A/N: Have had an urge for LOZ stuff lately, not sure why. Been a couple years since I've played Majora's Mask, but it's been on the mind lately a whole bunch. This will be a CremiaxLink pairing mainly, KafeixAnju on the side, and Romani with a small crush on Link. There's also some unrequited KafeixCremia sneaking in every once in a while. I'm messing with their ages, and even then I'm not really sure what the canon ages for them were. Cremia just turned 17, Links 14 - Let's just say he hasn't hit that amazing growth spurt just yet - and Romani is 12.

It's been AGES since I've played the game (though I am tempted to dig it out of my closet and power up the 64 to go through it again) so if I get something wrong, sorry! I'm going off a combination of canon and my own ideas for how things should go.

I also admit I am quite horrible at both grammar, spelling (it slips past me!) and commas I overuse quite a bit. Forgive me!.

Also, I haven't decided if I want Link to speak or not. I'm still debating.

Going between writing this and fixing up my HPxTwilight crossover story I posted…. A extremely long time ago. Plot holes are my enemy

Doesn't help when you don't have any fanfic writing friends either ;-;

Cremia's POV.

"CUCCCCCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Cuc.. cuc.. CUCCCCCCCCOOOOOOO!"

With a small groan I rolled over in my bed, reaching up to rub at my eyes as I opened them for the first time that morning. It felt like I had just went to bed ten minutes ago instead of a few hours ago, and the exhaustion tugging at my bones made me want to throw one of my pillows out the window at the innocent Cucco just doing his normal routine. My sister - Romani - also rolled over in her bed, but didn't wake, instead grabbing her pillow and curling into it.

Moving into a sitting position, I rubbed at my eyes again to get the last of the sleep out of them. I'd love to do nothing but take a few more hours of sleep, but I knew I could not due to the combination of ranch life always started early in the day as well as we we're almost overloaded with things that had to be done in time for the upcoming Carnival of Time. Counting today, we had three days total until the Carnival, and I had already begun a small attempt at organizing what we would get done each day in preparation.

Standing and looking over at my sister, I decided it wouldn't be too harmful to let her sleep in a little longer. As I took a step to leave, my foot connected with something soft, and glancing down I let out a small laugh as I realized it was Romani's favorite stuffy. It was a small blue colored Cucco that was a gift from a family friend given to Romani when she had turned six. Picking the blue Cucco up I quickly looked it over before turning and setting it down in the crook of her arm, it resting between her and the pillow she was clutching. She let out a small noise before tightening her grip on the pillow, the Cucco getting squashed to her as she moved.

It took me a few moments to gather fresh clothing for the day from the dresser we shared, and then with a contented hum I headed towards the bathroom to get ready.

As I waited for the tub to fill and the heater to warm the water, I went over a mental checklist of the things I wanted to get out of the way first today. We needed to collect the Cucco eggs, as well as make sure they were packaged carefully enough so they would survive the delivery trip to the town in the afternoon. I know Grog was rather proud of both his fully grown cuccos for their egg laying skills, as well as the small collection of Cucco chicks he had managed to catch hatching just a week ago.

Turning back to the tub, I deemed it full enough and turned the valve to shut the water off. Leaning against the sink counter, I crossed my arms in front of me, one hand coming up to rest on my chin. The next thing we needed to do was check in on our cows, as we've been locking them up in the barn from late afternoon to early morning. While the cows have had less time to graze as they'd like, as we only take them out for a few hours each day, it was a necessary precaution as last month Romani had come hollering into the house one day at lunch saying our bottle collection had been damaged and a cow was missing.

Not only that, but spoiled bottles of milk had been tossed around near the entrance to the Ranch, the number of bottles and their foul-smelling contents rising in number as the days went on. So, we moved the cows into the barn when the light began to dim, and let them back out in the morning when it was bright enough.

After removing my dirty clothes and tossing them into the hamper next to the sink, I climbed into the finally ready bath. As I relaxed in the water, I heard a small 'thunk' from the next door and had to cover my mouth with a hand to keep my laugh from getting out. Romani wasn't the most graceful of sleepers, and would occasionally roll out of bed and start her day off by saying hello to our wooden floor. She began to curse quite loudly, and I raise both of my eyebrows when I heard her say some select words I knew I hadn't taught her to say.

She must've been spending more time with Mamamu Yan than I thought she was. Glancing over to the side of the tub, I reached for my well used bar of soap, only to pause. The last time we had gone into town together on a simple day out she had spent her saved up allowance to buy me a gift of handmade, rather expensive soap. It was the kind of soap where the longer you used it, the more the smell 'became' part of your skin, lingering on further after each use and wash, as well as making your skin soft. It also smelled of a combination of oranges and cinnamon, which I had to admit, was a pleasant scent. I had yet to use it, mostly because I didn't want to waste such a fine gift on my work-roughened skin.

Making a quick decision, I grabbed hold of it and brought it closer to me, looking it over. It couldn't hurt just to use a tiny bit for the next few days, since the Carnival only came once a year. Cleaning myself up and washing off took a few minutes, and the soap had definitely left a stronger scent then I was expecting once I had washed off. Sniffing myself and hoping it was just my nose being unused to the scent, I climbed out of the tub and dried off, quickly dressing myself in my clean clothes and grabbing a cloth to wipe off the steam from the mirror.

Staring at myself in the mirror, I gave a small hmph before reaching into the drawer and retrieving my brush. It only took a few minutes of brushing and using the towel to squeeze out excess water from the ends of my hair before I was ready to go for the day. Replacing the brush where I took it and dropping the used towels and cloth into the hamper, I shut the lid with one hand. As I reached over to turn the valve responsible for deciding if the tub was to drain or not, I grabbed hold of the hamper and picked it up so it rested on my hip.

As I was pulling the bathroom door open, I blinked when I saw Romani perched on the bed, attempting to hastily shove her feet into her boots. "Good morning sis!" She called when she saw me, lacing them up as fast as she could without messing them up and having to start over.

"I thought you were planning on taking a bath this morning, Romani?" My brows furrowed, having remembered a conversation the two of us had the previous night during dinner.

"I don't have time right now! I gotta get more practice in with my bow to get ready for Them!" Romani hopped up off the bed, smiling up at me. Even though she had a serious case of bed hair and I could see a smudge of dirt on her chin, I couldn't help but give her a smile in return.

"How about you get your 'practice' in while I prepare breakfast, and then you take bath after, hmm? We've got a lot of stuff to do today, Romani." I patted her on the head, moving past her towards the stairs leading down to the first floor of our house. She whined behind me, and grumbled a few things under her breath before giving an 'okay' in return and bouncing down the stairs after me.

As Romani slammed the front door and all but flew outside, I let out a laugh at her exuberance. Following her, I shut the door quietly behind me, moving towards our washing equipment. As I set down the hamper next to the small basin and washing equipment we wash our clothes with, I looked up towards the small overhang. I had almost forgotten our most recent and probably temporary addition to the ranch.

A chestnut foal stood under the overhang connected to the house, simply staring at me. At least, we think it's a chestnut. Romani and I had never come across a horse with colorings quite like the foal sitting in front of us. We had semi-argued for a full day and well into the night the previous day, when she randomly wandered into our ranch from the fields.

We finally went with chestnut because we were flustered. The horses we've seen at the town as well as the ones we have raised in the past were a simple chocolate brown with similar chocolate colored manes and tails, with various black markings.

Horses from the distant parts of Termina always varied in colors and coat types, but we usually never got the chance to find out who their owners were or what type of coat the horse had.

I smiled at the foal, which gave a small whinny before settling back down onto the ground of the enclosure, and headed back inside to begin breakfast.

Gathering the things necessary to start making a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes and sausage I set to work chopping, cracking, stirring and cooking.

Romani came in a minute before the food was done, giving me a smile before grabbing a carrot off the vegetable pile on the countertop and running back outside. I heard the foal nicker as it accepted the offered carrot, Romani's giggling following the noise.

As I set the table with a plate for each of us and began serving, she skipped back in and sat down at the table, grabbing a piece of potato off the plate and shoving it into her mouth before I was even done serving.

Noticing my amused look, she stuck her tongue out. "It's good food! I can't help myself!"

Shaking my head I set the serving dish down, taking my own seat and grabbing my fork. "How did your practice go?"

As she was using her fork as a makeshift spear in an attempt to get two potato bits and a bit of egg in one go, she huffed. "If I hadn't been distracted by Charlie I would have made a perfect score!" Charlie was our seven year old dog, given to us when Mamamu Yan first moved onto the ranch, back when our father was still alive. He was a bouncy, energetic dog that absolutely adored tackling me and Romani when it first laid eyes on us for the day.

"Mm, would you now?" I was making quick work of my scrambled eggs, preparing to finish them first and then move onto the potatoes, while Romani had somehow managed to mash her food together to make some kind of mixed, somewhat squished mess she kept forking into her mouth.

"Yeah! I had almost a full ten under a minute! And then Charlie came flying out of nowhere and I ended up shooting the tree next to the balloon instead." She huffed, but I could tell she didn't really mind the dog interrupting her.

"I'm going to head on over to the Cucco Shack while you're taking your bath. We need to start getting the eggs ready for delivery tonight, alright? Once we're done with that, it'll be time to let the cows out and get the barn ready so we can start milking them tomorrow." I took a moment to breathe, finishing my meal and standing up.

Romani took a minute to process what I had said before she nodded. "After we're all done for the day before you have to deliver, can I get some more practicing in? We gotta be ready for Them!"

"If we've got enough time between finishing and the delivery, yes, you can go play." As I stood, I noticed Romani's lips twitch downward into a brief frown before she brightened up again and hopped off her seat. "I'll see you soon, sis!" She called over her shoulder, dashing up the stairs.

I gathered the dishes, setting them into the sink to be washed later. Deciding it wouldn't hurt to give the foal another carrot, I took one from the counter as I headed outside.

Charlie came bounding around the corner of the barn as soon as I shut the door behind me, giving several barks as he charged towards me. Laughing I let him hop on me, nearly falling backwards as he kept bouncing around my legs. I patted him on the head and scratched behind his ears, smiling as his little tail wagged so fast I thought it was going to come off.

"Are you being a good boy today?" I asked, watching as the dog let out a yip in response. After a few more minutes of petting him he let out another bark and ran off towards the other end of the ranch. I watched him for a few minutes before turning to face the enclosure.

The foal got onto its legs, giving me a calm stare as I approached. "Hello. How are you today?" Father had always said to be calm around foals for the first few days of meeting them, as each foal had its distinct personality and some got much more easily scared than others did.

I smiled at it, holding the carrot out to it. It nickered at me before taking the carrot from my hand and crunching away at it. Giggling at how adorable it looked, I almost didn't hear the faint 'boom' coming from the entrance into the ranch.

Slowly turning around, I squinted at the entrance, but couldn't see anything. Maybe the Gorman Brothers were doing something with fireworks? I shrugged, not exactly sure. They seemed to do increasingly more unusual things each year around the time the Carnival was. I smiled at the foal once more before beginning the trip across the ranch to the Cucco Shack.

As I reached the door, I slowly opened it just in case any of Grog's little chicks were hovering near the entrance. In the past both I and Romani have accidentally let a few cuccos out by carelessly shoving the door open, much to Grog's disappointment.

Poking my head in to make sure they weren't hiding behind the door, I opened it a bit wider and stepped in. I smiled across to Grog, who waved as he noticed me enter. Shutting the door I began to walk over, only to pause when several chicks came running towards me, peering up at me and pecking at my shoes. I giggled when one chick managed to get a hold of a lace and began tugging.

Leaning over I picked the chick up, it giving a soft 'cheep' and tilting its head inquisitively at me. "Aw, you're so cute." I petted it on the head before setting it back down, carefully stepping over the chicks as I finally managed to make it to Grog.

"Good morning Grog! How are your Cuccos doing today? I hope Mimsy hasn't been giving you much trouble." Mimsy was the Cucco my father raised from an egg all by himself. She was an old, grouchy Cucco now and while it was 'okay' with me and somewhat okay with Romani, she went between loving Grog and trying to give Grog the hardest time ever whenever he had to go in to collect her eggs. Cuccos were overly protective of their eggs, more than any other bird I knew of, but Mimsy was obsessively protective at random. Poor Grog.

Grog rubbed at his head, shrugging a little. I noticed he had a finger wrapped up. Gesturing towards it, he responded. "She got me earlier when I tried to take an egg out from her coop. Seems she's going to be in her 'Touch them and die' mood all day today." He let out a laugh and I smiled. "Oh well. There's always tomorrow to collect for the next delivery if we can't get hers today." Turning my head I glanced towards the other coops, where several Cuccos were milling about.

Noticing he had set up the collection crates, which were crates specially made to carry several cucco eggs at once without damaging any, next to the coop area I asked, "Would you want to start gathering with me? Romani should be along in a few."

"Sure. How's she doing today? Still adamant she has to fine tune those archery skills of hers?" Grog stood up from the box he sat on, reaching down quickly to grab a bag of Cucco feed.

"Yep, from what I hear Charlie interrupted her practice today. Said she almost got a perfect score and then Charlie tackled her." I laughed, following him as he made his way towards the Cuccos.

Each year one of us would get to tossing Cucco feed around so the cuccos would be distracted, and the other would start gathering the eggs. It made collecting them much easier, because when the Cuccos were getting tasty food they weren't too keen on the person collecting their eggs. Without the tasty food though, and you'd get a mass of cuccos trying to peck you into next the next year.

"Shall I do the honors, or do you want to this year, Grog?" I gestured towards the coops, as he scratched his chin in thought. "Hm, how about you do it this year, Cremia? Last two years you've done egg gathering both times with Romani while I've just stood here and tossed some feed around. 'Sides, I haven't had a good conversation with Romani in a couple weeks. So busy with that bow of hers getting ready for the Carnival and all."

He handed me the bag of feed and I nodded in response. As I was opening my mouth to say something, the door slammed open causing several Cuccos to squawk in alarm and the chicks to run away cheeping as loud as they could. My eyebrows were nearly eaten by my hairline as Romani came running in, dragging a teenager wearing an odd green hat and tunic in behind her.

She paused just briefly to slam the door shut once he was in – almost catching his hat in the doorway – and then dragged him over to us shouting, "Sister! Look who I just met! Grasshopper! He owns Epona!" Epona was what my sister had named the foal once we had decided on what type of horse it was. Seeing as the boy didn't object to the name, I guessed it was Romani's mysterious luck that she got the name right.

The boy glanced around the Cucco Shack before he fixed his eyes on me, and as soon as he did his eyebrows rose just a slight bit, eyes widening. As quickly as the expression had donned his face, it appeared he forced himself to look calm again. His eyes however, were intensely focused on me.

Wondering if I had somehow met him before during a trip to the town and wronged him in some way and not noticed, I tilted my head as they made their way closer.

Grog blinked at both of them, one of his eyebrows raised. Romani waved at him before stopping just in front of the two of us with the boy. I fought the urge to blush as the boy continued to stare quietly at me, clutching the feed bag between my hands.

"Cremia, Cremia! This is Grasshopper! He doesn't speak! But his clothes are green so I named him Grasshopper! He's got amazing horseback archery skills!" She was bouncing in place practically as she told me about the boy, and I resisted the urge to hold a hand out to hold her down before she started hopping around like a bunny.

"I was in the bath earlier and you remember that 'BOOOOOOOM'" She waved her hands around as she spoke, "Right? I heard it while I was in the bath and I know you must've heard it because you were outside! It turns out there was a giant bolder blocking off the road into our Ranch from the fields! Grasshopper here got rid of it!" She gestured towards the boy, who still had yet to look anywhere but at me.

"And then he noticed Epona and ran up to her and it was this GREAT REUNION MOMENT you should've been there to see! So I asked him if he was the owner of her and he nodded and I was like WELL, obviously since you have a great horse you gotta show me you have great riding skills!" She seemed to 'squee' as she paused to breathe.

"And then I set up the balloons like I did this morning for practice and he got on Epona and just shot them all like he could do it while blind! Thirty seconds! That's amazingly better than any time I've ever had!" Romani finally stopped to breathe some more, apparently done for the moment.

"Well, it's good you met another person who has excellent archery skills like you do, sister." I smiled at her, still not quite sure what to do with the boy staring at me and how to respond to her excited barrage of words. "And it's a pleasure to meet you, Grasshopper. My name is Cremia, I own the Ranch and this man here is our friend Grog, he takes care of all the Cuccos." I gestured to both myself and Grog. I felt a little awkward calling him by the nickname, but he nodded in response, finally taking his gaze off me to peer at Grog, who was playing with one of the cucco chicks.

"We were just about to begin egg gathering when you two showed up. I'm sure you're both eager to go back out and practice your archery skills and play with Epona more, but you do have chores you need to do, Romani." I continued. She groaned loudly as I spoke. "But Sis-"

Grasshopper put his hand on Romani's shoulder, causing her to pause and look at him. He jerked his head towards the cucco coops. "What? You want to help?" Romani blinked at him. He nodded and she grinned. "Look sis, he can help us with the chores and we'll be done quicker. PLEEEEEEEEASE?"

Turning my gaze back to him, I held the feed bag in one hand and brought the other hand up to my chin. "If you wouldn't be bothered by it, I would appreciate the help. We've got a lot of stuff to do in the next few days to get ready for the Carnival." He nodded to me. I smiled at him, noticing that the tip of his nose and ears turned just the tiniest bit pink. "I'll be tossing feed around for the Cuccos, and while I've got them distracted you, Romani, and Grog here," I gestured towards Grog as he waved the chick off to go play with its siblings. "Will be gathering the eggs and placing them in their spots in the collecting crates."

Grasshopper nodded again, giving me another intense stare as I fiddled with trying to open the feed bag. Grog stood up, brushing his pants off as he moved towards the Cucco coops, Romani following shortly after. As I finally got the bag opened and tossed the first handful of feed out, there was a loud ruckus from the Cuccos as they all clamored towards the area around me in an attempt to be the first beak to the food.

I laughed at how goofy they looked, and continued tossing feed out. Romani and Grog were having a conversation together, which caused one or both of them to laugh and pause in gathering for a couple minutes at a time.

Grasshopper on the other hand, worked quietly and quickly as if he was a professional at the task, only sending glances in my direction when he was going between the coop and the crates and back again.

One rather large Cucco had taken up a post at my feet, and I suspected it was much higher up on the pecking order than the other Cuccos were as none of the other birds got in range of it as it sat there staring at me and the feed bag. Raising my eyebrows at it, I finally dropped a handful or two at my feet of feed for it, and it dug in with no competition.

Egg gathering took about an hour and a half, and by then I was on my third bag. The large Cucco had waddled off to inspect the chicks across the shack, whereas the other Cuccos were still pecking around for whatever bits they could get.

"And there's the last egg," Grog announced as slid a crate lid onto a crate. "Little more than last year, pretty good amount I think. Should make the customers satisfied this year, Cremia." He smiled at me, Romani chattering away to Grasshopper as she brushed her hands off on her dress. "It went much faster with the extra help this year, that's for sure." I replied, tying the feed bag shut and moving to place it with the others next to Grog's box.

"Give us a bit to go check on the cows and fix up the barn some and I'll bring Lucas and the wagon around to load up the eggs for tonight, alright?" I smiled back at him. "I'm all good with waiting, Cremia. Take as long as you need to. Besides, I'm sure once the Cuccos realize their little groups of eggs are missing they'll be raising up a storm so I'll have some time to get them all calmed back down." Grog laughed before plopping down on the box. Several Cucco chicks were immediately at his feet, cheeping away at him.

Romani bounced over to me as soon as I turned towards the exit, the poor boy getting yanked along after her once more. "C'mon Grasshopper! Taking care of the cows is easy! Once we get them out into the pasture and fix up the barn we can do more archery practice!" I laughed at his face as she swerved around one of the many small fences sitting in the Cucco Shack, nearly causing him to trip and face plant. He just barely managed to get a foot out in front of him to steady himself, and looked at me when he heard my laugh. Romani broke him out of whatever intense staring session he was about to start with me, and slammed the Cucco Shack door open exclaiming they had to get the chores done immediately so they could have more time to get in some practice.

I stayed behind, somewhat fixed to the spot for a moment.

Why did he keep looking at me like that?