Blind
Chapter Fourteen
As the tiny flame of the candle's wick ceased to burn, Link entered Sheik's world. He could hear Charisma padding along the floor, flopping down in his favourite corner. The sheets rustled, the wind whispering along under the curtains and caressing the back of his neck. Sheik swallowed and breathed deeply in and out again. He smelled of something that reminded Link of early morning, like when the dew clung to the grass and the skies were in false reached forward in an attempt to brush his fingers over Sheik's lips, and instead touched his elbow. Once he reached them the breath that ghosted over his fingers was steady and soft, a little warm.
Sheik had fallen asleep.
"How beautiful..." Link mumbled as he traced the high and sharp angles of Sheik's face.
The corner of Sheik's mouth twitched, as if he was about to say something.
"You've had lover's before, yes?"
Sheik frowned in his sleep, before mumbling something Link couldn't make out.
"You've been with another male, right?" he whispered before slowly kissing the corner of Sheik's lips.
"Mmm..." Sheik rolled away from Link."
"What was his name?" Link slowly inched closer to Sheik again, wrapping his arms around the Sheikah's torso. "I'll tell you about mine. His name was Eldorian. I met him when we were in Labrynna, where we grew... very close. Not that we were committed to each other or anything but,we parted a little before the fall. And the fire dragon -- well, the night of the fall."
Sheik rolled over again and snuggled closer to Link.
Brushing away the hair from Sheik's face, Link asked "So who was he? Do I know him?"
Sheik frowned again.
Link came closer while asking "Who was it, love? Please, tell me."
It really was Link's fault for pressing the matter, for his arms gave away and he fell onto Sheik when he heard the words that were mumbled to him.
"What? Now whats wrong?" Sheik's left hand fumbled around in the darkness. "Link?" He was pinned beneath his lover, but not for very long.
Link pushed himself off Sheik a little, staring at Sheik. "What? Nothing, it was just me."
"Something's wrong, I can hear it in your voice," Sheik's hand brushed again Link's cheek. "What is it?"
"You, uh..." Taking hold of Sheik's hand, Link held it to his chest, slightly afraid that if he left it on his cheek he'd be slapped all the way to Termina. "You were asleep when you mumbled something about Termina and something else..." Link shifted nervously as he felt Sheik stiffen. "You... you were talking about..."
Slipping his hand from Link's chest, Sheik said in an unsure voice "I was talking in my sleep? I didn't know that... Do I do this very... often?" Link stayed silent. "What do I talk about, Link?"
"Not so much as 'what' but more of a 'who'..."
"Well, you are going to tell me who, aren't you?" Sheik slipped from bed, wearing a similiar pair of pants that Link did. He stumbled around a little, feeling his way until her found the dresser. Link heard him open the dresser and pull something out, the soft rustle of fabric across skin. Sheik must have slipped on a robe or shirt. "I suppose I could guess, since you aren't going to tell me. Must have been something that you don't understand, judging from the reaction you're giving me."
"Sheik, it's just that -- I didn't think..." Link let the bed, heading straight the for table instead of the dresser. Retrieving the half-bottle of wine he poured himself a goblet. "You were talking about your wife," Link softly said after a long drink.
"Oh, her," came Sheik's dry reply. "Well... That must have been how she the basics of what I was alwasy doing... I must mumble and she pieces it all together..." Sheik smoothed his hair away from his face. "So what, did I call her terrible names and curse her all the way to the realms below or something?"
"Actually... No, not really," Link said after another long drink.
"What did I say?" Sheik almost dropped the bottle when he could feel Sheik's breath across his chin. "What exactly did I say, Link?"
Setting the cup down on the table, he moved so the table was between him and Sheik to keep some distance between him and the Sheikah. "I asked you about your former lovers and you kind of mumbled them," he said quickly when he saw the Sheikah crouch a little at the knee's.
"WHAT!?" Sheik was faster then Link had thought, leaping over the table in the direction of Link's voice. "You what?"
"I.... I asked... you... Sheik, look I didn't mean to, uh..."
"Didn't mean to what?" Now backed up against the wall, Link was subjected to a rather angry Sheikah and his finger that was waggling at him. "You meant to find the answer to your question, didn't you? Meant to compromise our trust then, and-"
"Oh... Oh," Link cursed in a language Sheik wasn't familiar with.
"Yeah," Sheik tried repeating the word. Link bit his bottom lip as he tried not to laugh at the statement. "You're just lucky that I love you, Link. Despite all of your lack of manners and unfathomable behavior."
"It was because I love you," Link protested, "That I wanted to know more about you."
"What a load... of bull shit."
"No, seriously, I just wanted to know you better. Because when I hear Tanis or Zelda talk about you it's like-"
"That's a little different then what I thought..."
"Sheik, I just wanted to know you... Like before you came here to Hyrule."
Sheik sighed, his tense body suddenly relaxing as he turned his head towards the door. "Link... Why didn't you just ask me? I would have told you everything without question. You know about my books, you know about the treatments I've gone through, my cats -- oh by the Goddesses, you sleep in my bed!" Link's grip on Sheik's wrist's lessoned. Sheik crossed his arms for a moment before wrapping them around Link's chest. "What would you like to know about me?"
"Can we start with your wife?" Link asked, sweeping Sheik's hair away from his face.
"Lets sit down," Sheik laced his fingers with Link's to bed lead to the couch. "Better," he mumbled as he settled in the arm-chair across from Link's couch. Sheik let out a small snort as ink relaxed, watching Sheik pull his legs up against his chest. "I can't believe you thought you'd get away with something like this, and without telling me."
"I assumed you knew..." Link answered. Moments later he was lsiding from the couch, half trying to figure out how Sheik was so fast and the other half trying ti keep his fingers away from his sides. Slipping to the floor, tears were falling as Sheik assaulted the Hylian's sides and stomach. "Okay, stop, please! Stop it!"
Sheik continued to tickle Link, pinning him down with one knee on his arm. "No more secrets!"
"Yes, yes, I promise!" Please!" Link begged as he tried jerking out of Sheik's reach, limbs splayed out onto the floor as Sheik settled himself in his couch again. "No more, I promise," he gasped, holding his side as he crawled up onto the couch again.
"Alright," Sheik flipped his hair casually out of his face while waiting for Link to relax again. "Then I'll tell you my 'secret', though, it doesn't count since Tanis and Zelda already know. Though there's nothing to worry about."
"So, where does all of this begin?"
"You know how I came from Termina, right?" Sheik asked, shifting so that his legs dangled over one arm. "There was this young woman, a lady in Kith's court. I didn't know it at the time but she was very much in love with my younger brother, just like a lot of the young women I already knew... Anyways, he was young, barely before his majority. Not that it matters nymore; the point is that he was too young for most of them." He paused, running his fingers over his lips before speaking again. "But this particular woman... her parents were pushing her to marry since they were more concerned about her becoming an 'old maid' rather then her happiness. I was convenient and secure; a strong soldier with a very promising military career ahead of me."
"So you married her..." Link whispered as he studied Sheik's face.
"Our courtship was very short and our marriage a very lavish affair. Even Kith and Tanis attended to it. But what not many people know is that on our wedding night, Aryan locked herself in a closet, crying her brown eyes out until her mother ws able to convince her to come out. So I slept on the couch -- Now you can see why I was a little un-easy with you there," Sheik explained, pausing for a moment to catch his breath from his monologue. Link nodded as Sheik continued. "It was nearly a year afterwards that we finally consumated our bonding. If you could call it that anyways."
Link reached across and touched Sheik's knee.
"It was always very... planned. 'Good morning, darling'." Sheik shook his head. "I used to always say that. 'Do you think perhaps, tonight maybe?' And she would answer with 'I'll make your dinner early then'. It was like... It was like love-making was something she had to fit into her scheduale." Sheik shook his head again as he pulled his knee out of reach from Link's hand. "The act itself wasn't anything more then what it originally was. There was never any real love between me and my wife, which made it only sex. It didn't matter how much I tried to please her."
Link ignored how Sheik moved his knee away from him instead to pick up Sheik to pull him into a hug. He couldn't offer any words that described how he felt so instead he just smoothed out Sheik's hair.
"Our relationship kind of went downhill after that for the next ten years. My brother had finally come of age, and everywhere I saw him he was charming women. He was handsome, and he had such a way with words. My wife was... enraged; constantly comparing me to him. That I wasn't as graceful, caring or social." Sheik applied a little pressure against Link's chest to look at him. "I was fool, because I tried so hard to be what she wanted me to be. But she didn't want me, Link. I should have seen that sooner."
"You're not a fool, Sheik-"
"Hush. You wanted to hear this story after all. Anyways, I had the oppurtunity to take an easy assignment in the country," Sheik paused for a moment. "Or to complete a very dangerous assignment that would requir me to travel out of the country for a little while. Three years was never a long time, and for once she actually seemed happy about my work. By the realms below, she was almost intersted even. And so I left with a sense of pride, missing her every now and then when I was away."
"Where did you go?"
"It doesn't matter now. But when I returned..." Sheik sighed before continuing. "It wasn't expected that I would return as soon as I did, but I did and thats what happened. Anyways, as my home-coming gift I met my newborn son." Sheik's words were bitter and he turned his head away from Link.
"I didn't know you-" Link began.
"I didn't." Sheik turned to level his red eyes to Link's blue one's as best he could. "I was gone for three years in other countries."
"OH." Link pulled Sheik closer, forcing his Sheikah lover to place his legs on either side of Link's hips. "I'm sorry, Sheik."
"Not as much as I was. She put on quite the good act. I still don't know if she thought I was that stupid or if she was that manipulative. But I didn't want to see her and I just couldn't not say anything. I just stared at him. Then I went to Kith." Sheik paused for a moment before standing and reaching for the nearby table. Link stood, touching Sheiks shoulder to settle him back down onto the couch. Filling him a glass of water and handing it down to Sheik, Link settled next to him and waited until Sheik drained half the glass. "According to the laws of Termina, I had the right to kill her lover."
"Did you?"
A sad look came across Sheik's face as he said "I don't like killing. Or death in general. But thats not the reason why I didn't do it. The reason was because he was my brother, Link. I held him in my arms the day he came screaming and kicking into the world." Tears slowly rolled down Sheik's cheeks from his un-seeing eyes. "I would have done whatever it took to bring him happiness."
"Even if it meant sacraficing your's..."
"I wasn't happy with her. Ever. But things had been tolerable. Kith gave me the advice as he saw it. Either I could go along with the act and take him in as my own son knowing full well that he is not." Sheik paused as he leaned back into the couch a little more. "Or I could have the marriage dissolved on the grounds that it had never been consumated."
"But you did sleep with her," Link whispered.
Sheik nodded before saying "But who really knows what happens behind closed doors. I chose my brother's happiness in exchange for my honor. You wouldn't believe the whispers behind my back. The scorching looks from other's across a hallway or court. And for once, my wife, a woman no longer mine, actually talked to me with respect. And do I dare say love? It's terrible that finally she loved me when I despised her. But she brought my brother his happiness so I learned to keep my tongue."
Link gently kissed Sheik's cheek before saying "How sad."
"There was no chance for me to start over; no lady would dare to even risk dancing with me in public. There was no more camaradie with the other soldiers that I grew up with and trained with, only the cold looks from my peers. So I thrust myself into my work, becoming the model soldier, working up the ranks. It's lonely at the top, but it was better me then someone who had a chance."
"Oh, how I'd like to give this woman a piece of my mind," Link growled a little.
"Can't do that," Sheik's reply was dry.
"And why not?"
"Because she's dead now." Sheik shifted so he was sitting right at Link's side. "She died of heart-ache when my brother died in the last battle. Her son was killed in that war too. Which was terrible because he was respectable. He was a very fine young man, my nephew."
"What was his name?"
"Aryll. But aside from that, what you mistakened for guided practice was really a few years worth of pent-up frustration begging to be released," Sheik said softly as he hugged Link closer.
"That has to be one of the most heart-breaking stories I have ever heard."
"So thats my story before I came to Hyrule."