Title: The Game of Pretend

Disclaimer: I do not own the RPG games nor am I in anyway affiliated with the creators. This is for fun and simple enjoyment.

Author's Note: Just a small, strange drabble I wrote while working on my French homework. The correlation between the two is nonexistent, but let's pretends that there's a deeper meaning in my will to procrastinate. I've never written anything for Zelda before (although I wanted to on several occasions) and so this is my first actual attempt at it. I hope, pray more like, that it comes off as relatively decent. I can't really judge the actual writing as it is nearly midnight over here and the more I read it the more mind boggling it becomes…

The story is told from a first person perspective and to be exact, it is told from the point of Sheik. Sheik is, in this short one-shot, a male and shares no actual physical relation with Zelda. He is, in short, is own man, more or less. So as a warning, it's going to be a mild Sheik/Link pairing. Well it's more rambling than anything…so it may get boring. It probably is. (HAHAHAHA)

Anyways, leave a review of what you thought.

"Promise me. Promise me you'll wait for me…"

There was such desperateness in his voice that it urged me to agree, to provide him with some false sense of security. To give him what he wanted most, my assurance of my loyalty. I did not reestablish my loyalty nor did I renew my supposed love for him. I merely told him farewell and watched as he boarded the ship, still eyeing me sadly.

I never did return his gaze and had I known that would be our last meeting I would have looked him straight in the eye and gave a more formal goodbye, but I didn't and so I said and did nothing. I only stood at the edge of the dock, watching the ship move slowly across the water.

As the large wooden structure faded into the distance I headed back home, back to the familiar tree house that had housed the Hero of Time since he was a child. Some of the elf-like residents still regarded me with a slight hostility and wariness, but in my earlier years, I had learned to ignore all that was unnecessary. Their feelings towards me mattered as much as Divine Will.

It took me about a single jump to make it to the balcony and took me less than a second to pick up my belongings and return to the balcony. I remembered coming to this humble house when the hero slept his seven years slumber. It had been small and cramped. I was barely able to fit into the hollowed tree, but somehow over the years through tender care and love the tree had grown and more of it was hollowed out.

We had built it together and rested under the sun like good friends and then lovers, but as the sun traded with the moon, he would be gone again. He would make an excuse and leave for something trivial. He never explained to me what it was he had to do and I, in turn, never questioned what he was doing.

His return would be unexpected and sudden. Most of the time he came back tired and worn out, but his blade showed no signs of use. He'd return and sleep on the couch, huddled away from the light. He always slept like that. It was during his sleep that he was at peace, but the moment he woke up, something would cloud over those translucent blue eyes and trouble them all day.

It had become a game of pretend, full of intricate lies and mistrust. I don't recall the exact moment when I lost faith in his character or when I started up with the lies. It happened gradually, but to pinpoint the exact date was impossible. I did not know nor did I care in the least.

Day after day he'd return with no reason for his leave and I'd greet him as if he was always home. I'd give him a brief smile and offer him a bit of the food or tell him that the water was warm and waiting. He'd return the smile and comment on how I was always so prepared – always ahead of him by a step. We'd share a round of uneasy laughter and he'd take a seat at the dinning table as I brought him a bit of soup and some simple dishes.

Eventually even the smiles began to fade away and his return would not be acknowledged, it will not be noticed and I will eventually forget all about the custom. The first time it had happened he had returned and found me eating dinner alone at the table, completely unaware of his arrival.

I offered him no smile and only nodded in his general direction before returning to my meal, hardly thinking of my actions. For about several minutes I ate and he stood, perhaps stunned by my lack of care or shocked that I had barely acknowledged his presence. The silence was growing slightly uncomfortable and I quickly made amends by kicking the chair opposite of me from underneath the table, letting it slide opened a little – a gesture of invitation.

I felt him relax as he took the seat and scooped out some rice and began to chatter happily about something. It was irrelevant and pointless.

The next time I forgot I merely made an excuse of how I had been preoccupied with other matters and he accepted the answer without questions. Soon after that it became a train of wild lies and eventually I didn't even care enough to tell the lies. I merely walked in, nodded and tended to whatever I needed to.

Our relationship with each other had changed over the years, even the elfin kids knew of the change. In the start of our fall out, I had desperately tried to hide our failing relationship, but after a while the masquerade became boring and tedious. I let it fall and it was as if the curtains had been drawn and we were there to be judged.

I knew the elves blamed me for their hero's sadness and they blamed me for the problems. It was understandable and I felt no anger towards them. I could only sympathize.

From that point onwards, even the game of pretense became too much for either of us to continue and he continued to sleep on the couch while I took the bed. I never asked if he was cold or uncomfortable and he never asked so switch or share.

While he took to leaving, I took the time to practice my skills, sharpening the abilities that had dulled because of peace. I practiced and sometimes, I slept outside in the fields, below the stars. I spent weeks outside of the house and I would watch him come and go, but we didn't greet each other anymore.

Eventually, even my face guard was put on again. I no longer walked about freely without the protective garment. The first week it had returned he had asked me about it and why I chose to hide my face. I gave him my original response – the answer I had given him almost a decade ago. The look on his face had been unmistakable hurt and betrayal, but it meant nothing to me anymore. His pain was not mine and it did not materialize before me.

I never confronted him about the situation and never took the time to speculate on why it happened. Perhaps I didn't want to know, perhaps I always knew, but didn't want to acknowledge it. Perhaps both of us wanted to be happy and we were willing to play a game if it was what granted us joy.

The feelings of love for him quickly vanished and the remnants were nothing more than respect – the original feeling I had directed at him when I first met him. He had become a stranger to me again. It may have hurt me to realize it at that time, but deep down inside, even I knew it was bound to happen. I was too different – too drenched in darkness and too used to being tooled whereas he walked the pathway of light and knew nothing, but of his own goodwill. I was tainted and he was pure, we had nothing in common.

I gave the tree house one last glance before jumping off the ladder and landing on the floor on all four, my usual stance for reducing the impact. Quickly, I brushed off the dust from my outfit and was readying to leave when something stopped me – something that held onto my arm with such a force it shocked me.

As I turned around, I saw the familiar green hair and the petite stature that belonged to Saria. She had those thoughtful green eyes that just seemed to pierce into your soul and read your mind like an open book. It always unnerved me a little when we met up alone because she was always slightly different in the way she treated me.

"So, you're leaving?"

I nodded in response. So, even the children of the forest knew of my desires to depart – does this mean that the hero knew of my intentions as well?

"Why?"

The question was so simple, so easy to pronounce, but there was a million different answers and none of them were right. There was no way to express all of them without taking a lifetime and yet, without it the answer was incomplete, unfinished.

"Why? Why not?"

She only continued to look at me with those haunting emerald eyes before finally letting my arm go. I let it fall to my side, but didn't move from the spot – she had something to say and I will offer her the chance to finish what she wanted to say.

"He'll miss you – you know." She was picking her words carefully and I could see the slow formation of each sound as she searched for the right phrases. "He loves you and because of it, he'll suffer."

Those words dug something into my heart and lit a match on the anger that had settled quietly there. I wanted to scream at her, to pin her against the wall and tell her that she didn't know anything that she didn't understand what I was going through. I wanted to tell her that I no longer felt the same way about our childish lust and I had no desire to take part in it anymore. I had outgrown it and the hero will do the same.

"He loves you and knows what you are planning. Do not take him as a fool."

She sounded like Her Majesty. The way she phrased her short and concise sentences had a certain flair to it that reminded me of the Queen. They were both so alike and yet completely different at the same time. I didn't give her a response, but quelled my inner rage and turned to leave. I had listened. I was not bounded to say anything to her, but as I turned around I saw an unexpected face at the top of the small hill.

It was him. He must have forced the ship to return, but what it wasn't his unpredictable return that surprised me, it was his expression. His face was contorted with fear and sorrow. It was the look of a child that was told his mother no longer loved him; it was a look that depicted the pain he had kept to himself for the past years. It was a haunted look – a look of the defeatist.

I froze in my steps, but there was no reaction in my face and I knew from the way he searched it so intently that my eyes revealed nothing as well. I had brought back my barriers – rebuilt my stone fortress and he had nothing to penetrate those walls.

Saria walked past me and the hero, her figure slowly disappearing over the horizon as well. I returned my attention to the hero before deciding to take my leave as well. I walked up the small slope and was about to turn when he reached out and held me in place. His grip had certainly grown stronger and was certainly more forceful than Saria's.

He mouthed the question that Saria had posed and once again I had no answer. I offered him no response – I gave him no reaction and in his face I could see the hurt that reflected every time I failed to respond.

"Just tell me why. Just tell me why you want to leave and I'll…I promise I won't stop you."

He didn't loosen his grip, but had averted his gaze towards the grass on the floor and I knew that he wouldn't let go until I told him, until I gave him my reason.

"I'm leaving because I no longer feel the same way I once had. I'm taking my leave because what I thought might happen, never will happen. I'm saying good bye because I want you to be happy and you won't find it with me."

I watched as his face went from sad to defeated and finally to an unusual empty stare. I tugged out of his grip and made my way towards the exit – heading closer and closer towards the wooden tunnel. It was the last door I had to pull and then I could be free of him, free of the hero that had taken so much from me and left me with nothing. I would finally be free…

Just as I was about a yard away from the entrance something knocked into me and held me in place, their arms circling around my wait and holding me there – stationing me just in front of the entrance.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't keep the promise of just letting you walk out free. I don't want you out of my life, I don't want you gone and isn't it my choice in deciding what will make me happy? My happiness isn't something for you to decide and so isn't not a good enough reason to leave."

I stiffened, he hadn't said so much to me since the beginning of last year and he hadn't even told me such things since the very beginning. It was foreign and obscure to my mind and the words were rejected violently over and over again.

"Unfortunately, I no longer feel the way I once had and may I ask you to unhand me."

"No, that's not true. I know it's not true and because of that, I won't let you go. I just won't unless you promise to give it another try because I am and I will do any--"

"I don't love you." I had cut in with the brutally sharp words. I had killed his desires in one blow and without looking at his face I knew he had lost it. He had tipped over the edge and was still reeling to figure the meaning of my words. His hold loosens and I removed myself from his arms, taking the final steps towards freedom.

"But I still love you."

Those whispered words were faint, but it didn't pull me to turn around. It didn't force me to stand still and rethink my actions – it only served as a tiny bump in my way. It was a minor obstacle that I could easily overcome; it was something I had overcome long before today.

"This is good bye, Hero of Time, and when you return from destiny's latest journey you will be embraced with a hero's welcome, but Link, I will not be one of the faces that will greet you."

I had said his name once last time and offered him a sign that although we may never be what we once were; the hands of friendship were still extended in his favor.

But that would be the last time I ever saw him.

The End