Notes: Simple touch is often the most that is required.

What is too Little and What is too Much
(or the art of touch)

Link had always tried to touch him.

(To feel the warm body just a sword's length away. To feel the careful lines of his chest. The tautness of his stomach. To trail his fingers over his shoulders and down his arms. To feel the material of his clothes. Was he warm? He'd always wonder, as he failed again. Feeling each time, more and more distressed as he left. More confused. Am I that low? Does he think I'll hurt him?)

He wanted to reassure himself. To finally affirm the idea that twisted painfully in the back of his mind, that he was truly alive, and not just another illusion.

So, when fires hit Kakariko, when the beast (unseen and unsought) struck Sheik down --- Link took a moment to touch his back. (Crouching down beside him. Feeling for breath. And Goddesses, he was warm and the material of his clothing was worn and almost soft, but he didn't have time to think on it.)

The monster had doubled back, and Link was only a sword's length away, as Sheik --- breathless and without out words to warn him --- reached out, and tried to bid him back. (He would never see this, and he would never know---)

And it was pain---So much of it. He can remember screaming, clawing for oxygen. And suddenly, how the world had turned black at the corners. Collapsed over and over and in.

(and in the long moments link regained consciousness, the first sensation that caught flooded through him was the weight of sheik's body moving off his. the second the absence of something placed over his lips. and the third, the phantom sensation of hands still gripping his jaw. lingering hope of breathing life into him.)

And for a moment more, he didn't move.
(Pieced together what had just happened. Sheik's form clarifying in his peripheral vision. The harsh, uneven sound of his breathing loud in his ears. And the way that his features looked as Link turned his head, in the crackling light of the fires. A curious gold.)

And when Link finally summoned the strength to sit up again, no words were needed except Sheik's faint explanation and all the unspoken "thank you"s and "I need..."s conveyed as he (for once shaking and utterly scared), placed a hand over Link's (long-fingered and cool and somehow, miraculously, soft) and kept it there.

And Link thought, it was worth all the moments and hours of question, because even though he couldn't see Sheik's reassuring smile, he could see the faint upturn at the corners of his redred eyes, and knew it was there.