Link would have been content sitting quietly on the table in Anju's room and wait for Kafei to show up. The girl knew him well enough by now to tolerate his presence. In fact, she seemed to welcome the company; took it as a sign that all went well. She, too, was quiet, and the silence held much comfort after three days of chasing masks, postmen, various thieves (including cownappers) and Business Scrubs.

Yes, Link would have been content... except for a certain fairy yanking at his hair and chiming incessantly at him to do something about the gloomy atmosphere, dammit!

He certainly dealt with worse, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Eventually, he caved and took off his cap to swat at Tatl. "Stop it!"

Tatl batted her wings in outrage. "No, you stop it! You're worse than a Freezard!"

For a moment, Link considered asking what that even meant. Tatl probably wasn't suspecting him of blowing frost at everything that moves. But before he could reach a decision, a giggle wafted from the direction of Anju's bed.

Link stiffened (and Tatl halted in mid-yank, thank the goddesses!). He blinked at Anju in confusion, who smiled at them both. It was a tentative smile at best, yet it was full of warmth. Link didn't quite realize what happened, but he found his arms dropped into his lap and Tatl nestled in his hair.

"What?!"

It came out more whiny than intended. He chalked it up to being tired out. He valued his sleep, and while he wouldn't go for another seven-year-bout, the simple fact that he didn't even have a bed in this shuffle world gnawed at his sanity. Like a shy, but very persistent Bombchu. He couldn't even snatch Mikau's bed. If Tijo's drumming didn't keep him from drifting off, it was the portly Zora himself who kept him awake with accusations of skipping the rehearsal.

A fairy to the forehead knocked Link backwards and down to earth none too gently. He caught himself a hair's breadth away from Anju's flower vase.

"Hey, listen when someone is talking to you!"

Link didn't get past the second word. Something tilted inside him. The vase leaped into his hand, seemingly on its own.

A piercing cry.

A jingle of alarm, then silence. Link was panting, and Tatl in the far corner of the room. As far away as possible.

From him.

Shaking, Link put down the vase. His blood ran cold, and he gripped his elbows mechanically. "I'm sorry, Navi."

He never meant to hurt her. Did he hit? Goddesses, no! She was quick enough, right?

Link didn't notice Anju staring in shock. He didn't notice Tatl approaching, either, until she started jingling right in front of his nose.

"Link! Link, snap out of it!"

Link gasped. She was flashing brighter than ever, her yellow glow almost blinding him. Yellow, not blue.

Link shook his head, clearing away the last traces of... whatever it was that had come over him. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "Are you okay?"

Tatl zipped around his head. One time, two times. "That would be my line!" she scolded, with a passion that betrayed more of her worry than it concealed. "What is wrong with you?!"

Link looked away, jaw clenched shut. However, Tatl refused to admit defeat. She kept hovering and chimed her increasing frustration.

At last, Anju made her move. She interrupted the standoff by getting up from her bed and picking up the flower. It had fallen to the ground when Link used the vase as his bat of choice.

"Don't push him," she told Tatl sternly, not needing to look at the vase to stick the flower back in. Once Tatl hang her wings and Anju was sure she properly stared the fairy down, she took Link's discarded cap and gently tugged it over his head. "Come on, sweetie! Let's get you dried up!"

Link opened his mouth, but nothing sensible came out. He didn't realize he'd been wet before, and he didn't care now. He still wasn't used to people switching from treating him like an adult to treating him like a child and back all helter-skelter.

It didn't help that he himself was confused about that matter. He could easily beat any of the soldiers guarding the gates of Clock Town. Probably all of them at once, too. Constantly being blocked from leaving was ridiculous. But then along came people like Anju and Kafei, who gave him letters and pendants and whatnot, and he felt the urge to run.

It had worked on Saria. It had worked on Darunia. It had worked on Ruto. It would probably work on them, too.

There was something about Anju's smile that he absolutely couldn't place. It wasn't uncomfortable or anything, just... strange. But Link was over getting scared by such things, and he made a mental note to ask Tatl about it later.

Much later.

For now, he overlooked the hand Anju offered him and shook his head. "I'll be fine."

Maybe he shouldn't have said that, because the stern look returned to Anju's face. "You'll catch a cold if you run around in a wet tunic like this."

Link huffed, but he didn't tell her that she should take a dive in the Water Temple and then they'd talk about wet tunics. She wouldn't believe him anyway.

They were back to ridiculous.

"May I ask who Navi is?"

Link hummed drowsily. After poaching his tunic and hanging it near the hearth, Anju had stuffed him into an oversized pajama top that belonged to Kafei (why she even had one in her wardrobe was beyond him), wrapped him in a blanket and assigned her mother's bed to him. It was warm, it was cozy, and he was so exhausted after going without sleep for goddesses know how long...

Navi!

Link winced and sat up straight. "How-?!"

"You said her name when you lashed out before," Anju explained. "I think your fairy companion is dying to know, too. Is Navi a she, anyway?"

Link looked from Anju to Tatl, who was chiming expectantly, then back at Anju and then, with a longing sigh, at his pillow. Stupid moon, stupid Happy Mask Salesman, stupid everything! He had other places to be! And he couldn't even use this forced vacation to get some decent sleep.

Link shrugged the blanket higher up his shoulders. "Yes, Navi is a she. She's... was... She was my fairy companion about a year ago. We went through a lot together, but... She had to leave."

Link couldn't remember the last time he cried. Saria said that he used to cry a lot when he was younger, then simply stopped one day and no one could figure out why. (Mido took the credit, though.) He didn't know he was still capable of it, or even what the mechanics behind crying were. But he was exhausted, and the memories flooding him after talking about Navi had to go somewhere.

She had been with him, stuck with him through everything, from finding his first sword to defeating Ganondorf. She had traveled through time with him. She had been the one constant in his life when everything around him was changing. When he was changing. Even when he couldn't rely on his own body, he could rely on her. Not even Saria could give him that, play his ocarina as he might. Princess Zelda couldn't give him that, Sheik or no Sheik.

Especially in this time line, no one could give him what Navi had given. No one even believed him. Even Tatl had laughed at the idea of him having a guardian fairy.

"I miss her. But I guess..." He had to force the words out. It became harder and harder to speak coherently. "But I guess Hylians aren't meant to have fairy companions."

Much less adults.

Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe it was just Mido's taunts catching up with him. But Link knew about destiny – goddesses know he did – and his did not include being a Kokiri.

Link was choking by now. Through his tears, he spotted Tatl's blurry light flying frantic circles. Both observations frightened him. He had seen so many people cry, how did they even manage?

Something brushed against Link's shoulder blade. He rolled backwards into a crouch and his hand flew up, reaching for a hilt that was halfway across the room. His head cleared at once and he found himself staring at Anju, her hand in the air where his back was only seconds ago.

"Oh. I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Link's breath unhitched and he dropped to his knees. Tatl chimed. As usual, she was quick to point out what Link didn't say: "Don't worry, Anju! It's not your fault, he's always this jumpy."

Link did not know the word 'reflex', but even if he did, he probably wouldn't have used it. He was a child. He shouldn't battle. Judging from the people around him, Honey and Darling in particular, he probably shouldn't flinch from physical contact, either. But his experience with it was more or less limited to brawling with Mido, getting strangled by undead monsters and tossed out of palace gardens, down the walls of a water fortress or, with a unique desert spin, into prison.

Not to mention a scaly but ultimately naked royal butt to the face.

Link gathered up the blanket and dove headfirst into the closest pillow. "I'm sorry for overreacting," he mumbled into the fabric. "I just..."

"Need some rest?"

Link yawned. Anju chuckled, and the indulgent smile remaining on her face was almost palpable.

Link didn't care. He kicked his legs a little until he found the most comfortable spot, and the distinct whirring of fairy wings told him that Tatl got ready to settle as well. It relaxed him like nothing else. He was glad that his brief outburst of violence didn't come between them.

"Can you wake me at ten past four, please?"

He didn't even catch the meaning of Anju's words anymore. He could only hope it was confirmation, and that she was a persistent waker. There'd be trouble otherwise.

He could totally sleep through the moon's crash-landing just about now.

Greetings to every person who managed to read til down here and not click away in desperation or outrage at my interpretation of the Hero of Time!

As you may or may not see, I'm far from done with this one. But I'm drowning in ideas, and I really had to put it out there!

*hides behind a napping Goron and pretends she didn't have a gazillion other stories to worry about*