Now I know that I didn't update in a while but rest assured, I will always update eventually. I am just very lazy (how flattering) and extremely busy because University started and if you've ever been a fresher- you probably know it's complicated. If you're planning to be a fresher- consider yourself warned.

So I have no idea if anyone cares, but I'm just saying.

And thanks again to Flame Falcon who is really amazing and keeps inspiring me and also to Purple Mercenary who also reviewed the last chapter.

Now read it. Go crazy.

Gabriel Van Helsing blinked twice. That was not an enemy in front of him. He was always expecting the unexpected but still he certainly did not expect that. No, in front of him was a very pretty girl with terror in her pretty blue eyes, and all of a sudden Gabriel didn't know what to do. He didn't normally almost pierce pretty innocent girls to the wall.

He didn't have to do anything, because after the initial shock, the girl looked as if she'd spit fire and the terror in her eyes was replaced by fury.
With a quick movement, she ripped the knife out of the wall and furiously threw it somewhere in Gabriel's general direction, obviously not aiming directly at him.

"How do you DARE? Are you insane? You don't show up at the party, I take it upon me to look for you throughout the whole mansion and when I finally find you, YOU THROW A KNIFE AT ME? WHAT were you thinking?"

Gabriel raised a gloved hand in an attempt to calm her down. "I wasn't thinking, I-"

"You weren't thinking?" Shit, wrong answer, the girl got even more furious. "I don't know what you are trying to tell me, but once Master Hand learns about this, and don't get me started about Link-"

"Nononono, no! No! I'm a hunter, okay? That were instincts, you just showed up without warning and my instincts reacted before my brain did." She looked as if he had calmed her down a bit, but she still stood in front of the door with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. "I'm sorry" he added, hesitantly.

That seemed to satisfy the girl. She smoothed down her silky brown hair and coughed slightly. "Apology accepted", she said, "so I take it you are Gabriel Van Helsing?"

Just then, Gabriel realised that he was holding about three other knives in his hands and quickly put them back in their sheaths which were hanging from his belt, concealed by the long black cloak he always wore. "I am." The small knife she had thrown still lay on the ground, and he made a few steps towards it to pick it up. If it was up to him, the conversation was over.

She coughed again. "I am Princess Zelda of Hyrule. Although you, accidentally, almost pierced my face, it's a pleasure to meet you, Gabriel."
"Likewise." He was forced to say something, and she obviously didn't want to leave, because she closed the door behind her and gave him an expectant look, which Gabriel pretended not to notice.

"So. You are a hunter? What kind of hunter?"

"Demon hunter", Gabriel said, reluctantly.

Zelda walked over to a small bench in the training room, sat down and put her hands in her lap. "And where are you from, Gabriel?"

"England."

"Ah, Snake's home world?"

"Who?"

"Never mind", she said. Better not start talking about bad influences. "When did you arrive? I didn't see you attending the welcoming party, and I know I would have noticed you."

Gabriel looked at her, confused. "You would?"

"Of course. You're a newcomer. You stand out of the crowd."

Gabriel didn't like standing out of the crowd, but at the same time it was difficult not to, given his appearance (he was perfectly aware of that). Or, rather, he simply didn't care. About his appearance, about what other people thought of him. And yet, he found himself being surprisingly self-conscious in the presence of this girl he'd just met. While her bright blue eyes were still fixed on him, he scratched his head.

"You don't like parties, do you?", Zelda asked him to keep the conversation going.

"Don't know. Too many people in one room, besides, I don't really know anyone."

"But that's just the point of this party- to get to know each other!" Gabriel did not respond and Zelda clapped her hands together. "Now you do know someone, though- me! And you know what, you may not like parties- or maybe people in general" she quickly added under he breath, "but how about I take you to the festivities and introduce you to everyone? I can assure you, all of the Smashers are very friendly and of course we have our black sheep, but doesn't everyone?"
Gabriel was at loss what to say- the Princess obviously was very talkative, her flood of words made up for his silence with ease. Obviously she'd forgiven and forgotten about the stunt he'd pulled before, and her face lit up with excitement as she mused how she'd introduce him to some kiddo named Peach (he was trying hard to listen but she was talking so fast).

Zelda rushed back to the door, hoping he'd follow her out of the room to the party, but Gabriel held his position. She cracked the door open and gestured for him to join her. "Come on, it'll be fun! It's just up the-"- her sensitive pointed ears had detected two familiar voices from down the hall and she violently shut the door shut.

"Is everything alright?" Gabriel finally dared to ask.

The brunette stood with her back to the door and smiled sweetly. "Why, of course it is, dear. I just figured, since you don't seem to be very fond of parties, I am certainly not going to force you to socialise."

"Thank you." Well, that wasn't the answer she'd expected. Gabriel turned around and walked over to a bag of supplies.

He seemed to be a nice fellow, Zelda thought, so better not immediately expose him to the gang of dim-wits who were wandering around the corridors. No, better keep him company and introduce him to people like Link or Marth, she figured. Take him under her wing. In fact, the best idea ever popped up in her head. She walked over to him and patiently waited for him to finish searching whatever he was looking for in his bag.

He turned around to face her and instinctively, his hand gripped one of the knives at his side. "Whoa" he stuttered, and nervously took a step back. She was way too close.

"Gabriel, do you have a mentor?" Zelda asked him.

"A what?"

"Someone to take you under their wing, to help you through the first weeks of life in the Mansion."

He narrowed his eyes, thinking for a moment. "I'm not sure. The big hand might have assigned someone to do this but I didn't talk to him since he showed me my room."

"Master Hand" she corrected him and kept smiling. "Well, if you haven't heard from him, maybe that means you don't have a mentor. Listen, how about I take that upon myself?"

"If you want to."

She'd not expected him to burst with enthusiasm, but such a stoic answer didn't meet her expectations either. "I would show you around, introduce you to everyone, explain the training schedule and plenty of other stuff. Would you be fine with me doing that?"

"I wouldn't mind."

Alright. That should suffice, she thought. After all, they'd only met a few minutes ago and Zelda was positive he'd warm up to her and the Smash Mansion if she gave gave it some time, if he gave it some time. He was just another newcomer, he'd learn to like the Mansion. They always did.
And suddenly Zelda remembered the first time she stepped foot on the Mansion's grounds and how different and new everything was, outright scary. It seemed like yesterday, she hadn't even been twenty years old at that time. She remembered how enraged she had been not to get a room of her own but being forced to shared it with a blonde girl (who'd arrived the day before and already decorated the entire room with pink stuff, much to Zelda's dismay) who was named after a fruit and claimed to be the Princess of a 'mushroom kingdom'. Oh, how annoyed Zelda had been. Ripping all the pink banners and posters off the walls, she had sent a death glare to Peach, who seemed not to give a damn about what Zelda thought of her, and put up a huge violet curtain in the middle of the room in order to create some personal space. Funny that the curtain fell down at least a dozen times a day and Peach quickly turned out to best the best friend Zelda had ever had.

Or how in the beginning, Link always helped her out with the training in between sessions because she felt like she wasn't yet good enough to seriously compete with the other Smashers (she got her royal butt kicked badly in her first brawls). Now she was the best mage in the Mansion.
And that was even before Master Hand had come up with the whole 'mentor' idea. Zelda felt confident that Gabriel would find his place here in due time and as an experienced Smasher, it was her job to help him. Oh, and how she was up to it.

Unfortunately for Zelda, the next morning, her hopes were pretty much right away tossed out of the window.

She had spent the evening talking to Gabriel (yes, talking to him, not with him, because it had been her who did all of the talking) asking him about his life, his family, his weapons. She couldn't say that she'd learned much about him. His answers were taciturn and sometimes, he hadn't even bothered to answer at all, but he seemed like a good kid (of course he wasn't literally a kid anymore. After five minutes of consistent asking, he'd finally told her he'd be 20 in some weeks), and he seemed to be shy around new people. Zelda felt a little bad having harassed him with thousands of questions- it was the Peach thing to do. Her best friend always attacked new people with questions, and to her amazement, Zelda had realised that the method was good. Of course, it didn't work with everyone, but in general, Peach had always managed to make shy people- well, less shy by asking them a lot of questions and talking, talking, talking. And after a while, Gabriel's answers had been less taciturn.

Not bad.

So when she thought his ears and her mouth were about to fall off, she'd checked if the corridor was clear and asked him anew whether he wanted to come join the party with her. Gabriel still didn't seem very enthusiastic so Zelda decided to give the guy a break and left him alone.

Back at the party, Zelda thought she'd stepped into a new dimension. Everyone seemed to have a blast (she couldn't tell if it was for the actual party of the excessive amount of various beverages on the tables). Constantly switching between playing the DJ and pulling off sick breakdance moves on the dance floor, Sonic seemed to have even more admirers than usual, female and male alike. Peach and Marth were sitting in a dark corner and probably admiring each other's hair and outfits. Micaiah was vividly talking to Ganondorf and even Sothe (still next to his wife), with a bottle of beer in his hand, seemed to crack a smile now and then. Link was crying of laughter as he watched Pit, and both of them had clearly drunk enough, fly against one wall after another. And Captain Falcon -and Zelda came just in time to angrily prevent it and give the Captain a long but completely futile lecture because he'd forget about it first thing in the morning- amused himself with spiking the drinks of Lucas and Ness.

The Captain however (clearly drunk) kept making a fool of himself in front of Popo, Nana, Ness and Lucas, who thoroughly enjoyed watching the not-so-grown-up do stupid things, and for the children's sake, Zelda stayed at the party until late in the night. At some point, Captain Falcon had probably enough of playing the fool and left for the gardens.

Zelda decided to tuck the children in who immediately fell asleep the second she turned off the lights in their rooms, and after a quick shower, she went to bed herself.

And around nine in the morning, she was back in her and Peach's shared room, sitting on her bed and fuming. She hated not getting her will.

Of course, Zelda was modest. Under no circumstances could one say Hyrule's Princess was spoiled, selfish, mean, or even worse, not generous or grateful. No, she was by all means a sweet and good girl.

However, she hated it when someone dismissed her ideas. And she hated it even more, when someone dismissed an idea of hers that she thought was excellent, and that's exactly what had happened in Master Hand's office.

That morning, she woke up at seven and after a quick look across the room, beholding the loudly snoring Peach with smudgy make-up and completely messed up blonde hair, Zelda guessed that her friend must have been sleeping for two hours at most. Wow, that must have been quite the party.

However, she did not regret having missed half of it (she would later on, though only because Peach's constant raving about how amazing it was would really grind her gears) and jumped out of bed, completely refreshed and ready to start the day.

Dressed in a chic skirt, a white blouse and cute sandals, she walked up to Master Hand's office and knocked at the door.

"Come in", she heard Master Hand say, and so she did.

After he'd told her what an honour and pleasure it was to have the Princess back at the Smash Mansion and after she had equally drowned him in compliments, she smoothly changed the subject to this year's newcomers.

"- which reminds me, while I was talking to Gabriel Van Helsing, -"

"Ah yes, a valuable addition, the boy."

"Yes, anyway, he happened to mention that you, Sir, did not assign him a mentor yet. Or at least, he doesn't know whether you did or not."

"Well, Princess,", Master Hand said, leaning back in his huge chair, "that's because I did indeed not assign him a mentor. Yet."

"Why, if I may ask?"

"As for now, we simply didn't have the chance to."

Zelda saw her chance, and she took it. "In that case, I have a suggestion. I have talked to Gabriel yesterday and first suggested it to him- and he said he wouldn't mind- no, in fact, he was very happy for me to make this offer. How about you assign me as his mentor, Master Hand?" Of course Gabriel had said no such thing. But Zelda decided that Master Hand did not have to know the details.

However, the big hand started drumming his fingers on the table and fell quiet. After a moment of thinking, he said "I understand, but I must reject your offer, Princess." And that seemed to be the end of it.

Zelda blinked twice. She had been so sure that he'd accept. Why shouldn't he? It had been such a good idea! "Sir, but why?"

"We usually have a… ritual. We write all of the Smasher's names on pieces of paper, throw them into a bowl and then-"

"I GET TO PICK! I GET TO PICK!" The bookshelf to Master Hand's right slid to the side and Crazy Hand burst into the room, excitedly jumping up and down. "THAT'S RIGHT, ME, ME, ME!"

Zelda loosened her grip on the armrests of her chair. Crazy Hand had scared her to death. "Has he been listening this whole time?"

Master Hand quickly pushed his brother back into the hidden, adjacent room and pushed a button, and the bookshelf slid back as if nothing had happened. He coughed slightly. "Anyway. My brother gets to pick out the names and basically, that's how we determine the mentors."

"But… Could you not make an exception? I mean, we really hit it off!"

"I don't doubt your words, my dear Princess, but when I make one exception, I'm gonna have to make another, then another, then another- you get the idea. I am afraid the answer is still no."

Which is why, after five more minutes of trying to win him over, Zelda left the room not very happy about how the day had started.

And now she sat on her bed and waited for Peach to get ready, who, as usually, took ages to do that.

"- well I'm sorry you didn't convince him, hun, but let me just say that maybe you would have had better chances if you'd worn those cute boots I got you last year. Remember, always match your shoes to your accessories."

"I don't think that would've changed anything, Peach."

"Oh, honey", Peach said while applying the fifth layer of mascara, "you'd be surprised how many arguments I've won just because my outfit was fabulous."

Zelda rolled her eyes, because of that and because of your cleavage, she thought. But arguing with Peach was like arguing with a wall of concrete. Thus, all she said was "Are you ready? Let's go eat", because breakfast was ready and if Zelda loved anything, it was definitely food.

And so, the two Princesses soon made their way down the main stairs, heading for the dining room, when they saw Link standing in the middle of the corridor and staring at something on the wall.

The Hylian quickly heard them coming and waved them over to him. "Zel, Peachy!"

"What's up, Link? What's that you're looking at?" Zelda asked in a hurry. The sweet smell of delicious bacon had already found its way to her nose.

"I was just going to get something to eat when the Hands rushed past me, just, like, half a minute ago. Look, that's the list of the mentors this year!"

Zelda pushed him violently to the side. What? Already? Man, the hands had been quick about it! She scanned the paper for Gabriel's name- there it was. And next to it was another name, but it was not hers. And it was neither Peach's, nor Link's, nor Marth's name.

And she did not like what she saw.