Eighteen

Hard Truth

Complete and utter silence filled the tower room, shocking in the aftermath of the chaotic noise of battle. Even the storm outside seemed to have stopped. Vaati smiled, feeling a wash of triumph. They had somehow, impossibly won. Then he swayed and collapsed, weakness overcoming him.

He looked up to see Link, his eyes still white, his face still marked with strange war paint, looming over him. He was kneeling, but still seemed impossibly huge.

He sheathed his great blade and signed, We need to get out of here. The fairy told me the tower was likely to fall without Ganondorf's magic propping it up.

Vaati tried to get up, but the room swayed around him and he fell back down. "I'm not sure I can," he said, his voice sounding strange and weak. Although it probably wasn't that strange, he thought to himself. He'd exhausted his magic, gone days without food, then exhausted his magic again.

Suddenly he felt himself rising. Link was carrying him. Vaati leaned his head tiredly on Link's shoulder and simply let himself be carried. He knew he should still be afraid. Link was moving swiftly, but he could hear faint rumblings as the tower began to fall apart. They might well die if it collapsed completely before Link could reach the bottom. Still, they would die triumphant. More than that, though, he knew that Link would make it. Whether it was destiny, or merely trust in him Vaati wasn't sure, but he knew that Link would survive, and would save him.

Fortunately Ganondorf's creatures seemed to have fled the tower as well, so they were unopposed as they descended. Link had to duck through doorways, but his long stride let him make good time, and they reached the bottom safely. Link didn't stop there, though, he kept running until they were well away from the tower, near the gate to the dead town that surrounded it. There Link stopped and gently laid Vaati on the ground. Vaati managed to sit up, and watched as the rest of the tower collapsed into a pile of rubble. Nothing remained of it at all, just tumbled stones, barely a single one still standing on another.

I guess it's over, Link signed slowly. He looked at the tower, his strange, empty eyes somehow seeing it clearly. He gave a long sigh, feeling oddly reluctant to let go of his new, empowered state. But finally he reached up and removed the mask, reverting to his usual self.

He sat down and flopped tiredly onto his back, and Vaati was alarmed to see how much blood stained his tunic. "I wish I had a healing spell for you," he said. "But I'm all out of magic."

Link shrugged. I'll be fine.

"What was that... being you became? What did you charge the mask with?"

It was courage, the way Ganon was power. I charged the mask with the Triforce I bear. He lifted his hand. The mark was still there, but it no longer glowed. It looked like a tattoo, traced in crisp lines on his skin.

"Courage. Of course that's the piece that would be yours. You're braver than I would ever have thought possible. I was terrified the entire time, I think, and I didn't even have to do the fighting."

Link laughed suddenly, softly, and shook his head. I was terrified too. I just did it anyway. I think that's what courage is. It's not brave to do something that doesn't scare you.

"Huh. I suppose that's true."

Link shrugged once more. We should find some shelter and rest. I have a little food left. I don't think we can travel much today.

"No. I'm not getting very far today."

They ended up sheltering in a nearby cave with a small spring that Link knew of, avoiding the town itself. The buildings were unsafe and anything might be lurking there, but the small cave wasn't too far for Vaati to limp, leaning on Link heavily as he did so, and it was obviously holding no unpleasant surprises. Though a pair of fairies that came to the spring as Link and Vaati were doing what little they could to get comfortable were a surprise of a more pleasant sort. After their healing touch, they both looked and felt much better. Though both were still exhausted. Fairies healed wounds, but didn't cure tiredness.

Vaati found himself dozing off, his head on Link's shoulder as they sat leaning against the wall after eating the meager rations Link had remaining. He was drawing a steady stream of magic from the land around, and had drawn a little even from the fairy, but that too didn't cure exhaustion. He felt ready to sleep for a week.

Link shifted, gently removing Vaati's head from his shoulder. A moment later they'd they'd both rearranged themselves, without words, to lie side by side, holding each other close. Vaati ran his fingers through Link's hair, and gave him a gentle kiss, but a yawn actually interrupted it.

"Should sleep," he murmured, and Link nodded a silent assent. Only seconds later they were both asleep, entwined together and resting deeply despite the roughness of the cavern floor beneath them.

Morning dawned bright and clear. The perpetual storm that had swirled around the tower was gone. The golden sunlight was harsh and merciless to the wreckage of the tower and to the moldering disaster of the town. Link and Vaati stood just outside the little cave and regarded both.

So, where do we go now?

Vaati bit his lip, looking between the two. Through the town lay a path that led back to the forest, towards what had become home, and the happy life he'd found with Link over the last several years. The other direction led towards the ruined seat of Ganondorf's power. There was a power vacuum there now. Eventually somebody would come along and fill it. If that somebody wasn't Vaati, right here, right now, the chance would pass, and he would have to overthrow somebody else in order to claim what he wanted, what he had always wanted, which was true, real power.

And yet... that path put him on Ganondorf's throne. He looked at Link. Once he'd thought to use Link in his plans for conquest. Now though... the hero who'd overthrown Ganondorf could scarcely be expected to support another usurper in his place. So if Vaati chose his lifelong dream, he would be set at odds with Link. Given what he'd seen the day before, that thought was uniquely terrifying. Though it wasn't the thought of defeat at Link's hands that he feared most. It was the realization that becoming enemies would destroy the bond between them. Link would no longer be his servant, nor anything else save his enemy. He knew Link in ways that Ganondorf did not, and he might be able to use that knowledge to beat him through less direct means. Yet by winning he would lose something very dear to him.

He turned and looked again at the town, at the path to the plains and the forest beyond. He felt pain and frustration welling up in him. He couldn't choose that either. He would be giving up everything he'd worked for all this time. He would have no goal, no purpose, left to drive him. Life with Link might be pleasant, but without a purpose, what would he even do? He could feel the beginnings of a bleak depression grip him at the very thought.

Vaati? What is it?

"I can't choose. I don't know which path I want to take."

Link looked at him, realizing that Vaati meant something deeper than not knowing where the physical paths would lead. Whatever you choose, I'll go with you, he signed.

"I don't think that's true." Vaati shook his head. He didn't really want to talk about it, but Link's expression turned puzzled and even a bit hurt, and he felt he had to explain further. "There's one path that leads to another fight like yesterday's, but it's between you and me."

I would never fight you.

"You say that now..."

Link gave him a disbelieving look. So tell me what you'd do, on that other path? What crimes would you commit to earn my enmity?

"Conquest," said Vaati softly, not sure if he should dare to speak it. "What I've always wanted. To rebuild Ganondorf's tower, but to rule from it myself."

And how is that a crime?

Vaati blinked at him. "How is it not? I'm hardly the rightful ruler of Hyrule!"

Link smiled gently at him, with a little pain in his smile. Tell me then, who is? Zelda is dead. Her father preceded her in death. She has a few quite distant cousins, but no brothers, no sisters. No mother, no aunts or uncles... If you think I need to serve the rightful ruler of Hyrule, who will you send me to?

"I... I don't know."

There is no one I'd rather serve than you. You have been a good master to me. I think you can be a good master to Hyrule as well. So if that is what you desire, then let me be the first to swear fealty to Hyrule's new king. At that, Link dropped to one knee in front of Vaati and bowed his head. Your Majesty, he signed, still not looking up.

"Link," said Vaati softly, wonderingly. "Thank you. I... I don't even know what else to say."

Link did look up at that, and a grin suddenly flashed across his face. Say that in your new palace I won't have to sleep in a kennel.

Vaati couldn't help it, he burst out laughing. It wasn't really that funny, but somehow he still couldn't stop, every time he thought he'd caught his breath, Link's ridiculous grin set him off again. He doubled over, laughing so hard he could barely breathe. Link started laughing too, and they both laughed until their sides were aching with it.

When they finally managed to calm down a bit, Vaati said, "Thank you again. I mean it."

Link, who'd gotten to his feet again, smiled. He lifted his hand and brushed his fingers over the collar he still wore, then dropped it and signed, I like serving you. I want to keep serving you. And... He smiled at Vaati, but a bit more hesitantly this time, his cheeks coloring faintly, does this mean that you say "yes" to letting me out of the kennel and... and perhaps into your bed?

Vaati found he was blushing a bit himself, but he nodded. He had a sudden flash of memory, of being carried out of the tower in Link's arms, and how he had felt small and utterly trusting in that moment. "After what you've done, I can hardly think of you as a child anymore."

Link suddenly flung himself at Vaati, wrapping his arms around him tightly and giving him an enthusiastic kiss.

Vaati kissed him back, putting every bit of his pent-up passion into it. He slid his arms around Link, pressing tightly to him, one hand lifting to tangle in his hair and hold him in the kiss. Link let out a soft sound, almost a moan, as Vaati gripped his hair. He twisted his tongue with Vaati's with a matching passion. When they broke off the kiss they were both panting hard already. Vaati looked into Link's eyes from only inches away. "Goddesses... all the things I've dreamed of doing to you... I don't even know where to begin."

Link just smiled and gave a little shrug, unwilling to let go of Vaati to reply.

Vaati chuckled, but he stepped back, freeing himself from Link's arms. Link let him go reluctantly. Vaati glanced around the open path they stood on and grinned. "Whatever we do, it shouldn't be right here." He reached out and hooked a finger under Link's collar, pulling him gently along as he turned and headed back towards the cave.

Link's eyes went wide, his heart jumping unexpectedly, and he followed Vaati willingly, his pulse pounding, his breath coming fast in anticipation. He didn't know exactly what Vaati would do to him, but he did know that he wanted to please his master, his... his love however he could.

He held that word silently as he followed Vaati. Love. That was what he felt for his master. It had been what he'd felt for him for a very long time.

So, when Vaati pushed him down to the sandy floor of the cave and knelt over him, eager desire written all over him, Link couldn't help but look up at him with a tender smile and sign, I love you, Vaati.

Vaati's breath caught. He could hardly believe what Link had just said. He felt a rush of something he didn't even have a name for, warm and wonderful within him, and the only thing he could do in response was say, fervently, "Oh Link, I love you too. I love you so much. I want you so much..."

Link looked up at him, seeing the passion shining in his eyes, and signed, I am yours, my master, my love. Take what you want.

"My Link," said Vaati softly, and then he had no more words. But as the sun climbed in the sky outside, within the cool dimness of the cavern he claimed Link as his own, and showed him without words how much he loved him.

That's the end. Thank you all for sticking with this, I have appreciated every comment that's been left on this story, and I'm glad people have enjoyed it so much. It will probably be a while before I have anything else to post, but I have some more ideas so eventually there may be more of this particular pair. I write slowly, but I never stop writing. :) Meanwhile, if you need more to read, I do have other stories. Fans of this one will probably like "Dark", which is another slightly fluffy yaoi romance, so you should check that out if you haven't read it yet. Other romantic-themed stories you may like include Mirrors and Opposites Attract (which is het, but you can't have everything be yaoi, right?) Thanks again, everyone!