Who: Zelda & Asami What: Food, cocktails, girl talk When: Recent Where: Somewhere local Rating/Warnings: Pretty tame Status: Complete!
Zelda didn’t care much for upscale places. Oh, it wasn’t an issue about money - not anymore, anyway. Some lengths of ‘fanciness’ were merely unnecessary, and she found she was more satisfied in a locally run business. Clean atmosphere, authentic mediterranean food, all the different ways to prepare lamb and all the different ways to make hummus taste a bit different. Their cocktails were divine, too, with an exotic selection of imported beers. Her poison was a grapefruit drink, sweetened with honey and the bite of vodka.
For the sake of being easily recognized by Asami, she dialed down the glamour to non existence. It was the Princess of Hyrule at the table, not Sheik, with softly tousled hair of gold and an ivory dress, sleeves made of lace. A fixed up thrift store fashion project she had worked on, and she was still very proud of it.
As long as the food was good, Asami didn’t really mind the local. There was always something about a local place that even the fanciest restaurant couldn’t beat. If nothing else that was something they had in common.
Asami, of course, wore red, with her hair down in all it’s seemingly effortless perfection and her make-up game 1000% on point. But then that was how she approached the world outside. And Zelda looked fabulous. Asami took a moment to admire her, though what had once been a massive crush had dialed down to something easily ignorable. It helped that Zelda wasn’t typically her type.
“Hey!” She approached the table, waving a little bit, face split by a large smile. “Love the dress.”
A superficial life goal was to have hair effortlessly styled like Asami’s - that woman was likely legendary for it - and when she made her presence known, baby blues blinked from the menu. “Hey, girly, long time no see,” Zelda’s smile mirrored hers, and she rose from her seat for an official greet. A friendly kiss to the cheek, a good look at the dress (red really was her color), and she settled back down to her seat. “And thank you! It’s a fixed up Salvation Army find.”
Impa had taught her how to sew, and she’d taken the ball and ran with it. And she rather liked living frugally anyway - she still hoarded coupons like a dragon with treasure. “You look well! With all the work you’ve been doing I half-expected bags under your eyes.”
“Icouldn’t tell, you did an amazing job on the dress,” Asami said. She took the opportunity of Zelda standing to run emerald eyes over the dress. “You’ll have to show me how you did that sometime.” Cars? Easy. Sewing needles? Not so much.
She pulled the chair out and sat down across from Zelda. “I’ve been trying that whole work-life balance routine. A friend took me out a few weeks ago and that kind of thing has helped a lot. I’m remembering I can delegate responsibility. I’m not typically a workaholic, unless I get lost in a project anyway.”
Ah, Zelda was into mastering all sorts of domestic tasks. From refurbishing junk and giving it a shine (her dress, any old furniture) to regular maintenance (like properly caulking a tub) - all skills that kept on giving. Cars? Impa’s field, and come to think of it, she’d really like Asami. A mental note was made to introduce the ladies.
“I can see where you can easily fall into the workaholic territory,” she sighed, brows furrowed as she went to quickly skim through the menu again. There was something that caught her eye, she just had to look for it. “Though right now my official task is to clean up a massive mess and untie the rest of the illegally placed knots within the business, and transfer it from the UK territory to here.”
Midna’s warping skills made traveling convenient, but she didn’t want to keep tapping into her skills like that. Too much could overwhelm her, even with the Triforce.
“I know a really good lawyer, if you need any help with that,” Asami said. The transfer of ownership to her and all the assorted taking out of the trash would have been much worse without that woman. “Is it going smoothly? I know how much time that kind of thing can take up, and your mess seems to be a lot messier than mine was.”
“I like to think I’ve got the best of them,” she winked. “Jonathan helped with the trial. He’s taken over to help with a lot of company legalities. And to make sure all operations aren’t breaking any laws.” There wasn’t anyone else in the legal field Zelda could - or even would - trust. It also worked in his favor that he was her bestie, with their matching (and somewhat tacky) sushi accessories. “But it’s going better than I assumed? I guess I went in expecting the worst and being pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t the absolute worst.”
It was all just very tedious and time consuming. Wendy even helped from across the seas, bless that English motherly heart. “I am looking for a corporate building to buy, if you’ve got any recommendations on that.”
Asami nodded relieved to hear that that was in good hands. Expecting the worst was generally the best way to go about things. Wrestling with companies and laws and people who thought they were above the law was never easy.
“I can forward you a list. I still have it from when I was going through the changeover. There’s one you might like. It’s got a nice exterior and designed to be environmentally friendly.” It had been one of her top choices but she’d gone with one that had a better location for her needs.
Zelda beamed. “I’d love the list, yes - you’ve got my e-mail, right?” What Asami described seemed perfect, though a list of options wouldn’t hurt either. Just to see what was out there, take every aspect into consideration. There wasn’t exactly a rush, but things would go smoother with an actual building to work from. Not something rented our right out of their living room (which had piles and piles of paperwork, like a fort).
“Anyway, business talk aside, otherwise we’ll really be workaholics…” Her order was placed, which was a spiced lamb dish with quinoa. “What’s going on with your personal life? Anyone special?”
“I do!” Asami promised. She’d email the list as soon as she got home. Even if working out of a paper for was probably amusing in it’s own way.
Asami ordered a salmon dish, then chewed on her lip as she considered the question. “No one in the romantic sense. My love life is kind of a disaster. Either I’m crushing on someone who’s unavailable or on someone who’s straight. Or someone who moved away. Really can’t win.” She wrinkled her nose. Buffy was definitely her type in the capable of beating up people twice her size sort of way, but she didn’t seem to be remotely into women. “So I think I’ll just stick to making friends.”
Oh, wow. That really was an unlucky streak, wasn’t it? Zelda winced, pausing to take a sip of her vodka cocktail before replying. “I think making friends is a good way to go,” she assured, propping her chin atop her hand. “You’re a catch, Asami - someone who is available to you will see that too. I think it’ll come when you least expect it. It’s usually how it works?”
She and Midna, they had history before the OC - tangled up in some sort of quasi-relationship that never went anywhere because she picked up and left, and the princess of light never got over her. Didn’t quite help that she eventually came here, and both dreamt of the same universe. Different timelines, perhaps, but Zelda caught up to the Twilight Princess eventually.
“That’s usually how it works, and usually when I’m least expecting it,” Asami said. She nodded at her friend. “And there’s more to life than relationships, and not being in one doesn’t mean I’m alone.” And while there were different kinds of being lonely she didn’t have to let it control her life.
“Friends are around to make sure you aren’t alone,” Zelda chuckled, wholeheartedly agreeing. “It’s good to focus on that. Focus on you.” It’d come, one day. Asami had the complete package - career, looks (that hair), that squishy heart with the personality. “Maybe your dream girl will show up one day. Might be worth the wait.”
That’d be ideal, wouldn’t it? It didn’t always end up like that - some people were in vastly different romances than what they dreamt - but it could!
She’d take a dream boy, too. While Asami had preferences the right guy could swing her head. And sometimes it was easier with a guy. With girls there were added complications and not knowing if signals were being read. But then, some boys were stupid and couldn’t read signals anyway, so maybe it was a wash. Mako had been terrible at it.
“I like to think I get a lot done when I focus on me.”
“You’ve got an entire company to prove it,” pointed out the blonde, a slender eyebrow quirked. Asami had accomplished a lot for her age. Intelligent, resourceful, wise. Someone Zelda could look towards for help and advice when operating her own inheritance. The field of business was a brutal one, and she was still very much learning the ropes. “You’ll have to send some pointers my way before I make an idiot out of myself, if you don’t mind. You’ve been in this playground longer than I have.”
And she was still getting her footing in, but it’d happen. Slowly but surely. Change was a gradual, continuous process.
“Think before you speak,” Asami said, but she knew Zelda was already an expert at that, so it was in a more jesting tone. “And people, men especially, will do everything in their power to try to put you in your place. Because you’re young, and you’re a woman, so they assume that you don’t deserve what you’ve earned and you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Zelda stirred her cocktail, humming in thought. “Sounds like most of the criticism I’ve received thus far, to be honest.” Opinionated articles making jabs at her age, lack of proper education, the questionable digs at her homelife. Midna’s involvement (dating a former stripper tended to glean a lot of gossip). All she could do was ignore most of it, and take legal advice from Jonathan on the best way to go about this - not that he was a PR person, but he was usually right about most things. “But I think I do a decent job at not putting my foot in my mouth? Diplomacy’s been one of my best methods of going about things - I think the whole princess thing has helped there.”
Something of amusement to Asami was that they were both successful, young female CEOS that had taken over their father’s company and also made waves by dating women. Though Asami hadn’t dated a stripper yet. “That’s definitely one of your strengths. You’ve got a regal air about you and you’ve always been good at diplomacy, and I’d say you were capable of that before your dreams. They just helped.”
“Same goes for you,” ricocheted the Hylian, smiling fondly, and raised her glass. “It’s another nice thing to have in common, isn’t it? We’ll have to be each other’s rocks. Make sure we support one another while our field remains cut throat.”
All this hadn’t changed Asami for the worst, and Zelda hoped the same went for her - but it was good to have more to trust about this around.