And the Clouds Parted

by FlowerOwl

To Midna, the world is a set of dichotomies, divided into the Twilight Realm, a world relegated to the shadows and history, and Hyrule, a world where the sun is reflected by the glint of weaponry. The world is divided into twos, but as the princess of Hyrule enters into her life, bringing the harsh sun along, the lines between them begin to blur.

20. Chapter 20

Link was right. Midna might not like to admit it, but the truth was that he was right. It would be amazing, freeing, everything she had ever wanted, to be able to just be happy without constantly having to bring up the fact that she could not allow herself to begin to feel connected with anything that might be taken from her every moment. But still, even though she had made that realisation, despite how she had expected for that to be the easy part and that, once she had admitted the truth to herself, it would be simple for her to find the answers. But rather than that happening, it felt almost like every answer she was able to give to herself, able to pretend that she might not have been wrong about it all, only provided another ten questions with the opportunity to appear in front of her, all of them calling for her attention, seeming just as important as any number of soldiers could ever have been before.

Still, no matter how her entire world felt like it had suddenly changed around her, making her unable to tell anything for certain, one thing was still obvious. She had to talk with Zelda.

Midna knew that she could not continue telling herself that she would do it soon, tomorrow, at an unspecified point in time, and yet, that was exactly what she did, letting the days pass by, each one spent trying to convince herself that the reason she hadn't talked with Zelda was simply due to the fact that she could not find her. Never mind the fact that Midna made sure to leave the general area the moment she even though she spotted the slightest hint of how Zelda's hair almost seemed to glow in the flames of the candles around them, red, brown, and lighter colours coming together to form what could only be described as beauty, that all had nothing to do with how Midna was currently walking through the corridors, heading towards her ship after having just made a sharp turn to avoid having to come face to face with Zelda after having heard her voice being thrown through the hallway a few metres in front of her. At least the echo in the corridors made sure that she got a warning in advance, making it so that she did not have to constantly worry about whether she would turn around a corner to find herself standing in front of Zelda. Not that it kept her from thinking about it all the same. It was simply a matter of her not feeling ready to apologise yet.

However, the more Midna thought about it, Zelda's face following her into her nightmares, the more she began to doubt whether she would ever have been able to use a word such as 'simply' to describe what happened each time she even thought about going to talk with Zelda, how her heart began to beat faster, her hands becoming clammy, every single word she had ever known seemingly disappearing from her mind, leaving her unable to do anything other than to stammer as she looked into the mirror that hung on the wall of her cabin, almost looking like it was taunting her.

So she had not talked with Zelda yet. Was it the right thing to do, was it a good way to handle her emotions, what Link had meant when he had told her that he wished for her that she could be more like the person she had once been? No, it absolutely was not. But even though Midna had been able to practically feel the question of whether she had talked with Zelda burn on his tongue each time they had talked since that day, he never asked. Really, it would not surprise Midna if he already knew that she had yet to actually make an attempt at following his advice. After all, had there ever been a time where she had been any good at accepting the fact that the people around her wanted to help her? Midna knew what the answer to that question was.

But even then, it was not enough to make her stomach stop feeling like it had been replaced with a stone as she hurried through the hangar, not enough to take her mind off Zelda, making it so that Midna only noticed how Beth came running at the last moment before they would have collided, Beth having seemingly appeared from out of nowhere, to sprint directly in front of her.

"Whoa!" making a sudden jump to the side, Midna was not able to keep back the surprised yelp, already turning around to look over at where Beth had almost fallen, barely catching herself before she would have hit the floor. "Are you all right?"

Beth simply smiled up at her, looking so happy that, had it not been for the fact that Midna had been there to see it, she would not have thought that Beth had just been seconds away from scraping her knees as she nodded. "Yes, I am fine."

Casting a glance at something behind Midna, Beth had already halfway twirled around again, readying herself to continue to sprint towards the far end of the hangar again.

She should probably have let her do just that, but as Midna looked back over her shoulder and saw how Talo was running towards them, putting on a wide grin as he saw Beth stand right there, her curiosity got the better of her. Turning back towards Beth, Midna made sure to call out after her before she would have moved so far away from her that she would not have heard her. "Hey, Beth, what are you playing? Because if you are going to have to sprint around like this all the time, you might want to take this game somewhere else, somewhere where you will not constantly be about to run into someone."

It was apparent that Beth was torn between answering and running away. The way she kept looking over at Talo could not have made that more obvious. But in the end, it seemed that she decided to stay, even if Midna was fairly sure that she might just have made her lose the game.

"We are just playing," Beth mumbled, making some kind of signal to Talo that thankfully made him slow down before he would have crashed into them. Instead, he simply ran over to them, stopping in time to throw an arm around Beth and look up at Midna, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"Yeah, it is this great game that I made up—well Malo helped me, but it was mostly me," Talo added, clearly not hearing how Beth mumbled something next to him that sounded a lot like 'I helped as well', "but if you want to play as well, then you would be more than welcome!"

"That was not exactly what I meant." Midna laughed, though the sound soon died on her lips as she looked down at them and realised that they had actually meant it, that they had actually been prepared to let her participate in their game, much like she had once looked into the gardens of the rich families in Hateno and wished that their children would see her and invite her to play with them. She could hear how the tears made her voice shake as she tried to make it sound even a little bit more sincere. "Uh, mostly, I was just wondering why you were sprinting around the hangar like you had Skulltulas chasing you."

"Oh." Talo sent her a look that told her almost everything she needed to hear, how, to him, it might as well have been Skulltulas. Looking incredibly satisfied with himself and the game he had just claimed most of the credit for inventing, Talo began to explain. "Well, you see, Beth was running because she is a rebel and I was the soldier trying to catch her because she had stolen the keys to the dungeon. She has to save Colin. He wasn't quite as fast as her, so he was captured a while ago."

Instantly, Midna regretted having ever asked. Sensing how every single part of her felt like it had disappeared, a lifelike replica of every bone, muscle, and organ made of ice having taken its place with how the air around her suddenly felt much colder than it should have, being unnaturally cold even for it being in the middle of winter, Midna forced herself not to let her feelings show, pushing them back down, and away to instead force herself to smile down at them. "Really?" her voice sounded exactly the same as what she felt like, broken, trembling, and desperately trying to hide both of those things, as she continued. "Well, I hope that it is a fun game then."

"It is!" Beth said, joining the conversation again, nodding her head so enthusiastically that Midna had to restrain herself from telling her that it really was not that fun in real life, that when she was out on the ships, when she was sprinting for her life, the soldiers did not care about whether or not she signalled for them to stop, they would never stop or slow down even a little before they were absolutely certain that they had caught every single one of them. "Especially because I was lucky enough to be you."

And now they were seemingly also giving her the role of the hero in their game. Although Midna knew that she would find that they were alone in the hangar, she could not supress the urge to cast a glance around the room, almost thinking that Zelda had to be there, that she had to have somehow planned for all of this to happen, telling the children what to say, how to tell her that, in their minds, Midna was the hero. But of course Midna found the room empty, save for herself, Beth, and Talo. There was no sight of Zelda anywhere; it really was not something she had planned.

Somehow that only made it even worse. If she had caught a glimpse of Zelda hiding in the corridors, if she had been able to make Zelda tell her that she had given Talo, Malo, and Beth the idea for the game, Midna would have been able to just brush it off as another instance of Zelda clearly being unable to accept the fact that she was not a hero and would never become one. But now, as she looked down and noted the almost worshipping glances that both Beth and Talo were sending her when they thought she was not looking, Midna could only try her best to fight the way her tongue felt like it had shrivelled up and died, taking all the words into the grave along with it.

"I see," she mumbled, "so I was just mere seconds away from running directly into myself."

Beth giggled at that. At least that meant that one of them found the situation funny. But even that was not enough for Midna to cheer herself up as Beth shook her head, clearly not believing what Midna was saying. "No, I am just pretending to be you—I know that I am actually myself."

"Exactly!" Talo pointed at her. "You aren't Midna—I am, and I just have to catch you before we will have to change!"

With a wild laugh, he darted forwards, but by then, Beth had already moved away from where she had just stood, spinning around in mid-air to sprint towards the corridor leading to the dining hall, and this time, Midna did not attempt to stop her. If they would burst through the doors in a rush of laughter, screams and running madly past the rows of tables and chairs, then that was not her problem. Her problem, on the other hand, was the fact that she could not stop thinking about what they had said, the way they had pretended to be her, the way Beth had said it like it was a good thing, all of the children seemingly agreeing that life as a pirate was fun. No, as Midna found her feet carrying her almost without her thinking about it, taking her towards the kitchens, she had to admit that they were not just pirates. Neither Beth nor Talo had mentioned anything about Beth having stolen anything. They had been rebels, and although Midna forced herself not to think about it, it did not take a genius to figure out just what role Colin had got in their game.

With all those thoughts whirling through her head, was it really any wonder that Midna found herself almost gasping for air as she stood in front of the door leading into the kitchen, having sprinted the last half of the way, trying her best not to cry? She wanted to think that it was, wanted to believe that all of this, the last couple of months had all just been her suddenly losing control, just her having been a little bit more tired than she usually was, but even then, she could almost taste the lie in the thought, feel how she did not even believe it herself as she pushed upon the door and stepped into the kitchen.

Uli turned around the moment she heard her, already smiling at her, though it was soon replaced with concern as Midna had barely made it a step into the room before she began to cry, completely losing what little control she had had left.

"Midna!" as Uli hurried over to her, it felt like her voice was coming from somewhere far away, Midna not able to focus on anything other than the fact that she pulled her into a hug that felt exactly the way a hug from a mother should feel, warm and safe. "What is wrong? Has anything happened?"

She considered telling her, simply sharing the fact that the children had turned the missions and the constant danger of knowing that the king might figure out just where they were any second into a game. But no matter how many times Midna tried to open her mouth and force out the words, she could bring herself to actually say it. She simply could not tell Uli that in the game Talo insisted he deserved most of the credit for creating, her son had just suffered the same fate as her husband. She couldn't.

But that did not change the fact that she had to say something and that she had to say something soon. That much could hardly have been more obvious as Uli looked at her, the crease between her brows becoming a little bit deeper with each second that passed between them without Midna saying anything.

"I—" her gaze settled on Uli's stomach, and in that second, Midna knew exactly what she had really wanted to say when she had first set out to find her, the words feeling almost like they came out her without Midna even having to think about it. "Uli… if I thought that I could do more, if there was even the slightest chance that I would be able to go against the king... would you want me to do it?"

"I am afraid I don't understand what you mean." but even though Uli might try her best to claim that she did not understand what she meant, as Midna looked into her eyes, she could see how that really was not the case, the sparkle that met her gaze the moment the words had left her mouth.

Still, if Uli wanted for her to explain exactly what she was thinking, then Midna would do it. She owed that much to Colin. "I was just thinking… with how it seems like Zelda is not the only person in here who thinks that I might be able to become some kind of rebel, that I might be able to change the world by standing up and letting the people know that I do not support the king, I just could not help but wonder if they might have been right all along, if I should do more, try to help even more people. I mean, with everything that has happened lately, I can't help but feel like it would be what Rusl would have wanted for me to do."

Midna did her best not to look towards Uli's stomach, but, clearly, she had not been able to hide the glance as well as she had hoped she would, for Uli placed her hand on top of the bump before she looked back over at her.

"Listen, my husband did what he did to save you. Nothing else. He did not save you because he hoped that his death would make you feel obligated to put yourself in danger like that. Everything he ever did, he did to protect his family."

"Yes, but—"

Uli did not even give her the chance to finish the sentence, having already continued. "Besides, the only reason he was even able to do that was because you had saved his life in the first place. Had it not been for you and Link, none of us would be here. No one can ask anything of you that you do not want to do."

"I know." but as Midna bowed her head, she could not help but wonder whether that was really the truth, if she really did know that after all. "But it's just… I can't help but think…"

"That you might be able to do more?" Uli finished the sentence for her. As Midna looked back over at her, she smiled up at her, seemingly unfazed by her surprised expression. "Midna, you are not the only one who asks herself that from time to time. Don't you think I wonder if we might have been able to save Ordon Village back then if we had only acted differently? I know for a fact that Rusl kept wondering if we might have been able to save everyone if we had only known that the king would attack that day. Still, that does not change what really happened, that we had no idea that the king would decide to punish the entire village for a minor mistake, that we had not known, that we had been too far away from the village to make it back in time to warn anyone when we saw the airships."

There was something there, something in her story, that kept on echoing inside Midna's head, something that she did not understand fully. Looking up, hoping that Uli would not feel insulted by the question, Midna tilted her head to the side. "Uli, what do you mean that Ganondorf punished the village for a minor mistake? I thought that it was because you weren't able to provide enough food for the army, that the harvest had failed."

Uli only sent her a sad smile, the gesture completely devoid of the warmth that should have been there. "That was also what I tried to tell myself for the longest time, Midna. But when you brought Grog, Cremia, and Romani back here, when they talked about how Ganondorf had tried to take their ranch after they had failed to pay their taxes, I knew that everything about that had just been me trying to lie to myself and Rusl. Truth to be told, my husband… we both had a habit of questioning the legitimacy of Ganondorf's rule." Midna must have looked exactly as shocked as she felt, for Uli chuckled. "Yes, I know, we should have been wiser. But back then, it felt like we might be able to change the world if we only discussed how we wanted it to look for long enough. And I suppose that we must not have been careful enough, that someone must have overheard and told the king, making him decide that he could not leave us alive, that destroying an entire village would be the price he was willing to pay to ensure that we would not be able to convince anyone to stand with us, to openly oppose him."

"So…" her mind felt like it was about to give up, her thoughts whirling around inside her head as she fought to make sense of it all, but Midna could not allow herself to stop now, not when she was so close to getting answers to her questions, "so you are telling me that, despite the fact that all your talk about changing the world was never able to actually change anything, despite the fact that it cost you your home and much of your village, you would still be willing to help me should I choose to do the same thing."

"There is a difference between talking about changing the world and actually doing something to achieve these changes." Uli took a step forwards, and when Midna remained silent, she looked up at her, the look in her eyes seeming so intense that Midna had to look away, unable to look directly at her. "Midna, I need you to understand that I will always support you. No matter what you choose to do, I will support you and try to do my best to ensure that the plan will end up working. It is what Rusl would have wanted, so I will try my best to make his dreams become reality."

"And if I decide that I would rather stay here and let the rest of the world fend for itself?"

"Then I will do the same and hope that you will not regret it."

She was crying. Midna could tell that much, simply from the way she was struggling to breathe as Uli pulled her closer towards her, letting her cry into her shoulder. It felt like it lasted for ages, and yet, like barely a second had passed when she looked at Uli and tried not to think about the look of pure concern she could see in her eyes. "So will I. I just… I need some time to figure out which choice has the smallest risk of me coming to regret my actions."

Patting her back, Uli simply smiled at her. "Take your time, dear. I will be right here for you once you know what to do, and I am sure that your friends will be as well."

The image of how Ilia had fought to keep back the tears as she had left the hangar, Midna having made her leave with nothing but her harsh words, appeared in her mind, making her stomach ache, sending sharp tendrils of pain out from her heart. Midna wanted to believe that Uli might be right, as unlikely as it felt right then, but even then, it would not have felt right for her to begin to hope for that.

So instead, she shrugged, hoping that it would be enough to not make Uli notice what she was thinking about. "Yes, I hope that you are right."

Midna barely got a day to try to weigh the costs of actually doing something, the risk that she might be captured and made to tell the location of the base, against the fact that she was not naïve enough to believe that Grog, Cremia, and Romani were the only people in the two kingdoms who had had to flee their home after having somehow done something that had convinced the king that he would need to take everything they had ever owned to teach them a lesson about obeying his every whim.

As she returned to her cabin that Saturday, trying her best to rub some warmth into her icy hands after having spent most of the days in the forest outside, having somehow convinced Uli that she would look for animals, the lie having felt a little less bitter on her tongue as she had told herself that she was only telling it to get a bit of time away from the rest of the base, a chance to figure out what she would have to do, Midna should perhaps have noticed the signs that there would be someone waiting for her. The door was not closed completely, the key clearly not having been twisted all the way, making the lock rattle a bit as Midna unlocked it, and the light coming from within the cabin had been visible from the other end of the hangar. But as she pushed open the door, Midna was too busy with her own thoughts to do much more than just recognise the fact that she had evidently been quite tired the last time she had entered her cabin with how she had forgot about all that.

So when she entered the room, halfway about to collapse onto her bed, only to find Zelda sitting there, Midna froze, suddenly unable to do anything other than to stare at Zelda.

With how she was sitting in the chair, ankles crossed and facing the door, it could not have been more obvious that she had been waiting for her, that she had seemingly been waiting for her for quite a while.

The suspicion was soon confirmed as Zelda pushed herself up from the chair and took a step towards Midna. "Hello," she said, an unsure smile tucking at the corners of her lips.

"What are you doing here?" already the moment after she had asked the question, Midna knew that it had been the wrong thing to say. She would have known that even if Zelda did not immediately responded by averting her gaze, her smile disappearing in an instant. She could have yelled at herself, but, given how she doubted it would have done anything to help her now, Midna instead forced herself to stand still. At least she would not be able to let her temper get the better of her that way.

"I convinced Link to let me into your room," Zelda finally said, the look she sent Midna letting her know how she was beginning to doubt that decision, "since you had avoided me. I thought that—I thought that maybe, if we just got the chance to talk with each other, then maybe… we could try to figure out what has happened between us lately." she gestured towards the air between them, her shaky hands making sure that Midna knew how it was just as much a way for her to remind herself of why she should not just leave the room immediately as it was an explanation.

And, somehow, Midna must have been able to, for a moment, supress her instinct to make any situation worse, for as she opened her mouth, her voice sounded so calm that she almost doubted that it was really hers. "That sounds like a great idea." trying to ignore how joy and surprised flickered across Zelda's face, Midna pulled the other chair away from her desk, placing it so that she was sitting across from Zelda. "I—I must admit that while I cannot deny the fact that I have indeed been doing my best to avoid you, I really wanted to talk with you, I simply didn't know what to say. But I know that I have to apolo—"

"Stop." Zelda interrupted her before she got the chance to finish the sentence, Midna obeying instantly, too surprised at the fact that Zelda had just stopped her to say anything, a fact that gave Zelda enough time to lean forward, moving closer to her, as she reached out towards her, grabbing her hand, before she continued. "Midna, you don't have to apologise."

"But I told Cremia—"

"Yeah." Zelda shrugged. "You made it so that I had to tell Cremia about how I was the princess. I would have had to tell her that anyway. Don't get me wrong—I was angry for a couple of days, but now? I don't mind too much."

"You should."

"Maybe. But I don't, so what does it matter? So what if I should be angry, fact is that I am not. Instead, I must admit that I am quite curious about something."

"What is it?" Midna asked, although the feeling of butterflies in her stomach told her that she already knew what the answer might be.

Zelda confirmed that feeling only a few seconds later as she tightened her grip around her hand, almost like she was afraid that Midna would stand up and try to flee, to run away from her and her questions. Midna supposed that she was not exactly in a position to fault her for that; when all was said and done she did have a reason to fear that happening.

But maybe the fact that she had not begun to move yet was enough to calm Zelda a bit, for she did smile a little as she leant back in her chair again. "Midna, when you made the decision to go out to help Cremia and Romani, I couldn't help but wonder why. I mean, I know that you will probably tell me that you did it because you made a hasty promise to Grog, promising that you would help him, but fact is that I don't believe that would ever make a promise like that to someone without being prepared to do your best to keep it. And that is not even to mention the fact that you let me stay here. You knew exactly who I was, but you still made sure to escort me to your cabin without anyone seeing me even though you could have told anyone from your crew about me and they would surely have insisted that you had no choice but to leave me to not risk the safety of the base. So I suppose that my question is this: why did you help me? Why did you help everyone in this base, while continuing to claim that you are not interested in helping people?"

The silence settled between them, loud and uncomfortable. A single glance over at Zelda was enough to show how she was clearly not intending to change that anytime soon with how she had crossed her arms in front of her, a gesture that might have seemed dismissive had it not been for the fact that she smiled over at Midna, keeping the smile every bit as brilliant and warm as it had first been, even as the seconds continued to pass between them, Midna remaining quiet.

It would have been so easy to tell Zelda that she did not know the answer. That, or simply informing her that she was not entitled to know anything about Midna, pretending that the reason she was shaking slightly was that she was angry rather than admitting that the truth really was the she did not know what to do, what to say. More than anything, she wanted to just tell her, not only to ensure that Zelda would never ask again, but also to know that she had told her, but even as Midna tried to open her mouth, she found that she could not find the words.

"I…" she mumbled, pausing, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly as she tried to think of a way to continue the sentence. She must look like one of the fish she would sometimes catch in the lake in summer, but at least Zelda did not laugh.

In fact, even as the seconds passed between them, Zelda remained just as serious, calm, and collected as she had been when Midna had first entered the room.

In the end, maybe that was what made her able to continue, gave Midna the strength to look directly at Zelda and tell her the truth, kicking all thoughts of what would then happen afterwards to the side. "I know that thinking yourself capable of actually changing the world, believing that you are able to save everyone, will only end up leading to the death of yourself and all the people you had convinced that your plan was good. So I can save individual people, I could land the ship and offer the people from Ordon Village a way out, I could go out to help find Cremia and Romani in time. But if I would allow myself to think that I could save everyone; it would be the same thing as signing the death warrant of not only myself, but also everyone else in the base as well."

"You can't know that for certain." Zelda's voice was low as she moved out of her chair, crossing the distance between them to kneel down next to Midna, placing her hand on her knee. "Until we have actually tried it, we will not be able to know what will happen if we stand up against him."

"Exactly." Midna smiled at her, and for once, Zelda was not able to keep up the perfect façade, instead allowing the surprise to slip through. "I only know what will happen if I allow myself to believe that your plan will work because I have seen it before. I know what happens when a group of people find each other, all of them united by their belief that they are going to change the world, that there is anything they can do to bring an end to the injustices they are facing."

"What... what do you mean?" but Zelda's voice rose towards the end of the question, informing Midna that, despite her naïveté, Zelda was not stupid, far from it. She was already connecting the dots, trying to bridge the conversations they had shared, everything she knew about Midna to be able to reach the conclusion, moving past those last few questions.

Midna only had to help her, to show her the way, and for once, she was looking forward to doing just that.

"Zelda, do you really think that it is an awfully improbable coincidence that this ship bears the crest of the royal family of the Twilight Realm and that we are living in one of the fortress meant to house the same royal family?" Midna did not wait to hear Zelda's answer, nor did she have to. The way Zelda's eyes widened told her the answer on its own. "After all the other lies Ganondorf has told about the way he assumed control of the Twilight Realm, telling the people that their queen has died, that she was killed by her own people—it all seems like a tiny lie, doesn't it, especially when you consider how much he could win if he was able to convince even a single person that he was telling the truth, that he had come to help them, arriving with the intentions of saving them from their own corrupt government, from the people who had tried to overthrow the queen, conveniently forgetting to mention the fact that he was the one to organise the attack, the person to give the order for his soldiers to kill the queen."

"So the queen might still be alive?" Zelda frowned, clearly asking herself the exact question Midna would have expected to hear from her. "Is that what you are saying? I just cannot see how that can be the case—after all these years, I refuse to believe that she would not have tried to tell people about how Ganondorf lied to everyone. She would have tried to fight back."

"She did. She survived for a few years. From what I understood, she and a few of the servants who had been loyal and lucky enough to have escaped with her when the soldiers began their attack on the palace lived with a few of their supporters, moving around the country in the ship they had been able to reach in the hangars before the soldiers had made sure to close that escape route. She had a daughter, whom she left with her servants, telling them that she would have to do more, that now that she had secured the line of succession, she would be able to take the risk and reveal the fact that she was still alive to the world."

"What happened then?" Zelda's voice shook slightly. She already knew the answer to her question.

Once, Midna would have found a great sense of joy in the fact that she was able to give the answer to her, but now, she just felt empty, hollow, as she shook her head. "She died. Of course she did. Ganondorf—he may not be the rightful king of the Twilight Realm, but he was still frightfully good at knowing exactly whom he had to keep under near constant surveillance, so of course he knew it the moment the queen arrived to their house, planning to inform a number of trusted people of her existence. He sent one of his own soldiers out there, planted them in the crowd she had planned to give a speech to, or at least that it what I heard. And given how no one escaped, it seems likely, especially considering the fact that all the articles I was able to find that would even mention the incident only referred to it as yet another sign of the corruption that had led to the supposed coup d'état."

"But her daughter—she would be the heir to the throne, wouldn't she?" Zelda's eyes lit up, but even then, her gaze still flickered over Midna's face, almost like she might have realised the truth, figuring out what connection there was between the ship, the base, and now the story of the late queen, and was only waiting for Midna to confirm it as well.

"She would indeed. Not only would she perhaps be able to make some of her mother's supporters join her cause as well, she would also be able to name herself the Twilight Princess without lying." Midna shrugged. "But given how she was only raised by her mother's servants for the first five years of her life before they decided to follow their queen, somehow believing that they would be able to finish what she started, making sure that her death would not have been for nothing, leaving the princess alone in the ship that had been their home ever since the supporters had begun to question whether or not they would ever be able to change anything at all, promising her that they would be back in a couple of weeks, only to never return, she would not exactly be a good candidate for the throne."

"But she exists?"

"Considering the fact that she is sitting right in front of you right now, I would say that, yes, she does indeed exist."

Despite how Zelda had clearly already known the truth, the effect of Midna's words were still clear, Zelda opening her mouth, letting out a tiny, barely audible gasp.

"You—" she tightened her grip around Midna's arm, not nearly enough for it to hurt, but more than enough for Midna to know that she was trying her best to force her mind to stay in the moment, for it not to give up on trying to understand the just how far the consequences would be able to reach if anyone ever were to know about the truth, "you, you are…."

"The princess?" Midna finished the word for her, not even bothering to hide how she almost spit out the word, making it sound just like the swearword it sounded like to her ears. "If all that is required to be a princess is for your mother to have been the queen, then, yes, I am the princess. However, if you think that being a princess requires any knowledge about politics, geography, history, anything other than how to dive off the side of a ship and justify the fact that you are stealing by convincing yourself that you are only taking what is rightfully yours, making yourself ignore the fact that you are harming your country even more by cutting off the trade routes in and out of it, then I suppose you might have to think twice before claiming that I might be a princess."

"But, Midna," Zelda said as she moved towards her, placing her arm on the armrest to not fall over as she leant in so closely that there could not have been more than a few centimetres between them, making it so that Midna in that moment could not have been more aware of the fact that Zelda's hair was brushing against her cheek, "you are the princess. I get that you would not be able to actually rule a country, but you cannot deny that you being a princess will hold a lot of symbolic significance, even more so than you being the hero who had arrived at the last moment to save the residents of Ordon Village as well as two sisters and a man who had been targeted by the king simply because they had been unfortunate. It could change everything; all the people who were ready to follow your mother, to trust her—I am certain that if you only let them know that you are alive, they will follow you as well."

Midna let out a dry laugh. "Yeah? But how do you plan for me to prove that?"

That little part, the fact that she did not have any way to prove that she was not making everything up seemed to work on Zelda, making her smile falter for a bit. However, it had the exact opposite effect on Midna. For while she was still convinced that Zelda's plans and ideas for how they could just place Midna in front of a crowd and then hope that the fact that they had once believed in a queen who had disappeared almost thirty years ago would be enough to make them trust her were naïve to an extent where it became foolish, Midna could not deny the fact that there had to be a way she would be able to prove the connection between herself and the late queen. After all, it had only required a single glance for the maid to recognise her despite the lack of proper lightning and the fact that she had surely thought her to simply be yet another thief at first.

But seeing as Midna was not exactly trying to give Zelda any more arguments, she decided not to mention it, instead hoping that by reminding Zelda of the even more likely risks they would accept not only for themselves but for the entire base if they followed Zelda's plans she might be able to bring it all to an end.

And so, Midna once more found the words to continue. "Besides, I know what will happen to the people who are blind enough to just believe that they can bring back their queen. It was what the people who raised me believed, they truly thought that if they just searched enough, they would find a way to overthrow the king and show the entire world what had really happened, and do you want to know where that led them to?" Midna did not wait for Zelda to respond. It didn't matter, not when she had to hear it. "It made them tell me to stay on the ship, leaving a little girl alone in the forest with the orders to remain where she was and wait for them to return. Had it not been for the fact that my hunger soon grew stronger than my fear of what would happen if I decided to go against their orders, I would have starved to death out there. That, or the winter would have killed me, seeing as I still wasn't able to make myself burn the last bit of coal, instead keeping it in a box, hoping that I would one day get to use it in the firebox so that I could fly away from the village. And do you know what happened, do you want to know if they ever returned?"

"You said they didn't," Zelda said, her voice sounding incredibly thin, almost like she did not want to hear herself say it.

Despite how it would have been so easy to focus on all the anger, fear, and hurt that came back along with the memories, as Midna looked over at Zelda and saw how her eyes had grown shiny, Zelda coming closer and closer to crying with each second, she could almost feel herself grow soft, feel how her voice became less harsh as she too tightened her grip on Zelda's hand, barely resisting the urge to tuck the strand of Zelda's hair that kept tickling her back in place behind her ear as she nodded. "That is correct. They never returned. I went into the village, learnt how to steal what I needed to survive, and, in only a couple of months, I had met Link." Midna waited for a reaction, gave Zelda a moment to try to hide the surprise.

When it did not come, when Zelda continued to look just as distraught as she had seemed before, Midna did not have to ask to know the reasons for it. Link would never have told her. There might be things that he would tell, there might be instances where Link would make the decision to inform the people around her of what was wrong, but not when it was about their past, she knew that much. When Zelda did not react, it was not because she had known in advance, a fact Midna tried to cling onto as she continued. "We left the village the moment we were somewhat sure that we had gathered enough food to last us for a few weeks. And do you know what we did then? We tried to create a new life. We found this base, we figured out where the last fortress that Ganondorf had not been able to find yet was located. We offered Uli, Rusl, Ilia, Colin, everyone to come along with us. And, although I cannot tell you Link's reasons for doing so, I can tell you that I never did any of it because I was planning to return to the throne, to let the world see that I was alive, that the queen had left an heir to the throne and that this heir had now come home. I created a family, a family I will do everything to protect. Ganondorf might have taken everything from me, my past, my home, and my mother, but this is something I will never risk, not even if it might save the rest of the world."

She had expected for Zelda to be quiet after that, thought that she would not be able to argue with that. After all, was that not what had stopped Midna from ever entertaining the idea of her perhaps being able to use the title she should have had, the one she had thrown in Zelda's face, every time it had begun to appear tempting, the fact that it would endanger everyone around her? But then again, Midna should have known that Zelda was never able to accept defeat, that she was always prepared to place herself in danger, no matter how foolish it seemed. By all means, Midna should not have been surprised when Zelda looked up at her, only pausing for a moment to wipe away the tears, the water looking almost like a fire was burning in her eyes as it disappeared, and yet, she was.

"I will get it all back for you," Zelda said, "I promise you that if you simply give me the chance, I will make sure that you will get all of this back."

And of course that was what Zelda would say. Of course she would make promises they both knew that she would not be able to keep. Midna should not have expected anything different from her, not with how Zelda had always been so full of an idealistic sense of justice.

But now was the moment where Midna knew that she would have to make sure that it would not lead Zelda to a situation where Midna would not be able to save her. So, even though Zelda seemed almost magnetic, luring her in with the promise of regaining everything that had been lost, the idea that Midna might be able to save everyone, that she might bring an end to the times she looked over the edge of the Shadow and saw the remains of what had once been a village, the ruins leaving them with only the puzzle of just what had happened, what reason the king had given for the decision that everyone there had deserved to die, Midna forced herself to look away, moving her head away from Zelda's.

"And that is kind of you. Truly, Zelda, I mean it. It is righteous, it is courageous, and it is kind. Which makes it exactly the kind of behaviour that is going to get you killed one day."

Zelda drew back, acting almost like Midna's words had been knives. "What do you mean?"

The guilt of knowing that, even though she had tried her best to avoid just that, she had still made Zelda pull away from her might once have tried to rip apart Midna's decision not to allow Zelda to place herself in that kind of danger, but she forced herself to remain cold. It was too important that Zelda understood just why Midna could not tell her that she was grateful for the promise, no matter how much she might have wanted to tell her just that. Instead, she had to look over at Zelda and see how she looked up at her with wide eyes, only to force herself to continue with the full knowledge of how her words were affecting Zelda. "Just that. It is going to get you killed. Look, Zelda, after everything you have seen, after what I have told you about how Ganondorf treats his enemies and those who oppose him, do you really think that the fact that the two of you are related is going to save you? When he has Zant, when he knows that you are only the second person in line to the throne, do you think that your status as a princess will be enough to keep you safe? Because, as much as I would like to believe you, I am not naïve enough to think that you would be able to return home and talk about how you want to make sure that justice will be given to those who need it and that you wish to give the Twilight Realm back to those who had once been supposed to sit on the throne, not without it having consequences for you."

"Perhaps, but I have told you that I will not ever return home to Hyrule Castle!" by now, Zelda had risen, and as she stood next to the chair, she was a few centimetres taller than Midna, the anger that soon came to replace the hurt in her eyes making her appear even taller as Midna looked up at her. "You promised me that you would never send me home! You promised me that much, Midna, and yet you sit here, talking about the way I will return home, acting like it is some inevitable truth."

"It is. I wish that I could tell you that it is not. There is nothing I would love more than to assure you that you will be able to stay here with me forever, but, Zelda, even you must be able to admit that it is not possible. Sooner or later, you will tire of sitting around here, doing nothing to make all of your great plans to improve the lives of the people around you become a reality, and when that happens, I will be the first person to argue that we can trust you enough to let you return home even though you know the location of this base." even thinking about the fact that that day would arrive hurt; putting it into words only made it feel even more real, making it feel almost like her throat should have begun bleeding.

It would appear that, if nothing else, Zelda could agree with her on that, for the moment the words had left Midna's mouth, all the anger in Zelda's eyes almost seemed to evaporate as she shook her head, grabbing Midna's arm. "Never! I am never going to do that; I will stay here with you forever!"

Some part of Midna, the same kind of hopeful belief in the future that had made her wait for so long in the forest, wanted to cling to every single one of her words, wanted to nod and agree that they would stay together for the rest of their lives, but she knew that she would be lying to both of them if she did that, a fact that forced her to shake her head. "Then you will be forced to leave once the king's soldiers finds us." slowly forcing Zelda to let go of her, making sure that she did not use too much force as she pulled Zelda's hands away from her, Midna could hear how her voice gave away the fact that, more than anything, she wanted to cry as she added. "I know that you mean well, but you will simply have to accept that this is not going to end like you want it to do. I am certain that you must have grown up with tales of brave knights who set out to save the princess from a dragon, but this will not be like that. I am not a princess, I have never been one, your father is not some just some unintelligent dragon, he knows exactly what he is doing, how he will have to act to achieve his goals. And although you, with all of your ideals and courage might have the qualities that would make you able to qualify as a knight, you will not be able to win when you are fighting against impossible odds. Now, I will have to ask you to leave. It has been a rough day for me, and I have to sleep now if I want to be able to function tomorrow."

For once, Zelda actually did as she said. The shock of that was almost enough to make Midna regret having told her to leave, almost enough to make her reach out and beg Zelda to stay, but she remained strong, watching as Zelda made her way over to the door.

There, she stopped, turning around to look back at her, a small sigh escaping her as she opened her mouth. "Midna, I know that you don't believe in any of my plans," she said, speaking so slowly that Midna could almost feel the pull, the urge to yell at her that she wanted to believe more than anything else, "but, no matter what you think I should do, I can tell you right now that I am not giving up on you."

Without giving Midna the chance to respond, Zelda left the cabin, closing the door behind her. And maybe that was for the better, for in that moment, Midna knew that she would not be strong enough not to tell Zelda just how grateful she was for that.

But, seeing as Zelda had left and she barely had enough energy to not simply fall asleep right then and there, Midna knew that she would not be able to run after her to tell her that. So instead, she pushed herself up from the chair.

Midna barely made it over to her bed before her legs gave out, letting her fall directly down onto the soft bedsheets, letting the quilt bid her welcome as she finally was able to find sleep

She should have slept for ages. With how tired she was, Midna should easily have been able to sleep through the night and most of the following day. But although her mind was exhausted, it felt almost like her body had not been told about any of that, for when Midna opened her eyes again, finding herself looking directly up at the ceiling above her where a few planks separated her from the firebox above her, the warmth it emitted fighting to keep the icy chill of winter from killing her during the night, she could not make herself find her way back into sleep.

It did not take long before she knew that she would not be able to remain like this, looking directly up and trying her best to keep the thoughts of how she had wanted to let Zelda help her, had wanted to give in to the temptation of believing that Zelda might be able to change anything with the power of her conviction in her belief that the future might become better if they just fought to make it a reality, at bay.

The floor was cold beneath her feet even as Midna put on her boots, the air around her feeling just as icy when she threw a quilt around her shoulders like a shawl, but it would have taken more than just her clattering teeth to keep her in her bed right then. As she left the cabin, making sure to close the door properly behind her, finding herself standing in the hangar with nothing but the pale light from the moon to guide her, Midna might almost have believed that it was the first time it had ever happened, that she had never found herself struggling to sleep before. No amounts of trying to tell herself that that was not the case was enough to completely dispel the feeling of being watched, a fact that made her duck her head, almost like the spirits of the servants might have come back to haunt her, following her to try to make her feel bad for how she had not been prepared to risk everything to continue what they had done.

And then Midna turned around, away from the door and the slightly warmer air her cabin could offer her, only to barely manage to catch the scream that had been about to make its way up her throat, instead letting it escape as a low gasp. "Zelda?"

Standing there, just a few metres away from her with the moonlight hitting her face, Zelda looked almost like a ghost, the same melancholic smile on her face that Midna would have expected to see in a spirit. But at least, she smiled a little brighter as Midna stepped towards her, stayed there rather than turning around and walking away from her the way Midna had almost expected for her to do.

"Yes," Zelda whispered, "it's me."

"Uh." Midna paused, at once not sure of what to say and knowing that she had to say something. "Are you not cold?"

"No." Zelda turned to look at the wall to their right. "No, I am not."

"Tired, then?"

"I thought I would be, but my thoughts…" Zelda gestured towards her head.

"They won't allow for you to relax?" Midna finished for her. When Zelda sent her a surprised glance, she chuckled darkly. "It is the same for me. I have tried and tried, but I just can't sleep anymore."

"Me neither."

They fell silent after that. As Midna began to fiddle with the quilt, her hands begging for something she could use to distract herself, she was only waiting for Zelda to say something, to provide her with a way out of the awkward silence that had come to rest between them. But as the seconds passed, becoming minutes, and Zelda continued to look over towards the wall, almost like she was able to see something that Midna could not, it became increasingly obvious that if Midna wanted to make sure the silence would disappear, she would have to make it. So that was exactly what she did.

Stepping forwards, already having to fight back the feeling that she was about to make a mistake, Midna stuck her hand out from underneath the quilt. "Come," she said, as Zelda turned to look back over at her, sending her a questioning glance, "there is something I want to show you."

For a moment, she was sure that Zelda would demand to receive more information. That, or that she would simply tell her that she did not want to leave the ship now, not when they should be lying in their beds, sleeping, right in that moment. But then Zelda moved, taking a step forward, the little movement bridging the last centimetres of the gap between them as she took Midna's hand. "All right, then," Zelda said with a smile, "show me."

The base was quiet around them as Midna led her towards the corridor in the back of the hangar. Although it was right there, just as obvious as every other corridor, it felt almost like it had been placed there almost as a way to hide it, an attempt at keeping the reward that had awaited Midna the first time she had made her way through the twisted hallways and reached the ladder at the end secret, and as she walked along the dark twist and turns with Zelda, only pausing for a moment to grab a candle to make sure that they would not become lost in the darkness as the faint light from the moon disappeared behind them, unable to follow them into the corridor, Midna was not sure if she could blame the fact that she was shivering on the cold stone around her. Walking in a heavy silence that was only interrupted once as Zelda tripped over an lose stone in the floor, almost falling to the floor before Midna was able to react, barely having time to move the candle out of the way to catch her, it could have been caused by so many other things.

"Thank you," Zelda whispered as Midna helped her back up, "that was a bit too close for my liking."

"That, we can agree on." but although Midna tried to laugh it off, she could feel how the easy atmosphere around them had changed, Zelda hesitating for a moment before letting go of her hand.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, Midna no longer daring to reach out to offer Zelda to hold her hand. It was just darkness, the absence of the bright light from the sun. Both she and Zelda would be fine, even if the flickering light from the flame of the candle cast shadows onto the walls around her, making it seem almost like the night had come alive.

Finally, Midna felt the cold breeze on her skin, letting her know that they had reached their goal.

Turning around towards Zelda, she gestured towards the ladder in front of them. "This will take us outside," she said, trying her best to keep her voice down. There was nothing to fear, but it did not keep her heart from beating madly in her chest all the same as Zelda leant to the side to follow the line her gesture had drawn, "we will not be able to take the candle with us, so try your best to be careful when you climb up. The fall shouldn't be too long, but still—try to be careful." she did not wait for Zelda's reaction, having already turned around to place the candle in the little hole in the wall, making sure that it would be safe from the draught. The last thing she would need once they would get back inside would be to be met with the unpleasant surprise that they would have to make their way back to the hangar without a light to guide them.

Zelda was still standing there, her face bathed in shadows, when Midna looked back.

"Do you want to climb first?" Midna nodded towards the ladder that led up through the little hole where the faint lightning from above showed them how it would take them outside. "I cannot promise you anything, but if you fall while I am beneath you, there might be a chance that I would be able to slow your fall."

"No…" Zelda shook her head, but even then, it was apparent that it was not the risk of falling that was keeping her from simply beginning to climb, "that isn't what I am worried about."

"Then what is?"

"I don't know." before Midna got the chance to ask for her to clarify, to explain what that meant, Zelda had shot her a bright smile that did not quite reach her eyes. "But, yes, if you really think it might be safer to climb first, then I will just be grateful you told me about it now, rather than after you had volunteered to climb first." and, without another word to Midna, Zelda turned to face the ladder, already beginning to climb upwards when Midna had realised what was happening.

With a smile to herself, Midna followed along. Despite the fact that she could not remember having ever seen Zelda climb more than the few steps of the rope ladder when she had had to get on and off the ship, Midna barely had to wait for her, and before long, the little gasp, impressed and overwhelmed, told her that Zelda had reached the top of the ladder, allowing her to poke her head out of the little trapdoor that was able to separate the base from the outside. Moments later, Midna joined her in the little watchtower, her muscles in her arms straining for a moment as she lifted herself out of the hole, dragging her legs up along with her to go to sit next to Zelda.

In front of them, the forest almost seemed to stretch on for eternity, small and insignificant from their spot on top of the mountain. In that moment, Midna would not have found it difficult to believe that it was all just something she was imagining, that she was still asleep and that this, the fact that she had invited Zelda to come along, having walked through the corridors and climbed up the stairs, might all be nothing more than a dream. But if that was the case, Midna would not mind. This was nothing like her usual dreams; there was none of the horror and pain of her mother telling her that she had wished differently for her, that she had failed her and the Twilight Realm the moment she had decided that her own safety was more important than her name. No, if this was a dream, then Midna was not in a hurry to wake up.

As Zelda moved over to sit a little bit closer to her, the two of them sitting right next to the low handrail that would barely have been enough to keep them from falling off if anything happened, swinging their legs back and forth, it almost seemed like it should have been a dream.

"Is this…." Zelda spoke slowly, almost like she too was sensing how it should not have been possible for them to sit like this, giving off the impression that she was keeping her voice low because she feared that even the slightest disturbance of the peace around them would be enough to force one of them to wake up, "is this were you go when you can't sleep?"

"No." Midna had intended to let it end at that. She did not owe Zelda any kind of explanation after all, but she could almost feel how the words were bubbling in her chest, rising up, making her continue. "I did once, but that was when I was younger. But then I realised that I would only risk making myself sick by going up here when it was cold. That, and also the fact that it is a risk to open up the hatch, not to mention the fact that, if anyone were to see us sitting here, we would have given away the location of the base just like that."

Zelda was silent for a while after that, allowing the calm of the night to rest between them once more, only interrupted by the thud of the heels of her boots hitting the stones of the watchtower. "Well, in that case," Zelda finally said, "I am glad that you showed me this."

"Yeah, so am I." Midna was not sure if Zelda had been able to hear her, nor did she know if she wanted her to. But, for a moment unable to do more than to focus on her heart, the way her heartrate had yet to slow down, Midna found herself continuing, talking faster than she had done in ages, as she gestured towards the horizon where the Eldin Mountains stood, almost cutting into the sky. "Look," she said, leaning closer towards Zelda to make sure she would be able to hear her, "I have read that the mountain range used to be the border between Hyrule and the Twilight Realm."

"So have I." when Zelda noticed the look Midna sent her, she simply sent her a little smile. "Come on, I may have grown up and received my education in Hyrule Castle, but my captain always insisted that I would have to at least know the truth about geography if I wanted to call myself wise."

"Ashei?" the name should not have been that easy to recall, it should not feel almost like she had just been punched in the stomach to say it, but that was nevertheless the sensation that accompanied the sound of the name.

"Yes." Zelda looked forward, shaking her head a little, the movement making her hair move, coming to rest between them, creating a curtain that kept Midna from being able to read her expression, if she had ever truly been able to do that. "It was Ashei who taught me that. I—she thought me a lot of things, really. I just never fully realised the extent of it until I came out here. Did you know that she got me books my father had told me I was not allowed to read?" the answer to her question must have been written across Midna's face, for Zelda did not wait for her to say anything, instead continuing. "I just mentioned to her how my father had told me that it would not be proper reading for a princess, and the next morning, it was waiting for me by my bed. I don't know how she convinced the maid not to tell my father about it. Now that I think about it, maybe it really wasn't that difficult; the maid might not have known about the contents of the book or why my father had been in such a sour mood the day before. But, no matter what, she got me the book."

"And helped you sneak onto a pirate ship," Midna added.

That earned her a little smile from Zelda along with her reaching out to move her hair back behind her shoulders. "That too. I just—" and, in just a little under a second, the smile had disappeared, a frown and a deep crease between Zelda's brows taking its place, "I can't help but think about her from time to time. I mean, if my father ever found out about how she helped me escape, I know that—" taking a deep breath, Zelda leant back, placing her hands on the ground, but there was none of the usual lightness to it, no joy in her smile as she looked over at Midna, "I just hope that she is all right."

"I am sure she is." for how she really had no way of knowing if any of what she was saying was true, the fact that she knew almost nothing about Ashei only making it all the more obvious that, no matter what she might think, Midna was not in a position to make promises, she sounded awfully sure of herself as she reached out to place her hand on top of Zelda's, hoping it would provide her with a bit of comfort. "She sounds like she knows what she is doing."

"I know that. I know that Ashei can take care of herself, she always has, but I just—if anything happens to her, if there is something I have not thought about that would tell my father that I was the person to make the choice to leave the guards and the kingdom behind to escape with you, I know that he will blame Ashei for it, despite the fact that I was the one who convinced her to help me."

"If it helps, I am sure that he would never even consider that that might be the case," Midna offered, "I mean, why would anyone want to join a bunch of pirates when they could have been a princess instead? Other than them having a hero-complex the size of their kingdom, of course."

Zelda's laugh sounded almost melodic in the otherwise silence, echoing around them for a moment, before Zelda brought her hand up to cover her mouth. The fact that she moved her left hand, keeping her right hand where it was, not moving it away from Midna's, was not something Midna missed, but given the fact that she had no idea what to think of it, she tried her best not to, instead directing her full attention towards Zelda as she shook her head and looked over at her.

"You are right. Why would anyone do that? Although, I must admit that, once you are here, it can be difficult to imagine a world without all of this." Zelda gestured towards the forest beneath them, moving closer to Midna who responded instantly, opening up the little cocoon she had let the quilt form around her, offering to share the warmth it provided with Zelda. "I—I might have grown up in a castle, surrounded by knights and all that, but…" despite how Zelda was pressed up against her, Midna still struggled to bring the quilt around them, or at least she did until Zelda reached out to grab a corner of the blanket, bringing it closer to her, until they were both fully surrounded by it, "the more time I spend here, the more I begin to think that you might have been a knight in a former life. I get that you are a princess and all that, but—and please don't take this the wrong way—to me at least, you seem almost more like a knight, always ready to save people."

She leant in even closer, and as Midna felt the warmth of her breath on her cheek, she knew that it would have been so easy to complete the last bit, to respond to what Zelda had not dared to put into words and do it. After all, by now, there was not any risk associated with doing so—Zelda had already closed more than half of the distance between them, reduced it to nothing. She could give in and simply enjoy the softness.

Maybe she might have done that, has it not been for the fact that they were sitting up in the watchtower, the roof that had been painted to not stand out against the mountain, the tower barely able to qualify for that descriptor given how it could not properly reach the sky when it was not supposed to be seen by an airship flying over the mountain, offering them nothing but fear. Maybe it would have been easier to be soft if they had not been surrounded by the stone and fear of death. There were so many maybes, things that might have changed everything and nothing if they had been different, that Midna could not tell which one of them was the final one, the one that took her from being able to just sit there and enjoy Zelda's presence, look at her face and state that she had clearly never looked at her since she was able to find herself losing her ability to think as she saw the way her eyes sparkled, instead making it so that she reacted by tearing herself away from Zelda, opening up the little shell of warmth they had created with the quilt as she let go of it, letting the blanket fall to the ground as Midna almost fell backwards in her attempt at getting away from Zelda in time. But even then, even as she had to bring up her hand to keep herself from hitting her head on the stones beneath her, it was still not enough to shield her from having to watch how Zelda's expression changed in an instant. The smile died, the twinkle in her eyes disappearing from one moment to another.

"Midna, I—" Zelda began, and by now, it was obvious how she was trying her best not to cry, "I am sorry, I thought—"

If Midna had been clever, if she had had just a little bit of compassion, an ability to think about how Zelda must have felt in that moment, she would have told her that she had thought wrong, that she had misinterpreted everything between them. It would have been the kindest thing to do, freeing both of them from having to think about it anymore.

But, just as Midna had tried to explain to Zelda for what felt like hundreds of times, she was not a particularly kind person, so, even though she knew that she would only make it even more difficult between them, she found herself shaking her head at Zelda's apology. "No, you didn't do anything wrong. I am just—I wasn't ready for it."

That was what it was, was it not? Midna might have gone from looking at Zelda and seeing a princess who was only two deaths away from having to claim to throne of Hyrule and the responsibility and power that came with it, now seeing Zelda, the woman who had continued to believe in her even when she really should not have, but she was still not just Midna, just a pirate. No matter how many times she might try to insist that the opposite was the case, she was still the daughter of the last queen of the Twilight Realm. It was not enough to make her a princess, not when she had lost the throne and her country before she had even been born, but it was more than enough to make it so that she could never just be Midna.

Maybe Zelda understood it. Midna was not sure if she dared to hope for that to be the case, but given Zelda's own upbringing, the books Midna was slowly beginning to realise might have created the idea for Zelda to try to understand what the pirate who had attacked her ship had meant when she had claimed that the king was a tyrant, if anyone would be able to understand what Midna was talking about, it would be her.

And, slowly, clearly unsure of what to do, Zelda did nod, a little smile that was still not nearly enough to hide the hurt in her eyes making its way onto her face. "I understand. I am—" Midna could almost hear the 'sorry', but, at the last moment, Zelda interrupted herself, "I will wait. If that is what you want me to do."

It was. More than anything, it was what Midna wanted. But telling Zelda that she would have to let her own happiness wait, that she would have to spend what little time she had left before Ganondorf would find them waiting for something that might quite possibly never happen—Midna could not do that, not if she still wanted to think of herself as an even halfway decent person. Really, the fact that she wished to do that should have been enough to tell her that she had already spent too much time around Zelda, but she still could not bring herself to do what she knew would be the right thing to do.

Instead, she smiled at Zelda, picking up the quilt from where it had landed on the ground between them.

"Thank you." the words were barely more than a whisper, but Midna still knew that Zelda had heard them, simply from the way she smiled up at her, clearly trying her best not to show the pain that had been there mere moments before.

"It is nothing."

But as they turned their attention to the stars above them, neither of them having to say anything for both of them to know that they did not have the energy to talk anymore, Midna knew that it was as far from nothing as something could possibly be. Still, as the seconds passed between them, Midna's body screaming for her to return to her bed until she finally gave in and began the walk back towards the hangar with Zelda at her side, she could not bring herself to say anything.