How a maid can be dangerous 1 (Pipit X Link)

***Depending on where you are in the game, there may be one or two spoilers in this story. That's a warning!***

"Link! That was you!?"

"Wait, Pipit, I can explain...!"

"There's no need for that. I fully understand the situation already. And I thought you
were off suspicion... How stupid of me!"

"Wait, Pipit! Wait!"

And that's how it ended for them both. Obviously, Link had known for the longest time he should stop doing it. He knew Pipit would find about it one day or another if he'd keep on being his friend mother's maid. He was working so hard to get all that money, doing all these night shifts added to his usual other duties. They were already low on money, so they really didn't have the means to hire a maid. What's more, for Pipit, the cleaning of the house was his mother's duty. She was the one supposed to do it. The thing is, she never felt like it. She didn't fit the usual picture of the mother. Link was almost sure
she didn't even know how make food for herself.

On that day, he looked around all Skyloft but wasn't able to find Pipit. But no matter how hard he checked, the freckle faced knight wasn't to be found anywhere. Nobody had seen him, either at the bazaar, the academy or around his house. He probably was off on another island, but even knowing that, Link couldn't do much. Sunset was about to get on and his Loftwing was unable to fly at night. The green-clothed knight clenched his fists, looking at the empty darkening sky, the city behind him getting ready for the night and the light tower on his left. He hated leaving something unsettled, but he had to go to bed now, he was leaving again to Eldin tomorrow. He couldn't delay his departure by any day; Zelda's life was at hand.

He turned around, angry, and began to walk to the Academy, letting out an annoyed growl. When he arrived at the bottom of the stairway leading to it, he gave a last glance at his left, but only sky and clouds answered his eyes. He wrinkled his nose in annoyance and gave a side punch to the column by him, making it shake a bit. He sighed deeply and got up the stairs, walking slowly to his bedroom, of which he made sure to lock the door before going directly to his bed. He put his weapons on its side and jumped on it. He stared at the roof, waiting for Morpheus to take him away. However, he wasn't able to sleep until very late that night, when the Academy had been silent for hours and he was sure Pipit would not do his rounds that night.

***************

When he woke up at dawn the following morning, he still felt tired. He had only slept for a tiny bit of a very light sleep. In fact, he felt as tired as the day before. At first, he didn't understand why he felt so miserable. Then, slowly, his memory crept its way back into his head, reminding him of the precedent evening. Link winced. That was so annoying he had to leave the situation the way it was. He slowly sat on his bed, his legs on the floor. The warrior passed a hand on his face. He needed to find a way to pave his way to Pipit's forgiveness for when he'd get back home. If he did not, he would stay focused on that problem, and that could prove highly dangerous in the volcano land and the Silent Realm he would have to face there. If this Realm had to be as hard as Faron Woods' or Lanayru Desert's ones, he was better to found a way to get Pipit off his head while doing that one.

Link looked at his desk and had an idea. It would not completely solve his problem, but at least it was a step to it. He jumped up on his feet and went to sit on the chair in front of his desk. There, he looked a bit around its surface to find a piece of paper and something to write on it. He found the paper but couldn't seem to get his hands on a pen or pencil that actually worked. So, he got on his feet to fetch one in his closet before getting back to his desk. There, he began to write a letter to Pipit.

It was short and of concise words, but it still gave away how Link felt and what he wanted to say. He was giving Pipit a rendezvous when Link would get back on Skyloft to sort things out. The blond adventurer worked a bit on it for a moment, changing a phrasing here and a word there until he was mostly satisfied of it. This done, he folded the piece of paper, wrote 'Pipit' on it and placed it aside while he was attaching his sword and shield to his back. He then reached out for the paper and left his room.

***************

Link walked slowly out of the Academy and to Pipit's house. Strangely enough, his heart was racing real hard. No matter how much he tried to calm it and slow its beating, it kept on running as fast as if he was fighting one of those Silent Realms again. He could feel adrenaline enough to keep him up fighting for days move through his blood vessels, keeping him so alert it was painful.

By the time he actually reached Pipit's house, he was not sure he wanted to knock at that door and take the chance of ending up face to face with a still angry Pipit. For a reason he could not get his hands on, that possibility stressed him so much he was getting out of breath at the mere thought of it. So, he stayed there, in front of the freckle faced knight's door, his determination wavering back and forth, unable to make a move towards or away from that fatal door. The letter in his hand felt as heavy as a ton of iron. Giving that piece of paper away seemed so stupid to him now...

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't hear a light step moving to him behind his back. A feminine voice asked, slightly worried:

"Link? What are you doing here?"

The called man closed his eyes, sighing. He felt somewhat annoyed but at the same time extremely relieved. He turned around and opened his cyan deep eyes, trying to look happy. In front of him, Pipit's mother was standing, a basket full of diverse supplies for the house, mainly food. By looking at it, it was obvious all the food in there had been bought on sale. It looked a bit ragged and old, at the limit of turning bad. Link hid it, but at the sight of the basket's content, his heart tightened and a hint of guilt ran through him. He knew part of that woman's need to buy food on sale was his fault. Nothing of that he said and showed, though, and smiled as plausibly he could.

"Oh, hi. It's great I can see you."

Pipit's mother put the hand not holding her basket on her waist. She smiled back at Link, a bit of question in her expression.

"What are you talking about? You saw me yesterday."

The green-clothed knight scratched the back of his head with his empty hand in discomfort.

"Well, I know that. But I had something to ask you."

The woman lifted an eyebrow, all her attention focused on the young man in front of her.

"What may it be?"

Link showed the paper he was holding to the woman in front of him.

"Could you give this to Pipit?"

Pipit's mother cocked her head to the side, pointing to the door behind the adventurer.

"He's here right now. You can give it to him yourself if you want."

Link shook his head negatively once.

"I'd prefer not. Please... And, also..."

"What is it?"

"I won't get back to do your housework. I already knew before Pipit caught me that I shouldn't be doing it, but now it's official. I'll stop. You both need this money way more than I do."

Pipit's mother seemed a bit annoyed and despaired at the thought of having to clean up by herself.

"Are you sure? You are of so much help."

Link nodded.

"Yes, I am."

The woman sighed softly.

"Alright, then. Give the letter here; I will transmit it to Pipit."

"Thanks."

Link handed the letter over to Pipit's mother and walked away to the nearest dock, thanking the woman again. Pipit's mother opened the door to her house. The freckle faced knight welcomed his mom from the sink, where he was washing the dishes.

"Hi, mom! Any problem at the Bazaar?"

"No, everything was alright."

But even though his mother was saying that, it was obvious to Pipit that his mother looked really down. He stared at her while she walked to the table and put all she was holding on it, before she dropped herself on one of the seats around it. She faced the table and put her head in her hands, sighing deeply. Pipit asked, a bit worried:

"Is everything OK?"

His mother gave him a glance before staring at empty air. She sighed again.

"I'll have to do the cleaning..."

Her voice was full of heavy boredom. Pipit looked at her, interrogative.

"What do you mean?"

"Link said he won't be coming back to do it."

She looked at her son in slight annoyance.

"I hope you're happy now."

Pipit was a tad confused. Could it have been so easy? He had a hard time believing it.

"What did he say?"

Pipit's mother waved a hand while keeping her gaze on the dust roaming around in a light ray.

"Something about the money we needed more than him."

Suddenly, she seemed to remember something she had forgotten about a minute ago and stretched out to catch something on the table. Then, she turned to Pipit to show him what she was holding in her hand, almost triumphant. It was a very simple piece of paper, the same kind they used to write down their shopping list, and of no bigger size than the palm of a hand. It seemed quite thick, though, and intrigued the knight.

"He also asked me to give you this. I told him he could give it to you now himself, since you were there right now, but he seemed reluctant. So I agreed to give it to you for him."

'A letter?' thought Pipit. That was strange. It was not Link's usual way of behaving. He would usually go straight to the point and hardly ever beat around the bush. Then, he fully realised his mother's statement.

"He was there?"

"Yes. I found him in front of the door, staring at the handle. "

Pipit's mother shrugged.

"It's as if he didn't know what to do?"

Pipit wiped his hands dry on his pants and asked:

"Do you know where he was headed?"

His mother thought for a second, a finger tapping on the side of her chin.

"I'm not sure..."

Then she pointed her finger up by her head in victory.

"But I do remember hearing the potion merchant self-congratulant of how many potions she had been able to sell to Link yesterday. And the other merchant in front of him agreed, telling he had sold a big amount of arrows to him too."

She looked at her son.

"Does it help you?"

Pipit, though, already had stopped listening to his mother. He knew what it meant. That guy only bought such furniture when he was about to leave for The Surface. He took two steps forward, wrested the letter from his mother's hands and ran to the door, slamming it open and sprinting to his left as fast he could. He was in such a hurry he even forgot to close it. His mother stared at the opening, blinking, all the most surprised by her son's reaction.

Pipit ran to the nearest air dock and stopped there, panting. He looked at the sky but no sign of Link's Loftwing was to be seen. He turned around before having even had the time to catch his breath and ran to the Academy in a high hurry. When he was there, he breezed about it, almost bumping in everybody that got in his way. He was feeling dizzy from running too much, but he didn't stop. He knew he had to find Link fast or he would miss him. After that, the Goddess only knew how much time it'd take before he'd see him again.
Not finding Link at the Academy either, he decided to head for the Goddess' statue. He knew the blond adventurer sometimes went there to stare at Her statue and pray Her to give him luck and courage. When he reached the bottom of the stairs to it, though, he had to stop. He felt so near to throwing up it was unbelievable. He bowed down and reached for his knees. Doing this, he felt a paper shrinking in the palm of his hand. It was Link's letter, of which he had forgotten up to the very existence a moment ago. Seeing it, he smoothed it a bit and put it under his belt not to lose it. Then, he got back straight up, took some slow deep breaths to wave away the dizziness and got at moving again.

He got up the stairs four by four. Up on the Goddess' statue's ground, he jogged to its bottom. He gave a look around, hoping to see Link somewhere, anywhere. But again, he was too late and the green-clothed knight was nowhere to be seen. Pipit clutched his fists and closed his eyes with deep anger.

After a moment in that stance, he opened his emerald eyes back and walked slowly to the dock behind the statue. He was so annoyed he hardly held back a cry of anger. Link had been so close... a door away. Now he would have to wait for weeks, if not months, before being able to sort things out with him. He gazed at the clouds, following their slow movement around that strange red light beam that had appeared some months ago, leading to The Surface. Without having to look behind him, he knew that up south were two others, a yellow-brown one on the west side and a green one more to the east. Staring at the one in front of him, he wondered, as he did sometimes, what might The Surface be looking like. Was it beautiful and full of hidden wonders, or, as the legends let out, a dark and dangerous place full of monster each uglier and more dangerous than all others.

He was still staring at the beam when he saw a faint movement by it. He narrowed his eyes, trying to see more, suddenly stirred out of his thinking. For a long moment, he saw nothing more than the blue sky and the lazy white clouds moving around the ray of light, as if somehow attracted to it for some unknown weird reason. Pipit was about to think he had daydreamt when it happened again. This time, he had just the time to see what it was.
He hadn't seen it before, since it was of the same color than the beam, but no error was possible. That movement had been the doing of Link's Loftwing flying to the beam. Without a moment's thought, Pipit ran back to his house, despite his intense weariness and his still remaining bits of dizziness. Once there, his mother was still staring at the door, unsure of what to do. When she saw her son getting back inside the house, she asked:

"Where have you been?"

But Pipit ignored the question and headed directly to his bedroom in the corner of the house. He took his sword, placed it on his back and buckled it. Then, he got on all four and stretched out a hand under his bed. He grabbed something there and got his rupees bag out. He opened it and fetched a blue and a red gems before closing it back and attaching it to his belt. He shot both rocks to his mother, who barely caught them by the tip of her fingers.

"I'm going, mom."

"Where to?"

"I need to talk to Link. I'll try to catch up with him before he gets to the surface."

Pipit's mother got very worried at these words. She could sense - almost see - her son was not in his usual mood. The fact he had taken his money and sword were already proof enough. Maybe he hadn't understood it himself, but it was clear that, if he was too late to catch up with his friend before he was under the clouds, he would follow him down there. She frowned in worry.

"Be careful."

"Of course, mom. I'll be back soon."

He then left to the docks on the southwest of Skyloft. He ran all the distance and sprinted once on the wood surface. He jumped unhesitantly and whistled to call his Loftwing. It arrived right away, catching its master on its back. It gave out a welcome cry. Pipit patted its head before focusing back on what he was doing. Both the bird and the man flew to the red beam, getting up and down and sprinting to go as fast as possible.

It only took a minute or two before getting meters away from it. But it was already too late, for Pipit saw Link jump off his Loftwing right over the hole opened in the clouds. It was only a moving green spot, but to Pipit, it was unmistakable. Seeing that, he made his Loftwing do a last dive towards the beam. When he was right over it, he jumped after his fellow knight.