The Bird That Couldn't Fly

Chapter Three: Sucker For Pain

He held the small cigarette in his hand gently, giving it a little tap. At the contact, one end of it caught fire, and Ghirahim let out a contented hum. He didn't know what he'd do without magic. But honestly, the demon had grown a little too dependent on sorcery, and Eldin was revealing that. A demon's capability to produce great amounts of magic was significantly reduced in heat.

The cigarette dangled precariously from his lips as he treaded slowly on, wishing that he could just teleport himself to the temple. Smoking had been a dirty habit of the demon's for a while, and he couldn't remember when or why he had tried it for the first time. But now, it was part of his daily routine. Smoking didn't damage demonic bodies as badly as it would a mere mortal per say, but with Ghirahim's already tortured body, it definitely came with some consequences.

Not to mention, whenever he had to strain his left arm, it burned like hell. If he had the unfortunate luck of meeting Link in battle today, the demon honestly didn't know who would come out the victor.

As if Hylia herself was making sure that Ghirahim failed at his mission, the demon heard a string of profanities come from his right. As he snapped his head towards the familiar voice, his cigarette fell from it's place and sizzled against the scorching ground. He let out a sigh of annoyance before returning his full attention back to the noise.

The demon narrowed his eyes as he saw a flicker of green quickly move behind one of the numerous boulders. He wasn't sure if the other had seen him or not, but he wasn't willing to take any chances. He soundlessly strode over to the boulder and hauled himself to the top of it to peek over. The not yet healed injuries of his arm were quick to tear at the strain and he silently seethed.

Once he sat atop the rock, Ghirahim was very quick to deduce that the boy had not seen him. It looked like the hero had instead ducked behind the boulder at the sight of a puddle. He was now hunched over the miniature body of water, filling a couple of his empty bottles. Apparently, demons weren't the only creatures affected by heat.

As he was about to hop off the large rock and be on his merry way, the demon lord made the mistake of putting all his weight on his left arm, and this time a very audible hiss escaped him. The hero dropped his glass and snapped his gaze towards the demon lord. They awkwardly locked eyes for a few seconds, like a deer staring into a car's headlights. Only one thought ran itself through Ghirahim's mind.

Uh-oh.

Breaking the tense silence, Link hurriedly stood up and whipped his sword out of his sheath. As an immediate response, Ghirahim threw himself off of the Boulder and started sprinting. Much to his dismay, he could hear the other right behind him.

The demon lord frantically kept snapping his fingers, trying to teleport himself out of this mess, but he knew he was far too weak in this blistering heat to do such a spell. It was only a matter of time before his stamina gave out in his current predicament.

He cast a glance behind him to see how much distance was between them, and accidentally caught his foot on a small rock. The demon lord let out an undignified yelp as he fell face first into the ground. He scrambled onto his other side, trying to push himself off of the ground, but Link all but pounced on top of him.

"Are you really so pathetic as to try and kill me when my back's turned?" Link snarled, anger brimming in his cold eyes.

Ghirahim knew that he was beat, so he quickly said a prayer to a God that he didn't believe in and slipped into his normal, overconfident facade.

"No," he stated, rolling the word off of his tongue. "Why would I need to kill such a weak enemy behind their back?"

Link shifted his weight on top of Ghirahim, probably preparing a witty comeback of his own, but his left knee now jarringly pressed into his foe's left arm. From the sheer surprise of the pain, the demon lord let out a cry. Confused, Link changed his gaze to now face the arm, covered by Ghirahim's long, white glove.

"Injured arm?" Link asked with a full smirk on his face. He sadistically dug his knee harder into the arm, causing Ghirahim to bite down on his lip and hit the back of his head against the ground. "I guess so," the boy answered to his own question.

As he made a move to grab the arm, Ghirahim violently flipped himself onto his hands and knees, succeeding in throwing Link off of. However, the boy quickly grabbed an ankle and yanked him back into the ground, knocking the wind out of him. The fact that the demon couldn't see what Link was doing anymore as the boy straddled his backside scared him a little, but he would never admit it.

"Well," Ghirahim spat out through gritted teeth, "it was nice seeing you, but if you don't mind, I have places to be."

"How does it feel to have our positions from the last time we fought switched?" The Skychild remarked.

The demon rested his forehead against the hot, dry ground. "Can you hurry this up, or do you just like this position? I always thought you'd be more of a bottom, but maybe you'd rather be on top. But still, this doesn't seem like a position that a child like yourself would pick-"

"Shut up!" Despite the fact that Ghirahim got his head bashed into the rocky ground and was now bleeding from his nose, he couldn't help but to grin. He loved it when his enemies lost their temper. "You would think that seeing how you're at my mercy, you wouldn't be such a smart ass," Link growled.

"Am I supposed to beg for your mercy when this wasn't a fair fight to begin with?" Ghirahim seethed. "I saw you; I ran. I did nothing wrong or to agitate you, and yet you're threatening to kill me. It's obvious you don't have any room in your stone heart for mercy.

Ghirahim felt Link stiffen on top of him, and he knew he had struck a nerve. Hero's were always supposed to do the right thing, and would never attack unless attacked. He let out a breath of air as he felt the other get off of him, and he quickly scrambled to his feet. The demon lord honestly hadn't expected that cheap trick to work.

"Well, thank you for relinquishing your hold on me. I shall be on my way now," Ghirahim sickly apologized, turning on his heel. But he froze in his spot as he heard the other's venomous voice.

"I know you're a horrible person, and I will kill you or die trying. When we cross paths again in some sort of dungeon, you will die," the Skychild swore.

Ghirahim simply threw a smile over his shoulder. "I look forward to that day."

A/N: I'm sorry, this definitely isn't one of my better chapters, and Ive already rewrote this thing twice, so I'm just going to stop messing with it. The next time the dynamic duo meet, there'll be so much more drama.

Also, someone (blazeangelwolf) got me sucked into the anime Yuri!!! On Ice, so I just might be writing a fanfic on that in the near future.

Again, I'm sorry for this chapter. This is one of the shittiest things I've written.