Ah, sorry about the longer-than-usual wait! I really don't have any excuse for not writing so I feel a bit bad that I never sat down and got to it. Distractions are distracting; you know the drill. Hopefully you'll pardon any mistakes you catch for now, as I wanted to get this posted as soon as possible. I'll be going back through it at a later time to clean it up a bit.

I would like to thank all of the people who added this to their favs and follows over the past month! While it wasn't a huge number of people, it seems like this story is starting to gain a bit of momentum and I can't thank you guys enough :)

Disclaimer: Refer to chapter one

Two Lives

Daylight streamed in through the window, casting a blanket of warmth over the green-clad warrior on his bed. Yawning as he stirred from his sleep, Link cracked his eyes open, stretching out his body as he slowly sat up. Giving the relatively small home a quick look-over, it was apparent that Tarin and Marin had both gone out. Judging from the angle that the sunlight was coming in through the window, it seemed to make sense that they wouldn't be home right now.

Link swung his legs over the side of the bed and stopped to think for a moment. How long had he laid in bed before he was finally able to fall asleep? He remembered hearing Malon's breathing relax, but he had to have continued lying there for at least another hour or so. For whatever reason, his nerves simply would not settle, and he was surprised that he had even fallen asleep at all.

He had never truly experienced a situation like the one he had been put in just then. Sure, he was prone to a bit of embarrassment every now and then, but the very idea of sharing a bed with an attractive woman set his nerves on fire. Oddly enough, it was only the bed that made him uncomfortable, as sleeping beside her under the tree had no effect on him at all; in fact, the idea of potential embarrassment had not even crossed his mind for that incident.

As Link tried to ponder why a sleeping surface could change how he felt so easily, he became aware of a shadow blocking some of the incoming window light. Twisting his body around to see who was there, he was met with a smile as warm as the sunlight itself.

"Well, well, look who's finally awake," Marin teased, leaning on the open windowsill. "I'm almost certain you went to bed before I did, so how did you manage to sleep this long?"

Thinking back on what had occurred last night (nighttime being relative to his dream's time, anyway), Link scratched his chin, keeping a nonchalant expression on his face. "I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. I went for a walk and ended up staying out for a while before I came back and passed out again."

"I see." The redhead spoke as if she was skeptical of his claim, but her joking tone let him know she wasn't being serious. "Well, now that you're up, would you mind coming to the store with me? I could use a hand bringing back some of the stuff I need to buy."

"Sure, let me just…well, I guess I don't really have to do anything."

"Haha, maybe you should wake up before we go."

Wake up, huh? he thought to himself, realizing the irony of her statement. That would be a little counter-intuitive…

Hopping off the bed, Link stepped out of the house and started heading down the path with Marin. It hadn't occurred to him initially, but he realized that by going to the store he would be coming face to face with the creepy shopkeeper. After their previous discussion, Link wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing him again, and that was before considering that Marin would be with him.

"Say, Marin," he said, stopping on the spot. The redhead, having taken a few steps ahead of him, turned back with a confused look on her face. "Do you think that maybe…we could talk somewhere?"

Taking a couple of glances back and forth, Marin's confused expression remained. "Um, sure; I'm not sure why you feel like you need to ask permission first, seeing as we always talk."

"Well, I mean…it's just…would you mind putting off buying whatever you need at the store until afterwards?"

"…I suppose… Is everything alright, Link?"

Rather than answering her, Link simply glanced around before gesturing for her to come with him. Turning in the opposite direction from where they were heading, the couple started on the path that would lead them to the beach.

Neither spoke as they headed toward their new destination. Link was too busy trying to determine how to explain his situation to her, so he did not have the capacity to speak. Marin, understandably, was not sure what was going on, and seemed as though she did not want to say anything lest she provoke Link. Before long, they found themselves perched at the edge of a cliff that jutted out towards the ocean. Keeping some distance between himself and the short barrier around the edge of the cliff, Link looked out to the water, unable to face Marin.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Marin asked, unable to fully hide the concern in her voice.

"I…" Link began, but found the words getting caught in his throat. Despite having a fair amount of time to prep himself for this moment, it was much more difficult actually speaking to her than imagining the situation in his head. Without any ways to stall for more time, Link began to feel foolish for not speaking.

"Link, there's no need to feel uncertain," Marin reassured as she stepped beside him. "I promise that nothing you say will make me feel any differently about you."

Her soft fingers gently cupped his chin so that she could lift his head. Now looking right at her loving, almost motherly smile, the hero felt his resolve strengthen slightly. Hoping that it was enough to him to form the words, he took a breath and slowly began to speak.

"Um…well, to start, you haven't heard any…unfavourable rumours about me this morning, have you?"

Dropping her hand from his chin, Marin cocked her head to the side, giving him a mildly surprised look. "No, I haven't heard anyone say anything about you today. You didn't get all worked up about something like that, did you?"

Feeling relieved, Link sighed and shook his head. "No, no, I just wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings," he said, a fair amount of tension leaving his voice, though his tone quickly adopted its serious demeanour again. "I…I wanted to talk to you about…that day…"

"That day?"

"You know…when the Wind Fish was awoken."

"Oh…maybe we should sit down for this."

Agreeing with her suggestion, the two took a seat on some flat rocks that jutted out of the ground. Knowing that he was now too far into this to back out, Link gulped and did what he could to keep eye contact with Marin, who admittedly seemed to be having a difficult time meeting his gaze so as well.

"I guess you still remember what happened, judging from your reaction," Link spoke only loud enough to hear over the waves. Marin nodded but did not respond. "Even if no one else believed you, it seems like it'd be hard to forget something like that… Marin…before I try explaining things, why do you think that you…no, that everyone and the island are still here?"

Marin stayed silent for a while, and Link felt his heart sink as her gaze fell to the ground. The petals of the orchid in her hair fluttered with the breeze, and her hair blew somewhat erratically, blocking her face at times. As much as Link wanted to end this conversation now, he knew that he could not, and bit his lip as he endured the pain of seeing Marin struggle over this. After all, even if she were only a figment of his subconscious now, it hurt to see the woman he loved questioning her own existence.

"I…I have no idea," she said quietly. "I haven't really been trying to think about it very much because it scared me. I mean, how was I supposed to cope with the idea that everything and everyone I knew, including myself, wasn't even real? I had accepted that I was going to disappear, but now that I'm here, I'm afraid that discovering the truth will really end it all."

Link could only try to sympathize with her, but there was no way for him to really understand what going through something like this must have been like for her. She was the only one on the entire island who understood what she was, and yet she didn't want to accept it.

"You won't disappear," he reassured, though he could not hide the tinge of uncertainty lacing his voice. "I…the reason you still exist now is…is because you're a part of my dreams…"

Marin looked up at him, brushing aside some of the hair that was flowing in front of her face. A thin smirk formed on her lips, and she seemed to have taken his words in an unintended way.

"Is this meant to be some kind of bad pickup line? If you're trying to make me feel better, you could have said something a little more mood-appropriate, don't you think?"

Link felt his face warm up a bit, but he ignored the embarrassing misinterpretation without much trouble. "No, I didn't mean it like that; I literally meant that you are a part of my dreams. It's almost like the dreams of the Wind Fish were given to me, and now my mind is perpetually her on Koholint whenever I fall unconscious."

Unsurprisingly, Marin adorned a questioning look. "I don't understand, Link. What are you trying to say?"

"I mean that…that…" He paused, finding this explanation to be the most difficult as well as the most crucial. "Everything here…this island, the people on it, you…it's all still just a dream…"

Marin said nothing, and Link found his resolve wavering as her complexion paled. This was the only way to tell her, and the fact that she even believed him so easily almost seemed to make it more difficult to continue. He wanted her to doubt him, act as though he was trying to make some kind of joke in poor taste, but she did not. In fact, she had never doubted him; it was one of the reasons they were so close, and was now the reason this was so much harder to explain.

"Marin, I…" he spoke shakily, finally giving in to his temptation to look away from her, "I know it's a lot to take in, but…it's the same as before. This is nothing more than a dream."

"But you're here," she said, the confusion and fear in her voice taking over. "I see you every day. You go to bed every night beside me, and…I can reach out and touch you."

Following her words, she did exactly that, cupping her quivering palm on Link's cheek. Purely by instinct, he brought his own hand up to steady hers, but still found that he could not look directly at her face. A strange feeling of déjà vu washed over him as he recalled making similar claims when this island first collapsed around them.

Why did this have to be so painful? Why did it hurt him to tell these things to an imaginary person? They were in his dream, created by his own mind; could he not simply will her to calm down and understand? If this really was all occurring in his head, then he should be able to control everything by thinking. At the same time, it felt wrong to take control of this place. This island was where he had spent 'months' living, building relationships and getting to know people over these 'months'. If he started controlling them, they would be no different than puppets without a will of their own.

"Where are you, Link?" Marin asked, reminding him of the conversation he'd had with the shopkeeper. "I just can't understand… How is it possible for you to be here if this is only a dream? Why do you go to sleep here and wake up every day like normal if this is only a dream?

"How can I still mean something to you if I'm only a dream?"

It was a legitimate question, and one that Link had pondered over and over again. He had known for quite some time now that she was not real, yet he found that letting go of his feelings for her was nigh impossible.

"I'm sorry," he said after a brief silence, "I…I don't fully understand the situation myself. From what I've figured out, this me, as in the version of me sitting here and talking to you, is just my consciousness projected in my dream. The real me is asleep on the other side. The reason I fall asleep here is because that's how I transfer my consciousness back to my actual body."

Again, there was silence, and Link caught a glimpse of Marin biting her lip from the corner of his eye as she lowered her hand back into her lap. This was more or less the way he had imagined this conversation might go down, though he had wished and prayed that she would be a bit calmer about it all. To be fair, it might have unsettled him if she had been any calmer about such a situation.

"Marin… Regardless of whether you're just the creation or manifestation of something in my mind, you're still the most important person in my life. I know this is hard to grasp, but this won't change anything between us, no matter what."

The blond knew that his words had an extremely low chance of lifting her spirits, so he was not hurt by her lack of reaction to what he had said. Watching as she slowly got to her feet, their eyes met for the first time in what felt like a very long and arduous amount of time.

"I…I think I need some time to think by myself," she stated, voice filled with uncertainty. Only able to nod in understanding, Link watched as Marin headed back towards the village.

"Well…I finally did it…" The roar of the waves crashing against the cliff muted his words.

∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆

Link opened his eyes, not feeling the slightest bit tired after falling asleep so late last night. Perhaps by spending the rest of his dream doing nothing, he'd somehow managed to rest more than usual. Whatever the case, he was fully refreshed, though his spirits were lower than usual.

Staring straight up at the ceiling, he sighed and shut his eyes again. It was only a dream; it shouldn't be affecting his real feelings so much. True, this strange never-ending dream was almost like living a second life, but when it came down to it, it was nothing more than an imaginary scenario created within his unconscious mind. While highly unusual, the continuity really didn't make it any more than that.

Link opened his eyes in surprise as he felt the mattress shift beside him. He'd nearly forgotten that he had been sharing a bed with Malon. As the bed shifted again, the blond felt something brush against his torso lightly, and he shivered as it tickled his skin. Carefully lifting the sheet draped over his body, he glanced down to see what was going on.

How he had managed to remain ignorant of Malon's presence beside him was anyone's guess but his own, and Link found himself in a rather awkward position. Under the sheet, Malon's arm rested lightly on his torso, not in a way that indicated she had been holding him, but enough that he felt slightly uncomfortable. Next to him, the pretty redhead laid on her side, her steady breaths tickling his bare shoulder from the close proximity. Her light sundress was ruffled a bit from when she had moved in her sleep, and Link could not help noticing the unintentionally promiscuous way in which her shoulder was now exposed.

Had her arm not been resting on top of him, Link simply would have slipped out of the bed and made sure to avoid any awkwardness; however, because it was there, there was no guarantee that she would remain asleep if he tried to slide out from under it. Gulping, he did his best to calm the quickening pace of his heart, hoping only that the heavy pounding from his chest would not somehow stir her from her slumber.

Turning his head to face her again, Link was suddenly struck by the image of what he was looking at. He had never even come so close to Marin before, at least, not while sleeping, and the idea of sharing a bed with Malon left him with mixed feelings. Malon was, put in simple terms, a very beautiful girl, and the idea of being so close to her, especially after forming the bond that they had, excited him. At the same time, there was an emptiness to accompany this excitement, one that left a longing feeling from within him. He wanted more, and yet he wasn't sure that he wanted her to fill the void that plagued his soul.

Against his better judgment, Link reached his left arm across his body to brush the hair from Malon's face. Luckily, this action did not seem to affect her consciousness, and he slowly brought his arm back down to his side. With her hair out of the way, Link realized that he had made not only her face more visible but her bosom as well, giving him a clear view of her cleavage. Blushing profusely, Link quickly rolled his entire body in the opposite direction, giving little thought to the fact that such a sudden movement would likely wake her up.

When the loud thumping of his heart stopped pumping in his ears, the sound of Malon's light groans reached his ears. Not daring to even peek over his shoulder, he felt the mattress shift beneath him, though it did not seem to have moved enough to indicate that she had gotten up; in fact, as the mattress continued to shift, Link felt her warm, slender body press up against his before the shuffling ceased.

Trying to keep his eyes focused on the stuffed animals on the ground, Link shuddered with each breath that Malon breathed onto his back. Thank the gods that Talon would never find out about the specifics of this experience, but Link wasn't sure that he would be able to last much longer if this kept up. The only upside to all of this was that he was no longer consciously thinking of Marin, but this feeling of excited unease was almost more than he could handle.

Noticing her breaths begin to increase in rate, the blond suppressed his nerves and did the first thing that he thought might get him out of this situation.

"M-Malon?" he spoke barely above a whisper. "A-Are you awake?"

There was no voiced response, but the sound of Malon giving off a sharp inhale surprised him, covering his skin in goosebumps. In the next few seconds, he felt Malon retreat away from him, and he shakily looked over his shoulder to see her large blue eyes nervously staring back at him, her reddened cheeks contrasting the pale complexion on the rest of her body.

"S-Sorry, Link," she squeaked, quickly covering her shoulder with her dress. "I-I guess I was still half asleep when I…huddled up t-to you."

"Um…don't worry about it," he said, quickly sitting up and facing away from her to avoid any more possible mishaps.

For a while, the two of them were silent, neither moving at all from the positions they were in. Link did not have the audacity to look back in case she was still staring at him wide-eyed. At the same time, he felt frozen on the spot, unable to move to get up or even reach for his shirt. With all of the cold sweat covering his body, he wasn't exactly feeling too warm for his top anymore.

"Y-Your…" he heard Malon mumble from behind him. "Your arms look better."

Those words seemed to be the key to get his motor functions working again, and he slowly turned around to face her, his face twisted in slight confusion.

"U-Uh…are you saying I look more fit?" he chuckled nervously in a poor attempt to lighten the mood. Unfortunately, her deepening blush made it clear that she had not meant it in that way.

"No, th-that's not it," she squeaked, hiding her eyes behind the sheet in a childlike way. "Well…they are a little more defined…but I wasn't trying to imply that… I-I only meant that the markings on you arms look like they're going away."

Taken aback by what she had just said, Link futilely tried to get a glance at the backs of his arms, but found that, once again, doing so was incredibly difficult without a mirror. Spotting one hanging on the wall by the door, he swiftly made his way over to it, using the natural light from the window on the other side of the room to examine the markings. Checking his left arm, it seemed the same as before, with the odd character-like markings going all the way from his shoulder blade to his elbow. Switching to check his right arm, however, he was surprised by what he saw.

Just as Malon had said, some of the markings on his right arm seemed to have vanished. Before, he had remembered that there seemed to be fewer on his right than his left, but now it seemed that the number had reduced again. While the markings on his left arm reached all the way down to his elbow, the ones on his right seemed to stop about halfway up his tricep. In fact, just by looking a bit closer, he could see that the last marking seemed to be more faded than the others, as if it were a scar that was disappearing over time.

"What is this?" he mumbled to himself, rubbing them with his hands as if doing so may reveal some hidden meaning. Of course, nothing changed, and the marks felt no different than his unmarked skin did.

It seemed rather odd to wonder why these markings were disappearing, as Link did not even know the reason for why they had appeared on his arms in the first place. If anything, he should have been glad that they were going away; however, now that he was aware of their fading, he could not seem to shake the thought from his mind.

"Sorry," Malon apologized as she quietly began getting out of bed, "I-I shouldn't have brought it up… You seem kind of stressed about it now…"

Taking one last glance at his right arm, Link sighed and walked over to where his shirt was crumpled on the ground. "It's nothing to apologize about," he said, hastily throwing the shirt over his head. "To be honest, I hadn't even thought about the markings since the time you first pointed them out to me, so I was a little surprised when you mentioned them again."

Poking his head through the hole, Link was relieved to see Malon relax and give him a small smile. Scooping up the stuffed animals, he handed Malon the small cow and the two of them exited the room, leaving behind the awkwardness of having slept in the same bed together.

∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆

"Heh, I know I'm always teasin' you kids about foolin' around, but as a father I can't help but be a tad concerned when the two of you stay out all night without giving me a heads up, y'know?"

Link and Malon, though used to the constant teasing, found that the circumstances of this particular instance made it difficult to look at one another. Despite Talon's jeering tone and goofy expression, it was clear that there was some concern hidden under his happy-go-lucky attitude, even if only a little bit.

"Hey, c'mon now," Talon beckoned, the cheerfulness of his voice fading away. "It's no fun if you don't play along or argue back. You didn't…actually do something, did you?"

"O-Of course we didn't!" Malon burst back at him, her face turning beet red. "We just got locked in Hyrule Town, so we stayed the night together at an inn!"

Link could not help his face from burning up at her choice of words, and he avoided any and all eye contact with either of them. It didn't matter either way, of course, as Talon's mischievous gaze and giggles practically drilled holes into the side of his head.

"Dad, you know that's not what I meant!"

"Now, now, Mal, no need to get so flustered; after all, Link's a good-lookin' fella. I can't blame you for having a bit o' fun, but maybe this isn't the type of stuff you should be telling your old man."

"Rrgh, you're just a nasty old lech!"

Hearing Malon's footsteps storm up the stairs, Link waited for the sound of her bedroom door slamming before he turned to face Talon. Met with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, the blond could only sigh at the wordless conversation they were currently having.

"Care to elaborate a little more, Link? Unless, of course, something of that nature really did happen, in which case I reckon I'd rather not hear about it."

"I find it hard to believe that such a feminine girl could be your daughter," Link sighed before adding, "and by feminine I mean girly, not any sort of implied sexual nonsense that you were probably about to try joking about."

"Sharp as ever, I see," Talon chuckled, snapping and swinging his arm in front of him in defeat. "Well, I guess I can assume the two of you had yourselves a good ol' time. Mal's a bit of a sucker for stuffed animals, so that big cucco you won for her probably made her night."

"Heh, I'm not sure I'd say that," Link laughed, recalling how he'd arrogantly won the grand prize and forced it upon her. "Still, though, I think she had a good time; I definitely did."

"Oh?"

"Oh, what?"

"Your eyes lit up just now like you were thinking about somethin' in particular. I s'pose it's not too important, but there's one thing I am curious 'bout."

"Which would be…?"

"There a reason you and Mal were so jittery when she said you ended up staying at an inn?"

An odd feeling swept through Link's body, mixing together his exasperation over Talon's seemingly endless questions with the embarrassment that came along with the aforementioned questions. Lolling his head back and letting out a breath, Link decided it would be better not to talk about it at all, as doing so may lead to misunderstandings.

"It was just a little out of both our comfort zones. With all the people in town last night, Malon and I had to share a room so it was kind of weird. That's all."

"Huh, I didn't expect something so minor to get to either of you, but I guess inexperience is the worst obstacle when it comes to those types o' things."

"…Honestly, I don't know if you say things like that on purpose or if you just don't realize the meaning behind what you're saying…"

Rather than waiting for a response from Talon, Link grabbed the giant cucco off the sofa and made his way upstairs, dropping the giant stuffed toy in front of Malon's door. Heading over to his own room, he leaned against the windowsill and watched as Talon bumbled out to the corral. Truthfully, he and Malon should have been out there with the older man, but Talon gave them no sign that he urgently needed them to assist him today.

Without anything to distract him at the moment, Link's thoughts quickly wandered back to Koholint and Marin, and a dropping feeling within his chest significantly dampened the hero's spirits.

With all the crazy, silly antics that happened around Malon and Talon, Link hardly ever had to worry about stressing over Marin or his life on the imaginary island. Clearing his mind was like a breath of fresh air, and he could not forget that fleeting feeling of happiness he'd experienced while watching the fireworks last night. This pair of ranchers was the remedy that steered his thoughts away from the depression of a nonexistent past. With them, the most trauma he might ever experience would be mishaps with the animals he now helped to care for.

Because of this, though, it made the flashbacks and memories hit him so much harder when they resurfaced. The dreams were bad enough, especially now that he had upset Marin to the point where she would probably avoid him for the next few sleeps.

Link clenched his fists in frustration, cursing under his breath at everything that had to happen with her. Why couldn't he have returned to the real world as a normal person? Why did his mind insist upon recreating the island he knew he could never return to? Most importantly, though, why did it all have to seem so real?

It seemed like such a cliché question, and yet it wasn't. This dream was not real in the sense that it felt real in his head; no, it was real in the sense that nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening and he was able to recall every event that occurred, as if the time he was spending there was all happening in real time. Like he had thought before, being in the dream was more similar to living a second life than having a series of unconscious brain signals manifesting themselves into something coherent.

For no reason in particular, Link grabbed the small hand mirror on his bedside table and gave a hard look at his reflection. There were no signs of weariness, meaning that his body really was resting like normal while he was off in his dreams. Similarly, he'd noticed that his dream body was also rested when he 'awoke' in there. This made sense, of course, as it wasn't as though dreams were meant to tire a person out, and the opposite should also prove to be the same.

A knock at his doorway startled him, and he quickly looked up to see Malon standing by the open entrance.

"Hey, were you in the middle of something?" she asked.

"Oh, no, I was just about to change into some working clothes," he lied, tossing the mirror by his pillow and standing up. "Did you need something?"

"No, no, nothing like that," she said, waving her hands to make sure he understood. "Don't worry about changing, either. It looks like Dad handled all of the morning duties, so we probably won't have to do much until later today."

"Makes sense," Link responded, lazily sitting back down on the edge of bed. Noticing that Malon had not left, he gestured for her to sit beside him, scooting over a bit to make room. "What's up?"

"Um…well," she began, tentatively stepping towards him and taking a seat, "you seemed a bit stressed this morning, so I just wanted to make sure everything was okay."

"Did I? I could have sworn that you seemed more stressed when we got back here," he chuckled; however, Malon seemed only the slightest bit amused by his joking tone, so he took the hint and turned serious. "If you're talking about this morning when we were getting up or when I was checking out the markings on my arms, then it's nothing to be concerned about. Anyone in our situation would have been a little bit stressed."

It seemed that was not her concern, as Malon shook her head to elaborate on what she meant. "I get that, but what I mean is just…your general attitude all morning from when we got up all the way until we got back here. You seemed more distant, almost like you were back to the way you were when you first woke up here."

"Really? I think you're exaggerating."

"Okay, well, you weren't that distant, but you seemed quiet and…hesitant, I suppose. It looked like you had something on your mind and it was stressing you out, so I just wanted to make sure that you were all right."

Link did not answer right away, instead opting for looking back at Malon. Staring back into her deep blue eyes, he wondered if it was really possible that she had sensed his distress from small changes in his personality. They had only known each other for a short time, and yet she was able to see that it wasn't just "one of those days" for him.

He wanted to brush her concern off as nothing, yet no words were produced as he tried to tell her he was fine. She leaned toward him in the slightest movement, expectantly waiting for him to say something, and Link suddenly felt something within him that he had not experienced in what seemed like a very long time. His insides turned warm and jittery, and his hands began to clam up as the redhead continued to gaze back at him. Each second that his words caught in his throat felt like an eternity, and his nerves felt like they were on fire.

Why now, of all times, would he be experiencing this exciting and terrifying rush? Was it something to do with what she had said? Every time he attempted to speak, his larynx acted like a word filter, blocking out anything that would not allow the situation to continue in the way it was going right now.

"Link," Malon said softly, her gentle tone soothing his chaotic insides, "you don't have to talk about it if you don't want. Just…if you need to vent for a bit and release your stress, I'll be here to listen whenever you need."

Feeling his heart rate begin to decelerate, Link glanced down as Malon lightly placed her fingers overtop of his. Only a light blush seemed to form on her cheeks, but her stunning smile made the change in complexion seem intentional, as if to further accentuate her pretty face. Captivated by the genuineness of her words, Link suddenly lost control of what he was saying, allowing his mouth to run on autopilot.

"M-Malon…" he mumbled, unable to stop the words from escaping. "I… You…you're…"

"Heehee, deep breaths, now."

Unintentionally following her orders, Link took a couple of breaths and closed his eyes for a moment. As he reopened them, he slowly spoke the only words that his word filter seemed to allow of him.

"You're incredible, Malon… The most amazing person I've ever met…"

Aaand, that's where I'll end off this chapter. Why here, you ask? Why not continue developing their relationship right this second? Well, the answer is simple: it's too soon for it to really pick up any speed. There will be development, of course, but I can't have them suddenly acting like they're in love out of nowhere. Besides, considering that up until this point there hasn't really been much of anything going on between Link and Malon, at least from a romantic point of view, this seems like a good starting point, though I'm hoping it didn't come across as too sudden or contrived.

Also, feel free to make guesses as to what might be going on with the marks on his arms. I won't be able to confirm or deny anything you guys might think is happening, but it's always fun to see how people interpret things. The only hint I can give is that they don't have a big impact on the story right now, but later on…*snickers mischievously*.

Thanks to MadSkillz, Niki Bogwater, MadlyPurple, ivanchan389, G01den Unicorn 11, and plas for reviewing! Apologies for not responding to any of you; I'll do my best to do so for this chapter.

Again, thanks for all the favs, follows, and reviews! It's really encouraging and makes my job a whole lot more enjoyable :)

–GengaJupite