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There was, incidentally, a training room buried deep within the hotel and it had taken Zelda this long to find it. She usually liked to go out of doors as much as possible as she hated being confined but today she had sought out amusement within the hotel itself; doors were still something that were hit or miss and she hadn't felt like taking the risk today.

It looked nothing like a Hylian training room would look. The equipment was all impossibly modern and several contraptions were so complicated that Zelda did not have any desire to try to learn how to use them. What was of interest were several training dummies that looked remarkably like the ones used by the Hylian army to hone their sword and shield skills. This, she could work with - but not in a dress.

She returned to her room and changed into Sheikah training garb she'd worn all her years as Sheik but decided that she wanted to hone her physical skills in Zelda's body and not effect the change. Not today. It would cause too many questions and produce lies that she was unwilling to keep up for the moment. So much of her life had been trafficked in secrets and the hotel was the one place where Zelda wanted merely to be honest.

The fit was a bit tighter, considering, but Zelda had always been slender no matter which form she took. It would work for her purposes today and she stole back down to the gym to train. She had daggers tucked in her boots and launched an attack, daggers flying into the face of the two dummies to her left and right as she flung herself toward the center one to use fists and feet.

It had been a long, long time since she'd been able to use this particular set of skills.

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"I wish I could help ye with it, lass, but I'm afraid I'd not be an impartial opinion. And I'm not the one left explainin the consequences to that future match ye make." Erik's hands roamed along her back as he spoke, fingertips along her spine, thumbs at her sides. He spoke again after a short silence, taking a chance on the suggestion. "There are ways."

"Ways of what? Avoiding my inevitable surrender?" Zelda meant it to sound like a tease but instead it was terribly sincere. She was in entirely over her head and needed to try to logically think of a way out of this and think of a way to enjoy her time with Erik without wanting anything more than a few kisses and some companionship.

"Nay, lass," Erik replied softly, lips right at her ear. "Ways t'give pleasure without ruinin' ye." Much as the thoughts of burying himself deep inside her plagued him, usually in the still of night when sleep eluded him, he knew he was strong enough to keep from taking that last step. He'd been far from a monk in his nine and twenty years, and he'd learned much from the serving girls and widows he'd bedded. Mainly, how to bring pleasure to the lasses who pleasured him.

"Oh," Zelda said, blushing faintly. "I was not aware that was possible at all. I suppose that would be a brilliant compromise and a way to keep myself intact for marriage, yes? If you were interested, at any rate."

"Interested?" Erik barked out a strained laugh. "If I was more crass I'd show ye just how interested I am."

Even now the desire to slip his hand to her arse and bring her flush against him was nearly overpowering. God's teeth, he was amazed she couldn't feel it already.

Zelda laughed nervously. "Ah, well, I suppose we could go and see what it's all about then, if you would like. I know nothing about it so I will simply have to trust that you know what you're talking about but I suspect you do, if your kisses are anything to judge on."

Erik had never been around virgins much. He'd not been the type to go around deflowering the nation for one. For another, he hadn't wanted to end up being shamed or trapped into marriage. His life was on the sea and fighting wars, not marriage and family. That was Chief's plan, not his. But the ache he felt for this woman wasn't going to abate - he could tell that from the fire that erupted from their very first kiss. So, there was nothing for it but give it his best...and not frighten the lass into rabbiting off.

Gently, he slipped his hand to the small of her back and pulled her in close. "What ye feel on yer stomach, lass, is how very much what ye say pleases me."

Zelda had some knowledge about how men and women came together if only because her nursemaid hadn't wanted her to be frightened when she did eventually marry. Still, theoretical knowledge was quite different than being faced with something in person and her breath caught, a little shocked.

"I affect you like that? I've barely done anything at all."

"Lass, just thinkin of ye, the way ye feel in m'arms, the way ye taste when I kiss ye, all of that will do this t'me. But especially when I'm with ye, holdin ye like this."

To emphasize his point, he lowered his mouth and took hers again in a deep, lingering kiss.

When Zelda kissed him, the only way she could describe it was longing. It was like feasting at a table where she could only reach bits and scraps of the food and each bite made her greedy for more - only she couldn't reach it. She wrapped her arms around Erik's neck and tried to get that much closer, absolutely desperate.

If she affected him so strongly, surely he must know how he affected her.

Still lost in the kiss, Erik let his hands roam. Back to sides, fingers brushing in deeper to edges of her breasts a few times before filling his palm and giving her a soft, gentle squeeze. At the same time, he shifted his stance just enough to press his thigh between hers, right against her core, on alert for any sign his advances were making her uncomfortable.

Zelda had never been touched like this before and while it was absolutely wonderful, it predicated a need to move to somewhere more private lest she end up embarrassing herself. She pulled her mouth away just slightly and looked into his eyes.

"We should be somewhere private," she murmured. "Yes?"

That stilled Erik's hands and lips, unused to being in such public situations...around so many people. "Aye, we should."

He'd have to get his brain working again first, though; something he was having trouble with at the moment.

"I do not know whose rooms will be better," Zelda said. She had no experience with this sort of thing and had no idea if she should be offering her rooms or if she should go with him to his.

"Or...we could go back to our beach and ship? It was private there."

"If there was a way t'bar anyone else, I'd say yes, but I won't compromise ye that way any more than I will any other way. We can go t'my room. It's not that far and I think I can keep m'hands t'myself that long."

He stepped away but slipped his hand into hers. "Do ye need t'collect yer knives first?"

"Yes," Zelda said, absently flicking her fingers and drawing the knives to her with magic without even thinking about performing such a trick in front of him. Once she realized what she'd done, however, she felt her skin go hot from fear and not from arousal. Would he think that she was something dangerous now and not want to take her to bed?

Erik paused with his hand on the door, watching the knives fly through the air and into her hand. In that instant, his attention shifted at once from getting her to his room to figuring out what just happened.

"Zelda?" he said softly, the question clear in his voice.

"All the women of my line are gifted," Zelda explained, tucking the knives back in their sheathes and trying to think of the best way to explain this to him. "I am exceptionally powerful. It was something I had hoped to hide but desire made me lose my head and I did not think to conceal it. I am sorry if I frightened you."

Erik shook his head. "Ye didn't, lass. M'stunned more'n anythin. I've never seen the like. Well, not with objects movin and such, but one of m'brothers in arms knows things, things no man should be able t'know. Like that an attack is goin t'happen minutes b'fore it does."

"I can as well," Zelda said, recognizing that gift.

"Though only in moments of extreme peril. I cannot divine anything mundane."

"I can as well," Zelda said, recognizing that gift.

"Though only in moments of extreme peril. I cannot divine anything mundane."

"He's much the same," Erik nodded, "but I'm bettin he wished he had yer skills, since he's bollocks with a sword. Which would earn me a sword t'm'throat if he ever heard me say such."

He laughed then and slipped his hand into Zelda's. "Do ye have everythin ye need?"

Zelda squeezed his hand. "I do, especially now that I am unburdened of my terrible secret and you still chose to put your hand in mine. I know that human nature is such to hate what they do not understand and I am glad you have not done this."

"Maybe it's the Norse in me? Or the Highlander. Or livin on an island. I'm strong-willed, but not enough to discount somethin that'd serve well in a fight, no matter the source of it. It's a part of ye, lass, and that's enough for me." He leaned in once to kiss her forehead.

"It is a part of me," she agreed, coloring slightly and smiling because she felt cherished and wanted and needed for a reason other than her name and high birth.

"I wish to share other parts of me with you, though, and we need privacy for that."