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Zelda’s been acting strange for the past week and to be honest Link is beginning to feel concerned for her.
Currently, they're the couch in his apartment watching a sci-fi flick. That’s nothing out of the ordinary, after all Saturday night is usually reserved for them to watch whatever show or movie they fancied.
But Link is too busy staring at Zelda out of the corner of his eye to pay attention to whatever is happening on screen. He's too distracted by the fact that he can clearly see bags under her eyes and that she’s holding her face in such a way that he can clearly tell that she's trying not to fall apart and cry.
It makes his heart ache. A lot.
She must have felt his gaze upon her because she turns to face him.
“The guy with the red hair reminds me of you when we first met, as interesting as a brick wall.” Zelda jokes.
Her voice trembles, like it's struggling to keep a normal tone, with the delivery of the joke seeming forced. It’s a desperate attempt to keep up the pretense of normalcy. The smile that she’s plastered on her face seems somewhat forced as well. It’s wobbly, uncertain, hinting at anxiety buried beneath.
What's worse are her eyes.
The green orbs that act as the windows into her soul lack the warmth they usually radiate. Her eyes seem to carry with them a sadness that threatens to boil over into tears, if pushed to the breaking point.
Link wants so desperately to hold her in his arms, to comfort her and let her know there's nothing wrong with being ‘weak’.
But he doesn’t.
The part of his brain that seems to hiss with disapproval at any choice that he makes is holding him back from even attempting to comfort her. He can can hear it so clearly, snarling at him for even thinking of embracing her.
She's obviously struggling with something and your first thought is to embrace her? Are you that desperate for her that you'll take advantage of her when she's emotionally vulnerable?
Link takes a breath. No, I’m not gonna entertain this train of thought today.
Shaking his negative thoughts away, Link huffs out what is supposed to be a genuine laugh in response to Zelda's comment, “I was that boring huh?”
He hates how forced and unnatural that sounds.
Zelda lets out her own attempt of a laugh that only comes out as a little huff and turns her attention back to the tv. Link tries to let the movie act as a distraction but the atmosphere of the room is too bothersome to do so. He needs to let Zelda know that he is here for her–if she needs him.
Can't let sleeping dogs lie can you? The voice in the back of his head whispers in its harsh tone. Link squashes the voice and swallows thickly before speaking up.
“Zelda.”
“Link, I don't want to talk about it.”
“Zeld-”
“I don't want to talk about it.” Zelda snaps with a raspiness in her voice.
Link is taken aback by her harsh tone and instantly feels guilt clawing at him in the pit of his stomach.
Why did you make things difficult? You could've just focused on the movie but you just had to push and now look at her, you've made her cry.
Link feels his heart crack in two as he watches the emerald green eyes that he loves so much grow glossy and vulnerable. A single tear streak trails down Zelda's left cheek.
“Link, please, I'm not in the mood to talk.” Zelda begs. She’s practically crying at this point.
Link so desperately wants to respond, but when he opens his mouth he only lets out a small sound and finds that words have escaped him entirely. In fact, it feels like his entire ability to talk has been taken away from him. A sharp pain, like barbed wire wraps around his throat, and seems to have replaced his voice box.
Soon he feels tears begin to prick at his eyes.
Link doesn’t really cry much, some would say he doesn’t cry enough. However, when he does choose to cry, he cries.
He feels weak. He wants to do nothing but cover his face. To hide and run away. To be anywhere but right here in front of Zelda. He hates how he is trying to be a shoulder to cry on, to be the strong one in this situation, but ending up too weak to even keep it together. He has to be the worst friend ever.
Through his tears Link watches as Zelda brings her legs close to her chest and wraps her arms around herself. They sit in silence for a while, neither looking at each other. The only sounds that persists around the room being the white noise of the tv and the sniffing of the two Hylians.
Eventually Link speaks up.
“Zelda… you don't have to tell me what's wrong, but could you at least tell me what I can do to make you feel better?”
A beat passes
Zelda sniffs and slowly turns her gaze towards him. “Could you… can you… would it be ok if we hugged?” She asks quietly.
Link feels his heart nearly skip a beat and his mouth goes dry, “Um- yeah, yeah, just uh, here.”
He awkwardly scoots over to Zelda and slowly and deliberately wraps his arms around her shoulders, “Is this alright? I don't want to make you uncomfortable.” Link asks in a hushed tone.
Zelda doesn't move at first, something that makes Link worry that he’s crossed some sort of line. “Zelda if this isn't comfortable to you I can-”
He’s cut off by Zelda throwing her arms around his waist and jumping into his lap.
Link feels his face heat up and he hopes that Zelda can’t feel how his heart is pounding like he ran a marathon. Though Link doubts that Zelda is paying attention to his heartbeat as she is currently sobbing into his shirt. Link slides one of his hands from Zelda's shoulders to her back and begins rubbing small circles in the center as she clings to him like a rock in a sea during a storm.
They stay like that for a while until Zelda finally calms down enough to speak, “I miss her.”
Link lifts his eyes up to meet Zelda’s and feels his heart squeeze at how mesmerizing they are. “Sorry about snapping at you earlier, it's just… well I haven't had the best week and it's just, it's been exhausting,” Zelda says.
Link squeezes Zelda's hand in sympathy and shuffles around a bit to try and make her more comfortable on his lap, “If you're comfortable would you mind telling me what's been happening?” Link asks softly.
“Yes, I think that I should've been more open about this since the start,” Zelda responds.
Zelda takes a deep breath before starting, “Tomorrow will be exactly 5 years since my mom died,” Zelda pauses to swallow a lump in her throat, “My dad and I have made it a tradition that we spend the day together, usually having dinner together, mainly reminiscing about old times with each other, especially with my mom.
“But this year, I just… I don't know why but I've just missed her so much this year and I've just… I've been ignoring my dad because we reminisce about mom a lot when we spend the day together and recently just thinking about my mom has been… painful to say the least,” Zelda pauses for a bit, seemingly to collect her thoughts.
“I feel so selfish though, I mean, my dad is also affected by my moms passing and I'm effectively hiding from him. He's already going through a lot emotionally, and me not talking to him is probably making him worried beyond belief,” Zelda anxiously says before burying her face in her hands.
“Gods, what am I doing?”
A beat passes before Link slowly pushes a loose strand of hair behind her ear and speaks up, “Zelda I'm so sorry you've been having to go through this. If I had known that you've been dealing with this I would have… Hylia I'm such an awful friend.”
“Link! Don't say that!” Zelda says while swatting at his shoulder. “I've been the terrible friend here! I was the one who's been burying themselves in work to distract themselves! I'm the one who can't even face her dad even though she feels really bad about it! I was the one acting like some angsty teen and barely talking to anyone!”
Zelda lets out a huff and rubs her temples. “I've been so horrible to my dad.”
Link wraps his arms tightly around Zelda and lays his chin on her shoulder, “Zelda, can you promise me something?”
“Uh… y-yeah?”
“Promise me that the next time you're going through something like this you'll talk to someone, I don't want you to bottle up your emotions like that again,” Link says
Zelda doesn't respond immediately, leaving Link to worry that he’s said something wrong. That is until he feels Zelda begin to shake against him.
Link leans back in order to face Zelda and finds that, while yes, she is crying again, he's more focused on the fact that she's also smiling, with the most honest and pure smile he's ever seen.
I wish she'd smile like that all the time.
He's such a lovesick idiot.
“Link you are just… Hylia I don't deserve you,” Zelda says in a hoarse voice while slightly shaking her head.
Link feels his heart skip a beat as Zelda sinks into him with a shaky sigh that grazes his neck.
The thought that they've technically been cuddling this entire time crosses his mind and makes his ears go slightly red.
“Alright, I promise that I'll reach out the next time anything pops up,” Zelda whispers.
“Do you also promise that you'll go talk to your dad tomorrow?” Link asks.
“Yes, yes I promise,” Zelda responds.
“Can you also promise to pick a better movie to watch next Saturday? One where the plot isn't on par with a nature documentary?” Link teases with a small grin.
Zelda swats at his shoulder while laughing, “Don't act like your movie picks are all gems. You were the one who originally picked out ‘Shadows of Regrets!”
“That movie was so bad it was good If it wasn't, we wouldn't be making jokes about it,” Link replies matter of factly.
The two of them fall into a small fit of laughter and the mood in the room becomes significantly more upbeat. Link couldn't be any happier about this change in atmosphere, especially since Zelda is smiling again. “It’s getting late. We should probably get to bed, Link” Zelda says after she's calmed down a bit.
“We're not gonna finish the movie?” Link asks.
“Well for one you effectively said it was bad, and two, I gotta get up early in the morning to drive to my dads place since he leaves about an hour from her-” Zelda pauses before she scoots off of Link (leaving Link to mourn the loss of such intimacy) and pulls out her phone, “Shoot I need to call him while I remember to.”
Zelda leaves Link with a muttered ‘sorry’ as she skirts down the apartment’s small hall and into the bathroom to make her call in privacy. Link meanwhile turns off the TV and cleans up the mostly untouched snacks they had laid out. After tidying up everything Link sits back down on the couch and waits for Zelda to return, keeping his mind preoccupied by the fact that they did technically by definition cuddle.
Eventually Link hears the bathroom door open and Zelda reappears in the hall. “I've called him and I've been able to calm his nerves and we've arranged to meet up tomorrow to talk about how we've been doing this past week.”
Link smiles and replies back, “I'm glad for you Zelda, honestly.”
Honestly.
They say they're goodbyes and Link watches as Zelda pulls out of his apartment’s parking lot and out into the street connected to it, following the ever shrinking car until a building covers his view of it and like always Link is left in his apartment, alone.
With a sigh, he heads for his bedroom. Plugging his phone in to charge overnight, Link snuggles into the warmth of the blankets.
He lays there for a bit
His mind is exhausted but at the same time it doesn't seem to want to stop whirring. The two sides of his brain warring over how he didn't actually get to help Zelda till an entire week had passed is causing him turmoil that he really wishes he didn't have to deal with right now.
He lays there for a long while before concluding that this will be yet another sleepless night.
That is until his phone buzzes with a notification.
Link, wanting some form of distraction from the situation in his head, grabs his phone and unlocks it, fully expecting the notification to be something not that interesting. He is completely wrong when he sees that it is a text from Zelda.
She rarely texts at this time of night, not unless it is important, so her texting him at this hour has Links full attention.
Opening the text Link quickly reads what she had sent, hoping it isn't anything bad.
I know it's late and you're probably asleep when you get this, but I just want to say that thank you for being there for me and not just letting me brew in my own self pity and hatred, your kindness means the world to me.
Link blinks when he finishes reading the text.
He then reads it twice.
Then a third.
Then five times.
Then he loses count how many times he reads it.
Link quickly types out a reply when he's finished collecting his scrambled thoughts;
Yeah no problem! I'm happy to help you get out of that slump, also I hope that you and your dad have fun tomorrow :).
That night Link sleeps completely unbothered.