Blizzaga Saga: Ugh…sorry to everyone who had this on story alert. I've been using another profile for my non-M material, but the admins recently trashed it for a fic I wrote on it, so here we are. It figures that my non-M profile would be penalized and not this one, lol.

This is my first T-rated rated fic on this profile. A dangerous precedent, perhaps.

The day after the moon was supposed to fall, Romani sat in the grass with Link, looking out toward Clock Town. With nothing better to do while Cremia was at her friend's wedding, they had spent the morning shooting arrows at balloons, but now they were out of targets.

"How did you get so good with a bow?" Romani asked, grinning when he blushed from the praise. It was cute how modest he was.

"Practice," was the simple and honest answer. Most of that practice was on monsters that tried to kill him, but Link decided against telling her that.

Satisfied, Romani clasped her hands together happily. "Anju must be a bride by now. Romani wishes sister had let us come." Link pointed to the bow in his lap. "Yes, someone has to protect our home, but Romani has never been to a wedding. Anju's grandmother says they're really pretty."

"What's a wedding?"

Romani was stunned. "It's where people get married," she explained, incredulous when he still looked confused. "A man and woman who love each other kiss in front of their families and friends, and the man becomes a husband and the woman becomes a wife. Then the couple lives together, happily ever after!" she exclaimed, quoting the stories she'd heard. "When Romani grows up, she wants to be in a wedding and be the best archer in the world! What does Grasshopper want to do?"

He scratched the back of his head through his pointy green hat like he had never thought about it. "I don't know."

"Really?" she asked, disappointed. As usual, he looked like he was in deeper thought than his words revealed. During the three days she had known him, she noticed that though he didn't talk much, he was very thoughtful. "That's okay. You can think about it and tell me next time you visit," she said, not giving up on finding out more about her cute mysterious savior.

Link hesitantly peered at her through his blonde bangs. "I can come back?"

"Of course! Grasshopper is Romani's hero! Sister will definitely say yes too."

As if they had summoned her by speaking her name, Cremia's carriage appeared, and soon all three of them stood together.

"Thank you for watching the ranch while I was away," Cremia said to Link with a smile. "Are you sure you won't stay the night?"

"Please, Grasshopper?" Romani begged. "We can chase fireflies together!"

Link stared at the approaching storm clouds apprehensively. "Thank you, but I have to go. I'm still looking for my fairy."

Cremia nodded her understanding. "I hope you find Navi soon."

"Come back to visit when you do, okay? And Grasshopper…" Romani's tone became strangely subdued for reasons she didn't understand. "If Romani and sister ever get into trouble, will you save us again?" Cremia rose an eyebrow at her use of "again", but Link nodded seriously and Romani's normal mood returned. "You're so cool!" she shouted before wrapping her arms around the stunned boy. She giggled when he blushed. Cremia smiled at them, but said nothing.

Three days later...

Kafei kissed Anju again. The Carnival of Time was over, but they still strolled merrily down the East Clock Town street. They laughed despite the rain that had been pouring for the whole three days since their wedding, but they stopped when a little boy ran up to them, fear in his eyes.

"Jim, what's wrong?"

"It's Link! I think he's hurt!"

"Link?" Anju asked, sharing a meaningful look with her husband. The little boy who saved their wedding? He was still in Termina?

"He's in the sewer below the astral observatory. And, well, I couldn't see him, but he's crying, and I couldn't get him to move. I don't want something to happen to him, because he's cool, you know?"

"Go home and get the medical kit," Kafei told his wife. "I'll find him."

Minutes later, Kafei entered the Bombers' hideout, though the Bombers rarely used it and never ventured deep underground. Holding a lantern, he walked through puddles of filthy water but saw only dark corridors.

"Link!" he called out, but no one answered. When he reached the next area, a faint sound reached his ears. Someone…was crying.

Soon the lantern illuminated a little boy and the corpses of a dozen gigantic insects littering the waterways. Water trickled around them, indifferent to their presence and to the sobbing boy who had killed them.

"Link?" he asked in horror. "What happened? Did these things attack you?" Kafei had no idea there were Skulltulas in Clock Town. Each of the bodies surrounding Link was at least as big as Link himself. It must have been a desperate fight. "Link, can you answer me? What's wrong?"

His heart broke as he watched the cold, pale, wet little boy curl around himself and sob. His cries were so weak, so quiet. As he feared, Link's sword lay beside him, stained with the innards of once-living creatures.

"I can't leave," the child said, his voice nearly drowned out by the water rushing through the room from the rain outside.

"You're safe now. It's me, Kafei," he added, thinking Link didn't recognize his adult form. "I'll be with you the whole way out."

"N-no," he stuttered, but Kafei had seen and heard enough. Gently lifting the boy who was too tired to fight back, he carried him back to the outside world. Link squeezed him tightly when they emerged in the rain as though afraid, but didn't have the energy to escape.

"Link! Are you okay?" shouted Jim, not understanding why the boy he looked up to was so despondent.

"He'll be fine," answered Kafei, walking past him. "He doesn't seem to be hurt."

Inside the Stock Pot Inn, Anju waited with a blanket. "I'll take him," she said. "Link, I've drawn a warm bath for you. Will you let me clean you?"

Link couldn't answer, too tired and delirious from his ordeal. Kafei left, hoping that a maternal figure would have better luck comforting him than he'd had, but none of this sat well with him. He'd been to Ikana with Link when they recovered his marital mask from Sakon's hideout. Link had fought monsters then and seemed perfectly fine, so why was he so broken now?

In the bathroom, Anju stripped Link down. "Link, why were you down there?"

"To get out of the storm," he answered quietly.

"But it's been storming for three days. Were you down there that whole time without food or light or clean water?" He nodded. "Why didn't you go home?"

"I can't go back," he whispered. No one in Termina had heard of Hyrule, so the path he had traveled to get here was likely the only one that existed. It had disappeared during his time in Termina, leaving nothing beneath the clock tower and no way to get home.

But Anju didn't know that. All she knew was that his naked body was covered with horrible scars, all of which looked recent. Anju gasped in horror as she traced one of them with her finger. A wound of this size surely would have killed such a small child without the aid of a potion. Had he received these at his home, wherever that was? Were these scars, or the person who caused them, the reason he couldn't go back?

She wanted to ask him more questions, but he had already fallen asleep in the warm water.