All In My Head: A Legend of Zelda Story

Chapter Four: The Boy

Trying to get this story out while working on a Valentine's Day special is exhausting. Fun, but exhausting.

~Feels

∆~∆~∆

He didn't seem to notice her until his race ended and he threw the controller down on the couch with a heavy sigh. Then his blue eyes locked onto her. They weren't cold, like Shad's, instead they were blocked and closed off.

Dear Hylia, he looks so much like-

"I bet they're wondering why I'm not at dinner," he said, unblinking. "Tell them I'm fine, I just needed some thinking time today."

Zelda swallowed. "Are you Link?" She asked.

He nodded. "Age seventeen." It was forced, rehearsed, almost pained.

"And what do you suffer from?"

Link's jaw clenched. The subject of his emotional pain was obviously a touchy subject. He didn't answer, standing up to turn off the TV.

Zelda watched him sit back down on the couch. "I have my issues," he said finally. He motioned for her to sit down next to her, but she shook her head.

"Do I still freak you out?" He asked, staring at the black screen.

She nodded timidly. Up close, there might have been something handsome about him if she wasn't so terrified of that face. Sharp blue eyes that covered an inner darkness, unruly hair that needed a good combing, and skin etched with secrets. Just like the one person she hated to think about.

"I'm sorry." He stood and left.

Half tempted to follow him, Zelda watched him walk down the hallway and slip into 327.

That kid is weird.

∆~∆~∆

"You met Link, right?" Ralis asked, shoving a bite of pancake in his mouth. "He's the nicest person here besides Miss Urbosa."

Zelda felt the same queasiness from last night tug at her stomach when she poked her breakfast. "Yeah, he's cool."

"He's been here for a long time," the little boy continued. "Longer than any of the rest of us. Not even Midna remembers being here without him."

Next to her, Shad was slumped in his seat, motioning to the empty chair next to Ilia. "Is he not coming?" He asked in his hollow, empty voice. "I was really hoping to talk to him about the new series I just finished."

"Again, Shad," Miss Urbosa said, "he asked to be excused. It's no one's fault. It was his personal choice."

Tetra made a face. "So are my scars and yet you say they're bad, so..."

Miss Urbosa stood abruptly and left, turning sharply on her heel. Tetra froze.

"I didn't mean it like that!" she cried, burying her face in her arms. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Daruk shifted in his seat, watching Miss Urbosa go inside. "She's really upset that you brought that up."

Tetra glared at him with tear filled eyes. "Gee, really?"

Zelda glanced up at Tetra. Thick red lines ran across her arms, scabbed over. One looked new.

Are breakfasts always so emotional?

Mipha cleared her throat nervously, silencing the table. She blushed. "So, um, Zelda, tell us a little bit about your gardening. You, heh, mentioned that you like to garden last night."

Zelda pulled her eyes away from Tetra and tried to smile at Mipha. "Well, I just recently started and it's really fun." She nearly choked on her orange juice when Tetra got up and left. What's with that girl? "My favorite part is looking through he flower catalogues."

"That's pretty neat, huh guys?" Mipha said awkwardly, trying to drum up some conversation at the table. She just got agitated looks.

"Look, Mipha," Midna started. "Maybe we just don't want to talk right now, okay?"

Mipha deflated but nodded. "Yeah, sorry."

The other kids shuffled and looked at each other or at the ground.

Zelda excused herself from the table. This was just like the time-

She climbed the stairs to the Big Room and grabbed a book off the shelf before melting into a couch. She felt the hostile glares of the other kids like thistles, poking through her jeans and sticking in her skin. Midna, and Tetra, and Shad...

They didn't know she was the problem, did they? None of them knew?

"Can I sit here?" Link's voice asked.

Zelda snapped back to reality. A trickle of sweat ran down her face but she forced a nod. "Go ahead," she said in a very small voice.

He sat down heavily, opening his own book and flipping through some pages. She felt the irresistible urge to get up and go but she was rooted in place.

"Again, I'm sorry I skipped breakfast." Link glanced at her. "I didn't want to push you."

He sighed and let the conversation drop. His book was a book of about average size.

"Do you read a lot?" Link asked, turning a page.

Zelda shook her head. "I'm always so busy. It's relaxing but there's never time."

"There's always time for a good book," he protested. "At least there should be."

She shrugged. "I used to read a lot and talk about books with my-" She paused, trying to get the words out, trying to sound natural, it shouldn't be so hard, why can't she say it?

Link didn't notice. "Why'd you stop?"

"It got hard to after the accident," she said quietly. "Hard to focus on the book instead of the accident."

"First time I picked up a book to actually read it was after mine," he said with a chuckle. "Guess that makes us opposites."

"And you know what they say about opposites."

He grinned. "They attract."

Zelda smiled back, feeling better. Why did she ever think that Link was odd or scary?

Maybe it was because she desperately needed someone to fill the gaping hole in her heart or maybe it was because she just wanted a friend, but she peeled away her dark and depressing past and showed her real self to Link. She showed him who she was, and for once she didn't feel like hiding behind the scarring accident or wasting away behind the locked door of her room.

Zelda was free for moments, and she intended to make it count.