AN: Finally it's getting happy again!
Also, sorry it's a day late D: It's super long so I hope that makes up for it?
Chapter Things Get Back to Normal
Groose was having a bad day. He had just found out that Zelda, smart, classy, stylish, beautiful Zelda, was dressing up as a guy. He'd gone on a date with that . . . uh . . . very confused person? Girl? Did that mean he'd dated a guy? Not that Groose was necessarily against that sort of thing, he guessed, having never really thought about it, but he himself wasn't gay. Or anything. He was all about the girls.
Zelda, specifically.
Or had been, anyway.
Still, he didn't think it was fair, all this negative attention. Even dressed as a guy Zelda rocked fashion. That hipster hat! Totes fabuleau. And it didn't change all the OTHER things that made Zelda Zelda. Like, she was still super nice (except to him, but that was forgivable—he'd win her over one day!), she was super talented, and everyone looked up to her. He kept trying to get her to come to his Loftwing games (he was the star player), but she never did. Just like she never answered his fan letters to her.
Well okay, coming to high school had been a very maturing thing for Groose. In the last few months he'd kinda come to realize that sort of bombarding and nigh stalking continuously wasn't exactly the best way to go about wooing a girl.
So what? Was he supposed to get mad at his middle school self?
He knew much better now.
Lying to the teacher that he needed to use the bathroom (he actually needed to fix his hair), he took the hall pass from the teacher and escaped from class. Normally he would wait for his buddies to also excuse themselves so they could admire his pointy pompadour hair-styling skills, but right now he kinda felt like being alone to think.
He pushed open the bathroom door and immediately heard the crying. He walked further in and found a boy in a blue button-up shirt and baggy jeans leaned over a counter, hands gripping his hair. He didn't look familiar, so Groose wondered if he was a new student, or . . .
Wait. He'd seen this "boy" earlier today.
"Zelda? What are you doing in the boy's bathroom?"
The "boy" jerked up with a gasp. "What?" She looked around and noticed the urinals. ". . . Oh. I didn't mean to." She sniffed and began wiping her eyes furiously.
Then Groose noticed the hair. The floor around Zelda's feet was covered with it, locks and locks of it. A pair of crafting scissors lay on the sink. What was left of Zelda's hair was only a few inches long, barely hanging past her ears, and way shorter in the back. It was a mess. "Whoa. What happened?"
"N-nothing. You know what? I'm just gonna clean this up and, and go." Zelda's voice was still clogged and shaky. She grabbed a couple paper towels to use as a makeshift broom.
"No here, I can do it!" Groose took the towels from her suddenly and crouched. "Uh . . . this floor is disgusting."
"Yeah, kinda is."
"So . . ." he glanced up, still having not started cleaning the mess. "You wanna ditch and get a haircut?"
Zelda met his eyes. "Huh?"
Groose blushed. "No offense, but . . . your hair sucks. I can't let my princess run around looking like THAT."
Zelda cringed a bit and scratched the back of her head, glancing shiftily away. "Oh, I don't know, I don't really want a girl's haircut."
Groose stood up and pointed at her head. "I don't know WHAT that is, but it is NOT human! I know a guy who does good guy haircuts." He stroked his own hair proudly. "As you can so clearly see."
Zelda's mouth twitched, but she didn't roll her eyes, politely. "So, you don't care that I . . . want to look like a guy?"
"Oh, I don't care about that! You ROCK in men's clothing! I'm sure you'll look good with a guy-do, too. Come on!" He gestured to the door and began walking to the door.
"But I mean . . ." Zelda interrupted, "you don't care that I want to BE a boy?"
Groose paused in midstep and turned his head around. This was all way over his head. So he shrugged, nice and big.
Zelda suddenly gave the tiniest, most timid of chuckles, which made Groose smile in the most ridiculously pleased way. "Okay," Zelda said, uncertainly.
"Yay!" He wouldn't admit it, but he would be MUCH HAPPIER when Zelda looked super awesome again, so he wanted to get that hair fixed as soon as possible. "And those clothes," he said as they left the bathroom and he strode down the hall, "Are they the only male clothes you have? They're the same ones as in the picture."
Zelda had to take two quick steps for every Groose step just to keep up with him. "Well . . . they sort of all belong to a younger version of Link."
"Oh I get it. Link always looks like a lump-a-dump because you steal all his good clothes."
"Hehe. It's not like he'd ever wear them, anyway." Suddenly she laughed through her choked throat. "Are we really skipping the rest of school?"
"So what? It's last period anyway, and it's not like you were actually participating anyway."
Sheik flushed, knowing he was right, then replied, "But YOUR grades . . ."
"Pffft! I'm the captain of the Loftwing team and my dad is rich-like everybody else's here. Not the first time I ditched for a fashion emergency."
"I never took you as a hooky."
"Hardly. But there is NO WAY you are going to class with THAT hairdo. Oh, also!" They had stopped by Groose's locker. He opened it and pulled out a crumpled up blue hat. "I got this from that tall loser guy. It's yours, right?"
Zelda stared at the hat. It was hers. She hid her face behind her fists again as more tears threatened to fall.
"Are you okay, Zelda?!"
"Darn . . . hormones! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" She buried her face in Groose's chest and started wailing.
HOLYCRAPHOLYCRAPHOLYCUCCOONASTICKSHEISCRYINGONMECRYINGONMEOMG!
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! She finally succumbed to your manly charms and is looking to you for affection! Dumb idiot!
Groose put his arms around her awkwardly and patted her on the head. She was soooooo short . . . and, like, a third his size. He felt bad for grinning as the moment lasted longer than a minute.
And then the moment lasted longer.
"Um . . ." Groose began to say. "So, this is sort of awkward."
Zelda jumped away. "Sorry! Sorry, I just . . . man, I dunno. These eyes just wanna keep crying like a Zoran fountain."
Groose gave her a sound pat on the back. "That's okay. You're a cute crier."
"Aaw, thanks. I think."
They walked outside of the school and almost immediately came upon a problem.
"Uh-oh," said Zelda. "Paparazzi."
Groose raised himself to his full height. "Don't worry. Just stay by me."
The next photos the tabloids got were of a giant, posing, muscle-flexing Groose, and a teeny little blondie hiding behind his arm, or leg, or hair, covering his face with his hat and palms toward the camera.
"But GRANDMA-"
Granny wagged a finger in the air. "No buts about it! You can't even DRIVE and you want me to be okay with you having a boyfriend?! No! No, young man, no!"
"But GRANDMA-"
"Nooooo! You will wait until you are at LEAST sixteen before you start dating anybody, much less having a BOYFRIEND."
Link groaned loudly. "You just don't understand!" He stomped up the stairs and into his room, slamming the door behind. He belly-flopped onto his bed and grumbled, realizing this had just proved what a child he was. "AAAAAAAAUGH!" he screamed embarrassingly into his pillow.
"She said I can't be your boyfriend because I can't drive."
Shad blinked. "What? You can't . . . what?"
"I know! It's so stupid."
"But I don't get it, what does she mean?"
Link sighed dramatically. He and Shad were taking a lunch break during an excursion. Mr. Darunia was packing up the jeep while they ate (he said he hated watching Hylians eat stuff that wasn't rocks—like literally even the candy he brought for the boys was chocolate in the shape of rocks. Chocolate rocks!) "I guess she thinks I'm not responsible enough for a relationship," Link explained. "Or not mature enough." He shrugged, staring at the half-eaten sandwich Granny had lovingly made and packed for him this morning.
"Well, that's actually kind of sweet."
Link gave him a withering stare. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, at least she cares enough to set a boundary. She must really care about you."
"Yeah, I guess," Link replied, unconvinced.
Shad elbowed him. "Don't worry. I'll wait until you're sixteen to date you. Although . . . then I'll be eighteen, so that might actually not work."
Link sank into his hoodie, hiding his face behind the sandwich like it represented the shackles on his freedoms. "My life is ruined!"
Ganondorf sat in an armchair by Shadow's hospital bed. Shadow had just gotten finished with multiple tests and prodding by doctors who couldn't understand how he was still alive and breathing on his own. "Dad, what's wrong with me?" Shadow asked as he ate the less-than-tasty applesauce the nurse had given him for lunch. "Why do I have heart problems?"
He'd heard several frightening things. He'd had some heart attack, it might limit his actions, he might have one again . . . he just wanted the truth!
Ganondorf leaned forward on his seat, setting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands. "Do you remember how your mother died?"
"Yeah, she died giving birth to me."
"Yes, but do you know why?"
Shadow thought for a moment, then shook his head. "There were complications, but I don't remember what they were."
Ganondorf nodded. "What your mother and I didn't know when she conceived you is that she had an underlying problem—a heart condition. In vitro can sometimes cause heart problems to surface and . . . she died of a heart attack. We were able to save you two boys, but not her."
Shadow touched his sore chest. "Am I gonna die?"
"NO!" Ganondorf snapped, then checked himself. Quieter, he said, "No. You won't. I—I won't allow it."
Shadow relaxed, but only a little. "Are you sure? My chest hurts. A lot."
"It's going to for a while, I'm afraid. You inherited your mother's . . . condition, but a much worse version. When you were a baby, the doctors said you wouldn't survive longer than a week."
"What do I have?"
"A complex heart defect similar to tetrology of fallot."
". . . okay."
"It's basically an amalgamation of serious heart defects."
". . . amalgamation."
Ganondorf pinched the bridge of his nose. "What are they teaching you in school? It means a lot of things combined."
"Oh. Okay. So I don't have just one heart problem, I've got ten." He fell back on his pillows. "But I'm not gonna die."
"No."
"How do you know that? Mom died."
"Because . . ." Ganondorf's knuckles were white, he was clasping them so hard. "I won't let that happen!"
The room door opened, and a Hylian doctor came in, holding a note pad. "Okay, Mr. Dragmire, young Mr. Dragmire," she said, closing the door. "How are we feeling?"
"Fine," said Ganondorf.
"Dying," said Shadow.
The doctor gave a tiny smile. "Well, luckily, you are not going to die, Shadow. However, if you want to avoid that completely, you're going to have to make a few lifestyle changes."
"Like what?"
She sat in the remaining chair to level with him. "Your heart, even though it's . . . somehow managed to start beating again, is still heavily damaged from the attack. Now, it will get better, with treatment, but it will always be weaker than it was."
Shadow was getting a very bad feeling. "So what changes do you mean?" His voice sounded like a child's, knowing something bad was coming but unable to stop or change it.
"You'll have to regulate your food, and do only limited exercise. You won't be able to do any extreme workouts—weights, sprinting, that sort of thing."
"Skateboarding?" Shadow's heart was already racing a little, and every breath hurt.
". . . I'm afraid not. I'm sorry."
"For how long?"
Her eyebrows raised sympathetically. "Considering the condition of your heart . . . probably for the rest of your life."
Shadow's jaw dropped. No more skateboarding? What about running around with my friends? Is THAT too much? He thought about wrestling with Link. He thought about chasing around with Sheik in the cafeteria. He thought about skating with Skull Kid. What am I gonna tell them? How was he going to sneak up to people and surprise them if doing so was going to make his stupid heart die? He already felt dead! He raised his hands and dropped his face into them.
"We'll have a physical therapist work with you to get some healthy workouts for you. We'll also get you a heart monitor so you can learn to watch your own heart rate at home . . ."
The doctor's voice had stopped making sense the minute she said "for the rest of your life." Shadow didn't care. Whatever she was saying, Dad could take care of it.
"But GRANDMA, everyone at school says they date at fourteen!" No, Link was not finished trying yet.
"Well MY daughter didn't," Granny replied, hands on her hips, "And she turned out fine. So I don't see why you should be any different!"
"But that was ages ago." Okay, maybe reminding Granny that she was old wasn't the smartest idea.
"It worked for her, and she's the only reason your father stopped being all crazy!"
Link was about to counter her, but then he said, "Dad was crazy?"
Granny face palmed. "I'm sorry, Link. I don't mean to speak badly about your father—"
Link sat at the kitchen counter. They were arguing in the kitchen. Aryll was listening from the living room with interest. "No, no!" Link said. "I wanna know about Dad." He grinned. "How was he crazy?"
Granny gave a sad smile and also sat down. She seemed to be considering something carefully. "Well, he'd never had a stable job in his life before he met your mother. Drove like a maniac, went to wild parties, wore outlandish clothing, would never call back, and was especially bad with money."
Link chuckled. "Really?" It seemed unbelievable. He thought of his dad, how he always came home—from the same job—dressed in a smart suit. Link and Aryll were not allowed to tell rowdy jokes at dinner. Dad was always there if they needed him. Like, always. Even during work hours. They had really nice cars, and trust funds, a nice house, and he'd seen his parents budget more than once. Thus it brought up Link's obvious question: "Why?"
Granny sighed. "Your father had no family of his own. His was a foster child, which you know. He had several foster parents but never an actual home. I guess he just never learned how to have a permanent life. Aside from that, I don't know. He was very guarded about his past. How he ended up with—" She broke off suddenly and glanced at him, then shook her head. "Never mind. There were things. Things my daughter saw in him. Little things, but over time they grew into big things—responsibility, stability—to be honest I was quite nervous when she started dating him!"
"Wow."
"But she was right, in the end. Your father was a very respectable man." Here she got an extremely soft look in her eyes as she looked right at Link. "It just took the right people to teach him that."
"Like Mom?"
Granny nodded. "Yes . . . and you. Something about having you made him want to stop running."
"Gosh . . ." Link didn't know what to say. Honestly, his father had always been a mysterious figure to him. He had felt safe with his dad around, but at the same time, he never really knew him.
Granny stood up. "Here, I think I have ONE picture from those days, let me see . . ." She went into her crafting room and Link heard her rustle around a bit. Link got himself a glass of milk. When Granny came back, she held a small photograph. She handed it to Link.
Link almost choked on his milk when he saw it. "Dad used to be blond?!"
"Yes, he was a natural blond, did you not know that?"
"No!" Link shook his head. "It was always black! I always thought I got my hair from Mom."
Granny inspected his head. "No, your mother's hair was more like Aryll's."
Link looked at Aryll—she was still listening in dead, acute silence. Her hair was thinner, silkier, and a brighter blond, almost white blond. His own hair was more like clumps of golden tangles—
—Shut up, so what if he stole that phrase from Shad? It was awesome!
"And what is he WEARING?" Link's dad wore a vest of some sort with ripped off sleeves, a headband on his forehead, and basically looked like some sort of rebel wannabe. He had strong features, which Link still remembered, and his heart hurt when he looked into his dad's striking eyes. I miss you, Dad.
Granny seemed to notice his change of mood. "You should keep it."
Link smiled. "Thanks, Grandma . . ." He jumped off the stool and hurried across the entry to the living room. "Hey Aryll! You wanna see a picture of Dad?"
Aryll stood on her tip toes and over Link's arms as he showed it to her. Her face showed some brief recognition. "Daddy?"
Link laughed. "Yeah! Doesn't he look silly?"
Aryll didn't understand. She just clapped and repeated, "Daddy!"
Sheik was afraid to go inside, but she had to face her parents at some point. She had a brand new haircut, brand new clothes and more in a bag to her side. She had protested when Groose insisted he pay for everything, but it turned out his father owned all the stores and so Groose was getting them pretty much for free anyway. Groose had dropped her off, but he was still parked by the curb, watching Sheik anxiously. Sheik realized, touched, that he was waiting to see how it went with his parents before leaving, in case . . . in case the worst happened and Sheik needed a place to stay.
Just then, her phone rang. She couldn't believe what the screen said. "Hello?!"
"Sheik? . . . Sheik, I want help."
Sheik gripped her phone with the strength of a titan! "SHADOW?! SHADOW IS THAT YOU? OH MY GODDESS I'VE BEEN SO FRIGGIN WORRIED! HOW ARE YOU?"
"Mmm, not good." His voice was so quiet, and it sounded clogged up, like he'd been . . . like he'd been . . .
"Wait, are you dying?"
"No. Well not really."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT REALLY? SHADOW ARE YOU DYING?!"
"Could you just come?" His voice shook. "Please?"
"Okay. Okay definitely! Let me just text Link and—"
"No! Just . . . just come alone, okay?"
Sheik knitted his brows in worry. "Okay. I'm coming. I'm coming right now, okay, Shadow?"
A choked up voice replied, "'Kay."
Sheik waited for Shadow to hang up, then sprinted to Groose's car. "I need one more favor!"
Groose blinked.
Shadow saw Sheik through his room's window. The prince barged in noisily and ran straight for his bed. "SHADOW!" Then he paused two inches from hugging him. "CAN I HUG YOU? CAN I? IS THAT OKAY?"
Shadow had his arms held out. "Yes, please!"
Sheik squeezed him, but not too hard. "I thought . . . I thought I might never see you again!"
"Sorry for making you worry." When they pulled away, they both had to wipe tears from their eyes. Then Shadow looked Sheik up and down. "You're not . . . dressed as Zelda."
A pink blush reached Sheik's cheeks. "Oh. Yeah. Long story. Crazy week, tabloids, parental meltdowns, you know."
"What happened?"
Sheik squinted his eyes and put his hands on his hips. "Oooooh no! We're not changing the subject. The subject is YOU! And YOU, Shadow Dragmire, are GOING to tell me whether or not you are going to die and WHAT is going on and what happened to you!"
Sheik had ended up seated on the bed next to Shadow as Shadow retold everything the doctors and his father had said. Sheik had his arms around Shadow while Shadow sobbed. It was so hard for Shadow to speak because of his heart. He had to take several breaks.
When he finished, Sheik said, "Shadow, that's awful."
"What am I gonna do?"
Sheik braved a smirk. "I mean, you KNOW we're still gonna be friends, right?"
It worked. Shadow smiled slightly. "I know. I love you, Sheik."
"I love you, too, Shadow." He put his arms around Shadow. "Don't you ever die on me."
"I'll try." He sniffed one more time, then pulled out his phone, trying to compose himself. "Hey, have you heard from Vaati at all? I haven't got any messages from him, and that's super weird."
"He had this strange boyfriend in the waiting room. I think his name was 'Ghiri' or something like that."
"Yeah, he has a boyfriend named Ghiri last I heard, but that was weeks ago."
"Well call 'im!"
Shadow nodded and dialed. He held the phone to his ear. After a few seconds, he frowned at Sheik. "It says it's been disconnected." He checked the number and tried again. Shook his head.
"Weird," Sheik notes.
"I'll have to catch him on Hylian Messenger then. Or Skyte."
"Do you have his boyfriend's number?"
"No, he never gave me that . . ." He finally put his phone away, thinking. "He . . . hasn't really told me anything about him, really."
They sat in silence for a while.
"So . . ." Sheik began. "What're we gonna tell Link?"
"Can you tell him?"
"Sure! You just leave it to me! How long do you have to be in the hospital?"
"The doctor says I can go home over the weekend, actually."
"Oh good!" Sheik looked visibly relieved. "It'll be nice to be in your own bed, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess. I'm gonna have to be on bed rest for a few weeks, though. Ugh."
"Don't worry, I'll keep you company! I'll visit you every day! I'm sure Link will, too."
Shadow's eyes were beginning to droop. He settled back into his pillow, but his hand clutched Sheik's arm as if to make sure he didn't disappear. "Hey Sheik?"
"Yeah?"
". . . did you come to visit me? When I was unconscious?"
"Y-yeah. Why?"
"Just . . . that makes me feel better, is all. I'm sorry I missed your singing, at your parents' party."
"Oh you didn't miss it. You bailed me out of that by needing to go to the hospital." His face was NOT amused. "Though I really hate the method you used to get me out of doing it."
"WON'T be repeated! EVER again."
"Good. Well . . . you'd better rest so you CAN go home over the weekend."
"I don't wanna. I wanna hear about you."
"You're already half asleep."
"But I don't wanna be . . ."
Sheik chuckled. He leaned over and kissed Shadow's forehead. The gesture seemed . . . familiar to Shadow. Huh. I wonder why?
"Have a good sleep, Shadow."
"Sheik . . . will you stay?"
"Pfffft, as if I wouldn't."
The stress began to leave Shadow's face, and he gave a smile before he could hold his eyes open no longer.
A small happy smile graced Sheik's face, as though he liked very much the idea of being needed. He settled against the bed, holding Shadow's hand the entire time.
AN: Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting and following! Your feedback makes me soooo happy! :)
