AN: The moment you've all been waiting fooooor! :D
I am so sorry for being behind on replying to reviews ;.; I really do love every one of them! School's been crazy . . .
Suggested soundtrack: Enchanted to Meet You as sung by Owl City (or Taylor Swift, you pick!)
Chapter dun DUN dun DUN dun DUUUUUUUN!
Sheik snuck quietly into the hospital room and shut the door behind. "Hi, Shadow . . ."
His friend lay unresponsive on the hospital bed, eyes closed, hooked up to a bunch of beeping machines.
Sitting down, Sheik pulled his iPod out of his pocket and flipped through the channels. "So . . . I—I really liked your song. I don't write songs, and I suck at guitar, but . . ." He smiled. "I wanted to return the favor. I hope you can hear it. Honestly . . . you're much braver than I. I wouldn't have the guts to do this if you were awake."
Silence was his only answer, but then he laughed. "I'd bet . . . I'd bet you'd say, 'Don't say that, Sheik, I bet you'd be rockin'!' Haha! . . . so anyway . . . I changed some of the lyrics for you. That's about as creative as I get." He pushed play on his iPod and turned the volume up, muttering out of one side of his mouth, "Sorry about the crappy quality.
"There I was again tonight
forcing laughter, faking smiles
Same old tired, lonely place
Walls of insincerity
Shifting eyes and vacancy
vanished when I saw your face
All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you
Why isn't it working?! Ganondorf's hands slammed onto the table, the papers and apparatuses on it quaking. It's worked for YEARS. Why isn't it working anymore? This . . . this was not supposed to happen!
He had been up night and day trying to fix the formula, but every time he tried it on a rat with an induced heart attack, the result was the same—heart failure.
How to repair a broken heart?
Ganondorf wrapped his head with his hands and leaned his forehead on the table.
Your eyes whispered "have we met?"
Across the room your silhouette
starts to make it's way to me
The playful conversation starts
Counter all your quick remarks
like passing notes in secrecy
All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you
Oh Shadow I was so enchanted to meet you
When Link returned from school, after finally being convinced by Shad to go to at least get his mind off Shadow, he found something curious stuck to the fridge.
His report card.
"I got . . . an A? GRANDMA! How . . . how did I do that?!"
Granny was grinning and clapping her tiny hands. "You must have studied really hard, Link! I'm making hot fudge milkshakes to celebrate!"
Thinking back, Link had to admit he HAD studied more . . . but why? It's not like his life changed or anything.
Wait. Ever since he started working with Shad on all those adventures, he'd found he was able to focus better and actually pay attention in class. Was it the exercise? . . . Was it Shad's cute calves?
He scoffed and laughed at himself. He bit his lower lip in excitement. An A! I'm finally smart again!
Shadow, you can't die on me. You have to see this!
Your eyes are sparkling, don't you let go
I'm wonderstruck, and if you don't come home
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
I was enchanted to meet you
The lingering question kept me up
2 days late, won't you wake up?
I wondered till I'm wide awake
Now I'm pacing back and forth,
wishing you were at my door
I'd open up and you would say,
Hey it was enchanting to meet you too
Oh Shadow I was so enchanted to meet you
"Oh my goddess!" Midna shouted at lunch. "NABS! THIS is why Zelda's not at school today!"
The short imp of a teenager thrust a papery magazine in Nabooru's face.
Nabooru, not pleased at all at the sudden forceful grab of her attention, frowned and took the paper from Midna. "Gimme that! I can't read anything when it's that close to my face . . ." Immediately, she scoffed and rolled her eyes. It was the Hylian Examiner—you know, the magazine that always talked about conspiracy theories, aliens (especially at Romani Ranch), or Gerudo plots to take over the world (Nabooru especially hated these). When Midna was unrelenting, she inspected the headline. And laughed. "What? Zelda dressed up as a boy? Where'd they get this one?" Intrigued, she opened the paper to the appropriate page.
Midna merely looked on with a serious expression.
Nabooru's eyes wandered to the pictures, and soon her expression became as serious as Midna's. "Oh. Oh. And isn't that Link, that boy she's always hanging out with?"
"Yeah. And obviously the other arm around her belongs to Shadow. Look at the bandages!"
Nabooru put the paper on the table and inspected the photo.
"Do you think it's been doctored?"
"I . . . I don't know."
They heard funny-sounding whispers and looked around them. The same paper was being passed from classmate to classmate, and not just the Hylian Examiner. Magazines that the skeptical Gerudo girl knew and trusted were being passed around, with the same photo and similar headlines on their front pages. "What the . . ."
"See?!" Midna hissed. "What do we do?"
"D-Damage control! Where are those boys?!"
Your life is sparkling, don't you let it go
I'm wonderstruck, and if you don't come home
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
I was enchanted to meet you
"I HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL!" Sheik yelled. "I CAN'T HIDE FOREVER!"
"DRESSED LIKE THAT YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!" His father screamed back. "BACK UPSTAIRS AND DRESS LIKE A LADY!"
"WHY? EVERYBODY KNOWS ANYWAYS!"
This is me praying that this was the very first page
Not where the story line ends
My thoughts will echo your name until you wake up again
These are the words I held back as I was leaving too soon
I was enchanted to meet you
The stares and whispers weren't just unbearable. They were frightening. People who used to smile at him walked by with only sideways glances. And frowns. People bumped him in the halls, or sniggered behind their hands. The third time someone grabbed his hat, he just let it go.
He walked along, trying to ignore everything and focus on his classes.
At lunch, since Shadow wasn't here and Link was off researching with Shad somewhere, and since it was Thursday, she decided to sit by Midna and Nabooru.
Midna saw him coming and excitedly waved him over. "OMG! You really are a cross dresser!" She winked. "You look hot, girl!"
Nabooru sat with her arms folded, eyeing Sheik tensely.
Midna stuck the school paper in front of Zelda. "We cleared stuff up for you. Tried to, anyway. Nothin' wrong with wearing the clothes of the opposite sex, you know?"
"Um . . . no," Sheik replied, bumping his toes together. "Thanks you guys. That's . . . really nice."
"Yeah," Midna said, "no prob Zelda! Sit down!"
"Just one thing. Um . . . I'm not just dressing as a boy. I AM a boy. I'm trans."
Midna's face froze. Her eyes blanked out. A startled and derisive noise escaped from Nabooru's mouth. Her eyes suddenly gained a horrified quality. "You . . . you want to turn into a man?"
"No, no . . . I am a man already. I just don't look like it. And I know this is super awkward—"
Nabooru picked up her backpack noisily and plopped it onto the seat Sheik would normally have taken.
"Nabs?"
Nabooru wouldn't look at him. She turned her face away and pretended Sheik wasn't there.
Midna was still staring into space, her jaw on the table.
Sheik's cheeks flushed with humiliation. "O-okay," she said, trying to hide his hurt. He lowered his head and rushed quickly away.
In his next class, the teacher was giving a lecture on Hyrule's worst enemies, despite that not being in the textbook. "So here we have the Demon Sword, and the personation of him. You can tell he has a thing for . . . strange dress, with eye shadow and manners you would normally associate with a woman . . ."
Sheik wanted to disappear into his seat. The quiet snickering had already started, and the teacher just kept going, ignoring it all.
"Yuga, of course," the teacher continued, "was so obsessed with beauty that he was almost always mistaken for the opposite gender."
Appreciative laughs answered him.
"And finally. . . the Wind Sorcerer—"
Sheik stood up. The room silenced as he collected his things and marched out of the classroom. His first thought was to go to the principle's office to report the teacher, but he was too upset. He leaned his back against a wall, shaking with fury, angry tears forming on his face. How come they've forgotten that the Princess of Hyrule thousands of years ago crossed dressed as a Sheikah? I mean . . . no, she wasn't actually a guy but . . . He sank to the ground, hiding his face in his hands and his head on his knees, which he pulled up to his chest.
Luckily no one bothered him for the rest of the school period.
Of course, then the bell rang. Sheik forced himself up to trade books at his locker for the next period, but even from twenty feet away he could see it was covered in sticky notes. He didn't want to even see what was written on them, so he turned on his heel and decided he just didn't need his other books today.
At he turned around, he heard raucous laughter, and turned. A tall Rito boy was pointing at the rolled up bun on his head and exclaiming, "You trying to be a boy or a girl today, Zelda? Hahaha!"
Sheik hunched his shoulders as even people who weren't watching suddenly let their mouths turn up in jeering grins. His cheeks were inflamed. He ran away as fast as he could . . .
Please don't be in love with somewhere else
Please, you have somebody waiting on you
Please don't be in love with somewhere else
Please, you have somebody waiting on you
The rat began to stir, which Ganondorf only noticed when he heard a tiny chatter. He raised his head and saw the rat slowly, and tremblingly, getting to its feet. After twitching its nose a few times, it wobbled to the edge of its cage and nosed around the sawdust for food, chittering faintly.
A wide smile nearly broke Ganondorf's face. Yes!
After a few more alterations in which he perfected the formula, Ganondorf created a larger amount of the serum. He loaded it into a syringe, measuring the amount with exactness. As he stared through the green liquid in the glass syringe, his eyes saw through it the distorted bodies of the animals he had tested on. Dozens of rats, snakes, cuccos, and even Wolfos.
If Shadow ever finds out about this, Ganondorf thought, he's going to kill me.
He locked the syringe in its case, threw the case in his jacket pocket and left the room, navigated the halls until he reached the secret door that led back to his office. He hurried through it, not bothering to see if it closed all the way behind him. As if it mattered. All the animals were dead, weren't they?
Your love is sparkling, I won't let you go
I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
This night is flawless, don't you let it go
I'm wonderstruck, dancing around all alone
Shadow, I'll spend my whole life wondering if you knew
I was enchanted to meet you"
Sheik leaned over and planted a kiss on Shadow's forehead. "Don't leave me, Shadow."
Ganondorf slipped into the room. The hospital was dark. It was 4AM. Visiting hours were over, but how was that supposed to stop the CEO of evil?
He stepped over to Shadow, glancing around at the windows outside and into the hall one last time as he dug out the syringe case. He opened it and pulled out the serum. With his empty hand he opened up Shadow's hospital gown, and he applied the shot directly into Shadow's chest. "There . . ." Now we wait.
He sat apprehensively next to the bed, watching for any movement.
Shadow's eyes twitched. Then his fingers. Ganondorf leaned over him just as Shadow's eyes fluttered open. Ganondorf grinned. The heart machine turned itself off as it realized Shadow's heart had restarted beating on its own, and his lungs had begun to breathe on their own. Ganondorf removed the oxygen apparatus. Shadow glanced around in sleepy confusion. "Who . . ."
"It's me, Shadow," Ganondorf answered excitedly, his heart pounding painfully in happiness, "It's your father."
"I know that," the teen responded smart-alecly, making Ganondorf smile sardonically. Then Shadow continued,
"I mean, who was singing?"
AN: : 3 Thanks for following/faving/reviewing!
