"You're breaking up with me?"

It was a chilly morning in late winter. The faded, whitewashed sunlight flickered down through the windows of the cafe, casting halos onto the heads of two young blondes, sat opposite each other in one of the booths.

The girl, golden hair falling into her eyes as she concentrated far too hard on the steam coming off her tea, gave a small nod.

"I know it's awful, but I feel like school's starting to bear down on both of us. There's just too much pressure with a relationship on top of all of that," She let her sky blue eyes flicker up to assess the boy's face. He stared blankly into his coffee, his lips subtly twisting to fight back a frown. The girl reached for his hand.

"Please understand, Link. I still really care about you," she said, and paused to find the right words. "Obviously I still want to be friends, as well."

Link breathed in and blinked, before looking up at her, finally revealing his dark blue eyes, and offering a small smile. "Of course, Zel. This can't change fourteen years."

Zelda smiled back in relief and squeezed his hand. She was glad he still kept track of how long they'd been friends, though sometimes she wondered if that length of time had been what made them get together in the first place. She remembered expressing her worry of them growing apart when leaving for university, and although she had thought that Link choosing to go to the same university as her and asking her out was an incredibly romantic gesture at the time, she thought now that it could have just been the way of them both holding onto each other.

Still, Link looked pretty upset right now, so maybe he did have genuine feelings for her. Zelda watched his subtle way of doing things, how he rubbed the thumb of his free hand anxiously against his palm, how his tense jaw was almost undetectable, and she hoped that he wouldn't bottle his feelings up.

Zelda hugged him goodbye outside the cafe, before walking away and not looking back. Link's gaze followed her until she rounded the corner, and then he let his heart sink and his body deflate in defeat.

.

"Hi, Link!" Fledge, one of Link's housemates, greeted as the blond slinked into the kitchen.

"Hey," Link said, half heartedly sounding cheery as he headed straight for the fridge. To his luck, he noted sarcastically, there was one bottle of Lon Lon cider left. He pulled out the bottle and slammed the fridge shut, pulling himself up to sit on the kitchen counter. Fledge eyed him warily.

"I'll buy more later," he said, and opened the bottle with his teeth. Fledge cringed.

"What's wrong?" He asked, and Link wondered whether to share or not. It wasn't like this was a big deal. Breakups happened all the time, right?

"Zelda dumped me." He said, laughing lightly to try and dismiss the fact.

"Oh, Link." Fledge said, voice full of despair. "That's rough."

"S'alright, I'm still alive." Link took another swig from his bottle, and noticed it was already half empty. "I'm gonna get more alcohol, do you want anything?"

Fledge got up from his seat at the kitchen table, open textbook forgotten behind him. "I'll come with you."

Link had insisted he was fine, but Fledge had insisted he wasn't, so they ended up walking to the store together in near silence. It was awkward, and almost a little suffocating, but Link could still appreciate the gesture. He made a note to repay him, somehow.

"You know, if you want to take your mind off it, there's an open house party on Castor Road tonight?" Fledge tried as they stood at the checkout, filling plastic bags with food.

"Really Fledge, I'm fine," Link laughed, carefully setting a bottle of vodka down by an assortment of chocolate bars.

.

"Really, Fledge, we were fine." Link said several hours later. Fledge was perched on his bed, head on his chin, nodding sympathetically every so often to his friend's ramblings. Link, in turn, was sprawled on the floor, cheeks dusted pink and hair falling into his eyes. He took a swig of lemonade, already having given up on trying to drink vodka after two mouthfuls.

"We were always so good together before we even started dating," he said, pulling his foot towards him and picking absentmindedly at his toes. Fledge grimaced. He'd been with Link all day, and although he wanted his friend to feel supported, he wasn't sure how much more energy he had to spare.

"Maybe that's because you were just better as friends?" Fledge supplied. Link looked ready to dismiss him and continue ranting, but then something in his head seemed to click.

"You could be right, Fledge."

"I - I could?"

"Yeah... That helps. Thank you," Link said, and stood up.

"Where are you going?" Fledge called as he left his room, and Link stopped to look at him over his shoulder.

"Just to the kitchen, do you want anything?"

Fledge jumped up. "Or, or," he said, trying to sound excited through his exhaustion, "this party will have just started. We could go there instead," he suggested.

Link paused, then smiled apologetically. "You don't have to go if you'd rather stay here. I could go by myself," he suggested, and Fledge tried not to look too relieved.

"Thanks," he said, sitting back down.

"It might be a good idea for me to make new friends as well," Link said, holding onto Fledge's door and swinging it. "since me and Zelda started university as a couple, we both mostly focused on each other."

Fledge smiled encouragingly. "I'm sure you'll meet lots of cool people, Link. Have a good time."

"Thanks," Link said, and left his friend in peace. Fledge let himself fall backwards into his bed.

.

The party wasn't hard to find, as it was nearby anyway and Link could hear it from nearly two blocks away. There were clusters of people around and inside the house, all in different dress and levels of inebriation, to Link's relief. He'd never been to an open house party before and wasn't sure how to arrive.

After half an hour of wandering, attempting to talk to people and having various drinks spilled on him, he was starting to think that this party wasn't his scene. The music was too loud, relied too much on the bass; the people were equally as loud and too busy trying to be loud to talk to. Link hadn't ever been great at small talk, or drinking, so he was just about ready to go when someone grabbed his hand.

"Link! Long time, no see!" The person laughed, and pulled him over to a (slightly) quieter corner. Link looked over the people there, most of which he didn't recognise, but the guy who had pulled him over and the girl he was slinging his arm around seemed very familiar.

"Pipit, Karane!" Link exclaimed, smiling. "I haven't seen you guys since high school, how are you-?"

Pipit and Karane grinned at each other, and both held up a hand to display five pointed fingers each.

"We are ten out of ten!" They said, twiddling their fingers so that their rings glittered in the lowlight. Link's eyes widened.

"You're engaged?"

The couple nodded, leaning into each other. Link couldn't help but laugh. Last time he'd seen them, they'd been too afraid to even tell each other about their feelings, and it was the most exciting story in school. That was only two years ago.

"We heard you and Zelda finally got together as well!" Pipit said, nudging Link and winking. Link grimaced.

"Actually, we just broke up today."

"Oh Link, that's terrible!" Karane said, and moved forward to hug him. "You need a drink. I'll be right back!"

Link couldn't say anything before she had disappeared into the throng of people, his words dying on his tongue. Pipit leaned closer.

"So, are you here to get over it? Or are you with someone?"

"Just by myself," Link called back through the noise, barely able to hear himself. Not that he wanted to - he wasn't keen on this subject. At all.

"I'll be your wingman, don't worry." Pipit said, and winked again.

Link's eyes widened. "Oh no, I'm not here for anything like that-"

"Don't worry about it, it's normal! We're at uni now," he said, in a way that made Link almost worry for Karane, before she suddenly reappeared with a tray of plastic shot glasses.

"Stole it from the kitchen, drink up!" She said, and thrust a glass into Link's hand.

Link wasn't sure what made him not put the glass back, or what made him down it, or what made him take another one. He wasn't sure how many "another ones" he had after that, and the evening began to blur, like music from an orchestra blending together. He was vaguely aware of dancing, by himself, with people, stupid dances and dirty ones. He saw tight pants and purple eyeliner and lips, coming forward to meet his.

.

Link was rudely awakened by sunlight, intrusive and yellow and burning, falling inconsiderately across his face and seeping through his eyelids. He couldn't wake up quickly enough to stop the burning from reaching his skull, where the sunlight sharpened and stabbed into the bone, past it and into his brain. He hissed in agony from his pounding head as he tried to open his eyes.

...The room he was in was definitely not his own room. The walls were faded, one strip of wallpaper just starting to curl out in the corner. The window was on the wrong side of the room, and the bed felt bigger-

There was someone else in the bed with him. Link's entire being froze, too scared to even breathe as he assessed the body next to him. They had soft features, eyes smeared with purple liner, and silky, silver hair that was definitely dyed, but Link could tell this wasn't a girl.

Because he'd seen this guy around before.

"No," Link whispered involuntarily, which made the other man stir. He watched in horror as his bedmate woke from a peaceful sleep, stretched, and then slowly opened his eyes.

The man smirked as he realised Link had been watching him, and sighed.

"Hel-lo," he said. Link was going to die.