Getting her life back to normal was important to Zelda as it was her therapist's suggestion. She wasn't supposed to deny the events that had happened to her, but look at her life from this new perspective and see how she could maintain the parts of her past that she enjoyed. Zelda desperately missed seeing her friends every day at school while she was gone. They had come to visit her during her absence, but it wasn't the same as having them all around, all the time.
Her group of friends had sat at the same lunch table in the back-left corner of the cafeteria all of high school and today was no different. Paya, Midna, Urbosa, and Ruto sat around her, talking and enjoying their lunches. Zelda munched softly on an apple, her fingers skimming over the note her father left in her lunchbox for her.
You're doing great today. -Dad
When he packed her lunch during elementary school, he had always written a sweet note for her to read during lunchtime to get her through the day. She didn't think he'd remember this morning to do it again, but he had and it made her more emotional than she wanted to admit. Her father cared so much about her and what had she done for him recently in return? Ignored and avoided him. Why was she pushing him away?
"Zelda?"
"Hmm?" Her eyes snapped to Ruto's, but the whole table was staring at her. She smiled softly. "Sorry, lost in thought."
"I asked," Ruto said, her voice gentle, "if you were thinking about prom yet? I went dress shopping last weekend and didn't find anything, but now I'm window-shopping for a date. What about you?"
She could tell that it was forced, that they wanted to talk to her about anything besides what happened, to keep her mind occupied. She still smiled though.
"No, not really. I saw a beautiful dress in a shop in Eldin the other day when me and my dad were driving past, but I haven't been looking around. Why aren't you going with Ravali?" She took a bite into her apple. The entire table froze. Wrong question. Ruto's eyes squinted together as Urbosa placed a calming hand on her shoulder.
"They broke up a few months ago," Midna announced with a mouthful of her sandwich, reassuringly looking at Zelda, "and honestly, good riddance."
"He cheated on me," Ruto said, her anger quelling slightly. "I guess I forgot to tell you."
"I'm so sorry, Ruto. I didn't know." Zelda's cheeks flushed red as she looked down into her lap. "I'm so, so sorry."
"No, it's okay. I'm not mad at you," she said in that tone that meant that she was still mad, but just wanted to drop it. The table was silent for a few seconds before Midna swallowed her bite and spoke again.
"I managed to find a dress. It's all black with a slit up the right side. I think it'll be nice to show a little leg, what do you guys think?" And suddenly, the tensions were gone and replaced with prom talk again. Zelda quietly sighed to herself as Midna gave her a quick wink before taking another bite. She smiled back, thankful for the recovery.
She really was out of the loop with her friends. What else had she missed out on? Would she ever know? Probably not. She hadn't imagined that this was how her first interaction back with her friends would go. She thought it would be filled with laughter and them just goofing around. Were their conversations always this boring? They couldn't have been, right? She felt that tightness in her stomach, a thick knot winding itself up. Hiding her jittery hands in her laps, she hoped no one noticed she was diving off the edge.
"Did you get the homework for Zant's class?" Paya asked sincerely as the other girls chatted. She felt some relief wash over her. A distraction.
"No. I feel like I'm so behind in that class. Calc isn't something you can teach yourself at home," Zelda forcefully joked to her. She giggled return.
"It's not like his teaching is much better. You probably know more than the rest of us." The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. The knot squeezed inside of her. They all packed up their lunchboxes, heading back towards the hallway with the rest of the students. "Do you want to walk to class together?"
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom really quick. I'll meet you there?" Zelda asked and Paya nodded, following the rest of the students. Zelda slipped into the girl's bathroom next to the cafeteria and quickly locked herself into the stall furthest from the door, her fingers shaking as they jangled the lock into place.
She placed her back against the wall and buried her face into her hands. Tears immediately poured from her eyes and onto her hands. Her breathing was labored. Anyone else in the bathroom would know she was having a meltdown, but she didn't care. She wanted to scream. Why did her friends feel like strangers? This wasn't her normal. She didn't upset her friends; she was notoriously the peacemaker. What had made her ask a stupid question like that? When did she become such a bad friend?
She couldn't calm herself down, not even with the breathing exercises her therapist had taught her to do. Her mind raced through everything that had happened and how much everyone must hate her, how much she hated herself. Her fingernails dug into her palm as her knuckles turned white from the pressure, the skin left indented and sore. The tears refused to stop flowing and her breath heaved in and out unrhythmically.
She wouldn't make it to class today.
The living room of the farmhouse consisted of two oversized chairs, one for each of Link's grandparents, facing the direction of the ancient TV set and a small couch pressed into the right wall of the room. Link arrived home, kicking his boots off and slouching his backpack near the door. He walked through the archway separating the living room and kitchen to find his grandparents watching the TV silently. He flipped the light switch—off, on, off, on, off, on—to alert them to his presence. Their eyes stayed fixed on the screen.
He entered the living room, walking between his grandparents and the TV, and sat down on the couch, his eyes traveling over to the TV set as well. The picture was slightly staticky, but he could still tell it was one of those classic daytime talk shows where they pushed pseudoscience and random products with occasional celebrity appearances. The captions on the bottom of the screen suggested that today it was focused on a new fad diet. He relaxed for a moment into the cushions, watching along with them. It was so comfortable; he could physically feel himself starting to doze off. Once the show went to commercial, he looked back over at his grandparents, his eyes half-asleep.
"Done for today?" His grandfather signed.
"Not yet." Link signed back, knowing what response was coming. It was a ritual at this point.
"Get to work then." Link nodded and rose back onto his feet, the comfort of the couch a distance memory. He exited the living room and walked back to the front door. His feet wiggled back into his boots, and he went out the back door, heading directly to the stables with Rosa following closely behind.
Epona whinnied excitedly at him as he entered. She was his girl and she always had been. He gave her a few of her favorite treats while he brushed her coat. Rosa rubbed herself against his calves as he did so, purring loudly as she moved in circles around him. He positioned the saddle on top of Epona and then the bridle. With a foot in the stirrup, he climbed on top, settling into the saddle. Rosa jumped up onto the half wall and then leaped into Link's lap on the saddle. She had started riding along with Link months ago and had grown fond of this daily task. Link scratched her chin gently before giving Epona a soft pat on the neck.
He grabbed the reins between his hands and led her out of the stables and into the fields. A yawn escaped his lips, and he cursed silently to himself. He knew he'd be unable to stop and pay attention to his tasks. It was the worst reminder of how tired he was. He could deal with the heavy eyes and the foggy brain, but yawning was the biggest annoyance by far. As they traveled further from the farmhouse, another came out, and then another.
He lightly slapped himself on his right cheek, urging himself to stay awake long enough to finish for the day. Rosa nuzzled into his other hand, begging for a pet, and he allowed that to occupy his mind. He and Epona worked as a team herding the cattle back together into a unified group to get them back to the barn. They had done this together for years and she knew by now how to almost do it on her own, allowing Link to go into a sort of autopilot.
Saria finally told Link what had happened to Zelda a few days after he had asked. He vaguely remembered some of the details from the news broadcasts, but it wasn't as in-depth as Saria's retelling of events. He was right to feel sorry for her, regardless of how he felt about her previously. He decided that he was going to try to act nicer towards her than he would have ever been before. He held the door open for her when they were both headed to their lockers at the same time, which she thanked him for again in that sincere way. It wasn't a lot, he realized, but it was probably enough to make her feel good for a moment, and that felt good for Link.
Rosa looked beneath them, curiously spying a snake slithering through the field a few feet away. Her tail whipped back and forth angrily as her eyes tripled in size. Link didn't notice, too lost in his thoughts. Suddenly, Rosa darted from the saddle, leaping after her prey as it hurried to escape. He saw a blur of white in front him, shaking him back to reality. Rosa's front claws dug into Epona as she leapt, causing her to cry out in pain and buck. Link leaned heavily to the right to try and grasp Rosa before she hit the ground, but as Epona bucked, it shifted his weight further and knocked him from the saddle. His foot twisted in the stirrup as his face hit the ground first. A spooked Epona hurriedly tried to escape from the scene, dragging Link along the ground with her.
Link was quick to tug on his foot, ignoring the pain searing through his face. The stirrup was caught around his ankle and he yanked it once again. No release.
He whistled as loudly as he could, something he hoped Epona would respond to. She didn't, continuing to trot through the field with Link stuck to her. He tried again and she slowed, calming herself down, enough that the third tug on his leg released him and the rest of his body thudded to the ground. He laid there for a moment, taking in the scent of the grass and feeling his heart pounding in his ears as the adrenaline coursed through his body. If he wasn't awake before, he was now. He rolled over onto his back, sat up, and touched his hand to his face. It stung instantly and he quickly removed his hand. He couldn't imagine how rough it looked.
Epona had stopped a few feet ahead of him finally. In the distance, he spied Rosa happily, skipping back towards them with the snake between her teeth, her prize. I hope it was worth it, Link thought as he lifted himself off the ground, his body already sore. The cattle had dispersed from all the commotion and they were back at the beginning of the task. He sighed heavily and mounted Epona once more, this time without Rosa in tow.
The sun had set hours ago, and yet Zelda was still awake, sitting at her desk with only the desk lamp and the nightlight by the door illuminating the room. She read from a poetry book, her eyes blurring in and out of focus as the words stopped having meaning. Her hands made gentle circles over her eyes before she dragged them down her cheeks. She was tired, but she knew she couldn't sleep. She could sense the nightmares lurking in the back of her mind, a monster awaiting its prey.
She had tried reading. She had tried doing her homework. She had tried watching stupid videos on the internet. Her eyes continued to drift over to the nightstand where the bottle of sleeping pills waited for her. They would knock her out quickly, but at what cost? She would wake in an hour, screaming and crying, and then she would feel exhausted instead of just sleepy. She looked at her phone. 12:27.
Could she stay awake until tomorrow night? Or would she fall asleep at school, having a nightmare in class? She couldn't imagine how horrified she would be if that were to happen. Everyone would know that she was crazy, she wouldn't be able to hide it like she barely did now. But still, she did not want to go to bed. Either she could brew some coffee now or she could take her sleeping pills, and she hated both options. She thought for a moment and then reached into her loose change jar sitting on the corner of her desk to pull out a penny. She positioned it on her pointer finger and tucked her thumb behind it.
"Let fate decide."
Heads: sleep. Tails: coffee.
Her thumb flicked, sending the penny into the air. She watched hopefully as it rotated quickly around and round. As it landed back on the desk, she slapped her hand on top of it. She dreaded looking, but after a deep breath, she removed her hand: heads.
"Fuck," she whispered. A sigh escaped her lips as she stood, making her way over to the nightstand. She begrudgingly grabbed her water bottle and took a sip. She rattled the pills around in the bottle, finding the good one that would keep her asleep. The dark blue capsule went down smoothly. She looked over at the desk lamp and decided to leave it on. It would be easier to calm herself down if the lights were still on.
She slithered underneath the covers, immediately feeling comfortable against the sheets. Her head laid on the pillow and she was out.
At the other end of Hyrule, Link was preparing for his own nighttime routine. Freshly showered, he dressed into a t-shirt and boxer-briefs. He rustled his wet hair with the towel and let it fall around his shoulders. He tossed the towel aside as he picked a blanket off the ground and stuffed it underneath his bedroom door. He walked the short distance to the other side of the room and opened the window an inch. Cold air instantly surrounded him and sent shivers all over his semi-wet body. He embraced the goosebumps as he wrapped his arms around himself instinctively.
He had discovered years ago that he had to be warm to fall asleep, making cold air was the most effective way to keep himself awake. He recognized that it had its drawbacks—constant shivering and an unbelievable amount of pee breaks—but it worked, so he continued leaving the window open during the cold nights, especially winter ones like tonight.
His teeth were already chattering as he positioned himself on his bed. He grabbed a book off his bookshelf, one that he had already read a hundred times or more. It wasn't about actually digesting the context of the text or enjoying himself, but it was a placeholder to distract his mind. If he could read the words, the same words he had read over and over again, his mind wouldn't drift off into his thoughts, wouldn't work himself up into a panic.
Some nights he would allow himself to sleep, only if he set an alarm, because he knew his limits enough to know when he needed to. Sometimes he'd stay asleep until the alarm went off; most nights he didn't. After today's rough ride with Epona, he knew his body needed rest, but he would delay it as much as possible. So he skimmed through the text, his mind completely void of thought, for a few hours until his eyes were too heavy to ignore. He set the book back on the bookshelf and took the alarm clock in his hands, setting it for two hours, praying that he could actually stay asleep for that long. He flicked the light switch off. His shivering body relieved as he closed the window and snuggled underneath the blankets on his bed. His eyes focused on the red numbers on the alarm clock, watching as they slowly blurred into complete darkness.
There was nothing but the strip of light glowing around her bare toes. Her movements stifled; her body tightened around itself. Rigid in this void of nothingness, there was no escape. She attempted to push her arms out in front of her, but they were tangled around her, unmoving.
She whipped her head to the left and then to the right, it slamming hard into both sides of the darkness. The pain radiated from both spots, but there was no sound. She swallowed hard before opening her mouth and releasing all of her fear through her throat. Silence.
Again and again, she screamed using all the air from her lungs. Her throat burned as her desperation to be heard bloomed with ferocity. She was trapped. No one would save her if no one could hear her. Her head continued to rock between both sides, attempting to dislodge her from the darkness that held her. It was to no avail. Nothing existed besides the strip of light and her.
Her throat raw. Her head bloodied. Her body tight. She couldn't give up. She could feel her voice just underneath the surface ready to breakthrough the silence. One more.
As she took her last breath in, the darkness shattered with a blinding yellow of light. She released all the fear inside her.
"Zelda!" Her father cried, shaking her by the shoulders. Zelda's heavy eyes sprung open. She had finally found her voice, ringing out in the stillness of her own bedroom.
Being back at school was challenging for Zelda in ways that she hadn't imagine it would be. Her classes were fine; her teachers were extra accommodating— go figure . But she always felt like everyone was staring at her, watching and waiting. Did they expect her to have a major meltdown in front of them constantly? She was sure by now that rumors of her crying in the bathrooms had started making its rounds; she would never give them the satisfaction of knowing if it were true or not. To her, everyone was in on a secret that they couldn't tell her, and yet that secret was hers.
It had been a week and half since she returned, and there was nothing else happening in the Hyrule rumor mill to keep their attention away from her. She was still trying with her friends and they were also trying with her, but it was so painful for everyone. Doctor Purah had suggested trying more one-on-one with her friends than in a group constantly, but that ended up being even more awkward when they ran out of things to talk about and no one to fill the gaps. Nothing truly interested her anymore like it used to. Not her favorite bands, her favorite clothes, or her favorite activities. She hated herself for it.
All the students were milling about before first period began as Zelda walked towards her locker. She could see that Link was already at his, oblivious to the rest of the world around him. How lucky he was to just keep his head down and go unnoticed by everyone. She hadn't really noticed him in all their years as locker mates, something she now felt guilty about. He was the only person who didn't make her feel alienated. Their interactions were limited, but always friendly. He had held the door open for her after he noticed she was walking behind him, and on the day she accidentally dropped her books at her locker, he immediately sprung to pick them up. If she had talked to him before now, she knew that he would have done those things for her years ago.
He was sweet , she concluded. Shy, but sweet.
"Good morning," she chimed as she approached his right side. She had started saying that to him every morning since she had dropped her books. He never verbalized it back to her, but he always nodded once.
He nodded, his eyes fixed in front of him and his face cloaked today beneath the black hood of his hoodie. This grabbed Zelda's attention; this was new, interesting. What is he hiding? she wondered as she decided to get a quick peak by leaning her head slightly closer to him than she ever had before, but still far enough to avoid invading his personal space. She gasped softly, and he looked down, burying his face into his locker.
"What happened to you?" Her voice genuinely worried. He had scratches down the right side of his face extending from his hairline to his chin, covering his cheek. A deep bruise colored his forehead underneath the scratches. His eyes remained staring in front of him, but the light pinkish hue to his cheek gave him away; he was embarrassed.
He shrugged gently, slightly turning away. Zelda only bridged the gap and moved closer, slightly closer than she should have, but not enough that Link was uncomfortable.
"Are you okay?" she asked quietly. His cheeks growing ever pinker as his eyes finally met hers. His exhaustion and embarrassment melting with her concern and pain, that tinge of familiarity hitting them both again. He hesitated for a second and then nodded. She could see the scratches better now, all mostly on the top portion of his head. His forehead was still slightly swollen. "Hold on," she said, stepping back slightly and digging into her backpack. She pulled the icepack from her lunchbox and extended it out towards him. "Here."
His eyes widened, immediately regretting allowing her to see his injuries. He shook his head and waved his hands back and forth. No, no, no, no. Zelda stuck it out further.
"I don't need it." He hesitated again, looking at it. She waited another moment, watching him watching her hand. The pink hue had dissipated. "Please."
His fingers stretched out and gently grabbed it from her palm. She released it and watched as his hand trekked to his forehead. He winced slightly, closing his eyes briefly to take in the coolness he desperately needed. Zelda smiled at him until his eyes reopened to meet hers. His eyes were wide as he slowly nodded at her twice, really showing his appreciation.
"You're welcome," she said, turning to open her locker. Link closed his. As he turned to step, she teased, "You know, you're going to have to tell me what happened eventually, right? You can't just leave a girl hanging in suspense like this."
She looked back over at him, a small smile on her face, and for the tiniest second, she saw a hint of a smile cross his lips, his eyes lit up in a flash. It immediately disappeared before he nodded once and walked away.
She didn't understand that boy one bit, but god, did she want to.
It was odd; she saw herself reflected in those blue-eyes in a way she couldn't describe. Everyone else looked at her like a fragile porcelain doll teetering on the edge, a second away from shattering, but not Link. His eyes, when he allowed her to look into them, swirled with gusts of anger and exhaustion. No one else understood how refreshing it was to not see worry or pity in his eyes and to just see his own storm of problems brewing beneath the surface. He was the only person whose eyes still seemed human to her.
She shook her head, hating where her mind was going, and closed her locker as the bell rang. She was late again, but it was becoming a habit at this point.
Thank you guys for the awesome response to the first chapter!
I promise this is the last chapter of introducing the characters and their relationships to other people before we get into the more exciting parts of the story.