A/N: Fixed some typos that were off-putting before; accidentally had uploaded the raw version. Sorry bout that. And, a review!
Review Response
HumanRiot- That's true; for some reason Zelda doesn't really take well to AUness...oh, the choctoroks XD Glad you liked that- I thought it was funny, but my friend called me a psychopath for writing that. Anyway, thanks so much for reviewing & I hope you enjoy this chapter!
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Fall air was white and crisp with the knife edge of avalanche sun; breathed cool into the windows on the honey morning when Link woke up...woke up, shaking off the impressions of some dream, walking out of the impossible realm like a zombie...then after a few sleepy moments, the realization hit him that- he'd forgotten his hat in the car last night...
A tiny depression sank into his shoulders as he got up and dressed- same kinda melodramatic depression hits a kid when he loses his favorite toy or something. He actually liked that hat- it looked kind of like a sleeping cap, and he wore it so that it fit over the back of his head. The first time he'd worn it, Sheik had looked at him as though remembering something, and just said, "Nice hat."
He didn't wear it that much, but still...he discussed his problem with some people who told him he should call his friends and ask around. That was a good idea which should have been obvious...anyway, to that end he got the phone and called up Sheik- he didn't have Shad or Princess' number, and last time he called Raven before 1 he got a tongue-lashing. Sheik was probably awake though- did Sheik ever sleep? he wondered, looking around the room with spacey eyes. He seemed to be up at all hours- biding his energy like a snake or something...
He actually had no idea how Sheik lived, aside from when they were together- that was okay, he guessed. Surprisingly, Sheik did have his hat. They talked a bit, exchanged a joke or two, got down to business and decided on a place to meet.
So he finished up some chores around the house, cleaned up all the remnants of a previous mind- walked into the early afternoon. Outside it was clear as a picture, had this blinding clarity...struck like neon. And down the streets of silent dreams, down the lanes of impression he walked on, one sole innocent on the street of poisoned people...goldwire spun in his heart and mind: some high school girls giggled as he passed, playing empty songs that struck him funny...
But it didn't matter. He met Sheik on an open street- each regarded the other with tepid familiarity, with a cagey warmth. Sheik looked as usual like he belonged to the night, was its only subject, therefore its leader; his eyes were bright, riot red, but were lidded sleepy. He regarded Link's hat like it was a strange artifact; then held it up with a mild look in his eyes. "You were drunk on night," he greeted, voice soft and fluid, "Your hat was upset; jealous, and so stayed behind, told me all about it."
Link laughed and took his hat, slung it over his shoulder. "Was it? Well, that's what it gets for being such a nag," he mused; then looked at Sheik with that low confidence in his eyes..."So? Whachya doin'? How are you?"
Link's questions were asked like a schoolkid's, something light hidden behind the movements of his tongue. Sheik had been feeling strangely lately, but Link couldn't tell; he shifted his balance and sighed to the street. "Fine, I suppose. There have been changes in the air; the currents aren't quite the same." He lowered his eyes, then flashed them toward Link. "'I' is another*, but I am the general,- the ancient eyes seem to be perceiving...how are you?"
Link's eyes brightened with thought, became softer with light; he smiled, shoved his hands down in his jean pockets. "I'm good. I'm kinda hungry.- Do you really feel that way?"
"What way?"
"'I' is another."
Sheik's eyes seemed to smile up at him. "Sometimes," he said- the word became like rain and music, molded by the liquid darkness of his voice- and the response was sad, but it had hints of a fire.
Link looked at Sheik for a moment, unaware of the silence- wondered vaguely if it was that way, if Sheik's life was just a series of masks, of different hearts. It was hard to tell with Sheik. Sheik could be everything and nothing all at once- he could be part of the world and just as easily slip out of it, gone like yesterday. Link hoped that Sheik wasn't just some shadow, it didn't seem that way to him...
But the slimness of Link's eyes over him- crashed like paint, like the beating of ocean waves, caused something dark to flare inside Sheik's mind; he eyelessly brushed off the feeling, froze it over and pushed it off to some dark corner. He was about to say something- got out the tangled syllable, "Wha-", but Link spoke before he did.
"I don't know if I've ever felt that way," Link mused, with a smile that just mixed up Sheik's impressions, "I don't think I have, but it sounds familiar. Weird, huh?"
Sheik paused- cat's eyes on the coin. "Not at all- that's the brand of understanding."
"That doesn't sound good," Link answered with an easy laugh.
Sheik's eyes took on that soft look- like the gentle hands of storms, like the radio signal from some long-off distant place. Warmth in his voice, as well. "It's not," he replied, "and yet it is. The world is strange, hm?"
"Yep yep," Link nodded, "But I'd rather understand than walk asleep."
"That's a good way of putting it," Sheik nodded, eyes for pride; but then he felt the turning of the earth, felt the sun like a wristwatch, and kicked at some pebbles on the sidewalk as they talked. "Where will you be tonight?"
Link's eyes turned thoughtfully toward the sky. "Uhh, I don't know- where are you gonna be?" He paused, then grinned. "Not that I'm trying to hit on you or anything."
"I'm sure," Sheik replied, with an easy confidence that made Link laugh. "Most likely, I'll be with Raven. There's a place downtown- I'll give you the address, if you'd like."
"Oh, uh, sure," Link answered, confused as to why Sheik was offering the address- wouldn't they go together?
They spent ten minutes or so looking for some paper to write on; settled on the back of a religious propaganda flier blowing on the sidewalk like a forgotten army. Sheik wrote down the address in dark blue; then, his posture poised and slim, he shifted back. "Well, I'll see you tonight," he said, looking up toward Link-
-whose mouth turned in a cross between rainy blue and confusion. "See you tonight?" What did that mean? "Hey, wait, where're you going?" Link asked, the blue fading into a bright smile.
Sheik's balance teetered as he half-turned away from Link, a curious expression passing into his eyes. "-I'm going home," he said, the tone of his voice slightly amused.
Link paused- he had never been in Sheik's house before; Sheik had never even mentioned that he had a house, so Link pretty much thought it was safe to assume that that was something Sheik was keeping off-limits, private. He knew Sheik was a reserved person, so he didn't want to be pushy...but still, damn, he had to spend the rest of the afternoon being epically bored..."Oh, okay- catchya later then," he said, concluding the conversation with a short wave.
Something in Sheik constricted- like the tightening of fists- that dark way you take inventory of the rain. It was a blinding realization, that there was so much doubt still clutching, grasping. That he had to keep reminding himself that it was only Link...but was it? And what would he owe him, what subtle lines would change shape? Was he just being dramatic, did it really matter?-
Link seemed to notice the strange lean of Sheik's posture, that movement as if to say "wait"; so he lingered on, looking at Sheik curiously. Sheik could feel nervousness clamor into his throat (and that premonition crossing his mind again- those dark words that were rushed and murmured, but bore the heaviness of "well, you're fucked now"), but it came easily when he said, "You can come along, if you'd like."
Link paused; then his face brightened to a grin. "Seriously!?" he exclaimed, moving toward Sheik with blind puppy excitement. "Like, you don't mind?"
"It's fine," Sheik answered, giving that short dismissive gesture of a Roman consul- slight weary wave of the hand.
"Are you sure? I don't wanna be a burden or anything," Link said as he stepped in tandem with Sheik; they started off in the direction of the harbor, away from the cloister and the downtown grit.
"You won't be," Sheik responded, taking measure of his tone- eyes flashing to the street as they walked along.
Link paused; then let out a laugh- sound sliding slight between his teeth. "'Cause y'know," he began, looking at Sheik directly, "I don't wanna go to your house and like, find your gramma locked up in your attic or anything."
"It's fine- her cage is in the parlor, so no worries," Sheik answered, voice sliding off effortless laughter, even though none was audible. The sun had been white before; but now the cold was dying down, was shifting into soft folds of gold, the layers of the cosmic air...and anyway, the sound waves of Link's laughter hopped off the nearby buildings, caught a spell, pervaded over the area...
It seemed like signals of water were kissing mist into the air. The streets were barren, devoid of green, but laid down low with the gun seduction of the sudden warmth. "What? It got all hot all of a sudden," Link remarked, sticking out his tongue with dissatisfaction.
"It's a mask," Sheik responded, panther beat in his steps as he walked ahead of Link; "Criminals kiss on the sly when the air is too thick to see through. It's a way to hide."
Link turned to Sheik, looking to say something, eyes bright on thought; but Shek's eyes were turned away, and he was heading off in some separate direction- leading the way, like he should. An electric cosmic trail along the nameless concrete. Some guys were talking by a news stand (the last stand of the city, Link guessed): "Yeah, yeah- Darmani's new girl is beautiful, beautiful!"
"Is she?"
"Yeah,- heh, pretty as the Princess!"
-But they faded out of earshot, and construction trucks were speeding down the road, obscuring the winking laughs. The streets here were peaceful, Link noticed- not too much traffic, and the only people outside had someplace worthwhile to go to. Every color faded back to nature, and there wasn't that much smog.
The lots were empty- most of them had nothing built on them, so there was considerable space between the houses. There were bits of foliage, hedges in box things and pattern-planted trees, so it started to look a bit like a suburb (would've looked like one, if not for the metal pale undercurrent of industry that was a song in the breeze here; also, the factory across the river).
They came near to a two-family ranch, kinda small and nondescript looking- painted stucco, two small concrete porches; there were flowers under the windows on the side that faced them. Sheik began up the stairs of the porch, Link following behind him, spun up in a strange impression- Sheik lived here?...something about it struck him funny...
Sheik got out a key and Link made some lame forgettable joke as the door clicked open...Sheik replied, and Link poked his head inside the door before going in, taking a look that was ineffective for the blindness of his perception. With an eager step he started in, but an older lady was heading out, so they stopped short in the foyer by the door.
She and Sheik exchanged a few words- talked politely and with a tacit vocabulary, both knew what the other was saying and beyond necessities time didn't have to be wasted. They seemed to regard each other with patience. Link wondered who she was- his aunt or something? Definitely couldn't be his mother...
The woman greeted Link formally and went out the door. "Should I take off my shoes?-" Link asked, hit by a sudden feeling...there was something strange about the house, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Hmm? If you'd like," Sheik responded, tone mild, cracking his knuckles absently. Sheik was good with shadows, was good with ink and veils- you couldn't see the edginess he was felt even though it was compact, tensing within his veins...he was sure Link couldn't notice, anyway. Like pointed lightning, like dark lashing off water...
"Who was that lady, by the way?" Link asked as he pushed off his shoes- he didn't hesitate to ask that. Usually he would pause before asking Sheik anything personal.
"The maid," Sheik answered, walking ahead of him- the only place you could see the edge was in the swing of his walk; his movements were strange- mixing tenseness with a warm, comfortable way of moving.
Link followed behind; the first thing that caught his eye was the whiskey dull of an upright piano a little past the foyer, spinning a clean feeling off its colors...something antique: antique in that it came from some industrial baby era, without florid carvings or metal bomb. It was next to a potted plant, the sun slanted like a knife off a window nearby...
And then the small hall opened into a large room. The walls were still stucco- painted dark Southern blue...this was a living room maybe? There was a couch and some things scattered around, then after a divider across the way a small kitchen, breathing a quiet song with its sun and scents...there was sun all over this room: it hung in the air, it clarified the corners of the room and lent strange shapes to shadows. A table was the nearest thing...
It seemed at once crowded and empty- seemed like it was open and cluttered at the same time, like there were lots of things but they didn't intrude on mass or matter. It seemed like this was a place you could breathe, like you could move easy in here, not have to worry. There were some plants around- things that were subtle and exotic, touched the air delicately. Primary colors were subtly exploding, blues, reds, yellows...the windows were pretty big- had small spaces under them you could sit in. Under one of the windows was all these soda cans, colored bottles; flowers in them, sitting fresh among the sugar and the logos- light cast off their faces...
Made flower song, was the life of flowers. Link blinked openly at the room before him. "Wow," he said, his tone with awe and seriousness, "This is really nice, Sheik."
Sheik let off a hoarse chuckle. "Glad it's to your liking," he said, blood skipping a beat as he was put a little at ease.
"This is like, what a home should be," Link said, wandering into the room, looking at the things on the bookshelves and the pieces of mail on the coffee table like it was nobody's business. "It's so clean! I wanna live here." He sent a flashing glance back at Sheik, a young smirk (wherein the devil and an angel shone smokey through the white). "How much for rent?"
"Your soul once a month should pay the dues," Sheik responded, the beat of the syllables in that certain timing, like he was reciting an infomercial.
Link laughed, orange juice blues. "How would that work out?" he asked, plopping himself down on a cursory lounge without inhibitions.
"Hm, we'd have to work that out," Sheik responded, but looked away as though seeing burned him, because somewhere in a dark feeling he knew how that would work out. And it was frustrating, because although he knew, words didn't shape the thought, it just burned dark cherry, smoked and flared; and he wasn't used to feeling this way.
Link looked at the tiles on the ceiling- almost imperceptible, the lines between were sharply hidden- stretched out a little, then lay supine. "Are you thirsty?" Sheik asked, moving into the kitchen with some mail in hand.
"Nah, I'm okay," Link called back. There was rustling; he closed his eyes, felt sleepy in the sudden sticky honey warmth...Sheik opened the fridge, poured himself a drink- pulled down his mask a little with his back turned to Link, took a long gulp and tossed the glass into the sink. Put the mask back up, then headed back to the living room.
Link rolled over on his side when Sheik came back into the room, propping up his elbow and leaning his head into his palm. "Is Zelda really pretty?" he asked, looking up at Sheik.
Sheik paused to ponder what ruminations she had left in him. "She's alright, I suppose," he shrugged after a gold colored thinking moment. "She's never really invoked anything in me."
"Oh. Jeez, how did it get so hot all of a sudden?" Link answered, asking the air, asking nobody- switching between topics without bias. Something about this place put him at ease. But it was weird, in that it fit Sheik and yet didn't. It fit him because of the colors- because of the juxtaposition of cursory items, the light that came in like ghost metals. It didn't fit him because it was peaceful here.
He looked back up at Sheik; Sheik looked at him for a moment, then focused his attention elsewhere. "Why are your eyes red?" Link asked, the question popping into his mind from nowhere- just came from looking at Sheik, he guessed. The tone of the question implied, "Why are Sheikahs' eyes red," it was just worded a little funny.
Sheik's eyes flickered back to Link; thrown into that light that made it like carnivorous magic. "Our eyes couldn't cry anymore, so they started to bleed," he responded with a simple logic.
The thought of that hit Link sadly, even though Sheik said it with a slight amusement. "A lot of bad stuff happens, huh?" Link said, with a vague tiredness crossing his mouth.
"It does," Sheik answered; leaned against the wall opposite Link, shifted his posture so that it fit the dark just right.
"It's really peaceful here, though," Link went on, like he was trying to sort out some long-off distant thought. "I think that if I lived in a place like this, maybe it would be easier? I dono."
Sheik gave a small laughing glance, tilted his head up as though to see Link from far away. "Easier? You look as though you haven't a care," he said, and he lied, because although the fact had never been clarified he knew that there was some burden that Link was carrying- he could see it in the cigarette way he moved, in the soft cold rain of his eyes-
Link seemed to think about that for a short moment. "I worry sometimes," he said, and the sad sweetness of his words cast its arms around Sheik, enveloped him in a piercing sound, between warmth and shadowy cool- between light music and pepper stars. "I worry about, whether I'm doing the right thing." Everything was vision in hot and cold, but with the sun's patina- the way the warm light touched Link just so, and..."Because, there's a lot of hurt in the world. You can hurt someone and not even know it. A person's heart is really important. It's like. When you're hurt the world can turn inside out. There's a lot of pain, and I don't want to be that kind of person."
Then a moment, where things switched, flashed, from dark back to light; and Link paused, seeming to catch himself- looked at Sheik and laughed sunnily. It was unknowable whether or not the champagne sounds were happy or sad; or if there was pain or confusion. Link was just there, posture all low and slim, the sunlight like honey softly on his body, shirt sort of messed up, unbuttoned, casual. It all happened without the comfort of clarity, like time had erupted. Loneliness seared hollow across Sheik's chest- just the pure feeling of being alone, full and poignant like the salt before tears, that long dark empty feeling of absence. And then high nervous fear, rising and billowing like color in the sea, because the only clear thought that came into his mind was that this loneliness could be ameliorated if he could just feel in Link the shock of contact, the star's itch, the darkness and sugar: could just touch him...and that would make the loneliness longing, and that was terrifying to him.
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Another day and no more sorrow, and Link wasn't even aware of the explosions, the destruction, he caused with his honesty and smiles. But then, as stated before, everybody was wearing a mask, so how could he be aware? Today Sheik was off someplace else, something secret, so he killed time by going out to eat with Shad and Malon.
It was some hipster diner-type place. It had that synthetic pop vibe, but there were posters of musicians & the underground plastered all over the walls- a lot of the Indigo-go's. Anyway they were sitting in a booth huddled against the window, Malon with a pretty smile on her face, Shad with his usual eyes of acceptance and asking.
"Oh, did you hear?" Malon asked, suddenly and brightly, and pointed a french fry at Link across the table. "Zelda's coming back next week!"
"Oh, she is?" Link responded, tipping his head curiously; then smiled, picked up his soda. "That's cool."
"Wanna meet her, right?" Malon teased, with a pressing wink. "Fulfilling your boyhood dreams and everything?"
Link laughed a little in response. "It'll be nice to meet her," he said, then paused on a half-thought. "Since she's Sheik's friend, she'll probably be fun."
Malon laughed coolly. "Jeez, you're dumb," she said, then leaned forward. "Haven't you seen Zelda before? Most guys'd be wetting their pants."
"Huh? No, I haven't seen her before. Is she pretty?"
Malon laughed again, indulgent and incendiary. "You're a piece of work, Link, you know that?"
Link shrugged, innocent of the accusation; then looked out on the scenes outside the window, playing in electric time. "Why are they friends, anyway?" he asked, half-turning back to Shad and Malon, "Are they like similar or something?"
Shad paused; exchanged a glance with Malon, and then looked back at Link. "Are they similar?...I suppose not. They're rather dissimilar, actually," he said, pushing up his glasses a bit.
"They don't have anything in common, though?" Link asked, smiling absently at the scene outside- a man whose pants were being torn up by a tiny ratty dog, balloons carried by a huge woman who owned the street...
He was too spaced out to notice the quick flashing beat of a pause, but it struck him when Malon said with acid in her voice, "Yeah, they both have no heart."
Link's eyes blinked confusedly back to her. Shad's mouth turned in disapproval. "That's not entirely true," he corrected, his voice not so aloof as his words would imply.
Malon raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah," she began like a lecturer, "Excuse me, Sheik has a black shriveled heart."
"What do you mean she has no heart?" Link asked, picking up a french fry off Malon's plate.
"Hey, that's mine! Thief!" she exclaimed; Link sent her a tomcat grin, and she laughed in return, but then set her eyes to some soft thought. "Well, I don't know. Zelda's just a very- cold person. She seems, like- immovable, almost. There's something about her eyes...She's just not very friendly, I guess is what I'm saying. She's okay and everything, but you just get this feeling when she's around."
"I would suppose that Zelda is naturally very guarded," Shad said, digging his fork into his food as some aggressive beat bopped down from the ceiling speakers.
"I asked her how she was feeling once," Malon rejoined, taking hold of her milkshake. "She told me she 'felt in theory.'"
"Zelda is very intelligent," Shad replied, "Her thoughts are naturally quite abstract."
Malon paused, then broke into a starry laugh. "Oh, shut up, Shad," she said, rolling her teasing eyes over to him (he sat, innocent and accused by her knowing mouth), "You've got like, the biggest hard-on for her in history."
Link choked a little on his soda, then, laughing, high-fived Malon across the table while Shad just sat there, shaking his head. Link and Malon finished up their laughing fit, and Link leaned back into the booth with a vague smile. "Yeah, but, I don't know, I don't think Sheik's like that," he said, stealing another french fry from Malon's plate.
There was a pause as Shad's and Malon's minds rewound the conversation to the point about Sheik. "Oh," Malon said, "You mean that you don't think he has a black shriveled heart and is incapable of feeling love for anybody but himself? And stop it with the french fries or I'll impose a tax."
Link just shrugged sweetly. "I don't know. He might come off that way," he started, leaning on the table and looking outside, "but I think it's because he wants to be sincere. Like, he doesn't want to just say things or be somebody for other people- because that would just be falling into a lie. I don't think he means to hurt anybody." He paused. "I think it's better that he's sincere, anyway."
Shad looked at Link consideringly- as though his words confirmed something Shad had been thinking for a long time- and Malon paused and just waved it off. "Okay," she said. "That may be true, but I still think he's a horrible person. Want a french fry, fairy boy?" she asked, tilting her plate with a grin on her face.
"I don't have any money for your tax," Link answered, grinning right back.
"Just kiss me, that's the tax," she replied with a wink; then doubled back on that thought, ran a hand through her hot hair. "You got a girl yet, by the way? You need a girl-"
And the conversation ran off in that way, slipped off cliffs, slicked like oil and receded out of memory. It was getting kinda late, the pink was crawling between clouds and bleeding into the blue outside, so Link began to shuffle out of the booth. "I gotta go meet Sheik and Raven," he said with a smile, getting up- throwing some money on the table. Actually, he'd gotten quite a bit of money from when he last worked with Raven, so he was set for now...
"Okay, don't have too much fun now," Malon said, reaching up to hug him.
"Good seeing you," Shad said, with a smile.
Link turned windily to go, but pivoted right back around, a question in his eyes. "Oh, Shad," he began, "I wanted to ask you something about Sheikahs."
Shad blinked. "It's not my area of expertise, but I may be able to help," he smiled, "What did you want to know?"
"Oh, just- is there something wrong in their-? I mean, what happened to the Sheikah? Do they have a bloody history or something?" Link asked.
A curious look passed Shad's face. "Well," he began, "the Sheikah haven't had too violent of a history. You'll understand that every race and culture has had- wars, conflict, general wrongdoing...but nothing out of the usual for Hyrule. Why?"
"Oh, no reason. Thanks!" Link nodded with a smile, and turned off to leave, out of their and into some other impressions. Shad and Malon just looked at each other with a shrug, and went back to their meal.
Shad and Malon were nice. He liked Malon especially, she was fun and just generally a good person. He felt they had a lot of things in common. They had the same sense of humor and the same references. The thing that tied them together the most though was that they were two people who didn't have money, didn't come from money, travelling within circles wherein everybody had money. It did make a subtle difference, and they understood the same type of things. Malon came from the country like he did; four days a week she worked as a coatcheck girl in a dinner joint.
Pretty much the only thing they disagreed on was Sheik. Ah, well, different strokes for different folks. Or something. Link pondered how stupid that saying sounded as he rounded smokey corners, passed by coffee stands and separate scenes that seemed to complete some vague puzzle. Whatever it was, it was beyond his reach.
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The sun was setting, or had set already- there was a clarity and a darkness that dusted over. Autumn had a supply of gold- you could see it round 7 PM. It washed over the streets in a rainy light, dripping off the trees. In disabling laughter Sheik and Link leaned on one another as they walked down the incendiary street; the place the group'd wanted to go to turned out to have burned down a couple days ago, so they headed to some stale lounge where everybody was self-conscious and the music was too loud. Raven got them kicked out, though, so here they were, on the sidewalk and walking down lanes of stars.
It was Sheik, Link, and Raven, as usual; this time, there was also the twins, and the writer...that was a surprise, since he usually didn't hang around with them. The writer was suspiciously anonymous, and today he seemed to be quieter than usual, on the verge of an idea...
But nobody cared much. Raven was smoking a fat cigarette, rolling his eyes at Sheik and Link. "Fucking get a new joke, you retarts," he bit irritatedly, smoke streaming out of his mouth, "The beggar shit's gettin' old."
"Don't get sensitive, Raven," Link grinned, glancing back at him.
"You can't get a meal if you're nursing a heavy heart," Sheik answered, gasping leopard dark, eyes bright and veiled; "It so happens I've some change, though- perhaps fortune's smiling on you?"
"I don't take money from fuckin' masked terrorists," Raven snapped, "But thanks anyway."
"Rather be a terrorist," Sheik said, words teetering on a knife's edge as he walked like wind out from under Link's arm, "Explosions would be under my grasp: in bomb time, the sundial subjects- not the slow decay of beggar life. Regardless, what does it matter? Double-time or slow-motion, it's all back to sound and earth."
Link smiled, pausing on that thought; Sheik was careful not to look at him- it was unpredictable, when the hot and cold would make pressure black over his eyes, when the simultaneous regret and warmth would flush back into his chest. It was better to keep distracted.
Raven replied something, the twins made some remark, quiet enveloped slow and warm as smoke. The rain gold faded gradually into vintage blue, and they came near the mouth of a playground. Sheik meandered in, as though it was normal for them to go to a playground, with Link towing close behind. Mothers cast them dirty eyes, ushered their children out past the gang of smoking cretins at the gates.
Link breezed in, stood next to Sheik, pondered the swings and the slides like they were opportunities; humming a recently popular radio song because he couldn't remember the words. Sheik looked at him with quiet in his eyes, and Link looked back and smiled.
Sheik turned his eyes away while Link began to speak- feeling full that boulevard chord itching in his veins. "Nice night, huh? All the fireflies are gone already, though," Link observed casually, swinging his arms at his sides.
Sheik was distracted enough for a moment to let off a small laugh at Link's incoherent mind; but a thought struck Raven, and he broke the conversation. "Oh yeah- hey you, Zelda's comin' back next week," he nodded toward Link casually.
Link looked back toward him. "Ah? Yeah, I know, Malon told me today."
"Yeah, and this one dint even bother to say anything," Raven said, raising an eyebrow and pointing to Sheik. "Hadda find that shit out on the news. You keepin' secrets or what?"
Sheik turned back to Raven- looked at him with that sidelong glance, that mild look of the manic snake, something about him seeming to smile. "I may be," he answered, folding his arms, "What would you be willing to know, Raven?"
Raven's eyes turned suspicious, surly. "Tch, nuthin' from you, ya criminal."
Sheik laughed; Link's eyes turned up thoughtfully. "What day is she coming back, anyway?"
"Hmm? That still has to be worked out," Sheik answered, turning back to Link. "Zelda's importance runs vague lines," he added, with something sardonic and dark in his voice that Link couldn't read.
"So? Ya lookin' forward to meetin' her, kid?" Raven asked, catching Link in a half-headlock.
"Owch! Raven, did you just grab my ass?" Link laughed. "Yeah, I guess. If she's Sheik's friend she must be cool."
"Hear that, Sheik? At least somebody likes you," Raven said, letting go of Link- and Raven said it casually, unaware of this burning idea that was trapped inside Sheik's eyes.
"Yeah, I- oh crap!" Link suddenly exclaimed, bringing a hand tentatively to his mouth.
"What's wrong?" Sheik asked, head tipping curiously.
"What time is it?"
"'Round seven," the twins said in unison, looking up from an ant they were studying.
"I gotta go," Link said hurriedly, eyes concerned, set immediately on his new destination- Link was like that, fully concentrated on one point when he needed to be. "I forgot I have to help clean the kitchen! See you guys. 'Bye Sheik," he said, touching Sheik's arm lightly as he ran off toward the iron gates.
The group watched him as he turned right, down the street, presumably toward the bus stop or something. There was a spot of silence as the leaves whirled in a small breeze.
Raven's eyes flattened. "I could've just called him a cab," he said, like his brain had deflated, "Shit, he's stupid."
"He's focused, I suppose," Sheik observed.
"...He's probably gonna get hit by a fucking car on the way there," Raven replied.
"Link," Sheik began, with a tone of voice that Raven and the others had never heard before- made them listen intently, wonder what it meant- "Link is touched by luck. He's a favored son- a seventh son, seems like Link carries light with him." There were parts left out; but that was something that even he hadn't figured out yet, so he decided it was prudent to keep quiet about it.
Raven paused. "Yeah, he's a good kid," he shrugged, getting out another cigarette. Then a quiet idea came into his eyes. "You know, we oughta do sumthin' fer him."
"Yeah, we should," the twins agreed, nodding sagely.
"Like?" Sheik asked, posture seeming to sigh as he looked toward the flowers and the swings.
"...I dono," Raven shrugged, like that shouldn't be up to him.
Sheik's eyes glowed in a dark shade and he seemed to laugh imperceptibly. "I can see it now: Raven in a sequined gown, arriving at Link's house with a basket of cupcakes, flowers adorning the path. Eagles and fanfare announcing his arrival. That would work, Raven. Your measurements?"
"Ha-ha, you slay me," Raven answered, obscured in a cloud of smoke; then he made a movement that was like a breath of relief, stretching like a cat, cigarette hanging limp out of his mouth. "You know what that fucker needs? He needs a girl." He paused, then grinned. "Hell, I need a girl. Another girl, that is."
The writer paused from obscurity, seemed to be part of the scenery again. "He'd probably have more fun if he had a girl," he chimed in- but there was something in his voice that was hidden, like he was constructing an idea.
There was a sudden nothingness in Sheik's breathing- just an absence of any reaction, and he paused to ruminate on that. There was a subtle darkness brewing like a cloud over him, but nothing else...they continued their conversation: "Yeah, I mean, that chick Princess digs him," Raven said, "Like, really fuckin' digs him-"
"Her?" Sheik suddenly replied, voice dark and full of acid- but with just a touch of casualness to cause a gelatinous unease to settle in the air. "She's a little girl, what can she do for him? Better to pair him with a mannequin."
The others read the atmosphere- knew now that they were treading within a danger zone. Sheik's posture was coiled and tensed, within some heat of feeling that clouded his perception momentarily; then something in him flushed, and the tenseness wore out, died down. Seeing that, Raven started to talk again- although the words were rounded, like stepping around a sleeping carnivore. "I mean, she's cute- got a cute face, nice ass. She ain't that smart, that's always a fuckin' plus," he shrugged. "She digs 'im is all, she'll go along with it."
"A hero needs a girl!" one of the brothers shouted to the birds, like a rowdy reminder.
Raven looked toward Sheik- the de facto leader of the gang, after all, and if Sheik didn't give consent everyone knew it wouldn't go down smoothly. Nobody asked why he wouldn't go with the plan- it was something unsaid that Sheik didn't like questions to be asked.
Again the feeling of nothing. Sheik's streaming mind didn't pause to think on why feelings came in staccato cliffs, rising and falling with the quickness of flames. He felt now as though he needed to put his guard back up, to become distant once again. "It's fine; do what you like," he replied, mildly. They went off to planning as Sheik watched for stars to pass by his brain. The only one who found the tone in his voice odd, actually, was the writer.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
So it was decided that Sheik, Raven, the twins, Princess, and Link would go out to dinner- it was less conspicuous that way (the writer said he had something else to do) (Shad would come as well because he had a car- something Raven failed to mention while extending the invitation). It was a boppin' night, it was full of radio mist and musical sugar that seeped down saccharine from the stars. Something in the city seemed to glow, and while Link was getting dressed he was feeling full the itch for some alley adventure.
The blinded horse, hot wax & a deal with the devil: red coals to touch, dipping your feet in the swarming world of wrong...well, Link didn't have much time for that, and instead headed out, saying goodbye to everybody in the common rooms as he went...gave a small salute to some pretty girls on the street, soldier of love, then hopped a bus going out to the heart of the city.
The cool swept down like autumn magic around him, shapes along the lines of his body, and he got off on the boulevard. Princess tar and moving cars: there was the buzz of activity colored like lightning along the street. Where were they going to meet again?...
"Basically, I felt like I was fucking snow," some girl passing by was telling her friend, "He's an albino, so what do you expect? But there's- something about him I just love-"
Suddenly he remembered the street number; it was funny, what could spark the keys of memory. Anyway he followed the numbers as they dwindled and from a distance could see Sheik: leaning as one vagrant in a faceless crowd, and something in the lonely song of his posture made a vague thought in Link's mind, for whatever weird reason. Sheik's eyes regarded him with a distant thought.
"Hey!" Link smiled. "What's up? Where is everybody?"
"They've gone already; receded back to roots," Sheik answered, thoughtfully. "You're not late, though."
"Okay," he answered. Then his eyes, bright as smiles, crooked curiously. "What are you doing alone, though?"
Sheik seemed to be sucking down knives; seemed to hold something back within his mouth. "I was waiting on a promise, but it's a shot in the dark- now that my hand's already in," he explained, "There's nothing but a bomb."
"That doesn't sound good," Link replied, mouth turned in concern. "Are you okay?" he asked, putting a hand solidly on Sheik's shoulder.
"I'm fine; I'm guessing you're hungry, though," Sheik answered. The light in his eyes was vague and far away, it was glittering in some river of sand that was falling quickly out of grasp. But he seemed to not want to talk about it, so Link complied and let it go with a smile.
"Yep! What are we eating anyway? Oh, am I dressed okay?" Link asked, as they started to walk, stepping back a little against the shopguard traffic so Sheik could see him fully. "I'm just wondering if it'll be a fancy place, and you know, if people are gonna look at me and start asking me for their checks and stuff."
"...You're fine," Sheik answered, with a shadowed glance; then revised that thought quick as panic. "You're too young to stoop to manners, as it is."
"Huh? What's that mean?" Link asked, tipping his head a bit.
Sheik paused; there a softness in his movements as he explained. "There are a few conditions which make everything excusable; one is youth. Another is money. Youth fades; money is a lockbox, armor. The world's a wicked place; but, don't be disappointed- this was written in time, after all. Ah, we're here."
It was a nondescript enough place, it didn't seem to have any voice: quiet between the bricks and the newspaper stands. Strands of ink in the night. The blustered inside, where the lights were low and the darkness was stifling over pools of lily candle light, floating by on every table...against propaganda posters sat the group, at the separate tables- Raven, Shad, and the twins at one booth, then Princess sitting alone at a little table to their right.
There seemed to be something subtle in the atmosphere that made Link smile curiously, wondering what was up. The only one who looked like there wasn't something behind his mind was Raven; he raised an eyebrow when Link and Sheik walked in. "Oh, here he is," he said, with an arch of suspicion rising catlike in his voice, "You gotta have like, ESP or some shit, Sheik. What's with showin' up like, thirty fuckin' years late, kid?"
"Oh- I just needed to help clean the kitchen," Link laughed. The lights in here were low, lit that way that dimmed perception- Sheik moved slim into a seat across from Raven, and Link began to follow, shuffle in-
But Raven shook his head. "Hey, what the Hell? Go sit with Princess, you cretin," he said, gesturing over to Princess sitting nearby at a small, round table.
"No room here," the twins nodded.
"Ain't you a gentleman? Mother fucking Teresa and shit?" Raven added.
Link tipped his head curiously. "Oh, sorry," he said, and went dutifully over to Princess in a puppy walk. Sheik's mind flashed and paused- he couldn't explain this twisted spark that shot dark into his arms when Link walked away...
"Sorry, I didn't forget you! I didn't know you were alone!" Link said brightly, slipping into the seat across from Princess. She smiled- Earl pearl gray, the morning flushing into her eyes as she saw Link's boyish movements, his sweet smile...
"It's fine," she laughed, "I knew you wouldn't forget me."
A scene from different points of view- different impressions in the darkness that hovered between lit spaces. Raven made some crude comment about a girl outside, and they decided what to order- a warm smile, a reaching hand, a dark feeling of hate glimmering in an anonymous heart: that was how it started out, so it was obvious to anybody who paid attention that it wouldn't end well.
There was spastic laughter and alcohol rising into the blood- halfway through, half the party was half drunk, and there was a wholly nice feeling to the air. Link had no idea, of course, that they were trying to set him up with Princess. Every time he turned around to join in on their conversation, he'd get shunted out rudely, evicted from the group like some social pariah. He was confused, but he liked Princess, so it was okay.
Sheik was telling some story at the table- his speech a silencer, magnetic and cryptic. "It was a street gun and a desert thief- luckily, I made it out alive," he was saying, the last syllable a feline sigh, "-escaped into the alley night, but there was a clown. I, of course, did my civic duty and kicked him in the crotch. Happiness is a socialist thing, after all."
There was a rising of laughter at the table (slim thirty-somethings nearby shot them a dirty look); Link choked on his drink a little. "I met a clown once, actually," he piped up from his seat- "I think he pinched my cheeks or something."
Sheik turned to Link, looked at him over his shoulder. "Didn't he see the no solicitation sign?"
"I don't think so- I was scarred for life, three times over," Link grinned.
"Hey, what the Hell? Pay some goddamn attention to the girl," Raven snapped, gesturing over to Princess.
"Yeah, this is a no-Link zone!" one of the twins sputtered out, words half-slurred.
Link laughed and turned back to Princess. "Sorry, sorry," he said, taking a sip of his drink, "So, uhm...what's up?" he asked, hesitantly, for lack of something better to say.
She paused, then laughed. "'What's up?'" she repeated, and he laughed along with her. "Jeez, Link," she added.
"I know- I just dono what to say. Hmm, these are really good- hey, lemme try your drink!" Link exclaimed, suddenly keen on the idea- she was drinking something interesting- electric pink-colored and with sugar on the rim. He reached his hand out, and she laughed as she gave the cup to him. He took a thoughtful sip. "Huh, that's good- it's sweet though." He took his cup and Princess watched his eyes (and she saw that same rainy day in them that Sheik had seen, and her heart was melted gold for a moment); he reached it out to her. "Want some?"
Her eyes widened a little, and she smiled and nodded. Neither noticed the vigilant hush that fell over Sheik's table...Link tipped it a little and she took a sip. "Careful," she said, as some spilled on the table. "It's- uh, it's good- thank you," she said with a happy laugh like falling stars. Link smiled and said something, took a quick gulp from the glass before setting it back on the table.
Raven was watching with slow, alligator eyes. "Christfuck, he's a goddamn natural," he said, with a surly line in his mouth- his eyes flashed to the rest of the table. "Why the Hell doesn't he get more ass? Prolly 'cause he's hangin' 'round you, ya goddamn delinquent."
Sheik's mind blanked- one dim light of thought flickering low and cold. "Hmm, maybe," was all he said, somewhat distractedly, turning his eyes away from Princess and Link quickly. This feeling was crushing- more like swallowing, a supermassive black hole, something strong and cruel...
"That's really good, actually," Link mused to himself, blissfully unaware as he reached over for Princess' drink.
She smiled. "Oh, just be careful though- I've been sick the last few days, I don't know if I could still have it," she warned, a tone of warmth showering the chords of her voice-
"Hm, well that's very considerate of you, isn't it?" Sheik said mildly from his place.
There was a pause; Link looked up to Sheik, knowing immediately from the tone that something was wrong- knew from the withdrawn venom, knew from the way the atmosphere suddenly changed- the way he said it, so casual and dull. Princess bit her lip hesitantly, that tone was like a knife; the rest of the group just fell into quiet. Sheik didn't look back to Link and Princess, just seemed to shake it off, and he resumed the conversation just as easily.
But he shook on the inside, felt to erase his mind for a moment- he didn't understand, but he had...just felt like he couldn't control himself, it was coursing in his bones like electric shock. He sat dissatisfied as Shad said something, warily easing back into a normal mood. He didn't know what hopes for Link Princess had- didn't know what Link even thought of her- but any which way it made him uneasy, put a bad black taste in his throat. And why did he even feel that way?...
Link knew that whenever Sheik had that tone he meant it. He held a distant worry, wondering if he'd done something wrong and hadn't noticed it...maybe he'd taken a bit too much, maybe he'd acted too familiar? He smiled it off though, so that Princess wouldn't feel anxious. "What did you have, anyway?" he asked.
She paused- juxtaposed to that subtle panther poison, Link's warm mouth, his cosmic eyes, were a place to go to- were shelter from the storm. "Oh, probably just a cold," she answered. "I got it from one of the girls in the office, I bet- they go around just sneezing all over their hands, touching everything."
"An office?" Link asked, then grinned. "Are you a businessman?"
She laughed and thwacked him playfully on the hand. "No, Link, I'm not a businessman. I'm a secretary for the businessman." She paused, eyes flickered upwards- exhaled a flushed breath of air like the alcohol was choking pink around her lungs. "He's a jerk, but it's fine."
"Hm. I guess things are funny like that- everything looks different from a certain standpoint- I mean it seems like bosses are always jerks in one way or another," Link pondered.
Princess smiled. "Yeah, it does always look different- like I probably just look like some dumb floozy to him- God, I know I do- and he's just an ass to me...do you work, Link?"
Link paused and some rainy thought popped into his mind. "Nope," he said, shaking his head and thinking of Sheik.
She laughed. "Oh, you're a slacker, then?"
He smiled. "I guess so," he replied.
"Well, working's not always the best thing to do at the moment- I mean like, I guess sometimes it's just not a good time, you have to take off," she said, but her words suddenly seemed distant.
"Oh, yeah- hey, you! Why the Hell didn't you come out with me and Jovani the other day?" Raven called from the other table, making an exasperated gesture, "We raised fucking Hell- they ain't gonna want us back in that place for a long time- you fuckin' missed out!"
"Oh, really?...When was that? Thursday?" Link asked, looking over.
"Nah, Wednesday."
"Oh. I was at Sheik's house," Link answered, brushing some hair out of his eyes, taking a sip of his drink.
Raven's expression balked- some confusion passed his face in dark and gold, and his eyes snapped. "Eh?" he answered, raising an eyebrow, then looking at Sheik. Sheik made no response- only the dark bloody claret of his eyes moved small and snakelike to Raven. Raven paused; Link lifted his eyes, wondering what was up. "...You were at Sheik's house?"
"Oh, uh, yeah," Link answered- had he said something wrong? The atmosphere hadn't stilled but it sure as Hell was moving slow- there seemed to be an exchange of glances, a communal shift in posture...
"Well, lucky fuckin' you," Raven said with a bite in his tongue, with a shrug in his shoulders- taking his drink with a rough hand, like it was some arbitrary set of gambling cards. "Never thought I'd see the fuckin' day, Sheik."
"That's right," Sheik replied- without enough of a pause to make it natural- something in his manner laughing sinfully, looking down from some dark rainy cliff- "It's fit to understand, I don't just let anybody close to me."
Those words were directed at somebody- an arrow that pierced with direction through metaphysical dark, but the question was who was it directed at? The answer was up in the air- the blame was up for grabs. Princess felt a hot caution, like it was directed at her; and Link's heart fell into rainy day gray, feeling that Sheik was angry with him for some reason.
There was an odd waiting hush, a waiting for somebody to pick up the night again. Sheik let out a sound that sounded like a small seismic laugh but seemed more like a viper's hiss, and said, "Well? You were talking of something- go on, then, no need for interruption."
Words the dark flesh of pomegranate, coming full circle like night...Everybody was a little off-balance now, but resumed some remnants of thought leftover. What was worse was that Sheik's air was now pointedly casual- markedly cool, like he was just ready, at the front lines with a blade in his blood, off his tongue.
Link fidgeted in his seat- felt to get out, but also wondered with a quiet heart what was wrong. Had he done something...? He'd been within the radius of Sheik's hate- felt that itching heat- but it was different when it was directed at him. It felt like needles; it felt like being behind a closed door.
He looked up to Princess- her eyes were wary and moving slow, and Link could tell she didn't know if she should go- didn't know how to pick up the conversation again. He worked up a smile and gave her a small tap on the wrist. Her eyes turned up surprised. "So, uh- you were saying about your jerk boss?" he asked.
Her hand was petal soft; she lifted it slowly, breaking contact seamlessly, touch of water. "Oh, nothing," she answered, leaning her hand in her palm, "I just never know where I am with him-"
And at his place at the table, Sheik was slowly burning inside some golden cage- heart suffering, mind well beyond a conceivable road. Something inside him was trembling, but he was trying,...he was trying to salvage some sense, trying to keep this dark feeling at bay. But it was overcoming him slowly, and between cracks of petulant light, he didn't feel like he could contain it any longer.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Everything seemed to recede to empty space, to quiet air; some people were just coming out, some were folding dreams between their hands and heading home- a silent reality that seemed to be too much. Raven was untouchable even to this pervading silence, but had gone after a cute girl he saw at the bar ("Holy shit," he'd declared, shuffling out of the booth). The twins, always ready for a laugh at Raven's expense, followed quickly after.
Shad and Sheik continued a conversation that slanted off of sunset, that seemed to be a game of perception. But Sheik wasn't the losing kind- he could run circles 'round Shad if he wanted to, so Shad just kept a pleasant vocabulary. It seemed to all be fine but Shad recognized something choking in Sheik's movements.
Princess and Link were having fun at their table- that flushed, drunken kind of fun, rosy in laughing and time forgotten. A freelance magician came around and passed a flier to them with the face of a reaper. They tried to make something resembling a house of cards by tearing it into pieces, but it fell down with every anxious laugh- every flash of Princess' eyes making his hands falter. Link sensed something in the way she looked at him, but he didn't think too much about it.
"Yes, but," Sheik was saying, words soft and amused, "there is war in the mind, in the heart. War happens everyday; by every number on the clock something is destroyed. Between sex and money- the blood of the empire- it's a natural thing for war to happen; there's no avoiding it, unless you'd like to tranquilize the hearts of the masses."
Shad was smiling as well- wills seemed to be pushing against each other, passing abrasive. "I suppose that nature is inherently warlike," he agreed, "However, I believe that through the faculties of reason and compassion, mankind may be able to overcome the instinct of conflict." Link caught their words by a thread of silence; pondered the fact that Shad seemed to be the only person who Sheik's words were ineffective against.
Sheik laughed. "Reason and logic are irrelevant dogs- slip away like air when you need them the most." He seemed to reason on that point, leaned strangely into the dark. "You can have your peace, then; I've got dues to pay to spirits and masks, and this battlefield is where I earn my wages."
"You're far too superstitious," Shad smiled.
"Maybe you're just blind," Sheik responded, never one to miss a beat, "-None of you academics believe in reality, besides."
"Perhaps not; but if you'll excuse me, I'm going to the restroom," Shad said, getting up with a polite nod, and moving imperceptibly past their table, past some lost people.
There didn't seem to be any shift in the air. Sudden stillness, sudden quiet, yeah- but none of the tense electricity that one would presume would be there if it was just Princess, Link, and Sheik together. The only one who felt anything different was Sheik- a sudden tensing, the completion of some dark wave's circumnavigation of his brain. He let off a breath and turned his eyes past the colors in his mind and toward the scene outside the window...
His mind was dulled; animal in that there was now only sensation, only instinct. He felt somebody come closer to him and seemed to look up out of a daze when Link's arm passed over his shoulder- reaching to get something on the table...
"Oh, sorry," Link said, the words faltering- Sheik looked up to him; his eyes were suddenly soft and there was a pause on his mouth- he laughed, "These just looked good but we didn't order them at my table so I wanned to try them."
Link popped one of the leftover appetizers into his mouth, giving it life from the condemnation of the abandoned plate; the lights were low, so that there were only hints of the light that made his face, but Sheik thought that there was no better light to see him in right now. His mind flushed, lit in wheels of color, became engulfed in shadow like he was on a drunk: the sudden thought that Link was something permanent and sweet as death, and high fear rising into his throat at the thought...some sudden intense brightness at having him near, some dark criminal thought- something sick...
Link tensed under Sheik's eyes. He figured in all probability he was still mad at him- was so worried that he'd done something wrong that he directed his gaze elsewhere and wondered nervously what to say. "Yeah, it's good," he coughed nervously, smiling a little bit, balance lilting..."Oh, so- uhm-"
"You should be getting back to Princess, hm?" Sheik suddenly said, as though feeling had pushed through his mouth- words sharp and bitter; something was telling him it shouldn't be that way, but it was overwhelming him...
Link paused; Princess looked over from the table, sitting lonely, petite legs crossed- thought maybe to get in a good impression with Sheik, and said with a smile, "Oh, no, I'm fine! You two keep talking."
"Oh, so you wouldn't be lonely then- you wouldn't worry about him forgetting you?" Sheik said, laughing dark, eyes cutting over to her. He fixed her with a look- quiet and carnivorous, full of something corrosive- and she flinched. Link turned back to Sheik in the throws of surprise, crawling to his brain with electroshock and ice. Sheik sat coiled, emotions throwing off him like magnetic waves- the heat of his feeling was physical, tangible, changed the patterns of the air immediately.
"Oh- no- I was just- I mean, no," she started to stutter, forgetting her mouth and letting her confusion run- but Sheik was not one for pity and he wasn't one for wasting time, and a flash of irritation sparked inside his dark eyes.
"Ah, 'no', is it? Good, then, take a moment to breathe- relax without the heat of infatuation," he snapped- a voice that destroyed, that razed cities- that burned- but also something small and petty in his words that was foreign to Link.
"Sheik-" he said, as though to ask him what was wrong.
"Apologies aren't exactly my way," Sheik snapped, without waiting for response, thinking it was just another of those, people who tried to beat him into some semblance of similarity...but then he paused and realized that it was Link- Link, eyes for asking, eyes that embraced as free and warm as tears would- Link with a fire in his movements. Sheik's eyes were suddenly shadowed and he looked away quickly. "Y-you'd best leave me be, for now," he said, uneasily- his fingers twitched just a little bit, hand lying listless on the table.
Princess was flushed red- flustered, embarrassed- looked like she was about to crack from vexation at the table. Link didn't know what to do and so he listened to Sheik- followed Sheik's directions, headed over to their table...Princess got up and excused herself, not knowing what else to do, and Link's mind was falling down and blinded- his heart tightened and he felt rainy and gray. He followed Princess as she made her way to the door; he came to a realization- he'd remember it as first time he'd heard Sheik stutter, and that meant something because he had such unfailing confidence in Sheik's words. Sheik would just remember it as a night of Hell- a night of feelings that blind-sided him without regard to clarity; that erupted in darkness and light, that spelled "longing" like flowers and flame, like sweetness just out of reach. Dying of thirst surrounded by water- slave to some hateful feeling that remained mockingly anonymous.
Nobody else recognized anything wrong, though, when they came back to the table. The twins idly wondered where Link was; Raven situated himself all criminal posture and low swears as he explained the situation with that chick at the bar; and Shad just sat down smiling, continuing the conversation with a blind eye.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
And then everything just ebbed again, the tide weakened and fell to just a memory- became only a dim wariness to Sheik and Link. The night wrapped up goldwire around itself; Sheik and Raven got the check and they all shuffled out. Princess was happy again; Link, in a rare moment of cleverness, managed to convince her that she was just being overly emotional and not remembering things clearly because she was tipsy. Which she was, so he helped her to sober up by frantically ordering a seltzer, and that was that. She was laughing in no time, downing her drinks and becoming again the flower of the night, the glamour Madonna and the saint of sunshine.
Link sorta felt like a sucky person for doing it, but he hadn't known what else to do, had still been confused by the sudden hatred in Sheik's voice, the sudden pinpointing anger. He sighed it off and they all walked out to Shad's car.
The night was cool; the boulevards were wide, seemed to be full of fluorescent moonlight and the empty stories of love and murder. There seemed to be something untold in the anonymous doors, the muddled neon language. Everything seemed to be flowering anyway and the car pulled slowly forward, picked up speed.
"'Ey, what the Hell is this fuckbrain doing? Come the fuck on- what the fuck's with the snails on the road?" Raven was saying impatiently at the front looking with a hot irritation at the cars ahead. An older man in a business suit (a heart attack waiting to wake up) was holding up traffic at a green light, and they were stuck at the crossroad.
"Snails are street-legal," Sheik said, throwing commentary, voice amused from the back seat. Link couldn't help but smile but was careful not to laugh.
"Looks like it- 'ey, what's this shit? You drive like a fucking old lady, Shad," Raven balked, looking appalled at Shad behind the wheel. "You tryin'a get a look at the goddamn turtles?"
Shad laughed and shook his head. "There's no harm in being safe," he said like it was a reminder.
Raven rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah- close your legs, I can see your vagina from here," he snapped.
-But even in Raven's speech you could feel the sleepy air that had taken over the car. Things seemed to still. A short midnight silence fell like static electricity, like radio sounds, over the car.
"Anyone want a cigarette?" Raven asked from the front seat, taking out a box of cigarettes with a slim gesture.
Sheik's mind sparked a little bit, surfaced from memories and illusions; he felt like smoking...but not now, later. He couldn't, in front of...
"Oh, me, please!" Princess called from the back, raising her hand a little bit.
"Yeah- here ya go, honey," Raven replied, stretching back to hand the cigarette to one of the brothers, who dutifully passed it on to Princess. Sheik and the twins were sitting in the back seats; Princess and Link were relegated to makeshift chairs in the hatchback trunk.
Smoke drifted, predator lazy, cold and slow, up from the front seat. Princess took the cigarette with a delicate "thank you," and placed it between her lips. Sheik felt a spark of hatred fill his eyes, and he turned to look out the window- trying to get her out of his peripherals...
The smoke wrapped around her; her skin shone pure and sugary in the street light and Link smiled. She looked back at him; her eyes laughed. "Did you have fun tonight?" she asked, breaking a tense, saccharine silence.
"Huh?- yeah," Link nodded, a kid's grin coming over his face.
She laughed. "That's good. I did, too."
He gave a gesture of confidence- he turned to look out the window, and Princess took a moment to digest the rainy, low way he moved. He seemed melancholy, but she was too buzzed to see that clearly. "Oh- hey, look outside," he said, leaning toward the window to get a better view. The street had its own stars; the air seemed silent and cold, seemed to still- had the feeling of a museum. "The lights outside are nice- it's like- nature's good, but I think manmade things are too. It's just pretty, I guess."
She bit her lip in the throws of affection- he was such a little kid...she took a drag and looked at him- suddenly bold. "Yeah? What about me?" she asked.
Sheik noted that his breathing seemed suddenly empty- something in his blood turned cold at that Link might look at her, might actually go through with that. That same boulevard melody played, rattled, in his bones, but now it just seemed to weigh on him like a stone- it was without the sweetness and the melancholy it had before, was now just a gilded prison. He wondered about his heart-
But Link just turned to look at her- not realizing her intentions, thinking it a simple arbitrary question. "You?..." he asked, and looked at her consideringly. She blushed slightly at his eyes. "...Yeah. You have this certain- the light is good on you. You look like a flower, a little bit. But more like- have you ever seen those little cards that have prayers and pictures of martyrs and flowers on them? You look like that, to me. Like a ghost, sort of."
Her mind turned frenzied- lifted to a high and she chewed down more thoughtfully on her lip, wondering what to say. Something about him was just so nice..."Oh, uhm,- thank you," she managed to stammer.
"You're welcome!" Link piped happily.
She paused; then she laughed like autumn wind. Link paused, wondering what was funny, but he laughed too, anyway. The words just fell into Sheik's mind, down some endless abyss, cruelly starry and filled with untouchable brightness.
Princess smiled and sighed, pressed her head against the window with her cigarette in her hand, close by; the white outside lights- the cool amalgam of shadow and electricity that made pools in the night, travelling shadows- colored her face with lily magic. Sheik felt an urge to see her...he looked at her askance, subtle. In that moment he felt an irritation flare in his chest...that she could smoke and smile and look pretty- that, as he realized, Link could see it. More blues, more feelings colliding; the phrase "all in vain" crossed his mind, and he didn't have the courage to admit why.
Princess was dropped off at her small apartment; her roommate buzzed her in and she gave a small wave toward the car. The twins lived not too far away, so they were next...and then was Link: the came upon the place, and Link thanked everybody, said goodnight...
"Yeah, yeah, get outta the fuckin' car," Raven answered, pushing him a little bit.
"Eww, Raven germs," Link laughed, pulling open the door from the back. The cool air flushed inside- a breeze blew up from the tar and the flowers. He threw himself over the back seat with a clumsy puppy movement, falling on his back. "I have Ravenitis now," he added, sticking his tongue out.
"Ha-ha- anymore time in this car with you I swear I'd be infected with your fucking faggotry," Raven replied. Link stepped out; Raven leaned out the window a little bit, watching Link as he closed the door. "'Ey," he began, smoke pouring out of his mouth, "You wanna work tomorrow?"
Link looked back at him, mouth pausing. "Okay, sure," he smiled.
"Good. Watch the fuckin' phone then."
"Okay! Night- everyone!" Link replied, and turned coolly, with seamless favela ease, toward the house. He'd added "everyone" as a nervous afterthought...he didn't want to say goodbye to Sheik directly, but he didn't want to not say goodbye to him...
He began to walk toward the door. The azaleas breathed in the midnight breeze; life seemed to have stilled, halted to this city mist. But it wasn't right to leave it like that, he suddenly thought- it wouldn't be right to just give some half-assed, "Goodbye, everyone" like it was insurance, like it was just a safe way out. He couldn't bear with taking the easy way out. Couldn't even bear with the uncertainty of Sheik's feelings- the thought he might be angry at him...
So he pivoted around, heading back toward the car. Sheik had his eyes closed inside- opened them slow when Link tapped on the window, opened them like it was a dream he'd already foreseen. Raven and Shad turned around to face Sheik; Shad rolled the window down and Sheik turned his eyes up, careful not to look too directly at Link.
But there was no smile this time- but his eyes were already caught in that cool soda light, but his hair was already a torrid storm. "Hey- can I uhm- talk to you for a second?"
Sheik's mind paused dreadfully, but something in him obeyed. He pulled the door open and got out- wondering if he had wanted this to happen or if he hadn't wanted this to happen. At any rate this confusion was just too much...
He stepped out. His movements were cautious, catlike- he seemed to recede into the dark, only the quiet in his eyes was apparent to Link. Link stood against the fall air and put his hands behind his back, rocked on his heels. "I, uhm," he said, moving slightly; Sheik moved closer as if to answer the bell's toll. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry- if you're mad at me..." Link paused, then laughed soberly. "I mean, I must sound like a huge douche- 'I'm sorry for I don't know what'- hah, I mean, but I don't mean it like that."
His eyes wandered along the stretches of street that surrounded them like a song. "I didn't mean to do anything jerky, is all. I don't think it's right to not apologize."
Sheik leaned, contrapose- gained some of the graffiti light, some of the vital carnival red, that Link recognized from before. "You didn't do anything wrong," he finally said. Warmth crept into his voice- glance like cinnamon, like sugar; his words had the slow ringing of alcohol. "Like I said- a good mood depends upon the stars; tonight it was one light out of time, it was two beats out of place...don't worry yourself."
Link wasn't sure what to think of that- it seemed true in one sense, but it seemed veiled, masked, in another sense. The words seemed to feel right, but there wasn't any logic to them...He looked back at Sheik and saw nothing but an offer- nothing out of order-, so he paused, nodded. "Okay, then. Cool.- Hey, let's go out tomorrow!"
Sheik laughed. "Of course- just mind the stories of the dark," he replied, with faultless rhythm.
Link agreed with a flash of the eyes- stepped forward to hug Sheik. What was to him just casual was a heart attack to Sheik; Sheik felt the warmth of Link's neck, the prison of his arms- felt like it would be right if it was just a little tighter, if it meant more, if in this he could read the strength and the sadness. But Link just released him and smiled, waved; he turned around and headed past the azaleas to the door.
Sheik paused on air. His balance tilted strangely; his eyes were like a cat's as he watched Link move like music, move breathless and sunny. Pink morning sun was creeping into the rushing blue, light from the desert; it would rain tomorrow, probably. Sheik might not have had to courage to admit this hollow beating in his chest; but even so, a dark voice told him that it wasn't his choice at all. That he was really fucked now.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
And maybe he was; he counted by the signs that seemed to appear, by the luckless wind that seemed to rise up and cast him into some cruel spell. He asked a woman about the lines of his palm while she drew henna up his fingers- she only told him that she'd seen this day would come, and to watch out for his left side. And it choked him, made his blood constrict, that he knew exactly what she meant by "this day."
He felt alone; the lights were spinning up on the ceiling overhead, spilling primary colors down the floor. He moved past the crowd in the heat of music; spotted Raven by the bar. "Oh, hey," Raven said casually, tipping his glass a little bit as a greeting.
"Is Link here?" Sheik asked- posture of a refugee, onto the next road.
"No- that faggot said he hadda help with chores or sumthin' like that," Raven scoffed, finishing off his glass with a gator's bite. "He took the money and fuckin' ran outta there. Dint even say goodbye or nuthin'. Some fuckin' manners."
Sheik nodded- or at least seemed to nod, but his eyes were distant and full of a light that seemed nervous, that seemed to care...he suddenly wanted a cigarette, so he stumbled back outside.
These people were all strangers- they were all just murders waiting to happen, they were all bloodless, like lizards or like masks. Sheik slipped past them, slim and quiet, and moved outside- was he stumbling? He suddenly felt clumsy, he suddenly felt like he was blinded by a wave of colors that pulled a veil over his consciousness...A poignant feeling struck strong into his heart- as clear as scent flowering on cold air.
He looked at his palms, he saw nothing but empty space; saw nothing but his own face. Link wasn't here- was that good or was that bad? Pink descended down like honey lights- starry pink, cosmic and bold, that fell over his eyes, fell over his heart...some line of melody recalled the low way Link moved; his worried heart and his homeless eyes- his champagne laugh...
Link could cut between light and dark, resided in twilight- Sheik knew now what it was that Link carried on his shoulders. Link existed as the sole arbitrator between right and wrong- he walked the line and he didn't complain, but oh he was a lonely angel, he was a child of the street...his mouth was full of water and sweetness. Mind full of radiance, always stuck in in-betweens...
Sheik stood like he was at the mouth of some decision. Like there was only black space around him. How had this happened?- it was a horror and a thrill to spin down this lonely tunnel- to feel the light of Link beside him or miles away, to feel a sugar longing that lived solely in the night.
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A/N: Sheik's such a douchebag in this story, XD.
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