In the busy streets that cheerful little girl smiles to everyone that passes her by. Her grins sometimes make them grudge or cringe but she doesn't mind. With glee in her voice she reaches into her hay basket and pulls out a heart, it just hovers above her palms and glows a beautiful ruby colour.
"Hearts for sale! Hearts for sale!" She repeats over and over again to the passing crowd.
And the usual crowd walks past; she hears their muttering and complaints. They ask why someone would try to sell a heart when they already had one. Some pity, some laugh but most mock. For a moment she holds the basket of hearts close to her own and she can feel its weak pulse. Before her tears even thought about running down her face she puts on that smile again and waves to the crowd, calling that same catchphrase over and over again.
"Hearts for sale, hearts for…sale." The glee in her voice drops for a moment.
Falling to her knees she sighs before a shadow overcasts her. Looking up she could see it was a woman, a woman that was beautiful enough to be called a queen. Her blond hair rushes over her shoulders as she continues to look down at her while offering a helping hand. She looked rich as the detail in her dress gave it all away and how white and smooth her skin was as soon she reached for her hand.
"Are you here to buy a heart?" The woman asks.
The beautiful woman shakes her head, "I'm sorry dear but I was wondering if you could fix one instead."
She blinks for a moment before gathering her words, "No, but over there a heart smith can fix it for you."
She points to what looked like to be a blacksmith but without all the heavy smoke pouring out the chimney. The rich woman looks over before returning back to the young lady. She reaches out for her long pony tail that was placed high and to her left. It was as blue as the early morning skies.
"Take care and thank you." She runs her fingers through her hair before heading off.
The young woman tilts her head as she ran her own fingers through her long hair. She blushes as she shook her head, returning back into character.
"Hearts for sale – hearts for sale!"
The woman reaches the so called heart smith and places her hand onto the handle and pushes it forward. Inside a man with short hair and as blond as hers worked on his table, goggles on and sweat dripping down. In front of him seemed to pieces of many broken hearts. They were not pulsing as bright or as red as the ones in the little blue hair girl's basket. They were solids like gems.
"Excuse me." She politely enters deeper into the store. "Are you the heart smith?"
The man removes his goggles and tosses his long scarf over one shoulder. Her eyes widen at the beauty in front of her - such a young and handsome man. She couldn't believe she never saw him before or believe he was stuck inside this little store for most of the day.
He pulls off a grin to her and waves, "Yes, that's me. What's the problem?" He asks.
She warmly smiles back. "I heard from a girl with beautiful blue hair that you fix broken hearts here, is that true?"
"Well I wouldn't be a heart smith if I wasn't." He teases. He takes some time to admire the beauty in front of him and sighs. "Anyway can you show me your heart?"
With a flustered face, mainly embarrassed of showing her heart she pulls out a shattered heart from her bag, a giant crack in the middle and no longer glowing. It had turned into a solid and was no longer soft and smooth.
"…a broken heart huh?" The man looks up the beautiful woman.
"…yes." She avoids his gaze. "And because of it I can't seem to love anyone around me anymore. I've seem to lost the ability to love."
The young heart smith picks up the damaged heart and holds it with his two hands. He doesn't move it much, afraid it would break even more. "This will take some time."
"That's fine; I'll pay you for the extra time." The woman bows in front of the young man. He blushes.
"Well come by when you can. I'll see what I can do."
She bows once more, thanking him once again before leaving right after. Her long blond hair catches the attention of the young blue hair girl from the distance as she notices the young heart smith still waving to her. He leans on the wall and only turns around once he could no longer see her. He stares at her for a few seconds and gives a warm smile and heads inside.
She flushes and freezes in the spot for a few seconds before smiling. She places her hand over her heart and notices it weak pulse thumping against her chest.
Only he could only make her heart beat this fast – this strong. Sometimes it's only him that reminds her that she even has a heart to begin with.
That beautiful woman returns to the young blond heart smith once again, this time with a box. She has a smile on her face as she knocks lightly on the door. He turns around and is surprised to see her here.
"Oh hello," He begins. "I still haven't finished your broken heart."
She shakes her head, "I know. I came to share this cake with you as thanks for working on it for so long."
He laughs, "Oh don't worry, I've seen worse." He approaches her. "So what flavour have we got here?"
The beautiful woman laughs as she opens the box right in front of him. "Strawberry cheesecake." She looks at the door and a young woman with the cute long blue ponytail enters. She smiles as she holds her basket of hearts with her. "And if you don't mind I invited this wonderful girl with me."
The heart smith smiles warmly at the young girl as she looks away for a moment. She blinks before walking away suddenly. The woman walks to the door before noticing the young heart smith didn't even bother to chase after her. This caught her curiosity.
"Did I do something wrong?" She asks.
"No, in fact it's what I haven't done yet that hurts her."
Placing the cake on the counter, she leans forward on it, getting a little closer to the man. He chuckles and sighs and continues.
"You see, her heart is dying and I can't fix that. That is why she is so upset with me."
The woman looks all around his workshop and could see many pieces of broken hearts were scatter either on the floor or on his work bench. Even the boxes were overflowing with them. "Not one out of all these pieces."
He walks away from the counter and picks up a piece of a shattered heart. "She's too unique and I'm afraid that the time I can make one, she'll vanish." He holds the piece tighter. "And a heart smith cannot fix a dying heart."
She returns to him with glow as she holds the complete heart with her own two hands. It had return to a smooth and soft pulsing heart. Placing it on her chest it vanishes into her. The young heart smith smiles and sees that she is now more radiant now her heart has returned to her complete. She leaves both of her hands on her chest, still smiling.
"I can feel it, this overwhelming feeling. Love, yes, it's a wonderful feeling." She reaches for the heart smith's hands. "Thank you so much heart smith."
Blushing from her compliments all the blond man could do was to give off a nervous smile. "N-No worries Miss Zelda,"
"I can now care and love my family and friends again. I hope it's not too late to fix all of this."
His eyes open wide from her words as he looks up to her. She is smiling at him with glee like a certain girl at the streets always would. He knew she couldn't keep that up for much longer.
"I believe you can fix her dying heart, heart smith. I know you can return the love she needs."
She hands over a bag filled with rupees in shades of many colours and makes haste, ready to return to her family and ready to share the love in her heart to them. The young heart smith slumps down into his chair and leans his head back.
He sits up and reaches for his gear and the many scattered pieces of broken hearts on his work bench. With his tools he is able to complete a heart. It was pulsing well and was bright and red. It could heal anyone that accepted it. He thinks of that poor woman on the streets that sells hearts. He would have already called her over and hope that her body would accept it but instead it would burn her like fire.
He slams his head on the desk and closes his eyes.
"Heart smith?"
A soft voice calls to him, causing him to look up towards the door. There she was, that cute woman that sold hearts with the blue hair ponytail to the left. He notices that she was finding it hard to hold her baskets of hearts and her breathing was getting heavier.
She tilts her head to one side, "Oh heart smith, why do you give pieces of your own heart to others?"
He looks at her, "Because that's the best way to fix them. If you pour a little of your own love into a broken heart then it will start to heal on its own. With a little love it won't break so easily again." He sees she has placed her basket down and had one hand over her fading heart. "How is yours?"
She tries to laugh but she can't. The glee in her voice was dropping and the happiness in her bright purple eyes had dimmed, they had turned empty. He could see the tips of her blue hair were fading into a pure white colour as her sense of balance was fading.
"I think its fading away." She places a hand on the wall to keep her upright but soon the young blond heart smith reaches to her and lets her rest in his arms.
"If you let this continue the darkness will soon reach you. They'll continue to eat your heart out until only darkness lives there."
Her hands reaches for his shoulders and holds onto them tightly. "And you only fix broken hearts, you don't cure them."
He tightens his embrace with her, "I wish I could but all I can do is fix them, not cure them."
The weak woman sees all the scattered and broken pieces of hearts all over his store. She feels guilty that all those pieces came from all the hearts he tried so hard to make for her. They both tried so many times but each heart that she tried to accept only gave her a sensation of burning.
"Please don't feel guilty; it will only make the darkness entering you go faster. I did this on my own accord even knowing the odds."
"I can't help it. It's one of the few emotions I can still feel." Her eyes now half lit. Her beautiful blue hair was losing opacity and fading white as the sensation in her legs were no more, causing the heart smith to pick her up into his arms as he tries to find a seat for them both.
He lets her rest on his lap as he sits down. Her breathing was getting slower, weaker and heavier. Her beautiful eyes no longer open as she struggles to breath. He sees her pain and hates that he couldn't do anything but watch.
But there was one solution but he knew she would never forgive him if he did it.
"Hey, why do you sell hearts anyway?"
Gathering some breathe, "Because…none of them…fits me."
He holds her closer with the strength he had left of him. "Then is it alright if I give you mine?"
She opens her eyes after some time and sees the young blond man – her hero smiling wonderfully at her. His eyes half lit as he reaches to her chest and places it over her heart. The glow could be seen from the outside as it was bright red and an overflowing feeling of emotions return through her veins. Her breathing was returning to normal and her vision was clear.
But he, he was a different story.
His balance was gone and both fell to the floor, his arm placed her waist as she looks at him, her eyes ready to burst tears. His breathing was starting to suffer.
"Why…" she asks desperately. "Why heart-no, Link. Tell me why."
He smiles with the strength he has left, "Because I know you have much more love to share with others. Your hearts gives out happiness, joy and love. I know you couldn't feel it then but every time you would sell a heart to a child or to an adult the glee on their face was so pure – so pure of joy that I know I couldn't replace."
"But you do it too! Don't you see the joy your customers have when you fix their broken hearts?! Link!" She grabs onto his shirt.
She felt she was starting to lose him as he was trying so hard to stay awake for her. "Yeah, but you do such a better job than me. I can't copy…that smile…that joy. I always…liked that…about you." He sees her tears flooding down her face. He did never like her like that.
He wants to remind her of the time they first met but he was losing his words, but he stills does it anyway. "Remember…the time we met. I was so lost…and then I found a girl selling…hearts. We were so young then. Then…an old man…took me in and…taught…me this."
She places a finger over his lips, "Stop talking, and let me bring your heart back please Link!"
"…Lana." He speaks her name. "No. Take it… and give out your hearts…. with the joy, glee and happiness… you gave to me that day…that day you gave me… your heart."
The reason her heart was dying was that day many years ago were the little young selfless girl met a boy in the slumps, crying and barely breathing. She greeted him with a smile and happiness as she pulled the boy into an embrace. He remembers how she held his hand on that fateful day and knew the darkness was going to take his fading heart away.
That was when the young girl placed her heart in him. He could still remember the over flowing feeling and emotions that was suddenly poured right back into him. He didn't understand how she kept on smiling and laughing after that day and knew one day she would reach to the point where she no longer felt anything but pain.
"Take care…Lana."
He closes his eyes for the final time as the young woman lied there as she cries and her hair returning to that beautiful sky blue colour. His arm around her waist drops and that last pulse drifted away from him. His warmth was dropping.
The darkness would soon take him away from her but she remains there.
"For you Link, I'll do that. I'll share my hearts to the world. I know you would want me to do that."
"Doctor this way, hurry!"
Rushing with all her might she follows the path in front of her. Her heels crashing down hard on the cold tiles beneath her and her white lab coat flutters as all her notes and items bounces in her pockets. She takes sharp corners and suddenly she sees the door. Panting, she enters as the rest of her coworkers grab a breath or two of their own before entering.
"It's such an unusual case." She hears one of them speak over her. "There is so much darkness in him I can't believe his even alive."
She wasn't surprised. The world had grown so much colder and darker than she had expected that every case she faces now involved darkness and death. Ever body that comes to her is already so cold from the darkness that it was already too late to save them. She and the other around her could only watch their bodies wither away from the lack of compassion, happiness, joy and love in their hearts. What was the point of being a heart surgeon if she couldn't even save a few hearts?
What surprises her now was the fact that there was somebody alive and still had huge amount of darkness in them. But she was convinced that they will wither away like the rest in a few hours.
She embraces herself for comfort, "I'm sorry Link. I guess I couldn't give out all the happiness you once told me to do."
She plays that moment in her mind once more. How long as it been since that day? She could no longer recall.
"Lana! The machine, its recording a pulse!"
The whole room was caught in awe. People manifested with darkness do not have hearts. It is because they have no hearts that the darkness is able to enter their body and take control of them.
Lana looks at the strange person lying on the bed silently. His whole body was dark, even his hair and skin. She waited until she sees his eyes flicker and open. If there was ever a case a person manifested with darkness would open their eyes they would enter into a fit and scream horrible and ugly words.
But this one did not.
He continues to lie there quietly and his eyes – his eyes were not red. In fact they were so pure and blue that it could match the colour of her blue hair. She takes a few steps closer, ignores the warning of her fellow workmates and touches the strange man.
"I wonder…what makes you so special?"
His eyes turn for her as his body reaches to touch her fingertips. She would normally pull back but she lets the strange man touch them. The machine continues to record a pulse as the man covered in darkness holds her hand tightly.
The doctor's purple eyes were suddenly letting tears run down her face. Covering her mouth she tried to stop the whimpering and muffling but she could not. Her joy, her happiness and love for him was overflowing so much that it reached him somehow…after all this time.
To this day, it felt like she was still giving out hearts on that street that were filled with pure joy, happiness and love, even if she had turned into a doctor.
The man smiles as Lana could see his lips starting to move. His voice was weak at the start as she notices the darkness all over his body begins to melt away. "I found it…my heart." He finally speaks.
Lana laughs lightly at the man's cliché words before leaning forward and places her forehead onto his with joy. She still can't keep her tears in control but the man doesn't mind one bit.
"Yes, yes you have."
A/N: Still...haven't finished Hyrule Warriors and I've written 2 oneshots for LanLink. Lol.
I was reading a comic about hearts and I liked it so much that I've based the beginning of this story off that. Also hearts are kinda a thing in LoZ so I guess writing about them would make more sense in this fandom than another.
Anyway I hope this wasn't too long, and also I thought this story would work more in presense tense so I gave that a shot. I hope it turned out alright, until next time.
~midnight