Chapter Text
The legend of the Hero of Skyloft speaks of a maiden who loved The Messenger of the Goddess Hylia incredibly deeply, with a devotion above all other Hylians. So deeply, she gave up her most sacred possession; her girlhood, so Farore could bless Link of Skyloft with the form of a man and gain a man’s strength to defeat and seal away the greatest evil the world knew. Then, when the battle ended, the Hero of Skyloft, married Zelda, Messenger of the Goddess Hylia, and founded the Kingdom of Hyrule.
Link wonders if Farore will bless her with a man’s form when she has to marry Dot.
Father has been training her to practice being a man. He always says that she would be faster with her wood sword if she had been born a boy, but Link manages to beat all the boys in the neighbourhood when she races them or fights swords with them, so ha! So there!
And they aren’t going easy on her, because they don’t know she’s a girl! Link’s a boy’s name, after all, and Link is only allowed to wear tunics outside. No dresses. She will definitely become someone strong, someone capable of protecting Dot and everyone in Hyrule, just like the Hero of Skyloft and the Hero of Men!
And if she has to give up her girlhood, well, Link hasn’t been raised very much like a girl. She doesn’t think she’d mind that.
///
“--are you insinuating my son will not be able to protect Princess Zelda?”
Link doesn’t understand that big word, but she does understand all the other words after. What she doesn’t get is Father using son for her in front of Grandpa. He knows she’s really a girl!
Maybe he’s talking about future her, when Farore blesses her with a man’s form? That makes sense. Father keeps saying girl Link isn’t strong enough to protect Dot, even when Link knows she totally is, so it makes sense he’d be upset if he thought boy Link wouldn’t be strong enough either.
She is Very Very careful when avoiding the floorboard that makes a big noise, so she can peek through the tiny bit where the kitchen door is open.
Grandpa looks sad. His eyebrow is doing the Thing where it looks wonky. Link doesn’t like it when he’s sad, so she’s going to make him some of his favorite hot chocolate later, and even clean up everything like a good girl so Father won’t get upset! “Be realistic. The engagement was only meant to be a shield for the princess from suitors till she turned 18. Link doesn’t have the ability to impregnate. The charade won’t last.”
Link takes careful note of all the big words used. Grandpa bought her a really big dictionary for her birthday, so she’s sure to find them!
“My son has a shot. The little girl likes Link. She will tolerate Link past 18.”
“The kingdom needs an heir. The line needs to continue. They will find out, and Link will not die as a man.”
Link’s stomach twists funny. Her shoulders and arms suddenly feel heavy. She doesn’t understand everything, but she does understand—
They will find out, and Link will not die as a man.
If Link stays engaged to Dot, people will find out she is a girl and kill her.
///
“We can’t be engaged anymore!” Link wants to say.
What Link says, “That’s a very nice bug.”
Dot looks up from where she’s poking the bug with a twig. It’s been broken in half, and she was poking it open to see the insides. “I think it might be a ladybug! See the red and black spots?”
“Yep.” Link scratches the back of her neck. Her arm bumps into her wooden sword. Because everyone thinks she’s a boy, and she’s Dot’s best friend and fiance and protector, she gets to have a baldric fitted to her. It goes over her flat chest, and Link wonders how long it’ll stay the right size. She lives in a house of men, so she doesn’t know when her chest will start looking like a woman’s.
“I wonder how it got that colour,” Dot mumbles. She pokes the ladybug a bit more, like she’ll find out that way.
Link moves closer, pushing her face against Dot’s to get a better look. “Hmm. It doesn’t look painted on, like a coat.”
“But even if it isn’t, you can still see the black part underneath when it flies. Usually.” Dot pokes the ladybug a bit further open. “It can’t hide what it is.”
Link squirms. Her baldric feels too tight. Her leggings are itchy, and especially because Father got upset today when he saw that her underwear lines could be seen through them, which made it obvious she was a girl or something, so she had to take her underwear off.
“Are you okay?” Dot turns to squish her cheek into Link’s. “Don’t think too hard. You got a super smart brain that’ll go boom if you do. There’ll be blood everywhere.”
“Ew!” Link gags, pretending to vomit. “Gross!”
“You’re still doing it!” Dot sing-songs, and her hands go—oh no.
She is going for Link’s greatest weakness; her armpits.
Link falls onto her butt crying with laughter. She tries to close her arms, but Dot’s fingers refuse to come out and stop wriggling in there.
“Hahaha—-DoahahahastAUPPPPAHAHA—”
It has to be so many minutes before Dot lets her armpits go. Link’s head hits the ground, probably getting all sorts of dirt in her hair that Father will be mad about. He’s let her keep her long-ish hair because Grandpa has the same hair length, though he keeps on saying he’ll cut it when they’re practice fighting one day if she keeps being so awful.
At practice for a man.
Hair too long for a boy. Hair too short for a girl.
“You’re going to hate me.”
Dot frowns at Link. “What are you talking about?! Why will I hate you? Wait, did you pull a prank on me?”
“No!” Link yelps, because she is a good girl and a good child and bad children cannot see Picori. “You’re just going to hate me after we’re 18, when the engagement ends.”
“Why? Are you going to do something dumb?” Dot reaches for a bit of Link’s hair in pulling distance.
“Kind of?”
Dot begins to comb through Link’s hair. Her hair is really, really straight, but also way more oily than Dot’s. Dot has to use this really special soap for it, or else it’ll get too brittle and break really quickly. Link has to wash her hair every day so it doesn’t look greasy, and mud and dirt makes it worse.
“Well, I’m not going to hate you. You’re my best friend. I don’t care even if you do something dumb, we’re friends forever. Nothing can change that.”
Link takes a deep breath. Her heart feels like it’s about to explode out of her chest. It’s now or never.
“I’m really a girl.”
Dot’s hand in her hair stops.
“Oh. Okay.”
“...Okay?”
“That’s it?” Dot continues to comb. “You’re still my best friend. Boy or girl doesn’t matter.”
“Oh,” Link says. She can’t help it—she smiles, so light and happy to still have Dot as a friend that she thinks she might float. “Okay.”
///
“Do you have any dresses?”
Link nods. “But I’m not allowed to wear them outside. Because everyone is supposed to think I’m a boy.”
“Awww. I bet you look super cute in one.” Dot’s lip sticks out, and she looks very, very sad.
…
“Fine. But we gotta be really careful! Father can’t know that I told you!”
“Yes!!” Dot cheers, punching the air.
Link and Dot are very, very stealthy when they come in. They take their shoes off, then they avoid all the noisy parts of the stairs. Father definitely isn’t here, Link didn’t see his boots, but better to be careful.
“Wow. Your room’s so neat,” Dot says when they go in. Of course it is. Link is still a girl, so she is expected to be as neat as possible.
“My dresses are in here.” In a chest in front of her bed under all of her leggings and tunics and underwear. Link pulls out her second favourite one—green, with red dots.
She goes over to her folding screen, but Dot says, “Why are you doing that?”
Link pokes her head back out. “Huh?”
“You’re a girl, just like me. So it's fine to change in front of me, right?”
Oh yeah! Link blushes, and takes off her baldric and belt. Then her tunic, and then she finally puts on the dress.
Tunic skirts are never as long as dress skirts. Link will never fight in a dress’ skirt, but they’re very fun for spinning around to swish out. She spins around and around, giggling, and Dot joins her.
Grandpa and Father don’t find out.