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Growing up, Link had never been the most… attentive of students.
In his defence, it wasn't like he could help it. Paying any sort of attention to lectures had always felt like its very own battle, worse than any fight simulation or dummy Link had ever been put up against at the Knight's Academy. He'd sit and stare, and try to take the information in, and then at some point his mind would wander and he'd find himself either falling asleep at his desk or staring out the window wondering what Crimson was doing.
Of course, none of his lecturers or professors had ever enjoyed this side of him. Whilst praised endlessly for his swordplay and flight skill, such distracted behaviours often landed Link with disciplinary measure after disciplinary measure, leaving him well acquainted with the cleaning cupboard of the Loftwing roosts (possibly the most common punishment for a student to receive).
If anyone who didn't know the situation were to see Link as he was now, scrubbing viciously at a pile of Loftwing crap, they would assume it was his distracted behaviour that had landed him such a punishment once again.
Unfortunately, in this instance, they would be wrong.
"Link. Link, are you even listening to me?"
A familiar, exasperated voice broke through the boy's intense concentration, and he glanced up just in time to see his best friend, Zelda, place her hands on her hips. Even with her sleeves dirtied and rolled up to her elbows, her skirts mucky, hair tied up, and a small streak of soap dashed across her sweaty forehead, she seemed to almost radiate light, her incredible beauty spellbinding. Link had to blink a few times before he once more regained the ability speak, not wanting to sound like an blubbering idiot in front of his best friend who he was possibly-maybe-definitely also in love with.
"Sorry, what?"
She huffed a sigh, though not without a fond smile finding its way to her lips. "You're so hopeless. I was saying, as horrible as this job is, hopefully at least it'll teach you why we don't pick fights in the middle of the main hallway. Clearly the split lip and bloody nose weren't deterrent enough, and I can't have you doing anything that idiotic again any time soon or I really might lose my mind."
Despite the clearly reprimanding tone that was being used against him, Link couldn't help the smirk that twitched his face, pulling at said wounds and making him wince. The memory of feeling Groose's stupid nose crunch beneath his fist was medicine enough for the pain, and especially after what that bully had said, Link didn't regret a thing.
Well, he wouldn't have regretted a thing, if he hadn't somehow managed to pull Zelda into this mess as well.
For once, the fight had actually been going well. Link, he maintained and would continue to maintain contrary to popular belief, had been winning, and he'd been enjoying beating Groose up for a change, rather than just getting ganged up on and beaten up himself. But of course, Groose had just had to show off by shoving Link's face into a wall, and of course Zelda had just happened to arrive at that exact moment in time.
He hadn't seen exactly what had happened, but he knew Zelda well enough to picture it, the rage in her eyes and the fire in her heart as she'd wrenched Link from Groose's grasp and aimed a stinging strike straight for the bully's face. The unmistakeable slap of skin on skin had rung out throughout the entire academy, and within minutes three professors had all been there to break up the fight.
Those three professors had included Zelda's father, the headmaster. You can imagine how well that went down.
So, Groose had been assigned cleaning of the Knight's Academy bathrooms and toilets, and Link and Zelda had been sent to clean up the Loftwing roosts, armed with only two scrubbing brushes, a broom, and the scathing glare of a disappointed father who no longer believed his daughter should be spending any time around Link. Really, that last one was his main punishment, as he'd always liked the Loftwing roosts, was always up there spending time with Crimson or Zelda and her bird, Steel. Getting up close and personal with the floorboards still wasn't exactly pleasant, though.
"You really didn't have to do that for me, you know, right?" Link said, sitting back on his heels to wipe the sweat off of his brow. "I'm grateful you did, you know I am, but now your dad's angry at you, and... in future, if you just helped me get up, or yelled scathing insults at him from the side, that'd be fine, too. That'd be hilarious, actually!"
Zelda shot him a look, almost as scathing as her father's. "Please stop talking before I drop this bucket of water on your head."
"Zelda, I'm serious. I don't want you getting mixed up in this sort of stuff because of me. I don't have a choice, Groose and his friends are always gonna go for me no matter what, but he won't go for you unless you make him-"
"-Link," she cut him off, falling to her knees by his side. With her least dirty hand, Zelda poked his forehead, watching with apparent fondness as he blinked down at her blankly. "Birdbrain. Numbskull. Has it occurred to you that I slapped Groose because I wanted to?"
Blinking once more, Link suddenly realised how close both their faces were, and it took all of his brainpower just to stop himself from blushing as bright as the colour of her skirt. "…What?"
She giggled, lightly, and it was like wind chimes. "I wanted to fight Groose. I've wanted to for quite a while, actually, just never really found the moment outside of routine sparring. I mean, come on. He's a massive bully, he's been picking on you and Fledge since first year, and he keeps asking me out over and over again even though I always say no. Who wouldn't want to fight him by now?"
Link's brain wasn't exactly computing. Out of everyone in their class, Zelda had always been one of the most unbothered students, always hard at work, keeping herself out of most of the petty squabbles and drama that tended to happen in large groups of teenagers. To think that, all this time, she'd secretly harboured a burning desire to seize Groose in the sparring hall and show him exactly what true swordsmanship looked like…
If it were even possible at this point, Link felt his heart trip and fall even further in love with this girl than he already was.
"Okay…" Was about all he could find to say, nearly stumbling over his words as his gaze drew from her eyes to her lips, then back to her eyes. She giggled again, and reached up a filthy hand to ruffle his hair.
That snapped him out of it.
"H-hey! Ew, Zelda, that's disgusting! I'm gonna have to wash my hair with revitalising potion!"
Still laughing, his friend only stuck her tongue out at him before racing to the back of the roosts, startling a flock of Loftwings in her wake. They swooped out of the shelter with a shower of feathers, causing Link to have to quickly duck.
When he pulled himself back up to full height, there was only murder in his eyes.
"Oh, it is on."
Giggles followed in the wake of his words, and Link's own were soon to join them, both teens chasing each other around and around the roosts until they were out of breath and pink in the face.
From the open window of his office, Headmaster Gaepora caught the ruckus laughter amongst the Skyloft breeze, and smiled to himself.
Maybe that boy was good for his Zelda, after all.