Hi, sorry I haven't updated in forever, but I've been really busy with school and stuff. I have like 3 exams coming up and I've already taken 2, which were extremely hard, so sorry if I don't update really quickly. But I try to write in my spare time, so hopefully I can still have a chapter or so a week. Anyway, here's the story. Hope you enjoy!

Kate :)

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Chapter 5: A Feverish Link

Link's POV

I groaned sleepily as I opened my eyes, almost getting blinded by the lights. I squinted and rolled over, only to realize a bit too late that there was nothing to roll over on. So, in approximately .1 seconds, I plummeted 2 feet to the floor. I groaned again as I pulled myself up. I think mornings hated me or something. Yesterday I fell down a flight of stairs, and today I fall off the couch. Though I'd rather have the couch any day. I had already noticed some good-sized blotches on my tooshie after yesterday's ordeal. And before you start getting any thoughts, no, I do not look at my butt regularly, I was just checking for bruises, which I unsurprisingly found last night. Anyway, getting back to reality and away from that subject, my luck that day just wasn't looking too bright.

Ilia and I had fallen asleep on the couch together after watching some interesting replays of my date, so go figure that I accidentally kick her and wake her up from a peaceful sleep as I roll off onto the ground. Obviously, she wasn't exactly happy with this situation so a nice and swift kick to the sensitive male parts solved her anger. But not my pain. It only made it worse. I let out another groan as I finally managed to yank myself up into a sitting position. (I was having a really bad day. Not to mention the fact that I feel like crap. My head and stomach were killing me.) Ilia seemed to notice my discomfort because she asked if I was okay. I told her I was fine, but she didn't believe me.

"Come on, Link, you look like you're constipated. There's definitely something wrong." She gave me the I-know-you're-lying-so-spill look. I sighed.

"You know, getting kicked in the 'parts' can kind of do that to you." I said wryly, rubbing my…you know. (And it hurts, okay. Jeez, I don't do these things regularly. I'm not self-obsessed.) Ilia held up her hands defensively to my comment.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to kick you that hard. But I was sleeping peacefully until you not-so-gently kicked me in the stomach. You deserved it."

"I didn't mean to!" I protested. Suddenly a bolt of pain shot through my stomach. I doubled over, clutching it. Ilia turned from mad to concerned. No matter how angry she could get, she still cared for my well being. She rushed over to my side.

"What's wrong?" she asked, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

"My…stomach." I moaned. "And…my…my head."

She frowned, and put her cool hand on my forehead. I sighed in relief. It felt really good.

"You're burning hot!" she exclaimed.

"I know I am, Ilia, but-"

"I meant your temperature, not your looks, you idiot." She pulled her hand away and got up.

"Wait." I grabbed her hand and put it against my forehead again. "Your hand feels good." She rolled her eyes and pulled her hand away again.

"I'll get you an icepack. For now, you need to get in my bed." I gave her a quizzical look.

"Really?"

"Not with me, Link. You have a fever, and you need to rest." With that she bounded down the stairs. I sighed and climbed into her rather comfortable and good smelling bunk. I pulled the old flower print quilt up to my chin and breathed deeply of its fresh scent. Ilia returned a couple of minutes later with a thermometer and an icepack in her hands. She knelt by my side and stuck the thermometer in my mouth. Then she handed me the icepack, which I proceeded to put on my throbbing head.

"Thanks, mom." I mumbled sarcastically through the instrument in my mouth. She gave me a little grin, and the thermometer beeped. She pulled it out of my mouth and read it.

"Holy crap, Link, 103 degrees. You're staying in bed today." I happily complied by closing my feverish eyes. I heard her sigh with concern as I drifted off to sleep. It touched me that she really cared for me, and not just because I was the Hero of Time or anything. I was still thinking this as I fell into complete darkness.

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Ilia's POV

I stared at Link in part amusement and part worry. The thing I'm thankful about Link for is that he doesn't snore. So whenever I'm forced to be around him while he's sleeping I don't have to hear him loudly and obnoxiously snort every few seconds. But that's why I'm worried, because right now, he sounds like an elephant who's been deprived from sleep just a little too long. His mouth is wide open and a sound somewhat similar to a dying goat is coming out of it. Suddenly his eyes sprung open, but he still wasn't technically awake. He started thrashing around wildly and swinging at some imaginary creature with his sweaty fists.

"Bring it on Fluffy! You may have won the battle, but you haven't won the war! Wha…OH GODDESSES! No! They're coming to get me! Tinkie Winkie! LaLa! Help me! The Oompa Loompas are coming for me! And here comes Willie Wonka! Tellitubies, unite! We cannot let Barney win this!" he yelled deliriously. After much pummeling at the air, he rolled off the bed in a tangle of blankets. Link looked up, me smirking over him.

"Wow, I didn't know you had a fear of toddler TV shows." He stared up at me in horror.

"Arty Smarty Pants! I knew you were coming for me! Stay away!" he began buffeting the air again. He tried to get up, and ended up stumbling into me and knocking us both over. "Ha! I have defeated you once again, Billy and Mandy! The Grim Reaper will not be victorious ever again!" I stared at him in pure mirth. This was too good. If only I could get this on camera…yes! I remembered that I did have a video camera in my room that I had set up to record Link's reaction to me taping his date, and I had never taken it down. Maybe it had got this? I got up quickly and jogged over to where it was set up. Link stumbled after me, screaming,

"Come back you coward! You will never win!" he grabbed a squeaking rubber chicken that I had gotten for my 6th birthday and brandished it at me. I couldn't help but snicker as he chased after me. This was hilarious. I looked behind the camera and it showed Link with a wild look in his eyes yelling at me. It was too much, so I started cracking up. This only made him angrier. He started to run, but tripped over the blanket that was still wrapped around him. "Why, Elmo? Why have you done this to me? I never did anything to you, yet you still stole my Barbie collection. You're evil! Evil, I say!" he wailed. Then he noticed me again. He sat up and cocked his head to the side, making his shaggy blond hair fall to the side. He looked so innocent and cute. "Big Bird? You're home already?" he asked in confusion. I smiled and walked over to him.

"Link, it's me, Ilia." I told him, patting his head. This only made him more confused.

"Ikea? That's a furniture company! And my name's Joe, not Link. What kind of name is that?" he pouted. I couldn't help but giggle, which is a weird thing for me to do.

"No. My name is I-li-a. And your name is Link, not Joe."

"My name is Joe!" he yelled angrily, crossing his arms childishly. I held up my hands in surrender.

"Okay, your name is Joe. Fine." I agreed. He huffed and turned away from me.

"Good. You better remember that, Ikea." I held back a grin at him. It was hilarious.

"I'll do that, Joe." He glared at me.

"My name's Link, not Joe!"

"You just said your name was Joe."

"No, it's Link. Why would it be Joe?"

"Well, that what you said."

"It's Link! How hard is that to get through your head?" I backed away from him.

"Okay, Link. Your name is not Joe. And you're not rambling about random crap that goddess knows where comes from."

"I know I'm not. Why would you even say that?" I gave him a blank look.

"I have no idea." I answered. He gave me a weird look.

"You're crazy." He said, then turned from me to play with the rubber chicken that was still in his hand. "Pass me that Teddy Bear, will you?" he asked. I grabbed a sparkly pink teddy bear that he had given me when I was 5 and threw it to him. He started making the bear and chicken talk.

"Why, Charles, aren't you looking handsome today." He mocked in a girly voice, squeaking the chicken.

"Well, Wilma, I have to say the same about you. You look absolutely ravishing." He had the teddy bear reply in a deep voice. Then he gave off a girlish giggle.

"Oh, Charles. You flatter me." He continued this for a couple of minutes, but I wasn't really listening. Instead, I was watching this with a mask of horror etched on my face. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Link!" I screamed in frustration.

"Huh?" he looked up from his little skit at me.

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"Of course. I'm…holy crap, what am I'm doing?! Why do I have your teddy bear and squeaky chicken?" he panicked, frantically throwing the toys to the other side of the room. "When did I get up? And why is your room a mess? It was perfectly clean when I fell asleep!" I smirked at him and pointed to the video camera. He frowned and walked over to it, pressing stop and saving the video.

"Now watch it." I commanded. He shrugged and pressed the play button. I joined him and fast-forwarded through last night and earlier this morning. I stopped right before he woke up. He looked at me skeptically but still watched the video. As the events played through again, his eyes widened and he lunged for the camera, but I kept it right out of reach.

"No." I said. "This is going to be in history for forever." I popped out the little tape and stuck it in my pocket, then dashed down the stairs and ran out the door. Link followed closely behind, but he couldn't run very fast with his fever. I sprinted to my friend Malon's house as quickly as possible and stopped there, panting. Link had fallen behind minutes ago. I knocked on the door urgently, ready to burst with laughter. The redheaded girl answered seconds before a very disheveled Link showed up. She stared at him in astonishment, and I only now realized why. He was wearing his fleece pajama pants, and nothing else. Completely shirtless.

"Give me that tape!" he tried to grab me but I rushed into Malon's house and slammed the door into him. I heard him tumble back into the grass as it collided with his face. "OW!"

Malon turned towards me uncertainly. "Why did Link show up here without a shirt on?" she asked slowly, as if the words felt weird on her tongue.

"Uh…yeah, about that. You have to see this video." I dragged her over to her VCR and popped the little tape inside. Once again, I fast-forwarded to when Link was first waking up. Soon we were both rolling on the floor laughing. After a couple of minutes like this, Malon was first to get up, wiping her eyes.

"What do you even call that? Kiddiephobia? The fear of preschool TV shows." She said. "Wow. That was priceless."

"I know." I agreed, getting up as well. "I'm totally posting that on YouTube." Malon nodded in agreement.

"Maybe we should let Link in. I mean, if he does have a fever, it's probably kind of cold out there for him."

"Yeah, definitely." We walked over to the door and opened it, revealing a shivering Link. He glared at us before rushing in and grabbing a blanket. I laughed at the look on his face.

"It's not funny! I was freezing you heartless bit—"

"Link!" Malon interrupted. "You probably shouldn't cuss when my dad's just upstairs. If he hears you, you're dead." He swiveled his head towards her.

"You're no better! You were probably just laughing your little butt off at me! I'm sick! I couldn't help it!"

"I'm sorry, dear Wilma." She mocked. "But I must admit, you look even more ravishing with that shade of blue." Link growled at her.

"I'm not blue. I'm…oh crap! I am blue!" he rushed over to the fire and sat by it. I smiled and walked into the kitchen. I pulled out Malon's stash of hot chocolate and brewed up a cup. After it cooled off to where it wasn't scorching hot, I went back into the living room and handed Link the steaming mug.

"There you go. Made purely of milk with some honey for flavoring." He eyed me suspiciously for a second to see if it was a trap, then decided it wasn't and took a wary sip of the drink. Soon he was gulping it down like a madman. He wiped his mouth and looked up at me hopefully.

"Do you forgive me?" I asked.

"I'll never forgive you." He replied defiantly.

"Is that so? Well that's just too bad then. I guess I can't make you another cup of hot chocolate. What a pity..." I sighed. He scrambled up quickly.

"I forgive you now."

"Oh, really? Okay then." I grabbed the cup from him and made another cup. It continued like this for a couple of hours. Finally, about 7 cups of cocoa later, he declared,

"I'm full."

"What a surprise. Who would've guessed that drinking 7 cups of hot chocolate would fill you up?"

"I was cold!" he protested. "And now my head hurts again." I sighed at this.

"We'd better go back to my house. Malon, do you think you could post that?" she grinned evilly as I led Link, who borrowed a coat from Malon's dad, back to my house. My dad had woken up when we were gone because he was sitting at the table eating a doughnut and reading the newspaper. He looked up as we walked in.

"Where've you kids been?"

"We were at Malon's. But Link's sick, so he's going to go nightie night now. Even though it's still morning…whatever. He needs to sleep." I told him. "I'm going to get him some ibuprofen." I walked over to the medicine cabinet as Link slowly trudged upstairs. I came up a few minutes later with a glass of orange juice and two tablets of medicine. He was groggily climbing into my bed when I arrived. I handed him the stuff as I pulled my TV over in front of the bed so we could watch a movie.

"Any particular interests at the moment?" I asked him. He shrugged and looked over at the Disney cabinets.

"Something I can fall asleep to. Maybe…Bambi? Not Bambi II though…I hate that one." He thought about it for a second. "Yeah, definitely Bambi."

"Okay. But Bambi's a little sad…are you sure?"

"I'm just going to sleep! And I want some pretty music…" he trailed off, unable to think of anything to say.

"Whatever, I'll put it on." I picked my way over to the huge cabinet filled to the brim with countless classic Disney DVDs. I looked over them until I finally found what I was looking for. "Aha," I exclaimed to myself as I pulled Bambi off the shelf. After I popped it in the DVD player I went and sat down next to Link.

"Is there anything you'd like to eat?" I asked over the previews. He shook his head for no and went back to watching the movie. I sighed, then picked up the empty orange juice glass and went downstairs to make some nachos.

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'Kay, there's the chapter! I'm sorry it's so short, but I'm already half-way through my next chappie, so don't worry. I've been really sick so that gave me the idea to give Link a fever. This will continue in the next chapter, so you'll still have a sick Link when I get back. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, so please, please, please REVIEW!

Kate :)