Link realized quickly into the battle that they were in deep, deep trouble.

It began with the fact that three of their enemies were mages. One of them targeted Link with enthusiasm and a certain level of expertise, so he assumed they were the one that got away back at the Hero Museum. Two went after Sidon, but thankfully those ones seemed amateurish in comparison, so Sidon would probably be able to dodge their spells for the most part.

The other seven Vaatians were warriors, or at least they clearly tried their best at swordsmanship, formal training or not. A couple of them Link deemed proficient enough from a quick personal evaluation, but the rest were swinging their weapons around like they were wooden sticks. Link would know – he had swung around wooden sticks aplenty when he woke up from his hundred year old nap.

Regardless of their enemy's competency levels, there were many of them and they were still a step up from Bokoblins – at the very least the Minish were considerably more intelligent than "manages to survive somehow, against all odds, and nobody understands how or why" – so they could overwhelm the two of them by simple numbers if the battle went on for any length of time.

Where was their official guard backup that had supposedly followed them?

Link dodged a sword, jumped out of an ice spell's path, parried a sword, pushed a Vaatian warrior in front of an incoming spell to take his hit, dodged again, dropped flat, rolled, shielded, found himself backed up against a wall, rushed the weakest looking enemy to get out of the situation, parried again, dodged again…

Where was their Hylia damned backup?!

Sidon was swinging his spear around like a flail to force the Vaatian warriors to keep their distance. He had vines hanging from his shoulders, presumably from a spell that had hit its mark but hadn't been able to withstand his strength. He had blood dripping from his mouth, and Link didn't know whether it was his or an enemy's – there was nothing he could do about it, so it didn't matter right at that moment anyway. ...Unless Sidon dropped dead because of some kind of an internal injury, which he tried to keep himself from thinking too hard about.

Where was their-

Link's shoulder was suddenly in pain, and he made a hasty dodge away from the sword that had nicked it while he had been looking at Sidon instead of concentrating one hundred percent on his own fight. He parried another hit, and had to drop and roll again to avoid a spell.

His gaze landed briefly on the alleyway they had entered from, and that's when he saw it.

Their backup was there, judging from the drawn weapons the Minish standing around had, but they were looking up and down, side to side, sizing up the entryway but not actually entering.

Why? What was going on? Clearly Sidon and he needed their immediate help, so why-

Wait.

The shimmering he had noted upon their arrival.

Magic.

There was probably some kind of a magical barrier there, either preventing entry or just hiding the entrance. The Shrines always had one around the Sheikah monks until he completed the challenge, so it wasn't an impossible or even an unfamiliar concept at all.

Damn it!

Link had to do more mad dodging and took an ice spell on his hat – thankfully just the hat and not his head – before he could take a second to judge the situation again.

Sidon was much closer to the entrance than Link was, but his back was towards it, so he would have no idea what was going on back there. He didn't even know to look, or at least he didn't have the opportunity to.

If Sidon couldn't get to the backup because of his lack of knowledge of it, then could Link make it there himself? The distance was considerable, given the situation... Him bolting there would probably distract Sidon too...

...

Did he have to…

If his heart wasn't already racing from the exercise of the battle, it would have picked up speed right then. Or possibly dropped.

Could he even do it?

Ten Vaatians. Ten strangers within hearing distance.

His throat threatened to close up from just the thought.

No. He couldn't think about them.

He had to think about Sidon. Just Sidon. Only Sidon.

His boyfriend.

The man he would marry as soon as he got King Dorephan's blessing and watched Muzu have an aneurysm.

There was nobody else around that mattered. Only background noise.

He was only going to voice to Sidon.

Sidon, who he loved and was comfortable enough with to vocally talk to when they were alone.

Sidon, whose life was in active danger right now and who was the only one that could save them both.

His Sidon.

Link took a deep breath and locked his eyes on his dear, beloved Sidon, ignoring the swords and spells around him.

Sidon Sidon Sidon-

"SIDON! BARRIER BEHIND YOU BLOCKS OUR BACKUP!"

Sidon's eyes met his and they were wide and topaz coloured and beautiful.

Something hit Link's left arm and it got cold and his shield dropped with a loud clang.

"Behind you-!" Link's throat felt tight.

Sidon nodded, blood droplets dripping from his teeth, and he turned around and ran towards the entrance, where their backup was lost.

It was difficult to breathe, but Link whirled around and slashed wildly at the enemies around him in a wide sweep. He saw blood, swords, Minish people, his own breath as a cloud in the air.

He was lightheaded.

He had spoken in front of strang-

No.

He had spoken to his beloved.

He needed to refrain from thinking of anything else.

Just keep on fighting and make sure Sidon ended up okay.

That was all that mattered.

That was all he thought about until the help of the backup made the enemy line thin, dwindle, shrink to just one and then none when he finally took down the last Vaatian before him.

Then it was safe to sink down to the ground and have a bout of anxiety and irrational regret and shame while Sidon did the talking with the new strangers.

Finally time to breathe.

ooooo

"Link?"

Link opened his eyes and looked up from his knees. His back was against a wall and his right arm was wrapped around his legs. His sword lay by his side, still bloody because he hadn't wiped it up. His left arm was numb, but he could somewhat move it so he couldn't bring himself to care overly much yet.

Sidon crouched down in front of him, but still towered over him due to his height. He had a soft yet worried expression on his face – not quite a smile, but not a frown either. His lips were still bloody, but now the blood had dried up and looked gross. "Are you alright?"

Sidon understood him. Kind of. Enough to not panic because of his behavior anyway.

It was nice.

'Yes. Just tired now.'

"I see. Are you aware your left arm is coated in frost?"

'Fire Rod?'

Sidon activated the object in question promptly and held it near Link's arm. The arm started tingling in short order.

'Is the blood on your lips yours?'

The fingers of Sidon's free hand rose to his lips and rubbed at the crusty mess of brownish red. He looked at his now messy fingers with a sigh. "No. I had to bite an enemy that got too close."

Link half wished he had seen that, but the less questionably interested half was glad he had missed the fright of watching Sidon be in potential peril for a moment.

"Three of the Vaatians are dead and the rest were arrested", Sidon said after a moment of silence and a bit more rubbing to get the worst of the blood off his face. "The guards could cross the barrier after they saw me jump through it. Is it still there?"

Link looked towards the alley entrance. The shimmer was still there, but it was fainter and weaker looking, so he tilted his head from side to side with a hum.

"That makes sense – one would think the commotion would have brought us an audience otherwise. It was unfortunate before when we could have used some help, but it's a blessing now."

Silence.

"I hope this doesn't sound condescending, but I'm very proud of you."

It was a little, but Link appreciated the sentiment for what it was. Besides, in the beginning of their journey Sidon would have made a much bigger deal of this and Link would have felt really uncomfortable. During the couple of weeks that Sidon had had to act as his translator and had been forced to see the true extent of Link's… issue… he had grown much more aware of his attitude towards it and had corrected his course dramatically. He had stumbled along the way – as had Link, to be honest – but now he was at a stage where he could say something like "I'm proud of you" and Link would believe it to be sincere and coming from a place of understanding.

Link could feel a little proud of himself too as a result. He wasn't about to start talking to strangers on the regular basis anytime soon, but now it felt like an actual possibility somewhere in the future, because he had already managed it once. Some day, with Sidon by his side every step of the way like he had been during this journey.

Link shook his arm in the hopes that it would bring an end to the pins and needles of the thawing process.

"The Vaatian who led us here mentioned Slateri needing to be lured out of a shrine. Do you know where the particular shrine might be?"

Right. That had been mentioned before the fight started. Link dug out his Sheikah Slate and gave the map a look.

The Korok Woods had four shrines, but one was considerably closer to the city than the others: Keo Ruug shrine. It had to be that one – or at least it had better be that one, because it would take days to reach any of the other ones. Honestly, it would be closer to a couple of weeks if one compared the distance between the stable and the city they were currently in and how far away the shrines were from said city; he couldn't use the map to follow their progress accurately because of their current size, but he could see the known places in it.

He told his hypothesis – wish – to Sidon, who agreed with the assessment.

"I'm admittedly tempted to get a move on right away now that we're this close to our goal and it's all but confirmed that Slateri is in trouble…"

'...But we can't afford to rush there unprepared', Link concluded, knowing what Sidon was getting at – he had been thinking the same thing after all. 'If the Vaatians feel that they need us there to "lure Slateri out", then he isn't in immediate peril. Taking a few hours to prepare isn't likely going to be a huge issue.'

"Agreed. We need food, you need a new bow, and I really want that new notebook you promised me."

'You could use a long soak too.'

"You could use at least a few hours' sleep in a warm bed to cure you of the last bits of illness."

'You could use another proper meal in a restaurant.'

"You could use a foot treatment for your tired feet."

'We could both use a medic.'

"Agreed."

They looked at each other. Sidon put out the Fire Rod. "We're not going to do all of those things, are we?"

'Absolutely not. Just supplies and maybe the medic if we can find one.'

"Agreed."