Chapter Text
Tri and Zelda had a theory that Link’s cloak had worked so well as a disguise because the guards paid more attention to clothes than faces, so therefore anyone wearing her princess outfit might be able to get into the castle. And it turns out she and Link wear the same size of clothes…
“You know, you probably don’t need more than the outfit. I mean, the guards got fooled by an imposter guard who’d just borrowed some gear and he didn’t have much training until later.”
Link grinned at her, “But how often do you get to give princess deportment lessons? Please?” He attempted to flutter his eyelashes at Zelda and she laughed. “More seriously, though, I don’t want to end up in the dungeons as a suspected echo and I do want to be successful.”
Zelda tried not to remember his echo or hers and tried to keep the conversation light. “I’d break you out, don’t worry,” she said, hoping he hadn’t noticed her pause. (He probably had.) “But practice sounds fun. Your turn to be the student!”
She started by teaching Link the sort of glide-walk she’d have used for more formal occasions. If he was going to wear her formal regalia it would look natural and familiar to the guards and castle staff.
“Hm, that’s definitely a glide, but I think your stride is too long? And don’t lean over, it makes you look more like you’re stalking something.” She had a brief moment where she imagined him moving like that in the cat outfit and, oh, hm, that was less adorable and more...
Link had absolutely noticed her trailing off and her reddened cheeks. He gestured at her cheeks teasingly, “Where did your brain go?”
“Erm. Outfits!” Quick, she had to distract him before he asked any more questions. “Um. Maybe you should try the dress now? It might help make the right stride length obvious.”
“Yes! Finally!”
The dress was definitely distraction enough. He gave it an experimental twirl, grinning, then trailed his fingers gently over his sides and his hips, feeling the fabric. Zelda suddenly wished she was the one wearing the dress as she watched how gentle he was. She lost herself for a moment, imagining running her own hands down his sides. Imagining those gentle touches running down her body instead. Had she ever worn this dress in front of him? Then he was swaying back and forth, watching how the skirt moved, listening to the swishing noise it made. She swallowed a gulp as he sashayed away from her, moving his hips to see how it felt. Was it narcissistic of her to find this attractive when he looked quite a bit like her from behind? He was so confident the way he was moving, though. Had she ever moved her hips like that? If she did, would she have the same effect on him as he was having on her?
Then he was back to twirling, watching the fabric billow around him, and stopping to watch how it twisted, patting it down with his hands to feel the air poof out. He looked up at her and grinned, stepped forwards to take her hands, and then they were both twirling and laughing and giddy from the joy of it.
Zelda hoped she’d think of this moment every time she wore this dress.
Eventually, dizzy, they stopped to take a breath and try “princess training” again. It turned out wearing the dress did solve the stride length problem pretty quickly since Link could tell when he hit the edge of the skirt and adjust naturally.
“Okay, that’s definitely better, Link, but you still need to work on your posture. Let me show you.”
Zelda slipped her arm around the small of his back and pressed a hand to his shoulder, moving his chest up. It wasn’t much different from the many times he’d helped her adjust her sword fighting stance, really. But with her ear so close to his face, she could hear the small intake of breath he made as she splayed her hand across his shoulder and her little finger passed over the neckline of the dress and made contact with the bare skin of his collarbone. Mm, maybe she was having an effect on him too. She mentally shook herself. He’d been so professional teaching her how to use her sword, she should at least try not to grope him while he was learning to move like a princess. But she didn’t move her hand.
“So you need to stand as tall as possible, shoulders back more… There! Take a breath and then relax them a bit. Now let’s try moving forwards.” She stepped with him, keeping her arm at his back and hand at his shoulder so he could feel what she meant. “I think you’re getting it. Oh, wait, I forgot the diadem.” Zelda released him to pull out her circlet and placed it on his head. She wondered if there should have been more ceremony for that, crowning Link as a princess. Even temporarily. Oh well, maybe another time. “With this on, you’ll have to be careful about how you move your head. No sudden movements, and you need to keep the posture straight. Remember, you’re a princess now. You have people to keep you safe, you have to project that you trust them, so you can’t keep scanning around like you’re looking for threats. Keep the eye and head movements small, although you can use your other senses.”
“You move very differently in the wilds,” Link commented.
“Yeah, it was weird at first. Whole new skillset to pay attention to the world around me and be prepared to fight, as you know. Okay, so the last thing you’ll have to practice is a polite head nod at all the guards. I don’t think it’s worth you trying to learn my voice, but normally I’d at least acknowledge them even if I didn’t have time for a chat.”
Zelda demonstrated, Link tried to mimic her but he tipped his head too far and the diadem slid forwards before getting stuck in his hair.
“Ow, ow”
“Hold on Link, I think it’s caught in your hair. Let me.” She conjured a bed echo behind him and pushed him gently backwards, “Just step backwards gently, I’ve put a bed down so you can sit.”
Link started to laugh then winced as it jostled his hair. “Always beds.”
“Look, you’re lucky we need to keep my dress clean or you’d find something decidedly less pleasant under you instead. Have you ever sat on an ignizol?”
“Ow. Laughing. Bad.” He sat without even trying to check that what was behind him.
Zelda carefully extracted the diadem from Link’s hair, trying very hard not to pull out more strands but some of them were definitely a lost cause. “Oh Link, I’m sorry, your hair is such a mess now. Here, let me fix it for you.” She knelt behind him on the bed and started slowly untangling his hair, being as gentle as she could. “You know, I’ve only brushed horse hair lately. Yours is so soft and fine in comparison.” She eventually got the diadem free and placed it down on the bed, then ran her hand over Link’s hair again. So soft, and so golden in the sunlight.
Perhaps she could have been more efficient, but as she slowly worked her fingers through the tangled bits, Zelda felt herself get into a flow, watching the blonde hair under her hands. She hadn’t thought of hair brushing as particularly intimate, since she often had help from maids, but this felt different. It felt like trust. As the snarled bits finally gave way under her hands, she gently massaged his scalp around where the hairs had been pulled, making soothing noises. She listened carefully as his breathing changed when she applied pressure, first worrying that she might hurt him by accident, then slowly realizing that as he was relaxing some of those breaths were carrying a little vibration. It made her wonder: if he hadn’t been silent for so long, would this have been a hum, a moan? Was he forgetting that he could make those noises or had he never learned to do so? Or would have been quiet either way? She had a sudden urge to press herself against his back to she could feel the vibration and try to elicit an actual noise out of him. But instead, she kept going, longer than she intended, listening to him breathe, finger combing the golden strands into place and running her fingers along his scalp.
Eventually, her fingers started to tire and she carefully worked his hair into an approximation of her hair style, then regretfully pulled her hands away.
“Ready to try again?”
Link made a noise halfway between a hum and a groan, and she smiled where he couldn’t see, delighted to have gotten a noise out of him after all.
Zelda got up from kneeling behind him and picked up her diadem, walking over to stand in front of him. “Your crown, my liege,” she did her best to stay serious and in character as she placed the diadem back on Link’s head, then swept herself down on one knee in a deep genuflect.
She was rewarded with a chuckle as Link stood up then placed his hand on her shoulder, “Arise, my knight,” he intoned in a voice matched to hers.
Zelda raised her eyes to his. For a moment, time stopped and she felt like something was resonating across time, legends of knights and princesses of old. Then she rose, and they paused for another long moment before they both dissolved into giggles.
***
Bonus Link Internal Monologue:
We’re really doing this. I’m going to be the best princess! This is going to be so fun.
Ugh, should not have mentioned our echoes. Poor Zelda.
Okay, gliding walk. Like walking on ice gliding, or like moving stealthily or something else? Oh dear, no, I’m definitely not doing this right but why is her face getting so red? She is definitely thinking *something* but I can’t figure out what would make her so red.
Dress time!
Wow, this is even prettier than I thought it would be. Spin! Whee! What is this fabric? Got to be careful lest my calluses catch on it. Let’s see how it feels like to move in it. Surprisingly noisy if you really swoosh it. Swooshing is fun. Oooh, can I swoosh and walk? Hm, it’s a bit heavier than I thought it would be, maybe exaggerate the motion… yup, got the swoosh. Swoosh swoosh swoosh.
Okay, need to try spinning. Oh, this is fun! Poof! It picks up so much air. Zelda, come spin with me! I love seeing her face lit up with joy like that. I bet mine looks the same. I could do this forever.
Oooh, dizzzzzzzzzzy. Okay, maybe not forever. Deep breaths. Time quit playing and go back to learning to move like a princess.
Huh, the glide-walk thing is constrained by the width of the skirt. I guess that makes sense. Keep it nice and smooth, no swooshing. Pity. I like swooshing. Oh, apparently I’m still not right though. Oh, arm on back, curve up… oh! Her fingertips on my skin. How does she handle it when I adjust her like this? It’s, uh, wow. I didn’t realize. Or is my collarbone just way more sensitive than I knew and it’s never come up? Would it be weird to ask her to touch my collarbone later? Or somewhere else on my chest? For science? Goddesses, take this seriously. She took you seriously when you were teaching and didn’t go all breathless. I wouldn’t have minded if she was a little breathless I guess, but I guess she didn’t know me that well when we started sword lessons. Maybe I could make them more distracting now? No, wait, don’t think about sexy sword lesson plans. Now is not the time. Never is the time, too dangerous at her skill level. Maybe I should ask her to teach me to dance or something else that includes touching and less danger. Focus on the now, though. Uh, think about posture, concentrate. Shoulders back, breathe.
Hm, okay, this is harder than I thought. I knew it would be a whole new body language, but I’m not sure I really understood how that was going to feel. So controlled. Regal. Strong but more tight than fighting stances. But still flow-y? Is that a word? I wasn’t expecting to have to keep my head so still. I didn’t even realize how differently she has to move to fight and ride and everything. Now I’m going to have to watch how she moves to see all the differences.
Ow ow ow. That was definitely not the right move. Apparently I need crown training.
Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh. But she’s solving problems with beds again!
Ow. Need to not move while the hair is stuck.
Ow. Ow. Oh. Ohhh. Ohhhhh. That’s nice. No wonder the horses like it so much. Don’t stop. Mmmm. Oh, I don’t think you do that for the horses. Mmmmmm. I didn’t know I liked this. When was the last time anyone touched my hair? Probably it was Lueburry the last time I was injured. Maybe I only like this much because it’s her, though. Feels so good. Oh, don’t stop. Don’t stop. Please, more. More. Mmmmm.
Mmmm. So nice. Need to ask her to do that again, somehow. Mmm.
Oh, right, we were actually supposed to be practicing. I guess, if I have to… I’m so relaxed now that I’m not sure I can go back to being regal. But I’ll try.
Mmm, she would make such an excellent knight. So powerful with those echoes. And she’s got so many options, way more weaponry than most knights have to learn. I’d trust her to protect princess-me any day. I guess I *am* trusting her to protect me on this mission. My clever, beautiful knight. My Zelda.