Eighteen :The Wager

Zelda was in Link's room several evenings later, lying facedown on her stomach as his soft hands expertly kneaded the tension out of her back and shoulders. Ever since the entrance of Sterling several mornings ago, Zelda had felt much more comfortable around Link. She had something to distract her from him and the terrible fact she would never be able to be with him, and both teens seemed perfectly content with their incredibly plutonic relationship.

In fact, if she didn't know any better, she'd say Link was going gay.

"So tell me about this Sterling guy," Link said as his hands gently rubbed her shoulders. If she didn't know better, she would have thought it sensual and an incredible turn on. But as it was, it was just Link, who she knew she could trust. Completely.

"What about this Sterling guy?" She murmured, head resting upon her arms as Link's thumbs rubbed slow circles into the muscles around her spine. "Mmmmmm."

"I saw the glances you two were shooting one another during lunch. So spill. What's up?"

"Mm, nothing," she sighed softly. "I played bass and sang for him, he played viola for me. Why?"

"Because he's obviously digging on you," Link said in exasperation. "And it looks to me like you're digging on him."

"And if I am?"

"No problem there, except if you two get together, you'll be doing the whole long distance relationship thing, which I've heard is utter crap."

"Mmmm."

"But if that's what you want to do, hell, go for it, I say. If that's what'll make you happy."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

"But Link, what if I get hurt?"

His hands and voice were gentle as he rubbed her softly, his hands sliding over the thin silken fabric of her dress. "If he hurts you, I hurt him. Nobody hurts my friends."

"Yeah?" Zelda began to push herself up, and Link's hands evaporated from her back. She turned around, beaming at him, and he was smiling too, sincerity in his eyes. "I don't even know if he likes me."

"I think he likes you," Link said, taking Zelda's hand. "How could he not."

Zelda smiled, cheeks reddening. "Aw, Link, now you're flattering me and that's just cheap."

"No, it's true," Link protested, letting go of her hand and sticking his tongue out at her. "And I bet I can prove it, too."

"Let's wager on it," Zelda stated greedily. "I bet you… two bags of candy corn that he doesn't like me."

"Bet taken," Link replied, and beckoned Zelda to her feet. "Come on, up! I'm going to get that candy corn."

"Link," Zelda grumbled, "we don't even know where in the house he is."

Link stopped dead, Zelda crashing into him from behind. "Hey!"

"Okay, let's see," Link said, not turning around to face Zelda. "He plays viola, right?"

"Right…"

"So he's probably the kind of sensitive type."

"Right…"

"So if you were a sensitive male pining, where would you go?"

"Link, I doubt he's pining," Zelda replied.

"Humor me here. Where would you go?"

"I'd probably be staring at the stars or out over the ocean or something."

"Exactly," Link stated. "Go get your coat. We're going outside."

"Link…" Zelda began, but then sighed. Whatever. "Fine, come on. Coat is in my room."

"Wait, on second thought, don't get your coat."

"What?" She squawked, despite her attempts not to. "Link it's…" she glanced at the clock, "eleven-thirty at night and we're going outside and I'm in a dress with no sleeves. I'm going to freeze."

"Precisely," Link stated with a demonic grin. "Now come on. You'll see."

"I'm going to shoot you, I really am," Zelda grumbled, her words lacking malice as Link dragged her down the hall and past the library. Zelda stopped for a moment.

Ever since that morning, when Audrey had told Zelda all that she knew, Zelda had gone back each day, just before lunch, and just talked with her Aunt, trying to figure things out- Audrey knew what to probe Zelda on, and each day, the triforce grew stronger. Zelda was still having difficulties fully believing and accepting the full story, but if the three triangles that were slowly appearing on her hand weren't enough proof, there was the box and the ocarina, and all the legends that they'd found that fit into the story.

Link gave Zelda a little push and she continued past the library, out to the door of a massive balcony that gave a perfect view of the gardens.

"You owe me two bags of candy corn," he said quietly, and pointed.

There, silhouetted against the moonlight, was Sterling, leaning out against the railing, short black curls blowing slightly in the wind.

"Not just yet," she whispered to him, hand on the doorknob. "I hate you."

"What are you waiting for?" Link replied, his breath tickling her ear. "Go out there. Now."

"Blah blah, fine," Zelda said, and opened the door, stepping quietly out onto the balcony. Sterling turned, eyes unreadable, then smiled slightly as she closed the door behind herself and walked over to stand next to him, gooseflesh popping up on her arms.

Damn you, Link.

"Hi," she said softly.

"Hey."

They stood in relative silence for a moment, both staring out into the night.

"What are you doing out here?"

Sterling turned his head to look at her, glass green eyes meeting her own violet under the nearly-full moon.

"Stargazing," he replied, with relative little abash. "Jarrett would laugh at me, but I love to look at the stars. There's nothing quite like them."

"It's too bad there's so much smog from the city and so much light pollution," Zelda replied. "Then we'd be able to see thousands."

"Yes, it's very unfortunate. But I don't mind so much, because there are stars out here. That's better than nothing. Better than we get in Los Angeles."

"It is."

It was silent but for the night wind. Zelda shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.

"You must be cold." Sterling turned to her again, and inwardly, Zelda cursed Link. Again.

"I'm okay."

More quiet. Zelda shivered again- that stupid silk dress didn't retain any heat. A thousand curses to all designer clothing lines.

"Here, have my coat," Sterling said to her, taking off the brown leather jacket he was wearing and handing it to her.

"No, I couldn't," Zelda said. "You keep it. I'm fine."

"No. I'm wearing sleeves, and that dress is silk and has only thin straps. I'm sure you're freezing." Upon seeing her hesitation, he wrapped the coat around her shoulders. "Honestly, take it. I grew up in northern Europe- I'm fine in the cold."

"If you're sure." Zelda pulled the jacket tight around her, still warm from being on Sterling's body. It smelled of him, vaguely like the meadow with a whiff of cologne. She pulled it tighter around herself, basking in the warmth of it.

"Sometimes, I wonder what's up there," Sterling said unexpectedly. "I know about space and solar systems and planets and stars and black holes, and I've seen pictures, but… I want to see the beauty for myself."

"Like the Mona Lisa?" Zelda asked. Sterling shot her a confused look, and she blushed a little. "I mean, the Mona Lisa looks plain in pictures, but they say when you see it in real life…."

"Yeah, like the Mona Lisa." Sterling smiled, and then looked skyward once more. "But not like the Mona Lisa. You know, angels and demons and stuff, what if they're up there, too, not just the black holes and the chunks of rock and fire?"

"It's an interesting thought," Zelda replied, thoughtful. "I wish I could answer."

"You know," Sterling began after a few minutes of silence, "there's a legend in my family. When god flooded the world and Noah built the Arc, God put the souls of those who had died up in the sky so that we could always remember them, and ever since then, when someone is unexpectedly taken away, they go up into the sky, too."

"It's a nice legend," Zelda said, staring up, looking hard. "And comforting."

"Yeah." Sterling was looking up at the sky as well, and then touched Zelda's arm lightly. "A shooting star. Make a wish, and make it good."

"Look, Zel!" exclaimed Link, pointing out over the glimmering ocean. "A shooting star. Make a wish."

"A wish…." Zelda said softly, remembering her wish from that summer's night so long ago. Love. Real love. She smiled bitterly, closing her eyes. "My wishes never come true."

"What sort of wishes do you make?" Sterling was standing closer now, and Zelda didn't mind at all.

"When I was little, I would wish for my mother to come back. Then, when I was older, I wished my father would recognize me. And then…." Zelda shrugged, shaking her head. "Nothing ever seems to come true, so I just don't really bother any more."

"I see," Sterling said softly. He ran a hand through his hair, then looked at Zelda, serious. "I have a question. It's serious, and if it offends you, I'm very sorry, but I would like to know."

"Yes?"

"What happened to your mother?"

Zelda closed her eyes, smiling sadly. "She died. Childbirth. Something went wrong, the doctor couldn't fix it. She died after naming me. Bled to death."

"Oh, Zelda, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked. I'm terribly, terribly sorry."

"No, it's okay," Zelda replied quietly. "I don't blame you for asking."

They were silent again for a time, and then Sterling turned to her once more. "Do you often miss her?"

"Yes, even though I never met her." Her voice wavered as she said this, and she turned and stared up at the stars, crystals glittering in the corners of her eyes as she studied the smoggy sky.

"You know, it's okay to cry," Sterling told her softly. "It's okay. I don't mind, if you want to."

"Really?" Zelda looked at him, emotions in her eyes- loss, pain, respect, hope, fear…

"Really."

She all but leapt at his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, stroking her hair and rocking her carefully, waiting out her pain.

Inside the house, Link watched from a window, smiling sadly. He'd come to terms with the fact that he couldn't have Zelda, and he was happy for her. If that Sterling hurt her, though…. Link fisted his hands, and looked out the window one last time at a crying Zelda and Sterling who was holding her gently. If her hurt her, Link would make him pay; for every tear Zelda cried over him, Sterling would shed a drop of blood. Link swore it to himself. If anyone ever hurt Zelda, the most precious person in the world to him, he would make them pay. Oh, would he make them pay.

Deciding that Zelda was safe and that she and Sterling should have their privacy, Link walked away, sad for himself, overjoyed for Zelda. And plus, he realized merrily, now she owed him two bags of candy corn.

-

"I don't owe you two bags of candy corn."

"Do so."

"Do not."

"Do so."

"Do not."

It was before breakfast the next morning, and Link was sitting in Zelda's room as, again, she applied makeup.

"Why not? You haven't even told me what exactly went on out there, which makes me think that you probably had a passionate first kiss or a groping session or something."

"Link!" Zelda accidentally poked herself in the eye with the mascara brush, turning and leaning out the bathroom in fury, one eye bright pink, swollen, and watery. "Look what you made me do! And no, nothing like that went on. We talked for a bit, and then he asked me about my mom, and I told him and he told me it was okay to cry, so I cried and he held me. Then I started to get tired, so he walked me to my room. Case closed." Zelda fanned her watering eye, turning back to the mirror and breathing through her mouth as she waited for the tears to fade.

"Isn't there a party tonight?" Link asked, lolling on Zelda's bed, playing with one lacy pillow.

"Yeah," Zelda answered warily, carefully applying eyeliner to her still-red eye. "All the guests have arrived, and the wedding is in a few days, thus the parties begin, and they'll probably continue every night until new years' day. Why?"

"Because," Link said carefully, "tonight could be a big chance for you."

Zelda set down the eye makeup and reached for her red-hot curling iron. "Uh huh. Listen, Link, I don't think he likes me," Zelda stated, carefully curling the ends of her hair.

"Why do you say that? He let you cry on his shoulder, didn't he?"

"Yeah, after he provoked me to it. Ow." She singed her neck on the curling iron and glared. "Stupid thing."

"But my point was proven last night, sensitive male looking at stars equals pining whatever."

"No, Link, I just think you're crazy." Zelda ran some water over her hand and wiped it against her neck, then dried it before it could reach her expensive designer top. "I mean, what sort of cruel person would provoke someone to tears and then refuse to be compassionate about their mistake?"

"Lots of people," Link replied. "And obviously, lover boy isn't one of them."

"He's not lover boy," Zelda snapped back at him, continuing with her curling work. "Stop calling him that."

"But I've seen how he looks at you during the meals, it looks like he really wants to…"

Zelda cut him off. "Do you want a red hot curling iron shoved up your rear?" She waved the object in question threateningly around the corner at Link, continuing, "because I swear I'll do it if you don't shut up."

"All I'm saying is…. Never mind." Link sighed, and Zelda heard the squeak of bedsprings as he shifted around a bit, then silence. "Just trying to help."

"I appreciate it, Link," Zelda said, "I really do, but I would really like to handle this thing on my own."

"Okay, okay, if you're sure."

"Positive."

There was relative quiet for a time, and then the squeak of bedsprings, followed by a thump as Link rolled to the floor and stood. "I'm going to investigate your room."

"Watch the bottom drawer in the armoire," Zelda warned. "Everything else is safe."

"Gotcha."

"And don't make a mess or else the maid will kill me."

"Aye, ma'am."

The sound of chaos and disarray followed, and inwardly, Zelda winced, hoping Link wasn't getting too into his exploration. Sighing, Zelda brushed out her hair and braided it down her back, and exited the bathroom.

"Okay, Link," she said, stepping out and watching as the bored teen dug through her desk. "Put all that stuff back and let's go."

"Right away, captain," he bubbled, shoving some papers and books haphazardly back into the bottom drawer of Zelda's desk and closing it. "To breakfast we go." As he passed her, he grabbed her left hand with his left hand, jerking Zelda around so that she was running backwards. A second later, though…

BZZT.

Zelda yanked her hand back, and Link did the same. They looked at one another, confused. Zelda had curled her fingers into a fist and pushed the back of her left hand into the soft coat she was wearing behind her back, and she noticed that Link was rubbing the top of his.

"What was that?" Zelda asked, even though in part she was half afraid she already knew. Link, though? No, it was too much of a coincidence…

"I don't know." He shook his head, looking uncomfortable. "Do you?"

"The carpet in this house is kind of weird," Zelda lied. "You must have shocked me, or I must have shocked you, and the reaction was a little delayed."

"Yeah," Link agreed, looking lightly spooked. "That must be it."

Zelda shrugged her thin shoulders delicately. "Oh well. Let's continue on down to breakfast."

"Alrighty." Link seemed to shake the oddity off, and hopped merrily out of the room, Zelda walking next to him as they proceeded down the hallway. The two chattered idly, and eventually became engaged in a friendly debate about time and time travel.

"It's a paradox," Link insisted. "I mean, say someone went back in time and told Isaac Newton about gravity, and that's how we know about gravity? Who started it, and does it even really exist?"

"Yes," Zelda argued, "because in traveling back in time was like splitting the river. So at one point, Isaac Newton really DID discover gravity, and it went into the future, and someone went back and told him and, in doing that, created a fork in the river."

"But for that to work, the river would have to be running backwards."

"Then think about maybe it making a separate river, running right alongside ours. Point is that even if time is changed, at one point, something did happen."

"What happens when the rivers collide, though? Chaos would ensue. That's why I'm saying it's a paradox, and what you're talking about is time/space travel, not just time travel." Link had a good point. Zelda thought hard for a moment, trying to remember...

"Bad things would happen," she finally replied. "Like, imagine if somebody locked a monster between the two rivers, and, when the rivers collided, the monster was finally set free? Bad, bad things would happen."

"But when did monsters become involved?"

"Link, all I'm saying is that bad things would happen when the hypothetical rivers collided."

"But then what if they didn't collide? Or one broke off into a stream that fed into the other one?"

"Link, you're being impossible," Zelda sighed as they entered the breakfast corner. She kicked him as he began to open his mouth. "You need to behave."

There were lots of guests in the room now that everybody had arrived, seated at the large table and the other smaller tables that had been scattered around the massive eating area. "Go find a table."

Link wandered off to one of the few empty small tables and sat down, and Zelda, sure that he wouldn't get in any trouble, went around, greeting the guests, asking if they had slept well, if they were finding everything to their liking.

Ah, the beauties of being a good hostess.

Zelda smiled and shook hands as she journeyed around the room, listening to stories, petting the occasional small dog… There weren't more than thirty guests total, but it felt like at least a hundred to Zelda. At last, she reached her table and happily sat down next to Link.

"You want me to go get you some food?" he asked her, munching on a pancake.

"Would you please? Thank you so much," she said as he got up and sauntered off to the buffet table.

The squeak of the door's hinges caught Zelda's ears, and she turned and watched as Sterling and Jarrett entered the room. Jarrett was talking animatedly to Sterling, who had his full attention, and was nodding. In a hurry, Zelda looked away, just as Link arrived back and plopped a heaping plate of pancakes, eggs, and bacon in front of her.

"Thanks, Link."

"No problem, friend," he replied, his eyes going over Zelda's shoulder once and narrowing. "Hmm."

"Link, not now," she said softly, reaching for her fork, only to realize that she had none. "Agh, hold on. I need to go get silverware…"

She stood and made her way across the room, saying hello to the guests still, and when she reached the buffet table, she grabbed some silverware and a soft cloth napkin. Sterling was just a few feet away, ladling grits onto his plate.

"Good morning, Sterling," she said, smiling at him. He looked up in surprise and a small smile formed at the edge of his mouth.

"Good morning," he replied softly.

Zelda sighed within. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, thank you."

Jarrett buzzed up just then, bidding Zelda a flurry of good mornings and how are yous. Zelda smiled and nodded and answered, then queried back and then, with a heavy heart, returned to her table.

He was almost acting as though nothing had happened.

Link seemed to have noticed once Zelda returned, as she didn't even try and shut him up for beginning on the time travel thing all over again. She ate in silence, gulped down a glass of orange juice one serving girl brought, and stood up to leave.

"You ready to go, then?" Link asked her, his food long-since snarfed down.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "Before I have to do any more good-hostess stuff."

Quietly and inconspicuously, they left the eating area, and then abruptly crashed into Impa, Haft, and the girls coming down the stairs.

"Good morning, Zelda," Haft greeted with a yawn. "Good morning, Link."

"Hi Mom, hi Dad," Link said, and Zelda nodded, smiling. Saria and Jayda seemed to be out of it, like their father.

"I hope breakfast isn't already over."

Impa looked kind of funny, and after a moment of studying her face Zelda figured out why- she'd covered the silver cat's eye tattoos with foundation and concealer.

"No, it's still in full swing and will be for maybe another hour," Zelda replied with a smile.

"Ah, good," Impa said. She pushed gently on the backs of her two daughters with a, "let's go down, then."

Link turned to watch them walk the rest of the way down the stairs, and when he turned back to Zelda, he discovered, to his shock, that she was gone.

-

The room hadn't changed in all the seventeen years she'd been dead.

Zelda was sitting in the bedroom, looking out the window at the dreary December day. Her mother's old silken kimono was hanging from a hook on the wall, and Zelda had hugged the soft cloth, taking in the still-there scent of her long-dead mother. She knew that nobody would disturb her here- the maids had been instructed to keep the room in good shape, yet they only entered in when they had to. Richard Harkinian himself entered the room rarely; too great was the grief attached to these quarters, and so it was Zelda's own sanctuary.

Zelda sighed as she stood and walked around the room. It looked like the bedchambers of a queen, expensively furnished and in the best of tastes. Yet there was a modest simplicity to it, something about it that Zelda loved dearly.

She stopped and sat on the bed, fingers brushing across the quilt that adorned the covers. Zelda had always loved this quilt, full of midnight blues and yellows and reds and greens and colors of the daytime and the nighttime clashing. Zelda had been told by her aunt Audrey that Zelda's mother's mother's mother had made this quilt for Aileen for her twentieth birthday. The quilt had always seemed to Zelda to tell a story, each of the seemingly randomly scattered colors representing something different. And now, Zelda knew.

Before, Zelda had hardly dared to touch anything within the sanctuary for fear of disturbing her mother's memory, but now, she knew what she had to do, and so, sighing sadly, she opened up the drawer on the bedside table closest to her and began to carefully dig. No dice.

Zelda walked around the bed and tried the other side, doing her best not to disturb the random hodgepodge of trinkets that filled the drawers; pens, books, ribbons, bottles of lotion, small tea-light candles. Still no dice.

Shutting the drawer carefully, Zelda turned and walked to the center of the room, closing her eyes. Audrey had told her that her mother had kept a journal while she was alive and that it would be important for Zelda to find it, though Audrey hadn't exactly clarified why. So here Zelda was, post-letdown, in her mother's room, and she was thinking like a normal person, which Aileen Harkinian had certainly not been.

"Okay," Zelda said aloud, voice seeming to vanish into the stillness of the dead woman's room. "So, if I were Mom, where would I put my journal? This would be a bit easier if I'd actually known her…."

Zelda thought, tapping her finger to her mouth as she looked in the mirror, reflection quite similar to the yellowing photograph tucked in between the mirror and the frame of a woman and her younger, brown-haired sister standing together on a beach and smiling. Think inside the box, Zelda told herself. You're her child, you must think like her to some degree.

Hardly noticing what she was doing, Zelda dropped to a squat and opened the far left drawer, second to the bottom. There, on top of the neatly folded silken slips, was a faded old copy of Huckleberry Finn. Hardly thinking, Zelda pulled the book out and opened it, turning a few pages until she'd found the large square hole cut through most of the pages in the book, just barely large enough to fit a journal.

"I am good," Zelda said to herself, carefully removing the little blue journal from its resting place. "I am very good."

She sat down on the bed, leaning against a bedpost, and began to read.

Uploaded: February 26

5:31 PM

My most humble apologies that this chapter is so short and so boring. And you're all probably about to kill me, hurrah, because GASP I'm hooking Zelda up with another character? How could I! The simple truth to this, in case any of you were wondering, is that life is not perfect, nor is it ever cut and dried and neat. It's rare that anybody finds the person for them on their first, second, even fifth try, and that's the point I'm trying to make. And who knows- Zelda and Link may not even be together in the future. Dun dun dunnnn!

So, to address some more structural facets of this story. I'm planning on making "Ordinary Story" four books long, each book lasting approximately six months or so. Book I itself will end on New Years' with a very interesting scene, I think, and its completion will be followed by a short break for me as I'm suffering burnout, then shortly, Book II will begin. Also, I am considering a sequel to Ordinary Story as I have the entire thing planned out already, but I'm not sure whether or not it will actually be published. It will definitely take place upwards of two years after the end of Ordinary Story, however, I'm not sure if it would be necessary or even feasible. I'd like to try and finish this whole thing first before I dip my fingers into sequel-ness. If I do do a sequel, however, if will definitely be much shorter than this story, which is already way longer than I originally intended it to be.

NOW! Not that any of you care, but I must tell you about the concert last weekend. It was fun- we went down to this city's "clubbing" street and watched some bands from my school play there, so keep an eye out for this in the future of OS. Anyway, we mucked around on 6th street, saw two bands, then wound up going for Starbucks afterwards, and played around on some marble cows that are a local legend/attraction/no person's life is complete without playing on them. All in all, it was a blast, and inspiring.

It's time for me to be going now. I'll see you all next week. Thanks for reading and PLEASE review!

Love, me.