Pendant - Zelink Modern Soulmate AU

Perculiar

"Hey, Zelda! Can-" Link approached Zelda as she was sat at a lunch table at college, looking like she wanted to just about kill everyone within a 5 mile radius. There was an empty cup of iced coffee on the table in front of her.

She lifted her head in response and looked at Link with a pretty much blank and monotonous expression. It was easy to tell that she was tired and everything felt like it was moving too quickly around her.

"Are... You doing okay?" He dared to ask, slightly chuckling as he cautiously took a seat next to her. He wasn't sure if he was welcome to do so, but it's not like anyone else was going to sit there.

Zelda sighed as she muttered in response.

"Sleep is but a distant memory" Her voice was noticeably lower than normal, sounding as if that was the first thing she'd said all day.

Link had to actively stop himself from asking something stupid like 'so you didn't have a good sleep?'.

"You need to be getting enough sleep so that you're full of energy for skating- And also just because of your health, I guess! That's what's most important" He awkwardly chuckled, slight panic obvious in his voice as he brought his hand to his neck.

He wasn't always best in these situations and he tended to either say the wrong thing or say something that sounded different from his intentions. He was trying to help, but sometimes it came across like he was belittling the person who he was talking to and their problems.

"Yeah, I know" She chuckled. She understood where he was coming from, and it was a place of sincerity. "What were you going to ask before?"

"Oh, yeah... I actually came over because I wanted to ask your advice about something" He remembered.

Zelda turned her body towards him and nodded, indicating that she was paying attention to whatever he had to say.

"So it's Aryll's tenth birthday in a couple weeks, and I'm not quite sure what to do"

"What do you mean?"

"The most I can really do for her is let her invite her friends over and throw a little party. But it's her tenth, meaning she's going to get her pendant name, so it's much more special, double digits wow, and I'm the absolute worst when it comes to picking out presents and-"

He was speaking incredibly quickly and it was slightly hard to comprehend. As much as Zelda wanted to help, she actually had to make sense of the problem first.

"Hey, hey. Calm down a bit first"

"Sorry" He chuckled again. "It all kinda goes through my head at once and it's hard to diffrenciate the different problems"

"Break it down"

After taking a deep breath, he elaborated on what he had already said, bit this time his words were actually distinguishable.

"Okay... I can't do anything fancy so the party itself will have to be at home, which isn't much of an issue for me but it still feels like she deserves better. Then just... Crisis because she's growing up too fast, and I have no idea what a ten year old girl wants! No matter what I get her, she'll still be grateful, but that doesn't quite make me feel okay about getting her anything" His back slouched as he continued talking. Zelda could really tell just how important this was to him.

In the heat of the moment, something slipped from her mouth.

"You're such a dad"

Link smiled at that.

"I actually like it when people refer to me as her father or treat me similarly. I don't know, it's a weird pride thing. Like yeah, for the past few years I've raised the most caring and intelligent 9 year old, and having that parental role... It means the world to me. I've had to make the most of it and it's weirdly... The best feeling ever"