welcome to my hoard. i have no clue what im doing. genderfluid/two-spirit (mixed native algonquin/mohawk) i mostly post about zelda and rain world but i also have my own personal projects so theres that too lol
Hey, you can call me Crow! i like making artworks of various things but it is very obvious that i have favorites :)
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:
i am a minor. so as much as freaky jokes amuse me please dont like. make any about me or stuff like that lol
this blog (and myself) is in support of the LGBTQIA2S+, as a omniromantic genderfluid/two-spirit (mixed native) i would appreciate it if you dont be a jerk about things people can't control. in addition i would also just appreciate it if everyone here is respectful and not bigoted. thanks :)
i have autism, adhd, and ocd so uh. the impacts are certainly there. dont expect me to act neurotypical because i am very much not one.
i say a lot of profanity so like here's your warning now in case you dont like that lol
please do NOT use my stuff in generative ai programs. the planet is already going through a crisis and i dont need even more water used up through the slop machine. in addition i'd rather just not have my stuff stolen yknow
in addition to using my stuff, reuploading my art onto other social medias is fine, AS LONG AS PROPER CREDIT IS GIVEN. by proper credit i mean saying or linking the artist instead of just saying "credits to the owner" or something like that
overall please just be kind and respectful :)
MY STUFF
Weight of the Wind (non-webcomic chapters) (my Zelda AU)
Rain World Art
Legend of Zelda Art
Linked Universe Art
My Writing
Misc Art
MY SIDEBLOGS FOR VARIOUS PROJECTS
Weight of the Wind (Zelda AU webcomic)
Soullinked (Links meet AU)
PATHTREADER (my Rain World mod)
MY OLD STUFF
MY OTHER SOCIALS
my youtube
my pinterest
my artfight (this is my first year i have no idea what im doing btw)
ANYWAY HI thank you for reading this far :) go drink water and i hope you have a wonderful day
sorry i was on a short vacation so i couldnt finish Course Correction within the time range UH ill still work on it probably i just need to find the motivation to actually continue now the zelink week is over oops. its only two chapters left so hopefully my adhd works with me for once and allows me to actualkly yknow. work on them
back on my bullshit (posting the daily chapter a day late again)
the sillies leave the inn and go to a market and alfonzo immediately knows that something is up. also the lokomo have dreamcatchers and theyre at that market so thats. thats how i made it fit with the prompt
the last two chapters fit with the prompts a lot better i swear lol
@zelinkcommunity
COURSE CORRECTION CHAPTER 5 - DREAMCATCHERS
Link began to wake up from what was probably the most comfortable sleep he had in a long time. Despite not being home, he felt cozy and safe, and like there was... a person?
Wait, a person?!
Link shot his eyes open.
And he was in fact, not sleeping on the air mattress.
He was sleeping on the bed.
With Zelda.
Who was already awake.
OH GODDESS.
"OH MY GODDESS I'M—" Link instantly broke free of what seemed to be Zelda's arms, his heart racing.
"Link, it's—"
"I'M SO SORRY I—"
"—okay it's oka—"
"I DIDN'T MEAN—"
...He fell off the bed. He kind of forgot they were sleeping on the very edge of it. But that didn't stop him from frantically tossing the blankets off of him as he pathetically rolled around to a position where he was huddled into a ball, still apologizing.
"I'M SORRY I'M—I—I'M—"
"LINK IT'S OKAY!" Zelda finally broke through to him. "I genuinely didn't mind!"
Link stopped, catching his breath. As silly as it sounded, he felt like crying. He felt like he had ACTUALLY messed up their entire bond because he was too lazy and tired to get up and sleep elsewhere. He felt like she would cut him off, block him on whatever social media she could, and never speak to him for the rest of his life, and he would only have himself to blame.
But, if she didn't mind...
Right. The past 2 days had happened. He kind of forgot, he was still trying to wake up fully. Link rubbed his eyes and looked up from the floor, at what was a worried, but smiling Zelda.
"It's okay. I didn't mind." She reassured him. "And I wouldn't be opposed to this happening again, either."
She moved her hair back, and Link felt like his stomach was fluttering everywhere but in a way that all he could think of is how cute that motion was. Well, she was kind of cute all the time. But this hair tuck was new.
"Without the panicking and apologizing, though." Zelda admitted.
Link weakly smiled at her. "T–that's—thank you."
And then his stomach growled. And he realized how insanely hungry he was.
"Did. Did we not eat supper last night."
Zelda's eyes widened and she gasped.
"Oh my Goddess we didn't. No wonder I feel—" she paused and cleared her throat. "...Multiple reasons. Forget that. But no we did not eat last night. I think all we ate yesterday was a breakfast of cold pretzels."
"Dude we're both gonna turn into legal adults this year and neither of us have figured out how to actually EAT!" Link facepalmed, but he was starting to laugh.
Oh goddess he loved her so much. And he actually had confirmation that she didn't mind his silly crush. That something could happen out of this. That maybe she even reciprocated it.
He felt like crying again, but out of happiness and relief this time. Why did he think that she would hate him?! Logically speaking, even if she didn't want anything out of it, she would just be clear about it and keep him as a friend while setting boundaries. Which made perfect sense!
"Oh, I'm an idiot." Link said, grinning so so widely.
"No you're not." Zelda said. "You can be pathetic sometimes but you aren't an idiot. If you were an idiot I would have cut you off a long time ago."
Link looked up.
"Did you just call me pathetic?"
"UM—" Zelda actually blushed enough this time that Link could clearly see it on her face, despite her tan.
"I don't mean that in a bad way! I kind of like it. NOT IN A WEIRD WAY—its just funny to mess with you and also not have a friend who's a guy try and act all hyper-masculine and stuff!"
"Pfffft—" Link started to laugh, "I'm glad you can appreciate it?"
Zelda covered her face, but she was laughing too.
And then Link's stomach hurt again.
"Ow, okay, we need food." He said.
"Agreed."
So the two started looking at Link's phone, huddled up next to each other (Zelda had left the bed and joined Link on the floor), to find a place to eat with the very little money that they had remaining. Eventually they decided to just get some cucco nuggets (because at least it had some protein), at a nearby fast food place.
After that, Link started deflating the air mattress.
"Is it really worth it to deflate that thing when we didn't even ask for it?" Zelda began, waving a hand in the air, "I mean, they gave us rude looks and everything."
"I'm sure they had their reasons." Link said, continuing.
Zelda sighed but didn't have any hard feelings, and then she looked at her phone, as it had buzzed on the nearby nightstand.
"Oh! Alfonzo's texting. In the group chat that you never responded to."
"Wait, did I not respond to his messages?" Link asked, taken slightly aback.
"You talked to him when it was between you two but the moment the group chat was created you kind of forgot." Zelda said, pausing her texting so she could properly form her words.
"Ah, I thought I did. Dammit, he's probably gonna be mad at me."
"I doubt he would be mad over that," Zelda said as Link took out his phone to converse with the man. He read Alfonzo's message first;
• okay i should be there at around 12 where do you want to meet
It was around 9 in the morning, and Link and Zelda looked at each other because neither of them wanted to meet at the inn. In fact, they wanted to leave as soon as possible. Zelda started typing, but Link took it upon himself to actually speak for once.
• we dont know but we're going to get food first and then we can update you
• is that okay
Link looked at Zelda, realizing he made the plan in his head and never verbalized it. She looked up from her phone and gave him a thumbs up.
Alfonzo then responded.
• yeah that's fine but make sure to actually update me
Link blinked. Was he actually that forgetful?
• yeah of course, see you soon
He closed out of his phone and Zelda started giggling under her breath. Likely something to do with how Alfonzo spoke to Link.
"I can hear you laughing," Link said, but he wasn't angry.
"Oh, shush." Zelda said. "Let's just go get food."
...
To say it was awkward to leave the inn would be correct. Maybe a bit too mild, actually. There were new workers, but the rumor had clearly spread, whatever it was, and they all gave Link and Zelda some looks. Some were suspicious, others were a smirk, and some were just downright unhappy. Regardless, Zelda thanked the workers (without stopping her walk towards the door) and they quickly made their way out of the building, but not before seeing one of the workers immediately go upstairs in the direction of the room they stayed in.
Zelda shuttered. "Do they really think we're that messed up that they need to check the room as soon as we leave?"
"I dunno," Link said, "I'd also kind of have my suspicions if two teenagers of opposite gender asked for a single room in an inn?"
Zelda sputtered a bit of an awkward and embarrassed laugh.
"Okay okay yeah, that might be my fault then."
Link smiled. He wanted to say something about how he was grateful she did that anyway because of what it led to, but he didn't; that would probably be an odd thing to say and possibly come off way too strong. So he just smiled and then looked at the ground instead of her because he couldn't stop smiling for a bit longer than he wanted to.
After walking in blissful silence (or, as silent as you can get when there's active streets and cars around you constantly) they reached the fast food place.
"Imagine you drove your train here and acted like it was a car in an attempt to get food?" Zelda said, taking Link of his thoughts.
"Hah! I don't think that would go very well." He replied. "Isn't there like a height limit for how tall a vehicle can be for drive-throughs? Or am I misremembering that with bridges? Either way, it would end badly."
"Yeaaah, you're probably right." Zelda sighed. "Would be funny though."
"To you, maybe."
They eventually entered the store and waited for their order.
...it was taking a while. There were a lot of people there trying to get their own breakfast, and so the people making the food were very busy, resulting in Link and Zelda being put on a short, but still inconvenient wait list.
Zelda groaned, resting her head on a table. They were both beyond hungry at this point, and Link hoped she wouldn't snap at him due to hangry-ness. He just felt drained from the lack of sustenance, and it wasn't a stretch to guess that Zelda was feeling the same. Albeit, she was a lot more vocal about it than he was.
"I didn't expect that noise to come from Zelda of all people."
Link looked up. He wasn't the one who said that. In fact, it was some random person who was sitting at their own table, eating their food.
Zelda noticed too.
"HEY! The last time I ate was yesterday's BREAKFAST. LEAVE ME ALONE."
Well, at least it wasn't him she snapped at.
"Please don't start a fight in the middle of a store, Zel..." Link asked.
"M'wont." She said, her voice muffled from being over the table again. "Too tired."
The person laughed and Link almost said something in Zelda's defense, but just ended up glaring at them, which immediately shut them up.
Zelda rolled over to lean her head on him while they both waited for the wait list, shown by a screen at the front of the room, to show their order. Link tried to keep cool about the sudden affection, still going into that rabbit hole of what it meant, but in the end the food was more important at the moment.
Orders were tracked by a number which was printed out on a receipt after you paid. The order Link and Zelda made was 257.
257 was on the screen. It was behind 3 other orders, but those orders would go by fast. And then they would be able to actually eat something.
3.
2.
1.
"257?" A voice called out from the front.
Link and Zelda both immediately stood up and made their way over to the front. Despite being fast food, the nuggets smelled INCREDIBLY good, and Link almost took them out of the bag instantly, but decided he would wait until they both found a spot.
"Can we eat outside?" Zelda asked.
"Oh, yeah sure."
They had walked over across the parking lot towards one of the very few trees that remained in the city. Sitting under it, they split their food in half so each of them would get an equal amount, and they both finished in under 10 minutes.
"Oh my goddess I was SO hungry." Zelda stated, putting the container the food was in back in the bag.
"Yeah I can say the same here." Link said. "Kinda felt like I was getting close to passing out in there."
"Literally! I'm never going that long without food again."
They both laughed, and then realized they should probably figure out where to meet Alfonzo. They had an hour and a half until he said he would show up, so they had time to do one more activity if they so wished.
Link spotted something. It was a sign (no, NOT the type of sign from the incident the day prior) and it said something, but he couldn't tell what it said from the distance he was at, so he got up to check.
"You see something?" Asked Zelda, getting up too.
"A sign. Uh—im curious as to what it says."
They both blushed.
"...Oh we're never going to think of signs correctly anymore, are we." Zelda admitted.
"...Nope."
Getting to the sign, they both began to read the text on it. It said that there was an arts and crafts market spanning from 9 AM to 7 PM, and it had been going from yesterday until tomorrow.
Zelda turned to Link, with an expression that was something between a smirk and a more passive smile.
"This looks fun!" She said.
Link blinked for a moment. "We don't have money."
She paused. "...Right. Well, we could get Alfonzo to meet us there, ask for money and then pay him back once we get home."
Oh. That was actually a good idea. But if he would actually give them the money, Link wasn't sure. Still, it was worth an effort.
Link agreed to that plan, and they looked at the sign further to try and figure out where the market was. Neither of them recognized the name of the location, so they looked it up on the map and found that it was just down the road from here. Getting to the market, it was filled with many decorated stalls and tents, with a very festive energy that both Link and Zelda seemed to enjoy. Both of them quickly updated Alfonzo as to where they were. They would probably be there long enough for him to show up while they were still there.
"Ooh, okay, I'm glad we came here. Even if we don't get anything." Zelda said, grinning.
Link grinned back, and then came to the very sudden realization that he wanted to actually buy her something.
It wouldn't be much, he just wanted to get her something small to show his appreciation for her. Maybe this could be his way of doing so without actually having to verbalize it.
"I wanna wander around," Link bluffed, "should we split up? Get a better view of the area?"
Zelda's expression seemed to fall a bit. At first he thought he had conveyed the wrong message or something, but eventually she spoke to clarify.
"The last time that happened I almost got killed."
"Oh shit—you're right—" he sputtered.
Yeah he wouldn't want a repeat of that.
"—sorry I didn't mean for that to uh..."
"It's okay." Zelda said. "I'd just rather not take my chances right now."
"Plus, don't you wanna spend time with me?" She regained that half smirk from earlier.
Link blushed, yet again.
"Yeah I do."
Zelda beamed in a way that made his stomach flutter again, and the two started to explore the market, side by side.
They first found a booth that had some clay sculptures of various animals and monsters.
Zelda pointed to the miniblin one and looked at Link. He gave her a very distasteful look and she laughed.
"Oh come on, my sculptures aren't that bad!" Said the person who was running the booth, but they weren't upset. It was likely they said that in a joking manner.
"No they're actually quite good!" Link reassured them, "it's kind of an inside joke."
The shopkeeper said an amused "alright" and Link and Zelda moved out of the way because some more people were trying to see the sculptures.
They started wandering deeper into the market, taking a look at the various stalls and tents that sold a variety of different types of arts. One of them was actually some miscellaneous creations out of recycled things like cans and plastic bits, which was very interesting to the both of them.
Eventually they walked past what seemed to be some dreamcatchers created by a Lokomo artist. From what Link understood, the dreamcatchers were supposed to help ward off bad dreams.
Zelda had actually spoken of having nightmares about the whole "being a ghost" thing before. She didn't talk about it often, but Link never forgot. In addition, Link also kind of had reoccurring nightmares about failing to actually protect his loved ones in times where he needed to.
Maybe this would be a good gift? Magic certainly was still a thing in the modern age, and he supposed that if the shopkeeper was selling the dreamcatchers to a wide and general audience it wouldn't be rude to buy one, even if neither of them were Lokomo. He could give this to her as a way of saying "hey I appreciate you very very much and I hope you get less nightmares now", maybe?
But then again, he didn't have any money left, and Zelda was right there. Looking at her, she was reading the description of how the dreamcatchers worked, what they were uses for etc. She seemed intrigued.
Eventually the standstill ended and they both said their good wishes to the shopkeeper before moving onward.
He had to think about how he could get that for her without her noticing. Maybe when Alfonzo shows up he could say he just needed to use the bathroom or something and then buy it when they were both occupied? Oh, no, he still needed to get money somehow. This would be quite difficul...
Zelda grabbed his hand. Not in a sudden way, but just to hold it.
This was different from when she grabbed his hand on the bridge. This wasn't to assist him, this was purely because she wanted to.
Link, wrapping his fingers around her own, finally got the courage to look up at her. She smiled warmly in an almost nervous way, but not one of them said a word. If Link had to guess, neither of them had the confidence to.
Was this a good time to confess?
Link knew had had to at some point. He wasn't planning to even yesterday, but after everything had happened he knew he was safe to say it. He just had to get his voice to work.
But he didn't. He didn't say anything. And Zelda didn't say anything either. They just continued exploring the market, looking at all the cool crafts, hands intertwined.
Eventually Alfonzo messaged them.
They both let go of each other's hand to check the message, and he said he was here. At the market. So, it was probably a good idea they stopped holding hands when they got the message. Link didn't know how in Hylia's name Alfonzo would react to his adopted kid suddenly doing romantic things with his best friend.
"He's here." Zelda said. "Guess we should probably meet him at the entrance?"
"Good idea." Responded Link.
They started yapping a bunch again after they began to walk back to the entrance, as if nothing had happened. A bunch of random conversations and just enjoying each other's company.
Eventually the 3 met up.
Alfonzo hopped out of his car at the sight of the two, safe and unharmed.
"Are you two alright? No injuries?" He asked.
"I'm good." Zelda said, and then turned to Link so he could answer for himself.
"I'm also good." He said, giggling a bit at Zelda.
Alfonzo then eyed the two suspiciously. Link instantly felt a pit in his stomach—he knew that Alfonzo knew, and he didn't know WHAT the guy was going to say.
"...What did you guys do?"
Zelda choked a bit on what somehow was sudden stilfed laughter. Link just looked away, probably showing every shade of red in the viewable color spectrum.
Shit. He just viewed their reactions. This was gonna be so humiliating.
"Hey Link." Alfonzo started. "Walk with me for a sec."
Fuuuuuuuuuuck.
He didn't even wait to be out of earshot from Zelda before he started confronting Link.
"Okay so I'm getting this like... weirdly romantic vibe from how you two are lookin' at each other and stuff." He said, talking with his hands just as much as his words. "You wanna fill me in on what happened?"
Link was panicking, to put it lightly. Alfonzo and Niko had adopted him when he was under a year old—he never understood why other than the fact that Link was just left somewhere on the side of the road and no one was willing to take him in other than Niko (who eventually convinced Alfonzo), so to them he was probably still seen as younger than he was. Not only that, but Alfonzo was very ignorant of boundaries; he never knocked on doors before entering rooms, and he was... Link didn't want to be rude, but, nosy?
All this to say that he had no shot of mentally surviving the next hour if he told the truth. But Link sucked at lying, so the truth was the only option.
"Uh—so—we aren't exactly—but—" he wasn't doing this very well at all.
"Nothing much happened—actually wait that's a lie—but—"
"So what did happen?"
Link swallowed all of his pride.
"We... slept... in the same bed...?"
Alfonzo let out a very exhausted sigh. "That's all?"
"As-of-now-yes." Link explained, combining the words together as fast as possible to end this conversation.
"I should have expected that." Alfonzo admitted. "You haven't taken your eyes off her since you saved the province."
If Link wasn't blushing beforehand, he was definitely blushing now. Was he actually that obvious?
They both just waited for the other to say something.
Alfonzo waited.
Link waited.
Alfonzo—
"Can I borrow money." Link plainly stated.
Alfonzo gave him a look. "...How much? And will you pay me back?"
"Obviously!" Link exclaimed, "paying you back was my intention when I asked. Uh..."
Link tried to remember how much one of the dreamcatchers cost. They were quite small, probably being able to fit in the palm on his hand. So that wouldn't cost, much, right? 15 rupees at the most? That sounded right.
"15...?"
"Deal. I will be reminding you daily if you forget though." Alfonzo confirmed.
Alfonzo took out his wallet and gave Link what was the sum of 15 rupees.
"Dont be an idiot." He said. "I'll be waiting at the car."
Alfonzo then solemnly walked away towards where he parked his car. Link took that as an opportunity to run over to buy the thing before Zelda noticed.
Luckily, Link actually overestimated the price and the dreamcatchers were actually 10 rupees for one, rather than 15. The shopkeeper gave a mischievous laugh when Link bought it, leaving him with questions that were left unanswered. Regardless, he thanked them and went to go check on Zelda and Alfonzo at the entrance.
Alfonzo was there.
Zelda was not.
"Where'd—" Link started to ask, scared that something happened. She didn't want to be left alone for a reason—and she was just—
"Bathroom." Alfonzo answered.
Oh. Okay so he kind of got worked up over nothing.
Link hopped in the backseat (hoping him and Zelda would both sit in the back) while Alfonzo kept watching for Zelda. She came back rather quickly, and after seeing Link in the car she walked around to the other side, where she sat next to him.
"You two ready to go home?" Alfonzo asked.
They both responded with a drawn out tired "yes". While it was a fun trip and Link would never forget the things that happened on this detour, he was ready to go home. Zelda was too, it seemed. It made sense, he got the feeling that she still didn't feel safe being in Windfall after the whole demon incident. So they both were tired and just wanted to go home.
Oh. He should probably give Zelda the gift he got her.
"Uh... I got you something." He said, taking his backpack off (where he had hid the dreamcatcher) and reaching into it to try and find the bag it was in.
Zelda's eyes widened.
"I actually got you something too. I thought you didn't have money though—?" She shifted her position a bit. "I managed to find a few rupees left in the bottom of my bag that I had forgotten about. That's how I bought it."
She eyed the bag in Link's hands.
"Oh my goddess—hold on—"
She got our her gift too. Which was. The same bag.
"Did we just get each other the same thing?!" Link asked, laughing a bit. "Wait, is THAT why the shopkeeper laughed at me?!"
"I think so! Open it!" She shoved the bag in his hands, and he allowed her to take her bag.
Opening it, yes, they both got each other dreamcatchers. Link got a more brown and blue one while he gave Zelda a pink and yellow one.
They smiled at each other, Link specifically a bit embarrassed at the fact that they had the same idea, but happy all the same.
"I was thinking... cause you told me you get nightmares." He started, averting eye contact, "and after everything—I uh—I wanted to show that I appreciate you."
He covered his face and Zelda laughed.
"I was thinking that you were interested in them because you kept looking at them so much." She told him. "But the fact that you were looking at them because you wanted to get me one is a lot sweeter. And funny."
"If you two start making out back there I will drop you both in the river."
Link made a noise of what could only be described as a cut off yelp kind of scream, and Zelda let out a very loud "PFFFFFT" before laughing at what Alfonzo had said.
"That wasn't what I was planning—" she managed to speak, while Link just sat there looking out the window in embarrassment.
"I would hope not." Alfonzo continued, "at least not while you're in my car. Do whatever you want when you're NOT in my car."
Well at least he was supportive? In his own little way. Zelda was laughing even further.
"Can we please just start heading home? And not talk about this?" Link pleaded, covering his face by putting his hat over his head.
Alfonzo actually laughed at this. "Yeah, alright. Just behave back there."
He then turned around and gave them both a genuine smile before shaking his head (while still smiling) and starting the car.
And thus, after two extra days and a whole lot of side adventures, Link and Zelda were finally heading home.
COUGH UH im a day late for this one sorry uh. i felt like i was forcing myself to write yesterday so i couldnt finish this chapter on time because i wanted it to actually turn out good instead of being forced. not sure if i'll get todays prompt done tonight or if itll be late on tomorrow again lol oopsie. regardless the fic continues :)
@zelinkcommunity
PREVIOUS/NEXT
COURSE CORRECTION CHAPTER 4 - ACROSS THE CITY
"So uh, where were you thinking of spending the night?" Link asked.
The two had made their way back to the big city (steering very far away from the city hall despite it being marked as "safe", for Zelda's comfort), and now were sitting at a bus stop, awaiting the next bus. After painstakingly figuring out where to get the bus tickets from, of course.
"Well, I checked the map while we were sitting here, and there's an inn on the other side of the city where we could probably stay until either Alfonzo picks us up or we decide to wander around some more tomorrow morning." Zelda said, showing her phone screen to Link, which, indeed had the inn on it.
Link blinked, processing. Staying at an inn would be nice, but that would probably cost a ton of money. Still though, it would be better than sleeping on the side of the road again.
"What are the prices? Do we have enough?" He asked.
Zelda gave a "hm" type of noise and clicked on the inn to scroll down and see what it's prices were. Despite having his interest be more old or ancient technology (for example what the Lokomo used before the Pirate Queen and her crew settled into the land) Link had to admit that being able to just get on the inn's website directly through the global map was incredibly handy.
Zelda brought her phone closer to her as if that would help her understand the prices better, and so Link looked away. He didn't want to be nosy just staring at her screen.
Link sat in silence while Zelda opened up her purse and checked how many rupees she had on her, and then looked up at Link.
...He really really really needed to stop being reminded of the whole "sign incident" every time she looked at him. It had been at least 2 hours since—so the both of them had mostly shaken off any adrenaline and awkward feelings about it by now, but for Link specifically that was much easier said than done.
"I hope this isn't rude, but how much money do you have on you right now?" Oh. That's all she wanted.
"Uh," Link began, getting his wallet out of his backpack to check. "63 rupees. Wait, no—64."
Zelda then starting doing little motions with her hands in a counting method. Link didn't understand how people could just... do mental math. But Zelda was especially good at it.
"That's should be enough then. You don't mind chipping in?" Zelda questioned.
"If it means we aren't sleeping on the sidewalk again I don't mind." Link smiled. "I have more money at home and we should be getting home by tomorrow."
"Perfect!" Zelda beamed, looking very satisfied and happy with herself.
And now Link was happy too. To a degree he wished his emotions weren't so easily puppeted around by anything that had to do with her, but at least this time it was happiness and not sadness (or extreme fear).
Now they just had to wait for the bus to show up.
...
It showed up eventually. Zelda was getting super impatient by the time it had finally appeared in the distance, to a point where this time Link was the one to start teasing her.
The bus slowed to a stop as the doors opened. Link and Zelda were the only ones at the stop they were waiting at, but there were tons of other people inside the bus already. Zelda walked in first, as she usually did, and both of them put their tickets in the little ticket thing and found a seat.
Or, what was available of a seat. At least neither of them had to sit next to some random guy, but Zelda was able to get the last remaining seat close to where Link was only able to stand. No one said a word, and the bus began to move to it's next destination.
"We should probably keep looking at the map so we dont miss where the inn is." Link told her.
"Oh! Good idea." Zelda responded.
So the two of them kept track of where they were. They used Zelda's phone and ended up shifting positions a bit so both of them could see the screen.
One stop.
Another stop.
"How far is this place, Zelda?" Link asked, a bit cautiously.
"On the other side of the city, from what I could tell." Zelda told him.
Link nodded in acknowledgement. He didn't realize the inn was that far, but at least he had some security that they hadn't missed it.
A couple stops later, Zelda abruptly stood up and dragged Link towards the exit door.
"What's—?" Link started, trying not to think too much about the contact between them.
"I almost missed the stop." Zelda admitted.
Link laughed as the two stepped out into a new side of the city and Zelda let go of his arm.
"Were you distracted?" he asked.
"...Maybe."
Link was about to continue talking before they both turned a corner and got blinded by the sun, falling to the horizon.
"Crap, What time is it?!" Link looked away and went to check the time on his phone while Zelda muttered something about regretting not bringing sunglasses on this trip.
6:40 PM. Had it actually been that long? Days seemed to go by so fast when the two hung out together.
"It's almost 7." Link said as he and Zelda began to continue walking.
"Good thing we figured out where to sleep." Zelda chuckled.
Good thing indeed. Following the map, they eventually got there within the half-hour: a nice, but not too fancy looking building, with a white exterior and a maroon colored interior.
"Not bad." Zelda hummed, approaching the registry counter.
The worker, a pale colored Goron, looked up from the computer they had on their desk to greet the two.
"Good evening! Are you here to stay the night?" They asked, cheerfully.
"Yes!" Zelda said.
She knew how introverted Link was and 9 times out of 10 she was the one to do the talking-with-strangers thing. Which he appreciated.
"Okay." The worker said, "Two rooms for—"
"We only have enough for one room." Zelda said.
"WH—" Link covered his mouth. He decided to not continue whatever shock he was going to say.
Sure. One room. He had to admit to himself he wasn't opposed to this, he was simply... shocked? Surprised? Stunned beyond belief?
The worker's face morphed into a slight frown.
"...That will be 100 rupees."
"Perfect." Zelda said, trying to upkeep a positive attitude despite this, "That's pretty much all the money we have."
She glanced at Link for a split second before paying, and the Goron walked away from their desk to show the two the way.
The entire walk upstairs was incredibly awkward between all 3 of them. Eventually they got to the room; white walls with everything else being accents of that maroon color they had seen in the entrance. The evening sun was shining through a window, casting an orange glow upon the majority of the room.
The worker then turned to Link.
"I'll get the spare air mattress."
They then walked back down the stairs.
"Uh..." Link started.
He didn't know what to say. To be fair he would probably prefer the air mattress over sleeping in the same bed. Not that he didn't want that, but he didn't want any more weird looks from the workers of this place and he also really, REALLY didn't want to continue conversing with Zelda about all of this stuff. Especially after earlier.
She looked just as weird about it as he did, luckily.
"This is the only place I could find on the map." She said, moving her hair back, "I wish it wasn't so expensive for two rooms."
Link tried to get himself together. "I mean—I'm sleeping on the floor anyways—"
He hesitated for a moment,
"I mean after earlier thats probably for the, uh..."
He was probably making it worse. Luckily Zelda just smiled (perhaps even a bit bashfully) at him, and began to change the course of the conversation after noticing something on the TV stand.
"Ooh—there's video games!"
Link sighed in relief. This conversation could continue another time. He walked over next to her and the two started looking through the games. Eventually they both decided to play this multiplayer fighting game where you battle against each other in various arenas.
"This one looks like fun." Zelda said, with that competitive smirk she always had when any kind of challenge between the two of them occurred.
Link wouldn't mind a challenge like this. It would get his mind off of everything. Zelda seemed a bit stressed over what happened too, so it would probably get her mind off of it as well.
He did wonder though. Did she actually want something from him? Something beyond a friendship? The sign incident made it clear that there was definitely something there—that was direct flirting and Link was aware of that, but she always tried to get reactions out of him? Maybe this was just another one of those that went a little bit chaotic. He didn't know. Oh, he wasn't getting his mind off of it, was he.
Zelda sat up on the edge of the bed, hanging her legs over the front as if it was a chair. After a bit of hesitation, Link did the same. She didn't seem to mind the two both sitting there, so Link hoped it was okay. Link was quickly handed the remote because Zelda couldn't figure out how the controls on this particular TV worked, but he figured it out pretty quick.
The game menu was booted up, and they began to play. Then there was a character selection screen.
"Hm." Zelda hummed, looking over the possible options.
Link realized he was just watching her skim over all the characters rather than picking his own, so he lifted the controller and began to choose.
And this lasted a while. Not because Zelda was picky, no, she figured out which character she liked the most pretty quick. It was because Link had to read the descriptions and stats.
Of every.
Single character.
"Are you done yet?" Zelda chuckled, looking at him.
"Almost." Link stated.
He needed to beat her at something for once. Zelda seemed to pick her character purely off of aesthetic, but Link secretly was paying attention to what he could read of her character's stats. She picked this cool metal armored thing, complete with what looked like horns and pink eyes. This thing had a lot of damage and defense, but it wasn't agile in the slighest. If Link picked a character that was significantly faster, but still had a decent amount of damage it could deal, he had a high chance of winning.
"Okay." He said, pressing the button and selecting his character; a miniblin that had a pokey little spear and big eyes.
"You kind of look like him." Zelda giggled.
"I DO NOT!" Link responded, causing Zelda to explode with laughter.
"You kinda do!" She managed to say, "big eyes? Short?"
"I'm not THAT short!" Link said, but he was laughing too.
He liked this. The two of them hanging out and being silly together. But he also liked the more recent times when Zelda flirted with him, he realized. He wasn't opposed to it. He didn't mind it. He realized the reason he was so stressed about it was because he didn't want to lose what he already had: this. He didn't want to lose a friend. And he also didn't want to go through the stress of admitting everything to her. Admitting how much he loved her beyond a friend.
...Why couldn't this be easy?
Zelda laughed and pressed the "OK" button, and now they had to select an arena.
"Oh!" Link instantly saw an arena that had to do with the Lokomo. Specifically their technology. "Can we do this one?"
"Leave it to you to find the train-related arena the second it shows up on screen." Zelda teased.
"Is that a yes?"
She started laughing again, and Link laughed too.
"Yeah, yeah, since you want it so bad."
The Lokomo arena was selected, and the two began the match.
Zelda instantly tried to hit Link with her character's sword, but neither of them knew the controls so they were both kind of mashing buttons until they figured it out. It didn't take them long, they grew up in an age of video games after all. So she tried to hit him again, but Link dodged out of the way.
It took a while for Zelda's character to turn back around. Link was fast. He was agile. If he got hit he would probably get oneshotted, but if he kept his distance and managed to hit her before she could turn back around again...
BAM!
BAM BAM BAM!
He stabbed her with his spear a few times before she got in the possible range to hit him again. Link jumped out of the way just in time.
Zelda huffed.
"Oh I'm gonna get you for that!"
Link smirked.
"Try."
This continued onward, Link managing to deal damage to Zelda when she was at her least agile moments. They were both really good at it; Zelda improved and learned when to not turn around and when was the ideal time to turn around, and Link had actually been hit with her sword, with only half health remaining.
It was a close call. The two were furiously mashing the buttons on their controllers to try and win the battle, and, Link spun around, preparing to strike—
Zelda hit him again, and he lost the battle.
"AWW NO!" He exclaimed, but he wasn't upset. This was the most fun he's had since they both showed up for that alliance mission all those days ago.
"HA!" Zelda elbowed him in the side. "I WIN!"
Link scoffed affectionately. But the room was much darker now, and in his noticing of this he turned around to the window, and, yeah, the sun had set. At least the game put some light into the room so they weren't in complete darkness. Link was comfortable and didn't feel like getting up, and Zelda seemed to convey that she wasn't going to move any time soon, either.
"How long were we playing that match for?" He asked.
Someone knocked on the door before Zelda could answer.
"Come in!" She told them.
Link froze a bit. This was definitely about the air mattress thing. Well, even if it disappointed him a bit he may as well go through with it. He didn't want to break any rules and he especially didn't want to make Zelda uncomfortable by sleeping together. And he definitely didn't have the courage to ask.
The door was opened, and the same worker ducked under the roof of the door (they were very tall) carrying the mattress.
Link and Zelda both looked at each other, both wishing that they didn't have to deal with the same worker who frowned at them. They had paid for this place, after all. Zelda tried not to laugh at Link's expression, which he assumed was a form of disgust.
The Goron dropped the mattress onto the floor beside the bed, adjusting it so that it was perfectly straight and, well, not crooked at any angles. They then set the air pump down, murmured something that neither Link or Zelda could hear clearly enough to understand, and left the room.
"I'm so close to asking if we can get a different worker." Zelda said, mere seconds after the door was closed.
"I don't like them either." Link said. "They seemed to be opposed to...us."
He wasn't going to finish that sentence. Not when he was already nervous from what he knew the worker was upset about, or at least trying to prevent.
"Yeah." Zelda said, plainly.
Link hopped off the bed and started to hook up the air pump to the mattress. Zelda just watched.
"You gonna help, or are you just gonna stare at me?" Link teased.
Oops. That might have been flirty actually. He quickly looked away back to the air pump and started to push the air into the mattress.
"What would I help with? That's a one person job, doofus." Zelda said, putting her hands on her hips.
Link tried not to blush and Zelda started looking through the other characters and arenas in the game they were playing. Eventually he got the mattress to a sleep-able state and hopped back on the edge of the bed next to Zelda for another match.
...
Link won the next match, only fueling Zelda's competitiveness more. To be fair, she might have been a little disappointed that Link was essentially being non-verbally forced to sleep separately from her, but it wasn't a big deal. They weren't even dating yet, so thinking that was a possibility was probably a stretch.
She ignored that train of thought and resumed her focus onto the game. Oh. She was almost dead from not paying attention.
Zelda quickly stumbled back into playing the game properly, and Link gave a nervous laugh at her slip-up.
Hit, hit, hit, Zelda had won the battle. Probably because she had chosen a character this time that wasn't an immobile hunk of metal.
Link yawned. "Rematch?"
"You sure? You sound tired." Zelda smirked, "I may just end up winning again."
Link yawned a second time.
"Nah, I've got this."
Zelda shrugged. This would be an easy win, probably. Though, she did prefer her battles to be a lot more fair than "the opponent is falling asleep right next to me and I have every advantage".
They chose some new characters this time, Link drifted around the menu until picking a character that seemed to be a beamos (which considering his interest in old technology it made sense, beami were rarely seen outside of ancient dungeons, and people like, never explored those in today's age), and Zelda picked some pirate bokoblin thing.
The battle began. Link couldn't move, due to, y'know, being a mechanical statue, but he still consistently shot beams from the statue's eye at her little pirate thingy. This time Zelda was the agile one. She managed to dodge beam after beam, eventually getting hit by one, but Link didn't say anything about it. And then, eventually...
The beams stopped. Zelda looked to her side and Link was slowly slumping over, barely holding onto his controller as he vaguely leaned in Zelda's direction. His eyes were closed.
Zelda tried not to laugh. "I thought you said you could handle another battle."
"...mmmhmm..."
Yeah, he was out. Or at least mostly.
What a dork. She thought, with an air of affection she ended up surprising herself with.
To be honest, she was tired too. It was a mentally exhausting day for her (from... multiple incidents), and if she were to fall asleep here, like this, she wouldn't mind.
Link was still slowly shifting around trying to find a spot to put his head in his half-consciousness. Zelda smiled at him and gently leaned back, trying to make as little movement as possible to grab the blankets she could reach from the front of the bed. After grabbing what she could without waking him, she carefully wrapped the blankets around the both of them, bringing Link's wobbly head over to her shoulder.
He vaguely smiled and... made a coo sound? Like a dove? Kind of? Whatever it was, it was some sort of humming sound that Zelda instantly found adorable.
Good. So he wouldn't be upset by this. Zelda could guess with tons of evidence that this is what he wanted, but to be 100% sure still wasn't a possibility until now. With a reaction that, instead of flustered fear, was just... comfort.
She supposed being barely conscious really did reveal a person's more direct thoughts. Less brain power to worry about them and react differently.
Zelda took the controller from Link's hand before he dropped it on the floor, set both of their controllers to the side and turned the TV off, just barely being able to reach its remote. She she brought them both down to a laying position (verrrry carefully so she wouldn't wake him) and just processed.
The room was completely dark, and her eyes hadn't adjusted from the light of the TV screen yet, but she just layed there, hand over his shoulder, even though she couldn't see him.
She loved him so much. They were friends first and foremost, but she also loved him beyond that. Zelda couldn't help but smile as she stared in his direction.
And on an act of impulse, she leaned in so their foreheads were touching. Not a kiss, but just, another act of trust.
the silly billies have a moment in the woods and uhhh um it uh
kind of a shorter chapter this time. i feel like this one also gets like REALLY far away from the initial prompt uhh oops? i swear all the chapters have been planned in a way that correlates with the prompts this one just doesnt do it very well. uhh they were alone in the woods? does that make it quiet? lol
anyway
@zelinkcommunity
PREVIOUS/NEXT
EDIT JULY 15 2026: i have come to the realization that i accidentally/subconsciously made an almost exact copy of one of the lines from Shadowhunter4560's A Level Crossing fic. obviously this entire chapter isnt a copy its just one brief segment but i felt the need to clarify that because i would feel bad leaving it just to sit there un-honestly. uhh yeah my apologies i genuinely did not realize lol
COURSE CORRECTION CHAPTER 3 - NATURE WALK
The park was mostly empty when Link and Zelda got to it, allowing them both to swing on the swings without being interrupted by anything.
Which was probably the best outcome. Zelda needed this. She looked at herself occasionally through the swinging motion to let it sink in that she was intact, she had a body, she was safe.
She made sure to have a conscious grip on the chains of the swing, just to really allow herself to process the sense of touch that she was still able to feel: the chains were cold, but her hands were warming them up ever slightly, the motion of the wind hitting her through each swing, just... everything.
Thanking Link for this was her next step. Until she looked up and saw him just... staring at her.
Zelda had to admit that maybe, maybe, she liked him as more than a friend. She was busy with her job so often that whenever the two of them hung out it was mostly to be able to get twice the amount of work done in the same room (Link was often at the council building of the decision makers because he was the one who helped save New Hyrule and therefore was seen as a hero by everyone, but he never considered himself a hero), but the times where they actually got outside and went and did things besides work were some of her happiest moments.
All this to say when she saw him looking at her, her heart did flutter a bit.
Link seemed to have a much more extreme response to the sudden eye contact, though, he looked away almost instantly and tried to say something but ended up staying silent.
Zelda laughed. They had been swinging in complete silence for maybe 20 or so minutes, and at this point she was ready for a different activity other than just. The same motion over and over.
Come to think of it... there was a little trail that led to a patch of woods that she saw behind the swingset when the two first got there. A few more people were staring to show up, a lot of them little kids that Zelda really didn't feel like being around considering how "famous" she was, she she figured that maybe the two of them could take a walk in the woods?
"There's a trail behind us if you wanna go take a walk." She turned to him.
"Oh! Oh—I forgot I noticed that too." He gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah, I—uh—I wouldn't mind going for a walk with you."
Suddenly looking surprised as his words, he looked away a bit frantically.
"Sorry—only if you want to of course!"
"Link, I was the one who offered." Zelda said. "Are you okay?"
"Yes!" He squeaked.
Zelda smiled for the trillionth time. Yeah. He probably liked her too. For a long time she thought he was nervous around everyone—social anxiety, fear of saying the wrong thing perhaps, and to a degree that was definitely true. But around her he just kind of flip-flopped between being super happy and super fearful at the slighest thing. Not to mention how sad he looked earlier when that whole breakdown happened—if she remembered correctly she was almost certain she heard him yell something borderline aggressive when she was crying and the crowds were there. He NEVER yelled. At least not from what Zelda had seen of him.
Hmm. Well, maybe the walk could test this theory. The more she thought about it the more she realized that yeah, she definitely liked him. She found it funny to make him nervous (as long as it wasn't in a harmful way) and the two of them did tease each other often. They had been friends for 2 years at this point—and she realized right then and there that if she did like him, which she did, and he liked her back, then she wouldn't be opposed to it. In fact, maybe she wanted it.
She could tell her heart rate picked up a bit as conformation. Neither of them were looking at each other, for equally valid reasons.
Well, if she wanted to figure out if he liked her back, she had an idea was of how to go about it. And a nature walk was the perfect opportunity.
...
Entering the trail in the woods, Link almost felt like something was being planned. He couldn't confirm, but Zelda always had a smirk on her when she had an idea that amused her, and she definitely had one right now.
But this smirk seemed a little different. He didn't understand how, but she seemed... off. Maybe it was from the events earlier. That was probably it. Still, he made an effort to keep his guard up. Maybe he had to hold his defenses on the war of paying for each other's food again.
Neither of them spoke for a bit, which made Link increasingly nervous. Did he blow it? Did she know he liked her? Was she upset? He panicked in silence for the walk until Zelda finally spoke up.
"I forgot how nice the woods were." She said, with a bubbly cheerfulness that Link couldn't tell if she was forcing to try and make herself happy after the incident in the building or if it was genuine.
"Yeah. I've driven through the woods a lot—" Link responded. "—the shade is nice and I like the birds."
Zelda nodded. "The birds are nice, but my favorite part about nature I think is the water."
Link rolled his eyes, but in a teasing way rather than an irritation.
"Of course you'd like the water."
Zelda laughed. "What? Too aquaphobic to hear that?"
"I think its more of thalassaphobia than aquaphobia." Link admitted. "But it's not like I'm gonna kill you for liking the water of all things."
"Yeah I'd hope you wouldn't kill me," Zelda smirked, "you like me far too much to do that."
Link's entire body felt like it was going to melt off the second he heard that. Did she mean that in a platonic way, or—? He hoped she meant platonic. Well, part of him did want her to think that in a romantic way, but he felt like he would probably pass out if he got the conformation for that. He just looked to the side and tried to hide his very red face from Zelda.
He didn't notice, but Zelda smiled. Eventually Link snapped out of it enough to continue the conversation and the two of them kept making very unrelated conversations with each other about very unrelated things until they stumbled upon the smell of a river.
"Ooh!" Zelda chimed in, "do you think this trail leads to the big river we crossed?"
"The river we crossed on the side of a spooky-ass bridge?" Link chuckled, "yeah, I don't think I would forget that."
He hoped he meant he wouldn't forget it because of how scary it was and not because of the whole hand-holding thing, but he didn't know and couldn't choose before the words were out of his mouth.
"Oh c'mon, the bridge wasn't spooky, you were just scared!" Zelda pointed at him before giggling and heading further down the trail.
The trail was heading downhill at this point, and it was pretty clear that this was leading to the river. Link shook his head and followed. As long as she wouldn't make him swim.
"Hey, crossing a bridge in the method we chose was scary!" Link followed through with the joke as he found Zelda standing before what was the shore of the very large river.
It was a beautiful spot, really. The sun was shining in dappled patterns through the leaves, and even though he didn't care for being in the water, Link had to admit that the sound of the water flowing slowly and steadily made him calm down a bit. He walked next to her. She was standing near a sign that showed a map of the trail, with a little "you are here" star at the middle point where the river was. After that, the trail looped back around to another side of the park they came from.
Zelda turned around to face him, and his heart skipped a beat.
She had a look on her face. Something mischievous, and Link instantly realized that she was planning something. He just had to figure out what it was. Was she gonna try and slip money into his pocket and try and win the food paying war? Was she going to toss him into the river? Shit, he hoped that wasn't i—
Zelda smirked and slammed a hand beside him, essentially trapping him in front of the sign in a very, very flirtatious manner.
"Are you scared of that?"
YES.
Yes he was. In fact, his legs were starting to shake and he had no idea what to say, what to do, and his mind was screaming whatdoesthismeanwhatdoesthismeanwhatdoesthismean. Is THIS what she was planning?! What the FUCK???
Zelda awaited a response, but Link couldn't talk. He didn't even want to know how red his face was, but she was so close to him—shit, he wanted to kiss her. Should he? No. Absolutely not. That could ruin everything. He was panicking so much and Zelda was about to speak again—she still had that look on her face of wanting to mess with his brain, wanting to get a reaction—she started to speak—
"So if I were t—"
BAAAAAAAA. BAAAAAAAA. BAAAAAAA. BAAAAAA.
Their phones both got an government emergency alert, cutting them off.
Zelda was the one to look panicked now, she hurriedly took her phone out with a fearful look before Link took his out too, and they both read the message. Zelda's hand left his side.
Carson Kendal, supporter of the former Chancellor Cole has been suspected and proven of continuing his attempts, and is now jailed for illegal magic use and attempted soul-seperation murder. You are now safe to enter Windfall's city hall.
"Uh—" Zelda started, somehow looking just as flustered as Link was after they both read the alert,
"Um—okay so that's good—okay so we should go find somewhere to spend the night, because—it's like almost 5 PM and uh—I really don't want to sleep on the side of the road again."
She didn't even look at him before walking away to a tree off in the distance. Link just stared in shock, eventually managing to sit down and catch his breath.
Was she actually about to kiss him? Did she like him too? As oblivious as Link was sometimes, he knew that was far more than a simple joke. Especially because of her reaction when it got messed up. She always handled losing to a joke quite well, but this time she didn't even look him in the eye. His heart was still racing and he buried his head in his hands, just sitting there.
...
Well, that went horribly. But at least Zelda got the answer. Yeah. They both were definitely in love with each other. Zelda knew she would fluster Link, but she didn't think it would go in a way where she got flustered herself. To be fair, she didn't know where she was going with it other than she wanted to get a reaction out of him in a way that could simultaneously give her the conformation that he liked her back. It just.... was far more embarrassing than she would ever like to repeat.
Zelda looked up from the forest floor to see Link sitting underneath the sign she had basically pushed him against. He hadn't even moved except from going from standing to sitting, and even from a distance Zelda could tell his brain was going a million miles a minute trying to process what the fuck just happened.
Oops. She felt a bit bad, actually. She considered apologizing once her heart rate calmed down, but she ultimately decided not to and instead just continue acting how she did before. Maybe something would happen, maybe something wouldn't. Kudos to her and her goddess-awful impulsive actions.
Still though, she had the answer.
At least she was 90% sure of it. Maybe she made him so overwhelmed that he would stop liking her. Even as a friend. She didn't want to think about that possibility. If she had actually ruined 2 years worth of friendship for a stupid tease—
"Didn't you say you didn't want to sleep on the side of the road?"
Zelda looked up, and, to her surprise, Link was the one to approach her first. They stared at each other for a moment and Link immediately blushed because they both knew they were thinking about the same thing.
"Uh—no—no hard feelings." He managed to stutter.
Zelda couldn't help but exhale in relief at that. If there was one thing they were both good at, it was clear (or at least mostly clear) communication. Which was very very ideal. Neither of them wanted to end this, whatever it would turn into, and Zelda regained her sense of security with his silly bashful smile.
Zelda didn't know what to say other than "thank you". The two of them got up and took one last look out at the river before following the rest of the path back to the park.
To say she was grateful was an understatement.
(bonus thing drew because. i just had to. you see the vision right)
COURSE CORRECTION CHAPTER 2 IS ACTUALLY ON THE CORRECT DAY THIS TIME LETS GOOO
@zelinkcommunity
after waking up from camping on the side of the road, link and zelda head over to the city of Windfall's town hall to try and find a method of transportation to get home. What they find instead, is a reminder of something the two will never forget
PREVIOUS/NEXT
CHAPTER 2 - THE ENCOUNTER AT THE CITY HALL
Link awoke to a voice.
"Link."
Or at least, he tried to wake up.
"Link."
It took him a bit too long to realize that that was Zelda's voice, and as soon as he did he actually opened his eyes to see her.
She looked far more awake than he did, though her hair was a mess and she had little bits of grass on her. Link probably did too.
"Morning!" She said. You sleep like a rock. Actually, worse than a rock."
She seemed to be a lot happier (or at least re-energized) than she was when they both went to sleep the night before. Speaking of; both of them were at least an arms length away from each other, which made sense, sleeping with a friend any closer together than that would be weird. Still, it made Link's mind wander a bit.
"...Are you still half asleep?" Zelda questioned.
"No...?" He guessed.
She giggled at that, and then stood up, dusting the grass pieces off of her. Link slowly stood up too.
"So its almost 10 in the morning, and we really should find a way to get transportation out of here." She said, gesturing to the still busy roads and sidewalks that were in front of them.
Link nodded. "I agree. Oh—we have service again! We can probably figure out where to go with a map that we can zoom in and move around and stuff."
He took out his phone. There surprisingly were no new messages, but he quickly did a search and found the same map that Zelda had taken a picture of the day before. She leaned over to try and get a look at the map, too.
"Okay, uh," Link pointed to one of the really tall buildings that was likely a block or so away from them.
"I think that's a general town hall?" He said. "The name is "Windfall Center", so, I mean that's kind of clear."
"They would probably have people there that could give us directions to a train station." Zelda said. "Or at least lead us to a different building that does know that. This city is kind of huge—there's gotta be something."
She looked up at the town hall in the distance, than around the surrounding streets and such. Then she simply waved a hand for Link to follow her, as she had seemed to find a decent path to go.
The two grabbed their bags. Link had to stop and get a drink of water around 5 seconds after they started walking, and Zelda ended up drinking some of her water too after a bit of convincing from him.
Their water bottles were a huge contast in style—Link had a large one that be carried on him via a strap like a purse, but, for water bottles, and Zelda had to take hers out from her backpack every time she needed it. Link could have easily put it in his backpack too, but it was more practical to carry it on him by his side the entire time.
Regardless, they walked for a bit and still couldn't find a crosswalk.
"That's it I'm jaywalking." Zelda huffed.
She at least carefully observed both sides of the traffic and waited for an opening before doing so. It took a moment for Link to realize that, he had to jaywalk too, and she was almost halfway across the road before he started to sprint across. This was not something he wanted to—
HOOOOONK!
Link yelped at the sound before the actual sight of the car screeching to a halt inches in front of him.
"SORRY! SO SORRY!" He tried to say, before Zelda intervened and yelled some string of curse words at the driver for almost hitting him.
He quickly sprinted at top speed to the other side of the road was, where Zelda looked incredibly upset. The driver looked almost embarrassed—pissed off too, but he set something in his hand down before continuing on and unclogging the flow of traffic.
"Are you okay?!" Zelda turned to him, almost frantically.
"Um—" he didn't expect her to be that concerned about him—wait what was he THINKING?! He could have died there! Obviously she would be panicked!
Link looked back at the traffic beginning to move steadily again, trying his best to lower his rate of breathing after the whole thing. He was still incredibly spooked.
"He was texting while driving." Zelda hissed. "Fucking prick."
Oh. So that's how the car got so close to him.
"...This is why I don't jaywalk." Link stated.
After recovering from THAT, Link and Zelda were luckily on the intended side of the road now. And neither of them were roadkill.
"I think he would of gotten close to hitting you whether we were at a crosswalk or not," Zelda said as the two continued across the sidewalk, trying to walk side by side but it was proving more and more difficult the closer and closer they got to the town hall.
"I guess so." Link sighed, still a bit shaky. "I still would have preferred to not jaywalk though."
"Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm still kind of frustrated from yesterday and I saw a way to get across and didn't even wait for you to agree." She confessed.
Link smiled at her.
"Its okay, I forgive you."
...
The town hall was huge. Not only did it have a huge sign on the entrance of it that said "WINDFALL" in giant letters, but there were so many different sections! It seemed like a general community center that could be involved no matter what role you played: just from Link and Zelda walking around trying to find assistance for 5 minutes, Link had spotted things like an auction house. An AUCTION HOUSE!
And Zelda was hungry again. Link actually was too, this time.
"We should split up to find food, maybe?" She asked, putting more effort into getting Link's opinion this time, which he appreciated. "Are you hungry today?"
"Yes, actually." He said. "I think we walked past a place that was selling buttered pretzels and that sounds really good now that I'm mentioning it."
"Ooh, buttered pretzels sounds awesome." Zelda agreed, her face lighting up at the idea. "Should we split up? You go get pretzels while I try and find a place to see when the next train comes?"
Link paused. He wasn't sure about splitting up in a large city, especially in a giant mulit-story building like this. He contemplated this for a moment, deep in thought.
"Okay. But we should text each other each time we go to a significant area like when I find the food place or if either of us go up or down a floor. Safety."
Zelda nodded. "That's a good idea, actually. We can do that."
She smirked. "You sure you dont want me to pay for the—"
"Zelda you are NOT winning this battle." Link cut her off, but he couldnt help but smile at the joke, even if he wanted to be irritated.
Zelda giggled at his response, and Link hoped his face wasn't turning red again.
"Okay, okay, go get those pretzels, train boy." Zelda said, waved at him and started cheerfully walking away.
He needed to stop getting so caught up on her words and actually start getting the pretzels.
...
Zelda couldn't help but laugh a bit as she walked out of earshot from her friend. He was very very goofy and it made her very entertained. Not in a way that she was exploitative—she could see his smile creep in every time she messed with him, even if he didn't want to admit that he was very much trying not to smile, and it made her happy making him happy. Plus, she would try her absolute hardest to, uh, not make him illegally cross roads without asking him first. She guessed that was some sort of genetic quirk she got from the Pirate Queen.
So. Her phone was in her purse, her supplies were in her backpack, and the two were going to eat yummy pretzels as soon as she found where the board of whatever transportation methods were available were.
She looked all throughout the floor she was on, but only found a sign for what floors were for what purpose:
She ignored the random stuff on floor 2 and above, and instead tried to find the escalator to the lower floor. A subway would probably have the schedule of where it's stops were, so that would be handy to know what to plan.
Oh, texting Link would be a good idea.
• hey
• theres a subway on a lower floor im gonna go see what its stops are
• after I find the escalator obv lmao
He responded quickly. Though, he always responded quickly to her.
• alright
• im waiting for the pretzels to be made and then we can meet at the entrance maybe?
She gave a smile at her phone, even if he couldn't see it.
• yeah sounds good
• ill be there in like 5-7 min
• :)
There. Now he would see the smile. After that message, the little bubble of him texting appeared and disappeared for a few seconds. He seemed to not know what to say, but, Zelda never took offense to that. If anything she found it funny how nervous he could get at so little.
• :3
Okay, that got her. She wasn't expecting that little emoticon to be a response from him—and she ended up having to cut off her laugh because it echoed all throughout the near points of the building. After recovering she just had to respond.
• hell yeah go break those gender norms cat emoticon boy
He responded in under a second.
• WHAT
Okay she was laughing again. She had to stop getting so distracted by this, as funny as it was to tease him. They both had a mission to do and they were failing it miserably.
• okay were getting off track im gonna go look for the train schedule you go get those pretzels
She closed out of the messages before he could respond again. He seemed to have the same idea, as there were no new notifications after that.
Zelda spotted the escalator quickly. Heading down it, the rooms darkened without the sun's light through any windows. Luckily there were still plenty of ceiling lights, so navigating was no problem. The air was slightly colder due to being underground, but she didn't mind, it was a hot summer day. There were still a few people walking around this floor, but the numbers were far less than the floors above.
Good. Less crowds gave her more room to breathe.
Silently getting a hang of her surroundings, Zelda examined the walls and the people, scanning for any indicator of what the train schedule was. The train itself was gone, it was likely off doing said schedule until another one came over to give the rest of the people a chance.
There was a bench, and a person was sitting on it, tapping away at a laptop. They seemed to have been traveling from far away, they had a suitcase that was next to them and a bunch of bags attached to them on top of that. Zelda wondered where this person was from. But the only thing she intended to ask was if they knew were she could look at the train schedule.
"Hi, do you have a moment?" She asked them.
They had a grey hoodie over what must have been a lot of hair considering how bulky it looked. Dark sunglasses were over their eyes, and they didn't even look up from their laptop to start talking to Zelda, which she did find a little disrespectful, but it was no big deal.
"Yeah. What's up."
"I was wondering where I could find the time schedule for the..."
The person looked up at her. In such an intense manner that Zelda had to stop talking just to process what the person was so shocked about. They adjusted their sunglass, taking them off to get a better look at her, and... they stood up.
"Train schedule should be over by that board." They mumbled, pointing down the hall.
Zelda exhaled. She didn't even realize she had been holding her breath, but that person's intense stare scared her. For a moment she thought she was in danger.
"Th–thank you." She stuttered, and quickly began to walk over to the board in the distance after the person sat back down on the bench.
It had a lot of text on it. Trying to find what parts of it where the most important to read so she could quickly get out of here, she read:
10 AM - DOWNTOWN WINDFALL
11 AM - UPTOWN WINDFALL
12 PM - OUTSET
Outset? The rest of the timestamps were much longer than an hour later, so this must have been a stop away from the city and possibly leading to another stop. Now just to get away from the... footsteps?
Footsteps. Behind her.
Zelda whipped around to find the hooded man, with his hood down, revealing what looked like horns—but with the majority of them cut off in a method to hide them.
The horns were stubs.
Because this was a demon.
From New Hyrule.
Who was out hiding in the middle of the underground section of Windfall in the next province over.
How could she tell it was a New Hryule civilian? The sweater. That was a brand that was exclusive to her homeland. And in their hand, was dark, illegal magic.
The same magic that separated her spirit from her body.
Zelda balled her fists. She felt like crying—this brought back so many—too many—of those awful old memories. Her losing her body. Her homeland falling apart. And all of the abuse she faced from the person who was "sent to help her learn" how to be a decision maker: Cole.
"IM NOT STUPID!" Zelda screamed at this person, hoping the volume of her voice would get the attention of any nearby people walking around. It didn't. In fact, it seemed like all of the people had left.
Her heart was pounding and she was panicking—she tried to lower the rate of her breathing but it was no use. With her on the verge of a panic attack, the demon spoke.
"You walked over to the board anyway. I'd say you're at least a little stupid, Zelda."
They began to advance forward, backing Zelda up against the board as they snapped their fingers and the dark purple electricity flowed through their hands.
"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" She tried to squish herself against the wall she was forced into to even get a tiny amount of extra distance away from the person.
Shit. Now she was crying.
The person sighed. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be."
At this point she couldn't squeeze out to the side, either—the person was too close, and their hands were twitching with the magic they held, repeatedly snapping their fingers to try and keep the flow of electricity going. She was going to die. She was going to die and Link would never know because it was HER idea to split up and—
Buzz buzz.
The demon's eyes flicked over to the sound for a split second. Zelda was getting a notification. Probably Link, updating her. And if she didn't act, she wouldn't be able to update him back—
They scowled for a moment and then—
WHAM!
Not even knowing how, Zelda had punched the man in the face. Her hand hurt, she didn't know how to properly throw an actual punch–but—it clearly hurt a lot, as they made a pained sound, clutching their face.
Their magic was fizzing out.
Looking around rapidly, Zelda kicked the demon in the gut, knocking them to the ground.
"YOU—" They started, but Zelda didn't hear it. Instead she just ran.
And she kept running. Towards the escalator, back up to the surface. She tried to wipe the tears streaming down her face but her hands were so shaky it was difficult—
She ran into another person, and she fell over onto the ground.
Frantically scooting along the floor, she looked at the person. They had a dark blue uniform, and in her panic she thought it was Link for a moment—but Link wasn't wearing his engineering uniform today. Instead they had a badge. This was a police officer.
Zelda was going to get arrested. She punched a man in the face and she was going to get killed for it.
The officer said something, but Zelda didn't hear it. She got up and ran, and was instead grabbed by the arm.
"LET ME GO—"
"Zelda, I need you to remain calm." They said.
"I PUNCHED THEM BECAUSE I HAD TO! IM NOT—IM NOT A CRIMINAL—PLEASE—"
Her phone was buzzing again. She could barely hear it over her screaming and panic, but she managed to get her arm out of the cop's grasp and started sprinting again.
The officer got out their walky-talky and called for backup. Zelda just kept running. They knew her name—they knew her actions—she was going to get jailed for assault or at least lose her job—and what would Link think?! She had already stressed him out with crossing the road earlier—no—he cared about her, right? She just had to get back to the pretzel booth—
She almost tripped getting to the escalator, but she looked behind her and the demon was being confronted by not one, but two cops, and she had to get away before even more came.
Zelda had never sprinted up an escalator before. It was difficult, but that was the least of her worries right now. She was still sobbing her eyes out, and then she got to the top—and was stopped by yet another officer.
This one was a Rito. That explained how he got to the escalator so fast—he probably flew throught the halls instead of ran.
Zelda stared up at him in fear.
"I need you to stop running." He said, causing her to cry even more. "We are here to help you."
To help? She thought... she swore she was going to get arrested but—
"Y—you're... here—you're here for help?!" She managed to say, wiping the overflowing tears as she looked up at the man.
"Yes. We need you to describe what happened. The demon is being arrested—not you—you were defending yourself for a good reason."
Zelda paused. This may have been the first time she had ever been praised for defending herself. Or... maybe she had just blocked out everything except all the times that she wasn't. She wasn't sure. But eventually she described the scene, as painful as it was.
...
10 minutes later and Zelda still hadn't responded to 4 texts, and one call. To say Link was worried would be too mild—he stopped eating his portion of the pretzels the moment she didn't answer the call, didn't leave a message, didn't do anything. At this point he had gotten up from the wall he was huddled up at and was speed-walking down the hall, calling her name, in hopes that she would answer.
Maybe she just lost her phone? No, that didn't make any sense. But to Link, all he could think of was how she might have gotten hurt.
She got hurt because of him before. She always told him it wasn't his fault—but he was the one who drove her out of the New Hyrule council center and he was the one who didn't make it to their destination in time before the cultists destroyed the spirit tracks. She lost her body and couldn't interact with anyone but him and the Lokomo, and the province went into lockdown all because of HIM.
He sped up from a jog to a sprint. If Zelda got that level of damage done to her again Link would NEVER forgive himself.
"ZELDA!" He called out, "WHERE ARE YOU?!"
He had to slow down to catch his breath. He wasn't good at running for long periods of time—but...
Oh no.
There were police officers. At the edge of the hallway, where he could just barely see the escalator Zelda said she would take. There were crowds surrounding the area and he couldn't get a good view of what was going on—but the police seemed to be sternly trying to move the crowd away—
He needed to see what happened. He didn't want to know the damage done, but he needed to make sure Zelda was okay. Sure, maybe he was a bit overprotective in general, but anyone would be concerned for their best friend in this situation.
"S'cuse me—" Link tried to be polite about it but he was very much pushing people out of the way to get closer.
His heart was beating fast and he didn't know what to do. Eventually he weaved through enough of the crowd—
"You need to stay back. No use in being nosy." An officer said, blocking the path.
Link didn't speak. Instead he looked to the side of him to get a glimpse of the scene, and, there was Zelda. Sobbing with her head in her hands. She was intact at least, but her level of distress was enough to make Link want to cry, too.
The cop, a Rito, blocked the rest of Link's view by transforming his arm into a wing as a shield.
"I need you to keep your distance, just like everyone else—"
"I'M HER FRIEND!" Link snapped, and then felt a wave of instant regret as the cop gave him a very stern look.
"If you intervine we will fine you 200 rupees for resisting safety orders. I'm hoping you aren't going to go through with that."
Link didn't have that much money on him. And he really didn't want that to be what Zelda paid for him. So instead... he gave up.
He held onto the bucket of pretzels and just waited. Waited for the situation to resolve itself. He wanted to go comfort her, but he didnt want to cause any more trouble that what was already done. Who knows—maybe she needed the space away from him. Maybe he was too much.
Eventually a couple more police brought a man with some incredibly damaged horns up the escalator with handcuffs.
Horns.
There was only one group of people Link knew with those features. And they were all related, caused, even, by what had happened all those years ago. Someone had tried to do a repeat. Another assassination attempt of separating her soul from her body.
He wouldn't have to ask her what happened anymore. He already knew.
...
Link had stopped watching the scene after that. Instead he sat away at another wall and occasionally looked up to see more and more of the crowd dissappear.
Eventually the police started escorting Zelda in his direction.
She seemed to have calmed down for the most part, but still looked incredibly drained.
"You're sure you're okay? And you have a way to get back home?" The officer asked.
Zelda nodded before speaking, in a slow, tired voice.
"...Yes. Thank you. For helping."
The cop nodded before turning back around and starting to walk away.
"You're welcome."
Zelda slumped down beside Link along the wall. She was messing with her fingernails, likely due to anxiety, and didn't say anything.
"...You're doing alright?" Link asked.
Zelda sighed. "I am now. I think. I, uh, they need to up their security here."
"Yeah." Link said. "I saw the aftermath, you dont have to explain what happened to me."
Zelda gave a weak smile at him.
"Thank you."
The two sat there in silence for a bit, just keeping each other company without words until Zelda took our her phone. Then she suddenly looked far more awake.
"What is it?" Link asked.
"...Alfonzo messaged both of us. In a group chat." Zelda started. "...He says he's going to be picking us up at some point tomorrow and bringing us back home."
She looked up at Link, and the they both smiled. They were good at doing that around each other.
"That's—" Link began, "that's great! Wait—tomorrow?"
"Yeah." She read further. "Something to do with being super busy with the council helping repair all the chaos that happened yesterday—so he wouldn't be able to start driving here until 1 AM at the earliest."
"He's a busy man." Link said. "But at least we have a secure way of going home now."
"Yeah." Zelda said. "Yeah."
They sat there in a bit of an awkward silence for awhile while eating the now cold pretzels. Zelda still looked tired, and Link wanted to do something to help but he didn't know if a hug would be too much? And he was scared of asking—he didn't want to embarrass himself for the billionth time on this little detour, but at the same time he knew that clear communication was always the most ideal in any situation, and that not enough people realized that.
So he didn't hug her. Not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't want to do anything without asking. Instead, he looked at the map on Ooccoo and scrolled around until he found a park that the two could possibly hang out at.
"There's a park with what looks like some swings down a couple blocks from here, if that would help with anything we could go there?" Link asked, hoping that would cheer her up some.
Zelda looked up from the pretzel she had half eaten.
OOUUUGGG i thought i could finish this before midnight but alas i am here making this post almost 40 minutes after day one has ended. whatever GO MY SILLY ZELINKS
this genuinely may be one of the best fanfic plots ive ever written and i basically planned all of it in one sitting at like 1 PM LMAO and then the rest of the day happened so i only got to actually writing it at like 7:30 PM so um. ITS NOT MY FAULT IM LATE I SWEAR IT WAS UHHH UHH UM
@zelinkcommunity
oh yeah its also a modern AU because i wanted to fool arround with a modern setting for the first time lol
NEXT
CW for the beginning of the fic starting with some random guy having a really really vague medical issue and collapsing. none of it is described other than the fact that the guy collapsed and its mentioned that he needed to go to the hospital but its really vague but i myself am also like super sensitive to medical stuff so i wanted to put this there just in case okay cool enjoy :)
CHAPTER 1 - A SUDDEN DETOUR
For the past 4 days, Link and Zelda were on a mission to help the people of the province next to them, Great Tides, create a safe and fair alliance with their own province, New Hyrule.
Link refused to take the plane due to some anxiety regarding heights and how he "does not know how the plane works" but knows "everything about the train, so if it breaks down there can be a stable source of recovery", and, despite it taking a bit longer to get to Great Tides than a plane, Zelda understood and respected his concern. Therefore they spent day 1 traveling to the province, and the last 3 laying out boundaries and trade systems and all sorts of legal stuff that Zelda understood (and that Link had to walk away from because of how overwhelming it was), and they were finally heading back home.
At least, they thought they were heading home. But then something happened to the conductor.
Link didn't want to know the details, but eventually the train didn't take the right turn, and when the passengers returned from investigating; did the conductor forget, did they accidentally get distracted and not take the exit at the right time, did they get ambushed by monsters and had to take a work around route, all they got was silence.
So there him, Zelda, and all the other passengers were, sitting in a field at 4:15 PM on the side of the tracks after Link had scurried to the front and stopped the train.
The conductor was still alive, just... unconscious? At least he hoped. One of the passengers, an Anouki dressed in clothes far too warm for the summer weather, said they were still breathing. But Link didnt know how true that was. Regardless, people were calling the emergency unit and everyone was both super concerned and super pissed off that their travels were put to a halt due to the conductor collapsing mid-drive.
Link would have used his phone to contact someone, but there was barely any service out h—
"I got some information." Zelda sat on the ground next to him, making him jump. He didn't realize he was so deep in thought.
Looking at her, she smiled, but even a smile as comforting as hers wasn't enough to drown out the scene in front of him.
Oh. He really shouldn't be thinking sappy things like that in this situation.
"So, luckily someone's phone managed to get enough connection to load a map off of Ooccoo and it's kind of being passed around like a piece of steak in a swarm of starving wolfoz—but—there's a city to the west." She said.
Link waited for her, wordlessly asking her to continue. She seemed to understand his verbal shutdowns seamlessly at this point—Din's ass, they had traveled across their own province, saving New Hyrule from an attack from a group of... what could only be described as cultists who somehow got ahold of the military-level technology that held the spirit tracks together that not only damaged the entire province, but also Zelda herself; separating her body from her spirit with some illegal magic, and Link and the Lokomo nation were the only ones who could see her. So he got overwhelmed a lot, and with the two constantly traveling together on the quest, they were both incredibly bonded and could read each other like books.
Well. Maybe she couldn't read everything. But a silly crush on one of the province's decision makers (monarchy had been ruled out in favor of community votes around the time Zelda's great great grandmother, Pirate Queen Tetra had made an alliance with the Lokomo and essentially decided "yeah we're not doing this colonization shit") was far from the biggest priority at this moment.
Zelda continued.
"People are making their own plans and routes to get to where they need to go," she laughed a bit nervously, "a lot of them asked me for help since im one of "most direct" decision makers—I don't know the area very well, but it's kind of funny how they still expect me to rule them around like I'm a Queen. I just handle the votes!"
She tossed her hands in the air, getting a slight chuckle out of Link.
"Anyway, there's a city to the west across this big river that I thhiiinnk is connected to the ocean but I'm not quite sure—and I think it would be the best place for us to head to so we don't starve, and can, y'know, actually have some resources instead of running around the middle of a huge field with nothing."
The two of them looked back out at the crowd of passengers. Most of them were packing their stuff to make a trek for safety, a couple of them were Rito—they were flying around up high to get a layout of where they were before either leaving or helping others leave. A group of mostly Anouki and one Goron were making it their duty to help get the conductor to a hospital when the help arrives, and overall everyone was just moving forward.
Link nodded. "...Yeah. The city is a good idea. You're sure what direction it is?"
"Yup!" Zelda exclaimed, taking her phone out of her pack to show to him, "I took a picture of the map on the person's phone. Somehow I think I was the first to do that."
Link smiled and made a "hm" sound. "You would be the first to do that."
Oops. Was that too direct? It didn't seem to matter though, the two were already getting up and following the little picture amongst the many things in Zelda's gallery through the tall grasses.
Their goal was to cross a bridge and hopefully not block traffic while doing it, since it seemed to be a car only bridge. The bridge wasn't too far, but it would still take a while.
Eventually they started to pass houses amongst the fields. Link started internally counting how many of the iconic giant "treasure finder" breed of pig he saw until he got to about 5 and pointed out to Zelda that these people must have been a big fan of the Hero of Winds.
"Oh, why though?"
"He's your ancestor, Zel, you don't have to sound so irritated about it!" Link teased.
"I'm not irritated," she responded, "it's just that he was kind of an idiot."
"Who said idiots couldn't found countries?"
"Link, a lot of countries are run by idiots. We don't need more."
Link laughed at that unfortunately true statement, causing Zelda to laugh too.
"Seems like you've cheered up." She grinned.
"I guess so." Link admitted. "I think that whole mess back there was scaring me."
"Yeah. Understandable. I hope the guy gets the help he needs."
"Yeah."
There was a slight pause.
"Oh, Zelda?"
She looked up from the sidewalk. "Yes?"
"I just saw a 6th pig."
...
The bridge was incredibly windy. Zelda had had to stop and tie her hair back into a ponytail so she wouldn't get blinded by it crossing the bridge, and the cars were moving fast across it. At this point the sidewalk had ended and it was just the little ledge on the side of the road that they were walking on.
He looked back at Zelda, who was starting to sidle onto the metal sides on the bridge. Luckily the bridge had many beams they could use for support, and the beams were generally dense enough to the outer side as they stretched up to make the metal roof that there wasn't an instant fear of falling off and drowning.
Despite this, with the wind from the river (which was definitely connected to the sea considering the breeze it carried) and the fact that Link had not yet learned how to swim still made him worry for her safety.
"You sure this is safe?!" He called out from the side of the road, having to stretch his voice to be heard over the cars and the wind.
Speaking of the cars, 90% of the drivers gave the two of them weird and possibly even concerned looks, which were very hard for Link to ignore.
"Would you prefer we don't make it to the city?!" She called back.
Fair enough.
So, through an intense amount of caution, Link and Zelda squeezed between the cars and the beams of the bridge on this little ledge that they could barely fit through.
To say it was stressful was an understatement.
The last thing you should do when crossing a high up bridge is to look down. But yet, here was both the reason he never took the plane, the reason he never went past waist deep in water, and the additional "a car might be slightly off-center and hit you" all in one.
Link didn't even realize he had frozen. He was pressed up against the beams, observing the everything around him with a great level of fear.
You could drown.
You could fall.
If some drunk driver or asshole shows up, what—
His hand was grabbed. He wasn't expecting it in the slighest—he was so laser focused on all of the spiraling fear that he screamed, literally screamed at the sudden contact.
"Hey, hey, it's just me."
Catching his breath, Link looked up at the sound to find... Zelda.
Oh.
Zelda was holding his hand.
...Somehow his heart managed to pound even faster than it was beforehand.
"Follow my steps." Zelda guided, and carefully placed a foot down forward.
And another foot. Another foot.
And another and another, until they had made it across the bridge to the other side.
It took a moment for her to realize that Link was just, staring at their hands intertwined and for her to immediately let it go afterwards.
"There." She said, giving him a smile that Link couldn't tell if she was actually nervous or he was just projecting big time.
Taking out her phone to check the map again, she waved her hand in the direction the needed to head to.
She began to walk away, and as Link looked above her he saw the big city buildings towering in the near distance. Then back at her.
Oh. He should be walking too.
...
"Are you hungry? I still have a decent amount of money on me if you've run out—we can stop at a cucco place—or, uh, maybe get burgers if they have the option here."
Link didn't feel hungry. Especially after... that. Zelda had seemed to let go of everything a few minutes afterward, but Link was left still distracted thinking about all of it. Did she pull her hand away so fast because she didn't like him? Or was it the opposite? Did she even care how either of them felt? He didn't want to ask but the question was nagging at him for far too long than he was happy with. They had been friends for about 2 years at this point, both of them were going to turn 18 within the next 6 months, and even though he really liked the idea of being in a romantic relationship with Zelda, their friendship was something he would never forgive himself for losing.
She was still waiting for a response. Well, he didn't want to eat, but they had been walking for around 2 hours now, and he was absolutely exhausted. Link was good at things that involved short-term strength, he was an engineer, after all, he had to have at least some strength. But walking for 2 hours without falter made him realize that his body definitely needed some sort of sustenance to, like, survive and stuff.
"Uhh, I can eat, yeah." He finally answered. "What are the options?"
Zelda furrowed her brow and took out the map again. At this point she had just given up on tabbing out of her phone gallery to check for service and had left it on the map image so they could have easy access to it.
"Uhh, there's a cucco place, a different cucco place, some restaurant called "All You Can Eat Rabbits..."
She grimaced at that one. The Rabbit Land Rescue was one of her favorite things about New Hyrule, so he didn't blame her.
"Oh!" She spoke up, "there's a seafood place! Wanna try that?"
Seafood? Link did live along the coastline. He never explored the costal aspect of his home much (he preferred to stay inland after all the sea monster stories he heard of relating to New Hyrule's founders growing up), but the times he did get to have some of the scallops and shrimp that the fishermen of his hometown caught was always good. And being so far from home, he needed some extra comfort.
"Sure!" He said, "uh, that sounds good. Not too expensive?"
"Well I dont know the prices now." She said, sounding jokingly irritated but she was still smiling, "we can check when we get there. I'm starving. Plus, I have at least 200 rupees on me right now. If the meal costs 50, so what?"
"50's a lot." He said.
"Mmmm yeah you're probably right." Zelda realized. "Okay, compromise; if its under 40 we stay, if it's over 40 we go elsewhere."
Link nodded. "Deal."
...
The food was surprisingly only 20 rupees for each of them. It made sense, this did seem to be a river deriving from the ocean, so the food was probably local and plentiful at that, so there wasn't much demand without supply.
Zelda got mostly shrimp while Link stuck with the scallops. They were his favorite. But, uh... he couldn't shake the feeling of how weirdly date-like this was. He probably was just projecting—she did offer to pay for his food but it was likely that it was because she has a much higher paying job than him, (and he refused the offer despite the possible romantic context) but it just...
He didn't know what to feel, actually. It was unlikely he would actually do anything about these feelings. He didnt want to risk losing their friendship—but—he couldn't not be panicked at the fact that they were just.
Sitting across from each other.
Eating food at a restaurant.
That Zelda offered to pay for.
If anything, his love was more of an inconvenience to him at the moment than an actual passion—he struggled to eat his food (but made himself anyway) and refused to make any eye contact with her out of pure fear that his face would admit everything before his words. Not that he was ever good at making eye contact with people anyway (he was usually best listening when looking to the side or around the room), so hopefully she wouldn't notice?
Link figured he should say something instead of having the entire meal just be an awkward silence.
"Good food." He said.
"Agreed." She responded.
Okay, so, she wasn't in the mood for talking either. That was good. Less slip ups that way. Less of a chance of saying something dumb like an idiot and feeling stupid for the next year.
After some more silence, the two finished their food. Link had to admit, he was a lot more hungry than he realized, even if his mind didn't feel like eating. Zelda devoured hers it even faster than he did, but she didn't seem to mind taking out a pen and doodling in her notebook while she waited for Link to finish eating.
Then the waiter came over with the bill.
He was a Rito, with an accent Link struggled to understand that seemed to be from even further away than the Rito normally were from New Hyrule. Link wondered where he came from—but of course that would be rude (and possibly interpreted as racist) to ask.
Placing the bill on the table, he began to check his notes on what seemed like a digital notepad of some sort. Possibly invented for doing waiter work specifically—oh, Link had to know the mechanics of how this thing worked.
"Plus tax, that would be 44 rupees." Link managed to understand.
Zelda seemed to understand this even clearer than he did, which made sense, her job did involve talking to people all across the two provinces (and sometimes beyond) through video call. If she could understand it through the lag of server/location delay, she could understand it now.
Oh—uh—the waiter was just... staring at Link. Did he having something on his shirt? What was the side eye for?
He looked around frantically, hoping not to be judged and failing as he heard Zelda fail to stifle a laugh at this attempt, and then he realized it was just because he was leaning way too far to the side and staring at the writer's digital notepad thingy.
Yeah. He was probably being a bit nosy. Oops.
"I uh, I was curious as to how it worked." Link tried to defend himself.
"He's an engineer. And he's probably autistic, I haven't convinced him to get a diagnosis yet though." Zelda teased.
Link shot a look at her. He would get a diagnosis eventually.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to be nosy." He continued to the waiter, averting eye contact.
Luckily the waiter just smiled.
"We all have our own passions."
The two then silently payed the bill (Zelda used her card on the machine and Link dug out some old rupees that looked like they had been around since Niko's time to give to her as payment for his meal. He would not let her win this battle).
Getting out of their seats, Link and Zelda headed for the door.
...It was dark out.
Had they been gone that long already? They were supposed to be back in New Hyrule by tomorrow morning or afternoon at the latest! And they still didn't have a plan to even get transportation back home!
Zelda must have been thinking the same thing, as she made a displeased "mmmmmm" sound.
Link was tired. But the last thing he wanted to do was sleep on a public bench. He didn't even know if the city mayors in Great Tides built the benches in a way that makes sleeping on them impossible (which made him mad just thinking about, not just for him and Zelda but for all the others, too), so for all he knew it might not even be an option.
That train of thought was broken by tapping sounds.
Increasingly rapid tapping sounds. On a phone keyboard. From Zelda.
"Hey uh, good news and bad news." She said, her frustrated expression illuminated in the screen's light.
"Mmmmm... start with the good news...?" Link winced, hoping he wouldn't regret that order.
"Okay," she looked up from the phone to see him. "The good news is that we have service again."
"...And the bad news...?"
Zelda sighed. "Due to the lack of service beforehand, and therefore the lack of responses to calls and messages for almost 10 hours on both of our parts, we have been legally... reported as missing."
Link's eyes widened.
"Oh that's not good—"
And of course, suddenly Link's phone began to buzz in his back pocket a repeated number of times. And not only did it furiously wiggle it's way around while he tried to dig it out, his notification sound was still a quick recording he took of tossing a rock at a random pot. So considering how many notifications were flowing in, that sound played. Over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And—
Zelda burst out laughing, gathering unwanted attention from the pedestrians roaming the street across from them, as Link hurried to turn his notifications on vibrate only again.
"Is that seriously your notification sound?!" She hollered through laughs, "you breaking a POT?!"
Link hoped she couldn't see how red his face was in the darkness. More so from embarrassment rather than anything romantic (though he hadn't heard her laugh that hard in a long time, and admittedly it was kind of cute).
"I'm never turning my notification sound on again." He stated.
Zelda simply wheezed and then tried to get herself under control.
"Okay okay—that was really funny but we both need to make sure we respond to these messages before people freak out even more."
Oh, right! Niko and Alfonzo must be worried to bits! Niko especially—Link was still subconsciously a tiny kid to the old man! He scrolled back down to respond to the messages from Alfonzo
• how are you two doing
• link
• hello?
• I am going to call. Its been hours
• (3 missed calls)
• link
• zelda isn't responding either. Are you two okay? I dont want to worry niko
Shit. He quickly typed back.
• hi I am so so sorry
• the conductor of the train kind of had a medical issue or something and we took a wrong turn and a lot of chaos happened
• but me and zelda are safe and we made our way to a city across a river and now we dont know what to do cause its dark out but we're safe
• sorry again
• we didnt have service for like 10 kilometers so neither of us knew we were being contacted
He started to type another message, but Alfonzo quickly realized he got a response and started typing back.
• okay thank you
• are you still in great tides
He turned to Zelda.
"I got ahold of Alfonzo, he wants to know if we're still in Great Tides and I wanna make sure i dont accidentally lie."
Zelda paused for a moment to process what he said to her.
"Yeah we're still in Great Tides. The train didn't make it to the border."
Link nodded and turned back down to his phone. At this point he and Zelda had both gotten out of the middle of the sidewalk so get out of people's way, and we're still hunched up against the restaurant they came out of.
• yeah we're still at great tides
Alfonzo responded instantly.
• okay it sounds like you're in windfall then
• big city surrounded by a river connected to the ocean right
Okay, so at least he had an idea of where he was. Link replied.
• yeah that describes it
Alfonzo replied back, still as instant as before.
• okay I will report back to the council
• get zelda to respond too
• stay safe
Looking up, Zelda was done with her messaging too. She seemed distraught, likely overwhelmed with far more messages than Link was.
"You okay?" He asked.
"...Yeah." Zelda sighed. "Just a lot of concerned people to deal with. I had to get one of the other decision makers to send a public service announcement to the people because I got like, way too many messages for me to respond to on the side of a sidewalk.
Link waited for more. The thing about them being able to read each other like books, was that it wasn't just Zelda reading Link. He could often tell when she hadn't said the entirety of the truth, and Zelda knew that.
Link just waited for a response as she slowly hunched over a bit more into what seemed almost like an irritated defensive coil, and he hoped he didn't piss her off, but eventually she admitted.
"...I just don't understand why they always make a big fuss about me specifically. It's always ME. I mean, I think I can recall around 3 times where the Anouki decision maker—I keep forgetting his name—disappeared for around 10 hours or so and no one reported HIM as missing. I don't get it."
Link rubbed the back of his neck.
"...I think it has to do with the fact that you're a direct descent of New Hyrule's founders." He said. "And... I'm sorry for bringing this up, but those cultists did want your body specifically because of your special blood. You... have this power and kind of... special magic that some people look for, whether its for good or bad."
He was looking away for all of that. Which very much was a mistake as when he finally did look back at her she looked like she was so deep in thought with processing his words that her gaze at him might as well have the intention of blowing his head up with her mind.
Fuuuuucck, that sounded too romantic didn't it?
"Not in like—" Link stammered, "Like to everyone—everyone looks for it! Shit im not helping—uh—I shouldn't have brought anything up—I'm—"
"Yeah I got that." She stated. "I was looking at you because I was deep in thought, not because I thought you were like... seeking out my blood for rituals or some shit like that. It just kind of hit me all at once."
Good. So she didn't take it weirdly.
Zelda glanced at the still busy streets they were standing by. Moths had swarmed to the streetlights, and despite how dark it was outside of those lights, the overall light pollution was so dense Link couldn't even see the stars when he looked up.
"We should find a place to spend the night. I'm exhausted." Zelda said.
"Yeah." Link agreed. "Alfonzo told me he'd report the fact that we responded back to the council, so hopefully that will take away some of your worries." He hoped.
"It better." She half chuckled.
And then the two walked onward amongst the streets, until they found a patch of grass. The cars were still close by, but there was a hedge that Link ran into (he turned on his phone flashlight after that) that was away from some of the streetlights, so hopefully people wouldn't see 2 hopeless teenagers sleeping on the side of the road until dawn hit.
Link took his backpack off and placed it against the hedge to use as a makeshift pillow of sorts. Luckily the grass was slightly softer than a concrete slab, so at least there was that...?
Zelda sat beside him. She turned off her phone flashlight after Link did and the two simply relied on sound to know where each other were so they wouldn't accidentally kick each other in the ribs while sleeping.
Link fell asleep almost instantly. They both were so tired that they didnt even say goodnight to each other, though they both meant to, even if the other didn't realize.
Zelda sighed placing her sweater under her head. She assumed the giant dark blob in front of her was Link, and she hoped he didn't think she was mad at him. Instead she almost, almost tried to wake him to clarify this, but she figured if he fell asleep within less than 5 minutes he clearly needed the rest.
And to be fair, so did she. Because less then even 2 minutes later, they were both fast asleep next to the hedge.
ive been wanting to rant about this for a while but since its disability pride month i may as well talk about it now
there's a lot of people (myself included) that headcanon spirit tracks link as autistic, but like. i dont have any proof of this but i get the feeling that a lot of people say that simply because of the "interest in trains" factor, and, while, thats an understandable reason, as someone who's autism affects their life on the daily (both positively and negatively) i feel like there should be more to the fandom showcase of st link being autistic than. just that. dont get me wrong i definitely see trains as his special interest but perhaps give him more traits than just the hyperfixation. is he a yapper or does he go completely silent when people are around? does he stim? keep in mind autism affects everyone uniquely so there can be huge contrast to what's the sterotypical autism (i myself am kind of a walking stereotype) does he get overstimulated when walking around new hyrule castletown because he's grown up in a quiet village and suddenly he's bombarded with Too Many People? like there are so many ways to portray the headcanon besides "i like trains". could just be me but i figured i could mention it lol
something something years before the game of spirit tracks takes place link's 6th sense of seeing + sensing spirits finally kicks in but he's like 5 years old and cant comprehend it so he accidentally traumatizes the fuck out of alfonzo
HIII HAPPY PRIDE YAY here's a notice that link and zelda are both queer in my wotw au/webcomic thingy despite them looking straight they. are not. wahoo
