Legend would categorize more in the vicinity of ‘looming’.

“I don’t know why we need to come here!” Legend hissed for the upteenth time. His grip on Hyrule’s hand reflexively tightened, and Hyrule sent him a sunny smile in response. “I don’t need a checkup!”

Time let out a sigh. It surprisingly wasn’t irritation, Legend had more than enough of that directed at him to recognize instantly. He couldn’t quite identify what emotion it did contain, though.

“I’m sorry, Ledge,” Time told him, “But both of your medical records are really spotty. We need to get those updated and get you both up to date on your vaccines. I just want you to be safe and healthy, kid.”

By ‘spotty,’ Time meant practically nonexistent. He stopped having regular checkups when his uncle died at ten. None of his fosters cared enough to take him to the doctor or had him long enough that they realized they even needed to.

When they brought the subject up with Hyrule, Legend was both shocked and completely unsurprised to learn he hadn’t been to a hospital since he’d been… born? Did Hyrule’s mom actually even go to a hospital when she had Hyrule? Maybe she had some doula come to her creepy cabin in the woods where horror movie characters go to get murdered to help her have an “all-natural birth” in a hot tub. It sounds like the kind of thing she would do. And after that, Legend figured Hyrule got ten years of hippie off-the-grid parenting where every sniffle got him eleven different herbs and spices shoved down his gullet in an attempt to cure him followed by an undetermined number of years rubbing his own cuts in dirt to try and seal them up.

Legend was smart and mature enough to realize they probably both needed to see the doctor at some point.

Didn’t make him like it any better though.

Legend sulked on an uncomfortable plastic chair (he was not getting onto the exam table until he needed to) while they waited for the doctor to arrive. Hyrule wandered around the room, poking at everything remotely interesting.

“What’s this?” he asked, picking up a red plastic bin.

Time hurried over to his side. “Please don’t touch that. They put needles in there.”

“Do skeletons really look like this?” He waved the arm of a plastic model.

“Mostly,” Time replied.

“Do you think I could be a doctor when I grow up?” Hyrule tried to peel a poster about the food pyramid off the wall to see if there was anything behind it.

“If you study hard and don’t get into trouble.” Time gently pressed the corner of the poster back in place and shooed away Hyrule’s grabby hands.

Legend just sat in his chair and glowered in silence. Stupid Hyrule, betraying him by actually being excited for the doctor’s. He couldn’t rely on anyone around here.

Hyrule was way too chummy with every single person he met. He was everyone’s little BFF. Why couldn’t he understand that you shouldn’t trust anyone?

The kid seemed to think that Time was their dad for good now, but Legend knew better. He always knew better. It was only a matter of time until the guy got tired of them and kicked them out on the street. Legend had been through this whole song and dance enough times to know what to expect.

Legend actually had a secret theory. It had been brewing in his brain since Time announced this doctor’s visit. He hadn’t told Hyrule yet, although based on the kid’s carefree attitude, maybe he should have. His theory was that Time was actually looking to find something medically wrong with them so he’d have an excuse to get rid of them. 

After all, just think about it: the man only just found out he had a bio son. He had his own kid to care about! What use could he have with a couple of raggedy, emotionally damaged teens when he had real family who needed him? The younger kids had living relatives they wanted to get back to and Sky was off at college; it was only Legend and Hyrule who were in the way.

He only hoped they’d let him and Hyrule stay together when Time ditched them. The kid really needed Legend to look out for him. And if the system tried to separate them, well. He’d already run away from foster homes 1 and 5. What’s one more?

The office door softly clicking open distracted the residents of the room from where Hyrule was trying to break open one of the locked cabinets and Time was frantically trying to stop him.

A redheaded woman with a gentle smile in a lab coat greeted them. Hello. I’m Dr. Mipha. I presume you are the Lon family?”

Time held out a hand to shake. “I’m Time, these are Legend and Hyrule,” he said, neither confirming nor denying the ‘family’ aspect.

As the adults started to discuss their case, a nearly inaudible creak directed Legend’s attention back to where Hyrule had somehow managed to get one of the cabinets open while his watcher’s attention was elsewhere. Legend barely caught sight of him discreetly shoving something from the cabinet into his pocket before letting the door fall closed again with a sheepish grin at his foster brother.

Legend shook his head fondly. The kid was nearly as bad at hoarding whatever he thought might be useful as Legend was. To be fair, they both had their reasons.

“So Legend,” the doctor said from directly in front of Legend. He reflexively kicked out in surprise, just barely avoiding nailing her in the shin. Damnit, he can’t afford to let his guard down like that, especially around adults he doesn’t know.

“Jesus, lady,” he swears, “don’t sneak up on a guy like that!”

She put her hands up in a pacifying gesture and chuckled lightly, seemingly unaffected by his lashing out. “I’m sorry for startling you like that, Legend. I was just asking if it’s alright with you if I take your vitals?”

Legend crossed his arms and glowered. “You can do whatever you want. It’s not like I can stop you.”

She brought out a cuff that Legend recognized from when he was younger and showed it to him. “This is for taking your blood pressure. I’m going to put this on your arm and it’s going to squeeze really tight, like it’s giving you a hug, and then it’s going to let go. Does that sound okay to you?”

Legend shoved out one of his arms. “Just get it over with already.”

The cuff went on and Legend fought the urge to bounce his leg. This was it. The beginning of the end. They were going to find something wrong with him and then he was going to be out of a home and a family. Again.

The cuff squeezed and released. Nothing at all like a hug in Legend’s opinion, although he admittedly didn’t have the most experience with them.

The doctor took a look at the number, frowned, and looked again. 

He knew it. Of course there was something wrong.

“This number’s a bit high. Are you stressed, Legend?” she asked.

“Wouldn’t you be?” He retaliated.

She offered him a comforting smile. “I understand that a doctor’s office can be kind of scary. How about you try your best to relax and let’s see if we can get a better result.”

Easier said than done.

As the doctor moved to start the machine again, Time crouched down in front of Legend and held Legend’s hands. His grip was feather/light, barely a touch, just enough to let Legend know he was there. “Hey Ledge, how about we talk about something fun. Have you watched any good movies lately?”

Legend blinked at the man. “…Wind finally convinced me to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean movies,” he admitted.

Time smiled encouragingly. “Oh yeah? How were those?”

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t stop talking through them.”

Time snorted in amusement.

“I thought the part with the giant monster was cool,” Legend said quietly.

“You mean the Kraken?”

“Yeah, that.”

The machine beeped next to him.

“There, that’s much better,” said Dr. Mipha as she wrote down the number.

Time squeezed his fingers lightly before he withdrew. “You did a good job, Legend.” 

Legend blushed and looked down at his hands that still contained remnants of warmth. Maybe, just maybe, things here could be okay.

“My turn!” Hyrule yelled, practically shoving Legend out of the chair.

Chapter Text

Legend sucked sullenly on his lollipop. The doctor had poked and prodded and asked questions for what felt like hours. ‘How much do you normally eat?’ ‘Where did you get this scar?’ and all other kinds of useless stuff like that.

It went on and on until she finally let them go. But not before giving them an absurd number of vaccines to get them up to date. His arm ached like someone spent the afternoon punching it for fun. At least Hyrule seemed pleased with the colorful band-aids they'd been given.

And now all Legend wanted was to go to Time’s house, lock himself in his room, and not talk to any more people for the rest of the day. Except that wasn’t in the cards for him because God hated him personally. This was what he got for being a bad Catholic.

“Twilight promised he’d be there when school lets out for Wind and Aryll,” Time informed them from behind the wheel of his beaten-up old second-hand minivan, “so we’re going to pick them up now. Malon is taking Four to their therapist appointment, but they should be back in time for dinner.”

Legend grumbled and sunk lower into his seat, watching the cars rush by outside the window with his head pressed against the window. The cool glass soothed the beginnings of a headache pressing just behind his eyes.

When they arrived at the school, everyone had already left except for the two Waker siblings with Twilight as their chaperone. Legend had to pull his legs in so the kids could clamber into the back, Wind practically pulling Aryll into his lap as he buckled them both in.

Twilight rubbed the back of his head nervously as he pulled himself into the front seat. “So, Dad,” he began, the word falling awkwardly from his lips and causing Time to start, staring at Twilight with his one good eye wide-open. Legend knew that this wasn’t the first time he had called him that, but it wasn’t a common occurrence by any means. “I kinda, sorta maybe promised the kids some ice cream, if that’s alright with you?”

“Ice cream!” Wind and Aryll yelled in frightening unison.

Hyrule brightened up at the word and repeated “ice cream” quietly under his breath in wonderment. Legend’s heart ached at the expression on his face, even as he felt his own mood drop at the promise of another stop. Shit, when was the last time the kid had ice cream?

Time’s good eye flicked between the residents of the car. “I’ll need to clear it with Tetra first,” he hedged.

The Waker siblings cheered.

“That wasn’t a yes,” Time groaned, leaning his forehead on the wheel.

As it turned out, Tetra was more than fine with Time taking Aryll out for ice cream before bringing her home. She challenged Aryll to see how many free samples she could get and to report back what the grossest flavor in the store was. Legend would have been more surprised if she did have a problem with them taking Aryll out. From what Legend had seen, she was basically the most permissive guardian ever. They could let Aryll shoot a man and she’d just ask if the girl had good aim.

Aryll successfully leveraged her cute face to sample every single flavor. She told the flabbergasted cashier to his face that the cherry was the worst because it tasted like cough syrup. Legend found himself grudgingly impressed with the kid’s sheer audacity.

Legend settled into a booth with his own cone of pistachio while all three of the younger kids went to play outside with Time watching after them. Hopefully their distraction could earn him a few minutes of peace and quiet.

“So, ya went for pistachio.” Twilight sidled into the booth across from him, his own chocolate cone clutched in his fist and a heavy backpack slung over one shoulder.

“Yup,” Legend responded, taking a lick and hoping the conversation would be struck down there.

“That your favorite, or…?” Twilight prodded

“Nope.” Legend took another lick.

“Oh.” Silence fell heavily between the two of them, but Twilight just wouldn’t stop staring at him, begging him to open up more with just his eyes. The puppy-dog expression could have been taken straight from Wolfie, and Legend wouldn’t be surprised if he had been practicing it with that massive beast of his.

A sigh whistled between Legend’s teeth even as he felt his resolve crumbling in the face of his pity. “I like to try new foods whenever I get the chance,” Legend admitted, “It’s fun to expand my palate with new things.”

The look of sheer joy that spread over Twilight’s face at the answer to a simple question was almost enough to make Legend regret giving up the information in the first place. “Why ain’t you ever tried loading up on free samples like li’l Aryll? Bet you could get yourself a decent haul.” 

Legend rolled his eyes. “I don’t think I have a cute enough face for that. The girl’s in her own weight class”

A shit-eating grin slowly spread across Twilight’s face. “Well I don’t know ‘bout that. I seen that look you get when ‘Rule don’t want to spend time with you. Like a rabbit kit what just got a whole barrel of water dumped on it. Reckon you could give Aryll a run for her money in the ‘wet and pathetic’ category at least.”

“You take that back,” Legend said, shoving Twilight playfully, only to freeze when his backpack jangled loudly.

Twilight let out an awkward cough.

“Hey Twilight,” Legend asked slowly, “what do you have there?” 

Twilight blushed all the way up to the tips of his ears. “Well y’see, I was workin’ at the rec center earlier, like I been doing, right? And then Wild popped by, and you know that kid been looking awful skinny, so I gave ‘em somma those leftover beans Malon made, remember from the other night? And the kid’s face just lit up when they ate ‘em! Said they were the best thing they ever eaten.”

“So what, you decided to buy them every can of beans in the supermarket?” Legend asked, his characteristic sarcasm bleeding into his voice. 

Twilight shifted awkwardly.

“You didn’t, did you?” he asked incredulously. That just seemed like such a waste.

Twilight moaned and put his head in one hand, the other holding his ice cream at a precarious angle. “An’ I ain’t even realize til I got out the shop,” he said, his voice slightly muffled from behind his palm, “what if they don’t got a can opener?”

“Or a stove.” Legend pointed out.

“Oh no,” Twilight whispered in horror, “there ain’t no way they got themselves a stove.”

Legend snorted. “You could always give the cans to ‘Roolie. You know the kid holds onto non-perishables like he thinks the downfall of society will happen any day now.”

Twilight chuckled deep in his chest, “Y’know, I cain’t help but be surprised he ain’t gone ‘n torn up our lawn tryin’ ta dig a fallout shelter afore now.”

Legend thought about this for a moment, pistachio steadily dripping down to lay sticky on his fingers. “He hasn’t… right?”

They both quickly whipped their heads around to look at the park across the street where the kids were playing. Wind was pushing Aryll on the swings, Time was yelling frantically near a cluster of trees, and Hyrule was nowhere to be seen.

Eh, it was probably fine.

Legend went back to his ice cream, licking his fingers to make sure he didn’t miss a single drop, even if the flavor was admittedly mediocre. “What’s your hangup with helping this Wild kid out anyway?” he asked, because he had to know. What made them so special?

Twilight gazed at him measuringly. Legend didn’t know what metric he was being evaluated by, but he felt his metaphorical hackles raise at the scrutiny. “Well I reckon I don’t rightly know. Why you tryin’ so hard ta take Hyrule under your wing?”

Legend glared at the man venomously. Twilight didn’t know anything about him, and he didn’t know anything about Hyrule. Legend refused to answer the question on principle, so the table lapsed into silence for several minutes as they both ate their ice cream. Legend let the cool smoothness of the icy treat on his tongue consume his senses, trying to pretend the older teen wasn’t there.

Finally, Legend too the initiative and shattered the silence that had settled itself over the two. “Peanut butter crackers,” he said. Quietly but firmly.

“Pardon?” Twilight stared at him blankly.

“Those individually wrapped Peanut Butter crackers,” Legend clarified, “they could be a good thing to get for Wild. They have protein, grains, they’re portable, they’d know they’re safe cause they’re sealed. Unless Wild has any allergies?”

“They don’t got any far as I’m aware…”

Legend nodded decisively. “Granola bars and trail mix are also both good options. Hikers rely on them when they’re in the wilderness without supplies for a reason.”

“This is great! But how’d you know ‘bout this?” Twilight said excitedly.

“I know lots of things,” Legend deflected, pointedly not mentioning the stash of food blocking off the vent in his own closet. Everyone was always unsuccessfully trying to convince Hyrule that he didn’t need the supplies he’d been hoarding, and Legend didn’t need them to try and clean him out too. He needed them for when he would inevitably be unable to endure his foster family any longer or they would inevitably get sick of him. Whichever guarantee came first.

Trying to move the topic to less risky ground, he cast his eyes about for ideas, only to land on Twilight’s partially eaten cone. “So you went for chocolate,” he said, echoing Twilight’s words from earlier.

“Yup,” Twilight replied, licking a long stripe down the side of his dessert. “I prolly shouldn’t be eatin’ it cause I’m real lactose intolerant, but the way I figure, I gotta just go all in sometimes and let the consequences be a problem for Future Twilight.”

“You’re lactose intolerant? And you're eating that anyway?” Legend asked incredulously.

“Yup,” Twilight replied, biting his teeth into the frozen dessert to get an even larger bite in a way that made Legend’s own teeth ache just to look at.

“Well stop!” Legend lunged forward to rip the ice cream out of his grip, but Twilight used his longer arms to hold it high out of his reach.

“I won’t and you can’t make me!” Twilight laughed.

Legend tried to scale Twilight like a jungle gym while Twilight just stretched to hold his food continually out of reach. “Does your father know about this?” Legend screeched.

“My daddy don’t know, and you ain’t gonna tell him!” Twilight stood up to try to dislodge him, but Legend held on tight to him like a koala.

Just then, the bell over door to the shop rang. In walked Time, a Hyrule who was covered in leaves and looked faintly ashamed, and the Waker siblings who were holding hands so tightly it probably hurt. Time’s good eye flicked between Twilight, Legend clinging onto his side like his life depended on it, Twilight’s ice cream held so high it was nearly touching the ceiling and the steady stream of melted cream trailing off the side and plopping onto the floor, and Legend’s own ice cream where it laid discarded on the table when he’d tried to steal Twilight’s.

“Boys,” Time said evenly, “are you just about ready to go?”

Legend climbed down dejectedly and cast his eyes at the floor. They both mumbled their assent and moved to clean up the mess they’d made.

Chapter Text

When Wind hugged his sister goodbye, he clung to her as if this was the last time they would ever see each other again, despite Legend knowing that they shared a school and would be back together again tomorrow. Legend didn’t understand it. All these dramatics, and for what?

In the front seat of the car, Twilight half-slumped against Time’s shoulder in exhaustion from the busy day. Even while steering home, the man was careful not to move his right arm too much lest he wake his dozing son. Legend felt a pang of jealousy at the two. They only met recently, but they’d already easily settled into the familial role set out for them.

Legend never had that in the first place. And the closest thing he’d had was lost to him. He would never get that again.

When they got to Time’s house (not Legend’s house, not really), he went upstairs and locked himself in his room. Malon called him down for dinner, but he didn’t move. They could go on without him. They didn’t need him.

About an hour later, a knock came at his door.

“Who is it?” he called, ready to turn away whoever thought it was a good idea to bother him.

“It’s Hyrule! I brought some food?” came his foster brother’s bright reply. 

Legend hesitated. Part of him was still geared up to yell at a random person to leave. But this was Hyrule. And he could never hurt him like that. Plus Legend was hungry, even though he devoured a granola bar from his stash earlier. (And planned to sneak down to replace it tonight. Luckily the Lons always bought a lot of granola bars.)

Legend dragged his ass off his bed and towards the door. It opened a crack to see Hyrule’s brightly shining face and the mushroom pasta dish he was holding out like an offering.

Legend rolled his eyes. “Come on in,” he said, swinging the door wide open.

Hyrule shoved the pasta into Legend’s hands and scurried into the room, where he stood and gazed around at Legend’s stuff with awe despite having been in here many times before. The kid was like that. Always seemed to worship the ground Legend walked on for some stupid reason. Legend wished he could live up to what Hyrule saw in him. But he knew he could never be a good enough person for that.

Legend idly twirled the noodles around his fork and took a bite. It was good. Rich, creamy, a good amount of pepper. And it was very kind of Hyrule to make sure he didn’t starve (even though he had the supplies to make sure he wouldn’t have anyway).

Legend looked to his messy bed, where Hyrule was now squishing the pink bunny plush given to him by Time, which Legend hated to admit he slept with every night. He looked at Hyrule and he thought of heads on shoulders in the car and desperate goodbye hugs and gunshot wounds bleeding out the lifeforce of the only family he’d ever known.

“Hey Rule?” he asked, and if his voice was a little choked, he would swear it was only because of the thickness of the pasta sauce.

“Yeah?” the kid responded, flopping the bunny’s ears from side to side.

“What was your mom like?” He forced his voice back into its normal tone.

Hyrule lowered the ears and stilled. His expression went distant and soft. “She was the best. She loved to sing and dance, and she did both every single time she cleaned. She always got really worried whenever I got hurt, even if it was just something simple like a scraped knee, and she would fuss over me endlessly until I got better. She always had really good advice and gave the best hugs. And she liked to sew sometimes even though she wasn’t very good at it. She even made me all these dolls that looked like me!” He held up the rabbit plush as if to demonstrate with a bright smile on his face, though it quickly fell. “Except I lost all of them. I don’t know where they are now. But, so, my mom… she was amazing. It’s been years, and I still miss her.” Hyrule looked at Legend then with a keen gaze. “What was your family like?”

Legend shifted uncomfortably. He placed the empty pasta plate on his desk and tried to ignore the churning in his stomach. “I had an uncle. Except he wasn’t my real uncle, I don’t think. Then he died. So now I’m here.”

Hyrule scoffed and threw the stuffed animal at him. It bounced lightly off Legend’s shoulder. “Come on, there’s got to be more than that! Tell me!”

“That’s it,” Legend said stonily, because it was. It was always just him, his not-uncle, and no one else. And then it was just him. Alone.

“Boo! Bad storytime!” Hyrule yelled, throwing both pillows from Legend’s bed at him. Legend growled and returned fire. Hyrule laughed and raced around the room to dodge the fluffy projectiles. The fight continued until they were both exhausted.

Time came to check on him before he went to sleep. As always, the bunny plush was hidden safely under the bed until the man left so he wouldn’t know he liked it.

“Hey bud,” Time said, sitting on the edge of the mattress and causing it to dip under his weight. “How are you doing? We were all worried when you skipped dinner. I’m glad Hyrule at least got you to eat something.” He nodded to the empty plate still on Legend’s desk.

“I’m fine,” Legend replied, playing with the skin of his knuckles. Twisting it back and forth to see how it slid over the bones underneath.

“Are you sure? I’m here if you need to talk about anything”

Legend hesitated. He didn’t know how much he could trust this man, but he knew couldn’t do this on his own. “I want to find out who my real parents are.” The words exploded out of him suddenly, almost against his own will. But they were out there and Legend couldn’t grab them to shove them back in his mouth.

Time’s good eye widened in surprise. He looked Legend up and down, looking for something Legend didn’t understand. Finally he nodded. “Okay.”