A/N: Big shout out to Valen the Kokiri for reviewing! Thank you so much! Pretty certain you just made my day man. You've brought up some excellent points, one of which kinda goes along with this chapter.

Disclaimer: Legend of Zelda is not mine.

~12~

-This is the melody that will draw you into the infinite darkness that absorbs even time...-

Zelda would say that Sheik was not an impulsive person. He didn't let his emotions control him. Yes, there was a time, back when he first met Malon, when he was a bit impulsive. Zelda blamed it on hormones, and the fact that Sheik had never dealt with a crush before (because even though he would deny it, Zelda knew he had a crush on Malon from the get-go). But he had regained control of himself and gone back to normal within a month. Since then, he had always had near perfect control of his emotions.

So she was shocked at his extremely impulsive actions. She was angry too, but this was outrageous for him.

Zelda had awoken just as Sheik peered over the fence to Lon Lon Ranch, double checking if the coast was clear. Good thing he checked, because there were two people near the corral. The princes recognized Link and Malon, as well as the wave of suspicion from Sheik. The two were hugging and spinning. Then they stopped and kissed.

Instantly, Sheik's mindscape became typhoon of thoughts and emotions. Waves upon waves of bright colors – each indicating an emotion – swirled around her in disarray. Zelda couldn't see anything past waves of rage, suffering, and countless other feelings, and had to retreat to a deep recess in his mind to keep herself together. There, his willpower locked her away to keep her absent from his thoughts.

Zelda sat with arms crossed and huffed as she stared at a dense, black fog behind the manifestation of iron bars. What was he doing? Now it looked like he was completely shutting down! He was being so stupidly emotional! She was angry and upset, too, and wanted to talk to him. They were feeling the same kind of pain: why couldn't he let her sooth his fury a little?

Zelda felt him open up a little, the fog taking on a grey color once more. Finally! She could get a word, or thought, in edgewise!

What next. His thoughts were blank and empty. It was barely a question, it was so devoid of inflection. Zelda bit back a sob, sensing what he had done. He locked his emotions – all emotions - away completely. He let himself become as dead as the shadows.

Blinking back the tears for him, she responded "He's in the Water Temple now. I…I would like to see him afterwards, if you don't mind. We don't need to talk to him. Just one look."

Sheik nodded and left her in her prison, black fog encircling again. Of course. Leave her in the dark. Zelda began to rant through hot tears in her corner as the young man continued to ignore her. It felt like eons passed before he opened his mind and let her see through his eyes again.

He was at Lake Hylia, looking out at the bare lake from the little island in the center. The water level was extremely low, barely a shadow of the lake's old majesty. Dark clouds hung overhead, and a steady rain fell across Sheik's vision. Zelda could sense Sheik's muted distaste for standing on the open rain, but he was still very unemotional. Well, more so than normal.

A shriek echoed through the clouds. Instantly, the rain stopped and the clouds began to part and dissipate. Zelda watched through Sheik's eyes as the water level began to rise, returning to normal. She cheered with pride. "He's done it. He released the seal on the Water Sage." Sheik listened to her dumbly, making no comment.

Sensing a channel of magic, he whirled to see the blue light that signaled Link's return from the Sages' realm. He clambered into the dead tree on the island and hid at the top. He, with Zelda, watched as Link appeared and looked around aimlessly.

Zelda sighed. She wished she could go to him, to comfort him and encourage him through his ordeals. But they had their roles to play. She had foreseen it. She knew she had no future with her hero, but her silly heart had still hoped. Looking at Link, she forced her hopes to bow to duty. Begrudgingly, she informed Sheik "Okay. I'm good. We can go." Wordlessly, the sheikah ran off the tree and dove into the water.

Malon watched Sheik stand stoically in the rain from behind the dead tree. Why was he here, of all places? Did it have something to do with the Temple Link went into? Link's fairy, Navi, had told Malon that the temples were very dangerous. Link had arrogantly laughed it off, but Navi was very severe. Maybe that's where Sheik was always getting hurt.

She dodged his red eyes as he suddenly whirled and heard soft scraping as he climbed up into the tree above her. Link appeared from the spontaneous blue light and scanned his view, looking for her. He knew she was waiting for him, but she didn't want Sheik to see her quite yet. She could only imagine what he'd say to her, jaunting around a monster-infested Hyrule with the hero Link proclaimed he was.

Softly, she heard a splash. Peering past the tree, she saw the water's surface ripple. Sheik was down there, she guessed. Perfect. Now she had to get Link to leave so she could find and talk to the Sheikah.

Link finally saw her behind the tree. "There you are, Malon." She turned to look at his innocent smile. For the first time, it didn't make her blush. "I ought to take you back to the ranch now. I forgot how dangerous it is out here now."

Malon shook her head. She wanted to talk to Sheik, and Link had to go before that could happen. "I'll be okay Link. You go on doing what you need to do." He frowned at her, clearly not convinced. She sighed. He was going to make this difficult, wasn't he? "How about this? Take Epona with you. Make sure you bring her back when your job is done."

Link smiled, recognizing the promise the action would induce, and nodded. "Okay, yeah. Thanks, Malon! I'll see you again soon!" He whistled for Epona and Cobalt. He mounted Epona and took off.

Malon watched him go, riding her wild mare like he was born to ride her. She shook her head. It was amazing, how quickly she had come to realize her lack of true affections for her old friend. She walked over to stroke Cobalt's muzzle, gazing at the water. After an extraordinary amount of time, Sheik surfaced and swam to the shore. The Sheikah didn't see her until he stepped on to the island, his clothes dripping wet. He looked up, his golden hair plastered to half his face. One red eye grew wide at the sight of her.

She waved uncertainly. Was something wrong again? Was it that surprising to see her here? She wished he would speak, he was acting so strangely…

Suddenly, he tripped forward, collapsing face first into the mud. "Sheik!" Malon cried, running to him and fearing the worst. As she reached him, he pushed himself off of the ground. He was mumbling. Listening carefully, Malon detected a different tone to his voice: less musical and a little higher pitched.

"Oh, REAL mature. See the girl and run. How incredibly manly, Sheik. I really hope you're happy, because I can't escape her notice without…" His red eye jumped up to see Malon's confused face. "…you." He swore viciously – utilizing a range of colorful words Malon didn't think Sheik would ever say. "This isn't good."

Malon pulled away sharply and asked, voice wavering "W-who are you? You're not Sheik."

A/N: Ohh the drama! Maybe I should have put this under the drama genre... nahhhh. As for Zelda, I did say slight Zelink. All one-sided and all kind of irrelevant to the plot. Zelda simply has a crush on the hero that she knows she can't be with. I think we can all relate to that a bit. At least our snotty loveable princess has the spine to get over it.

She also swears like a sailor. It makes me giggle.

So for those who may or may not have noticed (so that means everyone), each chapter begins with a quote. Each and every single quote is from Sheik, in Ocarina of Time (One can argue it was Zelda, but it was still under the persona of Sheik, so 'Sheik' said them). Rather clever, the way each one fits the chapter, no?

Anyway, thanks for reading!