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Wild loved his Hyrule. He truly, truly did. Its vast plains and mountains, its people and cultures. He'd traveled them all, relearning how society worked and his place within it.
And that was just it.
The Chain had landed in his Hyrule, which wasn't in of itself a problem. No, the problem was that they'd landed in the desert. Right by the Gerudo town.
The Chain was for now at the Bazaar, sitting in the shade and in Wind's case, looking at the water sadly. Given it was a major source of water for people, swimming was frowned upon, and although the sailor understood, he missed his Hyrule. Warriors was distracting him with a game of marbles, borrowed from Four, who had excused themself to some degree of solitude.
Everyone else milled about, glad to be done walking for the day.
Wild, for his part, was perched as high as he could get, already dressed in his voe set to ward off the midday heat. The people looked small below him, but he had his glider, so the height wasn't an issue. The issue was that they had to talk to Riju. While talking to some of the residents of the Bazaar and travelers that had come by, they'd gotten reports of stronger monsters than usual lately.
He... didn't want to. He liked Riju, and to a degree they were friends. The Thunderhelm was cool, even if he felt guilty for borrowing it.
The screen of the slate blinked out as it went to sleep; apparently, he had been lost in thought for more than a moment.
Wild sighed and clicked it back on. If he was going to talk to Riju, he had to switch gear to the vai set. It was pretty enough, and he didn't mind the clothes themselves...
He just didn't like being called a girl, vai, whatever.
Throughout his adventure, self-discovery hadn't exactly been prioritized; he couldn't put saving Zelda on hold for the time to worry about that. He had known, however, that being called a vai sent a shiver down his spine. It felt wrong, and there hadn't been anything he could do about it since there was no way around it. He'd done what he'd had to and then tucked the set away in the slate where he touched it as little as possible.
Someone climbed onto the perch behind him and he turned to look. Very few of the Chain would climb up here without a good reason, and none of the Gerudo would right now. He blinked as Hyrule dusted himself of as best he could, the desert sand rendering the action futile.
"You can see a lot up here, " Hyrule breathed, squinting against the sun but smiling widely. It faltered when his gaze slid to him, and Hyrule joined him at his side. "Hey, everything OK?"
Wild didn't answer for a moment, the distant horizon drawing his gaze for a moment. He could trust Hyrule, probably. They were brothers, and the other had told everyone about his fairy form.
"If you don't want me to, I won't tell anyone," Hyrule added quietly, hesitantly pressing their shoulders together for a moment. "But something seems on your mind and I think you should tell someone. Not that you have to, of course, it's just a suggestion-"
'Only vai, females, are allowed in Gerudo town. If I do what I have to, for us to get information... It involves becoming something I'm not. I don't like how people look at me.' It took Wild a few tries, eventually signing when his throat closed and words just didn't want to come out. 'There's nothing wrong with it, specifically, but...'
"It's like my fairy form, or Twi's wolf," Hyrule said with an understanding nod. "People look at us and that's all they see. Especially when people see fairy and automatically assume I'm a girl. I can't really blame them, male fairies are extraordinarily rare, but it's still annoying."
Wild nodded, tension loosening slightly as Hyrule understood. 'I don't blame them either, it's why I do it. If I didn't, I couldn't get the information. I could blame them, but the Gerudo exclude men for a reason. They stay safer that way. During my adventure, I had to wear a vai outfit to get in so I could defeat Vah Nabooris. There was no other way.'
Hyrule hums for a moment, thinking, but his posture is just as loose as before. He's not judging Wild, not changing how he feels about him at all.
The thought loosens something he hadn't even realized had pulled tight.
"Does it have to be you, specifically?" The traveler ends up asking, earnest eyes meeting his. "You know I've dealt with this before too, but we could ask Legend - you know he probably wouldn't even hesitate," Hyrule's eyes widen slightly as he realizes how his words could be misconstrued. "Just because he dresses like that anyway sometimes, and he doesn't usually bother to correct anyone who does call him by female terms. I honestly think it probably wouldn't bother him."
‘You think so?’ Wild asked with a tilt of his head, almost immediately feeling a bit foolish for the question. It was Legend, who regularly wore skirts, and the veteran hero had admitted to filling in for Fable on occasion. He'd been one of the first to defend Four when they'd mentioned wanting to use different sets of pronouns, depending on the day, and had helped explain it to the heroes who had never heard of such a thing.
“Of course!” Hyrule smiled at him, warm and gentle. “We're family, and family helps each other out.”
“Okay,” Wild nodded, the tension draining from his shoulders before it tensed up a bit again at the thought of having to explain it to the veteran.
“Do you want me to call him?” The traveler asked perceptive, already looking down to see if he could spot his predecessor. Catching Wild’s barest hint of a nod, the traveler stood up and whistled, the sound traveling easily to the rest of the group. When the Chain looked up, he signed Legend's namesign, and Wind pointed to a spot in the shade just out of sight, tilting his head. Hyrule waved once in an affirmative and the sailor picked something up and threw it at the vet. Legend turned around, rubbing his head and yelling. Wind signed something and pointed up at Wild and Hyrule, and the vet nodded and headed that way, probably sighing dramatically. Hyrule turned back to Wild. "Shall we?"
"What's this about?" Legend asked a few moments later, once Wild and Hyrule had joined him and the others moved out of earshot.
"I wanted to ask a favor," Wild said, uncharacteristically nervous. "It's fine if you say no, but..." He changed to sign, knowing Legend wouldn't judge him but the words still difficult to get out. 'We have to go into town for information, and they don't let males in without permission from the leader. I have an outfit that lets me pass.'
Legend tilted his head, understanding dawning in his eyes. "Is it the clothes or the pronouns?" he asked gently.
"The pronouns, mostly? I don't like being seen as a girl when I'm not. It's fine for other people, I just... don't like it for myself, y'know?" the cook replied, his tension for whatever reason ratcheting a bit higher as he waited for Legend's response.
Legend smiled. "I gotcha. Give me the clothes, tell me who I'm supposed to talk to, and what pitfalls I need to avoid. Is there a way to get us in, or is everyone stuck out here?"
Wild pulled out his slate, materializing the clothes and handing them over to Legend, haltingly explaining at first. His explanation picked up speed as Legend listened, asking appropriate questions here and there, and Hyrule joined in. Between them, everything Legend needed to know was wheedled out of the cook, laid bare and neither of them judged, even if some eyebrows raised as he explained the Thunderhelm and what he'd needed it for.
"I have a ring for that," Legend said offhandedly, then chuckled as he studied the garments. "You should get pics of me in this. Fable will love it; that, or she'll be jealous. Impa said once I was prettier than her and Fable has never let me forget it."
Wild laughed, Hyrule chuckling beside him, and everything was light again. He met Legend's eyes and the two of them shared a look, all three of them laughing on a rooftop in the heat of the afternoon of the Gerudo desert.