Maybe... Just Maybe...

"I know that this seems personal… but how much do you remember?"

Zelda had been trying for ages to find a way to find out how much her knight still knew of the days a century before. Well, not ages, considering that it had only been a day or two since they defeated the calamity. But Zelda really, really wanted to know what the knight remembered.

Link looked up from the flames of the fire, his eyes reflecting the embers in the night. He smiled slightly, though it was a bit forced, then pulled the slate from his belt. He then stood, stalked around the flames, his feet silent among the wild blades of grass, and handed it to her before returning to his own spot.

Zelda looked down at the slate in confusion, and saw it open to an album of photos. She recognized them as a few she had taken a hundred years before, but… she had taken far more than these. Why were there only twelve?

"I have one memory from each of those places," Link explained quietly, "And one of an encounter with each of the champions."

Zelda stared blankly at the slate. Hylia… that was, what, sixteen memories?

She looked over the pictures. "You don't… remember anything else?"

"I guess my death would count, too…" Link paused. "But I don't like to think about it too much. I'm certainly lucky you acted so quickly."

Zelda looked over them, realizing with a jolt that he probably didn't remember a bit of his childhood, or his family. Then Zelda realized he must've only remembered things that happened while on duty as her appointed knight. She felt her stomach sink in guilt.

"I don't like to think about any of the memories, really," Link confessed quietly. Zelda looked up and tilted her head in confusion. "It makes me think of how different I am from that person, and my guilt when I meet those who knew him."

Zelda's eyes grew wide. He doesn't consider his past self the same person? Sure, this Link expressed his emotions easier and was definitely more outgoing - at least until Zelda (cough, cough) asked awkward questions. But he was the same person inside - the same goofy, kind boy she had known before. His true colors just showed a bit more.

Zelda opened her mouth to voice as much when Link grinned, throwing her off. "That, and it's best to focus on the present rather than the past, right, Ze- Princess?"

Zelda gaped at him, and he quickly grew flustered.

"Sorry, I slipped up, and I just- uh, well, it seemed natural, see, I don't know why, but I always refer to you as 'Zelda' in my head, if that makes any sense, and no matter how bard - er, hard I try I can't seem to change it..." He looked at her nervously as he scratched the back of his neck.

Zelda smiled widely and began laughing. Through her tears of laughter, she could see his nervousness shift to confusion.

Zelda couldn't stop laughing, though.

When Zelda finally did stop, she cleared her throat. "You have no idea," Zelda began with a grin, "how long I tried to get you to call me that."

Link tilted his head. "I referred to you as 'Zelda' in most of the memories… I think."

"Out loud or in your head?"

Link looked deep in thought. "In my head," He finally stated. "Though there was once when I begged you not to make me eat a frog." He took a deep breath. "'Zelda! What are you- EEEEK!'" Zelda laughed at the accuracy of it. He even managed to replicate the voice crack. "I had no idea I was capable of screaming like a girl."

"Considering that you were silent most of the time, no one was." Zelda's laughter died to a chuckle.

Link puffed out his lip in a fake pout. "You just have to keep bringing that up. How exactly did I survive without human interaction?"

Zelda wasn't sure she wanted to tell him about that, but… it wasn't his fault that he forgot about everything.

"You were a bit… depressed, actually," Zelda admitted slowly.

Link shot her an incredulous look that said, 'Excuse me?'

"You had an extremely low self esteem, and refused to open up to anyone." Zelda paused. "You never joked very often, and rarely showed emotion. But when you did show emotion, you seemed crushed by the weight of your duty and…. Like I said before, depressed."

Link stared at her...

Zelda looked down, attempting to avoid the feeling.

And stared at her…

Zelda squirmed in place. It was as if his eyes were piercing into her very soul.

Then Zelda heard laughter.

She looked up, confused to see Link laughing as if he'd just heard a real knee-slapper.

"To think," He chuckled, "that I was a bit down at quite a few parts of my journey, all because I thought I'd never get even close to matching the confidence of my past self. Yet now it looks like I was more confident than him the whole time!"

Zelda found herself chuckling with him. The irony. She supposed that one good thing had come from Link's memory loss.

He seemed… happier. He didn't have to bare the weight of pain worth a thousand lifetimes anymore. Perhaps it was better that he didn't remember all of the people he had known, or he would be crushed by grief and guilt.

He doesn't need the memories of before, does he? Zelda mused as she looked over his smiling face as he hummed and stirred a concoction above the flames.

And he may not remember everything about her… but that was okay. She could make new memories with him.

Maybe… if Link could survive without his memories… maybe… just maybe... everything would be okay.

Hey there! I've had some sad stuff going on, which made me sad, so I wanted to write something with a bit of humor. My doggo went missing a few days ago, and I love and miss him very much. Dogs are beautiful creatures. Not that I don't like cats! No, I love cats, too! I have two of them! But right now I'm leaning towards dogs because I miss mine. That's seems a bit messed up, doesn't it? After all, sometimes you don't realize how much you care about something until it's gone.

Heh, you guys probably don't want to hear a sob story. I wrote this because, no matter what happens, all will be well in the end! No matter what trials come by, it'll be okay. This one shot may not voice that properly, but oh well. I'll probably write another one later with a similar theme.

To you Before fans - I am currently working on the rewrite! I'm sorry that I just looked at the old one and said, "Eh, this sucks," and tossed it aside. But hopefully this rewrite will be better! Cross your fingers! And your toes, if you can!

Thanks for reading! I appreciate each and every one of you!

Sincerely,

Ari~