“Who kidnapped you?” Who: Link and Zelda When: Saturday, 4/20 Where: Link’s home What: After a shopping date Rating/Warnings: Low/None (There’s adorable kissing in here! XD) Status: Complete!
By the end of their shopping excursion, Link had quite a few bags to show for it. He hadn’t broken the bank, but it was more money than he could ever remember spending on clothes before. He realized he had a weakness for buying anything Zelda said he looked good in. It had nothing to do with vanity and everything to do with the keeping the light in her eyes going.
They’d stopped back at his house to drop things off, including Link, since they’d used Zelda’s car service again. His old truck had a flatbed, but it wasn’t good for carting around delicate shopping bags. And wasn’t good for taking into the fancy shopping districts, either.
“You want anything,” Link asked, walking toward the kitchen. “Water?”
Zelda was excited to get to see the inside of Link’s house. It was like a glimpse into his life, and she was so curious about everything Link related. She was wide-eyed as they walked through the house to the kitchen. "Sure!" She said, grinning happily. "Whatever you're having?"
Once they were in the kitchen she looked to see if the picture from Disneyland was really on the fridge.
Link’s house looked as though it hadn’t been updated since the 1940s. Oh sure, the refrigerator and stove had been updated out of necessity, but they were still from the 90s. As long as things did what they were supposed to do, Link wasn’t one to think about replacing them to stay fashionable. He kept the house neat and in many ways, it was quaint, like a country cottage.
“Oh, I’m just having water,” he replied, turning on the sink and filling up glasses. He glanced sideways at the Disneyland photos which were in fact on the refrigerator door.
It may have been a little outdated, but Zelda thought his place was homey. Her home was drastically different, having been built only a decade ago and was filled with the latest designs and practically brand new appliances. But that was for another time.
"Water it is." Zelda moved into the room and leaned against the table, her grin brightening and a blush spreading across her cheeks at the sight of her picture on his fridge. "So, you are thinking about me when you eat," she said, teasing lightly.
Link crossed the room to stand in front of her, holding out a glass. “And drink,” he said, giving a mock toast. It had been another really great day together. Link was surprised by how at ease he felt in what he considered to be Zelda’s world. Or maybe it was just being around Zelda. Even though she had a way of making his anxieties spike, she also had a way of making them vanish. He smiled.
Link was probably one of the sweetest guys Zelda head ever met. She found herself thinking about him probably more than she should have, and every time his face came into her mind it made her smile. She hadn't thought about it all day, but the way he lifted his glass in a toast reminded her of the dream she’d had the other night. It hadn't been much of a surprise that Link was in her dreams, but the way that he saved her like a knight from old was refreshing and exhilarating. It put him in a new light in her mind.
"You were in my dream the other night, you know." She said. Then she sipped from her glass.
Link had been mid-drink, and he sputtered and choked for a moment. Stepping out of the way, he covered his mouth, trying to clear his throat and collect himself as quickly as possible. “Yeah?” he squeaked out.
She had no idea he would have that kind of reaction to the mention of a dream. When he coughed and spluttered she stepped over to pat him on the back between his shoulder blades. "Yeah... Are you okay?" Now she was more concerned about him choking than about telling him her dream.
Link took a breath. Okay... So this was happening... He’d assumed it was inevitable, but still he felt caught off-guard. Unprepared. But there was no turning back. “What was it about?”
"I'd been kidnapped," Zelda said. She figured she'd skip ahead to the part where he came in. "You came and saved me. Like a Knight in shining Armor... Though, you were wearing green." She smiled tentatively. Green was more his color than shining armor, anyway.
If there was any color left in Link’s face, it was gone completely now. Carefully, and trying to look cool, he lowered himself to a seat at the kitchen table. “I... Wow, I...” He had no idea what to say.
Zelda didn't really get what the big deal was. It was just a dream, right? She didn't know too much about the incredibly realistic dreams... though if she'd thought about it, she would have realized that this particular dream was super realistic. More like memories than a dream. She hadn’t thought about it, though.
Now she was a little worried she'd said something wrong. "I think it was because of the Sword in the Stone," she said, lowering herself into a second chair, opposite his. "I'm sorry, should I not have said anything?"
Oh... Link knit his brow for a moment. “Oh!”
He quickly put it together -- as quick as his brain worked anyway. The sword in the stone at Disney. She probably thought the dream was just a dream! Some of the color returned to his cheeks. He took a sip of water. “No, I was just... Nevermind. I rescued you. That’s pretty cool. Of me.” He was still stumbling over his words.
"Yeah," Zelda smiled, though she was a little apprehensive still. It seemed like he was nervous about something she'd said, but she couldn’t figure out why. "You were very brave with your sword." She said, the smile spreading a little. He'd been very handsome, too, though she kept that part to herself. "It was a nice dream." The part with him in it, anyway.
“Who kidnapped you?” he dared to ask. He wanted to make sure that they’d had the same dream. If she said Merlin or something, this all went out the window.
"Oh, some bad guy named Ganon," Zelda said. For a dream, she sure remembered all the details. "It's a bit of a long and convoluted story. I had this relic, the Triforce of Wisdom, and I knew he wanted it. So I broke it into pieces and hid it before he came for me." She crinkled her nose up as she smiled. "Sounds crazy, doesn't it?"
Link’s face went white again. He took another sip of water, a sip that was more like a gulp. Okay, so she was definitely dreaming about Hyrule. Honestly, he couldn’t remember the part about where Princess Zelda broke the Triforce into pieces, but he was pretty sure there were gaps in his dream story.
“About as crazy as any dream,” he said with a gulp, lowering his glass.
Zelda chuckled softly. "My dreams do get pretty wacky, that's for sure. This one was just more interesting because you were in it." She shrugged gently, not thinking too much about it. "I should write it all down and look up the dream meanings in my dream dictionary." She added, giving him a grin.
“Well, if you dream about me as a knight in shining armor, that can’t be bad. For me.” There was still nervousness in his voice, but it was beginning to subside.
With a laugh, she nodded. “I think my subconscious likes you.” Her cheeks were rather pink now, and she lifted her glass to sip from it, hiding behind the rim. “Turning you into a hero, and everything.”
Link’s heart had already been pounding, but it somehow seemed to worker harder still. His skin tingled from the rush of blood. He lowered his head and chuckled shyly. It was one of those moments when words eluded him. “That’s... nice.”
It was absolutely adorable. Zelda's smile brightened at the look on his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you," she said, though her smile contradicted the words. "I thought I'd made it pretty clear by now how much I enjoy spending time with you." Her own cheeks flushed at the admission. She felt vulnerable saying it. Hopefully he did, indeed, feel the same way.
Link rolled his glass back and forth between his palms, fidgeting even as he tried to put himself back together following Zelda’s dream admission. He wished he was one of those people who always had something meaningful to say. Just saying I like you, too didn’t feel like enough. So Link continued to grin, he felt, like an idiot, staring into the table while his face turned bright red.
Hopefully that meant what she thought it meant. Poor Zelda was dealing with a man of little words, and that was new to her. Refreshing, but new. She wasn't sure how to handle it. She sipped from her glass to give herself something to do, suddenly feeling a little nervous.
The silence in the room was turning into an awkward silence. Link chewed on his bottom lip, trying to think of some way to break it. He knew Zelda’s driver was outside waiting for her. If he didn’t come up with something, she’d probably have no choice by to say goodnight prematurely; but all he could think of was offering her more water. He told his brain to work harder. He spent way too much time with wordless animals.
“Er, now I have to go through all my old clothes and get rid of stuff, I guess,” he said at last. His eyes had fallen on the shopping bags in the hallway.
"That shouldn't be too hard," Zelda seemed to perk up now they were talking again. "Just toss anything with holes or stains. Unless they're work clothes," she added. The thought of him in stained overalls while milking cows was oddly sexy. She blushed a bit as her mind went to those thoughts. "If they're just for farming, it doesn't matter if they're stained. My gardening outfit has all sorts of stains on it."
Link’s laugh turned into something more comfortable sounding. “But they’re all work clothes,” he said. “And I’ll probably ruin everything I just bought, too.” His eyes focused on hers for a moment, taking in their soft, round shape. Zelda seemed too far away all of a sudden, at the other end of the table.
"You'd better not! You're going to need at least one or two outfits to wear when you take me out on dates," she responded, teasing a little. But it was true. She was certainly hoping for more dates.
“Okay, well I’ll put some things off to the side and save them,” Link said, his anxiety genuinely subsiding. Still, he gulped. “For the dates I do intend to take you on.” He shifted his weight in his chair, leaning back. His eyes met hers again and he managed to keep them there.
Saying he intended to take her on more dates was almost as good as saying he liked her, too. Zelda was relieved and giddy at that thought. Her cheeks went really really pink add her eyes got lost in his. He was warm and handsome, kind and funny, and he made her feel safe. Really safe. Suddenly she wished they were cuddling again, like in the car on the way home from Disneyland. "Good. Because I do intend to go on more dates with you."
Link felt himself well up inside with warmth, like his skin was capable of giving off steam. He swallowed, took a moment to collect his courage -- which was ample, despite his befuddlement over words. He was shy, but that wasn’t the same thing as meek.
Rising from his seat, he finally crossed to the other side of the table, and reaching for Zelda’s hand, he gave it a little tug. He wanted her to stand up.
How could she not accept that invitation? Zelda slipped her hand into his, turned her knees a bit, and lifted up to her feet. She kept her eyes locked on his, almost afraid to look away. Her heart was thumping in her chest, and her cheeks were a little sore from all the smiling.
Link was a man who needed signals when it came to women, but the way Zelda was looking at him now couldn’t have been more clear. He had to lower himself quite a bit to press his lips against hers. He didn’t mind. The kiss was simple, almost chaste. He reached for Zelda’s other hand so he could hold both at the same time.
For him, it was mind-meltingly wonderful to finally kiss her.
It was mind-meltingly wonderful for her, too. It felt like one of those Disney Princess kisses that happen at the end of the movie; it was a simple, sweet, innocent kiss between two people who had been working up to this moment for what felt like weeks.
Zelda was probably bright pink when she pulled back to look up into his eyes. Perhaps for the first time since they’d started spending time together, he had made her speechless.
His heart was doing flips, knocking against his rib cage. He’d just kissed the Princess of Hyrule, even if she didn’t realize who she was yet. It felt like something Link had wanted to do for centuries, not just weeks. He gulped, and his voice still cracked as he dared to say, “I hope you think it’s okay for a knight to kiss a princess.”
She squeezed his hands with her own, still holding onto them tightly. Her skin was smooth and cool, his felt rough, weathered and warm. She was falling in love with the way his hands felt wrapped around hers. “I’m just wondering what took you so long.” She responded softly, still looking up into his eyes.
“Did I take too long?” he asked, not anxious, but curious. “I wanted to be sure you wanted me to.”
“No,” Zelda said, shaking her head a little. She was smiling brightly as she looked up at him. “You took the perfect amount of time.” It was a wonderful ride. Too soon might have been too much, and too much later and she might have lost interest. (Okay, she probably wouldn’t have lost interest, but y’know.)
“You can do it again, if you want to.” She smirked, giving his hand another squeeze.
Link’s smile broke into a chuckle. “Okay, good, because I really want to.” He moved his hands to the small of Zelda’s back and kissed her again, a little more daringly this time as he parted his lips, but ever the gentleman. He breathed in the scent of her lipgloss and shampoo, a scent that felt familiar to him now.
The smirk on her face happily dissolved as he leaned in to kiss her again. Zelda went up on her toes just a little, her arms wrapping up and around his shoulders, and she returned his kiss. Kissing was easy, and fun, and she found that kissing Link was her favorite of all time. One of her hands slipped up from his shoulder to cup the side of his neck, her fingertips threading into the short hairs on the back of his head. She tipped her head to the side just slightly, and parted her lips to match his. Following his pace.
Her gentle touch on his neck sent dizzying waves through his scalp, down to his brain. Link found himself turning from side to side, swaying like there was a breeze in the room. Tilting his head in the opposite direction intensified the kiss just a bit. Really, the more he kissed her, the more he wanted to kiss her, but her ride was waiting. After a little while, he forced himself to break the kiss for now. For now.
He sure left her wanting more. Zelda was slightly out of breath as they reluctantly pulled apart, her eyes still closed. She swallowed. “I should probably say good night and head home.” She really didn’t want to. She wished she could stay a little longer.
“Yeah, probably,” Link repeated with a low sigh and a nod. “Here, I’ll walk you out.” He basically had to order his feet to move. And one of his hands just couldn’t let go of hers.
Zelda let him walk her out of his house, and to where the car was still waiting out front. The driver hopped out and moved around the car to open her door for her and Zelda gave him a quick “thank you.” Then she turned to Link, once more taking hold of both of his hands, and smiled as she looked up into his eyes. She felt like she was floating on air.
Link looked sideways at the driver, who was waiting with the door open. Then he looked down at Zelda’s hands in his. He had the strongest feeling that he was looking at a scene from his dreams. “Well... goodnight...” He gave her another kiss. And then for good measure, he gave her one more.
And, also for good measure, she stole one final kiss. It was playful. She was happy. Zelda squeezed both of his hands, feeling the wind pick up a little and whip her hair around a bit. “...I’ll talk to you soon.” It was chilly. She tore herself away from him a moment later, and climbed into the back of the waiting car.
The door was shut and Link was pretty sure the driver gave him a wink as he passed by. It wasn’t exactly professional, but it definitely made him smile. Something serious had just happened, both in Hyrule and here, in Southern California.
Through the tinted glass, it was impossible to see Zelda. There was only his reflection and the dark night sky behind him. Link watched himself wave and imagined she was waving back.
She was waving back. The car pulled away slowly at first, but picked up some speed. Zelda turned around to wave at him through the rear window, though it was tinted, too. Then she snatched up the blanket she had in the back, hugged it to her chest, and grinned to herself the whole ride home.