Chapter 20: Glutton

Link woke up in Purah's armchair. That wasn't weird at all. Nope, not weird. Just extremely bizarre. And it was also peculiar that he hadn't had any dreams/nightmares.

"Link, you're awake!" Link looked up blankly at Liari. The Sheikah looked slightly nervous.

"You were the one who hit me in the face with a door, weren't you?" Link observed. The guilt in Liari's eyes confirmed his query. "It's fine. It only knocked me unconscious."

"And bruised your face up even more than before." Liari huffed.

Link touched his face lightly. No pain. "Potion?"

Liari nodded. "The princess made it for you."

Link stared at Liari.

"She knows about the captain." Liari said, biting her lip. At Link's slightly confused expression, she added, "And so do I. And Purah. And Impa. She's the one who told me."

Well, there goes my invincible knight cover. Link thought with an inward sigh. Now the princess has even more reason to hate me.

"The princess doesn't hate you." Liari said quietly.

Um, yes. Link thought with a furrowed brow at Liari. She does. Very much so.

Liari looked at him with the saddest expression before turning to the door. "The princess requested your presence in her study. If you are so sure that she hates you, then why don't you ask her yourself?"

Link glared at Liari, but he standed up nonetheless. The princess was probably going to scold him yet again, so he would have to mentally prepare himself.

Zelda had set up a small table in the center of her study with two chairs pulled up. She had also sent for some food, because who didn't like food?

Zelda bit her lip. Well, for all she knew the knight was allergic to steak. She really didn't know much about him.

Well, not much other than the fact that his parents seemed to be no longer living.

A knock came at her wooden door.

"Come in, please." Zelda called.

The door creaked open, and there was Sir Link. And, quite humorously, his normally blank eyes were staring, stretched widely, at the table.

"I apologize, I did not know you were planning to meet with someone." The knight said quietly. He began to inch back out and close the door.

"Actually, I was waiting for you." Zelda said with a slight laugh. "Do sit down." Zelda gestured to the chair opposite hers and sat down herself.

The knight looked confused, but he hid it quite well. He slowly pulled out the chair and sat down, blinking blankly at Zelda.

His back was tense and straight, as if he was unsure of what to expect.

Well, Zelda thought. He was just beaten.

"Help yourself to the food." Zelda said, gesturing to the plate in front of the knight.

The knight looked at her wearily, before picking up the utensils and cutting a piece of the steak.

"I don't believe I have thanked you for saving my life, yet." Zelda said.

Sir Link froze and glanced up at Zelda, face blank. Now that she was actually paying attention to the knight, he seemed quite skittish. Had he always been like that?

"So thank you." Zelda said, clearing her throat and looking down to avoid the knight's piercing blue eyes. "And I also wanted to apologize for my behavior…?" Zelda trailed off uncertainly as she saw the knight's face. He had cut himself a larger piece of the steak and shoved it into his mouth while she hadn't been looking.

Zelda giggled slightly as the knight quickly swallowed the meat.

"I am the one who should apologize, Princess." Zelda wiped the humor from her face and looked at Sir Link in confusion.

The knight gestured to himself. "If I was more tolerable, then you would not have run away. And the Yiga would not have gotten anywhere near where they had, had it not been my own laziness."

"What?" Zelda asked. "None of this was your fault. It was mine, for being so childish by running off without an escort."

"Your behavior is justified." The knight said calmly. "I know that I am not the most…" Sir Link trailed off. "-pleasant of people. And with your difficulties, your taking out of your anger upon myself is quite fair."

Zelda gaped at the knight as he stabbed a fork into the steak. He was not the arrogant person she had originally thought she'd seen. No, not at all. In fact, his self esteem seemed far lower than average.

Zelda cleared her throat again. "No, my behavior to you was not fair."

"Then we will have to agree to disagree, Princess. For I am merely a knight. It is part of my job to allow you to speak with me as you please."

The knight had never spoken to Zelda so much in a whole week, let alone one meal. Then Zelda noticed that the steak on his plate had somehow vanished.

"You are fond of food?" Zelda asked.

A bit of color came to the knight's face, but other than that his face was blank. He nodded.

Zelda pushed her plate towards him with a smile. "I actually ate already, so you can have mine, Sir Link."

Sir Link looked at the plate, before looking up at Zelda hesitantly. She nodded.

The knight immediately pulled it towards him, and his demeanour melted away. Zelda found her knight quite humorous. Perhaps he hadn't eaten much in front of her before because of the way he ate.

Zelda couldn't help her curiosity. She knew that it was a bit soon, but the knight could refuse to answer if he wanted to.

No he can't. A voice whispered in the back of her mind. You already heard how loyal he is. He won't refuse to answer a direct question.

Zelda hated it when she was right. But she had to ask him something.

"So…" Zelda said quietly. "Would you mind telling me a bit about yourself, Sir Link?"

The knight swallowed the last bite of the steak and looked at her questioningly.

"Not anything serious." Zelda said quickly. "How about… what's your horse's name?"

The knight blinked at her, before he answered. "Epona." He said quietly with a slight tug at the corners of his lips.

"So she's named after the Hero of Twilight's horse?" Zelda asked.

The knight looked as if in thought before nodding.

"I'm not sure you've heard me yelling at my horse, but his name is Storm."

The knight- no, Link, nodded silently.

"So, onto the next question." Zelda said quickly. "What's your favorite color?"

"Green." He said without a moment's hesitation. "It reminds me of the trees and fields of the wild."

"Mine is sky blue." Zelda pointed at Link's tunic. "As is obvious." Zelda couldn't help but think of how Link's eyes matched the tunic in their piercing blue.

Link smiled a small (very small, mind you), crooked smile. Even though it wasn't a full smile, it was contagious. And seeing him like this only made Zelda wonder what he could look like with a full grin.

"How about your favorite food?" Zelda asked.

At that, Link frowned. "How can one have a favorite food?"

Zelda looked at him, and then laughed. "Okay, maybe not your favorite food. But what kinds of food do you like?"

"All of them." Link said, as if it was obvious. "Except frogs." He shivered slightly. "I will never eat frog legs ever again."

Zelda laughed. "I'll make note of that. My favorite food is fruitcake, if that counts as a food."

"'If it's edible, it's food.'" Link said in what sounded a lot like Impa's tone of voice. "'For that is the way of the Sheikah.'"

Zelda snorted in a very not-so-princessy manner. "Did Impa actually say that?"

Link nodded with a small grin. "She said it when she was trying to get me to eat frog legs."

The man- no, boy that sat before her was so different from the stoic knight.

Zelda had to say, she liked it.

"Today I spoke to Link. It seems he's quite the glutton. His food disappeared so quickly! It seems that he can't resist a delicious meal! I asked him a bit about himself, and though he was hesitant at first, he has begun to open up to me. He's quite humorous! Not at all the arrogant knight I thought I saw within his sky blue eyes.

"There is so much that I don't know about Link. I hope that, with time, I can find out why he has hidden this wonderful person that I have yet to scratch the surface of.

"What truly lies beneath those calm blue waters?"

Done! I liked this chapter. It's kind of a nice break from torturing poor Link. FRIENDSHIP AND RAINBOWS! (Coughsecretreviewphrasecough)

Last chapter I wrote it kind of quickly, so thank you guys in the comments for correcting my mistakes! I fixed them! And I've been forgetting to capitalize nationalities in a few spots, so oops. Thanks for the patience, and don't worry! I'm totally fine with, and even prefer, people correcting me! I want to be the best writer I can be for y'all! (Why do I keep saying "y'all"? I think I broke me...)

REPLIES!

poplasia: Oops. Yeah, I fixed them! Sorry! I was writing last chapter a bit quickly so that I could get it published sooner! I am completely okay with corrections, so if you spot another one and mention it in a review, gold star for you! I'm glad you've been enjoying it!

MeaninglessMayhem: Slow burn is GREAT! I'm not trying to torture the readers or anything... nope, no sir-y. Not at all. It's not like I find it amusing or anything! Yup, poor Link. Luckily there wasn't any torture in this chapter for him! At least, not that I wrote of. But maybe opening up to Zelda is tearing him apart from the inside after hiding his true self for so long or something. But probably not. I think it's good for him. I'm glad you liked it!

thedarkesthorcrux: I'm glad you enjoyed it! I hope this one isn't horrible!

The-Fallen-Spirit: ...I'm laughing so hard right now and I don't have the slightest idea know why. I'm glad you enjoyed it! I hope that this one is to your liking, as well!

SmokeyMirrors: Ouch. You have a horse? That's cool! I wish I had one ;-; Any-who, mistakes! Thanks for the correction! I fixed it! I am sorry for the inconvenience! Gold star! Here's your interrogation dinner, but I thought she wouldn't straight up ask about his silence until later because that would seem rude. And the captain! Yeah, I came up with the story for him while writing that chapter. I thought it would thicken the plot a bit. I'll add a bit more onto him later. I think that next chapter will satisfy you. What should I name it? Maybe "Zelda's Rage?" There's your hint, but maybe that won't be the title or the main idea of the chapter. I don't know. I haven't even written it yet, because I used up my bumper chapters very early on. I might have to not publish on Sundays so that I can write backups. Maybe I should drag this out! But I don't think Zelda would take a picture, because I don't think her pops knows how a Sheikah Slate works. I don't know. But you have certainly given me ideas! Yes, he needs hugs, and lots of them. I think this gave Link a much needed break! Another gold star for you! Hooray! That's unfortunate... no, I don't think Link will mind that you stole his motorcycle, because he's just a nice person like that. How much is twenty dollars in Hyrulean currency? I need to look that up! I'm glad you're enjoying this!

IForgotMyPassword: Good guessing! But I'm not going to tell you if you're right yet- facts will be revealed in time!

And that's all, y'all (I SAID IT AGAIN, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH)! Secret review phrase is HIDDEN! GO FIND IT!

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

-Ari