fleets: Happy Holidays! When I was originally planning this story, I was trying to time the writing of the chapters so that I can hit an adorable Christmas special for this submission. Because of my temporary hiatus, I didn't make it to that point...
Oh yeah, I replaced the last "I'm on hiatus" chapter with a real chapter (I don't think that showed up as an update...). Right now, I don't know what my status is - I guess we're back to the usual "super irregular updating."
Also, Gale still has a sailor mouth at this point.

Well, enjoy your winter break! These two clowns will have one they won't forget :D

Chapter 9: Skyward

"School's out!"

"See you after break!"

"Party at my place. You guys better come."

"SNOW FIGHT!"

Link and Gale squeezed past the steady stream of students rushing to get out of school and met up in front of their lockers. Once there, they nodded in mutual understanding and let the crowd carry them back outside. Link shivered as he stepped out into the cold; it was snowing lightly and the pavement was wet with muddy, salt ridden melted snow. "I didn't do so well on my exam."

"It was easy enough for me." Gale wrinkled his nose and hunched lower into his jacket. "Damn I hate winter. It's cold, and I can't longboard anymore."

"You whine a lot, you know that?"

"Shut it. I have low tolerance for things that ruin my fun."

When they made it back home, they kicked the snow off from under their shoes and immediately went to their respective rooms. A few minutes later, both of them came out dragging two medium suitcases that were already packed with belongings. Link winced when Loze shouted angrily from Gale kicking his down the stairs, causing a few customers to stare at the suitcase that had fallen next to them. The blond teen decided to roll his down behind him the normal way even though Gale was pointing at his watch and telling him to hurry up. "Hurry up! The taxi comes in only a few minutes!"

Loze hobbled over from behind the counter, apologizing to the two middle aged men eating pizza at one of the tables. Gramps crossed his arms and looked from the suitcases to the two boys. "Did you make sure you have everything you need?"

"And if I said no? My answer's not going to make any difference because we have to catch the taxi so we can catch the plane. Petrov! Hurry the hell up!"

With a heave, Link's suitcase plopped onto the last floor and the two ran out the door of Loze's Pizzeria. Link was the only one who waved back before throwing his suitcase into the trunk of the yellow cab and jumped into the back seat. "Bye Grandpa Loze! See you when we get back!"

The snow flurries quickly obscured the shape of the taxi into two blinking lights as the car made a right turn onto the main road. Loze shook his head when he stepped outside, facing the direction the cab had gone. "Don't do anything stupid!" He yelled through the snowy fog. He snorted. What a waste of words, knowing Gale. That boy didn't know how to stay out of trouble – he practically attracted it. Loze hadn't been too fond of the idea of sending the two off on their own to a foreign country on the other side of the world no less, but oh well. Getting Gale to go on a vacation with someone was an improvement in itself, since the boy was never one to make friends.

Seeing the world and spending time away from home wasn't a bad thing. Maybe this trip would be a good experience for Gale.

XXXXXXXX

"We wait in the luggage line for an hour and a half, we wait another thirty minutes to convince the check in man to let me put a fragile sticker on my suitcase for my Dervish, we wait another hour in line for security check in, and now we have to wait half an hour to finally board the plane. What the fuck."

"...You –"

"And don't you fucking tell me I whine a lot, you miserable bastard, because Hal-fucking-stead Dugal and his bitch Zelda could – ow &*^%!"

"That's enough obscenities."

Gale grumbled, rubbing the side of his arm that had been given a warning twist a few seconds ago. "Whatever man. Shit. You know they could have at least given us business first and we wouldn't have had to deal with all of that waiting."

Link appeared sour by his companionship. "Well, we're almost on the plane, aren't we? And what we just had to go through isn't as nearly as bad as the time we have to wait to arrive at Narita Airport in Tokyo. How long was it again?"

"14 hours…"

"See? Not bad."

Gale glowered and walked over to the ceiling high windows that showcased the plane they were going to board momentarily. "We still could have wasted less time on business first," he muttered. He stole a sidelong glance at the line of economy class people who were handing in their tickets to board the plane. Link was already lining up, but Gale figured he would just wait by the windows until the line became shorter. Apparently Zelda had already boarded the plane a little earlier with the first class people – of course Zelda would get business first class and they would be stuck with economy seats.

He took some time to observe the behemoth of a plane. It was all white with the exception of blue lettering that read Continental Airlines – rather boring for a plane. Still, he marveled at it a little. It was his first time on a plane, and he was amazed by the ability of such a huge thing to fly nonstop across the Pacific Ocean. It was…

Kind of cool.

It all had to do with the physics of moving air, if he remembered correctly from what little schoolwork he did. The air moved faster on the top half of the wing than the bottom half, which resulted in a lower pressure above the wing, which in turn caused the plane to be lifted into the air. That was it. Moving air was all it took to lift a several ton mass of metal and human flesh floating into the sky. Ah, people could do so many things with just wind. It was so variable, elegant, and most importantly, powerf –

"Gale! You should get in line."

"Mmf." His eyes still on the plane, he wandered over to Link and got ready to board.

XXXXXXXXX

"Your seat is near the back on the left. Enjoy your flight!"

The stewardess waved her hand toward the back of the plane, signifying where the boys' seats were. Gale grumbled something as he squeezed his way past the thin isles between the roomy, black reclining business first and first class seats. On his way to the back, he noticed a shock of blond hair with a band of pink: Zelda glanced their way and nodded with a slight smile.

Out of habit, Gale smirked devilishly and winked, but on his way to his seat he scowled at the difference between the economy seats and the business first seats. He watched Link squish his way into a grey uncomfortable looking seat with barely enough room to extend an arm before bumping into the seats in front. Gale eyed the plumpish woman sitting on the isle, then the empty seat, and then Link sitting by the tiny window looking through the toothbrush package that he'd found in the seat pocket. He snapped his fingers to get Link's attention.

"Hey."

Link looked up.

"Move. I have the window."

The blond rolled his eyes. Whatever. It wasn't a big deal to him where he sat; he just didn't expect Gale to want it so badly. He scooted over to the center seat while Gale tripped over the first lady and nearly fell on top of him. He watched Gale mutter under his breath and plop into the window seat before the pale teen pointedly stared outside.

Link clicked his seatbelt buckle on, and watched the small television screen attached to the seat in front of him come to life. He noticed Gale wasn't paying much attention to the safety procedures as the plane began to rumble and slowly heave itself backwards.

XXXXXXX

Gale never felt embarrassed about making demands, but for some reason, this time he felt a little foolish for demanding to take the window seat. It felt like something only a child would do, but he really wanted to be close to the view. He bit his lip – he got what he wanted, so he didn't care if he looked immature.

The artificially sweet voice of the recording that was giving them instructions on safety became background noise as the plane approached the runway. He ignored Link who was looking at him curiously, wondering what he was watching with so much interest.

They were going to fly. This several ton plane was going to fly.

"Flight attendants, please take a seat for departure."

It was quiet for a few seconds, and then the low vibrations turned into a rattling roar. Gale felt his seat press against his back as the plane accelerated and he watched in awe as the ground began to pull away from under them.

Whoa.

The cars on the road became smaller and smaller, and as they ascended, wisps of clouds flew by. For a moment, a white mist obscured the entire window before the plane broke through the clouds and glided above them.

It was an amazing sight. The clouds shone a brilliant white from the sun's glare, and everything beyond that was a perfect blue sky. A tap on his shoulder broke Gale from his dreamy gaze.

"What?" he snapped. Link pointed at the stewardess who was asking what he wanted to order for the in-flight dinner. "Oh, uh… whichever one he didn't get."

The flight attendant nodded politely, wrote something down, and left the teen to go back to watching the view.

XXXXXXXXXX

Link sighed. Ok, so it was cool and all that they were many miles above the ground. Still, the glare was bright and the sun in his eyes was starting to become annoying. He didn't understand why Gale was so fascinated by the scenery – after all, it was just a bunch of white clouds and it became old after a while. Ah well, he's Vaati after all whether he knows it or not.

Sooner or later, the stewardess returned pushing a metal cart with food. She went around each row, passing an aluminum box to each person as well as a small plastic cup with drinks. Link got his and opened it. This looks awful.

"They expect us to eat this?"

Of course Vaati would complain.

Shrugging, Link wordlessly took his utensils out of the plastic wrap, and poked through his almost wooden meat that had been called "juicy fillet mignon." He did his best to cut it. Considering he'd once had to eat with the Gorons in Death Mountain after he had defeated the King Dodongo, this stuff was tolerable.

Gale muttered and grumbled at first, but after a while his hunger got the best of him and he began to eat as well. Link was glad Gale couldn't see what the business first class people were getting. Some of them had wine and cheese, and the stewardesses were currently going around handing them chocolate truffles. If the albino saw that then there would be no end to his scowling.

An hour passed. The food had been taken away and now most people had reclined their chairs as much as they could to prepare themselves for at least another 10 more hours of flight. Link stared blankly ahead while Gale returned to looking at the clouds that were now far beneath them.

The blond fidgeted in his seat. This was the first time Link was ever on a plane and he was already starting to hate it. He didn't like sitting still for too long, and this place was too squished for his liking. It was also really boring, and he wanted something to do. This is even worse than the time I had to sit in the wagon to go to Lon Lon Ranch with Talon. At least back then I had enough space to move around…

The lady next to him was watching some movie while Gale was still staring outside the window. Link decided the entertainment system would be more amusing than what Gale was doing.

Gale inched closer to the window when Link squirmed around in his seat to find the remote that controlled the entertainment system. Huffing, he went back to looking at the clouds that rolled by. It was interesting to observe the sun: it seemed as though it was stuck in one place as the plane chased it across the earth.

"Excuse me sir. Excuse me."

"Hey, Gale."

Gale's head snapped around like a snake's when Link tapped him cautiously on the shoulder. He stopped himself from hissing like one when he noticed the dark haired flight attendant calling him. He relaxed. "Yes?"

"Can you please close the windows? Some people are trying to sleep." She leaned forward politely.

Gale tried to look pleasant, but Link noticed his smile look a little strained. His head tilted from the windows to the pretty lady, obviously liking both views but not liking the fact he had to choose one or the other. Gale tried to weasel out of choosing. "Sleep? But it's so sunny out. It's not close to night."

"Well that's because we'll be moving across the international date line."

Gale waved her away. "I know I know. Don't worry ma'am I'll close it." He pressed the plastic blinds closed until only a thin white ray peeked through. Several minutes later, Gale turned to Link with a disgruntled growl. The blond was struggling in a game of invaders looking sufficiently confused by the concept of alien spaceships. Link plopped his controller down onto his lap when the game over screen popped up. Sighing, he turned to Gale.

"Hey, you bored?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Want to play against each other? There's blackjack, poker, chess…"

After considering for a few minutes, Gale complied. "Fine. I'll take a game of chess. Prepare to lose."

XXXXXXXXX

Several hours later, Gale dropped his controller on his lap triumphantly.

"Hmph. I win again. You bore me, Link."

"I'm actually not too surprised you'd be good at chess. Well, I'm pretty bad so I would have been shocked if I'd won."

Gale reclined his seat all the way, which wasn't very far, and stretched. "You just have to be able to look at the big picture." He turned off the overhead lights and fell quiet, looking straight ahead at the ceiling. Link did the same, noting how many more hours they had left until they reached their destination – 6 hours left…

"Link?"

Link shifted his weight. He noticed Gale's voice was oddly contemplative; a change from his usual arrogant, careless attitude. "Yeah?"

Gale turned his head away and towards the window. It was obvious that something was bothering him. "I… can you… aw shucks just know that when I ask this it doesn't mean I believe any of your stories, okay?"

Link blinked. "Is this about Vaati?"

The other teen huffed. "I just want to know a little more about him. I'm just curious why you think I'm his reincarnation, and I'll pretend to listen to you this time."

"Why the sudden change in interest?"

Gale remained quiet.

"All right. I guess you have your own reasons," Link sighed. "Just promise me that you won't interrupt with your little commentaries."

"No promises," Gale said automatically, as though out of habit. "But fine, I'll just sit here."

Link glanced at the lady sitting next to him. She was sleeping with an eye-mask over her face and the earphones she had been wearing for the in-flight movie was still over her ears. She wouldn't be able to hear their conversation. "I don't know too much about him," he began softly. "He was once from the Minish race, a group of people no larger than your thumb. In their own tongue, they're called the Picori. Only children can see them, and they're magical creatures that love to help people."

"Sounds a little like Santa's elves."

Link laughed. "Haha, I guess you can say that."

"So Vaati was one of these little elves? Wasn't he supposed to be a great sorcerer or something?"

"Well, he was until he stole his master's wishing hat. He was an apprentice sage, and I guess that wasn't good enough for his ambitions. The hat he stole was special – it could grant any wish its wearer desired. He wished to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world, and so that's what he became."

"Huh…"

"That wasn't enough for him even then. He wanted more, so he went out to search for the power of the gods. Vaati turned the princess of Hyrule to stone and temporarily took over the country in his search. He almost succeeded, but a boy with a holy sword defeated him.

For many many years, Vaati would attempt to break the seal that bound him and would wreak havoc every time he escaped. This continued until he was defeated for good eight thousand years ago and was never heard of again."

Gale seemed to consider something for a while. The funny look on his face was half covered by his long bangs. Then, "Why do you think I'm Vaati? Isn't he supposed to be dead for good?"

Link hesitated. Should I tell him everything? I don't want him to realize his full potential just yet if I can help it. "Um, well, I guess you just look a lot like him. You even have that mark under your eye." That's innocent enough. I don't think I should mention anything about Vaati cursing himself unintentionally.

Gale scowled, obviously not impressed. "I got this scar when I fell longboarding." He scoffed. "Hmph. You know what I would do if I was the world's most powerful sorcerer? I would probably take over the world and make everyone listen to me, just because I can. And because that in itself would probably be boring, I'll have a house full of the sexiest girls on earth all to myself. Seriously, if only your crazy ideas were actually true."

Link chuckled. "Well, Vaati actually did kidnap a bunch of the prettiest girls in Hyrule at one point in time before he decided he wanted to marry the princess."

Gale became quiet again, causing Link to tilt his head a little, wondering what was up. Gale wasn't acting completely like himself today. Finally, the albino stole a quick glance and then crossed his arms. He snapped, "He's a smart guy then. He's a cool character considering he's from a children's fable."

Link smiled sadly. That's his usual self. Poor guy. He doesn't know.

"Even when I try to take you seriously everything sounds like a joke. It's no use. You were so insistent about this Vaati story that you almost made me think that I was the one who was wrong. Ha, you should be a storyteller. Hyrule, and magic, and evil sorcerers: what's next, a flying castle?"

Funny you should mention that…

Growling, Gale turned his shoulder and pulled his blue airline blanket completely over his face. Link watched as his travelling partner seemed content to abruptly put the conversation to a halt. Sighing, Link also pulled his blanket up and did his best to fall asleep on the cramped chairs.

I wonder if something I said sparked something in his head…

XXXXXXX

Gale couldn't sleep. He was thinking about the story about Vaati, and he was feeling restless. He didn't understand why a fable that couldn't have been real was bothering him so much. There was something about this Vaati that made his skin crawl and made him feel uneasy.

Like he was forgetting something important.

Urgh, this is stupid. I want to sleep.

Could it be that Link was right?

NO! No no and NO. Magic doesn't exist, idiot. And if I believed in reincarnation I would give some religions more credit than I do now.

It was this stupid plane ride. Sitting here and not being able to do anything but… sit… yeah. This was making him think about all of these unnecessary things about sorcerers and shit. And for some reason, he couldn't get himself to think about anything more interesting like women.

That weirded him out a little. Whenever he had time to sit and think there was at least some thought about the ladies. In the last eight hours he hadn't had a single naughty thought, though his mind had occasionally wandered over to Zelda. Zelda…

Gale shook his head. It bothered him that he would think about a single girl instead of a collective group of girls he knew. That was a bad sign. He had a policy of living under the rule that he would never think of just one girl because that would make her "special." No girl was special. They were all his toys.

Stupid Link and stupid Vaati! It's all their fault.

Gale frowned, forcing himself to think about how nice the view was from the plane. Clouds. Think about the clouds. Gradually, his mind relaxed and his whirlpool of thoughts began to disappear. He took a deep breath and let the tension in his face go away. He liked those clouds. There was something about them that made him at peace.

His lip twitched. His peace was broken and creases began to appear on his forehead.

Clouds…

Suddenly, he felt an inexplicable urge to open the windows to see the sky again to look for something.

Look for what?

"AAAaaargh!!!"

"Huh?!"

Link woke up from his neighbor's muffled shout from under the bundle of blankets. After a while, there was a string of miserable muttering before the blanket bundle went silent again. Shrugging, Link rolled over and fell back to sleep.

Beneath the blankets, Gale clenched his fist, angry about his situation. Even the clouds refused to put his mind to rest, and he wasn't pleased. Stupid Link. Your stories; they aren't real…

However, a small whisper of a thought knew why he was denying the story about Vaati. In truth he was afraid. He was afraid of leaving behind his unexciting world and entering one where he wasn't who he thought he was. It sounded like something out of a bad movie.

Vaati…

There's something I resent about you. Real or fiction, I feel like I have a reason to hate you for something you've done to me.


Reily96: Zelda always ends up with Link, ey? Hurhurr, all I can say is, "interesting..." ;P
Argh! Dugal where are you?!
You know the answer to that question ;) I'm guessing it's for FL?
And thanks as always.

Midna Hytwilian: Oh geez, you flatter me too much. :3
Yeah... Vaati failed pretty epicly.
Ah, well, the pairings will be messy for sure. I'm still trying to figure it out myself.
Dugal: Well, considering fangirl #1 is now a pile of ashes...
me: mmmf!
Dugal: (cough) I don't know what's stopping you from being #2.
me: mmmmf!

Darkwind: The manga really helped. Thanks!

LinkxDarkLink: I'm surprised people realized I'd even updated. Thank you!

SyllverAngel: Wow, I'm happy you still like this!