Fortune Favors the Courageous

Chapter 27: Compunctions

compunctions
n. distress of mind over an anticipated action or result
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"Link, darling, I love you, but give up your dreams in cosmetology yesterday," Tera tutted. "You butchered that poor girl's hair."

The knight coughed into his elbow, but it didn't seem like an intentional rebuttal.

The great fairy tsked and beckoned Zelda with a manicured nail. "Come here, baby, you look like shit. Let Mama Tera fix that sorry excuse for a haircut."

Zelda reached for the missing tresses of her hair and discovered the right side came down an extra, slanted two inches closer to her shoulder. Oops.

"Never let that man near your cute little head with scissors again, y'hear?" Tera chided nearly half an hour later, at the conclusion of her hair care intervention.

"'Tis a sword, but that's fair," Link shrugged from somewhere behind her. He'd tasked himself with preparing them some sort of breakfast, since they'd fled from the stable without any.

Tera plucked the butterfly wing from her behind ear and held it in front of Zelda, the large reflective scales serving as a mirror for the princess to assess her new image.

"Sooo, what do you think?" Tera prompted eagerly. "Fabulous? Or fabulous?"

It was a layered bob that barely reached her chin. Without the extra inches weighing it down, the remaining hair sprung up and sharpened her facial features. Zelda hardly recognized the mature girl—the mature woman who stared back from within the butterfly scale.

But... that was the point, she supposed.

"Lemme see," came Link's voice from his spot on the grass.

So Zelda turned slowly, toying with the soft ends—a far cry from the rough, split ends that had plagued her for months.

Link had been busy destemming some leafy plant when he looked up and saw her, and his hands slowed. His lips parted slightly, stunned brows elevating. He rose to his feet.

She tried tucking a lock behind her ear, but it was too short and tumbled forward again. "I know, such a drastic change is a bit weir—"

"You're gorgeous," he marveled, tossing the leafy greens down and closing the gap between them in hardly five strides. Arms stretched like he'd hug her, but his open palms stopped on either side of her face, below her ears. "Can I touch it?"

She pinkened and sucked in her lower lip, nodding yes.

He huffed a little noise of surprise that split his mouth into an astonished smile as he bounced the end of her hair like one would with fresh egg pudding. "It's... like down feathers!"

Tera scoffed at the podunk comparison.

Then his blue eyes fixed back on green, and his smile grew a little more disbelieving. "I didn't think I could be any more obsessed with you."

The heat of her blush spread down her neck. His gaze flickered down to her lips, and she caught herself mimicking his action. Before they knew it, the distance between their smiles was shrinking—

"Now what"—Tera purposefully interrupted—"are we going to do about him?"

Smiles unaffected, Link huffed slightly as he and Zelda split apart again.

"I have an idea," Zelda smirked. Her hands slid around to the back of his head. "May I?"

"Whatever it is, please."