Geez, I really need to get my act together when getting these out faster! But honestly, I had huge writer's block when writing this chapter, so that was part of it.
And I will try to make longer chapters now. I tried finding places I could fit in more description in this one, but I think I maxed out the amount of words I could have possibly written in this chapter (even if it is the longest one so far). The next chapter will probably be on the short side as well, but from then on the chapters will be much longer (and much more exciting!).
Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Friends with Benefits
Chapter Nine : Make it or Break it
[3rd Person]
A knock startled Zelda up from the couch as she ate her breakfast and watched Sunday morning cartoons. She stumbled over to the door, grumbling to herself.
"For Nayru's sake, if that's Ghirahim coming to complain about noise again, I'm going to kill him." Zelda threatened under her breath. Whoever was at the door knocked again, even louder. "I'm com-AH!" She was cut off by slipping on one of Link's jackets that had been lazily dropped on the floor by said man.
"Are you okay?" Came the feminine voice from the other side of the door. Zelda recognized it as Malon's voice, and clumsily stood up, taking the jacket with her. She hung it up on the nearby coat rack and opened the door. "You look… nice." Malon chuckled, seeing Zelda's disheveled pink pajamas and messy ponytail.
"Oh be quiet, you know it's a Sunday." Zelda rolled her eyes, but still subconsciously fixed her appearance slightly. "So what are you doing here, anyway?"
Malon stepped into the apartment and noticeably grimaced at how messy it was. It really wasn't that bad, but to Malon it seemed to be. She certainly isn't the neatest person around, but she knew that Zelda was practically a clean-freak.
"Does Link ever clean up around here?" She asked, noticing a week's worth of papers strewn on the coffee table.
"Yes, but not much!" Zelda laughed. "I don't think it's that bad."
"Oh, really?" Malon paused, realizing that getting Zelda to realize Link's annoying habits so she'd want to move out would be more difficult than she had originally planned. "So, where is Link anyway?"
"He's still sleeping." Zelda answered before going into the kitchen and digging through her fridge. "Do you want me to get you anything?"
"But it's almost 10! How is he still asleep?" Malon sat on the couch and glanced at the TV, noticing the cartoon Zelda had been watching. She raised her eyebrows in surprise. She actually likes this show? It's horrible! Malon thought, then realized that she never answered Zelda's question. "Oh, uh… water is fine."
"Alright." Zelda called back.
A few minutes later, Zelda came back into the living room section of the apartment with a glass of water for Malon and coffee for herself. She sat back in the spot she was in earlier, and stared at Malon for a while, and in return she gave her friend a very confused look.
"What?" Malon finally spoke, glancing around awkwardly.
"Well?" Zelda asked as she sipped her beverage. Malon stared at her for a little while, puzzled by her question. Zelda cleared her throat before elaborating, "Why are you here?"
"Oh, I got you a little something." She held up a package and handed it to Zelda. "I had seen it when out shopping the other day and thought that you might like it, so I got it for you."
Zelda carefully opened the brown box and found a lot of packing peanuts on the inside. Being careful not to let many fall out, she moved them aside until she found a small clay pot. It was very wide and light brown, with a dark brown strip and a strange white design towards the top. It did look very nice, but easily breakable.
"I thought that you might want to put some spare rupees in there or something." Malon grabbed some green and blue rupees from the table and dropped them in. "See, it's a great storage place!"
The girls heard a noise come from behind them, so they turned to see Link stumbling out of his room, covering his mouth to block a huge yawn. He was only wearing light brown sweatpants, and had some serious bed head.
Malon tried to hide her blush as she saw her former crush's bare chest, while Zelda looked as if she was about to start laughing at Link's hair. It was clear he had been sleeping on his right due to the hair on that side sticking up almost straight, making it look like he had failed at combing his hair over.
"Good morning, sleeping princess!" Zelda chuckled and Link rubbed his eye.
"Why is Malon here?" He asked, ignoring his roommate's comment.
"I came to give Zelda a present. See, look!"
Malon quickly handed the pot to Link, who stared at it quizzically, but soon took it. He examined it with a weird look. When he was done looking at it, he went to hand it back to Zelda when he dropped it on accident. The three looked down at the broken pieces on the floor and the scattered rupees.
Malon nearly squealed in excitement when she saw it break. She knew that Link was very clumsy when handling things that are fragile, especially pots and jars. She figured that if he broke something of Zelda's, she would get angry and then realize how many things he breaks and not want to live with him anymore. Malon prayed to the gods this plan would work, because otherwise she just threw 30 rupees down the drain.
But, to her surprise (and annoyance), Zelda wasn't angry at all. In fact, she was probably the opposite of angry. She even started laughing at the predicament. Link looked relieved and Malon tried to not look too mad that her plan had failed.
"My gods, Link!" Zelda exclaimed, rolling her head back as she tried to regain her breath from laughing so hard.
Link looked totally shocked at Zelda's response, "Zelda, I'm so sorry, I - "
"Don't be!" Zelda patted him, tugging on his arm to bring him over to sit with them. "I honestly expected that to happen. I still don't get how you manage to break every pot you find."
"You're not mad, Zel?" Malon asked, not believing how casually she was taking this.
"I'm sorry, Malon. I know you selflessly got me this present and all, but did you honestly not expect Link to break it?" Zelda stood up from her spot and started walking to the kitchen. "I'll get you some breakfast, Link. Will you please clean up the broken pieces for me in the meantime?"
"Sounds fair!" Link replied, standing up and noticing the TV. "Oh, Malon, would you mind turning it up? I love this show!"
"Really?" Malon questioned him, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah. I know lots of people think it's kind of stupid, but Zel and I think it's really enjoyable, even if it's kind of cheesy."
"Alrighty…" Malon sighed as she raised the volume just as the green-clad hero said his signature catchphrase to the annoyed princess on the screen.
"And she wasn't upset at all!" Malon exclaimed to her two friends later that day.
"Seriously?" Midna, who sat down in the chair opposite of the other girl, asked. "When he dropped one of my pots a couple of weeks ago, I totally flipped out on him! I had that sent all the way from Termina!"
"Plus, she didn't care about his total laziness about cleaning up or even dressing properly. And him sleeping in really late." Malon shook her head as she relived her earlier visit. "It was really weird."
"What happened to the annoying and controlling Zelda we all know and love?" Dark laughed.
The three had all agreed on the plan as far as either getting Link and Zelda together or making them "break up." They decided to first try getting them to stop sleeping together (as opposed to trying to get them to make things more official), and thought the best way to do that was by getting Zelda to move out of Link's apartment. They had planned to get her to do this by making her realize all the things about Link that annoyed or bothered her.
They had agreed to meet up at Midna's house, which is located just outside of Castle Town, to continue to discuss their plan and what they should do next. Her house is relatively large (especially in comparison to her friends' apartments) and decorated nicely as well as being well-kept. The only reason they don't go there as often as they go to everyone else's places was because it was so far out of the way.
"Also, not that it really matters in the scheme of things, but they both really like this really bad cartoon from the 80's." Malon added.
"What is it called?" Dark asked as he began to obnoxiously chew on a piece of candy.
"Oh, I dunno… uh…" Malon tried to remember the title, "I think it was 'Legend of' something? I'm not sure, but it was really bad."
"I know that one! It is… not good." Dark grimaced, trying to figure out why they would ever like such a show.
"I know, right? But they love it apparently!" Malon shrugged, utterly confused with their love of a cartoon made for children. Midna cleared her throat, obviously frustrated with them not discussing the actually important things.
"Anyways, I think trying to psychologically manipulate them into doing it themselves will never work." Midna stated, tapping her lips gently in thought.
"What do you mean?" The other two gave each other confused looks, both not quite sure what their friend was trying to get at.
"And we can't just outright tell them to make it official or break it off," Midna continued to think out loud, "but they would never define their relationship themselves unless they had to."
"Alright, and that pretty much leaves us with what we started with." Malon sighed. She was really starting to get aggravated with the whole ordeal, and almost wished they never learned about it in the first place. But now that they do know, they definitely have to fix it. It is just not healthy for either of them.
"What we really need to do is come up with something that would definitely either break them up or get them together, and nothing in between." Midna concluded, and Dark gave her an annoyed look.
"We've already established that, Midna." He stated, sighing. He honestly didn't care about what Link and Zelda did behind closed doors. If it didn't affect him personally, it wasn't his problem. The only reason he was getting involved was because he knew Midna cared about it.
"No, no, no. Instead of trying to trick them into breaking it off or getting together, we need to make them realize it with our help. This way there will be no risk that they'll keep sleeping together without it meaning anything." She paused. "We'll figure out whether being together or not is better for them."
"So… which exactly should we do?" Dark asked.
"Well, personally…" Malon finally spoke up. "I think we should try to get them to be together."
"What?" The other two exclaimed in unison.
"I think we should get them together, officially." Malon repeated, looking at her friends' dumbfounded faces. "When I was over there, I can sense that they felt really strongly towards each other. It might not be love, yet, but who knows? The more I saw it happening, the more I realized that they are really good together, and not just as friends or roommates."
"In what way?"
"Well…" Malon sighed, remembering back to earlier that day. "Zelda seemed to not care about Link's flaws, and she even thought they were cute or funny. That's a big part of being in a relationship, you know. And Link was listening to her and wanted to help her in any way he could. They even like the same things and joke about the same stuff." She smiled sweetly as she thought of her two friends. "And they've been friends forever and get along so well. They've never really been in a serious fight. I think it would be so cute if they got together, don't you two think so?"
Midna and Dark looked at each other for a brief moment. Midna turned back to Malon with a small, but somewhat sad, smile on her face.
"While it would be amazing if they did end up getting together, they just may not be in the same place right now." Midna shook her head sadly before continuing, "We really don't know anything that happened to them before we met them during college. For all we know, they may have tried to be in an actual relationship together when they were in high school and it didn't work out. Plus, they may have different ideas in mind about what they want to do with their lives."
"We should try to find out where they're at, that way we know which direction to go in." Dark commented. "If they are both looking for the same things, we should get them together. If they aren't, we'll put an end to it. It's the only logical way to go about this."
"But how exactly are we going to figure out what they are thinking?" Midna asked, looking at Malon, who tended to be the one who came up with all the ideas in their plan.
"I think I know the perfect way to pull it off." Malon smiled, sipping on her wine with a sly smile on her face. Midna and Dark saw this, and looked at each other and gulped.
The next day, Dark came sauntering into one of the history classroom at Gaepora Academy, a private school located in the nearby town of Skyloft. He spotted Zelda writing on the board (presumably notes for the next class) as her boss, Impa, typed on the computer.
"So this is your class, huh, Zel?" He called, making Zelda jump out of surprise. Impa turned to see Dark look around, examining the classroom.
"I assume this is one of your friends, Ms. Harkinian?" Impa turned to her assistant, who nodded her head, but seemed annoyed by the man's sudden appearance.
"I guess you could call him that." Zelda chuckled and began walking to the back to speak with him.
"Well, excuuuuse me, princess." Dark laughed out loud at his response, earning a very noticeable glare from said 'princess.'
Zelda finally made it to the back of the room, and really had to resist smacking him across the face. She took a deep breath before speaking.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, her voice low as to not disturb her boss.
"I came here to see if you'd want to go out on a lunch date with me." Dark smiled at her, and this smile was much different than usual. Instead of a smug smirk like she was used to getting from the man, this was an actual smile. Zelda's eyes widened in pure shock and was left speechless by not only his smile, but also his question.
Meanwhile, Midna and Link were discussing his schedule for the week down at the recording studio.
"You're going to be filling in on guitar for The Indigo-Go's temporarily. Apparently something happened to their guitarist." Midna looked through her notepad and said with a shrug.
"Sounds good. I've always been a fan of their music." Link nodded with a smile.
"So, Link…" Midna smiled as brightly as she could at him, and he looked up from his notebook to her.
"Yeah?" He asked, starting to get a little creeped out with her smiling at him like that.
"I was just wondering… are you free tomorrow night?"
"No, I'm not… Why?" He flipped back through his notebook. "Do I have a gig or something?"
"No, no, nothing like that." She placed her hand on his sleeve and he raised his head to her. "I was wondering if you'd want to go out… on a date with me?"
Can you tell I've been watching the Legend of Zelda animated series? I honestly really like it. I mean, I can't hate on it for being bad, it was made in the 80's. Cartoons, especially American ones (I don't really know about other countries' cartoons), were typically really corny and not well animated and what-not. Have you guys watched the series? And if you have, what is your opinion on it?
I am sorry if parts of this chapter are hard to follow, my mind was going in so many different directions while I was writing this. I think I fixed it up for the most part (the rough draft was really bad, trust me) but if you have any questions feel free to PM me or leave a review about it.
I think I am going to post a one-shot or two soon, so if you are interested, make sure you keep a look out for it~
That's about it, so please review if you want, favorite or follow if you haven't already, and I'll see you whenever! Which hopefully will be soon!
- Kreszentenia
