"Oh? A hero, is he?"
The Zonai king Rauru's ebony fingers nestled against his chin as he spoke, and the multitude of gems adorning his massive ears hung motionless, his interest piqued to hear more about the Champion in Zelda's life.
She described him further, her gaze reaching into the hazy distance of another era. "He is so very dedicated. And he refuses to back down from any challenge." Her eyes closed for an enduring moment, and a breath escaped her lips before she continued. "He is very strong…." Another pause followed, and another breath, though this one emerged somewhat quickly, as if in the recollection of an amusing moment they'd shared. "And his heart is good and true!"
"Ah," Rauru answered. "I can see that you have absolute faith in him. Hearing you speak so highly of Link, I find myself wanting to meet him as well!"
Queen Sonia sat slightly leaned over the table they shared with her face perched casually atop her hand, the smile she had donned since she'd brought up the subject having never left her expression. "Indeed. I would also like to meet him. He must be quite the brave, courageous knight. What a picture Zelda paints of him!"
The royal couple broke into laughter, leaving Zelda to gape as her head quickly turned to gawk at one of them and then the other. She raised a hand to interject.
"Oh, no, it's not like that!"
Rauru wasted no time responding. "Whyever not?" The sentiment only served to rekindle his and Sonia's laughter as Zelda sat face flushed, stammering for an answer.
"W…i-it's, it's not that I have anything against him, but…I, I think it's best and only appropriate that we just be friends. I mean, he's not even royalty…."
"Neither were we," Sonia pointed out. "Rauru was essentially made king by my people shortly after he arrived, and I was a priestess before we wed."
"But it's different in your case," Zelda insisted. "You two founded Hyrule and established the monarchy, but I was born into the kingdom with all the laws and expectations having already been established."
Rauru lifted his hand to his chin once more. "You're the one in charge now, are you not?" His question alluded to a previous conversation they'd had shortly after they'd taken Zelda in, in which she'd mentioned the loss of her mother and father and the lack of any living relatives in her time.
"Well, yes…but…it's not just that. I haven't even got time to think about things like love, what with trying to rebuild and distribute resources and making sure everyone's needs are addressed around the kingdom." Her focus drifted down to the cup in her hands and the thumb compulsively stroking its rim.
"Sooo," Rauru mused, his arm falling to fold into the other, "it is like that, he just doesn't know about it?" He cracked a smile as her widened gaze jumped back up to him, her mouth open but only a clipped breath coming out.
Sonia's face cocked to the side a bit. "Hm, she's blushing again." She and Rauru erupted into another round of laughter as Zelda buried her crimson face in both hands.
"All right…all right," she finally conceded, lifting her eyes to level with them, "I suppose it's obvious how I feel about him. But…it really is a complicated situation. He's been through so much. He was terribly wounded when that evil force attacked and would have died had we not employed a special technology to save him…but he lost all of his memories in the process. When he woke up he fought so hard to overcome that and so many other challenges, and he managed to rediscover his own identity and save Hyrule, but when I finally got to speak with him afterwards, I realized that he had only recovered bits and pieces of what he'd lost, and it was like he hardly knew me…and the grief of the family and friends he'd lost were fresh wounds in his mind."
Rauru and Sonia sat transfixed, their expressions having waned somber.
Zelda continued, "In the years since he's accompanied me in my travels and work on the recovery effort throughout the kingdom, and I've done my best to help him bridge the gaps between the fragments of his memories and navigate emotionally through the trauma. I was happy to see him make a great deal of progress during that time, and we were able to make lots of new memories along the way. But then when I began to oversee the founding of a school in a certain village, it became necessary for me to reside there for the time being, and he traveled back to our new center of operations to assist the monster control crew…so we spent roughly this last year apart. For all the progress we've made, it's still unclear to this day how he feels."
After a few moments of silence, Sonia spoke up. "Has the subject of a relationship ever come up in any way?"
"He's been a man of few words for as long as I've known him, and getting him to express his innermost thoughts is…particularly challenging," Zelda lamented.
"Why didn't you just tell him?" Rauru pressed, to which Sonia turned a glaring eye.
"And what if he didn't feel the same way? She'd have upset the entire balance of their friendship and professional relationship."
Zelda nodded grimly. "That's exactly right. All those things I said earlier were just the excuses I've been making to myself, when really I've just been too afraid to put my cards on the table." She breathed a humorless chuckle. "All these years, I've been telling myself that I couldn't afford to take that chance…and now I find myself wishing I had." Her voice choked on the last word, and her trembling lips pursed together.
The king and queen appeared on the verge of tears themselves.
"I promise," Sonia assured her, "that we'll do everything in our power to help you so you can return to him. How about we head to the archery range now so we can begin your first object recall lesson?"
Quickly passing her fingers under one eye, Zelda returned an amiable nod, and the three rose from the table.
"Thank you both…so much!"
Author's Note: Hello and thanks for reading! I was inspired to write this story because I saw so many people online talk about how Link and Zelda were already in a relationship and living together in the house in Hateno. This is incorrect, I assert, for the following reasons:
1. All of the decor in the house is now Zelda's, with none of Link's remaining except for the Champion group shot, and the two sets of dishes were already there in BotW.
2. No one in Hateno recognized Link when he showed up there except for Symin, with whom he was already well acquainted through his prior business with Purah.
3. Everyone in Lookout Landing DID recognize Link, which is an indication of where he'd been for a while before the Upheaval.
4. At the end of the Memory #8 cutscene, Zelda is clearly distressed and about to object to the direction of Rauru and Sonia's line of thinking. If she and Link were already in a romantic relationship, there would be no reason for her to react this way.
So, as much as I love the concept of them being a couple, I don't believe it's actually the case until the end of TotK. (Her eyes say it all, lol!) Now if Nintendo would just make a DLC ending to actually fulfill the romance they've woven throughout both titles….
Anyway, hope you enjoyed my rendition of this scene! Your questions and comments are welcome and appreciated!