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There's blood everywhere.
Link doesn't remember much. Bits and pieces flash through his mind. He'd been returning back to his home after hunting, and… he remembers this searing pain in the back of his head. Someone had attacked him, poisoned him with some kind of paralytic, so he couldn't fight back.
Yiga, judging from the symbols scribbled all over the walls.
They'd been performing some kind of ritual. He vaguely remembers them muttering about needing a dragon's heart for their experiments, but it was really hard focusing on anything other than the burning pain behind his eyes. It felt like he was dying, and he panicked.
He prayed.
It's hilarious, honestly. Link was by no means a religious man. Funny, considering he's a dragon. He's as divine as you can get, so you think he'd worship some kind of god.
But he found himself praying to every god he could think of. The Golden Goddesses, Hylia, he was desperate enough to pray to Demise, of all deities, even though legends said he had died. In the grand scheme of things, it didn't really matter who he prayed to, as long as someone answered.
And to his surprise, someone did.
Link blinks, his eyelids heavy as blood drips from… somewhere. Everywhere. His arms are bound by a chain hanging from the ceiling, and it's the only thing keeping him upright, honestly. Were he a bit stronger, he might've been able to snap the chains in half and flee.
But that paralytic lingered in his system. His limbs felt like lead, and it was a struggle just to keep his head up.
The silence had his ears ringing, and his heart pounding in his chest was all he could hear for a really long moment. He was starting to think he'd been left alone, chained up like an animal to bleed out.
"Oh, Skychild," A voice whispers, and a cold hand grabs his chin, fingers digging into his cheeks and tilting his head back. Charcoal eyes stare down at him, and something deep down in Link's soul recognizes those eyes. It makes his teeth ache, and he has to bite down on his tongue to keep himself from biting the man's hand instead.
The sudden feelings had him feeling more overwhelmed than he thought possible, and a small growl comes from the back of his throat as he stares up at the man. In response, he clicks his tongue, his nails digging into the plump of Link's cheeks as he turns his head this way and that way, like he's assessing the dragon.
"It's not kind to growl at your savior," The man murmurs, his thumb slowly tracing down Link's cheek, smearing blood across his skin like some sick portrait. He didn't sound annoyed, just deeply amused as his free hand comes up to grab the chain keeping Link restrained. In one quick motion, the metal snaps, and Link drops.
He's caught before he can hit the ground, arms wrapped tightly around him.
While Link didn't worship any god, that doesn't mean he wasn't familiar with them. This man was no god. There's something demonic about him, really. Demons weren't something Link found himself familiar with. Only one was ever recorded in history, and he'd been a servant of Demise.
But there's just something deep inside of Link's soul that recognizes this man—demon. He knows him. His soul burns just from his touch alone, and it's like he's suddenly whole. He hadn't even known that he'd been missing something. And maybe it's just his instincts, but there was this suffocating urge to latch on and never let go.
A quiet sigh fills the silence of the room. Link's head is resting on the demon's shoulder, and the metallic scent of blood clings to the air. It makes his mouth water, sharp fangs aching in his gums as he bites down on his tongue. The taste of his own blood fills his mouth, and Link swallows it down.
His lips part, words itching to come out. His voice refuses to work, though. All he can manage is a quiet sound. What little strength he had left was used to cling to the man, his fingers digging into his arms, claws threatening to pierce skin and draw blood.
"You don't even know my name, and you're already clinging to me like you're scared I'll abandon you." The demon speaks, an amused tone lacing his words, "How cute."
There's something almost mocking in his words. It borders on the edge of hostile, but it's spoken so softly that he almost sounds endeared, as well. Were Link of sound mind, then perhaps he would've pushed the man away. Instead, when he feels a hand gently tilting his head back to meet charcoal eyes, he finds himself leaning into the touch.
"Do you want to know my name, Skychild?" The demon asks, a soft hum.
Link, with what little strength he had, nods.
He can see the way those charcoal eyes light up with pure delight, as if Link had just gifted the man the universe. Fingers dig into his cheeks just a bit, as if he were trying to hold himself back from some bout of cuteness aggression, his lips curling into a smile that didn't seem natural on his face.
"Ghirahim." He says, and Link blinks.
There's this odd pressure in his head, like a memory trying to resurface. He can dimly make out Ghirahim in his mind, inside some kind of temple. The throbbing in his head makes it impossible for him to focus on anything, though, and whatever that memory was slips through his fingers before he can figure it out.
"Gh…" Link's voice is raspy and barely audible even in the silence of the bloody room. He hasn't spoken in… Hylia knows how long, honestly. A thousand years, maybe? Perhaps longer. However long it's been, his throat burns. He had been tempted to just forget about speaking, to let the silence swallow them whole.
But Ghirahim tenses up, just at the small sound. His fingers dig into Link's flesh, an odd emotion in his eyes that Link can't quite discern. Whatever it was, it looked dangerously close to longing.
So Link licks his lips, and he tries again.
"Ghira… him…" He tries, the name so familiar on his tongue yet so foreign to his ears, "Ghirahim."
And Ghirahim exhales. It's a quiet sound, but it's heavy, "…I waited tens of thousands of years just to hear you say my name again." He murmurs, more so to himself than anything else. His grip on Link tightens just a bit before he relaxes, "Come on, Skychild. Let's get you somewhere more comfortable. This place reeks of mortality."
Link doesn't fight Ghirahim when he feels himself being carefully lifted up—not that he could, even if he wanted to—and instead just shakes his head a bit at the demon's words.
"Not… 'skychild'." He murmurs, a small frown on his face as his eyes flutter shut, and exhaustion begins to settle in. The stubborn need to get his name out was far more important than the desire for rest, as he forces himself to keep his eyes open, "Link. My name… is Link."
And Ghirahim…
He sighs, soft and quiet.
Link's eyes flutter again, and this time, he can't force them back open. The last thing he hears before the world around him goes dark is a soft murmur.
"You'll always be my Skychild."