A/N: I got an overwhelming… lack… of feedback from my other story, but I understand. It's a weird style I'm experimenting with and I didn't expect much. Nevertheless, really… no reviews at all. Sad. Well, here's something more familiar to some people.
Set in TP. Midna is frustrated about Link's insistence on fishing after every quest. Hena's the girl from the fishing hole… if anyone doesn't know.
Link heard a frustrated sigh from below him as his hand wrapped around the cool doorknob built into the stone at Lake Hylia. He rolled his eyes and stepped back to let his shadow fly in front of his face. "What, Midna?" he asked crossly. The little imp crossed her arms and eyed the young hero in aggravation. Her one visible eye narrowed at the young Hylian. He crossed his arms and mirrored her expression, frown evident in his stormy, wolfish eyes.
"You really think now's the time to fish?" she asked, a reprimand running under her words. Link flexed his left hand, yearning for the cool, familiar grip of a sword hilt. One of these days, Midna, he thought to himself. The most taxing task, he recently found, was summoning the patience not to hurl himself off Kakariko Gorge.
"Um, yeah, actually. I think it's a perfect time to fish. Look at the sky," he gestured upwards to the cloudless blue towering above the boy and the imp. Midna looked up and scowled.
"Sunlight," she muttered darkly. Link snickered and opened the door to the fishing hole, his breath leaving him at the sight to which he had grown so familiar. As he walked further toward the clear water, swirls of cherry blossoms danced around his feet and he took a deep breath of the sweet, clear air. This place reminded him of home. He visited often, making sure to check on Uli and assure her that her husband and child were safe, but Link had not slept in his humble tree house in what seemed like three seasons.
Midna sneered and returned to his shadow, and triumphant that he had won another personal battle, Link walked toward the door of Hena's little shack. A tightness in his palm that he had not felt since the easy days of Ordon returned, familiar from the days he and Ilia used to spend together splashing in the spring. He stopped suddenly, frowning. Times had been so strained lately that Link hadn't felt that tightness around Ilia in the past few occasions he had seen her. He remembered frustration at her condition, which had him shifting and warping all over Hyrule and relief when she remembered him and the children, but the fluttering in this chest and weak fingers escaped him until now.
A childish crush, he told himself, and entered Hena's shack.
Hena, who had been tinkering with another Rollgoal board, looked up upon his arrival with a squeak. She blushed and cleared her throat. "Link! Hi!" she breathed, blushed harder and coughed. She lost the breathy voice and adopted her confident, easy expression. They stared at each other for a while, blue eyes locked on blue eyes. Hena glared at Link's hat but didn't make him take it off; he always insisted on leaving it on. Finally, she cleared her throat again. "Hey. You here to fish or ogle my jars again?"
Link spluttered and blushed profusely, rubbing the back of his neck and looking pointedly at the fish tank. Hena's eyes widened and slapped his arm after catching her accidental double entendre. "You punk! I meant those stupid jars on the high shelf you always stare at!" Link could distinctly hear the snorting of a little imp underneath him. He stuck his heel in the middle of his shadow, and even though he knew it didn't do anything, he liked to pretend it did.
"Yeah, yeah, sorry…" he muttered, still working the heat in his face down. "I wanna fish. Please." Link put down a red rupee and plucked his three lures from the wall. "See ya in a few hours," he threw over his shoulder, walking outside to his rented canoe. Link inhaled the clear air again, and exhaled with an easy peace resting over his face. Once I finally kill Ganondorf, he muttered inside his head, I'm definitely bringing Colin here. He thought of the little Ordon boy whom he considered his younger brother. Colin would be beside himself when he saw this place.
If only he could fit Epona through a door…
Midna sighed heavily again, impatient and anxious. She flew up from Link's shadow and perched on the edge of the canoe, surveying the area; sure, it was pretty, with its high, natural cliff walls and cherry trees dancing in the soft breeze. If she were a light creature, she would understand Link's attachment to the place, but she wasn't a light creature, and she seemed to be the only one in the entire realm who understood the gravity of the situation.
"Link, you've been at this for hours and haven't caught anything," whined Midna, huffing and fitting her chin on a fist. Link rolled his eyes and twitched the pole. Midna growled and looked at the position of the sun. "It's about three hours past high noon. If you stop now, and with a little warping, you could get something productive done today,"
"I am getting something productive done," Link defended.
"Oh really, what's that?"
"Right now, I'm being really productive on not trying to kill you," came the deadpan retort. Midna sneered and looked at the water.
"I don't understand why you even come here at all." She said glumly. "This isn't fun,"
"It's relaxing."
"It's boring! All you do is sit around and wait for a fish to be stupid enough to try to eat a metal hook!"
"Midna. Shut up."
"I bet you just come here to stare at that stupid little girl and try to impress her." She scoffed over her shoulder. She had become so in tune with Link's body that she felt his blush as her own heated cheeks and her eyes narrowed. She never told him that, though. She knew he would check his emotions at her expense, so she would never feel his anger, his yearning for home.
"Shut up. You're probably just jealous." He threw back, glaring at the fused shadow at the top of her head.
Midna wheeled around with wide, furious eyes. "Just what are you insinuating, kid?" Link's eyes stayed collected even though Midna felt a spike of regret in her stomach from him.
"I mean, you're just a little imp. You can't touch stuff in this world without looking suspicious. I know that you just want to fish so you're taking it out on me." Midna rolled her eyes for the thousandth time that day and turned back around to the water. You are so stupid, Link.
Sometimes she wondered if he really bore the Triforce of Courage. It was now that she realized that if he possessed any of them, it definitely wasn't Wisdom. Thank you, Zelda.
"What about Zelda?" she found herself asking. Link looked up with narrowed eyes.
"What about her?"
"You're being lazy and choosing to lay back and wait for dumb fish while she's probably dead somewhere in the castle. Don't know if you've seen the giant hole in the mirror of Twilight. You still have another shard to find. It's in the sky, remember?"
Link rolled his eyes. "You know, I used to wish I had a mother, but after listening to your nagging, I can see why the kids back home always complain," Link muttered crossly. Still, he felt guilty for sitting idly by while somewhere in Hyrule, Zelda suffered.
Midna could see him cracking.
"Okay, Hero. You sit there with your cute little hat and your cute little fishing pole. You sit there and be happy where somewhere, Zelda is dead. Or dying. But by the time you decide to do something, it might be too late."
Link finally huffed and rowed the canoe ashore, dragged it to the side of the cabin and marched inside. He slammed the lures onto the counter in front of a very surprised Hena, dropped a bass into the tank next to Purdy and stomped out the door without so much as a goodbye to the shocked young woman.
Midna smirked to herself. I love winning.