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by an awesome blossom

Sometimes the difference between real and imaginary is just perception.



Two more chapters left after this...



VI.



With the aid of magic, Sheik had a small fire going in the middle of a small area enclosed by bars. Just beyond the barrier was a river and dock, but to Link's unease there was no gentle sound of water flowing -- only silence, save for the odd noise every so often. It was this noise that kept his shoulders tense and aching.



Link found it unfortunate that he didn't have to concentrate too much on gutting one of several keese he had killed earlier; he had done it so many times before to simply survive. Keese meat wasn't Link's favorite, but it would have to do. "How long do you think we've been in here?"



Shrugging as Link gave him a few more strips of keese meat to cook over the fire, Sheik estimated, "I don't know. Maybe a few days. Why? Is the temple getting to you?"



"A little bit."



"We can always go back to Kakariko if you need to rest and get yourself together," Sheik offered, though the way his voice ran flat revealed that it was not his preferred option.



And neither was it Link's. "I think it's worse to come and go rather than get it all over with. I think Navi and I were in the Water Temple for over a week was it? If I could handle that with her, then I most definitely can handle this with you. Besides," he said with a half-smile, "you're far better company than she was."



Sheik shook his head and remarked, "I don't know how you do it. But then again, I guess that's why you're the legendary Hero... Besides, we should be nearing the end. We just need to find a way to the ferry once it comes back, and, if lore is correct, it should carry us to the heart of the temple. I take it that Impa is on it as we speak which would account for why it's not currently at the dock..."



Link heard none of this, however, as his concentration was elsewhere. He felt a pinch of guilt telling Sheik that he was better company than his fairy companion. To reaffirm that she was still there in his hat, he stopped all movement and concentrated on finding her minute weight in his hat. Once he was satisfied she was still there, he discarded the mutilated body of one keese he worked on in favor of another. "Hey Sheik?" he asked once he found another thought occupied his mind.



"Mm?"



From the fatal wound he began to slowly tear the skin off the dead creature's body, careful not to disturb the meat inside. "What do you think was behind that door?"



Sheik gave him a questioning look and began to ask which door before he realized what Link meant. "...A wall. It was just an illusion of a door, nothing more."



"Well I know you saw a wall, but I saw a door. And I know that it really wasn't a door at all, but c'mon, just humor me here. What do you think it was behind it?"



A few seconds passed before Sheik finally shrugged, as if he gave up. "I don't know. Nothing, I guess. Even pretending that it was a door, it's not on the map so I have no idea how big the area it led to would be."



"I see," Link murmured as if the conclusion he gained from Sheik's answer was disheartening. "Because it's not on the map and the door didn't really exist, it makes to sense to say that there was nothing there. It's...it's kind of like light, isn't it? Without light is no darkness. But in that hallway we were in - you know, that one...there was no light whatsoever. So you couldn't even say it was dark since there wasn't any light. Shadow and darkness can't exist without there being light in the first place. So if there was no light - and therefore no dark or shadow - what do you think there was in that hallway? ...Nothing, right?" He pulled a strip of meet from the bone and handed it off to his companion as his words echoed a voice he didn't care to remember. When Sheik didn't take the meat from him, Link looked up from the keese to find an unhappy companion glaring at him.



"I can't believe you're saying something like that," Sheik murmured as he turned his attention in favor of the small fire.



Utterly confused at the other's shift in mood, Link put aside the keese and gazed at the fire as he tried to figure out what it was he said that could have possibly upset Sheik. It took a few minutes of uncomfortable silence before Link finally figured it out - and when he did, he announced it with an elegant, "Oh shit!" He quickly covered his hand in a mild panic but then removed it just as quick to stumble over an apology. "I mean, I'm sorry, I really didn't mean, you know -- I didn't take into consideration that you're a Sheikah, like, one of the last ones, and that, you know, you guys are considered shadows to the Royal Family and--"



Sheik interrupted the thoughtful apology with a rare chuckle, as if he was amused by Link's discomfort and panic. "I shouldn't be sensitive about my...position, I suppose. I know you didn't have any ill intent with your words, and it's quite alright."



"Oh good! Because, you know, I really didn't mean--"



"I know."



"You do?"



"I said I did, didn't I?"



Instantly Link seemed to relax as he picked the discarded keese back up and pried meat off its bones with bloody fingers. "I don't want you to think I'm some kind of insensitive jerk or anything like that -- or worse, for you to hate me."



"I could never hate you," Sheik admitted as he shook his head and laid cooked strips of meat on a small cloth at his side.



Link had to break a bone in the wing to access a thin sheet of meat. He meant to change the topic and ask Sheik about Bongo Bongo but instead he found himself asking, "Why?"



"Because I love you."



For several seconds Link stared at Sheik with an open mouth, wondering if his ears were liars. His blood seemed to get the message, though, and traveled up to spread thinly across his cheeks while his mind brought up chunks of thought usually only accessed in the safety of dreams. Kakariko Village, innuendo, a steel door. "You do?" his vocal chords produced quite without his permission. Then it seemed as if Link regained control of his senses and he realized that Sheik hadn't so much as looked at him during his momentary unraveling, too busy preparing their meal.



Sheik only nodded in response to the words Link had already forgotten he asked. "For seven years while the Dark Lord raped our homeland, we waited with the dream that you, a young lad Impa and her highness had only briefly known, would return. Prophecy foretold your coming as Savior to this land and we could only hope that you lived up to your destiny, that we hadn't somehow made a mistake. I'd never known such blind faith in someone I hardly even knew before. Then the day came when the Sage of Light permitted you to enter the world again. As we watched you rise up to and exceed the challenge, we weren't disappointed. Impa, the Princess, and I...we prepared for years for you, and since you've come back, you really have lived up to that prophecy. Our blind faith paid off, and here you are, sacrificing time for us...truly the legendary Hero." He bundled several strips of cooked meat in a strip of cloth and handed them to Link with the words, "...How could we not love you?"



The previous blush that died in Link's cheeks resurrected itself again but for a different reason than before. "Never before such...flattery," he murmured disjointedly as he resumed stripping the keese of meat as his thoughts about-faced. So it wasn't like that... At once, Link found himself both disappointed and relieved.



"It is not flattery," Sheik corrected sternly as he gazed steadily at Link. "Do not think your...humanity has gone unnoticed. How you fear and have doubts yet still continue to stop the spread of evil to save this land. You really are a Hero...Link. Even more heroic, perhaps, because you're real..."



Link meant to say thank you and apologize to him -- for everything, maybe. Or perhaps he meant to confess to him about the room with a strange reflection, about Navi, about his shadow. Instead he merely smiled wryly and remarked, "You didn't seem so sure of my ability to cleanse this temple when you first told me about it."



"It wasn't your ability I had doubts in, dear Hero," Sheik answered with an upraised eyebrow veiled by his blond hair. "I simply had a bad feeling about you being in here...and look where we are now."



"Where we are indeed." With that, Link handed the final bit of meat to Sheik to cook before wiping some of the blood on his fingers onto a cloth. As he slipped one of the strips of cooked meat into his mouth, he stared beyond the bars at the seemingly creatural river flowing from the dock. The river, though, was of no concern to him. Instead his thoughts drifted towards the love Sheik spoke of that he, Impa, and the Princess shared for him - the Hero; it reminded him of Saria and the Great Deku Tree. He didn't get the hint that Saria might have harbored feelings for him that were beyond sisterly until he reconsidered Mido's halting words as he guarded the entrance to the Sacred Forest Meadow. It was just as well that Saria turned out to be the Sage of Forest as Link had the feeling that he would be unable to return her affections...



So was that what it was? Another situation like that? Did Link feel for his Sheikah companion the way Saria perhaps did for him, and did Sheik feel only a creator's - or perhaps parent's - love for Link, utterly incapable of feeling anything more for a man?



He was glad - so thankful in fact - that Sheik loved him. Really, the feeling that there were people who supported him that much was great. He was grateful for Saria, Nabooru, Darunia, even Ruto's feelings for him. It seemed like wherever he went he was somehow out of place, so knowing that he was loved, that he did have a place even if it was in emotion only... But he had come to terms with the fact that, as selfish as he thought it may be, he wanted more -- or, rather, something different.



In a way, he felt that he was everyone's. They considered him their hero, and he worked tirelessly to save the land of Hyrule and its inhabitants; he accepted that. It was probably loneliness, however, that drove Link to want someone just for him. Navi...was probably the closest he'd ever find to fulfill that want he had. But she couldn't fill it entirely; she was a fairy, not a fellow Hylian, and, well, not a fellow. Just as Saria had been. Still, even if she wasn't perfect, he still wanted her back. He wanted everyone back, even shadows.



Instead he had Sheik, who was, in theory, exactly what he wanted...



The transition from boy to man had practically been overnight to him, and at first he was simply a confused child in an adult's body, but he learned and matured quickly - he had to. It was from a crash course in coming-of-age that he learned that matters dealing with attraction and want weren't that simple...



Link ran his fingers through his hair and cleared his throat, trying to seem cool and natural, like he hadn't really been thinking about anything at all, as he finally asked, "So, where are we?"



Finishing chewing and swallowing a bit of meat, Sheik eventually answered, not noticing the way Link's fingers tapped nervously against the ground. "We're not too far from being able to properly enter into that room," he gestured. "Knowing this temple, though, the path to it will hardly be straight-forward. After all, we're only able to look at our destination through bars."



The only sound Link made was a discouraged sigh before he tore into the rest of his meat. His nonchalance worked too well because that wasn't what he meant.