"You can't be serious."

"Why shouldn't I be? I like the child timeline."

"No one likes the child timeline. I don't want to do a whole project about the Hero of Time succeeding and then the princess just sending him away after he fought for her. It's stupid!"

Zelda rubbed her eyes. She couldn't believe this was happening right now. Earlier that day, she and Link had been assigned a huge project for Mr. Kaepora's class analyzing one of the three possible outcomes of the Hero of Time's great battle. Their whole class was paired up and instructed to choose between the timeline where the Hero fails to defeat the evil and is killed, the timeline where the Hero succeeds and remains in that time as an adult, or the timeline where the Hero succeeds and returns to his own time as a child. They had just begun the Era of Time unit, and this project would be due when they finished. However, their timeline of choice was due tomorrow. This was how she found herself in Link's living room after school.

"I want to do the child timeline. Please. Everyone else is going to pick the adult timeline, or maybe the failure timeline if they like darker stuff. The child timeline is the best and no one else is going to do it. So, we should."

"It's not the best!" Link yelled back. Zelda noticed that he had a habit of gesticulating wildly when he was worked up about something. "It is a sad, dumb timeline that makes no sense. Everyone hates it for a reason."

Zelda crossed her arms, turning away from him on the couch. Her mouth was set in a stubborn line. "They just don't understand it."

Link looked at her incredulously. "What could you possibly understand more than EVERYONE ELSE IN THE CLASS?"

"The child timeline is about the princess's love for the Hero," she explained, not turning back toward him. "She sends him back to his time because she loves him too much to keep him with her and permanently steal his lost childhood away from him. It's not stupid; it's a selfless act of love. It destroyed the princess to do it, but she knew she had to for the Hero's wellbeing."

Link didn't respond right away. Their class textbook didn't go into the why of historical events, it only stated the what. He had to admit, her explanation of events filled in some of the holes from their textbook's version and made much more logical sense. He thought this new information through more. "Alright, but I have a question. Why didn't the Hero stop her from sending him back? He was supposed to be in love with her, too. If I were him, I wouldn't let the love of my life send me away forever."

"Ah, but you forget that the princess was very clever. She did carry the Triforce of Wisdom, after all." Zelda turned back towards him on the couch. "She took the sacred ocarina and used its power to send him back before he realized what was happening. They didn't even get to say goodbye properly."

"That's awful."

"Yes, but it was the right thing to do. They couldn't be together."

"It's still awful."

"Yes. It's still awful," she repeated. Zelda looked at Link thoughtfully as he considered their conversation. It wasn't often that she got to talk about historical nuances with someone. She loved this sort of thing, and she hadn't pegged Link as a history nerd. It was a pleasant surprise.

Link looked up at her watching him and she looked away. "Fine. Let's do the child timeline," he said. "Nayru knows he'll make us do it anyway if no one else does since you're at the top of the class and everything."

"Hey now, don't sell yourself short. You could probably be better than me if you participated in class more," she teased.

Link found himself smiling. "Maybe. Not exactly my style, though." Were he and Zelda being friendly? Were they complimenting each other? What was this?

He saw that Zelda was smiling too. "Well, now that that's settled, I guess I should get home," she said.

Link watched her pack up her history stuff that was laying out on the wobbly coffee table in front of them. "Hey," he asked, "how do you know so much about this stuff? None of the stuff you told me was in our textbook."

To his surprise, her cheeks reddened slightly. "Ah, well, my dad bought me this huge, and I mean huge, Hylian history book." She held out a hand towards him. "It's wider than my hand."

Link looked at his own hand but realized that was silly since his hand was much larger than hers. Zelda watched him do this, amused.

"Maybe not as wide as your hand. They're probably about the same, honestly."

"Okay, wait. You've read that whole book? I just—why. Why would you do that to yourself."

Zelda laughed out loud. "I dunno. I like history and I can't go anywhere?"

Link shook his head. "But you have friends? And a boyfriend? People who can save you from just reading a giant history book for no reason?"

"I don't have that many friends, and Pipit…" her voice trailed off. The smile on her face faded immediately. "I just like history," she finished abruptly.

Clearly, all was not well in the land of Zelda and Pipit. Just a few weeks ago, she was telling Link about their plans to celebrate three months together. He looked at her sad face as she finished cleaning up her things. It was strange...he'd wanted them to break up from the very beginning, but now that it might be happening he only felt pity for her.

She zipped her bag shut and sat for a moment, contemplating something. "Link," she began, "I don't want to hate each other. Today was honestly nice. We barely argued and we talked about history and we had, y'know, a civil conversation. Why can't we be like this all the time? Isn't it so much easier this way?"

Link shifted his gaze to the floor. "We just got lucky today."

"But I don't want it to be luck. Whatever it is about me that bothers you, I can change it so—"

He cut her off. "Uhh, what? 'Change it'?"

She tilted her head, confused. "...yes?"

"I may not like you, but I don't want you to change who you are just to please me. I'm not that evil."

Zelda opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it again. Link was full of surprises today, it seemed. "Okay," she said finally.

She got up to leave. She walked over to his front door, but just before turning the handle, she thought of something. Turning back to him, she said, "Okay. I know you don't like me and I know you don't think I should do anything to make you like me, but could I do something to help you?"

Link eyed her suspiciously. "Such as?"

"I can try to talk to Malon about how you're not interested in her. It's been bothering me since I learned about it, and I'm just thinking about how if I were her, I would want to know, and if I were you, I would want to tell her. I can be subtle, of course. Just trying to make sure you're both better off. She's my friend and I care about her, and I want to help you."

"Why are you asking my permission?"

Zelda fiddled with the strap of her backpack nervously. "I dunno, honesty I guess? I'm not supposed to know that you don't like her. I didn't want to act on something I found out by accident without your permission."

Link considered this. Shit. She truly was just trying to be a good person, wasn't she? Maybe she really could get Malon to back off. "Knock yourself out."

"Okay, thank you. See you tomorrow in class." She opened the door. "Wait, tomorrow is your birthday, right?"

Now he was really confused. "Yeah, actually. It is."

"Happy early birthday. Heh, I'm glad I remembered." She stepped outside and left.

The chill that had made its way inside made Link shiver as he sat contemplating the events of the last half hour. He thought about what she had said about not wanting to hate each other. For the first time in years, Link began to think he might agree with her.

Karane followed Malon as they idly browsed the racks of clothes around them. Malon had barely spoken to her since they got to the mall, and her heeled boots clicked on the floor just a little too loudly as they traipsed from store to store.

"Uh, how are things with Link?" Karane tried timidly.

"Fine," the redhead responded coldly.

Karane shrank back into the rack of shirts she was looking through.

"What about Pipit?"

Her heart gave a small flutter in her chest, but a wave of guilt crashed through her as well. "Ah, well, I've sort of backed off. He's nice and I like him a lot, but I guess what I'm doing feels...really wrong."

Malon scoffed, disgust clear on her face. "What exactly 'feels really wrong'? You want him, he wants you. Stop being such a pussy."

"But he doesn't want me," Karane protested. "He wants Zelda. If he wanted me, he would break up with her and be with me. But he hasn't. He doesn't want me."

"You're just not being clear enough! He doesn't know for sure yet that you like him."

"I've been way too clear, goddesses Malon. I just can't keep doing this to Zelda. She's our friend and she doesn't deserve this."

Malon's eyes darkened. "Oh, she deserves it."

Karane looked at her skeptically.

"She does!" Malon insisted. "She's literally been such a bitch to me. For the past few days, she keeps trying to stop me from talking to Link and keeps making it seem like it's because he's not interested in me."

Karane was taken aback. That didn't seem like Zelda at all. "Maybe she's being genuine? Maybe she's just trying to help."

Malon laughed, but there was no humor in her face. "Open your eyes, Karane. Why would she try to stop me from talking to Link other than to make sure he likes her more? She acts like she hates him, but she doesn't want him to stop giving her attention."

"I can't believe it…" What Malon had said made sense. Could Zelda truly be so selfish? Karane didn't think so, but then again, why did she want Malon to stop talking to Link? There were no other reasons that made sense.

Malon grabbed her shoulders. "Listen to me. Tell Pipit you like him. I know he likes you back. Stop worrying about hurting Zelda. She'll get over it. She deserves it."

Karane nodded, reassured and determined. "Okay. I'll do it."

"Good. Good. You deserve to be happy." Malon smiled at her friend sweetly.

"You do too! What are you going to do about Link?"

But Malon suddenly froze. Without a word, she stalked over to the rack of pants to their right, and pulled out a...person?

Karane gasped. She recognized him. It was Cawlin, one of Groose's friends who had given her a love letter last year, which had unceremoniously ignored.

"Don't you know it's rude to eavesdrop?" Malon asked him viciously, not letting go of her tight grip on his sleeve.

"I-I-I'm so sorry, ladies, I think I'll just go—"

"No, I don't think you will. You were so eager to listen to our conversation; why not stay a while? We two pretty girls could use some company, don't you agree, Karane?"

Karane knew exactly what Malon wanted the second she saw the glint in her eyes. "Oh, yes Cawlin. Please stay, I'd love it if you did," she said, giving him a small smile.

"Y-you would?" His face reminded Karane of a rat.

"Yes, of course!" she cooed. She grabbed his sweaty palm and squeezed it.

He stared down at their joined hands, eyes wide.

Malon smirked. "Now that you've joined our conversation, I have something to ask you. You weren't planning on telling anyone what you overheard, right? That doesn't seem like a very gentlemanly thing to do."

Her captive swallowed thickly. "Well, I, um," he struggled.

"Please do the right thing Cawlin," Karane pleaded. "For me."

"For you?"

She nodded earnestly.

The poor boy was trapped by a pretty girl and a terrifying witch. He crumbled. "No, of c-course I won't tell anyone."

Malon released his sleeve. He ran out of the door so fast Karane thought he might have left a cloud of dust behind him like a cartoon.

"Now, where were we?" Malon wiped the hand she had grabbed Cawlin with on a nearby dress.

"I asked about Link."

"Ah, that's right. I do have a plan. As you can see, boys are remarkably easy to manipulate—" She gestured in the direction Cawlin had run off. "—so I thought I might play off of Link's unwavering kindness. He never breaks a promise to his child sister, he's always helping his grandmother with something or another, and he drove Zelda home after their stupid detentions, she told me. If I needed help, he couldn't refuse."

Karane considered this. "I've never really thought about it, but you're right. I swear every time I see Link at school he's holding the door open or picking up someone's dropped stuff. I guess since he's not friendly or outgoing I don't think of him as nice."

"I'll find out how nice he truly is," she purred. Malon would make Link hers no matter what it took. No matter what.

Midna pulled into Koholint Koffee. She pulled her hood up and ran inside, trying to spend as little time in the cold as possible. Shad was already waiting for her in their usual spot.

As she sat down, he looked up from the homework he was doing. "Hey! What's up?"

"Nothing other than freezing my ass off. How about you?"

"Just working on this project for my Hylian history class. I told my partner I would do some tonight."

Midna recognized the project as the same one Zelda and Link were paired up for. Shad must have the same class during a different period. "I don't understand why you smart kids take harder classes," she joked. "For my social studies, I just took the easy government class. But nooo, you guys had to be special and take the honors Hylian history course."

Shad shrugged. "I just think history is more interesting than government. Link does too."

"I don't care. I like my easy A's and B's."

He shook his head in disapproval, but he was smiling.

Shad had already ordered a coffee, so Midna went up to the counter and ordered her usual black coffee. She was starving, so she bought a sandwich too. She brought her purchases back to the table and tried to resist eating the whole sandwich all at once. Across from her, Shad worked diligently, stopping only to take an occasional sip of his cooling cappuccino.

"Why are you working alone? Is your partner making you do everything?" she asked, leaning over to look at what Shad was doing more closely.

"No, no, Fledge is just busy tonight. I was just making sure we didn't fall behind."

Midna raised her eyebrows. "The great and powerful Shad Sky worried that he's going to fall behind? Now I've seen everything."

"Ah, well, um." Shad laughed nervously. "Just being cautious."

"Shaaad, is there something you're not telling meee?"

He covered his face with his hands. "I have a hard time focusing on the project when I'm working with Fledge."

Midna gasped. "No fucking way."

Shad moved his fingers so his eyes were visible. "I barely know him!"

"You have a crush?"

"We just talk a lot when we're supposed to be working!"

"You have a crush!"

"He's so quiet in class. I didn't know anything about him before this."

Midna couldn't stop smiling. Shad was always so practical and controlled. Seeing him all flustered was hilarious.

He took his glasses off and cleaned them with a microfiber cloth from his bag. "Is it that bad?"

"Worse." She grinned.

He groaned and ran his fingers through his wavy brown hair. "What am I going to do? There's no way he's into guys."

"Don't be like that! You were the one who told me that you should never assume one way or the other."

"I just...I almost want him to be straight, because if he isn't and he likes me, then I have to try to figure out how to, uh, deal with that."

Midna cackled. "'Deal with that'? Holy fucking goddesses, Shad."

"Shut up. I just—I don't know. Ugh. Having feelings is so much more trouble than it's worth. Hey, speaking of your feelings, how is being Ashei's best friend? Other than me of course." His words were teasing, but she could tell he was genuinely interested—probably to shift the attention off of himself, but it was genuine interest nonetheless.

"It's good. Nerve-wracking sometimes, but very good." She found herself smiling as she spoke.

Shad took another sip of his now-lukewarm cappuccino. "And I'm guessing you still haven't come out to her?"

"Nope. No, no, no. Nuh uh."

"What about Zelda?"

Midna didn't answer for a moment, the shame of her failed attempts weighing down on her. She shook her head.

Shad looked concerned. "It's okay. Take your time. I mean, I still haven't officially come out to someone. We'll get there."

Before she could respond, his phone lit up and vibrated on the table with a call from Groose. He picked it up and answered, and then put down the phone to pull out a pair of earbuds from his bag.

"Here, you can listen too. It's about the Pipit situation. We'll fill Ashei in after," he said. Midna nodded, and he handed her an earbud.

Shad told Groose that they were ready, and his gravelly voice filled Midna's ear. "Good. I think we need to do more to stop this."

"Why?" Shad asked.

"Because I've had Cawlin and Strich followin' them and they haven't found anything! We need to look harder."

Midna was confused. "Isn't that a good thing? That means there's no proof that anything bad is going on."

"I'm telling you guys that we need to do more. Just because two idiots didn't find anything doesn't mean it ain't there."

She thought he might have a point. Across from her, Shad said, "Groose, anything more is just stalking them. We can't do that."

"Why not?" Groose's angry voice boomed in her ear, making her wince.

"Because you shouldn't...stalk...someone?"

"Whatever. I'm going to do this myself." He hung up before either of them could respond.

Shad and Midna looked at each other. "Should we be concerned?" she asked him.

He sighed. "I don't think so. He's just worried about Zelda, I think." Groose had always loved Zelda; everyone knew that. They were never going to happen, but he loved her still.

Midna sympathized with Groose. She knew what it was like to care about someone and know that they would never reciprocate.

Link's phone vibrated in his pocket for the third time. He finally pulled it out and turned it on to see three missed calls from Malon. What? This had never happened before. She must be in trouble.

He called and she picked up immediately. "Link? Please, I need help." He could hear that she was crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked, already heading downstairs to put on his boots to go find her.

"I was at the mall a-and it's snowing and I went to leave but I slipped on ice in the parking lot and twisted my ankle and I don't think I can drive, I-I'm just stuck out here and it's so c-cold—"

He grabbed his keys. "I'm on my way."

"Thank you, oh thank you. I'll s-see you soon," she sniffled.

He hung up and got into his car. The mall was only about a five-minute drive from his house. He was grateful that he had just had his sixteenth birthday and got his license because he was not being as careful on the road as usual so he could get to Malon as fast as possible.

He pulled into the mall and began combing the parking lot for Malon. He found her quickly, sitting on the curbed divider between two lines of parking spaces. He parked hastily and jumped out of the car.

She looked up at him, and he saw streaks of makeup on her face from crying. "Link, oh thank the goddesses. I can't believe you came."

"Of course I came. You needed help." As annoying as he had found her the last few weeks, there was no way he could not feel bad for her right now.

She tried to stand, but yelped in pain and sat back down. He knelt to let her grab him so she could stand on her good leg. As they hobbled back to his car, she clung to him tightly, her red hair tickling his neck as it blew in the cold wind. It wasn't snowing so hard that he couldn't see, but Link had to blink away snowflakes that clung to his eyelashes.

Once he had her settled in the passenger seat, he said, "Here, let me take a look at your ankle to make sure it's not swollen or red."

"Oh, um, okay," she said, gingerly sticking out her leg. He took off her boot and gently pushed up the leggings she was wearing so he could examine her injury.

"It looks completely fine to me. I don't think it's sprained or anything serious like that."

"Good," she responded. "Thank you, Link. Really. I can't believe you came all the way out here for me."

"I'd do it for anyone. Let's get you home. Wait, what are you going to do about your car?"

"My dad and I can get it tomorrow if my ankle is better. It's fine."

He nodded. He went around to the driver's side and got in. He turned the car on and turned up the heat. The engine was still warm from his drive over, so the warm air blew out at them immediately.

They drove in silence, Malon only occasionally speaking to give him directions to her house. When he pulled into her driveway, she turned to him.

"Link, I...it's no secret how much I like you."

He didn't respond.

"But that's not why I called you today," she continued. "I called you because you're a good person and I know that I can count on you when I need help. You mean a lot to me, regardless of whether we're friends or...more. So, thank you."

Her honesty surprised him. Up until then, he was looking down at the steering wheel, but he allowed himself to glance up at her. Her nose was still red from the cold, and her windswept hair was messy in a way that Link found kind of cute.

They kept their eyes locked for a moment, and then she leaned over and kissed him. It was gentle. Her lips were a little bit cold, but Link didn't pull away.

She looked at him one last time before leaving the car and heading inside without another word.

Look at me go, updating a few days later rather than a few months! Lol. In all seriousness, I want this to be the new normal. Writing this story makes me so happy. It's pretty much all I've thought about for a week now. I don't want to make any promises about fast updates because well, I haven't been very good with that in the past, have I? But I feel confident this time.

As always, thank you for reading! I think you'll hear from me soon. ;)

REVIEW REPLIES:

Oracle of Hylia: OMG I love drama, too. Definitely one of my guilty pleasures. And yes, they do need a dose of reality lol, but I think all teenagers do (myself included).

Guest: Ok, this made me too happy. You're so sweet? Reviews like this give me so much motivation to keep writing, so THANK YOU! 3