Part 3: Healing

The sound of Link's tent flap opening grabbed his attention and he bolted up in an immediate, defensive stance.

"You're safe, Hero," her familiar voice wafted over before the sound of his tent flap being tied closed reached his ears.

Link starred in the direction of her voice but barely made out her outline in the darkness. He heard her take a step forward and then pause. Silence followed.

Was she watching him?

"I know at the moment I may be the last person you care to find in your company, but..." she started with a voice so low it was almost a whisper carried on a breeze. She inhaled deeply and Link heard the sound so clearly he almost imagined her warm breath against his cheek. "...I'm finding it very difficult to keep the images of all we've lost today out of my mind."

Link's eyes were adjusting now and he was beginning to make out more defined features of a female body, a long braid, and…

He squinted to try and test his eyes that were surely deceiving him.

They weren't. Sheik wasn't wearing her usual Sheikah attire. She came to him instead with a cloth covering most of her face from what he could tell, a wrap covering her hair, and she appeared to only be dressed in a simple shirt and cotton trousers. He suspected he knew what that signified immediately.

"If you came here to have sex with the Hero, he is uninterested in your company tonight." Link's voice was harsh and sharp and bit at Sheik's skin like a blunt knife.

She deserved it, though. She'd slapped him, treated him like a soul-less mascot and not as a living, breathing human being with thoughts and feelings like she.

Like herself? No, Sheikah were not supposed to show emotion.

"I'd recommend you make your exit unless you plan to spend the remaining hours of your night standing in the middle of my tent." To prove his point he turned in bed to face the canvas wall and turned his back to the woman in his presence.

She didn't move, however. Link waited what felt like several long moments for the sound of her exit but it never came.

"I don't know what you want but-"

"You," she cut him off before he could finish the empty threat and the shock of her word choice silenced him immediately. Sheik's voice wasn't iron-clad or unwavering or even commanding and cold as he was so accustomed to hearing. In fact, there was a weakness in her voice, like a tremble that warned of something dark and sinister plaguing her heart, and something strangely familiar he couldn't quite decipher why. She sounded not like a warrior in that one small word, but like a woman needing comforting to push away the darkness in her heart.

Link felt his heart beat in his ears. You.

He turned back to face her and sat up when the word finally registered. He caught her shape just in time to watch Sheik's dark outline moving closer. The metal legs that held up his bedroll groaned in protest but supported his abuse nonetheless.

"I'm not asking because I expect anything from the hero." She was close enough to him now that her legs pressed against the edge of his mobil bedding. "I'm asking you because today half my people died before my eyes, and I don't..." finally, her voice cracked.

Link felt a pull on his heart. It wasn't a pull of pity or one of sympathy. It was a pull that reminded him he was experiencing a lot of pent of pain and loss he wouldn't let released.

But maybe it would benefit everyone if he did. She was willing. Goddess knew he'd noticed her feminine curves and mile-long legs more than once, and he couldn't think of a healthier way to release the tension in him.

Sheik shifted, taking a small step back. Link still couldn't make out any real details but the glow of light from above gave just enough sight for him to know she'd started to retreat and turn to leave. She took another two steps before he finally moved.

With a loud and ungraceful creak of the metal legs beneath his bedroll, Link climbed up and out of his bed and he reached for her hand just as she was turning to leave.

He couldn't tell if she was looking at him or not because her features were hidden in the darkness. He moved closer to her until his chest pressed against hers and he could hear her inhale a shaky breath but not speak.

"I can't kiss you if you keep your face covered." His hand hovered over her cheek, fingers just grazing the edge of the thin fabric covering her face. Link couldn't see her eyes, but the closer he moved the more he heard her breath harden. Sheik reached up and placed her hand over Link's. She trembled where she touched him, but they both understood the permission she was granting him.

Take it off.

Looping one finger under the fabric Link slowly pulled her mask down until he could feel her breath shallow and waiting for his move.

Kiss me.

Skin pressed against her forehead and wisps of hair brushed her cheek and she felt her eyes flutter closed on their own accord. Just as Sheik thought he would abandon her, Link finally pressed his lips against hers.

There was a magic that burst the moment they touched. It started as a glow from their kiss that coursed through her veins and spread over Sheik's skin to her fingertips, toes, and tips of her hair. A blinding white heat burned deep in her core and left her breathless enough that she shook from the magic of it.

Link either didn't feel it, or didn't care because instead of separating himself he took the moment of Sheik's stillness to wrap strong arms tightly against her waist and pull her tight against his chest. She responded with a gasp at the brazen move wrapped her arms around Link's neck pulling him in to deepen the kiss.

Link smirked - or so it felt like he was smirking the way his lips moved against hers. A hot tongue slid over Sheik's bottom lip. She knew what he wanted because she wanted it too. She parted her lips and like the adventurer he was, he explored her mouth the moment he was granted access.

She found herself lost in the intoxicating taste of him, and it made her dizzy with the sensations that coursed through her body all at once. She couldn't get enough of his taste, his smell, or the sensual feel of his tongue wrestling with hers. When she began to feel light headed from lack of air and gasped loudly for a breath, Link took the opportunity to pull her bottom lip between his teeth.

A tremble of powerful, primal need rippled up her spine erupting in gooseflesh on every inch of skin.

Meanwhile Link was completely captivated in the animal like whines and noises of appreciation he was eliciting from the usually powerful, iron-clad warrior in front of him. He bit down on her lip once more and felt her entire body shake with lust.

She enjoyed it.

A devious thought came to mind when Sheik's hands dug deeper into the rough skin behind his neck and Link took the opportunity of her pulling back for a breath of air to bring his mouth to her ear.

His tongue darted out and ran along the pointed shell of cartilage and skin and he felt her entire body shake.

"Goddess, yes…" her breathy moan brought a heat to his blood he hadn't felt prior.

He wanted to touch her — all of her. Every inch of unmarked territory of her miraculous body even if wouldn't be able to see it.

But when he tried to kiss her neck he found layers of fabric that impeded his mission and Link growled as he tried to pull it away to no avail when he was countered with Sheik's very precise tying abilities.

She laughed at feeling his frustration and the sound was something unexpectedly musical and feminine.

"Here," she whispered with her lips hovering over his. She breathed him in through her mouth and felt him absorb it like it was some divine gift. "Let me…"

Her fingers let his skin for only a minute to undo the knots securing her garb and as soon as Link felt the fabric shift he pulled it off in one strong tug and threw it behind him.

"I'm going to need that when the light rises," she tried to admonish him with a playfulness but Link had already scraped his teeth against the tender, unmarked flesh of her neck and it made her entire mind go blank.

His arms fell lower down her back to just below her bum and although Link couldn't see it in the dark, her eyes glittered with the meaning behind his touch.

"But right now you don't." All at once he pulled her up with strong arms of lean muscle and toned skin that hoisted her like she weighed nothing at all. Her legs wrapped tightly around his hips without even needing prompting, heels digging into Link's lower back as he held her up.

In truth, she actually didn't weigh much of anything at all, a fact that had even surprised the Hero given the obvious strength she demonstrated daily. It only took a moment to take her to the makeshift bed, and then they were both on the noise metal legs, Sheik's legs still wrapped tightly around link's waist like wraps binding her to him and Link's impressive weight on top of her body, providing a delicious pressure she so craved.

He kissed her neck and she hummed, he lowered his lips down the collar of her sleeping shirt and she purred.

"You best start undressing me, Hero, or we'll never get to the good part."

Link made a noise something like a growl that grew from his chest but his hands fell down to the hem of her shirt at the same time that one flexible foot hooked a big toe under his shirt and tugged up. Link pulled the fabric up just as he pressed his lips against her stomach and felt it quiver under his touch. As soon as that shirt was deposited on the floor, Sheik made quick haste of his as well.

Link didn't know what to expect from the woman beneath him. Everything he knew about her was secrets, sharp lines, perfectly fit suits and armor and a flexibility that would make any man drool over…and now as his hands trailed over smooth, bare skin it felt like he were exploring an entirely different person. His fingers ran over the soft underside of a breast and she inhaled sharply when a thumb grazed one pert nipple that shriveled under his delicate touch.

She didn't wear any undergarments to bed, apparently.

He lowered his lips to her flesh and tweaked the hard bud again between thumb and forefinger and felt her stomach wave under his mouth. He wished he could see her now, squirming under his touch.

His attention was broken when lithe fingers found the edge of his trousers and he forgot to breathe a moment when warm fingers sunk in to explore unmarked territory.

"In a hurry, aren't we?" He teases her with a full-palm squeeze of her breast and Sheik made a new noise entirely.

"Just fuck me." Her request was blunt and clear so he quickly redirected his mission to exactly that. "Please."

He sat up, slightly breathless but with a whole new spirit raging inside him and Sheik wasted no time in taking advantage of the opportunity to pull the waistband of his sleeping trousers down just past his ass before they pooled at his knees. Link left the bed for only a moment to full discard his garment at which time the woman awaiting him completely finished undressing herself in record speed.

Link climbed over her without further invitation and almost praised the goddess herself when Sheik not only spread her knees with fluid ease, but wrapped one elegant leg so high up his back that she nearly combed his hair with her foot.

"Show off," he muttered roughly as his mouth found the peak he'd just toyed with. Sheik's body arched off the bedroom with a loud and unsettling screech from the frame below.

He wanted to see her face though. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, but not enough that he could see more that a glimmer here and glimmer there and…

Link's eyes trained in on his left hand anchored just to the side of her head and interlaced with hers. The triangular marking just above his wrist glowed in the darkness. It did that often enough recently, but what really grabbed his attention was the mirror image of the same marking glowing on hers. It made him think of something he had to remember to investigate at a later time.

"Are you going to fuck me or just wait for me to do all the work myself?" Her taunting voice rolled over his ears like a dare.

"Play nice," he muttered low against her skin. His tongue dipped into her navel and he felt her flinch before he progressed further north and grazed her nipple first with his nose, and then the flat of his tongue. "The nicer you play, the gentler I'll be." Link sucked the tight bud between his lips for a second before releasing it with a loud, wet, 'pop.'

Knew full well what he was doing to her, and none of it was on accident.

"What if…" her voice shook when he found the other breast desperate for attention. "What if I don't want it gentle?"

It took more restraint in Link not to curl his toes and moan at the thought than he cared to admit. He responded by closing his teeth roughly on the sensitive nipple.

Sheik's entire body arched like a graceful bridge and the tent echoed with the puns of her loud moan.

If she didn't want it gentle, he's be happy to oblige.

In one quick movement he released her left hand and dragged it down her body. A quick slap on her outer thigh gained an excited squeak from the Sheikah before he found her mouth again and absorbed her in a hungry kiss like he were a starving man tasting his first desert in years.

"That was for earlier."

His hand traveled over her thigh as he felt her lose herself in his kiss and without warning rubbed roughly between her moist inner thighs before burying two long fingers deep within her body.

Sheik cried out into his mouth as he probed her with his digits and her nails dug so deep into his back he almost forgot to breathe.

"Is this better?" He teased her without leaving her mouth as he begun the rhythmic movement of his fingers in and out of her heat. he wasn't an expert in the craft of sex but he'd had enough experience— and heard more than his necessary share of stories from the castle guards and nights— to know how to pull pleasure from a woman. Link pressed his thumb out against the swollen bud at the crown of her slick heat and she inhaled sharply as he matched the new rhythm of his fingers with the swirling of his thumb.

He could feel her juices coating his fingers and dripping down his palms and tried his best to keep composure thinking about what she would feel like swallowing up something else.

"Oh Goddess," she moaned loudly as her entire body tightened around him. The friction he provided was almost lethal in its effectiveness. Her breath came out ragged and uneven and he could tell the way her body was beginning to trembled and walls clenched around the rough pumping of his fingers that she was getting close.

Much too soon.

He withdrew his hand without warning and listened to her wordless pleas to continue. She expected him to touch her again - maybe just enter her right there. Instead, he pulled back for a second and unhooked her leg from high behind his back until it stretched over his chest and her foot ended just over his shoulder.

He pressed against her and her leg pulled back without restrain or any hesitation. If anything, she enjoyed the stretch of her long limbs.

And then something hot and velvety smooth pressed against her lips and she inhaled knowing precisely what it was. In one slow thrust he buried himself to the hilt inside her.

Sheik's eyes exploded in white stars and she felt the whole world tremble with the incomprehensible sensation he pulled from her body as he finally filled her. Her mouth fell open in a long, very pleased moan, open mouth against his chest as she instinctually pulled him tighter against her.

Meanwhile, Link held his breath not to come undone all at once. He knew he was going to enjoy this. He knew how beautiful the lines of her body were — how flexible those long legs he'd admired for the past several weeks were, and how elegant and in hindered her hips seemed to float as she walked. He hadn't expected how divine it would feel to bury himself inside her.

From this angle, she squeezed him with such a delicious tightness he couldn't breathe for fear he'd come undone right then and there.

Thank the Goddess he'd heard a knight once speaking of this position over a late night mug of ale.