"Do you really remember me?"
It isn't the first time he has heard her voice in one hundred years, but it feels like it. Feels like for the first time it's real because he can see her. Her and not some fragmented memory or foggy dream. She is real. She is flesh and bone. Her hair flutters in the wind, as she looks at him eyes wide, lips slightly parted and he suddenly feels tired.
Overwhelmed at the sight, at the sound, he feels like he just woke up and all of a sudden his knees feel week and he lets out an exasperated breath.
Do you really remember me?
He remembers her gentle smile and how when she laughs her eyes squint at the corners and her head tilts ever so slightly to the side.. He remembers that she likes her tea with exactly four sugars and likes it steeped for an ungodly amount of time.
She likes spicy food.
Her favorite color is purple.
Her favorite painting is one that used to hang right outside of the library and it was of Lake Hylia bathed in twilight.
He remembers cold nights and harsh rains. Remembers the rumbling thunders that often accompanied them. Remembers how she squeezed his elbow her nails digging into his flesh through his tunic. Remembers the way she rattled off numerous facts about lighting related deaths in an attempt to alleviate her stress. He remembers listening to her talk nodding along and watching the dark and rolling sky. His head titled up, but watching her out of the corner of his eye. He remembers how cold her hand felt when he squeezed it and the silence that followed. Remembers the weight of her head on his shoulder.
He remembers how he saw her everywhere. Could see her in the swelling hills outside of Kakariko. Could hear her laugh in the winds that swept through the great plateau. Could see her looking back at him at him in the crystal clear waters of Lurelin Village. Could smell her perfume when he stood in the spot where he nearly met his end.
He remembers her in the gentle snowfalls, the kind that would chill his bones and rattle his teeth. He swears he saw her once in Hebra on top of a mountain her feet swinging wildly over the edge, hunched over and scribbling in a notebook balanced on her lap.
He knows her voice not only because it was the first thing he heard when he woke up, he knows because it's written in his flesh in the depths of every scar that resides in his skin. He can trace the cadence and fall of it like a conductor, and if he closes his eyes and tilts his head just so he can hear it. Can hear her chastising him for shield surfing so recklessly down a hill. Can hear her groan when he charges steadfast into an enemies' camp.
He remembered her before anything else and some nights she was all he remembered.
Now he can see his mind, his memories, didn't do her justice and he will never forgive himself for forgetting. Forgetting that she loved the wild flowers that littered all of Hyrule and fruit cakes so sweet he would grimace after taking the first bite. He can't believe he forgot how she looked bathed in moonlight her neck bent in prayer and her shoulders shaking from the cold. How could he forget the way she gripped him so tight when his breath came out in rugged gasps aa she pleaded with him to stay, to live.
He wonders if she will forgive him.
Wonders if she remembers him. He can hardly stop the shuddering gasp that escapes his throat at the thought. Can't stop the tears that spring to his eyes and begin to roll down his cheeks.
He wonders what she was going to tell the Deku Tree, wonders if it's the same three words that threaten to spill out his mouth this very moment. He hopes they are, because even though one hundred years have gone by and he might have woken up a different man. A blank slate with nothing to his name, his heart is the same and he could never truly forget her. Could never forget the swell of his heart as he watches her. Could never forget the soul of the girl staring back at him, because despite all the battles he has faced and will face in this life and the next she is his and he is hers.
A princess and her knight. A Link and a Zelda.
"Yes."
She smiles and it feels him with warmth just like the rising sun.