COUGH UH im a day late for this one sorry uh. i felt like i was forcing myself to write yesterday so i couldnt finish this chapter on time because i wanted it to actually turn out good instead of being forced. not sure if i'll get todays prompt done tonight or if itll be late on tomorrow again lol oopsie. regardless the fic continues :)
@zelinkcommunity
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COURSE CORRECTION CHAPTER 4 - ACROSS THE CITY
"So uh, where were you thinking of spending the night?" Link asked.
The two had made their way back to the big city (steering very far away from the city hall despite it being marked as "safe", for Zelda's comfort), and now were sitting at a bus stop, awaiting the next bus. After painstakingly figuring out where to get the bus tickets from, of course.
"Well, I checked the map while we were sitting here, and there's an inn on the other side of the city where we could probably stay until either Alfonzo picks us up or we decide to wander around some more tomorrow morning." Zelda said, showing her phone screen to Link, which, indeed had the inn on it.
Link blinked, processing. Staying at an inn would be nice, but that would probably cost a ton of money. Still though, it would be better than sleeping on the side of the road again.
"What are the prices? Do we have enough?" He asked.
Zelda gave a "hm" type of noise and clicked on the inn to scroll down and see what it's prices were. Despite having his interest be more old or ancient technology (for example what the Lokomo used before the Pirate Queen and her crew settled into the land) Link had to admit that being able to just get on the inn's website directly through the global map was incredibly handy.
Zelda brought her phone closer to her as if that would help her understand the prices better, and so Link looked away. He didn't want to be nosy just staring at her screen.
Link sat in silence while Zelda opened up her purse and checked how many rupees she had on her, and then looked up at Link.
...He really really really needed to stop being reminded of the whole "sign incident" every time she looked at him. It had been at least 2 hours since—so the both of them had mostly shaken off any adrenaline and awkward feelings about it by now, but for Link specifically that was much easier said than done.
"I hope this isn't rude, but how much money do you have on you right now?" Oh. That's all she wanted.
"Uh," Link began, getting his wallet out of his backpack to check. "63 rupees. Wait, no—64."
Zelda then starting doing little motions with her hands in a counting method. Link didn't understand how people could just... do mental math. But Zelda was especially good at it.
"That's should be enough then. You don't mind chipping in?" Zelda questioned.
"If it means we aren't sleeping on the sidewalk again I don't mind." Link smiled. "I have more money at home and we should be getting home by tomorrow."
"Perfect!" Zelda beamed, looking very satisfied and happy with herself.
And now Link was happy too. To a degree he wished his emotions weren't so easily puppeted around by anything that had to do with her, but at least this time it was happiness and not sadness (or extreme fear).
Now they just had to wait for the bus to show up.
...
It showed up eventually. Zelda was getting super impatient by the time it had finally appeared in the distance, to a point where this time Link was the one to start teasing her.
The bus slowed to a stop as the doors opened. Link and Zelda were the only ones at the stop they were waiting at, but there were tons of other people inside the bus already. Zelda walked in first, as she usually did, and both of them put their tickets in the little ticket thing and found a seat.
Or, what was available of a seat. At least neither of them had to sit next to some random guy, but Zelda was able to get the last remaining seat close to where Link was only able to stand. No one said a word, and the bus began to move to it's next destination.
"We should probably keep looking at the map so we dont miss where the inn is." Link told her.
"Oh! Good idea." Zelda responded.
So the two of them kept track of where they were. They used Zelda's phone and ended up shifting positions a bit so both of them could see the screen.
One stop.
Another stop.
"How far is this place, Zelda?" Link asked, a bit cautiously.
"On the other side of the city, from what I could tell." Zelda told him.
Link nodded in acknowledgement. He didn't realize the inn was that far, but at least he had some security that they hadn't missed it.
A couple stops later, Zelda abruptly stood up and dragged Link towards the exit door.
"What's—?" Link started, trying not to think too much about the contact between them.
"I almost missed the stop." Zelda admitted.
Link laughed as the two stepped out into a new side of the city and Zelda let go of his arm.
"Were you distracted?" he asked.
"...Maybe."
Link was about to continue talking before they both turned a corner and got blinded by the sun, falling to the horizon.
"Crap, What time is it?!" Link looked away and went to check the time on his phone while Zelda muttered something about regretting not bringing sunglasses on this trip.
6:40 PM. Had it actually been that long? Days seemed to go by so fast when the two hung out together.
"It's almost 7." Link said as he and Zelda began to continue walking.
"Good thing we figured out where to sleep." Zelda chuckled.
Good thing indeed. Following the map, they eventually got there within the half-hour: a nice, but not too fancy looking building, with a white exterior and a maroon colored interior.
"Not bad." Zelda hummed, approaching the registry counter.
The worker, a pale colored Goron, looked up from the computer they had on their desk to greet the two.
"Good evening! Are you here to stay the night?" They asked, cheerfully.
"Yes!" Zelda said.
She knew how introverted Link was and 9 times out of 10 she was the one to do the talking-with-strangers thing. Which he appreciated.
"Okay." The worker said, "Two rooms for—"
"We only have enough for one room." Zelda said.
"WH—" Link covered his mouth. He decided to not continue whatever shock he was going to say.
Sure. One room. He had to admit to himself he wasn't opposed to this, he was simply... shocked? Surprised? Stunned beyond belief?
The worker's face morphed into a slight frown.
"...That will be 100 rupees."
"Perfect." Zelda said, trying to upkeep a positive attitude despite this, "That's pretty much all the money we have."
She glanced at Link for a split second before paying, and the Goron walked away from their desk to show the two the way.
The entire walk upstairs was incredibly awkward between all 3 of them. Eventually they got to the room; white walls with everything else being accents of that maroon color they had seen in the entrance. The evening sun was shining through a window, casting an orange glow upon the majority of the room.
The worker then turned to Link.
"I'll get the spare air mattress."
They then walked back down the stairs.
"Uh..." Link started.
He didn't know what to say. To be fair he would probably prefer the air mattress over sleeping in the same bed. Not that he didn't want that, but he didn't want any more weird looks from the workers of this place and he also really, REALLY didn't want to continue conversing with Zelda about all of this stuff. Especially after earlier.
She looked just as weird about it as he did, luckily.
"This is the only place I could find on the map." She said, moving her hair back, "I wish it wasn't so expensive for two rooms."
Link tried to get himself together. "I mean—I'm sleeping on the floor anyways—"
He hesitated for a moment,
"I mean after earlier thats probably for the, uh..."
He was probably making it worse. Luckily Zelda just smiled (perhaps even a bit bashfully) at him, and began to change the course of the conversation after noticing something on the TV stand.
"Ooh—there's video games!"
Link sighed in relief. This conversation could continue another time. He walked over next to her and the two started looking through the games. Eventually they both decided to play this multiplayer fighting game where you battle against each other in various arenas.
"This one looks like fun." Zelda said, with that competitive smirk she always had when any kind of challenge between the two of them occurred.
Link wouldn't mind a challenge like this. It would get his mind off of everything. Zelda seemed a bit stressed over what happened too, so it would probably get her mind off of it as well.
He did wonder though. Did she actually want something from him? Something beyond a friendship? The sign incident made it clear that there was definitely something there—that was direct flirting and Link was aware of that, but she always tried to get reactions out of him? Maybe this was just another one of those that went a little bit chaotic. He didn't know. Oh, he wasn't getting his mind off of it, was he.
Zelda sat up on the edge of the bed, hanging her legs over the front as if it was a chair. After a bit of hesitation, Link did the same. She didn't seem to mind the two both sitting there, so Link hoped it was okay. Link was quickly handed the remote because Zelda couldn't figure out how the controls on this particular TV worked, but he figured it out pretty quick.
The game menu was booted up, and they began to play. Then there was a character selection screen.
"Hm." Zelda hummed, looking over the possible options.
Link realized he was just watching her skim over all the characters rather than picking his own, so he lifted the controller and began to choose.
And this lasted a while. Not because Zelda was picky, no, she figured out which character she liked the most pretty quick. It was because Link had to read the descriptions and stats.
Of every.
Single character.
"Are you done yet?" Zelda chuckled, looking at him.
"Almost." Link stated.
He needed to beat her at something for once. Zelda seemed to pick her character purely off of aesthetic, but Link secretly was paying attention to what he could read of her character's stats. She picked this cool metal armored thing, complete with what looked like horns and pink eyes. This thing had a lot of damage and defense, but it wasn't agile in the slighest. If Link picked a character that was significantly faster, but still had a decent amount of damage it could deal, he had a high chance of winning.
"Okay." He said, pressing the button and selecting his character; a miniblin that had a pokey little spear and big eyes.
"You kind of look like him." Zelda giggled.
"I DO NOT!" Link responded, causing Zelda to explode with laughter.
"You kinda do!" She managed to say, "big eyes? Short?"
"I'm not THAT short!" Link said, but he was laughing too.
He liked this. The two of them hanging out and being silly together. But he also liked the more recent times when Zelda flirted with him, he realized. He wasn't opposed to it. He didn't mind it. He realized the reason he was so stressed about it was because he didn't want to lose what he already had: this. He didn't want to lose a friend. And he also didn't want to go through the stress of admitting everything to her. Admitting how much he loved her beyond a friend.
...Why couldn't this be easy?
Zelda laughed and pressed the "OK" button, and now they had to select an arena.
"Oh!" Link instantly saw an arena that had to do with the Lokomo. Specifically their technology. "Can we do this one?"
"Leave it to you to find the train-related arena the second it shows up on screen." Zelda teased.
"Is that a yes?"
She started laughing again, and Link laughed too.
"Yeah, yeah, since you want it so bad."
The Lokomo arena was selected, and the two began the match.
Zelda instantly tried to hit Link with her character's sword, but neither of them knew the controls so they were both kind of mashing buttons until they figured it out. It didn't take them long, they grew up in an age of video games after all. So she tried to hit him again, but Link dodged out of the way.
It took a while for Zelda's character to turn back around. Link was fast. He was agile. If he got hit he would probably get oneshotted, but if he kept his distance and managed to hit her before she could turn back around again...
BAM!
BAM BAM BAM!
He stabbed her with his spear a few times before she got in the possible range to hit him again. Link jumped out of the way just in time.
Zelda huffed.
"Oh I'm gonna get you for that!"
Link smirked.
"Try."
This continued onward, Link managing to deal damage to Zelda when she was at her least agile moments. They were both really good at it; Zelda improved and learned when to not turn around and when was the ideal time to turn around, and Link had actually been hit with her sword, with only half health remaining.
It was a close call. The two were furiously mashing the buttons on their controllers to try and win the battle, and, Link spun around, preparing to strike—
Zelda hit him again, and he lost the battle.
"AWW NO!" He exclaimed, but he wasn't upset. This was the most fun he's had since they both showed up for that alliance mission all those days ago.
"HA!" Zelda elbowed him in the side. "I WIN!"
Link scoffed affectionately. But the room was much darker now, and in his noticing of this he turned around to the window, and, yeah, the sun had set. At least the game put some light into the room so they weren't in complete darkness. Link was comfortable and didn't feel like getting up, and Zelda seemed to convey that she wasn't going to move any time soon, either.
"How long were we playing that match for?" He asked.
Someone knocked on the door before Zelda could answer.
"Come in!" She told them.
Link froze a bit. This was definitely about the air mattress thing. Well, even if it disappointed him a bit he may as well go through with it. He didn't want to break any rules and he especially didn't want to make Zelda uncomfortable by sleeping together. And he definitely didn't have the courage to ask.
The door was opened, and the same worker ducked under the roof of the door (they were very tall) carrying the mattress.
Link and Zelda both looked at each other, both wishing that they didn't have to deal with the same worker who frowned at them. They had paid for this place, after all. Zelda tried not to laugh at Link's expression, which he assumed was a form of disgust.
The Goron dropped the mattress onto the floor beside the bed, adjusting it so that it was perfectly straight and, well, not crooked at any angles. They then set the air pump down, murmured something that neither Link or Zelda could hear clearly enough to understand, and left the room.
"I'm so close to asking if we can get a different worker." Zelda said, mere seconds after the door was closed.
"I don't like them either." Link said. "They seemed to be opposed to...us."
He wasn't going to finish that sentence. Not when he was already nervous from what he knew the worker was upset about, or at least trying to prevent.
"Yeah." Zelda said, plainly.
Link hopped off the bed and started to hook up the air pump to the mattress. Zelda just watched.
"You gonna help, or are you just gonna stare at me?" Link teased.
Oops. That might have been flirty actually. He quickly looked away back to the air pump and started to push the air into the mattress.
"What would I help with? That's a one person job, doofus." Zelda said, putting her hands on her hips.
Link tried not to blush and Zelda started looking through the other characters and arenas in the game they were playing. Eventually he got the mattress to a sleep-able state and hopped back on the edge of the bed next to Zelda for another match.
...
Link won the next match, only fueling Zelda's competitiveness more. To be fair, she might have been a little disappointed that Link was essentially being non-verbally forced to sleep separately from her, but it wasn't a big deal. They weren't even dating yet, so thinking that was a possibility was probably a stretch.
She ignored that train of thought and resumed her focus onto the game. Oh. She was almost dead from not paying attention.
Zelda quickly stumbled back into playing the game properly, and Link gave a nervous laugh at her slip-up.
Hit, hit, hit, Zelda had won the battle. Probably because she had chosen a character this time that wasn't an immobile hunk of metal.
Link yawned. "Rematch?"
"You sure? You sound tired." Zelda smirked, "I may just end up winning again."
Link yawned a second time.
"Nah, I've got this."
Zelda shrugged. This would be an easy win, probably. Though, she did prefer her battles to be a lot more fair than "the opponent is falling asleep right next to me and I have every advantage".
They chose some new characters this time, Link drifted around the menu until picking a character that seemed to be a beamos (which considering his interest in old technology it made sense, beami were rarely seen outside of ancient dungeons, and people like, never explored those in today's age), and Zelda picked some pirate bokoblin thing.
The battle began. Link couldn't move, due to, y'know, being a mechanical statue, but he still consistently shot beams from the statue's eye at her little pirate thingy. This time Zelda was the agile one. She managed to dodge beam after beam, eventually getting hit by one, but Link didn't say anything about it. And then, eventually...
The beams stopped. Zelda looked to her side and Link was slowly slumping over, barely holding onto his controller as he vaguely leaned in Zelda's direction. His eyes were closed.
Zelda tried not to laugh. "I thought you said you could handle another battle."
"...mmmhmm..."
Yeah, he was out. Or at least mostly.
What a dork. She thought, with an air of affection she ended up surprising herself with.
To be honest, she was tired too. It was a mentally exhausting day for her (from... multiple incidents), and if she were to fall asleep here, like this, she wouldn't mind.
Link was still slowly shifting around trying to find a spot to put his head in his half-consciousness. Zelda smiled at him and gently leaned back, trying to make as little movement as possible to grab the blankets she could reach from the front of the bed. After grabbing what she could without waking him, she carefully wrapped the blankets around the both of them, bringing Link's wobbly head over to her shoulder.
He vaguely smiled and... made a coo sound? Like a dove? Kind of? Whatever it was, it was some sort of humming sound that Zelda instantly found adorable.
Good. So he wouldn't be upset by this. Zelda could guess with tons of evidence that this is what he wanted, but to be 100% sure still wasn't a possibility until now. With a reaction that, instead of flustered fear, was just... comfort.
She supposed being barely conscious really did reveal a person's more direct thoughts. Less brain power to worry about them and react differently.
Zelda took the controller from Link's hand before he dropped it on the floor, set both of their controllers to the side and turned the TV off, just barely being able to reach its remote. She she brought them both down to a laying position (verrrry carefully so she wouldn't wake him) and just processed.
The room was completely dark, and her eyes hadn't adjusted from the light of the TV screen yet, but she just layed there, hand over his shoulder, even though she couldn't see him.
She loved him so much. They were friends first and foremost, but she also loved him beyond that. Zelda couldn't help but smile as she stared in his direction.
And on an act of impulse, she leaned in so their foreheads were touching. Not a kiss, but just, another act of trust.
And to her surprise, he leaned in, too.
