Hi again! Here's chapter three for My Beast! Also we're working on the second chapter of Treasure and will hopefully update that one soon so unless you haven't read it yet go ahead and try it out. Anyway, here's a big dose of fluff for your Friday!

WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: ABSOLUTELY NONE


MY BEAST

CHAPTER 3: Postman Link


The garden bathed in the warm rays of the setting sun, a gentle breeze played in the long grass where Link lay on his back, struggling internally. He flipped an envelope around in his fingers, reading the neat handwriting on the back over and over again.

Ike Greil, Super Smash Brothers Tournament 2015, Smash Brothers Studios, Smashville.

It was a letter he had accidentally received, it had been misplaced in a stack of his mail and before he had noticed the error the postman had already gone. It was Ike's mail. Someone wrote him letters. Link flipped it over again, sighing. Who wrote Ike letters? He seemed like such a recluse.

Ike Greil, Super Smash Brothers Tournament 2015, Smash Brothers Studios, Smashville.

Link had held onto the letter for a few days, hoping to bump into Ike casually and hand it to him. It would also be a great excuse to engage him in a conversation, no matter how short, but Ike was truly elusive. After the ceremony he had vanished into thin air and moved between the arena and his room so stealthily that some of the smashers thought he had a teleport of sorts hidden in there.

Ike Greil, Super Smash Brothers Tournament 2015, Smash Brothers Studios, Smashville.

Link knew he couldn't hold onto the letter forever but in a sense it was a piece of Ike. It was something that belonged to him. The reason he had not accosted Ike wasn't all because he hadn't been able to find him, it was because when he did it might be the last chance he ever got to talk to him.

He sat up as he heard the grass rustle softly, someone was approaching. Zelda shuffled through the garden, her dress tinted with the warm glow of the setting sun. She sat down next to him and straightened her dress before looking at her friend. He had a ladybug in his hair, she picked it out carefully like a mother would.

"Are you still holding onto that?" She asked with a smile, referring to his letter. The insect skittered on her index finger before taking flight into the darkening evening. Link paid little to no attention to his looks but it did him hardly any damage, instead he reminded her of an unruly imp whenever he had pine needles or moss or small insects in his hair. How anyone could not like him was far beyond her understanding.

"Yeah…" Link admitted as he ran his fingers through his hair, a heavy sigh erupting from his chest.

"I thought you would've already given it to him." Zelda spoke. "You seemed so determined to be his friend at the opening ceremony."

"I had no idea he was so good at avoiding people… Avoiding me." He replied, looking away from her. Of course he was determined to be Ike's friend, it just wasn't as easy as he had imagined it to be.

"He only avoids you because he doesn't know you yet." She said, grasping both of his hands and looking into his eyes. "Go to him. Give that to him. I'm sure he'll be delighted."

"You think?" Link asked excitedly, his pointy ears perking up. His countenance changed from defeated into hopeful just by a few simple words from his oldest, dearest friend. He stood up, looking almost possessed as the orange glow of the setting sun ignited his suddenly determined features.

"I am." Zelda said with a smile and continued to explain: "Someone took time out of their busy schedule to write him a letter, I'm certain he'll be grateful that you went through the trouble of taking it to him!"

"Do you think he'll thank me!?" The other asked, clearly breathing a little faster out of excitement, his body trembling out of anxiousness to chase down the one he loved.

"Well we can hope that he will but…" Zelda fell silent. Her friend had bolted off the second she had opened her mouth, apparently he hadn't needed any more encouraging. Her smile widened as she watched her friend in green run through the garden towards the mansion, jumping over flowerbeds like a gazelle. Link was indeed endearing. How could Ike not like him? All he needed was time. She turned her face towards the setting sun and enjoyed the warmth on her face, soon it would sink behind the horizon and reveal a thousand, thousand stars.

Link ran. He ran like he had run when he had been returned his human form. He ran like he only ran after Ike. He had run through Hyrule without a single stop, passing friends and enemies and even the Marathon Man. He had run like he had been possessed. For what? For Ike to reject him flat out because he didn't look like he used to? He refused to believe it. For a while he had doubted himself but Zelda had opened his eyes once again. Ike was like an iceberg: almost unbreakable. If he only found one crack on its surface he could insert a wedge into it and slowly drive it deeper and deeper until the ice came crashing down.

It was a great idea. He was so proud of himself as he banged on Ike's door three times and called for him. He had to repeat this quite a few times before a reply was uttered:

"Go away."

Link knew that if he couldn't get Ike to open the door all the way he had no chance of getting in. Worst case scenario was that Ike would open the door just a little, only enough for the letter to slip through and his chance of exchanging even the smallest words would be gone. He had to irritate Ike on purpose to squeeze past him when he was distracted by anger. After that he would be a lot harder to get rid of, he was good at holding onto things if it got that bad.

He kept knocking and intoning the other's name. As he had predicted after the tenth monotonic go away Ike suddenly opened the door with such force that it almost came off its hinges. He glared at the Hylian, his nostrils flaring and his eyes aflame, his unruly blue hair hanging on his face. "You… What do YOU want?" He hissed through gritted teeth.

Link had grown so used to Ike's intimidating tactics that he didn't even flinch. Instead he smiled as cordially as he could when he handed the envelope he had guarded with his life to its rightful receiver. "I believe this is yours. I accidentally got it." He proclaimed ceremoniously, throwing the other completely off-balance.

Ike's hostile glare turned into a hopeful gaze as his eyes glided over the careful handwriting, he had immediately recognized it. Although only seeing his own name in those delicate letters he was filled with tranquillity and happiness. He couldn't have cared less about the Hylian who took advantage of his moment of distraction and slipped past him into his room, proceeding to sit down on his bed as if it was his own.

Ike's room clearly reflected his lack of enthusiasm about the tournament. He hadn't even unpacked his bags, the one thing he had taken out of his luggage was a picture of himself and a brown-haired girl, he had an arm around her and she smiled widely like she had just won the lottery. She was probably a family member or a girlfriend, Link found himself thinking. He did a quick inspection of the other's room before fixing his attention back on the swordsman who had (unfortunately for him) realized that the Hylian he had greatly tried to avoid had used his moment of bliss to invade his privacy. As much as Ike wanted to grab him and toss him out he had been kind enough to bring him his misplaced mail, the least he could do was let him sit for a few minutes.

Ignoring him, however, was out of the question. "Who's it from?" Link asked, watching Ike with great curiosity.

"Nobody." Ike replied irately. He held the door open with one hand to let the Hylian know he was overstaying his welcome which had never existed to begin with.

"Really?" Link asked incredulously, not really expecting a further answer. He made himself cozy by leaning back on Ike's bed, holding his upper body upright with propped elbows. His heightened sense of smell picked up the scent of the swordsman in his sheets, it was intoxicating. He wouldn't have left even if Ike had carried him out, he would've clawed his way back in until authorities had come and carried him out using tear gas and smoke bombs.

Dear brother Ike,

It's been busy since you left. All the animals need so much taking care of, I've been very busy! The labrador Nelly you brought home from your last mission, turns out she wasn't just fat, she had puppies! I had to call the vet-

"Is it from home?" Link asked, following Ike's facial expressions closely. Although he was trying to remain solemn he was kind of smiling. "Crimea, right?"

Ike shot him a glare that ordered him to be quiet. Link replied it with a shrug and a smile.

-over because I got so scared that she was going to die but when he got to our house he said Nelly was in labor! She had six puppies last night! They're the cutest things I've ever seen! I took a few pictures to send you!

I saw your last fight on TV, you rock!

Love, Mist

Ike took the photos from the envelope and couldn't help smiling. How cute they were! Among many one photo depicted those small black puppies as they flocked to their mother, one showed all six sleeping scattered across their living room floor. Some were blurry as the little ones moved too fast for the camera.

Ike chuckled for the first time after having arrived to the tournament. He had felt restless and anxious being so far away from home and his comfort zone, constantly surrounded by people and cameras and publicity but at that moment he returned to his small house in the countryside of Crimea where apple trees were blossoming at that time of year and violets, meandering from an old flowerbed, were slowly taking over their ill-tended lawn. Small birds sat on curled branches and sang out of the joy of life, filling the air with an expectance of summer. There, between those apple trees in the very end of a winding dirt road stood their small white house, laundry drying outside on a line, cats napping on the stone steps that bathed in the warm rays of the sun. Ike could hear Mist humming inside.

Link saw this peculiar reverie on Ike's face as a gentle smile and his heart skipped a beat. The swordsman looked a lot younger when the veil of somberness was lifted from his face, his dark eyes narrowed into two thin lines and dimples embellished his cheeks. Combined with his unruly hair he looked like a schoolboy who had never run into misfortune yet. Succumbed into a daydream Ike didn't notice a photo slipping between his fingers and landing next to his bed after a brief moment of gliding through the air.

With his heart still beating off-rhythm Link leaned forward, his curiosity peaked, to pick up the photo Ike had dropped and saw that it depicted two black puppies playing. One was holding the other's tail in its gums since it had no teeth yet. Both were small and cute.

"Did your dog have puppies?" He asked. What he expected was a nasty reply among the lines of that's none of your business or what do you care if she did, but what actually happened took him completely off-guard.

"My labrador Nelly had." Ike replied enthusiastically as he sat down next to him and began to show him the photos one by one. He seemed incredibly excited as he talked about each photo, whispering look look look as he shoved them into his friend's hands. As soon as he had gone through all of them he suddenly fell silent, seeming even a little surprised by how easily he had shared something about himself.

"They're all very cute." Link said with a smile as he handed the photos back to him and continued in his carefree way: "Makes me think you'd like me a whole lot better if I were like your labrador too."

"I'd like people in general a whole lot better if they were more like animals." Ike exhaled, flipping through the photos once again. He had gone from cheerful to depressive in record time.

"Can we still be friends?" Link asked, feeling the remnants of their shared moment of joy shattering in the air and floating out of his reach. Even so Ike had lowered his defenses and they were having an actual conversation, with words and all.

"I don't need friends." Ike said quietly, clenching the photos.

"Everybody needs friends." Link replied, trying to sound as laid-back as possible. In truth he was desperate to get a yes out of Ike. It was his only chance. If Ike rejected him he'd have to wait for another blessing in disguise like the mail blunder to get to talk to him and he really didn't want to, he wanted to be with him so desperately he was willing to do anything. Hiding his anxiousness carefully he added as casually as he could muster: "And hey, I like puppies too so we have something in common."

A small smile tugged at the corner of Ike's lips but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. A silence fell over them, causing tremendous agony to the Hylian who prayed quietly in his mind for nothing more than those three letters that meant the world to him. One syllable. He tried to subdue his inner tumult and let his gaze wander around the room, the ordinary, dull room that was special only because it was inhabited by Ike.

"I found Nelly at the side of the road one day." The swordsman said quietly after a long silence, still holding his gaze on the photos his sister had sent him. It almost seemed as if he was talking to himself, Link had to lean a little closer to hear him properly. "Someone had just abandoned her, tied her to a tree so she couldn't follow her owner… how could someone be so cruel…? I couldn't just leave her… I took her home with me and then she had these puppies… it feels like good things can happen from bad things too…" He said with a hopeful tone in his voice.

The Hylian had watched him speak with wide eyes and lifted brows, suddenly understanding him better than ever before. What Ike constantly saw others do was what made his hatred grow stronger each day and in a way he was trying to redeem even that little bit of goodness in humanity through his own actions. Although comprehending where his friend's antipathy came from Link couldn't agree with his way of thinking, generalizing all humans through the actions of few was the true crime committed.

"You're really very kind, Ike." He said with a smile, wanting to pat his friend on the back but was too afraid of what might happen if he did so and decided to cross his arms over his chest to keep them out of trouble. "Of course, I already knew that. It's why I fell in love with you."

"You're mistaken." Ike said, turning to look at him with those dark blue eyes. "A pure emotion like love isn't for corrupt beings like us." What his words confirmed was that he didn't understand love at all and didn't even want to. He had always focused on the negative sides of humanity and failed to notice that all bad things were nothing next to love itself.

"That's a bit depressing, don't you think?" Link asked relaxedly, still trying to keep the conversation light.

Ike looked at him quietly for a while, his eyes turning deeper and darker. Whatever was going through his mind was inconceivable from his countenance. "You should go. I want to be alone." He mumbled after a while.

Link stood up and flashed a smile. "I will but I'll be back because we're friends now." He said as he walked to the door of his own accord and shut it behind him, thus receiving a silent approval of friendship from the swordsman. He leaned against the door, holding back a relieved laughter. Ike had neither given him an affirmative answer nor denied it, therefore it was safe to assume they were friends.

Wasn't it?


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