This one's mostly Gabriel's point of view and there's also a bigger amount of language, but there's a reason why I rated this story 'M'.

Please do not forget to review :)

Enjoy.

"Do you feel sleepy yet?"

"…I've been feeling sleepy for several days now."

"Fine, do you feel any sleepier then? Does it work?"

"I don't really think so." Gabriel sat up and stripped the sleep mask off his eyes. Zelda had been sitting in his room all evening, trying to get him to doze off, but to no avail. She had forced him to drink at least six cups of tea, and so far the only noticeable effect was that he had to go to the toilet every 15 minutes. The disappointment in her eyes in turn disappointed him. "Although… A little bit…"

Her face lit up, and with the words "Perhaps the tea is finally kicking in!", she hurried to the door, to bring some more tea from the kitchen.

Oh, it was kicking in. Gabriel sat up from his bed and went over to the bathroom. When he got back to his bed and laid down under the blanket, however, his eyelids dropped and the fatigue he'd been trying to oppress took over.

The tea was not in the kitchen anymore, so Zelda went back to her room, where she found Peach along with Samus, Midna and Micaiah chilling on beds and armchairs. She seemed to have interrupted a rather serious conversation. "What's happened? I didn't get the note that it's girls' night?…"

"We met spontaneously", Peach said.

Samus spoke up. "Micaiah here isn't feeling well", she said and pointed to the Silver Haired Maiden, who was laying in Zelda's bed, blowing her nose (much to Zelda's dismay). "Midna's books of spells are gone and some fucker unscrewed my Varia Suit."

"What?!" Zelda forgot all about Gabriel and sat down on the floor next to Samus, who was on the verge of tears. "Can't you put it back together, Sammy?"

"I can, but… It still sucks!"

Peach threw her a pack of tissues and addressed herself to her best friend. "I checked our room, nothing's gone, nothing's wrong. However, the window was open when I came in, and it was so cold that I thought I just stepped into a fridge. This is getting unsettling."

"I had night terrors yesterday… Today I woke up and couldn't breathe through my nose anymore, plus I feel like there's some weird pressure on my head", Micaiah said, depressed. Her red eyes were watery and bloodshot.

"I heard Bowser's been having headaches all day", Midna added, "he even accepted a red Mushroom from Mario to make him feel better."

It was truly extraordinary for Bowser to do that, and Zelda ran her fingers through Samus' ponytail, who was uncontrollably sobbing on her shoulder. Maybe it was the change of weather? Zelda's younger brother back home in Hyrule always got sick in-between seasons. But that would only explain Micaiah and Bowser's conditions, not the thefts. She could not believe that this was happening though. "Are you sure you haven't misplaced your books, Midna?"

"At first I thought so, but that's out of the question."

"Have you informed the Hands?"

Peach said that they had not yet done that, but would do so in the morning, and Zelda heard Samus confirming that between two violent sobs. The Hylian then asked whether Micaiah had asked Mario for a Mushroom. "I did", Peach said, "Marth should be here any minute now."

Classic Peach, instead of going to get it herself, she had sent her personal butler to get it for her.

Midna then jumped up and announced that she was going to bed. "I'm tired… The brawl was strenuous and my missing books did the rest. Good night, guys."

"I think I'll also be leaving. There's still a lot of healing spells I haven't tried". Micaiah then tediously forced herself out of Zelda's bed and traipsed to the door. Before exiting she audibly sniffed and still managed to catch another bundle of tissues mid-air which Peach threw to her. The moment the door closed behind Micaiah, Zelda jumped up and began stripping her bedding.

"I'm sorry for that", Peach muttered and went to her wardrobe from where she took out some pink material. "I just went to the bathroom for a moment and all of a sudden she had occupied your bed when I came back. There, I'll give you my bedlinen."

The two princesses then proceeded to change the sheets while listening to Samus' despaired monologue, who was now going through the third bundle of tissues. "I don't understand how anyone could do such a thing, I mean, I don't just go around unscrewing innocent people's suits, right? I mean, I still have the Power Suit, the Gravity Suit and the Dark Suit but the Varia's my favourite! I'll have to work through the night to screw it back together, cruel, merciless world! Whyyy?!"

Zelda's bed was soon made and the Hylian eyed the hot pink linen a little morose. Not her favourite color, but it would do. She was thankful that Peach had lent her the bedsheets. As soon as she stepped back however, Samus threw herself on the freshly made bed, pressed her face into the cushion, soaking it with tears. Just great, Zelda thought, facepalming.

She then remembered Gabriel, whom she'd completely forgotten. Grabbing the tea from a shelf, she made her way back to the boy's dorms.

As soon as she approached Gabriel's room, which was at the end of the corridor, she heard muffled sounds coming from the other side of the door. Wondering whether someone might have joined him, Zelda wearily knocked on the door and listened for a moment. It rather sounded like he was talking to himself, although she couldn't make out the words. All of a sudden, a scream interrupted the flood of words and disregarding that he hadn't invited her in, Zelda threw the door open.

Gabriel's blanket and pillow were on the ground, while he himself was apparently having a bad dream, furiously kicking and punching the air. He was grimacing and groaning, probably in pain.

Zelda rushed over to him, feeling incredibly guilty for having left him alone, forgotten all about him. Throwing the tea to the ground, she grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him in order to wake him up, but he was in a deep sleep and her gently shaking turned into a violent one when his eyes finally flew wide open, clouded with terror.

"Oh, thank the goddesses you're awake", she exclaimed and hugged and squeezed him. Poor Gabriel didn't grasp the situation, for he was tongue-tied at first and when he did finally manage to utter some words, they were cloudy and -Zelda furrowed her brows- in another language? "What did you say?"

She slowly released him from her grip and Gabriel shook his head, blinking several times to clear his mind. "What? What, what is happening? Why am I sweaty?", he asked as he placed a hand on his forehead and noticed it was wet.

"You had a night terror. You were kicking and screaming, so I thought I'd wake you up."

They sat in silence for a few moments. Gabriel tried to calm his heavy breathing and clear his head from the bizarre images that were still lingering in his mind. When he finally managed to do so he spoke up to break the quiet. "I… Thank you for waking me up."

"I didn't know what else to do."

"You did right."

"Mayhap you should try to go back to sleep then?"

"No!" Gabriel exclaimed and jumped up, gripping his head. "No, I'm not tired anymore", he added much more calmly.

Zelda was flabbergasted. That was a rather strong reaction, given the harmless suggestion. "That's ridiculous, that wasn't even an hour's worth of sleep. Gabriel, the nightmare's over. When you go back to, sleep it will be gone!"

"It won't!"

"That's not how dreams work", she tried reasoning, "it will!"

"Mine do."

"What are you saying?"

Gabriel sat back down next to her and buried his face in his hands. "This dream keeps coming back every time I fall asleep. It is the true reason why I haven't been sleeping lately… I'm afraid to close my eyes and rest."

"You could've told me the truth", Zelda said. She laid a hand upon his shoulder and looked him in the eye. "Don't ever be afraid of sharing your doubts. I would've done my best to help you."

He let out a bitter laughter. "You couldn't have helped me."

"What makes you so sure of it? You wouldn't let me try. Sharing isn't a sign of weakness but a sign of trust. There's a solution to everything."

Maybe she was right, maybe he should've confided in her. That was something he hadn't tried yet, and everything was worth a try. "Alright. What is your solution?"

"Magic." Straightening her dress, Zelda sat cross-legged on the head of his bed and placed his pillow in her lap, gesturing for Gabriel to lay his head upon it, which he hesitantly did. Although she told him to relax, he found it difficult to do so. The simple thought of their closeness was making him feel a little weird- not uncomfortable, but a bit tense. "Relax", she ordered, "I need your aura to be free of negative energy. I'll need you at peace for what I'm gonna do. What I will try now is to create a kind of blockade around your mind, so that your surroundings will not take any influence on you. I need to cleanse your mind from any thoughts, dreams and memories. Nothing bad comes in and neither does any good. This is only temporary and not a long-term solution, and the spell will evaporate once you wake up, but it will ensure you a good night's rest, which you're in desperate need of."

Gabriel then felt a surge of magic coming over him, taking control. He didn't feel weird, he didn't feel comfortable. In fact, he felt nothing before he drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Zelda's hands were hovering some centimetres above his head, shrouded in flickering blue magic. The spell was an easy one, however Gabriel's aura required a more concentrated dose of it. Just a few more minutes, she thought, and then she could safely leave him alone.

She had to pick a bone with somebody.

She found him watching a brawl (there was no point in questioning why the heck they would brawl so late at night, but they had their own bizarre logic) between Snake and Bowser (who had apparently recovered), sitting next to Captain Falcon, who was completely hooked. Ike himself however was leaning with his elbows on his knees and didn't seem to be half as enthusiastic about the fight as the Captain. Bowser and Snake were currently in the middle of brutally chocking each other when she came to a halt in front of Ike, blocking his view. The expression on her face did not bode well.

"What."

"We need to talk."

"Oh no. Are you breaking up with me?"

"Cut the crap", she hissed, "were you even aware of the fact that Gabriel hasn't slept in days? I presume not since you're completely uninterested in other people's problems. Why couldn't you have taken care of him like you were supposed to?"

She actually won Falcon's attention, who looked up from the brawl and threw the bag of tacos he was eating aside, scooted closer and rejoiced. "Look at that, Ike getting owned by a girl! Where's the popcorn when you need it?"

Ike raised an eyebrow and sent the dim-wit a seriously?-look and then looked at Zelda, not changing his expression. "Because I'm not his mom?"

Zelda threw her hands up in disbelief. "Ike, come on! Master Hand assigned you as his mentor! I had to comfort the poor boy back to sleep, which should have been your job. He was afraid to sleep, Ike, do you understand the seriousness of this?"

Behind her back, Snake was violently catapulted off stage and quickly warped back, Falcon cheering.

"Alright, you're taking this whole mentor thing way too serious. I'm showing him the mansion and how things work around here, but I'm not supposed to babysit him. He has a life, I have a life", Ike said, demonstrating his statement with the help of hand gestures and talking in a slow manner as if Zelda was thick as a brick. "He shouldn't be my shadow. Now maybe you didn't get the note, but last time I checked, Gabriel wasn't a child anymore. At least that's what I thought, I don't know about you, or tell me, are nineteen year olds still considered children in Hyrule?"

"No, but that is not- "

"Well there you go!"

"I-"

"Besides, what were you even doing in his room, tucking him in? As I said, he's nineteen." He raised a finger. "You have to agree with me that this is a little weird." He pushed the speechless Zelda aside and went back to observing the brawl, the conversation was apparently over.

Not for Falcon. "Oooooh" he hollered, "did I just hear that right? You were in Van Helsing's room? After nighttime peace?"

"You know what, I don't need to listen to either of your preposterous- "

"So the princess likes fresh meat, huh? Neat!"

Zelda would have loved to blast Din's Fire in both of their faces. Instead, she swallowed the urge to do so because violence was never the answer (oh, the irony) and forced a serious expression on her face. "Boys, what you lack is a little perspective."

She then smiled a last time, turned on her heel and left them alone.

Captain Falcon scratched his head and shovelled a handful of tacos into his mouth. "What did she mean by that?"

"Well, Cap," Ike said, "that's her majesty's way of telling us we are complete idiots."

Gabriel had originally been planning to chase the kids out of bed at five in the morning but this plan had been thwarted by Zelda's spell, which made him sleep until the sun rose. At least he could honestly say to feel well rested and rejuvenated, for her magic had done something he'd been trying to achieve for some days: expelled the nightmares from his dreams.

He decided to do something very unusual: go for a stroll in the park behind the beautiful gardens which belonged to the mansion. Snow had fallen during the night, and the first sunlight shone brightly over the treetops, announcing a new day. That was what he needed, Gabriel thought, a fresh start. Things were going to get better now with Zelda's spell, he had won his first brawl and would soon see the fruits of his labour, in the form of many more victories. At least he hoped so, and then he reached the small clearing on which a few days ago, he had been sitting with the group and enjoyed the picnic. He remembered how he'd tried to snatch a place next to Zelda but instead ended up sitting between Peach and Micaiah, who'd been chatting together as if he wasn't there. That in turn made him remember that the picnic was also the last time he'd really talked to Micaiah. Strange woman. If she truly was holding a dark secret -and he was convinced that she was-, he would make sure he'd learn about it.

Step one was already done. The key to the secret was obviously Ike, and Gabriel was very satisfied that the mercenary had agreed to share his knowledge.

However, he had a condition and that was step two, which would not be easy to complete, not at all. In fact, while Gabriel had been so sure of himself, so euphoric about his victory and about the fact that Ike was willing to agree, he'd probably accepted just about any condition Ike wold've suggested. The feeling of self-confidence had quickly vanished and Gabriel sat down in the snow, contemplating.

Ike was a man of his word and should the duel end in Gabriel's favour, the latter would be one step closer to the riddle that was Micaiah and maybe -just maybe- getting behind the fears and night terrors that had been tormenting him for some while now.

Defeating Ike was another thing entirely. While Gabriel didn't know almost anything about the mercenary's background (both of them were very private persons and neither of them were talkative or interested in the other's past), he was wondering where he'd gotten his mad, almost superhuman strength and combat skills.

Gabriel leaned his head back against a tree and looked up to the clear sky, blinded by the bright sun. When it came to sword fight, they were not equally matched. He had a problem, and he had no choice but to win their duel if he wanted to shed light on it.

Assuming the unfortunate case of a loss, what other possibilities were there? For one, he could seek help from Peach, but going to this woman and asking to cooperate would require a lot of nerve and desperation, and Gabriel was not yet desperate enough to swallow his pride. He could use his friendship with Zelda to approach Peach, but what would the Hylian princess think if he came to her with such a request? She knew better than anyone else how he disliked the Mushroom princess and despised her hunger for gossip, and Gabriel himself was well aware that he was being a hypocrite, for Zelda was no saint either- however, he was all too willing to ignore that fact. But the time had yet to come when he'd seriously think about going to Peach (and from a realistic point of view that would most likely be very soon).

Finally, he needed two witnesses. Gabriel formed a snowball in his hand and started practising his aim by throwing it at a tree stump several metres on his left.

He'd just decided against telling Zelda about the bet when he remembered something else and violently threw the snowball he'd been nursing into the air. Jumping up, he punched the tree he'd been leaning against, only to scream and hold his hand in pain, cursing. He should learn to control his emotions. Suddenly, a mass of snow fell from the trembling tree and landed directly on his head, running under his leather coat down his back. Gabriel then performed a strange dance across the clearing, cursing loudly. If Zelda could hear him right now, she would probably have slapped him. On both cheeks. Good thing she didn't.

After some seconds, which Gabriel perceived like a brief eternity, the snow in his coat had finally melted and he calmed down. So he had a problem more: besides getting two witnesses, he now had to tell Zelda that she was the one to get the shit end of the stick, in a bet she technically wasn't even involved in. That was just great. He didn't really know anything about her relation to Ike but she sure wouldn't be pleased to hear that she was the one who'd have to make him breakfast in bed for two entire weeks.

But that could wait. First things first, he'd begin with solving the less challenging riddle. So Zelda was eliminated from being a witness, no problem, the mansion was full of potential witnesses. He was sure Link would be willing to help him out, and maybe Roy could also do the job.

After checking the position of the sun once more, Gabriel concluded that at this time, they would probably be doing their morning exercises, and hurried back towards the mansion.

He quickly threw his wet coat on a chair next to the heater in his room and grabbed an identical but dry one from the closet. If there was one thing he loved, it were long black leather coats- he had at least three of them.

To his surprise, neither Link nor Roy were to be found in the dojos. Strange, he thought. They were usually obsessed with starting the day with practising.

Gabriel had checked all of the small rooms and pushed the door open to the last, the big one. Nope, no sign of them here, either, but there in a corner sat a person in a blue jumpsuit and with a bottle in his hands.

In retrospect, Gabriel should've just closed the door and looked somewhere else, but he went over to Cap and wrinkled his nose upon smelling the beer. Although it was still rather early in the morning, it didn't seem to be the first beer the Captain was enjoying. Gabriel kicked an empty bottle away and crossed his arms. "You seen Roy or Link?"

"Good morning to you too, honey", Cap said and fell quiet without giving the answer Gabriel was waiting for.

The Demon Hunter then quickly snatched the beverage from Falcon's fingers and repeated his question. "I asked you something, now answer."

"Dude, I didn't see them, now gimme back my beer", Cap demanded, and Gabriel began wielding the bottle in front of the man's face.

"I will if you tell me where they might be. Been looking for them in the training rooms but couldn't find them."

"C'mon, don't be a dick and give me the bottle!"

"Where are they?"

"Man, I don't know, maybe at breakfast? It's saturday, you moron. Every normal person's eating breakfast by now", Cap said and managed to grab his beer, which he pressed against his chest to make sure Gabriel wouldn't take it away from him again.

Surprisingly, his words made sense. Gabriel had completely forgotten that it was the weekend, and without Master Hand's coordinated training plan things at the mansion always slowed down significantly on saturday and sunday. "Then what are you doing here?" Stupid question. Cap obviously wasn't normal.

"Waiting for Snake and Ike. What's your excuse?"

"Not your problem."

Cap began to sit up and stifled a burp. "Why so grumpy? Couldn't you get enough sleep?" Alarm bells started ringing in Gabriel's head. What was the idiot referring to? "You know, I thought you were a little wimp but turns out you're a sneaky bastard!" Cap raised a hand, requesting the highest of fives.

Gabriel was completely confused and made absolutely no move to high five the dim-wit back. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't be so modest! I couldn't help but overhear that you got Zelda to tuck you into bed yesterday, you evil genius, you, playing the sympathy card, huh?" He finally abandoned waiting for the high five and instead placed his arm around Gabriel's shoulder, and the penetrating smell of beer found its way to Gabriel's nose, who held his breath. "But just between us, next time go for someone easier to get. You got her sympathy, but that's it. She's into big boys."

"What- how do you know?!" Gabriel pushed the drunkard away, appalled. He wasn't referring to Captain Falcon's clearly ludicrous idea of what Gabriel had been trying to do, but rather to the fact that he seemed to know about his struggle with sleeping.

Cap stumbled back and regained his balance after a few moments, spilling his beer in the process. "Aww maan!" He looked to the puddle, reeking of alcohol, and obviously mourned after his beer. "Homegirl came to Ike yesterday evening and decided to give my man shit for not watching after you. I'm telling you again, and don't take this the wrong way, but Love Doc Falcon only sees potential for BFF's here-"

There was that word again, 'BFF'. Technically, it had to be three words, right? B-F-F, one starting with 'B' and the other two with 'F', but what did it mean? 'Big Fat Fellows'? 'Blue Feline Fanclub'? 'Bunnies Fish Foxes'? Gabriel must've made a pretty stupid face because Cap noticed.

"A-hah! Looks like Captain Falcon's gonna have to put on the robes of Captain Obvious here. The term 'BFF' usually refers to 'Best Friends Forever', or, however you're willing to interpret it, the 'F's' are interchangeable and can turn it into Best Fu-"

"What!?"

"But in this case, we'll clearly have go to with the first definition and let me tell ya something, buddy, you dodged a bullet here. You don't need no stuck-up bitch to-"

Gabriel's fist in Captain Falcon's face prevented him from finishing the sentence. He landed flat on his back and his racing glasses flew across the room and the half-empty bottle of beer shattered on the floor, spreading its sticky content all over Gabriel's coat and Falcon's jumpsuit. The Cap rubbed his jaw, muttering "Looks like I hit a sore spot."

He was pulled back to his feet by the outraged Gabriel, who was also rubbing the hand he hit the Captain with. "I dare you to say that again, motherfucker."

"Stuck-up bitch." Clearly more drunk than rational, the Captain looked the Demon Hunter straight in the eye and slowly repeated his words. "I said stuck-up bitch, you heard that? Stuck-up bitch, stu-"

In a matter of nanoseconds, the two were on the floor wrestling and beating each other up. Due to his quite intoxicated opponent, Gabriel swiftly managed to avoid the uncoordinated punches Cap was trying to land and could land a handful of blows himself. For every hit Cap landed, Gabriel, only armed with his fists, could counter at least four times. He could not manage to dodge everything though because Cap wildly swung his fists around and -against all odds- hit the younger man's left cheek. In return, he got a weirdly placed kick to the ribs and a black eye to match his other one.

But that was about all of the more serious damage they could deal to each other for they were pulled up and yanked apart before being able to truly injure one another.

"Get off me", Gabriel shouted and struggled to free himself from the grasp he was in, but couldn't manage to. He identified Snake as the one holding Captain Falcon away and was still panting from anger when he himself was finally turned around.

"What the fuck is wrong with you two?" No other than Ike was standing in front of him.

"I'll tell you what's wrong-"

"He's drunk! Are you drunk too?!"

"What?!" Gabriel freed himself from Ike's grip on his shoulders and stumbled backwards, still a little dizzy from the punch he got in the face. "Of course not!"

"Then what the fuck are you doing? Unless you're also drunk as fuck there's no excuse to start a fight with him! Look at him!" Ike turned Gabriel back around and held him in place so Gabriel could see the Captain sitting on the floor, bleeding from his mouth and cautiously examining his wrist, while Snake was on his knees next to him, trying to get hold of the wrist the Captain was looking at to inspect it himself.

"You don't understand, that sleaze bag gave me reason enough to-"

"The guy doesn't know what he's saying, doesn't know what he's doing, all he wants is to provoke you and you don't let him do that." Ike turned Gabriel back to face him. "I don't give a damn about your reason, you don't get to-"

Once more, Gabriel freed himself from Ike's grasp, yelling. "What he said about Zelda, if you heard-"

"Damn it, I don't care what he said, ok? I don't care! He could've called your mom a piece of shit but you", and he repeatedly buried his finger in Gabriel's chest so hard that the younger man tripped backwards, "you don't get to beat him up. Not while he's drunk or unless you're drunk as well, you got that?"

Gabriel held his gaze and finally nodded, still pissed. Maybe it didn't matter to Ike or anyone else who started it, but Gabriel knew that he was right. His actions were justified, being drunk gave the Captain no right to act like an ass and he just as anyone else should be aware that Gabriel had a certain limit of tolerance, which should better not be crossed. "Got it. Now what?", he coldly said.

Ike resignedly run his fingers through his hair and thought for a moment. "Try to avoid him, he'll do the same. I'll look after that."

"Alright." Gabriel took a peek over his shoulder and heard Snake saying "Not cool bro, not cool" to the Captain. At least they would both get shit for it. He turned back to Ike. "We still cool?"

"Yeah", the blue-haired said and offered Gabriel some kind of a bro fist, which the latter gladly accepted. Gabriel then made his way out of the huge room without looking back. He'd learned two things.

First of all, Ike definitively wasn't on good terms with Zelda.

Second of all, the universe was apparently conspiring against him.

He hadn't solved any of his problems and they hadn't exactly gotten better. He had to do something about that, fast.

None down, still three to go.