Author's Note: In honor of all the Zelda related announcements at E3, I've decided to do a post Twilight Princess fanfic! For those of you here hoping for updates on my stories "The Call" or "Through the Eyes of a Hatter", I promise I'm still working on them, I haven't forgotten! This one was just begging to come out, lol.

Please review if you enjoyed! Comments feed my ravenous muse!

Fate's Expectations

Chapter 1: Grey

The breaking of dawn over Hyrule castle found Princess Zelda not in her bed, but out on her balcony, watching a young man dressed all in green saddle his russet mare in the courtyard far below. The morning sky was so heavy with clouds that it was difficult to tell that the sun had, in fact, risen. Like Link, though, Zelda had long since become accustomed to rising at dawn to answer the demands placed upon royalty by their kingdom.

This morning the sky reflected both of their moods perfectly, though the princess might have wished otherwise. It was chill and drizzling, leaving a fine mist over everything in sight, including Zelda herself. Despite the weather, she was still dressed only in her nightgown and a light robe, apparently immune to the miserable chill that lay over her kingdom.

She watched as Link slipped the bridle over Epona's muzzle, drew it up over her ears, and adjusted the buckles with the care and attention that he always employed with his beloved steed. His attentions did, however, lack their usual energy, revealing to anyone with a sharp eye just how much the Hero of Twilight was suffering.

With a sigh, Zelda pulled her attention away from the young man that had saved her kingdom, and cast her gaze out across the ruined castle walls and onto the city proper. This morning should have been bright and full of glorious light as it poured over the horizon like honey and filled the broad avenues and dank alleys alike with it's joyous glow. Her city should have been celebrating the tired, tattered young man in the courtyard below, lavishing him with gifts and praise and parades...

Unfortunately, the parties had all been over by the time she and Link had completed the week long ride all the way back from the Arbiters grounds. The city had turned in on itself as it focused on rebuilding and generally getting on with life, the way a large city always does so long as it's been left with it's foundations. She and Link had arrived well after dark the night before, tired and drawn...particularly her Hero. The worst part, Zelda realized as she watched him work, was that no one outside of a few fringe groups had any idea what Link had done for him. That he even existed. While he no doubt preferred it that way, it irked the Princess in a way that her powerful sense of justice simply couldn't abide.

If Link could just be happy, she thought she might be able to allow him the peace of anonymity that he seemed to desire. The man had been so full of hope when he'd been reunited with his friend after the final battle. The smile that had broken over his sun-kissed face and lit his blue eyes had been more beautiful than any sunrise, the very picture of how she hoped things would be from that day forward in her kingdom; full of indomitable hope and a pure, honest joy in life itself.

He had been sad when Midna had said she had to return to her kingdom, but resigned, and still hopeful. He understood responsibility too well by now to argue with her, to try and convince her to stay. Zelda could see clearly how he longed to do just that, but being the man he was, he had reigned in his own selfish desires and let her go.

Brushing damp strands of hair back from her pale face, Zelda closed her eyes against sight of the slump of Link's shoulders below as he mounted Epona and gathered the reigns in his hands, only to be haunted by the heartbroken expression his face had been contorted into the moment Midna had destroyed the Mirror of Twilight.

Though she would never do so aloud, Zelda cursed her Twili counterpart for her inarguable conviction in terminating the connection between their two worlds. Surely they could have worked something out, set some sort of safety precautions that would allow them to remain in contact? She was not so blind as to miss the genuine affection Midna held for Link, they had gone through far too much to not be bound by ties that could never be broken, not even by the insurmountable distance the Twilight Princess had put between herself and their Hero.

In the end, all Midna had done was doom herself and Link both to a lifetime of suffering in the absence of the other.

The trip back from the Arbiter's grounds had been long, quiet, and painful for Zelda. Link's spirit seemed to have been doused as effectively as a bucket of water dumped over a candle, despite the princess' attempts to remind him of the monumental feat they had achieved and what it meant for the kingdom, possibly the world. He'd simply smiled and agreed before descending back into pensive silence as he set up their camp for the night and sat watch over her. The princess didn't doubt for a moment that the man had barely gotten a wink of sleep thanks to her, but she hadn't been able to convince him to let her take watch. She would have been annoyed at his seemingly high-handed way of insisting on taking care of her if it hadn't been for the fact that she'd proved herself completely incapable of even starting a fire without magic. Never mind finding the right kind of firewood, chopping it, hunting for their dinner, or preparing whatever she managed to kill. Link achieved all of these without even seeming to notice he was doing it most of the time, like he was on autopilot, his mind somewhere else entirely.

So maybe she was a little useless when it came to roughing it in the wilderness. All that realization had done was make her resolved to remedy that particular gap in her knowledge as soon as possible. After all, she didn't need the Triforce of Wisdom to know that it'd be a good idea to know how to take care of herself if she ever became stranded on her own somewhere.

In the end, she'd allowed Link to do what he did best, protect her, for the rest of the trip. She'd nearly asked him to teach her himself, but his mind had been so far afield that she'd barely been able to wrest two words at a time from him the entirety of their trip, so she'd soon given up.

The sensation of water trickling down her back sent a shiver running up Zelda's spine, dragging her from her thoughts, eyes open once more. Leaning over the railing of her balcony, the Princess looked for Link in the courtyard below, but he was nowhere to be found.

Zelda sighed and straightened once more, casting one last look out across her kingdom before turning and heading back inside before she caught a cold.

She'd let Link go, for now. He had fought hard, and had earned himself time to rest, and to mourn. If he thought that she was going to let him disappear on her, though, he had another thing coming. Deep down in some small part of herself that was not just her, but every Zelda the Goddesses had called into their service over the generations, the Princess knew that Link would never be capable of resting on his laurels for long. The boy that had become a man, who had in turn become a hero, would never be content as a simple goatherd ever again. He, like other Heroes before him, had tasted adventure and the things the wider world had to offer, and it had changed him irrevocably.

She'd give him a month.

AN: Well, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! We'll be hearing from Link next chapter, so review and stay tuned! I'm not sure yet exactly how long this is going to be, but probably a pretty decent length by the time we get where we're going ;)