For a Want of Meaning
Chapter II
Samus' clothes itched. She picked at it and squirmed in her leather jacket. The texture felt odd to her. Her tank top and leather pants as well. It was different from her usual attire. But Zelda had insisted she wore something different; lest she forced it upon her. She wasn't sure why but in the end she acquiesced to the princess' demands. That was how she found herself in the grand foyer of Smash Mansion waiting for the princess. She adjusted her earbuds with one hand while the other fiddled with her music player.
From her spot near the entrance she surveyed her surroundings. Ike and Marth walked by her as they left for the night. Staff walked about performing their duties. Other residences of the mansion milled about, around the central fountain, the benches, or by the windows that overlooked the enormous garden behind the building. She glanced up at the vaulted ceiling, taking note of the skylight above.
The foyer was too spacious. Too many places she could be ambushed. Very little cover. She could duck behind the flower pots, or maybe the pillars. Maybe the benches, if only for a single shot. But it was all spaced out she'd have a hard time ducking from cover to cover. At least the exit was only a few meters behind her if she needed a quick escape. And the pillar she leaned against protected her back.
She nudged closer to it. Feeling its smooth surface assured her position.
Samus flinched hearing clicking heels approach. She looked. Her shoulders eased seeing Zelda. She took in Zelda's dress, noting her relaxed attire. Instead of her royal garb from this morning she wore a simple summer dress and jacket with heels. Stylish, but conservative. She seemed particular to pastel colours, compared to Samus' black leather.
Zelda smiled, pleased with Samus' attire. She motioned towards the door. "Shall we?"
Samus pushed off the pillar and pulled off an earbud. As she brought her hand down she patted her hip, habitually making sure her Paralyzer was in its holster, hidden by her jacket. She fell in step with the princess. As they approached the taxi she periodically glanced around, taking note of who was where doing what, and what her general surroundings was. They sat down in a limo that waited in the roundabout.
Inside Samus turned towards the princess, relaxed in her seat. "So why did you ask me out?"
Zelda faced Samus and grinned. "You interest me."
She quirked an eyebrow. "How so?"
Zelda contemplated the question for a moment. "People say things. Some of it true, some of it false. But I wouldn't know. You also have no identifiable friends or associates. In short, I wish to get to know you."
The huntress shrugged. "What's there to know? I'm a bounty hunter from the planet K-2L, and I compete here from time to time. That's about it."
"So I know your job, but what do you like? What do you dislike? What's your favourite food? Colour? What was it like growing up on K-2L?"
Samus frowned, skeptical of Zelda's intentions. While the princess didn't seem to wish her harm, something didn't feel right; something Zelda wasn't telling her.
"Why do you find me interesting? What's your real reason?"
"Do I need a reason?" the princess demurred.
Samus grinned. "I think we're both smarter than that."
"I never implied you weren't unintelligent. I merely asked if I need a reason to want to be your friend."
"I highly doubt you just 'want to be my friend'," she emphasized her point with air quotes. "You would've approached me sooner, probably when you first came here."
The princess regarded Samus for a few moments. "I'm not sure if you'd believe me if I told you."
"Try me," she said. "Worst'll happen is I walk away."
The princess considered answering when the driver suddenly spoke. "We have arrived."
Samus opened the door they stepped out of the limo. Samus looked around, taking note of the busy street behind, the crowded sidewalk, and the buildings that lined the streets. She looked upwards at the looming glass building in front of her, its dark glass reflecting the street before it. And above its entrance a giant neon sign proudly displayed the building's name.
She followed the princess inside who handled getting their seats. They were quickly sat down in a private booth on one of the upper floors that offered them a view of the ocean that bordered the coastline of Smash City. Again she looked around. Hardly anyone was dinning on the floor. She rolled her shoulders and eased back against the plush bench.
Samus barely reached out to her menu when Zelda asked a question. "Why do you compete?"
The huntress looked up, taken aback. She thought about the question for a moment. "Wanted to challenge myself. See what's out there." She scoffed afterwards. She already spent plenty of time competing. Of everyone she's fought only a handful held their own against her. "Wasn't what I expected. Even if it was a nice change of pace."
"From your day to day?" Zelda leaned forward. Her eyes glimmered with curiosity. Hearing the stories of the worlds beyond the skies fascinated her. It still baffled her there were those who've learned how to travel beyond their own worlds.
Samus shrugged. "Pretty much. Hunting can get boring sometimes, even if it pays well."
"What sort of game do you hunt? Their value must be substantive if you're able live off of it, while also paying for any needs you may have for your vessel."
Samus regarded Zelda carefully. Something about what she said didn't sit right. "What makes you think that?"
Zelda smiled. "Despite my archaic background, I'm fairly more sophisticated than I seem." She raised an eyebrow challengingly. "And I am well educated for one of my station. Perhaps you think I lack intelligence because of my background."
Samus grinned. "I deserved that," she admitted. "To answer your question, I hunt people. People with prices on their heads; criminal or not. If there's money, I deliver. And yes it does pay for everything I need." She shifted along the bench until her back was to the corner. "Since we're talking about ourselves, let me ask you something: What do you know about me? And how much of the info do you actually understand?"
Zelda was confused. "I beg your pardon? What does, info, mean?"
"Information," she clarified.
"Oh." She smiled sheepishly. They paused a moment to order drinks.
"Besides what you've told me, very little. Your biography was lacking. As for your ship, it's a marvelous advancement in technology. I don't fully comprehend the engineering, and many of the terms just don't translate to my language as those words don't exist yet. But from what little I could glean, the costs for those components are astronomical compared to what an average person in my world would make."
And there it was again. Something was off about Zelda. Nothing benevolent, but there was more to this woman. She seemed far too at ease for someone who came from an incredibly archaic time period, especially in comparison to her own. Even Link, a seasoned veteran still had trouble operating a lot of the equipment here. Zelda hadn't said much, but the way she carried herself radiated confidence. Confidence in her surroundings. Her posture was relaxed. Too relaxed, as if she already had a strong grasp of the culture around her.
"I suppose that's true," she slowly said.
Zelda looked at her curiously. "Is something the matter?"
That was when Samus noticed it. She glanced at Zelda's neck and ears, then wrists, then her clothes. There was nothing.
"Wait a minute," she mumbled. She reached up to her ear and turned off her translator piercing. "What language are you speaking?"
"If I remember the word, English." Zelda's accent was almost perfect.
Samus was flummoxed. "How?"
"Magic."
The huntress scoffed. "You can't be serious."
"I'm quite serious," Zelda insisted. "My magic," she emphasized with a sweep of her hand, summoning bits of earth, fire, and water, before dismissing it, "augments my learning abilities, to a significant degree. It also protects and regulates my brain from the amount of information I'm capable of learning and retaining." As an example she listed off the specifications of Samus' gunship, in English.
Samus shook her head in disbelief. "That's unreal."
"It's not without its drawbacks, however." Depending on the amount of information learned, she needed time to absorb and retain the information. Sometimes the dump could last for a couple days, leaving her bedridden and exhausted.
"However, we're not here to discuss my abilities. I'd like to spend the evening on more pleasant topics."
"Such as?"
"Things that we've done, our families, the people we've met, and perhaps in your case the worlds you've been too. Or about ourselves."
"Then this'll be a one-sided conversation."
"Oh?"
"I have no intention talking about my job. My family's dead. Everyone I've met are dead or in jail. I've been to too many worlds to count, and anything about myself is private."
Zelda, however, was undeterred. Her eyes lit up in interest, as if Samus was some great puzzle she just had to solve. "So you say, but I bet I can guess a few things about you right now."
Samus gave her a flat look. She doubted it. Her profile said squat, regardless if it was here or in her world. Her ship had none of that as well.
The princess grinned. "Your favourite colour is blue. You instinctively keep your back guarded because you're always ready for a fight. You don't enjoy the company of people because you think relationships is pointless, because you fear it may lend your enemies an advantage."
Neither said anything. Both favoured staring at one another, daring the other to back down. Both of them were confident that they'd get the other to back off, or to confirm or deny what was said.
"And your favourite flower is lilacs."
"How did you-" She cursed under her breath. She hadn't expected that particular guess. She could deny, but Zelda would see through her. Instead she asked, "What made you think that?"
"You're shampoo." Samus' eyes widened and her eyebrows jumped. "I could just smell it in the taxi."
Samus slumped against her seat. She hadn't expected that particular observation. Blue was a harmless, albeit true observation. Guarding her back and her opinions on relationships was based on her behaviour. But to smell her shampoo? She resisted the urge to touch her hair. She wondered if that moment of indulgence was a bad idea. She'd grown accustomed to encountering her marks in her suit. It allowed herself to use lightly scented body wash and shampoo. The princess was very observant.
She chuckled. Of course Zelda was observant. Samus was willing to bet that Zelda even chaired and actually directed her own meetings, instead of some seneschal or regent on her behalf.
"You're not what I expected in a princess," she said, suddenly amused.
The princess seemed confused, and somewhat surprised. "You've met other princesses in your travels?"
"More than you know," Samus muttered irritably. Most princesses she's encountered were spoiled, self-entitled, ungrateful brats, who expected everything handed to them on a silver platter, waited on hand and foot, and were dumb as doornails. "I swear, not the sharpest spoon in the knife drawer, if you catch my meaning." Zelda giggled at the analogy. Samus quirked her lips.
All of the princesses she met prior to Zelda lived in absolute decadence. Never want of anything. And sheltered. So incredibly sheltered that the one that actually realized she was a woman called her a brutish amazon, and lament how a woman could allow herself to do something so barbaric; that it was a man's work.
Zelda laughed. "I daresay many of my 'contemporaries, if that's even applicable, are not as intelligent as I am. Or rather, as the average princess would be expected. I wouldn't expect them at my level of course."
"Probably," Samus said. "But you never know, maybe I'll meet someone with some form of intelligence. Heck maybe I'll eventually meet your future daughter."
Zelda blushed. "That…would be an interesting possibility," she muttered. Samus chuckled before picking up her drink.
"Huh…" Zelda looked back up, concerned by Samus' statement. She looked at the princess and said, "Guess I just told you something about my adventures."
Zelda grinned. "And I believe someone said they'd no intention of talking," she sassed.
They shared a laugh as the waiter returned to take their orders. Samus turned her gaze out towards the evening sky. She watched the princess's reflection. Less than 30 minutes and this was probably the longest conversation she's had in a long while. Such as it was being a friendless bounty hunter – no one to talk to; an inherently lonely existence.
Strangely enough she felt at ease around Zelda. While she was peripherally aware of her surroundings, she felt no need to be hyper vigilant like she's been for the last few weeks. It was nice to relax and not think everything was out to kill her. At least she hoped.
"So if we're asking about each other, why do you compete?"
"A fair question." The princess set down her drink. Samus raised an eyebrow.
"A beer?"
Zelda shook her head. "I believe, it's called mead."
Samus scrunched her face in mild distaste. "Too sweet."
"Too bitter," she countered, nodding towards the other glass on the table. Samus chuckled and raised her drink in admission before drinking some more beer. The princess raised her own drink as well.
Setting her glass down Zelda mulled over her answer. "Watching Link a couple years ago, I decided to try. Suffice to say, it wasn't an impressive showing."
Samus snorted. She remembered the princess's disastrous debut. She remembered how badly the crowd laughed and jeered at her. A stark difference from the fighter she saw this afternoon.
"After that I began to train. Other 'incidences' later on confirmed that need to improve. So I trained, both in swordsmanship and magic. If I'm to compete, I need to be able to hold my own."
"You definitely did today," Samus remarked.
"Thank you. That's how I started. As for why, at first it was a poor way to amuse myself. I came here as a guest; I was still learning about this world as well. That was the first time I'd gone beyond my lands. I was intelligent, but I lacked, I believe the term is street smarts, as it were. Repeated visits helped me develop that.
"My first defeat taught me many things; such as intelligence and strategy wasn't everything. Tactics, quick thinking, snap decisions, those are what make a fighter. But what truly got to me was the challenge. The idea pitting my skills against another, to see where I stood among fighters, it called out to me. That's what ultimately kept me in."
Samus nodded. It was an interesting motivation, although somewhat idealistic and generic. But somehow that made the princess seem both real and unreal. A prim and proper princess who apparently had a decent head on her shoulders, competing with what would normally be considered riffraff. She grinned at the thought. But then like any other fighter, she was drawn in by the challenge and the love of fighting. And yet it just didn't fit the image, if she didn't look at her eyes and see the way it just sparked at the thought of her next fight. It was strange, to see that underneath this perfect example of a princess was a fighter, ready to take on the world as it came.
The princess smiled and took a sip of her drink before asking her next question. "Earlier you said the league wasn't what you expected. Could you elaborate?"
"No challenge," she said. "Most of them are too simple, too easy to read. Might as well fight a punching bag." She could count on one hand who could actually challenge her. The league had been a disappointment. Master Hand had over embellished the sort of challenge she'd face. Sadly there weren't as many able warriors competing as he made it out to be. Eventually it was the money that kept her coming back. A little something to make on the side, although sometimes the payouts were bigger than her paychecks.
As she talked, she watched the princess listen to her attentively; nodding her head, expressing her occasional thoughts, and maintaining their eye contact. It was strange to see a 'princess' give her the time of day, instead of mentally wandering off, offering half-hearted responses or outright ignoring her. It was nice knowing Zelda was genuinely interested; and could hold an intelligent conversation with.
But it did raise a question.
"You never did tell me what about me interests you."
Zelda nodded. "That is true." She looked down at her drink for a time, pulling her thoughts together.
"I honestly do want to be your friend. I always see you alone. And during matches, you would appear, wait your turn, fight, and then leave. That's the only time I ever recall seeing you, otherwise you're in your room or aboard your ship. I always see you alone."
Samus shrugged. "I prefer it that way."
"That's not true," Zelda snapped. Samus raised her eyebrow. "I've lived alone, and even I must talk to people. Everyone has their limits on solitude. Some can just tolerate it better than others. But eventually they need to interact with people."
Samus considered rebutting, but stopped. She frowned and stared down at her drink. She let out a heavy sigh. The princess was right. It was true that she could stand to be alone for weeks on end; it was part of the job. But she did have her limits. From time to time, she'd give Adam a call to see how he was doing. They'd talk for a while, and then go for weeks to months at a time with no contact.
She nodded, admitting to the princess she was right. "Yeah. You're right." They shared a drink before Samus asked Zelda for her other reason.
Zelda looked down at her glass again as she played with the rim of her glass. This was going to be the hard part. She looked back up and stared her dead in the eye.
"Lately I've been experiencing visions; often at night. The images were vague at first. But lately it's been becoming clearer." She paused to gauge Samus' reaction. No reaction so far; just a neutral expression and the occasional drink from her beer. It was hard to tell, but at least she wasn't outright rejecting what she had to say. Yet.
"Every time I'd always see this shape of red and orange fighting. Eventually it became this armoured warrior who'd stand beside me against some force attacking my kingdom. And finally just before I came here, I saw what the warrior looked like."
"It looked like me," she said slowly.
Zelda nodded. "I thought it was strange, seeing your image. But I've never had reason to doubt my visions. Something tells me I'll need your help in the future. But instead of asking for your help for an unknown amount of time, I wanted to extend a hand in friendship. Perhaps even forge a means of communication, so I could call for your aid if I need it."
Samus stayed quiet. She frowned and looked out the window. What could she say? Magic? Visions? It sounded almost unreal. But the Chozo had proven visions were all too real. Her encounters with the spirits back on Tallon IV proved ghosts were real too. She looked down at her left hand; her eyes tracing the sigil etched into the back of her hand. The same symbol on her zero suit.
Savior of the Galaxy they said. She'd long given up on the galaxy. But she suppose she could at least live up to the saviour part – at least somewhat.
"I'm not dismissing it, but even you have to realize how far off this is."
The princesses nodded. "I know. But please believe me that I am also genuinely interested in your friendship. Many here have said you're impossible to talk to, that you'd brush me off, or tell me to go away. Some speculated you'd ever shoot me." Samus snorted. Knock her out at worst.
Zelda indicated to the restaurant they were in. "But you're already proving them wrong. You're here with me, in this restaurant, talking to me, about to eat with me." Their food was placed before them. They shared a chuckle over Zelda's timing.
"I'm not asking for some overly cheery relationship, like how princess Peach can be. But I'd like to be able to spend with time with you, doing things, or just talk. Maybe over tea or coffee, or the occasional meal. Really simple things."
Samus leaned back and stared Zelda, who fidgeted in her seat. She'd said everything she could. She just hoped Samus' answer was agreeable.
"Are you going to force the issue on helping you?"
Zelda shook her head. "Unless I desperately need it, I'll respect your wishes."
Samus shrugged. "I'll think about it, possibly helping you that is." She raised her glass. "But I suppose I could use another friend."
Zelda smiled brightly and brought up her glass. "To friendship."
Samus returned the grin. "To friendship."