Sorry this took forever. Holidays, New Years, Lame excuses. All that fun stuff.
I haven't edited it yet, but I will! Just bear with it until then.
Enjoy!
THURSDAY MIDNIGHT
Wolf boy
The wolf collapsed onto the carpet.
"Zelda? What's going on?" Siera said in a shaky voice. Zelda didn't answer. She ran into the room, toward Zant, distracted by her rage.
"You stupid freak!"
Zelda had punched Zant in the stomach, knocking him back. Link had not been able to do it, but her rage and determination was enough to enable HER to. She experienced a moment of shock; she had never been that strong before.
"You'll never take him!" she yelled, standing between Zant and Link. She briefly looked at each of them in turn. Now that Zant's concentration broke, the shadow crystal fell out, gleaming onto the floor. Link was shaking on the ground, staring at it, clutching his chest, gasping for breath. It dissolved.
Zant sneered.
"You care for a wolf boy."
Zelda punched him again. It was as if some strange power had made the damage go up.
"He has a name! Now leave him alone!"
Zelda cursed her inability to think of some good retorts. It didn't matter. Her mind was too busy buzzing.
"I'll come back..." Zant laughed as he warped away.
"Coward!" Zelda shrieked into the air. "COWARD!"
For a moment, it was all silent. The men that had been holding Link had disappeared along with Zant and the only things that moved were Siera, who was shaking with fright, and Link, who was shaking from the sudden contact with the shadow crystal. Zelda turned. Link looked up at her.
"This isn't what you think." He said, quite lamely. "I mean, it's not what you might interpret. It's not…"
"Oh, is it, now?" shrieked Siera, pointing at him. "You're a wolf!"
Link closed his eyes, as if too tired to deal with this again.
"I didn't want you to know."
He said it to Zelda, and not to Siera, who didn't take kindly to being ignored. She scowled.
"What the hell is going on?" Siera shrieked.
"Siera, I need you to go now." Zelda said. "You're dreaming."
"I d-"
"Now!"
Siera glowered. It was clear she hated not being the center of attention; she was always showing off at lunch.
"No." Siera said flatly. Zelda knew she was actually quite caring and just wanted to help out, but she couldn't let her into this.
Zelda stomped up. She slammed the door in her face.
Neither Link nor Zelda spoke for a while. The only sound was Siera banging on the door and screaming with rage. Eventually she got bored and walked back to the cafeteria.
"You ARE dreaming!" Zelda called after her. "You ARE!"
"I couldn't fight him." Link said finally. Zelda turned to him.
"I couldn't fight him all those times I was in the lab. Today," he looked up at Zelda, "I knocked him to the ground. Why couldn't I do it before, damn it! I wouldn't have to have suffered!"
He hugged his arms.
Zelda noticed his eyes were flashing again.
"You were filled with chemicals then." Zelda protested, kneeling down. "You couldn't. This week you had time to heal."
Link looked away. He wiped his eyes. Zelda had not noticed it in the dim light- he had been crying.
"You were brilliant." She whispered to him. "You took out those guards... they were huge."
Link smiled a small smile. But then it disappeared.
"I couldn't take out Zant."
They fell silent again as Zelda tried to think of an excuse for him. A cricket was chirping outside.
"He took you by surprise. He knew where you were, and he…" she didn't want to say what she was thinking," …brought a weapon. He used it when you were on top of him; the easiest time to hit you with it. You couldn't get away."
Link closed his eyes and put his head in his hands.
"I'm a monster." He said. Zelda could tell that he was close to crying again. She didn't know what to say.
"You aren't…"
Link's head shot up. His eyes were full of tears, but none fell.
"Don't pretend! You saw what they can do to me! You saw how I am!" He stared down at his hands. Zelda nearly gasped; the cuts she had seen in the vision were still there. "I tried so hard to keep that from you…"
He broke down and cried, palms on the floor. Zelda couldn't do anything in this situation. A tear rolled down her cheek as well.
"I'm sorry." She whispered. Link nodded.
"It's not your fault." He said quietly, wiping his eyes on his cut arm. "But now you know. Your friend knows. I'll be taken back, and for sure I'm going to be tested on again. People will want to see again. I can't escape it."
They stared at each other. And as Zelda looked into his eyes… she realized that he looked more like a normal boy. His eyes were slowly changing into a normal blue, and she could tell he was becoming more human .A normal person with one bizarre problem, or like a puppy that's owner left and didn't return.
"I'll never let that happen." Zelda said, pulling him into a hug. And this time, she didn't mind feeling the cuts along his arms. She couldn't help notice he felt like a frail and delicate bird. He was so weak.
"Zelda… you're about to give me the greatest thing I've gotten in my entire life." He mumbled, embarrassed. Zelda pulled back and faced him.
"What's that?" she asked, curiously. She hardly saw the cuts on his arms. Suddenly, it felt hard to breathe. Her heart was beating fast, and she seemed to know what was going on a second before it did.
Link didn't answer her question with words. He leaned forward… and pressed his lips to hers.
She almost didn't recognize what this was. Oh yeah… a kiss. Her first kiss.
Zelda didn't mind. This was actually… kind of nice. It was one of those creepy kinds of kisses; the kind that sends shivers down your spine. In a good way.
It ended very quickly. Link was the one to end it, because he pulled back almost immediately, realizing what he had done. He was blushing furiously. Zelda, too, felt her cheeks get hot.
"Um… yeah, so I'm just going to… yeah. I'm going to bed now." Link mumbled as he hastily crawled, backwards, toward his cushion that Zelda had put down for him.
Zelda tried not to laugh. He looked friendlier. He looked human. Completely human. Only a trace of wolf in his veins, and that wolf would only be triggered by a shadow crystal.
"Ok." She said, getting up and crawling into her own bed.
They stared at each other.
"What?" asked Link, his blush returning.
"What's what?" replied Zelda.
"What's what what's- hey, just wait a minute! I'm not going into this one!" Link almost yelled, sitting up. "No more tricks! I'm sick of tricks!"
Zelda giggled. Link sighed and flopped back onto the cushion.
Once again, quiet consumed them. There were more crickets outside now.
"Remember… remember the twilight girl that I showed you?"
Link asked, disturbing the silence. It was like a stone being thrown into an icy pond.
"Of course." Zelda replied. Another stone.
"I… I wonder if… what Zant did to me… is not such a bad thing?" He asked, staring at the ceiling. Zelda sat up so quickly that she might have been lit on fire.
"NO! What he did was horrible, awful, and hideous! He's a monster!" she did not mean to yell, but this was just such a stupid question. And then she noticed that Link was smiling.
"It's not a laughing matter!" she yelled.
"Alright, master."
Zelda flushed.
"I didn't mean it-"
"It's fine. Don't take it too personally." He waved his hand. "But the twili girl… she could turn into a shadow. She turned it into an advantage. I wonder… if I can do the same. You know…" he turned away from the ceiling to look at Zelda. "With my body reacting to it in a way… being a wolf might not be so… bad."
They looked at each other. And then without realizing it, Zelda said,
"You do have a weird body." It took her a few moments to realize what she had just said.
She clapped a hand over her mouth.
"I- WHAT?"
"I didn't mean it that way!" Zelda gasped.
"Pervert." Link said, smiling.
"Shut up."
"No. Now, for nicknames! I shall call you Pervert mc. perves a lot."
"Over my dead body!"
"And my wolf one."
"How can you joke about that? Shut UP!"
"Never!"
Zelda rolled off her bed and onto Link, her fists diving into his stomach. He yelled.
"Ah! Ok, I'll stop!"
"Swear on your wolf genes."
"I swear on my wolf genes!"
"Un-cross your paws."
"Dang."
"I shall call you Mr. fluffy, and I shall give you a bone every day, and you will be Mr. fluffy who crosses his paws."
"Shut up."
Zelda stuck out her tongue at him. He laughed, and she found herself laughing, too. Link seemed more like a childhood friend than a boy she found one week ago. A lot had happened in one week.
Zelda got back onto her own bed. Link had gotten much more like a teenager, too. Possibly because the chemicals were wearing off. Possibly because she had been inside his mind.
Possibly because she had kissed him.
Zelda smiled and closed her eyes. She could still feel the shadow of his lips on hers.
From so scary, to so...sweet. Hm. How cool.
