Between Timelines: A Legend of Zelda Fanfic

Chapter 2

When I come out of the bathroom, freshly showered and feeling much better, Riju is lying on my bed, feet twirling in the air behind her, reading a book. When she looks up at me, a passive expression on her face, I see that the book she is reading is, in fact, my diary.

"Hey!" I yell, trying to snatch it from her, but she's way too fast for me. She darts across the room, sits in my window seat, and continues reading like nothing had happened.

My room is on the corner of the southeast side of the castle, with two walls made entirely of cool stone and two walls outfitted with large, arched windows. The door to the room is on the northern wall, close to the corner, and my queen sized bed (with very messy and unmade sky blue blankets) is pushed against the wall next to it. Against the western facing wall, I have my wooden dresser (with my teddy bear, Mr Flops, and a picture of me and my parents on top of it,) and my mirror between the door out into the hallway and the door to my bathroom. On the southern wall, my wooden desk, covered with disorganized papers and pens (and one vase holding a single silent princess, no doubt put there by Rita this morning,) sits against the windows, looking out towards Purah's research lab. On the eastern wall, there is a small window seat, filled with fluffy cushions and throw pillows, the perfect place for reading on a cloudy day. A small plush couch and a coffee table sit in the middle of the room, on top of my sky blue shag rug and angled away from my bathroom door. Candles and diagrams of flowers and machine parts lay haphazardly around the room, and my night clothes, along with my casual clothes from the day before, are lying in a heap on the floor.

"Riju!" I say again, practically stomping my foot in irritation, "you shouldn't be reading that!" Riju finally looks up from my careful handwriting and sighs, disappointed.

"You're right. There's nothing good in here, anyways," she grumbles, "all you've written about are flowers and diplomacy and stuff like that. Boring stuff like that. Why don't you write about normal things?"

"I write about perfectly normal things, thank you very much," I inform her.

"No you don't," she says, pursing her lips, "what I mean is, why don't you write about any special someones? Running a county all by yourself is hard, you know? As your self-proclaimed best friend, I just want someone to be there for you when Sidon and I can't." A small smile creeps onto my face in spite of myself. Ever since Link freed me from Ganon, she has always been there to look out for me, even when I didn't want her to.

"I know you're concerned, Ri, but I'll be fine. I've already been doing the work all this time, only now I'll have the formal title to go along with it." I say, wanting to change the topic, "What about you?" I ask, "who do you write about in your diary?"

Riju's cheeks color, but instead of telling me anything, she hops up, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards my couch.

"When I said I was gonna redo your makeup, I wasn't lying," she warns, grabbing my makeup bag, " but I guess I can tell you while I'm doing it."

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While Riju is attacking my face with her weapons of choice (a mascara wand, some lipstick, some eyeliner and an expansive eyeshadow palette,) she tells me all about a girl from Hateno village she met at Kara Kara Bazaar a few months ago, whose name she would not disclose. She was supposed to just be passing through to grab some supplies on her way to the South Lomei Labyrinth, where she would be looking over the sandstone walls for any clue of who constructed it. Luckily for Riju, though, the sandstorms decided to kick up that day, so they were both stuck staying the night in the Bazaar.

"She was sitting on the bed closest to mine, reading a book, and I don't know... we just... started talking" says Riju, her cheeks a shade of bright red, "when she left the next day, she told me she'd maybe stop by Gerudo after her research was done so we could talk some more."

"Oh my gosh, Riju!" I squeal, "That's so exciting!"

"She just..." she sighs, caught up in her memories, "she seemed so smart and interesting. Not to mention that she was pretty. She had these crazy green eyes, and she was short, like me!" she sighs again, sounding more annoyed this time, "one of the many problems of being the only short Gerudo is that all the women around me are, like, three feet taller than me." I try to stop myself, but burst out laughing.

"What? It's not funny!" she protests, looking angry, "it really is a big problem!"

"No, I know.'' I reassure her, "and I'm always up for a road trip to Hateno whenever you want to visit,'' I say, poking her in the ribs. She rolls her eyes, but smiles a little.

"Hey, wait a minute," she says, "I see exactly what you did there! You just changed the topic so you wouldn't have to talk about yourself!"

I sigh, leaning back on the couch. I really thought I had gotten away with that.

"Really, Ri, there's no one." I repeat.

"Are you sure? Cus I feel like I remember the first few months after Ganon fell, you seemed pretty obsessed with someone," she says slyly. My cheeks turn a shade of bright pink.

"Hey! You know that was only for a little bit,'' I say, wishing I had kept that to myself at our first after-meeting sleepover, when Yona had also been there, "you try holding off the calamity for 100 years, and then we'll see if you have a crush on the person who freed you. And besides, I haven't seen him at all since he left last year to help out with the monster control crews." I remind her, taking a big bite of one of the remaining buns from the ballroom.

"Well, he's definitely here for the coronation." Riju says nonchalantly.

"What?!" I yelp, almost spitting out my mouthful of truffle bun.

"Yeah. I saw him earlier. He was looking for you, but I guess he didn't find you."

"I guess not." I say in a small voice, hiding my bright red face behind my hands. How did I not know about this? It really wasn't a big deal, only I hadn't seen him in over a year, and I really wasn't looking my best today... wait. Why was I even thinking about how I looked? I don't care, I forcefully remind myself, how he thinks I look.

Just as Riju is about to say something else, there's a knock on the door.

"Madames?" says a royal guard outside the door, "it is almost time for the ceremony in the gardens. Are you ready, princess Zelda?"

That's all for this chapter! I know it was a little shorter this time, but i will definitely write more soon. Also, i'm sorry if this is taking a little while to get going, but i have some pretty cool ideas, and hopefully this story will turn out great!

Make sure to leave any suggestions you have in the comments, and once again, thank you so much for taking the time to read this! <3 <3