Kafei x Man from Curiosity Shop, a delusion

 Kafei/Man from Curiosity Shop.

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❤️‍🔥Top Kafei/Bottom Man from Curiosity Shop only❤️‍🔥

HOW DO I BEGIN? Well, I believe I might be the only one shipping this, so I need to explain in detail.

The Curiosity Shop Man.

He's your shady shop keeper, a bald man with sunglasses with a peculiar way of talking. He has two "identities": he is also the shop keeper of the Trading Post, he uses a wig and takes his sunglasses off. Both shops are next to each other. I'll leave this video to show how the curiosity shop man works.

I find it very special thay this shady man (who buys stolen goods from thieves to resell) has a friend like Kafei. He is significantly older than him, Kafei is a young man about to marry his 'childhood sweetheart', and since he, the Curiosity Shop man, is the one that gives us the Keaton mask, he reminiscences that he gave this mask first to a child Kafei many years ago and that he is surprised that Kafei would have kept it in such good condition after so much time. We see that this shady man has a sweet heart, at least for Kafei. 

Talking to the thief. 

KAFEI

Kafei is a young man that has been cursed by the Skullkid, turning him into a child. He is about to marry Anju, his childhood sweetheart, and is in need to recover his stolen Sun mask, a marriage ritual mask that he is going to exchange with his fiancé. He goes for help to his old friend, the Curiosity Shop man, who has a backroom that has a little window to see what's going on on the Curiosity Shop. He stays there hidden in wait for the thief to come to the shop to follow him to his hideout and recover his precious mask and then, on the final moments of the third day, he reunites with Anju at the Stock Pot Inn, fullfilling his promise to her. This is the canon, now HEAR ME OUT.

THE SHIP ORIGIN AND DYNAMIC

As I mentioned before, the man from the Curiosity Shop knows Kafei since he was a little kid. He cared for him to the extent that he gave him a mask, and became friends! The man practically watched him grow up. The appeal for me here is the fact that Kafei KEPT that mask as a little treasure, the man says how well kept the mask is! So even if Kafei looks a bit distracted (he got his precious mask stolen, and later in the hideout he steps on a trap), he definitely cherishes his friendship with the Curiosity Shop man!

This sequence of dialogue is everything to me, if not for it, this ship wouldn't have crossed my mind probably!.

With one glance at the mask, he knew it was his old friend Kafei.

Kafei's mask of memories.

I lose my mind every time :'3

THE DYNAMIC

Of course, this is a young x old home, so my crazy headcanon is that Kafei had a big crush on the Curiosity Shop man since he was little, to be more specific, his crush bloomed when the man gave him the Keaton mask as a child. I love to think that Kafei was very little, like 6 or something when he started feeling that pull towards the man. I imagine the man being on his almost 40's when Kafei was little, and now he is almost 50. Young adult Kafei might be on his early 20's. His regressed 'brat body', as the man puts it, would be Link's age tho, around 10 years old. 

The ages have been put on the table jejeje, so now, the tasty details!

The man would care a lot about Kafei, but he doesn't see him as anything more. He might even feel like some kind of uncle to him (not a parental figure tho, the man is shady ffs, he would be like that uncle that let's you do and try stuff that the parents won't let you just because he loves to do the opposite that your parents say.) So when he is older, Kafei would invite the man to get some drinks.

Little Kafei might be a normal kid, more on the quiet side, not hyperactive and bothersome, so he would be well behaved around the man and the man would appreciate it. I also like to imagine Kafei wandering at night in town and visiting the man at hours he shouldn't be out 

(the Curiosity Shop opens at 10 pm, but he could also visit him in the mornings in the Trading post!).

I want to think that they crossed paths at night first and then in the morning, Kafei recognizing the Trading Post man as the Curiosity Shop man and the man deniyig it but then giving up.

Kafei would grow up with this one-sided crush. He has his friends, Anju and Cremia. Well, he might try to get rid of his feelings by getting married to Anju, he likes her, you can also say he loves her! But his infatuation with the man is something that the heart just won't ever leave, even if he loves Anju dearly.

(Side note, but Romani has a dialogue where she says:  

 "Romani knows... My sister, Cremia, has someone in town she likes... But that person is supposed to get married the day of the carnival. It's hard for my sister... Going into town..." — Romani (Majora's Mask)

So, people might go with the het logic: 'aw Cremia is in love with Kafei :y' but I'm going with the angsty 'Cremia is in love with Anju and she's bitter she's going to marry Kafei'.)

A picture of the friends in the Majora's Mask 3D.

As an adult, Kafei would let his feels towards the man slip, like holding his hand a little too long to be appropiate, letting his eyes linger on the man, holding him a bit too strong when they go to drink and Kafei is a little drunk...the man is of course oblivious to all this. 

I have some silly comics of Kafei's bachellor party, both he and the man go to the milk bar (just the two of them, bc the man is special to him)  and Kafei gets drunk and gets all touchy to the point where the man takes him to the backroom on the pond (so he sleeps there and doesn't show up drunk at home) and Kafei collapses over him.

Bachellor afterparty.

Old friends...

So, TL;DR: Kafei and the Curiosity Shop man are friends, Kafei has a huge crush on him as a kid, and as an adult he wants more even if it's imposible; the man is oblivious to Kafei's infatuation and doesn't see Kafei as more than a friend. Kafei is going to marry to get rid of his feelings towards the man.