Respite
"So how did you two meet?" Aryll beamed, her teeth gleaming pearly white in the glow of the hearth. "I'll bet it was inordinately romantic."
She sighed dreamily.
"Well, uh," Midna coughed from her position on the couch. "If you'd count your brother trying to kill me as romantic, then sure."
"Link!" Aryll reprimanded, aghast. "You didn't!"
"Did you have to bring that up? It was a difficult time," he groaned. "I mean, you were trying to kill me this whole time too."
"Nuh-uh," Midna smirked, amused. "That was when I didn't know you were the ancient murderous blade I've been after my whole life."
"B-But, come on, look!" he fumbled with the edges of his tunic. "It all worked out, didn't it? I took one look and immediately put aside my plans for killing you!"
He grimaced as even he subsequently realized how that sounded.
"Charming," Midna scoffed, though it was not without trace amounts of exasperated affection.
"Ugh," Aryll shook her head. "I hope you can forgive him, Miss Midna. My brother can be such a dork sometimes."
"I've noticed," she drily remarked. "He's the biggest dunce I know, but I guess I'm stuck with him."
"You two are a riot," Link grumbled, turning so that he wouldn't have to face them. "Let me go get the tea and cookies so you can bond over them."
"Oh, I'll do it!" Aryll chirped, ignoring his sarcasm and practically skipping over to the kitchen.
Beams of moonlight streamed in from the splintered roof, striking Midna's hair so that it gleamed scarlet like a rivulet of blood.
"Snark," she nodded at him, grinning. "I'm so proud of you."
"You're rubbing off on me," he sighed. "I'm not sure that's a good thing."
"Well, your sister sure seems to love me," she sniffed, folding her arms.
"How could she not?" Link shrugged. "You're you."
She went red.
"That's-" she spluttered, her throat catching midway. "Not fair. Saying something like that out of the blue."
The warm scent of jasmine wafted towards them and drew their attention to Aryll, who had lingered at the threshold to the kitchen. She bit her lip, clearly attempting not to interrupt, despite her eyes swimming with ill-concealed delight.
"Here!" she blurted, thrusting the tea under their noses, retreating to the kitchen when they had each taken a saucer.
"She's always been easily excitable," Link noted.
"Must run in the family," Midna quipped. "I can tell she really missed you."
"If I'd realized," he began, a somber tone seeping into his edges. "Maybe I could've saved her some grief. Maybe I could've come back sooner and fixed things-"
"Oh my god, I've always wanted a sister!" echoed Aryll's shriek from the kitchen.
Link choked on his tea.
Author's Note: A little reprieve from all the doom and gloom! It's kinda all over the place, and that's sort of intentional, sort of not. A part of it was to show just how much Midna's softened up from traveling with Link (I hope she's not too OOC, ogod). Hopefully it didn't come off as too stale!