"DISCLAIMER: Go back to the beginning if you've been referred here.

Hee, two chapters in one night. Actually, I just wanted to publish these two together.. so there. Enjoy!

The first thing he heard when he rounded the corner up the path to Kakariko village was screaming.

His first instinct was to get to the side, and he did.

His second instinct was to crouch low, and he did.

A man on fire ran past. Huh. Well, that was a bit abnormal, considering that Kakariko was one of the last havens from Ganon. Dear Goddesses, he thought, Has Ganon come here at last?

The man disappeared down the slope entirely and Sheik sprinted to the center of the village, adrenaline pumping. The trees were all alight, and the thatched roofs of the houses as well. It all looked surreal, as if everything had been bathed in blood and ghostly fire; what was this? Who had done this? There were crowds of people running here and there, some wounded or dripping blood as they went. All around was the sound of anguished screaming and crying, as if the Kakarikans were damned people rising from the grave. In the center was where the greatest maw lay. There was debris all around, and even the grasses and cobblestones were aflame. A mother lay on the ground, her dress smoldering, and quite obviously dead. A small child clung to her dress. "Mama! Mama, we have to get home…" she wailed, pressing her face to the fabric. The woman's skull had been crushed. By what, Sheik wondered?

"Come on, now," he said to the little girl, a note of sympathy struck. "Let's get you inside." She looked up at him with enormous liquid eyes, then began to sob into his shoulder. She couldn't have been more than two or three years old.

"…Is mama going to be… okay…?" she asked into his shirt. He nodded, feeling like a liar: "Of course. Come with me for now, though." He picked her up and looked around for shelter in the crowd of people running about, but couldn't find any, and squinted into the sea of red to try and pick out anything.

Impa.

No more than a flash of white hair at the corner of his vision and he turned to the side to see her: she was standing in front of the well, her hair unbound and flowing in the rising heat of the flames. The well itself was on fire as well, and though all around her was chaos, she was completely still, and staring at him with a wicked grin on her face.

"Impa, how did this happen?" he shouted above the crowd, pushing his way through, the child still clasped in his arms. "What's going on?"

She didn't reply, but narrowed her eyes. The effect was sinister. She turned towards the well, and was silent for a long time. "Impa, damn you, your house is going to burn to the ground!" he pleaded. "Do something!"

She did reply then. "There is something in the well. It's evil. I can feel it. Tame it, won't you?"

She began to stride away, boots making small crackling noises on the lit grass. Sheik deftly moved between patches to avoid licks of flames, and caught up with her, reaching out with his free hand to grab her shoulder. "No you don't. Not again. Where have you been for the last three months? You can't leave me to tame this thing by myself! Look what it did to Kakariko!" He was strong, but not that strong. What did she expect of him?

"The house is yours now," she replied. "I have no further need of it. I am going to the Shadow Temple to assuage the spirits that are restless there. And this one, too, if it escapes. Bongo Bongo will be waiting for me in the temple."

"…But you can't," Sheik replied desperately. "You'll die."

She turned around and gave him a fierce look. "Did I never tell you that I am the Sage of Shadows?"

Sheik was taken aback. "… No," he said, shifting the little girl in his arms. She whimpered softly, confused. "No, you didn't. Why is this happening? Why now?"

"Ganon's looking for you," she replied. "You'd better get this under control. Let this be your final exam, Sheik, and then you'll be a full blooded Sheikah. Isn't that what you've always wanted? To be a real Sheikah?"

"I am a real Sheikah!" he snapped. "The ancient decrees speak that we Sheikah are to help the Royal Family, but all you've done for the last seven years is run away! If I see you once a year I consider myself lucky!" he gave a noise of irritation.

"You may consider yourself a full Sheikah," she countered, "But you are still only the half-product of a Sheikah woman and a Hylian. Don't forget that."

He stared at her, red eyes reflecting the flames and growing in intensity.

"Link will be by soon," Impa said passively. "You had better get this under control by then. He will be visiting my temple, and I must be there to keep the creatures of the Dark King at bay until he does. I help the Royal Family, Sheik, more than you know. I do what I can." She moved forward. "You don't have the cold heart of a Sheikah, boy. That child in your arms is proof enough."

She turned the corner into the graveyard. Sheik leapt over a wall of flames and meant to catch her, but she was gone.

"Damnit!" he cursed, looking down at the girl to make sure she was still all-right. She seemed to be sleeping. He turned back to the side of Kakariko nearest Death Mountain. There! Up at the top of the hill the houses were free of flames. The fire was mostly down along the grassy parts and the center area. He made his way up the slope and to the very topmost house, where he knocked on the door briskly.

A woman answered, her face stony and silent. "The village is awry," Sheik told her. "This girl needs somewhere to stay until everything is under control." The woman lifted the child out of his arms and he turned away, going back to the center.

He cast a quick protection over himself to ensure he wouldn't die, and then an anti-fire sigil as well for good measure. As he neared the edge of the well, he could see that people were beginning to get themselves together: buckets of water were handed about, and a brisk rain was starting to fall for the moment. The flames were half the size they had been before.

The presence weighed on his mind like poison. It was sharp and tangy, almost palpable, and he put out his arms in a guard-like stance as he moved to the very edge.

"Creature of the well," he said quietly, "Calm yourself. We are not your enemies. Why have you awakened?"

Because it is time

"Time for what?"

The Hero will be in my temple

"Your temple?"

Stupid Sheikah, you're in my way

Sheik was suddenly startled by a noise behind him, and he spun quickly to tell the newcomer to get the hell away from the village and go somewhere safe.

It was Link.

"What's going on here, Sheik?" he asked, the Master Sword unslung from his side and at ready position. He looked fierce, prepared to do battle with whatever was in the well. What had Impa called it? Bongo Bongo? Stupid name.

"Get out of here, Link!" he shouted over a sudden roaring in the base of the well. "It's about to—" he didn't get to finish his sentence because he was grabbed about the middle by some unseen force and shaken around like a broken rag doll, then upsided and thrown onto the ground on his shoulder.

Then everything was black for a short while.

When he awoke he pushed himself onto his good arm with a cringe, looking over to see Link slumped over against the other side of the center courtyard. Sheik cursed under his breath, ignored the pain and made his way over, checking the Hylian to see if he was breathing. He was. Well, that was good. What's more, he was regaining consciousness. Sheik knelt at his side and waited until Link's eyes refocused and opened: "Where… is this?" he looked over to the side and saw the well, just past Sheik, and flopped back against the wall. "Fantastic. Well, I won't be charging that spirit again anytime soon," he groaned. "Are you hurt, Sheik?"

"No," Sheik replied. "I think it just wanted to get back to the Shadow Temple."

Sheik stood. The village was still smoldering, though people were working together now, and some of the fires were going out. He had to do something; he looked around, surveying the damage, then looked to the sky. He whispered something under his breath and made a sign with the hand that wasn't connected to his injured shoulder.

Rain began to fall, cool and inviting, all over the village. Clouds descended over the haze that had surrounded Kakariko, real, true stormclouds and not the omens of dark magic. It was blissfully quiet after that, save for the sizzling of fires going out and the halfhearted cheers of the people that were still around, who hadn't fled the village.

He looked to his left to see Link standing behind him, arms folded. "So you can use magic?" He asked timidly. He really was like a little kid sometimes. "Er. Yeah. My father taught me," Sheik said, rubbing the back of his head. Sheikah weren't supposed to know how to use that kind of magic; they were only supposed to learn the healing and cloaking arts. Making rain fall was taboo. But Link didn't know that. Maybe that was a good thing.

"Are ye two gents the ones who saved Kak'riko?" a voice said from behind them. And then: "Sheik? S'that you?"

"Anju." The red-haired cuckoo lady looked truly happy to see him, though he didn't know her very well at all. He gave her a small nod.

"Sheik did it," Link said as he came up behind with a proud expression, waving a hand dismissively. Sheik's face flamed behind his mask; he was more modest than he ought to be, but he felt somehow guilty for using that rain-spell, as if he was being disloyal to his kind. Maybe Impa was right. Maybe he wasn't cut out to be a full-blooded Sheikah. But did he really want to become the cold blooded killer the rest of his race wanted him to be?

"Well! That's might 'mpressive of ye, I'd have t'say. Most a' th'village's fine fer now, but some parts got burned. I think th'inn's one of 'em. Are ye two stayin' th'night?"

"…I don't know," Link said, unfurling his arms and looking confused for the first time. "I'm supposed to go to the Shadow temple, but I don't even know where it is."

"Oh, as to that," Sheik said, grateful for something he could do. "It's in the graveyard. It's hidden from view for most, and it's a high climb, so you can't reach it unless you know the song."

Link grinned. "Great. Let's get inside from this rain and you can teach me, then?"

Anju gave a cursty. "T'would be m'pleasure ta host ye two up in my house fer th'night if ye've nowhere to stay," she offered, her short red hair falling in front of her eyes. Sheik looked at her, and then up to the top of the hill, where the lights of Impa's house stood twinkling, perpetually the guardian of the village even in the absence of its owner.

"Impa gave me her house," Sheik said. "I don't know what that means, but I think I own it now."

"Well. Then I see m'services won't be needed," Anju said with a deep smile, then gave another curtsy and turned. "Have a good night, ye hear?"

Sheik and Link stood staring at each other. "You can stay the night at Impa's… well, er, my house, if you want," Sheik said. "I've lived there for a while before, so I think I know where she keeps the extra things. Besides, I guess I need to teach you that song, don't I?" More direct words towards Link than he'd ever spoken before casually. Maybe it was a new record.

They moved up the hill together, not saying anything and not really needing to. Sheik took comfort just in being near Link. Once they got inside, Sheik seemed to know what to do to make dinner, and did. Afterwards he taught Link the Nocturne of Shadow, which he seemed to pick up quickly, and they sat by the modest fireplace, talking. It was a familiar feeling, but he couldn't place from where; his childhood, maybe? He sure as hell hadn't ever spent an evening with Impa talking. When she'd been his teacher she'd hardly ever said five words to him when it wasn't important. "Sheikah Code of Silence' and all that rubbish.

"It's weird," Link said out of nowhere. "You never actually stick around to talk to me. I haven't gotten a chance to rest. I feel like I'm stuck on a fast-moving horse heading for a cliff, and there's no-one to help me." He sighed. "You must think I'm complaining."

"Not at all," Sheik replied in a quiet voice. He thought back to Ganon; would the Dark Lord think of finding him here? Would he be safe for a while? He hadn't seen any troops around, but…

"At least we're safe here for a while," Link said, as if reading his thoughts. Sheik turned to face his profile in the light, once again amazed at the delicate line from just under his ear to the bottom of his chin, of the bones that made up his face, and of the eyes

that seemed to be always asking a question.

"Hey, Sheik?"

"Yeah?" he un-wravelled the straps on his gloves. If he didn't need to do any fighting anytime soon there was no sense in keeping them on.

"...I...er..." Link braced his arm against the wooden flooring, mouth twisted as if he had something difficult to say but couldn't bring himself to do so.

"What is it?" Sheik asked, putting his hand on Link's shoulder amiably.

Link turned to face him fully in the candlelight. "You might think that.. well, uh, I just want to say that I worry about you when I'm in the temples. I thought about you while I was fighting that other version of me." he shrugged. "I think about you a lot."

Sheik chose this moment to fumble embarrassedly with the cloth on his face. It was warm in there--and it wasn't just the fire, either.

"Can I see what's behind your mask?" he asked suddenly.

Sheik blinked. "Behind... this?" he asked dumbly, though he'd understood the question perfectly. "I.." Sheikah weren't supposed to ever remove their face-coverings. It was a part of life, a part of the decree that Nayru had given to all Sheikah in the beginning of time. But Link was the Hero of Time, wasn't he? Did that make it all-right to reveal the one part of himself that he'd never shown to anyone except his parents?

One hand came up slowly to draw the white fabric away from his nose and chin, and then he took off the head covering as well. Blonde hair was just past his ears now, and he realized with a glance at his own hands that he was getting almost pale underneath the heavy blue clothing. Was his face that pale as well?Link murmured something. Whether it was of happiness or something else, he couldn't tell, but when he lifted his eyes again, the Hylian was smiling.

"Well, now I finally get to see what you look like."

"That makes you the third one," Sheik said. "My mother, my father, and--" he broke off.

Ganon removed my face-mask. Right before he...

"And me?"

"And you," Sheik said, voice faltering as he nearly drowned in memories he'd worked so hard to put far away where they couldn't be brought back to light.

Then it happened.

Link moved forward, his eyes wide and wondering, and pressed his lips to Sheik's. And as much as his mind told him to, as much as he knew that he ought to and had to and couldn't, he just couldn't bring himself… couldn't make himself resist.

A hand came up behind his head and the kiss deepened as Sheik responded automatically, one arm shifting around Link's shoulders and tightening in its grip. There was a moment of ecstasy in which he was lost--he feels the same way?-- but he was falling, falling downward through a bliss that knew no end. There was no end and no beginning and nothing could possibly break his happiness right now.

Suddenly Link pulled away and pressed his hand to the tip of his nose, cheeks flaming. "I'm sorry," he said. "I honestly don't know what came over me. I really don't... Sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

Sheik frowned. "You... didn't?"

"No, I--" he trailed off. "Not unless you feel the same way, I mean. I don't know. I'm confused. I'm confusing myself, for Din's sake."

"Link," Sheik said then, "I love you." there was a bittersweet ring to the words in his own ears.

This time the kiss didn't break. It was perfect and whole, and in a matter of minutes it had somehow wound up that Sheik was on top of Link and they were both on the floor in front of the fireplace, mouths still locked in place, and ah, gods how had he ended up on top? But really, it wasn't all that odd. He had both hands on Link's shoulders and it all seemed so right and so harmonious all at once.

Link's hands unfastened the ties around Sheik's waist, and his Sheikah attire with it, until Sheik's shirt came away and fell into a crumpled heap at the floor. He didn't mind, though; it was a good feeling, the Hylian's hands exploring over his chest in a way that was entirely alien and yet entirely familiar in so many ways.

"Sheik, do you...?" Link asked, his eyelids low, a look of rapture spread accross his high-boned features. "Is this all-right with you?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Sheik said, a half-smirk on his face.

Link's eyes alit with a soft blue and he kissed Sheik again. Sheik unbuttoned the top of Link's blue tunic and brushed past it, leaving only his longsleeved white undershirt, beneath which a mesh of tanned skin and sinew was barely visible. Just the sight of it was enough to send his emotions crazy again and he peeled off the second layer as well, pressing on both his shoulders with outstretched palms. Link's skin was smooth, unmarred, and beginning to take the appearance of a full-grown man, right down to the fine thatch of hairs barely visible at the waistline of his low-cut pants.

"You don't have any scars," Sheik laughed, amazed, one hand on Link's chest.

"And you have plenty enough for both of us. Where'd you get them all?"

"Here and there. Impa liked to send me on impossible tasks."

Link pulled a maneuver then: he put both hands on Sheik' shoulders and pushed until the Sheikah rolled over, and Link was on top, an easy smile on his face. He retuned the favor of doing away with Sheik's pants, going about it almost eagerly. Sheik stared Link in the eyes and found it nearly impossible to look away. So this is why he was chosen as the Hero of Time. Of course. It made perfect sense; the electricity there, the steel and passion belying the innocent exterior were all those of a man, not of a young boy. He was a hero in every sense of the word.

Link pressed his mouth to the hollow between Sheik's neck and his shoulder, and he shivered as pleasure flooded his entire body. He gave a low moan and knotted his hands against the wooden floor, closing his eyes as he felt hands and lips going lower and lower and lower, down his chest and sides, hands trailing until they began to work below his navel.

And damn, he knew what he was doing. "My God, Link," he gasped, writhing on the floor a little, his back arching as Link took his entire manhood into his mouth. A fiery moistness spread all throughout his body, pooling into his groin and only growing from there as Link moved his lips to the very sensitive tip, each nerve twinging with rhapsody, then replaced it with his hands. He was about to orgasm when suddenly all touch retreated--but only for a moment. He felt a presence beneath his legs and he pressed his head against the wood as Link thrust himself deep into Sheik.

He didn't make noise; that was not the way of a Sheikah, really. When Ganon had raped him, he had screamed and pleaded. But for this kind, for this sort of love there was no words, nothing palpable that could honestly be said except that it was entire and complete bliss. He did come into Link's hand after the stimulation pushed him over the edge, and whether Link did or not he couldn't tell because he was floating, and entirely, completely happier than he'd ever been in his life.

Everything that happened after that was a blur of limbs and kisses and touches that were so featherlight they may not have been there at all.

The both of them lay there, breathing hard, with Link's head on Sheik's chest and at a perpendicular angle to him. He put the one hand that was still gloved on Link's head; "I love you," Link said softly, taking the hand in his own. "I have. Ever since you taught me the first song. It wasn't about the songs. I was just glad to see you when I could." he turned his head to look sideways at Sheik, and Sheik sighed contentedly before he replied. "I loved you before I really knew you. Impa was training me to be an acolyte to you when the sages released you... I adored you, worshipped you, thought you must be a new god arising."

Link looked mildly surprised, and pleased as well. "I'm flattered. Who gave you the job of being my acolyte?"

"I partially asked for it and partially had it bestowed upon me. I'm not a full-blooded Sheikah--my father was a knight in the service of the Royal Family. And then when it was offered to me..." he was silent for a moment. Why had he wanted it so badly? "I wanted to protect Zelda," he said, sounding surprised at this newfound revelation. "Impa told me that... she said if I took care of you, then Zelda would awaken someday."

"Impa's cold," Link said, reaching up and toying with a lock of Sheik's hair. "Was she really your teacher?"

Sheik snorted lightly. "She left me to fend for myself. Maybe that was the best kind of teaching. I'd wander in here to find a note pinned to the table, telling me she wanted me to steal something-or-other, and I'd catch neither hide nor hair of her until I'd put whatever it was she wanted on the table. And then somehow she'd always know where to come. Sometimes I didn't give the things I stole to her. I gave them to Zelda; but Zelda never liked them. She used to play such the sanctimonious princess, and she'd go off on me..." he sighed. "She loved me like a brother. She loved you more than that."

"And you loved her like a sister?" Link asked. He didn't deny the claim against him, though he showed no interest in it. He only seemed to be interested in looking at Sheik.

"Yes," Sheik said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I did."

"Then I'll get her back for you," Link said, sounding determined. "If I can, I'll bring her back safely from wherever she's sleeping."

Sheik grinned and shook his head. He'd never been this free with anyone in his life. It felt amazing to be able to talk, to be open. The promise held gravity, and maybe Link didn't know what he was talking about, but he sure seemed dead set on it.

"Let's go to sleep."

Deep down in the valley near the base of Kakariko, a company of lizalfos lay in wait.

One looked at its partner, helmet and scale-like skin glinting in the moonlight. "What are we doing here?" it asked in a tongue that was foreign to any who heard it.

"We have orders from the Kazed-ha. We are looking for the traitorous Hero of Time," the other replied, "And the Sheikah, the former Royal Spy." kazed-ha was the title for Dark King in the Lizalfian language. There could be no mistake over whom they were speaking of.

"Surely not the Great Impa?"

"No. Her student."

"Then we shall go tonight," the first said, pounding its fist into its palm. The second put a calming hand on its partner's shoulder: "No. They are both armed and dangerous. We will go tomorrow night."

There was a harsh, serpentine sigh.

"Very well then. Tomorrow night."