Chapter Text
Zelda sat silently, tearing her cuticles to shreds while she waited to hear from the doctor. She had to call for help to get both Purah and Link to the medical wing of the castle. Purah protested, saying she was fine, but the big welt on her head and unfocused eyes told Zelda otherwise.
The doctor came in to give her a briefing on Purah’s condition, just a concussion, thank the Goddess, but nothing about Link's. Time and time again, she would ask about Link, only to be told, frustratingly enough, that they couldn't tell her.
So now, she sat in a chair by his bedside, waiting for him to wake so that he could tell her himself. She looked at him, peacefully sleeping with bandages all over, as tears trace hot tracks down her cheeks.
Of course she would blame herself for this, how was she supposed to know that sexual attraction was different from just telling someone they were pretty or beautiful? All she ever got from her lady maids was that the words were interchangeable, so she had just assumed that it was so.
She did understand not to say those words around Link now, for reasons not yet told, and that today's events were rather uncommon. She also learned that Link was indeed right when he told her that no one would tell her about what was going on with him, irritatingly enough.
Zelda looked at her knight for a brief moment, eyes scanning his form, before there was a knock on the door.
“Your Highness, dinner is ready,” the maid announced. “Would you like me to bring it here to you while you wait for Sir Link to wake?”
“Yes please, thank you!” Zelda replied thankfully.
Without another word the maid left to fetch the meal, and at the same time, Link began to stir.
“Nugh,” he groans as he sits up, holding his head. “What happened? Where am I?”
“Oh, thank goodness, you're awake!” Zelda nearly leaps out of her seat, causing Link to jump back. “Sorry, I'm sorry, it's just,” Zelda inhales deeply. “You’ve been out for several hours, and I was worried that, well because the bookshelf fell on you, that you would be hurt worse than you seem to be and-”
“Princess.”
She looked at him, waiting for him to speak, but he said no more, instead he just stared at her with an unreadable look.
“I'm sorry, I'll stop rambling.”
“No,” he replied somewhat curtly, “I do not accept those apologies since there is nothing to apologize for, I'm the one who needs to apologize.”
“Link, what's going on? I can't help you, or figure out what I've done for this to happen, if you won't tell me.”
“Let me first start off by saying that it was not my intention to keep you in the dark on the matter, and for that, I am sorry.” He took a deep shuddering breath. “I am also so sorry for the way I have behaved today while in your company, it was unbecoming of a knight as well as inappropriate. What I have done today, the way I acted, was inexcusable, regardless of reason.”
“Link, you-”
“You want to know the reason for it, the poor excuse I have?”
“Link it wouldn't be a poor excuse-” She was promptly cut off as Link continued.
“You are aware of the disgraced and dishonored Reinkard, right? The man who brought shame and scrutiny upon the knights back when he was still alive?”
“I've heard the name, but I don't-”
“He was a knight at one point, the best of the best, or so everyone thought until the truth of his nature came to light.” Link's hands shook. “I was a Page under him at the time.”
“His true nature. What are-” Link holds up his hand, a silent plea to let him continue, and Zelda holds back her tongue.
“He chose me because I was the smallest and youngest of the recruits.” He gripped the bed sheet, the crisp thin cotton stretching tightly. “I was so naive.” He shook his head, and Zelda almost missed it. “So stupid, to think that he was rooting for the little guy, that he saw such great potential in me to become a knight, but no, that wasn't why he picked me.”
“I don't understand,” Zelda said cautiously.
“He chose me because he thought I was the weakest, that I wouldn't be able to defend myself like the other boys would.” His grip loosened. “He was right, in a way. I clung to every word he said, and believed it as if he was the Goddess herself speaking to me.”
“Link that's-”
“It was because of that, that blind trust, that he got away with so much before he was finally stopped.” A sharp knock interrupts the growing pressure in the room, dark emotions swirling in his eyes as the maid enters.
Dinner had come, and Zelda thanked the maid softly as she took her plate. She looked at Link, waiting for him to continue his story. She didn't have to wait long.
“He did things to me. Bad things, things that your father has tried to keep you blind to in an effort to protect you, at least, I assume that to be the case. While the information is not forbidden to you, it is hidden really well. He did this in response to what happened to me.”
“What did Reinkard do to you? Based on what you've said so far, I can assume that my father knows what he did, yes?”
“Yes, your father is aware, he was the one who had him executed for his crimes.”
“Crimes?”
“Yes. All the things he had done to me were crimes.” He nodded, a viscous gleam in his eyes, making them appear ice-like, overtaking the crystalized blue. “It took me a while to realize that what he did was not right, or rather, I knew in the beginning that it wasn't, but towards the end, I could no longer tell.” Link takes another slow breath in. “My mind had been warped into thinking that it was okay, that it was normal, it got so bad that I was starting to ask for it before it came to an end.”
Zelda studied him, unsure what to say, and took another bite of food slowly. She was in the midst of trying to make sense of everything Link was saying, and he allowed her time to take it in.
“He was a -” he paused, trying to gather his jumbled thoughts, “- a really bad person. He would beat me until I was almost unconscious, he would touch me in places no one should, and make me touch him in those same places.” Link hiccuped, his face flushing with anger or embarrassment, maybe both. “Sometimes, though rare compared to the rest that he did, he would even go as far as to force himself upon me.”
“Force himself upon you?”
“He would rape me, Zel.”
“Rape-”
“It's when you have sex with someone, but it's against your will.”
The words are like a horse kick to her chest and cause her to gasp sharply.
“Oh, I didn't know.” She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “Now you panic everytime you hear the word, or…” her words trailed off, almost choking on them.
Link nods his head almost absentmindedly before he continues, barley any emotional tilt to his words.
“Words like sex or sexual, if it is coming from another person's mouth, triggers flashbacks of those times. People tend to be wary of those words while I'm around as a result, like a not-so-unspoken rule. Some know why they can't say it, while others follow by not saying anything even if they don't know why.”
“So when I asked that question, it triggered this,” Zelda reiterated out loud, to herself. “Had I not asked, we would not be in this situation.”
“Well, yes, but it also reminded me that there was more that I had yet to tell you.”
They sat in silence and stared at each other for a moment, until Link's sight shifted and he looked at her almost empty plate. His stomach growled audibly and he looked around for his plate, not finding one.
“I noticed you'd flinch every time someone touched you,” Zelda chimed. “Do you not like being touched because of what happened?”
“No, I really don't,” Link stated softly. “Where is my food? I'm hungry.”
A maid came with a tray of food for him moments after. They sat in companionable silence while he ate, inhaling his plate with great fervor. Once he was finished, he put his plate to the side and looked at her with determination in his eyes. “I want to get better at not flinching when people touch me,” he said with intent. “I want to be able to feel safe knowing that not everyone is out to hurt me like Reinkard did. I want you to be the one to help me, Princess. Please.”
“Of course I’ll help you. We’re friends, and that's what friends do.” Zelda smiled sweetly. “May I, that is to say, would it be okay if I touched you?”
He hesitated for a bit before nodding, allowing her to put her hand on his shoulder. He willed himself not to flinch as he felt the pressure of her hand, but after a moment he couldn't take it anymore and gently shrugged it off.
“Baby steps,” he said before she could ask. “Baby steps,” he reiterates as he grabs her hand and gives a quick squeeze before letting go.
“Daruk sent a message for us to check on his progress with Rudania,” Zelda said with a slight tilt to her head. “He will be expecting us once you've been released.”
Link nodded and lies back down, his energy spent. Zelda covers him with a blanket, careful to avoid touching him, and leaves the room so that her knight can rest. Baby steps, Zelda, baby steps, she thinks as she leaves.
“Hey Princess,” Link says, barely loud enough to hear. “Have you been having weird dreams lately? At least since we started to get along?”
Zelda's body starts at his question.“How did you-”
“Your door is not soundproof and you talk in your sleep pretty often,” He says, cutting her off.
She purses her lips. “We can discuss that later, you need your rest.” She walks away once she hears Links hum of compliance.
____________________________________________
Later that evening, Princess Zelda sits by Link’s bedside once again, waiting for him to wake. She had decided that she should tell him about the dreams she has been having.
He shared some of his secrets, it's only right that I should share some of mine, she reasoned. He did ask what they were about after all.
“Princess, you're thinking out loud again,” Link says groggily. “Oh, um, I'm sorry, did I wake you?” she replied remorsefully. “A bit,” he stifles a yawn. “But it's fine.” Link gives her a small smile.
“You sure?” she asks.
“Yes, Princess, I'm sure. You can talk about your dreams with me, if you would like.” He sits up and stretches slightly, the sight a bit cat-esque.
“They're,” Zelda began. “Well I'm not quite sure how to put this. I don't even understand what's going on in them. I do know that there is a sense of ‘wrongness’ to them though.”
“‘Wrongness’ as in they give you an icky feeling, or that you feel out of place in them?” He asks with innocent curiosity.
“Both… neither… I can't really tell. All I know is that it's the same dream every night,” she started. “It always starts with you and I in the hall next to my door, then it shifts to us in my room, my back is to you, and you're doing something, but I don't know what it is. I feel this,” she pauses trying to think of the word, “pressure between my legs that seems to lessen a bit before intensifying as you move. My mind says I don't like it, but my body seems to have a mind of its own and goes with whatever you are doing behind me.”
He looks at her, horrified, before quickly shaking his head. “I can hazard a guess as to what I was doing in your dream, but I don't like the implication that you'd think I would do something like that to you.” He frowns intensely.
“What? No, I wasn't finished.” She shook her head rapidly. “This next part is hard to explain in a way that really makes sense but,” Zelda bit her lip slightly. “You see, even though it is us in my dream, it doesn't ‘feel’ that way, not exactly anyways; it feels as though I'm in someone else's shoes, or rather their body, almost like seeing double, but not doing so at the same time. Physically, I look like myself, but I know that it's not me that I'm trying to see. I don't know how I know, I just do.” She looked at him to see if he understood. “I get that same feeling with the dreams’ version of you as well.”
“So the us in your dreams are stand-ins for other people?” he asked, trying to make sense of the information.
“Yes,” she says eagerly. “Yes, that is exactly what I'm trying to say.” Zelda’s eyes brightened.
“So what's happening in your dreams is this one person, who I'm the stand-in for, is, well they are-” he took a deep, slow breath. “What’s happening is that person is raping the other,” he blurted out.
“What?” Zelda breathes out.
“You said that your mind didn't want it, but your body seemed to, did you not?”
She nodded slowly. “Well, yes but-”
Link's voice overtakes hers. “That is rape. Both parties did not consent, one person was forced into it against their will.”
Zelda tried to digest his words for a moment before replying. “I see, but it doesn't answer the question as to who these two individuals are.”
As if struck by lightning, Link's eyes widen with realization. His chest constricts as he looks at her and then to his hands, which were lightly holding the blanket in anticipation of another panic attack.
“Princess.”
“Yes, Link?”
“You said these dreams began when we started actually getting along, right?”
She looked at him with bewilderment. “Yes…”
“You know how I told you about what happened to me, and why I am the way I am today?”
Zelda nods softly. “Yes, but I don't…” Her face scrunched up in thought, eyes darting back and forth as her brain tried to put two and two together. Then realization blooms across her face, a harsh gasp pulled from her lips. “Oh dear Goddesses, it's you and Reinkard!”
“The question now becomes how, and or why, would you be having these dreams about what I endured in the past?”
“I believe I can answer that.” A gruff and sturdy but gentle voice is heard as its owner slowly makes their way into the room.
“Father?” Zelda stood instantly, guilt and worry sliding into place on her face like a mask. “I know I have no business being here, but I-”
Rhoam puts his hand up to silence her. “I have no intention of scolding you, my dear. I can clearly see the worry for Sir Link etched on your face,” he says warmly. Zelda instantly relaxes her shoulders, then she clasps her hands together against her chest, glancing between her father and Link.
“You said you could explain the weird dream, and what it has to do with me being able to see what happened to Link?” Zelda asked hesitantly. The King nodded solemnly and began to speak.
“Legends state those with the blood of the Goddess,” he gestures his hand at her, “and those with the soul of the Hero, have an innate and inseparable bond. This bond, once strong enough, can allow the two to communicate telepathically. How it works is up to the two of you to explore, as there are no written records,but knowing the two of you have the same kind of bond that your ancestors did is heartening to hear. It gives me hope for the future.” He brought his hands together behind him, a warm glow in his eyes.
“Keep up the good work, continue on this path. Do not let it distract you from your training, but let it help guide you into your powers and Ganon will surely fall.” He ended his sentence with a glance to both of them, hope clearly shining in his eyes. Zelda trembled slightly, her own eyes shining with tears.
“Thank you, father! We won't fail,” Zelda said with renewed resolve. Her father smiled and turned to leave the room.
“I have faith in you, both of you,” he says as he passed through the doorway, his words leaving Zelda’s chest spreading with the warm heat of joy.