Your battle performance rating with procrastination is very weak

“Hey. Who was it?” he greeted as he walked forward, and Artemis hesitated. “...Arty? What’s wrong?”

Her fingers tightened around her hair. “It was my mother,” she muttered, hunching over a bit more. “I... hung up on her.”

Warriors blinked in surprise, and slowly sat down beside her, giving her a worried look. Artemis almost never spoke of her parents. In fact, Warriors hadn’t even known her mother was even living. She certainly hadn’t been at their wedding.

“What did she want?” Warriors asked.

“She wanted to see me again. I guess she changed her mind when she told me to get out of her life and never show my face to her again,” she said with a bitter laugh. “Probably because I’ve made a life for myself, and she wants in on it.”

“Artemis, I didn’t know your mother was alive,” Warriors said as he sat beside her, and Artemis grimaced.

“She is. Alive and kicking.”

“That’s a bad thing, huh?”

Artemis looked like she wrestled with herself a moment. “...It makes my life more difficult.”

“In what way?” Warriors asked, and Artemis rubbed her forehead.

“That’s... going to take some explaining.”

She stood and they moved into the living room, Artemis sitting heavily on the couch. She seemed uncomfortable in a way that was unusual for her, and as Warriors sat beside her, she set her head on his shoulder, her expression rather difficult to read.

Warriors put his arm around her, and Artemis let out a long sigh.

“My parents... didn’t love each other,” she said with some difficulty. “You know my father was a businessman, a rather successful one. He wanted a family to carry it on, and found my mother, who pretty much just married him because he was rich. They had me, but father wanted a boy, and despite how they tried, they never had any more children. Father got over it, but my mother never let me forget.”

“Was it bad?” Warriors asked as he set his hand over hers, and she nodded.

“I can’t remember a day they didn’t argue. I’m certain my mother only stayed with him as long as she did for the money— she divorced him when I was seven. They shared custody a while, but when I was eleven, my mother said she wanted nothing to do with me and quite literally threw me out of her house. And my father... he tried his best to care for me after that, but he was too busy to give me the attention I needed. He found Impa, and she became my caretaker. She’s more my mother than my real mother ever was.”

Artemis exhaled, and tiredly rubbed her eyes before she continued.

“I think I’ve told you before that my father passed away the same year we started dating. He had his protégé he left the company to, but I inherited a lot of his money. I either gave it away or dropped it into savings though— I suppose I was afraid if people knew then I’d end up like my poor father," she admitted softly. "Anyway, I would guess my mother’s been trying to track me down ever since he passed to try and get a piece of it.”

She closed her eyes, and Warriors gently rubbed her arm.

“I’m sorry, Zelda. That’s a lot,” Warriors said softly. “And I thought my family was complicated.”

Artemis gave him a smile, but she didn’t laugh, still looking unsettled.

Warriors lightly kissed her hair. “Hey. Don’t worry. We can handle one greedy woman with an agenda. If you don’t want her near us, just say the word, and I’ll make it so you don’t even have to see her face if she shows up. And I’ll get Sky and everyone in on it too. We’ll keep her away if we need to.”

“I know. I just worry about what she might try,” Artemis murmured. “She’s a horrible woman, Link. I assumed she’d never want anything more to do with me, but... somehow she got our number, she might know where we live. I didn’t tell her she has a grandson, but what if she finds out?”

Warriors tightened his arm around her. “We won’t let her do anything, Arty. It’ll be all right.”

Artemis sighed heavily, and her breath brushed Warriors’ damp hair. “I know. It just makes me angry, I thought she was done making my life miserable. It took everything I had not to give her a piece of my mind over the phone.”

“Well if she calls again, I’ll gladly tell her a thing or two,” Warriors said cheerfully, and his tone of voice pulled a small laugh out of Artemis.

“I think I’d like to see that. Goodness, she’d hate you if you met.”

“From what you’ve said about her, I think the feeling would be mutual,” Warriors said, and squeezed her hand. “I vote we pull out that extra cake in the fridge.”

“Weren’t we saving that for tomorrow?” Artemis asked as she nestled up against him, and Warriors shrugged.

“It’ll taste just as good today, if not better. Upsetting phone calls call for extra dessert. Malon says that’s the rule, and who am I to argue with her?” he said with a wise nod, and Artemis smiled as she gave him a kiss.

“All right. Malon wisdom is inarguable,” she said as they finished the kiss, and both stood to go get the cake.