The Legend Says I Love You | Zelink

Chapter 23: Stolen Promises

Paya brings the Princess breakfast, and is thoroughly scandalised to find Link in bed beside her. Impa considers this the last straw: she sends them on a journey to visit Purah, and hopes their frustrations are exhausted by the time they get back.

*

Despite avoiding the promise of falling sleep and convincing himself that he was undeserving of such a luxury, his body had other plans for him. In the end, he couldn't resist sleep's heavy pull and went under. Sometime during the night, his traitorous unconsciousness had also managed to wriggle its way under the covers. But, that didn't stop him from waking a few hours later, shivering and blinking into the early morning sun that slipped easily past the broken window shutters. He peered at it lazily, the blanket pulled up past his nose, and considered getting up to try and shut it properly. But he was far, far too comfortable, even with the shivers on his skin. Besides, Zelda was still asleep. He moved his head slightly, just enough to see the top of her hair. He could feel her wrapped around him, her body pressed tightly against his side. Is she cold too? he worried. Her nightdress really was too thin. And mornings were always cold around Kakariko, so much that you could see a low fog passing through the long grass of its valleys. He didn't want that fog creeping into the room, too.

But he also just didn't want to get up. Not yet. The few hours of accidental rest was still the best sleep he'd ever had, even in comparison to his one hundred year slumber. For one, he wasn't naked and disoriented in a cave and, secondly, he was next to Zelda - really Zelda - and not some disembodied voice. And so he wanted to revel in it. He wanted to pull her even closer and go back to sleep with her gently snoring beside him. To listen to her slow and steady heart as it lulled him back to bed. To spend time together without a deadline, or a goal, or a limit. He just wanted to be with her. But he also didn't want her to be cold.

He agonized over getting up and shutting that damn window, and what he'd have to do afterwards. Did he just leave for the sake of propriety? Or was it more polite to stay and wait until she woke up? Or was he just procrastinating again so he had an excuse to lie next to her longer? He had to make a decision.

Paya made it for him. She entered the room cheerily with a breakfast tray, almost immediately tripping over her own feet in her haste to reverse her decision and back out. She dropped the tray, causing Link to shoot up reflexively to try and catch it before it clattered, but she beat him to it - swiftly catching it and balancing its contents before it could ever hit the floor. "Good save," he told her without sarcasm, standing with his hands on his hips in a gesture of admiration.

Paya stammered an apology as a blush crept up on her face. "I didn't realise! I'm sorry I had no idea you'd be..."

A little breeze from the window had the good grace to remind him of his predicament. The chill that grazed his skin couldn't even draw a shiver out of him: he was frozen rigid.

"...uh, here?" she finished, lamely.

Without thinking, he was already backing up into the bed, trying to hide beneath the covers once more until he felt a kick at his back, and was being promptly pushed out.

"Oh! Good morning, Paya! Link," kick, "had an issue with his armour--"

"It was wet," he added, unhelpfully, stumbling back out of the bed.

"-- and I had a nightmare --"

He thought he was still having one. He looked for a pillow to hide himself.

"-- so he stayed the night."

Failing his pillow search, he resumed his power stance and feigned nonchalance instead. "Yes," he confirmed, for absolutely no reason. Why did everything, spelt out exactly as it had happened, still sound like a lie? He didn't waste time dwelling on it and composed himself instead. He started getting dressed like it was normal, asking Paya about the day's weather forecast like he'd just met her outside by the cooking pot, and not semi-naked in the Princess's bed.