the first warning
Lana sang to herself happily, looking as adorable as ever in a purple dress that matched her eye color. She was taking a day off from cleaning the dorms and focusing on her studies, eager to have an excuse to return to the library and see what everyone there has been up to. While she was walking toward campus she heard an odd humming sound. Slowly coming to a stop to look around, she couldn't find anyone nearby. Shrugging it off she continued her walk to campus, mulling over what she would study next. She was thinking arithmetic, but also thought it would be important to do an outline for her essay on Farore…
The closer she got to the university, the louder the humming sound became. Increasing her pace, she soon found herself on the verge of sprinting away from the strange noise that was irking her. And then…
"AAAAAAAAH! I CAN'T CONTAIN IT! I LOVE YOUR HAIR!" An irritatingly nasally voice erupted from behind, finally causing Lana to lose her composure and scream. She whirred around, looking in every direction to find who had been following her.
"Down here! Down here!" He called out again, and Lana looked down to see a surprisingly short yet old looking man in a weird costume staring up at her adoringly.
"Who the hell are you!?" She asked angrily, upset at how startled she was because of him.
"The name's Tingle, and my lifelong dream is to become a fairy."
"Oh…" She said, suddenly flinching from the pungent smell that radiated from him when he stepped closer towards her. She pinched her nose, waving the air around him like it was contaminated.
"I'm also… Sort of out of commission at the moment, heh…"
"Out of commission?"
"The streets are my home!" He said gleefully, "I'm here all the way from the quiet and boring Lake Hylia to make a name for myself in the big city of Castle Town."
"Basically, you're homeless?" She asked sadly, noting the sparkle in his eyes that didn't even waver at her candid question.
"I suppose there are different ways of looking at it."
"Why were you following me?" She asked softly.
"Because I saw your hair, and I was like 'whoa!' I've never seen blue hair before. Is that your natural hair color? I was buzzing from the excitement! Wow!"
"Yes, it's my natural hair color." She said, blushing lightly at the compliment.
"I bet you have guys lined up all the way to Kakariko trying to date you, huh?"
"No, not exactly."
"Ah, I see." He nodded, thinking to himself before looking at her with a slightly mischievous expression.
"What?" She asked curiously, noticing the sudden change in demeanor.
"If you don't mind me asking… How old are you?"
"What? Why?" She asked, stepping away from him.
"If you go to this school that means you're no longer a minor right?" He asked. He was practically glowing now.
What a pervert! Lana thought to herself, glaring at him.
"No duh! But why would that matter to you? I just turned twenty a few months ago, you're twice my age!"
"WOW!" He gushed, practically starstruck once more. "You're twenty!? You look SO much younger!"
"How old do I look?"
"Sixteen at least." He said. "Yeah, sixteen sounds about right. Not ridiculously young but not ancient either!"
"Um, okay." She looked back at toward the series of buildings and then at the tiny, beaming man before her. "Look, uh…"
"Tingle!"
"Right. Tingle… As much as I'd love to stay and chat, I need to go back and study for my classes."
"Where?" He asked, looking at the school before he gasped again. "You go here!?"
"Yep." She said.
"No!" He said, shaking his head. "No, no, no!"
"What?" Lana asked, watching as Tingle grabbed at the pointy top of his costume, running around her as he squeezed it stressfully.
"NO! Lady with the cool hair, NO!"
"What?!" Lana was even more confused than before. "What's happening?"
"You can't go to school here, it's too dangerous! It's OOZING danger!"
"No it isn't," Lana laughed at him, shaking her head. "It's a perfectly safe school."
"Are you sure?" He questioned, letting go of his head to grab her hand.
"Well, there HAVE been a few incidents. This one girl got hurt and then someone pulled a prank and put a bunch of jelly in the dorms so now we have to clean it up, but…"
"The chus! The chus! The chus!" Tingle cried, hopping off of each foot to do a weird dance as he continued to chant.
Lana sighed, staring at the man like he was crazy, which he was.
"The House of Thieves! The House of Thieves!" He said, pointing toward the buildings.
"Um, Tinkle?" Lana got on one knee to look at him eyelevel.
"Tingle!" He corrected, pouting.
"Right, right, right. Tingle… You're babbling nonsense, and people are starting to stare." She gestured towards the people passing by, giving them both weird stares.
"I'm not saying nonsense, it all makes sense. Perfect sense! Sense, sense, sense! I sense that something bad is going on in that school!"
"Like what?" Lana said.
He moved closer and closer to her until their faces were inches apart. Lana tried not to gag, because as adorable and eccentric as the man was, he had terrible hygiene.
"I saw something one night…" He whispered.
"Hm? What did you see!?" Lana asked curiously.
"Lana darling! Is that you?" Another voice rang out. It was feminine and sultry, and Lana didn't even need to turn around to know that it belonged to Nabooru.
She looked back to see a car with the window rolled down. Nabooru was smiling at her affectionately while Strich sat in the passenger's seat next to her.
"Hi Nabooru…" She said, standing up fully to give her a proper greeting.
"Do you want a ride the rest of the way? I know we're practically at the school but it'll save you a few minutes of walking to wherever you need to go."
"Oh! Um…" She looked back at Tingle, who was now whiter than a piece of paper, trembling at the sight of Nabooru.
"Who is that?" Nabooru asked curiously, noticing the man in the fairy costume.
He grabbed Lana's hand again, pulling her toward him.
"Find me when you need to get to the House of Thieves," he whispered hurriedly.
"Wha-!?" Lana questioned, but right afterwards he let out a bloodcurdling scream and bolted down the sidewalk, turning the corner and continuing to sprint until he was completely out of sight. Lana simply stared after him with her jaw hanging wide open until Nabooru broke her out of her thoughts by honking her horn.
"Are you getting in, or not?" She asked impatiently.
Lana nodded slowly, walking towards the car and entering the backseat.
"Hi Lana!" Strich greeted her with a blush on his face.
"Hmph, whatever." Lana responded coldly, crossing her arms and sticking her nose in the air. While he seemed nicer and a lot more regretful than Cawlin, she was still angry at him after what happened to Karane.
He frowned at the callousness, sighing to himself and turning to look ahead as Nabooru drove.
»°«
Shad glared, stomping toward the football field while he held onto his Physics textbook with an iron grip. He scanned the field, looking for his 'friend' who usually liked to practice around this time. He knew Pipit didn't have any classes until the afternoon today, and he couldn't stop thinking about what Pipit had said a few nights before to Karane. It was eating away at him, the thought of Pipit trying to make a move on Zelda when Shad had told him that he liked her.
He wouldn't do that to me… right?
Shad sighed, closing his eyes for a moment to gain his composure, letting out a deep breath and trying to cool himself down. He didn't want to tip off to Pipit that he knew of his intentions. He wanted to let Pipit think that he was absolutely oblivious about everything. Shad now had to put all of his trust into Zelda, who had enunciated to him that she wanted to 'take things slow.' Which meant, to him at least, that they would be starting a relationship… eventually.
Shad allowed these positive thoughts of a future with his pretty and smart crush to rush through him, giving him a reassuring feeling. When he opened his eyes he caught sight of a pair of brown eyes before he collided into the person and fell back on his rump.
"Ow!" He groaned, sitting up and noticing a heavy deku stick laying across his chest.
"Sorry about that!" The person he bumped into said, grabbing the stick hastily.
"Oof… What is that?" His voice trailed off when he looked up to see that the person he bumped into was the girl he had seen at the library. Ashei.
"My kendo stick." She said smiling and picking it up with ease before offering a hand.
"Ah… Thank you…" He said, blushing when she picked up his glasses, which had fallen off of his face and put them back on for him.
"No problem. What are you doing out here? I never took you for the sporty type."
"I'm not. I'm here to see my friend Pipit."
"Pipit? You're friends with him?" She asked, clearly surprised.
"What? Do you find it hard to believe that he'd ever talk to a nerd like me?" Shad inquired with a playful tone.
Her jaw dropped, disregarding the lighthearted tone and interpreting his words as those of offense.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you!"
"No, it's cool. A lot of people that didn't go to high school with us get surprised about it."
"Well the both of you are absolutely gorgeous, no doubt about that." She said, winking at him.
He laughed nervously, not sure of how to respond to such a flattering compliment. He wasn't unused to being flirted with by any means, but now that he had his mind set on impressing one woman he didn't want to lead anyone else on.
"Thank you! Uh…" He thought to himself until he saw Pipit sprinting with a football in his hand. He glowered, looking to Ashei apologetically.
"I'm sorry. I need to go talk to him now. It was nice seeing you again though. You should get with Link so we can see each other more often!" He said, hoping she would catch his subtle hint. She simply nodded at him, smiling bitterly as he ran off.
"Right…" She mumbled to herself.
"Pipit! PIPIT!" Shad screamed, at him agitatedly, causing him to trip and fall, the football flying out of his hands.
A burly Goron ran up to him, offering a hand. Pipit shook his head, rejecting the kind gesture, opting to sit on the floor and glare daggers at Shad for interrupting their practice game.
"What the fuck do you want?" He asked.
"Geez, that's not a nice way to greet your so-called 'friend.'" Shad huffed.
Pipit sighed, slowly standing up and doing a few stretches.
"You really caught me off guard. If you want to talk about something, would it kill you to wait a few extra minutes until I'm done out here?"
"Yes." Shad said sarcastically, crossing his arms. "It's important."
"What's this about?"
"Zelda." He replied.
Pipit rolled his eyes, assuming his friend wanted dating advice or something of the sort.
"Okay, what about her?"
"Are you trying to date her?"
Clearly startled by the question, Pipit scoffed, trying to act like he had no interest in her.
"What?"
"Did I fucking stutter?" Shad asked furiously.
Pipit rubbed his temple, unable to handle the fierce look in his eyes, opting to look at the grass instead.
"Where is this coming from, Shad?" Pipit asked, feeling more than just a little nervous. He and Zelda barely had anything even close to a 'romantic' relationship, and it would be embarrassing if they didn't even get to start.
"I… I see the way you look at her." Shad lied, not wanting to tip off that he knew for a fact of Pipit's intentions.
"You're the smart one in our trio, right? Because you sound stupid right now." Pipit picked the football up. "If you want Zelda so badly why not consult her about this?"
Shad bit his lip.
"…Fine. But if I see you pulling shady shit, just remember this conversation. Because our friendship will be over."
"Shad…"
Shad turned around, not wanting to hear any bullshit. He hoped that his conversation with Pipit would serve as a wakeup call to him to put a stop to his goals with Zelda. If it didn't, then that would be one less phony person to have to deal with.
»°«
"Princess. You're going to need to get off of that phone if you want to get these hours out of the way and get home early enough so that your boyfriends aren't suspicious." Link said, glaring bitterly at Zelda who was sitting in the one area of the already cramped space that had the least jelly.
"Oh hush will you? I wasn't complaining when you were gabbing off to Ashei. It got so bad that Agahnim had to separate you two, which is why we're here."
"Our conversation had substance." Link countered, crossing his arms.
"You don't even know who I'm texting or what it's about!" Zelda retorted.
Link stood up, dropping his brush and striding over to her, whisking her phone away before she could protest.
"Hey - !" Zelda yelped, popping up to get her phone back.
"Oh, so it's boyfriend number two?" Link said tauntingly, dodging all of Zelda's swipes in her pathetic attempt to retrieve her phone.
"Stop this right now!"
"Oh snap, so Shad knows that you two are trying to hook up?" Link smirked, "And I didn't have to say a thing."
"This is an invasion of privacy!" Zelda protested, opting to chase him around when he refused to give her back her phone.
"What are you doing?" Link asked, trying his best to escape as they ran in circles like little children around the dorm room.
"Trying to get my phone back you jackass! Give it to me!"
"No, I'm not done yet!" He said playfully, almost laughing at their little game of cat and mouse.
That is, until he finally slipped on the goop that had oozed out from the walls and onto the floor, and fell. Zelda tripped over his body, landing right on top of him.
They both groaned in pain, before Zelda propped herself up slowly to stand. She winced, her leg stinging lightly, and she opened her eyes to find her face inches away from Link's. Her eyes widened and she froze momentarily, staring into his eyes, the deepest and most beautiful shade of blue she had ever seen. They reminded her of Lake Hylia, the one place that brought serenity to her life…
Once Link opened his eyes, he too was captivated, even if only for a moment as well. He already found her conventionally attractive, but being this close to her reminded him of that night he found her in the rain.
She was so…
Beautiful.
No! His mind screamed at him. Looks don't matter! Looks don't matter!
He shook his head, thus 'shaking away' the thoughts that had invaded his mind. No matter how pretty she was on the outside, she irritated him to no end. At the same time Zelda remembered where they were and what they'd been doing, and slowly backed away from Link, finding her phone stuck in the goopy mess.
"Oh my goddesses Link! Look at what you did! My phone is covered in chu jelly!" Zelda scolded him.
"Big fucking woop," Link shrugged it off, his cheeks burning red while he tried to keep his eyes off of the beautiful woman before him. "Just wipe it off."
She glowered at him, checking to make sure her phone was still in good condition. Her gaze trailed off to the spot where Link had tripped.
There was a CD enclosed within a cheap CD case.
"Link…" Zelda murmured curiously, bending down to inspect the item. "You tripped on something."
"You mean the jelly?" He asked sarcastically, scoffing. "Yeah Zelda. I know."
"No." Zelda shook her head, picking the CD up and handing it to him.
"This. Is it yours?"
"Mine? Why would that be mine?"
"It was in the exact spot where you fell."
"So? That doesn't mean anything."
"Link." Zelda frowned at him. "Why are you being so defensive over this? The dorms were emptied months ago. So why would this be here? Just take it."
"It isn't mine."
"Is there something embarrassing on here?"
"It isn't mine."
"Maybe a baby video…"
"It isn't mine."
"Porn?"
"ZELDA!" Link yelled, losing his patience with her completely.
"Geez, okay, okay." Zelda held her hands up in defense. She studied the CD, reading the label that was on the cover. It said SF, and then had a series of random numbers proceeding.
Link's curiosity was now peaked as well, because he walked over to stand beside her and inspect the CD curiously.
"Give it to me." He commanded, not even waiting for a proper answer and taking it from her, just like he did with her phone.
"Link!" Zelda whined, trying to snatch the CD out of his hands. "You said it wasn't yours!"
"So? I'm curious." He turned the CD over, flicking off red and blue splotches of jelly. "I'm going to watch this when I get home."
"What about me? I'm the one who found it."
"Fine. Then we can watch it together when you're done mooching with your boyfriend." Link said obnoxiously.
Zelda balled her fists up in frustration, letting out an exasperated sigh and grabbing her brush as well as a spray bottle with water to spritz the jelly. She scrubbed the wall forcefully, and watched the jelly fall to the ground effortlessly.
"I should get you angry more often," Link commented, "You work pretty damn well when you're upset."
Zelda rolled her eyes, opting not to respond to the comment.
"I wonder whose this is though…" Link said, mulling over the possibilities. "Whoever it is has to be a guy, since we're in the guy's dorm section."
"Gee, I wonder how you deduced that." Zelda commented wryly.
"Shut up." Link frowned at her, thinking once more. "And what does SF stand for? I just don't get –"
"Groose." A third voice interrupted Link's thoughts and conversation with Zelda. Zelda turned curiously to look at the third person that had intruded.
When Link saw him his fists balled up and he gave the person a death glare.
Cawlin stood there, clearly fazed by the cold look in Link's eyes, but tried to act brave enough to speak. His gaze was planted firmly on the CD but he made no move to grab it.
"This is Groose's dorm." He simply said in the calmest voice possible.
A/N: This chapter was supposed to b longer but I cut it down because I didn't finish writing the scene, and it's been a minute since I've updated this so here you go! I went to look for my last chapters of SOOD and I fricking lost them, plus I have summer homework and colleges to tour so forgive me if I don't update this story because I have others to write for too.