A/N: First of all, thanks so much for the reviews everyone, I get a lot of motivation from you all! Secondly, I'd like to apologize about this chapter before hand. It's pretty much plotless, just some small bits of fluff here and there. I felt like it was too long for a useless chapter with the carnival part included, so I'll put that in the next chapter which actually advances the story. I hope I didn't waste too much of your time here :P

The Next Day…

"What if you and Zelda went and explored town a bit, does that sound alright Link?" Daphnes, standing a few feet behind me, asked.

"Sure, yeah, that sounds great." I respond blankly, not thinking much of it. My eyes are glued to the TV as I'm trying to mull my life over. No easy task.

"Alright then, let me just get her…" He wanders upstairs. Did Daphnes just say Zelda and I would be exploring Castle Town? I suppose it sounds interesting enough; I'd like to get know the city and Zelda a bit better. Especially Zelda. Castle Town is the capital of Hyrule, and it's monstrous, so we should have a good time. Lo and behold, minutes later she's standing in behind me, ready to go.

"Link…?"

"Oh, shoot, sorry, let me get ready." Goddesses I'm tired. Last night I stayed in my own bed for a change, but I had hundreds of thoughts that would just not leave my mind.

"No problem." She responds. I run up stairs and slip on some suitable clothes, just some slim jeans and a baggy green shirt depicting the Triforce. The legends were always very interesting to me. I begin to step out, but I remember my sweater. Apparently it's rather chilly.

When I arrive downstairs Zelda is nowhere to be seen, presumably in the bathroom. I awkwardly sit on the bottom step of the staircase waiting for her.

"Ok Link, you all ready?" She emerges from the bathroom down the hall. And holy crap, her eyes. Yeah, those eyes of hers could definitely win some awards… if there was such a thing as 'eye awards.' They were just so...fulfilling. Blue like mine, but icier, more fierce. I'm weird.

"Yeah, let's go." I notice Aryll watching me leave, and blow her a kiss. She smiles and blows one back.

"Mmk, this should be fun." Once we're out the door Zelda stops for a minute, checks the keys she brought out, and then continues to the garage area. It's massive. Inside are four cars, one looks incredibly fast, one is an average SUV, one is a nice looking convertible, and one car is a heaping pile of rust. Oh yeah, that's mine.

"We're taking this one." Zelda says and motions to the convertible; I'm glad I put on that sweater. I hop in the passenger seat and take note of the stick shift. Don't make me feel bad about myself...

We back out of the driveway and then we're on the road.

"The drive should be about a half hour." She said in a matter of fact way.

"So what exactly are we going to be doing today?" I inquire.

"Nothing much I guess, maybe some shopping, and there is Hylia's carnival later tonight if we're up for it. My dad told me to scram for the whole day so we have time. Dinner's up you."

"Carnival, huh? That sounds interesting." I've never been to a carnival in my life.

"Yeah," she smiles, and an almost sad, melancholy type of look garners her face for a split second but then it's gone. "Every year the Hylia carnival comes to castle town, and it's said that the carnival first started thousands of years ago. The name comes from the goddess Hylia, obviously."

Thousands of years huh? Rather hard to believe, but I'll go with it.

"Yeah, thousands of years is a long time, whether you think that's true or not it's still tons of fun." She reads my mind.

I'm nodding along, trying to picture a carnival in my mind. The last time one came to Kakariko was when I was two years old, or somewhere around there.

"Hey Link?" Zelda turns her attention towards me for a split second.

"Yeah?"

"Seeing as we just met, I think we should get to know each other a bit better."

"Ok…" I tentatively say. 'Getting to know each other' can be taken in about a trillion different ways.

"Alright, awesome! What's…

your…

favorite…..

color!?" She giggles enthusiastically.

That's an easy one for me. "Green!" I practically shout the answer over the flapping wind. I hear her mutter 'thought so' under her breath victoriously. It is true, I wear lots of green. Like today.

"Yours?" I flip the question at her.

She ponders this for a second. "Ugh, well I always did like pink, but right now I'm in more a blue phase, you know?" I enjoyed blue a lot as well, so I just nodded my head as if favorite colors were a serious topic.

"Alright cool, my turn to come up with a question." I think about it for only a second.

"So, what are some of your hobbies?" Seems fair enough to me.

"Oh, glad you asked! I really like painting actually, my parents want me to go to an arts college."

"Maybe you could teach me sometimes, it sounds like fun." My artistic ability is extremely lacking.

Zelda nods her head happily. "I'm also not too shabby at videogames…" She adds. Wait, what?

"Not too shabby at videogames, eh?" She couldn't last a second against me, I almost guarantee it. "Alright then, I challenge you to a tournament of-

"Super Smash Bros." She immediately cuts in.

"That's what I had in mind too, actually. But you don't know what you're up against." She didn't really. Last year that was practically the only videogame I played, and I'm not even ashamed.

The talk went on like this for five or ten more minutes, we discussed favorite bands and such- we both loved the Indigo-Go's. The topic of cereal came up too. I liked Kokiri Krunchies whereas Zelda preferred boring old granola cereal. Eh, if you really hate breakfast that much….Then the topic of school came up.

"Oh, Link, it almost slipped my mind, school begins tomorrow!" Zelda looked over at me.

"Slipped your mind huh? Your parents haven't been talking to you about it non-stop for the past twenty-four hours?"

"Oh, shut up. I'm just starting a conversation…." Honestly, school was not really my thing. Despite always passing, sometimes even taking honors classes, it was just plain boring. Who knows though, maybe it'll be different in the big city. Hyrule Academy of Castle Town was one of the most acclaimed public schools. Zelda stops talking, probably noticing me mumbling to myself.

"Link." She snaps her right hand in front of my face.

"Huh, yeah what did you say?"

"Friends. Do you want to hang out with my friends at school tomorrow?"

"Oh." Friends were a touchy subject, believe it or not. In the seventh grade my best friends died while his drunkard parents were fighting. After that I never really became extremely close with anyone at school again. My life is the perfect crappy soap opera story, isn't it? "Well yeah, of course I would."

"Awesome, just making sure, we're pretty intimidating and I wouldn't want to scare you or anything." I offer my fist lightly to her shoulder.

"So what are the teachers like there?" I inquire out of curiosity, and maybe to change the subject.

"Oh, most of the teachers are just fine. Although there is Mr. Dampé, who's kind of weird to be honest. He's the biology teacher, ever since the old one left he's been filling in. It's been a few years now and I don't even know if his paycheck is the same as the other teachers. Poor guy. He doesn't mean any harm, but he just kind of creeps me out personally." She continues. "My favorite teacher is probably Rusl." If you don't put Mr. in front of your surname as a teacher, you're automatically already pretty cool in my own opinion. "He teaches ancient history, if I were you I'd sign up for it."

"Alright, sounds good then." I say as the car slows down.

"And oh yeah, Link?"

"Mhm?"

"A couple my friends are going to be here, so you can meet them before school starts." She motions to the shopping mall now directly in front of us. I let out a groan.

"No complaining!" Zelda glares at me seriously for a second as we're getting out of the convertible, but then offers a smile. "It's alright, we'll have in fun here, I promise."

We entered the building and I followed Zelda into a general sitting area, but before we could even sit down she spotted her friends out of the corner of her eye and waved to them over-enthusiastically. I just shuffled behind her awkwardly. One of them was kind of short and had curly green hair. The other was borderline-goth, but she looked pretty nice. No guys, obviously. Oh well.

"Zelda!" Her two friends said in unison. She ran up to them.

"Hi Saria!" Zelda hugged the one with green hair, pretty much lifting her off her feet. "And Midna!" She embraced her other friend. Saria…and Midna. Alright.

Zelda then motioned towards me. "And here's the Link I told you about earlier."

"Hi."

"Hey, Link." They greet me in unison.

A blush started growing on Midna's face, and Saria hid a small giggle. Oh, wonderful. Midna whispered something into Zelda's ear, and she responded with a look that could easily kill.

"Alright guys, where to first?" Midna speaks up.

"Uh, how about that Hyrule Haute?" Saria points a couple stores away from our current area. So this is how the mall portion of my day is going to be. To my surprise, Saria walks up and pats me on the back. "It's alright Link, if you give me a piggy-back ride there I'll give you this." She flashes a gift card to a video game store in front my face. I can't help but laugh, and pick up this girl I haven't even said a sentence to and run towards the store with her on my back. As we pass Zelda and Midna I can see her flipping the two of them the bird playfully. Saria seems fun.

"Sweet, thanks!" She says and hops off me, and we hi-five as I take the gift card from her. The girls enter the store and I opt to stay out.

"Link, hey Link wake up!" Zelda's voice. Am I sleeping? Where am I? Is this…oh, that's embarrassing. I must've dozed off on the couch outside the store. I wonder how many people snapped pictures of me. I look up at the girl calling my name. What does Zelda want?

"Does this look good on me?"

I rub my eyes. "Whu…oh!" Zelda was garbed in a dress that went a little below her knees, and complimented the shape of her body perfectly. It was a light blue, and to me looked stunning. But of course I wouldn't say that. Peering out of the shop windows I saw Saria and Midna glaring at me. "You look b- awesome Zelda! Really, it's a great dress." She just laughed.

"Thanks Link!" She playfully curtsied and walked back inside to buy it, I assume. In the window Midna and Saria were both giving me a death stare, and Midna mouthed 'awesome?!' and made the 'what the hell' gesture with her hands. What did they want me to say? Or. Wait. Wait? What? No way.

2 hour later-

I was exhausted. I know the whole stereotype about girls and shopping isn't exactly the most polite, but it seemed pretty true today. How many pairs of boots did the three of them buy exactly? Five? Ten? Fifty?

Right now we're sitting in front of a pretzel store, Zelda and Saria seem very interested in their conversation. Midna catches me stuffing a pretzel down my face. I raise my hands in defense. "Mrrglpphhhhrlg."

"What? What was that Link?" Midna leaned in.

"MRRGLPHHH!" I…say (?) exasperatedly.

"Good to know." She laughs lightly, and then leans in to say something serious. At that moment however, Zelda speaks up, and Midna gave up on whatever she was going to say. I finally swallow my pretzel, rather audibly.

"Alright you guys, so you two only have about fifteen minutes left before Shiek and Mido get here, any special requests for stores?" Zelda asks.

"Victoria's Secre-

"No, shut up Midna. Anything else?"

"Hot Topic?" She offers her second choice.

"We've already been in there three times though…." Zelda lets out a deep sigh, and Midna just shrugs.

Zelda turns to Saria, who looks too guilty to say anything. The amount of shopping bags behind her solidifies her expression.

"That looks fun…" I gestured back over my shoulder, there's this bungee jumping type attraction where they put you in a harness and you build up momentum on a trampoline. The others silently agree and we walk towards it. The four of us wait in line for five minutes, and then the cashier asks for five dollars each.

"Anyone dropping out?" I ask.

"Nah." The girls all say in unison. I hand the man twenty dollars, seeing as I hadn't paid for any of the clothes or games I bought. You can thank the Harkinians for that. There's four spots on the machine, and we fill them all up. The workers get our harnesses on and then we start jumping.

We start off slow, but in no time the four of us are flying thirty feet in the air.

"Aaaaaah!" Somebody screams. I look to my left and Zelda and Saria seem to be having a backflip competition. Alright, I don't know if I have any gymnast skills but may as well give it a shot. When I'm nearing my maximum height I flip my legs up above my head. Wait, am I actually doing it and what and never mind and oh shi- oof. My face violently contacts with the rough surface of the trampoline. No one noticed, right? Zelda and Saria still seem to be flawlessly doing what I couldn't, and oh, never mind. Midna's pointing at me and laughing her ass off. Defeated, I just laugh along. After that, my graceful jumping just seemed to lose its spark.

Ouch, my face really does hurt. Zelda and Saria still don't really seem to notice, good. Midna dropped down to the same level as me and mouthed 'are you okay?' I mouthed back 'yeah.' She made a gesture that read 'if you say so….'

"Alright folks, I'm going to start lowering you down now." The operator calls up to us. When we're free, Midna just winks and walks by me, slipping something under her sleeve discreetly. A tissue. I wipe my face with it, and right above my nose there appears to be a sizeable amount of blood. Great.

After getting our bearings together we walk over to the door to say our goodbyes. I notice Zelda handing Saria a five-dollar bill. Guess I know who won the flipping competition….

"Alright, goodbye you two, have fun with your dates." They both take their turns to hug Zelda.

"And you too, Link." Saria hi-fives me, and Midna comes in for a pound hug. "I'll remember to tell Sheik about you, Link." Whoever that is.

"See you guys in school tomorrow!" Saria yells as she and Midna walk away. That was more fun than I had initially made it out to be.

"Aw, dammit Link!" Zelda lowers her shoulders in heavy disappointment. While we were in the mall, it must've rained quite a lot. The interior of her car was soaked.

"Oh…" I had no idea what to say. Zelda walked closer to the car, and although I didn't acknowledge her cursing, I heard it loud and clear.

"Ugh, I'm sorry Link. I should've checked the weather. I'm such an idiot." She seemed really annoyed at herself to say the least.

"No, really Zelda, I don't mind. It's just a wet seat, there's no reason to feel bad. Anyway, we can't really go back right now." We'd have to sit in the car anyway, and I'd prefer to explore the city like our original plan. She managed a weak smile.

"Alright Link, if you say so." Before she got in, I slipped my sweater on to her seat without her noticing. I didn't want a wet seat to...dampen her mood. Ok, I won't. I'm sorry.

Really.

She sits down without noticing my sweater initially, but then she looks from below her to me and her face broke out in a sad yet grateful smile. Her look seemed to say 'are you sure?' and I just nodded my head with my eye brows furrowed in that 'yeah, of course' kind of look.

"Thank you, Link." She smiles for a second and then goes in for a quick but warm, passionate hug. "Thank you…" she whispers. We end the embrace, and I feel kind of fuzzy inside. Comforted. Just how I swore I wouldn't feel yesterday. I let out an internal sigh; it's all so complicated.

"So, where do you want to go?" She asks me, squinting in the bright sun.

"Err, I have no idea really. I thought you would know."

"No, sorry, I never r-

I notice a large billboard. "Wait, Zelda take a left on this exit."

"Ok?"

The sign read Goron Hot Springs. I'd been there once as a child and I have some fun memories.

"And another right here." The car swerves around the corner and Zelda looks at me curiously.

"Alright, take the left up ahead and we're there."

"Goron Hot Springs?" She asks.

"Mhm."

"Is it...just hot springs?" Asking the obvious.

"Uh…I think you just swim there and stuff, I went there when I was like ten. I know we don't have bathing suits or anything, but just to check it out."

"Ok, we have time to waste before the carnival anyway. Let's go!" We hop out of the car, and Zelda makes sure to put the roof up this time just in case. The two of us walk up the hill to the old looking wooden admission building.

The sign hanging on the door has a very clear message "Damn, sorry it's closed, Zelda…" I begin to turn around back toward the car.

"No, wait, Link c'mon!" She forcefully grabbed me by the arm and began to run to the springs.

"What are you doing!?" Even if I my planted feet on the ground as firmly as humanly possible I have a feeling Zelda would still be dragging me as fast as she was now.

"Duck!" We slip under the car gate dangerously and continue running. We're almost at the springs now. Why am I letting this happen?

"Zelda, stop!" In the knick of time she looks back at me. We're at the very edge of the water, and I'm grateful for not getting soaked head to toe. She looks from the water, up to me, and back again.

"What the h-." Maybe I spoke too soon. Instead of not jumping in like any sane person, Zelda did a front flip into the hot springs and took me with her. And ouch, it was hot. Searing hot.

"Zelda…" I manage. "It's called...a hot spring...for a reason."

She looks equally defeated. "Yeah...I forgot...?" I rolled my eyes, and we made our way hastily to an indentation in the rocks on the other end of the pool. Large enough for the both of us to sit in while dangling our feet. Like Zelda said before, we had time to spare so might as well stay here. I have no idea what we're going to do with our soaking clothes, so I just leave that solution to her. Hopefully nobody decides to open this place up right now either. I'll let Zelda deal with that too, if it comes up. For now we just sit in relative peace, cramped in a small overheated ledge. I'm scared to admit it, but I think I might be falling for this girl.

"Hey Link, what's that cut in the middle of your forehead?"

Told you, utterly useless chapter. The next one should be out in around a week, I want to maintain a rough schedule. And folks, remember. Every review you submit, you get a COOKIE. Who doesn't love cookies!? EDIT: It has come to my attention that not everybody loves cookies *gasp!* feel free to take any of the other snacks on the table!