Aside from my love for this pairing, I decided to take on this challenge to see if I reignite my passion for them - and thus work more on fanfics about these two. I don't know how it will go since I'm marathoning most of the games, but I am giving it a shot anyway.

Enjoy!

i. The Beat of Your Heart

His sense of hearing has always been good, they say. It has always been easy for him to hunt and come back home with food under his arm, to listen to the tune of Ilia's humming from a clearing away, to find cuccos that escaped and got lost in the forest. Colin, particularly, back in the days when he would hardly stand up to himself and would look up to the late teen immensely, used to say that Link's hearing was as sharp as an animal's.

Boy, if only he knew.

In the time he spends shifting from a human to a wolf and on and on, he gets much better at listening to sounds in the distance and actually making sense out of them, listening to the flap of a bat's wing in the dark of the night and drawing his sword out before it can even approach his vicinity. Maybe he likes to flaunt it a bit, especially to Midna, who once mocked him in the first days they spent together for not listening to the enemies that crept up to them. She has to eventually bite her tongue and agree that he improved, curl her fists and bare her teeth when he will smirk smugly at her and make the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

Even now that she is gone, now that peace has returned and he has little to offer to the kingdom, his hearing is still as good as it used to be in his prime days. He moves to Castle Town and in the times he visits Ordon Village, the kids do not invite him to play hide-and-seek anymore, because he is too good and finds everyone so quickly there really is no fun to it. No matter, he reasons, he soon finds out that his ears can help Her Majesty, picking out conversations in the plaza of the town or in the exuberant corridors of her castle. Link becomes quite an asset, truly, to Queen Zelda, as he delivers to her the words her people and her council will not request or say to her face.

Such an asset he becomes, and so important to the matriarch and sole ruler of the kingdom, that their work brings them together and, in a matter of weeks, he finds himself courting her. It is awkward at first, mainly for him; a man from a simple upbringing that used to live in a distant province and was raised herding goats and carrying pumpkins is courting the most influential, important, beautiful, richest and wisest woman of the kingdom. It freaks him out a bit, because for once he is too self-conscious of his past and he has never dated someone before, so Link is too nervous to make sense out of it and realize that it does not matter to her.

He finds out later that, honestly, she can care less if he was raised by wild animals or not. When she smiles at him for the first time, he knows.

Zelda is such a quiet person. Her steps are light as she strides with purpose, her breathing is calm and controlled, every movement is so elegant and so nearly silent it used to be hard for him to find her in the castle when needed, and he never has to ask where someone is; he always knows, always pick out their signature sounds among many others. No longer it is difficult for him to find her in a sea of people with his eyes closed, though, for only one night by her side is enough for him to pick out a sound that is easily recognizable.

The beat of her heart is strong, yet gentle as it pumps blood into her arteries. It slows down to a calm, soothing rhythm at the end of the day when she is curled in bed with a book on her lap and a cup of tea cooling on the bedside table, her fingers gently running over his scalp absentmindedly. The peaceful sound, coupled with her even breathing when she is fast asleep, is a combination that, without fail, lulls him to sleep time and time again. In the mornings, he will hear it over the sound of water as she bathes herself in the adjacent bathroom, and he kisses her sternum when she returns to their chambers, a gesture that she cannot quite understand, but never questions, for she knows he has his own reasons.

She always smiles, anyway, and hooks her pinky finger around his before placing a peck on his lips.

Now, however, a tiny, wrinkled hand is wrapped around the very finger. He watches form the bedside, still as a rock, as the infant wrapped in a bundle of pristine white fabric brings her hand to their face and suckles on it. He does not know what the sex is, does not bother to ask, nor does he really care. Zelda's eyes are bright and maybe so are his, but none of them shares a glance to confirm his suspicions as they stare unblinkingly at the baby. He snakes a shaky arm around her shoulders and pulls her closer, she slumps against him, exhausted, and he sucks in a breath, gazing at the matted, dark hair of his child so carefully cradled in her arms.

The buzz in his ears fade and he hears. Hears the servants that hang around tensely at the other side of the door; hears the medic in the small bathroom washing their hands in the basin; hears the frenzied heart of his wife slow down to its usual steady beat; hears the quick, strong beats of his child's heart, beating and beating, a sign of a new life.

Link swallows, nods resolutely to himself. He will go to any length to ensure that their heartbeats can always reach his ears.