Favorite Color
{...}
"What's your favorite color, Princess?" he asked, looking distractedly at the night sky full of stars, while Zelda covered his bare torso with a band containing medicinal herbs.
"Hmm?", she murmured, partially paying no attention - she was focused on the cautious path that her fingers made on the boy's pale skin. They were careful not to press any of the many bruises scattered across the body of the Chosen One by the Triforce of Courage with much force.
It would bring pain to her heart when she saw them, and Zelda always wished she could heal them with her magic. But Link would not let her.
He did not want to make her waste her precious energy with something so futile.
"I'm used to small bruises," he had said the first time she volunteered to heal him. "We need your magic for much more important things."
But he was important, she thought. He was completely important to the mission; to the outcome of the battle against Ganondorf; to the fate of Hyrule.
To her.
Her cheeks softened when the last part came into her mind, and she tried harder than ever to focus on what she was doing.
She took another round with the cloth around the Hylian's torso, ending it with a small knot, and Link smiled as she sat down again on the grassy ground, completely freezing in comparison to the fire that crawled in front of them.
The flames flashed over his teenage profile, lighting the features in the darkness of the night, highlighting the threads of the same color as the sand of the Gerudo Desert and his deep blue eyes.
Zelda would never be tired of looking at them.
"You could have used more force, you know…"
He spoke, pulling her out of her thoughts. Zelda noticed the boy's attention back to the bandaged torso, "Even with the latest injuries, I could still stand…"
"I know," she interrupted him, "I know that." she repeated, smiling minimally, "But I could not - I did not want to." she continued, seeing confusion taking over the boy's mature face. She was still amazed at how much his features had changed. But of course, it had been over seven years since she first met him "I know you can handle the - you're much stronger than I am even on my Sheikah form."
She sighed. "But I did not want to hurt you. I have the feeling that you could break into my hands."
She saw Link's eyes widen, and she diverted her own to look at her legs, covered in plain brown pants. She bit her lips briefly, letting the last words out. "And I would not know what I would do if that happened."
She felt his presence there, a radiance of heat near her. His hands were cold, but the rest of his body was warm, pleasant to the touch - she'd noticed that as she bandaged his torso.
She noticed a movement coming from the Chosen One by the Triforce of Courage, seeing shadows moving across the floor as he moved closer to her. And when she lifted her head, Zelda almost choked.
Link's face was so close to hers.
The distance between them was so short that she could easily count the amount of gold eyelashes he possessed - these ones making slight shadows over the region of the high pink-colored cheeks.
"L-Link," she whispered, unable to say anything else.
Link's eyes sucked all the thoughts that went through her head. Under the firelight in contrast to the star-filled sky around them, the blue orbits expanded delicately, and at the same time with tremendous force. They was like the fire themselves: warm and flaming, but with tremendous grace, and she found herself drawing closer and closer to them, as her breath matched his with the approach of their faces. She began to feel fresh breath coming from the boy's thin, curly lips, and she opened her own in anticipation.
Until he blinked, seeming to come back to reality. He then pulled away, and the chill of the night again embraced her smaller body.
Zelda blushed. She felt bewildered, struggling to take the agitated sensation from her chest, where her heart beat like a musical drum. She felt it rumble so hard that it was possible that Link could hear it. She bit her lip, directing her attention to the dark, star-punctuated sky, her face burning.
"You never answered my question" Link said, looking deliberatively unfocused.
Zelda stared at him, her cheeks still red from the sudden approach and withdrawal.
"What…", her throat was dry, and she stopped, swallowing hard, "What question?"
Link turned to look at her as he spoke. "About your favorite color" he smiled. Sadly, Zelda noticed, as if that simple question brought something painful to him. Something that he could not stand against, a monster that was too strong for him to fight, "You never answered it.".
"Oh …"
She murmured without realizing it. Her favorite color… She liked violet when she was younger. The color had always attracted her attention, and she liked to wear it in her royal dresses. The bed sheets in her bedroom were also violet, and Zelda would always feel as if she was lying in a field of flowers as she stretched out over them.
But that had been centuries ago, figuratively speaking.
Much has changed since those days; with the arrival of Ganondorf; with the encounter with Link; with the escapade of the castle; with Ganondorf taking control of the Triforce and, automatically, the whole kingdom.
Everything had changed. She had changed.
She raised her head, meeting Link's eyes. They were like two portals to the bottom of Lake Hylia: a deep, mysterious shade of blue that always called for her from the world. No matter how many times she looked at them, she would always find a different mixture of the blue tones in it.
And she was staring at them when the words came out of her mouth without her noticing it "Blue …"
His orbits widened, and she blinked, emerging from the state of ecstasy, "I-I mean ... It's a tone that I really like…"
"Blue...?"
She heard the other Hylian's voice, uncertain, and turned to face him.
The features of Link's face, slightly tense, showed something she could hardly see when around the young man: expression. He had such lack of expressiveness that Zelda could count on her fingers how often she saw him show any kind of feelings. This was one of the few he would rarely show her, and it was the one that most intrigued her: surprise.
He seemed to know so much of what was on her mind that he would rarely react with surprise regarding anything she would ever say.
"Why…" he began, pressing his lips lightly before continuing. "Why blue?"
Zelda blushed.
"Ah," she laughed, nervously, not quite sure of what to say. "I did not think about it... I don't think that I ever have, actually. It was never that important.", she lied.
Though she had the feeling that Link knew it already. He always seemed to do so.
"Maybe because is it the same color as the, once, clear sky of Hyrule. Or maybe because it's the color of Lake Hylia, which is a place that I have always liked..."
Or maybe because it's the color of your eyes, she wanted to say, but couldn't, Maybe it is because I like the deep blue shade of your eyes.