Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda, its characters and locations are all property of Nintendo. I'm merely borrowing them (though Ayla, Kaiza and Anaruteir are mine)

Warning: This story contains yaoi, shounen-ai, slash, whatever you call two guys falling in love.


Soul Mates

Chapter 36


An extremely long silence stretched on. Sheik was unable to break the eye contact that had developed between him and the mysterious youth. He had the exact same eyes as Sheik, although his left pupil was slightly miscoloured, probably because of the wound that had left the scar. Sheik had almost gasped when he had first seen the eyes, for as far as he knew, there were only two people left apart from himself who possessed them.

Speil was uncharacteristically quiet, his eyes darting from Sheik to the youth, a neutral expression on his face. A smile was spreading on the youth's face, growing wider and wider as the unofficial staring contest went on and on.

Eventually, it was Sheik who gave in and looked away. "What do you mean, 'home'?" he asked, glaring at the young man. "And how do you know my name?"

"It means exactly what I said, Sheik," said the youth and stood up, a fluid movement that seemed to have no start or stop. He had perfect control of his body, Sheik noticed, only using as much strength and muscle power to get him to a standing position. The youth flashed his teeth in a grin. "You have finally returned home." Receiving no answer from Sheik, he continued: "And the knowledge of your name…well, I have been watching you. From the moment you were born, I have watched over you."

A guardian angel, then? thought Sheik and laughed internally at the very idea.

"No, not a guardian angel," said the youth. He chuckled as Sheik's eyes widened. "And before you ask: no, I cannot read your mind. Your face is just very easy to read."

Again with the face reading, Sheik thought angrily. I have tried so hard to make myself unreadable, yet these two clowns manage to do so without any difficulty whatsoever!

"And," continued the youth, "you really shouldn't let it get to you. The reason I can read you so well is because I've known you for your whole life. The reason the shadow can"—he pointed to Speil—"is because he is a magical creation gifted with many abilities."

Speil practically lit up as he was described by the youth. "This one knows me better than I do," he said and grinned.

"Enough!" yelled Sheik and stomped over to the youth, seizing him by his robe and pulled him close, glaring. This one was taller than Sheik as well; a fact that only fuelled his anger. "Tell me who you are, what you're doing here and why the hell you have been watching me!"

"I'll gladly do so," said the youth with an eerie calm. "If you would just put me down first." He nodded downwards, his eyebrows rising slightly as he stared at Sheik's hands, which were gripping large fistfuls of cloth. Not taking his eyes off the youth, Sheik let go and stepped away, ready to spring at his throat at the slightest wrong movement. The youth merely brushed away imaginary dust from where Sheik had seized him. "Now, as I instructed the shadow, you surely know what this place is."

"Instructed?" asked Sheik and looked at Speil, who whistled innocently.

"I did say that I spoke with the entities of this realm, did I not?" asked the dark counterpart, winking at Sheik. "He is actually quite charming."

It was all too much. Everything seemed to be happening behind his back lately, which was preposterous considering his profession as a spy and assassin. It was his job to make sure everything happened in front of him, not the other way around. Speil had spoken to this…impostor, who had apparently been watching Sheik from the day he was born, which was impossible since the youth could hardly be much older than Link, which meant that he had been watching Sheik as a toddler himself… The air around him was so thick, and the world was spinning.

Speil was quick enough to catch him as he fell backwards, gently lowering the Sheikah to the ground.

"Are you alright?" asked the shadow with concern in his voice, which Sheik decided to ignore. Speil had been acting strange since they had arrived in Twilight Realm, and he did not feel like humouring the personality that was currently in control.

Whatever snarky response he was about to give was interrupted by another face coming into view above him. The youth had tied his hair back now, revealing the full extent of his face. Another scar went down his right cheek, terminating just above his lower jaw. His crimson eyes—Sheik's eyes—were also filled with concern and worry.

"Sheik? Are you feeling sick?" he asked.

That's just what I need…care from a Sheikah impostor who will probably slice my head off with his sword.

He had just noticed that the sheath had found its way to the youth's back, and the grip looked strangely similar to Kazuya's. Speil and the youth were staring down, waiting for an answer, apparently.

"No, I'm not feeling sick," said Sheik and tried sitting up, but had to give up when the trees began spinning around him again. He laid back down again a bit too fast and hit his head on a small rock on the ground. "I think I am losing my mind," he said.

"I won't have any of that," said Speil and looked at the youth. "You said he would take well to your presence." He pointed at Sheik, whose mouth was rapidly drying up. "Look at him! It's because of you he is like this!"

The youth looked from Sheik to Speil and back to Sheik. "It's normal to feel a bit under the weather after crossing into this dimension," he snapped. "Sheik, listen to me, you need to breathe normally. The nausea will stop, and it helps to close your eyes as well."

"I'm not closing my eyes on either of you," growled Sheik, cursing his body for this sudden bout of weakness and lack of cooperation. "I don't trust you!"

"Me or him?" asked Speil, pointing at the youth.

"None!"

"Right, he hates us both. Good show," said Speil and smiled at the youth. "How come he wasn't like this when we arrived?"

"His body is adjusting to the way time flows here," answered the youth. A bottle of water had suddenly appeared in his hands, and he was wetting a bit of cloth, quickly putting it on Sheik's forehead, where the blond Sheikah could imagine it sizzling. "It puts quite a stress on his body when it suddenly realises it's in somewhere else."

"How come I'm not sweating and panting on the ground then?" asked Speil, a grin splitting his face when he realised what he had just said. "Heh, reminds of the Gerudo Fortre—"

"The reason you're not like him," interrupted the youth with a grimace, "is that you are not a real person, and therefore not subject to the physical laws."

"I am still awake, you know," said Sheik weakly. A black spot had suddenly appeared in his vision, and it was growing at an alarming rate. Speil was almost completely blocked out, now. "And I think I'm going blind."

"It is quite normal, Sheik," cooed the youth. "Your body is adjusting."

"By making him blind?!" asked Speil, his voice reaching a higher pitch than Sheik had ever heard before. "And what do you mean, 'not a real person'?" he continued.

It was hard for the Hero to retell the events of Sheik's disappearance yet again, especially since the details were imprinted firmly in his mind. He remembered the look on Sheik's face just before the spell had struck him, the surprised, shocked and—and this surprised Link greatly—scared expressions. He had seen Sheik when he encountered an unexpected bump in the road, yet never like that.

He noticed that he had begun to look at the floor just as he reached the part where they fought the possessed Nabooru, and as he finished his story, saw that Zelda was doing the same. When she raised her head to look at him, he saw that tears had gathered in the corners of her eyes, and remembered that Sheik had once told him that he and Zelda had been friends from childhood.

But the future queen of Hyrule rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands and wiped away the threatening tears. "We shouldn't worry, Link," she said, a weak smile on her lips. "Sheik is far too strong to give in to such a spell. Impa taught him everything she knew, and at her prime, Impa could not be touched by any spell, no matter how strong the caster."

The Hero had left out what Ayla had told him about Sheik's unwanted passenger, not wanting to burden her with more bad news. He nodded, forcing a smile as well. "Sheik's tough," he said. "He probably broke free from the spell and is on his way here as we speak."

Silence settled over them as they both tried to be optimistic about Sheik's fate. If he had been captured by Ganondorf, surely the Evil King would have made some sort of ultimatum—like Sheik's life for control of the Triforce—or showed off his prisoner as a sign of his power.

But neither of the things had happened, and all they could do was hope that the Sheikah was alive and well.

"I…" began Zelda, pausing for a few seconds. "I forgot to ask you two…if the Gerudo are willing to help us in our struggle." She looked at Link with eyes so hopeful that he wouldn't have had the heart to tell her no.

Luckily, such a thing was not necessary, and a smile—a real one this time—tugged at his lips. "As a matter of fact, Aveil, the new princess of the Gerudo, is organising a rebellion against Ganondorf right now, if she hasn't already done it," he said. "She gave me her word, and honour is a thing of great value for them."

The look of joy that came over Zelda's face seemed to brighten the room considerably, and the rain outside was slowly stopping, he heard.

"Really?" asked Zelda. "You're not telling me this to cheer me up?" At Link's nod, she pulled a blank piece of paper close and started scribbling on it with ferocious speed. The inkwell almost toppled as she viciously dipped the quill into it.

Suddenly on the sidelines, Link tried to get a look at what she was writing, but her hand was in the way. "Erm," he said. "What are you writing there?"

The attention span of his girl was as strange to him as Sheik's humour. One minute she had nearly been in hysterics about his lack of a Triforce mark on his hand, then practically crying after being told about Sheik, and now she was brimming with joy at the prospect of help from the thieves of the desert.

"A treaty," she said curtly and continued writing. "As much as I hate it, Princess Aveil must sign it so we can start working together immediately."

"Can't you just…you know, cooperate right away?" asked Link, not very keen on the subject of politics and red tape in general.

"As I said, I do not like it," mumbled Zelda as she scanned the many lines she had written in the past few minutes. "But it must be done, especially if the soldiers and civilians are to accept it. We have been on and off at war for the last three centuries, and all those years of hate will not simply evaporate without an official document that confirms our alliance, temporary or not."

Link, lost in the world of bureaucracy, simply nodded. "I see," he added. It was strange, in Sheik's presence, he easily saw his short-comings in the tactical department, but had never felt stupid as his lover had always acknowledged his own shortcomings in battle. But here, around Zelda, he did feel stupid. Politics was not something he found very interesting, he had decided from early on.

Zelda stamped her seal onto the parchment and rolled it together. She then whistled loudly, surprising the Hero. Just as he was about to ask what was going on, a loud, rasping sound came from one of the windows. There, on the windowsill, sat the largest eagle he had ever seen. It was completely white, with a small crest of feathers around its head. It looked very…regal, he decided.

Zelda put the rolled-up parchment in a small bag, the strap of which she then gently put over the eagle's head. She then turned to Link.

"Link, I want you to meet Anaruteir," she said and gestured to the eagle, which was looking at Link with an uninterested expression. "She is the pride of our entire messenger bird force. We use her for messages of the greatest importance."

"What's wrong with Kaiza?" mumbled Link, feeling unnerved by the large eagle.

"Kaiza is not strong or fast enough to carry this message," she answered, although the slight regretful tone revealed to Link that she too would rather have the trusted falcon bring the message. "Anaruteir can fly much higher and faster than Kaiza, and the bag protects the treaty from the weather."

"I see," said Link for the second time, raising an eyebrow at the eagle, which seemed to give him the avian equivalent of a glare. "She's beautiful," he said. It was a fact, he had to admit.

"I could not agree with you more," said Zelda and buckled the last strap of the bag, making sure it was properly attached to Anaruteir. "Hopefully the Gerudo will think so too." She whistled again, and the eagle took off, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

"I'm sure they will," said Link, staring after the bird. He then got an idea. "About Kaiza…"

To be continued…


As I was writing this, my yard was visited by Bambi. Of course, not the literal Bambi of Disney fame, but three of his cousins were munching away at the food that was really for the birds. Two does and a buck. I love deer.

Review replies:

Johan – Yup, no triforce. Hyrule is—for the moment—screwed. Hopefully it'll all work out in the end. Hopefully.

Darklink – Why, thank you very much. Here's another chapter for you!

Foolish Cimera – I just now noticed your PM. I'd answer it right away, but I'm about to collapse from tiredness, so I'll answer it later when I'm actually awake enough to write coherently. Thank you for your comments about Speil. I wanted him to be someone you would both like and hate at the same time. I haven't really done that much to Hyrule, I think. Apart from making it bigger, I mean.

Lone Keaton – Bi-polar, or just plain insane. It's hard to tell with this guy.

Yuffie – The redesigned Zoras are really interesting-looking…not to mention quite beautiful (I know it's weird to talk about video game characters in that way, but I'll do it anyway, heehee). Well, the triforce has got to be somewhere, right?

gackt groupie – Well, here was another chapter, and I'll probably update the story at least once a day this week :-)

Katrina – Then I shall use your real name henceforth. Glad you like the story. I've been thinking about this particular storyline for quite some time, and I've made dozens of notes so I won't screw it up. Who knows what Speil really is up to? Hell, I'm not even sure myself, and I'm the writer! XD *whispers*: I love him too, hee.

Thanks for the reviews, everybody! Please leave one if you like the story!