It was nearly the end of the school year, and Link felt a level of anxiety about graduation that he hadn't thought was possible.

He'd gotten into his dream school, he was doing great with Zelda, he'd been excelling in his job. He didn't know why he was so anxious. He just was.

He'd found great comfort with Pipit, who was equally anxious, though his was the opposite of Link's. He'd wondered if he'd made the right call in choosing a gap year, he couldn't bring himself to ask Makeela out on another date, and he was bored at work.

Gabe had told them that they were both acting very normal, that this was a feeling everyone had, but when it was happening to them, Link and Pipit felt distinctly confused, as if it were only them. As if there was nothing else that they could do.

And it didn't help that Makeela had confidently chosen to attend a school in Eldin. She'd been given a full ride on sports scholarships. Revali had announced—rather loudly—that he was going to a different, more prestigious university in Central Hyrule. Ravio was going to Holodrum. Ruto to Necluda. Groose even, to Faron.

Somehow, everyone beginning to choose their schools had Link more stressed out, just knowing that it was coming up quickly.

Zelda had begun to get her acceptance letters. She'd gotten three of the seven she'd sent out, and UCH wasn't in the pile yet, though she had been accepted to her other choices. And while Link was happy and would never ask her to choose UCH for his sake, the thought of losing her had him on edge as well.

And that was how Link began to second guess his decision.

It started with the thought that he might lose Zelda. Then, that he was going to lose his job. Then, he realized that Aryll would move in with Collin, so he'd lose his sister and his house. He'd lose his motorcycle for a time, since freshmen weren't allowed vehicles on campus. He'd lose Gabe and Pipit. He'd lose Ilia. Makeela. Everyone.

But if he stayed. If he switched and took the scholarship to the local school, he'd save money, stay at his job, keep his motorcycle, his house, his sister, his friends, his father-figure. He'd have it all but the school.

So, Zelda ushered him into her car one Saturday, and drove aimlessly through the streets.

"How are you today?" she asked. She always asked when she saw him wringing out his hands.

"Fine. Where are we going?"

"I don't know. Just driving for now."

But Link could tell that she had a destination in mind and was warming him up for it.

"Zel," Link finally said. "Just go wherever you want to take me."

"Okay," she chuckled. He knew her too well by now. "Don't get mad."

"That's a really positive sign."

Zelda chuckled. "It's not… not that bad."

Link groaned and looked out the window, trying not to think of where she could be bringing him. So instead, he decided to change the subject and distract his mind. "Did you talk to your dad last night?"

"Not really. Why?"

"I was going to text you, but I just fell right asleep when I got home. He came into the shop last night."

Zelda accidently hit the brakes, jerking the car before she corrected it. "What?"

"Yeah, he said he needed his watch fixed. It literally just needed batteries. He asked how I was, and then he left. I mean, literally, that was our whole conversation. I fixed the watch, and he left."

"Oh gods, he came e to your work?"

"Yeah!" Link laughed, pushing his hair back. "He's either warming up to me, didn't know that's where I worked, or he's keeping tabs on me now. I don't even know which. I was hoping he'd mentioned it to you."

"No, he didn't! And you!" she whacked his arm. "Next time you have to text me while he's there or something!"

"I was going to call!"

"You didn't!" Zelda practically screamed. She wasn't angry, but a sudden anxious wave crashed over her at the news. "Gods… he really didn't say anything else?"

"No, he asked me to fix the watch, I changed the batteries for free, he left some money anyway, and then he left!"

"Wow," Zelda sighed. "That's crazy. I'm going to have to ask him about that."

Link smiled as he turned to her. "He's going to be home tonight?"

"I think so, yeah. Not my mom, but my dad is coming home. Maybe he finally heard me. Maybe just a little bit."

"I hope so," Link said, grabbing her hand and squeezing before letting go. "Where are we going?"

"Almost there," Zelda said hesitantly. She glanced at Link and then back at the road. "So, are you going to ask me to prom?"

Link chuckled. "I thought it was implied?"

"No. You have to ask me." She smiled as she eyed him again.

"Okay. Zelda, will you please do me the honor of accompanying me to our final high school dance?"

She snorted. "Dramatic, Link. But yes, I will."

And then Link froze.

Zelda stopped the car and turned to Link. "Is this okay?"

He stared at the metal archway, the entwined bars, the open gate.

The cemetery.

He'd already made his yearly trip. He'd broken down. He'd had flashbacks.

"Why?"

Zelda bit her lip. "There's something I want to do, and I want you to be there for it."

Letting out a harsh groan, Link rolled down the window for some much-needed air. He scratched at his arm, the arm with his patch on it. "Yeah. Go for it."

"We leave immediately if you need to, okay?"

He nodded, suddenly feeling his throat dry up. All words vanished from his mind, and he let out a long, long breath.

Zelda pulled in and drove to the area she remembered finding Link the last time. When she got lost, he pointed in the right direction, but he couldn't bring himself to vocalize any specifics. Zelda had her hand on his knee as she navigated the empty paths until Link all but told her to stop.

She parked the car and waited by his door. He slowly managed to get out of it and reached for Zelda's hand as he led her three rows down, almost to the center of the grassy area, but not exactly. And then he tapped his foot in front of Mikau's stone.

"Mind if I sit?" Zelda asked.

Link shook his head and followed, sitting behind her, kneeling so his mouth could rest on her shoulder, almost using her as a shield in some ways.

Zelda took a breath and stared at the stone. "Hi, Mikau."

Link gripped her tighter.

"I don't know what it's like…on the other side. I don't know if you can hear me, or see me, or if you're even there. But I'm Zelda. Link and I have been dating for a bit, and I realized I haven't introduced myself, which is rude, since you're Link's best friend."

"Zelda, what are you doing?"

"Talking." She tilted her head into Link, but she kept addressing the stone. "Link just got into UCH. I don't know if he ever talked about college with you, but it wasn't his original plan. And… I think I can see him getting nervous now. He's got his smoking patch on again, which I can tell means he wants—"

"I don't—"

Zelda turned her head. "I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to Mikau."

Link rolled his eyes and returned to his place on her shoulder.

"He's stronger than he thinks, and I know you would agree with me," she continued. "I know he wishes you were here, or that you were going with him to UCH. He doesn't know this yet, but I got a letter yesterday. An acceptance letter. To UCH." She nudged him gently and felt him bury his face further into her.

"See," she said, shifting for Link's sake. "I want to go, but I don't want him to think it's because of him. And while, sure, going to the same school as your boyfriend is great, they do have a whole program for nursing, where all the other schools I applied to were more business focused, which I don't want to do. It was for my parents. And I wanted you to be here so Link knew I wasn't lying when I told him I'm going to say yes."

"Zelda," Link muttered.

But she wasn't ready to talk to him. "So I'm going to do that. Link, I doubt he's told you, but he's going into engineering. Which I think is great, because he's smart, but you know that."

She could feel Link move around behind her, but she couldn't tell what he was doing.

He quickly let her go and scooted up beside her instead, and she saw him fiddling with the patch in his hands, ripped off his arm.

"It should have been me."

"Link, it wasn't—"

"I'm not talking to you," he said with a sad grin. Zelda nodded and sat back as he continued to spin the patch around. "It was my father. His car. So it's only fair that it should have been me. Well, fuck, it shouldn't have been either of us really. But if it had to be one, then it should have been me." Link sighed and looked up at the stone. "I want to help people. Maybe you could have been helped. If I was smarter, maybe I'd want to be a surgeon, but that's not my thing. I don't know. I don't want to work with cars. But something about cars and gears has gotten me through these past few years. Maybe it's because they keep working as long as you put in the effort? Like, they're fixable."

He looked at Zelda and held out his hand, which she took.

"And Zelda's right. I'm getting nervous. Nervous for school. Nervous to fix myself. Nervous to leave here, to end this chapter. And I wish you were here to help me. But I have her. And I have Gabe. I have Aryll. Pipit and Ilia. I have people. But sometimes, this selfish part of me wishes they were you." He turned to Zelda, tears on the brim of his eyes. His arm snaked around her and pulled her close. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she said, her own arms hugging around his waist.

Sniffling, Link tightened his grip. "I love you. And that's to both of you."

"Love you, too," Zelda chuckled into him, though she felt her own tear drop down her cheek.

The wind picked up and ran through their hair, pushing it into their faces. Link pushed it back, only for it to be blown again, so he gave up.

"Are you okay?" Zelda asked. And he knew she didn't mean because of his fight with the wind.

"Yeah. This felt okay." He glanced at her before tucking her closer to him. "Where'd you get this idea anyway?"

But Zelda hesitated.

"What?" Link asked, feeling a lightness wash over him as he laughed.

"I…" Zelda bit her lip and shook her head. "You know that episode of The Twilight Throne where Mina spoke to Aedan?"

"Gods, Zelda!" Link balked, unable to stop his laughter. "You got this from a fantasy TV show? I fucking love you."

Zelda rolled her eyes and hid her head in Link's arm. "It worked though!"

There was a long stretch where they stayed like that, unmoving in the grass. They both reveled in it, in the peace it brought.

"Zelda?" Link finally asked.

"Mhmm?"

"Does UCH have co-ed dorms?"

Zelda pulled away from him and laughed. "I don't know! Do you want to go grab something to eat and we can look it up?"

Link stood and hoisted Zelda off the grass, wrapping his arms around her so it made it particularly difficult to walk.

But they headed back to the car like that, and Link didn't want to let go.

"You can drive, if you want," she threatened when he didn't let her into the car.

"I'll drive if you help me with that history assignment."

Zelda rolled her eyes and unwrapped his arms from her, laughing. "Gods, I have four more years of this now!"

"What about grad school? That's six years," Link laughed, sliding into the drivers' seat.

"Gods!" she snorted.

But in truth, she hoped it was longer than that.

A/N: Okay, okay! Long break was sorely needed, and may still be needed! You know how when something is nearly over, you get really sad and just don't want to work on it? So instead, I've been working on my WIP pirate fic and some other fics on Ao3, which has been making me really happy, but that means less inspiration when I look back at this! But even though it's almost been a month, this wasn't forgotten!

So here's what I've got for you! For the past like 20 chapters I've been saying it's time to wrap this up. Well time's here! I was going to end it in the next chapter, but I think my compromise with myself is that I'm going to do 3 short chapters (this one was short compared to usual, but probably shorter than this). And THEN I'll wrap it up! So if all goes to plan, this will end on chapter 57ISH. I'm not fixing that "53 of ?" chapter section yet just in case it changes to a lower number like 56, but know that this is the REAL wrap up time now! This is the home stretch! It's endgame! Like Link, it's almost time... to move on to other things. (see what I did? I connected this long note to the chapter hahahaha)

Reviews: FANFIC IS REFUSING TO LET ME OPEN THE REVIEWS AND I KEEP GETTING AN ERROR! IF YOU LEFT A REVIEW, I LOVE YOU AND I AM ANSWERING YOU IN SPIRIT RIGHT NOW THROUGH MY CAPS LOCK SCREAMING!