#i’m kind of in awe | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

skyward-floored · 6 months

Text

Whumptober Day 26: Seeing double, “You look awful”

A little sickfic because I haven’t done many of those yet. Thank goodness we’re getting near the end of the month, I’m rapidly running out of juice for these hahahahahaha

Read on ao3

Warnings: not much. Feeling dizzy, and mentions of throwing up.

————————————————————

He was so tired.

Hyrule’s lip wobbled at the thought of continuing on, of not just sitting down and resting his head against a tree. But he stubbornly bit down on his lip, ignoring the tremble in his legs and the soreness of his throat, and kept marching.

He’d woken up feeling heavy and aching, shivering in cool air that he’d normally relish. An ache had taken up residence in his throat, and whenever Hyrule swallowed, it was like he’d swallowed a handful of knives.

The urge to cough rose in his throat, but Hyrule swallowed it down, wincing at the pain from the action. Surely he was just feeling the effects of using so much magic in that battle yesterday. Normally a good night’s sleep helped with that, but he must have just used more then he thought.

He refused to entertain the notion of being sick.

I’m fine, Hyrule told himself firmly, keeping up with the others despite how badly he wanted to drag behind. It’s just a little extra tiredness. It’ll be fine once we stop for the night, I just need to keep going until then.

He ignored the fact that the sun was still high in the sky.

Hyrule was unable to stop himself from coughing, but he muffled it as best as he could. Normally when this sort of thing happened to him, he’d make tracks for the nearest safe area possible, a cave, or town if he was lucky... the roots of a tree if he wasn’t.

But he wasn’t traveling by himself, he was with a group. One that couldn’t afford to just stop moving until he was well enough to continue, not if they were going to have any chance of finding the rest of the heroes they’d been separated from.

So Hyrule pushed through the shivers that kept trying to slow him down, ignoring the tremble in his legs. He traveled a little further away from the others so he wouldn’t arouse suspicion, staying closer to the trees at the side of the path, and when Wild joined him, he didn’t say much. Wild didn’t seem to care though, and happily pointed out mushrooms and birds with only minimal reply from Hyrule.

Hyrule’s head started to pound the longer the afternoon dragged on though, pulsing behind his eyes. His throat grew even more sore, and his whole head seemed to have been lifted up into a cloud, leaving his thoughts misty and hard to focus on.

All he could really do was keep walking.

Hyrule realized suddenly that words were being directed at him, and he tried to listen to them. Something about... being okay? He quickly nodded, hoping the wordless response wouldn’t garner suspicion.

“Are you sure ‘Rule?” the voice asked again, and Hyrule focused in enough to figure out that it was Wild squinting at him with a concerned look. “You... look kind of awful.”

Hyrule swallowed.

“Fine,” Hyrule got out in a normal-enough sounding voice. “Just... little tired.”

“...Do you need a break?” Wild asked a little worriedly.

“No,” Hyrule quickly replied, and fought back a cough. “I’ll be fine.”

Wild frowned, but somebody called his name and his attention was grabbed. Hyrule went back to focusing on walking, even as it grew harder and harder to force his feet to lift up off the ground.

It would normally have been an easy path they were hiking along, only a slight slope with barely a root or rock to trip on. But the ground kept swimming in and out of his vision, doubling and moving around along with the trees around him.

Hyrule wasn’t sure when he’d stopped moving, but he realized suddenly his feet weren’t listening anymore when he told them to go. All he could do was stand in place, the world swirling around him, and try not to fall over.

“Hyrule?”

The voice came from far away, and Hyrule closed his eyes, suddenly feeling nauseous. Why was he so cold? It had been hot just a few minutes ago, and the sun was still beating down on his forehead.

The world kept tilting. Why was it doing that?

“Hyrule!”

Something grabbed at him, and Hyrule startled, blinking his eyes open again. For some reason the world had gone sideways, and the angle only made his head hurt even worse.

“Hyrule, are you okay?”

“Oh, I knew he looked off! He was all shaky when I talked to him!”

“Traveler?”

Hyrule turned his head and looked dizzily up at several faces, unable to focus on any of them. Someone moved a little closer, and Hyrule figured out that one was Legend, apparently the one who’d caught him if the angle of his head was to be trusted.

Or maybe not. He still wasn’t sure,

“Hyrule are you okay? Are you hurt?” Legend asked sharply, and Hyrule felt tears prick behind his eyes for some reason. He was just so tired.

“Not hurt,” he rasped, and swallowed, his throat aching worse then ever. “Can keep going.”

Something was placed on his forehead, and Hyrule heard a low noise of concern, along with a sigh.

“He’s burning up,” a voice that might’ve been Sky said, and Hyrule found himself leaning into the touch on his face, the hand delightfully cool and comforting.

“Hyrule, How long have you been sick?” someone else asked. Twilight maybe? No, he wasn’t here, they were looking for him and the others... right?

He couldn’t remember.

“‘M not, just tired,” Hyrule protested, his head spinning more all of a sudden. “Not.”

“Buddy, you’re definitely sick,” someone else’s voice spoke up, and Hyrule closed his eyes again as the spinning around him got worse. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?“

“...dunno,” he whispered, unable to find the words to explain. His head hurt too much to explain anything.

Hyrule swallowed back a whimper, and the hand on his forehead brushed some hair from his eyes. A sigh came from somewhere above him, and then the hands holding him shifted a little.

“There should be a good spot to camp a bit up ahead if we’re where I think we are. We can stop early for the night,” someone said, and Hyrule opened his eyes again.

“Don’t have to stop, keep going,” he croaked, and tried to sit up, weakly pushing at the arms around him.

They pushed back to keep him down, but what really stopped Hyrule was the rapid lurching of the world around him as he sat up.

The faces looking at him swirled into an unidentifiable smear of features, blond and pink and brownish hair mixing with all different shades of blue eyes. The entire world joined in, trees and sunlight and words and pine needles spinning and twirling around him in dizzying colors that nearly made him throw up.

And suddenly he was lying down, blankets on top of him with fingers carding gently through his hair.

Hyrule dizzily opened his eyes, his head still pounding, and saw Legend sitting next to him, looking entirely lost in thought. The light from the sky was much more orange then it had been, and a confused noise escaped Hyrule’s lips.

Legend immediately turned to him at the noise, relief and something Hyrule couldn’t read in his gaze.

“Hey Roolie,” he said in soft voice, scooting closer. “How are you feeling? Any better?”

“Mm,” Hyrule murmured, his throat violently reminding him of its soreness. It felt worse then earlier, and he closed his eyes as he swallowed against it.

The hand carding through his hair paused, and a face leaned over his, scars looking less pink in the orangey light.

“You feel up for some soup? Or just water, or whatever? If you want something specific I can make it for you,” Wild said with a little smile, and Hyrule blinked back tears again.

“Water,” he whispered, and Wild nodded and stepped away, presumably to get it.

Silence settled between him and Legend, and Hyrule closed his eyes as the world threatened to begin spinning again. Every bit of him felt wrung out and achy, and while lying down was better then moving, he still felt awful.

On more then one account.

“Traveler.”

Hyrule slowly opened an eye, and saw Legend watching him, his face creased.

“You know you can tell us if you’re sick, right?” he started with, and Hyrule swallowed. “You don’t have to just act like you’re fine.”

“Needed... to keep going,” Hyrule croaked, and Legend’s frown grew.

“You’re allowed to need rest, traveler,” Legend said sternly, and Hyrule shifted under his blankets. “The others can wait, it’s okay.”

“But they...”

“Hyrule,” Legend said, and Hyrule met his eyes, looking at the crystalline blue. “Would the others want you to run yourself utterly ragged looking for them? Would they be happy to learn that you collapsed because you wouldn’t take a hint from your body and kept going, despite how you were burning up with a fever and sound like you gargled lava rocks?”

“...probably not,” Hyrule whispered.

“Exactly,” Legend finished, and his voice softened a little. “Everyone gets sick sometimes, ‘Rule. You just have to let yourself rest sometimes.”

Hyrule felt a bit of a smile pull at his lips. “Kinda... hypocritical coming from... you.”

Legend immediately looked offended. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He means you do the exact same moronic thing when you’re sick,” Wild said as he came back. “You refuse to admit it and just keep going on your merry way until all of a sudden you’re throwing up on Warriors’ boots.”

Legend flushed. “That was one time.”

“Yeah and Warriors complained about it for weeks after!”

Hyrule rasped out a laugh, and Legend helped him sit up so he could drink the water Wild had brought. It looked like he’d mixed some potion in along with it, and the burning ache in his throat eased a little as he drank, sweet and cool as it slipped down his throat.

He finished with a tired sigh, and Legend lowered him back down, the hand going back to carding through his hair again.

“Try and rest some more, Hyrule. We’ve got your back,” Wild said with a smile, and Hyrule faintly returned it.

His blankets around him were pulled back up to his chin, and Hyrule closed his eyes, still feeling like a heavy weight was pulling him down.

But he also felt lighter then before, and he let himself relax, a hand on his forehead the last thing he felt before he dropped off.

#linkeduniverse #linked universe #lu hyrule #lu legend #lu Wild #linked universe fanfic #whumptober 2023 #whumptober #day 26 #seeing double #you look awful #fic #writing from the floor #mmmm this is kind of a disaster but it’s something #i repurposed an idea i had for a few days ago here and I guess it worked ok #I need to figure out what I’m writing for today...

89 notes · View notes