A/N: We've got some family-related drama in this chapter. On Ao3, I like that I can have warning tags, unlike here. So this is just a heads up that this chapter goes into both Link and Zelda's dysfunctional families.
Zelda sat in a circle with the rest of the cast in the small exercise room that was just a hallway's length away from backstage. They could already hear the excited clamoring of an auditorium filling up with playgoers. They were each humming lowly to themselves, a warmup.
Then, Mr. Ezlo led them in another. "Repeat after me: To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark, dock, in a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock, awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp, shock, from a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!"
They did several times before he nodded his approval. "And now: the lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, enunciate, articulate, exaggerate! I want to hear those T's!"
Again and again they repeated it, faster and faster until the words were a buzz of sounds more than anything else, a din of noise but nothing discernable as everyone began to burst into bouts of nervous laughter.
Mr. Ezlo stood up and gestured for everyone to follow him. He looked around at the students in costumes and nodded, proud. "For some of you, this is your last musical in high school. I hope you will return for the Spring play, but if you choose not to, then know that it has been an honor to watch you grow into fine young adults. And you'll get to hear the part of my speech that makes you cry only if you come back for Spring, so that's my motivation to you."
Zelda crossed her arms and felt a stray tear threaten her eye, which she hastily wiped away before it could be ruined. What if she never got to hear the rest of his speech because she didn't audition for the next play?
"Okay everyone, hands in!"
Zelda felt Revali's hand over hers, and she shot him a cautious look. He met her stare and nodded, a truce for the sake of the play, if nothing else. And though she hated to admit it, it did make her feel better.
Mr. Ezlo started bouncing their hands as he began to chant. "Oooh, I feel so good like I knew I would; oooh I feel so good! Come on! Oooh! I feel so good like I knew I would; oooh I feel so good!"
Louder.
A whisper.
A shout and a dance break.
The entire company was laughing and crashing into each other with excitement. Zelda felt Revali actually steady her as she bounced once with too much enthusiasm, and she laughed while she thanked him, refreshingly familiar, simple, like they used to be.
"Okay you guys, get your finishing touches and then get to your places! We'll be on in about five minutes now."
"Zelda!" Revali called, stopping her from leaving.
Zelda watched Ruto give him a strangely dirty look before leaving them alone. "Yes?"
"This year has been hard for us so far, but I wanted to tell you that I'm hoping you and I can put that aside for the show. Our last few run throughs have been…" he struggled for the word.
"Awkward," Zelda provided.
Revali smirked and nodded. "Very. But I wanted to tell you to break a leg tonight."
Zelda scoffed unsure if he was being serious or not. She turned to the door and saw Darunia and Sidon waiting. She offered them both a smile before returning her attention to Revali. "Sure," she said, backing away. "Break a leg, too, Revali."
As she approached the door, Darunia and Sidon clapped her on the back. "Breathe," Darunia said when he saw her wringing her hands.
She chuckled breathlessly, looking between them as Revali joined. Most of their old group together again, even only for a few seconds, it felt good.
"I miss you," she admitted to them. Revali knew he wasn't a part of 'you' in this case.
Darunia didn't hesitate before pulling her into a rock-solid hug. "I missed you, too! I thought you were mad at us!"
"Not at you," she said, melting into him. His hugs were some of the best.
"At me," Revali answered with a chuckle, lighthearted, if that were even possible. Sidon whacked his chest.
"I miss hanging out with you, Zelda," Darunia said. It was genuine and mixed with hurt. "How's Link?" And though he said it without disgust or hate or fear, it was clearly a reminder of the reason they all broke apart.
"He's great. He's here tonight. Actually, he bought tickets for every show day, poor thing. I don't think he really likes musicals, so it's really nice of him." Her eyes flicked to Revali, waiting for a comment about Link using that opportunity to burn down the school or something, but he mercifully stayed quiet. And she wondered if the look Sidon was giving him had anything to do with it.
She felt her phone vibrate in her costume pocket but didn't pull it out yet.
"We're going to get into places. Some of us have to enter right away in this show," Revali said with a playful wink before leaving with Sidon.
Darunia gave her a hug. "I've been trying to talk to him. I really do want you to hang out with us again. Even if you're with Link."
Zelda tightened her grip on him. "Even if Revali and I can't fix anything, I will hang out with you again, Darunia."
"Good. I have to go too, but I'll see you in a bit."
Zelda smiled as they left her, and she pulled out her phone, a little overwhelmed. She rested against the hallway wall, not needed on stage for a while yet, and checked the message. It was from Link.
"Have you ever taken a bad picture?" he asked, sending her a picture of her headshot from the pamphlet.
She shook her head and laughed.
Link could almost hear her laughing when he got her response. "Turn off your phone! You're in a theater."
He turned to the massive crew who'd assembled for her and (because now he could) took a selfie with himself in it before sending it to her. He looked at everyone's faces in the background, chuckling at their candid expressions.
He sat beside Ilia, who was near Makeela, then Pipit, Gabe, Aryll, and Ilia's father, Bo rounded out the row of them.
Zelda sent back a heart emoji just before the lights flickered, and Link handed Ilia his phone. She rolled her eyes and turned it off for him, demonstrating how. He was so used to his old phone where he'd simply hold down the end button a few seconds and it was off, but that wasn't the case for this new one. He slipped it back into his pocket and got comfortable in his seat.
The show started with Revali, and Link scoffed to himself, really remembering for the first time that Revali was the lead of this show and that he'd signed on for three days of watching the peacock strut around the stage. But if he ever had to give Revali one single compliment in his entire life, it was that he did know how to sing, and he was good at it. That made the scenes without Zelda mildly tolerable.
From the corner of his eye, he could see Pipit passing a clipboard between him and Makeela, and then him to Gabe, and then all the way to Ilia. Link glanced at it when it neared him. Most of it had to do with the plot or the quality of the singers and the acting. One comment was definitely Makeela's handwriting, complaining about missing his little whiteboard. Pipit truly was a champ for attending at all.
But gods, when Zelda came on stage, Link's heart leapt. He'd seen her in her costume before but watching her strut across the stage with a gait that was entirely not her own, a different confidence that didn't belong to her but to her character, an attitude that she projected… he was in awe.
Her first song was immediate, and Link hadn't heard her sing in some time. She kept eye contact with the audience as a whole, never finding him specifically, or anyone it seemed. There were a few people up there who looked liked they could have been looking straight into his soul, that's how eerie their eye contact was.
But Zelda swapped her attention between the audience, and the stage full of males in the company, ogling her, as they were meant to for her character. He did humorously note that two of them were females with a hat, not enough men to fill the stage. He wished he'd been told. He'd have signed up for this one scene for Zelda to straddle and tease him as she made her way through the song and then straight to Revali.
Link… gods, perhaps for the first time… felt a genuine wave of jealousy rush through him. It was a foreign burning sensation. He'd felt it before, but it had always been light, an annoying buzz that he struggled to ignore. But not this time.
He could hear Ilia chuckle. Apparently, his face was betraying him.
"Shut up," he muttered to her.
And though he'd seen it in rehearsal before, watching Revali kiss her a bit too passionately, as the role required, just reminded him of the night he'd picked Zelda up from Darunia's party, upset with how Revali had kissed her.
And the next time he saw her kiss Revali, it was tender and reserved. And Link just sat back, gently pulling at his hair to avoid the tightness in his chest. It had nothing to do with Zelda herself. Before he even knew her, he'd known that she and Revali had been doing scenes like this for years. It was just… textbook jealousy.
But then she sang again, and it was beautiful. And he caught sight of Pipit's clipboard with the words, "Oh yeah, she can sing" written in Makeela's handwriting.
And then, Link was invested in the whole show, still shocked that a show about a murderer would be performed at their school who wouldn't even let Zelda wear her uniform incorrectly for a moment.
By the end of the show, Link realized he was going to struggle through his torrents of jealous emotions for the next two show days. Because while he never once wavered in his trust of Zelda, it still didn't feel good to watch her with Revali. Then again, Link found out that he hated Revali even more when he caressed Zelda and then stabbed her twice with a fake knife before slowly and heart breakingly slitting her throat.
Even though it was fake, and Zelda had told him several times all about how cool the knife was because there was a small opening in the tip that basically let out some paint to look like blood, he still struggled to listen to her and to watch her act out her own death.
When she came out for her bow at the end of the show, she'd cleaned up the fake blood, and half the audience was already standing and clapping. And her smile was wide and proud when she took her bow before stepping back for Revali to get the final cast bow when the rest of the audience stood.
When the cast was off stage and the lights went on, everyone filed into the foyer that Link used to so diligently clean.
"She was so good," Ilia said, grabbing Link's arm excitedly.
Makeela nodded. "I'm so glad I'm seeing this again Sunday."
Link grinned, glad she was too. They were all off to the side, trying to avoid being spotted by Zelda's parents, though he hadn't seen them yet. And Gabe was close, as was Aryll and Bo. He was surrounded by support for once, and it made the thought of accidently bumping into them less intimidating.
He watched Makeela get tired of waiting and dragged Pipit to a large glass case full of trophies as she stole his clipboard from him, switching between pointing and writing.
And then he felt someone crash into his arms.
He grunted at the intense impact, but he tightened his grip and buried his face in her hair. She was so familiar to him now that he could have kept his eyes closed and still known it was her.
"Gods, Zel, you were incredible."
He felt her laugh into him before pulling away. She was still in her last costume and her over-the-top makeup. She was sweating a little bit and reached into her pocket to pull out an elastic to tie her hair up before hugging Ilia next.
"Thank you for coming!"
"Of course!" she said, giving Zelda a squeeze. "It was so good. You were good! You really surprised me! I've never gone to a play, so I was impressed!"
"Oh thanks!" Zelda bit her lip in excitement and turned to Link again, directing her smile at him before hearing the familiar low voice of Gabe.
"Hey, Zelda! I'm glad you invited me. This was something else. You were so good. I almost cried a few times you sang."
"Thanks," she said, blushing wildly at the praise.
"He's not joking. I watched," Aryll said, moving to hug Zelda as well. "Great job. I know why Link was so excited. You're a good dancer."
"Aryll," Link groaned, but Zelda just laughed and received a polite compliment from Bo.
Makeela noticed that Zelda had come back and threw herself at her best friend, picking her up and swinging her excitedly while Zelda yelped and laughed. And she talked so quickly, and with such high, endless praise that Link almost had to tune it out just so he could use some of his brain again.
"Great job, Zelda," Pipit signed, tucking the clipboard under his arm. "At least, it looked like you did a good job. The orchestra was great! I liked the beat. I can feel that much, if not the noise."
She pulled him into a hug before stepping back to sign. "Thank you so much for coming. You know you didn't have to."
"I support my friends," he said simply. But then, with a gesture to the trophy case behind them, he chuckled. "Might have been easier if you were playing a sport though. I hear you and Makeela play volleyball. I don't hate sports, and I usually don't need to hear what's going on."
"You want to come to our games?" Zelda asked, beaming.
She turned to see Link's expression, which was just smug.
She felt another set of arms around her, and leaned backwards into Darunia, needing no prompting to recognize him. "Great job tonight, Zelda!"
"You too!"
And there were several more minutes of praises and admiration that was showered over her. Even Revali had walked by to say well done before going to his family. She took pictures with everyone, with individuals, with groups. Link kept taking candids of her, which mostly resulted in her making strange faces as she spoke, which made him chuckle.
Zelda had been so excited that everyone came, but her eyes kept darting around for two more.
She took a few steps away from everyone and gestured to the crowd. "I'm going to go see if I can find them."
The crowd was thick, and Zelda carefully maneuvered around family photos and scampered between conversations. There was a mob of people to get through, but she traversed it, feeling her heart sink further with every step. And when she finally pushed the doors open to the front of the school, hoping they were waiting outside for her to avoid the crowd, they weren't there.
They weren't there.
It hit Zelda harder than she thought. For some reason, she'd had faith that they'd put work aside. For a show that ran to be just about the same time as a movie, she thought her parents could have given her that.
The air was too cold in that revelation, and she hugged her arms around herself, realizing she needed someone else's, not just her own, so she headed back to the group who had shown up for her and walked straight into Link's chest.
She could literally feel his chest tighten as he looked around. He didn't need her to tell him. His arms snaked around her and kept her locked in a firm embrace, just what she needed. She breathed him in. He was real and here and they weren't.
And tears stung her eyes at the thought.
She pushed out of his arms after only a few seconds. He looked her over, his thumb gingerly chasing a tear away from her eye.
She pulled away, pushing loose strands of hair from her face as she gestured to the hallway that led to their dressing rooms. "I'll be back," she muttered, clearing her throat. "I have to go get out of this costume. Will you be here?"
"I will."
And he was.
They all were.
Everyone but her own parents.
Zelda was in leggings and a long-sleeved baggy shirt, her hair retied out of her eyes, and her face clean of the eccentric makeup—which she was thankful for, because the second she returned to the foyer, now almost empty of families, hers were still not to be found and more tears fell.
Her phone had one missed text from her mother from around halfway through the show: "We're running late. Might miss your show tonight."
One deep breath wasn't enough for Zelda to find the air she needed. She dropped the phone into her pocket and hurried out of the dressing room before anyone could notice that she'd begun to cry again.
"Hey," Link murmured when she reached him again. His hand was running up and down her arm almost immediately.
"Can I stay with you tonight?"
His head was bobbing, but his eyes flicked up to Aryll, not quite for permission, but questioning all the same.
Aryll joined them and put a hand on Zelda's back. "Of course you can come over. You can stay as long as you need to."
"Do you want me to drive you home to get a few things?" Link offered. "I'll drive your car for you if you want. Or you can come straight over and we can just give you whatever you need." He wiped another tear from her eye and pressed his forehead to hers, trying to lighten the mood with his tone. "Either way, it might be hard for you to drive if you've got tears in your eyes though."
An attempted smile spread across her lips, but it wasn't enough. "How'd you get here?"
"Aryll."
Link took Zelda's hand with the keys and let his palm rest underneath hers, silently offering again. He could feel her fingertips unable to stay still, and she dropped the keys into his hand.
"Yeah, thanks. I think I want to get some things."
None of them saw Revali, Sidon, and Darunia watching everything as their group started to trickle out of the building.
Link didn't notice much of anything except for Zelda's uncharacteristically blank expression.
On the ride to her house, he held her hand, though neither of them said a word. He glanced at her when he could. Her head was resting against the window, sure to leave a large print. And when he pulled her car into the driveway, he hurried to help her out and to walk her inside.
When they got into the garage, he heard Zelda choke back a new sob. Neither of their cars were there.
He could read her expression. A part of her still hoped that they'd be here when she arrived, perhaps with flowers or just a simple apology, but there was nothing.
Zelda barely managed to get the alarm code in before collapsing onto the couch in the dark room, letting out a broken cry and clutching her shirt.
Link's hand had been on the light switch, so he flipped it up and dropped beside Zelda, unsure what to say, so doing the only thing he knew. He held her as close as he could.
There was a long stretch of time where Zelda couldn't manage anything but tears and strangled, broken noises, but he held her through it, knowing her well enough to know that it was enough. His arm was sticky with her tears and, he suspected, some snot. But until she calmed down, he had no intention of moving.
"W—" she finally managed. "Why?"
Link didn't bother asking what she meant; he knew she'd continue. He just let his fingers run through her hair again and again.
"Why couldn't… Why am I not enough?"
Link bit the inside of his cheek before resting his lips against her hair. "You are."
"I just wanted my mom and dad for three hours," she cried. Her voice cracked over several of the words. "They love working more than they love me, so why do I still love them?" she asked, more desperate this time.
Tears were stinging the backs of Link's eyes, his chest getting tighter with every pained noise she made. "It's hard not to sometimes, even when you want to hate them."
Zelda struggled to take a breath in, her chest hopping with the effort. "Do… do you love your parents?"
Link adjusted Zelda against him and threaded his fingers through hers, keeping her wrapped in his arms all the while.
"I think… I think that if my mom were to come here right now and ask me to live with her, I'd say yes. I don't know if that's love or if it's just desperation though. I'd have to be put into that situation to be sure."
"Is there a difference?" Zelda asked, finally wiping her eyes with her free hand.
"Yeah," he whispered. And gods, he wanted to say it to her now. He wanted to say he knew the difference because of her. And he wished he'd said it earlier because now would be the time to remind her that she was loved. But he couldn't say it now. He couldn't turn this into something about him, and he didn't know if it was inappropriate to turn it into something about them, so he opted for silence yet again.
She let out a heavy sigh again and gestured to the stairs. "I'll be back in a minute."
Link felt the couch jostle as she stood up and he listened to her footsteps until she was upstairs.
It was eerily quiet in her house, none of the usual energy and life that came with his visits. Part of it, he suspected, was from Zelda. And did he ever know the feeling?
The sensation of his fingers through his hair was all that kept him grounded in the present as he saw his own mother behind his eyes, choosing her beautiful new family rather than the one she'd already written off as a failure. He remembered the sound of the door closing. It was different than other doors in his memory, and that was something he wasn't sure if he'd made up, or if it had truly been a door unlike all others.
He remembered how she'd avoided using his name, dancing around it every time except for her initial gasp of surprise.
"Listen, I'm going to give the police a call so they can get you home to your dad, okay. Just wait out here."
And then he'd heard the young girl's voice, a toddler, asking who was at the door. And then: "Don't worry, Mommy's taking care of it. Go play with Daddy."
"Fuck," he muttered, standing up abruptly and wiping a stray tear off his cheek.
He remembered crying on the ride home that day, the kind of sobs that had driven his throat red and raw, like Zelda's had been.
With that burning sensation clear in his memory, he opened three cupboards before finding the cups, and he reached up to grab the reusable water bottle he'd seen her use a few times at school. So, he rinsed it out and then filled it, setting it on the counter and stared at it for a long time.
Tissues.
He spun around, remembering seeing a few boxes last time he'd been over. And sure enough, there was an open box sitting on top of an unopened one. He grabbed the older one and put it beside the water.
When his father had kicked him out, what had been the first thing he'd done at Mikau's?
Smoked.
Maybe not the best idea for Zelda. Definitely something he wished he was doing right now though.
Substitutes for smoking, he thought to himself before spinning around to a cabinet he knew well from his time at her house. Snacks. He grabbed the box of Minish Fudge Cookies. He knew she liked these, though he couldn't find their appeal, especially when they were each shaped like the Minish creatures on the box. It felt like eating tiny people to him.
But he set it beside the water and tried to think of anything else. He hurried over to her television and scanned the DVD's that were stacked up on a bookshelf by the wall and pulled out her Season 1 copy of Moonlight Howl in case she needed something distracting. His computer was old enough that it still had a disk drive built into it.
He didn't have time to grab anything else. Zelda's return was signaled by her heavy footsteps, like she couldn't be bothered if she broke the stairs.
Her eyes stopped on the pile of things on the counter and she let out a short laugh, more of an airy breath and a genuine smile than anything too substantial.
Sheepishly, he grabbed the water bottle and held it out to her.
But she didn't take it. Instead, she dropped her backpack down and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her lips against his cheek.
"Thank you."
"I've got you," he whispered into her ear, the closest thing he could say to 'I love you.'
When she pulled away, she gestured to her face, puffy and red. "Thank you, really. I'm sorry for all this."
"Oh please," Link scoffed, handing her the water bottle. "Drink this and don't apologize again."
"Can I at least say I'm sorry for getting snot on your arm?"
"No."
She took a swig, relishing the cool trail it left down her burning throat.
"Fine."
Link grabbed her backpack off the ground and took the tissue box and Moonlight Howl while she took the water and cookies. "Got everything? You're all set?"
"For now," she muttered, hugging the water bottle and box against her. "I left a note on my bed saying I was with Makeela. I wish I could just run away but I can't. I had to let them know I wasn't kidnapped. I wonder how many hours it would be before they reported me if I was. Probably a full day. They'd just assume I was out."
Link set his items back down and turned to Zelda. And without warning, Link's arms were around her knees as he hoisted her up, gripping the back of her waistband to keep her steady while she let out a playful shriek and then a bubbling of laughter as her ponytail flopped into her face again and again while she rested over Link's shoulder like one would carry a sack.
"What are you doing?" she asked, fighting to speak around giggles.
"Kidnapping you properly."
He let go of her waistband when she stopped squirming, and though he knew he could keep hold of her with just one hand, he played it safe and supported his arm with his other.
"Mind grabbing my things?" he asked, spinning them around so he was facing the wall and she was looking at the counter. He could feel her stomach bouncing with surpressed giggles again as she reached for the box of tissues and the DVD, tucking them both with the cookies pinned between her arm and Link.
He let one hand go for a moment as he shrugged her backpack up his other shoulder before returning his hand to her. "Need to do anything to your alarm?"
"I can set it from my phone," she said, still hanging over his shoulder, but resigned and accepting that this was how she was going to the car.
"Need anything else then?" he asked, spinning so she could see the room.
She started laughing again. "No, just go to the car so I can get down."
He headed out the door, again holding her with one arm so he could lock her house door for her, before bringing her back to her side of the car.
"Going down," he warned, bending so her feet touched the pavement before letting her go. He wrung out his shoulder with a playfully pained look on his face, not real at all except for the dull ache where the corner of one of her boxes had been pressed into his skin.
"Shut up," she laughed, throwing the pile of things into the backseat before sliding into the passenger side of the car.
On the ride to Link's house, it was much easier to breathe. Zelda could actually feel Link's hand slide in and out of hers as he alternated between holding it tightly and needing to use it to actually drive. She didn't lean on the window, instead, she tried to keep her tired eyes ahead while they listened to the Indigo-Go's on the radio. Still, they barely talked, but it was a comfortable silence, resolve settled in Zelda's gut rather than apprehension.
Aryll was waiting on the front steps when Link parked the car, her hear perking up when she saw them both approach.
"How are you doing?" she asked Zelda, standing up to let them pass.
"Better, I think. Not… not great, but better."
"Okay," Aryll said, a wide, calming smile on her face. "We'll talk tomorrow then. I'm going to my rom for the night. Try to sleep well, okay?"
"Thanks Aryll."
Zelda laid in Link's bed, content to sleep in her leggings and loose shirt for the night rather than totally changing. Link had opted to change in the bathroom while he brushed his teeth, which Zelda had done at her house before going back downstairs. She sent Makeela a few messages, assuring her that she was doing better. Makeela offered Zelda to come over every now and then to stay, but she knew that too often and her own parents would become suspicious.
Between her lack of sleep the night before from nerves for the play, and her tired, puffy eyes from crying, to the headache she'd given herself, she'd fallen asleep before Link even returned.
When he did, he stood in the doorway for a moment, happy to see her with a peaceful look on her face before he took her phone from her hands and set it on his nightstand just beside her head before climbing over her to the space she'd left for him. His movement had her groaning, as if she'd been asleep for hours and he'd woken her.
"Sorry," he whispered, chuckling to himself when she made another noise of acknowledgement. Even this was new to him, to them both, and he felt like it was completely new territory.
They were facing each other, and though Zelda's eyes never re-opened, she reached her hand out until she fumbled into Link's, only their hands touching, as she drifted off.
Link couldn't say he was that too tired, but he let his eyes close, if only to rest his eyes until he could actually fall asleep. His thumb brushed back and forth along Zelda's hand, wishing that there was something he could do to loosen the slight wrinkle that had been in her brow, but knowing that it wasn't something he'd ever be able to fix, even if he could distract her forever.
A/N: Oh, I totally ripped off my old theater's warm ups here. I have no idea if they came from somewhere, but I'm not crafty enough to write a tongue twister.
Review: Just-AWESOME-old-me: First off, I'm really glad you enjoyed Unbroken! I'm so slow to update it here, it's just a bad habit of mine to forget so I'm glad you found my other account! As for the PDA thing, in real life, that stresses me out too, so you're not weird! I think it's important for these two specifically because of how concerned they were at the beginning with people's opinions, that them being willing to kiss where someone can see them is a bit like them reaffirming that they don't care what others think. Ooof, I'm so sorry about the hickey thing! But I am really glad you like how Zelda is internalizing! I feel like, especially for a teenage girl, it's very hard not to do that. And I'm also glad you liked how Zelda went about dealing with Link smoking. Thanks for the review!