So this is something that did not in no way happen when Navi died, since, this takes place in a bar. Lin would never have felt safe enough to be in a bar. So, almost original/exclusive chapter? I DON'T KNOW.

As per usual, hope you enjoy, have good day, etc. :D

If She'd Lived - 3

\,(o),/

Nine and a half months

\,(o),/

"You're probably better off leaving the bottle, Telma."

The woman behind the counter blinked and rolled her eyes fondly. "Then I'm probably better off just making you pay for the whole bill before you pass out."

Sheik snorted, refilling his glass. "I've never passed out."

"You've never asked for a bottle this strong."

"Well, I have some long overdue grieving to do," he shrugged, toasting the glass before knocking it back. Fire slithered down his gullet and smouldered in his belly. He coughed. "And some denying."

"So you're finally drinking to your old man. Took you long enough," she tutted with a smile, passing him a small plate of fried sunflower seeds. "Here. On me."

"Thank you," he sighed, popping two and crunching on the hardened shells, her secret coating of spices giving them more kick than was strictly expected.

"So? What needs this to aid in some denial?" she enquired, flicking a fingernail onto the bottle. It was late, and most patrons had retired either home or to their beds upstairs, and the only light source available were the candles that dotted the tables and the counter behind the bar. The door to the kitchens was rimmed with light from beyond, firmly closed. The firelight flickered over the curves of the bottle.

"That my mother is a being that has her own needs and desires," he shuddered, taking another fiery swallow.

Telma burst out laughing. "That's it?"

"It's my mother," Sheik protested, refilling the glass moodily and chewing on more sunflower seeds, "Imagining her having sex with father was bad enough, but with someone I don't know? Or worse, someone that I might have to work with? Goddesses. Moving on, congratulations, it's about time I did that too, but."

"You're too old to be behaving like this," the bar woman fondly rolled her eyes, "And a tad hypocritical, I should add."

He snorted. "I'm toasting her, aren't I? Behind her back, true, but I'm still toasting her. In denial."

"You just want an excuse to get sloshed, mister."

"That too," he grinned, nursing his half full glass, sighing. "My sister turned ten. She's growing up so fast."

"Kids do that," she acceded, stacking glasses in shelves, "And then they'll be teens and they'll think they know everything."

Sheik snorted, taking a more sedated sip. He didn't mention that she already thought she knew everything, because of her Sight. It made her a very resentful know-it-all.

"So how's your new colleague? Warmed up to him yet?"

Sheik banged his head against the counter and groaned. Telma burst out laughing. "Still the same?"

He knocked back the rest of his glass and refilled it again, practically growling as he did so. "Worse. I can't figure him out and it's driving me insane."

"Have you considered that there's maybe nothing to figure out?"

"Then why the hell does he hide his face?" he snapped, practically banging the glass against the counter and nearly sloshing his knuckles, "He could be anyone, and he could be planning to hurt my best friend!"

"You hide your face."

"Oh please," he growled, pulling back his fringe and baring his ugly half, "As if people would want to see this."

"Could it be that your colleague's much the same, eh?" Telma pointed out, waggling her eyebrows as Sheik let his fringe fall back into place, "If you're so concerned about it then why not just ask?"

Because it would involve revealing the nature of his Sight. It was one of the few things that gave him an advantage if it ever came to a fight between him and a Hylian proficient in magic. Specifically one who wore a stupid green tunic with that equally stupid hat.

There was a knock from the kitchen door. Telma looked equally confused as Sheik felt, but then her expression cleared. "Oh, must be…"

She opened the door, and the ball of light he was heavily associating with the biggest nuisance in his present life swirled into sight. "Good evening, Telma," it chirped.

Unperturbed, the Gerudo woman grinned. "Good evening to you too, Navi."

"You're closing soon, aren't you?"

"Yes, but you know you're always welcome. The kitchen fire's still lit, so if he has something he wants cooked, I can do it. Well, as long as it's dead."

"Well, they are dead, but…"

Telma's smile turned a little sour. "They?"

The blue fairy sighed. "He did drown them in spirits first, so…?"

She sighed back. "Well, I did say I can do it."

"I'm so sorry."

"You only apologise about my cooking if it tastes bad," Telma tutted, gesturing at Sheik, "He's outside, isn't he? Have a seat next to that young man there, he's seen enough strange things already, I'm sure a fairy won't come as a surprise to him."

And Telma stepped into the kitchen as Sheik and Navi (presumably, since she had no eyes to solidly confirm this) stared at each other.

"So," he sighed, partly in resignation, "You come here too."

"Well, yes," Navi confirmed, fluttering over to him, "We stayed here before we returned to the Castle for the first time. We like to eat here sometimes too."

"I thought he didn't like crowds," Sheik observed, taking another sip of hard liquor.

Her tone was flat as a board. "Why do you think we come in at this time of night."

He had to admit that was a fair point.

"Why are you here at this time of night?"

"I've been a regular for years." he took another sip, and his voice sharpened. "You're barging in on my space, as far as I'm concerned."

"Someone's bent a little out of shape today," was her huffy reply, as Hero came through the kitchen door too and started at Sheik's presence. He looked at the fairy, gaze enquiring, and she sighed. "Yes, that sounds lovely. Telma said that you can sit anywhere, alright?"

He nodded, Navi flew back into the kitchen, and Hero sat one chair along from Sheik. If Sheik had the option of ending himself then and there, he might have chosen it. All he'd wanted was to drink on his own. Was that too much to ask?

The supposed Hero of Time was nursing a drink of his own, though it looked suspiciously like milk. But could it be milk? It couldn't be milk. What self-respecting adult drank milk at an inn/alehouse? Hero was what, eighteen, wasn't he?

"Are you actually drinking milk?"

Hero started again, and nodded.

"...Seriously?"

His expression twisted, and shrugged. Then he seemed to be waiting for an answer, but Sheik just arched his visible brow, and Hero mouthed 'ugh' and grumbled at himself, before actually speaking. "What else am I supposed to drink?"

If Sheik wasn't so inebriated already he would have just snorted with mild contemptuous disgust before changing the topic. "I can think of five. Ale, beer, cider, mead, wine. Come on."

He shrugged again, uncomfortably. "Navi says they're not good for me."

"What is she, your mother?"

And for the first time since they'd met his expression turned into something fiercer. "What else would she be?"

Sheik processed that longer than he usually would have. "...Wait. So you're saying that fairy is your mother?"

Hero rolled his eyes. "Duh."

Wait, so the highest authority that Zelda had been referring to all those months ago was, for all this time, that harmless ball of magic? Seriously? "...That makes no sense. You're Hylian."

"So?"

"You're Hylian. At least, aren't you?" Sheik stumbled on, the notion warming on him. Could this be why Hero kept his identity secret? Was it because he was in fact, not Hylian, but maybe a Deku scrub, or some other woodland creature? Maybe a Great Fairy, but male?

Sheik blinked at the last thought. He was drunker than he'd anticipated.

"I don't know who made me, they're probably dead. Navi protects me. Been doing it for longer than I can remember." Hero said, knuckles white around his mug, upper lip curled, "Isn't that what mothers do?"

"Yes, but…"

"One Telma Special, for our special guest." interrupted Telma, placing a plate full of steaming fried morsels in front of Hero, "And a side. Tell me what you think; honeyed peaches in cream, with your swordmint in jelly."

His face lit up like a child's, and he thanked her profusely and seemed unable to decide which plate to attack first. He went for the steaming plate in the end, almost going with his bare hands before he noticed Telma waggling her eyebrows at him.

"Navi?" he sighed, picking up a fork.

"Navi," Telma agreed, before heading to the kitchen.

Hero immediately put the fork down and ate with his fingers. The crunch as he bit into the fried...whatever it was, did not belong to that of sunflower seeds.

"What are you eating anyway?"

"Crickets," Hero responded, and another crunch, and another.

Sheik pressed the rim of the glass against his forehead and sighed.

He could ask this absurd boy why he hid his face, and for all Sheik knew, it was for the same reason he did; vanity. But Sheik doubted it. What kind of vain brat ate fried crickets with his bare hands?

"Why?"

"Why what?" he said between bites, wrapping salad leaves round the crispy insects.

"Why crickets. Why here, why now, just… why."

Hero gave him a bewildered stare, and Sheik could've sworn he saw a bug-leg peeking out of Hero's lips. "What else would I eat?"

"Cucco? Or, what's wrong with this?" Sheik slid the plate of respectable nibbles across the bar, and Hero peered into it and grinned.

"It's the same. The coating stuff." he passed the plate back, scooting the bar seat a little closer to be able to reach. "It's tasty."

"Don't I have a story about that," Telma interrupted again as she burst out of the kitchen, Hero hastily picking up the unused fork, "Some customer ordered my special, but Sakon, the kitchenboy at the time, missed the cricket and fried it up too. Now this kind young man here swapped the plates over before any ruckus really happened. I caught him, of course, thought he was pulling some mischief," Telma winked exaggeratedly at Hero as he grinned back sheepishly, "But once I saw what was done, well."

Hero shrugged, and ate his crickets. "Wish I could make this myself."

"And let you run off with my recipe? Never in the High Realms. And what am I to do without your company?"

"Replace me with a portrait and you wouldn't know the difference."

Telma chuckled, and Sheik held back a snort. "Portraits can't do what you do, honey."

Hero shrugged, and Sheik was interested. He finished his glass, refilled it, and tried not to dwell on the fact that he'd already consumed half the bottle. "And what do you do, Hero?"

Telma blinked incredulously at Sheik as Link almost glared at the Sheikah. "Hero?"

Sheik gave her an ironic twitch of the lip, gesturing with the glass and his eyebrow. "My colleague."

Her mouth went 'o' in realisation, but her face twisted with incredulity. "You both work at the Castle?"

"Only sometimes," the Hero said, still glaring at the Sheikah, "On the grounds. I cull the monsters so he calls me Hero. I like your jobs better."

"Flatterer," Telma teased as Hero moodily stabbed the insects with his fork, "I sometimes have customers wanting an escort between here and a town, and Link here's offered himself up a number of times. You know how the fields can be at night."

Sheik nodded, took another sip.

Telma exchanged a few more pleasantries with Hero, asked him about his trip to the Kokiri Woods, what he was planning on doing tomorrow, he in turn asking if there were any more escort missions on offer. She promised to let him know, and excused herself to gather the last of the dirty crockery on the vacant tables, lock the front door, and retreat back into the kitchen for 'girl-talk' with the fairy.

Only after clapping Sheik's shoulder and murmuring in his ear, "He's a sweet kid, Tharlaigh. Get him talking, give him a chance. Alright?"

Sheik sighed, not promising anything.

There was blessed silence, as Sheik nursed what he figured would be his last glass. He should probably leave a yellow rupee to cover the cost before he forgot…

"Why do you do that?"

"Mm?" he replied, fishing in his wallet, slapping the rupee onto the counter.

"Why do you call me Hero?"

He rolled his eyes. "Because you are."

"Not this time," Hero grumbled, finishing his fried meal and taking his time on his honeyed peaches and something-mint jelly, "I barely did anything. You don't even remember me from last time."

Sheik snorted. "Who says I don't remember? I remember plenty."

"Not me. You didn't recognise me. You didn't recognise either of us."

This was true. This was also why he didn't quite trust Hero, because he couldn't link (hah, that never got old) the face from the other timestream and the face now. Apparently Zelda could, which usually would be fine, but Sheik was not one to believe things he couldn't see for himself.

Unless he could jog a memory, like how Navi had attacked him that night…

"True," Sheik conceded, clearly surprising the Hero. "How about you jog my memory, then? Have a drink."

Hero watched him pull a glass from behind the counter and pour a sliver of amber liquid into it, sliding it towards Hero in turn. The Hylian looked to the Sheikah, a frown crossing his expression. "I probably shouldn't."

"It's not poison," Sheik drawled, lifting the bottle, "This was mostly full when I started and I haven't dropped dead yet. I've been drinking for years and I haven't dropped dead yet."

"You're, acting… strange, though."

"Maybe I'm finally opening up to you."

And somehow, amazingly, that seemed to convince the Hero. He picked up the glass and sniffed it, face twisting with childlike disgust, and knocked it back like bitter medicine. When he almost inevitably devolved into hacking coughs Sheik couldn't help but laugh. "Goddesses, you really are a novice at this aren't you."

"It's worse than potion," Hero gasped, pinching the bridge of his nose, "It burns."

"Not so much once you're used to it. Rather enjoy it myself. Have another, but mix it into your milk this time."

Hero grumbled but sidled over to the seat next to Sheik, proffering the mug of milk. Sheik didn't put in much more than before, hoping to ease the Hero in. "So," he said, offering the still mostly uneaten plate of fried sunflowers too, "How do you manage to have a fairy for a mother?"

Hero pursed his lips, and took a sip of his spiked milk. This he blinked at, and took another sip before replying. "When the time is right, Kokiri get a fairy. But I'm not sure how true that is any more."

"Kokiri? Like the legends."

"Not legends. I was raised by them. Saria the Forest Sage is one of them. I thought I was too, but I… I grew big, and they didn't." Hero reached back to get his plate of peaches and began to pick at it. "She raised me till… I don't know. Two summers before I left. Then Navi came to me, and she raised me from there."

"You've already lost me," Shek admitted, rubbing his free eye, "I… think I vaguely remember Sage Saria. I remember being surprised because… because she was a child."

"She just looks like one. They all did." Hero took another gulp of milk, sighing raggedly. "Whoever made me, they're probably dead. I can't ever be sure. I was left in the Forest, apparently. Don't… really remember."

Sheik nodded, recalling stories, tales of scars adorning veterans of clansmen. There'd been a nasty border war all across Hyrule, exacerbated by prejudice against the Sheikah, and Sheikah raiders in turn. The fighting had only briefly ended before Ganondorf had used the instability to his advantage and usurped the throne from Zelda's mother. Hero's birth parents must have died in the fighting, or, abandoned him in the woods to secure their own survival. Sheik shuddered.

"So how does a child that only looks like a child raise you in a forest notorious for killing people that wander in? Also, how does Navi get involved?"

"Navi was meant to be my fairy." Hero continued, swirling his cup and taking a long gulp, gasping before continuing, "All the Kokiri had a fairy, except me. So I was only half made, a shoot, a… it felt like I finally belonged when she came. And the forest kills you when you do wrong in the Lost Woods, Kokiri's like… protected, armour, kept the bad things back. And I got a tree of my own, with my own bed and a ladder. It was nice. Green gold mists in summer, warming in the hot room in winter, never alone. Everybody watching because I... clumsy, but nothing broken. Well, skin, but no bones. Yet. Hadn't left yet."

Hero's head had inexorably dropped to the counter as he talked, and now he was partially asleep there. Sheik wasn't sure whether he should be amused or appalled, so settled for both. "...Hero?"

"Mmm?"

"Are you drunk already?"

His grunt was curious. "What drunk?"

"Dear Light," Sheik sighed, eyes wandering away from the rather hopeless sight of the prone Hero, "You really are a novice."

"No, viss," he mumbled, sighing, "Words. Words are so hard."

Sheik realized then that the bottle had shifted to Link's side and there was less in it than he previously recalled. "…How much more of that did you pour yourself, Hero? Also, when?"

He grunted, half dozing. And of course Navi and Telma came back from their girl-talk, Navi somehow fluttering with nerves.

"Link? Link?"

"Nn," he replied, sounding equally worried, "Wheh…?"

The fairy turned on Sheik, flashing a dangerous yellow. "What did you give him!?"

Sheik raised his hands, rolling his eyes. "For Hylia's sake it was just a drink, and he helped himself without me seeing."

"HOW!?"

"It's dark, I'm drunk, and I really don't see the harm. I can easily carry him back."

"No," and Hero staggered out of his chair, teetering like a tower of loose bricks, "Fine, I can fight back, I-"

He crashed into a table and toppled it with the chairs around, a cacophony of tumbling wooden furniture and thankfully no glass. Fear sharp and alien cut through Sheik's conscience and he gasped, thinking of falling between empty crates and escaping the beemos' glare with an arm numbed from a dodongo bite. The flash of helplessness was so raw Sheik nearly dropped out of his chair as well.

He swore instead, gripping the bar to steady himself.

Hero was gasping on the floor and Navi was fluttering over his forehead and Sheik saw it, the images flashing between them like living pieces of dreams, the magic that bound them like a chain, emotions feeding from one to the other in an endless loop.

Sheik gritted his teeth, forcing his voice to not shake. "Navi, stop scaring him."

"WHAT?" she shrieked, zooming in on the wincing Sheikah, "You're the one scaring him!"

"No, he was pleasantly drunk till the very second you came in sounding worried." another flash of a memory, incoherent except for fear and Navi screaming and why can't I move right why can't I move. "That worried him, which made you even more worried and that tipped him into being scared. Calm him down. There are no monsters around, there is nobody here who would hurt him. Even if there was, I'm here. Calm him down."

"As if you care about-"

"Calm yourself down at the very least!" Sheik snapped, his heart rate rising almost as much as Hero's probably, though he had no idea why this magic was making him see things that weren't there, that had absolutely nothing to do with him, "I may not particularly care for your son but he is Zelda's friend. The day I let Hero be hurt is when I stop caring about her. Now calm yourself or your son will remain afraid."

Navi whimpered and swirled round Hero's head again, and as Sheik's heart rate slowed so did the Hylian's breath. He was nodding at the images that Navi was sending him, drowsy honeysuckle scented afternoons, dawns waking from nightmares, the smooth tapering of a candle flame.

"Right," Sheik exhaled, sitting up from his stool, "Sorry Telma."

"Everything alright now?" the Gerudo woman huffed, her worry showing despite her ironic drawl, "No need to call a medic?"

"Should be fine." Sheik added another purple rupee next to his yellow. "In case of damages, and for the hassle."

"Thanks, dear. Get him home safe, alright?"

He managed a smile. "Zelda would kill me if I didn't."

"Try not to touch him?" Navi whispered, as Sheik knelt in front of the now less freaked out boy, who was blearily blinking up at the Sheikah, "He's not used to being touched."

"You're being absurd." he told her frankly, not sober enough to use his usual arsenal of civility, turning on the Hero. "Here."

Hero shrunk away from the hand offered.

Sheik sighed. "Seriously?"

"Can't you, carry him? Just, pretend to be Epona, he doesn't mind that."

Sheik stared at the fairy. "Are you two always this insane?"

"He's not used to it, it's like, being kissed on the mouth by total strangers, alright?"

"For crying out loud. Link," he said, offering his arm instead. "You're the godsdamned Hero of Time, or you were, or something. Just grab my arm and stand. Pretend I'm a tree if you must, but for hell's sake stand up. And you," he added towards Navi, "Have some explaining to do. I can't deal with issues if I don't know their cause. Like this one's apparent fear of touching."

Which is ridiculous, he did not say, though barely.

"You got him drunk!" Navi protested, even as Hero took a deep breath and clamped a firm hand on Sheik's arm. They hauled themselves up, the younger of the two staggering.

"Well how was I to know he's the lightest of lightweights that ever lived? You're what, eighteen?" Hero didn't reply as Sheik hauled the boy's arm over his own shoulder, hitching his weight against his torso. The head with its ever present and ever idiotic hat lolled. "How have you never had a drink before?"

"You see how drunks lose co-ordination, Link couldn't afford to lose that edge."

Sheik waved at Telma as they exited through the back door, the front already locked firmly against the night. " …You're telling me he's never felt safe enough to unwind with some booze?"

"No! He's always safe with me."

"That's not…" Sheik shifted the Hero's weight against his body before making the long trek back to the Castle, sighing raggedly. He checked that Hero was well and truly passed out before continuing the conversation. "Has he never had a place to retreat to? A physical place to call home."

"I'm his home."

This Sheik ignored. "What about the Kokiri Woods?"

"He's not Kokiri any more, we couldn't go back there forever. And his treehouse is too small for him now."

He'd been on the sideline of enough conversations between Hero and Zelda to have a vague timeline outlined in his mind. Zelda had met this boy when she was ten, and he was the same age as her, probably. She'd given him the Ocarina of Time for safekeeping and he'd disappeared for three years while Ganondorf had reigned. He'd briefly come back, Ganondorf's army was defeated, the Ocarina of Time returned, and he went off again to Labrynna and Holodrum and Kanalet for four years, and now, here, almost a year in the castle.

It hit him then, the sheer insanity of it, a ten year old child with only a fairy for company vagabonding around the wilds, hopping in and out of countries out of a whim and slaying monsters for a living for practically a decade.

"So you're telling me that he's never had a home. No guarded place to go back to. Or somewhere others can protect him."

"He's always had me. I watched guard as he slept, I protected him when I could."

"And what if you die, Navi," Sheik practically snarled, making the blue light flinch, "What then. Sheikah like me see things, but even without it I can see that this boy relies on you excessively. If he's like this with you around, I cannot even think how…" there were many words that he could have used: damaged, broken, dysfunctional, isolated, traumatized, but Hero groaned in his sleep and Sheik bit back all of those words, forcing back the fear he'd felt vicariously through the boy and the fairy's bond. "How he would be, if you died on him now."

"...That's why I convinced him to come back here. Why I'm trying to get him to talk more."

"Talking more won't be enough." Sheik scoffed, groaning when he realised he was only half way to the Castle Gates, "You've got to learn to separate from each other, he probably needs to interact with more strangers. Hell, he needs to learn how to shake someone's hand without flinching."

"I thought Telma was a good start."

"She is," Sheik conceded, thinking of her backroom full of eccentric characters that Link would probably get along with like a house on fire if given half a chance, "But he's going to need more than that."

"And he's got you, hasn't he?"

If Sheik could have cussed her out he would have. He had never intended to take anyone under his wing, let alone a emotionally unstable Hylian that was more mute than a broken music-box. Instead he half growled, half sighed, and glared at the fairy. "I'll take him on some of my missions from now on just so he can learn some common etiquette. How about that, hm?"

"Won't you keep calling him Link? He really appreciated that, before he passed out."

"Maybe I will if you tell me why he hides his face."

Navi stopped, and he stopped too, and he hoisted the Hero's dead weight over his shoulder some more. He twitched in his sleep, as if experiencing nightmares. "…I don't know what you mean."

Sheik rolled his eyes. "The disguise magic. The one on him right now, even as he sleeps. Why does he hide his face? Tell me that and I'll call him by his name, whatever it is."

"How do you even know?"

"Sheikah like me see things," Sheik drawled, repeating himself. "Illusions are one of them."

The fairy hesitated, and fluttered like a head shake. "It's not my secret to share."

"Then Hero it is."

"What about you?"

"I'll show him when he asks. Beyond that, I promise nothing. Now come on," he grumbled, moving forward again, "It's freezing out here."

And Navi followed, watching for drunkards and muggers, strangers and monsters, as Sheik carried the Hero home.

I think with Navi around Sheik was a lot more lenient of Lin(k), since you know, if you're being followed around by a fairy you can't be that bad of a person.

But still, he does not like that Link hides his face. I mean come on, if someone you met shows you their ID and it's pretty obvious it's FAKE, would you trust them?

Link is self-aware of his muteness.

So what did you guys think? LEAVE ME A REVIEW I'M A LONELY PERSON.

Ahem

*slinks away*