"Have you ever thought about having children?"

We were sitting at the top of the windmill at Kakiriko, simply gazing at the perfect full moon and the glimmering of the stars. It had been two days since I had cleansed the Shadow Temple, two days since I finally escaped the horrors of the place of the damned, and I still hadn't recovered. There were some things that simply a red potion and her healing hands couldn't fix.

She had was tended to my wounds, addressing the deep gashes where the undead's blades bit into my flesh, the bruises and cuts where the dismembered hands clung, the broken bones from being crushed and suffocated in Bongo Bongo's grasp, but still, I couldn't quite shake off the feeling of being choked in a slimy, dead hand's hold or the whispers of the departed and the feeling of hopelessness and dread that hung thick in every corner.

The question was to distract me from these lingering horrors, and we both knew it.

She shifted so her head rested against my bandaged chest, crossing her arms and rubbing them with her hands to protect them from the evening chill. "Well?" she asked, turning slightly to look at me, her eyebrow raised with that look in her eyes; that challenging, condescending, or-are-you-too-scared? look that drove me insane and forced me to take her up on whatever it was she was asking.

"I don't know," I whispered. My voice was almost beyond recognition, even to my own ears. There was something empty, something dead in it that scared me sick.

Her face fell at my words, all arrogance suddenly out the window as she twisted to face me, wrapping her arms around my neck. "Link," she murmured, resting her head against my shoulder. "It'll be okay. You're safe now. I promise."

I shivered at her words. She was lying to me; the voices in the walls of the Shadow Temple that still lurked in the back of my mind told me so. I wasn't safe. I was never safe. No one was ever safe. There were Moblins roaming the fields and monsters in the towns and in the wells and the Lost Woods and the volcano was erupting and Zora's Domain was frozen over and Castle Town was a place straight out of Hell and the Great Deku Tree was dead. Nothing would ever be okay again.

"I'm so cold, Zelda." I croaked, almost wincing at how pathetic I sounded.

"I'm sorry." Her voice was equally as miserable. "I don't know what to do. You have a temperature, not a chill."

You will lose. The voices whispered, taunting me and cackling, their words echoing throughout my mind.

We will take her from you.

I shuddered again, closing my eyes and drawing her closer. The shadows couldn't have her. I wouldn't let them.

"You know," Zelda murmured, her lips so close to my ear I could feel her breath through her shawl. "I can picture us with kids."

"Can you?"

"Mmhm." She confirmed, nodding her head. "A little girl and a little boy. The boy would be born first, and we would probably name him after my father—"

I snorted then, interrupting her. "I'm sorry, love." I said quietly, coughing once from the effort. "But there's no way any son of mine will be named Daphnes. It would be considered abuse."

She pulled away to frown at me, looking briefly harassed, but continued anyway. "—and he would end up looking just like you. The whole messy-haired, blue eyed, crooked smile that all the girls in the castle will fall head over heels for, except we'd make him so humble and kind that he'd help them all back up. He would be daring and adventurous and always getting into some sort of trouble, and you would encourage him all the time and I would secretly hate you for it. He would also be hopelessly stubborn, and sometimes stupid when it came to helping people. I would teach him to be a fair and wise leader despite that, though, and you would teach him how to use a sword and to ride a horse and he would be the best warrior in the kingdom, except for his father, of course." She tapped my nose affectionately, a warm smile coming over her face. "And we would both be so proud of him because he would grow up and find himself a beautiful girl to love and become king and the Hyrule would thrive under his fifty year reign of peace."

A small smile tugged at the edges of my lips. "What about the girl?"

"She would be beautiful." She sighed, resting her head on my shoulder again. "She would have gorgeous long hair that would be exactly your color and I would love to brush it every night. She would have big blue eyes in my color and she would give you a certain look whenever she did something wrong that would make you just melt. We would cuddle up with her every night, and I would make the ceiling glow with my magic and you would tell her stories. She would love to read and she would be amazing at chess. One day I would teach her how to sew but she would be no good at it and end up ruining a tapestry I worked on for weeks. She would be quiet and gentle and everyone in the castle would just love her to bits because she would always know the right thing to say. She would love horses, too, but when you wouldn't teach her to ride because you were afraid she would get hurt she went out anyway to teach herself and come home with a broken arm. One day she would meet that special someone and bring him home and I would love him and you would hate him but in the end accept him because she loves him. And they would live happily ever after together, just like her brother."

I closed my eyes, trying to imagine the picture she had so beautifully painted for me. A happy, peaceful Hyrule. A happy, peaceful us. With two children, King and Queen, side by side, until the end of our days. Even the possibility was a cause worth dying for.

I gently lifted her head from my chest, using my hands to cup her face, forcing her to look me in the eyes. "One day I will marry you," I promised, abruptly deciding to throw all caution to the wind. "One day Hyrule will be beautiful again, and one day I'll be able to scream to the whole world that you're all mine, and that I lov—"

Suddenly her hand flew to my mouth, remorse in her eyes as she stopped the most daring of my words. "Please don't." she whispered.

My entire body suddenly went cold. This was all just speculation. She didn't care for me like I did for her. All this was for her was just idle chatter, something to pass the time for my wounds to heal so I could go and save her kingdom and get out of her hair. All of this, for-

"Let me explain!" She pleaded, tears appearing at the corners of her eyes. The pain in my chest must have been evident on my face. "It's not that I don't care, Link…it's just…Impa always said because my parents died when I was so young, I've always had so much love to give. But…I'm so afraid to love. In this world that we live in, it could all be taken from me in a blink of an eye. I lost both my parents, Link. I can't lose anyone else. I can't lose you." Her breath hitched, and I could feel her tears seeping through my tunic. "You know how I feel. But I can't say it. Not yet. Not until I know…I'll be able to keep you."

At this she began to lose her composure. She pushed her face into the crook of my neck, muffling her tears as se proceeded to cry her heart out, all her reservations suddenly on the table.

As I stroked her hair I was almost bursting at the seams with joy. It wasn't that she didn't love me. It wasn't that I came from a family with no name or no money and she was embarrassed. It wasn't that she cared what anyone else thought. None of that. She was just afraid for me, afraid one day she'd be waiting outside a temple and I wouldn't come out. Afraid that one day I'd finally meet my match.

"I'm going to save Hyrule." I swore, any weakness suddenly overcome by the fierce determination evident in my tone. "I'm going to make it a place where our children can grow up and we can be together and grow old at each other's side. We're going to be so happy, Zelda, and everyone is going to be so happy for us. Whether or not you say it now won't make a difference."

I paused then, a small laugh escaping me for the first time in what seemed a lifetime.

"And you know what?"

She lifted her head to look at me, an inquisitive look present in her eyes despite the sobs that still violently shook her form. I pulled her close again, wrapping both my arms around her and securing her to me, resting my head in her hair and breathing in the scent of her, in that moment for the first time inseparable.

"The best things are worth waiting for."