A/N: next week will be a never-before-seen chapter! I'm actually super out of practice with writing so hopefully it won't feel too different haha but I'm looking forward to some fresh content :)

Chapter 21: By Your Side

Week 15, Monday, 2:00pm

Nohansen Library

If Vaati paid more attention, he would have noticed that the same redheaded girl kept popping up wherever he went. Like right now—she was sitting at a table just barely in sight from where the mage was typing on his laptop. Fortunately for Link, he wasn't that observant, and so she kept her watch on him from afar. This tactic kept her at a distance from Vaati, physically and (hopefully) emotionally.

Vaati hadn't acted any differently towards her since their return from the Abbey, aside from when they'd run into each other at the cafe; it seemed like he'd become resigned to being ignored. She did catch him staring at her a lot during their Mythology class, though. He'd quickly look away whenever she glanced at him. Link couldn't help but wonder if his conversation yesterday was to blame.

Per usual, when Vaati went out on Sunday morning, Link had popped in her earbuds and listened in on what he was doing. Not per usual, shortly after, she heard a familiar voice greet Vaati, and the feed had filled with static, making it impossible to hear anything. This would have made her anxious, except the voice she had heard was Aveil's. The Gerudo knew about the bugs on Vaati. Most likely, she had brought a disruption device to make sure Link didn't listen in on her conversation with Vaati.

That had just made Link extremely curious. What would Aveil possibly have to say to Vaati that she didn't want Link to know about? She'd thrown on a random disguise and made her way to Wheaton and Pita's, only to see Vaati marching out of the cafe, an irritated scowl on his face. Aveil, for her part, had looked rather pleased with herself.

Link hadn't bothered asking Aveil about it; she'd gone through the trouble of disrupting the bug, sending Link a clear signal that that conversation was not for her ears. The Gerudo was infuriatingly good at keeping secrets when it suited her. Vaati's frustrated expression kept nagging at her, though.

Well, there wasn't anything she could do about it. Just keep on keeping her distance, doing her job as a spy, not prying into Vaati's business just because she was curious.

It was really boring. And a tad frustrating. But if she wanted to stay on the case, bored and frustrated she would have to be.


Tuesday, 2:52am

Link and Vaati's room

She woke up to silence again. Groggily, Link sat up, brushing her messy hair out of her face, and waited for the sound she knew had woken her up. It came a few moments later: a series of strained mumbles, just loud enough for her to hear.

Link tossed her blanket to the side and slid out of bed. How many times was this now since they'd returned from the Abbey? It felt like almost every night that she woke up to the same mumbles and groans. Silently she crept across the room to her roommate's bed.

Sure enough, Vaati was lying in a twisted, tangled mess of blankets, breathing heavily, and talking in his sleep. Link settled herself on the floor next to the bed. There was no moon out, but she knew his face must have been drawn into a grimace, sweat on his forehead, his hands clenching at the blankets.

He murmured and mumbled the same things: about the never-ending darkness, how time ceased to be, how he was going to fade away. Link listened to it all, to him calling out her name, and then falling back into the darkness.

She knew what his nightmare was now. Back when he had grabbed the Four Sword and passed out, Vaati had spoken about the same darkness, and that's when Link understood: his nightmare was about his prison within the Four Sword. The Link in his dream was not her, but one of the Heroes of the past that had fought the Wind Mage. Vaati was caught in the nightmares of his past life.

"I wish I could free you," she murmured. "I thought I did when I pulled out the Four Sword, but your nightmares just got worse... Sorry..."

Eventually, Vaati's mumbles faded and he seemed to escape the nightmare. Link remained where she was, though, seated cross-legged on the wooden floor next to his bed, watching his chest rise and fall. She slid a hand up but hesitated to touch him, afraid he'd wake up.

"You know, Vaati, sometimes I wish I weren't a spy. But then we wouldn't have met, I guess. And if I quit being a spy, I wouldn't be allowed to stay here, either. Maybe we can't be friends anymore. That's okay. I'm happy knowing we were friends at one point. That's enough..." Link barely touched the back of Vaati's hand with her fingers. Her eyelids were drifting closed. "I can make sure you won't get trapped in the darkness, and protect you from people like Ghirahim. That's the sign of my friendship with you, even if we can't be friends like before..."

She drifted asleep before she realized it, hand on top of Vaati's.


"Wake up, Link!"

Her eyes slowly cracked open and she lifted her head, wincing. Her neck ached and didn't want to turn all the way. Besides that, both legs were asleep. Groaning, Link stretched out her arms and blinked groggily, working out the kink in her neck.

"Why were you sleeping half on my bed?" her roommate, who was crouching next to her, demanded.

"Uhh... sleepwalking?" Link replied. She pulled herself to her feet and grimaced. Both legs pricked with a thousand invisible needles, and she had to hold onto the bedpost to keep her balance. "Gimme a minute..."

Vaati glared at her rather fiercely. He seemed more bothered than she would expect; it wasn't like she had crawled into bed with him again. When she turned away to walk to her own bed, Vaati suddenly grabbed her arm. "Stop. Just... stop."

She tilted her head questioningly. "Uh, stop what? I'm just going over to my own bed."

"Stop pretending. And lying, and ignoring me, and—" Vaati halted, his grip on her arm loosening slightly and his gaze growing less fierce. "You can't fool me with a weak excuse like that. I was having a nightmare, wasn't I? This isn't the first time I've seen you sleeping by my bed. And you said it yourself—my nightmares keep you up. So, tell me again that it was just sleepwalking."

Why was he so serious about this? Link's tired morning brain had no quick reply, so she didn't answer.

Vaati apparently took the silence as an answer. He finally let go of Link's arm, his expression a mix of frustration and something Link thought was—pain? "Just quit the act. You can't ignore me all day and then try to help me through my nightmares at night." He glanced down, then took a breath and stated quickly, "I heard about Impa threatening to take you off the case."

That snapped Link out of her sleepiness. Oh, Din, he wasn't supposed to find out about that! He was the one person she needed to keep it a secret from. "That—how—" she stammered. Then her mind caught up, and she ran a hand through her loose hair. "Wait, is that what Aveil was talking to you about?"

"Basically," Vaati replied after a brief hesitation. "Just that you'll get removed if you do anything crazy because of me again, and that's why you've been avoiding me."

Link took a deep breath, just standing there for several seconds, and then walked over to her bed, flopping face-down onto the mattress. What was she supposed to do now? She'd been doing her best not to bother Vaati in any way, but now that he knew how she was one strike away from leaving, what if he used that to get her replaced? But... maybe that would be for the best. She turned her face so she could see Vaati. He was staring at the curtains over the window, his expression hidden behind his long bangs.

"Well... it's good news, isn't it?"

Vaati looked over when she spoke, squinting at her. "What's good news?"

"You can finally get rid of your noisy, nosy roommate and get an agent that's actually professional. One that doesn't flirt with you or get you into trouble or pretend to be your friend." Link gave Vaati her most cheerful smile. "So, it's good news."

There it was again—that look of pain and frustration. Her roommate narrowed his eyes and marched over to her bed, glaring down at the blonde. "No, idiot, it's not. I don't want to work with some random agent who will only be waiting for me to slip up so he can label me as an evil villain and get me locked away somewhere. I want someone who forgets that I'm the Wind Mage, who believes I can be someone good, who thinks I should use my magic for something dumb like making a frisbee fly forever. Maybe you lied about who you are and who knows what else, but at least you never lied when you said you were my friend. I finally got that through my thick head, and I finally realized that I actually like having you around, and if Impa doesn't like it, she'll have an angry Wind Mage to deal with."

Link rolled on her side so she could see Vaati better, frowning at her roommate. "Where's my Porcupine and what have you done with him?" It wasn't like him to express his feelings so honestly.

"Can you be serious for once?! I'm saying I want you to stay with me!" Vaati snapped in reply. He cringed the next moment, shaking his head. "That came out wrong. That's not quite—" He huffed and turned away from Link. The tips of his ears were red.

"So, you do have a heart under all those needles," Link replied softly. She quickly turned her face and buried it in her blankets, hiding her expression from Vaati as well. Happiness, so strong it hurt, was making her eyes prick with tears.

Vaati didn't hate her. He didn't want her to leave. She hadn't realized just how afraid she'd been of him hating her forever. Since when had she wanted someone to like her this badly? Link still couldn't explain just why she'd become so attached to Vaati. All she knew was, finally, finally she had a true friend.

"I meant what I said," Vaati spoke up after a while. Link kept her face buried in her blankets. "I'll do what I can to make sure Impa doesn't take you off the case. Tell her you're a good influence on me or something."

Link laughed into the blankets, then lifted her face to grin at Vaati, not caring if he saw how red her eyes were. "You bet I'm a good influence!" She paused, then added in a more serious but still happy tone, "Thanks, Vaati."

He scowled at her and looked away. "Yeah, whatever. Don't make it any more awkward than it already is..." he ended in a mutter.

With a chuckle that was less than innocent, Link hopped out of her bed and sped over to her roommate. Before he had a chance to react, she threw her arms around him, hugging him from behind. He immediately shouted in protest and tried to push her away, but she just laughed and held on tighter despite his loud objections. "Come on, Vaati, you should've known I'd take that as a challenge!"

"Glad to see you're back to your normal annoying self," Vaati growled back. "Now get off!"

She let go after a moment, chuckling at Vaati's flustered reaction. Both students soon grew sober, though, as they thought about what was next. "Impa is not going to be happy," Link murmured. She shook her head to clear out the last bits of sleepiness from her brain, loose hair whipping around her face. "This'll be a fun report! Oh well, I can handle an angry Sheikah agent. Better than an angry Wind Mage!" She winked at Vaati.

He was watching her as she spoke, and he didn't respond, only looked quickly away when she winked at him. Was there something else he wasn't telling her? But Link decided not to try to needle it out of her roommate. For now, she had a more important task on her hands: reporting to Impa.


6:42pm

She decided to wait till after classes were done for the day before calling Impa. "Did you send me those photos from the temple yet?"

"No, I couldn't find the right stamps." Impa moved quickly from the passphrase to asking what was going on. Her voice seemed more clipped than usual.

Link glanced over at Vaati. They were both sitting on her bed, Link's Slate held out in front of them, the audio on speaker. "I have a report to make. Specifically, Vaati has a, uh, request."

"What kind of request?"

Link gestured to Vaati to speak. He sighed, then fairly glared at the tablet. "If you take Link off of this case, I won't cooperate with the Sheikah anymore. And... I want a way to practice my magic. If I have to do it in a certain place or with supervision or whatever, fine. Just let me practice sometimes."

There was a tense moment of silence. Then, "I will consider both requests. However, I must ask your reason for wanting Link on the case. I am sure you are aware of his recent recklessness; he may not be the best agent for this particular situation."

"Because he..." Vaati seemed at a loss for how to explain it to Impa. He scowled. "He does the stupid things so that I don't. He keeps me out of trouble. It's better to have one agent that's slightly reckless than have the Wind Mage on the loose, right?"

"I suppose that is a fair enough point. Link, you are still expected to keep yourself in check."

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am," Link replied quickly, trying to mask her relief. She hadn't expected Impa to be so tolerable about the request.

"Expect to hear from me within the next few days, then. Is there anything else?"

There wasn't, so they wrapped up the call and hung up. Link turned to grin at Vaati. "That wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be! She kinda sounded like she was busy, though, so that might be why." Impa had seemed rather impatient and wanting to finish the conversation as quickly as possible. Maybe things weren't going well with the Four Sword investigation. Link hid away those thoughts and held up a hand for a high-five.

Vaati, as usual, declined to high-five, and stood up, walking over to his desk. "Now that we've gotten the drama out of the way, I can finally focus on my finals. Don't bother me."

"There's the Porcupine I know!" She received a withering glare in reply, but she just grinned back, knowing he wasn't actually annoyed with her. Things were finally back to normal.


Link:

You, Enlil, and Miss Nohansen will spend the winter break at the Eastern Abbey to assist with the investigation there. Depart as soon as possible after the semester has ended. They have each been informed about this as well. You are not required to give reports for the rest of the semester unless something unusual should occur. Keep your wits about you.

-Impa