The Legend Says I Love You | Zelink

Chapter 10: Mipha's Touch

Mipha quietly expresses her concern for Link while tending to his wounds atop the Divine Beast. She reassures Link that he can count on her in the upcoming trials ahead.

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Zelda was sitting with her arms around her knees pulled up to her chest, making herself as small as possible as she watched Link, Mipha and the young Zora prince, Sidon, play in the water. They had already been at Zora's Domain for a week, with Vah Ruta already fully upgraded, but Zelda was as reluctant to leave as she had been to arrive. Originally, she knew she had to come here. She wanted to; to do her best and her duty and help the only way she knew how to. But then Fiore had happened, and a small coil of jealously had taken root in her stomach and now she was afraid that seeing Link with another old friend would make it grow into something larger.

She was already holding him back from so much; she couldn't stand holding him back from his friends too, all because she felt a pang in her heart every time that she was reminded he had a whole life outside of and before her.

So she had dragged herself dutifully to Zora's Domain anyway, and behind Link and Mipha who ventured ahead in the land they both knew so well and tried her hardest to let him go off without her. Except it had gotten to the point where she was actively pushing him away, snapping at him when he lingered around her too long, or sending him off to fetch this snail or that when she didn't need either. All the while, she dragged their visit out too: equipping Vah Ruta with the best possible mechanics, only to strip them back down and start the whole process again claiming something unseen and unknowable had gone awry, and that if it wasn't torn out at the roots, it'd never blossom again. Each time she dissembled and reassembled parts of Ruta, she unpacked and repacked her own heart. Each time, the result was the same. Vah Ruta was the best it could possibly be in the fight against Ganon, with or without her powers, and Link... she knew where she was going there. But did he? The world was about to be torn apart from under her feet and her biggest worry was that her crush was too obvious.

Zelda had no doubt that Link had an inkling of what she was doing, at least on a surface level. But, he also had the good grace to let her stew in her indecisive, procrastinators misery. Besides, the longer they stayed at Zora the more he got to enjoy his extended vacation with his childhood friends, as was happening now.

A small smile crept up on her face despite her childish, sullen jealousy as she watched Link and Mipha bow to Sidon's every whim, both acting as if they'd been shot by a thousand arrows every time Sidon splashed them, and letting him win every time they raced. They were playing underneath the Domain itself, which was propped up above the lake by giant pillars. Zelda sat at the pillars circular foundation, near the ladder she had descended from whilst Link, Mipha, and Sidon effortlessly dived straight in to the water from the Domain's platform. Link, however, had waited patiently on the foundation for Zelda to come down safely, before he slipped back into the water with his friends. She couldn't help but feel like she was holding him back in everything they did together; including saving the world. The small smile that had been creeping up dropped off her face as swiftly as Sidon splashed back into the water.

She creeped forward on the platform, taking her shoes off so she could dip her feet in to distract herself. The water was icy cold.

"Princess! Princess! Do you wanna play?" Sidon asked her, resurfacing in front of her, and showing rows upon rows of sharp teeth. With the sun glinting off of his silver, jewelled Zora finery coupled with his smile, the kid was almost too bright to look at.

She smiled back helplessly. How could she not? But unfortunately she had to disappoint him. "I'm afraid I haven't brought my swimming gear, dear Sidon."