Zelda sat on her couch in her new apartment in New Pork City in her pajamas, her laptop balanced on her lap as she filled out the questionnaire. Her belongings were still half boxed up from the move but she had made a promise to herself to do this, so dammit she was going to. Finally she reached the end and hit submit, nervously watching the little loading bar as her results were calculated.

If you asked her at any point in high school or college if she would be using a dating sight to find the elusive Mr. Right, she would have laughed in your face. Now though, having just moved to a new city and officially starting her career as an elementary school teacher... her free time to try to meet people was scarce. Gone were the days of bars and drinks, now she wanted someone to date in a serious way. She didn't have time for casual sex, she wanted more than that out of a relationship, always had.

The results loaded to ninety five percent and she set her laptop down, too nervous to see them quite yet. Would she even find someone this way? She shakily got to her feet and moved to the one remaining box for kitchen necessities and opened it, pulling out her plates and silverware. Her laptop chimed an alert and she froze, her heart skipping a beat. It was done, now what? She steeled herself with a deep breath and marched back to the couch and sat. She ignored her hands shaking as she pulled the laptop onto her lap once more, startled to find her top result lived in New Pork City.

"Okay Zelda," she said aloud in her empty apartment, "you can do this." Curiosity filling her, she clicked on the link to her top match and stared in shock at the handsome picture accompanying the name. "Well Ike G.," she mused aloud, "you're definitely hot." She scrolled through his profile, amazed at what she read.

'Hi I'm Ike. I'm a single dad to one son, his mother completely out of the picture. I'm not looking for casual hookups or an open relationship, but someone to spend my days with. It's been years since I've been in a serious relationship and the whole bar scene isn't my thing so if that's what you want, go click on someone else.'

She read over the blurb about half a dozen times, amazed by the blunt honesty. Curious to know more, she clicked on his pictures, seeing very few had been uploaded. One was Ike standing at a grill, his eyes focused on whatever he was cooking, another one showed him standing beside a redheaded man, both of them grinning at the camera in front of some building, and the last was him at the beach, shirtless and somber looking as he stared off into the setting sun.

Zelda stared at the one from the beach for a long moment, wondering how a man that attractive hadn't found someone to help him raise his son.

More nervous than she had been to take her teaching certificate exams, she clicked on the icon indicating she was interested, hoping for the best.

XxX

Roy's phone dinged as he finished his duties for the evening at the radio station, Ike whistling in the back room. He made sure Ike was busy counting down the drawer for the day of ticket sales and t shirts before he pulled out his phone, a grin coming to his lips as he saw the alert was from the dating app. He tapped it, his eyebrows rising in shock. "Someone's interested..." he mused under his breath.

"Roy," Ike walked in from the back room to the area outside the booth Roy was supposed to be sweeping up and he jumped, guiltily shoving his phone in his pocket, "we need to make sure the new guy knows how to work the booth this time. Remember the last new guy? We had three minutes of radio silence and-"

"Snake was pissed yeah," he said quickly, hating when Ike's eyebrows twitched in suspicion.

"What are you up to man?" Ike asked as he crossed his arms.

"Just texting that chick from the bar last night," he lied smoothly as he waggled his eyebrows. "She sent me something definitely not suitable for work." Ike stared at him for a second before shaking his head and going back to whatever else he had to do before being able to go home. Roy let out a relieved sigh and pulled his phone from his pocket once again.

"Zelda N. huh?" he mumbled as he scrolled through her just made profile. "Well Zelda, I'm not Ike, but he's too chickenshit to do this on his own." His fingers flew over his screen, tapping out a very Ike-like greeting, before he slid the phone into his pocket and resumed his normal routine at work, a devilish twinge to his smile.

XxX

Zelda was actually enjoying herself just messaging Ike over the app on her phone. He was sweet and funny, and by that point hadn't made any inappropriate remarks to her. She was just beginning to wonder how to broach meeting up for a face to face interaction when she received a message from Ike.

'Do you want to grab a bite with me today?' She bit her lips together to try and hold back her ridiculously happy smile.

'Where and when?' she responded, practically bouncing in her seat with giddiness.

'How about today? There's this awesome place downtown called Sammy's. Not much but definitely chill enough for a first meet kinda thing.' Zelda smiled while she looked up the address.

'Sounds good. What time?'

'Noon is lunch for me, does that work?'

'I'll see you there :)' Zelda sent and leapt to her feet with an excited noise of glee. Immediately she dashed to her closet and dug through her varied assortment of clothing, trying to find what would be best to wear.

XxX

Roy knew it was wrong to set his friend up like that, but he also knew that if it were up to Ike he'd be single forever. The day his fiancé walked away and left him with a crying newborn son had hardened his heart from any other woman. Roy had hated watching Ike turn into a shell of his former self, but a shell he had become, his life centered around the child he was forced to raise by himself.

With every message he sent pretending to be Ike he felt like maybe this was a bad idea, but found himself continuing anyway, fueled by the desire to see his friend happy once more. She was definitely into the idea, the problem was getting Ike to actually meet her.

XxX

"Hey man," Roy's voice pulled Ike from rewiring part of the mixer booth, him jumping a little in shock.

"What's up?"

"Almost lunchtime... You wanna hit up Sammy's?"

"Sure," Ike shrugged and went back to work, feeling Roy's eyes on him. "Something wrong?"

"No it's just... that place can get crowded on a weekday. How about you go and stand in line, I'll finish up the rewire."

"What are you up to? You got a girl coming here you wanna impress or something?" Ike gave his second best friend a suspicious look as he blushed. "There's nobody here guest wise and this isn't the eighties where working at a radio station is awesome."

"Dude just go," Roy pleaded and Ike let out a sigh as he stood up.

"Fine, but don't clock me out until twelve okay?"

"You got it," Roy's beaming smile definitely told Ike he was up to something, but he decided to just drop it and get going.

XxX

The line to get into Sammy's was ridiculously long but there Zelda stood, keeping her eyes on the people just arriving for Ike. She had his glorious dark blue hair memorized by now, a fact she'd definitely keep to herself when she met him. Finally she saw the spiky blue hair appear near the back of the line, a smile creeping up her lips. "Excuse me," she mumbled to the various people she passed as she went back to say hello, nervous energy filling her body.

Finally she stopped before him, smiling at how he was looking around. Was he looking for her? "Ike?" she said his name softly and he looked down at her, a frown creasing his brow.

"Yes?" he responded questioningly.

"It's me, Zelda," she said with a slight waver to her smile.

"Hi? I'm sorry, I don't think I know you," he said and the smile completely vanished from her lips.

"We've been talking regularly on Match?" she coaxed and he shook his head.

"I'm not on any dating sites, you've got the wrong guy," he said and she scowled at him.

"Wow okay," she said, her anger coming through in her tone. "So what? It's just fun for you to pretend to flirt with someone?"

"Easy there," he snapped back, "I don't have any accounts on any dating sites, I don't have time for that."

"Yeah?" she replied dryly and pulled out her phone. She opened the app and held out the screen, watching his expression shift to one of confusion. "You're a damn good actor, but you're not that good. That's you."

"Fucking shit Roy," he groaned and gave her an apologetic half smile. "My buddy must've set that up, he's been on my ass about dating someone recently and-"

"So your friend set this all up?" she asked with her disbelief dripping in her tone.

"Alright, seriously, I don't know what shit you've been told by my jackass friend online but here's the truth," he lowered his face closer to hers, his eyes flashing in annoyance. "I didn't fucking set that up. I'm a single father raising my kid all by myself so I don't have time for dating anyone. My kid is the center of my universe and I haven't dated anyone since his mother left me not only for myself but also because I don't want to get his hopes up. So, with that Zelda I'll say goodbye and tell you to shove your judgmental bullshit up your ass." He turned around and stalked off, leaving Zelda standing there watching him in shock.

XxX

"ROY!" Ike roared his friend's name as he slammed his way back into the radio station. "Where the fuck are you?"

"Chill out man," Roy said, his hands up in surrender. "I was only trying to help I-"

"I should kick your fucking ass," Ike snarled. "You set me up on a dating site?! And then communicated with some chick while posing as me?!" He gripped his friend's shirt in his hands, his glare making Roy flinch.

"Dude I needed to do something you weren't ever going to-" Ike cut him off with a punch right to the lip, his knuckles hurting from the impact. "Fuck man!" Roy's fingers flew to his split lip, blood trickling from the lower one.

"Take the goddamn profile down now," he snarled.

"Okay," Roy nodded and Ike released his shirt.

"Wait," he said, Roy's hand pausing halfway to his pocket. "Message that chick you had me meet and tell her this was some stupid shit idea of yours."

"You got it," he said with a nod and Ike stalked past him, his anger still demanding an outlet.

"Do it fucking now," he growled out as he went into the booth and shut the door.

"What's up man?" Snake, his boss and semi-friend asked around his cigarette he definitely shouldn't be smoking in the booth.

"Play something fucked up and angry," Ike said and Snake raised an eyebrow.

"What the hell happened?"

XxX

Zelda scoffed at the message from Ike's "friend" Roy, not even bothering to respond before cancelling her profile and tossing her phone on her bed in defeat. "So much for that," she said with a sigh as she collapsed next to her phone. "God I was such an idiot! Never again," she vowed, "will I do that. No more dating sites." She picked herself up off the bed and went over to her lessons plan for the school year starting in a few days, determined to put any and all things Ike related from her mind permanently.

XXX

Yes this is a new idea, I have no shame or self control. The original ideas were separate but then I thought, I love the drama of it put together so... I did just that! This is only chapter one, so have no fear my Zike shippers! They'll meet again (and very soon)! Anyway, let me know what you think. Much love, Leigh