About a week after Shadow finally woke up, the door to Vio's room opened to a visitor.

"Hey!" Green called in a harsh whisper, "Shadow!" The patient found this very amusing, as Vio's room is relatively small and it'd be difficult for someone to not be noticed there. He tilted his head to show Green this. The original-colored Link didn't seem to get the hint. "You ready?"

Shadow smirked. He could get used to it here.

"I'm always ready for duty," a mock salute from his propped up position on Vio's bed, "Sir".

Green crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. "We're going to have to work on your insubordination problem." Shadow, apparently, found that hilarious.

"Probably," he laughed, "but won't that be a fun story to tell my grandkids one day?" his smirk grew wider, "now I know I'm not the only one here with a job to do. Best get to it; I'd hate to be your excuse."

Green rolled his eyes and turned to walk out the door.

"You're welcome!" Shadow called after him. The patient's laughter muffled once the door was closed, but Green only let himself chuckle when he was out of earshot.

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks, weirdo." He mumbled under his breath.

Green arrived at the door to the backyard and opened it to the sound of Blue shouting. He felt worryingly used to this. "For the LAST. TIME. IT'S FINE! Now SHUT! UP!" The leader rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Fighting already?" He called, gaining the two Link's attention. "Come on, we've got a little ways to go, and who knows if Shadow's actually gonna keep up his end. Let's hurry up and finish this."

"Okay!" Red cheered, running off to presumably 'hurry up and finish this'.

Blue rolled his shoulders and shot Green a grateful look as he approached him.

"Thank. Goddesses." Blue groaned in relief, "If I had to hear him ask that one more time. He's like a broken record, Green. 'Will he like it?' 'Will he like it?' 'Do you really think he'll like it?'" Green shrugged a shoulder with a smile.

"He's just excited. You were there; he's been working his butt off to get this."

Blue stood for a moment, glancing to where Red was happily working.

"So…" he started uncertainly, "do you think Vio will like it? I hate to get his hopes up for nothing."

"I already told you, Blue." Green started, clapping his teammate on the shoulder, "Red knows what he's doing."

Blue rolled his eyes, "Whatever. I still trust him about as far as Shadow can throw him."

"Sick jokes? Really?" His tone was condescending, but the corner of Green's mouth lifted in amusement.

"He's fine. The rule is no sick jokes unless they're fine."

"Tell that to Vio."

"Fuck that. I like my ears too much to get them talked off."

"Yep," Green chuckled, leaving to join Red, "that's what I thought."

Shadow was, despite Green's doubts, trying his best to do his part. He'd kept Vio from walking away for Farore knows how long (it's hard to tell the time when it's too dark to see a clock or the sun), but he could only keep his old pal preoccupied for so long. He hoped they would hurry up.

The black-clothed Link guessed it was about an hour after thinking that when the charade started slipping.

"What is going on with you?" Vio finally asked. Slight irritation seeped into his voice as he turned away from his door again to deal with Shadow.

"You mean other than the erratic health dips, muscle atrophy, possible nerve damage from the coma thing, my quote, unquote 'insubordination issues'... should I keep going?"

"So, a visit from Green, then," Vio guessed. Sighing, he sank into the chair beside the bed again, "Don't worry about him, Shadow. He'll warm up to you." The bedridden Link rolled his eyes.

"Calm down, Doctor Psychologist," Vio huffed a laugh, "I'm not worried. The old Shadow Realm charm gets everyone sooner or later." He waggled his eyebrows at Vio.

The calm teen resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he searched his teammate's face, thinking.

"You know," he started, testing the waters, "you're going to have to tell us about that place sometime."

Shadow's smirk faded a little. He shrugged out an, "I know. Just… not right now, right?"

Vio smiled sympathetically, "not right now."

A few knocks at the bedroom door made Vio start. Shadow hid his smirk and laughter behind his hand.

"Hey, Vio?" Green called through the door, "Can I come in?"

The calm Link moved to open the door and stepped aside to let Green through. The grass-colored Link nodded a hello to Shadow before turning his back on him to face Vio.

"There's a situation in the backyard," he began. He held up a thumbs-up behind his back to the patient, who tried to hide his sly smile. "I need you to come take a look." Shadow faked a disappointed interjection.

"Looks like our session's up, Doctor," he jeered. This earned an eye-roll from the purple-clothed Link and a strange look from Green. He ignored both. "More important matters seem to have come up."

Vio nodded an assent. "Alright, lead the way," he told Green, allowing the leader to leave before him, Shadow shouted after them.

"Knock 'em dead! Kisses!"

Green gave Vio an incredulous look.

"You get used to it," the wise Link reassured his teammate.

"I sure hope so. He keeps saying things about some charm and to be honest, it's a little creepy." Green shivered; Vio chuckled.

The pair walked across the house together in silence. Green tried his best to hide his excitement as a favor to Red. Him acting excited might end up spoiling the surprise after all. The walk to the backdoor never seemed longer.

When they reached the door outside, the classic-clothed Link went to open it. His teammate stopped him.

Vio's voice held a knowing tone as he said, "It's a little odd that you haven't explained anything about this 'situation'. Should I be worried?"

Green smiled. "That," he paused, "you might have to figure out for yourself." Vio nodded and let him open the door.

In place of the forest that one would usually see behind the Links' place of residence, Vio walked out to a surprisingly large wooden pirate ship playground. From what Vio could see, there were swings on the ground beside the ship, climbing net "riggings" which led to a Crow's nest slide (that had to be even higher than the house), and, if the square holes in the side were windows, a room on the inside which presumably held even more.

"Surprise!" Red called from the top of the Crow's nest. Blue waved once from where he was leaning against the side of the ship as Red pulled himself down the slide.

Apparently, it ended on the side of the ship not facing Vio, because Red came running around the playground, sliding to a stop in front of the amethyst-themed teen. Blue pushed away from the wall and walked over shortly after.

"Wh-" Vio began. His eyebrows furrowed as he took in the scene in front of him, completely baffled, "what the… is-"

"It's a playground." Green filled in, coming to a stop at Vio's side. "Red saw an ad for it in town, and he's been saving up for months to afford it."

"Isn't it awesome?!" Red asked, a gleam in his eyes.

"It…" Vio trailed off, glancing to Green for help. The leader had a smile on his face but a warning in his eyes. Blue's expression, of course, was even less helpful. Vio's gaze turned back to the shortest teammate.

Red's beaming smile began to falter, the gleam in his eyes becoming worried.

"It's... awesome," the clever Link finished unsurely. Red Link brightened, giving Vio the courage to tack on, "I didn't even know they made things like it. It's… would you mind giving a tour?"

"Of course not!" Red whooped, grabbing Vio's hand to lead him towards the playground. Green watched them walk away. Red chattering away happily at the taller teammate as he pointed to different features.

"Well," Blue commented once they were out of earshot, "that was a disaster."

"What do you mean?" Green asked. The emotional Link gave him a disbelieving look.

"He hated it, Green. Did you see his face?"

"He was surprised! You know how Vio is, he can't just automatically love something. He has to warm up to it."

They paused, watching Red and Vio disappear around the ship.

"Besides," Green continued, "did you see that?" He got a weird look for his effort. "Blue, come on. A month ago, he couldn't guess that Red was getting worried. He's getting better. And isn't it great that with all that's happened, things like this can still happen?" The corner of Blue's mouth twitched upwards.

"Well then, asshole. You get to build the giant-ass playset next time." Green scoffed in disbelief.

"I cleared the lawn. We're even and you know it."

-[Author's Note]-

I want to thank everyone who stuck with me through this. I know the posting was sporadic, and it means so much to me all the favorites and follows this story got anyway. Thank you all so much. This was fun to write to the last.

And if you like the series (according to AO3 it's a series at least. I'm calling it "Legends Live On" for some reason) so far, let's just say... stay tuned. ;)