Summary:
A memory from a past life when these two souls of subject were not so far apart.
Notes:
Man. Gotta say, really love how long posting this took despite having this written out already and formed most of the plot for the whole fic. We're groovin'.
Also, later on in the chapter there's a portion of lines that are in pairs. The part in italics are dialogue, and the part in parenthesis are in-game dialogue from Breath of the Wild. It's put there as a comparison. It's not actually being spoken.
"Link-" She caught herself. "Sir Link...are you awake?" she whispered. The crackle of torches and silence of empty halls greeted her ears. Quietly rapping her knuckles against the door to his private quarters, she waited anxiously, eyes darting right and left through the hollows of the corridor. It would be quite unseemly to be caught here at this hour. At her knight's bedroom door. In her nightgown. Her face hued scarlet.
Quite unseemly indeed.
"Link!"
A shuffling emanated from behind the door. She straightened again, trying to clear her expression while her heart rate quickened. However, none of her previous preparations could have made the difference she needed to maintain decorum when he opened the door.
His lithe, half naked frame seemed to glow with the torches ensconced nearby and the moonlight spilling from the window behind him. It was like fire and ice, which was pretty similar to how just about every inch of Zelda felt right now. He mussed his bangs, stretching and yawning.
Eyes up, eyes up, eyes up, Zelda.
Her eyes did not want to go up. He did, decidedly, have a spectacularly captivating torso.
Then he straightened and realized who was at his door.
They stared at each other, silence building like a snowball rolling down a Tabanthan slope. Zelda did not believe she had in any other occasion of her life felt herself flush so hard.
"Z-Zelda?" he stuttered.
"Uh. Hello," she squeaked.
She wanted to vault her forehead into the stone brick wall.
"Uh-m. Yes, I-"
He brushed her forehead with the back of his fingers causing all bodily functions to cease.
What on earth had gotten into him?
"Do you have a fever?"
"What?! No! I-" She lowered her voice and took up her posture usually reserved for formal events. "I am simply attempting to escape the castle for a night and I was going to ask you if you'd escort me."
He looked dumbstruck. "Oh you do have a fever, don't you?"
Her eye twitched. "Listen, I am certain I could not leave tonight without you finding out in the morning, as you caught me last time. You are aware of my every move despite how I may try to evade you." Fleeting recollections surface of his eyes ever-presently trained on her. How could she distance herself from that? "So. Because I do not want you to revolve any closer to my efforts to have peace, I will aim to walk in an oval more aligned with your own."
"Oval?"
"Yes. Planets have elliptical orbits. I was . . . making a metaphor."
He stared at her a little longer, nodding timidly.
She sighed. "Perhaps I have picked a bad time to relay all of this." She looked down at her nightgown . . . and his chest.
She definitely could have picked a better time.
Her hands came up to wrap around her upper arms. She sighed, "I need to get out, okay?"
He was silent for quite some time, scratching at his neck. Then, he started looking right at her eyes, right at the hunched set of her shoulders before walking back into his room to pull some on boots, slip a shirt over the smooth expanse of his skin, and sling the Sword over his shoulder.
"Your father would have my head," he replied once he had made his way over again.
But I'm going with you anyway is what he left unsaid.
She stopped toying with her sleeve to cough and admit, "I may . . . have not fully expected you to agree to this and it may . . . have been an impulsive decision to come to your door." She worried the hem of her nightgown again.
"I'm not letting you go far. Don't worry." He paused to grab something off a hook by the door and draped a cloak around her shoulders. "It's hard to enjoy freedom when it's cold," he whispered, connecting the clasp in the front. His hands might have lingered there at her neck. It smelled like him: like the fresh breeze of Hyrule Field and teakwood.
It brought very distance-defeating thoughts to her mind.
"Do you have spare boots?"
He was trying to kill a smile.
"Don't laugh," she huffed. "It's not very sensible to walk outside in slippers."
"Apologies, your highness." He proffered a pair of boots which were of course too big for her.
"Shall we go then?" she asked when done with her boots. He was walking out the door when she stopped him. "We need to hide my slippers, just in case."
It wouldn't appear very appropriate for a knight to have a lady's slippers at his door. He nodded, picking up the notion and setting them under his dresser. After that, they exited and navigated their way outside.
They left the castle by way of Link's reputation. He had pulled down her hood while the guards let him walk pass. Zelda had noted how unsurprised the guards were in seeing him leave this late at night. However they eyed her with caution, wary to question the one who wields the sealing sword. Upon reaching the stables, they took Link's horse.
One horse.
Theoretically, Zelda could point out that they could grab another, but she doesn't. And neither does he. So they ride in that wonderfully intolerable silence acutely cognizant of the other. Of their scent. Of their warmth. Of the intimate press of their bodies so against protocol. Princesses and their knights were not supposed to ride on the same horse could it be helped. She could barely even spare a thought to where he was taking them (despite this being her idea), as she was quite preoccupied with the task of convincing herself she didn't want to lean in closer to the firm wall of his back and feel the heat emanating from beneath that simple, cotton shirt he'd slipped on. It was decidedly quite the alluring idea, though.
She was shaken from her thoughts as they neared the Sacred Grounds: the place where they had taken an oath of sealing to each other as lord and vassal. Princess and knight.
It was not a happy memory.
He dismounted, turning to offer his hand to help her down. She was perfectly capable of getting off on her own. He knew that… So it was that she accepted his offer. After all, how could she refuse in a place like this?
Link continued to hold that single part of her as he led her to the stand in that same circle as the last time they'd been here.
"We can't stay here for long. I do you a great disservice by keeping you from your sleep."
If only you knew, she thought.
As she tried to mentally stomp out the turmoil that had resulted from that thought, she saw his head turn down and to the right, moonlit, flaxen locks falling over his eyes.
"Do you recall," he questioned, "the last time we were here?"
She tried to read his expression.
"How could I not?" she whispered, mind wandering to the crushing loneliness she felt back then. She'd truly seemed to be the only one coming up short in her duties; she knew better now. "I let my misinterpretations corrupt one of the best things-" Flushing heavily, she tried to recover as his eyes snapped to her eyes with that all too familiar keenness. It would appear that maybe she should be getting more sleep after all.
"E-excuse me. What I simply meant to convey was that I regret how my first impressions clouded such a monumental occasion for both of us…."
There was a beat where Link ducked his head. But then he thumbed at the hand he still held, and it caught her so off guard her knees almost gave out. He pulled her even closer for a brief, heart-stopping moment before getting down on one knee and putting that hand to his chest.
Shock settled over them both, thick and warm when it should have been cold. His eyes were never more captivating to her than when dusted by beams from the moon. They peaked in an unwavering luminosity that made her mouth dry and goosebumps raise on the back of her neck.
"Oaths can be restated. New ones can be made. It doesn't have to be a bad memory," he pleaded.
Zelda was going to faint. Surprise was one element of it, but the others were forbidden to be named. "Where do I start?'' she whispered.
"That ceremony. Make the words say what you want them to."
In both cases of this event, Zelda has wanted to grant a different blessing than the one scripted. And she now supposed he was saying the same thing.
"A-alright then… Hero of Hyrule, chosen by the sword that seals the dark-"
"Zelda." He didn't use a title. It made her heart flutter. "I am a hero of Hyrule." Those searing blues of his found her again.
"I am not the only one."
The rest of Zelda's insides decided to join in the fluttering. She couldn't help but clench her fist against his chest for a moment and feel the brush of soft exhales on her arm. Clearing her throat, she began again.
"Fellow Hero of Hyrule, chosen by the sword that seals the darkness,
(Hero of Hyrule, chosen by the sword that seals the darkness…)
"You have shown unflinching bravery and character in the face of darkness and adversity,
(You have shown unflinching bravery and skill in the face of darkness and adversity.)
"And have proven yourself worthy of the blessings of the Goddess Hylia.
(And have proven yourself worthy of the blessings of the Goddess Hylia.)
"Whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight,
(Whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight…)
"The princess is bound to the Hero."
(The sacred blade is forever bound to the soul of the Hero.)
She said it. It was too late. She said it and couldn't take it back now. Just go on, Zelda, she thought.
"I pray for your protection... and hope that we will grow stronger together.
(We pray for your protection…and we hope that—that the two of you will grow stronger together, as one.)
"Descended from queens of long past, the princess of Hyrule,
(Forged in the long-distant past, the sword that seals the darkness…)
"Guardian of Hyrule, divine blood, forever bound to the hero.
(Guardian of Hyrule, ancient steel, forever bound to the hero.)
"In the name of Goddess Hylia, I bless you, my knight.
(In the name of Goddess Hylia, I bless you and your chosen hero.)
"Over the seas of time and distance, when we need the golden power of the Goddess...
(Over the seas of time and distance, when we need the golden power of the Goddess…)
"My hope lies in you, to be forever by my side.
(Our hope rests in you, to be forever by the hero's side.)
"Again I pray that the two of us will grow stronger . . . and . . . work together as one."
(Again we pray…that the two of you will grow stronger…and be together as one.)
Zelda was scared to open her eyes. That was a gross understatement. She- She might as well have asked him to marry her while she was at it. She hadn't meant to say any of that. It had spilled out, and she couldn't take it back.
She counted ten breaths before she raised her eyelids with massive timidity.
Zelda had never been confronted by a more purely staggered expression from Link. He looked as if he had been constrained with bewildering exactness to hold his stupefaction precisely as it was now. Then, eventually, he unfroze.
"You- You…"
His shoulders sagged.
"What would happen if I... dared to summarize what that means?"
In these regards, there was always a pit of sorrow in her chest, and it had never been deeper than at that time.
"Your daring would mean I commit treason to my own country," she warned.
Shocking her again, Link reached out suddenly to grasp both her hands and bring her to kneel with him.
"I have words of my own to say," he breathed, eyes flitting her face as he unwittingly pulled her in another inch. "I am a servant of the Goddesses' will. I am an extension of you."
She was quivering, a tear slipping past the dark wings framing the pining squint of her eyes. "Don't say that. Please. You're so much more than that, Link."
She watched the clashing of earnest and melancholy play across his features before he gulped harshly and forced another inch between them. "You make me want to be more than that."
They clutched at each other's hands: an outlet for both of their distress.
"Princess." Her fingers dug a little deeper.
"Zelda." She looked up.
"I, Sir Link Faron, shall rise to any challenge or threat posed to you. I'll protect you, in anything, through anything, and I'll step back to let you grow. My faith is placed in you, despite any outcome or condition. My lo- loyalty will never waver. I belong by your side, and I'll strive to stay there as long as I have legs to carry me and arms to crawl… I am your knight. I promise this on my life."
There was a certain sort of stalling warp in her heart. A sad twist that filled her up like hollow hope. But that hope was ill-placed. She knew that. She knew the yearning irrationality she felt had no place in the law.
The descending silver light was only so much closer to him than herself. It washed his skin and she gripped his hands, breathing on his mouth.
"You make this so hard," she shook.
His eyes were heavy in their proximity, clouding so sadly. Then he shuddered, exhaled one time, and turned to stone as he pulled away.
"That's because it is."
No other words left their lips as they gazed at the other. Their sorrow resigned, their longing forbidden and unspoken.
And back to the castle they went. Though, Zelda may have given in to leaning a little closer.
Notes:
Next chapter things are going to be PICKIN UP. You'll see. Thoughts? Comments? 👀 Also, I'll be posting what Prince Link looks like on my Tumblr soon enough.