I Don't Love You (Zelink)

"I'm sorry, Link but it's just... I can't... I'm sorry, okay! I don't love you," Zelda stood up fast and ran, tears rushing down her face as she left the man that loved her behind.

Link was currently in a state of shock. He'd only seen Zelda cry a handful of times, but never had it not hurt him that she was in tears. No, this time he was hurt for an entirely different reason.

She didn't love him.

It was plain for him to see, the feelings he'd had for the young woman since they were children were gripped harshly and thrown in his face. Buried deep after all the time he'd spent trying to surface them.

He felt as if he could look at the grass next to him and see the broken shards of his heart laying there, shattered by the one woman who had made it whole after his parents left him for the heavens.

"I don't love you."

The words echoed through his skull like a migraine, pounding without cease. He hadn't even noticed the wetness on his cheeks until a tear dripped down onto his hand. When he finally caught up with the fact that he was crying, he tried, and failed, to hold back a rather loud sob.

After the first one, another followed, and another.  Soon, he was sitting in the grass sobbing loudly in the graveyard. He couldn't take this. The pain was too much for him to bare. The ache in his chest, the echo in his head, the ripped, choked cries, tearing from his throat.

"I don't love you."

"I don't love you."

"I don't love you."

His feet controlled themselves, walking his shaking body to the edge of the island. Luckily, all the rescue knights were off shift tonight.

He just needed the pain to end without anyone there to see. He didn't want to be saved. He couldn't be. Physically, but never emotionally. His heart was in pieces, shattered, beaten, and broken. It was gone, it could never be fixed or brought back.

He couldn't be brought back.

He stared down at his feet for a while before looking past them and gazing upon the long stretch of clouds that hovered below Skyloft, right above the Surface.

Without another moments hesitation, he jumped, feeling the breeze against his face one last time. His eyes stung from the pressure and from being wet before. He closed them softly, relaxing and accepting the fact that this was the end of him.

His bird, Crimson, stared from a distance, waiting for him to bring his fingers to his mouth and whistle for him. But the sound never came.

Link smiled as he felt himself pass through the cloud barrier.

"I don't love you."

"I don't love you."

"I don't love you."

The words repeated over and over like a broken record. Link smiled even wider, soon the record would stop replaying those dreaded words.

Fear sunk its way into the pit of his stomach. He wasn't afraid of dying, it was only human instinct to be scared before the impact. Link brushed the feeling aside as he free fell closer and closer to the ground.

"I don't love you."

"I don't love you."

"I don't love you."

There was a loud "crack" as Link's body made contact with the hard ground. His once bright blue eyes opened for a split second before dulling to a lifeless pale colour, once again fluttering closed afterwords. His laboured breathing halted and his rapid heartbeat stopped as well.

His mouth hung open slightly with the last words he'd whispered before his end,

"I love you."