Well I finally got chapter two done. It's a little spastic but I'm trying, okay! Anyway, just a note; I'm putting zzz between sections instead of the whole line of z's like in the last chapter. Since won't let me double space it's the only way to keep these things seperate.

zzz

Chapter 2

Etcetera

Three weeks later, Saria found him.

He and Sheik were hanging out in the visiting room (the chairs there were comfortable and clean, and there was no actual rule against being in there) when one of the guards escorted a short green-haired girl into the room. Immediately Link, who'd been sitting on a chair back, toppled off and hit the ground.

"Who is it you're looking for?" the guard asked.

"His name is Link," Saria said. "He's blond, ten, and usually wears a hat."

"It that him?" the guard pointed at Sheik, who just blinked.

"No," Saria shook her head. "I don't know who that is."

"Did you say Link?" Sheik asked.

"Yes. Do you know where he is?"

"Uhh…" Shiek looked down behind his chair, to where Link was hissing at him to be quiet. "Nope, no idea."

"I don't believe you," Saria frowned. "What were you looking at just now?"

"Umm… My imaginary friend?" There was the sound of Link smacking himself on the forehead.

"Who is that back there?" Saria started coming towards them.

"No one. Really." Then he hissed down, "Link, run!"

Frantically, Link tried to crawl away, but Saria spotted him. "Link!"

Link got to his feet and coughed nervously. "Hey Saria."

"Link, how could you!" she demanded.

"What, run away or get arrested?"

"Both, you little…you little…"

"Delinquent?" Sheik suggested.

"You little delinquent!" Saria exclaimed. Then she turned to Sheik, "Thank you."

"No prob."

"Whose side are you on?" Link demanded.

Sheik shrugged and grinned. "No honor amongst thieves."

"Link…" Saria grabbed his hand and looked him in the eyes. "Are you okay?"

Link blinked, then looked over Saria's shoulder at Sheik.

Milk it, Sheik mouthed.

Link heaved a deep sigh. "I guess I'm okay, but it's really hard here. Even my roommate is betraying me."

"Hey!"

"Well you are," Link shot Sheik a Look, Sheik returned with a rude gesture. "Anyway," Link turned back to Saria. "All the boys are really tough, and I don't have anything to bargain with."

"What kind of things do you bargain with?" Saria asked.

Sheik grinned.

"Nothing special, just things you can't get in here. Chocolate, cigarettes, warm socks and tough-looking clothes. Bandannas are a big draw, since they make ya look tough."

"I…could bring you some things," Saria offered.

Sheik flashed a thumbs up.

"Nothing illegal of course," she added quickly. "But chocolate and socks would be no problem."

"You mean it Saria?" Link grabbed her hand in both of his. "That would be such a big help."

"Of course Link," Saria exclaimed. "I'd do anything for you."

"Saria…" he looked deep into her eyes. "You're the best!" he punched her arm.

"Um, right." Saria sighed. "Well, I'm gonna go tell everyone where you are…" She looked around. "Or maybe I'll just tell them you're okay."

"Yeah, if you could not tell Mido I'm in juvie, that'd be great."

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." She smiled warmly. "Good bye Link, I'll be back as soon as I can."

As soon as Saria disappeared, Sheik came over, clapped his hand on Link's shoulder, and looked at him seriously. "Who was that, and why did she have green hair?"

Link sighed. "That was Saria, she's, uh, kind of my sister."

"Kind of?"

"I grew up with her, she takes care of me a lot."

"Well," he looked after her, "obviously. That doesn't explain the green hair though."

"She's a Kokiri, they don't follow your rules of normal hair color."

"Your sort-of-sister is a Kokiri?" Sheik took his hand off Link's shoulder and stared at him. "Are you a Kokiri!"

Link looked away. "No," he said. "I'm not."

For a moment Sheik just looked at him. "Something's wrong, isn't it?"

"No, not really. Not really."

"What's wrong Link?"

Link shook his head. "It's not important, not between you and me."

"Ah," Sheik nodded knowingly. "One of those things."

"One of what things!" Link bristled.

"Personal things, you know," he looked at Link. "I'm guessing it has something to do with you not being a Kokiri. Like maybe you thought you were a Kokiri, then found out you weren't. That's probably why you ran away, and why you were destroying stuff."

Link stared. "How did you get so smart?"

Sheik shrugged and grinned. "Wisdom runs in my family."

zzz

More time passed. Saria was as good as her word, bringing chocolate, socks, bandannas, even some underwear. Sheik immediately confiscated this and hot-glued it to a wall in the cafeteria. Link didn't mind, since he'd done something similar to Sheik only a week before.

Link's unusual optimism and cheerful demeanor made him stand out a bit among all the gray, and people had begun to notice.

"Hey, Link?" Sheik said cautiously. "You might wanna...tone it down a bit."

"Tone it down?" Link repeated. "What do you mean?"

Sheik looked at him for a moment before answering. "You're too happy."

Link blinked. "Huh?"

"People in here don't like it when other people are...enjoying themselves."

"But that's stupid!"

"I agree," Sheik shrugged, "but there's nothing we can do about it. Just stop laughing hysterically and smiling all the time and we should be good."

"Good," Link muttered. "What's good about pretending not to be happy? Besides, you're as happy as I am."

"True," Sheik agreed, "but I'm smarter than you are." He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "My life kind of sucked before, you know?"

"I think everyone's did." He gestured around them. "That's why they wound up here."

"Maybe."

"Definitely. And now that they're away from it they want to wallow in their own misery. This isn't even real prison, where you get nicknames and street cred and stuff."

"They have street cred here." Sheik looked around at the other boys. "You know, that gives me an idea."

"What?"

Sheik shook his head, then leaned toward Link, that oddly serious look on his face again. "Listen to me Link," he said. "I am smarter than you, but you are cooler than me."

"I don't know about-"

"Did I say you could speak?"

"Um, no?"

"Then don't speak!"

Link snapped his mouth shut.

"The truth is, I'm not great at getting people to like me. Don't speak!"

Link choked on his objection.

"You, on the other hand, have a natural talent for that. People just like you. I blame the boyish innocence."

"The what?"

"Silence! We are a perfect team. I will think of things to do, and you will make them cool. That is why you must agree with everything I say and do for at least the next few months."

"But why?"

"Duh," the strange seriousness disappeared. "Street cred."

zzz

When Link got up the next morning Sheik was already gone. This wasn't unusual, Shiek usually woke up before Link, but when Link came down to breakfast he found Sheik surrounded by people, which was.

"About time," Sheik greeted him with a smile. "You remember Mikau and Darmani," he gestured to a Zora boy and a Goron. "They'll be helping us."

"With what?" Link asked, sitting beside Mikau.

"With this," Sheik held up a sheaf of papers. "We're nicknaming everyone."

"We are? Why?"

Sheik shrugged. "It's cool." He passed the papers to Link. "As you can see I've already got Mikau down for 'Ice,' Darmani for 'Rock,' and you for 'Blades.'" He frowned thoughtfully. "Although you might want to spell it with a Z. What do you think?"

"Um, 'Bladez?' That's kind of..."

"Yeah, it's a bit much." Sheik nodded firmly. "Blades with an s it is."

"Do I really need a nickname? I mean...you don't have one."

"Well, no. But Sheik is practically a nickname anyway. What with me being a Sheikah and all. Besides..." he smiled a little. "I have a nickname for myself in mind, but it's kind of lame to give yourself one. I'll have to wait for you guys to think of it."

Link stared at him for a moment. "It's 'Boss' isn't it?"

"Ssh!" Sheik hissed. "Not yet!"

Link sighed. "You're not going to call me Blades are you?"

"Not if you don't want me too."

"I don't."

"Fine, they'll just be our street names then."

"What street!" Link exclaimed. "This is juvie, and we're ten. There is no street and there probably never will be."

"I like 'Ice,'" Mikau said defensively.

"And I'm thirteen," Darmani added.

Link sighed. "Fine, whatever."

Sheik was looking at him oddly. He got up. "Link, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Um, yeah, sure." Link followed him off to a corner.

Sheik looked around to make sure no one was listening. Then he sighed. "Link, do you remember what we talked about yesterday?"

"Sure, you said I was being too happy and that we needed street cred and..." he trailed off as memory came flooding back. "Oh..."

"Yeah," Sheik said. He sighed again. "I'm sorry Link."

"Huh?"

"It was a dumb idea and I admit it, I shouldn't have tried to force you to go along with it."

Sheik looked so sad that Link couldn't help but try to comfort him. "No Sheik, it was a good idea. It's just not my thing, you know? I'm sure other people liked it. Mikau, I mean Ice, he liked it... And Darmani, what did you name him?"

"Rock," Sheik still looked sad. "But he didn't like it either."

"Sheik..."

"You know how I said people just like you Link?"

"Yeah."

"I meant myself too. I like you, I want to be a good friend to you, but I don't have a lot of experience at it. I...I've never had many friends..."

"Sheik..."

Sheik looked up.

Link smiled. "I like you too. And I promise if you do something I don't like, I'll let you know. 'Kay?"

Sheik smiled back. "'Kay."

"Sheik!" Mikau came running up to them. "Like seventeen guys want to be nicknamed "Spider,' I didn't know what to tell them."

Sheik blinked. "You're kidding."

"No, they're about to start punching."

Sheik grinned. "And they're actually going to let me decide this?"

"Well, yeah," Mikau said. "I mean, it was your idea."

Sheik's grim was now positively wicked. "Yes. Yes it was."

zzz

By lights out a good fifty percent of the boys, and even a couple of guards, had been nicknamed. And Sheik had somehow managed to keep all fights at bay and even make up some decent variations on Snake and Spider.

"It's nice to know I'm a natural leader," Sheik said as he and Link were getting in bed.

"How come?" Link asked.

"'Night Link."

"Hey! I said, how come?"

"And I said goodnight." Sheik faced his back toward Link, thereby ending the conversation.

Link sighed and pulled the rough sheets up to his neck. As he closed his eyes he realized that today was the first time Sheik had shown any signs of weakness, and something about what he'd said made Link think that Sheik maybe, just maybe, might have come from a sheltered home life. Oh well, Link was sure Sheik would tell him more about himself tomorrow.

But it would be more than a year before Link would find out even one of Sheik's other secrets.