We all are animals anyway

Zelda pushed the boys away, trying to motivate them to start doing what only they could do. Zelda told them not to worry about her, but she didn't feel all that safe to be left alone, so she wanted them back as soon as possible. After ushering them way she shook off the fear, she needed to focus on her new mission. Finding something useful around the Hostel, and also keep an eye on those backpacks…

She tried to visit all the business around the Hostel, but most of them where already closed, except for a convenience store. The establishment was very small, and only sold everyday need items like tooth paste, or toilet paper. It lacked variety, but it was conveniently located right next to the Hostel, she would have visited it first but she didn't know it was a business, it looked like a normal small house. But when she saw someone walk in and out with a shampoo, she decided to check it.

Once she got out, she was set on heading back to check on their luggage. She was secretly praying for the boys to be back already, but then she saw the shadow of a person jumping from the roof of the Hostel to the convenience store. Looking up she saw the figure had managed to grab on to the edge of the roof, but failed to hold on and fell, breaking a few boxes that were left forgotten there between both buildings.

ZELDA POV

For the sake of Din, what was he doing up there? He is lucky to have landed on his back, and that the boxes broke most of the fall.

"Are you ok? Do you need help sir?" Zelda asked as she carefully approached.

The unfortunate man grunted and started lifting himself up, somehow making it noticeable that he was not a man yet, he was a teen at best. He looked at the Princess tilting his head, and grabbed her arm to pull her towards himself, and quickly shifted their positions, making her face the back wall hiding her from public view as he started feeling her body. Zelda tried to scream but he pointed a knife at her throat as he whispered to her ear "Shhh, kitty" 

He is going to rape me, what did I do to deserve this fate? I know I have not been all that good but… What is he doing? I thought he wanted to feel my boobs, but he barely touched them. Now he is getting his hands inside the pockets of my jeans. He is not raping me; he is robbing me. That is a LOT BETTER, supposing he doesn't get angry at me when he finds that I have nothing… 

Oddly enough, I am rather calm. Why am I calm? Maybe it's that sme- OH MY FUCKING GODESSES… IT CAN'T BE.

Zelda attempts to turn her head towards the robber and get a good sniff at him, when the criminal notices he squints his eyes at her and in confusion, then turns to look around, when he sees Link a few paces behind him, he decides to use the odd girl as a meat shield. He draws the Princess placing her in front of him, still pointing the knife at her neck. Link slowly starts to reach for his blades.

My knight in shiny armor is here, wait… LINK IS HERE, and he plans on using the stilettos.

[Zelda watches attentively as Link hides a dagger inside one of his boots, and straps two more longer ones to each side of his hips, then pulls up his pants completely hiding them.

"It's kind of disturbing being watched as you dress you know" Link says to the Princess without staring back at her.

Zelda rolls her eyes "I am not spying on you, but it was educative, now I know how you conceal your weapons"]

I can't let them fight, come on girl THINK OF SOMETHING.

Zelda starts mouthing desperate ¨DO NOT FIGHT HIM¨

"Why" Link asks serene, but anger pouring out of his eyes.

Zelda wrinkles her nose briefly pointing at it, then points at Link with a sheepish smile.

Link begins to squint his eyes "you are kidding right?" he says in a very low volume. The Hero's whole demeanor changes, he still draws one of the stilettos and straightens his stance grinning at the robber.

"DAMN, luck must be on my side today. I honestly thought she had managed to escape, but thanks to your timely intervention lad, I may still get paid for her" Link smiles sheepishly as he rubs a side of his chin with the base of his palm.

MESSAGE RECEIVED LOUD AND CLEAR.

Zelda produces a weak nod signaling that she understood what Link was requesting of her.

["You know, since I have not been able to go to school, I have been watching TV, I saw men fighting on a ring, big gloves on their hands, and I wanted to ask… can you really knock out someone with a punch to the jaw?"

"The sport is called BOX or maybe you watched a UFC fight. And YES, during a fight is tricky because both fighters are moving around to avoid getting hit. But knocking someone out is very easy if you know what you are doing, even you can do it, you don't need to apply much force"

"I don't believe you, the fighters seemed to be throwing STRONG PUNCHES" Zelda tells him.

Link stares at her wickedly "I am not lying, let me show you" Link says as he tilts her head up with his left index finger, he then throws a very weak hit at her jaw line with his right lower palm. Zelda rolls her eyes back and starts falling, Link catches her with a hug, preventing her from hitting the floor.]

"Be a good Samaritan and hand her over" Link says twirling the stiletto with malice in his eyes.

Zelda is starting to grin at the sight of danger staged by Link, but forces herself to remain stoic. She is supposed to play the part of a scared innocent girl, she was finding it REALLY hard to cry though. On desperation, she chooses to bite on the inside of her cheek.

There... tears on demand. FUCK, why did I do this? hurts like hell and now I can't speak or even smile, blood will pour out of my mouth if I do.

The bandit looks at the Princess and notices her tears, he loosens his hold on the Princess a little and shakes his head at Link refusing to hand her over. In that moment Li approaches whistling and stops dropping the plastic bag where he carried the meat pies, Robert draws his gun ready to shot at whomever was taking hold of Zelda.

The mugger opens his eyes wide in fear and drops the knife releasing Zelda's neck, and immediately pulls her to once again shifts their positions. His intention was to shield the girl from the possible bullets. Zelda took advantage of that and looked up at him smiling, she then executed an uppercut using the base of her palm instead of a closed fist. The criminal stumbled back a little and fell to the floor.

Link approaches them kicking the bandit's legs a little, just to make sure that he is out. He then looked and the Princess, she was smiling with tears still running down her face, blood stained her perfect teeth and a drop of red escaped from a corner of her mouth.

LINK POV

Fuck, she looks beautiful, with a psychotic vibe going on but still gorgeous.

"Well, that is a scary look there, no wonder you caught him off guard"

Zelda realizes she is smiling and covers her mouth with her hands.

"I had to make it believable" she point at her tears "so, i took a bite at my cheek"

*I wonder where she learned to do that*

Shut it, I am still a good example.

"Thanks for playing along, and good job" Link winks at her.

The Hero takes his shirt off and rips it to use it as a rope, he begins to tie the mugger's hands and feet. Robert approaches after putting away his gun and picking up the food.

"You ok girl? What happened?" Robert asks worried.

Zelda's eyes glow with pride "This criminal tried to rob me, Link wanted to end him, but me being my wise sensitive self, managed to stop him from making that mistake, then I fainted him with my own hands" she points at the mugger who was being aggressively tied by Link.

Li turns to Link for confirmation of the tale. The Prince nods solemnly.

"Wow… impressive sis, but why not kill this human waste?"

"Because that waste is YOUR BROTHER" Zelda says grinning and tapping on her nose with her index finger.

"OH, MY FUCKING GOD, ARE YOU SERIOUS?" He turns to Link "IS SHE SERIOUS?" he doesn't even wait for an answer and gets back to Zelda "GOSH… I am glad it was Link and not me who stumbled on you, because I WOULD HAVE SHOT HIM, no questions asked, not even caring to hear what you had to say about it. NOBODY touches my sister"

Zelda hugs Li from a side "I love you too"

Link stands up "Rob hand her the food and help me carry him"

"Where to?" Robert asks.

"To the shed over there, that is going to be our space since the rooms are full… it should be open, I hope" Link says as he pulls off the ski mask, revealing a boy with long hair that looks similar to himself.

"DAMN, he is not black… but he does look the part" Zelda states upon looking at the criminal's face.

"He does? He is too thin…" Link says worried "I should go buy more-"

"You won't find food now, they close early here, but there is no need, I bought 3 orders of meat pies, each order has 5, meaning there are 3 extras pies from your order and I can give him one from mine" Li says.

"I can give him one of mine too, and yeah… he is skinny, but he still looks handsome like the both of you" Zelda chimes in smiling.

That is what she meant with ¨he look the part?¨ She thinks I am handsome? Ok… I guess. This thief does not reassemble me as much as Robert does, but he definitely IS me. Since he is underweight, I should be able to carry him on my back easily.

"It will be easier if I carry him, can you help me place him on my back?" Link asks Robert.

"NO, I will carry him, you need to inform SWORD and talk to the owner of the Hostel to retrieve our luggage... maybe buy some chloroform to keep him sleeping" Li says lifting an eyebrow.

Link just laughs and helps place his unconscious brother on Robert's back, He then he shakes his brown undershirt a little, attempting to look presentable enough, and heads to the entrance of the Hostel. Before going in, he decides to call Carla to inform SWORD.

"Hey beautiful listen, I have a situation here, I found my other donor and I short of kidnapped him, so how do I proceed?"

"HOLY MOTHER OF… HOW DID YOU FIND HIM SO FAST? You had no name, no home direction, just a vague ubication of the clinic that attended him months ago"

"I have a Hund, I will explain later, I know no medic is coming to my location to test him… tell me where to go."

Sound of typing is heard "We will send a medic from Sidney to the clinic closest to your current location, be there with him tomorrow at 9 am... Make this new boy trust you, he needs to go voluntarily for the testing. And what do you mean you kidnapped him?" Carla asks.

"Exactly what I said, he may wake up soon, it will NOT be pretty, I will see what I can do to earn his trust"

Link hangs the call and enters the hostel, the owner smiles upon seeing him and grabs the backpacks, she then places them on top of the desk, and nods at Link. A lot of laughter and music is heard from one of the rooms. The other room was in silence, but the open door showed around 10 people occupying the room, and they appear to be waiting for more people.

I will take that nod as an indicative that she confirmed my POA. She was not lying about the rooms being full. Not that I mind the shed at all, I actually prefer it. Especially now that we have HIM.

Link thinks as he carries the backpacks to the shed. Once he opens the door he feels tension, Li looked disheveled and his new brother was awake and sweaty, Zelda was positioned between them, she looked at the Hero pleading for help with her eyes, her neck showed light bruising and scratch marks.

ROBERT POV

Zelda opened the door of the shed and moved away for the boys to enter; Li entered grunting due to the load he was carrying. And he just dropped the thief on the big tatami in the middle of the room.

"HEY, treat him with respect" Zelda yells at Li.

"Men love men with violence, I just told him that I love him" Li answers in a condescending tone.

WELL, I just meet him, I can't love him right away, but I do care for him, he could be Link's and my donor after all. BUT I can't forget the fact that he held a knife to my sister's throat. Falling catastrophically on the tatami is a weak punishment.

"Maybe men should find another way to love" Zelda says as she sits on the tatami.

"Maybe you should grow a dick first before giving you opinion on how men should be" Li answers aggressively.

Zelda stares at him hurt by the comment. Li sighs.

"Sorry for that. I am used to females always diminishing me, for being born male" Robert sighs.

Zelda shakes her head perplexed "Why? I don't get it?"

Don't you? she… is a fucking Princess. She may really not know, they may have shielded her too much. I will try my best to explain it, I just hope to not be wasting my breath.

Li sighs "It's just a VERY different world for males and females. Girls are always cherished and protected, no matter if you are beautiful or not, short or tall, fat or thin. It's not the same for guys, we are expected to be tall and strong, so pray the lord you have tall relatives and good genes for muscle building. We are supposed to protect you, so we can't be fat in fear of losing mobility to act fast, or thin in fear of not being strong enough. And we are NOT ALLOWED to show weakness, emotions are considered a weakness so no expressing emotions too much. The only one allowed is anger, but too much anger is considered violence" Li says rolling his eyes in exasperation.

Zelda widens her eyes "I had no idea… NO, I never bothered to notice. It now makes sense why kids from a young age play mostly violent games, and if one gets hurt and cries about it, he gets mocked by the other boys... And parents are no better, they tell him to suck it up. Who imposed this?"

She heard me and believed me? really?

"I don't know… all I know is that this is a complicated chore for us, they want us to protect and provide, we CAN provide, but we need to be capable of violence to protect… it takes a MONSTER to scare the skeletons away" Li takes a deep breath before sharing a little of his past.

"Back in the day, my family used to target their clients by filtering young boys and girls whose father didn't pose a threat from the rest. By threat I mean a father involved in their lives, a father watching over them at all times and capable of violence if ever needed." sighs "Those kids with absent father figures where easy to manipulate into buying our shit, or readily coerced into doing something dreadful for it"

"I never thought the father figure was THAT important. My mother raised me alone in the beginning since my dad was a fucking coward, he used to spend his days drinking and beating my mom… he later abandoned us" Zelda shares trying hard not to cry.

I thought her father was Hyrule's king... apparently, he is not her bio dad from what I am able to gather. And she does not have a close relationship with him, I won´t unnecessarily hurt her by asking about this.

"COWARD, that is an appropriate word for misguided men who abuse their children and women" Robert says granting her a smile. "But now your dad is a king, there is no bigger threat or greater provider, is there?"

The Princess smiles "No, there isn't..." Zelda sits straight on the tatami "To sum it all up, violence is an inherent trait of men that should be properly directed and valued" Zelda declares.

Li smiles "And respected"

"And THAT" Zelda falls back on the tatami closing her eyes "But please do me a favor, STOP believing I am out to get you. Link has been teaching me to MEAN what I say. If I ask or suggest anything to you, is only THAT, it's not an attack or reproach from me, it's an honest question or idea." The Princess says, she really didn't want Robert to feel like he should always be sapping defensively at her.

Li chuckles "I will stop responding defensively, but only to you Princess"

She smiles and nods, then turns on her side to face the criminal, she wanted to keep an eye on her new brother, but yelped in shock noticing the mugger staring right back at her frowning. He suddenly rose up and started choking her, using his weight to press on her neck. Li immediately tackled him off the Princess.

A fight begun between the two on top of the tatami, Li beating on his brother and the Pirate biting and scratching Robert whenever he could, since he was still tied up. Zelda wanted to catch her breath but she needed to stop them first. She started looking around for something to throw a them and stop the fight, but the room only had the tatami. Then Robert managed to get himself behind the thief and applied a choke hold. Zelda started calling on Li, begging him to stop chocking the burglar, but Robert was not hearing any of it.

Zelda got herself in front of both boys and touched Li "I am fine, you don't have to protect me anymore" she said to her brother.

Why are you trying to protect him? just because he MAY be our brother? You could be wrong you know. Or you could be right... but he still is a black sheep. He tried to KILL you. FAIR, I will spare him if that is what you wish.

Robert losses his hold on the thief and stands back pulling Zelda with him. The delinquent starts coughing and catching his breath, then stares right back at them smiling.

"So that's how it is? you just do what she says… come on, you know better than that. You know I was about to kill her."

"Please just stay quiet, don't you see I am trying to help you?" Zelda begs.

"Help me? YOU? A backstabbing WHORE?"

Zelda takes a big breath of air before answering "Backstabbing? I wanted to help you and you decided to rob me? if anyone here is deceitful is YOU"

"Mug you? I was just fondling your body kitty; I prefer them bustier but you have nothing to be ashamed of" the thief says licking his lips.

Wtf is wrong with this mother fuc-… He is trying to provoke ME by offending her. He should already know that I will kill him if we brawled again, and he would be an easy target since his hands and feet are tied. So why is he doing this?

Zelda stands between them in panic, fearing Robert will fall into the provocations and start fighting again. Then the door opens and Link walks in. after a quick assessment of the situation his eyes begin to squint in anger.

Using both his hands to point at opposite sides of the room "CORNERS NOW!" The Hero commands both males present.

All right, I was NOT imagining anything, his voice sounds with an odd echo when he is angry… well, maybe not an echo, it kind of sounds multiple, ha-ha is he possessed? Should I start calling him Legion? He is not gonna like it, so maybe I should just to piss him.