Linktober 2023

Day 23, Child/children

He would be a great father, Zelda caught herself thinking multiple times. If he'd only hurry up and marry me.

Tags: Domestic Fluff, pre-totk

After the Calamity, Hateno was buzzing with children. Every few months there was a baby shower or birthday. And Link wanted to go to all of them.

A few months after Zelda's rescue, he came back to the Hateno house from helping someone build something with an invitation in his hand.

"Ralera and Rhodes had their baby a week ago. The celebration is in three days," Link said at dinner. "Do you want to go?"

It was always up to her, she noticed. She would have to assure him it was alright with her for him to go. It was like that since she came back.

"You clearly want to go," Zelda pointed out.

Link nodded. "I wasn't able to go to their baby shower. But they're lovely people. Ralera is from Lurelin, so her family is coming to celebrate."

"Did she invite you?"

"Rhodes did. I ran into him today."

Zelda smiled. "I'd love to go."

When the day arrived, Zelda saw for the first time how much Link adored children. When he laid eyes on the newborn for the first time, his eyes lit up with so much joy Zelda couldn't stop staring at him. Ralera let him hold the little girl, and he spoke so softly to her, and he was so gentle...

After that, there seemed to be celebrations for kids all the time. Birthdays were celebrated with the entire town, and children ran around the hosting house. Link would join the older kids in games of tag or hide and seek, or entertain them with stories of daring quests the kids would call ridiculous, but were completely true. He would hold the newborn babies with so much adoration in his eyes it was a little staggering. He would be a great father, Zelda caught herself thinking multiple times. If he'd only hurry up and marry me.

But they decided to get the Kingdom in its feet first. A mutual agreement after yet another baby shower when Zelda couldn't help herself from asking if he was ever going to propose. It was more awkward than anything else, but the agreement was reasonable enough.

Still, Link loved the town children. Zelda wanted to do something nice for them, too. So the Hateno school was born a few year later. It was mostly Link's half-hearted idea one late night when they were both huddled over the dining table. Zelda ran with the idea, though, enlisting Hudson Costruction to build the school and Symin – Purah's old assistant – to help her teach.

Once the school was up and running, Link loved it. He didn't really teach anything, despite Zelda insisting he would be good at it. He did play with the kids during their breaks, and told stories for a few minutes between lessons. The kids seemed to want his approval, the boys thought he was cool.

It only made the two of them want a family even more.

So Zelda made a plan to propose to him, taking Link's hazy history into account. He was practically raised by the Zora, and when she told him most Hylians proposed with rings instead of clothes he was slightly baffled by the idea, even though he didn't remember exactly why he thought the idea was odd. So Zelda made a new Champion's tunic with clean leathers (his current one was faded and shabby anyway) and planned to give it to him in the castle, once they were finished inspecting the gloom.

But she never got to. Not for a long time, at least. And on those long nights spent in the past, she dreamed about that family they wanted, if only to stop her from losing hope and going insane.  

Link is good with kids and you can't tell me otherwise, especially not after that one Hateno school quest.