Link awoke on the floor, almost screaming out of fear when he saw Zelda laying right next to him, with one of her arms draped over his stomach.

Carefully, Link removed her arm from his stomach and slowly sat up, making sure not to wake Zelda. He looked around, noting that he was still in Zelda's room and still wearing his outfit from yesterday. Looking straight at the TV, Link recognized the film playing on it. It was the film that they had watched last night together, and it seemed to have been replaying all night long.

Wait—why am I still here? he wondered, grabbing his phone nearby and seeing only three text messages from his mother.

: Zelda's parents said you fell asleep there, and it was very late when you did. I didn't want you to have to come back home so early in the morning, especially with the snow.

: I hope that was ok with you, we just didn't want to wake you. It snowed terribly last night.

: Just be home by ten o'clock tomorrow. We love you! ❤️

Sent 12:34 AM

Link wished he had just trekked his way home last night. He honestly didn't care if it would be terrifyingly cold—this situation was even worse for him.

He just had to maneuver his way out of Zelda's room without waking her, thank her parents for allowing him to unexpectedly stay the night, and get out of this house.

As he approached the door to Zelda's room, he heard her yawn and rise from where she had been laying on the ground. He looked over his shoulder at her, failing to contain his blush when he noticed how cute she looked. Despite her messy hair and half-lidded eyes, she still looked cute.

Stupid, shut up, brain. I have to leave, he scolded himself, but he just couldn't open the door when she had fully been awoken, smiling one of those wonderful smiles at him.

Link couldn't help but smile back, watching with slight fear as she began to walk over to where he was.

"You're leaving?" she signed her question to him, and it took a few seconds for Link to understand what she said, but when he did he replied.

"Yeah," he signed back. "Thank you for letting me stay the night."

"Night?" Zelda signed her thoughts, looking out her windows and feeling incredibly dumb for not noticing the blinding daylight. She looked back at Link. "Well, you're welcome."

Zelda briefly wrapped her arms around his waist and smiled into his neck, sending shivers down Link's spine. She always did that; perhaps she knew how weak it could make him. Link sighed at this thought as Zelda pulled away.

Link waved goodbye to Zelda once more and made his way down to the first floor. That's where he thanked Zelda's parents for allowing him to sleep over that night, to which they happily said "no problem" and let him be on his way home.

Just after he left the house, Mother looked at Father with an all-knowing grin on her face.

"Link seems like a good boy," she said, and Father just heartily chuckled, agreeing with his wife's statement.

••

Later in the day, Zelda remembered something.

Prom was approaching, and fast. Zelda and Midna vowed that they would attend prom this year, even if they would end up going alone. They wanted to experience an event like prom before their high school years were over.

Midna was waiting impatiently in Zelda's room, tapping her foot on the ground in a random beat, while Zelda was finishing up her algebra homework.

Slapping her pencil down on the worksheet, she stood up and startled Midna.

"I can't do this anymore," Zelda signed with a frown, to which Midna nodded solemnly in response.

"Math's a bitch," Midna signed back. She lifted herself off the floor of Zelda's room and grabbed her friend's hand, making Zelda grin.

"Shall we go?" Zelda signed.

"We shall." Midna smirked.

And then, they were off to find prom dresses.

Since the Harkinian family was very wealthy, as mentioned before, they allowed both of the girls to use a gracious amount of money to spend on their dresses.

Arriving at the mall was a simple task, but finding the right dresses would make this shopping trip difficult. If their prom was soon, then other school districts would be holding their own prom's soon. Therefore, the stores would be packed with other people, all with one initial goal: to find the perfect prom outfit.

They entered the actual mall, looking to and fro for a good store to start in. Midna decided to just follow the largest crowds of teenagers, entering some random dress shop, with Zelda tagging behind.

"There's a lot of dresses here," Midna signed to Zelda. "How're we going to pick from just one of these? I don't understand how people do this."

Zelda shrugged. "I don't know, either," she signed, "but we'll find our ways."

Seconds turned into minutes, and minutes only deepened into hours, with no such luck in finding the perfect dresses for either of them.

"I don't even know what colors suit me," Zelda complained, removing her hand from the felt red dress she had examined. "I'm not really the fanciest person, and you know that, Midna."

Midna was looking at a green dress, not even paying any attention to her friend's desperate pleas, or rather her complaints.

Zelda heaved a small sigh, deciding to spread out instead of staying huddled in one area. Moving through the swarms of other people, her age or older, was very difficult for the brunette tenth grader. She accidentally bumped into some of them a lot, to which she could only mentally apologize for her careless mistake. The amount of people was making her feel quite under pressure, which was not a good thing either. A headache was threatening to form, but she withstood it until she finally broke free of the crowd of people.

She glanced at one of their faces, wishing she could be as pretty as everyone else here. Self confidence was a very hard thing for anyone to achieve, and seeing people who looked so gorgeous, compared to her plain self, made Zelda feel only worse about her confidence. It was something she couldn't help, no matter how desperately she wished to gain more of her lost confidence.

As she slipped by another girl, she collided with someone familiar, almost falling into one of the dress racks. Zelda managed to save herself before she made a huge scene, steadying herself back on both feet.

She was not surprised to see Lana standing there wearing a smirk, with a blue Zora girl standing beside her with an equally menacing grin plastered over her face. Was this Lana's new friend? Zelda had seen this Zora before, and apparently her name was Ruto. Ruto wasn't known for her kindness at Hyrule High, but rather her rudeness—just like Lana! So, of course, Zelda was super happy to be able to see both of them at once.

Zelda only glared at Lana, as that was the only thing she could really do to show her annoyance towards this girl.

Lana knew good and well that Zelda was incapable of hearing, so she mouthed some words to the girl.

"Hey!" she mouthed first. "Link will be going to prom with me, not you" Lana mouthed slowly, as if she had already read Zelda's mind and its intentions for tonight.

Unfortunately, Zelda read every single word on Lana's lips. This only caused a seed of nervousness to plant in her stomach, and Zelda only wished that she could just run away from Lana. She could be lying, and her words didn't concern Zelda all that much. Zelda just didn't know if Lana would try to hurt her—like, push her into the racks of dresses. Dumb cat fights.

Why would that even happen? Zelda questioned herself, finally feeling her feet become unstuck from the floors and trace backwards. She probably wouldn't do that.

Lana grinned almost evilly again at Zelda's reaction—it was just what she wanted. To strike fear into the girl, or at least make her feel even more hopeless than she already did about prom. In truth, Lana hadn't even asked Link if he was going to prom in the first place. Oh, but it was such a good opportunity to rise a reaction like this out of Zelda.

Zelda finally turned away from Lana and Ruto, thankful that she didn't have to hear them. For all she knew, they could be snickering right behind her back, and in actuality, they were.

"It was good enough," Ruto muttered. "You're gonna have to ask Link to prom before she does, though."

Lana laughed shortly. "Hah. Do you think she even has the courage do to that, now?"

Ruto just shrugged, then replied with words. "You never know. She can't talk—who knows what that girl hides in her head? Maybe she's plotting some master plan..."

Her Zora friend was very correct, and Lana didn't want to accept that fact. With rage in her heart, she commanded Ruto to continue helping her search for the most beautiful prom dress in the store.

As Zelda was walking away, she bumped into yet another person, and she instantly backed away from them. Looking up, her blue eyes met with honey-colored ones, ones that held kindness and a hint of fear. Those eyes belonged to a red Zora girl; red Zora's were a rarity among Hyrule, and Zelda had never seen someone like this girl in her entire life. This Zora wore lots of jewelry on her body, silvery designs with blue and green jewels embedded into them, a style that most Zora woman took.

The girl looked incredibly nervous, but she smiled anyway. Her lips began to move, and Zelda desperately wished she could hear. This girl looked kindhearted.

The Zora girl's eyes widened at the realization, but was quickly overtaken with a newfound joy. "Do you speak this language?" she asked in sign language, shocking Zelda at first.

"Yes," Zelda quickly signed back, smile erupting on her face. "I didn't know you could."

A smile spread across her small, pink lips. "My name is Mipha. One of my friends was like you, so I learned sign language a long time ago for them. What a coincidence that we met!"

Zelda didn't know how to properly react, leaving her just smiling with joy at Mipha. The red Zora chuckled a bit.

"Are you looking for a dress, too?" Mipha questioned to the brunette, and Zelda immediately nodded after processing the signs.

Mipha grinned again. "So am I... I don't think I'll have a date to the prom, though—wait, you go to Hyrule High, correct?" she asked, and Zelda nodded.

"I'm pretty sure I'll be going alone, too," Zelda said, "but, my friend and I just want to experience this event before high school is over. It'd be fun to do it now, and in the future, too."

"You guys have the same motives as me," Mipha signed with a happy expression gracing her face. "I did find a rack with some pretty dresses, if you want to follow me."

Zelda already had taken a liking to this Mipha girl, so she obediently followed the Zora, stopping at a specific rack of dresses that, indeed, contained much prettier dresses than the others in this store. Or, just dresses that Zelda felt suited her style well.

Mipha grabbed a blue laced dress, one that had no sleeves and sparkled all over. She showed it off to Zelda. "This is the one I've picked out. Do you think it'd look well on me?" she signed her question, placing the blue dress over her body.

A smile danced on Zelda's face and she nodded. "I think it suits you well."

As Mipha smiled, she searched through the racks of dresses and pulled out a random yellow dress. It seemed to be made out of the same material as the dress Mipha had chosen for herself, but only it was yellow, obviously. The dress had one sleeve to go over one shoulder, and a circular part to go around the neck and hold most of the dress up.

"I thought this one stood out to me," Mipha stated, handing the dress to Zelda. "I think it would suit you well, but it's entirely up to you. What are you going to do?"

As Zelda was trying to come up with her answer, Midna suddenly appeared behind the brunette girl. She managed to spook her best friend, making Zelda turn around abruptly at Midna's brief, sudden touch. Midna was only laughing, which died down when she saw Mipha.

"Who's this?" Midna signed towards Zelda, and Mipha cleared her throat, causing Midna too look back at her.

"My name is Mipha," she said to Midna, not bothering to sign. "I can also speak sign language, mind you. I'm assuming you're this girl's friend."

Midna glanced at Zelda and nodded. "Her name is Zelda, and I'm Midna," she said.

"Zelda...Midna...what beautiful names," Mipha said with her honey-like voice.

Suddenly, Zelda nodded and looked back up at Mipha. "I really do love this dress. I'm going to pick this one—thank you for helping me find this," she signed.

"It's no problem," Mipha replied to Zelda, then looking back up at her tall friend. "Zelda said you were both looking for dresses. Do you need help?"

Although Midna didn't want to have anyone's help, she also didn't want to spend her entire Saturday cooped up in this crowded store. So, she nodded a bit hesitantly, watching carefully as Mipha precisely selected the utmost perfect dress for Midna. Her hands graced over a strapless, orange colored dress. Mipha pulled it off the rack, a bit surprised to see how elegantly this dress flowed so wavy-like at the ends. She smiled slightly, showing off the dress to Midna.

By far, this was the only good dress Midna had seen in this entire store. She took if from Mipha's hands, gingerly, nodding when she could hold it.

"I like this one," Midna replied. "Thank you for helping us. Are you going to prom? Which school do you go to?"

Mipha laughed a bit at Midna's frantic questions. "I am going to prom, at Hyrule High, like you guys are. I'm probably not going to have a date, but Zelda said the same thing for both of you guys."

"That is true," Midna nodded. "How about this, Mipha—you can hang out with Zelda and I from now on. You seem like a chill person, plus you can actually communicate with Zelda here. And then at prom, you can hang with us as well. Sound cool?"

Midna was utterly shocked to see tears glazing over Mipha's honey colored eyes, tears that the red Zora girl managed to contain. Zelda noticed those tears, placing a comforting hand on Mipha's shoulder.

"You okay?" Midna asked. "I didn't mean to make you cry."

"No, no, I'm perfectly fine," Mipha choked out in between her tears. She smiled. "I'm very happy, that's why I'm crying. I just started going to this school at the beginning of tenth grade, and I've—honestly—been alone, aside from forcing myself to hang out with my cousin, Ruto. Sidon is too busy being popular," she transferred to sign language to say all of these words to the two in front of her. "I guess you could say I was pretty lonely, so—thank you for being so kind to me."

Both Midna and Zelda smiled at their new friend, giving her a brief hug to comfort the girl's happy tears. Once Mipha had stopped crying so happily, they all paid for their respective dresses, passing by Ruto and Lana as they left the stores.

Mipha parted ways with her two new friends in the parking lot, making her way to her own car and jumping into the driver's seat. As she shoved her keys into the keyhole and started up her car, she couldn't remember the last time she had felt a rush of happiness like that. Things were always fine until tenth grade, after she and her family moved from Zora's Domain to Central Hyrule. It was a tough move, and Mipha was fine the whole way, but just felt incredibly lonely at school.

Silently thanking her goddess, Hylia, Mipha began to drive back home.

••

🙏