Chapter 41 - The Smiling Man (Part 2)

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(Lucas)

…

(Prologue: Villager)

Once we've cooked and eaten the singular parsnip, and the sun has moved a reasonable way across the sky, it's time for us to set off again.

Or, it should be.

Procrastinating is fun though, right?

"Fancy a swim?" Toon Link suggests.

"Sounds good to me."

The river has calmed down since last night, much of the water from the storm has already entered it by this point, so the current is a lot calmer. Pleasant, even. So we strip off to our underwear, and jump right in.

"Colder than I imagined," Toon Link shivers. "But still nice. I'm covered in dirt from sleeping on the ground the whole night."

"I think some insects got me," I realise, only now noticing a range of red marks covering my chest.

"Ouch," Toon Link groans in sympathy.

"Or I could be allergic to you."

"Hey!" He exclaims, and I grin.

I lie back in the water, letting it carry me across to him. "We really should head off soon."

"Ah, relax. We're just giving Ness and Lucas a chance to get together."

I let out a snort of laughter. "Good point."

"How do you think Red and Pit are faring?"

My expression grows concerned, as I backstroke over to the opposite bank. "I'm not sure. I can't imaging they were allowed to go, in the state they were in."

"I still can't believe they were under Porky's control. How is that even possible?"

"I'm not sure," I say, as I find myself tangled in a load of reeds. "That Porky guy seems to have power that nobody else ever can."

Toon Link comes over to help me out. "I wonder what Ness and Lucas did to rile him up so bad?"

"Probably they were hopelessly slow with getting together, so Porky decided to create a load of tension so it inevitably happens. It's all a cunning ruse."

He snorts. "Well, that'd be quite the turn of events."

"You never know."

"Yeah…"

I swim, finally free of the reeds. I turn onto my front, feeling a general flush creeping up my neck, threatening to invade my cheeks. I definitely don't need Toon Link seeing that. I notice a couple of small fish darting by under the water, completely unaware of the fact that above them is a pair of very awkward boys. One of which has still no idea how he feels.

I suppose it all stems from what happened with Zelda. I say 'what happened' - more what didn't happen. I was dumb, I was stupid, but when I came to school, me and her became good friends. See, being with Red for so long, it was great and all, but young me wanted to branch out. To meet more people. So, when I ended up next to Zelda in Maths, I spoke to her, and we got along great.

This was around the same time that I met Ness. See, Ness and I, we got on great too. He introduced me to his friends, and we became our group. I just, never mentioned Zelda to them. I don't know why. Perhaps I thought they'd get the wrong idea, or tease me, or something.

But anyway, Zelda and I, we'd hang out in maths, we were good friends, and that was that.

Until the next year.

Puberty hit me like a brick, and because I was a dumb kid, that meant that of course I developed some kind of crush on her. I mean, why wouldn't I? She was beautiful, by the world's standards, and she was my friend. Which meant, of course, because I've never been that shy, I eventually worked up the nerve to ask her out.

And I got rejected hard, and she hasn't talked to me since.

I mean, since when was asking someone out a cardinal sin? What's her problem? Why's she got to just ignore me? A simple no would've been fine, and we could've easily carried on as friends, but no, of course not.

Again, I never told any of this to our group.

So, I suppose I've been trying since then to fix things between us. But, she is adamantly ignoring me, no matter when I try to talk to her, and that's that. Obviously, I got over the crush pretty fast, as you do when you're rejected so harshly, but, that brings me to the next problem, which-

"You falling asleep?" Toon Link jibes. "C'mon, Villager. We got a big walk today, can't have you slacking off!"

I sigh. "Shut it, you."

A/N

I just wanted to release something, to prove I'm not dead. I'm working on the next chapter, this is just the prologue from it, but I'm gonna be taking it slow. I'm back from vacationing now (sadly) but I'm working on another big project that I'm focusing more on, for now. On the plus side, the other big nesscas fic on this site is updating soon, so hopefully that'll keep you all busy while I try and find my feet again-

Love you all,

~ReadyForTeddy