"I KNOW!" I screamed. "I've known for a month!"
I stormed from the room, leaving my bewildered lady-in-waiting in the dust.
I ran out onto the balcony. The same balcony where Zant had found his 'god'. I ran to the end, where I sank to the ground, my head in my hands sobbing.
"WHY?" I cried out to the gods, throwing my head back to look at the heavens. "Why do you curse me like this? I was transformed to an imp, I fell in love with a man from another species, and now you do this? Why gods, why? What I have I done wrong?"
but I knew what I had done.
I wailed, a long, howling sound of misery. And then I slumped forward, tears streaming for my eyes. My lips moved in a silent prayer to the gods of Twilight that whomever my brother chose for me would be a good man. A good-no. I couldn't say it, even in my thoughts.
"An odd spot to be praying."
I looked up, but the person was already sitting down beside me. A boy, about my age. I gasped slightly and turned my face away as though I'd been slapped. He looked like...like him. If He had been a Twili, this is what he would have looked like.
"What?" he asked. His voice was similar, but different. Teasing. A hint of sarcasm. "Does my handsome face shame yours so much you cannot bear to look upon it?"
what a jerk! His 'handsome face'...? his face might be as flawless and beautiful as the gods liked, but in his eyes..by Din, he was flirting with me!
"No..." I choked. "Y-you shouldn't talk to me like that anyway. If somebody hears you will be executed. That honor is reserved for my betrothed," I added bitterly.
"Then I said it to the right princess."
I looked at him, startled. I gulped. "I-i'm sorry," I stammered. "I-it's just that y-you look a lot like..."
he nodded. "Like my brother." a flicker of a smile crossed his lips at my surprise. "I know. I've been told that before. I think...i think that may be why King Mordechai chose me to marry you."
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
He smiled. "Looking for you. Your mother is looking for you. She wants you for dress fittings. How long have you known?"
I sniffed. "I know. I overheard Mordechai and Ami talking about it near a month ago. What I meant was, why are you..well, here. Why aren't you out there? Enjoying the sunshine, and talking to humans, and-"
"Because I can't."
"What? What do you mean?"
he shrugged. "I'm a changeling. Or rather, he is."
it would explain why the poor boy's parents had abandoned him. And why he was the only Hylian in a village of humans. But still...
"So then..." my voice trailed off.
"Yes. He was meant to be born a Twili. Of course, the gods probably wouldn't have made him noble born."
I blinked. "What happened then? Why are you here, instead of him?"
he sighed. "it was a mistake. Nothing more, nothing less. If I was born into the Light World I would have had Shadow Magic, you see. The gods placed me in my mothers womb, but they soon realized their mistake. They knew that the Hero of Light had to be born from these parents, but they forgot. Made a mistake, as even gods will do. Nayru remembered, and reminded the others, but not before a mage told my mother that their child would be born with Shadow Magic."
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
"Don't be. It's the only way their world, and ours had a fighting chance. Because you were born in Twilight, and Link was born in the Light."
link. His name. Link. I had not dared to say it even silently for two months, yet here he said it as though it were nothing.
"So then..." I understood immediately. "but, if he's your Changeling, then what's your name?"
he shrugged. "depends. What do most people call me, you mean?"
"I guess that would be easiest."
he looked down. "Dark Link. Dark for short."
I snorted. The snorting turned into chuckles, the chuckles turned into laughter.
"It's good to see you laughing," Dark commented. "if we are to be married then I suppose that I should know how to make you laugh."
my laughter stopped so abruptly that I began choking. I coughed, my eyes tearing. And not just because of the coughing.
"I wish someone had told me," I commented tearfully. "already they are preparing the wedding, and this is the first time anybody has been honest enough to come out and tell me I'm to marry you."
he nodded. "i know."
that was about the time when I realized that I might actually grow to love this man.
(~*~)
He snuck into my rooms that night.
"Midna," I heard a voice whisper. It was so feint I thought that I was imagining it, that it was in my dreams or in the wind whispering through the trees. "Midna," it whispered again, this time louder.
I sat up. "What?" I recognized the voice. "Dark? Is that you? Where are you?"
"Outside your window." he sounded amused, teasing.
"What!" I scrambled out of bed, throwing on my dressing gown over my shift. "Stalker!" I hissed, leaning out the window to greet him.
He was sitting there, perched in the tree outside my window. The nights get hopelessly hot in the Twilight Realm, so he had abandoned his tunic and undershirt. He was also barefoot, and his hair was mussed. It looked as though he hadn't combed it since he climbed out of bed.
Never the less, he could never have looked more handsome.
He was grinning like it was his birthday. "Hold on," I told him, slipping back into my room. I pulled off my dressing gown and shift, after drawing the curtains closed. I pulled on my skirt and a belt, tying it loosely. The skirt I chose was loose, so I kilted it up between my legs using the belt. After that I put my dressing gown back on and climbed out my window into the tree beside Dark.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him quietly.
"they don't want us to meet until our wedding day." Dark told me, just as quietly.
"What?" I was stunned. "What do they want, me to faint when I see you?"
Dark snorted. "I doubt anything that pleasant."
I swore. "and, of course, because we're royalty-or will be, at any rate-i am expected to share my bed with you on our wedding night."
Dark smiled an un-humored smile. "Of course," was all he said.
I sighed. "Mordechai really has been gone too long, if he expects me to do this."
"I was never very clear on that," Dark commented dryly. "If your brother is the ruler, not you, than why did Zant 'overthrow' you?"
I wrinkled my nose. "because my brother is an idiot," I said bluntly. "my family is really new dynasty. It was my great-grandfather who overthrew Zant's family to become king. My father thought this was a mistake, and invited them back from exile. He also gave away large chunks of land to our neighbors, buying alliences. Mordechai sees this as a massive blunder. So, of couirse, he's always out getting back that land-usually by force- and more with it. Leaving me in charge of things here at home."
"So when he found out that Zant cursed you..."
"He took it as a sign of my female weakness. Which is why you're here." I alsmot said "which is how we landed in this whole mess" but I thought Dark might take that as an insult. I sighed, looking up at the sky. "I hate politics," I muttered. He nodded. "Me too," he admitted.
We sat in silence awhile, stargazing. About half an hour or so later, I noticed that the sols were beginning to brighten again. Dark must have noticed too, because he reached over, pressing his lips against mine.
It wasn't like he was squashing my lips, but it wasn't a quick peck of a kiss either. His lips rested against mine, and I began to grow bright violet, before he pulled away, and, laughing slipped down the tree.
Dark was right. Until our wedding day, the only time we saw each other was when he appeared outside my window in the night. Once, a few months after we met and a week before our wedding, I decided to surprise him by showing up at his window instead. The look on his face when he saw me poking my head into his window was priceless.
When we got married, we were 'introduced' the day before.
"Midna," my mother toled me. "This is-"
"Itzal Dark, my future husband. We met three months ago." after saying this, Dark and I both laughed ourselves silly at the look on my mother's face.
a/n: wow, I put in midlink. Totally unexpected.