Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mipha usually took great pride in being able to read the atmosphere in a room quite well, a skill that had made her able to prevent more than a single fight during those last couple of months she had worked as a barista. It was difficult for her to explain exactly how she could tell when something had shifted until the risk of someone throwing their cup of coffee through the room—cup, lid, contents, and everything—through the room if she left the situation alone for just a couple of seconds longer, but it was almost always present, making it so that she could intervene the moment she felt the spark of electricity that carried the warning of how a fight was about to start in just a few seconds along with it and ask the customers to calm down.

It was an ability she had worked on developing over the months, until it had reached the point where she was almost entirely confident that she would always get a warning in advance.

Perhaps she had grown too complacent, too secure in how she always seemed to have several seconds more than she needed to break up the fight, because when Revali slammed the cup down onto the counter, Mipha jumped into the air, barely having time to attempt to mask her surprise as being something she had planned and twirling around to look at her co-worker just in time to hear Revali breathe in deeply, a sure sign that he was about to make some rude customer leave with a trail of ‘never coming back here’, ‘the worst customer service I have ever seen’, and ‘I will make sure you get fired’ following along with them.

“You know what,” Revali began as Mipha slowly tried to edge closer towards him, attempting to get a look at the customer who had just made sure to not get their order handed over to them, “if you don’t like it here, you can leave.”

Mipha saw how the customer, a man who looked to be about ten years older than her and with an expression on his face like he couldn’t believe what Revali was saying, gaped at Revali. Well, if that was the case, he would have to get used to it quickly, because Mipha knew that Revali was not going to stop just because he looked surprised that he had spoken up.

Almost like he wanted to prove her point, Revali gestured towards the door. “No, seriously, the door is right there. Leave, and don’t bother to come back.”

“But—” the man began to object.

He did not get a chance to finish the sentence before Revali had interrupted him. “But what? If you can’t appreciate it here, I would rather that you just left. Trust me, we won’t miss you.”

That seemed to remind the man of his ability to speak, and as his face turned redder and his tone even angrier, Mipha tried to reach out to place her hand on Revali’s arm in a poor attempt to make him calm down. But Revali simply pulled his arm out of her grip, stepping closer to the counter and the customer, who, by now, looked like he was mere seconds away from yelling and asking to talk to a manager, and as much as Mipha would like to have someone support her when she told Revali to just do as the customers said, this was not exactly a situation she thought Urbosa would appreciate.

“I have more friends in this city than you can imagine,” the man said, planting both hands on the counter and leaning forwards, closer towards Revali, “and I will make sure they know not to buy anything in here.”

It was clear that the man had hoped the promise would make Revali back off and apologise. Once, when Mipha had just gotten to know Revali, she would perhaps also have expected that to happen, but by now, she knew better. So although the man looked confused when Revali simply laughed, mirroring the man’s pose as he too leant in towards him, Mipha was mentally rolling her eyes, wishing the man would just leave soon.

“If they are all as rude as you,” Revali said, and somehow, even though the words were anything but, he managed to sneak a hint of respect into is voice as he nodded towards the man, “I don’t think anyone here is going to miss them.”

The customer huffed, taking in air as he stood up straighter, and Revali did the same, positioning himself to stand right next to the counter, his hand coming dangerously close to gripping the cup that was still filled to the brim with coffee. Realising that it was not going to end well is she just kept on standing there behind Revali, Mipha stepped in between and held up her hands in front of her in what she hoped was a placating manner.

“Sir, let me apologise for my co-worker. It has been a long shift, I am sure you can understand,” she said, hoping for the best, even if one look at the man’s face told her that, no, he neither understood that nor was he interested in understanding.

“Yeah, sure, but if he does not get fired then I won’t ever come back here again.”

Careful not to let her own disdain for the man show, Mipha nodded. “Very well.”

He left without paying, barely turning around before he slammed the door shut to remind them that he still meant what he had said.

Mipha waited until he was so far away that he could not see them through the windows anymore before she turned around to send Revali a disappointed glare.

“What was that about?”

Revali shrugged, having already halfway turned around to go back to his previous task of opening up another bag of coffee beans. “He was being rude so I told him to stop it or get out of the store if he could not act like an adult for a moment.” and like that was enough to explain why Mipha had just had to step in between what would almost definitely have progressed into a fight had she not been there as well, he looked down at the bag while he fiddled with the opening.

“Was that really it?” Mipha asked, not even trying to keep the disbelief out of her voice. “You know Urbosa is going to have to fire you if you continue to argue with the customers like that, right?”

Still having his back turned towards her, Revali did not even bother to look up from his task as he answered. “I doubt she will do that.”

“And why is that?”

“He insulted the decoration, saying that it was the most hideous thing he had ever seen—”

“Really, was that why you decided to talk to him like that—”

“—and,” Revali said, speaking just a bit louder as he set the bag back down onto the counter, spinning around on his heel to look at her, “he also insulted the owner, saying that she obviously did not know how to attract customers if she thought that throwing a lot of colours together was in any way pleasant to the eye. And I was not about to just let some asshole walk in here and insult Urbosa, so, yeah, I began arguing with him.”

Struggling to come up with something to say in response to that, Mipha went silent. The truth was that, although she would probably have preferred to stay silent, such a comment would probably have made her feel the same way about the customer as Revali had done. Besides, as she looked around in the room, Mipha had a hard time seeing what the customer had been talking about. Sure, there were a lot of bright colours scattered throughout the room, hidden away in the flowers that had been placed in the tables and the paintings on the walls, but nothing she would ever classify as something that would have kept her from entering the store.

“Okay, I get that,” she admitted, “but you really can’t say it to them. If you keep on doing that, Urbosa will be forced to fire you even if she does like you.”

Confident as always, Revali just brushed off her concerns with a wave of his hand. “No, she won’t. I already told her that I don’t believe in letting someone walk over me, customer or not, when I applied for the job, so if anything, she probably hired me to do just that.”

“But why can’t you just bottle all of that up like Link and I do?” Mipha sighed, already sensing that she was not going to change anything. “Just think about how you are being paid for being here, you know? That’s what I do. ‘The customer is always right’ and all of that—it is really not that difficult once you get used to it.”

But Revali simply shook his head. “No, that is easy for you and Link to do, because you two care about maintaining the positive atmosphere. I, meanwhile, am absolutely going to tell the customer when they are wrong, which they usually are.” patting her shoulder, he shot her a small smile. “But focus on the positive aspect of that, it means that you won’t have to confront the assholes.”

Slapping his hand away, Mipha couldn’t supress a low chuckle. “Perhaps, but I still prefer sharing my shifts with Link. At least I won’t have to worry about my co-worker throwing a cup of coffee at the customer when I am with him.”

“I wasn’t going to do that,” Revali admitted, “though you’ll have to admit that it did make him leave rather than staying in here to continue to insult Urbosa. But can you imagine how much easier it would have been if I had really done it? He would have left immediately.”

“You wouldn’t have dared.”

“You underestimate me, Mipha,” Revali said before glancing over towards the clock hanging on the left wall, “but my shift is over now, so you can discuss this with Link in just a few minutes.”

He stepped around her, already fiddling with the bow that fastened his apron before pulling the red piece of cloth over his head.

“You are the worst,” Mipha called out right as Revali opened the door leading into the back of the shop and he barely paused to turn around and wink at her.

“Aw, you love me.”

The door closing behind him prevented Mipha from protesting, so she turned back towards the counter, still shaking her head over Revali’s antics and wondering how long it would be until Urbosa came in to remind him to humour the customers even when they made no sense or if Revali had really been right about his assessment of his own position at the café, only to see that another customer had entered the shop in the meantime and was now standing a few metres away from the counter, looking back and forth between Mipha and the door as she shifted her weight from side to side..

When she noticed Mipha looking at her, the woman in question stepped forward with a gentle smile. “I am sorry,” she said, “the sign said that you were still open.”

“Oh, we are. We just had a bit of an issue that I had to work out, but we are definitely still open. I hope you haven’t been waiting for a long time.” Mipha did her best to make her tone sound carefree, putting on her best appearance of having everything together as she hoped the customer had not overheard the entirety of her conversation with Revali. Although Revali might be a fan of being perfectly honest with the customers—and seemingly had Urbosa’s blessing to do so—Mipha was still convinced that there were certain things the customers did not have to know about, and the fact that she had just had to discuss whether or not almost throwing a cup of coffee at a rude man was one of them.

Luckily, the woman shook her head, the movement making a few strands of blonde hair escape from the clip that had held them in place at the side of her head to instead let them fall in front of her shoulder. “No, don’t worry about that, I only waited for about five seconds.”

Trying to not let her relief show, Mipha nodded at her. “Oh, well, I am glad to hear that. But anyway, what can I get for you?”

“Uh,” the woman paused, and Mipha could see how she was looking up at the menu hanging above the counter, almost able to guess exactly what she was looking at each time she paused before moving on to the next item before making her decision, “can I get a caffè latte and a blueberry muffin?”

“Of course,” Mipha said, already halfway reaching out towards the cash register to register the purchase when the customer interrupted her.

“Wait, I forgot to ask, do you have any non-dairy milk?”

“No,” Mipha answered, “no, I am sorry, but we don’t have that, at least not for the coffee, but we don’t have any dairy in any of the pastries.”

The customer almost tripped over her words as she brushed Mipha’s apology aside. “No, it’s fine, but in that case, can I ask you to change to caffè latte for an espresso instead?”

“Of course. Will you be enjoying it here or do you want to bring it with you?”

Pausing to take in the room around her, it seemed that the woman actually considered the question before answering. “I will stay here.”

The correction of her order was easy enough to make, and just a few minutes later, Mipha was able to return to the counter with a cup of steaming hot coffee and a plate with a muffin on, the blue of the blueberries blending into the dough, and place the plate in front of her with a warning that the coffee was still quite warm.

“Oh, I know,” the customer smiled at her, “this is not the first time I have enjoyed a cup of coffee, though it is the first time I have been here. Is this a new place or am I simply not that good at paying attention to my surroundings when I go for a walk around the city?”

“Well, this shop is about three months old, so that all depends on how often you make your way around here.”

“No that often, but still enough so that it doesn’t explain why this is the first time I thought to go in here.” placing one arm on the counter, she took a bite of the muffin, giving Mipha an approving nod. “And this is really good; I really should have thought to visit this place before. I don’t understand why I didn’t.”

“Well, in your defence, it is kind of hidden from view,” Mipha said, gesturing towards the front of the store, “it is not really that obvious that this place would be here with all of the larger buildings placed right next to it. Most people kind of stumble across this place to be honest, I have often seen someone come in because they thought this was some kind of side entrance to the bank only to sit down for a cup of coffee now that they were in here anyway.”

“Really?” the woman asked, her voice rising along with her eyebrows. “I find that difficult to believe. With the quality of this,” she gestured towards the muffin in her hand, “I would have thought you would have been famous already. Did you make them?”

“Yeah,” Mipha said, hoping that she didn’t look too proud at the compliment, “but they are actually quite simple to make, Link, one of my co-workers, taught me the recipe in a little under half an hour.”

“But they taste like they have taken hours to prepare! Although,” looking away from Mipha, the woman glanced down at the table with a slightly embarrassed expression, “that might just tell you more about my own baking abilities than anything else.”

“How so?”

“Let’s just say that it is not an exaggeration to say that I can barely boil water without burning it.”

Mipha laughed. “I am sure it is not really that bad.”

“You are saying that now, but I promise you, if you could have seen the results of that one time I tried to make lasagne, you would not be laughing like that, especially not if you were me and knew that you actually had to eat it.” the woman shuddered, like the thought alone was so disgusting she could not put it into words. “It looked absolutely horrendous—I had somehow managed to burn the top of it while the pasta at the bottom was completely uncooked and hard as rocks. Trust me, the week I had to eat that was probably one of the worst weeks of my life, at least in regards to the food I was eating.” clearly seeing how Mipha was struggling not to laugh at the story, she smiled at her. “Go on, laugh at my cooking skills, I won’t be offended at all.”

And laughing was exactly what Mipha did, giggling as she tried to picture the kind of disaster the other woman had just described. “I suppose I can’t even begin to imagine what it tasted like?” she asked.

“Oh, you definitely do not want to know the taste of that. It was… well, let’s just say that I think it will be a long time before I will attempt to make lasagne again.”

“You don’t think you have learnt from your mistakes?”

“I know I haven’t.” the woman smiled at her for a moment, before her eyes flickered from Mipha’s face and down to the name tag, her entire expression changing a second later. “I am so sorry, I completely forgot that although you wore a name tag, I didn’t,” she began, speaking quickly as she held out her hand, “but to introduce myself, although it is a little too late to do so now, I am Zelda.”

Mipha took her hand, shaking it lightly. “Well, it is good to meet you, Zelda, even if I didn’t know your name at first.”

“It’s good to hear that.” something buzzed, and Zelda blinked a couple of times as they both instinctively looked in the direction of the sound, Mipha leaning in over to counter to see that Zelda had placed a little bag on the stool next to her, concluding that the sound must come from somewhere inside the bag.

“I am so sorry,” Zelda said as she jumped up onto the stool to search through the bag before turning her attention back towards Mipha, now carrying a phone in her hand, “but I am afraid that was the alarm I had set to remind myself that I came here to work.”

“Work?” Mipha parroted, already silently wondering what exactly that could be. “May I ask what you are working on?”

“Of course. I am in the process of writing a book.”

There was no need for Mipha to fake any kind of excitement at that. Although it was not the first time Mipha had gone over to a table to set down a cup of coffee in front of someone who only barely paused to look up and send her a smile and a quick thankyou before going back to tapping along on their computer, the sound of it soon creating a calming rhythm, getting the chance to hear about it was still as exciting as the first time someone had asked her for the WiFi password so that they could continue working while enjoying some time away from home.

And perhaps Zelda saw some of that enthusiasm shine through in her eyes, because even though she had just paused the alarm, acknowledging the fact that she should be working, she did not move from her spot, as she instead continued to smile at Mipha from across the counter.

Hoping that it was an invitation for her to ask as many questions as she wanted to, Mipha placed her elbows on the counter and used the tip of her right foot to pull the stool behind her close so she could sit down as well “A book? What kind of book are we talking about exactly?”

“A young adult novel, science fiction set in a future society that has just gone through something that can only be described as an apocalypse,” Zelda said, the same kind of gleeful joy in her voice.

“So do you want to know the WiFi password?”

Zelda bowed her head. “Yes, if it isn’t too much of a hassle for you.”

Already digging through the papers lying on the shelf right underneath the counter, Mipha quickly shook her head. “Not at all. If anything, I am just happy to help.” catching the little slip of paper, Mipha stood back up and pushed it across the counter towards Zelda who took it with a smile before pulling a computer out of her bag and placing it in front of her on the counter.

“Thank you.”

Mipha could hear how Zelda typed in the password, and the room tuned silent save for the soft sound of Zelda hitting the keys, going still from time to time as she paused to read what she had just written. Standing there, it took Mipha just a few seconds too many to realise that she was staring and that it probably was not appropriate to just stand still and watch Zelda work, not even if there weren’t any other customers. So she turned around and made herself busy with washing up some of the used cups before going over and checking that she was not about to run out of coffee.

The hours passed, and it felt like they were both going by too slowly and too quickly as the customers began to pour into the shop and Mipha actually became busy with keeping track of orders and who had asked for extra milk in their coffee, balancing cups and plates around the store, while Zelda sat still at the counter through it all, seemingly completely absorbed in her work.

From her spot in the other end of the room where she had just placed three entire cups of their strongest coffee in front of a girl who looked like she was barely more than fifteen years old though the amount of books in front of her and the difficulty of the subject Mipha spotted at the front of one of them said otherwise, Mipha could see how Zelda stopped for a moment, moving the cursor on her screen to delete the last couple of sentences as she hummed to herself.

Zelda had without a doubt stayed for much longer time than what it took her to finish the last bite of her muffin and drink the last drop of coffee, and Mipha was quite aware of how Urbosa would probably have reminded her that she had to inform Zelda of how she had to order something if she wanted to stay, but she did not want to interrupt her when Zelda looked so focused. So instead, Mipha just continued along with her work, watching as the café gradually became more and more empty as people began to send worried glances towards the sky outside and the dark clouds that were gathering above them, trying to gauge the risk of getting caught outside in the rain.

And still, Zelda stayed.

In the end, Mipha felt that she had to say something, so she went over to stand behind the counter again, looking at Zelda until the blonde noticed her and glanced away from her computer, raising an eyebrow in a silent question.

“I am so sorry to interrupt you,” she began, hurrying to add the last half as she saw how Zelda opened her mouth, no doubt to say that there was no need for the apology, “but we have to close in just a couple of minutes.”

Zelda’s eyes widened as she looked first at Mipha, then at the clock on the wall, and then back at her, eyes even wider now. “Of course! Sorry, I completely lost track of time, I—”

“No, it’s fine. I haven’t closed yet, it was just that I thought you might like getting a warning a few minutes before I would have had to ask you to leave.”

“Yeah, you are completely right about that,” Zelda said, pulling her shoulders forwards as she let out a silent chuckle, “well, thank you for the warning, I’ll just have to save this and then—” the sound of rain hitting the outside of the windows seemed much louder than they should have been and Mipha followed Zelda’s line of sight as she turned around to look at the street outside.

It had begun to rain. At first it was just a barely more than a few scattered drops, but in just a few seconds, the amount of water grew along with the intensity of the sounds of water hitting glass. Before long, the rain would be pouring from the clouds.

It seemed that Zelda had arrived at the same conclusion as Mipha, for as she turned back towards her, Mipha saw how she quickly looked down at her computer, worry apparent in her eyes, before she met Mipha’s glance again.

“Uh,” Zelda began, “can you give me a second? I think I have a plastic bag somewhere I can wrap around it. I mean, my computer should be okay, but I don’t really want to take the risk—I can’t understand how I forgot to bring something better along with me, but, well, clearly I didn’t think about that.” she continued, more to herself than to Mipha.

“Actually,” Mipha cut in and hoped that Zelda had not been about to say something important about the computer, “I have an umbrella out in the back of the shop that you can borrow.”

“Really?” Mipha could see how Zelda hesitated to accept the offer, looking between the computer in front of her and then over at Mipha. “I don’t know, what about you then? If I take your umbrella, won’t you get soaked once you go outside?”

Trying to muster as much conviction as possible, Mipha simply shook her head. “No, I have to close everything before I can go home, and by then, I am sure the rain will have stopped.” the amount of rain that was pouring down outside did not do much to support Mipha’s lie, but she hoped for the best as she continued. “Besides, I don’t mind a little rain, and I know that it will hurt me less than it will hurt your computer.”

At that, Mipha saw a smile tugging at Zelda’s lips. “It just doesn’t feel right to take your umbrella.”

“Well, I insist, so you will just have to accept it.”

And finally, Zelda gave in. “In that case, thank you so much.”

Gesturing for Zelda to wait there at the counter, Mipha turned around to push the door leading into the back of the shop open with her shoulder, and just a few seconds later, she had managed to dig her umbrella out from underneath a little pile of jackets, returning to hand it over to Zelda with a smile. “Here you go. It should hopefully do a good enough job of keeping the rain away from both you and your computer.”

Zelda accepted the umbrella with a smile, and before Mipha had even realised it, she had shoved her computer back into her bag and left the shop, pausing outside to send Mipha one last nod before she made her way down the street.

The last thing Mipha saw before Zelda disappeared from sight was how the red fabric of the umbrella struggled against the wind as Zelda turned around a corner.

It wasn’t until Mipha had gone over every last centimetre of the counter twice, making sure that it was completely spotless and that there really wasn’t anything she could do to delay the moment she would have to step out into the rain outside anymore that she realised that she would probably have to buy a new umbrella as soon as possible so that she would not have to make it a habit to let the rain soak her clothes.

For even if Mipha had not necessarily lied when she had told Zelda that she did not mind the rain, the sight of Mipha stepping into their flat, hair sticking to the sides of her face and with her clothes several shades darker than it had been when she had put it on in the morning, did seem to matter to Revali.

“Hey, can I ask you—” he said, leaning out of the doorway that separated the tiny hallway and kitchen before pausing and drawing his brows together, already sending the puddle beneath her feet a harsh glare, “what happened to you? Why do you look like you just decided to jump into the fountain with all of your clothes on?”

Mipha pointed towards the window behind him. “It’s raining.”

“Yeah, I know, but I thought you had an umbrella with you.”

“I had.”

“So why didn’t you use it?”

Noting Revali’s poor attempt of masking the amusement in his voice, Mipha quickly reached up to twist a strand of her hair, making the water drip from her fingers as she flicked it towards Revali who simply stepped out of the way. “Because a customer needed it more than I did.”

At that, the accusatory look that Revali had been sending towards the puddle disappeared as he instead moved over, having already halfway put his arms around her shoulders before he seemed to realise that her clothes were still drenched in water and settled for merely showing her lightly, a teasing tone in his voice as he laughed. “Please tell me they weren’t some idiot who complained about the weather until you gave them your umbrella, because if that is the case, I am afraid I will have to go and track them down to get your umbrella back since they didn’t deserve to get it.”

Mipha retaliated by punching his shoulder. “No, I am not that much of a pushover, you know.”

Revali simply raised a brow. “I don’t know about that. The fact that you actually tried to apologise to that man would say otherwise. But that is beside the point, I actually wanted to ask you if you knew where the large pan was.”

“Underneath the sink, I think.” Mipha answered. When Revali sighed, she added. “Why?”

“It’s supposed to go be the same place as the casseroles.” turning around with a dramatic sigh that was not reflected by the joy on his face as he rolled his eyes, Revali motioned towards the stove where she could see smoke coming up from a cooking pot placed on the burner. “And the reason they were supposed to be there was that I had wanted to surprise you with dinner, only I couldn’t figure out where the pan was since you don’t put it where I do, so, well,” Mipha guessed what was in the pot already before she and Revali had crossed the distance between them and the stove to look down at the contents of the casserole, “I had to improvise.”

The sight of the two pieces of what looked like severely burnt salmon involuntarily made Mipha laugh as her mind immediately compared it to the description of Zelda’s adventures into the art of making lasagne.

“Well, I am happy that you at least find this funny,” Revali commented from beside her, “because I am not about to let this go to waste.”

That immediately put an end to Mipha’s laughter. “No, it wasn’t… I just…” noticing the smile Revali sent her way, Mipha gave up, “I just had a customer who told me something funny about food, it was nothing really. Though, she was also the one whom I gave my umbrella to.”

“Well, I hope that she will return with your umbrella because from what you are telling me about her, I really would like to get a chance to introduce myself to her.”

“Yeah, me too,” Mipha admitted, and noticing the look Revali sent her, she hurried to add, “but if she does, you have to promise me that you won’t try to scare her away.”

Feigning hurt, Revali placed his hand above his heart and stepped away from her. “When have I ever done something like that.” the look she sent him must have been enough to let Revali know just what she thought about that question, for he chuckled and grew serious again. “Okay, I promise that even if she turns out to be just like that asshole from before, I won’t say anything. I just need to know if this is actually about you being a pushover yet again.”

“I am not a pushover,” Mipha reminded him again.

“The fact that you just accepted having to eat that,” Revali nodded towards the contents of the pot, “says otherwise.”

“Oh, so are you saying that I should actually refuse to even taste it?”

Revali simply laughed at that. “No, not at all, I meant what I said about not wanting to let it go to waste. Now, let me see if there’s anything I can do to salvage what little is left of the quality of the fish.”

Mipha stepped aside to let him move past her, already knowing better than to try to interfere with his plans. If Revali wanted to fight for what to Mipha at least looked like a case of a completely ruined dinner, she would not be the one to try to stop him.

However, when they sat down at the table later that evening, Mipha apprehensively lifting a forkful of salmon up to her face, sending Revali a look as she tried to decide how bad it could really be, before giving in and eating a bite of it, she had to admit that, somehow, in a way she could not even begin to fathom, Revali had actually succeeded in saving the attempt of frying the fish, turning it into a meal that was more than just simply okay.

Of course, that did not stop her from thinking about the lasagne Zelda had described even though there was barely any similarities between the piece of salmon on her plate and the burnt cheese.

She hoped that she could get her umbrella back. Mipha knew that the chances almost non-existent, but even then, she found it difficult to focus on making sure that the text she sent to Sidon that evening to make sure that he had made his own plans for how he would spend the Festival of Hylia and that she would not end up finding out that he had been alone was intelligible, her thoughts returning to the umbrella every other second.

There was no doubt about it. She had to get that umbrella back so she could stop thinking about it all the time.

Chapter Text

As it turned out, Mipha’s wish did come true.

Halfway through the afternoon the following day, just as Mipha had waved goodbye to a group of teenagers who had changed their minds about what to order more times than Mipha could count before coming to an agreement that they would all just have a cup of cocoa, making her more than ready for the break that the empty shop could provide, the bells above the door alerted her to the fact that someone had just stepped into the café, and she looked up from the counter to look directly at Zelda extending the umbrella towards her.

Scrambling to stand up straight, Mipha opened her mouth a couple of times before she figured out something to say that would not immediately give her a reason to use her hand to cover her face in an attempt at hiding the way her cheeks would surely have turned red. “Uh, hello, Zelda,” she began, reaching out to take the umbrella. The combination of exhaustion and surprise meant that she almost managed to drop it before she simply gave up and placed it on the countertop.

If Zelda noticed her strange behaviour, at least she didn’t comment on it, instead smiling at her. “Thank you for letting me have the umbrella. I hope the rain wasn’t too much of a nuisance for you.”

“Oh, no, not at all,” Mipha lied, thinking about how much time it had taken to mop up all of the water from the floor, “it had almost stopped by the time I had to go home, so I barely felt anything.”

“Well, I am happy to hear that.”

There was a pause as Mipha’s brain struggled to catch up with the conversation and forget about the combinations of coffee, tea, and muffins the group before Zelda had managed to agree on before finally settling for something, but then she realised that Zelda was still standing there and how there was probably a reason for that and how she was still wearing her apron, wiping her hands against the front of it as she looked at Zelda. “Do you want to order something?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry, it’s not something that is too complicated.”

Barely supressing a relieved sigh, Mipha sent her a smile. “You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that.”

“Well,” Zelda shrugged, “in that case, I think that you will be even happier to hear the order, because it is actually even simpler than it was yesterday.” she went silent, waiting until Mipha had nodded at her before continuing. “I just want an espresso.”

“An espresso,” Mipha repeated, before catching sight of the bag in Zelda’s hand, “and the WiFi password as well, I suppose?”

“Yes, thank you. Although I should probably tell you right now that I have actually remembered to bring both an umbrella and the case for my computer along with me this time, so you don’t have to worry about that.” Zelda said, blinking at her.

By the time Mipha returned to place the cup of coffee next to Zelda on the counter, Zelda had once again pulled her computer out of her backpack. However, unlike the day before, she did not open it, not even as Mipha handed her the slip of paper with the WiFi password written on it. Instead, she continued to look at Mipha as she took the piece of paper, the computer seemingly forgotten in front of her.

Taking it as an invitation for a conversation, Mipha looked around at the other customers and, deciding that there weren’t anyone there who was in immediate need of her help, sat down at the opposite side of the counter from where Zelda was sitting. “So I take it that your computer did in fact survive your trip out into the rain yesterday?”

“Yeah, I can’t thank you enough for letting me use your umbrella. I can’t imagine what I would have done if I had lost everything I had worked on yesterday.”

“Oh, well, I can,” Mipha commented, “if it had been me, I think I would simply have set down to cry.”

“That would probably also have looked a lot like what I would have done if the rain had actually made its way into my bag to destroy the computer,” Zelda said before gesturing towards Mipha, “so I take it that you write as well?”

“Write? Yes, but probably not like you. I don’t write stories; I can barely make it through my assignments without ending up feeling like I barely even know a hundred words of Hylian. So yes, I do write, but only when my professors say that it is a good idea to actually complete the assignments.”

Zelda laughed, keeping her voice quiet enough that Mipha doubted anyone around them had heard them, or at least she did not see anyone turning around to try and determine the source of the sound as Zelda continued. “I know that feeling of forgetting a word that you really should have known and just feeling like you failed every single teacher in the world once you remember. But you are attending university then?”

Mipha nodded. “Yes, that guess was correct, I am studying medical science at the University of Castle Town, and I am already halfway through the fourth semester.” she couldn’t keep the hint of pride out of her voice, and was happy to see an impressed look on Zelda’s face.

“Don’t you get a lot of assignments then?”

“Some. It’s not too bad most of the time really, or else I just have a lot of really kind professors who make sure to space out their assignments throughout the entire year. Though,” she glanced down at the computer, “I imagine that you don’t really mind writing all that much.”

“No, I definitely don’t, at least not when I am writing about something that I am interested in,” Zelda laughed, “and I think I can safely say that I am interested in this project.”

“Oh,” Mipha leant in over the table, “well, so am I, so if you want to tell me about this story of yours, I am all ears.”

“Are you sure? I kind of have a habit of starting to ramble when talking about things I like.”

“I am one hundred per cent sure that you are only making me even more excited to hear about what you are working on every second.”

“Well, don’t say that I didn’t try to warn you then.” Zelda said, but despite her teasing words, Mipha could not spot anything but joy in her voice as she too leant in closer, automatically lowering her tone as she began to explain. “Okay, so please don’t say anything mean about the plot because this is still the first draft, and there are a few plot holes I have yet to figure out an answer to, but to make it simple, the story is about this society that had been incredibly technologically advanced in the past where they had managed to construct these giant robots meant to protect them in the future, although almost everything about the creation of these robots had then been forgotten as time had passed. Well, the plot is about this kingdom now because they are facing a threat too great for them, and the only way they can hope to survive it is by figuring out how to use these robots, and the story follows the princess of the kingdom as she suddenly has the heavy burden of knowing that it is her duty to save the kingdom resting on her shoulders and how she deals with it since her father does not agree with her and her plan to use the robots.” stopping for a moment, Zelda looked away from Mipha. “Yeah, as I said, I am still working on it, so I am sorry that it is still a bit boring.”

“No, no, it isn’t boring at all!” Mipha assured her, eager to hear more. “Have you figured out how you want the robots to work?”

Sending her a look like she could almost not believe that Mipha was not just relieved that she was done explaining the plot, a look that thankfully soon disappeared to make way for a smile, Zelda started. “Well, that is actually one of the things I am still working on. I want the robots to feel realistic, and although I know that we don’t have the abilities necessary to create giant robots like that in the real world, I want the science behind them to at least make some kind of sense so that they won’t feel too otherworldly, you know?”

“Like when I follow along to the medicinal information when I am reading thrillers, looking for mistakes?” Mipha asked, “Yeah, I get that you want the science to at least be inspired by the real world. But it probably also means that you will have to do a lot of research, won’t it?”

“Oh, you can’t even imagine. I think I have spent more time at the library during the past couple of months than I have at home,” Zelda said, shaking her head as she agreed with her, “it’s just, I think I know things, but then, before I even know what has happened, I have found a thousand other things I will have to look up just to make sure that they are correct. It just never really stops.”

Just when Mipha was about to respond, she heard someone coughing to her right. Looking over, she saw a girl standing at the counter, tapping her foot while she looked at Mipha.

“Uh,” she said, once she noticed that she had her attention, “I was just wondering if I could get a cup of coffee.”

“Yes, of course, I am so sorry, I will be there right now!” sending Zelda an apologetic glance, Mipha hurried over to prepare her order, silently berating herself for getting distracted at work. It wasn’t exactly that she thought Urbosa would consider firing her over a minor mistake, but Mipha still knew that she had been hired to work and not to sit and chat with the customers.

Perhaps that was why she did her best to remain focused on her work during the last half of her shift, mentally juggling the orders and specifications as she moved around the room. The occasional glimpse over towards where Zelda was sitting informed her that she had begun working again, tapping away at her computer. Mipha figured that it actually meant she had done a pretty good job. Zelda was still there and seemed to enjoy herself, and that was actually all Mipha needed to worry about.

But somewhere in between passing through the room with another cup of coffee and Mipha finally having a moment to herself again, Zelda must have gotten up and left, because when Mipha turned around to look at where she had seen Zelda sit just a few minutes ago, the spot was empty.

No matter how much Mipha strained her eyesight to force herself to see Zelda right outside the shop, she had to admit that she had gotten so distracted that she had not even noticed Zelda leaving. And although she knew that it was silly, Mipha couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness as she realised that, now that Zelda had returned the umbrella to her, there was no reason for her to return to the café again.

+++

However, as Mipha came to realise over the course of the following weeks, that was not the end of it.

Already the very next day, Zelda returned, and Mipha could almost feel her heart skip a beat when she looked up to see Zelda standing on the other side of the counter, asking for an espresso and a blueberry muffin.

“You came back,” she said as she handed her the cup and the plate, blurting out the words before she had the chance to stop herself.

But Zelda didn’t comment on it, instead accepting her order as she went to sit down on her usual stool. “Yeah, I told you that you make the best coffee I have ever tasted—”

“When have you ever said that?”

“—and,” Zelda continued, speaking a bit louder as she winked at her, “I am not about to just lose the best coffee I have ever had. This is important to me; I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that half of my blood might have been replaced with coffee at this point, so of course I came back. Anything other than that would just have been silly—when you find a great coffee shop, you don’t just give it up without a fight.”

“Speaking as someone studying medical science, I am almost completely certain that is very much an exaggeration. Either that, or you should really go to the nearest hospital right now.”

“Perhaps I will, but not until I have finished this cup,” Zelda said, picking up the mug and taking a sip of its contents, “this is simply so good that I am willing to take that risk.”

Mipha accepted the compliment with a grin. “Well, in that case, don’t tell me that I didn’t try my best to warn you.”

And it continued, Zelda coming into the café just as often as Mipha did and often staying for hours on end. Of course, most of that time was spent on her computer, and seeing as there were still other customers whose orders Mipha also had to prepare, fact was that they sometimes barely got the chance to talk more than to exchange pleasantries as Mipha placed her order—always the same, an espresso and a blueberry muffin—in front of her on the counter, but Mipha still came to treasure those short conversations.

“Wait,” she said one day, holding up her hand to interrupt Zelda, just as she had been about to say her order, “I already have it prepared.” quickly grapping the mug and plate from the table behind her, Mipha returned to place it down in front of Zelda, who simply took in the sight of the food in front of her before laughing.

“I guess I am quite predictable.”

“A bit,” Mipha admitted, “but it actually makes my job a lot easier that I know what you will order in advance.”

“Oh, well, in that case, I guess I am actually quite happy to be so predictable,” Zelda said, “but can you also guess what I was about to tell you then?”

Mipha looked at her, mentally going over if there was anything different about her than during all of her other visits. And then it struck her that the large bag Zelda usually placed by her stool was missing and that a notebook had taken its place instead, Zelda having placed the book in front of her with a pen lying next to it, Zelda’s hand keeping it from rolling away.

“You don’t have your computer anymore?”

“Yup, it decided to completely give up on me last night. I mean, I had just made a back-up copy of everything, but, man, I was not doing great yesterday.” but despite how she was saying the exact opposite, Zelda actually looked like she was doing great, sitting there with a wide smile as she continued to tell Mipha the full story of just how she had panicked when she felt the laptop grow warmer and warmer before the screen finally turned black as the computer ignored all of her attempts of fixing it.

“I mean,” Zelda said, gesturing wildly, “I tried just about everything, plugging it in and letting it wait for hours, almost everything the different fix-it sites I could find advised me to do. I got so close to simply placing it in a bowl of rice because I just had no idea about what to do.”

“I am sorry to hear about that.”

But Zelda just shook her head. “Don’t be. I brought it to a computer repair shop near me, and they said that they are almost completely sure that they can save it, and I have already called my insurance, and they are going to cover almost all of the costs, so, really, this,” she tapped at the front page of the notebook with the end of her pen, “is just something I will have to deal with for a while until I can get my computer back.”

“Well, that is good to hear,” Mipha said, and before long, the sound of Zelda dragging her pen over the pages became as natural as the sound of her typing on the keys had been.

However, it soon became clear that their faith in the computer had ended up jinxing it, as Zelda came in just a little over a week later with a tired look in her eyes.

She sat down in her seat but without the usual smile.

“They weren’t able to save it,” she said the moment she noticed Mipha’s questioning glance. From the way she glared at the pen in her hand, there was no need for Mipha to ask just who had not been able to save just what, especially not as Zelda continued, “I know that it could have been worse and all of that, but—and I know this is silly—I actually really liked that computer, and not only because I needed it to write. I had just had for five year and it was quite calming to know so much about it. And, yes, I know that since it was five years old and I use it all the time, I should probably have expected for something to happen to it, but still…” she went silent, inspecting the surface of the counter, “I had just not really imagined that it would give up on me just yet.”

Making a quick decision, Mipha pushed the porcelain cup aside to instead grab one of the paper cups stacked next to her on the counter to grab when a customer wanted to take their coffee with them.

The change to their usual routine did not go by unnoticed, as Zelda was quick to point towards the cup. “Uh, what are you doing?”

“Just you wait; it’s a surprise for you.” Mipha said, careful as she turned around to pour the hot coffee into the container and pressed the lid down on top of it before returning to the counter. “Can I borrow your pen?” she asked, pointing towards the pen Zelda was still tapping against the pages of the notebook.

Zelda looked at her, and then, seemingly realising that she would just have to wait for her explanation, handed it to her.

Writing on the cup was a bit more difficult that Mipha had imagined it being, both because the cup was definitely not meant for writing on, the text smearing every time she accidentally brushed against it, making her have to fix it before continuing, but also because the pen simply was clearly not meant for writing on anything other than paper, a scratching noise accompanying it’s travel across the cardboard. But she did manage to complete her goal and handed the cup back over to Zelda along with the pen and a little smile. “Here. I hope it will make you feel better.”

Not looking away from Mipha, Zelda took the cup and turned it around to look at what she had written. “Why was the stadium so cold?” she read, looking at Mipha for an answer.

“Because there were a lot of fans!”

That did earn her a little laugh, and before long, they had resumed their usual habit of talking every time Mipha got even the smallest break from the other customers. Of course, Mipha could still see how the loss of her old computer affected Zelda from the way she would slump over the moment Mipha left her, her smile slipping off her face as she looked down at her notebook, but at least she seemed happier when she left—carrying her cup in her left hand, notebook pressed in between her arm and side so that she could use her free hand to wave to Mipha as the door closed behind her—than when she had first arrived, and really, that was enough for Mipha.

Chapter Text

She woke up to the not completely unfamiliar sound of someone coughing nearby, but as she sat up to rub the sleep out of her eyes, still halfway asleep, it took Mipha a moment before she realised that it was Revali she could hear coughing right on the other side of the thin wall that separated their bedrooms.

Forcing herself to get up even though her alarm clock told her that she did not technically have to be awake for another ten minutes, Mipha shuddered in the cold air that surrounded her and tiptoed her way into Revali’s room.

It looked like a wind had swept through the room, creating the mess that met her when she opened the door. Granted, it had been a while since she had been in there, but Mipha was still almost completely certain that there had not been a pile of clothes lying in one corner of the room when she had been in there to look for a book last week. Although the curtains were closed, a few rays of sun had still made their way into the room, showing just how much dust was really in the air as it flew through the light. And to top it all off, Revali was lying in his bed, on top of the sheets that looked like they needed to be changed immediately from the crumbled look of them. But even though the sorry state of the room was more than enough, it was still Revali who looked the most miserable, lying on his back and looking directly up into the ceiling while coughing loudly.

Even as Mipha tried her best to make enough noise for him to notice her, tapping her foot against the floor and clearing her throat, a few seconds still passed before Revali looked away from the ceiling to instead meet her gaze.

“Ah, Mipha!” he exclaimed, and she could see how he tried to push himself up into a sitting position before seemingly giving up completely and going limp again, letting his head fall back onto his pillow.

“Are you okay?”

The look that he sent let her know that it was not the smartest question to ask someone lying in their bed while attempting to propel themselves off said bed by coughing, but he still managed a weak nod. “Yeah, I am doing perfectly fine, this is super fun, I am really enjoying myself here,” he said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

She just sighed and leant against the doorframe. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Can you get me some more tissues?” Revali said, gesturing limply towards the tissue box on his bedside table and then at the bag on the floor beneath it. Mipha tried not to look too closely at the contents of it, but the short glimpse she did manage to catch told her that it was already halfway filled with crumbled up paper tissues. “I am about to run out.”

“Of course.”

Just as she was about to turn around and go check if they perhaps had another box hidden away somewhere in the kitchen—hoping that Revali had not decided to rearrange everything in there again—Revali continued. “One more thing. Can I also ask you to cover my shift for me as well? I was supposed to be there from two to five today, but well, given how I am feeling right now, I doubt I will be able to be anywhere other people’s food anytime soon. It won’t conflict with your lectures, will it?”

After mentally going through her schedule for the day, Mipha answered. “No, it won’t, so I will gladly cover your shift for you.”

“Thank you, although I doubt you will do it gladly—the asshole from last month seems to have decided that the only way he can get revenge on me is by continuing to return during my shifts to complain about everything while I prepare his order, and I swear, every time he does it, I get one second closer to just throwing his coffee at him.”

“Why don’t you just tell Urbosa about it?” Mipha asked. “If someone is coming back just to be a nuisance, I am sure she would tell him to leave the café forever.”

“Oh, no, you misunderstood it,” the joy in Revali’s voice was apparent when he continued, “he might complain about everything, but I also make sure to get everything wrong every time just to see when it gets too much for him and he simply decides to stop coming back. I thought he would have had enough when I ended up pouring salt into his coffee instead of sugar, but, no, he was back the next day.” Revali chuckled, although the sound was soon interrupted by another fit of coughing.

Trying to figure out if she should do anything about that worrying piece of information and coming to the conclusion that it really did not concern her, Mipha bit her lip. “Well, as long as you won’t actually throw his cup of coffee at him—”

“I can’t promise anything—”

“—I won’t try to stop you. However, I will still say that I don’t think what you are doing is a good idea.”

“Sure, sure, I knew you would say that. But you will still cover my shift for me, right?”

“Right,” Mipha agreed as she closed the door and tried not to think too much about whether or not it was really good for Revali to stay in there in the middle of the jumble of clothes, books, and general possessions when he was already sick. No matter what, Mipha was not about to go back in there to open up the window, and if Revali wanted to go and lie on the couch, he could probably do that on his own anyway.

So, after she had made sure that Revali’s supply of paper tissues would be able to at the very least last him until she got home again, Mipha left the flat just a little under an hour later, grabbing her bicycle from the bicycle shed. Although her day had just gotten a lot longer with a shift added to the end of her lectures for the day, she felt more energetic than usual as she made her way to the university buildings.

+++

She had not expected for Zelda not to be there. Of course, in hindsight, Mipha should have been able to guess that Zelda most likely did not go to visit the café once every day, but after weeks of seeing her during almost every single one of her shifts, Zelda sitting there at the counter in front of her had become a just as familiar part of her work as the act of making the coffee itself.

But still, Mipha tried to ignore the little sting of disappointment as she got to work, busying herself with remembering the exact details of the orders of what looked to be a mother with her two children, judging from the tired expression on the mothers face as she told the youngest of the children for the third time that, no, he could not climb up to sit on the counter, it was rude and unhygienic.

“You know what?” Mipha said. “If you want to, I could show you how to make the cup of cocoa you will be drinking in just a couple of minutes. Do you want to see that?”

The girl nodded enthusiastically, the plait at either sides of her head whipping through the air as she all but ran over to the other side of the counter to stand on tiptoes while Mipha talked her through the process of preparing the cocoa.

They were about halfway through pouring the finished product into a mug when Mipha saw Link step over to her out of the corner of her eyes, reaching out like he wanted to tap her on the shoulder before withdrawing his hand again, perhaps because Mipha turned around to hold up the still half-full pot of burning hot cocoa.

“I think there is someone who wants to speak with you,” Link whispered before taking the pot away from her.

It didn’t appear that the family minded the sudden change, the little girl simply following the exchange of the pot with her eyes before continuing to bombard Link with questions about his job, so, wiping the cocoa powder off her hands with the towel, Mipha turned back towards the counter to see just who had asked for her.

It was Zelda.

She was standing right across from her, both hands planted against the countertop as she swayed lightly from side to side.

Seeing Mipha look at her, Zelda pushed herself away from the counter, giving her a slight wave. “Hi. I didn’t think you would be in here today.”

“No,” Mipha said, regaining the ability to speak, “no, I wasn’t really supposed to be here. But my roommate and co-worker, Revali, was sick, so I decided to cover his shift for him, and, well,” she pointed towards herself with a quick motion, “here I am. But I actually didn’t think you would come in today.”

“Well, originally, I wasn’t—I already had a plan to go to the library to try to find a book about robotics—but, well, what can I say?” wrinkles appeared around Zelda’s eyes, and Mipha could almost see how the sparkle in them made her face seem softer. “You make the best coffee in the entire world so when I saw that you were here, I just knew that I couldn’t walk past without getting a cup of coffee.”

Already halfway reaching out to grab one of the cardboard cups, Mipha nodded along. “So I take it that you want a cup of coffee to go?”

Zelda blinked, looking back and forth between Mipha and the cups for a couple of seconds before she began, her sentence coming out slowly, like she was considering every word. “Actually… I think I will just stay here for a little while. I doubt that anyone will actually want to get all of the books about robotics from the library during the next couple of hours, so waiting a bit can’t hurt, can it now?”

“You’re right, it probably can’t,” Mipha agreed and tried to keep her movements calm, not letting the joy at Zelda staying show, “so let me guess, you want the usual?”

“You know me too well.”

The coffee beans clattered against the metallic sides of the coffee mill as Mipha poured them in, pushing the button and letting the machine start with a whirring noise before she came back to the counter and Zelda. “That, or you just drink so much coffee I am beginning to doubt whether or not it is actually healthy for you. You know, as a medical science student, I should probably try to warn you about the dangers of consuming too much caffeine.”

“You can try, but I will have to warn you that Impa has already tried doing that at least once a week, and so far, all of her speeches and reminders not to drink so much coffee haven’t really done anything. If anything they have done the opposite—the more you tell me that caffeine is dangerous, the more I want to drink even more caffeine, if nothing else then just to see what happens.”

Mipha shook her head at her, unable to keep the amusement out of her tone as looked back at Zelda. “I know for a fact that someone has already done that, so if you really want to know what the results of copious amounts of coffee will do to you, I am sure that you can just look it up online or something.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t tell me what it will do to my body.” Zelda managed to stay somewhat serious for several seconds, something Mipha had to applaud her for, but then she did also give in, doubling up with laughter. “No, but seriously,” she said, once she had regained the control of her voice, “who can say that the fact that I can’t have milk in my coffee won’t have an effect in how the caffeine affects me? That’s right, no one, unless I experience it myself by drinking way too much coffee. And luckily, you are making it quite enjoyable for me.”

“Thank you, I will take that as a compliment!” Mipha chuckled, grabbing the top shelf of the cabinet to help her get up to find a cup without risk of falling over. Placing it down on the counter in front of Zelda, Mipha had almost managed to pour the coffee directly into the mug before she remembered the newest addition to the menu and pausing. “Actually, that reminds me; we have just gotten oat milk in yesterday, do you want to try that?”

“Oat milk?” Zelda lifted an eyebrow, shooting her a questioning glance that caused Mipha to hold her breath, hoping desperately that her research had not been wrong and that oat milk would actually go well with coffee. “Yes, I would like that very much. Did you just get it in?”

Masking her sigh of relief as simply being her clearing her throat, Mipha nodded. “Yeah, I talked with Urbosa, the owner of this place, about it not that long ago, and she agreed that it did not make much sense to sell muffins made without the use of dairy but not to offer the same experience when people just want to buy a cup of coffee. So, yeah, there’s oat milk now. It was what people seemed to prefer to put in their coffee.”

“Well, I don’t know about everybody else, but I know for a fact that I at the very least agree with that,” Zelda said, “so if it isn’t too much of an issue, I would really like oat milk in my coffee.”

“Not at all, not at all.” the soft sound of the timer told her that the coffee was done brewing, and before long, Mipha had pushed the porcelain cup over the counter towards Zelda, the cup stopping right on front of her. “And now, your muffin.” the plate with the muffin on followed right after the cup of coffee. “Although that is still the same old recipe.”

“The same good old recipe,” Zelda corrected her, having already picked up the teaspoon to mix the sugar into her coffee.

“Sure, that too.”

Looking up from her muffin, Zelda snapped her fingers at her. “Oh, I almost forgot to ask you, but is your roommate all right? I don’t think I have ever talked with him, but from what little I did see the first time I came in, he didn’t look like the type of person to let some minor thing keep him away from this place.”

Unable to keep a small smile off her face at the memory of Revali having been only a few seconds away from setting a new record for himself and actually going through with throwing someone’s cup at them, Mipha let out a short laugh. “Oh, he will be fine. But just between the two of us, I almost think that the man you saw exit the café that day might be the one of us who is the most upset about Revali not being here today?”

“What? Why?” Zelda mumbled in the middle of chewing through a bite of her muffin.

“Revali told me he keeps coming in to complain and to threaten to get him fired.” Mipha shrugged. “I mean, I know Revali and there is no way he is ever going to give up a fight, so although he sounds quite annoying, I almost feel bad for him. Picking a fight with Revali is definitely not something you want to do, because the more you try to annoy him, the more Revali is going to enjoy making every little interaction with him difficult for you. He is… well, stubborn almost doesn’t feel like it will be enough to describe it, but let’s just say that you don’t want to find yourself in a discussion about practically anything with him because he is simply not going to give up.”

“And what about you?”

“What?”

Placing her muffin back onto the plate, Zelda cocked her head and looked up at her. “You said that Revali doesn’t ever give up. What about you?”

“Oh, well, Revali says that I am a pushover, but I prefer to think of myself as being able to stand my own in a fight and that I just often deem it too unimportant to waste my time on.”

“So what you are actually saying is that if I have to pick an argument with one of you, I should pick you since you are the most likely to end up agreeing with me?” Zelda asked and used her teaspoon to point towards Mipha. “Or at least that is what I am hearing.”

“No,” Mipha admitted, “though that is a tactic that Revali would probably agree with you on.”

“Hey! You two!” the sound of an angry voice interrupting their conversation made both Zelda and Mipha turn to look in the direction of the sound.

There was a man standing at the other end of the counter, glaring daggers at Mipha. Once he had seen that he had managed to get her attention, Mipha saw how he started tapping his foot against the floor, snapping his fingers at her. “Yes, I am talking to you. Stop chattering away, I want to order something.”

Even if it had not been for how she could still recognise his face even after nearly four weeks, his behaviour alone would have been enough to let Mipha know that this was indeed the man who seemed to have appointed himself as Revali’s newest archenemy.

Whispering a quick apology to Zelda and silently praying that the man had not been standing there for too long, had not overheard the entirety of their conversation, Mipha put on the most pleasant expression she could muster and walked over to the other end of the counter. “Yes, of course, sir. What can I get for you?”

The man simply huffed and leant to the side. “Are you the only one at work right now?”

Mipha could see how he was attempting to look into the back of the shop, evidently to try to catch a glimpse of Revali. Doing her best to keep a smile off her face, she shook her head. “No, I am not the only one, but I am afraid that my co-worker is busy right now.”

Seemingly spotting Link and coming to the conclusion that Revali was not there and that if he had come in to pick a fight, he had wasted his time, the man’s expression grew even angrier. “That’s such a poor way to run a business. There is a queue,” he waved his hand at the empty space behind him, the fact that that might not have been the best way to prove his point taking him a few seconds too long to realise. At least Mipha could see how his cheeks grew a bit redder as he continued, “and then you aren’t even working.”

Just as Mipha was about to open her mouth—she wasn’t even entirely sure if it was to apologise again or to attempt to explain herself and risk making it all worse—Zelda had jumped off her stool and gone to stand next to the man, looking directly up at him.

“And you aren’t even ordering anything, simply complaining, so, really, how is she supposed to start preparing your order if you don’t tell her anything?”

“You,” the man started, but then he went silent, his mouth moving as he tried to figure out how to continue, “I—”

“Listen,” Zelda continued, using the opportunity the man’s sudden silence provided her with, “why don’t you just sit back for a while and try to figure out what you want to order? That way, you won’t slow down the queue for any other who might also want to get a cup of coffee. That, or simply leaving again since I don’t think you actually came in to get a cup of coffee now, did you?”

Glancing over at Mipha, the man made a little, jerky movement with his head. “Yeah, sure. I didn’t even want anything from here anyway, I have tasted it and it was the worst cup of coffee I have ever tasted.”

Trying her best to keep her face emotionless, Mipha cut in before Zelda got the chance to argue with that. “Well, if you don’t want to actually buy anything, the door is right there.”

Mumbling something more, a few of the words that Mipha managed to catch sounding suspiciously like Revali’s name, the man turned around and followed her advice, slamming the door shut behind him.

For a moment, Mipha and Zelda just looked at each other, fighting to keep a just somewhat serious expression, but then Zelda started laughing and Mipha followed suit moments later.

“Okay,” Mipha managed to force out in between two bursts of laughter, “I am beginning to understand why Revali would want to keep him around instead of asking Urbosa to do something about it, because coming in only to complain about your least favourite barista not being there is simply the most absurd thing I think I have ever experienced from a customer. Thank you for defending me, by the way.”

“Oh, that was nothing, I am just happy to help.”

“Well, in that case, I owe you a favour. Tell me, what is your favourite song?”

A confused expression appeared on Zelda’s face. “Why?”

Mipha simply winked at her. “You will just have to wait and see. Now, tell me, what is your favourite song? Please tell me it is something relatively calm.”

“No such luck, haven’t I mentioned that I only like music that is so loud you risk permanent hearing loss every second you are listening to it?” Zelda chuckled and waved her hand. “No, if I have to be serious, my favourite song will probably have to be Ballad of the Goddess. Why?”

“Because of this.” quickly tapping at her phone a couple of times, Mipha motioned towards the loudspeakers hanging from the wall above them, Zelda following her line of sight.

“Oh.” as the sound of harp-playing gradually replaced the last song, the corners of Zelda’s mouth slowly curled up into a little smile as she let out a breathy laugh. “Thank you.”

“It was nothing. Just another perk of being able to control the music in here, it can be used as a quick way to repay favours.”

“Perhaps, but I still want to say thank you.” at that, a loud, buzzing noise coming from Zelda’s coat pocket interrupted them, Zelda twitching slightly before she reached down to pull a phone out of her pocket. It continued to ring while Zelda made a pained expression, holding the phone up in front of her. “I am sorry, but I am kind of expecting an important call, and well—”

Seeing where it was going, Mipha did her best to hide her disappointment. “No, no, I totally understand. You should probably hurry up and answer the call.”

“Yeah, probably.” but despite her words, Zelda maintained eye contact for a couple of seconds longer before she pressed the button on her phone and brought it up to her ear. As she turned around to head through the door, coming to a stop right outside the café, Mipha only caught the first couple of words, a muttered apology. From the way Zelda continued to pace around outside the building, twirling a strand of hair around her fingers as she talked into the phone, annoyance written across her face, Mipha was fairly sure that more apologies followed the first one, and although she knew that it had nothing to do with her, she could still feel the anger directed towards the person on the end of the phone making her clench her fists.

Zelda came back in only a few minutes later, but already from the way she refused to meet her gaze and how she quickly grabbed her things, Mipha could tell that it had not been a pleasant call.

“I am sorry,” Zelda mumbled, shoving her phone back into her pocket as she went to pick up her bag, “but my father just called and I have to go see him now.”

“Oh,” trying to figure out how to respond to that, Mipha spotted the half-eaten muffin that was still sitting on its plate, “well, in that case, don’t forget your muffin.”

Pausing to grab the pastry in question, something that might have been a slight hint of a smile appeared on Zelda’s face. “Sure. Thank you, by the way. And I am sorry about having to leave in such a hurry.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Mipha wasn’t sure if Zelda heard that as she had already twirled around and exited the shop, all but running through the room to get to the door. She opened it with a push of her shoulder, ran down the streets, and just like that, she was gone.

Shaking her head, Mipha tried her best not to think too much about what had just happened. It was fine. Most likely, Zelda’s father was okay and had just wanted to call his daughter to get a chance to talk with her. Although Mipha could not figure out why that would have left Zelda in such a bad mood all of a sudden and requiring her to leave the café at a moment’s notice, but she supposed that that might just be how it was between Zelda and her father.

Besides, Mipha would most likely get a chance to ask Zelda if everything was okay the next time she would come to visit the café, so really, it was fine.

But although Mipha tried her best to convince herself not to worry, she couldn’t ignore the feeling of worry sitting in the pit of her stomach as she soon became busy with preparing two cups of coffee for an elderly couple sitting at the table in the corner of the store.

She must have succeeded in her attempt at appearing not to have to supress the urge to send a wistful glance in the direction of where Zelda must have disappeared, or else Link was simply already thinking about something else, for as he came back to stand next to her at the counter only moments later, he did not even follow her line of sight.

“How is Revali?” he asked, and in an instant, Mipha knew that the correct guess was the later.

“The way he always is. Only, now, he is also looking like his legs might give up if he tries to walk anywhere.”

It was not that funny, and yet Link laughed. From how he was looking towards the Couple-table, Mipha was almost entirely certain that the laugh and the way his gaze turned distant had nothing to do with what she had said, but rather the person they were discussing.

“Yeah, I suppose he is.” Link said, finally breaking the silence. He must have realised that she was looking up at him, for his ears were slightly redder than usual when he turned back around, sending her a lopsided grin. “I suppose we should probably get back to work, especially since Revali is counting on you.”

Mipha shrugged, afraid that she would not have been able to control her words if she had opened her mouth. For the truth was that as she stood there, she would rather have asked Zelda if she could come with her to continue the conversation than stay there.

But it was her job, so Mipha pushed the urge to pull her apron over her head and run after Zelda, instead trying her best to pretend that she was content handing cup after cup of coffee over to customers.

+++

She returned home to find that Revali had gotten better while she had been gone, or at least her roommate was no longer lying in his bed, having instead moved into the kitchen where he had been about to move a stack of what looked like it was different kitchen utensils from one drawer to another.

Deciding to simply wait to see how long it would take for him to notice her presence, Mipha slowly closed the door behind her and went to stand in the doorway between the corridor and the kitchen.

The answer turned out to be that it required more than she had expected, as Revali did not turn around to look at her until she had coughed a couple of times.

“Mipha!” he exclaimed, almost dropping the knife he had just picked up before covering up his shock by catching it with his other hand and finishing it all off with a flourish and a short bow. “Weren’t you supposed to get home at six?” he pushed his sleeve up to check the time on his wristwatch, but Mipha stopped him.

“You don’t mean to tell me that you haven’t already memorised the schedule?”

“Nope, I haven’t! Nowadays, I mostly use the amount of rude customers I have had to help as a way to keep track of time.” exaggerating a sigh, Revali closed the drawer and pressed the back of his hand to his forehead. “And, sadly, I seem to meet them more and more these days.”

“Oh, yeah, that reminds me that you have to tell the guy you almost threw coffee at when you get sick, because he came in today, and I am pretty sure that he was looking for you.”

“Really?” Revali leant back against the counter. “Well, I suppose that Coffee-man and I do have some sort of bond, a profound understanding of each other.” when Mipha simply shot him a deadpan look, Revali shook his head. “No, but seriously, I hope he wasn’t too annoying, because if that was the case, I might have to actually tell him what I think about him the next time we meet. And I suppose that my chance to do so might come quite soon.”

“Why?”

“Because I am going to return the favour you did for me and take care of your shift this Monday.”

Something in Mipha’s stomach turned into stone as she remembered how Zelda had left the café in a hurry of apologies and with an upset expression on her face. Monday had been supposed to be Mipha’s chance to ask her if everything was okay at home and if Revali took the shift from her, Mipha was fairly sure that she could check her calendar to see that she would have to wait until the following Friday for her next chance to come. Of course, four days weren’t really that much, not in the grand scheme of things at least, but still, with the way Zelda had looked while leaving, Mipha really did not want to let asking her what had happened wait any longer.

“Uh,” Mipha said, trying to come up with a reason why she simply had to go to work that day, “actually, it is fine, you don’t have to do that.”

Tilting his head to the side, Revali repeated her words, and incredulous tone in his voice. “Seriously? You don’t want me to take one of your shifts in return?” when Mipha nodded, doing her best not to appear too enthusiastic about the prospect of going to work, a slight crease appeared between Revali’s brows as he moved closer towards her, placing his arm around her shoulders. “Why not? You know that you can’t just use this some other day when you want me to—” he gasped, interrupting himself, “no, wait this is about that one customer you gave your umbrella to, isn’t it?” it appeared that Mipha’s silence was enough for him, for he did not wait for her answer. “I knew it! I knew it; you have a crush on her!”

Shaking his arm off her, Mipha protested loudly. “No, I don’t!”

“Well, either way, please allow me to congratulate you.” Revali blinked. “Even if you insist that she is a friend, let me tell you a little secret: friends at work are always better than enemies.”

Mipha scoffed. “Like you are one to talk, did you not just tell me how you are often mere seconds away from throwing a cup of coffee at someone at work?”

“Touché. But now you have to let me take that shift, I really want to meet her.”

He tried to move past her, but she was faster and before Revali had even tried to step around her, Mipha had moved over to block the doorway.

“If you embarrass me in front of her I will tell Link about your crush,” she warned him.

The threat did not have the intended effect as Revali merely shot her a calculating look before he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You would never do that.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Mipha admitted, “but just… please don’t say anything embarrassing while talking to her. I think that she thinks I am cool so just… let her believe that, will you?”

“You’re already cool on your own, but, sure, I won’t tell her anything.”

“Thank you. Oh, and one more thing: I will cover the shift. If you want to meet her, you will just have to come in to buy something.”

Tapping his fingers against his chin, Revali pretended to consider whether or not to turn down the offer. “Wow, I don’t know, to get the chance to not have to come to work that day and to instead sit at the counter with my cup of coffee while I watch you and Link struggle to meet the demands of the customers while I also get the chance to see who this Zelda is, now why would I accept that offer? But, you know what, since it is you, I think I will say okay, just this once.” sitting up a bit straighter, Revali snapped his fingers at her. “But actually, that reminds me, you still haven’t told me if Coffee-man was so annoying that I will have to give him the chance to live up to his name.”

“I don’t think I want to know what that means,” Mipha grinned, “but no, it didn’t get too bad. Although I think I owe at least part of that to Zelda since she began arguing with him as well. You should have seen her; I think she might just actually have gone through with throwing his own cup of coffee at him if he had not left when he did.”

Lightly nudging her in the rib with his elbow, Revali returned the grin. “Well, if that is the case, I don’t see any reason for you to worry about whether or not we will get along. She sounds amazing.”

“I wasn’t actually worried about the two of you not liking each other. If anything, I fear that you might like each other a bit too much. Hylia knows that the last thing I need is two people getting defensive and threatening to throw coffee at customers.”

Revali just winked at her. “I can’t promise anything.”

+++

“Mipha where is the milk?”

The sound of Revali’s voice coming from the kitchen as well as the sound of someone digging through the fridge, no doubt messing up the order Mipha had finally managed to achieve the last time she had organised its contents, made her immediately abandon her oatmeal to instead go to see what he was talking about.

Just as she had feared, Mipha found Revali having halfway crawled into their tiny fridge in his search for the milk. And of course she saw the entire milk carton she had bought just a few days ago standing right there towards the front of the fridge.

“Are we talking about milk like this one?” she asked drily and picked up the carton to hand it to Revali as he pulled has arm back out of the fridge, letting go of the bottle of ketchup he had apparently been about to question about the whereabouts of the milk.

Revali barely spared the carton a glance before he shook his head. “No, that is not our usual milk, it’s oat milk.”

“Yeah, and so what?”

“Well, I don’t like it.”

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at him, Mipha shifted the carton over to her other hand. “Have you ever even tasted it?”

“No, but I know for a fact that I like my old milk, so why do we have to change it for something else?”

“Because I went to the supermarket to buy oat milk for the café and then I deciding that I would like to try it as well.”

Revali did not look any less confused after her explanation, still staring at her with raised eyebrows. “But why did you even decide that we needed oat milk for the café in the first place? I thought we were doing just fine before.”

“We were, but I talked with Urbosa about it and she agreed with me that it wouldn’t hurt to make sure that everyone would be able to have milk in their coffee, not when that is the thing we primarily sell and a lot of people aren’t able to drink anything with dairy in it.”

“Okay, but I just still don’t really see…” Revali paused, and Mipha saw a glint she knew all too well what meant appear in his eyes, “wait, this is just like that one time with the umbrella—”

“It really isn’t—”

But he ignored her. “Am I correct if I say that I think that this Zelda can’t have dairy?”

Mipha wanted to lie, she really did. But at the same time, she was too aware of the fact that the truth would most likely come out sooner or later either by Revali simply seeing through any lie she might attempt to use or by Zelda giving it away the moment she would meet Revali. So instead of even making an attempt to deny it, Mipha nodded. “Yeah, she can’t have dairy. But,” she hurried to add, seeing the look on Revali’s face, “there are several other people who can’t have dairy either, so, really, this is going to benefit everyone.”

“Yeah, I get that, but I am also one hundred per cent certain that you can’t remember the name of a single other customer who has ever asked for dairy-free milk.”

“Well, no, not right now, but Zelda also comes back regularly so of course it would be easier for me to recall her name. Besides, you and Link—”

“Okay, you know what?” Revali interrupted, placing his hand on the side of his face, though he did not succeed in hiding the little red spots spreading over his cheeks and neck. “You’re right. You’re right about the oat milk and I won’t try to argue against it. I will just remember to go and buy some milk for myself later today. How does that sound?”

She tried her best to ignore the feelings of guilt, but in the end, she gave in. of course she did.

“No, I can go and pick it up for you later. Or at the very least I can do it tomorrow on my way home for the library.”

Revali shot her a long look before letting out a sigh. “Okay, I am beginning to feel quite relieved that Zelda is there at the café, just in case.”

Mipha just shrugged, but deep down, she had to admit that she agreed with Revali. However, that had much less to do with how Zelda had intervened when the Coffee-man had begun to complain and more to do with how Zelda’s eyes sparkled, reflecting the light from the lamps placed throughout the café and how she leant in over the counter when Mipha asked her about her book, gesturing wildly as she explained an important plot point.

But although Revali looked at her, clearly waiting for her reply, Mipha stayed silent, as she instead turned around and went to grab her computer, determined to finish at least a few of her assignments that evening.

Chapter Text

Mipha passed through the rows of shelves, running her right hand along the spines of the book as she silently counted along. Perhaps it would have been faster and a more efficient way to use her time to simply walk along the shelves until she reached a number that was closer to what she was looking for, but although she did look forward to getting home and flopping down on her couch to catch up with her series, as she stood there, in the middle of the narrow passage between the shelves stacked full with books, the air dry and smelling slightly of dust, Mipha just wanted to enjoy the experience. Besides, even if she was wasting her time, it was not that often she was given an excuse by her professors to just walk around in the library, so, really, why should she hurry up to get back outside to the busy street?

No, Mipha shook her head, she refused to feel guilty even if the deadlines for her assignments were approaching at a pace that felt like time had suddenly started passing by at a much faster pace than it usually did.

Walking along the bookshelf, Mipha came to a halt when she spotted the section she had been looking for, and although the sun was shining outside, sending rays of sun in through the large windows behind the bookshelf, Mipha got to work, quickly sorting through the books before making up her mind and grabbing the three of them that seemed like they came closest to what she had been looking for.

With the results of her efforts on scooped up in her arms, Mipha turned around and made her way back towards the tables in the open area in the centre of the room.

However, the moment she emerged from the labyrinth of shelves, she stopped.

There, sitting at one of the tables that had been scattered throughout the room, a pile of books and pages upon pages of paper stacked up next to her that wobbled dangerously, with her hair falling in front of her face, Mipha was fairly sure she could see Zelda.

Of course, she was aware of how Zelda did not simply stop existing the moment she exited the café, but there was still something almost strange about seeing her in a place where they were not surrounded by loud colours, the smell of coffee, and the sounds of other customers chatting to each other. Nevertheless, Mipha picked up her pace as she walked over to stand next to the table.

Zelda remained buried in her books, having lowered her head so much that she almost touched the page. From what Mipha could see, the only thing that kept Zelda’s head above the book was the arm Zelda had propped up on the table, elbow planted on the surface and her hand pushing against her forehead. Her glasses had all but slid off her nose, but it did not seem like Zelda had noticed it yet.

Clearing her throat, Mipha placed the books down at the table. “Uh, hello.”

It appeared that the combination of both the movement as well as the sound of the books connecting with the wood of the table caught Zelda’s attention, as she twitched slightly, head flying up from the book as she gave Mipha a confused glance before a look of realisation appeared in her eyes and her face brightened. “Hi! What are you doing here?” while she talked, Zelda shoved the book she had been reading in away from her and pulled one of the chairs next to her closer towards the table, gesturing for Mipha to sit down.

Mipha accepted the chair, instantly placing her elbow up on the table as she turned in her seat. “I was looking for some books for one of my assignments. But I think that I might actually have gone here to procrastinate actually sitting down to complete it much more than I went to find books about the subject.”

“Oh, tell me about it. All of this,” Zelda sighed and motioned vaguely towards the books in front of her, “I fear that it is not much more than a way for me to distract myself from having to actually face my project right now.”

Tilting her head, Mipha followed the movement, taking note of the fact that almost all of the articles seemed to be about either history or robotics. “Really? How so?”

“Nothing much, I just realised that I might have accidentally created a plot hole for myself while trying to figure out a way around another, smaller plot hole. It’s just…” Zelda reached up to pull a stray strand of hair back into place behind her ear, giving it a frustrated little tuck as she did so, “I try to figure out what to do about one problem, only to create an even bigger one. And I can’t really continue onwards before I figure out a way past this one, because this might affect the premise as well. So, yeah, you can say that it is not going that great for me right now.”

“I am sure it can’t be that bad,” Mipha tried, but Zelda just pushed one of the articles over to her.

“I have been trying to see if I can figure out something for the last two hours,” she said, “I can barely understand the words here anymore.”

Flipping through the pages, Mipha was instantly met with the sight of multiple graphs, equations, and words she had never heard of before. Really, Mipha had a hard time imagining having ever been able to understand even a couple of the words that accompanied the graphs, much less understanding what it said.

“Well,” Mipha commented, reaching out to pat Zelda on the back before changing her mind and settling for simply handing the pages back to her, “if it can make you feel any better, just know that I don’t understand anything of this at all, so you are already doing much better than I would have if I had been in your place. Of course, that also means that I won’t really be able to help you, but if you need any medical information, I am absolutely the one to ask.”

“Do you think you could perform some kind of lifesaving operation on my project?” Zelda asked, and Mipha was happy to hear the hint of a chuckle in her voice. “You know, save what can be saved and then piece it together until it looks like something that might resemble a book?”

“Are you trying to trick me into making your book into a ReDead?” Mipha asked, nudging Zelda in the ribs. “Because if that is the case, I will have to tell you that, one, I don’t know how to do that, and, two, even if I did, I am pretty sure there would be some sort of law put in place to keep me from doing that. Unless what you are really suggesting is that we should become some kind of rogue duo to ensure that your book gets completed. Is that it?”

That finally earned her a tiny smile. “It might be worth a try.” with a groan, Zelda ran a hand through her hair, trying to force it into staying in place as she continued. “No, but really, this is just really frustrating right now, but I know that I just have to push through it, so don’t worry about it. I just like to complain about this from time to time, that’s all” Zelda pursed her lips as she looked back down at the little mountain of information next to her. “And right now, I want to complain about the fact that I am getting nowhere with all of this. Do you want to listen to my rant about the futility of it all?”

“Sure, I am all ears.”

As it turned out, it was a good thing that Mipha had already given herself permission to simply waste her day doing nothing at all, because once she got started, it seemed that there were plenty of things about the process of writing a book that frustrated Zelda.

“I mean,” Zelda said with a sigh, “it’s just, I know that even if I don’t complete the project right now, I will do it someday, and that it would be unrealistic to expect me to be able to complete it within just a couple of weeks, but I just don’t feel like I am making any progress at all. It just… it kind of makes me want to give up completely. Besides, I know that even if I do complete it, the chances of it actually getting published are as close to non-existent as they could possibly have been since I doubt anyone are actually really interested in what I am writing about.”

At that, Mipha felt the need to cut in. Leaning in to close the distance between them, she did her best to keep her voice calm. “Hey, you don’t actually know any of that yet. I mean, from what you have told me about this project, I know that I at least would love to read the finished thing.”

“Well, that makes you the only one.”

“No, that makes us two, since I assume that you would like to read it as well.” Mipha waited until Zelda mumbled something that she decided to interpret as her agreeing with her before continuing. “Yeah, see. And two readers are better than zero so you are already doing great.”

“Yeah, I know, I know. I’m sorry, I have just—” Zelda breathed in deeply before finally meeting Mipha’s glance, “the last couple of days have just been kind of rough, so, yeah, I am probably just a bit negative already. I am sorry about that.”

“Hey, that’s perfectly understandable. But, speaking of that, is your father doing okay? You looked quite upset when you left Thursday.”

Mipha didn’t miss the way Zelda instantly pulled up her shoulders, looking away from her as she once again let her hair move away from its place behind her ears, strands falling in front of her face so that Mipha could not see her eyes. “Oh, yes, he is fine. He just— he just wanted to know how I was doing at university and all of that.”

“University?” Mipha repeated, knitting her brows as she tried to make sense of that, trying to figure out a way as to how Zelda could seemingly balance both the lectures as well as the assignments and everything she had to read for said lessons with also coming to the café almost every day to write. “But how do you make time for that on top of all of this?”

“Easy,” Zelda said, though her tone let Mipha know that it was everything but easy, “I was able to graduate a year earlier than I had been supposed to. My father thinks that I am about to finish my last semester, and since that was the only way I could figure out a way to get a chance to pursue my own dreams… well, I just did not bother to inform him that I had changed my plans.” shrugging slightly, Zelda reached out to pull one of the larger books closer to herself. “I mean, I know that it is probably wrong to continue to lie to him and all of that, but technically I am not even lying. There are just certain parts of my life I never tell him about.”

“Really?” thinking about how her own dad and Sidon had been almost even more ecstatic than herself when she had gotten the news that her grades had been good enough for her to study medical science at the University of Castle Town, Mipha tried to imagine keeping it a secret for them. “Doesn’t he ask a lot of questions? What do you tell him when he asks about how it is at the lectures or if you have a lot of assignments to write?”

From the way Zelda’s expression darkened, Mipha instantly knew that it had not been a good thing to ask about.

“He doesn’t really care about any of that. As long as I say that my grades are good, he is content to just listen to me retell a couple of stories from last year. Besides, I already lied to him about what I was studying, and he never guessed it so I doubt that he will figure this out either.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, he wanted me to study theology, but I wanted to study ancient technology, so I just… kind of changed the topic every time he tried to get me to talk about what I had learnt. It wasn’t really that difficult at all, I just told him that I was in the middle of preparing for my exams and then he decided that he should probably give me some space so that I could get pass with flying colours.”

Seeing Zelda finish the story like keeping her education a secret from her family was barely something she even thought about made Mipha go silent. What was there really she could say? That she was sorry that Zelda had to lie to get a chance to follow her dreams, even though Mipha could hardly even understand why she had decided to do that in the first place?

At least Mipha was beginning to understand why Zelda had looked so worried when she had exited the café that day. Really, if it had been herself who had been in that situation, Mipha was almost completely sure that she would not have been able to handle the call that well, not when she was sitting in a café, loud voices everywhere around her while her father called her, fully believing that she was in the middle of studying for her exams.

Zelda must have guessed the reason for her silence, because she let out a short laugh, that sounded too high and too fake. “I know that it is weird, you don’t have to pretend it isn’t.”

“I wasn’t thinking that it was weird,” Mipha protested, feeling how her cheeks grew warmer, giving away the fact that it was indeed what she had just been thinking, “it’s just… kind of strange.”

“Yeah, that’s one way to put it,” Zelda agreed, and Mipha was happy to hear how the chuckle that followed sounded much more sincere, “strange. Just remember that the next time I come in to order my cup of coffee and blueberry muffin—I am that weird one who had to lie to her father to get a chance to do what I want.”

“Wait,” Mipha snapped her fingers, relieved that she finally had an excuse to change the subject, “I should probably warn you that I have already told my roommate about you, and he is quite determined to meet you, so he might very well just happen to visit the café the next time you are there even if it isn’t actually during one of his shifts. If that happens, I just want you to know that he is actually much—well, perhaps much is giving him more credit than he deserves, but at least a little—kinder than what he sounds like.”

Cocking her head, Zelda lifted an eyebrow. When she spoke, she sounded just as relieved as Mipha felt that they did not have to discuss the subject of her father any more. “I can’t wait. What is his name?”

“Revali.”

Mipha saw how Zelda silently repeated the name, wondering where she had heard it before. She could tell the moment Zelda pictured the name tag, coming to the correct conclusion, as she gasped and reached out to grab Mipha’s arm. “Wait, are we talking about the Revali I met the first time I came to visit the café? The one who almost threw a cup of coffee at that guy who then returned later to be a nuisance to you?”

“The very same.”

“Well, at least we can then both agree that the Coffee-guy was one of the most annoying persons we have ever had to interact with.”

“The Coffee-man,” Mipha corrected her.

“What?”

“Revali has named him the Coffee-man. Although I don’t really think that Revali finds him that annoying, or at least he has not actually done anything to get him kicked out of the café yet, though that might just be a matter of time. But he did like the story about how you stood up to him.”

“So what you are saying is,” Zelda said, speaking slowly as a smile appeared on her face, “that I have actually managed to impress him before even meeting him?”

“Well,” Mipha said, extending the end of the word as she tried to come up with a way to continue the sentence, “you might have. But just keep in mind that Revali is… he can be quite direct at times, so you shouldn’t really think too much about it if he says something insulting.”

But Mipha’s worries about whether or not she would end up scaring Zelda away from ever coming back to risk meeting Revali evaporated as Zelda’s reaction simply was to laugh and nod at her. “Okay, don’t worry, I won’t do that then. But now you almost have to promise me that I will get to meet him soon.”

“Oh, I think Revali will take care of that all on his own.”

“Great!” casting a glance at the mess in front of her, Zelda stood up, pushing her chair away in the process. “I am sorry, but I think I just figured out a possible way around the plot hole, and I need to get home so that I can get a chance to write it down, so…” she let the sentence trail off.

It took a couple of seconds before Mipha realised that Zelda was waiting for her to say something, but once she did, she acted quickly, jumping to her feet and grabbing her own books, clutching them in front of her chest. “Oh, yeah, of course. Uh, do you want me to help you putting all of this away?”

“No, no, I can take care of that. Besides, didn’t you have an assignment to write?”

Right then, her computer that was still waiting for her to return home to get started on the task as well as the email form Sidon about the Festival of Hylia she still had yet to answer did not exactly seem all that enticing to Mipha, but Zelda did not look like she needed anyone’s help as she got to work on putting away the books, placing the articles into one neat stack, so Mipha forced a cheery tone into her voice. “I do. But you have an entire book to write, so I think we can both agree that I will be the first of us to get finished with our respective tasks.”

Zelda barely looked up from where she was in the process of sorting through the books. “Perhaps. When are you supposed to be finished with it?”

“Next Saturday.”

That made Zelda pause. Placing the book she had just been standing with back onto the table, she craned her neck to look up at Mipha. “As is, it has to be finished in six days?” when Mipha nodded, Zelda simply shook her head. “Okay, that is why I am happy to be finished with all of that. Hylia, all of those assignments were really starting to get to me at the end of my final semester. Is it still as bad as I remember?”

“I don’t know. There’s a lot to read and all of that, but other than that, it really isn’t that bad.”

“Hmm,” Zelda looked down at the book in her hands, “well, no matter what, I am looking forward to seeing you at the café tomorrow. You are coming in that day, right?”

“Yup,” Mipha said, popping the ‘p’, “you should just be prepared for Revali being there as well and him having prepared an interview for you to complete, just to see if he will like you.”

Zelda smiled a little. “Should I be nervous about that?”

“No, not really,” Mipha admitted, “I am sure that he will like you.”

“Well, in that case, I will be looking forward to meeting him as well.” Zelda waved at her as Mipha began to head back over towards the entrance to the library.

It wasn’t until she had already left the library and was halfway home that Mipha realised she had forgotten to actually take out any of the books she had gone to the library to look for in the first place. But by then, the pull of her home and the chance to be just a little productive and actually get something done was stronger than her will to go back, and that, coupled with her knowledge that the voice arguing to return to the library sounded a lot like it wanted to see Zelda again more than anything else, ended up winning the fight as Mipha opened the door to the flat.

+++

It was not long after that before Mipha noticed that meeting Zelda in the library, far away from the café, seemed to have started some kind of trend, because all of a sudden she was practically running into her everywhere she went, their meetings no longer only at the café.

Of course, Zelda still came in the following Monday, Revali joining her in sitting on the opposite side of the counter from Mipha and Link just a little hour after she had arrived. Mipha was not sure what exactly they had been talking about—or, really, if they had even spoken that much given how Zelda had already managed to pull out her computer before Revali arrived—but Revali had at least not stormed up to her immediately afterwards to argue about any of the other customers, something Mipha decided to view as a good sign.

But it was more than just that. Over the course of the week, Mipha both managed to grab the same bag of apples at the supermarket that Zelda had reached out for, having already let go of the plastic before she recognised her—the apples ended up returning home with Mipha, because of course Zelda let her keep them—and find Zelda sitting in the park during her run, resting with her back against a tree trunk and with her computer balanced on her knees, though Zelda was quick to move it away when Mipha pulled off her headphones and ran over towards her.

But although Mipha did find it weird that after weeks of only meeting in the café, it seemed that it was their talk in the library that had suddenly changed the pattern, in the end, Zelda was the first of them to comment on it.

They were in the library—the irony of it wasn’t lost on Mipha—sitting in almost the exact same spot as when Mipha had found Zelda halfway buried in books when Zelda placed the book she had been holding back down onto the table, the cover of the book and the wooden surface of the table creating a thud.

“Is it just me,” Zelda began, and Mipha was relieved to see that she sent her a smile, “or are we suddenly unable to go a single day without running into each other?”

Pretending to think about it, Mipha cocked her head. “We don’t see each other every day. Nearly every day, but not actually every single one.”

Zelda stuck out her tongue at her. “You know what I mean.”

“Oh, are you talking about the fact that you have suddenly decided to spend most of your time at this library?” Mipha teased her. “Is that the fact you are referring to?”

“Yeah, right,” Zelda said, and although she rolled her eyes, Mipha could hear how she chuckled faintly, “I wouldn’t exactly use the word ‘decided’, though. I am mostly just here because my plot and the mechanics behind the robots in the story are being stubborn and completely unwilling to help.”

“Aw, you should try coming into the café tomorrow,” Mipha said, swinging her legs back and forth underneath the table. She felt how she brushed against the side of Zelda’s foot, and quickly sat still again, clearing her throat as she made sure to keep a perfect posture, hoping that it had not annoyed Zelda. Her voice sounded incredibly shrill as she continued, and Mipha could only pray that it only sounded like that to herself, “perhaps you could get Revali to yell either at you or the story—that usually makes you quite determined to figure out how to make him stop yelling.”

Luckily, it didn’t seem that Zelda had noticed anything, or if she had, she at least did not comment on it. Instead, she simply nodded at the suggestion. “Once, I would have said that there was no way I am doing that, but, hey, it is worth a shot isn’t it?”

Zelda nudging her in the ribs was what told Mipha that she had been silent for a bit too long.

Clearing her throat and trying to focus on the conversation, Mipha did her best to force her voice not to tremble. “Sure. I mean, I don’t want to be the one to tell Revali why you need his help, but, sure.”

“Well, it’s settled then,” Zelda said, suddenly sounding much more serious than Mipha was used to. However, the that only lasted for a few seconds before the entire room appeared much brighter than before as Zelda smiled at her, continuing, “no, but seriously, I will make sure to go and visit you tomorrow. I feel like after seeing you everywhere but the café lately, I kind of need for us to return to that café, just to remember that it is still there. Besides,” Zelda swung her arm around Mipha’s shoulders, “I have to make sure that the Coffee-man doesn’t return, right?”

Picturing the way Revali had looked when he had stepped into the flat just a week prior, informing her that Urbosa had overhead one of the Coffee-man’s rants and promptly asked him to leave, almost sounding like he didn’t want to admit that he had actually somewhat enjoyed getting the chance to argue with someone on a regular basis, Mipha shook her head.

“I don’t think you have to worry about him anymore.” seeing the way Zelda drew her eyebrows together, Mipha hurried to explain. “Urbosa—the owner of the café—saw him. I don’t think he will come back again, and if he does, Urbosa said that we should simply ask him to leave and refuse to get him anything.”

“Well,” Zelda crossed her legs, inching as close to Mipha as the separate chairs allowed her to, “I am still going to visit you, even if you don’t need me to ask someone to leave. How does that sound?”

“It sounds amazing.” closing the book in front of her, Mipha found herself leaning over towards Zelda as well, not stopping until she was practically sitting in front of the book Zelda had been reading in. Reading the title of it, she shot Zelda a smile. “But I suppose that now that we know that I won’t need your help dealing with rude customers, we should also talk about how you quite obviously need some help settling on how you want the robots to work.”

“Yes, please,” Zelda sighed, “I think I have changed the limits of them at least four times during the last chapter. It’s just a mess.”

“I am sure it’s not something we can’t figure out,” Mipha tried.

Although she did her best to keep up the optimistic attitude as the hours passed and the library gradually emptied, by the time they had had no other choice than to leave the library to ensure they would not end up having to spend the night in there, her head was spinning with all of the information about the plot and the systems they were trying to piece together.

Her confusion did not go by unnoticed, and once they had gotten outside to stand on the footpath, Zelda did pause to pull her in for a hug.

“Sorry about the mess of a project I just threw your way,” she mumbled, a muffled laugh disappearing into Mipha’s hair.

“Don’t apologise, it was not halfway as messy as I had feared it would be from the way you had described it.”

The hug ended far sooner than Mipha would have liked for it to do, but as Zelda let go of her and stepped back, bringing a gloved hand up to cover the corner of her mouth as she tucked a stray strand of hair back into place behind her ear, Mipha did the same even if the hug had actually been really nice. A side-effect of living with Revali, she supposed. Although Revali was a better roommate than Mipha could have hoped for—at least as long as Mipha convinced herself not to think about his habits of rearranging the kitchen—to say that he was not one for hugs was definitely an understatement. Perhaps that was why something in her chest tightened when Zelda waved goodbye to her, reminding her one last time that she would make sure to make time to go see her tomorrow before turning around to walk away from her.

Mipha stayed frozen in place for longer than she would have liked to admit, simply gazing straight ahead as Zelda grew smaller as the distance between them increased. Finally, she managed to snap out of it, and, pulling her jacket closer together and attempting to convince herself that that was the reason for why her cheeks felt warmer, she headed back home again.

Chapter Text

When Mipha had agreed for her and Zelda to return to their origins, the café, she had not remembered to check her schedule to see which one of her co-workers she would have to share the shift with, something she came to regret deeply the following day.

Standing behind the counter and trying to ignore the noise around her, Mipha found herself wishing that she could go back in time and tell Zelda that, actually, no, tomorrow would not work, it would have to wait for another day, any other day. But of course Mipha had completely forgotten about how Friday was the busiest day at the café and how the increased amount of customers also meant an increased risk of even more people sharing her space behind the counter during her shift.

Granted, it would not have changed the fact that Mipha would still have had to come to work, but Zelda seeing her like that, busy, running around the room in an attempt to make sure that no one would go to the counter and complain about having to wait, and constantly about to forget what people had just ordered, was not really what Mipha had had in mind when making plans to see each other at the café.

The fact that she had to share the shift with Link and Revali as well didn’t really make it any better either. One of them was fine, Mipha would even go so far as to admit that it was often at least halfway fun to work together with them, although mentioning any of that around Revali meant having to listen to him repeating it back to her for the next several months. But both of them at the same time? No, that was an absolute nightmare. At least when she worked together with only one of them, the only thing she had to put up with was Revali trying to act like he was not trying his best to draw out the time until his shift would end each time Link would come in to take his apron from him to get a chance to talk with him or Link’s not that subtle attempts to ask her about Revali, the way he was checking to see if there was a chance of him being able to talk with Revali not being something Mipha could possibly have missed.

Almost like he wanted to prove her expectations for how the day would go correct, Revali pulled her away from her thoughts with a sharp whistle. Looking up, she saw him gesture towards Link, holding a porcelain cup in each hand.

“Hey, look at this!” he said, waving wildly at Link, and although Mipha could almost hear how he tried to whisper or at least keep his voice down enough so that not everyone in the café would hear him, Mipha could tell from the amount of people who turned around to look at them that it was not working. But that did not seem to stop Revali.

Too late, Mipha realised the connection between the cups in his hands and the demand for Link to pay attention to him, and by then, she was already fairly sure that there was not much she could do to keep him from going through with his plan, which, incidentally, was exactly what he did.

Revali started to juggle with the cups.

Unable to do much else to stare at him in some kind of morbid fascination, attempting to figure out just when he would make a mistake, Mipha hoped that at the very least, Revali would be able to pull off… what this was supposed to be for long enough so that when he would inevitably drop either one or both of the cups, at least everyone in the entire room would not be there to see it or hear the sound of porcelain hitting the floor.

Looking at the people around her, Mipha concluded that Revali had seemingly managed to impress everyone except for Link. Sitting right across the counter from Mipha, she could see a teenager gasping every time a cup almost managed to slip away from Revali, and next to her was what looked like a couple who had turned to look at Revali’s antics with a look in their eyes that told her that they were halfway impressed, halfway concerned. Link, however, simply looked at Revali with a blank look, and had it not been for how she could see him follow the path of the cups with his eyes, Mipha would not have been sure if he was even paying attention at all.

Hoping that once Revali dropped the porcelain the customers would simply see it as being part of the trick, Mipha decided that this really was not something she could deal with right now. So, trying to push the worry away, she went back to the counter to continue with her work and to try to convince herself that she was most definitely not waiting for Zelda to come into the café. No, Mipha was not looking over towards the entrance every other second, waiting to see the familiar sight of Zelda leaning against the door to push it open with her shoulder. She was just paying attention to her surroundings, that was all it was.

Still, Mipha could tell that she had not done that good of a job at that either, though perhaps part of that could be due to the fact that Revali revealed that he did seem to be more coordinated than what Mipha had expected of him, somehow managing to end his little routine by catching the cups and placing them back down onto the counter, because it felt like she had only looked away for a second, but when she looked back, Zelda had entered and gone to stand in line.

“Busy day?” Zelda asked when she got to the front of the line. Mipha didn’t miss how she looked behind her, but decided not to turn around to see what Revali had gotten up to. Sometimes it was simply better not to know.

“It could be worse, but, yes, it is quite stressful,” she admitted.

“Well, in that case, let me just get straight to the point. Can I get just a caffè latte? No need for a blueberry muffin this time”

“Switching up the order? Sure thing,” Mipha nodded, “and I suppose that you would like to enjoy it here?”

“Yes.”

Turning around, Mipha narrowly avoided colliding with Link as her co-worker passed by, carrying a plate stacked with muffins in each hand, stepping to the side as she went over to the coffee machine. She had barely been there for more than a couple of seconds, having just grabbed the coffee beans when Revali appeared at her side.

“He didn’t even acknowledge my trick,” Revali whispered to her, and Mipha was happy to state that he at least kept his voice low enough to keep the customers from hearing their hushed conversation, “I tried to show him, and he didn’t even react. Do you think I did anything wrong?”

“Other than deciding that the porcelain cups would be the perfect thing to juggle with and trying to show Link that you could juggle in the café while we were busy? No, not really. But I will have to say that I don’t understand why you don’t just tell him.” she gestured towards the other end of the room where Link was chatting with a group of four teenagers sitting around one of the tables. “Ask him if he wants to grab something to eat once the shifts ends or something like that. Just do something.” seeing the way Revali smirked at her, Mipha quickly modified her statement. “Something that does not come with a high risk of shattered porcelain on the floor and shocked customers, I mean.”

“But what if he says no? He did not say anything about my trick—even though I actually risked something to impress him—so why would he say yes?”

Looking over at Link and noting how he had looked up from the table to send a glance in their direction, quickly averting his gaze when he noticed her looking at him, Mipha shook her head. “Trust me when I say that I am fairly certain he is not going to say no.” before Revali got a chance to object, she reached out to pour the coffee into the cup and returned to the counter where Zelda was still waiting.

“Sorry about the wait, Revali wanted to ask me about something,” she said, placing the cup in front of her.

“Let me guess, you also wanted to remind him not to use the cups as some kind of juggling ball?” Zelda asked, taking a sip of the coffee. As she placed it back down onto the counter, Mipha saw how it had left a little bit of foam on her upper lip.

A groan mixed with a laugh escaped her as she pressed a hand against her temple. “Please tell me that you didn’t see all of that.”

“If it helps, I didn’t see most of it,” Zelda offered, tipping the cup at her, “but it did look like he knew what he was doing.”

“Yeah, I suppose it does make it a little better. Although I have to admit that I don’t know how he manages to continue to do things like that, and yet, Urbosa has never pulled him aside to tell him to stop, I mean, it is not like we don’t have surveillance cameras in here.”

“It could be part of the charm,” Zelda said, the suggestion being accompanied by a little shrug, “I mean, at this point, I would almost have expected him to do something like that.”

“Yeah, I suppose that could be it.”

They went silent, Zelda glancing down at the foam that still rested on top of what little coffee was still left. For some reason Mipha was almost completely sure that she saw Zelda pull her shoulders up slightly, her relaxed attitude making way for a determined expression as she looked back up again, opening her mouth just as Mipha had been about to move on to see if there were anyone else who needed her help.

“Actually,” Zelda began, and Mipha spun around to look back at her, “I was wondering if you would perhaps be interested in sitting down to eat a muffin or something with me. Once you are finished with your shift of course.”

“Uh,” Mipha said, trying to figure out a way to not sound rude, “I am actually not the biggest fan of muffins. I think I just spend too much time with them while I am at work, you know, so I just can’t really appreciate the taste of them because it reminds me of being at work.” blinking at Zelda and hoping that she would not be hurt by her words, Mipha continued. “And although I love talking to you in here, I don’t really want to be reminded of all of the hours I have spent placing those little spongy things on a plate to hand it to someone who did not want to look me in the eyes, you know?”

She blinked at Zelda, waiting for her to grin back at her and give Mipha the chance to suggest that perhaps they could go out and get something else, perhaps a sandwich or something, anything that did not also include the risk of having to eat a muffin. But that was not at all what Zelda did.

“Yeah,” Zelda said, trying to form a smile, though the expression looked horribly strained and she kept on avoiding Mipha’s gaze, “yeah, I suppose that makes sense.”

Something heavy settling in her stomach as Mipha realised she had misjudged the situation. Knowing that she would not be able to take back what she had just said, she waved her hand, like that alone could make the awkwardness between them disappear. “But maybe we could do something else? I don’t know, but, uh….” racking her brain to figure out what she could suggest, Mipha was happy to state that, although Zelda’s smile still looked fake, she had at least looked up from the table, “yeah, I don’t really have any ideas right now, but we could figure something out.”

Finally, Zelda shot her the smallest smile. It was barely there and looked like it could disappear in an instant, but at least it appeared to be real as Zelda got up to lean in over the table and grab one of the napkins.

Placing it back down on the table, Zelda dug out a pen from somewhere in her pocket. Biting off the cap of the pen, she smoothed out the surface and began to scribble something onto her makeshift piece of paper. “Okay, well, if you figure something out, this is my number, so don’t hesitate to call me.” Zelda paused to push the napkin over towards Mipha. “I have to go now, but I will try to come up with a better idea than going to get muffins,” finally, she sent Mipha the wink she had expected would have been the reaction to her declining the invitation for muffins, “so if there’s any other things that you don’t like, don’t hesitate to tell me.”

Too relieved that it seemed like the muffin-situation and the tense atmosphere it had brought along had passed, Mipha doubted she would even have been able to remember anything else she did not like, so rather than to try, she simply folded up the napkin and pushed it into her pocket, making sure that it would not accidentally fall out. “No, I don’t think there’s anything else I really don’t like.”

“Great,” Zelda said, jumping off her chair and landing on the floor with a soft thud, “I have to get going, but, uh,” she gestured towards Mipha’s pocket that now housed the napkin, “if you change your mind, or if you come up with an idea, I will be free later today, so don’t hesitate to call me.”

“I won’t” Mipha called out after her as Zelda turned around to leave.

However, even though Zelda turned around to send her one last smile before she exited the café, Mipha could still not shake the feeling that Zelda’s invitation had been about more than just those muffins. With a sigh, Mipha got back to work.

+++

Zelda might have told her not to hesitate to call her, but that was still exactly what Mipha did the moment she got home.

It started out with her sitting in the couch, holding the napkin in one hand and her phone in the other. Zelda had written her number across the napkin, the numbers so large that Mipha doubted there was a risk of them smudging to such an extent that she would not be able to make out what they said, but as soon as the thought of it happening struck her, she hurried to save the number on her phone, only pausing slightly when she was prompted to choose a picture for the contact. She had no picture of Zelda. In all of the weeks they had chatted over the counter at work or met one another in the library, Mipha had never thought about taking a picture of her. Now that she needed it, it seemed almost odd that she had not thought about it before.

In the end, she did not really have any other choice than to let it remain blank, settling for simply saving Zelda’s name and number instead. And then she waited.

Mipha wasn’t exactly sure what she expected to happen by waiting. She knew that after how quiet Zelda had gotten after she had declined the invitation to get muffins, Zelda was most likely waiting for her to come up with a suggestion. And that was the issue. The more Mipha tried to force her brain to come up with an idea, the more it seemed that her brain wanted to fight against her, going completely blank.

So Mipha stayed put instead, sitting in the couch with her legs pulled up under her as she looked down at her phone. Not for the first time, she wished that she had thought about giving Zelda her number so that she would have a way to contact her. As it was now, Mipha would have to send a text or call her to let Zelda know how to contact her, but although she had written out a couple of texts, reading through them several times, she could just not summon the courage to actually send them, instead ending up deleting every single one of them.

She wasn’t sure exactly how much time had passed since she had first flopped down onto the couch, but after she had deleted the fifth text—letting out a loud sigh—Revali jumped up from his spot next to her, and before she had had time to react, he had grabbed the phone out of her hand.

“Hey, give it back!” she protested, getting to her feet as she attempted to take back the phone, but Revali simply jumped up onto the couch and held the phone up over his head, effectively keeping her from reaching it.

“No,” Revali said, interrupting her, “you have been fiddling with that phone for the entire evening—”

“Yeah, because it is important—”

“—and I think it is time for you to do something else—”

“—because I know that I hurt Zelda’s feelings and I want to write something to apologise, but I just don’t know what to say, she already has a lot to deal with and I don’t want to—”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Revali cut in with a wave of his hand, “is this about that conversation I overheard? The one where she tried to ask if you wanted to go and get muffins after your shift ended and you said no?”

“Did you listen in on my conversation?” try as she might, Mipha could not suppress the laughter in her voice, and although she tried her best to look annoyed, drawing her brows together, she could see from the way Revali smiled at her that it didn’t work.

“Given how you are constantly teasing me about Link, I don’t really think you have any room to complain about the fact that I can hear what you are talking about when you are practically sitting right next to me. But,” he added, not giving her the chance to cut in, “that is beside the point, and as much as I would like to tease you about how you are even worse than I am when I am in love—”

“I am not in love!” Mipha crossed her arms and tried not to notice how her heart sped up as a reaction to Revali’s words.

He barely even bothered to raise his eyebrow at her. “Oh, really? Because in that case, I think you need to inform Zelda about that, because she just invited you on a date, an invitation you just turned down.”

Something that felt suspiciously similar to horror filled her stomach. It couldn’t have been meant as a date, it simply couldn’t. Because if that was the case, then that would mean that Mipha had just declined the invitation and said that she did not enjoy the ideas Zelda had about a date all in one sentence. So it could not have been a date, or at least Mipha hoped that it wasn’t. Of course, if it had really been meant as a date, then it was probably for the better that she had misunderstood and said no. Although Mipha loved Zelda it was as a friend, and nothing more than that. Though, as Mipha entertained the idea of having said yes so that she might currently be sitting at a table across from her, a muffin that she could always give to Zelda rather than eat placed on the plate in front of her, she had to admit that it did sound nice.

But if Revali was right and Zelda really had meant to ask her out on a date, then it probably was for the better that she had said no, just so that her misunderstanding the invitation would not have led to her letting Zelda believe that there was something more between them.

“Oh,” Mipha said, trying not to let any sign of how what she had first thought was horror was beginning to feel a lot more like a simple case of butterflies fluttering around in her stomach show on her face, “I don’t think that was actually how she meant it, though. You see, we kind of have this joke about the muffins…” she let the sentence trail off, because, to tell the truth, right then, Mipha could not recall any instance of them joking about the muffins, at least not in a way that would make Revali believe that the invitation had been nothing more than a joke.

She could tell immediately from the long glance Revali sent her that it was not working, but her roommate still cocked his head. “It didn’t sound like a joke to me. But that is beside the point. Right now, what you need is to do something that will take your mind off Zelda.”

“Such as?”

Revali jumped off the couch, bending his knees as he landed on the floor before finishing it all off with a flourish and a toss of the head. “I was planning to go out today, to go visit a bar, and from what I have seen over these last couple of hours, you would benefit from going with me as well.”

“No.” for once Mipha was able to make her voice decisive. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she fixed Revali with her most resolute glare, determined not to let him convince her to go with him, and continued. “No, I have an exam in just a couple of weeks, I can’t afford to ruin my brain by going with you, and I have to study. So the answer is no, I won’t come with you.”

“Aw, come on,” Revali tried, and, perhaps hoping that it would convince her, he extended the phone towards her. Mipha snatched it away from him before going back to stand with her arms crossed in front of her again, “I am sure that with all of the time you have spent studying with her at the library, you are already sure to pass the exam. Because I assume that you told me the truth when you said that you had been studying, right?” he wiggled his brows at her, but Mipha shot him an unamused look. That seemed to make Revali realise that it was time for him to change tactics. “Also,” he said, and it seemed that his entire body language shifted along with his tone, suddenly becoming much less loud, “I kind of need your help.”

Mipha knew that it was a trick and that he could most likely figure something out on his own, but she still only managed to stay strong for a few seconds before giving in. “With what?”

“Well, I had planned to invite Link to come along with me to the bar—you know, to be active and do something, just like you told me to do—but just in case that it doesn’t work out or he signals that it would be best to just remain friends, I would like for you to be there so that I can invite him along without revealing anything.”

“And you can’t invite anyone else? Anyone who does not have to study that day?”

“No,” Revali said, and Mipha had to admit that he was a better actor than she had expected, halfway convincing her that it was true. It was only the slight pull around his mouth, showing the beginnings of a smile, that gave him away, and even then, Mipha was almost tempted to say yes and get it over with.

It was stupid. Going out to some bar where she would most likely feel out of place the moment Revali and Link found each other—and unlike Revali, Mipha was sure that she would end up with proof that there had been no need to bring her along as some kind of way to cover up Revali’s feelings for Link in case things went awry—and where she would be surrounded by drunk people ready to start fights and hurt one another was absolutely not Mipha’s cup of tea, she knew that already, but for some reason, she found herself unable to tell Revali that.

Besides, somewhere inside of her, located just next to the butterflies in her stomach, she felt the familiar sense of glee, and Mipha could not deny the feelings of giddy excitement at the prospect of getting a break from studying and thinking about her exams. One night off couldn’t hurt that much, could it?

“Come on, it will be fun,” Revali said, and Mipha could see from the sparkle in his eyes that he knew he had already managed to convince her, “we won’t even be home that late if that is what you’re worried about.”

“When?”

Raising an eyebrow, Revali took a step backwards. “When what?”

“If we just imagine that I said yes, how late do you want me to stay with you and Link?” Mipha repeated. She didn’t miss how Revali clearly took the question as her accepting the offer, a smile already appearing on his face the moment he opened his mouth to answer.

“Oh, not that long at all. I just need you to be there until I am fairly certain how Link will react to me casually trying to bring up the subject of romance,” at that, Mipha couldn’t keep back a giggle, and Revali spoke a bit louder as he added, “after that, I don’t think you would need to be there anymore, especially if you are just going to laugh at me while I talk with Link.”

“I am sorry,” Mipha said, trying to hide her laughter behind her hand, “but it’s just, well, you aren’t exactly someone who is good at being casual about things.”

Shaking his head, Revali made an indignant little sound, something halfway between a huff and a laugh. “What are you talking about? I am casual when I want to be. In fact, I am the most casual person you will ever meet in your life!”

“You started juggling with the cups at the café today,” Mipha countered, and this time, she didn’t even bother to cover her mouth with her hand, letting her arm hang limp by her side instead.

“Yeah, because I was trying to impress Link.” Revali rolled his eyes like the difference was obvious. “That is called being dramatic on purpose because I needed to get his attention, something that I also failed horribly at, if I may remind you of that, so if anything, I wasn’t being dramatic enough.”

“Or maybe Link just didn’t want to be seen to close to the guy who was throwing porcelain through the air,” Mipha suggested, making sure to speak faster so that Revali didn’t have time to interrupt her as she continued, “but as long as you promise me that you won’t begin throwing glasses around once we get to the bar, then fine, I will go with you.”

“You will?” there was a hint of something that sounded almost like surprise in Revali’s voice as he pulled his head back, brows drawn together, and looked over at her.

“Yeah, I mean, it will make you happy, and I can find another chance to study for my exam, so, yeah, I will come with you. You just have to promise me that if you leave with Link, you will stop by to let me know so that I don’t have to look for you when I want to go home only to find that the two of you left several hours ago.” she added the last sentence more as a joke than anything else, hoping that Revali would react with his usual Revali-smile, but as he ran over towards her, Mipha doubted that he had even heard it.

And Mipha had to admit that seeing the way Revali’s face brightened as he reached out to pull her into a hug did make the what she had just decided to do—go to a bar the same night she had intended to get a chance to sit down and study, most likely getting drunk in the process—feel like it wasn’t that bad an idea.

+++

Mipha regretted not having had the heart to tell Revali to go alone or to ask someone else to accompany him the moment they entered the bar.

They had barely stepped over threshold before Mipha found herself being dragged through a crowd, muttering apologies left and right as Revali simply continued walking straight ahead, a solid grip around her wrist being the only thing that kept them from being separated by the people walking around them. At least Mipha saw a few of them turn around to nod at her before continuing towards their destination, but when Revali finally managed to manoeuver his way over to an empty booth, the two of them getting in at either side of the table, Mipha was more than ready for the night to be over so that she could return home to her own flat, her own chair, and her own lamps that she could decide whether to turn on or off.

Revali, meanwhile, looked like he was in his element, having thrown an arm over the back of the booth as he turned to get a chance to look at the crowded room around them.

“I have to admit,” Revali began once he had finished his inspection with an impressed whistle, “this is actually a lot better than what I had expected. Just see how soft this fabric is.”

Right then, Mipha was almost completely certain that there had never been a subject where she could have agreed less with Revali. While her friend patted the seat next to him, Mipha could practically feel how her hands automatically curled up as she placed her fists on her lap, determined not to touch her surroundings any more than what was strictly necessary.

“Relax.” Revali told her, making Mipha jerk in her seat as she turned her head to glare at him. However, it didn’t seem like Revali got the hint to stop talking about relaxing when it was only because of him that she was even there in the first place, as he proceeded to point towards the bar behind her. “I texted Link and he is not going to be here for another ten minutes—traffic and all that—so if you want me to get you a drink, now is the time to say so. Although,” he blinked at her, “I suppose that I did kind of owe you one anyway after you decided to come here with me.”

Mipha hesitated for a moment, trying to resist the urge to shift in her seat to get a look at the bar and to try to calculate exactly how much of her weekend it would take before she would feel better again if she did decide to drink. Still, the fact that she sat still, not wanting to draw attention to herself or how she was almost sure that everyone in the building would be able to see how much she did not want to be there if she did anything that would make them notice her, meant that she looked directly at Revali. She should have known that it was a bad idea, should have known better. After all, Revali had been able to get her to abandon her computer and homework for a night to instead do the exact opposite of studying, so the fact that she was not able to stay annoyed at him for long should not have been a surprise.

“No, thank you.”

Revali, having already halfway jumped to his feet, for some reason eager to leave the booth and return to the crowded centre of the room, simply gave her a quick ‘cool’ as he passed her, and before Mipha had even noticed what had happened, he was gone.

Mirroring Revali’s earlier position, Mipha almost climbed up onto the seat to lean in over the fabric that made up the back of her seat in an attempt to watch as Revali made his way over to the bar, but she had already lost sight of him.

With a sight that Mipha hoped had not been loud enough for the people around her to hear, she sat back down, for once not minding the feeling of the rough material beneath her.

Great. This was just great. She had gone to a bar to be supportive of Revali and his plan to actually talk with Link—something she herself had tried to convince Revali would be a good idea for so long she could barely remember when it had started—and had even given up the evening she had planned to dedicate to studying and here she was, grumbling to herself in a booth, with countless of strangers around her. Just great.

“Mipha?”

A light, melodic voice that did most definitely not belong to Revali made Mipha snap out of her discouraging thoughts.

Hurrying to hide how she had been sitting there, feeling sorry for herself, Mipha looked up from the table to see who had come over to speak to her.

It was Zelda.

For a second Mipha could have sworn that she had forgotten how to breathe, the part of her brain that was responsible for her breathing having shut down to instead make space for the part of her that decided to simply sit there and stare up at Zelda.

Despite the dim lighting around them, Zelda almost looked like she could singlehandedly have lit up the entire town as she stood there, hair pulled up into a ponytail, a dress that shimmered as she moved even with much of it hidden underneath a jacket, and with the slightest hint of highlighter along her cheekbones. But mostly it was a matter of how the way she sent a smile towards Mipha, the tiny gesture making her eyes sparkle, made Mipha feel like the entire room should have stopped doing anything else to come over and get a chance to see what she was seeing. Really, it was almost unbelievable that they were still alone and that no one had come over to ask Zelda how she managed to almost emit light.

Realising that she was staring as Zelda’s expression changed, her features settling into a concerned look, Mipha cleared her throat and tried to come up with something to say, something that would sound smart like she had been thinking about that and not how, in that moment, she was wishing she had refrained from mentioning how she did not like muffins so that they could have gone out to eat, accompanying one another on what Revali would probably have insisted was a date even though Mipha knew that she would never have been lucky enough for that to be the case.

“Uh, hi.” those two words and a little smile was all it took for the glimmer of worry to disappear from Zelda’s eyes, though even that did not make the butterflies in her stomach disappear. But Mipha pushed that away and forced herself to remain present. “I didn’t know that you would be here. Do you come here often or something?”

“No,” Zelda closed her eyes as she let out a short laugh, completely devoid of any humour, tilting her head slightly, “but my father called just a few hours after I left the café, to talk to me about how he had found the perfect job for me to try to pursue once I finished my last semester.” she rolled her eyes. “Really, with how much I try to avoid that subject the few times we talk, you would think that he would already have guessed that I did not actually study theology by now.”

She knew full well that there was not much she could do to help. To be honest, there probably was not even anything she could do, but she had to at least try, Mipha knew that. So, hoping that it would be enough, she shook her head slightly. “I am sorry to hear that, it must be really annoying.”

“Yeah,” but Zelda didn’t sound annoyed as she continued, breathing in deeply. Rather, she sounded quite tired, “I guess that it is. But, honestly, at this point, I have just… had enough, you know?” she didn’t wait for an answer, immediately continuing. “He has always been like that so I doubt it is going to change anytime soon or if it ever will, but I just keep hoping that it will. And I know that it is stupid since it only ends up making me even more disappointed every time I talk with him than I would have been otherwise, but…” Zelda went silent, staring down at her shoes like she had just discovered something interested on the ground.

Patting the empty seat next to her, Mipha decided that even though she could not change Zelda’s father and the relationship between him and Zelda, she could at least try to cheer up Zelda a little. “Do you want to stay here for a while?”

“What?” Zelda finally tore her gaze away from her shoes to instead look at Mipha and then over at the seat, blinking a couple of times before realising what she meant. “No, I don’t want to intrude—”

“And you aren’t. Look, I didn’t even want to come here, it was only because of Revali that I even gave in and went here with him, and I doubt that I will really get a chance to enjoy being here. But I would love if you could stay for a while. That way, it could feel a little like we are just at the café.”

“I think it is a bit louder in here than at the café.” Zelda smiled, but despite her words, she still slid into the booth, sitting down in the seat next to Mipha.

Nudging Zelda’s shoulder, Mipha laughed. “Clearly you have never been there during the busiest shifts. I’m telling you, this,” she gestured towards nothing in particular, “is nothing compared to the sounds of ten families with children trying to figure out what everyone would want to order while teenagers are standing around them, laughing to some joke you can never hear over all of the noise.”

“Okay, you know what, you are probably right,” Zelda agreed, “but what was that about Revali having convinced you to come here?”

For a moment, Mipha considered trying to figure out where exactly Revali was in the crowd of people standing around the bar, but simply the mental picture of what she had seen the last time she had tried to find him was enough for her to simply give up in advance, so she sat still. Or rather, she pushed her arm into the back of the booth to turn around to face Zelda. “He thought that if he invited both me and Link to come along with him, he could get another chance to see whether or not Link liked him so that he would not have to risk confessing his feelings for him only for Link to tell him that he didn’t feel the same way.” seeing the look of confusion on Zelda’s face, Mipha followed up with a short laugh. “Yeah, I know, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it was what he said to me when he asked me to come along.”

It was technically not a lie. Granted, Revali had also told her that she needed to meet someone to forget about Zelda for a while, but Mipha decided that there was no need to include that in the retelling of the events that had led to her sitting here in a booth in the corner of a crowded room with Zelda sitting so close to her that Mipha could pick up on the fragrance of her perfume, a light, flowery scent. Of course, given how they were sitting in a booth that had more in common with a couch than the two separate chairs they had usually found themselves sitting on or Zelda sitting on a stool with Mipha standing on the other side of the counter that separated them, they could get even closer and it would have been so easy for Mipha to inch closer towards her. But she didn’t. Instead, she stayed where she was and tried to remain focused as Zelda lifted a brow at her.

“Revali? Are we talking about the same Revali you described as having been only a couple of seconds away from throwing a cup of coffee after the Coffee-man? The one I saw throwing cups around just a few hours ago? That Revali?”

“The very same,” Mipha nodded, “and no, I really don’t know how he could make himself do all of that and then be so nervous the moment he was faced with an opportunity to actually say something to Link.”

“No, I think I get it.” Mipha barely kept herself from turning her head to look over at Zelda so quickly she would most likely have hurt something in the process. Instead, she tried her best to look calm as she took in how Zelda had started fiddling with her bracelet, having placed both hands on top of the table. “If it had been me who wanted to try to figure out if someone I was friends with would be interested in me that way as well, I would probably also have tried asking them out in such a way that I could deny everything if they wanted for us to remain friends.”

Trying her best not to think about the muffins and not to allow herself to consider the possibility of how Revali might have been right about Zelda having meant that invitation as more than just her inviting a friend out to go somewhere to get muffins, Mipha was more than relieved when she saw Revali emerge from the sea of people around them, clutching a glass close to his body as he pushed through the crowd to get over to their table.

A drop of the amber liquid spilled over the rim of the glass as Revali placed it onto the table, looking over at Mipha and having almost went back to sit in his own seat before spotting Zelda next to her.

Mipha could see how the confused look on his face quickly disappeared to make way for that knowing smile that she knew all too well what meant, making her instantly wish that she had known better than to invite Zelda to sit with her for a moment.

“Oh, Zelda,” Revali said as he sat down in his spot across from Mipha, “I didn’t know that you would be here as well.”

And just to make everything worse, Zelda responded by putting an arm around Mipha’s shoulders. “I didn’t know that you would be here either. It was actually a complete coincidence that I spotted Mipha here, but I am glad I found you—and that she invited me to stay here with you guys.”

“Oh, really?” Revali said with a smirk, and even as Mipha tried her best to kick his leg under the table, she saw no trace of any pain on his face as he added. “Well, I am sure that Mipha was also happy you would stay, right?”

“Of course,” Mipha said, doing her best to look relaxed as they all looked over at her, although she would have preferred to glare at Revali.

At least, it didn’t seem that Zelda had noticed anything, still sitting with her arm around Mipha as she turned back towards Revali. “She also told me that you have big plans tonight. Link, huh?”

Spotting her chance to both get revenge on Revali and make them focus on something that wasn’t her, Mipha hurried to speak before Revali would have gotten the chance to deny everything. “Yeah, and now that Zelda is here as well, you have doubled your cover story. So really, you should probably thank me for thinking about inviting her to stay.”

Revali looked like the last thing he wanted to do right then was to thank her for anything, and Mipha was fairly sure that, had it not been for how his gaze flickered away from her to look at something behind her, he would have tried to return the kick she had delivered to his leg.

But he didn’t. Instead, he stood up so quickly that he came dangerously to pushing over the glass in front of him in the process, all but running to make his way out of the both. Mipha didn’t even need to look up to confirm her suspicions that Link had just arrived as she was proved right just a couple of seconds later when Revali returned to her and Zelda, Link following along right behind him.

“Hey guys,” Link greeted as he went to sit in the last free spot around the table, ending up seated next to Revali, “I am sorry that I am late, but I had just not expected for the traffic to be so intense on my way over here.” shaking his jacket off his shoulders, he looked up to spot Zelda sitting directly across from him. “Oh, hi, I didn’t expect to see you here, did Revali…?”

“Oh no, Mipha here was the one to invite me to sit with you guys for a while,” Zelda finished for him, and Mipha was suddenly quite aware of how she still sat with an arm around her shoulders.

It seemed that Link thought the same, for he sent a long look in her direction before turning his attention back towards Revali. “Well, now that I am here, do you want to go and get something to drink?”

“Yes,” Revali agreed, and, having seemingly forgotten everything about the still nearly full glass in front of him, he got up to go with Link as he started to make his way over to the bar, leaving Mipha behind for the second time in just a little over ten minutes.

“I might be wrong here,” Zelda said, making Mipha look up at her to find that she was following Link and Revali’s journey through the room with her eyes, “but I am pretty sure that there was no need for him to bring you along today.”

“No, there probably wasn’t,” Mipha agreed.

As long as she didn’t think too much about Revali’s comment about Zelda’s invitation and how, even as Zelda had to shift in the seat to look at the bar, she continued to sit with her arm around Mipha, it was going to be fine. Besides, it didn’t seem like Zelda was giving all of that a second thought, so why should Mipha do it? Really, it was all just her overthinking things, a result of Revali projecting his own feelings for Link onto her and Zelda. Yeah, that had to be it, it made perfect sense and would allow her not to have to risk anything by admitting that there might be a connection between the jittery feeling in her stomach and how close they were sitting or how her heart skipped a beat when Zelda gave up on finding Revali and Link to instead direct her attention towards her again.

“You know,” Zelda began, “I am quite glad that I found you just now—and not just because I would probably have ended up feeling rather lonely if I hadn’t—since there was actually something I wanted to talk with you about.”

“Yeah?” Mipha asked, and right then, she hated the stupid breathless tone in her voice she could not get rid of.

“Well—”

The sound of someone clearing their throat made both of them look up, and Mipha tried her best to ignore the little sting of disappointment as she could now only see the back of Zelda’s head.

There was someone standing right in front of their booth. From what Mipha could see, he looked quite nervous, having pulled his shoulders up and with his hands hidden in his pockets. Though a pair of glasses coupled with the dim lighting in the room kept her from getting a chance to see his eyes, Mipha was almost completely certain that his gaze was wandering uneasily from Zelda’s face and over to her.

When the seconds passed and he still did not take the initiative to say anything, Mipha could almost feel the impatience in Zelda’s voice when she gestured for him to start talking. “Yes? Did you want to say something?”

That finally seemed to make him realise that they were waiting for him to start speaking.

Standing up a bit straighter, he looked down at Zelda with what Mipha thought was supposed to be an open expression, but ended up looking a bit too stilted and unnatural. “Yes, I actually just meant to tell you that you are really pretty and that I was wondering if you would be interested if going to get a drink with me and just hang out for a bit,” he nodded towards Zelda before going silent once again, shifting his weight from side to side as he waited for a response.

Although Mipha knew that his observation about Zelda being really pretty was correct—though Mipha would probably rather have used the word ‘beautiful’—it still didn’t keep the ugly feeling of jealousy from flowing through her, making her inch just a bit closer to Zelda as she hoped that she would say no and stay with her for just a little longer. It was selfish, but right then, Mipha could not have cared less. All that mattered was that, right now at least, Zelda was still sitting next to her and that the arm she had flung around her shoulders felt nicer than sitting with her back against the back of the booth, and if Zelda left with this guy, Mipha would lose all of that.

The seconds seemed to last much longer than what felt right as Mipha could only make guesses about what Zelda was thinking. She was still sitting with the back of her head turned towards her, and although Mipha tried her best not to overthink it, she could not help but wonder if even the slightest movements was a sign about whether she would say yes or nor.

“Actually,” Zelda finally said, and Mipha could have hugged her when she noticed the slight apologetic tone to her words, “I already came here with someone.”

At that, she pulled Mipha a bit closer, and Mipha could have sworn that she felt her cheeks turn warmer than lava. Was Zelda really trying to imply what Mipha though she was?

A little part of her couldn’t help but feel disappointed. The fact that Zelda would try to lie about them being together had to be proof that Mipha had been right and Revali had been wrong about what the invitation for muffins had meant. Still, the pang of sadness was nothing against the overwhelming sensation of amazement as Zelda moved to sit even closer to her, leaning in against her shoulder.

The man looked over at Mipha, and she could have sworn that she saw the same kind of disappointment written across his face as she felt at the thought of having been right about Zelda’s feelings for her. But unlike Mipha, it seemed that the man was better at hiding his emotions, as he quickly stood up a little straighter, and although Mipha could see from the pull of muscles around his eyes how he was blinking rapidly, he did still manage to send Zelda a tiny smile.

“Oh, okay,” his voice trembled a bit before he coughed, “well, in that case… yeah, that was a total whirlwind, but I hope you two get two experience a love that as bright as your smile. Uh, goodbye.” he turned around and left without saying another word.

For a moment they both just sat there, none of them saying a word. Even just trying to figure out what he had been talking about before he left made Mipha’s head spin and the fact that most of her brain seemed to insist on focusing on nothing else but how Zelda had still not moved to create space between them again did not exactly help her figure out what had just happened and make the confusion disappear.

Then Zelda started laughing.

She leant over towards Mipha, resting her head against Mipha’s shoulder as her entire body shook with laughter. And although Mipha was still too busy trying to catch up with what had just happened, after a while, she too found herself laughing along with Zelda. She was aware of the fact that they must have looked rather weird to everyone around them, sitting there, trying to hide the giggles behind their hands, but when Mipha looked over at Zelda and saw how her eyes shimmered with laughter, she just didn’t care.

“I can’t believe that actually worked,” Zelda admitted, getting the words out in between bursts of laugher, “I was so sure that he would not get the hint at first and that we would have to continue with the act. Thank you for not revealing the lie by the way, that would have ended up making the situation really awkward.” breathing in deeply a couple of times, Zelda’s smile soon faltered, and she looked at Mipha. For some reason, Mipha saw how Zelda refused to look her in the eyes, but although she tried her best, she simply could not figure out what had caused the sudden change in the atmosphere between them. That was, she couldn’t see the reason until Zelda shook her head at her. “I am sorry about not asking you about it beforehand. I didn’t really think about it, and I just saw an opportunity—”

“Hey, don’t worry about that.” Mipha reached up to place her own hand on top of Zelda’s arm that still rested on her shoulder. Trying to draw out the time until she had to say something to figure out just what exactly she could tell Zelda to assure her that it was fine, something that did not also include the fact that Mipha would gladly have had the man fail to realise what Zelda was trying to tell him if it meant that Zelda would have pulled Mipha even closer in an attempt to convince him, perhaps even more, Mipha glanced up a her. As Mipha continued, she hoped that Zelda would not notice the pause or how Mipha’s cheeks had to have changed into a shade as red as her hair with how warm they were feeling. “I didn’t mind it at all.” hoping that Revali had been right in his assessment of Zelda’s invitation, Mipha decided to risk it all and lowered her voice. “Actually, even if it would have taken even more to prove that we really were together, that would have been completely fine with me.”

For what felt like years, Mipha was completely convinced that she had messed up and that it was only a matter of seconds before Zelda would pull away from her, ready to explain how there seemed to have been some kind of misunderstanding between them, to tell her that that was never something Zelda had intended to create between them. But none of that was what happened.

Instead, a slight twitch ran along Zelda’s arm as she leant back, sending Mipha a long glance. Although it might have been nothing more than wishful thinking, Mipha was sure she could see the beginnings of a smile forming on her face. She knew it wasn’t the case, but still, she could have sworn that she had accepted Revali’s offer to get a drink as she felt something warm bloom around her heart, spreading through her body, gradually making its way over to her arm where the tips of her fingers still brushed against Zelda’s knuckles.

“Oh yeah?” Zelda moved even closer to her, and Mipha could have sworn that her heart stopped working the moment a strand of Zelda’s hair that had escaped from its place to instead hang in front of her face tickled against her cheek. There was something about the entire situation that made it all feel unreal, like Mipha had actually ended up deciding to stay home and was now simply dreaming it all up, and if Mipha was honest, the thing that really convinced her that it was really happening was how she knew that she could not have been able to make up the fond look in Zelda’s eyes as she reached out to pull Mipha closer. “I wouldn’t have minded that either, so should we not simply try to figure out if it would have ended up being convincing enough to make the next guy leave us alone as well?”

Despite how she tried her best to restrain herself, tried to say something that would not seem too enthusiastic, Mipha found herself unable to do anything but nod, having already moved to follow along with Zelda.

Before Mipha’s brain had really had time to catch up with what was happening, the small amount of distance between them had disappeared, and by then, every logical thought had left her completely, leaving only the realisation that it had happened, they were sitting there in a bar, kissing, barely hidden from view.

Although Mipha had been sure that they could not possibly get even closer to each other, Zelda clearly did not agree, and, her thumb stroking along the line of Mipha’s cheekbone, no doubt smearing her makeup, she tightened the embrace, Mipha gladly following along with the excuse to sit even closer.

But of course it had to end, and after only a few seconds, Zelda pulled away from her, sending her a wink as she tucked the stray piece of her back into place once more.

“That should be enough to convince anyone, don’t you think?”

Mipha felt how something heavy settled in her stomach at the reminder that that was really all that the kiss had been to Zelda, a way to ensure that she would be left alone. The worst part of it wasn’t even that it meant that Mipha would now have to deal with knowing exactly how it felt to kiss Zelda while also knowing full well that it would never happen again, no, the worst part was undoubtedly that the fact that Zelda had suggested the two of them trying to kiss each other and was now able to joke about it had to mean that it really wasn’t more than that to her.

Really, it was Mipha’s own fault. After all, she was the one who had allowed herself to hope for more and to listen to Revali when he had tried to make it even worse for her.

Yes, blaming Revali for it all did seem like an awfully nice option, Mipha decided. Besides, wasn’t he the one who had made her think that she would have enjoyed going on a date with Zelda in the first place? The more Mipha thought about it, the surer she became that, really, her own feelings were still affected by the comment Revali had made. That had to be it. Not only would it explain why her stomach ached, it would also explain why the kiss had felt so nice, why she would like to repeat it again, maybe after a date this time.

She stood up, the sudden movement making her brush Zelda’s hand off her shoulder and almost hit the table in front of her as she tried to get her breathing under control again.

“Mipha?” she could hear the concern in Zelda’s tone, and it took everything tough in her to force herself not to look back at her. If she did, Mipha was not sure she would have been able to fight the urge to cry, so instead, she tried to focus solely on the ugly painting hanging on the end wall.

“I have to go and find Revali, I forgot to tell him something,” she said, and before Zelda got a chance to protest or ask questions about what was so important that it could not wait for Revali and Link to get back while still being something she had been able to forget, Mipha had already exited the booth, barely managing to keep her balance as she walked along the narrow strip of empty space between the table and Zelda’s legs, trying her best not to imagine what would happen if she simply let herself become distracted for a moment so that she would fall to the side and be caught by Zelda.

It was the cowardly thing to do, Mipha knew that, knew that she would have to face Zelda again sooner or later and that disappearing like this would only make it even worse later on, but she just could not make herself stop and turn around to tell Zelda some lie about the reasons for her behaviour.

So she left Zelda behind, for once not minding the crowded room she had to cross to get over to the bar. It was fine. A lot of people all around her, all of them chatting to someone, their voices growing to form a chorus of laughter and noise, meant that Mipha was left alone with her thoughts, and that was all she could have asked for right then. A moment of peace where she would not have to both think about what it had all meant and try not to let it show just how much it had affected her.

But the huge amount of people in the room also came with a cost, and as Mipha finally got so close to the bar she could see the crowd standing around the counter, she realised that she simply did not have the energy to push her way through that in an attempt to figure out where Revali and Link had gone.

So she left.

Pushing the door open, Mipha stepped out into the cold night air. The breeze hit her, pushing her hair into her face, and as she tried her best to hug herself in an attempt to stay warm, Mipha found herself wishing that she had brought a jacket along. Not only had she just completely messed up the friendship between her and Zelda, and left everyone behind as she rushed out, now she was also cold. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

As she stood there, feeling sorry for herself, Mipha barely noticed the sound of the door hinges creaking when someone opened the door into the bar, assuming that it was simply someone else who had needed some fresh air. Btu then someone stepped over to stand next to her, and Mipha had no choice but to look over and see Zelda stand there with her arm stretched out towards her.

Her jacket dangled from her fingertips.

“You must be cold.” Zelda observed, and Mipha could follow along as she took in the sight of her standing there, shivering while she tried her best to hide it. “Here, take this.”

Mipha tried to only look at the jacket, forcing her stubborn brain not to let her gaze flicker up towards Zelda’s face. She had to say no, it simply would not be right to accept Zelda’s jacket, not after how badly Mipha had just misjudged the situation between them. But, of course, she could not tell that to Zelda, not when it would include telling her about how Mipha could still remember the feeling of Zelda’s lips against hers or how the kiss had made her heart beat so fast she thought it might just stop any moment.

Hoping that she managed to appear nonchalant, Mipha let her hands fall. It instantly felt colder, but she still pointed towards the jacket. “But then you will be cold.”

“I can manage. Besides, I live just around the corner, so I wouldn’t have to stay outside for very long.” Mipha heard Zelda let out a tiny laugh, shaking the hand that held the jacket. “So I insist. Take it. I wouldn’t want you to get sick out here.”

She was not going to just go back inside, not without having made sure that Mipha would take the jacket. The realisation struck her, and the obvious way to deal with it followed along just a moment later.

Forcing the fakest smile onto her face, Mipha quickly reached out to take the jacket, mumbling something about how she was thankful for the offer and would make sure to take good care of it until she would get a chance to return it. She wasn’t really sure exactly what words the last part of her brain that had yet to be completely flooded with embarrassment and the goal to get back home as quickly as possible to lower the risk of Zelda asking what was wrong had chosen, but they had to have worked, because Mipha saw Zelda nod at her, say something about how she was not in a hurry to get the jacket back again, before she turned around and went back inside the bar.

Mipha stood there, frozen in place, feeling like she had just jumped into a lake covered in ice. Her hand was still holding the jacket, the fabric crumbling up inside her fist, and it took her a moment before she had calmed herself down enough to realise that it was not going to give anything away to actually give in to the cold and put her arms through the sleeves of the jacket. Besides, Mipha doubted Zelda would even notice if she did so. The fact that Zelda had seen her leave the bar and gone to make sure that she was not cold tried its best to disturb her fragile hope that nothing would have to change between them, but Mipha kicked it away.

Even if she did hope for things to change between them, Mipha would not want to let Zelda know about it like this, by standing outside a bar, shaking until she came back out, so that Mipha could blurt out all of the words that were twirling around inside of her. No, if she wanted to tell her, Mipha would make sure that she did it the right way. And since she did not want for anything to change after all, it was all fine. She could go home and then return the jacket to Zelda the next time she got the chance.

It should be simple, but as Mipha finally found the strength to move her legs and walk back home to her flat, she could not ignore the looming sense of everything having gotten more complicated than what she could handle.

And all because of that one kiss.

Chapter Text

Everything hurt.

Her arm felt like it had to weigh at least a hundred kilos as she reached up to rub the heel of her hand against her eyes, keeping them shut in an attempt to block out the light flooding her room.

Why had she not remembered to pull down the blinds in front of her window? Thinking back, she could recall having stepped into the flat, throwing her purse at the nearest horizontal surface, kicking off her shoes as she continued through the corridor, before finally reaching her destination: the safety and comfort of her own bedroom, where she had then flopped down onto the bed. But had she remembered to cross the room first to make sure that she would not be forced to wake up as soon as the sun crept up high enough on the sky to reach the window leading into her bedroom? Mipha couldn’t remember, but since her eyes hurt every time she tried to do anything other than lie there in her bed with her hands thrown over her face, she must have forgotten.

Zelda’s jacket.

She was awake in an instant, having pushed herself up into a sitting position the next moment as she searched the room for the article of clothing, the sun completely forgotten as her heartbeat sped up like she had just run for hours on end.

The jacket was hanging over the headboard. She must have thrown it there mere seconds before falling asleep.

Mipha didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was safe, she had not managed to lose Zelda’s jacket only a little under a day after Zelda had given it to her, but on the other hand, she had still forgotten everything about it.

She eventually gave up trying to go through with her plan to remain in bed until she would once more feel like she was ready to face the world as the smell of coffee moved through the flat, creeping into her room from under the door and making her realise just how tired she was. Strange, actually. She had not been up later than she normally would have if she had decided to simply stay at home and get some of her homework done, but it did not feel like anyone had bothered to inform her body about that, for her head ached and her eyelids felt impossibly heave as she forced herself away from the bed and somehow managed to make her way out of the room.

She found Revali already in the kitchen. Standing in front of the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee in one hand as he silently poured the oat milk into another cup and handed it to her, Revali looked almost as happy as Mipha felt miserable. It was almost like the barely contained joy was making the air around him feel a couple degrees warmer. Or maybe it was the combination of the cup of coffee and Mipha’s tired brain that was beginning to connect things that had nothing to do with one another that had played a trick on her.

“Slept well?” Revali asked, eyeing the cup as Mipha tilted it backwards, unable to care about how the coffee had barely cooled down enough to no longer qualify for the label of ‘scalding’ as she finished the cup in one long sip. The mumbled clutter of words she managed to get out must have been enough of an answer for him, as he continued. “I didn’t see you leave. Did you get a chance to talk with Zelda about the invitation?”

And that seemed to be the thing that made Mipha unable to stay silent anymore. It was almost funny how she always did her best to avoid ending up in a situation where she would have to admit how she really felt to someone just in case she would end up being embarrassed by what she might say, only to suddenly let herself blurt out what she thought about something. In time, she supposed, it might grow to become a funny story, but as she stood there in the kitchen, hand shaking slightly as she tightened her grip around the cup, Mipha could not find the comedy of her situation.

“You know what? The evening was horrible for me.” something inside her, something cruel and selfish that Mipha would have liked to deny even existed, liked the way Revali’s eyes widened in surprise as he took a step back, the happy expression on his face faltering when he was confronted with the fact that Mipha had not enjoyed their night out, and maybe that was what made her continue rather than calm down like she might have done any other day. “And just if you were interested in knowing the reasons for that, I can tell you that you were wrong yesterday. She really had not meant anything more by inviting me to go get muffins than for the two of us to spend some more time together as friends.”

“Oh.” and for once, Mipha saw Revali stand speechless with nothing to say to her, simply opening and closing his mouth as the silence in the room grew until it almost felt suffocating. But Mipha was determined. She would not be the one to break it, so crossing her arms and leaning back, she sent Revali an expectant look, daring him to try to figure out what to say. And of course it barely took Revali more than a minute before he had managed to collect his thoughts enough to try again. “I am sorry to hear that. I thought things were going great between you. I mean, that was why I left the two of you alone.”

She could have responded with a biting remark about how Mipha was sure that Revali and Link leaving had more to do with them than with Revali’s assessment of how she and Zelda would do without them, but the comment died in her throat, long before she would have had a chance to let it escape, leaving behind a bitter taste of regret and guilt. She could almost feel how the anger evaporated, and how her shoulders fell a little the moment she no longer had that to hide behind.

What was she doing? The answer to that, Mipha supposed, was actually rather simple. She was blaming everyone around her, that was what she was doing, attempting to not have to deal with things.

“Yeah, I thought that that we were doing just fine as well,” Mipha admitted with a shrug, trying to blink the tears away, “but I was wrong. I just—I had completely misinterpreted everything between us.”

Seemingly deciding that now she was no longer emphasising her words with little jabs in his direction, he could risk getting closer to her again without her lashing out at him, Revali moved to pat her shoulder. “If it is any consolation, at least I must also have misjudged the situation.” his laugh sounded fake, obviously nothing more than an attempt to try to make the tense mood in the room disappear, but Mipha still welcomed the sound of it. At least he had not left her completely alone, which, given how she had just tried to blame him for the evening, would have been completely understandable. Interrupting his own effort to bring the sound of laughter into the room, Revali squeezed her shoulder. “And, I mean, given how good I usually am at reading those kinds of signals, there was nothing you could have done. If I got the situation wrong like that, you would never have been able to not get it wrong either.”

It was dumb, but there was something about Revali’s tone, so confident and cocky that made Mipha giggle, the sound breathy and barely audible, but still there. “Yeah, right,” she said, lightly punching Revali’s arm, making it fall from her shoulder, “okay, Mr. I can always tell when people are into me, if that is the case, then tell me how the evening went for you and Link.”

She could tell what the answer would be long before Revali had even opened his mouth to respond. The way he stood up a little straighter, puffing out his chest while he ran a hand through his hair, lightly fluffing the strands as he smiled down at her, already told her what he would say. But she still stayed silent, tilting her head as she waited for him to decide how to tell the story.

“Well,” Revali began, and Mipha could tell from the way he extended the sounds of the words that he had been waiting for her to wake up so that he could tell her about it, perhaps to the point that he had gone over the story in his head just to make sure that it would be perfect, “we had to get past the ten apologies about how he was so sorry that he was late, and that he just really had not expected that there would be so many cars on the roads today, but by the time we actually reached the bar, I had luckily managed to convince him that it was fine, and that we had not been waiting for him for that long.” nodding along to his own story, Revali did a little toss of the head, letting his hair fall back into place. “When they brought us our drinks, we thought about going back to the booth, but, well, we decided that we would actually prefer not to have to move through the crowd again, so we stayed were we were already.” the joy on his face disappeared for a second, as he shot her a look. “Now, in hindsight, that was probably not the best decision, but, well, I thought that I was the right thing to do at the time, and since I am usually right about things like that, I thought that—”

“Don’t think about it,” Mipha insisted, gesturing for Revali to continue the story, as she tried to ignore the pangs of guilt. Why could she not just have stayed silent about how her evening had gone or at the very least refrained from blaming everyone around her? Yes, it had made her feel better for a moment, but seeing how Revali expression of joy looked just a little less sincere when he continued to tell her about how the night had been for him and Link only made her feel even worse than if she had simply stayed silent. Still, Mipha did her best to plaster a smile onto her face and leant forward, hoping that it would be enough to trick Revali into thinking that she was fine.

Perhaps it worked. Really, Mipha would be surprised if Revali was not aware of how she was only listening with half an ear, but at least he did not bring it up, instead continuing to describe how they had sat there and talking about this and that.

“I think it must have been sometime after that,” Revali said, pausing for a moment before nodding, “yeah, I am pretty sure that it was about that moment that we heard the someone change the song, and once we realised that we both knew it, we just stood there for a while, swaying back and forth to the rhythm until Link said that he needed to get some fresh air.”

She knew where it was going. The way Revali swayed back and forth , almost like he had mentally gone back to the bar again, told her what he was about to tell her. But despite all of that and how she had had time to prepare herself for the pain of knowing, when Revali retold how they had gone outside, stopping right outside the bar—they must have been standing in the same spot where Zelda had offered to let Mipha take her jacket, she realised, trying to forget about that as she listened to the story—slowly moving closer to one another.

“The kiss was magical, it had to be, there is no other way to describe it,” Revali said, a dreamy look in his eyes, “and you know what? It turned out that you had actually been right; he did reciprocate my feelings.”

It was almost painful to force the corners of her mouth to curl up into a smile that Mipha could already tell would not reach her eyes. A kiss. It was the exact same thing that had led to her standing outside, shaking with panic to such an extent that it had made Zelda believe that Mipha would not be able to last for long without a jacket. But where Revali was now standing in front of her, happily telling her the story, Mipha was doing her best to try to forget that it had ever happened. It was impossible to do, she knew that. There was simply no way she would be able to forget about the look in Zelda’s eyes as she had pulled her closer to her, at least not just yet.

But still, she tried her best to appear sincere, trying to force a surprised tone into her voice. “Oh, wow, really?”

“Yes,” Revali said, “so, not to sound like I am too sure about myself, but you might want to call Sidon and tell him that you might have to move in with him again.”

There was no need to try to fake a surprised expression this time. “Why?”

“Well, when Link and I move in together, we are obviously going to get this flat, I mean, after all, we will be two people to call dibs on it.” somehow, Revali actually managed to keep a straight face for several seconds, simply raising his brow at her. But then doubled up with laughter, keeping upright by placing a hand on her shoulder and leaning forward, towards her. “Kidding, just kidding.”

“Of course it was only a joke,” Mipha said, trying her best not to say anything that might lead to Revali’s joy being stained by the tight feeling in her chest that worsened the more she allowed herself to imagine what could have been if things had gone differently, “there is no way I would have moved in with Sidon.”

“Aw, why not?” Revali said, nudging her in the side. “It would be perfect, you would get a new roommate and so would I.”

“Excuse you, I did not leave home just to move in with my brother a few years later,” Mipha laughed, “besides, if I did that, I know that I would miss you.”

“Oh, that’s sweet, are you really saying that you would not want to live anywhere without me, because that is what I am hearing!” Revali smirked at her.

“Don’t push your luck, or I might just change my mind.”

“No, it is too late now. I am going to remember that one the next time you complain about how I rearrange the kitchen. Can you imagine, I am just here, trying my best to clean up after your culinary adventures where you keep on insisting that my way of keeping track of everything in here is wrong.” reaching up to open the cabinet above the counter and beginning to move a couple of the glasses around, still maintaining eye contact, Revali changed the pitch of his voice, his voice becoming a high-pitched sound Mipha could tell was supposed to sound like her voice, even if it failed miserable to achieve that goal. Still, that did not keep Revali from blinking at her as he continued. “And you come in, saying something about ‘Revali, the pan is not supposed to be there, here let me put it away’, but I will have the ultimate ace up my sleeve since I can just tell you that you would still miss my way of arranging the things in the kitchen if I left, even if you love to complain about it.”

“Actually, I take everything back. Even living with my brother could never be as annoying as you are right now.” but even while she said it, Mipha could still not keep a smile off her face, and it was clear that Revali knew that, for he simply cocked his head and laughed at her.

“Sure, sure. Although from what both you and Link have told me about the guy, and from what little I know, even being more annoying than him is not that bad at all.”

“Do you want me to compare you to someone else?” Mipha teased. “Because I could do that. Let’s see, what about our good old friend, the Coffee-man?”

Feigning resentment, Revali pressed a hand to his chest and pointed at her. “You wouldn’t dare! I have nothing in common with him.”

“Oh, really? Let’s see, you both love to make a scene at the café, I am pretty sure he has gotten close to throwing his own cup of coffee at you a couple of times just like you have, he insists that he is right when talking about the menu even though he is often wrong.” Mipha held her hands up in front of her. “What can I say, the powers of the villain mirrors those of the hero.”

“With me as the hero?”

“Obviously.”

Revali laughed, but the sound was interrupted by his phone as it started ringing. Mouthing an apology to Mipha, Revali dug the phone out of his pocket, pressing it to his ear.

And just like that, the moment had passed. The way Revali said his own name before his face lit up, his voice sounding like he had just drunk an entire pot of coffee immediately after winning the lottery, as the other person presumably responded by stating their own name told Mipha that it had to be Link who had called. There simply was no other explanation. And although Mipha knew that she should be happy for him, should be ecstatic that they had finally stopped simply sighing after one another those times they got the chance to talk at work, it was difficult to do that. This would most likely end up making it so that every time she shared a shift with one of them, Mipha would be reminded of how the evening had actually ended up leading to great things for one half of the group. And those few shifts were all three of them would have to come to work… just thinking about it and how she would have to act as if she was not at all jealous of them with Zelda sitting across from her already seemed like it was more than she could do.

It wasn’t right to feel that way, she should be happy for them. Mipha was not exactly sure if Link had told Sidon about the evening, but if he had, she knew that Sidon would have responded in a better way than she had.

The call ended, Revali turning around to face her just as Mipha had managed to force a smile onto her face.

“Sorry, but Link just called,” Revali said, gesturing towards the phone like the identity of the caller had not already been obvious, “he just wanted to get a chance to talk with me, you know, to figure out if we wanted to try out what it would feel like to call this thing between us an actual relationship.”

“And what did you say?” could you force a smile so much that it would start feeling natural at some point? Mipha hoped so. If that was the case, then at least there was a chance that the forced cherry attitude would stop feeling like a lie soon.

“What do you think?” Revali chuckled, having already shoved the phone back into his pocket. “I said yes, so I am supposed to meet him in the park in twenty minutes.” it finally seemed that he saw through the façade, because he stopped halfway through a step towards the doorway to look back at her. “You are okay with that, right?”

Not trusting herself not to ask Revali if he could stay behind to give her a chance to cry to someone about how she had been wrong and might just have messed up everything, Mipha kept her mouth shut. Although she tried to remind herself that, all things considered, the evening had been great since she would now no longer have to deal with both Revali and Link complaining about how their feelings for each other would never be reciprocated, right then, it was difficult to not just give in to the tempting idea of making Revali stay to convince her that everything would be fine.

But she forced herself not to do that, to think of Revali for a moment, as she nodded.

And the way Revali left the apartment, running so quickly he all but flew out of the door did almost manage to make Mipha feel a little better, but not quite.

She managed to stay calm for an entire minute after the door slammed behind Revali, but at that point, Mipha did also almost collide with the door to her room as she sprinted towards it, digging through her purse to find her phone, feeling her blood turn to ice as she could not find it. If she had lost it, Mipha did not know what to do, she might be able to salvage the napkin from the trash, but there was no saying whether or not the numbers written on it would still be legible.

Just as Mipha could feel herself beginning to panic, she noticed the familiar coldness of the phone under her fingertips, and for a moment, she just clutched it against her chest. She had at least not managed to lose that as well. It was a small comfort to know that, even if she might just have lost her friendship with Zelda, she still had her number, but it was a comfort nonetheless.

Summoning as much courage as she could muster, Mipha pressed the little square of the screen with Zelda’s name on it and held the phone up to her ear.

The phone rang once. Twice. After the fifth time, a robotic voice told her to leave a message, but Mipha instantly pressed the button to end the call, feeling her heart sink. Of course. She had not even considered how Zelda might have decided that it would be too awkward to continue seeing her after that kiss, but of course that would be what would end up happening. Zelda had decided that she could not continue to see her if it meant having to having to change the subject every time there was a risk that any of them might bring that evening up.

It was understandable, Mipha could not claim that she might not have done the same if she had been in her place, but the knowledge of that did not help.

She could lie. She could call Zelda and tell her that she just wanted to clear up any misunderstanding between them and say that she had been really drunk the day before and that she might have said a few things she did not actually mean and then just hope that it would be enough.

Only, that would not be right. As much as Mipha wished she could simply lie and deny everything, she would not do it. It just did not feel right to hide things like that, and Mipha knew that if she were to actually discuss her feelings with Zelda, she would have to be honest with her and tell the truth. And the truth was that although Mipha would never admit it to anyone, the kiss had felt real and she had wad wanted it to be real so badly that she had convinced herself that it really was. That was her own fault and her fault alone. So, ignoring the urge to call Zelda again, Mipha put her phone on silent and put it back down into her purse, not trusting herself not to make another attempt to call Zelda if she kept it close to her.

Besides, she had to catch up with the homework she had neglected to finish to instead go to that bar with Revali.

+++

The assignment ended up requiring her to spend more time on her computer than she had expected.

Perhaps it was in part also due to how she struggled to keep track of the different numbers and words she scribbled down, the sentences not making any sense the moment she tried to read them again in an attempt to figure out what she had meant. It was simply not possible for her to pretend to care about finishing her homework when her mind continued to return to the subject of Zelda and the phone that still lay at the bottom of her purse.

It was not the best strategy to simply ignore it all, Mipha knew that, but just yesterday, it had felt like it was the smart thing to do to delay the moment she would have to worry about Zelda and what had happened at the bar again. Now, however, Mipha was starting to doubt her decision.

With another sigh, Mipha tried once more to focus on the task at hand, before giving up completely and closing her computer. It just was not working.

“Are you finished with the project?” the sound of Revali’s voice made Mipha snap out of her self-pitying thoughts for a moment to look up.

He was standing in the corridor, holding an umbrella in his right hand, with water dripping from his hair.

She barely managed to keep her face blank when she remembered how he had left that morning, saying that Link had suggested going hiking together. Why was it that, while Mipha had absolutely ruined everything for herself, Revali and Link had apparently already turned into that kind of couple that went hiking together?

Mipha supposed she should say something to Revali about how he was creating a puddle as he stood there with his umbrella, but she just could not bring herself to actually care about it. It was just water, and they could always clean it up later, so why did it even matter?

Pushing her feet against the ground to avoid looking at him and see the joy in his eyes, Mipha shook her head. “No, not really.”

“Well, if I can help you with anything, don’t hesitate to ask, okay?” she could almost hear how Revali blinked at her, trying his best to cheer her up. “I might not study medical science, but I am sure I could figure it out.”

“Yeah, sure,” she said, but even Mipha could hear how her voice was cold, completely devoid of any emotions.

And so could Revali apparently, and the next moment, Mipha heard the umbrella hit the floor after having been thrown through the hallway, surely sending drops of water flying through the air, and Revali stepped into the room, sitting down across from her on her bed.

“Are you okay?”

“No, not really,” Mipha admitted.

“Is it about Zelda?”

A nod.

“Okay,” she could hear the bed creak slightly as Revali shifted to bring his feet up beneath him, “tell me about it. Has it gotten worse since yesterday?”

Doing her best to hide how she shifted slightly to glance towards her purse like she could force her phone to show that she had actually received ten missed calls from Zelda if she just kept on staring for enough time, Mipha nodded slowly. “Yes. I tried to call her—you know, to return her jacket to her,” the lie sounded pathetic the moment it had left her mouth, but she continued nevertheless, “but she hasn’t answered a single one of my calls.”

“Oh,” she could hear the realisation set in in Revali’s voice, and it felt just as terrible to hear him arrive at the same conclusion as she had reached, like she had for some reason hoped that Revali would tell her that she had actually been worrying over nothing, “I am sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah, so am I.”

They sat there in silence for a bit. Mipha tried not to look up, not to look at Revali and see how she had surely just succeeded in ruining his day.

“She might have forgotten to plug in her phone after she returned home,” Revali finally offered, but he barely even managed to sound like he himself believed what he was saying. “Or she could have lost it somewhere in the bar.”

Mipha was about to open her mouth and tell him that she doubted Zelda would actually have been able to lose her phone, but then she noticed the way Revali was looking at her, a slightly raised eyebrow as he waited for her answer. He was not saying it in an attempt to salvage his own day; he really was just trying to say something that might take a bit of her worries away. She changed her words at the last second. “Yeah, I guess.”

Maybe she was a better actress than she had thought, or perhaps it was simply Revali who was desperate to believe that she was feeling better, for he jumped off her bed and patted her on the back as he pulled her to her feet, halfway dragging her out of the room and out into the living room, halfway leading the way for her.

With an excited little yelp, Revali jumped, twirling around in the air before landing in front of her, having somehow managed to plaster a smile onto his face during the fraction of a second he had had is face turned away from her. “You know, I have the perfect idea for what we can do to get your mind of Zelda and that phone.”

“And what might that be?” Mipha asked, happy to note that the excitement in her voice did not feel as fake as it had done mere moments before.

“We can watch a film together.” he must have seen the doubtful look she sent him, for Revali quickly added. “I will let you choose, and I promise that I won’t begin to make sarcastic remarks if you pick a romantic comedy.”

“But my homework,” Mipha protested weakly, though she was already following along with Revali, letting him push her over towards the couch.

“It can wait. Look, you did me a favour by going with me to the bar to make sure that I would not end up being all alone if Link had for some reason not realised how amazing I am, and for that reason, you ended up getting hurt in the process, so there is no way I am going to let you sit here and do your homework while you are still feeling sad about it.”

“I don’t think my professors will accept that as a valid excuse for not knowing everything on the curriculum,” Mipha said with a smile, but she still accepted the remote when Revali handed it to her.

“Well, then you can just ask me to convince them,” he said, “we both know that there is no way I would not be able to convince them that you should get a chance more after you spent most of your weekend crying.”

“I haven’t cried at all.” she tried her best to sound convincing, but Mipha was sure that Revali could see the truth either in how it was written across her face or in the way she refused to meet his glance. For the truth was that she had cried. Maybe she had managed to control herself Friday and not cry when she left the bar or when Zelda came outside to ask her what was wrong, but she had indeed spent a good chunk of Saturday lying in her bed while feeling sorry for herself.

At least Revali did not bother to mention the lie, and, right then, Mipha could not have been more grateful when he jumped over to sit next to her on the couch. Motioning towards the television, he shushed her. “Anyway, let’s not discuss homework anymore. Pick a film and let’s try to think about something else.”

It felt nice to let someone else take responsibility for her own poor choices, so when Revali insisted on taking a break to relax, Mipha followed along.

Although, perhaps she was not able to pretend to feel fine for long periods of time, for Mipha didn’t pick a romantic comedy despite Revali assuring her that he would not make fun of the plot. It was already hard enough to watch Revali and Link act like they had finally reached the end of their own fairy tale, she did not also need to see actors act out the story with the perfect ending while trying to forget about Zelda as well.

Chapter Text

Coming to work the following Monday hurt less than Mipha had expected it to do.

Even though she had spent most of her weekend trying to come to terms with the risk of Zelda having decided that she would have to clear the air between them and explain that she really had only been using the kiss to as a way to be left alone in the bar, or—and the thought of it made Mipha’s heart ache even more than the first option—she had decided that, much like Mipha, she could not deal with the thought of everything becoming awkward between them, and picked the option of simply not showing up, cutting all ties with her and finding another café instead, Mipha knew that it would still hurt to walk into the room that Monday and see the way Link lingered behind to whisper something to Revali. It must have been some kind of joke, because Revali sent him a fond smile, shaking his head slightly as he put on his apron before helping Link put his away.

Mipha didn’t miss the way Link kept holding onto Revali’s hand for as long as he could, not even letting go as he began to move away, instead letting his hand fall to his side the moment he could no longer reach Revali. She tried not to pay too much attention to it. It would only fuel her own sadness if she did, and as much as Mipha would like to go back home and feel sorry for herself, she had to get to work.

So, grabbing her apron from the back of the store, Mipha forced herself to put on her widest customer-smile and went back to the counter to laugh at the customers’ attempts of joking and smile while whishing them a good day when they grabbed the cardboard cup of coffee with a mumbled thankyou. And somewhere along the fake happiness, she managed to make it feel at least somewhat real. It was fine really.

Until it wasn’t fine any longer.

She had just handed the cup of cocoa to a teen who actually met her gaze when she said thanks, and then, there she was. Zelda. There, having just entered the café, Zelda stood, grinning at her when she saw that Mipha had noticed her, before she moved closer to the counter.

“Hi,” she said, placing her right underarm on the counter as she leant in closer towards her. As much as Mipha tried, she could not spot any signs of Zelda merely trying to get in a few last memories before she would have to tell her that there seemed to have been a few misunderstandings last Friday. She hoped that she was not staring, but knew that she most likely was. At least Zelda did not mention any such thing when she continued, “can I get a caffè latte and a blueberry muffin?”

“Yes.” the sound was barely audible, even to Mipha, and she cleared her throat before making another attempt. “Yes, of course. Do you want to enjoy it here or is it to go?”

“I will eat it here. Or, well, I will eat the muffin and drink the coffee here.”

Mipha nodded and began to move to prepare the order, but stopped when Zelda called out after her.

“So, do you not like any kind of muffins, or is it just that you don’t like most of them?”

Facing Zelda, Mipha could not see whether or not the question had been a joke. After everything that had happened, and Zelda still wanted to discuss muffins? Something in her hoped that it was a sign that she would get a chance to repair the relationship between them, a gift from Hylia. Here Zelda was, asking her almost the exact same question that had made Mipha misinterpret everything, only this time, Mipha was determined to do the right thing and not let Revali or her own feelings convince her that she really could be lucky that their friendship could be something else.

In front of her, Zelda tilted her head to the side, her eyebrows rising slightly as she gave her a concerned look. “Uh, Mipha are you okay?”

She had been silent for too long. However, even with that knowledge, it still took her another moment before she had manged to collect her thoughts enough to let her form coherent sentences. “Yeah, yeah, I am fine, I just…” Mipha let the sentence trail off, not even sure herself what she would have said if Zelda asked for a more specific reason. Maybe that was also why she hurried to continue speaking, to not give Zelda a chance to ask for her to elaborate, “but, to answer your question, I just don’t really think that I like the concept of muffins all that much. They are just kind of disappointing, or at least they often end up being it, you know?” one look at Zelda told her that, no, Zelda really did not know that feeling. “But,” Mipha said, attempting to salvage the situation, “I do actually like most of the muffins we sell in here.”

“And you are not just saying that because you are contractually obligated to claim that these muffins are the best?” Zelda asked, smirking at her as she made a sweeping gesture towards the plate with three muffins on it next to her on the counter.

“No, not at all, I do actually like these, especially the cinnamon muffins.” Mipha admitted. And then it struck her. This was where she had made the mistake last time, turning down Zelda’s invitation to go to get muffins. If she had not done that, she would never have talked with Revali about her, and he would not have brought up the possibility of Zelda having meant it as a date. And if that had not happened, Mipha would not have been so preoccupied with that idea that she began to see signs of it really being true everywhere, leading to her kissing Zelda. It was clear now that it had all started with those muffins, and now that she had gotten a second chance, Mipha was not about to waste it. So she gathered as much courage as she could, hoped that Zelda would not bring up how she had declined her offer to get muffins, and leant in towards her. “And I was actually wondering if you would like to sit here and eat one with me after my shift ends.”

Zelda blinked. Once. Twice. And then a third time and the courage that Mipha clung to began to falter, threatening to send her falling as the fear that she might just have made yet another mistake began to spread through her body.

But then Zelda nodded at her. “Sure, I would love to.” she said, and it felt like the smile she sent Mipha was warmer than a breeze in summer. “When does your shift end?”

“Uh,” Mipha mumbled, looking over towards the clock over the door as the realisation that she had not thought that part of the plan through set in. The shift would not be over for another couple of hours, and as much as Mipha had started to look forward to that cinnamon muffin, she knew that she could not ask Zelda to wait for so long.

But before she even got so far as to mutter an apology along with a sentence meant to explain that she had not thought to check the time first but would probably require a miracle to make sense to anyone but Mipha, Revali had stepped up next to her, pushing her away as he took her spot in front of the counter.

“Actually,” he said, quickly reaching out to take her hand underneath the counter, squeezing it in a silent demand for her to stay silent, “it just finished. You two go and have fun together.” and then, sending Zelda a little wave, he tightened his grip around Mipha’s hand and pulled her over towards the back of the shop, already helping her pull the apron off.

“What are you doing?” Mipha hissed at him the moment they were out of earshot. “You and I both know that there are another two and a half hours left of my shift.”

“But,” Revali held up his hand at her, “you never let me cover one of your shifts for you, and I have decided that I will do that now. Besides,” leaning in towards her, Mipha could see how Revali used his smile to hide the concern in his eyes. It did not work, not even when he continued, “I think that both you and Zelda are looking forward to those muffins, so I don’t think it would be fair to let her wait for you for several hours.”

Oh. There was nothing else Mipha could think as Revali helped her get back outside, snatching the apron from her and hanging it back up. He was going to try to help her be able to actually keep her promise to Zelda and go eat muffins with her, even willing to double his own workload to let her do just that. She knew that she should be grateful, but, if Mipha had to be honest with herself, she only noticed the overwhelming sense of relief that she would not have to risk her and Zelda’s relationship for a second time.

Still, she tried her best to protest, and it sounded forced and full of guilt even inside of her own head. But she decided to try to convince Revali to let her complete her own shift despite all of that.

“But that is not fair, you would have to work much harder to make up for me not being there with you. When I took your shift, I only had to do your work, I did not have to do two people’s amount of work at once.”

“Well, then it is probably quite lucky that I am the best employee here.” Revali countered, going to pick up three cups, holding one in each hand and having the third one stacked on top of them, one half of it resting on each one of the cups below. For a second, Mipha feared that he would attempt to prove his words by showing her how he could still use the objects around him as juggling pins. But, thankfully, Revali simply placed them down in front of the coffee machine, quickly pouring three cups of coffee and handing them over the counter to a group of three girls. Mipha could not even remember what they had ordered. “See?” Revali said once the girls had gone back over to sit down around a table in the corner. “I can handle it. Go.”

He pushed her forward, and once she had gained the momentum, Mipha found that it was quite easy to continue to walk over to Zelda, copying her pose and leaning in over the counter.

“Sorry you had to wait, I just had a few issues with getting my apron off.”

But Zelda did not look like she had minded it, still beaming as brightly at her as she had done before. “It didn’t even feel like that long. Did you say you liked the cinnamon muffins best?”

“Yes.”

“Okay then.” Zelda looked away from Mipha, and she tried her best to ignore the little pang of sadness, reminding herself that she was trying her best to fix things between them so that she would never have to deal with feeling the distance between them widening again.

Mipha had to remind herself of that several times as Revali came over to them, nudging Mipha in the side, using the decorative plant between himself and Zelda to hide the little motion from her before he nodded at her.

“Yes?”

“Can I buy a cinnamon muffin and a cup of…” Zelda looked over at Mipha.

“Just an espresso, please.”

“And a cup of espresso. I will be the one paying.”

“What? No—” Mipha protested, “you shouldn’t have to pay for me—”

But both Zelda as well as Revali ignored her, Revali simply stating the price before disappearing. He returned only a few minutes later, carrying a plate in his hand which he handed to Zelda in exchange for a single red Rupee.

“Do you want to try something new?” Zelda asked as she did her best to try to balance the two plates and the two cups of coffee along with her bag, before she gave up and let Mipha take the plates from her.

“That depends,” Mipha said, “what is it?”

“I was thinking we could try to sit there,” Zelda pointed, specifying ‘there’ as being one of the vacant tables next to the windows.

Mipha did her best to hide how even the thought of saying yes was making her begin to wish that she had never learn what Zelda’s lips felt like. It was the Couple-table.

Pushed up against the wall in a spot that was technically not large enough for a table, but where they had somehow made it work regardless of lack of space, it was the only table in the room with only two chairs where they were both placed on either side if the round table and with so little space behind the back of the chair that Mipha could tell in advance that it was not possible to sit two people there without their knees constantly connecting underneath the table. But she also knew that there was no way she could tell any of that to Zelda—not without risking making her own feelings about her painfully obvious in the process—so Mipha tried to ensure that her voice would not tremble as she did her best to look calm at the prospect of going to sit at the Couple-table.

Her mouth felt incredibly dry, but she still swallowed before answering. “Yeah, sure, why not.”

They made their way over to the fabled table, Mipha waiting for Zelda to sit down before she as much as moved closer to place the two plates at the table. Then, she knew that she had reached the point where she would actually have to sit down as well. Slowly, Mipha pulled out the chair, trying her best to move it as far away from the table as the wall behind her would allow her to, which was, given the nature of the Couple-table, not that much. But she managed to sit down without hitting Zelda’s legs even once, a feat Mipha could not help but feel slightly proud of. It was just not that nice that she would not be able to laugh about it with Zelda.

“So,” Zelda said, pushing the cinnamon muffin and espresso over towards Mipha, “would I be correct if I assumed that Revali got the answer he had hoped for from Link?”

“Yes,” Mipha said, fidgeting in her seat as she sensed how they slowly got closer to the dangerous subject of what exactly had happened at the bar.

“Hmm,” Zelda bit into her muffin, glancing towards the counter where Revali had just handed another one of the cardboard cups to a man in a suit who hurried back out of the café moments later, “yeah, he also looked so much happier than what I was used to. Though, of course,” she winked at Mipha, “I might not be completely unbiased given how my introduction to him was when I saw him almost throw a cup of coffee at a man and then heard you tell me how that was apparently his usual behaviour.” Zelda’s shoulders shook with laughter.

“No, you are right, he did definitely look much happier than he did while constantly mentioning every single thing Link had done that day.” the thought that she had acted the exact same way over the weekend, maybe even longer, but just that, instead of focusing on Link, she had focused on Zelda was determined to get through to her, but although the irony of the situation—her sitting here with Zelda and laughing about Revali’s antics when around Link when she was no better the moment she saw Zelda—was not lost on Mipha, she tried her best to push it away.

The coffee smelt wonderful, and she slowly lifted it up to her lips, careful to make sure it was not too hot for her to drink.

“Oh, you should definitely never drink on an empty stomach,” Zelda said, her hair falling in front of her should as she shook her head.

Mipha placed the cup back down onto the table, feeling how a crease appeared between her eyebrows. “What?”

“Just a joke,” Zelda chuckled, “it’s just that I clearly did not remember to do that this Friday. I remember going to a bar—”

“Yeah, you met me there,” Mipha said, following along with the story, her stomach turning at the thought of how Zelda was only a few seconds away from reaching the point during the evening that Mipha could still recall everything she closed her eyes.

Only, that was not what Zelda did.

“Oh, so it was you that I met there,” Zelda tossed her hair back behind her shoulders, shaking her head in disbelief, “I just—I remembered finding someone, but I could not remember exactly who. Well, anyway, I must have left you at some point during the evening, because I got so incredibly drunk that I am still not really sure how I managed to find my way home to my flat. And although I might only have gone with you to a bar once and I can barely remember anything, I am pretty sure that you would have tried to stop me from becoming so drunk, right?”

“Right,” Mipha confirmed.

“Yeah, I thought so. But since you weren’t there, I had no one to stop me, so, and I don’t know why—or well yes I do, but it doesn’t matter for the story—but no matter what, I got so drunk that you can’t even imagine it.” Zelda grimaced. “It was not pleasant to wake up Saturday to find that I had definitely not thought about the fact that I would have to get up again. Oh, yeah, and also, I could not find my jacket anywhere in my flat. Do you know if I managed to throw over in some corner in the bar while you were still there?”

“Uh, no, you let me borrow it when I left,” Mipha said, doing her best to sound calm as she recalled the feeling of wrapping Zelda’s jacket around herself to head back home, “it is safe in my flat. If you want me to, I could probably run home to get it and be back in just a little over twenty minutes.” she looked over at Zelda, already halfway looking forward to her accepting the offer, giving Mipha an excuse to get up from the table and to try to use the run between the café and her flat and back again as a chance to make some of the jittery energy that ran through her body, making her leg twitch every other second and bringing it dangerously close to hitting Zelda’s a few times disappear.

But Zelda just picked up her own cup. Taking a sip of her drink, she shook her head. “No, no, I don’t miss it. It is just nice to know where I have left all of my stuff, you know, just to make sure that I haven’t lost it for good.”

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” Mipha mumbled and tried her best to hide how she hooked her foot around the chair leg in an attempt to sit still, “in that case, just say when you want to get it back and then I could bring it in here.”

“I will.”

They sat there in silence. As it grew, coming dangerously close to reaching the point where it could be classified as ‘awkward’, Mipha began picking at her muffin. There was technically nothing wrong with the spongy dough, but she still could not imagine actually making herself calm down enough to touch it without breaking off tiny pieces. The taste was fine, delicious even, but the more she sat there, simply shoving little bites of food into her mouth, the less appetising the muffin seemed.

Across from her, Zelda cleared her throat. “So, uh, I assume that you had a better weekend than what I experienced, didn’t you?”

Thinking of how she had spent a good part of it locked in her room while panicking about this moment, Mipha lied. “Yeah, it was fine. I didn’t really do much, though, just sat at home and watched a few films and all that.”

“But were they at least good films?”

“They were fine,” Mipha replied with a shrug, “nothing too amazing, but I was able to stay focused through it all so at least they managed to do that.” when Zelda fell silent, the thought that maybe she had actually wanted to discuss the films struck Mipha.

Things were just going so well, she thought bitterly, here she had just gotten her second chance and she was already doing her best to ruin it. But, forcing herself to sit still and not at all think about how close she was to Zelda or how the corners of Zelda’s mouth were turned downwards, not quite forming a frown yet, but definitely far away from being the beginning of a smile, she decided to do her best to try to make up for it.

Picking up her cup, she paused with it just a few centimetres away from her face, using the teaspoon to point at Zelda like she had only just then been struck by an idea. “That reminds me, I think I passed by a cinema on my way over here. Would you want to go see a film there with me sometime?”

The tight feeling in her chest lessened a little as Zelda looked at her, some of her usual sparkle having returned to her eyes.

“I would love to,” she said, and Mipha definitely did not feel how her heart skipped a beat at the casual use of the word, “did you have a specific film in mind?”

And there it was, the flaw in her plan that could barely be described as a plan given how little thought Mipha had actually put into it.

“No, not really,” she admitted, “I was thinking that we could just go there one day, look at what they have to offer and then just pick one of the options.” Thinking was definitely not what she was good at doing right then. To say that Mipha was actually hoping much more than she was thinking would be an understatement.

Lifting the muffin up from her plate, it seemed that Zelda was about to make her wait even longer for an answer to her suggestion, but, to Mipha’s relief, she paused at the last second, staring off into the distance. “Yeah, I suppose we could also do that.” she finally said, and Mipha could only pray that the relief did not show on her face. She supposed it didn’t as Zelda did not pause to comment on it. “What time should we do it? When would you be able to go?”

The assignment was still sitting unfinished on her computer, making the true answer to that question sound something like ‘probably not for another couple of weeks’. But it was almost finished, she just had to read through it and make sure that that there were no obvious mistakes or spelling errors, so it was not like she would suddenly be unable to finish it in time just by taking a break and going to the cinema with Zelda. Or at least that was what Mipha told herself in an attempt to justify the plans she was about to make keeping her from working on her homework for even more time.

“Oh, I don’t really mind when we go.” the lie burnt on her tongue, but she continued. “So as long as you are free at that time, we can go whenever you feel like it.”

The look Zelda sent her, slightly lifted eyebrows, mouth pressed together slightly as her eyes darted from one side of Mipha’s face to the other, made her almost completely certain that Zelda could see through the lie, but just as Mipha had been about to open her mouth to add to the lie, hoping that it would somehow help, Zelda nodded. “Okay, in that case, what about tomorrow at five? Does that work for you?”

It didn’t really, but then again, there was really not a good time at all to go out when she still had to work on her assignment. Besides, if she really tried, Mipha was sure she could probably manage to get it finished once she got home that evening. And even if that had not been the case, when she looked at Zelda in front of her and felt how Zelda had still seemingly not realised that they were sitting at the Couple-table from the way she had placed her foot, pushed over towards Mipha’s half of the table, making it so that, even though Mipha did her best to move her own feet as far away from Zelda as possible, she could not help but brush against them, well, how could anyone expect her to be rational and say no?

“Yeah, it is perfect,” she lied.

And just like that, it was decided, Zelda being quick to take out her phone to let Mipha type her number into it.

“We will just meet by the entrance, right?” Zelda asked as she accepted her phone back again, bowing her head over it as she typed in the last pieces of information before saving the contact. “I mean, I will probably still call you once I get there, but the plan is to just meet at the entrance, right?”

Mipha nodded, and could not help but feel a bit sad as Zelda got up, picking up her bag before she turned around to pull her in for a hug, saying something about how she had something she needed to do, but that she would be looking forward to going to the cinema tomorrow. Mipha simply followed along, repeating the same things Zelda told her back to her, only changing the words a little.

As she watched Zelda leave, pausing for a moment to turn around as the door closed behind her to wave at her, standing still until Mipha waved back, at which point she all but ran through the street before turning around the corner a few minutes later, Mipha could not help but wonder what it was about Zelda that made her able to so easily forget everything about logic when faced with the prospect of getting the opportunity to spend more time with her.

Although Mipha had a pretty good idea of what Revali’s conclusion to that question would be, she ignored the signs that would indicate that there was a tiny chance—for it was really nothing but the tiniest, smallest chance—that he would be right, instead arriving at the conclusion that it must have something to do with the fact that she simply needed a break from studying, meaning that she would gladly have accepted any excuse to delay the moment she would have to sit down with her computer and actually get some work done. It sounded plausible enough. Even though Mipha loved her classes and loved the subjects and would, if asked, still rather write a hundred assignments than accept one of Revali’s offers that she could come with him and Link to the park to be the third wheel during their dates, that friend who was so lonely that they got a pity-invitation, she nodded to herself. Yeah, that was it. She was just a bit tired.

Chapter Text

She could have sworn it was the hundredth time already that he had done that.

Really, what was the deal with how Revali kept on disappearing into his room for a few minutes before coming back out, insisting that he had just come up with the perfect look for his date with Link, before turning towards her and with an expectant tone demanding to know what she thought about the changes, only for her to not see the difference, give him some vague compliment, and for the process to start all over again?

“No, you aren’t looking closely enough.” Revali informed her when Mipha slowly tried to suggest that, since she could not see what he was talking about even though he had specifically asked her to criticise his hair, maybe Link would not notice the difference either. “See,” he pointed towards a spot on the back of his head, “I plaited this part, but I couldn’t find a second mirror, so I need you to tell me how it looks.”

Biting back a sigh, Mipha looked at the few strands of hair that had been tucked under one another. “It looks fine to me,” she said once she deemed that she had waited for enough time so that it would not make Revali tell her that she had to really look, “but so did the last couple of attempts as well. I really don’t get what the fuss is about.”

“Well, in that case, you aren’t paying enough attention,” Revali said, but thankfully he did not ask her to repeat the process, instead turning around to look at her, “besides, I have to make sure that this looks amazing, because I am not about to let Link look better than me.”

“I thought you two loved each other.”

“We do, but Link literally looks amazing all the time, and that means that I have to try even harder not to look completely ridiculous next to him. I mean, did you see him yesterday?”

“It would be a bit hard for me not to given how we had a shift together.” Mipha smiled, though it felt a bit strained. As much as she loved Revali, she really did not have time for this, not when the clock on her phone told her that there were only a little over forty minutes left until she was supposed to meet Zelda at the cinema and she still had to finish applying her makeup and pick a dress before she would be ready to leave. “But I still don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Then you aren’t paying enough attention, because I asked him if he had tried something new with his hair, and do you know what he told me?” Revali did not even give her a second to consider her answer. “He told me that he had just been really tired when he woke up, so he had not even bothered touching it at all.”

To be honest, there were days where Mipha would have assumed that Revali had not bothered trying to do anything with his hair either, but given the way Revali delivered that last bit of information, an impressed tone in his voice, she could tell that it had perhaps not been the case after all and that bringing up her assumption would not be the best decision right then. So, rather than doing that, she looked at the plait again, decided that Revali did not need to know that there were a few strands of hairs that he had failed to catch and that no one was going to notice it.

“Well, in that case, I am pleased to announce that the plait looks lovely.”

Mipha didn’t know whether to feel insulted or not as Revali reached back to touch his hair again, perhaps hoping that he would be able to feel any mistakes that way while not messing up the plait even more, and so, she ended up staying silent.

It seemed that Revali finally accepted her judgement, for he finally stopped disappearing into his own room to change his hair, instead turning on the spot to take in the sight that met him.

“So,” he said, speaking slowly, like he had only then noticed the mess around them, “I take it that you are also kind of unsure about what you should pick.”

She could see what he meant, she really could. But even then, Mipha still couldn’t help but feel like he was being needlessly dramatic about it all. Sure, most of the contents of her dresser had been scattered throughout the room, either laid out neatly on the bed, lying next to each other in the hope that it would help her choose, or discarded in a pile on the floor, but she still had it under control, she knew exactly where everything was.

“No, I am just trying to figure out what would be the most appropriate for the occasion,” Mipha said, hoping that she managed to keep up the pretence of being blasé about it all.

From the way Revali cocked his head, it was evident that she did not succeed. “Really? Because that makes it sound a lot like you are preparing to go on a date with her—”

“No,” Mipha interrupted him, her voice rising a bit as she tried her best to fight the panicked flutter in her chest, “no, don’t you dare try to start all of that again. I was wrong about things like that once; I won’t let you try to convince me again.”

Revali held up his hands in a placating gesture, taking a step away from her. “Okay, okay, I am sorry. I hadn’t realised that this not being a date meant so much to you, but I can assure you that it was just a joke.”

And Mipha supposed that, to Revali, it really had just been a joke, a way for him to both cheer her up and to try to take his mind off his own plans. The thing just was, that all of this, the outfit, the cinema, the film, was so much more than that to her. It was her second chance. She had messed up the first time, so now Mipha was determined to do her best. And if doing her best would then also require her to spend a little over an hour standing in front of her mirror as she tried to decide whether or not she needed to apply more eyeliner to even out the wings, holding one dress after another up in front of her, then that was just what she would do.

“No, it is fine,” she lied, “I think I am just a bit nervous. I’m sorry for taking it out on you.”

“I don’t mind that.” Revali’s phone beeped, making him look down at it. “I have to get going now, but you will be fine, right?”

“Right,” Mipha repeated. It was fine, really. The butterflies in her stomach were just another sign of the nervous feeling that had spread through her body during the last couple of hours. As soon as she got to the cinema and saw that she had made it in time, they would be sure to disappear again, Mipha knew that, so she put as much joy into her voice as she could, “I should probably also get going soon as well. But good luck with the date.”

“Thank you. And good luck with your not-a-date.”

A hug and a comment that he was not sure when he would be home later, the door slammed behind Revali, and Mipha was left alone to her choice of what to wear.

The time for when she would have to leave came closer every second, so, in the end, Mipha simply closed her eyes and picked to first thing off her bed. After making sure that it at least did not look ridiculous, she too left the flat and headed outside, doing her best to ignore the urge to run to the cinema. Yes, it would probably make her able to get there a little bit faster, but if the price of getting there five minutes early was that she would be out of breath and tired, then she was not willing to risk it.

Although Mipha arrived at her destination with ten entire minutes to spare, Zelda was already there, waiting just outside the entrance when she got there.

“Sorry, I hope you haven’t been waiting for too long,” Mipha said as she reached her, Zelda wrapping her arms around her in a fleeting hug.

“No, not at all.” Mipha could feel how Zelda shook with laughter as she returned the embrace. “If anything, I was actually just a little bit early.”

Leaning back, Mipha allowed herself a second of simply enjoying Zelda’s presence, taking in the sight of Zelda’s face so close to her. The familiar little ache in her chest was nothing when compared to the sheer joy of knowing that Zelda had actually said yes to meet with her. Maybe it was exactly because Mipha had spent so much time like this, looking at Zelda, but her eyes immediately caught onto the fact that there was something different about her today.

“Hey, is that a new kind of lipstick?” Mipha asked, the words having left her mouth before she had gotten a chance to think it through. She could have kicked herself the moment she realised what she had just said, but by then, it was already too late, so she settled on simply trying her best to make it look like a casual question, rolling backwards onto the heel of her shoe and shoving her hands into her pockets, something that came with the added benefit of hiding how much they shook from Zelda.

“Uh,” Zelda said, and it felt like that moment were she so clearly tried to make sense of the question, brows pulled together, a confused look making the shimmer in her eyes dim, lasted for ages, “no, it is what I usually wear.”

There was no way to take back what she had just said, so Mipha decided that she might as well just risk everything. “It is pretty,” she said, trying her best to keep her voice under control, “it suits you.”

“Thank you.” and, finally, the smile was back. Seeing the way Zelda once more beamed at her felt like the clouds had just disappeared to let the sun shine on her again and Mipha was not sure what she could say in response that would not give it all away. She was saved by the bell as Zelda turned around to point back at the building behind them. “We should probably get going. I don’t know about you, but I am really bad at making decision quickly.”

She already knew that there was no way she would not just agree to the first thing Zelda suggested, since, if nothing else, simply getting the chance to watch Zelda enjoy the film would be enough, so Mipha simply followed along as Zelda made her way over to the glass doors leading into the cinema with a noncommittal shrug. “I am not really that picky when it comes to films, so whatever you want to see will be fine with me.”

“Really? You do know that the only thing I want to do now is to pick the worst film I can find just to see if you will continue to think that.”

“Well, in that case, do your worst.”

But despite Zelda’s promises, she did not end up dragging her in to see the worst film she could find. Or maybe she did, but in that case, Mipha would have to have a serious discussion with her about what could qualify for the label of a ‘bad film’, as Zelda ended up settling on some romantic comedy Mipha had already seen twice. But although she had been completely absorbed by the story the first two times, as they sat down in the soft seats and the lights around them dimmed, Mipha quickly found that it was simply not able to catch her attention the way it had done before, not when Zelda was sitting next to her. The actress who had gotten the leading role, despite how there had surely been an entire team involved in every little decision surrounding her, was just not able to compete with Zelda, not when Zelda was sitting this close to her, mirth making her eyes shine as the plot in the film grew even more complicated. She had cared about whether or not the two main characters would get the chance to get together when she had first watched it, but right in that moment, the only thing Mipha could feel was the sense of longing.

She knew that she should be grateful that Zelda had for some reason gotten so drunk that she had not been able to recall how Mipha had left that bar on the verge of bursting into tears since that was the only reason they were able to sit like this, in a cinema, watching a film about romance, but right then, it felt more like a curse than anything else to know that she could remember exactly what it had felt like during those seconds where Zelda had pulled her closer and to know that she had to stay silent about it now. It would risk their friendship, Mipha knew that, but she still let herself play with the thought of telling Zelda, to pull her aside after the film had ended and tell her that she had just remembered a few more details about the bar.

Luckily for her, the film felt like it was much longer than how Mipha remembered it, and by the time the credits began, she had brought herself to her senses. It might make her feel better for a moment, to know that there were no secrets between them, but as Mipha imagined the way Zelda would look at her, betrayed and confused as she demanded to know why Mipha had not told her immediately, Mipha knew that it would only make her feel better for a moment before it would all come crashing down around her.

So when light flooded the room again and Zelda leant over in her seat to whisper something about how she had not predicted the plot twist, Mipha forced herself to laugh along and say something about how it made more sense the third time you saw it before getting up to leave the room.

They crossed through the hall of the cinema, only to find it had started raining while they had watched the film.

“Well,” Zelda said as they stopped by the windows, watching how the raindrops hit the glass before leaving a trail as they ran towards the ground, “I don’t suppose you brought an umbrella along with you this time, did you?”

“Nope. You?”

“Mipha, if I ever remember to think about the weather before I go anywhere, you can assume that I have been possessed, because I am so bad at doing that.” Zelda laughed, though she soon turned serious again when the rain intensified with no sign of it stopping anytime soon. “Do you live nearby?”

“If I run, I can be home in about ten minutes. Though, it might take a little more than that given the amount of rain.”

“Hmm,” Zelda said, bowing her head, “I live just around the corner, so we should be able to reach my flat in about half that time, maybe even less. You could wait for the rain to stop there.”

The offer was tempting, Mipha had to admit that. No, not only tempting, it was almost impossible to say no, especially as she tried to imagine how much time she would have to spend mopping the floor if she went outside while the weather was so bad. And had she not just practically promised herself that she would stop acting weird around Zelda since it would only increase the risk of Zelda noticing? It was probably fine to say yes.

With a carefully rehearsed glance at the rain outside, Mipha accepted the offer. “Sure, thank you.”

“It was nothing,” Zelda said, pausing for a moment before winking at her, “what are friends for if not providing you with a place to stay while you wait for the weather to get better?”

The laugh Mipha forced out sounded fake, but by then, Zelda had luckily already grabbed her hand and started making her way out towards the double glass doors leading out into the street, pulling Mipha along with her, so she did not think that Zelda had picked up on it.

They practically sprinted the entire way over to Zelda’s flat, with the consequence that Mipha barely managed to pull Zelda back onto the footpath moments before she would have been about to step out in front of a car. However, even as Mipha’s heart beat so hard in her chest that it felt like it was trying its best to escape from the confinement of her ribs, Zelda simply looked at her, saying something about how she was happy Mipha had been there that Mipha did not quite catch, and then continued, crossing the street—now without coming centimetres away from being hit by a car—all while continuing to keep up the conversation between them. It was a feat that Mipha could not help but admire, something that had nothing to do with how melodic Zelda’s voice was, but rather had everything to do with the fact that Mipha was hardly contributing as she followed along while occasionally making a confirming sound when Zelda paused to look back at her.

Despite how she knew that they would not both have been able to fit under it and that she would most likely have ended up giving it to Zelda, Mipha found herself missing her umbrella, especially when a drop of water somehow made its way past her hair hanging over her back, trickling down along her neck. Reaching up to try to use the fabric of her dress to pat the spot dry, Mipha quickened her pace to keep up with Zelda.

It did not take them much more than the ten minutes Zelda had predicted to reach her flat, but Mipha was still drenched with rain by the time Zelda unlocked the front door and led her up the stairs. From the look it, with her hair sticking to the back of her dress, several shades darker than it had been just a few minutes before, Mipha would say that the same was the case for Zelda. But with how Zelda acted, she would not have thought it.

“Welcome to my home!” with a sweeping gesture, Zelda pushed open a blue door and waited until Mipha slowly stepped over the threshold before she followed after her.

All too aware of how she was dripping water all over the floor, Mipha looked around her. It was a lot less tidy than what she had expected, with shoes lying all over the place in the tiny hallway and a couple of jackets tossed into a corner. Through an open door on her right, Mipha could see an entire wall covered with what looked like articles ripped out of newspapers and journals.

“You can just put your shoes wherever you like,” Zelda said as she followed her own advice, removing her shoes with a couple of kicks. They landed in the corner with the jackets, hitting the floor with a clatter. Zelda must have noticed that she had still not moved to take off her shoes, for she followed her line of sight, “yeah, it’s quite messy. I am sorry, I had no idea I would have guests over. If I had known, I think I would have tried my best to at least put on the appearance of having my life together, but,” she turned the palms of her hands upwards, tugging the corners of her mouth down, “oh, well, it is too late to do anything about that now; you already know exactly how horrible I am at taking time to clean up.”

“I wasn’t thinking that!” Mipha protested. When Zelda simply cocked her head, she decided that the truth would probably be more convincing. “Okay, I thought that it was a little less organised than what I had expected, but in a good way. I don’t mind a little bit of clutter.”

“Well,” Zelda looked down at the floor, but Mipha could still tell that the beginning of a smile that tugged at her lips was anything but happy, “that would make you the first one to think that.” Mipha did not get a chance to ask who had said something bad about her flat before Zelda appeared to notice the puddle that had formed where they were standing. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I had completely forgotten about the rain! I hope you aren’t too cold?”

“No, it is fine,” Mipha said, and as Zelda stepped closer, reaching out to touch the sleeves of her dress, not looking too impressed with the amount of water they had held onto, she knew that it would take more than just a little bit of water to make the warm, burning feeling in her body disappear.

After a moment of inspecting her, Zelda clicked her tongue. “I think I have something lying around that might be able to fit you. It might be a little bit tight, but other than that, it should be fine.”

“What?” Mipha asked, not believing what she was hearing.

“You can’t stay in that, you are going to be way too cold, and I doubt that you had planned for it to start raining while we were seeing that film and brought a change of clothes along with you. Though, if you have, I have to admit that I am genuinely impressed by your ability to plan ahead.”

“I am sorry to disappoint you, but I haven’t actually thought of that,” Mipha said and hoped that Zelda would not notice how breathless her voice was.

“Don’t be, I had not really expected you to. But, look, why don’t you go to the bathroom—that is over there, by the way,” she pointed towards one of the two doors located on the right side of the corridor, “and then I will go and find something for you to change into. You won’t mind wearing hoodies, will you?”

“Not at all.”

“Great, because, now that we are being honest here, I haven’t thought of this happening as well, and I don’t think I have anything else that would be long enough once you wear it.”

Somehow, Mipha let Zelda show her to the bathroom, answering her questions about which of the possible hoodies and leggings she would prefer to borrow, and before she had caught up with what was happening around her, Zelda had pushed a stack of clothing into her arms.

“Okay, I am also going to change into something dry, and then I will meet you in the living room,” she said, quickly turning around to gesture towards the room in question, “just shout my name in that direction if you need my help—the door to the bathroom can be a bit stubborn sometimes, but just hit it a few times around the handle if you have trouble getting it open again, that usually takes care of it.”

Already sure that the question of how she would be able to open the door again was the last of her worries, Mipha plastered a confident look onto her face and hoped that it would be enough to hide how she still held the stack of clothes like it was glass that could break at any moment. It worked, and moments later, Zelda stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind her. Already, Mipha could tell that Zelda had not been exaggerating the issues with the door, and she could practically see how Zelda had to use her entire bodyweight to force the door shut.

And then she was alone.

Part of her wanted to do nothing more than to pause and take a moment to look around at her surroundings—there was a mirror standing beside the sink, that could be the very mirror Zelda had used to apply the lipstick Mipha had assumed was new—but the knowledge that Zelda would be waiting for her was enough to make Mipha hurry up and get changed as quickly as she could. But despite her having every intention not to waste time, Mipha still had to take a moment to breathe in deeply before she pulled the hoodie over her head and adjusted it. It was soft, dry, and warm, but all of that was not what made her stop to simply stare at herself in the mirror. There was simply something so very Zelda about it that it was weird to see her own reflection in the mirror and see that it was not Zelda who was wearing the blue hoodie, but rather Mipha.

If it continued like this, Mipha was not sure how much longer she would be able to last without blurting out the truth. There was simply no way she could stay quiet about it.

But for the time being, Mipha pulled herself together. She could do this.

Smoothing out the fabric a bit, she went to exit the room, and with her newfound conviction, it only took a single push before the door opened.

Even though, all things considered, Mipha had been quick to change into the outfit Zelda had found for her, Zelda was already waiting for her when she entered the living room, sitting on the couch, her head turned towards the window across from her. However, as Mipha stopped next to the couch, unsure of what to do, Zelda jumped up, almost jumping over the couch to get over to her.

“You were faster than I had expected!” she exclaimed before bringing her hand to her mouth, stammering slightly as she tried to add to her statement. “Not that I had expected you to take a long time to change, but—”

Mipha interrupted her with a wave of her hand. “Yeah, I know. I was a lot better at getting the door to open again than what you had expected from me.” she flexed the muscles in her arms, happy to earn a smile from Zelda. “It did not stand a chance against me.”

“In that case, I will have to ask you what your secret was, because it took me ages to figure out the trick of hitting the door handle.” Zelda joked, before the smile disappeared again. “But I have bad news; the rain hasn’t stopped yet. I just checked the forecast, and it does not look like it is going to let up anytime soon. I hope that you won’t mind eating leftover pizza because that is all I have right now, and I doubt you would want to leave with it looking like this outside.” there was no need for her to specific what ‘this’ meant, not when they could both see through the windows how the street outside had turned into a rainbow of colourful umbrellas trying their best to shield their users from the rain that continued to fall from the clouds hanging above them.

Mipha could not help but think that she and Zelda must have quite different definitions of the meaning of bad news. Although the butterflies fluttered dangerously in her stomach at the sound of it, there was no way she would have declined the invitation to stay, even if Zelda had only asked because she felt bad about sending her back outside into the rain.

“Well, I love pizza, so I don’t see any problems with that,” she said.

The butterflies felt like they had left her stomach to instead fly around next to her heart as Zelda beamed at her.

“Great, in that case, I should probably go and get a few slices heated up.” having halfway turned around on her heel, Zelda halted. “I don’t have a lot of different kinds to offer—though, if there’s something else you would like more, then I could always call and order that, so just say if you would prefer something else—”

“No, I am sure that I would love what you have already.”

And that was how, after sending a quick text to Revali to tell him where she was and that there was no need for him to worry about her, Mipha soon found herself seated at the table, a slice of pizza placed on the plate in front of her, with Zelda dragging a slice over onto her plate as well.

“So,” Zelda said, picking up her napkin to dab it against the corners of her mouth, “I am sorry, but I don’t think it is going to stop raining anytime soon.”

Almost like it wanted to prove her right, the sound of the rain hitting the roof above them grew louder, and Mipha paused, with the pizza barely touching her lips. “Neither do I.”

Total silence filled the room as Zelda took a bite of her slice, nodding at Mipha. As the seconds passed by, Mipha got the feeling that Zelda was consciously trying to draw out the time until she would have to say something. Well, if that was the case, Mipha was going to wait as well.

It felt like it took a year, but the silence most likely only lasted for a few minutes before Zelda opened her mouth, her gaze glued to her food in front of her as she spoke. “If you want, you could stay here for the night.”

Was it really happening? Just a few days ago, Mipha had been so incredibly sure that their friendship was already dead, completely ruined by the kiss in the bar, and here she was, sitting at the tiny table in the corner of Zelda’s kitchen, wearing a hoodie Zelda had let her borrow, and with Zelda offering to let her stay over for the night. Granted, it was all due to the rain having taken them by surprise, but even that was still so much more than what Mipha would have expected.

“I would be happy to—as long as it is not too much of a bother for you.” the words sounded rehearsed, something Mipha supposed was to be expected, given how she had to go over the sentence a couple of times in her head just to make sure her voice would not fail her halfway through.

“Not at all.” Hylia, how did Zelda manage to make even the act of pointing at her with a slice of pizza feel as nice as when she was told she had passed all of her exams? Mipha didn’t know, but, somehow, Zelda pulled it off as she continued. “I mean, there’s still a little chance—although, if I am honest, I don’t really think it is realistic to think that it will happen—that it will stop raining sometime soon,” Mipha sure hoped that that would not happen but decided not to share that with Zelda as she continued to gesture towards her with the slice of pizza, “but once we are finished with dinner, I will go to prepare the couch so that you can get my bed—”

“Hang on,” Mipha said, holding up her hand to interrupt, “I am not kicking you out of your own room. I am taking the couch.”

“Absolutely not! You are the guest, so you will get the best place to sleep!”

But Mipha did not give in. “No, you will keep the bed. It is that or else I am going to have to go out into the rain again to get back to my own place. There’s no way I am going to make you give up your own bed for my sake.” silently, Mipha begged Hylia to let Zelda give in. The rain hitting the roof, creating a broken rhythm, did not exactly make the option of going home to ensure she would not be a bother for Zelda seem all that alluring, and that was not even to mention how she would hate to leave now.

She knew that her prayers had been heard when Zelda’s face turned soft. “Okay, okay,” Zelda said, lowering the slice of pizza in surrender, “if you insist, I will let you sleep on the couch.”

“Thank you.”

The rest of the meal progressed without another discussion—save for when Zelda admitted that she had never really been all fond of cinnamon—and before long, the pizza was almost completely gone.

In a matter of minutes, Mipha found herself settled into the couch, Zelda sitting in the chair next to her. Although she had the remote pointed towards the television, turning up the volume of some documentary Mipha was almost completely sure she had mumbled something about sounding like it was interesting, Mipha found that she had to shake her head every other minute to redirect her attention towards the man in the documentary who was trying to explain what the correct definition of a novel was. Try as he might, his obvious excitement about the subject was simply not able to outdo the way Zelda leant forwards in her seat, reaching out to grab Mipha’s hand and bring it over to her own armrest.

“Look, they are actually interviewing Nayru,” she gushed, admiration making its way into every word, “I can’t believe that they actually got her to agree to be in this, but, hey, I am not complaining.”

“You like her writing?” Mipha asked, though it was much more of a statement than a question.

She was correct, as Zelda simply hummed. “She is my favourite author. Have you read anything she has written?”

“I don’t think so. If I have, I didn’t know that it was written by her.”

“We will have to change that,” Zelda decided, and it seemed that the chock of hearing that Mipha had really not heard about Nayru was enough to catch her attention, making the documentary lose its grip on her as Zelda turned around to look at her, “I have almost every single one of her books, so if you want to, you can just try one of them.”

“With you around, who would need a library?”

“I do, since I am a lot more productive when at the library than at home,” Zelda said, “although I have to admit that, recently, I have been writing a lot more at home than I used to.”

“Why?”

From the look Zelda sent her way, Mipha could tell that it should apparently have been obvious what her answer would be, even before Zelda answered. “Because, when I am at the café or if I meet you in the library, I have found that I will spend more time talking with you than actually writing.”

“Oh… well, for what it is worth, I am sorry about that.”

“No, that is not your fault at all—unless,” Zelda gave her hand a squeeze, “you are trying to be more interesting than sitting still while typing and looking up everything and nothing on purpose. Because if that is the case, then, yes, maybe it is a little bit your fault that I recently can’t seem to focus on actually writing when I am sitting at the counter with you.”

“There goes my grand evil plan,” Mipha chuckled, “I was trying to get you to stay there for a little while longer, and seeing as you went to the café to write, I had to ensure that you would not finish your project anytime soon, so I began to come up with ways to distract you from your work, you figured it out.”

“Well, now that I have discovered the truth, I can tell you that there is no need for you to worry about me leaving the moment I finish up the story, because even when that happens, I can assure you that I will still be coming back. I need to make sure that I can still get my daily cup of coffee, you know, and the best way to do that is to spend a lot of money at my favourite café.”

Ignoring the way the suggestion that Zelda had only returned to get another cup of coffee made her regret having eaten that last slice of pizza as her stomach began to ache, Mipha shifted in her seat to hide how her hand went to her stomach, almost like that would have taken care of the butterflies in there. “Yeah, if it was not for the fact that I already work there, I would probably also come in every day. Perhaps I will simply continue to do that even when I am no longer working there, so that Urbosa will barely notice it.”

Zelda smiled. “Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea. Although, if you ever quit and don’t think you will be coming back, I would appreciate a text about it. I don’t think I would have returned had it not been for you.”

“You mean my umbrella, I assume?” Mipha teased, leaning over to be able to land a light hit on Zelda’s shoulder.

“Yeah. The umbrella,” Zelda said, returning the laugh. And maybe it was just the dim lighting in the room, but Mipha was almost completely sure that the expression did not quite reach her eyes.

However, as Zelda soon got up from the chair, turning off the television as she announced that she should probably start finding extra sheets for the couch, Mipha did not get a chance to ask her about it, and by the time it was ready for bed, the two of them standing in the tiny bathroom, only a couple centimetres left between them as they both stood there, brushing their teeth in front of the mirror, she had managed to forget about it, the only hint of there having been something she had meant to ask about being a slight twinge in her stomach as she lay on the couch, pulling the blanket up over her. Not that it mattered all that much, because she was fine. They were still friends, and that was fine. To wish for anything else would be selfish, so Mipha didn’t.

+++

She woke up, confused for a moment by the sun coming in through the window, illuminating a room she could not remember, and with her lying on a couch that was definitely not her own. But then it came back to her, and as she waited for her eyes to grow used to the light and for her body to stop begging her to go back to sleep, Mipha lay still, simply staring into the back of the couch. It was strange really. Had it not been for how cold her feet were, sticking out from under the blanket that was a little too short, she would probably merely have concluded that it was a dream, that she had said goodbye to Revali, wished him good luck on his date, and then gone to bed herself, so that she could wake up any moment to find herself lying in her own room. But the coldness, the little fault in an otherwise perfect morning, was what told her that it was real.

The pleasant smell, accompanied by the sound of something sizzling was what eventually made Mipha roll back over, trying to decide whether or not she should stay where she was or if she should risk it and begin moving through the flat, just hoping that she would not disturb Zelda. In the end, the latter option ended up winning, and she pushed the blanket off her, taking a moment to fold it up into a small square before placing it in the corner of the couch.

The floorboards creaked slightly beneath her as she swung her legs over the edge of the couch and lowered herself onto the floor. Hoping that the person living in the flat below would not be able to hear the sound, she made her way out of the living room, following the smell of something warm and sweet that almost seemed like it was there with no other purpose than to lead her to the kitchen.

She found Zelda standing in front of what looked like some sort of science experiment, poking at something in a pan with a spatula. Her brows were drawn together as she hummed to herself, clearly trying to figure out what she should do, before making a decision and moving the pan off the hotplate.

Mipha coughed, hoping that the sound would catch her attention. It did.

In a fraction of a second, Zelda had turned around, standing up a little straighter, spatula still hanging by her side as she spotted Mipha.

“Oh, I hadn’t heard you waking up.” using the spatula, she gestured towards the contents of the pan behind her with a flick of her wrist. “I was hoping that I would be able to have breakfast finished by the time you woke up, but” she lowered her shoulders, “I am still not quite finished with it.”

“I could go back to sleep,” Mipha offered, suddenly finding herself wishing that she had just stayed on the couch.

But Zelda shook her head. “No, I am happy to see you, just a little bit disappointed that this ended up taking longer time than what I had expected. Besides, I don’t think this would have ended up being the nice surprise I had imagined either way, so maybe it was for the better that you woke up so that you could get a chance to see just how much you are going to wish we had saved a bit of the pizza for today.”

Walking through the kitchen to get a chance to look at just what Zelda was referring to, Mipha laughed. “I am sure it can’t be that bad.”

“Well, then you are going to be in for a nasty surprise,” Zelda remarked, her voice completely flat, “because even I have to admit that my failed experiments often end being so bad that I have to start over. And, judging from the way this looks, I would say that this is one of those times where I failed.”

“I am sure it can’t be that bad,” Mipha said, and as she did not get a reply, she leant in over the pan to get a closer look at the contents.

Immediately, she could tell that she should have listened to Zelda. It really did not look that appetising, not with the way she could spot several patches on what looked like it had been meant to become a pancake only to be turned into something else about halfway through that were completely burnt. Still the smell that reached her was actually making part of her want to taste it, had it not been for how bad the result looked. Maybe if she closed her eyes, she could lie to herself and make herself believe that it was really not that bad. Another glance at the surface of the pancake told her, that no, she did not have the abilities to lie that well, as the contents of the pan looked absolutely disgusting. Only the fact that Zelda was standing right next to her, Mipha feeling how she was looking at her, waiting for a response, kept her from stepping back and away from what would become breakfast and instead try her best to fake a smile.

“Well, it certainly looks…” what words could she use to describe it? Mipha ended up deciding that staying somewhat close to the truth was probably her best chance of making Zelda believe the lie, “interesting.”

It did not work, but at least Zelda did not look too disappointed, as she gave it another poke with her spatula. “It was supposed to end being pancakes,” she told her, “but I don’t think it was a good idea to try to substitute the sugar and use chocolate instead, or at least I am assuming that was where things took a turn for the worse.” she went silent, and for a moment, they both just stayed there, looking at the failed experiment.

Then Mipha ended the silence, tearing her gaze away from the, admittedly quite captivating display in front of her, to instead look at Zelda. “Did you seriously just… not use any sugar for this?”

“Yeah, I just kind of assumed that since they were both sweet, it would not make that big of a difference.” Zelda waved with her spatula, the gesture not directed at anything in particular. “And, I mean, I like chocolate, so I assumed that it would only end up making the end result better than what it would have been otherwise.”

“I don’t think that is how it works.”

“No,” Zelda said with a shrug, “I am realising that now as well. I am just a little bit sad that you had to be here to witness this failure.”

And maybe that was it, the resigned tone in her voice, the way Zelda seemed to make herself appear smaller every second, pulling her shoulders forwards, but the next moment, almost before she herself had realised what she was doing, Mipha had grabbed the spatula, her sudden action taking Zelda by surprise, as she let go of it in an instant. To be honest, Mipha herself was also quite surprised by what she was doing, and maybe that was for the better. As much as she wanted to see Zelda happy, the pancake that could barely even be called a pancake really did not look like something she wanted to eat, but before she had had time to make herself see the faults in her plan, she had flipped the pancake over onto the plate waiting next to the burner.

“This is most definitely not a failure,” she declared, despite the way the pancake felt as it hit the plate told her otherwise, “and I for one love chocolate, so there’s no way you can keep me from tasting this!”

“You really don’t have to do this,” Zelda said, but even as she tried to make her see sense and tell her that there was no reason to risk her health by eating the pancake, Mipha could hear how her heart was not in it, so she picked up the plate and shook her head at Zelda’s attempts to convince her to throw it away.

“No, you can’t stop me,” she insisted as she started to dig through the drawers around her, before coming to the realisation that it was as difficult to find anything here as it was when Revali had just rearranged the kitchen for the tenth time that month, “but you know what you can do? You can help me find the utensils.”

Zelda’s gaze flickered between her and the pancake, and Mipha could tell the exact moment she decided to give in from the way she failed to hide the beginning of a smile behind her hand as she reached out to open a drawer close to the sink. “Here.”

As Mipha went to sit down at the table, trying her best not to imagine what the texture would be like, and most definitely not worrying about the taste, she could hear Zelda digging through the cabinets, the sound of porcelain clattering telling her that she had given up on continuing her adventure of trying to come up with a better recipe for pancakes. Her suspicions were proved correct when Zelda moments later placed a bowl across from her, milk and rolled oats following right behind.

“You might not have grown familiar enough with my poor attempts of experimenting in the kitchen to know that you have just made the biggest mistake of your life,” Zelda warned her as she pulled the chair in under her, “but I have learnt from my mistakes, so I think I will let you have that,” the way Zelda pointed at her plate with the end of her spoon made it look like it was some kind of dangerous weapon, “all to yourself. If you change your mind, don’t hesitate to say so, there’s plenty of rolled oats for both of us. I won’t be offended by you admitting the truth and telling me that whatever it is I managed to create tastes absolutely horrible.”

“I am sure it is not that bad. No matter what, the smell of it is absolutely amazing, so at the very least, you managed to do that correctly.”

Zelda just shot the pancake an unimpressed look. “Trust me; if you knew my track record, you would not be so optimistic about this.”

“Well, then I consider myself lucky I don’t, because this is going to be great,” Mipha said.

Just to prove that she was not afraid of a little patch where something had quite obviously gone wrong in the process, Mipha cut off a bite, making sure that she got a good part of the burnt area. Zelda just shook her head at her, but even then, Mipha could still see from the intrigued look in her eyes and the tug at her lips that, despite her many warnings, she was happy that Mipha had not simply agreed with her that they should throw it away.

But, Mipha realised moments later as the bite hit her tongue, they should most definitely have done that. Not only was the pancake incredibly dry, it also crumbled the moment she tried to bite into it. And the taste… technically, Mipha supposed that it could have been worse. She could tell that Zelda had mixed chocolate into the batter, so at least that was there to somewhat distract her from the absolutely horrendous aftertaste, but even that was not enough to make her ignore the way it all came together to form something that tasted like Zelda had left it on the hotplate for ages.

“So?” Zelda prompted, making Mipha acutely aware of how Zelda was waiting for her verdict, having leant in over the table, leaving her own breakfast somewhat forgotten in front of her as she instead focused on her. “What do you say? Is it as bad as I had expected or is it even worse? Be honest.”

“Uh,” forcing herself not to answer the question by running to the rubbish bin to spit out the bite, Mipha quickly swallowed the piece of pancake, doing her best to hide the grimace that followed, “it’s not that bad. I would perhaps even say that it was actually just a little bit good.”

“Liar.”

“Yeah, okay,” Mipha admitted, “it was bad. I am not going to lie, it was really bad.” seeing the way Zelda looked down at the table in front of her, a look in her eyes like she accepted her opinion just like that, Mipha hurried to continue. “But, for what it is worth, I could actually taste the chocolate you added to the batter, and that was without a doubt the best part about this. I just think that it was a really bad idea to completely get rid of the sugar. Besides, it could have been a lot worse. Do you want me to tell you the tale of just how badly Link messed up during his first week of working at the café?”

Link was not going to mind her telling Zelda the story, not when it was meant to cheer her up. Or at least that was what Mipha hoped. If he did, well, then she would just have to deal with Revali ranting to her about it later. All that mattered right then was that it made Zelda meet her gaze, head tilted to the side, a questioning look in her eyes.

“Was it worse than this?”

“Yeah, I am pretty sure it was,” Mipha said, a hesitating tone in her voice, “or at least he had managed to wildly overestimate his own abilities.”

“You have my attention.”

“It was during one of his first shifts at the café,” Mipha began, lowering her voice as she recalled the incident, “and he had just managed to convince Urbosa that we had to expand the menu and add more options for what the customers could choose from to it. But it was apparent that Link was mostly referring to the muffins, so after he had brought up the idea a couple of times, Urbosa told him that if he could come up with concrete suggestions for additions to the menu, she would consider it. And apparently Link took that as an invitation to bake as many muffins as he could come up with and then bring them in the next time he went to work, because a couple of days later, I was just about to finish up my shift when I noticed a horrible smell coming from the back of the shop. So, you know, worried that there was something out there that I needed to take care of, I went to see what had happened, and there Link was, holding a tray of muffins, a proud look on his face.”

“How bad was it?” Zelda asked, a muffled laugh hidden behind the sleeve of her blouse.

“Bad,” Mipha stated, “really bad. It was so disgusting that I could barely look at it, I just had to get out of there as soon as possible, so I think I said something about how I was happy to see that he had decided to institute improvements to the menu, and then I was out of the door. In hindsight, I should probably have said something, but I just did not want to stick around and have to look at those muffins for any longer, so I just did the cowardly thing and fled.”

“And then what?”

“Well, he went to show the results of his experiments to Urbosa. I think she managed to say something diplomatic about how it was nice to see that he had plans and that he wanted to change things for the better, but that, ultimately, she had looked into it, and the café was simply not able to expand its menu right now. So, in that way, I almost think Link would have managed to go home, still believing that we had liked the muffins had it not been for Revali.”

“Let me guess,” Zelda laughed, “he said something about how the muffins were the worst things he had ever seen and then threatened to throw a cup of coffee at him if he did not get them away from him at once.”

“Close, but not quite. He just started laughing at him before going over to poke the muffins and declare that, at the very least, Link could have gone to him for advice, since he was actually the best baker at the café. Or, well, that is how Link told me the story, knowing Revali, he did probably say a lot more than just that, but that is what I know for certain.”

“Is Revali really the best baker?”

Mipha shrugged. “Maybe. We never really put it to the test, but if I am being honest, I have to admit that I doubt it. But Revali likes bringing up the story from time to time when he feels like reminding Link of how that was a total failure, and I don’t think Link minds it, so neither of us have ever challenged his position as the best baker. And since Link is undoubtedly the best at cooking, I guess we just kind of decided that Revali deserved to title of being the best baker. So,” Mipha placed the fork back onto the plate, “if it is any consolation, this is not the worst thing I have ever been faced with.”

“But you would still like for me to grab you a bowl and a spoon so that you can join me in rejecting that and eating rolled oats instead, right?”

“Oh, definitely.”

Chapter Text

She had barely had time to put on her apron before Revali had spotted her, and if Mipha had thought that he would have a couple of questions about her going to the cinema with Zelda before it had turned into a sleepover as well, it was nothing compared to how long it took him to even get to his first question, as he began by telling her how his own date had been a success.

“So then we decided to go to this tiny coffee shop,” Revali said, retelling how he and Link had been caught off guard by the rain as well, “to wait for it to pass, only, it didn’t, so a little hour later, we had to admit to ourselves that there was no way it was going to stop raining just yet.” he pointed at his hair, “I should have listened to you, because even the short amount of time I spent outside in the rain while we ran back to our flat managed to completely ruin it.”

“Well, what can I say?” Mipha laughed. “You should really start listening to me when I tell you something.”

“Yeah, right. But I hear that you also had not been able to predict the rain. Though, perhaps you had, but simply decided not to inform anyone. I got your text, by the way. She asked you to come back home, that sounds very—” he was interrupted by Mipha punching him in the shoulder, Revali barely avoiding it by dancing backwards, out of her reach.

“It was because it was raining and we were closer to her place than mine.”

“Sure, sure.” Revali held up his hands in surrender. “I hadn’t said that it wasn’t.”

Resisting the urge to stick out her tongue at him, Mipha tied the bow behind her back and left Revali behind as she went back outside to stand behind the counter.

She had not expected for Zelda to walk up to her just a couple of minutes later, but that was nevertheless what happened.

From the way Zelda looked, not a single strand of her hair out of place—or at least that was how it looked to her, as Zelda’s lips curled up into a brilliant smile—Mipha would not have guessed that only a little over twelve hours ago, they had both been absolutely soaked by the rain, to the point that Mipha had to stay over since she would not be able to go outside without being drenched.

Sitting down on the stool directly across from Mipha, Zelda placed something onto the table.

“A chocolate bar,” she explain when Mipha shot her a questioning look before turning to inspect the object, “consider it my way of apologising for ruining a perfectly good chocolate bar by mixing it up with the rest of the batter.”

“Oh,” Mipha said, suddenly grateful that it was a quiet day, and that the café was not as crowded as it would become later so that there were not a lot of people standing around to hear how she had to fight to keep her voice under control. She cleared her throat and added, “thank you, but you really didn’t have to—”

She did not get to finish the sentence before Zelda interrupted her. “Trust me, after you actually managed to get through an entire bite of that pancake, this was the least I could do. I hope that the taste wasn’t too bad.” she reached out to place her hand on top of Mipha’s.

Did Zelda know? As she looked back up at her, trying her best to ignore the urge to withdraw her hand, Mipha could not imagine Zelda not having noticed the way she struggled to form coherent sentences when she was around or how she always tried her best to impress her. She wasn’t sure if her answer to her question being that, if that was the case, Zelda would have said something by now, she was not the type to enjoy seeing Mipha struggle to act like she was not overly aware of just where she was in relation to Zelda at all times, had more to do with her honest opinion or if she was just hoping at that point. But no matter that, Mipha still let out a laugh as she reached out to grab the bar.

“Thank you,” she said, before waving the bar through the air, “I can’t eat it right now, not while I am still working, but I just want you to know that I think it looks absolutely delicious, I can’t wait to—”

Zelda cut in. “I know that you won’t just throw it in the trash the minute I leave this place, you don’t have to worry about me thinking that. Besides, I gave it to you, so even if you were planning to throw it in the trash the moment I turn my back to you, well, then you are entitled to do that as well. I mean,” she chuckled, “after seeing my poor attempts at baking this morning, I would not blame you if you don’t ever want to eat anything I bring to you.”

Mipha slipped the chocolate bar into the pocket on the front of her apron. “You are being too hard on yourself. The pancake at least smelt great. In fact, if you ignored the look of it, it was not that bad at all.”

“Yeah, that and then the taste, and then we are almost at a point where you would be able to eat a bite of it without it sending you running for the bathroom because it simply is not able to stay down.” thankfully, Zelda did not look as sad about the results of her experiments as she had done just that morning, something Mipha could appreciate. She honestly had no idea if she was good enough at lying to tell Zelda that the pancake really had been good without Zelda spotting the lie and had to hide a relieved sigh when Zelda did not give her the chance to find out, already continuing. “But you are right about the smell, though it actually created quite a few problems for me today.”

Mipha raised an eyebrow. “Sounds interesting. May I demand an explanation?”

“You may indeed, although I doubt it is as interesting as what you look like you are expecting since it was just a matter of me trying to sit down to write only to constantly become distracted by the smell. But, hey, it was what made me go here—to get a muffin.”

“Really?” Mipha asked, feigning pain in her voice. “I thought it was because you couldn’t wait to see me, but now I realise that maybe it was only me who thought that we were friends.”

“Would real friends be so good at distracting you from your work?” Zelda asked before shaking her head. “No, but to be serious for a moment, I did actually manage to get a few scenes somewhat done, so I decided that, once I finished the chapter I was working on, I could reward myself by going here.” she winked at Mipha. “To get a muffin. And I guess that if you really wanted to think so, I did also come here to talk to you.”

“Just be glad that I am not Revali, with the way you are talking right now, I would be surprised if he hadn’t already begun threatening you with a cup of coffee,” Mipha joked.

Placing her hands on the counter to let her pull herself in towards her, Zelda looked to the side, pretending to be searching for Revali. “He is not here, is he?”

“He is, but out in the back of the shop. You are safe, for now at least, but I still would not let Revali hear you insult me like that.”

Zelda smiled. “I will keep that in mind. But to be honest, I did mostly go here to see you. I mean, the muffins are great, don’t get me wrong, but they are not good enough to make me stay focused for several hours at a time.”

“But I am?”

The nod Zelda sent her made Mipha feel like her entire body had just been filled with sparkling water from the way happiness swept through her like a wave. But it only lasted a moment before reality hit her. It was just how Zelda was, constantly complimenting the people around her, and from what Mipha had seen so far, with how sweet Zelda had been from the very start, it was only Mipha who had a habit of spending too much time contemplating the meaning of every single word she said.

In an attempt to hide how she was sure she was blushing, Mipha reached up to run a hand through her hair, her hand strategically covering up most of her face for a few seconds which was really all she could give herself without it becoming too obvious. “Well, maybe I should try to use that tactic and tell myself that I can’t see you until I have actually gotten work done because I have this assignment that I have been supposed to get done for weeks but,” she shot Zelda a tired smile, “what can I say, I haven’t actually finished it yet.”

“Oh, I am sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, you don’t have to feel like you have to help me, it was my fault that I did not get started in time and that I then kept procrastinating, and that I delayed it again yesterday because going to the cinema with you was a lot more tempting than the idea of sitting down to do my homework.”

But even that did not stop Zelda from grabbing her hand, and Mipha was so sure she could feel her heart skip a beat that she almost missed the first half of the sentence.

“If it makes you feel better about accepting my help, I can tell you that I also have selfish reasons for helping you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Mipha lifted her left brow, and, try as she might, she had a hard time imagining what exactly Zelda might be referring to. From what she had seen so far—with Zelda giving her her jacket, going to the cinema with her and letting her come with her home—Mipha did not have any idea of what supposedly selfish reasons Zelda might have for helping her not to fail her classes. “And what might they be?”

“Well, if you actually decide to follow my example—which, by the way, is a horrible idea, it’s so difficult to actually keep myself from running down here the moment your shifts starts, so I would not recommend it—then it would mean that the only times we would be able to see each other would be when we both had actually completed all of our tasks, and while I truly believe that you are good at managing your time,” at that, Mipha snorted loudly, the sound making Zelda give a little smile, “I know that I am not. So I am not going to let that happen. Tell me what I can do tell help, and then I will do my best to avoid that scenario.”

Mipha looked at her, trying to figure out if she was joking or if she really wanted to also have to deal with Mipha whining about her homework. She had to be kidding, right? Mipha loved Revali, she did, but, Hylia, back before he and Link had finally taken the plunge and admitted that they were both love-struck fools who loved to torment themselves by spending time around each other while keeping up the pretence about it all being strictly platonic, him constantly pulling her aside to share his analysis of everything Link had said to him had been among the most frustrating things in her life for months on end.

But as she looked as Zelda, she saw no hint of her being seconds away from doubling up with laughter and tell her that she could not believe Mipha had actually believed it.

“Are you sure?” Mipha asked, just to be absolutely certain that she meant it. “It is not exactly the most fascinating thing in the world, and this is coming from someone who willingly decided to study this subject.”

“Yes, of course I am sure. If I wasn’t, then I would not have offered to help you.”

“Okay, well, then I suppose that my biggest problem is that I am really bad at staying focused.” she could see how Zelda chewed on her bottom lip and how her brain was working to come up with an answer.

Finally, Zelda narrowed her eyes and leant in closer. “And where do you go to study right now?”

“Uh,” Mipha stuttered, Zelda’s sudden movement having taken her by surprise, “I mostly sit at home, I guess. That, or I go to the library. But I just find that there is too much noise both of those places, and that makes me constantly want to listen in on the conversations around me.” she sighed. “I know that is bad, I really do, but I just can’t help myself sometimes.”

“No, no, I totally get that,” Zelda said, holding up her hand, “I was actually just thinking that I might have found the answer to the question of what you can do to be able to focus a little better.” the look Mipha sent her must have prompted her to continue immediately rather than wait for her to ask. “There is this little corner at the library. I am not sure if you are technically allowed to be there, but I have used it to get a quiet place to write when my neighbours threw parties for the entirety of last year, so I doubt that anyone would mind. If you want, I could show you where it is.” the question was left in the air between them, as Zelda went silent.

It took her a few tries to be able to get out anything that was not just unintelligible mumbling, but when she did, Mipha was sure that Zelda could almost hear the relief in her voices. “Yes, thank you so much, I would love that.”

“No need to thank me. As I said, I have my own reasons for wanting you not to implement the same tactic as I use.” Zelda assured her, waving her hand. “But shall we agree to meet up as soon as your shift ends and go to the library together?”

“I would love that.”

“So will I, so that is a deal then.”

Zelda’s eyes were beautiful. Mipha was not sure why she had never noticed it before, but with how close she was to Zelda’s face, she found herself absolutely mesmerised. How where there no one else around them that had commented on that yet? Mipha knew, and could not possibly have avoided knowing seeing as the those incidents that went too far were usually accompanied by Link’s rare, but still frightening, show of silent fury, that instances of someone taking the time to comment on the beauty of another customer were not exactly rare. But from what she knew, no one had ever thought to inform Zelda that she was the best part of their day, and that they loved when she would look at them with her special kind of smile that made the wrinkles around her eyes appear to compliment the way her eyes would sparkle with joy.

“Mipha?” the sound of her name made Mipha blink, and feel how her cheeks grew warmer as she realised that Zelda must have said her name a couple of times by now.

“Yes?”

“Are you all right? You kind of got really distant there.”

“Yeah!” Mipha exclaimed before she even thought to get her voice under control. Hoping that Zelda did not think too much about how strange she was acting, Mipha tried again, this time with a more controlled tone. “Yeah, I am fine. I just—I just remembered that I haven’t actually gotten started on your order yet.”

It might perhaps not be the best idea to try to cover up her mistake of staring into Zelda’s eyes for too long by turning around and loudly beginning to prepare the plate, but that was nevertheless what she did.

And if Zelda really had begun to suspect the truth for her behaviour, at least she did not use the chance to comment on it or demand an explanation when Mipha handed her the plate without a word. But even that did not help make the feeling of nervousness that had crept up from her stomach, out into her entire body until she had to focus on simply keeping her hands from shaking disappear.

+++

Despite Zelda’s many speeches about how she was not sure if they were allowed to be there and that there was a risk that one of the librarians might come to ask them to leave, Mipha found that Zelda’s fabled secret spot really did do wonders for her attention span. There was simply something about sitting in the little corner, her computer propped up on her knees while she typed away like her life depended on it—which, given the fact that the date for her exams had begun to lose the sense of it being so far away that it would never happen, it probably did—that made her able to get more work done in that last week leading up to the exam than she had done during the entire month before. She should remind herself to send Zelda flowers if she passed her exams.

Actually, Mipha thought as the thought made the flutter of butterflies return to her stomach, maybe it would be a better idea to just tell her that she was grateful for how she had taken time to tell her how to deal with her assignments. It certainly seemed like a plan that came with a smaller risk of her accidentally telling Zelda too much.

But despite how much time she had spent preparing for the exam, how she had even called Urbosa to ask her if she could change up her shifts during the week to give her a little extra time, her hands still shook when she sat down in the plastic chair outside the room where she already knew that rows upon rows of chairs would have been lined up several days ago, waiting for them all to go in and answer the test, picking up their pencils to decide what answer was the right one and how they should explain the answer to the questions. It was no big deal. Only a mock exam. They had had countless of those tests already during the last three semesters, she knew what to do and she knew how to handle it.

Her phone called for her attention as a low ding notified her of the fact that she had just gotten a new message. While doing her best to resist looking at the clock to see how much time she had left before she would have to enter the room, Mipha looked down.

It was from Zelda. Nothing much, definitely not something that Zelda could have spent more than a couple of minutes on, a short ‘good luck’ followed by a smiley with a smile so wide that Mipha would almost be worried that its face would not be able to stay intact with the way the grimace had to twist it. And still, it was that tiny little text that did it, made her slump over in her seat, her arm almost automatically coming up to support her head, elbow pushed against her knee. She tapped her way into her contacts with shaking hands and pressed the button.

The phone did not even manage to ring twice before Zelda had answered it.

“Yes?” Zelda’s voice echoed in her ears, and for a moment, Mipha could not do anything other than try to get her breathing under control, pressing a hand to her mouth to stop herself from crying. Meanwhile, Zelda continued. “Mipha? Are you there?”

Seeing as she had already called her and had most likely made her worry for her, there was nothing Mipha could do but hope for the best as she removed the hand from her mouth and pressed the phone closer to her ear, hoping that it would be enough to ensure that no one sitting around her would be able to listen to what she and Zelda were saying. Granted, they were most likely all as worried as she was, so the risk of them wanting to listen in on her conversation was as close to non-existent as it could get, but Mipha still did not dare to do much more than whisper. “I am here.”

She could hear how Zelda sighed. “Oh, good, I was beginning to get a little worried there. Are you finished with the exam?”

“No,” Mipha whispered, “I am not, and that is the thing I wanted to call you about. I—I don’t think I can do it.” around her, Mipha could see how her fellow students were slowly beginning to put away their notes, throwing their backpacks over their shoulders as they went to stand closer to the door, ready to go in and claim their table the moment it opened. “I just know that it is not going to be a good exam; I know nothing about the subject.”

“That’s just the nerves, though. I promise you that the moment you are in there, sitting in front of the paper in a silent room, it is all going to come back to you. Just try to relax. If I were you, I would not even bother to look at my notes right now if you think that that is only going to make you even more nervous. Just sit still and try to calm down as much as you can—that is the best thing you can do, both for yourself as well as the result of that test.”

Hearing Zelda so calmly inform her about what to do helped. Not a lot, but a tiny bit of the feeling of dread in her stomach did disappear for a moment as Mipha allowed herself to do exactly what Zelda told her to do, pushing her notebook deeper into her backpack rather than forcing herself to open it to go over the subject one last time. If nothing else, it did feel nice to simply let go and let someone else decide what to do, to let go of the illusion of control.

“Okay, I am going to try doing that.”

“Will you call me once you are finished with the exam?”

“Of course.”

Mipha could almost hear how Zelda stood up from her chair, padding through her flat as she shared her last piece of advice with her. “You know, Mipha, try not to worry too much about this.” she must have known that Mipha was only a little under a second away from trying to explain to her how it really was not that simple for her, as Zelda did not give her even a moment to get a word in before she had continued, her voice a little clearer now, which Mipha took as a sign that the faint sound of something rustling had been the sound of Zelda readjusting the phone. “You know, no matter what happens, it is not like this is the exam that will decide whether or not you will be able to graduate. I get that it is important and all that, but even if you fail, it will just mean that you will have to work a little bit harder for a while to catch up.”

Running a hand through her hair, Mipha bit back a little frustrated sigh. “I know. I know that I am worrying for no reason, but it just does not help all that much. I mean, I want to be able to help people, and I figured that the best way to get as many opportunities as possible to do that would be by getting the highest average mark that I can, so this is kind of important to me. But, yes, I will try to do as you told me to.” in the corner of her field of vision, she saw how the door was pushed open and as the other students rushed past her, Mipha hurried to finish the call. “Zelda, I have to go now, but I will call you the moment I get back.”

“Good luck,” Zelda told her before ending the call, leaving Mipha staring at the beeping phone in her hand for a fraction of a second, before her heart started beating so fast it felt like she had just been out running for the entire day again.

Switching off the phone and shoving it into the bottom of her backpack, she entered the room, hoping that Zelda had been right about how it would all be fine.

Chapter Text

Over the next week, Mipha almost managed to forget about the text, the keyword being ‘almost’. For though she was able to call Zelda once she left the room again, to tell her in a shaking voice that she could honestly not remember what had been on the exam and that she had spent the first half of the two hours they had had to finish the test in a state of blind panic before she was ready to try to focus again, and had let Zelda convince her that she had probably done fine before accepting Zelda’s invitation to go out to get lunch, it had been there in the back of her head the entire time. It felt like she was reminded of how there was yet another question she could have answered better—should have answered better, given how all the correct answers seemed to be coming back to her now that she had left the room again—every other second.

But that did not keep her from feeling as surprised as she would have been if she had managed to forget about it completely when she saw that the tests had been graded and sent back out to them the following Friday. Some part of her had known that it would be the day she would get to know how she had done, but even that did not keep her hands from shaking so badly, she had to try several times just to get her cursor to move over to the button to see the results.

She held her breath as she clicked, the result popping up on her screen.

And… she had failed. It did not feel like it could be right, but that was nonetheless what the number on her computer screen told her.

A chocked noise made its way up through her throat as she simply stared at the screen. It couldn’t be right. She knew what she was doing, she had not failed anything before, this was one of her favourite subjects, so how had she managed to fail despite all of that? Mipha knew what the answer was, that she had simply not been as focused during the last couple of months as she had been before, that the last couple of weeks leading up to the mock examination had been completely overshadowed by Zelda and the kiss at the bar that had then in turn ended up distracting her through it all, but still. She would have expected herself to, at the very least, pass with a low score. But to fail? That was something new.

She should call Sidon. Mipha knew that it would be the smartest thing to do, both to let her family know that she had gotten the results and to spend just a couple of minutes listening to Sidon’s attempts of cheering her up, or to let herself cry about it to her dad, before he would inevitably end up reminding her that this was only one test, that she had done well in so many others that, in the grand scheme of things, this did not matter at all, but she simply couldn’t get herself to move, sitting still in the same spot on the couch as she had flopped down onto just a few minutes before.

The results were not the end of the world, and rationally, Mipha knew that, but it did not keep her from feeling like the world should have stopped spinning in that moment just to let her wallow in self-pity for just a little while longer. She was supposed to help people, after all, and Mipha knew that in just a couple of minutes, she would have gained enough strength to pull herself together and get moving, perhaps to go find Revali to ask him about his latest date with Link, but right now, she just needed to sit still and let her brain come up with different ideas about what the consequences of this might be, the scenarios only making her feel even more miserable as she came up with more and more increasingly creative ideas for what the result of it all could end up meaning for her goals of helping the world.

The fact that she did not have the strength to stand up to go see who had entered the flat as the sound of a key unlocking the door reached her ears should perhaps have given her solid indication that what she was doing was not exactly good for her, but she simply continued sitting there as Revali entered the flat, locking the door behind him before he called her name. Mipha did not answer, instead staying in her spot as she saw Revali lean in to check if she was in the kitchen. Finally, he made his way into the living room, casting one glance at her before he walked through the room, a decisive bounce in his step.

The couch dipped as he flopped down next to her, but Mipha still kept her gaze fixed on her computer.

“Hey, are you all right?” Revali’s voice was soft in a way she was not used to hear as he leant in to catch a glimpse of what she was looking at. Mipha could tell the moment he figured out exactly why she was sitting there, in the couch in their living room, ignoring the world around her completely, from the way his shoulders tensed as he looked back up at her. It was almost funny how obvious it was what he would say, to the point where she could almost tell what the next word out of his mouth would be before he had even opened his mouth. “Oh. I take it that this is what you are sad about, isn’t it?”

Sad. Mipha supposed that it was a fitting word, even if it did not come close to encompass the sense of doubt that had filled her upon seeing the result.

When she still did not respond, Revali slowly reached out to put an arm around her, so slow it felt almost like he was afraid that it would make her start to cry. “Hey, I am sure that you just had a bad day. Please don’t think too much about this test.” his face lit up, his voice rising a bit as he got an idea about what to say to make her feel better. “You know what is a much better test of your abilities than sitting still in a room and answering a bunch of questions? How you are able to handle a real emergency. Do you want me to remind you of that one time where Link was supposed to cut up a loaf of bread, but the knife slipped?” she still stayed quiet, but Revali seemed to interpret the total lack of a response as an invitation to continue with the story even if she did not necessarily pay attention to him as he did so. “Should I remind you how amazing you were? Just being totally calm while I started panicking about how we had to call an ambulance and Link just stared at the deep cut he had managed to inflict on himself as he had tried to catch the knife when it landed on his arm? Just rattling off information about how to treat the wound as you ordered us all around, instructing Urbosa about what to tell the hospital as you tried to stop the blood?” he nudged her in the side. “Because that was awesome, so even if this exam did not end that well for you, I am not going to let you think that this means that you aren’t good at what you are doing. Besides, wasn’t this only a mock examination? It doesn’t actually mean anything for your chances of being able to graduate, does it?”

It didn’t. Revali was right, but even then, it did not help. Yes, Mipha knew that, if she was being honest with herself, she was good at what she was doing, good at applying the theory to her own life, good at remembering and memorising terms and definitions. Most of all, she knew that the worst thing she could do right now was to panic. But it seemed that, despite how much she knew about the theory, when she had to use it to help herself, it was of no use to her.

She moved so quickly that the computer almost fell to the floor before she managed to catch it and place it on the spot on the couch where she had just been seated. Standing up, the room spun around her. She should probably go to lie down to make it stop. Yes, that sounded like a good idea. Not only would it give her a chance to escape from it all for a short time, but it would also make it so that she would not have the chance to make any rash decisions.

“I think I am just going to go to bed now,” she announced. Mipha did not even give Revali the chance to protest. She knew what he would say, that it was barely half past seven, but she just did not care about it.

Leaving Revali and his attempts to make her come back and listen to reason behind, Mipha left the living room to instead head into her own bedroom and closing the door behind her.

Her bed was amazingly soft as she threw herself onto it, pulling the blanket up to touch her chin, but Mipha suspected that, with how tired she was feeling, it would not have mattered if it had been made of stone. She would still have fallen asleep only a couple of minutes later.

+++

By the time she woke up, it had grown dark outside, leaving the lamp on her bedside table she had forgotten to turn off before going to bed as the only light source in the room. A quick look at her phone told her it was barely five minutes past midnight, that she would still have to wait for several hours before she would be able to tell herself to get it together for work. But even though she knew she should just turn over and try to go back to sleep again, she was wide awake by the time she had had time to calculate exactly how many hours there were still left until she would have to get up.

The numb feeling had passed and Mipha did not like what it left her with, the realisation that she was the only one who was to blame for how she was currently feeling. After all, who had been the one to prioritise Zelda over her assignments and homework? Mipha. Who had been unable to focus, but still had not asked for advice before the last possible moment? Mipha. It all came back to her in the end.

Before Mipha had even realised what she was doing or how it was still night, she had called Zelda. As the sound of the gentle beep of the sound filled her room, she felt the anxiety curl up in her stomach. She should end the call and hope that she had not already managed to wake up Zelda. She knew that was what she was supposed to do. But her hand felt incredibly heavy, and by the time her thumb was hovering above the button, the sound of someone shifting to press the phone to their ear reached her.

“Hello?” Zelda’s sleepy voice, barely audible even in the silence of Mipha’s room told her that, yes, she had really just managed to wake her up.

But, figuring that the damage had already been done and that the least she could do now was to explain to her why she was calling her in the middle of the night, Mipha rolled over to lie on her back as she spoke into the phone, keeping her voice down and hoping that it would be enough to keep her from waking up Revali as well. “It’s me. Mipha.”

“Mipha? What are you doing, are you okay?”

“Yes. I am sorry about calling you, but—” her voice cracked, and Mipha had to clear her throat two times before she was able to continue, “no. No, I am not okay at all.”

“Where are you right now?”

Mipha figured that it was a good thing that her brain was still too preoccupied with trying to make sense of how she had managed to fail, for she did not pause to ask why Zelda was asking, simply stating to the empty room that she was at home, currently lying in her bed.

“Okay, I am coming by,” Zelda announced, “there’s something I have to show you. Be ready in five minutes.”

“What?” Mipha asked, finally realising what was going on, that Zelda was about to get out of bed, losing even more sleep than what Mipha had cost her already. “No, just go back to sleep, I am sorry that I called, I was just a bit confused, that’s all. Really, don’t worry about me.”

But her protests went unheard, or at least Zelda cut through them. “No, I can hear that you are not fine. It is cold outside, so make sure to grab a jacket. I will be over to pick you up in just a moment.”

The phone beeped as Zelda hung up, leaving Mipha to look at her phone.

Despite the guilt of how she had seemingly just managed to convince Zelda that she had to come over to cheer her up, Mipha could not deny that the warm feeling blooming in her chest felt a lot like happiness. It was bad, she knew that. She should not be happy that she had just managed to sound sad enough to make her friend drop everything to come over to get her, but that was nevertheless how she felt as she pushed herself off the bed, tiptoeing over to her dresser to pull out a sweater. As she pulled it down, trying to smoothen out the lumps, she heard her phone ding. Another text from Zelda, this time telling her that she was on her way and would be over in just a few minutes.

Mipha barely had time to grab her phone and stumble through the hallway in her search for Zelda’s jacket before the phone started ringing again.

She tried to convince herself that the reason she answered it before it had even gotten the chance to beep twice was that she did not want the sound to disturb Revali, but by the time she had placed it at her ear, Mipha knew that the truth was that she had already been holding her breath for Zelda to call again.

“I am outside. Are you ready?” Zelda’s voice sounded slightly scratchy, but it was still clear enough for Mipha to make out the meaning.

Making a confirmative sound, Mipha tried her best to hide the sound of her muttering a curse word under her breath as she struggled to get her second shoe on. “Yes, but I don’t know where you are.”

Zelda was silent for a moment before she answered. “Go to a window,” she instructed, “I am going to leave my car and wave towards your block of flats.”

Doing as she was told, Mipha finally managed to get the shoe on and made her way into the kitchen, leaning towards the window. Just as Zelda had said, she immediately spotted a car parked in the street below. It was quite dark, but Mipha could still spot the faint silhouette of a person standing directly underneath one of the streetlights, waving up at her.

“Do you see me?” Zelda’s voice asked in her ear.

“Yeah.”

“Good, then come down here.”

She all but ran back into her bedroom, grabbing a piece of paper and hastily scribbling a message onto it, telling Revali where she had gone. Hurrying back towards the kitchen to leave it on the table for Revali to find in the morning and then almost jumping down the stairs, moving so quickly that it was nothing but a miracle that kept her from falling over, Mipha could feel her heart beating wildly against her ribs through it all, the combination of excitement and anxiousness being so dizzying that it did not feel like her body should have been able to handle it. But she made her way out to the front door, and moments later, she was outside in the cold night air. Despite how she pulled the sweater closer around her and tried to pull at the sleeves of the jacket to make them cover her hands, she still found herself shivering in just a few seconds.

“Over here!” the sound of Zelda’s voice made Mipha turn around to look in the direction she had seen her wave at her from when she had looked out of her window.

There Zelda was, still waving at her as she stood in front of a car. Now that she was closer and with the help of the streetlight directly next to Zelda, Mipha could see that it was a dark shade of blue and how Zelda was still in her pyjamas, looking just as cold as Mipha. For a moment, Mipha was about to reach up to pull off her jacket to hand it to her, but before she got the chance to do anything, Zelda had grabbed her hand and led her over to the car.

“I thought that it was probably going to be quite cold, so I took the time to grab a few things.” she said as she opened the door to the passenger seat, letting Mipha climb in, something that was easier said than done given how she had to make her way around the little mountain of blankets that, by the look of it, had been thrown into the seat in a second before Zelda had left to go and pick her up. Her suspicions were only strengthened when Zelda looked over and, upon seeing how Mipha had to move some of the blankets away to be able to sit down, shook her head. “Yeah, it’s a bit much, but I wasn’t sure exactly where your flat was and I didn’t want you to get cold while looking for my car, so—”

“Hey,” Mipha said, cutting into the sentence, “it is fine. If anything, I am happy that you brought these along.” she pulled at one of the blankets, lifting it up around her before clasping both sides of it in her hand, bringing it up to her chin. “If you hadn’t, how would I have been able to do this?”

“I guess you would have had to use your jacket.”

“Probably, but that is not as soft as these blankets.” realising that she was very much still wearing Zelda’s jackets, Mipha wished she had thought before speaking. But she hadn’t, so instead, she hoped that Zelda would not feel insulted as she pointed towards herself. “And—speaking of the jacket—it is actually the one you let me borrow at the bar. I guess I just forgot to give it back, but do you want it now?” Mipha had already reached up towards the zip fastener when Zelda waved her hand at her.

“No, I have yet to actually miss it, and from what little I do remember from that night, you need a jacket more than I do.”

Her stomach turned. Zelda remembered something? Although Mipha supposed that she should have known better than to believe she would be so lucky that Zelda would completely have forgotten about what had happened, the risk of Zelda remembering took her by surprise. Grateful for the fact that the blanket she had pulled up around her helped with hiding the way her hand twitched and the choked noise that escaped her, Mipha forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down as much as she possibly could.

“Oh,” she said in what she hoped was a casual tone, “why? I don’t recall giving you a reason to worry about me that much.”

“You were trembling like a leaf when I found you outside—and you have admitted that yourself, so you can’t argue that that is wrong. And since I don’t really feel cold that much, that means that you are the one of us who needs the jacket the most.” Mipha wanted to argue with that point, even if it sounded perfectly logical, when Zelda described it that way, but Zelda did not even give her the chance to get started on her protest, putting the car into reverse and letting the sound of the motor drown out any objections to her taking Zelda’s jackets as Zelda looked back over at her, a smile forming on her face. “But let’s not argue about that anymore. I have something I want to show you.”

“What is it?” Mipha asked, leaning in as far as the gear lever between them would allow.

Zelda simply chuckled at her. “Telling you would ruin the surprise, wouldn’t it?” although she did not look away from the road in front of them, Mipha still noticed how she winked at her.

Sinking back into her seat and all of the blankets again, Mipha considered whether or not she would ask again. On one hand, she did not doubt that she could make Zelda tell her if she just asked enough times, but on the other hand, that was not what Mipha wanted. If Zelda wanted it to be a surprise, then why should she not be able to wait? Besides, Zelda would also have to get up in the morning, so wherever Zelda wanted to take her for the surprise, it could not be located that far away from where they currently where. With that in mind, Mipha pulled the blankets a little tighter around herself, to combat the chill that was still left in the car despite how Zelda had turned on the air-conditioning system, and watched how her surroundings changed.

There was something eerie about driving at night. Maybe it was simply because Mipha did not have her driving license yet—and didn’t even know anyone her age who had a car—but she was used to there always being cars around her and how she had to pay attention to them. But now, the roads were practically deserted, save for the odd car blasting music at the highest volume possible. Granted, it was most likely because almost everyone would be lying in their beds, fast asleep, but there was still something creepy about how all the lighting around them disappeared as soon as they left the city, until they were driving in near pitch-black darkness. However, it did not seem to faze Zelda, and once she was feeling somewhat safe, it did not take long before Mipha’s head grew heavier and she leant back in her seat, enjoying the warmth of the blankets around her.

She woke up to see Zelda leaning in over her, gently tapping her shoulder while whispering her name, a blanket tucked under her arm, which Mipha assumed she must have somehow been able to dig out from underneath her. Looking around her, Mipha could see that they were holding still, but she did not know where exactly.

“How long…?” she asked, a yawn bringing a premature end to her question.

It did not seem like it was an issue for Zelda, as she moved back, standing up straight as soon as she was sure it would not lead to her hitting her head against the roof of the car. “Not that long. I don’t think you slept for more than five minutes, but since we had arrived at the destination, I hoped that you would not mind me waking you up,” she whispered, extending a hand towards Mipha to help her get out of the car without falling over.

Trying her best to ignore the slight ache in her chest when Zelda let go of her hand, Mipha supressed another yawn. “No, I don’t mind at all. Is this the surprise?” she tried to pinpoint something in particular, but had to give up. She simply could not see a thing.

“Almost. We need to walk the last couple of metres and then we will be there.” in the darkness, Mipha was not entirely sure if she was interpreting Zelda’s expression correctly, but she thought she saw an almost fond smile appear for a brief second as Zelda laughed. “Do you think you can do that?”

If she had to be honest with both herself and Zelda, Mipha would have to admit that the answer to that question was no. No, she was tired, she was exhausted after having spent weeks studying for her exam, and most of all, she was disappointed in herself and about how she had done at said exam. But as she felt Zelda reach out, not quite placing her arms around her waist, but still coming close, Mipha found herself leaning into her and the warmth she emitted, suddenly so full of energy that she would surely have been able to run all the way back to her flat if that was where the surprise really was.

Flashing Zelda a smile, Mipha felt better than she had done in days. “Of course I can do that. The real question here is going to be whether or not you can keep up with me.”

It was a poor idea to tease someone whose hand was just centimetres away from your stomach. Mipha learnt that the next moment when Zelda simply tickled her side, making her double up with laughter.

“If you aren’t careful,” Zelda warned through her own fit of laughter as she helped Mipha regain her balance, “I am going to make this a competition between us. But as it is, I am going to instead tell you that it is a good thing you are feeling that sure, because we have to go this way.”

With Zelda leading the way, Mipha felt a little better about how dumb what they were doing really was, having gone to leave the city in the middle of the night to instead walk around somewhere in the countryside without being able to see their hands even if they had held them up in front of their faces. But Zelda continued onwards, occasionally reaching back to squeeze Mipha’s hand, a silent assurance that she was still right there, and so, Mipha did the same, silencing the feelings of guilt about how she had yet to call her family and let them know about her poor results.

They walked in silence, and perhaps that was why she noticed the moment the sound of the dirt scrunching under her feet was replaced by something softer. They had only walked a couple of metres, her shoes sinking into the surface with each step, before Mipha realised that it was sand. The sound of waves hitting the coast and the faint smell of salt meeting her confirmed her suspicions.

“Are we at the beach?” she asked, looking up at the faint outline of Zelda’s back in front of her.

“Yes.” Zelda did not sound like she was upset that her surprise was not a surprise anymore. Rather, Mipha heard how she turned around, the sand crunching underneath her boots, and the next moment, Zelda had grabbed both of her hands, leading her over a little slope that disturbed the otherwise even surface. “But that was not the only reason I wanted to show you this place. Just come on, it is not that far ahead.”

She was right. Before long, Mipha found herself standing in front of the ocean, the moonlight reflected in the waves casting a faint glow on the beach around her. It was not quite enough for her to be able to see everything, but despite—or perhaps it was because of—that, it still left her with a feeling of being in the middle of a magical place.

Swallowing several times, Mipha still found herself rendered speechless by the sight. She knew that she lived close to the sea; she and Revali had even visited it several times during their summer holidays, but never at night. When she had been there, throwing herself into the waves at the first opportunity she got, Mipha had always had to make space for the tourists, going back to where Revali would have placed their things every other second to reapply her sunblock to protect her from the sun. But now… now they were the only ones there, and Mipha could not tell why she had never thought to go at night before. The silence was glorious. She reached out to take Zelda’s hand, to say something. What it would be exactly, Mipha could not tell, but she knew that she had to say something to thank her for bringing her to the beach not, to let her see all of this. But she did not touch anything but the air, and even though it was dark around her, the moon shining down from above, although nowhere near as bright as direct sunlight, was still enough for her to know that Zelda had moved away from her side.

Speaking in a hushed whisper at first, feeling like she could not make any noise and let it disturb the silence around her, Mipha called her name. “Zelda!” waiting a couple of seconds, Mipha pricked up her ears, waiting for a response. When she did not hear anything, she tried again, a little louder. “Zelda!”

“Shh, I am right here.” the voice came from the opposite side of where she had last seen Zelda, and Mipha spun around.

Zelda stood there, illuminated by the electric torch she held in her hand. She must have noticed the lost look on Mipha’s face, for she reached out to let her take her hand before she nodded back in the direction she had appeared from. “I had just gone to place the blanket on the sand. I guess I should have made sure that you heard me telling you where I was going before I left.”

“No, it’s fine,” Mipha said, the knowledge that Zelda was still there doing a bit to help calm down her frantically beating heart, “I think I was just not really prepared for how little light there would be out here.”

Zelda lifted the electric torch, shaking it slightly. “Well, we have this now. Do you want to go over to sit down for a minute? I haven’t actually shown you the reason I like to come out here yet.”

Mipha nodded and let Zelda lead the way through the sand. The cone of light form the electric torch in Zelda’s hand swayed back and forth in front of them, making the sand look almost white in the harsh lighting.

So this was a thing that Zelda did often. Mipha could not help but wonder exactly how many times Zelda had gone to seek out an adventure like this, driving away from the city in the middle of the night to instead walk along a beach, with only a torch to rely on for a source of light. Now that she had learnt it about Zelda, Mipha almost found it hard to understand why she had never thought of it before. After all, Zelda seemed like this was nothing unusual for her.

“Here.” Zelda made her snap out of her thoughts for a moment as she handed her the torch, patting the blanket as she sat down. “Do you want to sit down for a while? Tell me about what happened at that exam?”

She really didn’t. As Mipha stood there, in front of the ocean that was larger and deeper than she could even imagine, she didn’t want to think about how she had failed and how she had let this exact tone that Zelda was using on her now throw her common sense to the side all of the times she had decided that she would rather spend time with Zelda than sit down and study to make sure she would be able to pursue her dreams for the future. But it seemed that, even though she should know better by now, Mipha was still not able to ignore the pull, so she went to sit down. Leaning backwards, digging her elbows into the ground to support herself, she looked up.

Above her, the sky was decorated with the countless, small, shining stars that were really so far away and so big that it made life around her look so coincidental in comparison. And maybe that, the realisation that she was so small and that the universe was so big, was what made her look over at Zelda, careful not to drop the electric torch and explain.

“I failed my exam.”

When Zelda did not show any reaction, or at least not something Mipha could see without turning the torch towards her and risk the light hitting her eyes directly, she took it as a silent invitation to continue. “And I know that it shouldn’t matter, but…”

“It just does? It does and you know that it shouldn’t so you try your best to pretend that you don’t mind while the fact that you really do makes you feel even worse for caring so much about a few numbers?” there was something almost bitter in the tone of Zelda’s voice.

“A bit. I mean, I don’t think I really feel that guilty about the fact that I care, it is more that I am scared about what it might mean for my future, you know? I know that this does not count, but it was supposed to kind of be my chance to try to get an impression of how it would be once it really matters, and if I failed it now, then how can I expect to be able to pass once it is the real deal?” Mipha sighed. “I guess that I am just scared I won’t be able to help people.”

“And that is what you want?” she heard Zelda rustling next to her, and even in the darkness, Mipha could tell that she had turned around, lying on the side to look over at her. “You are sure that, even if no one had ever introduced you to the idea, you would still be striving towards getting your degree?”

Did she? Ever since she was young, Mipha had loved being able to calm down her friends when they had fallen and scraped their knees, telling them how it would be fine while she gave them colourful plasters to put over the small scrapes. And, granted, university was not the same as that, but when she imagined her future, she could not imagine not being able to continue to do that, so when she looked over at Zelda, Mipha was able to answer the question without any uncertainty in her voice. “Yes. I don’t like the exams, but I would not have it any other way.”

“Well, then you have your answer right there. You love what you do, so once it really counts, I know that you will be able to do what you have to.” Zelda reached out to grab her hand, and, for once, she did not let go, not even after she had turned back over to lie on her back once more. “You know, I usually go here when I am feeling sad. There is just something about being here completely alone and seeing the stars above you that really puts things in perspective, don’t you think? It’s kind of, well, I can’t let one mistake make me lose all hope, because, in the grand scheme of things, it is just a minor inconvenience.”

She fell silent, and as Mipha looked back up at the stars, she could not help but wonder what exactly was going through Zelda’s head at that moment. With the way she had ended the sentence, her voice becoming lighter before disappearing completely, she had to be talking about more than just Mipha and her failed exam.

Mipha got her answer a couple of minutes later.

“See? That star up there?” Zelda said, pointing towards a spot in the sky. Mipha lifted the electric torch, trying to remember which one of the stars Zelda had pointed at as she lowered it back down onto the ground. “That one is without a doubt my favourite. Do you see how it is located just outside that constellation over there?” this time, Mipha did not bother to lift the torch. She could see exactly what Zelda was talking about, the gentle light of Vah Naboris sitting right next to the star Zelda had pointed at. “I liked to think that it felt isolated, like it had been so close to being a part of Naboris only to be rejected so that the brighter stars could be included instead. I guess it kind of made me feel like we were the same, that star and I.” she went silent, but from the sound of the sand moving next to her, Mipha could tell that she was nodding to herself. “I—” Zelda interrupted herself, couching a couple of times, the sound being amplified by the otherwise near total silence around them, “I told my father that the story about me studying theology like he had wanted me to had actually been a lie from the very start. I called him while you were at your exam, because I figured that if you were able to do that, I too could be able to be honest with my family.”

“How did he take it?” but even as she asked, Mipha already had a pretty good idea of just what the answer to her question would be and the hollow sound of Zelda’s laughter only confirmed it.

“Oh, he actually took that part pretty well, all things considered. He did spend a good five minutes telling me how my mother had studied theology before me and her mother before her, that it was a family tradition, but, in the end, he did calm down enough to tell me that he supposed that I might not totally have ruined my own life completely since there was still a chance that I could become some kind of professor if I only worked hard and that that might be an acceptable alternative. That was when I told him that I had actually managed to get my degree earlier than planned and that I was currently working on a book, on a project that I really loved where I was able to incorporate my love for ancient technology. He did not like that. I can still hear how he yelled something about how I had ruined my life, that he had expected better from me, something about how irresponsible I was, before finally informing me that I should not even bother to call him before I had sorted out my life and gotten everything back on track.”

Mipha shuddered despite how she still had Zelda’s jacket wrapped around her, making even the cold night a little bit warmer. If it had been her, if her dad or Sidon had told her that her dreams were never going to work out for her and continuing on to insult her before finishing it all off with telling her how they would not talk to her before she had changed herself into someone they wanted her to be rather than who she was… Hylia, she couldn’t even begin to imagine that.

“I am sorry to hear about that. I can’t imagine how it must feel for you.”

“Actually,” Zelda said, “I am feeling better than I have done in months. I don’t have to worry about someone who knows him seeing me and figuring out that one, I do not study theology, and that two, I don’t study anything at all right now since I am working on a project that will hopefully end up becoming a book. Besides, if he did not want to see me happy and cared more about what my mother might have done when she was my age, then I see no reason for feeling sad about not seeing him anymore.”

She said it with so much passion that Mipha could almost feel the relief in the air. But despite all of that, her stomach still turned as she tried to envision how the conversation must have been. While she had been at her exam, worrying about something that did not really matter all that much, Zelda had told the truth about her life. While she had looked at a number that told her she had failed, Zelda had been told the exact same thing, but not by some faceless university, no, she had been told by her father.

Next to her, Zelda continued. “So, although I don’t think I would have been able to justify going here right now if you had not called me, I would probably still have ended up going sooner rather than later. I just really missed seeing the stars, and although I am sometimes able to spot them while in the city, it is just not really the same thing as being here.”

That, Mipha could only agree with. There was no noise, no light contamination to make it so that they could only see the brightest stars. They would most likely not even have been able to see Zelda’s favourite star if they had still been in the city.

“I suppose that perhaps I might still have another chance at passing that exam.” Mipha said, slowly and unsure if Zelda really wanted to hear her it. Thankfully, Zelda tightened her grip on her hand, a silent encouragement to go ahead. “It wasn’t the real one, so I suppose that I should just view it as a wakeup call intended to show me that I have to work harder.”

“I don’t necessarily think that you have to work that much harder,” Zelda said into the darkness, “only that it might be good for you not to worry so much about your future.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mipha, it was because of you and everything you told me that I decided that I didn’t want to attend one more awkward family dinner where I would have to make up stories about how life is at university or what we are currently studying. If you had not been around, I might have done it at some point in the future, but I doubt that I would have done it anytime soon. So, in a way, I suppose you deserve at least the credit for giving me the courage and the idea to tell him, or at least you are a part of the reason as to why I don’t have to listen to him tell me about how my mother studied theology like that somehow makes it so that I have to do the same thing. My point is that even if you fail your real exam, you can still be able to achieve your dream of helping people, it just might not be in the way you had imagined.”

Mipha tried to speak, tried to say something about how Zelda had been the one to actually make the decision to tell the truth, to let her father decide if he actually loved her for who she was, but not a single sound came out. The warm feeling in her eyes were tears, she realised, a few of the drops escaping and gliding down her cheeks, others soon following right behind. Goddesses, it was a cheery sight, her sitting there on the beach, on a blanket that would surely never be able to be taken back inside again with how much sand there must be on it now, crying over the news of how Zelda had told her father about what she was actually planning to do with her life.

Next to her, Mipha could see how the light from the electric torch flickered, and she supposed that she should probably be worried about how it meant that the batteries could not have that much energy left before they would not be enough to power it, but she simply could not bring herself to care. Right then, all that mattered was the fact that Zelda had yet to remove her hand, instead edging even closer to her, until their shoulders were only millimetres away from touching.

“I know that you a sad about that exam,” Zelda said in a hushed tone, “and I know that I can’t take the worry about how you are going to do at the real exam away from you, but I just want you to know that, no matter what, I know that you are going to do great things. You have already helped me, and I am sure that, degree or no degree, you will continue to do so.”

“I—” her voice broke, “I, uh… I don’t know what I can say.”

“Then don’t say anything. You don’t have to. We can just lie here for a moment and watch the stars.”

And that was what they did. The blanket shielded her from the cold sand beneath and the moon and the stars above her sent out a faint light that she could easily block out by closing her eyes. With how Zelda moved over to place her head on her shoulder, throwing her arm over Mipha, it was no wonder that she soon felt the effects of having woken up in the middle of the night after a week of not getting enough sleep and feeling anxious about her exams. Her eyelids felt heavy, but the rest of her body felt lighter than it had done in weeks as Mipha felt her breathing grew even and relaxed as she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Something was beeping.

Mipha slowly forced her eyes open, trying to figure out what had interrupted her moment of bliss with its constant noise. Her back protested against the movement and the wind coming in from the sea sent shivers down her spine, but she still sat up. Where was she? For a moment, all Mipha could do was to look around, trying to piece together how she had gotten herself from her bedroom and over to some beach, lying on the sand with the waves hitting the coast just a couple of metres in front of her. And then it all came back to her.

Shooting a look behind her, Mipha saw how Zelda was still lying on the blanket, curled up in response to the cold air coming in from the sea. As she saw her lying there, her hair a mess and her clothes wrinkled after having just slept on the ground for most of the night, Mipha could not imagine why her phone could not have predicted that they would be there, and that Zelda would be asleep. Why anyone would want to wake up Zelda was beyond Mipha. She looked more relaxed than Mipha had seen in a long time. More relaxed than how she had ever seen her before, in fact. The faint line between her brows that Mipha had almost come to expect at that point was gone, and the slight pull at her lips forming the beginning of a frown was nowhere to be seen. Why would her phone have wanted to ruin all of that by waking her up?

One look down at the screen of her phone told Mipha exactly who would have been to blame had she not been the one to wake up the first. Revali. His name was writing across the screen and from the sight that met her as the beeping stopped, the call instead being directed to the answering machine, Mipha could tell that this was not the first time he had tried to call her over the last couple of hours, nor was it the second. No, a quick look at how many times his name was written told her that this was the eleventh time in just the last two hours he had tried to call her only for no one to answer him.

A sense of dread filled her stomach. She had left a note for him, explaining how she had gone with Zelda, hadn’t she? She tried to recall her path through the flat, how she had grabbed Zelda’s jacket and stepped down onto the floor to get her shoe on. And how she had taken a piece of paper from somewhere in a drawer, hadn’t she, bitten of the cap of a pen to write an explanation as to where she was, making sure to leave it right there on the dinner table? She must have, Mipha could not imagine having forgotten to do that. But the harder she fought to remember what she had done in her tired state, the clearer it was the she might have brushed past the piece of paper on her way to leave the flat. And if it had fallen down from where she had placed it, it might have slipped in under one of the counters where Revali would most likely not have thought to look for a note that explained her disappearance.

She answered the phone.

Immediately, Revali’s voice echoed over the beach, loud and angry, and Mipha hurried to turn down the volume, even though it did not do much to save her ears.

“Mipha! Oh, thank the Goddess, you actually answered. Are you okay, do you know where you are—”

She could tell how Revali was in no hurry to give her a chance to answer the questions, so she cut in. “Yes, I am fine, nothing to worry about. I just woke up feeling a bit sad. Right now, I am at a beach with Zelda.”

“What?” Revali’s voice went up an octave. “Why are you at a beach? And with Zelda? Mipha, what is going on? If there is someone with you, just give me a hint and I will call the police. You know what, if you say ‘I just love water’, then I will take it as a cue to call someone—”

“No, no, no. Revali, there is no need to call anyone. I am completely fine. Other than Zelda, there is no one with us. I woke up, called her, and then she offered to take me on a trip to show me a surprise, which I accepted so she drove me to the beach. That is all, nothing to worry about.”

Revali was silent for a second, but Mipha could hear how her attempts at making him calm down had had the exact opposite effect just from the way he was breathing in deeply. He soon let her know exactly what he was going to use that extra air for. “Well, then what,” Revali practically yelled a curse so bad that Mipha was honestly not sure she had ever even heard him use it on a customer, “where you thinking! Do you know how worried I was when I woke up to see that you were not in your room?”

“I left a note,” Mipha mumbled weakly already knowing that it was not enough and would not have been enough even if she had been a bit more careful about leaving it in a place where it would not be able to be brushed aside by her turning around to get to the door. She should have sent a text to him or left a message, something Revali would have been sure to check.

Apparently, Revali agreed with that, or at least her excuse did not do anything to make him lower his volume. “A note. I did not find any note. Just where did you leave it?”

“On the dining table. But I think it might have fallen down when I left, so, actually, it is probably under one of the kitchen counters right now.” Hylia, it sounded like such a dumb idea, to leave her flat with just a single note to make sure that Revali knew she was okay left behind.

“Okay, hang on, I am going to look for it.” Mipha could hear how Revali moved the phone away from his ear for a bit from how the volume grew less loud during the last half of his sentence, something she could already tell did not have anything to do with it having been enough to make Revali calm down. “I can’t find anything—no, wait a second, I think I am seeing something there.” the faint echo of Revali’s earlier yelling was, despite how she could hear him move the phone to grab the note, still loud enough to reach her.

“Is it there?”

“Yes. But don’t think that it means I think it was okay to just leave in the middle of the night without at the very least waking me up to tell me that you were fine and that I should not have to worry about you.” Revali sighed, and Mipha could only do the same.

“I am sorry—”

“No, I don’t really want to hear anything more. We can talk about this once you get home. Right now, I am just happy to hear that you are okay.” the tired tone in Revali’s voice only made the guilt grow, but Mipha supposed that it was what she deserved after having disappeared without leaving much behind to assure him that it was fine and that she was not in any danger. “I am going to hang up now,” Revali continued, “I need to call Link and say that you finally answered your phone and that everything is fine.”

“You called Link?”

“I called everyone I thought might have an idea about where you had gone. And I guess I thought that you might have gone to visit Sidon, but since I didn’t know his number, I had to call Link so that he could give the phone to Sidon.”

“You don’t have to do that. I can call them and let them know that I am fine.”

But there was no arguing with Revali about that. “No. I think that me yelling at you have been enough for now. Just… I don’t know, promise me that the next time you decide that you can’t just wait until it gets light outside to go to the beach, you will at the very least send a text to me to let me know that you are okay. Preferably, you should wake me up to let me know where you are going, but even a text would have been better than a note that did not stay where you left it.”

“I promise.”

“Good. Oh, and Urbosa told me that if I managed to find you, she wanted you to know that, one she is furious with you for putting us all though that, and two, if you are okay and you disappearing was some kind of way to show us that you are sad about the results of the mock exam, she can understand if you aren’t feeling like you are ready to go to work today.”

Hiding a groan behind her hand, Mipha tried not to imagine the mess she would have to sort out once she got to the café. “If you call her, will you tell her that I am sorry about making everyone worry about me, but that I am feeling better today, so I will be coming to work?” to tell the truth, Mipha was almost completely sure that, even if she still felt as bad about everything as she had done just a day ago, after having disappeared in the middle of the night with only a note under the kitchen counter to let Revali know that she was okay, she would not have felt like it would be right to accept Urbosa’s offer of giving her a short break.

“I will.” Revali paused before adding. “Oh, and if Zelda is still with you, will you let her know that I am giving her at least some of the blame for this?”

“But I was the one who disappeared!” Mipha argued, and even though she had no reason for doing so, she could feel how her body reacted automatically, shifting to sit in front of Zelda, almost like she could cover her from the blame Revali tried to place on her shoulders. “Listen, she just tried to make me feel better about the exam after I called her in the middle of the night. She even took me out to her own special place to let me use it to calm down and feel better about herself. I get that you are angry, and you have every right to be, but this wasn’t her fault. I was the one who didn’t think to leave a note in a place where you would be sure to find it.”

“I get that,” Revali said, and Mipha could already tell from the dismissive tone of voice that she was not going to change his opinion about who was to blame for her disappearing in the middle of the night just yet, “but she is nevertheless still the one who decided to help you leave.”

He ended the call before she got another chance to protest, leaving Mipha to look down at her phone, mentally trying to sort out the mess she had just caused. But although she tried her best to go through it one by one, trying to figure out just how many she would have to call to apologise for making them worried, she just couldn’t. She couldn’t even begin to piece together the list of people she would have to make sure knew that she was okay.

Behind her, the sound of sand moving told her that Zelda had woken up, and moments later, she felt someone reach out to touch her shoulder, moving to sit next to her on the blanket.

“Are you okay?” Zelda asked, and Mipha did not need to turn around and look at her to know that she would find Zelda staring at her grip around the phone. With how she was holding it so tightly that her knuckles had turned white, it really was no wonder that Zelda had noticed.

“Yeah, yeah, I am fine. It’s just that I found out that the note I left for Revali did not stay in the spot where I left it so he didn’t find it.” from the way Zelda breathed in, a slightly panicked sound accompanying it, Mipha could tell that she already knew what the consequences of that would be, but she still continued, bringing the phone up closer to herself, pressing it against her chest. “I—I have made a lot of people quite worried for me.”

She wasn’t sure what she had expected Zelda to do, but standing up so suddenly that it almost caused Mipha to let go of her phone was for sure not one of them.

“Come,” Zelda said, reaching out to take her hand, already halfway dragging her to her feet before Mipha had a chance to respond, “I need to get you home right now. Goddesses, I should have thought about it, I am so sorry, when you called, I just completely forgot about anything else—”

Hearing Zelda talk about Mipha’s mistake like it was somehow her fault, like she could ever be blamed for Mipha not thinking things through, made her chest tighten as she recalled how Revali had said almost the exact same thing. Why were the people around her always so eager to blame Zelda for everything? First with Zelda’s father, then Revali, and now Zelda herself. Mipha supposed that it was that connection that made her dig her heels into the sand rather than merely following along like it seemed Zelda wanted her to do, bringing both of them to a halt.

“Hey, don’t blame yourself,” she said once she was sure she had Zelda’s attention, “I get that you might think you should have asked me if I was sure Revali knew where I was or something like that, but I am not going to leave this place while you are still thinking that this is in any way your fault.”

She could see the frustration in Zelda’s eyes, how she rolled her eyes, tugging at her arm, but she stood still. And it worked, as Zelda turned around to look back at her.

Even though she was clearly trying her best to look annoyed, brows pulled together and mouth forming a thin line, Mipha could see the sparkle in her eyes grow as she gave her a short nod. “Okay, then. If you really want me to blame you for this, then I will. Will you now go to the car with me so that I can get you back home as quickly as possible?”

“Of course.”

+++

Zelda parked the car in front of the café only a little under half an hour later, Mipha all but jumping out of the car as she readjusted her shirt, the first thing she had grabbed from her dresser when she had run into her flat, simply taking the first articles of clothing she could find that would be appropriate for work before running back outside to let Zelda drive her to work.

With how hard her heart was beating, she almost managed to miss Zelda shouting how she wished her good luck at her, but at the last second, she turned around to wave at her as Zelda put the car into reverse, disappearing around the corner only a few moments later.

Once there were no more excuses she could use to avoid having to walk into the café and face her co-workers, Mipha took a deep breath and pushed the door leading into the back of the shop open.

Almost immediately, she was met with the sight of Revali standing next to the rack where her apron was still hanging, arms crossed in front of his chest as he silently followed her path over to him. At least he did reach out to take the apron and hand it to her. Mipha just hoped that it was a sign that he was no longer as angry as he had been that morning.

“Was it Zelda who drove you here?” he asked. When Mipha nodded, his expression softened a bit. “Well, I guess that she at least had the decency to make sure that you would get here in time, even if she was the reason why you would even need a lift in the first place.”

Sensing that there was no reason to argue with him about where to place the blame for her disappearance, Mipha simply took the apron and began to put it on, while Revali watched her in silence.

“Are you ready to go in and get started on our shift?” he asked once she looked back up at him, the apron having been secured with a couple of knots.

The shift, despite being filled with awkward silences and her doing her best not to disappear from view for any longer than what was strictly necessary, ended up not being as horrible as Mipha had feared. Yes, she did notice how Revali grumbled about how worried he had been a couple of times, but by the time they had settled back into their usual routine, he had all but abandoned that, to instead redirect his anger and annoyance at the customers. Or at least that was what she thought.

“No, I am telling you that I don’t care about your excuses!” the sound of Revali raising his voice alerted Mipha to the fact that she should probably step in and make sure that the situation would not get out of hand. Placing the class back down onto the table, she turned around and froze.

The person Revali was now almost yelling at was Zelda. She stood there, a guilty expression on her face. A couple of times, Mipha saw how Zelda opened her mouth like she wanted to get a word in, but Revali never gave her the chance to do so, simply continuing to rant at her, almost to the point where Mipha was starting to suspect that he was now speaking more to stay in control of the situation than because he actually wanted to continue to yell at her.

Mipha placing her hand on his arm, giving it a gentle tuck finally made him go silent as he turned around to face her.

“Hey,” she said, relieved to see that Revali looked tired rather than angry, “there are people staring. I get that you are angry, but if you could not take that out on a customer, I would appreciate that.”

For a moment, she thought that Revali was going to argue with her, as he stood up a bit straighter. But then he looked down, the energy almost seeming like it evaporated. “Sure. Just let her know that I still haven’t forgiven her for letting you do something that dumb. I mean, yeah, I would maybe—even though that alone is a stretch for me—have expected you to do something stupid, but I thought you said that she was smart, so I had thought that she would know better.” with that last insult, Revali left, going to stand at the opposite end of the counter.

A quick look around the shop informed Mipha of what she already knew: that almost everyone around her had seen the incident, and was now hurrying to look back down at their food, trying their best to look like they had not overheard it all. Mipha could not blame them. Even if she doubted that anyone would have been able to hear what Revali had hissed at her, she could still feel the embarrassment make her face grow hot, and there was no doubt in her mind that she was blushing. Doing her best not to think too much of it, she went over to see why Zelda had decided to come in despite knowing full well that Revali blamed her for Mipha leaving in the middle of the night without telling anyone.

Shaking her head, Mipha stepped up to the counter. “I am sorry about that. If I had known you would be coming in, I would have made sure to look out for you so that I could have stopped something like that from happening, but… well, I just did not pay enough attention. I hope he did not get a chance to be too harsh.” it was a desperate hope, and Mipha knew that. Revali was simply not the type to begin with being calm. Instead, he usually seemed to prefer starting off by screaming and then gradually growing calmer.

But maybe that had changed. Mipha doubted it, though the fond look on Zelda’s face did not look like she had just been yelled at for too long by Revali.

“No it’s fine. Besides, considering why I came here to talk with you, I am actually happy to hear that you think I am smart.” breathing in, Zelda smiled slightly. “Well, I would still be happy that you think I am smart no matter what, but it is even more of a relief now.”

“Why? What did you want to talk with me about?” rolling onto the back of her shoe, Mipha shifted her weight to the side as she leant in over the counter, folding her hands under her chin and propping her elbows up on the table.

“I thought about what you told me yesterday—about your exams and all that. And, well, I thought that you might want to come over to my place after work today. We could sit down and get some work done. Order some food,” she laughed, a low, melodic sound, “so that you won’t have to deal with my culinary experiments ever again, and then just… I don’t know, hang out for a while?”

The fact that Mipha did not have to consider her answer for even a second did not have anything to do with how the way Zelda looked at her, glancing up from underneath her lashes, sent butterflies flying in her stomach. Saying yes was the logical to do, considering how much Zelda had already been able to help her with coming up with a better way to study, and that was the reason Mipha reached out to take her hand, the feeling of Zelda’s hand in hers almost making her lose track of what she wanted to say for a second before she managed to pull herself together.

“I would love to.”

Zelda let out a little sound that sounded a lot like a relieved sigh, something Mipha could not quite make sense of. Surely, Zelda had already known that she would say yes. Mipha could not see how Zelda would have been able to miss the fact that even if Zelda’s offer had actually been about the two of them going outside to jump into the trash, Mipha would still have done it if it meant she could get the chance to spend time with Zelda. There was simply no way that Zelda was not aware of that, not with how she had an almost eerie ability to guess how Mipha was feeling at all times. Really, Mipha would not be surprised if Zelda had looked up at her that very second, studying her face as she asked her how long she had been in love with her.

But it really seemed that Zelda did not know that there had been no need to ask, for she responded by taking both of Mipha’s hands in hers, the sudden movement making Mipha take a step forward, feeling how her heart skipped a beat as she saw Zelda beam down at her. “Fantastic!” Zelda’s voice cracked slightly, but she continued nevertheless. “I will make sure to prepare some snacks for us, and—I don’t know, is there anything you would want me to get for you?”

All Mipha could ever want from their plan of meeting up to help each other get work done, she had already gotten. As long as Zelda was there, Mipha could not imagine anything that would be able to make her change her mind and decline the invitation. Not even Zelda’s horrendous attempts at baking would be enough. So she shook her head, careful to wait for a second to let Zelda think that she had actually stopped to consider the question. As ridiculous as the idea of her having any more wishes than simply Zelda being there was, Mipha was sure that Zelda would have insisted for her to think about it before accepting her answer. “No, I don’t think I will need anything other than you being there—and my computer, of course.”

Was it just her mind playing a joke on her, or had her answer actually caused Zelda to blush? Mipha could have sworn that she saw red spots appear on her cheeks, but before she got the chance to confirm it, Zelda had turned to look at the wall next to them, her hair falling in front of her face, creating a curtain that kept Mipha from being able to get a proper look at her face. But as she thought about it, Mipha realised that she did not need to look at Zelda a second time to know that she was imagining things. After all, with how Zelda had gone to tell her father the truth about what she had been studying at university, Mipha could only assume that, had she been in love with her, she would already have let her know about it.

In a way, Mipha supposed she should be happy about that. The fact that Zelda had not ever seemed like she was about to say anything meant that there really was nothing between them other than friendship, and with Zelda, no clear message about that was the same as a crystal clear talk about how she viewed Mipha as a friend and that it should stay that way between them. So, even though she had never been able to muster up to courage to ask her directly about it, in a way, Mipha had already gotten her answer.

Still, with how Zelda smiled at her, her head tilted to the side, Mipha could not keep herself from clinging onto the foolish sense of hope that there might be just a little hint there.

“Good. Do you want me to pick you up after work, or would you prefer walking over to my place?”

What would Mipha prefer, getting another chance to sit next to Zelda, even if it was only for a few minutes, or to have to make her way through the city again? The answer was simple. The only thing that would have been able to subtract from her joy was the fact that she felt like a burden asking Zelda to pick her up, but even that was nothing she was not able to push away with the argument that Zelda had been the one to offer to help her as she smiled at her. “I would love if you could come to pick me up. Oh, and my shift is finished at one o’clock.”

“Okay, then I will be back at one.” Zelda had almost begun to move towards the door, but at the last moment, she stopped her movement. “And will you please remember to tell Revali where you are going this time? I would prefer not to give him another reason to yell at me again.”

Mipha cringed. “Goddesses, I am so sorry about that. Trust me, I have tried telling him that it was my fault, that I was the one who forgot, but it just doesn’t really wo—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Zelda said, “it was just a bad joke. Besides, I don’t mind it too much. Obviously, it would be better if your friend wasn’t angry at me, but it looks like he was just quite worried about you and is only looking for someone he can take it out on. And, all things considered, I can handle that just fine.”

She did her best not to let her brain obsess over just what that last sentence might have meant, instead faking a smile. “Wow, that was quite the reach. I assume you did well in your Hylian classes when you had to analyse books?”

“I did relatively well, so if you ever have to write a book report, just come to me. I am the best at making up an interpretation that sounds vaguely convincing.”

“I will keep that in mind. But you will pick me up at one?”

“Yes, I will be there the moment the minute hand is pointing directly upwards,” Zelda promised, readjusting her bag, pushing it up higher on her arm. With one last wave, she left the café.

As she had expected, Revali was not exactly happy when Mipha went over to tell him that she had just agreed for her and Zelda to meet up to get a chance to complete a bit of work, keeping her voice down to ensure that the customers would not become spectators for another round of Revali yelling at someone. But, despite how he grumbled a bit about how he should just buy something he would be able to track her location with, Revali was not able to completely hide the smile on his face as he mumbled something about how he still hoped that she would have fun.

With the knowledge that she would not wake up to find several missed calls from Revali and a long list of people whom she had made worry about her, Mipha felt a lot better when she exited the café later that afternoon than when she had entered. Although she knew that she had yet to call a few of those Revali had contacted while trying to figure out where she was, the task seemed like less of an immense problem than it had done when she had also had to worry about Revali still being angry at her. With that in mind, Mipha found herself walking along the footpath with a spring in her step.

Zelda’s car was parked only a few metres away from the café, but the time it took for Mipha to reach her was still enough for Zelda to look up, spot her, and get out of the car. With an over exaggerated bow, Zelda moved over to the passenger side to hold open the car for her, showing how all of the blankets from when they had gone to the beach were still lying in there. A closer look at the inside of the car told her that a few of the blankets had actually been removed, instead lying in a pile on the backseat. Mipha assumed that those were the ones Zelda had brought along to the beach.

“Ready to leave?” Zelda asked as Mipha climbed into her seat, closing her door as she went over to sit down in the driver’s seat.

“More than ready,” Mipha admitted, trying to hide the way she finally let herself relax, leaning back down into the blankets around her as she looked over at Zelda.

Before long, they reached the block of flats where Zelda lived, and once again, Zelda hurried to get out. Mipha followed her path around the car with her eyes as she hurried over to open her door for her.

“You do know that I am perfectly able to do that on my own?” Mipha smiled at her, still nodding as she got out of the car.

“Yeah, but then I would not get the chance to do this.” for a moment, Mipha found herself wondering what exactly ‘this’ entailed, but then Zelda took her hand and, slamming the car door shut behind them and pointing backwards to lock the car, she began running, making Mipha automatically follow along as they made their way over to the door to the block of flats.

“Are we in a hurry?” she asked, not able to hide a grin as Zelda pushed the door open with her back, barely slowing down to grab her key before she started sprinting up the stairs, and Mipha had to admit that the amount of energy she was able to muster was impressive as Zelda managed to not only get herself up the first flight of stairs, but also to pull Mipha long, barely slowing down.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to show you what I have prepared!”

“And what exactly is that?”

“You will have to wait and see.”

With how quickly they were making their way up the stairs, it did not take long before Zelda had unlocked the door and pointed Mipha towards the living room.

It looked exactly like how Mipha remembered it. The same jumble of books, sheets of paper and clothes lying around in the corners, the same huge bookshelves lining the walls. But as she ventured into the room, one thing leapt to the eye. It was a glass jar placed on the coffee table, a red bow tied around it. Stepping closer, Mipha crouched down to try to get a closer look at the contents of the jar. It looked like it was countless of tiny, crumbled up pieces of paper, taking up almost half of the space inside the jar.

“Do you like it?”

She had not heard Zelda enter the room, so the sudden sound of her voice made Mipha both try to turn around to look up at her while reaching out to hold onto the coffee table for support, the result being that she almost fell over.

“Uh,” she said, making a face as she rubbed the spot where her elbow had connected with the table, “I am not sure I can see what it is.”

“It’s this.” Zelda picked up the jar, pushing it towards her. “I thought that you needed something that would be able to cheer you up, so I wrote my opinion about you onto little pieces of paper and put them into this jar. That way, whenever you are feeling bad about yourself or about your exams, you will at least know that you are still amazing even if you don’t get a good grade.” she shook the jar, making the little paper balls inside fly around. “Here, try one!”

Accepting the jar from Zelda, Mipha slowly opened it, placing the lid on the coffee table next to her. Her hands trembled slightly as she stuck her hand inside, unsure of which piece of paper she should take. In the end, she grabbed the first one that caught her eye, pulling her hand back out.

Zelda looked at her, as she unfolded the piece of paper, and Mipha tried her best not to think too much about the way her eyes almost seemed to sparkle as she held up the paper, reading aloud. “I think that you are one of the kindest persons I have ever met.” she read, and, Hylia, her voice cracked on the last syllable, didn’t it? Reaching up to wipe the tears away with the back of her hand, Mipha swallowed, trying her best to force back the tears. “You wrote this?”

Zelda nodded, but an unsure look passed over her face. “Yes. I—I thought that you might want to have something you could bring along with you when you were feeling bad about things, just so that you could have something to cheer you up.” Mipha didn’t miss how Zelda’s gaze remained fixed on the jar, not once flickering upwards to look at her. “But, uh, I can see now that it might not have been the best idea—”

“”What are you talking about?” the little laugh finally made Zelda meet her gaze. “I love this. Thank you so much!”

“It was nothing,” Zelda said, but they could both tell how it was very much not nothing, not for Zelda and certainly not for Mipha. Still, Zelda clapped her hands together, effectively ending the conversation about the glass jar. “Now, why don’t we sit down to get some work done? I think that was why we decided to go here in the first place, wasn’t it?”

“It was indeed.”

“Do you want something?” Zelda asked, already having started to move through the room, towards the hallway and the kitchen. “I know that I am going to need to have something to drink, but what about you?”

“Do you have tea?”

“Of course. Actually, I even have cinnamon-flavoured tea. I bought that just for you.”

A strange sense of warmth flickered in Mipha’s chest as she saw how Zelda stopped to wait for her response, leaning against the doorframe. Although she did her best to push it back down, shoving the fluttering feeling in her stomach away, she could not deny that it was there. And, maybe, just maybe, a little part of her that she could not quite identify, did not want her to ignore it.

Mipha did her best not to think too much about it and let herself get lost in the attempts of sorting out her feelings as she returned Zelda’s smile. “Well, what can I say? I am always happy to introduce others to the wonders of cinnamon flavoured foods and drinks.”

“So am I,” Zelda nodded before she left for the kitchen, leaving Mipha alone in the living room.

+++

She found Revali sitting in the couch when she got home, a phone pressed to his ear. As she leant into the room, trying to gauge whether or not he would soon be finished with the call, he jumped to his feet and started pacing through the room, his voice rising just a bit along with himself. Barely pausing to acknowledge her presence with a little nod as she waved at him, he continued to go over to the window, leaning against the windowsill as he continued to argue, talking into the phone in a tone that sounded like he had to restrain himself from yelling.

So Mipha waited. Standing still at the entrance to the living room, she followed Revali’s path through the room with her eyes, silently waiting for him to be finished with the conversation. From the sound of it, she would guess that he was talking to one of his fellow students, and Mipha did not envy the other person who, from the sound of it, seemed to have forgotten to bring their notes somewhere.

Finally, Revali ended the call, hissing at the other person that he could understand them not being as good at organising their things as he was, but that it was still not his problem when they lost track of their things and turned around to face her.

“Yes?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow.

She pushed herself away from the wall. “I just wanted to say that I was home. You know, just…” she let the sentence trail off, but there had not been any need for her to finish. They both knew what she had been about to say, that there was no need to worry about her, she had not gone to fall asleep on a beach without being aware of her phone.

“You know,” Revali began, “you don’t have to continue doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Constantly telling me where you are. I know that I might have overreacted a bit, but, by now, I can see that you were tired and just didn’t think. Besides, you did leave a note, and even if you did not make sure that it would not get lost, that was still something.”

Mipha shook her head. “No, no, I get it. You were worried, and I didn’t answer my phone.”

“Are you seriously telling me that I was right?” Revali smirked at her, and Mipha knew that, unless she would like to spend the next year having to constantly remind Revali that just because he had been right once, did not mean that he was right about everything, she would have to disagree with him, just a bit.

“Maybe. I mean, not when you started yelling at Zelda and blamed her for how I disappeared without making sure that you would find my note, but I can’t fault you for being worried, not when I know full well that I would have done almost the exact same thing if I had been the one to wake up to find that my roommate had disappeared during the night.”

Revali went silent, staring down at his phone, with such an intense look that it was almost like it would give up and explode under the pressure if he continued doing it for any longer. Thankfully, Mipha never had to find out if that was the case, as Revali lowered the phone back, down shoving it into his pocket as he shot a smile in her direction. “So I was somewhat right. And, yeah, you’re right.” he poked her in the side. “You were the one being an idiot, not Zelda.”

“I’m happy we could agree on that,” Mipha said, silently readying herself for a new nickname that would most likely incorporate her latest mistake.

Chapter Text

Sunday was once again spent at Zelda’s flat, the two of them sitting at her kitchen table. Although Mipha was almost completely certain that she could have gotten more done than what she actually had if she had been able to not let herself become distracted by Zelda’s presence or how she would tap her fingers against the side of her computer, drumming a slow rhythm while trying to figure out what word she wanted to use, she still managed to almost finish her assignment, which was, all things considered, most likely more than she would have managed had she not gone to Zelda’s place.

But by Monday, she was back to her usual routine of going to lectures, taking notes, and then having to run to be at the café in time for her shift.

“You know,” Link said once they were alone in the back of the shop, Revali having left, most likely to go argue with a customer about how their specifications for their order were simply not possible, “you gave us all quite the scare when we woke up Saturday.”

With a sigh, Mipha started on her rehearsed apology. “I am sorry about that, I know that I should have—”

But she did not manage to finish her sentence as Link interrupted her. “No, no, I wasn’t looking for an apology. I just wanted to say that, well, you know you can talk with us if you are worried, right?” he must have noticed the doubtful look on her face she did not manage to hide in time as he looked down at the ground, forming silent words for a second before placing a hand on her shoulder. “Sidon was already talking about how he had to call you to check up on how you felt about your exam, and Revali does talk a lot about you. They would love to be able to help you when you are feeling sad.”

She knew that. Mipha knew all of that, she had, after all, tried to remind herself of it countless of times over the last couple of weeks. It just seemed that she was never able to recall the words once she really needed them.

But that had nothing to do with Link, so although Mipha wanted to tell him that it was not that simple, she bit back the remark. He did not have to feel obligated to become involved in her problems. “I know that. I just think that I was a bit tired so I didn’t think things through.”

“Well, you did call Zelda,” Link stated, “so I think you did realise that you needed to talk with someone. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that if you ever want to talk to someone, no one here is going to feel annoyed, even if you have to wake them up in the middle of the night. So, just, if this happens again, you won’t have to feel like your only option is to leave in the middle of the night to go talk with someone. Of course, if you want to that is fine—though you should probably remember to leave your note under something heavy the next time just to make sure that it won’t fly away.” he blinked at her and for a second, a smile flickered across his face before he grew serious again. “But I just wanted you to know that, if you want to, don’t hesitate to call.”

“I think Sidon would be kind of angry at me if I called him to ask him to pass the phone to you so that I could explain why I was feeling anxious and talk with you rather than him,” Mipha teased him. She wasn’t even sure why her immediate reaction was to try to deflect Link’s worries by joking, but it was nevertheless what she did. It was simply so much easier to handle the thought of the reason for her not calling being something as small as her not having his number than the fact that she had already seen him cry countless of times, instances that had established their roles in regards to each other, with Mipha being the one to comfort him when he had gotten hurt and Link being the one to get a chance to just complain for a bit. It was simpler than what it could turn into if she let their roles turn into a mess of different actions. Not necessarily worse—in fact, Mipha was almost entirely sure that she would be happier if she let it change—but definitely more complicated. So she was in no hurry to change it.

There was no way Link was not aware of how the only thing keeping her from sharing her worries with him was not and had never been the fact that she did not have his number, but he still held out his hand towards her. “Well, if that is all that is keeping you from contacting me, just give me your phone, and then I can write my number into your contacts.”

Realising that she had let the lie go on for far too long for her to turn around now, Mipha hoped that the grimace on her face could at least resemble a smile as she handed him her phone. For a while, they were both silent, the only sound in the room being that of Link pressing the screen as he typed in his name, added his name, and then gave her back her phone.

“There you go.” he said, and either he might not actually have seen that there was more standing in between Mipha and actually calling anyone except for Zelda when she was feeling sad, or else he was just better at faking a smile than Mipha had realised, for she could not spot any signs of the telling lack of wrinkles around the eyes as he gestured towards the door leading into the main room of the café. “I should probably hurry up now, or else Revali is going to barge in here in two seconds, asking us why we decided to leave him all alone with the customers.”

“Hylia, those poor customers,” Mipha laughed.

“Yeah,” Link closed his eyes, “it’s nice most of the times when he tells the rude customers to make their coffee themselves, but when he starts to argue with someone who just didn’t know any better, you know? That becomes awkward really quickly when you have to step in. By the way, I heard that he confronted Zelda about you disappearing.” Link lifted his eyebrows, the question left hanging in the air between them.

“He kind of did. And I get it, or at least I do a little bit, but it was still such a relief to hear that he knows that it was not anything she could have prevented.”

“I have to agree with you on that. That one was all on you.” Link reached out to direct a light punch at her shoulder. “But, if it makes you feel better, I think that Revali was the one of us who was angriest about it, and I don’t even think that he was all that angry.”

“He seemed pretty angry Saturday.”

“That is because you didn’t hear how he sounded when he called Sidon and me Saturday morning to ask if we knew where you were.” her stomach curled up, guilt making her chest feel tighter. She knew exactly what Link would say even before he continued. “He was genuinely afraid that something had happened to you. So, in a way, I suppose that he just thought it would be easier to handle it if he pretended to be angry rather than worried.”

That, Mipha could understand. Although she did not exactly use the same strategy to cope with things, she could recognise a little bit of it from herself.

Putting on a cheery attitude, she grinned at Link. “And how do you know all of this? Last time I checked you weren’t able to read his mind.”

“No, but he is my boyfriend, so I would kind of be doing a very poor job if I weren’t able to at least tell when he was lying to both me and himself about how he was feeling.” Link responded with the same joyful tone of voice, but just like Mipha could tell that her own smile was a thin mask, intended to hide how she still felt bad about it all, she knew that Link could just as well have been sitting down in a chair across from her, a serious look on his face, while her told her the exact same thing with the sole difference in his tone being that he was not able to say it like it was some kind of joke.

They had evidently been staying in the back of the shop for too long, for before Mipha got the chance to figure out something smart to say—and, frankly, she was not sure how much time she would have needed before she would have been able to do that—the door was pushed open, and Revali entered the room.

“Where have you two been?” he asked, the accusing tone in his voice reflected in his eyes. “Did you even know about how I just had to tell someone that they aren’t able to order us to make their wedding cake? No, you don’t, because you have just been hiding out here, leaving me all alone.”

Holding up his hands in an apologetic gesture, Link managed to calm him down with just a smile. “Sorry. I was talking with Mipha and then we must have gotten distracted. I didn’t mean to leave you all alone out there.”

“Okay,” Revali said with a huff, though he was not able to muster his usual level of indignant anger, “just get out here and then I won’t talk about it again.” he had almost turned around to head back out into the café when he seemingly remembered something, continuing the twirl until he was facing Mipha once again. “Oh, and, Mipha, your friend came in just a few minutes ago.”

Her heart felt like it moved to sit in her throat. “Zelda?”

“Yeah. She told me that she was sorry about suggesting that the two of you could go to the beach together without also reminding you to remember to leave a note.”

Oh, Hylia. Mipha could easily imagine how that had ended. Yes, Revali might have told her just a few hours later that Saturday that he was no longer angry at them and that he had at least realised that forgetting to make sure that he would find her note was no one else but Mipha’s fault, but Mipha had known him for enough time to be aware of how that might not exactly be the case.

It was with a slightly higher pitch than what was normal for her that she tilted her head and hoped for the best. “What did you say? Please tell me that you didn’t yell at her or anything like that.”

Revali shot her a hurt look, though it soon gave away for a reassuring smile. “Of course I didn’t yell at her. I only yell at the rude customers, and although I still think that it was really dumb to just leave like that, you were still the one who could not figure out that it might be a good idea to place something heavy on top of the note that I needed to find to know that you were still okay even if you weren’t in your room anymore.” he held out his hand towards her, unclenching his fist to let her see a little crumbled up piece of paper. “And she also asked me to give you this.”

It did not take Mipha more than a fraction of a second to realise what it was, and she grabbed it, bringing her hand closer to her chest as she look back over at Revali. “You didn’t read it, did you?”

“No. I get that you think I want to know everything, but Zelda was quite clear when she said that I was not allowed to look at it. And, I hate to admit it, but Zelda can be quite intimidating when she wants to so I was not about to do the thing she had just told me not to do.”

“You?” Mipha laughed. “Intimidated by a customer? Had it not been for how you almost always seem to argue with someone while here, I might almost have believed it.”

“Oh, you know that I only argue with those who simply aren’t willing to realise that perhaps I know how I am supposed to do my job better than they do,” Revali replied, “but I am still going to insist that Zelda can be quite scary when she just marches up to the counter only to look mildly disappointed when you come over to her.”

“I am sure she wasn’t disappointed.”

“Oh, no she most definitely was,” Revali said, “but I do get her.” a wink and then he let out a laugh. “I think that everyone in here know that you two are quite close.”

Mipha could feel how her face grew redder at the barely hidden implication. But she was not about to just let it go by without once again making sure that Revali was aware that Mipha knew exactly where she stood in regards to Zelda, or that, well, she hoped she knew, so she took a deep breath. “Sure we are, because that is what it is like to be friends with someone.”

“Huh,” Revali said, and the sarcasm in his remark was not lost on Mipha, “then I just find it funny that when you were upset about the results from your mock exam, your first instinct was to call her and leave in the middle of the night even though I know about how you were so tired that you might have fallen on sleep on the couch rather than to walk the few metres to go talk to me if I had tried to talk with you about it.”

Apparently, Mipha’s plea for him to drop all of that had only been able to last for those couple of weeks that had passed since their last confrontation. Perhaps she should sit him down once more to explain to him that she was already confused enough as it was, how it was actually quite nice to be able to convince herself that she was right and push the issue away for a little bit, and that, though he probably thought he was helping her, was actually only making her have to worry about it even more. But for now, Mipha just had to make sure that he would not continue with the jokes. However, the conversation she had just had with Link kept Mipha from reacting by poking him and making some playful jab about how he should probably take it as a sign about how close they were. Mipha could still remember how Link had leant back against the wall while telling her about how Revali had reacted to her not being in their flat, so she didn’t even try to tease him.

Instead, she called behind her. “Link! You have to come over here and back me up. Would you please tell Revali that sometimes friends call each other to talk about the things that make them worried, even if one of them might be asleep?”

There was no response. Mipha looked over her shoulder, but found that, unlike what she had thought, Link was no longer standing right behind her.

“Would you look at that.” the self-satisfied tone was so apparent in Revali’s voice that Mipha almost did not have to look over at him to confirm that, yes, he was indeed smirking at her. “He isn’t here anymore. Seems that you are easily distracted by even the smallest mention of Zelda, huh?” she did not get the chance to argue with that as Revali immediately dropped the smile and pointed towards the door he had entered through. “But we should probably get back to work now. That was after all what I came to tell you to do, and I think that Link would be more than happy to remind me that I might have wasted even more time back here than he did, so let’s get going.”

Mipha nodded, but as Revali left, the door slamming shut behind him, she stayed in the room for just a couple of seconds longer. Now that she was alone with no one around to either try to sit her down for a long talk about her feelings on the subject of Zelda or to tease her about it, she could unfold the little piece of paper that Revali had handed her.

It was a single sentence, short, but still more than enough to make her heart speed up and for the feeling of warmth to spread from her chest to the rest of her body as she read the message on the paper, reading aloud for herself in the empty room.

“’You are beautiful’,” Mipha read, suddenly feeling incredibly relieved that she was alone. For not only would Revali have made sure to draw attention to the fact that she was not able to hide the smile that spread across her face just like Link would most likely have tried his best to make her actually confront her own feelings for once, but if Zelda had been there, Mipha was not able she would have been able to stay silent. But luckily Zelda was not there, so if Mipha toyed with the idea of asking if Zelda also wanted to find out if their second kiss would be like their first for a fraction of a second, well, then no one would ever have to know.

Chapter Text

Was it smart to invite the girl she may or may not be hopelessly in love with over the moment Revali informed her of the fact that he and Link had seizing the opportunity they had been presented with when Sidon had informed them of how he was going to help his dad with his garden, almost immediately planning a date and that he would not be home until the next day?

Mipha decided that it probably wasn’t, but as evidenced by how she had not been able to make herself sit down and study even when her grades were on the line, prioritising time with Zelda above that, she had never really been the one to put logic higher than her feelings when she had to make decisions. Again, that was most likely not the best way to go about her life, but as Mipha ran through her flat to make sure that she really had not missed anything, she found that she did not care.

It looked spotless, but she wasn’t sure if that was because her having just spent the last several hours busying herself with cleaning everything had actually paid off or if she was overlooking something major.

But the sound to alert her to the fact that someone was pressing the button to be let into the building kept Mipha from being able to do any more. Even if she had failed to see something, she would just have to deal with it now.

“You can just go right in,” Mipha said into the phone as she pressed the button to unlock the front door. The sound of Zelda first pulling at the door, the old wood creaking in protest as it took her a second to change her tactic, told her that she was already aware.

The flat was fine. Hopefully she would still have a couple of minutes before Zelda would have made her way up to her floor, but after having seen first-hand how quick Zelda could be when she wanted to, Mipha did not want to take any risks, so she ran to the bathroom, patting her hair with her hands to force it to stay in place.

With one last look at herself in the mirror, Mipha deemed that she at the very least looked presentable, like she had cared about her appearance, but not enough to make it look like she had spent hours trying to make the simple decision of what she should wear and how she should do her hair the way Revali had done to prepare for his date. Because it was not a date. Zelda was coming over for the two of them to eat dinner and watch films for hours on end. That was quite different from what Mipha had managed to overhear about Link and Revali’s plans, with how a big part of it seemed to revolve around some go-kart place where they could finally find out who would be the best at go-karting.

“Hello?” Zelda’s voice was accompanied by the sound of her tapping on the door, and just like that, Mipha was in a hurry to move through the flat and open the door for her.

The sight of Zelda standing just outside her flat made Mipha feel like she had just thrown on the first thing she had grabbed from her dresser while not even bothering to as much as running her fingers through her hair. For Zelda looked absolutely stunning as she stood there, beaming at her in a way that looked like she really had no idea of how she could make Mipha’s heart skip a beat by doing something as simple as that.

“Uh,” Mipha said as she regained the ability to speak, “come inside.” she stepped back and held open the door to let Zelda in.

Just as she had passed over the threshold and moved enough to the side to let the Mipha push the door shut again behind her, Zelda paused. “Your place is lovely. As are you.”

“I was about to tell you the same thing,” Mipha mumbled. It seemed that Zelda did not quite hear what she had said, and although Mipha knew that she should be happy that sheer luck had been able to save her from making a mistake that might have led to her blurting out the truth, she could not help but acknowledge the slight twinge of hurt in her stomach as Zelda continued into the flat without giving any indication that she had heard her.

Should she repeat the compliment? As Mipha followed along behind Zelda, talking about the flat and answering Zelda’s questions, she wondered if that would be the right thing to do. Because although Mipha could not imagine Zelda not already being perfectly aware of how she was able to turn even the worst day into a perfect one simply by being there, she wanted her to know that Mipha loved spending time with her. But if Zelda had heard her and had simply decided that it would be too weird to reply to that, then wouldn’t she just ruin the atmosphere between them by repeating it?

In the end, the decision was made by her own inability to stay silent.

As Zelda flopped down onto the couch, patting the pillow next to her, a wordless invitation for Mipha to join her, Mipha could not keep it bottled up inside anymore, so, while making a vague motion directed at Zelda, she tried her best to hide her embarrassment. “You look really pretty today. Or, well, not that you don’t look pretty every day, it is just that, uh,” she cleared her throat getting herself back on track, “I really like spending time with you. And maybe, once we both get to a point in our lives where we have more spare time, we could do this more often?”

“I don’t think we will ever get to a point in our lives where we will have more time to spend on ourselves than we do right now,” Zelda said, and Mipha could feel her stomach disagree with any plans she might have had to eat something, before Zelda grinned at her, “but I would definitely love to try harder to make time for evenings like these with you.”

“So would I,” Mipha replied, the words having left her mouth before she was able to realise her mistake. Of course she would like for them to spend more time together, she had suggested doing just that only a few seconds before.

But Zelda just laughed. “I am happy to hear that. And now that we have both said that we want to spend more time together, it should be a simple task to plan for us to actually do so, right?” Mipha opened her mouth to say something, most likely to mention her imminent exams, but it did not seem that Zelda was finished just yet as she continued. “Or, well, it probably won’t be, but, hey you can hope, right?”

Yes, she could hope. It was not a concept Mipha was unfamiliar with, not with how much time she had spent hoping that the atmosphere between them would change, first praying that she would one day wake up to see that everything Revali had told her about how she was supposedly in love with Zelda really was nothing but that; something Revali had told her to tease her about how little time it had taken for her to grow close to her and then praying for something Mipha could not quite understand.

“Yes. You can hope.”

It did not appear that Zelda noticed the wishful tone in her voice, or at least Mipha would have expected her to mention it by now. But instead, Zelda averted her gaze, looking down at the book left out on the coffee table. Immediately, Mipha realised why she had had the feeling of having missed something; because she had indeed missed something.

“Don’t mind that,” she began, “I just didn’t have time to put it away before you arrived. Here, just let me—”

But before she got the chance to do anything more than that, Zelda had already reached out to pick it up, flipping it over to look at the cover. “No, wait, isn’t this by Nayru?” she looked down at the name written at the bottom. “It is! I didn’t know that you already knew about it.”

Seeing as there was very little she could do by now to keep the truth from getting out—and, if she was honest with herself, Mipha was not entirely sure she wanted it to remain a secret even if Zelda had not already halfway arrived at the correct conclusion—Mipha decided to tell the truth. “Well, no, I didn’t, you just sounded so passionate about the book when you told me about it that I felt like I had to at least try it. And, luckily, it was right there at the library.” she shrugged and hoped that, even if Zelda were to notice the way Mipha’s voice cracked slightly on the last word, she would not guess the reason for it or see the connection between how close they were sitting and how much Mipha was mumbling.

And it seemed that Mipha had luck her side as Zelda simply hummed in response. But even then, it did not do much to quell the sense of disappointment gnawing in her stomach. Had she wanted Zelda to notice and ask for an explanation, with that tiny smile Zelda seemed to master? Perhaps Mipha had wanted that, an excuse to finally be able to tell her everything, but the moment passed without Zelda giving any indication that she had noticed it, and the courage that had begun to gather in her stomach, hoping for a chance to do something good, slowly evaporated once more.

“Have you read it?” Zelda asked and the question was what finally made Mipha look up, at once brought back to the present.

“What?”

“This book,” Zelda lifted the book a couple of centimetres, waving it at her, “will I be able to talk with you about it without risking spoiling it for you?”

“Oh,” Mipha exclaimed, nodding for half a second before she fully understood the question, “uh, well, no, I haven’t. Not really, at least. But I have read the first couple of chapters, and from what I have read so far, I think I am going to like it.”

Placing the book back down onto the coffee table, Zelda shifted in her seat to face Mipha. “Trust me, from what I know about you, you are going to love it.”

“It isn’t about someone who is about to fail her exams because she could not figure out that it was probably a good idea to sit down and study, is it?” Mipha said, trying to lighten the sentence with a laugh. It sounded forced, even to her.

But when Zelda returned the gesture, it sounded like she was genuinely amused. “No, it is not about that. But it is still about someone who is struggling in her life, trying to figure out what she wants to do and how to achieve it while still having to balance her friends’ and family’s opinions about what she should do with her life with her own dreams.” she patted the cover of the book, her voice becoming softer. “I remember how much that meant to me when I read it for the first time.”

Her father. Mipha could not believe that after how Zelda had sat there next to her on the blanket when they had gone to the beach, telling her how she had made such a major decision about how she wanted to live her life as the act of telling her father about her education had seemed to represent for her, Mipha had not once thought about asking her if her father had finally seen reason and accepted her decision. Even while Zelda had been busy being yelled at by Revali and generally being blamed the most by almost all of Mipha’s friends, she had not once remembered to ask. Pushing the thought away, unwilling to let herself wallow in guilt, Mipha decided that it was probably better for the question to be late than never.

“Speaking of dreams and plans,” she said, “has your father finally realised that it is your life and that he should accept your decisions in regards to what you want to do with it?”

The way Zelda went silent next to her was enough to answer her question.

“Er, well, no. he hasn’t, not really.” Zelda began. For a moment, she was silent, and Mipha could tell how she was struggling not to cry. But then she breathed in deeply and looked up, and although her eyes were still shiny, she forced a smile onto her face. “I thought about calling him a couple of times during this last week, but then I realised that, hey, I was not the one who was unable to accept their child’s decisions and dreams, and that, given that, I should not be the one to call him and beg him to realise that I am my own person and that I have the right to decide what I want to do with my own life. So, no, I haven’t called him and obviously he has not called me either, but I actually think that he has done me a favour by ignoring me. At least that way, I did not have to deal with him trying to tell me what to do or telling me about how my mother always got top marks and that it was probably because she had always been good at theology.” Zelda snorted. “It is almost like he still has yet to realise that I am not my mother and that, just because she and her mother both loved theology, I don’t have to love it like they did.” she glanced over at Mipha, and Mipha was relieved to see that the anger in her eyes had evaporated a bit. “I am sorry, you didn’t ask for me to rant about my father, but to answer your question, no, he still hasn’t accepted my dreams, but I don’t really care that much about it anymore.”

“Well,” Mipha said, struggling for a bit to figure out what she could say in response, “um, I am happy to hear that.”

“So am I.” the smile reached Zelda’s eyes. “I know that it might sound silly, but I really feel freer than I have done in years now that I no longer have to be careful not to let any of his friends see me not going to the university’s lecture halls in the morning. There simply is something magical about being able to go wherever you would like without having to first consider whether or not you might risk running into someone you know, isn’t there?”

It was not exactly a consideration Mipha could relate to, but simply hearing how relieved Zelda sounded the more she got to talk about no longer having to worry about any of it made it so that she instantly knew what her answer would be as she nodded at her. “Yes, I suppose there is. And I for once am also happy to hear that you are happier now than you ever were before.”

Zelda smiled, and it almost felt like the air around them become warmer, electricity running along Mipha’s arms as Zelda reached out to take her hand. Now. This was the moment. Mipha was almost completely sure that, were she to ask if Zelda could remember anything from the bar that night and if she would like to repeat the kiss, the answer would at the very least not include Zelda moving away from her, withdrawing her hand like she had burnt it. But even then, the chance that she might be wrong and that everything between them—the electricity and the way Zelda’s face was so close to hers—might really just be another sign that the freedom Zelda had achieved after finally gathering the courage to stand up to her father was still affecting her was enough to make Mipha look away and force herself not to daydream about what could have happened if she had only been a little braver.

Clearing her throat, she gestured towards the television in front of them. It was a sudden change of subject, but right then, Mipha could not imagine being able to continue sitting like that for much longer without risking doing something incredibly stupid. Whether that would have been confessing that she had not been able to forget about the kiss and that she knew full well that Zelda most likely had not wasted another second since then on lying awake at night, wondering what it had meant, or if she would rather have embarrassed herself even more by asking if she could kiss her, Mipha did not know, and she preferred for it to stay that way, so she hurried to speak before she would have found out which one of them would have been the case. “So, um, we should probably get started on watching something, right?”

A thin line appeared between Zelda’s brows as she followed Mipha’s line of sight. “Uh, yeah, of course!” she chuckled. “Wow, I had almost managed to forget that your almost exact words when you invited me over had included the sentence ‘and watch films until our eyes will start to hurt’.” Zelda’s pitch rose, becoming a high-pitched imitation of Mipha’s voice.

“I didn’t say it like that!”

“Oh, really? Because that was what it sounded like to me.” Zelda laughed, though she quickly stopped when Mipha grabbed the pillow from next to her on the couch and hit her on the shoulder, making Zelda give her an indignant look. “Hey! I am just repeating what you said!” but even then, she was not able to keep a straight face for very long, and before Mipha had had time to blink, the corners of Zelda’s mouth had curled up into a smile.

Hylia, if it continued like this, Mipha was not sure how much longer she would be able to keep her feelings a secret.

Dropping the pillow back down onto the couch, she pushed herself away from Zelda and over to turn on the television, while still doing her best not to think about how she could tell Zelda with almost no risk of being teased about it later. It was only them, and even when Mipha had allowed herself to consider what the worst thing that could happen if she simply asked Zelda to sit down so that she could explain to her how she was not sure if her feelings for her were all that platonic anymore multiple times, Mipha was fairly confident that no matter what, even if Zelda’s face twisted into a grimace of betrayal and hurt as she said that she had thought they were friends, Zelda would still never as much as consider the option of going to the café to tell Revali or anyone else. Which meant that, even if it would become awkward between them, at the very least, Mipha would not have to tell anyone about the reasons for it, even if Revali would most likely be able to guess the truth. And that, the fact that it would be so easy, was why she could not allow herself to entertain the idea of actually doing it. She could try to drop hints, try to figure out if Zelda felt the same way, look for reasons to spend more time for her, but she could not actually tell her the reasons.

“Uh, Mipha?”

Until she felt Zelda reach out to poke her shoulder, Mipha had not even realised that she had stopped moving, standing still in the middle of the living room, halfway between the couch and the television, the remote control hanging by her side.

With a jerk, Mipha forced herself to continue over to sit back down on the couch. “Sorry, I don’t know what just happened there.” a lie. “But I am ready to search for something we can watch now. Do you have any wishes?”

As it turned out, Zelda did have many ideas about which films they should watch. So many, in fact, that by the time Mipha had found a film only for Zelda to change her mind yet again and mention another title for the tenth time, Mipha put down her foot, insisting that the next one Zelda suggested, would also be the film they would watch.

After that, it did not take long before they settled back into the comfort of the couch, Mipha moving to the side and handing Zelda a pillow as the film began.

It was intriguing, Mipha had to admit that, exactly the kind of film she would have expected given that Zelda had been the one to suggest it, but even then, she still found her gaze drawn to Zelda more than to the television in front of her.

Was it normal to be so aware of just where she was in relation to Zelda’s placement on the couch? Mipha doubted it, but even then, that knowledge did not stop her brain from constantly trying to figure out if the distance between them was enough, if Mipha would have felt comfortable with the way their shoulders almost touched if the situation had been reversed and Zelda was the one doing her best to hide the fact that she found her infinitely more interesting than the film. She hoped that she would, but it was still a difficult question as Mipha was not exactly sure how much the fact that she would not have minded of Zelda had asked to kiss her was interfering with her judgement.

They were about halfway through the last half of the film when Zelda inched closer, throwing the pillow to the side to instead settle into the space between Mipha’s neck and shoulder, letting herself lean against her as her head dropped to rest on Mipha’s shoulder.

It felt like her heart should have stopped beating. Either that or that all of the colours around her should have become brighter and more intense to acknowledge what had just happened. Ever so slowly, afraid that even the slightest movement would disturb Zelda, Mipha looked down. Luckily, Zelda seemed to be so absorbed in the film that she did not notice, but even then Mipha forced herself to only steal that one glance, looking back up at the television the next second, keeping her gaze fixed at the middle of the screen for the rest of the film.

As the credits began to roll over the screen, Mipha slowly reached out to pat Zelda’s shoulder. “Hey, do you have any wishes about what we should see now?”

There was no answer, and when Mipha dared to look down, she could see why.

Sometime during the last twenty minutes of the film, Zelda must have fallen asleep. Her eyes remained closed, and her breathing was slow and even. It did not seem that Mipha’s question had been enough to wake her up, and Mipha could not have been happier about that. Even though they had technically planned to order food and sit down to eat together before returning to the couch to watch a couple of films, if Zelda had fallen asleep, Mipha would not be the one to decide that she had to wake up just so that they could stick to the plan. Not when Zelda had just told her about how her father still did not like the idea of her working on her book rather than studying for the degree he wanted her to get, and not when Zelda still seemed worn-out after telling her about her latest worries about him.

She sat still, unwilling to move even a millimetre if that slight shift would be the thing to wake up Zelda. And, sometime during the evening, her body must have taken that as an invitation to fall asleep as well, for Mipha could feel how her head grew heavy, and before long, she was not longer able to stay awake, instead letting her head drop down to rest on top of Zelda’s as she went to sleep.

+++

Her neck was hurting. That was the first thing Mipha felt as the light flooding her living room, coming in through the windows, where she had of course forgotten to pull down the blinds. Marvellous. As she began to sit up, Mipha could feel how every single muscle in her body cried out, begging her to sit still, but she continued nevertheless, blinking a couple of times before yawning and attempting to rub the sleep out of her eyes with the heel of her hands.

A slight groan coming from next to her was what reminded her that she was not alone. Zelda was still asleep, although it seemed that she either moved in her sleep during the night or that Mipha must have done the same, with the result that Zelda was now lying with her head und upper body on the couch, while her legs were dangling off the pillows, feet hitting the floor. As she shifted slightly, rolling to the side in response to Mipha getting up from the couch, the sun hit her hair, and Hylia, it had gotten ruffled during the night, a couple of strands having moved to cover her face.

It looked beautiful.

Although Mipha was more tired than she had been before lying down to sleep on the couch, she could not deny the fact that the warm feeling in her chest was most likely a solid piece of evidence that Revali had been right.

She was in love, and there was nothing she could do to change that.

Chapter Text

Mipha would not have been surprised if Link was shocked by her question, but even as she walked over to him, her request for him to help her being the first sentence out of her mouth, the giddy energy that filled her at the prospect of soon getting an answer making her unable to start with something casual, instead blurting out the question the moment she was sure that no one else would be able to hear her, he appeared to be remarkably calm about it all.

Maybe that was why she did not hesitate to lean in an ask the question she had spent the last hours trying to find an answer to.

“Link, if I—hypothetically speaking of course—were to have fallen in love with this person and wanted to tell them how I felt, what would you advise me to do?”

“Uh,” Link blinked at her, a confused expression crossing his features, “I don’t think I understand the question. Have you told this person how you are feeling or do they not know anything yet?”

“The latter. They know nothing.”

“Okay.” Link nodded. “Well, I can only speak for myself, but I think I would just sit them down someday and… tell them how I feel.” the look that she sent him must have been enough to let him know that that was not exactly helpful for her, for continued, clarifying his piece of advice with a little smile. “I mean, I would absolutely make sure that I would have some kind of backup plan ready in advance so that if things went wrong, then I would be able to leave the person and have a couple of days where I would not have to see them so that I would have a chance of letting my pride heal.”

But that was the thing. Mipha knew that she could not merely sit down next to Zelda and explain to her how much she meant to her. It was simply not possible that she would be able to properly put it into words. No, she wanted to show her. Zelda had taken her to the beach, allowed Mipha to see her special place and let her in on her secret, and although that had not been done with the same intentions as Mipha would have in mind when planning her own gesture, it still meant that she would have quite a lot to live up to that. Perhaps she could figure out where her father lived and convince him that he was missing out on the most amazing person in the world by not wanting to talk to her all because Zelda had dreams of her own.

She let herself entertain the idea for a second before realising the futility of it. Zelda had already told her about how she had tried her best to make him see reason, to make him realise that she had the right to choose her future for herself, and even that had not worked. He had been able to look at his daughter and tell her that she was wrong for not wanting to study theology and then ignore her when she refused to do as he ordered her to. How would Mipha ever be able to convince him after that? Besides, she was not even sure if Zelda would want to let him back into her life if Mipha did manage to convince him to let her make decisions for herself. No, it had to be something else.

But as much as Mipha used to take pride in the fact that she was good at guessing what the customers would order, the question of just what Zelda would love was a puzzle she could not solve, despite how she in no time had reached the point where she was wondering if perhaps Zelda had always wanted to see Termina. If she did, Mipha had a cousin there so it would not be that complicated to organise a trip.

“You are planning some grand gesture, aren’t you?” Link asked, distracting Mipha from her thoughts. As she looked up at him, meeting his gaze, Link pointed at her. “I know that look in your eyes!” he exclaimed. “You are definitely planning something already.”

“Maybe. Or, well, I would plan something, but I just can’t seem to come up with any good ideas. Do you have any inspiration for me?” although she did her best to make her voice sound light and airy, like this was definitely not something that felt like a matter of life or death, Mipha could tell that Link knew how much it meant to her from the way he immediately tapped his chin, deep in thought, rather than first making some teasing remark about how she was never allowed to joke about how bad he and Revali had been at telling the other about their feelings.

“Mipha…” he spoke slowly, an unsure tone having suddenly made its way into his voice in a way Mipha was not used to hear from him, “can I ask… that person, it is Zelda, isn’t it?”

Remembering the way Zelda’s hair had looked when she had woken up to find her nestled against her chest, how she could smile in a way that felt like it should make the entire world just a little bit brighter, how she always seemed to be able to make her laugh, Mipha nodded. “Yes, it is her.”

“Oh. I mean, I think you know that Revali and I had already kind of expected you to realise this yourself, but I have to say that I had thought it would take you another couple of weeks before you were ready to admit it to yourself, so, congratulations, I guess.” Link barely managed to step to the side in time to avoid Mipha’s punch directed at his shoulder. Grinning at her, he finally added something helpful. “From what I know, flowers always work,” he stated, “as do chocolate. But that is probably a little too cliché for you tastes isn’t it?” when she nodded, Link looked down towards the floor. “Yeah, I knew that you would say that. Which is a shame, because I don’t really have any other suggestions. Oh!” he interrupted himself, and Mipha’s heart skipped a beat at the prospect of soon getting an answer to her question about what to do. “Wait, didn’t you say that the two of you went to the beach? You know, that day where Revali was two seconds away from calling the police because you had not remembered to place your note in a place where you could place something heavy on top of it. Because if you did, then that means that she likes the beach, so you could probably take her there to make her happy. And then you could tell her.”

She was never going to live that down. From the way Link’s eyes shone with glee at the prospect of her once again defending herself from the accusations of being unable to think things through when she was still halfway asleep, Mipha could say that, without a doubt, she would have to wait for several months before he would have forgotten. But she was not about to give him the joy of arguing, so she cut to the chase. “Yes, we did go to the beach, which means that I have to plan something else. I want to surprise her, to show her that I care about her and think about her enough to come up with some amazing idea.” she had wanted to mention the fact that she had already spent so much time sitting at home, writing down the different ideas she could come up with onto a piece of paper. But each time she would end up staring at the last line for several minutes, trying to make up her mind about whether or not it was a horrible idea or if it might actually end up working, before inevitably bringing her pencil to the paper to cross out the words, pressing the tip of her pencil against the paper with so much strength that she had ended up tearing it apart in a couple of places. There simply was no need for Link to know how desperate she really was for him to come up with something she could do.

“Okay, so if the beach is not an option, then I guess that you could always… uh, I don’t know, invite her to go eat dinner at a fancy restaurant or something—oh, no wait then neither of you would be able to leave. Yeah, forget about that, that wasn’t a good idea.” a lost look defined his expression as he looked at her, shrugging his shoulders. “I am sorry, but I don’t think I am able to help you with that. Perhaps you could ask Revali.”

And that just proved that she should never admit to herself that she was desperate. Although she could of course still ask Revali, with how often Mipha had had to listen to him tell her about how he wished he was brave enough to just talk with Link, to go over to him and tell him that he liked the conversations and discussions about the customers and how to best prepare their orders that had soon morphed into something more, Mipha was not exactly as confident as Link in his ability to help her.

But still, she could admit that Link really was doing his best, so she faked a smile that might have been enough to fool someone who did not know her as well as he did. “I will try that.” she turned around to hang her apron up on the coat rack, but before she was able to take as much as a single step towards it, Link had reached out to grab her hand.

“Wait!” he waited for her to look back at him with a raised eyebrow before he continued. “I know that my suggestions were not the best, but I do still hope that you will be able to come up with something better. I really do want to see you happy, Mipha.”

“I am happy. I just know that I will have to be honest and tell her how I fell.”

But although Mipha was almost able to fool herself into thinking that her voice did not come dangerously close to breaking, Link still just looked at her with a sad expression on his face. And as he let go of her and she hurried over to hang up her apron, wanting to be sure that she would have left the room by the time she was no longer able to fight back the urge to cry, she could not help but wonder if there had been some degree of truth to the implication of how she had not been happy lately. She was happier than she had been in a long time when she was with Zelda. But even then, Mipha could not deny that, ever since Revali had invited her to come with him to that bar, her feelings had been a mess. And as she tried to recall how it had been between them before that point, Mipha was not sure if that was even the moment where it had changed between them. In hindsight, she could admit to herself that the little jab in her stomach of wanting to be able to ask Zelda to kiss her had perhaps been there for a longer time.

Well, that was only one more reason for wanting to do her best to make sure that, once she really did tell Zelda, everything would be perfect.

And although planning was not exactly one of her strong points, Mipha knew that she had to come up with something perfect.

+++

“You want to do what?” Revali asked her, his voice rising even though they both knew that he had heard every word of what she had said.

Mipha bit back a sigh and prepared herself for the hug that would no doubt hit her once she had repeated herself. “I said that I had thought about inviting Zelda to celebrate the Festival of Hylia with us.”

She was right, but even then, the sheer intensity of the hug still managed to catch her by surprise as Revali threw his arms around her and pulled her in for an embrace that felt like it should have dislocated a few ribs.

“I can’t believe it!” Revali said, his voice slightly muffled by him speaking into her hair. “I will still have to deal with you teasing me about how I was the one of us who took the longest to admit our feelings to the people we are in love with! Couldn’t you just have waited a few months more so that I would forever be able to counter any argument you might make about how long it took for me to finally tell Link with the fact that it took you even more time?”

Mipha laughed, hitting his shoulder. “Excuse me, I think you mean ‘couldn’t you wait about half a year more while continuing to look longingly at the person you are in love with every time you are at the café at the same time, completely failing to notice the fact that they might be doing the exact same thing, while continually talking to your best friend about how you are sure that the chance of them actually returning your feelings are as close to non-existent as they can get’.”

Retaliating by shoving her away from him, Revali lifted an eyebrow. “So you admit that there might be a chance of Zelda telling you that she feels the same way about you as you do about her?”

The question made Mipha paused, all of the teasing remarks dying in her throat. There was a chance was there not? After all, was that not the very reason she had even been able to gather the courage to begin to plan all of this, the fact that—as small as it probably was—Zelda might surprise her?

“I suppose there might be.” Mipha admitted, trying to downplay the way the butterflies fluttered in her stomach as she imagined the possibility. “I mean, she will most likely tell me that she would prefer for us to stay friends, but, yes, I suppose that there is a small chance of her returning my feelings.”

“Goddesses, did I hear correctly?” Revali asked, poking her in the side. “Did you actually finally admit that I might have been right along? No, I must not have heard correctly. Could I ask you to repeat yourself once again, just to be sure? I just want to know that I will be able to remind you of this again later without you denying the fact that I was right.”

“Don’t make me regret inviting her. If you are going to make fun of me like this when Zelda gets here, I think I would rather refrain from even asking her to join us.”

Revali’s teasing smile faltered a bit as he nodded at her. “Okay, I promise you that I won’t mention any of this to Zelda. But I will still take every opportunity between now and the moment she steps through the door on the day to make fun of you.”

“Hmm,” Mipha huffed, “you are starting to make me think that I should have accepted my dad’s invitation to pay for my train ticket home. At least I know that he and Sidon would not constantly rub in the fact that they might have been right all along.”

“You know that Sidon would have spent every waking moment urging you to call Zelda to tell her how you feel, right?” Revali countered, the teasing smirk having appeared once more. Apparently she had failed to hide the fact that, no matter what he said, Mipha was not going to change her plans regarding the people she would celebrate the festival with. “Or at least that was what Link told me he acted like when he was trying to convince him to talk with me.”

“Oh, I know that. And do you know why?” Mipha continued, not pausing for a moment. “Because he would call me to let me know that I could tell you that you could absolutely tell Link how you felt without any risk of him telling you that your feelings were unrequited, but did that help? No, you still continued to pine for him.”

“Okay, okay,” Revali said, holding up his hands, “I get it. I wasn’t any better than you are now. I won’t try to tease you about this anymore—or, well, any more than what is strictly necessary to remind you that you aren’t any better at me when it comes to love.” he blinked at her. “I can’t have you thinking that I am totally hopeless when compared to you, now, can I?”

“You don’t even have to compare yourself to me, you are hopeless anyway.”

“You wound me. But you are still bringing Zelda along, right?”

“I haven’t asked her yet,” Mipha said, her words accompanied by a shrug, an attempt to not let it show how she had spent a good part of the last couple of days sitting with her phone, staring at the name in her contacts while trying to figure out how she could invite Zelda. It just seemed like it would be too casual to pretend that she had not wondered about it and simply mention that she and Revali were planning a little celebration and that she could come along if she wanted. But on the other hand, Mipha doubted that it would be smart to make any grand gestures while asking her if she wanted to come along. Besides, what if Zelda already had planned something? Or, even worse, what if she had actually meant to celebrate the festival with her father, only for the plans to have fallen apart now that they were no longer on speaking terms with each other, making it so that Mipha mentioning having plans would remind her of that? There were simply so many things she had to consider before she would be able to do anything.

“Well, you should probably hurry up and do it. If not, then there is always the risk that she has already made other plans.”

She could hear the frustration at the reminder seeping into her voice. “I know. It just isn’t that easy.”

Revali sent her a long glance. “But maybe it could be.” before Mipha got the chance to ask him what he meant by that, he had darted forward, grabbing her phone from her pocket. Too late, Mipha realised what he was about to do, and by then, he had already unlocked the phone, and, Hylia, why had she told him her password? Surely, not even the fact that he would be able to contact her family in an emergency could be worth how he now had direct access to Zelda’s mobile number.

Mipha could hear how the phone beeped. That was her chance. She sprinted towards him, reaching for her phone, but Revali simply held it over his head, pushing her away with his shoulder. In his hand, the phone beeped again, and then Zelda’s voice filled the room, immediately silencing both Revali and Mipha.

“Yes? Hello, this is Zelda.”

With a smirk, Revali handed the phone back to Mipha, who was now unable to do anything but send him an icy glance as she pressed the phone to her ear, adopting a relaxed tone as she answered. “Hello, Zelda, this is Mipha.”

“Oh, Mipha, it’s good to hear from you.” and it sounded like Zelda meant it a she continued. “Would you believe it, I was actually just about to go to grab my phone so that I could talk with you when you called. What a coincidence, don’t you think?”

Perhaps it was. Mipha could not exactly deny it, but even then, she knew that she had to cut in soon if she wanted to be able to say her reasons for calling—or, well, technically, she supposed it was Revali’s reasons for calling—so she hummed faintly before cutting through, keeping her voice down and turning away from Revali in the process. At the very least, she could try to make it so that he would not also be rewarded for betraying her like that by also gaining the knowledge of what Zelda had said.

“Yes, that is quite the coincidence,” she agreed, “but I actually wanted to ask you about something.”

“Okay, what did you want to ask me about?”

“Well,” Mipha said, pausing as she tried her best to focus, ignoring the flutter in her chest. She had to make sure that this would be perfect, “I was thinking, since it will be time to celebrate the Festival of Hylia in just a few days… Revali, Link, and I have already agreed to have a little get-together in my flat.” at that, she could see how Revali stared at her, no doubt having to fight the urge to correct her and note that was also his flat, and Mipha sent a sarcastic smile in his direction before once more focusing on the conversation. “I was just thinking, uh, you haven’t already planned to do something that day have you?” she might as well make sure that she was not risking embarrassing herself for nothing.

The answer came promptly, almost like Zelda wasn’t able to keep it back any longer, and although she knew that she was most likely getting her hopes up for something that would never be able to lead to anything but her becoming disappointed in the end, Mipha could not help but hope that maybe Zelda was as happy about the chance of spending the day of the festival with her as Mipha was. “No, no, I am not doing anything that day. Why?” Zelda said, and was it just something Mipha was imagining, or did she sound slightly breathless?

No matter what the answer to that question would have been, Mipha swallowed, using the second it gave her to make sure that she would have her voice under control and that she would not have to worry about making a high-pitched sound or her voice breaking. “Uh, I am happy to hear that—not because I wouldn’t want you to get the chance to do something fun during that day, but because I was actually thinking if perhaps you would be interested in… spending the day with us. We aren’t going to do a lot, just sit here at home, make a nice meal and maybe sit down to play a couple of board games or something like that, so it would not be like we would go out into the town all day and—” she was rambling, Mipha could hear it, but even then she could not make herself stop. It felt so incredibly important to let Zelda know how their evening would most likely end up being quite boring, both so that Zelda would not worry about them deciding to out and make new memories by doing all kinds of hazardous things, but also so that she would not later wonder why she had decided to waste her time by going to join them only to end up sitting around their coffee table with a dice in her hand. The risk of that happening was low, Mipha could admit that much, but it still felt like it was worth mentioning.

“I would love to!” the amount of excitement present in Zelda’s answer was not quite what Mipha had expected, and it managed to render her speechless for a second. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw how Revali mouthed a silent question at her, no doubt asking her what Zelda had answered, but she really could not begin to pay attention to him and attempt to figure out what he was saying, not when it would also mean risking missing a single word of what Zelda was saying. And as Zelda continued, it meant that Mipha suddenly became quite busy with readjusting the phone, straining her ears to catch exactly what Zelda was saying.

“Do I need to bring anything? I have been told that I am pretty good at preparing snacks, so maybe I could do that, since I doubt you would want me to subject you to another result of my experiments in the kitchen, but if you need me to make anything, don’t hesitate to say so,” the words came rushing at her, Zelda barely pausing to breathe, “because I promise that I would be more than happy to help you prepare for the day—wait, do you need help with decorations? I don’t think I saw anything the last time you invited me over.”

“Don’t worry,” Mipha said, deciding that if she didn’t want for Zelda to accidentally pass out as a result of not taking a moment to breathe, she would probably have to interrupt her, as rude as it felt, “I have already organised it all. We are going to help each other with preparing the dinner so we have already agreed to meet here in our flat at five. Does that work for you?”

“It does.”

“Good. So we are going to do that here, and you don’t have to help with the food if you know already that you would most likely end up creating something like those pancakes,” the sound of muffled laughter told Mipha that Zelda had not taken it as an insult and her stomach felt a little bit lighter as she continued, “as for the decorations, Revali and I were actually just talking about how we were going to head out to figure out if we need to buy something since Revali has volunteered to be responsible for that.”

“What? No, I haven’t agreed to be in charge of the decorations—” Revali began, but Mipha silenced him with a single glance, and he bit back any more objections he might have had, seemingly realising that this was her way of getting revenge on him for having forced her to tell Zelda about the invitation.

“Oh, okay, so I just have to be there at five and then we will figure the rest out from there?”

“Pretty much. We do need to decide what we want to make since I will need to have all the ingredients for the recipe, but, other than that, yes, we will just figure things out as we go along. It isn’t like there are a lot of things for us to decide, seeing as it will just be you, Revali, Link, and I, so we don’t have to make too many plans in advance. That isn’t a problem, is it?”

“No, not at all,” Zelda replied, and Mipha was happy to hear that there was no trace of Zelda faking the cheerful tone present in her voice, “in fact, I think I prefer that to anything that is too planned. I have kind of gotten sick of attending events where it feels like someone has already planned how every single second of the evening is going to be, you know?”

Mipha wasn’t sure if she really knew that feeling. Maybe it was just because she could not remember ever having been to such a celebration, but she could not imagine actually having to be present at an event like what Zelda was talking about. But with the way Zelda had told her about her father, Mipha could easily imagine how it must have felt, so she hummed in agreement. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound like any of us would have been a fan of it either, so that is definitely not the way this is going to be.”

“Well, in that case, I will be looking forward to the day.”

It should not feel as good as it did to hear Zelda say that. After all, it was not like Zelda had said that she was looking forward to seeing Mipha or that she could not wait for another opportunity to spend more time together with her than the couple of minutes they could make time for at the café the way Mipha could barely wait to see her, but she had still admitted that she was going to at the very least think about the celebration in between the moment she would end the call and the moment she would step through the door, the same way Mipha was sure that she would not be able to sleep properly once the date of the festival neared and that had to count for something, didn’t it?

Mipha did not get a chance to consider the answer to the question for any longer as Zelda soon cut through her thoughts. “I am sorry, but I was actually meaning to sit down and work for a bit, you know, before my phone managed to distract me, so I should probably get back to doing that now.”

“Oh,” Mipha said, and she hated the way she knew she was not able to hide the disappointment in her voice, “Yeah, you probably should. I certainly don’t want to be the one who distracts you from your work if it means you won’t get to finish it.” she tried her best to add a chuckle, but it sounded weirdly shrill even to her, and from the way Revali cringed, sending her a pitying look, Mipha knew that she was not the only who had noticed it.

“No, it isn’t your fault,” Zelda said, and at least it did not sound like she had been able to guess the reasons for what had caused the sudden shift in Mipha’s voice, “It just goes to show that I should really have known better than to think I could just look at my phone for a moment to make sure that I had not missed any important messages.”

“Yeah, you should probably try turning it off,” Mipha joked.

“I probably should… well, I am grateful that you wanted to invite me, I promise you that you aren’t going to regret it.”

How would that ever have been an issue? Mipha could not imagine how Zelda would ever have managed to make her regret inviting her, not with how much time she had spent trying to both figure out what tactic she could use to tell Zelda that she was definitely in love with her and how she could invite her to spend the festival with her. Her, Revali and Link, of course. It wasn’t like it would only be the two of them, after all. No, if that had been the case, Mipha was quite sure she would never have dared to ask her. That would have felt a little too much like a romantic situation to put them in, even though Zelda would most likely also have ended up declining if it had just been her and Mipha.

The sound of the phone beeping right next to her ear was what made her aware of the fact that Zelda had ended the call, and slowly, almost like she could will the phone to start ringing once more and for Zelda to tell her that she had actually just then realised that she was in love with her if she kept it pressed against her ear for long enough, Mipha lowered the phone, letting her arm hang by her side, a relaxed grip around her phone. It felt unreal, but she had actually invited her. It simply should not have been possible for her to do that, she had to be dreaming, and in just a moment, she would wake up to find out that, no, she was indeed still trying to figure out what words she could use to let Zelda know that they, no, that Mipha would love spending time with her during the Festival of Hylia without also giving away the fact that Mipha would simply love spending time with her no matter the date.

“What did she say?” Revali asked, and as Mipha looked up at him, she couldn’t help but notice how he looked like he was barely able to contain his excitement, rolling back and forth over the soles of his feet.

And even though he had put her on the spot like that by calling Zelda for her, Mipha was not able to stay angry, not when he was also such a big part of the reason for why she could now go out and buy food for four people instead of three, so, rather than waiting, taking her time to tell him what she had said, she joined him in his excitable movement, the joy seeping into her voice as she answered. “She said yes.”

“She did?” Revali made a little jump, and although his tone of voice had just enough surprise hidden in it for Mipha to wonder if she should feel insulted, she did not even try to fight back the smile.

“Yeah. She did.”

Chapter Text

Despite Mipha being certain that she had made it completely clear how she did not expect to see them until five, by the time her phone showed a quarter past four, both Link and Zelda had already arrived, sitting in the living room while she and Revali hurried to get into their clothes.

Mipha had to admit that, though she should probably have known better and been able to guess that they would be there earlier than what she had planned for, all things considered, this was most definitely not something she had expected. So by the time she came back outside to join them, she could not help but feel that she still looked ridiculous especially compared to the way Zelda had seemingly made her hair defy gravity, having put it up into a high bun. Even Revali, who had only gotten a few minutes to get ready the way Mipha had also done, had managed to look somewhat put together by the time he came back outside.

But still, when Zelda jumped to her feet to make space for Mipha on the couch, she beamed at her, reaching out to pull her in for a hug before gesturing towards the empty spot she had just moved away from. “You look beautiful.”

Mipha’s heart skipped a beat and only the fact that by the time Zelda let the compliment surprise her, her face had been turned away from her, hidden by her hair, gave her the seconds she needed to collect her thoughts.

As discretely as she could make it, Mipha cleared her throat. “You don’t have to say that. I know that I don’t look the way I had planned.” leaning back and enjoying the way Zelda reached out to let her hands rest on her shoulders, Mipha faked a smile. “After all, you had a lot more time to get ready than I did.”

“No, I mean it. You do look beautiful,” Zelda repeated, and this time, Mipha did not bother to argue with her. Zelda wanted to be polite and compliment her host, and despite knowing full well that she should not let herself begin to hope, Mipha would have lied if she tried to claim that it did not make her feel like the clouds had just parted for the first time after a long winter, letting the sun shine down on her face.

In the end, it was Revali of all people who was the first to lose his patience.

“Well, we should probably get started on dinner,” he declared, clapping his hands together, and, not waiting for their response, he turned around to head into the kitchen.

Zelda let her hands drop from Mipha’s shoulders, though the tip of her fingers still drew a trail along her arms as she made a grimace. “We should probably do as he said and go to help him, shouldn’t we? Otherwise, I have known him for enough time to say with absolute certainty that he will be in here in a couple of seconds to ask us what we have against helping with preparing the food.”

Even as Mipha pressed a finger to her lips, shushing her, she could not supress a laugh. “Don’t let him hear you if you don’t want to be told about how annoying the latest customer has been.”

Zelda raised a brow. “And what does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing at all.” this time it was Link who came to support Mipha’s point, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he leant back against the wall. “Mipha just likes exaggerating how Revali won’t let customers walk all over us.” he must have noticed how Mipha was about to make another joke, for he barely paused to breathe before turning towards Zelda. “If you come with me to help make dinner, I will tell you this one time where Mipha had to deal with this old lady who was so sure that we were lying about how milkshake had been taken off the menu years ago, and how Revali had to swoop in to save us both.”

And apparently that was enough to make Zelda abandon her, walking over to Link and sending him a smile. “I would love to hear that. Although I doubt that you and Revali will actually want my help in the kitchen if it requires anything to do with baking.” her shoulders shook as she laughed.

“Oh, I am sure you can’t be that bad at it,” Link encouraged her, and Mipha could hear the same kind of naïve stupidity in his voice that had been present back when she too had thought that Zelda’s insistence that she lacked the ability to bake was just Zelda trying her best not to brag, “besides, I think Revali has already decided that he will be the one to make the bread.”

Link walked in front of Zelda to open the door, so Mipha assumed that he did not see the way Zelda turned around to look at her, making an exaggerated gesture of letting out a sigh of relief, before the wrinkles around her eyes appeared once more and she reached out, silently calling for Mipha to come with them. That was all Mipha needed, and moving so quickly that she almost managed to fail to see the chair right in front of her, coming dangerously to colliding with it, she hurried over to join them just in time to walk into the kitchen the exact moment when Revali had seemingly decided that he had grown tired of waiting for them, with the result being that he almost collided with Link in the doorway. Instead, he turned to the side, putting just a bit too much force behind his movement so that his shoulder hit the doorframe.

Rubbing his shoulder Revali did his best to scowl at them, but he could not keep a straight face for even a second. “Oh, I see you decided to join me out here. Come, then I will show you what tasks you have to choose between. Since I was the first one to actually start working, I felt like I could decide for myself what I wanted to do and then leave the rest to you.”

Although it turned out that Link had been wrong when he had assumed that Revali would already have taken the task of preparing the bread upon himself, in the end, they managed to divide the tasks so that Zelda ended up with something they all deemed relatively safe, the salad.

“Are you really sure that you trust me with a knife?” Zelda joked by the time Mipha had dug the ingredients out of the fridge and given up on figuring out where Revali had put the knives. “I mean, you really should know better given how you have seen the way I approach anything in a kitchen.”

Behind her, Mipha could hear Revali snicker, whispering something that sound suspiciously like ‘I doubt that was what Mipha really paid attention to while being there’ to Link, barely bothering to keep his voice down and hide his mouth behind his hand, making it so that it was only luck that kept the conversation between Mipha and Zelda from taking a sudden turn for a subject that would undoubtedly be infinitely more awkward. As Mipha felt her cheeks grow warmer, the only thing she had to use to lessen the embarrassment was the fact that Zelda was still looking at her, not turning around to ask Revali to clarify what he had meant by that. And if she had heard just half of Revali’s comment, then that would surely have been her reaction, would it not? Mipha hoped so.

She got her revenge on him halfway through dinner when she was able to entertain the others with the story of one of Revali’s adventures at work, and by the way he smiled at her, lightly hitting her left foot under the table, Mipha could tell that he had accepted it as revenge.

So they settled down in the couch, Revali being slowed down a bit by how he had stopped to, with a little bow, appoint himself as the one with the best tastes in board games, declaring that that meant he should be the one to pick what game they should begin with. They could hear him rummage through the closet in the hallway even from where they were setting, and by the time he entered the room again, he had a box squeezed between his arm and side, though he was quick to hold it over his head, proudly telling them that they were lucky that he had been able to dig it out since he had at first struggled to find it due to it having been pushed towards the back of the closet.

With how dramatic he was being about it all, Mipha was quick to accept Link’s idea of them splitting up into two teams to play, though she did still nudge Revali in the side and make a teasing remark when Link continued, saying that he and Zelda would be on one team while Revali and Mipha would be on the other. Revali took it in stride, simply putting his arm around her and telling Zelda that she should start to prepare herself to lose since he had never once had to experience what it was like to lose before telling them that he and Mipha would take the couch while Link and Zelda could drag the chairs over to sit on the opposite side of the table.

Had it not been for how Zelda kept smiling through it all, stifling a laugh as Revali crossed his arms, stating that, since he and Mipha were already sitting on the couch, they should not have to move, Mipha would most likely have ended up commenting that since both Link and Zelda were the guests, they should probably get to choose where they wanted to sit. But she didn’t, and before long, Revali had divided the pieces between them and handed Zelda the back of the box to read the rules.

Although Mipha would be the first to admit that she was nowhere near as good as Revali when it came to knowing the tactics for the game, it did not take long before they were several points ahead of Link and Zelda, the point cards on the table in front of her almost being enough to build a little tower with. Or rather, they were, until Zelda out of nowhere began to collect points like her life depended on it, slowly but surely catching up with them.

“You are cheating,” Revali declared, staring at them as Zelda received yet another point, reducing their lead even more, “you have to be, there is simply no way you would suddenly be this good at this game, especially with how you haven’t ever tried it before. Tell me what you are doing!”

Zelda laughed as she reached out to take yet another point card, adding it to the growing pile in front of her and Link on the table. “Is it really that unbelievable that I might just have learnt the rules of the game by now and that you might have to give up your title of being the uncontested best player?”

“Yes, it is.” Revali insisted, narrowing his eyes at her as he followed the card’s journey over to her pile before shifting on the couch to point at Mipha. “You are helping her, aren’t you? Somehow, you are helping her.”

The shock of the accusation made her laugh, almost dropping her cup of tea. “Me? Why would I help her cheat? You and I are on the same team, remember?”

“You know why. We can all see how—” Revali barely managed to stop himself in time. Mipha could only hope that she had been the only one to notice the slip as he corrected himself, “close friends you are.”

“Wait, so are you saying that the two of you aren’t close friends as well?” Link quipped from his seat next to Mipha.

After the game had begun, it had not taken long before he had gone to sit down next to Revali, and given how it began to look like they were coming dangerously close to forgetting about the existence of both Mipha and Zelda, Mipha was grateful when she felt Zelda tug at her hand, having gone to stand next to her as she gestured towards the balcony.

“I have something I wanted to talk with you about,” she said when Mipha sent her a questioning nod, “but… I would prefer if we could go somewhere where we could be somewhat alone, and well, with these two I doubt we will have to go that far away to achieve just that.” she went silent, waiting for Mipha to take her hand.

And she wanted to. Hylia, no matter what Zelda could possibly have to tell her, even if it turned out to be that she knew about how Mipha’s heart would skip a beat whenever she entered the room and that she didn’t feel like they could be friends anymore, Mipha wanted to hear it. But the balcony… anywhere but that, and Mipha would have taken Zelda’s hand in a heartbeat, no doubt about it, but that was her grand gesture, it was all out there. Mipha was not ready yet, she had not expected Zelda to want to see the balcony. It had been a poor plan, but she had thought that she would be able to hide it all out there.

But as Zelda looked down at her, patiently waiting for her to reach out and take her hand, Mipha could not make herself tell her that she would rather go anywhere but out onto the balcony right then. So she didn’t.

“Oh, of course,” she said. That should be enough to pass off her reluctance as her simply not having focused on what Zelda was saying from the start.

Just as Zelda had predicted, neither Link nor Revali as much as looked up to acknowledge the fact that they were leaving. The door leading out onto the tiny balcony creaked slightly when Mipha pulled it open, and maybe it was for the better that she had agreed to go there with Zelda. If she had been prepared to present her with her surprise, Mipha was not sure she would still have the courage to continue on after hearing the whine of rusty metal protesting against her fight to open the door. But they nevertheless stepped out onto the balcony. It was just barely wide enough for both of them to be able to stand there at the same time. If Zelda were to move just a single step closer to her, Mipha knew that she would have to step onto her feet since she had already moved as far away from the door as she possibly could. As it was, Zelda stood with her back against the railing, holding onto the metal with her left hand. Mirroring her pose, Mipha looked out over the city.

Given how it was the Festival of Hylia, she really should not have been surprised to see the amount of people walking around below her, but, somehow, it still managed to surprise her every year.

But no matter how much she wanted to know what her neighbours were planning to do to celebrate the day, the curiosity could not compete with her need to hear why Zelda had needed to speak to her alone. It was not a question of merely being interested in the answer. No, as Mipha stood there, so close to Zelda that the fragrance of her perfume felt like it was the only thing she could smell, her stomach turning at the thought of just how badly this could end, she knew that she would not be able to have to wait for a single second more to learn why Zelda had asked her to come out there.

And still, she did her best to sound calm when she asked. “What did you want to talk with me about?”

Zelda looked away from her, and, almost like she was trying to make Mipha wait on purpose, she took a deep breath before she answered. “I know that this might be sudden, and if it is too sudden, just tell me so, and then we can go back inside and pretend that this never happened, or you can tell me to leave, whatever you want.”

What? What could Zelda possibly want to tell her that would make her think that that would ever be something Mipha would do?

The sight of everything she had placed out on the floor of the balcony just a few hours earlier, the binoculars, poorly hidden away underneath a white sheet, lying right there in front of her, almost like they wanted to mock her, caught her eye. Could it be it? Scared that she would only end up making herself even sadder in the end if she was wrong, Mipha allowed herself to consider it. If Revali asked her about it later, she would deny ever having thought it, but right then, Zelda sounded an awful lot like how she had done when discussing Zelda with Revali and Link over those last months, didn’t she? It might be nothing, just her brain trying to cling onto even the smallest hope, but it was there, and Mipha would hug it tightly for as long as she possibly could.

Mipha let herself reach out to place a hand on Zelda’s shoulder. “No matter what you have to say, I won’t tell you to leave.”

But Zelda’s smile did not quite reach her eyes. “You might want to wait until I have actually told you what this is about to make any promises.” she sighed, turning away from Mipha to look at the city.

She had to do something. This was not how Mipha was used to Zelda acting. Granted, she had never been pulled aside by her before with the message that there was something she had to tell her, but even then, it did not feel right.

The binoculars formed a little bump underneath the sheet. Even though it was not how she had planned to present her with the surprise, with how Zelda was already not acting the way Mipha would have expected of her, she decided that it would be okay to change the plan a little.

“Actually,” Mipha said, happy to see that it at the very least made Zelda tear her gaze away from the building on the opposite side of the street, “I have something I wanted to talk with you about as well.”

At that, Mipha could see how Zelda swallowed, and for a second, before she had managed to regain her calm composure, Mipha could have sworn that she saw pain in Zelda’s eyes. But she did not comment on it, instead gesturing towards Zelda. She moved to the side, allowing Mipha to reach the sheet and pull it away from the binoculars and look back up at her, trying to gauge her reaction as she continued. “I know that this is not really the perfect time to tell you about this,” Mipha admitted, lifting up the binoculars and letting herself lower it a couple of times, feeling how the weight of it in her hand made it so much easier for her to remain calm, remembering how she had wanted to do this to make Zelda happy and that, even though this was not the way she had imagined it happening, this was still part of her plan, “but, what can I say? Sometimes you have to accept that things can’t all happen the exact way you want them to, and the most important thing is still that you are here,” she held out the binoculars towards Zelda, “because these are for you.”

Zelda moved slowly, letting her hand rest on top of the binoculars for a moment before she took them, shooting Mipha a confused look in the process. “Binoculars? I, uh, what…?”

“I thought that you might want to look at the stars later. I know that we are in the city and that it is not as perfect as it was while on the beach,” Mipha could practically feel how her confidence, both in herself and the idea itself, crumbled as she continued, “but, you just looked like you really enjoyed sitting there on the beach, and although I know that we can’t exactly go there today, I just thought that you might want to get a chance to look at them again. And given how the light from them aren’t as visible in the city as it is on the countryside, I hoped that the binoculars might be of help to you. And, yes, I know that it is still light outside, but, well, what can I say? I had not expected for you to want to see the balcony, so, really, according to my original plan, I would not have given them to you until later in the evening, but, yeah, that plan would quite obviously not have worked out.” she paused to breathe.

There was no sign anywhere on Zelda’s face about whether or not she liked the surprise, no small pull around the corners of her mouth that would indicate the beginning of a smile, no crease between her eyebrows, nothing. Instead, Zelda almost appeared to do her best to avoid having to meet Mipha’s glance, continuing to stare down at the present, turning the binoculars around a couple of times, mouthing something to herself through it all, though she did not speak loudly enough for Mipha to make out what any of the words were.

Maybe that was why Mipha, when Zelda finally looked up at her, eyes shiny, did not know whether she had just made the biggest mistake of her life or if it would all be okay in the end. But the way Zelda threw her arms around her, pressing her head into her hair, told Mipha the answer to that question.

“That’s—that’s—” she began, having to start over a couple of times before she wiped the tears away with the heel of her hand, “Mipha, wow, I don’t know what to say, this is all…”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Mipha assured her, her gut twisting up into a nervous knot, doing its best to convince her that Zelda really did need to say something, needed to tell her whether or not she liked the present. But Mipha pushed it away again. This was about Zelda, not her, and her main priority would be to make sure she was okay, “I just thought that you might like getting the chance to go outside and look up at the stars some time.”

“And I would!” Zelda laughed, the sound so much more quiet than the sound that had come before it. “I just, goddesses, you really like making me even surer that I have to tell you this while I still have the courage to, don’t you?”

“Perhaps,” Mipha replied, and with how the nervous feeling in her stomach was growing, she would not have been surprised if she soon began to shake so much that Zelda would notice it as well, “that depends on what exactly you have to be to tell me.”

“Yes, I suppose it does.” Zelda breathed in, her voice growing more even as she once more looked up at Mipha. “What I am trying to say here is,” her gaze flickered away from her eyes, and, Hylia, was her heart really supposed to beat so quickly? Mipha doubted it, but did her best to force herself not to think about it as Zelda looked back up at her, “I think I might be in love with you.”

The world stopped spinning. Around her, everything stood still, with even the cars and the people down in the street below them stopping their noise, for once giving them the silence the moment called for. At least, that was how it felt to Mipha as the full meaning of Zelda’s words hit her, twirling around inside her head as her brain tried to make sense of it all. Love… it couldn’t be, could it?

As the mess of feelings flowed through her—joy, confusion, sadness, and so much more coming together to form a wave that washed in over her—Mipha almost did not hear how Zelda continued, but at the last moment, she mustered the power necessary to force herself to pay attention, letting the task of making sense of it all wait for later and simply listen as Zelda shook her head before adding. “No, I don’t think that I might be. I know that I am in love with you, there is no doubt about it.”

She should not have been able to be so calm about it, but, somehow she was. There was simply something about seeing Zelda lose her usual calmness that made the elation, surprise, and doubt that should have swept in over her the moment she got the chance to say something again go away, leaving only a strange sense of acceptance behind. So Zelda was in love with her. It should have made her jump with joy, but seeing as they were both standing on a tiny balcony several metres above the street below, Mipha managed to control herself.

She knew that she had to say something. Zelda was looking at her, and for every second that passed, the silence between them growing through it all, the hopeful look on her face faltered even more, instead being replaced with fear and regret.

“I know that it is sudden,” Zelda began, keeping her gaze fixed on her feet like she could take back the words if she simply stared enough, “and I know that you don’t have to answer me right now, that you don’t have to answer me ever if you don’t want to. I know that, and no matter what your answer is going to be, I hope that we can at least remain friends once you have had the time to process this. But if we can’t, I can understand that too. I just… please, I need you to say something. Just tell me if it is really as bad as it feels like it is right now.”

When she spoke, it felt like it was someone other than herself who formed the words, Mipha simply instructing them about what to say and how to act. There was an almost unreal sense about it, something making it feel like it was all a dream, how it could not be real that she was standing there with Zelda, the situation flipped around with Zelda fearing that she would be turned down and that she might just have caused an irreversible wound to appear in their friendship.

“Of course I am not going to stop being you friend,” Mipha finally found the words to say. It did not look like it really did a lot to cheer up Zelda, and Mipha could easily understand why. If she had been the one to gather up the courage the first, assuring Zelda that it would be fine for them to remain friends, for Zelda to immediately begin by telling her that they were still friends, Mipha knew that she too would have assumed that what was about to follow would be a long conversation about how Zelda did not feel the same for her, before they would finish it all off with the most awkward hug they would ever experience and then not really talk with each other for a long time.

But even as Mipha knew that, she still was not able to continue without letting Zelda know that there had never been a reason for her to worry about Mipha pulling away from her, letting their friendship end over something like this, not even if she had not spent the last months hoping that Zelda would return her feelings. “You are the most wonderful person I know, Zelda, I would never want to avoid you. Never, no matter what happened. And the reason I know that is that,” this was it, this was what she had spent so much time trying to figure out how to say. In that moment, Mipha knew that no amount of standing in front of her mirror, trying to piece together the words that would hopefully be able to convey her feelings, could have prepared her for this, and she felt just as lost as she would have been if she had acted on her feelings the very first time she was made aware of their existence, “well, I… you aren’t the only one who had planned to tell their friend that they were in love with them tonight.”

That made Zelda react. She jerked, lifting her head up to look at her, her eyes darting back and forth from one side of her face to the other. Mipha could tell how she was searching for signs of her lying to spare her feelings. After all, Mipha knew that she might very well have done that herself if she had been in Zelda’s place. But finally, Zelda settled on looking directly at her. Mipha could only hope that it meant she was convincing that she would not announce in just a second that, really, she had just said that she shared Zelda’s feelings in an attempt not to cause her any more pain.

“Really?” Zelda’s voice was barely more than a whisper, and, Hylia, there was nothing Mipha would not have done to change it so that Zelda did not have to sound like that, surprised and doubtful that she really did love her. “You are not just saying that because you are a good friend and don’t want to make me feel sad? Because if that is the case, I would much rather that you just told me now, before I begin to let myself hope. And I promise you that if you say that no, you don’t, I will do my best to hide all of this,” Zelda pointed at the air between them, gesturing both towards everything and nothing, “from now on. You won’t ever have to hear about it again.”

“No. No, I mean this. I just wish that I would not have to repeat it so many times. You deserve to let yourself believe it the very first time I told you.”

It seemed that she had finally managed to convince her, for Zelda’s breathing grew lighter, softer. As she brought her hand to her head, burying it in her hair, Mipha was shocked to see that she was actually crying, her entire body shaking as tears streamed down her face. Not even Zelda’s grip on the railing was enough to keep her still and hide it. It was not how Mipha had hoped for any of this to happen. Never, during all of the times she had let herself imagine the exact scenario she was now in, had she thought about Zelda beginning to cry. Yell at Mipha for how she had thought they were friends, yes. Tell her that she had not been nursing a desperate hope and that there really was a chance between them, yes. But never this. And now that it had happened, Mipha did not know what to do.

So she went with what her heart wanted her to, ignoring the way the butterflies fluttered around in her stomach and the way her brain screamed at her that her gesture had failed, that Zelda would now not get the opportunity to look at the stars the way Mipha had wanted her to, and knelt down next to her. The railing was right behind her, the cold metal making her shiver slightly as she moved to sit closer to Zelda, accidentally brushing past it in the process.

“Zelda, I don’t know what I can do right now that would help you, but I am going to try my best, okay?” she said, waiting for just a moment. It did not seem that Zelda had the energy to answer her. Either that, or she simply did not want Mipha to attempt to help her. Mipha hoped that it would not be the latter option, and continued. “I am going to hug you. If you don’t want me to, just push me away or say something, but you look like you need a hug.”

Slowly, giving Zelda enough time to make up her mind and push her away if she wanted to, Mipha reached out towards her, pulling Zelda into an embrace. They sat like that on the balcony for what felt like ages, though it most likely did not last longer than a couple of minutes. Through it all, Mipha could feel the panic running through Zelda, making her shake lightly, but as the seconds passed, she gradually began to relax, the movements becoming smaller until she began to shift, turning around to look at Mipha.

“Thank you.” to Mipha’s joy, the twinkle in Zelda’s eyes did not appear to be forced as she looked at her. “And I am sorry about sitting down to cry like that. Believe me, you have a beautiful balcony, the last thing I would want to do would be to waste the time we are able to spend out here.”

It wasn’t funny, but Mipha still found herself responding to the observation by laughing. “If you think that this balcony is impressive, you should see the one at Link and Sidon’s place. That is so much better than this one. There are even flowers growing out there in the pots that Sidon made me decorate with tiny paintings of flowers.”

“Yes, but I am betting that their balcony would still not be able to compete with this one, not when you are out here. No amount of flowers, despite how beautiful the pots they are growing in might be, would ever be enough to surpass the fact that you are out here with me.” Zelda moved closer to her, and Mipha did the same. In that moment, even the small balcony felt much too large for them, with so much space between them. As Zelda placed her arm around her waist, it felt like it had been meant to be there from the very first time they had met each other, Zelda pulling her closer, a strand of her hair brushing against Mipha’s cheek.

“I am sure that you are also a big part of the reason for why this balcony would be able to take on Link and Sidon’s any day of the week,” Mipha breathed, but right then, she could not have cared less about which balcony was the prettiest. All that mattered was the fact that she had never noticed the tiny freckle next to Zelda’s mouth and that Zelda was grinning at her while they were so close that Mipha doubted they could have gotten closer even if they had tried.

Which seemed to be what Zelda wanted to do, for her gaze flickered from Mipha’s eyes down to the bottom half of her face. Her breathing sounded uneven as she began. “Mipha… may I kiss you?”

The question was almost silly. Was she allowed to kiss her? What could Mipha possibly have said that did not include the fact that she had waited for that to happen for weeks? But she managed to stay calm for just enough time to give Zelda a small nod. And that was all that it took.

She had been wrong. They could get even closer. Even as Zelda’s hair feel forward, several strands of it escaping the grip the hairpins had had on it to instead move in front of Zelda’s face and get all tangled up, Mipha knew that she would not have changed anything. Everything about the moment was perfect, from the way Zelda reached out to draw her in, her hair moving to the side and into Mipha’s face to the way her heart beat against her ribs.

Zelda pulled away, and although it had felt like they had been there for centuries, Mipha had to stop herself from reaching out to beg her to stay just a little longer, to stay with her out there. She wanted nothing more than to let the entire world stop around her in that very moment to make it so that they would not have to move away, but until that would be possible for her to achieve, she merely reached out to brush Zelda’s hair out of her face, Zelda leaning in towards her.

“Would it be mean of me if I say that I enjoyed that a lot more than our first kiss?” she laughed, eyes sparkling and shoulders shaking.

“No, I don’t think it would be.” Mipha decided, and for once, she did not even bother trying to hide how she was blushing. With how warm her face felt and how quickly her heart was beating, she doubted that there was anything she could do that would have been enough to hide it. And then she realised what Zelda had just said. That this kiss was better than the first. The first kiss, her mind supplied, helpfully, everything else slowing down around her, almost allowing Mipha to see how the dots connected in her mind, the kiss in the bar.

From what Mipha could recall—and she was sure that she had not merely forgotten about something—that was the only other time they had kissed. To help making a lie seem sincere, with Zelda getting drunk mere hours later, saving mipha from the horror of having the night follow her into the rest of her life. That was why they were able to, for the most part, continue on like nothing had happened afterwards, save for Mipha having to struggle with her own feelings.

“But what do you mean ‘our first kiss’?” Mipha asked, the words in no hurry to make themselves heard, Mipha more than ready to stop speaking the moment Zelda gave her a sign that she had not meant anything at all while saying it.

However, the way Zelda’s face fell, twisting into a guilty grimace told her that it had not been something she had said just to say something. “I am sorry, but… when I told you that I had gotten so drunk that I could not remember that night at the bar… well, it wasn’t the truth. Or, the part about me becoming really drunk was, but it was not enough to forget about you. I doubt anything would have been.”

Despite how Zelda was looking at her, clearly battling with her own guilt over the lies, Mipha mostly cared about the last half, and felt how the blush was surely spreading down her neck while Zelda looked back at her, momentarily pausing, her expression telling her how she was trying to find the words as she continued. “I just didn’t know what to do. I was so sure that I had just managed to ruin everything between us and I didn’t know how to talk with you about it. So I continued to drink, hoping that maybe, if I just got drunk enough, I would wake up the next day to find out that the answer as to what to do would have come to me during the night. Only, it didn’t. But when I visited you at the café, believe me, I had every intention of talking with you and sorting out all of this between us. But when I really had to do it, I found that I did not have the courage that would be necessary, so I decided to not mention it at all. It was dumb, I know, but please believe me when I say that it was because I was scared.”

“Hey,” Mipha leant in towards her, running her thumb along her cheek, “I don’t blame you for not saying something, not at all. After all, how would I be able to be angry at you for staying silent when I did the exact same thing myself? That would make me quite the hypocrite, wouldn’t it?” she was happy to see that it caused a small smile to tug at the corners of Zelda’s mouth.

“I suppose it would,” Zelda agreed, leaning even closer to her, “but I just need to know that you aren’t angry that I didn’t tell you.”

“Not at all. I am just happy that, with how it looks right now, neither of us will try to do the same thing tomorrow and deny that this has ever happened.” although Mipha did her best to make her tone of voice light and joking, she knew that she was not able to completely keep the hopeful warmth from seeping into her voice as she searched Zelda’s face for a response.

It was quick to appear, Zelda shaking her head vigorously. “No, I would never do that. Not after doing it once already. Trust me, I know better know.” a look that Mipha could not quite recognise flickered over Zelda’s face as she looked her straight in the eye. “But, if you want to, perhaps we could try again? Just to make sure that it would be even harder for any of us to pretend that we don’t remember this tomorrow, since two kisses must be a lot harder to pretend to have forgotten about than only one.”

“And that is the only reason you are asking me?” Mipha laughed, but no matter that, she was more than happy to drop the issue of the lies, instead letting herself fully enjoy the moment, something that was easier than anything she had ever done as Zelda once more pulled her in for a kiss. And, to her surprise, it was even better the second time—though Mipha supposed that it might technically be the third time the two of them kissed. It was not only due to the fact that Zelda’s hair now stayed either in the bun or behind her shoulders rather than trying to interfere, but also that she could practically feel how the weight of the lie had been lifted from both of their shoulders.

“We should probably get back inside soon,” Zelda breathed as she pulled away, nodding towards the living room next to them, the toss of the head making an even bigger mess of her already tousled hair, “although it did not look like they were going to miss us anytime soon when we left, I think that they might soon begin to wonder where we have gone.”

“Let them wonder,” Mipha smiled, though she still moved to stand up, letting Zelda help her, “I think I have heard Revali sigh over Link for enough time to justify staying out here for just a little bit longer.”

“So would I, but I would rather go in there myself than suddenly have Revali and Link come over to make sure that we are still okay and that we haven’t fallen asleep out here. Besides,” even as Zelda winked at her, there was a glimmer of uncertainty in her eyes, “we will have plenty of time to continue after today.” she let Mipha put her arm around her waist before adding. “Won’t we?”

Mipha could not have been more certain about her answer. “We will.”

Even as they walked back inside, letting Revali make a couple of jokes about how they would no longer be able to tease him and Link, laughing through it all while Link sat next to him, sending a warm smile towards them, Mipha knew that Zelda had been right. They might have left the balcony, they might no longer be in the same spot that had finally given them both the courage to admit their feelings for each other, but there was no way things would be able to go back to the way they had been before. And although that was the exact thing Mipha had feared so much during those past few months, in that moment, she could not have been happier about it.

Chapter Text

Zelda entered the flat in a hurry of excitement and joy, her coat hitting the floor only a fraction of a second before she sprinted over to Mipha in the living room, throwing her arms around her. Despite the surprise, Mipha reacted instinctively, lifting her up and spinning around.

“I did it! I really did it!” Zelda yelled, wobbling for a moment as Mipha placed her back down onto the floor. “Goddesses, this feels so much better than I had ever thought it would, and believe me, I have spent so many hours thinking about this, so I would know!”

Her glee was infectious, and although she did still not know exactly what they were celebrating, Mipha found herself laughing along with her, jumping slightly on the spot. “What did you do?”

“I just got a reply from the publishing house,” Zelda dug into her pocket, pulling out a sheet of paper that she waved at Mipha. There was no need for her to clarify what it was, with how Zelda laughed at her, withdrawing her hand to press the paper to her chest, Mipha already knew what it would say, but she still waited for Zelda to say it. After so much time, she deserved every single second she could get to revel in the fact that all of her work had been acknowledged and found good enough by someone, “they are interested! They read it and they think it sounds great!”

Momentarily refraining from jumping up and down, Zelda moved to instead press a quick kiss to Mipha’s lips, all while continuing to clutch the letter closer to her.

Mipha was more than happy to return the kiss, smiling down at Zelda as she went back to look at the letter like she believed that it would disappear into thin air if she let go of it for even a second.

“We should celebrate,” Mipha decided, her declaration making Zelda look up at her, eyebrows raised and her mouth forming an ‘o’, and maybe that was what made Mipha realise that she was without a doubt right about this as she continued, “we can do exactly what you want, just mention it and I will do my best to figure out a way to do it.”

Glancing down at the letter in her hand, Zelda tilted her head to the side, taking a deep breath before answering. “Can we go to the beach?”

It was not exactly what Mipha had had in mind. Maybe it was a side-effect of having spent so much time with Revali, but she had almost expected Zelda to announce that she would actually love to go to a restaurant, albeit not to get the chance to enjoy not having to put up with customers for once like Revali would probably have wanted to do. However, the moment Zelda made the choice, Mipha knew that she should have guessed it. Of course Zelda would want to return to their spot.

“If that is what you want.”

“It is.” Zelda nodded.

“In that case, I will find the binoculars and meet you at the car in a couple of minutes.”

She could still hear Zelda laughing to herself, even as she exited the living room, heading towards their room to dig through their dresser to find the binoculars, and although Mipha should probably have grown used to it by now, the sense of love was strong enough to make her unable to do anything but turn around and look back at how Zelda was still staring at the letter in her hands. Even from where she was standing, Mipha could see the joy in her eyes as she read through the message again.

It was the same feeling that bloomed in her own chest at the sight of Zelda being so happy. It was in times like those that Mipha knew that she had been right to finally admit her feelings during that evening. Although the road to get there might have been messy and as far from perfect as it could get, Mipha would not change a single thing about it, even if she got the chance to do so. It might be messy, and they might still have things that they needed to talk about, but right then, Mipha could say without a doubt that the way it was now was perfect for her and Zelda. And that was what mattered to her. They were there together, and then they could figure out the rest as they went along. For now, they could allow themselves to enjoy all of the things that came along with being honest with each other, and that was what they intended to do.