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yangwonz · 2 years

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enhypen as boys i’ve had a crush on

pairing: enha x gn!reader (except sunoos im sorry (implied x fem!reader))

genre: my sad-sad love life

warnings: implied alcohol consume in jakes, haven’t proofread, if u notice something pls let me know and i will add it!

a/n: this is not even half of my crushes i don’t think i’m doing very well 😭 thank god my life is so messy tho there’s always something to write about.

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heeseung

-> a close friend, who will never know about my true feelings

you and heeseung met when you switched schools and you two ended up attending the same class. you guys didn’t have much to do with each other, given both of you had your own people to hang out with, besides talking a few words, but you had your eyes on him since the very first day. weirdly enough, a year later your friendgroups merged and just like that you obviously befriended him too. this could’ve meant the beginning of your friends to lovers story, but you had to find out that heeseung was indeed taken already. it hurt you, of course it did, but you settled to just being his friend and wished that as the time goes by your feelings for him will fade away. even though you exactly know, that the more you hang out with him, the deeper you’re falling for him.

jay

-> the boy who fell in love with my best friend

jay and you got to know each other, when he was in the ninth and you were in the eight grade. he was a close friend of one of your friends from his grade. he was quite nice to you sometimes, but your relationship mostly consisted of him teasing you for whatever. you never understood as for why, but you somehow developed a crush on him, even though you swore that he was totally not your type. gathering all your might and braveness, one day you confessed your feelings for him. you didn’t have much hope, but his apologizing look and him telling you that he is in love with your best friend did devastate you.

jake

-> an old classmates friend i met at a birthday party

you both were a bit tipsy the time you met an old classmate of yours, who then proceeded to introduce you to the boy next to him: jake. it was one of your friends birthday party, so you obviously had a few drinks. he offered to make you another drink, promising you that he was a pro, to which you just had to agree to, because damn he is indeed veryyy pretty. you have seen pictures of him on instagram already so you knew he looked good, but he was just even more mesmerizing in real life. nothing much happened between the two of you other than a bit of flirting, but that’s totally okay.

sunghoon

-> the boy i ghosted because my best friend from back then fell in love with him

in fifth grade, you and sunghoon got a lot closer. he texted you every day after school, just about whatever was on his mind and the two of you ended up talking until late at night (your mom wasn’t very fond of this behaviour). he gave you chocholates sometimes saying that “he has way too much at home”, or downloaded all one direction songs, because he knew you loved them, and shared earphones with you, whenever you and him went home from school together. he stood up for you when you told him that some boys from your grade were mean to you. it was a blooming puppy love between two kids, which had to end, because your best friend at that time told you, that she’s head over heels in love with sunghoon. because you loved her so much, and didn’t want her to be sad, you decided to stop talking to sunghoon (you even blocked him lol) and promised her to help her with her crush on him. only for her to announce a week later, that she doesn’t like him anymore. you tried to make things good again, but sunghoon was just so mad, that he never heard you out. a few months later you moved to a different country, but wherever you are, you never fail to think back to the very first time you were truly in love.

sunoo

-> my first crush from kindergarden whose dad forbid us to be friends

you will never forget your first day in kindergarden. you were a shy kid, but were brave enough to go up to this on girl on the swings, who later became your best friend at the time. she introduced you to sunoo, and the three of you ended up being unseparable. you often thought of sunoo when you were at home, how cute he looked when he smiled all-so-brightly and how nice he was to you. it made you sad, whenever a day or week came to an end and you had to say goodbye to him. you weren’t sure what this feeling was, but you wanted to be around him all the time. one day though, everything changed. he didn’t come to play with you and y/f/n, sunoo straight up acted like he didn’t know who you two at all. you couldn’t understand as of why he is acting like that and tried to talk to him while apologizing in case you did or said something hurtful without noticing. nevermind your efforts, he ignored you and proceeded to find new friends. later, your friend told you that he stopped playing with you two, because his dad didn’t want him to be friends with girls.

jungwon

-> the boy i became friends with when i was at the hospital but never saw again

you were sent to the hospital when you were around seven years old and the thought of being there absolutely scared you. after your mom had to leave for a bit you totally lost it and just cried (turns out rather loudly) in your room. a little boy, who was in the room next to you, and his mom heard you and came over to ask you if everything is alright. they kept you company until your mom came back. the two started a conversation and got along very well, and so did you and the little boy aswell. you spent the remaining days playing together, and he never failed to make fun of you for crying so hard on that day. but also, he always gave you his favourite car toys and in exchange you let him think out a storyline for when he agreed to play dolls with you. years later, you just randomly remembered of him, and found out that you never even asked him what his name is. your mom came to rescue though, and told you that the boy is named jungwon. you hope that wherever jungwon is, he is doing just alright.

ni-ki

-> the boy from my dance course i always wished to get paired up with

your mom signed you up for a dance course when you were in the first grade. it didn’t take you long to notice ni-ki, who just seemed so talented and cute in your eyes. he took the spotlight in almost all performances, always dancing in the front, while you were behind for most of the time, like he was an idol and you were his background dancer. sometimes, you would have to dance in pairs, and you wished and prayed to just be able to dance with him one time, but there was a certain girl by his side all the time. but they complemented each other well, and you never failed to notice his saddened look in his eyes, whenever she missed practice. so ni-ki just stayed your, once again, unfullfilled crush.

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lucky-clover-gazette · 1 month

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The Big Picture

(Four Swords Manga Adaptation)

Chapter 6: Stone Arrghus | 5818 words

The gang fights a giant rock. Vio learns something about himself. Shadow tries his best.

Read it on ao3 or under the cut:

As the solar eclipse reaches totality, Stone Arrghus’s power swells. Its form begins to vibrate and expand, unimpeded by the natural light that normally suppresses it. It extends this power to about a dozen nearby rocks, beckoning them to orbit its body.

And then it turns to Shadow Link

“An eclipse?” the shade asks, slaw-jawed as he stares directly at the black sun. Arrghus had only wanted to please his master, back when its thoughts had been simple. But without the sun’s oppressive effects, it has found itself newly enlightened.

Show me some real power, Shadow Link had told Stone Arrghus. Hell, kill the heroes yourself and Ganon will probably give you my job.

“Master,” it says in an unfamiliar voice. It sounds chilling and monstrous, a far cry from its previous simple repetition.

Shadow Link turns to face Stone Arrghus, his jaw dropping again at its transformation. “What the—”

An orbiting stone knocks the shade on the side of his head. Stone Arrghus chuckles as all five feet and two inches of Shadow Link crumble to the ground.

─────────────────

“Erune… she’s gone!”

Vio sighs and places down his journal.

Green’s shouts are clear as day through the window. Clear as… not day. It’s dark outside, Vio realizes, as he gets to his feet. It’s not supposed to be dark. And the shadows beneath the trees, they’re shaped…

An eclipse, Vio realizes, drawing from his own basic knowledge of natural science.

“Search the grounds!” Green hollers, as more footsteps pound against the wooden porch. “Look for clues!”

Vio stretches and grabs his sword. This should be interesting.

He makes it downstairs, following the same path both Red and Blue appear to have taken to speak with Erune. And there they are, all three of them, on the porch—but Erune is nowhere to be found.

“It’s dark,” Red whimpers at Vio’s arrival.

“I noticed,” he responds. Vio turns to Green. “What happened?”

“I was right there with her, but then Blue had to pull me away—”

“Don’t blame me,” Blue huffs. “How was I supposed to know the world was gonna get all freaky?”

And to his credit, Vio can confirm that the world looks rather freaky. It’s not just the eclipse anymore—there’s almost a visual distortion to the town square surrounding them. Ripples in reality itself, dizzying and surreal.

“It looks like the village,” Vio says, “warped through a bad dream.”

“Through a nightmare!” exclaims Red.

Vio narrows his eyes, scanning the area. “It’s a lot like the real thing, but subtly different. Sort of like we are.”

Before they can ponder that notion any further, the heroes are distracted by the sound of laughter. Children’s laughter, echoing through the village, leading back to a group of distant silhouettes.

“The missing children,” Green says under his breath, and then he’s off. Reluctantly, Vio follows him with the others. Green reaches the children first (“Hey, kid!”), reaches for an oddly stiff arm, and—

“Yes, Mister?”

Vio stops himself in his tracks. The children’s voices come from painted mouths, belonging to life-sized toys.

“This is a land with no adults,” the toys say in unison. There’s a stuffed bear, a clown, and a soldier, as well as a brightly-colored toy box beside them. “Just us kids, and we get to play all day long. All play and no work means we’re just like toys.”

“You never get hungry or tired,” says a different voice, this one much more familiar. “You can play forever. It’s fun!”

Erune sits against a tree, her eyes vacant and her limbs stiff. She has been transformed into a doll.

Vio feels sick to his stomach.

Green draws his sword. “Show yourself, Shadow Link! You’re behind this!”

A large figure emerges from distant fog, and it is definitely not shaped like Shadow Link. It’s a giant circular rock, with a bloodshot eyeball in the center. Gleefully, it taunts them from… the eye? Is that its mouth too?

“Shadow Link should be the least of your concerns!” the monster exclaims. “I am your enemy now!”

“Tell us what happened to Shadow Link,” Green demands. “Is he dead?”

The monster seems annoyed by the question. “He has been… neutralized.”

Ah, Vio thinks with mild disappointment. Just unconscious, then.

Blue raises an eyebrow. “What, did you hit him with a rock or something?”

The monster does not respond to this question at all, which must mean…

“Wait, really?” Vio smirks. “That’s all it took?” He imagines that overconfident freak getting knocked out by a paperweight, and he smiles.

“Guys,” Green scolds his teammates. “Focus.”

And it’s good that he said something, because Vio has just enough time to prevent a small rock from knocking him out too. It clangs against his shield, shaking him where he kneels, and then retreats to its orbit around the monster. There are about a dozen of these smaller rocks at its command, and a single hit to the head could probably take any one of the heroes temporarily out of the fight.

“We’ll never get near the main eye this way,” Vio tells the others, who also kneel behind their shields. He would judge their poor show of heroism, if he wasn’t also doing the same exact thing.

“Everyone grab a weapon,” Green commands, inching backwards towards the toy box. He pulls out a bright yellow boomerang.“Start with the smaller eyeballs!”

“But they’re just toys,” Blue says, grimacing at the box’s contents.

Vio is quick to grab the bow and arrows, giving the string an experimental twang. “I’ll take this one,” he announces with a grin. He likes the idea of himself as an archer—Link hadn’t been skilled with a bow, which makes Vio all the more interested in proving himself superior.

“Oh, I see!” Red exclaims, reaching into the box. He withdraws a slingshot. “Dibs on this!”

Blue shoves him aside and begins rifling through the remaining items. He finds an insect net, some flippers for swimming, and then finally…

“This’ll do nicely,” he says, raising a gigantic mallet in the air. Vio narrows his eyes at the comparatively small toy box, wondering how the hell the hammer could have fit in the first place.

His thoughts are interrupted by another volley of flying rocks.

“Let’s get ‘em,” Green tells the group, throwing his boomerang at the orbiting stones. It targets each of them in an arc, locked onto their precise locations. A hit from the boomerang seems to stun each projectile, keeping it still enough to—

Green slices his Four Sword through one of the tiny rocks. His sword’s blade glows as the two halves drop to the ground.

Force energy, Vio thinks. Green seems to realize much the same, and begins slashing at several more stunned rocks. Vio has to hand it to him—in this kind of environment, Green really does thrive. Between his stunning-and-slashing and Red’s slingshot volleys, the orbiting rocks don’t stand a chance.

The big eye appears to be reaching the same conclusion, darting frantically between the heroes surrounding it.

“There’s nowhere left to hide!” Blue taunts, already raising his mallet. The eye begins to tremble—surely not from fear?

It bursts into gushing tears. While Vio, Blue, and Green are able to sidestep the flood of murky liquid, Red slumps right beneath its torrential downpour.

“I m-made all those little r-rocks,” the monster sobs, “and now they’re gone!”

Red sniffs, his hat acting as a sort of umbrella. The rocky tears pool at his feet. “Really?” he asks the creature trying to kill him. “That’s so sad… now you’re making me cry!”

Vio puts his face in his palm.

“Huh?” Red gasps “The tears!” Vio watches as the rocky water solidifies around his feet, essentially rooting him where he stands. “They’ve dried like cement!”

The monster laughs, and rears itself for an attack. “I’ll crush you, hero!”

It doesn’t get the chance. Vio jumps in front of Red and unleashes an impressive hail of arrows upon the eyeball’s soft flesh. It’s almost like he moves in slow motion, perfectly focused in a way he hardly ever is. There’s just Vio, the target, and his weapon. He has one goal, and he possesses the skill to succeed.

Take that, Link, Vio finds himself thinking. I’ll do this my way.

Maybe he might enjoy being a hero, after all.

“Ow!” the monster actually cries, its eyelids swollen shut. The arrows poke out between them, like really bad artificial lashes. “I can’t see!”

In its confusion, it slams itself down on the same cemented substance keeping Red in place. “I’m free!” Red cheers, as Blue lifts his hammer above his head.

“Look out!” he warns the others, launching himself into the air. “Coming through!”

Vio watches in awe as Blue slams the hammer down onto the stone monster, splitting it right in half.

And just like that, the monster is slain. They did it, together.

“Look,” Green says, holding out his hands. “It’s raining force crystals!”

Vio glances up at the eclipsed sky. Well, what do you know. As the others fight over the tinier shards of force, Vio watches carefully for a larger crystal. Just as snowflakes vary in size and shape, these seem to come in varying degrees of power.

He spots his target and catches it effortlessly.

“Shut up, I fought too!”

“Guys, can’t we all just share—”

Behind Vio’s back, someone is definitely punching someone else. He just smirks and studies the giant force gem in his hand.

“Hey, give it back!”

“Do you wanna die next?”

What an ugly display.

Vio smirks and shakes his head, more than satisfied with his own prize.

─────────────────

Shadow regains consciousness just as the eclipse ends. He grimaces as he gets to his feet, his hand reaching for the welt on his forehead. The shot of soreness at mere contact with the injury makes him hiss.

The town square is back to normal. The sun shines brightly in the sky. Rock dust formerly known as Stone Arrghus litters the ground. What a fool, Shadow thinks of the creature. Not a very touching remembrance, he knows, but the stony bastard did try to outrank him.

And the heroes… they must be alive, if Stone Arrghus has fallen. Even in its most powerful state, brought on by the solar eclipse bridging the dark and light worlds, the monster had been no match for its opponents. Shadow is almost grateful for the heroes’ swift defeat of his former servant—after all, he can’t have someone else succeeding where he himself has failed.

Shadow Link retreats into the darkness from whence he came, slightly battered but not nearly beaten yet.

─────────────────

The Eastern Temple smells like sandalwood and fresh grass. Vio breathes in deep as Red, Blue, and Green hack away at the crystal containing the Yellow Maiden. The ethereal woman emerges with a bright smile, opening her arms to them all.

“Link!” she exclaims, which Vio supposes is not an inaccurate thing to call them all. “You must have defeated the terrible monster, Stone Arrghus!”

Green steps forward. “Yes, we did. The Village of the Blue Maiden is now safe.”

“Do you have a village, too?” Red asks the Yellow Maiden, eyes wide. Blue elbows him. “Sorry.”

She makes a weird face. Clearly it’s a sore subject. But then her eyes land on Green’s sword, and she’s all smiles again.

“And the Four Sword shines as it did before,” the maiden observes. “But it’s still not powerful enough to defeat Shadow Link.”

Vio smirks. Maybe a pebble would do the trick.

The Yellow Maiden extends her arms, revealing an object that does actually resemble a pebble. “Please,” she says, “take this Moon Pearl.” The glowing orb floats into Green’s hand (of course), its coloration milky-white with flashes of yellow and blue. “When struck by moonbeams, it opens a gate to the Dark World.”

Oh, shit, Vio thinks. Now we’re getting somewhere.

“About that,” he says, as Blue rolls his eyes. “When the village was overtaken by evil, and we fought Stone Arrghus… were we in the Dark World?”

The Yellow Maiden eyes Vio curiously. “Yes, Link, I suppose you were.”

“It’s Vio.”

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Green asks Vio, clutching the Moon Pearl in his hand.

Vio shrugs. “It was just a theory.” He turns back to the Yellow Maiden. “You suppose?”

“You were not fully transported to the Dark World—that would only be possible through a very powerful gateway. At most times, even the Moon Pearl is unable to sustain a connection strong enough to transport a person between the worlds.”

“But it blurs them together,” Vio guesses, remembering the way the town square seemed to fluctuate before his eyes. “It messes with the realities, making it easier for us to comprehend dark forces.”

“And kick their asses,” adds Blue.

“Also that.”

“But we didn’t have the Moon Pearl when we fought Stone Arrghus,” Red says. “How were we able to beat him, then?”

It’s a good question. Vio tries to answer it for himself. He retraces his steps, placing himself back inside the room with Red and Blue. He’d been writing in his journal about… something… and then there was a rock, and Blue went to heckle Green because he was talking to Erune… but that was all normal. That’s not what made things weird. Things only got really weird when—

“The eclipse,” Vio realizes aloud. He looks to the Yellow Maiden for confirmation. “It has something to do with the eclipse.”

She nods. Vio feels smug.

“During certain solar and lunar events,” the Yellow Maiden explains, “the dark and light worlds blur together. Non-native creatives reach full power, and denizens of both realms can more clearly perceive each other.”

Vio glances at the Moon Pearl. “And that thing produces the same effect on command, in any conditions.”

“Exactly, young hero.”

He sours at the name, but at least she didn’t call him ‘Link again. And actually, you know what—Vio is a hero! He shot that monster in the eyeball, and it was fun!

Blue looks from the pearl in Green’s hand, to the maiden, and then back to the pearl. “Okay, fine, I guess that makes sense.”

They turns to leave, but Blue isn’t quite finished speaking. “But, like… why does he get it?”

Vio rolls his eyes.

─────────────────

Vio finds Red, Blue, and Green outside of the tavern with Erune. After their visit to the Eastern Temple with Stone Arrghus, the heroes had been finally free to enjoy some well-earned sleep. Now, at the break of dawn, they’re just about ready to hit the road again.

Just about.

“Has anyone seen my journal?” Vio interrogates the group. “I’ve searched everywhere. It’s gone.”

Green makes a placating gesture. “Calm down, Vio.”

Vio grits his teeth, balling his hands into a fists. He is being calm, he’s just—

“Are you suggesting that one of us took it?” Blue asks, roiling his eyes. He’s probably trying to act all cool in front of Erune, that piece of—

“It’s okay, Vio,” Green says, taking him by the arm. “We can get you a new one.”

Vio rips his arm away. “It was a journal,” he hisses. “You can’t just replace it.”

And there are things in there I don’t want anyone to see.

Green sighs. “Okay, Vio. I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying my name!”

He doesn’t even know where that comes from. Doesn’t he want people to use his name? Green is only trying to help—albeit condescendingly—yet Vio still gives him hell. What is my problem?

“What was even in there,” Blue says, “to get you so riled up?”

Vio turns to him sharply. Normally his words are quick and clever, but for some reason he feels a need to be cautious around the subject. He has experienced many sensations, since becoming himself—but this kind of shame is something entirely new.

It was stupid of him, to put anything in writing. His thorough investigations and reflections, things that make him feel vulnerable and raw. Now, they’re just… out there. Somewhere. And he can’t even explain himself, or the things he wrote, and Hylia knows what someone would make of the hero—

“I’m sorry,” Erune tells Vio, glancing up at the room above the tavern. “I keep a diary, too. It would make me very sad to lose it.”

Vio can’t bring himself to dislike her. He may not be smitten like the others, but he admires her persistence and desire to help the children of her town. It’s his gut impulse to diminish anyone who makes him feel unsure of himself—but just like Red, Erune is simply too earnest to deserve his ire.

Whatever frustrations Erune represents to Vio, aren’t her fault at all.

“It’s fine,” he mutters, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ll get a new one.”

He’ll work through… all of that… as soon as he can put pen to paper again. He’ll figure out his problem. There has to be an answer, and Vio is confident that it lies somewhere within himself.

He just has to know where to look.

“Heroes!” calls a new voice from within the tavern. A man, about Arcy’s age, bursts onto the front porch. For one fleeting second Vio thinks he might be holding his journal—but it’s just a box of baked goods.

“For your travels,” the man says, handing the box over to Green. Then, he turns to Erune. “I hope you know that we’re very proud of you, my dear.”

She blushes and looks slightly away. “Dad…”

Something happens in Vio’s heart. Would the Captain even like him, knowing that he’s one of four strangers who replaced his beloved son?

He shakes his head. Save it for the journal.

“He’s right,” Vio tells Erune with a smile. “Without your determination to find the true cause of the children’s disappearance, I’m pretty sure everyone would still be trying to break down the knights’ door. You saw past their panic and figured things out for yourself.”

“But I didn’t do anything,” Erune protests. “I just got myself turned into a… well, you saw.”

“Of course you did stuff!” Red exclaims. “You gave us really important information, even though you were nervous to share it. And you showed us hospitality. Thank you.”

Before Erune or her father can respond, another man bursts onto the porch. He wears an apron covered with various food stains, suggesting to Vio that he must work at the tavern. “I found this,” he says, revealing another object—not Vio’s journal, damn it—from behind his back.

“Rosie!” Erune exclaims, running over to claim the doll. She kisses its forehead and holds it close to her chest. “Where did you find her?”

“Behind the tavern,” the man says. “She was resting against a tree. She says she missed you.”

Vio finds it sweet that he brought the doll to his boss’s daughter. That’s definitely not in his job description.

“Thought you were too old for such childish things,” Green teases Erune, kind-heartedly.

“Nope!” the young woman chirps with a smile. “And we both are very grateful for your help.”

She doesn’t seem to be referring to all the heroes. There’s something more to it, Vio thinks, something he isn’t quite catching—but Green appears to understand well enough. He smiles back, a bit of blush spreading onto his cheeks.

It’s happening again, Vio realizes, as he watches the fond interaction between them. Just like before in the tavern, and when he was talking to Red and Blue… there is just something that Vio doesn’t get, that everybody else somehow naturally does. He can still be a hero without it (which is all he’s been made to do anyway), and he does admittedly tend to overthink, but still—

“Good find, love,” Erune’s father tells the other man. And then he kisses him on the mouth.

Vio’s jaw drops.

Red gasps. “Erune, is that your other dad?” Erune nods, and Red beams. “Hi, Erune’s other dad!”

Vio desperately searches his memory—Link’s memory, whatever—to try and connect the dots. He remembers two knights in a supply closet, deeply annoyed with Link as he attempted to retrieve a mop. They had been kissing, too. Link hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but right now Vio… Vio thinks quite a lot of it, actually.

And then he realizes that he doesn’t have to think at all, because this just makes sense.

Something inside of Vio, in this moment, seems to just fall into place. But it can’t possibly be that easy, right? It doesn’t solve everything inside him, not even close—he’s still missing his journal, and unsure where he belongs, and there is of course the matter of what happens when he outlives his heroic purpose… but this. This, at least, is a start.

“It’s nice to meet you both,” Vio tells Erune’s dads, standing with better posture than before. Normally he doesn’t care what people think of him, but right now he feels a sudden and irrepressible urge to be understood.

“Thank you for protecting our daughter,” one of the men tells Vio, reaching for his husband’s hand like it’s a reflex. Vio’s eyes linger on the gesture for perhaps a second too long, and then he looks away.

“Yes, thank you!” calls another voice from behind Vio. And then there are several more voices, expressing their appreciation. Vio… could get used to this part of heroism.

Townspeople crowd the main square in droves, eager to see the heroes off on their travels now that they’ve left the inn. Vio watches as the adults of the town keep their children close, visibly shaken by recent events. The children, meanwhile, just smile at Vio, Green, Blue, and Red. Vio wonders if they even remember what happened at all. If he had no concern for social niceties, as opposed to the minimal concern he normally has, he’d probably just ask.

Erune smiles back at the children and then turns to the other heroes. “I’m glad you visited our village. It was very nice to meet you all.”

“Us too!” chirps Red.

Blue rubs the back of his neck, trying to be aloof. “I guess it was nice,” he tells Erune, and Vio has to hold back a smirk.

“Thank you for your help,” Vio tells Erune. He extends his hand for a shake. She seems a little bewildered by the gesture, but happily obliges.

“Oh! And please,” Erune tells the four heroes, “do try to get along. It’s dangerous out there, and you need to look after each other. If I’ve learned something from the past twenty-four hours, it’s that the world is a much scarier place than I ever could have imagined.”

Vio’s smile falters at that. Is Erune, like… okay?

“We always get along!” Red lies, before Vio can weigh the merits of asking.

And then Erune’s eyes fall on Green. He steps closer to her, extending a hand—but it’s not exactly professional, like Vio’s had been. It’s more familiar, more natural. Just like Erune’s dads.

“Looks like this is goodbye,” he tells her, and his words make Vio’s feel… something. Green seems to fully accept the nature of his existence, which includes the inevitability of his own dissolution. That statement, coming from him, carries a surprising amount of darkness—in all likelihood, this really is goodbye. Not just for Green, either, but for them all.

Vio shakes his head. Save it for the journal.

“Link,” Erune calls Green, and he doesn’t disagree.

Save. It. For. The. Journal.

“Yes, Erune?”

She looks away shyly, and then plants a chaste kiss on Green’s cheek. “Safe travels.”

When she pulls away, Green wears the strangest expression. He blushes and smiles, but there’s something in his eyes… it almost looks like guilt. And Vio supposes that would make sense, if Green views himself as a mere copy of Link—Erune isn’t Zelda, after all.

Maybe Green should get himself a journal, too.

─────────────────

The four heroes travel in contented silence as they exit the Eastern region. The weather today is lovely—not too hot, not too cold, with the perfect amount of clouds in the sky—and even though his journal is probably gone forever, Vio can’t bring himself to feel totally rotten.

And maybe… he doesn’t need to be so evasive about its contents.

His mind wanders to his conversation with Red and Blue in their room above the tavern. He’d been so hostile towards them, when they spoke about their feelings for Zelda. At the time he couldn’t even imagine why, other than his usual overall sense of contempt, but now…

“Hey, guys?” Vio hears himself say, his heart pounding in his ears.

Green stops in his tracks. “Yes, Vio?”

“I don’t think I like Zelda, in the way Link liked Zelda.”

Now Red and Blue have stopped walking too.

“Oh!” Red exclaims, his eyes wide and sympathetic. “That’s sad. Is there anything we can do to help?”

Vio shakes his head. “That’s not what I mean. And it’s not important, not really—“

“Does it have something to do with your journal?” Blue groans, his typical bluntness earning Green’s measured disapproval.

Vio defaults to Red as his primarily point of contact. Red is the kindest of them all, even if he’s a little… simple. If Vio has to make himself vulnerable to someone, it makes the most sense to focus on him.

“I think I’m like Erune’s dads,” he tells Red, and by extension the rest of the group. “If that makes sense.”

Blue raises an eyebrow. “You want to own a tavern? Sorry, man, but we’re on a mission here.”

Vio pinches the bridge of his nose. “No, that’s not what I—what I mean to say is… the way Link felt about Zelda, and you guys acted around Erune… I’m like that too. Or at least I suspect that I could be, except for me, it’s… different. I don’t think I feel that way about girls.”

Vio watches as Red’s brain works overtime. “But if you don’t feel that way about girls, that means you…”

Vio nods. “Just like Erune’s dads.”

The kitchen timer inside Red’s skull finally reaches 0:00. “Oh!” he repeats, this time with a smile. “That’s so sweet!”

“But how would you even know?” Blue asks, furrowing his brow. “We’ve only been… ourselves… for like a month. And I’m pretty sure we would have noticed, if you were taking detours during our quest to flirt with boys in the woods.”

Vio isn’t sure how to answer that, because it’s true—he hasn’t kissed a boy, or even met a boy he’s felt specifically drawn to during their travels. Which, to be fair, have been very insular and brief thus far. His most consistent male company has been his current company, and the idea of kissing any of these idiots makes him want to gag.

But when Vio thinks of the way it made him feel to see Erune’s dads together, or to remember the knights in the closet, or to fluster slightly at the handsome vampire in his book… there’s definitely something happening there.

“It’s just different,” Red had mused yesterday, “when it’s a boy and a girl, I guess.”

And Blue had immediately agreed—“It’s only natural that he felt that way.”

Vio has an idea. “Okay,” he says to Blue, “but have you flirted with any girls on our quest?”

He scowls, blush flooding his cheeks. “Of course not, we’re on a quest.”

Vio could easily argue that he has, given the Erune of it all, but that isn’t really the point. “Then how do you know you like them?”

Blue flounders at that. “I,” he begins to say, but then stops. Vio finds himself smirking, just a little bit. I’m waiting…

He doesn’t have to wait for long. Visibly resigned to his own confusion, Blue meets Vio’s eyes again. “I just do.”

“Well, so do I,” Vio shrugs. “But about guys instead. Admittedly, I won’t know for sure unless…” his voice tapers off. Unless what?

That, at least, seems to strike a chord with Blue. Maybe he’s more aware of their situation than Vio gave him credit for. “I get it,” Blue tells him. “Not sure why you were so worried about anyone finding out, but it’s cool. Makes sense. Just about as much as the rest of it, anyway.”

“Thanks.”

“And now that you’ve spoken your truth or whatever, will you stop being such a smug asshole all the time?”

“Probably not,” Vio admits. “Especially if you’re still going to be a brutish oaf.”

“Fair enough, I guess,” Blue says, and Vio recognizes it for the acceptance that it is.

“But I’m still confused,” says Green, scrutinizing Vio like a particularly difficult dungeon puzzle. “Link didn’t like guys.”

“And we’re not Link,” Vio replies, crossing his arms over his chest. “Funny how that works, huh?”

Green isn’t laughing.

“Let’s go,” Blue tells them both, glancing further down the path. “We should hit the next town by nightfall.”

“Great,” Vio and Green say in unison. They regard each other for a moment, and then they look away.

─────────────────

A little further down the path, Red falls back from the others to walk with Vio instead.

“Hi,” Red says in greeting, using a quieter voice than usual.

Vio gives him a lazy wave. “Hey.”

I think it’s really cool that you know that about yourself. It must have been scary to tell us, with the way Blue and I were talking before.”

“Yeah, well,” Vio shrugs. “Triforce of courage, and all.”

“Still,” Red insists, meeting his eyes. “I’m sorry that we assumed.”

Vio smiles in a way that he hopes is reassuring. “It’s really okay, Red. You couldn’t have known. I didn’t even know.”

I still don’t know for sure—and if we continue on our quest, I probably never will.

“And I just wanted to say,” Red continues, even quieter now, “that, well, me too.”

Vio raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Well, kinda. I think I like everyone, not only girls. But I didn’t really notice it, until you shared your thing. So thanks!”

Vio doesn’t know how to respond to that. “You’re welcome?”

His answer seems to satisfy Red just fine, at least for a second. But then he sighs. “You know,” Red says, his volume just above a whisper. “I’m glad that we’re not Link.” He then immediately winces at his own words. “I mean… well. I’m not sure what I mean.”

“That’s okay,” says Vio.

Red glances at Green, farther up the path with Blue. “Don’t tell the others I said that last part.”

Vio regards his friend in a slightly new light. “I’m glad we’re not Link too,” he tells him, and means it. “Now let’s go catch up with the group.”

─────────────────

Shadow wonders how Vaati even writes emails without hands.

“Stupid windbag,” he mutters, setting his work-issued laptop aside. He crosses his arms over his chest as he leans against a hard stone wall.

His bedroom in the Tower of Winds is not nearly as glamorous as what he’s seen of Hyrule Castle—but it has walls, a floor, his laptop, and the Dark Mirror. There isn’t much else Shadow actually needs to exist. He’s been created for a very specific purpose, after all.

One he is currently fumbling spectacularly, apparently, according to his direct supervisor. Vaati had made to sure to end his berating email with a not-so-implicit threat: if Shadow cannot manage to be more present and dedicated to the cause, he will tell Ganon what happened with Stone Arrghus.

Shadow doesn’t even know what that would mean for him. Would Ganon destroy and replace him, or would he simply punish him for his failure? Either way, he does not intend to find out.

There is another item in his room, newly acquired, that Shadow picks up now. A leather journal, looted from the heroes’ bedroom while they were asleep. Shadow had retreated into the darkness after the eclipse for his own safety, but he’d still been able to return in the darkness of night.

He supposes he could have hurt the heroes while they were in such vulnerable positions, or try to steal the swords they kept at their bedsides, but he didn’t want to risk alerting them all by waking just one. Even in the darkness, he knows he wouldn’t stand a chance against the four heroes as a team. And honestly, he’d already embarrassed himself enough for one day.

Shadow sighs as he runs a finger down the journal’s spine. It belongs (belonged) to the purple hero, the one the leader had called ‘unheroic.’ Shadow opens it to the first page and scans a few lines, chuckling at the its owner’s handwriting. The messy scrawl suggests that the purple hero thinks faster than he can physically write. If Shadow didn’t hate him so much, he’d almost find it endearing.

As Shadow subjects himself to the purple hero’s maladjusted musings, he begins to realize what a powerful weapon this book could be in his hands. Violet Link has recorded everything here—his own weaknesses, gripes with his teammates, their travel plans, even the exact way they power up their swords. There’s some personal nonsense too, but Shadow mostly just brushes over it. Although he does pay close attention to the few times the hero mentions his enemy, the Shadow Link.

With this much free intel, Shadow can almost forgive the purple hero for calling him a “smarmy self-aggrandizing bastard,” and a “floor-crawling cretin,” and a “raucous magpie,” and—perhaps even most insultingly of all—a “thespian catastrophe.” He’ll show this sour grape that his evil is anything but a performance. The only catastrophe this hero will witness is his own tragic defeat.

What is my problem?, Violet Link had asked himself on the journal’s most recent page. Such a sad place for the story to end—for him, anyway. Shadow is having a great time.

He places down the journal and rises to his feet. In front of the Dark Mirror, he frowns at the small welt on his forehead from Arrghus’s well-aimed projectile.

Shadow Link closes his eyes and pictures the purple hero. When he opens them, he sees Violet Link, and not himself, in the mirror.

“You have no idea,” he tells his reflection, “how spectacularly you’ve failed.”

Shadow leans down and grabs the journal, displaying it to his mirror image like a prize. “What’s your problem?” he asks Violet Link with a chuckle. “I’ll show you your problem.”

He restores his own image, wielding the journal of secrets with a devious grin. The welt on his forehead has disappeared completely.

“Sour grape,” he repeats, tasting the insult on his tongue. Violet Link wishes he was half as clever as his Shadow.

#four swords #four swords adventures #four swords manga #loz #vio link #red link #blue link #green link #shadow link #vaati #my writing

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