A/N Hello lovely readers! Here's a new chapter for you~ Thanks so much for reading and following and faving, it means a lot to me!

just a fan of fics: Thank you! Although I have to say this whole idea was inspired by The Weekly Hyrule News by BatNeko (Which you all must read if you haven't-heck, maybe I should reread it! I haven't in years.) It's BatNeko's fault I've fallen in love with the whole slice of life high school drama genre . . .

Ignitious: Hey there friend! Thanks for the plug to the first book, you're awesome!

ENJOY~~~

Sheik was feeling a bit overwhelmed. It started being just him and his friends, and then Vaati and his new posse came in. Now suddenly there was so much going on at their table.

Across the table, Midna was completely ignoring the existence of Zant, who had sat right next to her and was chatting his head off with his unsettlingly criss crossed mouth. Sheik couldn't tell if he was just oblivious, or if he knew he made Midna uncomfortable.

To his left, Groose's entire Loftwing team had appeared and were talking sports loudly. Sheik was interested only slightly. He wanted to get more into te Loftwing games because it was important to Groose, but really, the only thing that interested him currently was riding a Loftwing. That sounded bomb. He kept catching sentences that would pull him away from the other five thousand conversations going on at the same time.

To his right were Link and Nabooru, thankfully only conversing quietly.

Then there were Shadow and Vaati, who, despite having sat at the table originally, had somehow migrated a little away and were only paying attention to each other.

Sheik had no one to talk to.

He turned to the final person at the table.

Kohga.

He couldn't remember seeing Kohga before. His angular eyes were either cruel or bitter, and Sheik couldn't tell which. They wandered around, his mouth in a bored snarl.

Swallowing his feelings of intimidation, Sheik said, "Hi."

He must not have said it loud enough, because Kohga didn't turn to him or acknowledge that he'd spoken at all. Sheik gnawed on his lower lip, pointer fingers tapping his water cup. He looked closer at the gold chains around Kohga's neck. He noticed that there were symbols in gold between the chain links, ancient symbology. And not the kind you'd buy at the party store. He realized that everything, down to the way Kohga moved, was trained. Even most with Sheikah blood didn't practice the art of it. He perked up immediately. "You're a practicing Sheikah!"

Red eyes glanced sideways at him.

Sheik grinned. "I've gotten into it myself. I mean, I've been trained in the basics since childhood considering I'm the Prince of Destiny and all—"

Kohga placed his own water cup on the table, leaned one arm on the table and placed his chin in his other hand so that the fingers were splayed across his cheek. Sheik saw he had an onyx ring with the Sheikah eye on his middle finger. So cool!

Encouraged, Sheik continued, "I've been studying the language and history, but I just can't get the pronunciation. I guess that's something you have to have taught orally to you. Have you learned it? I can only read it."

Kohga was smiling, but for some weird reason he kept tapping his middle finger, the one with the ring on it, over and over and over until Sheik thought he was doing it to get his attention.

"What?" Sheik asked.

Kohga just blinked, still smiling condescendingly.

Sheik looked closer at the ring. It was the Sheikah eye with the teardrop underneath. There was nothing strange about it. What was—

He sat back quickly. "Oh." Hard to tell because it was a ring, but the eye was upside down. In fact, the way the eyes in his chains sat, they were upside down, too. "You're Yiga."

Grin tightening even more, Kohga turned away again, straddling the bench and looking literally anywhere but at anyone at their table.

A flush of embarrassment crept up Sheik's face. Of course he doesn't want to talk to me.

"What does that mean?" Link said to his right, startling him. "What's a Yiga?"

Kohga glared at him disdainfully. Then stared at his fingernails and said, "Oh, right, they don't teach you about us in state-sponsored schools." He turned his glare on Sheik. "Do they?"

"Why are you looking at me like that? It's not my fault!"

Link broke in, getting wise to the tension. "I don't get it! What's a Yiga?!"

"Not 'A' Yiga, you dunce," said Kohga. "I AM Yiga."

Sheik broke in snarkily, "Which means you were originally of the Sheikah."

Kohga stood up, clenching his fists. "I was never a Sheikah. I was born Yiga and I'll die Yiga."

Sheik folded his arms across his chest. "The Yiga isn't even a clan, it's just a bastardized version of Sheikah."

"THE SHEIKAH BETRAYED US!" Kohga's hands came slamming down on the table, nose wrinkled in fury, teeth bared. His red eyes sparked brighter in the fluorescent lights of the cafeteria.

Link had stood up as well, putting an arm between Sheik and Kohga. "Whoooa, dude. Calm down."

Recovering himself, Sheik said calmly at the still fuming Kogha, "That happened thousands of years ago." He shook his head. "There's no need for the clans to fight now."

Slowly, Kohga's face lost its intensity, but remained hard. He straightened from the table. "You would say that, wouldn't you?" he said wearily. He left the table without another word, leaving the rest of the table to stare at him.

Shadow had wandered over during the ruckus, Vaati slung around his shoulders, and Vaati asked, "What was that about?"

Sheik raised his hands palm upwards and sighed. "Clan feud."

Shadow was ecstatic about having Vaati back in his life. He was so happy about it that sometimes—sometimes—he forgot about Vio.

They hung out right after school with Link and Sheik. Nabooru had to work for the school paper, and Midna had to go with Zant to the Twilight Estate.

As soon as they walked onto the school's skate park, Shadow was set upon by everyone. First the triplets, then Saria, then everyone else. He'd been skating before now, but this was the first time at school, and some of the skaters here he hadn't seen again since before his heart attack.

"You're back!"

"Duuuuude, looking good!"

"Aw, man, I can't WAIT to see you skate!"

Shadow grinned in the center of the admirers when suddenly he spotted a familiar, unsettling mask.

Skull Kid. The silent, skilled loner of the park, dressed in his ratty hoodie and orange camo pants. He hadn't grown a single inch since last year. Shadow was taller than him now.

Before Shadow even knew what was happening, Skull Kid had braved the crowd to sneak right up to Shadow, and hugged him.

Shadow gasped. The second he broke out of his stupor to return the hug, though, Skull Kid was already gone, back on his BMX bike and pedaling to the other side of the park furiously.

It didn't upset Shadow. Skull Kid was beyond anti-social. That small gesture meant the world to him.

Everyone else was gaping or else chatting about it.

Link punched Shadow's arm. "Told you he missed you."

"Yeah," Shadow responded. "I had no idea how much, though."

Sheik's eyes were bugging out of his head. "He HUGGED you!"

Shadow placed his hands behind his head proudly. "Hehe, of course! I'm irresistible!"

His friends laughed.

Vaati chose to walk Shadow home. They were walking hand in hand. Part of it was Vaati's Picori culture showing through—the Picori were big on physical contact, hugs, hand holding, even sleeping together in piles—and part of it was definitely that Shadow needed some hand holding after his first day of school.

"God, it really sucks!" Shadow whined. "I'm so so SO freaking happy you moved back, Vaati. Link has to work every day now, and Sheik is running for student body president, so HE can't hang out, either." And Vio's dead, he thought, but didn't want to say it out loud.

"I'm happy, too," Vaati said. "I thought I was going to have to go to Castle High, but Ezlo forgave me for dropping out last year, and offered to pay for it."

"Yeah!" Shadow turned to him. "What happened, anyway?"

Vaati looked away. "Oh, um . . . just some stuff. Mistakes."

Shadow didn't want to press, but he felt a little sad Vaati didn't want to tell him. "You don't have to talk about it," he said. "I won't judge you."

Vaati blushed. "I know. But I judge myself." He looked back at Shadow. "But it's in the past! I've completely moved on, and so, I'm never going to speak of it again." He grinned brightly. "You don't have to worry, Shay-Shay! I'm here to stay this time. I won't leave you again, I promise."

Shadow smiled and squeezed his hand. "I never thought you left me, I was just worried about you. Is everything okay?"

Vaati nodded. "Like I said. It's in the past."

"Okay."

They kept walking.

"So . . ." Said Vaati, after a period of silence.

Shadow tried not to frown. He knew this was coming.

"How are you doing?"

There was a longer silence as they kept walking, Shadow staring at the ground, trying to find a way to talk without falling to pieces. He felt tension rising as he was fully aware of Vaati waiting for his reply.

"It's okay," Vaati said, shattering his expectations. "I understand."

Somehow, that gave Shadow the strength to speak up. "I miss him. I miss him every day, and I think about him, even when I'm not thinking about him, he's there, and I try to be normal, to feel normal, but I don't. I don't think I'll ever feel normal again."

"Tell me about him," Vaati suggested. "I only knew him a little bit, but only way before you started dating."

"Where do I start?!"

"What would you do now? If he was here instead of me?"

It immediately came to mind. "We'd go to the Milk Bar."

"The what?!" Vaati screeched.

Shadow laughed. "I know, I know . . . We weren't supposed to be there, but Ingo didn't care about minors being in his bar. Vio took me there all the time, and we got . . . we . . ." He broke off, feeling humiliated. "He got me into a lot of trouble. It was bad. But that's what we did. And it was great. I mean it was bad. I dunno." He stopped, face a flurry of confusion.

"What made it so great?"

Considering, Shadow finally said, "I'd forget about everything. About possibly dying at any minute, about Dad being in jail, at not being able to actually DO anything with my life. I couldn't skateboard, I couldn't even freaking run. What was I supposed to do with my time? I felt like everything was falling apart. Link was suddenly working ALL THE TIME, I wasn't speaking to Sheik because he's the reason Dad got sent to jail in the first place, and I get that he did bad things, but I just don't think he deserves jail, you know?"

"You're worried about him, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds like you need to get your mind off of him."

Shadow let go of his hand and ran ahead a few paces, spinning and saying with a grin, "That's what was so great about Vio! I never thought about ANYTHING. We just did whatever we wanted to do, whenever we wanted to. And he always wanted to see me. Even when he was really mean, I knew he wanted to be with me. It's like we had this bond."

Vaati folded his arms, glancing away.

"What?" Shadow asked, pausing on the sidewalk.

"Nothing!" Vaati smiled, erasing the anxiety on his face from just a second ago. "Sounds like you really liked him."

Shadow looked into Vaati's eye, his brow knitting. "I loved him, Vaati."

A slight flush appeared on Vaati's cheeks, and he began muttering, "I mean—really? Are you—I mean—you're just teenagers. Is it even possible to know what love even is—I mean—" He covered his face with a hand and made garbly noises. Then straightened and grabbed his elbows behind his back. "Never mind! I don't know what I'm saying!" He grinned widely, chuckling. Before Shadow could question him, or even really process any of his embarrassing mutters, Vaati stepped a little closer so he could see Shadow properly. "You said you still play guitar, is that true?"

Shadow grinned. "Yeah! It's all I had to do, so I'm really good now." He made a confident pose, pointing at his chest with his thumb. "If I do say so myself. I play as well as any of the guys I heard at the Milk Bar."

"I haven't heard you play in a while. Can we do that right now?"

"Sure!"

The day passed by quickly. Ganondorf was ecstatic to see Vaati and immediately invited him to stay over as long as he wished.

Vaati of course agreed. "I don't think my flatmates will mind," Vaati said. "And if they do, boo hoo."

Shadow took Vaati to his room and Vaati instantly gasped. "WOW. THERE'S AN ACTUAL BED IN HERE!"

Shadow scratched the back of his neck self consciously. "Y-yeah, Sheik made me clean everything out after my heart attack. All the clothes, old food containers, dirty old plushies, everything, and he's been on my case about it ever since because, as he says, dying of germs would be a terrible end to my journey." He tapped his forefingers together. As someone who had an organ transplant, Shadow would forever have to be cautious of getting sick.

He figured he could handle it.

The next few hours had been spent on Vaati blaring into the karaoke machine while Shadow shredded on his guitar. In between songs, or even in the middle, they'd get deep into some conversation or other, bringing up old jokes, old memories, talking about what they'd been up to.

Shadow demonstrated his guitar abilities and how he'd basically spent the last several months in summer school.

Vaati described having to save up to travel to Hyrule, being a mail deliverer at his home and all the obscure, out of the way places he'd had to climb and hike to on the tiny, technologically limited island.

It was obvious to Shadow that some things had changed, though.

Well, Vaati was still obsessed with fashion.

He was also still obsessed with touching him. Where Vaati was from, constant, almost invasive physical contact was the norm, so Shadow didn't mind.

He hadn't minded.

Now, he wasn't so sure.

It began as a tiny note in the back of his mind, when Vaati would pat his hand, or his knee, or hug him out of nowhere. Then it rose to actual irritation the more it happened. Shadow tried to just shrug it off, because he felt ridiculous. This was Vaati. And Vaati had always counted on him to not be weird about it, ever since they met as kids and everybody thought Vaati was a clingy brat when actually, he was just doing what he'd done at home.

I was the only one to not make fun of him or get mad. I never got mad.

Holy shit, am I mad?!

"Hey, Shay-Shay, do you wanna get ice cream? It's still early." Vaati was dancing in a circle,

Shadow silenced his guitar strings with the palm of his hand and stood up. "Dude, it's like 9pm." He set his guitar back on its stand.

"Hot chocolate then? I want to see if that cute bookstore is still here." Quickly, Vaati pranced across the room and wrapped his arms around Shadow's neck. "Pleeeeeease?!"

Suddenly Shadow couldn't take it anymore. He took Vaati's arms and shoved them off of him, saying, more sharply than he intended. "No thanks. I don't want to." Vaati just stared at him, and he felt horrible. He dropped his face in his hands. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that, I swear." What's wrong with me?! Here my best friend in the whole fucking world is back in my life, and I go and ruin it like this!

Vaati didn't say anything, which meant he was waiting for Shadow to get himself together, which he would only do if Shadow had actually hurt his feelings, which OF COURSE he had—

"It's Vio, isn't it?"

Slowly, Shadow raised his head. "What?"

Vaati was looking at him with sadness. He didn't seem hurt at all.

Shadow thought about what he'd said. He realized that in his entire life, there'd only been two people he'd been really physical with. Like, sure, he hugged Sheik and wrestled with Link and Aryll, all that kind of thing with most of his friends and family. But he'd never slept in the same bed as Link, or cuddled in Sheik's lap while watching TV. There were only two people he could say he'd ever been that physical with. One was Vaati.

The other was Vio.

His throat caught.

Vaati stepped forward, raising his arms. "Close your eyes," he said. Shadow did. Vaati hugged him, and Shadow wasn't mad anymore, but he still didn't understand what Vaati was doing until he said, "I want you to pretend I'm Vio."

Shadow's whole chest burned, the lump in his throat making it difficult to breathe. He wanted it so badly! So he hugged Vaati back, clutching him desperately, trying to convince himself it was Vio. "I need you," he said through the tears. "Where are you? I need you!"

Vaati, for his part, stood there quietly, patting Shadow's back comfortingly. All day he'd watched his friend fight it off, but now he finally fell apart. It's good I'm here, Vaati thought. Totally worth everything. His heart hurt. At first, he thought it hurt for Shadow, and he held to that as long as he could, but he couldn't deny the truth. He was embarrassed, and hated himself, but . . .

He was jealous. He liked holding Shadow, but he was angry that Shadow was thinking about somebody else.

Why am I so selfish?! His boyfriend DIED!

Despite knowing this, the feeling wouldn't leave, and Vaati found himself staring bitterly at the wall behind Shadow, even as Shadow's tears soaked his shirt.

That Saturday, Nabooru walked on the pavement, her high ponytail flapping in the wind behind her, sleek and long. Her thoughts were occupied with her outfit. It was a daily battle, really. She didn't want to wear so much jewelry and makeup that she couldn't do her job comfortably, but she wanted to still look good. She'd settled on an almost full face of makeup, golden eyeshadow, red winged eyeliner, and mauve lipstick, but she'd held back from the gold glitter blush.

Barely.

It looked so good with this eyeshadow . . .

For clothes she'd gone much simpler, her dark moss skinny jeans so tight they were almost leggings, a yellow, sleeveless crop top to match her face, and a light, cotton button up that she'd tied in the front at her navel.

For the more practical decisions, she'd forgone her large gold hoop earrings, opting for smaller, pin-sized studs, rubies in the first set of holes, pearls in the second. Her shoes were sturdy boots—the working kind, not the fashion kind. Although she felt she made them look pretty fabulous. Her hair wasn't a problem. It stayed mostly out of the way, but if she needed it especially out of the way, her ponytail swiftly became a bun.

No problemo.

Finally, the last, and utterly worst, most practical decision she ever made, was her nails. She brought up one hand and stared at the things, filed down almost as far as they could go. They were painted gold, because she couldn't resist, but she knew by the end of the day the polish would be uselessly chipped.

She lowered her hand with a disgusted face, wanting to hurl. She missed typing with her long, gemmed and gelled squoval claws. The feeling of her fingerpads on the keyboard was just too weird . . .

She heaved a sigh. It's worth it. It's worth it! Just think of all the fun you'll have with Link on that boat when you're done building it with him!

"Hey, honey, c'mere why don't you?"

Her shoulders hunched automatically, her fingers gripping the bag over her shoulder. She lowered her head and kept walking.

"Where you going? Come show me some of that Gerudo lovin'!"

She ignored the whistles and catcalls, but couldn't help glancing to her left.

It was two men, in their forties maybe, scruffy faced and leering.

Ugh! Don't they have better things to do? What makes them think I even want to talk to them?!

"Stupid Gerudo slut!"

"Come on, just a smile!"

She rounded a corner and deflated, letting her feet carry her quickly away from the horrible men and their horrible comments.

I'm only fifteen, but I have to deal with this crap! I could be their daughter. She shook herself of it with a toss of her hair. It doesn't matter. Soon I'll be at work, and Link will be there. He never treats me that way!

In a few minutes she made it to Linebeck's. She walked up the disused sidewalk past the unkempt lawn and through the dilapidated gray front door. "Hello!" She announced.

A friendly voice answered immediately. "Nabs?"

Just hearing Link's voice made all the difference in the world. His blond-mopped head appeared behind the front desk, whole face leaning into a smile as he saw her with his bright blue eyes. "Hey, Link," she said, grateful.

Link pushed through the swing door of the desk and came her way. "How was the trip?"

Should I tell him? About the men? It was embarrassing. She was still upset about it. It was only because she was Gerudo. Those men would never dare if she was a Hylian girl. "It was . . . you know . . . boring."

Link scratched behind his head sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I liked when we traveled together, too."

Nabooru smiled. Yeah, Link would never call her Gerudo slurs. He wouldn't even think about catcalling anybody, or even think anybody would be catcalled. He never saw her for her race. He was truly colorblind. Yeah, I won't tell him. He wouldn't understand anyways.

He took her hand. "Come look at what Linebeck got in the last shipment! There's something I really want to show you."

Heart fluttering happily, Nabooru followed him through the grey wood shelves to the one marked with an old sign, "New Loot!" She watched him pull something off the shelf. It was a necklace with thick, golden beads held together on a heavy chain. In the center was a beautiful gold amulet with a deep ruby in the center.

Her mouth fell open in admiration. "Wow!"

"I know, right? Put it on!"

Nabooru arched back as Link held it out to her. "What!" she said in surprise, then chuckled and waved a hand. "I couldn't. It's pretty gaudy, isn't it?"

Link was still holding it up, eying her with a smirk. "You know you want to!"

She matched his smirk and her eyebrows lowered greedily. "You're right. Help me!"

Link stepped up and placed it around her neck, fastening it in the back, getting extremely close to her in the process. Nabooru tried to ignore how close he was, but his freckles were out for the whole world to see, splashed across his sun tanned face. She smiled as the butterflies got worse. They didn't calm down as Link stepped back.

"How does it look?" Nabooru asked with a hair flourish.

Link grinned madly. "Just like I thought!"

Nabooru blushed. "What?"

He put his hands in the pockets of his worn out jeans. "It looks really good against your skin."

She froze as if hit with a block of ice. "What do you mean?"

Link was still looking over her, making her blush harder. "It really brings out your coppery tone."

Nabooru's hands went behind her neck, ready to rip the necklace off. She paused, though, and asked, "What do you think about it?"

"Huh?" Link said with a confused, oblivious look. "I think you look beautiful. I tell you all the time." He ducked his head with a bashful grin, scratching the back of his neck yet again. "You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."

She was glad she wore a full face of makeup. Hopefully it hid a little bit how much she blushed. Link's not color blind. She put her hands on her hips, desperate to alleviate how absolutely flustered she felt. "Do you think Linebeck would let me keep this?"

Link crossed his eyes. "PFFFFT!" He laughed. "He'd probably charge you for wearing it!"

Nabooru laughed along. "You're right!" She undid the clasp and set the necklace back on the shelf.

"Come on," Link said, heading back to the front desk.

Nabooru caught up to him, pausing to lean over and kiss his cheek before running past him.

He stopped and slapped his own face where she'd kissed him.

She giggled and flipped her hair.

Shadow surveyed the lawn outside Granny's house. Needs mowing. He looked above at the eaves. Gutters are gross. "GRANNY!" He shouted, knowing her bedroom window would be open. "DO YOU NEED HELP WITH YOUR GUTTERS?!" Ever since he'd gotten his physical prowess back, he'd been looking for anything to do that involved using said physical prowess. "I CAN DO THAT!"

Granny's face appeared in the second story window. She leaned her chin on a tiny hand and smiled. "Hello, Shadow!"

Shadow sighed. Just like her to ignore me. "Hey! Did you hear what I said?" He put his hands on his hips indignantly. "This lawn ain't gonna mow itself!"

"Aryll's waiting for you," Granny said. "Come inside!"

His mouth curled in exasperation, but how could he be mad at Granny? She was only worried he'd overexert himself.

He walked through the front door. "HEY, PRINCEEEESS!"

Aryll came barreling down the stairs. Thump thump thump thump— "Shady! Shady!"

Shadow's grin turned feral. "Sup, Aryll, Aryll, Aryll! Where's Link and Nabs?"

Granny spoke up while coming down the stairs. "Link and Nabooru have work today. They won't be back until later."

Aryll dragged Shadow to the living room by the hand and plopped herself on the couch. Shadow plopped next to her on his side and said, "Guess it's just you and me." He pretended to whine. "Awwwww."

Aryll bit her bottom lip with a grin, staring straight into Shadow's eyes. Aryll avoided touching and looking at everybody else, but ever since they'd first met, she'd always been able to touch him and look him in the eyes.

Magic? Is it the Triforce piece I have? Link has one also. Maybe mine's extra special?

He didn't know. He wasn't a science or magic or autism specialist. But being Aryll's personal teddy bear was basically awesomesauce with a generous side of adorable so it's not like he was going to complain. He lunged at her and pulled her into a giant bear hug, making her laugh. He got up and threw her over his shoulder, running in circles around the room until she was heaving with laughter. He smiled happily as he set her down.

She raised her hands at him and hopped up and down.

"Again?" he asked. Then he grinned. Aw, heck, why not? I Couldn't do this before my heart transplant!

As he lifted her into the air again, his chest began to ache, but not from the strain.

Thank you, Vio.

A/N Can you say DrAmAaaaAAaAAAAAAA!