Breath of the Wild College AU fanfic │Thinking About You

Purah

After my short lunch I make my way to biology. While I love this lab more than any of my other classes, I stopped looking forward to it ever since Link joined that class. Mipha is already standing by our table and waves at me when I walk up to her.

"Hey Zelda."

"Hi Mipha, how are you?"

"I'm good and you?"

I look behind us. Link is not here yet.

"I'm good too."

Minutes pass and the professor enters the classroom, shutting the door behind him. Still no sign of Link. I look behind me one more time to double check, but the table is still very much empty.

"Are you looking for Link?" Mipha says in a low voice. I feel the need to lie to her. If I tell her the truth, she might ask me why I'm looking for her boyfriend. It'd be awkward to tell her that I'm returning his hoodie.

"No, not intentionally at least," I whisper and check to see if the professor has noticed our chatting. I really don't want to disturb the class, so I speak as quietly as I possibly can. "Is he skipping today?"

"No, I told him to stay home."

"You... what?"

"Yesterday evening, I stayed at the pool when my team had already left. I often stay to practice alone, but then Link came by to show me an injury. We've known each other for a long time, he was a reckless child and I used to patch him up more often than I can count. Obviously he doesn't need me to look after his scraps anymore, but I'm pre-med now, and he still comes to me when he needs medical advice. You know, for bigger wounds."

"Is he okay?" I ask worried.

"His rips are pretty beat up. I gave him an ointment and told him to take the day off. If he doesn't take the time to heal, he could lose his scholarship. As an athlete it's impossible to avoid injuries, that's why self-care is incredibly important, but he tends to forget that."

"Him being an athlete had nothing to do with his injuries though."

"What makes you say that?"

She looks confused. She must know that Link didn't get injured during his game yesterday. Or... perhaps she doesn't know?

"Someone hit him," I tell her and watch worry come over her like the heavy rain falling and tapping against the large windows outside.

"He said it happened during his game," she says, dubious of my words. "I thought they looked odd, but I didn't question his honesty."

Why would he lie to her? People only lie when they do things they aren't supposed to be doing.

"Were you there? At his game?" She asks me and I shake my head.

"I wasn't. You're probably right, he must have gotten hurt during the soccer game."

I don't know which story is true; Link's or Paya's, but I don't want to cause any problems between Mipha and him. I like to stay out of drama, that's why I won't ask her any more questions about Link. I change the topic and finish our project by the time the lab ends. Even when Link is absent he manages to distract me from my work. Still, for as long as he's injured, I don't want to be angry at him.

I have a two-hour gap between biology and astronomy, so I want to find a quiet spot to relax for a few minutes. Part of me wants to refuse to take a break, but I've been up since 5 AM and I am caught up in all my classes. I think I deserve to give my brain a break. The library is in another building and I don't want to walk there right now, so I decide to stay in the science building.