Author's Note: So it looks like my new update day will probably be Tuesdays since my previous schedule got thrown off, lol. This chapter is a bit short, but hopefully you will all cut me a little slack considering how long the previous one was.
Please leave a Review if you enjoy! Comments keep me my muse well fed and working!

Fate's Expectations
Chapter Four: Take a Knee

"Excuse me?" Link asked, though he had heard her perfectly well. Judging by the look on her face, Zelda knew it too, but repeated herself anyways.

"I would like you to be my Knight Champion, Link of Ordon," Zelda said, straightening her shoulders and lifting her chin to give him her most noble and commanding look. Just as she had feared, Link pulled away from her, not physically, but she could see it in his eyes. Acting quickly, she said "Link, we both know that this isn't your life, not anymore."

The Hero's blue eyes went hard and he frowned at her "My life is what I want it to be, and nothing else. I've been fate's puppet once, I won't be again," he said coldly.

Zelda changed tact and leaned in, eyes pleading now, expression soft "That's not what I meant, Link. What I meantwas that, though you may want to stay here and play shepherd, maybe settle down and start a family someday, you know you can't. Not for long."

Link pulled his gaze from hers and looked down at his hands where they rested loosely in his lap, but not before Zelda could see the hurt in them. She knew she had struck the nail on the head with her words. As she had expected, it had only been a month, but he was already struggling against the soporific sense peace that permeated Ordon. His warrior's heart wouldn't let him slip quietly back into that life again, not now that it had been awoken.

A heavy silence settled between them, filled only by the sound of rain pattering on the roof of the shack, and the quiet crackle of the fire at their backs.

Eventually, though, Zelda gathered her thoughts and moved to Link's side. He didn't look at her until she unexpectedly dropped to one knee before him, and gently took his hands in her own. He stared at her, uncomprehending of the sight before him; the Princess of Hyrule kneeling in the dust at his feet in a ramshackle forge shed, wet from rain and covered in mud. In that moment, she seemed more human than he had ever seen her look before.

"Link, I need a man I can trust at my back. Someone I know will support and protect me with unwavering fealty as I do my best to put my kingdom, no, our kingdom back rights." Her eyes were wide, sincere, and beseeching as she spoke quietly to him alone, her grip on his hands tight, the only sign of the fear in her heart that he might decline "The world never stops needing heroes, Link. Your task is complete, but that doesn't mean there's not still work to be done."

"Zelda, I'm not...you're not..." the Hero fumbled for words, but couldn't seem to find the right ones to express the feelings that churned uncertainly in his heart.

"I know I'm not the princess that you wanted, Link," Zelda said quietly, eyes sad as she held his hands tighter when the man flinched and almost pulled away "But you are still the hero that Hyrule needs."

Link closed his eyes against Zelda's heart felt pleas and took a deep breath. She was right, she wasn't the princess that he wanted. If Midna had come to him with the same request he would have given her his sword readily, eagerly even. He would have pledged her his strength and so much more if she had so much as crooked her little finger at him, let alone gotten on her knees and begged as Zelda was.

The Hero exhaled slowly and opened his eyes once more to meet Zelda's searching gaze. Midna may have been the princess he wanted, but it was Zelda that needed him.

Link stood from his seat and used his grip on Zelda's hands to pull her back to her feet. Her expression was worried until he went down on both knees, released her hands, and drew his sword. He raised it before him, the blade resting heavily across his palms as he offered it to her and said in a quiet, even voice "Princess Zelda of Hyrule, I offer you my sword, and swear my fealty to you, and the crown of Hyrule. I will safeguard the helpless and defend you, your country, and your people until my dying day."

Zelda regarded the man on his knees before her, and understood for the first time the full weight of the gift the goddesses had graced Hyrule with in the form of this man. As he spoke, his words hung in the air between them, heavy with meaning and promise. Heart thundering in her chest, Zelda reached out a hand and took the Ordon Sword from Link's hands, and looked at it for a long moment, as though inspecting it for some unseen fault. Satisfied, the Princess turned her gaze back to Link.

"Link, Chosen Hero of the Goddesses, savior of Hyrule and the Twilight Realm; I, Princess Zelda, do dub thee a Knight of Hyrule, Champion of the Kingdom, and Lord of Ordon Province." Link looked up at her in surprise as she briefly touched both of his shoulder's with the flat of his blade, but the Princess continued before he could object to his new lordship "In return for the gift of your fealty, I swear this: I will do all in my power to see our Realm of Light, and the Realm of Twilight reconnected."

AN: Well there we go! Link is now not only Knight Champion, but the new Lord of Ordon ;D Check back next week to see how well this goes over, haha!
Please leave a Review if you enjoyed! Comments keep me my muse well fed and working!