Chapter Text
A few days passed. The two had gone out looking for guardians and guardian parts in Akala, as requested by Purah. Zelda looked around excitedly at all the dead and ruined guardians, running between them to look at the small details. Link walked from a distance, watching her with anxiety. Thoughts ran through his mind anxiously. These guardians could reactivate any second, any minute. There could be one active still around the corner. He had to restrain himself from stopping Zelda every time she went to a new one. His fists clenched and he stiffened up when she started to climb on one.
“Oh, Link! My father never would have allowed me to do this! I feel so free!” The princess giggled and stood up properly, arms outstretched. Link tried his best to force a supportive smile and nodded. She soon jumped down and ran off. He did his best to catch up, but he felt as though he was being weighed down.
Thoughts ran through his head again as he stood there, waiting and watching as Zelda used the tools she had been given to carefully take the guardian head off its body. Every hit made a tink sound that went right through Link. Thoughts started to run through his mind again. Stop it. Tink. It could activate. Tink. It could activate right on the spot and- TINK KILL you… tink maybe taking that one apart would- TINK activate them all! TINK Stop it! TINK Before any of this goes bad! TINK Before any of us die AGAIN, before anything goes wrong. Before Calamity Ganon returns and your powers- and I won’t be able to-
“Link!” Zelda’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts, and, what he quickly realised soon after, a panic attack as his breathing was extremely quickened and he was shaking. “Link, are you okay? I was just- the guardian-“ Link’s eyes widened and panic went right through his body. “No! No! It’s okay! I’m safe. But you- I was just messing with the guardian and I tried to talk to you, but you weren’t giving any sort of response, no humming or anything! Then I turned around and realised you were having a panic attack, but you weren’t responding to me at all. It’s almost like you didn’t even know I was there… what’s wrong…?” Zelda finally managed to catch Link’s gaze, but the man peered away anxiously, his mouth as thin as a line and his face ridden with anxiety and guilt as he stood there, shaking still. Zelda looked around, “is it the guardians…? Are you anxious about them?” She asked gently, no judgement in her voice as she looked back at him. Link looked back at her, then looked down in shame. “It’s okay! Let’s finish up here and get going back to Hateno, alright? I can explain to Purah what happened. I’m sure she won’t mind if we tell her… well, I tell her what happened here. Come on,” Zelda said and sprinted back over to the guardian to get things.
The two returned to Hateno and Link went straight to his house, ignoring everyone that tried to talk to him. Even Purah tried to speak to him but was completely ignored. Purah blinked a little and looked at Zelda, completely baffled by his behaviour, as the princess walked up.
“Is he mad…?” The sheikah woman asked, to which Zelda shook her head.
“Not mad. Anxious… and scared. He had a panic attack at the guardian ruins in Akala. I think we both overlooked the fact that Link has some unspoken trauma with the guardians. He even told me the other night that they scare him… and I- I completely forgot…” Zelda explained, tangling her fingers together anxiously.
“Right… I’ll talk to him later…” Purah sighed and rubbed her temples. Zelda nodded in agreement.
“I’m going to apologise later as well… it was scary… I tried to talk to him, but he didn’t give me any sort of response. He doesn’t speak, but he usually hums or makes some sort of sound. But I got nothing, then I turned around and saw him hyperventilating, gripping at his own sleeves and stiffened up. I rushed over, trying to get his attention but it’s almost like he didn’t even know I was there. It took shouting his name a couple times to get through to him, but he finally came back… he wouldn’t talk to me at all on the way back. He seemed completely out of it. No sign language, no verbal responses… nothing…”
“No verbal talking either I assume.”
“No, none of it. I’d never seen him that way and it scared me slightly… he’s always been so lively, or just… anything! Even when he was serious because he was protecting me, even then, he…”
“You wouldn’t have wanted to meet Link when he had no memories… your worst nightmare.” Purah joked slightly, but it didn’t land too well as Zelda’s expression changed from sad and slightly anxious to worry. “Sorry- sorry… didn’t mean to upset you. Anyway, princess. You get going home. Make sure he’s okay. Make him something to eat and get him a drink.”
“Alright…” Zelda mumbled and nodded.
“Maybe something readily available… don’t want to burn his food.” Purah joked softly, making Zelda go red in embarrassment and just walk past her.
“Shut it…”
Link gave no response when the princess knocked lightly on the door. “Link? I have food… I’m going to come in.” She gently opened the door and saw Link sat on his table, leaning against the wall as he stared out of his window, watching the horses. “You missing Epona?” She asked as she placed down the tray behind him. “You really don’t like chairs…” Zelda commented, but there was no judgement in her tone. She sounded quite fond, actually, as she sat down in the seat instead. Link slowly looked down at her, his eyes red from crying. “Are you feeling any better?” Zelda asked gently. Link nodded slowly and looked down at his hands, messing with his fingertips. Zelda reached over and held her hand out, “may I?” Link stared at her hand, contemplating for a moment, before reaching over slowly and taking her hand. She rested hers on his lap as she rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb. “I’m sorry… I really am. I completely forgot about what you told me about your fear of guardians. That’s on me, I shouldn’t have taken you there… I’m sorry…” Link only gave a small hum in response. “I don’t expect you to forgive me, I really don’t. But I want you to know that I am sorry and- oh… I keep on repeating myself, sorry. I just-! I’m sorry! Oh for goodness sake, Zelda!” The princess rambled, scolding herself. Link finally smiled though and gave a small chuckle.
“Idiot…” he said quietly, making the princess go red, not expecting him to speak.
“I-! Shut up! Don’t call me an idiot! I’m not!” Zelda tried to defend herself, but Link just smiled more, a light tint of red flushing his cheeks.
“Yes, you are…” Link smiled softly. Zelda pouted and looked away, arms crossed.
“Do you want your food or not? ” Zelda asked simply.
“Yes!” Link said quickly and turned around, rubbing his eyes. He took the sandwich and started to eat it as Zelda watched him, blushing softly.
Link finished his food and Zelda sat back as he washed everything down with the water she gave him.
“Say… I wanted to ask… what do you think I’d look like with short hair?” Zelda looked down at her blonde hair, picking it up and staring at it. Link looked at her, blushing softly.
“I think you’d look nice…” The knight mumbled.
“Would you be able to cut it for me?!” Zelda asked excitedly, leaning toward and grabbing the edge of the table happily.
“Oh! Um… alright…” Link mumbled nervously, but gave her a gentle yet unsure smile.
“Great!” The princess exclaimed and quickly stood up, pushing the chair back so quickly it almost fell, and rushed out of the room.
“Wait… right now?!”
The princess’s hair gently fell to the ground as the boy snipped away. There was a comfortable silence between the two as Zelda sat patiently, letting Link do what she had requested of him to do. Another reason for the silence was that Zelda had a lot of thoughts running through her head. She sighed heavily and sat back in the chair, slumping a little. There was a moment of silence in Link’s movements after she did this, before he resumed and quietly asked, “are you alright?”
“Hm?” The princess glanced up at him but quickly looked back forward, “yes, I just… have a lot running through my head is all…”
“You want to talk about it?”
“Yes… that would help… actually, I was thinking about you… before the calamity… you told me that you were silent because you couldn’t control it… but I’m not sure that is the full story… is it? I, myself…. I was dealing with a lot of stress and pressure before the calamity, I had to live up to so much… you were the same, right? I can’t imagine what you must have been going through at the time. And then today, you… your reaction… you had completely shut down and refused to talk or even react… just like how you were before the calamity… silent, not very emotive… refused to respond… you didn’t even open your mouth when I talked to you. That’s different to how you are now. Even if you can’t speak, you still open your mouth to almost say something… but today, you only looked at me when I talked to you… With the same eyes that you had back then… but only more tired. I remembered that you had started to sign to me after that day you saved me from the Yiga, which is when I started to become more comfortable around you and warmed up to you. You were also more tense back then… and today…” Zelda rambled on and on, but eventually trailed off as Link finished off her hair and placed the scissors on the table near them. He slowly walked back over and crouched down next to her, gently taking her hand into his own and resting it on her lap like she had done for him. Zelda looked at him, “I… had you ever wanted to… end… your own life because of the stresses and pressures of it all? The loneliness that came with the lives we lived? Did it ever make you want to go to drastic measures that you just… couldn’t bring yourself to go through with?”
“All the time…” Link responded softly, “a good chunk of my scars are from intentionally reckless behaviour fighting enemies and guardians… I have a pretty severe burn on my arm from one such instance… I… It was probably one of my lower points when I was regaining my strength to fight Ganon and to save you, questioning why exactly I was even going through with it when everyone I knew was dead and there was no guarantee you’d even come back… I had already regained my memories at that point and I was days away from fighting him. I was walking through Akala to see Robbie and a guardian activated… and I just… had absolutely no will to fight it. Daruk’s protection and Mipha’s grace protected me… and I was weak by the time I… heard your voice. That gave me enough strength and will to parry the guardian’s attacks and kill it, but I shut down pretty badly afterwards and it took me days to recover. The day I felt the most alright, I went straight to Ganon and saved you. I put on a face to look okay, but all I had wanted to do was scream… cry… have anything just put me out of my misery…”
“Link…”
“Purah noticed the second we got to Hateno that something was wrong with me, but I convinced her I was okay…”
“And a few days later is when I found you in your room, shaking…”
“I just said I was ill, but I was still suffering from heavy blood loss over months of fighting, and also trying to starve myself to death.”
“But we helped you out of that place… right?”
“Yeah. There are still days where I have my low points, but I’m a lot better now thanks to you and Purah. And I’m glad, because it means I get to wake up every day and see your beautiful face.” Zelda took a sharp breath in, going bright red as Link looked up at her with the sweetest smile she had ever seen from.
Did he just-? Is he flirting?? Did he just tell me he likes me! Oh my god… princess Hylia, help me! Zelda’s mind ran wild with thoughts and panics.
“You are right about my silence, though. I was under unimaginable stress at the time, and I was so anxious all the time that I felt nauseous constantly. I couldn’t eat properly, and my sleep got even worse. I kind of lied to you… only a bit though. I was honest when I said I couldn’t control my silence, and I was also honest about the fact that it was brain related. But as I grew older, and my fate of being the champion came upon me… I was… silent because of a severe anxiety disorder I had developed. I completely shut down. I could barely function with the state I was in, so I forced myself to appear emotionless. I didn’t want to come off as weak either so I stayed silent, which then developed into me not being able to speak at all. There were so many times I felt like I was in a losing battle against my mental health, and also times where I was barely aware of anything and acting on autopilot. I didn’t have to say anything or show any emotion, so I just mentally left situations a lot.” Link went to stand up but Zelda only quickly hugged him around the neck, pulling him close. He stumbled a little but his eyes softened and hugged her back, closing his eyes.
“I am so sorry you had to go through all that… I managed to keep myself together, but barely… but you didn’t… you broke apart and you were left to pick up the pieces. I already knew you were under a lot of stress and it caused you to go silent, but I had no idea that you broke under all that pressure… if I had known, then I-“
“You wouldn’t have been able to do anything… it’s okay… Not even Mipha knew and she was the closest person to me.”
The two held each other close, before Zelda mumbled,
“I think you’re beautiful too…” she felt Link tense up and could feel his face warm up beside her. She giggled a little, going red herself.
“Where did that come from…?”
“You called me beautiful earlier.”
“Oh… I- um… I- I think you look even better with short hair…”
“Really?!”
Link smiled and nodded, “yeah.” He let go of her and let her go to a mirror, which she very excitedly did.
“Oh my god! Link, it’s perfect! Thank you!” Zelda giggled and jumped happily, flapping her hands. Link blushed softly and thought to himself, you’re perfect . To which he caught himself thinking, realised what exactly he said, and went bright red and covered his face. “Link? Are you alright?”
“Fine.” He mumbled and rubbed his face, then looked up at her lovingly. The two stared at each other, before Zelda quickly looked away, bright red in the face.
“Um. Anyway, I’m- I’m um… going to make dinner.”
“I just ate.”
“If you’re not hungry, then I won’t. I was just trying to distract myself…” the girl pouted to herself as she looked down, patting her legs gently.
“What’s wrong?” Link stood up, tilting his head and walked over.
“Nothing! I'm fine!” Zelda said quickly as she looked over just as quickly. The boy raised an eyebrow and put his hands in his pockets.
“Oh- don’t give me that look,” Zelda pouted, going more red, “I’ll use go and make myself busy.” She walked past then turned on her heel quickly to say, “thank you for cutting my hair, Link. Really. If you’re still feeling iffy, just come to me. I’ll be in my room.” And with that, Link was left alone with his thoughts… thoughts of Zelda. The very pretty, very gorgeous, very beautiful, very loving Zelda.