How Sheik Got Her Name

Boy-warding Princess

"CUCOOO!"

My eyes pried themselves open as the sound of a cucco screaming in my ear brought me to my senses. I got up quickly and noticed Talon was sleeping beside a few cartons of milk. Ever since he had gotten himself a pocket cucco, he just wasn't cool anymore.

"Good morning Princess," came a pretty annoyed voice. "Have a good sleep?"

I got up and rubbed the sleep from my eye with my bare hand. Hm, where the hell did my glove go? Oh yeah, Sheik was standing in front of me—wait a second. Sheik? I looked up and he looked down, glaring at me. His arms were folded over his traditional Sheikah garb and his lips set in a firm line.

I smiled smugly. "Yeah, it was until that cucco woke me up."

"Hn." Sheik replied. I wasn't sure what to make of 'Hn'. Was he mad? Happy? Confused? Hopefully battling the desire to not take advantage of me while no one else was around? "What were you doing out here?" he added, eyeing me.

I glanced down at myself. My dress was even skimpier than before. It was torn so far up in almost showed my butt cheeks. I had no shoes on, nor gloves. Oh, and I was covered in wet sand.

"I went for a walk." Achoo! Oh, hell. I better not be catching something.

He rolled his eyes and replied sarcastically. "That's a likely story."

Well, it was kinda true.

"Come on. You'd better go have a bath."

"Why? Do I stink?" I asked, casually taking a whiff of my armpits in a joking manner.

"You're going to catch a cold if you stay in those clothes any longer."

Oh, talk dirty to me Sheik.

"And yes, you do stink slightly."

Aw.

I frowned at him and crossed my arms over my chest. "I am not going back through that water drain thing, and going through the front gates…oh gods, Shiro!"

He rolled his eyes again. "Take your pick."

"Okay," I shrugged, smiling widely at him. "I'll go with you."

His left eye, the visible one, twitched. "No."

"Why not?" I argued. "You can get us to my room fast. Before Impa kills me." I sneezed again. Though I did that on purpose with magic.

He groaned. "Gods…"

"Come on!" I urged. "I didn't dob you in to daddy." I batted my eyelashes.

"And I didn't dob on you for your unscheduled visit to Market Town, did I?"

Darn it. "I'll owe you one then."

"Fine. Hang on." He muttered. I flashed a small smile, but inside I was grinning like a child on Christmas Morning. I got to touch Sheik! I wonder if he had any objections to where I touched…?

I got up and stood next to him. "Er, where should I…?"

"Ugh." He groaned again. He wrapped one arm protectively around me and I buried my face in his warm chest. Gods he smelt yummy. Like cinnamon and vanilla. Cinnamilla. I pretended that the whole face-in-chest thing was to protect my face from the smoke, but yeah. He threw the Deku nut down and we vanished in a cloud of heavy smoke.

We reappeared in my bedroom. Impa stood there, arms crossed, worry spread across her features. Sheik let go of me and stepped away. She rushed forward and snapped my spine in a bear hug.

"Zelda? Where the hell were you?"

"Walking." Sheik stated simply. Impa's eyes narrowed at me and I smiled impishly. She yanked me by my wrist to the dressing curtain and tore off my rags. At that moment, Sheik left the room rather swiftly. I hope to go take a cold shower.

"Gods Zelda. You look terrible!" Impa complained, dragging me out from my curtain with a bathrobe over me. She led me to my adjoining bathroom area and practically pushed me into the bath. I took my robe off and sunk into the bubbles. Mm. I love a good bath. I lay back and relaxed.

"Oh well." I mused. "This morning was, rather interesting."

"You're lucky you're not late for classes."

Oh snap. I forgot about those.

"Here," Impa said, handing me facial scrub, scented body scrub, sponges, scented soaps, face masks and all. She poured a bucket load of bath salts in the water along with flower petals. I frowned. I was going to stink. "Soak it all in."

"Do I really stink that bad?"

"No. But Vlad will be observing you today." Impa grinned. "You want to look great, don't you?"

Somehow the secret midnight training sessions suddenly sounded like a bad idea. Especially because I now had two large bags under my eyes. "Yes."

"Well, only for the first two lessons."

"Which are?" I asked, closing my eyes and sinking into my bath mixture, which felt like a witches brew, and I was the live ingredient.

"Dancing,"

I grimaced. Great. Hope you're wearing those steel boots, Vlad.

"And Archery."

Whew. Archery, I'm excellenté at.

"Is he good at Archery?" I asked, curiously. Impa noticed me dozing off so she applied my mask and put cucumbers over my eyes. I really didn't know if the cucumbers made a difference, so I pulled one off and popped it in my mouth. Impa frowned and put another on.

"Apparently so."

"Good. I'm getting bored of my competition." I smiled smugly, peeking at her through my cucumber slice. She grinned.

Once Impa left, which was a few minutes after, to give me privacy, I applied my body wash. I had to smother myself carefully, because my muscles were really aching. Badly. Once I rid myself of the foam, I took off my mask, ate my last two slices and scrubbed my face with the scrub. I used the soap, shaved my legs and decided to chill until Impa came back for me.

I sunk into the water so only my nose and upward was showing. I pressed my lips together and blew, making bubbles, ripples and noises in the water. I was in thought.

Today was great, so far. I woke up with Sheik, (although not next to him, but I'll let that slide) and got to go with him via Deku nut. He held me. It felt so right. I should do this more often.

Last night, my transformation improved.

Impa taught me how to transform. All that mattered now was practise. I had learned all I could from her. It was the perfect time to quit and put my plan in motion. They all thought I just quit. But no.

My plan was to perfect the technique at night, hidden away from everyone and then surprise them all with a flawless transformation. Already my alter ego had lost a good few kilos. I was quite proud of myself. If Impa just improves my fitness level, then I'll be a Sheikah in no time. Maybe I should ask Impa…

She entered the room, shielding her eyes. "You covered?"

"Yup."

"Good. I'd like to keep my eyesight." She grinned. I rolled my eyes smiling. Ever since yesterday, we learnt to keep the jokes to a soft insult, nothing big. Which was good.

"Hey Impa, what are we doing today for your class?"

She laid out my dress, gloves, shoes, jewellery and makeup. This was going to be strenuous.

"Hm, well, you wanted to do fitness, right?"

"Yeah, but there's something I'd really like to learn how to do." I grinned, my eyes twinkling with fake fascination. "I'd really love to learn how to use a Deku nut."

She glanced at me over her shoulder. "Sure. If you want."

"Sweet."

She turned around and I got out of the bath and put my robe on. I sat in front of her and she combed my hair and tied my bangs back behind my head, giving me a simple hairstyle. She applied makeup, going with pinks and put some rose scented perfume of me. Once I was pretty, tidy and smelly, she led me to my curtain so I could get dressed. Putting the finishing touches on (jewelery), she led me out to meet everyone for breakfast.

Of course, it was only natural that father and I didn't talk the entire meal.

I noticed the absence of the Goron and Zora, and noticed the Gerudo still in the game. He must like me or something. I usually have a charm on me, warding all boys within a ten-mile radius away from me.

While eating breakfast, which was some sort of creamy thick liquid, I felt someone kick my leg. I looked around alarmed. Who had the balls to kick a princess in the leg to get away with it?

So, I did what any ferocious, boy-warding princess would do. I kicked them back. Hard.

I kicked them with the leg closest to Sheik, and he glanced at me curiously as my leg brushed his hand. "Sorry." I murmured. He shrugged.

My attacker didn't kick back. I smiled triumphantly. I just kicked someone's ass—leg, whatever.

However, someone did stroke my leg gently with his or her foot. I eep'd quietly and blushed. The foot moved up softly and tickled the side of my knee with the tip of their boot, then traced the length of my leg.

I bit my lip. What the hell do I do in that situation?

Maybe it wasn't a foot. Maybe it was a snake.

Yeah, that's it.

WAIT, WHAT?

A SNAKE?

My knee abruptly hit the table, sending Impa, Sheik's and my cutlery scuttling slightly across the surface. Impa, who was talking to the King, pinched me subtly under the table with her hand and Sheik glared at me like I lost it.

At least the snake went away.

Then I looked up blushing and noticed Vlad stifling a laugh. He winked at me when I met his gaze. Was it him?

Only one way to be sure. Softly, just in case it wasn't his, I nudged his foot with my own.

He nudged back.

I smiled at him nervously.

He smiled back.

I walked down to my Dance class with spaghetti legs. Ever since the incident with Vlad at breakfast, my legs have been limp. Impa noticed this when I stumbled onto her. She noticed this the next several times, also.

"Sheesh, stand up properly, Zelda." Impa murmured, setting me on my feet the eighth time. "You don't want to act like this when you're dancing with Vlad."

"Vlad is the reason I'm like this." I mumbled. "We were playing…footsies." I whispered the last part as if it was a secret, which it was.

"Yeah, Sheik told me. He said someone's leg was hitting him. Numerous times."

I laughed. "Oh, how awkward for him."

Impa grinned. We stopped in front of the door to the Dance room. Impa opened the door, and I could hear her greet everyone inside. I hadn't seen who was inside yet, because I was standing behind her, trying to get a grip. I heard Andre greet her happily, (he's probably happy because I'm not dancing with him today) and Vlad.

My heart melted.

No Zelda! You are infatuated with Sheik!

But he's so…

Vlad stood waiting for me, wearing the darkest armour I had ever seen, but it suited his dark, sun-touched complexion. He wore (what I thought looked heavy) black, heavy amour with a black cape pooling out around him. By his side was a large sword with a jewel-encrusted hilt. The jewel was a golden topaz.

"Hello Princess," he grinned, extending his hand for mine. "Care for a dance?"

I blushed and nodded. Stepping forward, I heard Impa behind me coo and Andre cleared his throat. He was going to conduct the symphony he put together. Marvelous. It won't last long. Only until Vlad can see I can't dance any better than a Goron on a fence.

And trust me, if you saw that, you'd confirm that it could actually dance better than me.

He took my hand and led me to the centre of the room. I noticed in the shadowed corner, Sheik stood, in his usual cool expression. Vlad took one of my hands and placed his other on my hip. I placed my free hand on his shoulder.

Andre began the music. It was a slow and bittersweet melody; one that my mother used to play for me, now Impa. It was my lullaby.

I felt Vlad pull my body closer to his and we swayed slowly to the music. I tried not to tear up. We were so close I had to rest my chin on his shoulder.

"Don't worry," he whispered with a grin. "Sheik's informed me of your dancing."

I smiled slightly. "And you wore the Iron Boots?"

"Just a precaution," he laughed. "You understand, don't you?"

"Of course." I nodded. "I prayed you would anyway, unless you don't mind missing a few toes."

My lullaby ended and a fiercer tune played. Vlad twirled me outwards and then back into his chest. "I almost lost my entire foot at breakfast."

We began moving more fiercely with the music. I had to follow Vlad's movements, but I found this dancing to be more to my liking. He twirled me into him again. I gave him a mischievous grin.

"It seems graceful dancing isn't your style," he concluded as we stepped sideways to the music, like the tango, me still in his chest. "But it seems something more fiery is."

He said it almost as a whisper. I blushed. "I'm not only fiery at dancing."

Hahahahaha, did I just flirt?

Vlad seemed to like it. He expressed this by smirking, then breaking out into a soft chuckle. "I'd like to find out."

He twirled me out and I narrowed my eyes playfully at him. Our hands were outstretched above us. "Perhaps you will."

The melody came to end and Vlad kissed the back of my gloved hand. "I sincerely hope so."

Pretty short, but an update nonetheless! Will put up the next chapter soon :D

-Sass