Archive of Our Own ^beta

Link had never really been much of a fan of kids, but it wasn't like he hated them. He just didn't feel like he was very good with them. He certainly tried, though. And maybe he was better with kids than he thought, because there was one kid who seemed absolutely obsessed with him for reasons he couldn't comprehend.

When he'd first moved into his house in the suburbs, he'd made it a point to greet all his neighbors. He wanted to be on good terms with everyone in the area in case anything ever happened. Much easier to turn to a neighbor for help in an emergency if you'd already been friendly with them than if you'd never spoken more than a passing “hello” on the way to the mailbox.

He'd been lucky, he had thought at first, when his neighbors had all seemed pretty normal and nice on first meeting. The neighbor on his left had been a quiet and polite young woman named Sue-Belle who was apparently caring for her aged grandfather. 

The neighbor across from him might have had a kid with a disgustingly constant runny nose, but at least he was quiet and didn't bother Link as long as he gave him a good, wide berth when he was in the area.

Finally, the neighbor on his right was an incredibly sweet old woman who lived with her two grandchildren, who had both greeted him very politely. To his surprise, the boy was also named Link.

Maybe that was what had started the interest. Maybe a shared name had been all the boy needed to latch onto him. The boy, nicknamed Wind by some of his family members, as his younger sister, Aryll, had told him pretty early on, started his attack the very second day of Link's arrival. 

He had invited himself over to help Link unpack, which he had at first thought was a very nice thing to do. But boy, could that kid talk. He had asked questions about where Link had come from, why he'd moved there, why his plates were blue, why he was wearing a scarf in the summer, if he had any pets, if he was going to get any pets, what he thought of pigs, what his favorite subject in school had been, and so on and so forth. It had felt never-ending. Thankfully, he had gotten distracted when Aryll had come by to offer help, and Wind had moved on to helping Aryll decorate Link's living room. (Link had to admit, the little girl had a pretty good eye for it, and he'd only moved a few things around once they left for dinner.)

But it never stopped. Wind kept showing up at his house after Link got home from work, or at any time on the weekends, waltzing right in every time Link opened the door. Sometimes his sister would be with him, but more often than not, it was just Wind.

“Do you have any friends your age?” Link had once carefully asked when he felt he was close to a breaking point. All he wanted after coming home from work was peace and quiet.

The response was probably half of what kept Link from straight up snapping on the kid or refusing to open the door for him from then on forth.

“I was homeschooled until recently. The other kids say I'm weird.” He had said it nonchalantly, but there had been a funny little bunch in his mouth afterwards that had kept Link from pressing further. Instead, he'd dug out an old Gameboy Advance he'd kept out of nostalgia and given it to the kid to play, knowing he'd probably never see it again unless it was actively in Wind's hands.

The smile on his face, he supposed, had been worth it.

So no, he didn't hate kids.

He didn't even hate Wind, even with how much he drove him up the wall. No, if anything, he was a little scared of him. 

Which was kind of crazy, an army captain being afraid of a little kid, but he kept getting in his house.

One day, Link had gotten home from work, and, assuming Wind would be at his door within twenty minutes with unfinished homework in hand, hurried to the kitchen to try and get dinner going before he wound up babysitting against his will. (In all the time he'd spent with Wind and Aryll, he'd only ever gotten paid once, when their grandma had actually, formally asked him to babysit them. It was a shame, since hanging out with Wind practically felt like a second job at this point.)

Instead of going into his kitchen and getting dinner started, what had happened was Link going into his kitchen, opening the fridge door, and grabbing for a non-existent gun when a voice said “Hoi!” from atop the fridge.

Wind had jumped over him and landed on the ground, turning around with a bright smile and chips in his hand before cheerily remarking that he was a little later getting home than usual. 

From then on, Wind was occasionally just… in his house when he got home. The door was always locked, the windows didn't seem tampered with, he had never given the kid a key no matter how much he had pleaded, so he couldn’t fathom how he kept getting into his house. He'd installed cameras on the outside of his house and gotten nothing in return but a stray cat held up to one of them at eleven pm on a random Tuesday while Wind meowed loudly.

Link had even found Wind in his car once, popping out of the trunk when he'd brought groceries out of the store and opened the back to load them in. He'd nearly had a heart attack on seeing him, and then nearly had another heart attack when he thought about how hot it had been that day and how long he'd been in the store. Wind had been red in the face and coated in sweat, and Link had, for the first time ever, yelled at him. The idiot could have cooked to death in there, and he wanted to make sure he never did something that stupid again. 

He would have thought, just maybe, the kid would at least leave him alone while he had a guest over, but the time his old army buddy had come to visit, the kid had sat there the whole time peppering the third Link in the room (it really was rather ridiculous, Link had remembered thinking at the time, that he now personally knew two other Links) with questions. Wind was offended Link had never told him he'd been in the army, had gushed over how cool the army nickname “Time” was, and then balked at how “lame” and “redundant” Link's own nickname, “Wars”, was. Apparently, “Cap” wasn't any better.

Wind had then proudly told Time that he had given Link his own nickname: “Scarfy”.

Yes, Link often wore scarves, but what was wrong with that? They were stylish, in Link's opinion, but hipster in Wind's. He had tried to argue that he was naturally cold, so it was also a practical accessory, which was true, but Wind had called him out on wearing the scarves pulled down rather than wrapped snugly around his neck. Link had shot back that wearing a scarf like that would look stupid in the summer, and before he knew it, he was arguing with a thirteen-year-old like he was a child too. Then, Wind had abruptly invited him to his upcoming family reunion and left for dinner. 

Time had not let him live that interaction down. He hadn't let him live down the new nickname either.

So Link had decided to change things up for his next meetup with Time. It was not going to be spoiled by Wind. In fact, Link was going to get a blessed full twenty-four hours at least away from the punk. 

Link was going to the farm where Time lived. It was about time he met the man's wife anyway. Apparently, his brother and his brother's kids lived in the area too. He'd finally be able to meet the whole family! It was a long time coming - and felt even more necessary since he'd met Wind's entire family first… which had been a crazy event of its own. He hadn't just been the second Link at the gathering, but, in fact, the fourth. The family had made all four of them line up for a picture while joking about how “so many Links in a row” made “a whole chain”. He now personally knew four Links, and would be meeting the fifth - Time’s nephew, apparently dubbed Twilight - when he got to the farm. It was utter madness. 

But it would be nice to get away for a little while, even if it was just an overnight stay. Time had promised that the country air did wonders for easing stress, and Link looked forward to it.

He was about half an hour from the farm when he got a call from Wind's grandmother, the ring interrupting the song blasting through his speakers.

“Hello?” he said.

Her voice rang out through the car’s speakers. “Hi, Link. I'm sorry to bother you, but you haven't seen my Link anywhere, have you?”

Link frowned. “No, I haven't. He didn't go to school?”

“The school called and said he didn't show up.”

His fingers tightened over the steering wheel. That punk, skipping school and making his grandmother worry. He'd tried to hide from school once before by attempting to take refuge at Link's house, but he'd dragged him right back to his grandmother. 

If he were hiding at Link's house now, there wasn't much she'd be able to do about it if he refused to come out, seeing as Link had the key.

“He could be at my place. I'd check, but I'm on a little road trip and won't be back until tomorrow. Feel free to go over and knock or check through the windows the best you can. I'm sorry, Mrs. Gull, I wish I could do more.”

“Oh, that's alright. He can be a bit… rambunctious sometimes. He has a tendency to skip classes when he's in a mood. I'm sure he'll turn up eventually. Thank you. Enjoy your trip, Link. Goodbye, dear.”

“Goodbye, Mrs. Gull. And good luck.”

His fingers drummed on leather as he glanced over at his phone to make sure it had returned to the map screen. Maybe if he had a proper talk with the boy, he'd stop giving his grandmother scares like this. He wasn't sure anything he said had any weight with the boy, but if he didn't like Link at least somewhat, he surely wouldn't keep coming around.

Wind had never snuck into his car again, after he'd scolded him thoroughly for it, so maybe he just needed to do that about skipping school.

A few minutes later, a funny feeling had started pooling into Link's gut. Despite the good music playing - he'd curated a playlist just for this trip - his brain had kept wandering to Wind. 

His fingers started a rhythm on the leather again. He was probably just overthinking things. Being paranoid. There was no way Wind would try and stowaway when he knew Link was going on an overnight trip to someone else's home. 

Right?

But then… maybe that quiet, two-second ring he'd heard in the final chorus of that song earlier, some time before Wind's grandma had called him, had been a cell phone in his trunk.

No, no. He can be a crazy kid sometimes, but even this is too extreme for him. Especially after I gave him the what-for about hiding in car trunks.

Still, as he got closer and closer to the farm, the ball of Bad Feelings in his gut grew. He wanted not to give in to paranoia, he really did, but…

He took a breath and let the edges of his mind expand.

There was something about Link that very few people knew about, and that was that he could sense where people were. Like a little map he could unroll or close, lingering in his head, dotted with people, extending roughly thirty feet out. 

If it were a person with bad intentions, he could sense it. 

If he made a connection with a person, the aura of their existence would shift in his head to something unique to them. Something recognizable. 

This ability had served him well during the war, giving him access to where enemies were hiding and helping him to avoid accidental friendly fire. At all times, he knew where his comrades and enemies were. But now, home from the military, all it did was put him on edge. He'd find himself paying it too much mind, even at home, focusing in on it and searching for red as though an enemy could pop up at any second.

For the sake of his own mental health, he tried to keep it closed when he was in safe spaces, like at home or in areas with very few people. The obsessive checking and paranoia weren't good for him.

But it did have its uses, even now.

Because it was telling him there was a person in his trunk.

If he wasn't so close to his destination, he would have pulled over right there and then.

Time was sitting on the front porch when he pulled up and immediately got up and headed down to meet him as the crunching of gravel beneath his tires slowed to a stop.

The warm smile on his fellow Link’s face faded when he saw Link get out of the car.

“Are you okay, Cap? You look… pale.”

“I need to check the trunk,” he gritted out as he stalked around the back of the car. He took a breath as Time followed him with befuddlement on his face, bracing himself to refrain from colorful language, before popping the trunk open.

A tanned boy with blond hair grinned up at him sheepishly.

“Surprise?”

He grabbed the boy by his shirt and practically dragged him out of the car.

Wind's voice cracked as he started spewing excuses. “Wait, wait! I wanted to see a farm! And it's fall! It's not hot out anymore, so there was no chance of me cooking alive, and you weren't going to stop the car for a long time until you got here, and-”

“Wind! You can't do this! You can't just sneak off wherever you want to whenever you want to!” Link shouted as he let go of the boy. “Do you know how rude it is to show up here, uninvited?”

Wind hunched, his gangly arms that were a little too long for his body looking more proportionate as his shoulders shrugged up to his ears.

Time put a hand on Link's shoulder, and he huffed a breath, pinching his nose. “I'm going to call your grandmother so she can stop worrying about you. But we both know it's too late for her to come pick you up and take you home.”

Wind's grandmother didn't drive after dark and tried to avoid highways and interstates if she could. 

“He can stay the night,” Time said quietly. “I'm sure he'll fit just fine on the couch.”

Link didn't look at his friend, burning eyes glued to Wind. “You better be thankful these folks are kind and hospitable. If it were me, you'd be sleeping in the barn.”

Shoes loud on the rocks, he crunched his way back to the driver's seat, reaching in and pulling out his phone. 

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Gull.”

“Link?”

“Yes. I found Wind.”

“You found him?” There was relief in her voice before it turned to confusion. “But I thought you weren’t home.”

“Yes-”

Her voice got flatter. “You said you were on a trip.”

“About four hours away, at a friend's farm, yes.”

“Link stowed away, didn't he?”

“I'm so sorry,” he said, guilt curling in his chest. He should have double-checked before leaving. Maybe he should start double-checking from now on. 

“No, no, don't blame yourself. But I… by the time I get there, it'll be dark…”

“I know. It's fine. They said he could stay the night. I'll just have to bring him back with me tomorrow.”

“...” He heard a deep and heavy sigh on the other end of the line. “I guess I'll call the school. Looks like he's getting out of going on that field trip after all. Thank you, Link. You… I appreciate your patience with him.”

He wasn't sure what to say to that, considering the fact that he had just yelled at him.

“Well, I… I try. You, um, you have a good rest of your evening, Mrs. Gull.”

“It will be much better now that I at least know where the little rascal went. Thank your friends for me, will you?”

“Of course.”

“Alright. Goodbye, dear.”

“Goodbye.”

He hung up and turned to see two new faces in the area. A red-headed woman he recognized as Time's wife, and a young man he'd also seen in pictures who must have been Time's nephew, Twilight.

“Sorry about that, everyone,” he said, pocketing his phone. “And sorry about the unexpected addition. I'm Link, as I'm sure you know, and it's a pleasure to finally meet you.”

He held out his hand first to the woman. “Malon, I presume?”

“Yes. A pleasure to meet my husband's dear friend.” She smiled warmly. “And don't worry about the plus one. I made plenty for dinner.”

“And you must be our other Link. Twilight?”

The young man gave his hand a good, strong shake, giving him a smile.

“Yessir, that's me. Nice to finally meet you, too. You've been in a lot of the old man's stories, you know.”

“Good stories, I hope,” he said, glancing over at Time, who wore an unreadable smile.

“Entertaining stories,” Twilight replied, smile growing to show off pointy canines.

Entertaining did not necessarily mean stories that painted him in a good light. Then again, most of those stories didn't necessarily paint Time in a good light either. The most entertaining ones were very do not imitate kinds of stories. 

“Dinner is almost done,” Malon said. “I know it's a little bit early, but…”

“I'm plenty hungry, don't worry,” Link assured her. 

“Good. If you bring your things inside, Time can show you your room while I finish things up.”

By the time Link had pulled his overnight bag from the car, a little boy was sprinting full speed towards them before skidding to a stop and attaching himself to Twilight's side.

“Hey there, kiddo,” Link said. “I take it you're Link's little brother?”

The boy nodded. “Hello, Mister Also Link.” He grinned toothily and then looked away with a shy laugh. 

Link smiled. He couldn't quite remember the name of this one. Time had talked at length about his nephews and niece, but he had talked about Twilight more than the other two. Conner?

“This is Colin,” Twilight said.

“Nice to meet you, Colin.”

The boy nodded and then broke away towards the house, calling, “I'm gonna go help Auntie M!”

“He's a bit shy,” Twilight told Link. “He's gotten better than he was a couple of years ago, but he doesn't get the chance to meet new people very often.”

“Cute kid,” Link said. Speaking of kids… “Time said you're good with kids.”

Twilight looked a little embarrassed at the praise, glancing at his uncle as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah, well, I guess. The kids ‘round here seem to like me well enough.”

Link took a few steps back, putting a hand on the back of Wind's neck, who startled at the sudden attention. He walked the boy forward and presented him to Twilight.

“This is Link, call him Wind. He's pretty excited to see a farm. Would you mind showing him around after dinner?”

“Oh! Yeah, I'd be more than happy to,” Twilight said. “You can meet the cows ‘n’ horses. And if you want, I can walk ya back to my place and you can meet the goats, too.”

Wind seemed to brighten a little at the prospects, ducking away from Link's hold and taking a step towards Twilight.

Brightening his mood was not Link's intent - he would have been fine had the kid looked miserable all night after the stunt he pulled - but at least that meant Wind would be out of his hair for the evening. 

Turning, he moved to finally grab his bag, only to see Time halfway across the yard with it. “Hey-!”

“Oh, don't bother,” Twilight said. “He can't stand bein’ idle when there's something to do. Say, how did he actually get that scar over his eye? He always gives me a different story.”

Link clicked his tongue. “He does that to you, too? Man, here I was hoping I'd finally get the truth. He already had it by the time we crossed paths. You don't happen to know how old he is, do you?”

Twilight threw his hands up in the air. “Ugh, no. Dad won't tell me, and Malon puts question marks on his birthday cake every year. They think they're real hilarious.”

Link looked back in the direction of the house. “Did he ever tell you about the time we started taking indirect fire while he was in the middle of baking a loaf?”

Twilight snorted. “No?”

Grinning, Link started walking towards the house. “The shockwave made the tents billow, but he said he didn't even feel it. Then, he said, ‘Maybe the shockwave was from me.’”

“No way!” Twilight hurried to walk next to him, even as he doubled over laughing. “I want all the embarrassing stories.”

“We'll see.”

Time had plenty of embarrassing information on Link, after all. He couldn't risk spilling too much dirt.

Dinner was delicious, and the company was truly great. Rusl and Uli were just as kind as Malon, and their little girl, Ella, was absolutely adorable. She giggled any time someone laughed, even though she clearly had no idea what was going on. Link even caught himself making silly faces at her a few times (and, unfortunately, caught Time snapping a photo of him doing so).

Twilight did take Wind with him after dinner to show him around, giving Time and him plenty of time to talk without disruption. 

“Quite the troublemaker,” Time remarked. Link didn't have to ask to know who he was talking about.

Link sighed. “Sounds like he did this to get out of some school trip.”

Time raised a brow. “What kind of kid wants to get out of a field trip? Those were always the things we looked forward to the most.”

Link stared at his hands for a moment. He hadn't thought about that. But it was true. That was rather odd.

“Is this the first time he's ever skipped school?”

He shook his head. “No. Tried to hide out at mine once. Skipped more times than that, though.”

“Is he being bullied?”

He opened his mouth to say no, then paused. He had never asked, technically, and he wasn't sure Wind would tell on his own. “I don't know. He said he doesn't really have friends at school. Or implied it, anyway.”

Time hummed softly, expression thoughtful. “Well, he's sure attached to you. He trusts you.”

“I don't know why.” He rubbed his forehead. “I didn't do anything special.”

“For some, being nice is enough.”

That sounded… sad, actually. The conversation haunted him long after it had ended. 

Twilight brought Wind back after the sky had turned black, dotted with more stars than Link had seen in a while. Wind was so busy staring up at them that he ran right into Link. Immediately, he stiffened and backed up, fingers curling nervously into the hem of his shirt.

Link sighed, sat on the porch bench, and patted the spot next to him.

After a moment of hesitation, Wind sat.

“Why didn't you want to go on the field trip?”

Wind kicked his legs, staring hard at a cricket perched on the edge of the porch. “It's a partnered thing. You have to complete all the activities with a partner.”

“You don't like the partner you were assigned?”

“We weren't assigned partners,” Wind said glumly, thumbnail working at a loose chip of wood. 

If Wind really didn't have friends, then… “You were picked last?”

Wind's lips bunched up again, thumbnail digging into the wood until he hissed, the chip flying off into the dark as he pulled his thumb back towards him, squeezing the tip to check for blood or splinters.

Link resisted the urge to take his hand and check for himself and waited.

“I wasn't picked at all,” he replied sourly.

His brow furrowed. “But if… if it's a partner activity-”

“There are twenty-three kids in my class. Do the math,” Wind said, voice sharp. “The teacher partnered with whoever was left out. No one wants to be the kid partnered with the teacher. Even the homeschooled idiot knows that.”

“Hey,” Link snapped. “You're not an idiot.”

“You think I am.”

“I don't-” Link sucked in a breath, then let it out slow. “You make stupid mistakes sometimes. Like almost letting yourself get roasted to death in a car. But we all make stupid mistakes. I've made plenty. You're not an idiot, Link.”

The boy blinked rapidly and looked away, expression scrunched like he was about to cry, and Link didn't know what to do. He wasn't good with kids. 

“I'm sorry for sneaking along and ruining your trip,” Wind said, voice crackling with every word.

Link scooted over and, after a moment of hesitation, put an arm around his shoulder. To his surprise, the boy sank right into him. “Next time you want to join me on something, just ask, okay?”

He wasn't sure he'd often be saying yes, but it was better than the kid going without permission.

“Okay,” Wind whispered, and the little dot that represented Wind bloomed into something with color and feeling inside Link's mind.

Things went back to normal pretty well after that, with Wind's presence feeling a little less annoying after their talk that night.

He was just a lonely kid. He was a lonely kid, too young yet to run off to the military like Link had.

And honestly, Link hoped he never would.

So he let him show up as much as he wanted and did his best to be patient with him.

And when the boy showed up at his front door, bawling his eyes out a quarter to midnight as an ambulance wailed in the distance, he drove after the ambulance to the hospital where Wind's grandmother was being taken, the kid sobbing in his passenger seat, and then held him the entire time they were in the waiting room. Time's words, he trusts you, rang in his ears as he smoothed down Wind's hair and whispered whatever comforting words he could think of.

Aryll, thank god, was at a sleepover that night, but he took off work the next day to pick her up and stay with the kids. During the following week of their grandmother's recovery in the hospital, he offered to let them stay at his place and did everything he could to make the two feel reassured and safe. 

All he could think about was how Wind had known so many of his neighbors for years longer than he'd known Link, but in a time of fright and emergency, it was his house he'd come to.

If Link was the person Wind had decided to trust, he supposed he'd just have to do his best to live up to that role and responsibility, even if all he really wanted to do after work was chill out in peace and quiet.

So, for the next year, he did his best to be who Wind needed, and eventually, Aryll and their grandmother joined the list of people who got their own unique aura in his mind.

And then he got a job offer. A better position, with better pay… in a city three and a half hours away. It would bring him closer to Time, funny enough, but take him farther from Wind.

As much as he loved the kid, he had to admit, it would be nice getting a bit of his alone time back. More importantly, this was a really good offer, and he couldn't bring himself to set his own future aside for a kid he had known for less than two full years. 

So he said yes. 

That had been a year and a half ago. It hadn't been easy, breaking the news to Wind. The expression on his face had crushed him a little bit, and it had taken everything within himself to not cave and promise to give him his new address when he got it sorted out. 

He couldn't risk the kid one day showing up at his door out of the blue.

But he'd given him his number so he could stay in touch and promised him at least an hour of phone call time each week.

He’d, unfortunately, had to set a texting boundary very shortly after he'd moved when it was clear Wind would happily blow up his phone, given the ability to do so. The arrangement was as such: Wind could text him as he pleased. Link would keep his text thread muted, and then each day, he'd set aside twenty minutes to skim messages, reply, and keep up whatever amount of texting conversation he could get done in that twenty minutes. 

But twenty minutes a day and an extra hour per week of dedicated Wind time was really a lot more manageable than most of his free hours entirely.

It was nice, and Wind seemed to be doing alright without him there. 

In fact, he had been texting him less and less the past week, saying he was busy with some stuff. Maybe he'd finally made some friends.

It was an encouraging thought, and Link found himself in a good mood as he lifted his favorite blue scarf closer to his neck and chin as he slowly pushed his grocery cart through the refrigerated section, looking for the flavor of yogurt he wanted. Wind would have absolutely made fun of him for not just tightening his scarf and using it as a “proper scarf” when he was obviously cold.

But he was on the cold side more often than not, and he refused to go around looking silly with a scarf wound around his neck like it was winter time.

Filling his cart with a handful of yogurt cups, he dropped the scarf as he hurried out of that aisle, dodging another shopper without looking, and turned down another aisle. He was grabbing a loaf of sliced bread when he froze, a familiar sensation registering in the corner of his mind. 

A very familiar dot on his mental mini-map.

Perhaps, for once in his life, his ability was broken. Because how could Wind be here? It was hours away from his home, he had never given anyone in that neighborhood his new address, and there was no one else he recognized with Wind, which meant he had to have come here alone.

But how-

Wait. He's sixteen now, isn't he?

His grandma had stopped driving entirely a year ago, only riding passenger as Wind, with a permit, drove her around.

But he was sixteen now. With a license.

Had he driven here? But why?

There was no way he knew where Link lived. Was it a coincidence?

If so, he had to get out of this store without Wind seeing him. He'd just have to get the rest of his groceries later.

Keeping a mental tab on where Wind was, he hurried past and down aisles, dodging and weaving as he headed for the self-check-out area. Wind was somewhere in the back of the store now.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, c'mon, hurry… he thought as he quickly scanned his items.

The bread didn't beep through, and he ran it in front of the scanner two more times before smoothing out the plastic so hard he nearly stretched it.

Beep.

The dot, which had been lingering in one spot for a while, suddenly started moving again, and Link jabbed at the payment options, staring so hard at the screen as it loaded, he could have burned holes in it.

C'mon, hurry up, he's coming, he's-

“Scarfy!”

Link grimaced as the excited shout rang through the entire store. The dot sped towards him, and then he was pounced on by limbs that had lost some baby fat since he'd last seen him, and hurt all the more when they jabbed into his bones. The impact nearly knocked him off his feet. 

“Wind,” he returned with a wheeze as he pried the boy off and turned around to give him a more proper hug.

“What are you doing here?” Wind asked, peering past him at the bags of food.

“Getting groceries, obviously.” He raised a brow as he looked the kid over. He wore a huge backpack that sagged on his back, probably contributing to the weight that had nearly bowled him over. There was an abandoned duffle bag on the ground a few feet behind him, packed to the brim, and a single box of cereal next to it. “What brings you here?”

“Uh…” Wind's gaze danced away. “I'm gonna live with my cousin for a while.”

Link's brows furrowed. He was lying. Or omitting enough important truths to make him feel guilty. He knew his facial expressions well enough by now.

“Your cousin, huh? Which one?”

Wind's eyes returned to Link's face. “The short Link.”

Link's mind summoned the image of the young man who, according to his family, but not according to the guy himself, stood at four feet and four inches tall. “Ah. Why's that? It's still the school year, isn't it?”

“I'm doing online classes,” Wind replied.

Hm.

“You must live around here, huh?” Wind said, expression brightening before Link could pursue his line of questioning.

Link tried not to look too pained by his accurate conclusion. “Yeah.”

“Well, I gotta go, since they're expecting me.” Wind went to pick up the cereal box, holding it up in the air proudly. “I'm bringing a gift.”

“Right. Well…” Link looked him over once more. Maybe there was a different reason he hadn't been texting as much lately. A reason that had to do with him suddenly going to live with his cousin. “We'll have to get together sometime soon since you'll be in town. You know my schedule pretty well, so text me some times you'll be free when you figure that out, and we'll meet up.”

Wind's eyes sparkled as Link finished paying and grabbed his bags. “Okay! I'll see ya later!”

Wind's call of, “Bye, Scarfy!” echoed behind him as he hurried to the door, ignoring amused looks shot at him and his scarf.