He pushed off his blanket and got to his feet, setting the dagger back in its place. Squinting in the small bit of moonlight shining through the tent flap, he tried to locate the lantern he knew was around. It was a full moon tonight, but he could still only make out a small lump where his tentmate lay.

Mask, or young Link as he was known to most of the army, had only been sleeping in the same tent as Link for a little more than two weeks now. But he hadn’t ever made any noise when he slept, and the increasingly loud whimpers were rather out of character for him.

Link located the lantern and lit it, sending a faint yellow glow around the tent. Proxi stirred slightly from her spot, and Link froze, but she settled back down.

He then padded over quietly to Mask’s cot, peering down at the kid’s face. His expression was twisted up and fearful, and he was clutching his blanket with a white-knuckled grip. Link frowned, reaching out a hand to shake him, but Mask suddenly bolted upright with a strangled gasp.

Link started in surprise, but quickly regained his composure as the kid breathed heavily, eyes staring blankly at the wall. The captain reached out a hesitant hand and set it on Mask’s arm, unsure if the gesture would be welcome or not.

Mask whipped his head over to Link and stared at him, and they both froze.

The tent was silent for what felt like a rather long time.

“What day is it?” Mask whispered eventually, so quietly Link could barely make out what he said.

“It’s... Friday,” he replied cautiously, unsure of where this was going, “or it was anyway. But it’s late, so it’s nearly Saturday now, probably already is.”

Sprite paled at his words and jolted forward, and he would have leapt straight out of the bed if Link hadn’t grabbed his arm.

“Whoa kiddo, what’s—“

“Let go captain, the moon- the moon is gonna—!” he pulled desperately at Link’s hand, prying at his fingers still holding on.

“Sprite, hey, the moon is where it always is, there’s nothing wrong with it,” he soothed, trying to stop the kid from launching himself out of bed. He obviously wasn’t totally awake, some vestige of sleep still clinging to his consciousness and Link didn’t want him to hurt himself.

But Mask continued to struggle, looking more panicked by the second.

Link glanced over at Proxi, hoping she was awake, but she was somehow sleeping through all this and hadn’t stirred. So much for her help.

“Captain let me through!” Mask gasped, “we’re all going to die if I don’t—!”

A sudden thought occurred to Link, and he scooped Mask up into his arms, the kid so surprised by the action that he stopped struggling.

“Here, let’s go look at the moon.” Link said, walking to the tent flap. “If there’s anything wrong with it I won’t stop you from what you need to do, but otherwise you ought to go back to bed okay?”

Mask pursed his lip but nodded, wiggling a bit so he could see better.

Link pulled back the flap and walked out of their shared tent, holding the kid gently, but also tight enough so that he couldn’t just bolt.

Several clouds were covering the moon at the moment, and as they waited for them to move, Link noticed that Mask’s heart was beating frantically, his breath quicker then it should be as well. He shifted his grip a little, and while it wasn’t quite a hug, it seemed to do the trick and he felt the kid’s tension ease slightly.

It took what felt like forever, but the clouds finally blew past the moon. And they revealed a bright pale yellow circle in the sky for them both to see, with nothing visibly wrong with it.

Link looked down at Mask, cautiously checking his reaction.

The kid was staring at the sky, the moonlight making his eyes seem brighter then normal. He blinked a few times, gaze never leaving the moon, and leaned forward just a little in Link’s arms, mouth open a bit.

Then he abruptly looked down at the ground, ears a bright red.

Link frowned at the reaction, watching as Mask curled in on himself. His face was still pale, and he almost looked worse then he did a few minutes ago, head lowered and a heart that Link could feel still beating too fast.

“Sprite?” he asked gently.

“S-sorry captain,” Mask muttered, ears flat. “I thought it...”

He swallowed and shook his head.

“...never mind.”

He started to pull off Link’s arms around him, but the captain stopped him from leaving, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Sprite,” he said softly, and the kid quit moving. “Are you okay?”

Mask didn’t answer for several minutes, during which he didn’t look at either Link or the moon.

“...I don’t know,” he whispered.

Link startled, but covered it up with a cough while his thoughts whirled. He hadn’t been expecting anything more then an abrupt yes, and then for the kid to stalk off. Mask being so honest without repeated hedging on someone else’s part was rather out of character.

He must have been really bothered by whatever had set him off.

“...okay,” Link replied, carefully testing the now completely unknown waters of this conversation. “Are... you ready to go back inside?”

Mask shrugged and kept looking away.

Link held in a sigh, knowing it would be taken the wrong way, and pulled the kid up into his arms a bit better. He pulled his scarf off from where he’d haphazardly thrown it on before going outside, and wrapped it around Mask’s shoulders.

“Do you want to talk about it..?” he asked after a moment of them just sitting together.

Mask firmly shook his head.

“No,” he said in a low voice that sounded a little wavery. “And there’s nothing to tell anyway. It’s just... n-nothing.”

He gave a small sniffle, and Link hesitated for only a second before pulling him close, the kid tucking his head into his chest and still pointedly not looking at him.

“All right,” Link murmured, tucking his scarf more tightly around the kid, “I get it, you don’t have to say anything else.”

Mask just nodded again.

Another silence fell between them, Link quietly running his hand through Mask’s hair as he stayed silent in his lap. The kid’s shaky breathing eventually began to slow, and he relaxed in Link’s arms, letting out a small sigh as his head began to droop.

It was still the middle of the night, a fact which he’d seem to have forgotten and that his body was reminding him of now.

“You still awake Sprite?” Link murmured after a bit.

Mask only hummed in reply.

Link felt his mouth upturn and he tugged the kid up in his arms, getting to his feet and going back into their tent. He sat down on Mask’s cot, glancing down at the nearly asleep hero in his arms, and began to extract him from his hold.

It took him a minute, but he managed to get Mask onto his bed without jostling him too much, though he didn’t have the heart to pull the scarf off him. Mask pulled it closer around his arms, and lifted his head just a bit to look up at Link.

“Thanks dad,” he murmured. Then his head dropped entirely and his breathing evened out.

Link stared down at the bundle tucked next to him, trying not to completely freak out.

He’d—

He’d called him dad.

Not big brother, or captain, or old Link, but... dad.

A weird mushy feeling began to warm his chest, and Link leaned back against the tent wall, the cot creaking under him. Mask shifted a little, but quickly stilled again.

“Dad?” he whispered, running a disbelieving hand through his bangs.

He should probably be focusing more on why exactly Mask had been freaking out earlier and how to breach the subject again at some point, but his mind was fully stuck on that one muttered word.

A father... him?

He didn’t know the first thing about fatherhood, his own dad had died before he was even born. And he’d only known the kid barely a month, how... he hadn’t signed up for the army expecting to become a parent! He hadn’t been trained for this at all!

Mask nuzzled a bit closer in to his scarf, and Link watched him for a minute, the warm feeling increasing in its assault in his chest.

Maybe... maybe he could do this.

Link let out a quiet breath, running a hand through Mask’s hair one last time before heading back to his own cot. He looked back at the kid once, all twisted up in his scarf with his face smoothed over as he slept, and felt his cheeks pull into a smile.

“You’re welcome Sprite,” he whispered.