Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda and all of its characters, plotlines, and any other related material belong to Nintendo.
A/N: I'm not much of a MiphaxLink fan, but uh, I wrote this anyway, and I thought it wasn't terrible, so here you go.
Mipha sent her consciousness to Link's side. It was dark, and he was asleep, having made camp in a small copse of trees on the cliffs near Zora's Domain. He lay sprawled out in the dirt, his threadbare blanket twisted around his legs. He had his hand resting next to a sword, and below that was a little journal and a fountain pen.
Instinctively, Mipha bent over and tried to pull the blanket properly over him, but she was incorporeal. Her hands passed through the fabric and accidentally brushed the skin of Link's ankle.
For a moment, warmth flooded her body, and she could remember what it had felt like to be alive. The warm wind tickled her cheek, not passing through her, but around her as if her body had become solid again. Her hand didn't phase through Link's ankle like it had the blanket but rested on top of it. She could actually feel the smooth texture of his skin beneath her fingers and smell the pine trees around them. Even the colors of the night time forest seemed brighter somehow.
She gasped, wanting to stay here, to hold onto this feeling for as long as she could. As a spirit, her senses always felt so muted, so dull. Her soul ached to be able to feel this much all the time, the way she had in life. But Link shivered in his sleep and moved his foot away from her hand.
As soon as the skin contact was gone, life seemed to bleed out of the world. Mipha could no longer feel the breeze or smell the pine scent it carried, though she could hear it as it whistled through the trees. The colors of the forest dulled. And the warmth disappeared, going back to the old, familiar numbness that pervaded her life—or lack thereof—these days.
She sighed heavily and sat down on the ground next to Link, folding her legs underneath her. She couldn't feel the ground's texture, either, just a slight pressure as the rock resisted her body's attempt to pass through it. If she really wanted, she still could, but passing through solid objects like rock was not a pleasant experience.
Technically, she didn't need to touch the ground at all. She could just float. In fact, it took more effort not to float. But she liked that pressure. It was one of the few true sensations still available to her.
Mipha didn't know why she'd come here at all, other than that she liked to be near him. His spirit was tied to hers now, as it was to the other Champions he'd saved, and so even though most of her essence was stuck with Ruta, part of it was here with him. She preferred to focus on this part as much as she could.
Revali, the only other Champion Link had saved so far, mocked her for it, calling her lovesick and foolish, but Mipha didn't care. She had waited a hundred years to see Link again, and she would take advantage of every second she could spend with him until his quest was complete and she had to say goodbye for good.
Besides, Revali spent nearly as much time hanging around near Link as Mipha did. He claimed it was just because he was bored of Vah Medoh after a hundred years of being trapped there, but Mipha suspected there was more to it than that.
Of course, Link didn't know when Revali or she was here. He only saw them when he used one of their abilities. But still, being in his presence comforted her. And she hoped that in some small way, her presence comforted him too, even if he wasn't consciously aware of it.
Almost as soon as she thought that, Link bolted upright next to her. Mipha jumped and looked over.
"No, no, stay," Link mumbled to himself, desperation flooding his voice as he scrambled for the journal he had lying next to him. "Please stay."
His hands shook as he opened the journal to a seemingly random page, and then his pen was flying across it. His left hand dragged across the page as he wrote, smudging the letters and smearing ink on the side of his hand, but he didn't seem to care.
Feeling a little guilty, but too curious not to know what this was about, Mipha edged closer, careful not to accidentally touch him, and read over his shoulder.
Mipha and I at Zora's Domain. Ruta just discovered. She's taking me to the reservoir lake to… His pen stilled.
He smacked his hand against his forehead a few times and squeezed his eyes shut. After several long moments in that position, he finally opened them and sighed, looking down at the page sadly.
Then he shook his head and closed the journal. He tugged his blanket up as he lay back down, this time hugging the journal to his chest, and rolled onto his side, his back to where Mipha sat.
Mipha felt like crying, though in this form she couldn't. That was...a memory. He was trying to write down his memories, to capture them before they disappeared.
And...and she knew which one this was. She could picture it in her mind. It felt like so long ago, a time before destiny had crashed into her and Link like a wave, sending them spinning off in separate directions. A time when it had just been her and him, best friends since childhood.
An idea occurred to her. A stupid, crazy idea that definitely wasn't going to work, but she moved around to his other side anyway. His eyes were closed, but she could tell he was still awake by the rigid way he held his body. She touched his cheek.
Once again, as soon as her skin touched his, that feeling of being alive came back. It almost distracted her from her goal—and the way Link flinched as if he felt her hand, distracted her too. She forced herself to close her eyes and focus on the memory, on their shared memory, trying to reach through their connection and let him see it too.
Somehow, she could feel that the memory was still fresh in his mind. It lingered near the surface of his subconscious, just out of his reach. All it needed was a little nudge over the line and he'd be able to grab it. Not knowing exactly what she was doing, she pulled on it.
Link gasped, clearly reacting to something. Mipha opened her eyes and found that his were open too. They were wide but fogged over as if he wasn't really seeing what was in front of him. Mipha was used to him looking right through her, but this was different. He wasn't focused on anything at all.
The string that bound them together tugged at her mind, and when she let it in, she was swept into the memory with him.
"Come on, Link!" Mipha laughed, tugging on his hand. "You need to see her. She's beautiful."
Present-day Mipha felt strange. She was watching this memory through Link's eyes, seeing her younger self from the outside, and she could even hear his thoughts. At the same time, though, she was somehow separate from him.
Link was happy to let Mipha pull him along—more than happy. The feel of her cool hand in his made his stomach flutter with nerves. He couldn't resist a little teasing, though. "She?" he asked with a smirk.
Young Mipha glanced at him and smiled in her shy way, and that fluttering feeling became so intense Link thought he might throw up. "Well," she said, "it was named after a female sage, so it must be a 'she,' right?"
Link shrugged. It was just a machine, regardless of who it was named after. But if it made Mipha happy to call the Divine Beast a "she," he'd let her have her fun.
They made it to the top of the reservoir dam.
And there it was. Vah Ruta. Link gasped and ran forward, his hand slipping out of Mipha's.
It was so much…bigger than Link had expected, towering hundreds of feet above him. In comparison, he felt tiny, insignificant.
From behind, Mipha's quiet laugh warmed him. She came up next to him. "See, I told you she was beautiful."
Beautiful, yes, but incomplete, present-day Mipha thought. This was before the Divine Beast had been activated...before she had activated it, years later. The lights that lined its body and trunk were dark, not shining with the blue of ancient energy or the pink of Malice, just dormant. It floated in the center of the reservoir lake, motionless.
This was just a husk of the Ruta she knew so intimately.
"Father says the Hylians and the Sheikah want a Zora Champion to pilot it when the Calamity comes," young Mipha was saying. She stared at the Beast with awe. "Don't you think it would be incredible? To be able to control something like that? Whoever becomes the Champion will be very lucky to have such an honor."
If only luck had been on our side, present Mipha thought sadly.
"Who do you think it'll be?" Link asked.
"Probably one of our warriors." The longing in Mipha's voice made Link look over at her questioningly. She continued staring at the Divine Beast, oblivious to his gaze until he spoke.
"But you don't want it to be one of them?" he guessed.
Mipha met his eyes with a small smile. "How do you do that?"
"What?"
"Know exactly what I'm thinking."
Link shrugged.
Mipha looked back at Vah Ruta. "No, I don't want it to be one of the warriors. Please don't tell anyone I said this, but… in truth, I want it to be me. From the moment I saw Ruta, I just… I feel this connection to her that I can't explain." She put her hand over her heart. "I feel like we were meant to be."
She looked over at Link then. Something about her expression made him think that she wasn't just talking about Ruta anymore. His heart sped up, and he gave her a little, nervous smile.
Then she looked away and shook her head as her lips tilted slightly upward. "It's silly, I know. I'm the Zora princess. My father would never let me put myself in such danger, and there are Zora who are far more talented and better suited to the task. Still, it's a nice thought."
"I think you would make a perfect Champion," Link said, reaching out to touch her arm.
"That's kind of you to say," Mipha said softly, meeting his eyes again, just for a moment before she broke away.
They lapsed into silence for several seconds, both of them staring at Ruta. Then Link looked over at her with a grin.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go over there!"
Mipha balked. "I just wanted to bring you here to see her. We're not supposed to—it could be dangerous!"
Link spent most of his time doing the things he was supposed to do. Following orders, exchanging pleasantries, being a good little soldier and knight in training. But he was still a kid, and right now, he just wanted to have fun. Mipha had always been one of the few people that he could really be himself around. "Good thing I've got someone with me who has healing powers, then, right?" He was already peeling off his shirt and shoes.
Mipha let out a breath. "That's not an excuse to be reckless—Link!"
Link dove into the lake.
The cold water was a shock to his system, but once he resurfaced, he spun around in it to look back at Mipha.
It was strange for the present Mipha, to be able to feel what swimming was like for a Hylian. To a Zora, it was second nature, as natural as breathing. But being inside his body, it seemed so...wrong. Link had to constantly move his arms and legs just to keep his head above the water level. Plus, it was well into autumn, so the water was far too cold for him, causing goosebumps to rise on his arms and his body to shudder as it tried to stay warm. He couldn't switch to breathing through gills the way a Zora could, couldn't stay above the water with just tiny fin adjustments, couldn't instantly acclimate to the temperature.
Mipha wondered why Hylians liked swimming when it required so much effort just to keep themselves from drowning.
Link, of course, didn't notice that wrongness. He grinned up at young Mipha, who was standing with her arms crossed on the platform above him. She didn't look angry though—Mipha never really got angry, especially not with him. She just looked worried.
"That water is too cold for you to swim in," Mipha told him. "You'll get sick."
Link shrugged. "If you gave me a hand, I'd be out of the water a lot faster." He started to use his arms to row himself backward, toward Ruta. "Or would you rather I swim over there myself?"
Mipha sighed, glancing back the way they'd come for a moment, then dove into the water. In an instant, she was next to him, taking his hand. "Hold on tight."
Link nodded, squeezing her hand, and they took off.
Mipha gasped and opened her eyes to find herself back in the present, her hand no longer touching Link's cheek. Only seconds had passed.
Link gasped, too, and the fog in his eyes cleared. He sat up immediately and opened the journal to the same page he'd written on before. Crossing out the lines he'd written earlier, he began describing the memory in much more detail.
After several minutes of furious writing, he paused to marvel at the page. "It's not fading," he whispered. "It's...it's still here."
As Mipha watched, his eyes brimmed with tears—but not sad ones. He blinked them away and finished writing down the memory.
"Thank you, Mipha," Link whispered when he was done.
Mipha jolted. He knew she was here? He could see her?
But no. He was looking up at the sky, not in her direction. She tried standing up and moving so she was in his direct line of sight, but as always, his gaze passed right through her. Mipha deflated, looking down at her translucent hands, wishing for the millionth time that she could cry.
"It is… it is my pleasure," she whispered.
A/N: The initial plan was to end it here, but then I ended up writing an alternate ending where Link hears her say that last line. I couldn't choose which ending I liked better, so I opted to leave it up to reader preference. If you like this ending as it is, you can ignore the continuation if you want. The next chapter is a short scene from Link's POV and starts immediately after the last line of this one.
