To Pieces (LoZ - Link)

Holy Heartbeat

AN: I'll be quick here, but I would like to apologize for my absence as of recent. I know I posted a personal update not all that long ago, but as it stands, things are not really going any better. I made a tiny step to make things better today, let's just hope it's on the up and up from here? I dunno. Anyways, thanks for your usual support, and for your patience, I'll be posting two chapters of this tonight.

<3 Devon

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"This is entirely inappropriate,"

The woman with the knife at my throat didn't have to tell me for me to know it. I knew I shouldn't be here, I knew she was busy--

But I couldn't sleep, and I just needed to see her.

I had to talk to Zelda. I needed to get the guilt off my chest.

"Five minutes, please." Impa narrows her eyes, warning me to leave. "It may very well be one of the last time I can speak with her normally, and I'd rather we both leave off with kind words."

"Five minutes," Impa mutters, stepping aside to let me walk towards the camp Zelda was settling down for the evening in.

I hadn't really thought much about what I would even say.

Why was I here?

"Zelda, are you awake?" My voice cracks a little when I do speak up, but I can tell by the sudden movement that Zelda knows who's speaking.

"Oria?" She steps out, greeting me with a smile. Before I can respond, Zelda has lept forward and pulled me into a hug. "It's so nice to see you... Is everything alright? What's going on?"

My arms fall onto her shoulders, and I try not to get distracted by how silky the material of her dress feels on my fingertips. "Nothing is wrong, really..." I admit, "I just wanted to see you, it felt like this was the only time things have calmed down enough for me to be able to."

"Oh," She nods, her cheeks a little red, presumably from worrying over nothing.

"Sorry," I pull my arms from her and rub at the back of my neck. "Now that I say it out loud, it sounds kind of stupid..."

"Not at all!" She interjects, "Really, I'm happy you came. Would you like to take a seat by the fire?" I give a small nod and we settle down in front of the freshly stocked flames. "Have your great fairy duties been tiring? Have you been eating enough?"

Ah yes, Zelda-- the mom friend.

"I'm doing fine," Lie. "Great fairy business feels like nothing, it's all just sparkly magic." I can see Impa glaring at me from her post at the edge of the camp. This is a dangerous subject to speak of. "But really, I.. Listen, I don't want to talk about that. I wanted to speak to you just-- normally. I miss you, I miss our conversations. Can we have just one moment of peace and normality?"

Zelda gives me a small smirk, "You miss me, huh? How flattering."

I'll wipe that smirk off with my mouth if she teases again.

"It can't be that surprising, we only spend every day together," Her face falls a little after I say this. "Listen uh, I've done a lot of thinking, and I spoke with Link--"

"About your feelings?" Zelda whispers.

"About everyone's," I correct. "Link told me about the day of the wing ceremony... I appreciate what you tried to do for me, Zelda, honestly but... Telling him the truth wouldn't have made things better."

"You don't know that, Oriana." Ah yes, the tone. The use of my full name. She truly was the mom friend.

"Link isn't the only thing in the world that plagues me. My life in general has been a hell of a lot of reaching for things out of my grasp. I haven't felt happy since I graduated the Knight Academy, and I think a lot of that has to do with how little I see the people I care about the most in general. Or, I don't know, maybe it's something deeper. Something romance can't fix. Maybe I'm just like this-- but what I do know, is that I see so little of you already, that if what I did see was you being miserable and knowing it was my own fault -- It would devastate me. You're a huge part of my world, my heart.. I don't know how else I can make you understand that."

Not without telling you that I loved you.

"Then you should be able to understand that my actions were caused by the same feelings,"

What's left of my heart feels as though it comes to a stop in my chest.

"What?" I whisper in response, getting a shy smile from the girl across from me.

"What you're asking me to do-- that's what I'd be doing to you. I could never be okay with breaking your heart. I want to stay a big part of it, I want to stay in your life and for you to stay in mine." Her words make my palms sweat, and I rub them nervously over my knight's uniform. She reaches out, placing her hands over mine-- I'm thankful she can't feel how damp the bottom is-- and tilts her head just the slightest. "But no matter what-- My only wish in this world is to do what it takes to make you truly happy."

My world slows down as she lifts my hand up to her cheek- placing my palm against her smooth porcelain skin and leaning her head into my touch. My heart beat is more devastatingly loud than it had been in a while, my blood coursing through my veins at speeds I no longer thought capable. Can she feel the pulsing of it in my hand? I could.

"Five minutes are up," Impa's threatening voice pulls my body back to reality. Zelda gives disappointed look, but before I can pull my hand away, she shakes me to my core.

She gently kisses my palm, before standing and retreating to her tent.

"Holy shit," I whisper, my feet rooted into the ground.

"She is holy. Remember that." Impa's threats simply stream though my ears. I can't focus. What the hell was I doing? Where am I going?

I can't. function.

"Get back to the hero, before I make you regret leaving his side."

Right.

Reality.

You have a job to do, Oria. And falling harder for Hylia is NOT part of it.

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