Copyright disclaimer: Do I own the Legend of Zelda? I do not own the Legend of Zelda, though I'd like to tour Hyrule. Is there sexual content in this chapter? Yes? O mon dieu!

CHAPTER 10: Ten rupees worth

I woke up that Sunday with nothing to do—now that I'd been accepted into HONEY DROP, I wouldn't be able to do any field investigation, and wasn't good enough with computers to do much research. I decided to reward myself with an entire lazy day, something I hadn't done in months.

I walked to a thrift shop with five rupees and nothing I wanted in particular. I strolled through the aisles of antique trinkets and toys. There was no one in the store, and the particles of dust in the air stuck themselves to my hair. I began to make my way out when something caught my eye; I turned and under a chipped blue teacup was a small golden harp. I tentatively picked it up and examined it closely. It had a speckled gold paint that hadn't chipped at all, and its strings shone strangely in the dim light of the thrift shop. The orange, circular sticker on it announced it's meager price of five rupees. I brought it to the front desk.

"Hello," I said politely to the old woman behind the desk. She didn't answer, only gestured for me to hand the harp to her. I placed it in her hand and she looked it over.

"Six rupees," she croaked. I sighed.

"Link?" someone piped up from behind me. My first instinct was to spin around and attack, but so as not to scare the old woman, I acted as if I hadn't heard it. "Link, is that you? It's me! I can't believe you're here, I haven't seen you in ages!" I turned and smiled at him.

"By Hylia, it is you! How have you been?"

"I've been great. Want to catch up after this?"

"Actually—" I started, but his smile widened and I had to change my answer in the middle of the sentence, "I have a few errands to run, but if you don't mind, you can come along."

"That sounds wonderful. Are you going to pay?"

I shrugged. "A rupee short." He took out his wallet and removed ten rupees and slid them smoothly to the woman behind the desk, consequently leaning into me. Before he moved back, he said into my ear,

"I would be glad to pay for you," he said, and backed away. The old woman eyed him suspiciously and started counting out change.

"Keep it." She nodded and put the harp into a plastic bag, handing it to me.

"Have a nice day," she said, cracking a smile.

Outside, Gear and I continued to act as though we were the best of friends and spoke with smiles on our faces, though our banter was dark and filled with angry passion.

"I'm incredulous that you were just kind to me. I want to vomit," Gear said to me, elbowing me in the ribs.

"I'm incredulous that I have to see your face this early in the morning. I want to vomit. I think I really might." He stopped.

"Is there something on my face?" he pulled out a sparkly compact mirror and stared into his reflection longer than necessary.

"Is there something wrong with it?" He sounded panicked. "What's wrong with my face!?"

"Nothing," I said surprised. "I just don't like you."

"That is a given," he said, brushing his cloak off as if he was ruffled. "But to insult my appearance of all things..." he grumbled. "Anyhow, you owe me ten rupees."

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the five rupees I'd initially brought for the thrift shop and handed it to him.

"Here," I replied. "This is all I have on me. Can I pay you the other five later?"

"No."

"Then how will I pay you?"

"I will inform you when we get back to your apartment."

"Okay—wait, I'm not going to my apartment now. I'm going to the library."

"But you are returning home after that."

"Do you have nothing to do today? Go to church. You need the goddess." He laughed, a deep, thick laugh that took him by the stomach and shook his shoulders.

"I did not anticipate your being so amusing," he laughed.

"Yes, I'm a riot," I responded bluntly. "Wait here," I commanded and jogged to the library doors from across the street. I turned back to him from in front of the door. "Stay," I mouthed, and went in. I found the book I was looking for right away and looked across the street to where I'd left Gear. He wasn't there, and I looked around. He was leaning on the back of one of the wooden benches in front of the library, speaking to a young girl. He said something and she giggled. A woman that I assumed to be the girl's mother walked out of the library and called her over. Gear turned to watch her go and met my eyes. He walked towards me with confidence, which only made me angrier. I turned to start walking.

"What book did you get?" he asked curiously.

"That girl looked like she was fifteen."

"And?" I stopped.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-two."

"Still... she's too young."

"Then you'll be glad to know that I was simply making her aware of her exquisite taste in literature," he said slyly. "But so I know for the future, what would be an acceptable age for me?"

"Eighteen and older." I answered immediately, stopping at the crosswalk.

"And that includes nineteen-year-olds, yes?"

I wondered where he was going with this. "Yeah."

"How old are you?" he asked as the light turned red and the crowd of people around us began to cross the street. He walked, but I stayed on the sidewalk. He stopped in the middle of the street, parting the rushing sea of people. He looked confused as to why I wasn't walking next to him. I picked up my pace and jogged up to him, and we kept walking.

"Nineteen," I said under my breath.

"Ah, what a joy to be young," he replied.

It must have been at that moment that I began to suspect strange things about Gear. He was cryptic, violent, and sadistic, but on the other hand, could be kind and had great manners. The way he treated me wasn't normal, it still isn't, in fact, but at the time my only concern was that he was blackmailing me, and if I were to make him angry there could be consequences on a horrifying scale.

In hindsight, I should have worried about other things.

We arrived at my apartment soon after. I set my new harp and the book I'd checked out from the library, 52 Hylian Classics for the Lyre on my bed. I wanted to start learning the music right away, and didn't want Gear to be there to judge me or get in my way. I found my wallet and yanked out five rupees. Gear shook his head.

"I told you that you would pay me back a different way." He looked at his watch. "I am adding a fifty percent interest rate."

"So I can't just give you ten rupees?" I sighed.

"No, but you can give me ten minutes."

"What do I have to do?" I was getting impatient. "Will you leave after that?" I said, though it didn't sound rude. It only sounded like a question.

"Yes, I shall leave. You have to do as I say, and you cannot say anything."

"That's all?"

"That is all."

"Okay, then." I'd assumed he'd have me make him food, tell him a story, something like that. He didn't. I watched him set the alarm on his phone. He pressed START.

"Stand against the wall," he ordered. I did as I was told and put my back on the stretch of wall next to the front door. I expected to make fun of my 5 feet and 3 inches of height, so I startled when he lifted my chin with his forefinger and thumb and said simply, "Don't resist." He brought his lips to mine and my eyes widened, my arms reflexively went to his chest to push him back, but I remembered what he'd said and an image of him screaming in anger came to me so I left my hands there. I was paralyzed with a mixture of fear, confusion, and disgust. He pushed his tongue through my teeth and slid it in circles around my tongue, mixing our saliva. He pulled away, and though he was fine, I was panting lightly. I didn't know how to breathe during a situation such as that one.

"Stick out your tongue," Gear commanded. I did so and he bit into it softly, which caused me to flinch as a fire-like current weaved its way over my skin. He took my tongue into his mouth and tilted my chin so my face was angled higher, and at the same time he put his leg between my thighs and pushed it into my crotch.

"Mmf—" I said, and pulled away from him. I was panting heavily now, and could feel my cheeks heating up from embarrassment. "You know what you're supposed to do now," he said, and kissed me again, pressing his leg deeper into my groin. A gasp escaped me and Gear deepened the kiss, taking me by the back of the neck and inserting his tongue further into my mouth, where he circled his tongue around mine and I was expected to do the same. Gear pushed down the waistband of my sweatpants so they were low on my hips and slowly slid his finger up and down my stomach. I shivered inadvertently, and he slid his finger lower as he ground his leg into my crotch. He pulled away.

"You are quite red," Gear commented, examining my face.

"S—" I started, but remembered that he told me not to say anything. Gear smirked and dragged his lips across my ear, then down my neck. I knit my eyebrows together and squeezed my eyes shut. I was sure he would bite me, but he started to suck and nibble on me instead.

"G-g-g—" My mouth began to form his name, but I was shivering and it came out in fragments.

"What is it?" he said with disinterest into my neck.

"I—wh-wha... You, but—" I stuttered. I was even more embarrassed. He faced me and kissed me once again, but this time his hands were somewhere else. He spread his hand down my back and teasingly tugged at my waistband, then slid his hand over my backside and proceeded to knead his fingers in a circular motion on my flesh, closer to a dark unknown.

I was crumbling under his touch, and he'd me pressed closer to him so that most parts of our bodies were in contact: his tongue exploring my mouth, our torsos pressed close, his leg grinding between mine.

The most hazardous thing was his hand, groping my behind.

He slid his finger up and down, between an unspeakable place. It felt strange, like nothing I'd ever felt before. He continued to stroke the area and then applied pressure to my entrance. I reached out to hold onto something, and his shoulders were the first thing I'd grabbed. I forced myself away from him, breathing heavily and jerking with every motion of his hand. I held tighter to his shoulders as my eyes began to water.

"You must be a virgin," he mocked as the alarm on his phone announced the longest ten minutes of my life.

Gear let go of me and I fell to the ground, leaning against the wall for support. I could that feel my shirt had slid down one of my shoulders, and my sweatpants were in the very middle of my hipbones. I shuddered, though my cheeks and ears were hot. I opened my mouth but only nonsense came out.

"You seem to be wondering my reasons for why I did that," Gear said, rubbing hand sanitizer onto his hands and then pulling his thin black gloves over them. "And I will let you wonder, as there were many reasons."

"Tell me one reason," I demanded with my voice unnaturally high. Gear crouched down to my level and grabbed me by my cheeks, turning my head. He whispered into my ear, and I once again felt nauseous.

"I wanted to make you feel uncomfortable beyond belief," he replied, "so uncomfortable that you didn't know what to do with yourself. You reacted well." He stood, walked to the door, and opened it. From the doorway, he turned and spoke again:

"Expect more sexual harassment soon, virginal detective," he said with a disgusting smirk and disappeared behind the closing door.

"Please don't come back," I said to the door. I stood and took a long, cold shower and zoned out for most of it. I didn't want to think about what today's events implied, as they implied many things. However, seeing Gear with preconceived notions was not something I'd want (firstly, because I didn't want to see him at all), but secondly because I'd be on my toes about everything. I made the decision to act cold towards him, so I could be on my guard without seeming like it. I prayed to Hylia that he wouldn't get angry and blow up half of the city. I couldn't dwell on it, however, because I would start working at HONEY DROP the next day and I had a new person I needed to become, luckily a person that did not know Gear.

I took an early bus to HONEY DROP on my first day with a duffel bag of the flashy clothes I'd need for my first day. I didn't want anyone to see me in that area of the city, because I wasn't secure there as of yet. I knocked on the back door and Tott answered the door a few minutes later, his eyes barely open.

"You realize what time it is?" he asked, already walking back into the building. I entered and locked the heavy metal door behind me. "Well, I was here early anyway. You can help me out now."

"With what?" He turned in the dimly-lit hallway and into his messy, cramped office, where the bright light was startling.

"I'm budgeting for the next three months," he said.

"Okay," I answered. He sat at his paper-covered desk and picked up the first few sheets from the top. I sat across from him and set my bag down. I took the papers from him and smiled, then pulled my reading glasses from the pocket of my shirt and slipped them on.
"Where's the goal?" I asked, and he pointed to a relatively small number for three months. I scratched my head and thought for a moment.

"Can I see your expenses for the past three months?"

"Are you really going to do this?" he asked with excitement, handing me a thick stack of papers.

"Why not?" I asked, smiling. His eyes widened.

"You're a great kid." He offered me coffee and I declined, then he said that he'd be back in an hour or two, and shut the door. I flipped through the expenses, humming. It was a great chance to investigate whether the club was involved in the opium trade or not.
I quickly learned that they were extravagant spenders, though, and finding out by only looking at their transactions would be difficult. I hurriedly took pictures of the pages with my phone and then set on budgeting. Whoever did the shopping for the club bought things in single packs instead of in bulk and made frequent trips to shops, so the deductions from their bank account were irregular and seemed impulsive.
I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

A few hours later, when the sun shone high in the sky and its rays filtered through the half-closed blinds of Tott's office, I finished writing out the budget for HONEY DROP. It had very explicit instructions on how and where to shop, as I'd did research on all of the supplies they'd bought for the past quarter of the year, where it was sold in bulk. I wrote a short, three page report on the effect of random expenses on total finances and the upsides of couponing, a new trend in Skyloft. It was all by hand, but I had neat handwriting so it looked presentable. I stapled it and yawned. I was tired, I woke up at 4:00 that morning so I could take the earliest bus to the part of Central where HONEY DROP was, though I lived a twenty minute walk away. Keet told me to always take the bus so that it seemed I lived in another district, and so that having to stay in the boarding house on weekends would seem understandable.

Somehow, I'd fallen asleep at Tott's desk. I was roused by shouting. I quickly sat up and saw the two men in the crammed together chairs on both sides of me. One was eating a piece of toast with a bored look on his face, and the other was red-faced and the source of shouts.

"We don't need any more dancers!" he shouted at Tott, who was sitting behind his desk with his fingers on his temples with a posture that said "Please, just shut up."

"Peater, I understand why you think that, but we aren't making much money off of the dance program anymore, so we need another dancer to bring in more money. Link here was kind enough to write a new budget for us so we can work with what we have instead of being in the red every month." Tott sighed and rummaged through his desk drawers and pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen. He opened it as to pour some into his hand, but only one came out. He swallowed it dry and then threw the empty bottle at Peater, who caught it easily with one hand. Tott then threw the bottle cap at Peater's forehead. He flinched as it smacked into his skin.

"What the fuck, Tott?" he screamed. "You are obviously not right in the head!" He stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him.

"That's Peater," said Tott. He gestured to the man sitting beside me. "That's Dovos. Now you've met all the dancers."

Dovos finished eating his toast and looked at Tott.
"You and Peater made my toast taste like annoyance," he said to Tott and walked out.

Tott sighed and then clapped his hands together twice.
"Don't take it personally. Peater thinks he's the best here, and that he can bring in all the money in the world. It didn't matter who it was, he didn't want any new dancers." He rubbed his temples again. "Well. Practice starts in ten minutes in the dance studio," he sighed out and stood.

"Did I do something wrong?" I inquired with stress in my voice. Tott snapped out of whatever exhausted state he was in and had an excited look in his eyes.

"Tilt your head a bit." I did as I was told. "A bit more, and can you relax your shoulders?" I tried, and the new posture felt strange on my back.

"Repeat what you just said, and frown a little."

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No! That was perfect. You are gold. This will be great. This will be so great!" Tott said excitedly. I was confused, but I went along with it.

"Thank you?" I responded, unsure.

"Come on, come on, let's just start practice now." He almost ran out of the room, and I followed with a perplexed look on my face.

When we got to the studio, Peater and Dovos were both there, and a thrumming electronic music shook the room. They'd changed into athletic clothing. Peater stood in front of the mirror examining himself, and Dovos was eating from a bag of chips. Peater strutted towards me to the beat of the music.

"In the studio, we have a truce. I don't know about you, but I'm serious about dancing. Just don't forget that you're a nuisance inside and outside."

"I'm sorry," I replied and looked at my feet. I gave him a self deprecating smile and nervously tucked my hair behind my ear. He tapped his chin, looking me up and down.

"Let me see what you've got, then," he said. I took off my jacket and warmed up, doing stretches and using the ballet bar. There were five poles erected from the ground, and I picked one at the back to attack. I lifted myself to the top and wrapped one leg and one arm around it circling to the ground slowly, pointing my toes. Grabbing the pole, I ran around it to pick up speed then lifted my legs from the ground until my entire body was spinning. I brought myself, spinning, closer to the pole so that it was between the tops of my thighs and my stomach. I stretched out one of my legs, then the other, and held myself straight. I heard a noise of approval from the other side of the room and lifted my legs and torso so I was in line with the pole and descended to the middle, where I flipped around and stopped.

"He has no sex appeal whatsoever," Peater said to Tott.

"Link, do what you did in the office." Dovos turned off the music and I repeated my prior actions.

"I see what you mean. He's a bottom dancer, then?" Peater stroked his chin.

"Of course."

"What do you mean by bottom?" I asked, confused. "Should I stay on the bottom half of the pole?"

"Oh." Dovos said with his lazy voice from the corner of the room. Tott and Peater looked at each other then walked the same paces toward me, leaning in close.

"You don't know?" asked Tott. Peater smirked.

"Welcome to the team," he said, extending his hand. I shook it with confusion. "Don't tell him," he said to Tott. "I'll teach you the first routine, okay?"

Practice was fast-paced and exciting to be a part of. I learned the routines quickly, though Tott and Peater stopped me a few times, telling me to add an innocent flair. The week passed quickly, and Friday came, then Friday night.

And so began my first real experience with HONEY DROP.

A/N: Final exams are the end of a very lazy student. The only thing I've studied for all year. I want to cry. And start watching this year's spring anime. "Want to have fun?" The exams ask me with a benevolent smile. I nod excitedly. "Well too bad, mofo," they respond and drop a five pound encyclopedia on my spine.