Chapter 12

My writing style has drastically changed… drastically… It's probably because of this really, really depressing fanfic called "I Wish You Would Come Back To Me" for Kingdom Hearts. Glob… I think I died reading that. It's just… It's so well written – you can feel the emotion in the words. It's a whole life story in five thousand words. It took my outlook of life and shoved it down the drain. It made me realize that anything can happen in life, and the best thing you can do is to move on.

Also, I warned of angst… I couldn't bring myself to write it… I was a blubbering mess… so, I got as close as I could…

As life moves, we can choose whether or not we want to move along. As life flows, we can choose whether or not we want to drift along. As life slows, we can choose whether or not we want to struggle along. As life halts, we can choose whether or not we want to crawl along, in agony. But as life ends, we have no choice with we want to do. Live while life is flowing to avoid the agony and struggles. Live while life is flowing until it ends, so when it ends, you'll be satisfied.

Living with Link allowed Dark to learn more about the quiet blonde haired teen that he wouldn't have known otherwise, but there were small little things about Link that Dark would never comprehend…

Yes, Dark understood that every person had their quirks, and that no one was perfect… but Link was just… Dark cared about the blonde fiercely, but he could do without all of the inconveniences.

Like, why did Link felt the need to get at least fifteen hours of sleep before he felt fully satisfied? He wanted to stay up forever doing goddess knows what, but in the morning, when it was time to wake up, he vehemently fought Dark for possession of the covers so he could sink back into blissful sleep. Or, why did he always fell asleep near the window? Dark was tired of cleaning fingerprints and smudges from his windows!

Dark didn't even want to remember the time when Link had screamed in fear at the roach that was sitting innocently in the center of the room. Epona had strolled by, stared at the poor creature, flipped it over with a flick of her paw, and walked away, leaving Link to stand frozen in fear. When Dark had come to the rescue carrying a baseball bat, he was infuriated to find that the menace was a roach.

A roach.

Dark was also frustrated at Epona, who was supposed to be holding down fort. He'd allowed the cat to stay, since he and Link found that he'd had no allergic reaction to the cat whatsoever, but she was still as lazy as ever, and Dark blamed her for contributions to Link's recent behavior.

Anyway, the week had gone by fairly quickly. On Monday, Sheik had shown up with a stack of clothes, Link's phone, and a crying cat in a carrier. He'd also been kind enough to bring along her un-cleaned litter box. He'd joked mildly with the two, and then headed back to the school. He'd also brought back sour news – the whole school had begun gossiping about the two look-alikes, saying that they were having a secret-love get-away, as the blonde had put it.

The next day, Dark had decided to return to school and smash all suspicion that something juicy was stirring between them, leaving Link to explore the vast expanse of the loft alone. Now, that the week was over, Dark could finally get some down time to do what he wanted.

Dark sighed and trudged to the kitchen, looking for a drink, only to find that Link had once again left the milk sitting on the counter. How long had it been there? Was it curdled and gross? UGH!

He gingerly grabbed the carton and swished it around, only to hear that it was, in fact, very curdled. He frowned deeply stared at it, contemplating and scratching his back absently. What was today again? He asked himself, glancing at the clock. Saturday, again.

He thought back to how complicated the past week had been, with him taking two sets of notes in every class and snagging two sets of homework to give Link. Of course, Sheik had helped, but often, there were silly doodles drawn in the margins that had somehow migrated to take over the words.

On the biology notes, Sheik had drawn Ghirahim trying to eat the word "repopulate". He'd also made dirty jokes about the new biology teacher, Instructor Owlan, saying that he was secretly in the "dirty business".

Dark gave the notes to Link, anyway, along with a clean version that he'd taken. He managed to help Link keep up with school, so that he wouldn't fail out, but struggled with keeping Link from falling into depression.

The teen was a big fan of sulking. When he wasn't sleeping, eating, or doing homework, he was sitting by the floor to ceiling windows, staring out of them with a lonely look on his face.

And Dark began to notice little things about Link the longer he spent with him.

Once, while the two were washing clothes, Dark had pulled out a bottle of bleach from under the cabinet to pour in the whites. As soon as Dark uncapped the bottle, Link froze.

"Link?" Dark had asked, turning to Link. But Link had zoned out, staring into space. Soon, his whole body began to shake.

When Dark had asked Sheik about it, Sheik responded simply, "I'm afraid that's not my story to tell," leading Dark to believe that much more had happened in Link's past than he would have thought possible. None of the three boys knew what would happen next – they couldn't keep on living like they were living forever – but the future was so indefinite…

One thing was certain, though, and that was that Link had been harboring a hatred for Rusl for a long time – longer than anyone could have known.

Looking back on it, Dark could see the distance between the two. "Son…" Rusl had sighed once, while they were in the hospital, "Link's been so distant…"

Link's anxiety had gotten so bad, that at the slightest mention of Rusl, Link would hesitate, become jumpy, or try to get away from the subject completely.

Life was easy for Dark, depressing for Link, but scary for them both.

On Friday, Dark had nearly killed another cell phone after receiving a mysterious message from Ganondorf. "He knows where you are," It said. The thought of anyone in his family – besides his loving aunt – knowing where he lived scared the crap out of him.

His whole family scared him, frankly. They were all terrifying – Ganon, Zant, and his various other cousins that he would wish to have nothing to do with. And he was stuck as the runt in the family.

When he'd first seen Link's friend, Midna, he'd wondered if they were related in some way. She had the fiery orange-red hair that Ganon possessed, and the pale skin that Zant had, and the eerie red eyes that he had himself.

But Dark didn't have too much time to wander, because Link strolled into the kitchen, looking for food.

Dark watched calmly as Link strolled through the kitchen, Epona on his heels. Link eyed the milk carton in Dark's hand, frowned, and turned towards the remote that was sitting innocently on the counter. He flipped it around, leaned on the counter that looked out towards the living room, and turned on the television to the news, frowning as a familiar face popped up. Sensing Link's hesitation, Dark leaned over the counter, too, to watch the news.

"A week ago, a student at Hyrule High, one that's been gracing the news for a while now," one reporter started in a formal tone until another sighed, "went missing, and now has been reported missing by his father, Rusl Yuuki, a well known real estate agent."

Face pale, Link looked over to Dark, whose crimson eyes were wide in his face.

"He claimed that after an argument, his son ran off, but Yuuki expected his son to return home. We're asking all viewers to report any sightings of Link Yuuki," a picture of Link leaning next to his SUV popped up, "to the police." The other reporter picked up, a grave look on his face. "This is a very serious case in this community-"

Dark quickly snatched up the remote and hit the power button, ruby eyes wide. "Uh…"

A few seconds later, Link's phone blared out a song that made Dark cringe, and Link rushed to look at the caller ID. Sheik.

"Yeah…"

Sheik was on the other line, struggling to contain… something… laughter? "Link… you're…!"

"Huh…?"

On the other line, Sheik took a deep breath and asked, "Am I on speaker?" Link hit the speaker button and gave him a grunt of affirmation.

There was a bit of silence, when Sheik finally asked, "So, what're you gonna do, Mr. Missing Person?"

Link's sapphire eyes shot to Dark for a second, before looking towards the window. Sheik listened to the silence before continuing. "You can't keep running, Link. Sooner or later, you'll either hit a dead end or Rusl'll find you… I'm not sure which is worse, at this point…" He paused, letting this sink in. "You'll have to—"

"I know!" Link said lowly but forcefully, frowning, deep in thought. "I would know without you telling me, Sheik!" Link took a shaky deep breath. "Listen, Sheik, I—"

"No talking when the great Sheik is talking!" The other blonde suddenly cut in. "One, take me off of speaker." Link complied. "Okay, meet me at the café in thirty – no Dark. He's all… mushy around you, and I don't need that." Before Link could protest, Sheik hung up, leaving Link to listen to the drone of the phone.

Link scowled at the ground as he waited for Sheik to pull up in front of the café, as promised. As Sheik's car rounded the corner, Link sighed in relief and watched as the blonde climbed out. He was staring at his phone distractedly.

He walked up slowly, still tapping away at the screen, a scowl increasing. Suddenly, he put his phone to his ear, worriedly talking to someone on the other line.

"Zel?" Link could hear him asking as he got closer. "Zel? You there?" A look Link had never seen crossed Sheik's face, then, and he watched in horror as his blonde friend's red eyes widened in horror. "Zel!" He shouted into the phone, turning around and running back towards his car. Link followed quickly, stopping Sheik before he could climb into the driver's seat.
"Sheik! What's wrong?!"

"Zelda and Dad… I can feel it… something's wrong…" Sheik said, rushed and panicked. His far-away eyes suddenly shot back into focus and he looked straight ahead into Link's sapphire pools. He took a deep breath and managed a shallow laugh. "I must sound crazy, right? I just… I think I need to find Zelda and Dad – I was on the phone with Zel, and there was a crash, and she screamed, and—" His voice began to get more and more rushed, and Link stopped him before he could continue.

"Sheik, breathe. I'll drive you to where they are – are they at the house?" Sheik nodded and Link took his keys and hopped into the driver's seat. Sheik jogged around the car and swung into the passenger seat, not bothering to buckle in.

Whatever Sheik had felt, Link felt it too as he pulled into the Kenmeis' driveway. There was just an air of uncertainty surrounding the home, and Link's hand hesitated on the gearshift. Sheik looked over at Link – just a quick glance – before jogging up to the front door.

As Link walked up, he watched the door swing open as soon as Sheik's fingertips brushed the knob.

Sheik's heart seized as his eyes took in the shattered glass on the white carpet, mixed with the overturned furniture. He slowly walked into the house, dreadfully aware of the thick, coppery smell in the air. Behind him, Link stood, frozen at the doorway. Sheik looked around each corner before rounding it, careful for no reason he could think of.

Then, there was a sound.

It was more like shuffling – it could have been paper falling to the floor – but it made Sheik listen intently. He called out hesitantly, "hello?" hearing his own voice crack. "Zel… D-Dad…?" The fear in his voice made him feel very young and very, very helpless…

"S-Son…" a cracked voice came from the kitchen, and immediately, the two blondes ran towards the kitchen, sliding on the tile and landing in something wet.

Link stopped before he could touch the wet floor, eyes widening, but Sheik slid to his knees and looked at his father, who was propped against a perfect white cabinet, now stained red.

Sheik grabbed a phone, quickly, and dialed 911, holding the phone to his ear and praying almost silently. His eyes shot up to meet Link's, and almost immediately, Link took off down the hall, calling for Zelda. Her voice answered him in a relieved chime of, "Link!" and he was relieved to see her come out of a closet, stained with blood but not seriously wounded.

But when the ambulance came and took Zelda and Sheik's father away, leaving the two standing in front of the house, Sheik felt something inside of him crumble, and with it, fell everything around him.

Okay, well, first off… I'm sorry. I've been trying to write, but either I had no inspiration or no time… never time and inspiration. There's been a lot going on, and I'd like to thank everyone for your reviews and support – a shout out to Angel-Rei-chan1 who gave me the helpful information about cats that allowed Epona to stay in the story~!

Also, to a guest – As much as I love the idea of Dark and Sheik fighting to save Link from Ghi's evil clutches, I can't have that happen… it'd be too crazy… I'm sorry… and also, how in the name of Hyrule did all of their injuries heal? I don't know myself… that is a problem… a red potion, maybe? Some fairies? Ah, I'm sorry for not making that clear…

Okay, also, I'd like to let you all know about a few Dark/Link stories that have changed my life.

Drowning in Pain by Fuzzybuni

The Other Half of a Hero by Fenrir Riku

A Dark Truth by smuttylove

Without You by linklover88