Dark Rooms For Dark Thoughts
by Shealtiel
Rating: K+ for kissing and mature themes.
Summary: She looked straight ahead at his chest. She didn't want to look into those red eyes anymore. They were giving her a headache, not to mention making her feel more than uncomfortable.

A/N: Hi. This is for Madam Sakamoto. Hope you enjoy, MS.

-|XXX|-

Mizuki couldn't really see what she was doing. It was dark, but she was afraid if she turned the light on, she'd wake the princess in the next room. As she added one of her last ingredients, she squinted through the darkness to see if the potion was turning the right shade of green.

As she began stirring, she saw a shadow moving in the corner. Her eyes darted to the spot, but she saw nothing. She returned to her work.

"Little late to be perfecting potions, don't you think?" a voice said from behind her. She jumped and turned to see glowing red eyes staring intently at her, but she could see little else in the darkness.

"Dark, what are you doing here?" she hissed under her breath as she stood to face him. He just chuckled, flashing his white teeth at her. She figured they were about the only light coloured part of him. But he matched his personality, so she wasn't exactly surprised.

"Isn't it obvious Mizuki? I came to see you."

"Really, I'm flattered; or I would be if I believed you. Why are you really here?"

"Well, naturally, I came to kidnap the princess. Isn't that what people usually sneak into her room in the middle of the night to do?"

"Right, well, you'll have to get through me first then."

He chuckled again, and she just scowled at him grumpily, not that he could see it. "I'm not serious Mizuki. What would I want with Zelda?"

"That's Princess Zelda," she corrected. He just scoffed.

"Why should I call her by that title? What is she to me? Not my princess."

"You are Hylian."

"And how do you know that?"

It was her turn to laugh, a high, pleasant sound. "If Link is Hylian, you are Hylian. You're his spitting image. And besides," she smirked to herself, thinking he must be an idiot not to realise her answer, "you have the ears."

"You're right of course, at least in a way, but that doesn't make Zelda my princess. She may be Link's, but I have no interest in her, either personally or monarchially."

"I'm pretty sure you only have interest in yourself, concerning both those areas of your life," she answered dryly and she heard him laugh softly through the darkness. "Now, if you'll show yourself out, I have work I must finish."

"Don't you want to know why I've come?"

"Not particularly. If you'll excuse me..."

He took a few steps closer to her and looked down at her. "I won't." He was talking quietly now, intimately. "I have something to say to you."

"Oh? And what is that?"

"I wanted to tell you..."

"Yes?" she said, leaning closer to him, drawn in by his sincerity and hushed tones.

"I wanted to say that... well, you should stop hero worshiping Link." She was close enough to see him smirk in the darkness. She stepped back from him and gave a huff of annoyance.

"Really Dark, do you live to antagonise people?" she asked, turning away from him and not really wanting to hear an answer.

"Not everyone. Mostly just you. And Link of course." He closed the distance between them again and she could feel his breath on the back of her neck.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd leave me alone." She felt small under his scrutiny, like she couldn't escape him.

"Why would I want to do that?" he breathed in her ear.

"Because I'm asking you to?" she said hopefully, but he just shook his head, though how she knew that when she couldn't see him was beyond her.

"No," he said softly, finally. "I'm sorry, I can't."

"Why not?" She turned back around to search his face for the answer and she was surprised to see the torment there, the agonising expression on his face.

"I've asked myself that. I don't think anyone wishes I could stop as much as I do."

She looked straight ahead at his chest. She didn't want to look into those red eyes anymore. They were giving her a headache, not to mention making her feel more than uncomfortable. "I don't understand."

"Neither do I," he said. "I think Link probably would, if he were me. I think he could give you an answer. But... I can't. I'm sorry."

She smiled, trying to hide it from him. "I don't know why I'm saying this, but I don't think you should apologise for not being Link. That's the one thing you can never escape, isn't it?" She looked up at him again. "Isn't it?"

He just looked at her. "I don't know how you do this to me Mizuki. It's like I can never surprise you, like I can never say something you're not prepared for."

"Well, I don't know about that, but I do know that you're not Link, and that you don't want to be, but that you're trying to be anyway."

"How is it that you see through people so clearly?"

"How is it that you can keep avoiding my questions so thoroughly?" she quipped. He just smiled. She sighed and sat down at her work again. "Dark, I think we should probably have this conversation at another time. The princess is sleeping in the next room, and I don't want you waking her."

"Well, don't act like you enjoy my company or anything," he drawled sarcastically, but when she turned around to dispute him, he was gone.

-|xxx|-

When Mizuki made her way through the fire temple and into Shari's living quarters, she didn't know what she was expecting, but it wasn't Dark, sitting by the fire in warm conversation with the sage.

She stopped dead when she saw him there. Shari looked at her in alarm, as though she'd meant to warn her and was now very sorry she'd forgotten all about it. Dark, however, turned around and smiled slowly at her.

"Mizuki. I was hoping you'd be here."

"Can't say I was feeling the same when I decided to visit."

Shari stood. "I'm glad you came, Mizuki. We were just going to have lunch. I better go check on the food." She hurriedly left the room, looking back in a little panic.

Mizuki sat by the fire and glared.

"By all means, don't look so happy to see me," Dark said, but he was still smirking.

"What do you expect? You showed up in Princess Zelda's antechamber in the middle of the night, and you expect me to be all excited to see you?"

"That was a week ago. I thought you'd be over it by now, to be honest. And you did say we'd have to rehash that conversation at another time," he reminded her. She groaned.

"Look, I don't know why you think you can just follow me around and get on my nerves all the time, but keep this in mind next time you want to entertain yourself. I don't enjoy it Dark, and frankly, if I never saw you again, it would be too soon."

His blood eyes registered hurt, but she didn't want to see that. She stood and made her way into Shari's tiny kitchen to help with lunch.

When they re-entered the room, he was nowhere to be seen.

-|xxx|-

Mizuki turned over in her bed. It was Ika's turn at Zelda's door, and she knew that she should be attempting to catch as much shut-eye as possible, but she couldn't shut her mind off. All she could think of was that look in Dark's eyes, the hurt that was plain on his face. She kept telling herself that what she'd said to him was true, but she still felt ill at the thought of those eyes. Why couldn't it have been true? If it had been, she reasoned, she wouldn't be feeling all this regret and confusion over the mysterious boy.

"Do you really want to know why I follow you around?" she heard from beside her bed. She sat up and stared at the boy sitting there. The moonlight was strong enough to light up his ears, the dirty grey-blonde hair and the pain in his eyes. She hoped it hadn't been there since she'd said those things to him.

"No," was all she said, and the word seemed to be swallowed up by the eerie silence blanketing the room.

He turned his eyes to the bedspread, and she could see the turmoil in his facial expression, see him raging against himself in some kind of war. "Mizuki."

"Dark, don't. I just... I'm sorry about those things I said the other day. What I said was harsh and... and not true," she said, but when she chanced a look at him, the pain on his face hadn't subsided. The difference was he was looking at her now.

Before she could move an inch, he grabbed the back of her head, twisting his fingers into her blonde hair a little painfully, and crashed his lips onto hers. In that second, she realised. Everything she'd thought about him, everything she'd been feeling, it wasn't hate or loathing. It was this.

She kissed him back.

-|XXX|-

A/N2: Mizuki belongs to Madam Sakamoto, Ika belongs to Methodical Madness, Shari belongs to me, and everybody/thing else belongs to not me.