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He feels the water before he hears the voice.
"Link…"
No. No. He cannot do this again. He knows that time sometimes warps, skews and turns the world on its head. But now? Not when they have fought to the death, fought and lost, fought and won. Not again. It was but yesterday that the Calamity was bested! He cannot do it again. Hyrule was free. Yet one day? One day was all they got? Destiny cannot be so cruel?
Link sags in the dark, as much as it is possible to sag when one is lying in water.
"Link… Link… Open your eyes!"
Link wants to cry. Destiny cannot mean…
The voice is different, though. Darker.
Link opens his eyes.
"There you are," says Sidon, a smile revealing all his sharp, sharp teeth.
Memory returns. Bites. Pain. The kind that Link likes. The one that comes with pleasure and moans and soft touches and declarations of… emotions. The sigh he has been holding on to changes direction and mood before it is let out, no more an expression of hopelessness and refusal, but one of jubilant joy.
"Sidon," sighs Link, reaching for his… Link does not think that friend may be the proper term any longer. He looks up, arms around Sidon's neck, not really knowing what they are to one another now, but his body, every little movement, tells him what they have done.
Sidon's smile—incredible and warm—becomes even wider. "You are awake! How marvellous. How—" Sidon makes a soft, dark laughter, one that Link has never heard before. "—exquisite."
"We still won?" Link asks, wanting to be sure he isn't dreaming, still, because usually when he is in this situation—in bed with Sidon, feeling the traces of their lovemaking on his body—it is but a dream, a fantasy that helped him through lonely nights, through dark and cold times and nothing like this, where Sidon is no longer a figment of his imagination, but overwhelmingly real.
"You banished the Calamity, yes. A perfect battle." Sidon makes another of those little, dark laughs that make Link's heart beat faster. "And I won… you."
"Did you now," Link says, squinting up at Sidon. "I am not a prize."
"Not a prize, but a prince. Soon. If you allow me to go to my father and ask him for permission to—"
"I— what?" Link most certainly does not recall giving his permission. He is not averse to it, though. Permitting Sidon anything and everything he wants.
Sidon bends down and nuzzles Link's ear, a hand in his hair, and Link gives up for a little his attempt to get out of the water. The soft waves feel like a moving blanket, warm enough to be pleasant, yet not entirely Link's natural habitat. "Bed?" he manages, making a needy whine as Sidon litters his neck with kisses.
"Will you allow me to go to my father, then?" Sidon repeats in between kisses. "I cannot in good conscience continue these lovely yet wonderful ministrations without your consent to become my most beloved husband."
"You are full of manure," Link comments as Sidon plays dirty and nibbles at his earlobe. "You already tasted the dish you wish to order."
"But with a second helping one may cherish the taste to the fullest," Sidon argues. "Besides, the dark times are over and light will shine over Hyrule."
"And that means that you can eat anything you like?" Link says and squints at Sidon.
"I like you. I like you most of all," Sidon admits. "I like you more than anyone in Hyrule. Because you are amazing, wonderful, perfect! I have no appetite for anyone but you and I will never have. I shall taste only you until the end of time."
Link can fight monsters and the darkness. He can fight calamities in all their forms, but he cannot fight this. It's too much, because Sidon's enthusiasm is overwhelming and warm. Dry land hastily loses its allure compared to the pleasure of Sidon's embrace. Link also gives up arguing because Sidon's counter-arguments become increasingly more wordless and vastly more physical.
They are very good arguments in Link's opinion.
He cannot decide if it is the lake's water or the flood of pleasure that carries him and lifts him up. Or maybe it's Sidon.
The water recedes and he falls into the soft duvets of a bed.
"Link… Link…"
Link smiles, eyes still closed, his body lax with pleasure, Sidon's voice but the ghost of a whisper on his skin, time measured out in kisses instead of minutes.
This time it is different. There is love and hope. Link opens his eyes.
He opens his eyes to a new world and to life.