Comatose

Disclaimer: Paperclipluver owns nothing of Legend of Zelda. She only has the games.

Well, guys, here it goes. A non-AU (hallelujah) one-shot for Link and Sheik.
It's kinda a Link/Sheik fic, but at the same time more friendshippy. Of course, I could easily make this into a two-chapter one-shot with more Link/Sheik-ness, but...

You tell me; if you think the end suffices or if it needs a sequal. o,o
Anyways, please review! Even if you hate it!

Link's POV

The fire temple had been a harsh one. When I had first exited the fiery cavern of Death Mountain, I hadn't thought much of my injuries at all. They felt the same as when I had fought Gohma. That thought died in a fire (no pun intended) when Sheik approached me and insisted on me resting for at least three days.

As it turns out, I had more cuts and lacerations than I could imagine from within my tunic. And a possible reason I couldn't feel the full extent of the pain was because they were mostly deep into the skin that had been burned by Volvagia's whip-like hair. The dragon had torn up my skin along with my tunic, which Sheik was fixing now as I attempted to sleep in his bed.

That's right, the great survivor of the Sheikah was sitting across the room on a small stool he had propped up against the wall, and was trying to sew my red tunic back together.

My mouth quirked into a smile. That was something I had never expected to see. When I smiled, a scar near my mouth started to itch so I tried to scratch it. But I should have realized, from my experiences in the Forest Temple, that Keese bites were more painful than they seemed. I hissed and pulled my hand away from the bite quickly. I swore to myself that if there were any damn Keese in the Water Temple, I would shoot them down in the most painful way possible.

Sheik hadn't even looked up when I hissed. He was far too busy concentrating on making every small stitch he made perfectly aligned. I could see from the way his one visible eye squinted that he was really into what he was doing. But the golden hair that hung in front of his left eye was blocking his view; it was becoming a hindrance. I could tell.

So I chuckled to myself and shifted in bed. "Maybe if you pinned your hair back it would be easier."

He looked up at me sharply with his eyes narrowed. But I could see the red burn in his ears; embarrassed to be caught in this situation. He thought I had been sleeping.

"You should be sleeping, Hero."

I scoffed. "I'm in too much pain to sleep." If I tried to sleep on my back, the burns there made my insides twist in agony. If I tried to sleep on either of my sides, the cuts from the flame dancers and Volvagia burned as if they were starting to bleed again. And if I tried to sleep on my stomach, not only could I not breathe, but most of the burns I had gotten from the final battle were there. The pillow hurt against the Keese bites.

I carefully sat up in bed, making sure not to irritate any of the burns on my back. I didn't want any of the bandages to ride up either. Cold air on burns just didn't feel right.

"I'm bored," I whined. I had lost seven years of my life, I was allowed to act childish once in a while to make up for it.

But I received no response from him.

He just kept sewing. Except now his back was turned more towards me, the burn in his ears still visible. Who knew he would get so embarrassed. You'd think that after pretty much seeing me stark naked, checking for wounds and injuries, he would be a little more comfortable around me. But he was still awkward. Distant. Maybe it was because we knew nothing about each other.

"Where'd you learn how to sew?"

His shoulders tensed for a moment before he went back to sewing the tunic. A major sign for me to stop asking questions about him sewing.

But I was still curious. Maybe he had learned how to when he was little. A Sheikah child in the Hyrule Castle taught to sew by one of the handmaids. It made sense.

"Lady Impa taught me."

The late response caught me by surprise so my mouth gaped open a little. His response actually answered two questions of mine. I now knew who taught him how to sew and when. I remember when I was really small, before all this chaos piled into my lap and I was still living with the Kokiri. I remember looking for Saria all over the place; in her house, in the lost woods. Not even the skullkids knew where she was. I forget why I wanted to see her so bad that one time, but I did. So when I passed by the twins' house and heard a sharp little "ow!" I was startled, to hear Saria's voice, and ran in. The twin girls, who were a bit older than the rest of us, were trying to teach her how to sew.

They giggled together and gave Saria a small piece of cloth to put over her finger. I remember blinking, so confused, when Saria gave me an angry look.

"Link! You weren't supposed to find me!" I could tell she wasn't really angry; Saria could never be truly angry at anyone. But she hiding something green behind her back. "Go away!"

So I did. And it took her so long to finally reveal what she had been doing. It had taken her so long, maybe a little less than a year, so learn how to sew perfectly so she could give me the green cap I always wore.

Sheik must have learned when he was a child as well. From the way he was stitching the tunic together with such precision, I knew he had known how to do this for a while. But that got me started on the thought of, how was Sheik as a child? How was he when he was ten years old? Had he been as strict as he was now, when it came to Sheikah tradition? Or was he able to live his life like a child, only to be taught those traditions when he was older.

I chuckled again, which caught his attention. He turned back to me, with the red tunic and needle in his lap. "What is it, Hero, that could be distracting you so much from your sleeping and boredom?" Oh, he was mocking me.

"I was just thinking," I chuckled again. "About you as a kid."

His expression didn't falter, so I figured it wasn't a bad subject to talk about.

"But I think I may be sorely wrong. So, Sheik, correct me. How were you as a kid?" I crooked my neck to the side and made a quick scratched to the same Keese bite that had been bothering me before. Unfortunately, it still hurt.

"Stop touching that." He paused for a second, his crimson eyes lingering about the room. "My childhood is irrelevant, Hero."

I cleared my throat and looked to where the Master Sword was hanging with my shield. "Of course it is. In the off chance that I travel back in time, and I go looking for you," I looked at him for emphasis. The look in his eyes still hadn't changed. Emotionless pools of deep red. "I want to know what I'm getting myself into. If you were the same as you are now. Or is you were a crazy little kid."

His expression finally changed as his eyes narrowed. "It is irrelevant, Hero." He hissed again.

I faltered, my eyebrows twitching from surprise and then concern. I was discovering a whole new bout of emotions from Sheik in this one night. First he was embarrassed, letting himself blush, and now he purely annoyed. Maybe it was a bad subject to talk about. I shouldn't have pushed. But I was still curious dammit. I wasn't satisfied with a glare or a single anwser. Through this journey, I had come to consider this Sheikah, and cold and emotionless as he was, to be my best friend. If he weren't here to help me, I don't know what I would do. So I wanted to keep up with him. I wanted to learn about him, and I wanted him to learn about me.

Of course, he probably knew all he needed to know about me.

I twitched when he rose from his spot on the stool. He abandoned his project, carefully folding the ripped tunic and placing it on the stool with the needle neatly on top. Lithe steps brought him towards me and his tan hands wrapped around my shoulders to push me down into the sheets.

I hissed, squeezing my eyes tight. I noticed Sheik roll his eyes and then he made the movement that told me to sit back up again. He hated wasting time, and by pushing me down, only to bring me back up again, he had done just that.

"I will redress your wounds, Hero. But I want you to sleep. I have to report elsewhere while you do, but I assure you I will be back in the morning." His voice was no longer annoyed, which somehow calmed me down.

But, while he undid the wraps around my chest, I was devising my own little plan. Sheik had said it himself; I held time in my hands as long as I had the Master Sword and the Ocarina of Time. So while Sheik was out, I would simply travel back in time to answer my own question. My plan was foolproof.

Just like he had said, once he had dressed my burns, he had let me fall back into the covers. Sheik had placed his hands over my eyes and I closed them instinctively, but as soon as he left, and I had heard the dull bang of a deku nut hitting the ground, I was up out of bed again.

I ignored the stiff pain that ran through my body as I shuffled on my clothes quickly. The white undershirt I usually wore seemed to weight three times it's weight tonight and I regretted even putting it on. I couldn't bend over, I noted, so I had to have my leg propped up on Sheik's desk to buckle my boots. This, unfortunately, gained the attention of my other little companion who had been sleeping in the other room.

"Hey! Link!" Navi fluttered over to where I was buckling my second boot. "What are you doing? Sheik said to stay in bed, you're still healing! Hey!"

I turned to her with the best and most sincere smile on my face. "We're taking a small trip while Sheik's out." Her blue light dulled a bit as she flitted to and from around my head.

"What do you mean? Link!" The little fairy questioned on but I chose to ignore her. I grabbed the Master Sword and my sheild, and after securing it against my back and drinking a potion to dull the pain, I pulled out the Ocarina of Time. I winked at her and she gave me a dull sigh. I had won this battle, and there was nothing she could do about it. I was the bigger of the two, after all. I placed the cool instrument to my lips and started humming out the Prelude of Time.

White light surrounded me and I could feel my feet being lifted off the ground.

And in an instant, my surroundings had changed from the dark wood of Sheik's house, so the white stone of the Temple of Time.

"Hey! Listen! What are you planning, Link? We shouldn't be doing this!" She continued to shout at me as I walked past the alter that held the three Spiritual Stones. I would go back just before I saved Ruto from Jabu-Jabu. That was my plan.

I stepped into the room where I had originally pulled the Master Sword and after standing behind the hold for a few moments, I gulped down any anxiety and stabbed the Master Sword back into it's holding spot. I didn't know what to expect at first, as I did not remember much from my first time warp. But it was just like warping from temple to temple.

A second white light surrounded me. It circled around me and Navi. And as it did, a smile tugged at my lips. I was really doing this. I would see Sheik when he was little. This was exciting.

The light faded and as I stepped out, I noticed that the Spiritual Stone from the Zoras was still hovering above the alter. It made me question if the time warp had worked or not, but I continued outside.

My vision was engulfed in light. Navi squealed as the sun reached her and she zoomed around my head. It had worked. We were back seven years ago; the trees were green and healthy, the sky was a dazzling blue, and Death Mountain behind us was no longer covered in a hue of smoke. I grinned long and wide. It was nice to be back in this time already. This, just standing outside the temple gave me new hope for when I went back into the future. It would be worth defeating Ganondorf if everything went back to this beautiful state.

But I still had a mission.

I left the temple and clumsily ran into the Castle Town main square. It was almost as if I wasn't used to my little body anymore. That plus, the loss of the weight of the Master Sword pushed me off balance. I ran through the crowd of people, almost bumping into the old man in blue who had first told me about the Sheikah. He patted my shoulder and told me to be careful but I was too excited.

Once I was out of his grip I ran down the road that would bring me to Hyrule Castle.

I followed the path I had done when I first made my way to Hyrule castle. Crawling up the vines in the beginning, I passed the gossip stone up on the ledge and gave it a quick smile. I jumped down from the stone gate and carefully edged my way past the guards. I jumped into the moat quickly, adrenaline rushing through my veins. I was no longer injured, and my energy has returned in gallons. I was quick to move around the gardens until I had finally made it to where Zelda was.

She was still peering into the window, but looked back when she heard me panting heavily.

"Link!"

I was still grinning, and I could feel Impa walk up behind me. I ran to Zelda and skidded to a stop when I was just a few steps in front of her.

"Zelda! Zelda," I had to interupt her as she recited what to do if anyone gave me problems. Yes, play Zelda's Lullaby. I already knew that. "Where's Sheik?"

Her pale eyebrows creased from below her veil. She was taken aback by my sudden question and I could hear Impa's breath hitch from behind me.

"Who?"

It was my turn to crease my eyebrows. Who was she kidding? She had told me herself that Sheikah were bound to the Royal family, so she must have known who Sheik was.

"Don't kid around. I came all the way back in time to see him as a kid. Where's Sheik?" My little voice seemed foreign to me, but that wasn't my main concern. My main problem was how Zelda kept avoiding the question by giving me weird looks and saying she didn't know who Sheik was. I tried to tell her again, that Sheik was a Sheikah. You know, the one you'll send to aid me in the future.

But she continued to give me strange looks as she stepped backwards toward the window.

"I'm sorry Link. I don't know any Sheik," she looked to Impa. "Maybe you should go. Obtain the other Spiritual Stone. And hurry. Impa will lead you out."

My heart sank.

Why was she doing this?

I turned to Impa, asking her the same pleading question with my eyes. Her own eyes creased as she begged me forward with her hand.

Something wasn't right.

They must have known who Sheik was. He couldn't be just some random guy who helped me in the future. It didn't make any sense. Why would some random person know the warp songs and be willing to help the Hero of Time? I walked up to Impa, tears welling up in my child's eyes. I could hear Navi buzzing from within my cap, which just made me more frusterated. And my kid heart wanted me to burst into tears.

But Impa put her hand on my shoulder.

I shook it away. They were lying to me; I didn't want her touching me.

"How do you know about Sheik?" She asked as we headed out of the gardens and down the path to Castle Town.

I stared into her red eyes, my own eyes wide. "I knew it! I knew you two knew about Sheik! Why were you lying to me!?"

Impa shook her head, her white hair sticking to her face. "Princess Zelda was not lying. She does not know the boy named Sheik." She pushed her hair back. "But you still haven't answered my question."

"He's my best friend in the future," I started. "He's been guiding me. Helping me through the temples. I had just defeated the Fire Temple and gotten the medallion from Darunia. I was resting in his house." I wrung my hands together, hoping-- praying that Impa would tell me where he was. It wasn't so much that I wanted to see Sheik as a kid now. It was more, I wanted to know he existed. I wanted to know if the Sheik in the future was just a figment of my imagination. His touch was too real to be fake but...

"I see." Impa looked grim. "I can take you to Sheik, Hero. But only if you're positive that you want to see him." She continued to lead me out of Castle Town until were in Hyrule Field, at the edge of the drawbridge.

I nodded enthusiastically.

Impa frowned, which concerned me. But I didn't have much time to think about if before she put her thumb and index finger into her mouth and whistled sharply.

A large grey horse galloped up to us and we began our way to Kakariko Village.

After Impa had secured her steed in a stable, we started up the path to the village. The air was tense around us and I was becoming more and more anxious. With every step we took up to Kakariko, I could feel the wrong-ness of the situation.

I hadn't even noticed that Impa was taking me to Sheik's house. I was much too distracted by the solemn expression on her face. Sheik's house was and always had been hidden near the graveyard. Impa pulled out her own harp and played a quick song that I recognized as the one Sheik always played to get into his house. A slate of rock moved and the opening to Sheik's house was revealed. We headed down the path, with Impa's hand on my shoulder and suddenly more tears welled up in my eyes.

I couldn't help it. Something just screamed at me that I should never had done this. That what I was about to come upon was something I never wanted to know.

Impa kept her harp out and played the same tune as the one she played at the entrance. After a few seconds, the door opened and there was a little old woman standing at the door. She was a little taller than me in her old age, and her eyes burned red like Impa's.

"Impaz is," Impa faltered. "The oldest Sheikah left alive. Before me and Sheik."

The old woman looked at me curiously but then ushered us inside the house. "It's nice to see you again, Impa." She croaked in a cute old-person voice. She brushed her tanned, wrinkled hands on her apron and shuffled over to a closed door. "I'm afraid there's been no progress though."

Impa nodded. I was so confused. What was going on?

Impa opened the door and let me into the room first.

I could hear my heart pound in my chest. I was in the room I had been in just a few hours ago in the future. The same desk sat in the corner of the room, placed warmly in front of the only window in the room. The shades were drawn up and the sun poured into the room. And there, lying in the bed, was Sheik.

A much smaller version of Sheik.

But I could tell it was him. From beneath the covers, I could see a dark blue shirt, with the Weeping Eye of the Sheikah sewn in bright red fabric. His golden hair was long, longer than in the future because it wasn't wrapped up in the usual bandages. He still had his cowl on, but it was shorter so it only covered his mouth. His chest rose and feel pleasantly and he drew in deep breaths.

My eyes lit up and I was about to bound towards him and engulf him in the biggest hug ever, but Impa grabbed my shoulder roughly.

I looked up at her in dismay, only to be met with her sad eyes. Her lips parted, then closed again, and then opened as she spoke.

"I don't know how things are different in the future, but," she trailed off for a moment, thinking of her words carefully. "This boy. Sheik. He has been in a comatose state since the last raid against the Sheikah."

My smile fell. My shoulder went numb from beneath her touch. What?

"That was two years ago. He was seven and it was an unexpected raid. People came from another border town, and despite hearing that the Sheikah were already extinct, came into Kakariko and raided the town." She walked over to Sheik and stroked his hair back. "At the time, only Impaz, Sheik and his parents were living in the village. They were the last Sheikah besides myself. But I was with Princess Zelda."

I stared and once again my eyes welled up with tears. They threatened to fall from the corners of my eyes and I could feel my throat close up.

"Impaz was Sheik's teacher and she managed to save him, by warping him to the Temple of Time," she paused with her fingers still woven within Sheik's hair. His dormant state not even flinching against the touch. "But his parents were killed. And upon arriving in the Temple of Time, Sheik fell in Impaz's arms and he hasn't woken since."

The tears fell.

She turned to look at me and she tried to give me a reassuring smile. "But, if Sheik is aiding you in the future there is nothing to worry about, is there Hero? He must have woken from his coma during your seven years of sleep."

That was true. But I couldn't help but continue to cry.

Impa walked back over to me and brought me to him. He looked so peaceful lying in bed and I wanted to reach out and touch him, but I resisted.

She kneeled down and wrapped her arms around me. "Why spend your time here, Hero, if you can be with the real Sheik in the future? Spend all your time with him and forget this. When you save Hyrule," she faltered as if she remembered something. "Then you can be with him again. I'm sure he would like that."

I nodded and wiped away my tears, but they still fell stubbornly.

We took a couple steps back and without a word, Impa warped me back to the Temple of Time.

I promised Impa I would forget what I had seen, but even so, when I got back to find Sheik waiting for me, an angry twitch in his eyebrow, I had to engulf him in a hug. He didn't understand it, why I was holding him so tightly. He didn't remember anything from his past, I realized, so he was like me. But I held him tightly because I didn't want him to fade away.

He still didn't get it.

I had just received the medallion from Nabooru and I was standing in the Temple of Time.

Anything that had happened between my finishing the Temple and arriving here seemed like a blur.

Especially since Sheik was standing in front of me, a solemn look on his face. His crimson eyes seemed dull as he stood there. His usually bright golden hair seemed to shine less and his tan skin looked pale from nerves. He looked more anxious today. And he looked like he was dreading every moment of this.

I caught the last part of what he was saying.

"...the seventh Sage, who is destined to be the leader of them all."

It didn't register at first, as he crossed his arms and a piece of the Triforce shone brightly on the back of his hand. I was blinded as a warm light surrounded him and suddenly Sheik no longer stood there, but Princess Zelda.

An older Princess Zelda. She looked stronger, but her eyebrows were still creased in despair as she looked out to me.

"It is I, the Princess of Hyrule. Zelda."

No.

"I apologize for meeting you in disguise, but it was necessary to hide from the King of Evil. Please forgive me..."

No.

My mind was in turmoil.

"That boy you mentioned seven years ago before retrieving the Spiritual Stone from the Water Sage, Ruto," She started. "I was not lying when I said I did not know him. But then, after Impa and I rode past you, and after I gave you the Ocarina of Time, we rode for a while until we had lost the King of Evil. Impa brought me to Kakariko and to Sheik. She and the old Sheikah, Impaz, performed some shadow magic on the comatose body of the boy, and..."

She looked at me, her eyes were begging for forgiveness.

"...his body played host for my spirit until I was safe."

So Sheik...

Zelda nodded, her long blonde hair whipping over her shoulders. "Sheik is still sleeping. He has never woken, just simply animated by magic and by my spirit,"

Lady Impa taught me.

Of course.

I couldn't listen to the rest of what she said.

I'm surprised I was even able to make it to Ganondorf's castle. I'm surprised I was even able to defeat him. And I'm surprised I didn't collapse in tears when it was all over.

Sheik had never existed.

Well, he did exist, but it was never really him I was with. No, I made sure of it. Before I went to Zelda, I went to Kakariko. I played the tune on my own Ocarina and the rock slate swung open. I ran so fast, some hope in my mind that this was all a lie.

But when I got to Sheik's house, he was still lying in bed. Seven years older, but still lying in that same bed that I had slept in not months ago. His eyes stayed closed as I touched my fingers to his soft skin. I did as Impa did, running my fingers through his hair and I started crying. I had grown attached to the wrong person.

My fingers touched the edge of the cowl that protected Sheik's mouth from sight.

I didn't care if it was disrespectful. I pulled down his cowl. I touched my fingers to his warm lips.

And then I leaned down and kissed him.

My life wasn't a fairytale though. He didn't wake from his slumber because the Prince kissed him. He stayed sleeping, his warm breath hitting my cheek softly.

I would be reckless. If he was real and he existed I could be so.

"I'll come back for you."

Zelda sent me back in time so I could relive the seven years I had lost.

Everything was beautiful, just as I remembered it.

I met with the younger Zelda again and she told me I could live with the Kokiri until another seven years passed. But in my mind, it really wasn't worth it. I wasn't of the Kokiri anymore; I knew I was Hylian, and it seemed wrong to even think of going back.

I suppose I could have adventured around. But I kept my promise.

I was reckless and I didn't care.

I traveled to Kakariko.

I explained to Impaz what had happened and she agreed to let me live there with her.

Because I would wait.

I would wait for Sheik to come back to me, just I had come back to him.

Hmm, yes. Second chapter it imminent. This ended way to depressing like.

Edit; fixed some typos. Ow.