Never Without You │ BOTW modern AU fanfic

Everything I Do is For Us

(Extra chapter today because I did well on my first final!! If I do good on my other finals, you know what's coming ;)

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Link's POV

Even though Cado's night shift is over, he's still guarding the gate. At least someone's got our backs, but damn, he's going to ask questions if he sees my bruised face.

I roll my bike up next to Zelda's car, helmet still on, visor down, and step into the house. I find a bathroom and finally take off the damn helmet, staring at my messed-up reflection. Bruises everywhere, cracked nose, and a bloody lip. I lean forward, spit some blood into the sink and wipe the rest from my lips. I gotta clean up before Zelda sees me like this.

I turn on the faucet. My split knuckles are swollen. I rinse off the blood, feeling the sting. As the blood goes down the drain, I realize how much I fucked up. I fucked up. For real this time. I hit the bottom of my fist against the sink. How am I going to explain this to her?

I clean up my face as best as I can but I can't make the bruises disappear. I search the cabinets for a first aid kit but this is just a guest bathroom and there's nothing but towels, soaps, and toilet paper. Today is not my lucky day.

There's some blood on my shirt too, and my legs are badly scraped from throwing myself onto the rocky trail. I take off the shirt to see if it's my blood or Karusa's. There's no open wounds on my upper body, which is a good sign. Just a bunch of bruises around my left rib cage. One year ago he bruised the right side, now it's the left. I can't help but laugh at the freaking irony.

I walk upstairs and down the hall to find Zelda. Voices are coming from the guest bedroom. I can hear Malice, so she's awake. Zelda is questioning her about Ganon.

While they're distracted, I sneak into Zelda's bedroom to change into a new set of clothes. Once I'm wearing a clean hoodie and sweatpants to cover the scraps, I toss the bloody shirt down the laundry shoot and slowly make my way to the room across the hall.

"He's going to kill me," Malice says just as I step into the room. She's laying on the floor between the bed and Zelda. Zelda is crouching next to her, not noticing me yet.

When Malice looks up at me, there's no anger or fear on her face. She just acknowledges me with a tired and neutral expression. Despite my messed up face, Malice doesn't stare, and within a second, she looks back at Zelda. But that one second was long enough to get Zelda's attention. When she turns around to see who's standing behind her, her jaw drops. She gasps.

"Link!"

And unlike Malice, she can't stop staring. She looks at me like it's some kind of horror show.

Knuckles hidden in the pocket of my hoodie, I let her know that Ganon is still in prison and we don't have to worry about him. Or Karusa.

"What happened to your face?" she asks in shock.

Before I explain myself and tell her that Impa and Kiroh dropped off her phone as I hand it to her. I didn't delete the message I sent to Karusa. I didn't even close out of the app. I'm not going to hide this from her.

"I got into a fight," I admit and she takes the phone, eyes locked on my messed-up knuckles.

"With Kiroh?" She says and I almost laugh. Kiroh couldn't do this much damage.

I shake my head at her. "With Karusa."

"Karusa?!" Zelda and Malice say at the same time.

"The prison wouldn't give me any info on Ganon, so I used your phone to message Karusa for a meetup," I start explaining.