"Oh, are you okay?" Link said as he rushed over to Zelda, his voice soft and seemingly anxious.

"Yes, I'm okay" Zelda choked out as she coughed, her eyes watering as she patted her chest.

"So... Um..." He swallowed hard, closing his eyes as he did so. He sat down on the couch close to Zelda, but not close enough that the two were touching.

"W-What do you need help with?" Zelda broke the somewhat awkward silence by trying to shake off her surprise. However, her little stutter really didn't help.

"Oh- maths, mostly" He opened a draw that was connected to the table they were near, and pulled out a revision book. It was the same book that Zelda had seen him with in the library.

"Okay, I can help you with that" She smiled at him, trying to be reassuring. She opened the book to a certain page which was deemed as a topic to revise for the end of unit test.

"So it's surface area?" He asked, looking at the book and swallowing again.

"Yeah. It looks harder than it is, trust me" She turned to face him again, a smile still on her face.

She felt like she had to go out of her way to make him feel comfortable, not realising that drawing more attention to him than she would to a normal person would make him feel more on edge than he should've.

"Do... you have any paper around?" She asked, looking away and frantically trying to think of a way to make things more casual.

"Sure. Excuse me for a minute" He shot up and practically ran out of the room.

Once he'd left, Zelda brought herself to a facepalm as she sighed. "I'm an idiot..." She muttered.

Once Link had left the room, he ran upstairs to grab some paper. However, he took longer than he intended to. Once he grabbed the paper from his room, he turned around to head downstairs. He caught himself in a mirror though, which side tracked him a little bit. He was still wearing what he slept in, which showed the bottom of his neck and his collarbones. As soon as he saw himself, he noticed that from the top of his neck down, he was completely red and blotchy.

"Oh come on" He angrily muttered, pulling down his shirt to see how far it had spread.

It went all the way down to the middle of his chest. Although he was lucky enough to not get a red face when embarrassed, his chest region became almost inflamed. He took a couple deep breaths before realising he had to go back down to keep Zelda from waiting too long.

"Don't mess this up" He told himself as he walked down the stairs with a few sheets of A4 paper. He cautiously walked into the room, closing the slidy door behind him. "Sorry for keeping you waiting" He pulled up his shirt to cover his neck with his right hand, and held it there.

"No, it's fine" Zelda looked up at Link, smiling again, but not as intensely or forceily.

"So-" Link started, before realising that Zelda had drunk her whole glass of water, and one side of her face was significantly redder than the other. "I'll need to remember the formulas?" Link asked, trying not to stare for too long.

For the next few hours, they just focused on the maths until Link felt comfortable with saying he could do it on his own.

"Okay. I think... I think I've got it" He eventually said, writing a question down and completing the answer on his own.

This is weird he thought. I'm so comfortable. It's been too long since my last... Episode, I guess. I wonder, does she know? Her mother is Mrs. Hyrule, after all. It would make sense if she told Zelda why I needed help from someone outside school.

Oh no. I need to stop thinking now. Okay... Stop.

Stop.

Stop.

Oh Lord. I can't stop. Just let it all wash away.

I need to get of here, and quickly.

"Excuse me. I... Need to use the bathroom" He shot up again, exiting at the same speed he did last time.

After he was gone for a few minutes, Zelda received a text from her mother.

'I'll be outside in a few minutes, so finish up x'

'Okay. Link just went to the toilet a few minutes ago, so I'll wait until he gets back' Zelda sent back, closing the revision book and putting it back in the draw where Link got it out of.

'How long has he been in there? x'

'About 5 minutes, I think. Why?'

'Leave him a note. He might not be coming back for quite a while x'

'What?? I'm not going to just leave him unexpectedly'

'Trust me, Zelda. He won't be coming out for a while.'

Zelda didn't quite understand what was going on, or why her mum was so keen on her leaving Link with no notice, but it seemed like she was right, so Zelda started writing a note on the piece of paper that link was doing his work on.

'My mum is here, so I have to go now. I'll see you next week, same time :)' She wrote.

'Okay, I've done it' She texted her mum.

'I just pulled up, come on. I'll explain more in a bit' She messaged back.

Zelda grabbed her things and tidied up a bit, but did as she was told and left, looking at the downstairs bathroom a couple times before leaving the door.

She walked down the path to where her mother had parked, and got in the front seat. Her mum set off driving, not one word leaving anyone's mouth.

"Is he okay?" Zelda asked, sorry in her voice.

"Yes, he's fine"

"Why is-"

"Zelda, if you're going to ask what's wrong with him, then I'm afraid I can't answer that. I know you're curious, but it's really not my place to say"

"I know. But I can't help but wonder, you know? So many rumours are spread at school and it honestly just makes me think about it a lot"

"Putting that aside, how did it go?" Her mother asked.

"It went really well, actually. It's surprising how quiet someone can be at school, but how open and talkative they can be at home"

"Hold on, talkative?"

"Yeah. He wasn't afraid of asking for help or for me to explain anything again, and he's a fast learner. He learned from his mistakes and didn't make them again"

"Hang on- We are still talking about Link, right?" She chuckled.

"Yes, of course" Zelda was slightly confused, but she just went along with it.

"Well I'm glad you had a good time"

"Yeah, me too"