So much had happened since they had graduated.
Marin Gull was killed in a car wreck which left the whole school in a state of confusion and, for some, depression. The young woman, however mean, had not deserved to die so young and a memorial was held where even Zelda found nice words to say about her.
Shiek was a father to two twin girls named Odette and Romani "Ro", The Legend of Zelda had been noticed by some music producer who's kid went to Skyloft, Saria's serums came through and she finally became a woman, and Zelda... Zelda graduated College and High School then disappeared right after the ceremony with few traces left behind.
Link and Zelda had just managed to place each other back in the Best Friend Zone though Link's thoughts were always less friendly and more lusting. The news of Zelda's disappearance had come just when he was ready to drive over to her house and burst in with those three, not so little, words but then Sandra called in a frantic state. A small letter was left by Zelda promising that she was fine and that she needed to find herself... to get away from everyone. Those words stung like thorns for Link but he carried himself well after several weeks.
It was a month after Zelda left that Shiek had burst out, half in song and half in tears, that Cremina was pregnant with twins, no less, over a box of pizza and that they were moving in together. The couple fought, constantly, but then everything seemed to click back into place after they let everything out of their systems. They had twin girls, whom were nearly identical except for one being a blonde and the other red headed, with Shiek's eyes and Cremina's face.
A few days after that, the band finally convinced Mido to join after a month of laying down a few basic tracks for several of Link's songs.
Link should have been happy... but his best friend, Zelda Rayne Harkinian, was still gone and still without word.
It wasn't long, however, before the one person who knew anything decided to step forward. Shiek had walked into Sandra's designer magazine like living room one day and calmly explained what his sister was doing. Zelda, though not raped, had been sexually assualted by one of her two boyfriends that year...it had been only a few nights before the first rehearsal LOZ did that she had weeped on Shiek's shoulder as she told him what had happened.
Link gripped his mother's hand while Eveyln held onto her girlfriend's with her other. Shiek cleared his throat, tears in his red eyes, and continued. "She, uh, she told me that the guy had pinned her down after she told him she didn't want to do anything with him... and he... he," Shiek wiped a stray tear. "he held her down and ripped off her clothes... he assulalted her and tried to... to..." Zelda's twin shook his head and hanged his head. "I can't say it... but it didn't happen. The, uh, guy's dad came home and heard her screaming. Zelda was ashamed so she ran home... none of us where here so she just never said anything about it." A long pause. "That's why she left. She said she wanted to sort things out in her head and that sh-"
Link's voice was venomous when he spoke and his blue eyes were almost white with rage. "Who?"
"She made me promise to-"
"Tell me WHO, dammit!" Link surged up from his seat and his fury was boiling over as he grabbed Shiek's shirt. "Was it Jake?"
Shiek swallowed but didn't answer.
Link had gone out that day, found Jake out drinking with his friends, and confronted him with it. Jake had laughed when Zelda's name was mentioned and proceeded to brag about how she squealed when he fingered her...
Shiek, who had followed Link, did not stop him when two solid punches hit Jake's face and instantly gave him two black eyes. Shiek still did not stop his friend when Link broke Jake's jaw and finally crushed any hope that Jake would ever have any children. Shiek did stop him when Link began to lose control... and the twin finished it with a kick to Jake's stomache. Neither were ever charged with the attack though it was probably because the guy did not want to admit the reason for its provacation. Jake moved shortly after.
A stack of postcards arrived two months after Zelda left. The eighteen year old wrote that she was trying to find out what she wanted and that she forgave Shiek because she knew he would tell. Zelda admitted she was trying to get over what happened and trying to break out from her own little box. She had been working hard ever since 8th grade due to school work, helping her mom, Marin's bullying, and Jake... she needed this and she asked that everyone to remain patient and to trust her.
And they all did.
Postcards were recieved every other weekend but the dates and places left everyone in the dark on where Zelda was. She knew they would come for her and so her deception was almost genius in a way.
-A year after Zelda's disappearance-
"Link, dude!" Darunia's voice called from outside of their house that they had rented together with Saria. It was four bedroom, two baths, two story with basement, and had been fitted with wooden floors thanks to Link's handy work. "Food!"
The smell of grilled burgers caught the twenty year old's senses and lured him from his desk where he had been sitting, staring at a letter from Zelda. The letter had come with her usual postcard which was not so unusual...however the letter was only addressed to him. He had not opened it yet out of fear that perhaps his dearest friend had found the one or that she had decided not to come home after all.
Link sighed, put the envelope back down, and slipped out of his chair to go join his friends. Grass crunched beneath his bare feet, hardened up by a childhood of running over gravel, and pressed against his shirtless back, cooly, when he laid down. "So, are you ever going to try the food you cook?"
The Goron frowned, spatula in hand with a sizzling burger on the end, and tipped his Chef's Hat back. "I like this stuff. I just like rocks better... well, really anything with a crunch."
"You're weird, babe." Saria laughed, looking every inch the twenty-one year old she was. She was curvy with a small waist and shoulder length green hair that grew darker closer to her scalp. She had grown only a couple inches so many people still towered over her though Saria never seemed to mind.
Link smirked, suddenly. "Darunia likes rocks in his mouth." He chuckled. "Think about it."
Saria scowled, mirroring her lover's face, and kicked her friend in his thigh when she stood. "Not funny."
"Yes, it is." Link laughed, opening one eye to stare at the two, he then held out a hand to the Goron. "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!"
Darunia kicked a bottle of water over to the Hyrulean, placed the burgers on their cheap, plastic, picnic table, and laughed. "You're on your own, bitch."
Link pouted and rolled to his feet, snatching a pickle from Saria's hand. "You two still going out tonight?"
"You still watching the kids?"
It was a Friday which meant that Darunia and Saria were going to meet up with Cremina and Shiek while Link was given the "privellage" to watch over his "not nieces", Romani "Ro" and Odette.
Both girls were only a year old but it was clear that they had a favorite person, Link. The twins would start "dancing" in their pen when the young man would walk into the room and shriek when he left. Romani was the red head and Odette was the blonde though it could still be confusing if one was stumbling around in a half lit room while attempting to change both girls.
"Yeah, I am."
Several hours later, Link had Romani and Odette asleep right before nine o'clock and the night's ventures had begun to take their tolls on him. He sat down at his desk and stared at the careful handwriting that bore his name... and after what felt like eternity, he opened the envelope.
Hey.
So, I'm staring at Ikana Canyon as I write this...and the more I look at it, the more I think that you have every reason to hate me.
You kissed me here... and you told me that you would wait for me but I told you that I didn't have the time for it, for you... Yet nearly a month later I was dating Marth whose face is getting harder and harder to remember.
I chose some guy who I barely knew over one of the greatest men that I have ever known... and then I did it, again, and that choice came back to haunt me. Yet, you were still there with your smile even after I was short with you a few months before Graduation. I was mad at you for what Jack did and I shouldn't have been.
It wasn't your fault.
For a long time, I thought it was mine... I thought maybe I had done something to provoke him, but, I learned it wasn't mine either.
I'll never forgive Jack, Link, and I suppose I should thank you for destroying the bastard. So, thank you. Thank you so much.
I suppose I should apologize for him too...I never meant to hurt you... and maybe I'm being narsisstic here but, if I did, I never meant it. You're one of my most favorite people in the whole world! And...
I miss you... I miss everyone, really, and I think that I may come home soon... its just that I'm afraid that things will be different now... because I'm different in ways.
I don't want to hide anymore, I don't want to be that defenseless girl who was forced to do...things... I want to be free, and I was, but now I want to be home and still have that freedom.
So, I guess this is me saying...well, asking, if I can come home?
Because I can't heal on my own anymore and I need you to help fix me, for my mom to pick me up and dust me off, and my brother to read my mind because... I just do.
So... can I come home?
He rereaded her letters several times before he sat it down... Zelda would be back... he would be able to hold her... and that would be enough for him until the time came when they were both ready to be more than friends.
He flipped out his cell phone, pressed speed dial, and placed it against his pointed ear. "We got a gig up in Great Bay at eight. We're catching a plane, I'll get you a ticket too if you need it... the place is called Bolero of Fire." He smiled. "Come home, babe."
It was their tenth show though their producer, Shad, was calling it a tour. Link often found the man highly annoying and had recently learned that Shad was not paying them all the royalties owed... true, it was only a dollar or so per member but they had sold almost a hundred albums since the CD was put out two weeks ago. It was a small number but LOZ was happy with it.
Link planned to fire the man after this show if he didn't confess... which was much more likely than anything.
The young man leaned against the large bass speaker that Mido had brought with them though the Kokiri had not lifted a finger to help carry the monsterous thing onstage. No, the curly, red head had instead walked over to the bar where he began to hit on the bartender who was by all rights much too pretty to be in her occupation.
Saria was playing "Winter Wind Etude" by Chopin on her keyboard while she waited for the headlining band to show up. Her fingers, nimble as they were, danced across the false ivories while she lost herself in the power of the notes that played. Music was, indeed, a very powerful thing.
Darunia glanced over to his girlfriend and a look of such deep affection washed over his face that Link knew, suddenly, in that instant that the Goron would be with Saria for the rest of his life. Darunia smiled when Saria glanced up at him then returned to manuvering his drums where he felt they were the most comfortable... though they would all return to the orignal place he had set them.
Link's guitar had been tuned previously to everyone else and all he was waiting on now was vocal check... Zelda as well.
Evelyn and Sandra were at this gig with Shiek sitting beside the two for Cremina had offered to stay home while he went out with his friends. The three were chatting, laughing, and completely unaware that the Zelda might come home that night.
It happened while Link was in the middle of checking his Vocals...
"I will always be with you,
I'm the anchor of your sorrow and*-"
The door opened, silently, but the light from the street poured in over her lithe frame.
A corset, black-silver spiderwebs over bright red, hugged her chest, waist, and left her mid-drift just visible enough to tantalize. Jeans, dark blue, hugged her just as tight while knee high black boots covered the rest of her. Golden hair swept down to her waist, pale skin glowed next to violet eyes, red lips smirked, and Triforce earrings hung from pointed ears.
Link's mouth had dropped open and her name had whispered from his lips in a barely audible sound. Zelda had always been beautiful to him but never potently sexy. "Zelda?" He spoke, louder.
She smiled, held up the Rock sign, and laughed. "Hey." There was a moment of pure, utter chaos in which Evelyn, Saria, Sandra, Darunia, Shiek, and Link all dashed over to embrace the woman they had not seen in one whole year. Zelda beamed the whole time even when her mother was screaming at her.
"How could you do that to me?" Sandra wept, shaking the girl's shoulders. "How could you do that to me!" Eveyln squeezed her lover's shoulder and Sandra took a deep inhale. "Where...did you even get the money?"
Zelda hugged her mother. "I'm sorry... I had to." She took Sandra's hand and took a seat in a nearby bar stool, sighed, then began. "One, I needed to do it and I knew if I told anyone that I would be forced to go the intellectual route and just not go. Two, I needed to be away from everyone to get my head out of everything except, well, my head... and I saved up my money, did a couple odd jobs when I needed, also, Shiek loaned me some too." She paused and untied a large bag from her hip then tossed it to her twin. "That should cover it."
Shiek opened the bag and looked into it. "By the Gods, sis!" His mother grabbed the bag, looked into it, and back at her daughter.
"Where did you get that?" Sandra cried, collapsing into a stool next to her daughter who merely shrugged.
"I won it off of a Mask Salesman in a card game... and Shiek, I want to meet my nieces as soon as possible." Zelda then turned to Link and smiled. "Thank you." Everyone seemed confused by those two words but no one questioned it as it seemed a private matter.
"No problem." They embraced and for a moment Link felt like he couldn't breath as he squeezed her against his chest. He kissed her cheek, softly, and whispered to where only she could hear. "I could never hate you, Zelda Rayne Harkinian."
Mido ran out for pizza. though he was very reluctant to do so, while Zelda answered every question as fast as they were fired back at her and it was clear to everyone that the girl had changed. True, she looked the same though she dressed differently but there was an air of confidence about her that radiated from her porcelain skin... she knew that she was pretty and showed it off to an extent, she knew that she was smart and did not have to brag about her College Education, and she planned less. The young woman who had left was very adament about having every little bit of her life planned out... those plans had been severely derailed after her attack and she took control of it by going wild.
To everyone's surprise, however, Zelda did not mention any romances.
Saria jumped on this. "So, did you meet anyone?"
"Plenty of people, yeah, but no one worth mentioning." Zelda smirked. "So, no, I didn't sleep with anyone. Still a virgie."
Saria laughed at Sandra's face and grabbed onto the bar to hold herself up. "Wow, Zelda, just wow."
"Where did you go first?" Shiek smiled. "Because we got so many random postcards from all over Hyrule, Termina... Greece... and, of course, Hollywood, that it kinda got confusing especially cause of the dates."
Zelda grinned at her twin's question. "Oh, yeah, about that." She stretched out and laughed. "I went to Great Bay, first, but I didn't mail you the card until after I sent you the two from the Gerudo Desert... the last was Ikana Canyon, of course."
"You'll have to give us an in-depth story of your adventure." Evelyn smiled, arms around Sandra's waist. "Maybe it could be a book someday! "Tales of a Teenage Calculator"."
Zelda went to reply to her mother's lover when a hand tapped on her shoulder. Zelda turned and looked deep into cobalt eyes. "Hm?"
"So, we're going on in five minutes."
"We?" Zelda bit her lip, excited and near speechless.
"Get your ass onstage, Princess." Link laughed. "I hope you remember all of these songs."
"Link." Zelda blushed, wrapping one arm around his waist as they walked side by side to the stage. "I bought the CD and was learning it this whole time."
"Good." Link beamed. "Because we kinda have very important people in the crowd."
"A critic?"
"Ours Moms."
Some months later...
The Legend of Zelda had been practicing hard since the night Zelda returned and had sent demos into everyone.
Naburoo, finally off of probation, had taken one and sent it out to her cousin but nothing had come of it... unil...
The phone dropped from fingerless, gloved hands and crashed onto the floor with a resounding shatter.
Saria, Darunia, Mido, and Zelda all turned around and stared, curiously, at their singer from where they were watching Nightmare on Elm Street. "Link?" Zelda's voice cut through the character's, Lisa, screams and settled in the air for a moment before the twenty-one year old met her eyes.
He had walked into the Living Room after talking to somone for the entire length of Army of Darkness but none of his friends had noticed his return until the phone had smashed against the ground. Link's eyes were almost watery and he had a slightly unsettling grin on his face. "Guys...?"
Darunia frowned. "Dude, you're scaring me. Stop it."
"Have you ever heard of ProgPower?"
Zelda smirked. "Well, duh. We're a Prog band, Link." A pause. "What about it?"
The words slipped from his lips and the other four members gapped before Zelda turned the T.V off and commanded Link to repeat himself. The next time, Link screamed it. "WE'RE PLAYING PROGPOWER!"
Zelda launched herself off the couch and tackled her best friend. "HOLY FUCK!"