Chapter 3: Proposal

Zelda sat with her bare feet dangling in the river. It was mid-afternoon and she had not seen Link for hours. She felt something rub against her elbow and looked down to find a Remlit purring beside her. "Oh hey, Mia. You're not going to treat me strangely, are you?" Her pet simply gazed back at her with large glassy eyes. Zelda smiled and lifted the animal into her lap to cuddle it.

A breeze sifted through her golden locks as she watched the sun's reflections swirl on the water's surface. "People have been acting weird around here. Is it something against me, or is it because of Hyrule? Or both?" She spoke aloud to herself, stroking the cat-like creature's fur. She shook her head. Why was she so paranoid lately? Link would usually help her sort through her thoughts, but he seemed to be acting the strangest of all of them lately. Even her father had looked at her a little funny earlier. Karane seemed to be her only sane friend on Skyloft.

She had planned on returning to the surface with Link in the next few days, but now she felt like she didn't know where she wanted to go. She was so confused between Link's avoidant spontaneous behavior and the way people kept smirking and teasing her. She almost wanted to leave Skyloft permanently and fly off to a distant corner of Hyrule.

But Karane had told her she was becoming their leader. Perhaps that explained the weird looks. And Link? Maybe he was just going through a phase…. Boys will be boys…

Zelda looked down at her pet. "What do you think, Mia?" The remlit blinked and then yawned before getting up and softly walking away. Now left completely alone, Zelda got up and decided she was going to confront Link.

Link took a deep breath as he exited the bazaar that evening and pocketed his new item. Gondo created it in just a few hours. It had cost him a good amount of rupees to construct, but he still had a large amount of money saved in his bank account at Peatrice's stand. He felt a little bad for avoiding Zelda the past few days, but he knew it was necessary to keep his plan a secret from her. He had trouble keeping secrets from her, so it was the only way to prevent his plan from being revealed prematurely. At least he had gotten the enthusiastic approval from Zelda's father. He was clear for take-off!

The plan was to be set in motion the next morning. Pipit, Groose, and Karane were all in on it. It was a good scheme that they had put their heads together to create while Zelda was not inside the academy that afternoon. He was extremely nervous about how it would go and was silently praying for a miracle.

He stepped into the academy hall and went to the dining room only to find Zelda eating at the table alone. "Hey Zelda," he ventured, quietly, walking over to a counter to prepare a sandwich.

Her blue eyes locked on his. "Oh, hey Link."

"If you're mad about me leaving you alone earlier… I'm sorry."

Zelda sighed. "No. Don't worry about it. Did you get those errands done?"

"I did. Tomorrow I have nothing else to do, so we can relax a little together before we go back to the surface."

"Mhmm," Zelda grunted, chewing a piece of her sandwich.

Link looked up from cutting his lettuce. "Mad at me?"

Zelda swallowed and stared at the table for a second. "Honestly, a little. People have been treating me strangely, including you. You've been avoiding me. Why?" She regarded him directly in the eyes.

It was so hard to lie to her when she did that. Link looked into her sad blue eyes and noticed that she looked extremely exhausted. Had she been not sleeping well? Why hadn't he sensed this? She was still as beautiful as ever, even while sitting at the table with only the light of the fireplace outlining her body with a flickering hue. He returned the sad look. "I'm sorry. I've just had some things I've needed to do before we go back to the surface, and they've been stressing me out. I didn't really realize what my actions were doing to you." He felt like that was an acceptable response without revealing any of his secret plan.

She sighed and didn't say anything for a long moment. "You promise we can relax together tomorrow?"

He smiled. "I promise." Although he knew he would not be relaxed at all until his plan had fully finished.

She finished her food and took her plate to the sink to wash it. "Good." She ran the water over her ceramic plate as Link finished making his sandwich. "I look forward to it. Until then, I'll be in my room." She finished cleaning her plate and set it aside to be completely disinfected by Henya later.

Link smiled as she left but knew he wasn't completely out of the birdcage just yet. He had little spats with Zelda in the past and he knew she couldn't stay angry for long. But he usually caved first and did something for her to make up for it.

Hopefully his grand scheme in the morning would suffice.

…

The sun was already up when Zelda awoke the next morning. She had slept slightly better than the night before but was still tired. Today was the day she and Link were supposed to leave and travel back down to the surface to help plan the new community. But Link had promised her some relaxation time together before they went.

She changed into her favorite dress and prepared for the day. As she was combing her hair, she heard Karane enter her side of the room from the over the partition. "Morning Zel," Karane said. "You're heading back to Hyrule, right?"

"Yep," Zelda replied, looking in the direction of Karane's voice while she tied ribbons in her hair.

"I think Pipit was looking for you," said Karane, suddenly. "Something about your bird."

Zelda stopped fidgeting with her hair. "My Loftwing?"

"Yeah. I think he said he noticed something weird about it the other day and wanted you to bring it to him this morning while he has time to look it over. He is an expert on them, you know." Karane explained through the wall. "He's outside near the main dock right now."

Zelda blinked. "Alright. I'll go find him as soon as I'm done getting ready. I hope it's not serious,"

"I hope so too," Karane replied. The senior student silently giggled to herself. It was about to get very serious.

Zelda left her room and walked outside, whistling for her Loftwing. The bird gracefully landed beside her and she patted its beak. "Come on, you have a check-up with Pipit," The bird followed her to the town center, where Pipit was practicing his sword slashes alone.

When he saw them approaching, he smiled. "Ah, Zelda, I see Karane got the message to you. You see, I noticed something odd about your bird's balance the other day as it flew over. I wanted to check its feathers out and make sure it hasn't accidently flown into anything damaging."

Little did Zelda know, Pipit had pulled this entire diagnosis out of his foot five minutes earlier and there was nothing wrong with her Loftwing. But as she recalled, Pipit was an expert on the special birds so she agreed to let him hop on her bird's back to begin inspecting it.

Now without a bird of transportation, Zelda simply watched Pipit carefully examine each feather extremely closely. She sighed. This was going to take a while.

She sat down on the edge of the dock at the suggestion of Pipit, who told her the view of the morning light on the clouds was exceptionally beautiful from that spot. Her feet daintily hung over the edge of the wooden platform as she looked down at the world below. The cloud barrier had faded and so she could see Hyrule spread out before her. The land was bathed in the sunlight's warmth. She could see Lake Floria sparkling below her and even the great volcano was visible in the distance.

Suddenly, a force from behind pushed her forward and she fell towards the land below. She let out a yell, and before she could whistle for her loftwing, another one snatched her gently in its large talons. She tried to look up and see which one it was, but she could barely see as the wind was swirling her hair in front of her face. The rider of the Loftwing was wearing a poorly made Goron mask but there was a single puff of red hair visibly sticking up behind it. "Groose! What are you doing?! Take me back!" Zelda yelled over the wind, but there was no answer. His bird was diving towards the world below and Zelda watched, horrified, as trees quickly whipped past below her. She had no idea where he was taking her.

After a few minutes that seemed like hours to Zelda, the bird began slowing and lowering into a clearing in the woods. It gently placed Zelda on a soft pile of grasses and then quickly flew off.

"Groose! If this is some sort of joke, I'll get you for it!" Zelda yelled as the Loftwing flew away. She looked down at the unnatural pile of soft grass and leaves that had cushioned her landing. What an elaborate prank. She then realized that she was somewhere in the middle of Faron Woods all by herself. She had no way to defend herself, and Link was probably still asleep up in Skyloft.

She thought about calling her Loftwing to retrieve her, but then she noticed something peculiar.

A flower.

It wasn't just any flower. It was an Ancient Flower. Zelda could tell by its distinctive purple color. She had learned from Impa that they existed only in a past era but could be retrieved by using the time changing stones in the Lunayru region. How did an ancient flower get here? Someone brought it? She wondered.

In fact, there was an entire path of Ancient Flowers leading down a trail between the trees in front of her. She concluded that these flowers were meant for her to take. Zelda decided to pick them up as she followed their path.

As she followed the tree-lined trail, a bouquet began forming in her hands. She began hearing the trickle of water and realized that she must be near the lake. Blessed Butterflies fluttered around her as she continued down the flower trail. The atmosphere felt absolutely magical. Zelda began to forget her anger from being kidnapped by Groose and instead started wondering what was at the end of her journey.

She noticed that the path was beginning to slope downwards and soon realized the path opened up to a large clearing in the woods. Zelda looked around and found Lake Floria off to the right. The waterfalls were visible and their roaring crash was still audible but not overpowering from here. The clearing was covered in soft grass and there were a few moss covered boulders around the perimeter. The trees surrounding the clearing still filtered the sunlight, so only splotches of sunlight were visible on the ground. In the trees encircling the area hung little Skyloftian paper lanterns with candles flickering inside. Even though it was morning, the shade of the forest was still dark enough to allow the candles to provide a mysterious glow. Zelda wondered why someone had decorated this place and led her here.

Finally, her gaze settled on a small wooden chest in the middle of the clearing. She approached it and set her bouquet next to it, kneeling down. As she placed her hands on the small chest, two blessed butterflies playfully swirled around her kneeling body.

The chest wasn't locked, so she was able to open it. There was a small piece of parchment inside. Zelda stood up and unfolded the piece of paper.

Turn Around

Zelda looked at the note in the scratchy handwriting she knew she had seen somewhere before. She slowly turned to face whatever was waiting behind her.

Link was leaning against a tree near the path she had just taken to get to get there, smiling at her.

She opened her mouth in surprise. "Link… did you do all this? …It's lovely…" She watched as he quickly closed the gap between them in a few strides.

He looked at her, his face slightly flushed in embarrassment. "You wanted some relaxation time. So I found the perfect place to relax. I found this place during…. My quest. I wanted to bring you here someday."

She smiled. "It's so gorgeous," she looked around, admiring the peaceful atmosphere. She then realized that they were completely alone, and looked back up at Link. His expression had suddenly morphed into a very serious one. She had seen this face many times while he was concentrating during sparring class and even in the brief moments that they were reunited during the Goddess's mission. He only made it when he was under extreme stress but also intense focus. "Link, what's wrong? Are you-"

Link put his hand on gently her cheek, silencing her. He had never done anything like this before. She could feel the warmth of his fingers on her cheek where his glove failed to cover. His face softened.

"Zelda," he began. He took a deep breath.

What is he so nervous about?

"I just…. I wanted to bring you here because this place reminded me… of you," She gave him a look. "N-no, I mean. It made me feel happy. It's one of the most beautiful things I've found in this world. Just like you," He was gazing into her eyes as he said this. She gasped a little at his genuineness.

"And," he nervously continued and gestured around him. "There aren't any monsters here. It's just the trees, grass, and waterfalls. Perfectly serene." He looked back at Zelda, who was still a little stunned at his previous comment, and took her hand with his left one. "I never really wanted to leave this place when I found it. It's so peaceful and it helped me refocus during my quest." He swallowed. "Just like how I never want to leave you."

He suddenly got down on his left knee. Zelda covered her mouth as her eyes widened. Oh my gosh! He's not going to…!

Link closed his eyes for a second and then looked up at his beloved. "Zelda…. I know we've been through so much together. And… we've been best friends forever. I don't want that to ever change, and you once told me that as well." He reached into his endlessly extendable travel pouch and pulled out a small box. Zelda felt her heart beat racing.

"I think you know what I'm trying to ask you already… But I want to spend the rest of my life with you." He opened the box for her to see. "Zel, you're my best friend, and… I've fallen in love with you. Would you please marry me?"

Zelda's heart was beating so hard she felt like she was going to have a heart attack. She couldn't even remember how to speak. She was so surprised! She always knew she was going to be with Link forever but… she had somehow forgotten he could actually love her back. She smiled widely as her eyes teared up. "Yes!" She finally said. "Yes, of course, Link! I love you too!" She flung her arms around his neck after he slid the small ring on her finger. The band was crafted from an amber relic and a dusk relic while a small white gemstone accented the ring.

Link stood up and gave her the tightest hug he could without physically hurting her. "I'm so sorry for avoiding you the past few days, Zel. I didn't want to give this secret away accidentally." His muffled words said into her shoulder.

Zelda pulled back and placed her hand on his cheek. "All is forgiven." She then closed the gap between them and they shared their first romantic kiss. Their kiss deepened before they finally had to stop to avoid passing out.

It was the long overdue kiss of a couple destined to be together after the Goddess's mission had separated them for so long.

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A/N: LOL I think that was the fluffiest thing I've ever written! It's currently 4am, and I'm pretty sure this is the best quality I can do at this hour for now. XD I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I'm not the best at romantic scenes but I think this was pretty good for me! I hope you liked it. Up next is the wedding plans, of course! I'll be wrapping this fic up in the next few chapters. Until next time~