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Link didn’t know how to start to explain how he fell into the predicament that he is in right now, he would like to skip all that and just try and get help for his current problem. But if he doesn’t explain himself he looks kinda bad, scratch that, he looks like a stalker at worst and a noisy knight at best.He thinks that actually, the later description suits him best, but that is not here nor there. Maybe. In any case, he is in a predicament right now, and he is about to do something really stupid, something that if it goes wrong he, at worst will be exiled to the Tabantha tundra and at best the princess will hate him.Scratch the best and worst, he thinks he would prefer the icy cold loneliness of Tabantha more than Zelda being mad at him, which is saying a lot, knowing how a couple months ago she couldn’t stand to look at him. But then she suddenly had a change of heart, and now he can’t imagine his life without the soft curve of her lips when she looks at him. Her smile is like the sun.But he is getting carried away with thoughts of the princess once again, another reason why the thing he is about to do could cost him not only his friendship with the princess, but also his job as her knight.But he should start at the beginning, it happened when the princess and him were on the road to the spring of courage. It was night time already and they had just finished eating dinner. He was poking the fire, going through the schedule for tomorrow, there wasn’t much to do, just pack camp and get on the road again. If they make it to the spring tomorrow or not depends on how much the princess will get distracted by the flora and fauna of Faron.Not like he minds, the longer they are out of the castle the better, and even better if they seem to take their time in the spring, the king doesn’t need to know that they spent the most part of the trip cataloging plants instead of praying.The princess was at his side, seemingly deep in thought as she wrote in her journal. She probably was getting it up to date with all the specimens they came across today, all the new information that she was able to gather by observing them. It makes him curious sometimes, he kind of would like to take a peek at her field journal. Not like he would understand half of what she described in those pages, all his knowledge in insects was which ones were used for elixirs, any other thing escapes his mind.Not to talk about the sheikah technology, he doesn’t understand at all how those things work. But he has seen how she sometimes doodles the things that she studies, and one thing he understands are drawings. He probably could just ask, she would be happy to share her studies with anyone.He was about to break the peaceful silence, to ask what she was working on, when a heavy thing landed on his shoulder. He would have been startled if not because of how heavily he has worked on concealing his emotions.He looked at his side and blond met his eyes and a flowery scent met his nose. The princess fell asleep, he got distracted by the curb of her lashes, the soft pink on her cheeks and the deep breaths on his neck, before noticing a familiar journal on the ground, having fallen open after the princess dropped it.Would she mind if he took a peek at it? It wasn’t like she wrote anything personal in it, it was just research on plants, insects and stuff like that.He took the journal and eyed the page that was open when it fell, it didn’t have any doodles on it, so he started reading.And that’s when he knew he fucked up.
Today I’ve tried to distract myself, it has become a habit at this point. But nor my research nor the impending coming of the calamity is enough to distract me from this feeling.
It is not that I don’t care for the calamity, or that my utter failure seems less, it’s just that, now when those thoughts plague my mind…All it takes is for him to look at me to make things better, sure the calamity is incoming, sure my prayers keep being ignored.
But I’m not alone.
And it doesn’t help that he is breathtakingly stunning. I wish I could articulate better how he makes me feel, to explain how he soothes my mind and how his faith in me is one of the things that keep me going. He deserves being thought that way, but by the goddess this is my private journal and that boy keeps making me dumber by the day with his sky blue eyes.
Why, just why, did the goddess choose not just a boy that is as proficient with a sword as he is kind, but one that is also beautiful. Is that it? Is he pretty because the goddess chose him or did the goddess choose him because he is pretty.
I guess I’ll never know.
But the truth of the matter is that my brave knight, who guards me at all times of the day, is the most gorgeous man I’ve ever laid eyes upon. And oh, how I hate to sound like a lovesick damsel rambling about the exact hue of her beloved's eyes, but that is just what I am, unfortunately.
And I feel that I’m hanging by a thread, one of these days he’ll look at me and present me with a frog, or a beetle, or a cricket, whatever that got my attention, he’ll be slightly breathless from running around trying to catch it, but he’ll still be beaming when he shows it to me. This is not fantasy, this has happened on multiple occasions, but I fear that the next time it happens, the thread will snap and I’ll tackle him and kiss him senseless.
That would be bad, I have no idea how Link feels about me in that regard, I would like to think he considers me a close friend who he can trust, but I don’t know if he sees me that way.
Then again if he did look at me in that way, he would not dare to act upon it, he is still a knight and I’m his princess, and one thing my knight is good at is following the rules. Unfortunately. So it is in my hands to make my feelings known if I wish for our relationship to change. But I’m still scared of how he would react.
I shall think of it more.
His face burned all the way to the tips of his ears, if he didn’t know better he would think that he had a fever. Why did he not stop reading at the first paragraph, it was clear that he wasn’t reading one of her research journals, that this one was her personal one, but once he started he couldn’t stop.It’s just, she mentioned a guy and he just couldn’t stop himself, and when it was clear that the guy she was, kind of drooling about, was in fact, ya boy Link who pulled the shiny sword, well, he had to finish reading at least this entry. But that is all, he already violated her privacy enough. He closed the journal and left it on the ground, in the same spot where it had fallen.What does he do with this information? He feels bad about reading her private thoughts, but at the same time he can’t help but feel like he is on top of the world. The smartest person on the planet, for some ungodly reason, wants to kiss him. The kinda dumb knight that follows her everywhere like a puppy, who would thank her if she stepped on him.This has to be something related to the goddess, because how in the world did his princess think he was gorgeous?! He always thought of himself as kind of messy, he doesn’t even try to tie his hair correctly, compared to other knights with their short hair and polished armor, he looked kinda scruffy. And tiny.He would try and convince himself that the princess only feels that way because, something, something about being destined to find each other in every life, and being kinda pushed together in this destiny they have -see, he is dumb even on his head, he has no idea how in hell that wooed the smartest person ever- if he didn’t feel the exact same way.He takes a breath trying to calm his speeding heart, and what does he do now? Should he tell her how he feels, she sure sounds like she wouldn’t mind if he just decided to kiss her, but he probably should come clean about how he found out about her feelings, oh how would she react, maybe she changes her mind once she finds out.Maybe he should keep handing her bugs until she snaps like she said in her journal.But no, he still would feel bad, he feels bad, he should come clean and confess and tell her exactly how he has found the guts to do it, but he would like to make it up to her somehow.Which leads to his current predicament. He had an idea after he carried the princess to her tent and left her journal at her side, it occurred to him when he grabbed his own journal and started writing his thoughts to try and make sense of what he just read.It was a really stupid idea, but is the only thing he could think of, well that and agreeing to lick a frog, but anyway. See, the only thing that he could come up with to make it up to her -other than liking amphibians- was to let her read his journal, an eye for an eye he thought.That way they would be even, maybe. It was a ridiculous idea, and an embarrassing one, if the princes thought she rambled about him like a lovesick damsel, she had to read how often she appeared on the pages of his journal, it’s not his fault she was the only thing to think about, his job was following her!But anyway, he was running out of time, they were almost done packing their stuff and the princess was staring at a mighty thistle while he finished packing their bags. He was staring intensely between his journal and the princess bag, he then heard rustling coming from the direction the princess was, and without thinking, he shoved the book on her bag.“It’s fascinating how this little plant can help soldiers with their strength if cooked right” He nods, hoping she didn’t notice how fidgety he was.A good thing about being friends with the princess was that he relaxed a little bit with his stony mask around her, so she wouldn’t think he was acting weird if he made a face that wasn’t his usual poker face.He handed her her bag, and they resumed their journey, they were in the last stretch so they were on foot, having left their horses at the stable. He walked a few paces behind her, which wasn’t weird on a normal day, if there were people around at least.The princess insisted on him walking by her side when they were alone, and he was happy to oblige. Today though, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t crumble once he looked at her eyes. It's not every day you find out your best friend, who you are deeply in love with, who happens to also be the princess of the kingdom, shares your feelings.It was pretty nerve wracking.“Hey, what are you doing back there?” The princess’s voice startled him out of his thoughts. She had stopped walking and was looking back at him with the cutest pout on her lips.He felt his cheeks slightly redden, “Ah- Muscle memory I guess” He looks away from her and scratches the back of his head, he needs to get his act together or she is going to figure out something is going on.“Well come here then” She says waving her hand, and he is but only her humble servant. He stops by her side and she curls her pinky finger on his, she looks away from him but he still can see how her ears turn red, “You know, I find it silly that you have to walk behind me, I know that you’re a knight and all, but you were also chosen by the goddess,” She turned her face and locked her eyes on his, “I think you belong at my side, don’t you think too?”How the hell didn’t he figure out she had a crush on him before -he knows why, he’s dumb- it’s so goddam obvious it hurts. He doesn’t know how to respond to that, can he just kiss her and be over with it already, but no, even if she wishes them to be equals, she is still a princess, if someone has to do something about this tension is her -he also wants her to make the first move, because hero of courage his ass-He still can try and make his feelings known somehow, right? If giving her his private journal doesn’t drive the point home. So he smiles at her and doesn’t try to conceal the lovesick look that overcomes his face, “It would be improper of me to think that way, your highness”She looks attentively at him, not daring to miss any change in his face, “How so?” Her voice is soft, like she’s scared of his response but eager at the same time.“Well, I’m just a knight after all, I find that wishing to walk at your side would get me beheaded, your highness”She frowns and that cute pout appears on her lips again, he wants to kiss it away, “Don’t talk so properly to me, Link, It’s weird”He chuckles and looks away, scratching his ear, “Sorry, I got nervous” He says the last part softly.“The hero of Hyrule gets nervous?” She asks with a soft smile.“More often than you would think”She chuckles and they resume their walk to the spring of courage, all the way there she doesn’t let go of his pinkie and he doesn’t mention it.-He hasn’t been accompanying the princess to pray at the sacred springs for long, but he already doesn’t like it. Sure he likes being out of the castle, seeing his princess yapping about frogs, feeling the breeze on his skin and getting to beat up a couple of lizalfos, what he doesn’t like is being at the spring, and sure that sounds kind of blasphemous, but it’s true.He doesn’t like seeing the princess waddle in the water until it covers her waist, doesn’t like having to turn around and keep watch, doesn't like hearing her mumbles of prayers that always come unanswered and he absolutely hates not being able to do anything about it.He’s used to solving all her problems with a quick slash of his sword, so this is something that surpasses him. What to do when, inevitably, the princess keeps praying and praying until the moon is high in the sky, when her mumbles start to tumble desperately out her mouth, when he hears her faint sobs, what does he do then?He would like to scream to the king on times like this, there’s no way they are going the right way. Zelda has been praying day and night since her mother passed, if her powers were to manifest this way they would already have, he thinks that the king saying that her not praying enough being the problem is just bullshit.His ear twitches at the sound of rippling water, turning around he sheathed his sword as he sees the princess waddling out of the spring, he is glad he won't have to convince her to come out this time, or goddess help him, hear how she passes out from the cold -that happened once and he vowed to not have it happen again-He has a blanket ready for her as she comes out, wrapping it around her, he feels hopelessness engulf him as he sees her downcast empty eyes. He knows not to ask how it went, he knows she hates when priests and priestesses ask her that when she’s done praying in a temple.He also knows better to ask if she’s ok, he knows she is not. But he never feels as despondent as he does when she is done praying, and he can do absolutely nothing to help her. So he just opens his arms to her and lets her choose if at least his presence is enough confort.She walks on the circle of his arms and lets her head fall on the crook of his neck, he in response wraps his arms around her and holds her close. In times like this he wishes he wasn’t so shit at words, he just hopes that she understands that he’ll be at her side no matter what. That he is in her corner, that his fealty is to her and not the king.He gently sways her while caressing her back and hopes that this is enough to comfort her, “How about I cook some dinner, hm?” He says softly, she nods in response.He lets go of her but she doesn’t let him go far, grabbing onto his tunic as they walk back to the camp he set up earlier. She goes off to change out of her wet prayer dress and he sits down to start the fire.When she comes back she leaves the dress beside the fire so it dries, and still wrapped in the blanket, she sits down beside him, drops her head on his shoulder and watches as he prepares their dinner, “Tell me a story?” Her soft voice breaks the silence they were in, he smiles.Since they started to get close, the princess asked him to tell her stories about himself. He thinks it started as a way to make him talk more, but he doesn’t mind. He indulges her from stories of battles, to his childhood in Hateno to silly things that happened to him while training to become a knight.He hums as he ponders what anecdote to tell her, then he decides on one, “So, I was about 13 years old, just a squire at that time. We were having dinner, we were like 5 squires at a table, the others seemed to be in a heated conversation, while I was gobbling up food. I had no idea what they were talking about,” A slight giggle scapes her lips and that keeps him going, “So, suddenly all of them turn to me, and it takes me a moment to notice, so much so that the one sitting beside me jabbed me with his elbow. I looked up and all of them were looking at me intensely, so I was like, ‘What?’, the one guy in front of me was like, ‘Link, you’re the only man for the job’ I was kinda confused, like what job? That seemed ominous, still I went, ‘Okay’ before asking, ‘What is that job though?’ I thought it probably was something like, dispatching a couple of bokoblins or like, retrieving something lost, but then that same guy in front of me went red and handed me a letter, I looked at him confused and then he said, ‘You gotta give this to Atea, say it’s anonymous’”He stopped for a second tasting the soup he was making, Zelda was listening attentively, “Well don’t leave me hanging” She said, he chuckled.“Just let me season this” He sprinkled goron spice, “So I was like, ‘Who?’ and another guy was like, ‘That girl that helps in the kitchen, you know’ and I was like, ‘No, I don’t know, lots of people help in the kitchen?’ The guy in front of me sighed and then was like, ‘She has long black hair, about my age, gray eyes and a really soft voice’ I thought about it and than I was like, ‘Oh, you mean capitan Barrink’s daughter?’ and he was like ‘Yes, yes her”He stops his story telling again to hand the princess a bowl of soup, and after they take a few bites, he continues, “‘Give her this letter’ he said, ‘and tell her is anonymous, and if she asks just tell her is from a squire, and that’s it’ so I was like, ‘Okay’” He said shrugging, “‘But why me?’, and he said, ‘They love you over there in the kitchen, they won’t ask why you are there’ wich made sense, so the next day I did just that, she insisted that I tell her who it was from and I held strong, what I didn’t account for was she seeking me out like a couple of days after and handing me another letter, ‘If I knew who it was from I would just hand it to them’ she said, ‘But how I don’t you do it’ and I was like ‘Okay’”Zelda chuckled, interrupting him, “Do you say no to anyone ever?” She asked, his cheeks went pink, she asked that in an enduring way, some months ago that question would bite behind it, he tried not to get distracted by that.“I like, doing favors, and I was kind of curious how long it would take for them to get their act together”“You’re so noisy” She didn’t know how correct that statement was.“Don’t tell me you never participated in castle gossip”“Touche, please continue” She said before taking a sip of her soup.“So I acted as a messenger between them for like 2 weeks, and by the third I was so done with it, every time I told the guy to ‘Please, tell her who you are already’ He was like ‘No, man impossible, there's no way she likes me out of this letters’ So, I took matters on my own hands, the next time I handed a letter to Atea I went, ‘By the way, this are from Tabi, I don’t wanna be a mailman anymore so your next letter just hand it to him’”Zelda laughed, “You have so little tact! You just told her like that?!”He laughed with her, “Well yeah! I was invested but not that much! So then she went red and was like, ‘Oh, ok thank you for telling me, did he ask you to?’ and I was like ‘No, he probably will kill me once he finds out’ Which he almost did, but ‘You are lucky it ended well’ he told me, so I went like ‘You're welcome’”The princess giggled, “I take that they ended up together?” He nodded.“Yep, still together the last time I checked”She sighed, “That sounds nice, you know being sure the one you like feels the same” He felt the red of his cheeks go up to his ears, she’s talking about me, he also felt kind of called out, he knew she liked him and still haven't made a move, but this was a different situation.“Well, I’m sure Atea was a little nervous even if she knew he liked her back” He said, leaving his now empty bowl on the ground.“Maybe, I wouldn’t though”“Oh, so you would just throw yourself at them?” Please do, he said with humor in his voice, trying to conceal how much he wanted to beg her to please do just that.“Yes” she said without hesitation, then she looked up to him from her spot still on his shoulder, “I know he is strong enough to not let me fall”He felt his face go even more red, “I sure hope he is smart enough to keep up with you then”She giggled, “He is kind of a dummy, but I like it” If she doesn’t stop right now he's going to do something really dumb. “Anyway, I’m tired from all that praying, good night” Yep, that was a good call, if she kept going he was gonna melt on the grass.“Night” She went inside of her tent, and when he was sure she wouldn’t see him, he sprawled on the grass with a big sigh.He almost calmed down enough to think properly before he remembered his journal is in her bag right now, and it’s just a matter of time before she finds it.*Getting ready for bed, Zelda grabbed her bag to look for her journal. She needed somewhere to gush about her knight or curse the goddess. She still hasn’t decided, she’ll probably do both.She felt so helpless when she came out of the spring, it wasn’t anything new, the disappointment in herself was something she has experienced since she started the search for her powers. The addition of strong arms wrapping around her after prayer was a nice change though, and she always can count on him to get her head out of it too, that with his stories and all.She thought today she was being very obvious when talking about “the person she likes” he didn’t do anything about it though, but he did blush, so that’s a win. She doesn't know if he got her kinda obvious flirting, but if he did he didn’t do anything about it, kind of disappointing but it's not like she didn’t expect it. He is duty bound and anxious to do everything right, at the same time she knows he acts on impulse a lot, so she tries to poke that side of him from time to time, to see if he jumps or not.Today's experiment didn’t give the results that she wanted. She hopes that he is just oblivious or too nervous to act, if he was aware of her hopeless crush and just didn’t feel the same way, she would be crushed.Digging in her bag she goes to extract her journal when she notices something, there’s a third journal. She didn’t grab a third journal did she? No she just grabbed her field and private ones, and she doesn’t have a third one.Curious she grabs it, at first glance it looks like any regular journal, but she quickly notices that it’s not like any of hers. Being the princess was good for something and that something was having super good quality journals, this one even if not horrible, it was obvious that it was the typical thing you could find in any bookstore in Castle Town.And now that she is looking more closely, it seems to be the typical journal that people in the military use. With all that information, it was pretty obvious this journal belonged to Link, he probably got mixed up or something with their bags.She was going to just set it aside to give back to him tomorrow when she noticed something, on the back of the journal there seemed to be a note attached to it, she couldn’t help herself and read it.
I AM SO SORRY!
I got curious and wanted to read what I thought was your field journal, but after reading one page I realized it wasn’t-
I FEEL REALLY BAD, so this is my journal in exchange, an eye for an eye?
Look I know it’s stupid, so you can do whatever you want with it, read it all and laugh at me or use it so they throw me on the dungeons or you can throw it on my face even!
AGAIN I'M REALLY SORRY!
Her cheeks flamed red when she finished reading, the note wasn’t signed or anything but it had to be Link's. She recognized his handwriting and he was the only one who had access to her bags out here in the wild, so it was a no brainer.
He read her personal journal? In the notes he says it was only a page, but what page? Did he read how she cursed him in the starting pages? Did he read her hopeless curses to the goddess? Or worse, did he read her hopeless lovesick rambles about him?!All the blood drained from her face, she was so embarrassed, and she didn’t even know what exactly she should feel embarrassed about, so she felt embarrassed about everything.She shook her head trying to calm herself down, she needed to think clearly, she could just go outside and ask him, and then tell him to forget everything he read, but… She looked down at her hands that still holded his journal, maybe she could do that after taking a peek.She felt kind of bad, it was obvious he felt really bad about it and his only way to make it up to her was this. And she felt like she was overstepping, reading his personal thoughts. But at the same time she was so curious, even before befriending him she wished to know what was going on in his mind, what he thought of her.And now she had all of that on her fingertips, finally she would know what her knight felt about his princess. So she opened the journal by a random page and started reading.
Today the princess tried to feed me a frog.
Well she said to taste it, so technically she probably meant for me to lick it, if I had a rupee for every time the princess of Hyrule tried to make me lick something alive I would have two rupees, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.
Anyway- I refused, there’s a lot of things I would do for her but licking frogs is not one of those. I act all high and mighty, like I have a line or something, but I know for a fact that if she insisted more I would 100% have done it.
It’s so pathetic.
Link, he who carries the Sword that Seals the Darkness, the Hero of Hyrule, is willing to lick a frog because the Princess of Hyrule said so.
You know what is more pathetic? It’s not even because she’s the princess, it’s not out of loyalty to the crown or whatever bullshit people would invent if they heard about it. It’s because the princess has the most beautiful smile I have ever seen and I would do anything to keep it on her face, and if that includes licking a frog I will gladly do it.
This is why I don’t talk, if I did it would be even more obvious how besotted I am with her.
Were my other reincarnations this down bad for their princesses or it’s just me? Am I just this pathetic? Probably.
You know what, I may be pathetically in love with the princess of Hyrule, but how could I not? With her green eyes, enthusiasm for frogs and a smile like the sun. Like I’m just another guy in love with her, I just happen to carry a fancy sword.
I rest my case.
Zelda had to contain herself from squealing, her face was a comfortable shade of red and she couldn’t believe what she was reading. This was confirmation, Link had feelings for her, or as he put it, pathetically in love with the princess of Hyrule.She couldn’t contain her smile. She probably was smiling like a doofus, but she didn’t care because Link, her knight Link, was in love with her too.She had to do something about it.She would have thought about how to go about this better but she couldn’t think straight, she had hearts in her eyes and her brain was fogged.She almost ripped the flap of her tent open from how forcefully she pulled it open. She felt the cold air of the night on her face but she didn’t care about that, or that she was on her sleeping clothes, or that she had no shoes on and that the grass was cold.All she cared about was the boy who was now standing in front of her, cleaning their camp. He turned his head when he heard her forceful exit and clutched the ladle he had on his hand.“Is something wrong, princess?” He asked looking behind and around her, his ears twitching trying to pick out sounds of any stray lizalfos he could have missed probably.She didn’t respond, she didn’t feel like she could, so she just ran towards him and almost tackled him to the ground. But, just like she said earlier, he catched her in his arms, he stumbled but was able to regain his footing. She heard how he left the ladle fall to the ground as he wrapped his arms around her so she wouldn’t fall.“Prin-” He sounded startled, which was comprehensible seeing how she threw herself at him, but it’s not like she didn’t warn him, she said that if she knew for sure that the person that she liked she would go for it, and go for it she did.She cut him off by pressing her lips to his, she felt him swallow a gasp and then he melted. She felt how his knees went weak but he was still able to not fall to the ground. His arms tightened around her and it was him who deepened the kiss making her hum against his mouth, her hands in return snaked around his neck and one of them went to his hair.She pulled his hair tie off and then put it on her wrist like a bracelet, with his hair free her hand explored his scalp pulling a sound out of him that just egged her on. They kissed until they were out of breath and panting against each other.“Wha-” She pulled away enough to see the state her knight was in, his eyes were hazy, his cheeks were beautifly flushed and his lips were a delicious red, the sight pulled out a smile on her face.Her knight blinked trying to regain focus, his eyes locked into hers and his face seemed to go even redder, “Princess?” he asked, his voice shaky.“See, I told you he was strong enough to not let me fall” She smiled at him, and that seemed to make him go shy, he looked away from her and his ears went red.“You weren’t kidding about throwing yourself either” He chuckled letting her feet fall on the ground, still they kept their arms around each other.“Well no, I’ve been wanting to do that for a while” now it were her own cheeks that went red, “I just needed to be sure first” she leaned forward and gave him a peck on the lips, “I am now though” She murmured.Link didn’t let her go far and kissed her softly in return, he humed, “Oh, man this is bad I’m not going to be able to stop kissing you now” He whispers against her lips.“Then don’t” She said before returning the kiss.“The King will have my head then”“Over my dead body”She felt his smile against her lips and it was the best sensation she ever experienced.