Never Without You │ BOTW modern AU fanfic

Nobody to Blame

Link's POV

The next morning, Zelda's dad leaves the house at 7 AM. I can hear the sound of his car door through the open window. Literally two seconds later, Zelda knocks on our door.

"Link, are you awake yet?" she says. "Father has left for work. Are you up?"

"Yeah," I answer groggy and get up from the floor to open the door for her.

Malice is still sleeping. She's curled up in the fluffy white blanket and doesn't even notice it when I almost trip over her on my way to the door.

I turn the lock and open the door. Zelda is already dressed and ready for the day even though it's only 7 in the morning.

"Hey, good morning," she says with a warm smile.

"Mhh," I stretch my back and rub my eyes. "Mornin'."

"How did the night go?" She asks, peeking past me into the room. "Huh? Why is Malice sleeping on the floor?"

I stick with one question at a time. "The night went okay," I say. "She woke up a couple of times to complain about pain but now she's passed out."

"Would be passed out," Malice murmurs from behind me, "if people weren't having a full blown conversation right next to me."

I look over my shoulder. Malice is awake now. As she sits up to stretch, the blanket drops down and her bare torso is no longer covered. Zelda gasps. She looks back and forth between Malice and me to put the pieces together.

"Link?" She sounds suspicious. "Why is Malice wearing nothing but a bra?"

"I'm wearing shorts," Malice corrects her but it doesn't seem to comfort Zelda at all.

It's way too early to be having this conversation but I guess there is no point in avoiding it. I step into the hallway and shut the door behind me to give us some privacy. "We need to talk."

"Link?" Zelda is visibly nervous.

I check both ends of the hallway. "Are we alone in the house?"

Not breaking eye contact, she shakes her head, "The maid."

"Let's go to your room then."

Zelda follows me without a word. I don't mean to make her nervous. She probably thinks I slept with Malice, and even though I didn't, her guess isn't too far off.

We close the door to her room and take a seat on her bed. She waits for me to speak but I have no idea how to tell her what happened last night. I was up all night, thinking about how to tell her, but I came up with absolutely nothing.

Zelda is already so insecure about anything intimate and has worried about me and Malice in the past. If I tell her what Malice did last night, Zelda might never let go of those insecurities. She'll get angry and blame me for it and tell me to leave again.

I don't want to get into a fight again, but there's no point in lying to her. I'm sick of having a relationship where we hide things from each other. She deserves to know.

"Last night..." I begin, still not sure how to actually tell her.

After a few seconds of nothing, she nudges closer. "Last night what?"

"Um..." I shift my body on the bed so we face each other. "Malice took off her shirt."

"I already know that much," Zelda replies. "Why did she do that?"

When I don't answer, she asks, "Did something happen between you two?"

"No," I answer too quickly. I should really think before I talk. I straighten my back and correct myself, "Well I guess something did happen..."