perseverating
v. repeating or prolonging an action or thought long after the stimulus that prompted it has ceased; fixating
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"Ten hours every day? I'd rather fall on my sword."
An awkward laugh spilled from the princess's chest. "It's not so bad. I do have an affinity for learning."
"Yeah, but ten hours?" Midna repeated with more emphasis. "That's actual ass, Princess. I could handle twenty minutes max."
In the short two hours since they'd left the Yiga's canyon, Zelda decided that she quite liked Midna. Her tongue was sharp and her humor crass. Zelda envied the way she spoke without reservation. In all her life, the closest female friend Zelda had was her mother, who died when she was six. Now the clerics were the only women in her life, and she would hardly call that dynamic a friendship.
She was sad to acknowledge Midna would be parting ways when they reached the stable soon to return the Thunder Helm to Gerudo Town.
"That's why Her Highness is really smart and you're really dumb," commented Link, several paces ahead.
Zelda's stomach somersaulted at the offhand compliment.
Lover. Bedded.
"Says the guy who thought ostriches weren't birds!" Midna barked.
Link spun and threw his arms wide. "They can't fly! Birds fly!"
"No, birds have feathers and lay eggs."
"That can't be right. That would make you a bird, too."
"Terrible comeback. It doesn't even make sense." Midna picked up her pace to continue the argument beside Link.
Despite their casualness around her, and despite spending all those hours amongst the knights in the training yard, Zelda still felt entirely out of place. She was an imposter in this strange comradery between them. The way Link and Midna interacted with each other was overtly familiar, free. It wasn't hard to ascertain that they'd had a long history together.
It made Link seem a lot more human. Zelda didn't like the person she had previously established herself as around him. But he'd reminded her of all the things that she was supposed to be, and it crushed her. Link was skilled without effort; Zelda devoted over two-thirds of her life to Hylia and she still wasn't good enough for her divine birthright.
While Zelda feared and shied from protecting others' lives, Link had become a knight, jumped in after that carriage during the Blood Moon, followed her to the Yiga syndicate's secret hideout...
He was heroic. She was pathetic.
The only reprieve from the suffocating weight of her inadequacy was her booksmarts. But Link was streetwise, and outside of the castle—out in the real world where it actually mattered—her knowledge didn't hold a candle to his. She'd screamed out their location to monsters, cowered near apple trees, wasted a life-saving resource, trusted a group of kidnappers despite being advised against it...
The only thing she liked about herself had lost its worth, too.
Worst of all, Link undermined all her frustration by being so damned jovial about it. Hating someone who hates you back was a warranted defense. But lashing out against someone who's only trying to do their job is just plain priggish.
"Princess!" Link whipped around, startling her from her thoughts. "Are cucumbers fruits or vegetables?"
"What?" Her mind caught up before he could repeat the question. "A cucumber is a fruit."
YOU ARE READING
Fortune Favors the Courageous
Fanfiction"Princess!" he yelled after her. "Where are you going?" "Back to the castle," she replied without stopping. "Not by yourself you're not!" "I'm sorry,"-she whipped around-"I didn't realize you were my father?" "Your father, the king, would execute me...
