The Flirt and the Introvert; Zelink Modern AU (Legend of Zelda)

Part 7

Their movie was excellent. She'd seen it before, but it was a good enough movie to agree to see it again, especially with the light in Link's eyes when he chose it. The poor boy having to choose between seeing a good movie on a big screen, and having the new game to play at home...

And his goal in life wasn't to be able to afford all the niceties... It was to pay off his grandmother's house.

Well, if she had any say in that matter, she hoped to give him a lot more fun in his life. A lot more of that 'leaving the house and spending time with other people' stuff.

Namely her.

They'd held hands throughout the movie, and she'd even thrown a piece of popcorn at him that had somehow ended up right in his open mouth, even though she'd not meant for that to happen. She'd laughed hard enough that several people gave her dirty looks, even though it was only during the trailers at the beginning. She'd bought candy for them, and found out his favorite was Skittles, and chocolate in general. A man after her own heart...

They sat on the back of her car and ate the rest of the chocolate she'd bought while they talked about the movie.

Zelda checked her watch and then hopped off the trunk. "You had homework to finish up right? I should get you home to do that."

Link picked another piece of chocolate out of the wrapper, then followed her lead and got into the passenger seat. "Thanks again for the ride home," he said.

Zelda brought out her phone and stuck it to the magnet on the vent. "No problem, I don't mind driving." She pulled up the address and then they were on their way.

"And uh... thank you for everything else. The coffee, and the movie, and the candy," he said.

"It's no big deal," she replied.

He brought his gaze up from his bag, and onto the side of her face. "Thank you for your time, Zelda."

That made red rise into her cheeks. "My pleasure..."

A minute passed before he took a deeper breath, then laughed a little. "I... I really don't know what happens now."

"Hmm?"

"Now that we're... well... dating?"

"Oh," she said with a laugh. "It's like... we're committed to learning more about each other and spending more time together. It's like a friendship, but with a romantic level on top of it."

He took a minute to think about it. "That sounds really nice."

Zelda smiled. "It is very nice."

"So basically we would spend our free time together. And talk, and get to know each other, and see if we're..." he paused to think. "Compatible?"

"Exactly. And if we are, then we keep spending time with each other because we enjoy the others company."

"It makes sense. I don't know why dating always seemed so scary to me..."

She chuckled. "I think because you were putting too much weight on it. If you like someone, and they like you, all you have to do is have fun with each other. If you want to stress about what happens later in a relationship, I guess you can... But in the beginning it's really just trying to find a best friend."

Link smiled and tilted his head to the side. "This is crazy... So we're dating? I get to spend time with you? Like regularly? And you want to?" He started to laugh again. "That's insane. No one pays attention to me because I'm so darn quiet most of the time. I don't even know what to think about all this but... I'm just happy about it."

"That's a good sign," she replied. "And that's the beauty of catching the interest of an extrovert. They'll pay a lot more attention to you than another introvert would. Another introvert would just kinda stare from afar and hope that someone will ask to spend time with them, because they're too embarrassed or scared to put themselves into the unknown, or the spotlight."

"Lucky for me you're an extrovert."

"Lucky for me that you got zero sleep and decided to sit next to me on Friday."

She pulled up to the front of the apartment complex and unlocked the door. "Text me when you're finished with your homework, we can talk some more," she said.

"Sure, I will," he replied, and grabbed the handle to leave, then hesitated. "What uh... Is there something that I should do? At the end of a first date?"

Zelda tilted her head. "There's plenty you could do. You could give me a hug, you could invite me inside you apartment, you could kiss me," she listed and then shrugged. "Or none of the above, there's not actually any rules to it."

He'd turned bright red. "Sh... Should I kiss you? I mean, you just said there's no rules but do you..."

The smile that spread across her face made him turn even redder. "Personally... I think you should wait to kiss me until you're ready to. You could kiss me right now," she said and tilted her head to the side. Zelda made a popping sound with her lips and grinned. "But I think that you're already very overwhelmed by everything today."

He wet his lips as he listened, then he hesitated with his hand on the handle of the door. He let it go and leaned in, pressing his mouth to her cheek.

It was a little sloppy, and she almost laughed at the embarrassment written all over his face when he leaned back, but she refrained so she wouldn't make him feel worse. "That was very sweet... I'll see you tomorrow, Link."

He opened the door, then smiled before he got out. "See you tomorrow, Zelda."