#anyways zelink week moments

[stellarbunni]

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[sun-aries]

Three Times Zelda Woke Link Up and The One Time He Woke Her (SS Zelink Oneshot)

Hey everyone! Here's some Skyward Sword Zelink for y'all!

the first time Zelda wakes Link up

"Link?"

Her hushed but urgent voice comes through the propped up window, along with a head of sunny blonde hair. It temporarily blocks out the shaft of light that's been moving across his room for the last few days.

"Liiiink."

He doesn't answer. Instead, he tucks his head beneath his pillow and blankets, and so Zelda starts shimmying between the wooden panel and the window because she's stubborn that way. She lands on the ground with a thud, and one blue eye peeks out beneath his make-do fort.

"Papa says to leave you alone," Zelda tells him as she's brushing off her knees. Then she stands up straight and puts her hands on her hips. "But you were alone all week. You need a friend, I think."

Another eye peeks out and the blanket inches off his face.

Her papa, the Headmaster, has been really good to Link so far. When he heard what happened, he ran over and all but carried Link back to the academy. He gave him a really nice room of his own with a really comfy bed and lots of stuff just for him.

But Link brought his own pillow because he wanted something from home, and he didn't let it go for the whole walk or even for the whole week.

Every day, the Headmaster comes to check on him, and Henya brings him food from the cafeteria. But Link usually eats only a bite or swallows just a spoonful, and every day, Henya gives him an earful when she comes back and collects a full tray.

Zelda is the first friend who's come to see him. Not that he doesn't consider the Headmaster or the chef his friends or anything, but Zelda somehow always knows what to say or do, even before Link figures it out for himself. Maybe he can't say for sure because he doesn't have a lot of friends to begin with, but Link thinks that she's the best kind of friend a person can have.

When Zelda leans over to one side, she's looking at him sideways and her blonde hair almost touches the floor.

"You don't want to be alone, do you?"

It's not that Link wants to be alone. It's just that he doesn't want anything at all.

Or maybe, actually, he does want something, and that's for his parents to be there. But they're gone and they're not coming back – they can't come back, and maybe he should just be alone instead.

Link doesn't say this. He won't say this because Zelda's just being nice. She's always nice. And he wants to be nice to her too, but he doesn't feel like he can right now and so instead he stays quiet.

"Well, you shouldn't be alone, anyway."

She marches over the carpet and he tucks his legs really quickly right before she can plop herself onto them. When she sits on the end of his bed, Link sits up, wiping the wet streaks on his cheeks with the back of his hands, and faces her.

"Do you wanna go for a walk?"

He shakes his head.

"Do you wanna play a game?"

He shakes his head again.

"Do you wanna talk?"

He pauses for a moment before he shakes it once more, this time a little hesitantly.

Her lips twitch and Zelda nods sagely, in a kind of way that's too wise for her age. "Fine then. I'll talk, you listen." He doesn't protest to that, at least, so she must take that as encouragement.

"I lost my mama too. It's just me and papa. I don't remember her much. Sometimes I wish I did, but sometimes I think that would make me sadder.

"But you lost both your mama and papa, and you must remember them lots. It must be very hard. It was hard for me. I mean, I know it's not the same but-"

"It is," Link cuts in and her head whips to him. It's the first time he's said something in a long time. It sounds kind of like he's sick, his voice quiet and raspy, but he's speaking. It's a start. "I mean…you lost someone too. I'm sorry."

Her lip tremors. It looks like she wants to smile or maybe cry. The thought makes his tummy twist. Instead, she just nods. "Yeah."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. I just - I'm worried about you." She smiles this time and the way it brightens her entire face makes his chest feel somehow less tight and gross. "But you know what? You're really brave."

Somehow, for the first time in a while, Link feels okay enough to smile. All week, he's felt nothing but tired and sad. But when Zelda came in, it was like she brought the sunshine with her.

With a firm nod, she suddenly decides, "I think you and me will be okay."

Something in his heart tells him Zelda's right.

the day of the Wing Ceremony

For a moment, there's nothing but darkness – darkness that's become too familiar for his liking. He's been here before, and the same loneliness that always accompanies it prevails.

A low tremor rumbles beneath his feet before building and building, then bursts forth all together. A familiar beast emerges, dark like the night and scaly like some sort of reptilian monster.

Link doesn't know why he would be familiar, or why for some reason he knows distinctly it is in fact a he and not just some nameless, heinous creature. But he is and he does.

There's a flash of white light and he instinctually blocks his eyes with an arm. A voice that does not match the beast – and is definitely not Link's voice – accompanies the light and for some strange reason he's sure it's someone safe.

It sounds mechanical almost, so precise and monotone that it – she couldn't be a human, but she's urgent and she's telling him about some sort of quest. He can't help but feel like he's seen and heard all of this before.

A squawk shakes the earth and – no, that's not right. That's definitely out of place.

Link stops, whirls around, and –

His back hits the floor with a resounding thud.

A golden beak sticks through his window and black beady eyes stare down at him in a way that's almost judgmental. Zelda's Loftwing cocks its head before spitting a letter at Link with full force and the wooden panel slams shut upon its departure.

Really, Link should expect this by now.

Rubbing the back of his head, he picks up the letter and pushes himself to his feet. If Zelda's choice of messenger didn't give away her identity, then he'd know by her signature seal and the floral scent of the envelope. It smells so much like her it's like she's in his room.

Link feels a smile creeping on his lips as he reads its contents. Even on such a special day like today, Zelda's found a way to wake him up. She's been preparing for the Wing Ceremony all month, at least, and he's sure she's busy even now. She's been sewing and singing and rehearsing, and she gets excited every time she speaks about it and it makes him excited too.

By the time he's done reading, the smile has taken over his face and he starts to make his way out the door.

Link didn't know it then, but that would be the last time Zelda woke him up for awhile.

the first time they sleep together

Golden light is pouring through the foliage on the roof. It filters through his closed lids and so he scrunches his eyes closed with a tired groan. Really, Link thinks the sun should rise an hour later. Morning light is nearly as insistent on waking him up as a certain someone.

He hears a faint giggle. Speak of the goddess.

Link frowns, because he knows Zelda's made her way over to his side of the Tree of Life and she's going to make him get -

She throws a leg over his lap and Link stiffens. His eyes flash open. Zelda’s right there.

Casually wrapped in a sheet - nothing but a sheet - she sits astride him. Her blonde hair is messy and gleams like melted gold in the daylight. He's not breathing – his breath lodged itself somewhere in his chest the moment he first opened his eyes.

"I hope you didn't think I'd let you sleep in today just 'cause I kept you up all night."

Heat floods his face. He expels a rather big puff of air.

"Don't tell me you forgot."

"No -" he says quickly, and then his mouth clamps shut.

But moments later, his face softens. He does remember – he remembers everything. Last night was probably the most amazing night of his life. He was able to hold Zelda and kiss her and be closer to her than ever before. He almost can't believe it really happened.

Link puts his hands on her waist because he has this inane need to touch her and he's not sure where else he ought to put them. It makes her smile, so he finds himself smiling back. Zelda's really good at making him smile.

She sweeps her hair over one shoulder and dips her head, and she kisses him. It's languid and lazy, but there's something about it that makes his stomach flip.

Without even thinking, his hands slide down her thighs. They're partially uncovered by the sheet and they're so soft and she's so warm, and Link feels himself really waking up. Zelda makes a content sound against him so he thinks he must be doing something right. She plants one hand on the mossy ground beside him and the other on his shoulder.

After many lazy kisses, her tongue slides across the seam of his lips and he welcomes it. For awhile there's nothing but Zelda and her lips and her thighs and sunlight. When she draws back, he nearly whines, but she doesn't go far at all.

"Hold me," she whispers, somewhere between a request and a command, but Link has no complaints.

One of his hands cards through her hair, which is also so soft, and cradles the back of her head. Link pulls her closer and leans her forehead against his own. "I love you," he murmurs. It's not the first time he's said it and it won't be the last.

Zelda breathes out the most joyous laugh and it comes with the brightest smile. "Prove it," she dares.

And so he does.

the one time Link wakes up first

"Zelda."

She turns over, swinging an arm onto Link's side of the bed.

It's still strangely new for them to share a bed. But Zelda's father didn't feel right about them staying in the Sealed Temple and sleeping on mossy stone floors, and he was right. They were kind of used to treating it like a home and always returning to it in between explorations of the surface.

But really, since they're staying here indefinitely, it's probably good to have a house. The villagers were gracious enough to build them a small home that resembles the ones up in Skyloft, and though they built two bedrooms, the couple were quick to make use of just one.

Zelda expects for her arm to fall over Link so that she can cuddle up to him, and she frowns when it lands flat on the mattress instead. She can hear his laugh, beautiful and fleeting like windchimes, but it comes from the opposite side of her.

She turns over again and her eyes peek open, and Zelda instantly finds Link's figure very much perpendicular to her. Her brows furrow before her eyes properly open, and even then, she has to rub her eyes and blink a few times before she can actually see.

And when she does, Zelda thinks she's still dreaming. She must be dreaming.

Not only because Link is sitting there at her bedside, very much awake at what must be the crack of dawn. But because he's holding a ring box and there's a very beautiful ring cushioned within.

Zelda jolts upright and her breath is sucked from her chest. Then she finds she can't move another inch.

His beautiful blue eyes are looking up at her with utter devotion – the kind he reserves just for Zelda, not even for the goddess within her that might actually seek devotion - and maybe even a hint of nerves.

"We've been making promises all our lives," he starts, and by the second word, his voice already starts to quiver, "and right now I'm going to make some more."

Zelda wants to nod or smile or really do anything that shows that she's listening to his every word but she really can't move. She hopes he can see in her eyes how enraptured she is.

"I promise to always be your best friend," he says. "I promise to protect you and take care of you and to hold your hand.

"I promise to build the family you've always wanted and to be a good father to our kids. I know that I'll love them so much because you'll be their mother.

"But mostly I promise that I will never stop making promises to you and I will do whatever I can to keep them. All I ask is that you promise to marry me."

Of the two of them, he's the quiet one, and yet when he chooses to speak, he manages to make Zelda speechless.

Her hands are on her rosy cheeks and tears blur her vision, and she's trying but failing to hold them back. They start to roll down her cheeks, unbidden, and it makes Link's own tears start to fall. A sort of breathy laugh bubbles out of him.

"Link," Zelda says raspily, and a hiccup of a sob escapes her. "Tell me I'm awake. Tell me I'm not dreaming right now."

He swallows and nods, his eyes watery and brilliantly blue. "You're awake," Link whispers. "You're here with me."

Zelda starts laughing, and she thinks she must look pretty ridiculous crying and laughing, but Link's doing the same and he looks so beautiful. She leaps out of bed and topples him, and he grunts as he's knocked to the ground, but he's still laughing.

Her legs are still tangled in the sheets so she inadvertently drags them down with her. Link tugs at a coverlet and throws it upwards, and it falls over them slow and breezy like a feather. In the pocket of space, they're tucked away from the rest of the world; even tawny morning light just barely seeps through.

Zelda leans in to kiss him, but their lips are salty from their tears and it keeps getting interrupted by one or both of them laughing, and so eventually she draws back.

Love is alight in her eyes and they're locked onto his. "I promise," she murmurs. Link takes a trembling breath. "I will marry you."

With endearment in his eyes, Link tucks a lock of hair behind her pointed ear. Then his hand sweeps back and cups her face, his thumb idly stroking her cheek and wiping away any stray tears.

As he pulls Zelda in to capture her lips once more, he thinks back to the first time she woke him up and how right she'd been back then. They'll be okay.

Zelda was always the wise one, after all.

[skyward-floored]

LU Zelink marriages head canons, go!

Alright, let’s see...

Time and Twilight are excluded here because Time has Malon, and Twilight is heavily implied to be interested in Ilia (plus the whole Midna mess) so he’s not here either.

...And before anybody gets on my case, Legend and Fable aren’t siblings here! Them being siblings is just a headcanon! They’re not related here!

We good? Good.

Anyways, this got long so I’m putting it under the cut.

For Sky and Sun... I think Skyloft has a lot of traditions and things, so their wedding would have a lot of that. Everybody on Skyloft attends I’m sure, plus the handful of friends Sky and Sun made on the surface, the kikwi’s and mole guys (who’s names I’m not remembering at the moment) and all. They probably have the wedding somewhere in Faron, as the first wedding on the Surface Grooseland and it’s a very happy affair :)

Once Four is old enough to get married, I think his and Dot’s wedding is a lot like Sky’s: lots of tradition, but not too big of an event, lots of family and friends (and people they have to invite because it’s technically a royal wedding 🙄). The minish probably help in all sorts of little ways, with any food and little details on Dot’s dress. Her and Four probably aren’t nearly serious enough during the ceremony, and a couple of people are scandalized. They don’t care a bit.

Wind has a while to go before he’s old enough to really get married, but I think him and Tetra make it a pretty small deal. Tetra suggested eloping but she was mostly kidding. Mostly. They probably have the ceremony on the ship, but dock it at Outset so they can have the party afterwards there without running out of room. It takes them a while to find someone to officiate (you can’t officiate your own wedding, Tetra) Makar and Medli do the music, and Tingle probably invites himself.

Legend, after he accepts that Marin is gone and lets himself love again (...it probably takes a while), would probably prefer a pretty small wedding. Fable is all for it (I’m sure she’d hate a fuss), so they have a quiet wedding in the apple orchard by Legend’s house. Ravio somehow ends up making money off of it, and probably gives Legend one of his own items as a wedding gift.

Hyrule, no matter which Zelda it is that he’s in love with (I certainly don’t have any clue XD) does not want a big wedding. Of course, he somehow ends up with one anyways because he��s marrying a princess and especially if you add in the whole “destined to be king” thing he possibly has it’s probably a wedding and a coronation, so it’s a Big Deal. Poor Hyrule is an absolute mess of nerves.

Warriors and Artemis almost elope. They very much consider just booking it from the castle for a week or two to get married then come back, so they can skip the whole fuss and political nonsense that comes with a royal wedding, but Impa keeps giving them glares so she’d probably stop them. So they put up with the whole spectacle of everything, then very much enjoy a quiet honeymoon.

Wild... I’m a little hesitant to say much about since I haven’t played totk yet (no spoilers!!!) and am not quite sure how things have changed between him and Flora (if at all). But either way, I think they probably try to have a nice quiet wedding, then have a bigger party afterwards. Probably a little like Rhondson and Hudson’s wedding, it’s just a small affair. Then a big party and everything afterwards where they invite everyone they can, everybody Wild’s met and helped over the years.

[aegon-targaryen]

Zelink Week Day 5 - By a Thread

read on AO3 | read on FF.net | @zelinkcommunity

The violent crash of thunder shakes Zelda from a dream. Only a moment ago she was standing on the rolling deck of a pirate ship, cutlass in hand, a fearless girl astride the raging sea.

How cruel it is to imagine power and wake up with none. She slips out of bed to lean her forehead against the cold windowpane, watching rain ripple down the glass, until she hears something else: the creak of the drawbridge.

Earlier tonight, a young farmer boy stumbled into Castle Town on a half-dead horse to tell a gruesome story: monsters were pillaging Mabe Village, a small settlement just to the south. The king deployed a company of the royal guard minutes later, and the brilliant sight of Link’s blue tunic among them came as no surprise.

Zelda went to sleep terrified—not for her knight, not really, for she’s never seen him face a foe that even stands a chance. But monsters attacking in such great numbers, so close to the castle, can only mean one thing: she is running out of time to do what she was born to do.

The company must be back if the drawbridge is lowering this late at night. Let him be safe, Goddess, Zelda pleads, let them all have come home safe. But she reaches for her boots and cloak anyway, because prayer is as fruitless as ever; she has to see for herself.

She plunges down her tower’s pitch-black staircase before she can consider what her father would say. The storm swallows the familiar shapes of the castle and spits out a frightening, featureless place of imposing shadows. She’s half-blind and soaked to the bone by the time she reaches the ground, thinking, If I had my power, I could navigate any darkness. If I had my power, nothing would ever touch me.

Zelda finds herself running the rest of the way to the first gatehouse.

By the time she ducks breathlessly into the orange light, the guards are arriving through the opposite entrance, trudging in with heads bowed and exhausted horses trailing behind. Zelda sees a man with his arm in a makeshift sling, another getting sick against the wall, a third half-carried by a companion who’s staggering as much as he is.

“Move, girl,” growls an irritated voice from behind, and she scrambles out of the doorway to admit a cluster of bedraggled nurses clad in white. No one is expecting the princess to be here, and no one has time for a cloaked teenager shaking in her nightdress, not when the room has devolved into a loud flurry of stretchers and bandages and bloody wounds.

This is only the beginning, Zelda thinks, and only the cold stone wall at her back keeps her upright.

As the drawbridge squeals shut, he is the last to ride in. A dark hood shields his face from the rain, but she’d never miss the blue tunic she stitched with her own hands, even though it’s smeared with crimson. A nurse shoots to her feet, but a guard catches her arm, and Zelda is close enough to hear him mutter in her ear, “No way that’s his blood. Nothing ever touches him. Focus on those who need you.”

The crowd parts for Link and his drenched horse. Whispers and sidelong glances trail behind him. He doesn’t notice Zelda when he passes her, because under the hood his chin is raised and his eyes are nowhere at all. She has watched people give him their awe, their hope, their envy—has felt all those things herself—but what slithers through the gatehouse now feels more like fear.

He halts his mare at the far wall and slides from the saddle stiffly. The ground feels unsteady beneath Zelda’s feet, but she’s hurrying towards him anyway, unable to believe that in this entire room of people, she is the only one worried for him.

When she says his name, one end of Epona’s girth jerks from his hand, swinging wildly towards the floor as he whirls. Link’s gaze travels up and down Zelda’s body, like he can’t believe what he’s seeing.

“You’re covered in blood,” she blurts out.

He doesn’t spare a glance for his tunic, just stares back at her with an expression she cannot read, as smooth and blank as the screen of the Sheikah Slate. I thought we were past this, she thinks plaintively.

“Link,” she says instead, “Are you all right?”

They stand there in the chaos of the gatehouse, waiting helplessly for words he doesn’t have, until he breaks away to circle Epona. Zelda swallows down a jagged stone of grief, trying to decide whether to follow or flee, when another guard approaches him.

“Everyone’s accounted for,” the stranger says. “I…that was masterfully done, Link.”

Interesting, Zelda thinks. Most people only call him hero or swordsman or appointed knight of the Princess.

“I know it wasn’t easy,” the other guard continues gruffly. “But—Link? Won’t you say something?”

The ensuing silence brings Zelda around to Epona’s other side. The older man, whose uniform marks him as the company’s knighted lieutenant, snaps to attention instantly. “Princess,” he greets. “I hope my son has done well as your bodyguard.”

She has gotten Link to talk about food, horses, swordplay—all in tiny and manageable increments. But if she asks about his family it’s only fair to discuss hers in return, and that is something she feels wholly unprepared to do with the boy whose eyes seem to travel straight to her soul every time he looks at her.  

Still, this is a surprise. Surely Zelda’s own father would have mentioned it when he appointed Link, if he knew. There is a resemblance in the two men’s wheat-colored hair, but where the lieutenant is broad and rugged, Link has a slight figure, and those long-lashed blue eyes, and such delicate features that one could even call him ­­­­pretty.

Pretty? she repeats to herself incredulously. Where did that come from? Focus, Zelda! “Yes,” she confirms aloud, regaining her composure. “He saved my life, you know.”

“And saved many more today,” the lieutenant replies. His subordinates, many of whom are goggling at the scene, jump to make themselves look useful at his sharp glare. “Please know that to be true, Princess, whatever else you might hear.”

The words are directed more at Link, who’s ignoring them both to unbuckle the other end of Epona’s girth, using one hand for a task better suited for two. Feeling oddly protective, Zelda watches the lieutenant’s frown carefully—and then he steps closer all at once, lifting the folds of Link’s cloak to reveal the half-broken arrow buried between his collarbone and shoulder.

Zelda’s stomach plummets to the bottom of Tangar Canyon.

“When—” the lieutenant chokes out.

Link, glassy-eyed, blinks up at his father twice before stepping back. Someone across the gatehouse calls for the lieutenant; he half-turns towards the voice, torn between his battered forces and his bleeding son.

And Zelda sees everything in that moment. She sees that Link is hanging on by a thread in more ways than one. She sees his father’s terror. She sees all the world’s whispers wedged between them—favoritism, distraction, the weakness that stems from love—because her own father has allowed those same forces to push them both into a barren place.

“I’ll take care of him,” she offers quietly.

The lieutenant’s shoulders drop in shame, or relief, or both. “Thank you, Princess,” he murmurs. Touching Link’s uninjured shoulder briefly, onlookers be damned, he adds with surprising kindness, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Can you make it to the infirmary?” Zelda asks Link as his father walks away.

He nods at her, upright and unfaltering. She hands Epona off to a stablehand and leads Link into the downpour. The night shrouds them both, but she can feel him following her as doggedly as ever, and something about it breaks her heart a little.

Inside the infirmary, Zelda gets them behind a privacy screen, where a stern-faced surgeon takes one glance at Link and begins lining up a row of intimidating tools on the side table. Only when the surgeon begins cutting the Champion’s tunic away from Link’s wound, sending Zelda’s handiwork to the floor in wet pieces, does he press his lips together in the first sign of alarm.

“I can make another,” she promises.

The surgeon hands Link an elixir, and he closes a white-knuckled grip around it without drinking. Stripped of his layers, he’s pale and lean and scarred, and Zelda can’t look at the arrow jutting out of him, can’t look anywhere but his eyes, which have fixed on her like the shivering flame of a candle. She’s struck all at once by how small he looks, how human.

Does anyone actually see him that way? Maybe his father and Mipha and Daruk, but no one in that gatehouse did. And Zelda didn’t recognize it herself until that moment in the desert last month—not when he put himself between her and that Yiga without a thought for his own life, but after, when he turned around to ask if she was all right, even as his hand trembled on the bloodstained sword.

The moment breaks when the surgeon faces her. “Princess, I hate to ask, but we’re stretched so thin. Can you hold him down?”

“Yes,” she says in a small voice. “Whatever you need.”

“There are cloths over there—give him one so he doesn’t bite his tongue when he screams.”

Reading the refusal in Link’s face, Zelda says, “He won’t scream.” The surgeon chortles out a disbelieving laugh—one of exhausted stress, not malice—but Zelda silences her with a glare anyway.

The rest is unspeakable. Zelda doesn’t watch, and Link doesn’t scream. He only turns to rigid ice under her hands and holds himself that way for long, suffocating minutes, eyes squeezed shut, until the surgeon’s tool grabs hold of the arrowhead.

He faints the moment she starts to draw it out. For five seconds Zelda feels herself paralyzed in the freezing water of the sacred springs, hopeless and unmoving, until the world returns in vivid violence: Link is awake and confused, twisting instinctively away from the source of pain.

Her arms tremble with the strain of keeping him still. Even now, he’s strong enough to break her hold if he panics badly enough to try. She’s never imagined her levelheaded knight capable of panic, but the way his chest shudders with jagged gasps—so quiet and so horrible—frightens her beyond belief.

Zelda remembers their trip to Eldin last week: a small army of dead monsters at Link’s feet, a long red scratch on his arm, another on his forehead. He only noticed them when Zelda did. He indulged her concern without expressing any of his own.

She’s long past thinking that arrogance fuels his silence, but she can’t understand why he hid the arrow, why he didn’t ask for help. He even recoiled from his father, there in the gatehouse with the watchful eyes and fearful murmurs of their comrades. Nothing ever touches him, one of the guards said scornfully, and not so long ago, Zelda would have agreed.

But the proof of her ignorance is everywhere, no matter that Link has locked his face up tight as a vault. He’s all over blood and scars. He’s so cold, she can feel it under her palms, just like she can feel the frantic hammering of his heart as the surgeon continues her grisly work. And his gasps are getting faster and thinner, nearing hyperventilation; maybe it’s better than screaming, but it’s still the worst thing Zelda has ever heard.

“Link,” she says helplessly. “Please breathe. I’m sorry it hurts, but try to breathe.”

His hand scrabbles for purchase along the edge of the cot. Taking a risk, she shifts to catch it in her own, and he turns his bone-white face towards her slightly.

“You’re going to be just fine,” she manages through her aching throat.

Gripping her fingers tightly, Link drags in his first full breath and opens his eyes to find her. Zelda sinks to her knees beside the cot. The world falls away. Everything is right here: his small, calloused hand, his heartbeat, his gaze telling her everything he can’t say.

She stays long after he falls asleep. Despite the moans of the other wounded and the reek of blood, something inside her settles to the steady sound of Link’s breathing.

Maybe she sleeps, maybe not; either way, some indeterminable time passes before she raises her head at the lieutenant’s footsteps. He pulls off his helmet to reveal a shaggy, tired face and sits down on the other side of the cot, watching Link’s chest rise and fall.

“The surgeon expects him to make a full recovery,” Zelda assures him. “Will you tell me what happened?”

“The monsters baited us into a trap,” the lieutenant says wearily. “Most of the villagers were dead by the time we arrived.”

Zelda presses a hand to her mouth at the image of enemies flooding Mabe Village’s single tiny avenue, boxing the guards in, raining arrows down from above. If the monsters have grown this intelligent—she can practically feel the fangs of their master closing around her.

“I had us behind a shield wall, waiting them out,” the lieutenant continues in a hollow voice. “Link disobeyed orders and broke through the monsters’ line. Turned the entire tide by himself.”

That’s a good way to describe it. Zelda has seen the force of nature Link becomes with the Master Sword in hand. She imagines how he must have looked—fierce and blood-soaked and silent, parting the world before him—and almost doesn’t blame the other guards for their fear. Then he curls in on himself, making a small sound of pain in his sleep, and she thinks furiously, Almost.

His father clutches the helmet between his broad hands and says, “Princess, may I speak freely?”

“We’re both too tired for anything else,” Zelda replies, trying to make her tone far lighter than she feels.

The lieutenant’s smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m only here filling a vacancy for the month,” he says slowly, watching Link’s sleeping face. “Then I return to my permanent station at Akkala Citadel. Princess, did you know they deploy him on every out-of-town mission, even if he’s just been on guard duty for eight hours or returned from traveling with you?”

“No.” Her voice sounds weak to her ears. “I—why would they do that? We’ve no shortage of guards.”

“Because if he’s there, no one dies. No one gets hurt either, unless it’s as bad as tonight.” The lieutenant shakes his head at her horrified expression. “It’s not you, Princess. It’s this castle—these people—that godsforsaken sword. I think you know of what I speak better than anyone, and tonight proves that I’ve failed to protect Link from it.”

She realizes what’s in front of her: a father who regrets his shortcomings. A father willing to breach protocol for his son’s sake. Maybe he fails sometimes, but at least he tries. “It was chaos,” Zelda points out. “You had twenty people to command.”

“Only one of whom was my son. And I let him—” the lieutenant stops, shaking his head. “Apologies, Princess. You’re only being kind. He said you were.”

“Link said that?” she splutters. “But I was awful to him. For months.”

“I think he’d disagree,” the lieutenant says sadly. “When I can get him to talk, Princess, it’s mostly about you.”

Zelda’s breath catches in her throat. Link following five paces behind, listening diligently, accepting her ire like rain rolling down stone. Link unflinching before the Yiga, the Master Sword bright and red, every line of his body honed into a threat.

“Yes,” she answers his father’s unspoken question. “I’ll be here for him. As he has been for me.”

.

.

.

Link wakes to pain, morning sunlight, and a nurse changing his bandage. She’s gentle and efficient and it still takes everything he has not to pull away. He searches the room, finding the Master Sword leaning against his cot and his father asleep in a chair, stripped of his armor but still wearing his muddy uniform.

The nurse sweeps away, leaving an elixir behind on the nightstand, and Link closes his aching eyes when his father starts to stir. Three minutes pass before a cork pops and he says, “You’re a bit old to be faking sleep. Drink the elixir.”

Link opens his eyes. The contents of the bottle are crimson and thick. His stomach churns: the rain, the screams, the sword carving through flesh.

“The princess was going to stay. She only relented when I told her you’d want her to rest.”

That’s exactly what Link would want. Zelda doesn’t get enough sleep. He hears her tossing and turning when he guards her door on the nights they spend at inns or garrisons on the road. She cried once too, on their way to Gerudo Town, while he stood uselessly outside.

Wait: the princess. Her green eyes holding him fast. Her long golden hair spilling around her face. Her—her hands on his bare skin. Link’s face floods with heat.

Things have been so good between them, better than good, ever since she gave him the apology he never needed. Zelda wants him to talk to her, and she’s so patient and interested that he actually can most of the time, and when he makes her laugh he feels as strong as people claim he is. He feels like he could vanquish the Calamity here and now.

But now she’s seen the truth. She’s seen her appointed knight bleeding and whimpering like a pathetic child, and in one fell swoop, Link has knocked over everything they were building. She’ll never lean on someone who can’t even hold himself together.

“Oh,” his father remembers. “She asked to be notified when you woke up. I’ll have someone—”

“No!” Link’s voice cracks horribly with disuse. He covers his mouth.

His father’s brows snap down over his tired eyes, and he draws Link’s hand away and presses the bottle of elixir into it. “Drink,” he orders, not letting go until Link closes his fingers around the cool glass and sits up to obey.

“Now lie back down and listen,” his father says firmly. “Milo told me how you came back and took an arrow meant for him. I would give anything for that bastard—that fucking bastard who I’ve seen jeering behind your back—to be in this bed instead of you. But he’s not, because you’re a better person than him or me. If you believe for a second that your princess isn’t sharp enough to see the truth, then you’re doing her a disservice. Understand?”

Link nods meekly.

“Good. Hylia knows I haven’t given you the life you deserve, but I won’t let you deny yourself a friend who needs you as much as you need her. Now—the king must want a report.” He stands briskly, then adds in a softer tone, “I’m sorry I didn’t come back for you.”

By the time Link realized Milo was missing, the rest of the company was five hundred feet away. In that rainy night, with half their people seriously wounded, he was the only one who could’ve gone back. The same injury that he’s already healing from might have killed someone else.

But there’s anguish in his father’s eyes—his father, who tried to keep him from the Master Sword, who threw everything away to train him after it became inevitable. Soon enough Link will lose him to Akkala, and then he might lose himself to the Calamity. So he finds the words, hoarse and halting: “I was okay, Dad.”

Shaking his head, his father steps forward to cup Link’s face briefly. “I love you, son.”

He’s gone before Link manages to say it back, but it’s enough. It’s courage for what comes next. After he leaves, Link finger-combs his hair into a neater ponytail and winces his way into the plain cream-colored shirt the nurse brought him. It’s several sizes too big, but better than the princess seeing his scars again. He tries not to think of the ruin he made of the Champion’s tunic—tries not to think of anything as he waits.

Zelda arrives with a tray of tantalizing breakfast. She’s changed into a simple green dress that matches her eyes—he tries not to blush at the memory of how that wet nightgown had clung to her—but her hair is loose and unbraided, her face shadowed.

“Can you eat?” she asks, smiling a little at Link’s answering nod. “You can always eat, can’t you?”

She’s brought cheesy scrambled eggs, wildberry crepes slathered with whipped cream, and potatoes sliced and crisped just the way he likes them. Two plates, but the one Zelda hands him is piled much higher. He’s inhaled half his food by the time she starts on hers.

“How do you feel?” she asks, noticing that he’s eating one-handed.

Link makes a reassuring noise around a mouthful of potatoes. Zelda chews her own meal, taking on that analytical look she gets when she’s interpreting his meaning. Link remembers what his father said, and he remembers what she did for him when he was fraying beneath the pain, the dreamlike feeling of her hand gripping his.

He’s not going to make her guess anymore.

“I wanted—” Link starts. Zelda’s golden head snaps up at the sound of his voice, and he almost breaks, but somehow he gets the rest out. “To thank you. For yesterday. And to say sorry.”

“Sorry?” She looks at his wounded shoulder incredulously. “Whatever for?”

For your sleepless nights, he thinks. For the way you look at the Master Sword. For the bruises on your knees when you pray for too long and I don’t know how to make you stop. For letting your father treat you the way he does. For being such a coward.

Link swallows again and says, “For not talking.”

“Oh. There’s no need for that. You’ve been trying, and I know by now not to take it personally.”

“But I,” he stammers as a vice squeezes the air from his lungs, “I—” And he can’t finish the sentence. It was a mistake to try. His jaw clamps shut in mortification, shame flooding his face with heat, the one reaction he can’t control.

“Link,” Zelda says in the same clear voice that brought him back to himself last night. Her hand slips into his peripheral vision as it transfers one of her crepes to his empty plate. “Eat that, and try to remember that you never once judged me. I intend to return the favor. If you’d like to tell me what makes you stay so quiet all the time, I’ll gladly listen.”

I want to be better, is what he was trying to say, and he repeats the mantra silently, over and over, as he eats the crepe more slowly and absently than he’s ever eaten anything. Link is a walking reminder of everything fate has denied Zelda, and now she’s seen his weakness twice in less than twenty-four hours—but she’s still here, patiently occupying herself with the Sheikah Slate while he regains his composure.

If you believe for a second that your princess isn’t sharp enough to see the truth, then you’re doing her a disservice.

Inside himself, Link circles the mountain that has been growing up through his core every day since he found the Master Sword, displacing everything else with its sheer size. He can’t see the peak anymore. He doesn’t know if he can make the climb. But he knows it’s keeping him from Zelda, so he has to try.

“If I…falter,” he says haltingly, and she looks up at him instantly. “Like—if people in the gatehouse had seen this.” He touches his wounded shoulder. “What would happen?”

“They would help you, like your father and the surgeon did,” Zelda answers. But she reads his reaction and shakes her head. “No—you’re asking what they would think and feel and say, not what they would do.”

Link nods.

“Well, we’re supposed to smite the Calamity when it comes,” she muses. “Unlike me, you’ve already acquired the means to do so. That raises people’s expectations. So if you falter…if you give them a reason to doubt that you can deliver…they’ll lose hope.”

He looks down at his hands, because Hylia, she understands. She’s defined the mountain better than he ever could. Better than anyone could, because the way people watch her—like she’s a vessel to be filled—is not so different from the way they watch him.

“Lose hope, lose the fight,” Link says very quietly. His father had taught him that.

“Oh,” Zelda whispers. A long, frightening minute passes before she takes a shaky breath and asks, “Do you keep any hope for yourself?”

That question burrows into his viscera like the arrow did yesterday. He turns his face away.

She must see something in it even so, because she stumbles to say, “I’m sorry, I just meant—it seems an unfair way to live. Thank you for telling me, all the same.” Another pause. “Link…will you look at me?”

When he does, her brows are knitted together, her lips forming a thin line. Sadness? Because of him? Or—for him?

“I guess we’re the same, you and I,” Zelda murmurs. “I’m sorry if that’s presumptuous, but when you came into the gatehouse last night, I just thought—you’re so alone, Link, and I am too. Except that we’re stuck with each other. And maybe we don’t always have to hide. Wouldn’t it be better if we were friends?”

Link stares at this person with her tired eyes and her white-knuckled grip on the Sheikah Slate, understanding what she’s offering, understanding that she’s as terrified to step out onto the ice as he is. Getting stuck with her, as she puts it, is the best thing that’s happened to Link in years. But he never expected more. He never expected her to draw out the tangled truth, thread by gentle thread, without turning away.

“I’d—really like that,” he answers, surprised by the clarity of his voice.

“Good.” Zelda wears the beginnings of another smile. “And for whatever it’s worth—I think your father would like to hear you speak, too. So would the other Champions.”

He arches an eyebrow. “Even Revali?”

That makes her laugh, and Link might as well be free in the wide-open wild with the sun shining down upon him.

He does have hope, he realizes, but it doesn’t come from him. It comes from Zelda’s radiant smile, from how hard she works at the research she loves and the prayer she hates, from the way she held his hand through the dark night. You’re going to be just fine, she promised, and now he is, because she stayed with him.

Someday—someday soon, Link hopes—he’ll have the voice to thank her.

.

.

.  

[abbzworld]

Homesick

AN – Hello everyone and happy Zelink Week 2024! I shall be posting seven separate works every day for the next week and you can find them on AO3, FFN, and here on Tumblr in celebration of Zelink and its many forms.

Anyways, let’s get started! :)

@zelinkcommunity

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“Gonzo, hurry up with that food! We’re starving over here!”

“R-Right away, Miss Tetra!”

It took a couple more minutes, but the hungry crew was finally satisfied when the curry was finished.

In all honesty, it didn’t look that appealing, looking like it was made with sludge rather than ingredients. But the pirates were used to this kind of food and so there weren’t any complaints as the curry was handed out. Soon enough, all of them were seated and began to eat, talking jovially amongst themselves.

All except for Link, who was tucked away in the corner.

He wasn’t upset or anything. He just wanted some privacy to finish his own meal first before joining the others.

He smiled as he brought out his favorite soup, which his grandmother had filled all four of his bottles to the brim with. He’d been trying to spread out how often he ate it, but it was difficult sometimes since he loved it so much.

As such, he only had one full bottle left.

He felt a bit sad at this realization as he poured out half of the soup into a bowl and began to eat, smiling at the taste.

As he neared the end of his meal, a bittersweet lump formed in his throat. It made it a bit difficult to swallow at times, but this little taste of home was well worth it.

After he was done, he sighed, feeling full and mostly content.

The only thing that was bothering him was that he only had one serving of soup left. He frowned slightly at that, knowing that it would be a long while before he could have this soup again. And then he would have to eat what the pirates ate, which he knew wouldn’t taste as good.

It wasn’t necessarily because of them and their cooking skills. It just wouldn’t taste the same as his grandmother’s cooking…

“Link?”

He looked up, seeing Tetra in front of him. “Hey Tetra. What’s up?”

“I just wanted to know what you were doing. I mean, you’re in this corner all by yourself. Don’t you want to come hang out with us?”

Link smiled at her concern. “Yeah. Sorry, I was just taking a moment to myself first. I’ll come over now.”

She nodded before they both got up and went over to where the rest of the crew was.

He spent the rest of the night talking and joking around with the others. However, Tetra could tell that something was bothering him. None of the other pirates really seemed to notice, but she did.

-------------

That night, Link tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable, but being unable to. All he could think about were his family and friends that he’d left behind on Outset. He could still hear his grandmother’s farewell to him and see Aryll’s tear filled eyes as she waved goodbye to him.

An uncomfortable pit formed in his stomach at these bittersweet memories. He had no idea how long he’d be away from home in this search for a new land to call their own. And yet, more often than not, Link felt insecure about whether or not they would be able to. He knew it was ridiculous since he’d proven himself to the Gods, became the Hero of the Winds and defeated Ganondorf – all of which happened after he saved his sister which had initially been his only goal – but Link still couldn’t help but be unsure of himself and their journey.

Groaning, he sat up and rubbed at his eyes, deciding to try to get up and see what he could do to make himself relax.

He carefully crept out of his cabin and went upstairs to the deck, past the snoring pirates in the belly of the ship and past Tetra’s cabin, emerging onto the deck.

He glanced up and noticed the thousands of stars in the clear night sky as well as the beautiful half moon.

Sighing, he settled down on the deck and crossed his arms behind his head, gazing up at them.

He could make out a few of the constellations, but he wasn’t the most well-versed in reading the heavens. He just liked the view.

Stargazing worked for him and he could feel himself calming down at the magnificent view after the bittersweet memories had kept him from falling asleep.

Then he suddenly heard the door leading below deck open.

Startled, he looked and was surprised to see Tetra approaching him.

“Link? What are you doing up?”

It took him a moment to answer. “Um, I couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep and so I thought doing some stargazing might help.”

He then asked her, “But what are you doing awake? I hope it wasn’t because of me…”

“Not really.” She shrugged. “I was still awake and noticed you heading up the stairs.”

“Couldn’t sleep either?”

She sighed and shook her head. “No and it’s really annoying…”

He smiled a bit. “Yeah, I get that.”

Then, he was surprised to see her lying down beside him.

“Um… What are you doing?”

“I told you already that I can’t sleep. And since you can’t either, we may as well keep each other company until we can finally relax.”

“I see. Sorry, I guess that I just wasn’t sure what you would do or say. I mean, you prefer your crew to be well-rested and in good health to keep bumps on the road to a minimum.”

She smiled. “Yeah, I get what you’re saying. But my point still stands about our respective sleeplessness.”

He smiled back. “Yeah.”

After that, they both went silent and admired the stars.

After a few moments of this, Tetra asked him, “What constellations are you familiar with?”

“Hm? Oh, mainly Orion, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. I’m… not too well-versed in the stars beyond that.”

Tetra made a thoughtful sound before smiling at him while doing her signature wink. “Would you be interested in learning at all?”

He smiled. “Yes, I am interested!”

She chuckled before standing up. “Alright. Let me go fetch something.”

It took a few minutes until she returned and when she did, she was carrying a chart in her hands.

“What is that? Is it a star chart?”

“Yep!”

“Awesome!” He grinned, sitting up.

After that, they spent some time studying the chart and figuring out where things were in the sky. Tetra wasn’t an expert either but she still knew more than Link did and the two of them had a lot of fun reading the chart and helping each other out.

“…and that constellation is Taurus.”

“Oh, so he’s the bull?”

“Yeah. And the archer, Sagittarius is right… there.”

“Nice!”

She smiled at him. “I’m glad you’re enjoying this.”

“Well, the stars and constellations have always interested me. I just didn’t have the time nor the resources to properly learn how to read them.”

She nodded before smiling mischievously. “Something tells me that you snuck out of bed in order to stargaze though, right?”

At this, Link blushed. “W-Well… it wasn’t often… And, uh…”

Tetra laughed. “Don’t worry. No judgement from me. I often stayed up late, too.”

He smiled sheepishly. “Heh… yeah.”

He went quiet, worrying Tetra. “Are you alright? I hope my joke didn’t upset you.”

“No, it’s not that.” He quickly reassured her. “It’s just…”

It took a few seconds for Tetra to realize why Link was upset. “Oooh… You’re homesick, aren’t you?”

He sighed and nodded. “I know it seems ridiculous but… I really, really miss my family and friends back on Outset. I miss Aryll being at her lookout, I miss the seagulls and I miss my bed… And to make matters worse, I only have one serving of my grandma’s soup left to eat!”

He sighed again. “I feel like such a little kid sometimes for wanting to be back home despite everything I’ve done and still have to do, you know?”

She made a thoughtful sound before telling him, “You know, I actually kind of envy you for that.”

Surprised, he looked at her which prompted her to explain with, “I’ve never really had a home. Sure, you could argue that this ship is my home but… It’s not an island or a house. The only family I’ve ever had was my crew and my mother…”

Link stayed silent, listening intently.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself. And even though we’ve both done some incredible things for our age, we are still kids. So it’s only natural that we’d mess up or act our age on occasion. I’m sure the Goddesses would understand.”

Link stared at her before smiling. “Thanks… I really needed to hear that.”

Tetra smiled back before yawning. “Wow, I think I’m finally tired. Are you?”

Link nodded. “A bit.”

“So, do you want to go to bed now?”

“Yeah. We don’t want to be up all night, after all.”

They both softly chuckled before venturing over to the door and walking down the stairs.

“Um… good night, Tetra. And thanks again.”

“Good night, Link. Let’s stargaze another night, okay?”

He smiled and nodded before they both went their separate ways.

As Link lied in bed, he felt calmer than before. He couldn’t help but smile as he thought about Tetra and her words to him. And even though he still felt homesick, at least he knew that he wasn’t in this alone.

With those thoughts, he finally drifted off to sleep.

-------------

AN – I hope you enjoyed! I’ll be posting the other six stories in the days to come.

[aurathian]

WIP Wednesday 6/21/23

for @zelinkcommunity zelink week 2023 prompt forbidden!! no totk spoilers here :)

Princess Zelda allows herself to sink back into him, resting her head against his chest while he runs his fingers through her curls. If she could stay like this forever, she would, and she lets herself relish in the moment without a thought of a Calamity or a Goddess or the carvings that still cast a shadow upon them. For now, her Hero holds her tight against him, and they say nothing, because the silence says it all.

They don’t know how many moments pass in this silence, simply that the candle has begun to burn low. Zelda yawns softly and Link kisses the top of her head, his hold slacking ever so slightly.

“If you fall asleep here, you might get in trouble,” he murmurs.

“Is it such a crime for me to spend one night with you?”

“A warm bed is much more comfortable than stone.”

“You’re not convincing me.” She removes herself from his embrace anyways. Immediately a freeze comes over her, missing the feel of his skin on hers, but she has mastered self control and rises from her position on the floor.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Link offers from below her.

“Of course.” Gripping her skirt in her fists, she begins to walk away. When she reaches the stairs, she casts a glance over her shoulder. “Goodnight, Link.”

“Goodnight, Zelda.”

[webarebares]

Back to Back

I wrote a little post TOTK Zelink fanfic a few days ago and wanted to post it here <3

Ao3 Link | Rated G | Word Count: 2,958

They sleep back to back. Link can feel Zelda breath through the night in two different patterns. The first one is offbeat. She goes through moments of holding her breath and then short breathing. She’s mentally turning herself inside out and upside down, and he can’t do anything about it. The second pattern goes off after maybe two or three hours of slight shifting and an occasional heavy breath. It’s steady. It’s quiet. It means she’s finally asleep.

Then and only then is when Link will close his own eyes to sleep. He could sleep right away, really. He likes to sleep a lot these days. But there’s a chance Zelda will slip out of bed to go for a short walk, and he gets to follow and tell her that he wasn’t sleeping anyways without lying. They spent so much time apart that he doesn’t want to spend any of it being dishonest.

It is a strange little relationship they both have. Preceding the first rise of Calamity Ganon, they never vocalized any deep feelings other than the one time Zelda said to him, “You are my best friend.” He didn’t even remember that until he made her the first meal she had in one hundred years. After that, Link stayed at the inn and Zelda stayed at his house until one day he fell sick, and she made him sleep in her (their?) bed to take care of him. He hasn’t slept elsewhere since.

They sleep back to back. Before the fall, before the loss of his arm, Zelda would wrap her arms and sometimes legs around him and fall asleep in an instant. Not every night, but Link liked to keep a hand on her waist or her back. When she was surely asleep, he’d give an experimental squeeze to know she was real and not a memory. She was living, and he could feel her under the hand that fought to bring her back.

Now, he tracks that she’s real through her breathing. The one week she had a stuffy nose was hell because she could go so long without letting out a single breath, and he was always on the brink of sitting up to check her pulse before she moved, and he knew she was alive. Maybe he’s too paranoid now. Whatever she replays in her head every night, he knows that she can’t tell her not to worry about it without sounding hypocritical. He worries just as much even though Ganondorf literally blew up before all of Hyrule’s eyes four months prior. He’s already worrying for the next fight in the next life and how he’s going to protect her then.

Since Hyrule is still going, that probably means he’s never failed. But maybe, maybe, maybe he will fail one day. One day he won’t be strong enough or dodge fast enough and then, then, then, he will fail her. He can’t tell if he already has because they sleep back to back.

Zelda sits up and right away, Link’s eyes fall wide open. Their loft is dim in the full moon, no longer red. Just like she has every other time, Zelda tries to slowly move to the end of the bed to get off without having to climb over him. He saves her the trouble of being sneaky and sits up, her neck quickly turning to him.

“Oh, Link,” she says. She doesn’t sound surprised. “I had a feeling you’d be awake. I am going to go on a stroll. Would you like to join me?” Link nods and gets his legs out of bed and slips his feet into his sandals. Zelda, wearing her white night dress, grabs her a blue coat from a hook in the corner and slips into her own sandals. Link bought her that coat recently, and she wears it often. Link’s pajamas are made up of a thin green long sleeve and matching pants. Zelda cut the right sleeve and sewed it into a neat fold, as well as his other clothes. He decides he doesn’t need his coat, but he makes a note to suck it up if it does get cold.

He settles the Master Sword on his back and follows Zelda down the stairs and out their front door into the cold air of the night. Goosebumps move up his arm, but he closes the door without going back for his coat. He doesn’t want to go back up and plus, Zelda is already at the suspension bridge. She’s always moved very fast, since they were teenagers. Get here, do that, now onto the next thing.

Recently though, she’s seemed to slow down. As if she’s afraid to make progress because she’ll be ripped away from her life again. Link doesn’t know how to communicate that he feels the same way. How to communicate that he’s waiting, cowering, and afraid. And still, he’d do it a third time, lose another limb, run straight into malice if it meant they’d get to sleep in the same bed. Even if it’s back to back.

They take the path through Hateno Village. It’s a calm quiet Link sometimes can’t believe exists in this world. If he listens too hard, he can make out sounds of monsters but really, he’s only seen Keese in the distance since it all went down. It makes it easy for him and Zelda to walk through Retsam forest in peace.

There’s enough light from the moon and stars to see them through late dusk as they venture into the trees. Link can make out mushrooms and stops to look at an ironshroom.

“Zelda,” he says her name. He doesn’t say it much. It’s only when he absolutely needs her attention. He wants it all the time.

“Yes?” She walks back a few steps to meet him. He crouches down lower and points at the mushroom.

He says, “Let’s bring the students to pick mushrooms. You can talk about the science part of it, and I can teach them a few recipes.” She smiles under the lighting they are given, and he cherishes it.

“I like that idea.” He likes the validation he gets from her. “We can do a few field trips now that the forests are safe.” Because their lives are a reality show for Hylia, they hear a wolf’s howl in the distance. Link immediately stands and puts his hand on Zelda’s hip, over her coat. They don’t touch as much as they used to before. It’s much rarer now. Just in moments like this or Zelda tying Link’s hair back for him. A lingering hand touch as they pass spices in the kitchen, Zelda picking lint off his shirt, Link taking grass out of her hair after she lays on it to cloud watch. Much rarer.

He doesn’t expect to hear her laugh, but he finds himself smiling with her. “Well, I think we can scope out for wolves in the morning before we bring them along. And the foxes will just flee. Oh, maybe you can catch a fox for us.” Zelda puts her fingers under her chin like she always does when she’s thinking. Link has copied her a few times, and she’s yet to notice it’s something she does. “Maybe next year when they’re a little older we can dissect a few things like fish or frogs. Wouldn’t that be exciting?” He nods.

She turns herself towards him and leans her hip more into his hand, and he’s basically holding onto her now. There’s no danger and still, he doesn’t want to let go. She starts talking about getting tools for dissections and tells him to remind her to ask Robbie about borrowing some. He listens because he loves to listen to her. She has so much energy even in the midst of the night. Her brain never stops.

“I think I’m getting ahead of myself again,” she says nervously. The excitement got sucked out of her with the realization. There it is. This fear of planning for the future.

“Who cares?” Link says. Maybe not the most comforting thing, so he tries to save himself “Plan ahead. It’ll be fine.”

“Yeah.” She still sounds unsure, and her anxieties are the one thing Link can’t slash with a sword. It fills his chest with deep lament. “It should be fine.” Link realizes how close she is to him. He can see how her eyes change from enthusiasm to fear. The chili weather is nothing amidst all these trees and their proximity, but he feels cold for other reasons.

“I’m scared,” he says. Is he making this about him? Or has this always been about them, together? Zelda looks at him curiously, a tilt of the head and studying eyes. He’s not sure he’s ever admitted to something that can come across as weak. He’s been strong his entire life, and in order to balance out the weight of brute immortality versus humanity, he’s gone silent. Still, he knows he can speak all he needs to with Zelda. He can be vulnerable with her. “I’m scared it’s all going to happen again. And again. And again.” Zelda steps closer to him and brushes some hair that had fallen into his eye. “Maybe I can do it one more time in this life but after that? I only have one arm left.” He moves his hand off of her and wiggles his fingers in front of her face, making her giggle.

“It will not happen again,” she says to him. She takes his hand between hers and gives it a gentle squeeze. “Not now at least.” They hear two wolves howl in the distance, one right after the other. Maybe they’re looking for each other, and Link can’t find the danger in that. “But we’re going to worry about it forever, aren’t we?”

“And ever.” So much for being comforting. But it does feel good to get things out in the open. Zelda can figure out why he still takes the sword to school but maybe she’s always known. “How do we move on?” he asks.

“How we did the first time,” she shrugs. “How was that?”

“Dragon brain get you again?” he asks. She lets out a full laugh that comes from her stomach, and Link feels happy to be alive. Her hands still hold onto his, and he frees it to flick off a leaf that has fallen on her shoulder. Naturally, he then sneaks his hand past the open front of her coat and settles his hand over the waist of her nightdress. Touch. Laughter. Exploring. This is how they moved on the first time.

Zelda’s voice lowers to a whisper and she says, “I think we need to sleep at better hours. It isn’t good for us to sleep so little when we are already in such state. We slept so much that first year after the calamity.”

“Second year,” Link corrects her. “You were so excited to be out and about again that you ran yourself to the ground that first year. Then we forced you to sleep a little more, and your body had to play catch up.”

“I remember that,” Zelda says. She starts laughing under her breath. “I remember the one time I didn’t sleep for about two days, you made me get in bed and then fell asleep on top of me so I wouldn’t sneak off.” Link’s fingers involuntarily squeeze her waist. He’s so fond of her, truly.

“You can laugh, but I was so worried. I still am.”

“Please don’t worry. I’m safe even when you’re sleeping.” Zelda’s hands go into her coat pockets, locking Link’s hand inside of it. He’s not sure what to make of it. “Speaking of, you should really try to sleep even if I’m still awake. I know you refuse to fall asleep until I do, but I feel quite bad.” Link feels his face turn red. He didn’t think she knew.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “It’s a habit.”

“I know. That’s why I don’t nag you about it. But I’d like it if you tried.”

“Would you sleep easier?”

“No.” She is honest as well. “My mind has to tire itself out first. Then I can sleep.”

“It’ll get easier,” is all he can muster to tell her. It’s not a lie. It’s not a desperate promise, either. It’s a fact.

“It will, won’t it?” she says with an air of calm. Her eyes go up to the sky that’s blocked by the tree they are next to. They move to Link and then down to the nook of his arm. She is almost too quiet when she asks something so bold, “May I ask, why don’t you hold me to sleep like you used to?”

Link can’t stop it from coming out of his mouth. “Oh.” He feels a little stupid for letting it slip out so fast because he sounds as stumped as she is. “I just.” This is so complicated. He should have kissed her years ago and every time he’s ever wanted, maybe it’d be easier. He tries to act like he didn’t think that.

“It’s okay if you need space. We’ve been through a lot, and you most likely got used to having a bed to yourself.” Link was the one that insisted he wanted to share beds with her when they got back four months ago. He knows that they grow a bit distant and weird after reuniting because they’re both processing so much, and he didn’t want to lose the one intimate connection he’d for sure have with her.

“I thought you were the one that wanted space.”

“I wish you gave me less.” Her eyes dance with his. Her mouth is in a thin line, so he knows this conversation is costing her all she has. Somehow, he is thankful.

His hand pulls her closer by the waist, and she steps into him. Her face is in his, and he can feel the warmth of her breath. “Like this?”

She can barely get the words out to confirm. “Exactly like this.” Link doesn’t waste another second and kisses her, Zelda wrapping her arms around him to place her hands on his back. He’s not cold at all anymore.

He pulls away to admire her before pressing another soft, chaste kiss on her lips. He tells her, “We should go home. And maybe get some decent sleep.” She agrees, and he grabs her hand, leading the way back to their home.

“We do this on and off,” she points out to him, holding their interlocked fingers up for a second. “We get closer and then when we survive a tragedy, we separate. I don’t like it. I never know how to act around you afterwards.” She sounds humored. “Not that I’ve known how to act around you even after all these years.” He was a fool to think he could stop her thoughts from spinning so fast with a kiss. He’s not upset about it, either. Somehow this is the most relaxed he’s felt in so long.

“I’m sorry.” He understands every word that comes out of her mouth. He knows her so well. They feel the same things in such a similar wavelenght, and he wonders if that comes with centuries of being reborn for the other. “I don’t think I’ve ever known how to act around you. You’ve always taken the reigns. Even today,” he says. “You go, I follow. But we can talk it all out. I’ll listen.”

“Are you okay with that?” She squeezes his hand as they enter the village. The sun is vaguely rising in the distance. They can catch a few hours of sleep.

“Okay with what?”

“Following me.” Zelda has felt guilt for this before, and he’s by her side because it feels right.

“I’m going to follow you into the next life and smile while doing it.” It’s the truth and although heavy and laced with dreadful knowledge, there is light in being in love.

“Despite it all?”

“Despite it all.”

They cross their bridge and enter their house. Zelda removes her coat, and Link leans the sword against the wall next to their bed. Baby steps.

The two slip under the covers, and Zelda and him are forehead to forehead. She plants on last kiss on his nose for the night and lets her arm lay over him, Link doing the same and resting his hand on her back.

Link decides to get it out before they fall asleep. “I love you. I want you to know that. I always have.”

“You always have?” Zelda’s eyes were closed, but she opens them just for this. The subtle grace of dawn is starting to dance through their window. They can sleep in with no worries. They don’t have to save the world anymore.

“I’ve loved you for ten thousand one hundred and seven years.”

“That’s a long time.” She’s smiling, looking at him fondly with a face he makes note to kiss every inch of when he gets the chance. “I’ll have you know I’ve loved you for ten thousand one hundred and eight years.”

“That’s a long time.” Joy comes naturally with her. He can sleep, but he gets more happiness in staring at her face. “Can you say it once before I fall asleep?” His body is starting to crash, but he’s trying to savor every moment of this without dreading a possible end.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He has to say it twice. “Just in case you didn’t hear it the first time.”

“So considerate,” she mumbles. They’re both asleep within minutes, nose to nose.

[theangelicstoryteller]

This is my day 4 contribution to @zelinkcommunity Zelink Week 2023! I'm a little behind so here's hoping I can bang out two fics tomorrow to catch up.

Cycle: Wind Waker

Title: I've Got You Rating: G Words: 1,613 Summary:

A storm hits while Tetra and her crew are out at sea. Link, still getting used to being on such a large ship, loses his footing and gets swept across the deck in a wave. But Tetra will not fail any of her crew, and especially not the hero that saved her life twice over.

Happy readings to you all!

Thunder crashed and the ship listed to the starboard side.Tetra wrapped the rope she had in her hand around her arm, securing it to herself, which was secured to the mizzen. “Steady on, Gonzo!” she shouted over the harsh wind, the pouring rain, and creaking of her ship.

”AYE CAPTAIN!” Gonzo shouted back, holding fast to the wheel he was tied to. The ship slowly righted itself as they rode through the waves around them.

Tetra glared at the black clouds above her. For all of Link’s fancy wind magic, his baton could only summon storms, not get rid of them. At least he could name himself useful otherwise. She caught a glimpse of that silly green hat he loved so much blowing in the wind as he took Zuko’s usual spot atop the main mast to watch the storm while the rest of her crew waited below deck. Gonzo refused to go below and Tetra didn’t want him to anyway - she needed his might to man the wheel.

The stone around her neck flashed to life. From her pirate’s charm, she heard Link’s voice warn “Big wave coming, portside! Lean in or it could sink us!”

Tetra tried to look to the port side, but the rain blocked her vision, as well as the ropes and sails of her ship. “HARD TO PORT!” she shouted, tightening her grip on the rope.

”AYE!” Gonzo called, forcing the wheel to turn. She saw him fight the wheel as it wanted to go starboard, but he forced the wheel to move, the bow of the ship slowly turning to port. No sooner had they turned then through the rain and wind did a towering wave appear in her vision to crest above the bow of her ship and crash onto the deck. She felt the force of it shake her ship as it swept across the deck. They dipped, terrifyingly low, before the bow rocketed out of the water. For a heartstopping instant, Tetra feared the ship might crash in half, but instead simply fell back into the water, steadying itself.

She barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief that they managed to survive that wave before she heard Gonzo shout “CAPTAIN!” over the storm. She turned to him to see him pointing up to the main mast. She looked back to Link’s spot only to see instead of him in the crow’s nest, hanging from the sail, holding onto the rope that secured him to the mast for dear life.

”Link!” she cried, moving down her ship towards the mast.

His voice broke through her charm again. “I’m alright, when we came back up, the force knocked me out of the nest. I’m still tied to it, just give me–”

Lightning struck the mast, right where Link would have been. Tetra blinked through the sudden spots in her eyes. She had a moment to appreciate that at least Link wasn’t in the mast at the time of the lightning strike - thank the goddesses for small mercies, she supposed - but when her eyes finally cleaned and then adjusted back to the dark storm, she saw a splash of green on the deck. Link was struggling to stand, the rope around his waist slack, the end no longer attached to the mast black and frayed from the lightning strike.

Another wave appeared over the bow. It slammed into the ship and water rushed over the deck and the ship took another dip. Tetra looked on in horror as the water washed over Link and pushed him to the edge of the ship. He grabbed the side as it slammed him against it, but Tetra knew the next one would take him into the sea. She had seen what happened to sailors that were tossed into the sea in storms like this. If he was tossed overboard, she would never see him again.

Tetra didn’t think, she only acted. She released the rope that she had wrapped around her arm and jumped over the rail of the poop deck and jumped down onto the main deck below. She bolted for the ropes around the main mast as the ship came back up from the force of the wave. She heard Link struggling to untangle himself from around the rail he had been slammed into, but didn’t look at him until she grabbed a rope.

Her charm flashed to life. “Hold on, Link, I’m coming!” she called to him as she ran. Another wave could hit any moment. She, with practice speed, tied the end to her belt taking only a fraction of a second, before she finally turned to run towards him.

She felt the wave more than saw it. The ship shifted. She didn’t know if she was going to reach him in time. Almost in slow motion, Link turned to her and their eyes met as she ran towards him. The ship shook, the crash of water on the deck broke over the sound of the howling wind, the whoosh of the water as it raced towards them. They reached for each other, hands extending, he was right there…

And then the water washed over them.

Years of living on a ship helped Tetra keep her footing, as she took a stance that kept the water rushing around her legs, but not take her feet. Months of hard training while saving the people he loved helped Link keep his grip on the railing. But not one, not even the Hero of the Winds, could face and win against the sea, and as the bunk of the water rushed off the ship, the fast water of the leaving wave took him with it to the sea.

Tetra gripped the rope around her and jumped after him as she saw him tilt over the railing. She slammed into the railing as her hand came out. He twisted back and miraculously managed to grab her hand. He was so heavy. His sudden weight as he slammed into the hull, hanging onto her, pulled at her arm with such force she thought it would be ripped from its socket. It was with a moment of despair that she realized she did not have the strength to lift him back onto the ship and if another wave hit, she would not be able to hold onto him again.

But though even a hero could not best the ocean, The Hero of Winds could best a storm.

With the hand she did not have, he reached into that pouch of his and brought out his grappling hook. With practiced precision, he swung the hook up where it wrapped around the railing next to her. Wrapping the rope around his arm, he planted his feet on the hull and started to pull himself up. Instantly, he felt so much lighter, now not just freely hanging from Tetra. Keeping her grip on him and her rope, she started to pull with him.

”WAVE, CAP’N!” Gonzo shouted from the wheel.

Link’s grip became tighter in hers, just as she clamped down on his hand. They locked eyes. He was still just halfway over the railing. She was shocked when she saw complete and total trust in his eyes, just as he wrapped the rope around his arms a few more times. She widened her stance and felt the next wave crash over the ship. The water swept over them, hitting the back of her head and pulling her hair from her bun. But she did not lose her footing, and Link’s hand did not slip from hers. They rode out the wave and then managed to pull him up and back onto the deck.

He went to unhook the grappling hook from the railing, but Tetra started pulling him towards the mast. “Leave it!” she shouted over the wind. “You need to secure yourself again before another wave hits!”

She braced herself for him to argue, but instead he unwound the rope attached to the hook and let her lead in back over to the mast. She kept a grip on his hand as they carefully made their way back over the slick and still listing deck. Once at the mast, Tetra released the rope she had around her arm to grab the rope still around his waist and tied it around one of the notch points around the mast. While he did so, with his free hand, he reached into his pouch again to pull out his sister’s telescope. He pointed it towards the starboard side, looking out over the obscured sea.

”Storm is breaking,” he told her, quickly putting the scope away before the ship listed again and he risked dropping it. “I think the worst is over.”

”Then you and I are gonna wait it out here!” she told him as thunder cracked again. She really hoped it didn’t hit her ship again. She did not want to know the damage done to the crow’s nest.

He grinned at her, his free hand grabbing the rope around his waist. “Sure thing, cap’n.” He gave her a wink. “What’s one more storm for you and me to weather?”

She grinned back at him, pushing her loose hair out of her face with the hand that did not hold his. “Compared to what we’ve seen? This is just another day in our lives.”

Link laughed in agreement as another wave washed over the deck. They grabbed their ropes to keep their footing, but still held onto one another. And even as the storm finally lessened and Tetra felt safe enough to retreat below decks, still they stayed hand in hand.

[jheselbraum]

They lierally weren't in a relationship. It's implied by the ganon awakening memory and her own diary and other dislogue she never actually proposed by chickened out. Why would she gasp seeing Link staring at Zelda if he was actually engaged to mipha? Media literacy dead

I just want to say congratulations to the Gravity Falls fandom. After nearly twelve years on tumblr and a truly staggering amount of blocked fans and admittedly incendiary posts on my part not a single one of you verifiably went on anon to get around a block and into my ask box. Not even that time I opened up about my personal family issues and got attacked for it by dozens of people. Everyone who got blocked stayed blocked. In fact, no one from any of the circles I post in has ever done this, hence why I'm even dignifying this ask from a pathetic individual who ships like they're an adult Harry Potter fan with a response: to commemorate the occasion.

In this time of mass exodus due to racism and transphobia from staff as well as our user data being sold to an ai model which will immediately die the moment it tries to train itself with it, it's wonderful to know that there are still parts of the true tumblr experience that I too can take part in, and that despite tumblr's waning growth and popularity, despite my own waning time on this site, when I do eventually log off for the final time I'll be able to rest easy, knowing that I truly was a part of this community... And knowing that the part of the community I primarily interacted with during the bulk of my time here, despite a brief period filled with completely untagged old man incest porn in the main character tags, never pulled this shit, and never got to the point where every third post in a given ship tag was a complaint, about random bullshit that doesn't matter and isn't actually something anyone was mad at in the first place.

Truly it would cheapen the experience, to complain about a bunch of unrelated topics, characters, and ships you don't like, in the tags of a ship that you do actually like, to the point where someone going into that tag looking for shipping content of the ship they like has to deal with a bunch of annoying crap that isn't shipping content and is rude to other people for no fucking reason.

The humble vagueblog has existed as a vital part of your fandom's existence since the beginning, dear Gravity Falls fandom, and you have used and honed the practice well. Your tags have not been infested with pages of unrelated crap from a new set of people very week who think the rest of us enjoy them spamtagging their complaints, and our tags have not been infected with people who don't like what's being posted in that tag posting in the tag anyways about how much they dislike the content of the tag they're posting in. All the porn is now tagged properly and no one is freaking out about people who don't ship their ship, not even when that ship consists of two characters who are at the same developmental stage for their respective species, and are not related to each other. As the fandom of a children's show from 2010s era tumblr you have truly exceeded all expectations. Gaze upon this ask, on this shadow of a shark beneath our little rowboat and know that I thank you, and that if and when I do eventually leave this site I will leave satisfied. Know that if there ever comes a time where I begin posting zelink content full time, I will be in hell trying to block annoying assholes all over again, because every third post in the zelink tag is made by someone like this who clearly has nothing better to do with their time than complain about a naked fish lady who is dead and does not interfere with the ships they actually like because she's not real and you don't have to include her in your fic or engage with the people who like her if you don't want to.

Because obviously the zelink ship tag is the only place one can complain about a fictional teenage dolphin with boobs being in a relationship with a fictional teenage human, and obviously a fictional dolphin with boobs is the biggest problem this fandom has so someone has to say something, it'd be rude not to tag this Voltron fandom level bullshit as zelink.

[zeldaelmo]

Is it cheating to ask for more than one?? LOL oh well Imma cheat! Drunk Zelda (NSFW) & TP smut weapon arsenal (NSFW) (PLEASE INSERT SHAKY EYES HERE)

It's absolutely not cheating, dear! (Especially since I posted in the middle of the night for most of my followers and probably nobody will send another ask lmao)

Ok, these two fic ideas couldn't be more different, haha. Drunk Zelda is angsty smut (because as much as I like writing SFW fluff, I live for angsty NSFW stories) with some plot and TP smut weapon arsenal is just a goofy little smutty story. More for both under the cut for suggestive themes. :)

Drunk Zelda (I really should have named that doc better haha):

It's a marriage of convenience scenario (TP). Link has returned to the castle and they've become good friends. The topic of Zelda's marriage comes up and they both think, why not? Totally no major crush involved on both sides, no, no

They celebrate with balls and whatnot, make it passably through the wedding night. The first few weeks are a little bit bumpy and stressful and they often fall dead into their beds, but overall it's a success.

That is, until Link realizes that Zelda only sleeps with him when she's tipsy.

A horrible discovery that leads to spiraling thoughts. Why can't she stand him when she's sober? He tries to kiss her a little more affectionately during the next few days, but as soon as his hands drift, she panics. He gets very sad and withdrawn, thinking she doesn't love him back or he's hurting her. What if him being close to her, seeing the scars that his sword left on her skin, reminds her of how he had to fight her when she was Ganondorfs's puppet? Her own husband has aimed his weapon on her, how could she ever love him back?

Zelda however is just so incredibly shy and unfamiliar with physical affection that she believes she can only give him, an experienced country boy (he isn't any more experienced as she, but it's what she believes), what he wants if she loosens up a bit. It worked well enough on their wedding night, after all... It's not that he could love a mess like her anyway, with her scarred body and her soul that couldn't even withstand Ganondorf's attempt to possess her, so she has at least to fulfill his needs on this level somehow to make up for his sacrifice of marrying her (and not his true love Midna).

One evening, Link has enough and swaps her glass of wine with grape juice and dances with her until she's dizzy enough to believe it's from the 'wine'. They make out but of course, Zelda is a smarty and realizes halfway through that she isn't drunk and gets flustered again. Link confesses his worries and they figure it out together and have a second 'first time' with all the feels. 

I haven't written a single word for this, since it sounds like a multi-chapter monster... oops. But I really like the themes that could be explored in this one, so maybe one day I'll start. An event with a prompt list would be cool for this, so that I'm somewhat forced to prioritize it (she says while organizing an event where she writes the prompt list herself lmao).

***

Ok, the other one is just goofy smut. It's based on this post.

I imagined a scene where a freshly married Link and Zelda try to get a private moment but it's not so easy to get undressed with all the weapons on their bodies. Additionally, someone keeps interrupting them, so at one point, Zelda just throws one of his knives that blocks the door or something to keep the soldiers from being a cock blocker.

That's it, that's the whole plot. 😆 When I saved the tumblr post as inspo, I thought about TP zelink, but actually I think this would work much better with Hyrule Warrior zelink mid-war. So, maybe not freshly-married, but that's really not so important. I thought about this happening during honeymoon, but it works just as well or even better at a battle field-related place. With this fic, it’s a bit similar to the other -- I just need an opportunity to finally write it. It will happen at some point, especially since it’s probably a 2-5k word range that I could finish within a week or two, but... priorities. :):):)

[orangedodge]

Was tagged by @danzafila

last song: The work radio is playing Hotel California. I was also listening to something from American Idiot earlier. The USB I've kept the album on since high school doesn't have track names though, so I actually don't know which song it was 🤷‍♀️

last movie: I wanted it to be Dune 2 but I haven't gotten near a theater yet.

currently watching: no new shows at the moment. I watched the first episode of X-Men 97, to see what they did with it; seems good, not remotely for me though (which is good! The original show was for six year olds. It shouldn't be for me anyway). Fascinated that they've chosen to adapt both Inferno and the Trial of Magneto, but I don't plan to watch more except vicariously via tumblr.

currently consuming: If this question is about food, the answer was chicken w/ rice. If it's about fandom things, then I just wrapped up part 2 of the FFVII remake. I'm also trying to find time to finish reading Pachinko.

current obsession: I have spent an unjustifiable amount of time watching streamers react to the ending of the FF7 remake, a retelling of a 30 year old game, all struggling to act shocked and perplexed by the most famous video game story of all time. An entralling look into twitch performance art. The lead VA of the game has just started her own first playthrough live reaction stream. She obviously knows what happens. Will she stick to the meta anyway? I'm making time for this one next week.

I've also gotten really into FE3H fiction where Byleth was raised by the church. Really hard to find though, sadly. The ones that do exist all tend to be perfect though.

favorite color: Viridian (because of Pokémon, yes)

first ship: Last time I did one of these, I think I settled on it being probably either House/Wilson or Sparky.

three ships: Karmacat is probably the OTP of my life. It's been with me since freshman year, and it got me through the post school can't-find-a-job-for-two-years depression.

I really like the OoT and WW versions of Zelink. I like more recent versions too, but after Skyward Sword I also tend to see Zelda's guilt complex getting in the way.

Ultimate Spider-Man is starting to make me ship JJJ with Uncle Ben.

spicy/savory/sweet: spicy. if something is too sweet or too savory I tend to feel sick right away

[novantinuum]

Wip Game!

(Aw hell yeah, these are always fun! Thank you for the tag, @drsteggy!)

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have wips. I have deemed that this isn’t just for writing either. Sketch titles? Comics? Dnd campaigns? If you have an unfinished project, it counts!

TBH I have a shameful amount of WIPs so I won't be tagging as many people as I have WIPs because a lot of you have already been tagged! Also, I will have different sections for various fandoms because I actually do still have WIPs for Steven Universe I have not entirely shut the lights down on. So, uh... without further adieu...

LoZ Writing WIPs I have started:

The Ballad of Aryll: Song of Time

Clutching Destiny

Untitled Fic About Arwel's Death

Blades of the Yiga what-if

Zelink Prompt- Glass

again, and again, and again (like i was destined to be yours)

AoC Zelink Week Fic

LoZ Writing ideas:

Hero's Decay

All the Words That Go Unsaid

Hylink Meeting

Fi & Link Bodyswap Fic, Also Aryll is There

A thousand Whumptober prompt concepts I never got around to fleshing out

SU Writing WIPs I have started:

Crack the Paragon (yeah this is still a WIP folks)

Misalignment

Echoes of Chalcedony

Proposal Fic

Untitled Reunited Alt POV Fic

Peridot and Steven short

SU Writing ideas:

A Diamond Adrift

Bad Dreams

Art WIPs (All fandoms)

Haywood Family Portrait

ch2 illustration

link in battle

Botw2 Link

queen and king

CtP- Moonbase

CtP ch1 illustration 2

Echoes of Chalcedony cover

Flower Child comic

obsidian and co

palette challenge 2

palette challenge 3

sketch th jim

sketch th toby

slep

su gf crossover 1

eclipse GF 1

drops of jupiter

12 and clara gf style

background paint practice

So anyways, I'm gonna go ahead and tag some of my fellow creatives! Sometimes it's kinda fun to dust off those WIPs, find those documents you haven't thought about for a while, and give them a lil' shout out moment in the spotlight.

@infriga, @stariousfalls, @fexiled, @inktheblot, @michpat6, @ladyhoneydee, @buggy-mars, @citrusella-flugpucker, @shisei11, @thelastspeecher

[alphascorpiixx]

Phantom Touch - Chapter 3

Zelink Week Day 2: Forbidden

Chapter 1, Chapter 2

@zelinkcommunity​

---

The Spirit Train glided along the tracks. The Lost Woods loomed in the distance. To Zelda’s eyes the forest was one continuous body of tree limbs and leaves. How could a train possibly navigate such a place? But Link carried on their course without any hesitation. As they drew closer to the woods, Zelda saw the tracks followed a gap in the trees just wide enough for the rails to fit.

They entered the Lost Woods, and the world grew dark.

“Remember what the villagers told us,” she reminded Link, though it was more for her confidence than his.

The forest will tell you which way to go. Just pay attention to the tree branches. Listen to the trees, but not the fourth tree.

The train chugged down its path. There was no split in the tracks yet. Zelda’s eyes strained to see through the shadows. The trees were all one shapeless mass. How were they supposed to follow the branches if they couldn’t see any?

“I feel like this forest doesn’t want us here,” Zelda whispered.

“It’ll be okay. The spirits will guide us through,” Link said. His words and his smile were the best assurance he could give her. Zelda nodded and exhaled, trying to allow those words to calm herself down. She let him focus on the controls and tried not to let her anxiety show. She had rarely been so far from home, nor in a place so impossible to navigate.

You can fly, though. You could rise above the trees and go home.

But the thought didn’t ease her worries. She would never leave Link behind. So Zelda settled herself in the locomotive beside Link and let him guide them through. The track split appeared, and Link’s eyes somehow found the right tree branch that showed them the way. Or she hoped he had.

One split down. From what the villagers had told them, there were at least four total. Zelda should’ve had Link ask for more specific instructions. But they were beyond that point now. If worse came to worst, they’d be returned to the forest entrance to try again.

Zelda looked out at the trees. Her eyes had somewhat adjusted now, and the dark shapes appeared to be trees flashing by. Zelda frowned.

“Link, the train’s getting faster.”

“I know.”

And they both knew Link hadn’t touched the speed lever. The next turn appeared sooner than the last one. Link chose a turn, and Zelda hoped the spirits really were guiding them.

The tracks continued straight. They were still inside the woods, so Zelda supposed they were on the right path. But the train had picked up speed again. Trees whizzed past, some branches dangerously close to hitting the engine.

“I think we’re almost there!” Link said. His optimism was infectious, and Zelda’s hopes soared.

Something flickered in front of the train. Zelda looked out and saw—

“Aaaahh!”

She screamed at a skulltula swinging on a web directly in the train’s path. Link grabbed the whistle cord. The sound of the train’s horn split the forest’s deathly still air. The skulltula shrieked and waved its many legs, but it climbed up the spiderweb and out of sight.

“It’s gone, Zelda, don’t worry,” Link said.

Zelda sighed in relief and moved away from where she had pressed up against him. Or had tried to anyway. In her moment of fear, Zelda forgot she didn’t have her body and had instinctively reached for Link. She leaned out the side of the locomotive and hoped he hadn’t noticed her reaction.

There were no more skulltulas on the path, and something else caught her eye. “There’s the branch!” she called out.

A barren tree stood beside the split in the tracks, its one limb pointed left. Link flipped the switch before they took the wrong turn. The train hurtled along, and in another moment, the last turn was upon them.

“The fourth tree has no sense of direction,” Zelda repeated the villagers’ guidance. She and Link both saw this tree at the same time, and he kept their course so that the train headed they opposite way its branch pointed.

The Spirit Train emerged from the forest into daylight. Zelda closed her eyes at the brightness. Link slowed the train at the Forest Sanctuary station.

“We made it, Link!” Zelda burst into a giggle now that the ordeal was over. She’d been so scared, but it all seemed funny now that they’d arrived.

Link laughed with her. He’d never judged her for her fear. Zelda wished she could take his hand. But his presence was comforting enough.

[telemna-hyelle]

FINALLY

I HAVE MARSHALLED MY BRAINS AFTER MY TRIP LAST WEEK AND HAVE FINALLY FINISHED SOMETHING

HW Zelink, anyone?

Zelink Week Day 4: Sparring

...

The night was dark but pleasant, with a clear sky full of scattered stars and hosting a half-moon which cast subtle patterns of light and shadow on the ground. There was a gentle breeze that was just the faintest touch of cool which ruffled the trees in a soft hushing sound, like a lullaby the night was singing to the world. The overall aura in the air was soft and drowsy; a night made for sleep and rest.

All of this was salt rubbed into the wound of the fact that Link was awake, and couldn’t manage to fall asleep again.

He wasn’t quite sure what it was—stress, probably, but there was no way to prove that—but no matter what he did, sleep eluded him like a particularly evasive enemy. Finally, instead of lying on his cot, staring at the ceiling, and listening to Mask and Proxi snore, he’d fled, hoping the night air would help.

It had not, and so Link was stuck, wandering the edges of the camp like a lanternless poe. Maybe that’s what poes are, he thought, idly kicking at a rock, poor insomniacs who die from lack of sleep and are forced to wander the night.

The thought, once finished, was less amusing that he expected, and certainly not comforting at all, so Link kicked another rock even harder. He hit it harder than he realized, because the rock flew through the air into the nearby bushes.

A yelp ran though the night.

Link jumped, his blade slipping free from it’s sheath and swinging towards the bush—only to halt when a familiar figure rose out of the bush, red eyes glaring so fiercely that Link thought for a moment they were glowing in the dark.

Sheik.

“Oops.”

“Yes,” Sheik said, her words dangling icicles. “Oops.”

Link gulped, feet shifting, his free hand going to rub the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—I had no idea you were… why were you in a bush, anyway?"

Sheik sniffed haughtily. “Because I didn’t wish to be disturbed,” She narrowed her eyes at him, “by flying rocks or otherwise.”

Link gulped again, before sending the bush another look. “Why didn’t you just stay in your tent?”

There was a moment of long silence, before Sheik climbed out of the bush and brushed past Link. “My business, hero,” she said icily, “Is my own, so I will take my leave—”

At that moment, Link realized he much preferred Sheik’s company to wandering the night alone, even if she wanted to skewer him. “Wait!” He said, spinning around with wide eyes.

Sheik halted, turning slightly to look at him. At this angle the moonlight fell on her face, softening lines and filling spaces with deeper shadows. Her eyes stared back at him sharply, crimson illuminated with silver, and Link suddenly felt unsettled for more reasons than just guilt for beaning her with a rock.

“I’m sorry for bothering you, but… if you can’t sleep either, why don’t we spar?”

Sheik arched an eyebrow, turning more fully to face him. "You wish to spar with me?" Her tone was both sharp and faintly incredulous, causing Link to blink at her.

"Yes?" He gestured slightly with his blade. "I can't sleep, and it seems like you can't either, right?"

"I might have found it easier to fall asleep if I hadn't been hit with a rock," the sheikah said pointedly, "... but yes."

Link coughed. "Well, if neither of us can sleep, why don't we spar? It'll keep us busy, and if we're lucky, tire us out so we can sleep."

Sheik staed at him for a long moment. Finally, she tipped her head in an elegant nod.

"Very well, hero."

.×.×.×.×.×.

There was an open space next to the encampment used as training grounds; it was there that Link and Sheik faced each other.

Sheik made the first move, darting forward with the swiftness of a striking snake. Link barely managed to avoid her, caught off guard by the suddenness and speed of her attack. He sidestepped and managed to fend off her dagger with the flat of his blunt sparring sword, sending it spinning into the night.

He seized the opportunity and swung at the opening, but a new blade was already in her hand.

Metal clashed, and Link grinned. Now this was sparring indeed. There weren't many who could fight on a level with him, so the joyful rush that came from matching blades with a trusted ally was rare.

Sheik was lithe and graceful, swift and slippery as a snake, or a cat sliding through shadow. Every time Link managed to break through her defenses with his superior strength, she'd slip under his attack and move to strike from another angle, forcing Link to whirl around and fend her off again.

He felt the tip of her dagger whizz past his ear a second after he jerked his head to one side, and he couldn't help it. He laughed in delight.

Sheik's eyes widened, startled by the sound and the emotions within it, before letting out her own peal of laughter.

Link grinned fiercely at the sound, his heart riding high from the fight, from Shiek's laughter, from her simple presence. With a shout, he renewed his offense, and shiek met him just as fiercely, steel striking steel, ringing into the night.

They darted back and forth like a dance, first one gaining an upper hand, then the other. As they fight continued on, Link began to notice a certain pattern in Shiek's movements.

He pressed forward, trying to slip past her offenses, but Shiek slipped under his attack and darted to one side.

Link was ready for her. He was already turning, his sword rising to her neck, his free hand snapping out to grab her wrist.

Link felt as if everything froze; the air, the moment, his breath, everything except the wildly pounding heart behind his ribs.

"So it's a draw?" He asked grinned at the feel of the knife pressed against his arm.

"Not quite," Shiek hummed thoughtfully. "You could kill me first, but," there was a dangerous glint in her red eyes, a look that made Link's blood rush with heat, "I'd make you regret it." She wiggled her knife against his arm for emphasis.

Link lowered his sword, stepping back with a refuel shake of his head. "That was amazing, we should have sparred before now."

Sheik stiffened , and when Link glanced up to meet her gaze, she speared him with a glare that froze his blood.

"Should we have?" Her voice was even colder than her glare. "I thought I was too much of an unknown to risk having the hero face me in combat."

Link nearly dropped the blunt in shock.

"You--what are you talking about?"

Sheik stepped back, drawing her whole body up stiffly. "General Impa informed me that I was unauthorized to bear weapons against the hero while sparring." She swallowed hard, and the faintest warbling could be heard in her voice. "I was... unconfirmed to be trustworthy."

She glanced at Link, taking in his bewildered expression.

"You didn't know."

Link shook his head, slowly sheathing his sword. "No, I... I had no idea."

"I see." Sheik looked away, her arms coming up to wrap around her middle.

"So, General Impa hasn't... she still thinks..."

Her voice broke.

Link hesitantly stepped closer, swallowing hard. "...she has never said anything to me about this, so I don't know." He lifted his hand to touch her shoulder, bit his lip, and let it fall again.

"Which means she hasn't." Shiek said, her tone harsh.

But her tone was only a front, because even in the soft and fitful moonlight, Link could see her shoulders shake.

"Shiek--" this time, he did reach out, his hand coming to rest on her shoulder. She looked up at the touch, eyes wide, and Link's heart broke at the silver droplets glittering on her lashes.

"I don't care what Impa thinks or says," he said, fiercely, hoping to chase away the tears that were still slipping down her cheeks, soaking into her veil.

"I sparred with you because I trust you, and I would have done so before now if I'd had the opportunity."

He smiled gently at her, only for it to drop when Shiek's head drooped and she let out a shuddering sob.

Panicking, he fell back on something his mother had done when he cried.

He reached up and laid his hand against her temple, brushing her bangs to the side with his thumb, and gently pressed a kiss against her forehead.

Shiek's breath slipped out in a shuddering sigh, and she slumped against him, arms clinging to him fiercely. "Thank you," she gasped out, "it--to not be trusted by your own people, it hurts--"

Link brought his arms up around her, closing his eyes against the image of the suspicious glares of his soldiers, the angry whispers of his fault echoing in his mind.

"I can imagine," he whispered softly.

For a long moment after that they just held each other, letting the silence of the night surround them. Finally, Shiek sucked in a deep breath and slipped out of his arms, taking one step back. She lifted her chin high and said steadily, "If General Impa finds out, she won't be pleased."

"General Impa needs to acknowledge that I need to spar with my equal if I'm going to keep my skills honed." Link said calmly. "If she wants me to win this war, she's going to have to let us spar. And if she still says no--" He shot the sheikah a grin, "then I'll just have to knock some sense into her."

Sheik arched an eyebrow. "You're either incredibly brave or an idiot, and I can't tell which."

He waved his left hand in the air. "Triforce of Courage, right?"

"I wonder," she said dryly, and turned to go. She took one step, and glanced over her shoulder.

"...thank you, Link."

Her voice was gentle and warm, sending Link's heart skipping nervously. Then she took a step into the shadows and vanished.

Link stated after her, his heart still stuttering unsteadily, chest full of the nights confused cocktail of emotions.

He turned and headed back to his tent, thoughts of both sleep and unleashing Mask on Impa whirling around in his mind.

Neither he nor Shiek got any sleep that night.

[youwouldntbelievehowigothere]

Hello, hello! For the prompts: What about something where Link and Zelda try to hide their relationship (but everyone knows they are together anyway)? :)

Loved your zelink week stuff!

Glad you enjoyed it! I decided to go with pre-Skyward Sword, just because I’d never never seen a secret relationship fic for them done before.

The two former best friends sat next to each other in the classroom all alone together. Perhaps former best friends wasn’t the correct term. Maybe best friends plus, or something more to that effect was more accurate. Since Link would still count her as his best friend, just now they… 

Well, they were going out. He wasn’t exactly sure how it had happened. 

One day they’d been walking around skyloft, and Zelda had been complaining that Groose kept bothering her about the wing ceremony. Zelda had been chosen last year to represent Hylia at the end of the Knight ceremony, and Link didn’t think anyone better could’ve been chosen.

“I’m more focused on the costume right now, rather than the uh, gift,” she said, keeping the ‘gift’ rather vague. 

“Isn’t the goddess costume already made?” he asked.

“Well, yes, but I thought I’d try and make a new one. The old one… it’s just sort of worn out, don’t you think?”

Link didn’t have a strong opinion on it. But Zelda was good at sewing, so he trusted her judgment. “Have you started the gift at least?”

“I’ve been working on it since I found out!” she exclaimed, “but if I only worked on it I’d go crazy! Besides, it’s not like Groose is going to win the Wings Ceremony.”

Link kept quiet. Normally, he might protest the cruel words, but Link really didn’t want him to win the race. He didn’t want someone else to get the gift Zelda had worked so hard on. Even if it were someone who didn’t bully him, he might remain quiet. 

“Because you’re going to win, right?” she continued, her voice a degree quieter. 

He nodded. He planned on it. 

She let out a sigh. 

“I’m going to try my hardest,” he said at last, “though I am sort of…”

“You’re what?” she pressed.

“I’m,” his face became warm, and he avoided her gaze. He was remembering something a knight from a few years back had said. “I’m sort of glad you’re giving something that’s an object.”

“And why is that?”

“Well, I’d heard a knight saying how his year, the gift wasn’t done, so the woman playing the goddess, she, well, she kissed him.” Link hid under his bangs. “They’re married now, so I guess it worked out…”

Zelda was quiet for a few moments before asking, “So you’re glad you wouldn’t have to kiss me?”

“No!” Link nearly shouted. The excitement in his voice drew a few looks. He grabbed her hand to pull her along, hoping she wasn’t noticing how sweaty it was. When they finally got to a more secluded location, where the wind whipped their words off and saw from Skyloft, he continued emphatically, “No. I… I wouldn’t want someone else to kiss you.”

She tilted her head.

“If you didn’t want. I mean, you wouldn’t do that if you didn’t want to and–”

“Link, are you saying you’d be okay if it was you I kissed?”

Was he? Was he?! Kissing her had only been the object of many a stray thought and fantasy. Thoughts and fantasies that were highly inappropriate to have about a friend. Why did he say that? He was worse than Groose. But he couldn’t lie to her! 

Avoiding her eye, he nodded. 

“Link, look at me,” she said and slowly he dragged his gaze to meet hers. He was surprised by the blush that rested on her cheeks and the determined expression she wore. It was honestly very cute on her. 

In a flash she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Link froze; He’d never been kissed before. She drew back and Link was sure he was going to combust. Before she could say anything, he pulled her into a hug. They’d hugged before, of course, but something was different now. He couldn’t bear her to see his probably lame reaction. 

“Link?” she squeaked.

His face was in her hair, and he couldn’t help but notice how nice it smelled. Gah! He was probably being such a weirdo!

But she wrapped her arms around him right back, and one carded through his hair. 

“Zelda,” he murmured, not sure how to express himself. He decided to repeat what she’d accused him of earlier. “I only want you to kiss me.”

She giggled, but before he could feel embarrassed she said, “deal, but only if you promise only to kiss me back.”

Never before had he made an easier deal. 

She pulled back and looked at him expectantly. Link kissed her then, perhaps a little harder than she did. Their teeth clacked and they both pulled away.

“I guess we need more practice,” she said, and Link felt at ease. 

They hadn’t talked about it after that, not in concrete terms. In Link’s mind they were together like a couple courting, but they’d never said as much. They also never told anyone else what had changed. 

Link didn’t want to keep a secret, but when he hardly knew what was going on, he certainly didn’t want others in on it!

And so some weeks later they sat in the empty classroom going over wind structures and patterns for the final test of the quarter. They used to study in each other’s rooms, but that changed once they reached a certain age. It wasn’t proper, her father had said. Zelda had protested greatly, but Link hadn’t. He wanted Zelda’s father to like him. 

Under the table, she stepped playfully on his feet as she always had, but now she would look up and wink on occasion. It was highly distracting. 

In the quiet calm of the classroom, Link decided something.

He was going to marry her. Someday, at least. As the sun trickled onto her golden hair, he thought her not needing a costume to be the goddess incarnate. She was beautiful. 

…

Little did he know, but she had come to the same conclusion months before while he practiced with the sword. 

…

Now he stood in the empty classroom, alone, but not alone together. 

He was resting and restocking before going down to tackle another temple, another trial. He didn’t know why he had wandered into the room. There was nothing for him there. 

“Oh, Link, I’d heard you’d come back,” Headmaster Gaepora said, entering the room. “How long are you staying?”

Link honestly hadn’t thought that far ahead. He’d been planning to pass out for a few hours, grab a health potion, repair his shield, and then head back down, but he’d been stuck in one spot for what felt like forever. 

He just wanted to see her again. 

Gaepora pulled out a chair and sat, pulling out the chair beside him and gesturing for Link to sit. Link complied and stared at his hands clasped before him on the table.

“You look like someone with much on his mind,” the headmaster said, “and while I won’t kiss you better like my daughter would’ve, you can tell me all that you wish.”

Link looked up, rather shocked Zelda’s father would say such a thing. 

“Don’t look so surprised son,” he said, “It has always been a matter of when, not if with you two. No father wants his child to grow up, but you’re a good lad.” He set a comforting hand on Link’s shoulder. “My only hope is you can bring her back and I can give you my blessing properly when the time comes.”

Link felt his face color. He was a mix of embarrassment, melancholy, and hope. 

“I’m going to get her back,” he said, a vow to himself and the world. 

Gaepora nodded and squeezed Link’s shoulder. The touch was grounding, and Link finally threw off the indecision and sadness that had halted his movements. 

Quietly, he thanked Gaepora and stood to try and rest for a few hours. The short walk had his sluggish brain going over a few of the odd interactions over the past few weeks. The sad looks and quiet words of encouragement. Of course, being friends was more than enough motivation for Link to feel the need to help Zelda, but with the new closeness they’d held… Well, it put the sympathy in a new light. 

Once in his room, he threw off his shield and pack, leaving his boots and hat on, and fell face first onto his bed. He was out nearly immediately.

[brezchez]

Daylight

----------

A/N: Hey!! 2nd Zelink fanfic whoa look at me go. So I should really be revising for my mocks especially since I have two exams tomorrow but hey @zelinkcommunity 's prompt week of "Daybreak & Twilight" is ending tomorrow and I really wanted to get this done soooo.

Priorities 🤌

Anyway yeah this is my submission for this week's prompt and I hope you enjoy it as much I did writing it! :)

(Psst! You can read this on Ao3 too! 👇)

--------

Link always found himself wrapped in the passage of time. From the elegance of the moon descending into the depths of the horizon of the Necluda Sea to the tranquillity of the sun arising over the glistening waters to take its place – he knew that he was never able to truly hold onto a moment, yet he tried as much as he could anyway.

It was a trait he had inherited from his past life. Or at least, that was what he could deduce from the fragmented pieces he was able to find since he awakened for the first time in a hundred years months ago. They seemed to happen spontaneously, triggered by the most random of objects, feelings, scents or places. And it appeared to be happening again now.

The skies lightened from a midnight blue to a hazy purple with streaks of orange as the sun gradually began to peek over the horizon. For the world, the night was ending, but for Link, everything was beginning again.

----------

Hyrule Field

The gentle sounds of moving hooves filled the silent morning air as Zelda travelled through the fields of Hyrule. As always, she was accompanied by her knight, unfortunately, and though his presence irked her as it constantly did, the princess tried not to let it sour her mood. She supposed that it wasn’t fair to blame him since he was only following orders given to him by the King, but due to her frustrations piling up over the past few weeks, all moral reasoning was simply filtered out.

Still, she didn’t intend to travel to Gerudo Town in awkward silence for the entire trip. “We’ll get as far as we can to the desert before dusk. If the universe allows it, I hope we can continue into the night safely enough as I do not want to waste time,” Zelda said, turning to her knight in hopes of gaining a response from him.

But of course, all she was given was a blank stare. She was foolish to gamble her chance with luck that was never in her favour, especially regarding her damned knight.

The princess sighed, her face scrunching up and cringing for a brief moment at the awkwardness of the moment. Just hang on, Zelda, she thought to herself. At least I’ll be seeing Urbosa later. I hope she can help with this.

----------

Gerudo Desert

“Someone help!” Zelda screamed as she sprinted through the blazing sands of the desert. The sun, at its highest peak of the day, flared its scorching rays down on her, amplifying the gallons of sweat dripping from her body, despite the elixir she had taken earlier.

She looked around, frantically searching for her knight. But to no avail. All she could see was a blur of muted yellows and the occasional flashes of red.

The Yiga.

The princess ran. And ran. And ran. Her legs, fueled by the blood she could feel pumping through her body, carried her across the sands with no sense of direction in mind. She didn’t care where she was going. All she knew was that she had to get away.

But suddenly her path was cut, as two Yiga members appeared before her. Zelda tried to turn back, but was blocked by another assassin waiting for her.

Losing her balance, the princess fell to the ground. Eyes darting between the three of them, she watched as the assassins edged closer, like a pack of hungry wolves surrounding their helpless prey. One approached her, menacingly, with their blade glistening with murderous intent under the burning sun. She didn’t need to see under that goddess forsaken masl to see that the assassin was grinning excitedly.

Zelda wanted to scream, beg, cry, but any sense of words or noise fell dead on her tongue. It was hopeless. The assassin raised their sickle, the inverted eye glaring into Zelda’s soul. And as it came crashing down, Zelda closed her eyes and braced herself.

But there was no pain.

She heard the vicious blade fall into the sands and a lifeless body fall limp behind her, and as she looked up, Zelda froze in awe.

It was Link.

The princess’ knight, with the legendary sword firmly in hand, stood defiantly against the remaining two Yiga, who backed away hesitatingly at the slightest movement from him. After all this time, all the bitterness, all the pettiness, all the petulant yelling she had thrown at him, Link was by her side, as loyally fierce as any soldier of the royal army would be.

Zelda gazed in wonder at the cerulean blue eyes that stared down the assassins, who she almost forgot were still there. There was no hesitation, no fear, no doubt in his abilities – traits that Zelda could only dream of possessing; his beauty wasn’t the only aspect of Link that she was jealous of.

Link gestured with a nod of his head to run or hide somewhere safe. And Zelda ran immediately behind a rock not too far away. Sinking down behind it, the princess regained her breath and gathered her thoughts, wiping the beads of sweat from her brow. Timidly, she peeked over the rock to catch a glimpse of Link once more.

Something warm, something fuzzy, something new emerged within Zelda as she watched her knight fend off the assassins. She wasn’t immediately aware of it, but it was there nonetheless.

----------

Sandin Park

The trees whispered a gentle tune into the quiet air, the wind carrying it across the grass to two horses and their riders. The princess and her Hero rode side-by-side under the orange light, the sun illuminating their path as its blinding yellow shifted to a glowing amber and midday deepened into twilight.

“Be sure to take the time to soothe your mount. That’s the only way it will know how you truly feel,” Zelda echoed the words Link had told her a couple days ago. Gently patting her noble steed, she thanked her knight for his words of wisdom, remarking on how her relationship with her companion was improving.

She didn’t turn around to expect a response from him anymore; Zelda grew out of her habit of snapping at his silence ever since he had saved her from the Yiga in the desert. The experience, though traumatising, allowed them to bond and grow closer as a pair. Dare she say, they even formed a friendship.

It was then that the princess was even able to get her knight to open up to her. He relayed his worries and his stresses. It seemed to be that a weight was lifted off his shoulders once he confessed his problems to her, and finally she was given a reason behind his absence of words. Zelda felt so grateful that Link felt comfortable enough to confess the heavy conflicts that plagued his mind to her, and in return, she was able to do the same.

There was something about the way he looked at her as he listened that made Zelda feel like she was the only girl in the world. Maybe it was the way he shuffled nearer to her. Maybe it was the way his striking eyes bore into the deepest parts of her soul. Maybe it was the way his body seemed to lean towards her, cautiously closing the distance between them ever so slightly

Whatever it was, Zelda found it endearing and yearned to learn more about him. Despite their friendship blossoming, Link continued to be somewhat reserved and quiet. Zelda soon learned that it was simply the boy’s nature. But she didn’t mind all that much anymore. Besides, his silence could often be quite soothing.

Arriving at Sandin Park, the pair allowed their horses, as well as themselves, a moment of rest during their weary journey. Catching sight of a mountain in the distance, Zelda walked slowly to the edge of the park, barriered off by a fence. The very sight of its shadow made her heart shiver, as if she were already in the freezing spring water that awaited her.

“See that mountain?” said Zelda, her voice as soft as silk and fragile as glass. “That’s Mount Lanayru,” she continued. Link noticed the slight shaking in the syllables of her words and the nervousness that wavered on her voice as she explained the rules of the spring. He knew that his expression revealed no hints to his feelings, but his heart broke at hearing the closest friend he had ever had in years speak demeaningly about herself. It wasn’t explicitly said, but it was clear Zelda’s self-esteem wasn’t exactly at its highest.

“Tomorrow, is my seventeenth birthday,” Zelda said, her words weighted with a heavy burden. “So then I shall go… and make my way up the mountain.”

Her stare was firm and hardened by the responsibility she carried on her shoulders; it pained Link to see how much it affected her. When the princess turned back around to the mountain, shadowed by the dusking sun, Link stepped towards her, carefully and quietly.

“You don’t deserve this.”

If it were any other moment in the past, Zelda’s head would have shot up in surprise at the foreign sound of his voice. But she didn’t. The princess only sighed at his statement.

“It doesn’t matter what I deserve. The needs of the kingdom are put first and foremost before my own. And that is how it will always be,” replied Zelda, her tone strong but with a hint of hesitation that couldn’t be hidden.

“But it hurts me to see this burden weigh you down so harshly,” Link continued, turning to her, prompting her to do the same.

“It seems we both have shadows of an expectation to follow. But we have no one to blame. Fate placed us on this path, so we must follow it,” the princess answered, her eyes fixed on Mount Lanayru determinedly.

Link gazed at her for a moment. Allowing himself a minute to soak in the tranquillity of her beauty and the comfort of her presence whilst he still could. As the Hero’s eyes wandered across the Princess’ features, he felt his breath being taken by the sunlight shining behind her, forming a sort of halo around her head. Her emerald eyes sparkled with wonder like the jewels they resembled and her golden locks flowed in the wind like water in a river.

A few days ago, he had been bestowed the privilege of seeing the princess’ wonderful smile. She was one of those rare people, who managed to capture the very essence of the sun in her smile. Warmth, care, love, happiness and light radiated from her smile like the rays of a dawning new day. He was sure he would never find any other like it.

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but to Link, that simply was not true. Everything else dulled in comparison to Zelda. There was no argument to it. She was ethereal.

Link hoped that he would continue to see her beauty, inside and out, until his dying days.

----------

Fort Hateno

Rain plummeted down into the ground as the wind violently shook the branches of the trees around Fort Hateno. The skies cried for the victims of the massacre, relentlessly pouring down as it wept for the innocent souls that had been taken too soon from the world. It seemed that Hylia herself was mourning for her people. Guardians infested the fields around Fort Hateno, annihilating any living organism in its sights.

All except two.

“Link, save yourself! Go!” Zelda pleaded with her knight, holding onto his shoulders desperately. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me!”

But Link never abandoned Zelda before, not when she snapped at him, and he certainly would not now, even when she was begging him.

The Hero’s body shook from exhaustion. His muscles cried and his bones screamed all in unison for him to stop, to lay down and rest. But Link refused. Gathering every last ounce of his strength, he drew out his sword from the soil, and continued to stand.

Suddenly, a guardian spotted them. Its dreaded eye remained fixed on the pairs’ position as it rapidly wade its way through the dozens of broken guardians scattered around them. It positioned itself above them, towering over the hylians ominously, like the dark clouds that thundered in the sky above.

It sets its tracker on Link. Zelda’s heart dropped to her stomach. Before she knew it, the princess wedged herself between the guardian and the hero and instinctively raised her hand up towards the machine. All at once, a luminescent power beamed from her, and she could feel the power stemming from her heart all through to her hand.

“Was… was that… the power?!-”

A heavy thud behind her interrupted her thoughts. Zelda had no time to question what just happened. Not when Link was on the verge of-

No. She wouldn’t even dare think it.

“Link! No, no, no!” she cried, lifting his fragile body in her arms as much as she could. The blood Link coughed out from his lungs splattered everywhere, but Zelda didn’t care.

“You’re going to be just fine…”

But Link knew he wouldn’t be. They both did.

Turning his head to her with the very last fragment of strength he possessed, Link met her eyes. They still sparkled as wonderfully as the jewels they resembled, despite the tears that glossed them. Her golden hair still flowed in the wind like water in a river, despite the mud and dirt that soiled it. And her smile. Her wondrous smile. The princess was frowning, but Link could still see the ghost of her radiant smile on her lips, just as he could hear the faintest echo of her laugh.

He thought back to that one day, under the Irch Plain tree, when the sun was shining upon them, and the flowers were dancing to the music of their happiness. He thought back to that one dusking sunset at Sandin Park, when he was blessed with the opportunity to see Zelda’s beauty in all its splendour. How funny that their paths had brought them here. With Link, dying in his princess’ arms and Zelda, cradling her hero as his soul edged further and further gradually from him.

Still, he knew there was nowhere else he’d rather be.

With a final, small smile ghosting his lips, Link’s body fell limp in Zelda’s embrace.

----------

Link’s eyes opened. As his senses returned to him, the hero recalled the events that he had just seen. That was certainly strange. He had already recovered most of those memories in the past, with only the new one being their extended conversation at Sandin Park and what may have seemed to be his feelings of affection towards her. But the majority he had already found.

How peculiar.

Staring off into the sea, the sun had now fully ascended over the horizon line, and its rays reflecting against the water now a luminescent pearly white colour, rather than the amber sparkles he remembered earlier. The dawn of a new day. Suddenly soft footsteps approached him from behind, prompting Link to turn around to see who they belonged to.

“Have you been up long?” Zelda asked, sitting beside him at the cliff edge.

“Ever since early dawn,” Link answered, turning to her with a small smile. Zelda returned it warmly then stared off into the distance.

“A memory returned to me. Or rather, a sequence of them,” he continued. The girl turned to him curiously.

“What was it?”

Link looked at her, contemplating whether he should relay all the details to her. “It was…”

Her eyebrow cocked expectantly as she waited for a response.

“It was strange,” replied Link.

“How so?”

“...They were memories I had already recovered. I was just reliving them,” he eventually said, gazing into her eyes.

They really did resemble emeralds…

“Well, I hope nothing too traumatic,” she lightly joked, placing her hands on his shoulders, jolting a sense of deja vu within him.

Link chuckled softly and shook his head. “No, no. It was actually quite lovely,” he remarked, gazing at the features he remembered that he admired so much.

“That’s good to hear then,” she said. And then Zelda smiled. With warmth, care, love and happiness; with the very same beauty they had captivated Link a century ago. 100 years hadn’t worn away from the sun inside her very soul.

And for that, Link couldn’t have been more grateful to the universe.

There was nowhere else he’d rather be.