Chapter Text
Link stood guard, not willing to take any risks. It was probably unnecessary, the castle was filled with soldiers who would die for Zelda and the royal family, but this was his duty.
Zelda had retired to her room for the night, with the explanation of needing a wash and a good night's sleep after her latest trip to the spring of courage. Link himself was exhausted as well, but he had a job to do. Besides, the princess had finally begun to warm up to him, after their trip to the desert. He didn’t want to risk that progress.
The door behind him opened, and Zelda poked her head out. “Link, can you step in here a moment?”
Link followed, though he had no idea what Zelda could need him for. He glanced around, he didn’t often enter the princess’s room. He snapped back to attention at Zelda's voice.
“I could use some help getting this off. They don’t design ceremonial wear for ease.”
Link froze. That was definitely not proper conduct between a knight and his charge. But Zelda was the princess, he couldn’t just disobey her. So he moved to assist her.
Once her dress was removed, she moved close to Link. “Take yours off too?” Her voice was hesitant, but Link couldn’t respond. There was no right answer here.
Zelda took a step back and held his hands. “Link, I need to know if this is okay.”
He swallowed the something in his chest and throat, and nodded. Zelda guided his movements, leaving his armor and sword nearby, and leading him away.
This became the norm as they traveled, Zelda pulling him aside at night, leaning dangerously close, leaving him with the illusion of choice.
Link woke alone, with no recollection of himself. The first sound he heard was a woman’s voice, one who asked him to wake up. He almost wished he hadn’t. He was wet and cold, with almost no clothes.
He explored the cave tomb, tomb, this was a tomb he was in, and the voice guided him to a slate. The slate led him to clothes a bit too small for him, and he took them gratefully.
Link explored, and found himself on a wild goose chase. At the end he had a name to go with the voice. Zelda. The name had the expected feelings of loyalty, love, and duty, but there were other emotions there he couldn't place. Fear and dread. He didn’t ask the old man about it, and before he knew it, the one person he had met had vanished.
Link realized pretty quickly that even though he had retained language and basic understanding of how to behave, there was a lot he was missing as well. He was never quite sure what was allowed and what wasn’t, and he had no one to teach him. He assumed it was normal for people to look at him with longing, or for strangers to stay too close when stables got crowded.
He stayed close to Kass and Beedle when they bumped into him, they tended to ward off people from crowding him, and it was nice to see them get happy when he showed Beedle bugs or listened to Kass’s songs.
He’d fought off Calamity Ganon, and freed Zelda. They’d gone to the Wetland Stable to rest. Zelda had seemed disappointed when he had gotten them separate beds, which confused him, the stable was practically empty.