#Skyward Sword was the surprise coziness I didn’t know I needed at the time

[giriduck]

Hot take: I had a more enjoyable time playing Skyward Sword than I am playing TotK.

[sobdasha]

only 2 more smooches to go now

thanks to @adirotynd for being a faithful bird consultant, meaning that among other things all the instances of [place where they keep birds] have been replaced with stables

Skyward Sword!Zelink4lyfe, chest kiss (when they are tiny, oh snap that darn bird flu, I will never have my fill of SS!Zelda being extremely proprietary over Link)

--

Zelda drags Link up to the Headmaster's office and tattles.

"Fatheeer," Zelda says, still holding Link's wrist as he stumbles to a stop beside her, "Link didn't do his flying today! I caught him. He pretended like he was going to, but he was just napping with his bird!"

So punish him right now is implied, Gaepora can see.

"Zelda, dear, I think that if Link isn't behaving appropriately in Instructor Owlan's class, you should speak to Instructor Owlan--"

Zelda crosses her arms in a big huff and scowls at him. Oh dear. Gaepora knows he shouldn't encourage her like this, but…

"Link," he says, folding his hands and peering over his desk at them, "what do you have to say for yourself about this?"

Link shrugs, and rolls his freed wrist around, and explains quite reasonably that his bird didn't feel like it.

Gaepora frowns. He is by now, as a father, very well aware of the need to slowly and carefully clarify these sorts of statements. He is also very well aware of Link's rather unusual, and fearsomely strong, connection with his Loftwing.

If Link was given to understand, from his bird, that the Loftwing wouldn't or, indeed, couldn't for some reason come when Link called him and leaped off a diving platform...scolding Link for that could be very dangerous indeed.

"What do you mean, your bird didn't feel like it?" he asks. "He didn't feel like flying? Why wouldn't he feel like flying?"

Link shrugs again. His bird didn't feel like it. He just felt like roosting somewhere quiet with Link for a nap. So Link curled up with him.

"I see...but Link, your Loftwing understands that your classes are important, right? You can't simply sleep through them--"

Also it feels weird. Link screws his face up in thought for a few moments, considering, before he thumps his palm flat on the middle of his chest. Right here.

Gaepora's chair scrapes back across the floor before he quite realizes he's stood up, his frown twisting with urgency. "Link, your bird is injured? Have you told Instructor Owlan? Where is your bird now?"

Link shrugs again. Gaepora brushes past him as he jogs out of the office--a bit counterproductively, given Link is supposed to be leading him to his Loftwing--but Gaepora has to stop to collect Owlan on the way first, in any case.

By that time, Link has picked up on the mood at last. He dashes across the plaza, small legs pumping, while the adults hurry after him and Zelda trails anxiously behind, all punishments forgotten.

The crimson Loftwing is tucked away in a secluded alcove, apparently folded up in sleep, feathers ruffled and fluffed up until it's almost half as big again as usual. But it raises its head and cries pitifully at Link's approach.

Link presses himself up against his bird, Zelda on his other side, while Owlan conducts an exam.

Owlan sits back on his heels after a few minutes, breathing out a sigh. "I was afraid of this," he says, shaking his head. "Several of the knights on patrol recently have reported some strange behavior among a few of the wild Loftwings. I suspected an illness might be circulating through the population. Well, we'll keep him apart from the other birds and make sure he gets plenty of rest, and I'm sure he'll recover just fine, Link," he adds kindly.

Link nods and rubs his face against his Loftwing's beak. He just wants him to get better soon.

"Come on, then," Owlan says. He lays a hand on Link's shoulder, and squeezes gently. "Why don't you help us coax him into the stables. We'll get him settled and comfortable and give him some medicine, and then you can tell us how he's feeling."

The Loftwing stables aren't very extensive, but they're cozy and a good place to keep any ill or injured birds that need observation and tending. Quite a fair amount of cajoling and one bottle of mushroom spores later, and Link's bird is nested in one of the stalls and resting. Several more hugs from Zelda after that, and Link feels the weird feeling in his own chest loosening.

"There, let's let him rest," Gaepora says, putting a hand on each of their backs and ushering them out into the sunshine. "You can come back to visit him later, Link. And, of course, I'm sure Instructor Owlan won't mind if you don't attend your flying lessons until your bird is back in good health. But next time your Loftwing doesn't feel like flying," he adds, "you need to tell Instructor Owlan right away. Do you understand?"

Link nods, his hand squeezed tight in Zelda's.

The following week for Link is--a bit rough around the edges, perhaps, is how Owlan might put it. Both he and Horwell turn a lenient eye to Link showing up for class bleary-eyed and distracted. The boy and his bird are inseparable, as everyone well knows. And he's worried about his Loftwing, of course, which is only natural.

And to be honest, Owlan himself (like many others before him) has made a particular study of Loftwing behavior for years, trying to read their feathered companions' physical and emotional states from their outward actions. But those things Owlan struggles to understand--Link has always seemed to know instinctively how his bird feels at any given moment.

Everyone knows the bond between Link and his Loftwing is strangely deep and seamless--and one day, when he's older, perhaps he'll be able to put it into words and explain just how far it goes. But for now, it wouldn't be surprising if he's feeling a bit empathetic to his bird's illness.

And then, when Link's Loftwing appears to be recovering its energy and is well and truly on the mend, Zelda comes into her father's office again and sighs.

"Link's spending too much time with his bird," she complains.

And this, Gaepora thinks, would be the jealousy rearing its ugly head again. Oh dear.

"Now, Zelda," he says, "I know you're feeling a bit lonely. But think how upset you would be if it was your Loftwing that was ill."

"No," says Zelda, running her fingertips along the spines of her father's books on the shelves, "I think he swallowed some feathers."

Gaepora sits there for a minute, puzzled by that statement, as Zelda traces book titles and doesn't seem particularly in one of her slighted moods. He should ask for clarification, he knows this. But somewhere in the back of Gaepora's mind something tells him this isn't the moment to sit here playing twenty questions, trying to drag the significance out of Zelda's words.

He heads straight for the stables, Zelda trotting along behind him.

There in the stall is Link's Loftwing, the bird looking bright-eyed and alternating between preening its own feathers and fussily preening Link. And there is Link, curled up against his bird, his eyes closed and his skin too-warm under Gaepora's hand and his breathing short and sharp and far too quick.

Gaepora curses, under his breath, and scoops the boy up.

"I'm not supposed to visit you," Zelda says, the next night, when she's snuck into Link's room. She shrugs her shoulders to show what she thinks of that.

"I heard you got your bird's flu only now it's pneumonia," she adds, sitting on the edge of Link's bed. "It sounds icky."

Link coughs. He feels icky. Zelda finds his hand under the blanket and fishes it out, so she can pat it.

"Where do you hurt?" she asks. "I'll kiss it better."

Link isn't sure about that. He feels really icky.

"I kissed your Loftwing and he got better, didn't he? It took a while but it worked!"

Zelda does have a point. So Link points a hand to his chest, where it hurts to breathe. He aches sort of everywhere, actually, but he thinks he wouldn't mind that so much if he could breathe again.

Zelda nods, and leans over, and presses a kiss against the front of his shirt. "There," she says, "now I know you'll be okay."

Link nods, and coughs again, and his eyes flutter with sleepy blinks. Zelda pats his hair, until his eyes stop fluttering and her own mouth starts yawning, and then she sneaks out again to go to bed for real.