Zelda had told Roy she would be back in ten minutes. With little else to do, Roy had kept his eyes on the clock, and twenty-five minutes had passed, with a little extra to spare.
"What's taking her so long?" he muttered to himself, dragging a fry across the ever growing ketchup stain on his tray.
Given that, at most, it took fifteen minutes to cross the mall from end to end, and the food court was a little less than the middle of the mall, it should have taken her twenty-three minutes at most to get to whichever store she needed to go and return.
I'm a fast walker, though, he thought to himself. Maybe it would take someone else longer to get there.
Or maybe something had happened to her. Maybe she had tripped and fallen down into the blast zone of one of the stages. Respawn times were a pain to wait through.
Should I have gone with her? Maybe if I had, I would have been able to make sure she was safe.
Roy shook his head. No. She said she was buying something for her boyfriend. That is something she probably needed to do in private. She wouldn't have liked me coming along.
He still wanted to, though. Shopping with her could have been a lot of fun. Zelda was very smart. She knew all sorts of things, and she would probably be able to know what products to avoid, just by glancing at the packaging. If only she had told him where she had gone.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something yellow. Had Zelda come back already? He turned, hopeful, only to deflate once he saw that it had not been Zelda's golden locks, but Lucas's. A sigh escaped him, and he let his eyes fall back to his plate. Though his gaze had turned away, however, his attention had not, and as he continued to sit there, fiddling with his food, he happened to overhear the conversation happening just a few feet away.
"U-um... could I get a-a number one, s-sir?"
"..."
"A-a number nine. Please?"
"..."
"I-I said... I said a number nine? A C-c-cheeseburger sandwich?"
"..."
"A Cheese–n-nevermind."
Frowning, Roy glanced again. Over by the McDonald's register, he saw Steve watch confused as Lucas slowly trodded away, his head bowed and looking quite ashamed of himself. What had happened? From what he could hear, it sounded like Lucas hadn't been able to get his order across.
Of course, that would not do. He could relate to Lucas, being embarrassed at having to repeat himself so many times until you were convinced that you were being ignored.
But Zelda, she wouldn't let Lucas just walk away, would she? Zelda, who spent her entire day serving at the soup kitchen and reading aloud to the children at the bookstore; Zelda, who would drop time to herself just to make sure that the kids had a mall Santa Claus to greet them and tell their wishes to. Zelda, who would stoop so low as to pick him up, to make him feel like he was actually good at something.
Zelda would do something about it. Why shouldn't he? That was why he wanted to be with her, wasn't it?
Roy's chair scraped back against the floor as he jumped to his feet.
"Wait!"
Lucas froze. Roy could only hope his smile convinced him that he meant no harm as he raised his hand toward Steve. "The kid here wants a... what did you say, a cheeseburger?"
Lucas nodded, still eying him nervously, but Roy noted that he was standing a little straighter.
"Yes, a cheeseburger."
Steve glanced between them. Then he shrugged, punched in the numbers in the register, and rang up the order. As he disappeared into the kitchen, Lucas glanced up at Roy.
"...hank you..."
Roy smiled, and he knelt down next to the boy. "I'm sorry, could you say that again?"
"Thank you," Lucas said again, kicking the floor nervously.
"Oh! It's no problem. I'm sure anyone would have done the same."
"I don't like speaking loud."
"I know what that feels like." Roy placed his hands on Lucas's shoulders. "Maybe next time, bring a friend to order for you."
"I'll be sure to do that."
A ring up on the counter above told them that Steve was back. The two of them glanced up, and Steve held a bag over the top of the counter. Lucas grabbed it with both hands, looked inside, and his face lit up.
Roy had never understood why McDonalds called their food "Happy Meals", but seeing Lucas smile, he felt like he could guess why.
"Thank you, mister!" Lucas said, his voice the loudest it had been, and as he scurried away, Roy felt his own joy increase. There was something about seeing children smile that was so infectious.
Wait until Zelda heard about this. Maybe she would be proud of him.
Roy's eyes widened, as it suddenly came to him that he still needed to go find her. She was out in the mall somewhere. She could be in trouble!
Roy dashed out of the food court, followed by someone's angry shouts that he had forgotten to clean up. He skidded to a stop, and he looked between the food court and the hall leading to the rest of the mall.
Find Zelda, or clean up his food? He bit his lip, frustrated at having to make such a difficult decision. On one hand, she could be in trouble.
On the other hand, if his friends back at home saw him like this, he could recall a few of them who would probably suffer heart attacks. He was raised better than that, after all.
Groaning, Roy turned on his heel and headed back into the food court. Cleaning up was a very quick matter of stuffing as much garbage as he could into his hands, then dumping it into the nearest waste bin. As soon as he had done that, he was off again, dashing out into the mall.
The food court was on the second floor, so naturally, that was the first place he checked.
Earthbound Toys was the closest, but when he glanced through the glass doors, all he saw was Ness dozing off at the counter. A part of him wanted to go wake him up to ask if he had seen Zelda, but since it was almost Christmas, he realized Ness was probably much too busy and needed the rest. Quietly, he slipped past and continued on.
The Kingdom Hearts Book Shop was the next place he checked. When he walked through the open doors, Sora was nowhere to be seen, but Rosalina was there, stocking the shelves one book at a time as her Lumas swarmed around her holding dustpans and brooms.
"Oh, hello Roy," she said as soon as she saw him enter. "Did you need something? Or have you come to purchase the tactics book from earlier?"
Roy shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't have any money with me today. I was actually wondering if you had seen Zelda pass by."
"I can't say I know. My apologies."
"Oh. I suppose I'll keep looking then."
Roy headed for the door, only for Rosalina's voice to stop him.
"Wait."
Roy paused. Rosalina was looking at him now, with an oddly sincere look.
"I would like to thank you," she said, smiling softly.
"Thank me? What for?"
"Zelda hasn't volunteered to do a read-aloud for the kids in a year. It's a shame, too, since she's quite good at it."
Roy thought back to how she played and interacted with the children as she read, and he nodded in agreement. If he were a kid, he would have loved getting a chance to participate in his favorite stories. "She is."
"I don't know what happened to her, but ever since she befriended you, she has been acting a lot brighter."
Roy blinked. "She is?" Then, another thing caught up to him. "Wait, you believe it's because of me?"
Rosalina shrugged, turning back to pick up another book off the floor. "It can't be anyone else."
"No, it can't be me. I'm sure she was much of the same before she met me."
"Perhaps."
"I'm serious." Roy sighed. "You know what, nevermind. I still need to find her and make sure she's okay."
"I wish you luck with that, and I apologize for not being able to help much more."
"Thank you." And with that, Roy returned to the hall.
He passed a few more bright and colorful shops, their multi-colored Christmas lights and storefront displays bringing much needed color to the white marble halls. Roy glanced at a few of them–Dreamland's Sweet Dreams, Xeno Blades and Smithing–but Zelda wasn't in any of them.
He checked the soup kitchen next, arriving just in time to see a familiar mop of green hair locking up the front door.
"Byleth!" Roy let his shoulders fall, relieved to finally see a friendly face. He ran up to them, hopeful as Byleth finally let her emotionless face come around to meet him.
Even if she had been out buying presents, maybe she had come here to visit. She seemed like the kind of person to do that, just to make sure everyone was eating well.
"Byleth, you wouldn't happen to have seen Zelda here, have you?" he asked.
Byleth tilted her head to the side. "I cannot say that I have."
"Oh."
Roy lowered his head in disappointment, but Byleth was quick to add, "but Byleth was here for the first half of the shift. If you find him, he may know where she is."
Roy perked up. "Really? Where is he now?"
"He claimed he would be with the rest of the Fire Emblem fighters when I came to replace him heading to the Arena Ferox stage. If you make haste, you may be able to meet him."
"Thank you!" Roy said, already heading for the nearest escalator.
Most of the stages were on the first floor. If he wanted to catch up with the others, he needed to get down there as soon as possible. An elevator would take so long.
As he rode down to the first floor, his mind began to wander to where she could be. What if Byleth hadn't seen her, after all?
If she isn't at the soup kitchen, the toy shop, or the bookstore, then where could she be? Maybe she went to one of the stages we visited before?
Roy paused, frowning as a thought crossed him.
Maybe she met her boyfriend on the way back. Maybe she's at Princess Peach's Castle with him right now, on that date right now. But... Roy shook his head, but surely she wouldn't just abandon me, would she? I'd have hoped that all our time didn't mean nothing to her. Surely she values our friendship more than that?
And what if she didn't?
Roy stopped, the escalator finally letting him off on the first floor.
If she didn't think of him the same way... if she didn't care about him like he did her...
Well, he had other friends, right? It didn't matter to him at all. He could go back to being with Chrom, and Marth, and all the other Fire Emblem fighters like before.
Now that he'd thought about it, he hadn't been spending much time with them at all, hadn't he? The next time he saw them, he should make plans with them to make up for it.
"–cannot make that choice. Every life is precious, no matter how many you have."
Suddenly, a familiar voice drifted in from around the corner. Soft like clouds, gentle like the waves of a pond, a voice so quiet but so soothing that you dropped everything just to crane forward and hear every word.
Roy held his breath, and he crept up to the nearest pillar. He poked his head around the corner, and sure enough, there was Zelda, speaking with the rest of the Fire Emblem fighters.
What they were talking about, he couldn't quite make sense of, having missed the beginning, but whatever it was, it couldn't have been pleasant. Not with the way Zelda's face had creased into a frown, anyway as Robin spoke animatedly, waving her hands around for the world to hear.
Roy's relief took a turn back into worry. Were they arguing about something? Did he need to step in to make sure things didn't break out into a fight?
He glanced over to Marth and Chrom, the two who usually handled disputes in their group. Chrom didn't look too worried, but Marth, he was looking rather concerned.
Stepping forward, Roy prepared to ask what was going on, when Robin's eyes locked on to him, and she raised a hand to beckon him forward.
"Hey, Roy! Join us. I'm sure you can back me up on this, since you've got much more sense that Zelda here."
When Zelda's eyes landed on him too, they were much more angry than he remembered them being. Roy shrank away from them both.
What had he gotten himself into here?
Hey, look what time it is! It's... not Saturday. Again.
Writing has been kind of weird for me for the last few days. I don't feel like writing, but I'm not exactly burnt out. I guess my recent lack of sleep might have something to do with it. If I ever disappear for a week, it might be because I want to spend a week to catch up on rest.
Hopefully, I'll be able to get my schedule back into order. Schedule, both in terms of writing, and in terms of sleep. Remember to get enough of it, people, or you'll feel awful and be completely unproductive for the rest of the day.
Until then, remember to take care of yourself out there, and stay safe!
