EPISODE 03: Uhambe Kahle Part 04 I Saw You! Tasty.

No, Keeper.

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His phone rang in his pocket and he answered it, not really caring who was calling.

"Yeah?" His voice sounded drunk, but not much. It was still raining, but not as heavily as earlier. The rain felt refreshing to him after spending many hours in the bar.

"Hi, sweetie-honey!" It was Peach. Her voice sounded sweet, like always when he did exactly what she wanted; mindlessly, like a robot.

"What do you want?" He said, irritated.

"…I'd like to talk with you, pumpkin." She said very carefully.

"About what?" Roy answered. "Aren't we through?"

"I'd like to talk with you about that… Can you come over?" Peach asked very carefully, now she was dropping off the nicknames. He liked that because being called 'honey-pumpkin' or 'sweetie-baby' was starting to piss him off. He had a name she could use if she wanted to talk to him.

"Now?" He asked. He just wanted to go home now. Go home and think about Link and hope that he could've said the words when he had been there, they had kissed! They had kissed and he hadn't been able of saying it. In the elevator, after the kiss Link had just held him close and he had wanted to be held, he had wanted to stay like that forever, in that elevator and stop the time.

But instead he had just pressed close, burying his head in Link's chest and holding his tears back desperately, if he would've started crying Link wouldn't have let him leave, he would've taken him to his apartment and he would've felt embarrassed, disturbing their quiet probably romantic evening. And worse, he would've had to explain why he would've been crying. What could he say?

"I'm crying because I love Link and I can't have him! He's got you, Marth, why would he even want to look at me?"

Then why did he kiss you? His subconscious asked immediately as if it would've been waiting for its turn for a long time.

Yes? Why did he kiss me? I wish I understood him better. I wish I knew what's going on with him. He thought. Maybe one day they could be alone and get to the bottom of this. Get to the bottom of their feelings. Link had said that they weren't through, they still had feelings for each other and he was right! But why then… why was he with Marth?

"Roy?" Peach asked, waking him from his thoughts.

"Now?" He repeated.

"Yeah… If it's okay with you." Peach answered sweetly. She really wanted to see the redhead now, she knew that he wanted to get rid of her and she needed to find a way to make him stay. She wanted him to be crushed under her boot. Roy would be hers to keep, even if it meant pain for him.

"Fine." The boy answered and she closed the phone. She had a few minutes to think about what to say or do when he would enter her apartment. Something… something he couldn't avoid… something so cunning that he would be lost and she would be able of controlling him completely.

And that's when she had her idea.

And oh, it was the greatest idea ever.

Having no idea of her plans, Roy walked towards her apartment, not really knowing what to think. She had sounded so nice on the phone, maybe she was changing… maybe she had realized that she couldn't act like a goddess and was now trying to make up for her previous actions.

Yeah, right. His subconscious said scornfully. He smiled a little to himself, knowing that no one really changes. They can act different, but everyone has their own personality they can't change, someone has a short temper; they can fake calm, someone thinks the world is theirs; still they can act humble, everyone can be anyone if they try, but the feelings they really feel are only suffocated, smothered… and they'll still be there, inside them, gnawing their hearts.

Peach could try to change, she could act sweet and caring, but inside she was just the same merciless, vainglorious, selfish bitch she had always been.

Right when he was going into Peach's apartment building, a man ran to him, looking scared, drops of cold sweat glittered on his forehead. He didn't bother to apologize, just muttered something like 'watch where you're going.' The redhead looked at him a little curiously, the man had a strange necklace, a lion and a dragon carved in a medallion. His face was full of small craters left by acne, probably from his teenager years. His eyes were almost white, so grey they were that they scared the general.

He got up, soaked again because the man had made him fall over into a puddle of dirty water. Murmuring curses to himself he got into her apartment building and pressed his shirt and pants of water as much as he could, but they just glued to him, now feeling icky and cold against his warm skin.

I wish Link would make me warm. He wanted to be surprised by the thought, why he had thought of that, but he knew he loved Link, that was why he kept thinking about him all the time.

He climbed the stairs, finding it rather hard after a few beers but made his way to Peach's door, still thinking about Link all the time. He wanted to call him and tell him about his feelings, he wanted him to know that he loved him… maybe he already did.

"We still have feelings for each other." He had said. He wouldn't have said 'we' if he hadn't meant the both of them.

"Oh, Roy! Come in!" Peach opened the door, wearing only a red silk robe, loosely tied on her waist. "You're all wet, poor thing!" She said sympathetically.

"Yeah." He ascertained rather absent-mindedly, wanting her to be Link.

"Take off those wet clothes; I'll get you a robe or some new clothes."

Roy frowned but obeyed. He really wanted to get rid of the wetness on his body, now it felt warmer when he was indoors, but still sticky.

He undressed to his boxers and decided to wait for her to come back. He wouldn't want to jump around in her apartment naked; that would be rather embarrassing.

She got back after a while, bringing a towel with her.

"I couldn't find any clothes your size… They're all too small." She said kindly. "But here's a towel and because it's so late you should go to sleep. My bedroom's the first door to your left."

"Uh… okay." Roy answered. This was weird. She wasn't supposed to be acting like this. She was supposed to be mean and annoying and selfish… but she was nice. She was like any other girl.

He did what she told him to do and after he had dried himself, he lay back on her bed. She had a very soft and comfortable bed, a thick blanket and two fluffy pillows, his head sank to one of them and it felt really nice. The only thing he didn't like about the bed was a very sweet scent of something, like candies. Maybe it was one of her perfumes; her make-up table was in the corner of the room.

After a while he started to feel really drowsy, the room was calm and quiet, a clock ticked calmly on the wall. There was a dim light coming from a small table lamp on her make-up table, colouring the room's normally controlled rose coloured walls to a slightly more orange.

He had already fallen asleep when Peach came in and snuggled close to him, pressing her soft body against his to warm them both. He wanted to push her away; he wanted to have Link next to him, holding him close with his strong arms. He didn't bother to push her away at all; she kissed him a few times, then moved to his neck and kept kissing him gently until he fell asleep.

---

"Shut up!" Link snapped at his younger self. He was obviously on his way to bed from the bathroom. "You don't want to wake Marth up." His voice softened.

"Then stop scaring me!" Young Link argued. "Marth? What's he doing here?"

"Meeting the Prince of Wales, of course." Link answered, trying to be smart.

The tiny elf was quiet for a while. "…Whales don't have princes!"

"Go back to bed, midget." The Hero didn't bother to explain. He just wanted to go back to bed, stop thinking about Roy and Marth and get lost into the world of dreams for a few hours more.

"…I… I can't." He drew a circle with his foot on the floor. It was embarrassing to tell Link about his nightmares although they were the same person and had the same fears and Link would probably understand his fears better than anyone else.

The older elf frowned with worry. "Why?"

"I saw a nightmare."

"What was it about?"

"…Zombies." He admitted, feeling highly embarrassed to be afraid of such a stupid thing as walking corpses; they were the oldest and dumbest of scary things. Yet they were really scary when… when they…

"No more watching as I play Resident Evil." The Hero laughed shortly, heartily and not even a bit scornfully.

"But--!"

"If it gives you nightmares, don't you think it would be smart not to watch it?"

"…Yeah." Young Link admitted unenthusiastically.

"Yeah." The older elf repeated with confidence. "Can you sleep? At all?" He rested a hand on his shoulder, like he would've been talking to an equal, not his younger self.

"No. I tried."

"Come, you can sleep between me and Marth." The Hero said tiredly, he could talk to Young Link about his nightmares in the morning, now they could both use some sleep.

"Why between you two?" The small elf asked sharply, as if there was something wrong with sleeping between the two of them.

The elf averted his gaze, not wanting to answer the question. He knew the answer but he wanted to smother the voice inside him, leave him alone.

"Why don't you want to sleep next to him?" The tiny elf asked.

"I do!" The Hero snapped. "I just thought you'd feel safer between me and him, but if you start jumping to conclusions, you can sleep on the floor for all I care."

"No! It's fine by me to sleep between you two, but I just thought--"

"Don't." Link snapped.

"Fine." He answered. Then he walked slowly in front of the elf to the dark room and crawled next to Marth on the warm bed. The noble grunted, but put an arm around him and he felt so safe. He felt that nothing could ever hurt him when Marth was holding him close and Link on the other side. He pressed closer to the prince, who let him come and smiled a happy smile. He felt Link's back against his own and his smile disappeared. Why wasn't Link happy with Marth? He should've been.

But before he got to think about it any more than just that, he yawned and with the yawn a peaceful, drowsy feeling spread to his whole body, making him relaxed; ready to fall asleep.

The only one who couldn't sleep after that was Link. That was only because his loved one was out there, somewhere alone, getting himself into trouble when he could've been there, next to him, having all the kisses and cuddles he could ever hope for.

Just the three words, Roy

The morning came, the sun rose from the east with all the shades of orange and red on the sky, colouring the clouds rouge.

"Parker's School was attacked by terrorists only a while ago. Only a few passer-bys were injured, so far the police haven't found any bodies. In other news, the governor of--" Roy opened his eyes as he heard the TV on. There had been another terrorist attack?

He sat up, noticing that he wasn't in his own bed and he was naked. That made him jump to many hasty conclusions. After a while he remembered faintly Peach calling to him and asking for him to come over; so maybe this was her bed.

He got up, put the towel around his waist and left to the girl's living room. She was having a cup of coffee, watching the news with a rather bored expression on her face.

"Morning." The redhead said and she nodded. "I heard about some terrorist attack on the TV."

"Yeah, someone hit Parker's School with the same stuff St. Richard's school was attacked with." Peach answered calmly. Roy wondered for a brief moment had he actually seen a dream that she would've been nice to him or anyone else and actually thought about someone else's feelings.

"I better go there and take a closer look; I'm assigned to this case."

"Okay, come back before dinner." Peach said passively.

What? His mind screeched. Had he promised to eat with her? Like, as… as if they lived together? He couldn't have! He knew he did stupid things when he was drunk, but he wouldn't promise to anything like that, it almost meant the same as living together; a thing that, with Peach, could be hell.

Instead of screaming aloud like his mind would've wanted him to do, he acted happy.

"Oh, you're making dinner?"

"Well, I was thinking you'd make it." She answered simply.

Oh, yeah, this is the Peach I know. He thought with a smile. "Oh… I have a long day at work and I'd really like to go home tonight."

"Why? Are you breaking up with me?" Peach stood up, her lower lip trembling as if she would burst to tears any second now. She was clearly using all the dirty tricks to make him stay.

"No, I'd just like to go home tonight…"

"WHY?" She screamed.

"…for… for Marth's and Link's… umm… Young Link… umm… He's got problems at school and you know, and old friend like me could probably help." He made up, hoping that she wouldn't see through his horrible and unbelievable lie, because he seriously didn't want to eat in her apartment, not with her and definitely not if he made the food.

"Oh… That's very sweet of you." She said, maybe a little scornfully. "Remember that I'm your girlfriend though."

"Of course, of course…" He ascertained, rolling his eyes. As he left he mumbled: "It's hard to forget."

He was sure she had heard him when she got up from the couch, but gladly she only went to the fridge to get something to eat. He closed the door behind him, still wondering what he had done last night after leaving the bar. He remembered the man, who had come running towards him and bumped into him, he remembered coming to her apartment, he remembered taking off his clothes and being in bed with her.

In bed with her?His subconscious asked. I sure hope we didn't do anything.

He thought about him and Peach until he got to Parker's School and with lots of work, was able to squeeze through the mass of curious people who had come to watch what was happening. He saw paramedics talking with the police, the fire department was already leaving, there were cars from the S.F.B.I. and people were running back and forth between the cars and the school. He saw a glimpse of Link, but before he could even start towards him, he was already gone.

The redhead sighed as he climbed up the stairs of the school, looking at his feet, feeling bad for the kids who had died. Suddenly someone running bumped into him and they both rolled down the stairs, the man ending on top of him. He blushed immediately, but without a word or a short laugh, the man got up and fixed his cap so that it was hard to see his face.

"Hey!" The general grabbed his hand suddenly. Then he remembered the guy from last night and was rather surprised to see that he was working for the S.F.B.I., in violent crimes. Marth hadn't told him about a new partner. "I saw you la--"

"No one did." The man whispered and, with the speed of a panther, threw him on the ground.

Then there was darkness.

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I know, I know… It's a bad chapter, but at least something happened.

And another cliff hanger. Evil me!

Thanks for reading!