Alright, part four. Vaati and Link run into some... girly trouble mwahahaha. Still not the main pairing VaatixLink, but it's getting there, so hang in with me!

"Hey," someone, Link, whispers near me.

I crack an eye open, trying to forget my dream; Shakra and I had been fighting again. It seems that even after I leave her I can't get away from the yelling. Sighing, I stretch slightly, scraping my robe and back against the tree.

I hear Link sigh. "It's time to wake up, Vaati."

I open both eyes now and look around. The first sight I see is Link's feet, so I look up. "Morning..?"

Link nods. "Yes, sorry about that."

"Sorry about what?" I ask, looking down to smirk to myself.

"Well, for waking you. You still look like you're in need of sleep. You're actually kind of pale." Link crouches on the balls of his feet to scrutinize me closer.

I shy away, lavender hair slipping in front of my eyes. "I'm always this pale." I say sharply. I stand lithely and look around the forest. "I'd better get going; get out of your way of finding your girlfriend." Just a little test to see if he is or isn't gay. Devious, I know, but I am the Wind Mage after all. I turned the Princess to stone. In one lifetime, at least.

"Yes, I suppose so." Link says, also looking around the trees.

I nod and start to turn, trying to think of somewhere to go. At the last moment, I think to say thank you, but decide against it. Who cares, I'm not going to see him again.

"Hey, wait..." Link's voice makes me stop. Well, not his voice, but the words.

"Hm?" I question, turning back to face him.

"Didn't you say you were running away? You've got nowhere to go, do you?"

I shrug and say, "Not really. Why?"

"Well... You could, come with me? I don't think Gail would mind too awfully much; it's not like you or I are gay." Link smiles slightly at me and shrugs towards the direction he was headed.

I nod in affirmation; "Of course not." And I mean it; I'm *not* gay, and so it seems neither is he. So I say, "Alright, that sounds fine." It's against my better judgement because I can tell Link is going to get on my nerves. Oh well; I'll get on his too.

It's almost two weeks later and I just can't annoy this kid. And that annoys *me*. Shadow is, hah, the exact opposite; the slightest tease to *him* and I risk getting my head ripped off. Link is just so... *nice*. Seriously, he lets someone he just met travel with him to find his girlfriend! I'm running out of tricks.

On a last straw attempt, I trip him. We're walking through a forest still (hopefully not toward my camp, but I don't recognise it.) and I quote-unquote accidentally put my foot in front of his, making him trip. But as soon as I think I may have pissed him off, I feel a tug on my ankle as I take a step and suddenly am sprawling in front of Link. That little twerp pulled me down!

I open my mouth to yell at him, but stop and see what he has to say about himself. Nothing is said, however, and an awkward silence falls between us. Then as if on cue, we both just crack up laughing. Simultaneously. At the same time. Together. Whatever other words that are synonymous to that. *It's either love this kid or hate his guts,* I think to myself, still laughing with him.

"What the," a laugh, "hell were you trying to do?" Link asks, trying to calm down.

This just makes me laugh harder; I'd never heard Link swear. "You sound ridiculous!" I try to sit up, but my stomach hurts too much.

"I, hah hah, sound what?" Link slowly stops laughing and sits up, looking at me.

I calm down also, though remain laying. "When you swear; I've never heard you before."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Link asks in an offended tone. I can't tell if he's serious or not, so my grin starts to slide from my face.

"Well," I say slightly hesitantly, "It's just when I first met you, you seemed a bit like a goody two shoes…"

"Really now?" Link raises his eyebrow, intrigued. Now I can tell that he's not serious. "How 'goody two shoes' is this?" he says as he pushes on my hip and shoulder, forcing me into the river we had been following.

* Oh, it's on.* I think. I pull the sneaky bastard in with me and we fight for a while. I'm pretty sure anyone passing would hear us and think we were children. I do have to say that it's the most childish thing I've done in years… well, next to annoying Link that is.

But fighting with Link here in the river is just *fun*. After a truce is made–and both of us are soaking wet–we get out of the river, once again laughing. As we sit drying by the river, I begin to get a little more serious. "So, where is this girl of yours?" I ask him, leaning my forearms on bent knees.

Link's foolish grin starts to disappear from his face as he thinks. "I'm not sure," he says to me, "We have to be close. I don't know where else she could be."

"You seem upset…" I know I should stop, but I press on.

Link and I sit silent for a little while before he finally admits, "I'm always afraid I'll lose her." He pauses again and I sense reluctance. I start to open my mouth to tell him he doesn't have to, but Link beats me to speaking, "I've missed her so much…"

It's only a small blow, but it still hits me a little bit. Does he miss her so much that I was just a distraction? I thought that Link at least thought me a friend. Was I not that to him? I blink and again open my mouth; I've been silent too long. "Well I do know this: she's a very lucky person to have someone like you to care for her." And I mean it. Link's a great guy; I wish I had a woman like him, someone who wouldn't cheat on me with my best friend.

"You know something, Vaati," Link says, "You're a really good friend. When I first met you, I wasn't sure what to think. You were cold and quite antisocial. But after getting to know you, I've decided that I like you." Link smiles innocently over at me and I'm so caught up that I smile back.

"I think of you as a friend too, Link. This time getting away from Shakra really helped me. So thank you." I hadn't even thought of Shakra in the past two weeks because I've been to busy trying to piss off Link, actually.

"You're welcome," Link says, smiling more. We sit in a comfortable silence for a while before Link starts, "You know..." but then he stops.

"Hm?" I look over at him.

Link sighs and finishes his thought with, "You never told me why you were running... and you mentioned a name, Shakra? Who, who is she?"

I exhale shortly, faintly miffed. Who does he think he is, prying into my private life? Then I stop and think, *He's my friend, that's who. And he probably has a right to know by now...* I take a deep breath and tell Link about Shakra. About how we met and how much she annoyed me, about all the times I missed her when she left but never told her that. I tell Link about when Shadow came and killed her accidentally and how I brought her back to life. How blissful our life was together for the short while we had. Then I start to hesitate on our recent fights, but relent and tell him when Link presses me to. In his words, "it's better to vent and frustrate than to keep it in and have an explosive temper" even though I have an explosive temper anyways. Somehow Link always knows what to say when, but mostly he just listens to me, even when I start yelling in frustration that it's not fair.

"Vaati, you obviously have some things you want to say to Shadow, and I don't think it's healthy what you're doing." Link tells me once I'm finished.

I feel deflated; Link took every secret about Shakra's deception and put it in one sentence. "Look. I don't need to ever speak to him again, and I don't want to. He's probably with Shakra by now anyways and I *don't* want to see her."

Link glances over at me. "You need to forgive her, Vaati. She made a mistake yes, but remember all the times you had together that you loved. Remember those times and forgive Shakra. It's what you need, what your heart needs."

I snort, rising to my feet. "My heart doesn't need anything Link, because it isn't there anymore. I lost that part of me when yo–" I stop myself short.

"When..." Link prompts.

"N-never mind." I mumble. *That was close,* I think, *I almost blew it.*

Link shakes his head and opens his mouth, but a shriek cuts him off. Link stands hurriedly and we both stare in the direction of the scream. Another shriek is sounded, but this time it forms a word, "Liiiiii!" A girl has stepped through the trees and onto the edge of the path, staring at us. Or more specifically, Link.

My ears automatically pull back some, trying to block the shrillness, but it doesn't help much. "Gail, I presume?" I groan. "That was *loud*."

But Link doesn't hear me (from hearing loss or seeing her–or both) and rushes to Gail, sweeping her into a giant hug. "Gail!" he exclaims, laughing. When he sets her down, Link does a once over of her. "Where have you been? We've been looking everywhere!"

Gail mouths the word "we" as she stands on her toes to see over Link's shoulder at me. She smiles faintly and looks back at Link saying, "Someone took me home again." She rolls her eyes and pecks Link on the cheek. "It's so nice to see you, Li!"

Link pecks her opposite cheek and replies, "At least someone finally fixed the automatic reset."

She nods and buries herself into Link's chest and body. "I've missed you, Li..." she mumbles.

Not wanting to intrude on their private meeting, I try to skirt around them to the path. On the other side is our camp.

"Where are you going?" I hear Link say behind me. I turn and see his arms around Gail securely. He's talking to me.

"Home. To camp, I mean. I'm going to get some rest." I say.

Link nods and replies, "Set up the extra tent, would you please?"

I nod and silently make my way to our fire site. Feeling lazy, I just fling my fingers in the direction of the extra tent. In a gust of wind, it's set up and ready for Link and his girlfriend. "I hope I can sleep," I snigger, ducking into my tent. I again flick my fingers and send all of Link's clothes and bed out into the camp.

I throw myself into my own bed and almost immediately fall asleep.