Genre: Romance/Humor
Summary: "It was a known fact: The Hero of Time was a child inside. And I wasn't exactly prepared to deal with that".
That day... became a memory I will always hold dear in my heart.
Impa, my aunt, had ordered me to wait in Kakariko for the Hero, who was expected to come out of the Fire Temple later that day. My duty for the day was to make sure he would be in good health by having his injuries treated. So I waited in front of the gate until I heard faltering footsteps.
"Sheik...?!", he managed to say between uneven breathing. As expected, he was injured. Thank goddesses those weren't so bad to the point of making him die. I led him to Impa's house while he used my shoulder as a support. Once there, he would rest and I would find someone or something to heal his wounds.
As soon as I tried to leave Impa's house to ask for help, though, I felt one of those calloused, yet soft hands wrap one of my wrists.
"Where are you going, Sheik?", he looked at me with pure, childlike curiosity on his face.
"I won't be out for long, Hero. I'll just see if I can find a healer or a potion to treat your wounds."
"Don't leave, please. I'm sure you can treat me yourself.", he stated, and I suddenly wasn't sure what to say or do about it, for I've never been skilled at treating wounds. When needed, aunt Impa and Princess Zelda would treat them with healing magic. It was quite shameful to me. The sheikah were famous for being good at offensive, defensive and healing spells and I, despite mastering the defensive ones, was quite bad at healing spells. At least my mastery at offensive spells was average.
So I told him the truth about it: "Hero, I'm afraid treating injuries isn't my specialty. It would be better for you if I brought help."
"But Sheik-"
"Hey! Listen! Won't it be safer for you to just listen to what Sheik says? We don't have all the time in the world for you to spend arguing with him.", Navi, after coming out of the Hero's hat, said in a way only a nagging parent would. Speaking of Navi, I recently realized that no matter how much time passes, I'll never figure out how she managed to hide herself so well under that hat.
"No way, Navi. I have reasons, a lot of reasons for not letting him go.", he surely looked determined. What a stubborn hero. But then again, I noticed heroes were often stubborn. They would never finish their quests if they weren't.
"I'll see if I can find a first aid kit here in Impa's house, Hero, before you get an infection in those wounds." The Hero instantly became pleased by that.
"Thank you, Sheik! I knew you wouldn't let me down!"
At that point, I noticed Navi seemed rather tired of his stubbornness, and I was proven right when she said she needed to go out for some fresh air.
"You should go then, Navi. See you later at cucco lady's house."
-"-
I confess it somewhat scared me when the Hero smiled wide with joy after acknowledging Navi would go out. "You know, Sheik, I really like Navi, I really do. She's a nice person-… er, fairy, even though she likes nagging me way too much for a fairy. But… you see… lately she's being so moody I don't know what to do! So yes, I was actually relived when she said she would go for a walk-…er, for a fly."
Why was she so moody at the time, I wonder? I couldn't help but theorize about it. "There is a time in a woman's life when they can't have children anymore, and due to those… body changes, caused by old age, said woman gets quite moody for some period of time. I wonder if that is Navi's case?"
"It must be that, then. I just wonder if Navi's old enough to have it happen to her… and if it actually happens to fairies."
"If it isn't that, I'm afraid it must be your fault, Hero. Maybe you do something that annoys her deeply.", I teased, adding a fake frown to compliment it.
"What?!", he looked serious at first, but then burst out laughing. "Hahahaha! That was so… unsheiklike. Really."
"Unsheiklike?", I asked, smiling under the cowl.
"Yes, there's no better word for it. But yeah, maybe I do an- Wai… Shh cominn' ou'!"
Before I could ask anything more, the Hero put his hand inside his mouth and took out a tooth. Then he looked at me brightly and cheered, "Look, Sheik! The stupid loosened tooth came out!"
"How curious, it seems you are still losing your teeth.", was all I could say.
"It seems my teeth couldn't fall down when I was sleeping in the Temple of Time. But now they can! That's wonderful!", he seemed to be quite excited about that. Maybe he still believed in the Tooth Fairy?
"Now I can wait until Tooth Fairy comes to take it and give me some rupees in return!", Yes, he did.
I wasn't expecting Princess Zelda to make us go back in time after they (the Hero and herself) defeated Ganondorf, so I thought the Hero was going to have to mature soon, or else he would always have trouble to act like an adult. Then I felt I should begin by telling him the Tooth Fairy didn't exist. "Hero, Tooth Fairy won't come. She doesn't exist."
He seemed disappointed by the revelation. "Of course she exists! Who else would put ruppes under my pillow every time a tooth fell? Wait…", then he looked pitifully at me. "Don't tell me she forgot about you? That's why you don't believe her. Such an awful fairy! How could she forget a child?!".
The Hero was pretty angry at Tooth Fairy, so I just told him, "Calm down, Hero. Think it over with me. If Tooth Fairy takes your teeth but never took mine, then maybe someone close to you replaces your teeth with ruppes instead of her, right?"
"And who would do that?"
"Navi.", was my answer, to which he seemed shocked by. "Maybe she wished to make your sudden transition to adulthood less impactful, so she maintained those children traditions."
"Wait… There are more children traditions…?"
"Yes, there are. And they usually involve the act of presenting children."
The Hero thought it over, then asked, "Then Minish Klaus and Easter Hylia don't exist… Right?"
"Well…Easter Hylia I'm sure doesn't exist, but Minish Klaus…We have a large number of royal archives pointing to the existence of the Minish tribe. What I don't quite believe is that this Minish Klaus presents children all over the world, every year.", I certainly couldn't have given him a more honest answer. It was unrealistic for such a small creature to travel the whole world in a single day.
"Do you receive gifts when it's Hyliamas?", he asked me, probably trying to find proof that Minish Klaus was actually real. (1)
"Yes, I certainly do.", I answered him. Then I added, much to his disappointment. "But it's from Princess Zelda and Impa."
"Oh, I see.", he answered, crestfallen. Then he changed the subject. "Sheik, that time you didn't really convince me that you were a boy."
That sentence…caught me off guard, which made a fierce blush spread on my cheeks out of embarrassment. I was aware that I wasn't a very…masculine person, but did he have to point it out so much? So without thinking, I told him, "My voice shows I am male, Hero."
With an amusing expression of disbelief on his face, he answered me, "I'm sorry, Sheik. That won't do.
Your voice is too low pitched for a woman and too high pitched for a man. And it only gets worse when this cowl muffles your voice."
Well, that was pretty straightforward. So he needed a more solid proof. "I am sure only men have shoulders as wide as mine."
But he had to counterattack, "I've never seen men with such narrow waist, though."
So that wasn't enough proof as well. Taking off my cowl would only lead to showing a rather feminine face, which would only increase his collection of arguments. But the only other part that clearly showed I was male was… the external organ exclusive to men. And it would be too impolite and shameful to show it so freely. Then I tried to end the discussion by declaring, "If you don't want to believe I'm male, then don't. What's important is that I am Sheik, right?"
"Right.", he answered, though his face was holding a very suspicious and… should I say… very sneaky expression that sent chills down my spine.
After that, some minutes passed in total silence, until The Hero made a surprised face. "When we were talking about Minish Klaus, did you say 'Princess Zelda'?! I am worried sick for her! Do you know where she is?!"
I couldn't tell him where she was, for their triforces would probably resonate if they met each other. Ganondorf's triforce would resonate as well, which could make him find them before Link was properly equipped and trained for the final battle. The probability of Link dying under such circumstances was unbelievably high. As it wasn't worth taking the risk, I quickly told him Princess Zelda was fine before putting him to sleep with a meek, basic sheikah spell.
-"-
I awoke in the middle of the night feeling a very unusual, yet gentle breeze gracing my… private parts. And hovering over them… was The Hero! So that was what that suspicious face was hiding. I quickly mended the rip he had made in my clothes before shouting, "Did you really need to know my gender so much, Hero?!"
"Oh, yeah! It's the same size!", he exclaimed, looking sickly excited.
I looked weirdly at him before asking, "What…?"
"Not only you are really a boy, which means you haven't lied to me, your peepee is as the same size as mine! Isn't that wonderful~?!"
So he was basing his trust on me over an organ. How unique. But why was its size so important? Why would a person be so happy over such a meaningless detail? Then I remembered children often worried about details, which explained most of the bullying between children in Kakariko village. Having purple hair or big hands failed to strike me as a reason to bully, though children would consider them the perfect explanation for such foul act.
"Sheik, wasn't I all bandaged up some moments ago?", he asked, interrupting my thoughts.
So I told him, even though I knew he would be mad at me, "While you were sleeping, Hero, I bought a powerful potion that would heal you completely in a few moments."
He surely looked disappointed. Pouting, he declared, "You spoiled my plans to straighten our friendship! If I stayed hurt, you would look after me for a week or so, wouldn't you?"
"I have never noticed you had such a manipulative side, Hero", I stated, smiling. "But if you delay your obligations too much, a large number of people will suffer. Ganondorf is a very oppressive king."
Still pouting, he asked, "That means you'll have to leave tomorrow morning, right?"
"Yes, I will have to. So ask me anything you want before we go back to sleep. I won't be here when you wake up."
"Sheik, do you…", I noticed he was blushing faintly. "…believe in fairytales?"
At the time I wondered what sort of question was that, so I answered, "Not really. Rarely a prince and a princess that fall in love with each other get married. They are often forced to marry someone they don't even like for the sake of the country. Besides, things aren't as perfect as they are in fairytales."
"But… one thing is for sure: no matter how many hardships they face, they never stop loving each other. I hope it applies for real life, Sheik."
I had to be honest in that point, for it wasn't good to have a heartbroken hero. So I told him, "It applies for a very small amount of people, Hero."
"Does it apply for you?", then he locked his sapphire blue eyes with my ruby red ones. Feeling a sudden, hot blush on my cheeks, I stuttered for a moment before replying:
"I have never loved anyone romantically in this life, though I feel as if I did love someone in a past life. So even though I don't know who I loved, romantic feelings are not at all unfamiliar to me." I wasn't very sure if the authenticity of said answer could be proven. "So if you have romantic issues, just think of me as an older brother and talk about it. I will gladly listen to you."
He then smirked and said, "Oh, I wouldn't dare tell you, older brother, about that stuff."
"And why wouldn't you? I won't tell anyone whatever you tell me, I promise.", I wasn't sure why, but curiosity was getting the best of me.
"Because incest is forbidden.", he then smirked again and went to sleep, leaving me alone to think, for hours and hours, about what he had just said. He wasn't straightforward when he needed to be, that I was sure of.
After much pondering, I finally realized how he made us switch sides. Now the child, the clueless one, was me, who was having much trouble to find out what he meant by that. Was it possible that he had just implied he loved me, the 'older brother' who he had 'incestuous feelings' for? Or maybe he was in love with Princess Zelda, but thought she was his sister? Could he actually be in love with Saria, the mother-sister who took care of him, but also played with him?
All the options would cause him a major headache. Princess Zelda could only marry royalty. Saria would always be a child. And I…same sex relationships weren't and still aren't well accepted in our kingdom, though a part of me, at the time, secretly wished I was his chosen one. It was then that I suddenly became aware that I, a stoic sheikah warrior bound to duty, was in love with him, the Hero with a child's mind. Even if I wasn't a princess, he wasn't a prince and we weren't polished examples of perfection.
-"-
Notes:
Hyliamas is Hyrulian's Christmas in this fanfic.
