The First Friday Night Chapter 1: Introducing, a legend of zelda fanfic

A/N: Um, hi. I don't know why, but when I was listening to Face Down, I imagined Zelda singing it. Weird. This thought's been dancing around in my head for more than a week, so I'm setting it free.

So, here's my story; it's set in Termina, without the whole Moon-ordeal. It'll change POV's every chapter or so. I have no idea where I'm going with this story, but that's part of the fun. It's like, riding a roller coaster in the dark. Right?

Disclaimer: Of course I own the series. I, a teenager, am so proud of myself for creating the first game back in 1986. Isn't it amazing how I created the first of a soon-to-flourish video game series before my soul even considered reincarnating?

No? Well, then, I guess I don't own the LoZ games/characters/anything. Seriously.

The First Friday Night

Chapter One: Introducing…

"And now, ladies and gentlemen," I say, dramatically pausing to let the final cheers of 'Sheik! Sheik! Sheik!' die out,—I love it when they cheer for me—"I have a special treat for you tonight." The small crowd stops cheering and shuts up obediently, waiting patiently for me to deliver. I clear my throat and pause again, just to let their curiosity grow a bit. I'm a sucker for suspense.

"A special someone is here to sing for you, the lovely"—yes, I said lovely. So what?—"citizens of Clock Town." Someone in the audience, somewhere to my left, whistles. Not the good kind of whistle, either, at this moment. I glare at the general area, "No, not like that! A close friend of mine, thank you very much." The entire crowd giggles. Bastards.

"I know how much you all love my singing, but I don't want to hog the spotlight." Yes, I'm milking my ego a bit, but hey, it's Friday night. All part of the fun. In reality, I'm not the greatest singer, but I'm good enough to sing out loud without someone telling me to shut the hell up. I sing more often than anybody else in Clock Town, though; people sure love listening to karaoke, but aren't that big on performing. "Besides, this is the Milk Bar and I haven't had any milk yet!" There are a few laughs, and a couple of coughs. I can tell they're getting a bit impatient. Better hurry along with my little speech.

"Okay, so, here we go. Introducing… my twin cousin, hailing from Poveglia Island far out in the Great Bay, weighing at one hundred and twenty-one pounds, I think, she might have gained some weight, but whatever, she's ready to rock to the music, willingly, of course, there's no way I'd ever blackmail my sweet cousi—"

"Just get on with it!" Talon Barten shouts from behind the bar. His eyes are glaring, but he might be smiling in a teasing way. I can't tell, honestly, with that bushy brown mustache of his. He's cleaning out a glass with a rag, although I don't know how that cleans it, while his assistant/eldest daughter Cremia is ignoring her work to enjoy the karaoke. Talon is the owner of the Milk Bar, and I'm actually the one who convinced him months ago that we needed karaoke every Friday and Saturday night. He had refused outright at first, but I got Romani to persuade him into agreeing. Romani is Talon's youngest daughter and one of my best friends. We're also siblings. Figuratively, that is.

Speaking of Romani, she happens to be almost directly in front of me, in the crowd. She looks confused, yet curious at the same time. I never told her about my cousin, not that I ever felt the need to. Oh well, everybody loves a good surprise.

"Okay, okay, fine. Here she is; the Wicked Witch of the West herself, Miss Zel-daaa!" And I gesture to her, while stretching out her name for added effect. She's smack in the middle of the crowd, right next to Romani, who does a double-take, her dark red hair practically whipping Zelda in the face. Understandable; we're somewhat identical, after all. I don't know how nobody noticed her. This town's so small, everybody knows everybody. People need to pay more attention to these kinds of things. Zelda gives me a half-playful half-I'll-get-you-later glare and starts towards me, climbing onto the small stage. She doesn't bother to walk around to the pointless set of stairs.

When she gets to where I am, she shoves me away from the microphone. How rude. She looks a bit nervous, naturally. Zelda is pretty brave when it comes to most things, but stick her in front of a crowd of people and she'll clam up. And sweat. It's bad. Which is why I'm making her sing now; it'll be fun. So I climb down from the stage and push through the people in the first few rows to Romani, who still looks shocked out of her mind. I just smile and turn my attention to the now alone Zelda, who's nervously playing with her long dirty blond hair. I have the same hair, but obviously shorter. And mine looks better.

The first thing she does is pull her hand away from her hair so that she can properly glare at me some more with her shiny violet eyes. "Wicked Witch of the West?" Everybody giggles, myself included. "Yeah, go on, giggle like a little girl. I've got your wicked." More laughs. Maybe we should have Comedy Night or something.

Then she softens up and her eyes roam around the room, taking in the sight. Like I said, the crowd wasn't that big. Twenty people, more or less. "Well, hi," she begins. I'm tempted to say hi right back in an obnoxiously loud voice, but I refrain. Don't want to piss her off even more. Yet. "So, Sheik is forcing me to sing, for some stupid reason that I'm not going to say out loud. I don't know why, I've never done anything to him." Pause. Evil glare. "But I will." Cue laughter. "So, I guess someone can start the music now, because I'm pretty sure I'm going to pass out soon." Laughter. Okay, people, she's not that funny.

She stays right where the microphone is, and stares pleadingly at the little TV screen just in front of and above the stage, where the lyrics will appear. She'll do anything to avoid eye contact with so many people at once. After a few seconds of somewhat awkward silence, Talon jabs Cremia's shoulder with his finger, an action that says 'get off your ass and do your job'. That's what she's supposed to do on Karaoke Night: control the music.

With a squeaky, "Oh, right!" Cremia rushes to the sound system at the edge of the bar. She hovers over it, jabbing a few buttons here and there, while the rest of us wait. Soon, music is pouring from the speakers at a high volume. Very familiar music. Although I can't really put my finger on it…

Zelda immediately brightens upon hearing the start of the music. "Holy crap, I actually know this song!" I don't think she meant to say that out loud. Everyone annoyingly laughs again. Then it hits me. Zelda knows this song. The only song that she knows by heart and I know for a fact she sings at least twice a day—it's even my ringtone on her cell—

Crap. Any song, any song in the world, and it's this one. If this is a coincidence, then I'm Dampé. And no offense to him, but I'm seriously glad I'm not. He may be nice, but the dude looks creepy as hell.

Zelda snaps me out of my sarcastic thoughts with her singing. She starts off kind of timid, like we're all going to boo her off the stage and drench her with milk for sucking so badly:

Hey girl you know you drive me crazy
one look puts the rhythm in my hand.
Still I'll never understand
why you hang around
I see what's going down.

Cover up with make up in the mirror
tell yourself it does never gonna
happen again,
you cry alone and then he swears
he loves you.

Ah, here we go. This is where she loosens up ever so slowly. She's a slightly better singer than me. Slightly. Mostly because she sings this same damn song every day and she's had a ton of practice on it, the lucky loser—she even puts the lyrics in the middle of her letters when she writes to me, at random times. I still don't know how this song out of every other one in existence happened to show itself this very moment. I bet the song followed her here all the way from her freaking island, 'cause I sure as hell haven't heard it here before. She's smiling now, and moving her body a bit to the music.

Do you feel like a man
when you push her around?
Do you feel better now
as she falls to the ground?
Well I'll tell you my friend,
one day this world's going to end
as your lies crumble down,
a new life she has found.

Wow, she must be feeling better. She's starting to dance.

A pebble in the water
makes a ripple effect
every action in this world
will bear a consequence
If you wade around forever
you will surely drown
I see what's going down.

I see the way you go and
say you're right again
say you're right again
heed my lecture.

She takes the microphone from the stand so she can move around the stage, dancing as she moves. I knew Zelda could dance, but in front of people? She must really like this song, more than I thought so. That can't be healthy, but at least she isn't sweating.

Face down in the dirt she said,
this doesn't hurt she said
I finally had enough

Face down in the dirt she said,
this doesn't hurt she said
I finally had enough.

One day she will tell you that
she has had enough
its coming round again.

She doesn't scream that last part, she never does. She can't make her voice go scratchy, so she sort of just shout-sings it. She then sings the rest of the song, in a much better mood than when I figuratively dragged her to the stage.

Face down in the dirt she said,
this doesn't hurt she said
I finally had enough

Face down in the dirt she said,
this doesn't hurt she said
I finally had enough.

When the music ends, Zelda strikes a pose, her chest thrust out and her right hand above her head, with her fingers spread. After a while she realizes that it's completely quiet and slowly lowers her arm. Great, she's shrinking back to tiny, anti-public speaking Zelda. She clears her throat into the mic. "Um, ta-da?"

There's silence for just a bit longer, then everybody simultaneously begins clapping and cheering and laughing and chanting 'Zelda! Zelda! Zelda!' and it's all so very loud. Hmph. Well, good for her. I like it when they chant my name better. But hey, I'm not a complete ass, so I stand up and join in the cheering. Talk about a warm welcome to town, Zelda, you lucky bitch.

She looks a little petrified, but then smiles and begins mock-curtsying and blowing kisses into the crowd, somewhat hesitantly. As if she'd ever curtsy for real; she has no tolerance for that girly stuff. I'm pretty sure she'd rather eat a Wallmaster (if they existed) than wear a dress.

Romani is still clapping, like everyone else. You can easily see the words 'new best friend' flashing across her face every few seconds. I stop clapping; my hands are starting to hurt. So instead I shove my way through the people in front of me again and jump onto the stage gracefully.

Snatching the mic from her—she's smirking at me, ha ha, take that, Sheik, it says—I turn my dazzling smile to the audience. "Wasn't that wonderful, folks?" I put more emphasis than necessary on the word, my teeth clenched. Everyone begins clapping even louder. Sheesh.

"Well, good, 'cause that's all you're getting for tonight. It's time for me to catch up with my dear cousin." Even more applause. These people are easily impressed. "I love you all; I really do, but we gots to go!" And now there was whistling. Talon is beaming; overly happy customers usually equals 'no, no, drinks are on me!' customers. Score for him!

I grab Zelda's right hand as she puts the mic back with her left. Then she turns to me with a sickeningly sweet smile, each of her white teeth looking eager to tear the flesh from my arms, and growls without moving her lips, "Never again." I smile back at her and, still hand-in-hand, jump off the stage, tugging her with me. As we squeeze through the crowd—Romani's suddenly in Zelda's left hand, probably already thinking of how to introduce herself properly—the three of us get the heck out of there for some peace, quiet, and possibly story telling.

We're walking through the metaphor for silence that is Clock Town (for now; wait until daytime), heading south, where Romani lives. Do I live with Romani? Yes, yes I do. Why? Frankly, it's none of your business why. If I wanted you to know, I'd tell you, okay? Focus on my story here, some of my closest friends don't even know why I live with her, so don't go thinking you deserve any special tr—

Out of nowhere, Zelda smacks my arm. Hard. "Ow!" I yelp, because really, it was one of those girl-slaps. They hurt more than a normal slap; it's scientifically proven. "The heck was that for?"

She rolls her eyes and keeps walking. I ask again, and again, and again. And again. She cracks. "If I really, honestly have to tell you, I'm going to hit you again for being an idiot."

"It's nice to see you too, Zel." I move in to one-arm hug her, and for half a second, I succeed. Then she shoves me away.

"Don't hug me when I'm pissed at you." But she's trying not to smile. I count that as a 'Yeah, whatever, I'm glad to meet you too.'

This is where Romani smoothly slides herself into the conversation like a piece of buttery plastic, "I absolutely loved your performance. Do you like, take classes or something?"

Zelda glances at her, sizing her up, accompanied with a 'you for real?' face. "Loved it? I don't know about that." She looks down. "But… I guess I did okay. Thank you… um—?"

"Oh, right; I'm Romani." She holds out her right hand for a handshake. I didn't know people still shook hands, other than in politics, I guess. Zelda accepts with her left hand, forcing Romani to stick out her left hand, too, and they shake.

"But really, Zelda—I love your name, by the way—your singing was really good. Really."

"Eh, I got lucky," Zelda says, waving her hand around. "It's my favorite song. Probably won't happen again. But I had a little bit of fun." I cough, a well-well-well-I-unintentionally-did-something-good cough. "No, Sheik, I don't care. It's the principle, and I will get you back."

"I'm terrified." I look up at the sky and see that it's completely cloudy. There might be some rain tonight. Maybe Zelda's revenge will have something to do with mud. She's creative, she'll find some way to make mud hurt. Maybe I really should be terrified…

"So," Zelda says, looking around at her new for-now home, "where exactly are we going?"

"To my house. I live on a ranch," Romani says, pride evident in her voice.

"A ranch?" Zelda raises a brow. "Cool. I'm gonna go on a limb and assume you sell milk."

"Really?" Romani laughs. "What gave it away?" And the two begin to giggle together like best friends. Wow; she's already roped Zelda into her friendship bubble? That was fast. "I'm guessing you'll have to sleep in my room; I can make a bed for you out of hay."

"Hay??"

"What? My bed's made of hay too. It's more comfortable than you would think."

Zelda giggles. If Romani keeps this up, she'll have Zelda wearing a pink flowery dress by tomorrow afternoon. Zelda turns to me and asks, "Is your bed made out of hay too?"

"I dunno, I've never really checked. It's soft, so I don't really care what's in it."

"Oh. Where do you sleep?"

"In their guest room. Mr. Barten obviously won't let me sleep with Romani or Cremia." Out of respect, I don't call him Talon out loud. He's a bit intimidating, but I'll call him Talon if he's in a good enough mood. Romani smacks my arm softly, but in the same spot where Zelda had, so it hurts.

"Good thing, too. I can hear your snoring all the way from my room." This gets Zelda giggling again. Romani, seriously, you need to stop. Your powers of transforming others scares me.

"That's not me, it's Link!"

"Link's had strep throat for the past three days! You can't snore with strep, but I'm definitely sure I heard snoring those nights, and every night before. Why? Because it keeps me up! And it would keep you up too, so it's obviously not him."

"You're so full of crap, I don't snore." She gives me a look. "Well, maybe I do, but not that loud. Did you ever think it was your dad? Much more likely."

"Are you implying something?"

"Oh no, Sheik, it's definitely you. Snoring like a jackhammer ever single night." Zelda says this in a flat voice. Like she would know, we've never slept in the same house before. Ever. "And who's Link?"

Romani nods in my direction. "Friend of ours, his roommate."

Zelda fake-gasps and turns towards me, but still walking. "Sheik, is he your boyfriend?! If you're gay and you haven't told me until now, I'm going to be so hur—"

Boyfriend? The fuck? Romani's laughing her ass off. "What? No! Friends, Zel, friends! You're rooming with Romani, I'm pretty sure you don't want to date her!" We're almost out of Termina Field, heading towards Milk Road, at the end of which is the ranch. The grass is thick where we're walking now. I hope Zelda trips. No, wait, I hope they both trip.

"You're so right. No offense," she says, now facing Romani, "although I think you're gonna be an awesome friend." Romani 'awww's and they hug. The witches Koume and Kotake (they just make medicine in the Southern Swamp, but everyone says they actually make potions and crap like that) got nothin' on Romani, the Witch of Changing Stubborn People.

When we get to the ranch, the sky hasn't changed. It's still dark and cloudy, with a god-knows-how-much percent chance of revenge, the number of which is steadily going way too far up. I can feel it, and I know it's filling Zelda with disgusting glee.

"Alright, here's the deal," Romani says when we reach the front door, mostly to Zelda because I've heard this speech before. "It's late. Link is probably asleep, the poor guy's dying in there, so move quickly and quietly through the house." Zelda nods. "Dad and Cremia will be home soon. There isn't really a curfew here, so go to sleep whenever. Dad's rule is: Do whatever you want at night, as long as it doesn't bug anybody else and it isn't illegal. Easy, right?" Zelda nods again. "Good. That's pretty much it for now. We eat breakfast on our own time; you're welcome to use the kitchen, since you kind of live here now." She smiles. "Come on, I'll show you to our room." And we go inside, the front door naturally squeaking when Romani opens it, as all doors are supposed to do.

We don't bother turning on the lights, since we're going straight to our rooms. Around the dining room table and up the stairs we go, each one slightly creaking. Because really, stairs that don't creak just aren't stairs. Same with doors. We walk down the hallway, and there are five doors: Talon's room, Cremia's room, Romani and Zelda's room, then mine and Link's room. Plus the bathroom. Crap. One bathroom and… three, four… six people. That's going to be a problem.

A fragile voice suddenly calls out softly. "H-h—" a weak cough; Link. Sounds like life still utterly sucks for him. "Hello? Somebody th-there?" Another weak cough. He sounds like a child. It makes me want to cry (not really, but I do feel sorry for him).

"It's us," Romani and I say at the same time. He's been asking that since he got sick, every time he hears someone, so it's an automatic response. Romani then adds, "We thought you'd be asleep."

"H-hurts too much to sleep." Hurts too much to sleep? That's when you know that it can't get any worse.

"Wow," Zelda whispers, "sounds pitiful." We nod.

I jerk my head towards the door. "Wanna meet him?"

She looks at the closed door. "Um, sure. I guess. Lead the way." Lead the what? The door's right there, not four feet from her.

Whatever. I walk towards the door, Zelda following behind me without Romani, who whispers, "Have fun," before heading straight for the bathroom. I push the door open. The doors in this house don't have knobs, you just push, or pull on the bar locks that act like door handles.

"Darling Link, my darling, you have a darling visitor, darling," I say, just for the heck of it. Zelda gives me a look and walks past me. I shut the door behind her. If this were a cheesy horror movie, I would lock the door and proceed to stab her. But I don't. "This is my twin cousin I told you about yesterday. Zelda." The only people who knew about Zelda the day before she officially got here is Link and Talon. Link, since he was and is sick and pitiful. Talon, because I needed permission for her to stay here. I also needed help moving her luggage from the Great Bay Coast all the freaking way to the ranch. Talk about labor.

Link, bless his soul, is laying in his bed, which I happily pushed to the far corner of the room when I found out he was sick, with a scarf wrapped nicely around my nose and mouth. Didn't want to catch that nasty bug. My bed is way on the other side of the room, as far away as physically possible until he's better. There's also a dresser that we share, and I had pushed that on my side of the room too; not that he's able to get up easily and paw around for clothes. His hair—the same color as mine and Zelda's, albeit a bit darker—is sticking to his forehead. He's sweating a storm, more than a nervous Zelda. He's also wearing a plain white T-shirt, and his green blanket is wrapped tightly around his body, up to his chest. His arms are resting on his stomach. He's clutching a portable blackboard and a piece of chalk. Now that we're in the room, there's no need for him to speak. It was Cremia's idea.

He writes on it, Hi Zelda.

Zelda smiles. "Hi," she says. "Sorry about your, er… situation. Doesn't look like fun."

Link laughs without making a sound. It's a load of painful fun.

Zelda snorts, "Yeah, I bet." She leans against the wall (my wall, seeing as she doesn't really want Link's burden either) and looks around for a bit. The three of us are silent. Well, Zelda and I are. Link doesn't really have a choice. Well, he does, but it's a smart choice.

How long are you staying? Link suddenly writes.

"Oh, um. I'm not sure. Probably a while."

Cool. He erases it, and thinks for a moment before writing, We should all get together and do something once I'm done dying.

"We who?" Zelda asks, absentmindedly playing with her hair again. The 'dying' part makes her snicker.

"The rest of our friends," I say, heading for the door. I'm actually getting tired. "You'll probably meet them tomorrow. Actually, you will, because we need to give you the grand tour of Termina."

"All of Termina? That's a lot of walking, hon."

"Of course all of Termina. Clock Town's too small. But don't worry about your dainty princess feet, we probably won't get to do everything in one day."

"These dainty princess feet are begging to kick your ass."

"I'm sure they are, Zel, now get out. It's late and I'm tired."

"Oh, alright, you whiner. Good night." And she actually gives me a hug. Probably trying to get me to let my guard down. She turns to Link, "Good night to you too. Try not to suffer too much. I'd give you a hug, but, you know. Maybe when you aren't contagious." He puts on a pity-me face and Zelda laughs before going out the door. I close it behind her and lock it, in case she tries to sneak in and steal my soul while I'm asleep.

But the door isn't soundproof, sadly. Her voice flows through the wood as though it were made of air—no wonder Romani can hear the mysterious snoring, "No, Sheik, I haven't forgotten. I will get you, one way or another. And it's going to be soon. Very soon." Then there's the sound of footsteps fading away and she's gone. I can hear Romani explaining to Zelda that she doesn't have a fan or a noisemaker to drown out 'my' snoring because she likes listening to nature at night. I've never heard that one before.

I jump into bed without changing into my pajamas; I'm too tired and lazy to do anything but sleep right now. Before I do that, however, I reach under my pillow and pull out the old picture of Zelda (without letting Link see) that got her on the Milk Bar stage in the first place. She mailed it to me back when she thought it was funny, but sadly for her, it was a dreadful mistake on her part. It's nice to have a good laugh before bed, you should try it. Oh, wait, I forgot; I need to turn out the lights. I put the picture back and get up to walk towards the door. Before I flick the switch, I notice Link staring at me, holding up his blackboard: What the hell was that threat about?

I only smile mysteriously, even though I'm kind of freaking out. I now feel for sure that whatever Zelda is going to do, it's going to be historical. "Oh, nothing. She's just a little bluffer, she is." Yeah right, I wish. Thank god for locks on doors and windows. I turn out the lights.

A/N: A couple of things.

--Obviously, Face Down lyrics belong to the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

--I don't know if you can or can't snore with strep throat. I've never had it. My mom's had it though, and from what she says (colorfully), it sucks complete ass. Snoring seems like it would irritate the throat, so yeah.

--For some reason, I can't write in first-person without straying to third every now and then, so forgive me if I do. I don't know how I keep forgetting, but oh well. Actually, I might use third-person when it gets to Romani's POV, just because it's MM. Maybe.

--I keep on wanting to type Malon instead of Romani, so forgive me for that too if it happens. Dang parallel people…

--About Poveglia Island: there's no such island anywhere in any of the Zelda games, but it's a real island. You should Google search it; I promise it's not creepy at all. -cough-

I seriously had no idea how hard it is to start writing fanfiction. I now have a lot more respect for the authors here. I'll never whine about lack of updates again.

Thank you, good night, and review if you feel like it. I could use the CnC; how else am I gonna improve if nobody tells me how much I suck? I'm finishing the story regardless, even though I have no idea how. It's kinda fun. Whee! :D