Just as 'Zelda' was approaching the door of Link and Zelda's house, the front door opened from within, and Link stepped out.
He jumped slightly when he saw them. After a moment, though, a warm smile grew on his face.
"H-hello, Link," said Kivos. "It's good to see you again."
He nodded, then stepped to one side and extended his arm towards the house, indicating that they were welcome to pass.
"Thank you."
As Kivos passed within, they reflected that they still had no idea what they were doing. They had their standing orders from the Yiga Clan to murder Link by whatever means necessary, but they'd been a complete failure at that so far. Instead, they'd somehow been seduced by him.
Now I'm stuck pretending to be Zelda, staying in Zelda's house, and I fucked Zelda's boyfriend.
...Oh gods. The only thing worse than Link finding out the truth would be if Zelda came back right now. He might kill me quickly, but she'd probably kill me painfully.
A strange warbling sound came from the front yard. Kivos turned back and saw Link holding his transplanted arm aloft, conjuring another green hovercraft out of thin air.
"Wait!" They dashed outside again. "Are you leaving?"
Link nodded sheepishly.
"Why?!" they blurted without thinking. "I mean…you just found me again, didn't you?"
Link frowned. He seemed to consider those words. Then, by way of an answer, he drew his blue-hilted sword and used it to point towards the horizon to the north.
Kivos followed the line of the blade with their eyes, settling on where there was a faint dot of a floating landmass. "The land of the Zora?"
Link nodded.
"You…need to go visit the Zora." Kivos considered the geography in their head. "No…you were already on your way there yesterday when you found me. I see." Warring impulses fought in their head. "I don't suppose...I could come with you?"
Link startled, wide-eyed with surprise.
"I'm not that weak, you know!" Kivos insisted. "I could be helpful. Maybe if you had a spare weapon for me to use while we were traveling?"
Link shook his head again, but he had that warm smile again, that smile that made Kivos's stomach turn somersaults.
That damn smile.
He stepped forward and opened his arms, offering a hug if 'Zelda' wanted one.
Kivos briefly paused while they considered if they really wanted to double down on being seduced by the Hero of Hyrule, but they just couldn't resist the impulse. They ran forward and held him tight. "Come back soon, all right? I don't know what I'm going to do while you're away."
They felt Link nod against the side of their head. He made to pull away, but Kivos held tighter.
"No, I mean it. I really don't know what I'm going to do. I just…need you here so that I can figure it out."
Link patted their back and shifted awkwardly in their embrace.
After a moment, Kivos felt the reason why Link was shifting.
"...Link."
Link said nothing.
"Is that an ocarina in your pocket?"
Link pushed free and held 'Zelda' at arm's length, blushing furiously.
Kivos looked down, then back up at Link's face, then started chuckling. After a moment Link started chuckling too, then they both laughed, and then both of them were holding onto each other's arms and laughing uproariously.
Kivos felt lightheaded by the time their laughter died down. Seemingly without effort, Link picked 'Zelda' up around the waist and spun them around in a circle, then planted a kiss squarely on their lips and set them down again.
Kivos couldn't suppress a small giggle. "I suppose that means you'll miss me too."
Link nodded.
"Well…go on then! Don't drag it out. The Zora are waiting for you."
Moments later, Kivos was waving goodbye as Link flew away into the bright blue sky.
Once Link was gone, it was like a fog had lifted from their mind and all their previous anxieties came flooding back. Kivos set to searching the house from top to bottom. They pulled out every drawer, looked under and on top of every piece of furniture, flipped through every book, and even sliced open a hydromelon to look inside in a fit of paranoia. (That last one accomplished nothing except to make a mess in the kitchen.) The useful inventory turned out to be surprisingly slim.
There was the collection of Zelda's clothes that they'd seen before, they left those in the drawers. Based on the pajamas, it seemed Zelda preferred a looser fit than they'd guessed, but more than that it just felt weird to be wearing the clothes of the missing Princess. Instead they used one of their favorite Yiga Clan spells to conjure an outfit out of thin air that exactly duplicated one of Kivos's favorite Zelda looks.
And while they were conjuring, they conjured a sword too. It wouldn't last long in a fight, and for appearance's sake they had to make it Hylian-style instead of the Yiga blade they were used to, but they were tired of being unarmed.
There wasn't much food in the house at all. The single hydromelon had been in a box that also contained a few mushrooms, carrots, bananas, and a pale green pumpkin. (Kivos set aside the bananas immediately.) They guessed that the box was some kind of weekly produce delivery, a gift from the Hateno townsfolk so that Link would have food at home whenever he flew back in.
During their search they also found Zelda's diary, stashed inside a drawer of a small table. They felt conflicted about reading it.
On the one hand, it feels like a huge breach of privacy. On the other hand…I really REALLY need all the information about Zelda I can get.
In the end, practicality won out. Kivos ate a banana while they sat at the kitchen table and read about Zelda's efforts to rebuild after the Calamity. There were several entries devoted to each village she'd visited. Zelda had seemingly been busy, tending not just to Hylians but to the problems of every town in Hyrule. Link had gone with her every step of the way, including to Gerudo Town; the passage describing Link's disguise there made Kivos blush a very deep shade of red.
It wasn't until the final pages that Zelda and Link returned to Hateno Village, where Zelda had apparently founded a school and served as its principal. Fascinatingly, the passage describing the school's construction also made mention of a secret room somewhere within Zelda's house.
"'I had him add a secret room to my house…one that won't appear on the plans. It's dim but humidity- and temperature-controlled, so it's very comfortable. It's proven very useful when I'm working alone and need to concentrate.' That's got to be something good."
Kivos grabbed another banana and ate while they paced the interior of the house, looking for a secret door. Failing that, they walked around the outside, looking for any extra rooms, but the house was only as large as it appeared. They were about to go back inside to look again for a trapdoor leading to a root cellar when they spotted the well behind the house.
"...No. Surely she wouldn't…how paranoid would you have to be?"
They leaned over the edge and looked down. From the afternoon light glinting faintly off the water below, Kivos got the impression of a much larger space than an ordinary well would hold.
"Unbelievable."
They locked the handle of the well bucket's rope, shimmied down, then cursed when they realized they hadn't brought a light. They clung to the rope until their eyes adjusted, then dropped down softly to a wooden platform they could faintly see in the light from above. They felt around in the darkness, found a chest, and opened it.
To their relief, it was full of faintly gleaming brightbloom seeds. They hefted one and threw it at a rock they could barely see sticking up in the darkness. The brightbloom stuck and grew, creating a bright globe of pale light that lit the entire cave.
Kivos craned their neck around in surprise. First, the room was much larger than they'd expected. The platform they were standing on seemed to be a sort of dock, built above the surface of the water, but it covered nearly as much surface area as the entire house above. The dark water lapping beneath the boards extended out into a cave at least four times larger than that.
Also, the platform was full of weapons. Hylian blades of various sizes were piled in several places, all bearing the telltale spots of rust that dotted most weapons after the Upheaval. A Zora spear leaned against a wall next to a Gerudo scimitar. A large chunk was missing from the platform next to a Zonai flamethrower. There were even a few lizal-style boomerangs on a nearby desk, where a jeweler's eyepiece indicated that somebody had been studying them closely.
But to their horror, Kivos realized that the brightbloom they'd thrown hadn't stuck onto a rock after all. What they'd taken for a rock in the dark grumbled, and shifted, and started raising its bulk. Water streamed off the back of the gargantuan frox as it stood up in groggy surprise. The brightbloom flower bobbed and weaved like an odd hat as the frog-like monster shook its head side to side, and the dancing light across the craggy growths on the frox's back cast dancing shadows on the cave walls.
The frox blinked blearily with its single eye. Then, it focused on Kivos and let out a deep malicious growl, showing teeth as long as their arm.
"Oh come on!"