Part 6: Running From the Inverted Eye (Sooga x Fem!reader)
Masterlist
i'm sorry this is late! I hope my readers aren't getting too bored with how slow the story might be moving, but I promise this part has far more plot in it. I added a few new characters and one of them is actually canon, though the rest of the story is definitely not. thank you so much for reading!
also I did not feel creative with (y/n)'s dad's name, so I made a your dad's name insert...i'm sorry 😞
word count: 2k
i got the divider from: @yoriichitsugikunii
The research building was built across from the bridge that led straight into Hyrule Castle. It was several stories high, with ancient tech climbing the walls like vines, veins of pulsing blue lining the paths. Lanterns were planted along the walls, where they burned with vibrant blue flames. Makeshift towers rose from the permanent building roof, holding telescopes and other technology I couldn’t name.
I couldn’t help but sympathize with my father if this was why he betrayed the Yiga Clan. Movement towards technology of the future would be enough to suck me in, leaving everything I had before behind.
The Yiga Clan generally depended on older, more traditional ways to get their work down, whether that be human workers, Yiga magick, or word and metal.
Typically, Master Kohga dismissed Sheikah advances as a kind of sickness, one you only get when you work for fate as the Goddess wrote it.
But seeing the advancements that were before us as we stood in front of the research building, I could understand anyone who turned away from the Yiga Clan.
“The technology is very interesting, isn’t it?” Like asked as he held the door open for me. I stepped through with a murmured thank you.
“Yes, it’s very impressive.” I glanced back at Sooga, who was also studying the ancient tech with an unreadable expression.
“Why doesn’t the clan take advantage of all of this?”
“Forsaking our Sheikah ancestors also means forsaking the studies of their tribe.” He followed me in, his voice low so the researchers that hurried about couldn’t hear.
I rolled my eyes to heaven and asked, “And how does that make sense?” I stared at him like he had just grown a moblin head with my eyebrows raised.
A faintly offended expression crossed Sooga’s face before he raised his chin and glared down at me. “We’ve survived perfectly fine without the technology. The only problem we have is disobedient, brat girls like you that take after their father.”
“Oh, as opposed to a self-righteous jerk who can’t think for himself?” I shot back, crossing my arms tight over my chest and scowling up at him. All my senses trained on him and I forgot that we were standing in the doorway to a research building full of sheikah.
Sooga pushed his finger into my face, not touching me, but coming close to it. “Don’t push it, (y/l/n), or I’ll drag you back to the hideout right now and you can kiss finding out about your father goodbye.”
“No, you won’t,” I snarled. I batted his hand to the side, a crack echoing through the threshold of the door.
Sooga’s mouth opened and twisted into a sneer, but before he could say whatever he was about to say, Kikte put his hand on Sooga’s chest and gently pushed him away. “Here and now is definitely not the time to be fighting like this. Let’s try to keep ourselves contained while we’re here, yeah?”
I threw one more scathing glare at Sooga before I pointedly turned my heel and walked away. After a very heavy sigh, I took the moment to study my surroundings. The small hallway that led to the door opened up to a massive room. The perimeter of the room was floored with wood and tables stood against the walls covered in paper, tools and pieces of machinery. In the middle of the room, a few steps below, wood gave way to stone. One massive table stood in the middle, more messy than every other table in spades.
Researchers hurried across the floors, some of them mumbling under their breath or holding massive bundles of paper. They shuffled between workbenches, picking up the tools and running down the stairs to the middle of the room.
There was a chaotic feeling permeated in the air, making me automatically tense. Kikte stood behind me, obviously taking in the atmosphere of the room before he stepped around me and intercepted one of the researchers.
“Hi, I was wondering if any of you would be willing to answer some questions. We’re looking for a person.” Kikte kept his tone respectful and kind, coming off as completely non-threatening.
The researcher was a young woman around my age. Her hair was messy in the bun she must have thrown it up in when she woke up in a hurry and her nimble fingers pushed her glasses up her nose as she tilted her head back to look up at Kikte. Her pale cheeks began to bloom a pretty shade of red and her eyes darted from his face to other points of the room.
With a voice she worked hard to keep steady, the woman tucked a stray piece of hair that had been brushing across her forehead behind her ear. “You could ask, but it’d be best to ask our lead researcher.”
I bit the inside of my lips to keep a grin from spreading across my mouth. It wasn’t rare to see a girl flustered over Kikte. He was just as good looking as Sooga and carried himself with a respectful and good natured air that seemed to attract girls within a fifteen mile radius. I myself had been flustered at first when he started to be my friend, but deep down, I knew that the reason I wasn't swayed by his charms was because I had my eyes on someone else.
“Who would that be?” Kikte asked lightly. He leaned forward just a bit, exposing his attentiveness towards the woman and his curiosity.
The woman’s feet shifted across the wood of the floor as her hand rose. She pointed to another researcher who stood out far more than any of the others. She was tinkering with a guardian head that was mounted on the table, its wires sticking out of the bottom.
“Is that the lead researcher?” I questioned as I stepped around Kikte to properly face the woman we were currently speaking to.
She nodded, her messy bun bouncing slightly with the movement. “She would know any of the researchers that worked here, if you’re looking for one.”
The quiet way she inquired who we were looking for was not lost to me. Her curiosity showed in her eyes as they darted from Kikte to me, back and forth. I noticed that her eyes had strayed to Sooga once or twice, but she didn’t seem keen to keep taking glances at him. I didn’t blame her. The glare that was still painted across his features didn’t make me want to look at him either.
“We’ll let you know if we figure something out,” I offered with a placating smile. Of course, I wouldn’t tell her everything. Who knows how a Sheikah clan member might react if they found out that they had Yiga in their ranks.
Kikte nodded to the woman with a smile that exposed his knowledge of his effect on the poor girl and began to stride down the steps towards the lead researcher. I shook my head in a mixture of embarrassment and amusement as I watched him practically strut, having found a burst of confidence he didn’t need.
I followed after him, refusing to acknowledge Sooga as he walked beside me. His arms were crossed over his chest tightly, forcing his biceps to bulge. That foolish part of me that yearned to appreciate and gaze at Sooga was pushed down into my darkest depths and I forced myself to remember the way he seemed to enjoy treating me.
It didn’t matter that he had gentlemanly moments. The rest of him was annoying. Or, at least, that’s what I said to convince myself.
I immediately felt my body stiffen under his words and I fought back the way of skin crawling anger that rose in my gut. “Don’t tell me what to do, Sooga. Just because you’re lonely and have no friends doesn’t mean I have to be just like you.”
“I don’t need constant validation and someone to check my behavior every five seconds,” he shot back, his voice swamped with barely controlled fury.
Gritting my teeth, I hissed, “It’s a good thing I’m not you then, isn’t it? At least I can enjoy myself.”
“Why are you so difficult?” Sooga turned on me, leaning forward to get in my space and throw off my equilibrium so suddenly that I stumbled back a few paces.
My body twisted as my mind dropped the reason why we were in the lab completely and focused entirely on Sooga. “I wouldn’t be—”
“Ahem.”
Kikte was standing in front of us with his arms crossed, his left eyebrow rising into his hair. His eyes flicked from Sooga, who was leaning towards me with his hands outstretched, then to me, who wasn’t backing down from my position only inches from him. Kikte’s eyes narrowed slightly until recognition sparked behind his eyes.
He didn’t clarify what he suddenly discovered, but he gestured in the direction of the lead researcher and prompted us. “Remember what we were doing here?”
I took a step back from Sooga as heat flooded my face in a burning wave. My skin crawled as I took a glance around, hoping that no one saw Sooga and me about to get in a fight in the middle of society.
“Yeah.” Kikte responded shortly to my quick glance and reached out for my shoulder. He gently pulled me forward and gestured towards the lead researcher. I knew what he was doing. It made me feel like a child as he separated me from Sooga and began to murmur to him quietly enough that I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
But my eagerness to get away from Sooga and his infuriating words urged me to move forward and start the awkward conversation I needed to have.
I slowly approached the researcher from behind, let out a small breath before clearing my throat. “Excuse me?”
The researcher’s heels clicked against the surface of the wood as she turned around. She settled a flute that she held in her hand almost subconsciously against her other forearm as her eyes moved to mine. A pair of red glasses framed her eyes as she looked down at me. “Can I help you?”
Her voice wasn’t unfriendly and she didn’t seem bothered by my interruption, so I continued. “We’ve come from Kakariko Village and we’re actually looking for someone. I heard that he worked here for a while.”
“I might know him.” The woman nodded and pushed her glasses up her nose. “What’s the name?”
“His name is (Insert your dad’s name).”
“Ah!” She snapped her fingers suddenly and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “He did work here for a while. He was a strange man. He worked only on his project, which was something he wouldn’t tell me the details of. But anyway, he left a year ago.”
“Really?” My gut twisted with excitement and I knew I wasn’t doing anything to stop her from knowing. But this was the first I’ve heard about my father since his death that wasn’t mocking or cruel.
“Yes, a little over a year.” Her head tilted as she studied my face like a book, the goggles settled against her bun threatening to slide off. “Now that I think about it, you look a lot like him. Are you related?”
Hesitation made me stop for a moment and think. The way she spoke about my father exposed her lack of knowledge towards what he really was. I was positive that if she knew he was Yiga Clan, she would mention it or be a little bit more tense as she spoke about him. But her features and tone were void of any indication that she might know.
“We’re related,” I revealed vaguely. “He went missing about two years ago and I’ve been looking for him for a while. This is the first lead I’ve had in a while about his whereabouts.”
The woman nodded and tapped the flute against her forearm. “Feel free to ask me and my researchers any questions about him that might help. I’m Purah, by the way.”
