Chapter Text
“Link? Link! Please, wake up!”
Link woke up to cold hands shaking his shoulder. The first thing he noticed was Zelda’s hair tickling his nose as she leaned over him, her face slowly taking shape as he rubbed his eyes. The second thing he noticed was the cold, hard ground underneath him and the long shadows of cell bars that were cast along the dusty floor. He felt a tear drop hit his cheek.
“Oh, I was so worried! When they threw us in here, you hit your head pretty hard, and… well, I got worried when you wouldn’t wake up.”
He was still groggy, and Zelda’s words somehow sounded blurred. His head pounded, and he was fairly sure he tasted blood, but that wasn’t his main concern. He snapped to attention as he saw Zelda’s crying face.
“Zelda… I’m so sorry.” Link didn’t need to ask where they were. It didn’t take a genius to figure that they were in the Yiga fortress. His failure to keep her safe from the Yiga would be forever branded into his mind. A memory he’d never forgive himself for. If he hadn’t run off, if he hadn’t left her… they wouldn’t be sitting in their deathbeds.
But to his surprise, even as they sat in the mess he created, Zelda just looked through her tears at him for a moment before suddenly launching herself into a hug. Link almost fell backwards as he caught her.
“I’m so sorry! Link, if I hadn’t said those horrible things to you… If I hadn’t- if-“ her words were indecipherable between her sudden sobs. Link found himself stuck at a crossroads once again. Abide by the rules Impa had set for him, or follow his heart.
With a sense of finality, he decided the rules could go fuck themselves.
Zelda’s nose pressed into his collarbone as he stroked her hair, and her tears soaked through his shirt. He felt his face heat up as he realized… there was no way she wouldn’t be able to feel how fast his heart was beating.
Then again… it’s not like she doesn’t know how I feel.
And they just sat there, arms wrapped around eachother like there was nothing else in the universe. And as far as Link was concerned, there wasn’t anything else but her. Her back under his hand, her body cradled in his, her hair against his chin, her hands clasped behind his neck, her face against his chest.
Link knew everything was a mess. They were right in the hands of the enemy. Zelda didn’t have her powers. Link didn’t have his sword. But somehow, despite it all, everything was also perfect.
Link didn’t know how much time had passed before Zelda spoke. She slowly untangled herself from him, but she let her hands trail away from his neck, down his shoulders, and along his arms until they rested in his own hands.
It was… thoroughly distracting, to say the least.
“I’m so sorry. I said a lot of things I didn’t mean.
Link’s thumb caressed the back of her hand. His next sentence would either be the greatest decision or his greatest mistake. He was on the edge of a cliff, standing on the precipice of something new, overlooking either paradise or hell.
Only one way to find out which.
Link felt a small tug at his lips at the irony. “Look… in case we die, I should probably tell you something. About what I said... I meant every word.”
And he did. A simple crush has blossomed into something much deeper. A puddle had grown into a pond and somewhere along the way, it flooded and became an ocean. It was a dumb metaphor, but Link was never great with words. But despite that, many words ran through his head when he looked at her, dangerous words like ‘mine’ and ‘darling’ and an array of other things he shouldn’t dare say aloud.
His heart felt like it was trying to jump out of his rib cage as Zelda opened her mouth to speak… but it wasn’t her that spoke.
“Nobody’s dying today.
Link instinctively reached for his sword-before realizing it wasn’t there. That was fine with him-if anyone tried to hurt Zelda again, they’d just have to meet his fists instead of his blade.
The Yiga guard outside of their cell didn’t seem fazed as Link shot up and grabbed the cell bars, glaring at him.
“Well. Looks like someone still has their fighting spirit. It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt either of you.” The man’s ruby red eyes shone with amusement from behind his mask.
“You aren’t getting away with this!” Zelda piped up from behind him.
The man just rolled his eyes. After a moment of furtively looking around, he took his mask off.
“Wait-Dorian?”
Well, that was awkward . Link thought back to the moment he and Zelda had earlier. If he had known there was someone outside the cell-someone he knew- he may have handled it differently.
Zelda was evidently having a similar train of thought, judging by her flushed cheeks. “Dorian, um, how long have you been there?”
Another amused glance, this time accompanied by a knowing smile. “A while. Don’t worry,” he added, seeing Link’s face. “I won’t tell Impa.
Zelda glanced at the ground. “There’s nothing to tell.” Dorian raised an eyebrow, but didn’t push the subject. Instead, he reached to the side of the cell, just out of Link’s view, and brought a familiar-looking relic out.
“Here ya go, Link. You’ll want this, I imagine. I’ve got your shield in my bag. I went through hell and back to sneak it out of Kohga’s chambers. You guys ready to go?” Link reached through the cell bars and took the sword, comforted by the familiar feeling of the hilt in his hands. Happy as he was to have his sword back, there was a more pressing issue. He looked back at Zelda- her expression was unreadable. There were still unspoken words between them. Link crouched down to his knees, right in front of Zelda. Behind his back, Dorian hid a smile and turned around to work on the cell locks.
“Are you okay?” His voice was soft, as if anything too loud would shatter them. She looked up at him. Link still couldn’t tell if her eyes were green or blue- he could have spent all day trying to figure it out. Tears ran streaks through the dust on her face and her hair was a tangled mess, but Link swore she’d never been more beautiful.
Link gently placed his hands on her face, wiping her tears away with his thumb. It was automatic, easy, natural. It felt right. He thought back to their embrace earlier. Before, he would never have been so intimate and vulnerable. Before, he would have thought about how she was a princess and he was a thief. Before, he’d have remembered Impa’s warnings. He’d have let her feel her emotions in her own space, alone. But that was before. Now, her skin was soft and flushed against his calloused hands, and her eyelashes grazed the tops of his fingers like waves meeting the shore.
Their faces were mere inches away. He could see every freckle on her face. Centimeters away. Millimeters.
Zelda was the one to close the gap between them.
When she kissed him, he could taste the salt from her tears. Her lips smiled against his. He could smell her lingering perfume, feel her eyelashes against his cheek. The floor seemed to sway underneath him, threatening to pull them both down to the floor. If you’d asked him left from right, up from down, Link wasn’t sure he’d be able to answer. She was dizzying, intoxicating, a feverish haze of emotions. Link would have stayed there forever, with her hands running through the tangles in his hair.
But they didn’t have forever. They barely had time to figure out what… that meant, if anything.
Dorian, still turned away, coughed. “It’s about time to go.”
They broke apart suddenly, as if they were the same side of a magnet that had been forced together. Link’s chest rose and fell hard as he tried to catch his breath. He could feel Zelda doing the same as she pulled away.
Her expression was unreadable. Desire? Regret? Link’s mind was in too much of a fog to understand.
Dorian peeked out from behind the corner. “We should really get going.”
Zelda got up without a word and left. Link followed behind, in a daze. His brain felt like it was made of cotton,
Zelda frowned. “You two stay right here. I’m going to go see what that sound was.”
“Zelda-”
“Yes?”
“Just- be careful.” For me.
As Link watched Zelda walk away with apprehension, he was painfully aware of Dorian’s curious gaze. “So,” he started conversationally, nonchalantly. Link knew all too well what was coming. “Still nothing to tell Impa about?”
“With all due respect, sir, shut up.”
Dorian just gave a hearty laugh at Link’s rebuke and gave him a pat on the back. “You’re a good kid, kid. Impa’s a stickler for the rules and wants to prevent a conflict of interest, but… if you ask me, love is the opposite of a conflict of interest. Your job is to protect her, and with a little love that goes from a job to an honor. As for her… well, who knows. Maybe her powers need some love, too.”
Well, there’s no denying it at this point . “Is it that obvious?”
“It’s easier to notice than a bokoblin’s club swinging at your face.”
In that moment, he knew who Dorian reminded him of. He had the same laugh and similar mannerisms as Link’s dad.
But there was no time to dwell on that. Zelda came running back and grabbed Link by the sleeve and kept running. Link stumbled into a run after her, Dorian right behind him.
“Found the empty cell-on their way- we need to go! Now!”