There is no place that feels less alive, Shadow mused, than the waiting room of a hospital. Vio smirked in the metal chair to Shadow’s left and Shadow smirked in reply.
Green sat with Zelda in a corner of the waiting room. A plant, tall and leafy with life, stood in the exact corner to Zelda’s left and Green’s right. When the Links were comforting Red, she had been talking to the doctor who would perform the operation, meeting up with them in Red’s room shortly before they were told to leave. Since it was later in the day, other patients’ friends and relatives sat scattered around the room.
Blue sat in the exact middle of the waiting room. The surrounding people looked at their sapphire hero with pity and understanding. Red had never entered town without him, and he never entered town without Red. Until today. Today, Red was only with him in thought as he braced himself from their stares. It filled their hearts with sadness, and this filled him with his age-old comforting, familiar anger.
How dare they pretend that they understand? he thought, purposefully neglecting the fact that they themselves were waiting to see their own friends and family of various injury or sickness. Vio looked over at Blue and shook his head.
“What?” Shadow asked curiously as he looked between Vio and Blue.
“Just an idiot’s fascinating way of blocking out the inconvenient facts,” he responded. Shadow frowned.
“What? Did Blue say something that I didn’t hear? That doesn’t happen very often.” Vio’s head turned to Shadow, a bored, if impatient, look on his face.
“Blue’s thoughts are easy to decipher if you look at his facial expression. He’s very simple-minded and likes to wear his hearts on his sleeves. He’s not like Green who, as you know, has much more complex thoughts and emotions. With Green, even if I can tell things like whether or not he’s worried or, like before, wants to speak with me, it’s a lot harder to guess what he’s specifically thinking of,” he responded.
“I know,” Shadow rolled his eyes and leaned back in the uncomfortable, monotonous waiting room chair, “I’m saying it’s odd that I didn’t catch what he was thinking.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry, I’m not used to another person being in-tune with the other Links’ thoughts.”
A pause.
“Do you think we should go sit with Blue?” Shadow leaned forward to look at their companion. “’Cause he looks like he’s about to punch someone in mourning.”
Vio turned at Shadow’s words to see Blue clenching and unclenching his fists as a tear-streaked teenage boy began to walk towards him.
Faster than an arrow, Vio was kneeling in front of Blue and before another arrow could be notched, Shadow was standing beside the two, talking with the teenager.
“Blue, you need to calm down.”
“How can I be calm? Everyone keeps looking at me like I’M the one who got injured, like I’M the one who needs help.”
“Well, anger management courses couldn’t hurt.”
“I hate you.”
“Good,” Vio put his hands on Blue’s shoulders, “focus on that.”
“Why are you even over here?”
“Because Shadow pointed out that your temper was about to flare in a room full of scared, hurting individuals, and that is the last thing we need.” Blue opened his mouth to talk. “No, listen to me before you reply. I know you believe that you can’t emotionally wound yourself, but you’re wrong, and I know you know you’re wrong. This whole time you’ve been worried that Red is scared and alone and you’ve been killing yourself over letting him be hurt, but I can promise you that’s not how Red sees it.” Blue looked at Vio’s powder blue eyes. He was silent for a minute as he searched his mind for a response.
“Remember when Red first got the playground?” He began.
“Of course I do.”
“Do you know why he got the playground?”
“Because he wanted a place for us to feel like we could play without actually competing, right?”
Blue skipped a beat. “Not really. That’s another thing, but that’s not the main reason why he got it.” Vio raised his eyebrow. “Red was so sad after you began taking those pills.” The listener’s face darkened. “Yeah, I know. You don’t like talking about them, but Red can’t ignore their existence as well as you can. Anyway, he felt like it was his fault. He felt like if he had been less of a nuisance to you, if he’d helped you with treating Shadow more often, then you wouldn’t need medicine. He asked me how he could help, and I told him “You know Vio, he just needs a place to sort things out. A place where he can think without judgment.”” Vio’s eyes softened at how bad Red must’ve felt. Going to Blue for advice meant that Green hadn’t been able to help him before. “That’s when he found an advertisement in town about the pirate ship playground. Green and I had our doubts, especially about,” Blue cleared his throat and looked to his left, “its height, but Red was sure that it’d be perfect. That’s why Shadow donated so much money towards it. I’ll never remember the look on his face one day as I asked him if there wasn’t something else he could do to help, since he actually lost sleep to babysit to help raise money. Red looked at me and said ‘Blue, this isn’t just for Vio. Our house is only that, a house. We all need someplace to go when things look bad. That’s why when I get the playground, I’m going to paint everyone’s favorite thing their favorite color. It can give them a place to go when they’re sad.’ Then he smiled and said, ‘Who knows? Maybe it’ll help us connect as brothers of another color.’ I had to tell him why he needed to stop saying that when referring to us.” Blue smiled, still looking at the door to his left that led to the hallways with rows and rows of patients.
“Do you know why I’m telling you this?” Vio shook his head. “Because what he said, about giving people a place to go when they feel sad, didn’t really register until all this happened. I mean, when he asked me, I was just repeating what the doctor told me, but now I think I understand what that really meant.” Blue chuckled half-heartedly, “I guess the playground was a good idea after all.”
