To no one's surprise, Link was heading back to the graveyard.

Originally, the graveyard hadn't been Link's main retreat whenever the enemies were too much to handle, but Link was young then, didn't really know the layout of the kingdom, and had pretty bad luck, so he always ended up in the middle of a bunch of graves surrounded by ghosts. 5 years of running back to the graveyard later and Link actually was thankful that fate had led him there so many times. It contained multiple hiding places in suspiciously empty graves, the old man who lived there was nice (he'd given him his magical sword) and would let him stay in his cave-house-thing, it was easily accessible from both the sixth dungeon and the southern fields, and it had contained the entrance to the island palace which upgraded his raft to cross oceans (a very important item, as he could not swim). The only downside was the ghosts, but when you've been chased by monsters for most of your life, you take what you can get.

Speaking of monsters, Link glanced behind him. The darknuts were falling behind as expected, which was great! It was worrying that they had appeared, since they should only have been in dungeons and Link had been heading from Saria Town towards the new and improved Palace, so he shouldn't have run into any, not to mention two. He could easily have taken the darknuts, but ever since learning he bore the Triforce of Courage and waking up Princess Zelda I three years ago, the monsters hadn't exactly been quiet about their plans for him. He didn't know exactly how much blood or how big a ritual they needed to revive Ganon, but he knew that he did not want to risk it if given the choice.

Now that he was far enough away from the darknuts, Link pulled out his recorder and wisked himself off to the dragon maw that was the entrance of the sixth dungeon. The Dragon's Labyrinth was a pretty good name for it, he thought, though it was odd that that dungeon of all of them didn't have the dragon guarding the Triforce of Wisdom. He'd have thought that the dramatic in Ganon would have placed a big dragon in there, but he's just a kid who helped an old lady one time and not an evil tyrant overlord, so he was probably outclassed in the naming/enemy placement department.

Thinking about it like that, Link was outclassed in most departments. The only point of reference he had for other Heros was the Hero of Legend, who had single handed saved the kingdom and Zelda from Ganon like 3 or 4 times or something ridiculously impressive. Meanwhile, Link had killed Ganon once, and had to root through the recovering kingdom for the Triforce afterwords. The only thing Link had going for him was the fact that he rescued two seperate Zeldas, which really only happened by coincidence.

Speaking of the Zeldas, Link thought as he entered the graveyard after defeating some Peahats, both were hosting the official launch party of the newly revived Hylian guard tomorrow. Link did have to get to bed soon so that he woke up in time to get to the Northern Palace. He was supposed to be the head of the guard or something, and he also hadn't seen Zelda I for a few days but that's beside the point-

"WHY THE FUCK ARE THERE SO MANY GODDAMN FUCKING GHOSTS IN THIS DUMBASS MOTHERFUCKING GRAVEYARD?!"

Link started. The person who had just shouted loud enough so that the whole of Kasuto town could hear it was a kid who could not have been more than 15 years old dressed in the brightest orange pants and blue shirt Link had ever seen. He had just spoken more than Link had heard in a year (including himself), and had used more swears than Link had in his whole life (his philosophy was that Hyrule was so dreadful after Ganon invaded that it didn't need him to make it worse with the use of bad language, thus, he only swore when the situation really called for it).

The kid had also managed to wake up every ghost in the graveyard, even the friendlier ones that Link had only started to see after he found the cross (he'd have to ask how this kid saw the invisible friends after the whole situation diffused).

Link now had a few options. He could use Thunder and just destroy all the ghosts, but if this kid was hurt then he wouldn't have enough magic left to heal him. He could fight all the ghosts but that would risk hitting the kid with no armor, not to mention the whole blood sacrifice thing. He could also just snag the kid's giant tunic with what looked like a 2 armed manhandla on the front and pull him into the old man's cave which was what he was going to do because he was running right towards them right now.

Link real quick pushed open the grave, grabbed the kid by the back of the neck, and dove into the old man's house/grave. The kid let out a very loud "OH DIN" that echoed through the whole room as Link carefully closed the door -well, grave- to shut out the ghosts. Crisis averted and a job well done by the Hero of Hyrule if he does say so himself.

"You think you can fucking kidnap me? I have my sword this time, bitch!"

Link turned around to see the kid holding an impressively large sword up to his throat. The old man just looked at Link and shrugged before going back to his… whatever he was doing. So much for a job well done.

Now this was an extremely bad situation. Link was a decent swordsman, but had never received any formal training, which made him nervous in skill based sword battles. The way this kid was holding his sword suggested that he was good, much better than Link himself, so pulling out his own sword was not an option.

Link put his hands up. "I'm sorry, I-" *COUGH*. Link continued softer, "Sorry, haven't talked much in a while, but please just calm down kid, I just-"

"Don't you call me a fucking kid again! I've done more than you have in your whole lifetime!"

Now Link was pretty sure that was an incorrect statement as he himself had killed Ganon and this was a 15 year old, but he didn't have time to unpack all that, so instead he just continued. "I'm sorry, you were yelling about all the ghosts and the fastest way to escape was into this grave cave. I- I just wanted to help."

The kid (Link had to stop calling him that) considered this, then sheathed the sword before crossing his arms and huffing. "Fine. Thanks."

"It's nothing." Link decided to take a closer look at this kid- young man. Around his neck, he had necklaces with four charms total, three different colored fairies and one odd pink gaudy one. His belt with what looked like a tornado buckle was definitely the only thing that made the tunic look like it fit his body. His bag was purple and had a face on it. The kid- grown adult now was giving Link a look that said, as this kid would likely say it, I-Can't-Believe-This- Motherfucking-Tool-Just-Dragged-Me-Into-A-Nayru-Forsaken-Grave. Link could easily tell that he was also incredibly worried and was trying to cover it up with indignation, since the guy's face read like an open book.

In other more positive news, this kid hadn't tried to sacrifice him in a blood ritual yet, which did mark him as a tentative ally, so he should probably offer to help him get to where he needed to go. Link thought about that line of logic for a second and decided that once the whole revive Ganon movement was over that he would need higher standards in order to name someone an ally.

Link messed with his rings before looking up. "So we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot," Link ventured, and the smaller one looked at him, quite obviously shocked. "I've been wandering Hyrule since I was 14, and I'm 19 now, so I know the place pretty well. You seem a bit worried and lost, so if you need any help getting somewhere, I can take you there."

The kid (Link has given up) slowly uncrossed his arms. "Cool. Take me to the ocean, please."

"I- Sure. I can warp us there; it's faster and safer."

The kid crossed his arms again, clearly not believing what Link had said. "You can warp us? How?"

"I- I have this recorder."

The kid stared at the recorder Link held up cautiously. He debated the idea for a second, then said, "Show me."

"Ok." Link waved goodbye to the old man, who did not respond (as normal), then listened for a second before pushing the grave back open. The ghosts, luckily, were gone, which left Link plenty of time to play the four note melody that would warp him to the Island Palace.

When they arrived, Link looked at the kid, who was looking straight at him, shocked. "I did tell you I could warp."

"Where the hell did you learn that song?"

Link started. "Ummm… I- gosh, I think it was just a paper with the recorder when I found it. I don't really remember though, it was a while ago." When the kid just stared at the ground in confusion, Link just decided to say, "Well, this is the ocean."

The kid glanced up, then his gaze returned to where it had lied before. "This isn't the Great Sea."

"I mean, I don't call it the Great Sea, but it sure is the ocean."

"But it's not the fucking Great Sea…"

Link watched as confusion crossed the kid's face while he looked around, and heard him murmur something about either being a navigator for a living or watching an alligator go swimming. He then seemed to remember something extremely important (as his entire face lit up like Link's candle) before he looked up and put his hands on his hips. "Din be damned, I get it now. What's your name?"

Link tensed a bit into a now auto-prepared blood sacrifice fleeing stance before answering, "It's Link."

The kid's mood immediately brightened and he practically jumped for joy, clapping. "Of course it is! This is gonna be fun then!"

That wasn't exactly the sacrifice line, but it was still very confusing. "I don't quite get what you're saying."

The kid struck a pose, his left hand extended in a handshake and his other on his waist. "I'm saying that my name's also Link. I'm the Hero of Wind, the Sea, and Spirits. Nice to meet you!"

Link did not return the handshake. "You're not the hero, though."

"Why not?"

"Because I am. I'm the Hero of Hyrule and have been for 5 years now, and I'm pretty sure if there was a Hero of Wind in the past then I would have heard of him."

The kid just grinned. "What could I do to prove I was the hero?"

Link thought carefully for a moment, then quickly came to a conclusion. "If you're truly the hero, then you should have had to travel all of Hyrule to gather the pieces of the Triforce of Courage and make it lend you the power to save the Kingdom, not to mention Princess Zelda, which would result in you having-"

"The mark of the Triforce of Courage on your left and dominant hand for the rest of your Farore be damned life?" asked the kid, grinning like a maniac as he held up the back of his left hand to Link's own to show his own matching mark. He then looked off into the distance and, thinking hard, said, "Though my princess would shoot you if you called her Zelda." He then looked back and grinned. "So, where did you dig your Triforce piece up from? I had to fish mine up from the bottom of the ocean."

"I-" Link started, staring at this 15 year old's hand. "I- ummmm…." Link blinked hard, then did it again.

"I also met some weird old men in my world, but they didn't live in caves, they just drove a bike on a watchtower," the kid added as if it would help Link understand anything. Link blinked one more time, then finally lowered his hand down from the air where it had been stuck for the past two or so minutes.

"Well, fuck."

This is based off of the Linked Universe AU created by JoJo56830. It can be found on Tumblr and Instagram by searching Linked Universe.