Disclaimer: "Fan" fiction.

"A childish mind will turn to noble ambition...
Young love will become deep affection...
The clear water's surface reflects growth."

Goodbyes

"When peace returns to Hyrule…" she began, her words light in the suspension of realms, like they were butterflies ready to fly away, "It will be time for us to say good-bye…"

His time-blue eyes flicked up to meet her soft stare, and for a moment, Zelda knew exactly what he was thinking and exactly what he wanted. And for a moment, she humored the idea.

I love you, was what he was saying, without words, without doubts, We don't have to say farewell.

Her blood stilled in her veins. Her breath stopped in her throat, ready to choke her with all the unspoken desires and chances, with paths yet to be walked and mistakes waiting to be made. She marveled at how wonderful it would all be for the two of them, how rewarding it would be for all their sacrifices.

She took a step closer to him, but her gaze was no longer focused on his eyes. Still she caught the sound of his sharp inhale that prevented him from asking anything. Her eyes flittered down his body as she wondered how many scars it held, how many nights were spent fighting hell from devouring everything. For Hyrule. For her.

This man, she thought, had bled for every man and woman, every Goron and Zora, so why must he be denied his heart's single desire?

She returned her gaze back to his face and took another step closer. Funny how the closer she got, the more she felt like she was walking towards a cliff's edge.

The ocarina in her hands seemed so cold, burning her with its ice even through the cloth of her gloves. Her hands trembled with the weight of the instrument; she was afraid to carry out this responsibility, wishing hoping wanting…

Link took a small step forward, his eyes – blue as time, blue as ice – looked as hopelessly hopeful as she felt. Her own eyes fell away from his hopeful stare to his lips.

She knew that he understood exactly what she wanted, if only because she could hear his breath sharply fall out of existence.

Just a kiss, just a taste of what couldn't be…

Without ever realizing that they were moving, they leaned closer together, wishing, desiring…

Her eyes flicked up back to his. Blue on blue, she saw passed the warrior who obeyed, the hero who saved, to see instead the man who hoped. She placed a gloved hand against his cheek, breathing in his fear, his doubts, his wants, and smiled with all the sadness of the world.

Because they both knew a kiss would be their undoing.

One kiss would never be enough. It would not erase the memories of death and blood and horror, nor would it give them hope for a future without those memories. A kiss would only be as it was. Just a kiss.

And it would never be enough. With one, they would create many, until all resolve to make up mistakes and right what was wrong would vanish beyond their will.

"Go home, Link," she whispered to him, lips hovering inches away from his, "Regain your lost time."

Because they had sacrificed everything for the world. The both of them had lived through those memories of death and horror for Hyrule, and now, in this one moment where it mattered the most, they had to sacrifice themselves once more.

To sacrifice what could have been for something beyond themselves, one last time. One last sacrifice.

Link said nothing and didn't move for the longest time, before nodding his understanding. Loyalty moved him as he took a step back and away from claiming the one thing he wanted. Zelda marveled at his trust. But when all was said and done, Link obeyed her wishes without protest, because she was Princess, because she was the Seventh Sage—

But then he looked at her once more, and she saw: Because you are Zelda.

She wanted to cry.

She wondered if love would follow beyond this life. Maybe in the next life, they could be people other than Link the Hero and Zelda the Princess, people who didn't bear the world on their shoulders.

But right now, he needed to go back. He needed to restore the world to its rightful order. Truthfully, she didn't know what would happen to the Zelda she was right now, or to the Hyrule of now once Link went back and changed the past—and thus the future. But it was of little consequence. Because the Hyrule that they were saving by rewriting the past mattered more than her current existence.

Hyrule had always mattered more than her life.

"Home… Where you are supposed to be… The way you are supposed to be…" Not fashioned into a messenger of death, a soldier of one against an army of millions.

Link looked away from her, down at her feet, as if he didn't know how to be anything else but a weapon.

A small smile tilted her pale-pink lips like a secret. Though he doubted himself, she knew better. The way he looked at her was more than enough testament that he was more than a hero, more than a soldier—more than a legend.

With a heavy heart and hand but a soft smile, she lifted the ocarina to her lips. With a song, she summoned forth the flow of time that eddied around its Hero like a stone in a river. Zelda sighed out the notes of the sacred song, however, her spirit felt torn with every note. Floating between relief and regret, between happiness and sorrow, horror for the past and terror from the loss of a future that she would never know.

As the blue light encased her Hero, she opened her eyes to watch him disappear from her life. She would never see him again in this time.

His hands, calloused warrior hands that killed in her name, pressed against the tangible sapphire magic. And in that moment – he pushed himself towards her, eyes shimmering with something she'd best not name – even though she knew that it would have never been enough, that it would have torn at their sanity – her lips, aching with desire, fell away from the ocarina that she could no longer control, and she watched him slip away – she wished…

But he deserved more than a taste.

He deserved the world he had saved. Yet no one would ever know of his efforts, of the horrors he had slain, of the King he had faced. Except for her. She knew, and before he faded away from her sight, she said the one thing that he deserved to hear more than anything else. Even more than the words that even he dared not say to her out loud—the softly spoken I love you in his eyes that he already knew was reciprocated.

What he deserved most, she spoke with a voice solemn but eternally indebted:

"Thank you, Link."

Then he was gone.

No longer visible, and she could feel him fading into a time that she could not follow.

Again she thought of peace and war, of blood and life, of hero and princess, where peace and farewells were inevitable.

The scent of storms surrounded the cloudy nothingness around her, and time around her was shifting already with the early ripples that Link was crafting.

In a moment, Zelda thought, I may not exist. In a moment, all this could fade away and there would be nothing left but in his memory.

But she found that the scent of change only meant that she had done the right thing. She could never truly regret sacrificing two lives for the price of a kingdom. The world was healing, their home of Hyrule was safe. With peace, she whispered to him from beyond time, beyond the change, only—

"Good-bye."

A tear, held-back for too long, burned her eye to slide down her skin.

When peace returns, they would have to say farewell, but even if she faded away, she would leave behind one thing, one gift, one prayer.

She prayed to the Goddesses to meet Link again in the next life, to one day be more than hero and princess. Her small elegant smile stayed despite the tears as she prayed that in the next life, or for as many lives as it may take, that she wouldn't have to say goodbye.

Her prayer filled the changing skies and mirrored Link's own wish, buried deep in the ebbs and flow of time.