Work Text:
Porch Light
The years hadn’t been the kindest to Malon. There were dark days in Hyrule, a small war with cannonshots that rang out in the night that scared her half to death. Times at the ranch were tumultuous as well, with the Hyrulean Army bringing their horses to be tamed before being sent off to battle. Ingo had finally revealed his true colors, trying to sell the ranch out from under Talon for a quick buck, and coupled with his increasingly concerning behaviors towards Malon, one night her father held him up with a pitchfork and told him if he ever saw him at the ranch again he’d skin him alive. That got the message across. They never saw Ingo again.
The years hadn’t been to Link either, her fairy boy, as she had always called him. When he first started hanging around Lon-Lon Ranch with her, he always had that deep sadness in his eyes. Even from the day he walked back to the ranch. She beamed with happiness at seeing her friend again after a while, but he just looked… haunted. She had always tried her hardest to cheer him up, but no matter how much begged, he wouldn’t ever let in. That she just couldn’t understand the burden he was carrying, despite how badly she wanted to shoulder it from him. He was too young to feel these ways. Even Talon knew that. He had sat her down one night, telling her to just give Link time. Be the friend he needs, and everything would be okay. You won’t run him off, he’s a good lad, Talon said. He always thought highly of Link.
And then, he left one day. I’ll be back, I promise, he had told her, I just have to do this. He insisted, she begged him to take her with him, but he turned her down no matter how much she begged. I’m sorry, Malon, I have to do this alone, he swore. So, she gave him the next best thing- Epona, the horse that was infatuated with him, and a charm that she had been meaning to give him for his birthday. He gave her a sad smile, one that she knew meant he didn’t know if he was ever coming back.
It was a long year. A very long year. Business around the ranch was booming, and Talon relied on her now more than ever, especially with his ailing health. Every day he’d ask when Link was coming back, if he’d written her, and that he just knew Link was gonna marry her. Talon truly adored Link. Malon tried not to let it show both how much she liked the idea, and how much her heart hurt with every passing day of his silence. Regardless, the days passed without Link.
And, one day, he reappeared on Epona. And he was even more haunted than he was when he left. He didn’t speak much, but his eyes told all. But, every time Malon tried to ask, his face would become a mask, he’d smile and tell Malon that just being near her was helping. But it wasn’t exactly the truth. However, this time he stayed for a while.
Link stayed at the ranch, taking the weight off Malon and winning Talon over more with every passing day. Talon exclaimed how Link was one hell of a horse tamer every day, that his work ethic was better than Ingo’s ever was, the best farm hand he’d ever had working at the ranch. He’d tease Malon, telling Link how every day he was gone Malon cried about how much she missed him. He really won Talon over when one autumn night two thieves tried stealing horses from the ranch, and Link scared them off with nothing but a bow and arrow and a mask. Link even graduated from sleeping in the barn on a pile of hay with the cows to sleeping in Ingo’s old room. Malon much preferred it this way. As the years passed, they began renovating the ranch, tearing down the larger fences, making the farmhouse more homely. Link worked day in and day out on home renovations and horse training, earning his keep, teaching Malon things he’d learned in his travels like archery, he’d let her tie his long hair into ponytails or braid it, and he and Malon would lay out in the fields every night, stargazing, naming constellations and making up their own. Just him and her, and the world was slightly better every time he’d hold her.
That was the first time he’d ever opened up to her. The first time he promised that one day he’d marry her.
Malon held onto those words every single day like a lifeline. And she’d tease him every time he’d aggravate her, she’d remind him you said you were gonna marry me, fairy boy, time to start acting like it! She knew that they were just dumb teenagers, she knew that he wouldn’t stay around the ranch forever, but he lit the fire of Din inside of her with the way he treated her. Sometimes, he’d take her out for a night in Castle Town, using the little money Talon paid him to treat her to a nice dinner, sometimes he’d take her out to Lake Hylia for a nice relaxing day by the water. But Link could never allow himself to relax. Something called to him. And every day, the calling got stronger and stronger. He’d locked up that black and gold sword and scary screaming-face shield he came back with as soon as he got back to the ranch and hadn’t touched them since, but one day she caught him sitting in front of the open chest, staring at the weapons.
You don’t want to stay here. This isn’t your home, Malon had told him, thinking she’d figured it out.
You are my home, Link said, I just can’t stop the calling.
Talon’s death hit Malon hard. He’d come down with consumption, at least that’s what the doctor had said, and it took him quickly. He’d left Malon the ranch, and on his last day he’d cracked a joke that Link was allowed to stay too, as long as he took her hand. Visitors from every corner of the realm came to visit the ranch, to offer their condolences for her father and to tell her just what a great man he was. It even warranted a visit from the Queen Regent of Hyrule. Malon saw the look he and the queen had shared, a somber, knowing look. It almost looked like the queen pitied him. She didn’t ask. Link wouldn’t have told her anyways. She could never hope to understand the tempest that was Link’s mind, but by Hylia she would give her last breath to try. After that Link moved into the room with her. And she held him through every nightmare he had, comforted him when whatever haunted past he had came back for more.
I don’t deserve you, Malon, he breathed. You're all I have in this world.
Don’t you dare ever say that. I would do anything in this world for you, she had insisted.
Winters always hit Link the hardest. The days were shorter. The nights were longer. Link’s sadness was amplified. He drowned himself in work around the ranch, sun-up to sun-down, sharing meals and a bed with Malon, and she could maybe count the words he’d speak a day on both hands. He’d fall asleep before her every night. His bruised eyes betrayed him. She knew when he’d get up at night, to sneak out of their room and sit on the porch, staring into the nothingness. She caught him one night, begging him to come back in before he got frostbite sitting in a blizzard. Every time he’d wake up he’d gasp like there was some sort of demon in the next room, scaring him. He’d scared her one night, jumping out of bed after a nightmare. She’d never seen him so scared, and the guilt on his face for scaring her made him feel even worse.
One night, she’d gone out to Castle Town, to a tavern, where she procured a bottle of spiced Goron whiskey for more rupees than it was probably worth, and brought it home. He’d started to the ranch home, too. That night they shared the bottle, alternating taking healthy swigs of the burning liquor, and though she felt guilty for getting him drunk (especially since he wasn’t one to imbibe, which she was beyond thankful for), the sadness seemed to wash away for just one night, and the old Link came back to her for just a little bit.
And he’d never kissed her with as much heat as he had that night, either.
As he slept on her chest, Malon brushed out his long blonde hair with her fingers. She pressed a soft kiss to his head. Though he never would admit it, he slept the best like this. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. She simply stared at him, the moonlight illuminating their bedroom, and while her heart swelled at her fairy-boy asleep on her, her mind was plagued by one thought:
Are you truly happy, Link? Are you truly happy with me? Here, in our home on the ranch?
Her prayers to Hylia weren’t for health, or wealth, or any other wordly desire that Malon could think of. She had almost everything she ever wanted, except for the one thing she prayed for: for Link to finally be washed away of his demons.
The spring came, and with it, word of a tournament of swordsmen being held in Castle Town. Malon had encouraged Link to enter, thinking it’d be good for him to get off the ranch for a little bit, get back with sword in hand. He’d always seemed to be good at that. The day came, and they closed the ranch and rode to Castle Town, and Malon watched proudly as her fairy-boy handily beat every opponent the tournament had thrown at him. The crowd even gave him a standing ovation as he bested the last challenger. He seemed happier than he had in years at the acknowledgment. The prize was just money, but nevertheless it was good for them. It was good for Link. For weeks afterwards he carried himself differently, a satisfaction settling in his bones.
But satisfaction never lasted forever. And as the memory of the tournament faded, Link’s hollowness returned.
That changed when one day, a man rode to the ranch, asking for Link specifically. He was looking for a sellsword, someone to ride with him, bringing justice to the roads of Hyrule that were starting to become dangerous for travelers. He offered Link a massive sword, one he claimed had been forged in the fires of Death Mountain itself by the best Goron blacksmith in all of Hyrule, and a set of silver and gold armor that would offer decent protection in battle. The man called the sword a gift to the best damn swordsman he’d ever seen, but the armor required Link to start working with him.
That night they stood in their den, holding each other. Link’s hands were on her tear-stained cheeks. She knew the choice he was going to make.
Malon… I need to do this, he said. I wish I could understand why I do, and why I feel this way, but I can’t. I have to do this.
I know, Malon would say between sobs, I know you do, Link. I just want you to be happy.
I’m happy here with you, on the ranch, but I need to do this. It’s for a good cause, Link insisted, rubbing away the tears. He was lying about the cause. It was for him, to try and quell the need within him. The need that had existed within him since the first time he showed back up at the ranch all those years ago.
I know, Link. I know you’re going. Just please, be careful, come home to me, she had made him swear he’d come back. I love you, fairy-boy.
And then, she was left alone. Days turned to weeks, which turned to months, of Link being on the road. He’d write her, telling of how the far-lands of Hyrule were truly the wild, governed by those who lived there rather than the crown. And, after what felt like forever, one day he rode back to the ranch. Malon had rushed out to meet him, and he swept her off her feet, but she took one look at his eyes and knew that nothing had really changed. He still had that sad look in his eyes. She traced a finger down a new scar down the side of his face, a jagged red line. She couldn’t stop the tears as they fell down her face. It’s okay, my love, I’m still here, Link insisted.
And while they had some good days together, Link would eventually ride off again, promising Malon that he’d return as soon as he could, that when he was done with this, he was going to take her somewhere much nicer than she could even imagine. Just like it always had, he smiled, but his sad eyes betrayed the look he was trying to give her. Malon prayed to Hylia every night that he would come home safe, she started leaving a lit lantern on the porch for Link to find his way home to her. And every morning that she woke up alone, extinguishing the lantern’s flame tore her open a little bit more.
It was like that for a long year. Suitors even came to the ranch, vying for her hand, but Malon shooed them away, telling them that her fiance was a sellsword, and he’d kick their ass just for trying her. Link would come, and just as quickly would be gone again, nothing really changing about him. He still carried that weight. Malon knew that he had carried it for so long that it had become a part of him. But the flames between them never extinguished. Every time when he was home felt like the first time, and every time he left felt like the first time.
And every night Malon would leave the porch lights on, and every morning she’d cry when she’d turn them off.
How long can you go on like this?- a friend had asked her one day. Don’t you get tired of waiting?
For him, I’d wait forever, Malon would reply.
She stayed strong for years. Once a simple teenage farm girl, becoming a woman, trying to shoulder the weight of the world for a boy that didn’t want to burden her with his issues for her sake. They had disagreements, but they never fought, and Link treated her like she was the queen of his entire world. But she still couldn’t figure out what demon tortured his every moment. And no matter how much pain it brought her, how many tears she shed, she knew that Link was doing the best he could, and that if he really knew how much she cared about him he’d feel guilty because he felt like he had to bear that weight alone. And if he ever showed up one day, and told her he’d explain everything, she’d listen no matter how much it didn’t make sense to her.
One of his letters she got, he’d written about how much he missed her. And that he’d been especially sad lately for no particular reason. This journey had been hard on them, both the physical and mental toll. She knew all of these things already. It seemed like when she slept, their souls bridged, and she could feel the extent of their separation. And she still would leave that lantern lit on the porch, praying every night that this night would be the one that he came home to her and he stayed forever. She dreamed of a future together, where he was happy and didn’t have to leave to find his soul selling his talents as a swordsman, where they’d raise a family together on Lon-Lon Ranch. And on her darkest nights, she still held faith that soon he would be back to hold her away, a single embrace washing away all that's wrong in her world.
Another week passed, of the same song and dance. Light on at night, light off in the morning. She hadn’t heard from him in a little while. Her body tried to fear for the worst, that he may be dead in a ditch somewhere, but her mind knew that Link was too good to die to some bandits. Malon stared out the window that night as a winter rainstorm blew through, sipping a cup of hot cider. Her mind was on him.
Where are you fairy-boy? When are you coming home?
She lit the lantern on the porch and locked the house up for the night, stepping upstairs and crawling into bed. Thunder and lightning broke the sky, and she fell asleep to the sound of rain hitting the roof. But tonight felt different.
In the dead of night, a horse trotted up to the farmhouse. Sitting atop it, was the fairy-boy Malon so pined for. He pulled his cloak off, smiling softly at the lit lantern on the porch. He knew she had left it for him, to let him know he was welcome home and expected. He fished into his pocket, pulling out the small box he had bought in some random shore village far off. Link thumbed it open, looking at the golden band inside of it. She’ll love that, his partner assured him. He unlocked the door and slipped inside as quietly as he could, but as he stood in the foyer and unstrapped his armor and sword, he saw his red-haired beauty at the top of the stairs smiling at him. Link, caught red-handed with the small box in his hand, returned the smile.