The Hyrulian Valhalla Saga
By Queenie Z

I Kissed My Past Self (And I'm Not Sure If I Liked It)

Card games were a popular pastime among the Heroes, but after a few hundred years of playing the same games over and over, they eventually began to add some higher stakes to make it a bit more exciting. Sometimes rupees were involved, although they were useless as currency in an afterlife where they could have anything they wanted. Sometimes the losers had to take shots or chug ale (those were probably the more exciting game nights). They had even played rounds of strip poker before quickly realizing that seeing one's own reincarnations naked was simply awkward and not very entertaining. So, eventually, they began to get, shall we say, "creative" with their wagers.

Engie sported a cheeky grin as he placed his last two cards down on the table. "There go my fives!" He laced his fingers behind his head. "That means Wind and I are the winners."

Indeed, the Hero of Winds had been the first to get rid of all of his cards in this high-stakes game of Go Fish, and Engie had been the second. Twilight and Sky, however, still had a good number of cards in their hands, which put them in third and fourth place respectively. This realization quickly flustered the two older Links.

"No way," muttered Sky with an almost scared look on his face, "that can't be right...!"

Wind snickered. "Sorry, guys, but it looks like you two lost the bet. And that means -"

"No!" cried Twilight, slamming his cards on the table, "We're not - you can't make us -"

Shaking his head and "tsk"ing, Engie interrupted him. "You're really gonna go back on your word? Heh, some Hero you are, Twilight."

"But..." Twilight turned to Sky, their eyes filled with the same dread. "Sky, come on... you can't just let them -"

"Twilight," he replied, "we did agree to it when the game started. You know we can't just back out. We're Links. Keeping promises is what we do."

The despondent cowboy sighed. Of course, they all just had to inherit that honest Hero nature and the inability to break a promise without feeling horribly guilty about it. "...Fine."

Wind nodded. "That's better. Now..."

The two younger Heroes grinned devilishly in unison. "Kiss!"

Sky and Twilight looked at other for the longest time, unsure of where to start. It wasn't that they didn't know how to kiss - they had kissed others plenty in life - it was that they didn't know how to kiss someone who was effectively a piece of themselves in another body.

"Come on," Engie called out to them, "do it! And you have to really kiss, tongue and all! Remember?"

Twilight growled a little at the smaller Link. Then, in a desperate bid to get it over with as quickly as possible, he grabbed the back of Sky's head and pressed their mouths together.

Needless to say, it was… an experience. While their thoughts were unanimously agreeing that this was one of the single most awkward things they'd ever done, living or dead, they couldn't help but notice a strange familiarity in the feel of each other's lips and tongues. Not to mention they were both decent kissers.

They continued for a good, long while, pondering the similarities and trying desperately not to acknowledge whatever pleasure they derived from it, and finally, they broke apart, gasping for air as they looked each other in the deep blue eyes they shared.

"...That was so weird," muttered Sky under his breath, his face hotter than a volcano's crater.

"Yeah," Twilight agreed.

The other two Heroes' eyes had widened, and Engie leaned over to his predecessor. "Whoa," he said, "I didn't think they'd get so into it."

"Me either..."

Twilight turned and pointed at them. "That does not leave this room," then he turned to Sky. "That goes for you, too!"

"I'm not saying anything! Don't look at me!"

Wind scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, that's fair enough, I guess."

The two flustered men sighed in relief. At least they were fairly certain that their smaller counterparts would keep that promise.