All of the nights were similar, the feeling of being alone was something that she'd gotten used to, but ever since that one night, she felt like she'd found something again...something lost since the day her father died, leaving her to inherit the throne. The people loved her, and as mutual as the feeling was, on a personal level she still felt apart from them, she didn't understand them very well, they were acquaintances, and she was only ever the one reaching out, she may have walked among the people, but they didn't know her well, there were still those pesky responsibilities, meetings, and then the day came where that mischievous, grinning, mask wearing princess floated into her life, but the time for happiness had passed, dread had made it's home here, in the kingdom of Hyrule, Zelda waited for the time to take her role, whatever it may be, and play it.
She knew after she played her part, it would all go back to normal. Normal, and she would speak again to people who, while she loved them so dearly, were not very close to her. She remembered the most recent time she felt like she another were close, the day where she closed her eyes and fell into the deepest slumber she ever had, only to find that the end was near. She saw Midna's fear and hope, saw her thoughts and saw her battles, she remembered looking through Midna's eyes, and seeing the lines on the face that she once called her own, and the yellow eyes that greeted her.
And then she opened her eyes to find Midna and Link in front of her, then there was that final battle. Everything had moved so quickly, Midna had teleported her and Link to Hyrule Field, and then the castle exploded, but something told her that Midna wasn't gone so easily, she thought it was just wishful thinking, but somehow she knew Midna was still alive.
In the end, though, she didn't get to say what she felt about the Twilight Princess, not as much as she wanted. It seemed formal, up until the mirror shattered.
All these nights were similar, but there was the fact that thousands could be driven from the land...could the mirror had that kind of reach, or had they been chased to another world? That was why she found herself watching the sun set in a remote portion of the vast desert, to see if one could be run from the world. How did Zant appear with the Mirror of Twilight still bound? He must have made his way on foot, and so she waited, in the quickly cooling desert breeze, watching the sun sink as she trudged further into the desert.
Darkness had fallen in around the land and she leaned against the remains of a centuries old ruin, and smiled the most painful smile she'd ever felt as a tear fell, followed quickly by it's peers. The shadows almost seemed to whisper to her, with cheerful words that made her remember what she once told the foreigner. Now was certainly a time for levity, though she was at a loss as to how to find any, having been so serious for so long.
If she could make a wish, just one, then she would wish for Midna to, if she wanted to, be able to visit her, even if only once, just to say what she never had a chance to. Either Midna was joking or dying, or there was a fight that she waited for the end of. And she waited. It was cold and dark, and she didn't know what the time frame was for the worlds to be connected, if it would be ten minutes, ten seconds, half the night, or for as long as the sun hadn't yet fallen below the horizon.
She fell on her side and wept, quietly, as though someone would hear her. There was no one here, and that was the problem, the one thing she wanted that didn't need her, and it was out of her reach. Of course it would be, maybe whatever method Zant used to get to Hyrule was destroyed with the mirror.
"Well, the princess spoke truly, as long as that mirror's around, we could meet again."
As the words echoed in her head, she wondered why the one person who made the cure for the suffering of her and Hyrule would have such devastating side effects on her. It was a nightmare until the end, and as the new day's twilight began, it turned into a dream filled with great possibilities, all to end too soon as the light fell in through the window onto her eyes, making it hard to feign sleep, even if just to soften reality's sting.
She knew she couldn't lay there forever, it'd be a great disservice for her to vanish here. She decided to hold onto the quiet for a while more, and started to sit up, and when she opened her eyes she found teal blue swirls to greet her on a dark surface. She lazily stared at it, as though her mind was guilty of the high offense of hallucination. She was tired and half asleep, of course this was going to happen, the moment she reached out, the hand would fade.
"If you don't want to sit up, may I sit with you?" Zelda rubbed her forehead against her hand, and the voice's owner didn't wait for a reply, "Hey, are you alright?"
"Midna?" Zelda was half startled by her own voice, and looked up at the large sky, filled only with glittering stars, hidden by the sun until it vanished, they waited for that time between day and night, just as she had, always moving, even under the glaring desert sun, she and they made their way to where they were, granted, they had a predictable path, but hadn't they both waited for the sun to set, even if for different reasons, "Of course, just my eyes, always deceiving me!"
"I'm right here, Princess." Zelda jumped, startled by the silent presence next to her. She reached out, suspecting she had been out in the sun for far longer than she meant, and that this was the reason for the moonlit apparition before her, the ghostly figure extended her—it's hand, and for a moment Zelda didn't know if there was the sense of solidity or if the soft surface was her expectant nerves, lying to her.
It seemed for a moment the pressure of the fingers started fading, but then she glanced down at her gloved hand and found that the gloves probably made it hard to tell what she was feeling, but the fingers intertwined with her own were real. Zelda cautiously dragged herself closer, her other hand still awkwardly clasped, and sat up next to her, "I missed you."
"I...I didn't expect to find you here...how long were you lying there?" Midna asked, as Zelda removed her glove.
"I don't know...no more than ten minutes." Zelda said, trying to sound nonchalant.
"Then tomorrow I will try to be here ten minutes sooner." Midna promised, watching the princess extend her finger towards her face, "Not going to poke my eye?"
Zelda smiled at her comment as her hand hovered over the Twilight Princess' face. Both of them recalled the other week, when Midna floated over to Zelda, after trying to use her light frame as a shield to protect Zelda from Ganondorf's shadowy rush. Her fingers indecisively floating in front of the princess' face after she seemingly considered knocking the dark lines off her face altogether.
"This is...oddly familiar." Midna said solemnly, as close as she ever seemed to sorrow.
"The shoe...is on the other foot now, Princess." Zelda said calmly, finally placing her hand against Midna's face.
"Hmm, it is, isn't it?" Midna closed her eyes and laughed, "At first I wondered if...this was the right thing to do, to travel back here, I wondered if I just liked having someone around...who...who saw...all my dreams, all my fears, and it wasn't that, no, as I thought about it, I realized that I did enjoy my first visit, and I wondered, if I had showed up at any other time, would you have been-"
"More sociable?" Zelda offered.
"Ah, yes."
"I would have...I was...unnerved and had no...outlet."
"You did seem stressed, and I had wondered if I was intolerable to you."
"If circumstances were different...peaceful, would you have, um-"
"Been more formal?"
"Exactly."
"No...this is me, I've been me too long to easily change."
"Good...I find myself...in want of company more...free spirited than me."
"Good...because I want to be around you, you're...easy to be around."
"Really? I often wonder if...I mean, my people, they always seemed distant."
"But I'm quite the opposite?"
"I suppose so, to be honest, I wondered if should tell some jokes or something when I meet with the people...but it feels so...strange."
"I imagine so, but you're smart, you'll figure it out."
"I guess I was just put off by how easy to talk to you were, I didn't know what to do with that...ease of communication." Zelda stared at Midna for a while, when Midna draped an arm over her shoulder.
"I promise you...it's easy for me to want to be around you...good luck getting rid of me more than once...and I already left you once, it was hard...hard enough trying to leave one of my friends behind, but both? I have to make these visits frequent."
"Really? How frequent?" Zelda asked, smiling at the red eyed princess.
"If I had my way...anytime I wanted, but my kingdom hasn't fully recovered, I am needed back home, so I must leave before daybreak." Midna watched Zelda's face as frustration, like a shadow, passed briefly over her face, "It won't be forever, just a little while...I have a day cleared, soon, and I can visit you as long as you want...we can go wherever you want."
"I...I've never been outside of the castle for as much as long as I had...that day you left, this breaks that record, though."
"Zelda...people make words."
"Yes."
"Even the best won't do you justice."
"Huh?"
Midna laughed before resting her head on Zelda's, "What do you think? You go beyond words...they fail to capture you."
"I...you like me, then?" Zelda asked, flustered.
"I adore you...I dream of you, and I knew leaving you would...not happen. I waited for my time to run to you, Zelda, and regret only not being able to run faster."
"Midna...I love you." Zelda looked up at Midna and swallowed again, for what had to be the dozenth time. "You're heart and mine were as one, however briefly." Zelda couldn't shake the words out of her head. At the time she wondered if she said too much or not enough, "I've never been so certain about something that left me feeling...so uncertain of myself, I feel like...I've found the only thing I really want, and...it's the only thing I really want that doesn't need me, it's no castle or people, but...a person who-"
"Feels even more possessive than you do."
"P-possessive?"
"Not that I blame you...we both see a future...no more of this pain of being separated...one day...maybe the world will be the kind of place where Twilis and Hylians coexist." Midna took a breath and looked into Zelda's crystal blue eyes.
"Are you sure?" Zelda wondered, looking up hopefully at the Twili.
"If your people are anything like you...we should do just fine." Midna replied, as Zelda pulled herself up to the Twilight Princess. She leaned forward to meet Zelda halfway, but even as their lips met, Zelda seemed insistent on meeting Midna's height. Midna smirked when she saw Zelda's crimson cheeks, and held her hair up to Zelda's face, when she was returned with an askance frown Midna laughed, "I think we match well, your face compliments my hair perfectly."
"Oh...w-well, your face matches...your eyes...and your hair."
"But your face...is quite rare for me...I can see mine whenever I want back home, but you...I'm not quite so privileged as to see your face in my mirror...next to mine." Midna smiled and snapped hr fingers, and handed Zelda a rock that seemed to be a shell, holding a blue light inside it, "Hold onto this, Zelda...with this, you can use this portal to travel back here."
"And from here, I can teleport us to anywhere in Hyrule."
"You should hurry back home, before you're missed."
"Tomorrow night, then?"
"I'll be waiting for you right here, Zelda." Midna helped Zelda up and held onto her for a while, before looking up at the sky, "You should get some rest, I need to go back home."
"Goodnight, Midna." Zelda replied, slowly letting go and backing away.
"Goodnight, Zelda." Midna started walking backwards, and after a few steps turned away.
Zelda woke up and sighed, more annoyed than tired. "It was a wonderful dream, too."
She grabbed the pillow under her and started to get comfortable, when she felt something solid in it, a rock that had blue veins running through it. Tonight, she would meet with Midna again. Everything she ever wanted, and she was wanted, too.
Author's Notes: Here we go, a nice Zidna fic! I recently brought up on Miiverse that Rusl said that the worlds met during twilight, and it hit me that I should have written this already! So here it is, better late than never, no?