Lance awoke to the soft sensation of a wet sponge on his face. He would've jerked awake if he could've felt his face. It felt like mashed potatoes, or lettuce. Either one worked.
Lance groaned in pain.
"Shh, don't move your face," a kind, gentle, female voice said.
"Ugh… where am I?" Lance asked. He couldn't remember why he was asleep. Whatever he was laying on sure didn't feel like his bed. It was a bed, just not his.
"You're at Lon Lon Ranch," the girl replied. Then he remembered, The girl!
He sat up quickly, hearing a sharp intake of breath as he did so. He looked around him.
Lance was in a small bedroom, with a wardrobe to his left and the door to his right. There was a table with a few teacups on it. It was very late at night.
He looked farther to his right and saw the very girl that he remembered. It all came back to him now. The drunk. How he had madly grabbed his wrist to stop him from taking advantage of the girl.
She was so beautiful. Lance really wanted to know her…
"I'm Marin," she said. She held out her hand. Lance took it. "I'm Lance," he said. He didn't want to say anything about being the prince.
As if reading his mind, she said, "You know, you look a lot like the prince."
Lance chuckled nervously. He racked his brain for something to say.
"I've always thought he was a stuck-up jerk," Lance blurted. Nice.
An awkward silence followed. Lance didn't know what to say, and Marin was staring at the floor twisting her hair.
Lance decided to pass the time by just staring at the formations in the ceiling. He saw a turkey… an explosion… some kind of bird—
"That was a really brave thing to do," she said suddenly. She was looking into his eyes. She had beautiful green eyes. Think, Lance! He couldn't remember what was so brave of him. Her eyes were mesmerizing.
Then Lance remembered. The drunk.
"No, it wasn't," Lance said. "It was stupid. The man was twice my size and, well, look at my face."
Marin laughed. "But it was. Most people wouldn't do something like that," she said kindly. She was looking into his eyes again.
"Well, I'm not most people," Lance replied. "I'm some idiot who does things without realizing it, and then gets himself into huge trouble and is only saved by the fact that—" he stopped himself quickly, almost revealing his social status.
"The fact that what?" she asked. "Uh, nothing," Lance replied. Marin hit him playfully on the shoulder. "Aw, come on, you can tell me," she said. Lance laughed playfully while she kept hitting him and said, "Naw, I really can't."
Malon looked through the crack in the door to her daughter's bedroom, where she had heard laughing and giggling.
There was her daughter, Marin, sitting at her own bedside, where the injured boy sat up, obviously trying not to tell her something.
She laughed quietly at how quickly the two made friends. Marin had always wanted someone like Malon had had in her younger years. With the king.
She had always had feelings for him, but over time, they dissipated. Then she met Troy, who she instantly fell in love with, and knew that she wasn't meant to be with Link. She just hoped that Marin would find that someone too. But these two seemed like an ideal couple.
She decided to leave the two be and went back downstairs with Troy.
"So… where do you live?" Marin asked inquiringly. They had settled down and were trying to find out more about each other.
Lance was having trouble with some of these questions. He answered quickly, "In Hyrule Market. I live in one of those houses in the Back Alley."
"Oh, have you ever seen any of the Royal Family?" she asked.
"Every once in a while I do," he replied. He felt guilty lying to her. But he knew that if he revealed his status, he'd be forbidden from seeing her again. And he wouldn't want that at any cost.
Before Marin could ask another question, Lance said, "So, what do you think of the prince?"
"I don't think much of him. Kind of like what you said; he's a stuck-up jerk. I don't see him much, but whenever I do see him he's lazing around doing nothing," she said. Then she added, "Why do you ask?"
"I don't know, just wondering," Lance replied glumly.
She was about to ask another question when Lance stood up abruptly and said, "Well, I should probably be going now." It was only then when his knees felt wobbly and he collapsed.
He fell into Marin's arms, luckily, for she had stood up quickly to catch him.
She laughed and said, "I don't think so. You're staying the night."
"But I have to—" he began, but Marin put a hand to his lips and said, "I have serious doubts that you'll have the strength to stand. Besides the fact that my mother and father wouldn't let you leave the house in your condition."
Lance gave up and hobbled over to the bed again. He sighed and looked over at Marin. He hoped that he didn't end up like the relationship between her mother and his father….
"Well, you should probably get some rest," she said. "It's almost eleven o'clock." She patted his chest, noticing the muscular feel of it, and headed for the door.
"Where are you going to sleep?" Lance asked. She turned around with a cutely innocent look on her face and said, "We have a guest bedroom."
Lance thought it peculiar that she didn't put him in the guest bedroom in the first place.
"Good night," she said warmly. "Night," Lance replied. He turned over and fell asleep almost instantly.
"Where the devil is he!" Link cried. Zelda just shrugged. She didn't know any better than he did. Link was pacing around the room, as he always did when he was worried. They were in their bedroom, wearing merely their underclothes, as they were getting ready to go to bed.
"It's almost eleven o'clock and he's still missing! I haven't seen him since he left for work!" Link shouted.
"Shh, darling, you'll wake the children," Zelda whispered.
Link slapped his hands to his sides and sat down next to his wife.
"I wish he'd tell me these things before he left," Link said. "We can wait until morning if he doesn't come home tonight," Zelda replied. Link nodded and laid down on the bed, opening his arms, beckoning Zelda to lay down next to him. She complied and let him wrap his arms around her as they cuddled on the bed for a moment, then Link pulled the covers over them and they slept in this same position.