Hey, readers! Thanks for reviewing, and by the way, Flynn is going to be more of a "bad" boy. You'll see in this chapter what I'm talking about.
I'm starting to lose time to type my chapters, so I don't know what to do. Should I take longer in between chapters or should I finish the story and then post it? You decide in the reviews. And do you guys like the idea of phoemlits (feemlits)? Anyways, enjoy.
"Hey, Link?" Flynn asks Link, somewhat shyly. They are sitting at Flynn's small dining table.
"Y—yeah?" Link responds.
"You and Pipit are…friends…, right?" He asks, alienating the word "friends". They are both eating their dinner. Lucille is toying with a stray dragonfly inside the house.
"Yeah, of course." Link confusedly answers. Where has this come up from? It seems as if the question's been bottled up inside of Flynn for a long time.
"And nothing more…?" He asks, a little hesitantly, holding his breath. Lucille's up the wall with her claws in order to catch its elusive prey. Link takes a few seconds to form an answer.
"N—no…" He comes up with something uncertain. Is it really nothing more? Do I want it to be more…? His perplexed thoughts bring him to his own world for a moment, until he hears Flynn let out a breath Link didn't know he was restricting.
"Good." He says. There's a slight smile on his face now that perplexes Link even more.
"Why do you ask?" Now Link asks the questions, his ears straining for the answer to be heard over Lucille's growls toward her evasive target. She's so close to reaching her kill, at any moment she's about to pounce.
"Well…" Flynn lengthens his answer in between bites of food "Now I know I at least have a chance at you."
SMACK! Lucille strikes her target down with cunning precision. Content with her dinner in her mouth, she wanders off, out the window, and into the night. It felt to Link as if it was him that was hit. W—what? He accidentally thinks before he says it aloud.
"W—what?" he says, equally bewildered as when he thought it in his mind.
"You're an astonishing flyer, you have so much dedication to your friends, and…" Flynn pauses "and you're not that bad-looking, either." He says with a chuckle and a blush at the end. "It's hard not to admire you." This leaves Link so hot in the face he can't look anywhere but down at his unfinished plate of solely vegetables. Flynn doesn't wait for Link to return with an acknowledgment. He picks up his own plates and then proceeds to ask "You done?" to Link. Link reacts with the one of the most indistinguishable of nods, and then Flynn carries both sets of dishes to the sink in order to wash them.
"You can go to sleep on the mat I set for you in the living room." Flynn says to Link, as if nothing has happened at all between the two. "You'll probably finish the job sometime tomorrow, after lunch." Flynn says sadly. "And then you'll have to leave…" He whispers this to himself. Link, lying down on his sleeping mat, couldn't hear a thing. Flynn…wants me? Link is dumbstruck by the thought. His mind can't make sense of anything that's been thrown at him.
The mat reminds him of another familiar mat; the one he shared with his best friend. It reminds him of the night before the race, the night of the thunder storm. How Pipit was there to comfort him… and the rookie knight falls asleep in bliss.
The next morning, Link is awakened by Lucy's pawing. She endearingly purrs across Link's face, begging for him to pet her. Link chuckles and complies. Flynn opens the door and peeks through to check up on Link.
"Ah," he says "You're awake." A little bit of dirt from the farm land cakes some of his body, which is still barren of an upper garment. Link begins to wonder if the shirt Flynn wore for the race is the only one he owns. "Good morning." He says, with a perky smile.
"Yeah, morning." Link hoarsely says, sitting upright. "What time is it?" He asks Flynn.
"Oh, about ten o'clock." He says, only using the sun as a reference. "I made some eggs and bacon for breakfast; you can come to the stables and meet me when you're done." He leaves the door ajar when he walks off to do his farm duties. Link feels it's pretty late. He thinks Flynn should have woken him up.
Nonetheless, Link prepares for the day of hard work ahead of him. Brushing his teeth, washing his face, adorning his unique, green tunic. All while rampant thoughts of Flynn's confession and Pipit's generosity rage through his cloudy head. Memories of last night especially fatigue him more than anything. Mentally exhausted, Link exits the bathroom, eats his cold breakfast, and leaves Flynn's house in order to finish the rest of the loftwing stables.
As he walks out, and meets the already familiar musky odor of the stables, he notices his muscles feel strange. They don't feel sore as they were, but they don't feel replenished with energy, either. They feel lazier, it seems to him. As if they don't want to, or more as if they can't, partake in rigorous activity today. Link didn't anticipate the muscle potion to have this symptom.
The strange uneasiness from Flynn's confession and the repercussions of Pipit's potion take their toll on Link. Along the way, the sun beats down on him fiercely. His hair reflects almost all of it, radiating light. But even in the windy, sunny village of Cumulon, it's not uncommon to see an ominous cloud floating the horizon, just like what Link sees this very day. He wishes to get done with this task early, and then he meets with Flynn at the entrance of the stables.
"Hey, sleepyhead." He says to Link, cheerfully. "Here's your bucket and your swab." He hands those things to Link. The bucket, although filled with water, feels like it's been filled with stones in Link's weak hands.
"I guess you know what to do." Flynn says, hands on his waist. Link has to look up at him.
"Yeah, just finish scrubbing the wooden pillars and metal beams, right?" Link asks "And then that's it?"
"And then that's it." Flynn says, as if he's been thinking about it for some time now. And as their eyes meet, Link gets lost in thought about this curious boy. I still can't believe he admires me… he thinks. He's probably sad that I'm leaving, isn't he? I never even replie—.
Yeah, sorry for cutting off Link thoughts there, but next chapter will have what happened!
