A/N: You know, I was going to update tomorrow, (4/8) but I decided to write this a day early because you guys are so awesome!
Warning: Major OOCness in this chapter. I just can't stay away from it!
o.o.o
Five
o.o.o
Link was paralyzed.
He must have looked like a real idiot with his eyes wide open as Zelda kissed him. He had no idea what to do in this situation. 'Am I supposed to touch her? Do I put my hand there? Wait, maybe I should close my eyes... ah!' he mentally fought with himself. Zelda, on the other hand was also stuck in that position; she started something she couldn't finish. She was also fighting her own internal battle with herself; she just wasn't prepared for such a rash action. Zelda pulled away from him and felt extremely embarrassed.
'I can not BELIEVE that I just did that... oh gosh... what is he THINKING?!'
Link felt like he should say something, but he was too stunned. However, the silence was killing him. He reached for her arm, but she moved away. Confused, Link just sat there and tried to figure out what this meant for them now. Has their relationship changed? He was afraid of this.
'Link, please say something...' Zelda pleaded in her mind, but he wouldn't. Zelda had no idea what came over her. He was just... right there. He was always right there and now—now she had no idea what was going on. Zelda started to panic, but she tried her best not to show it. She fiddled with her fingers and looked in every direction but him—not that there was much to look at. Finally, she forced herself to go outside of the tent. The moonlight lit down on her. Part of her just wanted to jump into the lake, but she knew that Link would come after her. She could call her Loftwing, but where would she go? After a few moments, Link crawled out of the tent and stood behind her.
"Zelda?"
"Before you say anything, that was merely an... an..." she couldn't put her words together. There was no need to justify her actions but she still felt like she should because she didn't want to be rejected. She didn't want him to say 'What the hell was that?' or tease her like he usually would. Zelda trembled before him; tears were forming in her eyes. Link noticed this, but he couldn't bring himself to move forward.
"Why don't... you stay in the tent? I'll sleep out here if it will make you feel better." Link asked.
'He's not going to say anything about the kiss?' Zelda thought to herself. Although she was somewhat thankful, it was also very typical of him to avoid the matter at hand so she should have expected it. Her mind was all out of wack. Zelda nodded and slowly walked towards the tent. As she passed him, she noticed the tint in his eyes. What in the world was he feeling? Was he really just going to leave it like it was?
Suddenly, they heard the 'cawing' sound of a bird—that sounded a lot like a Loftwing. Before Zelda could figure out what was happening, Link dived with her into the tent and put his hand over her mouth. "Shh, it's Groose." Zelda managed to get his hand off, but she remained silent.
"Zelda! Where are you?!" Groose was louder than ever.
"Link, he's going to wake up the Kikwis!" Zelda whispered. Link was struggling for a solution; he knew that if the Kikwis were woken up, especially the elder, they would be extremely pissy and may even try to attack. Not that Link particularly cared if Groose lived or died, but he did respect the Kikwis. Another voice appeared; a much deeper and older sounding one. "Oh my gosh, that's my father! Link, do you think they know what this is?"
"I don't know, just be quiet..."
"ZELDA!" Gaepora called; his echo rattled the forest below.
Zelda gave Link a look that said, 'what should we do?!' but Link was at a loss. They had to go away eventually, right?
Yerbal was snoozing up in the Great Tree when he was suddenly awakened by Groose. "Hey, what is your problem?! You should be quiet!" He snapped.
"Not until I find my fiance!" Groose called Zelda's name once again.
"I don't know what a fiance is, kwwrk, but Zelda is with Link in the mating tent, so you'd best scad-addle, kwwwrk!"
"WHAT?!" Groose freaked out. "MATING TENT?!"
Hearing this, Link face palmed. They were screwed. "Damn it, Yerbal..."
Groose flew over to Gaepora, "Did you hear that?! Zelda is mating with Link somewhere!"
Gaepora twitched and looked around for anything shaped like a tent. He finally spotted the plant-like structure and swooshed over to it. "Zelda, come out now!"
Zelda glanced at Link; she was terrified. Her father was going to have a fit.
"We don't have a choice..." Link sighed in defeat and started crawling towards the entrance, but Zelda stopped him.
"Link! Do you have any idea what will happen if you go out there?!"
"Not really, but they found us..."
"They're going to think that we... did that!"
"Do you really think your father would believe that? Come on, Zelda! It's us! We used to have sleepovers all the time."
"Yeah, when we were like, seven!"
"ZELDA!"
Wishing for the yelling to stop, the two slowly crawled out of the tent; shame all over their faces. Gaepora and Groose were there; completely shocked. Even though they were fully clothed and nothing looked suspicious, the simple fact that they were in the mating tent of the Kikwis was bad enough in Gaepora's eyes.
"Zelda, get on. You're going home." Gaepora said with a chilling voice.
"Dad, we didn't do-"
"SILENCE!"
Zelda started to cry; she had no idea how to convince her father. Link couldn't say anything; he was a little afraid of Gaepora. Zelda climbed onto the Loftwing behind him.
"Say goodbye to Link, you will not be allowed to see him ever again."
"W-What?!"
Before she could say or do anything, Gaepora flew off with her into the sky. Groose made a mocking face at Link before going after them.
"What the hell?!" Link called his Loftwing, but it didn't come. He whistled again. Nothing. 'What is going on?!' Link was in panic mode. Would he really never see Zelda again? No, that was nonsense. Gaepora couldn't keep them away from each other no matter how hard he tried. However, Link was more surprised that Gaepora would even say such a thing in the first place. Had he been wrong about Zelda's father all of this time? Did Gaepora really hate him? With no way back to Skyloft, Link was stuck here in the forest.
That didn't mean he was about to give up, though.
o.o.o
Zelda was forced to go back to her father's house. "Dad! What in the world?!"
"Do you realize what you've done?!" Gaepora yelled, "If it gets out that you spent time in that tent with Link, whether you did anything or not, you will be shunned! Zelda, you are engaged! The entire town knows this now, so if they find out about your little rendezvous with that boy you will be ridiculed for the rest of your life!"
"I don't care! I don't like this place anyway!" Zelda cried. "Link is my best friend and I love him!"
"Link cannot do anything for you in the long run. He may be a great friend but I do not believe that he can take care of you! Groose, on the other hand can!"
"No he can't! Groose is the most annoying, self-centered prick that I've ever known! Link is sweet, caring, funny, smart... Link is everything that I want!"
"You don't know what you want! I know what's best for you!" Gaepora slammed her door and locked it from the outside so that she couldn't get out. Zelda banged on the door, but he wasn't changing his mind. Frustrated and grief-stricken, Zelda climbed up on her desk and looked out the small window that she used to crawl out of all of the time. Much to her surprise, Groose was standing guard down below. Zelda wasn't worried much about that, however and started coming up with a plan to escape. She was not about to be the helpless damsel in distress. She heard several voices outside of her window and noticed that Ghirahim and Strich appeared. Groose was laughing with them.
"Oh my, I wonder what they did in that mating tent?!" Ghirahim chuckled. "Sounds like great blackmail, if you ask me."
"Groose!" Cawlin ran up to them, "I can hardly contain Link's Loftwing!"
'What?' Zelda was shocked. Were they holding his Loftwing in contempt?
"Seriously, Cawlin? All you had to do was lock the thing up. I guess I'll go quiet it down." Ghirahim rolled his eyes and walked off with Cawlin. Strich followed them, leaving Groose by himself once again. Zelda had to act fast. She looked around her room for something heavy enough that she could drop onto Groose's head to knock him out. She spotted a bowling ball in the corner and smiled evilly to herself. She knew the ten pound ball would definitely do some damage, so she picked it up, climbed back onto the desk and aimed downward. She could care less if he got hurt; he also couldn't possibly get any dumber than he already was. He deserved to pay for doing that to Link's Loftwing, too. Zelda timed it, made sure he didn't move and then dropped it.
"OW!"
Zelda quickly climbed out the window and jumped down. Groose cowered on the ground beneath her. She kicked him in the side before running off. She needed to save Link's Loftwing before Ghirahim did anything harmful to it. She called her own and it came in a flash. She found the trio and flew ahead of them. Any time now her father would realize that she was gone, so she had to hurry.
But who was he to tell her that she couldn't see Link anymore?
Zelda wasn't going to have it.
"Ugh, where could it be?" Zelda followed Cawlin and the others to see which direction they were going—it looked like they were going towards the Waterfall Cave. "Of course! Damn it, their tricks really get old..." she flew ahead and there it was; the Crimson Loftwing was trapped in a cage. "I'll get you out..." Zelda and her Loftwing tried to free the bird from the cage, but she didn't have anything that could break the wooden bars.
"Hey, what are you doing here?!" Ghirahim and the others appeared.
"This is kidnapping and that's punishable by hanging!" Zelda retorted, not backing away. Ghirahim simply laughed.
"Oh, isn't this cute?"
Zelda turned to her Loftwing, "Go and find Link!" her Loftwing dashed off.
"Stop that Loftwing!" Ghirahim ordered and Cawlin and Strich chased after it. However, their Loftwings weren't trained to go beneath the clouds yet, so Zelda's Loftwing was able to get away. Infuriated, Ghirahim grabbed Zelda's arm and threw her onto the ground. Link's Loftwing cawed loudly. "Stupid woman, I'll see to it that everyone hates you!"
"I don't care!"
"Is that so?" Ghirahim forced her up and pushed her against the cage. "Maybe you should join that bird in there!"
"Let go of me!" Zelda struggled in his grasp.
Ghirahim opened the cage and shoved her in, but as if on cue, Link's Loftwing started flapping wildly and knocked the cage over, also causing Ghirahim to fall onto the ground. Zelda jumped onto the crimson bird and they got away.
"Why is this island filled with idiots?!" she didn't bother to look back.
o.o.o
Gaepora sat on his bed. 'Am I really doing what's best for her?' he asked himself; ever since Groose nearly gave up on finding her he had been having doubts, but he was still mostly convinced that everything was in order.
Besides, she would hate him if she knew the real reason...
Gaepora heard Groose talking to himself outside and decided to check it out. Groose was cursing and rubbing a huge bump on his head.
"Groose, what happened?"
"Eh!" Groose straightened up and saluted him, but he couldn't hold it for long. "I-It's... Zelda..."
Gaepora saw the bowling ball on the ground and knew exactly what happened. 'That's my daughter, for ya...' he sighed. "Well, go get her!"
"Y-Yes Sir!"
This game of cat and mouse was starting to get old.
o.o.o
Link entered the Sealed Grounds. Luckily, the Kikwis didn't wake up from all of the commotion.
"Link, is that you?"
"Gorko!" Link ran over to the Goron, who was inspecting the statue of the Goddess.
"This is truly remarkable, where did it come from?" Gorko asked.
"Eh," Link was about to explain, but he had other concerns on his mind. Gorko didn't notice, however and just continued looking around the grounds. Link needed to find a way back up to Skyloft, but he couldn't quite figure out how.
"LINK!"
"Whoa, is that your friend?" Gorko looked up at the sky. To Link's delight, it was indeed Zelda, along with his Loftwing. The bird settled in front of him.
"Link, Groose and his stupid friends locked up your bird again... but no worries, we outsmarted those idiots!"
"Awesome!" Link stroked his Loftwing's head. "Sorry that I wasn't there, buddy."
"Anyway, I don't think that we'll be allowed up there any time soon..." Zelda sighed, "I guess I'll have to find a way to tell Kina that I can't work tomorrow..."
"Work?" Link questioned.
"Oh, I didn't tell you? She offered me a job. I went to tell my father and then... he told me I had to marry Groose." Zelda shuddered, "I don't want to go back..."
"Then we won't." Link placed his hand on hers. "We'll go somewhere where nobody can find us... ever." he paused, "But Zelda, once we leave... we can't go back..."
That's when it hit her. She knew that wasn't the logical thing to do no matter how wonderful it sounded.
"As much as I would love to do that... I just... I think we should face them. I don't want to run away. I want to be accepted for who I am... and... I want to be able to... love... the one that I love..." her nervousness was making her jumble her words once again. Link gave her a confused look. Zelda may have been headstrong, but he would rather just disappear and leave everything behind. "Link, let's convince my father that you are perfect for me!"
"What? What do you mean?"
All of the recent events must have given her lots of courage, because she just couldn't hold it in anymore.
Zelda jumped off of the Loftwing and walked up to him. "I've been so afraid... until now..."
"Zelda, what are you talking about?"
She took his hands in hers, "I love you, Link... and I... want to be with you..." she tightened her grip, "...but the question is... do you want the same?"
Link was speechless.
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A/N: PHEW! What's going to happen now, I wonder? REVIEW TO FIND OUT!
Also,
if you think that this too fast, remember that I'm only planning about ten chapters or so for this story! (I'm thinking of it like episodes of a Japanese drama... o_O) and if there's room for a sequel at the end, I'll cross that road when I get there! (I'm seriously making this up as I go :P)
Please leave a review!