He probably stayed on her balcony later than he should have. It was hard to leave.

He stirs slowly awake, in his own room, dawn on him before he is really ready; but he gets dressed. They are riding under a flimsy cover, he thinks, but once they are out of central Hyrule, the plain clothes will likely be enough for them to pass. She still doesn't carry herself like a commoner, even without the crown she will stand apart. He will have to keep that in mind as they ride.

He escorts Zelda to the stable as the sun rises, carrying both of their packs for the trip. Epona is already out of her stall, tacked and cross tied, with someone looking her over. He starts to call out when he realizes its Impa.

"Sorry, Link, no coffee this morning. I had to see you two off." She has an embrace for each of them before she steps back. "I don't want to make this drawn out. Please be careful, both of you. I want you to both come home. Please don't run off with each other. At least wait until this is over."

Once they are beyond the gates of the castle, though, Zelda asks. "What if we did run off, though? We could live on the beach on Lurelin."

"Do you want to do that?"

She tilts her head, looking through the ears of her dark bay gelding. "I don't know. I might like to try it."

He snorts. "It is just us, until we get to Ordon. We are just Link and Zelda. We should be passing through places with inns on this route. Safe places for the nights." He softens his voice. "We can just be Link and Zelda, at night, if you want. If you don't, that's ok. It's not Lurelin, exactly."

"It's the same idea, though," she finishes. "I think I'd like to try that."

He feels an urge to fill the silence between them and for once stamps it down. If it's still important later, he decides, it can wait. "Let's move on, then. We have a bit to go." He clucks Epona to a canter, and Zelda quickly follows.

The road rolls on uneventfully and they reach their first destination by late afternoon. Size wise it's between Wolfpeak and Tabantha Village and Link isn't sure of the name, but he spots the hitching rail in front of the inn and points it out to Zelda. He dismounts and ties Epona before helping Zelda down.

"Remember," he murmurs to her. "We are regular people, passing through. Let me get a room. Maybe we can have dinner served there."

She nods, and pulls the hood of her travel cloak up to hide her face.

There's a large hearth with a fire crackling on the left side of the main floor great room. There are a couple tables and it looks like dinner is being served. Link takes a deep breath and thinks he smells some sort of roast. His mouth waters. There's a bar at the back of the room, doubling as the office for the inn. He heads toward the bar, Zelda in tow. He is halfway across the room when he hears her stifle a gasp. He turns to see her gaze directed at a portrait hanging over the hearth.

A portrait of a young Princess Zelda, looking serene and wise, seated on her throne, superimposed over the winged crest of Hyrule, Triforce over her head.

Link, puts an arm across her shoulder and spins her away. "Look down, and don't speak," he whispers to her before taking her arm and heading to the bar.

"Hello!" He calls out. "I was wondering if you had a room? We are passing through and my wife isn't feeling well."

The man behind the bar snaps to attention. "I'm sorry to hear that, sir, let me get you set up and she can get some rest."

Less than an hour later, he has a room, has convinced the innkeeper to allow him to get meals (and a stout) sent to the room and settled the horses for the night. The room is modest, with a double bed, and a side table with a basin and an oil lamp. He notes that there's just enough floor space for him to stretch out on.

"Oh. Oh my." Zelda is still amused once they are settled for the night. They are both sitting on the bed, the side table pulled over to serve as a dining table. "I was such a skinny thing. Oh, I remember sitting for that. I'd only been married a year or so, and was trying to get pregnant, because that's where I thought my fate had gone at that point. That had to be twenty five years ago - I wonder if that's been hanging there the whole time." She looks pointedly at Link. "Where were you then? Twenty five years. So much has happened."

Twenty five years is a long time, he thinks. Had he been seventeen? Eighteen? In either case, he was still learning how to swing a sword without getting hurt and trying to figure out who he thought he was. He picks over his dinner.

He was definitely not who he was then. "Time passes, people move."

"What do you think your younger self would say, knowing what you do now?" She asks.

"Zelda, I still hardly believe this has all happened to me now. I would not have been able to hear this at seventeen. Eighteen. Whatever." He chuckles. "If someone told eighteen year old me I would be sleeping in the same room as Princess Zelda, I'm pretty sure I would have had a very good laugh. And on that note, I'm going to stretch out on the floor, please do not step on me."

"Nonsense," she is giving a command. "You'll do no such thing. This bed is for two, and you are sleeping with me." She places a hand on his knee and he dips his eyes to it. Her voice softens. "We are just Link and Zelda right now. Not the Queen and her Hero."

"Zelda. I do not intend to put pressure on you."

"You're not. Let's finish dinner and see what happens."

What ends up happening is she changes into a fairly modest soft pink silk gown while he takes their dishes back to the kitchen. She is already under the duvet when he comes back and she pats the open side of the bed next to her. Amused, he takes off his boots and tunic, blows out the lamp on the side table and slides into bed in trousers and his undershirt. She snuggles herself under his right arm and rests her head on his shoulder. He rests his right hand on her ribs and kisses the top of her head.

"Do you think we would have liked each other as teenagers?" She asks.

He swallows a laugh. "Oh, goddesses. I don't think you would have liked me as a teenager."

"Why not?"

"Imagine this same mess before you, but with fewer coping skills and the subtlety of a teenage boy. I am lucky I was pretty, at least people would give me a chance. I am sure we would have clashed, hard."

He takes his hand off her side to tangle it in her hair.

"It's funny; I've thought that if I had drawn the sword when I was sixteen I would have been better equipped for this, but I am starting to think maybe that wasn't true."

She shifts against him, and he is aware of every little place she touches him doing so. She stretches her arm across his chest and gives him a squeeze. They lay quiet in the dark. He slowly tumbles the events of his life that end with him sharing a bed with the queen of Hyrule in a no name inn on the road to Faron province. Her breathing deepens and slows, and he can feel her relax next to him.

"Sleep well, Zelda," he whispers. "I.. I love you."

She doesn't respond. He closes his eyes and tries to sleep.

It's still dark when he erupts out of the duvet in a panic - scrambling, heart galloping. His hands find her next to him and he wraps himself around her, panting and shaking. She startles awake in his grasp. "Sorry," his voice is hoarse. "Nightmare. Just a nightmare." He isn't sure who he is trying to console. He still clutches her as though he is drowning.

"It's okay, Link. Do you want to talk it out?"

"No." He didn't recall very much. Just darkness. A sound that might have been fire, a great, roaring fire, consuming anything before it. And fear, rising in his throat.

"Impa said you might have bad dreams." She twists in his arms, and he loosens up, allowing her to roll to her side and face him.

"Impa said."

"She also said you were a good cuddler."

"I guess she would know." He pauses. "I don't have feelings like this for Impa. Maybe if things were different-"

"Link, you do not need to explain every little thing to me. It's okay, I can see you are close. Come here," She reaches her arms around him, pulling him in, and tucking his head under her chin. She strokes his hair. He finds it more comforting than arousing, and he drifts back to sleep.

They ride the next day to the next wide spot in the road with a small inn, though this one doesn't have her portrait hanging over the hearth. They dine in the common room, and quietly watch the few patrons, holding hands across the table. He doesn't protest the sleeping arrangements, and she doesn't ask him to leave while she changes, though he does turn his back to give her privacy. She spoons up to him and he slips his arm around her waist, resting his hand on the curve of her belly. He breathes her in. She smells more like vanilla than lilacs and he wonders why. When he whispers I love you to her she places her hand over his and gives it a squeeze.

There are no nightmares that night.

She wakes him in the morning, leaning into him with slow, light kisses, touching her lips along his jaw and down his neck until he pulls her to him, his mouth over hers, taking his time. Her hand slips under his shirt, and she trails her fingers across the scar sitting low on his abdomen. He sighs, savoring the pleasure in her touch, sliding his own hand to the swell of her hip when the knock on the door breaks their mood.

"You wanted to be up early, sir."

Link drops his head back against the pillow with a huff. Zelda leans to his ear, her voice soft and musical.

"We have one more night of just being people. We can pick up when we stop for the night."

"Lay with me tonight, Zelda" he whispers back. "Please."

She answers him by taking his earlobe in her teeth for just a second before she pushes herself off him. She runs a finger on his lower lip, gazing at him.

"Tonight."

The ride to their final stop before Ordon is quiet and pretty. He is almost nervous as he gets the horses put up for the night and gets them a room. He feels the way he did when he stood before the Master Sword in its pedestal in the Temple of Time, what seemed a hundred years ago. He shakes his head, annoyed with the feeling.

They have dinner in the common room again, and sit across from each other holding hands and watching the activity of the inn. One other patron feels the need to comment how cute it was that they still held hands. Link said nothing to this, but the expression on his face seemed to stifle further comment. Zelda chuckles as the man stalked off, and then leaned across the table to whisper "Time for bed, old man."

He nods and stands up. She slips her hand into his and lets him lead her to their room. Once inside, she turns to face him, taking his hands.

"Just Link and Zelda?" She asks, softly.

He takes her face in his hands. "Just Link and Zelda." He leans in to meet her, open mouthed. She welcomes him in and slips her arms under his, stepping into an embrace. She runs her hands down his sides until she finds his belt and she uses that to haul him up against her. He breaks the kiss, breathlessly staring into the soft blue of her eyes, still cradling her head. He slowly slides his right hand down her throat, and traces her collarbone, starting at that notch in the center and slowly trailing out to her shoulder. He then starts downward, dragging his fingers over the rise of her breast, lingering there. She tightens her grip on his belt, pushing her hips into his. He drops both hands to the swell over her hips, and digs his fingers in before going back to her mouth and then biting her lip and dragging his tongue along her jaw to her ear. He finds that spot behind her ear lobe and begins to slowly kiss her along the side of her neck. Her hands slip off his belt, slide to his back and slip lower.

"Zelda," he murmurs into her shoulder. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to, but if we are going to stop, now is the time."

She takes a deep breath against him and his mind whispers about what that might feel like without the layers of tunic and travel gown between them. It is several long minutes and all he can think about is the heat between them. "Zelda."

She stays still, her breath on the back of his neck, hands resting below the hollow of his back. She slowly slides her hands over the curve of his glute and gives him a squeeze. He inhales sharply, closing his eyes. He grips her hips and stays buried at her shoulder. He considers just pushing her up against the wall, as though she is some barmaid who has offered to spend the night with him.

And then she whispers. "I want to."

He scoops her up in a fluid motion, one arm under her knees, the other supporting her back. She barks out a small sound in surprise, throwing her arms around his neck. He smiles and snatches a kiss from her before crossing the room to set her on the bed and turning his attention to undressing her, taking his time with the gown and what he discovers underneath.

They move slowly together, exploring and taking their time, though it's like they have been together before. And maybe they have, in another life time. It's lazy, and gentle and wonderful, small gasps and sighs, an occasional giggle. She is warm and welcoming to him. She feels the way he always thought home was supposed to feel. He revels in her; how she smells and tastes, the spark of her touch on his bare skin, the certainty of her weight on chest and pelvis. She whispers his name into his ear until her breaths grow ragged. Their pace together quickens to its crescendo before they fall back on each other. When they finally slow and rest, he is on his back with her on top of him, foreheads touching, his hands at her hips, a handful of the hair at the nape of his neck still in her fist, both of them naked and spent.

All is right in Hyrule tonight. How could it be otherwise?

The morning comes too soon. They are awake before there's a knock on their door. They ignore the interruption this time, letting the sound of the bed frame answer.

It is early afternoon as they find the cobblestone road that leads to Ordon and they ride in silence, save for the sound of shod hooves and chittering of insects. As the first outbuildings come into view, Link takes a deep breath, feeling the bubble he has been existing in the past three days collapse quietly. He feels another chapter, maybe another book closing behind him.

Zelda breaks the silence. "Queen of Hyrule and her chosen Hero again."

He nods.

"I think I liked just Zelda and Link," she says. "I hope there is room for that again."

"I do, as well." He closes his hands on his reins, bringing Epona to a halt that Zelda's mount mimics. "Impa was right to warn us not to run off together. It's a tempting idea."

"It is," she agrees.

They look at each other for a long moment.

"Are you ready?" She asks.

"No. I'll never really be ready. But let's do this."

They ride into town at a walk and are immediately greeted by one of the riders that had been sent before them.