Ruto floated lazily next to Jabu-Jabu. The enormous god cast one eye down upon the princess of his followers. Ruto, having attended him for most of her life, understood this small gesture for the question it was.
"I know, I know.", she began. "But I gave it as an engagement present to the Hero of Time. That's supposed to bring it back to our Domain. But Zelda, time travel, yadda yadda yadda...what's to be done?"
"Ask someone else for help?", Sheik replied.
Ruto twisted to catch a glimpse of the Sheikah standing on the only dry place in the lake, a fallen tree whose curve lifted it out of the water. With a girlish and gleeful giggle, Ruto dove underneath the surface for a split second only to propel herself skyward. The Zora landed next to Sheik with barely a sound of her landing.
"Come to get that thank-you I had Link tell you about?", Ruto flirted.
Sheik glared with one crystal blue eye, the other covered in blonde locks.
"No."
"I did come back to give you these. I believe they are property of the Domain of the Zora."
And with that, Shiek handed her a longshot, a boomerang and the Spiritual Stone of Water.
Ruto smiled. The sound that followed was nearly a purr if fish could. "You know that this makes you my future husband, right?"
Sheik let out a breath. "I'm female, Ruto."
"Sure you are.", Ruto replied. "Don't worry, playing hard to get just makes the chase more rewarding."
Continuing her glare, Sheik grabbed one of Ruto's wrists and held it to her chest. "See, mammary glands!"
Ruto rolled her eyes. "Of course you have mammary glands. You're a 'mammal', duh."
Then the princess considered the statement. "Yes, mammals like touching each other. But humans have a lot of shame, covering themselves unlike Goron and Zora...I'm sorry. I get it. I'll examine you really closely for evidence of your gender."
Sheik pealed Ruto off of herself. The glare burned with an undeniable intensity in an eye so blue it was nearly Zora. Such a trait was probably what first attracted her to Link...
Link had blue eyes, and so did Sheik and how many humans could possibly have the Zora eye color? Link had blonde hair and so did Sheik. Link dressed in tunic, half out of the tradition of Heroes like Gustaf (the Hero of Men) and Link (the Hero of Cap, no relation) before him and half out of the fact that when the races fashioned clothes to aid the next Hero they did so in the same tradition. Sheik dressed in what was exactly designed to keep one from guessing his...or at least for the moment, "her" true identity. Link rarely spoke, and when he did it was so low as to barely be heard even in water. Sheik had a commanding tone, as if trained for command. At the party, everyone tried to come up with some lengthy time travel explanation to explain why the Hero of Time didn't exist between his boyhood state and his return, and they only had Princess Zelda's word on his last trip back through time. But what if he was here all the time? Time travel or disguise, which explanation fell to Occam's Razor first?
Ruto smiled slyly. Sheik's visible eye rolled. "Oh, this is gonna be good.", she commented.
Ruto started coyly. "Let's say you're not male. Let's even say you're not who I think you are. Then you wouldn't mind revealing the back of your left hand. I mean, I already know your skin color-anyone who meets you does. And I'm not trying to catch a glimpse of your hand in public and put two and two together...I don't need to see your fingers. Just show me you don't have a Triforce embedded and I'll believe what everyone else believes."
"But if you do, then I get to keep all my promises made. I get to thank you. I get to promise my undying love. I get to marry the man I gave the Zora's Sapphire to and the man who gave it to me."
Sheik spun around immediately, clutching her hand. "This is rediculous."
"It is you, Link.", Ruto squeeled. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me...uh, and Lord Jabu-Jabu won't tell anyone."
The god arched a brow at the insinuation, before returning to his passive expression.
The Zora continued. "And I'll wait for you. If you're bringing back what you collected in your journeys to everyone, it'll be easier if no one suspects 'Sheik' is really the Hero of Time. And I don't know if you know, but the Sages are still trying to come up with a way to not end the Gerudo yet still keep Ganondorf Dragmire imprisoned. If we were to need your help, keeping 'Sheik' on tap and the Hero of Time to be revealed is a good idea. Ooh, I'm getting a sly one for my husband."
Sheik slapped her forehead. "It's time for me to go."
Ruto put both hands over her eyes. "You can save the Deku Nut. A good wife knows when to let her man roam free."
The Zora princess blindly back-flipped twice to dive in Jabu-Jabu's pond with barely a splash. And when she surfaced, Sheik was already gone.