Archive of Our Own ^beta

"I'm young, I'm fantastic, and I'm never going to die!" is generally not the best thing to be hearing proclaimed with someone's whole chest out of the blue. Particularly not when Link is pretty sure that the voice he just heard uttering those words belongs to the singular person here who is even more reckless than him.

He's pretty good at identifying people based on voice. Normally it's a point of pride for him.

Link desperately wishes he could be wrong, just this once, when he turns toward the voice. He's not wrong. He makes eye contact with a particular blue-feathered Rito, who only smirks in response. With a burst of his Gale, Revali soars. Link watches him soar upward, towards—

Oh. Oh.

Oh no.

How, in Hylia's sacred name or any others he can't be arsed to think of right now, did things even end up like this?

It all started when the Calamity ended.

(Well, if you want to be specific, it all really started when Link accompanied Princess Zelda to Rito Village, wandered off while she was speaking with some of the village's other warriors, and promptly got monologued at. Yes, Revali's Gale is impressive, yes, few can achieve a mastery of the sky, yes, he's made an art of creating updrafts that allow him to soar. Link fully intended to make it up to that Divine Beast on his own somehow, out of spite if nothing else, but then the Calamity happened and they all suddenly had bigger priorities anyway. Revali hasn't brought up the subject of a duel to see which of them is stronger since then, and so Link won't either. It gives him more time to sneak aboard Vah Medoh when its pilot will least expect it.)

Somewhat disastrous first meetings aside, it all started after Zelda's goddess powers awoke—better late than never, better then than later—mere moments after the Calamity began. After the princess with the blood of the Goddess and the knight destined to seal the darkness fought their way back through Castle Town, after they sealed away Ganon too late to save Zelda's father but not too late to save the Champions fighting for their lives across Hyrule...

Well. Hyrule Castle is... barely standing, at this point. Much of Castle Town is unlivable. A lot of people died, and a lot more people would have died if Zelda hadn't awakened her powers when she did, and yet she's still blaming herself for not figuring them out sooner. Of course she is. Link remembers all too well how hard the late king had been on his daughter, and while he wouldn't admit it even if pressed, he doubts he's the only one privately, spitefully happy about that particular casualty of the Calamity.

Honestly, Link thought that preparing for the Calamity was hard. Now, it's come and gone, and it's become increasingly obvious that rebuilding in its wake is even harder. To the point where, nearly a month later, almost no progress had been made on restoring Castle Town to what it was—and no one even wanted to think about the castle itself.

A month to the day from the day that the Calamity was vanquished, Impa, a former advisor of the king from among the Sheikah—and a friend of Zelda's, before that—arrived from her home in the east. Perhaps it was coincidence, that each of the four Champions were there too when she arrived. Perhaps it was fate. Perhaps it was something else entirely.

Whatever it was, she took one look at all of them—varying levels of worn out physically, mentally, and emotionally—and told them, in no uncertain terms, that they needed a break. That she'd happily take over things here for a while, but no one had even taken the slightest rest more than they had to after saving Hyrule, and it showed. That if they really wanted to, they could call it surveying the land to see how much damage had been done by the Calamity, but they really, really needed a vacation. All of them.

Link doesn't know if he's more surprised by the fact that he agreed, or the fact that everyone else agreed. For his part, he was... really, much too tired to argue with someone who, despite not being all that much taller or stronger than him, manages to be significantly more intimidating than him on a good day.

But he thinks, looking back, that he was most surprised by the fact that Revali agreed.

The first day on the road was... more than a little awkward, to put it lightly. So was the second. This was only compounded by the fact that Mipha kept looking back at the ruins of Castle Town in spite of there being no injuries left that she could heal, Revali kept flying ahead and refusing to talk to any of them, and absolutely no one except for (maybe) Urbosa really had any idea what they were doing.

For the most part, though? The Calamity hit much less hard outside of Castle Town and its immediate surroundings. Which came as an immense relief, to Link, strange as it was.

(No one wanted to say the word 'vacation.' Daruk did it anyway, eventually. Revali scoffed and Mipha deflected and Zelda merely remained as silent as Link himself, while Urbosa did a remarkably poor job of hiding her concern for each and every one of them, but no one argued.)

(Maybe Impa had a point. Maybe they did all need a break. Not that Link would be any more likely to admit it than Revali—and he wouldn't expect Revali to admit it in a million years.)

"Perhaps Impa was onto something after all," Zelda murmurs without prompting the day after Daruk broaches the subject none of them wanted to. "Each and every one of us came perilously close to death during the Calamity—"

"Speak for yourself," Revali interrupts, his gaze not leaving his bow. "And for the others, if you must—but not for me."

"...Revali," Mipha says gently. "There is no shame in it. Each of us was assaulted by a foe tailored directly to our own weaknesses. Truly, I fear what might have happened if we had to fight those Blights for any longer..."

"Also," Daruk says, "we all heard your signal. Can't see ya setting that off except if—"

"Fine," Revali snaps. His grip upon his bow tightens. "That Blight was... damningly close to my equal, and I hardly wanted anyone to assume mistakenly that I was shirking my duty."

(Link, who remembers hearing three distress signals from the Sheikah Slate as he and Zelda rushed into the sanctum where Calamity Ganon awaited them—and a fourth, considerably louder than the others, joining them midway through the battle—rather pointedly says nothing.)

Zelda clears her throat delicately. "As I was saying, the Calamity was... terrifying, I will say, and I am speaking for myself there! Now that it is over... I suspect that if my father were still alive, he would want for us to now all go our separate ways until the next time of crisis, and that is not something I am personally okay with. I care quite a lot about each of you, and I would like for us to be able to work together in more than just the Calamity, but..."

She sighs, very quietly. And she murmurs, "This is significantly harder than I ever thought it would be..."

"Take your time, little bird," Urbosa says.

Revali grumbles something inaudible under his breath, but otherwise doesn't comment, and looks at Zelda expectantly.

"Is it too much to ask for us to remain allies?" Zelda says at last, desperately. "That we can at least get along? It may not have been intentional, and I dearly hope that it has not been, but it feels as if I have scarcely spoken with any of you since the Calamity's end, and I don't believe that it is just me."

"Been busy, tiny princess," Daruk says apologetically. "Patchin' up everything and all."

"I know! Just..."

"What is it that you want?" Mipha asks.

"I don't know!" Zelda throws up her hands in even more desperation. "I really don't know what I want anymore. I desperately wish that I did. I suppose that I spent so long wanting so desperately to unlock my powers at last that I forgot how to want anything else. I just..."

"If I may be blunt, for a moment?" Revali says, as if he has ever in his life actually not been blunt once he's set his mind to doing so. "What you want isn't allies. It's friends. Have you ever even had those before?"

"Have you?" Link signs, leaning forward. He's genuinely curious—but he doesn't exactly mind the affronted gasp that Revali lets out in return.

"I'll have you know that there are plenty of other Rito who would do some rather drastic things in order to spend time in my company!"

"And do any of them?" Urbosa asks wryly.

Revali opens his beak. He shuts it again. He rapidly hauls himself to his feet and he grumbles, "I'm going to patrol. For monsters."

"No, you're not. Sit back down."

Wordless for once, Revali does indeed sit.

"I... do trust that Lady Impa has the rebuilding effort well in hand, in our absence," Mipha murmurs. "My father did ask me, before I departed to join you all in Castle Town, if perhaps I wanted to rest a little longer first? I thanked him for his concern yet ultimately declined, then, but... I do see his point, now that I take the time to think about it more thoroughly. We did save Hyrule, if not the world, and while rebuilding is certainly important..."

"We coulda easily not been here at all for any of it," Daruk says solemnly.

"Precisely! We nearly died." Mipha pauses, her gaze sweeping about the campfire, and she repeats, more forcefully this time, "We nearly died. Instead of taking any time to process this fact, we simply... threw ourselves back into action, in any way we could. Whether it was helping our own people recover, or moving on to others once there was nothing more we could do..."

"Please," Revali scoffs. "You don't need time to process traumatic things. You just need to work past them."

"...Revali, that is factually inaccurate, and I am considerably more concerned about your mental well-being than I was a minute ago."

"What? No. I'm fine."

"I did not believe that the last time you told me that, and I especially do not believe that now!"

Urbosa clears her throat. "While I do agree with you, Mipha, forcing the matter will help no one."

"I'm fine," Revali mumbles sullenly, staring into the campfire like it will reveal its secrets and somehow give him an out from this situation.

"I'm sure you are, Revali. We were asked to take a break, not... whatever this is, and while I'll admit that I'm as guilty of it as the rest of you..." There's a gleam in Urbosa's eye that Link isn't sure he likes and definitely doesn't trust. "This needs to stop now. We are taking a break. I'm sure you all can think of something that you want to do before you die—perhaps multiple, as the case may be. Any of us could die at any time."

"Not if I have any say in the matter," Mipha says sharply.

"This includes you. First thing tomorrow morning, we are going to make a list of all the things that we want to do. And, assuming that said things are reasonably possible, we are going to do every single one of them. Together."

"And what if I say no?" Revali challenges. "What if I leave first thing tomorrow morning? Since my aid is clearly not needed or wanted in Castle Town any longer, my people could certainly use a helping wing—"

"Then you'll regret it for the rest of your life,” Urbosa says, and leaves it at that.

For all of his life, Link has been a light sleeper, if one who can get to sleep just as quickly as he wakes up. This has worked out pretty well for him in the past—though it's debatable if being woken up by Revali summoning his Gale and flying off counts as it still working out pretty well.

Silently, staring upward without otherwise moving, Link wonders if Urbosa is right. If Revali will regret not sticking around for the rest of his life.

Then he realizes that Revali hasn't flown off in the direction of Rito Village—just towards the nearby woods. He rolls over, enough to see him land in said woods. He's not leaving. For some reason, that leaves him with a weird sense of... relief? That can't be right. He has no real reason to be relieved that Revali stuck around.

He considers this, then gets up as silently as he can. He leaves his bedroll behind—the others will know he's coming back, that way, he happens to like this bedroll—and creeps off towards the woods as well, unsure what he's expecting to find. He's certainly not expecting to find Revali standing in front of a pond, staring into it at his reflection.

Link stops a few steps behind him. He hesitates.

"Hello, Link," Revali says without looking at him. "I have been doing some thinking. Rather a lot of thinking, in fact. If I am to be perfectly honest, I'm not certain I've slept at all."

Yeah, Link's been there.

"Specifically," Revali continues, "I have been thinking... primarily about what Mipha said. That people do need to take time to... recover, from traumatic events in their lives. You've known her far longer than I have. Do you think she's right?"

He looks back, then. Expectantly.

Unfortunately for him, Link doesn't really have an answer. He signs instead, "How did you know it was me?"

"Daruk wouldn't have approached so quietly; I'm not convinced he knows the meaning of the word. Urbosa is capable of a silent approach, but she'd be more likely to employ her Fury in an attempt to startle me. Zelda would not have come this far on her own, and after last night I am certain that Mipha would immediately begin to interrogate me about how I am, according to her, anything but fine." Revali pauses. "Which is to say, I knew it was you through process of elimination, nothing more. Don't go thinking you're anything special."

"I never have," Link signs.

Revali's brow furrows. "That doesn't seem quite right... but to be perfectly honest, I am far too exhausted to argue right now. Still, you haven't answered my question. Do you think that Mipha is correct?"

"About needing time to recover from trauma?"

"Yes. That."

"She's probably right," Link signs. "She usually is, when she takes the time to voice her opinions."

"Oh," Revali says, in a very small voice. "Well, then, that is... something of an issue. Because, purely hypothetically, if Mipha is right... then perhaps I am not fine. Hypothetically speaking, I have not been fine in a very long time. Perhaps not ever.”

Well. This is awkward.

"If it's any consolation," Link offers, "I'm definitely not fine either."

Revali looks at him. He looks at him in a decidedly strange way, in a way that Link's not sure anyone's ever looked at him before—but maybe other people have, before, and he just missed it. He's pretty sure that Revali has never looked at him this way before, nor is he at all sure what's different about this time. There's some kind of emotion swirling behind those emerald green eyes, but Link's not great with his own emotions on a good day, never mind interpreting those of others.

Still. Link's a little concerned, because the extent of his own un-fineness mostly involves a particular sword and a certain late king's expectations for him and his weapon—he's definitely more fine than he was, before the Calamity, on that front. Less fine on the if he and Zelda had been any slower all of their friends would be dead front.

He starts to sign something. Maybe it's asking Revali if he's okay. Maybe it's asking him something else entirely.

Whatever it is, whatever it was, it slips away from his mind the moment that Revali steps forward, pulls him into a tight hug, and starts shuddering like he's crying. Link can't know if he is actually crying, not for sure, not without seeing his face. Which is currently buried in Link's shoulder. Link's shoulder which is getting progressively wetter by the moment.

Link is not known for his observational skills; he's known for his swordplay, thank you very much. That said, all signs seem to point to the fact that Revali is indeed crying.

There's a loud, messy sniffle. Link pats him awkwardly on the back, and wonders if it would be better or worse if he asked for specifics. Probably worse, all things considered—he won't ask unless Revali seems like he really wants to talk about it, and he doesn't seem like that at all when he eventually pulls away.

"Did that help at all?" Link signs eventually, because that seems less likely to get his head bitten off hopefully-metaphorically than any of the other questions he could ask right now.

"I—" Revali's voice audibly cracks. "—think so. Yes."

"That's good. Should we head back to the others?"

At the mention of the other Champions, of Zelda, Revali's feathers practically stand on end. He hisses, "Not a word of this to any of them. This never happened."

Before Link can disagree—or agree, which was what he was bemusedly planning on doing—Revali leaves with his Gale. Link watches him go, watches him glide easily back towards the campsite. He could use his paraglider to catch the remnants of that Gale and get back faster, but... maybe better to not.

Whatever happened between them—not that anything really did happen between them except a hug that, Link thinks, maybe both of them have needed for quite a while—should maybe stay between them, and the easiest way to do that is to make sure no one else knows about it.

So Link yawns, and stretches as tall as he possibly can—which admittedly isn't very tall, but hey—and then goes hunting for breakfast.

As it turns out, between the six of them, they can come up with a fairly sizable bucket list. Highlights from it include: 

• Visiting the fabled Lover’s Pond, said to be somewhere deep within the Faron region and rumored to bring soulmates closer together (Mipha)
• Documenting the habitat of a flower most commonly known as the Silent Princess, an endangered species that can only thrive in the wild and was very poorly documented before the Calamity (Zelda)
• Rolling all the way from the top of Death Mountain down to the very bottom and seeing how far his momentum alone can carry him (Daruk)
• Following the legends of an Eighth Heroine to the ancient Gerudo and finding the statue build to honor her, set apart from the massive statues to the Seven Heroines somewhere in the Gerudo Highlands (Urbosa)
• Re-learning how to cook, seeing as he definitely used to be a good cook but just hasn’t had time. At all. For years (Link)
• Shooting off a shard of both Naydra and Farosh’s horns, because apparently he already shot off a shard of Dinraal’s horn in the trials to become Vah Medoh’s pilot (Revali)

One of these things is not like the others.

One of these things is, very emphatically, not like the others, and Link doesn’t know whether he should pretend to be surprised that it’s Revali or be glad that he didn’t actually write down that he’d always wanted to fight a Molduga. Given how the others are taking Revali's desire to physically assault massive flying dragons just because he can, Link's leaning towards the latter.

"Okay, so we're not doing that," Urbosa decides at last.

"You don't have to," Revali replies curtly. "I'm fully capable of it, whether you believe me capable of such a feat or not."

...Strike that. Revali doesn't want to physically assault massive flying dragons just because he can. Revali wants to physically assault massive flying dragons just to prove he can, which is a pretty major difference.

Probably.

Maybe.

It seems like a big difference as far as Link's concerned, though from the way Urbosa is incredulously staring at Revali he isn't sure that she or anyone else here appreciates the semantics.

"Revali, we're... all very impressed that you were able to shoot Dinraal's horn," Mipha says timidly, "but are all three dragons not essentially forces of nature in and of themselves? We most commonly see Naydra in Lanayru, but the few people who dared to get close enough for a better look found that the temperature dropped too drastically to press forward, and they risked being frozen solid entirely."

"I have feathers," Revali says, as if this somehow explains everything—admittedly, given some of the stories that Link's heard about a good set of Snowquill Armor, maybe it does. "The cold never bothers me. Anyway—"

"And Farosh?" Urbosa says pointedly. "The dragon of lightning , Revali? I wouldn't approach that one too closely myself, and I'm almost certainly the most comfortable with lightning among us."

Urbosa wields her Fury with a deadly efficiency, when she wants to. Link's seen it on the battlefield time and time again, before the Calamity—though, now that he thinks about it, she hasn't used it once since then. He notices, for the first time, several new scars—lightning-like in themselves—arcing up her arms towards her upper body.

Link hadn't seen the assassin that the Calamity sent to kill her, the Blight upon Vah Naboris—but he knows that each and every one of those Blights was meant to counter the Champions in every way possible. He wouldn't be surprised, if Urbosa's is the reason why she's nowhere near as comfortable with lightning as she used to be.

"It would be fine," Revali says dismissively. "I'm sure I can avoid a little lightning. Besides, is the point of this exercise not to come up with all the things we want to do before we die?"

"Half of your additions to the list are likely to result in one of us dying!"

"Oh, just half? Clearly I'd better up my game—"

"Not on my watch," Mipha interrupts.

"Hey, Revali," Daruk says, quite suddenly. "How 'bout we compromise. You're pretty young—"

"I am an adult, thank you very much," Revali retorts weirdly quickly.

"Yeah? No one's sayin' you're not?" Daruk shrugs. "Point is, you've got plenty of time to do all this on your own—but I do think it'd be pretty neat."

"Daruk, no," Mipha says without much hope.

"But it's also real dangerous," Daruk says. "For literally all of us. So—which one of 'em do you wanna go after more?"

Revali raises an eyebrow. "Both."

"...You're not gonna pick one, are ya."

"If we... must pick one," Zelda says, "would it not be wiser to select the one that seems somewhat less hazardous?"

"Naydra it is," Urbosa says, and—much to Revali's immediate displeasure—crosses Farosh off the list.

Honestly, most of Revali's additions to the collective bucket list would be best described as dangerous or death-defying. Link isn't even surprised. He also isn't that surprised when quite a lot of them end up being the subject of a lot of argument between him and Urbosa, who— understandably—doesn't want to put everyone back into harm's way for no reason.

That said, one of Zelda's entries—and the one she had said in no uncertain terms was her highest priority—was learning how to defend herself in a fight. Rhoam had never really let her learn, something that had seriously made Link's life more difficult even after she got resourceful with the Sheikah Slate, and there's only so far that being resourceful can take her. Daruk's Boulder Breaker is... far, far too heavy for anyone that's not him (or Link, possibly Urbosa) to wield out of their little group, but apart from that, they've got a wide range of warriors with a wide range of combat styles, and teaching Zelda the basics of what to do and what not to do is weirdly fun.

(Really, Link should have thought of doing that far sooner. Sure, it technically wasn't permitted, but that hadn't stopped him and Zelda from being friends, or for him giving her horse advice, or for grabbing the horse mane detangler one time when she was really, really desperate.)

(...He thinks that Rhoam might have actually had him executed on the spot had he ever heard about the horse mane detangler. Never mind that it had worked. Far better than anything else he or Zelda had tried, and they'd both tried a lot.)

(In related news, he does not miss Rhoam.)

Zelda wants to learn how to fight in the first place. Literally everyone else, Link included, definitely wants to get better at fighting, because... well, they survived, somehow, but it was a near thing on all counts. If anything like the Calamity ever happens again, Link wants to be able to take it down before his friends are in so much danger that they get nightmares over it.

And so, with no small amount of reluctance on a deeply concerned Urbosa's part, most of Revali's additions to the bucket list are added back in. Link is privately delighted that he also wants to fight a Molduga at some point before he dies.

So, oddly enough, does Mipha. When Link manages to get her alone to ask about it, she stares at him like he's caught her doing something inappropriate for several seconds too long and then, finally, explains that from her understanding of the Molduga, it essentially swims through sand like a massive desert fish. As such, while it will certainly take some work to get Mipha into the desert without dying from dehydration or heat exhaustion, she's almost as excited as he is.

"I know that sort of thing is... unbecoming, of a princess," Mipha murmurs, looking down. Her face darkens as she raises her gaze, once more, to meet Link's eyes. "Yet I cannot help but be excited. Please do not hold it against me?"

"Why would I?" Link signs. "And why would it be unbecoming of a princess?"

She sighs. "Nearly everyone in the Domain has an image of who I am, an image that I must live up to—"

"Must you?"

"I..." Mipha frowns, considering this. "Yes?"

"I'm done with living up to other people's expectations," he signs. "From here on out, I'm living up to mine alone. Zelda's decided on the same—I'm not sure what her plans are from here, but I do know that she fully intends to take as long as possible before taking the throne herself, if she doesn't just do away with the Hylian monarchy entirely. You don't hold that against her, right? Or me?"

"Of course I do not!" Her eyes are wide. "I could never—"

"Then don't hold it against yourself, either."

Mipha opens her mouth to argue, then shuts it again, visibly perplexed. At last she says, very quietly indeed, "I will endeavor to try."

Quite by accident, they do manage to find the Lover's Pond on the way to Lurelin Village, a place that no one among their number has ever been to before and, as such, the members of the group more inclined towards sightseeing (Zelda, Daruk) really wanted to visit.

Had Lover's Pond been on their collective bucket list? Yes. Had Link really been expecting to find it? No.

If he had been expecting to find what really did seem a little too much to be true, he certainly hadn't been expecting to find it chasing after Revali of all people.

...Also, neither of them realize it is Lover's Pond for an embarrassingly long amount of time. Not until they're about to leave, to regroup with the others before anyone happens to notice that they're both gone at the same time, never mind to the same place.

"Maybe it isn't actually that pond," Revali says, staring at it now. "Wasn't that pond supposed to be in Faron? This is very much not the Faron region. Last I checked, we were still thoroughly in Necluda. Eastern Necluda, at that."

Link shrugs, humming to himself. He signs, once he's sure that Revali is looking at him from the corner of his eye, "Maybe that's why people couldn't find it."

"Because some cartographer dropped their bow?" Revali scoffs. He kicks at the water with a foot, causing ripples to spread out through that perfectly heart-shaped pond. "Metaphorically speaking, I mean. I don't expect that you spend much time around any Rito, but to drop one's bow is considered to be shirking one's responsibilities. So to speak."

"Hylians have a similar saying," Link signs. "Dropping the ball."

Revali blinks several times and eventually says, "What ball? Dropping a bow makes significantly more sense! For many Rito, myself included, their entire way of life depends on not dropping their bows! In fact, few Rito will leave home without a bow these days! ...Though I suppose it is safer now that the Calamity's... ended."

"Presumably there was a ball, at some point." Link pauses. "I guess someone dropped it."

"And the action was just so embarrassing that they are remembered, to this day, for that and that alone."

"Not even really remembered for that."

"No," Revali agrees. He looks back at the lake. "Do you at all believe what Mipha said? About soulmates, and this pond?"

Link shakes his head. It's easier to act like he doesn't at all than to explain that he's not really sure. That he doesn't really want to think about this while he is here, quite by accident, with Revali of all people.

"Hm," Revali says. "Me neither."

On the way back from Lurelin Village, because there really isn't much else to see out that way, Link nudges Mipha in the direction of the mountain, as subtly as he can. Which, really, isn't all that subtle, and results in Zelda inviting herself along with no knowledge of what she's inviting herself along for.

It's fine, Link thinks. Probably.

Then Revali comes flying in out of nowhere, and announces that he needs Link's help with something. Yes, Link's specifically. No, he won't tell him what. Yes, he needs him there right now, he'll bring him back later, you two go on ahead.

Link finds out, a short time later, that it's because Revali had caught sight of the dragon Naydra, and because Urbosa had made him promise weeks ago that he would have someone keeping an eye on him when he went in to shoot off a shard of Naydra's horn, and because... yeah, he's not entirely clear on why else.

"I keep my promises," Revali says tightly. "No matter how much I might regret them in retrospect, which is why I try not to make them any more often than I must."

"Fair," Link signs, "but why me? Why not... literally any of the others?"

"Why not?" Revali repeats. "Why not? You and I both know precisely how excited Mipha was to visit the Lovers Pond; I have no intention of taking that away from her. Zelda, too, expressed quite the interest in visiting it herself, and if anything did happen to go wrong—which it wouldn't and won't, while we're on the subject—she is nowhere near experienced enough to be of any aid. Daruk doesn't do well in the cold, and I would rather not have Urbosa knowing that I'm actively doing this until after I've already been successful, thank you very much."

Most of that seems fairly reasonable. Some parts of it seem more reasonable than others. Weirdly reasonable, actually, like Revali's put way more thought into it than Link would have expected.

"Okay, but—"

"You witnessed me at my lowest," Revali interrupts, "and yet for some, unfathomable reason, you don't think any less of me for it."

"Why would I think any less of you for needing a hug?" Link signs.

Revali opens his beak. He shuts his beak, without a word or even a sound coming out of it. Silence fills the air between the two of them, a silence that grows progressively more and more uncomfortable as Link realizes, slowly, what it means.

Before Link can sign anything else, he's interrupted again. "If I did, for some gods-forsaken reason, screw this up—which I have no intention of doing, by the way, my feathers are more than capable of protecting me from even the most bitter chill for a short enough time—then, going by your previous behavior, you're both unlikely to rub it in and likely to be able to help."

Slowly, Link nods.

He doesn't have a chance to sign anything before Revali soars upward, towards Naydra, in a burst of his Gale. He watches, transfixed, as Revali draws his bow in midair. As time seems to all but slow down around him, as he pulls a single arrow from his quiver and fits it to the string. Link's never seen him use a single arrow with the Great Eagle Bow, before. Nor an arrow that wasn't a Bomb Arrow, actually, though he figures either of the tactics Revali normally uses in combat wouldn't be anywhere near as applicable here.

High above him, Revali breathes in, breathes out—and lets the arrow fly.

Naydra doesn't seem bothered in the slightest by something comparatively tiny smacking its hornlike crest, nor by the shard of it that falls loose as a consequence. It falls, slowly at first, then gathers speed.

As Link watches, Revali tucks in his wings and dives after that shard. Link eyes that, eyes him, eyes the cliffs leading down to where it will fall—then jumps, himself, and pulls out his paraglider on the way down. He lands shortly after Revali does.

"Hi," Link signs. "One down?"

"Two down," Revali corrects. "One to go, whether Urbosa thinks that I'm capable of it or not."

Link's not entirely clear on what held Daruk and Urbosa up—knowing Daruk, he suspects shenanigans of some kind—but the fact remains that both Mipha and Zelda discover Lover's Pond together, and spend quite a lot of time alone there together, and for some reason end up spending quite a lot more time alone together even after that. Which, at this point, Link is just not going to question. If Zelda's discovered an affinity for the trident or anything else that Mipha might be able to help her learn, then Link's glad of that.

Honestly, he's not exactly surprised that she wouldn't want to learn too extensively how to use a sword. Link knows how to use anything in a pinch, but he'll always feel most natural with a sword, particularly if it's his sword. But Zelda... for so long, her destiny was all she was even allowed to think about, and Link (and his sword) just rubbed in everything she couldn't do.

He and Revali keep spending time together, too. Revali wakes with the sun, and Link isn't a heavy sleeper or anything approaching it, and so during those precious few minutes before anyone else wakes up and they all decide what thing on the bucket list they're going for today, they... talk.

Well, Revali does most of the talking. But Revali doesn't do all of the talking, not anymore.

"You know," Link signs, before Revali heads back to last night's camp, "I doubt Urbosa thinks you're not capable of flying up to Farosh and shooting a shard off of his horn."

Revali straightens from the crouch he'd dropped into, without summoning his Gale. Curtly, he says, "Then why—"

"She's worried about you."

Link barely stops himself from adding, I am too.

"Is she," Revali mutters. "And why would she bother worrying about me?"

"Because you're our friend," Link signs, "and we care about you."

"Psssh." Revali waves a wing dismissively. "You can care about me while I'm doing the most impressive things you've ever seen."

"And if you get hurt?"

Revali snorts. "Believe me, I know my own limits. I'll be fine."

Link starts to doubt whether or not Revali actually knows his own limits when they go after the Molduga and he comes dangerously close to being eaten alive by the massive monster of the sands, which is indeed much like a fish. But the six of them work together like a well-oiled Sheikah machine— not one of the ones taken over by Calamity Ganon—and while Zelda's inexperience in combat shows, she's also showing great improvement.

The thing is—Revali easily could deal the final blow against the Molduga himself. But he doesn't. He harries the thing instead, distracts it, draws its attention so that Link has an opening to deal the final blow instead. For... some reason. Link thinks he's just as surprised as everyone else, but he's not so surprised that he won't take the opening offered to him.

"Don't look at me like that," Revali scoffs, touching down in the sands beside them all. "I'm out of usable arrows."

"Hey," Urbosa says. "Revali?"

Revali immediately stiffens, turning towards her. "What do you want?"

She considers this—one hand on her hip, the other still holding her scimitar. Then she sheathes that alongside her shield and says, "I'm proud of you. I'm proud of everyone here, don't get me wrong—the Molduga is not an easy foe to combat even for those used to fighting it—but you in particular recovered well from overextending earlier. Good work."

The noise that escapes Revali, after that, as he just stares at Urbosa, is loud and startled and sounds far more like a squawk than anything else.

Link doesn't realize until a week later that Revali's quiver had not, in fact, been empty.

When he points this out, the Rito's feathers fluff up far more than he's ever seen them fluff up before, and he promptly takes to the skies without so much as acknowledging what he'd signed. Link stares after him, then shrugs, and heads back to camp.

He thinks that the others are starting to notice that he and Revali tend to be absent at around the same times. Urbosa, to be sure. She's always been uncannily perceptive, to an extent that scared Link a little upon their first meeting, and she gives him a weirdly knowing look when he strolls back in.

Link waves, and signs, "What's the plan for today?"

Surely Revali will be back in a few hours, at most. Surely.

Revali does not turn up in the next couple of hours. Or in the next day. He's not there the morning after next, when Link wakes up later than he's gotten used to and finds that the sun is already fairly high in the sky, nor does he return before the sun sets on the day after that.

Link is pretty sure that actively worrying about Revali would be a great way to get back on the Rito Champion's shitlist.

He worries anyway, because he remembers the brief, terrifying moments when he thought that he and Zelda might be the only thing left of Hyrule far too well. He worries more when he's not back the next morning, either—but it's not like there's much of anything he can do about it. Revali can fly. He can't.

...Well, he can sort of glide with his paraglider, and he can catch an updraft with it, but it's not proper flying the way Rito can. Maybe that's why Revali has always seemed more on edge whenever the subject of his paraglider comes up; Link's gathered that the Rito make them as mobility aids, and that Revali had a wing in acquiring this particular one per Zelda's request, but nothing beyond that.

Maybe that's why Revali is weird about it, actually. If Zelda had deliberately left out the fact that it was for Link. They hadn't gotten along very well back then, to put it lightly, only tolerating each other as much as they had to if they wanted to actually save Hyrule from the impending Calamity. In many ways, Revali hasn't changed.

But in many ways, he has changed, which seems obvious now that Link takes the time to think about it. The sarcastic remarks remain, but they're less cutting, less outright mean than they and Revali himself used to be. Revali talks with him now, instead of just at him, and while Link can't for the life of him figure out why Revali's decided Link of all people is the member of their group he's actually going to open up to about his past, he's mostly just glad that Revali is talking to someone.

He'd hesitate to call them friends, exactly, simply because he's never actually sure where that line is drawn or when he's crossed it. But he wouldn't call them enemies, either. Enemies would have been a strong word given that they were always on the same side, but from the way Revali acted sometimes, it sure seemed like he wanted it to be the right word. But now...

It's on the dawn of the third day of this that Urbosa and Daruk exchange a weirdly knowing look, and while Urbosa walks off away from the campsite of the last few days, Daruk comes over to sit next to Link.

"Hey, little guy," Daruk says, right before a pat on the back that's really more of a smack to the back. Given how dialed back this is from what Daruk used to do, given that he's definitely gotten a better understanding of his own strength in the weeks and months they've been traveling together, given that Link's kind of used to Daruk's preferred way of saying hello by now... he's fine. Mostly.

"Hi," Link signs. "What's up?"

"Urbosa and I noticed that you were doing a lot of mopin' around lately." He pauses. "And by that, I really mean Urbosa noticed, told me, and it was real obvious after that. If you're gettin' obvious enough that I'm seein' it, you're gettin' pretty obvious."

Okay. Link did not expect to be mercilessly raked over the coals by Daruk of all people today, but here they are.

"Wanna talk about it?' Daruk says.

Link shrugs, signing, "Not too much to talk about."

"Fair."

He keeps signing anyway, despite the fact that Daruk has all the subtlety of an erupting volcano and an only slightly higher capacity for secret-keeping. "I'm worried."

Daruk nods. "'Bout Revali?"

Cool, so Link is being even less subtle than he thought. "You can worry about someone while knowing, logically, that they're probably fine."

"'Course ya can," Daruk says encouragingly. "You're not the only one, little guy. I'd bet he's just off somewhere sulkin', but Urbosa thinks he might go do somethin' stupid. Wants ya to go talk to her."

Link glances in the direction that Urbosa had walked off in, and finds she hasn't actually gone all that far. Also, she's looking back at the two of them, because apparently literally no one among this group—except for Mipha, maybe—is anything remotely approaching subtle.

"Why are you telling me this?" Link asks, a little confused.

His friend—because, while friendship is confusing and social constructs even more so, Link's always known where he stands with Daruk—grins at him. "'Cause Urbosa wasn't sure if ya were moping 'bout Revali or about something else. Like Mipha."

"...Mipha?"

"Uh, never mind," Daruk says a little too quickly. "Go talk to Urbosa.”

"Hi," Link signs once he's caught up with Urbosa. "Why would I be moping about Mipha?"

Urbosa raises an eyebrow. "So you don't know, but you know enough to ask?"

"Daruk told me."

She snorts, clearly amused. "Can't say I'm surprised. Walk with me?"

Even before the Calamity struck, Link had spent enough time in the general vicinity of Urbosa to know that anything said in that tone wasn't a request, merely a polite demand. He walks with her, leaving the camp—as well as Daruk, and Mipha and Zelda whispering over the latter's Sheikah Slate—in their wake.

They're far enough away that he can't see where they've been camped out for the past few days before, never mind hear anything from back there, by the time Urbosa slows her steps, and once again turns to him and says, "So. You don't know about my little bird and Mipha."

"...No?" Link has the strangest feeling that he's missing something, even as he has no idea what it could possibly be. "Unless you mean that they've been spending a lot of time together. Because they have been."

"Ever since they visited Lover's Pond together, yes," Urbosa agrees.

Ever since he slightly ditched them to go be backup for Revali shooting himself a shard of Naydra's horn, yes. He feels slightly bad about that in retrospect, but the girls had been fine on their own, presumably. Someone would have said something if they hadn't been fine on their own. Revali probably also would have been fine on his own, probably, but Link doesn't think he ever could have forgiven himself if he hadn't been there and something had gone horribly wrong for Revali alone.

Urbosa studies him. "You really don't know."

"I don't know what?"

"We can deal with that later," Urbosa says, though she isn't so kind as to tell him what that could possibly be. "You're worried about Revali."

"He hasn't come back."

"No," she agrees, "he hasn't. And I have my suspicions that he will not until he feels he's proven himself to us again."

"What," Link signs, "the fuck, do you mean?"

She sighs. "I can only speculate, really, about what his life is like outside of being a Champion. That said, I am convinced of two things in particular: that he hasn't had much support from others until recently, and that he isn't much older than you or Zelda. As such, he feels like he has to prove himself our equal when he has no need to do anything of the sort."

Urbosa can only speculate. Link on the other hand... he knows, but he can't tell her, that her speculations are quite accurate. From the sound of things, Revali's father might have been able to give the late King Rhoam a run for his money in terms of being an utter failure where fatherhood is concerned, and he hadn't even had the decency to die in the Calamity.

...Probably. Revali hasn't checked recently, and Link doesn't blame him for not wanting to.

(He had, however, admitted—very quietly, and after making Link swear three times that he would never tell anyone what he was about to tell him—that he was only seventeen. Under normal circumstances, Rito aren't considered adults until their cheek spots fade, which usually happens sometime between the ages of fifteen and twenty.)

(Revali is considered an adult, by Rito standards. His cheek spots are as prominent as they have been on the day that he and Link met. Clearly, normal circumstances weren’t involved.)

"He's going to try to do something stupid," Link signs.

Urbosa lets out a long-suffering sigh. "Almost certainly, yes."

"Any ideas what?"

She shakes her head. "I'd say that, out of all of us, you know him better than anyone at this point. I was hoping you might have an idea as to what."

Link raises his hands to sign a protest, then... stops. Because an idea does occur to him, pretty much immediately, as to what Revali might be off doing. Or what he might have already done, and could have gotten very injured doing, and they'd have no way of knowing what happened to him.

"Unfortunately," Link signs, "I do."

The Gerudo Champion studies his expression. "I have the strangest sort of feeling that I'm not going to like whatever you suggest."

"Farosh," he signs. Or, more accurately, spells out letter by letter, but judging from the way that Urbosa's face falls after all of three letters, she had her suspicions about this too. "Wasn't that dragon sighted around here recently?"

He knows this, because Revali brought it up. Offhandedly, like he hadn't been planning to do anything with that information, and maybe he hadn't been planning anything of the sort then. But Farosh—if Dinraal is associated with power, and Naydra is associated with wisdom, then Farosh is associated with courage.

If Revali thinks he needs to prove himself to be better, somehow, for... lying about having an empty quiver? (Link's still not sure why he'd made such a big deal over it, things like that are easy to miss in the heat of battle.)

The thing is—the more that Link thinks about it, the more sure he is that, while Revali would never admit such a thing, he does feel like he has to prove himself. Which is very bad where giant dragons said to be perpetually flying amongst lightning are concerned.

"Oh, for the love of..." Urbosa just sighs. "Yes, Farosh was sighted around here recently, though I hadn't realized you or Revali was paying attention when I mentioned as such to my little bird. I should have known better."

Link shrugs. "Why wouldn't I pay attention? It's a giant dragon."

She sighs even deeper, this time. "Clearly, Revali thought much the same."

Even as someone born and raised in the Gerudo Desert, a place that the dragon Farosh is said to frequent, Urbosa has only ever seen it a handful of times. Once, winding its way above the canyon road that she'd taken on her way out of the desert, when she had left the desert behind in the vain hope that she would be able to see her closest friend, Zelda's mother, one more time before she was completely gone from this world. The second time was in nearly the same place, on the same road, while she was pushing her horse as fast as she feasibly could in order to reach Vah Naboris as fast as possible.

"Seeing Farosh brought me courage, both times," Urbosa explains, as they approach the canyon road from the ground. "Courage that I desperately needed, in those times... but the fact that it was close to the same place, and that Farosh was traveling in the same direction both times, makes me think that even dragons have schedules. If you wait here for long enough, and then follow Farosh when you see it..."

Link nods. This isn't a great plan, and both of them know it. This isn't even a good plan, but it's the best plan either of them could come up with on short notice. Best case scenario, he'll be able to follow Farosh and intercept Revali before he can get himself struck by lightning. Worst case scenario... if he's already been struck by lightning, he's probably landed somewhere near Farosh's flight path.

(He hopes that Revali hasn't gone after Farosh yet. Because if he had, and he'd succeeded, then... he should have come back by now. And he hasn't.)

"I'll rejoin the others, then. We won't be moving unless something drastic happens, so if you need us..." Urbosa pauses, looking at him. "Do you want me to stay here?"

The thing is, Link kind of does. He'd feel a lot better about his prospects involving a lot of lightning with Urbosa by his side. But there are two reasons why he can't have Urbosa here. The first is Revali; he knows that Revali won't appreciate being talked down from this, but he'll appreciate it even less if there are more people involved. Particularly if he feels at all similarly to how Link feels about Urbosa—that she's almost like the mother that he never had.

Revali, like everyone else currently traveling around Hyrule on what could charitably be called a vacation, has... issues. A not insignificant amount of Revali's are of the parental variety, and Link knows he won't want Urbosa to see how he fails.

(If he fails. Maybe he'll succeed. Link hopes he'll succeed, he knows Revali is perfectly competent, yet he can't help but worry. Which is weird. He'll unpack that later.)

The second reason why he can't have Urbosa here is, well... Urbosa herself. She'd called upon her Fury exactly once in that fight against the Molduga. It had been a complete accident that Link was looking in that direction, a complete accident that he witnessed something he doesn't think anyone was meant to see, but he did anyway.

After snapping her fingers, after calling down lightning from the heavens... she flinched away from her own Fury.

The Calamity might have left them all alive, in its wake, but it really hadn't left any of them unscathed, and it had taken Urbosa the longest to confirm afterwards that she'd survived the scourge of her own Divine Beast. Link can only guess at why, but he has a few pretty good guesses.

"I'll be fine," Link signs. "Hopefully Revali will be too."

Urbosa offers him a wry smile. "Realistically, I'm sure he will be, but... I do worry. I'd worry about anyone trying to approach that dragon. Make sure he knows that?"

Link nods, and watches her walk off, before he settles in to wait.

He doesn't have to wait too long, for Farosh. The first sign of its approach, as Link hauls himself up onto a ledge most of the way up the canyon walls, is a strange tingling feeling in his body. It starts small, barely noticeable, but slowly ramps up until Link hauls himself up to the very top of the canyon, takes a moment to breathe, and discovers that the hair on the back of his neck is standing on end.

Then he turns around, and he sees Farosh for the very first time.

It's green, to Naydra's blue, and its body glows brilliantly even in broad daylight. Much like Naydra, it's very long. Quite unlike Naydra, instead of a crest of blue it has a single horn, shaped almost like a lightning strike, as bright of green as the rest of it if not even brighter.

Link totally gets why just seeing Farosh can bring people courage, actually, now that he is. He stands there for a while, watching the dragon fly... though fly is honestly a strong word for what it, and Naydra, and presumably Dinraal, do. It seems less like it flies actively, and more that it just... floats ethereally through the air, doing what it wants, because dragons clearly don't care about things like gravity.

He'd stay there a lot longer, if he could. But two things happen in rapid succession: he remembers, reluctantly, that he does have to follow Farosh for a while to find Revali... and he hears something. A voice, shouting. A voice that he recognizes.

"I'm young, I'm fantastic, and I'm never going to die!" is generally not the best thing to be hearing proclaimed with someone's whole chest out of the blue. Particularly not when Link is pretty sure that the voice he just heard uttering those words belongs to the singular person here who is even more reckless than him.

He's pretty good at identifying people based on voice. Normally it's a point of pride for him.

Link desperately wishes he could be wrong, just this once, when he turns toward the voice. He's not wrong. He makes eye contact with a particular blue-feathered Rito, who only smirks in response. With a burst of his Gale, Revali soars. Link watches him soar upward, towards—

Oh. Oh.

Oh no.

How, in Hylia's sacred name or any others he can't be arsed to think of right now, did things even end up like this? There are a whole lot of reasons, probably, if Link actually went so far as to think of them. But he's not thinking of them. 

Instead, he shouts, "Revali, no!"

At first, he thinks that Revali can't hear him. And then he hears a shout back of "Revali, yes!" and he realizes the truth. It's not that Revali can't hear him. It's that he's ignoring him. Which is kind of worse.

Link wants to pull out his paraglider and leap out into the remnants of Revali's Gale himself. He wants to follow him, to emphasize just how much of a terrible idea this is until Revali, for once in his fucking life, listens. He does no such thing, because at this point going up after him would just be even more dangerous to Revali.

So Link watches, useless, as Revali keeps his distance from the dragon and fits a single arrow to his bow. As he aims, carefully, and fires. As his arrow chips off a shard of Farosh's massive horn. The dragon continues to move, uncaring, as that shard and the arrow itself fall to earth.

...Or as that shard and the arrow itself should fall to earth.

The smart thing to do would be to descend along with the shard of Farosh's horn, at a safe distance from Farosh itself, and to pick it up once it hits the ground. It's a perfectly reasonable assumption to make that Revali, being a Rito in possession of a functioning brain, would indeed do the smart thing.

Given that Revali looks at Link, fucking winks, and flies in towards Farosh to grab the shard himself—Link isn't actually sure Revali's in possession of a functioning brain at all. He would have been fine, if he'd just waited.

But he doesn't wait. He goes. And there is nothing Link can do to stop him.

There is nothing Link can do to stop a crack of lightning, a boom of thunder, and a cut-off scream of pain from Revali as he drops like a stone. Link doesn't think anymore. He just moves, leaping off into thin air and diving desperately after him. His heart pounds. His blood roars in his ears. He has to catch up, or else—

He catches up. Well, more accurately he bodily collides with Revali, who doesn't so much as twitch when Link grabs onto him. This is worrying! But not as worrying as the fact that they're more than halfway down to the canyon floor, and somehow falling even faster now.

Sorry, Link thinks, not sure what for.

Revali's taller than him. But not much taller than him, and about as broad, and more importantly lighter than him. It's a struggle to shift to holding onto Revali with only one arm, but it's doable, if awkward. Instead of hugging Revali with both arms, he's sort of... half-hugging him, as tightly as he can, and trying very hard not to panic in the process.

Panic, right now, will get them both killed.

With his other hand, he pulls out his paraglider. Fumbles for it, fumbles with it. It's not meant to be used with one hand. In fact, he'd mostly-jokingly brought up the idea to Revali one night... weeks ago? Months ago? Some time ago. The exact passage of time doesn't matter right now, but he distinctly remembers Revali shooting down that idea as 'foolish even by your standards' and 'incredibly dangerous for someone without wings.'

And yeah, if the most reckless person Link knows apart from himself thinks it's a dumb idea, then it's probably a pretty dumb idea.

However: Link doesn't have the time to come up with anything better. He loops his free arm through both handles and opens the glider, as best as he can with one arm. Not a moment too soon.

They both hit the ground hard. Not hard enough to break bones. Definitely hard enough to knock the wind out of Link's lungs, definitely hard enough to bruise badly, definitely hard enough that Link can't hold on to his paraglider or Revali any longer. If it was just him, he'd happily just lie here for a bit and wallow in pain and how hard it is to breathe right now.

But it's not just him. He struggles—not to his feet, but at least to his knees. Hauls himself over to Revali, face-down in the sand, who hasn't so much as twitched. He turns him over, careful of the bow on his back, which looks... singed, but still in one piece, and not currently on fire.

Much the same can be said for Revali himself. A lot of his feathers are considerably more blackened than the dark blue they normally are, and a few are even still smoldering. Link tries to put them out, tries not to panic.

Revali is still breathing. Barely, shallowly, but he is. So it's... fine. He'll be fine.

(He has to be, or else Link doesn't think he'll ever be able to forgive himself.)

It's close to dawn, the sky starting to lighten and the stars starting to fade out, when Revali finally wakes up. In all honesty, it's entirely capable that Revali wakes up even earlier than that, but Link notices that he's awake when he tries to move and starts swearing. He rises silently and crosses to Revali, hoping that it's light enough for the Rito to actually see his signs.

He waves, first of all, and sees those eyes—green, brilliantly so, somehow even more than Farosh's scales had been—zero in on the motion.

"You're still here," Revali says slowly. "Why are you..."

"How are you feeling?" Link signs.

"...Not great," he grumbles. "Could be better. Could be worse."

You could be dead, Link thinks and doesn't sign.

"But!" There's a note of pride to his voice as he weakly lifts a foot. "I did it. Look!"

Link looks. He's not sure how he missed the fact that Revali's talons were clenched around something in a death grip, but they sure were, and that something was the shard of Farosh's horn that this whole mess had started over. He honestly hadn't bothered to look for it, after he and Revali fell.

"You did it," Link agrees. "Never, ever, ever fucking do that again."

Revali stares up at him, from where he's still lying flat on his back on Link's spare bedroll. He blinks several times.

"Why would I do that again?" Revali asks, and the worst part is, he sounds completely genuine. "I got the shard. I don't need to do it again, not now that I have everything I wanted out of doing such a thing. I have my shard, and you saw me do it."

"I also saw you get struck by lightning and nearly fall to your death," Link signs.

Revali waves a wing, then winces at the movement. "Semantics. It was fine."

"It. Was. Not. Fine." Link glares at him. "It's been hours. You've been out for hours. I don't even want to think about how badly you must be burned after that, and if you'd just waited a few seconds longer to actually pick up the shard you shot off of Farosh's horn, it would have been fine! But it wasn't!"

Oh, great. Revali's back to staring, and he looks even more confused now. Though he masks it, or tries to, with a cocky smile.

"You almost sound like you're worried about me," he says at last, and something inside Link breaks. Maybe it's the last few bits of inhibitions left after the Calamity's end, though he did leave most of that behind in the chamber Ganon took over, however briefly, for its own.

"That's because I am," he signs, every movement of his hands slow and deliberate. "You mean a lot to me. More than I thought you did, which was sure a revelation to come to while you were lying there smoldering."

Revali opens his beak to protest, then shuts it again. At last he manages to say, "I mean a lot to you?"

"Yeah. You do." There. It's all out in the open now. Well, mostly.

"...Why?"

"Because you're the single person I know who is even more reckless than me, and I'd never get Mipha's attention off me again if you bit it," he signs. And—is he really going to do this? Sure, alright, he's really going to do this. "And I might be a little bit in love with you."

"You're... what???"

"Don't ever do anything like that again," Link signs, moving on before he has to dwell on what he just told Revali for too long. "I mean it. You're by far the most incredible warrior the Rito have ever seen, and probably ever will see, and I'm sure you'll do even more incredible things in the future, but at this rate you're going to kill yourself before you can do any of them!"

"I—"

"Stop trying to prove yourself to us, while you're at it. You don't have to! And no one will think any less of you for not being perfect!" Link pauses. "Maybe your shitty dad, from what I've heard of him, but he doesn't seem like someone whose opinion you should value anyway and I honestly kind of hope that he died in the Calamity."

"...On that, we can agree," Revali mumbles, averting his gaze. "I suppose we're likely to find out, should our party ever end up in that area of Hyrule."

Link shrugs. "Daruk still wants to fight a Frost Talus. Where else are we going to find one of those?"

"True enough, I suppose." Grimacing, he pushes himself up into a sitting position—Link can tell, from how gingerly he moves, that it's got to hurt. "Wait. You said you were in love with me."

"Honestly didn't realize until an hour or so ago," Link signs, taking a seat beside him. "Sorry if it makes you uncomfortable."

"What? No. I..." Revali stares at the sand, struggling to find the right words. "This is great, actually, because I realized I'd somehow fallen in love with you while we were fighting that Molduga with the others."

"...That's why you flew off when I pointed it out?"

"Don't be ridiculous." His feathers are fluffing up as he speaks. "Anyway, that doesn't matter, how dare you confess to me before I could confess to you! I was planning to do it after I returned from Farosh, triumphant!"

That explains the wink. ...And possibly a good deal of the other recklessness, too.

"Maybe you shouldn't have gotten struck by lightning, then," Link signs.

Revali rolls his eyes. "That was, I will admit, not part of the plan."

Now that he knows Revali is okay, the adrenaline crash and the fact that he hasn't slept at all tonight are both catching up with him. He can practically feel his eyelids drooping. Still, there's something he needs to do first.

"Can I hug you?" Link signs.

Revali stares at him. At last he says, "You may."

Link doesn't have to be told twice. He wraps his arms around the Rito, buries his face in singed feathers, and tries—admittedly not very hard—not to fall asleep against him.

He fails. He's not too put out by this, in the last conscious thoughts he has before passing out. And maybe he imagines it, maybe he dreams it—or maybe, just maybe, the last thing he feels is a pair of wings wrapping around him, too.

They return to Castle Town, or the somewhat more rebuilt ruins of it, a year to the day from the Calamity’s end. Impa’s happy to see them, and happier to see that every one of them is doing significantly better than they were—if a little surprised when Revali loudly declares that he’s keeping Zelda’s knight and he’s not apologizing, or when Mipha and Zelda sneak out together so often that even the most oblivious person around (Daruk. It’s Daruk.) figures out that something is going on there.

Link knows that being reckless is deeply ingrained in Revali’s entire being. He gets it. He could easily be described the same way. But he’s at least more careful, these days, and he’s yet to attempt another stunt like the Farosh incident.

It’s a year to the day since the Calamity’s end. And somehow— somehow —the people Link cared about the most came out the other side.

He couldn’t be happier.

(The next time that he does something particularly reckless he also fully intends to echo Revali’s words about… what was it? Being young, fantastic, and never going to die. And he knows Revali will laugh, and will tease him afterwards, and will be there to catch him when he falls.)