"Zel, wake up."

Zelda blinked her groggy eyes open and turned to Link. "You okay?"

"Better than that. Look outside."

She couldn't make sense of anything in the room. There was light coming through the window with the curtains pulled away, but the rest of the room was dark and blurry. "Are we late to school?"

"No. School's canceled."

"Why?"

Finally, she felt Link sit back on the futon bed, leaning over her to press his lips under her ear before whispering: "It's snowing."

Zelda sat up, nearly colliding with Link. "Snow? It's a snow day?"

"Yeah. It's a snow day. Come look."

Zelda stumbled off the bed and nearly crashed into Link for a second time as she went to the window. Outside, there was already light coating of snow on the ground.

"There's no school for this?" Zelda chuckled.

Link handed her his phone. It was the weather. "It's going to get bad in about an hour. We got a text from the school."

"Wow," she muttered, looking at the screen. "Yeah, that is going to be pretty bad. We're making a snowman. You have no opinion. We are making a snowman later."

"Thank you for the free will. I'd have said yes."

"Good. But first, we get to go back to sleep, right?"

Link flopped back onto the bed and nodded, nuzzling his face into the pillow as Zelda slid back under the covers. He pulled her closer and switched from the pillow to her neck. She shivered as his cold nose hit her skin, but she closed her eyes and immediately fell back asleep.

She dreamed of snow.

While they did often get snow, it wasn't the kind that stuck around for long, or stuck together. Making a snowman would be difficult, and throwing a snowball would just serve to stick to their gloves and then dissipate into a flurry of falling snow rather than a solid weapon for throwing at everyone who passed by.

So in her dreams, the snow was perfect.

And she woke up to the smell of coffee.

She blinked her eyes open, rubbing them several times as the smell got stronger.

"Hey," Link whispered, pushing some of the hair from her face. He was sitting beside her, cup in hand. He pulled his earbud out and set his iPod down.

Zelda groaned before rolling into Link's leg and closing her eyes again. "Is it late?"

"Not really. You can go back to sleep if you want."

"No. That coffee is waking me up."

Link snorted and ran his hand through her hair a few more times. She watched him move a notebook off his lap and set the coffee beside another cup near the lamp.

"Did you have two coffees?" she asked.

Link scooted back down so he was nose-to-nose with Zelda. "No."

"You smell like coffee."

"You smell like morning breath, so we're even."

She leaned into him and kissed him quickly, just to make a point, before leaning over him, elbows digging into his stomach so she could look out the window. He grunted, but didn't push her off.

The snow had accumulated to a point where see why they'd canceled school. There was a fine layer of frost on the window and there were several cars that were completely covered by a mound of snow.

Then, her eyes darted to the cups, because one of them had marshmallows still floating and un-melted.

"Is that hot chocolate?"

"I dug it out of the cabinet, but yeah."

Zelda beamed and stared at the hot mug, unable to reach it from her current position. "Were you going to wake me?"

"No. Sometimes, you do this thing when you're about to wake up where you flip your head around like, eight times. So, I knew you'd be up soon."

"I…" Zelda smiled. "How often are you just watching me sleep to learn that?"

"One of the first few times, you whacked my nose, so now I'm just extra cautious."

"That's not an answer."

Link lightly pushed her off his stomach and sat up, grabbing both cups and holding hers out while she readjusted beside him. They clanked the sides of the cups together before both taking a sip.

"You know," Link said, a glint in his eyes, "Amalia used to watch Castor sleep before he left."

This time, Zelda snorted. "Castor also watched her as a wolf and refused to give her a kind heads-up that he's still alive. That show is pissing me off. He needs to get back to the pack now, or I'm boycotting."

"You'll never boycott that show," Link laughed. "But I also think you ruined my point."

"Oh, you had a point?"

"Shut up."


To Zelda's immense surprise and pleasure, the snow was the same as it was in her dream. It was thick enough that it stuck together, and—though she was supposed to be helping Link shovel out Aryll's car—she'd been far more interested in relentlessly throwing snowballs at him.

At first, he'd reacted. He'd thrown a few back, but now, he simply let it happen as he continued to work on the car. Aryll had left it for him while Colin had picked her up the night before, so she was still at his house. And Link had the forethought to store his motorcycle at the garage when he'd heard that there was a chance of snow. So all they had to do was take care of the one car. Not the sidewalks: the landlord had that covered. Not the walkway. Just the car. And it was taking forever.

When Zelda was helping, she got tired often, her arms burning from the effort far quicker than Link's did.

"Yes, we hired people to clear our yard!" she'd admitted after a few judgmental looks from Link when she kept dropping the shovel and her arms.

And Zelda was doing a decent job of helping, until Link realized that she'd piled all the snow right in front of the car, not quite realizing that then, they'd have to clear that out if they ever wanted to leave the parking spot.

"Oh to have a garage," Link had jested as he kicked her out for a while.

To which, he received a snowball to the head.

"Aren't we just going to have to do this again later?" Zelda asked, leaning on a pile of snow on the trunk before swiping it away with her arms. The snow showed no signs of lightening up.

"Yes, but it won't be as bad because we've already done a lot of the work."

He looked over at her and grinned. She was wearing most of his old things: an old winter coat and an oversized hat, gloves that kept sliding off her hands, Aryll's boots with his large socks, his sweatshirt underneath the jacket, though she was wearing her own shirt and jeans with leggings underneath. She'd been sorely unprepared for snow with the clothes she had at his house.

"You cold?" he asked, looking especially at her red nose.

"No. Warm actually. It's all this hard work."

He chuckled and held his hand out to her. She took it and he helped her climb over a mound of snow before telling her to wait. He placed the shovel just inside the doorway and locked the door, slipping the keys into his pocket as he pulled Zelda with him down the street.

Most of it hadn't been shoveled well, so they found themselves switching between the poorly plowed road, and the poorly shoveled sidewalk. There was no real happy medium between the two.

It took some time and maneuvering, but they reached the park near Link's house. It was entirely coated with untouched snow. It was clean and unbesmirched by the gas exhaust of cars that would leave it brown or grey. There were no prints or impressions anywhere, and the piles were up to their knees in some spots.

"You're sure you're not cold?" Link asked again.

"I'm sure. Why did you bring me he—!"

Zelda felt Link crash into her, both of them landing in the snow. Link pinned her and grabbed a fistful of snow, plopping it unceremoniously on her head. "That's for all the snowballs!"

Zelda was laughing too hard and pinned too well beneath him to retaliate. She received another faux snowball on her face before Link adjusted her hat and pulled it tighter against her head before rolling off her.

He knew he'd feel bone-cold later, but for now, lying back in the snow with all his layers on wasn't horrible. In fact, he poked Zelda's hand and began to wave his arms up and down and his legs side to side, making a figure in the snow. Zelda followed suit, though hers was a bit messier from their tumble.

They both stood up and admired their work before Zelda's phone started to ring. Link wrapped his arms tightly around her from behind while Zelda grabbed her phone.

A video call from Makeela.

"Hey!" Zelda said cheerfully.

"You're covered in snow. And Link is with you."

Zelda made a face. "Yes? Want me to push him into a pile of snow and run off?"

"No," Makeela said, though she seemed to be more anxious than usual. "I did a thing, and Link's going to know about it anyway."

"A thing?"

Makeela sighed, and Zelda noticed that she was hiding in one of her bathrooms.

"Okay, so I invited Pipit over to watch a movie last night, but then we watched another one, and then the snow started, so I told him to just stay over. And no! Nothing happened! We aren't rabbits, like you two!"

Zelda grinned. "What's the problem then?"

"He's stuck here because of the snow! My parents are so confused because he can't hear them and they can't sign, and Pipit's got the whiteboard and is trying to talk to them about breakfast, but he just met my parents! We haven't even kissed, and he met my parents! Oh gods, I want to just die." She covered her face.

"Just fucking kiss him already, Makeela!" Link said over Zelda's shoulder. "You're the outgoing one. He'll never do it. As his best friend, I can tell you that he will wait another year or two, brood to me some more, and still never make a move."

"My parents!"

Zelda started to laugh uncontrollably to herself. It was only when she calmed down that she looked back at Makeela, dead-serious. "I'll give you the same advice you gave me: have him throw you into a pile of snow and drag him down with you!"

Link chuckled, but Makeela turned red. "That was her advice to you about me?"

Zelda nodded. "Our first official date, yeah. We kind of did that, I guess. Just without the leaves. But it got worse! I was scarred from her pep-talk so I remember every word!"

"Gods," Makeela cursed. "Zelda…"

"I'll even change it to fit with winter! 'And then he'll take off that green shirt of yours and be like 'Hey babe, wish you'd worn brown, like my eyes.' And you'll be like, 'Well, if it's off what's it matter?'"

"Zelda, please."

But Link buried his face into Zelda's neck to stop his laughter. "That was your advice for our first date? Makeela, you deserve this. See, Ilia told me to hold her hand and see if she was okay with it. You convinced Zelda to jump me in a park."

"Okay, okay!"

But Zelda couldn't stop. "Maybe I'll just head your way and help things along. I'll call your parents and get them out of the house for you, and then I'll sneak into your basement and cut the power so you two have to cozy up to keep warm! Maybe I'll even do it tonight when it's dark, and you'll need candles and—"

Makeela hung up.

Zelda slipped the phone into her pocket, giggling. "Oh gods, she's always pretended to be so superior about things! She really likes him. I think that's why she's so flustered! I remember when she had her first kiss, she marched right up and planted one on him. No warning. Nothing. They dated for a bit, but I think she scared him off. That's usually her MO."

"Not Pip's," Link said, rolling a snowball in his hand and then placing it down to roll it in the snow. "He's never forward or anything with people. He is with me and Gabe and Ilia, but we don't really count. We're like family."

Link's snowball was growing in size, and Zelda's eyes lit up as she realized what he was doing and followed suit for the center piece.

"I wish we could be flies on that wall."

"Apparently, we're just rabbits."

Zelda shook her head and they worked on the snowman for a while.

But soon, Zelda's hands had turned to nothing, even under her gloves, and she was leaning into Link, soaking in what little body heat he had to offer.

"I'm freezing, Link," she admitted.

Link put down the piece of snow in his hand and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close. "Thank the Goddess; so am I. Let's go!"

"We can come back later and see if anyone destroyed or finished him," she said, wistfully looking at their unfinished snowman.

"If we're not icicles."

"True."

The walk back to the house was more difficult. They had to trudge through the newly fallen snow as they headed home.

When they went inside, they stopped just inside the doorway to brush snow off each other, helping the other peel off the layers that had been soaked through and were doing more harm than good when it came to the bone chilling cold they both felt.

Link hung their jackets and organized their boots, gloves and hats all in the kitchen near the sink. He leaned against the doorframe as he watched Zelda run from room to room.

Zelda ran hot water in the shower, but knew it took at least a minute for the water to get even remotely warm, so she wanted to start it early. Then she ran to Link's room to grab thick, dry clothes for both of them before tossing those onto the couch and heading back in, then out again with nothing in her hands.

"What are you doing?" he finally asked.

She looked at him, red faced, teeth chattering, and hunched over. "Getting a hot shower ready. What are you doing?"

"Watching you."

Zelda rolled her eyes and leaned into the door, a flirty smile taking over her face. "You know, the hot water doesn't last too long here, if you want to conserve some?"

Link started to chuckle before following her. "Rabbits."


Neither of them could sleep.

Not only was it still unknown if there would be school the next day, but both of them were exhausted and simply couldn't sleep, as well as fluctuating between too hot, and freezing.

They were lying together in the bed, in the dark, attempting to fall asleep, but they'd gotten distracted, and began talking instead – talking about snow, and the things they used to do: the igloo that Link and Mikau once managed to make, the time Zelda had nearly skated on her frozen pool as a kid until her dad pulled her away.

Zelda's hand was running a path up and down Link's arm as she used him as a pillow. Sometimes, her fingers would brush the patch on his arm, and she'd try to remember to stop short of it. One fear of hers was accidently puling a loose corner and violently tearing some of the hairs off his arm. He'd told her that she was fine, but it never seemed to do much to calm her.

She tilted her head to look at him. His eyes were closed, and he was smiling ever so slightly. Every few breaths out, he'd let out a contented sigh and let his fingers run through her hair.

Until his fingers suddenly stopped and he sat up, staring at his mostly closed door.

"What?" Zelda asked, trying to peek.

Link slid out from the blankets and gabbed something heavy off the floor. He didn't even know what it was. "Someone's jiggling the door handle," he whispered back.

Zelda sprung to her feet, pulling a sweatshirt on in one swift motion as she grabbed something as well and stood on the other side of the door.

Link held up his hand, telling Zelda to wait before she charged out there with her… textbook. If there wasn't someone trying to get into their home, Link would have laughed at her.

But the door gently creaked open, and Link held his breath, tightening his grip on whatever he'd grabbed, only to release it and let it fall from his hand as he saw who stepped through the door.

"Aryll?"

She turned to him and dropped the keys on the floor, grinning as she stumbled over to him. "Link! Did you see all the snow?"

"It's…" Link turned around to see a clock. "It's two in the morning after we got piles of snow all day! Why are you home?"

"Oh," she giggled, tripping over nothing as she moved to lean on the doorframe. "Well, I went to Colin's, and then I went to Mila's. And Mila had wine, so we had some. And then we went to Maggie's and we had some more. So then I was like… I need to go to sleep, you know? So when I told them to bring me home, I forgot I was at Colin's house because I'm here!"

But Aryll wasn't done. She walked into Link's room and looked at Zelda. "Were you studying?"

Zelda glanced at the book in her hands. "Oh, no. I was going to use it as a weapon if you were a burglar or something."

Aryll's eyes widened, and for a moment, Zelda thought Aryll was going to cry. "You were going to protect the house and my brother? I love you! You're a keeper! Link, she was going to fight a burg…burg-ular with a textbook for you!"

Link grinned and patted Zelda's arm. "Thank you, Zel. My life is safe in your studious hands."

"You better believe it," she laughed, finally putting the book down.

"Okay, Aryll," Link said, grabbing her and leading her into her own room. "Go to sleep."

"We should have pancakes."

"If you're up in time, I'll make pancakes in a few hours," Link promised. There was no way she'd be up.

He closed the door and went back to his room to grab his phone, quickly letting Collin know that Aryll was at their house. As it turned out, she hadn't told him she'd gone to the wrong house and had already begun to worry.

"Snow days…" Link muttered, flopping back into the bed. Zelda followed him.

"Now I'm tired!" Zelda laughed. The stress of thinking someone had gotten into their house was enough to make her eyes heavy.

"Me too."

He pulled Zelda close to him and nuzzled his face into her hair as he closed his eyes.

And he dreamed of snow.


A/N: Here was a nice fluffy chapter as my "I'm sorry it's bee so long" apology! I got hooked on Age of Calamity which I am so close to 100, and then I have a week and a half left of work until I'm on vacation, so I'm probably not going to get the next chapter out until next week either, but then I'll be able to whip them out again because I'LL BE FREE (for a while)! WOOOO!

Reviews: DK21 XcL: Hahahhaha! I'm glad I sold you on volleyball! But you got the real takeaway! The Yiga have taken over the hospital, and this AU is about to get VERYYY different from here on! All Yiga plots and all that jazz, and Link is going to kill them all! Lol! Scarlet Curls: THEY ARE GOOD AT COMMUNICATING, I'LL GIVE THEM THAT 3 Oracle of Hylia: For the volleyball lesson, you can thank some anime show I watched clips of, the Olympics, and a friend who helped me figure out what the good heck a libero and setter do lol! But you do smell some DRAMA a-brewin'! Blackace362: I think that it could ABSOLUTELY take a dark turn! Muhahaha! ElenaGilbert24: Yeah, I definitely went with Link not knowing and then me being able to make mistakes because it was told through his perspective. I actually tried that anime if it's Haikyu! I couldn't get into it from the beginning, but I did watch clips! And yeah, they definitely have a healthy relationship! I could have gone the "ugly jealousy" kind of route, but they just don't seem like the type for that! The drama is coming! And I do plan to have a bit about his school decisions soon!