website: http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/moonlight_shadow

"Zelda could only see Link… if she was in love with him…!" Gannon's voice echoed in Link's mind.

Ever since the day that his soul had been separated from his body, courtesy of Gannon, Link hadn't been able to concentrate on anyone or anything except the princess of Hyrule. Was it true? Had that really been the reason that Zelda and Zelda alone could've see him in his ghostly form? He traced back the conversation.

"You love me, huh!?" he grinned.

"Oo! I do not!" she retorted.

"Yes you do! Yes you do!" Link chanted. "That's why you can see me!"

"I do not!" Zelda paused. "Well, maybe just a little…"

Link kept playing the events over and over again in his mind. Each time, the answer came to a standstill. Zelda's words kept him on the edge of either cheering and jumping for joy or sulking in despair.

The Hero of Hyrule's tedious thinking was even starting to affect his normal activities. The first person to notice was Spryte. She came into his room and found him daydreaming on his bed.

"Wakey wakey, Link!" the fairy flit in front of Link's face. A moment later, he blinked and finally noticed her.

"Oh! Hi Spryte." he said. "What's going on?"

"What's with you these days?" Spryte set her hands on her hips, indicating she was serious. "All you do is lay around and daydream! Is something wrong?"

"What? No," replied Link. "Why?"

"You're not yourself!" Spryte scolded. "You're in here all the time and you haven't asked Zelda for a kiss in days, which is what's REALLY worrying me!"

"Calm down!" Link gestured. "I've just got a little something on my mind I need to work out."

"Anything I can help with?" she cocked her head to the side.

"No thanks, Spryte." he said. "But thanks anyway."

"Ok." she sparkled away and flew out the window.

"Heroes dreaming, heroes biding tell the world there's something hiding." uttered the Triforce of Wisdom.

"You know, if that thing wasn't such a pain to put back together," Link muttered under his breath. "I'd break it so that it wouldn't bug me like that!"

****************************************************

A little later, Princess Zelda was out in the courtyard gathering flowers. Every so often, she would look over her shoulder, as if she expected someone to be there behind her. Each time, she'd turn around to nothing. She sighed. When was the last time Link had bugged her for a kiss? Why was she even worrying about that in the first place!? Something must be wrong with the hero for him to be acting so strangely lately.

Just then, Spryte flittered by. The fairy smiled to her sniffed at the flowers Zelda was holding.

"Spryte?" Zelda asked. "Have you seen Link?"

"Why yes!" Spryte blinked. "I just came from his room a few minutes ago. You know, he hasn't been himself these days. Do you think something's wrong?"

"Now that you mention it," Zelda glanced up at the window to Link's room. "He has been kind of quiet and keeping to himself. Maybe I should talk to him."

"Huh!?" Spryte blinked as if Zelda had just said something totally bizarre.

Zelda got up and dusted her clothes off.

"I'm going to go see what the problem is." she said. "He's been cooping himself up there and it's not healthy for him."

Spryte just watched her go, a look of complete and utter shock spread all across her tiny face. Since when was the princess THIS worried about Link? More had to be going on in their heads than usual!

Zelda slowly climbed the stairs leading up to Link's room. The door was slightly ajar, and when she knocked, there was no answer. Cautiously, she made her way in and found the room to be empty, save for the Triforce. Link's bed showed evidence that he had only been there a short time ago. Perhaps he had gone down to the kitchen for a snack.

Zelda glanced back at the Triforce, thinking. This thing 'lived' in the same room as Link, so maybe it could tell her what exactly was bothering him. She approached it pensively.

"Triforce," she said softly. "Can you tell me why Link hasn't been himself these days?"

"Words of yours are on his mind." it spoke. "Answers be his goal to find."

"Words of mine?" Zelda blinked. "What words?"

But the Triforce remained silent.

Just then, Zelda heard footsteps coming up the stairs. The familiar pound of the steps told her it was Link. She went to the doorway.

"Link?" she called softly. A pair of familiar blue eyes looked up at her, slightly surprised, but happy nonetheless.

"Hey!" Link swallowed the bit of fruit he had been chewing on. "What are you doing up here?"

"I was worried about you." Zelda stared at the ground. "You haven't been jumping off balconies or being your usual crazy self. It's starting to bother me."

"Why?" the hero blinked.

"Because that's just not like you!" she waved her arms wildly.

"Sheesh!" Link took another bite of his apple. "I do one little thing different and everyone's in a panic over me! Spryte was just in here a little while ago saying the same thing."

"What's wrong, Link?" Zelda asked plainly.

"Nothing." He said nonchalantly. "I just had a little something on my mind I needed to think about."

Zelda remembered what the Triforce had said. Words of yours are on his mind. Well, she guessed, maybe risking letting on that I know it's about me is worth it if it gets him to be himself again.

"Is it something to do with me?" she asked.

"What makes you say that?" he stared at her.

"Just a guess." she lied.

"Well, uh…" Link quickly took a big bite of his apple to give himself time to think of a way out of this predicament. Situations like these made fighting Gannon seem like a walk in the park!

"I'm waiting." Zelda tapped her foot, pretending to be impatient.

Link glared at the Triforce. Zelda could've been up here long enough to ask the thing if anything was wrong. If that was the case, he thought, I'm so dead!

The hero had his back turned to her. He forced himself to swallow the bit of food in his mouth as he brought his hand up to his chest. Inwardly, Link was praying that the Triforce of Courage inside him would help him say what he needed to and be able to bear the consequences afterwards.

"Zelda…" he turned around slowly. "Did you… uh… mean what you said the other day?"

"Huh?" she blinked. "About what?"

"Remember when we had that little problem where Gannon zapped me and I got kinda ghostly?"

"What about that day?" Zelda was beginning to put a couple of the pieces together. She had partially, partially, admitted her affections to Link that day, but she hadn't expected him to take it quietly like this. In fact, she had half expected him to be bugging her constantly about it.

"Well," Link reluctantly continued. "It's been bugging me for a while now, and I just wanted to know if you meant what you said that day about… liking me?"

The shade of Zelda's face could have put a lobster to shame. So that's what had been on his mind! That little confession of hers must have gotten the gears in his head turning overtime!

"Oh! Uh,… that?" Zelda pushed a lock of hair out of her face. "Link, I… I did mean it, but… well,…I didn't want you to get the wrong idea when I said that."

"You thought I was going to ask you for kisses ten times as often, didn't you?" he twitched his ears.

"Sorta…" she stared at the floor.

"Look, Zelda." Link sighed. "If it's really bothering you that I keep asking for kisses, I'll stop."

Zelda immediately looked up at him as though he had turned into an octorok. She put her hand to his forehead worriedly.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Do you have a fever or something?" she asked. "Because I could just swear that I heard you say you weren't going to ask for kisses anymore!"

"I'm fine." He said, gently removing her hand from his forehead. "Physically anyway."

"Link, I meant what I said that day." Zelda gazed at him compassionately. "I'm not going to deny that I like you anymore, because apparently that's lying. But… um…"

"What?" Link queried.

"Oh darn it!" Zelda stamped her foot on the stone floor. "If you remember that, you should remember what Gannon said when we were up on that balcony!"

"You mean the reason you could see me?"

"Don't make me spell it out, Link!" she scolded. "It's embarrassing!"

Link's mouth twisted and contorted into a confused, but satisfied smile. He finally had the answer he wanted! It brought an overjoyed blush to his face.

"You… you really DO love me?!" he managed to spit out.

Zelda nodded silently, not looking up from the floor with her bright crimson cheeks. Link breathed a huge sigh of both relief and excitement. She said it! She liked him! No, she loved him! He couldn't believe it! All this time, he thought that it might have been someone else taking the place in her heart he so badly wanted to occupy, but no, she had simply been admiring him from a distance, and it had only been revealed when she thought she had lost him forever.

"I… I don't know what to say, Zelda." Link scratched the back of his head. "Except that I'm honored!"

"Link…" Zelda blushed. "Don't take this the wrong way or anything… but… uh… could you…k-k…"

"Kiss you?!" Link could hardly believe what he was hearing! It was his turn to check Zelda for a temperature.

"I kinda missed you asking me that while you were keeping to yourself…" she glanced at him, then returned her gaze to the floor. "I won't push you away, if that's what you're worried about."

The overwhelmed hero was about to kiss her when he paused suddenly. He stamped the floor hard to see if it would suddenly give way under him. Then, he shut the door to assure no interruptions from anyone. Finally, he stuck his head out the window to check for any uninvited monsters. When all was said and done, he stepped up to the princess and gently embraced her.

Their lips met, and Link could feel the points of his ears burning. How long had he been waiting for this!? His first kiss! Zelda's too, he hoped.

"Thank you," Zelda smiled warmly. "I was saving that for you."

"You too?" Link blinked, shocked.

"What do you mean 'you too'?" she cocked her head to the side. "You mean you've never kissed a girl before this?"

"Nope." he replied.

"The way you kissed me made me think you were an expert at this!"

"Well excuuuuuuuuuuse me, Princess!" he laughed, pretending to have been offended. "I'm not the playboy you think I am!"

They heartily laughed together. Outside the window, under the ledge of the sill, sat a rather unhappy Spryte.

"Dirty razza-frazza…" the fairy mumbled. "Stupid princess… grumble, grumble,… stealing MY Link… grumble, grumble."

 

THE END

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Author's Note: I hope this wasn't too weird for anyone! It's hard finding Zelda fanfiction on the web that isn't based on the N64 games, so I decided to change that. This fic is strongly based on the old '80's cartoon that used to come on the Super Mario Super Show every Friday. (If you want me to be even more specific, it's based on the episode entitled "The Missing Link") I was going to use some modern day expressions in this story, but then I decided to stay true to the cartoon and keep the '80's jargon. Hope you guys/gals liked it!

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