"I'm hungryyyyy!"
"Did no one think to bring food?" Link grumbled, mostly to Vio. He would have thought Vio to be the one to organise everything – just the night before he was lecturing Link about detailed plans and supplies. "And we're going to need something to defend ourselves.
"Like food?" Red whined, his stomach growling as if to make a point.
They had been walking down this darkened lane for what felt like the last hour. It was much quicker on a bike.
Link and Red had been side-by-side the whole way, mostly because Red wasn't too fond of the dark, but Vio had always been just a little too far ahead for Link's liking. And now he wasn't replying, Link could feel a bubbling anger brewing in his throat.
"Vio?!"
"I said there's a post office!" The boy snapped back, accompanied by over-the-top hand movements. "We'll get food from there in the morning!"
"In the morning?" Link heard Red mumble.
"You have the money I'm guessing." Link shouted back, sure that if he lowered his voice any more Vio wouldn't be able to hear him across the miles he'd put between them.
"You think I'm unprepared?!"
"No, I think you need to slow the hell down!"
Vio stopped with a stroppy stomp of the feet and waited for the other two to catch up. "Happy?"
"Jeez, Vi, what's wrong with you?"
"Oh, I don't know… hmm… maybe-oh yes! There's a serial killer who's likely to hunt down my family at any moment and you don't have the decency to speed up!"
"Wh-what?" Red squeaked and Link felt a shaking hand clamp his wrist. "B-but we just left them there! What if-"
"Nothing's going to happen, Red." Link lied. "We'll get Ganondorf in time, don't worry."
"Really?"
Link looked down and found himself trapped in those big, fearful blue eyes. It was hard to form a smile. "Yeah." He heard Vio sigh and could have punched him.

The sun had set by the time they passed the over-grown sign of 'Kokiri', buried in vats of ivy and vines and stinging nettles washing the bottom half.
Everything was quiet. Really, discerningly quiet. Link didn't like it. Even at this time of night there would normally be middle-aged men stood in golden-lit garages, there would be the slight white-noise of TV… but there was none of that.
"This is creepy." Red muttered Link's thoughts.
"Yeah." Regulating his breathing, Link carried on along the side of the empty road, eyes set on his home-or what he had called home. He hadn't been back here since packing to stay at the quadruplets' house.
"So… any idea where this 'thing' might be?" Vio had calmed down a bit. The sarcasm and contempt were still ripe in his voice, but Link couldn't really blame him. It was rare to have an argument with Green, at least when you're not Blue.
"No. But we have a basement. We might find something in there."
The driveway was lifeless. The garden was bare. The windows were empty and dark. Link could have wondered whether this was the haunted house Zelda had been on about.
When they reached the back door, Link already held the key in his hands which shook. It hadn't occurred to him until now that this was going to be difficult. Yet here he was, trying to slot the key in a hole which didn't seem to stop moving about. He steadied his breathing, could feel the eyes of both twins on the back of his head, halted his hand with his other and attempted once more. Almost… again… nope, nowhere near. The breath he didn't know he'd been keeping shuddered out and he slapped a palm to the cool wood of the door, laughing with a jittering, high voice.
"Sorry." He rested his forehead on his arm, grinding it into the door. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay." Link felt his lip wobble when a smaller hand slid over his own, gripped it tightly and guided it toward the keyhole. "See?" He heard Red smile as the lock clicked. "It's fine!" Yet Link couldn't bring himself to look at him.
"If you could do this on your own, we wouldn't be here." Mumbled Vio to his right.
"Yeah! We're here with you, okay? Everything'll be okay." Simpered Red to his left.
"I know."