Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Legend(he/they): Hypermobile type Ehlers Danlos syndrome. Frequently dislocates joints and doesn’t see why the others make such a big deal about it, it happens all the time! Primarily suffers from widespread join pain, instability and chronic fatigue. Has as many different mobility aids as they have magical artifacts.

Time(he/him?): Early onset osteoarthritis and partially blind. All of the time travel and shifting forms was not kind to his joints, so the connective tissue was damaged and BOOM. Arthritis. The old man jokes are becoming less and less of a joke every day. Also experiences debilitating migraines.

Hyrule(they/he): Sensory Processing Disorder (often associated with autism but can be caused by other conditions). Their magic sensitivity can often cause overstimulation in their other senses, and they are very sensitive to light, sound, smell and touch. They are semi-verbal because even his own voice can overstimulate him sometimes, but they don’t know sign very well. Also has anemia.

Wild(genderfluid he/she/they): hypertrophic contractural scarring, partially deaf, semi-verbal because of vocal cord scarring. Also prosthetic arm(set after TOTK). She switches between sign and speaking, whichever is easiest for him that day. They have to perform daily stretches and apply scar lotion to be functional, but they aren’t very good at remembering to do so. Often blows out his voice because he gets excited, but can’t tell how loud he is speaking.

Four(plural they/them): Dissociative Identity Disorder(but not really because of magical reasons), damaged growth plates because of Minish magic. They have very similar symptoms to DID, but there are slight differences because it was caused magically and traumatically, not like in the real world. They sometimes struggle to walk correctly because their growth plates are damaged, causing their legs to be slightly different lengths. They wear adaptive shoes to correct this.

Sky(he/him): POTS(Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), chronic fatigue. He struggles to breathe the denser air on the Surface, but he struggled with it on Skyloft as well. He has a chronically higher heart rate that causes dizziness and (rarely) passing out when moving from sitting to standing, after eating, and after adrenaline rushes. This causes his stamina to be fairly low, and also causes chronic fatigue.

Twilight(he/him): RRMS(Relapse/Remission Multiple Sclerosis). This is caused magically by the Twilight curse eating away at his body’s nerves, but is kept mostly under control by his shadow crystal. Occasionally, he goes through relapses and experiences anything from tingling and numbness in a limb to temporary loss of vision in one or both eyes, balance issues, vertigo and slurred speech. These flares are almost always debilitating, but thankfully they only happen every couple of months and last from a few days to about a week.

Wind(he/him?): A little cliche, but he has a peg leg. He likes to tell outlandish stories about it getting bit off by a kraken or eaten by a cannibal, but the truth is that he got an infection, couldn’t treat it in time and had to amputate. This happened sometime after his quests had finished, and he’s still a little ashamed of the actual circumstances, so he doesn’t open up often.

Warriors(he/him): Speaking Disfluency (Stutter). Often repeats sounds, such as “G-g-g-guys”, or extends sounds; “Llllllll-Iove you”. He grew up poor, so he was never able to get treatment for it, so he communicates using sign while Proxi translates verbally, though this isn’t as necessary with the Chain since most of them know sign.

Chapter Text

Legend knew the second he woke that it was going to be a Bad Day.

Sure, he was aware that most people’s Bad Days consisted of slight irritability, maybe a bad mood. However, Legend’s Bad Days were an entirely different animal. Also, it was the middle of the night, not really daytime.

Their shoulders ached with the slightest movement, like someone had shoved handfuls of rupees in between every bone. His legs felt floppy, unstable and weak, and he knew instinctively that muscling through walking today just. Wasn’t going to work.

Highly aware of the camp full of light sleepers surrounding him, Legend squeezed his eyes shut, mentally preparing himself to get up. Slowly. Taking inventory of his body’s various aches and pains, they realized two things; One, their right hip that had been slowly inching out of place over the last few days had obviously not fixed itself magically overnight, and two: his stomach was roiling uncomfortably.

Fuck.

He had hoped that, like most of his joints did, it would eventually fix itself and pop back into place. Evidently the opposite had occurred. Legend shifted his leg experimentally, and — yup, that hurt. Ow. He opened his eyes, hoping that Hyrule was on watch; they had minimal medical expertise, but were also the least likely to rat on him.

No such luck. Illuminated by the flickering fire, various heroes sprawled around him, was Time. As one of the heroes who also experienced joint pain, Time was probably the one who understood best what Legend was feeling, and how to fix it. However, he would also call a halt to the heroes’ march for the day to allow Legend rest, delaying them in their search for the black-blooded monsters. On top of that, they were also in Time’s era, meaning that it would also delay his reunion with Malon.

Legend resigned themself to quietly attempting to fix their joint on their own, knowing that Time would set his needs aside to force Legend to rest. He didn’t need to rest! Their joints dislocated all the time, and usually they just popped them back in and walked on, leaving no one the wiser. This one was just a little…stubborn.

Shifting around in his bedroll, he found a good sized rock on the ground next to him. His right hip was shifted towards the back, so logically, if he positioned himself just right over the rock, he could push it back into place. Logically. 

Sitting up slowly, Legend’s arms shook, struggling to hold his weight as he scooted over to the rock, dragging his screaming hip along behind him. Their stomach lurched worryingly with the motion, and they had to pause a minute to breathe through the waves of nausea.

As soon as his stomach stopped trying to imitate a school of Zora, he gingerly lowered his back onto the rock, wincing at the strain it put on his aching shoulders and arms. In this position, they could feel the way their hip joint pushed out in the back, deforming the skin where it touched the blunt tip of the rock. Legend took a steadying breath, preparing himself.

Don’t think about how bad this is gonna hurt. You’ve been through worse, just get it over with, Legend thought to himself. Not allowing himself to second-guess, he dropped himself onto the rock.

Pain. Instant and all-encompassing. It radiated out from his hip and pulsed all the way down to his knee, creeping its way to his upper back, burning and throbbing. He thinks he screamed, and the outside world goes fuzzy and gray, the flickering fire blurring as his eyes slip shut, static encompassing his brain.

“...-end…Legend…Link!”

Legend jolted awake, vaguely registering Time’s form hovering over them before they squeezed their eyes shut again, overwhelmed with the waves of agony radiating from his hip.

Why…does it hurt worse now?

“Link, I need you to focus. Open your eyes.”

Legend’s eyes felt weighed down by iron boots, but he makes an effort, hazily opening them to see Time’s worried face above him. Looking relieved, Time cupped Legend’s cheek.

“There you are. What’s wrong?” he asked. Legend shook his head sluggishly.

“Hip. Shoulders, stomach, evry’thing,” he slurred, completely limp as Time lifted him to a slightly upright position. “Think s’dislocated. Gonna throw up.”

Time, thankfully, quickly tilted them to the side when they abruptly emptied their stomach into the grass. He winced in sympathy as Legend hacked and coughed miserably, and brought him close to his chest when it seemed like he was done.

“I’m going to get Warriors,” said Time, lips pursed and eyebrows furrowed. “He knows much more about dislocations than I do.” Legend winced, about to argue, but before they could, Time had already set them down gently in their bedroll, which he had surreptitiously moved away from his puddle of sick, and turned to the other side of camp. Legend signed, resigning himself to a lecture from the two worst mother hens in the chain.

Time barely had to touch Warriors before he was awake and alert, eyes searching camp for the threat. When he found none but Legend shivering in his bedroll, he relaxed and made his way over, tip-toeing around the sprawling limbs of the rest of the Chain. 

Since it was too dark for Wars to sign, and Proxi was left sleeping with the other heroes, Time quietly filled him in as he approached Legend’s bedroll. Kneeling down, Wars cleared his throat.

“Hip? Tou-tou-tou-touch?” he said quietly, his voice shaking through the syllables. Legend made an affirming noise, not wanting to force Wars to talk more than he had to. Wars reached forward, gently probing around Legend’s injured hip as Time hovered worriedly. Wars pushed at Legend’s torso, prompting him to roll over so he could examine the back.

“Hmm.” Warriors hummed, prodding at the newly formed bruise from the rock, nodding to himself. “Fire?” he asked Time, gesturing to pick Legend up, who breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he wouldn’t be forcing Warriors to speak anymore. Time nodded, lifting Legend and his bedroll and carrying them over towards the fire, Wars following close behind. As they neared the fire, Wars erupted into a flurry of signs.

“It’s not dislocated. Hip is rotated towards the front and is pushing out in the back. I can fix it, but Legend was stupid and made it worse,” Warriors signed sternly, giving Legend an exasperated look, who, after taking a minute to process this new information, flushed in embarrassment. No wonder the joint wouldn’t go back in, it was never out in the first place! Turning towards Time, Warriors signed again, all business now. “Time, I need you to help me hold him down while I fix it.”

Time nodded, positioning his hands where Warriors directed him to. Legend’s breathing started to pick up, frightened of what was going to happen. This was going to hurt, this was gonna hurt so bad, he wasn’t ready he wasn’t—

Snapping from above jolted them out of their spiral. “Legend,” Warriors signed slowly. “Breathe. This won’t hurt.” Seeing this, Legend sucked in a breath, coughing from inhaling too quickly. Their vision focused on Warrior’s face, which looked slightly guilty. “Sorry,” he apologized. “Should have worded that better. Time is holding you in the right position, not holding you down.”

As Legend’s breathing evened out, he shook himself. Why was he panicking? He’d been through far worse than this and came through on the other side.

“Just…just get it over with,” he mumbled, looking away. There was silence for a moment, then rustling. Legend looked over to see Wars walking towards Wild’s pack as Time shifted forward, pulling him into an almost-hug. He stiffened instinctively, but eventually relaxed into the embrace. Time gave very good hugs when he wasn’t covered in pointy plate armor.

When Warriors returned about ten minutes later, Legend was flagging, in pain and almost asleep. They blinked blearily up at Warriors, mind not comprehending what he was holding. It was…an octo balloon? Sensing their confusion, Warriors handed Time the octo balloon to sign.

“It’s like a hot water bottle; Wild thought of it. You can fill it with water and heat it over the fire.”   Legend blinked, but nodded, grabbing the balloon from Time to set underneath his hip. Warriors nodded, again instructing Time where to put his hands before signing in front of Legend. “Breathe.”

Legend takes a deep breath in, and on the exhale Warriors pulls his leg up and out. It feels weird, and wrong, but it doesn’t hurt. Warriors gestures for him to inhale again, and this time he bends Legend’s leg off of the bottle and massages the back, pushing it towards the front. That one hurt a little more, but Legend keeps breathing and it passes with little more than a wince.

“One more,” Wars signs, gesturing for him to flip over, which he does with Time’s assistance. This time he breathes in on instinct, and boy is he glad he did, because Wars bends his leg, places his hands on his hip and pushes hard. The pain builds higher the longer he pushes, and just as he’s about to ask Wars to stop there’s a popping noise, he yelps, and all of a sudden his leg feels connected to his body again. Legend goes limp with relief, slumping against Time’s supporting embrace, who chuckles.

“Better?” he asks, adjusting the balloon to rest back over Legend’s hip. Legend mumbles something intelligible and buries their face deeper into Time’s chest. Wars snaps for their attention, and Legend rolls their head languidly to face him.

“There will be some swelling, so keep the balloon on. Want tincture?” Legend nods. The pain is worlds better than it was before, but they would appreciate a little relief from the faint ache that remains. Besides, now that the throbbing pain of their hip has abated, the pain the rest of their body is in comes back into focus, and they remember that it wasn’t just their hip that was rebelling. 

Wars returns with the tincture and Legend opens his mouth, wrinkling his nose at the taste as it’s put underneath his tongue. With a practiced air, he lets it sit, then swallows.

Ugh. The taste never gets any better.

Blinking slowly, he looks up at Time, who looks relieved and fond. Time brushes Legend’s sweaty hair away from his face and smiles.

“Sleep, Legend. We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

Legend nods, already drifting off in Time’s arms. He really was lucky to have such accepting brothers.

Chapter Text

In hindsight, maybe Sky shouldn’t have drank that strange dark colored drink that Warriors was brewing.

It smelled really good, okay? And Warriors had offered, and he said he’d brewed too much anyway, and that the younger Links couldn’t have it for some reason but it wasn’t alcoholic. And Sky was curious. They didn’t have a large variety of drinks on Skyloft, and what they did have he wasn’t allowed to drink; the green and black teas exacerbated his heart condition and made it beat so fast that he passed out. 

It was bitter and kind of gross, but he assumed it was just another “acquired taste”. He added cream and sugar to it and it was semi-bearable, and he didn’t want to be rude and waste it. So he drank the whole cup.

Now, in the middle of an ambush, he was definitely regretting it. 

I’m never ingesting an unknown substance ever again, he thought as he slashed Fi through a bokoblin’s stomach, his heart beating frantically like it was trying to escape through his throat. Honestly, he should know better by now. Eating or drinking anything other than a few safe foods tended to exacerbate his condition, which he knew, yet he still drank the “coffee” Warriors offered. 

Luckily, Sky’s overwhelming strength and Fi’s nimbleness kept him light on his feet, but his body felt weak and shaky, and — oh shit he could feel his heart in his arms now and his head felt like an octo balloon about to pop. Bad sign. Very bad sign.

Sky finished off the last couple of bokoblins around him and quickly scanned to see if any of the others were nearby, his vision starting to go gray around the edges. Seeing Legend to his left with his forearm crutch blades out and no immediate danger to either of them, Sky lowered Fi to the ground, the pressure in his head becoming unbearable, and —

—blinked awake seconds later to Legend poking him with his crutch, blades thankfully sheathed.

“You good, birdbrain?” 

Sky laid still, taking inventory of his body. Lethargic, shaking limbs? Check. Throbbing headache? Check. Brain fog? Check.

He blinks a couple more times before giving Legend a shaky thumbs up, his thoughts too much like wispy clouds to form coherent speech. Legend scoffs.

“Yeah, sure thing. Look, Twilight’s coming over to help out, but the battle’s nearly done. Sit tight.” His tone is brisk, but an undercurrent of worry flashes in his eyes. “I’d help you up, but I think you’d take me down with you.”

Sky nods, the words taking a few seconds to process in his foggy mind. He can almost hear Fi saying Master, your internet connection is unstable. Buffering…  

He still doesn’t know what that means, but he thinks he’s buffering now.

He flops his head sideways to watch Legend take out a couple remaining bokos, their twin blades flashing in the light. Twilight’s hulking silhouette lopes towards him, graceful and strong. Sky grins dopily, waving as the man skids to a stop, kneeling next to him. 

“Now what’chu got yourself into this time, Sky?” he drawls, lifting his hand to Sky’s head to check the temperature. Sky sighs, the shadow it creates over his eyes a welcome relief from the burning sun.

“I dunno what covfefe is, but I don’t think I can have it anymore,” he slurs, his head spinning. Twilight chuckles.

“Yeah, I was a little confused when you drank that coffee this mornin after you said you couldn’t have caffeine. Think you can sit up to drink some water?” he asks, sliding his hand beneath Sky’s head. Sky thinks for a moment.

“Maybe? I should have water though.” Twilight nods in response.

“Alright, up we go then,” he says, worming his other hand beneath Sky’s back. “Lifting in three, two, one—”

Twilight must have lifted him just a little too fast, or maybe Sky didn’t wait long enough to recover, but as he was lifted the pressure in his head rose again. His neck went limp, and his vision went black as his head flopped to the side. His hearing fuzzed out, but when it came back it was to Twilight’s worried voice.

“—gosh darn it, Sky, you with me?” he asked, frantically patting Sky’s cheek as he cradled his limp body to his chest. Sky groaned.

“Too fast. Water please,” he ground out, eyes still closed against the light. He heard a slight rustling as Twilight rummaged in his pack, then a cool rim against his lips. His eyes flew open and he drank greedily, suddenly dying of thirst. Twilight tutted and pulled the flask away as Sky whined, incoherent.

“You’ll make yourself sick. Well, sicker,” Twilight amended, still holding the flask away. “Drink slower.”

Sky pouted, but proceeded to drink much slower. Eventually, his throbbing head eased, though he still felt weak, shaky, and on the verge of passing out. He finished the water flask and slowly sat up under his own power, Twilight hovering behind.

“Y’sure you’re okay?” Twilight asked anxiously. “Don’t want you passing out on me no more.” Sky blinked slowly, processing. Still a bit out of sorts, he fumbled for his pack, but his shaking hands failed to open the buckle. Twilight jumped in, easily opening the pack. “What d’you need in here?” he asked, ever the polite country gentleman. Sky grimaced.

“Salty snacks. Need to get my energy back.” Twilight nodded, almost immediately finding Sky’s medical bag and retrieving the snacks. Thank the Goddess Warriors had made them all organize and label their various medical supplies. Sky munched quietly on saltines, still leaning against Twilight for support. He vaguely registered the others finishing up the battle across the field. As he finished up the last of his snack and the fog in his brain cleared a little, he had a realization.

“...Wars is getting such an earful later, isn’t he.”