fleets: I felt like this should be mentioned again -

Delta and Vaati are not gay, and I'm a little sad if it's taken as such. I'm mostly sad because I've based the two off of two guys who were besties in elementary school (and they were as far as gay as you could get). Since when did being best friends turn into acting gay? Society these days, sheesh. Not that I have anything against gay people (I'm not saying that), I'm just wondering if guys actually have to worry about being best friends with other guys at the risk of being suspected as gay. Even a manhug needs precautions.

Ok, so, maybe Delta and Vaati are so much like best friends they're too cute? I don't know. Again, this is what the two guys I'm basing them off of in elementary school were like (and come on, youngsters are cute by their own right).

Sorry about the little rant, but the characters in my story are not gay. You can think they act gay, it might just be poor portrayal on my part, but I'm not writing with the intention of turning them gay. They're best friends. Cut some guys in the world some slack and let them have best friends.

Chapter 13: The Problem with Girls

When Vaati returned home after going sledding with Kari, he was not in a good mood. Grumbling to himself from worrying about how he was going to deal with her when he went back to school, he completely ignored Ezlo who had welcomed him back at the door.

"Did you have fun today?" the sage asked, and then looked after Vaati's scowling face.

"Mmf."

"Who was that nice girl you were with? You never mentioned her before." Ezlo continued cheerily. Therefore, he was quite shocked when his apprentice whirled around and bared his teeth in annoyance.

"It's not like that Ezlo! Don't make things any worse by assuming I like her like that!" Vaati fumed. He didn't even bother apologizing for forgetting to say 'Master Ezlo' in his preoccupation. Stunned, Ezlo blinked and found himself in an empty room when Vaati quickly retreated to his room and shut himself in.

Well that was unexpected, he thought. He made his way slowly to Vaati's door and stood outside. He knocked once. "Is something the matter, boy?"

There was no response.

"I would like to know why I had to put up with your rudeness."

"Just leave me alone."

"Vaati."

Vaati hesitated. It was the first time Master Ezlo had addressed him with something other than 'boy.' He opened the door a crack and saw his master looking at him with a confused and hurt face. Vaati glowered because he was still upset and worried about his situation, but he finally hung his head. "I'm sorry Master Ezlo. For speaking out rudely."

A brief flicker of relief passed over the black eyes almost hidden behind the white bushy brows, but they still held some worry. "Apologies accepted. But I still don't understand –"

"Can you do me a favor Master Ezlo?" Vaati interrupted. Ezlo shut up and cautiously nodded his head.

"Why certainly."

"Leave me alone? Please?"

"Well…er…" Ezlo panicked. How did parents usually deal with this sort of behavior? Was it his business to pry what was bothering Vaati, or would that entail lying since he had said he would do Vaati a favor? What if Vaati thought he was being too nosey? He didn't want to be the mean parent that Vaati would come to hate, nor did he want to spoil the boy. What do I do? What do I say? Before he could answer, Vaati decided for him.

"Thanks Master Ezlo," he said, and shut the door.

Ezlo stared at the closed door for a few minutes. Sighing sadly, he returned to his study. Why can't Vaati trust me yet?

XXXXXXXX

School was as hellish as Vaati imagined it was going to be. Delta had gotten over his cold and as soon as the two had a chance to talk, the conversation about sledding had come up. Vaati could tell his friend was trying to pretend it didn't bother him that Vaati had hung out with his crush without him over the weekend.

"So you went sledding huh?"

"Yeah. We wanted you to come with us but –"

"But I had a stupid cold. Yeah. It's not a big deal…it happens."

Vaati watched Delta take out his notebook for the lecture and then begin to tear out small bits of paper from the corners. He felt uncomfortable that his friend was feeling glum so Vaati looked elsewhere around the room. He caught Kari blatantly looking his way from across the class and smile when he noticed. Frick. He quickly turned back to Delta and clenched his hands into a fist when he saw that Delta had noticed Kari looking at Vaati as well. Here it comes.

"You had fun though." Delta said flatly.

"Sure…" Vaati said carefully, not wanting to offend. "But we would have had more fun if you had been there."

Delta cocked his head once unconvincingly, leaving Vaati to wonder what was going on in his head for the rest of the morning. Recess didn't make things any better.

In fact, things got worse when the brunette girl made a beeline for Vaati and kidnapped him. "Vaati c'mere! I want to show you something!"

Oh for the love of Nayru…

"Maybe later Kari. I need to talk to Delta first."

Kari pouted and pretended to be upset. "Well, don't leave me waiting."

Vaati's lips pressed tightly until they were thin lines. "So don't wait. Go find someone else to talk to in the meanwhile." He didn't wait for Kari's response – he wasn't interested anyway. Vaati nervously made his way towards Delta who had been watching him from their usual spot by the moss-covered rock. His friend didn't look happy with his arms crossed in front of him. Vaati flinched when Delta spoke.

"She likes you," he sneered, half hurt and half angry. "I'm beginning to wonder if you two actually missed me last weekend."

"Of course we did!" Vaati exclaimed, now upset himself. "Delta, I don't like her."

Delta huffed. "Really? You seemed pretty eager to go talk to her last week."

"I was trying to show you how easy it is to go up and start a conversation with somebody!" Vaati threw his hands up in exasperation. "I might have been a little overconfident with my new robes and I probably shouldn't have done anything because you didn't want me to go talk."

Delta suddenly stood up and walked away.

"Delta wait…"

His friend shrugged. "Sorry Vaati. It looks likes your new friend wants to talk to you."

Vaati paled when he saw Kari running up to him and calling his name. She wanted to know if he would join a game of four squares with her friends. He pinched the bridge of his nose. Things keep getting better and better.

XXXXXXXX

When Vaati finally made it home away from all the drama going on at school, he flopped over the couch in relief. Of course Ezlo mistook him for being lazy so he retreated back to his room and shut himself inside in response to being reprimanded. In Vaati's opinion, Kari was a problematically hopeless girl who just didn't get it. During recess, he had attempted to nicely tell her that she was just a friend.

She took it as "going to be even better friends in the future."

He then hinted Delta was a nice guy. Why not go talk to him instead?

She said Vaati was more fun. Cue giggles here.

In a fit of frustration, Vaati resorted to being a total jerk. He clearly told her he didn't like her. At all.

She thought he was "in denial."

What. The. Hell.

He needed to think of something fast, because he could tell his friendship with Delta was becoming strained. He'd thought that telling Kari flat out that he didn't like her would do the trick, but she wouldn't believe him. What could he do?

Vaati rested his chin on his hands as he thought for a little while. He reached out and grabbed one of the books he was supposed to be reading and absentmindedly flipped its pages. The rhythmic 'fwip' coming from the flipping pages continued for several minutes until they gradually slowed to a stop. Vaati perked up. That's it.

He can become unavailable. Then she'll give up and Delta would believe him that he wasn't being a douche. He really wasn't interested in any girls at the moment, so the best thing to do was to ask someone who he knew wouldn't be interested in him as well. He'll ask them to pretend to like him in front of Kari so she'll become discouraged.

One person came to mind: Bentari's girlfriend Ria. She was a reasonable girl and wouldn't betray Bentari, and he knew she would understand the problem he was in. Vaati would make it very, VERY clear to Bentari that he wasn't trying to steal away Ria to avoid further problems. Ria would help.

Vaati grabbed his jacket and ran outside, paying no heed to Ezlo's calls asking where he was going. Looking back on things later, Vaati realized he had overlooked several obvious flaws in his plan to get rid of Kari. He must have been desperate to not see them at the time.

XXXXXXXXX

Ria opened the door to a purple-robed apprentice who was slightly out of breath from running to her house. His breath came out in small white puffs in the biting cold and his shoulders were white with snowflakes. "Vaati? Are you all right?"

Vaati grinned sheepishly. "Sort of. Not really…"

"Well, what's up? Come inside, it's cold out."

Vaati followed Ria to the living room where there was a cozy hearth lighting up the wall with a comfortable orange glow. After quick introductions to her family, her mother brought both of them a mug of hot chocolate. Ria watched her visitor huff into his mug several times, reluctant to begin talking. She twirled her brown ponytail around her fingers, waiting. Finally, Vaati took a big sigh. "I'm in trouble, and I was wondering if you could help me."

"Sure I can help you. It depends on what you need me to do, but I'll try my best to help."

So Vaati began explaining what had happened between him, Delta, and Kari the past weekend. Ria patiently listened as he went over how he had planned to get his friend to overcome his shyness and how his plan had backfired. He told her how he had tried to make it clear he wasn't interested in Kari in any way and how that had failed as well. Ria covered her mouth in a snicker.

"I'm sorry," she apologized when Vaati glared, offended. "It's just that I didn't expect you to come to me with girl problems."

"I didn't come here to be laughed at," Vaati said indignantly.

"I'm sorry. Please continue. You said you wanted me to help? Where do I come in?"

"Well…" Vaati stalled, trying to choose his words carefully. He bit his lip. "You're really close with Bentari, right?"

Ria scrunched her brows together at the unexpected question. "Yeah. He's my best friend."

"And you trust each other?"

"Of course we trust each other." Her dark eyes narrowed. "What are you getting at?"

"So that means that if you pretend to like me and I pretend to like you in front of Kari, it shouldn't cause problems right? Because you trust each other?"

Ria blanched. She almost coughed out her hot chocolate all over Vaati's face. "You want me…to pretend to like you…in front of Kari?" she asked quietly, dumbfounded.

Vaati nodded. "Exactly. Then she'll give up on me."

"I don't know…"

"It'll only be temporary. In the meanwhile, help her look at Delta and not me?"

"Um."

"Think of it as doing me a favor? I'm desperate right now."

"I…I suppose I can. It's only pretending...I'll ask Bentari what he thinks…" Ria rose, flustered by the request. Wondering about what to do, she glanced back at Vaati. The boy had visibly relaxed and was lounging on the sofa, relieved that he had at least made his request. His face was flushed orange from the sudden temperature change from being outside and coming indoors, accentuating his self satisfied smile.

"Thanks Ria. I'm glad I have a friend like you."

The smile was so disarming that Ria couldn't help but smile back in return, regardless of how absurd the entire situation was. "Don't worry Vaati. I said I'll try my best to help you."

XXXXXXXXX

I did it! Now she'll never bother me again, stupid girl! It was about two weeks and a half since he had asked Ria to help him, and Kari had finally given up on him. He knew she probably wasn't completely over him, but at least she wasn't bugging him so obviously anymore. Kukukukuku. He snickered to himself in his success. My idea was PERFECT. He and Ria watched Kari dejectedly move away from their field of vision. Once she was out of sight he waved happily at Ria. "Thanks again Ria! I'll see you tomorrow!"

Ria tilted her head slightly. "Oh? Oh…right. Goodbye Vaati! It was nice talking to you today, too." She waved back and moved off to join her friends who were waiting for her.

Vaati smiled, satisfied. And to top it all off I made a new friend. Still thinking about how smoothly his plan had gone, he wandered off to find Delta. They hadn't talked since their last confrontation about Kari, and Vaati was eager to set things right again. He was sure Delta would finally notice how Vaati wasn't interested in stealing away Kari after all. Vaati found the redhead talking intently with Bentari. He felt a twinge of sadness when he thought of how they had stopped talking to each other, but whatever. All this was going to be fixed soon enough. As soon as Delta saw Vaati, he walked up to him. Vaati went off to meet him halfway there.

"I was looking for you!"

They both stared at each other as they blurted out simultaneously. However, one was said cheerfully while the other sounded quite angry. Vaati stopped short when Delta watched him with a steely gaze. "You've got a lot of explaining to do, friend." The last word was spoken as though it had no right to belong in the sentence.

Flinching, Vaati held out both hands in the air in the universal sign of peace. "Look, Delta, I'm sorry if I've ever offended you. Please don't be angry with me – what happened wasn't what I expected and I didn't mean to hurt our friendship. But see? Kari won't talk to me anymore. I was never interested, Delta, I spoke the truth. Can we go back to being friends now?" He was shocked when an angry hiss escaped Delta's lips.

"Friends? With you? It's not just about Kari anymore Vaati. What you're doing disgusts me."

"What…" Vaati trailed off in shock.

"Bentari wants to talk to you."

A dark haired boy with a blue scarf wrapped around his face walked up to Vaati and stopped next to Delta. There was a small cut on his forehead where he had gotten injured from doing something outside, and he was a few centimeters taller than Vaati. Vaati thought he knew what was coming when Ria's boyfriend sized him up.

"You know what you're doing, freak?"

"What did you just call me?!"

"Hey, Bentari, none of that." Delta came to Vaati's defense but his frown told the pale boy that he still wasn't forgiven. Vaati growled angrily at Bentari.

"You're talking about Ria, right? She said she explained what we were doing and that you knew perfectly well that she was just trying to help me."

Bentari tsked and spat in the snow. "Oh, yeah, she explained all right. Said how she wanted to help you or whatever."

"Yeah. She's helping me because she's a good friend. I'm not trying to take her away from you if that's what you're getting at."

"And that's exactly what I'm getting at," Bentari snarled. "Do you know what you've done? Intentionally or not you've taken her from me and I resent that."

Vaati was confused. "But she doesn't like me like that."

Bentari scoffed cynically. "But she does." He brought his face inches away from Vaati's so that their noses were barely touching. "Did she tell you she broke up with me?"

Vaati shrunk instantly as his confidence simmered and slithered away. He opened his mouth to say something but no words would come out. He gasped, then choked, and then managed to cough weakly "really?" Vaati found that he had trouble looking at the other two in the eyes. Just when I thought I had everything handled. He turned to Delta for help but his friend just shook his head in disappointment.

"I want to trust you, Vaati, but you're being a jerk not only to me but to Bentari, too. No one looks kindly on thieves."

"But…" Vaati watched helplessly as Bentari grumbled and stomped away. He felt Delta put a hand on his shoulder. It wasn't a "I'm with you," hand but a "you're on your own" hand.

"Help me out too, ok Vaati? Show me you're still the friend I thought you were?"

Vaati nodded, and then followed Delta back inside to school when recess ended. That's what I've been trying to do these past few weeks…

XXXXXXXXXX

Stupid Delta, stupid Bentari, stupid Ezlo, stupid Kari, stupid Ria – back at home, Vaati shoveled through the twenty volumes Ezlo had given him to read. Stupid girls!

At the moment he had no respect whatsoever for girls and their giggly nonsense. Nor did he have respect for the guys who made such a big deal out of them. In fact, he probably had no respect whatsoever for anyone at this point.

He looked at each title and set them aside when it wasn't the one he was looking for. It was a book he had flipped through once and he remembered there had been something in it that could help him in his newest plan. At last, he came across the book he had been looking for: Enchantments and Charms for Beginners. Vaati laid the book across his lap, licked his thumb, and began to peruse through the pages.

Ah, here it is. He placed a finger on the page teaching readers the steps to necessary to enchant someone into liking them. Vaati began to read.

What…this isn't a spell at all! He thought when the book basically told him that well placed confidence was the key. He should have expected it from a beginner's book: from what he had read, most of the 'spells' in those books involved little to no magic. Well, confidence shouldn't be a problem.

Closing his book, he made his way to the bathroom to take a look in the mirror. Crimson eyes stared back through sheer lavender hair, and Vaati observed his unusually pale face for a little bit. There had been a time when the only thing he had liked about himself was the curious crescent-shaped black birthmark under his eyes because he knew his looks were probably why his parents abandoned him. There had been a time when everyone at the orphanage had ridiculed him, and even a brief time when the kids at school had done so as well.

But he had one thing most of the people he met didn't have.

Vaati let himself grin rather nastily in the mirror.

True egocentric confidence. Not the fake kind that people often mistake bragging snoots to have but the real kind where no bragging is required. People like Vaati with true (nearly megalomaniacal) confidence do not brag because they don't give a flip on what other people think of them.

When someone is that confident they end up attracting at least some respect, which is what had happened in Vaati's case. The minish that had once jeered at him had stopped when he made to pay no heed to them. He had the ability to make them feel ridiculous with a pitying look.

If Ezlo had seen Vaati then, he would have seen a glimpse of someone different from the boy he had first taken in for apprenticeship. The boy with narrowed eyes and a cynical grin was different from the one who had first stepped into his new home with anticipation and cautious excitement. However, it was only a glimpse, for Vaati's expression was quickly replaced by his usual 'normal' look: a blank, unreadable face with a tinge of worry from his current predicament, revealed by his twitching cheek.

Turning away from the mirror, he went back to his room and tossed the book onto his bed. Then, he went to the living room to finish some chores Ezlo had assigned him earlier. If all the freaking girls are going to end up liking me then I'm going to get it over with early.

It was better to tackle what he thought was the inevitable early on. Before the girls ended up liking him on their own, he was going to make every single one of them like him at once and proceed from there. Then, in the future, he would have no more problems because he would have succeeded in making them hate him.

How was he going to make them hate him? Easy. Jealousy would take care of that naturally.

As for Delta and Bentari, he figured it was something they would get over once things calmed down. All they really cared about were Kari and Ria respectively, right? Once they got those two back things could return to what it had been before this whole mess started.

Vaati was in a foul mood. He was desperate to set things right…

Which probably explained his rash behavior.

fleets: More of later Vaati characters showing up, but no, this isn't where he snaps. It's still too early for him to be snapping :P

Shadow Blues: No it won't :( It's all downhill from here (still I like Hylian Vaati better lol)

Reily96: His logic isn't sound, but it'll turn him into what he is later - and he's cooler that way...'cept no, it's not going to go well...

101: The very same robe - well, the design changes a little but the purple's still purple. I probably didn't like the chapter because it was too predictable for me for my liking...but I needed it to set up this chapter and the next ones, which I like a whole lot better because they're not so cliche.

Darkwind: ) he tried, succeeded (?kindanotreally) and will now be a jerk to all girls! bwahaha...er...hmmm...

H-Bomber: You put my dilemma into words! Cliche - I think that's exactly why I didn't like the last chapter so much. Hopefully the upcoming segments will remedy that...we'll see...

Bishieluver01: lol womanizer is going to appear in the next one, I think, though you can kinda see it in this one. He's in trouble! (and making a bigger mess out of it from the looks of it)

Victoria-BlackHeart: I hope you like what's coming, then, because it's all downhill from here :)

Peka The Corsair: He's a proud little thing. When will he learn that overconfidence is his downfall? Oh wait, this is just the beginning so he can't know that yet. XD

marium: Thanks! Yeahhh it's only going to get worse for those two :(

Mona-D: If you've read my rant at the top... ehehe I don't try to make them gushy on purpose so no, I didn't realize it was kinda gay. I based them off of two guys I knew from elementary school, and I guess you can say they acted 'fruity.' Some people might have said they had a 'bromance,' but in the end it was just two best friends. I don't think those two acting 'fruity' would be a problem anymore though from the way this story's going. Anyways, happy to hear you like this story so far :D