— ✿ His simple response was matched with a stiff action, her eyes fluttering open to gaze at his awkward form besides her. His knees pressed against his chest, his eyes gazed at anything other than herself. By the seems of it, perhaps he was in the same train of thought as she. Perhaps nervousness got to him as well – rightfully so, this wasn’t his first rodeo with trying to finish what he was put to.
Regardless, his ability to follow suit to requests was lacking. The blonde reached out, a gentle hand, pressing against his own and slowly trailing up his arm – enough so to where she could get a proper grip on him to pull him down and flush against her own body. Gentle fingers found their way to his ponytail, pulling it out with ease, and proceeding to run through gold locks.
“ Ya ain’t listen real well, I said lay. Relax … ” Linkel mumbled, cyan eyes looking up at equally blue skies. It was moments like these that made her want to stay. Moments like these that she wanted to last forever. Yet in the same respect, it was moments like these that were always fleeting, never lasting quite as long as one may want.
It was moments like these that made her heart soar and hurt all simultaneously.
“ … Are ya nervous ?? ”Her sudden voice calls, drenched in a sad curiosity. “ About the fight, I mean … ” Of course, what else could she possibly mean ??
“ … Ya sure ya ain’t want me to come with ya, I mean, I can help … ” Lin already knew his answer, she didn’t even have to ask. A stern no, as per usual. He wanted to face his enemy alone. Understandable. Yet it still scared her.
Not nearly as much as what was to happen in the aftermath.
She’d already prayed, to no answer or hint, to stay. She’d already begged the statues, she’d already tried what she could. The heroine of past knew she didn’t belong in the world of the champion of new. She knew that she didn’t belong WITH the champion of new, she understood this. But regardless, she wasn’t stopped from wanting to try.
Hope, that the moment the ghost of a kingdom is saved once and for all, that she won’t be thrown back into her own, of which she’d already earned her own peace. Despite the peace, she didn’t mind the wreck of his home. It had easily became hers.
Home, is where the heart is, after all.
Link’s voice raised in a surprised lilt as a seeking hand tenderly trailed up along his arm-- before wrapping around him in an inescapable embrace that laid him down upon her.
A nervous fidget ran along his whole body; a sense of invasion of privacy compelled him to remove himself, and yet, one hand remaining upon him while the other sought out his hair to tousle made it clear he wouldn’t be allowed to leave. So, he might as well not hurt her feelings by trying otherwise.
“Mmngh...” Giving a slight grumble, Link faced forward towards the water. He tried his best to put the welcoming sensations against him out of his mind, the softness of her body, the soothing gentle warmth that radiated, the rise and fall of her breathing creating an easing rhythm... He lasted for about half a minute, maybe less. Then, thankfully, Link began to settle in her embrace. “...I’m...as ready as I’m going to be, it’s just...”
Already... Already, he’d had a few nightmares of it. One last face joining the gallery of the fallen specters; that sad freckled smile amidst golden hair vanishing into the abyss, lost forever...
There was a place she belonged. There were people who loved her. She was the Hero of Twilight, the courageous wolf who’d cut down the shadows. The epilogue of her story couldn’t be meeting her end in some distant time and place babysitting some failed Hero who couldn’t finish the job. It’d be too much for his heart to bear.
Did he want her beside him? Of course he did. After losing so much, to be alone again, possibly dying alone, seemed like such heartache. But as much as he wanted this presence embracing him in those dark depths, to give him that sense of peace in the final hour, that was something he couldn’t ask of her.
Yet, he couldn’t answer her question without her knowing he’d be lying, either. So, he’d temper his answer some.
“...What I want is--” Link’s voice came distracted, eyes cast down, face conflicted. Not quite answering her question but not speaking falsely, he started again. “What I want, more than anything, is to save everything that’s left. If that...thing is allowed to claim even one more life, I--”
His voice broke. Without realizing, as he’d said those words, Links fingers had gently gripped at the soft skin beneath, clutching the one he was trying not to allude to.
“...I can’t protect anyone that stands beside me. I think that’s pretty clear by now.” Linkel would be able to feel it, a saddened slumping and loss of receptiveness to her touch. “So I won’t make the mistake of trying.”
