((based on veriea and headcanonanon's 'Marry Other People' AU on tumblr, where by awful circumstances, OoT Link and Zelda end up marrying other people. There's a lot of angst.))
It was within her rights, Zelda told herself, to marry whoever she damn well pleased. And she was correct—she was perfectly capable of finding herself a husband and settling down with whoever she so chose.
The problem was that her fiancé was not the man she wanted to marry.
But the man she wanted, her childhood sweetheart and long-time best friend, was already married. Recently married, and with a very pregnant wife—with Link having confirmed that he was, indeed, the father.
Though she'd only felt heartbreak when he'd written that letter and delivered it to her in person, anger came later, filling up the cracks he'd left in her heart.
This boy, this common, forest boy, had stolen her heart away and kept it for years—and then he'd had the audacity to marry someone else, without even telling her beforehand. Zelda hadn't even been invited to the wedding—it had happened too quickly for the ceremony to include more than Link, his wife, and a few witnesses.
And if his wife was pregnant, and several months pregnant, and they'd had the wedding so quickly, Zelda could only assume that he'd gotten her pregnant before they were even considering marriage—if they even knew each other.
That her Link—yes, her Link—would ever have done something so irresponsible, so selfish, so juvenile, was beyond her. But he claimed full responsibility, and though there had been deep regret and pain in his eyes when he'd handed her the letter and watched her read it, he had made no effort to back out of it.
Anyone else might have respected him for it.
But Zelda's heart simply broke, and she'd turned and left him at the castle entrance, refusing to let him follow her.
After that, she'd severed communication, cut ties, and never made and effort to see him, let alone talk to him. And in that time, her anger only worsened.
She knew that Link loved her. There was no other explanation for the nights he'd taken her to Hyrule Field and showed her all the constellations he knew. If he didn't love her, then he wouldn't have taken her away from her lessons, shown her the way to Zora's Domain, held her hand so gently as they walked together, told her so much about his past adventures, opened up and let her in in a way he'd never allowed anyone else—
If he didn't love her, then there was no explanation for the pain and regret in his eyes as he told her he'd married someone else.
So she knew the easiest way to hurt him as much as he'd hurt her was to get married, as well. If she couldn't have Link, there was no point in waiting around for anyone else, anyways—she loved Link and no one else. And after all these years, she knew that her devotion to him would override all others, no matter how angry and heartbroken she was. Even now, she knew that if anything were to happen to Link, she'd be devastated. If he were hurt, or sick, and she knew about it, she would have dropped everything to come to his aid.
She loved him—and she couldn't envision herself ever being so devoted to anyone else.
And if she'd never love anyone else, she might as well get her own marriage out of the way as soon as possible.
So she'd chosen him—tall, dark-haired, with green eyes like the summer. Of the very short list of things she liked about him, his eyes were the main event. They reminded her of the summer she had met Link, of his characteristic green tunic, of the days she'd spent with him on Hyrule Field.
Though it pained her to look into her fiancé's eyes and see nothing but memories of the man she loved, she bore it nonetheless.
Within a fortnight, he'd proposed, and Zelda had accepted, showing off her flashy ring over her white satin gloves.
Donning her best clothes and flaunting her wealth and class in a way she never had around Link before—mindful of his humble beginnings—Zelda made her way through the streets she knew he frequented.
And, as if in a dream, Link appeared as she turned a corner, and their eyes met.
Had she been able to truly look at him rather than down on him, Zelda might have noticed the circles under his eyes, his thin frame, the ragged expression he wore.
But Zelda knew if she looked deeper than the very surface, past the reminder that he had married another, she would have lost her drive.
As devoted as she was to him, as much as she loved him, the anger and heartbreak she felt was too much. It was her reasoning for marrying so soon, and her reasoning for marrying a man so unlike Link.
She wanted to make him pay. She wanted to make him feel the same heartbreak he felt when he'd come to her in the dead of night, with a note and so few words—she wanted to hurt him, to snap him in two and leave him out in the rain. She wanted to shatter him into pieces the same way he had done to her.
And so with as bright a smile, as haughty an expression, as proud a smirk as she could manage, she held up her left hand, proudly displaying her engagement ring.
"I suppose after you got married, I decided it was high time that I give it a shot as well," Zelda said, keeping her words pointed so that he would know—and know immediately—that she was getting married so soon because of his decisions.
With perhaps the truest courage she could display in such a cowardly strike, Zelda met Link's eyes.
What she saw was not green fields and a bright tunic and summer.
They were distant, and more gray than blue. They were clear water and the sky preparing for a storm; something melancholy at best and sad at worst. They had always held something somber, lingering from his journeys, matching the way his lips so rarely pulled into a smile even years and years after he'd returned.
She had seen him sad—she had seen him angry, and distant. She had seen him disoriented and dizzy, just waking from a nightmare. She had seen him calm, playing the Ocarina for her and making it rain or change the path of the sun. She had seen him almost happy, sometimes, with an expression of peace, even if he so rarely smiled. She had seen him looking up at the sky with such a dismal expression she had never had the nerve to ask—
But in this moment, she saw emotions in his eyes that she had never seen before.
There was a flicker of pain in those blue eyes of his—so brief she might have missed it, had she not gained the courage to truly look at him. There was hurt; there was the look of someone who had been betrayed.
And, just as she had sworn she wanted, there was heartbreak.
The moment she saw her feelings reflected in him, though, she realized all too late that she had made a terrible mistake.
But Link—good, truly, genuinely, wonderfully good Link—forced a smile onto his face before she even had a chance to change her tune.
"That's wonderful, Zelda," he said, smile freezing on his face. This, this was the boy whose laugh she hadn't discovered till they were both fifteen—this was the boy who smiled for her perhaps once a month, and she prayed she was lucky enough to be near him when he did. This was the boy whose childhood had been taken from him, still stolen away even after he was sent back to reclaim it. And here he was, forcing a smile on his face for her sake. It lingered, rough around the edges, too wide, too pinched, too fake—but it was an attempt. "I'm so happy for you! I know you've been waiting to get married for a while, you know? You always said you were waiting for the right person. If you're getting married so soon, I… I take it he's the type of person you've always been looking for?"
And what could Zelda say to that?
"He is," she replied, forcing her smile to stay on her face even though her heart felt as though it were breaking again. "He's—he's very outgoing. And his laugh… his laugh is like music. I feel as though we're—we're as different as people can get, and yet, we get along perfectly. He completes me." It killed her to describe that man in these terms that sounded like poetry but felt like acid on her tongue. Link was the opposite of all of these things, and she loved him more than her own life. And yet—she had the nerve to speak of this man as though he was what she wanted. As if she had spent countless nights thinking of him the way she thought of Link. But she couldn't stop now—not if she wanted to complete her plan, though she was starting to wonder if she even wanted to complete it after all. "—He's carefree, always lets others know what he's thinking. He's… he's not afraid to go after what he wants. I feel lucky to have even met him, let alone have him show interest in me."
It seemed as though Link had finally taken mercy on her, because he let his smile wane to a more natural expression. His hand found its way onto her shoulder, and the support he gave was perhaps the only thing Zelda could hold onto. "He sounds like he'll be perfect for you," he said softly. "I'm glad you found someone that you feel so strongly about."
"Me, too," Zelda said. Her hand found its way on top of his, and she felt as though she were trying to force his hand to stay on her for as long as possible. But Link soon removed it, hands hanging limply by his side.
As much as he was trying—and goddesses, Zelda knew he was trying—there was a certain deadness to his posture. He looked as though he could blow apart with the wind.
But she'd come here for a mission, and though she felt like crying, she wasn't going to leave till she'd said all she planned to say. Besides, she wasn't ready to admit she'd made a mistake. Even if she knew she was doing the wrong thing, she was the Queen. She couldn't allow herself to admit that this was a poor decision driven by revenge: not love.
"The wedding is in a few months," she said, a soft smile on her face, attempting to prove that she was happy with this engagement. "I hope you'll attend."
Link nodded quickly, though he looked a bit sick. "Of course I will," he said, taking her left hand and pressing a quick kiss over the bent middle and index fingers, avoiding the ring. "You know me. I'll… I'll always be there for you, Zel."
If that were true, she wanted to say, then we wouldn't be in this situation right now.
But Zelda kept her expression excited and happy, and she was quick to agree with her long-time best friend. "I'll look forward to seeing you there. But I—I have a few things to get done today, for the engagement. Can't stay, you know how it is. Talk to you later," she said, pulling her hand out of his in a flash, turning on her heel and starting back for the castle.
She didn't look at Link's face as she left him behind. She didn't need to.
Zelda knew that the same heartache she had felt would be written plain as day if she were to look.
And even though she could have sworn that was the exact feeling she had wanted him to feel, her heart couldn't take it.
This was a mistake, she knew, marrying her new fiancé. But with Link already married, what else was Zelda supposed to do?
This was coping.
This was simply how it had to be.