Chapter Text
Zelda glanced at her watch yet again, wondering where Link was.
She wasn’t really concerned about him, not beyond wanting to spend time with him. No, the greater factor was that she was dying of curiosity wondering what he had planned. He had refused to tell her anything more than he would be there at six, wear sturdy shoes with good support, don’t worry about dinner, and make sure to bring a water bottle.
Five-fifty-six. Four minutes until six, and he only lived a block away. Nothing to worry about, really, especially since he didn’t stress as much about punctuality as she did.
“Ready for your date with Link?” her mom asked as she wandered into the room.
Zelda felt her face burn up. “It’s not a date, mom! You know we’re just friends! He doesn’t like me like that!”
She raised an eyebrow. “Well, he asked you to go, he planned the whole thing, and dinner’s involved. And maybe he does like you but it’s hard to tell because he is affectionate with you since you’re friends anyhow. I wouldn’t rule it out as being a date just yet.”
“I wish that it were. But I’d rather not get my hopes up only for it to come crashing down. It’s just hanging out, though clearly it’s something a little different than usual.” She didn’t say the worst possibility, that it probably really was a date, just not a real one. She’d much rather pretend that it was just him wanting to hang out somewhere other than at one of their houses. It had been a while since they had done anything like that.
“Alright,” her mom sighed. “I’ll stop bugging you about it, then. Looks like he’s here, anyways.”
Zelda looked out the front window, seeing where an old, beat-up and familiar truck had pulled up, Link getting out of it.
“What’s the truck for?” she asked as he walked in.
“What?” he laughed. “No hello?”
“Hello, Link.” She wrapped her arms around his neck for a quick hug. “Now. Where are we going that you need to borrow your dad’s truck?”
“You’ll see soon enough.” That smirk was enough to tell that he was getting a kick out of teasing her about it. “Are you ready?”
She nodded. “Water bottle and some very sturdy hiking boots.”
“Good. You’ll need them.”
Seriously. What had he planned?
Link looked up and waved to her mom. “Thanks for letting me steal her, Mrs. Bosphoramus!”
“Oh please! You’re getting her out of the house! She doesn’t stop studying if she can help it, so you’re doing me a favor getting her to relax for a bit!”
Zelda shot a look at her mom.
She laughed. “Have fun you two!”
She smiled, grabbing Link’s hand and meaning it when she said, “We will!”
“Mount Daphnes,” Zelda mused, “is less of a hike than the name would lead you to believe.”
“At least, usually it is,” Link panted.
She turned to look back at him. “Seriously. What do you have in your pack? You’re in way better shape than I am, so the fact that you’re struggling so much on such a simple hike is making me die of curiosity.”
“You say that about everything,” he protested. “And I already told you, you’ll see once we get to the rest area at the top.”
She pursed her lips, because she couldn’t totally deny that he had one point at least. Zelda often let her curiosity best her and acted as though it were a matter of life and death, though it really never was. Though this situation, with him struggling on a hike, did seem a tad more serious than normal.
“Fine,” she said, crossing her arms. “Don’t tell me what it is if you truly don’t want to ruin the surprise. But don’t tell me that there’s nothing I can do to help. You’re clearly struggling with it.”
“Hmmm…” he considered that. “Well, unless you have a stamina elixir on you, not really. Don’t worry about it. It’s not much further to the top.”
That was true. But still, she was incredibly worried about Link with the condition he was in. So while she may not have a stamina potion on her, she couldn’t help but look around them in order to try to determine if she could possibly find something that could increase his stamina—
“Zelda?”
She looked back at him. “Hmm?”
“Remember that something has to be cooked for its effects to be drawn out. And you can’t do that here.”
“What makes you think that I was going to try to get you to eat something raw?” That had been exactly what she was going to do.
“You had that look in your eyes,” he said, glaring at her. “The same look as that time.”
Zelda threw up her hands defensively. “We were nine!”
“And frogs probably still taste as awful now as they did then.” Link shook his head in disgust. “I still can’t believe you made me do that.
“Don’t say that like I forced you to eat it!”
“It was a dare and we were in fourth grade. You might as well have.”
She didn’t have a retort for that, because yes, she vividly remembered how dares had felt like a matter of life-and-death back then. But they also arrived at the top of Mount Daphnes then, so she decided to focus on that, instead. It didn’t hurt that he would be unloading his pack soon now, thereby fulfilling her curiosity.
It was almost torturous to wait until they got to the picnic table for him to set down his pack.
“Well?” Zelda asked. “Can I see what’s in it now?”
He nodded, though the way he was taking in deep breaths and holding his water—probably to drink once he had caught his breath—made it clear that he wasn’t going to do it himself immediately.
So she dove right in and did it herself, undoing the clasps and opening it up and peering inside to see… a tupperware full of mushrooms.
She frowned, looking up at him. “Mushrooms? That’s what you were carrying that was so heavy?”
Link gestured for her to continue. So she did, pulling out the mushrooms and setting them on the table to see what was underneath. It was… an assortment. A smaller tupperware with more chopped vegetables—it looked like at least one of them was an onion—a bunch of spices, and another tupperware with uncooked rice. But she continued (not without giving Link odd looks as she unloaded each one) onto the next layer, which was just one large container full of some kind of broth.
That seemed to be the last of the food, and then she was finally on to what seemed to be the true source of the weight he struggled with (not that the broth was light with how much of it there had been). A heavy-duty frying pan and a portable camping stove.
Zelda looked up at him. “Okay. What are you cooking, exactly?”
“Mushroom risotto,” he said. “Unless you have a problem with that.”
“I don’t,” she said. “But you didn’t need to lug all of this up here. I was expecting sandwiches! Not… this!”
“Are you complaining?”
She sat down at the table. “Absolutely not. This is going to be a delicious meal. Don’t you dare try to deprive me of it, even if it still seems a little excessive for a hike.”
“That’s why I chose Mount Daphnes,” Link said, setting up the portable stove to start cooking. “It isn’t too hard of a hike, and I wanted a good meal, and after as hard as it was to get here, I’m glad I didn’t try anywhere harder.”
Zelda hummed her approval, watching him cook. “Anything you need me to do? It looks like you have pretty much everything prepped.”
“Just don’t tease me too relentlessly for how excessive this was to bring.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. He stuck his out at her in response.
“You can supply the conversation, if you want,” he said. With the pan starting to warm up, he would soon be able to start cooking in earnest. “Even if it’s you telling me I shouldn’t have tried to surprise you because you could’ve somehow made a stove for me with a match and then I only would’ve needed to bring the pan and the ingredients.”
“How ridiculous. You can’t make a stove out of a match, and that still would have been a lot to carry anyhow.” She paused. “So, why did you decide to do this when sandwiches have always been good enough before, and as a surprise to boot?”
Link didn’t answer, ostensibly focused on the cooking. But she knew him too well. She knew that he was no less likely to be a chatterbox while cooking than otherwise, unless he was at a part where he had to focus more than usual. Which putting in the olive oil to warm up decidedly was not.
She knew him too well. It meant… he was a bit nervous about the answer, if he wasn’t responding or joking about it or anything. So it wasn’t that they were just hanging out like they always did.
She tried not to get her hopes up, but she had to ask. “Is it… a date?”
For a brief moment, he froze. But it wasn’t too much longer after that he took a deep breath and said, “If you want it to be.”
Zelda had to remind herself not to be too hopeful until any potential misunderstandings were cleared. “Everyone else is at the dance. No one else would know.”
Link looked up at her. “Is that okay?”
“This is real,” she mumbled as the thought came into her head, unable to stop it. “Link, I’ve been in love with you since we’ve started high school. I would love for this to be a real date.”
He paused, staring at her. “You’ve… been in love with me since we started high school? And you’re just going to casually mention that in the middle of a conversation?”
She glanced away nervously. Had she miscalculated? There was a great difference between being interested in starting to actually date and wanting to hear that the friend you were interested in was already in love with you.
But, no, she had already committed to telling him. She couldn’t retract the statement now. “Well, if we’re talking about starting to actually date, I’d say it’s hardly a casual conversation in the first place. And it’s true, so would you rather not know?”
He shook his head, looking back down to pay attention to the food he was cooking. “Not at all, it’s just… the timing. Like Phineas and Isabella.”
Zelda took a moment to get that one. “You’ve… been in love with me since we were kids.”
He nodded. “Kindergarten. And… well, freshman year is when I kind of gave up, and why I started dating Mipha, though it also made me realize I was hopelessly in love with you.”
And she thought she had been hopeless, being in love with him for a few years without saying anything. But here he was, saying he had basically been in love with her for the duration of their friendship.
How did you even respond to that?
“I can’t believe you confessed by comparing us to Phineas and Isabella, though,” is apparently how she decided to respond to it.
“It worked, didn’t it?”
It did.
“And the more I think about it, the more accurate a comparison it is.” Link pointed to himself. “Hopeless romantic.” He pointed to her. “Genius that can build the coolest stuff.”
She had to admit she was blushing. “Fine. You’re right. We may not quite be nearly off to uni, but… I believe they end that episode dating? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Is that what we are now?”
Link nodded. “If you want to be, of course.”
She groaned. “We got together with Phineas and Ferb references. How ridiculous.”
He smiled. “It’s us, and I like the way we are. And let’s be honest… it wouldn’t be us if it weren’t ridiculous.”
Zelda had to agree. With everything he had said.