Restless
Another Zelink Oneshot
Commissioned by @florette-the-witch <3
Link is sick. Link is also stubborn. Post BOTW.
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“I’m not sick,” he said again, sitting up before a hand was placed squarely on his chest. It didn’t take much pressure to force him back to the pillows.
Zelda glared down at him and though she didn’t say anything, he could feel her silent reprimands. The back of her hand found his forehead.
“Link,” she whined at him, “You’re burning up!”
He found the hem of her loose shirt and toyed with it. “Only because you’re near me.”
Despite his jesting, her eyes grew frantic. With a lithe hand, she moved his hair back and tested his temperature with her opposite hand. Zelda’s lips formed a pronounced frown and he heard a mantra of mumblings, not unlike when a hypothesis of hers would lead to a conclusion she wasn’t expecting.
Finally, she huffed and disappeared from view. The series of mumbles following the sound of her footsteps as she fled down the steps. Idly, he stared up at the rafters above. Weariness chanted in his bones, but his head was restless as always.
The gutters need to be cleaned, he thought aimlessly. If they aren’t Bolson is going to give me hell again.
And he didn’t want another lecture on the responsibilities of being a homeowner. With a grunt he sat up on his elbows and heard a sharp, “No.”
Zelda reappeared at the top of the stairs and held a glower his way. Again, his head hit the pillows.
“I’m okay enough to do a couple more things.”
“You aren’t,” she plainly said. “You weren’t yesterday, but I foolishly let you. You’ve gotten worse today.”
A wet cloth touched his forehead and, dear gods, he nearly moaned. Instead a loud hum of satisfaction came from his chest and he opened his eyes to find Zelda’s quiet worry. Her fingers grazed the side of his face, then cupping his cheeks. In the light, her hair glistened gold. Its shortened length was growing out now and he curled a lock between his fingers.
“Let me see your smile again,” Link croaked. He winced at his own voice.
Immediately, she pressed her pink lips together to stifle one. “I think not.”
The spite in her voice was far from real and soon she devolved into a wide smile. She glanced at his lips and when she dipped down for a kiss, he covered her mouth.
She stared with admonishment in her eyes.
“If I’m sick,” he grinned, “Then I’d rather be the only one sick.”
The way her tantalizing lips parted made him pray to the gods to get better soon. At least for her sake. That frown was recurring and he found discomfort in the unrest in her eyes.
“Well, hopefully your fever will break by the time I get back,” she sighed, pulling shoes from under the bed. Zelda glanced at his startled expression and followed up with, “I’m going into town. You need something warm.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No,” she commanded, already pushing back on his bicep. “I’m perfectly capable of buying a few items myself.”
And then she looked at him in a softer light and he damn near melted under it. Her hand trailed down his arm and found his fingers, letting them tangle into her own. Without words, she brought the back of his hand to her mouth and left a chaste kiss.
A healthy Link couldn’t say no to those dancing eyes, how was he ever to put up a fight now?
Link didn’t and she left him with the hint of a smile. Soon the door to their home would signal her leave and the weathered man inside would groan at the ceiling. They had never owned a clock, but the one in his mind began ticking.
A three minute walk to Hateno’s center; five if she took her time. It would take ten minutes to shop for ingredients in East Wind; fifteen if she haggled with Pruce. All in all, if she wasn’t back within a half-hour he’d wrought himself from the covers and go to find her. At the thought, he nodded to himself as if that made all the sense in the world and crossed his arms over his chest to cement it.
Tick, tick, tick, tick. Couldn’t the gods allow time to pass a tad faster? Tick, tick, tick, tick.
Clean gutters. Taxes. No, Zelda always paid those. Weekly scout of the perimeter with village garrison; that could wait. Help Zelda weed out the big spider in the garden.
It felt like he was forgetting something vital and the task snuck farther into the recesses of his mind the more he sought it out. Hadn’t most things felt like that these days? The fact hadn’t calmed his body and the itch to brace himself for the consequences of forgetfulness kept him far from sleep. The damp cloth on his head was warming to his skin and his body was blistering hot.
Sluggish movements cast the covers from him and Link cursed his discomfort and his inability to kiss the woman he loved. It made him drag a hand down his face.
Then, it struck Link.
The horses. He hadn’t fed the horses this morning.
Shit. He ambled to sit up, suddenly thinking their light braying outside the window wasn’t all that cute anymore. Link’s attempts to stand faltered as his legs felt weaker than before. It had been several hours since Zelda forced him back to bed.
Link heaved himself off the mattress and stumbled into the desk chair. He gripped its back and breathed a labored breath to keep his lightheadedness at bay. A chill violently took hold of him and he slowly wrapped the quilt from the bed around his shoulders. Eventually, he gathered the confidence to take on the stairs.
Zelda’s lectures ebbed at his ears with each step but what she didn’t know wouldn’t kill her, right?
He was never a man who could waste a day in bed. For the majority of his life there has always been a goal to work towards. Even when he could barely remember his own name, his spirit was restless. As a child, his goal was to become a knight his father could be proud of. His late adolescence brought upon keeping Hyrule’s princess safe and slaying Calamity Ganon; though as long as that took, he completed them all the same. Now he was an adult and life didn’t bear the burdens as it once did.
After Calamity Ganon, he found that he wanted to make Zelda happy. Her sign of happiness on Hyrule Field had confounded him. With her kingdom in disrepair and a century’s imprisonment, she would still smile for him?
Why she would embrace his filth-ridden form was even more of an anomaly, not to mention when she continued to hug him for weeks to come. And, of course, Link couldn’t help himself after that. Weeks turned to months and months into years. Their hugs changed to shy kisses and shy kisses to much, much more.
The thought occurred to him as the quilt twisted around his feet on the last stair and sent him tripping. Link yelped, scrambling to support himself on the door handle.
The spring breeze made him grip the covers harshly over him. It wasn’t a long walk to the small stable, only around the house, but it seemed like forever. He shuffled slowly on the grass and felt the tell-tale sign of exhaustion making gravity feel harsher than it was.
There wasn’t anything to rest on where the horses were, so Link brushed it away. An itching in his sinuses grew into an enormous sneeze that made the two mares shake their own manes. A glob of snot clung to his nose and Link made a lame attempt to shirk the green blob from his hand.
“Don’t judge me,” Link nasally said to the auburn haired horse.
He removed the quilt and regretted the action as he did it. Chills made him violently shiver. But the horses needed him more than he needed the warmth and the knowledge pushed him to hang it on the stable hooks. The action alone made his arms weary.
Hay bales were on the opposite wall next to the firewood and he heaved one up. Usually the action was nothing, but the lack of appetite the last couple days left his heart racing. Even the horses seemed concerned when the hay dropped over the gate and he stumbled to brace the wall. His world was a boat on rough waters, swimming precariously in his vision.
Link gulped and felt himself flush. He hadn’t felt this queasy since he trekked the Gerudo desert without the proper gear and suffered hyperthermia.
Dimly, he heard his name from the other side of the house and he responded faintly. Another call for him grew closer while a blurry head of golden hair rounded the corner.
“I-I’m right here.”
Link was leaning against the wall, bracing the support beams to keep himself from slipping to the floor when Zelda reached him.
“Hylia above,” she cursed. An angelic curse, but a curse nonetheless. “Link, what in the goddess’s name are you doing out here?”
A soft gasp. “You’re hot to the touch.”
He knew it was bad when the motivation to respond with a quip didn’t manifest itself. With a firm but gentle grip, she wrapped one of his arms around her and made Link use her as support.
“The horses.” He nearly retched when she moved forward and to remediate it he shut his eyes.
“Is that why you’re out here? I fed them this morning.”
All he could do was nod and beat down the urge to puke on the love of his life. Slowly they hobbled around the bend and Zelda wrangled the door open.
“Come on,” she cood. “Can you make it up the stairs?”
His affirmation was to lean on the guard rails instead and breathe in heavy pants.
Without him seeing it, Zelda pulled his hair from his face into a low ponytail. She always carried multiple ties around her wrists these days. Her arms wrapped around his middle with a feather-like touch, partially supporting him and also just to feel his being.
“You worried me. I expected a sleepyhead, not an empty bed.”
Link wanted to chuckle, but he lacked energy and her tone was devoid of amusement. When he didn’t say anything at all, she coaxed him up the stairs. While he fell on the bed, Zelda shuffled through the closet and produced several blankets.
The sudden coverage around his person made the nausea subside and her hands tucked in the blankets around him to make sure there was no room for cold air to seep through. Link closed his eyes at the sensation of chills subsiding.
Her footsteps retreated before he could breathe an apology, but she wasn’t gone for very long. The smell of simmering chicken broth wafted to his nose.
“How many times have I gotten sick and you’ve taken care of me?” She pinned him down with her eyes.
Thrice, but she wasn’t asking for an answer from him. Zelda took his face in her hands. There was a small line that creased her forehead.
“So why is it that the one time you get sick it’s the end of the world?” she voiced, sincerity stressing the question.
Link didn’t have a response for that. Guilt borrowed into him. Weakness was something he could never have afforded and now that he could… it made him feel inadequate.
“Do you not want me to care for you? Because I promise you that I’m trying to look out for you, my love,” she said, voice filled with warmth and a clear sign of the love in her eyes. Link’s heart ached.
“Zelda,” he rasped, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”
The crease soothed slightly and her grasp on him fled. “I know. You did worry me, no, you continue to.”
He could hear her wring out the washcloth in a water basin she had pulled upstairs. Then, a sigh.
Link swallowed, thumbing through all the things he could say to remediate the conflict in the sound of her breath. He fell on a simple: “I love you.”
The frantic tone of his voice quirked a smile on her face and when she looked up, he could swear she was a benevolent deity. “I love you too.”
“So much,” he followed up.
Then, she laughed. “Too much!”
“Oh, gods, never enough.”
She smiled down at him as she smoothed the damp fabric on his forehead. Beautiful was a word that flashed in his mind repeatedly. Lucky, lucky, lucky.
“Do me a favor, lover boy.”
“Anything.”
“Take a long nap.” Zelda scrunched up her nose defiantly. “I’ll be downstairs where you won’t be able to escape.”
As she stood to walk away, he took her hand in his and pressed a kiss to the back of it, basking in the way a slight rosy color tinted her cheeks.
Link fell asleep without even trying. When he woke, it was still daylight and the afternoon cast shadows across the room. His hand was wrapped around another’s and it didn’t take his sleep-muddled mind long to figure out who it was.
She slept with shallow breathing over the side of the bed. Her head rested on the edge of the mattress with her hand clasped around his. A sea of golden locks. On the nightstand was a bowl of soup, still steaming. Link turned to get a better view and realized that feeding the horses hadn’t been what he had forgotten.
Next week he had to trek out to Gerudo Town. To Zelda, he was making the journey to check on the young Gerudo chieftess. In actuality, there was a small package waiting for him in the jeweler's shop.
Link had always thought her ring finger was missing something.
