A/N: Hello to the people reading this! I wasn't planning on updating so soon, but I know how frustrated I'd feel after only 1400 words of Zelink. Similar to my TLC fanfiction, I'd like to reach a word count of at least 2000 per chapter. Anywho, time for some good ole memories.

I do not own Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

"Princess, it's time to get going," Link's soft voice said.

The princess's eyes fluttered open and the first thing she saw was a beautiful purple with stars speckled across the vastness. She knew it wouldn't last long, though. She could already tell that the sun was slowly but surely beginning to creep up over the horizon. She felt a twinge of sadness - Zelda liked traveling underneath the stars with Link by her side.

She sat up, yawning, and smelled a familiar aroma wafting through the air. She then gasped happily.

"Link! I- How did you know?"

Said knight's pointed ears reddened. "There was a cookbook open in the library when I went to fight Ganon. It just so happened to say fruitcake was your favorite food."

Zelda smiled, about to thank him, when she remembered the events that had just occurred the night before. He'd practically rejected her, but could she really blame him? He remembered next to nothing about who he was, and she just continued on like they were old friends - which they were, thank you very much.

She wasn't sure where to go from here. She couldn't act cold and indifferent towards him like she did so long ago, but she wasn't dying to declare her love for him, either.

She watched him as he continued to prepare for departure. He rolled up their sleeping mats, placed bags on Storm's and Epona's sides, and stared at her.

Oh. He was staring at her. She inwardly cringed at her obliviousness.

"Are you going to eat, Princess?" he asked, his gaze never leaving hers.

"Zelda," she corrected.

He ignored her, and finally looked away. "I have berry juice if you're thirsty, but you need to have enough energy to make it to Kakariko by noon."

She shot up from where she was sitting under the big oak tree. "You never said we were going to Kakariko. That will delay our travels significantly," she retorted.

In truth, she was afraid. Afraid to see whether or not Kakariko had crumbled like the rest of her beloved kingdom, or if she had failed the Sheikah, too. She was hardly able to keep track of when Link was in a Divine Beast, much less be able to see him on his adventure to rescue her.

Link suspected she was worried, and said, "You know, Kakariko was left nearly untouched during the Calamity. It's quite peaceful, too." He walked towards her, closing the large proximity they had before.

It took her a second to realize that the only reason he was so close to her was to give her the fruitcake. Goddesses, she hated the way he made her feel.

Finally, she relented, and took the delicious food. "You're right," Zelda said, her words slightly muffled by the unladylike way she was speaking with food in her mouth. She swallowed, her eyes downcast. She made no comment about the fact he hadn't backed up the slightest bit. A hundred years ago, she thought bitterly, she would have had the nerve to close that distance and capture his lips in a kiss, albeit she had to step on her toes due to their height difference. Now, she could hardly even meet his gaze.

He said nothing for a few more moments, before turning his back to her and saying, "Let's be off, Your High-"

"Zelda."

"-Ness, lest Impa murder me for keeping you all to myself.

She felt her face go hot as she thought of other ways he could be keeping her.

"Yes," she agreed. "We should go."

She'd held off asking this question before, seeing as how talking about his memories obviously made him uncomfortable, but she let curiosity get the better of her, just this once.

"Link," Zelda said, after they'd began to eat lunch. Kakariko was close now, and he'd informed her that if she wanted, they could keep riding through to stay on schedule, but she merely shook her head, knowing his appetite.

"Princess." He didn't look at her, but she knew he was paying enough attention nonetheless. He was sitting on the soft grass with his legs criss-crossed, almost like a child, as he ate an overripe apple.

"My apologies if this is a sensitive subject for you... but if you- if you could tell me what you remembered from before, that would be nice," she stammered. She suddenly felt very self-conscious of herself as she played with the hem of her shirt.

He looked thoughtful for a moment, before gesturing for her to give him the Sheikah slate. She complied, and he scooted a bit to sit beside her so she could look over his shoulder. He pulled up the picture of the now-Sacred Ground Ruins.

"This was the very first thing I remembered. You were doing the traditional knighting ceremony instead of simply having me take an oath like your father did," he explained.

She frowned. "Revali made some snide comments that day."

Link let a smile grace his features. "When was he not making comments?"

They laughed together for a few seconds before Zelda, ever so slightly, inched closer to him. "Tell me more."

"We should be going soon," he told her. "And it's not like you don't remember." The brush of her leg against his did not escape his notice, and he turned away a bit.

She shook her head. "I want to know how you felt, the good and the bad. I want to know if you were ever angry with me, or if I truly made you happy." You certainly made me happy.

"They don't always come to me in major flashbacks," he admitted. "Sometimes, I'll lie awake and my brain will be like, 'Remember when the court poet tried to set you up with his much older sister?' And I'll think to myself, 'Well, that's one thing I could have lived without knowing.'"

She giggled. "I want to hear this story."

"Later," he promised. "For now, let's go see Impa and Paya."

Zelda nodded, a new spring in her step. Even if Link hadn't realized it, he was slowly opening up to her again. The little laughs they shared - it was progress. She would help him remember the way they once loved each other. It was selfish, she supposed, but after one hundred years of agony, all she wanted was for him to look at her like she was the most beautiful girl in the world again.

Speaking of girls...

"Er, Link?" By now, they were on their way to Kakariko once more, and she glanced behind her to see him riding Epona.

"Princess."

"Zel- oh never mind," she huffed. He was never going to call her by her name, was he? "I was just wondering, who is Paya?"

He looked surprised for a moment before regaining his usual calm composure. "My apologies, Princess. Paya is Impa's granddaughter." He hesitated before adding, "Although, I must warn you, she's rather shy. Nearly fainted when she first met me. I'm not sure how she'd react to you, seeing as how you're the Princess Zelda."

Her heart fluttered when he said her name, and she internally scolded herself. He was just stating a fact, it wasn't as if he was in love with her.

"Well, she was probably surprised to see that the famous Hylian knight was looking rather good after a hundred years," she replied, if not a little flirtatiously despite herself.

Which is why it was so frustrating when he furrowed his brows and looked away.

Sighing, she turned her eyes back to the road. Link was going to-

-Be the death of him, that princess was.

Link wasn't an idiot, he knew what the princess was doing. His only question was why. Was she trying to humiliate him? They could never be together. He was well below her status. She was supposed to release him from her duties once they stopped traveling across Hyrule, and get married to some dumb prince from a neighboring kingdom who'd likely treat her badly and abuse his title as future king, and then they were going to have beautiful little blond babies and would never even think twice about the stupid knight who saved all of stupid Hyrule solely because he was so in love with a girl he barely remembered, and oh, Link was getting so angry at this hypothetical prince-

The Hero had a lot of pent up emotions.

After another two hours, they finally reached Kakariko. It took all of Zelda's willpower to not jump off her horse and sprint straight towards the house she recognized as Impa's. They were greeted by two unfamiliar Sheikah who seemed to know Link quite well.

"Master!" one of them exclaimed. Well, it was nice to know they were still being respectful. "You've returned!"

Link smiled, throwing his leg over Epona so he could step down. "Yes, Dorian, and I've brought a surprise along with me."

He turned towards Zelda, and it took her a moment to realize she was the surprise. The Sheikah, Dorian's, eyes widened in recognition.

"Why, Master Link," he spoke, breathless. "You've returned our princess to us."

The other Sheikah who had not spoken turned to face the growing crowd that consisted of Kakariko's residents. "Fellow Sheikah! Master Link has returned Princess Zelda back to us!"

The crowd erupted into cheers and bows as Link helped Zelda off of Storm. She had to admit, she was a bit flustered. She wasn't expecting such a... warm welcome. The door that led to Impa's home creaked open, and the villagers fell silent as an old woman and a young girl, around Zelda's age, stepped out.

Eyes landing upon Zelda, Impa chuckled. "Oh, is that you, my darling? I must say, you don't look a day over, ah, seventeen."

Zelda could hardly stop traitorous sobs from leaving her, and grinned upon seeing the frail Sheikah leader, tears welling up in her eyes. Link stood by her side, their horses led away to be taken care of. She was suddenly very glad Link had the idea to stop by Kakariko first. Although she did not deserve any of it - the cheers, the bows, the children staring wide-eyed at her - she felt as if this were truly the most magnificent day of her life.

"It's true," she said, once she was sure her voice wouldn't betray her. She faced the villagers. "My name is Princess Zelda of Hyrule, and I have come to right the wrongs that Calamity Ganon put into place."

Although she wasn't aware of it, Link was smiling proudly at her. If he could see her this way all time: smiling, tears of joy falling down her face, happy... well, he figured he could forgive whatever stupid prince swept her off her feet. All that mattered was his Princess, and even if she wanted to rip his heart out of his chest and stomp on it until it didn't work anymore, he'd let her.

Then, she made a speech...the crowd dispersed...Impa and she cried...he knew what was happening, in the back of his mind. But his heart and soul were in a much different place.

"My name is Princess Zelda of Hyrule, and I have come to wrong the rights-"

"Right the wrongs," Urbosa corrected.

"Ah, yes, that," Zelda mumbled. "Why am I memorizing a failure speech, again?"

"Your father's orders, little bird. You know, you didn't have to come all the way here." Sneaking a glance at the silent knight, Urbosa continued, "There is someone else you could have asked for help."

"Absolutely not!" Zelda retorted, her voice lowered into a whisper. It didn't matter, Link could hear everything they were saying. For Goddesses' sake, he wasn't deaf. "He'd probably just stare at me blankly like he does all day if I tried to talk to him."

Well, she never exactly gave him a chance, did she?

Link didn't harbor any negative feelings towards the princess. Quite far from it, actually. He admired her more than he would care to admit. She was not the first princess he'd ever met - he'd known Mipha for far longer - but she was the first who was not afraid to speak her mind, even if doing so held consequences. He was forbidden, both by the Knights' Code and her father, from forming any sort of relationship with her beyond Knight and Princess, so he would watch her from afar, never breaking his silence. If she wanted to yell at him, well, she was under a lot of stress. He supposed he would just have to deal.

And honestly, he was lucky to have that damned sword instead of strange magical sealing powers that he didn't understand.

He was not in love with Princess Zelda by any means, but-

No, there was no argument there. Perhaps he was falling for her, even if she hated him. He supposed he'd just have to learn to live without love once a prince from a neighboring kingdom swept her off her feet. After all, he would never be a noble. He was simply Sir Link.

Stupid princes.

"Link? Link, can you hear me?" Zelda frantically shook his shoulders. She hadn't even noticed anything was wrong until he suddenly fell to the ground. To anyone else, he would have looked as if he were sleeping, but she and Impa had agreed he was most likely remembering something. "Ohh, I've really done it now, Impa," Zelda groaned. "I've killed my knight. He'll be stuck in the past forever."

Paya, who Zelda had quickly realized was very much in love with Link, pointed a shaky finger at him. "U-um, I think he's waking up, Y-your Highness."

Link groaned groggily. That was a powerful one - normally, he just opened his eyes and it was over. This memory left him with a headache and... a craving of berries? "Zel'a?" he mumbled. "I'm 'ungry."

She sighed. "You're always hungry."

Paya gulped and ran into the house to fetch him some food.

It didn't take him long to come to his senses as he quickly shook off the aftereffects. "That was strange," he said, a sandwich that Paya had brought out in hand. "It's never happened like that before."

Zelda sat next to him on the ground, the lanterns illuminating her face. "Well?" she asked. "What was it that you remembered?"

He looked at her thoughtfully. "You were practicing your 'failure speech' with Urbosa."

She flushed. "O-oh, yes. I remember that." Her turquoise eyes looked at the ground. "I'm sorry for talking about you like you weren't even there that day. I did that a lot, actually."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, it was completely reasonable. I was zoning out, anyways," he admitted, a soft smile on his face.

Impa said nothing, but simply led Paya away back into the house by her arm to leave the two alone. It was silent between the two of them for a while.

"Zelda."

She jumped at the sudden break of silence, followed by the butterflies that came with the realization that he'd actually said her name. She turned her head, only to find his face mere inches from hers. A heavy blush set across her cheeks.

"Link?" she breathed. She half expected him to kiss her, but not unlike that morning, he scooted away just slightly.

"I- What- Why-" He groaned in frustration, surprising her. Link was not one for emotions such as frustration or anger, at least to her understanding. "You and I. What were we a hundred years ago? Because every time I remember something, I get these conflicting feelings, but I still don't know where I stood with Mipha, either. It's agonizing, trying to guess how I felt when past Link wasn't even sure." He ran a hand through his sandy hair and sighed. "I'm sorry, Princess. I'm just confused."

Zelda didn't say anything for a moment as she tried to collect her thoughts. What exactly had he remembered earlier? She had a feeling he wasn't telling her the whole truth.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. "You'll remember soon, Link. It won't be the same coming from my mouth. You... you have to hear it from yourself." When he said nothing, she had to stop herself from telling him just how much she loved him, how sure she was that he loved her.

Because the truth was, she wasn't so sure anymore.

"Good night," she said softly, standing up. "I'll see you in the morning."

It was a lie.

A/N: I? was not expecting to go so deep in just chapter freaking two but I was on a roll and was like, "Omg let's throw some angst in there." What will happen in Chapter 3? Will Zelda stay by Link's side? Will Link stay by Zelda's side? Am I even sure? Who knows?

I'm literally the author of this story and am like ohmygosh what's gonna happen next I need an update and I need it now.

Chapter 3 should be here by Sunday, kiddies. Don't forget to review!

-Cherry