Chapter One

The Moving Star

It was late evening, the sun had set behind the dueling peaks, and the sky had taken on a dark purple tint. Link sat on the grass by his house in Hateno Village looking up at the sky, appreciating the view of the constellations and stars. He had made an astonishing amount of progress lately in his quest; he had reobtained the master sword and taken its trials to unlock its full splendor, he had reclaimed all four of the divine beasts, and had also finished the champion's ballad only a week prior. He felt just about ready to face Ganon, but all it took was just one statement of this to Impa before that idea was sent down in flames.

She had stared him dead in the eye, a disapproving frown on her face, and not saying a word for a full minute. Impa had then advised him in a stern grandmotherly tone to wait and not just immediately rush off before giving himself time to rest. She told him that whether he admitted it or not, he was undoubtedly drained. He was reluctant to make Zelda wait any longer, but he did understand Impa's point, he'd be no use to Zelda, or anyone for that matter if he keeled over from exhaustion. Impa had advised him to take a couple of weeks to rest and relax after the last six months of charging around Hyrule on minimal rest.

He had begrudgingly taken her advice, so here he was, resting. One thing that he'd found helped alleviate the difficulty of being idle when his destiny remained before him was stargazing. It didn't stop the wishing however, he wished Zelda were here to see it with him. He missed her, deeply, more than he could even say. He'd given no outward indication of it as far as he knew. There were so many things he wanted to show her, so many places he wanted to take her to, so many things he was certain would make her smile.

Since recovering all of his memories, that desire had been a prominent presence in his mind. He wanted to see her smile again, feel its warmth, and take pride in the fact that it was him who had made it happen. His memories indicated that prior to the calamity's return, she didn't smile very much at all. The pressure on her from her father, and the people of Hyrule, and their hopes had been too heavy. She felt like she was a failure, that she would never be able to meet the expectations on her. Link hated it, he absolutely hated that he had been unable to make her smile more. Although she was hostile to him at first, they grew closer with time and before he knew it she didn't mind his presence anymore. One of his most cherished memories was directly after her failure at the spring of power in Akkala.

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Zelda's muffled sobs rebounded in his ears like cannon fire. Turning to face her he saw her still standing in the spring, face in her hands and her shoulders shaking as she wept. His heart clenched painfully in his chest, he hesitated for a few moments, deliberating on what to do. He soon decided to throw protocol out the window and entered the spring himself. He waded over to Zelda and rested a hand on her shoulder. She jumped, but did not turn around.

"You shouldn't be here." She said, her voice small and raw, and Link hated it. He hated it when she cried, was upset, or frustrated at her ever increasing number of failures.

"I don't care about propriety or protocol, I do this for you Zelda." He told her softly.

She shuddered slightly when he called her by name, it wasn't the first time he'd done it of course, but something was different this time. She almost swore that there was something about his voice…she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Zelda, please look at me." He softly urged her.

She shook her head, she couldn't do it, she was certain she would see a look of disappointment on his face and she didn't think she would be able to take it.

"Zelda, I'm not mad at you, will you please look at me?" He repeated.

Finally, she gave in, slowly raising her eyes to his. She immediately felt foolish for thinking he would be disappointed in her. The only things in his gaze were sympathy, compassion, and…something she could not name. A smile slowly spread across his face after she met his gaze.

"See? I'm not upset, I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere." He assured her.

She flung her arms around him and buried her face in his chest as she allowed herself to cry without restraint. While not the first time she'd done this in his presence, his response always sent a flood of emotions coursing through her. He returned her embrace, rubbing her back and murmuring soothing words into her ear. He helped her out of the spring and got a fire going. Zelda just stared into the fire, thoughts racing. If the calamity returned before she awakened her power all would be lost, and then everyone she ever cared about would be doomed. The champions, her father, and—and…Link.

Oh, goddesses, the thought of Link being lost to the calamity utterly terrified her. She hadn't admitted to anyone, aside from Urbosa, about her feelings towards Link now. She cared about him, a lot, but every time she tried to muster up the courage to tell him, her own doubts came back to haunt her and stilled her tongue. She was terrified of confessing her feelings only to realize that he didn't reciprocate them. She was sure he loved Mipha, he deserved someone like her, Mipha had never treated him horribly. Zelda still felt horribly guilty for how she had acted towards Link, despite the fact that he'd forgiven her already.

If Ganon returned and she still hadn't awoken her power, she didn't want to die without telling Link how she felt. She…wanted him, all the way, despite what her father might say. She was frightened that if they somehow did defeat the calamity that her father would simply have her married off to someone she'd never met and didn't in any way love. She felt utterly revolted at the idea, she didn't want to meet that fate. She just needed to…

"Link."

He stopped what he was doing, which was making them dinner. He turned his head back to look at her, an eyebrow raised in confusion. Zelda swallowed nervously and decided that now was the time, she would tell him and she would do it before she could start second guessing herself. If they failed and Hyrule was lost she wanted to have at least tried.

"Link, there's something…I have to tell you." She stuttered, lowering her gaze to her hands which she wrung nervously. "I j-just…I felt that…you needed to know that I…" She faltered, doubts suddenly crashing down on her. 'Oh no!' she wailed in her mind, not again! Please goddesses not now, not when she was so close to telling Link what she should have told him a long time ago.

The feeling of Link's hands on hers drew her out of her thoughts. He looked at her, a small frown marring his handsome features, he looked upset. Like he was sad because she was upset. Her stomach flipped, and her skin tingled, Link was without doubt the most special person in her life. She didn't even deny it anymore, she loved him. She needed to tell him this now, a sense of sudden calm washed over her. She almost thought she heard a voice from a great distance but she dismissed it as the wind, as she couldn't make it out, but she felt calmer now.

"Link, you are the most special person in my life." She started, and felt a little better when he smiled in response to her words, that frown disappearing. She continued before her brief period of courage could run out.

"I just want you to know that I…I…" She swallowed, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and spoke directly from her heart. "Link, I love you."

A gasp made her open her eyes, Link was staring at her like she'd grown a second head, his eyes like full moons. She was just about to curl inward on herself thinking he was appalled at her, when she saw it. A bright red blush was spreading across his face.

Oh.

Oh, goddesses.

"You…me…what?" He sounded absolutely astounded, but he didn't sound upset at all.

She smiled as she felt the weight over her shoulders disappear for the first time in years. She took his face in her hands, his eyes widening even more, she resisted the urge to giggle.

"I said I love you, Link." She said, smiling giddily, feeling so much better after having finally told the truth to him, having finally given voice to her long buried feelings.

"Really?" His voice was barely a whisper, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Really." She finally giggled a little, as she saw the shock finally leave his face and be replaced by that same expression she had seen before, but now she recognized it for what it was. She didn't need to name it for his next words confirmed it, as he whispered his reply into her ear.

"I love you too Zelda."

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Well, Link had never been happier than he had been after that night, he'd truly never imagined that Zelda would hold the same feelings for him as he did for her. Although, it wasn't long after that the incident with Ganon arrived and he was dying in her arms. He had felt so utterly defeated, he thought his one chance with her had been ruined by Ganon. Now he had a second chance and that was why he was so reluctant to make her wait any longer. She'd waited a hundred years already, he didn't want to be away from her any longer. But he would keep his promise to Impa, and Zelda herself would have probably told him the same if she wasn't…wait a minute. What was that?

He shifted his gaze to a different part of the sky, he squinted a little, unsure if his eyes were playing tricks on him or if it was really there. About halfway above the southern horizon, was a star-like point, what was strange about this was the fact it was moving. This star was slowly moving across the sky, he watched it for about a half hour until it disappeared over the horizon. Whatever that thing was, it was no star. It wasn't a shooting star either, it was far too slow for that.

The next night, it was back, and just like before it slowly made its way across the sky. It moved from east to west, just like the sun and moon. Link quickly realized what this meant, this…whatever it was…it was in orbit around the planet like the moon. Although it looked just like a star, he got the impression that it was significantly closer than the moon. It was on this second night that he realized that it would appear at a consistent interval. Once every three hours; it would appear on the eastern horizon, cross the sky and disappear roughly a half hour later. Only to reappear again on the opposite horizon three hours later. He began to really wonder what this object was. He'd never heard of anything like this. The next morning, he headed up to the Hateno ancient tech lab to ask Purah for her opinion on the matter.

She seemed confused when he asked her if she knew about any stars that moved. She would ordinarily have laughed, but she saw that his face was serious, and from that guessed that he wasn't talking about shooting stars, but…literally…moving stars. She told him she didn't know anything about that, then asked him why. His answer sent curiosity shooting through her. He told that a couple nights ago, he saw a star-like point of light moving through the sky. He explained that he had determined that whatever it was, it was in orbit because he had observed it making regular appearances just like the moon.

Purah and Symin were both very interested now, they told Link that they would try to use their telescope to find out more about this anomaly that had appeared. Soon, the rest of Hyrule began to take notice of the stranger in the sky, soon everyone knew there was something very weird up there. It was also noticed that when it appeared right before sunrise and neared the horizon just after sunset, it would glint brightly, just like a metal.

Purah reported that she had been unable to glean much from her observations. The same also went for Robbie in Akkala. When Link had told Impa about this, she said that never in the entire time that the Sheikah had been keeping records, had there ever been any mention of something like this. Link felt vaguely unsettled about this guest in the skies, the fact that it was metallic meant it was clearly artificial. This disturbed him because for something artificial to be up in the sky, it couldn't be of any of their making. No one in the world possessed the technology to do something like this, not even the ancient sheikah ten thousand years ago.

Just what in the name of the goddesses was up there?