So yeah, it's been a while since I've updated, and I apologize for that ;) Had a bit of writer's block for this chapter, but hopefully it came out alright and all of you readers enjoy it. These next several chapters will dig into the relationship lives of the other guys - including Sheik, Mido, Kafei, and Mikau, as well as others - who don't get as much main page time during Only Chosen Love :) Hopefully the chapters won't get too boring as I put them up. These next few chapters may also help make the poll I put on my page less apt for LinkxZelda answers (of course these chapters aren't just for that reason, it's also because these guys don't get much page time and they deserve it ;))

Nothing much else but that, so please, enjoy the chapter! And if you have anything against (or for) these next several chapters about the other guys, send me your opinion via review or PM. I always like to hear your input, and I'd like to keep Only Chosen Love enjoyable for every reader :)

-Shinigami-Zelda-sama

(apparently one of my ZU friends thinks this username is weird :P I beg to differ lol)

The Legend of Zelda: Only Chosen Love

Chapter 36: The Boys' Day Out – Mido and Saria

Mido knocked on the door for a second time. After a brief moment of waiting, Saria answered the door.

"Hey, Mido!" she greeted him with a smile.

"Hey," Mido said back. "Are you all ready?"

Saria stepped out of her house, closing the door behind her. She was dressed in a pair of dark jeans, a flowery top, and a dark green sweater that matched her bright green hair. She had a small bag hanging off her left shoulder.

"Yep, I'm ready if you're ready," Saria replied.

Mido smiled back and then guided her to his car. She sat next to him in the passenger's seat. Mido started the car and drove off down the dirt road through Kokiri Village. They drove down the path that was surrounded with luscious trees and exotic plants. A thick layer of snow blanketed the ground around them, the dirt road having been cleared earlier for the cars to pass through.

"So . . . what do you want to do today?" Mido asked as he turned on the heating to warm them up from the winter breeze.

Saria snuggled back into the seat, her sweater buttoned up tightly to keep her body warm.

"Oh, it doesn't matter," she sighed. "Did you have anything in mind?"

"Well, they're having a snow-sculpture building contest in Hyrule Castle Town today before the New Year's Eve ceremony. I thought we could go watch that."

"Ohh, I went to that once when I was a kid!" Saria said happily.

"I went last year and the statues were pretty impressive," Mido replied.

"I'd love to go." Saria rested her head against the head of the passenger seat. The drive to Hyrule Castle Town would be a bit long, but she didn't mind.

Fortunately, Mido knew another road he could take. After an hour of driving – a trip that would normally take two hours – they made it to the city.

"Wow, that was quick," Saria giggled when she saw they were already on the city roads. "I wish I had known about that shortcut earlier."

Mido got out of the car and went to her side, offering a hand out to help out of the car. She took his hand and let him guide her to the area of the city that was closed off for the competition. It was set up in a circle shape, with bleachers all around it for visitors to sit and watch. And of course, the centre was filled with thick layers of snow for the competitors to build the sculptures with.

"Looks like people are already showing up," Saria observed, looking at the rows of people that were seated in the bleachers.

Mido lead her to an empty spot on the bleachers.

"Well, the competition can be pretty long," Mido explained. "It gives the competitors plenty of time to make something really extraordinary."

Mido and Saria sat down next to each other on the bleachers, watching as the competitors entered the ring. Mido checked his watch. It was four o'clock – the competition would start any minute and end around six, followed by the New Year's Eve celebration at midnight. Of course, there were lots of other events that were being held as well to fill in the time between the competition and midnight.

"Wow, these guys look pretty serious," Saria giggled. "Look at that guy!" She pointed to a muscular man with sideburns and a pipe clenched between his teeth.

"Wait a minute . . ." Mido immediately recognized the black-haired boy among the competitors that looked an awful lot like Link. "Is that . . . Shade?"

Saria peered in the direction Mido was looking, and smiled. "Yeah, I think it is! And look, there's Ren!" She pointed out the blond-haired girl who was taunting the competitors with Shade by her side.

"Huh. Too bad Link isn't here to see this," Mido snickered.

"Well, he might show up," Saria said. "Link's not the kind of guy to miss out on fun times like these. We might see him later on."

"Maybe."

Mido and Saria watched together as the referree started the competition with a wave of a red flag, and the competitors began. There were four teams – Shade and Ren, two older-looking teenage boys, the sideburn guy and a tan girl with curly hair, and a teenage couple. They watched the four teams build up similar-looking lumps of snow, building them up higher and higher until they were pretty big.

"I guess that's a smart idea, to just build up a big pile of snow and work from that," Mido muttered.

"I wasn't so sure about the competitors, but they're actually pretty good at this," Saria said in amazement. "They're pretty quick to work too."

Mido looked around, and then stood up from the bleacher.

"There's a hot chocolate booth over there," Mido said. "Do you want any?"

"Sure," Saria replied. "I have some money if-"

"No, don't worry about it!" Mido snickered. "It's on me."

Mido left for the hot chocolate booth and stood in the medium-length line. He could see Sheik a few feet away, in front of the person who was ahead of him.

"Hey, Sheik!" Mido called him, waving his hand to get his attention.

Sheik turned, and smiled at the sight of Mido's face.

"Oh, hey there, Mido," Sheik greeted him. "You here for the sculpture contest too?"

"Yeah, I'm here with Saria."

"Oh? I'm here with Malon."

Mido smiled. "Well, that's convenient. We should hang out until the fireworks."

"Sounds fun to me. Have you seen Link anywhere? It's not like him to miss a New Year's Eve festival."

Mido shrugged his shoulders. "Nah, I haven't seen him, but I'm sure he'll show up somewhere. Shade's here you know."

"Is he?" Sheik asked, his eyes widening.

"Yeah!" Mido said with a wide grin. "He's one of the competitors!"

"I left to get hot chocolate so I haven't seen the players yet . . ." Sheik grumbled. "This line is insanely long."

"Tell me about it," Mido mumbled. "But think about it, if Shade's here, then Link is bound to show up too."

Sheik nodded. "Definitely."

The two boys waited in the line for a few more minutes; finally, they were at the front of the line, and they bought two cups of hot chocolate each. They walked together back to the arena, where Saria and Malon had already found each other.

"Hey, Malon," Mido greeted the redhead when he made it to his seat. He handed Saria the cup of hot chocolate, and then began to drink his own. It warmed him up in a mere second.

"Oh, hey," Malon replied. "It's great to see you. Are you enjoying your break?"

"Yeah, it's going pretty well," Mido snickered. "Sleeping in, kicking back, playing video games . . ."

"Sounds like you're all set then," Malon giggled.

Sheik watched the contestants, but when his eyes set on the tan girl and the tall guy with the sideburns, he nearly choked on his drink.

"T-That's . . . Uzuki and Peter!" he gasped.

"You know them?" Mido asked curiously.

"Yeah, Uzuki performed at the winter dance," Sheik replied. "And Peter came to our dorm room the next morning looking for her. We helped him search for her, and we found her passed out in Ganon's room."

"In Ganon's room?" Malon gasped.

"Yeah, turns out they had been playing a few drinking games the night before," Sheik snickered. "We were in and out before he woke up. Peter is Uzuki's boyfriend."

"Oh," Mido said. "Well, they seem to make a good team . . . if only I knew what they were making."

Saria and Malon both tilted their heads, trying to understand the odd shapes that Uzuki and Peter were making with the snow.

"Beats me," Malon snickered. "Look at Shade though, he's doing a pretty good job."

The four teenagers watched as Shade built up something that looked like some kind of fortress with a mote and spikes all around it.

"Deadly," Sheik muttered before taking a sip from his hot chocolate.

They sat there and watched the competition for the next half hour, going back for occasional hot chocolates and chatting amongst themselves about their holiday break and what they would do when they went back to school. After about an hour and a half, most of the competitors were finished – they worked pretty fast with the snow, and by the end of the competition, everybody had something unique to show off to the judges and the crowd.

"Wow, they're pretty efficient," Sheik chuckled. "Shade built up a pretty good battle fort. He even made little soldiers and cannons."

"That girl over there made a very neat magazine kiosk," Malon pointed out. "I think I see Opera magazine in there . . ."

"What did Uzuki and Peter make?" Saria asked.

Mido stared at it. "It looks like a . . . guy in a suit. Hmm. What's coming out of his back?"

"I can't tell from here. That's weird how they got the snow to curve like that," Sheik shuddered.

"It's . . . kinda scary," Malon whispered.

The group waited for the final results from the judges. Five minutes passed, and finally the head judge came out to give out the results of the competition. With his little microphone in hand, he began to speak to the crowd.

"Well, we have a lot of interesting sculptures this year," he began. "And as always, we had to think over it a lot on who won. We shall begin by naming off the third and second place winner."

He brought up a little piece of paper and adjusted his small, round glasses.

"In third place is Uzuki Kasahara and Peter Larken, with their sculpture, 'The Tall Man'," he announced.

The crowd clapped and cheered.

"In second place is Shade Kokiri, with his sculpture, 'Very Cool Battle Fort'," he chuckled.

More clapping and cheering.

"And finally, in first place . . . Ana Ferra's life-size replica of Spongebob Squarepant's pineapple house, hollowed out from the inside and completely furnished!" the man announced.

"Yeah, I figured she'd win," Sheik snickered.

"Completely furnished too?" Mido wondered. "That's why she was in there for so long . . . she's pretty fast to be able to do that in two hours."

"Two hours well spent," Malon laughed. "I wonder if that girl will let us walk inside of the house . . ."

"It's pretty creative, that's for sure," Mido said. "I wonder if Shade hollowed out his battle fort."

"I'm still creeped out by Uzuki and Peter's sculpture," Saria shuddered. "I hope that thing doesn't really exist . . . it's scary . . ."

"Don't worry about it," Mido laughed. "It's probably just some silly Internet fad."

The teenagers watched as Uzuki went to Shade's fort and demolished the snow soldiers underneath her feet, Shade and Peter both laughing as they watched her. Then she went ahead and walked into the pineapple house that had been built by Ana Ferra.

"Well, they're opening up a pie eating contest in about twenty minutes," Sheik said, looking at his watch to check the time. "Wanna go watch it?"

"Ugh, a bunch of gross guys stuffing their faces with pie?" Malon hissed. "Sounds disgusting, but sure, why not? I've got nothing to lose."

"Wow, I can't believe he threw up all over your shoes."

"So much for having nothing to lose."

Malon stared down at her shoes, which had just been cleaned by staff after having an overweight man throw up all over them from eating too much pie at the pie-eating contest.

"Shut up, guys! It's not funny!" Malon yelled, her face a bright red.

Sheik took Malon's hand. "It's alright, Malon," he told her. "Is there anything I can do to make you feel any better?"

Malon shook her head. "Just don't take me to any more food-eating contests!"

Sheik smiled. "That's totally fine."

Mido checked his watch. "It's nearly eight now, guys."

"They're starting to play some music and stuff over in the main area," Sheik said, pointing over to where a stage was set up with band players going up with their instruments in hand. "They also have a video game station – they're having all kinds of tournaments over there."

"The video game station sounds like it would be fun," Mido snickers.

"Do you two want to check it out?" Sheik asks Malon and Saria.

Malon smiles. "Sure, why not?"

Saria nods in agreement. "It may not be so bad – I'm not good at video games, but it may be fun to watch."

The four teenagers made their way through the crowd, until they made it to the small building that was dedicated completely to video games. Several television screens were set up with different game systems hooked up to each one, and kids were having wireless handheld battles in another corner of the room.

"Whoa, they really went all out with this," Sheik said in awe as he looked around the room. He saw that one television was set up with Call of Duty, and another with Mario Kart.

"Hey, looks like Uzuki's here too," Sheik pointed out, pointing over to where Uzuki was playing an old Nintendo 64 game. He went over to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Can't look right now!" Uzuki grunted. "Trying to concentrate!"

Sheik stared at the screen she was focusing on – it looked like some kind of puzzle game with Pokemon in it. Her fingers were moving rapidly along the N64 controller, moving the blocks around onscreen and creating colored matches, one after the other.

"She's pretty quick at that," Malon gasped. "Look at everyone else."

Sheik nodded in agreement when he saw the other players, most of them moving not even half the speed at which Uzuki was. She had to have been playing the game for years to get at a skill level like that.

In forty short seconds, the round ended, and Uzuki smiled in victory. Then she finally turned around to face Sheik.

"Oh, hi there," she greets him. "Uh . . .have we met before?"

Peter, who was standing right next to Uzuki and watching her play with the same amazed look as everyone else, turned to face Sheik as well.

"Oh, it's you," Peter said. "Uzuki, this is Sheik – he's one of Link's friends. He helped me and Link find you that night after the winter dance."

"Ah, right," Uzuki snickered. "You were in that TF2 game with us the other night. You make a pretty bitching soldier, you know that?"

"Well, I had no choice," Sheik grumbled. "Somebody ran in without us."

"Hey, I was warming up some chicken!" Uzuki shouted. "Excuse me for being hungry!"

Mido looked around, and saw the table where the Mario Kart game was set up.

"Hey, let's go check out the Mario Kart tournament," Mido said to her.

Saria smiled and followed him as he led her to the table. Two boys were squaring off against each other – one playing as Bowser and the other as Boo – and were nearing the finish line.

"Heh, I remember playing this game with Link when we were younger," Mido said with a smile. "It can get pretty intense."

"A Mario game?" Saria snickered, giving him a curious look.

"Hey, Mario can be pretty hard sometimes!" Mido laughed.

When the round ended – the boy playing as Bowser won – the manager for the Mario Kart tournament stepped up.

"Alright, folks, this tournament is nearly wrapped up," he said to the group of people. "While we get the final rounds set up, let's leave this game open to anyone who hasn't joined the tournament and hasn't gotten a chance to play yet – this will also give you an opportunity to go watch other people at the other tournaments. We should be done in about ten minutes."

Most of the kids dispersed, but Mido and Saria stayed.

"Want to try it?" Mido asked her.

Saria stared at the remote in front of her, and then sighed.

"Sure, but you'll have to teach me," she giggled.

"Of course," Mido replied. He took the first player remote, and she took the second, and he started to guide her through the controls. They selected their characters – Luigi for Mido, and Peach for Saria – and then went ahead to select their track.

"Alright, so you want to keep the A button pressed down at all times," Mido told her. "If you don't keep it pressed, your car won't drive."

"Um . . . o-okay," Saria giggled.

"Use the control stick to turn," he continued to explain, taking her thumb and placing it over the control stick. "And the X button to throw an item, if you happen to get one. They're scattered over the tracks as boxes and they're completely randomized."

"Okay," Saria replied.

"If you want, you can also drift while driving," Mido continued, taking her index fingers on both hands and gently placing them over top the L and R buttons. "If you're turning left, hold in the L button – if you're turning right, the R button. This helps a lot when making sharp turns, not to mention if drift hard enough you'll get a speed boost when you release it. You don't have to use this, but it's just a tip."

"I got it," Saria said. "So, A button to drive, X button to throw an item, L and R buttons to drift. Easy."

"Oh, and B button to brake," Mido added.

"And B button to brake," Saria repeated with a smile.

Mido selected one of the easier tracks. "Alright, you ready?"

Saria nodded. "Ready."

The countdown started, and in three seconds, Mido and Saria took off, their karts barrelling down the track. Saria managed to stay right next to Mido, but fell behind a few feet when the first sharp turn came and she forgot to drift.

"Oops," Saria giggled, and fixed her fingers back onto the L and R buttons so that they would be ready next time.

They kept driving, and finished the first lap still next to each other. Mido drove through an item box and ended up with a lightning bolt, so he used it and shrunk Saria down to a miniscule size.

"What?" Saria gasped. "Haha! That's so funny!" She laughed out loud as she watched her character jump around in their kart, trying to put out the smoke that had emerged from the lightning bolt hitting their bodies. After a few moments, she returned to regular size.

When Saria drove through the next item box, she ended up with a mushroom. When she pressed X to use it, her character got a speed boost, pulling ahead of Mido. At the next turn, Saria remembered to drift, and got a speed boost from the turn, pushing her even further ahead.

"Hey, you're pretty good at this," Mido said as he watched her grab a few more speed boosts along the track.

Saria smiled back, and during the last lap, crossed the finish line first. She giggled softly as she watched her character do a little victory dance in their kart.

They both set their remotes down and cleared the way for two more kids who wanted to play.

"That was pretty impressive," Mido praised her as they walked out of the building. "You sure you don't have some kind of hidden video game talent?"

Saria giggled at his comment. "I don't think so . . . I never played video games much as a child. I guess I never really found one that I could enjoy."

"Well, you sure seemed to enjoy Mario Kart."

Saria smiled, and took Mido's hand. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Mido and Saria soon came across a bench, so they sat down to rest their feet. It was still rather chilly outside, especially now that night-time was approaching, but the two teenagers kept themselves warm with their winter jackets wrapped tightly around themselves.

Saria, who had been sitting a couple feet away from Mido, slid in a little closer. Then she placed her hand over his where it was sitting against the bench, the feel of her skin immediately warming his.

Mido looked down at her and tried to smile the best he could – honestly, he was terrified. He had always like Saria but had never gathered the courage to ask her out before. So when they went to the dance together, it seemed like a lucky break for him.

"I had a lot of fun today," Saria said to him.

"Well . . . there's still a lot of stuff left to do in the day," Mido snickered quietly. "You're going to have lots more fun."

"I know," Saria said. "I know I'll have lots of fun. Because I'm with you."

Mido's face turned red in embarrassment. He suddenly wasn't worried about the cold air outside – in fact, he was starting to feel a little stuffy. He unzipped his jacket to let some of the cool air come in.

"Mido, are you sweating?" Saria asked. Then she burst into laughter. "Are you . . . embarrassed?"

Mido looked away, getting more anxious and embarrassed by the second.

Saria squeezed his hand. "Hey, you don't have to be nervous around me."

Mido took a breath, still in the midst of calming himself. "I-I know, I just-"

Saria held a finger to his lips, silencing him.

"Do you like me, Mido?" she asked him, her bright green eyes looking into his.

Mido stared at her for a brief moment that seemed like hours. Finally, he managed to get the words sorted out in his mind and into his mouth.

"Yes, I do," Mido told her. "I've always liked you. You're beautiful, and kind, and funny, and-"

Before he could finish, Saria leaned up and placed her soft lips gently on his.

When she pulled away, she had a warm smile on her face.

"You only had to say yes."

A/N: So this is how the chapters are going to be going on for the next several updates - pretty much just covering this single day from the perspectives of different guys and their girlfriends.

Next up will be SheikxMalon :)

-Shinigami-Zelda-sama