A/N: Happy Saturday and happy fireworks day to my American readers!
Chapter 25: Definitely Not a Date
Saturday 12-24, 9:00am
Status: Sparring with Link
"What, did you think I'd go easy on ya?" Link grinned, leaning over Vaati where he was sprawled out on the courtyard grass. He held out a hand.
Vaati ignored the offer of help and sat up on his own, rubbing the back of his head. "I thought you'd show some consideration since I'm an amateur. Geez, why do I even have to learn hand-to-hand combat?" It wasn't like he would ever need it. If he got in some sort of conflict, he could easily end it with magic.
"I already explained it to you, Vaati," Sheik called out. He and Aveil were watching the two students practice. "You rely on your magic too much. If for any reason you couldn't use your magic, you would be completely defenseless."
"Alright, fine," he conceded, sighing and getting to his feet, "but why do I have to practice with this guy? He won't lower the difficulty." He pointed an accusatory finger at Link.
Sheik shook his head. "Link's attacks have all been ones that you could have easily blocked or avoided. Minus that last one." His red eyes turned to the younger blond, frowning at him disapprovingly. "Kicking his feet out from under him was cheating, don't you think?"
With a sheepish laugh, Link replied, "Sorry, I just couldn't resist. His expression when he fell was really funny! I won't do it again." He turned to Vaati and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Come on, let's try again. You just have to dodge or block all my hits, as I showed you before. Remember, dodging is the best, but usually, you can't avoid a hit, so you need to minimize the impact and protect your face and torso. I'll start out a little slower this time." The blond leaned forward and added in a whisper, "We can't leave till those two are satisfied that you're not completely defenseless."
"Yeah, yeah." Vaati took a deep breath, shaking out his hands and rolling his shoulders. Then he lifted up his fists and planted his feet in the defensive stance Link had taught him. "Hurry up, already."
It was fairly simple: Link would throw punches at Vaati, and Vaati would do his best to dodge or block the punches. A successful block was when the punch landed on his forearm or when he intercepted the move and pushed Link's arm away. He kept his eyes fixed on his opponent's fists, trying to anticipate where the next throw would be. Face? Stomach? Left or right fist?
"That won't work!" Link called out as his left fist connected with Vaati's stomach. Vaati stumbled back, wincing. "Trying to anticipate my moves will only trip you up. You aren't experienced enough to predict what the other guy is going to do, so you have to rely on your reflexes. Watch my fists but don't anticipate." Link beckoned to Vaati with one hand.
Grumbling but without any other options, Vaati straightened and resumed the defense position. This time, he watched Link's movements intently, waiting for the hits without trying to guess where it would come from. His responses were sloppier than he would have liked, but they were more accurate; he didn't misjudge which arm to block with as often. Link still got in a few solid whacks to his chest.
"You're improving! Alright, I'll go faster!"
"Wait, not ye—" Vaati gasped, only to receive another punch to the gut. He snarled and swung his fist at Link, tired of taking hits like he was a punching bag.
The blond ducked under the swing and immediately sprung forward, wrapping his arms around Vaati's torso, plowing into him so that he lost his balance and fell backward, Link on top. He'd barely registered that the breath had been knocked out of him, and then Link was grabbing his wrists, pinning his arms above his head. Panting, the two remained still for a moment.
Vaati stared mutely at Link. There was that hard glint in his blue eyes—quickly fading, but he caught it. That look always made Vaati somewhat uncomfortable. It filled him with a mixture of fear and... awe, at the barely tame fire within Link's eyes. He felt more trapped by those eyes than by the hands pinning him down.
"You cheated!" Link chided him. He let go of Vaati's wrists but didn't stand up. "I know you're jealous of my good looks, but that's no reason to try to punch me in the face!"
The Mage stammered a weak retort, "Y-yeah, well... I'm not a human punching bag, either." He wasn't looking at Link's face anymore; instead, he had suddenly become very aware of the fact that Link was, well, sitting on top of him. And this was making him extremely uncomfortable. "G-get off of me already!"
To his great relief, Link responded immediately, hopping up and pulling Vaati to his feet as well. "Need a break?" the blond asked.
Vaati glanced over at Sheik and Aveil. The Gerudo was snickering quietly to herself, and she pointed to her cheek, then at Vaati. He scowled at her; he didn't need her to point out how red his face was—he could tell plenty well by how hot it felt. "No, let's keep going," he replied stubbornly to Link. Vaati refused to let something like that bother him. Getting pinned down during combat with another guy was nothing to be self-conscious about. Link was acting perfectly normal—so should he. Din, had Vaati been trying his best to act normal, ever since that dream—
He pushed aside those thoughts and focused on not getting punched in the stomach again. After a while, he sort of fell into a rhythm, and he was able to consistently dodge and block Link's hits—for the most part. Link seemed to enjoy punching him in the stomach, but Vaati didn't try to punch back anymore. He just comforted himself by thinking that he could actually put bats in Link's bed as revenge now.
They went at it for another half-hour, Link gradually increasing his speed. By the end, Vaati was panting and sweating, despite the chilly winter air. Link still looked like he had energy to spare; he was bouncing on his feet and was only slightly out of breath compared to Vaati.
"That's enough," Sheik called out to them. He was nodding with satisfaction. "You improved faster than I expected, Vaati."
The Mage ignored the compliment. "We're done for the day, then?"
"I heard you two have plans, so yes, you can be done for today. But there will be more training tomorrow morning, same time. You can throw some punches at Link then." Sheik gave a smile when Link inched away from Vaati like he was afraid of the Mage punching him then and there.
As the two went off to take showers, Aveil called out to them from behind, "Have fun on your daaate!"
Vaati froze, then whipped around and shouted back, "It's not a date, you delusional witch!"
She just winked at him.
1:22pm
Location: Temple Café, Temple of Time
As Vaati and Link sat in the visitors' café inside the Temple of Time, he was only half-listening to his companion's chatter and only half-eating his BLT. The café was full of visitors—families enjoying the Saturday together, college students visiting during the break—and their conversations overlapped in a lively babble. It was easy to tune out whatever Link was saying.
When he thought about it, there was literally only one thing that made their outing not a date. They'd gone on a walk before going to the Temple of Time, had gone on the tour of the museum inside, stopped at the gift shop, and argued over whether to buy souvenirs, and now were having lunch together. If a guy and a girl did that, it would almost certainly count as a date.
That was the distinction—they were both guys. Vaati was not interested in guys, and neither was Link. Not a date. Even if for some reason Vaati had been staring at Link slightly more than at the museum artifacts. Not a date. Or even if he had briefly considered buying Link a souvenir. Not a date. Not a—
"Vaaaaaaaati!"
Link's finger poked his cheek, and he startled, dropping his sandwich on the table. He hadn't even noticed Link slowly stretching his hand across the table until his finger was right on his face. "What was that for?" Vaati grumbled, gathering up the mess his sandwich had made and cursing how easily he blushed.
"You were spacing out and ignoring me," Link pouted. "I was talking about super-important stuff, you know!"
"I doubt it." The sandwich's insides were now just a pile on his plate.
"I was listing a whole bunch of ideas of other things we could do. Winter break is only three weeks, so I wanna do some fun stuff before we go back to the Academy," the blond explained. He'd negotiated for some more outings during the break, citing that 'they were gonna be stuck doing a lot of work the rest of the time.' He reached out a hand to snag a piece of bacon from Vaati's plate but got a solid slap instead. "What do you wanna do?"
Piling the BLT back together, Vaati sighed and shrugged. "I thought it was your choice." He stared at the sandwich in his hands but didn't take a bite.
"It's supposed to be fun for both of us. You know that word, fun? Enjoyable? Happy? Makes you—" Link reached out both hands for Vaati's face, pulling up the corners of his mouth "—smile?"
Vaati's carefully put-together sandwich fell once again as he swatted Link's hands away. "Stop touching my face!"
His roommate just grinned and tried to poke his cheeks, forcing Vaati to repeatedly push his arms away until finally he just grabbed Link's hands. Link didn't struggle against it; instead, he threaded his fingers with Vaati's. Now it was the Mage's turn to try to pull his hands away. All the while, Link kept grinning and laughing.
Finally, he managed to free himself. Flustered, annoyed, and embarrassed, Vaati grabbed his plate and marched over to the trash, tossing his half-eaten mess of a BLT into the bin. Then he promptly marched out of the café, not checking to see if Link was following.
That blond idiot—Vaati knew he only did things like that to tease him. It had always been that way. Even their first meeting had been punctuated with Link's casual flirtatiousness; he'd kissed his hair, hadn't he? Yeah, that was hard to forget. Link had a thing with personal space—invading it, that is. At first, it had confused and annoyed Vaati, who was not used to anyone being so friendly and in-his-face. Gradually, he'd come to barely tolerate it. Or so he'd thought. When had things changed? When he'd had that absurd dream? Or before that? No, no, he was only flustered now because he wanted to avoid any misunderstandings about his relationship with Link.
He halted at the museum entrance, glancing back. Link was trotting after him. Yes, he needed to prevent any more misunderstandings. And that started with establishing some personal space.
"We going back to the Abbey?" Link asked. Vaati nodded. "Okay! But can we take the long way back?"
"Sure, whatever."
He watched Link from the corner of his eye as they walked. The blond was blowing puffs of air, making small clouds. For a secret agent, he sure was carefree. But perhaps that wasn't true. Link was (usually) serious when the situation called for it.
"Hey, Link," he said after they'd been walking for a while. Apparently, the 'long way' was through the oldest part of town, up a hill where the narrow roads were made of large blocks of stone and the houses were close together. "You asked if Aveil said anything weird to me. Well, actually—"
They both heard it at the same time: a metallic sound, like a knife, scraping against the blade of another knife. It was a sound they had heard once before in the Academy library, what now seemed like a long time ago. In all of the commotion, the sound had almost been missed, but they still recognized it.
They whipped around, searching for the source of the sound. There was no one on the street, however. Vaati had just concluded that it was his imagination when something whistled by right in front of his face and landed with a thunk in the wall of a nearby house. He turned his head slowly. An arrow was embedded in the wooden paneling.
"Don't move," Link hissed. His blue eyes were darting around, likely searching for the origin of the arrow. "It's just a threat. If they wanted either of us dead, it wouldn't have missed."
"You catch on quickly. It spares me from explaining all the details." A tall, thin figure walked out from between the houses, his lips curled into a mocking smile. Ghirahim. "It has been a while, hasn't it? I thought our reunion would never come. And indeed, you were always under that Sheikah's woman's watch. I didn't dare cause a scene. Not like last time. But at last, here we are!" Ghirahim spread his arms out.
Vaati gritted his teeth and growled, "I told you last time that I'm not on your side. That hasn't changed."
With a dramatic sigh, Ghirahim pressed his fingers to his forehead, his head drooping. "Oh, I can see. It simply astounds me to witness you allied with the sworn enemy of your past life. Pitiful, simply pitiful. You could do so much more!" He once again swept his arms up in a flourish. "With that power that rivals the gods—but here you are, playing at being friends with this child."
"I'm not playing at anything, Ghirahim, and if you don't get out of my sight soon, I'll show you exactly what I can do with my magic."
"Wonderful!" Ghirahim laughed, grin widening. "Everyone in this day and age is so lacking in any real fighting ability. But you, Wind Mage—ah, this will be quite the fun battle!"
Vaati snarled and took a step forward, the air around him picking up into wind in response to his growing anger. This time, he would not stand helplessly aside. He would wipe that disgusting grin off of Ghirahim's face. He would do to him what he had done to Sheik, what he had nearly done to Link.
Vaati lifted a hand to snap his fingers, but suddenly Link grabbed his arm. "Don't! He's baiting you!" Link shook his head roughly. "You're just doing exactly what he wants."
"No, I'm doing what I want—beating him to a pulp."
Vaati jerked his arm out of Link's grip and walked towards Ghirahim. Dark eyes looked down at him, glowing with bloodlust and mirth. The Mage leveled his own burning glare at the other man.
"Ah, such rage! It almost makes me shiver," Ghirahim said in a low voice.
In reply, Vaati snapped his fingers. There was a flash of light, and then there was what looked like an incredibly tall man in dark armor standing behind Ghirahim. With a shout that echoed through the metal of his helmet, the knight swung his massive sword towards the pale man.
Almost faster than Vaati could see, Ghirahim jumped, doing a graceful flip in the air before landing on the knight's shoulder. "A Darknut, hmm?" He snapped his fingers, and a long, thin black sword appeared in his hand.
The Darknut attempted to throw Ghirahim off, but he simply jumped of his own accord, landing softly behind the knight. He swept his sword up, slicing through the bindings of the Darknut's armor. Several of the heavy pieces of metal clattered to the ground. The Darknut growled and swung his giant sword, but the thin man was too quick. Before long, he had completely lost his armor; only chainmail remained.
With a roar, the knight tossed his heavy sword aside and grabbed a much thinner, rapier-like blade from its sheath. Then he rushed at Ghirahim—except this time, the Darknut was twice as fast as before. Vaati and Link watched as the two parried, thrust, dodged, and swung in what almost looked like a dance.
But the dance soon ended. Ghirahim got behind the Darknut and thrust his sword through its back. The knight screamed and then vanished in a cloud of dark purple smoke.
Vaati clenched his fists. The way Ghirahim was smirking at him clearly said, 'That was a fun warmup.' Fine, then—this time he would summon three Darknuts.
"Stop, Vaati!" Link shouted. He grabbed Vaati by the shoulders, forcing him to look at the blond. Link's eyes were hard. "It doesn't matter what you summon—it won't hurt him!" Vaati tried to protest, but Link shook him roughly. "Didn't you see? That Darknut made a hit on Ghirahim's stomach, but it didn't do anything. Trust me, Vaati! You can't beat him, not right now!"
When Vaati just stared back at him without saying anything, Link turned to Ghirahim. "What exactly do you want?"
The pale man snapped his fingers, and his sword vanished in a flurry of diamonds. "To see with my own two eyes the legendary power of Vaati, Sorcerer of Winds. I must say, it has been rather disappointing. You have grown dull, Mage. Perhaps that is because you are playing heroes with the Sheikah, allowing them to bind you with rules and morals. As I said, truly pitiful. Like this, I can't even use you." He smirked. "However..."
Ghirahim vanished with that metallic sound and a flurry of diamonds. Vaati cast his gaze about, trying to find where he'd gone off to this time. He turned around, to see Ghirahim standing behind Link, thin fingers gripping his shoulders and head bent low near the blond's. Link froze, his eyes screaming the desire to fight back, but knowing he could do nothing. Vaati's heart skipped a beat.
"This one is of no use to either of us," Ghirahim murmured. "Shall I get rid of him for you?"
"Get. Away. From him," Vaati growled. He heard the wind whistling around him, felt it lifting his hair.
Ghirahim chuckled but didn't move. "You truly are a different person than your previous life. Wanting to protect someone else? It is as though you've grown a heart, Wind Mage. Mm, but I suppose I lied." His left hand slid down Link's arm, grabbing Link's hand and lifting it up to examine the back of it. Vaati saw Link barely shudder. "This one may actually be useful."
He vanished, only to reappear on the roof of a house across the street. "My curiosity is sated. I look forward to a more exciting contest when we meet again, Wind Mage." And then he disappeared for the final time.
"What in Din's name just happened..." Vaati muttered, staring at the place Ghirahim had been only seconds ago. Then he turned to Link. "Are... are you okay?"
Link turned his fierce blue eyes on the Mage, and he seemed to struggle for a moment before replying quietly, "I detest that man. I hate how... helpless he makes me feel." His voice was harsh, angrier than Vaati had ever seen.
"Well, you're not the only one." Vaati lifted his hands and stared at his palms. "I thought it would be easy to pay him back for last time once I got my magic. But he's still way above me."
His friend let out a long sigh, then gave Vaati a pat on the arm, a small smile replacing the anger in his eyes. "Neither of us got hurt this time, so it could be worse. Come on, we need to go back and report all this to Impa."
"You violated your agreement, Vaati." Impa leveled her sharp red glare on the Mage. She, Vaati, and Link were sitting in Impa's guest room, which Vaati noticed was larger than his own. "You are not to use your magic aside from practice within the Abbey."
Vaati scowled. "It was an emergency situation."
"No, as Link told you, it was bait, and you danced right along to Ghirahim's song. What if anyone had seen you? The existence of the Wind Mage and of magic needs to be kept secret." The Sheikah pressed a hand to her temple. "Only the Sheikah elite and the residents of the Abbey have been informed about you. I have not informed the government about you yet, Vaati, because they would be even stricter than I have been. If, however, rumors spread because you used magic in a public space, it would only be a matter of time before the government becomes involved. And if they ask me directly about you, I am required to tell the truth. We Sheikah largely have autonomy as an organization, but ultimately, we do answer to the government. It is vital that you cooperate."
"Alright, I get it, I get it. Can we move on to the more important topic? You know, the one where Ghirahim is immune to even my magic and has some sinister thing he wants to use me and Link for?"
"Well, the running theory is that the Yiga want to resurrect Ganon," Link jumped in. "And they need your magic for that. No clue what he'd want me for, though."
"The Triforce?" Vaati suggested flatly.
The blond turned to frown at his roommate. "What, you think that just because he looked at the back of my hand? Here, look!" He lifted his left hand and shoved it towards Vaati's face. "I don't have any weird triangle birthmarks or anything. I'm not the Hero, anyways, so there's no way I'd have it."
"Link, calm down," Impa said sharply. The blond pulled back his hand. "We have to consider it as a possibility. We're dealing with many things that we thought were only legend. Anything might be possible."
Vaati barely caught Link's muttered reply. "I don't want to be the Hero, though..." The Mage stared at him quietly. He was rather touchy about that subject, though Vaati couldn't judge; he was the same on the topic of the Wind Mage.
"This doesn't change our plans, however," the white-haired Sheikah continued to speak. "Thankfully, Zelda has new information on the Four Sword; go see her, Link. Vaati, you are not to leave the Abbey unless you receive my permission. You are dismissed."
The two students left her room and walked down the hall together. Link invited Vaati to go see Zelda with him, but he declined. Although it was only mid-afternoon, Vaati was mentally drained. To think, earlier he had been agonizing over his relationship with Link. Perhaps it was better that Ghirahim had interrupted him. He didn't really want to bring up awkward topics like that.
In his own room, Vaati collapsed on his bed and stared at the ceiling. They had learned so much and come so far, and yet he still felt like he was in the dark. Who exactly was Ghirahim? Were the Yiga actually attempting to resurrect Ganon? And where did Vaati fit in in all this? How would this particular story end—with him imprisoned within the Four Sword once again, or with a new ending?
He knew he probably shouldn't, but he hoped for a happy ending.
