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Sky tried his hardest to be a genuine and thoughtful person.
Despite the trials he had to endure and the anger he had to smother during his journey to save Zelda, every morning he woke up and decided he would be kind despite it all. That is who he wanted to be and who others saw him as.
Hence, he liked to think he was a genuine and thoughtful person. It isn’t his fault that he has a mischievous streak, and whenever opportunities arose to mess around with his brothers, he couldn’t shake the urge to not prank them.
It had started in that goddess forsaken temple, where they had to walk in a single file line if they wanted to maintain any personal space. They had to project their voices over each other's heads if they wanted to be heard. (Poor Four, who had to project the loudest since his voice was lost amidst the bodies, and he couldn’t quite be heard by the members in the front.)
Perhaps blaming the temple for his eventual scheme was too harsh, perhaps the blame best falls onto the giant spider (Skulltula, Time had provided once his stress-induced-anger had calmed down enough to offer explanations), who had fallen onto their heads when their guards were slightly lowered.
He and Hyrule had both jumped at the need to protect, and they drew their swords when the cursed temple and its narrow passages caused their elbows to knock together.
Sky liked to think his pain tolerance was pretty high (stabbings, lightning strikes, etc.) but hitting your funny bone? Definitely on the top ten worst pains he has experienced.
He was getting side tracked, but the point was Sky began to mull over his dominant right hand. He supposed it did get annoying, sitting next to any of the others (save Wild) during meals would often end in knocking each other's elbows and the awkward smiles and soft apologies that accompanied the action.
Something many people didn’t know was that he was ambidextrous. He never showcased it often, preferring to stick to his dominant hand, but it was a skill he was proud of. He had to train himself for sure, but his boredom in his classes often led to him challenging himself to learn something useful. He had gotten fairly good at it, and he taught himself to write and wield a sword with his left hand, just because it had seemed useful at the time.
Sky mulled over switching to his left hand, he genuinely wanted to benefit the group, and if they could avoid colliding their elbows while fighting side by side, he believed it was a good idea.
So Sky took up his left hand. He was a bit shaky, but after a couple of days he got the hang of it again. He was using utensils and his sword with his left hand, and no one really noticed, but Sky felt proud of the small change, feeling it would benefit them at some point.
What Sky didn’t know was that someone did notice.
Warriors was proud of his observational skills. He noticed all of their small habits, at first out of paranoia, but after getting to know the group of Link’s, he noticed their quirks with fondness, admitting that these people were strange and weird, but he loved them and their oddities.
Warriors and Sky were sitting opposite of each other for dinner, with Hyrule sitting on Sky’s right side. Although neither of them admitted it, Hyrule and Sky subtly tried to avoid standing next to each other after the temple incident. Whether it was because of bruised egos or elbows, he’d never fully know, and he knew both of them would deny it if they were confronted.
It seemed a week was all it took before they were once again sitting pressed together, Sky’s sailcloth draped over the both of them. He smiled fondly at the pair, watching as Sky made some gestures with his right hand and taking a bite of soup with his left.
Wait. Warriors inconspicuously held up his hands, making an L shape with both of them. That was for sure his left hand. He looked back up at Sky, trying to envision himself in Sky’s position. Nope, he wasn't going crazy, Sky was for sure eating with his left hand.
Warriors knew that Sky was right handed. He had acknowledged this when they first met, seeing Sky’s sheath angled in a way where he could grab the sword with his right hand, and he had accounted for this when planning for battles.
He frowned slightly, not liking when the things he knew were facts were being disproved, but settled for asking Sky about it later.
Sky had first watch that night, which was the perfect chance to pry some answers out of their Skyloftian.
The others had settled in (mostly, he knew Legend always tossed and turned for a good while before succumbing to sleep) and approached Sky. The man in question smiled and said, “Hi Wars. Did you need something?” He gestured to the spot next to him, and Wars took it, huddling close to Sky for warmth.
“It was just a question,” he started, stifling a content sigh as Sky tossed the sailcloth over both of their shoulders. It was cold, and the man was practically a heater. Sky hummed in acknowledgement as he did this, and Wars continued, “I thought you were right handed?”
Sky stilled for a moment, before letting out a soft laugh. “I can’t believe anyone noticed!” He sounded slightly incredulous. “I am,” Sky started his explanation, “but after that temple I decided to switch hands so that something like that wouldn’t happen again.”
“You’re ambidextrous?” Wars asked, mouth gaping a little, “So am I!”
“I wonder if any of the others are too,” Sky laughed, “it’s pretty handy, no pun intended. Came in a pinch if I was ever injured and needed to fight with the other hand.”
“See you get it!” Wars gestured out at the space in front of him, using his hands to emphasize his point. “I learned for that exact reason!” He went quiet for a second before adding, “I thought I was going insane when I saw you eating with your left hand.”
They laughed quietly, being mindful of their sleeping companions, and Warrior’s heart swelled looking at his kind and thoughtful brother. Sky was dedicated to the group, and his kindness knew no bounds. He looked up at Sky and his heartfelt musings were cut short by the contemplative smirk on Sky’s face.
Oh no, was his initial thought. He had seen that face on many of his brothers. On Wind when pick-pocketing something of Legend’s and trying to hide his glee when he was successful, on Wild when he figured out a new and insane way to give Twilight even more gray hairs. Seeing it on Sky was disconcerting to say the least.
“Sky?” he prompted, trying to see if there was any way to talk Sky out of whatever schemes he was planning.
“Hey Wars.” His smirk grew, “I think you should try using your right hand again. Make sure that it's still natural to use and all that.”
Wars was about to protest, but then he realized where Sky was coming from. Oh this could be good. He leaned forward and said, “I’m listening, Chosen.”
Hyrule was swinging his legs while sitting on the log they used as a bench. He was trying to patiently wait for breakfast, but Wild was using fruit and his sweet-tooth was making it hard to be patient when it smelled and looked so good. He tried not to stare too much at Wild, not wanting to spook his friend, and settled for focusing on his legs, swinging back and forth in a soothing manner. He was started out of his mindless musings by a hand in his hair.
“Morning Hyrule,” was the barely coherent voice of Warriors. He was yawning, and after his greeting made a beeline to Legend for his morning cup of coffee. It was a testament of how tired Wars was that he poured himself coffee from the percolator without teasing Legend.
He walked back to Hyrule, mug in hand, and sat on his left side. Hyrule perked up at the chance to steal a sip of coffee, something that Legend had forbidden him from drinking. Something about the caffeine and him not mixing well? Whatever that meant.
“Here you go Rulie,” came Wild’s voice, which was accompanied with a bowl of breakfast. Looking at how Wild had painstakingly plated his breakfast made him smile, all thoughts of thievery and disobeying Legend evaporating. He took a first bite and knew that his patience was worth it. Thank the goddesses for Wild.
He was in his own little world, it was just him and the breakfast in front of him, when he was startled out of his thoughts when his elbow collided against something. The pain shocked him, and he looked at the culprit with wide eyes.
“Oh, sorry Rulie, I must be more tired than I thought.” Wars’ sentence was punctuated with a yawn. He gave a half-hearted glare to his companion, and went back to eating, his mood slightly more sour. The pain was inconsequential, he knew, but it was still annoying! He was reminded of the temple, and when he knocked elbows with Sky-
Wait. He knocked elbows with Sky because he was left handed, and Sky was right handed. He looked up to Sky, who was sitting diagonally to him, raising the spoon to his lips with his left hand. He then looked to his left, where Wars sipped his coffee, using his right hand to do so. Was this normal? Hyrule wracked his brain for any recollection of what hand Wars had used, but came up with nothing. Ok, maybe Wars was a right-handed user and he somehow missed it, even though he swore that there were only two right-handed wielders in the group. And he knew that Sky was included in the right-handed group. There was no way the two of them could’ve knocked elbows if Sky was a lefty! It was impossible. Wild and Sky were the two right handed users, so why was Warriors suddenly right handed? He was so confused and felt like tearing out his hair because something was wrong.
Unbeknownst to Hyrule, Warriors hid his smirk behind his coffee cup, and watched as Hyrule began trying and failing to understand what was happening this early in the morning.
Wild handed off the bowls of porridge to his brothers, and took a seat between Sky and Twilight. It was one of his preferred seats, between the two people who exude warmth. If he ever shivered both were quick to shrug off their pelt/sailcloth for him. So he would say that for sure, sitting between Sky and Twilight is one of his favorite spots.
He shoveled his food quickly, Wild enjoyed cooking, especially for others, but having to smell every second while it cooked could be excruciating in the mornings, and he was disrupted by an elbow knocking into his.
He softly groaned, see, this is why he liked to sit between Sky and Twilight, cause when Sky was on his right, and Twilight his left, none of their hands would bump each other with their dominant hands and- wait. Wait a second, he was sitting between Twilight and Sky.
He looked at the offending limb that had knocked into his, and it was Sky’s. Which was odd because he knew that he and Sky were both righties. When everyone else in this group were lefties, he was quick to latch onto the fact that he wasn’t completely isolated as the only right-handed member in the group.
Which in fact was odd, Flora had done some study or other where 9 out of 10 people were right handed. What were the odds of 7 of them being left handed? Was it a hero's spirit thing? But that can’t be right, (hah, right) because Sky was the first of them, and he was right handed. Except maybe not? Was he forgetting something? It wouldn’t be the first time, but forgetting and fabricating memories were completely different things.
“Uhh, Cub?” asked Twilight, “Are you… ok? You kinda zoned out there.” Wild snapped out of his questions and noticed that Twilight’s bowl was empty, and his wasn’t. Huh. He was out of it for longer than he thought.
“I’m fine?” He hadn’t meant for his statement to sound like a question so he added on, “Just thinking.” He glared at Sky, deciding to do some more investigations before enlisting the help of his mentor.
Sky turned to him and smiled serenely, “Well, if you need anything let us know!” Wild narrowed his eyes at Sky, ready to get to the bottom of this.
Time sighed as he eyed the monster camp below them. He knew their jobs was essentially "slay the bad guys," but things always went wrong with this group, and Time would like for once to have an easy day.
“What’s the plan Old Man?” came Wind’s whispered voice at his hip.
“Hmm,” he mused for a second before elaborating, “Captain, do you have any objections to just charging ahead?” He knew for a fact that Warriors would object to his "plan." Which meant Wars would take the charge in creating a new plan. He loved to pawn off his responsibilities onto his older (now little) brother.
“Absolutely not,” Time smirked subtly, letting Wars plot out their next moves. “I’m thinking we have Twilight, Sky and Time as one small group. Keep the left handed swordsmen together. Wild, Legend and I will stay back up here and provide cover, but we will join in if things are beginning to look fraught. Four, Hyrule, and Wind will go around so we can encircle the group. They’ll head out first, and on my signal, the swordsmen group will charge together.”
Legend groaned, none of them (save Wild) particularly enjoyed staying back and using a bow (or magic) instead of charging head on. He then questioned, “Wait, Wars since when did you stay back to use a bow and arrow? Usually that’s Twilight's job.”
Sky spoke up, saying, “Hmm he has a point though, keeping the right handed archers together.”
Warriors raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Sky, who only smiled in return.
“I- what?” Legend sputtered for a second, and Wild and Hyrule’s eyes narrowed at the pair of older heroes. Time’s brow furrowed, trying to remember when he had seen Warriors use his bow and arrow with his right hand. Maybe his memory was getting foggy with old age?
“Well come on now,” Warriors grinned at them toothily, “we have a monster camp to clear out.”
Warriors and Sky were sparring, which wasn’t unusual, however Four could’ve sworn that something was off about their movements. Maybe Vio was overanalyzing, but they almost looked flip-flopped? He couldn’t place it, but something was different and not knowing was giving him a headache.
He turned to Legend, who was sitting next to him observing the fight. “Do they look- off to you?” He knew that Legend was also highly observant, and the way he was glaring at the pair of them led him to believe maybe he wasn’t the only one seeing things.
“Oh, they’re off alright. I’m glad you noticed too. But did you notice when Warriors was making the plan he put Sky in the “left handed” swordsman group? At first I thought Wars was remembering wrong, but look.” he waved his hand at the pair of them fighting, and that’s what it was. Sky was fighting with his left hand.
“Wait, and then Sky said Warriors was a right handed archer, and Wars is wielding the sword with his right hand- that’s why they looked flip flopped!” He yelled, startling Hyrule who was nearby.
Legend nodded with a grin. “I’d say we have a prank on our hands. But how do we retaliate?”
Four turned with a feline grin. “Legend, are you perhaps ambidextrous?”
Sky was pretty content with himself. He had noticed Wild and Hyrule’s despair over breakfast, and the confusion of the others during the Captain’s plan. His prank was working and it was such an easy prank too. The chaos was just beginning to unfold and he was already scheming up ways to mess with the others even more.
His evil plotting was put on pause as Wild handed off their dinner, electing to sit away from Sky, he noticed with amusement. Four was huddled next to him, and he watched Wars and Legend exchange light-hearted quips. He smiled softly, and elected to tune out the argument in order to eat and scheme. He needed to do more than just bump elbows during meals, but what else was there? He’d need to be clever and conniving to pull off his next ideas, he needed to enlist Warriors to help him come up with something good.
Any plans that began to unfold in his mind quickly dissipated when a sharp pain went up his elbow. He glared at Four, who also seemed to be wincing and rubbing his right elbow.
Sky liked to think the past couple of days attuned him to the groups dominant hands, and his eyes narrowed because Four was using his right hand to eat, which was odd. The smithy might’ve been catching on to his plot, which made sense considering Four is one of the most observant in the group.
It seemed their prank was garnering retaliation. Very well, Sky could work with this. He had trained for years for this exact moment. But how best to strike back? It couldn’t be directly at Four, no he needed to target someone else and let the mayhem and confusion spread. Four most likely had something bigger planned than just knocking into his elbow once. Sky needed to act quickly before he was blindsided by Four’s plan.
Four directed an innocent smile at Sky, asking, “Is something wrong?” Sky knew that smile well, and was slightly miffed at having it turned on him. It was the “I’m totally guilty but using a smile to make you doubt yourself” smile that Sky himself had used just this morning. Hmph. No matter, Sky knew Four was anything but innocent.
He elbowed the smith’s side in a pointed manner and said, “Everything is perfect.”
Legend saw the way Sky smiled at Four, and instantly knew the two of them needed to act fast, or the Smithy would be a goner. By the pure dread that Four tried to conceal, he knew it too. Legend turned his gaze to Warriors, deciding it was time to reveal the stupid prank once and for all.
“So, how long did it take for you to use a bow with your right hand? Teaching myself to wield a sword with my right hand was pretty easy, but archery? Knocking an arrow and aiming was painful for the longest time.”
Warriors didn’t seem to take the bait, which was unfortunate considering their plan had consisted on Wars tripping over his story.
“Well, sword fighting came easier to me, but my Zelda was a wonderful bow instructor.” Warriors became defensive, narrowing his eyes at Legend. Damn it of course Warriors, their tactician, wouldn’t fall for it this easily. He supposed just being upfront would have to work.
“Same for me, but I mean, was it hard switching to your non-dominant hand?” He over-enunciated the last part of the sentence, and the rest of the group fell silent, before Hyrule promptly started yelling, “I knew something was up, I knew it! Warriors, you kept knocking my elbow during breakfast and I thought I was going insane! Because in that temple I knocked elbows with Sky and I looked over but Sky was using his left hand which would’ve made it impossible to hit each other! I thought I was remembering something wrong!” He finished his spiel, huffing slightly when Wild took over.
“I thought I was forgetting something!” he exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at Sky. “When I bumped elbows with Sky I thought I somehow forgot he was left handed this whole time! I also thought I was going insane!”
The group dissolved into mutters, some of them noticing something was up, and others not having noticed a single thing.
“Please,” pleaded Wild, “I’m usually all for pranks, but this has become psychologically altering for some of us, please stop it. Sky, you’re right handed and Wars, you’re left handed. Right?”
Wars snorted before responding, “No, not right, left.”
The whole group fell silent at his stupid pun, before Wind and Sky keeled over with laughter. Time let out a hearty laugh, which quickly led to everyone joining in.
As they calmed down, Time took charge and said, “Ok, no more switching hands unless necessary please. Use your dominant hand to help your team members avoid any existential crisis’.”
Sky begrudgingly swapped his spoon to his right hand, and Warriors likewise did the same. It was silent for a moment before Wind promptly yelled, “Time, don't even start, use your left hand or I swear I will make you regret it!"