FicWad

Red made him think of many things...

Red sunset. Red tunic. Red metal holding the mirror for his Mirror Shield. Red eyes for a fake Sheikah. Red blood pouring out when he drove the Master Sword through Ganon's skull, that red tongue hanging out.

Link had seen enough red in the last few days to last him the rest of his life. That was why he'd come to Lake Hylia in the first place: no red here.

Except there was. Red water where he'd washed his clothes. Red mud where he'd stood while cleaning his sword. And he wasn't thinking about the rusty-colored dirt trapped underneath his fingernails and on the bandages wrapped around his head, his torso, his arms.

Red always brought pain with it, Link decided. He was going to clean himself off and never have anything to do with the color red ever again. He sighed. If only it were that simple!

He'd seen so much blood, so much liquid red, over the few short weeks he'd had as an adult. And now the princess wanted to send him back to before this all began, to give him back those seven years he'd lost.

But he couldn't get them back. Seven years ago, he lived to play with Saria and the others in the forest. He didn't know battle. He didn't know pain. He hadn't gotten accustomed to cleaning blood from blade and cloth and hair and skin. Seven years ago, he would have been terrified at the thought of being covered in something else's blood. Now a day scarcely passed where he wasn't. The sticky feel of dried blood was just another part of the grime that normally covered him.

Just another part of being a warrior. A knight. A hero.

He wasn't a little boy anymore. And there was no way he could go back. He was too scarred, too weary, too covered in red. The princess didn't seem to understand that; wouldn't she know? She'd lived through it... or perhaps that was it, the difference between watching it shift gradually and having the world change drastically in a matter of mere heartbeats...

Link sighed and fell onto his back on the cool grass. Perhaps he should've taken the princess up on her offer, gone back in time... lived those seven years for himself...

"That scowl doesn't suit you, Hero," a soft voice said from nearby. His voice, yet not his voice. He didn't answer, instead staring up at the darkening red sky above him.

Which was promptly obscured by a face and a pair of burning red eyes.

Link stared up at him. Dark Link. "Why?"

"Why, what, Hero? Why am I here?" Dark Link laughed, pulling away to sit beside Link. "I'm here because you need some cheering up. And I know I'm right. I always am."

Yes, yes, he always was. Link narrowed his eyes. Dark took full advantage of the connection they had.

"Stay out of my head."

Dark Link didn't answer for a moment. Link pushed himself up onto his elbows and glanced towards his dark twin. "What?"

"You..." Dark looked at if completely in shock and yet completely overjoyed at the same time. "You spoke to me!"

"Huh?"

"The Hero of Time actually said a complete sentence! And here I thought you couldn't do that!" Dark laughed, his voice loud and clear in the chilly evening air. "I think I underestimated you..."

Link let himself fall back to the grass, remembering idly that he was naked. It felt oddly freeing, now. "Yet again."

"I'm so hurt. Come on, can you really expect me to know all those tricks you've got?" Dark said with a broad smirk.

"Hmm." Link knew he had a point. Several times during their travels, they'd reached what Dark had thought was a dead-end, only to have Link pull something out of his pack and get them past the obstacle. Dark had tricks of his own, though Link was always expecting him to do something unusual.

"Oh, what? Now that you're said a full sentence, you can't speak anymore?" Dark glanced over and raised an eyebrow. "You look cold."

He was, actually, but he didn't have anything to wear that wasn't soaking wet, and he'd rather just be chilled as opposed to freezing. "I washed my clothing."

"Another sentence! Maybe I should thank those goddesses of yours for giving me such a gift." Even the sarcastic tone of voice Dark spoke in couldn't hide the underlying amazement.

Link sighed. He never had been one to talk much, instead preferring to listen. And especially after a few days in Castletown, he'd learned that people tended to underestimate the quiet ones.

"Or maybe you want me to see you naked. Is that it?"

"Nay, I merely don't care. If you are as I, then I am doing little more than showing my reflection how I appear, am I not?"

Dark fell onto his back, sprawling on the grass and laughing triumphantly.

Link sat up. "What?"

"I... I... Look at me! I've got the Hero of Time talking to me! Oh, and," Dark said with a smirk, "he's laying next to me naked as the day he was born, which is another plus. But he's talking to me! I bet even Zelda hasn't heard this much of your voice."

Link didn't answer. No, he thought to himself, she hadn't. The most he'd ever said to her in one meeting had been the last time they'd met, after he'd killed Ganon. 'Blame yourself for none of this, Princess. But know this: I refuse to be sent back.' And then he'd simply walked away.

Something tapped his nose, and Link opened his eyes and tried to focus on it. An arrow. It tapped against his nose again, and then the arrowhead burst into flames. The arrow moved away, and Link followed its motion over to a small pile of sticks. Dark was making a fire.

"Stop your fool moping before I stop it for you," Dark said simply, harshly, focusing the rest of his attention on the small fire. "Now, sit here and warm yourself up while I go get more firewood."

"Hmm."

"Don't believe me, Hero? Just try me. I'm up for a game."

Link stared at the small blaze as he heard Dark walk away. Fire was reddish. Hot coals were red. Red could be warm. The flames danced across the sticks for several moments. Dark's eyes were red, an odd shade of red. Not quite blood, not quite flame, but with a strange sort of strength burning in them nonetheless.

"Up for a game, are you, Dark?" he murmured to the fire, content that Dark couldn't hear him. "Is that all this is to you? A game? It isn't. A moon ago I was a kid running around the forest, an innocent child. Now... Now I don't know what I am."

"A man," Dark said as he walked over and dumped an armload of wood near the fire. "A hero. A warrior, or maybe I should say a damned good warrior? You took out the King of Evil, after all."

"Even so, what am I to do now?"

Dark peeled off first his tunic and then his undershirt, dropping them beside Link's drying clothing. "I don't particularly care, Hero."

Link did his best to remain nonchalant, focusing on the one thing that didn't remind him of how little clothing either of them wore at that moment. "Stop referring to me as "Hero". My name is Link."

"Link!" Dark screamed the name to the sky and then laughed again as he sat next to Link. "And now you share your name with me? How many others know as much as I do now, /Link/?"

"Stop acting like a child."

"Oh, right. That's for you, isn't it?"

"It most certainly is not!"

Dark smirked again. "Why are you speaking so formally? You don't sound like a child. So you can sit there and claim to think like you're ten all you'd like, but I don't believe you. I've never heard a child talk like an adult before."

"I spoke as a child when I was a child. The day I first took up the sword I was no longer a child. And if I am to act as a man, then should I not also speak as one? If nothing else, this is the same manner that most all who speak to me lately use."

"Ah, yes, a bunch of old fools and their fool sense of ceremony. Now, I wonder... A simple question for you, Hero. Is such fancy talk all that mouth of yours is good for?"

Link snorted. "What business is that of yours?"

"It's not like this is a new request, Link. We've done this before, and I do remember that you seemed to like it."

"Oh?"

"Yes, what with the way you were clawing at my hair and clothes and I distinctly remember you nipping at my lip." Dark cocked his head to the side and looked over at Link in triumph. "I didn't think children acted like that."

"As I said, I am an adult now, whether I desire to be or not."

"Ah, but do you desire me?"

All Link could do was stare into those fiery red eyes, looking for something he both couldn't find and couldn't deny. "You say we have done this before. If that is so, then I believe you have your answer."

"Goddesses damn it!" Dark yelled, leaping to his feet. "Must you act so innocent? Open that mouth of yours and say it!"

"Say what?"

Dark shoved Link down onto his back and knelt over him. "That you want me. Admit it! You want me. Now say it!"

"Dark?"

"/Yes/?"

Link smirked, mirroring the expression he'd seen on Dark's face so many times. "Must you act so crude? Ask me politely and I may honor your request."

For a while neither spoke. They stayed in that position, their faces close. Wild fire red stared into calm lakewater blue. The fire crackled.

Link could take the heated stare of those crimson eyes no longer. "Fine. Dark, I want you. I want you to kiss me. Is that sufficient?" Not waiting to hear his dark twin's answer, Link leaned up and pressed their lips together.

He started the kiss, and he also broke it, falling back to the grass with a grin. Dark looked completely confused. Link had to laugh at that. Perhaps he'd merely missed this aspect of red before...

"Link?"

"Hmm?"

Dark took a deep breath. "Would you be so kind as to honor me with another kiss?"