#anicomicqueen

“Rancher!” he shouted in horror when he realized what he was seeing. He sprinted the rest of the way to the Rancher’s side and knelt down next to him. “Twilight! Stop! What are you doing?!” 

Tears streamed down Twilight’s face and his hand shook as it guided the needle he was holding down for another stitch, a small strip of leather clamped between his teeth. 

When Twilight didn’t respond, Warriors didn’t hesitate to take action. He snatched up the man’s wrist, stopping the motion before he could do any more damage, and stole the needle from the shaking hand. 

He grabbed Twilight’s shoulder and squeezed hard. “Link!” 

The rancher’s eyes snapped open in shock and his breath hitched. It was unclear whether it was due to pain or the surprise of being found. 

“W-Wars, I—”

“Shut up! I don’t wanna hear it right now. I can’t believe you—Give me that.” Warriors growled and snatched the needle out of Twilight’s hand, nostrils flaring. He took a few deep breaths and pushed his bangs back with his free hand. After a moment, he sighed, releasing the tension in his shoulders, and slumped forward. He took in the Rancher’s state before trying to ease the tension with a breathy chuckle. “You’re a mess.”

Twilight let out something between a laugh and a sob in return and clenched his eyes shut. He pulled his injured arm close to his body, trying to hide the evidence.

Warriors rolled his eyes and grunted in disapproval. “Gimme your arm, you idiot.” He held his hand out expectantly.

Twilight instinctively did the opposite, making it clear that he’d been mislead in the past, but after a brief pause he relinquished the limb and offered it to the Captain.

Warriors was gentle when he took the proffered limb into his hand and inspected the damage. “Did you clean this before you used it?” He held the needle up with a pointed look. He felt he knew the answer, but he wanted confirmation.

Twilight looked off to the side, caught between wanting to lie for the sake of making the Captain less angry and wanting to tell the truth so the Captain could fix his mistake. Then he slowly shook his head and looked down. 

Wars nodded, mostly to himself. “What about the wound?”

Twilight grabbed something from beside him and held up an empty water skin. Then he turned his hand face down and rocked it back and forth.

“Hmm…” Warriors sighed after seeing the jagged stitches. “Listen, I’m really sorry, but we need to redo these.”

Twilight nodded his understanding, but didn’t speak, which worried the other man. 

“I’ll try to be fast.” Warriors grabbed a small pair of medical scissors out of the pouch on his left side and quickly snipped the stitches Twilight had placed. 

Within minutes, Wars was skillfully tying off the end of the first line of redone stitches, and continued to pinch Twilight’s broken skin together so he could quickly punch through and pull (now with a sterilized needle). He worked quickly, just like he’d promised, focusing wholly on his work, leaving any comforting words for later. The medic in him was on high alert and just couldn’t worry about creature comforts when his friend was still actively bleeding and in pain. 

“This is going to be a huge scar, Twi,” Warriors muttered as he tied off the last stitch and snipped the excess.

“I know. It’s fine,” Twilight whispered back, his voice hoarse with remorse.

Warriors pulled out a small jar filled with a light yellow paste and unscrewed the top, releasing vapors that smelled like comfrey, calendula, and eucalyptus. 

“So, why did you run off after the fight?” Wars said, trying to make small talk. 

Twilight just shrugged. 

“Right... Well, you don’t have to talk to me about it I guess, but just know I’m here for you, you know, if you ever do want to talk. And it doesn’t need to be me either. I know I’m not your favorite person and you’re not a fan of knights in general, but you’re not alone anymore. None of us are.” Warriors used a small wooden stick to carefully spread a glob of the paste over the wound. “We’re all here for each other because even heroes of Hyrule need help sometimes. Nobody knows that better than us.” He bound the wound loosely with some gauze and fastened the end off. “You can trust us to take care of you. Even if you don’t want us to.”

Warriors then sat back on his heels and looked towards the end of the alley, trying to give Twilight space, but refusing to leave him alone. The silence seemed to drag on for a bit after that before the Rancher cleared his throat.

“Sorry for running away…” Twilight’s voice was soft and morose.

Warriors turned back to regard the Rancher as he spoke, but didn’t say anything, simply waiting for him to continue. 

“I don’t…I know I harp on the younger kids for doing stuff like this…I just. Don’t want them to end up like me.” Twilight put his head in his uninjured hand, covering his eyes. Then he sucked in a stuttering breath. “I never—I shouldn’t have run off like that, but I thought—I was afraid of what everyone would—I’m sorry ,” Twilight broke off with a sob. 

Warriors brow creased, hearing how distressed Twilight was, and he slowly reached out a hand and rested it on Twilight’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. Breathe, Rancher. You don’t need to tell me the reason if you can’t right now. If you want to tell me now though, I’m all ears. But is that what you want?”

Twilight curled in on himself and shook his head. Tears started flowing freely down his cheeks and he took gasping breaths between silent cries.

“Then let’s save it for another time, yeah? You a hugger?” Warriors smirked, knowing that the other man was indeed a hugger. 

Twilight let out another sobbing laugh and nodded. “Yeah,” he croaked.

“Yeah, I know. Come here, buddy.” Warriors leaned forward and pulled the slightly larger Hylian into his arms, being careful not to put pressure on the man’s injured arm. “You’re gonna be okay, Link.” He felt the other Hylian nod and rubbed his hand up and down the man’s back. 

After a minute or two, Twilight pulled back and took a deep breath to gather himself. 

“You ready to head back?” Warriors asked. 

“Yeah.” Twilight used the sleeve of his tunic and wiped away the evidence of his breakdown. 

Warriors stood up and reached a hand down to the other man, helping him up, before the two walked back toward the inn. 

“Thanks for coming to find me,” Twilight said, his voice back to its normal timbre.