THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY
by Cappucinno
Day 15, The Morning After
"So what did you end up doing for Valentine's Day, Malon?" Zelda asked, peering suspiciously at the redhead over the rim of her coffee mug.
Malon shrugged noncommittally. "Oh you know, not much. Just hang out with my cat and watched a movie."
Zelda looked flatly at her friend. "Really."
"Yes, really."
"You're smiling into your coffee, Malon." Zelda said accusingly.
"Am I?" Malon asked, smiling a little wider as she raised the mug to her lips. "Well, it's good coffee."
"So, you were just at home with your cat and Mulan?" Zelda asked, keeping her expression carefully neutral.
"The Little Mermaid." Malon corrected, nodding along.
"Without your phone?" She did her best to keep her tone as innocuous as possible.
Predictably, Malon's eyebrows knit themselves into a half-frown as they were like to do when she was about to get caught in a lie. They twitched and drew together and then smoothed out again and Malon smiled the most serene smile that Zelda had ever seen on the conniving little fox.
"I had it on silent, so it wouldn't disturb the movie."
"The Lion King right?" Zelda asked.
"Right, you know that part when Simba's down in the riverbed waiting for Mufasa and—"
"Right, you know that part where Simba isn't in the Little Mermaid?"
"Shit." Malon had the decency to look half-guilty. "I forgot I picked the Little Mermaid."
"Obviously." Zelda said dryly, crossing her arms with her coffee cup still in hand. "You also forgot the part where we have an annual tradition and where I would have maimed you with this coffee here if you'd honestly stood me up and put me through hell to watch The Little Mermaid with your damn cat."
"Look Zel, I know you've always been jealous of the cat but—okay. Okay. Valentine's Day. Right." Malon cleared her throat and leaned back in her seat, looking dangerously thoughtful. After a moment of silence, she cocked her head and looked curiously back at Zelda over her own coffee cup mirroring her.
"Wait, so what did you end up doing for Valentine's Day?" Malon's eyes lit up with impish glee. "Nice try, Zel, but you're a little too focused on this line of questioning."
It was Zelda's turn to look guilty and the blonde shifted uncomfortably in her seat, imploring her coffee with her eyes to give her a way out of this situation.
"…Wait. Zelda. You did do something on Valentine's Day."
"Not really." The blonde responded, lifting her mug anxiously to her lips and moving her gaze up to the ceiling.
"…Zelda. Spill."
"I waitressed, okay?" Zelda's normally pale skin was rapidly taking on a curious tinge of pink that Malon was more used to seeing on the tips of her ears mid-screamfest rather than flooding into the apples of her cheeks.
"…At like, a strip club?" Malon asked, raising a brow. "No judgement, but. Judging."
"No, goddesses Malon! Not a strip club!" Zelda was blushing even harder now, though at least she was making eye contact and glaring rather than giving the ceiling puppy dog eyes.
"Then where?" Malon prodded patiently with that ear-to-eat shit-eating grin that was distinctly Malon when she was pleased with herself.
"The Bakery." Zelda sighed and threw her arms up in the air. "I was waitressing at the Bakery."
"Waitressing or waitressing?" Malon asked, with an accompanying suggestive eyebrow wagging that earned her a much-deserved middle finger from her decidedly unprofessional best friend.
"Waitressing Malon. Taking orders. Carrying food. Cleaning."
"Aw, you should have stopped at taking orders. Now I can't turn that into an innuendo."
Zelda stopped mid-sentence and fixed Malon with a glare that could have curdled milk if milk were composed of anything remotely resembling cells with visual receptors.
"Okay. Okay. Sorry. No need to give me the look."
"And that's it." Zelda finished curtly and took a sip of her coffee.
"That's it?"
"And that's it."
"That's it. Okay. Then why do you look like you have a stick up your ass?"
"And I kissed him."
"You kissed him?" Malon's voice rose two octaves and the reading glasses she had been wearing slid down to her nose as she looked Zelda up and down.
Zelda, to her credit, was sitting with her ankles crossed, shoulders back, posture perfectly straight, arms still half crossed, coffee cup still in hand and with a controlled, stoic, prim expression that made her look like a young Queen Elizabeth.
"Kiiiissed him?!"
"Goddesses Malon, saying it louder doesn't really accomplish anything."
"Kissed him?" Malon whisper-hissed, leaning forward over the table with an expression that equal parts shock, horror, and utter delight. "Reeallly?"
"I was drunk." Zelda said stiffly, maintaining her general stick-up-the-ass aura.
"Drunk?" Malon asked, looking now more parts horror than shock or delight.
"Drunk?" A low, rich, too-casual voice echoed and Zelda's heart stopped. "Ah. Well that explains that then."
Malon was silent and bug-eyed as she leaned back in her seat, trying her best to disappear.
Zelda turned slowly to look at Link as he stood there by their table with a to-go tray upon which sat two cups of coffee—one marked CM, nonfat, extra caramel (just the way she liked it) and Link smiled that slow, half-smile that she knew now to be insincere even though it made his cheeks dimple and his eyes crinkle slightly at the corners.
"Well then, let's just put that behind us." He slid into the seat next to her. "So, Malon, how was your Valentine's Day?"
Zelda was all too aware of the tension in his shoulders and the dichotomy between his immediate physical proximity to her and the distance that had just opened up between them.