Extended Summary: In this modern Hyrule, the government still functions as a monarchy and much of the medieval customs are still practiced in this day and age, such as arranged marriage. When a member of the Hyrulean Royal Family falls ill, Crown Princess Zelda is unwillingly pushed into such situation. To the to-be couple's surprise, Princess Zelda will be wed to a seemingly random commoner named Link. Both husband and wife aren't exactly ecstatic, however, Link makes a honest effort to know the princess, in spite of her cold, apathetic attitude. Meanwhile, a young lady—whose appearance has a strange likeness to the princess—and her guardian arrives in Hyrule, both with their own plans to take back what they believe are rightfully theirs.

1

. . .

. .

.

"Link."

"Promise me."

"Keep this with you..."

"... Don't you ever lose it."

.

Blinking back the liquid heat in his eyes, Link had to take three seconds to exhale through gritted teeth. It was a calming exercise primarily used before he was to fight and it was still applicative to his current condition. After his inner battle had passed, Link's hand moved and lowered the hourglass into his sock drawer, then closing it. Technically, it was only a half of an hourglass, however his half contained the countless grains of sand. The metallic base that was attached to the sand-filled orb tingled with a cold numbness against Link's fingers, which automatically pushed the memory of his grandfather's cold fingers into his mind.

His blue eyes closed as he forced the urge of his grief to quell. With a small sigh, Link blinked several times to be completely rid of it. Just as he finally thought to be at peace, his bedroom door opened with an unnecessary slam.

"LINK!"

At once, Link turned around with a bright smile, only to be collided to the ground by a rowdy group of children. Underneath a pile of arms and legs, Link struggled to laugh loudly, "Wha-What did we say about running into people?"

"It's okay if you don't get caught."

At this point, Link was able to sit up with his elbows against the floor. Attempting to be civil, Link laughed, "That's not true, Mido." In response, the child only sneered as his accomplices pulled at Link's arms and legs. The struggle was becoming real, causing Link to grab the three of them together and settled them beside him. Grinning, he bellowed, "Repeat after me!"

"Running into people is okay!"

"But only if the people say!"

"If the people say, yes, you may!"

"Then running into people is okay!"

The know-it-all brothers burst into laughter at the silliness of the rhyme just as someone knocked on Link's open door. Lifting his small smile over to the newcomer, Link recognized the individual standing beside Mido to be his younger sister.

"Okay, everyone," she called, clapping her hands, "let's join the others for pancakes!"

With that, Mido was the first to vanish with the brothers at his heels.

Her hand over her eyes, she grinned and turned to him. "Works like a charm."

He laughed. "Thanks, Aryll."

"Breakfast is ready though." Her hands on her hips, Aryll walked over to Link with the identical sea-colored gaze fixated onto him. She removed one hand from her hip, reaching out to her brother as an offering. Link accepted and pulled himself up. "Big brother, you keep forgetting to lock your door."

Shrugging, Link strode over to his open disarrayed closet. "They'll manage to get in anyway."

Aryll rubbed her temple and sighed. "Why do I feel like you're right?"

Link could only laugh in response. Aryll's giggles mirror his when they both knew they were often the victims of the children's crafty shenanigans. Thinking of their past pranks, Link was reaching for a sweatshirt, and shuddered involuntary, almost dropping it. After he fitted the sweatshirt on, Link just noticed that Aryll's hand was heading toward his direction, which had him retaliating by catching her wrist. In response, she snorted incredulously and simply moved her hand upward to flick his forehead.

"Ow! That hurts!"

"You baby, big brother." His fingers rubbed above his left eyebrow. Aryll took advantage of that moment to edge closer into his personal space. As Link was about to comment on just that, his sister commented on the redness of his eyes, "Have you been crying again?"

At once, he turned away. Aryll waited for him, however, crossing her arms expectantly. Without meeting the inquisitive gaze of his sister, Link smoothly slid past her and shouldered his school bag on his way to the door. It would appear that Link would leave without a word, however Aryll heard him say, clear as day, "I think the pancakes are calling to me."

.

If he was being honest to himself, Link felt just the slightest ounce of guilt that he had disregarded Aryll's question. He knew that his little sister had mostly asked out of concern. The death of their grandfather had burdened him with grief and more so with responsibility as though his whole world had shattered upon his back. Yet Link had no moment to mourn. There was still the fact that he had up to continue bearing the larger shards of what life had been left behind.

Link knew Aryll needed to prepare for middle school, yet, glancing back, he could see that she was busy coaxing the Fado twins to the dinner table.

With his little sister.

"Good morning, dearest."

"Mornin', Grandma," Link greeted back just as cheerfully. It appeared that his elderly guardian was alone in the kitchen while she was cooking her umpteenth pancake. Seeing that, Link frowned and immediately scooted next to her, swiping the spatula from her weathered fingers. "You should take it easy, Grandma! You know what the doctor said."

With his grandmother.

She smiled sweetly with squinty, sea-colored eyes and patted her grandson's arm, attempting to move him aside. "Don't you have school, sweetie?"

"Oh, shoot!" Quickly, Link shoved the sleeve up his arm and checked his wristwatch. "I'm running late! Uhh, Grandma, I'll help with this right after school, I promise!" Just as quick, he bent down to kiss her wrinkled cheek, stole a few slices of freshly baked pancakes, and hurried over to the head of the dining room table. "Listen up, all you squirts!

Eight children looked up from their pancakes with wide, innocent eyes.

"Don't be giving Grandma a hard time, okay? You guys remember what the doctor said! Grandma wants to live a long life, long enough to see all of you get accepted into great, loving homes! So all you squirts gotta promise me that you're going to do whatever Grandma says, right?"

A few nodded in silent agreement, most burst into tears, and Mido threw his syrup-spotted fork at Link. That did not deter him. Rather Link wore a great grin and threw down his pancakes-less hand onto the center of the table. The children lowered their curious stares to the table where Link's fingers were folded into a fist with the exception of his pinky finger.

"C'mon, kiddos, promise me!"

From behind, Link could hear his grandmother smiling in sight of when each and every children—including Mido after an encouraging look from the elderly lady—had crawled onto the dining table to hook their pinky with Link's.

And especially with the orphanage.

.

It was especially dangerous to scarf down pancakes while riding a bicycle, but not for Link. After years of running late, he had mastered the arts of cycling without hands. In the matter of minutes, Link had arrived on campus with his breakfast completely out of sight, but even with that, he could never—not even for the sake of his own life—never could he make it to school before the late bell.

"HEY LINK!"

"Argrah!" Link emitted a sort of strangled screech when his fingers fumbled with his bike lock. He was debating whether to risk having his only mode of transportation stolen when a female student nudged him aside, before securing the bike lock immediately after. "Sweet Nayru, you saved me four hundred rupees, Ciela."

Tucking back a flaxen curl, Ciela smiled and rose to her feet. "Anytime, Link."

"LLOOOOOOOOOOKKKKK!"

"Oh my Gods!" he yelled. "Shut up, Navi!"

"LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSTTTTEEENN!"

"You're seriously joining her, Proxi?!"

"Mr. Forria! Is that you, Mr. Forria? You late again with your groupie?!"

A curse sounded from underneath Link's breath. Beside him, Ciela waved the sisters over to the bicycle racks. The three female students giggled as they joined Link who hunkered behind his bicycle. Although there was no need, Link lowered his voice to ask, "Have the gates closed already?" All three nodded knowingly with some sort of pitied smile directed at Link. Ignoring that, he only offered his elbows and declared, "Are you girls ready?"

Beaming, Ciela latched onto one arm as Navi and Proxi were willing to share the other. With that, they sacrificed several steps backwards in the direction of the officers, and then took off with a running start. All at once, the four of them lunged onto and over the brick wall effortlessly as though born with wings, before landing safely onto the grounds of the school. The scolding of the officers increased in volume, however by the time they checked the other side of the gates, they could only groan,

"Why doesn't the school build higher walls?!"

.

"Were you guys late again?"

Three out of four shook their heads as the only male only laughed uproariously to drown out the mutual disappointment.

"We were waiting for Link," Navi replied and Proxi nodded, supporting her sister's statement. "Like, it's no difference to us since the tardy-guards saw Link's sweatshirt. You know, the only one with his last name in big bolded letters."

Link slightly dropped his jaw in realization that his last name was indeed emblazoned onto his back. Hurriedly, he removed his sweatshirt and smoothed down his tie and school blazer, which displayed his first name on the left side. Seeing that, the fourth female cackled with her smug stare directed toward him. "How many times has it been since you arrived before the late bell?"

"I could count it on at least one hand. Maybe two. Most likely one." The girls tittered in amused giggles which had Link slightly huffing. The irritation shifted his mouth into a scowl as he retorted, "It's not like truancy is any better, Tatl."

"Oh, but then you'd never get to guess what I heard from my latest escapade from this hellhole." Tatl lured the girls into the entertainment of gossip, which never failed as a conversation topic. Her gold eyes brightened, flickering between each of her friends. "I'm so serious, take a stab, ladies." With a roll of her blond head, she tacked on, "And Link."

"Girls in the back!" Link thought he was exempt as the others turned in their instructor's direction. "This is the time for appreciating the oil paints, not the moving of your mouths! Pick up those brushes!"

Just as the instructor focused elsewhere, Tatl used one hand to flip her off, but for the other, she raised her thinnest paintbrush, dipped the colorless tip into the black paint, and wrote onto her exposed arm; theres no takers?

With her arm out, Navi was the first to guess; That one Sophomore actress is pregnant?

Everyone drew a sort of yelling emoticon onto their wrists as Tatl also wrote; navi u idiot honey had the baby. its a girl btw.

I'll have to congratulate her next class, Proxi replied on the palm of her hand; Is it that Link led our sword fighting team into Regionals?

rlly? thts not evn close but uh GOLD STAR captain tardiness.

Link was about to yell at Tatl through some choice written words, however she instigated an applause with Navi, Ciela, and Proxi. Now, he felt somewhat embarrassed when the other classmates were stealing glances in his direction. Relief flooded him when the clapping cut off for Ciela's answer; There's another student who looks exactly like me?

wasnt tht a dream you had? goddesses u ladies r hella lame.

All at once, Navi, Ciela, and Proxi began to jab Tatl with their paintbrushes. Link purposely watched Tatl flail around on a countdown of sixty seconds, before he steadied her spotted arm and wrote; You didn't even give us a hint.

"Too weak!" Tatl whisper-shouted and swatted away Proxi's paintbrush. "I'll just tell you!"

Momentarily, she looked over her easel for the instructor who was notorious for taking naps during class time. Now was one of those times. Seeing that, Tatl smirked and directed her gaze over to her friends and then over to Link. They watched as she grasped his arm, pulled up his blazer sleeve, and wrote in tiny letters;

Hyrule is gonna have a new prince.

WHAT. WHAT? WHAAAT? waaaaaaatt?

"Stop writing the same thing!"

The girls found it hilarious that Link had to wretch his arm away which was more or less covered with the scribbled variation of the single pronoun. However, he knew that his was not as worse as Tatl's speckled arms, almost appearing like cuccopox spots. There was also the fact that the girls were nice enough to make him a damp rag; that way, he was convinced to stay in the classroom as Tatl was prepared to expand on the explosion she had just unleashed onto her friends.

"So the Queen is pregnant?" Navi started, reaching into her satchel. Her sky-blue stare flickered into her bag and then focused onto Tatl as she pulled out a packaging of biscuit sticks. "I'm the closest one then?"

Tatl pointed at the snack. "Is this strawberry?"

"It's milk!" Link dropped his jaw at the sight of it, which encouraged Proxi and Ciela to shove several into his open mouth. "Iluffmeelk!"

"We all know, loser," Tatl sighed and slipped one biscuit into her fingers. "But no, Navi, you're not close because the Queen of Hyrule isn't pregnant." The expression of disappointment Navi wore in response had Tatl snickering, however the others verbally and physically pushed Tatl to continue. "But the princess will eventually get there."

They figured it out.

"Oh!" Proxi tapped at her chin with a biscuit. "But who in Hyrule would marry her?"

A hand rose in Link's direction, but to signal that he was still chewing on five sticks at once. Moments passed before the girls listened to him swallow and then say, "Couldn't you girls ask her? I mean you all are in the same fifth period, right?" The girls responded with expertly narrowed eyebrows. "Am I missing something? I'm definitely missing something."

Ciela attempted to fill him in. "She's very honest which hurts more than it helps."

"Not only that," Proxi said, "she gives off these really bad vibes. So toxic."

"And that's not good for my complexion," Navi sighed and rubbed her cheek.

A round of girlish laughter sounded from the group. But for Link, he did not understand why he was frowning. He smiled then when Tatl continued, "I heard this from the princess herself." Immediately, the girls opened their mouths, but Tatl knew exactly what they all wanted to ask and spoke onward, "Well, no, she didn't tell me. Like, I was make a hole in the back fence with the cutters I stole from the sculpting room, right? And then the Goddesses decided that the princess should be on her phone, like ten feet away from me. Oh, okay, you who never makes it to school on time?"

Link didn't know why he raised his hand, but he instantly regretted it. "Did you return the wire cutters?"

Rolling her eyes, Tatl reached into her handbag. "Here." She tossed the tool towards Link who caught it easily. "I owe you one, bro."

As Link shrugged and placed that aside, Proxi whined, "And then?"

"And then!" Tatl's voice rose with the brightness of her mischievous smirk. "I just kept cutting away since she didn't see me anyway. Plus her voice was louder than the beautiful sounds of chain links snapping, and loud enough for me to hear. At first, I thought she was talking to her mom, 'cause she just kept on like yelling and repeating 'Impa'—whoever that was—just like over and over again, until the princess said something like—"

"—'I don't care how, but you must help me prevent this arranged marriage from happening!'"

Chewing on the end of a biscuit stick, Ciela thought aloud, "It's not up to her though."

"I know, right? Bummer." Tatl appeared a slight bit disheartened, before her expression lit up with a bared-teeth grin. "For her! Arranged marriages have been going on for centuries! What makes her think that she can cancel this blesses occasion?" Watching Tatl, Link wondered if she was the type to become hyped over weddings and such. He didn't bet on it. "I heard school gets canceled when there's a royal wedding. So this better go on without a hitch, or I'm coming to school that day and I'm gonna put a ring on the royal pain myself."

Strangely enough, Link wanted to retort in the princess's defense. It was a sort of impulse for him when the words had somehow gathered there in his throat. However, he never knew what those words were since the instructor burst into class, beating him to it.

.

For Link, the day passed just like any other until the very end. The last period of every student's schedule was saved for whatever passion the student was interested in. Link's particular high school was a sort of prestigious academy divided into two distinct categories; one was either a student specialized in the arts or a student specialized in the athletics.

The girls were majoring in the art of dance as Link was an athletics student, particularly the captain of the sword fighting team.

"It's too bad you can't dance with us, loser." Tatl yawned. Then her lips set into a scoff when Link mockingly rolled his eyes and she whacked his arm. "That much sass is not needed in our learning environment."

Link simply shrugged. "I'll see you girls after practice."

With that, the girls all shouted their own variation of goodbye before running down the hall towards the dance studios. For a moment, Link watched them and chuckled to himself. Then he was off by himself in the opposite direction which led towards the gymnasium. Once he made it there, he realized he had forgotten something.

"Damn," he muttered, staring at the storage room doors. "Ciela has my keys."

But first, Link decided to leave his school bag and his sweatshirt so the sword fighting members would know that their captain had not been tardy. After that, he had to turn around and head toward the dance department, however, his memory was incredibly horrible of remembering which specific studio the girls frequented. Since he couldn't think of any other ideas, Link opted to disturb every single studio. That turned out to be a terrible idea. After apologizing to the fourth one, he was about to try the next room, before he realized something important.

"Why am I a moron?" Link mumbled to himself as he pulled out his phone.

Hey, Ciela, do you have my keys?

After his message sent, he looked up and noticed the next room wasn't a studio. Instead, it was a regular classroom with a blackboard and desks and two people staring into each other. Link could have ignored them if he had the self-control. He blamed the years of listening to the girls' trivial gossip when he found himself casually leaning against the slightly ajar door.

"Is your father going to get better?"

His azure eyes squinting, Link could not place a name to the male student. As for the female, a blurry word popped into his head and became a slight clearer when she spoke, "It's not for certain. That's why I need you to do something for me."

"What something is that, Zelda?"

'Oh, right,' Link thought and tilted his head. 'I've definitely heard that name before.'

His stare focused back onto the couple as Zelda took a step forward. The two were already so close; the male was somewhat tall, even when perched on a desk and she was tall enough to stand before him, eye-to-eye. Link's jaw gaped when Zelda leaned forward, resting her dainty fingers onto the male's crossed arms, and halted her mouth a breaths away from his. Lifting his gaze skyward, Link knew this was the moment where he should take his leave. He was in the middle of doing so when he heard from behind,

"Be my king."

And then bells were sounding from the phone in Link's hand.

.

. .

. . .

[tbc]

ha ha ha what's that about zelink.

for touya b/c here are dorky Link, smooth(-ish?) Link, and awkward Link all at once. plus this is a sorta high school au ha ha ha. a note to other readers, this is based from the manhwa/drama called Goong aka Princess Hours. I haven't actually finished either, but this adaption will stray from their plot with the drama scandals and more "why do I do this?" it does get pretty funny and romantic, it'll also get pretty dark, but for the most part, Prince Hourglass is mostly about a confused little Link who wants to choose his own path, instead of the ones others have decided for him, such as "Prince Hourglass." neat-o, isn't it.

tell me how it is.

~ loveandzelink