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He hated him at first, of course he did, it would have to be like that. Snarky comments artfully hidden behind a wing, sarcastic mutterings whenever the shorter Hylian had something to say. Of course those were signs of hatred.
Link couldn’t say when that changed, was it when he could find it in himself to chuckle at said comments? Or was it when the Rito was told to help him shoot a bow. Link couldn’t say.
“It’s simple,” he told him, “you just aim, pull back and shoot.”
Revali demonstrated perfectly, as he drew the string back and let go, sending the arrow flying and soundly hitting the bulls eye. Link couldn’t do that at first, he would miss completely, and if he was lucky hit the edge of the target, but he took joy in seeing the taller male sneer and flaunt his feathers as he further demonstrated. Link liked to see the Rito happy and he couldn’t say why.
It may have been because he could see through the arrogant shield he made for himself with those iron feathers of his, and the way that he could see how much he just hated himself, and wanted nothing more than recognition. Link himself couldn’t understand that feeling then, but he could at least try to help him.
There were friendly competitions at first.
“Who can cook the better salmon meunière?” Revali asked, smugly, flapping his feathers in a way which Link could only describe as disgustingly confidently at the time.
“Surely you don’t think you can best me in my own cuisine? Hm?” Revali smirked, gracefully grabbing a bundle of wheat and placing it into a cooking pot.
When Link cooked a better dish than Revali, they didn’t speak to eachother for a week.
Everything was like a competition to him, hell, they weren’t even friendly anymore, he even asked Link to battle him before gliding away to the Divine Beast. The Divine Beast which Link couldn’t reach then. There wasn’t a day that went by after Link got up to that Divine Beast that he didn’t curse himself for not being able to get up there before that. He could’ve saved him.
It soon became a joke among the Champions that the two of them were like an old married couple, or at least the Rito argued with him like an old married couple would. Loathe as Revali may have to admit it, he actually smiled at that, because he soon found himself unable to hate Link and he didn't mind having a future with the boy. He couldn’t hate the way he would never argue back with him, he couldn’t hate the way he selflessly helped others, he couldn’t hate the way he blushed at every little thing he said that wasn’t harsh or mocking. But he did hate him when he was talking to someone other than him.
It wasn’t jealousy, no, he wouldn’t even consider himself and the Hylian to be friends at that point. He just couldn’t put his feather on what it was, the heavy feeling in his chest when Link left him with Vah Medoh all alone, to go away with Zelda. He couldn’t define the way his brow would crease into a frown and how he moodily crossed his wings and pointed his beak up when a girl from the village came up to Link asking the blushing boy for his love only to get a gentle refusal from the boy who sheepishly scratched the back of his head. Some saw it as Revali just being aloof, but he knew it was something else entirely.
Link hadn't expected Revali to banter so carelessly with him one day, in what seemed like a last resort effort, like he would lose Link. It didn’t last very long, with the taller of the two soon falling back into his arrogant attitudes but Link looked back at the memory of the smile on his beak fondly and thought to himself that he wanted him to smile like that everyday. So Link tried to make him smile, on their journeys he would sit with Revali and shoot arrows with him until the sun set, claiming to keep him company, and nothing more.
It was something more and both of them knew it.
Revali would teach Link how to braid his hair like the Rito did, and Zelda couldn’t help but laugh at the two when they joined the rest of the Champions with matching hairstyles.
It was a sudden confession, in no way traditional, because the Rito would still retain his snarky personality, but Link cried at the same time, leading to the Rito's joyous laugh as he pulled Link into a tight embrace. Link thought that maybe he would get something good out of this seemingly hopeless battle they fought.
He held his hand when the others weren’t looking, and whispered sweet nothings in the darkest of nights. They were together, just where no one could see them, where no one would say anything.
Link wouldn’t have it any other way.
When Link was told that Revali was dead, so hopelessly dead, he wouldn’t cry. No, wouldn’t cry because he knew that were his lover there, he would simply laugh at the so called ‘Hero’, at how pathetic he was. But he would still hold him.
He didn’t think that he would find him, one hundred years later, he didn’t think he would fail the ones he loved yet again. But of course he did, and when he did, he finally understood the self hatred that Revali suffered with for so long and Link would merely accept.
Perhaps death was better than the guilt.
When Link saw the spirit of the one he loved so much again, when he heard him, all the love was gone from his voice which Link missed more than Revali would ever know, it was as if he had forgotten, and it was like he had hated him again.
Revali loved him, he truly still did. He wanted to hold the Hylian in a tight embrace and never let go. He wanted to cry with him, laugh with him. He wanted to die with him. But he wanted Link to move on, he was no longer part of his world, so he would act. He would act like he hated Link again.