Strength is forged through pain; to be strong is to live, so be thankful for the pain.

A mantra that he cannot pinpoint to a specific person or place or time, it was like a heavy blanket that wrapped itself around nearly every memory he had. He knows, vaguely at least, that there was a time before the Lans, before Ira had adopted him, before every awful thing that had come after.

But now was not the time to linger on such things. Not with his ankle throbbing in pain under the gentle touch of his own hand and face pulsating around his injured eye.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

Link's attention is drawn outward by the sound of a voice. He looks up, not missing the painful tug of a pulled muscle in his neck, and is met with the most lovely pair of hazel eyes. A part of him, old and buried by the years, knows he's seen eyes just like this before. A name springs to mind because, regardless of the time between then and now, he would never be able to forgive himself for her death.

Mipha.

This was her brother Sidon, her little diletto , that she had spoken so highly of. Grown and with hazel eyes just like hers.

He freezes his thoughts then and numbs his heart to the prickling stabs the realization. Now was not the time. Now was not the-

Suddenly, those hazel eyes are level with his own, and he realizes Sidon has, with a certain amount of drunken clumsiness, crouched down in front of him.

"They must have whacked you in the head pretty hard then, huh? Lemme call a squad or something to take you to the hos-"

He doesn't let Sidon finish, shaking his head despite his pain.

"Oh, so you can hear me. That's good at least. Do you think you can try to walk?"

Try and do had the grandest gap between them, really they did. His attempts to scramble to his feet had ended poorly, to say the least. Even still, now without the threat of being caught clawing at his heels and making his heart pound in his throat, it wouldn't hurt to try it again.

Pulling his feet under him, he put weight on his good leg. So far so good.

Carefully, tentatively, he went to put weight on his hurt ankle. It was sore and thumped with a shallow soreness, but it wasn't unbearable. He put more weight to it and, when the pain remained unchanged, he slowly stood up, still placing most of the weight to his good leg.

He kept his face blank, but on the inside roared with triumph. Perfect, now if he could just find his way to an escape stash and keep those three bozos off his trail, he would be just fine.

Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.

The thought was dashed from his head as he experimentally equalized the weight both his feet bared and immediately regretted it. The same shooting pain that had him falling the first two times he'd tried this was there again, clawing up his leg and forcing him to suddenly throw all his weight to his good foot. The sudden shift in weight had him teetering, tottering, and then falling. His balance had never been the best and certainly was done no favors by being socked in the head earlier in the night.

His arms shot out instinctively as he hugged his chin to his chest, waiting for impact. Instead, he found a strong arm catching him around the waist.

"Whoa whoa whoa there, I said try to stand, not fall on your ass."

Link catches the beginnings of a smile tug at the younger man's face and part of him wishes he could retort back, finish a joke, to thank him, anything at all. This guy, much bigger then himself at least, had willingly just stood between him and three of Ira's Lans' personal lackeys. All for stranger, no less.

Just like his sister.

He does what he can to let the thought pass through him harmlessly, now balanced once more on his good foot, using Sidon's offered arm as an anchor.

"You're not much one for talk, are you?"

Link can't help the roll of his eyes as he instinctively turns his head fully to Sidon, opened his mouth, and stuck out what remained of his tongue. He knew it wasn't a pleasant sight, but not because of the surprise that filled Sidon's eyes. Jagged edges and matching scars along the inside of his cheeks told anyone who looked that it had been cut, poorly, from his mouth. The scar was nearly fourteen years old now, just one year older then when his speech had been taken from him, but it always felt like just yesterday that he could easily talk.

He's quick to snap his mouth shut once more, his point made.

"...well, that's got to work as a conversation starter in some way, right?"

Link cracks what he knows is a rare grin as he cocks an eyebrow in Sidon's direction. He could not say that anyone before had reacted quite like that, all sarcasm and smirks. He could feel Sidon's chuckle at his own joke shake the arm he was using for support.

"Look," he started, chuckle still lingering in his voice, "are you sure you don't me to call someone for you? Even if it's just a friend or family or-"

Again, Link shook his head firmly.

He had no friends. No family. Anyone he might have once called that was either dead, in jail, or trying to kick his ass. Before he could do anything else, Sidon had pulled a phone from his back pocket, and pressed a number. Link could hear it not even ring fully once before their was a voice one the other end.

"Hey Magnus...yeah no I'm fine, I promise. I'm out over by the southern border and need a ride...nah, I didn't cross over, but I met what I think might have been some Lans goons on our side of the bor-yeah, no I said I was fine. Yeah, no, Magnus that's not necessary, just a car please...tell Bazz I can hear him in the backg-yeah sure, tell him he can pick me up..."

A cold pit formed in Link's stomach as Sidon spoke. He was the only son of Dorephan Oras, of course he'd let his father's associates know the moment someone so much as potentially broke the truce. This could be bad. This could be very, very bad for him-

"Nah, I'm not sure why they were this way. They were just walking around and bolted once they got a good look at me...yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. Tell him I'm at the 11-7 by Chico's Bar. Ok, I'll hang tight."

Link's thoughts ground to a halt as he let what Sidon had said sink in. He'd made no mention of Link, not even a peep. He watched the redhead, taking in every ounce of his body language that he could. He bore no tension in his shoulders, no worry hung on his brow; just a careful, easy clamness hung around him. That, and the very faint smell of a bar.

He was lying through his teeth and he hadn't so much batted an eye. If he knew who it was that he had unceremoniously rescued, perhaps that would be a different story. But it wasn't and, for the time being, Link breathed a sigh of relief.

Sidon had since ended the call and slipped the old phone back into a pocket. He now had his attention turned to Link, the hand that had been glued to his hip reaching out to offer him a hand. Link took it, glad to have the additional means of balance available to him once more.

"Alright look, my friend should be coming to pick us up in a few minutes. Just," the look Sidon gave him was unreadable, "if you can't go to the hospital and got no one to help you, stay at my place. At least for tonight. You look like shit, honestly."

Link snorted out a short, mirthless laugh.

Yeah, that was probably being too nice. He sighed, turning his attention back to the alley he had come from.

His thoughts quickly turned to the sort of night he'd had so far; the door of his piss-hole of an apartment being broken down. The feeling of knuckles cracking against his face once, twice, thrice. The taste of blood in his mouth, the smell of copper deep in his nose. The terror of running, running, running, like he'd been doing for years.

A soft voice, old and familiar and kind, slices through his thoughts like a lighthouse in the dark.

"Link, if you are ever in trouble, please find my family. They will help you. I promise you, they will help."

It had been the last thing Mipha had ever said to him. She'd been the one person who had offered him a hand, a smile, or even so much as a truly kind word. If he couldn't trust that, then what could he trust?

He nodded, answering Sidon's question, just as a black car tore into the tiny carpark, a voice from the driver's side crying out into the night.

"Bazz is in the house bitches! Heard some dumbass mob kid needed a pickup!"

Link stared as Sidon's laughter bubbled forth once more. He really did have a nice laugh.