Link shoved the stranger away and cradled Agahnim. He wasn't breathing, so Link tried resuscitation. When that didn't work, he started sobbing. Tears ran down his face, soaking the collar of his tunic. "I was so close... Why did this have to happen, why couldn't I be with him?" He squeezed Agahnim tightly, and buried his head in the non-moving chest.
The stranger scoffed, and yanked the bag from Link's belt. "So childish. Whatever possessed him to pick someone like you for a mate? Quick, give him this." The stranger sliced the stinger off the aracha and dropped it into a bottle of green potion, then handed it to Link. He watched Link drink it and feed it to Agahnim, then laughed when the boy choked at the taste.
But the medicine was effective, and soon ragged breaths came out of the unconscious mage. Link let out a gasp of relief and clung to him. "Thank the goddesses."
"...You really like him, don't you, skychild?" The white haired stranger snapped his fingers, disappearing from his seat atop a table and reappearing wrapped around Link's back. Link groaned in annoyance as the stranger reached around and poked Agahnim's cheek. "Well, at least you have good taste in men. He let his skin get a little too pink, but the hair and eyelashes are magnificent. And those ears! The symmetry, the points, the virgin lobes!"
Link elbowed the man. "Get off me, and stop touching him. Who the hell are you, anyway?"
"Gasp! You dare ask who I am? Me? I'm hurt, skychild." He disappeared again, this time popping back up sprawled over the table and miming a broken heart. "We were tied by a thread of fate, and yet you've completely tossed me away, leaving all of our memories behind to rot with your dead body."
When the dramatic display didn't phase Link, the man groaned and sat up. "So thickheaded. But I guess it's not your fault. The original skychild is so engrossed in that blonde whelp with the dog that he probably doesn't have room in his head for us both. You may call me Lord-"
"...Ghirahim?"
Link and Ghirahim both turned their attention to the mage in Link's lap. Agahnim blinked slowly, shaking off the poison and wondering if it really was the demon lord in front of him. "Why...?"
Link choked up, beyond grateful that Agahnim was awake. "Calm down, Agahnim. Don't worry about that weirdo," he whispered as he hugged his lover. "Are you feeling better? Does it still hurt?"
"It will hurt for the next month, though I'll survive," Agahnim wheezed. "But why is he here? Make him leave." He turned away from Ghirahim, angering the demon.
"'Make me leave?' Uh, in case you haven't noticed, shortstack, I'm the reason you're alive." Ghirahim fluffed his hair before continuing. "A little gratitude would be nice. I didn't have to stop admiring my own skychild to watch yours run around the desert like a lost puppy. The things I do for my own offspring..."
"Offspring?!" Link stared at Ghirahim, his jaw dropping. Ghirahim nodded with a grin, while Agahnim scoffed. True, they looked similar, but their personalities were completely different. And this was about a thousand years in the past! He had to be lying.
"Don't listen to him," Agahnim grumbled. "Just strike the stone and take me home."
"This stone?" Agahnim looked over to see that Ghirahim had the timeshift stone in his fingers. "You really shouldn't pass out when you have valuable property in your possession. I wonder what would happen if I didn't give it back? I mean, this one was specially made to have an extended effect, so you can't just walk out of its reach..."
Agahnim crawled out of Link's lap and confronted the demon. Link watched as the two shouted back and forth, squabbling like siblings. He noticed how both wiggled their ears when they frowned, and that both used the same strange insults. They also had the same uniquely designed black dagger tied around their waists.
A thought came to his mind. "Is this the predecessor you told me about?" Link asked when the pair ran out of breath.
"You don't see the resemblance, skychild?" Ghirahim said, smooshing his cheek against Agahnim's. "Though I don't get the change in skin color. What happened to make me so pink?"
"Let go, diamond boy," Agahnim yelled, but Ghirahim didn't budge. "I shouldn't even be talking with you, I'll mess things up. Link, help get him off me so we can leave."
Ghirahim let the Hylian take back his lover, and watched him lay the sick mage on a pile of blankets in the corner. He heard the two whispering, and shortly after Link approached him. "Please give me back the timeshift stone. We've both been through a lot and have only recently reunited. It would mean the world to us if we could just go home and rest."
"..."
Link frowned as Ghirahim turned away. He then realized that the demon was focusing on something, and watched him sigh and flip his hair.
"Skychild, do you honestly love him?"
"Of course I do. I gave my life for him in that cave. I betrayed my country for him when I pulled him from the castle. And I fought poison scorpions a thousand years before I was born so that he wouldn't die in pain."
Ghirahim and Agahnim both turned back to Link, Agahnim wearing a smile that was almost bigger than his face. Ghirahim smiled too, though Link couldn't see it. "You're lucky, Agahnim. This one actually returns your feelings," the demon mumbled before handing the stone to Link. "It's just a shame I'll have to wait a millennium to know what that feels like."
The pair watched as Ghirahim sauntered out of the room, dragging the little robot with him. Agahnim thought it was strange that he didn't teleport away, and urged Link to talk with him. "There's something wrong. Go see what it is."
"How can you tell? That guy was making every emotion possible, I don't know which to believe," Link replied. "Besides, I'm staying with you. Leaving you with Kipa was a mistake, and I won't do it again." Agahnim hugged Link tightly. "Link, please. Maybe if you talk to him, the thousand years we spend waiting for your love won't sting so badly. I'm fine now, but if he's in pain, that means I'm in pain."
"Waiting? I thought you said he was happily defeated by his love?"
"This is a tale for another time, but suffice to say, the skychild cracked the blade and time disintegrated it. That is why our Master was resurrected so many times, yet we are only with the first and the last," Agahnim explained about his past, and of course it went over Link's head.
"Please, just talk to him. Imagine what it must feel like to be rejected by two Links."
A/N: Yes, I did just imply that Agahnim is reincarnated Ghirahim. ;)
