Archive of Our Own ^beta

Legend breathed in deeply, the air feeling sharp and crisp in his throat.  His lungs barely seemed to take in the air he was attempting to ingest.  He absentmindedly clawed at his neck with a disgruntled hum.  He had probably just overworked his body, despite having just been walking and delivering a few items for some townsfolk.

As the group moved on, Legend felt himself sway and the ache in his throat grow into almost strep territory.  Nails dug into his skin as he tried to pull his tunic away from his neck before realizing he was wearing one of Twilight's shirts since his tunic was dirty.  He gasped desperately as he leaned against a tree.

"Hey, you feeling alright?" He was pretty sure that was Sky who asked.

Legend couldn't take it anymore and shook his head with a chuckle, sounding like he just ran a marathon when he spoke.

"No... I-I can't breathe... It just- it hurts to breathe...!" He doesn't look up but he can sense the urgency from Sky as he calls Hyrule over.

"Go on, tell him what you told me." Sky said gently.

Legend took in another deep breath and met Hyrule's eyes.  "I-it hurts to breathe and I'm lightheaded and I can't breathe properly." He's rushing the words out, gasping for air when he's done.  He won't admit it but he's panicked.  This had never happened before, he's not exactly sure what's going on.  It didn't help that he was panicking either, as it made his breathing shorter while he was attempting to take in long breaths over and over, hoping to calm whatever nerves were causing this.

Hyrule didn't even looked bothered and for a moment Legend feared that he didn't care.

Of course he didn't care why would Hyrule care?

He watched as the Traveler walked over to Warriors and whispered something to him before Warriors came over.  No teasing, not sharp remarks, just a hand on his back leading him into the woods with a call to Time to set up an emergency camp.

Once the two were away, Legend was panting and almost fell to the forest floor on shaking legs.  He watched his hands shake as his vision seemed to blur slightly before righting itself.  His frontal lobe throbbed with a growing headache, but his throat didn't hurt.  Yet the second he thought of that the pain came back and he was back at square one.

"Hey, you doing okay?" Warriors asked gently, kneeling down in front of him.

"I-I'm sorry I didn't want to bother anyone but for the past I dunno hour?  Hour and a half?  I've been having trouble breathing and my throat hurts but I just thought I overexerted myself and it would just calm down, y''know but then it didn't and now I'm kinda freaking out and I don't really know what's going on.  This has never- it's never happened before."

Warriors nodded along, letting him take in some air before he asked: "What did you eat today?"

Legend paused, gulping in air.  "W-well, I had a handful of honey candies and the pot pie Wild cooked...?"

The captain nodded, looking away.  "You don't have a risk of diabetes, right?"

"W-well, no?  All I know is my Uncle had it and my grandfather on my dad's side did?"

"Well, I was wondering since, when my blood sugar is high like that, I have the same reaction.  See, the honey candies had a lot of sugar in them, and the pot pie, that's basically sugar too.  At least, when it breaks down in your stomach.  The only thing you ate that wouldn't break down into sugar was the chicken and there wasn't enough of that."

Legend nodded slowly, taking a deep breath again.  "Oh... I... I didn't realize..."

"No worries, Vet.  Here." He holds out a water bottle.  "Drink some, it'll help.  If only we had one of those... blood sugar measuring things." Warriors huffs.  "I'm diabetic, you'd think I'd know what those are called, I use them nearly every day."

Legend chuckles, the first genuine laugh he's had in a while.  "I-It's fine..." He mumbles, chugging the contents to half way.  "What now...?"

"Well, either we keep walking and wait it out, or we stop for the night.  It's your call."

Legend frowned.  He didn't want to make the others stop, they still had at least 3 hours of daylight left and they had a long way to go.  On the other hand, he wasn't sure if he'd make it.

"Can I, think about it...?"

Warriors nodded, leaning against a tree.  "Go ahead, I'll wait here."

Legend nodded and thought again, mulling the choices back and forth.  He knew stopping would inconvenience them, but going would put him out of commission... probably.  He chewed on his nails, coughing occasionally as he tried to figure it out.  Then he stood and paced the clearing, muttering to himself, pausing to cough and take deep breaths.  It took him well over half an hour before he was back next to the captain.

"I think... I think we should stop.  Sorry."

"No need to apologize.  It's alright, we'll manage."

Legend nods to Warriors and the two stand and walk back to camp.  The second Legend feels he's safe (though he'd never admit the others make him feel safe never!) he pulls off Twilight's tunic and his belts and lays on his back, breathing heavily like he was Sky who'd just ran for the postman.

After ten minutes or so of staring at the sky in a daze, Time walked over and sat down next to him.

"Feeling better?" He rumbles.

"Not really..."

Time hums and holds out a small bottle.  "Just in case it's allergies, take this to help that.  Wild's getting you something to eat and Four is off getting you some water."

Legend nods, sitting up and taking one small white pill before Four came over with a large water bottle, followed by Wild with one of his favorite meat-heavy meals.  Legend only had the strength to nod with appreciation before he curled up slightly and ate, drinking water occasionally while staring at his feet, listening to one of Wind's stories.

After a while, Time came back over to check on him again and the two talked about the week they'd had.  Turns out, Legend had more anxiety stressors that week than normal.

"My thoughts are that all of those stressors culminated into one panic attack that was brought on by your sugar intake today." Time told Legend.

The Vet nodded, a sort of realization dawning on him.  It had been one hell of a week, and Legend had played mom more times than he'd like to count.  It wasn't that he hated it, but she shouldn't have to play mom to the people in his life that were supposed to be the parents to him.

His eyes trailed to Time's wrapped knee and then to Wind's sprained pinky before he sighed.

"You've done enough Legend, too much even.  Take a break, rest as much as you can.  We can leave your adventure story for tomorrow, I'm sure Wind can fill the space." 

Legend nodded, smiling faintly before Time walked away, leaving Legend to sit on his bedroll by himself.

He sat like that for hours, staring blankly at the trees before he laid himself down and fell asleep, no longer in pain, no longer unable to breathe.  Just an exhausted little bundle that was going to sleep for the next 10 hours.