Sheik was woken by Impa early the next morning, so she decided to skip the formalities and go straight to moody.

'Whatever it is, I'm not interested. Find someone else.' She had dreamt about her mother again the night before, and she never woke up from those dreams in a good mood.

'Sadly Link specifically asked to see you, so I can't find someone else. Get up, now.' Sheik sighed, but the mention of Link cheered her up slightly. But why did he want to see her after yesterday? She asked Impa, who shrugged.

'No idea. Maybe it didn't go quite as badly as you thought. Either way, he's already waiting for you. I left it a while before waking you so you don't look too keen, but now we're verging on rude.' Sheik made it upright and ate her breakfast while she dressed. Finally she was pushed out into the gardens by Impa, grumbling all the way.

'Sorry to make you get up so early,' a voice said behind her. She turned around, saw Link, and if it hadn't been for a swift kick to the ankle courtesy of Impa she would have fainted there and then. He looked if anything better than the first day she had met him, and the sun seemed to be shining brighter just because he was there. But she quickly reminded herself of what had happened yesterday, which helped, and cleared her throat.

'I was already up. I just didn't see the need to hurry,' she said with a sniff. Impa nodded at her, and went back into the safety of the castle. Link came over and led the way down a broad path in the middle of the garden while Sheik tried not to breathe too loudly.

'I wanted to apologise for yesterday,' Link told her.

'There's nothing to apologise for,' Sheik managed, wondering why it had gotten so hot all of a sudden. Her dress seemed to shrink several sizes every time Link looked at her.

'Still. I made you uncomfortable, and that's unforgivable. I don't know why you've decided to acknowledge my existence all of a sudden, but I'd like to take advantage of that change.'

'I haven't changed,' Sheik protested, worried that she was going to be found out, and by Link of all people.

'You have, Zelda, and there's no point denying it. It's a good change.' Sheik was silent. She didn't know how to respond to this, mostly because she wasn't sure whether to be pleased or worried. Obviously she was internally preening, because Link liked her more than Zelda, but on the other hand Link had clearly noticed the difference, and if she wasn't careful Link might start to suspect that she wasn't the same person.

'Why did you want to see me?' she asked, trying to steer Link away from the topic of her change.

'To apologise. And also because I wanted to spend time with you. We are supposed to be getting married, after all.'

'Ah yes,' Sheik replied. She'd almost forgotten that Zelda was engaged to this man.

'I assume your advisors also told you how well the talks went yesterday? You won't be able to put the wedding off for much longer, you know.'

'That won't stop me trying,' Sheik said, but her heart wasn't in it. If it up to her, she would have rushed off, found the nearest advisor and set the wedding date right there and then, for the next day. But sadly, Zelda didn't feel the same way.

'So, since we're going to be spending the rest of our lives together,' Link continued, and for a moment Sheik's heart leapt before she remembered that she wasn't the one who was marrying Link, 'I'd like to get to know you a bit more. I barely know anything about you, other than what my advisors have told me, which isn't much.' Privately, Sheik cheered. So Link didn't know much about Zelda? Excellent, because neither did she. Hopefully if Link asked her any difficult questions she could just answer with whatever she liked, and he'd never know.

'What do you want to know?' she asked. She was well aware that this was going against Impa's plan for her to keep her distance, but Impa was far away and Link was right here. Sheik would have let Link ask anything he liked up to and including the length of her nose hairs, just as long as he kept talking and looking at her like that. Link looked surprised that she was being so cooperative, but seized his opportunity.

'What do you think of me?' Sheik was taken aback.

'Seriously? Of all the things you could have asked about me, that's what you want to know?'

'Sure. It's the most important thing, isn't it? If you like me, great, if you don't like me, I'd better change that.' Sheik laughed despite herself.

'Alright then. But you've got work to do, because I do not like you in the slightest. I consider you to be an annoyance I could really do without right now, and I don't see why I'm being forced to marry you. I also think that my advisors should have a bit more faith and let me sort this political situation out myself without immediately resorting to marrying me off to the first conveniently single royal they can find.' Link laughed at this.

'You weren't kidding about disliking me. Well, I think I can work with that. And I agree, your advisors should have more faith in you. I suppose it's because, up until a few days ago, no-one knew you were so good at negotiating.' Sheik preened a little more.

'There's a lot they don't know about me. There's a lot you don't know about me.'

'Oh yeah? Like what?'

'Lots of things. For instance, I bet you didn't know that I'm skim-reading world champion.'

'World champion?' Link asked with a laugh and a raised eyebrow.

'Alright, maybe not world champion. But definitely kingdom champion. I mean, how else do you think I manage to read all these papers I have to sign?'

'It takes me hours to read all of my papers,' Link said wistfully.

'Well, that's very boring of you. If anything takes me longer than half a minute to read, I just pretend I've read the whole thing and sign it anyway.' Link laughed again at this.

'I must try that sometime. So what else don't I know about you? What do you normally do when you're not skim-reading or ignoring me?' Sheik thought about this. The honest response (stealing, pickpocketing, conning innocent market traders out of their apples) didn't seem appropriate, so she thought quickly.

'Coming up with new ways to avoid Zant,' she decided.

'Zant? Oh, that weird zombie guy?'

'I know, right? He totally looks like a zombie!'

'With those eyes as well! He gives me the creeps.'

'You don't know the half of it,' Sheik replied, shaking her head. In response to Link's enquiring look, she told him all about her most hated advisor, but left out the bit where she had balanced on a doorframe to avoid him. That would have been hard to explain, even for her. Link then told her about his advisors, most of whom sounded even more ancient than Zelda's Council.

'But at least I don't have Impa, always dragging me off at inopportune moments,' he said. Sheik blushed, realising that he was talking about her quick escape yesterday.

'Yeah, she can be annoying,' she replied, to keep her mind off it. 'But then again, she's only doing her duty. Or at least that's what she thinks.'

'Loyally serving you and your family for all eternity, huh? Sounds like a tough job.'

'I know. I could never spend my entire life serving someone else.'

'Me neither. Although technically I guess we're supposed to spend our lives serving our kingdoms.'

'Yeah, and how's that one working out for you?' They kept talking, telling each other about their lives (or at least Zelda's life), and the time passed so quickly that Sheik was shocked when Impa appeared from behind a tree, saying that the two of them had been missed at lunch and people had been searching for them all afternoon. She looked meaningfully up at the sky and Sheik realised that the sun was dipping worryingly close to the horizon, she hurriedly said her goodbyes and ran off with Impa in tow. When they got back to her room she ignored Impa's disapproving glare, closed the door went straight to bed and tried to sleep, knowing that the sooner she woke up, the sooner she could see Link again.


The next morning, Sheik woke up bright and early only to find herself confronted with a pile of paperwork. She moaned, she begged, she pulled her hair out, but Impa was firm.

'You haven't done any all week. So you don't get to go see Link until this lot is signed off.' Sheik smiled at that, noting that Impa had forgotten to say anything about reading it first. She dashed off signature after signature, to Impa's dismay, and was done within an hour.

'Can I go see Link now?' she asked breathlessly, shaking her tired hand. Impa glared, but she couldn't dampen Sheik's enthusiasm.

'Fine,' she said finally, standing to one side as Sheik sprinted past her. She found Link out in the garden, and stopped behind a convenient tree to adjust her appearance before going over to him. He looked surprised and happy to see her, getting up from his seat beneath a blooming cherry blossom tree.

'I wasn't expecting to see you today,' he said as they sat back down.

'Why not? Did you think things went so badly yesterday?' she asked, arranging her skirts. There seemed to be more skirt than usual in this dress, and Sheik kept getting lost. Every time she moved one fold another three appeared, and on a hot day like this she didn't appreciate having to wade through miles of her own clothing just to get from one side of a room to the other.

'No, I just thought you didn't like me. That's what you said yesterday.'

'Yes, but that was before you spent the day making yourself likeable,' Sheik pointed out. She knew she shouldn't be doing this, but she couldn't help it. Zelda could sort her own mess out for once. She was going to enjoy herself.

'I'm glad,' Link said, smiling at her. Sheik felt a gentle pressure on her hand and was shocked to find Link holding it. 'What?' he asked, seeing her expression.

'N-nothing, it's just…' she replied, trying to find a way to explain her sudden urge to scream for joy at the top of her lungs.

'It's just what?' he asked, and was it her imagination or was he moving closer? Great Farore, he was. The urge to scream was reaching fever pitch.

'Your Majesty?' an oily voice asked from behind her.

'What?' she snapped, annoyed to be interrupted. From the look on Link's face, so was he. And Sheik's mood didn't improve when she saw who the intruder was. Zant. Of course it was. Who else would interrupt her private time with someone else's fiancé?

'Your Majesty, I wondered if I might have a word?' Zant asked in his most polite tone. Sheik resisted the urge to shudder.

'No you might not have a word,' she said, turning away from him. 'I'm busy.'

'But your Majesty,' Zant insisted, and Sheik snapped her head back to him.

'Dammit, Zant! Can't you see we're having a moment?' Zant's expression darkened, but he bowed respectfully and backed away. When he had vanished from her sight, Sheik sighed in relief.

'Masterfully done,' Link said, smiling at her.

'He's got timing, you've got to give him that,' Sheik replied. 'Now, where were we?' In case Link didn't remember, she leant forward. Link just laughed, leaning back against the tree as she tried to muffle her sigh of disappointment.

'Some moment that was.'

'It really was,' Sheik said wistfully, before mentally slapping herself. 'Alright then. Tell me something.'

'What?'

'Anything. Just so Zant doesn't try to talk to me again. Tell me about your kingdom.' Link sighed and stared into space for a while.

'Faron is… well, it's a bunch of trees, really.'

'Oh.' Sheik sought in vain for a polite way to respond to a statement like that. 'Well… what is there other than trees?'

'Literally nothing. Like, seriously, it's a lot of trees. It's an entirely forested kingdom.'

'Yeah, but what else do you have, apart from the trees? Like, towns, cities, mountains… any distinguishing features.' Link stared blankly at her.

'We have trees. That's about it.' Sheik sighed.

'Okay, then. Tell me about the trees.'

'There are a lot of them. Did I mention that?' She elbowed him, hard. 'Alright, fine. Well, we have one lake, Lake Floria. It's actually quite pretty. Lots of waterfalls, that kind of thing.'

'Really?' Sheik asked, her eyes lighting up. She'd never seen a waterfall, only heard about them, but she would have loved to see one for herself. Never mind the fact that she would still never get to see a waterfall because she was never going to Faron. Her heart wasn't interested in subtleties like that.

'Yeah, loads of them. And the trees… alright, some of them are pretty impressive. There's one, the Great Tree, which is taller than this castle.'

'Wow!' Sheik breathed. 'I'd love to see that.' Link gave her a long, strange look, and Sheik immediately started to panic. She'd said something wrong, she knew it. Maybe Zelda had already been to Faron, or maybe she'd explicitly told Link she wasn't interested in trees, or maybe Sheik had slipped up in some other way. Whatever it was, Link had noticed. But before Sheik could come up with a way to cover for her mistake, Link shrugged.

'I'm glad, since you'll be seeing a lot of it. Once we're married, I think the arrangement is that we'll spend half our time in each kingdom. To be honest, I'm not over the moon at the thought of spending half my life away from my people, but Hyrule's a good kingdom too. And I guess it's not easy for you to leave your kingdom either.'

'Mm,' Sheik replied vaguely. She was sure Zelda didn't want to leave Hyrule for that long, but she personally couldn't have cared less. She didn't feel much of a bond to the kingdom or its citizens, and she certainly wouldn't have minded leaving it all behind to live with Link in Faron for the rest of her life. With a pang in her heart, she reminded herself that she was never going to see Faron, or the Great Tree or Lake Floria. Once Zelda returned, she would be sent back to her life as a thief, and Link would remain a distant memory. Maybe, if she was lucky, she would see him occasionally in town. But she would never be close to him again like this.

Of course, there would be a lot of good things about going back to her own life, as she reminded herself. No more Zant, for one thing. No more Impa either, although Sheik was starting to think she might miss Impa, just a little. But no more dresses, no more lies, no more deer in a landslide. If it wasn't for Link, she would have been more or less fine going back to her old life. But in the meantime, she was more than happy to sit beneath the tree with him, listening to tales of a kingdom she would never see.


She stayed with Link for the whole day, undisturbed by Zant or anyone else. They were sitting in a quieter part of the garden, away from the main paths, so they would be hard to find if Impa or anyone else was looking for them. Sheik still didn't know how Zant had tracked them down, but she wouldn't have put it past him to have been spying on her all day. Still, if he was spying he had the sense to keep quiet, so Sheik tried to forget about him. It wasn't hard, with Link there next to her. She rested her head on his shoulder, listening to him talk, but eventually she had to move to keep the setting sun out of her eyes. She stayed beside him though, shielding her eyes from the bright golden light.

'Are you alright?' he asked, noting the sun in her eyes.

'I'm fine. Maybe we should move, though?' she asked, getting up.

'Yes, it's getting late. It's nearly sunset! Wow, the time really goes quickly with you…' He glanced over at her, but she wasn't looking at him, too busy staring in horror at the sky. Link was right, the sun was setting! She had a minute, maybe even less than that, before she changed back into her own body right in front of Link! She thought frantically. What could she do? How could she get away from him? She could do the Deku Nut vanishing trick… if she had a nut. Which she did not.

The sun was already halfway-set now, and Sheik could feel her skin start to prickle. She looked at Link one final time, made up her mind, and ran for it. He stood there in shock for a few moments, then ran after her. She had to carry half a ton of skirt in her arms to stop it tripping her up, which slowed her down, but she was urged on by fear and a headstart.

She sprinted round the corner of the castle and skidded to a halt, looking back for Link. Just then the final rays of sunlight sank below the horizon, and she swore as she changed back into her own body. She looked around, but although she could hear Link calling for her, he sounded as though he was far away. That meant one less thing to worry about. Now she just had to get back into her room without being seen by anyone. But Link was between her and the entrance, and anyway it hardly seemed like a good idea to stroll into the castle through the main doors when she wasn't in Zelda's body.

She looked up at the wall behind her, and smiled. It seemed as though the Goddesses had finally started to take pity on her, because she had managed to wind up directly below her own window. Even better, there was a thick growth of ivy up the wall, so it wouldn't be too hard to climb. At least, it wouldn't be hard to climb if she was in her own bodysuit, but in this dress it was a nigh on impossible task. She looked down at herself, and frowned. Then she picked up as much skirt as she could and tossed it over her shoulder. She reached up and grabbed a handful of ivy, and started to climb.

Halfway up a gust of wind blew her skirt into her eyes, but some quick shoulder work pushed it back into its rightful place, and before too long she was pulling herself over the window of her room. She lay on the floor, panting, but managed to haul herself up and look out. Link was nowhere to be seen. She sighed in relief, and lay back down. She was so glad that she hadn't been seen by Link that she forgot to check for anyone else. So she completely failed to see the pair of glowing orange eyes watching from below.


'There you are! Where have you been? I've been looking for you all afternoon!' Sheik raised her head from the ground to see who it was, then dropped it again. She really wasn't in the mood for a lecture, but she suspected that she was going to get one. 'Please tell me you were back in here before sunset. And why are you covered in ivy?'

'Long story. Don't ask. The important thing is, Link didn't see anything. Although I did run off with no explanation.' Impa folded her arms.

'Did you spend the whole day with him again? Sheik, what happened to not getting too close to him?' Sheik was too shocked that Impa had actually used her name to respond.

'I couldn't help it!' she managed eventually. 'I'm sorry, but I just can't hate him like Zelda does!' She hauled herself over to her bed, and sighed. 'Impa, I think I'm in love with him.' Impa rolled her eyes and sighed loudly.

'Old news. You said that the moment you met him.'

'Well, I was wrong then! When I first saw him I thought he was hot - and don't get me wrong, I still absolutely think that. But in the last couple of days I've gotten to know him, and I actually really like him. Everything about him, not just the way he looks. Although that helps tremendously.'

'So you're saying it wasn't love at first sight?' Impa asked incredulously, helping Sheik out of her dress.

'I don't believe in love at first sight and neither do you,' Sheik said, annoyed that Impa wasn't taking this seriously. 'But I do believe in love at fourth meeting, and that's what's happened. I met him, and I love him. It's as simple as that. And because of that, I can't pretend that I hate him. I'm sorry, but it's just too hard.' Impa sighed again.

'You're serious about this, aren't you?'

'Yes!' Sheik said, exasperated. 'And before you go on about me being weak-'

'I'm not going to. I know you don't believe me, but I know what love feels like too. And I know it's hard to fight it, especially when you don't really want to. So we have to live with the fact that you're in love with a man you're absolutely not allowed to be in love with, and decide where to go from here.' Sheik sighed, going back over to the window.

'Any chance it can wait until morning?' she asked hopefully. Impa thought about it, then nodded.

'Alright. But be careful. We don't want him looking for you and finding you like this.' Sheik stayed by the window as she left, listening for any sound from the garden below her. Suddenly Link emerged into her view, and she ducked back. He was calling for Zelda, still busy searching for her. She sighed, resisting the urge to reply. What she wanted more than anything else was to go down there and introduce herself, to tell Link that she was the Zelda he had been speaking to, the one who had changed, the one who loved him. But she played the conversation in her head, and decided against it.

Hi, I'm Sheik. I'm a thief who's impersonating your fiancée. Oh, and I'm also in love with you. Please marry me. I'm not crazy, I promise. She shook her head. No, that wouldn't work. In fact, any version of Sheik and Link wasn't going to work. Link and Zelda, now that was going to work whether Zelda wanted it to or not. But Sheik, a lowly thief, a criminal, had no future with the prince of another kingdom. Any daydreams about that future were pointless, and she knew she shouldn't even think about it. But the problem with those daydreams was that they were so very enticing.


A/N: Aw. Slight predicament for Sheik there, but I'm sure she'll find a way around it. And no prizes for guessing who was watching Sheik in the garden. Tomorrow's chapter is a fun one, to say the least...