Hearts of Stone (BOTW Modern AU)

Chapter 7

She leaned on her suitcase, face drawn and clearly done arguing. Now that Link looked at her she looked terrible. There were dark circles under her red bleary eyes, hair knotted in places, and a fogginess coating her usual sharp eyes. She looked haggard as she stood there, practically holding onto her suitcase for support. 

"You look awful," Link blurted out, slapping a hand over his mouth in the next breath when he realized what he'd just said, "I mean-" 

"Save it," Zelda growled, forcefully pushing past him into her room. 

"No- no, I mean, are you ok?" Link suck his hand in the doorway before she could close it, hoping his sincerity reached his eyes, " you don't look like your doing ok, that's what I meant." 

She regarded him cooly for a second, eyes glistening for a moment, "Don't pretend like you care," she muttered, voice choked before slamming the door shut.  

He stood, staring at her closed door, mouth agape. Angry and frustrated he stomped into his own room and shut the door, sliding down the wood and dropping his head into his hands. It wouldn't be that hard, right? The house was big enough, they could just mind their own businesses and never even have to talk. He tried his best to convince himself of that, but even he knew contact was inevitable.

By the goddesses, he tried to avoid her, but it seemed fate had other ideas. Just in that one day, he seemed to run into her more times than a usual workweek. She was in the living room when he went to go get a glass of water, at the table for lunch, and playing with Roh, Zara, and Wolfe for most of the afternoon. Hylia, he even choked himself with his toothbrush when she walked past the bathroom. Each encounter was awkward and forced, both pulling pained but polite smiles as they avoided the other's gaze. He didn't know what to say to her, a feeling he assumed she shared. To be thrust suddenly into the same house with her wasn't something he was prepared for. He tried to tell himself to give it time, that he could get used to seeing those alluring emerald eyes and shining golden hair on a daily basis...but he couldn't.

It had only been one full day and already his nerves were shot. Every moment he'd been glancing over his shoulder, almost as if he was expecting to see her looming over him with a knife. Even after a night's rest, though he really hadn't slept much, he realized keeping silent couldn't be an option. 

Link tentatively cracked open his bedroom door and peeked into the empty hall. Convinced there was no one there, he slipped out and sprinted to the stairs taking them two at a time. He glanced around the living room even though he distinctly remembered both Zelda's leaving to go on a walk with the two toddlers. He knew she wasn't even in the house, but on the off chance that she stayed behind for some reason...

Link sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was doomed if she was making him this paranoid. He quickly crossed the room and barged through another door, Twi jumping in surprise at his entrance. The older man watched the younger curiously, pen hanging loosely in his mouth and hands resting on a keyboard. 

"May I help you?" he asked as Link collapsed into an armchair next to the window. 

"I lied," Link blurted, Twi's eyebrows nearly disappearing into his hair, "I didn't meet Zelda at your wedding."