AN: (1) souk: commoner’s word for “market”

Caution: Heavy use of bad language.

SLEEP DID NOT come quickly for Vanessa that night. She didn’t want to dream that dream again. One very small part of her desperately wanted to hear the rest of the purple man in fuller detail. She felt very afraid. She knew she wasn’t normal for showing no emotions, even though she did have them, and she was only familiar with not-so-good emotions, such as fury, remorse, or terror. Curiosity was not an emotion, but she’d thought of nothing but George the first day she met him, even out of Anka’s skin. She knew what happy and flirty emotions felt like through Anka to an extent, but her own body didn’t know it. She could name it, but very faintly. And this feeling, the one she had every time she thought of George, was a mixture of two opposite emotions that she couldn’t identify.

Over the course of the next few days, she went about as she usually did, staying inside the castle and inside her own skin. Perhaps being Anka was causing a freak-out in her own body. She decided to stick with that theory. The dream hadn’t come back, but it didn’t diminish the stirring in her stomach. It was unknown to her as to why she couldn’t know or experience happiness, love, joy or cheer, but she’d learned to accept it at a young age. Now, whatever was going on, she knew wasn’t good.

First, she needed to figure out who this George fellow really was. He’d already learned her name by now. Or at least, Anka’s name. She decided to ignore the dream and go on with this, and began to formulate a plan. Socialize with the redhead for a while, then ask to go visit his place unless he offered first. Check out his parents; see what they were like. She checked her plan for any flaws several times before actually going through with it.

George, it turned out, had no father, and never knew him. This was something about him that Vanessa could understand wholly and completely.

“Ma says Dad died before I was even born,” he told Anka one time as they were strolling the marketplace, “but I don’t believe her. I remember seeing him when I was little, but I don’t remember him much. He was tall, and that’s all I remember. But then again, your average little kid would think anything bigger than them was tall, no?”

Anka looked at him sadly. He turned, and frowned when he saw her expression. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

She stopped. He did too, and looked at her worriedly. She looked down. “I’m just happy for you, is all,” she murmured. “You never knew your father, so it wasn’t so hard for you to live without him.” She looked at his gorgeous blue eyes. “But I knew mine. When my Ma was murdered, the nearby police came and done my Papa in. And I… saw it.” Anka started to cry quietly.

George immediately began to comfort her. His hand flew to her back and his tone took on a quieter, softer tone. “Shh, shh, hey,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s all right, Anka. I’m here. It’s all right.”

“No, it ain’t,” she said, “it really ain’t. Mayhap ’twas long ago, but it still stings. It stings like mad.”

“Anka.”

She found herself pressed against his warm body, his strong arms locked around her, his eyes gazing gently down at her, his face hard. She looked up at him. He pulled away one arm to wipe her tears from her face, and then hug her tight again. Vanessa was shocked, perhaps even shocked more than Anka. Whatever the case, Anka felt a blush rise to her cheeks. Or was it Vanessa? Somehow she wasn’t so sure.

“Anka,” he said firmly, “it is all right to feel sad. It is all right to cry.”

Her lip trembled. She then looked down in shame. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I di’n’t mean to imply that you’ve ne’er been bit, that you ne’er been stung.”

George stroked her short brown hair gently. “I never said you implied that. But you’re right; I have been bit. My ma won’t stop her drug abuse, and others. It’s affectin’ my life. I know she loves me, but she seems to not know anybody’s here anymore.”

She frowned sadly.

After a time, George asked her, “D’you wanna come meet my ma?”

She looked up, surprised. Vanessa knew this would come up soon enough, especially with this conversation about, but Anka didn’t. This was good. Vanessa would meet his mother, find out more who this George cove really was and what spell he was putting on her to cause her such this curiosity and fascination.

“Umm, sure,” Anka mumbled. “Sure. That sounds fine.”

They traveled in silence as they walked through Hyrule Field. Finally Anka/Vanessa looked up to see their destination. It wasn’t one of the neighboring villages, such as Kakariko, as she expected it to be. Instead, she found herself standing at Lon Lon Ranch.

“You live here?” asked Anka. George merely nodded and she followed him in through the front gate and into the ranch.

“I’m home,” he called when he got inside the house nearby. Anka pulled her sandaled foot away from a Cucco pecking nearby.

A woman’s voice drawled through the house, “Oh, good, yer back. Where ye been, ye lazy ass, yeh?”

He sighed. “She busted the lock,” he whispered sadly under his breath. Vanessa heard it anyway, and could only wonder what he meant. More loudly, he called, “I’ve been at the souk, Ma.”

“What fer?” the woman demanded. “What ye doin’, goin’ there fer and aband’ning yer chores, ye Goddess damned man-whore?”

Anka winced.

“It’s called food, Ma,” George yelled back, putting the basket of things he’d bought on a table. “We need it to live.”

“We live on a ranch, yeh bloody bastard!” Footsteps could be heard approaching; heavy, drunken footsteps. “Whaddaya need to go to the souk fer?!”

Anka sucked in her breath. A mot with duller red hair just a little longer than Vanessa’s own and deep sapphire eyes came shuffling into the room. Her hair gave off the look that it had once been as vibrant as George’s was now, but years of not treating it well had dulled its shine down dramatically. Her eyes seemed unfocused, and dark circles made them look sunken in. Right under her eye sockets were large dark circles. It was obvious that she was beautiful once, but even more so that she wasn’t any longer. And she was drunk. Big time.

The woman squinted at Anka. “Who the fuck is this whore?” she questioned. “Why ain’t she out making herself useful in the only way she knows? ” Again, Anka winced. Vanessa fumed. She’d never been talked about in such a degrading way in her life!

“Ma, this is Anka,” said George nonchalantly. “Anka, meet my ma, Malon.”

“Nice to meet you,” she murmured sourly.

Malon got all up in Anka’s face. “Ye could’a at least brought home a pretty one, you stupid piece of shit!” she spat. Anka wrinkled her nose. Malon’s breath was heavy with the scent of booze. “Or was she all ye could afford af’er ye fucking wasted all our coin on food?”

George sighed. “Mother, please. How did you get into the cabinet? I put an iron lock and three protection spells on that thing.”

She glared at him and then laughed. It was a weird laugh, slurred and chopped up in places. Then she said, “D’ya honestly think a few wimpy spells are gonna keep me out, ya stupid fuck?” She drew back her fist to punch him in the face, but Vanessa acted too quickly. Anka’s eyes flashed red as her left hand shot out and grabbed the fist. She bent the woman’s arm back and then shoved her onto her knees. George was surprised, but not angry.

“I could have you arrested for child abuse,” she growled softly. The words carried through the air and only made it to Malon’s ears. Vanessa made sure they did not reach George’s. “I could have you thrown in the dungeons. I could have you arrested for drug and alcohol abuse. You should know marijuana is illegal in Hyrule, as is an alcoholic being the only caretaker for a child.”

“He ain’t no child no more, bitch!” she screamed at Vanessa. “And let go of me arm, damn it!”

“What’s she talking about?” George asked worriedly.

Vanessa’s furious red eyes dimmed back down into Anka’s gentle hazel ones. She let go of the drunken woman and turned to leave. George gripped his mother from under the armpits and dragged her to the latrine in the next room over. Her vomiting could be heard even after Anka closed the front door.

George caught up with her outside the ranch gate. He put a hand on her shoulder. “You see?” he mumbled. “This is how I’ve lived for years. I don’t remember it much, but she drank herself crazy the first few years after I was born. I do remember, however, lying awake in bed at night, listening to her in the room over yelling and crying in her sleep. I remember always getting up and dragging my futon into her room to sleep at the foot of her bed after sitting for hours at her bedside, just patting her hair and watching her sweaty and teary face calm down some. I think…” He paused, then went on, “I think my Dad did similar stuffs. Touching her hair, whispering that it’d be all right in the end. Before he died. Because it calmed her down real fast. And then she started drinking and using marijuana. I heard off the streets and from old visitors that she never would even think of going near either stuffs. Mayhap the torture from Dad’s death was enough. Mayhap she loved him so much, and she drank and drugged herself to ease the pain. I’ll never know. I’ll never know what’s in her mind, not now that she’s all… well, messed up.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“No. You ain’t got a reason to be sorry, Anka.”

She looked away. “Yes, I do. Earlier I was crying over losing my parents. But it never really occurred to me that others may have it worse. That…” She looked at him, and went on, “…someone important to me might have it worse.”

George sighed and shoved his fists into his pockets, looking down at his scruffy boots. “Look, Anka, it’s really nothing to get yourself worked up over.” His voice suddenly got quiet. “And I can’t get into deep relationships. I never have been able to. It’s not me, it’s just, the mots want to meet my ma eventually, and once they do, they leave. Just take off. If I were to get in a relationship, a longer-than-a-week-or-so one, then I’d either have to be livin’ elsewhere, which will never happen, or they’ll have to be strong to put up with Ma until she… goes.” He looked up at her, blue eyes ablaze. “I can’t leave my mother, Anka. Not for nobody. She’ll kill herself. And besides,” he added, turning to look back at the ranch, “this is as much my home as it is hers. And she’s been here all her life. I have too. I can’t just leave it. I could never leave it.”

There was silence. Then the girl spoke again. “Mayhap you don’t leave her forever,” she said slowly, “but, mayhap, just for a while. To go on an adventure. See the world. With me.”

He looked back at her. “Anka,” he began with another sigh.

“No, truly!” she insisted. “You need to get out. If you’re so insistant on staying, fine, but you really need a break. A break from your mother and this ranch and Hyrule altogether. Just for a little while. Does that sound all right?”

He looked at the ground mournfully, then up at her. Finally, he nodded. “Yeah,” he answered. “Yeah. But I’ll need to get someone to watch my ma. Someone who won’t arrest her while doing so.”

He was pained, she could tell. So she said, “Well, maybe not yet. We have the rest of our lives. We can go whenever we want. We can wait. That’s the beauty of youth.”

George gazed at her quizzically. “That’s right. We can wait. Until the opportune moment arrises. Then I will fetch you.” He walked up and took her hands in his and held them up to her chin. “Wait for me,” he begged. “If you can wait long enough, and you’re patient, maybe you can have me. I really like you, Anka. Terribly. But I can’t just abandon the only family I have left in this world. Can you wait for someone as pathetic as me? Someone as beautiful as you are would surely find someone else, someone fitting. But if you really want me, for whatever reason, you can one day. One day. I promise.”

“Oh, George,” said Vanessa and Anka at the same time. They spoke as one. Anka’s grammar improved. “I’ll wait forever for you. I don’t give a damn how long it takes. If anyone should leave, it should be you. I am the pathetic one. And I like you too, George.” She smiled, her knees suddenly weak. “Terribly.”

He smiled, and looked at her as if she were the only other person in this world. Either Vanessa or Anka melted inside at that gaze. Suddenly Vanessa’s cool was being broken, the cracks in the ice widening… that was the feeling! Infatuation! With George! Tangled with confusion… or was it sorrow? Pity? But now she knew at least one. She was besotted. With George. Oh, how her mother would fuss at her interest in a commoner! But then again… it wasn’t as if she didn’t know… for her mother had once been deeply in love with a commoner herself. Like mother like daughter, she joked sourly. Though, she wasn’t in love with George. Not yet, at least.

George leaned forward. His lips brushed against her forehead in a sort of soft kiss. Oh, how remarkably soft those lips were! She longed to feel them pass down her face and to her own. But the moment was embittered, for the shouts of Malon heading their way could be heard. She felt George stiffen reluctantly, and then he backed away and released her hands, warmed by his. “Wait for me,” he whispred before he headed back.

Anka stayed there until he was gone, and long after. Vanessa murmured in reply, “Don’t worry. I will.” And she turned and headed back to the castle.