"Blue-y! I'm hungry!"
"Then eat something."
"Rose doesn't know how to cook, Blue."
"Don't you, Shae?"
"No."
"Doesn't your mom leave food somewhere?"
"Yeah, but Rose doesn't like lasagna. She says the chunks in the sauce taste weird."
"Cause they do!"
"Not my problem."
"Hate to interject, but you're kind of our babysitter. Isn't feeding us the definition of 'your problem'?"
"Shut up, Lee."
"It's fine, Lee. I'll just make something small for Rose and Shae."
"Thank you, Faruin!"
"You can shut up too, Shae!"
"Oh no, you did NOT just tell ME to shut up! Don't think I won't fight you just because you're some hot shot legendary-"
"I agree with Blue. Just for the record."
"Nobody asked you, Lee!"
"Shae, if you wanna be able to eat, I suggest you stop talking. I know it's a typical punishment to send a child to bed without dinner and I'm sure neither Blue nor Lee would have any qualms abou-"
"Screw you!"
"Language!" Blue shouted back towards the kitchen from his spot in the armchair. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger before tuning out the eldest girls' arguing. Lee chuckled.
"You're one to talk. I've heard you spout worse curse words than that when you were in a good mood." He commented amusedly.
"Yeah but not while there were little kids around. I know better than to cuss around toddlers."
"Okay, okay. I'll give you that. Not around toddlers." The loud banging of pots rang out from the kitchen as Faruin prepared something for her youngest and oldest sister.
"I'm gonna go check on V.I.P.," Blue informed, standing up, "I haven't heard them for a while."
Lee stood up too, "then I'll go make sure Shae doesn't burn down our kitchen. As much as she annoys me, I have a feeling going to school with Turgeon is the exact opposite of what she wants." Blue chuckled as Lee turned on his heel and strode towards the kitchen.
V.I.P., as it turns out, were cautiously approaching a sleeping Zelda-Terra in a form of the game Cucco. Whoever got the closest to her (you'll have to ask Vio when you get home whether chain-chomps have genders) without waking her up –because apparently chain chomps have very sensitive hearing and the closer you get, the easier it is to wake them up- won. Vee was winning by two games.
"Do you wanna play with us, Blue?" Ingo whispered excitedly, eyes lighting up.
"It's fu-un!" Pharia quietly sing-songed.
"No thanks."
"Aww! C'mon!" She begged.
"Nope. Sorry."
"We can play something else," Pharia suggested, voice on the edge of a pout.
"Not really in a playing mood right now." Blue replied. Pharia crossed her arms and stuck her lower lip out in childish defiance.
"I bet Red would play with us if he were here." She mumbled angrily. Blue felt himself tense slightly, remembering the reason he was there in the first place.
"Yeah, probably," he agreed, rubbing the back of his neck to try and relieve the tension there before any of the kids saw it.
Unfortunately, subtlety had never been Blue's strong point, and he immediately saw Pharia's defiance fall in slight guilt and surprise. Ingo gave her a look.
Vee stayed quiet throughout this exchange with a focused look on her face.
There was a tense, silent minute in the room.
"Welp," Blue interrupted suddenly, breaking the silence with a clap. ZT woke up with a yelp at the sudden noise. "I better go check on the others in the kitchen. You guys have fun with your-" he noticed the lethargically blinking eyes of the Loyahl pet. "Oh. Sorry. I'll just. Yeah." Blue turned and left the room before the young triplets could object.
The kitchen, Blue decided, was probably what pure chaos looked like.
Apparently, Shae had managed to light something on fire. Lee was running in with a bucket of water, only to be held back by Faruin who was shouting that the fire Shae had set only got worse with water which was a concept that concerned Blue much more than he'd ever admit. Shae was freaking out, exclaiming that she was sorry, and she didn't know it would overflow if she turned the temperature up too high, and not to tell mom and dad because it was an accident, and what do we do what do we do what do we do. Faruin was using the hand that wasn't keeping Lee from throwing the bucket of water on the fire to get salt, which Blue could only imagine worked if she needed to exorcise the demon anti-water fire, a thought that only made him more concerned. Apparently, that was both correct and incorrect since throwing salt seemed to be helping put it out, but there was in no way any witchcraft used that Blue could see.
Rose sat at the table coloring on a piece of paper.
Blue didn't know if that made him more or less worried about the entire situation.
The present Link turned and tried to leave before anyone noticed him, but once again his lack of subtlety led him to kick a pan that had somehow ended up there during the commotion.
Faruin turned towards the noise. "Oh, so THAT'S where the saucepan went!" she laughed in relief. "I was worried we'd lost it when Shae threw it back."
"You threw a pan?" Blue asked, quickly giving up his earlier goal. He took the pan off the floor and passed it to Faruin's outreached hand.
"I was surprised! There was a fire!" She retorted, gesturing towards the blackened pan.
A knock at the door interrupted her from continuing. Blue thanked his luck as he excused himself from the room to get the door.
The teen quickly retracted the gratitude when, as luck would have it, he opened the door to find a royal messenger.
"Hello, sir! I'm here for a Mr. -" the messenger trailed off as she checked a slip of paper, "Link?"
Thoughts of all three of his teammates, specifically the M.I.A. status of a certain scarlet themed one, immediately filled his mind and it was all he could do to ask the only reasonable question that came to mind.
"How did you know I was here? This isn't my usual address." The messenger chuckled slightly, putting Blue's nerves even more on edge.
"Yeah, thank Farore! I hate carriages, so I'm not licensed to ride in any of them, and if I had to run all the way to the Link residence, it would've been a long night." She bounced slightly between the balls of her feet in royal messenger fashion. "I was a little confused when I was told the message was for a Link at the Loyahl building. At first I thought they meant L-O-Y-A-L loyal, which I was like 'why is he at the courthouse' -cause you know royal messengers have code words for certain public buildings and loyal building is ours for courthouse- 'did Mr. Blue Link get in trouble with another knight's kid again?' but then I realized they meant L-O-Y-A-H-L as in Ms. Loyahl's place, which got me even more worried. But then the-" Blue raised an eyebrow at the messenger, and she caught herself. "Sorry, kind of a rambler. Anyway, there was no actual scroll. It's a verbal message." She cleared her throat.
"Dear Blue, I am up to here," the messenger held her hand up to above her head with a look that said that the sender had specifically asked her to perform that motion, "with all the information that you Links have been keeping from me. I'm this close," the messenger moved her hand down and put her thumb and forefinger close together as her face set in another look, "to forcing all of you to live in the castle."
"Just to let you know, she shouted for a lot of the rest of the message. I'm not going to do that because we're in a residential but just imagine that I'm shouting really angrily. I'll tell you when to stop."
"Because apparently you're all too damn busy to tell me anything if I don't forcibly drag it out of you, so maybe living in –what did you call it- a 'stonework prison' would break all of you enough to tell me things. Like, oh, I don't know, the fact that one of you was diagnosed with major depressive disorder! Because is that really so much to ask? That I be told when my friends are diagnosed with medical disorders that literally have 'major' in their Din damned title?! I mean Nayru knows if Red found a way to sneak into my room, which I didn't find creepy at all, to talk to Vio, you all should've found some way to tell me 'oh yeah, just to let you know, no big deal or anything, but-"
"She got interrupted at this point by another Mr. Link. He was dressed in purple. She's asked that their argument not be retold to you. That's the end of the shouting."
"Anyway, Red told me that he kind of abandoned you right outside of the village. I figured you're probably worried about him, so I just wanted to let you know that he's at the castle with Vio and me, and that you're welcome to join us if you want."
"Sincerely, I say sincerely and not 'love' because friendship is a two-way street and I'm not feeling the friendship from any of the Links so I'm sure not giving any, Princess Zelda."
Blue stood for a moment, trying to decide if he should feel happy that Red was with Vio and Zelda and therefore safe, guilty that he'd upset the princess, angry that Red had ditched him to go hang out with Vio, or sad that he couldn't accept the invitation. He didn't get the chance to choose.
"Well, I'd better be off. Lots of deliveries to make!"
"Oh, here," Blue suddenly chimed in, startled out of his thoughts, "I've got, like, five rupees on me. Sorry if it's a small tip compared to what you usual- what?" Blue's eyebrows drew together in confusion when the messenger lifted her hand and shook her head at him.
"I don't accept tips. I got this job cause of my passion for running, not money. Thank you for the thought, though!" With a wide smile she once again said farewell, turned, and dashed from the doorstep towards her next location. Blue blinked, then blinked again. Since that didn't help the ever-growing confusion in his mind, he closed the door and made his way back into the kitchen.
Where he once again walked in on a chaotic shouting match.
Wonderful.
Unfortunately he was immediately spotted by Faruin, so he didn't get the chance to leave.
"Blue would you please explain to Shaera-"
"DON'T YOU DARE USE MY FULL NAME RIGHT NOW, FARU!"
"EXPLAIN to Shaera why it would be a bad idea to begin teaching Rose how to swordfight?"
"IF YOU'RE OLD ENOUGH TO HOLD A SWORD, YOU'RE OLD ENOUGH TO LEARN HOW TO USE IT!"
"That's like saying if you're old enough to reach the reigns, one should start being able to drive carriages."
Blue sighed as loudly as he could and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Blue?" Lee asked, voice full of concern. "Is something wrong?" Blue shook his head.
"Nah, just got some stuff on my mind." He made the mistake of looking at Lee, who stood as the picture of a doctor talking to a stubborn patient. The eldest Loyahl child gave Blue a moment to amend his answer and continued when he didn't.
"Then who was at the door?" Blue sighed again and rubbed his forehead.
"Royal messenger." Lee waited again before resigning to his fate of dragging every piece of information out of his friend. Shaera and Faruin had gone silent by now, watching the interaction with differing reasons for interest.
"And…?" Lee asked.
"It was Zelda." Rose gasped excitedly from where she sat at the table, and Blue cursed his Din damned mouth as the youngest jumped up and ran over to jump at his legs.
"WHAT'DSHESAYWHAT'DSHESAYWHAT'DSHESAY?!" The girl demanded, brown eyes bright. Lee picked up his youngest sister with a little chuckle. His efforts were rewarded with her angrily trying to squirm away from his grip.
"What do we say when we ask people for something?" He hinted at her. The strawberry-blonde groaned in frustration at her oldest brother.
"Please tell me what she said?" She amended. Lee gave the top of his sister's head a kiss before setting her down with a "much better".
Blue paused, waiting to see if Lee would dismiss him from answering the question, but the boy looked like he wasn't going to let his friend off easily this time. The Link sighed again.
"She said that Red was over at the castle." Blue mumbled to the floor. Lee lifted his eyebrow in the doctor face again. Rose groaned in frustration and leaned in close to see if she could maybe understand what he said better. Ingo and Pharia snuck into the kitchen wondering why the shouting had stopped.
"Gonna have to ask you to repeat that," Leoni crossed his arms, completing the look.
"She said that Red was over at the castle." He repeated, slightly louder, but still to the tiles. Shae snickered. Vee wandered in looking for her earlier playmates.
"Blue, you're going to have to speak up." Faruin suggested.
"Red's at the castle?!" Rose asked in awe, her stance working in her favor. She brown eyes sparked with wonder as she grinned up at Blue. The Link in question nodded, and the room was quiet for a moment as it soaked in this information.
"What?!"
"Wait! So he doesn't have time to come babysit us because he's hanging out with the Princess! That's so rude!"
"Is he okay? Is he hurt or something?" a gasp, "WAS HE THROWN IN THE CASTLE JAIL?!"
"Are we really that-"
"-boring that he ditched us-"
"-for the princess?"
"EVERYONE CALM DOWN," Lee shouted above his siblings. When the noise only slightly lowered, he continued repeating the statement until they followed the command either out of respect or frustrated concession.
"Let Blue speak!" He began to turn back to his friend but looked over his shoulder to tack on "for Nayru's sake!"
"He's over at Zelda's castle because he needed to talk to Vio," Blue amended. Faruin looked worried.
"Vio's at the castle? Why?"
Blue continued rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't actually know." He thought about it for a moment, before remembering the conversation he'd had with Red earlier that day, "wait, I remember seeing a carriage coming from our house while Red and I were on our way here. That's the only way I can think of that Vio could have gotten up here, and I guess Red recognized it or something and went to talk to Vio? Again, I don't know." Silence filled the kitchen. "She invited me to go over too."
Rose gasped excitedly again. "CANICOMECANICOMEC-" Lee picked her up for a second time.
"Sorry, Rose," Blue looked up from the floor and smiled sadly at her, "If I'm not going, then you definitely can't go, and even if I could, she sounded pretty upset over the message. I don't think now's a good time for anyone to arrive uninvited." She looked disappointed, but Blue got the feeling that Rose understood.
"Wait, but why can't you-" Lee started. His face twisted in realization. "Oh."
"Yeah." Blue's shrug matched his smile, "I might not be a good babysitter, but I know better than to just leave my charges because I was invited somewhere else."
Again, silence.
"You know what I think everyone needs?" Vee began from her place near the doorframe. "A game."
"Viacka…" Faruin began, a warning in her tone.
"Let's all play house." She continued. "Blue, you can be the dad." A small smile formed on her face. "And we all ran out of groceries in a weird kitchen accident." She walked over, grabbed Blue's hand and started him towards the door. "So the dad needs to go and shop for more food. Lee, you can be the babysitter."
Shae's green eyes sparked in realization before a cat-like smirk grew on her face. She began pushing the stubborn Link from between his shoulders, "and the rest of us can be the kids, left in the babysitter's care." When Blue caught on to what was happening and started to pull away, Ingo, Pharia, and Faruin sprung to life and began pushing him out the door. Rose lept down from Lee's grip and joined them.
"If Momma comes back," Pharia chimed, "we'll tell her a royal summoner came 'round-"
"-and requested your presence-"
"-so you couldn't say no!"
"I don't really think you're mother OR your father would-"
"Lee can take care of us, Blue!"
"Yeah, Blue-y! Go visit the Princess! And tell her I said hello!"
Blue tried to pull away from the kids, to try and talk some reason into them, but there were just so many kids. He was surrounded.
"I'll take good care of them." Lee promised as he opened the door for his siblings and grabbed his friend's arms. "Now, go!"
They collectively threw their official babysitter out the door and slammed it. The sapphire Link heard the sound of a lock behind him. He turned and banged on the door and shouted to be let back in.
"We're not opening this door!" Shae's muffled voice shouted, "Now go get your man!"
"Ignore her! Well… I mean- not on the fact that you should go but the part where she insinuated that-… WHATEVER! Just go to the castle before we have to come out there and drag you kicking and screaming!" Leoni's voice commanded.
There was a beat of silence where the ocean-colored hero stood leaning against the door, deciding what to do.
A smile grew on Blue's face as he hit the door with the palm of his hand. Blue jumped to every other stone on the path leading away from the house.
Lee smiled from the other side of the door, recognizing an unspoken thanks when he heard one.