The Never Healing Wound
By Harmony283
Summary: Seven years have gone by, and now it is time for those who remember the Dark One's reign, who hold the memories of an altered time they never truly lived, to meet again. But already the memories are leaving their scars. The wounds that never heal.
Pairings: hinted Sheik Zelda, Link X Sheik
Authors Note: I finally got my hands on Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and I instantly fell in love with Sheik. On my older sisters advice I decided to write something with him in it—and this is what came out. Yes I know Sheik is really Princess Zelda in the game, who doesn't know that by now? But in this fanfic Sheik is really a 'he' and I'm going with the popular belief that Zelda just dressed up as him that one time Link saw Sheik transform into her. Also this is in Sheik's POV.
Warning(s): Shonen-ai and hinting of violence
"Sheik, do you understand?" I turned my face slowly away from the direction of her voice. Yes I understood. I understood perfectly well what she was saying. Didn't mean I had to believe it though. She obviously didn't like whatever my silence had meant and spoke again, "Sheik it's for your own safety." I could hear the desperate tone in her voice; she always hated it when I didn't respond. Then she said the words I dreaded to hear from her, "You'd just get in the way if we let you get involved. Even Impa's worried about you. You need to stay here."
My grip tightened even more on the sheet covering me, and she noticed. Immediately her face softened, or at least I assumed it did. I wasn't looking at her. "You know." She started, "It's been almost seven years now." I knew that tone, she was trying to comfort me. But she was trying to comfort herself as well, "We'll be able to see him again!"
It didn't surprise me that she had forgotten, "But I can't see him, Princess." I could feel her tense at this and added on, "I can't see him, he thinks it was you, remember?" immediately the happy aura around her dulled, and I almost felt bad for saying that. But what else could I say? She should have remembered that. But she didn't.
"…He's coming here," she was trying to change the subject now, "with business dealing with expansion and other…things. The Kokiri love him and he has…grown to protect the Great Deku Sprout."
"Really?" My voice was dry, and bitter, and she could tell. I could feel her tense.
Then, out of the blue, she asked, "Do you want to see him? Do you want him to see you?" I hadn't expected her to say that, but I heard her stand up. "I can bring him here, you know I can. He can see that you're real."
I turned to face her when she said this. I couldn't see her face clearly, despite how close she was. She had taken to wearing a veil now, for whatever reason. But what she said, what she just said, "You can't."
She made a noise, something between a cough and a surprised squeak, "why not? It's been seven years! Are you afraid he doesn't want to see you? I mean, I'll tell him you're real!"
I looked away from her again, "No. Just…don't."
"And again," I felt added pressure to the bed, Zelda was right next to me now, "Why not? Give me one good reason why, Sheik."
I exhaled softly, "Because I don't want to see him." It would be too complicated if I did. He still wouldn't know, which times had been Zelda, which times had been me, or if I was even the same Sheik he knew—even vaguely—back then. When he was saving the world.
"y-you don't?" she didn't believe me. She didn't believe me. "Are you sure?" she asked, suspicion clear in her voice, "He will remember you."
"Me. But me as you. He'll remember you, Princess." How many times was I going to have to repeat myself?
I could tell she was angry now. "Oh no you don't. You aren't going to do this! I refuse to let you do this!" Now I was surprised. I turned to her, only to have her try and hit me. It wasn't hard; I didn't expect it to be. But she somehow thought it got her point across, even though I had no idea what that point even was.
I grabbed her hand when she tried to 'hit' me again and asked, "What am I doing again, Princess?"
She tugged her hand immediately away from mine, "You aren't going to do this—say you don't matter, how I'm more important—you aren't. You're just as important to Link as I am to him. You even more-so! Don't you get it?"
I shook my head, "I…Princess, I don't. It would…cause too many problems if he were to see me now. He thinks you were me the entire time." It didn't seem like she wanted to hear that though, she just seemed all the more desperate to change my mind.
"But I wasn't, I can prove that! You're here aren't you?" she was getting even angrier, she sounded like she was even going to cry. But she was right. I was here. She could prove that I did, indeed, exist. There was just one thing stopping her. But before I could say it, the door opened.
"Princess Zelda," It was Impa, "you have…company."
He was here. She didn't even have to say his name. I already knew it. He was here. Immediately the extra weight on my bed disappeared, followed by the sound of soft shoes and skirt sliding against the stone floor, then shortly afterwards the closing of a door.
But I wasn't alone, Impa was still here. She stood by the door for a moment before walking over to me, "How are you?" she sounded like she cared, or like she was trying to care. But she didn't need to ask me. She could see the answer for herself, "The same." It wasn't a question this time. I heard her move, and then she was sitting on the foot of the bed, "You know the Princess is worried about you."
I let out a sigh, "I know that…all too…well." I felt my hand grip the sheets again, "I wish she wouldn't, though."
Impa laughed at that, but there was no humor left in her voice, "You can't blame her. Despite her age, she's still so much like a child. You can't expect her to understand all the reasons behind why you don't want to see the Hero." So she had overheard our conversation. "And yes I did overhear your conversation." It was as if she didn't realize I noticed that already. "But I'm sure you noticed that." And now she was reading my mind.
She laughed again, though now it was bitter, "Don't think so lowly of me. The Hero has traveled here long, of course I would want to come and retrieve the Princess as quickly as possible."
I chanced a glance over at her, I could see her, but just barely, "Shouldn't you go with her?"
She made some sort of face before crossing her arms over her chest and saying, "Yes I should. But it's up to her whether or not she wants to bring Link here, to see you." I opened my mouth to say something but she cut me off, "And if she does, then you'll just have to bare with it. Do you honestly think it's my fault that this happened? Your just as much a man as Zelda is a woman. You have to face things you wouldn't want to face normally."
Just like that, just like that she took away any form of defense, any excuse of any kind I could have come up with and she killed it. And I didn't want her to apologize for it either. I didn't want to see him, but now I probably was and there really wasn't anything I could do about it.
I let out a sigh then and nodded my head, "Fine. If she comes, and he comes then…I'll deal with it." I looked up at the ceiling, even though I couldn't really see it. "But," I knew I caught Impa's attention with that, "it will get…complicated."
"Maybe." She said almost offhandedly, "But then things are already complicated enough, aren't they?" now she was staring at me, my face, and I knew what she was talking about. Time had been distorted, for however long the Dark One had ruled, for however long it took the Hero to bring him to his knees…
It was like a knot. A knot in time that couldn't come loose. It was affecting us now, because it was still time. Time spent, at least, in our memories. Those memories would come back alive even more if I saw him again. If we saw him again. Any of us, all of us, if we saw them those memories could come alive.
But how could we have memories of a time we didn't live? Of a time that didn't happen. It wouldn't happen now, after seven years, even though this is the day when most of it started. When he woke up from the seven year sleep. Would he try to wield the Master Sword? Would he—
"Even for a Sheikah you think too much." Impa murmured from next to me, "let information flow, this isn't that hard to figure out. You'll just see him," she hesitated, "not…see him, not with your eyes I mean."
I knew what she meant and shook my head, looking back at her, "What about the memories?"
Immediately a barrier went up around her, "What of them? They're just memories."
"Just memories." I echoed, and suddenly I felt too afraid to say much more. Maybe it was the sudden chill I got from just that one word, or maybe it was the fact I could hear footsteps literally running towards the room, I didn't know. But immediately Impa was up and—
The door was broken down and—
"Impa it's just me!" Princess Zelda called out, from somewhere out in the hall, "Link, do you remember…Impa?"
My chest constricted and suddenly I really did feel cold. Not just because of him being right outside the door, but because of the fact that Impa still hadn't let her guard down. I wasn't going to panic, though. Yes I wouldn't be able to do anything. I was too weak to, even Princess Zelda could see that. It would only be Impa and Li—the Hero—protecting the Princess.
Normally that wouldn't have bothered me, but I doubted he used a sword on an everyday basis, even if he decided to really train for an evil that simply wouldn't come. Another horrifying chill ran down my spine as I heard the sound of a gasp, I knew who it was coming from. I didn't even have to turn my face, not that I could. That would raise too many questions. Questions I didn't want to answer.
"Sh-Sheik?!" his familiar voice echoed off the stone walls of the small room. He was surprised, shocked. I could picture him clearly in my head, clad in green, opening and closing his mouth not being able to come up with something to say.
"Yes," instead Zelda spoke up for him, "it's…Sheik."
For a moment the room was dead silent, no words exchanged, no one even moved. That is, until Impa quickly shut the door. This seemed to trigger a reaction in the Hero because he spoke again, "H-How? Z-Zelda you're standing…right here?" He really did think Zelda had been me the entire time, and to say it didn't hurt would be an understatement. Because it did, it did hurt.
"Because he is real." Zelda spoke again, sounding too calm for her own good, "he's real, he's there and—"
And suddenly I was being hugged. I hadn't even heard him come forward. He was just there, hugging me. Saying loudly, "No way, no way! You are real!" he sounded like a little kid—it was embarrassing. Or at least it was on my part. He didn't seem to even care. He just kept chanting, "I was right, I was right." Until suddenly he stopped and pulled away, I thought he was going to ask why, but he didn't.
He didn't ask the why I expected him to. Instead he asked, "Why are you in a place like this though?"
The old silence came back, like a deadweight that no one wanted but that was there. It was long, it was gruesome and Impa was still standing by the doorway, tense and waiting for something to happen. But it seemed she had been listening, she broke the silence easily saying, "He's here because he needs to be here."
"But why does he need to be here?" he was acting so much like a little kid, asking so many questions, but he seemed more…serious about it than he would have before. Than he would have when I met him before in my memories.
Zelda easily filled that in, though, with a cheerful, "Because he wanted to see you!"
I would have fallen over—or maybe even laughed—at that. But I didn't, not just because she was probably giving me a death glare right now, but because he was so close and he was nearly radiating with happiness.
Then I felt the words forming on my own, "Why are you here?" I asked, it was slow, much slower than it needed to be. But he didn't waver, he didn't wonder, he didn't even seem to notice my tone.
"Because the Deku tree sent me. He's growing quickly now, but he wanted me to give you," he was talking to Princess Zelda now, "something. The kikori say hello too." I highly doubt they knew much about Princess Zelda except for the fact that she was a Princess. They couldn't even leave that forest, how could they know that much.
…And how could he stand it? Being cooped up in a place like that for seven years? He never once came by the Castle—not that they would've let him but…
The memories. It would be going against the memories. It would confuse them even more. The memories of what should be happening now, what is happening now, in an altered dimension where the Dark One rules.
Suddenly Zelda let out a little squeal, "It's…it's so cute!" her reaction surprised me, and I had the sudden urge to turn and see what she was looking at. But he would see my face, and he would ask. I didn't want him to ask but—
But then Zelda gasped, "Watch out Sheik!" and suddenly something, something furry was trying to undo the cloth that hid my face. I immediately grabbed it, or tried to, but it jumped off my shoulder and onto the bedcovers, burying underneath them and crawling over one of my legs.
It had sharp claws. I winced as said claws dug into my shin, the material of my outfit—no matter how heat and water resistant it was—was too thin to really protect me, it almost felt like I was bleeding.
I felt someone lean over me, and suddenly the animal hissed and jumped out at whoever tried to grab it. Judging from the loud 'whump' sound, along with the bitten back curse, I could tell that he had tried to grab it, and had fallen on the floor because of it. But now the animal was climbing it's way up my shoulder, it was long too. Or at least it's tail was long. It wrapped it's way around my neck and, to my surprise, stayed there.
Again Zelda made some sort of squealing noise, "Aww! It likes you, Sheik!" she started to giggle, "what is it, Link?"
"It's a pipe fox." He answered back, sounding like he was in pain, "It kept…biting me on the way here. I'm surprised it likes you." Suddenly he was up and sitting on the bed next to me. He eyed me for a moment before saying, "Are you going to just not look at me when I'm here? What's wrong?" He didn't want me to answer that, or he knew I wouldn't answer that. I thought he would continue talking, or try to grab this…animal, pipe fox, whatever it was, again. But the only thing he wound up grabbing was my chin. He knew I wasn't expecting that, and he used it to his advantage.
In one quick motion he turned my head to face him. He was close enough that I could see him flinch, could see his eyes widen at what he saw.
"Your eyes," he asked softly, "What happened to your eyes?"
A pipe fox is basically just a small very long fox (if you've read xxxHolic, that's basically what the pipe fox in this looks like)
And yes the cliffhanger was intentional. I don't know if I'll start up writing this on a regular basis, I have my other fanfic (Linebeck's Agreement) to keep track of, so any chances of this being continued is left up to the reviewers. So review if you liked it, have CC, etc, it's the only way I know to update.
-Harmony283