Okay guys, here it is! The last Chapter (posted almost half an hour before the end of my winter break so I technically accomplished my goal). My long end-of-story thank you/author's note will be at the end of this chapter so I'll let you get to the reading.
Enjoy!
Link woke up to the mouthwatering smell of a homemade breakfast. As the teen sat up and rubbed his eyes, he was greeted by a cheery voice.
"Good morning, Link. Care for some breakfast?" The young knight looked across the room to see Mallara setting the table and smiling warmly at him. He eagerly jumped out of Pipit's bed and took a seat at the table.
"I already ate, so eat as much as you'd like," Mallara said as she began clearing her own dishes. "After all, you ought to celebrate such a special and happy occasion."
"Right!" Link agreed as he eagerly began stuffing food in his mouth. But then he slowed down when he realized exactly what Mallara had said. "Wait... special occasion?"
"Oh I just thought... Didn't you...?" She was met by Link's blank expression. "Well Pipit has here earlier and he told me that... oh never mind." She gave up explaining and went back to gathering dishes. She gave a small smile. "I didn't know you were such a lovebird, is all," she mumbled under her breath.
Lovebird?!
Link quickly stood up. "What did Pipit tell you?"
"Oh well he, umm," Mallara seemed clearly embarrassed as she beganto explain but before she could continue, there was a knock the door.
They both turned and watched as Pipit let himself into the house.
"Pipit, dear, what's the point of knocking if you're just going to let yourself in?"
He waved his hand dismissively. "Knocking is just a formality; besides, it's not like- wait a minute." Pipit directed his attention to Link. "Why are you still here? Classes start in less than ten minutes!"
"What?!"
"Pipit," Mallara whispered to her son as Link began scarfing down his breakfast. "Link's classes don't start for almost another hour."
"Shush! Don't tell him that. I just thought it'd be fun to light a fire under his butt and get him out of the house."
"I'll never understand why you do the things you do," Mallara sighed.
Pipit chuckled. "It's not like its hurting anyone." And with that, he headed towards the door. "Come on Link! You're going to be late."
"Hey, wait up!" Link stumbled as he tried to catch up with his yellow clad friend who was already out the door.
"What took you so long?" Pipit mocked as Link jogged to finally catch up with him.
"Well it wouldn't take as long if you had the decency to wait for me every once in a while."
Pipit gave a goofy smile and ruffled the younger boy's hair. "Aww come on now, you're not even going to thank me for checking up on you? You would have been late to class if it weren't for me."
"Knock it off!" Link shoved Pipit away from him, doing his best to fix his hair.
Pipit raised his arms in surrender. "Alright fine, I won't insist that you thank me. But you can't afford to get on the Headmaster's bad side, now can you?"
Link hesitated before muttering a small thanks to his friend.
"I guess you did help me out. But wait a minute..."
Link thought back to Mallara's "lovebird" comment. What exactly did Pipit say to his mother to make her think that he was in love?
It's not like anyone saw or heard me and Zelda last night.
"What did you say to your mom this morning?"
Pipit laughed. "I take it she let it slip."
"Let what slip?"
"That you... How do I put this delicately? That you and Zelda were sucking face last night."
"WHAT!?"
Pipit burst out laughing, completely ignoring his friend as Link demanded an explanation.
"Why would you say that?! What makes you think that I kissed her?! And why would you tell your mom?!"
"HAHA. Oh Great Din, you should see your face right now! You're all red! Ahahaha!"
"Pipit, what the hell?!"
"Hey, it's not like you two were trying very hard to hide. You were on a freakin' pedestal for crying out loud!"
"Weren't you supposed to be patrolling your route!?"
Pipit wagged his finger in Link's face. "Now let's not go back and forth blaming each other for this or that. We'll only waste time and you don't have time to waste."
"I can't believe you were spying on us- wait... why did you stop walking?"
Pipit laughed and crossed his arms. "Do you even realize where we are?"
Link took a look around. He was so flustered by Pipit's comment that he didn't notice that they had walked into the academy and up to the second floor.
"Listen," Pipit began, "I didn't mean to upset you with that whole "sucking face" bit. I figured it was the only sure fire way to distract you during the walk here. The truth is I stumbled upon you two last night and I'm really happy for you." He gave a genuine smile, but as he knocked on Zelda's door the smile became a smirk.
"And classes actually don't start for another hour. I just figured I'd give you two some time alone." And with that, he ran off.
"Wait, Pipit!"
Pipit only turned to give Link a wave and a wink before disappearing down the stairs.
Even though it was nice of Pipit to do something like this, it would have been a lot nicer to have some kind warning.
Link sighed and closed his eyes. What was he suppose to do now? Zelda was going to open the door any second and he didn't have any reason to be standing around-
"Link?"
He opened his eyes. Zelda was standing in the door way with a pleased yet confused expression.
"What are you doing here?"
Link smiled sheepishly. "I wish I knew the answer to that."
Zelda rolled her eyes. "Well you might as well come in. I was just studying for today's quiz."
Link smiled and followed Zelda into her room.
"So are you going to tell me the real reason you were just standing in front of my door?" Zelda asked as she sat down indian style on the ground in front of an open textbook.
"Well it wasn't exactly my choice." Link said as he took a seat on the edge of her bed. "Pipit's the one who led me up here and knocked on the door."
Zelda looked up from her book. "Why would Pipit do that?"
"He... saw us." Link said slowly. "Last night."
"Oh," Zelda blushed and turned away. "I didn't expect that to happen."
"Yeah." Link took a moment to carefully choose his next words. "We haven't really talked about whether or not we want other people to know."
There was a beat of silence before Zelda stood up and sat beside Link on the bed. After a short pause, she reached for Link's hand and spoke in a soft voice.
"To be honest, I don't really care that much. If people find out, then they find out. We don't have to scream it to the world but there's no point in trying to keep it a secret either. That seems like it would be more trouble than it's worth. I say we just let things run their course. What do you think?"
Link smiled and then leaned forward to lightly kiss her forehead. "I like that idea," he said as he gave Zelda's hand a small squeeze. She giggled and wrapped her arms around Link, pulling him into a tight hug.
At that very moment there was a knock at the door.
"Hey Zelda," Karane asked, letting herself in. "I was wondering if you had the notes for- NO WAY!"
"Oh no," Zelda groaned, burying her head into Link's chest. However Karane was too excited to hear Zelda's complaints. The redhead let out an ear-splitting squeal as she ran over to bear-hug the couple sitting on the bed.
"Oh Great Goddess, I am soooo happy for you guys! I can't believe that you two are finally dating! That's so great and everyone's going to be so happy for you and-"
"Karane please!" The couple snapped in unison.
Karane held on to the duo for a moment longer before letting them go and stepping back a few feet.
"I'm sorry, I'm just so excited!" Karane clapped her hands a little as she fought the urge to hug them again.
Zelda gave an annoyed sigh. "My notes are by my text book. Now will you please leave?"
"Okay fine, I'll leave now." Karane picked up Zelda's notebook and skipped over to the door. She looked back at them and grinned. "You two have fun now. But not too much fun of course. Be nice and don't do anything inappropriate! Remember to always-"
"KARANE!"
"Okay, okay, I'm gone!" And as soon as she had said it, she was out the door and giggling down the hall.
Zelda groaned and buried her head into Link's chest once more. He gave a small laugh and patted her on the back.
"I'm guessing between her and Pipit, all of Skyloft's going to know in less than ten minutes," he joked.
Zelda giggled and looked up to meet Link's gaze. He smiled and took both of her hands in his. "You were right though," he said, pausing to kiss each hand, "I really don't care who knows. As long we're together, right?"
Zelda's cheeks turned a light pink. She threw her arms around Link's neck and closed her eyes.
"As long as we're together."
And that's the end!
I hope it wasn't too cheesy/predictable/unsatisfying/bad in any way. I'm really proud of how this turned out and I thoroughly enjoyed writing this. I hoped you enjoyed reading it just as much!
Thank you so much to every single person out there who read, reviewed, favorited, followed, or checked in on this story at any point. It really means a lot to me. I know there are hundreds of thousands of fanfics out there and that you guys are busy too. With that in mind, I really appreciate that you took the time to check out this story of all the stories out there. Thanks again!
I love you all and I hope to see you in whatever story I choose to write next!
Bye~!
