Ancient Oneshot Ahoy!

[zeffyface]

Disclaimer: Zelda is not mine.
Title: For Now
Author: Zeffyface
Rating: PG
Pairings: Link/Sheik
Words: 3950

Dedicated: To my best LJ buddy, editor, moral support, babysitter, strong shoulder and partner in crime, Muse. She also thought up both the last line and the title, just by being awesome.

Notes: I started this as a drabble over a year ago, and have been beating it around ever since. It’s been a rough year for my writing, and so even though this piece is not my favorite I’m glad I finished it. Hopefully many more works will follow, and I will improve.

For Now



In the grand library of Hyrule castle Link blinked, the book in his hands momentarily forgotten as he stared over his shoulder. He remained in that position for a few long seconds, one blond eyebrow slowly arching towards the ceiling curiously. It was when he heard the hurried clicks of heeled footsteps that he finally broke his gaze, turning back to the shelving with a mischievous smirk and a soft “Ah.”

“Oh, Link! I hadn’t heard of your arrival.” Replacing the smirk with a pleasant smile, he turned to face the newcomer.

“Sorry Zelda – you know I hate going through all of that formal stuff. You really should consider upping your security if you don’t want me sneaking in.” He offered an apologetic shrug, one gauntleted hand rubbing the back of his neck.

The ruler of Hyrule eyed him in mock anger for several moments before sighing and shaking her head. “You’d just complain about it until you found a new way to avoid the guards.” Dropping a little from formal posture, she gave the Hero a smile that warmed her normally regal expression. “Is there something you were looking for?” A white-gloved hand indicated Link’s book.

“Just a little light research.” He closed the volume with a quiet thump. “I was trying to figure out why the gossip stones change color, but so far I think I’m the only one to see them do it.” Replacing the tome among the thousands lining the wall, he commented lightly. “You looked like you lost something yourself.”

“Oh,” Zelda waved her arm in exasperation. “Sheik disappeared. I was going to introduce him to an ambassador from Koholint when he slipped off.” She looked over with a half-hoping expression. “I don’t suppose you’ve run into him?”

Link shook his head, bangs falling into his eyes as he frowned sympathetically. “Afraid not. Knowing Sheik, he may be across Lake Hylia by now.”

The royal heaved an unladylike sigh. “Well, I tried.” She turned, making to walk out of the room. Link watched in amusement as with every step she recomposed herself, straightening her posture and relaxing her face into the serene yet stern expression she wore in formal occasions. Almost out the door, she turned, sparing a small smirk. “Try to drop in a little more often, all right? I worry about you sometimes.” At that she was gone, her skirts swishing softly as she exited.

When the footfalls finally evaporated Link let loose the chuckle he had been holding back and walked over to the far end of the room. He stopped a foot away from a closed door, blue eyes glinting with mirth. “You owe me for that, you know.”

There was a long pause, at the end of which the heavy sigh of a low tenor sounded, muffled slightly by the wood. “Yes, I know.”

Link tried the handle, and found the door locked from the inside. How the other had managed such a feat he wasn’t going to speculate. “Are you going to come out anytime soon?”

“Why does she keep doing this?” Link took that as a no. Abandoning the door handle as a futile effort he sat, setting his equipment to the side, and leaned his back against the sturdy mahogany.

“She’s just trying to make you happy, Sheik.”

There was a shuffling sound, followed by a soft thud that signaled the other mirroring Link’s position. “She’s been practically throwing every female representative that comes to the castle at me. Last month she started trying the males to gauge my interest.” Link felt and heard a loud thunk; he had a feeling the Sheikah had just banged the back of his head against the door.

“Well, she is persistent.” He took off his hat, shaking out the chin-length mess of choppy blond and resettling.

“Easy for you to laugh at – she isn’t trying to match you with everyone in Hyrule.”

“She probably would if I hung around long enough.” Some cross between a snort and a sigh drifted from the other side. “I’m serious. Every time I stay here for longer than a few days she schedules at least three meetings with such-and-such person from a place I’ve never heard before and then abandons me in the middle of the introductions.” He paused, and then added. “I’ve heard of a lot of places, Sheik.”

“Does she pull the ‘call from the sages’ line with you when she runs out?”

“More times than I can count. Not even subtle.”

“She used to wink and give me a sort of hopeful smile when she set me up, now she just kind of gets this pleading look on her face when she leaves room. I just…didn’t want to have to see that anymore.” Link heard could hear shifting, and imagined the other getting comfortable. He would have on knee up with his right arm draped over it. The other leg would be stretched out in front of him – and from the distressed tone of his voice he had started fiddling with his hand wraps. He smiled a little at the knowledge, although it was frustrating to only hear Sheik upset without being able to do anything. Well…

“Look, if you aren’t going to come out here, then let me in.” He felt more than heard Sheik move this time, picturing the other staring incredulously at the barrier between them. He turned, matching the unseen look. “I mean it. I can’t keep talking to a door, and what if Zelda comes back?”

“…You want to sit in the closet.”

“We are complaining about the ruler of this castle – it seems somewhat appropriate.” In his mind’s eye he saw Sheik blink and shake his head, the spiky bangs momentarily shifting to show both of the deep red irises.

At the soft click of the lock he grinned in silent victory. “Bring your things in – having them out there alone is even more suspicious.”

“Can do.” Not bothering to stand, Link simply swept his shield, sword, gauntlets and pack into a pile and swung the door outward enough to push them in before sliding after them. Relying on the faint glimpse he got before he closed the door he kicked his equipment out of the way to the back before settling, his shoulder barely brushing against another warm body. “Huh, it’s dark in here.”

“Well what did you expect?” Without the barrier blocking the noise the contained amusement was clear beneath the worry in the other’s voice. Link shrugged, knowing the other would feel it through their touching shoulders. He could make out the slightest outline of the lithe Sheikah’s body – sitting exactly the way he had envisioned it. He had considered voicing his triumph when Sheik chuckled mildly. The deep, lyrical sound struck Link as something terribly fascinating. He had only heard Sheik laugh in the past year or so of their friendship – the first time astounding him so fully that he had dropped his sword. “I knew you took out your hair.”

“Hm?”

He felt a soft tug at one of the locks near the back of his head. “Your hair. Whenever you think you’ll be sitting down a while you take it out of your hat.”

“Like how you’ve probably unwrapped your entire left hand by now?” Link quipped easily, stretching his own legs out in the accommodating space. “This is actually a pretty nice closet. You deciding to stroll through the room and lock yourself in took me by surprise, though.”

The humor drained from Sheik’s tone and posture almost immediately, making Link wince at the loss. “I had run out of deku nuts to blink away with.”

“Wow, that bad?”

Sheik let out an affirmative sigh in response. Through adjusted eyes, Link could see the other shift forward, burying his head in his hands. Something seemed a little off, he realized as he examined the now hidden face. “Link.” He quickly snapped back to the reality of the situation, shifting forward to indicate he was listening. “What am I going to do?”

The helpless tint of the other’s tone triggered a funny pinprick feeling in Link’s chest. Hesitantly, he wrapped his arm around Sheik’s back, resting his hand on the soft cloth at his shoulder. He tried vainly to ignore the way his pulse jumped at the touch or the swooping feeling when the other showed no sign of tensing or moving away. It had been that way when he came in contact with the Sheikah for a long time now. “Zelda means well for us, she really does. I don’t think she’s lying when she says we worry her. From what I hear and see you’ve been working yourself ragged in the past three years.”

“And you’re better?”

Link chanced scooting a little closer and offering the other’s shoulder a lighthearted squeeze. “Not really. I just work out of her reach most of the time.” Sheik’s muscles relaxed a little under his hand, although he did not pull his face from hiding. Link swallowed, considering. This was as far as he had ever gone with physical contact before, but little voices in his head were whispering for more. “You…” he licked his lips against the sudden dryness of his throat. “You could try telling her which gender, at least. Get rid of half.”

Sheik sighed, finally sitting back straight and leaving his hands in his lap. “This may sound odd, but I don’t really mind either way. I just – what?”

Link closed his mouth, realizing he was staring. He had figured out what was off. “You aren’t wearing your mask.” He swept his eyes over the dim contours of a strong jaw line that somehow managed to appear soft and angular at the same time before resting on the shadow of Sheik’s lips. He looked away after, hoping the other would not notice his face heating up. He had always had a sneaking suspicion Sheik would outdo most men and some of the girls in the country if he took his cowl off. It appeared he had made a grave underestimation.

“Oh.” Sheik turned away partially, his right hand picking at the wraps on his left in a way that meant embarrassment. “It was muffled enough through the door as it was.” He stayed that way for several awkward moments and then turned back, relaxing again beneath Link’s arm. “I…don’t really mind, if you don’t.” Link looked back up in disbelief, quickly stamping out the hopeful stirring in his chest. Sheik shrugged, offering a half-smile that even when barely visible made the other’s blush return with a vengeance. “It’s not like you wouldn’t see my face someday. Better you than one of my would-be suitors, I suppose.”

Link just nodded, attempting to bring back words. Unfortunately, the prolonged proximity made him ask dangerously close to the question he both most and least wanted answered. “Yeah about that, you didn’t like any of them?”

Sheik raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Neither did you.”

“Not even a little? From what I hear it was a lot of options.”

“I’m not interested in options.” Both men seemed to realize the slip at the same time. Link’s eyes lit up in mischief, while Sheik restrained a grimace.

“Oh, do tell.”

“…It’s my closet; you should have to go-” The rest of the sentence was cut off rather abruptly, but the moment Link opened his mouth to ask the reason he found a bandaged hand firmly clamped over the lower half of his face. Sheik’s eyes had narrowed, and he turned his face to softly press one ear to the door. Somewhere in the back of Link’s mind he registered footsteps, two pairs, both too heavy to be Zelda, and the low murmur of voices as they paused in the doorway of the library. The main portion of his awareness, however, was providing much unneeded commentary about the somewhat suggestive positioning the move had brought. In order to bring his hand around Sheik had been forced to turn mostly to the side, now almost facing him as the red irises flicked back and forth to pick up on the conversation. That, combined with the positions of their arms had them in an almost-embrace.

Link gave his consciousness a vicious kick and forced himself to listen to the footsteps retreat instead of try to find synonyms for the ghostly scent Sheik’s wraps always seemed to have. After a moment or two more they had disappeared from his earshot, an eternity too short later Sheik breathed a soft sigh and released Link’s mouth, closing his eyes as he rested his head against the door. Perhaps it was simply being able to watch his entire face at the same time, but it suddenly struck Link how tired the other looked, the shadowed eyes unable to be completely excused by the poor lighting. “A little high strung, are we?”

Sheik drew his hand back to his own lap, stretching his legs straight across the floor. “The official term is ‘Alert’. And it is my role to be such.”

“Maybe you need a vacation. Or...a nap.” Dark eyes shot him a look, but Link was too fascinated by the way Sheik’s mouth pursed for it to have any effect. It was surprising how expressive his face could be without all the white cloth in the way. “You know, do something besides guard and hide from royalty all day?”

“I know what a vacation is, Link. I don’t take them.”

“So? Much more of this and you’re going to go insane or break down and marry someone just to get peace.”

The moment the words hit his ears Link realized just how horrifying that idea was. He took a slow breath, feeling the tightness in his chest usually reserved for when he caught sight of blood through ever-present bandages. The man leaning against him bound to another; unhappily bound to another... it just wasn’t supposed to happen that way. “You,” he swallowed, unsure. “You wouldn’t do that, would you?”

Then how is it supposed to happen?

Sheik had found something terribly interesting about his boots. The tightness developed to a twinge, and Link looked away to disguise how much effort it took not to fidget.

“No.”

“No?” Link leaned forward in an attempt to see around the curtain of blonde hiding Sheik’s eyes and was surprised when the other responded, matching his gaze and holding it.

The Sheikah shook his head a bare centimeter, never breaking eye contact. “No, I wouldn’t do that.” One corner of his mouth turned up, and he reached up and lightly pushed on the side of Link’s face with the back of his hand to get him to lean away again.

Letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, Link suppressed the sudden urge to do a victory dance, or laugh, or grin like a maniac, or hug something. Namely something clad in blue with a very appealing, almost wistful look on his face. “So you’ll play hookie with me then?”

Sheik blinked and raised an eyebrow. “With you?”

Blue eyes flinched, a hasty mental note to think before speaking filed away. “Well yeah, naturally I’d have to come.” He swept a hand through the air as if expounding a little known subject. “It was my idea after all, and sneaking a day off is only truly enjoyed with at least one other person in cahoots.”

The skeptical eyebrow stayed firmly in place. “I wasn’t aware this was a team venture. Is there some secret to vacationing that I could not do by myself?”

The jolt in Link’s stomach began feeding his mind all the wrong ways to answer that question. Much more of this and he’d go insane. “Oh, you know,” On the pretence of thinking he took a deep breath, relaxing back into fake pensiveness. “Hold hands while skipping across Hyrule Field?”

“…Have you suffered a head injury recently?” Sheik’s voice swung up half an octave, and a grin slid across Link’s face.

“Or pick flowers and chain them together into necklaces for one another; that’s good group fun…”

“Perhaps inhaling soot from Death Mountain Crater has finally affected you.” The rumble of a chuckle laced the words, vibrating their touching sides.

“Oh, the crater is a wonderful choice for picnics. After the skipping of course. We could pack a lunch and a blanket and some burn cream-”

“Are you planning on giving up anytime soon?”

“Nope. Where was I…”

Link looked down from his exaggerated mulling to continue his ramble, but the words faltered and scattered when he realized there was a hand pressed to the door directly beside his head. Sheik had turned and sat up until they were facing one another, a mere six inches of space separating them, and Link’s traitorous arm had simply adjusted its hold around the other’s back without alerting him. He stared back for a moment, waiting for… something while his heart ran circles in his chest, but Sheik continued to simply look. He almost seemed lost in thought. Tentatively, Link dug out his voice. “Sheik?”

The other’s eyes snapped wide, darting over Link’s face to their position. “I…” Link forced himself to remain calm outwardly, while on the inside trying to pick up every single feeling in the moment, before Sheik would pull away and awkward distance would set in.

Five seconds ticked by and neither of them had so much as blinked. Link wondered if perhaps the Sheikah had frozen to the spot when the hand by his head curled in on itself, fisting against the wall. “I am sorry,” The low, bare murmur somehow pierced the stillness without breaking it. “I did not know that I... I was thinking.”

“Oh.” Rationality had left him some time ago, but bare instinct noted that Sheik had maintained eye contact the whole time, and Link would be damned if he was the one to sever it, or shatter the moment of calm. “What were you thinking about?”

A tiny smile quirked that appealing mouth. “Thinking too much.”

Link swallowed against a suddenly dry throat. His imagination played cruel tricks – he could swear the other was getting closer. “Sheik?”

“Hmm?”

“Why aren’t you interested in options?”

A hand came to his face again, but instead of covering his mouth as he thought it would it carefully draped over his eyes. He shut them obediently, feeling his eyelashes brush Sheik’s palm before something soft and hesitant touched his lips. A tiny gasp came unbidden from his mouth and the pressure paused, then returned with a hint more presence. Warm breath ghosted across his upper lip, and he repressed the urge to shudder.

But then the contact moved away, barely pulling at his lower lip as it did so. His neck craned of its own accord in an attempt to follow, but the hand over his eyes held him back until it too vanished. Blinking slowly, he met Sheik’s hesitant gaze for half a moment, jaw slack.

Sheik managed half a shrug and looked away, attempting to back up against the arm holding him firmly in place. “Any more questions?”

Words failed him, the shock in his head having blown his working vocabulary and the warmth in his chest leaving him too melty to care. Actions always served him in the past, anyway. Leaning forward, he used his free hand to turn Sheik’s face back to his, thumb taking time to run along the firm jaw. Then with a hint of a smile, he found a bandaged hand and placed it back over his eyes before closing the distance between their lips again.

The mouth against his froze in what he hoped was only surprise, and then tilted, the hand on the back of his head guiding him to a better angle. It was hesitant and awkward, but as Sheik pulled away only to come back for a second, third, fourth lingering touch Link didn’t think it could possibly have been any more perfect. It was when he felt warm fingers guiding his face that he realized his eyes were no longer covered, and when he shifted he found his arm had also moved from Sheik’s shoulder to wrap around his trim waist.

The kisses were growing longer and firmer when Link leaned back and opened his eyes. Sheik’s eyes blinked open immediately, gaze sweeping his face to look for something wrong. Link smiled reassuringly and rested their foreheads together, hand trailing up and down Sheik’s back. “I do have a question, actually.”

Sheik licked his lips and nodded against Link’s forehead. “What is it?”

Unable to help himself, Link leaned up to steal a quick peck from the deliciously moist mouth. “What are you going to tell Zelda?”

Sheik’s eyebrows rose. “Me? What about you?”

“Oh, I’m far too busy. Besides she knows you better, so it wouldn’t matter if I were on the other end of Hyrule...”

“You’re afraid of a princess who is five inches shorter than you.”

“So you’ll do it?”

“Of course not. I don’t have a death wish, and you’re certainly not leaving me alone with her to develop one.” During their conversation Link had leaned back against the door again and one of them had tangled their legs together in a lazy sprawl. Link gave Sheik his most pitiful pout, complete with puppy eyes.

“But Sheik…”

Sheik rolled his eyes and surged forward, claiming his mouth in an insistent, hard press that made Link’s head spin. Link inhaled sharply and immediately retaliated, pressing back and opening to battle a seeking tongue with his own. His hands dug into the fabric of Sheik’s top while the world dropped away, only ragged breaths and glorious taste and the texture of lips and tongue and teeth remaining.

All too soon the sensations were rudely taken away, and Link opened his eyes to find the Sheikah practically in his lap, looking a cross between embarrassed and smug. Link swallowed heavily. “We could always wait, you know.”

The sincere, light smile on Sheik’s face could make up for any wait. “Are there rules about when one leaves for vacation?”

Link grinned and reached for his pack. “Not unless you want to get caught.”

Zelda sighed and shook her head as she wandered down the corridor. The meeting had managed to ensue without great mishap – thankfully she never told any of the ambassadors why she really wanted them there. She paused in front of the library and looked in, noting without much surprise that Link had managed to disappear as well. She heaved a second sigh of frustration and turned back to the hallway when she stopped and tilted her head to listen. Faint notes of a warping song carried across the air.

Frowning curiously, she turned back to the library, attempting to discover the source, only to find a sudden swirl of light escaping the crack under the closet door.

Zelda blinked, took a step into the room, then seemed to think better of it and turned on her heel to walk back out. Some things were best left unanswered.

For now.