Chapter Text
Zelda smiled at Link, her fingers interlocked with his.
And Link was a simple man. He couldn’t help it. He smiled back.
If only it weren’t simply to put on a show.
If only it was because she truly liked him, and not because the king had engaged the princess to the hero. If only he could squeeze her hand in his own and tug her closer because he knew she wouldn’t mind it since she was in love with him.
No. She rather would mind if he did anything unnecessary. Just because their engagement was being announced to the kingdom, and the princess had confided in him that she would rather make it look like they had some sort of whimsical romance rather than her being the subject of even more dour gossip about the arranged marriage they were truly being put in.
And how could Link have said no? It wasn’t hard to act like he was head over heels in love with her when that was the truth.
And so Zelda was holding his hand. Not tightly, because no one would be able to tell that difference besides themselves. And it was perfectly fine to do so, since they were about to announce their engagement to the whole kingdom.
Zelda glanced at Link again, a wry smile on her lips. She leaned in to him and whispered into his ear. “Are you ready, Hero?”
Well, when she acted like that around him, Link wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready.
Link had pulled the sword that seals the darkness years ago, when he was a child, twelve.
And once he had done so, he was rushed to the court, presented there, and that was where he met the king. And moments later, laid eyes upon the princess, even younger than he was, only ten years old.
And Link hadn’t been able to tear his eyes off her since.
She was nice enough at first. Wanted nothing more than to get to know him, know what it was like to wield the master sword, ask if he felt any closer to the goddess because of it. Even overwhelmed as he was around his first crush, he managed to stutter out some answers, and was rewarded with her smile in turn.
They were friends. Best of friends, even, for a couple of years. Always enjoying each others’ company in the moments between when Link didn’t have to train in the yard and Zelda could slip away from her devotions. Sometimes she would watch him train, sometimes he would tag along with her to see what the Sheikah were doing in their laboratories while she rambled on trying to explain to him everything about the technology, and sometimes they would slip away together outside the castle to explore some woods nearby.
By the time he was fourteen and she was twelve, Link knew he had well and truly fallen in love with Zelda.
And it was about that time that their relationship began to change for other reasons. It was then that the king began to grow concerned that the princess still bore no power. It was then that she was rushed into more and longer devotions to the goddess, asking for hours on end for a gift that seemed to never be coming.
Though the smile on Link’s face still brought one to Zelda’s, she spent less and less time looking at him and more and more with her eyes lingering on the sword on his back.
Link was fifteen, constantly being given more responsibility to prepare him for his ultimate one of saving the kingdom as the hero, a fate many whispered would rest solely on his shoulders.
Zelda was thirteen and powerless, with only a few hours of reprieve from devotions each day that she still spent wistfully locked up in the labs or occasionally with Link.
Her smile grew ever more rare and cold.
It broke his heart, but he knew why.
He was fifteen and she was thirteen when it happened.
A guardian went berserk. Link stopped it, saving Zelda in the process. She was furious.
And without a moment for their argument to cool, the king appointed him her personal knight.
“I hate you!” she shouted one day soon after they began their new relationship of knight and princess. “You just happened to pull the master sword as a kid, before you even knew what it meant to be the hero! But now I know the calamity is coming, and as the princess that is obligated to seal it away, cannot grasp at the power! And you just have to keep following me around like I can’t do anything myself!”
The princess stormed off. And her knight followed.
And after that first time that was fortunately only privy to the two of them, she told him a hundred times a day, if never again in such precise language, how much she hated him. Turning up her nose whenever their eyes caught, running off from him at every opportunity.
Link had lost a friend.
He knew the princess just acted like that from all of the stress and fear of knowing the calamity was coming and the pressure the king was putting on her to awaken her power. Link knew because sometimes Zelda would look over at him , beaming at a breakthrough in working with the guardians, or a joke in her eyes that was at the tip of her tongue, only to be broken as she remembered that she was the princess and he was the hero that accompanied her in their doom.
And perhaps knowing that she was really the same person deep down but was trapped in a torturous fate was why Link continued to love Zelda through it all.
And so things went for nearly three years until it approached the princess’s sixteenth and the king summoned them both to come see them. And while it was phrased as a request, every person in that room knew that it wasn't it.
So the princess and the hero left that room engaged.
The king must have thought that something about it, the princess marrying the goddess’s chosen hero, would please the goddess enough to finally grant the powers that Zelda so desperately needed. It was horrible, but what room was there for anyone to argue with him when she was just shy of sixteen without any trace of a sealing power that would be vital in their lifetime?
And then something strange began to happen.
Zelda grew warmer to Link. Not by much, just the barest bit. A lack of scowls, eyes meeting his more often than accidental.
He enjoyed it, but… why? Because they were to be married now? Certainly, he could understand wanting to be on good terms with someone you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with, but this, however…
This was confusing.
But the princess let him puzzle it out. Her birthday came and went, and she was officially old enough to be allowed to marry.
The wedding announcement was to be made to the public a fortnight after her birthday. And the night before they went and stood on the balcony, Zelda discreetly summoned Link into her room.
He shook his head at the mere suggestion of that. “Someone might think something improper is happening.”
She let a smirk play on her lips. “Let them think that, then.”
It was annoyingly attractive. Perhaps after years of her acting as though she didn’t like him the qualities he had liked in her had begun to change as well.
So Link followed her into her room.
“I don’t want them to talk about this, too,” she whispered so softly that Link barely caught it.
Zelda didn’t like rumors. Often they were harsh criticism of her. Even when they first met, she had shirked away from those who talked about her being too carefree. Later, when the talk of her failings evident from her lack of powers floated on the wind, when they were still friends, a frown would tug at her lips. By the time she hated him, she had mastered a steely lack of reaction to it, but she must still be torn up inside because of it.
Link examined the moment of vulnerability that he had never truly expected to see again with a pang in his heart. He hadn’t talked to her in years, not really, but she had initiated this conversation. If she wanted to reach out, rekindle even a fragment of the relationship they had before, then he was more than willing to reciprocate and try as well. “It’s impossible to stop the court from gossip.”
“True.” A smile fell on her face. “But… what being a politician really means is directing the gossip to what you want it to be.”
He wasn’t smart enough to know what she was trying to hint at that she wanted. Fortunately, she was smart enough for the both of them.
And he was taken aback— took a step back— as she sauntered over to him. For years of trying to get out of his presence, she was awfully comfortable getting into his personal space.
That mischievous— no, devilish — smile played at her lips again as she leaned in. “Everyone loves a good love story, don't you think?”
Face aflame, Link swallowed.
“Especially if it’s practically a forbidden romance, don’t you think?” she continued, lightly placing her hands on his shoulders. “A princess and her knight, what could be more romantic ~?” Her upper lip brushed against his, and he felt the impression of every word she spoke on them. “Would you help me craft a story that people will love to tell?”
In answer, Link kissed Zelda.
It was practice. To put on an act. To prove their story, so that they weren’t clunky when doing it in front of others.
The only problem for him was that it wasn’t an act. He had well and truly fallen for Zelda by fourteen, and now, at eighteen, being able to kiss her felt like the realization of what had for the longest time been a fantasy.
If only she felt the same.
Zelda had asked if he was ready, ready for their plan that not even the king had known about, not that he would have stopped them even if he did.
Link wanted to squeeze her hand in his. But… no. Their lie was not one to allow for that, a detail that might at best be hardly noticed and certainly not missed for not happening. Their lie was to convince others, not for it to become truth, regardless of how he wished for it to be.
So Link buried his feelings.
The king stepped up to the railing of the balcony, his voice booming as he addressed the public with the hero and princess standing nearby behind him.
"My loyal subjects. I am here today to make a joyous announcement. That of a royal engagement."
The king made a grand sweeping gesture towards the future saviors of the kingdom. "Princess Zelda is to be wed to Sir Link, Hero of Hyrule, in a month's time!"
There was cheering in the crowd as they saw them. Now it was time to act out their plan rehearsed the night before. Link turned towards Zelda and she to him, hands still joined. His free hand went lightly on her cheek and hers on his shoulder as they leaned in with smiles on their faces. As Link pressed his lips to hers, it felt like a dream he had dreamt so many times that he could no longer differentiate it from reality, and even knowing that wasn't the case, he couldn't help but imagine that he really was kissing Zelda and putting all the loving and gentleness that he wanted to convey to her in the kiss. And if she could feel it, well… then she knew. And would it hurt her to feel loved, even if it were from someone she hated?
The kiss was chaste and brief, only lingering for a second before they pulled away with smiles that couldn't quite reach their eyes because they weren't really in love.
But the crowd didn't notice. The crowd cheered even louder than before.
Because everyone likes a good love story.