Nico’s husband could’ve been dead, for all he knew. It wasn’t very often that Jason called while he was at work, and it was even rarer for him to get sick at all.

Nico practically flew out of his office, giving a brief run down to his boss, who let him go mostly because he’d never seen Nico so frazzled. He got in his car, barely taking the time to turn the thing on, and almost got a speeding ticket driving back to his and Jason’s house.

He tugged open the door, nearly dropping his keys. His eyes scanned the room before falling on Jason, staring at him from the couch.

“Are you ok?” Nico asked, words falling out of his mouth breathlessly. Jason looked confused. “Yeah?” he said, slightly more nasally than he had been when Nico left that morning. Nico straightened up. “Oh.”

Jason sat on the couch with a blanket wrapped around him and a pile of tissues in front of him. Something played on the TV that Nico didn’t recognize and couldn’t be bothered to care about. Their dog sat happily beside Jason, wagging her tail like everything was completely normal. Probably because it was.

“Are you sure?” Nico asked, taking a second to smooth his wild hair. Jason nodded blankly. “Pretty sure.”

Nico looked at his phone, then Jason, then back at his phone. “You texted me “Come home. Dying. Now.” twenty minutes ago?” Jason laughed. “Can’t you see? I’m going to wither away.”

Nico rolled his eyes. He walked over, shoes clacking on the ground, and buried a hand in Jason’s short blonde hair. “I thought you got stabbed or something.” He smiled despite himself, unable to push away the humor of the situation.

Jason leaned back to look up at him. “I may as well have been,” he smiled back. Nico poked his shoulder. “What’s wrong with you?” “Common cold, according to Reyna.”

Nico rolled his eyes again. “You big baby,” he laughed, walking around the couch. He plopped down next to Jason, letting him lean his head on his shoulder while he rubbed his head. “Is it really that bad?” he asked, a little more sincerely.

Jason laughed. “No, I just wanted you to take a break from work. Being sick was my scapegoat.” He nuzzled his head on Nico’s shoulder. Nico leaned back a little to see his face. “Have I been working too much?” he asked. Jason sat up, raising an eyebrow. “I haven’t seen you in a month.”

That was an exaggeration, of course. Nico spent all his evenings at home, plus the weekends. However, even he could admit he spent most of it either worrying about work, trying to get ahead on work, or sleeping because he was tired from work. So maybe Jason had a point.

Nico buried his head in Jason’s hair. “Sorry,” he mumbled, letting his husband lay between his knees with his head on his stomach. “It’s fine. I know you. I know how you get,” he hummed, squeezing him a little too tight for comfort.

Their dog bumped Nico on the elbow with her nose, informing him that it was dinner time. In fact, it was past dinner time.

Nico kissed Jason’s head. “You gotta let me go.” Upon hearing that, Jason only tightened his iron grip. “Jason..? Jason!”

Nico squirmed, yet he was not released. The dog got fed, only much, much later than she probably would’ve liked.

Hyrule didn’t like being touched. He figured it was some sort of combination of his childhood situation, the monsters after his blood, and the most common type of touch he received being physical violence.

Or something like that.

He chose not to think about it too much. It never really came up, before, until he was thrown into a new adventure and traveling with eight other Links. They were together every minute of every day, and some of them kept trying to touch him. It was little things, like a hand on his shoulder, or a pat on the back, or elbows bumping as they passed food bowls around the circle. 

Hyrule would always flinch away, or freeze in place, or shrink in on himself. Hyrule had been so used to isolation, with only himself for comfort. The casual touch was new, and a little bit scary, but each time it happened Hyrule found that the urge to flinch away grew smaller. The others were perceptive, though, and they were quick to notice. It wasn’t long before they stopped touching him at all.

The lights in the Medical Bay were low. Glen could not tell the hour. But it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that he was warm and comfortable. He sighed.

“Glen?”

Glen turned his head and opened his eyes. Blare, who had been dozing in a seat at his bedside, stood. “Hey,” she said softly. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Glen replied hoarsely. His eyes wandered. “Where’s…where’s Slipper?”

“I finally convinced him to get some rest,” Blare said. “He was barely standing when he said you were stable.”

Glen’s throat tightened. “Is he okay?”

“He says he will be. And you, too,” she added, touching her hand to Glen’s wrist. “Slipper says you’ll recover fine.” She smiled. “He said only one visitor at a time, for now. Brando, Tabby, and I have been on a rotation. Those two have been taking bets on who’d be with you when you woke.”

“How…how long have I been out?”

Blare’s expression shifted. “Long enough,” she said. She hesitated. “NIC agents are on board. They…they want to ask you a few questions.”

“NIC?” Glen blinked. “What are they doing here?”

“When you told us you were shot, we had to call it in,” Blare explained. “Gal-U assigned NIC agents to the case.” Her eyes darted downwards. “It was all a setup, Glen.”

“…A setup.”

“It was the Nation of Morozko.”

Nation of Morozko. It was a group of extremists who believed in a “planet-first” mentality, and didn’t want to join Gal-U.

“Some hackers sent the fake urgency signal in hopes that the Syndicate would send someone.” Blare laced her fingers through Glen’s. “It was a trap, intended to kill whoever was sent to the surface to help.” She rubbed her thumb against Glen’s hand. “Morozko’s facing reclassification.”

Glen’s heart sank. “No…”

“The NIC agents want to confirm the details, but once they report this back to Gal-U, it’s likely they’ll be Class 0.”

Glen withdrew his hand from Blare’s. “No…” He swung his legs around the side of the bed. Pain sparked in his belly, and Glen folded with a hiss.

“Glen!” Blare gasped.

“No,” Glen said again, looking up. “It’s not fair – the whole planet can’t be punished…”

“They tried to kill you.”

“Extremists don’t speak for an entire planet,” Glen choked out.

“This can’t go unpunished.”

“Then find and punish them,” Glen said. He looked up at Blare desperately. “Not generations of innocent people.”

“Gal-U’s not known for mercy,” Blare said gently. “And remember, it was supposed to be Void Thief that responded to the urgency call. If someone from Void had been killed…”

“But it was just an intern – and I’m alive,” Glen said.

Blare’s eyes softened. “Glen, their minds are made up.”

“Please – let me try to convince them!”

“You’d really fight for Morozko after all this?” Blare murmured. Glen felt tears sting his eyes. He couldn’t bring words to his lips. Blare nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Okay. I’ll get the agents, and we’ll make our case.”

They stand for a moment before Roy and Joanne both pull back and Roy finally speaks up. “We’ve gotta go, Junior. Take care of the kids when we’re gone, please?”

 Johnny frowned at the smiling couple, “I’ll take care of them, but why do you have to leave?”

 “We have to go. You know we don’t have a choice, Johnny, but we love you.” Joanne said gently.

 Johnny felt a swell of panic and confusion rise up in him, he’s not really sure why, but he’s scared to let them leave. “I’ll go wherever it is you need to go for you and-“

 “We love you and the kids, we’ll see you again. Bye, Johnny,” Roy said, and then he and Joanne were walking towards the door.

 “No! Please don’t go!” Johnny tried to run after them but was tripped up by toys and backpacks that littered the floor. “Please, come back!”

 Johnny can only see blurry figures through his tears. He tries to stand and slips on something he only sees out of the corner of his eye. He can only watch helplessly as they walk outside and get into their car. Johnny cries out as he sees them pull out of the driveway. He sobs as he hears a screech of squealing tires. The loud crunch of metal being crushed.

 “Come back, please.” Johnny cries.

 And then he’s gasping awake in his bed. He lets out heaving breaths as he sits upright. He blinks rapidly to try and clear his vision, quickly wiping at his wet cheeks.

 Maybe he’ll just see what’s on for late-night television tonight instead of sleeping.

 —--------------- 

 Johnny slowly walked over to the double headstone. His breath hitched as his eyes skimmed over the names engraved onto it.

 “Hey, guys.” Johnny swiped some leaves off of the cold stone, kneeling down in front of it as his eyes burned once again and his voice just barely more than a croak when he tried to speak. “I’ve missed you. I know it’s been a while since I came to see you… a lot has been happening though.”

 He seated himself on the ground in front of the marker and crossed his legs as he fidgeted with the flowers, and once they had been placed into the vase just right, clasped his hands together tightly and squeezed his eyes shut.

 “Um, so I made captain. And we were finally able to move into the house I bought. The kids absolutely love their new rooms. We’ve been working on getting them properly decorated. And with this raise I’m gonna be getting, I might be able to afford a horse or two. Jenny’ll be stoked about that,” Johnny smiled at that thought. She’d been asking for a pony.

 “But that’s enough about me, Chris is just about to graduate middle school. And Jenny’s class had a little project on what they wanted to be when they grew up, and guess what she chose.” Johnny paused to suck in a sharp breath, “She chose a paramedic.” Johnny can’t help but feel pride in the little girl’s choice.

  A wave of guilt hits him and he picks at his nails, “And there is something- something I’m just not sure what to do about. Chris called me dad the other day, and Jenny did a couple weeks ago. And I know it’s probably terrible that I felt happy about it, I know that I’m not her father, but those two kids feel like my own. I love them so much.” Johnny looked up at the grave with pleading eyes, “This is something I would have gone to you for advice about, Roy. I don’t know what to do… the old crew said it’s alright to feel that way, that I’m not replacing you- your still their daddy and now I’m their dad. But I still worry sometimes that I’m replacing you, even though I know I’m not really. I think I may just let her keep calling me that.”

 “Last night I had a dream, it seemed so real. I dreamt you were alive.” Johnny clenched his eyes shut as tears rolled down his face. “You both were there with me, we had just been spending the day all together, just like we used to do sometimes. But you both left me-“Johnny muttered bitterly under his breath, then choking on his next words. “Why did you have to leave me?”

 Johnny decided to just sit quietly for a little bit, before he glanced down at his watch to check the time. With a sigh grabbed his keys from the ground next to him.

 Johnny shakily got up into a standing position. He leaned down to press a kiss to the top of the head stone, before brushing his fingers lightly over the large names inscribed on the head stone.

 Roy & Joanne DeSoto

 “I’ll try and visit sooner next time, and maybe the kids will be able to come with me next time. This visit was kinda sudden so the kids are actually in school right now. I’ve got to go pick them up in a little bit.” Johnny rested his hand against the cold stone for a moment. “See ya, I love you guys.”

 Johnny turned away and headed back in the direction of his car. He breathed in deep and scrubbed his hands over his face to try and clear it up some. He felt- lighter, maybe- now.

 Alright, he could do this now. He’s got a couple kids to pick up. Maybe- his kids.

  Johnny had just finished getting the kids in bed and was now getting ready for bed himself. After changing and using the bathroom, he grabbed his toothbrush and went to start clearing off his bed while he brushed.

 With his bed taken care of and teeth brushed, he was ready for bed. Climbing under the sheets he shut his eyes to go to sleep.

 Johnny felt something brush against his cheek. He sprung up and backwards against the headboard, taking a look around. Down at the foot of his bed, one of his framed pictures sat. He, Roy and Joanne’s beaming faces stare up at him. Chris or Jen must have just moved it and he hadn’t noticed it before.

 Johnny puts the picture back on his bedside table, stopping for a moment to look down at it.

 “Thank you, Johnny.”

 The whisper had been right next to his ear, a light tousle to his hair following. Johnny looked around the room and smiled, he laid back in bed and quickly drifted off to sleep. He barely noticed the warm feeling spreading throughout the room.