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“Link, you do realize we’re only able to take one of the cats home, right…?” Zelda asked, an amused smile on her face as she watched a kitten crawl all the way up her fiance’s torso to rest on his left shoulder.
Link gently picked up the tabby cat that was approaching him and settled it on his lap, idly running his hand through its fur with the most relaxed expression Zelda had ever seen on his face. He turned his attention away from the cats as she spoke. “Yeah, I know. Sadly.”
“The deal is the deal. We’ll see how it goes and we may be able to adopt another one at some point,” Zelda reminded him gently. She reached out her hand for one of the cats to sniff as it approached her, then ran her hand along its back as it kept going past her.
“I’m just happy you agreed to this,” Link commented. The content little smile on his face widened a bit. For a moment, he reminded her an awful lot of his grade school self, back when his smiles were easy, carefree, and almost always present. Then they’d both gotten older, and he’d lost a lot of his easygoing nature under the weight of responsibility.
“I kind of missed having a pet, so…” Zelda shrugged. “We’re gonna have to watch out, though. Sheik might try to steal our cat once he learns we’ve adopted one.”
Link snorted. “Over my dead body. He’s going to be a crazy cat man if he keeps this up.”
“He’s got all the boxes checked minus the obscene amount of cats, so you’re not wrong,” Zelda mused. She thought on it for a moment longer, then shook her head slightly to refocus on the present. “Have you made a decision yet?”
“It was a tough one, but… yes, I think so.” Link gently cleared all the cats off of him and reluctantly stood up. He crossed the room to find a ginger tabby cat with gorgeous green eyes sitting in the corner and sulking.
“That one?” Zelda asked, raising an eyebrow. “I would have thought you’d go for one of the more friendly ones.”
Link looked back at her and grinned. “Where’s the fun in that?”
-/-/-/-
Zelda settled herself down on the couch, wrapped up nicely in a blanket. Link poked his head in from the kitchen, a gentle smile touching his face at the sight of all of her body but her head covered by the blanket.
“Are you cold?” Link asked in a teasing manner, seeing as he already knew the answer to that question. She was almost always cold, which worked out considering he was almost always hot.
Zelda hummed and leaned her head back to rest it against the cushiony top of the couch. “Just a bit.”
Link was about to respond, but a timer went off in the kitchen and he had to hurry back to the cake he was baking. The apartment was starting to smell really good- Zelda had wanted to read a little bit while she was here, but the wonderful scent was awfully distracting. Maybe she was a bit hungrier than she realized…
The soft sound of Dinraal’s bell ringing preceded his little orange head peeking up over the couch cushion. He looked around for a second before deciding Zelda’s lap looked cozy enough and jumped up, all eleven pounds of him landing squarely on her thighs. Dinraal circled around himself a few times, little orange paws kneading at the blanket before he was apparently satisfied. He ended up as a faintly purring lump in her lap.
Now she was stuck in this position, which was a bit of an inconvenience. It was worth it for the inevitable expression of exaggerated betrayal Link would make upon seeing how quickly Dinraal had warmed up to Zelda while remaining cold towards him. That was actually fairly unusual- most animals fell in love with him at first sight. (Zelda didn’t blame them. She had done that herself, and it wasn’t hard to see why.)
Zelda ran her hands through Dinraal’s fur a few times, feeling herself getting alarmingly sleepy. Maybe she should just take a nap. Link would probably be done with the cake by then.
As if the thought had summoned him, Link reappeared in the doorway. This time, he walked over to Zelda, seeming like he was going to sit down next to her. He sighed quietly when he saw Dinraal on her lap.
“May I?” Link asked, gesturing to the couch.
Zelda nodded and extracted a hand from her blanket cocoon to pat the spot next to her. “Of course.”
Dinraal got up and used Zelda as a launchpad to run back to wherever he spent most of his time literally as soon as Link sat down.
“Oh, come on!” Link exclaimed, throwing his hands up in a comical show of betrayal. “You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
“Wow, he really doesn’t like you,” Zelda laughed gently and shook her head. She scooted a bit closer to Link and rested her head on his shoulder, just enjoying the fact that he was here.
Link shook his head in disbelief and rested his left arm around Zelda’s shoulders. “Really, really uncool.”
“It’s okay. I’m sure he’ll warm up to you eventually,” Zelda said. “It would be almost impossible for him to not.”
“Ah well. I knew what I was getting into with this cat. I can’t believe he’s picked you as his favorite already, though.” Link paused for a moment, then corrected himself. “Actually, no. I’m not surprised. Betrayed, but not surprised. I’d do the same if I was a cat.”
Zelda adjusted her position a little bit so she could lean in and kiss his cheek. “You’re so sappy,” she murmured.
“Only for you, love.” Link kissed the top of Zelda’s head and drew her a bit closer to him.
Meanwhile, Dinraal perched himself on the countertop and watched the two, knowing full well that he wasn’t actually supposed to be up there.