Chapter Text
“Do you not have anything better to do?”
Zelda turned around to face him fully, arms crossed, glaring down. It was the only time she had the upper-hand in height—when they were on a hill, since he always shuffled behind her like some lost puppy.
“These parts of the woods are safe,” Zelda said, waving her arms in the air in an attempt to prove something. “I’ve been here a billion times without anyone! Wait—“ Her glare at this point had become deathly. “How’d you even know I was here?” She was sure she snuck out using her secret passage—unless. Unless it wasn’t secret anymore, because now he probably knew where it was.
He didn’t speak, only looking up at her with those large blue eyes of his. Anyone could easily get lost in them, they were so vibrant. Startlingly blue, and she would admit it. They were beautiful, she was jealous.
Jealous about every aspect of him.
Typically she would ignore him completely—simply stare at him when she walked past him, or maybe huff out a breath of annoyance when they made eye contact—but today, she was tired. And she wanted to be alone.
She wasn't sure why she even bothered to ask him a question, because he never answered anyway. He merely gazed at her with pursed lips, which angered her even further. She let out a strangled, short shout of frustration as she threw her arms in the air again in an attempt to let out some steam. No matter how many times she spoke to him, the very few times she had, he would simply stare at her. Acknowledging her existence, maybe. But refusing to speak.
Which simply made her even more angry.
“Will you say something?” Zelda stomped toward him. To her slight surprise, his eyebrow twitched. "Anything?" A moment of silence passed between them. “Of course you won’t,” she muttered, mere inches away from his face.
She leaned away, trying to read his expression, but to no avail, she couldn’t. She never could. He was a puzzle that would be impossible to solve, and she wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to in this lifetime.
But really, she just wondered…
Does he despise her, being forced into this destiny without a choice? Does he despise having to follow her heel to heel, watching her back every day? These questions were constantly at the tip of her tongue, but she always swallowed them back, afraid to know the answer.
She turned around briskly, stomping back up the hill, and she could hear the sound of the Master Sword and his Hyrule shield clacking away behind her, following.
All she wanted, for one day, was to bask in the sun by herself.
Highlight: by herself.
But no, not even she could think about her failures in peace, and now she had some silent man following her every step, watching her every move, probably recording each and every mistake she’s made since then to report it back to her father.
Well, she wasn’t planning on giving him anything today, and she was going to continue walking until her legs gave out, and he’d think twice about following her out again.
The late afternoon shimmered away into dusk, and they were still pacing their way through the forest. The entire time Zelda had simply picked at whatever seemed interesting to her, making note of her findings. Somewhere down the line, the initial anger she had simmered down with the coolness of the air.
She had snacks to munch on, but she never saw Link take a bite out of anything. His eyes had trailed her the entire time.
Zelda let out a sigh. There was no way he wasn't starving at this point, and she didn't want to be the one to drag his corpse back to the castle. Scanning the trees around her, her eyes noticed the familiar curve of a common tree. As she made her way there with purpose, she lifted herself up into it—now this caused a reaction out of him. He jogged up to her shortly after, looking up at her with concern, ushering her to come down.
“Just stay put for once.” She waved his hand away and continued to climb up until she settled on a branch with a satisfying ‘oof’.
She stared down at him, and noticed the twitch of his eyebrow as she did so. The second possible reaction of the day! Was it annoyance, perhaps? Had she finally evoked some sort of emotion out of him? If he wasn’t here, which he always was, she would’ve patted herself on the back.
“Hey,” she said, plucking an apple from a tree. His attention averted to the apple she held. She stifled a laugh when she saw him quickly lick his lips; she wasn’t sure if he even noticed he had done that. She tossed it down, and without a second to waste, he took a big bite out of it. She climbed further up to reach the next apple and snatched it. By that time, he was already done, and she tossed another one down.
She thought it was foolish of him to follow her without making food for himself, and so she decided to reach for a third apple higher up, until she remembered she had packaged herself a snack for the ride back that she could offer to him.
“Oh!” Zelda brightened up as she rummaged through her pouch for—
The branch beneath her groaned as it dipped, leaving just enough time for her to reach for the trunk, to fancy the idea of getting herself out of danger in time, before the crack of the wood ricocheted in the air. Zelda yelped in surprised as she plummeted to the ground, the scenery before her whizzing upward in a flurry of green and brown—And before she could even process what had happened, her mind still dizzy from falling, she was on the ground. Heavy breaths and swirling thoughts mingled with one another as she realized how… how warm the grass was.
And then realized how smooth the grass was, and how… how the texture just didn’t feel right. She quickly glanced down below her, but instead of being flattened on the grass, she was flattened against—him.
Link.
Zelda jumped out of his arms like a cat jumping out of water.
“I’m so sorry!” she scurried a few feet away from him, patting down her body to ground herself. “I—the branch and… the weight…”
Link laid there in the grass for a second, scratching his head, before he lifted himself on his elbows. His hair was littered with leaves and small twigs. A rare sight to see him in such disarray.
Zelda felt her heart drop as he picked himself up, not really responding to her apology. He shook his hair with both hands to get rid of the debris.
If he didn’t hate her before, she was sure he did now.