When Mipha held out the Zora armor to Link, her hands were shaking.
Link's first move was to cover her hands with his, and smile at her warmly. Then he took the package, and unwrapped it. When he understood what he was seeing, his smile faded, turned into a look of surprise.
Mipha waited. He knew. Of course he knew; as the son of the Hylian ambassador to the Zoras, he had been weaving in and out of Zora culture since he was a child.
And Mipha knew him, oh, how she knew him.
Link stared at the Zora armor for a moment, and then did a strange thing: he bent his head to the garment, touching the clasp to his forehead.
Mipha couldn't breathe. The gesture to her seemed reverent, but - could she be sure -
He lowered the Zora armor, looked Mipha in the eyes, and said, "Yes."
They had a home built in the Lanayru Wetlands, in Gapango Village. Right by the water, so Mipha could start every day with a swim and even sleep there if she so wanted, and only a short walk from the town center. If Link felt a little odd about putting down roots after so long wandering to every corner of Hyrule at need… well, he never said.
Link threw himself into decorating the inside of the house. Cool tones abounded, struck through with the warm red of Mipha's scales, which made her blush when he pointed it out. The brightest blue came in their champion tunic and sarong, hung on the wall with pride, and gratitude, that those clothes had only been needed for a short time..
Mipha began to lay out a plan for a garden behind their house. Link helped her to dig it out, and he sought out water lilies from all of Hyrule's marvelous lakes.
It was small, but it promised to be very beautiful, a garden of water studded with lotuses in all colors. Multicolored frogs hopped and swam all day long - Link had an idea about training them into a choir.
They talked, sometimes, about children - Mipha wanted to adopt, to give a home to someone who needed a soft place to land. Link was a little uncomfortable at the prospect of fatherhood, but he had not yet backed down from a challenge.
This conversation intersected with another one. One evening, Link was looking pensively towards Mt. Lanayru, and Mipha asked him what was on his mind.
"You'll outlive me," he said. He looked her in her eyes, and he saw no fear there.
"I understand. I decided, before I crafted your armor... I would rather remember time with you, even if it's only seventy years or so… remember that, than mourn seventy years of might-have-beens." She paused. "If we have children… our family will extend, continue into the future, even after you've gone. Children would be a consolation to me, then. Even if we adopt a Hylian child. Do you understand?"
Link swallowed a lump in his throat, and nodded.
They didn't throw parties, didn't invite people often to their home. They traveled often - Mipha's gift of healing was in wide demand - but always returned to Gapango Village and cups of sweet-reed tea. A day might go by without words, but with language of smiles, touches, kisses.
In the morning, Link would put on his engagement gift and dive into the river for a swim with his wife, while the sun rose. In the evening, Mipha would tend her garden while her husband prepared dinner. Over her heart would gleam Link's engagement gift, a diamond and luminous pendant.
Last I heard, they were living very happily ever after.