Mipha passed through the rows of shelves, running her right hand along the spines of the book as she silently counted along. Perhaps it would have been faster and a more efficient way to use her time to simply walk along the shelves until she reached a number that was closer to what she was looking for, but although she did look forward to getting home and flopping down on her couch to catch up with her series, as she stood there, in the middle of the narrow passage between the shelves stacked full with books, the air dry and smelling slightly of dust, Mipha just wanted to enjoy the experience. Besides, even if she was wasting her time, it was not that often she was given an excuse by her professors to just walk around in the library, so, really, why should she hurry up to get back outside to the busy street?

No, Mipha shook her head, she refused to feel guilty even if the deadlines for her assignments were approaching at a pace that felt like time had suddenly started passing by at a much faster pace than it usually did.

Walking along the bookshelf, Mipha came to a halt when she spotted the section she had been looking for, and although the sun was shining outside, sending rays of sun in through the large windows behind the bookshelf, Mipha got to work, quickly sorting through the books before making up her mind and grabbing the three of them that seemed like they came closest to what she had been looking for.

With the results of her efforts on scooped up in her arms, Mipha turned around and made her way back towards the tables in the open area in the centre of the room.

However, the moment she emerged from the labyrinth of shelves, she stopped.

There, sitting at one of the tables that had been scattered throughout the room, a pile of books and pages upon pages of paper stacked up next to her that wobbled dangerously, with her hair falling in front of her face, Mipha was fairly sure she could see Zelda.

Of course, she was aware of how Zelda did not simply stop existing the moment she exited the café, but there was still something almost strange about seeing her in a place where they were not surrounded by loud colours, the smell of coffee, and the sounds of other customers chatting to each other. Nevertheless, Mipha picked up her pace as she walked over to stand next to the table.

Zelda remained buried in her books, having lowered her head so much that she almost touched the page. From what Mipha could see, the only thing that kept Zelda's head above the book was the arm Zelda had propped up on the table, elbow planted on the surface and her hand pushing against her forehead. Her glasses had all but slid off her nose, but it did not seem like Zelda had noticed it yet.

Clearing her throat, Mipha placed the books down at the table. "Uh, hello."

It appeared that the combination of both the movement as well as the sound of the books connecting with the wood of the table caught Zelda's attention, as she twitched slightly, head flying up from the book as she gave Mipha a confused glance before a look of realisation appeared in her eyes and her face brightened. "Hi! What are you doing here?" while she talked, Zelda shoved the book she had been reading in away from her and pulled one of the chairs next to her closer towards the table, gesturing for Mipha to sit down.

Mipha accepted the chair, instantly placing her elbow up on the table as she turned in her seat. "I was looking for some books for one of my assignments. But I think that I might actually have gone here to procrastinate actually sitting down to complete it much more than I went to find books about the subject."

"Oh, tell me about it. All of this," Zelda sighed and motioned vaguely towards the books in front of her, "I fear that it is not much more than a way for me to distract myself from having to actually face my project right now."

Tilting her head, Mipha followed the movement, taking note of the fact that almost all of the articles seemed to be about either history or robotics. "Really? How so?"

"Nothing much, I just realised that I might have accidentally created a plot hole for myself while trying to figure out a way around another, smaller plot hole. It's just…" Zelda reached up to pull a stray strand of hair back into place behind her ear, giving it a frustrated little tuck as she did so, "I try to figure out what to do about one problem, only to create an even bigger one. And I can't really continue onwards before I figure out a way past this one, because this might affect the premise as well. So, yeah, you can say that it is not going that great for me right now."

"I am sure it can't be that bad," Mipha tried, but Zelda just pushed one of the articles over to her.

"I have been trying to see if I can figure out something for the last two hours," she said, "I can barely understand the words here anymore."

Flipping through the pages, Mipha was instantly met with the sight of multiple graphs, equations, and words she had never heard of before. Really, Mipha had a hard time imagining having ever been able to understand even a couple of the words that accompanied the graphs, much less understanding what it said.

"Well," Mipha commented, reaching out to pat Zelda on the back before changing her mind and settling for simply handing the pages back to her, "if it can make you feel any better, just know that I don't understand anything of this at all, so you are already doing much better than I would have if I had been in your place. Of course, that also means that I won't really be able to help you, but if you need any medical information, I am absolutely the one to ask."

"Do you think you could perform some kind of lifesaving operation on my project?" Zelda asked, and Mipha was happy to hear the hint of a chuckle in her voice. "You know, save what can be saved and then piece it together until it looks like something that might resemble a book?"

"Are you trying to trick me into making your book into a ReDead?" Mipha asked, nudging Zelda in the ribs. "Because if that is the case, I will have to tell you that, one, I don't know how to do that, and, two, even if I did, I am pretty sure there would be some sort of law put in place to keep me from doing that. Unless what you are really suggesting is that we should become some kind of rogue duo to ensure that your book gets completed. Is that it?"

That finally earned her a tiny smile. "It might be worth a try." with a groan, Zelda ran a hand through her hair, trying to force it into staying in place as she continued. "No, but really, this is just really frustrating right now, but I know that I just have to push through it, so don't worry about it. I just like to complain about this from time to time, that's all" Zelda pursed her lips as she looked back down at the little mountain of information next to her. "And right now, I want to complain about the fact that I am getting nowhere with all of this. Do you want to listen to my rant about the futility of it all?"

"Sure, I am all ears."

As it turned out, it was a good thing that Mipha had already given herself permission to simply waste her day doing nothing at all, because once she got started, it seemed that there were plenty of things about the process of writing a book that frustrated Zelda.

"I mean," Zelda said with a sigh, "it's just, I know that even if I don't complete the project right now, I will do it someday, and that it would be unrealistic to expect me to be able to complete it within just a couple of weeks, but I just don't feel like I am making any progress at all. It just… it kind of makes me want to give up completely. Besides, I know that even if I do complete it, the chances of it actually getting published are as close to non-existent as they could possibly have been since I doubt anyone are actually really interested in what I am writing about."

At that, Mipha felt the need to cut in. Leaning in to close the distance between them, she did her best to keep her voice calm. "Hey, you don't actually know any of that yet. I mean, from what you have told me about this project, I know that I at least would love to read the finished thing."

"Well, that makes you the only one."

"No, that makes us two, since I assume that you would like to read it as well." Mipha waited until Zelda mumbled something that she decided to interpret as her agreeing with her before continuing. "Yeah, see. And two readers are better than zero so you are already doing great."

"Yeah, I know, I know. I'm sorry, I have just—" Zelda breathed in deeply before finally meeting Mipha's glance, "the last couple of days have just been kind of rough, so, yeah, I am probably just a bit negative already. I am sorry about that."

"Hey, that's perfectly understandable. But, speaking of that, is your father doing okay? You looked quite upset when you left Thursday."

Mipha didn't miss the way Zelda instantly pulled up her shoulders, looking away from her as she once again let her hair move away from its place behind her ears, strands falling in front of her face so that Mipha could not see her eyes. "Oh, yes, he is fine. He just— he just wanted to know how I was doing at university and all of that."

"University?" Mipha repeated, knitting her brows as she tried to make sense of that, trying to figure out a way as to how Zelda could seemingly balance both the lectures as well as the assignments and everything she had to read for said lessons with also coming to the café almost every day to write. "But how do you make time for that on top of all of this?"

"Easy," Zelda said, though her tone let Mipha know that it was everything but easy, "I was able to graduate a year earlier than I had been supposed to. My father thinks that I am about to finish my last semester, and since that was the only way I could figure out a way to get a chance to pursue my own dreams… well, I just did not bother to inform him that I had changed my plans." shrugging slightly, Zelda reached out to pull one of the larger books closer to herself. "I mean, I know that it is probably wrong to continue to lie to him and all of that, but technically I am not even lying. There are just certain parts of my life I never tell him about."

"Really?" thinking about how her own dad and Sidon had been almost even more ecstatic than herself when she had gotten the news that her grades had been good enough for her to study medical science at the University of Castle Town, Mipha tried to imagine keeping it a secret for them. "Doesn't he ask a lot of questions? What do you tell him when he asks about how it is at the lectures or if you have a lot of assignments to write?"

From the way Zelda's expression darkened, Mipha instantly knew that it had not been a good thing to ask about.

"He doesn't really care about any of that. As long as I say that my grades are good, he is content to just listen to me retell a couple of stories from last year. Besides, I already lied to him about what I was studying, and he never guessed it so I doubt that he will figure this out either."

"You did?"

"Yeah, he wanted me to study theology, but I wanted to study ancient technology, so I just… kind of changed the topic every time he tried to get me to talk about what I had learnt. It wasn't really that difficult at all, I just told him that I was in the middle of preparing for my exams and then he decided that he should probably give me some space so that I could get pass with flying colours."

Seeing Zelda finish the story like keeping her education a secret from her family was barely something she even thought about made Mipha go silent. What was there really she could say? That she was sorry that Zelda had to lie to get a chance to follow her dreams, even though Mipha could hardly even understand why she had decided to do that in the first place?

At least Mipha was beginning to understand why Zelda had looked so worried when she had exited the café that day. Really, if it had been herself who had been in that situation, Mipha was almost completely sure that she would not have been able to handle the call that well, not when she was sitting in a café, loud voices everywhere around her while her father called her, fully believing that she was in the middle of studying for her exams.

Zelda must have guessed the reason for her silence, because she let out a short laugh, that sounded too high and too fake. "I know that it is weird, you don't have to pretend it isn't."

"I wasn't thinking that it was weird," Mipha protested, feeling how her cheeks grew warmer, giving away the fact that it was indeed what she had just been thinking, "it's just… kind of strange."

"Yeah, that's one way to put it," Zelda agreed, and Mipha was happy to hear how the chuckle that followed sounded much more sincere, "strange. Just remember that the next time I come in to order my cup of coffee and blueberry muffin—I am that weird one who had to lie to her father to get a chance to do what I want."

"Wait," Mipha snapped her fingers, relieved that she finally had an excuse to change the subject, "I should probably warn you that I have already told my roommate about you, and he is quite determined to meet you, so he might very well just happen to visit the café the next time you are there even if it isn't actually during one of his shifts. If that happens, I just want you to know that he is actually much—well, perhaps much is giving him more credit than he deserves, but at least a little—kinder than what he sounds like."

Cocking her head, Zelda lifted an eyebrow. When she spoke, she sounded just as relieved as Mipha felt that they did not have to discuss the subject of her father any more. "I can't wait. What is his name?"

"Revali."

Mipha saw how Zelda silently repeated the name, wondering where she had heard it before. She could tell the moment Zelda pictured the name tag, coming to the correct conclusion, as she gasped and reached out to grab Mipha's arm. "Wait, are we talking about the Revali I met the first time I came to visit the café? The one who almost threw a cup of coffee at that guy who then returned later to be a nuisance to you?"

"The very same."

"Well, at least we can then both agree that the Coffee-guy was one of the most annoying persons we have ever had to interact with."

"The Coffee-man," Mipha corrected her.

"What?"

"Revali has named him the Coffee-man. Although I don't really think that Revali finds him that annoying, or at least he has not actually done anything to get him kicked out of the café yet, though that might just be a matter of time. But he did like the story about how you stood up to him."

"So what you are saying is," Zelda said, speaking slowly as a smile appeared on her face, "that I have actually managed to impress him before even meeting him?"

"Well," Mipha said, extending the end of the word as she tried to come up with a way to continue the sentence, "you might have. But just keep in mind that Revali is… he can be quite direct at times, so you shouldn't really think too much about it if he says something insulting."

But Mipha's worries about whether or not she would end up scaring Zelda away from ever coming back to risk meeting Revali evaporated as Zelda's reaction simply was to laugh and nod at her. "Okay, don't worry, I won't do that then. But now you almost have to promise me that I will get to meet him soon."

"Oh, I think Revali will take care of that all on his own."

"Great!" casting a glance at the mess in front of her, Zelda stood up, pushing her chair away in the process. "I am sorry, but I think I just figured out a possible way around the plot hole, and I need to get home so that I can get a chance to write it down, so…" she let the sentence trail off.

It took a couple of seconds before Mipha realised that Zelda was waiting for her to say something, but once she did, she acted quickly, jumping to her feet and grabbing her own books, clutching them in front of her chest. "Oh, yeah, of course. Uh, do you want me to help you putting all of this away?"

"No, no, I can take care of that. Besides, didn't you have an assignment to write?"

Right then, her computer that was still waiting for her to return home to get started on the task as well as the email form Sidon about the Festival of Hylia she still had yet to answer did not exactly seem all that enticing to Mipha, but Zelda did not look like she needed anyone's help as she got to work on putting away the books, placing the articles into one neat stack, so Mipha forced a cheery tone into her voice. "I do. But you have an entire book to write, so I think we can both agree that I will be the first of us to get finished with our respective tasks."

Zelda barely looked up from where she was in the process of sorting through the books. "Perhaps. When are you supposed to be finished with it?"

"Next Saturday."

That made Zelda pause. Placing the book she had just been standing with back onto the table, she craned her neck to look up at Mipha. "As is, it has to be finished in six days?" when Mipha nodded, Zelda simply shook her head. "Okay, that is why I am happy to be finished with all of that. Hylia, all of those assignments were really starting to get to me at the end of my final semester. Is it still as bad as I remember?"

"I don't know. There's a lot to read and all of that, but other than that, it really isn't that bad."

"Hmm," Zelda looked down at the book in her hands, "well, no matter what, I am looking forward to seeing you at the café tomorrow. You are coming in that day, right?"

"Yup," Mipha said, popping the 'p', "you should just be prepared for Revali being there as well and him having prepared an interview for you to complete, just to see if he will like you."

Zelda smiled a little. "Should I be nervous about that?"

"No, not really," Mipha admitted, "I am sure that he will like you."

"Well, in that case, I will be looking forward to meeting him as well." Zelda waved at her as Mipha began to head back over towards the entrance to the library.

It wasn't until she had already left the library and was halfway home that Mipha realised she had forgotten to actually take out any of the books she had gone to the library to look for in the first place. But by then, the pull of her home and the chance to be just a little productive and actually get something done was stronger than her will to go back, and that, coupled with her knowledge that the voice arguing to return to the library sounded a lot like it wanted to see Zelda again more than anything else, ended up winning the fight as Mipha opened the door to the flat.

It was not long after that before Mipha noticed that meeting Zelda in the library, far away from the café, seemed to have started some kind of trend, because all of a sudden she was practically running into her everywhere she went, their meetings no longer only at the café.

Of course, Zelda still came in the following Monday, Revali joining her in sitting on the opposite side of the counter from Mipha and Link just a little hour after she had arrived. Mipha was not sure what exactly they had been talking about—or, really, if they had even spoken that much given how Zelda had already managed to pull out her computer before Revali arrived—but Revali had at least not stormed up to her immediately afterwards to argue about any of the other customers, something Mipha decided to view as a good sign.

But it was more than just that. Over the course of the week, Mipha both managed to grab the same bag of apples at the supermarket that Zelda had reached out for, having already let go of the plastic before she recognised her—the apples ended up returning home with Mipha, because of course Zelda let her keep them—and find Zelda sitting in the park during her run, resting with her back against a tree trunk and with her computer balanced on her knees, though Zelda was quick to move it away when Mipha pulled off her headphones and ran over towards her.

But although Mipha did find it weird that after weeks of only meeting in the café, it seemed that it was their talk in the library that had suddenly changed the pattern, in the end, Zelda was the first of them to comment on it.

They were in the library—the irony of it wasn't lost on Mipha—sitting in almost the exact same spot as when Mipha had found Zelda halfway buried in books when Zelda placed the book she had been holding back down onto the table, the cover of the book and the wooden surface of the table creating a thud.

"Is it just me," Zelda began, and Mipha was relieved to see that she sent her a smile, "or are we suddenly unable to go a single day without running into each other?"

Pretending to think about it, Mipha cocked her head. "We don't see each other every day. Nearly every day, but not actually every single one."

Zelda stuck out her tongue at her. "You know what I mean."

"Oh, are you talking about the fact that you have suddenly decided to spend most of your time at this library?" Mipha teased her. "Is that the fact you are referring to?"

"Yeah, right," Zelda said, and although she rolled her eyes, Mipha could hear how she chuckled faintly, "I wouldn't exactly use the word 'decided', though. I am mostly just here because my plot and the mechanics behind the robots in the story are being stubborn and completely unwilling to help."

"Aw, you should try coming into the café tomorrow," Mipha said, swinging her legs back and forth underneath the table. She felt how she brushed against the side of Zelda's foot, and quickly sat still again, clearing her throat as she made sure to keep a perfect posture, hoping that it had not annoyed Zelda. Her voice sounded incredibly shrill as she continued, and Mipha could only pray that it only sounded like that to herself, "perhaps you could get Revali to yell either at you or the story—that usually makes you quite determined to figure out how to make him stop yelling."

Luckily, it didn't seem that Zelda had noticed anything, or if she had, she at least did not comment on it. Instead, she simply nodded at the suggestion. "Once, I would have said that there was no way I am doing that, but, hey, it is worth a shot isn't it?"

Zelda nudging her in the ribs was what told Mipha that she had been silent for a bit too long.

Clearing her throat and trying to focus on the conversation, Mipha did her best to force her voice not to tremble. "Sure. I mean, I don't want to be the one to tell Revali why you need his help, but, sure."

"Well, it's settled then," Zelda said, suddenly sounding much more serious than Mipha was used to. However, the that only lasted for a few seconds before the entire room appeared much brighter than before as Zelda smiled at her, continuing, "no, but seriously, I will make sure to go and visit you tomorrow. I feel like after seeing you everywhere but the café lately, I kind of need for us to return to that café, just to remember that it is still there. Besides," Zelda swung her arm around Mipha's shoulders, "I have to make sure that the Coffee-man doesn't return, right?"

Picturing the way Revali had looked when he had stepped into the flat just a week prior, informing her that Urbosa had overhead one of the Coffee-man's rants and promptly asked him to leave, almost sounding like he didn't want to admit that he had actually somewhat enjoyed getting the chance to argue with someone on a regular basis, Mipha shook her head.

"I don't think you have to worry about him anymore." seeing the way Zelda drew her eyebrows together, Mipha hurried to explain. "Urbosa—the owner of the café—saw him. I don't think he will come back again, and if he does, Urbosa said that we should simply ask him to leave and refuse to get him anything."

"Well," Zelda crossed her legs, inching as close to Mipha as the separate chairs allowed her to, "I am still going to visit you, even if you don't need me to ask someone to leave. How does that sound?"

"It sounds amazing." closing the book in front of her, Mipha found herself leaning over towards Zelda as well, not stopping until she was practically sitting in front of the book Zelda had been reading in. Reading the title of it, she shot Zelda a smile. "But I suppose that now that we know that I won't need your help dealing with rude customers, we should also talk about how you quite obviously need some help settling on how you want the robots to work."

"Yes, please," Zelda sighed, "I think I have changed the limits of them at least four times during the last chapter. It's just a mess."

"I am sure it's not something we can't figure out," Mipha tried.

Although she did her best to keep up the optimistic attitude as the hours passed and the library gradually emptied, by the time they had had no other choice than to leave the library to ensure they would not end up having to spend the night in there, her head was spinning with all of the information about the plot and the systems they were trying to piece together.

Her confusion did not go by unnoticed, and once they had gotten outside to stand on the footpath, Zelda did pause to pull her in for a hug.

"Sorry about the mess of a project I just threw your way," she mumbled, a muffled laugh disappearing into Mipha's hair.

"Don't apologise, it was not halfway as messy as I had feared it would be from the way you had described it."

The hug ended far sooner than Mipha would have liked for it to do, but as Zelda let go of her and stepped back, bringing a gloved hand up to cover the corner of her mouth as she tucked a stray strand of hair back into place behind her ear, Mipha did the same even if the hug had actually been really nice. A side-effect of living with Revali, she supposed. Although Revali was a better roommate than Mipha could have hoped for—at least as long as Mipha convinced herself not to think about his habits of rearranging the kitchen—to say that he was not one for hugs was definitely an understatement. Perhaps that was why something in her chest tightened when Zelda waved goodbye to her, reminding her one last time that she would make sure to make time to go see her tomorrow before turning around to walk away from her.

Mipha stayed frozen in place for longer than she would have liked to admit, simply gazing straight ahead as Zelda grew smaller as the distance between them increased. Finally, she managed to snap out of it, and, pulling her jacket closer together and attempting to convince herself that that was the reason for why her cheeks felt warmer, she headed back home again.