fleets: This chapter. THIS CHAPTER. I was dying to release this chapter. I really enjoyed writing this, I hope you enjoy reading it!

Chapter 6: The Unexpected Visitor

The next day, it was Fuu's day off. For the first time since arriving back to Hyrule, he would be able to sleep in for as long as he wanted without being rudely woken up for morning training. He had been looking forward to sleeping in, staying in bed past noon, and having the freedom to completely waste his entire day.

At least, that had been the plan, but Fuu was beginning to learn that there was always something that ruined his plans. Around 10 or so in the morning, there was a knock on the door. Fuu, still in bed, opened one eye and peered at the door, thinking he'd misheard. He ignored it, rolling away and pulling the covers back over his head, but then heard another knock on the door, louder this time. He was going to continue to pretend that he wasn't home until he recognized the voice at the door. "Fuu? It's Sheik."

Fuu jolted up from his bed, suddenly wide awake. He glanced at his clock, or where his clock would have been if wasn't broken, and then scowled as he tossed his bedsheets aside angrily. Still in his robes, he stormed towards the door and threw it open, ready to yell at his fellow Sheikah for waking him up on his day off. As soon as the door opened, however, Sheik pushed past him and slammed the door shut, his back pressed against the wall. Instead of his angry tirade, Fuu asked uncertainly, "Uh… Sheik?"

"I need to hide," was the cryptic reply. Sheik peered over to the window from where he was crouching, and then finally relaxed once he saw that the window shades were still closed.

"Mind telling me why you decided to barge into my room this morning?" Fuu asked, a somewhat impatient edge in his voice. He was not a morning person.

"The princess is missing," Sheik replied.

Fuu pulled a blank. He really needed to get used to Sheik surprising him. O…k…? he thought. Instead, he repeated slowly, "The princess is missing and you need to hide."

Fuu wasn't sure if he should laugh or be concerned by the look Sheik had on his face. He'd never seen the normally composed warrior appear so flustered and frazzled. It was similar to the expression of a dog who was caught eating food off the table. By now Sheik would have normally given a reply, but instead he seemed like he'd completely lost all capability of speech.

Fuu helped him out. "Sooo shouldn't we be looking for her?" he asked, thinking that there wasn't enough panicking given what sounded like an extremely urgent situation.

Sheik finally pulled himself together. The focused gleam in his red eyes returned, and he stood up. "She's fine. I know where she is."

"But didn't you just say-"

"She doesn't want to be found, I'm supposed to help look for her, and I left my post so now Impa's looking for me," Sheik explained quickly. The truth of it was that Princess Zelda was supposed to go to a socialite meeting which she found to be a waste of time, and had snuck out of the castle as Sheik, causing an uproar. While the decoy could substitute for her just to have some kind of presence in the castle, the decoy couldn't take her place in large public meetings that involved speaking to people who knew her.

Fuu seemed skeptical, but he was more worried now about Sheik going through his things. Once again, he was interrupted before he could protest. Some spare clothes from his closet were thrown his way.

"I can't sneak past Impa without help. I need you to distract her," Sheik said. Fuu looked down at the clothes in his hands as Sheik motioned for him to get changed. Again, before he could get a word of his opinion, Sheik had disappeared into the washroom with some more clothes he'd found in Fuu's closet. At this point, Fuu had completely given up trying to argue, and started to change into his clothes, muttering under his breath.

"I was really looking forward to my day off but of course things can never go my way." He slipped into the long sleeve undershirt, and then pulled the rusty red tunic over his head. As Fuu put some boots on, Sheik came out of the washroom dressed in a similar outfit, except in a dusty blue one. His head was covered somewhat by the liripipe hood that shielded his eyes.

Sheik glanced nervously at the covered window again, as though Impa would come through it at any moment. "Ready?" he asked Fuu.

"Wait," Fuu held up a hand. "I still don't understand what's going on here, and I'm not helping until I do. Why doesn't the princess want to be found and why are you helping her, against Impa?"

Sheik glanced at the window impatiently. With a somewhat irritated sigh, he said quietly, "Impa thinks she knows what's best for the Princess, and she does, most of the time. The Princess appreciates it. But sometimes," he shook his head, "she doesn't understand that the Princess feels stifled. She wants to have a day off."

Fuu's lips flattened, still not convinced. "You sure know a lot about how the Princess is feeling," he observed. He heaved a sigh, not noticing the momentary panic on Sheik's face, thinking Fuu had figured out his identity. Fuu pinched the bridge of his nose, crinkled in annoyance, before he finally threw both hands up in the air and turned towards Sheik. "You really think I can distract Impa," he said flatly, "your idea is going to get us both in trouble, and I really don't want to do additional castle laps as punishment because of you."

"Unfortunately we don't have a whole lot of time to think of alternatives," Sheik said, hiding his relief that Fuu hadn't figured out that he was actually Zelda. "I wouldn't be surprised if Impa finds me here within the next few minutes."

"Please," Fuu snorted, "and to think I was upset that I thought you were more capable than me yesterday." He stretched his arms, and then brushed back some of his hair that was still somewhat messy after having just woken up out of bed. He wiggled his fingers experimentally, and then snapped his fingers. The robes he'd been wearing earlier, which he'd tossed aside on the floor, vanished from thin air. "That's enough warm up, I think," he grinned. He flashed a devious smile towards Sheik, who was watching him uncertainly. "Hey, do you want to see what I learned how to do last night?"

Sheik didn't really want to, but Fuu's grin said he didn't have a choice.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Dang, I'm good."

Fuu looked around proudly, while Sheik was tense all over after teleporting out of Fuu's house to some part of Castle Town. It took a moment to recognize where they were. The two of them in the middle of one of the main paths, right in front of a cookshop. It wasn't incredibly busy, and the few people who had been walking about gave the two Sheikah strange looks; after all, it wasn't every day that people suddenly materialized in the middle of the street. "That trick of yours attracted more attention than to help me hide," Sheik noted the stares.

"We don't care about those people. We only care about Impa finding you," Fuu scoffed.

"How did you learn how to do magic like that?" Sheik asked, beginning to walk ahead quickly to avoid the public eye, "And let's keep walking," he added when he noticed Fuu was still standing around in front of the cookshop. The former sorcerer seemed to be taking his time going through the food that was available for sale.

Fuu waved his hand at Sheik, disregarding the blonde's urgency to leave. "Oh, I pick it up naturally. I can't really explain it, I can just see spells. I've been seeing more after we left the desert temple." He called over the cook who had been waiting somewhat impatiently for Fuu to either leave or order something. "Are you going to eat anything?" Fuu asked as he paid a few rupees in exchange for an egg on toast.

For a moment Sheik looked like he was going to refuse and drag Fuu away to somewhere with less people. However, his expression brightened when he realized where they were. Sheik was here, in the middle of Castle Town, without anyone supervising him or telling him where he should and shouldn't go. Zelda had never really been allowed to run off out of the castle freely without the supervision of Impa. Her daily routine was either filled with meetings with other high class citizens and nobles, or training. In her spare time, she wasn't so much as prohibited from mingling with the commoners but heavily discouraged. Curiosity overcame Sheik, and he sheepishly made his way towards Fuu and ordered some breakfast of his own.

While Sheik observed the piece of toast in his hands with a sort of wonderment, Fuu craned his neck to find a roof he liked. He finally found one with a tiny angle, not too steep, but with just the right amount of angle for it to be comfortable to sit on. With a swirl of his hand, he warped the both of them up on the roof.

"Can you warn me before you do that?" Sheik grumbled after nearly falling off the edge in surprise from abruptly finding the change in scenery.

Fuu shrugged, grinning. He enjoyed seeing Sheik without his usual cool for once. "Eh, I guess so." He made himself comfortable on the roof to eat, and Sheik did the same. Fuu glanced over at Sheik who was staring out at the view of the town with wonderment. "So you really don't know how to teleport like this?" he asked.

"I do, but not as far as you are able to, and it is much harder for me to teleport other people with me," Sheik said, taking a bite out of the bread in his hand and appreciating the fact that he didn't have to eat with any high-class table manners today. He tossed some extra breadcrumbs to the pigeons that were waddling on the roof next to them. Sheik rolled his eyes when a burst of wind sent them flying away in a fright.

"Interesting," Fuu shook his wrists after casting the small wind spell, "So you don't see the spells like I do?" He summoned an energy sphere in his palm, and then shot it up in the sky where it climbed higher until it disappeared into the clouds.

"Most people don't," Sheik answered, shaking his head somewhat at Fuu's liberal use of magic. "In fact, magic is extremely rare and few people have an affinity to it. It often takes years of rigorous study to have the level of control that you have with your magic."

Fuu brushed the breadcrumbs from his hands and leaned back against the brick tiles that were warm from the sun. He held a hand up to the air, looking at it thoughtfully, "I feel like I've always known how to use spells," he said after a while, "Maybe I just can't remember it well because, well, my memory problems…" He squinted, slowly closing his fingers. Then, he spun his hand in a small circle, making the breeze swirl a little. Sheik watched him create small swirls of wind, thinking about how quickly Fuu was picking up on magic on his own. Twinrova had assumed he wouldn't be able to remember most of his sorcery, but perhaps in Fuu's case magic wasn't something that had been learned, but ingrained. Whether or not Vaati was a human, demon, monster, or some miscellaneous creature was vague in the history books, but demon magic was supposedly more instinctual rather than learned. Hopefully Fuu's skills wouldn't be too much trouble. "I feel alive when I cast spells," Fuu continued, "like it's not just a skill but it's a part of who I am. I want to rediscover more spells.

Sheik nodded. "You were quite talented with magic." A little TOO talented.

The two of them watched the people passing by on the streets for a while longer. As time passed, more and more people appeared until there was a steady bustle. Few people noticed the two teens sitting up on the roofs.

"Vaati was a powerful sorcerer, wasn't he?"

Sheik looked away from the crowd of people below them, and noticed Fuu had that pensive gaze when he was piecing together some kind of idea in his head. Over the few days Sheik had known Fuu, he noticed that the former sorcerer was very interested about Vaati, most likely because he believed that the wind mage was the one who had "messed up" his memory. "Vaati wasn't human. He was a monster," Sheik said dismissively. He still felt uncomfortable talking about Fuu's other past.

Not one to be dissuaded so quickly, Fuu pursued the topic, "Tell me more about him; the sorcerer that almost destroyed Hyrule."

However, Sheik was just as stubborn. "I do not like speaking about him," he waved Fuu's question away with a hand, "Besides, that creature is dead."

Fuu sighed with a somewhat disappointed frown. He charged another energy sphere in his palm and shot it up in the air. This time, it crackled like a firecracker in the sky, causing some people below to look up, startled. "I want to become powerful with magic. I want to become the most powerful person in the world," he muttered. Then he flashed a grin towards Sheik. "Maybe I already am and I just don't know it yet."

Sheik rolled his eyes, "And here I thought you'd learned a thing or two about humility when I beat you three days ago."

"If I was that powerful though," Fuu pressed, rolling himself over to his stomach. There was a sly glimmer in his red eyes as he said boldly, "I could save the princess from anything."

Sheik was taken aback, then, by Fuu's confident determination to protect the princess. He wondered if this determination had something to do with Twinrova's meddling, since their plan had been to brainwash Vaati into thinking he was a loyal Sheikah. However, it was still flattering to hear such a confident declaration, and Sheik had to turn away to hide his face, reddening from embarrassment. If Fuu knew that Sheik was actually Princess Zelda…

A familiar, stern voice, made both students spring up to attention. "If you want to know how to protect the princess you might do well to learn how to lie low, first." Impa towered over them, and she didn't look very impressed with her arms crossed over her chest, a finger tapping her arm disapprovingly. Fuu and Sheik shrunk back away from the older Sheikah who had snuck up behind them. They had gotten distracted from food and conversation, and had forgotten that they were being tracked by one of the best agents of Hyrule. "Sitting completely out in the open and shooting off magical flares… If I didn't know any better, I would have thought you wanted to be found."

Fuu flinched and he grimaced; he hadn't thought about the energy spheres he'd been carelessly shooting up into the air. He cautiously stole a glance towards Sheik, who had his head hanging miserably.

"Fuu, I will speak with you later," Impa sighed, "Sheik, I need you to cooperate to find the princess. Her absence is causing quite an uproar."

"Yes Impa…" he mumbled quietly.

It was the first time that Fuu saw Sheik look so beaten, and the look on the blonde's face couldn't help but make him feel a little sorry for him. As they slowly followed Impa with slouched shoulders, Fuu held out a hand, his fingers curled into a fist. "Next time," he said, grinning.

Sheik looked at the offered fist blankly, and then he broke out laughing as he bumped it with his own. Thee three left for the castle together, and the voice of Impa fervently explaining that there won't be a next time could be heard from the streets below.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Fuu returned to his quarters in the refurbished barracks within Hyrule Castle while Impa spoke with Sheik. He was a little annoyed that Impa ordered him to stay within Hyrule Castle until she came to talk to him about aiding Sheik disobey orders; this was his day off, it wasn't even noon yet, and he wasn't allowed to leave to go anywhere interesting. Of course it was his own fault for getting in trouble, but still. It was annoying.

Fuu expected a rather boring rest of the day. What Fuu should have realized by now was that things rarely went the way he thought they would go. As soon as he opened the door and walked inside his quarters, he had a feeling that someone else had been there. Or rather, someone else was still there.

His hands moving towards the dagger he kept with him at all times around his waist, he cautiously stepped inside while he let his eyes adjust. He tensed when he saw the silhouette of a person sitting in the middle of his bed. The silhouette waved.

"Hiya!" The person said cheerfully.

Fuu recognized the voice, and he relaxed just a tiny bit. "Link?" No sooner as he said that, he realized that while the person was disquietingly similar to the hero, he was not Link. The stranger's hair was a dark black, almost violet in color, and his skin was also a dark tan. However, it was not brown like the skin of the desert people – it seemed as though a shadow dulled his skin from within, if such a thing were possible. His clothes were exactly what Fuu had seen Link wearing a few days ago, only they were black rather than green.

"That joke isn't very funny," the Link doppelganger huffed, "Just because half my name is the same as stupid Link's doesn't mean you can suddenly leave out Shadow."

Shadow Link? Fuu didn't know who this "Shadow Link" was, but it sounded as though the other knew him. Fuu kept one hand on the hilt of his dagger while Shadow babbled on.

"Anyways, I finally made it here. If y'all hadn't gone to distract that tall scary Sheikah by having her look all over for you, I probably wouldn't have made it inside the castle." Shadow flopped backwards across the bed, his arms dangling off the edge lazily. "But y'all were so slow! Do you have any idea how boring it was, waiting for you to come back? If you hadn't shown up when you did, I might have blown this place up out of boredom."

Fuu's grip on his dagger tightened. He didn't know what to make of Shadow Link, but there was a dangerous, unstable gleam in his ice blue eyes that made him uneasy. He decided to play along, for now, to find out more about him. "What do you want, Shadow?" he asked.

At this, Shadow beamed brightly. "What do you mean?" he snickered, "I came back as a faithful servant should," his grin was wide from ear to ear, "Master Vaati."

fleets: Let's start some trouble! :D Shadow's going to make writing this story a whole lot harder, but I am really excited to be finally writing this guy in after his absence from my stories for... jeeze way too long (last appearance was in The Unresolved yeesh). He's based off of FSA manga Shadow, and he's not to be confused with Dark Link.

Thank you so much for reading!

SubZeroChimera: Relieved to hear you agree on that (I'll still have to get used to writing him 'friendly' though oy). And ohhhhh yeah that is definitely another chapter milestone that I cannot wait to get to. :D

Lord Siravant: SAME. Shadow might cause some trouble, but Dethl is a catastrophe :D

AquilaMage: Relieved to hear that! I do characterize Vaati in a way that suggests he wasn't awful to begin with, but I wasn't sure if I presented that in an o.k. way this time (sounds like it wasn't too weird though). Haha we'll get to the cheating Sheik at some point XD And YESSSS SHADOW I am so excited to be finally writing him now, he's going to cause all sorts of trouble.

Flufux: Oh he's on the loose. He is definitely on the loose and I am so excited to finally have him in the story to shake up the peace a little :D And aww thank you so much! It is much appreciated Flufux, thank you for always being here :)