Raising the Stakes; Zelink Coffee Shop AU (The Legend Of Zelda)

Chapter Thirty Five

1/19/18

~*~
Friday

(8:30 P.M)

I nodded. "Sudden," I repeated. "It's... well, we've only known each other for a month, and of that, only like this for the past week." My fingers tightened around his jacket.

"Like this?" he repeated, tilting his head to the side.

"Well... since you said... 'we're distant physically...'" I replied slowly.

His face split and he shook his head in broad strokes. "I cannot believe I said that to you."

I smirked a little bit. "And yet you did..."

"And for some... strange reason, you still agreed."

I lowered my head, eyes fixing on his jacket. "I told myself it was just research," I replied, raising one hand to my forehead. "I underestimated."

Link's gaze never swayed from me. "Underestimated what?"

I looked up and let the smirk show, sliding happily into a facade of confidence. "You."

"Me?" he replied, matching my smirk and narrowing his eyes.

"You..." I repeated, "And how feelings work. How fast they work."

"Feelings are a difficult thing to understand..." Link smiled. "But you actually convinced yourself it was just research?"

I put my head on his chest in a move that spent nearly all of my confidence. "Yeah... It was the only way I could accept it." I sighed. "I thought that we were both just acting for the deal to work and..." I trailed off. "Pessimism... sucks."

"Don't I know it," he replied, shaking his head. "But that's over now."

I chuckled. "You hear that, pessimism? You can just go now."

"May it remember the day it lost," he said, leaning down to kiss me on the cheek.

I grinned and closed my eyes. 

The moment dissolved into another hug.

After a few moments of blissful silence, I finally pulled back from the embrace. "Um... shouldn't we be moving my stuff upstairs?"

Link sighed, but his arm around my waist didn't move. "Yeah, we should be."

I didn't want to. Staying in here would be so much better. Just a little longer... just... perhaps just one more kiss.

Neither of us moved to let go of the other. I looked up at him, an ember burning slow in my butterfly-laced stomach. He met my eyes. Thoughts of telling him - warning him - how I'd never kissed before dove out of my mind. It seemed he didn't care earlier. He knew what he was doing... and somehow that didn't bother me. If anything, I was grateful I could escape the awkwardness that would surely have wrought.

I had no idea how to invite a kiss. Or initiate a kiss. Other than just saying so like I'd done before... but...

Link leaned in and gave me a soft kiss. My arms tightened around his back, and he did it again. Then he kissed my cheek, lingered for a moment, and drew back.

He lifted his hands from my waist, and I reluctantly dropped my arms and managed to force myself away. I grabbed my backpack and he took my suitcase as we left the room.

"You were in there for a while," Midna said, leaning against the wall. "Were you talking some more?"

My cheeks flooded with a blush but Link only stuck out his tongue.