"ZELDA, DON'T MOVE!" Ike screamed. He stood at the edge of where the floor began a drastic slope downwards into the flames that raged below. Zelda laid helplessly near the bottom where the boards had splintered, completely terrified. If she moved, she could very well break the remaining boards keeping her anchored to the intact floor of the loft above.

I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die.

Ike looked around him in sheer panic, he had no idea how to help her, but he knew the floor could give out at any moment and he didn't like the odds of Zelda being able to survive that landing...

Quickly he laid down on his stomach so his arms stretched over where the floor had broken. She was way too far below him to be reached. He hastily ripped off his suit jacket and extended it as far as it would go, still not enough. He sat up and began to unbutton his white shirt as fast as he could. His large fingers fumbled with the tiny buttons, until he just ripped the rest of them off. He tied a double knot between one of the long sleeves of the shirt and a sleeve of the jacket and then threw it down like a rescue rope. Now it was pretty close to Zelda's once blonde, now slightly gray, soot covered hair.

"Zel, can you reach my jacket?!" He called down to the helpless girl below. Her head was still fixed downward, staring at the yellow and orange forest of flames. She had not dared to even move her head, completely and utterly afraid of shifting her weight ever so slightly on her precarious perch.

Very slowly, she turned her head upward to look at the jacket. Thanks to Ike's ape-like arms, it wasn't too far off, but still at least a foot above her head. She began to reach for it with one arm hesitantly. On one hand, if she moved too much she could break the boards and potentially fall to her death, on the other hand, if she didn't try to get off fast the boards would inevitably break and she could potentially fall to her death. She wasn't a fan of her options.

After a few painfully slow moments, she was able to fully extend her arm above her head. It wasn't enough. "I can't reach!" She called back to Ike, her voice cracking in exasperation. By this point the smoke had grown heavier and both teens had begun to cough and struggle to breathe. She couldn't help but feel hopeless.

Ike carefully began to slither his body forward, despite groans of protest from the weak floor supporting him. He scooted until his hips rested on the very edge. He stretched his torso and arms with all his might. Zelda did the same from the opposite end, even daring to extend her curled up body slightly.

At last her fingers brushed the cuff of the sleeve and she was able to weakly grab hold. She quickly reached up with her other hand to get a firmer grip. "I got it!" She screeched happily. Ike let out what started as a relieved laugh, but soon grew into a fit of coughing.

"I'm gonna try to pull you up!" He choked out once his fit ended. He began to scoot back onto the flat floor, grunting from the effort. Not only was it an awkward angle, but he was trying to pull back two body weights and he was beginning to grow exhausted from the immense heat and carbon dioxide inhalation.

After several minutes he was able to scoot back enough that just everything from his chest up was dangling over the edge and Zelda had been pulled up a few inches. He couldn't resist taking a short break, despite the growing danger of the situation at hand. His muscles felt tight and exhausted like after three hours of conditioning for football practice and his head was pounding.

"I'm... sorry, Zel.... I'm really.. trying." He panted.

"It's okay, Ike." She responded, sounding sleepy herself. "I believe in you."

He lifted his head once again, determined to pull and pull until Zelda was safe. He began to with all his might, despite the screaming objection from his muscles, the pounding in his head, and the blurriness of his vision. Just as her almost lifeless body began it's slow ascent up the ramp of floorboards, a loud cracking sound rang above the crackling sound of fire.

Ike's stomach flew up to his throat as the floor below him gave way. Zelda shrieked as she slid full speed down the ramp, Ike's body tumbling close behind.

"NO!" He yelled out, reaching for her just as her body reached the edge, but it was too late. The screaming girl rolled off. He was able to grab the edges of the boards, stopping himself. He looked below and saw that Zelda had crashed into a table. Luckily when the floor gave out below him it added to the length of the ramp, bringing the edge closer to the ground below. Ike guessed she had only fell about ten feet and appeared to just be unconscious...or so he hoped.

The boards were creaking loudly now, he knew he was going to have to jump for it. He decided to aim for the table next to Zelda's, in front of him. That way it'd have a little extra height and maybe absorb some of the impact. He began to swing his body to gain momentum, but he was only able to get two swings in when he heard the familiar cracking noise. Quickly he let go when he was swinging forward, propelling his body to the next table. As soon as he landed he rolled forward like he saw in all the movies.

Maybe it was the adrenaline, or some kind of miracle, but Ike was able to get up and felt relatively okay. He quickly stumbled over to where Zelda had landed and felt her neck for a pulse. It was slow, but there definitely was something and she was taking shallow breaths.

With an immense amount of effort he was able to sling her petite form over his shoulder. Now he just had to find a way out of here. He looked around, but was met with nothing but the blinding sight of flames in every direction. There appeared to be no exit in sight.

He realized there was only one thing he could do; he had to make his own exit.

Double checking that Zelda was balanced safely on his left shoulder, he began to run toward the wall next to where the front entrance had been, now blocked with fallen beams. He ran with everything he had left, which wasn't much, and pushed his large right shoulder forward to bear the blow.

The weak wood gave way and they flew out into the cool (well at least compared to inside the burning barn) night air. He landed harshly in the grass, Zelda's body splayed out next to him. The last thing he remembered was a voice calling out, "hey! Look over there!" before everything went black.

~*~

Zelda's eyes fluttered open and immediately squinted at the harsh, sheer whiteness of her surroundings. She was in a room that she didn't recognize with white walls, light blue waiting chairs and a scratchy blue blanket laid on her lap. The room was quiet other than a steady beeping sound and slight whirring.

"Zel?" A deep voice called from somewhere to her right. She looked over to see a groggy Link, slowly standing from one of the waiting chairs. He was still dressed in his suit which appeared to be tattered and big bags under his eyes gave off the impression that he hadn't slept much. "You're awake!" He exclaimed, catching sight of her half-open eyes.

He ran over to the bed, grabbing her hand and kissing it immediately. She still felt confused, but slowly the events of last night were beginning to come back to her. They were at prom and she was talking with Ike and then there was a... fire? The last thing she remembered was falling, how did she get out of that dreadful barn?

"Where's Ike?" She asked, suddenly more alert. "Is he okay?"

"Yes, he's in the next room over." Link assured her, rubbing her hand comfortingly.

"What happened last night?"

"Well, after Pit and I went to the bathroom I came out to find you, but you were gone. So I figured you were back dancing with the group and went back looking for you in there. By the time I had found everyone and asked about you, some dill-hole had knocked a bunch of candles off some of the tables. Since the barn is so old and there was some hay still laying around, it began to catch pretty fast and the chaperones ushered everyone out. I tried to stay and look for you, but I got dragged out. Literally. Our entire group searched the crowd, but we couldn't find you. So I told the teachers that you had to still be in there and we needed to go get you, but they wouldn't let anyone do anything. They just kept saying that it'd be up to the fire department. As soon as they arrived I told them that you were missing and probably trapped in there somewhere. By this point Samus and Ike's friends had come over too raving about how he was missing as well. They were just getting ready to send a search party in when Ike literally burst through the wall. You guys were both unconscious so they rushed you to the hospital and yeah... here we are." Link explained to her.

"Wow." She breathed, speechless.

"I thought you were dead..." Link choked out suddenly, staring down at the floor. "There was so much smoke..."

Seeing him get all emotional made tears spring to her eyes immediately. She really could have died in there. In fact she surely would have had it not been for Ike.

"I'm okay, Link. I promise." She told him softly, squeezing his hand. He looked up and smiled at her softly, his eyes glazed.

"I know you just woke up and this is probably really overwhelming for you so feel free to tell me to eff off, but can I ask you something?" He asked after a moment. She nodded for him to go on, already knowing what it probably was. "What were you doing with Ike?" He asked, not doing a very good job of hiding the pain in his voice.

"It was nothing like that. We just finally talked everything out and he explained all the Samus stuff to me." She told the solemn boy.

"So... you guys aren't getting back together or anything right?" He asked slowly.

"No, we're just friends." She answered with a smile. "Good friends."