Zelda had never really paid attention to baseball.
Her school, Central High, had once been known for its team, but that time had passed, and she could see it unfolding in front of her very eyes. Here she sat, in the nearly empty stands of the admittedly large baseball field, seeing her school's team slowly getting eliminated from the preliminaries next to her best friend.
Mipha, unlike Zelda, had been a fan of the sport since she was a kid, going to games with her dad and little brother from an early age. Since her admittance to Central, she had made it a point to go and support the school's team, but the people she would usually go with started attending less and less, leading her to invite Zelda, not to go alone if anything.
"This isn't looking good," Zelda said, turning to her friend, "right?"
She had learned a lot about the sport since sitting down with Mipha, who had excitedly explained everything there was to know about baseball to her. But she was still unsure if the situation was irreversible by the school's team. The question answered itself though, as Mipha's excitement had notoriously lowered as the game progressed, now at the bottom of the eighth inning, as she understood, down by nine points.
"Basically," Mipha replied, her spirits at an all-time low, "I'm sorry I brought you to this blowout, I just thought Revali could maybe make it a bit more exciting.."
Sighing, she fell deeper into her seat. They were now facing a first-round elimination, mirroring the institution's slow decline in the sport during the last few years. The school had once been a powerhouse nationally, but a streak of bad losses had effectively killed the school's standing. Mipha had hoped that the young superstar Revali Gale along with a new array of rookies could rekindle the team's flame, having had an exceptional record during his middle school days. But the young ace on the mound looked more pissed with every second that passed.
"Yunobo! Please!" He yelled, exasperated at the situation, "Stop dropping the damn ball!"
Zelda felt bad for the receiver of Revali's wrath, the first-year catcher who looked on the verge of tears at that point. She understood the pitcher's frustration, the game had slipped from them in spectacular fashion, and while he had only conceded three runs in the first seven innings, this one looked to be a complete disaster. Defensive error after error led to Central conceding another six points in this inning alone. But still, he didn't have to be so mean about it.
"Hylia," She muttered to her friend beside her, "How do they even put up with that guy?"
"He's the ace pitcher, and the only reason the game looked close to begin with." Mipha responded.
"Still, he kinda seems like an ass."
"Yeah," she chuckled sadly, "that he does."
There had been some hope at the beginning of the season, with a few good practice games against other schools, Revali had looked like the superstar who would finally get the team back to the top. All that excitement quickly left the supporters as the season progressed, with fewer and fewer people filling the stands. The team looked lost, with no real chemistry between them, as if Revali's feats hid the rest of the team's struggles. Zelda felt for her friend, who at the start of the school year had seemed so excited to go to their games, supporting them even when times got tough. She had witnessed Mipha slowly losing hope in their school, which culminated in their current situation, with them barely talking between themselves.
Sitting there watching her peers get obliterated at every at-bat was depressing, even to Zelda. Even if baseball wasn't her thing these people were still her classmates, some of them even in the same class as her. She had seen them training hard through the school windows after hours, even after the season had gone downhill, even when no one else was watching.
Zelda's mind wandered, looking at the second baseman. The ball had barely gone his way all game, with most hits resulting in a home run up until that point. Even so, he was completely focused on the game before him, ready to pounce if the ball happened to fly in his direction. She noticed that, even with defeat looming over Central, he was still smiling, as if the game could be turned around at the drop of a hat. She knew it was already over, of course, having asked her friend not long ago.
She could notice his blonde hair peeking out from his green cap, messy from the heat and the exercise, but couldn't quite see his face at that distance. Even so, he seemed very familiar to her. He was probably a third-year student whom she had seen around the school. Even in this situation, it did seem like he really liked baseball, enjoying what was probably the last game of his high school career.
Zelda found it endearing, even with the humiliation they were forced to partake in, this player looked motivated, like he never wanted to stop playing. She observed him closely, not minding the rest of the game, trying to get a good look at his face to see why he looked so familiar. She turned towards her friend, ready to ask another question when her concentration was broken by another hit from the batter.
It went near the ground, just missing Revali's glove as he half-heartedly reached for it. It was probably going to be a triple, seeing as their right field had been struggling all match. She looked towards the second baseman, who had already started making his way over to the ball's path. He was too far, definitely incapable of getting to it first, she thought.
As if to contradict her thoughts, the player dived to the ground, his gloved hand fully outstretched. Somehow, he had gotten there in time to stop the ball, before it had even touched the ground. In one fluid motion, he quickly rolled off the ground and threw it to first base, where the runner who had stood there not long ago tried to make his way back. But he was too late, the ball hit its target right before the runner could get there.
The blonde player quickly stood up, fist in the air in celebration, while smiling at the player on first base. A thumbs-up gesture followed, to which the first baseman looked in confusion, not understanding the optimism.
"Oh!" Zelda exclaimed suddenly, standing up, "That looked so cool!"
Mipha had also stood up, impressed by the player's quick reactions, before sitting down again, dejected.
"What?" Zelda asked, "That was the most exciting part of the match!"
"Yeah, it looked really cool," She admitted, "But now it's over."
Zelda looked at her, puzzled, before looking back towards the Central players, who looked down as they walked towards their dugout, some falling to the ground in despair while the opposing team celebrated.
"Isn't there another inning to play?" She asked her friend, "I remember you told me there would be nine."
"That's usually how it goes," Mipha said, getting ready to leave, "But our team got blown out so badly the ref called the game early, as a mercy towards us."
"Oh, that sucks."
"Yeah," she responded sadly while picking up her stuff, "Let's leave."
"Sure." Zelda said, a little sad that the excitement had only lasted a few moments, "Still, it was fun there at the end."
"The catch Wild did?" Mipha asked.
"Wild?"
"Yeah, Link Wild, the second baseman." She pointed out, "He's in our class you know."
Zelda looked over at the blonde player, who had now taken his cap off. He maintained the same cheeriness from before, walking up to some of the players on the ground to console them after the loss. If he was only a first-year, then why did he look so comfortable on the field? Why would he celebrate a random out at the end of the season? Why in Hylia's name would he do that and not feel crushed after the defeat?
These questions plagued Zelda's mind as she looked on from the stands, before walking down with her friend towards the exit. Link was weird, she thought, never saying much in class and usually keeping to himself. But when she saw him on the field, he seemed like a completely different person altogether. She was surprised to find that the quiet stone-faced kid in her class was the second baseman she had just seen, or that he was capable of showing any sort of emotion at all.
As they reached the exit, Zelda looked down at her water bottle. It was nearly empty, thanks to the heat. She decided against leaving with it like that, as she would have to bike home, and probably needed the extra hydration.
"Gimme a sec," Zelda said to her friend as they were walking out, "I wanna get more water."
"Okay," She responded, still bummed at the result of the game, "Could you get me some too?"
Mipha stuck her hand out to her, handing her an empty water bottle, not looking at her as she did it. Zelda knew she was sad after the game, but what she couldn't understand was why she was so upset about it. It was high school baseball after all, not the Calamity like in the old stories.
Even so, she didn't question her friend about it, instead deciding to walk around the stands to where the water fountains should be, with both bottles in hand.
She put one of the bottles under the water stream after she turned it on, while the water slowly filled the bottle, her mind wandered again to that second baseman, Link. Something about him captivated her, maybe it was his determination and cheery attitude even when literally facing down defeat. Also, the way had gone to his third-year teammates, trying to console those who were in tears after the loss, lamenting the end of their last year playing.
As she was finishing the first bottle, her thoughts were interrupted by footsteps rounding the other corner to the fountains. She looked over and saw one of the players, noticing his green jersey with the word "Central" printed in the middle. She looked up at his face and was surprised at who it was.
It was Link! From this angle, his cap wasn't covering her view of his face. She was about to call out to him, wanting to talk to him about the last catch before he noticed her and she could finally get a good look at his eyes.
They were a beautiful sky blue, but had a glassy look about them and had a red irritation around them. Oh gods had he been crying?
She didn't know what to do, the boy before her was the complete opposite of what she last saw of him. Before he had been trying to cheer up his teammates, and now here he was, probably looking for some time alone to grieve, and she was ruining it, she thought. She was so frozen in place she didn't notice as he went to stand next to her, in the adjacent water fountain.
"Hey." He stated simply, as if he hadn't been robbed of the opportunity to be alone, Zelda thought.
"H-Hey," She responded, not knowing what to do before trying to stutter an apology, "S-Sorry, I'll let you be."
"It's okay!" Link said, trying to regain his cheery attitude from before, "Are you not going to fill that one up?"
He asked while pointing at the empty second bottle in her hand, of course, she had forgotten about Mipha's as well she thought.
"Yeah, right, of course" She managed to get out, still feeling awkward about the situation.
"Yeah, don't worry about it." He said, equally as awkwardly, before putting his hands under the water,
They didn't talk as Zelda filled the bottle, but she did notice his left hand, whose bloody knuckles caught her attention. She was sure that hadn't happened in the game, after all, she could be quite observant.
"Hey," She said to him, not able to bear the awkward silence between them, "I'm sorry about how that last inning went, you guys could've done it! I think."
He let out a low chuckle at that, "It's okay, our pitcher wasn't really leading the team. It was bound to happen." He lamented.
"I'm sorry for that display," He said to her, still looking at his hands, "I know it must suck to support a team like this."
"Oh no I-," she stopped, debating if the truth was the best thing to say in this scenario. It would be pretty bad to know that one of the few people watching didn't even know anything about baseball before today. Right?
He looked at her, his blue eyes waiting for the rest of her sentence. She couldn't lie to him, it would just be pouring salt on the wound if he found out.
"I'm sorry, I'm not really a fan of baseball, this was my first game." She admitted.
"Oh," He looked down again, tears threatening to flood his eyes again, "That's even worse then, you haven't even seen a good game from us."
"Oh! But that last play!" She turned to him while moving the water bottle excitedly, "That was so cool!"
"Really?" He asked, a small smile threatening his lips, "That's good to know."
They stayed in silence after that, with Zelda having to refill Mipha's bottle, as she had dropped some of the water while talking about the play.
"Hey," Link said, turning to Zelda just as she was finishing up, "I'll show you a better game next year okay?"
"Okay," She smiled at him, "I'll definitely come watch."