Work Text:
Life after life, you’ve done this over and over.
Live, rule, die.
It’s almost routine to you, yet nothing gets easier. There are definitely perks to this. One being how you got more and more chances to get it right and do good for your kingdom and for yourself. There’s no point in trying to hide how badly you need a victory, but not once has your enemy known that. You are the embodiment of power, something as trivial as personal reasons shouldn’t be fueling everything that you do.
Though when things start to go wrong on the battlefield, hordes of knights coming from every direction, your two lieutenants were either captured already, dead, ran away, or turned on you. As much as they seemed loyal to everything that you did and everything you wanted for everyone you willingly associated yourself with, they seemed much more devoted to each other. Zant was completely enamored with Ghirahim, and Ghirahim had always been busy getting every ounce of Zant’s attention, minus when you forced them to be apart so that more ground could be covered. The odds were stacked against you each battle it seems, the Hylian army never seemed to end, troop after troop swinging at you and not giving up. They refused to back down no matter how powerful you were. At first, they seemed like pests but enough of them will add up and actually wear someone down.
Fresh cuts were piling up over your scar riddled body, most of them small from the Hylian knights not wanting to get too close to you, understandably. Slashes running across your calves and thighs, over your biceps, down your back and even a few gashes on your hand, you were almost sure that someone managed a sword through part of your hand but everything had been happening so quickly, how could you tell?
You grit your teeth, showing the edge of your canine teeth which had formed like fangs by now. These bastards wouldn’t win, they were a bunch of brainwashed servants of those Hylian pricks that thought they were better than you. Rage was just about to start boiling inside of you, it was almost hot enough for that to happen, but the desert had never bothered you before. Though armor had been thrown off earlier because it was slowing you down and adding on to how much heat you were dealing with, you’d never noticed how much it actually helped keep off the idiots that were trying to stab you in the back, literally. And no matter how much you probably needed the armor, heat stroke was absolutely not going to be the thing to knock you down.
The knights didn’t seem like they were going to stop rushing towards you, and this was the first time that you needed Zant and Ghirahim more than anything, they weren’t coming back as far as you knew. In all honesty, they were probably safe somewhere far away, trusting you to win this battle for them. And as arrogant and cocky you were, it didn’t seem like that was going to happen. Something caught your eye behind you, an unnatural green color. Your thoughts were racing as you gave another blow to the knights in front of you, turning on your heel to see just what was behind you.
Link, how perfect. This is just what you needed, one of the only people that had physically struck you down before. The only other person you didn’t want to see here was… right behind Link. Zelda, how could this get any worse? The rest of the knights seemed to back off or at least just stand there. Before you could even lift up your sword, Link was charging toward you and slashing into your stomach, making you drop your sword and clutch where the blood was coming from. It stung, and you just couldn’t stand it anymore. The ground practically shook once your back hit the ground, bringing up a small cloud of sand and dust.
Zelda nodded at Link then walked in front of him, coming closer to you since it was pretty obvious by now that you weren’t getting up and couldn’t move much. Her boot was on your arm, heel digging into the muscle like another knife. Her knuckles were turning white with how tightly she was holding her rapier, twisting it around her hand so that it was pointed down. At you. “Princess, please.” It was unlike you to want any mercy or to even open your mouth when you were as vulnerable as you were right now.
Not a word came out of her mouth before she gave the rapier a preparatory start, then ramming the sharp end into your chest, right where your heart is. A scream ripped through the air for only a few second before dying out, along with you.
Somehow, another short scream escaped your lips, forcing you to sit up with your arms behind you. Understandably, your breath was short, showing no signs of getting back to normal. There wasn’t any sand or dirt underneath you, instead it was satin sheets with the cotton duvet only on your feet at this point. As soon as everything came back to you and made you realize that there wasn’t fresh cuts littering your body and a hole in your chest, you swallowed thickly and put a hand over your mouth to shut yourself up. The last thing you needed was for Zelda to wake up, it was the worst when you knew that you were the reason she couldn’t sleep. It was dumb for her to try and console you, you were a king and didn’t need some princess to fret over you.
She was already awake, your scream probably having woken her up and everyone else in the castle. As soon as her hand was on your knee, you jerked away slightly, you didn’t even have to see her face to know that she was disappointed. “I’m sorry… I just, go to sleep, please.” You felt awful that you’d flinched like that, it’d never happened before since you weren’t scared of anyone or anything. You shouldn’t be moving away from your wife’s touch. At the same time you really wanted to hug her and kiss her, not in a passionate making love way, but in a ‘I’m glad that I’m alive and that you didn’t kill me’ type of way.
“Gan, what’s wrong, this hasn’t happened in a long time.” After a little while your breath finally evened out for the most part, and you ran a hand down your face, glancing over at her. “I’m fine, it’s over. Let’s both go back to sleep, okay?” You pushed the duvet off your feet and lied back down on the smooth sheets, turning on your side to look at Zelda, she eventually lied on her side to look back at you, studying you. “I think you’re forgetting how much I know about you, if you go back to sleep then you’ll have another nightmare and no one in the kingdom wants that with how loud you get.” She offered a small smile, and the corner of your mouth shifted up just slightly. Your bedroom was almost the only place you didn’t have to be angry or act like you were always pissed at someone. You did argue with Zelda but it wasn’t in a truly serious sense, she was your wife and you still loved her.
“Then come here, this side of the bed is empty.” She rolled her eyes at you and shifted closer to you so you could wrap your arm around her and just have her close. It was a stupid and cheesy thought, but after seeing her kill you when you’d been most vulnerable, every bit of pride aside, you needed to hold her. “Was it me again, or Link?” Her question caught you off guard for a second, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of her head. “...Both, kinda.” You did your best to soften your voice, so that it wasn’t incredibly loud and deep, some of it you couldn’t help but some of the roughness was a habit you’d picked up on. “He was there.. and fucked me up momentarily, then uh.. then you came in and, yeah.” This was almost a routine night for the two of you, these nightmares had been coming back more and more often, each time worse than the last. Zelda nodded a little and pressed small kisses to your hand, “I promise I wouldn’t do anything, and neither would he.”
“But that’s right now, you wouldn’t have said that before the marriage or before this reincarnation.” You ran your hand up and down her arm, rubbing her shoulder and eventually closing your eyes again even though you doubted that you’d actually fall asleep any time soon. Your heart was still beating in your chest, Zelda could probably feel it after you lied on your back and held her to your chest. It was easy to act like you were completely calm, but when you had the most realistic dream that your own wife murdered you, it was a bit harder than normal. You glance down at her and notice she’d closed her eyes and was most likely going to be asleep soon. “It doesn’t matter, all I care about is right now. Neither of us need to worry about anything that far in the past, you’re okay and I’m not going to hurt you or do anything bad.” She peeked her eye open to look up at you, leaning up to peck your lips to which you just raised an eyebrow.
“Gan, you need not worry, I can’t stress that enough.” A soft grunt left your lips, letting yourself relax into the sheets and pillows. “Fine, but next time you kill me I will hold it against you.” It wasn’t said in complete seriousness, Zelda even chuckled lightly and sighed, rubbing her thumb over your chest very softly. You found yourself drifting to sleep quicker than anticipated, your wife was forcing herself to stay up until you drifted off.
You swore, without your wife you’d probably be a mess which was okay since neither of you were leaving anytime soon.