Note: Okay, this is my first time writing anything remotely close to smut, so feel free to laugh your ass off if something sounds stupid. I know I had a hard time keeping my composure while writing this. in any case, this was basically the result of me caving into peer pressure (again) so WHOO, SELF-INDULGENCE AHOYYYY.

PS: The little lyrics at the end are copyrighted to Kimya Dawson.

That said, carry on.

"Come on."

"No."

"Pleeeaaaase?"

"No means no, 'Ru. I have work to do."

"Poo."

Nayru removed her palm from her cell phone's speaker. "No dice, guys. She won't budge."

A garbled groan was heard on the receiving end. "Aw, fuck. Well… thanks for trying, though," came Link's voice. "You're still on board, right?"

Nayru nodded. "Of course I am. I'll swing by at eight or so. Got some stuff to pick up along the way."

"A'ight, see ya."

Click.

Nayru hung up her phone and tossed it on the couch. "You sure you can't go? That show's like a once-in-a-lifetime thing, girl." she said, eyeing the stack of books and printouts on the coffee table behind which Zelda lurked.

Zelda looked up from her laptop, evidently exasperated. "Tell that to Dr. Left," she said, scratching her head as the pencil behind her ear tumbled out of place and onto the floor. "Oh, God damn it…" She backed away from the laptop to retrieve it. "The old windbag doesn't know having a social life is healthy once in a while. Too bad irony doesn't have a chemical formula." She rolled her eyes and stuck the pencil she'd dropped in her hair to hold together a messy bun. "Argh…. It'll be at least a day before I'm done with this monstrosity. Take pictures, though," She gestured at the old PictoMax her father sent her for Christmas that sat on the bookcase.

Nayru walked over and unzipped the case. "Okay… oh, uh. The battery's dead. Hey, Zel, where's the cha—" She looked back at Zelda, who had gone back to mashing overly complicated words on her keyboard, then decided not to bother her further.

Eight o'clock. Nayru left for the show thirty-five minutes prior. Zelda still sat in front of her laptop, having made a considerable dent on the research paper. She paused from her typing spree to tidy up the stack of notes to her right, then noticed how creepily quiet the dorm had become since Nayru took off. Unsettled, she got up and switched the TV on to have some background noise.

A guttural growling noise interrupted Zelda's line of thought. Time for coffee, she decided. She stood up, beat the wrinkles out of her oversized button-down shirt and made her way to the kitchenette, where she promptly got the espresso maker going and rummaged for leftovers in the fridge.

She reached for her favorite mug, then paused, staring at it.

Milk and three sugars, right? At least that's how I hear you order it at the campus café.

The coffee machine beeped, snapping her out of her lull. She shrugged it off, poured her coffee and returned to her spot at the coffee table with a box of cinnamon Tingle cookies under her arm.

Her cheeks felt unusually warm.

Zelda paused before continuing with her paper. There was a thin water stain on the corner of the coffee table. Her eyes lingered on the ring, whose unnatural pallor contrasted heavily with the dark wood the table was made of. She ran her fingers along it, as if something should still be in that precise spot.

Wait, what?

She turned her attention back to the screen. God, this paper was taking forever.

I really hope the guys are having fun.

Two and a half cups of coffee and half a bag of cookies later, she decided to take a break and actually watch whatever drivel was on TV. There were only four pages left for her to finish the bare minimum of that damn paper and she figured she'd bullshit her way through.

The selection wasn't really varied; shitty sitcoms and infomercials littered almost every channel. She leaned back on the couch and tucked her feet under the fleece blanket she kept bunched up on one of the cushions, staring blankly at the screen. Some chick on some program was nuts for some guy but she was too stubborn to admit it even though some douche Zelda assumed was her friend or something knew it from a mile away.

Predictable.

She lay down on the couch and wrapped herself in the blanket, still watching the cheesier-than-Velveeta bullshit program. Closed her eyes for a second. Opened them again. Program's over. Another one started. Closed them again. Open. Another one. Close.

Three sharp knocks made Zelda jump from her bundle on the couch. She sat up, dazed, and looked at the clock, which read ten thirty. Fuck, I fell asleep.

She got up from the couch and ran her fingers through her hair in a half-assed attempt to straighten it out, considering she still had a pencil jabbed in the messy bun, then opened the door to find Vaati leaning on the left of the doorframe.

"Yo," he said, grinning.

Zelda blinked a couple of times before answering. "H-hi," she stammered. "What're you doing here?" She was suddenly incredibly self-conscious about her clothes.

Vaati shrugged. "Technical trouble backstage. They had to end early but they promised to reschedule." He looked around the hallway, then past Zelda's shoulder. "I came to check if you were still in the land of the living. Also, ice cream." He held up a plastic bag with a pint of Rocky Road.

Zelda smiled. "Ugh, you're precious. Come in already." She stepped aside to let him in. He seemed to give off a slightly familiar scent as he brushed past her.

"Whoa, you kidnapped half the library." Vaati remarked, staring at the coffee table. He extracted the box of ice cream from the bag. "Guess I came just in time."

Zelda made an involuntary squeak, covering her mouth just as quickly, as Vaati went to the kitchenette to get some spoons and cups.

The fuck was that?

She shrugged it off. "Where's Nayru?"

"She's crashing at Din's place again," came his voice from the kitchenette.

The prospect of having the dorm to herself felt unusually pleasant. "Oh."

Vaati emerged from the kitchenette with two cups full of ice cream and handed one of them to Zelda.

"You can't really complete a night of rotting your brain with shitty primetime without fatty lactose products," he said, snickering as he plunked down on the couch. Zelda followed suit and sat next to him, immediately bundling herself up in her couch-ready blanket and taking a couple of bites from her ice cream. Fucking bliss in a cup.

"Um, you can change the channel if you want; this show sucks," Zelda suggested, noticing the silence that permeated the room, save for the pre-recorded audience laughter that came from the TV. Vaati shrugged, obviously not giving a fuck. "I actually find it kind of entertaining to make fun of these things. Look, three bucks says the kid's gonna crack a wise-ass remark—aw sheeeit, nailed it."

Zelda observed as the actions Vaati predicted unfolded to the letter onscreen and laughed. "Oh. Oh. Here's one. Ex-wife walks in the house in t-minus three, two…"

Cue the recorded audience reaction.

Vaati snorted. "Nice. What's next?" He adopted a pseudo-pensive stance, poising one hand under his chin while his other arm was folded on his lap. "Oh, wait for it, I'll bet the ex is his—"

"Neighbor!" Zelda completed, trying her best not spit the bit of ice cream she had in her mouth from the giggling. "Oh my God, this is awful…" she guffawed, finishing off her cup and setting it on the coffee table. Vaati himself was biting his lower lip, as Zelda's prediction was, once again, right on the money.

The sitcom-stereotype poker kept going on for two more episodes of whatever the fuck that was they were watching. They took special delight in dissecting the opening credits ("Wait for i—BOOM, there it is, staring RIGHT at the camera!") and sometimes even mimicked the pre-recorded audience sound effects.

Just shy of one in the morning, Vaati yawned rather loudly. Zelda raised her eyebrows at him. "Dang. You sounded like a wookiee."

Vaati gave her the stink-eye while stretching his arms. "Har har," he said, scratching the back of his head. He turned to look at Zelda. "What now?"

Zelda suddenly froze, just staring at his face. The odd sensation she'd felt before had died down for a while, but now it had returned in full swing. She felt her face redden. "I dunno," she shrugged, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

We could sleep together. Or something. You know. Just throwing that out there.

Wait, what the fuck?

Zelda shuddered the second that sentence went through her head. She scratched her head awkwardly, looking around for something to spark a stupid conversation. Something. Anything.

"You don't have work tomorrow?" she ventured to ask. Well, fuck. That was original.

Vaati shrugged. "Neh. The boss is actually in a pretty gracious mood right now, so I'm not looking this one in the mouth."

"Ah," Zelda thought absentmindedly. Great, you can stay.

Vaati glanced at the clock on the wall. "Yeesh, that late already? Shit."

Please stay. God, please please PLEASE stay.

She felt like she was about to blow. The inexplicable urge that had started the minute he walked in her dorm was reaching its limit. Her face felt like a hot iron.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

She wasn't really listening to whatever words he was saying anymore; she was just focused on his face. The way he moved his lips to form each word, the sound of his voice going down her spine and making her skin prickle.

She moved in her place on the couch. Noticing the movement, Vaati turned to her. "You okay?" he asked, making eye contact with her the second the last syllable left his mouth.

His mouth.

Zelda suddenly shook herself out of it. "I'm fine." she said. "I'm just tired, that's all."

Vaati raised an eyebrow. "If you say so," he said, leaning over the coffee table and turning the TV off with the remote. He started to get up from the couch. "Maybe I should get going, then. You need to finish that paper, right?"

Dammit.

"Yeah," Zelda said quietly.

He turned towards the door. " 'Kay, then. I'll leave you to it…"

DAMMIT.

Zelda suddenly jumped off the couch and walked right up to him. She didn't even give him a chance to get to the doorknob or ask him to wait a second; as if on autopilot, she grabbed his shoulder, wheeled him around, pulled him by the neck of his shirt, and planted one on him.

Vaati's eyes almost popped out of his skull at the gesture. His shoulders tensed up as she moved her hands from his shirt onto the back of his neck, pulling him even closer towards her. Slowly, his shoulders slacked and his arms crept around Zelda's waist as he closed his eyes, giving in.

Then he pulled away and looked at her.

"I thought you were tired."

She scowled at the remark. "I am," she said. "I'm tired of waiting."

His puzzled face made her crack a mischievous grin. "For you to make a move, dumbass."

At this, Vaati snorted. "Oh, that's it? The guy always has to go first?" Smirking, he dropped his bag, which he'd picked up on his way out, by his feet. "Okay." He then grabbed her by the waist, dipped her and returned the kiss.

Zelda let out a surprised yelp at the motion. When he parted his lips from hers, he looked down at her, smirking. "How's that?"

She was smiling now. "Not bad," she teased, shimmying out of his grip and backpedaling in the direction of her room.

Vaati shrugged off his jacket. "'Not bad'?" He scoffed. "Oh, now she's playing hard to get. Jesus."

Zelda continued to tiptoe backwards towards her room. "What're you gonna do about it?" she shrugged, giggling.

Vaati kicked off his sneakers, walked up to her and kissed her again. "Is that a challenge?"

She undid his belt buckle. "Maybe."

He pulled the pencil out of her hair, letting her blond locks tumble down her back. " 'S that so," he leaned in and started kissing her neck. "Challenge accepted."

The feeling of his breath on her neck made Zelda shiver slightly with anticipation. Vaati took this chance to wrap his arms around her waist, running his hands down her backside and slipping under her panties.

Zelda let out a small gasp, which she attempted to stifle by kissing Vaati again. This time, it was deeper, stronger. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of winning; not yet. She ran her hands through his hair, down his neck and shoulders, and crept them down behind his back to pull his shirt up. His skin felt sweetly hot against her touch. He responded by moving his hands from her backside to her belly, his right hand finding her increasingly dampened womanhood and—

"Agh," she whimpered, pulling him even closer towards her. The motion sent them both bumping against the wall adjacent to the frame of Zelda's bedroom door. Zelda grabbed Vaati's shirt and pulled it off hastily, then wrapped both of her arms around his neck, shoving her mouth onto his and letting her tongue explore its insides.

Vaati's left arm ran along her thigh as she led them both to her bedroom. She hitched her other leg around Vaati's waist, pushing his pants down with her heels. He then took this opportunity to carry her to the bed, letting gravity do the work as she lay down with him on top of her.

His hands made their way up the sides of her figure; her thighs, her hips, under her shirt. They came to rest on her ribcage. They felt like hot irons on her chest. She shivered as his thumbs traced the shape of her breasts, pressing gently on her nipples. She groaned at the movement, feeling them harden under his touch, then finished pushing Vaati's jeans (and boxers) off by hooking her toes onto the empty belt loops and shoving them down.

Vaati removed his hands from under Zelda's shirt and began unbuttoning it, all the while exploring all sides of her neck with his lips, leaving hot imprints of his touch as he moved from one shoulder to the other. Having finished unbuttoning her shirt, he moved on to kiss her exposed breasts, circling her nipples with his tongue, then gradually moving lower, tracing a line from her chest to her navel. Zelda threw her head back, trying not to scream out loud, as she felt Vaati's hands travel lower and pull her panties down to her ankles. She shook them off her feet as he kicked his jeans off the side of the bed and climbed up until he was at eye level with her.

They both locked their eyes on the other. Zelda smiled. "Oh come on. Don't choke now."

Vaati snorted. "I'm not, Christ. I just remembered something." He pushed himself off Zelda and sat on the edge of the bed, bending down to where he supposed his jeans had landed.

Zelda sat up. "What?"

A crinkling noise was heard from where Vaati was bent over, and then she heard him muttering something that sounded like "Oh, fuck. Come on."

Zelda raised her eyebrow. "What are you doi—" she stopped when he looked back at her and held out a condom wrapper between his fingers. "Oh."

He winked, then dumped the wrapper and crawled towards Zelda, who grabbed his face with both her hands and kissed him, softly this time. "Is there anything you don't remember to do?"

Vaati shrugged. "Check if the coffee maker's off before I leave, maybe." He pushed her down on the mattress gently and resumed kissing her, biting her lower lip lightly as he pulled away. Zelda spread her legs apart slowly and leaned in to kiss him again, pulling him towards her and granting him permission. He deepened the kiss as he slid into her, taking Zelda's hands into his and lacing his fingers with them.

Zelda made a noise akin to a purr as a shiver of delight ran down her spine. Vaati gave off a muffled moan as he pulled out and back in slowly, savoring the sensation of her hot flesh rubbing against his. Zelda wrapped her right leg around Vaati's backside, moving it up and down in time with his thrusts. Her back arched as his advances increased their speed, giving him more neck to kiss as his left hand let go of Zelda's right and ran along her thigh, slick with sweat. Zelda clawed at his back as he sped up even more; almost… almost…

"Oh, God…" she wailed, her head swimming as she hit her peak. Vaati's heavy breath was hot on her neck as his thrusts became stronger, ravenous, vicious. His right hand made its way to her chest, squeezing her left breast as he moved in for one last big push before the big finish. Zelda felt his member throb as he climaxed, letting out an exhausted groan as he slowly pulled out and let himself collapse against Zelda's sweat-slick body. He rolled over to the side, panting, while Zelda took her time catching her breath and closed her legs, turning on her side to face him.

"Well, Little Miss Hard-To-Get?" he asked between gasps, not making any effort to hide his smirk as he turned to look at her. She brushed off some strands of hair that stuck to her sweaty face and giggled. "Oh, fine." She moved in to kiss him. "You and your gorgeous ass can stay the night."

She then pulled the bed sheets from under them to cover herself up in it. Vaati openly laughed at the maneuver. "Seriously?" To which Zelda replied by sticking her tongue out like a six-year-old. "I'm naked and sweaty and the A/C is on. It's cold."

Vaati pulled the sheet towards him. "Fine, then share." He shimmied closer to her, until their faces were only about an inch apart. "So."

"So…" Zelda parroted, smiling at him.

Vaati snickered. "About that term paper…"

Zelda rolled her eyes while trying to stifle a laugh. "Oh, fuck the paper." She turned her back on Vaati, motioning for him to snuggle closer to her. He obliged, throwing one arm over her shoulder and nesting his chin on her neck. He looked down at her. "Hey."

Zelda moved her head lazily to look at him. Post-coital exhaustion was setting in pretty fast. "Hmm?" She locked eyes with him. Something was different about them now; they didn't give off the teasing vibe they'd had when he walked in earlier. No, now his eyes were serious, direct, honest.

Vaati kissed her on the forehead. "I love you."

Zelda blinked at his declaration. Several times. Then she smiled and gave him a little peck on the cheek. "I love you too, asshole." She snuggled into his chest, feeling his heartbeat on the side of her face. The slowing rhythm sounded like a lullaby to her, making her drowsier with every thump.

Vaati pulled her closer to him and closed his eyes, listening to her slow breathing.

She started humming something, really low.

You're a part-time lover and a full-time friend…

At first, Vaati opened his eyes and stared at the back of Zelda's head with a face fit for a sitcom closeup, but upon listening in, he recognized the song, smiled, and went back to sleep.

The monkey on your back is the latest trend…

I don't see what anyone can see in anyone else

But you.