Link groaned as the dull thud of a fist beating on the front door protruded into his sleep, he dragged himself out of bed and made it into the entryway as a second round of knocks began. "Good morning Ilia," he said as the thick wood door swung aside, not needing to wait to see who was on the other side.
"Good morning Link." Ilia was always bright smiles and enthusiasm when it came to Link's morose moods, it was appreciated, but annoying. Today, to Link's mild horror, she was even more excited. With a sinking feeling Link realized what she was going to say just before she did, "Are you coming to the Planter's festival tonight?" The annual Planter's fest. That meant he had been back home for six months and now it was time to plant the seeds for Fall's harvest. For the entirety of the winter Link had managed to avoid the general commotion that was the town of Ordon fairly well, investing himself in collecting firewood and the scare winter prey in the Faron woods. Coming into town once every few days to give supplies to the villagers but never staying long enough for dinner in thanks.
He found that after his adventures with... across Hyrule, he couldn't tolerate the crowds and noise of town. He felt cramped and tense, he could barely sleep in his tree house, preferring the quite open expanse of the forest with a soft breeze blowing through the trees. Now the only work he would be doing was in the fields, helping tend to the fledgling crops, surrounded by his townsmen.
"Hello~ Link?" He refocused on Ilia, she was inspecting him with a concerned frown, leaned in closer than was comfortable. He took a step back and wiped the haggard look from his face.
"Yeah, sorry Ilia, I'll be there tonight." That appeased her, and the happy smile returned to her face.
"Well, if you're not busy, you could eat lunch with father and I, and help prepare the field for the festival in the afternoon. Most of the town will be there getting ready."
"Sure, just let me eat breakfast and get ready, what time should I be there for lunch?"
"Noon," Link nodded, shocked to see her taking a step back, "I'll see you then Link." She set off down the ladder and he blinked in astonishment. That had to have been the shortest visit Ilia had made since he returned. By far. He returned to his bedroom puzzling over Ilia's odd behavior. The Planter's fest, by all rights, should inspire Ilia's biggest drive to include Link in daily life yet. He almost felt cheated by her seemingly calm demeanor, but laughed off his own narcissistic thoughts and donned his clothes for the day. Breakfast was a simple affair, fresh bread and goat milk butter courtesy of Ilia the night before.
Once dressed, fed, and out of the house Link turned left and ventured down the path towards the woods rather than into town. Over the course of the winter he had developed a ruff patchy beard, splotches of hair growing seemingly at random on his face, and the overall result was not pleasant. In the woods, alone and hunting he was hardly bothered enough to shave it, but he'd finally had enough of the unfamiliar sensation of feeling it when he touched his face. That and he hadn't bathed in a considerable number of days and felt it was long over due. Now that the water in the stream near Ordana's spring was warm with spring he made his way through the brush to a concealed bank not to far from town. He stripped down to nothing and jumped in, wading to the deeper middle where he could submerge most of his body and wash away the grime of the past few weeks. He didn't have any soap so it didn't take long for the water to take away all that it could and he returned to the bank, rustling through his clothes to find the small dagger he carried tucked into the folds.
It had never been used, he felt the need to have it in place of the Master Sword should any small occurrence call for it but none had come up. It was very sharp, capable of taking away the patches of hair without tugging on his skin too much and after a few minutes he was rubbing his clean face in satisfaction. It was not as smooth as it would've been with a straight razor but the fine hairs around his jaw and chin were only noticeable by touch now which was good enough for him. He put his clothes back on and turned toward the road to town in trepidation.
-o-o-o-
Being around the villagers was not as bad as he had feared. He'd spent time with Rusl and Collin and helped them erect stalls for the sale of everyone's fresh baked goods. Mayor Bo and Ilia, while they coordinated the building for a floor for dancing and fire pit for the bonfire. He'd even helped Hanch and Sera bake some of those goods and move their wares to their stalls as the day grew closer to night. It was now that the scattered people across the goat pasture began to congregate toward the middle that he was apprehensive. The bonfire had just been lit, people were eating and laughing and starting to kick of the night's festivities and he had retreated to a stack of hay just outside the fires glow. Slowly eating a blueberry pie that was still steaming from the bites he'd already taken, he watched the crowd interact with one another, content to sit on the sidelines and enjoy himself free from the oppressive presence of so many people.
"Do you want to dance?" He jumped slightly, whipping around to look at Ilia, standing just to his right. He realized he'd spaced out, staring with unfocused eyes at the fire as shadows danced across it's light, for how long he didn't know.
"I don't know Ilia," he began hesitantly, "I don't think I'm feeling up to it." He didn't like the disappointed look in her eye but a glance toward the dance floor told him just how uncomfortable he would be there.
"Just one," she said quietly, he'd never heard he voice so somber before, her eyes downcast and a vulnerable crease marring her brow. "I know you don't like it, so just one dance, and then there's something I wanted to talk to you about tonight." Her change in demeanor worried him, so he stood and managed a genuine half smile.
"Sure Ilia, come on." He held out his hand for her and she brightened slightly as she took it, walking along side him toward the others. She was still not her usual self but it was a far cry from the sad girl she'd just been, that whole encounter scared him slightly. He'd never known Ilia to be so downtrodden.
He bowed to her on the dance floor, she curtsied back and they linked arms and dance a circle around one another. Despite the commotion of the festival around him he found that the dance lightened his mood considerably, he knew the dance well, he'd been doing it with Ilia his entire life. Growing up in Ordon together, the only two of their age, they'd spent most of their free time together, inseparable through all of the festivals and parties. It had been so long since he'd reminisced about life before the Twilight invasion, to his surprise doing so lifted his heart and he spent a couple songs with Ilia dancing among his old friends.
"So you said you wanted to talk?" He asked as they danced toward the edge of the crowd and and stepped out of the circle and into the night. He still held her hand in his and there was a genuine smile warming his face but at his prompt Ilia darkened again, only slightly.
"Yeah..." she paused then tugged him wordlessly back to his abandoned hay bale to sit. She struggled for a minute, seeming to chew over her words before changing her mind on what to say. He let her think in silence, he had an idea of what she might have in mind and wasn't looking forward to the conversation. He liked Ilia, and didn't her to be hurt, but what had happened in the last year had robbed them of whatever chance they might have had and he didn't know how to say that without her being heartbroken. "I love you Link." Burst free from her mouth, dropping his jaw. He hadn't expected her to be so succinct in her delivery, but she said it in confidence.
"Ilia..." He began, his tone gentle but she headed him off before he could begin the speech he didn't have the words for.
"Just.. let me. I love you, I imagine I did for a long time and simply wasn't sure but I know it now." She paused here, her eyes far away before continuing without looking at him, looking out into the shadowy night. "When you came back I was so excited, I found that I missed you more than I realized I did once you were back in my life and I thought... that things would continue as they were before all that mess happened." She didn't give him long enough to interject, to explain himself, to try and make her understand that it wasn't her fault. That it wasn't anyone's fault, he had simply changed as a person. "I want to be with you Link," she was starting to tear up now, her voice becoming choked "but I can't." That startled him out of his horrified guilt, he blink in surprise and found her determine glassy eyes meeting his in a strong gaze "I know you aren't happy here Link, you're trying to come back and fit into your old life but you can't. It's making you miserable and I want you to know that you don't have to."
"Ilia," he tried again but she shook her head, wiping her eyes free of the tears and they remained dry afterword.
"This life isn't a bad one, but you never fit in here fully, everyone always knew you were destined for greater things and we were right. You should be out there, free to make Hyrule a better place, not stuck here trapped by the crops and livestock. You've been given such responsibility, weight that no man could carry but you do it, and it's what you live for. That's what makes you so great Link, and that's why we can't be together." She heaved a massive shaky sigh at the end of her speech, a nervous laugh bubbling out of her. Link sat in silence trying to decide how to follow that.
"Thank you..." he finally started, determined to let her know how much her admission meant to him, "for understanding Ilia. You are right, about a lot of things that I wasn't aware of, you are still much wiser than I." She smiled at the old taunt, and he continued relieved that this was so easy to talk about. "I had never considered leaving Ordon again, this is, was, my home. I like being back around my old friends but I don't belong here anymore, I get jittery around everyone. Being inside houses is like being trapped in a cave, my heart starts pounding and I can't think of anything other than escape paths and obstacles in my way." He sighed too, feeling the weight of the past few months lifting slowly as he talked to her. "But I don't know where else to go, what else to do... When I started my quest a year and a half ago I was only doing it to get Ordon and all of you back safely. Along the way I developed a purpose, for the first time in my life what I had to do made sense and then when she..." he cleared his throat and cut the sentence off. "When Zant and Ganondorf fell everything suddenly stopped and I was suddenly afloat with no sense of what to do now. So I came back to the only place I could call home..."
"You're the Hero of Hyrule, you belong there, fixing everything like you always have been," she said, and the confidence in her voice was almost enough to convince him as well. "Go to the castle," she continued in a gentler tone, "ask the princess to help and I'm sure she could come up with a job for you, she'll jump at the opportunity of your aide if she has any wits left about her." She was silent as he contemplated her plan before sealing the deal "We'll always be here for you when you need us, but you've been here for us already, it's time for you to focus on yourself." He swallowed heavily, a glint of resolve in his eyes.
"I'm very lucky to have you Ilia... if things had been different I would have been happy to be your husband." he leaned in and pressed a short gentle kiss on her lips. Freezing her face in disbelief, "Thank you for everything." She remained on that hay bale for quite a while after he walked away into the night. She knew that it would be a long time until she saw him again. He would not wait around to say goodbye to everyone, she would do that for him, even before he left to rescue all of Hyrule he was shy and quite. Link would slip away in the night and no one in the secluded village of Ordon would hear of him until the trader's came in the summer to collect the crops for Castletown and brought news of the kingdom.
AN: Man. Again with the abrupt ending, I know this chapter was boring, but it was very important. I tried to convey how much Link has changed since he set out from Ordon the first time and why he must return to Zelda's side to help in the reparations. I know there are some who like to write Ilia as a love interest but for the sake of the story I felt she should be the one to inspire Link to leave, because I like Ilia and I want her to be happy without him. She may come back at some point in the future, we'll just have to see how things go.