Archive of Our Own

“I'll be honest,” Link said. “From the Malolist add, I thought you were a bunch of guys.”

“What? Whatever made you think that?” Zelda said, her voice squeaking.

“I dunno,” Link said. “There wasn't a lot of info in the ad, the furniture was sparse, and some of the photos were taken from really terrible angles. And when my friend's dad sent it my way—” he shrugged ”--I just didn't think he would suggest I move in with a bunch of girls. You know. Not that I mind, of course! I just, uh, didn't expect him to pull something like this. He's uh, normally quite proper and formal. The King of Lanayru Fishing, they call him.”

“MIPHA’S DAD sent you???” Zelda jaw hung open. “No, no no no, this will not work.” She got up and stormed off.

Impa inhaled deeply. “Zelda–”

“Of course Dorephan would do something like this, he never trusted me on my own after….” She cast a glance at the stranger on the couch and held her tongue. “He's always been protective and–”

Link raised a brow.

“Zelda—” Impa gusted a sigh.

“---and he never takes into account my feelings, much less what I think, just like my father–”

“Zelda!!!”

She froze in her tracks, caught between the glare of her best friend and this stranger on her couch. Speaking of threats.

Impa sighed. “Ahem. Link, what do you do for work?”

Link nodded curtly. “I teach martial arts and self-defense. I worked security for Dorephan before moving here. I used to be in the military.”

Impa narrowed her eyes. “What rank did you hold?”

“Captain.”

“What was the reason for your discharge?”

Link grinned, but it was a little forced. “The war ended, miss. I was free to go.”

Zelda blanched. “Wait. Were you…drafted?”

Link nodded. “Yes ma’am. The unlucky first draft. I grew up on a farm out in Hateno province. In my service, I spent a long while fighting skirmishes in Faron. After all those nights in the jungle….well, home was too quiet for me when I got back. I went to do some soul searching, and wound up in Dorephan’s company security, then the King of Fishing’s personal guard. I know him and his daughter, Mipha, quite well. I uh….I don't suppose you two are in any sort of trouble here in the city, are you?”

Zelda grew serious. Impa raised her eyebrows. “He's perceptive,” she said to Zelda. “A valuable trait in this situation.”

Zelda sighed and shifted in her seat. “The Yiga still walk the streets. The military may have cleared their stronghold in the jungle but they still rule the wasteland and there are many in this city…. I…. I have valuable work to do here, in the city. I cannot leave to join Mipha in Zora. I fear….” She closed her eyes, allowing herself to acknowledge the regret and failure she felt. “Impa and I find ourselves in need of our own security, given the recent attacks on our home.”

Link nodded. “I'll let you know I come with a lot of weapons. I workout every day to keep in fighting shape, and I eat a lot.” He looked at them, his eyes lingering on Zelda's bony frame. “I will gladly share my food with you. I cook and I clean up after myself. If you feel safer that I am always around after dark or when there's unrest, then I will be here. I don't….” He paused, taking a deep breath in. “I haven't been able to settle since getting back. But having a job to do, a purpose, is what I need.”

Zelda nodded. “Will you look for work in the city?”

Link nodded. “Before coming here I put my resume at the school district, actually. I heard they were hiring a new security guard at Kakariko Elementary.  I had my interview this morning, and I've been offered the position.”

Zelda paled. “I’m…the kindergarten teacher at Kakariko.”

Link watched her carefully. “Do you like it there?”

Zelda looked down, tucked hair behind her ear. She tried and failed to hide her smile. “I love it.”

Link nodded. “Then I suppose we are coworkers now.” His warmth made her stomach flutter, which she promptly stuffed down.

Impa sighed. “I work at the free clinic down the road,” she said. “Opposite direction from Zelda. I've been walking her to work.”

Zelda elbowed Impa. “Don't you tell him that. He's gonna figure it out,” she hissed in Sheikah.

Impa sighed through her nose.

“Gonna figure out what?” Link answered, in flawless Sheikah. When neither of them answered, he continued, “...Figure out that the Yiga have been abducting women of Zelda's description?”

Impa leaned forward, harsh. “How do you know the tongue?” She asked in Sheikah.  

Link leaned forward and met her gaze. “You learn a lot when sharing a Yiga prison camp with the bravest Sheikah clansmen ever to walk the jungle.”

Impa paled. “You…were a prisoner of war?” she asked in Hylian.

Link nodded. “Six months.”

Zelda swallowed. “Which camp?”

“Lurelin camp.” Link said, and they hushed even deeper.

“That camp was one of the Yiga's greatest war crimes,” Zelda began. “Imprisoning both our captured soldiers and the innocent villagers of Lurelin, all forced to farm and work their land against their will to feed the Yiga ranks. They say it was toppled from the inside…” her voice trailed off, and she met Link's eyes.

Blue. Blue like the sea after a storm. They struck her like Farosh’s lightning. The only spot of color in a gray prison yard. A yard she was in charge of martialling, that morning.

Her breath hitched. She'd sworn to remember those eyes forever. The eyes of the soldier she trusted with her intel, the fruit of months of espionage, months of hiding as a Yiga grunt. They'd grown suspicious, of course, and she'd been compromised. So she found him, in his bunk, left him with mighty bananas, the guard schedule for the next two days, and all the weapons she'd been able to smuggle. She snuck him a set of keys and they traded clothes. She abandoned her traitorous post and was spotted by a tower guard fleeing, dressed in prisoner garb. They sent after her, and that was the distraction that allowed them to be brought down. Brought down from the inside…By the prisoners themselves.

The Lurelin were a fierce people. She'd assumed her friend in the camp was one of them. But now, in the light of the apartment and clean of this life, she’d say he was the same as she: a Hylian. Perhaps he had come from country stock but he was a fighter, that much was clear.

Tears pricked Zelda's eyes. “I know you,” she said. “You were the one who freed them.”

It had been the last mission she'd dared undertake for her father. In the wake of the war, weeks prior to his assassination, he had told her how wonderfully she had handled it. Nothing but praise from him, for once.

Link watched her. “That wasn't in the news,” he said, suspicious.

Zelda breathed out to steady herself. “I don't need the news to know what happened. I…. I went by the name of Sheik, then.”

Link blanched. “You saved all of us,” he breathed.

Zelda smiled, watery. “You saved yourselves.”

“The screams in the woods…I feared you were caught.”

Zelda shook her head, her smile rueful. “Those chasing me died.”

Link leaned back, and looked to Impa. “I won't let anything happen to either of you.”

Impa smirked. “A bold promise for a small man.”

A grin tweaked Link’s face. “Perhaps we should settle this with a duel. If I can best you in combat, I get the room. If you best me, I walk away without a word.”

Impa smiled back. “You have yourself a deal, soldier.”

***

To describe the fight would take skills this writer doesn’t have. But she’ll try.

Even with Impa’s grasp on magic in combat, Link still knew how to dodge and use his fists. He’d informed them he usually carried daggers, but since he didn’t want to actually draw blood today, he’d left them sitting on the coffee table, which they’d scooted aside for the skirmish. Zelda watched, her breath shallow and nervous in her throat. “Come on, come on….”

Link kicked, Impa blocked. Impa punched, Link dodged. Impa summoned duplicates to confuse Link, and he evaded all of them.

Zelda watched her heart in her throat. She’d trusted him in Lurelin camp, when it risked both of their lives. She found that same faith in Link alive and well now, knowing his name, knowing him in this life. He would serve the purpose Dorephan had sent him to, to protect Zelda. Zelda, the last vestige of the old rule of Hyrule.

Zelda didn’t want the throne. As the last remaining royal, she’d signed off on the dissolution of the monarchy after her father’s death and had disappeared into obscurity. Her father had been a figure head, a symbol of unity for the country. The civil war had torn apart the nation. She’d spied for the Sheikah in an attempt to maintain peace. And with Link’s help, she had changed the tide of the war. But the wounds ran deep. Zelda had thought that if the royal family dissolved, the tensions between the Yiga and the Sheikah would run out. But those wounds ran deeper than loyalty to her own bloodline. All she’d done was transform herself from a figurehead into a trophy the Yiga thirsted to claim.

Link waited for Impa’s duplication magic to run out, and then he struck. Using pressure points only taught by Sheikah monks, he dropped her. Once she was down, he released the pressure poins and Impa sat up, clutching her arms.

“Well,” she said, gasping for air. “I think you’ve proven yourself.”

“It will be an honor to protect you,” Link said. “Oh, and the room is super nice too.”

Zelda felt a smile playing on her lips, the first of many. 

***

The night grew late and the stars peeked out above the city. Link walked Zelda home, as was his wordless custom now that they were roommates. It was a scheduled blackout, the stars brighter for the dimming of the city lights. As houses went dark and only streetlights remained, Link offered her his elbow, staring up at the stars. 

Zelda glanced at him, chin and face tipped up towards the sky. “You look peaceful.”

Link looked at her, trance broken. He cleared his throat. “I miss them, often. The stars of my childhood.”

Zelda slipped her arm into his. “What do they make you think of?”

Link turned to her, held her gaze. Then his face slowly turned to a regretful one. “You're asking what I was thinking?”

Zelda nodded. “Mmhmm.”

“You're gonna hate it.”

“What? Have some faith in me.”

Link sighed. “It’s a little…forward.

Zelda stepped in front of him, serious now. She smirked. “Try me.”

He smiled, gusted a big breath out. “I was just thinking…how the silence doesn't bother me anymore. Not with you by my side.”

Zelda froze on the sidewalk. Link exhaled. “I knew it.”

“No, Link—”

He held up a hand. “Forget it. Forget I said anything.” He took a few steps forward before waiting for her, duty-bound to ensure her safety.

Thoughts swirled in Zelda's head. Those blue eyes–his eyes–she hadn't dared to hope–but if she was honest, in the loneliness of the night, she wanted….

Zelda took a deep breath in and strode to Link’s side. Holding her breath, she interlaced her fingers with his. He looked at her, and heat crawled up her neck. “I'm glad. To be by your side.”

Link smiled. He squeezed her hand and they kept walking.