Work Text:
After the Calamity, Zelda moved in with Link. She was excited to share a house and live as a civilian. Link never left her side. They had two separate beds, at first. But as their nights got plagued with nightmares that woke them at ungodly hours of the night, they slept in each other's company more often than not. They held each other and they cried and fell asleep holding each others warmth. They got rid of the other bed.
...
When Link first woke up on the sky island, he felt cold.
He wandered, naked, no one to talk to but the Zonai and the ghost of a king. Again. Except it was a different king this time. Raru seemed to understand how Link was feeling.
He opened the doors to the Temple of Time and stepped towards the light, the warm feeling back. It was gone as fast as the Master Sword disappeared.
The second he jumped off of the sky island and made it back to the ground, he went to the first human civilization he could find. Seeing Purah again gave him some warmth, but he was still missing a piece.
Link went to the remains of the floating castle that was still on the ground. He smiled seeing Zelda again, warmth filling his chest again. His smile dropped as soon as she disappeared. He was cold again. He went back to Purah. She gently guided him to a bed after he told her what happened.
He didn't sleep. The cold never went away.
The next morning Purah showed Link the towers and gave him a paraglider. He enjoyed the exhilarating experience again, but he didn't smile, didn't whop, didn't make a peep. Purah gave him the word from the other regions about what had been going on since the upheaving. He went straight for Rito village, after being told Zelda was spotted there.
It was a few days' journey, and he didn't have a horse since the stable at the camp wasn't finished. He traveled by foot, going as fast as he could without wearing himself out. He camped in trees at night, to hide from gloom hands and other monsters that prowl at night.
And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't sleep.
He spent less and less time resting at night and more time traveling. Link eventually came across a stable and was able to take out a horse again. After seeing his eye bags, the stable master urged him to sleep- even offered a bed for free. Link accepted, hoping that maybe a real bed would help.
He left the next morning will less sleep than he started with.
His horse was a very fast traveler and he made it to the village in less than a day. Link wandered the snowy villages, buying cold-resistant clothes and stoking up at food. The shopkeeper gave him a concerned look. Did he really look that bad after only a few days without sleep?
He found Tulin and Teba, arguing about the blizzard and investigating it. As soon as Tulin spotted Link, he ran and gave him a hug, saying how much he missed Link and was happy he was back. Then the boy ran off to a bonfire in a mountain.
Teba asked if he was ok. Link told him yes, and asked him why. Teba said he looked sad and tired. Like how he looked after he woke from the shrine of resurrection, but more miserable. Teba asked if he lost his memories again. Link told him no. Then he went after Tulin.
He saw Zelda again, but it didn't give him the warmth it did before. Now it just felt.. wrong. That it wasn't really her. Tulin and Link chased after her still.
When meeting the sage and seeing the memory he showed Tulin and himself, Link tried to reach out to Zelda. Because it was the real Zelda, not the wrong one they had seen before. But he couldn't move, and she was gone before he could try to speak.
When he got to the Rito Village, Tulin and Teba made him sleep. He dozed off curled in on himself, shivering.
Link woke an hour later to a nightmare that Zelda had died. He snuck out of the village to go to the Gerudo desert.
He had to leave his horse with the guard blocking the entrance to the desert. He passed her test with flying colors, but she told him that keeping himself well-rested and healthy was also crucial to surviving. It reminded him he hadn't eaten since he got to the Rito village days before.
He cooked himself up an omelet before continuing. The trek took days before he even got to the stable, and one of the nice guys there offered him a pair of sand boots, and another gave him fresh food. He wondered why they were being so nice. He continued the journey after finishing the meal, just as morning was peaking.
The sand was hot and sweltering. Link splashed himself with fruit multiple times, and it worked but dried up too fast. His legs slowly started to give out, but Link just kept splashing himself and eating the mushrooms in his bag. As the sun was peaking, his vision blurred and he collapsed on a sand dune, out cold.
He woke to worried voices and a cool cloth on his face. He opened his eyes to see his vision still wasn't fully back, and everything was just blurry colors. A loud voice cut through the noise and everyone else shut up. Someone distantly asked how many fingers they were holding up. He didn't know. She asked what he remembered. Sand everywhere.. he was hungry even though he just ate, running out of spash fruit, seeing Zelda before blacking out...
Someone else made a noise of confusion, but before he could ask the cloth was put over his eyes and they were wiped. It improved his vision a little bit. He was told that a traveling Gerudo had found him unconscious on the path to the bazaar. He was burning up and wasn't responding to anything. He was out for a whole day and night. The Gerudo told him it was nearing dusk and that night was supposed to be a blood moon.
Link tried to get up, but was pushed down and was told to rest. He shook as a Gerudo gave him some water and put a blanket over him. He was still cold.
The next morning Link left an hour before dawn. He had taken all of his things and headed toward the village, where Ruji was, and knew about the Zelda sighting. He made it to her as the sun started setting. Link helped her train her powers as she made fun of him for his height. He could hear the concern laced in her voice from his state, but he ignored it.
They went back to the bazaar to fight the Gibdos and won easily. They spotted Zelda walking into a sandstorm, and Link chased after her. He know it wasn't her and he could tell it wasn't right but he still wanted to hold her again-
The Gerudo from before stopped him and dragged him back to Ruji. She told the girl about all that had happened earlier and Ruji told Link off. She asked him why he hadn't taken care of himself. He said he forgot to eat. She asked why he hadn't been sleeping. He didn't respond. He was still cold. Ruji told him to rest as soon as they got to the village. He argued that they needed to save the village from the Gibdos first. Ruji told him the second they were done, he was going to bed.
They fought the Gibdos and won. Link didn't wanna go into the underground hideout. There were too many staring eyes. Ruji told him that her room didn't have very much dust in it. She followed him to the room. She told him she was going to stay on the watch to no Gibdos attacked him in his sleep.
Link tossed and turned. No sleep came to him. An hour passed. Ruji looked at him with sad eyes. She suggested the stuffed sand seals she had on the bed. He grabbed one and hugged it, curling tight around it. He slowly fell asleep.
A week later Link went to leave for the Zora kingdom. Ruji suggested he takes one of her stuffies. He tells her he can't carry it with him on his travels. She gave him a tiny one the size of his hand. She said it was the best she had. Link smiled a strained smile and thanked her. She cried after he left.
_-_-_-_
Link collapsed to his knees and sobbed, gripping the Master sword, now fixed. The light dragon flew away after dropping him off at the temple of time. The last thing he had of Zelda... and she was still missing. He hadn't gotten anywhere, except that someone definitely posed as Zelda to trick the other sages.
He hadn't gotten sleep in weeks.
He went to Impa. She told him to check the geoglyphs. Link went to a pool. It gave him a memory, a memory of Zelda. Leaving the memory was like waking from a gentle sleep, but it gave him no comfort. He spent the whole day chasing after the geoglyphs. He got half of them by nightfall. He couldn't rest. He got to memory 11 and watched as the light dragon passed overhead again, crying a tear and giving him a destination.
Link fell backward on the grass, pausing for a moment. He missed Zelda, he missed Zelda so so much, and she was stuck 10,000 years in the past. He covered his eyes with his hands, a tear slipping down his cheek. Like the tear of the dragon that passed overhead.
Link paused. Like the dragon... He scrambled up and stumbled for the Purah Pad, whipping it out and mashing the buttons as fast as he could. He teleported to the last tear. He slowly walked forward, shaking in fear of what he'll find. He slowly reached down and touched the pool, ripples dragging him into another memory.
Link watched in horror, unable to do anything as Zelda swallows the tear and cried out in pain as the magic ripped through her and she held the sword close to her. Her only connection to Link. Her cry to Link as she transformed into another being. As she gave up her humanity.
Link got ripped out of the memory, much more like waking up from a nightmare than the other memories. Tears streamed down his face as he whipped himself around and faced the retreading light dragon. Faced Zelda. He ran after her, perfectly avoiding every glowing silent princess as he sprinted to her.
Zelda continued to fly away as Link chased her, screaming her name and choking on his sobs. He tripped and faceplanted into the shallow lake that surrounded the shrine he came from. He tore the Purah Pad from his hip and teleported to the closed sky island running to the edge and jumping off. Link dived and reached a hand out for Zelda.. for the dragon.
He landed in her soft fur and just laid there. He held the soft fur under his hands, like she could disappear at any moment. Link sobbed hard as he held on. He laid there for hours, tears never ceasing.
'Why?' Link asked, voice horse from the screaming before. 'Why lose your humanity to fix the sword? Why spend 10,000 years flying around the get a sword for me? Why?' he sobbed. 'Why did you leave me?' he asked softer. A soft growl was his answer. They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Link spoke again.
'I will free you, I promise. Well be back together and we won't have to worry about any more evils because I will take care of it. I promise.'
One last tear fell down Link's cheek as he fell asleep, soft mane curling round him and holding him.
He was finally warm.