It seemed to Link that all he ever did anymore was clean. Clean, and fix things for Mako.
Tetra: "Clean the deck, boy! It's filthy!"
Gonzo: "I'm running low on shirts that don't make people throw up when they smell it; wash some shirts for me, yeah?"
Mako: "I've got this new invention, but I broke it. Hey, shrimp, fix it for me."
Niko: "Oi, swabbie, clean the laundry room for me, aye? I thought I saw some fungus in the corner."
Senza: "Clean those pots for me, will you?" But at least Senza asked, and didn't ask at all if Link looked too dead to do it.
Zuko didn't talk, but would sometimes gesture that he wanted Link to fetch him some weird polish that Mako invented to clean his telescope. You'd think that he'd order Link to clean it for him, but Zuko didn't let anybody touch his telescope except himself.
Therefore, over the past two weeks, Link had decided that his favorite was either Senza or Nudge. Tetra was far too bossy and intimidating, although Link kept blushing for some reason he couldn't really understand whenever he was around her, so he preferred to stay away from her to escape confusion. Gonzo wasn't too bright and had some sort of established position as second-in-command that he didn't hesitate to use, and not only that, it was pretty disturbing to Link whenever Gonzo started crying over sappy love novels. Mako was quiet unless you knew him for a while, and then he chatter non-stop about his latest invention, and once he got started he didn't stop. Ever. Niko was always cheerful and enthusiastic, and although such a sunny personality was always good to have, it didn't work all the time. Zuko was nice to be around whenever you just wanted to be around someone, but you didn't want them to talk or ask questions. He wasn't good for much else, though.
Nudge, apparently, knew exactly how to act around people. He could pick up on anybody's mood and react in just the right way, which led to his general popularity all around the crew. So, whenever Link had a break and his hands couldn't handle taking the test, it was spent sitting with Nudge in front of Tetra's room, laughing about whatever there was to laugh about. And then there was Senza, who just seemed to be a casual man. He wasn't hot-tempered, annoying, talkative, or dull, possessing a well-rounded, mild-mannered personality that didn't offend anybody in any way, nor create feelings of disintrest. It helped that Senza would bring him food late at night when nobody was around, even though he was only allowed one meal a day by Tetra's rule. Of course, only two meals a day and constant exercise was already shaving a fair amount of chub off Link, who was used to three well-rounded meals from Grandma.
Link didn't particularly mind all the mistreatment he was getting. He could glean some comfort from the endless sea and the fact that he was actually off the island for the first time in his life. In fact, he wouldn't mind it if he stayed a pirate, roaming the wide sea and doing whatever he wanted. Of course, Tetra would still have control over him, so that would be a problem... And if he were to become a pirate, he would certainly need to get a smaller boat. The high sides of the pirate ship that put a good twenty feet between him and the highest waves irked him at times. Twice, he had accidentally leaned so far off the railing in his attempt to touch a little spray that somebody had to catch him before he officially became a "man overboard."
And what really cheered him up was the fact that no matter how bossy somebody might be, all the pirates still treated him like a friend they'd known forever.
"Hey, Link! The Miss is acallin', let's get ourself out on deck!" Niko yelled, wrenching open the laundry door, and Link knocked over his shield in surprise. "Whatcha doing?" Niko asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
"Just trying out this...stuff...that Mako gave me. Said it's supposed to stop my shield from warping from water," Link explained, showing the damp cloth. It was because Mako had convinced him quite thoroughly that the solution in the cloth would help that he had decided to try it instead of talking with Nudge again.
"Ah, I see, I see!" Niko said, as if he did, but Link was pretty sure he didn't. "Anyway, let's skip over to the Miss, or she'll feed us to the sharks!"
"...I doubt that, Niko..."
"Figure of speech, Link. Let's go!" Niko said, dragging Link out the door.
"Hang on, I'll be right up, I just have to put this away," Link assured him, tucking the cloth in the pouch that Orca had given him, then put that in a corner with his sword and shield. His body ached, so he moved slightly slower than usual, but he forced his limbs as fast as he could. Niko didn't bug him like he used to at the outset of the journey, understanding that Link wasn't quite used to all the harsh work, but still tapping his foot impatiently. "Okay, I'm ready."
Niko eyed him, eyebrows raised. "...You know, Link, sometimes you have to be a little less obedient. Complain once in a while, like a normal kid."
"I can't really protest against anything you guys say. You're taking me to Aryll."
"No, we're taking you to hell, which just happens to have your sister locked up somewhere in the middle of it." Such statements of the Forsaken Fortress were pretty common among the pirates, so Link was used to it. It didn't scare him, and the only part of those ominous statements that worried Link was that Aryll could possibly be mistreated. Niko grabbed Link and shoved him out, hopping up and down. "Now let's move, Link!"
More cleaning. Link wouldn't be surprised if Mako asked him to fix the catapult afterwards.
Day fourteen: "Good-bye, I'll be off now," the other Link announced, suddenly standing up and walking towards the maze of crates.
"Where're you going?" Navi asked breathlessly, ducking under Midna's swipe.
"I'm going to get out of your hair and find something to do by myself. I feel like being alone right now, anyway." Link blinked dazedly and glanced at the endless boxes, then the other Link. If the other Link really wanted to, there's no doubt that he'd be able to hide and avoid anybody within the hodge-podge of barrels forever.
Midna almost caught Navi, but Navi slipped through her fingers. Midna waved with one hand, still trying to snatch Navi from the air with the other. "Sure, sure." It was a game of tag they had started recently, and it kept both Navi and Midna reasonably entertained...the only problem being that if Navi was ever caught, Link had to save her from getting shredded.
Link didn't say anything in response to the other Link, because he was trying to sleep and he been on the brink of succeeding. Maybe if he could sleep, he could temporarily escape the hellhole he had somehow ended up in.
Later, still day fourteen: "Wolf-boy! We've got food!" Midna said loudly through a mouthful of hard tack. The other Link poked his head out from behind a crate.
"Sure." But that was all he said, because he came out from wherever he had been hiding, swiped a few pieces, then disappeared once more. Midna looked confused, and a slight awkward silence settled before Navi began to chatter nervously about how the Happy Mask Salesman should really rethink his clothing color scheme. Link noted from the slight waver every few sentences that Navi had purposely changed to subject to take their minds off the other Link's sudden change in behavior, and Link silently thanked her.
Day sixteen: "Link! I know you're out there somewhere!" Midna called.
"Yeah, I'm out here, but I feel like being alone right now!" Was it just Link, or did the other Link's voice sound a little strained?
Navi was sitting on Link's leg, who was leaned up against a wall. She yelled, unnecessarily loud, "Midna, give it a rest! He's a teenager! Teenager's get moody sometimes! Believe me, I know, because I had to follow one right through puberty!" Link rolled his eyes. She acted like he'd been such the rebellious teen...
"No! I'm going to find him!" Midna insisted, checking around another barrel. "And you can't possibly call this a 'mood,' Twinkles, he's been hiding for two days now!"
"I've been eating stuff, haven't I? I come out to get stuff to eat!" the other Link's voice insisted, and the low ceiling and wide area of the room distorted his voice so nobody could tell where the sound had originated.
"That doesn't count! Come out here right now, wolf-boy, or—"
"I'm not coming out if you guys keep bugging me! The floaty lantern's right for once, so leave me alone!"
Midna froze in mid-air, then yelled back, "You have to come out eventually!" She drifted back to where Link and Navi waited, settling herself down on the ground with a pout.
"I will...eventually."
Midna hovered behind the door, and Navi bobbed up and down sullenly beside her. It was already day eighteen, so Navi had pretty much given up on protesting against the eavesdropping.
"Miss..."
"Yes, Nudge?"
"Have you decided?"
"Yeah."
"...So?" Midna dared to try and see what was happening, her curiosity was so great.
Tetra had let down her hair, and Midna thought that maybe there could be a bit of princess somewhere in her. It was actually quite easy to imagine the stone-hearted pirate as one, considering the golden hair that spilled onto her back and pretty face, although the soft features were marred by a determined, hard gaze. She combed through the hair strands absently with her fingers, staring at a book. "He's just a kid. He's not the Hero of Time reborn, or the Hero of Time come again to save us, or anything except just a kid trying to save his sister."
"Miss, can you say that to my face?"
Tetra looked up, and her blue eyes were firm. "Yeah."
Nudge smiled, clapping his hands together, seeming to see some sort of resolution in Tetra's eyes. "Wonderful! I'm so happy for you, Miss!"
Rolling her eyes, Tetra said, "You're not my mother, Nudge."
"I think I'm pretty darn close, Miss!" Nudge laughed, and Tetra actually smiled an honest smile. "You look a lot prettier when you smile like that, instead of smirking all devious and conniving-like," Nudge told her.
"Right. Which is why you tell nobody about it, you hear me, Nudge?" Tetra warned.
"It's okay. Your secrets are safe with me, Miss." Tetra nodded with another genuine smile, then waved to signal that he should leave. Nudge saluted, then practically skipped to the sleeping quarters.
"Oh, Princess doesn't want us to know what she's a softie?" Midna muttered to herself, smirking her own devious grin. "Right, right, your secrets are practically good as told with me, Princess."
Navi groaned softly. "Ughh..."
"It was a joke, Twinkles. Let's get this nasty crap back down to the storage room."
"Crap? It's hardtack."
"It don't taste like no tack that's hard. It tastes like crap. No, crap is probably tastier than this stuff. Maybe that's the reason why wolf-boy is hiding out behind all those boxes."
Day nineteen: "You look remarkably like Link right now, you know? Walking like that," Link commented, completely bored out of his skull, watching through glazed eyes Midna actually using her legs for once instead of floating around. She was pacing non-stop, and Link could have sworn there was a rut in the wood floor.
"Yeah," Midna snarled through gritted teeth, "and speaking of which, where the hell is he?"
Navi reminded her wisely, "Teenagers need their space. He's only sixteen."
Midna shot a glare at her. "What would you know, Twinkles? You're just a flying lantern!"
"Two years ago I was dealing with a sixteen-year-old, y'know!"
"But I didn't have 'moods'—" Link protested, but was sharply cut off by Navi.
Navi screeched suddenly, her voice rising two octaves, "Oh yes you did! You'd go into these weird funks where you wouldn't talk to anybody for days!" Link could almost see the murderous aura omitting from Navi, and decided it would be better off not to correct her and remind her that it had been her who had gone into a "weird funk." "And then sometimes you'd set off on me for no reason, and start shouting at me!" Link was pretty sure he had only shouted at her once, and that was because Navi had accidentally bumped him so his face had been inches from a ReDead. In Link's opinion, being that close to a rotting face was a pretty good reason to yell at somebody.
"Look who's talking!" Midna snapped, plucking Navi from her perch and shaking her viciously. "You're the one who's whaling on him, and he didn't even do anything wrong!"
"Hey! Let her go!" Link snatched Navi away from Midna, who stuck her tongue out at them and turned away. Everybody was at their wits end, apparently. Link blew out hard through his nose, knowing the peace would only last for a little while, and then he would have to come back and break up the fight between the two once more. Maybe the reason why the other Link had secluded himself from even Midna was because he couldn't stand the continuing war, either.
Funny, Link thought, as he leaned back against the wall, how if he put it that way, this little scenario was so much like the endless, repeating cycle of the Hero. The cycle he himself had started Link shook his head furiously, driving away those thoughts and tried to clear his mind. That wasn't what he should be focusing on right now.
What he should be focusing in on was nervousness in his stomach that grew with each passing moment, that dreaded gut feeling.
Link slipped out, shutting the door with a soft click over Niko's soft snores. Then he tip-toed past the sleeping quarters to the door that led to the deck, and successfully got past that door without a single squeak. After all, he had oiled it this morning. He glanced upwards to the crows nest, knowing that Zuko was up there somewhere, silent as always, and was keeping watch as he always did throughout the night. It was like Zuko never had to sleep, constantly awake to observe whatever went on around. Tearing his eyes away from the crows nest, he hoisted himself onto the railing, dangling his legs over the dark waters that continued to slide past the boat's massive sides as the boat, slowly but surely, continued it's way towards the Forsaken Fortress. Screw safety. So he might fall over. His mind, slightly deprived of sleep, didn't particularly care about that right now.
It was day twenty, if he remembered correctly. Link should have known that this night would come. Night was always the time for his thoughts to roam over everything, good and bad, which formed the shadowy blanket of nighttime a less than memorable experience sometimes. The days before his eleventh birthday, he would stay up all night and contemplate the pros and cons of being an adult would be, finding so many things he wanted to hide from, only to realize at the end of his thinking marathon that it didn't really matter. What it all came down to was that he would grow up no matter what. And now, with approximately only a week and a half until he reached the Forsaken Fortress, Aryll would not leave his mind.
What if she wasn't at the Forsaken Fortress?
What if she was already dead?
What if they couldn't get into Forsaken Fortress?
What if he wasn't strong enough to protect her?
What if he failed her again?
What if, what if, what if...
"Well, you look happy," a familiar voice chuckled. Link whirled around, nearly falling off the railing, and Nudge caught his shirt. "Hasn't Gonzo told you a million times not to do that?"
Link grinned sheepishly. "My bad, Nudge."
Nudge lifted him back down from the railing with a smile. "Geez... You're so obedient all the time, but I get it now. You probably break all the rules at night, doncha?"
"Eh? No—"
"You're probably the one who stuck Gonzo's socks in Mako's dinner!"
"That was Ni—"
"And I'd bet," Nudge teased, "that you're the one who's been spreading rumors of the ghost in the storage room!"
"I'm telling you, that was Niko!" Link whined.
"Suuure it was."
After their giggles subsided, Link lay down on the deck and watched the moon while Nudge just sat down. Fiddling with his hat tip again, he could almost see Aryll smiling down from the moon face again. He stared, mesmerized, remembering the day his precious Aryll had been snatched away—
"You look a lot better as a child," Nudge commented. Link didn't answer. He didn't really understand, but Aryll's laughing face was much more important right now. It had grown even more vivid, shining brightly in the black sky, reminding Link of all he had failed to do.
After another long silence, Nudge asked quietly, "You want to talk about it?" Link jerked violently, and Nudge added, "I know something's bothering you. I might not know you as well as some...other people...but I know that you've got something going on in that little skull of yours." Link shook his head while turning his face away from Nudge. "Okay, then... Hey, let's go wake up Senza!"
"Why?" Aryll flickered, then vanished from the moon, and Link's attention switched back to Nudge.
Nudge gesticulated wildly with his arms. "Because if we wake up Senza, we get food, and if we get liquid food, we can pour it down Gonzo's shirt and watch him scream!" Nudge winked. "I normally don't do stuff like this, but for you, suffering Gonzo's wrath is okay."
"Sounds fun!" Link cheered happily, jumping to his feet, a huge grin lighting up his face.
Smiling, Nudge patted Link's head. "Much better. Now let's go get Senza!"
"Yeah!"
"What if" could wait, even if it was only for a while.
Day twenty-one: "Link?" Link whispered softly. He had borrowed the other Link's lantern, using it to cast light in the dark room. "Link? You there?" The other Link hadn't been responding to their calls at all, not even coming out for food in the past three days. Midna had just decided to sleep, her expression anxious and drawn, and Navi had followed suit out of boredom. Although Navi and Midna had just brought back the usual nightly food, only Navi had eaten so far and even for a fairy, she didn't eat much. Everybody was getting increasingly nervous from the way the other Link was ignoring them, and Link had decided that after an entire week, this 'mood' had gone too far. The other Link wasn't a child who could throw temper tantrums.
"I know you're out there, Link."
Silence.
"...At least respond, okay?"
Silence.
Link peered around another box, but there still was nobody there. "Are you asleep?"
More of the same: silence.
Link hopped lightly over a small barrel, glancing into every little area that the other Link might be hiding in. Unfortunately, there was no end to these little spaces, and Link would have to check all of them. "Seriously, if you're not sleeping, then this is just really immature. No, even if you're not sleeping, hiding out behind all this junk for so long is immature already." Link was nearing the other side of the storage room, the far side that was furthest away from where Midna and Navi were sleeping. "Unless you're on your deathbed or something, then I don't care what excuse you've got—"
Link stopped there, paralyzed as he saw the figure curled up between two crates. Raising the lantern higher, he saw the pasty skin, the sweat, and the chest falling up and down, far too quick and shallow for normal sleep. The blonde hair was matted with sweat, pressed to a face gaunt and hollowed, and as Link slowly knelt, the other Link began to cough. It sounded even worse than Link remembered the coughing fit from day thirteen, and Link shuddered just hearing the thin, breathy noise, almost feeling the sickly grating in the back of his own throat. Link waited patiently until he stopped, then lifted the limp body onto his back, trooping back through the field of boxes and barrels, ever careful not to jostle the person he was carrying.
Unless you're on your deathbed—
He sighed, whispering to the unconcious person on his back, "Those coughs all those days ago...they weren't fake, were they? What were you thinking, you liar..."