"The burns are coming along nicely."

She replaced the warm cloth stuck to my chest with a cool, damp one, and I swore I could hear it sizzle when it came in contact with my angry flesh.

I let go of the breath I was holding, relaxing as the pain slowly ebbed away.

"How long until I can get going again?"

She pursed her lips, her brow furrowing in thought. "I don't know, a few days maybe, if you don't do anything strenuous. I would say longer, but you'll be going to the Water Temple next. You'll bound to be swimming, and that will help."

"Thank you, Princess." I murmured, closing my eyes. After three days in what was literally a burning Hell, I was exhausted. It was impossible to sleep with the constant nagging of the burns, but now with the absence of that pain, unconsciousness was only a breath away.

"Zelda," she reminded me gently, smoothing a sweat-plastered strand of my hair off my face. "If you keep insisting on referring to me as such, I'll have to start calling you 'Hero' instead of Link."

"Princess," I repeated just to spite her, chuckling—which turned out wasn't a good idea. A sharp ache ran through me as I was reminded of the charred skin that I had just disturbed. My eyes shot open as I moaned through my teeth, clutching my hands into fists.

"I wish I could do something more," she sighed.

"Well," I said, trying to keep the pain out of my voice. "You could distract me, maybe."

"Hmm…" She tapped a single, perfectly manicured finger to her chin her eyes closed in thought. "Oh, I know…"

She grimaced, hesitating before she began. "I was proposed to, while you were in the temple."

"Really, now?"

At most, the words that described Zelda and my relationship were 'good friends'. As much as I harbored more…intimate feelings, I hadn't yet expressed them. And the thought of her marrying another man made me angry. More than angry, furious. Although I had no right to her, although I had no clue her feelings to me and beside a thousand other things, Zelda was mine. He couldn't have her before I even had a chance.

At my silence, she grinned, a laugh escaping her. "What?" she asked, teasing in her eyes. "Are you jeal—"

"Who his he?" I demanded, a little sharper than I intended.

"His highness Lucien Alexander Roman the second, Duke of Gilesburg and Crown Prince to the throne of the most sacred and honorable kingdom of Noamas." She said in a dramatic voice, throwing her head back with her hand pressed to her forehead, pretending to swoon.

"Sounds like a stiff," I interjected, rolling my eyes.

A disgruntled look crossed her face. "I spoke to him shortly. Demanded why all of a sudden I was so devastatingly attractive to him. Once, when we were children, our fathers made us dance together and he stepped on my toes, called me ugly as mud, and poured ale on my head. "

"What did he say?" Yes, what did his highness have to say about the beautiful Princess who had so inconveniently captured my affections as well?

Her lips turned down at the edges. "He told me not to flatter myself."

I opened my mouth to say something, but she continued, suddenly looking angry.

"He said that with Hyrule under siege and the Noamatian army conveniently battle ready, it would be an opportune time to unite the two kingdoms. That there was nothing personal about it. And not to take offence, but if he were looking for a beautiful bride that was capable of love I would not be the first woman he would go to."

White hot hatred coursed through me. How dare he propose to Zelda then spit on her pride? How dare he think he could waltz in and treat her like garbage because of the state of her kingdom? He didn't deserve her.

She took a pause to take a deep breath, closing her eyes. "And then I may or may not have called him a pretentious bastard and punched him in the jaw."

Something inside me smiled sadistically at the thought. "Good for you," I congratulated, not even bothering to conceal the loathing in my voice.

It was a gigantic relief to find that she didn't care for him in the slightest. But that meant nothing about her feelings towards me. It was a consuming thought, slowing eating away at my brain. Did she think about me the way I thought about her? Was she being driven mad with doubt as I was?

"You seem upset." She noted, her violet eyes narrowing. "Does it still hurt?"

"No." I said, too quickly. I rushed to amend it. "Well, only when I breathe."

She smiled at that, but the concerned look still didn't leave her eyes. "Then what is it?"

She would only settle for the truth. She deserved the truth. And I had to know.

"Well…you see, Zelda…" I bit my lip, avoiding her gaze, trying to think of the correct words. "You know…over the course of the time that I have been acquainted with you…I may or may not have harbored some…affection for you."

Her lip quivered, a peculiar expression coming over her face.

For a long moment she didn't say anything. No, it wasn't mere moments. It was days, weeks, months. But then, miraculously, she responded.

"I may or may not have harbored some affection for you as well," she said.

For a moment, tense energy coursed between us as we stared at each other, waiting to see what the other would do, both of us unsure about how to move on now that we had laid our feelings on the table.

But then her chest began to shake, violent laughter abruptly forcing her to double over, the wild giggles as carefree as when we were children.

And then I was laughing with her, ignoring the screams of protest from the destroyed skin of my chest. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered besides the fact she cared for me as I cared for her. Everything else could wait.

"I would kiss you right now," I told her, trying to get enough breath to form a cohesive sentence. "But I'm kind of broken at the moment, so I'd be very appreciative if you'd lean over for me."

She smiled gently, bending over until her face was just an inch away, the tip of her nose touching mine, still shaking with suppressed giggles.

"I thought you would never ask."

Alright, so while writing this segment I had the idea of making these memory bits into a one-shot short story type thing. Because of the anti-chronological order and to refrain from being spoiler-free, I have to leave out a lot I wish I didn't have to, and I'm dying to include it. Obviously I would wait until this story is over, but I'm curious of your opinion of what you would think of sitting down and reading the entire thing in one go in the right order with 10x more feels.

If you're interested, let me know in the review section, or stick me on author alert, but I'll definitely let you know if I go through with it :)

~Alyssa