Title: Lonely Too Long

Author: Alex Foster

Author's Email: AF451 .net

Category: Drama

Ratings: PG

Summary: The morning after a night with Marin, Link must come to terms with his feelings. A songfic based on "Lonely Too Long" by Patty Loveless.

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Nintendo. The song lyrics belong to Patty Loveless. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

Author's Notes: I would like to thank Romance Queen for the encouragement and the beta job. Her kind words convinced me to post this.

Dawn on Koholint.

Link slipped the baldric over his head and watched as the sun rose. He blinked at the brightness of a new day. The memories of the night before were a jumble in his brain. He wanted to banish the images from his thoughts, but at the same time, he wanted to grab each memory and never let them go.

Running his fingers back through his hair, he turned and started walking back to where he had made camp the night before. Where they had made camp.

The small clearing was littered with the dry grass he had used to make mattresses for sleeping. One was still intact at one end of the camp.

Link gazed down at the small form still wrapped in his cloak. It rose and fell with the steady breathing of its occupant.

"Oh, Marin," he whispered. "What have I done?"

Link turned away and squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't look at her and not remember. He could still smell her. Try as he might, he could not make himself not recognize it. It was in the air around the camp. It was on him. She smelled like the flowers that she spent her days picking.

He tightened his fists until his hands shook. Until his body shook with the strain. But images still danced behind his closed eyes.

He saw Marin laughing at something he had said while building the camp.

He saw her thank him again for agreeing to escort her back to Mabe Village.

He heard her ask about the other side of the ocean. Where he was from and who he was there.

He heard her ask if there was anyone that he missed more than anyone else.

He heard himself lie and say "no".

Ashes smoldered in the circle of smooth stones. Link stepped over the spot that had held the camp fire the night before.

It had been a cold, moonless night.

Marin had shivered and then moved a little closer to the blaze.

Link had removed his cloak and placed it around her shoulders. He had lost his fear of cold nights a long time ago.

She had looked at the cloak and asked if he wouldn't need it.

"I never had one as a child," he had said without thinking. "I won't need one now. Besides, this is nothing compared to the nights on Hyrule Field."

She had tipped her head at that. Her eyelids lowered with compassion. She asked again who he was in his homeland.

Link looked back to the rising sun. Why had he answered her?

The night before, he knew the road that was before him. He knew and he still moved to sit next to her.

"Of all the things I said," Link whispered, running his fingers back through his hair again, "I didn't tell you about her. About us."

What "us" a tiny corner of his mind shot back. She wasn't even there when you set sail.

"She was there in spirit," he said in response. "In spirit, she waved to me."

Perhaps she has found someone, the voice argued. Perhaps she has just done, with someone else, what you have just done.

Link walked back to Marin. He knelt down and watched her sleep. "I hope she has," he whispered back, silencing the voice. "I deserve to be hurt in the same manner."

Then she asked why he had set sail. What he wished to find.

Link had watched the fire pop sending sparks into the air before answering. "I am seeking the same thing you are when you look out at the sea. I am searching for more than I am," he had said.

She had smiled slightly. "The secret of life?"

"Exactly."

"How will you know when you find it?"

"I'll know," he had said. "Whether I find it or it finds me, I'll know."

"And then your search will be over?"

"Then it'll be over."

Link tucked a few stray strands of her hair behind her ear. He let his fingers linger over her cool cheek. The feel of her skin brought the memories back with more force.

He remembered the feel of her soft lips against his. For all that the memories wouldn't let him forget, he couldn't remember who had kissed whom first.

He nearly laughed at the irony.

The events of the night before hit his heart with full force. The memories passed through his carefully built up walls without slowing. They moved like a wind. A wind that, for a night anyway, had allowed him to forget who he was and where he was from. The woman he had shared with the night before had given him something that was a rarity in his life: a moment of selfishness.

In the arms of a woman he hardly knew, he found freedom from the persona others had built for him.

In between the fumbling of clothes and passion, he had discovered something that was more than he knew.

Marin stirred underneath his touch. She rolled on her back, the cloak falling past her bare shoulders. Her eyes fluttered open.

She smiled when she saw him. "Good morning," she said softly.

Link returned the smile. He bent down and kissed her on the forehead. "Good morning," he said.