I can't believe I'm doing this! This is my contribution to @zelink-microfic.
The prompt was murmurs, suggested by @sparklyhyperbole (I know, I'm two days late, sorry). Hope you like it, I decided to make it TP Zelink!
Anyway, here is my little piece of writing!
Zelda assured him that he did not have to attend, but he promised her that he would go. After all, they were planning to celebrate the completion of the restorations in Hyrule. Furthermore, it had been exactly two years since Ganondorf had been defeated. As the Hero of the kingdom, Link felt that he should be present at that assembly.
So there was Link, sitting next to Zelda, trying to appear calm while memories of what had happened long ago flooded his mind: He and Midna, running in his wolf form through the Farone Forest while beasts corrupted by twilight stalked them; Zelda, sacrificing herself to save Midna; the princess again, possessed by Ganon and turned into a puppet...
He could still hear the hysterical laughter of that fake Zelda, mocking him, calling him pathetic and useless as she attacked him with her sword, as sharp as her venomous tongue.
In the end, everything turned out well. He freed the princess and light returned to Hyrule, but Link couldn't deny that he was still distressed. He felt remorse. Regardless of whether he had acted correctly or not, he had attacked Zelda, and the scars the princess hid under her long dresses and gloves were proof of that.
The fact that Zelda herself did not reproach him at all did not help. The voice of the possessed Zelda haunted him constantly. Even in the middle of that meeting, his mind would not leave him alone. At first, they were just faint whispers, but they grew louder until they became murmurs so audible that they drowned out the councillors' conversations. It was as if that hideous being was embedded in his head... And those echoes he heard... were they the sobs of the princess, the real Zelda?
The first thing he noticed when he came to was the princess's beautiful violet eyes. She was staring at him, a worried expression on her face. The second thing he noticed was that she had placed a hand on each side of his cheeks. Zelda was holding his face. Nervous and moved in equal measure, the hero allowed himself to lean a little more into her hands, enjoying their touch, until he remembered where they were.
He abruptly stood up, knocking his chair over in the process, prepared to face the reproachful glances of the royal councillors. However, when he looked up, he found himself facing an empty room.
He looked at the princess again, searching for answers.
‘I dismissed them. I ordered the meeting to be postponed, claiming that I was indisposed.’
Hearing these words, Link was alarmed.
‘Are you all right, Princess?’
Zelda laughed without humour, and maintaining her worried expression, she stood up and walked over to stand in front of the hero.
‘We both know that you're the one who's not well. And you know what, Link? That's okay. Just because you're a hero doesn't mean you have to act like one all the time.’
Link felt his eyes well up. He didn't know what to say, but he didn't need to say anything. Zelda moved a little closer and hugged him.
He buried his head in the hollow of her neck and cried until sunset. Then, pulling away just enough to hold his hand, Zelda led them both to the balcony that ran the length of one side of the room. The sun was about to set. Neither of them said anything about it, but they both knew: that was the moment when the realm of Light and the realm of Twilight became one.
And when the sun disappeared completely, giving way to the moon, Link felt the nightmarish murmurs that had been oppressing him vanish.
