The food at the table was as Ellie predicted. There was far too much to feed just the three who lived in the house, and for that, Zelda couldn't help but feel grateful.

She gratefully ate the food provided to them, and listened intently to Link's tales from his days as a soldier. They were simple, and from a much easier time. Nothing that included the doom that faced the kingdom currently. Nothing that even remotely implied who either of them were.

"How did you meet?" Ellie asked Zelda after hearing too many war stories for her taste.

"Oh," Zelda said, glancing at Link. "He was just… hanging around. We met by chance."

"What was your wedding like?"

"Ellie!" Maryse scolded. "Sorry, she's a curious child."

"It's fine," Zelda laughed. "Truly, our wedding happened so quickly that I hardly remember it. We were in a bit of a rush."

Link snorted and cleared his throat. He chuckled when he felt Zelda's foot kick him, though her smile didn't falter.

Ellie shrugged, taking a bite of her food. "I wouldn't have a rushed wedding. I'd draw it out for days… unless you're pregnant?"

Both Link and Zelda choked.

"Ellie!" her mother gasped. "One more comment like that to our guests and you're going to your room."

"No," Zelda finally managed. "I'm not."

"Has anyone ever told you that you look like Princess Zelda?"

Zelda's lips tightened in a forced smile. "All too often, actually. I was considering changing my hair so people might stop comparing us. It gives me unrealistic expectations of myself. Has anyone told you that you look like Princess Zelda's sister?"

"Actually, yes. I once convinced someone that's who I was, and he was so convinced. It was crazy. I got a discount on some new shoes. I didn't even go there for shoes."

Zelda chuckled and cleared her throat as she took a drink.

"So," Ellie said, addressing Link. "How'd you get that scar?"

"That's it!" Maryse choked, standing up and pointing down the hall. "Out."

"It's fine," Link tried.

But Maryse shook her head. "It's inappropriate of her. She needs to learn."

"I never get to do anything!" Ellie yelled, pushing the chair back so hard that it fell over. "You don't let me talk, you don't let me breathe, you don't let me do anything! I wish I lived with Aunt Chermain instead of you two!"

Her uncle and mother watched her leave and waited for the slam of her door.

"Sorry," her uncle said, picking up the chair.

"It's fine. I actually was going to ask if you had a needle and thread. Link was injured… when we were set upon." Zelda stumbled over her words, nearly forgetting their story.

"Oh, yes," Maryse said, standing to clear off the empty plates on the table. "I can take a look. I'm a far herbalist. My potions aren't like the ones you'll buy at the store, but they're good."

Zelda looked to Link for that one. He nodded once. "I can help with that fence in the corner of your yard in the morning as payment."

"Just let me worry about that," Maryse said, grabbing the needle and thread from a drawer. She also grabbed a bucket and a rag. "Let's go into the other room. Oton, clean up the rest of the table please?"

They stood in front of a lantern that Maryse turned up as she dug through a drawer. "Let me see one of these wounds so I know what I'm dealing with."

Link tilted his neck so she could see one of the wounds from Ganondorf, and he lifted his sleeve so she could see the most recent one from the blade during the attack in the woods.

"Plus your arm is meant to be in a sling," she said, muttering more to herself. "So if I add…"

As she trailed off, Link leaned closer to Zelda. "You're not going to stitch them all, right? There are a lot."

"You're so lucky you haven't gotten an infection already, so yes, I'm going to stitch them all shut."

"Is it necessary?"

Zelda turned to him and crossed her arms. "You fight me on everything I try to help you with."

"You've fought me as well. We're about even."

Zelda scoffed. "I've seen men and women die from infections. You're going to have to tough it out with me."

"Here," Maryse said, handing them a small jug filled with dark green liquid. "This is a potion that should help. It doesn't taste good, but it'll work. And here, for the wound." She handed over some alcohol. "Do you need Oton to do it? He's had experience sewing flesh."

Zelda made a face. "No, I was an apprentice to a surgeon during the war. I can manage but thank you."

"Very well, let me show you to your room," she said, leading them down a dark, wooden hallway. "Ellie said she laid some clothes out for you; something to sleep in and something to keep."

"Yes, it was very kind of her."

Maryse made a noise in agreement and gestured inside. "Please, sleep well. It's an honor to aid any who've served against the usurper."

"The honor is ours," Zelda said, "It's rare to find someone who is willing to help two total strangers."

"It might not be as rare as you think. You may just be asking the wrong people."

Zelda grinned and led Link inside. "Goodnight, Maryse. Thank you."

When the door finally closed, Zelda let out a long sigh and sat back on the bed, regretting it immediately for the comfort it brought. She groaned, wistfully wishing she could just throw her head back and sleep.

"I'll take the floor," Link said, looking around at the fairly bare room.

"No, that's not fair to you. I don't have a problem sharing the bed if you don't."

Link scoffed and began to stutter. "Y-you're the Princess. Can't I be beheaded for that… or something?"

"If my family was alive, perhaps. More likely that you'd just have been castrated."

"Bloody Din," Link said, swallowing hard and taking an instinctive step away from her. "and you want me to sleep with you?"

Zelda turned to him with a bright grin. "Now that would have gotten you beheaded."

"Goddess," Link muttered, feeling his face redden. "That's not what I meant."

"I know," she said, laughing. Holding up the needle, Zelda waved it in front of him. "Now, take off your shirt."

Though Link obliged, he rolled his eyes. "Have you ever said anything else to me? I feel like half the time I've known you, you've just been telling me to de-clothe."

"Perhaps that's because you always do it. Or perhaps, I'm not nearly as sinister as you believe and I'm attempting to help you. Like now. Sit." She examined the wound on his neck first and then worked her way down his chest with a grimace. "I'm sorry, this first one is probably going to be the worst, but it has to happen."

Link braced himself as she cleaned the wounds and threaded the needle through his skin again and again until every touch left him raw and twitching involuntarily. She had to start holding him down by the time she had him lying back to work on his arms.

"Ganondorf did quite a number on you, didn't he?" Zelda muttered, more to herself than to Link.

Which was fine, since Link found himself unable to safely respond to her. His skin was couldn't take much more. His pain tolerance was high, but he was exhausted, and still not recovered from the cells. His body ached fiercely, and this—though necessary—just wasn't helping his senses.

At first, Link kept his eyes closed, trying to stay at rest through the many stitches he was receiving, but his eyes fluttered open in a pain response, and he let his gaze settle on the set expression of the Princess of Hyrule.

It had taken him until the peace of this moment to realize just how blue her eyes were. He had blue eyes, but they were light, practically reflections, whereas hers weren't nearly as shallow as his. Hers were pure blue, as if the word and its description were created when someone looked into the Princess' eyes.

And it took him being this close to her in the well-lit glow of her candle to see that underneath her eyes, she had the lightest dotting of freckles, barely noticeable in the normal light, but easy to spot from where he lay.

As she worked, she would occasionally push a piece of hair from her face, but her careless and focused motion would often loosen more hair than she brushed away. He was grateful that he was laying on his arm; the urge to push the hair away for her, to brush his fingers over her skin as he did… it was overwhelming.

Zelda had a focused expression on her face, like there was nothing but her and her work. It was easy to see how she was able to filter out some of the horrors of war that had gone on around her, but Link could see that her same focus was likely keeping her from fully feeling the pain she felt after losing her family. Link didn't consider his parents his family, but he'd considered several of the soldiers he'd trained with to be. And he knew the horrible, crushing pain of losing them, of watching them die, of thinking it was his fault for not being quick enough, or for not standing in their place. He'd tell her that the feelings would never go away, and that every time he thought of them, he thought of some way he might have been able to save them. But that the days he thought that way became fewer as life went on, and the pain became manageable, something he'd learned to live with rather than to forget. Perhaps that could be some comforting thought to her. Or perhaps it would make it worse.

Her face was still slightly marred from Ganondorf dragging her to her isolated cell only days ago. Days, Link thought. More like a lifetime ago. But he realized that her bruises and scrapes did nothing to detract from her beauty, and if anything, they just added a visual component to the strength he'd witnessed from her.

Zelda chuckled, looking at Link before turning back to her work. "Are you admiring me, Link?"

For once, he was unsurprised by her easy comment. "Yes… Is that okay?" he added, seriously.

"I can't stop you from thinking whatever thoughts you have, so yes, it's okay."

"You could, you know. One word and I'd never think another thought about you. At least, not so noticeably."

Pausing, Zelda cocked her head at him. "What if I don't mind you thinking that way?"

Link smirked. "Aren't you betrothed or something?"

Zelda pulled a stitch too hard and made a face, turning to him apologetically. "I was, as was my sister. But we were babies when they started pairing us off with this prince, or that noble. If I survive this, there is no way I'm honoring that."

"But you have to marry politically still, right?"

This time, Zelda smirked, teasing. "Are you thinking of marrying me, Link?"

He laughed, genuine and amused. "No. That thought would never have actually entered my mind in a thousand years. You're a Princess."

Returning back again, Zelda shrugged. "Yes, it's possible that I'll have to marry politically. It's also possible that I will be allowed some freedom in that regard, since the conditions for me to be on the throne require killing Ganondorf. I'd be granted some great honor, or at least leniency in case I go rogue in terms of my royal expectations."

"Sounds like you'd deserve far more than that when you succeed."

Zelda tied off the stitch and started to put things away, keeping her eyes off Link. "That's good for now. You only have a few left, but you should rest for tonight."

He could see her drooping eyes, and felt his own stinging. He slid under the blanket and closed his eyes. "Go ahead and change. I won't look."

"You'd better not," Zelda laughed.

But by the time she had grabbed the clothes Ellie had set out, Link was already asleep.