A/N: At this point I'm just stalling the ending, but I don't want to say goodbye. Just a few more chapters, readers.

James Birdsong: Hey! Thanks for taking the time to review! I'm glad you liked it!


Aryll jumped out of her tent—it was actually her bed, but ever since they'd gone camping she'd been obsessed with tents and camping. Link had helped her build a fort of sheets over her bed. He was really good at building stuff now, ever since he started working at that boat place. She'd been ragging on him to take her there, but her words were still limited, so she couldn't figure out how to get him to understand that she understood him, what he was talking about, at dinner.

He and Nabs were building a ship! And she wanted to see it!

Today, she was prepared. She wasn't positive it was Saturday, but she'd been counting all the times went to school, and she was pretty positive it was Saturday.

Shadow was spending the night at Loud Bad Man's house, which pissed her off because that meant he wouldn't be here with her, but maybe that was better for today. Shadow didn't like adventures and he was sick a lot, Link said so, so she didn't want him to feel bad if he couldn't come along. But Link always liked adventures! And so did Nabs.

She really, really, really liked Nabs. Nabs always talked to her about girl stuff, like she was a girl, and not just some little kid who couldn't talk, who couldn't do anything. Sheik was nice, but he always treated her like Link's little sister. Nabs treated her like HER little sister.

One time, Nabs brought her makeup and they played together and Nabs tried to do her hair but Aryll didn't like to be touched, so instead Nabs showed her how to do it and Aryll copied her. Nabs said she did a really good job! Doing hair was kind of like picking locks—you had to feel what you were doing, and it was super intricate. Sometimes.

But then when Aryll looked in the mirror, she freaked out!

She looked so different!

Change was awful!

She'd broken into tears and Link had come downstairs (he'd been in the shower), but Aryll waved them both away before they could undo her hair for her. Aryll was determined to not be freaked out! She really liked doing the makeup and the hair, and she wiped away her tears and fixed her mascara. Then Nabs took off her really pretty shoes and let Aryll try them on.

They were too big, but Aryll liked them anyway.

So Nabs promised to take her shoe shopping!

Wow, that was a diversion. What was she doing?

RIGHT!

Link would getting up soon to leave for the magical ship land, and she had to be ready, too!

She had prepared everything. First she burrowed through her dresser, eventually finding the pink pirate dress her parents had gotten her. It was too big then, would it fit now?

She contemplated the aggravating experience of wearing something new, something she'd never worn before.

She never wore pink. Only blue. Jeans and T shirt. Jeans and T shirt. Sometimes her cotton dress. Never ANYTHING else.

Nabs wore pink.

Just for today.

She got dressed into her pink outfit, and realized it actually felt comfortable, like her blue dress.

Well that helped a lot!

She still had to breathe heavily and groaned against her tightening chest as she saw herself in pink everytime she looked down, but it wasn't that bad.

She grabbed her sun hat. It looked like a sailor hat, so it HAD to be obvious. She stuck it on her head. Finally, she went to her toy box and pulled out her spyglass.

Taking a stack of her drawings of ships—it was such a pain to draw something other than a seagull—she ran out of her room and plastered them on the hallway walls with her play-doh, since she couldn't find the tape.

Link's bedroom door opened as she did so. He appeared in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. "Aryll? Why are you up already?" She heard him yawn.

She ran over to him and stood straight, hands holding her spyglass in front of her. She wanted to look calm. No meltdowns today! She stared at the lobster on his pajama shirt. She took a deep breath, then threw her spyglass into the air. "Boat!"

"Huh?"

"Link. Good girl Aryll. Boat!" she ran to the first drawing on the wall. "Boat. Nabsy. Nabs boat." She jumped to the next one. "Nice boat! Aryll's day. Aryll go boat. I . . . Aryll, I want to see. Boat. I want—"

"Wait, what? You want to go to the shipyard with me and Nabs?"

Her face broke into a huge smile and she felt warm fuzzies all inside her chest. He understood me! "YES!"

"Well, I dunno."

Don't cry, don't cry, don't yell. "Please?"

"I have to ask Grandma. Gosh, it's really early . . ."

Aryll followed Link's thump-thumping big feet as he went downstairs. Both of them knew Granny was already awake. Probably downstairs in the kitchen, drinking tea.

That's exactly where they found her.

"Granny, sooooo," began Link.

Granny looked at them both. "I thought I heard scuttling upstairs! What on earth are you two doing awake this early on a Sunday?"

Aryll stood right next to Link, who said, "Aryll says she wants to go to the shipyard with me and Nabs."

Says. Yes, I said it! Aryll grinned, proud of herself.

"The shipyard?" There was the worried look Aryll was afraid of. She never got to go anywhere. Granny looked at her. "Why?"

"Link! Nabsy! Boat!" She imitated hammering something. "Aryll be good," she promised. She wanted it soooooo badly!

"I have a lot to get done," said Granny, putting a hand on her chin and looking at Link. "I don't think I can take you both."

Granny always went away on Saturdays, and Link always stayed home with Aryll. She tried not to sigh.

Link came to her rescue. "Actually, I think I'm ok. I mean, if you say it's ok."

"What?" said Granny. "You want to take her by yourself? Are you sure that's safe?"

He shrugged. "If Nabs goes with me we'll be ok if she has an upset. And we can call Romani, too, if that helps. But . . ." He looked down at Aryll, who looked away quickly, but saw him grin. "It looks like she really wants to go, and I think . . . That could be really fun."

Aryll started hopping on both her feet excitedly.

"Well . . ." Granny looked over Aryll one more time. "Oh, she's been getting much more comfortable here. I think . . . Alright, let's try it! You two go and have fun!"

Aryll gasped and jumped up and down, yelling happily.

"Wait!" Link said, chuckling. "Wait! Wait! We gotta call Nabs first, see if she's free." He went back upstairs to get his phone and brought it down, holding it to his ear. "Yeah, I know it's early. Haha! Yeah, I knew you'd be up. Going somewhere? . . . Nah, just for fun?" He smiled. "Sweet! Hey, so how would like to work on the boat today? . . . Yeah, it is, but the thing is, Aryll really wants to come along. Yeah! You want to?" He grinned at Aryll.

Nabs sounded really excited, which made Aryll happy.

"Okay. Meet you there? Alright! See you soon." He hung up, then crouched slightly, grinning at Aryll. "Are you ready?"

Aryll crowed and ran in circles.


This would be great sailing weather, Nabs thought as she strung rope through the loops of the sail. There was a breeze, but not so strong that it felt cold or would bowl any of them over. She looked across the deck, at Link hammering in slat after slat onto the holes in the deck, his tousled locks not slowing him down, even though they kept falling into his eyes.

What did slow him down was that every two seconds he burst into incessant giggles and chuckles.

The reason?

Aryll kept running from one end of the deck to the other, pulling her spyglass to her face and yelling, "'HOOOOOOOY!" She'd been doing it since they got her onto the ship.

Nabs broke into a smile and laughed along.

Getting here was a little bit of a struggle. Aryll had walked with trembling fists between her and Link, staring at everything new and unusual in the shop, but once they got to the yard, everything changed. Still nervous, she huddled next to them as they made their way to the ship. When Link announced this was his ship, though, she climbed aboard immediately, saying hello to everything, the rails, the deck, the hole where the rotted mast used to be.

And now she was playing pirate.

Nabs hadn't felt quite this happy in a long time. She wasn't sure why. The thought of the open ocean, sailing away from her problems sounded so freeing, away from racism, away from papers, from life, stress everything—except Link.

She really liked Link. She liked how he treated her. When they worked on the ship, like now, she got to put in as much sweat and blood as he did, and he never once tried to do things for her. He asked her to do things other boys wouldn't dare, like clean muck out of a rotted log, or heave up a load of timber. He didn't even question whether she could, just asked if she would. He also really loved Aryll. Nabs wasn't getting any work done because she was too busy watching them. Link joined Aryll, running across the deck, and screaming, "'HOOOOOY!" Over and over until Nabs' sides hurt from laughing.

She ran to join them.

"'HOOOOOOOOOOY!"

They all jumped when the answering 'hoy' boomed over the yard. Linebeck stood in the yard, staring up at the ship. "What in the seven seas is going on back here?!"

The three on the ship laughed.

"This is my sister, Aryll," Link explained.

Linebeck removed his hat and bowed. "Pleasure to meet you, my dear."

"TREASURE!" Aryll shouted.

A glint sparked in Linebeck's eyes. "Treasure, you say?" He stroked his chin. "My specialty. My dear, would you be interested . . . In a treasure map?"

Link suddenly groaned. Linebeck was always selling treasure maps.

For outrageous prices.

"Linebeck, don't try to sell my little sister fake maps!" he complained. "She's SEVEN!"

"Oh no, no!" Linebeck wiled. "I would NEVER. My boy, who do you think I am?" He frowned sadly. "After everything I've done for you, I'm still just a scoundrel to you?"

Link glowered at him.

Aryll climbed down the rope ladder and ran up to Linebeck. "Treasure?"

"Yes. Treasure! Like this." He pulled out a brass compass on a chain. It was old, and intricate. "Still works! Ingenious mechanism. Here, you can hold it."

"You won't ever get it back," Link warned.

"That's alright, it'll come out of your paycheck."

"You are DETERMINED to never pay me, aren't you?!"

Aryll stared lovingly at the compass. Then held it back out to Linebeck and shook her head. "Nope," she said distastefully.

"What!"

Nabs and Link started laughing. "She's on to you, Linebeck!" Nabs laughed.

"That's a stupid piece of trash, isn't it?" Link asked.

"Preposterous! It belonged to my great-great-grandfather Linebeck the III! It's an antique!"

"Or maybe your great-great-grandfather was as much of a quack as you are," Nabooru said, rolling her eyes in mirth.

"Hmph!" Linebeck fumed. He looked back at Aryll and took the compass. "You want real treasure? How about . . . THIIIIIS!" He pulled a necklace from around his neck. It had a golden skull pendant on the front of it.

Aryll stared at it for a few seconds, then made a face like, are you serious?

Linebeck's jaw dropped.

Nabooru and Link laughed again.

"How can you not think this is treasure?!"

"Ummm," said Nabs, "because it's a knock-off? I can smell the plaster from here."

Aryll had seen something glimmering on Linebeck's hand, so she brushed the necklace away and grabbed his sleeve. She held his hand up and stared at the giant ruby ring on his third finger. "Pretty . . ."

Linebeck blinked in surprise. Then he smiled, puffed up. "Good taste! Good taste, little pirate girl! That's my family ring, isn't it lovely?" He wiggled it so it would sparkle for her. "And I ASSURE YOU," he said, glaring up at his two employees, "THIS is real."

Aryll oohed appreciatively.

"Well," said Linebeck, sounding more than a little impressed. He knelt down on one knee in front of Aryll. "I won't try to fool you anymore, miss Aryll. I'll be up front with you from now on. You obviously have an eye for treasure. REAL treasure."

"That's because she IS a treasure," Nabs said. "Unlike you, old man!" She made a face at him.

Linebeck made a wounded face, but it was good natured. "I think I have something she'd like. I'll be right back."

Link was gazing at Nabs like she was the most beautiful thing in the world.

When she noticed, Nabs blushed. "What?"

"Is that true? What you said? Do you really think Aryll's a treasure?"

"Huh? Of course I do."

Link hid his face from her.

"I—I mean, as far as things go. She's more important than a treasure, obviously," Nabs said, thinking maybe she'd offended him.

Then Link graced her with the hugest grin, bashfulness turning his ears and face red. "Will you be my girlfriend?!"

Nabooru blushed, her heart suddenly racing. "What?"

"Oh my Din Fire!" Link palmed his face again, but he was still grinning. "I know it's the stupidest way to ask, it should be special, and we haven't even been on a date. Oh I feel stupid."

Feeling warmth fill her whole chest, Nabooru scooted closer to him. "L-Link, I didn't realize you felt this way."

"Are you kidding?" He lowered his hands, looking into her face with those gorgeous blue eyes. He looked so perfect, his blond locks shining in the sun, a healthy tan with the right amount of freckles. "You're gorgeous," he said. "You ALWAYS are. And you're way smarter than me, and you work in a dirty old shop and come out here and build stuff because you work hard. You work SO hard! You're so good with Aryll, she loves you, and Granny likes you, too." He shook his head at her in amazement. "I'd be stupid if I didn't want to date you!"

She felt hot at all of his compliments. This whole time she'd just been herself, but that was the stuff Link liked about her? It wasn't that she'd been hinting at him dating her this whole time, flirting with him. She hadn't really meant to, but she'd had a crush on him for ages! "U-Um," she struggled to breathe.

"So what do you think?" Link asked. "Can I take you on a date?"

She threw her arms around his neck. "YES!" She shrieked. "Of course I want to date you!" She hugged him tighter as he hugged her back.

Linebeck came back out, striding up to the ship again. Aryll met him and he held out a rolled up scroll to her.

Curious, Link and Nabs climbed down. "What is it?" Link asked as he walked up. Nabooru talked herself out of holding his hand as she caught up with him. Too soon. Too soon!

"This, my dear boy," Linebeck said, untying the string around the scroll and rolling it out, "Is a treasure map!"

Link's shoulders slumped. "Seriously, Linebeck?"

Aryll was gasping over it excitedly. Nabs was examining it closely.

Linebeck leveled with Link. "It's a real treasure map."

Now he was starting to get angry. "Just cut the act, Linebeck—"

"No, Link!" Nabooru said. "It's . . . He's right. I recognize this. It's either a really good phony or . . . This is a Gerudo treasure map!"

Rushing to look over her shoulder, he cried, "Really?!"

"Aha!" Linebeck said. "I knew it was Gerudo. Knew it all along."

Nabooru rolled her eyes. "Sure. But yes, this could really be . . . I mean I have to take it to my grandmothers, but it could really be . . . A real life treasure map!"

"Hehehe!" Linebeck giggled through his gritted square teeth.

"You're really giving this to Aryll?" Link asked, disbelieving.

"Of course! I have to support such a young, talented treasure hunter."

Link grinned. "Thanks, Linebeck!"

"Oh, and I'll be taking 300 rupees off of your paycheck."

Link groaned.

"Split it between us," said Nabooru. "But then you don't get a cut of the actual treasure."

Linebeck balked. Link grinned at Nabs.

"Them's the conditions," Nabs continued, suppressing a grin.

"And they say Gerudo aren't REALLY thieves!" Linebeck touted.

Nabs smirked at him with a raised eyebrow.


Shadow sat on his bed—his real bed, at home, with Ganondorf. It felt good. It also felt bad. His door was still broken, a vivid, unpleasant memory he couldn't quite escape. He looked at his gloves. Kind of like those.

There were lots of unpleasant memories here. It felt a little weird, a little scary, being back here, but it also felt comfortable. And happy.

I don't think I'm supposed to have to feel this way. I'm fifteen. I wish I was like other kids, not having to worry about anything, but then . . . He thought about Link and Aryll, losing their parents, and Sheik, his best bud, being trans. I guess I'm not the only one who suffers, but why? Why me? Why all of us? Is anybody happy? Is happiness just a facade for real life?

He was glad to be back, though. He was glad he got to spend time with his dad. He even got pissed at him today, and they fought, like they used to. But at least his dad talked to him. At least he was here.

At least he wasn't alone.

He still didn't know what to do about Vio. The guy was as strange as ever, pulling him in, pushing him away. It hurt, so badly that Shadow didn't mind that they'd broke up. He still missed when Vio was nice—well, okay, less mean than he was now.

He also missed Vaati. He hadn't written back since Vaati's last letter. Shadow imagined Vaati must feel terrible about it. In fact, Shadow hadn't ever actually finished reading his letter. Guilty, he thought, guess I'd better do that.

It didn't take long to find the mostly crumpled letter. He spent time carefully straightening it out before beginning to read:

Hey there sexy~

Sorry I haven't written sooner . . . I've been really sad. But I get all your letters and I read all of them every day! Also, get a friggin thesaurus, WEIRDO.

Shadow laughed. Just like Vaati to criticize his lack of vocabulary. He'd been learning a lot more since starting to write his own songs on guitar, and he wanted them to be good. He couldn't wait to show Vaati what he'd learned—

With a pang, he kept reading,

Anyway, about this 'Vio' guy, DON'T DO IT!

That's right. Vaati had warned him against Vio from the beginning. That's why Shadow hadn't finished reading. Gosh I'm an idiot.

Nothing good ever comes of dating someone older, I mean he's only a year older, but he lives kind of on his own and doesn't have any parents, right? So he's basically an adult? STAY AWAY FROM HIM SHADOW! You're only going to get hurt, he's only going to hurt you. You should listen to your grandma! You were right, you should stay away from the mushy stuff until you're older and DEFINITELY don't ever go to live with him! Don't let him do ANYTHING to you that you don't want him to—

That was it. That's where he'd stopped reading. He flattened the letter again, poring over the paragraph again. Okay, but this was a little crazy, even for Vaati. Freaking out about dating someone a year older? Who does that? And live with him? When had that ever been an option? Why was Vaati bringing this stuff up?

Shadow shook his head. Vaati had a lot more experience than Shadow did, so he was probably just giving him a ton of tips, which Shadow SHOULD have listened to or he wouldn't be in this mess with Vio. He never would have gotten into trouble. Why hadn't he listened? He'd been so angry, so upset about everything. He couldn't hear anybody, even his friends, even the people who cared about him.

Vaati, do you think you can forgive me?

He read the rest of the letter.

Just stay in school, and hang out with your friends, Link and that Sheik guy. They seem pretty awesome, though I admit I'm really jealous. I love you, Shay-shay, don't ever change who you are, for anybody or anything. I know everything sucks right now, but if you just hang on to everyone that cares about you, even when you hate their guts, even when you just can't stand the things they say, you'll be ok, I PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE!

So enough about that crap. Things are pretty quiet here, I know you like to hear about the boring stuff, so yesterday we had our Minish Celebration. I got to dance! It was pretty great, I guess. It's nice to be home, but I miss you like crazy. ALL THE TIME. Don't give up on me, Shay-shay.

I love you,

V

Shadow blinked tears from his eyes. If he'd just listened . . . He shook his head. It didn't matter. He could listen now. And maybe he just hadn't been able to listen before, and that wasn't his fault. He'd told Ganondorf everything, and his dad hadn't even been mad, and his dad could get mad! No, he was just proud of him. Proud that he'd made it through everything ok.

Maybe Vaati would be proud, too.

But I'm still going to apologize.

Shadow pulled out his pen and some paper and began to write back.

Vaati, my dude! My best friend, my love magnet, perfect haired skinny god!

Are you still mad at me now? POUTY FACE

Okay, but seriously, I'm really sorry. Sorry I stopped writing, and right after you wrote ME. I was so mad. I didn't want to hear what you had to say, but you were right about everything. About Vio, about me, about sticking to my friends. I wanted to listen but I just couldn't and you made me so mad and I did a bunch of stupid stuff and HERE WE GO now I owe you an apology as well. I really miss you, V. Thanks for being my friend, and telling me off even when I'm a butt and won't listen. Don't worry, I'm okay. Nothing really bad happened, and now me and Vio are broken up so it's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine!

Well not really. Dad's still arrested and I still might be dying . . .

It was probably the longest letter he'd ever written, but he didn't stop until he updated his friend about everything going on.


Vaati was sitting on his bed, staring at Shadow's letter. It had been months. He thought for sure Shadow hated him, since everybody seemed to, and he hadn't blamed him. He thought about sending another letter, but the first one had been obviously so unwelcome. He was starting to give up hope, thinking that he and Shadow were done for good. But here was another letter, finally!

And what a doozy. Vaati felt so special, that Shadow was telling him so many things, like he used to. But this was different. Shadow had always been open, but there had always been something in the way, some wall he hid behind, something to distance himself from others. That wall was gone!

All these bad things happening to Shadow, they must have got to him.

Is he really going to die?

Worried, Vaati wished he could POOF to where Shadow was, but he couldn't. He was terrified to, even if he could. Here, on the Minish Island, there were no scary walls or locks or doors that wouldn't open, no faces leering at him, no evil grins or lying smiles.

It was safe.

His eyes went to the print out taped to the back of his door. It was a photo, and it had darts sticking out of it, exes on the eyes and a lolligagging tongue drawn on in pen.

Vaati scowled at the photo. I hate you, Ghiri!

He turned back to the letter. Shadow needs me. He wants me there. He really does. Truthfully, he was bored out of his mind. Safe, yes, but bored. He looked around him at all of the books he'd waited weeks to be delivered to their isolated island, books about math, language, history, and all the papers and notes he'd made about them all strewn about like giant confetti.

Minish Island was safe, but it wasn't great in the education department. That's why he'd gone to Hyrule in the first place, but . . .

He needs me. Shadow still cares about me. He needs me!

Maybe, if Shadow needed him, he could be brave. He could brave the outside world again, leave his hut, go back to learning everything he could about the world.

He missed Hyrule. He missed the culture, the fashion, the depository of knowledge you could get at your fingertips with the internet.

He missed Shadow.

Sighing with resolve, he got off his bed. He walked over to the decimated picture of Ghirahim. What to do with you, with what happened? He hadn't talked to anyone about it, not even Ezlo. He couldn't. He felt so ashamed, how could he ever talk about it to anyone? No one can EVER find out! But Shadow needed him. He couldn't bother with shame, or guilt. He HAD to go back.

He HAD to!

Taking a deep breath, he removed the darts from the photo and carefully removed it from the door. He set it on a chair and then gathered every piece of writing he'd done—in Subrosian, so Ezlo couldn't read it—that had anything to do with Ghiri, even if it was just a piece of abstract fiction he'd written and later looked at and wanted to crumple because his own life experiences stubbornly kept invading his personal space no matter what he did.

He grabbed everything and put it in a basket, which he strapped to his back. He collected some kindling, and matches, and put on his sandals.

"Retsam Ezlo!" he called in Picori. "M'I gniog tuo, ll'i eb kcab thginot!"

"Thgirla, eb luferac!"

Sometimes Vaati cursed being born into an Island tribe rather than a forest tribe or some other tribe that didn't live out in the sun, but he always changed his mind when he felt the sun on his face. Even though he always had to slather sunscreen on his pale body and wear hats and coverings to keep giant brown moles from sprouting across his body, and had to go to tons of dermatologists because of it, he still loved the Island sun, and only the island sun. Everywhere else, the sun felt like vinegar on his skin, but here, it was just warm and full.

He walked along the beach for a long time after his hut disappeared behind him, not wanting anyone to witness what he was doing. He went to a secluded spot and dropped all of his papers and Ghiri's picture on the sand. He went and collected some logs from the palm forest nearby, then came back and built a fire.

He stuffed all his papers in between the logs, lighting them up as kindling. When sparks and bits of burnt paper floated into the darkening sky, he held Ghiri's photo in his hand. I will not let you stop me anymore. I will not cower and hide. I will become stronger than you ever thought possible! He set the photo on top of the fire.

He uttered a picori psalm as Ghiri's face blackened, morphed, and burst into flames.

"Nehw lla taht sniamer semoceb hsa,

I lliw ton kaeps fo uoy niaga."

He watched the sparks and smoke flutter into the sky, sighing. Shadow, I'm coming home.


A/N did you know in the Japanese, German, French, and Italian versions of Minish Cap, the Picori language was just words spelled backwards? In English it's just "Pico Picori!" if I remember right, haha! So now you can go back and figure out what Vaati's saying, if you didn't already figure it out!

Also I literally can't remember if I already had Link ask Nabs out, and I've reread this story twice in the last three weeks. Like what the heck!