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The night was quiet and still and heavy; the kind of night that bore down on you with the weight of things to come. Stars littered the sky, but the moon was scarcely more than a sliver and darkness had found them quickly. The remains of the evening’s fire did little to chase away the shadows, or the cold, and Zelda was racked with shivers that were due only in part to the chill outside.
As silent as it was around her, she could do nothing to quiet her mind. It whispered to her of all her failings, it spoke of her inadequacy and weakness, and it screamed to her how she would let down her kingdom and all those that she held close, despite the fact that those people had never felt further away.
Even Link, who sat diligently just a few paces from her on the other side of the campfire, seemed impossible to reach. Something about the iciness of the water in the Spring of Wisdom had settled deep in her tonight; deeper than her skin, deeper than her bones. She felt completely frozen, unable to move for fear she might shatter, unable to reach out to the one person she longed for the most.
She had gasped at his touch in the spring earlier, as he lay his hand gently upon her bare shoulder. The warmth of his skin scalded hers, and his breath at her neck made her insides burn.
“I should think that’s more than enough for today,” he murmured, so softly and so kindly it made her ache. She turned to him, the setting sun reflecting in her eyes and setting them ablaze. A good thing, she supposed, squinting, since hers had all but been extinguished as of late.
“No...it can’t be,” she breathed, looking past him. “Nothing’s happened yet, I-I can’t be finished. I shall just have to keep on until I feel something.”
The way he looked at her then made her feel something, that’s for certain.
“I can’t imagine you feel anything at the moment, Princess.” An empty chuckle rose from his chest, and didn’t quite make it out. “It’s a wonder the spring hasn’t frozen over. The air is bitter cold.”
Zelda’s breathing came in shallow bursts, each little breath creating a cloud in front of her purpling lips. Link himself had started to shake slightly, too. She couldn't bear it, any of it. She bowed her head and slowly turned towards the Goddess once again.
“What is wrong with me?” she said, her voice cracking. Link wasn't sure if she was addressing the Goddess or himself, but he eventually spoke into the Goddess’ heavy silence.
“You are the most dedicated of all of us, Princess. Your strength and courage is that which I’ve never known. I don’t know why the Goddess hasn't answered your calls. I don’t know why your power still lays dormant. But I know that it is through no fault of your own, so please stop blaming yourself. There must be a reason why, but that reason is not you.” Link’s voice faltered towards the end, unused to such exertion. Zelda herself seemed stunned at his speech. Her eyes whipped round to meet his, land meeting sky, and filled with tears that threatened to drown her. She fell into his arms and began to cry softly. Cried at the unfairness of it all. Cried at Link’s kindness. Cried for their lost childhoods. Cried because it was only here, in the solitude of the spring as night fell, that she could hold him openly.
She pulled away after a time, and he wiped her tears away with such tenderness that it sent more cascading down her cheeks. He took her hand, and together they waded through liquid gold, the elements warring as the stiff breeze stole away any warmth the sunset had brought.
Later, after he had wrapped her in blankets and coaxed some food into her, and she had collapsed with exhaustion under their shelter, she lay and watched him carefully. He sat staring into the embers, the light dancing in his eyes and casting shadows across his angular features. Every so often, he would glance around him, hand absently reaching for that cursed sword, checking for enemies lurking under night’s thick cloak. The road up the mountain had been terrible; monsters flew at them around every bend, and by the time they had reached the spring Link had been sweating and covered in blood. She had washed his wounds carefully in a nearby stream, all the while nursing a sickening feeling that she couldn't shake, even now as she lay in relative safety. She felt Ganon’s power surging, and she knew Link felt it, too. As he glanced at her across the fire, and smiled softly, she could see the strain in his eyes. They both knew they had little time left.
Her fear was consuming her. She wanted nothing more than Link, in every way you could want somebody, but she was so terrified of what was to come, and of how she was failing him every single day that passed without her awakening her power. The dread isolated her, left her feeling helpless and responsible and so, so far away.
She tossed and turned for hours, even as Link lay down beside his sword and the last of the fire died away. She could hear his irregular breathing, punctuated with sharp shivers; he never slept deeply. In fact, she was convinced that he hardly slept at all. She, too, shivered violently, in spite of the layers of blankets and clothes that Link had insisted she take.
Her mind drifted to a night several days ago, when she had been reading to him extracts from her notebook of some discovery or other she had made that day. He was sitting close to her, looking over her shoulder at the pictures she had sketched as she explained what each depicted.
“...and by the looks of it, we can harness its powers to induce a protective effect, almost like a defence of sorts. Just look at that! Isn’t it divine?”
“You’re divine,” Link whispered.
Zelda’s breath caught. She stared at him, eyes huge and wide. A furious blush blazed across both of their faces as Link opened his mouth and then closed it, lost for words.
“I-I’m sorry,” he stammered, finally. “I shouldn’t have s-”
His words disappeared into Zelda’s mouth. She had pressed forward and caught his lips, gently but firmly. Her eyes fluttered shut as she broke away, not daring to look at him. They sat in dazed silence for a few moments before Link leaned in and kissed her again, tentatively at first, but growing in confidence when Zelda’s hands met his neck.
They fell into each other, the tension that had been building between them over the last year reaching its breaking point. Link’s hands found her waist and she moved in closer, gripping his tunic between her fingers. Neither of them really knew what they were doing, but it felt...right. Like a perfect cadence, or freeing a butterfly, or coming home. Zelda was losing herself in this moment, giving herself up to him, and she did it gladly. She’d never felt such concentrated rapture before. She was falling, utterly and completely, further and further-
Link pulled away suddenly. “We...we can’t.” When he looked up at her, she saw a single tear make its way down his cheek. She had never seen him cry before. “I want to, desperately, but we can’t.”
He looked as though he was about to say more, but Zelda shook her head. “I know,” she said softly, a few tears loosing themselves from her eyes, too.
She could still feel him on her lips, even all those days later as she lay in their quiet camp by the spring. The memory sent new heat coursing through her body, and she shuddered once more, for an altogether different reason this time. Her heart ached with a longing so acute she could scarcely breathe, and it emboldened her enough to call out into the night.
“Link?”
“Hngh...Zelda? Are you alright?”
“I...it’s freezing, and I’m saying that from beneath all of these blankets and coats.”
She heard him rustling. “Here, take mine, I don’t-”
“No,” she said firmly. “You’ll catch your death without any protection, and you’ve hardly got any there as it is. It’s practically a rag you’re sleeping under. No, I...”
She trailed off, feeling Link’s eyes on her even as she buried her own in her hands. She was quiet for a moment, and then:
“Please come here.”
He didn’t move, but she could almost hear his heart thumping.
“I know it isn’t proper, and I know that you can’t, and I would never try to get you in trouble, but...” Her words were tumbling out of her mouth like rain from a sudden storm. “But there’s nobody here to see us, and it’s deathly cold, and I want you here.”
Nothing, and then she heard shuffling, and footsteps, and then suddenly he was all around her, wrapping her up in his arms. She could feel the callouses and scars on his hands as he trailed them, feather-light, across her back. She shifted into him, her face in the crook of his neck, and breathed in the smell of him; forest and saltwater and woodsmoke. She felt warmth blooming throughout their bodies as they lay tangled up in one another. Link pressed a delicate kiss to the top of her head, almost imperceptible. Zelda let out a sigh it felt she had been holding in for years. And for the first time in a long time, sleep met both of them willingly.
Just as they were both drifting off, Zelda murmured:
“I’m in love with you, Link.”
She thought he was asleep, as the rise and fall of his chest had become steady and deep. But a few heartbeats later, she heard, so faintly:
“Words can’t quite capture what I feel for you. But I think ‘love’ comes pretty close.”
~
Zelda yawned, brushing her messy hair from her face, and pushed herself out of their bed with considerable effort. She made her way down the stairs of Link’s house in Hateno to find him at the stove, concocting something exquisite for breakfast. He turned as he heard her coming, and smiled broadly. She never got tired of seeing him smile.
“Good morning,” he said, and kissed her.
They sat down and ate, and Zelda told him about her plans for their continued surveyal of the land post-Calamity. She talked animatedly about all the theories she wanted to discuss with Purah that day.
“I’ve been waiting months to really dive into things at the lab! I thought of some potential new upgrades we might make to the Sheikah slate, and I’m dying to take a look through Purah’s library, too...”
More than 100 years had passed since that night at the spring, the eve before Ganon finally awoke, and though Link had long since forgotten, the memory still burned as bright in Zelda’s mind as the setting sun had on the Goddess’ holy water. Now, several months after Hyrule had been saved, the pair were rested and well and ready to take on the responsibility of rebuilding the kingdom. They’d been busy meeting friends old and new, debating policies with Impa, and forging alliances with the leaders of the Rito, Zora, Gerudo and Goron. Zelda had been delighted to acquaint herself with them all, though Link didn't miss the flash of grief in her eyes as she was faced with living reminders of those they had lost.
It had been hard, putting themselves back together after everything that had happened. Neither of them had known quite where to start, and the extent of their trauma was far from resolved, even still. They had spent the majority of the last few months together, because they were the only ones who truly understood how the other felt. It was strange that, despite Link’s lost memory, the dynamic between them seemed unchanged. He told her one evening that he had heard her voice throughout his journey, and that even though his specific memories of her were fractured and limited, she was the only thing that had felt familiar.
Upon discovering the success of the images left on the Sheikah slate at restoring some of his memories, Zelda took Link to many other places that held meaning to them both, some of which he had already visited himself. But there was something about seeing her there that triggered him to recall many more of the events of 100 years previous, until his mind didn't feel like such a mystery to him anymore. They had both accepted that he would never regain everything, but most of the gaps that remained were easily filled by Zelda and the others.
They hadn’t returned to the Spring of Wisdom yet, but their feelings for one another surfaced anyway, as if fated. Now with no constraints on their being together, they could love each other freely for the first time.
And here in their kitchen, with Zelda chattering on about scientific discoveries and the remains of breakfast still simmering on the stove, Link realised how full his heart felt.
Zelda paused, mid-flow. “What are you staring at?” she grinned.
“Nothing.”
“Come on, what are you thinking? You can’t hide anything from me any more!” she teased.
“I was just...I was just trying to find the words to capture what I feel. For you, and for this,” he mused. “I think...’love’ comes pretty close.”