In the middle of the night he awoke screaming, a hand pressed down on his mouth, arms pinned to the bed.
He was just shouting incoherent words: mainly lots of imperatives, such as 'don't, and 'stop' and 'no'. He was back in Ganon's torture chamber, he was back on that table, he was back there and he knew that any moment the Dark King would kill him and be done with it—
A face glared down at him, the hot stare almost tangible. A strong nose and face, and a rugged chin and that hair, he'd know it anywhere, and the Dark King's face broke into a wild grin. "It's a matter of time," he said.
"Sheik! Sheik… stop, you'll wake the entire village! Sheik, it's me!"
He gasped for breath. He'd never had a nightmare that powerful before. He'd killed people. He'd burned homes, families, creatures of all kinds for the cause of the Kingdom. He'd never found a guilty conscience troubled him in the evening before.
He opened his eyes. Link was kneeling on his chest, wearing only his pants, pressing one gloved hand to his mouth and the other to his outstretched wrist, presumably to keep him from hurting himself.
He relaxed slowly, rigid muscle giving into itself until he felt like liquid. "Ngh…" he put a hand to his forehead. Link let go of both mouth and wrist and settled on the bed near to him, an immobile, permanent weight in more than just a physical sense. He folded his hands in his lap, and Sheik could see that the one that had been over his mouth was bleeding. Had he bitten Link in his sleep? Wow.
"You were dreaming."
"I know." He sighed, inaudible.
"What.. about?"
"…"
"Was it something bad?"
"Yes. I was dreaming of Ganon." He couldn't make himself say the rest of it. It wasn't that he didn't want Link to know, but…well, he just didn't quite know what to say about it. Knowing Link, he'd probably be depressed on his behalf, and he couldn't have that. Duty was duty. In the morning Sheik would still be the Acolyte and Link, the Hero of Time.
"So you've met him?" Link's eyes searched his inquiringly. He knew. He didn't seem to care about the blood coming from his hand, either.
"…Yes." When he was the Royal Spy, Ganon had been the lord commander of the court. Sheik was there the day he imprinted the Door of Time with evil and Impa fled the castle with Zelda astride her white mare.
He'd stolen things from Ganon's personal chambers from time to time, just for fun—brooches, elaborate goldenware, nothing too large. But he gained an iota of satisfaction from hurting Ganon where he could.
He hadn't believed Zelda when she'd told him of the dreams. The dreams where Ganon was a dark cloud, and then a Kokiri boy, clad in green, arose…
But he was losing his focus.
"Go back to sleep," Sheik said. "It's only around two in the morning."
Link obeyed, and Sheik curled an arm around his shoulders, Link's head a not uncomfortable weight on his chest. Funny, he was like a little kid after all in a few senses. His body had matured, and so had his mind, but his spirit… the natural tendencies of a child to obey their elders… remained.
There was that same old wooden ceiling again, Sheik thought. He'd seen it often from a mattress on the floor, but never from the viewpoint of Impa's bed. Hey, how had he gotten here, anyways? And what was this on his chest—
Oh, right. Link.
A kind of delicious warmth ran through his veins. Link had one arm thrown over his chest and his nose buried in Sheik's left side, like an almost-hug-but-not-quite. Eh, he'd probably have kinks in his neck if he slept that way any longer. Sheik smiled, despite himself, and arranged Link on the other side of the bed before rising. He was wearing his pants, and in a moment he had on his Sheikah top and gloves, wound. He still didn't have a weapon. Ganon had taken those. He missed his wristblades—those had been specially tailored to him, one of the rare gifts from his mother he'd received. Too bad. He never grew attatched to physical objects; they could always be taken away, he'd remind himself.
"Going out?"
"To see the damage on the village. If Impa's not here, then I guess I'm the head authority."
"Ah. I guess I'll.." he paused. "I need to get into the Shadow Temple today."
"Go ahead. I'll see you afterwards," Sheik said. He'd know where to find Link. He always did.
He suddenly felt a weight pressing against him from behind. "So does this mean you're going to disappear again?"
Sheik considered. "Even if I wanted to, I don't think I could. We're friends now—more than that."
He could feel Link's sigh of relief, though he couldn't hear it. "Then I'll go, too, and see you when I defeat whatever's inside the temple."
They hadn't been able to see it before. Bongo Bongo was a strong demon if it could even hide its physical appearance from mortals. What kind of magic was it using? It wasn't so different from Sheik's own, but he couldn't understand it. He only wished Link good luck and then moved out into the town square.
"Ah! Mister Sheikah!" And so it went. A woman bustled up to him, carrying her two children. "What're we goin' to do about the lower part of the village? The houses were made of stone, so I don't think they're very damaged, but the roofs took some damage, and we need protection from the rain…"
"I'll fix it," Sheik said, and pinched his face-mask higher. It would be a long day.
After six straight hours of casting thatch spell after thatch spell (he really wasn't cut out for construction work; too tedious, and too many parameters. Magic was just so much easier…) he heard a new complaint.
Three men came over. One of them he recognized as the burly man from the shooting gallery: that, at least, hadn't caught fire. "Ey, misser' Sheikah!" they prompted, and he dropped down off the roof silently in front of them. They jerked, obviously not expecting him so quickly, but he folded his arms and they continued.
"The well's gone dry!"
Sheik looked at the one who'd spoken oddly. "…That's impossible." There was nothing at the bottom of that well but dust and rock. Where would water go?"
"No. Come see fer yerself." The three of them led on and he stood on the edge of the well, looked down into its depths. It was true. The well was dry.
What could have done this?
"Hey, Sheik!" A voice prompted from behind him. He turned around: Link. Why wasn't he in the temple? What was he doing still in the village? He'd seen him walking up towards the entrance to the graveyard earlier, but…
Link rummaged around in his cloak and produced something then. A purplish mechanism that resembled a magnifying glass, with a red eye in the center and reddish eyelashes on top, making it look like an enormous bloodshot eye socket. "What is that?" Sheik asked, his attentions diverted from the well for the moment.
"The Lens of Truth," He said proudly. "With this I can look at that demon from the well. It was inscribed on the opening to the Shadow Temple, just inside the main hallway. I wonder why no-one's found it before?" he pushed the thing back into his cloak.
Well, probably because no mortal could enter the temple, save for a Sage. Which reminded him; how was Impa getting along?
He looked to the side to see that all the men were on their knees. Link had noticed, too. He gave them a funny look: "Get up. I'm not worth bowing for," he said.
"Hero of Time," they murmured, but obeyed. Sheik chuckled under his breath.
Link tugged on his shoulder and pulled him around the side of the windmill, just between the hag's potion shop and the top of the stone staircase. "I went back in time, Sheik!" he explained excitedly, and secretively. "I went to the pedestal in the Temple and put the Master Sword back in and… well, I was little again." He shrugged.
Rain began to fall all over the village, lightly at first and sprinkling, then turning into a drizzle and then a medium downpour, though it wasn't anything strong. Good thing Sheik had gotten almost all the roofs finished by now. The village would be fine.
Sheik had known about the time traveling ability of the sword. Why hadn't he ever thought to tell Link before? "What did you do? Did you drain the well?"
Link nodded. "I kinda went crazy when I got back to Kakariko. Everyone was… everything was like it used to be, before Ganon came and…" he paused. "Well, I went to the windmill. This fellow taught me a song to make the rain fall, like you did when the village was on fire, so I played it, and the well drained." He shrugged. "And that's where I found this."
Sheik folded his arms. "So you've been delayed in going to the temple almost a full day?"
"I needed this to see anything inside," Link said with another shrug. "It was all invisible. I'll go soon."
"Soon." Sheik raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, soon. I want to be here tonight. I want to have a bit of a vacation before I plunge off into some new horror. Is that all-right?" there was a slight hint of accusatory in his voice, and the Sheikah frowned.
"What, you don't want me to be here tonight?" He asked, looking at Sheik's impassive face. "Something wrong?"
"No," Sheik said. "Not at all. I just.. have a bad feeling. That's all. I feel like tonight's going to be dangerous." He brushed a strand of wet hair out of his red eyes.
"So you weren't considering disappearing again and leaving me to fend?"
They looked at each other tensely. Sheik pulled Link into a full embrace, and then kissed him. Ah, it felt so good, so right! What more did he need but this?... The only warmth was between them, the cold surrounding them, and the feeling was ethereal. Link's arm dropped to creep around the Sheikah's waist, and as they pulled apart for air, Link grinned. "I'll take that as a no."
"I have work to do—I'll see you at Impa's house tonight if you're delaying another day."
Who knew what tonight would bring? There was a coiling in Sheik's stomach, and not just from the cold of the rain, nor the lingering feel of a mouth on his, like a promise half-remembered. This was something else.
"Get them all ready," The Lizalfos commander ordered. It was a motley assortment of creatures: Skeleton warriors, the lizalfos, several enormous skultulas, and even a rogue human or two. All in all there were fifteen of them, plus the commander.
"Tonight?" The commander asked his companion, a continuation of their previous conversation.
"Yes. The rain will hide the moon."
"Good."