Work Text:
Blinding white light finally cleared in his vision. He slowly opened his eyes, the deafening, chilling rush of air moving past him, helping him regain his senses. He blinked, remembering the spirits of Rauru and Sonia pulling Zelda out of her draconic form. He saw her falling, and then he was falling…
Zelda was falling.
He twisted in the air, looking for her. Quickly, he found her limp form far beneath him just before she disappeared in a cloud. He dove after her, moving purely on instinct. He couldn’t think of how she fell like this before. He couldn’t think of how he failed her then. The air’s cool touch sliced at his skin like tiny daggers as he raced toward her. After a heart-pounding instant, she was there, right in front of him. He reached out his arm, now whole again, no longer black or tainted in gloom. Her hand was so close, just like before…
But this time, he grabbed her. Relief flooded through him as he grabbed her tight and pulled her against his chest. He saw the small pond racing towards them. He grabbed the back of her head, keeping her close to him, before twisting in the air so his back was the first thing to hit the water.
The chill of the air did not compare to the icy waters they were plunged into. They fell so deep Link could see the bottom of the pool. He twisted them again, keeping her in his arms, as his feet sank into the muddy bottom. He kicked off it, quickly rising through the water. He gasped as his head broke the surface, and he quickly pulled her up along with him. He floated her along as he pushed them towards the edge.
He was so tired. His legs felt like chuchu jelly, and his arms shook like they had carried a goron up Death Mountain. But he still pushed himself to get her out of the water. Picking her up in his arms, trying to be delicate and strong for her, he carried her out of the water and onto its banks. Gently, as he always tried to be with her, he placed her on the ground, kneeling beside her, afraid he might fall if he stood. Goddess above, he wanted to hold her, to squeeze her tight and not let go. But he also wanted to give her space, so he supported her head from the hard ground as he lowered the rest of her onto it. He watched her closely as he held her breath. Would she wake? Did he fail her? Please, Hylia, please, let her wake…
He let out the tiniest gasp as she began to stir. Her eyes found his and she slowly rose up to a seated position. As much as he did not want to, he released her, resting back to give her a moment. He saw the confusion, the disorientation on her face. What did she remember? Was it her again? What–?
“Link…?” she said softly, her brow still furrowed. “How are you…?”
He wanted to tell her so much, explain it all, answer any of her questions. But the relief that washed through him was overpowering. He was glad he knelt, or he might have fallen over. It was her. She remembered him. The fears he hadn’t even had time to voice were cleared from him. She remembered… His fears of a twisted fate having him lose her, yet have her, but her not remembering, losing her memories to her time as a dragon, just as she lost him to his years in the shrine of resurrection, evaporated like the morning dew in the rising sun.
Overpowered with emotions, he could not answer her as she gathered herself, piecing together where she was and what was happening. She noticed the Master Sword and heard its call. Though he knew it was a powerful and sacred blade, the Master Sword was just a blade. But he could not help but think the sounds it made were… happy. As if it was happy to see her again. “It reached you… after all,” she said quietly, staring at the blade.
She paused, and he wanted to reach out, to hold her, but he hesitated. She still seemed disoriented, as if she did not fully realize what that meant. He wanted to say something to her, but what could he say after all that had happened? He was always a man of few words, never knowing what to say or how to say them. But then she gasped, and for some goddess-forsaken reason, it made him want to cry. She was so… cute when she made that little gasp of clarification. He had heard it so many times while she was researching and found a revelation. He hadn’t realized how much he missed it.
She lifted a shaky hand as she said, her voice wavering, “He’s gone… the Demon King…”
Link, without thinking, gently reached over and took her shaking hand in his. He found his hand trembling, but he didn’t stop himself as he carefully took her hand in his. In his mind, he took one second to marvel again at it being his own, that it was no longer black or covered in Zonia adornments. But he quickly focused back on her as he saw tears in her eyes. “I’m not in a dream, right?” she said disbelieving, her own relief rushing into her eyes.
That was it. Keeping the hand he was holding, he dropped to the ground and pulled her to his chest. His other hand came up and found the back of her head as his other arm kept her to him. Her own arms wound around his neck as they held each other tight. “You’re not dreaming, Zelda,” he said softly in her ear.
She sobbed, her hands pressing into his back and his head. “You did it…” she said around her tears. “Oh, Link, you really did it!”
“We did it,” he said, trying to keep strong, but his voice wavered. Tears he could no longer fight ran down his face. “We did it together.”
She sobbed again, and he allowed himself to feel. The pain and the anguish of losing her again, of not knowing where she was. The devastation to realize she had sacrificed herself to turn into a dragon, all for her kingdom, all for him. He clung to her; one part of his mind worried about holding her too tight but was unable to do anything but squeeze her tighter, just as she did to him. “I missed you so much,” he whispered to her.
“I missed you too,” she whispered back.
He held her tighter still, and she gasped at the strength of it, though she did not lessen her own hold. But he released her after that, not wanting to hurt her. She sat back again and wiped the tears from her eyes as he quickly did so, too, blushing slightly at his show of emotion. She gave a watery laugh as she reached over and ran a thumb over his cheek. He smiled at her, leaning into her hand. His words were so inadequate to describe the loneliness, the near desperation he had in missing her touch. The feeling of her hand on his face, as gentle and warm as a sunrise in spring, her green eyes gazing back at him with care and tenderness. He had missed so much…
It was far too quickly that confusion furrowed her brow, and she looked away, her hand dropping from his face. He wanted to catch her hand again and bring it back but didn’t. “But how did I…” she asked softly.
She started to stand. Her legs shook slightly as she slowly rose. He offered her a steadying hand as they both rose to their feet. She looked back over the castle, still levitating in the air above Hyrule. “No… I understand…”
His relief, though all-consuming, still allowed a fleeting thought of glad one of us does to race through his mind as she dropped his hand to step forward towards the rising sun and the castle. He walked with her, still giving her space. “I had been sleeping all this time…” she said slowly, still gazing at the castle, “But when I felt something… like a warm, loving embrace, I woke up.”
He had to swallow a new round of tears welling in him. He didn’t know what to say. Though he did not want to take credit for the miracle that Rauru and Sonia gave them by bringing her out of her draconic form, he could not help but feel as if his love for her was what brought her back. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, while the sun warmed them both from their cool dive into the pond. “Thank you,” she said with her exhale as if a weight the size of the castle itself was removed from her shoulders.
Link cleared his throat to try and keep his voice steady. “I…” he started, unsure what to say or how to say it. How to express his own relief or try to give the past royal pair’s due or express his own thanks and relief. She turned back to him with a relieved smile. All he could do was smile back.
“Link, I met such wonderful people,” she told him, the excitement at sharing new information he had always loved about her shining in her eyes and voice. “I saw Hyrule as it was. I have so much to tell you. So much happened!” And for the first time and far far too long, he saw her give that smile he had loved for more than 100 years again. “Oh Link… I’m home!”
Seeing her smile, hearing those words he thought he would never hear again, he gave her a wide smile, one he rarely gave anyone else. It felt almost strange and foreign. When was the last time he had smiled? Really smiled? He felt tears in his eyes and saw them in hers as well. He grabbed her and pulled her back into a renewed hug, burying his face into her damp hair. She sobbed into his shoulder as he held them up. “Welcome home,” he said to her softly around his tears. She laughed, one of relief and joy, as the two held each other in the early rays of the rising sun.