AN: My computer is jack ass, it wiped my memory card and now I have to start over from scratch. So right now I'm writing them as I produce them, I have karate on Tuesdays and Thursdays, bells on Wednesday and can't get the computer until after dinner every night so I'm having trouble keeping up with my self-imposed due date… But I'll try to get each chapter up ASAP so maybe I'll be able to get ahead again. Until then I'll just screw the due date and get them up as quick as I can.

Another thing I recently discovered was that my Great-grandmother on my father's side is Amish. The Amish originate from Germany and Switzerland. Considering how my last name means shepherd in German (I won't tell my actual last name, even if you figure out the actual name there's at least eight different spellings) so it's pretty safe to assume she's from Germany. Considering how she's my great-grandmother it's pretty safe to say as well that she was born in the mid-nineteenth century so that means she was among the first people to immigrate from Switzerland and Germany or is a second generation born Amish. This means that my grand-father's side family of my father's side moved into America from Germany at about the same generation as my grand-father's side family of my mother's side or at least a one or two generations apart. I know my grand-mother's family from my father's side is German but I'm not entirely sure about their when they came over and my grand-mother's family is Irish. I just thought that was interesting and I probably confused every one of my readers (I have a very large family)…

Please, Read and Review!

Chapter 10: Falling down, standing up

Ever since I got Omal I had been sleeping on the coach. I had been quick to discover that he was very good for keeping the nightmares away. And on the off chance that I did have one his warm comforting form helped keep me calm and chased away most of the fears thus allowing me to get a better night's sleep. As a result I was in much better modes in the morning and in general, plus training Omal added a bit much needed stability.

In every sense Omal was the greatest thing Link could get me as a present.

But currently I and Samus were being stupid. Well, not stupid just kind of you're-with-your friend-and-you're-doing-something-fun-so-lets-just-make-it-insane-for-no-practical-reason.

As in doing an endless brawl with the alloys, without any weapons, magic, armor, or did I mention weapons? It was really –now that I think of it hindsight- a stupid thing to do because the endless brawls aren't really fights, they're training and therefore you don't heal after you are defeated. This sometimes leads to serious injuries that shouldn't be a problem in a regular brawl.

I had decided to keep Omal in the room with Peach as he had yet to learn that he shouldn't go in the teleporter with me and has attempted to come in every time I have a brawl. Thankfully, he's only succeeded in one humorous situation with a brawl with Marth which is where I decided to keep him in the room during brawls until I had him fully trained.

Samus wrapped red tape around her knuckles when she was done she tossed it to me "This could go two ways."

"Really badly" I smiled as I unwound the tape "Or really good, either way it should be fun."

"It's really amazing" Samus said "How different we classify fun from Peach's definition. Sometimes I wonder how we get along at all."

"Necessity" I said "I don't think anyone wants Peach as their enemy and then share a dorm with her, I get chills just thinking about it."

"We could always get our own room" she pointed out "There's plenty in the girl's dormitory, I think Master Hand had hoped to get more female fighters."

"But there was only us five" I finished "And Nana and Popo would die if they had different rooms while Jigglypuff is a Pokémon."

"It would be great if they found more girls" Samus noted "Than at least the mansion would be filled with so much testosterone."

"Well" I said "At least our options are open."

"Ha!" Samus laughed "But they have only three girls that they can actually date, Nana's too young and Jigglypuff is a Pokémon, I'm getting tired of having conversation with Jay with the only thing his eyes are looking at are my boobs and I'm too nice to remind him just where the windows to the soul really are."

"You're the one that wears skin tight clothing so much" I said "If you don't want men staring then you shouldn't flaunt what you have like you do."

"I like my current wardrobe thank you very much" Samus growled "And they should be more respectful and figure out just where my eyes are. You're just being prudish."

"Prudish!" I scowled.

"Admit it."

"Admit what?"

"That the reason you wear such loose cloths is because you don't like to be noticed like that" Samus said "Admit it."

"That's not it!" I blushed "Don't we have training to do anyway?"

"Oh, yeah" Samus said "But don't think this is being dropped."

"It will be" I said "I assure you."

We stepped on the platform and almost instantly we were taken onto the Battlefield. I looked up above me and frowned at the three floating platforms "How do they even stay up there?"

"It's video game physics" Samus said "Don't question it."

"What?"

"Never mind" she said "Come on the alloys will be here any second now."

I shrugged and we went back to back. Seconds after Samus's prediction a blue and a red alloy appeared, one for each of us.

The blue alloy swung a kick at my side and I blocked it. Quickly I side kicked and my foot hit squarely in her center; spinning on my heel I did a second side kick with my other leg. The blue alloy went flying. I looked behind me to see Samus landing gracefully; she looked at me and gave me thumbs up.

"Let's break a record" she grinned before nimbly dodging an attack from a small yellow alloy.

"Hopefully not for the shortest fight ever" I yelled over my shoulder.

I blocked a red alloy's punch and slammed my own fist into its vulnerable center. Leaping up I slammed both feet into it sending it flying off the stage in a spasm of limbs. When I landed I was quick to twist on my side so I could sweep the legs out from underneath a blue alloy. Scrambling up I stomped on her center, making her dematerialize away.

Practice is perfection they say and I have faith in such a saying. Because I have most certainly practiced my fighting to near perfection and with practical grace and fluid motions I fought my way through the alloys. Behind me Samus did the same although her style was a bit more… flashy over my bland but useful one.

Some say that you can see a person's personality in their fighting style; it seemed to be the case with me and Samus. She showed her grace and beauty through her use of acrobatics in her fighting. While I used something more clear cut and straight up, it represented my practical personality. Even as I sub-consciously compared us while we fought I knew Samus was right. I was scared to be showy, thinking that I would only end up in failure and she was confident in her grace and flashiness but effective styles.

I low kicked a yellow alloy and switching my right leg with my left in the forward stance I quickly low round housed kick the just as short green alloy.

Damn, it! I thought what's with half of the enemies being shorter than three feet tall!?

A red alloy grabbed my left shoulder and reacting quickly I trapped it with my right hand. Counter-striking with my foot by slamming it into his knee I then twisted around and hit his head with the side of my wrist. Finally, I trapped his arm with my own and quickly shoved it off the side of the stage.

It was amazing how quickly I was then swarmed again by more alloys. It was a fight all on to its self not to go with my instincts and just use magic to blow them all away. But not that it was hard to take out a alloy but it was hard because they were just so many of them. At multiple points I and Samus were each fighting off five or six.

"Death of a thousand cuts" I growled when Samus and I both leapt up onto the top platform.

"Or bruises" she said.

Samus pointed behind me and I noted how a red alloy looked ready to attack her from the platform behind her. We both fell into a crouch facing opposite directions beside each other and Samus counted out before we attacked on her fingers.

When she showed a three we leapt at the same time off the platform and hit our respective alloys, sending them both flying. And the fight was back on. Dancing across the stage it felt like I was releasing pent up stress that I had been accumulated for days and it felt… amazing! I was in my one of my best elements, battle. For years every day I trained for hours never to really ever use the skills that I had. But here in this world of fighting, I could fight and I realized that the best way to learn something is through experience. Not constant training.

Of course I had sparred but even as I snapped kicked a yellow allow straight in the chest I saw clearly the difference between sparring and fighting for your life, fighting was real. The adrenalin was real, the emotions and the struggle was real. It felt great.

While I and Samus ripped through the alloys, there was no doubting that they were swarming us they probably won because: one, it's an endless brawl and there technically is no way to win; two, there were so many of them. So I wasn't surprised when I was knocked off after nearly twenty minutes of straight up fighting (I was tired), Samus proved her better endurance and lasted a whole ten more minutes than I. She stumbled out of the teleporter and slapped high fives with me, blinked and then straight out collapsed.

I barely caught the woman "Goddess Samus! A little warning next time!"

Very carefully I lowered her on her back onto the tile floor of the girl's locker room. She was unconscious, which was troubling. If a concussion was serious enough to make Samus go out cold (whom I've seen stay awake through sheer will power) than it was most certainly serious and probably required medical attention way beyond my own capabilities. Which required me to carry Samus all the way across the mansion, Samus was slender but she had plenty of muscles, was about my height and she was (I speak from experience in this) not light.

"You choose the worse times to do this" I scowled to the unconscious woman.

Her response was minimal.

I sighed and picked her up then threw her over my shoulders so my entire back supported her weight in a fireman's carry. Just walking out of the locker room forced me to realize something, Samus is really heavy. I mean I would suspect her to be like I don't know… 140 pounds? But she weighed much more than that! She had to weigh at least 170.

When I –slowly- walked out of the locker room I saw the exact person I wanted to see (or rather the kind of person I wanted to see, any of the men in the mansion I guess would have worked), Snake.

"What the hell" he said "what's wrong with Samus?"

"She's out cold" I said "As you can see, do you mind helping me carry her to the infirmary? I think she might have a concussion."

My plan was to have us both carry her. Snake's (silent of course, did I really expect anything else?) plan was to have him carry her in a bridal carry. There was a good reason I said 'do you mind helping me?' not 'can you carry her?' but this was cool too. I'm not complaining and in my defense for not being able to carry the woman I was pretty tired.

"Did I weigh that much?" I asked thinking about how we were about the same size.

"You were heavier" he said and then softly grinned at me "Although not by much."

The silence as we walked down the mansion's halls began to get awkward.

"Thanks" I said "I don't know how productive it would have been if I carried Samus, I estimate that I would have gotten halfway before I put her down and got Link."

"Why would you have gotten Link?" he asked "And you're welcome."

"I suppose I could have gotten Ike…"

"So any one who could carry Samus would have do" Snake said "I was just handy."

"I do believe" I said "That here in this realm you have a term that goes 'bingo'! If I'm correct that would be appropriate here?"

"Yes" he grinned lightly.

"I keep on forgetting you're from a different dimension…" Snake muttered "It's from a game where if you win you call out the name of the game which is bingo. Why they started saying that is beyond me."

"I keep on forgetting that people from this dimension are so…" I paused.

"Weird?"

"Different, I was going to say different."

We had arrived at the infirmary and I opened the door.

Nurse Blackthorne who was reading a magazine (she's not nurse she's actually has a PA, but because of that one quip from Red we all call her nurse) stood as we entered the room and immediately walked to us.

Blackthorne was a very tall woman (almost my height) with black hair and very nice blue eyes, she was gorgeous. She was kind but she also had an iron will, I suppose you would have to have an iron will if you had to deal with the day to day eccentrics of the Smash Mansion. Not to mention she was a skilled practitioner in the medical arts and can keep her head in the most stressful of situations, a very admirable trait. Did I also mention she was a black belt of the second degree in karate?

She didn't even bother with the 'what happened?' and just said "Put her on the bed."

Snake obeyed and Blackthorne immediately took to examining Samus.

The room went quiet and I drifted over to Blackthorne's desk and I looked at the magazine she was reading.

On the cover was a beautiful blond woman in a very tight stylish dress. The text promised that the reader would lose 15 pounds a week with a certain diet, ten sex moves that 'you must try', the most recent fall fashions, how to get have a good date and oddly… top ten thanksgiving recipes. I wondered why Blackthorne would be reading something like this. She's already slender; I'm not sure about her sex life though and as far as I'm concerned I think her dating life is fine. She has a perfect taste in fashion so maybe she was reading the magazine for thanksgiving recipes?

"Zelda."

I turned and saw two pairs of blues staring at me, all business as usual Nurse Blackthorne began shooting me with facts and questions "She has a concussion, it's nothing serious and she should be over it in a few days, although she'll be feeling poorly" she nodded "How did this happen?"

"We were training" I said "I got knocked off and then Samus teleported out, and she fell unconscious. So I was about to take her infirmary when Snake found us and very kindly took her from me."

"Are you injured?"

"No" I said "Well, not really. A few scrapes and bruises, nothing serious and I'll probably be just fine in a week or so."

"Alright" she said "I'll take your word for it, when Samus wakes up can you give her this?"

Blackthorne walked over to her desk and opened a drawer after shooing me away; she blushed when she saw that I had noticed the magazine. She rummaged about in the drawer and then closed it and looked through the other drawers. After a few minutes of searching she swore and said "Oh, no I left it on the nightstand!"

"Left what where?" Snake asked clearly confused as I was.

"Something I needed to give Samus!" Blackthorne said "I need to get it! Can you watch her I'll be back in just about thirty minutes, thank you!?"

Without even waiting for an answer she flew out of the room in a very un-Blackthorne manner. I looked at Snake and he looked at me, confusion painted both of our expression.

I spoke first "I guess it must be really important."

"Did she have to wait till now?" Snake asked "Seems like bad timing."

"Maybe she didn't remember until she saw Samus" I said "Or… you know I don't think I've ever seen Blackthorne behave like that."

"She seemed quite" he paused "Flustered."

I shrugged "We all panic when we lose things, particularly me."

"I guess we have to watch her" Snake scowled looking at the still unconscious Samus "Not that we have much chose."

"You can leave if you want" I said "You've already done enough… although I wouldn't mind the company."

I was very surprised when I blushed at that last part. When have I ever blushed? I never blush; I've had countless relationships with nobles at the courts! I never blushed around them! What is it about Snake that could make me blush? Why am I assuming that it's Snake that's making me blush? Maybe it's just hot in here! Satisfied with that explanation I crossed my arms over my chest and said "Yeah, imagine that we would actually have to" I pretended to gasp "talk."

"We talk all the time" Snake said grabbing the chair and defeating the entire purpose of it sat on it backwards so he was leaning against the back "Although when we do talk it's more out of…"

"Lack of a better option?" I offered "We've never actually been forced together; of course it technically isn't force if one of the parties can leave but… I suppose there is something to be said about building a bond over watching your unconscious friend sleep while a usually stoke nurse goes gets an unspecified object over which she got oddly emotional about."

"You always know how to lighten the mood" Snake said grinning lightly "But I never said I wanted to leave."

That stupid ass blush returned and I'm sorry to say that it wasn't the heat because know I realized it was actually rather cold in here. But then again the cold can make your cheeks red too…

Seeing no other options I sat on Blackthorne's desk and crossed my legs, leaning against my knees I said "Either your better friends with Samus than I thought or you actually like me."

"I never said that."

"About Samus" I said and then smirked "or me?"

"You."

"Oh" I said and then placed the back of my hand against my forehead raising my eyes to the ceiling while placing my other hand against my head I said with an air of drama that would have made Peach proud "You sir break my weak heart, how could you?"

I proved myself a better comedian than actress when within seconds of saying this –completely killing the mood I was trying to form- busted out laughing.

"You should know" he grinned "That would never work on me."

"I assure you" I said "I'm a much better liar than this."

"Maybe I shouldn't trust you then."

"Just remember" I said "Whatever I did I most likely didn't do it, if you remember that than we will get along great."

"You created a term" Snake said "Than completely deconstructed it yet it made it sense; only you could do that."

"Oh, Peach does it so much better" I said "She'll create a beautiful simile and then make it not a simile so you still have no idea what she's talking about."

"You act like I would know."

"But that's the point of me telling you!" I said pretending to sound exasperated "So you'll know! So now you know! And that's the point!"

"I'll rephrase that then" he said "It's not like I'll ever know that from experience."

I bit my lip and thought about what I was going to say for a second "That's as stupid as you sitting on that chair like that."

"What's wrong with sitting like this?"

"You're leaning against the back!" I said loudly "Come on! I mean like… the back is for leaning your back against, not your front! That's probably why they call it the back! It's just weird…"

"Says the girl who's sitting on the desk…"

"Hey!" I said "You took the only chair!"

"Why don't you get your own chair?"

I stopped and glared at him "Because… hm, I hate you."

"No you don't" Snake said "Because if you were if I decided to take Samus off your hands you would have told me to go screw myself."

I opened my mouth to speak then closed it when I realized that would most likely exactly what I would have said. I tapped my knee lightly with my index while I thought of something witty to say and then smirked when I did "You are absolutely wrong! I would have told you to go fuck yourself."

"You're a lady of great tact and grace, Zelda."

"Fuck that!" I said loudly "If you want to stereotype me with the overtly decked out flowers that wear too much makeup and perfume at the courts that they happen to call 'women' then I really underestimated your ability to observe a human being."

"Of course" he said "You're way more charming than that."

"Charming?" I said confusedly cocking my head to the side "I've had multiple compliments given to me over my life time Snake but I've never been called… charming."

I nearly hit myself. Snake was paying me a compliment! And I had to be a smartass! If he says I'm charming than he apparently thinks I'm a charming young woman, its basic logic! Basic logic that I can't seem to grasp! While I'm beating myself up about this there happens to be something else that I seem incapable of grasping until now, Snake thinks I'm charming. Great Goddesses now I'm blushing again…

"Er, um" I muttered lightly scratching the back of my neck "I guess, I mean well. Thanks! Thank you! Hey, look at that my brain function has returned…"

Snake chuckled at my flustered state and I decided that now was an excellent time to put the smug asshole where he belongs. I hopped down from the desk and walked over to him; looming over the still sitting man I crossed my arms and said "I bet you think that's funny, don't you?"

Let me tell you now, it's damn hard to intimidate a guy who's your height or more. Which was exactly what I was thinking when Snake stood up in one fluid motion and met my eyes with ease. I ignored with every molecule of my body just how close we were, by sheer will power alone I managed to fight off a blush that threatened to rise up on my cheeks.

"It's not that often that I get to see you knocked off of that stupid pedestal of confidence that you put yourself on" he replied easily "It's almost nice."

"I don't know what you're talking about" I smirked "I'm just really sure about myself, I'm never unconfident."

"What was that then?"

"You caught me by surprise" I said "So it doesn't count."

"I paid you a compliment" he said "And you get flustered."

"Just a little surprised" I said "That you think I'm charming, speaking of which…"

Now I aware of how close we were I think during out entire conversation we were getting closer to each other by micrometers. Because I swear we were no closer than when we started but we had to be closer if I was starting to blush, I never blush! Why am I blushing!? He's just a man… and we were close together… it's not like it means anything… I mean like… I would like it if I did but...

There are times when your thought should stop, there are times when it will stop for a good reason and then there are times when it will stop no matter what you choose leaving you completely devoid of brain function except for the most primary things. That happened when I realized me and Snake was way too close for our relationship to be platonic, it had to be more.

Thank the Goddesses that Samus decided to wake up then. She saved me (rather unwittingly) from becoming a blathering idiot that can't form a single coherent sentence; she also killed a valuable moment but…

"God fuck it! What the hell happened!? Damn it to fucking hell my damn head…"

For the sake of morality I will cut out the rest of the string of curse words that Samus said and believe me there was a lot.

When Samus declared her consciousness I and Snake did a very peculiar thing. I leaped forward and he leapt forward, past each other so he was leaning against the desk and I –proving myself hypocritical- was in the chair sitting the exact same way that Snake had been only minutes ago. I even spun half a revolution before I managed to stop myself. In basic terms we just switched out positions.

"Zelda, Snake! What the hell?" Samus groaned sitting up "My head, damn it, I… how did I get in the infirmary? What the fuck? Hey, Zelda where's Omal?"

"Samus" I said standing up "Omal's in the room, remember? We left them there when we went to train."

"Oh, yeah" she said "I think I remember it's a bit fuzzy, damn it my head hurts."

"You were out cold" Snake explained "I helped Zelda carry you in here; Blackthorne mentioned she had to give you something she left and told us to watch you. That's why we were still here when you woke up."

"How are you feeling?" I asked "You were unconscious when you went through the teleporter."

"Like shit!"

"Oh" I said and then reported to Snake "She's fine, if you want to I'll finish waiting with her for Blackthorne, you can go. Thanks for your help."

Taking that as his dismal Snake left muttering a light goodbye.

"So" I said as I rolled the chair over to her bed "How do you feel?"

"Like shit!"

"I need more than that Sammy" I said "Like concussion symptoms."

"I don't know" she said "Don't make me think my head hurts too much, how long was I out?"

I looked at the clock "About ten minutes, so a fair amount of time. Do you remember what happened on the stage?"

"I'm getting flashes" she growled "But it's kind of fuzzy and god my head hurts like shit, and my ears are ringing too…"

"I think you'll be fine" I said "Blackthorne should be back in a bit."

"Thanks, Zel" Samus said "Can you turn out one of the lights? It's really bright and it's hurting my eyes."

Let's see amnesia, tinnitus, sensitivity to light, confusion, some irritability and unconsciousness. I was making a mental list on all the signs of a concussion that Samus was showing of a concussion. I turned out one of the bright lights that glared in the infirmary and walked back to Samus in the now partially dimmed room, I sat in the chair the proper way this time.

"Hey, Samus" I said.

She didn't respond and seemed to be observing some interesting invisible mark on the wall. Either way she was staring at the wall like it had grown a face (which it hadn't) and was completely ignoring me. I waved my hand in front of her face and lightly snapped my fingers "Samus!"

"Huh, oh yeah" she said "Sorry, I drifted there."

Vacant stare, add that to the list too. She's really got it bad.

The next twenty minutes was fun. Samus kept on wanting to know what time it was even though it must have told her every five minutes. My mind kept on drifting back to the conversation with Snake and my own reactions, I was kind of glad that he left because know I had time to think. Meanwhile Samus just plain drifted in and out of her own world and the real one.

I sighed and leaned back in the chair while propping my feet up on the edge of the bed, when was Blackthorne coming back?

My question was answered in less than five minutes when the nurse calmly walked through the door, clearly having recollected herself and handed Samus a small package.

"It's from Jay" she said as Samus received the package "He wanted me to give it to you."

Blackthorne then turned to me "Thanks for watching her; you can go if you like."

"See you later Samus" I said as I stood "You welcome Blackthorne, I'm happy to do it any time. I should go tell Peach what happened, she's probably really worried."

"I bet" Blackthorne lightly grinned "Now, shoo it's almost time for dinner anyway."

"Hey, Zelda" Samus said as I left "I think we need to have a nice talk about your relationship with Snake."

I fought the blush while retorting with the only tactic I had "And one on your relationship with Falcon while we're at it."

Samus's cackling laughter chased me down the hall even when I closed the door. I couldn't help but to grin but then thought over took me. Just how much did she see? I'm pretty sure me and Snake had leapt apart the very moment the first sound came from Samus's lips (I think I speak for both us when I saw we have good reaction times) and it wasn't like we were doing anything… just standing really close together. Of course knowing Samus she would have noted my blush and the fact that we had both almost flew apart from each other, I was lucky in that either Snake didn't blush or his skin was dark enough to hide it (the lucky bastard).

Wait, why am I even worrying about this? There isn't anything going on between me and Snake. We were just friends. But there was that stupid small part of me –a very vocal smart part I should note- that wanted it to be more than that, more than just friends. For now I ignored that feeling and just went to dinner.

Peach had noticed me at dinner and went nuts.

She kept on repeating over and over again that she was afraid something horrible had happened to us and that we should never scare her again like that. Her hysteria brought a crowd and I must have repeated that story over ten times just in the course of dinner. By the time I had gone to bed –I had received a text from Blackthorne saying that Samus was staying the night in the infirmary so she could monitor her- I was sure that the tale of me and Samus's fight was heard by every soul of the mansion.

Later, according to Samus she had received visits from everyone in the mansion that night. Blackthorne was furious by ten' o'clock -which she had declared the curfew for when all of the patients had to go to sleep- and Samus was still talking to Ike and attempting to outlining every detail in the fight that she remembered. I was thankful in the fact that she had never ever again mentioned the scene with Snake and me; I don't think I would have survived with my insanity intact if Peach had ever caught wind of it.

AN:

German lesson of the day: Deutch is the German language and Deutschland is Germany, in German! (That has the potential to be a paradox…)

Now that I'm done being a show off…

Special thanks go to: To WingedPinkBlade, PrincessOfAltea (your name is now a word in my spell check dictionary), and Emerald Snowcracker for reviewing. Wolfsbane706 and Emerald Snowcracker were so kind as to list the story as a favorite and for that I thank them. Special thanks to Emerald Snowcracker, Hysterical Pyromaniac, and Wolfsbane706 for following.

You guys are awesome and I thank you for reading and for taking time to give me feedback.

Please, Review.