He hadn't factored in that the laboratory had been destroyed, and as such, the closest he could get was a tower nearby. Still, the paraglider ride and stroll was nice. To feel the gentle night air of Hyrule field, well, it was near heaven as he could get while living. The only thing that could make it better was being accompanied by a certain someone.

Hyrule was destroyed but not utterly. How had Ganon done so much in such a small amount of time? From the time he'd pulled the sword out of the pedestal to when Zelda had sealed Ganon had been less than a day, and yet, the castle had lost half of its towers and part of Castelton had burned down.

The loss of life, while substantial, could've been much worse he realized. Due to the Guardians and effort by the army they'd been able to hold up defenses. Army tents had popped up in Hyrule field in the area around Castletown. The fires had been put out, but smoke still rose into the night sky.

At the far points of Hyrule, glowing red lights could be seen.

"Hero!" One of the soldiers said, saluting. Awkwardly, Link nodded.

"Where's Princess Zelda?" he asked.

"Uhh, I don't know," the soldier said too honestly. His comrade elbowed him. "I mean, I can check for you!"

"No, I can search on my own," he said, and left with a wave. Rebuilding would come next, along with her coronation and the eventual return of the master sword. He thought of the sword on his back.

He hadn't realized it, but he'd missed it the entire time. There was a rightness about it being on his back, a comfort in it's weight. He knew, though, this was the last time he would wield it. Soon he would seal it. Not in the Forgotten Temple, nor the Temple of Time. No, it needed to go somewhere else, of that he was sure.

He wandered the field in search of the princess, and eventually found a large group of soldiers and civilians alike. He tried to peer over their heads by standing on his toes, but to no avail. The crowd then quieted and sweet music made its way to his ears. Familiar music and a familiar voice.

Zelda sang an old song, strumming a harp in accompaniment. It was something she'd practiced to try and hone her magic, and Link found himself without knowing what to do other than listen. Eventually the song ended and the people realized who he was. With a gentle push, they brought him to the center of the crowd.

He saw her and her easy smile. "Impa is safe," he told her, "she is working on healing Koshia."

Tears escaped her eyes, soft and delicate. "I'm so glad," she said softly, "I'm so glad."

She clasped his hand in hers and Link was once more transfixed. So transfixed he didn't notice the dart that whizzed towards the princess. With a shot of her hand she struck a major chord and released a wave of magic. The dart hit the wave and clattered to the ground like it hit a shield. Link couldn't guess from where the attack came from, but the crowd whipped into a panic. Zelda stared into the crowd intently, and sent a ball of light into it. It hit a person and Paya dragged out a glowing Sheikah guard from the group.

The rogue Sheikah was yelling and cursing once it was clear he couldn't escape. Zelda regarded the traitor coldly.

"Lord Ganon may be gone, but he will never die!" the traitor shouted, "The line of the goddess will end!" Paya struck him on the back of the head, stopping his words. The crowd calmed slightly.

Trapping the rogue in a vice like hold, Paya was vividly livid. Most had never seen the princess' guard so expressive. Even Link who was arguably friends with her had never seen her so mad. Even when they saved Zelda from the kidnapping attempt the guard had been more restrained. "We will purge these traitors from the ranks of the Sheikah," Paya announced, "And anyone else who wishes to try and harm Princess Zelda! They will face my blade."

No one had heard Paya speak so passionately outside of her close friends, and the crowd gasped in surprise. They gasped again when Paya killed the traitor with a slice of her sword.

The blood splattered red on the grass and Zelda started crying. She caved into Link's arms and he couldn't help but wonder at her actions. This was a woman who hadn't cried at her own family's funeral and now she was weeping because someone who tried to kill her was dead? She whispered something that sounded like, "it's all so much," into his chest and Link felt his own heart wrench.

No, she wasn't crying for the would-be assassin. Link then decided to address the crowd.

"The Ruler of Hyrule will face no more danger now," he said loudly. He then saw that people were straining to hear him and cleared his throat. "The time of danger has passed. Princess Zelda is going to rule a peaceful kingdom and make this land prosper. That," he glanced down to her, still softly crying, "I believe. I knew she would lead with grace since I first met her. We will be at peace."

The meaning was made. Peace and safety would come, by his hand if necessary. Link had never wanted to be king. He'd never wanted this responsibility of Hero. He'd never wanted eyes on him like this. But he had always wanted to support and protect Zelda as she had him. In that moment the crowd seemed to understand.

Gently, he led her away to find someplace to rest. She held onto his arm so hard he was half carrying her. Link quickly realized he was quite tired too. Despite their nap and the stew, it was still a large strain on the body.

"Where you wanna go?" he asked, "Are you hungry?"

Mutely she shook her head. Her eyes were still wet and red with tears and she hid her face when he saw she was looking. "I'm such– I'm such a cry baby," she choked out.

"Well, I think you've earned it." he murmured in her ear.

He pulled out a cloak to wrap her in to try and quell her shaking, but it was clear she wasn't going to stop any time soon. Eventually they made it to a river bank and Link sat down on the grasses, helping Zelda down too. Her sobs quieted and he offered her a drink of water which she greedily accepted.

The two watched the gentle flow of the river, it's water level low due to the dry summer months. But the trees were still cool and the world felt peaceful as it hadn't in nearly a decade.

"Is it okay for us to disappear?" Zelda asked quietly.

"We needed a place to be… private," Link said.

"Won't people talk?"

"Zelda, everybody talks."

A small smile made its way to her face. Calming down from her cry session, she removed a bandage someone had placed on her arm and blew her nose in it. Before he could ask if that was wise, he noticed that the wounded skin had healed already.

"Healing magic," she noted, "who would've thought I could do something like that?" she checked him again, "Do you have any need of healing?"

Link shook his head. "I'm right as rain."

She ignored him and grabbed his hands, feeling up his arms. He jolted when she touched the part of his arm that had been hit by that energy ball. "Now why'd you try to lie to me?" she asked.

He covered the strange wound with his own hand. It also buzzed unpleasantly, but it was nothing like when she touched it. "It hadn't bothered me until now."

She fixed him with a look.

"I'm not lying," he insisted.

"Fine," she said, then reevaluating, "Link, this was caused by evil magic."

"Uh, yeah, I know."

"What do you mean you knew?" She pulled his hand away.

Link resisted the urge to pull his arm back. "I mean I sort of felt it when Ganon threw the magic ball at me. He's an evil wizard, probably uses evil magic."

"When did this happen?"

"I dunno, the start of the fight?" Link said, "What does it matter, it really doesn't hurt too bad."

She ran her hands over the wound again causing him to wince. "Oh, so it doesn't hurt."

"It hurts when you touch it, yeah."

"Link that's because I have magic that is opposite Ganon's. If you were anyone else you'd probably have lost the arm. Here, let me try to fix it." With that she started her new heal-y glow-y magic. It stung like she was tearing something out of him and it took his will power to not cry out. He grit his teeth and once more her eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she started murmuring. Link couldn't reassure her, so they both held out until the darkness collected in a prison of her light magic. Despite the small sobs wracking her, Zelda held out and increased the intensity of her magic. With a bright flash the darkness was dissipated into the world.

Finally free from the strange pain, Link collapsed to his back. That small injury had taken a lot out of him and it took some strength to reach a hand up to caress Zelda's cheek. She looked down at him and said, "I knew that I would break some day."

"Zelda, you're not broken."

"Every little thing makes me cry now, I feel like I'm made of glass." She held his hand tightly. "You've always been so put together. Even when you're terrified– Even when you were sad."

"Believe me when I say the pressure I was under was nothing like what you were. It's honestly amazing you were able to hold it together as much as you did. When I lost Rauru… I… I wasn't nearly as composed. I certainly couldn't have run a country immediately after."

"You were able to slay a witch," she noted.

"Yes, well, exercise is how I deal with a lot of my problems."

"Exercise?" she repeated.

"And Zelda, even if you are broken, there's no reason you can't be put back together. Plenty of things are rebuilt greater than before."

"Name one."

"Stain glass windows."

The look in her eyes shifted from broken hearted to lighter. "Stained glass windows," she repeated, "Link, do you even know how they make stained glass windows?"

He sighed dramatically. "Of course I do, you told me, remember? One time when Hyrule Castle was destroyed a bunch of colorful windows were shattered. Someone collected those pieces and made that big window in the temple."

Her eyes grew concentrated. He was right, of course, and she probably hadn't been counting on that. "But that's not the point. Broken or not, we've crossed the largest hurdle. I'm willing to step up to whatever you need me to do."

"I just miss my family so much."

He could be her family. They could make a new one together. But he knew things like that couldn't be replaced. Whatever he helped her build would be something new and wonderful, but it wouldn't be Rauru. So he didn't offer any false solutions.

Link didn't have anything to say besides platitudes she'd already heard–that he may have already said. So he reached out to hold her. Once more she settled easily into his arms. Link stroked her hair and hummed a lullaby.

…

Rebuilding efforts sprang quickly. A tent city sprung up in Hyrule field. If things went to plan, they would only need it for a week or so, as after assessing the castle, it seemed to be structurally sound still. Link could believe that. The most damaged portions of the castle were the throne room and lower levels, along with a few of the towers. The royal chambers were mostly intact.

Being the fiancé of the princess really didn't change much of their relationship. After the initial highs of victory and then lows of emotional catharsis their public affection dialed back to roughly what it had been before.

They were still hardly ever alone for Zelda's safety as well as his own. It was strange to suddenly be someone to worry about, but the new title made many things strange to say the least. For instance he had to actually tell people where he was going.

That was his biggest issue. Before he could go off on his own to wherever, but now he had to check in with someone.

It was with some grumbling that he was on an accompanied ride in Hyrule field. He'd never been particularly social and the past few weeks were challenging him. However, if he weighed it against his old life where he had all the freedom and solitude to do whatever he wanted he'd pick fiance's life a thousand times over.

The truth was he'd never even really pictured another future. His only real change was thinking at the time he'd merely be a prince. King certainly was more daunting, more responsibilities. Gone were the days of just needing to look pretty and help continue the royal line.

Link sighed.

Later that evening Zelda called him to have dinner with her. Well, she was having dinner, it was already 8 pm and Link had eaten at 6. Link was having evening tea.

"So," she started between bites in an uncommonly common way. She must be tired, he figured. "Engagement."

"Yes."

"Do you have a ring?" she asked.

Ring? His fingers were bare of any rings, The piercings in his ears were a whim that he liked enough to keep, but they never got in the way. He wasn't even sure if he owned any rings.

Seeing his confusion, she swallowed her bite she'd taken after the question and explained, "Right, I forget you grew up in the middle of nowhere! It's tradition that engaged couples exchange gifts, usually jewelry. It is the royal custom to exchange rings."

Okay, that made more sense. Link knew about the gift exchange thing. He hadn't actually worked on anything due to being busy and also not really having an idea of what (since, again, what to get the person who has everything). "What kind of ring do you want?"

Zelda was taken aback. She looked at the table. "I… I don't know."

"So you want a surprise… or…"

"I… I guess so. Yeah, I trust you to make a good choice."

Well that was a ton of pressure. He knew her favorite color was blue… So that was the direction he could start. He smiled. Okay, he just needed to get in contact with a jeweler or someone.

"What about you?" she asked, "I was thinking to give you a ring of my father's or brother's. But I would understand if you wanted something new or…"

"I really don't know anything about jewelry," he answered honestly. Thinking back to the rings her father and brother wore he added, "I would probably rather something on the smaller side though. I wouldn't want to accidentally break it."

"Right… right," she agreed, mind still absent.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

She was quiet.

"You don't have to tell me, but, it's probably easier to not deal with on your own."

She fiddled with her silverware in a very un-Zelda like way. "I just… it's sort of embarrassing."

"Oh come on, you're dealing with Mr. 'literally couldn't talk to anyone that wasn't you for a whole year.' You can't really top that."

"That wasn't embarrassing," she insisted. "That was cute."

"Anyways, point still stands; you can tell me, like, anything."

After somemore fiddling, she said, "This is sort of dumb, and I know we're been busy, but, why haven't you kissed me?" her brows furrowed lightly. "You do want to do that, right?"

That was not what Link had been expecting her to say. Not at all. He let out a nervous laugh that he turned into a cough. At her serious eyes he realized he needed to be straight forward. "I– I mean, I do, I want that."

"Then why haven't you?"

Why hadn't he? For many reasons. At the start, she didn't feel the same way. Then as her feelings changed it became clear they needed to focus on larger matters and kissing would not help that. Then… immediately after she was crying and he was sort of crying too, so it would've just been messy. And now… they'd just been very busy. Rarely could they get a moment like this. The moment only facilitated because Paya was tactfully giving them alone time.

"Why haven't you?" he finally asked her, "You almost did on your birthday."

"I did what?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah, do you not remember?"

She shook her head.

He nodded. "Okay, that makes more sense. I sort of just figured you weren't in your right mind."

She buried her head in her hands. "I figured I said some stuff that… alluded to our relationship, but I was so– blatant? Link, how did you look at me the same way?"

The truth was he hadn't, but she didn't need to know that. It certainly wasn't in a bad way. "That's in the past. There's no reason we can't do that now."

"Right. You're right." For once her face flushed prettily. He wasn't used to her getting flustered. Placing her hands on the table, she said in a more composed voice, "well, come over here."

Link stood and strode to her side. Her dark eyes glittered with wisdom, and her long curly hair was half up half down, the only crown she needed. Her clothes were more simple work clothes. Suddenly she stood to look him in the eye. Their bodies were a hair breadth apart.

He was suddenly brought back to a silly dream he'd once had. She saw his change in expression and her frown deepened. "What's wrong?" she asked.

He swallowed thickly. Sure, they'd been engaged for a few weeks now, but they'd been practically engaged for a lot longer than that. Finding his voice he answered, "I used to have this idea of how things would go, like, a fantasy, except I'm not sure how much I ever actually believed in it. Towards the end it definitely just felt like wistful thinking… but…"

Their faces leaned in, and he could feel her breath on his lips as she asked, "What?"

He closed the distance.

Their lips met in an act both had thought about more than either would admit. The kiss was soft; a plain show of love. They pulled apart and it took a few moments for Link to come back down to earth. His pulse was humming in his ears, and his heart beat like a hammer in his chest. He opened his eyes to see Zelda's dark eyes have an intense under current to them.

That was way better than my dreams, he thought.

She giggled softly. "I'm glad I wasn't the only one."

Oh, he'd said it aloud.

Too wrapped up in the moment to feel embarrassment, Link wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. She placed her hands on his chest, spreading them up to his shoulders. They kissed again. Then a third time. Finally, she must've grown overwhelmed and buried her face in the side of his neck.

Link wondered how in Hyrule he was going to find a ring worthy of the woman in his arms.