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Four was…. Weird.
Granted, Wild couldn’t say much as he regularly ran around naked, setting forest fires and talking to little tree-things no one else could see, but Four had to be a new classification of weird even for a Link. He wasn’t pot-crazy, but he also couldn’t stop smashing them. He was a neat freak, but he was a slob. Day by day he could swap from one habit to the next without even caring about what he was before.
That part, at least, Wild could get. Caring about who you were Before was always a recipe for disaster. Still, a day in between and swapping without a care? Forgetting how he bonded with Spirit over gadgets and then remembering four days later? Wild was by no means a memory expert, but that seemed weird enough to warrant a covert letter to Flora asking what the best way to handle others’ memory loss was.
After all, weird didn’t mean bad. Weird simply meant weird , and if Four was happy, then he could be as weird as he liked.
Four was… odd.
Twilight knew that was rich, coming from him, but compared to Four it seemed like Tingle was as tame as Telma. The first thing the Smithy had said to them all upon joining the Chain had been “don’t touch my shadow.”, which, to Twilight’s eternal shame, had made him hope that perhaps Midna had found a new Hero to hang with. Made him hope that he’d see her again. But as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months, it seemed more and more likely that he just had a weird thing about shadows. Indeed, whenever someone tried to dodge an arrow or club and stepped on it, Four would hunt the poor Link down and chew them out for a solid five minutes after each battle.
It hadn’t helped Twi’s reputation when the fearsome Wolf, Divine Beast of Old, Fell Creature of the Twilight Realm, had to sit there with his tail between his legs as a Hylian standing barely above his head lectured him, a shadow beast, about not messing with shadows. He’s still got a sneaking suspicion that Wind and Wild still have pictures of the scene he needs to steal.
Still, when they weren’t stepping on his shadow, Four was a decent enough fellow. Happy to help with weapon maintenance, always interested in something or another, and never begrudged him for the darker aspects of himself.
If he wanted to keep people off his shadow, then, Four could be as odd as he wanted.
Four was… strange.
Time was never one to talk about strange, considering the fact that his physical and mental age were over a decade apart, but Four seemed to also have issues when it came to time.
The concept, that is. Time the person lived in fear of the day that he drew the Smithy’s ire.
Though… Time wasn’t quite sure which day would be the worst for an issue with Four. Their shortest member seemed to follow a schedule, a routine which rotated every night in a common, predictable pattern.
Red. Green. Blue. Purple. Gray. Day after day, week after week, Four cycled through those colors, each demarcated by his eye color and the distinct personality of all of them.
Red days were days of emotion, of staying close to Sky and stealing sailcloths and cuddles without a care in the world. Green days were for drive, weapon sharpening days alongside plotting out where to go next in whatever Hyrule they’d stumbled across. Blue days were for care, organizing their supplies and snapping at anyone who dared mess with the perfect order of his latest conquest. Purple days were days for planning, of learning more about the Black Lizalfos, of searching through motive and hunting down plots, though always taking a break to experiment with another invention or two. Gray days were for mischief, and Time had long since learned to dread gray days for the inevitable pranks and problems that Four would cause.
But through all these days, there was always a predictable pattern. A ticking clock. A puzzle just waiting to be solved. And yet… would it be acceptable for Time to try to unravel it? Strange as he was, Four was his brother, after all. And a brother he knew he could trust, no matter the type of day.
And so, Time decided, Four’s strangeness will simply stay strange. And Time will appreciate each day that Four gives to them.
And perhaps… a few pranks wouldn’t go awry. Particularly if Time gets to participate.
Four was… funky.
Which wasn’t a bad thing! Honest! Oshus knows Wind wasn’t anything normal even if he wasn’t a hero! But it just… it was so weird how Four acted, you know? He’d do the strangest things, and then without a warning, he’d be furious at the thing he’d done before! He’d throw his stuff everywhere, then start cursing himself out as he started cleaning it twenty minutes later, or when they were in a town overnight he’d buy flowers to send to himself the next day, and then act surprised when it came just like he planned! It was creepy! And even when Wind asked him about it, Four just shrugged and said it was self-love! Self-love! That’s not self love, that’s just being weird!
But… Four was so nice, too, wasn’t he? He helped with pranks, he helped patch Wind up after a fight, he helped Wind out with cleaning the Phantom Sword and even theorized on how to make it stop time again, but… he was still funky. He was still acting like he had no idea what happened the day before, and then four days later he was bringing it up again. One day he’d be tearing boko heads off with his bare hands, and the next day he’d be crying over giving one a little cut! He’d want to fight with a sword, then a bomb, then a bow, then a hammer, and even a fire rod! It made no sense! It was stupid! And Four just wouldn’t tell him why! Like, sure, everyone’s entitled to their secrets and all that, but it was just so weird!
He’ll figure it out. One day. When he’s not so busy pranking everyone with Four and picking out the best way to use Wild’s bombs to get that Super Evil Cackle out of him that Wind never got to hear but was hilarious. And who knows? Maybe when Four grows up he’ll get to be as cool as Wind!
Four was… Five.
They hadn’t meant for it to end up this way, really. At the start of it all they had meant to be consistent, meant to be one, but after the first portal had ruined them, Blue had flatly refused to re-fuse.
“This is ridiculous!” he’d huffed. “You’re telling me we’ve got to go through that bullshit every time we jump Hyrules? And we can’t even split? Nope. Not doing it. If the others don’t like it they can fuck right off.”
Red, still clutching his head on the ground, nodded his agreement. “It isn’t nice. ” he whispered. “We can- we can hide. Or tell the others. But I don’t-” he stopped, letting a sob out. “I don’t wanna hurt like this again.”
Vio tilted his head, considering even as he sat intertwined with Shadow. “You… want to hide. Somewhere the others can’t find us.”
“What if we did? ”
“How?” came the inevitable answer from Green. “We don’t know where we’ll end up, whether we’d be ducking behind a dune or falling off a mountain. How in Hylia’s name could we keep even one of us hidden, much less four?”
Had the Colors any particular fondness for cats, they might’ve mistaken Shadow’s face for a cat that got the cream. Even without it, there was no hiding the look on their dark’s face that could only spell trouble.
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. ”
It was midnight in an unknown Hyrule, and Sky was on second watch. While Blue loathed being awake at this hour, particularly when his sleep schedule was already upset from the portal jumping, all he could do as he laid in his bedroll was fantasize about his mattress. Neat, tidy, comfortable, and just a few minutes away.
Fuck it. He decided. I wanna sleep.
Rising from his bedroll, he mumbled a “gonna whizz” to Sky before stalking off into the woods. The firelight through the trees dimmed further and further as he strolled, before he turned around and bent the knee.
“Alright, get your ass up, Vio. I know you’re awake, it’s your turn.” he snapped, knocking against his own shadow. “Quit snogging each other, it’s too late for this.”
Below his knuckles, the darkness normally cast from himself becoming impossibly darker, coalescing as though the very light around them was being siphoned into the endless void. At any other time of day and for anyone but a Color it would’ve been awe inspiring, but to Blue it was nothing but a relief as he shoved his hand in and grabbed someone’s wrist, yanking Vio up as if he were a fish caught on Twilight’s line.
“Good evening to you too, Blue.” His counterpart greeted. “Have an irritating day?”
Blue’s only response was a grunt. “Wind wanted to prank today, Spirit made a breakthrough on the flaming chainsaw, Wars asked me about our stockpile, and Legend’s mad cause I told Hyrule that he was hiding a leg injury. Have fun. Don’t die.”
Whatever Vio said in response was lost to a dull roar as Blue pitched himself headfirst into his shadow, darkness clouding his vision before he found himself falling into an enormous pile of pillows in a dim, richly adorned cavern. Shadow, Red and Green were already snoring in their bed, covers thrown into complete disarray just like he’d feared.
Still, warm bed is warm. And soft bed is soft. Sucks to be Vio, with that rock-hard bedroll and no one to cuddle. Couldn’t be Blue. Even as he climbed in, Red clinging to him even before he’d settled, he still couldn’t help but appreciate how the whole deal had come about.
Weird, odd, strange, funky, any other terms for it, he couldn’t help but be happy about Four being… well. Five.
And he wouldn’t have it any other way.