Zelda was quiet as she sat with Link to lunch later that day. He nudged her, trying to get her to talk, concerned over how odd she was acting. She waited, taking her time as she took a sip of her tea before finally telling him what was up. It was the last three words he wanted to hear.

"My father knows."

Link froze, gripping the edge of the table. "What? What does he know?"

"Everything," she replied in a low voice.

"Shit," Link groaned, looking towards the foreboding castle.

"It's going to be okay, though, he's going to… he's going to knight you as a hero, for what you've done for Hyrule, and let you stay as my guard." She smiled, relaxing now. Now that she'd said it out loud, relief washed over her, making her limbs feel warm and light. Link was staying, and there was no more lying, no more deception. Zelda laughed once or twice, putting her hands to her mouth and taking slow breaths, her head light and her whole body giddy.

Link relaxed when she did, smiling and patting her shoulder. Zelda leaned over and hugged him tight, clinging to him.

"So he's okay with us being… close, then?" he asked. "Does he think this means I could… we could… if you wanted to, that is—

"Oh no," Zelda replied, pulling back. "I don't think you'd enjoy being king, Link. I told him as much. I'll… probably still have to marry Corbin."

Link frowned. "How do you know if I won't like being King? No one's even asked me!" Zelda was rather taken aback by his shouting, and she folded her arms. She would not be outscreamed by him.

"I know you quite well, and I know that you'd rather be out adventuring, and in times of war you would want to fight. But the king cannot fight until there is an heir, and even then, it is ill-advised until the heir is of marrying age or betrothed. You would be terrible bored if you couldn't leave the castle very often for years."

"I can settle down," Link retorted. "I'll uh, I'll domesticate."

"You're not a dog!" Zelda snapped. "It's not like training a puppy, it's like breaking a wild horse!"

"Which I've done—

"Epona is hardly wild—

"I didn't see anyone else riding her!"

"Fine!" Zelda shouted. "If you think you're so tame, why don't you spend a week shadowing the king and seeing what he has to deal with? Then you can tell me if you can handle it." She leaned back, triumphant.

They sat there in silence for a minute, steaming at each other, but not really mad.

"What happens if I can handle being king?" Link asked in a low voice.

Zelda shrugged. "I'll be wrong."

"And?"

She blinked. "What, being right isn't enough for you? Fine, um…" She shrugged. "I'm sure we'll think of something."

"And if I'm wrong?"

Again, Zelda shrugged, mostly to annoy him. "Then you're wrong, and… I don't know, I suppose I'll make you do whatever I want for a month or something."

"A month?" he cried. "That's ridiculous!"

"Fine, fine! Just a week." Zelda went to grab a scone, already layered with cream and preserves.

"That is some harsh punishment, girly," he grumbled.

Zelda shook her head. "You complain too much."

"I do not," Link retorted, lifting his chin. He'd calmed down, and was in the mood for teasing her. But Zelda didn't look like she wanted to take it, so instead he returned to his lunch, and they ate mostly in silence for the rest of the meal.

-

Afterward, they split up, and Zelda went to approach her father alone in his study on the matter of Link tailing him.

"When I said that I felt Link would not be comfortable being king, he wanted to have a chance to prove that he could handle it. As I was… wrong in assuming that he would want no part of it, I was thinking that perhaps he should spend a week finding just what a king's responsibilities are, and judging for himself if he thinks he could perform those same responsibilities." Zelda cleared her throat and stepped back, her hands clasped together tight.

Her father ignored her for a few minutes, thinking.

"And what if he can perform those duties?" he finally asked, looking at his daughter.

Zelda tensed, thinking. "You haven't… sent that letter to Archduke Golliet yet, have you?"

The king sighed. "No, I have not. But he will be concerned if there is not a reply soon, I am afraid."

"Just one week, Father. That is all I ask."

The king looked away from her. "Just one week. I hope that is enough time for the both of you to decide your fates."

"I believe it shall," Zelda replied, taking leave of her father to tell Link the news.

-

Link nodded once when Zelda told him that her father had agreed, the two of them hanging around in the library, a rather quiet and private place. "But it's only for a week," she added, "so multiply the experience by fifty-two for a year, and then multiply that by fifty in itself. You might find it's not so easy."

"I never said the king's job was easy," Link replied, frowning. "In fact, that might be why it would appeal to me at all; a challenge, yeah?"

Zelda sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm just saying. If this is going to change the way everything in our lives goes, then that will be that. Now, come on. We have a ball in a few weeks, and we must get new outfits." She looped her arm through his, but Link disentangled himself.

"What's wrong with what we wore?"

"You can't wear the same outfit to two balls, at least not in the same year and barely a month apart, Link." Zelda shook her head. "Come on, I'll even pick green this time."

He sighed and took her arm once more, leaving the library with her. He hoped this time, it wouldn't take quite so long to pick a nice fabric.

-

It took longer this time, in fact. Link kept pushing for a dark green fabric, but the weather was getting warmer with the approach of summer, and Zelda wanted a light green cottony satin.

"It'll look stupid on me," he grumbled, as she rubbed the texture between her fingers, smiling at it.

"Relax; you didn't look stupid in the last outfit, why would you start now?" she asked, glancing at him.

"To spite you."

Zelda rolled her eyes, turning back to the pastel material, her head already swimming with ideas for it. "Maybe something off the shoulder," she muttered, "with three quarter sleeves and a fitted bodice…"

Link let his mind wander as he looked around the fabric shop, bored. Zelda reached out and pinched his ear to get his attention, narrowing her eyes. "You're not getting out of this so easily." She selected two different colors; a light, spring green and a darker green, with a bit of a grey edge to it. "We'll test both of these out."

"Does the king have to do this too?"

"Absolutely he does," Zelda replied, annoyed, though she was doing it on purpose to keep Link around as much as possible. Later that day, he would begin shadowing the king, and even though she herself suggested it, Zelda was regretting that she would be significantly hindered in getting to see him every day.

The fabricians approached the princess and took the bolts, leading Zelda and Link over to the large skylight near their ordering area, so that they could best study the fabric and decide which would look best. The longer she compared, the more Zelda found that she really did like the darker green, so they went with it, Zelda sitting down in a chair and describing what she wanted done with it.

"Like an off the shoulder, right, but modest, maybe a lapel detail folded over or something, as well as a fitted bodice…"

Link started zoning out again, looking around the shop and spying two dressmaker's dolls, stacked with bolts of fabric just right in the light so that they looked like two duelists facing each other. He entertained himself with the idea that they were battling over something silly, like a dressed mannequin that was in the shop's window. Their swords were bolts of cloth, and as they attacked each other, little bits of dust and stray threads would go flying, until the material was completely destroy-

"Link!"

He jumped and looked around at Zelda. "What!"

Zelda shook her head. "Did you like the style of dress you wore to the last ball?"

"Uh…" it took him a minute to remember what he'd been wearing. "Yeah, that's fine, that works, whatever."

Zelda shook her head and finished the order with the fabricians, who smiled and stood when she did, thanking her fervently for her patronage and walking the two of them out, waving at the door.

Zelda pulled Link in tight, and he tensed his arm, stepping a bit to one side to get her to release her grip. "You've been a little snippy today, since after lunch," he muttered. "What's your deal?"

Zelda tilted her head in surprise. She hadn't noticed… well, maybe she had. Maybe she'd been a little short with him. "I'm… I apologize. I am just worried about you shadowing my father, I suppose."

"What," he tried to joke, "that you'll get to marry me after all, someday?"

Zelda shook her head, looking a little sad now. "No, that… that it'll scare you off or something."

"Oh come on," he replied. "It'd take a lot to scare me. Courage, remember?" He nudged her side gently with his elbow, trying to cheer her up.

Zelda nodded and smiled. "Very true." She rested her cheek briefly on his shoulder as they headed back to the castle, but it quickly gave her a cramp in her neck so she straightened again. They made it back to the castle, and Link kissed Zelda's hand before taking his leave, approaching the king's study.

He knocked, and waited patiently, and it took a few minutes before the king finally called that he was allowed to enter. Link stepped in and hesitated in bowing his greeting, his eyes going wide as he looked around the massive room, all dark wood, with a few stacks of paper on the desk, and books everywhere. The king directed him to a chair on the other side of the table. "What you see around you," the king began as he shuffled and sorted, "is an assortment of suggested laws, requests for land and titles, messages of disputes and troubles they are having through the country, as well as correspondence requesting my permission to betroth the Princess Zelda." He looked pointedly at Link, and Link did not flinch.

"Every day, these notices are sorted and brought to my study for me to look through and consider. You will be helping me do that." He put down a short stack in front of Link, and after a few minutes, Link hesitantly took the piece from the top of the stack. It was a request to purchase a patch of land bordering on Lake Hylia, and to build upon it a duchy estate.

"Well this one seems straightforward," he offered the king.

The king took it from him and looked over it.

"Oh, it certainly seems that way, but a minor problem." The king directed Link's eyes to a map of Hyrule. Various patches were colored in with thin veneers of paint in different colors, and each patch had a pin with a tiny painted flag hanging from it.

"These various colors are different purchased estates, and also various farm plots. The little flags in each estate represent what family owns said estate or farm plot." The king paused and read the note again. "The land they're trying to buy is here." He pointed to a spot, half farmland and half blank. "They want to encroach on farmland currently owned by a smaller farm family."

"Well then, we'll deny them the purchase." Easy enough.

The king shook his head. "While all land is the rightful property of the crown, the farming family is renting this part. They must be asked as well if they are comfortable with selling some land. The process can take a month, depending on how far the family is from the castle and those wanting to buy, and how good the offered buyouts can become. In the end it all comes back to the castle anyway."

Link raised his eyebrows. "Why not just have everyone come to the castle and discuss it here in a neutral setting?"

"Oh if it drags on longer than a month, that is what we resort to," the king answered. "It usually gets resolved through mail; if that happened from the start, this castle would be far more crowded."

Link picked the next letter off the stack and read it. This one was a request for the princess' hand in marriage; he quietly folded it up while the king's back was turned and pocketed it.

So far, it didn't seem so bad; a little annoying and winded on some tasks, but nothing terrible. After an hour, the king had sorted the pile into marriage requests, law suggestions, and offers for land plots. He barely glanced at the marriage proposals, focusing on the laws and reading the suggestions carefully, before explaining to Link why they were either good or poor suggestions. Some of the laws were so strange that Link could not find any reason for having them passed, such as one about spitting in the wind on Farorsday after noon.

While the king pored over laws, Link took the short pile of marriage proposals and flipped through them casually, looking over names, wondering if he'd met them at the ball or would meet them at the next one. In the pile was a familiar name, Duke Ambrose Holsten. Link narrowed his eyes and crunched the paper in his fist, the majesty looking up when he heard the rustle of papers.

"Oh?" He took the piece from Link's fingers and straightened it, looking it over. "Ah, Duke Holsten." The king handed it back. "You do not care much for him?"

Link shifted in his seat. "He seems very arrogant. I don't think someone like that would do well as a king."

His Majesty nodded and returned to reading law proposals, the ones he found impassable getting put to one side, and the ones he would consider getting put in a second. Link would have done the same, but not only did he not want to think about who might make a better match for Zelda than himself, but he also did not know the men's characters well enough to judge.

So instead he read through the land purchase offers, comparing them carefully on the map to sort out who was trying to encroach on another's land, and who wasn't.

-

Zelda was out jewelry-shopping again. She did not desire to sit in the castle alone, whether her own rooms or the library, wondering how Link was finding the tedious operations of the castle. So instead she wasted time outside. She wasn't actually planning to buy anything this time; she had plenty of jewelry that would look nice against the dress the fabricians were planning, but she was miserable lonely. Link hadn't been able to join her for lunch; more papers were coming in, and the king was using him fulltime to get through them.

At the previous night's dinner, the two men discussed what they'd looked over. While Zelda was heartened by the exchange, she noticed how red Link's eyes were from strain. One of the serving girls had actually taken him two round pucks kept in the ice buckets for such an occasion.

Link had never read so much in his life (mostly because he wasn't terribly good at it). His mind was swimming as he lay in his bunk, trying to sleep. He dreamt of lecherous well-dressed men illegally relacing their boots while outside of a temple before noon, proposal rings raining from the sky. It was such that he got very little sleep, and actually managed to have a blow land on him during practice the next morning.

"You're slipping, Bruiser!" one of the other trainees called with a laugh. Link grit his teeth, and fought his partner back viciously for two second losing himself in rapidfire swings and thrusts, knocking the poor guy down on his back and holding the point of his… stick to his throat, breathing harshly.

Slipping, slipping like sleeping, sleeping was gone to him now, an elusive thing he was always chasing. Sleep was the hardest to find in the castle. Link had been the king's protégé of sorts for four days, and he had not known such exhaustion in seven years. It wasn't just reading, it was thinking and remembering and devoting himself entirely to fighting the problems of the country, and he couldn't even do it on horseback, he was pinned in the castle, trapped and forced to mediate through pen and paper, the worst of all.

When Link finally passed out on the king's study desk, woken up by a sharp knock to the top of his head, he wondered if this meant he had lost. "How can you do it?" he asked breathlessly, when he was finally able to restart his mind, pulling it from the sticky mire of a dream. The king handed him his own monogrammed hankerchief, and Link sheepishly wiped up the small splatter of drool from the corner of his mouth.

"Strong coffee, and years of practice." The king eyed Link carefully. "Do you believe, at this point, that you could do this very same thing for years?"

Link thought about it, very carefully. The tedium of reading notes, handwritten in tiny but elegant letters, discovering by the end of the flowery poetry of said note that it was a nonsensical law or an attempt to usurp someone else's land, every day, getting worse in wartimes with the piling of notices about taken land, lost battles, fallen soldiers, rarely a victory, and not being able to go out alongside the other men and fight for the country, to rally them under his command. In his head, for her, Link wanted to be king more than anything.

He looked up at the king and whispered, "No."

-

Zelda returned with nothing in her hands and everything on her mind. She brushed by the library and stopped cold, poking her head in and staring at Link, holding those little pucks to his eyes again and dead silent. Some thoughtful girl had thrown a blanket over him, and sure enough Zelda could hear him snoring softly. But why was he here, sleeping? Why wasn't he up discussing… tax increases or something? Zelda walked soundlessly into the library and touched Link's arm with her left hand.

His snoring stopped and he reached up with a free hand, pulling away the pucks and looking up at the princess in silence. She could read it in his expression that he'd failed. Never had she wanted so badly to be wrong.

They stayed in the library in silence, Zelda pushing a chair over next to his and sitting in it primly, her hands folded together.

"Guess you were right, like always," he murmured.

Zelda shrugged. "I still believe that you were very brave to do what you did. I never wanted you to be king, for it to trap you."

Again they sat in silence, until Zelda spoke up again, lingering over the words. "When you have completed your training… if you stay on as a soldier… I'll give you a guard position when I am queen."

"I'd like that," he muttered in reply, feeling a bit heartened. He had, after all, given it his best shot, hadn't he? No one was going to die because of it, Hyrule would still thrive…

Zelda looked over when she heard another low snore starting from the chair next to hers. She recovered Link with his blanket and kissed him very lightly on the mouth, putting the cool pucks back on his eyes and leaving the library with barely a swish of her skirts.