Author Note: Bit of a time-skip. I hope that's okay.

Only two chapters left after this one.


Zelda let out a sigh, the piece of paper in her hand descending along with it with a soft thud.

"None of these feel right," she said.

"Zel, it could happen any day now," Link said with a smile. "Eventually we're going to have to choose something."

"I know," she said in reply. "I know."

Link breathed an exhale as he looked up to the blue skies, dotted with white clouds that took no uniform shape. He studied them as they both thought upon their predicament, him and Zelda both laying on their backs on the green fields of Hyrule close to their house, arms bent behind their head. If they focused enough, they would likely hear distant voices from their neighbors, all sorts of sounds of life and existence.

They could probably hear the screaming of Oliver, who was now over a year old and had recently been exploring the true power of his lungs. His parents were exhausted, but Karane and Pipit loved the little boy no matter how loud he was.

They could probably hear Groose's off-tune singing as he danced around his house with his wife Orielle, his legs spry and able and healthy, no pain, no stillness. Groose vowed never to take walking for granted again. Link and Zelda knew the couple took walks often, even after it was part of Groose's recovery.

They could probably even hear the distant training of knights at the academy, or the bustle of the growing town that had filled itself with the Sheikah, with the Gorons, trading all sorts of things from all sorts of parts of Hyrule, most of which quite unexplored. That was a restlessness for another time.

Thus, Link and Zelda breathed peacefully nonetheless, thinking of the moments beyond them. Zelda's hand went to her profusely swollen belly, stroking it gently.

Link picked up the piece of paper before the breeze could fly it away. His eyes skimmed over the names.

"You're right," Link said. "Adelia isn't sounding right any more and if it's a boy…I just can't decide. I wish there was a way to at least know if it's a girl or a boy."

"Don't be ridiculous," Zelda said. "Nothing earthly could predict that. We'll know eventually."

Link kept his gaze skyward as a comfortable silence fell.

The breeze shifted and pink petals started to drift across Link's view, no doubt from the near Azalea bush in bloom.

Link's hand reached up, lifted by a single finger. A petal brushed his finger as more floated upon them.

He looked at those petals and saw so much, saw her reaction the first time they encountered the flowers in the wild, saw her happy blue eyes when he proposed, saw her soft smile as she walked with a bouquet to marry him, saw her surprise and joy when they reunited after two months apart. And yet now he saw something else, the idea occurring to him with a smile.

"How about we stick with Aspen," Link suggested, "if it's a boy."

"And if it's a girl?" Zelda asked, Link smiling bigger.

"How about Azalea?" He asked.

Zelda kept an odd silence.

"I like that," she said, turning her head to meet his eyes, "a lot, actually. Why didn't we think of that sooner?"

Link's hand reached to meet hers where it rested on her stomach.

"Sometimes things fall into place when they are meant to," he said before the temperature of her hand changed his train of thought.

"Are you cold?" He asked with a slight waver of panic. "Do you want to go back inside? We probably should before the sun goes down. I don't want you getting sick. You don't feel sick, do you?"

"Goddesses, you're so overprotective," Zelda said as she sat up, Link coming to a kneel and helping her stand up completely with safe and secure hands.

They walked slowly the small stretch to their house as Zelda leaned her head upon his shoulder, a lingering southern breeze drifting pink petals upon them.


It woke her up with a great startle, the pain. Her hand went to her stomach before she lost her breath, her expression wincing and contorting.

Zelda tried to keep herself from screaming and focused on reaching her arm for Link, trying to get his attention. With eyes clamped shut, she finally felt his shoulder, clutching it and shaking it in order to wrest him awake.

He didn't budge, Zelda returning her hand to her stomach until the pain passed, her breaths panting.

"Link," she said, leaning over and shaking his shoulders with both her hands. "For goodness sake you are not sleeping through this one."

"Mm," he mumbled, "five more minutes."

Zelda rolled her eyes.

"Now!" She insisted. "I'm having a baby!"

"What," he said, turning to face her before nearly falling off the bed with how much he hastened out of it.

"Okay," he said, panting and panicking. "Okay. I'm going to get Greba. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?"

Zelda nodded. Link crawled onto the bed before pecking her lips.

"Think of the feather for me, okay?" Link reminded her. "Everything is going to be okay. I'm coming right back and I'm going to be by your side forever, like I promised I would."

"I know," Zelda said with quick nods before their lips met for longer.

Link pulled away and rushed out of the house, Zelda closing her eyes and repeating his words that rung so very true in her heart.