Botw drabble collection written when and as I think of them while I play through botw again. I know I should be writing Wayward, and I will now that college has finished, but I hit a bit of a block with it so I'll churn these out while I'm working around it.

This is based on something Arin from Game Grumps said during their playthrough, about Link's house in Hateno being implied that it used to be his house 100 years ago. There's no proof and I don't know where he got it from but I thought about it a lot.


The first day Link awoke in his new bed, sheets still smelling like the dye used to color them and pine filling the air around the new timber frame, it settled over him like a layer of dust over an unused surface. He'd been pinned down by it to begin with, the heavy feeling of nostalgia sitting on his chest and making breathing feel like hard work. As it eventually lifted, he crept his way from the bed across the wooden boards, pausing as he went to automatically avoid a certain floorboard. Forcing himself to step on it, he flinched when it creaked loudly. Shrugging it off, he was halfway down the stairs when it hit him, forcing the air from his lungs as though he'd been sucker punched in the gut.

The bed had faced a different way. Headboard against the long wall with the small window, and a small bedside table separating it from the wall his headboard rested against now. A small shelf above his bed with some books and a pictograph of his mother, taken before she had died. Another bed. Facing the same way as his. He remembered being young and looking over to see his parents asleep, and then later his father sleeping alone, then later still the wooden screen his father built the year his voice broke, to give his son some privacy.

Link remembered that creaky floorboard. He remembered hearing it as a child as he was carried up to bed by his father after having fallen asleep in his mother's arms in the comfortable chairs under the stairs as his father told him stories of knights and princesses. He remembered hearing it when his parents came up to bed, his father always whispering a curse, even ten years later, as he forgot to avoid it in case it woke Link up. He remembered freezing whenever he stepped on it in the dark, looking to see if he'd woken his parents while he snuck downstairs for water, then always jumping when his mother would appear to ruffle his hair and kiss his forehead, making sure her baby boy was alright before leading him back up to bed. She remembered to avoid the floorboard as often as his father forgot.

He remembered avoiding it as a young teenager, peeking round the screen to see if his father was asleep yet, and then sneaking past the foot of his bed, lightly sidestepping that board so as to not alert his father to his nighttime wanderings. He would stealth downstairs, sticking to the edge nearest the wall to prevent more creaks, and steal food from the shelves by the door. Bread mostly, things he could eat without leaving a trace, and two apples for his father's horse. The mare couldn't give him away if her mouth was full of fruit. He would take his boots outside before putting them on so they didn't thump on the wooden floor and he would squeeze through the front door.

Giving the mare one of the apples where she stabled next to the house, he would pick one of two destinations. He would either cross the grass to the edge of the hill and sit overlooking the valley, watching the way the moon would reflect off the waters of Necluda as he thought about his father, about the change in him since his mother's passing, how he would teach Link how to use various weapons in the small area of land behind him whenever he returned from the castle where he had taken a knighthood, or how they would move to Castle Town when Link became old enough to join the army and follow in his footsteps to become a knight.

Or, he would walk round the back of the small pond under the young tree and climb the steep path of Ebon Mountain and sit on the shores of the unusually shaped ponds at the top and fondly remember his mother, how she would lead him up there sometimes and tell him stories of a pond where people would meet and find their true love, how she would sit and sing songs to him about heroes and goddesses, and how she would keep a jar of tea on the shelf in the kitchen which was reserved for the occasional despondent traveller seen trudging down from the mountain weeping about ponds and mountains, yet leaving far more hopefully than they'd arrived after a cup of her tea and an encouraging talk.

Then he would give the other apple to the waiting mare, remove his boots and steal back up the stairs, again sidestepping that particular floorboard and crawling back into his bed. His yawning at the breakfast table the next day would be put down to the cause behind his slow but steady growth spurts and increasingly ravenous appetite.

In the present, where he sits on the stairs even though he was sure he was standing, one arm wrapped around the wooden post supporting the upper floor and the other wrapped around his knees while the cold sweat runs down his neck and his panting drowns out the morning birdsong, his eyes flicker around the living area, flashes of his previous life blurring his current surroundings. He and his mother sitting at the table while his father balances three plates on his arms and almost dropping one but catching it at the last second. His mother lifting him to sit on the table and kissing his scraped knee better while he rubs at his tearstained face and hiccups. His father sitting at the table staring at his half drunk ale and scrubbing his face with his hands, his expression one of a man who doubts he will ever be happy again. Link running to hug his father around the waist and burying his face in the older man's chest after he dumps his bag on the ground, his newly acquired knights sword and shield shining in the lantern light.

Eventually the haze of images burns away and the air starts to come easier. Standing shakily Link descended the last few stairs, making his way slowly to the table and falling heavily into one of the chairs. He leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table, hiding his face in his hands. His chest ached with all the feelings he remembered after his mother's passing, the intense longing for people whom he loved but knew he was never going to be able to see again, events that could have happened but didn't have the chance to come to pass.

But at least he knew now why he'd had to save this crumbling house from Hudson's hammer. It was a part of him, of his past. All of his firsts had been here. The happiest moments of his life had been in this house, along with some of the saddest. But he had loved and been loved here and that was what mattered.

He vaguely realised his position resembled that of his father's when he had come home and learned his mother had eventually succumbed to her sickness, and he wondered if he would see his father in himself more and more as he continued to grow and mature. Would his father be proud of him? When had his father actually died? At the time of the calamity, Link hadn't known the whereabouts of his father, he could have been here at home waiting for Link's return. The guardians hadn't managed to get through Fort Hateno, had he survived and learned of his son's passing while protecting the princess? How had he handled losing the only family he had left? Had they told him of the shrine of resurrection? Had he waited for Link to awaken?

Had he been at the Citadel? He would have perished along with the other soldiers eventually. Link's heart gave a particularly painful pang. What if he'd been at the castle? Or in the town? Obliterated when the calamity struck with absolutely no warning, no chance.

Link felt the tears but didn't move to wipe them away, instead letting them hit the wood of the table. This place had seen Link in his purest and rawest forms and he wasn't about to start hiding now. Sniffing, he lifted his head to look around his home once more.

Home.

He was lucky, he mused. At least, after everything that had happened, after all these years, Link had managed to find his way home.