A/N:

This took so long to write. It was meant to come out in June. Oh, well.

Quick warning for brief mentions of implied drug-use and abuse.

Damien's become a much more important character than I initially planned for him to be and it's working out well for me.

He's fun to write. I'm planning to use him in a different story- which is the story where he truly originates- so I like to this of this as practice with using him and his character.

But, yeah. Enjoy. The next chapter hopefully won't take nearly as long to write.

They chose to walk the full five miles to the city rather than instantly transport there.

The first mile was completely silent. It was still early in the morning; Linebeck had made a point to wake Link up and have him tell them the time. It was roughly five in the morning by the time they finished the first mile.

"...Did you sleep well?" Damien asked, hoping that his hesitation wasn't obvious. He'd slept on the floor the night before, making a makeshift bed with extra blankets and pillows. Linebeck had still been awake when he'd fallen asleep. "I fed Rusty before we left, by the way. In case you were worried."

"I got a little bit of sleep," Linebeck mumbled, starting to lag behind Damien. "Thanks for feeding Rusty."

"Oh, good. You... don't usually get very much sleep." Damien trailed off, squinting up at the sky, then back down at Linebeck. "You should probably take a shower or something. I need to, too. I've got one at my place."

"Do you need me to do any repairs at your place? Lights, fans, otherwise?"

"We'll see. I haven't been home in a while." Damien stretched as best he could while walking, yawning all the while. "Goddesses, I think last night was the best sleep I've gotten in a while. When's the last time you think you got some good sleep?"

Linebeck shrugged. "Who knows. Could be a month ago, could be 200 years ago. I feel alright, though, so I think last night was decent. Weather's nice, too, even if it's a bit warm."

Smiling wryly, Damien made a brief gesture towards Linebeck's coat. "You seem fine, wearing three layers, but I'm the one sweating in a shirt and thin jacket."

"I'm sweating too, alright? It'll only get warmer as it gets later in the day too, so I'm really tempted to have you just whisk us onto some random rooftop rather than walk the rest of the way." Glaring at the city in the distance, Linebeck stopped walking and sighed. "Actually, yeah. Just teleport us with that Yiga magic. This was a dumb idea."

Damien gave a short laugh. Looping an arm around Linebeck's waist, Damien pulled one of the Yiga amulets from his pocket and handed it to him. "Us Yiga can only activate our magic with these amulets. If you tear this one in half, it will let you return to Rain Keep."

"Thanks," Linebeck murmured, pocketing the little paper. "Anything you want to check out in the city? I don't really know what goes on there."

"A new animal shelter opened up... nothing new, really. You decide what to do; you've just had a rough experience. You deserve it, y'know?"

"Sure. Let's start at your place, anyways."

The transportation was quick and sudden, catching Linebeck off guard. He almost stumbled into Damien's couch, kept steady by the arm around his waist. "S-sorry," Damien stammered. "I thought you were ready." He stepped away from Linebeck, switching on a lamp in order to light the dark room. A small cloud of dust flew into the air as Damien shook the lampshade. "It's, uh... A bit dusty in here, huh? Let me clean up real quick."

Damien trudged away into his small kitchen, open to the living room, turning on lights as he passed them. Peering over his shoulder, he saw Linebeck silently peering around the room, his eyes lingering on the small wooden carvings on the shelves. On the kitchen counter was a small fan. Damien flipped it on and found a feather duster in one of the drawers. "You know where the bathroom is," Damien called, "if you want to take a shower."

Linebeck turned to look at the door to the bathroom, across from the kitchen. Damien watched him for a moment, then got to dusting off the counter.

"...We could take a bath together, since you mentioned needed to bathe, too."

Damien felt his cheeks flush and was suddenly glad that most of the small home was still dark. "W-well, could you turn on the rest of the lights? It'll be hard to see the dust in this light."

"Want me to help?"

"Sure." Damien tossed a second feather duster at Linebeck, and the next few minutes were spent dusting off the little apartment.

At one point, Damien stopped, standing in the middle of his living room. He hadn't been home in roughly a month and a half. Linebeck idly dusted off the bedside table in the bedroom, unaware of how Damien had paused. "...You know, I've had this place for a few years now, and I've never thought about how the rest of the Yiga never took advantage of the fact that I never would've gotten any of this on my own. Maybe because I've paid them back as one of Ganondorf's generals. But I didn't attain that role after I had been working with them for a bit over a year."

"They seem alright," Linebeck responded, dusting off a shelf. "You almost done in those rooms?"

"Yeah, yeah. I usually only get about an hour of hot water, so I'd suggest a bath rather than a shower. I've got some soap and hair stuff and the like... your prosthetics are waterproof, right? I remember you telling me that."

"Mhm..." Linebeck paused thoughtfully, then said, "I told that to Link one time, back then. After..." He shook his head and left the feather duster on a shelf. "Whatever. You know, the Master Sword looks different today than it did back then; more golden, a bit longer and thinner... things really have changed."

"Do you wish you'd never gotten your memories back?"

Damien's face reddened after he blurted out the words, but Linebeck only shrugged. "I don't know yet. I... think it was a good thing, but some of it I would've gladly left out."

"O-oh, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You... didn't really talk much about it yesterday, and I guess part of the reason is because I got a bit upset and stormed away... That was childish and rude of me."

Linebeck held up his hands, smiling weakly. "I guess, but it was understandable. I'm sure hearing about what happened to me upset you." He lowered his hands slightly, glancing away. "But you are still a bit too overprotective at times, and I think that's what partially caused your frustrated reaction."

"I'll work on that..." Damien tossed his own feather duster on the couch and shifted his weight. "Well, um, if we're gonna... take a bath together or something, then, uh... I've never really done that before, obviously..."

"Don't get the wrong idea," Linebeck quickly exclaimed. "I'm not, u-um... we've known each other for about three quarters of a year, and I-I'm not that interested..." He sighed, rubbing at his face. "Okay. I'm still not comfortable enough with physical contact. Besides... I mostly want you there too because I'm not really... comfortable being alone for a bit. Not after getting my memories back, y'know?"

Damien nearly flinched. Linebeck still hadn't given him all of the details but had given him enough to know that nothing really happened. He didn't say anything else, just walked over to the bathroom door and quietly opened it.

"I could tell you a bit more, if you'd like," Linebeck offered. "Nothing... detailed, but I could give you a rundown of whatever you want. Doesn't have to be the bad stuff."

"Yeah. You can tell me what you left out, and then I can ask about the better stuff." Once Linebeck walked over to him, Damien gave him a brief kiss on the cheek, getting no response other than a small smile.

One thing that Damien could confidently say was that he and Linebeck agreed about most things. Not all things; there were still a number of subjects they could playfully debate or argue over. One thing they disagreed about was the existence of 'love at first sight'. Linebeck staunchly argued against it every time it was brought up, much to Damien's amusement. Especially since not only did Damien believe in it, but he was also almost certain he'd experienced it during his first meeting with Linebeck.

They'd run into each other in the middle of the city, Damien looking for a good engineer to fix his shop lights, Linebeck looking for high-quality materials. The first thing Damien had seen him doing was inspecting a variety of steel screws in front of a friendly vendor, flinching when Damien accidentally brushed against him. He didn't look much different than he looked almost a year later; haggard looking with dark circles under his eyes and his hair untrimmed, his clothes slightly wrinkled.

Damien quickly found him a bit attractive and couldn't help but spend hours afterwards thinking about the careful, familiar, skillful way that Linebeck had looked over every inch of the screws. It made the carpenter think of his own work, and he hadn't wasted a moment in apologizing for bumping into the then unnamed engineer, and then asked him if he had time to help him. It took a promise of payment to get Linebeck to follow him back to his shop, and they talked all while the engineer tinkered with the wiring of the lights, going as far to suggest modifying it completely in order to make them more efficient.

All it took was a short encounter for Damien to fall head-over-heels for a rude stranger he'd just met. He'd felt guilty for how his eyes had been glued to the gaunt man while he had worked. They'd met up the day after at a small coffee shop so that Linebeck could discuss his ideas for a new light design, and they'd ended up going more into depth about themselves as that day dragged on. Linebeck had told Damien about his aphenphosmphobia and lack of memories, and Damien had told Linebeck about his past transition and history in carpentry. They'd both left things out. Linebeck didn't mention Bellum. Damien didn't mention the Yiga. They became friends quickly, which would only become a surprise after Damien learned of Linebeck's aggressively introverted behavior.

They spent the first month quietly spending time together. Either Linebeck was a fantastic actor or Damien was the only one feeling any attraction early on. While he'd spent most of his time rising in rank among the Yiga through cold murders and missions, he became more hesitant in his job, going as far as to ask Ganondorf just why they were doing what they were doing if they were trying to help Hyrule.

That was probably what tipped most of his Yiga friends off that something new was on his mind. It didn't take his closest friends long to find out about Linebeck. They started giving him tips on how to interact with Linebeck, even to the point where Ganondorf was invested in Damien's relationship with the abrasive engineer.

Linebeck, at one point, managed to create a pair of goggles and speakers to briefly allow Damien to see and hear Bellum. The conversation was short, but Damien found that he enjoyed the AI's rude but surprisingly thoughtful observations. The little machine broke quickly. Damien hadn't spoken directly to Bellum since. He forgot about his existence rather frequently, usually reminded when he noticed Linebeck react to him.

They hadn't started dating up until one quiet day when they were simply enjoying each other's presence, when Damien had offhandedly mentioned that he harbored a bit of attraction towards Linebeck. Linebeck then admitted that he returned those feelings, and a bit anticlimactically, they agreed to start dating.

They went on a few small dates, carefully discussing limits between them. Linebeck never said anything about it to Midna or Ghirahim, but Damien did meet the former, and ended up enjoying her company at times. Neither he nor Linebeck were putting much effort into hiding their relationship, it simply ended up being that neither Ghirahim nor Midna actually noticed.

After a good while, almost three months, they kissed for the first time late in the evening, while Linebeck was visiting to do his work in a different setting. Damien had brought up the idea and was more than glad to hold still to avoid unnecessary contact. It had been on the awkward side, yes, but Linebeck had seemed happy with that short kiss, and Damien was more than happy to see that he was comfortable.

They spent that night at Damien's place, sharing the bed. Linebeck had wrapped himself in one of the blankets before allowing Damien to curl up next to him. They'd spent the rest of the following day in the city, and Damien was certain that Linebeck would've stayed longer if he hadn't realized that his friends were probably looking for him.

There were days when they didn't talk when they visited each other. Linebeck would sometimes sit and mutely watch Damien chip away at a commissioned piece of furniture or a little wood carving, sometimes pointing to something he'd missed. On the other hand, Damien watch Linebeck tinker with small projects he brought with him, offering new ideas and commenting on the designs. The lack of touch really meant nothing in the long run.

Damien knew that Linebeck preferred cats over dogs simply because they were calmer and when they showed affection, they truly meant it. He knew that he liked black coffee, but sometimes added cream on weekends, that he hated the sounds of loud crowds but enjoyed the gentle clamor of a lake teeming with fish and birds. He grew his hair out because he liked how the wind played with it and how he could hide his face with it, and he loved the feeling of melted candle wax hardening on his fingertips but despised the process of peeling it off. He enjoyed things as arbitrary as flipping each individual segment of a window's blinds and things as challenging as designing a machine to periodically dispense potion to keep plants growing; and it was a machine that never had a problem in all the time he and his friends had used it.

Another thing he liked was to run his fingers through Damien's hair.

"When you're done brushing out my hair, I'll do yours."

"Sure. Might take a while for me to do yours, though. I forgot how long your hair gets when it's wet." Damien cautiously dragged his fingers through Linebeck's hair, gauging his reaction. Linebeck momentarily flinched but continued buttoning up his damp shirt. Damien smiled faintly. "Why are you bothering to put your shirt on already? You just got out of the water. It'll be soaked in minutes." Not waiting for any response, Damien picked up the comb off the counter and drew it through Linebeck's hair. "You ever think about cutting your hair?"

"Nope. I like it long. Let it grow out when I was younger in order to spite people. It got a bit out of control, obviously. I trim it if it gets past a certain point."

"Mmm." Damien briefly fought to undo a knot in Linebeck's hair, then mumbled, "Isn't it hell to take care of?"

"Well, yeah, I figured, since I've started putting more effort in. But I don't really care how it looks past getting tangles out."

"What about the way your hair sticks out at the ends, or that... cowlick bit on the top of your head?"

"Genetic." Damien let out a short chuckle. "No, I'm not kidding. My mother's hair stuck out in similar ways, and my brother and I both inherited that trait." Linebeck paused and leaned back against Damien, who had to adjust the way he was brushing his hair. "The only thing I really inherited from my father was my hair color, but his hair was much more fully brown."

"That's cool. What was your father like? You didn't talk much about your family." Damien paused as he felt Linebeck flinch. "O-oh..." He gulped, shifting slightly. "D-do you want to talk about it? You... didn't mention them yesterday or at all today. I-I mean if you want to keep it so you just talk about the nice stuff today, that's fine! Just... I feel like you should talk about it at some point."

"I will, I will." Linebeck leaned forward, elbowing Damien. "Just not now. I'll decide based on how nicely you brush my hair."

"You're so childish," Damien sighed. "But I guess I am too, at times."

By the time Damien was finished, Linebeck's hair was half-dry and his shirt was completely soaked. "You know," Linebeck murmured, taking the brush. "I don't actually have a decent change of clothes. None of your stuff would fit me, anyways. Too baggy and too short." He began slowly raking the comb through Damien's much shorter hair, quiet for a few moments. "...Your family was nice, right? Even if you never got to come out to them and they never really picked up on anything."

"I despise them for that," Damien growled. "But I wonder if they would've accepted me if I had come out. Ghosts exist, right? Maybe you and I could try and ask them after all of this."

"Maybe," Linebeck whispered. "I would like to try and talk to my mother and brother again." He paused. "Do you think we can touch ghosts?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Why?"

"I would love to beat the shit out of my father's ghost." Linebeck sighed, barely trying to resist as Damien's flinch nearly tore the comb out of his hand. "You've got some tangled hair, though. Wow."

"Yeah, sorry. Go on, tell me what you're comfortable telling me."

"Oh. Yeah. My father was generally overall shitty and abusive when I was really young, I think my mother married him when he was decent. She divorced him after he nearly killed me. Not as much to say." Linebeck pressed a kiss on the top of Damien's head. "It doesn't bother me now as much as it did back when I first met the others. He died in a mugging, too, so I have comfort in knowing that." He ran his fingers through Damien's hair while he combed it out, untangling additional knots. "As a counter argument of some sorts to what you said earlier... have you considered growing out your hair a bit? I mean the undercut part, you know? I think your hair was like that when we first met and for a month after until you cut it."

"I'll think about it," Damien sighed. "So. What do you want to do after this?"

"Animal shelter. I haven't seen a kitten in so long."

"Well, lucky for us, the shelter usually has some kittens, or at least some young cats. Actually- There's a room where they let the cats wander around with each other. The walls are thick to block out sound so that the cats don't get upset by the sounds of the shelter dogs. We can talk about stuff related to a possible plan, since we've been trying to set up a plan to hinder the Sheikah and kill Zelda." Damien paused. "It's not really Zelda, right? You mentioned a shadow possessing the Zelda of your time."

"It's the same person," Linebeck mumbled. "They're identical and act very similarly. We're pretty sure that the shadow is somehow sustaining her body and refusing to take on a different disguise. That barely matter, though. Either way, she needs to die. And, sure we can talk about that. As long as the cats aren't spies or something."

"Yeah, well, I'm sure all of them are fine. If anything, I'd be wary of the dogs."

They waited for Linebeck's shirt to dry and set out just before noon. Damien kept running his hands through his hair as they walked, pleased to have clean hair after being so busy for so long. The streets were much less crowded as they were during the robot competition.

"...Have you guys found anything interesting about that underground city?" Linebeck asked. "I mean, that's where the others and I lived before everything went to shit. I guess the taller buildings buried the smaller ones, huh? I never knew that a statue was made for Link." As Damien lowered his hand from his hair, Linebeck took it, moving closer as they turned onto a more crowded street. "I heard rumors that you Yiga had been checking it out, out of sight of the Sheikah."

"Small teams have been checking it out, but we've mostly abandoned it since we haven't found anything worth out time. Plus, you guys got your memories back, so we know what happened. I'm sure Ganondorf is having your friends tell him what happened right now." Damien peered up at the sky. "It'll be really helpful for when we finally face off with her and the Sheikah. Not to mention, your accounts of the past and interesting in general. I'm sure it would make for an interesting story."

"Maybe." Linebeck tugged on Damien's hand, pointing at a building across the street. "That's it, right? You almost passed it."

"Oh. Oh! Yeah, that's it. Come on, it should be open."

They walked in without running into anyone, walking past a young man at the front desk who barely acknowledged them. Damien quietly explained that he was allowed to come and go and play with the cats since he was a volunteer. They entered the cats' room and were greeted by a group of kittens in the nearest kennel meowing at them.

Damien stuck a finger in between one of the kennel's thin bars. One of the kittens inside lunged at and started gnawing on his finger. "The kittens are usually pretty rowdy, and the adults tend to be much calmer. Well, I've got a bit to discuss with you, like I said."

"Can people in the hallway hear us talk in here?"

"Probably," Damien sighed. "We can go in the extra room, though, where they let some cats roam around. They never let kittens in there thought, since they're too small. It's just a bunch of teenage or adult cats that know each other. I think it's the same group as last time, wanna see them?"

"S-sure." Linebeck didn't have much time to add any more of his own thoughts as Damien grabbed his sleeve and tugged him over to the other door in the room.

Once inside, Damien gently shut the door behind them. "Can't let these guys out. Most of the cats aren't allowed on the floor out there. But we seem to have a calm group this time." He grinned at one of the three cats in the room, a small black cat who was staring at them with wide eyes. "Oh, hi there. You're not a Sheikah spy, are you?"

The cat gave a loud meow in response. Damien laughed and sat with his back to the door. "He's always been talkative," he sighed. "Come on, sit down. They'll usually come to you."

Linebeck hesitantly did as Damien said, acutely aware of the other two cats, sitting atop a cat tree and staring owlishly down at the newcomers. "Maybe those two are spies." He leaned his head against Damien's shoulder as one of the two, an orange tabby jumped down and sniffed at one of the food bowls. "Well, what are your plans? I imagine we'll probably have to keep up an illusion of ignorance for Zelda."

"You will, at least until we've got her on the ropes," Damien responded, his eyes glued to the cats. "Right now, thanks to Purah and Robbie acting as spies, we have a detailed map of the castle. The ball that Zelda's planning should last from 8 pm to 4 am. Once it's over, everyone will be ordered to leave, no exceptions. The idea is to craft a plan before the ball and execute it at the event. Intelligence states that the only people that will be formally invited is leaders and important people among Hylians and the other races; so Mipha is free to go along with Urbosa and the like. Revali is on the invitation list, along with you and your friends and a few other notable people. For example, Ghirahim's friend Vaati is on the list. He's not among us Yiga, but he knows of and occasionally provides us with magical items.

"The idea for the plan stems from the fact that we need to cut off the Sheikah from their tech labs deep in the castle, as well as destroy the whole city's power grid. The problem with the latter plan is that the current power system of the city was established some time before Hyrule was initially ruined, so there aren't many records about how it was created."

Linebeck frowned. "I'm... pretty sure I was the one who created the current setup. It wasn't implemented when the others and I were... awake back then. Maybe if I were to be shown a picture or some blueprints of the power system, then I could see if it was the version I made. I had been working on a power source of types, initially to make the city monorails more efficient, and then she had me working on making a new power source for the whole city. I finished it a few days before Hyrule was ruined and the four of us more or less... uh... sealed ourselves away."

"You never explained that. Any of that. I, uh, really want to know how you guys survived and all that."

Linebeck shrugged. "Well, we figured that the shadow was going to try and destroy Hyrule before we could stop her, so they had me get to creating a machine that would hold us in stasis to keep us alive. It's based off an old Sheikah design, like pretty much everything I've made. Except for Link. I came up with his design on my own. But the machine we were in for the past two centuries was right on top of the Yiga hideout. I'm sure you guys passed by it a whole lot."

"We did. The coffins confused us, but we couldn't open them. A group of scouts were the ones who'd seen you three leave that place, and they reported back to Ganondorf without hesitation. We were all told to leave you all alone, since, for all we knew, you were just a bunch of explorers who'd managed to open the coffins and spent the night." Damien sighed with a mocking tone of wistfulness. "I visited it a week later, not knowing that one of the people who'd been in the coffins- who'd created them, no less- would be my boyfriend roughly three months later."

"Mhm." Linebeck sighed, tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling. "But if you were to show me a picture or some plans about the current Hyrule City power grid and sources, I might recognize it. I wouldn't be surprised if it's unchanged. I had and might still have a bad habit of making it really hard for other people to reverse-engineer the bullshit I make."

"Probably helps that you're on drugs some of the time," Damien muttered. "Speaking of, we haven't smoked anything in a bit. Do you want to get some today?"

"No, no, I think we shouldn't bother with that, at least not for a while. We should probably cut back on normal smoking, too. I like, uh, being able to breathe and all that. So, I assume the plan for cutting the Sheikah off from their labs will be some kinds of explosions, right? You should definitely try and get as many people out of the city as possible, at least out of the inner parts until you hit the power system." Linebeck grimaced. "You're really dragging a lot of innocent people into this, huh?"

"It can't be helped. Zelda is aiming to bring back Demise, right? And if that happens, everyone will get dragged in. It's either we give them a brief scare to save them all, or they all get dragged into a living hell with Zelda succeeds."

"So it's a lesser of two evils, then," Linebeck mumbled. "Oh, well. At least we know what's going on. Who's in charge of getting people out of the city?" He paused, glancing down to see the black cat sniffing at his knee and then crawling into his lap. "Oh, hello," he murmured, scratching the cat behind the ears. He was rewarded with a surprisingly loud purr. "What's his name?" Linebeck quietly asked, rubbing the cat's chin.

"Olive."

"You're kidding. It's a perfect name." Linebeck grinned as the cat opened his pale green eyes. He elbowed Damien in the side. "You've got the same eyes as him."

"He's got the same eyes as me, more like it," Damien grumbled. "This little bastard usually hates me." As if to demonstrate, he held out a hand to the quietly purring cat. Olive sniffed his hand a hissed without missing a beat. "Asshole," Damien hissed back, jerking his hand away. "Nice to see he's all over you, though," he mumbled, watching Olive press his head up into Linebeck's palm and gently curled and uncurled his paws. "Maybe he likes your plan."

"My plan?"

"That you'd take a look at the power grid and see if you're the one who made the base version. What will you do if it is the one you created?"

Linebeck shrugged. "Well, I can easily figure out a way to disable it, then. I made it to be secure, didn't even tell the others much about it, but I ended up leaving a few chinks in its metaphorical armor since I ended up rushing to finish it. 'Course, this is all worthless if my design isn't powering the grid."

"Maybe Olive can help you, since he likes you so much."

As they wandered around the city after having left the animal shelter, Linebeck looked around for a moment, stopping. They were now in a much less populated part of the city. "Oh, wow. There really is a serious lack of people. How long have you guys been getting people out of the city?"

Damien let out a low whistle. They were standing in a small plaza of sorts, one of the roads leading directly to the coliseum. So often he had taken walks through the city and purposefully avoided this plaza in order to avoid the daily crowds; even as one of the people who had helped organize the quiet evacuations, it still surprised him to see the streets so quiet. "F-for a bit. Since we found out about Link, really. That was when we realized we had a chance to get the help of the hero. Of course, we didn't truly know that he was the hero until we saw the Triforce of courage on the back of his hand, way back at the shrine to Farore. But leveling the castle was always part of the plan, I suppose."

"...Is the Triforce needed for the plan? All we know about it is that Link has courage, but wisdom and power are missing." Linebeck sighed, and peered up at the castle, the impressive structure mostly visible over the city building roofs. "...What about the old city? Is that important?"

Damien shook his head. "It's only got worth to historians, right now. We Yiga can't use it, and it's better off being buried."

"...We'll head back in the morning," Linebeck decided. He fiddled with one of the buttons on his shirt, sitting up in the dark. "Really early. I want to make the others breakfast. As an apology of sorts. And I just... want to be there to heard if anything in the plan changes. You need to hear the changes, too. But I don't want to stay in the city very long."

"We can head back first thing," Damien muttered into his pillow.

They'd stayed out in the city until late in the evening, window-shopping and wandering. At Damien's place, they had dinner and separately went about their work, Damien working on a furniture commission, Linebeck checking on the metal fan he'd fixed prior to meeting Zelda, or even starting the current quest. He had checked the core he'd place in it. "...This usually lasts longer than the lightning magic cores. Nothing against the Gerudo and the Gorons, but they're usually kinda inefficient at times. Easy to make, easy to recharge, but they're not great." Damien had mutely nodded, and Linebeck finished his fan check-up and helped Damien with the rest of his job.

Now, they were awake in Damien's bedroom. Linebeck was sitting up and mumbling to himself, while Damien provided the occasional comment. After his musings about waking up early, Linebeck mumbled, "Are there any jewelry stores around here that stay open all the time?"

Damien shrugged. "I think so. But a lot of people have left the city. If you want good jewelry, you'd be better off looking outside the city, anyways. The stuff we got in Lurelin and Zora's Domain was pretty good. Cheap, too, but we also get a fair bit of payment from our jobs and stuff."

"Maybe I should pick up some more jobs before everything goes to shit." Linebeck laid back down and rolled over to set a hand on Damien's shoulder. "I wonder what we could do if we worked together, wood and metal. You're better at designing good-looking things- and I can do the mechanical stuff."

"Good idea," Damien mumbled, his words trailing off into a yawn. "I'm going to sleep. I'd appreciate if you let me."

"I'll stop talking in a bit. You're sure that the Yiga's plan will work? Cutting off routes to Sheikah labs at the very least? During the ball? For all we know, it could be tomorrow for all we know."

"The plan will work. I promise." Damien yawned and rolled onto his back. "If it doesn't, we can just have Link straight-up kill Zelda. That's what we want, anyways. I'm sure the Master Sword is the key to getting rid of that shadow thing, anyways. I'm also certain that Ganondorf has half the Yiga doing research on that shadow. Everything will be fine. If not, then my secondary plan is just to keep you safe while everyone else tries to fix things."

"Mhm. Any plans for the ball itself?"

"I'm sure there'll be good food while the other Yiga go and plant bombs."

"Interesting. Also a little scary."

"That's the name of the game, it seems."