Just so Perfect – chapter 2

"When you joined to train and become one of the Hylian Royal Guards, you were already soldiers serving in the Hyrule Army. You knew of the basic combat skills, knew how to fight a basic enemy, and as I'm sure you're all aware, my job has been to train you far beyond the basic, and make you all release the potential you have in your skills."

Blue stood in front of his students back in the training grounds in the castle, arms crossed once again, and his eyes roaming sternly across the group in front of him as they stood facing towards him, listening to his words, Vio leaning against a pillar not far behind him.

"But knowing how to attack an enemy, no matter what your skill in doing so, is only a part of what makes the Royal Guards different from soldiers. You can attack, yes, but can you protect? Do you know how to concentrate on fighting an enemy as well as concentrate on keeping safe the person you are protecting? Anyone can wave a sword about and hopefully hit something, but you don't want that something to be the member of the royal family you're supposed to be saving."

On the other side of the training ground were the older students of the group, those who had been training for a lot longer than the ones Blue was currently giving a lecture to. They stood fighting each other with wooden swords and shields, practising just as Blue had ordered to. After all, they'd already had this lecture….and been through the test he was about to give to them.

"But even knowing how to protect is also only part of what makes a Royal Guard. The most important part, is loyalty. You could be the greatest trained solider in the world, but if Hyrule suddenly comes under attack and you run to fight in the streets in town, or to protect your family and friends instead of protecting the royal family, then you are not a guard, you are as a soldier. The Royal Guard lives for the royal family, for Princess Zelda, and there is nothing in this world more important than their safety. Now I've been training you all for months now, but what you all need to understand is that if you are not willing to lay down your life, if so needed, in order to save the royal family, then you can get out right now."

Blue pointed to his right towards a large wooden door, which opened as a soldier pushed it open. The students in the courtyard looked at each other, both confused and slightly worried. Was Blue being serious? The young chatty solider named Tyron looked like he was struggling not to move towards the door. There was a shuffling of feet, eyes darting back and forth from the door and Blue, but no one moved towards it.

Blue continued to point to the door for a moment, before a small smile curled onto his lips, "Good." He said, and the solider at the door closed it. "If any of you had actually left right now I would have had to question my own judgement of character upon letting you train here. But don't worry," he said, as the soldiers looked like they'd just sold their souls, "I'm not that cruel that I'd make you decide between your family and your career right now."

"Yeah, wouldn't put it past you." Tyron mumbled very quietly.

"We all have the day off tomorrow as I won't be able to attend our training sessions, so go home, think about what you need to do. If I see you back here the next day, I'll assume you are happy to put your duty before your family. If I don't see you, I won't think any less of you. To each and every one of us family sometimes is our duty. Being a Hylian Royal Guard can sometimes be a lonely job, you may be away from your family for long periods of time as you stay in the castle, so think it through carefully."

"Goodness, even you can sound professional sometimes." Vio smirked quietly, just in ear shot of Blue but not the students. Blue's ears twitched at the remark, teeth firmly together to stop himself from retorting back as he forced a smile to his lips.

"In the mean time, I'm going to give you all a little taster on what it's like to protect the royal family. Vio." He said the name through clenched teeth as he stepped to one side and turned to Vio, who stepped away from the pillar and walked up beside Blue without so much as a glance at him.

"I'm sure all of you know anyway but this is Vio, Princess Zelda's royal advisor." Blue stated, Vio nodded his head curtly towards the soldiers, to which most of them bowed a little in response. "He's going to be showing you something that the rest of the older students have already seen."

Without a word Vio took a small glass vial out of his pocket and took out the cork, pouring a dark liquid onto the ground. As he poured it, the liquid gradually turned into a mass of swirling purple smoke which twirled back upwards, gradually forming a human shape and different colours, before it slowly faded leaving behind…

"Princess Zelda?" some of the soldiers gasped, as the Princess stood before them.

"This is a phantom." Vio explained, as he swished one arm through the Zelda-like figure, the figure remaining perfectly still. "Something I created specifically for use in these training sessions. Its purpose it to give you a mental preparation for what it feels like to have Zelda's life in your hands, with no actual danger to the real Princess. In training sometimes all it takes is to see the image of a member of the royal family for your protective instincts to kick in. Regardless if that has worked or not, all of you need to imagine this is the real Princess."

"I need all of you to line up," Blue said, "I will attack the Princess with a sword, your job is to step in and stop me. I'll be watching and advising you."

The soldiers did as they were told, and one after another they attacked. Blue would strike with his sword at various points on the phantom Zelda, and the soldiers would jump in with their own swords to protect her. Vio walked around them, writing points down about the soldiers on a notebook he always carried with him.

Some soldiers were successful, blocking Blues attacks and gaining a successful position in front of the phantom Zelda to protect her from any further attacks. Some soldiers misinterpreted where Blue was going to attack, and ended up missing as Blue's sword plunged into the phantom, who still did nothing but smile, and some of them getting hurt themselves as Blue's sword would scrap across their arm. Blue would tell the solders what they'd done wrong, show them stances with his own sword, and advise them of the body language of the enemy that they needed to pay attention to.

Tyron, who was near the back of the line, watched the others carefully. He was tired of doing nothing right ever since he joined this training, or at least it seemed that way with the amount of times Blue told him off, so was determined to get this right first time. He watched Blue's attacks, and soon noticed there was a pattern. The points on the phantom he attacked were looped. Right shoulder, stomach, left thigh, head, right arm, then back to the right shoulder. Tyron smiled darkly. Good, this should be easy.

One after the other the students had their turn, as did the solider in front of Tyron, who just about managed to deflect Blue's sword from the phantoms left thigh, though a little shakily.

Head, he'll attack the head next, Tyron repeated to himself as he stepped forward, sword raised and ready. Blue soon lunged forward towards the phantom, and automatically Tyron raised his sword above the phantoms face, ready to block the attack, already feeling the smirk of victory on his lips.

Except Blue's sword sunk into the phantoms stomach.

Tyron stood there, sword still raised at head level, blinking a little confused as Blue stepped back, his sword coming out of the phantom and placing it back in its sheath. Tyron slowly lowered his sword as Blue crossed his arms

What…just happened?

"Never, rely on your enemy to follow a pattern of attacks." Blue stated coldly, as Tyron almost felt his own jaw drop, "Patterns can be broken at any time. You thought I was going to attack her head right?"

Tyron nodded silently, still in shock.

"You've gotta learn to pay attention!" Blue snapped at him, "We've already covered this in previous training, an enemy will not follow your rules to make it easier for you to kill it!"

"I-I'm sorry!" Tyron stuttered angrily, perhaps a little more loudly then he'd meant, but he was getting really pissed off! Blue must have waited until it was his turn before changing the pattern, knowing he'd screw it up.

"Say that to the Princess, who you've technically just let die! Sorry doesn't exist when you're protecting a life, if you can't get that through your head then you're not going to get very far in this career."

Cheeks darkening in anger, Tyron opened his mouth to say something he'd probably regret later, but Blue beat him to it:

"Now get to the back of the line," Blue said sternly, before turning and addressing the rest of his students, "we're all going to be doing this until everyone of you gets it right and gets it right many times, it doesn't matter how long it takes."

As soon as the main door to the training courtyard fell shut as the last soldier walked through it, Blue flopped down on a step that led towards the alcoves and let out a long exhausted sigh. This had taken a lot longer than expected, and although eventually all his students managed to block enough attacks for Blue to be satisfied with, while not accidently stabbing the phantom Zelda or themselves, it had taken them so long the sun was now beginning to set. And Blue, having not stopped attacking the phantom for the entire day, was exhausted.

Vio had left the moment Blue had finally said to call it quits for the day, his students drifting away through the door one at a time. Before he left though, he had a quiet word with Blue about Tyron. Unable to tell if Vio was being serious or teasing him (as usual), Blue listened as Vio talked about Tyron, saying how he reminded him a lot of Blue, completely hot headed, won't listen, and then wonders why people get annoyed with him. But, he had talent. Blue had told him, through gritted teeth ignoring the comparison, that he wasn't as stupid as Vio seemed to think and of course Tyron had talent or Blue would have told him from the start there was no point in him being here. The guy just needed to learn patience.

With a quick quip about not knowing how Tyron was going to learn that from Blue, Vio waved goodbye and hurried down the alcoves towards the Throne Room, where he was to meet with Zelda to discuss the arrangements for the party tomorrow.

The party. Blue groaned to himself. The only good thing was that from the start all five of them had agreed to not bother getting presents for each other, which made life a lot easier, although Red did bake them a cake every year. Besides, with the different lives they had now, it was nice enough just to spend the day together, even if that day was filled with many hundreds of guests and fans that hounded them for most of the day. The party took place every year in the Main Hall in the castle, a huge and elaborately decorated long room, Princess Zelda always beaming throughout the party happy to be giving a bit of fun into the heroes lives.

Blue never had the heart to tell her he hated them, even if the others enjoyed the day.

Still, that was tomorrow, and to be honest, the party wasn't the first thing he had on his mind about tomorrow. Tomorrow was not like any other birthday, tomorrow they would all turn 18, tomorrow would be spent whiling away the day and early evening hours at the party, before heading home with Red and…

A small blush crept to Blues cheeks.

That reminded him. As tired and hot and sweaty as he felt, and as tempting as a nice cool bath at home was, he had a little job to do before he went back.

Grabbing his sword that was lying next to him and placing it back in its sheath at his side; Blue stood up and headed through a side door behind him. He didn't really go inside the castle very much, and the place where he was heading for wasn't exactly somewhere he ever went either. Turning down a maze of corridors and through large oak doors, Blue eventually gave in and had to ask one of the servants who had just walked past him for directions.

Smiling politely, the servant directed Blue where to go, and it wasn't long before Blue arrived at his destination, pushing open the door and setting his eyes on the never ending rows of bookcases, as high as the ceiling, and the little chubby old lady sitting behind a desk, glasses perched on the end of her nose as she read a book of her own.

The Castle Library was somewhere Blue felt very out of place.

"I'm home Blue!" came Red's voice, taking off his boots by the front door and wandering into the living room, "Sorry I'm late, the ladies at my shop gave me a little pre-birthday party and-"

Red stopped mid-sentence. Taking a peek into the kitchen and their bedroom, he found the whole place Blue-less.

"Blue?...oh, guess you're not home yet." A small pout appeared on Red's lips, and he walked back into the kitchen and placed the large white cake box he had been carrying on the table. Looking around the quiet and empty surroundings, he went back into the bedroom and flopped down front first onto the bed. He lay there quietly for a moment, peering up at his teddy bear that now lived on the side table next to the bed.

He didn't like it when Blue wasn't around, it felt lonely without him.

Blue had finally found the book he was looking for…or at least a book as close to what he was looking for. To be honest he wasn't even entirely sure if the book he needed even existed in the castle library, but as luck would have it he'd found one.

The library was empty aside from himself and the little lady at the desk, and Blue was thankful for this. He sat at a table at the far end of a row of books, the lady out of sight, curious eyes wide as he read the text of the only Hylian "Sexual Education" book he could find.

He'd been thinking of trying to find a book like this for ages, but every time he thought about it he'd get stupidly too embarrassed, and the thought of being caught with a book like that anyway had been enough to put him off. It wasn't like he was totally clueless anyway (especially if his dreams were any sort of accurate) but he wanted to make sure he hadn't missed anything, wasn't something he was supposed to do that he didn't know about, wanted to…to…argh, the real reason was so embarrassing he rarely even admitted to himself that it was really all because he wanted to make sure he did everything right so Red felt really good.

He'd been putting it off and off, but today really was the last chance, so here he was, sitting alone in the castle library gradually getting redder and redder in the face as he read the book. There was something that he'd definitely learnt from this book though, and that was about the ears of the Hylians. Everyone knew that Hylians had sensitive ears, heck Blue alone knew that just from the amount of times Red had surprised him with a kiss to the tip of his ear for no apparent reason, but according to this book, they became even more sensitive at the very height of arousal, becoming just as sensitive to touch as…well, as the book had scientifically put it, "as sensitive as the genitalia of both sexes of the Hylian species."

"Wow…" Blue murmured, unknowingly touching his ear where he leant on his elbow on the table.

"Blue?"

"ARGH!"

Shooting upright out the chair, his hands flying behind his back to hide the book, Blue spun around and came face to face with a very curious looking Vio.

"What are you doing here?" they both said at the same time, to which Vio calmly replied first, "It's a library I practically live here, what are you doing here? Have you ever even been into a library before?"

Blue was still flushed in the face from reading the book, so the extra bit of red that rose to his cheeks in defensive anger didn't really make that much difference, "It's none of your business what I'm doing here! I thought you were supposed to be with Zelda right now?"

"I am." Vio said, looking at the way Blue's arms were both suspiciously behind his back, "I'm just getting a reference book I need. More importantly….what are you hiding?"

Blue silently swallowed a lump in his throat, and he took a step back as Vio stepped towards him.

"I'm not hiding anything." He said, trying to keep a glare on his face and not come across as nervous. If Vio caught him with this book he'd be teased for the rest of his life!

Vio tried to side step around him, but Blue copied him, making sure he faced Vio at all times. "You're not being very convincing Blue, come on, what book have you got there? I do look after this library you have to show me what you're going to take out anyway."

Blue sweat dropped. He didn't know that. "I do?" He had planned on taking the book out to keep at home for a little while to, you know, just look at for reference…occasionally.

He fell silent, unable to think. What should he do?

Vio could see the awkwardness, and put on his best non-threatening non-smirking smile, "I'm not going to tease you or anything Blue, every book here will always be needed by someone, that's why they're here, so whatever book you've got it's okay. I just need to know what it is so I know it won't be here for a while in case anyone else requests it."

Blue fingered the small book in nervousness behind his back. He supposed….he supposed Vio had a point, he couldn't just walk out with the book, it had to be signed out.

Looking like it was the most difficult decision of his life; Blue slowly brought the book out from behind his back, but kept the title of it towards his chest.

"You swear you won't tease me?" Blue asked carefully, glaring at Vio cautiously, but missing the quick and seemingly harmless smile that appeared and quickly disappeared on Vio's lips, as the long haired hero nodded silently.

Dreading what Vio was going to say, Blue slowly passed the book to him. Vio took it, looked at the title, looked at Blue, looked at the title again, then gave it back to him.

"What…...that's it?" Blue said, surprised and yet suspicious at Vio's lack of response, "Don't you have to….stamp it or something?"

While Blue was talking Vio had turned to the bookcase to his right and picked out a book, "Hm?" he said distractingly, "Oh, that's not my job, that's Mrs Hayley at the front desk, you need to give the book to her."

Blue looked momentarily frozen to the spot as he stared at Vio, "B-but…I thought you just said you were the one who…"

Taking one last book Vio turned to smile brightly at him, "Oh, I don't look after the library, I just said that so I'd find out what book you were hiding." With one last smirk at the shocked and embarrassed expression on Blue's face, Vio turned around and headed back towards the front of the library.

"I guess I'll make sure not to disturb you and Red tomorrow night then." He said as he walked, an obvious smirk to his voice, before disappearing round a corner of bookcases.

With speech finally returning to Blues' throat, his face burning red, he shouted out, "Do you exist solely to piss me off?"

"Pretty much!" came the distant response.

Arriving back home had never felt such a relief. He couldn't take that book out in the end, he couldn't take anymore embarrassment, and giving the book to "Mrs Hayley" would have been the last straw, so he'd put it back. It was a pain, but he figured he'd read all the important parts of the book in the library, so hopefully he wouldn't need it again.

Now, it was time for that nice long cool bath he'd been aching for since he finished his training. It was dark outside now and well into the evening, so Blue entered his home quietly, leaving his boots next to Reds by the door, and walking into the various rooms to find Red.

Quietly walking into their bedroom, he found Red lying on his stomach on their bed, fast asleep still in his day-clothes, one hand reached out around the paw of his teddy bear. Unable to hide the affectionate smile on his face, Blue gently backed out the room and quietly closed the door. No need to wake him yet.

Stifling a yawn and idly rubbing his wet hair with a small white towel, Blue opened the bathroom door and padded out, a royal blue towel wrapped around his waist.

"Blue!"

"Oof!" Blue was suddenly bombarded with Red who had been standing just outside the bathroom door, his smaller frame pressed up against him and his arms wrapped around his chest. He was also only wearing his underwear (white with a little red heart in the bottom left corner), but Blue was trying to ignore that for the moment.

"I didn't hear you come in! I was just going to get ready for bed!" he beamed up at Blue innocently. Blue smiled softly back at him, before the hand rubbing the towel against his head moved and dropped the damp towel deliberately on top of Red's head, who unwrapped his arms around Blue and brushed it out his eyes, peering up at him still grinning.

"I didn't want to wake you." Blue replied softly.

It was at silly times like this that Blue noticed other physical differences between them that separated them from all being created from the same being. Red was the smaller one in height and frame, everyone knew that, but as they grew even their facial features were a little different. Red's face still had that same round cuteness he'd always had, whereas Blue's had more hardened features, possibly because of all the physical work he still did in training. Even their skin colour was a little different, Red still pale as he spent all day in his bakery, but as Blue spent nearly every day out in the sun his body seemed to have grown to have a permanent tan, especially helped along on those extra hot summer days that went with his shirt off.

In fact thinking about it, aside from growing taller Red really hadn't changed that much at all.

"I'm just going to have a quick bath okay?" Red smiled at him from under the towel, those big blue eyes happy to have Blue back home, "So wait for me in bed yeah?"

"Y-yeah." Blue found himself momentarily stuttering at the cuteness that seemed to radiate from Red like sun rays, before he stepped aside to let Red into the bathroom.

As the bathroom door closed Blue quickly headed back into their bedroom, got changed into his boxers and practically dived under the duvet. Peering out from underneath them towards the ceiling, Blue vaguely wondered if it was legal to be that cute.

Blue didn't know what it was, but something was making him feel warm and peaceful, and as he slowly opened his eyes to the darkened bedroom, he realised what it was.

He had obviously been more exhausted than he thought after the training, he must have fallen asleep waiting for Red to finish his bath because he now found Red lying right against him, one arm draped over his chest, breathing silently as he slept. That affectionate smile returned to Blue's lips, and he slowly manoeuvred one arm without waking Red to brush at a few bangs of hair over Red's eyes.

Some people would probably find it strange, that ever since they'd got together at that young age they'd slept in the same bed every night, but who cared what some people thought. It had become so natural that for Red to not be there Blue doubted he'd ever get to sleep without him. On the other hand, sometimes being together all the time was a little difficult on the…...ahem, teenage urges. It was very rare that there was any moment in time where one of them would be in the house without the other, and Blue had to admit on some of those times when he'd find himself alone he'd…make use of the time. He was a teenager after all, he wasn't totally oblivious on the fun you can do to yourself, by yourself.

A thought entered his mind wondering if Red ever did that when Blue wasn't around, but unfortunately the thought just made his head have a mild explosion and quickly thought of something not arousing to get rid of the image that was making the warmth from Red pressed against him rather uncomfortable.

Swallowing a lump that had formed in his throat, a small sleepy murmur in Red's sleep not helping Blue's suddenly dirty mind, Blue looked across at the clock on the bedside table and could just about make out the hands.

1:35am.

They were 18 now.

With that sexual education book still fresh in his mind, as well as these naughty images of Red still teasing his brain, and now the added knowledge of knowing he could legally just attack Red now if he so wished, Blue sighed deeply and stared back up at the ceiling.

He didn't have the heart to wake Red up.

But boy he'd never get back to sleep now.

To be continued…