http:/ tvtropes. org/pmwiki/pmwiki. php/Main/WhiteHairedPrettyBoy – remove the spaces, of course. That might help you understand some things. (The main article, that is.)
Review responses:
Trolly's Bara-chan: your (lack of) maturity never ceases to amuse me~ thanks so much for everything!
SilverFlameoftheWindScar: you have a long penname. This amuses me. I'm glad you're hooked, and personally I think they got off… kind of easy. Think about what happens and decide if it would terrify you enough to never, ever do it again. Thanks for reviewing!
Chapter 2: The demon's coffin and the pedestal of time
His fingers had just come to grip the warm, suede-wrapped metal under the pommel when the red eyes cracked open, and simply watched him.
It was… unnerving. "I'm sorry." He found himself saying to the silent observer, before he pulled the sword free.
To his great horror, the moment the metal slipped out of the stone… the black and twisting vines which held back the demon, began to fade away and dissolve into dust. The onyx dust glittered and danced toward the ceiling and disappeared in the shattered light, until every part of what had been hidden behind their creeping thorns was revealed to him. Dark clothes and white bandages and many, many lines of red covered a lean body, one that was strong enough to rip into him with ease. The folded wings weren't so any longer, stretching out as the demon began descending on him - slow as a drifting feather. He touched the floor just as gentle and soundless, and his gaze had caught Link and made him stand still even though every thought was screaming about Zelda and don't ever don't ever don't ever-!
His hair shined brilliant snow-white under the sunbeams which touched on the pedestal… The red eyes narrowed, and the demon's head cocked to the side and assessed him. Link couldn't even hope to discern what he was thinking, and that worried him more than anything except the remembrance of metal claws slashing apart the world…
"And just what do you think you're doing with that?" A voice he supposed belonged to the guardian – really it had to have been; it had come from him and there was no one else - echoed around the room and smothered itself in the wood of the tree at the owner's back.
Link wanted so badly to wither under that gaze, to duck away in shame, but he didn't have the time so he forced words instead, "My friend – we were attacked by a wind weasel and it hit me, and she's back there alone-!" Link half-explained, half-pleaded trying not to edge back as the other stepped closer.
The red gaze stayed on him and the demon was soundless for three more steps, four… he came close enough to reach out and touch Link, and his wings were half extended behind him still. The broad things had something terrifying about them, something that made him look bigger and scarier than anyone Link had ever come across. They were as beautiful as they were imposing, smooth red skin stretched between bony fingers. Red skin run over with a tapestry of blue veins, painting a memory of death and despair and two thousand nights alone in darkness…
"And you think that sword can save her?" Their voice was powerful, "In your hands?" The second question just seemed to be insult to injury, to Link, but the demon sounded more blunt and curious than mocking or malicious. Link didn't flinch, even if he wanted to, but pressed his chest out and chin forward.
"Yes." He tried to channel every drop of courage and confidence he had into it. All of his resolution. Even if I have to die. If those thoughts would be what kept his spirit burning then he would repeat them over and over into eternity.
The demon took another step closer. Link kept a firm grip on the mastersword, watching one tan hand drift up to brush his cheek. He could see sharp nails on the fingers that touched his skin, very gentle… "Please let me go to her. You can do whatever you want to me afterwards, for waking you up, for taking this… just let me make sure she's okay." Link muttered, very aware of one certain image in the back of his mind. 'Time is running out' was written in the sand… and the unbroken hourglass was beside it, dripping blood.
Drip drip drop drip drip drop
The demon ran his fingers up Link's skin to the corner of his eye – he shut it on instinct – and traced the edge carefully with the pad of his index finger, like he was wiping a tear.
"What are you going to do if I refuse?"
"I'll fight you." Link murmured, staring straight into the blood-and-fire eye of the demon. "I can't leave her. We're wasting time." The eye narrowed, and Link figured the other hidden under white hair must have too. The demon leaned forward, brushing his gauze-covered nose against Link's. His eyes narrowed in what might've been glee, or pleasure, or even pain.
"Alright. Take the sword and save the princess. Then come back here to me, and accept your punishment." He rumbled casually, eyes narrowed. "Just give me a drop of your blood to swear on it."
I don't have time for this. With narrowed eyes and a hiss, Link brought the borrowed blade upwards and pricked his right finger, so that a drop of crimson eternity welled up. It was thrust out toward the demon like something vile, but he only watched it slip over Link's finger and go crashing toward the floor… Before their eyes it glittered and became solid, twisting and… forming a key… but that was gone in a flash of red wings and tan fingers.
"Go. Save the princess." The demon told him, and Link didn't spare a second.
He ran and ran, away from the pedestal of time, from the demon's silhouette before it…
And the demon watched with curved wings and crossed arms, as the hero ran from the center of the temple.
This will be entertaining.
Exploding from the rightmost doorway in that first hall, Link shot across to their door, through the room of time… and up the stairs like a bolt of light. Up, up, up… It hadn't seemed so long before but now it dragged into eternity, the stairs which fell into nothing… but he could just hear the rushing of wind when-! Stop stop stop-! – Another spray of dancing lights swallowed him whole.
"Link… Link, come on, wake up…" he groaned, pressing his eyes further together before allowing them to open. First white, and then Zelda's face and just the light behind her… he could see the ceiling, and his friend was scratched and bruised…
He lunged up, wrapping her in a hug that, according to the laws of force and momentum, ended up toppling them both over.
"What happened? The monster hit me and then you were fighting it and I was – I went to try and get help, Zelda- What happened-?" He broke off into complete incoherence, while she sighed and rubbed his back.
"Calm down." She murmured, so serene that he had to… had to try… "Tell me more slowly." She encouraged, running her hand in slow ellipses.
Link took a deep breath. "Okay. I… remember fighting the wind weasel, and it threw me so I hit the floor. Then everything got all fuzzy, but I know you started fighting it… anyway, you cast a spell or… something, I don't know, but there were a bunch of colors and I ended up in the room below this and there was… the mastersword, Zelda." He breathed. "I-its real. It's real, and there, and I had it in my hands. And there was a demon and I… I made a deal with him to help you… and I was running back here, but then the colors came back and… then I woke up and you were okay and we were here." Zelda blinked up at him, and then he remembered that you really weren't supposed to pin your friends on the ground and rolled off of her.
"Alright." She said slowly, apparently measuring his words, before she sat up. "Okay… Ah, this is shorthand, alright? You got hit pretty hard, Link. When it threw you, I started fighting it instead. You were out cold."
… what?
"I did cast a protection charm over you… that way, I wouldn't have to worry if I threw magic at it…" she mumbled, cocking her head to the side while she remembered. "Anyway, I took care of the problem." And she smiled, sweet and reassuring.
"… O-oh. But… how? What about the demon?" Her eyes flickered back open and blinked at him in a way that honestly reminded of an owl. Though, Link didn't quite notice in his addled state, and Zelda wouldn't have appreciated the comparison anyway.
After a moment she spoke up again. "No one's been here for over a thousand years, Link. Even a demon couldn't have lived that long…" She reached over and ruffled his hair with one hand, a gentle and friendly gesture that never failed to irritate him. He swatted her hand out of habit. Zelda smiled wider, relieved and a little sheepish. "And I… well, I'm sorry. When it was attacking me, my foot hit your staff and… well, there's eyeball-gook on it now." Link blinked back at her.
"… it's okay." He said slowly. "I think that was from me."
… she's right… it was just a dream… he shuddered a little at the thought of making a deal like that. He knew he'd do it again, yes, but that didn't make it any less unsettling… That might've been the worst part actually…
"Still, the mastersword is supposed to be somewhere inside here, isn't it?" Zelda mused, "Perhaps you were thinking of that."
"Yeah." Link mumbled, getting to his feet and searching for his staff. Zelda was fine. Zelda was… beautiful, brilliant, fucking psycho – fending off a wind weasel on her own, what the hell was she thinking? – and now… now they needed to get out of here. They had to start getting ready for academy, anyway… His mind began to zone out of the temple to a whirl of books and lessons and screaming Mido's , and a long pile of homework…
Link grabbed his bloodied staff from the floor. The stains were gleaming violet-black, and there was a trail of that same foul blood leading to one of the wind funnels… A very smeared and thick trail…
She didn't just chase it off. She's as good as killed it. Link realized with a chill, just as Zelda called to him that they had to leave. She looked casual enough, but she had to have realized what she'd been doing… Link conceded to her point and tried not to look too closely at the subject. So they did leave, slinking down the stairs and crossing the clock-room, carefully scaling the rope Zelda had left back up where Link had had to edge across and swing down before. And they left the temple, still dust and monster-free, and stepped outside into the sunset.
And under the warm dying light, Link's neck burned like someone was watching him. But really, he knew no one could be there. He still looked to be certain.
Arms were tight around him, trapping his own to his sides. He was in a terrible, horrible, completely inescapable situation. And it was Zelda's fault.
"Link!" That high voice cried, painful on his ears, "Oh, my baby… you need rest! You need milk!" Navi continued fussing, her wings buzzing through the air behind her until it glowed white. Zelda had gone to her own home across the way after a short farewell, and an extorted promise of Link taking it easy for a while.
She'd also called Navi. To, you know, make sure he kept that promise. Whether he had to be tied down or not.
It wouldn't have been the first time that happened. Link tried to remember, as his mother siphoned jar after jar of Lon lon milk down his throat, that Zelda was crazy, and it was generally a bad idea to fuck with crazy people. And that was why he shouldn't seek bloody, horrible vengeance on her girly-girl soul. (Zelda? A girly-girl? He'd definitely rattled his brains.) Still, as Navi pressed kisses into his forehead and more or less carried him around like a doll, it was hard not to give in. He really wanted some vengeance right about now. And- how was Navi carrying him, anyway? She was a wisp, she barely existed! And yet she had him in her arms as easy as when he'd been a baby… he groaned, closing his eyes as his mother tucked him into bed.
"If it's still bad we're going to the doctor in the morning." Navi told him, and danced out after she pressed a kiss to his temple. He turned over and fell asleep.
Everything was dancing. Seven colors that flickered and faded like fairy lights before shooting apart like shattered stars falling, three triangles which flew together and became the triforce… A terribly wicked grin on tan-green skin, a woman screaming, and a world fading to darkness. The lovely red wings of the demon, dreadful and alluring, begging for him to reach out and touch…. They had stretched in front of him from the center of the dark… And then all he could see was the fire-and-blood eye, widening in glee as he fell down…
The demon stood on air and watched him with crossed arms and a sharp smile under the gauze.
And Link kept falling…
When he finally hit the bottom of space, he was really at the bottom. In a second the world turned blue and he was standing under the ocean, watching the bubbles ghost up from his lips and disappear. Light beams broke through at the very top but didn't reach him – they brushed on the half-there stairs floating in oblivion. So he started to run up them, not thinking about how he could breathe or why the water didn't drag his body, just that he had to reach the top.
His fingers reached out for the light of the surface, miles apart then closer, closer… he felt the streams that broke through the blue dance across his skin, and every soundless contact of his feet against the glass was beautiful desperation, because he had reached it-!
And the light and water slipped through his fingers just as his eyes flickered open in his bedroom.
Cool blue bathed the place, like the pretty underwater dream. But he wasn't swimming, he wasn't anything. It had all been an illusion… he sighed, leaning his head against the cool wall. All a dream.
Even if it meant he hadn't sold his soul… He didn't think those words should be so sad.
Birds were singing, the sun was shining cheerfully in the sky. The weather was destined to be mild and perfectly clear. The only news was only good, and Griselda didn't burn breakfast this morning, and last night their sword school had brought home a countrywide tournament's trophy.
And all of that could go straight to hell for all it mattered to Zelda at the moment. She let out a frustrated growl that was most definitely not ladylike, tossing another turned-over drawer behind her. A steady pile of the things had already formed, grown too large, and fallen over. A cursory violent swipe at the cabinet had her discover that that had been the last one, in fact, so the options for the location were now severely limited…
Narrowing her eyes and stomping from the bathroom, Zelda made her way down the hall. And then another one. And another… until she arrived at the one with the balcony overlooking the back of their property. On the sofa in the center of the room, facing away from her, she could see a blond head, and arms stretched across the backrest.
The Enemy.
"Have you seen my eyeliner?" She asked suspiciously, and the blond head tilted back until she was full-in his sights. He smiled as he regarded her – slow, lazy, and with the quietly sadistic amusement only an older brother could radiate.
"Black pencils, terribly soft charcoal?" He drawled. With rage and icky-doom gnawing in her gut, Zelda hissed an affirmative. He didn't bother feigning thoughtfulness and just let his smile grow. "Hmm… Well, last I saw them; they were doing graceful pirouettes down the drain. I imagine you would have to check the waterways, now." He finished happily.
Zelda narrowed her eyes.
The sun was bright, the sky was blue, and the Lewenhart house was filled with screaming.
The world was looking pretty awesome today.
Link frowned at the property across the street from his. Horrible, bloody rage-filled screaming was echoing from the house, and as he looked out his window (perhaps to glimpse what had warranted such banshee-like screams) he saw a blue motorcycle go speeding off the property. The screams became angrier.
Wondering what could've gotten Zelda's panties in such a twist so early in the morning on such an obviously incredibly awesome day, Link headed downstairs.
Upon entrance to the kitchen Navi handed him a plate of what might've once been food before she'd gotten hold of it, and as he stared dejectedly at his breakfast she told him that his head had swollen to the size of a watermelon and that they were going to see the doctor in a half-hour. Link thanked his mother, told her he loved her, and dumped his breakfast on the houseplant. Woody screamed.
Finding a reasonably clean tunic and white pants – much as Link preferred the less heavy tights, he wasn't feeling up to another 'panty-shot' (as a particularly troublesome upperclassman had dubbed it) and those always seemed to happen when he went to the doctor – he dressed himself. A cap that everyone but Navi and Zelda claimed hatred of was dragged onto his head because he was too lazy to bother with his hair, (like always. Which was why he was always wearing that bloody cap), and he put on a pair of gloves because it annoyed the hell out of one of the Zora interns who liked to touch him at any given opportunity. The vast majority of his allotted getting ready time (nine minutes out of thirteen) were spent hunting for his boots, which had somehow found their way onto the top of the fridge, either because Navi had confused them with food and was storing them up there until she cooked them in a soup or because karma frowned on him dumping her terrible cooking on Woody the abused houseplant. He was curious, but unlikely to ever discover the answer, and so decided to just be happy he found them before they were served as dinner.
Then the allotted time was up (one boot still wasn't on) and he had to hop one-footed until he'd managed to work the second shoe on, because Navi had chased him from the house with high pitched chirps about their destination.
The town seemed bright and cheerful. They passed an amused gerudo named Aveil with a short exchange of hellos, but no others. One of the academy instructors was working in his yard and waved to them, and a new sensei at the swordsman's school was outside scowling at the blue sky like it had personally wronged him while a blond Link didn't recognize laughed.
The clinic was a fair distance from their home but they reached it without incident, which was almost disappointing. Link didn't usually see his sometimes-teacher looking that upset without something exploding soon afterwards, but unfortunately it seemed someone had kept him away from the fireworks store.
So they went inside without any incident, either. Link frowned, because now he knew something was bound to go wrong – and that was it. He knew; he was going to get her today. The waiting room was mostly empty; the last (and bulk) of the immunization checkups for school had been taken care of the week before, so the place was almost empty. A little sneezing fairy was across the way, and a bored fox was flicking pens at the ceiling while the man beside him insisted that 'yes, we have to be here, you CANNOT just walk around with a cracked rib-' Link figured that guy would win out in triage. Buuuut, he didn't seem bothered either way.
Apparently the triage here took the one-to-ten scale of pain very seriously though, because Link was called back next.
Dreading his arrival in the back office – they were going to send him to her, he just knew it – he sat in the chair, fidgeting. Navi, being the lovely, caring, sadistic bitch of a mother that she was, had remained behind to comfort the young fairy. All the while sending Link knowing smiles. She was hoping he'd be sent to that person. The evil woman…
The patient chair faced away from the door, but he wasn't having any of that. In the middle of protecting his blindspot – by turning the chair around so he couldn't be snuck up on - the door itself opened. As he heard it his heart stopped, his breath caught, and he wished desperately to hide under the desk and hide. So it was a very pleasant surprise when a young blond was on the other side and walked in, instead of the queen of crazy.
The one eyebrow Link could see – the other, along with half the man's face, was hidden by long hair – rose. "Hello." He greeted pleasantly enough, stepping around Link to the terribly fun spinning stool all doctors and their stand-ins got the pleasure of using. "Was the furniture arrangement not to your liking?" He inquired curiously. A medical mask covered the lower part of his face, the kind people wore with colds or during surgeries. Link shook his head, turning the chair back again.
"Its… fine, I was just worried about someone I knew sneaking in." He settled on, and sat down.
"… well then." That tone of voice was one Link knew; it indicated that he thought better than to ask, "I can assure you that won't happen today." The young man informed him, and held out a hand. "My name is Sheik. And you are Link, yes?"
"… yeah." He shook the offered hand.
"It's nice to meet you." He was very cordial, which seemed cold in its own special way. His eye – a dark brownish red, it looked strange – glanced down towards his clipboard. "Now, it says here you were admitted for a head injury?"
Ah. The fun stuff. This guy was going to want to have him committed once they finished. "Well, I hit my head yesterday…"
"- yeah. And summer ends in three days." Link finished explaining exactly why – to a plaintively disbelieving Sheik - he and Zelda had been running around the Temple of Time in the first place.
"I-I see…" The man scribbled something in his notes, brow creasing in what could've been irritation or concern. "For future reference, if you are hit in the head – or anywhere hard enough to black out, please put ice on it and immediately come to the clinic. Don't go home and sleep on it, just… don't."
Link smiled at him. "Will do." He gave a cheerful salute, while Sheik rolled his visible eye toward the ceiling.
"Come here and let me do a scan for brain damage, at least, before I give you a potion and send you home." He mumbled, looking very much like he could spend the rest of his life without encountering someone as insane as Link again. Not likely in this town.
Glass was pressed to his lips. His head tilted back, and very much against his will, a swirling frothy red mixture was poured down his throat. He groaned against the sharp metal flavor, shaking his head a little, but the stem of the bottle stayed between his teeth and clicked when it hit them. "Come on… drink it all…" the smooth voice murmured, close and commanding.
So he forced himself to swallow the mouthful of poison, grimacing and licking his lips.
He treated red potion as if it were the foulest thing that could touch his lips. The intern bit back a chuckle and called for the next patient, waving Link off with a final repeated warning on what not to do when one has suffered a head injury, whether it was born of an angry wind weasel or a slip in the tub. Link really, really hoped he wouldn't be coming back to see Sheik because he fell in the tub though. The guy had seemed like a nice person, if not a tad faint-hearted (in Link's mind it was perfectly normal to go tramping through abandoned temples, nearly get killed, and then go home to sleep it off. No one was sure why though, because yesterday had been the first time he'd done it.) and he hoped in the future that he would continue to be sent to Sheik instead of, say, Ruto… Actually, Link would like that a lot.
Not that that said much. Anyone beat Ruto.
The rest of the day kind of blurred together in a mess of obscurity, like watercolors on a wet page. He remembered shopping, and sewing, and the tailor cursing at him, but not much else. He didn't even get another glimpse of Zelda until sundown, when she climbed in his bedroom window – his room was on the second story – after dinner. Well, she said she climbed through the window. Link had been downstairs eating at the time, so he hadn't seen it, and the only reason he believed her was she would have had to have passed the kitchen table to get to the stairs and even Zelda wasn't that good. (Yet.) But the girl was a damn ninja when she wanted to be.
At the moment said ninja was stretched out on his bed, moaning about eyeliner and her mother's insistence on a new gown. One she would be wearing to start the school year. Apparently, any points made about Zelda's tendency to ruin gowns within moments of donning them were duly ignored. All this said, Zelda gave Link a pitiful look, and he tried not to roll his eyes too obviously as he came and sat beside her. She let out another irritated moan before cuddling up to him like he was her own personal teddy bear. (He was. Link was in denial about it though.) "So how did today go for you?" She asked him, content now that she had insured that she would be getting her Link-snuggles (it is recommended to get at least one serving of these daily for healthy living), had ranted and raved to her heart's content, and had finally escaped the stress of her own house. It became very hectic around this around this time of year, between politics and academia.
"Fun stuff." Link mumbled wryly. "Ah… went to the clinic – didn't crack my skull, by the way, and there wasn't any bleeding in my brain…"
"You didn't get Ruto, I take it?" Zelda asked, lazy and content. He'd made it pretty clear by his lack of shuddering and hiding behind her.
"Ah… no. No." Link shook his head. "Anyway, the guy made me drink some red potion and let me leave. He says not to do it again."
"Hit your head?"
"Hit my head then go home and sleep on it." Link corrected absently. "Then we shopped. The tailor yelled at me. Apparently I grew half a foot and they have to sew me completely new uniform pants." He frowned. "… Zelda, do I have a big butt?"
"Now where did that come from?" His dear friend asked with the slightest edge of sleepiness creeping into her tone.
"The tailor said I have a big butt." He mumbled, feeling ridiculous and embarrassed. Which was completely normal when a young man found himself asking his best friend about his butt, he supposed.
"You have an awesome butt, Link. Perfect size." Her assurance was interrupted here by a yawn, "The tailor is mad." Content to take over his bed and use him as a cuddle-pillow, Zelda shut her eyes. Link frowned at the wall. He didn't think he had a big butt. Zelda didn't seem too willing to agree or disagree though. About five minutes later, he realized he was still shooting the wall dirty looks and Zelda still wasn't talking. He glanced down; out like a light, the noble girl was. With an absent pat to her hair, he sighed and reached for the cellphone on his nightstand. The evening sky was a pretty mess of pink when he looked out the window at her grossly oversized home and dialed in a certain number.
Across the street he knew a phone was ringing. "… hello?" A voice he vaguely recognized answered on the other end, soft and curious.
"Hi. It's Link, from across the street… Is Mrs. Griselda there?" He replied mostly-cheerful in voice, eyeing the clouds far away from him but seeming so close to the treetops he used to climb…
"Is this about Zelda?" The voice suddenly gained an amused edge, and it was much less hesitant in speaking. Link allowed a wry smile to touch his lips as he watched the sun's light dwindle in their perfect dusk.
"Yes. She's kind of taken up residence over here and… well, doesn't seem to plan on leaving. Would it be all right if she just stayed over?"
"Did she fall asleep on you again?" The amused voice cut in. Link jolted, staring at the phone as though it had wronged him. Before he could respond, the voice continued, "Mom says it's fine. Just kick her out by seven, alright? Goodnight." And the line went dead. Biting his lip, Link continued to stare at the phone.
Who the hell was that?
(Chapter end)