"The Princess is missing." the Hero said by way of greeting Sheik one week after the... incident with his aunt.

Sheik blinked in surprise. "What?"

"The King doesn't know yet. But she's. Gone." the Hero answered calmly.

"And Impa?"

The Hero shook his head. "No clue. I only found out through Robbie. Said he was surprised. To see me in the hall. Thought I'd. Gone with her early this. Morning."

"So then she must be with a research team." Sheik brushed his bangs out of his eyes absent-mindedly and sighed. "We need to go find her before the King or my aunt finds out."

"Yeah. That's our. Only option." the Hero agreed.

Side by side, the two knights raced through the halls of Hyrule Castle. It was an unspoken competition between the two of them to see who could get there first, like so many trivial tasks between them were. It had no real impact on anything other than their respective egos and the constant need to one up the other, yet they did it anyway. Zelda had given up trying to stop it a long time ago, but the little competitions always got more aggressive when she wasn't around.

Unsurprisingly, Sheik beat the Hero to the stables by a good thirty seconds (or so). He was considerably quicker on his feet than the Hylian, so it was only natural that he would triumph in this petty contest.

Of course he would succeed in things that didn't actually carry any weight.

He would have scowled, but he knew from prior experience that it would hurt. The bruise on his cheek was still painful, though it was beginning to fade now. He knew from looking at the mirror this morning that it was a sickly yellowish color, which was better than the dark purple of a few days ago. At least this didn't stick out so badly against his skin, because even his mask hadn't been able to hide the top edge of the bruise. Sheik winced anyway as he recalled the conversation that had prompted with Zelda. She had damn near pulled his mask away from his face to look at it, which would have been bad for several reasons. Chiefly among them was the scar. She had no idea about it, and he wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Thankfully, in the end, he'd managed to convince her to lay off, saying that it was nothing more than a training accident brought on by clumsiness. She clearly hadn't bought it, but she stopped pestering him all the same.

Both knights prepared their horses in record time and spurred their horses into a brisk trot, which was about as fast as they dared to go inside the castle's grounds and Castle Town itself. Once they made it out into the field, they glanced briefly at each other and slowed down for a moment.

"Where did the research team go?" Sheik asked, all thoughts of trying to make the question sound sarcastic absent from his mind. He didn't have time for an admittedly petty grudge; Zelda's safety was potentially at risk.

"Robbie mentioned the Hebra region." the Hero's gaze was cast in the region's general direction as he spoke, standing up in his stirrups a bit and putting a hand over his eyes to shield himself from the glare of the sun. "There's a shrine. By a bunch of ruins. The team wanted to. Poke around the shrine. Zelda went with. Apparently."

"Alright." Sheik hesitated a bit before adding on to his statement, because while he may have told himself to set aside his grudge against the Hero for now, it was rarely that easy to actually do it. "Do you want to take point?"

The Hero looked over at him then, an odd expression on his face. "You feeling alright?"

"I'm just fine, thanks." Sheik snapped.

"There you are." the Hero looked forward again. For some odd reason, it almost looked like the hint of a smile played across his lips as he spoke.

"Just answer the question."

"Since you offered. Yeah. I will." Without further ado, he snapped his horse's reins, sending the mare racing off. Sheik followed suit, surprisingly not all that frustrated by this arraignment. Yes, it was a bit irritating to have to follow him (like he seemingly always did) but it made the most sense. He had more information, so he should lead. That was why he'd suggested it in the first place, so he couldn't be very mad about it.

Roughly three and a half hours later, they were crossing the Tabantha Great Bridge. They had to reduce their speed significantly as they crossed it, thanks to the treacherous nature of the bridge. That had been all the Hero's idea. Sheik knew that the bridge was sturdy, even if it didn't really look like it (those wooden planks could look suspicious at a glance) but he said nothing, despite how tempting it was to take a jab or two at the other knight. He had more pressing concerns than a petty grudge- or so he kept telling himself. All the same, the temptation was still there.

Once they made it across the bridge, it was a simple matter of racing down a path that took a few bends past Piper Ridge. At the end of the rock formation on the left, they rounded the corner and found a discreet, if steep, path leading up to the Ancient Columns. Ruins were scattered here and there as they passed, presumably from the civilization who had built the columns in the first place. The angle of the hill forced them to check their speed a bit, but soon enough, they made it up to where the bulk of the ruins were located.

A group of five horses was tethered to a makeshift pole stuck into the ground on their left, and five Sheikah researchers were scattered about the ruins as well. One of them actually called out to the two knights, but they both ignored it.

Zelda's pure white horse was grazing in the grass nearby, and the Princess herself was kneeling in front of a control pedestal on the ancient shrine. As Sheik dismounted, he was struck by how chilly it was up here. Not cold enough to make the use of warmer clothes than what they had on necessary, but chilly all the same. Still, he half wished he was a bit better at the elemental side of Sheikah magic so he could conjure some fire. But he'd proved several times over that he needed a lot more practice with that, so he would leave it be.

The Hero dismounted and started jogging over to where Zelda was, with Sheik following suit. She had turned at the sound of horse hooves against the packed dirt path, and was now staring at the both of them with weary resentment in her eyes.

"Did my father put you up to this?" Zelda asked flatly. She placed the Sheikah Slate back on her belt and crossed her arms, looking for all the world like a pissed off mother. Not that Sheik could really properly recall that feeling. Impa may have been his guardian, but he wouldn't dare call her his mother. Besides, Sheikah tradition dictated that he wouldn't be allowed to do that anyway.

Sheik was about to respond, ready to take the blame for this like he always did when someone was upset with him, regardless of whether or not the thing was actually his fault, when Zelda held up a hand to stop him. She started speaking again, her voice going from totally emotionless to upset and borderline furious. "Never mind. I already know the answer. He did. Otherwise you two wouldn't be in such a hurry. Neither of you knows when to knock it off."

It was almost like a distant echo of his aunt. At the tone of Zelda's voice, Sheik visibly flinched, his hands curling into fists at his sides. He was usually a lot better at hiding his reaction to someone getting that tone in their voice, but he was still messed up from last week's lecture and just couldn't stop himself in time. Whatever he had been about to say completely vanished from his mind and he dropped his gaze from Zelda's, preparing to apologize and hope that would help things when-

"It was my idea." the Hero responded, hardly even giving Sheik a second glance. "I dragged Sheik into it. Because we're supposed to. Work together. To protect you."

"Regardless of my father's orders, I don't need protecting!" Zelda snapped. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Besides, should anything go wrong, there are literally five Sheikah within shouting distance."

The Hero said nothing in response to this, instead pinning her with that seemingly unfeeling gaze of his. That was only going to make it worse, but Sheik couldn't bring himself to say anything.

"Just go back to the castle." Zelda continued once it was clear that the Hero wasn't going to say anything. "Next time, try actually using your head for once in your life instead of just blindly following orders like a dog." She turned to Sheik, her expression tightening for a second. "And you! I would have thought that you knew better than to emulate the Hero's actions."

"Leave him out of this." the Hero replied, his voice rising a bit.

Zelda raised an eyebrow. "So you speak for him now? That's surprising."

"I meant no disrespect, Princess." Sheik finally managed to say. He still couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes, but it was something at least. "I was merely trying to act in your best interest, as was the Hero."

"My best interest would have been to stay where you were!" Zelda exclaimed, uncrossing her arms and gesturing emphatically in the general direction of the castle. She dropped her hand and sighed irritably. "So, please, just go. I am perfectly fine. You've seen it. Now go." She started walking, brushing past both knights. When she was level with the Hero, she paused for a second to snap "And tell that to my father. Maybe he'll listen if it comes from you."

"The King doesn't know. That you left. This morning." the Hero said softly.

Zelda didn't so much as hesitate. She just kept walking back to her horse. Sheik glanced over at the Hero, seeing his own frustration echoed in the other knight's eyes. Oddly enough, there was a bit of worry there as well, but Sheik chose not to dwell on it, since it was far too confusing for him to deal with right now. Together, they started following the Princess as they always did, not keen on letting her out of their sight now that they had located her (despite her harsh words and insistence that she didn't need either of them.)

"Stop following me, then!" Zelda shouted, turning around suddenly and stopping. "If you aren't here on his orders, just STOP."

"You know that. Neither of us. Can do. That." the Hero replied.

She just scoffed and mounted her horse, snapping the reins once she was situated and galloping off. Both knights mounted their own horses once more and set off after her without a second thought.

The rest of their afternoon was spent in complete silence, aside from the sound of three sets of horseshoes hitting the ground, the distant chirps of cheerful birds as they flew through the bright blue sky, and the faint whisper of the breeze through the trees. Instead of returning to the castle like Sheik had expected her to, she turned left at the fork in the path that led to the Royal Ancient Tech Lab. Which actually made sense, considering that she usually retreated to the ancient technology whenever she was upset... even if that was the cause of her frustration in the first place.

Zelda dismounted first and headed inside without ever glancing back at them. After Sheik dismounted, he was about to follow her into the lab, but the Hero stopped him.

"Hey. Um. Can I. Talk to you. For a second."

For a second, Sheik considered snapping at him like he always did. After all, they'd found the Princess, so there was no need to act like their rivalry or whatever didn't exist. But... he'd tried to take all the blame and redirect Zelda's anger towards himself. Why had he done that? It didn't make any sense. He had been nothing but rude to him and yet...

The least Sheik could do was show him a bit of kindness. Just this once.

"What is it?"

"About earlier. I just wanted to. Make sure. You're alright." the Hero responded. "You, ah. You didn't look. Too good. When she snapped. At both of us."

Sheik looked toward the door of the lab and sighed. Before he answered, he returned his gaze to the Hero and tipped his head to the side ever so slightly. "That was... out of the ordinary. I'm fine now. Thank you for asking."

The words felt a bit sour in his mouth, purely because of who he was addressing. He half hoped that the Hero wouldn't try and press the issue any more than this, since it led to a whole lot of things he didn't feel comfortable discussing with him.

"Okay. That's good." the Hero responded. He seemed like he was going to say something else, so Sheik politely waited for him to gather his thoughts and continue. "In the future. I can take the blame. Like that. If you need me to."

Though Sheik appreciated the offer, the part of him that insisted he be self-reliant and strong no matter what recoiled as the other knight spoke. "It won't happen again." Sheik snapped, his anger briefly cutting through his self-control. Immediately after he spoke, he mentally cursed himself and his temper.

"Whatever you say." the Hero said, a bit of sarcasm creeping into his voice. That was unexpected, but certainly not uncalled for. He sighed, then continued speaking, adopting a bit of a patronizing tone. "Look. The Princess would be. Upset. If you were hurt. So I'm just. Trying to. Look out for you. Protecting her. Means protecting you. As well."

"I don't need your protection. I am perfectly capable of looking after myself."

"I know that."

"You don't need to treat me like a child." Sheik hissed.

So much for being nicer for once.

The Hero didn't respond to that, so Sheik took it as a sign that he could go. He turned and entered the tech lab, shutting the door behind him with a bit more force than was necessary.

It was a good thing he was adept at repressing emotions like guilt, because otherwise it likely would have trumped all of the other things he was feeling right now.