This stroy is kind of a sequel to my other story, "A Hero's Regrets" which is also about OoT Zelink's struggles. Don't worry though, you don't need to read that before reading this one :D

Cover Image originally by crazyfreak on Deviantart

Prompt 5: Haze (Link and Zelda; Ocarina of Time)

Although I accepted life as the hero, I could not convey the lessons of that life to those who came after. At last, I have eased those regrets. You who have marched through countless foes, each mightier than the last... You who now gaze to the future with vision unclouded... Surely you can restore Hyrule to its stature of yore as the chosen land of the gods. ...Farewell!"

"Go and do not falter, my child!"

The golden wolf sat in the soft earth amongst the dark shadows of the trees. His normally shining golden coat was speckled with dirt and dried blood from his hunting and was completely unkempt; his appearance no longer befitting the proud image of the Hero that he once was.
You can clean yourself up at least a little, forest boy.
His ears perked up when he heard the voice but his hope quickly died away. After centuries, he had gotten somewhat used to hearing the voices of his old friends in his head. Along with that, he was also used to the rush of hope that they had come back, only for that hope to quickly die, just as right now when he believed he had heard Malon speak to him.
It was idiotic to think that they had come back when they were long dead and buried. It was ridiculous to believe that the only thing he needed to do to ease his regrets was teach the Hero of Twilight his skills. Sure, they had eased them a little, but there was another regret that couldn't disappear simply because he taught his descendant how to handle a sword.
Her.
She was one of his biggest regrets and always had been. Both versions of her that he met were ones that caused him sorrow and regrets that he hadn't been enough for them, that he had been too stupid to realize how important they were to him before throwing his chances with them away.
Shaking his head in order to free himself from the painful memories, he got up from the ground and found his way to a pond big enough to wash himself off in.
Once upon a time, appearances were everything, after all.
When he finished, he made his way to the forest on the edge of Hyrule Castle. The roar of the dancing crowds and celebrating citizens were impossible to miss, thus, he found his way there easily.

Hyrule Castle had greatly changed since his time, with its new rulers and their own new aesthetic preferences. Plus, after the creatures of the Twilight Realm had disappeared, nearly the entire castle had to be rebuilt from the ground up due to damage. Those in charge of that rebuilding were the Princess and the Hero of Twilight. From what had been his understanding by watching afar, the two had become friends during the year-long process and they had eventually grown closer.
Now the two of them were celebrating their new marriage.
It was another reason to be proud of his descendant; the Hero of Twilight hadn't squandered his chances with the woman—rather, the Princess—that he loved. He stayed by her side and proposed to her and would be there for her for as long as he lived. There was no doubting that he loved her greatly and she loved him just as much in return.

In the great castle garden, the newlyweds were brought to the center of the floor to share a dance. It was a wonderful mixture of folk dances from the villages and the graceful movements of the age-old dances passed through the royal family that he once practiced in the old ballroom of Hyrule Castle.

That could have been us…

His ears froze and his entire body tensed. Throughout all the years of his regrets, he heard many voices of his old friends such as Malon, Saria, Navi and the other sages, along with others he met on his adventures both in Hyrule and Termina. Yet after all that time, he had never, not once, heard her voice. He'd always thought of it as both a blessing and a curse as he missed her with all his heart but also knew that hearing her would only pain him.
However, right now…
He had heard her. There was no denying that the voice he heard belonged to her.
The cheering from the crowd erupted into clapping as the Hero of Twilight lead his Princess away from the floor to allow everyone else to step in and dance. The Hero brought her to a somewhat secluded area and the golden wolf turned away shyly as his descendant began indulging his new wife.
Hey! Listen! Eyes away. Let them have a moment! They deserve it, don't they?
He gave a bittersweet smile at the sound of his old fairy companion. Navi wasn't wrong either; after everything they had both been through, the Princess and Hero deserved their happy ending.
Why don't you call her by name? Malon's voice asked him.
He sighed.
He couldn't say her name...not after all that had happened between them...not after how much pain they've brought each other.
The once proud wolf turned back to the Princess, who was now speaking to someone he didn't know while the Hero entertained his Ordonian friends.

This Princess wasn't like the one the Hero's Shade knew long ago. For one, this Princess' hair was brown and was much taller; her face was more angular and held a constant state of focus; she was more serious and her skin was paler. This Zelda couldn't be compared to the warm sun like his could have been, but rather to the cool, beautifully shining moon. Her eyes, on the other hand…
Those hadn't changed a bit.
They were still the same pair of glowing dark blue eyes that he had originally fallen in love with. Sure, they were often accompanied by moments of deep thought and more loneliness than the eyes of his second Princess, but the resemblance was nearly uncanny to that of his first.
He couldn't blame the Hero of Twilight for loving her either.
The golden wolf howled sadly before getting up from his spot and slowly making his way back into the deep, thick forest.
Oh, you're leaving already? Saria's voice echoed. He nodded his head in defeat as if to answer the nonexistent question from the person who no longer existed.
What the wolf didn't hear was the sound of someone running after him from the festivities. His guard and senses were both down, thus he heard nothing when he bent down to take a drink from the creek.
"Link?" a voice asked.
The wolf froze. That wasn't a voice in his head, that was real.
No, it couldn't be! That was the voice of a ghost! No one in this era of Hyrule could possibly know who he had been. He had never told the Hero of Twilight that they had shared the same name along with the same destiny.
"Link?" the voice repeated louder this time.
He couldn't bring himself to turn around. The voice sounded exactly like—
"Link, please," the voice cried and he heard footsteps approaching him. The voice breathed deeply and regained composure. "You needn't be afraid of me. You know me and I know you." The speaker leaned down and pet back his fur as he remained frozen, for he knew who this voice belonged to.
He also knew that it was impossible to be hearing it.
"After all, you were my Hero of Time once," she finished.
He quickly spun to face her at last and he found the current Princess of Hyrule staring back at him, her azure blue eyes wide open in shock.
Something was different about her, he could tell, however, she looked exactly the same: same hair, face, eyes—
—Were her eyes…
...Softer...?
"Link, it's me," she desperately explained, continuing to pet the fur atop his head.
Could it be?
Zelda?

In a flash of white, the wilderness melted away and they were in a familiar scene of the Hyrule he had known. This had been where he had trained the Hero of Twilight only…
Back then, he had seen the winter landscape in a deep haze, however now, everything was sharper and it was spring. Grass greener than his old tunic flowed beneath his feet and flowers dotted the ground as far as he could see; birds chirped around him and butterflies flew all about. One of them landed on his now armored shoulder, gracing his cold, Stalfos-like form with a completely undeserved beauty.
Though, there was no denying that the most beautiful thing he could see at the moment was the Zelda he knew in the past standing before him with a sweet smile decorating her face. Her midnight blue eyes were shining as she looked on in astonishment.
"Link?" she whispered in wonder.
He had never felt so weak and it was all from the sound of his name falling from her lips. Zelda was right there in front of him after so many years of absence. After going four centuries without listening to her voice, seeing her here and hearing her in person was everything to him.
A small tear escaped his eye and Zelda set a bare hand—she wasn't wearing her usual gloves, he saw now—on his face to wipe it away. The warmth of her hand brought chills, strangely enough, and he suddenly became ashamed of his appearance despite knowing that Zelda would never judge him.
The warmth of her touch radiated through his entire body and he felt his heavy armor disappear into thin air.
Looking at his own hands, he saw that he wore his old gauntlets from his time as the Hero. Alarmed, he looked at Zelda and watched as her smile grew. Through the reflection in her eyes, he could dimly see that his face was no longer that of a skull, but of his young, human self. He could see through both eyes again as well.
"Zelda…? How are you here? How did you do this?" he asked shakily, afraid that if she would disappear and become nothing more than a mirage if he spoke.
For a split second, he thought that she wouldn't respond, that she truly was a figment of his imagination after all.
Then she responded.
"Link...my dear, Link. I was simply using this Zelda's body as a vessel to make it here into the forest to see you again. I have been looking for you for a long time," she answered, tears appearing in her eyes. "Perhaps it has been too long of a time. In life, I did not have the assistance of the Goddesses when it came to you. No matter how I begged and prayed for them to allow me to see you once, just once more, they would not allow me. Only now, after hundreds of years, have they finally given me the ability to have this moment with you." Her tears came stronger now. "I'm sorry it took so long! I have seen the pain you have endured since you passed and I...I am incredibly sorry!"
He took her in his arms as both of their emotions got the better of them and they began crying together. She clutched onto his tunic and buried her face in his shoulder. In turn, he held her tightly, terrified that if he let her go, she would slip through his fingers and he'd lose her all over again.
Yet one thing still bothered him.
Which Zelda was she?

In his lifetime, Link had known two wonderful princesses. The first Zelda he had known was when he was still ten years old, after sneaking into her garden at the castle. Through her, he had been delivered seven years into the future where he became Hyrule's Hero of Time in order to defeat the dreadful Ganondorf. When his quest had been completed, Zelda had sent him back to his childhood in order to warn her past self of Ganondorf's plans.
After doing what she had asked, Link prevented the existence of the Zelda he had originally known and, as he realized later in his life, had fallen in love with. This second Zelda was pure and innocent in every sense of the words; the complete opposite of the strong and tough Princess he had first met. His second princess was a reminder that he had lost his first, that his original love was right there inside of her but still a million miles away.
Thus, they had broken it off. He went on to search for a way to return to his timeline to find his love and eventually, the new timeline's princess wed another. Link gave up on his search and joined the Royal Guard, only to end up in the Lost Woods a few years later and dying with a heavy amount of regrets.
Because of his experiences, he had no clue as to which Zelda stood before him.
"Which one…? Which one are you?" he asked worriedly.
Seeing his fear, Zelda leaned up and pressed a warm kiss to his mouth.
"Your first," she confessed against his lips, opening her eyes to stare at him.
With her eyes much closer now, he could see a weariness in her gaze that the second Zelda hadn't had. Just by looking at her, one could tell that she had gone through much in her life. He touched her hands with his own and could feel the same roughness in her palms that he had on his own skin.
"Link…" she said softly and he knew she was telling the truth.
He pulled her to him and their lips crashed together once more with a stronger force. In the kisses they shared was the hidden longing for each other that they had both held on to for far too long. The emotions he hadn't been old enough to understand and the feelings that he yearned to show her when he finally did understand passed between them and Farore, she was finally here. At long last, he had found her again after all the time spent looking for a way to find her again.
Zelda, the woman that he had loved for Goddesses knew how long, was finally here.

When they finally parted away, they looked at each other in silence. The only sound to be heard were their pounding hearts as their foreheads touched.
"I regretted sending you back every day of my life until my death," she admitted in sobs. "The memory of seeing you fade away in a haze has haunted my mind ever since. I am so sorry, Link. I know what I did was for Hyrule's sake but...that does not imply that I did not have my own wishes, as selfish as they were. If it were up to me, I would have kept you by my side and perhaps we could have wed and been happy like the Hero of Twilight is right now with this era's princess. We could have had everything and I threw it all away! For that, I am eternally sorry…" Zelda broke off as her sadness became too great and her cries overpowered her.
Link ran a soothing hand through her hair as she continued clutching onto his clothing.
"It wasn't your fault," he consoled. "You did what you had to do and it's alright. I don't blame you for a single second, Zelda. Besides, I made my mistakes with you as well. I should have tried harder to stop you, but I was a naive child that believed that he would see you again when he made it back home. Only, after stopping Ganondorf earlier than planned, that version of you wasn't...you. I fell for her anyways but…" Link sighed. "After a while, I figured out that I loved you more. She reminded me a lot of you, however, I knew she was a completely different person. I realized too late that we could have been happy as well. I had lost you once before and when I finally got the chance to have a life with you once more, I gave it up. Due to my hasty and stupid decisions, I lost you twice and that is what I regret most. I'm sorry...to both versions of you that I knew. I hate myself for what I did to you. In spite of that...I understand if, after everything, I don't deserve you. I'll understand if my punishment is to give you up again," he confessed, finally relieving himself of the weight that lay on his heart for hundreds of years. It was certainly a load off.

However, he was still the Hero's Shade. This moment couldn't last forever. In fact, it was probably a punishment brought by the Goddesses that would be over shortly. They had probably sent Zelda to show him true happiness for a brief moment before quickly snatching it away.
"You probably have to go soon, don't you?" he asked. "I suppose this is goodbye then, Zelda."
"What?" She lifted her head from his chest and stared up at him with her brows furrowed. "Goodbye? You think I'm leaving you?"
"What else could happen?"
Zelda gave a small laugh. "I did not come here simply to apologize. If that were my sole reason, the Goddesses would never allow me to see you again. They are not exactly the most sympathetic people. The reason they allowed me here and had me use the Princess' body in order to see you again was to take you with me."
Take him with her?
Did that mean…?
Her knowing smile grew. "All these years, I have seen your pain and suffering from afar. I prayed to be able to free you from your personal hell, however, I was always told that it was not time yet. So imagine my joy when I was finally instructed that the time had come. Do you not see, Link? I am here to liberate you from your regrets!" she explained. "You have wandered Hyrule's forests for over four hundred years wallowing in your own guilt. Your regrets over not being able to meet and care for a child left when you watched over your descendants and protected them whenever you could. Your regrets over not passing down your talents to another disappeared, of course, when you taught your secret skills to the Hero of Twilight. Finally, this apology and your willingness to lose something you have wanted since you were still alive...it repaired your regrets over me; at least in the eyes of the Goddesses."
She gave him a moment of silence to process everything he had just learned as animals made their various noises in the blur of the background.
His regrets were gone.
He was being liberated by the woman he loved.
He was free.
Laughing gleefully, he picked Zelda up and spun her around. She laughed as well and the sound was music to his age old ears.
"Thank you," he responded when he set her down, relieved that the years of torment were over.
"It is my honour, my Hero of Time," she answered. "After all, we have been waiting quite a while for you."
Zelda turned to look behind her and following her gaze, Link nearly burst into tears again.
Standing in the fields, having appeared from practically nowhere, stood all of his friends from both Hyrule and Termina. The various villagers and civilians—Gorons, Zoras, Gerudo, Hylian and all the like—were there, with Rauru, Ruto, Nabooru, Darunia, Impa and Malon smiling proudly in front of them. Among them were people he had met in Termina: Cremia, Romani, Anju, Kafei, and all the others from his adventure, even the estranged Happy Mask Salesman. At the head of the group was a beaming Saria, who Link was immensely happy to see again after leaving her without so much as a proper goodbye.
In the distance behind them all, Link could see the silhouette of the Great Deku Tree.
"Everyone is here…" he thought aloud.
"All of us have been waiting for you," Zelda explained. "Especially her."
As if on cue, a floating blue orb flew by Link. "Hey!" it shouted, and he felt overjoyed at seeing Navi, his old sidekick, once more after going through Hyrule and Termina in order to find her.
Beams of light appeared around Link and Zelda and they became children again. They were innocent ten-year-olds and wearing the same clothing from the day they first met, all that time ago in the garden.
"Ready, Link?" Zelda asked with her small hand outstretched.
He nodded. "Ready, Zelda," he replied, taking her hand with his own.
"Then let's go home."
Still holding his hand, she ran towards the large group of familiar faces and for the first time in a long time, Link felt truly at peace.

Princess Zelda sucked in a sharp breath and opened her eyes. Moving her brown hair out of her eyes, she saw that she was in the woods outside the castle boundaries.
How did she get here?
She remembered speaking with someone at the party celebrating her wedding before something overcame her and she kept thinking that she had to go into the forest to follow a wolf with golden fur…strange.
Thank you...
Zelda looked at all directions to find the voice who spoke to her just now but found no one in sight.
"Zellie?" she heard Link's voice ask behind her, prompting her to jump in surprise. She set a hand on her pounding heart.
"You scared me!" she said jokingly to her Hero.
"Sorry 'bout that. I just saw you wander into the forest so I came to look for you as soon as I could. Everything okay? You like you've seen a ghost." he questioned.
"Yes, thank you for checking up on me," she responded shyly. She may have been married to the man now, but there were still times where she felt like the shy girl she once was. "Well, shall we start heading back?"
"Are you sure?" Link came closer to her and took her hand in his. "We could spend a few minutes here," he remarked mischievously, pressing a soft kiss to her lips. "I'm sure no one would notice…" He gave her another kiss, a stronger one this time, then another and another…
She lightly pushed him away. "Sounds very tempting, but I am quite certain the guests will quickly guess where the newlyweds have disappeared off to. Then they will start gossiping and we would never hear the end of it," she responded with a giggle.
"Aww."
Zelda laughed. "Just a few more hours, then we can have our fun," she proclaimed seductively.
"Can't wait," he whispered in return, his Southern accent only charming her even more.
They began making their way back to the party. Nearly there, Link pressed a hand to his heart and made a small groan of pain.
"Is everything alright?" Zelda worried.
"Yeah, I just...I don't know, it feels like I...I don't know how to explain it. Maybe like I just got a piece of me that's been missing, I suppose." He shook his head of the thoughts. "I'm good. Come on," he joyfully said, pulling her back to the party.
With a radiant smile, Princess Zelda followed her new husband's lead as they headed back home.

Somewhere in the distance, two wolves howled happily in perfect harmony.

Thank you for reading!