Link had almost ran her over.
Well, realistically, he had almost knocked her over by ramming her in the ankles with his skateboard. It probably wouldn't have counted as running her over.
She had just ran right out in front of him as soon as he kicked his skateboard forward. She had just been a streak of blonde hair, floaty t-shirt and over the knee socks.
"Link!" she cried, needlessly.
He skittered to a halt, his converse sending loose stones and a spray of water across the pavement. But he had still stopped in time.
"Zelda?" he asked, his heart still recovering from the shock.
"I'm so glad I caught you," Zelda sighed, her hand across her chest. "I thought you might leave early because of the orchards, and they should be blooming by now - shouldn't they? And I just - I got so scared sitting in class thinking about - because my father's going out of town - but he's not taking Mr Ganondorf with him - and I just - I really - really don't want to go home alone. Or be home alone - because - he - well - I was just thinking about spending the night on my own - and, well, you're the only person I really trust, and I need you to be there to comfort me-"
"Slow down," Link held up a hand. "Your dad's going out of town?"
Zelda's father was a school governer - among many other important sounding titles that Link couldn't make sense of. Ganondorf worked with him and was one of those guys that other guys think are great but any girl in the vicinity knows is a complete creep. Zelda had been complaining about him to her father about his glances and almost suggestive conversations or some time, but he refused to acknowledge it.
"Yes - keep up. And I told him that Mr Ganondorf knows where we live and that I really don't feel comfortable and that I would prefer to stay with Saria - or you, he likes you, Link - but he refused - and I just - I really, really don't want to be alone." Zelda said. Link recognised her signs of anxiety, her knees were shaking and her eyes and nose were red as though she were about to cry.
"You don't have to be alone," Link said automatically.
"You'll stay?" Zelda asked. Tears were forming in her eyes.
"Of course," Link replied. It was the right thing to do. It was the thing he'd want any decent person to do if he were a girl.
She squeaked and hugged him tightly. Her arms were tight against his neck, so that he was being pulled down to her height and he almost lost his balance. Nonetheless, he hugged her back. That was what friend's did.
That was when he felt heat rising in his cheeks.
He was staying the night at her house? Staying the night at a girl's house? The student council president's house?
Now that he thought about it, it didn't sound chivalrous or kind at all.
"I, uh, I need to check with my aunt first," he muttered, pulling away. His fingers touched against the the back of Zelda's waist, the silky material of her t-shirt sliding against her skin. His heart leapt uncomfortably at the thought.
"Oh, sure," Zelda smiled, stepping backwards too. She swept her bangs from her eyes and Link swallowed, forcing himself to continue breathing as he started down the road.
Zelda fell into her usual babble of school council meetings and classwork that Link could eaisly listen to for hours. She could talk about anything and he would still listen.
He'd had a crush on her for as long as he can remember. He hadn't really known it in the beginning. He thought it was just because she was popular and the other boys liked her. That must have been why the first time he saw her his cheeks were bright red and the first time she talked to him his mouth had gone dry. But then he had started to realised that he was in love with her. Her little movements, the rise and fall of her voice. That was love.
And she trusted him. To keep her safe. Not to have ulterior motives.
Just to have her as his friend. That would be enough.
Link's house wasn't a long walk from the highschool, and of course his Aunt knew all about Zelda's situation because she was always helping out in the orchards. She was practically antoher child for her, so of course she said that it was perfectly fine for Link to stay over. Zelda had beamed and hugged her, and Link's Aunt had said 'of course, I know what it's like to be a girl left alone at night.'
And when Zelda's back was turned, she slipped a condom into his bag with a wink.
They headed off again, catching a bus and turning the conversation to school. Gossiping about teachers, moaning about homework, reminiscing inside jokes. It was a surprisingly long ride - Link had never known that Zelda lived so far away.
And her house was huge. A white, detached, three story house with huge windows - the kind that had iron swirls decorating them -and a balcony around the back of the house. The lawns were the kind of perfectly trimmed rectangles that you saw in commcericals, with perfect rose bushes.
It didn't look like a real place.
"Sorry, that it's a little messy," Zelda said as she fiddled with her keys to unlock the door. She gave him the embarassed smile he always gave her when she came into his house.
Link supposed it was messy. If messy was a pile of books on a side table, or a speck of dirt on the welcome mat. A few dog hairs stuck on Zelda's pale pink coat. Everything in the house seemed a variation of cream or white and had the lavish aesthetic that his Aunt always strived for.
He was almost embarrassed that Zelda had seen his home - which was tiny in comparision and legitimately messy.
"It's fine," he managed to squeak. He felt that breathing would somehow desecrate the place.
"I'm," Zelda turned back to link as she put her keys in a small, glass bowl. (They were the kind of people who had key bowls.) "Really glad that you're staying with me tonight, Link."
Link shrugged.
"Isn't it what anyone should do?" he asked.
Zelda smiled.
"Groose would, of course," she said. "But then he'd suggest Netflix and Chill - and I'm trying to avoid unsolicitated advances," she laughed. "I'll see what's for dinner."
Link had laughed too. But it was forced. He felt ashamed of himself. Zelda trusted him. And he was the very person that she was trying to avoid. He was such a jerk.
Zelda's kitchen was huge too. With all the kind of extra add-ons that Link had never believed people actually brought - rice-makers and bread-makers and pasta-makers - all shiny and chrome, with the largest fridge he'd ever seen. He could make anything he wanted in this kitchen.
The windows looked out on more neatly manicured lawns, with a scrubbed wooden swing set neatly in one corner, hanging off a gnarled tree. Like something from a fairytale.
Zelda caught Link looking at it.
"Father wants to cut it down," she said, her eyes softening at the sight. "He says it ruins the symmetry of the garden. But it's so old that he's not allowed."
"Does it still grow peaches?" Link asked - his aunt and uncle owned an orchard. He was good at identifying trees.
"Not that I can ever remember," Zelda said. "When I was a little girl, I wished and wished it would grow a peach. A giant one. Like in the story. And then I could roll all the way to the sea and beyond in it."
"You wanted to leave?" Link asked. His side touched a counter as he stepped forward and he hastily stepped away from it. Someone like him - covered in mud with scratched knees - shouldn't be in a place so expensive. It was the house he had dreamt of as a kid. "Here?"
"I know," Zelda sighed. Her arms were crossed across her chest - like she was hugging herself - and it was only now that she turned from the garden to look at him. "What more could I want? My father loves me - I know he does . I love him…but he doesn't really know me. He only knows the student council president who gets good grades and is popular and hands her homework in on time. He knows an ideal. An ideal daughter because I didn't scream or shout or ask him about periods. Eventhough all I wanted to do was scream and shout because no one ever thought I'd have any problems. Because they didn't care that I just felt like a mask, or a doll - pull my string and I say exactly what you want me to say because I just wanted to feel validated. That I existed. I wanted to escape to somewhere where there was no school to try hard at...and no people...I wanted to float on the sea in my giant peach forever...and be me."
Silence fell.
"I used to do that too," Link said slowly. He was watching the swing too. There was a light wind and it was swaying in the breeze slightly. "Not the peach bit exactly...but I used to sit under the kitchen table and imagine a huge storm hitting the town, and that one of the trees in the orchard floated up to my window and that I used it as a boat. And I'd sail for days and days... but then...the water would hit a little island. An island with a little shack. And my parents would come out of it and scoop me up and hug me tight. And we wouldn't have to worry about anything beyond our own little world...It sounds - it sounds messed up when I think about it now - wanting a flood, but..."
"I know," Zelda filled the words in for him. "When you're a kid, it seems easy to imagine disaster without remorse. If it benefited you."
They both took a deep breath. As though a weight had been lifted from their shoulders. They were both content in each other's company. Someone who understood them.
Zelda's gaze wandered lazilly from the garden to Link's face, then to the clock.
"It's almost six," she said. The spell broke. "I should start making dinner."
"What are we having?" Link asked.
"Pot pie with anything that I can find in the cupboard," Zelda said. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and Link found himself wondering what it would be like to do that for her. If her hair smelt of apples. "I need comfort food."
Then she laughed suddenly.
"Link, don't look so stiff," she said. Her cheeks were bright and rosy. "Go put your skateboard down in the hall - take your shoes off too. Make yourself at home"
He blushed and did so - which made her laugh even more - "you look like a scolded puppy!" And hechuckled, still embarassed as he headed back down the hall. The walls were completely bare, not filled with funny little sayings like his was.
It was easy for her to relax here. It was her home. For Link, it seemed like being invited to a castle. He was much to regular to be here. Much too dirty to touch anything. Much too...poor.
Much too poor for a girl like her.
Zelda deserved a guy like Groose - the star of the football team - the guy with all the girls around him. The guy with money.
But, he told himself as he slipped his beaten high-tops off of his feet. She chose me. She chose to sit next to me on the first day of highschool and she chose me to stay over tonight. To protect her.
She chose me.
When he came back into the kitchen, he found a jumble of ingredients on the side and Zelda, sat cross legged on the floor, frantically searching through a dozen cookbooks. Cookbooks that looked like they'd never been touched. She was holding her fringe off her face and frowning like they were written in another language.
"You've never...made pot pie...have you?" he guessed.
"Oh, I thought it would be easy, Link," she cried, leaping to her feet. "Your aunt always makes it look so easy!"
"Because she's been doing it for thirty years," he replied. At the desperate look of Zelda's face, he rolled his eyes and smiled. "Don't worry. I'll do it."
"What? No, you're my guest." Zelda said. She slipped towards him in her socks and he caught her hands before she slammed into him. They had long since gone past personal space.
"And I know how to cook pot pie," Link continued. He felt slightly cocky, and smirked. "Isn't it what any knight would do for his princess?"
Zelda paused. She gave him a strange look. A look somewhere between amusement and embarrassment.
"You're my knight, are you?" she asked after a moment.
"I'm protecting you from an evil sorcerer, aren't I?" he shrugged.
That made Zelda laugh. A bright, bubbly sound that lifted his spirits. The feeling you get at Christmas.
"Yes, yes," she said, batting her eyes jokingly. She had taken on the tone of a heroine in a nineties t.v show. "A wicked wizard wants to lock me away in a tower - please Link, be my hero!"
"Of course," Link said. He hoped she didn't notice that his voice dropped. That he really meant it. That his eyes softened as he looked at her.
She was staring at him. Those endless blue eyes fixed on him, the smile almost fading. Like she had forgotten she was smiling. Like she was looking - really looking at him.
Link took a sharp intake of breath and turned away, dropping her hands.
He picked up the smallest carrots, an onion and a leek from the collection on the side.
Zelda got out the kitchenware and watched like a small child as Link boiled the vegetables, checking how soft the carrots were every other moment and taking delight in rolling out pre-made pastry.
"Now what?" she asked as Link pushed the pie into the oven.
"We can watch it bake for twenty minutes like Bake-off contestants," Link shrugged. Then he took her hand. "Or we can play on the swing."
Zelda shook her head, but she followed him to the back door.
"Link, I'm much to old to play on a swing," she said.
"It's your swing," he said. "Who's going to know?"
There was a small path the took around the garden.
When they reached the swing, Link dusted off the few fallen leaves before Zelda sat, to which she smiled and gave a mock-curtsey.
Then she squeaked as Link stood on the back of the swing and set it into motion.
"Link! It won't hold both our weight!" she cried.
The string was already juddering, but neither of them made an attempt to get off. In fact, Zelda started whooping with enjoyment and swinging her legs for more momentum.
It was only when drops of rain started to hit them that Link stopped swinging. The spring sky had turned a stony grey and was full of wispy storm clouds.
The rain was cold, and it broke the childish spell over the two of them, sending them running back into the house.
Zelda slipped on the back step and clung to Link from behind, giggling breathlessly. He almost fell over and there was a good minute of socks sliding for purchase on the linoleum floor. Hands grasping at counters and uncontrollable laugther. The longer it went o, the funnier it was.
And when they were upright, link found himself hugging Zelda once again. It shouldn't have been a big deal - it wasn't a big deal - they hugged all the time because they were close and that's what close friends do. But today Link could only think of Zelda's flowery perfume and soft skin and warmth. It seemed like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He just wanted to hold her like this and never, ever let her go.
The timer on the oven beeped loudly.
Zelda didn't move. Her arms were still around him and she seemed to be breathing deeply.
"The pie's done." Link said into the silence.
She still didn't move for a moment.
Then all of a sudden she pulled away, with a "yay! It smells really good!"
But her eyes were red.
Link fetched some plates - plates that looked like the kind he only used when visitors came round - and didn't ask questions as she served it up. That was what friends did.
"We should probably eat in the dining room," Zelda murmured. Her eyes were on the steam rising from the hot food.
"Probably," Link said. They had never had a designated dining room.
"Or...we could watch Labyrinth whilst we eat." Zelda said. Her gaze flicked to Link's - a playful smile in her eyes.
"Can't argue with that," Link shrugged.
She grinned and slipped out of the room. It was no surprise that Zelda had a huge T.V and countless speakers that took a good five minutes to set up. Mostly due to the blu-ray player. Blu-ray players never work.
Eventually though, David Bowie was playing in surround sound and Link was relaxing into a sofa that felt like it had never been sat on.
"You've always been such a good cook, Link." Zelda said after a moment.
He shrugged.
"I helped out as a kid. My Aunt always said food tastes better when you've helped make it" he said.
"I never baked much as a kid," Zelda said slowly. "We used to have a nanny, and she just cooked everything for me."
"You must have been lonely." Link replied. He could have kicked himself. Of course she had been lonely. He was such an idiot.
Zelda stayed silent.
She didn't say a word until both of the plates were completely scraped clean. Another song was playing on the T.V but Link was finding it hard to pay attention.
"I got a new Smiths record the other day," Zelda said quietly.
Her eyes flickered to Link's and quickly away again. Something about her seemed different. More secluded.
"Oh?" Link didn't want to say too much, in case he upset her again. He had caught her obsession with Vintage music second hand.
"Did you want to come up and see it?" she asked. She still wasn't quite looking at him.
But he agreed. He went to pick the plates up - to get the washing up done, but Zelda had already left and he had to scramble to catch up with her.
There were photo-frames all up the staircase. But they didn't hold school photos - like at Link's house - they held scenic shots of beaches and copys of Van-Gogh paintings.
Zelda's room was at the top of the stairs, marked with a customisable, glittery, pink plaque with her name.
It seemed like stepping into another world.
There were fairylights all over the room - small, round, yellow ones, pink, flower-shaped ones, ones shaped like little suns, ones that were Christmas lights in desguise - a string of perfectly round blue ones. There were paper lanterns on the light, which cast the room into a pink glow. Zelda had a pink record player in a far corner, on the opposite side to a queen-sized bed with a flowery duvet. Everything seemed to have the theme of pastels and flowers - like an aesthetic tumblr post. There were normal things too - a pile of poetry books on her desk, some school work scattered on the floor and yesterday's dress discarded in a corner. It was still tidy enough to make Link feel ashamed of his own room, though.
Zelda was crouched by the record player, making sure that the needle would hit the record just right.
The rain was pouring down at the window and The Smiths came up with that lowkey crackly sound vinyl records create. It was one the bands Link liked of his own accord. There was an underlying motif of isolation that he related to.
"Last Night I dreamt..."
Zelda straightened up from the player, her back to Link. Her hair fell in a sweeping golden curtain at her back. Her socks had fallen down, and there was a ladder in her flesh-coloured tights. From her ankle to her shin. Link found himself fixed on it.
"Link, I have to admit something," Zelda said. She let the silence hang for a moment, before continuing. "I have an ulterior motive for bringing you here tonight."
She half turned. Just enough so that he could see the outline of her pink lips. Her thick eyelashes. He found it hard to conjure up words.
"...That somebody loved me..."
"And I feel awful, because you've always been so good to me. You're so genuine and honest and everything that everyone thinks I am."
"I'm really..." Link's words faded away. He was finding it hard to finish the sentence when Zelda's doll-like eyes were on him.
"I love you." Zelda said suddenly.
He blinked.
"What?" he asked.
"Link, I love you. Not in the way that girl's tell each other. I - true love you," she said again. She stepped towards him.
His brain failed to understand the words.
"That's partly why I asked you here," Zelda said. She had stepped forwards again. "I wanted to tell you. It seemed like a good idea."
Her fingertips brushed his cheek. It was slowly starting to sink in. Zelda felt the same way...
"...I love you too," Link found himself saying. He still wasn't sure if it was a lie - love felt too strong a word - too honest a word - for two teenagers with crushes on each other.
But at the moment, it felt like love, and that was enough.
"Last night I dreamt..."
The thing he had been thinking about all evening finally happened - Zelda's lips were pressed against his mouth. And they were just as soft as he thought they would be. His cheek was leaning into her hand and it felt like some kind of surreal dream. A scene in a movie about drugs. A scene from someone's life that was way too magical and mysterious to be his own.
"...Real arms around me..."
He found his hands resting on Zelda's hips. Just resting. Just feeling the warmth and the roundness of her hips.
Zelda kept kissing and his hands slipped around her back, pulling him into her body until he could feel her chest resting against his. Her stomach resting against his. Her arm around his neck.
She pulled away just a fraction. But it was fraction enough for Link's brain to come to its senses.
"Don't you want to talk about this?"
"Not really," Zelda murmured, pulling Link's face back to hers.
He stumbled back, a mix of emotions rising within him. He was glad - overwhelmingly - that Zelda felt the same way about him. But he was guilty and confused and would rather spend a little time talking. Just talking. Figuring out where they were.
Link's knees hit the edge of Zelda's bed, and he found himself sitting on it, Zelda half on top of him.
"Wait a minute," he said, his hands on Zelda's shoulders, her silky hair seemed stuck between his fingers like a spider's web. "Zelda..."
"Link, be honest," Zelda's finger ran over his bottom lip. Most of her weight was on him. "How long has it felt like we've been dating?"
He paused, his thumbs rumbing subconsciously on her collarbone. She was right. Half the year thought they had been dating for years and it had honestly felt like they were a young, married couple.
The way she was looking at him sent his heart thumping in his chest.
So he kissed her. And she kissed him back.
And suddenly she was pushing him down onto the bed. Link wasn't sure which hands were hers and which hands were his. He was only aware that she was warm and that he liked the taste of her mouth on his.
Zelda's mouth slipped from his, to his cheek, until she had buried her nose into the crook of his neck as she held him. He could feel her stomach rising and falling against his.
"I love you," she muttered.
"I love you too," Link replied. And he really meant it.
Her shorts had ridden up, and he could see the line of where her tights changed to a thicker material. His thumb traced the line where the texture changed and Zelda sighed against him.
"Don't leave me," she said in a low voice.
"I won't."
Her hands clutched at his hoodie.
"I've always been so alone..."
She half-fell off of him, so that she was lying next to him, their legs tangled up like spaghetti. They faced each other, taking in every element of each other's faces as though for the first time. Zelda seemed to shine pink.
Link cradled Zelda's cheek with his hand. He could feel her trembling and there was nothing he wanted to do more than to stop it.
"I know," he said softly. "I'm here."
The sleeve of her top had slipped down and there was a freckle underneath it. He kissed it and Zelda's arms went around him again.
"The story is old - I know..."
From time to time they kissed each other, just to make sure that the other was there. That this was happening. Link murmured the words "it's okay, I'm here, I love you," to Zelda so often that the words blurred and he wasn't sure when he was actually saying anything. She relaxed into him, and they started to doze off, safe in each other's arms. Finally not alone.
"But it goes on..."
(A/N): This idea was originally a fleshed out, multi-chaptered fic. Link was meant to be the new kid at school and he had always been homeschooled because of an angsty past I hadn't worked out yet. And he was going to be mute - and they conversed in sign language. And I was really eager about it. I wrote the first chapter...and then I realised I only really wanted to write two chapters of it - the chapters here. (And that writing Link mute is hard and even though I really wanted to I'm going to save that idea for when I'm a better writer. ^^"")
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. I hope to have part two published in the Winter Holidays, so I shall hopefully see you soon.
Please leave a comment, and I'll be 500% more motivated to finish this.
Thank you!