Link felt slightly claustrophobic in a room with so many people. It seemed that Sheik knew a great many of them, leaving the Hero of Time on his own in order to greet each one in turn. Perhaps it was for the best. These people needed to vouch for their ruler's character, to let the people of Hyrule know that he wasn't just some imposter. These people were the trusted business owners and former soldiers and friends of the late King. Hyrule trusted them, and now Sheik had to have faith in that trust.

It just didn't make up for how uncomfortable Link felt. Most of the people talking with him were simply insufferable with their blatant attempts to get on his good side. The rest only knew him because he was the Hero of Time, proving their ignorance of his role in saving their lives by making demeaning comments about his clothing. Why did they care if he wore green or not? Or even that his clothes were battle-worn and not exactly the fanciest.

Who was he to dress up for anyway, these people? It didn't seem worth the effort, and he was glad he hadn't bothered.

Instead of socializing with the people in the room, Link opted to become a wallflower. It was better that way, since he would always have his attention on Sheik just in case. It was strange to see him all dressed up again. His face was painted immaculately, lips a rosy red and eyelids a light purple. A little blush made his face glow when he smiled. Even though the face was very slightly masculine – the jaw just a tad bit square, chin a bit flat, cheekbones not quite as sharp as they could be – no one suspected a thing.

Who would? Not even Link had doubted the lies.

The more he examined Sheik as he pretended to be something he wasn't, the more he noticed the way he moved. It looked awkward, restricted. Too much like it was an act. His hips didn't sway the same way they used to, but perhaps that was because Sheik was nervous. The dress looked bulky and ill-fitted in places – especially the waist.

Link's thoughts started to drift as the party wound down and the time when Sheik would reveal his true sex drew close. He remembered the questions he'd asked the Prince, wondering if they'd been too insensitive. Perhaps he could have held off on prying into his private life.

Or perhaps he shouldn't have asked at all.

"If you were raised as the Princess, well ... What were you told about your ..." Link pointed in embarrassment to his crotch. It was clear to him that Sheik had the pieces that Link had, but it must have been confusing growing up with them.

Sheik simply shrugged as he combed his fingers through his long, golden hair, eyes dropping to the ground. The Goron's had been gracious enough to cover the cold ground in beautiful rugs for their comparatively soft feet. After an awkward pause, his eyes met Link's. "Impa was the one to educate me about my body when I was young. I wasn't allowed to play with other little girls unsupervised in case I discovered that I had been born dissimilar to them. It wasn't until I had begun to live as Sheik that I had ... Well, that I determined Impa and my father had raised me contrary to tradition."

The sadness and pain that twisted Sheik's face worried Link. There was something he wasn't being told, but it seemed that the memory of it would only hurt Sheik so Link promptly dropped the subject.

"Mr. Link."

Link was startled out of his thoughts and, reacting on pure instinct, reached for the sword he wasn't wearing on his back. The Ladies Arreil and Anise had joined him while he'd been watching Sheik, it seemed. He paid no attention to them as he frantically searched the room to find where his Prince had gone, ignoring Lady Arreil's protests when he pushed past her to venture into the crowd.

Link couldn't find him anywhere. He circled the room twice before spotting him on the balcony, talking quietly with a bigger man. The stranger seemed to tower over Sheik even when leaning against the railing. His clothes were tight-fitting, especially around his waist, but they looked like they were embroidered with pure gold threads.

Opting to wait just outside the doors, not trusting the way the man leered over Sheik or the way he kept reaching out to touch his bare shoulders while still wishing to be polite – for the Prince's sake.

The weeks they'd spent together since first travelling had taught Link so much about Sheik that he hadn't known before. Like that it was a pet peeve of the Prince's to be interrupted, verbally or otherwise. He'd explained to Link that it was because he'd been socialized as a girl as a child, but when he'd been allowed to live as himself, as Sheik ... Well, he'd described it as being able to see the world clearly. Link wasn't sure exactly what that meant, but he did know that he wanted to understand what it meant.

The pair broke up suddenly, with the man throwing open the balcony doors angrily, leaving Sheik alone outside. Link took that opportunity to slip in before anyone else could.

"Prince?" He asked, keeping his voice low. Sheik whirled around at the sound of his voice, visibly relaxing when he saw who it was – a reassurance to Link, too. Sheik felt at ease around him. "Is everything all right?"

Nodding, he took a deep breath before squaring his shoulders. "Yes, Hero. If you'll excuse me, I believe I have an announcement to make."

Striding confidently past his retainer and back into the crowds, Sheik swiftly climbed the steps to a podium bearing the crest of Hyrule that had been set up for him. All eyes turned to the Prince as he turned his gaze on the crowd, conversations dying swiftly. The silence in the room was almost unbearable. Link found himself shifting forward with the rest of the crowd, almost mesmerized by the way the setting sun bathed the Prince, throwing his features into sharp contrast.

Fires on either side of him roared to life, and a few gasped in the crowd. Feeling the crush of the crowd, Link quickly wove his way towards the wall by the steps, fully intended to come to his Prince's aid if necessary, as he began to speak.

"Welcome, everyone." His voice was strong, sure. Link was pleasantly surprised by this – while they'd been getting Sheik dressed, he'd been worried he wouldn't be able to tell them, that his voice would warble or crack.

"I apologize if I haven't had a chance to greet you each personally this night, but as you can see, there are many gathered here. A great many of you here tonight are close friends of mine and friends of Hyrule."

Link glanced at the crowd. Most of them were smiling and those that weren't at least didn't wear a frown.

"I regret ..." Sheik fumbled for the words he'd practised over and over. When he found them, his composure shaken, he searched the room for Link, wanting reassurance. Their eyes met as the crowd shifted uncomfortably, and he continued. "I regret to inform you that I ... Am not not exactly the person you all seem to believe that I am."

There was a hushed whisper passed along the crowd.

"Perhaps ... I should recount the story of my childhood." There was some shifting, but no one spoke out, no one rushed forward. "As all of you must know, my father, the late King of Hyrule, raised me alone. My mother passed away at my birth. As many of you also knew my mother, you surely knew of her wish to produce a Princess as her first child. That child was me."

Again, Link's eyes met Sheik's. He could see that his Prince's hands were shaking behind the podium, clenched tightly. But still, the Prince pressed on. He couldn't get this far and quit.

"However ... I am not a traditional Princess. Had my father not made the decision to honour my mother's dying wish and raise me as the Princess of Hyrule, I would have been raised as the Prince."

Sweeping his eyes over the crowd again, gauging their reaction, Link was surprised by the lack of emotion. Sheik's eyes begged Link to join him at the podium, but he knew he couldn't. The Prince couldn't afford to look weak right then. Instead, Link made small shooing motions, urging him to continue.

Voice shaking as much as his hands now, he did. "You all remember how Ganondorf usurped the throne, killing my Father, the late Kind of Hyrule. He attempted to take my life as well, but my protector, Impa, spirited me away and together we hid from the traitorous Gerudo King. While I hid, I assumed an alter ego, Sheik.

"Impa made the decision to dress me in traditional boy's clothing of her tribe, the Sheikah. I discovered then ... What I have told you."

There was another whisper of discontent that rippled through the crowd. It was clear that many of them weren't quite ready to believe that they were lied to their whole lives. Trying to tell themselves that Zelda was the Princess, she was female.

Link's mind wandered while Sheik searched for reassuring words. He remembered when Sheik had told him about when it finally clicked that he was male. He'd told Link that it just hit him, that he just knew that all those times he'd felt wrong about himself, that he knew somehow that all those feminine things they'd forced on him hadn't fit. He wanted to be the Prince when he came back to assume his rightful throne, not the Princess. He hated being told that because he was a girl he was supposed to be weak, docile, unable to pass down his legacy.

But when he finally knew he was supposed to be the Prince ... It made sense. And it made him angry. He'd passionately told Link about how he hated the discrepancy between how he'd been treated as a girl as opposed to a boy. It irked him. He had ranted for hours about his plans to change that. He'd ranted about his confusion and how he didn't understand.

Link's thoughts were ripped back to the present when the shouting began. The Prince's face was twisted in anger, but still he stood at the podium and listened. Having not caught what was said first, Link felt lost. What was their problem? So what, Zelda was actually the Prince. That changed nothing.

After a few moments, the crowd died down once more, giving Sheik a chance to speak again, voice no longer trembling and voice booming throughout the hall with an authority Link hadn't been privy to before.

"I shall assume the throne as Sheik, Prince of Hyrule. I will follow the tradition of how I was raised as a Princess and hold Prince as title until the time comes that I marry. The kingdom needs you now more than ever. As many of my close personal friends, you can vouch for my character, convince the kingdom that I have not changed, that nothing will change. I give you my word as ruler of this kingdom and as a friend, and I place my trust in you to keep this kingdom from falling apart."

Stepping down from the podium, Sheik all but dashed down the steps to where Link stood. Together, they pushed along the wall through the crowd that was trying to mob their new Prince, forcing their way to the huge doors that led to the hall. A few of the guards, not swayed from their duty to protect the Royal Family by this news, helped push the crowd back as the two fled to the Prince's chambers.

Link and Sheik barricaded themselves in, having prepared for such a reaction. Although expected, his friends' reaction still upset Sheik, making conversation between the two pretty minimal. Sheik paced restlessly around the large room while Link stood at the window, silently keeping an eye out for assassins, despite the unlikely chance someone had hired an assassin so quickly. Link still felt better keeping watch, and he knew it made Sheik feel much more at ease.