Sheik lay on the ground, the broken remains of what was once the beautiful Hyrule Castle scattered around him. Fires and rubble faded in and out of his vision as his body began to fail him. He had a rather painful lump on his head, a few broken ribs, and more cuts than he cared to count, but as far as he was concerned, it had all been worth it.

It had been a hard battle, probably the hardest he had ever fought. It if hadn't been for his and Link's joint effort, he doubted they would have succeeded. A sense of pride filled him; it was finally over.

They had won.

They had saved Hyrule, Ganondorf was gone. He would have laughed in elation had one of his broken ribs not been pressing painfully into his lung. His sense of joy, however, was quickly pushed from his mind as his eyes gazed over the scene before him. A blood soaked Link; still impeccably handsome and perfect even when covered in all the gore and dirt, was helping Zelda to her feet. He checked that she was alright, his hands on her shoulders, searching for any wounds she may have suffered.

To anyone else, it would seem like a harmless scene, heart warming even. But to Sheik, it seemed as if someone had taken Link's Megaton hammer and slammed it into his stomach. Well, that would probably prove fatal, but it would have the same effect on his breathing. Seeing the love of your life care for someone else could do that.

Sheik had been attracted to Link the moment the shining hero emerged from the Temple of Time, yawning, yet still somehow managing to look like the semblance of a Greek god. He had flashed one of those dazzling smiles, and Sheik had been lost. Had Sheik been attracted to women in the first place, things may have worked out differently. However, Sheik mused, he probably wouldn't have stood a chance against Link's charms anyway.

Link seemed to charm everyone around him. Not only did he have the most amazing body Sheik had ever seen, but he also had a courageous, caring personality that everyone loved. It didn't matter who you were, if you were in trouble, you would find the Hero of Time coming to your aid.

He was amazingly brave, to the point where Sheik thought it almost ridiculous how many dark caverns and slime filled holes the hero had plunged into without a second thought. At first, Sheik had thought Link was just all brawn and no brain, not looking where he was going, charging on blindly ahead. But the hero had a very calculated fighting method, and Sheik had seen him solve puzzles that some of the greatest minds in Hyrule would have had trouble figuring out.

No, Link wasn't dense, just incredibly brave and fueled by an alarmingly large sense of justice. But the most endearing thing about the hero of time, Sheik mused, was that he still acted like, and had the mind of, a child. He had awoken to find seven years of his life gone, and had somehow acted with the maturity level of someone who had actually lived through those seven years.

Everything about the Hero of Time had Sheik in awe.

The Sheikah's thoughts were cut short as he noticed it was becoming increasingly harder to breathe. Though his body had gone slightly numb at this point, he could still feel his broken rib pressing into his lung. It wasn't enough force to rupture, but it did make breathing much harder than it should have been.

With a grunt and gasp of pain, he rolled off of his stomach onto his back in order to allow more oxygen flow. Link and Zelda must have heard, because a second later he heard Link shout his name in panic, and strong arms began to lift him off the ground. He hissed slightly as the new position in Link's arms caused the bone to press in further, but he found he didn't care as much as he should have, being more focused on the feeling of Link's strong arms supporting his upper body.

Exhausted, he leaned his head onto the Hero's shoulder, knowing he wouldn't mind. He and Link had been through a lot together throughout the journey. But despite how close they had gotten, Sheik knew it was a different experience for both of them.

He heard Zelda mumble something about his rib, to which Link's arms seemed to slacken a little. Sheik's eyes narrowed. He loved Zelda like a sister, and as a best friend. But he couldn't help the jealousy burning in the pit of his stomach. It was obvious Link and Zelda were meant to be together, and he hated how it caused Link to slip away from him. They would get married and have a beautiful blond, blue-eyed ceremony and have beautiful blond, blue-eyes children and everyone in Hyrule would be blissfully happy.

Sheik wanted to puke.

It didn't help that bile had begun to rise in his throat anyway. He realized off-handedly that his hearing had become muffled a while ago, and he noticed in confusion that Link seemed to be in hysterics, and a rumpled Zelda tried to calm him down while checking all of Sheik's vital signs.

Through all the clamor and the steadily increasing ringing in his head, Sheik could only hear a little of what they were saying.

"…if I had known…careful…sooner…dying"

Sheik's eyes widened, realizing Link was mistaking his state of near-unconsciousness for his dying moments. He would have laughed had he had more oxygen to spare. Hoping to convey to Link that he was fine, he grasped a bigger, gauntlet-clad hand in his own, and clasped it tightly. He angled his face up to look at Link, and stopped short, his crimson eyes widening at they took in the fear and despair in Link's cerulean gaze. He didn't think he had ever seen the Hero of Time so scared. Sheik found it even harder to breath all of a sudden, and this time it had nothing to do with his ribs.

After the rather difficult task of wrenching his gaze away from Link's, he could think coherently enough to know that he had to ease Link's fears. Luckily, Zelda began to use her magic to heal his rib. As he felt the pain steadily seep out of his body, he sighed in relief, and grasped Link's hand harder in reassurance. Link had an odd look in his gaze, and Sheik found it hard to look away yet again. He felt the slight cracking in his chest cavity as his ribs began to rearrange into the proper place, and Link's relieved gaze was the last think he saw before slipping into an exhausted sleep.