A/N: Ten thousand views! Prepare for intense inner soul searching. Also, very short chapter. Sorry :I

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Chapter 35

Just as quickly and unexpectedly as he had come, Vaati was gone. Link hadn't been able to do anything to stop him. She slowly lifted her hand and lightly touched the spot on her forehead where his lips had briefly yet unmistakably pressed against her skin. Shock, grief, and anger kept her frozen in place for a long time.

"Well," Vio broke the silence. "No mistaking what just happened there!"

Link turned her head to frown at her twin. "What?" she said dully.

The purple-haired girl pointed at her forehead with an exaggerated motion. "Uh, the fact that he kissed you again. And that he's basically sacrificing himself to keep you safe. Only one possible meaning there-" She was cut off when Red grabbed her hand and jabbed her in the cheek with her own finger.

"Discuss that later, Vio. Right now, we need to talk to Sheik and Zelda about what just happened," the level-headed twin stated.

Pouting, Vio relented. "But we will discuss it later, right?"

Red glanced at Link, and she was surprised at how serious expression her expression was. "Yes, I think that will be important to talk about."

They all jumped a little when there was a knock at the door. Quickly wiping away the tears streaked on her face, Link trotted over to the door and opened it. Zelda opened her mouth to speak, but she paused when she saw Link's face, and she glanced inside the room. "Vaati... did he leave...?" When they all nodded, her eyes grew sad. "I'm sorry, Link... Are you alright?"

"He's definitely not," Vio called when Link just glanced away.

Link sighed and stepped past Zelda, gesturing for them all to follow. "Let's go talk this over with Sheik. I'll tell you everything then, Zelda."

"I don't believe it..." the blonde girl murmured when she had heard the story. Sheik's eyes were narrowed thoughtfully, and he tapped his knee with one finger. Both had listened with increasing concern in their eyes as Link and her twins conveyed the shocking events that had just happened - leaving out the part where Vaati kissed her.

Link waited for a few moments, shifting impatiently, then blurted out, "I have to go get the Master Sword." Her pent-up energy and frustration to go save Vaati and the others had only doubled after her encounter with him. She already had a good idea of where it was - 'the Yiga's main hideout, which had a sister location they'd been to' - did he mean Karusa Pawn? In which case, she needed to search Karusa Valley, out near the Gerudo Desert. Knowing the Yiga, it couldn't be that hard-

Sheik held up his hand and shook his head. "First, Link, calm down. I understand your desire to keep Vaati by your side, and I believe I understand his desire to protect you, but you are both letting your emotions get the better of you. Ghirahim is clearly playing off of that." He lowered his hand, tapping his knee once again. "I don't know exactly how Ghirahim managed to get that deal with Vaati, but the fact is that he's controlling both of your actions. Whether or not the Master Sword is where he says it is, you'd be playing exactly the way he wants you to."

"It can't be there..." Zelda murmured. When the two others looked at her, she bit her lip. "The Master Sword is the bane of evil... so it shouldn't be possible for someone evil to just take it, even if it wasn't sealed away..."

"You have a point. But it was definitely gone." Link thought back to the brief tour she'd been given of the castle, including the vault, prior to the ball. Enshrined within a glass case, the Master Sword had been stored in its own special vault at the very back, clear to see. She had returned to see the glass shattered and the sword very much absent.

Zelda shook her head. "My father once said something strange about the Master Sword in the vault on one of our visits. Something like, it looked convincing, and that the other one was still in its original spot under the castle..." She lifted her blue eyes to meet Link's seriously. "If the one you saw was only a replica, then anyone could steal it. But then that means the real one is still in Hyrule Castle, with Ghirahim."

"Seriously?!" Vio exclaimed. "Oh for Hylia's sake..."

"A replica?" Sheik repeated, frowning. "This is news to me. However, it does seem likely. If the replica were stolen, and the thieves found out it was fake, they wouldn't look in the same place again."

"The question is," Link murmured, "does Ghirahim know if it's a fake?"

"If he does, then going to the Yiga hideout is definitely a trap. If he doesn't..." The Sheikah agent's red eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward, looking at each twin individually. "Either way, the Yiga hideout is almost certainly a trap, yet we do need to find the Master Sword. Meanwhile, Impa, Aveil, and Vaati need to be rescued."

Link saw the way he analyzed each twin, and her eyes began to light with excitement. "We should split up."

Sheik nodded. "With the four of you, we can tackle most of the problems at the same time. You would still need to be prepared for whatever trap Ghirahim has planned for you at the Yiga hideout."

"I think I know of something that could help!" Zelda offered. "There are some spells..."

As they discussed their plan, hope lit in Link's heart again. Ghirahim may think they were dancing to his tune, but he'd soon find out not to mess with the Hero and her colleagues. She would rescue everyone and put that demon in his place.

"I think this is going to work!" Blue chattered energetically as the twins returned to their room. She slung an arm over Red and Link's shoulders. "What about you, Red?"

The calm twin nodded seriously, a small confident smile on her face. "I think so too. We'll have to be careful, but if we get everything prepared right... it should work."

Link was about to agree, but suddenly Vio whipped around, halting the three in their tracks and leaning her face up close to Link's. "Now that all the heroic-y stuff is planned, we have something to discuss. Don't we, Link?" She tapped Link on the nose.

"That..." she said reluctantly. "Maybe we should talk about that, I don't know... after we rescue Vaati?" For some reason, the thought of it made her nervous.

Red shook her head. "Before you come face to face with him again, there's something you need to sort out with yourself. Whether he intended to or not, he's made his feelings mostly known."

"And now it's your turn to figure out what your feelings for him are!" Blue joined.

"When you see him again, are you going to have to reject his feelings?" Vio asked, quite seriously. "Or do you return his feelings? You have to think carefully about what you'll do, and how it'll affect him. Cuz, y'know, rejecting the Wind Mage could get kinda scary."

Link leaned back against the wall with a sigh. "I didn't say I was going to..." she murmured vaguely. "I mean, we don't even know for sure if he feels... that way about me."

She got a solid flick on the forehead from Vio for that. "Oh, come on! He's kissed you twice already!"

"But he thinks I'm a guy..."

"All the more reason to assume it's not just platonic."

"Is it a bad thing?" Blue piped up.

"N-no... I mean... I don't know!" stammered Link in reply. Her face was growing hot.

Vio cleared her throat and straightened, putting her hands on her hips. "Alright, Link. I know you don't like talking about your love life, but I'm the part of you that actually listened to everything Aveil taught you, so listen up! I now present the case for Link's feelings for Vaati!" She pointed at her almost accusingly. "First! Let's compare it with your crush on Sheik when you were younger.

"It all started with your first kiss, a special kind of training that Aveil thought up to prep you for field missions and stuff. She forced Sheik to be your partner. You never got past just that first simple kiss cuz you totally freaked out, but Sheik was super nice, and you fell for him kinda quickly. Especially after seeing his combat skills." Vio waggled her eyebrows as Link tried to bury her burning face in her hands. "Because you were so nervous and excited around him, you kept making mistakes. Eventually Impa got fed up with it and basically told you to get over your crush on him. And there went your first love... mostly."

"It sounds pathetic when you put it like that," Link murmured through her fingers. "We got along well before all that, you know."

"Now, to compare it with Vaati," Vio continued as though she hadn't heard Link at all, clearly enjoying telling these stories. "You thought he was attractive at first sight, but found it easy to tease him and even flirt with him. As time went on, you became real friends. And then best friends! Pretty normal. Except for when you rushed headlong to save him from Ghirahim and endangered yourself. And when you cried when Vaati found out you're a Sheikah agent. And then that time you were sick and super lonely, and just seeing Vaati made you feel a hundred times better. And when you danced together and felt nervous and shy. And finally! When he came back from the castle, safe and sound, and you hugged him and cried. Slightly different from being friends, dontcha think?"

Red raised a hand. "I'll say this as well. You usually know when you don't feel that way about someone, Link. You've had your share of guys and even girls you've had to reject, and although it was awkward, you clearly knew your answer. So the fact that you can't clearly say you don't feel that way towards him is something in and of itself."

"You guys think I...?" Link murmured softly.

"I'm pretty sure he's more than a friend to you," Vio affirmed. Blue nodded as well. "Maybe not super-in-love, but... he's pretty much the most important person to you, isn't he?"

Blue grabbed Red and Vio's arms. "C'mon, let's give her time to think about it. You just have to figure it out before you see him again, Link. Good luck!" She pulled her twins away with her, leaving Link alone in the hall.

She ruffled her hair and let out a sigh. Her twins knew exactly how hard this kind of thing was for her, and yet they'd just dumped all that on her and left. ...Then again, she'd probably do the same thing in their place. They were her, after all.

It was confusing first of all to think that Vaati had romantic feelings for her. She'd be surprised and confused even if it wasn't directed towards her - she'd just never expected him to fall in love or anything. Her stomach did funny things when she thought of that phrase, 'fall in love'. Did he really... love her? He'd kissed her and all that, so the evidence pointed towards it-

The blonde shook her head violently. That wasn't the question right now. The question was whether or not she felt the same. Link groaned. Last time she'd fallen for someone, Aveil had had to flat-out declare to her that what she was feeling was romantic attraction. For some reason, Link had been very reluctant to admit anything of the sort. She was feeling a sense of deja vu now. That struggle to deny her emotions made it almost hard to breathe.

She just wanted Vaati with her. She wanted to stay together, to beat Ghirahim together and keep rooming together at the Academy and go out on weekends together. She wanted to help him prove to everyone, including himself, that he was a great person - not an evil mage. She wanted to tease him and make him show all those uncomfortable, frustrated expressions that made her smile. She wanted to nap on his shoulder and maybe dance again.

Every little thing... She just wanted to continue forward with him by her side. Was that love?

Link thought about what it would be like without him, and her heart tightened painfully. Memories of that day in the hotel came back: the worry and fear that evil was coming and would take everyone away from her, the loneliness as she kept thinking of things to tell Vaati but realizing he wasn't there. She'd been alone many, many times on her missions. Early on, she had struggled with being apart from Impa. Now, though, it was perfectly normal to be on her own a majority of the time. And yet, she hadn't been able to escape the feeling that Vaati was missing. Not just gone for a while, but that this important piece of her life and routine was missing, and she needed it to keep on living.

These past two days, the feeling had returned with painful clarity: she couldn't function not knowing when she'd see Vaati again. Was that love as well?

She needed to see him again. If she could see him face to face, then she'd find her answer.