Sheik did go live with Link. He kept saying that Dark was going to poison him with his cooking if he didn't, and Link just let it be. He was peacefully excited about going back to the stillness and the silence of his house. But he was also excited about not being alone with his own thoughts. He had to admit that Dark was a good counterpoint to the casual gloom that tended to overtake him most days.

It was a long time before he realized that Oni was coming back too.

Dark tended to avoid the topic, with his words and his thoughts. He avoided it so much that it turned to that Big Thing taking space within their shared mindspace that they were mutually ignoring.

"You're becoming the crush obsessed teenager that I always wanted to be," said Link, climbing to the roof of the house, where Dark lied down to look at the moon.

"You used to make up stories in your head where Sheik was actually a vampire," said Dark, not taking his eyes away from the sky. "Don't you come to tell me I'm the lovestruck teen. I can't even be in love."

"There you go again."

"I don't go anywhere. I've always been here, in evil shadow land."

Link lied down next to him and closed his eyes. "Let me borrow your eyes," he said, holding Dark's hand.

"Tsk, you're so annoying."

"I miss the sky."

"Whiny and annoying," muttered Dark. He pouted, but he let their minds entwine anyway, and felt Link's presence in his head, bright and oppressive, and smelling faintly of recent rain.

"Why did you come to me? When you escaped the shadow realm," asked Link.

Dark shrugged. "There was nowhere else to go, I guess. Ganondorf didn't want me, and I am a shadow so the world at large didn't want me either. I figured you didn't want me either, but you were a good guy, so you wouldn't get rid of me as long as I didn't piss you off."

"You did piss me off."

"You shut your mouth if you want to keep using the eyes."

Link laughed, and let go of Dark's hand. "Nah. You keep staring at the moon and it's annoying," he said, smiling. "What do we have to do to get him to come back?"

"He said he needed a new vessel. I figure he must be working on it. Which means he's bullshitting it, because it took Farore no time to be done with Zelda's new body. And by the way, Zelda's an adult. I don't see why the hell I had to 'accompany' her back down from the Moon. I mean she could walk to the beaming down thing on her own. But whatever, I mean he's the God here, so if he wants to push me out of the way with some bullshit excuse, I don't even care," said Dark.

Link had to bite his lower lip to stop himself from telling Dark that did care. He cared so much, Link could feel the waves of 'why are you not here' radiating from him.

Link sat up. "Ok, fine. But if you want to stop not caring, you can come down and have dinner with us," he said, and went back down into the house.

Dark stayed on the roof for a while more. Glaring at the moon and muttering curses at it.