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touch starved

Summary:

Deceptions upon deceptions.

Fictober 2022 Prompt: "Do you remember?"

Work Text:

“Do you remember?”

Revali asks it so hopefully, so painfully, that Link knows it would be too cruel of him to lie. The truth is, he remembers none of it—no softening of boundaries or secret nights together; not the falling or the landing into love.

A taunting laugh, and the flick of a feather. Frustration, and resentment, and fear. This is all Link has now of Revali.

“I…”

Except.

Except Revali’s feathered hand is brushed up against Link’s, and it’s scattering his good intentions. He feels like he can feel every bit of each feather—the tip, and the quill, and the barbs—and… well, maybe his body remembers what his mind does not. Maybe it’s that he’s never known anything since his awakening but a violent touch.

All he knows for sure is that this touch, the touch of Revali’s hand on his, is tentative. Fleeting. The wrong move—the wrong word from Link’s lips—will send it skittering away forever.

“I remember,” Link lies. “Some if it,” he adds, because it’s too heavy a lie to hold in its entirety, even in exchange for so gentle a touch. "A bit."

His deception is rewarded at once as Revali’s wings envelop him.

“It’s enough.” Revali’s voice cracks feebly. In the midst of that warm embrace, Link shivers. “Whatever you have is enough. We can work with what you have.”

It's as much a lie as what Link has said, but for that moment, Link lets himself believe it—that the two of them can build something from nothing. They must have done it before, right? Built a love out of nothing—less than nothing. Built a shared embrace somehow out of all that fear.

In the meantime, Link is held in arms bigger and warmer and softer than he’s ever dared to believe possible, and he doesn’t have the strength to let go. All he can do is pray that Revali will forgive him when he finds out the truth—and Revali,

his wings wrapped around Link for the very first time outside of mere dreams and desires,

sends a prayer to the skies just as fervent that Link will someday forgive Revali when it comes out that there’s nothing to remember at all.