Work Text:
Link pulled the reins of his horse, bringing it to a stop before the city glowing blue in the dim light. The sun had not yet risen, but the sky was beginning to turn gray as the first few rays lit the horizon. He stroked his horse’s neck and offered it a carrot; it had been a long ride to Zora’s domain, and Link could tell his horse was tired. Link certainly was; his four-day journey from Gerudo town in the aftermath of defeating Vah Naboris would have been exhausting enough on its own even if he hadn’t insisted on riding straight through the night for the last two days of travel. He hadn’t wanted to pause to sleep until he made it to the city. Since beating Thunderblight Ganon he’d been thinking of nothing but going back to see Prince Sidon; he was distracted even as he went through the obligatory motions of speaking to Chief Riju after the fight, as well as the several Gerudo who had thanked him for calming the beast. Wearing the Gerudo clothes to get into the city had been exhausting in its own right. The second he was outside the city walls he’d changed into the desert voe armor and hadn’t taken it off since. He still took any chance to show off the scars on his chest, even if they were nearly invisible after over a hundred years.
Link tied his horse to one of the posts of the bridge and then began walking across it, bathed in the blue light. He could barely focus on where he was going, just blindly walking in a straight line and hoping he wouldn’t trip or pass out before he could find Sidon. When he reached the end of the bridge and approached the guards, they didn’t even ask why he was there, simply pointed to the place where Link knew Sidon’s room to be, just behind the throne area where Link had agreed to challenge Vah Ruta and put a stop to the endless rain. That was the first time that he’d met Sidon--at least, the first time he could remember--and he’d instantly been taken with the charming prince. Even after his job was done, Vah Ruta calmed and the floods stopped, Link kept finding excuses to come to the domain, running all sorts of errands from catching frogs to finding someone’s missing wife just so he wouldn’t have to stay away. Each time he returned, he sought out Sidon, and each time Sidon thanked him for his help with the Divine Beast and showered him with compliments. Although Link was used to such things to an extent--he’d fought off monsters from many a pair of travelers before--it was different with Sidon. Each time the Prince complimented him it electrified him; each time was fresh and new and felt like he was truly being seen. When he was with Sidon, he was no longer the hero of Hyrule with all of the world’s responsibilities on his shoulders. He was just Link, and that was good enough.
As Link made his way up the last stretch of the stairs, desperately trying not to slip (he understood that the Zora were fish people, but running water and stairs should be a universally bad idea no matter who you are) he finally caught a glimpse of that familiar silhouette against the beginnings of a sunrise and ran toward the prince. He stumbled the last few steps before half-collapsing against his boyfriend’s tall form and wrapping his arms around Sidon’s waist.
The Zora prince turned around and smiled down at the Hylian.
“Link! You’re back already!”
Link managed a weary smile, looking up at Sidon. He freed his hands from around Sidon’s waist so he could sign back, but as soon as he stepped away, his legs buckled with exhaustion. Sidon managed to catch him before he hit the ground. Link was already asleep, allowing himself to rest now that he had finally reached his destination.
Link regained consciousness slowly. He gradually became aware of the warm sun on his face, the light blanket draped over him, and at first he refused to move, instead laying with his eyes closed and savoring the moment. However, after a few moments he realized that if he was laying on a bed, he must be in Zora’s domain. He scrambled to sit upright, glancing around the room quickly. His eyes landed on Sidon, standing near a window and looking out over the domain. As Link began kicking the blankets from his legs, Sidon turned around and beamed at him.
“You’re finally awake! Did you sleep well?” Link had finally escaped the confines of the blankets and was now standing in front of his tall boyfriend, returning the blinding smile with a grin of his own.
“Yes,” he signed back, “best I’ve slept in days.”
Sidon’s face took on a playfully stern expression. “Did you ride through the night again?” Link shifted his gaze away before holding up two fingers in reply. “Two nights?” Sidon gasped. “And where were you traveling from? Gerudo town? You need to take better care of yourself! Not to mention your horse--the guards moved her to the stables since you just left her on the bridge.”
Link couldn’t resist laughing at Sidon’s mothering tone. Sidon shook his head, exasperated. “I’m serious! You may be a hero but you’re not immortal and you need sleep.”
Link smiled. “But do I really? I made it here fine after all, and seeing you was more important,” he signed. “Speaking of which, let’s go do something! I didn’t ride two nights without sleeping to not spend time with my boyfriend.” He took Sidon’s hands in his smaller ones as he finished, looking up at him with a sly grin. Sidon squeezed their joined hands before saying, “Let’s go take a walk.”
Much of the land surrounding Zora’s domain was infested with Lizalfos, which were especially dangerous to Sidon with their shock arrows, so they stayed well away from those areas. However, by strolling a ways up the mountain they came upon a wooded area by a stream where they could relax. Link, as per usual, immediately cast off his shirt and ran into the water, Sidon following close behind. However, they quickly became hungry, having skipped breakfast, and thus returned to land to make some food.
They decided on a quick seafood soup, since they were so close to the water. Link offered to catch the fish for them, but Sidon insisted he do it instead so Link could get the rest of the ingredients ready and start the fire. “Anyway,” he continued, “I have claws to catch fish with, and you don’t have a fishing rod or a trident; how were you going to catch them anyway?” When Link simply held up an electric arrow in response, Sidon concluded that keeping Link well clear of the water was definitely the better course of action.
Sidon waded out into the stream and within a few minutes had caught three fish. He headed back to where Link had laid all the ingredients -- hyrule herb, a bottle of milk, and a chunk of rock salt -- out next to the waiting pot. Link eagerly took the fish from Sidon who, though charmed by his boyfriend’s characteristic love of food, was a bit confused.
“Don’t you want me to clean them first?” he offered, but Link simply shook his head, gathering all the ingredients into his arms. “Really, it’s no prob-” Sidon cut off abruptly when Link unceremoniously dumped all the ingredients into the pot. The herbs were whole; the fish still had all its scales; the rock salt was not ground, remaining a solid lump; he hadn’t even poured the milk out of the bottle before putting it in. Sidon looked down at the pot full of ingredients, then back up at Link incredulously.
“Wh--What are you doing?” he asked.
“This is how I always cook,” Link signed back.
“What do you mean this is how you always cook? How are you not dead by now?”
Link shrugged. “It’s always turned out fine. See?” He gestured down to the pot and Sidon was shocked to see that the mess of unprepared ingredients had miraculously transformed into a perfectly creamy seafood soup. He took a ladle and stirred it. Everything looked normal. The lump of salt had apparently dissolved. He served the soup into two bowls. Link eagerly dug into his, but Sidon squinted at his portion suspiciously.
“What happened to the glass bottle from the milk?” he asked. Link shrugged once again, momentarily setting down his soup bowl to free his hands.
“No idea. But trust me, I’ve done this a million times, it’s perfectly safe.”
Sidon sighed, smiling despite himself.
“Did it ever occur to you to just pour the milk out of the bottle?”
“No.”
And with that, Link resumed eating his soup while Sidon took a spoonful of his own and pondered how a warrior as incredible and capable as his boyfriend could be such a dumbass when it came to things like this.
They spent the rest of the day playing in the water, wandering the surrounding woods, and sitting on the bank talking to each other until eventually the sun began to slip down to the horizon and they had to return to the Domain. They stopped by the stables so Link could give his horse some much-needed attention and an apology for leaving her out the previous night, followed by a dinner during which Link was let nowhere near the food while it was being prepared, and finally they returned to Sidon’s room to sleep. They curled on the bed together, Sidon’s arm over Link’s waist while Link pressed into his chest. It was familiar and natural, and Link fell asleep quickly. Sidon, on the other hand, couldn’t for the life of him fall asleep.
He couldn’t stop thinking about Link’s cooking methods.
They were unorthodox, to say the least. Sidon had never heard of anyone cooking in such a way, and he hadn’t the slightest idea how it worked. One minute the pot was full of whole ingredients without the slightest bit of preparation, and the next the meat and fish were cut and cleaned, the rock salt had ground itself--and Sidon didn’t even want to think about what could have happened to that glass bottle.
He had to figure out how it worked. So late that night, after trying and failing for hours to sleep, he carefully disentangled himself from Link, quickly kissed his sleeping boyfriend’s forehead, and slipped out of the room to the nearest cooking pot. He was able to find all the same ingredients from that afternoon; fish were hardly difficult to come by here, and Link had an obscene amount of everything else in his supplies--how he managed to carry everything was yet another mystery to Sidon. With the ingredients assembled, he lit the fire beneath the pot, then glanced doubtfully at the food in his arms before dropping it into the pot as Link had done before.
Immediately he began to regret his decision. Things were already not going according to plan. The glass bottle had broken when it landed in the pot, which definitely didn’t happen when Link was doing it and Sidon knew that no matter what happened next, there was no way this would be fit for consumption by anyone. Despite this, he decided to wait to see if something would happen and the longer he waited the less faith he had that this would actually work. He tried looking away from it, since earlier the change had occurred while he was looking at Link, but it was useless. If anything, the disaster in the pot was looking progressively worse. He had just made up his mind to give up and find a way to discreetly dispose of this atrocity before anyone noticed when the sound of quiet footsteps made him freeze. He looked up to see Link standing just a few feet away, laughing quietly to himself. Sidon smiled sheepishly, trying and failing to hide the flush that was overtaking his face.
“Maybe you should leave the cooking to me in the future.”
Sidon could only nod in agreement.