Living With Myself

Chapter 21

Sheik slept in Link's room because Link was the best of hosts, and refused to let Sheik sleep in the old tiny mattress in front of the couch, which he had prepared for himself.

Oni didn't sleep, claiming that sleep was a mortal annoyance that didn't interest him, and said he would spend the night talking to the stars on the roof. Because apparently stars were very chatty with divine beings, a thing that Dark didn't understand at all.

Dark slept on the rug in front of the fireplace.

"We both can fit in here," said Link from his place on the mattress. He patted the space next to him.

"Nah, I'm fine," said Dark.

"Don't you at least want a pillow? A blanket?"

Dark shook his head, and scooted closer to Link, still staying off the mattress. "I don't feel the cold," he lied. "And too much heat is annoying."

"Hmmm, I had forgotten how you're always cold," said Link, touching Dark's hand. "How does my hand feel?"

'Perfect. You feel like perfection' thought Dark, but instead he said: "Hot. Like a shield left under the sun."

And that wasn't a lie, but it felt just the same to Dark.

"Was it really so bad to have your appearance changed?" asked Link, not letting go of Dark's hand.

"The jerk didn't even ask me," grumbled Dark, sneaking his fingers away from Link's hot hand. It brought back too many memories. All of them bad. "Just went ahead and bashed me. Poof, now you look like a gerudo. Hell, he might as well have made my hair red while he was at it."

Link smiled, but his eyes turned sadder, and he scooted closer to Dark. "You didn't look like a gerudo. I though you looked nice."

"Nice as in not-a-creature-of-evil or nice as in a hotter version of you?" asked Dark with a flirtatious wink.

"Jerk. Nice as in, if I had a brother, he would look like you."

The dark core inside Dark's chest that sometimes acted as a heart (and sometimes didn't bother to even try) made a harsh, painful jump.

"W-what?" muttered Dark, looking down at the fraying edge of the covers on the mattress.

"Seriously," laughed Link. "I sometimes used to wonder how my parents looked like, or how my siblings would look like. Maybe they were both blonde, or maybe not, maybe one of them was dark haired and tanned..."

"No, that's...I mean, if I was your brother, I dunno...I would look more like this," said Dark, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, his skin was a milky white, and his hair fell in golden locks around his face. The red of his eyes had shifted to a deep dark blue. "Now we can play to being twins. Let's prank Sheik!"

Link frowned. "That doesn't look like you," he said.

"That's the whole point," said Dark, rolling his eyes at Link.

"No, I meant that on you it looks fake. The skin, the hair...when you talk, it all looks fake and wrong somehow."

"Don't like sharing your good looks?" asked Dark.

"Try the colors that Oni gave you," begged Link.

Dark whined. "Oni is a huuuuge asshole," he complained, but changed his skin anyway, letting it darken to the golden brown he had, and his hair turned a deep, absolute black.

"Yeah, you look nice like that," said Link, passing a hand through Dark's hair.

"Stop saying nice, that doesn't tell me shit. Do I look hot and mysterious like Sheik? Or hot and cute like you?"

It was Link's turn to roll his eyes at Dark. "You look like yourself. The way you would look like if you..."

Dark gritted his teeth. "If I was a person?" he asked.

Link held Dark's hand. "I know it upsets you. We'll figure something out. Soon."

The heat from Link's body, the closeness, the mattress; it was all too uncomfortable for Dark, and he jerked his hand back. He felt stupid even as he pushed himself away from Link. What kind of idiot got uncomfortable by a bed? By the touch of a warm hand? He did, of course, because he was an idiot. He was sure he had to be, when he made such a fuss about such nonsense.

"Yeah, sure. We should tell Oni to ask the stars if they can grant me a wish. Make me a real boy, with my own real body and a mind of my own," said Dark, hiding in his familiar cutting sarcasm. His skin grayed and his eyes went from carmine to bright blood red.

"He could do that. You don't know what a deity can do. If the goddesses created Hyrule, he could give you a body," said Link.

"Maybe, if he wasn't such a huge asshole. But he is, so he just dangles the pretense of being a person right in front of my eyes, showing me what I could be, but I'm not."

"Is that what bothered you? That you're not a person yet?"

Dark glared at him. "Link, I can never be a person. I'm a shadow. If I was a person I would be you. Feel like giving up your body for me?"

Link sighed. "Do you think that's possible?"

"I think you need to listen to Sheik and go the fuck to sleep," said Dark, throwing his black cap to Link's face. But he missed and it ended up in a corner.

"I sometimes thought about it during the war," said Link, lying on his back and looking up at the ceiling. "I thought, well...I'm just me, not really a hero. If the goddesses wanted a hero, they should have put one in my body, not just left little old me in here. When things got really bad... when I was bleeding and lost and alone... I would pray for the goddesses to bring one of the heroes of legends into my body so he could take over me and save everybody. That was very cowardly, I know. But I was very afraid."

Dark got closer, despite the heat, and the feel of the covers next to him. "I know," he said. "You're still the stuff of legends, you know? Legends always skip over the ugly bits, but I know."

Thank you for reading, I hope you're enjoying the story and please come say hi at my other accounts

Insta: https://urlgeni.us/instagram/alxdamien

Facebook: https://urlgeni.us/facebook/alexdamien

My Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hsRDFH

And remember that my new novel is getting published April 4

It's a gay superhero thriller