S: This is obviously the next chapter. I hope who ever is reading this enjoys it, and those who don't... alas I have failed you!

WARNING: Contains male x male. Dark themes, depression, suicidal thoughts.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything

Chapter Two

Unasked Questions

The question caught Link off guard, as did the lighting fast movement of the Gerudo king, which had him disarmed and pressed up hard against the wall.

"Well, my pretty little Fairy boy?" Link swallowed nervously against the cool metal gauntlet wrapped around his throat.

"I don't understand." He managed to choke out, as his body was slowly crushed between the smooth stonewall and the heavily armoured man, the emptiness intensified.

"If you have never experienced life, then why do you seek death?" Ruby eyes blazed as they searched Link for an answer.

"I-"Shutting his eyes against the crimson onslaught he tried to think of an answer to the painful question. The emptiness within him writhed.

"I what? I don't want to live anymore? I want to take the easy way out? I-"

"I don't know! Because I'm sinking in shadow, drowning in my own self pity. Being devoured by emptiness. Because I'm disgusted in myself! I'm only a half person, I don't even know who I am, who I was, who I will be. Why live a half formed life? Why live when so much has been taken away from me, when I've lost so much, lost what I never had in the first place." The grip on him lessened and he sniffed angrily when he realized tears had fallen unwillingly from his eyes. He avoided looking at the man pressed up against him, the one he had just spilled his soul to, until metal fingers caught his chin and forced him to look into the powerful crimson eyes.

"Love."

Blue eyes widened as the single word infiltrated the raging haze in his mind. A chuckle escaped his throat reverberating across his lips, brushing against the dark man's cheek before being followed by peals of manic laughter. Let go he collapsed on the floor amidst a fit of hysterical chuckles, shoulders shaking from frenzied mirth.

"Love?! Live for love?! Why?" The laughter ceased, leaving the young man on the floor shaking. "So that it can turn on me?! Use and abuse me, tear me apart from the inside. I've experienced the dealings of love, betrayed by my heart."

"Perhaps you have mistaken the common stirrings of lust for that of love, love never let's you feel betrayed, you feel loss, anger, pain, yes, but never betrayal, love can never betray you as love is the only thing in this world that is the pure truth of yourself." The desert king's soft voice caused Link's mind to burn with confusion before he jerked his head back from the sudden and tender caress against his cheek that left him shaking.

"What are you doing?" Eyes wide, confusion, uncertainty, anger, sadness, emotions flitted in their blue depths as he stared up at the desert king standing over him.

"Tell me, innocent one, who was your love?" The crimson eyes soft yet binding. Link struggled with himself, what was happening? Why should he tell this man anything, he was the enemy... she was the enemy.

"Sheik." Avoiding the other man he ducked his head, long blonde locks falling in front of his face covering the rage in his eyes and hiding the blush from his cheeks.

"Zelda?" A growl from the seated Link answered his question. "The little princess captured the interest of the hero of time disguised as a young man." He chuckled and Link's rage swirled inside him and he rose to face the amused man.

"Are you – "His raging was cut through by a dismissive wave of the other man's hand.

"Don't be hasty, I merely find it amusing that she has attempted to capture your heart since the very beginning and only through disguising herself has she managed to captivate the young fairy man. Imagine the anger she must feel towards herself, you have shunned her for the male her. You fancy him yet you hate her. She is being torn apart by hatred and jealousy of herself." The chuckle returned and Link felt his rage easing, his rage for Zelda that had burnt in him since she had revealed herself, crushing the image of Sheik was slowly replaced by sadness, they had unwittingly destroyed each other.

"But you can not truly say you loved him if you hardly knew him. His mystery was alluring, his eyes, or eye as the case maybe was captivating; the tussle of blonde hair was fascinating. He enthralled you, but that does not constitute as love. Or are you truly that shallow?" The desert mage shrugged "If I was you I'd forget the pain Sheik caused you, it'll only drag you down, you should find someone you can truly share your feelings with."

"I- what do you know about me or love?!" Link spat out more in rage towards himself and the confusion which surrounded him then the man before him.

"I seem to know more about both than you do." Gannondorf ran a gauntleted hand through his flaming hair and shook his head as if deciding on something. "Leave the castle." He waved at the door Link had come through, 'was it few minutes ago? Hours?' "Go. Find yourself, find love, live your life, if you still find the need to die I'll be waiting for you. Just follow the path of death and destruction." A wry smile tugged at his lips as he turned, leaving Link standing dumbstruck, before he disappeared through a hidden side door toward the back of the room.

Blinking Link's mind swirled in mists of uncertainty and confusion, the aching shadow within him raged. 'What had just happened? He had just been dismissed, but why? Should he leave? He had come here to understand, understand the truth. But could truth be understood? He had been given answers to questions he had not known he had been asking, answers, which presented even more questions. If truth was love and he had come in search of truth had he come in search of love?

Staring at the door that the desert king had vanished through he examined the thoughts and emotions that the dark haired man had dredge up in him, how he had known exactly what he had been feeling, what he had thought, how to vanquish his darker thoughts and bring back his desire for life. This man fascinated him, they were suppose to be enemies but he had helped him, ignored both their destinies and told him to go and live his life. Through his speech Link had compared the fiery haired man to Sheik, his eyes held the same burning determination in them and the same warmthness that appeared at times and had captivated Link. But he'd come to realize he liked Gannondorf's eyes better, they were a deeper red, holding an untold mystery and unfathomable depth, while Sheik's eyes had been shallower, lighter, a mirror of Zelda's except for the colour. The mystery that surrounded Sheik was one of his identity. While Gannondorf presented himself, who he was, confidently, proudly, yet also with a tantalizing hint of mystery, a mystery veiled in desert winds, hidden in the corner of his smirk, promising. It should have clashed but merged so readily with his relaxed carelessness and the lust for life the man seemed to have, the careless grin which encompass his whole being.

Perhaps the reason he was drawn to Sheik was his shallow resemblance of the desert mage. He had known the mage since childhood, haunting, enthralling, captivating him in his dreams. Dominating. His fiery eyes were scorched into his mind, his laughter deep and low lingering, unforgettable on the edge of his consciousness. He had been a constant in his life. They were coupled in destiny.

He sidled through the door Gannondorf had closed behind him minutes ago, the long dark corridor which followed was littered with doors and smaller corridors which ran off to the left and right. His trail still warm, Link tracked him through a small wooden door and into a small room, five doors leading from it, taking the larger one second from the left he entered another corridor slipping through the fifth door to the right and caught his breath. A small room furnished in the ways of the desert people opened up to a large verandah, which over looked the liquid fire below the castle. Spread behind it were the plains of Hyrule, Death Mountain climbing to the left, now smoking, the red ring no longer crowning it. The Kokiri forest laced the far edge of the field before drawing to and end beside the shores of the lake, shining silver in the bright daylight. The desert spread to the right, a colourful smudge of reds and browns.

"What are you doing here?!" The confident voice was edged with a hint of anger and another emotion Link couldn't pin point. A crackle of magic danced through the air. The blonde haired man turned to find Gannondorf shirtless, his muscles rippled as he moved to place his hands on his well-formed hips inching over the top of a pair of chocolate brown coarse pants tied with a dark brown twined draw string, swaying and lapping lazily at his cloth covered upper thigh.

Link swallowed hard.

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--- to be cont.

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S: I know I'm begging but... PLEASE R&R!

sigh I have no dignity.