After last weeks teaser opener (there were so many grammatical errors in that, which I profusely apologise for - I blame the fact that I uploaded it really quickly after writing it, which isn't a defence :'( I'm sorry) here is chapter one. Quick note:- for all intents and purposes Navi and other non-human characters are humanoid shape but with all other physical characteristics attributed to their race. Hope you enjoy :D

"Before you hear some dirty lies from someone else, yes, I'm dating a seventeen year old." Link said to his house-mate as he closed the door behind him. He had just stepped out to the village shop to get a few supplies for the day before going to pick up Malon. When they had been together the previous afternoon he had promised her that he would take her round the market and the game centres in Hyrule Castle the next day. Despite Saria teasing him about it as the two had walked back to Kokiri Forest, Link didn't mind taking Malon to the game centres; it gave him an excuse to practice his shooting and he liked spending time with Malon.

"Aww, is he cute?" Navi asked not even looking up from the map she was reading. Link rolled his eyes; Navi did have an annoying habit of implying that he was gay. "Hey listen, did we ever do anything about that underground treasure hole we found near the moat around Hyrule Castle?"

"It's on my 'To Do List'." Link mumbled putting his bags down, grabbing his backpack and beginning to sort through the assorted mess inside so that he could make room for his new purchases. He knew that he could have just left it and brought food in Hyrule Castle but the shops there were so expensive and his Rupees were beginning to dwindle...maybe he should move checking out that treasure hole up on his 'To Do List'...

"Hey listen," Navi began finally looking up from the map. "does you dating a seventeen year old mean that we have to stop sleeping together?"

"Do you see another bed in here?" Link asked, his voice muffled slightly from the inside of his backpack.

"Oh yeah, you're totally my bitch forever." Navi muttered as she looked around the small house that the two of them shared. There was one bed (which Navi had brought when she moved in as Link had been sleeping on a broken one that needed to be thrown away), there were a number of rolled up maps all lined perfectly in a smart looking bookcase (which Navi had spent three house putting together and another hour sorting through the maps) and a wardrobe filled with a number of outfits for different terrains (all of which Navi had found knowing that Link would need them the next time he was given a quest to complete). All the kitchen and bathroom utensils were also Navi's as were the curtains that had been put up around the shower and over the windows.

In fact, despite it legally being his house, the only things that Link really owned were a battered old Ocarina (that Saria had given him when they were kids), a chest full of weapons he had picked up on his quests and a picture of half naked Kokiri girl smiling coyly and pushing her chest out. Link had to admit (even though he would never do so out loud) that since living with Navi he had become much less of a slob :- the house was clean eighty percent of the time now.

"Um, you know the whole seventeen thing?" Link asked drawing Navi's attention back to him. "Don't tell too many people will you?"

"You know me." Navi replied seemingly absent-mindedly plucking the strings of a small harp that lay on the table holding down one of the corners of the map she had been inspecting.

"I mean, don't tell Nayru." Link explained closing his bag, finally happy that he had gotten everything in there.

"You know me." Navi said leaving the harp alone and going into the kitchen. Link watched her leave with narrowed eyes, he didn't trust her. Whenever she suddenly left what she was doing and went to potter around in the kitchen it meant that she was either doing something that he had asked her not to or had already done something that he had asked her not to.

He opened his mouth to say something but the harp on the table began to play a simple tune of its own accord. Link groaned as he realised what was happening and, before he could stop it, there was a bright flash of blue light. When it had disappeared a slender girl with long blue hair and a blue dress was sitting on the table next to the harp regarding him with a raised eyebrow.

"Seventeen years old, scandal!" Nayru exclaimed in mock horror.

"That's not true!" Link cried. Nayru continued to look at him with her sceptical expression and he relented. "Who told you?"

"Navi, duh?" she replied shrugging as if the answer was obvious. That gossipy bitch! Link thought glaring at his house-mate.

"Navi!" he yelled angrily.

"Hey, you know me." Navi said, coming back in from the kitchen with three cups of tea, as if that was a perfectly reasonable defence. She handed one of the cups of tea to Nayru and the other too Link who took it grudgingly.

"So who is this child you're dating?" Nayru asked taking a sip of her tea.

"Her name's Malon," Link said quietly. "she lives on Lon Lon Ranch."

"A farm hand?" Nayru asked. "With the milk-maid outfit and everything?"

"She doesn't always wear it..." Link mumbled. Nayru shook her head incredulously.

"You're ridiculous." she stated.

"Such a cliché, isn't he?" Navi added taking a sip of her own tea and leaning on the table next to where Nayru was sitting. Nayru leaned forward, resting her chin on one of her hands and her elbows on her knees.

"Link is this you legitimately moving on or are you just being insane?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Link asked choosing to focus on Nayru's questions rather than thinking about stabbing Navi in the eye with a pencil. He couldn't believe that she had called Nayru here just to give him a lecture. Nayru had know Link for years (almost as long as Saria had) and she had taken it upon herself to act as a big sister figure for him, which mostly consisted of berating him for the multitude of stupid things he did.

"I mean it's been a year since Din broke up with you..." she began but Navi raised a hand and cut her off.

"We don't use the 'D' word in this house." she explained.

"Fine," Nayru waved her comment off. "since you got dumped by 'She Who Will Not Be Named'. This isn't you just putting off getting over her is it?"

"No." Link stated. "It's nice being with Malon."

"You two haven't..." Nayru trailed off, wanting to imply rather than actually ask. "Have you?"

"No." Link replied hurriedly. "I think she hugged me once but then she got embarrassed." he added.

"That's so sweet I'm getting diabetes." Navi stated sarcastically.

"I think it's a cry for help." Nayru added. Link glared at both of them.

"Don't you have work to do?" he snapped at Nayru. Nayru exclaimed slightly as if she had only just remembered that Navi had called her away from her work. She drained her tea and put the cup on the table behind her.

"You're right, I should ask Ralph about this." she added, talking more to herself than to the other two. Link sighed that was all he needed; Ralph getting involved. Ralph was in love with Nayru and annoyed Link enough as it was without having the added ammunition of knowing the age of his girlfriend.

"I beg you not to." Link said but Nayru wasn't listening.

"Navi: keep me posted." she stated.

"You know me." Navi smirked and Nayru disappeared in the same flash of bright blue light that had brought her in. Navi turned back to look at Link, who was still sitting there glaring at her. "What?" she asked in feigned innocence.

"I do not want to be here!" Navi grumbled an hour later as she and Link stood next to the drawbridge that led inside Hyrule Castle.

"Hey you said you were going to the Castle too and would walk up with me. You knew I was meeting Malon at the drawbridge – you don't have to stay."

"You were so desperate for me to meet her I didn't feel I could leave." Navi muttered. "I hate you; even I would think twice about dating a seventeen year old."

"Well her dad says she only allowed off the farm when the sun is up so it's not really dating." Link explained. "It's more like..." he began trying to think of the word.

"Play-time?" Navi finished his sentence for him smirking at Link as he winced slightly.

"That doesn't sound so good." he groaned.

"Nope." Navi shook her head. "Makes you sound like a peado."

"I hate you." Link said, dropping his head in anguish. He looked up immediately as he heard a familiar voice calling his name. Malon was only a few metres away from him and Navi. She waved happily when she saw him and began skipping over. Link didn't dare look at Navi's expression when he saw this but he was sure that she was looking at him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Why did everyone have to make such a big deal out the age gap between himself and Malon?

"Hey Link." Malon beamed when she reached the drawbridge.

"Hey Malon." Link replied stupidly and the two exchanged a look that made Navi's stomach turn. She cleared her throat loudly and Link seemed to snap out of his daze. "Malon this is my house-mate Navi, she's a Fairy." Link introduced her. Malon looked at Navi and exclaimed.

"Oh! I've never met a Fairy before." she stated.

"We don't appear in front of just anyone." Navi stated flatly. Link let out a short burst of nervous laughter.

"Ok Navi you can go now." he muttered so that Malon wouldn't hear him. "Be gone."

"Whatever, I have stuff to do." she stated and turned to leave.

"See you later." Malon said waving slightly. Navi turned and took hold of Malon's shoulders, staring directly into her eyes with a mildly crazed expression.

"You're too good for him." she told Malon. "Run!" With that and no other explanation she was gone, vanishing into the crowd of people hanging around the entrance to Hyrule Castle's market place. Malon turned to Link looking slightly worried.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"That's just Navi." Link explained hurriedly. "She's crazy."

"Oh ok." Malon smiled and relaxed and the two of them turned and crossed the drawbridge into the Castle.

"So where do you want to go first?" Link asked as they stepped into the crowded square that was home to a number of market stalls, food stands, established shops and game centres.

"Well Dad asked me if I could pick up a face for our new scarecrow in 'Majora's Mask Shop', I'd like to have a look at some of the jewellery stands and I want to see if I can get some merchandise of my favourite band." Malon said, counting off her list on her fingers as she thought about them. "Also you need to show me your skills in the game centres."

"My skills aren't as good as I make them out to be," Link laughed. "but I'm still a pretty good shot." Link didn't want to brag but he was one of the highest scorers in the shooting range, both with a bow and a slingshot – going on quest after quest did have its advantages after all.

"Um excuse me..." Link heard Malon ask. He turned around to see that she had stopped in front of a large stand with the word 'INFORMATION' over it in large letters. The girl behind the stand, a girl Link recognised dressed in a green uniform with two large green buns on either side of her head, just stared at her with a bored expression. She looked as if being asked to do her job and give out tourist information was a huge inconvenience. "Do you know where I can find merchandise for 'The Clash At Demonhead'?" Malon asked timidly, faltering slightly under the girl's disdainful and disinterested stare.

"Have you tried looking under the sign marked 'The Clash At Demonhead Merchandise'?" the girl asked in a voice as bored as her expression pointing to the stand next to the one she was working on.

"Thank you Farore." Link muttered darkly. For some reason, that he had never been able to work out, Farore hated him. There was just something about him that she despised and she would never tell him what it was. Not only did she hate him but she seemed to be everywhere he went! No matter where in Hyrule he went he always seemed to bump into her and she would always say something that would make him want to leave her presence as quickly as possible.

Farore looked passed Malon, who was nervously shuffling over to the next door stand and looking through the merchandise, and straight at Link. He smiled awkwardly under her gaze, which never changed from that bored, disdainful expression that seemed to permanently grace her features.

"Are you coming to my party tomorrow night?" she asked Link. "Or will you be too busy...babysitting?" she added with a very pointed look at Malon.

"Thank you Farore." Link muttered darkly again. "Probably not." he added loudly enough for Farore to hear him.

"Tell Saria that Stephen is coming and he's bringing his friends, even though she probably already knows that." Farore told him. Stephen was Saria's cousin and occasionally he came to Hyrule with the rest of his band, 'Sex-Bob-Om', to see Saria, occasionally play a show or two and try to salvage his constantly on/off relationship with Farore. Every single time Stephen came to Hyrule their relationship status would end up changing and it was all Link could do to keep up with it. He sighed, if Stephen was going to Farore's party then that meant that Saria would be going and that meant that he would have to go and spend the entire night getting abused by Farore – just his idea of fun...not!

"Ok I'll tell her." he assured her trying not to say too much so that he could get away from this conversation as quickly as possible.

"And no miners." Farore added with another pointed look at Malon, who looked round nervously. Link laughed slightly and turned away from Farore to Malon. He put his arm around her and turned her away in the process, feeling Farore's glare still burning a hole in the back of his shirt and through to his skin.

"You don't want to listen to her." he told Malon laughing. He took the CD that she had been holding and looked at it before throwing it back on the stand. "And you definitely don't want to listen to them."

"But I love them so much." Malon told him picking the CD up again. She pulled a small pouch of Rupees out of one of her pockets took a few out and handed them to the man behind the stand. He put her CD in a small bag and handed it back to her after she had pocketed her Rupee pouch.

"I loved them so much too," Link mumbled more to himself that to Malon. "that is until their manager turned into a total bitch and ruined my life." As hard as he tried not to think about her for most of the time whenever 'The Clash At Demonhead' were mentioned Link couldn't help but think about his ex-girlfriend Din.

Din had been Link's first proper girlfriend, and his first love, a couple of years ago (he didn't count Ruto who he had only really gone out with because of a misunderstanding). The pair of them had been inseparable for most of their time together but then all of a sudden she moved away from Hyrule and gradually stopped talking to him and eventually he found out that she had been seeing someone else behind his back. The last he had heard about her she had begun managing a band from the same area Steven and his friends came from, who he had actually liked before he found out that she managed them and so he stopped liking them out of protest.

"Envy Adams is so cool and their manager Din is amazing." Malon said as if Link hadn't spoken. "Have you ever seen them live?"

"Hey you said you wanted to go in 'Majora's Mask Shop'?" Link asked changing the subject and hoping that Malon wouldn't notice.

"Oh yeah." she said smiling shyly again.

"And then I can show you my awesome shooting skills." he grinned.

"Ok." Malon smiled and the two of them made their way over to a large shop in the far corner of the market square.

After Malon had picked out a mask for her father's scarecrow, finally deciding on a purple one shaped like a heart with giant yellow eyes and green spikes haloing it, the two of them went next door into the shooting gallery.

Link gave the man behind the counter a couple of Rupees and he handed him over a bow and a quiver of arrows as he told him the rules. Link was so used to coming here he barely listened as the man explained the points system and what you won depending on how many points you got. Link notched an arrow and the man started the game. In no time at all Link had hit every target, including the moving ones, and had even beaten his own high score. He handed the man back the bow and arrows and the man handed him his prize :- a hand-held game that allowed you to play as a ninja and fight other ninjas. Link smiled and was about to give the game to Malon but she was staring at him, in awe of his shooting abilities.

"Wow!" she breathed unable to say anything else. Link smiled, a small balloon of pride swelling in his chest. This was one of the things he really like about Malon; everything he did she thought was amazing.

"Yeah," he replied. "wow..."

I know the story (and dialogue) is very similar to the film at the moment but that will be changing so please bear with me, I'm just working out how to get the right mix :p xx