[Incomplete]

[densetsulink]

Who: Sheik, Link
Where: Outskirts of the forest
What: A meeting
Summary: Link, unsure if Zelda is nearby, meets up with someone who also wants to find her.
Rating: PG

Comments

[theeyeoftruth]

True to his word, Sheik had waited. The anxiety that had welled within his chest was now threatening to overwhelm him; he did not allow it to, would not allow it to. Link. Link. He'd lied to him, decieved him, injured him, betrayed him, and then the man had still saved him, or tried to

[densetsulink]

A soft sound of curiousity sounded as Link stopped in his tracks, turned to look over his shoulder. Whoa, he'd missed him completely! That wasn't like him, but he smiled nonetheless. The ears were quite telling, though... those eyes...

Link's mouth opened to say something and then thought better of it as he took account of the garb. He'd seen that design somewhere before, but never much within Ordon. Shrugging, he turned to face Sheik, extending a hand to him with another smile.

"It's good to meet you, finally. You're alright? If so we should really get looking for Zelda and..." his eyes looked inward a moment before he came back to himself, that smile more bravado than not.

Like he'd felt with Lloyd and Misa previous, this one felt exceptionally warm. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but perhaps it was because they were both from Hyrule... it was the only explanation he could surmise.

"...You're new here, right?"

[theeyeoftruth]

Sheik did not return the handshake, did not bow nor smile or give any form of meeting. His eyes had widened, his body tensed, behind the cowl his mouth had fallen ajar. "Finally?" He shook his head, a minute tilt from side to side, small and slightly fevered.

He couldn't quite see Link's face in the false light, but something seemed off. It didn't seem like Link, didn't really feel like Link had. And he was smaller.

"Link?"

[densetsulink]

"Yes?" his hand drew back, flexing softly as he figured people wouldn't be keen on introductions in a friendly nature. At least, no everyone. This was Purgatorium, and there were plenty of people here who deserved to be. Perhaps he'd been recognized, and Sheik couldn't fathom his coming here? Unlikely, but he had acquired a bit of fame since he'd helped Zelda.

"...You seem confused." this wasn't the time to be discussing such things, he thought, and he frowned faintly as he thought of Zelda and how she might be in danger of some sort. Her power had briefly flared, he could feel it, despite their connection being weakened by their distance from Hyrule. That could mean one of two things, and he wasn't keen on one of those being her needing to defend herself, or worse-- expending it on herself...

And though he was smaller, he was no less Link than any others before or after him would be.

[theeyeoftruth]

"You don't remember me?" It didn't matter if he knew that this wasn't Link, irrationality clawed at him so easily after centuries of not being acquainted with it. "Not even as the princess, you don't remember? The desert, the temple, the music, you don't remember anything?"

He closed the cap between them, bandaged hands finding Link's shoulders and almost shaking him, acutely aware of the fact that he should almost have to crane his neck to look into thos eyes, not just tilt his head.

It was the eyes that shook him, that made it all clear. His hands tensed on Link's shoulders, brittle.

"You're not him."

He stepped back, hands dropping, looking absolutely stunned.

"I..."

He couldn't bring himself to look away from those eyes. The blue should have been different, less azure and more wintry, but just as warm.

"I'm sorry," he said abruptly. "I mistook you."

But how then could they be so similar?

AUGH, my heart, Sheik has plucked the lyre of it so well D:

[densetsulink]

That question sounded like an accusation, really, and Link wasn't sure what to make of it. His brows drew up in contemplation, wondering briefly if he'd died here and lost a vital memory and didn't realize it.

But then those red eyes were close, boring into him with an intensity with an odd prickling sensation that he felt just behind his eyes-- it was bizarre and familiar, and it left his senses reeling.

"...I'm not?" Okay, he was thoroughly confused. And the other seemed quite distraught.

"It's fine... really," he smiled and held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Let's look for Zelda, she can explain what's going on. We can't argue with that, right?"

<333

[theeyeoftruth]

Sheik seemed to have become someone else entirely. Nausea had risen acutely within him, left him reeling, and he could not shake off the nostalgia that came nor the pain it brought. He kept his distance, gave a small, sharp nod, and looked through the sparse trees to where the red glow of fire could yet be seen. "Indeed. Do you know where her majesty will be?"

Unbidden, his eyes raised skywards again, to where the daylight gleamed through the plate. "And I would appreciate more information as to where I am and what, by Din, is going on."

sdlf;skjf GOMEN

[densetsulink]

"I've heard she's near some shirna or shinra HQ? What's HQ mean, anyway? But... I was going to pick my way over there. Hopefully Midna's there, too. But I don't think she wants to see me right now." It was evident there was something very not right with the situation between him and the Twilight Princess, but so it went.

He seemed to be offuptting a lot of people today, and if it continued with Zelda, he'd get fed up rather quickly with being delicate about certain subjects. Truth be told, it hurt, but it also made him slightly angry that people were making these sort of demands on him and he'd never met them before.

Well, that he knew of.

"I think it's this way," he said, turning away from Sheik and making a sweeping gesture over his shoulder for him to follow. "So, uh, mind if I ask how you know Zelda?"

<333

[theeyeoftruth]

In spite of himself, he was only half listening to Link, too busy thinking of the ocarina and the desert and the way the Hero had looked at him before he died. But this was not him, not as tall and not as sharp, his eyes a brighter blue, his hair a darker gold. Similar, but far from the same.

Then why did he feel so close? It was as though the Hero of Time had changed himself somehow, managed to change hundreds of little things that were so fundamentally him, whilst keeping equally as many.

The question caught him off guard - he eyed the Hylian for a moment, before recovering swiftly. "She is my queen. I am her servant."

moar <3

[densetsulink]

There was a distant feeling about Sheik that Link found familiar and frustrating, mainly due to the fact that he couldn't pinpoint what it was about him he recognized. That seemed a mutual issue, but Link was less keen on identifying it and just recognizing it for what it was. There were several people in Hyrule that felt that way to him, he just took it as they were fated to meet and interact. The goddesses seemed to do that sort of thing more often than not.

"Oh, I never saw you in the castle, it's nice to meet you! Did you give her your cloak or something?" he gestured to the Sheikah Eye emblazoned on his chest, a brief smile still tilting at the edges of his lips.

Somehow, he was starting to recognize the uncomfortable feeling as... melancholy. But he didn't know why. "...Are you alright? I can't help but think you're a bit disappointed."

[theeyeoftruth]

Sheik watched him as he moved, unable to stop his eyes from following the way the dim light caught too dark hair. "I - did not live within the castle," he said dismissively, "I have never actually met her majesty." No, because she had not been alive when he was. And he had not met her when he took over her consciousness and acted as a mask either, had not even known why there were gaping holes in his memory.

But he saw it then, an expession that was so nauseatingly, achingly recognisable whilst being vastly different. The knit of the brows, the turn of the lips, the softening of the eyes. "I am fine," he said, trying to add Link but unable to because it just wasn't right. "Not disappointed. I apologise for it seeming so. I was distracted."

[densetsulink]

"Oh, well... alright." Something about Sheik didn't fit. And it wasn't like a puzzle piece being unable to mesh with another... there seemed to be something between them that was unmentionable and profoud.

And still that lingering accusation he felt of 'you're not who I think you should be' sort of emanated from him.

"You shouldn't get distracted," he said, a bit terse as he stopped taking his time and set at a steady pace toward where he felt Zelda's presence. If Sheik paid close enough attention he'd also note that Link's dominant side was the opposite of his ancestor. "You'll get hurt, otherwise. Come on, let's get going."

Because the longer he spent with this Sheik, the more uncomfortable he felt. That and he still needed to find Midna.

[theeyeoftruth]

I apologise, after spending centuries floating about in the void only to be brought to a purgatory and faced with a ghost of the past, I was too easily lost in thought.

It was what he wanted to say, but he had control enough to make do with biting his lip behind the cowl. He simply gave a sharp nod by way of reply, "Lead the way."

And that in itself was wrong. He was meant to be the one who was always one step ahead of the Hero, the one who miraculously appeared at just the right times and gave away just enough information and disappeared just before Link could really ask anything that he wanted to know. The fact that this had been turned on its head was unsettling enough, the fact that he could not look at this man without seeing him the same but different made it all the more difficult.

Still, he moved to walk a step behind Link's shoulder, apparently a lot more focused than he had been before.