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Zelda grabbed a tree branch and hoisted herself up father into the tree, stepping on lower branches to support herself. She reached for an apple dangling from a higher branch, fingers closing around the smooth surface of the fruit, and twisted it off its stem. She slipped the apple into the satchel hanging from her shoulder and reached for another branch to pull herself higher up into the tree, pausing to wipe sticky tree sap onto her pants. She looked up and gazed at Hateno village through the leaves of the tree in Link’s backyard.
Our backyard, she thought with a smile.
It had been only a few months since they wedded, a few glorious months of bliss with nothing to worry about. No Ganon, no malice, and, most importantly, no royal expectations. Though Zelda missed her father dearly and wished he could have been there to see her on her wedding day, she did not miss being a princess. At all.
But Zelda didn’t have to worry about that anymore. The only people who still honored her rank as a princess were the Zora and Gerudo, but here in Hateno, she was just Zelda. And that suited her just fine. As a princess, she wouldn’t have even been allowed to marry Link anyway since he lacked any important title. As if ‘Hero Chosen by the Goddess’ wasn’t important enough.
But she and Link were happy together. At first, she worried that growing up in a life of relative ease would make her a bad housekeeper, but neither of them were all that messy to begin with, and Link took care of most of the cooking. In fact, he was out hunting at the moment to find some prime meat for a roast that evening. But Zelda wanted to help out, too, and decided to make an apple pie for dessert.
She plucked another apple from the tree and slipped it into her bag, bulging from the fruit she had collected, and began making her way down the tree, tossing her long, blonde locks out of her face. She took another step down, but thin branches tugged at her hair, pulling on her scalp, and causing tears to spring to her eyes.
“Ouch,” she groaned, reaching up with one hand to detangle her hair from the branches, sticky with tree sap, while keeping the other hand secured on a branch. She pulled and pulled on her strands of hair, but it seemed the more she pulled, the more tangled her hair became. She groaned with frustration this time, determined to rip her hair from the tree’s grasp no matter how much it smarted.
With one final cry of pain and determination, she ripped her locks from the tree’s clutches and jumped from the branches, landing with her knees bent. She straightened and wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and reached back to feel her hair, frowning at the sticky feeling of sap that saturated her strands. She sighed and walked back to the house, stopping to set the bag of apples on the kitchen counter before retreating into the bathroom to wash the tree sap out of her hair.
She drew a bath and tested the water with her hand before climbing in and going to work on her hair. The sap washed out fairly easily, but her scuffle with the tree branches left her hair in a ridiculous mass of tangles.
She exited the tub and pulled the plug on the drain, wrapping a towel around herself and picking up her silver hairbrush from the bathroom counter. She began combing the ends of her hair, working her way up to the middle, but the mass of tangles was impossible to get through. Each pull of her brush sent a twinge of pain zinging through her skull, and she began to shed silent tears, partly from the pain and partly from frustration. She let out a groan and set down her brush, burying her face in her hands. The tangles would not come out. Her ears twitched at the sound of the front door opening and closing.
“Zelda, I’m home!” Link called with a smile in his voice, “Where are you?”
Zelda wiped her eyes and took a breath to compose herself before answering. “In the bathroom!” she called. She rubbed her red eyes again before Link opened the door and stepped into the room with a smile. Zelda picked up her hairbrush and faced herself in the mirror to avoid his eyes.
“Hello, love,” her husband said, wrapping his arms around her waist and giving her shoulder a kiss. Such an action would have normally made her blush and send butterflies through her stomach, but her tender head preoccupied her thoughts.
“Hello,” she sighed without a smile, pulling a small piece of hair to the front of her, trying again to work out the tangles. She grimaced at the tugging feeling on her scalp. “Ow,” she said under her breath.
“Bad hair day?” Link asked, touching her locks with his fingers.
Zelda nodded. “I climbed the tree to get some apples, but my hair got all tangled in the branches and the tree sap. Now it’s all knotted up.” Zelda frowned again as she struggled to pull the brush through her hair.
“Maybe I can help,” Link said, taking the brush from her hands. He began gently brushing, trying his best to work out the tangles without hurting her, but made little progress due to the fact the he grew gentler each time she winced. At this rate, detangling her hair would take them all day and all night.
“Just cut it,” Zelda said abruptly, wiping her eyes again.
Link looked at her in the mirror, furrowing his brows. “What?”
“Cut it,” she repeated, “This is too much of a pain to comb out. Cutting my hair off will be easier.”
Link frowned. “I thought you liked it long,” he said, running his hand down the length of her hair, gazing at the locks contritely.
Zelda chuckled softly. “You’re thinking of yourself.” Link smirked but didn’t reply. She opened the drawer next to the sink and pulled out the pair of scissors she used to trim her ends and held them behind her. Link gingerly took the scissors from her, brushing his fingers with hers, and gripped the locks of her hair in his other hand.
“The tangles go up pretty far,” he said, “So it’s going to be short.”
“That’s alright,” Zelda said.
Link shrugged. “Okay.” He opened the scissors and held them up to her hair, right at the nape of her neck, and she closed her eyes, suddenly scared, feeling him chop off her long hair, the locks brushing her calves as they fell to the ground. “I’m not very good at making it even," he said, "So you’ll have to fix it.”
Zelda slowly opened her eyes and saw that her new hairdo just barely dusted her chin. Her eyes grew wide, and she brought her hand to her mouth as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her beautiful, long hair was now gone. Link looked at her with anxiety plain on his face, waiting for her reaction.
Zelda lowered her hand and took a breath, getting over her initial shock. Her hair was so short now! She twisted her head from side to side, feeling the ends brush against her neck. She cracked a small smile and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, feeling the chopped end with her fingers.
“What do you think?” Link asked.
Zelda’s smile grew wider. “I think I kind of like it,” she said, “It’s so…short.”
“It is,” Link agreed with a smile of his own, happy that Zelda wasn’t upset.
“I’m a little worried that you don’t like it, though,” she said, giving him a small frown.
Link sighed and gave her another smile, grabbing her shoulders and putting his cheek up against hers. “Zelda, look,” he said, “Do you know who I see? A beautiful, strong, independent woman. A woman who held off Ganon for a century while her hero took a nap.” Zelda chuckled lightly and Link rested his chin on her shoulder, gazing at her dreamily. “A woman who would’ve made a great queen. Zelda, the length of your hair does not matter to me, but, if it makes you feel any better, I think it’s cute.”
Zelda dropped her eyes to the countertop at his speech. “Thank you, Link,” she said.
“I happen to like your new hair very much, actually,” he continued, “Because it’s easier to kiss your neck.” He demonstrated this very thing, pressing his lips to her warm skin and wrapping his hands around her waist again. Zelda giggled, hugging his arms closer to her as he gave her a rapid-fire succession of kisses. “But you really should even the ends out,” he said, pulling away and handing her the pair of scissors, “I did a pretty bad job.”
Zelda chuckled. “I supposed I should.”
Link held up a little mirror in front of her so she could see the back of her head in the larger bathroom mirror, and, with the scissors, she trimmed her hair to her chin, making it as even as she could until satisfied with the result. She brushed the tiny hairs off of her shoulders and smiled.
“What do you think?” she asked her husband.
Link gave her a soft smile. “Beautiful,” he said, “Absolutely beautiful.”
Zelda giggled again. “Thanks,” she said. She put the scissors back in the drawer and washed the tiny hairs in the sink down the drain. “I should probably get dressed so we can start on dinner.” She made her way to exit the bathroom, but Link grabbed her wrist.
“Who said we have to start on dinner just yet?” he asked, smirking and casting a glance at her towel. Zelda rolled her eyes.
“I’ve been waiting for this dinner all day,” she said, pointing her finger at Link, “You can have me later this evening.” She winked at him, but he was unflustered. Link scoffed, taking his turn at an eye roll.
“Fine,” he said, releasing her wrist. He followed her out of the bathroom and treaded into the kitchen to start dinner.