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They had done it.
They had vanquished the Demon King once and for all.
He had fought hard, with the aid of anyone and everyone willing to offer it, while using any and all resources at his disposal. The hero with the legendary sword, alongside the sages who wielded the ancient stones. They had, at last, fulfilled their mission.
And then there was the Light Dragon.
No, Zelda . This was Zelda standing in front of him.
She had called to him from the ancient past, imploring - nearly pleading - for him to find her. She had put all her faith into him, for him to find the Master Sword, to retrieve it and use it to end the Demon King’s reign of terror. She had made the ultimate sacrifice, with an unwavering belief that the blade would someday make its way back to its master, and an unwavering faith that her chosen knight would do what had to be done to save their home, even if it meant that she would not be the same when he found her.
It had been his mission from the beginning - not just saving Hyrule, not simply defeating the Demon King - but finding his princess, his dear friend, his partner. He had done it. He had found her.
They had done it. They had saved Hyrule, again .
It had all been worth it. Every battle, every alliance, every moment of every day spent putting every ounce of his strength and heart and soul into his mission. Here she was, standing beside him, with a smile that shone brighter than all of the scales that had illuminated her draconic form.
“Oh, Link… I’m home!” Zelda’s eyes crinkled at the corners as she spoke.
The earth seemed to almost drop out from underneath Link at her words. They met each other’s eyes, and Link had to wonder if his smile was as warm and wide as the one he saw her give. Until now, he hadn’t said a word since she came back to him - he hadn’t mustered up the right words to tell her everything he wanted to.
She had said so much happened when she traveled back in time. How could he brief her on all that had happened while she was gone? She said she was home - and she wasn’t looking at the castle anymore - she was looking at him.
An impulsive urge swelled in his chest. He didn’t know what to say, or what to do; all he knew was that he was once again feeling that desperation to reach for her. He reached his right hand - newly restored and rather foreign to him now after being without it for many months.
He held it out to her in a way that was familiar, one that mirrored the last time they had reunited like this. He had reached out to her then, too, after they had sealed away Calamity Ganon, after what they had thought to be the completion of the prophecies. How wrong they had been.
That was all in the past now, though. She was here, she was safe, and she remembered everything from before. She seemed to remember nothing of her time as a draconic deity, but that didn’t matter. She remembered Rauru, Sonia, and Mineru. She remembered the sacrifice she had made to save Hyrule and everyone in it - past, present, and future.
She remembered him . She remembered Link.
Zelda eyed him curiously now, her gaze flicking between his outstretched hand and his face. She had reached out to him like this before, when she was merely an incorporeal form lending him a fragment of her power as he took her hand. Would she remember any of that now?
A look of realization lit up on her face, and then she was reaching for him, her hand sliding into his without another moment’s hesitation.
The silence that followed was deafening, to say the least. The sound of the grass rustling around them became much louder and crisper in Link’s senses, but he paid them no mind.
His lips parted in an attempt to say something, but he had no time to utter a word before he was being yanked forward by his hand. All he managed to let out was a small sound of surprise as he stumbled right into Zelda’s arms.
It wasn’t an entirely foreign thing to them, hugging- they had done so quite a few times before, in times when they were alone and one or both of them were in need of comfort, when the grief and the pain and the night terrors had become too much to bear - but very rarely had they ever hugged out of joy.
It took Link a few seconds of processing the moment before he reciprocated the embrace. When he did, he held her as tightly as he had when they were falling through the sky just minutes ago. He held her as though she would disappear in an instant if he let her go; it panged his heart, because she had disappeared in an instant last time, but the powers of Rauru and Sonia had brought her back to him - had brought him back to her .
Zelda held him as tightly as held her. “You did it, Link,” she said into the crook of his neck. “You saved the world, again. You did it.” There was a hint of shakiness in her voice.
Pressed against her, Link gently shook his head, only enough so he knew she could feel it. “ We did it.” He hadn’t realized how dry his throat felt until he spoke for that first time.
If it was even possible, Zelda’s arms tightened around him even more, and all he could think was to do the same. They held each other as though the world had begun to crash down upon them, but none of it mattered as long as they were together. They held each other as though no storm, no darkness, no Demon King or Calamity or evil in any form could ever separate them again.
And it was true. They had done it. They found each other, just like they always had - just like they always would.
They were Link and Zelda, after all. If there were any two people who could always find each other, it was them.