Chapter 3

Link lay on his back, contemplating his options. He had been doing so for almost an hour. With a sour taste in his mouth, he spoke his thoughts:
"I'm going to have to see Zelda" The thought made his stomach clench, but somewhere in the area of his sternum, he felt a mild fluttering, as he was finally going to be reading the letter left by Midna. He frowned, hesitant to feel any glimmer of hope concerning the contents of the letter, for all he knew she would say she never wanted to see him again. 'If only… I had confessed to her on that night… Maybe things would have turned out differently…' that single thought constricted his chest, his face falling into a look of utter and complete despair as he pictured her in his mind's eye, as she stepped through the mirror. Link caught himself, reigning in his emotions, and fighting to keep in the tears he felt welling up. 'Get it together, she's gone and there's nothing to be done about it.' Setting his jaw, Link sat up quickly, and went into his living area where he donned the hero's garb and picked up his shield and the Ordon Sword. As he made his way to the door, he noticed Ilia in a sleeping bag by one of his shelves, her eyelids were red and puffy, and her hair was unkempt, she looked like a mess, but she seemed so peaceful. Link was hit by a wave of emotion for his best friend, so he gently slung her over his shoulder and with some difficulty carried her up to his bed, covering her with a thin sheet before kissing her on her forehead. She turned in her sleep, mumbling something he couldn't understand. He stared at her for a few minutes, and decided to leave a short note:

Ilia, gone to Castle Town, be back soon

Link

He placed it in her hand before heading outside. Stepping into the sunlight, Link shielded his eyes and waited for them to adjust to the brightness, looking around; He quickly climbed down the ladder and walked over to Epona. She gave him a quick glance and nuzzled his face with her snout. He rubbed her nose a bit before opening her saddle pouch and removing a glittering object he hadn't gazed upon in a while; the mirror shard glinted dully in the sunlight before he stowed it in his belt pouch. With one last look at his window, he mounted Epona and rode off towards Hyrule Field.

Link closed his eyes, it was a habit now. When he was on his adventure, he liked to do this; Close his eyes and feel the wind, it let him shut out the world around him and let him feel at ease. At first she teased him about it, but eventually, she too took to treasuring these moments of solitude and silence. He opened them only when he heard the bustle of the town approaching

Zelda opened her eyes, slowly rising from her bed and stretching her arms. For the first time in a while, she felt rested. She got up, walking over to her bathroom. To get there, she had to walk past a window where she noticed the sun was well past it's midpoint, and so in a wonderful show of princess-like vocabulary, she said the first thing that came to mind:

"Shit" Moving with life, she took a long shower, basking in the warm liquid running over her skin. As she wrapped a towel around her hair, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard an unexpected knock at the door "Who is it?" it was a soft female that voice answered

"It is Vivian milady; A man by the name of Link is here to see you." Zelda's stomach did a back flip.

"Please tell him I will be right there."

"Yes miss."

Zelda listened to Vivian's footsteps fading away before brushing her teeth and donning a dress that just happened to look the same as all her other dresses.

Link clicked his tongue impatiently as he waited; the length of time Zelda was taking was almost as if she had just woken up. He looked around, they certainly had changed the interior quite a bit, now a large white staircase sat in the middle of the room, leading up to a door that presumably led to the rest of the castle. Two more doors were in the room, although they were not as grand looking as the one atop the staircase. There were brand new paintings all around the walls, a red carpet adorned the entire floor, patterned in several place with black squares. Link walked up to a sculpture that sat at the left of the staircase, it showed a man kneeling on one knee, a fist punching the dirt and his other hand gripping a sword protruding from the ground as he stared ahead at something that was not there. Looking closer, he noticed that the sculpture looked quite familiar... almost as if... It took a few seconds for Link to realise the sculpture was him, or rather, the warrior he is. The doors at the top of the steps flew open and a young woman dressed in a maid's uniform came and greeted him. She told him Zelda was on her way, which he understood as not having to hold his breath so he sat on a couch conveniently located by the steps and waited.

Link walked around the castle, it was dark now, but he was restless. Wandering aimlessly, he found himself now completely lost. He cursed softly under his breath and tried to once again find a familiar corridor, see a familiar portrait, or at least a map on the wall. The latter he doubted he would find. He sat on a small chair by a side table, resting his legs for a moment as he tried to remember where he turned and strayed off the familiar path. After few minutes of fruitless thoughts, he sighed and stood. He kept turning randomly, left, right, right, straight, left, left. He came upon a balcony, and went out to enjoy the night air before walking on. He turned through the door and saw a figure already sanding there. She turned, orange hair swaying in the light wind, her silk nightgown shimmering around her, she looked right at him and smiled.

Zelda poked Link; he'd fallen asleep. The nerve of some people, it's not like she took an hour... oh wait... It was only after she got frustrated and gave him a hard knock on the head that his eyes opened. He looked right at her but seemed to be looking at something far away, his eyes glossed over, he opened his mouth slowly, and said something that sent shivers down her spine and her heart skip a beat...

"I love you"

A/N Sorry for taking forever, but I had way too much on my plate and wish you all a happy new year. No, this story is not dead, I just didn't have the time to write/publish anything (also I was really lazy) just know that I'll try to make time and see if I can put up more chapters, but I can't make any promises.