N

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by an awesome blossom

Sometimes the difference between real and imaginary is just perception.



The longer the wait, the sweeter the result, right? ...Right?



P.S. yaoi again (and I mean it this time).



VII.



Light notes, each one shining like a star in the sky, sank into darkness with an eerie stillness as Link's lips parted from the cool ocarina. After playing that song, he was more than ever reminded of his duty in this temple and his promised meeting with the princess afterwards. He put the Ocarina of Time away and wondered if Sheik would think him too strange if he took off his hat and cried over his best friend. Instead, the thought was immediately cast aside as he felt the vessel they stood upon move, drifting down a supernatural current with a destination at the heart of darkness - nothingness, maybe.



Sheik sighed and took a seat on the wooden deck beside the engraved Triforce symbol. "I am not sure how long of a voyage we're in for, but judging from how long the ferry was missing it will probably be a while."



"Is it okay then to just sit and relax? It seems rather strange, doesn't it?"



"Well, if I see anything strange, I will let you know, Hero," Sheik assured with a smirk as Link sat with outward reluctance on the other side of the Triforce symbol, his scabbard and shield clanging. "But then again, I'm not sure how long we will be able to see... We are, after all, heading off into the heart of this temple's darkness."



Link shot his companion a sharp look. "So it's going to be like those hallways pretty soon, then? Pitch black but instead of the comfort of a narrow space we'll have a wide area? Sounds great! Can't wait for it..."



"Don't worry, Hero. If anything comes to grab you in the dark, I'll protect you."



"Hey, hey now!" Link laughed suddenly as he removed his shield and placed it by his right side for ready access. "I'm the Hero! I'm supposed to be protecting you!"



Stretching his legs out, Sheik looked up at the drab, passing ceiling and the walls lined with stone after stone. "Will you still be a hero in the dark?" he asked.



A smile was set on his lips, but it didn't reach his eyes. Would he still be a hero in the dark? Perhaps the shadow was the real hero.



"You know," Sheik continued, missing how his companion was utterly panicking inside, "you can always hold my hand if you get too scared."



At once the Hero returned to the present. "What if I'm not scared?" he countered, his meaning slightly different than he portrayed.



"Then you're not scared."



Link would have smiled if he knew they were on the same page. "So," he began as his mind went through several tangents unknown to Sheik, "those seven years. How were they? I never got a chance to ask anyone but random villagers in Kakariko."



"Ah, but those random villagers are really the only ones left. I am sure you know how it was," Sheik murmured as his voice took on a softer tone. He traced the outline of Wisdom's portion of the Triforce symbol beside him. "...Hell."



"I mean, like...you. How was it for you? What did you do? What sort of things happened?"



Drawing a knee up to his chest and letting the other curl up against him, he sighed and admitted, "I am sure that...so many things happened, but I cannot recall them all. I don't think I really want to, either. It was a time where nothing of interest really occurred, but when it did... You know, this is not something I care to talk about right now..."



"Sorry," Link murmured as he unhooked his scabbard from his back and laid it to his left on the Triforce. "I mean, I didn't really mean to...you know."



He shook his head. "I can see how you would be curious about those seven years, but they are the past now. This is the present, and you are the future."



Link's uncomfortable laughter came in soft breaths as a corner of his lips turned up. "I'm Hyrule's one and only hope, yeah, yeah, yeah. No pressure, right?"



"None at all," Sheik smirked as he crossed his legs and faced towards Link. "So what about you. What were the temples like? What did you do in between them?"



"Oh don't tell me you don't know! After all, you were always one step ahead of me."



"I knew nothing beyond my own duty which was to secure the locations of the temples and guide you to them."



In an exaggerated sigh, Link mirrored his Sheikah companion's pose. "Well then, I guess I should tell you. Suddenly finding out that seven years had passed when it only seemed like seven minutes had passed for me sucked. Having to awkwardly go through the Forest Temple and almost getting myself killed several times because I couldn't really adjust to my body sucked. Taking a few days to at least try to get used to my body in Kakariko Village was actually not that bad but it still sucked. And so did finding out had I not spent those days in Kakariko I could have saved the lives of a few Gorons who were fed to a fire-breathing dragon that inhabited a god'awful hole in the earth...which, by the way, sucked."



"And let me guess," Sheik rolled his eyes as he held up a finger to interrupt, "the Water Temple 'sucked', too?"



"Sucked hard," the Hero of Time smiled as he touched his finger to Sheik's. "The Spirit Temple actually wasn't that bad, though, except for those old hags."



Sheik kept their fingers connected as he led them to draw lazy figure eights in the air. "And this temple...?"



"One of my better experiences," Link murmured as he splayed his hand, and the Sheikah followed suit.



"So," Sheik said slowly as he kept his eyes on his fingertips touching Link's, "what happened in Kakariko? When you took time out to get used to your body, I mean. What did you do?"



Link inhaled as if he was about to say something, but his voice was late in coming. Eventually he exhaled and started again. "I was really banged up and confused as to what was happening, like I didn't understand a thing of how my body worked and why. I wish I'd asked Rauru when I had the chance. I mean, I still had the mind of a ten-year-old little boy. I just figured, hey...I was big, you know? But...my body and mind didn't quite match up."



"Girls still had cooties, eh?" Sheik murmured with warmth evident in his voice and eyes, but it was detached.



A curious chuckle was all he received in response as Link continued, "Mainly, I just practiced with my sword and the bow and arrows before I felt I was ready enough to go up Death Mountain... But I did talk to a lot of the villagers, trying to piece together what had happened - what was happening with me, really." His cheeks reddened as he started laughing embarrassedly. "I didn't tell anyone about Princess Zelda and the Master Sword, but I told them that the last thing I remember was seven years ago and I didn't know how I got where I was and everything. The tavern maiden figured I must have had amnesia and took pity on me. I didn't even have to pay to have a room to stay in for a while which was great because I was dirt poor... I felt so bad, like I was deceiving them all or something."



"I am very pleased that the citizens of Kakariko continued the hospitality towards those in need that Impa started," Sheik remarked, absently noting that their fingertips ceased to be connected, and instead their knuckles rested against one another.



"Yeah, I'm really grateful to them. I lost a lot of sleep after I found out that I could have prevented those Gorons from being eaten, but then again if I hadn't taken the time out to practice moving in my body, would I have gotten myself killed? But anyway, that's...that's not what I meant to tell you," he admitted as he took a few seconds to glance around at the surroundings before he noticed something on the walls. "Hey, it's those skull paintings again."



Sheik looked over both his and Link's shoulder, examining the paintings as they passed by. "I didn't expect that there would be a gallery here, too. The same paintings are on both sides."



"I guess to give you something to look at while you're riding the ferry, right?"



Nodding, Sheik murmured, "I suppose. We're coming up to Impa's spot in the line, so we'll be able to see if she is still alive."



"...Is she?"



"Patience!" he chided, and after a few moments he announced, "Her portrait was not painted and they are all blank now."



"Why are there so many?" Link asked as he watched portraits with nothing painted pass by every few yards.



Shaking his head, Sheik stared at each of the empty portraits in intense concentration. "I do not know. Impa's spot in the gallery was supposed to be the last since she is the last in the line. Why there are still so many, though..."



"Well what about you?" Link asked as he moved so that Sheik only stared at him. "Impa can't be the last of the line because you're here, too. Perhaps there was just no more room in the gallery and all the rest of the portraits of future deceased Sheikah are here?"



"Yeah," he murmured as he broke his gaze away from Link and down to where their hands rested against each other, "yeah, that is...probably it." He didn't sound very convinced to Link, though, but he changed the topic in a distraction from the portraits. "So what were you going to tell me?" he continued.



For a few seconds Link looked rather lost and confused before he finally figured out what Sheik meant. "Oh! Um...oh. Yeah. About that time in Kakariko." He hesitated before continuing. "A lot of the villagers were helpful and, well, told me more than I wanted to know at the time about being practically grown up like I was. But it was just my body that was grown; I still felt like a kid. There was this old man who was really helpful. We started talking, and he told me that becoming an adult isn't a gradual thing. Sure, you can mentally mature from childhood to adulthood and that's pretty gradual, but becoming an adult? Something happens that tests yourself, he said, and you become an adult overnight. You know, I'm probably not even explaining it right. At the time I had no idea what he was talking about, but it was the night after... There was this guy I'd never seen before."



Sheik waited a few more moments, thinking that Link was simply pausing to gather his thoughts, before realized the Hero had clammed up. "Go on."



"You know, now that I think of it, it's a really stupid story, and it doesn't really even make sense. I don't know why I'm bothering you with it..."



Leaning forward until they were inches apart, Sheik murmured, "You're not bothering me. I asked you about what you did in Kakariko, and I am still interested in hearing the story. ...So you met this guy?"



"...Yeah."



A few seconds passed before Sheik prodded again, "And?"



"And I'm gay?"



The moments that passed after in a strange silence were nearly maddening to Link. He wanted his partner to have some sort of response, good or bad. Absolute nothing was the worst, especially when he somewhat found the guts to share who he was.

And why did he so want Sheik to know, anyway? Was it a subtle hint that he wanted something more with the Sheikah, or was it because he honestly thought he was going to die very soon? Or maybe it was just because he knew Sheik loved him and Link had been keeping things in for far too long. As he began to count the seconds that passed, he figured it was the last one.

"You're every bit of the Hero of Time as you should be."

Upon hearing Sheik's eventual words, the tips of Link's ears heated and he rubbed his face in both embarrassment and frustration. "Why, because the Hero of Time is to live loveless and alone?" He didn't mean to say that, and he certainly didn't mean for his voice to take that agonizingly bitter tone. As he saw Sheik narrow his eyes at him, he thought that maybe he should have given up speaking for good and become mute. Could he still get by without words? ...Yeah, he could still get by, he thought.

"No, because it takes a lot of courage to say something like that, even if it is reluctant courage," Sheik countered sharply. Then as it appeared that Link was considering his words, he added in a softer tone, "But being the Hero of Time does not mean that you have to be alone, and certainly not loveless."

Link almost blurted out that everyone he cared about seemed to leave except...well, even he would leave as well, but for once he decided to think about his response. The more he thought, though, the more a blind panic rose in the back of his head and he found that he was having trouble containing words. "I wasn't alone the whole time."

"You had Navi."

"I have Navi. But...but even then I wasn't alone."

Sheik nodded slightly as he noted how dim the light was getting. "There was that woman in the Spirit Temple you told me about."

"Yes, but as soon as we met those witches took her away. I'm, I'm talking...getting to the desert. There was something I followed, and Navi, she wasn't..." Link wasn't quite sure what he was saying or what he had to say. He didn't want to say any of it, though. Quickly he pulled his hat off and gently placed his dull fairy in his hands. She hadn't changed since the last time he checked up on her, and Link didn't know whether to be worried or relieved at that. At once, his world was reduced to just the two of them, as it always was, and he turned her slightly to check on her injured wings from when --

Well, he thought they were injured. They had been injured. Her wings were held between two foreign hands as they pulled when --

-- and then fairy blood, the first he had ever seen of it --

But then there wasn't.

"Your wings," Link murmured as he kept turning her over, like the scars would miraculously come back if he just did it again.

"Is she hurt?" a single voice asked somewhere to his left, and when he felt something touch his hand, his world expanded to Sheik.

As Link turned Navi over to the Sheikah for further examination, he said softly, "I thought that... Maybe it's the light. I can't see very well in this."

"She appears to be just fine," Sheik announced after several seconds as he placed the fairy back in her partner's caring hands. "Well, as fine as she can be in this state, that is."

"There was no, no tear? Where her wings meet her body?"

"No tear. Did you think that there was?"

Link put his fairy back inside her home, but instead of putting his hat back on, he set it aside. He scratched his head in its absence. "I guess...my eyes were playing tricks on me."

"I do not know what the extent of the Shadow Temple's power is over the seen and the unseen," Sheik reassured as he felt somehow that something had happened to Link and Navi, "but it is very well possible that it was an illusion."

"Yeah," Link said quickly, "that's... Yeah, that's probably what it was. Maybe I've just been at this too long."

Giving him a soft smile that was evident only in his eyes, Sheik began, "I noticed...that you do not seem to rest very well. With all the activity and stress you have to go through, I am quite surprised that you have not begun to hallucinate."

Link knew that Sheik meant his words to be calming, sympathetic, and light, but instead they only frightened him. In spite of the muted wave of terror that crashed through his thoughts, he laughed. "Mmmaybe. Maybe I've been hallucinating this entire time. Maybe you're not even real."

Sheik laughed but it felt distorted to the hero. "Maybe," he answered as his hand lazily crossed the emblem of the Triforce to touch Link's fingers, "but then again, there is no doubt that I'm here right now."

The contact between them felt good, and Link's hand embraced the touch as he looked down to watch their fingers interlock. In a way, it was very comforting to have a physical anchor; like everything actually was real and that he never hallucinated. "Something happened in the Water Temple," Link began, and he looked up to see Sheik watch him intensely. The feeling was discomforting and made his words clumsy and confused as he continued. "There was this room with shallow water. Really...endless. Fog, barred doors, and a tree. Just, you know," he laughed nervously, "a tree. It wasn't very big, and I think it was barren. But it was still a tree. Just in the middle of a room in the temple...a tree.... But it wasn't the weirdest thing! There were...reflections. I had a reflection. ...Well, no, I take that back. I had no reflection. Instead there was..." He paused. "Sheik?"

It took Link a couple of seconds to realize that Sheik wasn't staring at him, but over his shoulder. Nervously, he looked on the walls that passed (or, more accurately, that the ferry passed) and saw the same skeleton portrait he always saw. He put his hand on Sheik's shoulder and that seemed to snap him out of it. "Is it...Impa?"

Shaking his head, Sheik then shifted through many expressions as he tried to figure out exactly what to say. His indecision was unnerving.

Link felt goose bumps travel up his arms and down his back. Impatiently he asked, "What is it?"

"You," came Sheik's abrupt response. "But then again, it...isn't. You but not. That...hardly makes sense, though."

Heart beating loudly, Link swallowed only to find his throat dry. It made perfect sense to him, but he couldn't figure out for the life of him what it meant. "Um, did you hear what I said at all with the Water Temple?"

Sheik's face beneath the mask flushed a little. "I, I really am terribly sorry about that. I heard not a word, actually, but...please understand my surprise...?"

Link laughed, and at once he was relieved that Sheik never heard, and nor would he ever hear thanks to the "hero's" lack of nerve, the start of a confession. "It was nothing important." He didn't need to tell him that, and he didn't need to know that. His fingers reminded him of what he did need, though. "So...it's okay?" he asked.

"Is...what okay?" Sheik asked as he still seemed out of it.

"Me being, you know, uh...gay."

At first Sheik looked surprised that he would even ask that, and then he chuckled. "Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?"

A sheepish grin flitted across his lips. "I don't know. I know some people are kind of weird about that sort of thing."

"Well, I can quite honestly say that I am not 'kind of weird'."

"But you are kind of weird," Link quipped, though he wasn't sure Sheik could see the grin on his face through the near-darkness.

He heard Sheik chuckle again. "Well, maybe I am a bit weird, but not about you being gay.

Link nodded and admitted, "Good...because I don't think I could stand it if you of all people, I don't know, hated me or something for it."

"Why?" he asked stiffly, yet his thumb traced over Link's, but he loosened a bit as he surprised himself. "Are you attracted to me? I won't blame you if you are."

At once, Link laughed from hearing those words uttered from his stoic Sheik. It took all he could to keep from telling his partner that yes, yes he was, and that his form-fitting outfit greatly helped in realizing that he liked guys.



His face flushed, and he broke the contact between them to reach up and scratch idly at his neck. Link didn't know whether to answer the question truthfully or in the form of a joke, so instead he opted for silence. To perhaps fill the void with something with a semblance of meaning, though, he inched closer to Sheik over the Triforce emblem. Had it not been so dark and he was able to see what he was doing, maybe he would have laughed to discover that he was sitting on the Triforce of Courage.

And maybe he should have laughed or cried or laughed and then cried when he felt Sheik shift towards him over the Triforce of Wisdom. As it was, though, his throat grew increasingly parched as his palms turned clammy. Link tried to convince himself that it was for nothing, really. There was no reason to feel that way. He and Sheik were simply sitting beside each other, and nothing more.

...Until it became something more.

Link set his hand down only to have it brush against Sheik's back in the dark, and it was because the fabric felt interesting that his fingertips stayed instead of immediately retreating upon contact. He heard the shifting of fabric and felt a wrapped hand accidentally touch against his outer thigh before resting alongside it against the wooden deck. Maybe it was the fact that pleasant physical contact was so rare for him that made him lean to the touch - lean to Sheik - though without his sight he was fearful of how close he might have been. When he felt the warm proximity of Sheik's body indicating that he was closer to him than two non-romantic males like them should have been, he couldn't decide if he was too close or not close enough.

"Link?"

This one word was all it took to make his heart beat fast and hard well into his ears, and had he not been consumed by a sudden panic and fear of rejection he might have wondered if even Sheik could hear his heart beat. As it was, he immediately withdrew all contact. "Sorry! I didn't mean to--"

"No!" Sheik exclaimed in muted panic at the loss of contact, and in retrospect the two might have laughed at their awkwardness. "I mean, I'm not --"

"Sorry!"

"N-no."

"I'm really sor--"

"Shut up!" Sheik's voice caught a rising tone, and he blindly reached out to catch Link's shoulders. "I'm not..."

"Sorry!"

Gripping at the bone on the hero's shoulders, Sheik pulled Link towards him and exclaimed in a tone that suggested a sort of finality, "I am."

Had there not been such an oppressive darkness, the two might have looked at their flushed, panicked faces and laughed so hard that they would need each other for support. Instead, Link could only look straight forward into nothingness and feel the hands on his shoulders nervously shake. "What are you?" he asked tentatively at such a volume that at first he wasn't sure his partner could hear him over the clattering of his own heart.

"That...that doesn't matter," Sheik murmured in a shakiness that reflected his grip.

Swallowing proved difficult for Link with an overwhelming knot in his throat. Perhaps his heart would have slowed down had Sheik outright rejected him. "But whatever it is, you are."

"It's not what I am," the Sheikah muttered weakly as his fingers spread against the worn fabric of the tunic, "but what I want."

Link raised a hand up to take the one on his shoulder catching a bone in a strange way into his. "And," he asked quietly as the air became harder to breathe, "what is that?"

"You."

It was such a simple word, but for Link it felt as if it was gravity itself, and he thought that his body might shut down as he leaned in. He lifted Sheik's other hand from his shoulder and held his hands in between his own, concentrating on the feel of the frayed wrappings. "Why?" he found himself asking, and his thoughts turned to Saria and the princess. Why did anybody want anybody else? Because they like them? Or maybe because they need them.

"Do you have to ask?" Sheik asked in a dying chuckle. "I told you before that I love you, and..."

"And?" Link asked as he felt the two of them lean forward, and when Sheik's cowl brushed against his lips, he quickly discovered that he didn't care about the difference between like and need.

The fabric gave way beneath Link's parted lips as Sheik pulled it down to expose his face to the potential warmth of another being. "And," he murmured as he was acutely aware of how close the other was, "you're the one thing of mine she can never have..."

Then they kissed.

It was shy at first, and Link thought for a moment that he was dreaming. He had never even so much as seen Sheik's face and there he was kissing it, kissing Sheik. He was kissing Sheik. Kissing Sheik. Kissing

"Sheik..." he murmured as their lips softly moved against one another, savoring the simple knowledge of each other. The contact made his lips tingle in a way he couldn't believe he had forgotten. He rested an idle hand on the back of the other's head, his fingertips running over the fabric of the wrappings as his tongue flicked out gently to the corner of Sheik's lips.

Deftly Sheik caught Link's lower lip between his own and sucked on it briefly before running his tongue across. When he heard a soft sigh from the other, he smiled and kissed him full on, wrapping his arms around Link's neck. It felt only natural for them to come closer together as if the contact of their lips was a magnet pulling them in. Sheik supposed that was how he found himself practically on Link's lap.

...Not that he or his lap minded in the slightest. In fact, as far as Link was considered, this new positioning was a great success. Sheik straddled him in such a way that if he was only just a bit closer... Well, that would be pretty nice and hopefully not too far off in the immediate future. Still, his proximity made Link's groin tingle and light up with a fire that traveled through his spine to his lips. He parted his mouth slightly and was not at all displeased when Sheik slid his tongue in only to pull it out a few electric seconds later. Through the darkness Link could only imagine the sly smirk that must have shaped his lips.



Sheik leaned forward to suck on Link's bottom lip once more when he felt Link's parted lips suddenly against his, his tongue snaking out to trace between them. After a few seconds of sensation that left him pointlessly closing his eyes in the darkness to savor the touch, Sheik finally parted his lips fully, and almost at once he felt Link's tongue inside. He thought that maybe he felt shallow convulsions within himself but he couldn't tell against the overwhelming heat in his mouth. That awesome tongue of Link's, threatening to consume him...



Link pulled him closer, and the Sheikah's lithe body seemed to almost meld with his, but it still wasn't close enough. Their tongues stroked and wrapped around each other so much that he wasn't sure which lump of muscle was his. Either way, he was aroused, and Farore, if only he could get him a little bit closer... His hands moved to Sheik's back where his hands traveled up and down as if intoxicated. It didn't make much sense to him and not even he knew what he wanted out of it. Would Sheik break his neck if he grasped at his buttocks? ...Buttocks? Buttocks? More importantly, would Sheik run from him, laughing, at thinking of such a stodgy word?



He was just about to break away from Sheik's mind-numbing lips to ask about their position - about exactly what they were doing and how far they should maybe go - when he felt hands on his chest sliding downward, downward...over his belt buckle. If Link could concentrate on anything besides the skin beneath those delightful, wrapped fingers, he might have been surprised at how calmly he was taking the fact that Sheik's hands were so close to his growing erection. But then again, if he could concentrate on anything else, maybe he wouldn't have been so calm.



As he felt Sheik's lips leave his own to travel slowly to the space underneath his ears, sensation became increasingly muddied and confused. He could barely distinguish between hot and cold. For instance, Sheik's touch as his fingers slid up inside his tunic to his abdomen and chest...was that a trail of fire or an icy path? Maybe it was both. Could it be both? No, he didn't think it could be. Fire and ice had to alternate or cancel each other out to become steam. He wouldn't be surprised if it was becoming steam, though, with the way his body was heating up. If it kept up, the tunic would have to go. ...That icy fire sensation, like those twin hags who--



No, no, NO!



Link's fingers trailed over the nape of Sheik's neck as he let out a soft and lingering sigh. Not that he ever wanted to think of Ganondorf's surrogate mothers, but while he was having a nice little session with Sheik? That was definitely not the time to be thinking of such things.



Fortunately, Sheik was very helpful in dispelling further wandering thoughts as he gently persuaded Link backwards to his forward, hiking the tunic several inches up from where it was supposed to be.



He thought of his hardness newly exposed to the darkness, and suddenly Link realized that the fact that they were metaphorically rendering themselves naked in the darkness of a dangerous temple just really wasn't very important. As he felt his tunic free itself up over his head (he wasn't sure if he had a hand in that) and immediately felt the bare chest of another pressing against his, though, it suddenly occurred to them that they were physically rendering themselves naked...



Link had no idea where his belt, tunic, and Sheik's top garments were, but he was damned if he was going to care.



Gravity made the kiss Sheik gave him particularly electric - feeling the simple weight of the man on top of him (man on top of him!) and pinned against the deck. Temple? Sages? Duty? Danger? What was all that anyway? If they didn't come from those hidden lips that Link could only assume in the darkness were gorgeous, then, well, clearly they didn't matter in the world. What did matter was that Sheik was pressing them together in a delightful way, and Link's hands were all over his back, pressing him further. Maybe if they tried hard enough their skin and bones would give way.



Instead they just melted into each other a bit more despite the fact that Sheik's hand snaked itself between their bodies and slipped down, down... Link felt himself shiver and grow with anticipation as his own hands hand their own downward descend from Sheik's back, stopping to rest on his tail bone. The Sheikah slowly broke the kiss and moved to lick along Link's jawline. After a few agonizing seconds, his wrapped fingers reached their destination and cupped him before rubbing slowly.



At that moment, it felt like Sheik had summoned Din's Fire in his fingers and was transferring Her hot, hot heat into Link...except in an indefinitely nicer way than Link had experienced in that room. The steel door and hands waving like daisies, a rubber transvestite face...a strange reflection. Din's Fire to



His throat seemed to be Sheik's new destination, and that seemed to be enough to bring the hero out of his stupor. An audible groan immediately escaped his lips, and Link hadn't even been aware he had been keeping it locked away. It was all sensation at that point. Sensation, sensation, sensation. Pleasure. Not something he experienced often. He had a feeling that for as much pain his body underwent throughout his struggles, he would gravitate to just about anyone willing to provide something nice. His mind was slowly melting only to travel through his bloodstream to fuel his hardness (simply a rock down his tights?) even more; so questions about what was actually happening would have to wait.



"Wait," Link murmured in a strained whisper, and he brought his hands up to feel for Sheik's face. Once he found it, he bent to kiss him in the darkness, only to find that he had met with a cheek. That was fine, he supposed, as it wasn't hard to find his lips after that. Then he wrapped his arms around Sheik's lithe frame and slowly rolled their bodies over. With Sheik now on his back against the deck, Link only wished it wasn't so dark so he could see such a sight. He didn't even bother to smile because he knew it wouldn't exist anyway without light, and instead he concentrated it into his voice as he laughed, "Now that's better."



Sheik only sighed, but his voice, while distant, hinted that he approved. "Mm, the big, strong hero always has to be on top, hmm?"



He felt a quirk in his lips, but not even he was sure what it was. "Come on, I'm the Hero of Time. Heh, I'm not going to be submissive without a struggle, at least." To placate his words he leaned down to kiss Sheik's cheek.



Link heard a chuckle, and then, "Tell that to all those bossy women in your life."



Shutting up the truth with a deep kiss, Link pressed against him as he unraveled Sheik's headwrap and played with his exposed hair. To his dismay, the Sheikah failed to resume his previous actions and instead ran his hands along Link's legs spread alongside him, pausing every once in a while as if to memorize the path of his muscles.



A light groan from Sheik hummed in Link's mouth, and the hero broke from him as his own lips tingled. "Am I crushing you?"



"...No, you're good," he murmured and his breath seemed shallower than before.



A few seconds passed as a smirk he supposed didn't exist played upon Link's lips. "I am good," he said, and in the back of his mind, that seemed like a familiar response.



Leaning up, Sheik caught a chin between his lips as he murmured against Link's skin wryly, "That we have yet to determine..."



As soon as those words were spoken, Link felt the air in his head change as he stretched forward a bit, giving those unseen lips access to his heroic neck. He felt something wet, warm, against his skin and the warmth turned to ice quickly before he could even register the initial sensation in anywhere other than his bulging bulging bulging bulging bulge - a cock, that's what it was. It felt the heat that his mind would never consider, but wasn't that how it always was? His mind had little say in what happened to occur down south downstairs down in the basement, just down down down. He felt his blood drawn to a portion of his neck as nonexistent lips sucked - and wouldn't it be great if it wasn't his neck that was being sucked? His blood would know exactly where to go, then, instead of being confused by the temporary detour to his neck.



And wouldn't that be something if he knew exactly where to go, what to do?



It would be something if you knew anything at all.



Link tried to adjust his useless Hylian eyes as he tried to process that deprecating thought in the darkness in the dark that was dark and it was dark - it was Dark - it was--



He felt ice on his lips and lips on his neck and Sheik's neck was bare as Link himself felt he should be. And Sheik's hands - hands! he had hands! - were pushing him up...no, that wasn't right. Down? Not that, either. Sideways. Sideways, but not in any direction. Sideways up down. Sideways down up. Upside down as Sheik's lips suddenly were no longer at his neck but his collarbone...his chest...



Flicking his tongue out, Link felt the tasteless ice on his lips and drew an icicle into his mouth as he felt another tongue flicking out to taste his no doubt salty skin. His nipples and men had nipples he knew. And he knew he was a man.



It's the only thing you know.



And it was the only thing he knew. Because Farore he could feel it.



Or maybe you don't know this.



Was he a man after all? What was he, then, if not a man? Maybe...maybe he was metal in the water during a storm, and this was lightning he was feeling... Was he dying? Was he dying? ...What was dying, anyway? Link didn't know what it felt like so he couldn't think for sure. He couldn't think anyway because weren't lips (he thought they were lips) on his nipples and -- they weren't? Where'd they go? -- on his stomach and then they weren't there anymore. Like the foreign wetness, his tights seemed to disappear, but oh! There it was again - the wetness (maybe he really was in water) - but not the tights. That was good, though, since they didn't matter anymore. Did they ever? He should have gone on his adventure tightsless as he had as a kid.



But he wasn't a kid anymore. No, that right of his was wrenched away cruelly by...by...



"Farore," Link groaned as he felt Sheik's tongue along his



shaft. Shaft! Like a lightning rod, and was this a tongue or lightning? Maybe he wasn't in water after all (because Link had just found out he could breathe), and maybe lightning was just wet. Was lightning wet? It didn't matter because oh Din he was struck by lightning. Repeatedly. Defying common rules, this lightning was a rebel, striking in the same place two, three, four, five, six, seven times. Seven! Was this really lightning? Link knew lightning was bright so he opened his eyes to find out that his eyes had been wide open the entire time.



Must not be lightning, then.



Must not be.



Can you see it?



No.



Then maybe it doesn't exist.



Maybe it didn't. Maybe Link was just imagining the whole thing, and at once he started laughing at how pathetic that was, if Sheik didn't really exist sucking him off, and--



"What the hell's so funny?" Sheik murmured (Link assumed it was him since he couldn't very well see) with a smirk in his voice, but Link couldn't exactly tell since smirks were one of those things one usually saw instead of heard. At once he was awash with relief. Sheik did exist; that much was good. He existed. And so did he.



"We exist, even in the darkness" Link murmured around an icicle between his lips. And, at they moment, they did, if only in sound. "So you were wrong."



Sheik gave a quick lick to Link's alternate head before asking in a tone that suggested his patience was wearing thin, "about what?"



"Nothing," he sighed in pleasure rather than exasperation.



And it was nothing.



We are nothing.



But sound.



No, not even that...



Link closed his eyes because he no longer existed. And if he no longer existed, they no longer existed - their barriers no longer existed. With no barriers, they were free. Free. He was free.



And what will you do with this newfound freedom?



Nothing. Because nothing has total freedom, but he sucked on the icicle between his lips anyway. It wasn't true ice, though, because it didn't melt in his mouth. Instead, it was just a very cold thing. In his mouth. That he was sucking on. He didn't know what it was, but that didn't matter because really, he just wanted to suck, to move his head back and forth and pretend he was giving a blowjob just like the one he was receiving.



He just felt more whole and grounded like that. Like there was electricity flowing from Sheik's lips to this ice and he was just a conductor. A connector. He was connecting the two, this fire and ice sensation. His nonexistence now had some semblance of a meaning, though he wasn't quite sure what it was.



All he knew was that he just wanted to suck on something bigger than the slender piece of ice. And then he felt an icy sensation on his cheeks followed by a chunk of ice probing his lips. He parted them and allowed his mouth (what he assumed was his mouth) to be filled to the hilt with ice, and sweet Nayru was it cold...like ice usually was. That, at least, lended some kind of normalcy to his life (disregarding-the-fact-that-ice-normally-does-not-appear-in-mouths-like-that).



But it wasn't like that ice was actually a...n icicle? a lightning rod? a shaft? a cock? And it wasn't like he was eagerly bobbing his head back and forth as if he was actually sucking off another man. A man sucking off a man. That was a good, kind gesture, and Link figured he was a good and kind sort of being, despite all all all all all all all all! Would she think so as well? Would she ever forgive him? Maybe he could tell her about his good deed, and maybe she would look at him and say, "Hey! You really are a good guy, Link, because good guys give imaginary men blowjobs!"



Preoccupied with the mystery in his mouth, Link momentarily forgot that he was a man getting a blowjob. At a later date, he might ask himself how in the hell he could manage to forget something like that, but to his credit, Link didn't exist in that period of nothing. If it was not for Sheik's shallow breaths, he might have forgotten his existence entirely.



The icicle disappeared from his mouth, and Link wondered if it really was ice that had melted that time. Suddenly the icicle was replaced by warm, wet lips, and maybe that's what melted the ice. He kissed back and felt moist fingers in his hair, on his ears, as legs (he thought they were legs anyway) wrapped themselves around his waist, though he didn't know why.



"Let's..."



What?



"...Let's..."



Let's what? Link couldn't exactly distinguish if that was him or him or him? And did it matter, really? Deep down in the gut of his stomach, his innate primal nature knew what those words meant to say, even if his superior brain didn't.



"...Let's."



His hands ran along the length of Sheik's thigh to his calf, not surprised to feel flesh for the first time, as he guided both legs to fit over his shoulders. Maybe he knew what he was doing, maybe he didn't. He couldn't really tell, and it occurred to him that if he was doing it, he really ought to know, but he just couldn't. His body was moving at the instruction of his gut, and his mind just didn't know why.



So when he felt hands around his cock and something pressing against the head of it, he pushed his hips forward.



And man.



Man man man man man!



It was a man.



Below him there was an almost strangled intake of breath or a sigh, and Link leaned down and pressed his lips against the source to see if he could distinguish between the two. The sensation of something so warm enveloping his manhood (ha ha! that's right, he was a man, too!) slowly registered to him as he let a slight groan escape from his mouth into another.



When Sheik groaned and started to move, it dawned on Link that he could move his hips back and forth. And so he did. It wasn't a particularly fast pace, but Link felt it increase as he tried to keep in time with the shortening frequency of Sheik's breaths. As for his own sensations...he was hard. Really hard. And it was nice, but he didn't concentrate too much on it.



Instead, he paid attention to the licks of ice along his ear, which he regarded as one of the more sensitive parts of him. For a while, that's all that existed, and he didn't realize he had slowed down in his movements until Sheik's frustrated motions told him otherwise. He felt kind of guilty as he renewed his pace and tried to keep up with what was going on, but only for a little while.



Such ambivalence for so physical a creature...



If he actually existed, maybe that would help.



If you're so in love with light, then why are you here with us?



He wasn't.



Are you dead?



Maybe, Link thought as he felt a slow, anal expansion of ice grow inside him. He perked up even more and began to actually feel himself move inside Sheik.



Dead, are you? But your bodily reactions state otherwise.



Then he was just playing dead.



Like the Goddesses.



Link's mind contracted at once, and all of a sudden the only thing he wanted to think about was the physicalities of what was going on between them. The motions in and out and out and in and just all of them. His breath became labored as if he had slayed fifty-seven monsters and had twelve more to go. He felt pathetic as he realized that he would be the first to finish unless he distracted his mind real soon.



In his mind he supposed he saw himself fucking Sheik in the Ice Cavern on top of a stalagmite, but that had to change. He went through all the men he knew of (couldn't bring himself to imagine fucking a girl) and finally decided that replacing Sheik with the screaming carpenter boss would slow his arousal significantly.



And it worked...until he felt someone suck on his ear and heard someone moan softly with his breaths. Then the carpenter's wide, open mouth just seemed too tempting. He wanted to feel a bit repulsed for even finding that man remotely appealing even in the midst of such heavy arousal, but his body wouldn't let him, and for that Link searched for another image.



A ReDead.



There. Though he was being quite pleasantly stimulated from both ends, Link was relatively confident that he would not have to undergo the embarrassment of being the virgin who just came too soon.



How fitting...two creatures so alike.



Link tried not to look down at the ReDead's "face" and shut his eyes despite the image being purely mental.



Both only play dead...



Was that it, then? Was that why Link felt himself approaching what he dreaded was the end at such a rapid pace? He wanted to just throw up all over the vile creature, though somewhere in his mind he knew that he wasn't really fucking it...but he wasn't sure anymore. The skeletal creature arched its spine in lust with such a crack that Link felt dizzy just thinking about it.



And there was another one behind him - inside him, thrusting roughly. His voice cracked in a lengthy moan, and he was so ashamed of himself for it. Though he supposed the shame just spurred him on.



Things became erratic, the thrusting and the breathing. Link wasn't sure what was going on in what order. He was pumping his hips as fast as he could manage, and he was quite certain that enough oxygen wasn't making it to his brain through such shallow though frequent breaths, but then he stopped thinking and just looked down at the "face" and the "face" looked at him and things went wide and a



PIERCING something melted his brain and his body became



RIGID, and he braced himself for the oncoming attack but it never came as he did so his body just melted in the same goo as his brain that just discharged itself via orgasm and he was relatively sure that this was the end.



Finally.



He retreated from Sheik's body, and sat as he ran his fingers through his hair, still reeling about what had transpired.



Sheik gave a frustrated sigh, and it suddenly occurred to Link that the other hadn't yet come (at least, he didn't remember him as doing so). He might have gave his hand in pleasuring Sheik, but he was slow to act and heard him go on alone. Guilt flashed across his mind along with an incredible sense of uselessness, and he set about feeling his way across the ship deck for his clothes. Perhaps he'd apologize to Sheik later if he wasn't overcome too much with morbid embarrassment.



By the time he had found his tights and tunic (or what he thought were them), Sheik was finished and just as silent as him. He felt along the wood for his shield and sheath, trying not to concentrate on the sound of Sheik's fabric sliding against his bare skin, until he realized that he saw them glimmer faintly in the growing light.



It was the end of the voyage through the heart of darkness. Nice timing.



The vessel stopped as Link re-attached his shield and sheath, and when he was done, he looked over to where Sheik stepped off the dock and onto the dull ground with an intimdiating door on its wall. To his dismay, Sheik had his cowl back on, and he just really did not want to go through that door just now.



He departed the ferry and joined Sheik in sitting on a fallen stone pillar that appeared to once frame the door. They were completely silent which unnerved Link because of their previous intimacy. He chalked it up to him being a shitty lover, though, and he wasn't sure why Sheik was still there.



It took a while for Link to realize that Sheik had begun to play the small lyre that had always been harnessed to his back. The tune was pretty, though not something he recognized.



"Let's say that nothing exists in absolute darkness," Link began after quite some thought.



Sheik groaned. "Not this again."



Link ignored him. "If that's right, then what exists in absolute light?"



Taking a few moments to stop and actually consider this if only to perhaps humor the hero, Sheik finally replied, "I do not know, though I hope sincerely that light as well cannot exist without the darkness."

"Huh," Link murmured, and tried to think it over before Sheik interrupted him by simply standing up.



"Well, we have had our rest. Shall we continue on?"



Rising up from the pillar, Link stretched and said, "I think this is the end."



Sheik nodded once and added, "Bongo Bongo is just beyond that door."



"I can handle it from here."



Furrowing his half-hidden brows, Sheik asked, "...Are you certain, Hero?"



"Don't 'Hero' me," Link said wryly, "we just had sex." The words "and I was lousy at it" were left off for obvious reasons involving Link's pride, though the arch of Sheik's brow and a certain look in his eyes seemed to say it anyway.



"Are you absolutely positive that you do not need me for the battle?"



Link nodded and lied, "I'm pretty sure. I mean, this is my job and my job alone. The odds are against me making it out alive every time I fight the big one, and I don't want any harm to come to you."



Seeming placated by this, Sheik closed the distance between them and kissed Link's temple through the fabric of his cowl. "Be careful...Link." With that, Sheik boarded the ferry alone, and it roared to life once again, going steadily against the supernatural current.

He sighed, and as Sheik faded from view, he wondered what would happen to Sheik in the darkness.



But he couldn't think about such things now. Taking out a particularly ornate key that he and Sheik had found earlier, he approached and unlocked the large door...



...only to find a pit for a room, and the real entrance to Bongo Bongo's quarters on the other side.



"Fu-"