Zelink Week 2019 prompt #1/10
“Do you really remember me?” Zelda asked, her emerald eyes full of hope, trying to hide the anxious anticipation inside.
Yet, her inquiry was only met by silence, a silence that she tried not to let discourage her.
Zelda assumed that if he had heard her, he would have responded. She had seen him interact with people and even talk regularly over the last few months observing him.
So why was he silent now? Staring unwaveringly at what was before him.
Zelda looked behind her, to see if there was anything worth staring at, eyeing the castle in the distance, the breeze-blown trees, the decayed guardian.
She turned her head back when she found nothing remarkable behind her.
Link must have been looking at her but…
He was looking at her so differently. It wasn’t affection, like she wanted, yet it wasn’t just a blank stare, like she expected. It was as if his eyes couldn’t get enough of the sight of her. There was a silent longing in his piercing blue eyes, as if they wanted nothing more than to keep looking at her.
There was a fear in his heart too, unknown to Zelda, that if he said something, touched her, embraced her, that she would just become another figment of his memory, another dream washed away by reality.
Link walked slowly towards her with a timid outstretched hand, scared that at any second, a turquoise flame would rise around her, that his hand would go straight through her
“Link…?” Zelda said breathlessly as he came closer.
She shouldn’t have been confounded by his silence, it was Link after all. But she’d waited for this moment, for this reunion, and for the answer to the question she asked for over a hundred years.
What an odd thing he was doing now in response…
Zelda felt his warm fingertips graze her shoulder before a sigh of relief from Link placed his palm down on top of it fully, his grip tightening as he closed his eyes.
Zelda’s green eyes searched him, the way his eyes were shut, the way his head was angled downwards, the cuts on his blue tunic, the bruise on his cheek.
“Link,” she couldn’t help but ask again. Perhaps this time he would hear, despite how shaky it came out, “do you remember me?”
Link looked up, straight into her eyes, an obvious reaction to her inquiry. He slid his hand off her shoulder and back to his side before an odd expression formed on his face, like he was hesitant to answer the question.
He inhaled to speak, Zelda preparing herself for a ‘no’ to escape his lips.
Instead, she was taken completely off guard when he said,
Zelda furrowed her brow, questioning in her mind how of all people, he remembered Daruk and not her.
After all they had been through together…
“He sends his regards,” Link continued, a soft gasp coming from the Princess, herself now hanging on each and every one of his words. If at all possible, more than before, “and Urbosa, she…she wanted me tell you that no one need carry blame for the fate of the champions, especially you and especially me. She wanted you to shed any worries…and to know that she couldn’t be more proud of you.”
Zelda’s eyes had softened to a distinct sadness, Link telling himself again that it wasn’t his place to comfort her.
“What else did they say…the champions,” Zelda said, her voice quiet and vulnerable.
“They told me to save you, but,” Link replied, “I didn’t need them to…”
She felt her heart skip a beat at his words, at the sincerity in his eyes, at his soft tone.
“I hope you’ll excuse my honesty, Your Highness,” Link continued in her silence, “but saving you was…well it always made the most sense, ever since the beginning, it made the most sense.”
“Link,” Zelda replied, “for goodness sake you can speak freely, you’re not obligated to propriety. Say what you choose…do what you choose…you deserve to be your own person, not be obligated to some regiment, to some order.”
Link took a shaky inhale, Zelda uncertain of what he would do in response, what she wanted him to do in response.
With only two strides, he quickly took her into his arms, hugging her tightly as Zelda’s eyes widened.
Zelda’s arms floated purposelessly until they wrapped around Link, clutching his blue tunic as they both relaxed into the embrace.
“You do too, Zelda,” Link replied as he held her, “and I…I do remember you. I will always remember you.”
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
gummygunk
tangentwithtanner
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
izzy806
