To be United

Chapter 20: The Home We Built Together

Because the body moves according to dreams during sleep, all except Red had rolled off the bed; Vio and Shadow were on one side with Blue and Green on the other. The rivals hadn't realized their position yet, which they may have been in for a large portion of the night. Blue was lying on the floor with his arms around Green on top of him, one of his hands set below his waist, the other in his hair, and one of Green's was within Blue's hair. Their noses were pressed beside each other's with their parted lips just millimetres apart.

Hearing Blue's quiet groan in his sleep, Green was the first to wake up that early morning. As soon as his vision adapted to the darkness of the room, he realized just how close he was to Blue, who woke up and opened his eyes from hearing Green's gasp of dread. Just half a second passed until they screamed; Blue sitting up quickly causing Green to roll off him and bang his head on the floor.

Blue looked down angrily at Green since he could feel his face blushing fiercely, "Green! What the hell were you dreaming about?!"

He rubbed the back of his head, looking clueless, "I can't remember...A girl, maybe?"

"And you chose me to be the receiver?! How could y-!!" He silenced himself as soon as he realized how red his face was becoming, but Blue was annoyed since he was on the bottom out of them two again, so he declared some competition to beat him at, "Uh! Um...Hey! I bet you can't beat me to the breakfast table!"

Green perked up and quickly ran after, "Oh, yeah! I'll easily top you at that!"

Shadow quickly woke and his face lightened up in response. He slipped out of Vio's arms and ran down after the two, "I'll make your breakfast, guys! You know how good my omelettes are!"

The two left behind stirred from their sleep and sat up to look at the door, "I won!" Red cheered while Vio pouted in his defeat.

-- --

The morning rolled on in a peppy start; they all tucked in to Shadow's omelettes except Green, who preferred his father's eggs and bacon he was eating away at while the chef make some for himself.

"Construction starts today, guys! Make sure you get all the energy you need!" Green chanted.

"Hey, Green. There's something I'm trying to remember about you..A distinct habit..I can't quite put my finger on it.."

As the General continued to cook while in deep thought, Green gulped down the last he had and held his clean plate out, "Seconds, please."

"That's it! You have such a big appetite! Shadow, Red, Blue and Vio combined aren't as much trouble as you are! How could I forget?!"

"Heheheheh.." Green laughed while prodding his plate out.

-- --

After breakfast was done, the five went straight to work on the frame of their house. They left their tunics behind as they would sweat buckets if they left them on during this kind of work so they rolled their sleeves up, and tied their hats around their heads in a bandana fashion. Wood was gathered from the forest that would be behind it; Shadow cut the trees down, himself and Red sliced the wood into planks, and Vio ensured that the trees grew back from the stumps left behind.

Blue was sat upon one of the upper beams of the house, hammering away contently to secure a piece of the wooden frame in place. All was calm until his need to stretch his arm muscles out caused his elbow to hit the bucket of nails behind him and topple over the edge.

"Hey! Watch out!" Blue called to down below.

As the boy in the line of fire, Green spotted the bucket falling toward him, the nails still held within it from how fast it rolled over in the air, and he pushed his arms up to force the bucket back up with the gust of wind that came out of his hands. Underestimating its weight, the bucket fell through the wind and Green quickly gathered up all his strength to keep it hovering just above his head. His hands positioned and his face strained like he had just caught an anvil. Green pushed up with all his might, the bucket of nails slowly making its way higher and higher, he could even feel his muscles about to break the limit.

He couldn't take any more, he knew his arms were about to drop, so Green yelled out, "Take it! Take it! Quick!!"

Blue reached down and grabbed the handle of the bucket just in time as Green's arms collapsed by his sides in exhaustion. He found it so easy to keep off the ground, even by holding the load in just one hand, but his upper-body muscles were finely built-up for his age, "How did that take so much energy out of you, Green? You can carry us no problem."

Green panted in his speech, "I can only carry a few times my own weight at maximum...That thing's gotta be atleast ten times heavier than me..."

The stronger out of the two still pondered a little, so Blue put the bucket of nails back behind him and leapt down to the ground, swiftly landing on his feet. While Green stretched his arms up high above his head, Blue grabbed him from behind and lifted him up; his arms wrapped around Green's chest with his hands resting just below his armpits. Blue smirked as he lifted Green clean off of the ground, "Wow, you are light!"

As soon as he could feel his face turning bright red, Green yelled out, "L-l-let go of me, you bastard!"

The construction of their house was what they worked on from then onwards. It was top of priorities as they had no reason to stop until after it was done. The General even introduced his troops of knights on that first day to help the five boys out as if it was a new mission. The way he instructed the group of knights he had gathered when bringing forward the idea, the General pumped himself up with such an energy that, if those four team-mates were there, they would see where Green got his high-spirited leadership from.

With the selected handful of knights helping out a great deal, the weeks rolled by as the house grew. The knackered five heroes would sleep like logs at night, even though atleast four of them rolled off the bed during the night with Red's teddy bear always staying put on the mattress. This came to such an annoyance to Vio that he seeked help from the General only three nights in.

The tired father opened his bedroom door, "Oh, Vio. What is it?"

He signified with his hand, "Do you have two spare blankets for your bed?"

"Uuh..yeah. In the cupboard over there." He watched as Vio followed where he pointed his finger and dragged the two huge duvets into Green's room, "Why do you need them?"

Vio stopped in the doorway and turned his head to the General, "You know that thumping sound you hear about half-way through the night? Well, that's us and I hate landing on my head every time."

The General watched until Vio closed the door behind him and the explanation made sense in his head, so then he retired back to his own bed.

-- --

What helped greatly in making this home be built so quickly was how everybody helped each other out. When the structure was almost complete and the functions of the home needed to be installed, each of the boys claimed charge of something in their speciality; Blue took control of plumbing, Red arranged the heating, and Shadow was on lighting. The source of this kind of energy for the house came from a storage of their concentrated element powers. Meanwhile, Green and Vio, joined up with some spare knights, gathered rupees from defeated monsters as they knew collecting up furniture wasn't going to be free or cheap.

It only took up to a week from then until the house was finished. It had two floors and was built in the style of a traditional Japanese home; much like Vio's on Strong Will Island, but obviously smaller.

Green dragged his former-resting father from his house after cheerfully commanding him, "Dad! Wake up! Grab the picto-box!" The General ran behind his son to keep up as he was led up to the finished house. Green stopped his dad a fair distance away before running up to his friends who were standing outside the entrance, "OK, Dad! You have to take a pictograph to commemorate this special event! This day marks the birth of our home!"

The General smiled in seeing his son so happy and energetic like this before holding the picto-box to his eyes and calling out, "Smile!"

There the picture was taken of their finely built house and the five of them huddled together in the lower left-hand corner. Green's right arm was outstretched infront of him with his fingers held in the 'V' shape, and his left arm was around Blue's shoulders who stood to the right side of him. Blue also had his right arm around Green's shoulders, and had his left arm stretched out with his fingers in the 'V' shape. Red held himself close to Blue with his right arm locked onto Blue's left, and his left arm stretched out infront of him with his fingers holding the 'V' shape. On the other side of Green stood Vio with his left arm around Green's shoulders, and his right arm stretched out infront of him with his fingers held in the 'V' shape. Next to him, Shadow's arms were hugged around Vio's shoulders with the fingers on his left hand poking out in the 'V' shape.

Several copies of this pictograph were made to be kept in their new house, and with the General, plus Green sent one to his sister and grandmother on Outset Island, Vio sent one to his father on Strong Will Island, and Blue sent one to Ralph at City Ishidukuri.

"It's too bad we can't really live in it yet." Vio said to the others who were all grouped together infront of their house, "Apart from the built-in appliances in the bathroom and kitchen, we have no furniture."

"We'll be all set to live here by dinnertime, Vio! We've gathered so many rupees that we'll have plenty of change to spare!" Green then instructed each of them with their next mission, "Blue, Red. You two get what's needed in the bedroom. Vio, you can get the things needed in the kitchen-oh, and the food! Shadow can get stuff for the living room and I'll get anything extra like stuff for the bathroom. My dad's sending some knights to Hyrule Square to help us deliver the heavy stuff back. Get everything we definitely need first as we can always buy more later. Are we all clear on the plan?"

"Yeah!"

The five of them all made haste to get what they needed for their home, as they had tons of rupees well over what even Tingle would crave for. Red eagerly ran ahead of them after Green told them of Hyrule Square. A short walk south from the town of Hyrule and over the huge bridge above a wide, gentle river was the newly built place of Hyrule Square. This place had a fresh, modern feel to it, much like City Ishidukuri, and consisted mainly of shops; big and small and of every consumer's needs. With the high quality goods of a healthy range of home-owner products, the five heroes' job became very easy so they didn't have to let the knights wait very long.

Green, Blue and Shadow were the first to go back with the knights to help transfer and set up their furniture. Vio still had grocery shopping to do and Blue was informed by Red, "Go on without me if you come out first, OK? This is something I need to take my time with!"

A huge shop by the name of 'FLOCO' caught the boy's eye and, as the closest to the 'woman-of-the-house', Red idolized this place being full of so many kinds of clothes. Taking all the time he wanted, Red couldn't help but try on all that he fancied; that which mainly consisted of t-shirts, short skirts and various ribbons and clips for his hair.

When Red took his several basketfuls of clothes to the till, the young girl a couple years older than him at the counter was quite surprised at first, but Kathryn quickly warmed to him as they shared the same interests. As a young part-timer she wore a collared shirt with a dark, sleeveless jumper and had brown hair tied at the back with a ponytail. She was a very kind girl as she let Red wear the new clothes he was wearing when he had come out of the changing rooms, and she just scanned the labels attached to them. While she continued to scan the rest of the truckload of clothes Red wanted, the boy ran outside to fetch the knight waiting who had been assigned to him.

"Valenzuela!"

The knight turned his head and his face instantly blushed from seeing him in those clothes; red ribbons in his hair, an orange t-shirt barely shadowing his shoulders, buckled shoes, white socks, and a yellow skirt hardly reaching his knees, "U-uh, yes!" Valenzuela had to hide his face with his hand while the reasoning in his head clearly stated, "Be careful! Don't show any signs that you're thinking of him in that way! Although that skirt is very daring.."

"Come on! You need to help us pack! I bought a lot of stuff for the five of us!" Red ordered as he began dragging the man in, who would've been granted with a much more pleasant view of those walking thighs if he was much shorter.

Red spent a lot out of what he was given, as he had to pay several of his silver rupees with only a couple of purple and orange rupees left.

-- --

While the others at home were busy setting things up inside, they were called out as they heard Red coming back, waving at them like he had glorious news. They could see it certainly was something surprising as he held four bags in his arms with Valenzuela running behind him with another four. Blue blushed a lot more than the knight did when he saw those bare legs, all the while his inner-self thanking God for introducing Red to a skirt again. They put the bags down with the others and the exhausted Valenzuela retreated back to his home, where he could think of anything he wanted.

"Red, how come you bought so many clothes?!" The shocked Green asked, "And why are you wearing something different?"

"Because I'm sick of wearing boxers all the time!" He rightly argued back, "Anyway, we can't wear the same thing all the time so I bought somemore contents for our wardrobe! Don't worry, I got stuff that suits each of you!" His explanation, although better with a presentation, continued, "For Green I got colours that blend well with greens and browns which will suit him in a casual look. For Vio I chose cool but soft colours such as various purples with clothing styles that will please his wide audience yet warn them he's hands off except to his boyfriend! For Shadow I picked out various shades which show a neutral and fun look with the use of simple clothing. For Blue-kun, colours that others would see as cold, such as blues and whites, but on him will make him look so strong as I chose clothes that'll greatly compliment his muscles! And for me I bought mostly warm but a variety of colours in a bunch of small, cute clothes!"

As soon as each of them looked at what clothes they had gotten, they all smiled gratefully, "Red, this is so kind of you!" Shadow thanked, "You know each of our tastes so well!"

"Well, I did guess each of our names correctly when I came up with the 'nicknames' idea, remember?"

"Hang on! Something's odd about this!" Flinched Vio, "How come you get four bagfuls and we only get one each?!"

Red picked up his bags, "Because someone like me needs a lot of variety for themselves! Now let's hurry up and put these upstairs! I hope there's enough room!"

Like Vio's home on Strong Will Island, this home shared some of the same basic properties, like the genkan porch which would be the first thing they would step into and take off their shoes out of respect. To the right was the kitchen with all appliances secured round the walls and a kotatsu dining table with the door to the garden at the back of the room. The room on the left was the living room with a heated kotatsu table and shelving and storage units around the room. The door in this room led to the bathroom. Opposite the genkan porch was the airing cupboard with the stairs next to that room's door which led up and around to the bedroom which took up the entire upper-floor. The larger storage units held their more personal items, like clothes, weapons, and things that helped them remember a memory were stood on top of shelving units or on the walls. The floor-space of this room consisted mainly of their huge futon, which would hold six people at maximum.

While the others were downstairs resting in what they had finally completed, Vio was neatening up what he had put in the wardrobe while Shadow was putting up Chibi Ganon's swords up in a cross on a display on the wall next to the window.

When Vio closed the wardrobe door, he looked to Shadow and felt the need to say something, as, apart from the noise downstairs, it had been silent between them two, "It..must have been hard living with someone like Ganondorf. You must be glad that's all over now."

Shadow nodded and smiled, "Yeah..but I do miss him a little.."

"E..eh?!"

"He was a good person once, really. He's the one who taught us how to do everything we needed. He's the one who fed us and took good care of us. It was tough with it being two against one..but he tried his best and he was a really good father. That's what Ganondorf told us when we were going to sleep the night before his craving for power corrupted him...Then from what we witnessed what he did in Hyrule, we became scared of him..but we were good at what he taught us due to how much it was part of his future conquest." Shadow kept on smiling as he looked down to that broken charm he held onto while tied round his neck, "But I'm sure I noticed something the morning after he had fixed this crown onto Chibi Ganon's forehead.."

That morning, Chibi Ganon was the last to walk into that room where they would have breakfast. It was obvious he hadn't noticed the extra weight on his head yet as Shadow presumed he would be panicking about it to his father if he knew what Ganondorf had given him. He just kept staring at it and how Chibi Ganon looked almost identical to his father now. But what freaked Shadow out the most was when Chibi Ganon looked at him and he saw those orange eyes of his. They were just like Ganondorf's; no shine entered them, as if he was one made out of darkness.

The fact of this disturbed him so much that he darted toward his friend and attempted to pull that crown off from his head, "This thing needs to come off, it's bad!" But Chibi Ganon couldn't even question what as he strained in pain.

"Shadow!! Let go!!" Ganondorf quickly grabbed ahold of his arm and broke the boy off his son, "You must never touch that crown! It's for his own protection."

The poor, stunned Chibi Ganon was out of breath as he felt that crown fixed on his head himself. He looked at his dad, all the while his mind questioning, "What was wrong with me before?"

"Most would think he did that to his son due to his greed of making others suffer...But maybe it was a plea. He knew what his fate was, so, like any one of us, he didn't want to die, but wanted to stay with his son. I think he really liked being a father." Shadow then jogged on back down the stairs, "Come on! Let's go see what the others are doing!"

Vio continued to look at where he was previously stood, and then looked up to the two swords on the wall. All through the while he was talking, Shadow had kept a smile on his face. Something pieced together from that in Vio's head; that from his previous experiences and the after-effect of being a shadow, Shadow showed a shy personality which Vio figured to be his most noticeable trait atleast.

Downstairs in the living room, Shadow joined the others where Blue was commending himself of being head-cleaner of the house. Green stretched his arms out while walking into the kitchen, "It's so great that we can finally relax here now-"

Just then, as Vio was coming down the stairs, they heard a thud as Green had collapsed. He sat down by the corner of the entrance to the kitchen while holding onto his stomach, "I..can't move..I feel like I've lost all my energy.."

"Green?" Vio let himself in and crouched down infront of him, "Are you alright?"

"Well.." Green looked down at himself worryingly, "I feel totally empty inside. My stomach's going crazy!"

"Ah, I know."

"What?"

"During the time we were building this house and we had meals at the General's..you were so pumped up and excited about finishing this place that you rushed off and hardly ate any food at all. Your father wasn't very pleased. Because you haven't taken in much energy, you've used it all up that you can't even stand up anymore."

"I..is there anything we can do?"

"You'll be alright, Green. You just need to eat a proper meal." Vio then gave a friendly smirk, "It's a good thing we finished by dinnertime, eh?" Then Vio stood up, put on his pink apron and began preparing the meal for five.

Green smiled, and the smell of food made him crawl his way to the dinner table. Pretty soon the others came in to check he was OK, even though Blue teased him on how surprising it was for Green to not to eat as much as he normally did.

The afternoon quickly rolled on to the evening where they declared themselves beaten by all the hard work they had done and settled down to sleep in their huge, thick futon. Blue and Red slept on the left, Vio and Shadow on the right, and, although he didn't have anyone in his arms, Green was happily content in the middle.

-- --

He slept well thanks to that meal, as Green awoke the next morning with a smile on his face as he sat up and stretched his arms out, "What a great sleep! One of the best I've ever had! I'm so happy I've got this cosy futon to thank for it!" Green then noticed Shadow sitting up next to him, who looked like he had woken up just before he had, "Oh, hey Shadow! Did you sleep well?"

He turned his head and smiled sheepishly, "Uh..yeah.."

"You..look kind of nervous. Are you OK?"

"Uh! Well...I had this dream again.."

Since Vio, Blue and Red were still dead to the world, Green and Shadow decided to talk about it over breakfast.

"You remember back when I attacked Hyrule and I sent everyone to the Dark World.." Shadow began to ashamedly confess, "With your dad..I toyed with him the most...I transformed myself to look like you and appeared beaten up, bleeding at the chest, dead. When he saw me, he ran up to me and held me in his arms. He then cried out to the heavens to save your life in return for his own." Shadow then looked up to Green, "I can't forgive myself unless I apologize to your dad..even if both of you don't forgive me.."

Shadow watched Green's fist tighten, so he prepared himself for what he imagined to be a deserved punch in the face. Green kept his head bowed down as he whispered, "Shadow Link, you bastard.." He then lifted his head up slightly and sniffled so Shadow could see a couple of tears drip off from his cheeks, "I can't believe Dad would do something like that for me..Back then he'd lecture me all the time on how I'm not alone and have allies to fight with. I was so cocky and big-headed..I was a terrible son..But...I'm all he has.." He then wiped his face clean of tears and smiled at him, "I forgive you, Shadow. That wasn't the you we know now back then. Now, let's go visit my dad!"

-- --

As they walked closer and closer to the General's house that morning, Shadow was getting more panicked and nervous while Green kept reassuring him, "Shadow! Just relax! You'll be fine!"

"But what if he doesn't forgive me?"

"But he will, Shadow! Since he was the one who was involved, he must still remember. But he's been nice to you, helped you out while we were building our house, and he's let you eat dinner with him in his own home! Don't you think that's a sign he's already forgiven you? He does know how much you've changed."

"Hmm..that's true. But I still need to apologize to him to satisfy myself."

Before they knew it they had arrived, and Green knocked on the door. The General arrived with a yawn and noticed his son first, "Oh, Green. Morning."

"Morning!" He cheerfully replied, "Shadow has something to tell you." With that he went straight in and headed for the kitchen.

Since the General was looking straight at him now, Shadow hesitated a little until he gulped down his nerves and decided to get it over with. He knelt down on one knee, with his right arm crossed over his chest, and his eyes closed, "I must apologize to you, General. For impersonating your son and making you believe him to be dead, I am sorry. I understand for this to be unforgivable of me.."

It was then he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see the General knelt down infront of him, smiling, "Shadow, it's alright. I forgive you. You know what you did was wrong, and although you carry a lot of regret for that, you don't hesitate to think how others feel because of your actions, and that shows me clearly that you're the holder of light."

After the General stood up and looked back in his house to check why Green was keeping himself occupied in the fridge for so long, Shadow stood back up himself and politely bowed, "Thankyou, I'm glad I got all that off my chest."

"But.." Shadow's head perked up as the General turned back to him, "..There's a lot of other people of Hyrule you need to make up to for what you did. And that could take a long time if some think just apologizing isn't enough."

"Uuh! So what should I do?"

The General's face gleamed a broad smile, "From this day forward I declare you a trainee knight!"

Shadow's face lit up as he saluted to his new general, "Yes, sir!"

-- --

Now they were walking back home, Shadow felt much more relaxed and happy with himself, "This is so great that I'm a trainee knight now! I feel like I'm doing something good for this town by helping protect it!"

"Hmmm..this will be good." Green said, "Now that you're on the team, maybe you can help me be a better trainee knight than before."

"Eh?! I didn't know you were just a trainee!"

"Of course! They wouldn't let kids be full-armoured knights! Being the General's son makes no exception. We're usually sent to patrol the town to stop pirates and thieves. But they might change it since I broke a lot of stuff.."

"Package for Vio!" As they turned to the pathway to their house, they noticed Quill circling the skies, "Package for Vio!!"

He ran out, "That's me! I'm here!"

The package dropped and Vio was surprised to catch a bamboo katana. He set it down on the ground as attached to it was a package, and attached to that was an envelope. The other four boys had come closer to see what Vio had gotten as he pulled out a letter. He smiled as he noticed the symbol of 'Kokoro' in the top right-hand corner, "It's from my dad."

"Vio,

It's good to hear from you and to

know that you're doing well in Hyrule.

It makes me proud of you to see how

much you've accomplished and I know

you'll continue to do so at a hero's

standard. But you must ensure you keep

on training for the Sword of Kokoro with

the katana and uniform I've sent you. I

know you can get cocky during fights so

remember that I'll be training too. I also

want you to remember to light a candle

to your mother each day, so please use

this photo as an aid.

Stay strong,

Your father, Kota."

Vio looked in that envelope again and pulled out the mentioned photograph, at which he almost teared up at looking at, "Mum.."

The photo was taken outside their house, where Miyu was sitting with her young son in her lap, with her husband standing behind her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Is that your mother, Vio?" Red asked, "She's beautiful!"

"Wow, your father looks strong too." Blue added.

Vio turned to him, "Well, I'm gonna get stronger!"

"Not if I beat you to it!" Blue said while showing off one of his biceps.

Now they had and done everything they needed, their lives flowed smoothly in this place they could all call home. Because Jinketsu Green and, what he dubbed his name as, Awai Shadow would work for the castle everyday in their slightly tattered tunics as trainee knights, they would be the ones who would deal with minor threats and attacks to Hyrule or its castle, while all five of them with back-up knights, usually led by the General, would tackle a large group of pirates or monsters deciding to enter the town. Green would continue to entertain his younger fans by showing off his elemental powers, such as controlling his boomerang's path in mid-air, but, with his dubbed name, Harou Blue would compete with him to be idolized by showing off some impressive mid-air water-works. Hibana Red would mysteriously go out to Hyrule Square a number of times each week, only to come back with more clothes for himself or something he would imagine to be a nice ornament for the house. Kokoro Vio would continue to train for his family's tradition, but when he wasn't he would be the one cooking and preparing meals for his family here. Blue claimed to be more of a 'house-wife' than Vio was as he would be the one cleaning and tidying the house in the 'neat-freak' trait that didn't quite match the rest of his personality.

Each of them were happy with the way they led their mostly hassle-free lifestyles. At the beginning of the path that led to their house's door, with the mailbox stood a wooden sign that read 'The House of the Five Heroes'.

END