Legends for Zelda: Modern AU: Trapped in a loveless marriage, Zelda finds solace in a wanderer who weaves romantic tales to enliven her life. Yearning for true love found only in legends, she learns that reality can just be as idyllic. [ Zelink ]
An old man sits near a window, the sunlight filtering in and emphasizing the dust particles which float in the air like feathers. He sits at a worn, well-loved desk filled with scratch marks and children's stickers, drawn all over with faded markers. Before him are pieces of paper, a brilliant white in the natural light, and newspaper clippings scattered around.
A gnarled hand – leathery and dry like parchment – grips onto a fountain pen, cramping as the muscles tighten. The ink drops and lands like a star on a blank and empty planet. It's been hours, locked in his little room, attempting to remember the past he wants to place into the present. But nothing comes to mind. Nothing ever comes to his mind, beaten and withered down to forgetfulness.
His fingers stumble clumsily as he reaches for a newspaper clipping. He brings it close to his icy blue eyes and looks on like an outsider. A picture of a blonde woman and a man dressed in traditional Hyrulean outfits stand before a temple, large crowns on their heads, and they're both smiling widely. The old man returns the smile – even though they can't see it – and tears well in his eyes.
He leans back and closes his eyes, urging his mind to remember. A faint echo of her laughter fills the room around him, her low and husky voice lulling him to sleep. I'll protect you…
A smile that keeps her promise paints itself on her cheeks, her lips full and tinted with red lipstick. Dark hair like chocolate frames her face, making her already pale skin somehow ivory, and her eyes, framed in long, black lashes, gaze at him, sparkling with love and affection, smiling with little crinkles on the outsides of her lids.
The old man laughs back and smiles, but in his mind's eye, he is young, tall, and strong, his hair a golden mane like a lion's, his tanned arms wrapping themselves around her tiny waist defensively. Pale blue eyes meet dark blue-grey ones, and she reaches for a kiss, standing on the tips of toes, that he willfully gives to her, his head lowering as their lips meet. She melts into it, hands on his forearms, and he rotates her around gently so they face each other.
He opens his eyes, confusion settling in as he sees the little bedroom he lives in now. It rips away the soft memory ruthlessly, and his already broken heart feels like it received another blow.
Outside, the clouds storm in with the winds, their heavy grey shapes threatening to unleash tears, just like how the pain at the back of his eyes foreshadow more sobs to bellow out of his thin lips.
But he must continue writing.
He has to. For her, for him, for their children, for Hyrule.
Even if it hurts to relive the past and suddenly see the harsh reality of the present, even if it breaks his worn heart repeatedly…
He must. Before it's too late. Before their life story is forgotten.
So he closes his eyes again.
And remembers.