Another One-Shot of my favourite pairing of the Legend of Zelda. Enjoy!
Her dark-blue eyes were fixated on the red cross at the wooden circle near the wall. Her hand was holding a knife, made of a kind of metall that was hardly breakable. Caused by the adrenaline running through her veins, her whole body was shaking hard. The other hand - her left hand - was balled into a tight fist to lessen the shudder of anticipation from overtaking her tiny body. Then she was lifting her arm and threw the knife.
The knife's tip bored direclty into the middle of the cross, where the two fresh red lines were crossing each other's path. For a heartbeat she just stood there, watching the knife as it swiveled up and down from the force of metall meeting wood, then she smiled and turned around, thus tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. Behind her, there was standing Link. The smirk that had been resting on his lips just minutes ago was gone now. Instead he looked serious, but his eyes sparkled with a shimmer of pure excitement. She knew that shimmer. It was that kind of shimmer that told her it was a game to him. A challenge. A challenge he didn't want to lose. Better don't lose against a girl then, she thought sarcastically and stepped aside to let Link pass. He headed straight forward to the wooden circle and pulled out the knife. He then positioned himself near the blonde girl and threw.
A smirk formed on her lips as she watched the knife miss his goal. Link tossed his head back with a frustrated groan and then turned around to face the girl. The girl that had won against him. The knowing smirk only grew as they locked gazes, Link's tired and her's triumphing. There you go, champion. The great hero you are, losing against a girl. A princess, nonetheless.
She blinked and the expression on his face was gone. Instead he smiled down at her, his hand reaching up to tuck a strand of blond hair behind her ear. His other hand followed, and then he rested them on her warm cheeks. "I'm so proud of you, Zelda", he said. "After all the training we did, you finally bet me. I'm so proud of you."
Zelda lifted her hands to pull his in her owns, intertwining their fingers and pushing them against Link's chest. She looked up at him. "Are you planning on telling me you didn't expect anything else of me?", she smirked again. "Because I know you did. You thought you wouldn't lose against me, because I'm a girl." Suddenly a wave of pure anger washed over her, resulting in making her body tense and her eyes darkening. "Because, after all, I'm still a princess."
He thinks you're weak.
She pulled her hands away and stepped back. Somewhere the thought Calm down, you're just overreacting crossed her mind, but she easily shrugged if off. The anger was too strong at this moment to think properly.
Turning away from Link, Zelda took one step after another, ignoring Link's irritated mumbling and then the loud shouting of her name. She kept on walking.
Why are you so freaking stupid?
Sitting on the edge of her bed, her hands covering her face and her confusing thoughts rushing over her, Zelda sighed. Why did she snap at him like that? She had had no reason for treating him that way and yet she did. Why was she so stupid? Zelda fell back onto her bed and sighed again as her head met the soft surface. She didn't even want to think of how confused or angry Link surely felt at the very moment. And she also didn't want to be the cause of those displeasuring feelings.
She didn't have had a reason to treat him that way. Then why did you do it? She knew the answer, but she wasn't ready to admit it to herself. She was that kind of a person who thought that a problem would just turn into dust and mingle with the air when not thought about it. Her life would have been a lot easier like that. But it wasn't. She still was Princess of Hyrule whose knight was angry or even disappointed at her.
So she had to admit to herself what she felt.
You are disappointed because you think he sees you as a weak person. As a weak person who's only good for being a princess, nothing less and nothing more. You are afraid that he doesn't feel the same way about you. That he thinks differently about you than he would if you were a normal girl, no princess. Maybe he could fall in love with you in return if you weren't a princess.
Tears formed in her eyes, but she blinked them away. Her father taught her there was never a need to cry about anything. Crying was a sign of weakness. But at this very moment, Zelda felt nothing more than weak. She did want to cry and she did want to love and feel loved and she didn't want to be a princess, but most of all she just wanted to be weak. Only once in her life, just now, she wanted to be weak and broken. She wanted to let everything out that bothered her and stop keeping it all inside of her where it tugged at her happiness, slowly taking it away from her.
Later that night, she found herself standing in front of Link's door, arguing with herself whether to knock or turn around and leave. But the decision was taken from her by Link opening the door. He rubbed his eyes with his hands and then looked down at her. At first he seemed to look right through her, not even realizing Zelda stood in the doorway. Then surprise flickered in his eyes, confusion following after.
Zelda liftet her arms and embraced him, pushing both of them back into his room and laying her head on his chest. He hesitated only for a second before also wrapping his arms around her petite frame and resting his chin on her blond hair. She felt him sigh against her and tighten the grip on her waist.
"I'm sorry", Zelda mumbled against his chest. "For earlier. I'm sorry for snapping at you." She paused, taking in slow and deep breaths before continuing. "I'm just so stressed out and you probably think it's no excuse to treat you like that, but I can't think of any better apology because there is none. I'm sor-"
A hand covering her lips stopped her mumbling. Confused, Zelda stepped back and looked up at Link questioningly. He shook his head. "Don't ever apologize for what you feel, Zelda. There's nothing wrong about it. If you're stressed out, than that's okay. It's only human. Don't feel sorry about it."
He pulled her back into his strong arms and they were silent for some minutes. The next words leaving Link's mouth shocked her.
"I love you."
Again, she looked up at him, shock and confusion all written upon her face. Link smiled. "I love you", he said again and lifted his left hand to rest it against her cheek. "And I will always love you, no matter how hard you try to push me away or how many reasons you give me to change the way I feel about you. I wouldn't ever want to. I love you for the person you are. Sure, you are stressed out a lot recently, but like I said before - it's only human, so don't worry about it. I love you."
With that, he pressed his lips against hers, taking her breath away. She didn't hesitate at all - she pressed her lips back as eagerly against his as he did against hers.
Zelda felt him smile against her lips. He loved her. He really did love her.
She pulled away and smiled up at him.
"I love you, too."
So here it is, my second fanfiction of the best pairing ever. Zelink all the way! Feel free to give me feedback, I'll gladly take it. Thanks for reading!