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“I can no longer hear the voice inside the sword.” Zelda lamented softly, looking out over the fields of Hyrule. “I suppose it would make sense if my power had dwindled over the past hundred years.”
Link watched as the wind caught at her hair, still amazed she was standing before him and not just a voice in his head. A small smile tugged at his mouth. Somehow-- even after a century wrapped in endless combat with Calamity Ganon-- she was still curious; always a scientist at heart.
She turned to him, her expression at once young and ancient.
“I’m surprised to admit it…” she began, and he could see the moment her self-imposed blame lifted away. “But I can accept that.”
He cocked his head and raised his eyebrow at her. The day Zelda’s inquisitiveness faded was one he never expected to see. She let out a genuine laugh, the sound echoing.
“I will have you know there are many other mysteries for us to seek out together. I am well within my rights to put this one to bed.” Link dipped his head respectfully, and closed the gap between them. Unlike so many memories he’d recovered over the past months, they walked to their horses side by side.
He mounted his black steed with practiced ease and pulled him up beside Zelda’s royal mare. “Now then, to the Zora Domain?” she asked, soothing the horse as she had it’s ancestor. Link nodded, and they turned towards the road.
For a long while, the pair rode in relative silence, enjoying the kiss of warm sunlight on their skin and a sense of peace in a world without Ganon.
“I can hardly belief a century has passed. So many things seem the same...” Zelda began, slowing her mount into a walk as they edged a stream. “And yet… everything has changed, hasn’t it?”
Link watched as her expression faltered. He swallowed, and tried to loosen his tongue. Since he’d risen from the Shrine of Resurrection, there had been few reasons to speak; which is not to say that he had been verbose before.
“Not everything,” Link promised, his voice tinged with sincerity and solidarity.
She met his eyes and smiled softly. “Yes, I suppose that’s true. You are still at my side, as always. But… I have to ask, do you remember the others? Urbosa, Daruk, Revali… Mipha?”
He nodded his eyes falling to the forest floor at the thought.
She sighed, a heavy painful thing. “I miss them. I feel as though I’ve spent the last hundred years mourning them, and yet… it is still as fresh as when they were first lost to us. We’ve lost so many, Link. How do we…” she took a breath. “How have you managed to keep focussed. To not lose yourself in that pain?”
“You were waiting for me. There was no other option,” he said simply.
“And now?” she pressed softly. “I am freed and the great crisis has passed. Your duty to Hyrule is complete.”
He let himself think on that for a long moment. “I would stay by your side, Princess. As long as you have need of me.” He chanced a quick look up at the Princess, noting a faint blush on her cheekbones at the admission.
“Then I accept. With one caveat.”
That surprised him, and it showed on his face.
“You will call me Zelda… at least when it is only the two of us,” she added as he began to object. “Go on, try it.”
He shook his head lightly at her antics. “Very well… Zelda.”
She smiled brightly, apparently pleased with the turn of events. “Excellent. Now then, might I request a break. The hour is growing late and my legs are tired from all this riding. You might not have noticed, but I am rather out of practice,” she teased.
He smirked and kicked his horse ahead of hers, leading them both to a small outcrop along the side of the river, which would provide them some measure of safety and privacy over the night.
As she groomed their horses, giggling at their occasional affectionate nuzzles, Link rustled through his bag trying to decide on their dinner. Once he had settled on a decision-- mushroom omelets and honeyed apples for dessert-- he set about his work.
He had just finished cracking the eggs when he noticed Zelda watching him analytically.
“Were you always such a proficient cook?”
He shook his head.
“Do you enjoy it?”
A nod this time.
“I’m glad. I was afraid-- when you lost your memories that it would hold you back in some way. That you would either hold too closely to trying to reclaim them, or that you would push them aside altogether.”
She turned the embers of the fire with a long stick.
“Do you remember? Long ago, I asked what you would do it you were not a knight? It seems you found an answer to that. But rather than choose one path over the other, you integrated it into your personality as your memories emerged organically…” she trailed off as she saw him grinning.
“Oh would you stop that!” she huffed, which only made his smile grow.
“It’s not as though I’m experimenting on you! I was simply remarking that… oh never mind.” She pulled her legs up, wrapping her arms around them and tucking her head down to hide her embarrassment.
“It’s endearing.”
“Pardon?” she asked, raising her head ever so slightly to watch him from across the fire.
“You light up when you learn something new.”
“Do I?”
He nodded, flipping first omelet as easily as he wielded his sword and she tucked her head down again, thankful that the fading light hid her expression.
Thankfully, by the time their meal was ready she was feeling more like herself. Side by side, they dug in. Zelda made a blissful sound as she took her first bite of her honeyed apple, the rest gone in short order.
“This was exactly what I needed. Thank you, Link.”
He nodded and smiled, his pleasure changing to surprise as she inched closer to him, their shoulders delicately pressing together.
“Is this… alright?” she asked, noting the sudden tightness in his posture. “It’s just… I’ve spent so long alone, it’s just… nice to be able to feel you at my side again.”
Before she could doubt her decision any futher, Link nodded, shifting his shoulder just behind hers so she could move in closer if she liked. His heart flipped in his chest as her head came to rest on his shoulder.
“You know...” she began, her voice as soft as the wind. “I’ve spent so many years thinking about what I would say when I saw you again. I almost left you a message. With the Deku Tree.”
He made a noncommittal sound, trying his hardest to focus on her words and not the feel of her skin against his.
“But… none of that matters now. Because you’re here. And that’s all I wanted.” She shifted so she was looking up at him, all bright green eyes, plush lips and impossibly long lashes. “Link?”
He blinked hard and swallowed harder. “Princess.”
She smiled and reached up, angling his jaw to blush her lips tenderly against his cheek.
“Zelda.” she corrected. “And as Zelda, you deserve my thanks. For all you have done for Hyrule. And for me.” Her cheeks were flushed, and he could feel the warmth on his cheek flooding his senses.
His mind raced with all the reasons he needed to pull away from her. Not the least of which was that he was her appointed knight, and she was-- despite her insistence-- still his Princess.
But she was so close, their breath intermingling in the summer air. First it was just the brush of their noses against each other as she nuzzled him. His eyes fell shut as the their foreheads pressed together.
He couldn’t have said who moved first, or when exactly it began, but he suddenly became aware that this felt too good. He was kissing her. By Hylia, he could taste her-- sweet like honey and something wilder. She was as intoxicating as any elixir, a goddess in her own right.
He broke away from her, his breath unsteady as he looked down at her face. Her eyes were still closed, lost in the moment. Her lips still moving gently, as if tasting his as an echo on the wind. He couldn’t resist as his hand came to cup the base of her skull with utmost care.
Her eyes fluttered open, sighing into his touch.
“Zelda,” he whispered reverently, his fingers ghosting along the hairs at the base of her neck.
“Please. Don’t stop.”
He could never resist her. He wanted to say something profound-- something to show her that she was never a passing fancy for him. That she meant so much more.
“My life is yours,” he whispered, as he had all those years before, when he’d been sworn to her service.
She blushed, understanding his intent.
“And my heart is yours.”
A feeling exploded in his chest, unlike Link had ever felt before. With the softest touch, he guided her lips back to his, promising without words that he would never leave her side again.