Zelda pushed open the door to the Earthbound Toy Store, and a quiet jingle greeted her inside. Soft lights and wooden walls bathed her skin in an orange glow, and Zelda let herself slip into a comfortable smile as she scanned the shelves of toys around her.

Wooden boats, model cars, and brightly colored yo-yos. Their toy selection was vast, and as Zelda looked around, she knew she'd made the right choice coming here.

From the corner of her eye, she saw movement at the counter. A bright red cap crept out from behind the counter, before Ness's head poked up from under it.

"Hey, Zelda!" he said. "Why are you here today?"

"Oh, no reason in particular. I'm simply browsing," she replied.

"Browsing?" Ness looked like he believed none of it, and his impish grin only widened. "Okay. I'll believe that."

"Now, Ness," Zelda said, and she turned away from her shopping to shoot him a flat look. "Just because you know something doesn't mean you should spoil it for everyone else. Would you appreciate it if I told Lucas that you filled his toothpaste tube with soap?"

That quickly wiped the grin off Ness's face. Pouting, he said, "How did you–" Zelda raised an eyebrow. "Nevermind. I won't tell."

"Good." The smile returned to her face. "Who knows. Maybe Santa will be extra generous to you this year."

What better place could she have come to, after all, when shopping for Christmas presents?

Zelda turned back to the shelves when a small model boat on the bottom caught her eye. As she bent down to pick it off the shelf, she heard the bell ring again. Steps thudded over the wooden floor, before they stopped.

Someone was behind her. Their steps weren't heavy enough to be Ganondorf's steps, but not light enough to be a child's. The shadow they cast around her would make them of middling height, so a good deal shorter than Samus but not short enough to be someone like Mario. Maybe it was Marth?

"Excuse me, miss?" that someone said in a voice that definitely wasn't Marth.

Slowly, Zelda pushed herself to her feet and turned around. Standing before her was someone who certainly looked familiar. A man who was about as tall as Marth, and who bore a resemblance with the clothes, but the striking difference was the plume of red hair coming down over his head.

She could have sworn she knew who this was. She had seen his face before, and she felt like she should have known his name, but for some reason, it just wasn't coming to her.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Um..." The man tore his eyes away from hers. For a moment, Zelda thought she might have said something wrong, but the man's gaze returned quick enough so that couldn't be the case. "I saw you out there. Giving out candy."

Zelda giggled. "Ah, yes. That was me."

"Yes. I was just wondering..."

He looked away again, and he kicked the ground. "Do you need any help with that?"

Zelda blinked, surprised. After all, it wasn't every day that someone asked to help her.

"I don't believe I do," Zelda replied.

"Oh." The man looked disappointed, his eyes cast to the floor, that Zelda immediately felt bad for him.

"Help is something I don't need," she quickly added, "but it is something I would very much appreciate."

"Really?" The man's eyes lit up, and Zelda noticed how strikingly blue they were, especially compared to his hair.

Zelda nodded, smiling softly. "Of course."

"That's great! Because you see, I saw you giving candy, and I thought that was awfully nice of you to do, and since I have nothing else to do today, I thought I might as well give you a hand. What kind of a ruler would I be if I didn't go out of my way to help people, after all?" The man paused, and something seemed to dawn on him just as a bright red color dawned on his face. "Oh, right, I completely forgot to introduce myself. My name is Roy, by the way."

"Zelda," she replied, chuckling as she gave him a bow in return. "And if you want to help, you can start by helping me search for presents. I have to find enough toys to give away for Christmas, and having someone help me will make this a lot quicker."

"I'll try my best." Roy turned to search through the other side, before he paused again. "Is there anything that you're looking for specifically?"

Zelda hummed. "Nothing in particular. Just make sure that it's good enough to give away. Something that you might want if you were a child."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

They turned away from each other and began to peruse through the shelves. Zelda turned her attention back to the toy boat, and, after making sure that it was well-made and wouldn't fall apart, she tucked it under her arm and picked a toy train off the shelf.

She'd barely put her fingers on it when she heard a crash come from behind her. Zelda glanced over her shoulder, and she found Roy sitting on top of a pile of lego bricks in the middle of two halves of a shelf. When Roy saw her looking at him, he gave her a sheepish smile.

"Hello," he said.

"Hello," she replied.

"I tripped," he said.

Zelda hummed. "I can see. Do you need a hand?"

"I'm fine."

Roy grabbed the two halves of the shelf and tried to push himself back up. His foot slipped on a lego brick, and he crashed back down, sending lego bricks flying everywhere. Zelda held a hand up before her face, and a lego brick bounced off her skin.

"Okay. Perhaps I need a little help."

Zelda reached down, and Roy took her hand. He was heavier than her–she could tell from a glance–and he probably would have dragged her down with him if she hadn't grabbed the shelf behind her to hold her steady. She dragged Roy to his feet, and as soon as he had stepped clear of the lego, she reached over to brush the dirt off his clothes.

"Are you alright?" she asked, reaching over behind him to pluck a few bricks that had stuck to his back.

"I'm alright," Roy replied.

"This is not alright!" Ness cried.

Zelda stopped. She and Roy glanced over to the counter to find Ness glaring down at them, with his hands on his hips.

"Great," he groaned. "Now I'm going to have to clean this all up."

"I'm sorry, Ness," Zelda said. "We didn't mean to make sure a mess."

Ness scowled. "Well, sorry doesn't clean up everything! I'm going to have to close to call in the janitor."

Zelda knelt down and picked a handful of bricks off the floor. "I'd be more than happy to help."

"I would be as well," Roy added, poking his head out from behind Zelda. "I'll do anything I can to make up for the mess I made."

"No, no, no." Ness shook his head rapidly. "I don't want either of you making a bigger mess than you already have. Please, can you just come back later?"

Zelda glanced around, hesitantly, before she lifted the toy boat and train and asked, "Can I pay for these first, at least?"

It only took a minute for Ness to ring her up, and then she found herself sitting outside the shop as the glass doors slammed shut behind her.

"Well," she hummed, "it's a minor setback, but I think I can work with this."

"We can?"

Zelda stopped. She glanced over to her left, and that's when she remembered that Roy had been with her too.

"Oh, you still want to help?"

Roy shrugged. "My friends are all off doing other things. I might as well stick around."

"I see. And is there any reason why you want to help me?"

"As I said, I won't be much of a leader if I can't help my people, and you seem really good at it." Roy glanced away, bashfully. "I'd like to learn from you, if you wouldn't mind teaching me."

Teach him? Zelda was used to ruling. She was the princess of Hyrule, and she had plenty of experience keeping her people in order, but to teach someone else what she did, that was new.

As long as she had the Triforce of Wisdom, however, she had no doubts that she could do this well, and so she gave him a smile and said, "I wouldn't mind at all."

Someone's stomach growled. Zelda blinked, and when Roy's face lit up a shade of red, she realized it'd come from him.

"Have you had breakfast yet?" Roy shook his head, and Zelda's smile widened. "Well, neither have I. What do you say we head over to McDonald's for breakfast first, shall we?"


Almost didn't make today's upload today. I only just got back to my write machine at 10pm, and even then, figuring out what I wanted to happen here took some time.

These chapters are getting shorter each time I upload them, and by no means is that intentional, I've just been rather short on time. My winter break didn't start until Christmas (which apparently was only a thing that happened in my school district?), and I was too sick for the days leading up to winter break so I couldn't do much to write ahead of time. I hope I'll be a bit more timely with my writing time tomorrow so I won't have to stay up so late to get it done, but with college application deadlines closing in, I might have to delay my uploads to make sure I get all my stuff in.

Until then, thanks for reading. Take care of yourselves out there, and stay safe!