multiple upload in one day equals forgiveness, right???

*crickets chirp*

yeah, thought not…. SOOORRRYYYYY!!!!

i hope i'll re-earn your love! *puppy eyes*

me own Zelda? ppssshaw. I wish.

AJ and Al hadn't been able to pass off the Rupees as actual rare stones, or at least any the jeweler had recognized, but the pawn shop was more than happy to take the stones off their hands. AJ made sure to hold onto most of them, knowing it wasn't all that smart to carry so much cash around New York. The green rupees had gone for $50 a piece, the others even more.

Al was much more reflective than his younger counterpart. He still asked questions, but they were fewer and farther between. AJ could deal with this.

"Is all of your world like this? These skyscrapers and streets?" Al asked. He looked uncomfortable in his jeans and t-shirt. The only weapon AJ had let him leave the house with was his Megaton Hammer, which was small enough to be inconspicuous.

"No, this is just the city. There are trees and lakes and rivers in other parts of the country. Deserts and mountains even. New York City is a big place, but it's not the only place."

"I'd like to see those other places," Al said, staring at the sky as they walked. AJ guided him away from the hotdog stand he was about to run into. "Sorry," he murmured. "I don't know what we would be doing with out you and your sister to help us."

"Don't thank us too soon," AJ warned. "We have no idea how to get you home, much less find everyone else." They walked on in silence for a bit longer, Al contemplating the world he found himself in.

"Hey, you want to see those trees I told you about?" AJ asked. "Central Park's not too far from here. It's not really a forest," he explained. "But it's all we got close by." Al brightened.

"Sure. I know what a park is."

"Great. The apartment is on the other side of the park, so we'll just walk all the way home. We won't take the subway again." Al was relieved. Bustling through so many people had been an experience he wasn't keen on repeating. Being surrounded by enemies was one thing. Being surrounded by innocent people, all of them strange and few of them smelling pleasant, was something totally different.

The park was a refreshing change. Al's sharp ears made it impossible to really escape the noise of the city, but the park muted it slightly. The park smelled of green and dirt, where the city just smelled like grime and people.

"It's great, isn't it? There's food stands and musicians. It's great for people watching. Jess and I used to study out here all the time. Now that we're out of school, we don't come here as often," AJ said.

"So you are scholars?" Al asked. AJ laughed.

"Not really. Not anymore, I guess. We both took a program in high school that let you take classes at community college, so we graduated early." AJ laughed again. "Grandma thought it was cheating and she called Jessica's degree underwater basket weaving." The joke was lost on Al.

"She'll get along well with the Zora craft masters, then." AJ was about to try and explain his mistake when Al held up a hand. "Do you hear that?" AJ listened. Birds. The sizzle of a hotdog cart behind them. Street music.

"The music?"

"Yes. There's an ocarina playing."

"We have those here too. It's probably some street performer. Sounds like they have some drums too." Al was walking quickly in the direction of the music. "What's up, Al?" As they got closer to the music, Al recognized the song.

The street musicians were sitting off the sidewalk under a tree. A dreadlocked, wizened old man beat on an African drum to the beat of a song that a short, green haired girl played, eyes closed. Adult Link waited patiently for the song to be over, a relieved smile on his face.

"Saria!"

"Link!" the Kokiri girl smiled. She turned to the man she'd been playing with. "Thank you for playing with me. I have to go now, goodbye!" The old man smiled and waved as they walked away. AJ handed him a twenty, murmured a thank you, and ran to catch up.

"I'm glad you're alright!" Al was saying.

"Yes, I'm just fine. I was a little worried when we landed here, but I knew you would find me at some point." Two fairies, one Saria's own and the other Navi, poked out of the girl's dress pocket.

"Navi!" Link exclaimed, scooping the blue fairy out.

"Shh shh shh!" AJ exclaimed, which was somewhat of an oxymoron. "I don't think I told you this, but fairies aren't common here. In fact, they really don't exist except in stories, so could we keep this on the down low?"

"Sorry, AJ," Al said, hiding Navi in his hat. Unlike Little Link, Al had refused to take it off. "Oh, Saria, this is AJ. We're staying with him and his sister Jessica."

"Nice to meet you," Saria said, smiling. "I appreciate your hospitality." AJ laughed.

"Wait till you see the accommodations, then you can thank me."

***

"We're going to have to find a bigger apartment," Jess groaned, standing in front of the linen closet. Unlike most girls, Jess didn't really care how many towels and sheets she had, so long as the one she was using was dry. Fortunately for the visitors, AJ was a bit of a neat freak and had made sure the apartment was well supplied with extra linens long ago. They had plenty of sheets, but a lack of beds.

"Someone's just going to have to sleep on the floor. Share beds. Something," Sheik said. "I'm sorry we have to impose upon you like this, Jessica." Jess waved her hand.

"Oh, don't even think about it!" She purposely didn't mention it was probably her fault they were there in the first place. "Hopefully we can gather all of you into one place and send you back soon." She began pulling sheets and blankets off the shelves. "Not that I have any idea how to send you back, but I'm sure between your magic and AJ's technical expertise we can find a way." Zelda took the sheets from Jess and grimaced.

"Until then, we need to figure out how to make due with what you have. How about having your brother keep his room, Raru take the guest room, the Links stay here in the living room, and Zelda and I share your room with you?" Jess shrugged.

"So long as I don't have to sleep in the same room as the sage, I'm all good. He's taken three showers and I can still smell him from up here." Raru and the children were down in the courtyard of the apartment complex playing with a bouncy ball that Jess had found in a desk drawer. Link and Zelda were having a grand old time while Raru sat in a corner, grumbling, scolding whenever the pair threw the little white and green speckled ball at him.

"I'll make you a pallet in your room," Sheik said, leaving a few sheets for the pull-out and cot. Jess opened her mouth, indignant, but the princess had already left.

"Royalty!"

"Hey! We're back!" AJ called through the apartment. "We found Saria too." The three trooped into the living room.

"Score! Now you can sleep on the floor and…" Jess stopped. "Gosh darn it, I still have to sleep on the floor!"

"I thought we'd already got the sleeping arrangements handled?" Al said. Jess shrugged and led them into the kitchen.

"Yeah, but we found Raru." She laughed. "In the dumpster!" She cackled. Saria's smile didn't fade, but she leaned over to Al and whispered,

"Is she always like this?" Al shrugged.

"Yeah, unfortunately she is," AJ replied, smacking his sister's shoulder. "Hey, we need to go grocery shopping. Pull a list, and yourself, together so we can go." Jess smacked her brother back without looking at him.

"Are you hungry, Saria? You can eat before we go. The others devoured most of the food, but we've still got some yogurt."

"I am hungry, but what is yogurt?"

"It's bacteria. It's awesome," Jess replied. Saria's smile disappeared. "Hey, eating mushrooms is eating a plant's reproductive parts. This isn't nearly so bad." She opened the fridge and fished out a few yogurt cups. "I can offer you blueberry, peach, or vanilla."

"I'll try the blueberry," Saria replied politely. Jess tossed her the cup and turned to get her a spoon. Shocked, Saria almost dropped it, but Al caught it for her. "Al, you want anything?"

"No, I'm good, thanks."

"Okey dokey, then. Here's a spoon." Rather than turn to start making the list, she watched Saria until she took her first bite. Apprehension turned to surprise.

"This is great stuff!" Saria said, digging in for another bite. "Are these little blue things,"

"The berries, yea," AJ said. "Jess, come on, I want to get the shopping done BEFORE we have to get kicked out by the Vietnamese store owner."

"Fine, fine, get everyone ready to go. We'll do this bullet style."

"Bullet style?" Al asked. "Sounds dangerous." AJ sighed.

"With Jess at the wheel, everything's dangerous."

***

"Alright," Jess said, pulling out a couple of carts from the line. "Raru and I will be by the produce with the carts." She pointed over to the other side of the store. "What we're going to do is I'm going to give you something to look for and you're going to bring it back to me." The group assembled in front of her nodded. "Alright. Link and Zelda, I want three gallons of milk. They're in the cartons you drank from this afternoon in the cold section. Sheik, on that third isle over there, you're going to find cans of soup. I want a box of 24 cans of tomato. Should have a picture of a tomato on it. Al, you are going over to the cold section too. I need you to get packages of ham and turkey. Saria, go over to that fifth isle and get as many loaves of bread as you can carry. AJ, you go get some frozen pizzas."

Everyone split off to their respective tasks except AJ, who looked skeptically at Jess.

"This isn't going to work. They don't know what they're really looking for," he said. Jess glared at him and began pushing her cart towards the produce. Raru clumsily followed with his.

"I agree with your brother. This plan is not going to work. It's going to waste time," he said. Jess glanced at the sage, eyebrows arched.

"Your plan to get home by staying in the dumpster half the day wasn't going to work either. A waste of time, if you may. Besides, we have time to waste. We're not going to find everyone else and send you back tonight." She picked up some apples and put them in the balance.

"Is this good?" Saria was barely visible behind the stack of bread she was carrying.

"Great! Let me help you," Jess said, taking the loaves and putting them in the cart. "Nice variety. Okay, next you can go and get some cereal. Same isle, boxes with the funny-looking people on them. Get whatever looks good."

"Get one with the man in the green hat!" AJ said as he came up with the pizza. Saria nodded and went back, conversing discreetly with her fairy about the wonders of the "market". AJ put the pizzas in the bottom of the cart. "I've got the ones on sale, four for ten. Two cheese, one pep, and one supreme. What's next on the list?"

"Cheese. Sliced."

"American?"

"Who are you and what did you do with my brother? I want cheddar!" AJ shrugged.

"Just thinking of the guests."

"You think they'd want stinking American? They've never even heard of America! Get the cheddar!"

"Jessica, what should I be doing?" Raru interrupted. AJ mouthed a thank you over Jessica's shoulder and walked to the refrigerated section. "Do we need more apples?"

"Sure. Oranges and bananas too. Bag 'em up, would you? Dozen of each should do good. I'm going to get some lettuce and salad stuff. Any preferences?"

"Onions," Raru replied, gathering the fruits. Jess rolled her eyes.

"Great, more odor." By the time she had picked three heads of lettuce, an onion, a bag of carrots, and mushrooms, Saria had returned with AJ's Lucky Charms and an assortment of other boxes filled with sugar coated goodness.

"Aw, you even got the reject cereal that's not cool enough to be in a box!" Jess cooed, examining the off brand CoCo Puffs. Saria frowned, not sure if she'd done something wrong or not. "Oh, don't worry, you're good. You did everything right." Jess glanced around. "I think you're the only one that did it right…" Raru laughed as he put the fruit in his cart. "Shad up, stink pot!"

Link and Zelda, groaning, brought the milk to the cart. They hefted the gallons into the cart, panting. Saria giggled.

"Why don't you just carry milk in bottles?" Link asked. "It's much lighter! I can't carry this around so easily. If I'm fighting and need some milk, the moblins would just laugh at me if I pulled this out to drink!" Jess laughed.

"Well, at least they're laughing and not stickin you!" For once, Link just stared rather than opening his mouth. "Alright, next we need some eggs. Grab a package of eighteen each would ya?" She patted Link on the head, making Saria giggle harder. Al and Sheik returned at the same time.

"I'm not exactly sure this is ham or turkey…" Al said, handing her the packages. He had grabbed one of everything it looked like. "I just grabbed what…resembled… meat."

"You did fine," Jess assured. "Take these back, though. I hate bologna."

"Hey, hey, HEY!" AJ grabbed the baloney. "I love bologna. Most delicious processed meat on the planet. Besides, I want to teach Link and Zelda how to make bologna boats!" Jess rolled her eyes.

"You'll teach them bad habits. Thanks, Sheik. Can you get some clam chowder now? The picture will be of bowl of white soup with some chunks in it."

"You know that's pretty much every cream of random vegetable out there?" AJ said. Jess shoved him after the princess.

"Then YOU go show her what it is. HEY! Don't run with the eggs!" Link and Zelda skidded to a halt, managing to hold onto their eggs. Al took them carefully from the kids before Jess could scold. "Okay, look, you three are done so you can go… pick out some ice cream! Yeah, go to the freezers over there and pick out what you think looks good." Saria, Link, and Zelda shrugged and walked away.

"What else do you need?" Al asked. Jess checked the list.

"We have everything except the snack food. Potato chips, cookies, and all that jazz. Raru, could you go get a spot in line over there? We'll meet you in a sec."

"I could get this snack food," Al said. He tried not to laugh, watching Raru struggle away with his cart. "It looks like the sage needs some help." Jess shook her head and pushed her cart in the opposite direction.

"As much help as he may need, you can only leave the junk food to the experts. Prepare to watch and learn! See this right here, rice pop corn? No. You want the real thing, coated in butter preferably. Pop corn needs to come from corn, not rice." Al put a box of movie microwave in her cart at her behest. "Alright, now as far as chips go, you want two basics, one made of potato and one made of corn. The corn should be covered in cheese." The standard Doritos landed in the cart. "Potato can be anything. We'll get two today, the original and the sour cream and chives." Two more bags landed in the cart.

"These are sliced potatoes?" Al asked. "We have something similar in Hyrule. We call them medallions."

"Sounds healthy. These aren't. Okay, cookies next. Home-made cookies are preferable and maybe I'll do some later, but these are better than nothing. When getting store bought cookies, you look for the chewy, not the chunky. The chunky can be a little too crunchy for me. Those ones, in the red package, yes."

"So the point of junk food is to be un-healthy?" Al asked.

"It's called junk for a reason. Don't worry, we'll eat a salad later."

"Anything else? There's so much stuff!" Jess was about to respond when Link slid around the corner.

"Hey, um, that ice cream you told us to get and and and those freezer machines you said they were in, well they kind of sorta,"

"Link just say it!" Al said.

"Zelda's stuck in the freezer!"

"Oh goodness, lets go."

Zelda was indeed stuck in the freezer, standing onto of some frozen pie crusts. Al pulled her out and started rubbing her arms. While Link tried to explain how they were drawing pictures in the frost on the inside of the door.

"See, here's my dinosaur," he said, quite proud of himself now that his friend had been rescued and was fine. "It drew it on my tree at home too."

"I KNEW it was a dinosaur! HA! AJ thought it was a premonition drawing of your fight with Ganon later in your life."

"Well I like dinosaurs."

"That's great kid. Thanks for proving me right. You do get some ice cream after all." Link grinned. "You doing alright, Zel?" The princess nodded. She wasn't shivering anymore and Al and turned to make sure Saria was okay too, though she hadn't been in the freezer.

"The strawberry looks tasty."

"JESSICA! THE LADY'S YELLING AT ME IN VIETNAMESE AGAIN!"

"Okay, guys, play time's over, we gotta go pay!"

Navi will be a bigger laugh later, I promise. :)