===== November 10, 2022 - Floor 1: Town of Beginnings =====

Zelda stirred out of her sleep a little after sunrise. Link's arms were still wrapped around her, and one of his legs was draped across hers. She tried to move around a little bit, but every time she did Link would pull her even tighter and closer to him, to the point where she was wearing him like a human blanket.

This is actually crazy comfortable, she thought to herself. I could get used to this... but should I? Eh, what the hell...

She snuggled in to go back to sleep, but before she did her eyes happened to catch her HP bar, with a line of buff icons underneath it. Did... did someone cast a spell on me in my sleep? And how, when we've been at the inn this whole time? "Link? Link! Wake up, Link!"

Link gradually stirred awake. "What?"

"Where did all these buffs come from?"

Link looked at Zelda's HP bar, and saw the same line of icons she did. "Did you cast a spell on me in my sleep or something?"

"How? There's no magic in this game... now go back to sleep."

"O... okay." She laid back down, allowing Link to wrap an arm around her. This time, however, his hand landed firmly around her breast! Zelda was flustered and didn't know how to react.

Okay, getting a little too comfortable there... but I can't say it doesn't feel good.

She was still processing the situation when Link let loose a jet of warm breath right on the nape of her neck, sending her flying out of bed and crashing into the wall. Link jumped up with a start and looked around in a panic, only to see Zelda on the floor trying to fight her way free from a tangle of sheets and blankets. "Umm... do you need some help down there?" Link asked.

"Nope! I'm fine! Just need to, umm... take a shower!" she stammered as she finally got loose and sprinted into the shower. She stripped naked and turn the water on as hard and as cold as it would get. Holy shit, I was not at all prepared for that...

Meanwhile, Link had decided on a hunch to go through his Skills list, and had arrived at a section called "Unique Skills." There were a dozen or so blank entries marked with "?," but one unlocked entry caught his attention:

Well-Rested

Player 'Zelda' finds comfort in sleeping next to you, increasing her mood and combat efficiency.

STR, AGI, DEF increased

All skills increased

Effectiveness: 6%/8%/10% plus 1% per caster level

Cast time: 6/7/8 hours

Duration: 12 hours or until a significant shift in target's mental status.

Limitations: Can only be cast on player 'Zelda.'

So she gets buffs from sleeping with me? Link was extremely perplexed at the fact that such a thing would exist in the game at all, then infuriated at the one-sidedness of it. "Wait a second, what kind of bullshit is that?!"

"What kind of bullshit is what?" Zelda was out of the shower, and she stood in the room with her hands on her hips wearing nothing but the pixels the programmers gave her.

"The fact that your naughty bits are blurred out," Link lied.

"Blurred out? Oh... that's because you haven't activated 'Moral Code Removal.'"

"Moral Code... Removal?"

"Yup. Here, let me show you."

"Before or after you put some clothes on?"

"Aww... what's the matter? We're in a virtual world where literally anything outside these town walls could kill us, but you're afraid of seeing a girl naked?"

"If that's what you want to call it, sure."

"No."

"...What?"

"I said, no."

"No, as in...?"

"No, as in I'm not putting my clothes on until you've seen me naked, completely and uncensored. Nipples, chocha and all."

Link just stared at Zelda, completely dumbstruck. "You really have gone out of your mind... you know that, right?"

"Funny you would use that expression, in a virtual world where our brains are the only thing that actually works."

"You make a good point... now get dr-"

"I SAID NO!"

Now Link was shocked; he couldn't remember the last time Zelda (or Lanay, for that matter) actually yelled at him. It was something she simply didn't do; even if she was pissed off at him, she always calmed down before she actually spoke. "Okay... I'm just gonna chalk this new boldness up to being trapped in the game."

"Is that really such a bad thing?"

"You actually have me questioning that right here and now." He stood up at the edge of the bed. "Now, for the last time, put some clo-"

Link didn't even have time to complete his demand before Zelda shoved him into the wall, took his legs out from under him and mounted him. Now, Link was scared; his strength parameters were lagging behind Zelda's, but he hadn't realized they were to the point where she could physically overpower him now. The weird thing is, if this were any woman other than his lifelong best friend, he would be incredibly turned on right now. Now he was just confused, but confusion would have to wait. His first priority was getting off the floor.

Dammit... if I was anywhere but on the floor, I could probably take her. Wait a second...

He remembered a move from his jiujitsu training; if he could just flex his knee without Zelda noticing...

Link managed to get his foot flat on the ground a split second before Zelda noticed something amiss; by the time he popped his hips off the ground, it was too late and there was nothing she could do to keep from ending up on her back. However, she was quick enough to lock her legs around Link's waist before he could stand up.

"You have got to be kidding me," he gasped. "How are you this friggin' strong?"

"How have you never noticed how strong I've always been?" she retorted, now holding herself upright using only her seemingly inhumanly-powerful quads.

"Again, fair point. Now let me go."

Zelda crossed her arms over her chest and pulled herself up to Link's eye level. "Make. Me."

Link sighed. "If you insist." He then performed the one maneuver she wouldn't have expected in a million years.

He kissed her.

Deeply.

Strongly.

Passionately.

Hands in hair, tongue in mouth, a real kiss!

Zelda didn't know what to do, and she went absolutely limp. Link guided her gently to the bed before finally breaking contact. Zelda was seeing stars behind closed eyes; all she wanted was more, for this moment never to end. She anxiously awaited Link's next move...

...and waited...

...and waited...

...and waited some more...

Until she finally sat up and opened her eyes to see Link now fully dressed. "Umm, what the hell are you doing?"

"Getting dressed... we do still have a world to save, after all. You should probably do the same thing."

Zelda's expression went from one of confusion to one of fury. "You cheated!"

"Mmm... pretty much."

A sword was in Zelda's hand before clothes were on her body. Link dashed out the door, knowing one thing about the inn system: players couldn't leave their rooms fully nude. Having to stop to dress herself would give Link the extra time he needed to make a satisfactory getaway. Sure, she'd catch him eventually, and she'd kick his ass when she did, but it was worth it to prove that he could in fact outsmart her.

With nothing to do other than wait for her inevitable wrath, Link decided to further investigate his Sheikah Slate since he hadn't really done much with it. It contained its own map function, which was a lot more detailed than the in-game map which only showed roads, villages, and bodies of water. The slate showed contour lines as well as different colored areas for changing terrain. Each village had its own landmark, as did the five shrines they had visited the day before. The four small shrines they had entered and fought the various Shades were blue, the fifth in the center of the lake was yellow, and the villages were green. He scrolled one screen to the left, and there were eight blank squares. Those will probably be important later, he thought to himself as he scrolled two screens right, past the map and to another grid of blank squares, five tall and six wide for a total of thirty. More swipes right, more blank grids. Clearly this little device did more than he could fathom at the moment.

True enough, Zelda strode out of the inn a few minutes later, fully dressed in her plate armor and with her greatsword strapped to her back. Link noticed her presence but casually ignored her, sitting on a bench drinking some water. She put her arms across his chest from behind him and whispered in his ear. "Oh Li-i-nk?"

"Mmm?"

She brought her arms up slowly. "Partner? Buddy? Friend? Companion?"

"What?"

"You wanna know the first thing I'm gonna do when we get out into the field?" She tilted his head upwards so she could look him in the eyes.

"What is tha-"

"Toss your lifeless body in the river." She now had him in a chokehold, and with her superior leverage he was out in no time.

Link eventually woke up on the ground with the heel of Zelda's boot planted firmly in his chest. "Well, hello there, sunshine... it's about time you woke up."

"Woke up...? Oh, that's right... you snuck up behind me and choked me out."

"That's right, I did... now get up so we can get moving."

"Really? Is that really what we do now?"

"Yup... oh, and you owe me lunch besides."

"How do you figure?"

"You pretended that you were going to make love to me and then totally left me hanging. In exchange, I want lunch from your share of yesterday's loot."

"My share? Why does-"

"In fact, I want a picnic, on that island we found yesterday."

"Are you kidding? It'll take us at least three days to get back there!"

"Don't care... make it happen, cap'n."

Link pulled up his map. "You say that like I can snap my fingers and get us there. We're all the way in the Town of Beginnings, remember? Even if we cut through the fields and didn't run into a single monster on our way there, it'd still take two days to get back to Lakeside Village."

Zelda stood up and dug her heel even deeper into Link's chest. "What part of 'I - Don't - Care' is so difficult to comprehend?"

Link grabbed Zelda's ankle and lifted her foot up - gods, had she really always been this strong? Naturally she fought against him until she could no longer maintain her balance, and she had to put her foot down to avoid falling. Link got up quickly before she could hold him down again, brushing himself off and straightening out his clothes. "You can be a real brat when you want to, you know that?"

"I guess so... but you're stuck with me, so I'm your brat." She climbed up onto his back, almost crushing him under the weight of her armor yet he somehow managed to hold them both up. "Giddy-up, horsey!"

"You realize I'm suffering a movement penalty right now, right?"

"Don't care."

"Meaning... it's going to take us even longer to get anywhere if you expect me to carry you?"

"Don't care."

"Can you at least take off your armor, so I can actually move?"

"You are such a whiner, you know that? All right, fine." She removed her armor and equipped a light shirt and skirt. "There, better?"

"Much." Sufficiently unencumbered, Link took off at a sprint toward the town gate. Zelda screamed with glee, causing Link to smile himself. At the end of the day, he couldn't help but enjoy making her happy.

They didn't get far past the town gate when a shout from above halted Link in his tracks. He looked up to see a man standing on top of the town wall, about forty feet in the air. He jumped and pulled a piece of canvas seemingly out of thin air, using it as a glider to reach the ground where they were standing. There wasn't much remarkable about him, other than his white beard and hair which he kept under the hood of his coat. Neither Link nor Zelda noticed any weapons, so they kept theirs unequipped for the moment. "You look like you're having trouble getting around." The man spoke with a hearty and kind voice, like he might be some sort of tutorial NPC.

"You could say that," Zelda said, hiding behind Link.

"Tell you what: why don't you poke around with that tool on your hip?"

"You're talking about my Sheikah Slate," Link responded with more than a slight hint of suspicion in his voice. The man said nothing, just grinned and walked away.

"Well, come on... whip it out," Zelda said.

"Umm, phrasing?" Link responded, pulling up the Slate's map screen. He tapped the northernmost shrine icon, and a dialog box opened:

Winds' Respite

{Teleport}

{Cancel}

Without a word, Link hit the 'Teleport' option, causing his surroundings to blur, twist and distort. When everything cleared, he and Zelda were both standing on the platform of one of the shrines. He checked his map and sure enough, they were at the northern shrine. "Holy shit, this thing can actually warp us around," Link marveled aloud.

"That's good to know, but a little warning would be nice next time."

Link shrugged. "But did you die?"

"You do remember we're not in the safe zone anymore, right?" Zelda sneered as she equipped her armor and weapons.

"Your point?"

"My point isn't the one that matters," she said, pointing her sword in his face.

"Oh please, you know as well as I do that you'd never actually hurt me in the field."

Zelda opened her mouth to retort, but closed it just as quickly. "Whatever, let's just go." Of course she would never bring herself to actually harm him, but she also refused to admit he was right, regardless of how blatantly obvious the issue was.

The two fought their way back to the center of the floor and the lake's shore. "What do you say? Probably quicker to swim there rather than go back down to the cave and climb the stairs," Link suggested as he stripped down to his undershorts.

"On one condition."

"What's that?"

She reached up and gave him a peck on the cheek. "You start making lunch as soon as you reach the island."

Link grinned. "Deal."

Zelda beamed. There was just something about that smile that Link couldn't help but love; seeing his best friend happy was his single joy in this strange new world. Yet, thinking about her as his best friend somehow seemed... weird. Which in itself was weird because that's exactly what she was.

Or was it?

Was she trying to become something more?

Chris was very familiar with the "notice me, senpai" anime trope, and Lanay/Zelda was exhibiting a lot of those same behaviors. Yet there was something else to her new attitude. She acted completely at ease around him, even when going to the physical extremes she often exhibited. Almost as if her behavior was completely normal...

A shocking revelation hit him in the face... literally. Well, not so much a shocking revelation as a shocking bra and panties.

Zelda was standing in front of him naked.

Again.

Because why not? In her mind, the shore of a lake no other players probably even knew about was the perfect place to strip down and bare her pixels for the world and GMs to see.

"Well? You coming or what?" Zelda smirked as she ran into the lake and started swimming.

Link facepalmed briefly before jumping into the water after her. What am I going to do with this woman?

They reached the island and put their clothes back on, and Link began to cook lunch in the shadow of the giant stone obelisk. Zelda lay in the grass, watching him with the most ridiculous grin on her face and giving not a care in the world to the fact that she was acting like a schoolgirl around her childhood crush.

Watching him working at putting together what looked to be a phenomenal meal, all just because she had asked him to (okay, maybe 'asked' wasn't exactly the right word, but still...) and realizing the lengths he would go to if it meant making her happy... not to mention how safe she felt whenever he was around... and how well she slept in his arms...

Suddenly she felt damn foolish. How had neither of them seen it before this?

As Link served the food and they ate leaning against the shrine wall, she wormed her way underneath his arm in order to get closer to him. Link of course said nothing, merely adjusting so he could still eat while both of them were comfortable. She lay with her head in his lap, grinning stupidly while she watched him eat. Link tried his best to avoid looking down at her, as it was just so damn awkward. Then again, she had become the champion of making things awkward since they had been trapped in this death game, with her random stripping and domineering ways. But it was worth it if it meant keeping that idiotic grin on her face.

They finished eating, and Zelda curled up like a kitten in Link's lap, clearly intending to not move for some time. Link accommodated her, stroking her hair until she fell asleep. He watched her breathing rhythmically, so peacefully... and it was kind of hard to tell for certain from the angle she was laying at, but he could've sworn he saw her smiling.

Wonder what she's dreaming about, Link wondered to himself.

She woke up a few minutes later, as the sun was beginning to rise over the statue and eliminate their shade. "How long was I out for?" she asked Link as she stood up and stretched.

"Not long. Maybe half an hour."

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

Link scoffed as he cleaned up their campsite. "You know why I didn't wake you up."

"I see... listen, Li- Chris... there's something I-"

She was quickly silenced by his mouth over hers. He pulled her so close to him, he may as well have been trying to merge their bodies right there. She didn't hesitate to respond in kind, for this kiss had the passion she had been craving for so long.

More...

Her entire body was on fire at this point. No matter how close she pulled herself to him, and him to her, it still didn't feel close enough.

More...

She was the one to break away from the kiss, heaving and panting. As he held her close, she could barely hear his heart thundering in his chest over her own mind screaming.

What the fuck just happened?!

Eventually, she got everything together enough to look Link in the eyes again. When she did, he gave her another gentle kiss on the lips and whispered, "Come on... we've got a world to save."

...Of course they did.