The Legend Says I Love You | Zelink

Chapter 15: A Knight's Place

A lost memory.

[A/N: a.k.a. me just makin' shit up]

*

He was still there when she woke up, with his arm wrapped tightly around her and his face buried into the crook of her neck. She smiled to herself. She had no idea of the time, but gathered it must have still been morning by the way the sun slanted past her curtains and into the room. It gave her enough light to see Link curled around her, their clothes scattered across her floor, and - much to her displeasure - the day ahead of them. They wouldn't be able to stay like that forever, despite how much she longed to lay there beside him and absentmindedly play with his hair. He had managed to chase off destiny and impending doom in the night, but the light of the day had only brought it that much closer. Nervousness began to eat away at her stomach. She had to climb the mountain soon. She had to awaken her powers.

But first, she had to wake up Link. "Link?" she whispered, so as not to startle him. "Are you awake?"

He snuggled in closer.

"Open your eyes," she giggled, but he only shook his head, nuzzling further against her skin. "Wake up, Link."

"I have...exerted myself. I deserve to sleep in."

She kissed his sleepy forehead. He wasn't wrong. "I thought knights had more stamina?" she said anyway, just to be annoying.

He grunted irritably into her neck before pushing himself into a seated position to glare down at her fully. His hair stuck up cutely at all angles. His eyes were still heavy with sleep.

"You can come back when you're proper," she told him, and he sleepily turned his gaze to his clothes strewn across the floor. "When we're both proper," she corrected, knowing it would take him all of one minute to get ready. "But for now I fear there's no excuses to be made if someone sees us."

And she was right. When Lora came knocking shortly afterwards, and Link not so subtly excused himself from her room, there was little she could say to divert gossip. "Nightmares," she offered weakly in terms of explanation. "He keeps them at bay." Technically, that wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the full truth either. Lora nodded politely, but Zelda could see plainly that she understood more than she intentionally conveyed. Later, when brunch was brought to her study, it was delivered alongside an elixir. "What's this for?" Zelda had so naively asked.

"For, uh, the morning after when Sir Link stays the night. If you understand me," Lora said.

Zelda drank it down like a shot. She screwed her eyes shut. "Did anyone see you bring it here?" she asked, practically wincing. The liquid tasted worse than the heat elixirs of Death Mountain.

"No! I took great care to hide it!"

"Clearly I should be taking greater care to hide things," Zelda mumbled. "But, thank you. Truly," she said, turning in her chair to face her directly. "Although, I have to ask that you don't breathe a word of this to anyone. Not even Anna."

"Of course, your Highness," Lora promised, clasping her hands together tightly.

And yet, when Link had told Zelda that Anna had confronted him some time later, she couldn't find it in herself to be surprised. At least, not surprised at her knowledge of events. "You? She talked to you about it?" That was the part that got her.

"Talked is generous," Link said around a mouthful of apple. He was snacking in her study again, leaning against her desk while she worked. "She swore, mostly."

"What did she say, exactly? She hasn't even let on to me that she knows!" Zelda was feeling sullenly betrayed. Her own maid. Confronting her own Knight. And she had been left out of the conversation in its entirety.