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Warriors doesn't like a lot of things.
He doesn't like having to spend his own money.
He doesn't like to wait for his scarf to leave the washer.
He doesn't like cold showers very much either.
He also very much so, doesn't like Legend.
For his age, and grand expertise, Warriors begs to differ that Legend should uphold his title with far more grace.
Warriors knows what Legend is, those skilled hands and sharp instincts do not arise from none, neither do his secrets.
Warriors has never seen the boy fail at anything. He was steadfast, sure, and knowing.
Legend had traversed to distant regions, made familiar with many of those, and returned with another expertise under his belt as though it were worth nothing.
He spoke many languages and seemed to have a rather impressive amount of connections far wide.
He was a bit much like Warriors, a little too much like Warriors. Though the only striking difference between them both, that Warriors could never really figure out, was the blatant lack of Legend's given effort.
Legend had the skills, the asset, the abilities- Warriors knows he does.
But with that odd, gnawing sort of devoiced will, and a lack of drive, Legend just simply didn't bother.
Warriors hates that about Legend.
Warriors was perfect only because he tried, only because he strived and ached for it.
Legend wasn't. Legend needn't to try to be better, to be anything that Warriors killed to be.
And that was exactly why Warriors couldn't tolerate him. He should have been better, Warriors should have been the one to be superior. He would use it better, he would be better.
Warriors couldn't ever help him but rather stare widely at Legend. Whenever he passed by Warriors' open door, fixed himself a meal, or even slipped on a coat.
Warriors just watched.
He watched and seethed and loathed because Legend had no right to be carefree, while Warriors wouldn't let himself.
Legend was too similar to Warriors, and Warriors had to struggle to reach up high- So Legend should too. That was the way it should have been, it needed to be.
And more than anything, did it irk Warriors.
His knees were taut to his chest, and Warriors had long since cozied up in an armchair, next to the crackling fireplace an all.
Though his chilled skin and aching bones had been gently warmed, Warriors felt anything but towards Legend.
Hopping down the last few steps, Warriors noted the bare hitch in Legend's breath as he strided over. His head was down and empty gaze poured into his cellphone- Warriors counted his mercies, he didn't stop eyeing the boy by.
Stopping right in front of the couch, to where Wind was busying himself with his hands, Legend pulled a scowl.
"Get off." Legend sighed, nudging the boy's leg with his foot.
"I was here first!" Wind squawked, shimmying back into the plush cushions a little to claim more space on the couch.
"Yeah, well- It's my spot. Go." Legend breathed, gesturing his hand off to the side a little.
Warriors felt his eyebrows raise at the sheer display of confidence. Wind was sure to set him straight- Warriors needed to see that, to see what would be of Legend once kicked off his pedestal.
Legend leaned over to whisper something near Wind's ear, and Warriors just couldn't wait for his cocky strides to be interrupted by a swing to the jaw.
"Fair enough." Wind shrugged, and Warriors missed the mischievous smile on Wind, and the knowing smirk on Legend's. "'t's all yours."
This wasn't supposed to happen!! Warriors balked, mostly because he couldn't do any more than just that.
His eye twitched, his fingers jolted in their place, and Warriors had to keep himself still as Legend smirked to himself, oddly without bark, and instead going completely lax on where Wind was on just moments ago.
Warriors shrunk back, not from fear, nor from intimidation, but rather from boiling, overtaking rage.
Who the hell was Legend do say as he pleased? Do what he wanted? Who was he??
"Hey." Warriors bit. Legend, unbothered, glanced up to the man.
Legend was nobody. He wasn't worth anything. Not to Warriors, not to anybody.
Time always wanted Warriors to be the better person. Mainly because he was older, has seen more- Warriors didn't really care to know. But what he did care about now, was that he was going to show Time what it really meant to be the hero.
Because he was going to the right thing and Legend was going to cry and Time was going to be proud.
"What?" Legend snarled, shifting so that he stared down at Warriors incredulously.
Warriors didn't fare falter. Not now, not ever. Not with Legend's daring gaze, nor with his knowing, egotistical, pretentious expression- Certainly not. Warriors was better, Warriors was superior.
"You didn't need to do that." Warriors spat, crossing his arms from where he dug his heels on the leather cushioning on the armchair, and pushed his back into the little warm junction between the armrest and back.
"Do what?" Legend tested, tilting his chin up haughtily. Warriors stifled a wrenched out growl knowing better than to entertain Legend's confidence. The last thing Warriors needed was for that vicing ego to be stroked further.
"You know what you did."
"No I don't." Legend smiled, his eyes didn't quite reach it. They told something else, something far more sinister and infuriating and if Warriors wasn't gripping the edges of that armchair.
Warriors knew what he was doing. Playing foolish and dense.
If Legend wanted to play, then Warriors had a game he'd like to try. It's one of his favorites.
"Pushing Wind out like that." Warriors explained, clinical and flat. It was those that damaged Legend's haphazardly plastered pride the best. The lack of sarcasm and snide forced Warriors into him, to see who Legend truly was- His chosen words would have far more worth if they ripped out of him.
Legend was a lot like a bouquet, if it were made of the densest and more invasive of weeds. No matter how Warriros pulled and cut and stepped over, those vines and stalks just kept growing.
Luckily for him, Cia always compared Warriors to be a hand of roses. If Warriors could, he'd choke Legend with those thorns- His own neck was getting rather sore.
"You can't tell me what to do." A grin creeped up on Legend's cocksure face. Warriors wanted to wipe it right off.
"I can't." He agreed, again blank. Warriors would have assumed his little approach wasn't working if the brief flash of something in Legend's eyes hadn't secured. "But I can make you."
For Wind's sake, and Time's approval, and perhaps even for his own self satisfaction, Warriors brushed off Legend's sudden shift in demeanor.
"What? Stop." Cautiously, and with too many hints of fear Legend wanted to shove away, he forced himself up from the couch.
"Stop it." He repeated again, feeling his hitching and stuttering breaths rise and fall a little too quickly for his comfort- None of this was in his comfort.
Warriors instead ignored him, relishing in the feeling of being in control, of being in advantage. His mouth watered upon the fear in Legend's eyes, and Hylia he could get used to this.
He took a step forward, and Legend took two steps back. So Warriors took another step ahead.
Legend felt his racing heart pound in his ribcage, too fast, it's too fast, though a rabbit he couldn't ever catch no matter how he dashed.
"Stop." Legend choked out again. "What are you doing? Stop that."
"What am I doing?" Warriors mocked, grabbing Legend's shoulder roughly. "What am I doing?? Why, I'm putting you in your place. Your behavior's been long-since unexcused. I oughta do what Time's failed to."
Trying to wrench himself out of Warriors' grasp, Legend shook his head, whispering pleas and other such meaningless words that had the same sort of harmonic charm as music did to Warriors.
And when Warriors' fist tightened over the loose fabric of Legend's sleeve, catching the stubborn, unruly boy before he could retreat any further, Legend had some sort of instant, or perhaps an epiphany. A wrenched out noise had escaped his throat. Not quite like a frustrated scream, nor a helpless sob, but perhaps something in between the two. Warriors felt his veins surge with the immediate delight of that noise.
Warriors wants to hear it again, so he pulls harder on Legend's sleeves, watching as his free hand flew up to his neck to relieve both the material's burn on his skin, and the slight throttling that Warriors had caused.
"No, Wars-" His rabbit-like heart nearly skipped a beat. "Seriously, stop it."
"You think you can just walk out whenever you want? No, it doesn’t work like that- not with me."
"No, I-" Legend gasped. And Warriors finally saw his fragile ego begin to crumble down.
"There's something wrong with you." Warriors barked, and if Legend were in any other position, he snide back with ease.
But he didn't, more so couldn't, and Warriors felt that kindle of pride burst into roaring flames.
"With- With me?!" Legend coughed out, somehow, miraculously still haughtily and covered with sweet, sweet disbelief. At least then Warriors could watch the fight die from his eyes, and that was sweeter than any other treat.
Warriors smirked, and his confident silence broke Legend into another infuriated keen.
"Oh, look who's talking!" Legend scoffed, a wavering little smile still left plastered over him. "I used to think you were the most perfect of us, the one best off yet. But that didn't go very right, didn't it now…"
Legend seems to be having fun like this, in Warriors' mercy and threatening hold, Legend couldn't help but enjoy this any more further than he has- Even if that gnawing sort of doubt and wrong, wrong, threatened, this is all wrong chewed at him some.
"What's wrong?" Legend asked, stepping forward and ignoring the burn of fabric he had on him, too close for Warriors liking, using their stark height distance to peer up at Warriors innocently. "What's wrong Wars? I thought nothing would upset you?"
"You need to get out of your head." Warriors bellowed, sharp, crisp- Almost like a command. Roughly shoved, Legend's back collides right against the wall, his frail and overused spine screaming with the impact.
Legend's eyes fly open, and before he could make any point to escape, Warriors had bodily slotted himself between both the trembling boy, and his desperate route of escape.
"You're not going anywhere." Warriors spat. "Not unless you apologize." Helplessly, Legend threw his head to the side, away from Warriors threatening and upset glare, and towards an exit that he wished he could dash to.
"What?" Legend yelled, incredulous and downright disrespectful to Warriors' keen and correct eyes. There was a beat of silence, then followed by "What am I even sorry for? I didn't do anything wrong!"
"Say it."
"No!"
"Say. It."
"I won't! I didn't do anything wrong." Legend repeated, curt and impatient.
"Why won't you just listen to yourself!" Warriors broke into a shriek. "You- You- Are you still dreaming about something or what! Hylia, you're insufferable."
With words that would have brought Warriors the satisfaction of victory and much to boast over for the next lifetime, and moments filled with Legend's angered and useless shouts back, were instead cut with eerie, wrong silence.
Legend went completely rigid in Warriors' grip, and suddenly Warriors realized that he wasn't needed to press roughly against Legend to keep him any more pinned and attentive to Warriors' words.
"I can't breathe- I can't- something's wrong."
The sudden, ill-fitting realization had crashed over Warriors like a tidal wave.
"Shit- I'm." He gasped, his hands flying off Legend as though his skin singed some. "I- I didn't-"
As soon as the comforting embrace of empty air had hit Legend's skin where Warriors' hands once were, Legend slumped forward in an odd sense of relief. Releasing a shuddered breath he didn't even know he was holding, Legend brought a trembling hand carding through his hair, focusing on his deep inhales and drawn out exhales.
"I'm sorry!" Warriors forced out, the dawn of his actions draining all color from his face. Winning and being better didn't sound very pleasing anymore. "I'm sorry- Sorry, I'm so sorry Legend." His hands flew over his mouth in haunted guilt, superiority was certainly not satiating any longer.
"You-" Legend rasped. "Y-You're fine. Jus' need a moment to recollect."
Swallowing back the fears of stepping too far, of some sort of boundary over Legend, Warriors' eyes widened in some sickening, empathetic sort of horror.
"Water." Warriors gasped, suddenly overwhelmed with the need to make things right, properly. Not with Time's imagined approval, nor for Warriors' pride. "D- Do you need water?"
It was a few beats of silence, however silent Legend's forced inhales and audible grasps for composure could be.
"No… 'm fine. It's fine." Legend repeated for assurances' sake, even if Warriors still had that shocked, in-the-headlights sort of expression on him- He looked a bit much like Hyrule in the moment.
"Did I- Did I go too far?"
"No- No you're- It's fine." That was all Legend could seem to say in the moment, but Warriors looked any but convinced. "It was just a little…" He gestured to his shoulder, the one Warriors had grabbed and dragged him with. "…A little much is all."
Warriors winced, and Legend wished he could assure the man further- Maybe after he got himself thoroughly calmed down first.
"I haven't really…" Legend trailed off.
"Oh."
"It's fine. Just… I dunno." Legend mumbled. "I don't really want to talk about it now." He half-lied. Sure, while Legend was in no state to discuss in detail what had thrown him into that sudden loop, Legend wasn't an idiot- He knew Warriors had unspoken sensitives when boundaries and consent found themselves wrenched in the conversation. The last Legend, and possibly Warriors, would ever want is a discussion on that.
"I was just…" Warriors began. "I don't want to justify myself for it. I… I now know I was wrong."
"It's fine, Wars. Go on if you want." Legend sniffled.
"I just thought- Y'know… You were being so mean to Wind, that- that I thought-"
"Wait- That was mean??" Legend interrupted. "He- I- He knew I was just joking by the way."
"What?" Warriors breathed, trying to kick aside the arising coaxes of another panic. He doesn't need that right now, he needs to be present and understanding of both himself, and Legend.
"Wind knew I meant nothing. I sent the kid up to Hyrule, he wanted to play some board game or whatever." Legend shrugged, and his expression seemed to soften when catching a quick glare to Warriors' watery gaze.
"I'm sorry!" Legend laughed, holding his hands open for a seldom hug.
Warriors blinked a few times, though he leaned close to Legend, accepting the loose embrace with a trembling, wet smile.
"I… He wasn't- You weren't actually doing that?" Warriors' voice broke, and Legend laughed against his brother's shirt, pressing his face when Warriors noted the obvious little waver in Legend's voice.
"Nayru above- Why would I?" Legend allowed Warriors to tighten his hold a little over his shoulders, leaning down to properly wrap Legend in the comforting warmth as though he didn't need it himself. "I'm not that mean."
"You- You're not mad at me right..?" Warriors asked, face positively red with the shame of both his actions, and what he's been reduced to.
"…Did you mean what you said earlier?" Legend whispered. "Am I really in my head too much?"
Warriors, at this very moment, felt like the lowliest, most worthless man to walk on this graceful planet. Legend was the last person who should have had to hear that- Legend, who'd had been trapped in his dreams, and, and Warriors said that?!
"Hylia-" Warriors gasped, tensing, and Legend only kicked aside his reluctance as he tightened his arms around Warriors' back. "No, Legend- I'd never mean that. I-I don't even know why I'd say that, let alone use that against you. I'm a horrible person for that."
"Not as bad as I am." Legend reassured, and he didn't say anymore when Warriors refused to let go of their embrace.
"Probably." Warriors sniffled. "You're just like me, aren't you."
"And I wouldn't want to be anybody else."