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There was an art to dancing, to the dips and the turns and the waltzes. Every moment was to be carefully sculpted and timed, for it was all a performance of grace and etiquette, and you were not to slip or falter.
"Maybe one day," Zelda told him one evening as they rode back into town, "I'll teach you how to dance."
He hummed back in acknowledgment. She couldn't see his face from where she sat behind him, but she could hear the smile in his voice as he replied, "I know how to dance."
"Really now?"
He chuckled. Every movement made his chest hum, like smooth waves rocking against the beach shore. It was almost enough to lure her to sleep.
"Well it isn't something you need to learn," he said.
She pressed her chin onto his shoulder with a content hum. "But there's all these specifics to it."
"Only if you make it so," he replied. Kainki snorted underneath them and he hushed her with a soft pat to her head as he guided her around the town's bend towards the bridge.
"Well, I'll teach you anyway if you'd like."
He laughed. "I would like nothing more, Zelda."
It was a good thing that she was behind him, she decided, for if he saw how red her face turned she would have never heard the end of it.
But that was nearly a month ago during that strange period between winter's snowfall and spring's rain season when they had only a few weeks to bring in supplies and board up the stables and coups before the rainfall. There was no time to even think about dancing between long rides to Kakariko and the Castle.
But now it was Spring, and for the most part, they were cooped up inside all day with only the early mornings to run to the general store and feed the Cuccos and horses. They had more than enough work to keep them busy during the day, with her switching between sketching out plans for the attaching hallway to the Cucco coup she'd ask Bullson to build next summer and finalizing the road repairs needed across Hyrule. With the cooking pot moved inside, Link was all too excited to try out new recipes. Some ended up with a delicious dinner, others with a smokey burnt smell that lingered all day in the loft, but she was thankful anyway.
But now they were here, standing inside together. She had expected it to be another typical rainy day but, to her surprise, had awoken to Link with his hand around the doorknob and nearly bouncing with excitement.
"You're serious?" She stood a little ways off on the loft stairs with her blanket thrown over her shoulders.
He nodded. "It's only a little rain."
She should have scolded him, but seeing him like this, brimming with excitement, she could only chuckle. "You're insane."
"But you promised, remember?"
She had, hadn't she?
She sighed, glancing down to hide her smile. "At least put on a duvet." He wore only his old swimming shirt and torn trousers. She herself wasn't dressed any better in his spare shirt and leggings.
"It'll be too hard to move around with it on," he said back.
She knew that he was set on it anyway, so she only shook her head. “Alright."
His smile was so infectious, so warm that for whatever reason she couldn't help but grin back and take his hand. Rain be damned.
It only took a minute or two for him to guide her up to the hilltop tree where Kainki and Snowfall grazed. At least from here, they could be blocked by the hardest of the rainfall; Now only a slight drizzle seeped from between the leaves.
Before she could say a word, he took her hands into his, standing in front of her with his wet, slicked-back hair, shaking it lightly, almost as if it was a wet mop.
"So now-" he motioned awkwardly with his head. "How do we do this?"
Goddess, he's too adorable for his own good.
"Well for starters, you're not supposed to grab my hands."
"But mine are cold," he huffed. "Yours are much warmer."
"You have to listen if you want me to teach you."
He rolled his eyes but smiled anyway as he guided his right hand up to her shoulder. He was only just able to reach the back of her neck.
"Don't laugh," he teased. "You're tall."
She huffed with mock offense and retorted, "Maybe you're just too short."
He scoffed. "How rude." She only laughed in response and put her own arm around his back.
"Now you take my free hand with yours," she instructed. "Like that."
His hand was still cold, but it'd probably warm up in time.
"This good?"
She nodded. "And then you just sway."
"Sway?"
"Mhmm. There's a lot of tedious footwork, but it's much too cold for any of that."
He smiled, still so warm as he began to move. How long had it been since she'd danced?
The Champion's Ball...
It was a conflicting memory, to say the least, only a day before her 17th birthday. A day before everything.
And yet…
She shook herself out of her thoughts. She had time to come to terms with it all, but now, she just wanted to be here, with him, as wet and as cold as she was.
They moved in silence for a moment, only ever interrupted by the pitter-patter of rain against the stable's roof.
Is this what peace is like? Is this what it's like to not fight, to not have a destiny of bloodshed and never-ending battles?
Before she could answer that, Link slowly spoke up. "I used to do this all the time with Kass."
She chuckled. "Wouldn't that get all his feathers soaked?"
"No, not in the rain. Just-" He paused to spin her around again, "- dancing. He'd walk with me to the nearest stable sometimes and he'd play some music once we got there." He chuckled warmly. "It would only take a minute or two and before you knew it, everyone was up and dancing."
"So you do know how to slow dance," she teased.
He shook his head, grinning. "No, it was just kind of wild. None of us really knew what we were doing."
"Really?"
He nodded. "Maybe I'll teach you that." His grin was light and teasing. "You can teach me how to dance like a prince, and I'll teach you how to dance like a traveler."
"Oh, you will now?" She spoke it like a light, teasing challenge, but he only smiled back slyly.
Oh.
Oh, Goddess.
"Link-"
But he had already pulled himself back, clasping his hands around hers with a bright, almost childish grin.
"It's just like this!"
It was a flurry of quick, sudden movements and clumsy tilts. She swore that at one point or another one of them leaned a little too hard on the other and just managed to pull themselves up before slipping. But she was laughing, harder than she'd ever laughed in so long, and that butterfly warmth in her stomach was so, so intoxicating. She could feel the mud splashing in her legs, and the rainwater slicking her hair down in-between the bubbly, bright laughter.
"Careful!" Link could barely get a word out between his own laughter, but somehow he managed to lift her by her hips and spun her around.
"Link!"
She didn't worry about slipping or him dropping her, and to his credit, he put her down so carefully despite the rain.
"Well?" He was panting like a dog. His wet hair was everywhere, sticking up in some spots and slicked down in others, but he grinned so warmly and bright that she could stop laughing. "What do you think?"
"Goddess, Link." She could barely get a word out without sputtering into laughter.
His wet hair covered his forehead as if he was a shaggy dog, and she leaned forward to kiss his forehead, but in her dizzy state, her lips only just brushed his nose.
"You're-" she had to pause for a breath, "You're something else, really."
He grinned. "I try."
For a moment they just stood there, panting and smiling in the rain, so early in the morning that not even the Cuccos were awake.
"I hope we didn't wake anyone up," she breathed, but Link only shook his head.
"We'll be fine."
Goddess, she really couldn't help herself. Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, clasping them around his back.
And it was a wordless, silent agreement, to just stand there and sway, if only for a moment. His arms reached around her shoulder in the same way that her's did for him.
It was almost like what they did a hundred years ago...
"Link," she finally spoke. "Can I tell you a secret?"
"A secret?" His gaze flickered with poorly stifled mischief, enough to make her smile again.
"Mhmm. I've kept it for a hundred years."
He nodded."I can keep a secret."
"We used to have a yearly dance in the castle, and every year after you picked up the master sword all the noblewomen would always ask you to dance, but you'd always decline."
His gaze was a cocktail of mischief and focus as she continued, almost as if he was trying to commit this all to memory.
"I always thought it was some knight code or something. But the night before the Champion's Ball, I asked you to dance with me alone in my study to practice, since we'd have to dance together anyway the next morning."
She paused again, this time to rearrange her arms from his back to access his shoulder. "And you looked up at me redder than a voltfruit, and confessed that you had no idea how to dance in the first place."
He scrunched up his nose. "You didn't laugh, did you?"
"Oh, I did." He scowled, and that was enough to make her chuckle. "And you made the same face that you're doing now."
Somewhere along the line, it became so much easier to talk about back then, for the both of them.
"You made me promise to never tell anyone, and so that night I taught you how to dance."
His scowl softened, giving way to another soft, honey-sweet smile. "Was I any good at it?"
"It took you a while," she confessed. "But you got into it in the end. I was never too good at dancing myself."
"Then we'll learn together. We'll be stuck inside all Rain Season anyway." He let out a breathy laugh. "And I promise I won't drag you outside in the rain to do it."
She was taught that dancing was precise. A performance of perfected grace and art, but now, standing here laughing and holding onto this clumsy, rain-soaked boy in the middle of rainfall season...
He was right; They had all the time in the world to learn.