Natela... lemme explain
So I was eating sashimi one day and had a shameless thought about all the possible F/F ships in Twilight Princess, "What did Midna do while cruising around Hyrule... what if she met queen Ru-ru (rutela)... OMG!" I scoured the interwebs looking for a pairing that almost sounds like nutella but there doesn't seem to be any. Either way enjoy! I'm new-ish to publishing fanfiction so any comments will be super helpful! Thanks for reading :)
"Huh... what is this place like unfrozen?" Zant and his forces definitely came through here. She normally made a point of avoiding unnecessary investigations. These frozen fish should be of no interest, in her state she can't help them, and in theirs, they can't help her. But the mystery of how they lost, such well muscled limbs trapped under a silence of ice is too enticing. It's unnerving to imagine the suddenness of it all, each frozen pose caught in the most basic day to day activities. "What are they?" her voice echoes across the the rock wall.
She hears a far off voice, soft and enticing like the southern wind answer.
"My people" this voice is the surreal empty sound of the dead bound to the living. A female form, similar to the frozen ones' pulls itself together from the energy in the water. This ghostly apparition's hair is a wavy bright orange that pales into blonde at its tips, there are three slits on each side of her dress, around the place where her ribs are, her hips are wide and her limbs are toned with smooth muscle made for swimming against the current, her eyes are filled with the depth of empathetic understanding. The fins along her arms, legs, and back flutter with expression. "Those frozen under ice are my people, I am... I was their queen" this last bit makes the small imp tilt her head,
"a queen?"
Zora tradition has a princess become a queen if she has children whether or not she is married. There is a long embarrassing story about a certain water sage and the Hero of Time doing inappropriate things in a spring that no one needs to know about. The continued shenanigans of later descendants normalized this pattern leaving a long line of bastard inheritors to the throne. The queen herself is a Zora Hyrulian hybrid. But that story is for a different day, when the situation isn't so dire and these long winded jokes can be made. "Yes a queen" is all she needs to say.
"Huh" Midna pauses, cupping her chin in her small hand, letting the ideas flow through her head. Maybe she can convince a few back home to give her title of queen, especially after this adventure.
"and who might you be wanderer?" her voice is a warm polite welcome, as if Midna were a royal ambassador visiting the court of the lake. Midna decides to go along with this act and grounds her imp body to bow. The queen of the lake people smiles, the softness of a forest stream in her expression. Midna gives a sheepish grin full of well intended mischief.
"I am Midna, Princess of Twilight.." her voice trails into a grumble "the real one, not that fake figure head in my place" the queen slowly closes her eyes as if remembering something and nods her head "welcome Princess Midna of the Twilight, how are you?"
this question is odd, the shift from business to personal changes the tone of the surroundings. The air seems thicker with the weight of a personal response. Bright lights in all their shapes and forms seem less intrusive, the twilit trees seem greener, friendlier. The question makes her happy, a person of equal(ish) standing is interested in knowing her.
"Thank you for your warm welcome, how are you queen of the lake?" Midna senses a shift in this woman's composure, she realizes that she's been watching a clam open to reveal its soft muscle. The smile fades from her face, being replaced by a repressed plea.
"lonely, it's so unbearably lonely" a tear escapes from the corner of her eye as she turns to look at something else. But its the only tear she will let drop as she glances back at Midna, a small forced smile taking her face. "you have another form don't you? We can remember it together for a moment if you wish". Midna feels the sudden intoxicating call of sleep and fights, fearing this to be a trap.
She wakes up in an inch of water facing the blue sky, with the roar of the thawed waterfall in the distance. The light here is the light of the old Hyrule, but it doesn't burn Midna. Instead it illuminates the surroundings, letting her see the beauty of an environment completely foreign to her. The water reflects this yellow light in its ripples. Ahead of her is a circular shallow basin of ancient stone carved with runes of magic long forgotten. At its deepest point is knee high water. Around its circumference are stairs that descend towards the radius. The Queen stands at its center, she asks Midna to come to her. Midna stands up, sudden surprise at her expression "eeehh!?" she examines her body, her old form.
"Here in my memories, you are not cursed Twilight Princess". Her tone has changed, there is a giddy joy laced with something else. This water magic appears to be stronger than Midna anticipated. The lake queen's intentions are something else unexpected but attractive she has to admit. Midna smiles coyly and tilts her head questioningly, letting her eyes take in the woman and the scene in front of her. A need to taunt roars in her. She sways her hips as she saunters over.
The queen watches with delight and recognition. "I've seen you before, at the dusk, a sliver of your face" a silence flows between them waiting for a reaction, finding none, she continues "You are as beautiful now as you were then". She reaches for Midna's hands. The queen's own hands are surprisingly dry. Her scales are smooth to her skin, eyes are soft and wanting, reflecting the shimmer of the shallow pool. Midna lets the magic that pins her hair fall, her cloak falling with the adornment used to style her hair. She whispers into Rutela's ear,
"I wish I had seen you then" and trails kisses down her jaw line. She thwarts that inner voice of duty commanding her to pay attention to timely matters. It's a kind of foreign policy relationship isn't it? A social form of royal responsibilities? She examines her face more closely, glancing at the gills along her ribs "Are you one of those water monsters I've read about in ancient texts? The ones that seduce swimmers in the moonlight and drown them?" the queen laughs and puts her hand at Midna's exposed lower back, the reddish hue like firelight against blue skin.
"You're too lovely to drown" she palms Midna's abdomen, testing boundaries. Midna unclasps her skirt, leaving nothing but a black undergarment between her and the Queen. Midna's eyebrows raise in reflex as she receives a hungry kiss from a woman she met only moments ago. Her mouth tastes of salt and the calcium of seashells.
"Mmmmmm" she moans into her mouth, purring with the sensations she's missed for so long. She remembers that she has not been touched in over twenty years, the repressed ache only now beginning to dissolve. "and your name?" she breathes out, pausing the kiss for air.
"Rutela"