It's well past midnight when they get stopped by the guard on watch. Home at last, he thinks.

Epona gets handed off to some half asleep groom, and he insists on staying with a Impa as she gets the wound on her forehead cleaned. He gives her his hands to clutch as the field medic puts careful silk stitches in her forehead and warns she will have a scar.

"I'd like you to stay here," says the medic. "You must have taken quite a knock. I'd like to keep an eye on you, ok?"

"I'll stay with you, Impa," offers Link.

The medic looks at him sideways and she wrinkles her nose. "You should go get some sleep. Its nearly daylight."

"I can sleep here."

"Suit yourself."

He settles into a cot near Impa and is asleep before he hits the pillow.

He isn't sure how long he has been sleeping, but when he stirs, Impa is still snoring away. Something is cooking on the fire outside, and he is hungry, so he whispers to her that he will be back. He steps out of the tent, right into the back of a guard apparently standing over it.

"Ahhhhhhh, hi."

"Sir, I've been instructed to bring you directly to the Queen when you were up."

"Can I get some coffee on the way?"

He does manage some coffee, with cream, as he stands before Zelda in some field office that has been set up for her. He warms his hands on the mug, still weary.

"I almost came to see you both when you got in," she starts. "We were worried when the one horse showed up as it was. The horse you came back on ran off when the guards started back. It appears she knew what she was doing."

"She is a good horse," he agrees.

"What happened to Impa?"

"I don't know exactly. We encountered- I'm... not exactly sure what, it was sort of there and sort of not. But it spoke to me, and I'm pretty sure it spoke to her. And attacked us.

"I've been having nightmares. I think that...entity was the source. I did get a hit on it with the sword and it seemed less spirit-like, I guess, for a moment. It was more physical for a moment..

"I'm worried about her, but the medic seemed to think she will be ok."

"It told you to bring your proper dance partner next time, did it?"

"It did. It did not seem happy to have Impa there. It seems it did find you, then?"

"Yes, late in the day yesterday. I'd prefer to go over this with Impa, when she is well enough.

"I've missed our walks, Link. If it's ok, I'd like to take a walk with you later? I am dogged by guards everywhere, it would be good for me to leave them behind for a short while."

"Of course, I'd like that."

He visits with Impa, who is awake at last, but laying low. The stitches in her forehead look angry to him, but the medic assures him that is normal. He ends up napping next to Impa until she pokes him awake so as not to miss his appointment with the queen.

He meets Zelda at her tent, where she is shooing away a guard, assuring him that she will be in the company of the Hero of Hyrule, for Hylia's sake. She is dressed for cold. Gone is the pink and gold silk dress. She is turned out in boots and pants, a long pink overcoat and gold gloves. He greets her and offers his arm to her.

She takes his right arm, it's just like the garden. "I've missed spending time with you. There is a lack of structure compared to the castle and yet it's also more formal in some ways."

He frowns a little to himself. The little thrill he feels says he is failing at this friendship thing. She has missed spending time with him. He knows he will be examining those words like a treasure later.

"I have missed you, too," he says softly. He darts his eyes to the side, meeting hers and she smiles at him before turning her attention forward.

"You are carrying that amethyst, still?"

"What? Oh, yes." He taps the pack on his belt.

"I believe I know where they go, these stones."

"That's good, right?"

"I'm still not sure if they are a trap. I would really like to talk to Impa about what happened to her, but I don't think she is ready yet. Would you have insight?"

He shakes his head. "I think she heard voices, probably the same one I heard, but I think it told her different things. It tries to get in your head."

They wander the periphery of camp in silence for a bit. After a while she comes to a stop and gestures to a ridge. "Let's go over there, I bet there's a nice view of Hyrule Field."

The view is nice. It looks into the wide, shallow bowl of green from the northwest. The castle is an elaborate doll house from here, rising above the community within its walls. It looks like it's probably still warm, thinks Link, stamping his feet.

"I feel like I've broken you."

"...what?"

She turns to face him. "I've been thinking about you. Something terrible has happened to you every time you've gone out. Things were nice at the castle and as soon as we leave...I'm sorry."

He shifts his feet and looks down. "I think I was already broken, I just didn't know until...until the sword." He looks back up and meets her gaze for a moment. "I. I'm not sure what I want to say. I really thought everything was ok for me until I drew the sword, and then I saw everything wasn't. I blamed the sword for a while, but. Everything wasn't ever ok." He slips his arm out from under hers and takes both her hands. "This is better, I think? I met you, and Impa, and in some ways this is like being under my brother's roof.

"Maybe, if the sword chose someone else, I would never have known I was broken, and never gotten to have things like this."

He swallows and steadies himself. He is not sure exactly what he has laid out before her. He is not sure what the reaction is that he is hoping for. He hopes that she will be kind and gentle.

She nods in silence. "I like to think that you seem to have past heroes at your back, at least."

"They are, sort of. Sometimes I recognize things I've never seen, or do something. I wish I could talk to them. Zelda, Do you recall the past princesses? Do they speak to you?"

"I think it's different for me," she starts, tilting her head in thought.. "There is only one goddess and she awakens in mortal form. I think she is always there, even when there's no cycle.

"The soul of the Chosen Hero is a little different, I think. They can be anywhere, though they may never know, if they are not called forward. Didn't you ever feel like you might be special?"

The snort he makes was nearly involuntary. "No. Oh, no. I have never been anything special."

She frowns a little at him, and adjusts her hands to interlace her fingers with his. There's a zip of emotion up his spine.

"Link, I do not understand what happened to you- why you think you have no value. I need you to know that you are worthwhile and you always have been. I like you, a lot, and I am glad to have the chance to know you."

He feels his pulse quicken, while part of him wants to freeze up. His sense of time slows, and the world is quickly just becoming the two of them. He squeezes her hands and takes a deep breath. How long can he look into her eyes like this?

He cuts his gaze away, still hanging onto her hands. "Do you remember the other Links?"

She lets him change the subject. "Bits and pieces. Some better than others."

He is still thinking about how, exactly, he'd kiss her; and casts back into his head, desperate for a distraction. "Was Hyrule really once in the sky?"

"No. That was called Skyloft."

Skyloft. He had a flash in his mind, soft greenery, an improbable river flowing across it, an island in the clouds. He can smell the flowers and feel as though he is falling. Falling.

One of the first memories he'd had was a sensation of falling, a long distance, he didn't get to the bottom of it. That happened in Skyloft.

"OH! Skyloft." He turns back to face her. "You pushed him...me? Off it once, I think."

She blushes, just a tiny bit. "I did, and I'm sorry, sleepyhead."

Sleepyhead.

Has she called him that before? She has, hasn't she?

"Are you still my Zelda?" It came out a husky whisper. The moment is too much for him.

Be brave.

He drops her hands and steps forward, taking her face in his hands, closing his eyes and he kisses her as though this is the last thing he will ever do.

He has had a lot of first kisses. He likes them quite a bit, how they are a little clumsy and a little magical, sloppy or sweet, and maybe a little of all of that. This one might be an electric jolt to his core, clearing his mind of everything except how her mouth works against his, the little breathy sounds she makes, how sweet she tastes.

He stops to catch his breath, and when he opens his eyes he is staring into hers and what he has done is upon him. He starts to apologize when she takes the front of his tunic in her hands and pulls him back in, darting her tongue in his mouth this time, and he is swept back to the place where it's just the two of them. When they break this time, they stay close; his hands on her face, her hands clutching his tunic, forehead to forehead, letting the world stop for a moment. He does not want to think beyond this spot in time. This is enough.

She breaks the silence. "Well,"

"Zelda," he whispers. "I am so-"

She takes a hand from his tunic and places it on his lips. "No. Don't apologize. There is nothing to be sorry about." She drops her hands and takes a step back from him. He lets her go. They stand in silence, looking each other in the eye for a long moment. She finally turns her head away slightly, smiling. "I feel a bit like a teenager."

He laughs. "I think we are supposed to be teenagers."

"Fair." She turns back to him. "I think we should go back."

"What about this?" He feels a little wild. Moments before everything was good and at peace and everything was right, and now the bottom feels unstable.

She considers him quietly. "I don't know. I think we should go back for right now. I need to think. We still have work to do, hero."

He feels himself close down. Things have gone beyond what he can control, so he steps back into what he knows and offers his arm. "Then let's go back?"

She takes his arm and they head back in silence. He doesn't really pay much attention as he drops her off at her tent. His head might as well be spinning. He tries to check on Impa, but she has been released. He considers tracking her down and decides he needs to work through the afternoon alone and heads to his own tent.

He ends up on his back on his bedroll, hands over his eyes, replaying how she had grabbed him, and wondering exactly why she tasted sweet and what did she need to think about?

He wondered if she had felt that jolt, too. She had to have, right?

Stay distracted, old man.

He threw his hands to his sides and pushed himself up part way, listening carefully, not sure if that had just been inside his head or whispered next to it.

It can't really be a bad thing, can it, for Wisdom and Courage to find each other like this?

Can it?

He gets to his feet with a sigh and heads out to find someone, anyone, to just sit with by the fire.

Just a heads up, in a normal year, the end of June to mid July gets busy for me as there's a big event in one of my weird hobbies. This year, of course, it's all online, and I'm still playing a decent enough role in it, so my writing time is going to get set aside in favor of prep time and zoom cocktail hours until it's over. It won't be exactly the same as the in person event, but it is the gathering of my people and I miss them very, very much.

So, I have not abandoned ship...but expect things to slow a bit, at least through mid July. I know reading WIP can be scary, but I intend to finish this and I have most of the map.