Thank you for the reviews and for the criticism!

Envy

I had been drunk. That was the only explanation. Just like the first time I had tried a particularly strong drink – a nasty little thing called a Blue Potion – I had completely lost my mind when I first saw Link. Even though I hadn’t actually drunk anything and he was only a man. And like after every alcoholic adventure, there was always a hangover waiting for me at the end.

That’s what I was experiencing now, only half an hour after asking my father about the ball. A sense of utter lowness, much like guilt, that racked my body. Hello? Wasn’t I the rich and famous Princess Zelda Harkinian? What was that awful behavior I had displayed before that…guy? Well, it was a good thing that it was over now. My brain was back to its usual self. Time to call Malon.

“Where are you?” she snapped without preamble as soon as I called. Oh yeah…I had run out on her, hadn’t I? Run out on her and Ruto.

“I found the guy that saw Ruto and Mikau together at the bar. He’s actually a friend of Mikau’s, so he won’t tell on Ruto. We have nothing to worry about. Relax,” I commanded. It was nice to be able to speak coherently again. My father and Impa had painstakingly toiled for years to cultivate a “mature young woman”, as they liked to say, and even a few years of secret partying hadn’t destroyed this completely.

And then that Link comes and turns me into a psycho stalker. Oops! This was not the time to think about that.

“Zelda, are you there?” Malon asked.

“Yes, of course. I’m fine. Anyway, now that the purpose of the meeting is over, you two can go home.”

“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re talking really…severely.” I blinked.

“Severely?” I repeated. “No…no…I’m fine, I’m fine.” Was I trying to reassure Malon or myself?

“Okay, just checking. Anyway…so…how’d it go?” Malon’s tone was suggestive. I smirked.

“You must have been out of your mind last night when you saw him, Mal,” I told her. “He’s not nearly as attractive in daylight. Nothing to worry about there.”

Lie. But I had to cover up. There was absolutely no way that I’d let Malon or Ruto know about my temporary insanity.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Malon replied, clearly disappointed.

“Exactly. Right.” I was starting to get a little uncomfortable now. Sure, lies were a common part of my daily life, but having to tell one to such a close friend made me a little afraid. I had the sudden desire to cut off the conversation. But I had already left her hanging once today. I really didn’t want to do that again.

Unfortunately, the Goddesses had other plans for me. I was walking across the giant foyer of the castle at the moment, heading towards a spiral staircase that would take me upstairs to my room. However, on the way, I walked directly toward the front doors, and they opened as I passed.

“Well, I’ve banned Ruto from the bar for a few days, but that doesn’t mean the two of us can’t go. We weren’t sufficiently drunk yesterday. Do you want to try again? Maybe there’ll be other hot guys tonight for you to snag.”

Poor Malon. If only she knew her comments were falling on deaf ears. I had stopped, frozen to my spot, as a dark-skinned man with fiery red hair stepped through the threshold. He had on a clean, black suit and a no-nonsense solid tie. His face was handsome in a sexy sort of way.

Obviously his eyes flew to mine as soon as he closed the door behind him. But they didn’t linger there. My strapless, thigh-length frock drew his gaze downwards. I smiled triumphantly.

“Mal, I gotta go!” I said, even though she was in the middle of forming a plan for us to meet. I clicked off the cell and for good measure turned off the volume. The man was standing there, his arms crossed, and I noticed that in one hand he held a folder of some sort.

“Good afternoon…may I help you?” I asked courteously. As I waited for a response, I admired the man’s broad frame. Delicious. If I needed a way to get over my guilt about Link…this was it.

“Why, yes,” he replied smoothly in a deep, rich voice. “My name is Ganon Dragmire. I am here to meet with the king. I believe I have an appointment with him later today, but I am running early. If he is too busy at the moment, can you direct me to a place where I may wait?”

Ganon? Wait…Ganon? The businessman my father was to meet? No way!

“Oh, my father spoke of you,” I replied. The man raised his eyebrows.

“So you are his daughter,” he said. “I see that people aren’t generous enough with their descriptions. You are a quite a sight.”

I paused for a moment. Wow…for a businessman…he was being a little too direct.

“Well, that is very kind of you,” I said, purposely sounding reserved. I smiled and pointed to a door behind me. “My father should be doing a bit of paperwork. I can call him if you like…unless you would rather wait until your set time.”

“Well, it would be of little purpose to wait alone,” Ganon remarked. He wasn’t trying very hard to hide the appreciative glances he gave me, nor was he trying to hide his desires vocally. “But if you would stay and talk, I would not mind. I am sure your father would benefit from this extra time.”

Cue the walk. This wasn’t the first time I had lured a guy in. I stepped forward gracefully, choosing a stride that would expose my legs to their full advantage. I was only a foot away from him before I spoke again.

“If that is what you would like, then we can wait here. Maybe you can tell me more about your business?” Ganon was taller than I had thought. I came up only to his shoulders, while I had come up to Link’s nose when I had stood in front him.

Why was I thinking about Link? And why was there another nagging voice in the back of my head warning me that any decent businessman would not openly flirt with the daughter of the king in the castle…especially when he was on his way to meet said king?

“You don’t seem much like the type to be interested in my company,” Ganon replied. There seemed to be a double meaning to that sentence. And somewhat of a challenge.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to intentionally let on such a thing to everyone,” I said, facing his undeclared challenge. “My father might decide to actually make me attend these sorts of meetings more regularly then.”

Ganon raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to be a witness to our discussion?” I could not read his expression just then. He looked a little uncomfortable, but also a little eager.

“Actually, I told my father that I would not be coming.” And what a mistake that was. I groaned internally. The one time a good-looking man shows up for a meeting and I worm my way out of it easily. Now my father was going to have the pleasure of being in this man’s company for the next few hours. And I do say pleasure. After the little incident with Link, I needed someone like this to pick up my confidence again. Why hadn’t I told my father yes?

As if thinking of the old man had summoned him, my father entered through the door opposite to the entrance of the castle, emerging underneath the shadow of the stairs.

“Ah, Mr. Dragmire, you are early!” he exclaimed as I scowled lightly. He walked right up between Ganon and me. “I just came out for a quick break from my study and here you are!”

“A pleasure to meet you, your Majesty,” Ganon greeted, bowing lightly. I couldn’t help but notice that he shot a sympathetic smile in my direction. I frowned. What was that for? Maybe he noticed my defeated expression.

“Do call me Mr. Harkinian. Such formality will do for the present,” my father said. He turned and put his hands on my shoulders.

“I’m surprised you had the first opportunity to meet Mr. Dragmire today. He is a very smart man and good company should you wish to talk to us both after the meeting. Well, now, run along. I do not think you are too eager to stay any longer.”

On the contrary, I was very much eager. However, I could not bring myself to say those words. Besides, Ganon was quite handsome. It would be a shame to spoil such an image if he was actually the type to bore one to tears in a business-like setting. Though I doubted that. Anyway, right now my biggest annoyance was that my father of all people was about to spend a lot of time with a man I was interested in. For the second time my chances with a guy were delayed. This had better not become a regular thing.

Before long, I was walking away, up the stairs and out of sight and earshot. I didn’t want to give my father any ideas. I would find Ganon again later…at a more suitable time.

………

The “hangover” feeling only got worse once I retreated to my room. I slumped down into my swivel chair and buried my face into my hands, taking a deep breath. Stupid. Incomplete. Yeah, I had some things I needed to deal with.

First of all, I had to quickly tackle the Ganon issue. There were many warning sirens going off with this guy, most of which I chose to ignore initially. But I had to make sure I addressed them now before I did something else stupid.

He flirted with me. In the open. And he was so very un-subtle. Word could not have gotten around about my less-than-princess behavior, could it? This was something I seriously considered, bracing my elbow against the desk before me as I cradled my chin in my hand. He was from the Gerudo Province. There was no way they could know so much about me. So where did he get the information?

Maybe I was being too hasty. Gerudo women were rumored to be on the easy side, so perhaps he thought all women were like that. Always willing to welcome a man. That was probably it. I breathed deeply. That was hopefully it.

Which meant that the solution to this dilemma was a few drinks. Make him sufficiently drunk and he won’t remember a thing. Then I could have my way and forget about him. There you go, Zelda, back to your usual self.

I was invincible.

Now, about the Link problem. Just because I was embarrassed and confused about my behavior with him, I couldn’t ignore it. He knew who I was. Worse, he associated who I was with the stupid way I acted. Bad. Goddesses, there had to be a way to fix this!

I hadn’t slept with him either. A faint memory of earlier today surfaced in my mind, and I blushed from embarrassment. I had been so eager…and it would be a lie to say I still didn’t want him. He was hot. Oh Goddesses, I told him that too. I hung my head. I was so stupid!

Okay, there was only one answer to this. I would have to forget him! So what if I felt incomplete because I didn’t go all the way. It was one guy! My sanity and reputation were more important right now. I would not risk reducing myself to that desperate, blabbering fool again. Nope. I would just focus on Ganon and forget this. The ball my father planned will come and go and I’ll take that as my punishment. Good. It’s settled then.

With a big sigh, I reached for my phone. I would call Malon, plan something, and go out tonight. I’ll have a few drinks. Do a guy or two. Then all of this will just go away.

………

Malon and I agreed to meet up at the club at eleven. It was a little past nine at the moment, and the skies were dark and starless. There was a moon though. Full and giant. It looked eerily alone in the black velvet sky.

I contemplated this scene from my small balcony. I had still a while before I needed to get ready, so I was just wasting my time, looking over at the city spread before me. There was little else to do. My father was very pleased with Ganon and the way he conducted business, apparently. He would not stop talking about him at dinner, much to my annoyance. Not that I was jealous my father got to spend so much time with that handsome businessman. Okay, just a little.

Anyway, Impa had stopped avoiding me and confronted me an hour ago. She was just as stern as she had been last night, and I was just as rude. Needless to say that didn’t go anywhere. She walked off mumbling something about how my ancestors were wise to betroth past princesses early, before they had a chance to go “wild”. Right.

I pursed my lips together and returned inside to my room. The wind followed me, rustling the curtains when I chose to leave the doors to the balcony wide open. It was a fresh night. A little air might prepare me for the night to come. I was going to make up for my rather uneventful last night. Blue Potion…here I come!

A sudden noise from my balcony made me jump almost a mile high. It was a mixture between a low grunt and the sound of something hitting the marble banister. What in Nayru’s name…

My first instinct should have been to call for help. But in retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t. After all…how would I explain to security that I actually knew the man who had just climbed into my room?

That’s right.

“Link!” I cried, watching as the blonde-haired man swatted away my pale purple curtains and came to stand before me. Maybe I mistook him? Was he some crazy, kidnapping psychopath?

“Oh, hello there,” he said innocently. He looked around. “Nice room. Very purple. Or lavender, I think. You girls are very particular about the distinction.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked before speechlessness could catch hold of me. This was very, very unexpected. And most unwanted. Sure he was hot and friendly and totally worth jumping. But I couldn’t do any of that in my room!

And what if I turned into the total idiot again! I must control myself.

“Well, I did tell you that we’d see meet other some time,” he said, winking. I bit my lip anxiously, eyeing the door from the corner of my eye. It was locked, right?

“I didn’t think you meant so soon,” I replied honestly. And I didn’t think you meant here, I wanted to add.

Link shrugged casually. “Oh well. I decided that you were a little too interesting to ignore.” I blushed at the compliment. Great. I think I was going to lose control and end up stumbling over my own words if I didn’t do something soon.

“Oh…uh…I…” Too late.

“By the way,” Link interrupted smoothly, pointing behind him. “You might want to increase your security or something. The guards around the palace…they really aren’t that great. I swear they don’t see more than two feet in front of them. And their rounds are pretty predictable.”

Oh, yeah. I had forgotten he had snuck in here.

“Well, I’ll look in to that.” What was with this guy? Here he was in a princess’s bedroom, when said princess was wearing only a bathrobe, with the full knowledge of having bypassed her security illegally and not really seeming apologetic about it.

“You look really surprised,” Link remarked. I raised my eyebrows. Surprised? I’m mad, damn it! I wanted to forget about you!

“I’m pretty sure any normal person would be,” I replied. Though he probably didn’t think I was normal right now. Not after how I acted this morning.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just here to talk. I had to run this morning and fix the whole issue with Lulu and Mikau, so I thought-,”

“How did that go?” I interrupted suddenly, my features instantly changing to worry. Link stepped back at the outburst, but he took a deep breath when I quieted down.

“It’s fine. It’s fine. Lulu is a very forgiving spirit. Even though I told him to wait, Mikau practically fell on his knees and begged her to forgive him, and I vouched for him too. He was drunk and he knows what he did was stupid. She was a little mad, of course, but she realizes that Mikau felt really crummy and didn’t mean to do anything.”

“And that’s it?” I asked in complete disbelief. “No divorce? No drama? No long-lasting grudge?”

“She loves Mikau,” Link said. “Sure he has to do all the chores for a month and spend a few days sleeping on the floor, but they’ll still be together. And Ruto’s off the hook, so you can tell your friend that. Mikau forgives her.”

What? I frowned. Why did she get off so easily? I still have to deal with my messes! How I wish I could be her right now! Or Malon. She didn’t have to deal with guys.

“You look upset,” Link said.

“I’m not.” My frown deepened. Link looked appropriately confused. Well, he didn’t know. He didn’t know that at the moment, everyone else’s situation looked better than mine.

“Anyway, I want to ask a favor,” Link said. “You see, I told my sister who you were because she is a really big fan of yours. So, I was wondering if I could get her your autograph.” Link stuck his hands into his pockets and laughed. “She’s really jealous that I got to meet you and she didn’t.” At this point, Link stopped talking and stared at me. “Princess Zelda?”

“Link, just why are you here?” I snapped. Don’t tell me he came here just because of his sister. That would really…irk me.

“What…I thought I already answered…”

“No you didn’t!” My voice was slightly louder than it needed to be. Link was the one to look surprised now.

“But…okay, then,” he said, backing off. “I came here because you called me really, really, really hot and I was just curious where you intended to go from there. And oh yeah…you mentioned something about a party too.”

“And not because of your sister?” I asked, ignoring most of what he said. Maybe that gave away my feelings a little too easily, because Link smirked at me. And I wasn’t supposed to even have these types of feelings!

“No, Zelda, I came just for you,” he replied, emphasizing the words. Don’t smile like an idiot, Zelda. Don’t smile. No smiling! “You don’t mind me calling you Zelda, do you?”

“Uh…no. Well, then, I’m glad that’s cleared up,” I managed to say evenly. “Well, you can go home now.” The faster I could get this ridiculously good-looking man out of my room, the better I could avoid jumping on him. This is great.

“Aw, Zelda. You don’t really want me to go home yet, do you?” Damn! My face was giving everything away today! Sure I wasn’t gushing out randomly romantic things, but I didn’t look at all like I just wanted to do him and go. If there’s one thing I knew about most people, though, they actually liked to go out several times before they started to hit the sheets. Link was probably intending to pursue some long-lasting relationship. And I didn’t exactly have the luxury of time.

Not to mention Ruto and Malon would skin me.

“Your silence tells me I’m right,” Link said triumphantly. “Now…about that party?”

“My father’s looking into it,” I replied sourly. Link nodded.

“And about us? Is your father looking into that too?” he asked. I decided to reply with a confused face. “Come on, Zelda. You’re royal. Isn’t your father supposed to, like, approve your dates or something?”

“Dates?” I asked incredulously. Please don’t tell me he really meant it when he said it in the plural form.

“Yeah. That reminds me. Are you doing anything tonight? If you’re busy, I can come back another day.”

“For what?” I was really blank.

“So that we can go out…” Link patiently explained. “I really want to hit up the arcade. You seem like the type to play those spy games, you know? Sneaking around, hiding being trees…” He gave me a lop-sided grin. I gaped.

“Well…I…um…busy.”

“That’s too bad. I’ll come back tomorrow, then. Good night.” Link bowed and then turned to head towards my balcony. I was still standing there in some sort of daze. I recovered quickly enough to follow him out.

“How are you going to get down?” I asked. Link swung his legs over the banister and stood across from me on the outer edge.

“Don’t worry…I’ve done this plenty of times. Sure, Saria will get a little mad, but I’m used to it.”

Saria? I watched as Link expertly worked his way to the wall and then climbed down, jumping the last few feet to solid ground. He brushed off his clothes and then looked up to give me a wink.

“See? Seriously, that girl gets so worked up sometimes.”

Who’s Saria? I brushed the question aside and leaned on my elbows against the railing. Link was looking around the corner for my guards. Once he saw that the coast was clear, he turned back around and gave me a thumbs-up.

“Tomorrow, then?” he asked. I shrugged. Link took that as a good enough reply and left. I frowned and resisted the urge to bang my head against the wall.

I was trapped. Link knew who I was, so there was no way I could just forget about him. He would keep coming here. And worse, he would keep insisting that I go out with him just because I said he was really, really, really hot. Obviously, he did not know what I really do with guys. But, some part of me didn’t want him to know. So, I would be forced to keep him a secret.

Damn it!

And who’s Saria?

Yeah, I’m working on getting back on track with this story. First person is so hard! Anyway, keep the criticism coming! It really helps. My next update will likely be somewhere in the end of August (probably the 30th). Please review!