Who are you?

Sheik forced himself to swallow back all of the pain that simple statement had brought up after a moment of complete and utter silence. A bitter smile appeared on his face under his mask and he inclined his head towards Link.

"I've been waiting for you, Hero of Hyrule..." Sheik said quietly. "My name is Sheik Ishida, and I am your guide."

Link's eyes widened in surprise. He nodded in acknowledgement before looking to Rhoam for his answer, seemingly unwilling to say anything just yet.

"I am but an old fool who has lived here for some time." Rhoam offered, just as they'd practiced. He would not give his name until they both deemed Link ready to hear the truth about the Calamity.

"...Well, it's nice to meet you both." Link finally responded once it was clear to him that Rhoam wasn't going to elaborate. He gave an awkward little wave- Sheik's heart throbbed painfully in his chest at the gesture because of how simple yet utterly familiar it was- "I'm Link, but I guess you guys already know that."

Beyond how nice it was to hear his voice again, the only thing Sheik could think about was how smoothly he was speaking. The absence of his memories must have washed away all of his prior anxieties that caused him to speak infrequently and so cautiously before. The ache of tears pressed at the back of Sheik's throat at the realization, but he pushed the feeling away again with a soft sigh.

"Likewise." Rhoam offered when Sheik didn't respond right away. He gestured to the baked apples resting by the fire, hoping to move past the awkward tension hanging in the air. "Please, feel free to take these. Both my friend and I have eaten already."

Sheik bristled at Rhoam calling him a friend, but didn't comment on it. He couldn't. This was all just stuff they had rehearsed, as much as he hated it. All he had to do was get through the rest of this encounter and then Rhoam would be largely out of his hair.

Link approached the fire and knelt to pick up one of the apples. His eyes darted cautiously from Rhoam to Sheik and back to the apples, as if he thought this was some sort of test or cruel joke. It was almost like he was expecting to be yelled at for taking the food, which was a painful thought. Once he had grabbed one, he settled himself down in the dirt and took a bite. His eyes lit up in delight as he ate, evidently finding that the apple tasted good. He quickly finished the first apple, then moved on to the second. All three of the apples were gone in a hurry, which was such a Link thing to do that it made the ache in Sheik's heart intensify like he'd been stabbed.

"Sorry. I feel like I haven't eaten in years." Link mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly as he set the last apple core down.

Rhoam merely smiled sagely. The gesture infuriated Sheik enough to momentarily distract him from the ache in his chest. He took a deep breath to steady himself and offered a hand to Link, intending to help him off the ground. Link stared at his hand for a second, seemingly not realizing what the gesture meant.

"Come on. There's somewhere I'd like you to see." Sheik explained, fighting to keep any emotion out of his voice as he spoke.

As if in silent response, Zelda's presence in the back of his head pulsed gently. It helped a little to know that she was still with him, but trying to swallow all of the things he was feeling hurt. There was no way around it. His whole chest ached with the effort and Sheik wanted nothing more than to just give up right then and there. He was a fool to have thought that he could handle this.

Link took his hand and Sheik felt his mind go completely quiet.

Sheik's breath hitched in his throat as he helped Link up.

All he could think about was the fact that Link was here, he was real. Maybe everything would be okay again.

But, of course, Link let go as soon as he was standing and the moment of clarity was lost. Sheik bit his lip in a desperate attempt to keep himself from crying.

"So, where are we going?" Link asked after a brief pause, seemingly oblivious to how close Sheik was to tears. That, by itself, was only more proof that his memories were completely gone. He had always been so careful to take notice of how Sheik was actually doing, rather than how he pretended to be.

"Somewhere to rest." Sheik forced out, thankfully managing to pull himself together enough to do that. He glanced over at Rhoam, who nodded slightly and turned back to the fire, signaling that his part was done.

Following Rhoam's silent confirmation, Sheik started walking without looking back at Link to check if he was following. Once he realized that Sheik was just going to leave him behind without elaborating, Link had to jog a few paces to catch up with him. Only then did Sheik actually look back over at him.

"What do you mean by that?" Link asked, a slightly confused frown touching his face.

"You'll see when we get there."

Link seemed like he wanted to say something else, but he huffed out an irritated little sigh and kept quiet. Like everything about him now, it was so familiar yet ever so slightly different.

They walked along the path to the temple grounds in silence. Link seemed too busy taking in the sights around him to remember that he was walking with someone else, but Sheik didn't mind. It gave him more time to recompose himself. To do so, he kept on their surroundings, focused on keeping an eye out for monsters that could jump out and attack them. Rhoam had mentioned that they were getting more aggressive as time went on, especially as Link got closer to waking up.

Seeing as Sheik had already cleared out the small monster camp that was just off the path a few paces away from where he and Rhoam had set up their own small camp, they didn't encounter any problems until they were about to walk onto the gray cobblestones that marked the beginning of the temple grounds. Two red bokoblins were just sitting there, grunting at each other and occasionally waving their makeshift clubs around. Link's eyes widened and his hand instinctively flew to his back- right where the hilt of the Master Sword would have been if the sword was still in his possession.

Sheik gripped Link's forearm to get his attention, then put a finger to his lips to signal that he needed to be quiet. That should have gone without saying, but it didn't hurt to make sure. Carefully, Sheik grabbed the small traveler's sword he had snatched off of a bokoblin earlier in the week and held it out to Link. He took it almost instantly, adjusting to the sword's grip almost instantly with an ease that could only come from muscle memory. Link frowned slightly as he regarded it, but he quickly brushed it aside and turned his attention to the bokoblins.

Before Sheik could say anything, Link stepped into the bokoblins' line of sight. They both shrieked in alarm- or maybe excitement, Sheik couldn't tell- and charged. Link hadn't seemed to expect this, and he froze for half a second too long. By the time he'd tried to bring his sword up in a clumsy attempt at a block, the bokoblins were on him. They both landed solid blows on him, one on his right forearm and the other on his hand. Link yelped in pain and dropped the sword, cradling his bruised hand.

Sheik tensed up, preparing to draw his own sword and step in to save Link from getting hurt too badly, but he seemed to recognize his mistake as soon as it happened. He lunged downward to grab the hilt again with his left hand, narrowly avoiding getting hit on the head as he did so. While he was on the ground, he took the opportunity to slash at the legs of the closest bokoblin, inflicting a slight scratch on the monster that barely caused it to flinch.

Still, it was an effective distraction, which Link used to get back on his feet. He tried attacking with a clumsy forehand swing, which actually ended up connecting and giving the bokoblin he seemed to be focusing on a large cut on its chest. Unfortunately, the cut wasn't too deep, which only served to make it more angry, but it was a start.

Link attacked again before the bokoblin had a chance to fully recover. Shockingly, Sheik recognized the stance he took before beginning the attack. It was one of the techniques that he had taught him before the Calamity. Seeing it now felt like he'd been plunged into a bucket of icy water with no warning whatsoever.

So he did remember something after all. Granted, it was likely that Link had retained most of the techniques that Sheik taught him in the form of muscle memory and nothing more, but still.

The pained screech of a bokoblin tore Sheik out of his thoughts in time to see Link pull his sword out of the monster's chest and kick it away. It collapsed onto the ground and laid there for several seconds until the corpse turned into dark purplish black goo, which then evaporated. The bokoblin's horn and its club were all that remained of the monster when all of the goo had cleared. Link didn't waste any time in turning his attention to the other one, which screeched in rage and rushed at him.

He tried to sidestep it, but he wasn't quite fast enough and still earned a solid whack across the face. It took him a little longer to recover from this hit, which wasn't good. Sheik saw the bokoblin turn and raise its club, preparing to deal the final blow, and promptly darted forward to intercept after a quick glance to check on Link's condition. Judging that he didn't have time to draw his sword, he slipped a kunai out of the sheath on his leg.

Sheik stopped in front of Link and caught the bokoblin's wrist before it could bring the club down all the way. He twisted its wrist harshly to force it to drop the weapon, drawing a pained squeal out of it as its bones protested the movement. Then, in a single, smooth movement, Sheik cut the monster's throat and dropped it unceremoniously to the ground to minimize how much blood got on his hands. Even so, his kunai was practically dripping with it, and a considerable amount had gotten on his hands. He flicked his wrist once to get most of the blood off, then turned back to Link, who was just staring at him in shock.

"It's good to see your muscle memory hasn't decayed much, but we're going to need to work on your reflexes." Sheik stated, mostly managing to keep any hint of emotion out of his voice. It made the words feel like thorns in his mouth, but he did it.

"I- yeah, I guess so." Link stuttered in response. He blinked and looked down at the second bokoblin, watching as it decayed. His shoulders grew more tense as he watched it and his gaze snapped back up to Sheik, an almost accusatory look in his eyes. "Was that some sort of test? Clearly you could've killed both of those... things in half the time it took me to kill one, so what gives?"

"Yes." Sheik answered simply. He could tell that Link wasn't going to be satisfied by that answer, if the way he inhaled deeply as if he was about to go off on a long-winded tangent was any indicator. So, instead, he held up a hand to stop him and kept speaking. "I needed to assess your combat ability, though I will admit that I was planning on doing that by sparring with you, rather than throwing you into combat with bokoblins right away to minimize the chances of you getting seriously hurt."

Most of the tension left Link's shoulders as he finally got an actual answer. He looked down at the bloody sword in his hand and sighed. "Well, at least I killed one of them."

"You did better than I was expecting."

Link just hummed in response, clearly dissatisfied with the praise. He knelt in the grass to wipe off his sword, then stood when it was clean. Sheik held the sheath out to him, as well as the soft leather sword belt that Link had worn before the Calamity. It had survived mostly unscathed, so after it had been cleaned, Zelda had told Sheik to take it with him rather than keeping it with the Champion's Tunic that she had entrusted to Impa.

It didn't seem to spark any memories in Link, though. All he did was attach the traveler's sword to the belt and put it on over the threadbare shirt he was wearing, surprise flickering across his face for a moment when it fit him perfectly.

"Take a look at the Sheikah Slate." Sheik directed gently, trying not to focus on the ache that was slowly creeping back in despite his attempts to fight it.

Link did so without protest, unhooking it from his belt and tapping the screen once to wake it up. The Sheikah Eye appeared onscreen for a brief moment, then it faded to display a blank field with a single glowing yellow arrow. It seemed that all of the map data had been lost, which was unfortunate.

"I think it has other functions, but it's really difficult for me to tell what the little labels at the top here are telling me to do in order to access them." Link remarked, pointing out the labels as he spoke.

Oh, right. Sheik had almost forgotten that Link was dyslexic. Of course he'd have trouble with the labels, given that the text was tiny and in the style of Sheikah script, even if it was written in Hylian.

"Swipe right, like this." Sheik demonstrated the action, which brought up the inventory screen. "The Sheikah Slate can store items for you. See these little icons? The different items you pick up will automatically get sorted based on what they are. Right now we're looking at your weapons. Whatever you've got pulled out won't show up in the Slate, given that it can't exist in there and out here at the same time."

"Makes sense. Kind of." Link mused, tapping on the different icons just to see if there was anything in there. He found nothing, of course. Zelda had been very careful about instructing Purah and Robbie to make sure that anything the three of them had stashed in the Slate's inventory was emptied out before they left Link to his slumber. "How do I put stuff inside of it?"

"I'll show you. May I?" Sheik held out his hand for the Slate, which Link promptly handed over. He knelt down and picked up the bokoblin horn, then tapped the Sheikah Slate to it. The horn promptly vanished in a swirl of blue light and reappeared inside the Slate's display. A little popup describing the object appeared, given that it was new. Sheik handed it back to Link, who's eyes had gone wide in shock.

"How does this work?" Link asked, amazement coloring his voice as he studied the Sheikah Slate from all angles.

Sheik just shrugged in response. "Sheikah technology works in mysterious ways."

Thankfully, Link didn't seem too miffed by the nonanswer that Sheik gave. He was too busy collecting the other items left behind by the bokoblins. Once he had finished that, he powered off the Sheikah Slate and returned it to his belt.

"Ready to get moving again?" Sheik asked after a moment of silence.

"Yep. Will you tell me where we're going now?"

Despite himself, the slightest hint of a smile tugged at the corners of Sheik's mouth under his mask. "Follow me."

"Fine, keep your secrets." Link grumbled, but he didn't sound too upset. His enthusiasm about the Sheikah Slate's storage system likely kept him more content than he would have been otherwise.

Sheik started walking again, bringing them fully into the temple grounds. Link's footsteps slowed as he looked up at the decaying temple and Sheik stopped to give him more time. Rather than looking up at it, as the sight of how ruined the once proud building had become brought up a whole mess of complicated emotions, he looked over at Link instead. Which wasn't much better, honestly.

They stood there in silence for several minutes. Sheik watched as several conflicting emotions ran across Link's face. Before, he'd always been so careful to keep up an unbothered mask that his true emotions were hard to discern if Sheik wasn't looking for them. Now, though, Link wasn't even trying to hide it. It was a bit strange to see him so... unguarded.

Finally, Link took a deep breath and looked back at Sheik. "What happened here?"

Sheik turned away without a word. He moved forward like he was going to keep walking, but Link's hand on his wrist stopped him. Surprised, Sheik stopped and looked back at Link over his shoulder. His mouth was set in a hard line and his eyes were narrowed, betraying how annoyed he was.

"What happened here?" Link repeated, his grip on Sheik's wrist tightening slightly.

"...I can't tell you." Sheik responded quietly. "Not yet, at least. Some truths are too painful for you to bear at this moment."

Link studied him for a moment, eyes searching Sheik's face to determine if he was lying or not. Finally, he released Sheik's wrist with an annoyed little huff and looked away from him. Sheik wasn't enjoying having to keep secrets from him like this, but he and Rhoam had agreed that it would be better if they didn't overwhelm him right away. He desperately wanted to just tell him the truth, but he bit his tongue and gave himself three seconds to reset.

"I can tell you that this is the Temple of Time. Or what's left of it, anyway. It was once a holy site for the Kingdom of Hyrule. We'll go inside eventually, but for now we should keep moving."

"Is that where we are right now?" Link asked, sounding a little sheepish. "I meant to ask earlier, but I got a little distracted by the apples."

"Yes and no. Hyrule has been in a state of decline for one hundred years, and as such the kingdom exists in name only. If you'd like a more specific location, this is known as the Great Plateau." Sheik crossed his arms over his chest, hoping to convey that he would offer no more answers at this time.

Thankfully, Link seemed to get the hint. He didn't press for more answers, though he looked like he wanted to. He always had been a quick learner.

They started forward again. The walk from the temple to the cabin was fairly short, and soon enough it came into view. Sheik picked up his pace as he headed towards the door and stopped in front of it.

"Is this our mysterious destination?" Link asked after a brief pause, a light teasing tone in his voice.

Sheik nodded sharply, trying desperately to keep himself neutral. It would be so easy to fall back on their light teasing from before, but he couldn't do that now. They shouldn't have become friends in the first place. He had been given a chance to correct his mistake. Trying to think about it like that just made his already heavy heart hurt even worse. "This is the old man's cabin. He's been letting me stay here temporarily."

"It's okay for me to stay here too?"

"Of course." Sheik turned away from Link, unable to bear seeing that look in his eyes, and opened the door. He stepped inside, making sure he followed, before continuing. "I mentioned this already, but I was planning to spar with you to assess your abilities. Given today's events, that won't be happening today."

Link didn't respond for a moment, seeming to be busy looking around the cabin. The interior looked vastly better than it did a month ago, but it was still very bare. It barely seemed like a person lived here. Sheik just hoped Link didn't notice that little fact. "I could do it today."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Link paused, eyes slowly drifting over to the bed. Eventually he sighed and closed his eyes, apparently giving up on the lie. "...Fine. I feel exhausted, but I don't want to sleep. Yes, I could spar with you today, but I don't think wouldn't be a good idea. Even if I'd prefer that over sitting and doing nothing."

"There's nothing wrong with needing to rest." Sheik remarked softly.

"It's still early in the day."

"Well, if you feel up to walking more, I have a few things I need to find before I can make lunch or dinner today."

Link visibly perked up at the mention of food and nodded enthusiastically. "Count me in!"

-/-/-/-

By the time evening rolled around, Sheik felt exhausted. All of the emotions that finally seeing Link again had brought up left him totally wrung out. Only making this worse was the fact that he absolutely could not let Link know about any of this. Trying to suppress everything was only making it worse. At least this awful day was almost over. He could rest soon.

Dinner was very subdued. Link was much more tired than he was letting on, and Sheik was miserably stuck in his own head. The fact that Sheik had to eat entirely facing away from him so the other boy didn't see his face wasn't helping matters much either. Still, once they had both finished eating and Sheik had cleaned the plates, Link took a deep breath and seemed to regain a little bit of life.

"That was really good. Who taught you how to cook?"

You. "I wasn't too great at it until a good friend of mine gave me a few pointers."

Link nodded thoughtfully. An apologetic smile crossed his face a second later as he seemingly realized something. "Sorry, that was probably a weird question. I just... I have the feeling that I really liked to cook at some point." He paused and put a hand to his forehead, nose scrunching slightly in pain. "Ugh. I hate this."

There were so many things Sheik wanted to say. It hurt so badly to keep all of them inside and opt for a bland, non-committal response instead, but he knew it was necessary. "Do you want to cook tomorrow, then?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that. Might need some help, though."

"That's what I'm here for." Sheik smiled bitterly. Even though Link couldn't see it, he forced himself back to a neutral expression and stood, offering a hand to him. "But, for now, you need rest. Don't even try to argue, you look exhausted."

"I wasn't planning on it." Link accepted Sheik's hand and pulled himself up. He dropped it as soon as he was up, but any contact was welcomed.

Sheik smothered the fire before starting towards the door. He held it open for Link, who had been following close behind him like he had all day. Link was about to head inside when he stopped abruptly, focused on something in the cabin.

"Hang on, I almost forgot- there's only one bed." Link stated, turning back to Sheik with a silent question in his eyes.

"You take it. I don't mind."

"I feel bad for making you sleep on the floor, though. I don't mind sharing or taking the floor myself."

Goddesses, why did he have to make this so hard? It wasn't fair.

Sheik sighed softly, finding himself unable to meet his gaze. "It's fine, Link. Like I said, I don't mind. It's my job to make sure you're comfortable, and being well-rested is a key part of that. I've dealt with worse. Besides, I'm not going to sleep for a little while yet. You take the bed."

A long silence stretched between the two of them. Link studied Sheik's face like he was looking for an answer there, but eventually his shoulders slumped as he evidently gave up and accepted that he wasn't going to change his mind.

"Alright. Fine. At least let me find some extra blankets or something for you so you're not sleeping on the floor with nothing."

"I'll do that when I'm ready." Sheik responded quickly, trying to cover up how emotional he felt himself getting over a single little gesture. "I appreciate the offer, though. I really do."

Link hummed in response. He still seemed a little unhappy, likely because Sheik was so insistent on not letting him do things for him. That always had bothered him, even before the Calamity had happened. "Okay. Well, good night. Don't stay up too late. You look tired too."

"I won't."

After one final nod, Link turned away and disappeared into the cabin. Sheik lingered there for a moment before he walked over to the wall by the entrance and slowly sank down to the ground. He bit his lip in a desperate attempt to stop the tears that had finally begun welling in his eyes from spilling over. He whispered a curse under his breath in Sheikah and furiously wiped a hand across his face, dragging his mask down as he did so.

Slowly, he drew his knees up to his chest and rested his forehead on top of them, subconsciously reaching for the little spot of warmth that was Zelda's presence in the back of his head. He had promised himself that he wouldn't do this unless it was absolutely necessary, but he felt absolutely awful right now. It was hard for him to admit, but he really did need help getting through this.

She didn't say anything, clearly picking up on what he needed most right now. Words were nice, but he always had preferred having someone just sit there with him as he worked through everything by himself. Company made it more bearable.

Zelda couldn't stay for long, though. Ganon fought harder when her attention was divided.

And so Sheik was left alone with the crushing weight of his feelings once more.