"Link! That's enough!" Zelda laughed at Link's impression of the oh-so confident Groose as she tried to collect herself. "Stop goofing off. We need to get back to work."

Link chuckled at that, "How can we 'get back to work' if we haven't done anything yet?"

"All the more reason to start."

"Uh..."

"Exactly," she smirked, knowing she had beat him at his own game.

It was a school night in Skyloft and the duo were in Link's room. They were sprawled on the floor with books and papers, working on a project that was due the very next morning.

Or trying to anyhow.

Zelda gave an exasperated sigh as she rolled over onto her back. "There's so much to do! How are we ever going to get this done in time?"

"Beats me," Link answered as he too rolled onto his back. "laying on the floor like this isn't going to get much done though."

"I guess you're right," the light blonde replied, sitting up. "Have we even finished anything for this project yet?"

"Hold on, let me check." Link got up slowly and made his way around the room, collecting a notebook, two textbooks and a few loose papers. He sat back down on the floor next to Zelda and began to leaf through the pages.

"Well we've picked our topic, taken notes, selected quotes, found some diagrams and... That's about it." He turned to her expectantly.

She glanced over his shoulder at the books. "Well that's more than I expected. How about if we just turn our notes into captions for the diagrams, throw it on a poster and wing it?"

Link thought for a second... then a slow grin spread across his face. "I like the way you think. But we're gonna need a lot more diagrams to impress Professor Owlan."

"True..." Zelda bit her lip and tapped her chin with her pointer finger as she thought. "Hmmm... How about this. I'll work with the notes and diagrams we have here, and you can look through these books for more diagrams. How does that sound?"

Link smiled. "Sounds like a plan. Let's get to it." And with that, they both made themselves comfortable on the floor and began their work.

It was a slow process at first, but it soon began to come along. Eventually they got the hang of it and became a well oiled machine. Link would take some notes and copy a diagram which he then passed to Zelda, who would take care of turning it into a caption and getting it on the poster. With each passing hour, the poster got more and more filled.

One time, as Link passed something to Zelda, their hands brushed. Link felt the shock of a dozen yellow chu-chu's shoot up his arm. He quickly snatched his hand back and turned around so he could rub his fingers.

...I thought I was over her.

He glanced back at Zelda. How is it that the one person I'm most comfortable with... he looked back at his fingers then sighed. Whatever. Link shook his head to clear his thoughts. There was too much work to be done at the moment to think be about things like this.

It was late when Link let out a big yawn and stretched out his back. He lazily flipped through the last pages of the book in front of him. "Zelda," he mumbled as he rubbed his eyes, "I don't think there's anymore diagrams for us to use."

He waited for a response, but none came. "Zelda?" He slowly sat up and turned towards her and couldn't help but laugh at the sight of her lying on the floor on her stomach with her mouth slightly open and snoring lightly.

"Aw, now come on, Zelda, don't just fall asleep on me." He stood beside her. "Out like a light now aren't you, little princess?" he asked as he nudged her side with his foot with no response. He looked down at the now completed poster lying beside her on the floor. Well at least she had the decency to finish it before falling asleep, he thought to himself as another yawn claimed him. I'm beat, but I can't just leave her on the floor now, can I? He stood above her a few moments longer before finally deciding it would be best to carry her back to her own room.

"Well here goes nothing." He kneeled beside her and gently rolled her onto her back, being careful not to wake her. He then slipped his arms under her to carry her bridal style, blushing when he realized just how curvy she was.

No, stop that. No thinking about your best friend's body. Bad Link, bad! he scolded himself as he struggled to pick her up.

"Great Goddess, you're heavier than you look," he muttered through gritted teeth. He was sure it was the fatigue but either way she was certainly a handful.

He managed to quietly open the door and prayed no teachers would be patrolling the halls at this hour as he stepped out into the dark hallway. He held his breath and tiptoed to Zelda's room as quietly as possible without disturbing her slumber. When he finally made it across the hall and into Zelda's room he leaned against the door and heaved a sigh of relief.

He glanced around the room then slowly made his way to Zelda's bed. He put her down and gently as possible and brought the covers up to her chin. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of her lying so peacefully in her bed. He hesitated a moment before giving into the urge and placed a light kiss on her cheek before turning to head out the door.

"...mmmm...unnh...hey..."

Every muscle in his body tensed and Link stopped dead in his tracks. So close. He slowly turned back towards Zelda, expecting her to be sitting up and rubbing her eyes, but to his surprise, she was still very much asleep.

A sleep-talker huh? Well that's good, he thought as he turned to head back out the door, For a second there I thought I was going have to explain why I was- but his thought were interrupted as Zelda spoke again.

"... hey you... I... I love you... "