Genre: Humor/Romance

Summary: Link-centric short oneshot describing Link's thoughts when he first met Sheik.


Under its majestic roofs, the Temple of Time kept a boy bound by fate into seven years of slumber. Outside, a boy who was not chosen by the goddesses, but by the princess, struggled to keep the usurped royalty safe.

In those dark, cursed years, the one destined to be hero kept sleeping, while the one who kept the princess alive hadn't had the merit of being called a hero.

When those years were over and the young man with a boy's mind rose from his deep sleep, azure met crimson. Those blue eyes were taken aback at first by such intense, red eyes. Then he noticed he couldn't tell the person's gender. Was it an angel? Saria often told him about those otherworldly beautiful, innocent, winged and genderless creatures. But wait... this person didn't have wings. Then it started explaining him about the destiny he was bound to, to which he listened quietly, while secretly wishing he could take that awful cowl off its face.

At the end of the speech, it finally said who it was: "I am Sheik, of the Sheikah."

So it was a sheikah. That explained those red eyes, but still didn't show the reason for Sheik's genderless appearance. Certainly Impa looked less... delicate in comparison to other women he had seen, but that probably was how warrior women were. Despite the lack of delicacy, she could still be easily recognized as a woman. But Sheik... it apparently didn't have breasts and its shoulders were too wide to belong to a woman, despite its waist looking too narrow for a man.

"Sheik, I don't mean to be rude, but... are you a man or a woman?", the one fated to be hero asked, while seeming very embarrassed by his own question.

Obviously flustered, the sheikah replied, "My biological gender is male, sir Hero of Time. Now go fulfill your destiny. A long, arduous journey lies ahead of you. I must go. We'll soon meet again.", that said, Sheik went away, leaving 'sir Hero of Time' with his own thoughts.

The one fated to be hero soon became attached to the mysterious sheikah man, and came to realize it was hard to take him off his thoughts. Besides, he often found himself wishing he could touch Sheik's hand, caress his hair, kiss those lips hidden under the cowl. Was it what they called 'romantic love', often seen on fairytales? If it was, the hero was sure he would always love him, because love...

"Because love is an eternal feeling."the hero with a child's mind stated after a powerful yawn, which drove him to sleep, where he could have blissful moments with his beloved one.