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skyward-floored · 8 months

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Whumptober Day 7: Alleyway, “Can you hear me?”

Or: I take the bad mood I was in yesterday and give it to Legend

Warnings: mostly just canon-typical violence. Some injury.

Read on ao3

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The stupid thing is, Legend easily could have avoided this.

If he’d been thinking at all about where he was walking, or the fact that he hadn’t brought any of his things with him, or just thinking, period, he would have realized he’d gotten rather far from where the Links were staying and gone off to the side of town that Time had taken one look at and said they should only go to in pairs.

But the argument he’d had with Wild was still rattling around his head, making his steps hard and angry, and he wasn’t thinking about where he was going a single bit.

“Nearly got Hyrule and Four killed and that’s how he reacts?” he growled as he stomped down an alleyway. “Gets mad at me for calling him out? Does he even care?!”

Legend kicked a pebble in his way, and continued to mutter angrily to himself.

“Gods, he’s less mature then Ralph, even Gulley would have known better,” he growled, consumed in his anger. “Has he never fought alongside anyone else?!”

“Sounds like you’ve had a rough evening.”

Legend froze, and slowly looked behind him, biting back a curse.

Somehow a group of people had come up behind him in the alleyway, sticking to the shadows so he couldn’t make out their faces. Legend sighed, and turned around to face all of them, hands on his hips.

“What do you want?” he snapped, and the figures chuckled, moving a little closer to him. They stepped into a patch of moonlight, and Legend could make out their faces, and nearly rolled his eyes. All men, all muscled, and all probably going to try and rob him.

Well joke’s on them, I don’t have my wallet with me, Legend thought with a smirk.

“We want your money, kid,” the one in front said with a smile. “And if you just hand it over, nice and easy, nobody has to get hurt.”

Legend snorted. “Uh-huh. Sure. Look, hate to disappoint you, but I actually don’t have any money on me. Sorry.”

The smile of the mugger turned more dangerous. “You must think we’re pretty stupid, kid. Nobody walks the streets in clothes like that unless they got rupees to spare.”

Legend crossed his arms, still annoyed at everything. “Look, I don’t have any money. And even if I did, I’d probably just give it to you guys to make you stop talking and leave me alone,” he snapped.

“Maybe he’s telling the truth, boss,” one of the other men said, and the one in front smirked a bit.

“Maybe he is. Or maybe he isn’t, but either way, those rings he’s wearing have got to be worth quite a bit. Not to mention I don’t like his attitude. I think he needs to be taught a lesson.”

Legend took a step back, feeling a bit worried now.

“Look you morons, I don’t want to have to hurt you,” he growled, continuing to slowly back up. The only weapons he had on him were the small dagger he kept in case of emergencies (slipped in his boot, which would be difficult to grab and only so much use against multiple assailants), and his fists, which while not totally useless, were once again not the best while outnumbered.

Running it was.

Legend’s eyes darted around as he continued to back up, looking for space to escape through. He tensed as he was about to whip around and bolt, then felt his back bump against something.

His stomach sank, and he turned around and saw another man grinning at him, larger then all the others.

“Well. Guess we’re doing this the hard way,” Legend muttered, and the men rushed him.

He held his own for quite a while considering, especially since the moment he’d pulled out his dagger it had gotten knocked out of his hand and lost to the shadows of the alleyway. Legend gave as much as he took, kicking and punching, using the (unfortunately mostly useless) rings on his hands to his advantage.

But he was horribly outnumbered, and the alley wasn’t the most spacious of places to fight in. Legend tried more then once to just slip past the men attacking him and run, but there wasn’t enough space for him to maneuver, and he was rapidly losing the fight.

Way to go Hero of Legend, really living up to your name, he thought angrily as a kick caught him on the side, making him stumble. Really superb fighting skills being showcased here today.

A knee went up and got him in the stomach, and Legend doubled over, coughing at the air knocked out of him. The men took the opportunity to rain blows down onto him while he gasped for air, and Legend couldn’t do much other then try to stumble away.

A fist caught him right on the eye as he stumbled (oh fantastic, now it would be purple for the next week), and Legend reeled, yelping as a leg managed to kick his feet out from under him.

He fell to the ground, and before he could do anything but realize he was in fact, on the ground, something loomed over him.

And suddenly a knife buried itself in his leg.

Legend let out a pained yell and swung his fist out towards his assailant, but he missed, and soon more kicks were aimed at his ribs and fists were pummeling him and Legend was seriously regretting coming out here all alone as he curled up and tried to protect his head.

Then he heard a shriek.

The fists paused in their assault, and Legend heard someone shouting something, another voice yelling in response. The sounds paused, then Legend heard something heavy hit the ground, then footsteps bolting away from him.

He didn’t move though, not wanting to uncurl in case any of the men were still there and wanting to punch him some more. He wasn’t convinced they hadn’t cracked any ribs, and he was slightly afraid to move.

Lighter footsteps came towards him, a hiss of sympathy accompanying them as they came to a stop.

And then a voice that Legend unfortunately recognized.

“Legend? Hey, can you hear me?!”

“Mm, loud’n clear...” he muttered out of the side of his face that wasn’t swelling. A finger prodded at his eye, and Legend smacked at it, gasping as the movement jarred the knife still in his leg.

He reluctantly pried open his not-purple eye, and looked up at about the last person he wanted to see right now.

Wild crouched above him, his face splashed with worry as he took in Legend’s battered body. Legend pointedly looked away, gingerly sitting up. He hissed at the movement, parts of himself he didn’t even know he had throbbing with pain, but he waved off Wild’s outstretched arm, managing to sit up by himself.

“Fantastic,” he muttered venomously, feeling around the knife in his leg. Oh, it was his own dagger. Real funny, guys. “Now the old man is going to have that awful worried-disappointed look he always gets and somebody is going to lecture me.”

“I know that feeling,” Wild said, and Legend pointedly didn’t look at him. “Um, can you stand? ...All our potions are back at the inn.”

“Yeah.”

Legend moved his aching arms beneath him, then quickly pushed himself upright, gasping as the knife was jarred.

His leg suddenly gave out on him, but instead of face planting onto the cobblestones like he’d expected, two arms shot out and supported him, stopping him from falling. Legend sighed, and would’ve pressed his hand to the bridge of his nose if his face hadn’t hurt so much.

“I... don’t think you can walk,” Wild said a little awkwardly, and Legend rolled his eyes.

“Genius deduction, Champion. I wonder where all that brainpower was earlier,” he snapped, leg still throbbing.

Wild went silent, and Legend ignored the sliver of regret that immediately rose in the wake of his words.

The champion didn’t say anything further as he shifted his grip around to better support Legend, slinging an arm under his shoulder. He began to walk, and Legend limped on silently beside him, the air between them as thick as the shadows they were walking through.

“I’m sorry.”

Legend raised an eyebrow over at Wild, who nervously met his eyes. “What?”

“I’m sorry. For... for endangering the others,” Wild continued, shame thick in his voice. “I wasn’t thinking about how the bomb arrows would set off the dodongos, even though Time said they were volatile, you were right. It was a stupid course of action. I nearly got Hyrule killed. Four’s still unconscious.”

His voice wavered a little on the last word, but Wild quickly smoothed it.

“You were right to yell, I deserved it,” he finished in a quiet voice.

Legend sighed, and felt his anger drain, replaced with a heavy tiredness that made all his bruises ache more.

“...It was in the heat of battle,” he replied quietly. “You didn’t really have time to think. And we were pretty outnumbered. If you hadn’t taken them out when you did, we’d all probably be in pretty bad shape.”

“...like you?” Wild said with a hesitant smile.

Legend smirked. “Yeah. Like me.”

He sighed again, and looked Wild in the eyes (as best he could with one of them swollen beyond belief anyway), making sure he was looking.

“...thanks for saving me. I owe you one.”

Wild’s face broke into a relieved smile at the apology, and he squeezed Legend’s shoulder. “We’re even, Vet. Don’t worry about it.”

Legend smiled back, even though it hurt, and let himself be supported by Wild’s weight a bit more as they walked through the streets. They were both silent again, but the awkward air had fled, left with something much more comfortable.

“One more thing Champion,” Legend said after a while. “You uh... maybe don’t tell the others I was so distracted I got snuck up on and stabbed?“

Wild’s face split in a grin. “I dunno Vet, I haven’t had any good blackmail on you in a while.”

Legend gasped in betrayal. “You said we were even!”

“Well I don’t know Ledge, there were four guys. Maybe you owe me one for each.”

“That’s criminal and you know it!”

“Well actually I think those guys were the criminals really—”

“Champion!”

Their argument continued the whole way back, mostly lighthearted, and the others heard them coming long before they reached the inn.

#It’s so funny rereading this I can tell I was so grumpy while writing it abdfhvjfhd #linkeduniverse #linked universe #lu legend #lu wild #linked universe fanfic #whumptober #whumptober 2023 #day 7 #alleyway #can you hear me #writing from the floor #in a much better mood today #I dunno what was up yeaterday #but I’m much better today #probably because I got to tromp around a field for like two hours :D

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nodirectionhome-ao3 · 10 months

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The Upcoming Mayoral Election

Written for @thegobletofweasleys's Jily Week! Day 6: Your Field AU 497 words

“I’ll tell you what, Barbara,” James spoke somberly into the telephone, winding his hand through the cord as he leaned back to prop his feet up on the table. “This Martin bloke sounds like a right bloody git to me. How long’s he been doing this?”

“Three months, he says,” Barbara Tracey’s voice crackled in his ear. “He met her at work — his secretary, you know.”

James rolled his eyes. “How original of him.”

Barbara laughed heartily at that. “Oh, Martin’s never been concerned about being a cliché, that’s for sure. You should’ve heard him, whining like a little schoolboy about how he's in love with her…”

“Wanker.”

“Don’t I know it,” Barbara sighed. “But we’ve been married for thirty years, what can you do…”

“You can divorce his sorry arse,” James said emphatically. “That’s what you can do. If he doesn’t appreciate you, he doesn’t deserve you, Barbara. In fact—”

“Potter!”

James jumped, twisting in his chair. Evans was standing right behind him, an exasperated look on her face as she stared at him.

“Just a minute, Barbara,” he said into the phone. “My field director wants a word with me.” He lowered the phone, smiling as he moved to cover the receiver. “Problem, Evans?”

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

James shrugged, gesturing to the phone in his hand. “Well, her husband’s cheating on her, you see. With his bloody secretary, no less. I was just—”

Evans shook her head. “How do you even—” she trailed off, looking incredulous. “Just stick to the script, will you? We’ve only gone through a quarter of the list. This is a phone-bank, not your own private relationship helpline.”

James grinned. He loved it when Evans got angry with him. He couldn't get enough of the little crease that appeared on her forehead when she was flustered — which seemed to be all the time now, in the heat of get-out-the-vote season. Her eyes had a burning look about them, piercing into him like she could see straight through to his soul. And as he stared up at her, her cheeks began to flush just a little bit. She tilted her head up proudly, authoritatively, red hair tumbling down her shoulders and spilling in dazzling waves over the soft blue of her wrinkled Vance for Mayor t-shirt.

"Are you even listening to me, Potter?"

James blinked, the fog clearing in his mind. "Right, yeah," he said, "Stick to the script...you’ve got it, boss."

He turned away, raising the phone to his ear again. “Now, Barbara—” He paused, dragging his abandoned clipboard closer to him. He trailed his finger down the script, ignoring all the introductory rubbish at the beginning. “While your husband was sleeping with his secretary, did you make a plan to vote in this upcoming mayoral election?”

Evans made a strangled sound, something that sounded almost like a laugh, but before James could get a good look at her face — she was turning and walking quickly away.

#jily week 2023 #day 6 #your field au #political campaign #muggle au #jily #takes place in simpler times without cell phones or ngpvan or autodialers

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