AN: I would like to give a huge thank you to my editor! Without her to help me out backstage, this wouldn't go nearly as smooth as it does. Also a big thanks to all my readers, as always. Some people write for themselves and don't care what other people think. Nothing wrong with that but I don't write for me, i do it for all of you!

Chapter 10 is in progress and i'll get it up ASAP. As of now, i don't think i have any side quests left , so a chapter each for the Well, Spirit and Shadow temples, Ganon's castle and one last chapter to tie it all up. That makes my best guess 14 chapters. HOWEVER! If i get enough reviews, i'll do a sequel. I've got the ideas and plotline, it'll just take some time to make sense of the snarled mess that is Majora's Mask. There's your motivion; Enjoy ~

Hero's Greatest Fear

It was raining… Dark always liked rain. It was a fitting reflection of the condition of his heart; he himself couldn't see what was out there because all the rain made it impossible to see. No thunder, no lightning, just a steady drizzling downpour of depression…exactly like the weather.

After their argument, Dark ran off to have some time by himself. He knew Link would have to spend time looking around town and asking about the Eye of Truth and to chance running into the Hero was not something he wanted to do., at least not yet… So, he went to one of the few places he was sure the Hero would never look. The top of the Windmill.

Last time they'd been in town, Dark helped a woman named Anju round up her pet chickens and one of them managed to get itself up onto a room next to the windmill. It was there that he noticed a passageway built into the side of the windmill starting a good twenty feet off the ground. All he could see of the passage was some stairs and a wooden peg. It had been built as an access hall for maintenance on the windmill if it was needed, but for the time being it would make a suitable hideout for Dark.

So, that's where he was headed. Jogging down the center of town, up the short flight of steps to the door of the Shooting Gallery, Dark didn't actually head inside, instead standing on the fence to get high enough to launch his Hookshot to the roof across the street and let it drag him over.

"Man. I don't think I'll ever get used to that," Dark muttered as he hit the roof. He was actually talking to himself so to have someone answer was a bit surprising.

"What was that? You'll have to speak up, I can't hear you" said a man who was already sitting on the roof. Dark frowned and walked over. The guy just looked like an ordinary villager. "Oh, I'm sorry sir, I didn't realize anyone else was up here."

The old man chucked, patting the spot next to him, "It's quite alright. Here, have a seat and keep an old man some company. Dark trotted over and flopped down, and for a while the two of them just stared up at the mountain in companionable silence.

"It's nice isn't it? Sometimes you just gotta get away from everything, take a breather, you know?" the old man asked. Dark nodded silently, sighing in the cool breeze that brushed across his skin. "You alright kid? You look troubled."

Dark sighed again, laying back to stare up into the sky at the ever darkening clouds. "Yeah just… I got into a fight with… someone important to me and…I'm not sure what's gonna happen."

"Yeah, that's life for you…but don't worry, it'll be alright in the end," the old man replied with a chuckle

"How do you know?"

"Well, its always alright in the end, so if it ain't alright then it ain't the end yet, is it?"

They went back to their companionable silence as Dark mulled those words over in his mind. Old people sure could be insightful sometimes. The old man sat up and stretched when the wind started picking up and scattering drops of rain across the roof. "Well, I'm headin' in. You best be off home too. And here, you can have this. Call it a memento of our time together."

With that, the old man was clambering down off his roof leaving a stunned Dark sitting there with a Heart Piece sitting in his hands. "Jeez. I thought these things were supposed to be hard to find so how come everyone and their mother has one?" Dark muttered. Though he complained about it, inside he really was grateful of the gift and tucked it carefully into one of his inside pockets before strolling to the edge of the roof and shooting the Hookshot up into the maintenance passage for the windmill. He made it up just in time as the clouds overheads finally burst, spilling a heavy downpour upon the town.

Curious now, Dark continued up the stairs, but they just spiraled up to a higher door that exited back out onto the mid air from which it came. Also, for some inexplicable reason, a chicken also occupied the highest point of maintenance passage. Dark sighed and slid to the floor, staring out into the pouring rain.

"I wonder what he's doing. That idiot is probably sitting someplace warm and dry and isn't worried about me at all. That's just how he is…the quest is all important." He sighed, draping an around the chicken who clucked sympathetically. Sitting there petting the Cuckoo was actually kinda nice in its own way. At least now he could see why someone like Anju would have them as pets.

"He just…why is he so dense! Tell me, Meggy, why! He's probably sitting off in some nice warm room over a bowl of soup and planning how he's gonna find that precious treasure of his. Why don't I matter?" he yelled, frustrated but not loud enough to startle his newly befriended bird.

Quite the opposite of what Dark predicted, Link was out in the rainstorm looking for his lost comrade, once more cursing his overactive imagination that gave him images of a poor, lost Dark lying face down in a gutter somewhere. Faced with that image of absolute helplessness, Link had no choice but to abandon his room at the inn and go out looking. It was hard going. The gusting wind pushed wall after wall of chill rain into his face. For half an hour he trudged through the rain, searching diligently despite the icy water biting into his skin and soaking his clothes, chilling the Hero to the bone. In spite of that, he stayed out. That same hero's virtue that so irked Dark was also what kept Link out and unwilling to stop looking.

The wind was finally starting to die down half an hour later. Dark had vented all his frustration to Meggy the chicken who was sharing the mysterious passage with him so he felt much better. After giving a farewell pat to his new friend, Dark strolled back down the short stretch of winding corridor and dropped the fifteen feet to the wet pavement below and on a whim turned right back around and entered the windmill.

As soon as he opened the door, what sounded like accordion music reached his ears along the slow and steady creak of the wheels of the windmill, forever turning and keeping their own track of time. The windmill itself was evidently not built to accommodate people since beyond the first few feet after the door, the entire floor was one giant spinning wooden wheel . Out of the center rose a single post that traveled up the windmill to connect to other cogs and gears to move the vanes outside.

The man there sat on a wooden step, angrily cranking away on the handle of a small wooden box. The handle seemed to turn a wide brass pipe on top that was the source of the music. "This is no place for kids!" the man growled.

Dark failed to take the hint, instead taking a seat on the cold stone floor. "Yeah. I wouldn't say this is much of a place for anyone so what're you doing here?" he asked, glancing around at the many spinning and dangerous mechanical parts that could easily crush something that got carelessly caught in them.

Sighing, the man set the music box down to tell his story…

"Long ago, there was an evil shadow spirit that ravaged our town. A powerful Sheikah warrior used a mystical eye to seal the spirit in the bottom of the well. Once the well was filled with water, the seal was complete and our village was safe. Then, seven years ago, a kid came to this windmill with a strange song. The mysterious song that he played on his ocarina called up a great storm. The rain poured down harder then we'd ever seen and the howling winds were so strong that they pushed the windmill, making it spin faster then it was ever supposed!"

A strange song? A boy with an ocarina seven years ago…that sounded like it might be familiar. Dark made a note to ask about it after the story was finished.

" The windmill is what regulates the well. Making it spin too fast emptied the water and unleashed the shadow beast back upon us. Since then, we've had misfortune after misfortune befall us and its all to blame on that kid! If I ever see him again…"

"Yeah but that doesn't explain what you're doing here now. Even if you do fill the well, isn't the creature already out?" Dark quickly interrupted. fearing that if left on his own, the man might develop a spontaneous case of rabies or something equally unpleasant.

"The creature makes its nest in the well. We sealed it up with dirt as best we could but water is the only thing that can seal it back inside and I am working on the song. I think if I can just figure out that song that the boy played I can fill the well again. I know I have the melody right, but I just can't seem to make it work."

Dark frowned, putting pieces together in his head. That might perhaps have been Link and if it was then he should already have the Eye of Truth… unless just because it was in the past didn't mean that it had been done yet, meaning that it was a past that hadn't actually happened affecting the present as if it did. A headache started pounding at Dark's temples for even attempting to sort it out. Why did time-space have to be so confusing!

"Maybe…you're using the wrong instrument?" Dark suggested, taking his own ocarina out. "I'm still learning how to play this thing, but you said you knew the melody? Maybe I can help?"

Nodding, he picked up his music box again. "I suppose. You know, come to think of it you look kind of like that kid, except that he was blond…had a blue ocarina too. Well, this is it. The Song of Storms!" And with that he started turning the crank on the music box. He started slow so Dark could hear the individual notes.

Of course, Dark was still just a beginner and knew nothing whatsoever about music so he had to blunder around for several minutes before he finally started getting close to figuring out a combination that sounded right. That was when the door opened to admit a dull-eyed, shivering Link. Dark jumped to his feet and ran over, horrified. Link's entire body was soaked and his tunic was practically plastered onto his body by hardened rain.

"So…is this where you have been…this entire time? Link panted out, clearly exhausted. At least upon seeing Dark his eyes lit up.

"Uhhhh…" Dark glanced up at the ceiling. "Kinda, I guess. But I found out a bunch of useful stuff! I think I know where the Eye of Truth is and I have a song to teach you and…what have you been doing?" Dark asked, taking in the Hero's muddy and disheveled appearance. Some sort of mud wrestling popped into his mind first. Perhaps some sort of battle skirmish. He hated missing out on those. Maybe he just had some sort of clumsy moment and tripped in the mud. That's just the sort of klutzy thing Link would -

"I was out looking for you. I got to thinking and… your complaints are valid so…I owe you an apology," Link murmured uneasily. He had the bad feeling that if Dark tried to flip this around to take advantage of the situation, it would end up in another argument, for he simply was not ready to give in, and if Dark didn't like that…there would almost certainly be a confrontation. However, they never got the chance to find out as the music box guru stepped up, staring at Link with unveiled hatred before running out the door.

Outside, the roofs of several houses had somehow spontaneously combusted and most the town was out, congregated around the well to whisper amongst themselves about how such a thing was possible after such torrential rain. That was when a voice cried out from atop the railing, "Everyone! The Ocarina boy is back! The one who unleashed the Phantom Shadow Beast on our town has returned, and look! More misfortune! A rainstorm that burns our houses! Who else could it be? But we won't stand for it this time, will we?"

The crowd below, muttering amongst themselves, went along with it, dispersing momentarily to grab any handy weapon. Within seconds a small mob had formed, wielding brooms, rakes or stout tree branches. Link and Dark came out a moment later and down the stairs towards the well. The air was charged with tension and all eyes were on the twin swordsmen as they walked through the middle of the crowd. Suddenly, the tension snapped as one of the villagers swung. The rake's wooden handle snapped across Link's back, sending the Hero sprawling face-first into the mud. The next one to make an attempt never made it down to the defenseless Hero; Dark was there, snarling and baring his fangs at the villagers.

"Look! Red eyes! It's a monster, they both are!" someone in the back yelled, getting all the other villagers brandishing their farm tools to beat the unholy spawn back to whatever dark pit they'd come from.

"The first person to lay a hand on him, I will, Din help me, rip their throat out with my teeth," Dark threatened, displaying his abnormally sharp canines. With fangs like those, it wasn't an empty threat. His jaws could snap bone if they wanted to.

"No Dark, don't hurt anyone." Link groaned, pushing himself off the ground enough to flip over onto his back.

"But they-"

"No buts, Dark. That is not how we do things."

Unbelievable. How it was that Link could defend the very people who were just about to bludgeon him to death was more then Dark could comprehend, especially as he lay there, obviously having difficulty just speaking. Stupid, stubborn, lovable Link. But then, that was what Dark admired most about him, and so he couldn't refuse.

"Fine. But if that's the case, you're just gonna have to trust me for once, ok?" Dark whispered in his ear. Link nodded but for what Dark had planned, it might not be enough.

"Listen up you backwater barbarians!" Dark yelled, making sure everyone could hear him, and by this time the entire village was present and holding some sort of makeshift weapon, arranged in a semi-circle around Link and Dark. Even the village children were present with a handful of rocks to throw, in fact one did, which Dark caught out of midair and chucked it right back, knocking the kid off the fence.

"I said listen," he growled. "We haven't done anything to deserve this. Is it village custom to beat the innocent travelers?"

"Don't listen to him? The boy was asking about the Eye the ancient Sheikah used to seal the Shadow Beast, as well as the song that undid the binding. He must be planning something terrible. Besides, don't you all recognize him!"

There were several murmured affirmations from among the group of villagers and they were starting to look violent. "Yeah. Plan B then. Bear with me ok?" Dark whispered as he dropped to his knees at Link's side and leaned the blond up enough to kiss him.

Link's eyes popped open at the feel of Dark's lips on his…again. For a second, he wondered whether Dark was going to try pulling some kind of pornographic stunt to scare everyone away. That would be a problem because Link really would rather die then sacrifice his dignity just to escape the townspeople, and when he felt Dark's hand slide down his shirt, that's what he thought was going to happen, but wait…

Yes. Though it seemed Dark just wanted an excuse to feel up the blond, why then was he not actually touching him? No…it took him a moment to realize what was going on. The shadow was just using the kiss to cover the fact that he was searching Link's pockets.

The townsfolk reacted predictably, giving a collective horrified gasp as some of the mothers rushed off to cover their children's eyes. After all, they didn't want their youth corrupted by such foul and unholy acts as even considering the possibility of two men together. That was the last straw and a moment later Dark had several holes in him from the tines on a pitchfork. Only a quick grab held the thing back from turning Dark into a human shish kabob, but that was ok, he had what he was looking for. Dark tossed his prize of a brown leather pouch into the air, pushed the pitchfork out of his body and quickly hunched over, shielding both his and Link's eyes as their entire inventory of Deku nuts rained from the sky.

The flash of one Deku nut was blinding; thirty Deku nuts going off was like glaring at the sun. The last thing anyone in that mob saw was a brilliant flash of white and when it cleared and they could finally move again, the two boys were gone.

Not gone far however, since neither Link nor Dark was in any shape to run. Dark had picked Link up bridal-style and ran off up the stairs, through the shop and down the hole that was defended by the high fence and stone walls right outside the potion shop.

The bottom of this hole was nearly identical to that of the hole in the cliff side of Gerudo Canyon. A few shallow puddles of water rimmed the front of an otherwise small and dry cavern with short tufts of grass and a small treasure box in the back.

Dark gently lay his partner down in the grass and started trying to take his clothes off, but even in his frail condition, Link's grip was like a vice. "What do you think you're doing?" Link asked suspiciously.

"Oh c'mon, look at you. You're soaked, you're wet and you're shivering. Maybe taking off those wet clothes might help?"

Link muttered irritably but released his grip and let himself be stripped. He was honestly expecting Dark to take full advantage of the situation so he was surprised when, after getting his tunic off, he turned around to let the blond take off his breeches himself. Even more surprising was when Dark pulled his own tunic off and handed it back so Link would have something to cover himself with..

"There's a Heart Piece in my front left breast pocket. You should use it." Dark said quietly, keeping his back turned for the Hero's modesty. The entire time, he was screaming in his head Don't turn around don't turn around don't turn around!

Just as he said, a Heart Piece waited in Dark's pocket, which was more amazing since this was not the first time he'd pulled a stunt like this. Somehow or another, his partner seemed to have an uncanny ability to locate them.

Heart Pieces, though they were generally looked at as an extremely expensive kind of candy, were actually crystallized life essence and as he sat there, biting off pieces of the blue outer shell, Link could already feel his strength returning. Personally, he liked eating all the blue parts, leaving the small red center for last. The blue parts got sticky, melting after you held them for too long from the body heat. As much as he liked the syrupy sweet flavor, it was the inside and its sour kick that he really liked. And as he stared off into space while eating his candy, Link suddenly realized that the 'space' he was staring off into just happened to be the same space across Dark's uncovered back.

The boy really did have a nice body and that constantly pale tone of skin for some reason intrigued the blond. He'd never really considered himself tan, but Dark…he was less flesh and blood and more like moonlight shaped into the form of a person. That was of course until Dark turned around, displaying two deep holes between his ribs, like a bite from a giant snake.

"What did you do?" Link asked, reaching up to gently trace his fingers around the wounds. It was so like Dark to go off and do something reckless like -

"Eh, pitchfork, I think. Its not a big deal. Finish your Heart Piece."

"Yes mother," Link replied, smirking. "So, you said you'd learned something? What have you found out?"

"Ah, right. First off, I think the Eye of Truth is back in the past. The guy at the windmill said that seven years ago, a kid with a blue ocarina came by and played a mysterious song that emptied the well where the monster was sealed. I think that's why the townspeople got mad, 'cause you let the beast out of the well."

"But…I have not done anything like that." Link replied, confused. Even for the Hero of Time, the time-space continuum could be a very confusing thing.

"I know, but I think this means you're going to…so, it's a lead. Also I l…eh…"

Dark cut off, panting as he watched Link. He'd finished off the outer layer of the Heart Piece and was slowly sucking its sugary residue off his fingers, one by one. The action had Dark's pants feeling uncomfortably tight, and without the tail of his tunic hanging down to help hide his body's rebellion, there was little he could do about it. Damn, but why did he have to do things like that! Didn't he have any idea how that looked?

No, of course he didn't. The naiveté behind it was part of what made Link's unconscious sensuality so… sexy.

It only figured that Link would pick just then to open his eyes and tilt his head to the side. "Is something wrong? Your face is turning red."

Damn him for noticing things like that! It didn't help any that Link decided to wrap the tunic around his waist, rather then putting it on, leaving his chest exposed.

"I-I'm fine…I just…song! That's right, learned a song to play, lower the well…and stuff." Dark mumbled, reaching up to wipe the sheen of sweat from his forehead. His whole body was on fire from having to deal with Link and how…hot he looked, laying there wearing nothing but a tunic around his waist and sucking sugar off his fingers. Link looked so innocent but so seductive at the same time and it was driving poor Dark crazy.

He grabbed his ocarina and brought it to his lips, slowly going over the finger positions in his head so he could get the song right. Link listened to the song just once before taking out the Ocarina of Time. He only had to play it twice before the distant crack of thunder told them that the song had worked.

"So… how does this all work? Is it the song or the instrument that makes it work?" Dark asked quickly, desperate for anything to keep his mind out of the gutter as much as possible. Not that that was going very well but he tried.

"Both actually. The true power is in the song. The Ocarina of Time just makes the song take effect quicker. You could make it rain if you played the Song of Storms enough times. And I wonder which of my tunics are the cleanest. I desperately need the opportunity to do laundry." Link grimaced distastefully, staring at the dirty pile of clothes in the corner. He did try to maintain a standard of cleanliness but the role of Hero of Time and the activities involved made that quite impossible sometimes.

"Nah, its fine. You can just take mine. You look hot in black anyways."

Link looked confused as he rubbed at the black fabric around his waist. "Yes… I suppose black does overheat easier. But being in the bottom of a well, that shouldn't be an issue."

Dark grinned, shaking his head. "You're cute when you get like that. But I meant you look hot as in sexy," he whispered, pouncing on the blond as well as his wounds would allow. The Heart Piece seemed to have done its job. Link was back to his normal pallor, for a moment at least, but having Dark sitting atop his mostly-nude form turned the Hero's face to nearly the same color as Dark's eyes.

"Why must you do this to me?" Link asked, knowing that yelling wouldn't be a good idea despite how much he wanted to.

Dark just smiled, curling up atop his Hero they way he did every night. The only difference was Link's lack of clothing, though oddly, it felt kind of nice, the way Dark's hair pooled like raven's feathers on his chest, barely there but still laying feather-light kisses on his skin.

His eyes were closed and Dark was obviously well on his way to sleep, but he had one last thing to say, something he wanted to get out, especially since tomorrow Link would be going to the one place Dark could not follow. The past.

"Why? I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet. It's not all that hard, y'know."

Link honestly had no idea and when Dark didn't say anything for several minutes, Link assumed he'd fallen asleep when he whispered the answer; a taboo, for the Hero a pair of forbidden words that must never be spoken…but here they were, and they scared Link more then anything else on his entire journey.

"Love you."

Nothing scared Link as much as those two words. Nothing else came close.