fleets: I admit this chapter is not well proofread. I have an outline but I don't know what the crapadoodle I'm doing. Not sleeping because of self-imposed Bad Ideas also has something to do with my current state of ?

I don't really know where I'm going with this so I'll just be quiet now.

Chapter 5: Confrontation

By the end of the third day of training, Fuu was looking fairly exhausted. After day 1, Impa had judged that Fuu needed a lot more physical training, and he'd also been given extra exercises for failing his first test. Impa had him running laps around the castle, running while carrying weights, and climbing up and down walls. On the third day she thought he needed more motivation, so she had him compete with Sheik. Even though there was no real prize for finishing laps first other than being able to say he won, that alone made Fuu try even harder.

He didn't end up 'winning,' and he looked just about ready to collapse when the clock struck 3pm. Sheik appeared fine even after they had finished running four complete circuits around Hyrule Castle's rooftops, which included a lot of leaping, sprinting, climbing, and jumping up and down obstacles.

"You did good today, both of you. Fuu, I can see much more improvement since yesterday but you haven't pushed your limit yet. You should be able to complete the run in half the time you just did," Impa said, to Fuu who was bent over with his hands on his knees, breathing hard.

Fuu barely looked up just enough to return an expression that clearly said "Are you serious?" before he went back to staring at the spot between his knees, waiting for his breathing to slow.

"We won't do the evening runs today. I," she gave a heavy sigh, and Sheik tensed briefly as though he already knew what she was going to say, "must leave castle town to take care of some matters. There has been another attack, this time on some merchants on their way to Death Mountain. I need to investigate what happened."

This seemed to take Fuu by surprise, and he looked up momentarily at the news of the attack. Crow's feet appeared on his forehead as he frowned at the news, but he didn't say anything. He was disturbed by the news of an attack so soon after the one on the Gerudo Village.

"Go get some rest tomorrow, and we'll meet again the day after." Impa gave a small bow, which Sheik returned and which Fuu was too tired to do the same. Before long, Sheik and Fuu were left alone under the afternoon sun. It was late summer, and the sun was still high in the sky at 3 in the afternoon. Normally Fuu would have been happy that he would have most of the afternoon off, but they had started training early in the morning again, and all he wanted to do now was go home and take a nap.

"She," Fuu gasped, finally finding some kind of air in his lungs, "has got to be kidding me. Half the time? That's impossible." Sheik could tell that something about the news of the merchant attack was bothering him, from the way Fuu redirected the conversation back to something else. Fuu reached for a small goatskin bag hanging from his waist for some water, looking irritated when it turned out to be empty.

"It is possible. I have done it," Sheik said, and then offered him his own water.

Vaati scowled, pushing the water away. He didn't need any pity. "No one asked for your opinion." The loss against Sheik three days ago had utterly humiliated him, and Fuu couldn't help but be somewhat bitter towards the other warrior. Besides, Sheik was always showing off, doing everything better than him, saying he wasn't good enough to help save the princess… Hah.

"You can do it faster than I."

At this, Fuu seemed surprised. He hadn't expected Sheik to admit inferiority so frankly. Didn't Sheik have any sort of… any sort of pride? Fuu didn't really get it. The two started walking back to the gates, and Fuu kept a thoughtful quiet until they reached the wooden doors. He glanced up at the castle walls, where Impa had made them run across and onto the roof to start the laps. Sheik had made everything look so easy while he, as much as he didn't want to admit it, clearly struggled every step of the way.

All of this wouldn't have bothered Fuu so much if he hadn't heard about the new attack on the merchants. Normally, he could tell himself he was better, and that he could easily beat Sheik if only he'd had more time. The attack, however, was a reminder that he didn't have more time. Or rather, they didn't, and yet they were wasting time on him. It was nothing but an insult to him for them to pretend that he was actually important.

"I don't get it," he mumbled, and Sheik turned back to look at the other apprentice who was staring at his toes. "Since you're so great at everything already, shouldn't you and Impa just be going out and trying to figure out how to beat Dethl? We're sitting here running around the castle in circles while Dethl continues to attack us. You guys are," he gritted his teeth, finding difficulty saying the words that came next, "wasting time trying to get me to be any good. I don't get it."

Sheik was taken aback, surprised by Fuu's outburst. For the first time since Vaati had been redefined as 'Fuu,' a look of sympathy passed over for a brief moment on Sheik's face. He never realized that Fuu had been taking his loss against him so hard. For the first time, he seemed to be confronted by a normal young man who was struggling with his own insecurities, rather than the inhuman monstrosity that had been Vaati. The confidence had been battered out of him. The edges of Sheik's steeled red eyes softened. "I do not think we are wasting time."

"I can't win at anything against you!" Fuu lashed out, his frustration over the past three days finally spilling forward. After his humiliating defeat against Sheik with the apple challenge, Fuu had been unusually quiet for the next few days of training. Now, the exhaustion of the rigorous three-day training catching up to him, and it seemed that Fuu was at his limit of bottling up his frustrations. "I'm a lousy shot with the bow, I'm half as slow as you at everything, I get tired faster, and I can't even knock a damned apple out of your hands without being made a fool!"

"You can't expect to suddenly be good at something after only three days…" Sheik tried to explain, but this only seemed to make Fuu more upset.

"Exactly!" he snarled, stomping over to Sheik. Fuu hated how the other Sheikah was looking at him with that same stoic gaze. He hated it since the first day he'd met him; it was like Sheik was always hiding something, or making fun of him. "Why waste time on me, when we already have you? You, who can do everything better than I can, and you even know how to use magic." Fuu waited for a response, but when Sheik appeared hesitant to answer, he huffed and stormed past him.

"… It's because you're the only one who can lead us to Dethl."

Fuu stopped in his tracks at the sound of Sheik's voice. He turned around, and saw Sheik drop his bow and quiver on the ground tiredly to go sit against the wall.

Sheik's chest rose and fell, a sigh. He closed his eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were feeling that way. It just didn't occur to me that you would feel that way because…" Because you were one of the most dangerous individuals Hyrule has ever seen, Sheik thought, "because you are extremely talented." He thought back to when he'd told Fuu to stay out of everyone's way, when he'd called him a liability, when he avoided conversation with him, and when he told him he didn't need magic to beat him. He also remembered Impa's warning that he was being too harsh. Sheik couldn't honestly say that his behavior had nothing to do with his anger and resentment towards Vaati, the Sorcerer of Winds. He was angry and resentful. When Twinrova had first suggested that they spare the sorcerer to use as a weapon for themselves, Zelda had disagreed vocally. Vaati had hurt the people she loved. She'd eventually agreed to go through with the plan out of necessity, but she had been wary throughout the entire process. It hadn't helped that Fuu's personality reminded her too much of Vaati's.

But Fuu wasn't Vaati. At least not now. This self-conscious apprentice was just another insecure teen like him who was afraid of being unimportant. And finally, Sheik realized he hadn't been fair to Fuu at all. He smiled to himself at this realization. Fuu took the smile the wrong way.

When Fuu angrily began to walk away, Sheik stopped him. "Do you want to know why I can lap the castle faster than you?"

"I get it already. You're better. I get it," Fuu spat, his hands already on the gate, ready to push it open and leave.

"No. It's because I cheat."

The door creaked slowly. Then, the creaking stopped as Fuu froze, his eyes wide in shock at Sheik's admission. He stared even more at the Sheikah who was shaking his head slowly, chuckling lightly to himself.

"You can be much stronger than I'll ever be," Sheik continued. He moved over when Fuu slowly came walking back to join him. Sheik didn't mention the part that he knew for a fact that Fuu was more powerful than he was, because he knew what Vaati had been capable of. "You can also do things none of us are able to do. Do you remember how you were able to go through the desert dungeon without activating any traps?"

Fuu was sitting next to him now. He seemed to have calmed down, and was thinking over what Sheik had said.

"The dungeons in Hyrule allow you passage, and no one else. There are several of these kinds of dungeons that we've found, but no one has been able to find a way past their doors. For a couple, we've found alternative routes inside, but the dungeons are often filled with traps. Myself, Impa, and Link are the few who can navigate through them, but even then it's never a guarantee that we can get out safely. As for the majority of the dungeons, they have proven to be nearly impossible to go inside." Sheik paused. Next to him, Fuu's eyes widened, realization dawning on his face. "However, you can go through them. We saw that at the desert dungeon. Dethl is most likely hiding in one of them, and we can't find him without you."

Fuu stared at his hands, opening and closing his fingers slowly while confusion furrowed his brows. "Why me?"

At this, Sheik shrugged. "We don't know." It was a lie, of course. The reason why Fuu could go into these dungeons without any trouble because he was their architect, Vaati. But Fuu didn't need to know that.

The pale teen slumped back against the wall, then, staring up at the clouds rolling by above them. He appeared less angry, and now appeared simply tired, like Sheik. He didn't say anything for a while, and the two continued to sit against the wall of the empty training grounds. Eventually, a bird flew by and landed by their feet, unaware that they were there. Fuu tossed a pebble at it, shooing it away.

"I only have memories of being a lousy Sheikah," he said in a low voice. "I don't remember a single mission I completed, I don't remember finishing training, and I don't remember ever being included in anything important. Vaati messed up my head, but I feel like I should have some kind of memory of doing something as a Sheikah if I ever did anything that meant something." He smiled bitterly, tossing another pebble. It hit the first one, centered. "It sucks, you know?" he laughed, "the only real memory I have is the Sheikah mantra that was drilled into our heads, the one that says I should give up my life if it would save the royal family. That, and my name. I don't have any memories of family or friends." Fuu clenched his hands. It was difficult to see what Sheik was thinking, as his face was shadowed and still. "And the more I try to piece my life back together, the more I feel like it wasn't one worth remembering. You and Impa would never have paid attention to me if it weren't for the fact that only I can open these dungeons."

Their eyes met. Sheik tried to hide it but Fuu was too quick, too perceptive. Sheik's brief flash of hesitation in his eyes only confirmed that what he suspected was true; he wasn't needed if it weren't for his unique abilities. "I'm not wrong," Fuu muttered, trying not to sound too disappointed.

Sheik tiredly covered his face with a hand. He didn't really know what to say. What was he supposed to do? Was he actually feeling bad about what they had done to Vaati, now? No, he was getting it all wrong again. He was feeling bad about what they had done to Fuu, not Vaati. A few days ago he would have said that Vaati deserved what had been done to him. But if Fuu was someone else, did he deserve what he was going through now? Who was Vaati, who was Fuu…?

What he really needs now is someone to guide him. He needs a friend.

He stole a glance towards Fuu again, and he thought he understood what Impa meant now. He thought he'd understood her earlier, but after talking to Fuu today, he realized he really hadn't. He hadn't really been seeing Fuu as, well, Fuu.

But… he didn't really know how to be friends with anyone. Link was the one who was good at making friends, not him. As Zelda, she considered Link to be her closest, if not only, friend. As Sheik, Link was one of the extremely few people he exchanged words with on more than one occasion.

How did Zelda become friends with Link? Or perhaps a better question, what would Link do in this situation?

Sheik remembered, then, something Link had said right around the time when Zelda had first met him.

Zelda! Here, hold out your hand like this…

"Hold out your hand," Sheik said to Fuu, who returned a puzzled expression. "Like this, and then follow what I do," Sheik held out his right hand, curled into a sideways fist. Fuu looked confused, and at first it looked like he wasn't going to listen. However, he slowly returned the gesture, holding out his right hand into a similar fist. Without saying a word, Sheik hit Fuu's fist with his from the top, then the bottom, and then they bumped knuckles. At the end, he opened his palms for a firm handshake, which Fuu returned with an increasingly confused frown.

"It's… it's a Sheikah tradition," Sheik lied, averting his gaze when they were done with the secret handshake. "It is a secret message not to be shared lightly."

"A message?" Fuu asked skeptically.

"The Sheikah don't often work with others. They keep to themselves," Sheik said, his confidence returning little by little with every word. He was making all of this up, of course, but how he felt about it was as close to reality as any other truth. "However, at times we must work together, and this handshake is an understanding of that."

"I don't really understand what this means?" Fuu cocked his head, wondering when Sheik was going to let go of his hand.

"It means," Sheik picked his words carefully, so as not to get anything wrong, "that I choose to trust you." He let go, then, and forced himself to look, really look, at Fuu rather than avoid him. "It means that I am sorry that we started off on a bad foot."

Fuu blinked, Sheik's words catching him off guard once again. It was as though he wasn't used to being offered words of kindness. Then again, how could he, when his fake memories didn't have a single instance where someone had been nice to him? After a while, Fuu huffed turning his back away as though he couldn't be bothered. Sheik wondered if he'd messed up somehow, but then he heard a small chuckle. "And that was the second time you were honest with me."

Fuu pushed himself off of the ground, jumping lightly back on to his feet. He appeared a bit more energized now, with a little more life. He walked to the gates leading out of the training grounds, and this time he waited for the other warrior. "You still haven't told me everything," he said as Sheik got up to follow. "How do you cheat running the castle laps?"

Something had changed between them in the last several minutes. Before there had been an invisible cold wall between them both, and the atmosphere had become so antagonistic that it felt like they were both holding their breaths, suffocating. Now the air was clearer, and it was easier to breathe.

For once, Sheik's expression was something other than that cool, stoic, calculated look. His smile was devious behind the cloth that hid his face. "I trust you, but I don't trust you that much."

High up above them, Impa watched her two students with a smile of her own, except it was one of relief. She was glad that she stayed behind for a while before she'd left for her task, to see what Sheik and Fuu would do. She watched Fuu beginning another heated argument with Sheik, but from where she sat on the rooftops she could notice that his voice lacked the bitterness that had been increasing over the course of the past few days. At least for the moment, the poisonous hate and resentment that had been characteristic of Vaati had vanished. Not only that, but the Princess, who had always struggled to open herself up to make friends, seemed to have finally made one. The normally quiet Sheik, often mistaken for being callous, was actually talking back and even laughing from time to time as the two retired back to their own rooms.

As much as Fuu had surprised Sheik, he had surprised Impa as well, who had been observing the entire conversation hidden up on the castle roof. When they had initially agreed to go through with Twinrova's plan to use Vaati as a tool to win against the remaining darkness, she hadn't anticipated that they could perhaps save more than Hyrule. Perhaps they could also save Vaati, or rather, Fuu.

Impa, feeling a little more reassured about leaving Sheik to keep an eye out on Fuu, leapt down from the roof and slid down the castle walls to make her way outside. She'd heard some odd reports regarding the attack that had happened to the merchants. Most troubling was that the report included a description of someone who looked just like Link, which was impossible considering the hero himself was too crippled by his last fight to have participated in the attack.

If the attacker was who she thought it was, it was going to be increasingly important for Fuu to complete training, as well as for him and Sheik to trust each other.

fleets: Hey thanks for reading! Especially because I don't know how I feel about this chapter. It's not that I don't like it, it just feels kind of meh? Maybe I just feel funny about writing happy things. I don't think my writing style has a whole lot of "the power of love and friendship overcomes evil blah blah rainbows and sparkles etc." and this chapter kind of had that sort of vibe. Or maybe I'm just overthinking things. I had a lot more which got moved to the next chapter because I didn't like where I would have had to break it.

At any rate, I can't wait to build up a happy cute foundation and then smash it into a million pieces. Enjoy the fluff while it lasts.

Serpent Tailed Angel: Yeah that makes sense. I guess I'd forgotten the feeling since I haven't actually started a new story in a long time. As for Link, I was debating about his role in this story, since I didn't want to make this story another Rend or AI copy. Still, I wanted him to be around, and I didn't want him to be so invincible like I used to write him. He got hurt, bad enough to be out of any real fights for a while. He does limp somewhat, but it's not that noticeable now since he's had some time to heal (definitely not where he used to be though).

Cattycheeno: Oh! I guess I didn't make it clear enough with Impa holding the bow, but the one who shot the arrows with the notes was Impa, not Sheik. I like to see Impa as someone who, while quiet, occasionally has a cheeky sense of humor.
I actually went hunting around for copies of Naruto because of your comment haha

Reily96: I'm actually struggling a little with this the more I progress the story. He's still Vaati, but then I come up with something like this chapter and a part of me can't help but be like "who is this guy and what's he doing in my story?" Bah I'll figure it out. Maybe.
I never gave much thought to who I thought Sheik was until I was forced to in writing this story. Currently I refer to them as 'he,' just to avoid confusion because other characters address Sheik with a male pronoun, but in terms of whether or not I actually consider him he/she/them/whateverthewhat, same/different as Zelda, I don't know? haha. I guess that's another thing I'll figure out over the course of writing this. Maybe. I still have strong VaaZel biases even though there won't be any pairings in this story, which might affect how I write Sheik and Vaati, but would that make it Vaaeik(??) (fleets go to bed...)

Flufux: I struggled a little on whether or not to include Link, but I knew I couldn't just write him off since he does exist in this Zeldaverse that I'm currently using. He lost a fight which he'd expected to win, and came out of it injured enough that he wouldn't be able to do any serious fighting any time soon.
They fixed the review issue! I can see everyone's submission from the main page now. :) And haha no worries! Just hearing that you thought of them made me happy, don't worry if you don't get around to them! (I totally understand that feeling) :)

SubZeroChimera: It's really interesting to read what kinds of themes/ideas people are leaving with when they read a chapter, because I didn't think of pulling the story along in that direction. Now that you mention it, that would've made for some pretty interesting dialogue/plot! I think one thing that bothered me about this chapter was Fuu's fairly open admission that he thought he sucked compared to Sheik, which didn't seem like something Vaati would have done (pre MC, and definitely not post MC). If he'd been the kind of guy who could admit to how he was feeling, I think things wouldn't have been as bad as it had been with Ezlo, because at least there was some kind of communication about problems. I think the situation is different here, though, because the age gap between Sheik and Fuu aren't huge (both late teens in appearance), which changes the dynamic. I'm not sure I was able to justify Fuu's potentially OOC behavior well in the actual chapter though.

AquilaMage: The way I characterize Link, I think he can be friends with just about anybody as long as they haven't done anything obscenely horrible (then he'll kick their butt). Haha yeah that sounds just about right. I don't see Vaati as someone who is very mature. I have an image of him leaving Ezlo's apprenticeship around his teens, and then he got sealed almost immediately afterwards, which means that even though he's old he didn't have a whole lot of growing up to do.

Vesperupus: Hahaha I was hoping someone would get that reference XD I wasn't going to let this story finish without Link making Vaati fail in some kind of way lol
I have a similar kind of idea as you, but probably more on the lines of dialect rather than completely separate languages (mostly because I played some of my first major Zelda titles in Japanese, and the differences in dialogue sound more along the lines of how Japanese regional dialects differ, rather than language quirks that come from learning English as a second language).
At the same time, I do like the idea that there are other languages outside of Hylian (e.g. farther out in other kingdoms, for example), and it wouldn't be far fetched to say that the Sheikah might have a language of their own. In that case, Fuu would completely, utterly fail to understand the other Sheikah because what Twinrova did was mostly to get rid of all of his memories and make him remember the core Sheikah ideas. Anything else Fuu remembers were things he accepted as likely memories (my research area actually happens to be in human memory so I really love rambling about this sort of stuff, and writing stories about it)