Friends; Zelink, Modern (The Legend Of Zelda)

You Did It Wrong

The party was as she had expected. The costumes were fun to look at, but apart from that the party was complete and utter chaos, at least in her eyes. Couples were making out left and right, and she could already smell the alcohol in the air.

Zelda let out a sigh and Link laid his hand on her shoulder. "You really don't like these parties, do you?"

Zelda was in the middle of shaking her head when Dark and Lana appeared. His arm was around her small waist, and her blue hair was up in a side ponytail. The hue matched that of her costume. What was she supposed to be? A ballerina? No... A witch in a tutu?

"Glad you made it Zels," Dark greeted. "I've gotta say when I said you had to bring a date, I didn't expect..." His eyes trailed over to Link. "This."

The hand on her shoulder tightened its grip as Link curled his fingers, as if he was resisting making a fist. "Surprise," Link replied, and then he dropped his hand to hers and pulled her away.

Link lost them quickly, they didn't even try to follow. They were probably just laughing or something because of their little escape. He finally stopped on the balcony outside, it wasn't empty, but he didn't care, it was better than the crowd inside. "I'm sorry I made you come to this."

"You didn't make me. I agreed to."

"Why?" he asked. "If you hate parties so much, then why come?"

"Because you asked."

Link looked slightly confused. "How is that any different than me forcing you?"

"Because you asked," she repeated.

A look of such bewilderment crossed his face that Zelda couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"I don't understand," he said as he looked at her, but a smile was pulling at the edge of his mouth.

"It's the fact that you asked me to come. You didn't say 'you have to come with me,'" she said. "You asked 'would you go with me?' and that was so much nicer than any invitation I'd ever received before." Zelda smiled slightly. "I do hate parties...but..." She looked away from him and leaned against the railing.

Link moved beside her. "But what?"

Zelda blushed slightly, and she made sure she that he couldn't see. "But I... I wanted to be your date," she said, and then immediately regretted every single word. Is there an undo button for conversations? No? Well, that's unfortunate, may as well jump off the balcony now. Way to go, Zelda, you can't even keep your own secrets.

Link remained silent for a long time. Well, it seemed like a long time when waiting for a reply to something so... emotional. He seemed cautious as he said, "You...only came..." he hesitated. "...because you wanted to be my date?"

Slowly, as though fighting with herself to deny it she turned to Link, and though she still avoided his gaze, she nodded.

A small smile split his face, and then it grew larger with each passing second. "What do you say we get out of here?"

Zelda eyes widened slightly, but she didn't even hesitate. "Oh yes."

Link slipped his hand into hers once more and interlocked their fingers. "Let's go."

Together they wound their way through the crowd, but when they reached the door they met with a resistance they hadn't anticipated.

"Are you leaving?" Lana asked as she and Dark blocked the exit.

"Yeah, actually," Zelda replied.

Dark smirked. "I don't think you should leave quite yet. We haven't even gotten to the good part of the night." His dark eyes seemed to glitter even in the dimly lit room. Maybe his vampire costume wasn't so far from reality.

It was amazing how different of a reaction that smirk gave her than Link's smirk did. Even though they looked so much alike, Dark's repulsive, cocky attitude made her want to slap him, or maybe even kick him. Or...

Without dropping her left hand from Link's, she reached up behind her and pulled her sword free from its sheath. She held it pointed towards Dark's smirk. "Move."

His eyes narrowed as he looked at the object held towards him. "I don't think so."

Zelda's sword faltered slightly; it was heavy in her hand. Dark obviously didn't realize it was real; blunt as it was.

The sound of metal sliding against metal announced that Link had drawn his sword as well, to add his might to hers. He hadn't even dropped her hand but held onto the sword steadily with his left.

Zelda smirked slightly as they both stepped forwards; their swords hung in the air inches away from Dark's face.

"Oh come on, you aren't a knight," he mocked, looking at Link with disbelief. "You're just dressed like one. You're a loser wearing a costu-"

A loud clang, heard by seemingly all the party, brought almost everyone's attention to her. Zelda's sword dropped to the ground, not that anyone looked at the sword, or at Dark's metal mask that had been knocked to the floor. No, they were all looking at Dark's bloodied nose and Zelda's clenched fist.

Her face was screwed up in anger as she stalked closer to Dark. "You don't even know him."

Dark held his hand to his bleeding nostrils as if trying to hold in his escaping dignity. "I know him better than you do, Princess."

A deadly calm swept away her angry expression and she bent to pick up her fallen sword. "Not in the ways that matter, Dark," she said, and then grabbed Link's hand again and lead him out of the open doorway. She only made it to the end of the block when...

"Zelda!"

She stopped and turned to him. "What?"

"Your hand..."

Zelda looked down and her eyes widened, for even in the gloom she could tell her hand was bloody. She blinked in confusion. "It doesn't hurt."

"It will..." he said, holding her hand gently in his as he examined it. When he looked up at her, his eyes were almost sad, but they were also glinting with admiration. "You really shouldn't have punched him like that."

"What's wrong with punching Dark? I bet half the people there have wanted to do that for a long time," she defended.

"No, that was brilliant," he said with a smirk. "What I meant was that you did it wrong. You should have either punched him in the cheek or hit him with your palm, then it wouldn't have hurt you so bad."

"I wasn't really thinking..." Zelda admitted sheepishly.

Link pulled her hand gently up to his face and carefully pressed his lips to the undamaged skin. "Thank you for sticking up for me."