It's probably not smart to write a romance story while listening to Dammit by Blink 182. For those of you that may not know and don't want to bother looking it up, it's kind of a suppressed-angry-break up song.

Ah well, win some, lose some.

"You want to get me a new ice pack? This one is kind of soft now." Sheik asked me.

He was sitting on the couch with his head hanging over the back and an ice pack over his eye. I was in my chair trying my best not to move any muscle in my torso or abdomen. Two days passed since the fight and neither of us wanted to make any kind of movement. We were sore, in pain, and kind of miserable.

The knife hadn't really done that much to me, only gone in a couple of centimeters, but I still had to change the bandage of few times. Naturally, it still sucks when I move and I still can't stand up without help, but it's actually gotten better from what it was. Sheik is bruised up everywhere. We had Zelda and Malon take care of us yesterday, but they haven't come over yet today. That's unfortunate because Sheik got used to asking them for things very quickly. Now he expects me to obey him.

"No." I said, bluntly.

"Liiiink, come on! My eye hurts!" He complained.

"If you listen closely, you'll notice that there's nobody caring." I replied.

"I helped you in the fight!" He tried reasoning.

"It's because of you there was a fight!" I told him.

"You complain a lot." He said.

"YOU GOT ME STABBED!" I yelled.

"Oh yeah. Fine, I'll get it myself." He said, about to stand up.

Just then there was a knock at the door. "Hey guys, it's Zelda."

"Door's open." We said at the same time.

Zelda walked in with a sympathetic smile. "Hey guys, how are you doing?"

"Well, my ice pack is kind of melting." Sheik said, whining.

"Oh, I can get you a new one." She said, walking over to take the ice pack off of his eye. She walked into the kitchen and opened the freezer. I started glaring at Sheik. His head was still lying back, so I didn't know if he saw me until he started smiling. He put the smile away when Zelda walked back in.

"Here you go." Zelda said, switching the packs. She left to go put the warm one in the freezer.

"Zelda's not your slave!" I whispered to Sheik.

"I didn't say she was!" Sheik whispered back.

"So are you guys still biting each other's heads off?" Zelda said. She leaned over the counter facing us. "You guys were really going at it yesterday."

"No, we're better today." I told her.

"Shut up Link." Sheik said.

"If I could move…"

"I'm kidding, relax." He said, laughing.

I started laughing too, but soon came to regret it. The pain in my side hit me when I started to exhale.

"Damn it… Don't make me laugh." I told him.

He grinned. "Are you saying I shouldn't make you happy?"

"Yes, stop making me happy, you ass." I said, smiling with him.

"Don't you mean elbow?" He said.

We started laughing but I had to stop. "Stop it! That's never going to catch on!"

Zelda spoke up. "Do you guys need me for anything, or can I go back to my dorm?"

"Would you mind helping me up? I want to go to bed." I asked her.

Sheik laughed. "Nothing like going to bed at 10 A.M."

"Shut up. I couldn't move." I said

She started walking over to me. "You stayed here all night?" she asked me.

"Yeah. I can't really stand up on my own, you know." I told her.

"Why didn't you have Sheik help you?" she asked. The three of us started laughing until I yelled at the other two. "Anyway, that means you didn't see the surprise I put in your room!"

"What surprise?" I asked.

"I'll show you!" she said. She came over to my chair and looked down at me. "So, how should I help you up?"

"Here, just let me put my arm around you." I told her, holding up my right arm. Zelda bent over and I wrapped my arm around her neck. As she stood up and tried using my legs to push myself up, without using my abs. It didn't work perfectly, but it was better than trying it myself.

"Can you walk by yourself now?" She asked me.

"Yeah probably."

"Let's not risk it." She said, starting to guide me.

"Thanks."

"I've never seen 'the move' get pulled like that!" Sheik called to us. Zelda's face turned red, but I really didn't care at all about what Sheik was saying now. I'm too tired.

When we got to my room I saw what the surprise was. "Hey, my shirt! You got it fixed!"

Zelda started laughing. "You bet! I kind of got it mess up in the first place, so I felt like I had to." "She helped me sit down on my bed.

"You didn't have to, it's only a shirt. Thank you though. It means a lot." I said.

Zelda sat down next to me. "Hey, can we talk about something?"

"We can talk about anything."

"This whole injury situation has been a nice distraction, but what's the status between us right now?"

"I thought you said we were still friends."

"Actually I asked you if you were okay with that and you didn't have a chance to reply." She reminded me.

"Oh, that's right." I didn't know what to say, so there was a long, incredibly uncomfortable, silence.

…

"I've had a crush on you since high school." She said, looking at her hands. I turned my head. Zelda began recounting all of her attempts of getting my attention throughout high school and even now in college. It turns out Sheik was right about Valentine's day and the map thing. But he had missed a few moments.

"There was that one time you were walking down the hall and I didn't see you, so I hit you in the face when I opened my locker." She told me.

"Oh yeah! I had forgotten about that!" I said, kind of laughing.

"And at prom our senior year, we were dancing near each other for a couple of songs. You kept stepping on my foot and apologizing while we were on the dance floor, but you didn't know I was trying to put my foot where yours was so you would step on it and talk to me." She said, smiling, but still not looking at me.

"And during the first week you guys got your apartment last year, there was that time you and Sheik had a bunch of people over and we watched movies all night. Everyone just kind of fell asleep wherever they wanted. When we woke up, I was on your lap in your chair. That was my favorite way to wake up."

That story made me smile. Zelda kept going on with stories. We laughed, or I tried to at least, at all of the things that have happened since we've gotten to know each other. Eventually I had to interrupt her.

"Zelda, do want to see a movie with me?" I asked her.

"Do you remember when… I'm sorry, what did you say?" She said, looking at me.

"You've tried so hard to get me to notice your feelings. I want to go to a movie with you." I told her.

She looked at her hands again. "Because you feel bad?"

I shook my head. "No, because I want to spend time with you."

She looked at me with tears in her eyes and a slight smile. "I was a bit worried after telling you all of this you'd think I was some kind of stalker."

"Eh… that makes it sound bad. But when I can stand up again I want to take you to whatever movie you choose. I've already figured out Zelda, my best friend. Now I want to figure out Zelda, my girlfriend."

Zelda started laughing and hugged me, being careful of my side. I started laughing too. This time the pain didn't bother me.

"Guys I need a new ice pack for my other eye!"

"Shut up Sheik!" We said together.

So, Zelda and I became inseparable after that night. We went and did everywhere together. Sometimes Sheik came along, but that was when he thought he could mooch stuff off of us. He was the third wheel from hell until we stopped paying for him whenever Zelda and I went out to do stuff.

Zelda moved into our apartment. Sheik wasn't too thrilled at first, but then he found out Zelda liked cooking meals at any time of day with all of our rarely used utensils, so he grew accustomed.

We had graduated a year later. Zelda and I had both gotten jobs in our careers within 6 months after that. But we still managed to make some time to see each other. We moved to a different apartment in the city so we would be closer to our jobs. Sheik found a new roommate. I don't know how Malon handled living with Sheik at first (We didn't see either of them until months after it happened) but they seem to get along.

One day, Zelda and I went to dinner. She told me that she had just gotten promoted and that nothing could make her day any better than it was. Because I felt the need to prove her wrong, I proposed to her. No, I'm just kidding about the proving her wrong part, but she said yes and we started planning the wedding right away.

Zelda took care of most of it, but there was one thing I definitely had to have.

I needed to be wearing a certain white shirt.

We've been married for about 3 years now. We're enjoying every minute of it! We've had a son and we're expecting another one in the coming months. Sheik and Malon still come and visit a couple of times a month. I haven't seen Ruto since she came to our wedding, but according to Facebook she's got herself a new boyfriend.

Zelda and I have moved up in our careers, made new friends, started a family, and have done it all with a smile.

And if anybody asks how Zelda and I got together, I tell them it was all because of my new white shirt.

Ta-Da! Tomato Stain is done.

I'm just going talk about the story for a little bit now, so if you don't want to bother with this, that's cool, just know that I am forever grateful for you reading and reviewing. A lot of people take the time to thank each individual reviewer. I feel like a jerk for not doing the same thing, but I wouldn't say anything different than what I am right now. So thank you, sincerely.

Moving on!

SO, I had actually written the first sentence of this before I had finished Hyrule High. And, in all actuality, I wrote it because I didn't feel like starting an English assignment. So I wrote that sentence, then realized it was 8:00 and the paper was due the next day. SO! I put this on the back burner.

I feel like this chapter was the worst in the whole story. The ending, you know, probably shouldn't be the worst but I kind of screwed myself over. People who bother looking up romance stuff enjoy reading things that are touching, mutual, romantic, etc. But never throughout the story did I ever hint that Link had feelings for Zelda.

Whoops! It's a Zelink fanfiction, that's, uh… that's kind of a staple for the genre.

I couldn't have Link say "Holy crap I feel the same way!" because you guys heard… saw…. Whatevered all of Link's thoughts. You know he wasn't head over heels. This wasn't particularly sappy/fluffy/romantic (pick your favorite) and for that I apologize. This is a story that could've gone on a totally different, probably better, path, and I got sloppy.

Now for a side note of my future on the site. If you don't really care for my writing and just happen to stick around for this story, no need to read on.

This may or may not matter to people, but I'm getting kind of bored with writing romance. I'm taking a break from that genre, and in all honesty, I don't really know what else to write about, so I'll probably take a break from writing.

You know, the 8 month break I had wasn't enough.

I'll probably put Connections on hold. Or just change the focus. I don't know.

BUT HEY! LET'S NOT LEAVE THESE ON A LOW NOTE!

What do you call the offspring of water and sand?

A SON OF A BEACH!

BA-DUM! CYMBAL!

Ok, bye for a while.

TTaranino