Zelda's POV
"Please enjoy the remainder of your evening," Ramses says, taking a small step away from me. "Both you and your partner."
I nod appreciatively and walk back to Link. He doesn't look too happy about all this. He opens his mouth, ready to protest, but I'm quick to embrace him with a tender kiss before he can utter his complaints.
He doesn't refuse, though he's certainly surprised. That is clear by the way he backs away before kissing me back.
"Everything is okay," I tell him before he has a chance to point out how uncomfortable that dance was for him. "Ramses and I are on the same page. We don't share any affection for each other."
"Oh," Link nods. "Okay. Good."
"Are you okay?" I ask, cupping his cheek. His mask makes his blue eyes more vibrant as he looks at me with contemplation.
"Yeah, I think so. It's just... I don't know... It looked like that Penne guy was hitting on you but for his son. That's just really weird..."
"I'm sorry about all this. It appears that Ramses' parents and my father have been playing matchmaking."
"Your dad is in on this?" Link asks disappointed.
"Don't worry, Link. I will communicate to him that you are the one and only man in my life, and that it is not right of him to sabotage our relationship."
Link looks a bit hurt, but he recovers quickly. "Let's not worry about your dad tonight. Come on," he extends his hand, "let's have some fun."
With a bright smile, I take his hand and follow him into the crowd, but he doesn't stop to dance. Instead, he leads me out of the ballroom and up the grand staircase.
"Where are we going?" I ask.
"Upstairs."
"I can see that. But why?"
"To find an empty room."
I stop, having reached the top. "No."
"Come on," he smiles.
"We can't."
"Why not?"
"It's improper. It's rude."
"It's a party."
"It's not a frat party."
"A party is a party."
"I don't even know if we're supposed to be up here. Nobody else seems to be upstairs, and the hallways are unlit."
"Because it's Halloween," Link argues. "It's supposed to be spooky."
He reaches for one of the doors in the hallway but I pull him back.
"We really can't, Link. My father is close to this family. I don't want to embarrass him by getting caught snooping around."
"Then let's not get caught," he winks at me.
Confused, I step closer, analyzing his facial features. Below his masquerade, I see a twinkle of excitement playing in his bright blue eyes.
"Link?" I question.
"Yeah?"
"Odd..."
"What?"
"I could've sworn you switched bodies with Impa for a moment," I say and he chuckles.
"No, Impa would be much better at convincing you." Link takes my hand and proceeds down the hall with me. "Let's make a deal. We'll check if the doors are locked. If they are, then clearly the owners don't want us in their rooms. But if they're not locked, then I guess it's fine if we explore a little..."
"No way."
"Come on." Swift and smooth, he pulls me closer. Leaning against the wall behind him, he holds me in his arms, our masks touching ever so slightly. "I need to get my mind off of you and that guy. Let's have fun, okay?"
"What do you mean by fun?" I probe. "Are you saying you want to... do stuff?"
"Huh?" he tilts his head. "Why does your dirty mind instantly think of that?" he mocks with a playful smirk. "Part of me is starting to think you lowkey want to sleep with me really badly. Why else would your mind constantly think about us doing stuff."
I mask my embarrassment with a confident huff. "So what if that's true?"
"Well that would be too bad for you," he laughs, "because I'm not asking you to do anything naughty with me. I just want to have some fun like we used to."
"Like we used to?" I raise a brow that he probably can't see behind my mask.
"We used to sneak around like this—all dressed up in disguise—because nobody was supposed to know about us."
"So what you're saying is that you enjoyed playing secret groupie with me?"
"Oh honey." His smirk mirrors mine. "I was never playing."
Intrigued, I lean in. Link does the same. Our noses touch. Then our lips. Then our chests. Then our hips. I break our kiss. "Okay," I breathe, "let's play the game of doors. If it's unlocked, we'll sneak inside."
"Great," he says, leaning in for another kiss but I turn my head to the right, redirecting his kiss to my neck.
"Not so fast," I say as he plants a kiss below my jaw. "There are rules."
"Listening."
"For every door that is closed..."
"Yes?" He tries to kiss me again but I turn my head to the left, teasing him some more.
"For every door that is closed, you must tell me a secret about yourself that nobody else knows."
He stops trying to kiss me, only to give me an unimpressed look. "Have you seen my Wikipedia page? I don't think there's anything secret about my life."
"Nothing at all?" I whisper and plant a seductive kiss on his cheek. "That's too bad..."
Persuaded and with bright red checks, Link nods at me, "I'm sure I'll come up with something. Let's check the first door."
Link steps away from me and cracks his knuckles, as if it was physically demanding labor to twist a door knob. Stepping closer to the first door, he gives me a suspenseful look. I nod at him to open the door. His hand reaches for the handle, it clicks, and then the door swings open.
"I told you so," he boasts and steps inside. When I don't follow, he peeks his head out again, whispering to me, "come on, we had a deal."
"Fine," I sigh.
Stepping into the dark room, I feel like I'm breaking the law. It's a bedroom, clean and spacious like mine. But it clearly belongs to a man. The bed sheets are dark gray and blue, matching the curtains. The window lets in just enough moonlight to see the room's details. On the desk, I spot a laptop and an opened textbook. Link walks up to the bed to look at the trophies that line the shelf above. One gold trophy is shaped like a globe, another like an atom.
The silence is only broken by the faint laughter and music traveling from downstairs. I begin reading some of the highlighted sentences in the open textbook. It's about biology, but at a higher level than the one I'm taking at HU this semester.
Link chuckles softly, whispering to me from the other side of the room, "Are you seriously reading right now?"
"It's interesting," I whisper back with a giggle. "Listen to this: The enzyme kinetics of the allosteric regulation of ATP synthase under changing mitochondrial membrane potentials elucidates the intricacies of cellular energy transduction pathways."
"Are you still speaking English?" he questions with a quiet laugh. "Because that just sounded like you made up a bunch of words." He joins me at the desk and shuts the textbook.
I open it again. "We have to leave everything the way we found it."
"Oh look," he picks up a polaroid photo that was pinned to the wall. "It's that Ramen guy."
"Do you give everyone pasta names?" I laugh, putting the photo back. It's a picture of him at his prom. "This must be his room then. We better leave before we get caught."
"Ready to try the next door?" Link asks.
"Statistically, if the first door was unlocked, the second will likely show similar results."
"Yeah but like Shroedingers cat said, you won't know for sure until you open the door."
"Shroedinger's cat didn't talk," I stifle my chuckle. "And it was a box, not a door."
But Link already left to try the next door. I follow him into the hallway, where he struggles to open the next door.
"Is it locked?" I ask with a haughty smirk.
"Nah, just stuck."
"It's locked."
"Just gimme a sec."
"It's locked, Link."
"Yeah, it's locked."
I cross my arms and wait. "Well, well. Time to confess."
"I don't have any secrets though."
"Everyone has secrets," I grin. "And it's time you finally come forth."
Link takes a moment to ponder about his secrets. After a few seconds, he finally comes up with something and tells me quietly. "Okay so... There's this lady who lives in my neighborhood in Japan. Her house is kinda a shortcut to the train station, so whenever I'd run late, I'd run through her backyard. The issue is that her garden is filled with flowers and it's basically impossible to avoid stepping on them. The first few times she was chill and just warned me not to do it again but then... that one time... she was so over it... She started charging at me! She made me understand the rage of the flowers." A cold shower rattles his bones. "And yeah, I used to be kinda scared of her."
"Used to?" I raise a knowing brow.
Embarrassed, he confesses, "She still haunts my dreams."
I nod. "Thanks for sharing your secret. Let's try the next door."
"Statistically speaking, what are my chances this time?" He asks.
"Fifty fifty."
Link reaches for the door knob, twists it, jiggles it, pushes, then twists it some more, but the door won't budge. "Oof," he sighs.
"Next secret," I gloat.
"I used to believe in fairies."
"Used to?" I raise the other brow.
"Next door," he squeaks, looking increasingly mortified. "What are my odds now?"
"Fifty fifty."
"Still?" He questions.
"Still," I nod.
"But..." he looks like he's doing difficult mental math. "One door was open and two doors were closed. Shouldn't my odds be more like 33%?"
"The odds are fifty fifty because we are assuming that each door has an independent 50% chance of being open or locked. If you're asking about the probability of all three doors being locked in sequence, you would multiply the individual probabilities. Which would be roughly 13%."
"No way Gordon Ramsay is the only guy who doesn't lock his door. Right?"
"His name is Ramses. And that probability would be difficult to calculate. We don't know how many people live here and how many of these doors have locks."
"So..." Link ponders. "Let's assume every single door in the house is locked. Would the chances of the last door being open still be fifty fifty?"
"No, your chances would be equal to zero."
"What? How? You just said there's always a fifty fifty chance!"
"Link..." With a self-assured grin, I tell him casually, "If every single door in the house is locked, then so is the last one."
"Smart-ass," he rolls his eyes at me. "You tricked me."
"You tricked yourself," I laugh.
Link moves on to door number four, eager to find one that opens. It doesn't, and I just can't hold back the giggles.
"Next secret," I demand, but Link tries door number five. The handle clicks and the door swings open.
"Bingo," he says.
"Hey, you owe me a secret," I say, following him into the dark room.
The room is dimly lit, and the little light from the hallway disappears when Link closes the door behind us. His hand tugs me toward the king-sized bed. Casually, as if it was the most normal thing to say, he tells me his secret in a hushed voice, "I'm going to marry you."
Claiming the bed as if it was his, he pulls me on top of him and holds me tightly. There's a brief moment of silence, then I kiss him ardently, my mind so empty that the word "marry" echoes through the hollow space.
The world outside this room fades away. Even the music becomes a distant hum. It's just Link and me. And as I begin to think about marriage, the overwhelming realization of what his words might mean for us begins to settle in. Does he really mean it? Does it really matter right now?
The future might be uncertain, but in Link's arms, everything feels right. The kisses deepen and time seems to stretch as we lose ourselves in the heat of the moment. Link's hands explore the contours of my back, his touch sending shivers down my spine.
Breaking away from the kiss, Link looks into my eyes with a mixture of sincerity and passion. "I mean it," he whispers. "I will marry you. Just give me time."
A smile plays on my lips as I respond, "I'll hold you to it."
"You wanna know another secret?" Link brushes a strand of hair from my face, gazing deep into my eyes. "I've never said that to anyone before."
I can't help my smile. "I'm honored to be the first."
"I've never felt this way before."
"Me neither," I confess, my fingers tracing idle patterns on his chest.
"I love you, Zelda."
"I love you so much, Link."
"I love you," he tells me again, kissing me more passionately now. His hand travels down the curve of my waist, giving a subtle squeeze. In the midst of our kisses, he breathlessly speaks against my lips, "I'm so glad I found you."
"We found each other," I say, feeling out of breath from kissing him so much.
"You make me feel like I can be myself with you."
"Please always be yourself with me."
"I want to see your eyes," he pants. Gently, he removes my mask. His pupils dilate as he takes in the sight. "I missed your face."
Link's movements become more intentional, his touch more passionate. I can tell he's getting carried away, not thinking about the lack of privacy at this place.
I pull back slightly, feeling the need to be the rational one. "Do you want to keep exploring the rooms?"
But his eyes carry a more intimate desire. "How about we explore something else?" he suggests, a subtle shift in the atmosphere that doesn't go unnoticed. With a gentle tug, he opens the zipper at the back of my dress, just enough to trace a path along my upper spine.
I find myself incapable of resisting his charm, and without a word, without overthinking it, I nod, giving him permission to unzip my dress fully. I can feel the cool air against my skin as Link's hands find their way back to my waist, pulling me closer.
I gather all my courage to ask the question any rational person in my situation should ask first. "Do you have a..." the words get stuck in my throat, making me pause involuntarily.
Link answers with a calm nod.
"Oh okay," I breathe nervously.
"You want to, right?"
Not allowing myself to think it over, I simply nod. "You locked the door, right?"
"Yes."