Zelda stepped into her apartment, hearing the sounds of Link clinking dishes. She tried to sneak past him, but his pierced pointed ears picked up everything. "Zelda! I picked up some chi-" he stopped talking as he looked her blushing face over. "Did you... Zelda what's up?" He put his hand on his hip, something he got from his ex girlfriend Malon years ago, and Zelda couldn't help but giggle. He raised his eyebrow higher and she busted out in a full on nervous laugh. "Have you gone mental?"
"I may have," she said as she started bouncing on her feet.
"Zelda I haven't seen you this happy in months," Link stared at her, waiting for her explanation.
"Oh goddesses Link," she smiled. "I might've... I don't know what to call what's going on."
"What's going on?!" Link demanded excitedly.
"I hooked up with Ike," she said quickly before she lost her nerve and Link's jaw dropped.
"You what?"
"He kissed me during his appointment and then he got hurt and was in the infirmary and then I went back to his room and," she took a breath, realizing that all her words were getting jumbled together. She started laughing again nervously, Link getting that goofy grin on his face she loved to see.
"You fucked him in the middle of the day in a busy hospital," Link said and she clapped her hands over her mouth as she nodded. "Well," Link cleared his throat and gave her a stern look, "was he any good?"
"Oh Link," she made an undignified noise in her throat, one that mixed moan and groan, "he hasn't in over a year and it was the best sex ever." She beamed at Link who rolled his eyes.
"You fucked a patient," he pointed out and she scowled. "You called me a 'whoreable' man for fucking my secretary. At least she wasn't a whacko."
"Shut up," Zelda shoved him and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"I'm glad you're happy," he said and pressed a kiss into her hair, "even though you're in quite a pickle now." Zelda nodded, knowing there was no easy way out of the situation she had put herself in. She couldn't date a patient, but she knew that she couldn't stop whatever this new thing was, she couldn't do that to herself or Ike.
"I'm not ending whatever this is," she said firmly.
XxXxX
Ike had always been teased by Samus about his swagger after they had sex. Whether it was a quickie on his lunch break or an all night long marathon she never had his stamina for, she would always laugh at the difference in his stride. "Everyone's going to know what happened," she'd taunt and he's shrug.
"I've got a lot to be proud of," he'd grin and steal another kiss that would almost make him late getting back to work. He thought of that as he laid there in his bed that night, smelling Zelda on his pillow with a grin. He wondered if he still had that swagger, if anyone had noticed a change in his attitude or not. He buried his nose into his pillow, wishing he could repeat the actions of the afternoon, worried that it had been too much, wondering what tomorrow held for him.
XxXxX
Zelda walked into her office the next morning, a swing in her step and a smile on her lips. She found Ike sitting in the chair she usually say in, him grinning like a fool. "Good morning Doctor Nohansen," he said and she couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Good morning Ike," she responded with a smile. "You look like you slept well."
"Indeed," he said casually as Zelda could feel his eyes watching her walk over to her desk. "I got some good exercise yesterday," that made her blush violently, "and slept like a baby all night. No nightmares, no dreams really... Except I woke up smelling something wonderful," he stood up and Zelda turned to him, curious what he had in mind. He closed the distance between them in a few strides, a nervous hand pushing hair from her face. "I could smell you on my pillow, a scent I don't want to fade." She leaned into his hand and he pulled her into his arms. She felt safe in his arms, the first time she had in a long time.
"Ike," she barely whispered his name and his lips found hers, a gentle kiss that demanded nothing more than what it was.
"Actually," he said as he pulled his lips from hers, "it could fade from they pillow... I want your smell in my bed, in a place that's mine," his eyes held such depth, Zelda couldn't help but let herself be pulled under their hypnotic spell. "How do I get out of here Zelda?" he asked sadly. "I want to be someone that deserves a chance with you, someone that can take you on a date, that can make an ass of himself trying to impress you," Zelda smiled and he grinned as he leaned his forehead to hers. She was happy, this forbidden moment everything her past relationships had never been.
"You have to be reviewed by the board of doctors," she said, "just in case you've got me fooled into thinking you're alright and-"
"And I'm secretly trying to get out to go on a killing spree?" he asked and she shook her head with a little smile.
"Also, I have to approve your interview with them."
"Ah well," he said and squeezed her tight, "I think I might be in trouble there." She squeezed him back, happy and excited beyond words that the day before had meant anything, let alone so much, to him.
"Well I do need to talk to you, to see," she said and he gave her a serious face as he stepped back.
"Oh of course Doc," he said and moved over to the couch, patting the cushion beside him. "Ask away."
XxXx
Ike watched Zelda get out her pen and paper, a grin on his face as she sat so formally in her chair. "You're beautiful," he said and she blushed a shade of pink he wanted to know the name to.
"Talk me through your deployment," she said and he shrugged.
"It was hot and dreadful for the most part, filled with good and bad times."
"Anything jump out in particular?"
"The accident, well it was an ambush. I hated that I lived for awhile, that my friends died and one is somewhere between here and death..." Ike swallowed back the memories. "Now I accept that there's nothing I could have done to fix the situation, the fact that I survived isn't something I should hate myself for." He looked up at the smile on her face, happy that the one that put it there was him. "I hold no grudges against my ex, she's a great woman who deserves happiness. I miss my mother and my sister, but maybe I can work that out, I'd really like to... I want to make new friends and honor my lost ones. Fuck me," he laughed, "I sound so ridiculous." He ran a hand through his spiky hair and stared at Zelda. "You really are beautiful."
"Ike," she smiled at him, "focus."
"That's hard to do with you sitting there," he said with a pout. "So are we... uh," he cleared his throat and tapped his knee with his fingers. "Are we dating? What is this?"
"This..." he could tell he caught her off-guard, her face faltered into her sweet excited smile for brief second when he said 'dating'. "We'll figure this out," she said and he wanted to get up and hold her, beg her to be his.
"Zelda," he said her name carefully, "will you be my girlfriend?" Her eyes met his and she smiled at him.
"Yes," she said softly and he nodded like it was nothing, the grin on his face giving away that that one statement had made him the happiest man alive.
"I think I could fall madly in love with you," he said and watched the color flush to her cheeks.
"I..." she fumbled and he waved away her words.
"I said could not am, don't panic," he grinned at her, knowing he was and had been for awhile.
