Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“LINK! WAKE UP!”

Link groggily blinked his eyes open and immediately grabbed Zelda’s arms. Probably on account of the fact that she had been shaking him to wake him up. But it wasn’t really her fault that he always had to be forced awake.

And, of course, years of blacksmithing and adventuring made him considerably stronger than her, so she was now unable to continue tormenting her best friend. Which admittedly was part of the point of waking him up the way she did, so she at least partially deserved that flat stare he gave her. “Do you always have to wake me up like that? It isn’t pleasant.”

She snorted. “Oh? And is there really a pleasant way to wake up? Really?”

He considered that for a moment. “No. I guess there isn’t. But if you keep waking me up so violently, just know that one of these days I’ll have to retaliate. And I won’t hold back just because you’re my best friend.”

Zelda backed away at that, and he let go of her arms so that she could actually manage to do so. Coming from him, the threat was actually intimidating. She had seen some of the things he had done while saving Hyrule, not to mention being there to witness his fight against Vaati firsthand. And she had the not-so-common knowledge that he still snuck out at night to protect both hylians and minish from monsters, so his skills stayed fresh. “Shouldn’t you be saying that you wouldn’t hold back just because I’m the princess?”

“For one thing, you don’t act very princess-like,” he said as he sat up. It hurt, but… he certainly had a point. From how often she tormented him and snuck out here with dirt stains on her dress, it was undeniable that she did very little to be a good princess. “And for another, you being my best friend keeps you safe from me killing you, which is all that being a princess would do for you.”

She pulled a face. “I have a feeling you could still seriously injure me, even if I was playing dirty. I don’t want that.”

“Then better not make me turn to violence. Now, get out. I need to get changed.”

Zelda rolled her eyes, but she went out and closed the door. She really probably should work on being a little bit nicer to Link, toning down the teasing. In fact, she should have started with that, especially today of all days.

After all, today she had come here to ask him to marry her.

She shifted uncomfortably at the thought. It still seemed intimidating, the thought of getting married. Or even being betrothed. But as her father had said, she would be expected to get married sometime in the next few years, and then to have an heir within a few years of that. It would be good for Hyrule to have the security of its next heir, even if Zelda’s own coronation was still several years off, barring something happening to her father.

And while she could get married now that she was sixteen, her father had only suggested she start courting. Of course, she could have started a couple of years ago, but he hadn’t said anything until this year because he had probably noticed her total lack of interest in it. And dealing with a bunch of men that just want their daughter to be the next Queen of Hyrule didn’t sound the least bit appealing to her.

So she had come up with this plan. Skip courting entirely and just be betrothed to the one man that she could see herself actually enjoying spending the rest of her life with. If he agreed.

Link opened the door, startling her out of her thoughts. He was wearing a plain brown tunic meant to get dirty as he worked at the forge. Practical, though she liked him in his green tunic best. It suited him. And while he would always be rather lanky, he had started to fill out a bit in the past couple of years.

He looked up at her. At least she was still taller than him (though she sometimes worried that she had stopped growing but he might not have quite yet). “So, why’d you come here today?”

Her eyebrows shot up. How could he know she came for something specific? This was obviously a perfect opportunity to tell him, but… it was so sudden, and the thought of asking him still so nerve-wracking, that she stalled instead. “What makes you think I came for a specific reason?”

Link raised an eyebrow. “Your dress is clean, so you didn’t just escape to Hyrule Field and decide to drop by like usual.”

Zelda looked down. So it was. How strange. Usually it managed to pick up some smudges of dirt that infuriated the maids without her even really trying at all . But not today.

“And when I was changing, I looked outside and noticed it was early in the morning. Which explains why I’m especially tired, but also tells me that you didn’t just come after your lessons like usual, so there had to be a reason you considered really important to come this early.”

“And if I just wanted to have breakfast with you? I never get to do that.” Why did she keep stalling? This was the perfect opening to tell him!

“Oh? Did you get tired of all the delicious pastries they line up for your breakfast at the castle each morning?” She didn’t ever get tired of those, and was actually missing them a lot right now. She had a huge sweet tooth, and Link knew that. “And you know that I always sleep through breakfast, so even if we did have it together, I’d hardly be a joy to be around.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t just go adventure all night long, then,” she said. “Your grandfather is always wondering why you sleep so late, anyhow. No one would protest if you did that during the day, instead.”

“You know why I do it.”

She did. So that he could still learn and practice as a blacksmith. That’s what he really wanted to be—he just felt some obligation to keep Hyrule safe ever since his adventure and he had seen how much danger there really was, even though no one expected him to. That was part of why Zelda wanted to ask him to marry her, because she knew that he really cared for Hyrule and would be a good future King.

“Well, then you could at least tell Master Smith, and then maybe sometime we could have breakfast for lunch and—”

“Zelda,” Link said. “You’re stalling.”

Zelda halted. He was right. “Alright. Fine. I do have something to ask you. But could we sit down first?”

He nodded, and started to head down to the table.

“Wait!” Link paused, looking back at her. “I, um, I don’t really want it to be where your grandfather can hear. I don’t want him to know, at least not yet.”

He frowned, but came back, and they headed into his room, shutting the door and sitting down on his bed. He stayed silent, looking at her expectantly.

“Well, I, um—” Zelda fidgeted with her fingers nervously, and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. Just start from the beginning. Explain your thoughts. “So, you know how my father has been encouraging me to court recently?”

Link nodded slowly, clearly wondering where this could possibly be going.

“Well, I’m not really… interested in courting anyone. But I do need to get married at some point. So, I was wondering…” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. No more stalling. The next thing she said would change everything, one way or another. Whether he would accept and she would marry Link, or she’d finally have to start courting someone else.

Zelda opened her eyes and met Link’s stare with her own. “Will you marry me?”

He blinked. “WHAT?”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to,” she rapidly started to explain. “I just thought that if I had to marry someone, you’re the one I’d like it to be.”

He tipped his head back. “I just… I dunno, Zelda. Marry you? I mean, I understand, and it’s not like there’s anyone else I would rather marry, but… even if you’re my best friend, you’re still the princess. You’re going to become Queen of Hyrule one day. And I don’t want to rule.”

“There’s nothing that says the King Consort has to rule,” she said. “Papa was a politician before he married Mama, and helped her rule even before she died. Which my death before our daughter is of age is the only reason you’d have to, as King Regent, but even then there would be advisors, and hopefully that would never happen.”

“Alright.” Link took a deep breath. “But what about what I would have to do? I still want to be a blacksmith.”

“You can still do that, though you would have to set up a forge at the castle. You’d probably have to cut back on the adventuring by yourself a bit.”

He slowly nodded, taking that into account. “But is there really nothing I would need to do besides marry you?”

“Only one thing.” She blushed even before she said it, knowing what it would entail. “Provide heirs.”

His gaze snapped back to meet hers, eyes wide.

“It wouldn’t have to be immediately,” she said. “We would have time to… get used to the idea.”

Link still looked away from her, his own cheeks turning red as he thought about it, running his fingers through his hair until they were stopped by where he had tied it back. He quickly took it out and kept doing that.

“You can think about it a bit more before you answer,” she told him. “It’s… a really big decision. I know. I had to think over it a lot before I decided to actually ask you.”

She got up to leave the room, but he stopped her. “I think I want to, actually. I just want to be sure… you don’t want to try finding someone you can love? In a romantic way, I mean.”

Zelda sat back down, shaking her head. “When other girls talk about getting butterflies in their stomachs, or thinking boys are cute… I just don’t get it. Well, you are cute, because your cheeks are still so chubby.”

“Hey! Everything about you is cuter than me! You’re one to talk about being chubby!”

“But you’re so small, too. So you’re cuter than me.”

“I’m two inches shorter than you are, Zelda. And I will take you down in a fight. Let’s see if I look cute then.”

“You would look cute, even then.” She sighed. “But you distracted me. I was saying I’m not really interested in people romantically. I’d rather just spend time with my best friend for forever. And if you’d marry me, that is exactly what I intend to do.”

“Alright, then. I feel the same way. It’ll be a big change, but I think I want to do it. I’ll marry you, Zelda.”

Zelda smiled. Then fidgeted. She had spent so long worrying about whether or not he would accept that she hadn’t really thought about what she would do if he actually did. She was engaged to Link. She would be marrying him sometime soon. “Now what?”

“I think most people would kiss after they’re engaged,” Link said. “But, I don’t know if we should. After all, this is hardly a usual engagement, is it?”

“Yes, but… it probably wouldn’t hurt to practice for our wedding, either, wouldn’t it? I think people usually kiss at a wedding ceremony, don’t they? And I wouldn’t want that to be our first kiss and look undoubtedly awkward.”

He raised his eyebrows. “So you’re saying you do want to kiss?”

She nodded. “If you’d be fine with that. I mean, we also could practice it later, closer to whenever we get married. But here seems as good a place to be awkward as any.”

“I… think now seems like a good time for our first kiss, then. And then we can tell people we’re getting married.” He paused. “So… how do we do this?”

“I dunno. I’ve never kissed someone before.”

“Neither have I.”

That somehow made this better and worse at once. On one hand, neither of them had any expectations going into it. On the other hand, since it was their first kiss, it had a lot to live up to, to see what the whole big deal was about.

“Well, then. Let’s try this.” Zelda reached up and grabbed his cheeks.

“What are you doing?”

“Making sure I don’t miss.”

Link laughed. “This is ridiculous. And awkward.”

“Perfect. Just like us.” They both laughed at that. And that, laughing together, made this seem a little better. Zelda took a deep breath, and leaned forward, trying to keep an eye on his lips so that she really didn’t miss.

She paused when she was too close to see them. This was completely different than seeing someone else kiss. She had never really thought about it, that when you were this close to someone, you had a hard time seeing them properly. It wasn’t that different from a hug or kissing someone on the cheek in that respect, but being this close to Link, about to give him a proper kiss after they had just gotten engaged, felt entirely different.

“Aren’t we supposed to be kissing?” She looked up and met his eyes, because she could still see those in alarming detail. She had never realized just how blue they were before. The top of his cheeks—the only part of them she could see—were pink, and she had a suspicion her own cheeks looked the same. And every word he said she felt on her lips. “We aren’t quite kissing.”

“Sorry!” she quickly apologized, and made herself let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. “I’m just… nervous. This is a lot simpler in theory than once you finally try to do it.”

“Do you still want to kiss? We don’t have to if you’re too nervous.”

“I’d still like to, I’m sure. I don’t think I’ll be any less nervous for the first time, regardless of when it is. Let’s kiss now.”

“Alright, then if you’re sure, would you mind closing your eyes?”

She frowned. “Why?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Of course.”

Zelda closed her eyes.

She became lost in how everything felt, now that she no longer had her sight. Link’s mostly smooth cheeks, with only a hint of a few hairs that started to grow but weren’t nearly enough he had to start shaving yet, warm beneath her hands. But that only paled in comparison with the heat she felt on her own face. He exhaled, and she felt his breath ghost over her lips. His hands came up to cover hers, holding them in place upon his cheeks, and her arms compressed.

His lips met hers. Warm. Soft. Sweet. Smiling. They both were.

And then he was gone. After a few moments, Zelda slowly blinked her eyes open. “That… was actually kinda nice. Better than I thought it’d be.”

Link nodded. “I’m glad my first kiss was with you, Zelda. I… don’t think I would have wanted to do that with anyone else.”

“I think so, too. Though we’ve absolutely missed our chance to kiss anyone else.”

He grunted. “If I wanted to kiss just for the sake of a kiss, I would have done that long before now. I have no regrets. I’m perfectly fine with only kissing you for the rest of our lives.”

“I was just joking,” she said. “But, I’m glad we did that now. I don’t think I’ll be as worried now about anything about this marriage. You ready to go tell everyone?”

He blinked. Once. Twice. “I’m still awfully tired. Does it have to be right now?”

“What if we have breakfast together first?” she asked. “I mean, we will need to tell them soon, and that should give you enough energy for the day, as long as you take a break from adventuring for at least tonight, right?”

Link didn’t look convinced. Zelda wanted to give him her contrived dazzling smile, but it worked on everyone except Link. So, instead, she gave him a smile that reflected what she truly felt at the moment. Still a little timid and nervous about all of this, but also hopeful that he would say yes, and they could spend the day together, even if it wasn’t the most fun thing.

He sighed and looked away. “Alright, fine. I guess it doesn’t sound too bad. And it has been a while since I had breakfast.”

Chapter Text

Grandpa walked in as the eggs were burning.

At least the sound of the door closing was enough to startle Link from his dozing, and he started tending to them. Zelda should have been the one to keep him in check, but considering that she was the one who had burned their first batch of eggs… well, it was no surprise that she didn’t notice anything amiss. At least half-burnt eggs were edible.

“Hello, Master Smith!”

“Hello, Zelda,” Grandpa greeted the princess as Link brought the eggs towards the table. “You’re here early. And even managed to wake Link up, as usual.” He glanced at the eggs. “Well, mostly.”

He waved his hand dismissively. “You know I need my beauty rest.”

Zelda leaned towards Grandpa, and said in a not-so-quiet whisper, “It’s working. Those eye bags are very attractive.”

“Hey!” Link took his revenge by poking her arm rapidly. “Stop that.”

That only made her cackle in glee.

After they sat down and offered their thanks to the goddesses for the meal, Grandpa asked, “So, Zelda, what brought you here today?”

He expected his newly betrothed to say something along the lines of her usual desire to see her friend or to wake him up and then lead up to—

“To propose to Link.”

Link choked on his eggs, and had to reach for his glass of milk to wash them down so that he could breathe again, and looked at her with wide eyes. “You’re telling him already?”

She shrugged. “Why draw it out? It’s not like we’re hiding it.”

That was true, but apparently they weren’t on the same page on how they planned on telling everyone. To be fair, after they kissed, they had been focused on breakfast, and Link had either been asleep or half-asleep that entire time.

“I’m too tired to think,” he mumbled, resting his head on his hand. “I’m taking a nap after breakfast.”

Zelda frowned, and finished swallowing her bite. “I thought we would go to the castle after breakfast.”

“Great. I’ll sleep in your bed. It’s comfier than mine.”

“Wait.” Grandpa hadn’t been saying or eating anything for a while now, looking back-and-forth between them as they talked. “To make sure I am understanding this correctly, Link accepted your proposal?”

They both nodded.

He leveled his gaze on Link. “You are not going to sleep in her bed until the two of you are married.”

And then he proceeded to eat his breakfast, as though he hadn’t just made his grandson blush furiously.

“I didn’t mean like that! I just wanted to sleep!”

“I know,” he said. “But it would be best not to give court anything to gossip about. If I had known the two of you were courting, I would have mentioned something sooner.”

“Actually,” Link began, “we weren’t cour—”

Suddenly, a sharp elbow connected with his ribs. He turned to look at Zelda, who appeared to be eating her eggs far too innocently. What had that been for?

“You know that Link doesn’t think about using a bed for anything but sleeping,” she said, probably to distract Grandpa from what he had began to say. Fine. He’d be quiet for now, but he would ask what all of this was about later. “I wonder if he’ll really get used to it… not being the case once we’re married.”

Well, it was a small comfort that her cheeks were as red as his ears as she said that, at least. Gosh, with the way the two of them were acting at the mere allusion to sex, perhaps they should have began with courting, if only to have more time to become accustomed to the idea.

Well, at least Grandpa seemed to take pity on the two of them and didn’t dwell on the point. “Have you thought about when you’ll have the wedding?”

They glanced at each other. “Uhh…”

He chuckled as he stood up and went to wash his dishes. “It’s fine. It hasn’t been long since you’ve been engaged, and you are young. Just let me know once you’ve chosen a date.”

They nodded.

“Well, I’m glad to see the two of you so happy together, regardless.” Grandpa moved to go out the door leading to the forge, but paused before closing it. “Link, will you be helping me in the forge today?”

He nodded. “Why wouldn’t I?”

He felt both pair of eyes on him, like he had just said something ridiculous. Which was totally possible.

“I thought we would go tell Papa after breakfast,” Zelda said.

“Oh. Right.” They had agreed to do that. And that was the main point of this betrothal—so that Zelda wouldn’t have to court anyone else. That was probably more important than telling Grandpa just now. And he was fine with all that, he just… hadn’t realized that meant he wouldn’t be able to be at the forge today.

“It’s alright,” Grandpa said. “Spend the day with Zelda. I’ll have to get used to not having your help regularly, and it certainly isn’t every day you get engaged. If you’re so eager to continue smithing, tomorrow is plenty soon enough to help.”

After bidding farewell to them, he walked into the forge, leaving them alone again.

Link frowned, finally realizing that, even if he could still be a blacksmith as Zelda promised, visiting the forge might not be a daily occurrence anymore. He was betrothed to the princess. He’d be married to her soon enough. That meant his life was going to look very different. If nothing else, he might not be able to continue his nightly adventures.

“So?” Zelda asked. “Are you ready to go now?”

“Hmm?”

And he must have looked a little silly, confused as he was, because she was suddenly laughing at him. Laughing with her dimples so obvious against those adorable, chubby cheeks of hers.

He shook his head and went over their earlier conversation. “The palace, right?”

She kept on laughing. “Only you’d forget so quickly, Link!” She leaned forward and mussed his hair.

Only Zelda. He wouldn’t let anyone else get away with doing something like that. Not anymore. But his best friend would always be an exception for a great many things.

Really. There was no one else he would even consider marrying—for convenience or not.

“So?” she repeated, slowly starting to control her laughter. “Are you ready to go?”

He almost nodded, but he ultimately looked down at the table first. Or, especially, the plate now empty of food on it. “Dishes first. Then we can.”

“Alright.”

And then… Zelda just sat there as he got up.

“Aren’t you going to help?”

“Oh!” Her eyes went wide. Sometimes it was easy to forget that she was a princess, but there were also times like this, when she took some things for granted that no one else would be able to. Then she winced, likely remembering her attempt to help with the eggs earlier. “Should I?”

Now it was Link’s turn to laugh at her some. “You can’t burn washing dishes, Zelda.”

But she could, it appeared, manage to soak both of them. Truly, an impressive feat. Link hadn’t even been aware there was enough water in the tub to manage that.

He wrinkled his nose as he set the pan to dry. “Shall we change before we head to the castle? It’s not winter anymore, but early spring is hardly very warm itself.”

“We’re at your house, Link. What could I wear?”

Well, she had a point there. “So… you’re willing to just wear a soaked dress while we walk through the field and into town as we go tell your father we’re betrothed now?

She puffed out her cheeks. (Cute. Cute. As if she wasn't cute enough already, she always just had to go ahead and do things like that, didn't she?) "I suppose. Though I'm sure that court will have something to say about us arriving with me wearing some of your clothes."

His ears heated up again. Yes, it would take a lot for Link to become accustomed to what living at court would entail. He honestly wondered if he would be able to get accustomed to it.

He turned his head away. "Or we could change just long enough to wait for your dress to dry by the forge."

"No. I prefer wearing pants, anyway."

Link looked back at her and raised an eyebrow. She wore dresses an awful lot for that claim. He understood that she probably needed them on official occasions, but times like now?

"Your pants are still a little big on you, right?" Zelda asked.

In hopes that he would grow into them, but Link doubted he'd ever surpass cinching a belt around his waist in efforts to try holding them up. He gave her a simple nod to convey that they should fit her.

She all but skipped up the stairs to change first. Link stayed down, knowing it would feel even more awkward than he already did if he waited just on the other side of the door from where his future wife was changing.

She ended up calling him up instead of coming down herself, and once he arrived she gestured to clothes neatly laid out on his bed. "I picked out what you should wear, too!"

It looked like she was still overly fond of him in green. But he also loved when she wore blue, and she had chosen that tunic for herself, so he didn't complain.

By the time he came downstairs, Zelda had made her way to the forge and hung her dress nearby to dry while talking animatedly to Grandpa.

Link narrowed his eyes at the offending dress. "If you're going to leave it here, that will definitely give the court something to talk about, won't it?"

She smiled in that infuriating way that brought out her dimples so perfectly. "Let them. I mean, what are they going to do, force us to get married because of it?"

Grandpa glared at them. His thoughts on the matter were clear. But Zelda bid him farewell and grabbed Link by his wrist and had them set off towards the castle before he could say anything.

How she could go so quickly not only so early in the morning but in slippers? (Why was she even wearing slippers? No one, or at least not Link, noticed her footwear while in a dress, and she had tramped down from the castle all the way to South Hyrule Field in them? He knew she had several perfectly functional pairs of boots!)

He probably was in good enough shape, with his regular adventuring, to run all the way to the castle, but he didn't think Zelda was, not to mention he wanted to talk to her before they reached somewhere there would be prying ears. And she may be faster than he expected, but his strength was still undeniably the greater of the two, so when he planted his heels in the ground and pulled back on her grip she had no choice but to stop.

"Wait a minute." It was a bit amusing that the one who called for the stop wasn't the one panting. "I wanted to ask why you didn't want to tell Grandpa the truth, earlier."

“That’s what everyone’s going to think anyway, isn’t it? That since we were childhood friends we fell in love, like Romio and Julietta.”

He wrinkled his nose. “We’re kind of opposite them, since they’ve been in love for years but aren’t ever going to marry until Rolf and Scratcher get along but we’re still just friends and going to marry anyway.”

Zelda rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. But that’s what everyone is going to think, and I don’t want to explain it to everyone else over and over. We decided we're fine with this together, and it’s not like anyone else needs to know, as long as you’re okay with that?”

“I want to explain it to Grandpa later, just because he’s family, but… yeah. I don’t mind.”

They walked in contented silence together, until Zelda's breathing evened out and Link noticed that she was still holding onto his wrist.

He stared at it for a moment. "Um… Zelda?"

"Hmm?" She followed his gaze. "Oh! I suppose it should be like this, now, shouldn't it?"

She let go, but only long enough to grab his hand instead and intertwine their fingers together.

Well, at least it meant that by the time they got to Hyrule Town, there would be no dispute of them being a couple, not with their clasped hands and red faces.

It wasn't bad. In fact, it was quite nice. But it was different than what he was used to, and it would take far longer than just a couple of hours to become accustomed to it. And since Zelda (Zelda! Of all people!) was quiet as well, the awkward but not unpleasant silence lasted until the castle.

Not that either of them or anyone else was more talkative there. Being there simply meant that Zelda was recognized a little more readily outside of a dress, and that everyone stared at them more because of it.

Finally, their silence broken as they entered the throne room.

Zelda paused, took a deep breath, and then called, "Papa!"

King Daltus looked up, at the two of them, Zelda's clothes, down at their hands, and then back at their faces as a grin broke out on his. "Well, I always thought maybe… well! Ha ha! I can't say I'm unhappy that the two of you are courting! The opposite, in fact!"

Well, it was all good for their plans, but Link was unsure what to make of such a welcoming reception. Had… had Zelda's dad always hoped that this would happen? But they were only friends!

"Actually, Papa," Zelda began, and glanced at Link for support. He nodded, hoping that was enough. She held her chin higher. "We're betrothed."

It was comical, really, the way his eyes widened, though Link couldn't quite bring himself to laugh at the spectacle. "Zelda! You didn't have to keep it a secret!"

She didn't, on account of the fact that they hadn't courted. But being around her dad seemed to restore Zelda's ability to be herself even while they were holding hands, so she played it off beautifully, even when Daltus tried asking questions about what their courtship had been like. Eventually, the subject turned to details about what would be needed to eventually be prepared for the wedding—a date to be announced at the banns, at least four months to make the many, many preparations required for a proper royal wedding ceremony.

Link gulped. At least he had that long before all the expectations of a Prince Consort could possibly be upon him.

The king tried talking about when the wedding date should be right then and there, but Zelda noticed the look on his face (you get to know someone pretty well after being their best friend for over a decade) and took pity on him and told her dad that they wanted some time to think over these things and wanted to celebrate their betrothal by spending the time together today.

And that was nice. There would always be time to decide these details later. Once they were ready.

"Zelda?" Link asked as they walked through the corridors, making their way towards the castle grounds. "What's a banns?"

It was hardly the only thing he had been baffled by that the king had talked about, but it certainly was the only word he didn't even know. He had expected greater levels of formality when he was marrying into the royal family, but not an entirely new vocabulary.

She did him the courtesy of only chuckling at his question rather than laughing outright at it. "It's just what we call a party where you announce a betrothal. That's why we need to decide a wedding date before then, so that we can announce it there."

He huffed. "Can't we just go around and tell everyone we want to invite to the wedding like everyone else does?"

Zelda smirked. "Haven't I complained enough about the court for you to realize that it's nothing if not impractical?"

She had.

"Hey." Zelda reached for both of his hands and squoze them. "You're still okay with this, right? I know it's a lot, and I've lived like this my whole life. It'd be really nice if it was you I married, but it doesn't need to be your problem."

Link snorted, and squoze her hands back. "As long as you can help me with whatever goes over my head, I'll be fine. I won't complain about being stuck with my best friend."

She smiled. And Link thought that if he could see that smile every day for the rest of his life, he really would be able to put up with anything. Lucky thing that he had just signed up to do exactly that, huh?

"Let's do what you want, now, then."

He raised an eyebrow. "There's nothing you want to do?"

She shrugged. "Get out of lessons. But I did just tell Papa that I wanted to spend quality time together with my newly betrothed. Which is true, but the point is I doubt that I'll be in trouble for ditching lessons today because of that. Mmmkay?"

"Oh." He considered that. "Shall we go to town, then? For… a date?"

Oh, his face was far too red for the simple term. It seemed impossible that anyone could believe that they're lovers to the point that they were ready to promise to spend the remainder of their lives together.

"That sounds great!" Zelda loved exploring town, after all. "Did you have anywhere in particular in mind?"

Link nodded. "I'd like to go to Simon's."

She tilted her head. "Alright, but… why there in particular?"

"Because I want to take a nap."

Chapter Text

“So, I’ve been thinking…” Zelda said slowly, taking a deep breath before she continued. Link’s eyes met hers. “We should practice kissing more.”

The way his eyes widened alone made up for the nerve she built up to ask in the first place. But since hearing his protests wouldn’t help with her nerves either, she immediately dived into her explanation. “I think once a day would be enough to be familiar with it and for it to appear natural before the wedding.”

“Uh.” He fidgeted with the frilly shirt he had been given for the banns. (It didn’t suit him at all. At least they let her make sure that the vest was that green that suited him so well, and they allowed him to keep his hair in a ponytail, even if it was a different style than the one he typically chose for himself.) “Like. So you want to kiss? Right now?”

She blinked and shook her head. “No! I don’t dare risk ruining the makeup they gave us and having to sit through all of that again before the banns starts!”

He nodded. “That was awfully tedious. And you have to do that for every big event?”

She sighed. “You will, now, too.”

Link wrinkled his nose, clearly not looking forward to that. “Kissing every day, wearing makeup and fancy clothes… maybe I should have asked more questions before accepting your proposal.”

“Well you didn’t.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “And we’re announcing it to the whole entire kingdom in about half an hour. So you’re stuck with me.”

He stuck his tongue out right back at her. “Well then, I guess you’re just lucky I’m not that smart.”

Zelda crossed her arms and glared at him. “What do you mean? You managed to save both me and Hyrule from Vaati! You’ve got to have some brains up there to manage that!”

“You only say that because you weren’t there for some of my particularly idiotic moments.”

“I saw a lot of it, remember?” She leaned in closer to him, faces just inches apart. “And it worked, didn’t it? Doesn’t really seem so idiotic to me.”

He looked away from her. “So, uh, anyhow, if we aren’t going to kiss now, then when? After the banns?”

She kept her grin to herself. If he was changing the subject, to kissing of all things, he probably couldn’t refute her statement. “Yes, after. Or maybe we’ll sneak off during it. No one would really be that surprised if the happy couple went off and made out at some point, would they?”

“M-ma-make…” She imagined Link’s face would be an amusing shade of red if she could see under the veneer on his face—at least if the way her own face was burning was anything to judge by. “Um. I thought you only said we had to kiss.”

“Well, our makeup will probably be messed up because of how inexperienced we are with it. And that’s what people would assume.”

He was silent for a couple of minutes. “Then would it be so bad to wait until afterwards? I’d rather not think about the fact that people will be speculating on our relationship, let alone give them anything to speculate about.”

“Sure. I’m only teasing you because you give such fun reactions, you know.”

He took a deep breath and looked away. “Can you see my blush through the makeup?” he asked. “I don’t want my first official appearance in front of the whole kingdom to be with a red face.”

Zelda squinted her eyes, trying to determine if the color was really any different than the light blush that had been applied to his cheeks earlier. “I think it’s heavy enough that your cheeks aren’t in any danger of discovery.”

He sighed in relief.

“Your ears, on the other hand, are painfully distracting in contrast.”

Link jolted, hands shooting up to cover his ears with a grimace on his face.

She just laughed. It was too easy to tease him. “I’ll try to stop teasing you so much. Your ears should cool down before it starts as long as you let them. Not, you know, cover them with your hands that are far warmer than the air.”

He sighed, but slowly brought his hands down, and peeked through the curtain separating them from the crowd that was already gathering to celebrate their engagement. There was quite a few people already here even with how long before they were going to be announced.

“What are you doing?” Zelda asked him. She was used to it, but he already seemed so nervous, and looking at that crowd would probably only make things worse.

“Trying to see if there’s anyone who would tease me too much for it,” he whispered in reply. “That way there’s time to ask for makeup on my ears if there is.”

“Why are you whispering? No one can hear you from here.”

His ears flushed darker. Ah. Well, she wasn’t trying to embarrass him that time.

“Besides,” she said, trying to be encouraging this time. “This isn’t like school. People won’t be making fun of your ears, they’ll be trying to get on your good side, because soon enough you’ll be married to me.”

Link stood upright and looked back at her, a pout on his face. “Thinking about people valuing me for that doesn’t exactly make me feel any better.”

“I know.” She tilted her head back. She’d been dealing with that sort of thing her whole life. Whose daughter she was mattered far more to most people than who she was. Perhaps that was one of the reasons she and Link had become such fast friends, because his Grandpa made sure not to let him treat her different than any other friend.

He stepped back away from the curtains and walked right up to her, leaning into her face. Now it was her turn to worry if some redness would be betrayed on her ears. “I changed my mind. We should sneak off in the middle of the banns.”

“Oh? You changed your mind about kissing?” She only remembered too late that she was trying not to tease him right now.

“No, not for that… well.” He paused. “Maybe we could do our practice then, if we’re going to sneak off anyway.”

Zelda was reasonably certain that the only reason his ears weren’t any darker after he said that is that they were already as red as could be.

“Why then?”

He sighed. “Because I’m already exhausted just thinking about being so polite and greeting everyone while they’re just trying to use me to their advantage.”

She smiled. “Truly, a man after my own heart.”

After that, she showed him some slow breathing techniques that should help him to calm down—both for dealing with nerves and blood circulation. And then they went out and greeted people.

Even she had trouble keeping track of everyone they met, pleasantries blending from one person to the next. Very few stood out: the even greater joviality than most that Papa, Potho, and Master Smith possessed; Sheila acting very distrustful of Link for some reason (she’d have to ask why later—it felt like there was a story behind that); and… why on earth did Beedle feel the reason to greet them so enthusiastically? If she was this overwhelmed, she couldn’t imagine what Link felt like.

About an hour into it he was starting to look a little beleaguered. That probably meant he felt even more exhausted, so after sending off one last pair of courtiers, she leaned over and whispered, "Is it time to sneak off now?"

It should be noted that he impressively kept his ears to a minimal flush that barely stood out from the makeup on his face as he nodded.

Of course there was the cursory being congratulated by a few more people as they picked their way to the exit, but now Zelda made certain to keep the interactions as succinct as possible without being rude.

Finally, they made it into the corridor, and she was suddenly aware far more than she had been in the crush of people that she was still holding onto Link's hand. That was something she had noticed in the past two weeks. She no longer knew what to make of simple gestures such as holding his hand that she wouldn't have given a second before—it was only Link, after all.

It was only Link, and now she was going to marry Link in early autumn. Marriage, a role that most people associated with romantic love… something apparently far deeper and more unique than the simple pleasure she had spending time with her father or best friend.

Something where holding hands was supposed to mean something more than just staying together.

Zelda took a deep breath. Yes, perhaps she was going to marry him, but it still was only Link. He was still the same person she knew and loved. The only thing that had really changed in their relationship was that one day they would have a child together. In the distant future, because she knew she needed a few years before even considering parenthood.

So she squoze his hand, and was heartened to feel him return the gesture, and turned to him with a smile on her face. "Do we want to practice? Or are we really only out for a breath of fresh air?"

He scrunched his eyebrows together and looked at the enclosed corridor. "Fresh air?"

"Need I remind you how early in the spring it is? And how cold the air would be right now?"

Link gave her one of his smirks. "Well—"

Well. She did not need to hear it right now. "You've told me enough times before, Mr. Adventurer. Travelled above the clouds and didn't even need the cape you got for warmth! I don't know how you put up with it, when it looks like you have nothing but skin to keep you warm on those bones!"

He was very, very small. She quite liked that about him, which was good, because if years of blacksmithing couldn't manage to make him muscular as opposed to lanky, then nothing could.

The grin he gave her now was of his lopsided variety. "Then, since you clearly consider proper fresh air not to be an option…"

As delightful as it was to see that small bit of confidence on Link's face after he seemed so out of his element this past fortnight, she would probably always enjoy that uncertainty that had nothing to do with being overwhelmed. The way his ears glowed brighter than his face, even when the latter wasn't coated in makeup that hid the blush.

He looked away, and Zelda smiled even wider.

"Oh, Link," she said in a singsong voice, leaning closer to him. "If you want me to kiss you, all you had to do is ask!"

His ears were delightfully all the redder for it.

Someone cleared their throat nearby.

Zelda looked back. It seemed they hadn't made it as far from the ballroom as she had thought, because the doors were still in sight, and the guard placed at them had… apparently heard their conversation, and was pointedly looking away.

Now it was Zelda's turn to blush, though she didn't think her ears heated up the way that Link's did. Fun as it was to tease Link and make him blush, making such an ardent, public display of affection was something else altogether. The only kisses she wanted to share in front of others were the ones she'd have at her wedding.

"Maybe," she said, thinking that she had never been so grateful before to be wearing such thick makeup, "we should try to find somewhere a little more… secluded."

Link nodded and let himself be lead away by the hand she still held. Where should they go? Of course they could probably find a nice, secluded nook somewhere, but that wasn't as appealing after being overheard as they had been. (Oh, by the Three, they hadn't said anything that defied the narrative they were trying to build, had they? They hadn't tried to lower their voices or anything!)

Well, perhaps they still could go outside… but then she recalled her own arguments against doing so. The throne room… no, even if he was her fiancé, Zelda could only imagine the trouble she'd get for sneaking into the throne room of all places to kiss a boy. Her own room… might be worse, though for different reasons.

Ugh! If it were just a little less cold, going outside and hiding among the hedges would be perfect!

Then a thought crossed her mind, and Zelda smirked. Not outdoors, but certainly felt enough like them to be pleasing.

Link halted as they were about to enter the sanctum, and frowned.

"What's wrong?" Zelda asked. "I thought you liked it here."

"I do." He sighed. "But… because it feels like I can still talk to him. So if we kiss here…"

He didn't need to finish his sentence for her to understand it was similar to her inhibitions of being overheard by the guard. No, it was worse—more like being caught in a kiss by Papa.

"Why don't you tell him?"

Link tilted his head. "That I'm about to kiss my best friend in front of him?"

She was thankful for the makeup yet once again. "No! That we're going to be married," she huffed. And then, since he had seemed to be bothered by it a lot, she added, "Tell him the full truth of it, too. You know he would try to peck it out of you anyhow."

He snorted. "Probably more like bang my head with that staff of his. He's not really some weird bird hat thing, remember?"

Zelda shrugged. "Point is, I know you'd like to tell him. So tell him."

"I can tell my weird bird hat, but not my own Grandpa?"

"I never said you couldn't tell your own Grandpa," she protested.

He smiled. "I know."

Link let go of her hand after a brief squeeze and went to the other end of the sanctum on his own.

Somehow, it didn't feel right for her follow. But she also wished he chose to bring her along.

But she wasn't the one that had gone on an adventure being pestered by some strange bird hat thing, so it didn't matter if she talked to a wall that used to be a portal to where he lived.

Zelda took the moment to decide that she didn't regret coming here. Goddesses know Link probably wouldn't have made the time to go talk to him until after they were married and he lived here otherwise.

But she also decided that, since it was clearly unacceptable to have something resembling a lovers' rendezvous in this sanctum, she was going to brave that cool spring air for their attempt at another kiss.

Link was quiet as he returned, and remained so as she took his hand in hers once again and led him to the hedges she had thought of earlier. It wasn't that bashful, awkward silence she had delighted in earlier. It wasn't altogether morose, either, or pleased or glad or whatever directly positive emotions she might think he could have after talking to Ezlo. It was simply… content. And she didn't dare break that silence.

Not until they were hidden away in those hedges, at least. And she wasn't even the one who broke it first.

Link looked up at the hedges surrounding them. "Did you know I had to hide in these hedges probably a dozen times after Vaati replaced your father?"

Zelda smiled. "I know."

He groaned. "Don't remind me! Just because you saw everything doesn't mean I want to think about it!"

Oh, but it was fun to tease him about his adventures.

"Don't worry," she assured him. "I'm still willing to kiss you in spite of your idiotic youth."

Link rolled his eyes. "You were even somehow still interested enough to ask me to marry you. How I ever managed that I'll certainly never understand."

"Maybe your idiotic tendencies make you even more charming."

He grinned at her.

Zelda leaned forward and kissed him.

Very different from her reaction to kissing him before. Of course, removing that intimidating label of first helped immensely, not to mention having had more time to grow accustomed to the idea that they were going to need to kiss from now on.

None of those thoughts were really the reason behind it, however. She kissed him just because it felt right.

It wasn't so different from planting a kiss on a cheek, really. But then Link seemed to recover from the shock of being kissed (as though it were sudden, as though she hadn't declared her intentions multiple times that night and he agreed to them) and he kissed her back, and oh it was nothing like it.

No, a kiss simple enough that it could be used in a greeting could never make her feel so warm against the chilly air like this did.

She had seen couples kiss before, of course, and she'd noticed that they often kissed again, even without really pulling apart in the first place. If it was this thrilling a thing, to kiss, she thought she understood, especially if romantic feelings were caught up in it.

It was its own delight to do this with Link. Her best friend that she trusted enough to do this with, that she loved to tease and cause trouble alongside and was content to simply spend time together in silence. It was true what they had said the first time—there was no else she'd rather kiss.

She wanted to try kissing him again, except that she had absolutely no idea of how to go about it. And this wasn't something that they were pursuing out of the typical inclinations. It was something that they should talk about first.

So instead, Zelda pulled away. She'd bring it up to him some either time—maybe after either of them had a clue what they were doing with a kiss in the first place.

And she snorted.

And laughed even more when Link assumed it was his (admittedly red) ears that caused her reaction.

"It's fine, Link," she said, bringing up her fingers to cup his chin and tracing the lip paint that had made its way to his lips with her thumb. "In fact, I think red really suits you."

Chapter Text

Link groaned as he returned to his proper size. There was always something akin to growing pains as the magic took hold of him.

He glanced at the lightening horizon as he rubbed his arms furiously—those were what decided to hurt the most today. It was early enough that Zelda shouldn't have seen him just now, not when he was just at the portal to the minish world roughly a five minute walk southeast of his house in Southern Hyrule Field. It was one thing for her to know of his adventures and quite another for her to know he could still become minish-sized without the help of a particular bird hat thing. Doubtless she would beg him to come along, which he was not particularly keen on even if he was sure he could manage the spell for two people.

It would be yet another day he slept in far longer than would seem reasonable. But there was a deadline on how many days he had left where he could get away with this ridiculous sleep schedule of his, and he wanted to make the most of it. Spring was almost over now, and after summer ended, he'd be married.

Well, if that wasn't as daunting a prospect as always. He wondered if he'd manage to get any more used to the idea before the wedding actually happened than he had in the weeks since got engaged.

Link yawned, and started to make his way home. He could worry about the impending change to his relationship status some other time. For now he needed to sleep, because you need sleep for your health, and if you haven't got your health you haven't got anything.

So he staggered forward, bleary-eyed and awaiting the prospect of his bed… soft and warm—even if he could stand the cold he could also admit it was still quite chilly this early in the morning this time of year. And a chance for his feet to rest from would also be welcome…

"LINK!"

He stopped in his tracks. Partially because it was odd that anyone would be travelling so early. Partially because he recognized that voice a little too well.

Link forced himself to look northward, following the sound of the voice, and blinked his eyes into focus.

Now there was no mistaking the figure running towards him.

"Zelda?" he asked, wary as well as weary.

She finally slowed as she reached him, smile on her face. It was somewhat amusing, seeing that in contrast to her bent over and panting to catch her breath. "You're… up… early!"

He chuckled. "Yeah… up."

She should definitely know him well enough by now to know that he hadn't exactly woken up early if he was awake at this time of day, especially as the sunlight stretched long as summer approached.

"You were… adventuring… again… weren't you?"

He nodded.

She beamed at him. "What did you fight?"

But, of course, she wanted details. She could ask him any time, since he went out most nights. Why did she choose now specifically?

"Oh… you know." Link shrugged, nonchalantly. As if he hadn't just fought off a bunch of bugs. Stupid minish, treating him as some glorified kind of pest control.

Well, he had been thinking about playing it cool and trying to avoid Zelda teasing him about it (not that he wanted her to think he was cool—that possibility was well past when you'd known each other as kids), but that last thought… that would make her laugh. So he shared it.

And she did laugh. What a glorious sound. It made it worthwhile to be up at the same time he could hear the birds chirping.

He wanted to go back to bed, but until then, he could hardly complain about her company.

(But he did want to go to bed. So.) "What brings you here so early in the morning?"

Zelda's cheeks went that shade of red that he can't believe he never noticed her blushing in before they were engaged. She looked away. "Oh… you know."

No. He didn't. And that was something people only said when they didn't want to give the real answer.

Normally, Link would try to tease the truth out of her. But normally, he wasn't nearly so tired.

"If you didn't come for any reason, I'm going to bed." And he turned around and moved to finish getting home.

"Wait!" He was stopped not by Zelda's plea (which would have been ignored by the aforementioned extenuating circumstances of being tired) but by her grabbing his wrist to stop him.

His sigh sounded more like a yawn.

"Just because I came for no special reason doesn't mean I don't care about what we do when we're together!"

And then Link remembered something they had began doing these past few weeks. Something that was almost becoming normal, if he could ever think of that as normal, if only because it was a now daily occurrence.

"Oh? Then, you want to…?" He pursed his lips and gulped. It wasn't like there was any reason to put it off, really.

So he took a deep breath and brought his hands up to cup Zelda's cheeks. He felt his face flush at the action and knowledge of what he was about to do, but when he had Zelda take the initiative so often, it was only fair that he put forth the effort some of the time.

And then Link closed his eyes and leaned forward.

"WAIT!"

He was stopped by hands catching his shoulders, and caught sight of Zelda staring at him with wide eyes and red face. "I was thinking of doing something else for our kiss today!"

He blinked. "You… were?"

"Well, uh…" Link was quite certain he had never seen Zelda do something he would describe as wilting before as she did now. "Oh, it's embarrassing to admit."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really? Even more than that time you found those mushrooms in the woods and—?"

Link was abruptly and forcibly shut up by both of Zelda's hands now covering his mouth. He smiled, proud that he could tease her so well even with how tired he was at the moment.

"Fine, fine, you're right that nothing is more embarrassing than that," she hissed. She took a deep breath and pulled away from him before mumbling, "I just wanted to…"

He couldn't hear the last part for how softly she spoke it. "Hmm?"

"I just wanted to kiss you first thing in the morning!" she whined."Like, while you're in bed!"

"Like, first thing once we're both awake? Like… something natural that a married couple would do?"

"Oh, that is a good idea. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to try something like that sometime." Zelda sighed and shook her head. "But no, that's not what I was thinking. I didn't think you'd be awake already at dawn."

Even if the direction the conversation had taken had woken him up, Link was still exhausted, so it took him longer than it otherwise might have to put the pieces together. How she might have managed to kiss him in greeting even though she came early enough that she fully expected him to be asleep.

"Like… like in the fairy tales?" he asked.

She painstakingly nodded. "I know, it's ridiculous, but it always sounds so romantic in the tales, don't you think?"

Link couldn't deny that there was a part of him that was enough of a hopeless romantic to admit that he felt the same, that going through everything necessary to save a princess and then having the reward of being allowed to love her was… amazing.

But that was the thing. It was a romantic aspiration. And he loved Zelda, dearly, but what they had wasn't that.

"Isn't it usually the hero that kisses the princess awake in those tales?" he asked.

She crossed her arms and pouted. "What? I can't have volition in my own story?"

He rolled his eyes. "I don't think anything could stop you from doing anything you really put your mind to, Zelda. Not even my being awake already."

Zelda opened her then promptly closed it and looked away. "Uh. Now that you mention it, it's far more difficult to do it now that you are awake. Though I liked your idea earlier, I was a bit… set on this in my head."

It always felt like every time they kissed, they needed to build themselves up to it. It had been getting slightly easier lately because they had been doing it once a day, but still…

"Even if it'd be good to try kissing each other naturally… I don't know that we'll get that comfortable with kissing before the wedding. And since we are practicing for the wedding, a natural kiss as a greeting isn’t really necessary, is it? That kiss is meant to appear passionate, not comfortable.”

She crossed her arms. “For the wedding, sure. But is that all the kisses are for? What about once we are married?”

He had been paying so much attention the fact that he would wed Zelda that Link had scarcely considered what it would be like when he was married to her. What would that even look like? Obviously at some point they would eventually need to be intimate enough to have at least one child, but… how were things going to progress, really? What would their marriage be like?

“I’d rather focus on getting to the being married part for now,” he finally brought himself to admit. “Any more than that is… a lot.” He reached out and grabbed her hand. “I can do this if it’s with you, Zelda, but… one step and one day at a time, alright?”

She smiled and squoze his hand in return. “I understand. Thank you for putting up with my ridiculousness… I have no idea how you agreed to it to the extent that you’re willing to do it for the rest of our lives.”

“I’ve been doing it all of our lives so far, haven’t I?” He teased back. “Well, except for…”

He didn’t need to finish that sentence. Neither of them liked thinking about that time. It made their friendship even more unique than it had been before, that adventure had, but he felt like it was the years of being together that truly made them inseparable.

Zelda just pulled him into a hug before he even tried to finish the sentence. And, oh, he couldn’t help it, not between his exhaustion and how nice her arms around him felt and how soft she was. Link reciprocated her hug and just sank into her.

“You’re so heavy, Link!”

“You sound like Ezlo,” he mumbled into her shoulder.

“Hey! Don’t make me peck you like him, too!” She brought up her hand and started poking his side.

Now it was his turn to protest and squirm. “Stop it, stop it! That tickles! I’m sorry, you’re much cuter than Ezlo ever was!”

“And don’t you ever forget it!” Zelda pressed a kiss to his cheek, but it was terrible and he felt her wide grin more the entire time. Now this was the sort of kiss he was comfortable with and, if he was honest with himself, craved from her.

Link was smiling as he snuggled back into her.

“You really are too heavy for me, though,” she said. “All that muscle you've built up, I'm sure. Shall I take you to bed?”

“Mmhmmm,” he hummed.

“I… I mean like I’ll tuck you in. Not actually take you to bed!”

“I already said yes, didn’t I?” he complained, feeling it become harder to follow what she was saying as sleep slowly laid its claim on his mind. He had been up for far too long already.

“I am mortified about the words that came out of my mouth and you’re not even awake enough to be embarrassed right alongside me,” she grumbled. “Well, whatever. Hup!”

Link chuckled as she adjusted them so that his arm was over her shoulders. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to help you get to your own bed. Unless you think you can get there on your own?”

Not a chance of that happening. “Well, I think you’re strong enough to really carry me.”

“Is that a challenge?”

If that was what would get her to say yes so he could get off his feet sooner. He nodded.

She muttered something about “The things I do for you” and “You’re lucky you’re so cute when you’re sleepy” as she fastidiously wrapped both his arms around her neck and placed one of hers at his back and the other beneath his knees and lifted.

“There,” she panted. “Not sure I can get up the stairs like this, but I can carry you.”

Link smiled. “I think it’s cute how you try so hard.”

“Uh.” Why did she stop walking? “Y-yeah! You really need to get to bed!”

Suddenly the steps were too fast to feel anything like he was being rocked to sleep. He was just alert enough to tell when she paused to open the door, but then the steps were hurried again until—

“Zelda? And… Link?”

“Master Smith!” Was Zelda’s voice higher-pitched than usual? Strange. “I decided to come by early, and I found him… well, I’m pretty sure he was sleepwalking, though he was trying to claim that he was awake. Trying to get him to bed.”

“Alright… then? That sounds good?”

She shuffled forward a few more steps. Stopped again.

“Uh. Can you help me get him up the stairs?”

They worked together, Zelda with Link’s armpits and Grandpa with Link’s feet, to get him upstairs. Once his torso was on his bed though, he was pretty sure Grandpa left, so it must have been Zelda who took his boots off his feet and actually tucked him beneath his blanket.

“You’re lucky you’re my best friend, or I never would have done that for you,” she whispered after she was done, tapping him lightly in the middle of his forehead. She probably thought he was asleep, didn’t she? He hadn’t actually moved or said anything for a few minutes, so probably. “I don’t think I’ll ever do that again anyway.”

“Not even if I offer to carry you like that in return?” he mumbled.

She hesitated before responding. “Well, that is tempting. Better for your muscles to be doing the lifting than being the heavy thing being lifted.”

She sighed, and the bed shifted so she probably wasn’t on it anymore. “I should probably get going if you’re just going to be sleeping now. If I’m going to skip all my lessons I’d rather it be when you’re actually awake.”

He grumbled. “But I thought you were going to kiss me good morning.”

“Why do you sound more interested now than earlier?”

The bed shifted again.

“Hey! Grandpa said no… bed… until marriage…”

“That’s about my bed, silly. He said nothing about yours.” Zelda sighed, and he felt something moving his bangs. “I was thinking, though, that I should only kiss you awake if you really want it. And I’m going to ask you when you’re really awake.”

“As long as… I can… too…”

She laughed, and that was the sweetest sound he thought he ever could hear. “Here. I’ll kiss you good morning… well, it feels like it ought to be a good night kiss, but I suppose I can't dispute that it's really morning right now.”

Link felt a kiss pressed onto his forehead. “Sleep well, Link.”

He did.

Chapter Text

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so intimidated by the sight of food,” Link murmured.

Zelda laughed, but it was mirthless. No, she was not particularly keen on her friend beginning to share her pain that had been building up over the past few weeks. “Welcome to wedding preparations. Tasks designed to take anything enjoyable out of what is supposed to be the happiest day of our lives.”

He scowled, looking over the table filled with dozens, if not hundreds, of plates with small servings of various dishes. And that scowl only deepened as he glanced at the other table with all the various slices of cake on it.

"Wouldn't it have been simpler to let us just say what we want instead of torturing poor chefs to make all of this for one bite each?"

"Shhhhh!" Zelda put a finger up to her lips. "Quiet! The wedding planner might hear you and get mad at you!"

"Wedding… planner? Can't we just plan it ourselves?"

She snorted. "For an event as big and grand and ostentatious as a once-in-a-generation royal wedding? Trust me, Link, I am quite glad to leave the planning to someone else. Even if I could do without silly customs such as tasting so many samples that I won't be interested in dinner after this."

Link probably didn’t even realize how intently he was frowning as he was looking at all the food. His fists were clenched, his shoulders squared stiff, and his jaw set. Yeah, he was taking the ridiculousness of it all about as well as she expected he would. Zelda had to resist a sigh.

"Who's planning the wedding, anyway?"

"Verona."

Because she planned every single event that happened within the vicinity of Hyrule Town. Even if she wasn’t technically in charge, she would take over, which had happened often enough that she was usually appointed in the first place. Zelda didn’t think she could remember a single birthday party of hers… or her father’s… or any celebration or festival of any kind… that Verona hadn’t been in charge of.

She was actually an incredible event planner—she really did live up to the reputation she had created for herself—the thing was… she was just a bit of a perfectionist.

Or a lot of a perfectionist.

A realization that Link was just as clearly aware of… and evidently about as thrilled about.

“Come on, Link,” she said, pulling out a chair and pushing him to sit down in it. “Don’t be so worried about it, now. At least we get to eat good food today.”

He glanced up at her. “Have they made you pick out things like this from dozens of different options for every single aspect of the wedding?”

Yes, they had. And yes, she hated it.

“You don’t want to know.” Zelda put her hands to his shoulders, determined to knead some of the stress out of him. The flesh completely unyielding. “Ugh. You’re so tense!”

Link sighed. “Sorry if it’s a tad stressful to be marrying into the royal family, Zelda.”

That was… an unfortunately fair point. “You’ll be fine. I mean, it’s not like I’m just about to disappear on you if you’re ever lost. If you need my help—let’s be honest, you’re more put together than I am half the time.”

He snorted, and a smile slipped onto his face. “True enough.”

His shoulders also relaxed a little—a fact that Zelda immediately took advantage of.

“OW! Ow ow ow ow ow ow…”

She snickered, looking down at him with a smile.

Which he quite rudely met with a glare. “Zelda, you do not know how to give a proper massage. It hurts!”

She opened her mouth, contemplating what to say next, when she was interrupted by someone clearing their throat.

Zelda quickly looked up. Lady Verona. She hadn’t even heard her come in.

“Your Highness. Sir Link.” (She had taken to calling him that ever since the engagement had been announced. Probably because she didn’t know what to do with the fact that he didn’t have a title, and since he was a swordsman, a knight was the most appropriate, never mind that he had never actually been knighted.) “I wasn’t interrupting anything, was I?”

She quickly shook her head, cheeks burning.

Lady Verona nodded. “Well, then, shall we get started?”

It was phrased as a question, but Zelda hurriedly sat in the chair next to Link’s since it didn’t feel like it was meant to be one.

“For the first dish,” she said as she put a plate in front of each of them. "A fruit salad."

Her eyebrows shot up. Wasn't fruit the sole thing that wasn't meant to go in a salad?

She looked at it warily. There were grapes, more fruits cut up than she could identify, and even some… seeds? Yeah. Seeds. Those were definitely seeds. From sunflowers or something.

"Mmm!" She looked over to where Link had a mouthful of it already, and he looked delighted. "It's really good! Reminds me of minish food!"

"Sir Link!" Lady Verona cried out "You are to join the royal family in three months' time! You should have better manners than this!"

The whole exchange brought a chuckled to Zelda's lips, earning her a glare as well.

"I usually do," he muttered once he'd swallowed that first bite of his. "But… this was just better than I expected. Sorry if I'm not perfect at controlling all my reactions yet."

She gave an exasperated sigh. "Well, I suppose all I need to know is that you like it." She scribbled something on a piece of parchment she was taking notes on. "What do you think of it, Your Highness?"

Feeling a little curious about what it was like, especially after Link said the minish ate food like this, Zelda more eagerly brought her own fork to her lips.

It was delightfully sweet, though in a more subdued way than her usual pastries. "I like it."

"Alright," Lady Verona said, reaching for the next two plates. "Then try this…"

It was a simple process, and they quickly realized that Lady Verona was just as eager to get through it quickly as they were, and gave the simplest comments they could in order to finish that much sooner.

They were eating the eleventh dish—some kind of bread with shredded cucco and grapes stuffed in the middle of it—when they could overhear from the kitchen the clang of pots and pans and panicked shouts a moment later.

Lady Verona sighed. "I best see what that's about. I'll be back shortly."

She set down her paper and quill and made off towards the kitchens. Within the minute, she was out of the dining hall, leaving the two of them alone.

Link groaned. "I'm stuffed. I don't want to even think about eating any more food."

"Already?" Zelda looked at him with wide eyes, but quickly turned away once he gave her an incredibly flat look. (She would've kept eating, except that she didn't care for this dish.) "Right, right. You not only like the minish fare, but you eat th eir portions, too. No wonder you're so small."

H e stood up. "Oh? Really? I'm taller than you right now."

She stood as well. "Nuh-uh!"

Link climbed onto his chair. "HA!"

She scowled at him. Sure, she could climb onto her chair as well, but then he might climb onto the back of his chair to one-up her again, and she knew that was a feat she couldn't replicate, so she'd rather stop now with her feet on the ground.

But… Zelda was still petty, so she kicked the leg of his chair.

With his weight in it, it was only enough to make it move an inch or two, but apparently he hadn't been expecting it and it knocked him off balance. And he didn't manage to catch himself before he fell right towards Zelda.

She opened her arms to catch him, but… that wasn't enough to prevent them from injury.

"Ouch!" she hissed, rubbing her forehead. "Why is your chin so needlessly pointy?"

"Not sure," Link muttered, cradling his chin. "But I blame my ancestors."

She sighed. "At least we'll have matching bruises. Won't that convince everyone we're happily in love?"

He snorted, then slowly lowered his hand and looked down into her eyes. "Even if you're not full, do you really want to just stay here ?"

She scoffed at that. "Absolutely not. I would gladly escape making one more decision about the wedding. Sure, there's some things I care about, but definitely not as many as everyone seems to think I do."

He smiled down at her. "Then… what if we stop?"

Zelda tilted her head. "Stop what?"

" Stop making the decisions for the wedding . I mean, how much of this food are we really going to have a chance to eat when we're going to need to greet guests, have the dances and toasts and…”

"Stop reminding me!" she whined. "I don't even want to think about writing the vows."

"I didn't mention that yet."

"Good. Don't."

Link gave her a wide grin. "That's why I'm saying, let's stop talk ing or even think ing about it. At least for the rest of the day."

She thought she knew where he was going with this, but she still had to ask. "How exactly are we going to manage that?"

"We’ll do what you always do," he whispered, leaning in closer so that the tips of their noses touched. She felt a spark of static electricity at the exchange. "Sneak out of the castle. It's not like Lady Verona's here to stop us, is she?"

Zelda felt a grin spread on h er face. "I was hoping you'd say that." But it just as quickly fell. "But… she'll just reschedule it if we leave, right? And as little as I want to stay, I want to return even less."

He sighed. "You wanted me to relax earlier—can't I help you do the same?" He pulled back so that he could step off the chair so that he was at the perfect height for forehead kissing once again. "Unless we…”

As he trailed off, a grin broke onto his face. "Actually, why not?"

"What?"

Link didn't answer her immediately, running over to the parchment Verona had left behind. "Just telling her that the only thing I cared for is that first salad she gave us. As long as I can have some of that, well… I'm not such a picky eater that I'll be upset with anything else."

"What about what I want?"

"You'll want a pastry, I'm sure. That's all you'd eat anyway, even if there's a dozen different options."

She clamped her mouth shut. She wished she could refute it, but… he was right. A fun little bonus bit of knowledge for childhood friends.

"What kind should I tell her you want?" he asked.

Zelda hummed. "Let me think… it's been a while since I've had cream puffs. Write that."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "I doubt Wheaton's going to like having to bake that many cream puffs. Aren’t they a bit tricky to make ?"

She shrugged. "If he complains, I'll tell him that I only plan to get married once, so it shouldn't happen again."

He bent back down to finish scribbling the note. Zelda came over and looked over his shoulder. "Link! That's barely legible!"

"Point is that it's legible, isn't it?"

She rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous."

"Nope, just favoring speed and practicality right now. Have you been paying attention to the sounds coming from the kitchens? They're calming down, and I'd rather leave before Verona returns."

"Fine. Lead the way."

Link grabbed her hand and they snuck out through one of the secret passageways to the gardens and then the field the same way they had dozens of times before. By the time they were walking into Hyrule Town, Zelda was finally struggling enough to keep up with his sprint that she pulled them to a stop.

"I didn't ask you to run the whole way," she muttered. "Not all of us go out adventuring every night."

"Sorry, I just wanted to spend every moment we could enjoying ourselves here." He apologetically squoze her hand as though he hadn't just made her cheeks burn furiously. "I'll let you choose where you want to go first to make it up to you."

She perked up at that promise. Of course she normally had fun on her excursions into town with Link, but she hadn't had much free time lately to come here at all herself. And there was something she had been desperately looking forward to, even if she'd normally never go with Link, ever since he'd complained that time she dragged him along when they were ten.

"Let's go to Rem's!"

Link groaned. "Not Rem's."

She crossed her arms. "What's wrong with Rem's?"

"You always spend ages in there!"

"It's not my fault he's the best shoemaker in town."

Link rolled his eyes. "He's the only shoemaker in town."

"And therefore the best." She sighed. "I won't make you come in with me if you want, but… that seems more fun than if you just wait out here by yourself."

He took a deep breath and slowly nodded. "Yeah, I guess so… I'll go in with you. Been a while since I last visited the minish there, anyhow."

Zelda smiled, and pulled him the rest of the way to the shop.

When she opened the door, Rem was fast asleep.

Link peeked in the door behind her. "Well… maybe I could ask the minish if your shoes are done, if you like?"

Probably, with how long it had taken her to return to the shop. She should've just asked a servant to pick them up for her, but… it wasn't the same experience.

"Go ahead," she said. They'd still probably need to wake Rem up to pay before they left, but she wanted to see Link interacting with the minish.

Or so she thought until she saw him lean over the counter, where she could see… nothing. Right. That whole pesky no-longer-a-child business. Even Link could only see them anymore from the lingering effects of their magic upon him.

"Pico picori! Rico pico ripico?"

Zelda snorted. She knew from watching over his adventures and when he told her about them that he needed to eat the jabbernut to communicate with the minish, but it was another thing altogether to hear him speaking Minish and not understanding a word of what he said—it all sounded so silly!

He glared at her. "Do you want your shoes or not?"

"Sorry, sorry!" She schooled her face into a neutral expression. "Go ahead. I want my new shoes."

He rolled his eyes and shook his head but returned to his silly, one-sided-sounding conversation.

This time she tried to focus on seeing if she could understand the language at all, which helped somewhat in not laughing at Link. Eating a jabbernut greatly expedited the process, but one didn't need to in order to learn the language. But there was a bit of a… musical quality to the words, the way he said each syllable, quite unlike Hylian, that made her wonder how difficult it might be to learn it.

Maybe she could convince Link to teach her.

"Ripi. Cori." He straightened and looked at her. "They said they're mostly finished, but Rem has to be the one to attach the… the joy butterfly decoration? Do you really need shoes like that?"

Zelda crossed her arms. "You're only jealous because you don't have joy butterfly shoes!"

"No, I—" He huffed and held up a finger. "First of all, our feet are close enough in size that I could just borrow your shoes if I want."

She wrinkled her nose. "If I let you!"

Link took a step closer to her and smiled, batting his eyelashes at her a few times. "Can you really say no to me if I ask you, Zelda?"

She felt her face up and she looked away from him. No, she couldn't, but clearly he knew without her admitting it.

"Second of all," he continued, not getting out of her space at all, "I was mostly just wondering what the point of the decorations were when you won’t be able to see them under most of your dresses. The skirts usually reach the ground."

She puffed out her cheeks and turned back to him. Right, he was still right next to her, so their faces were only inches apart. She took a step back so she wouldn’t get quite so flustered from his proximity. "Just because nobody else will see it doesn't mean I can't enjoy having it. Besides, I do still have some dresses that only go to my knees or my ankles. Like my wedding dress! Maybe I'll wear them then!"

"I thought we weren't talking about the wedding?"

Zelda rolled her eyes. "It's shoes! Probably the one thing I don't mind planning out months in advance."

"Fine, fine. As long as you get to enjoy yourself. That's what we're here for, after all."

Link turned away to wake up Rem, who quickly scrambled to put on the finishing touches for the shoes.

"Here you are, Your Highness," he said, handing them to her. "Sorry for the delay."

She quickly slipped off her shoes so that she could try them on and see if any adjustments needed to be made, walking around in them a bit. "Wow! You really outdid yourself with these! They're incredibly comfortable!"

Perhaps the minish who were actually responsible for the craftsmanship of the shoes wouldn't actually understand her words, but she hoped the sentiment got across in spite of the different languages.

"Thank you." Rem bowed his head. "I truly seem to do better work the more I sleep."

She chose not to say anything and instead reached for her rupee pouch to pay for them. Only to find Link already handing him the rupees.

"You don't have to pay for it!" Especially since it was two-hundred rupees and he wasn't royalty, at least not yet. "I have more than enough!"

"So do I. I still come across plenty on my adventures. What better way to spend it than on my bes—" He caught himself. "Betrothed."

Well, she couldn't really say how much money he had from his adventures except that on his first and in all those years since he'd never had an issue buying anything.

Zelda still crossed her arms. "I hope you realize this doesn't make me any more likely to lend them to you."

"I thought we already established that you'll share with me regardless."

"HEY!" She glanced at Rem only to see that he had already started to doze off once he accepted the payment. At least he wouldn't be relaying this conversation to anyone even if he had the inclination.

"C'mon, let's go. I want to visit more shops than just this one today." He glanced down at her feet. "Did you want to wear those out?"

Zelda lifted her skirts up to look at them herself. On one hand, she did like them. On the other, they were also brand new… and did she really want to wear them on the dusty roads on the way back to the castle later when no one would even be able to appreciate them hidden beneath her skirts? "No, just give me a minute to take them off."

"Where do you want to go next?" Link asked, sitting next to her while she replaced her shoes. "The library? Bakery? Cafe?"

"You know me far too well. How am I supposed to choose between all those options?" she complained.

"Bakery's closest."

"Well, then in that case…"

He rolled his eyes and stood up, offering a hand to help her up. "Fine, but I don't think I'll pay for you to go home with a dozen éclairs."

"Don't worry! I can pay for them mys—"

She cut off as the door opened.

And then the words died in her throat as she looked and saw who it was. "Minister Potho?"

Zelda didn't need to ask what brought him here. At least it was Minister Potho and not a furious Lady Verona.

"I thought you might be here, princess. I see that being only a few months away from marriage hasn't cured you of your habit of running off from your duties."

She winced. She had forgotten that today was one where she was supposed to catch up on all the duties she missed in favor of wedding preparations after what was meant to be a morning of food-tasting. She had actually been looking forward to it. She might might been excused if the tasting had gone long but since she’d gone with Link…

"Sorry, Link." (She still much preferred and did not regret that she spent the time with him instead. But she couldn’t continue to be totally irresponsible.) “We’ll need to find some other time to sneak away. When people won’t notice we’re gone quite so soon.”

He put a finger to his lips. “Shh! Minister Potho can hear our plans!”

Zelda giggled at it as said minister sighed behind her. “Your Highness, I’m well aware of how much you love Link, but may we return back to the castle now?”

She glanced at Link. She didn’t really want to leave him…

He seemed to notice. “I’ll walk back to the castle with you.” Though once they had finally left the shop, he leaned over and whispered to her, “I won’t go inside the castle, though. Don’t want Lady Verona to find me.”

Oh, he was dangerous for the royal composure everyone seemed to think she was supposed to have mastered now that she was soon to be married.

“Do you really have to go?” she whined, low enough that Minister Potho wouldn’t hear with the slight distance between them. “You make everything so much more fun.”

“You won’t be able to be rid of me in a few months. Just a little bit longer.”

That was definitely one thing she was looking forward to about the wedding—when it was over, and then she would have none of the stress of the wedding looming over her and everything to enjoy about Link being permanently in her life.

“Oh…” Link grimaced. “Mind leaning down for a second?”

Zelda had no idea what he was thinking, but she complied, curious to see what he had in mind. He took her head in his hands and pulled her closer.

“I was afraid of that. Already starting to bruise.”

Well, the angle he was holding her head at gave her the perfect view of his chin. She tapped it. “So is yours.”

He flinched away. “Ow! That’s tender!”

“Sor—”

“YOUR HIGHNESS!”

She sighed and glanced at Minister Potho. He was probably frustrated that they had stopped just short of the castle gate.

“I better go, then, now.” Link leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her bruise. It was a little tender, but she didn’t mind. “See you later.”

Zelda almost wished she still had the excuse of his holding onto her to delay doing anything, but she didn’t let that selfishness keep her from waving goodbye. “See you!”

It wasn’t until later that she realized she hadn’t kissed him today.

Chapter Text

“Ow.”

Link winced as a pin pricked his side yet again.

Bindle—the footman who had been roped into tailoring Link’s outfit—looked up apologetically. “Sorry, Sir Link. It might be easier to avoid if you held still.”

He tried. He really tried. It simply… didn’t come naturally for him.

Hopefully fittings weren’t too common once he became Prince Consort. Of course, Zelda wore a fancy, well-tailored dress every day, so he wasn’t sure he could be optimistic about that. And he was certain royal portraits were another thing he’d have to suffer being still through…

But for now, the wedding was only a week away, so there was no avoiding this fitting.

He hissed as another pin got him.

“Sir Link!” (Ugh, had Lady Verona gotten all the staff to start calling him that?) “Are you even trying to hold still?”

“Yes! I’m just… not very good at it.”

Mot of his life he’d spent working in the smithy with Grandpa or off adventuring, where he was more used to needing to move, not the opposite. He’d learned from visiting Zelda at the castle often enough through the years how to control his energy and manners for a meal, but that was about the extent of his ability in the realm of no movement. A far cry from nothing but breathing.

The door opened before he fidgeted enough to get pricked again. “BINDLE!” a maid called. “The princess escaped her fitting, and Lady Verona wants everyone to help look for her.”

Bindle frowned. “Even though I’m fitting Sir Link right now?”

She nodded. “Yes. She said if you asked to tell you that his fitting won’t take as long as the one for that dress, and Sir Link isn’t nearly as likely to get himself in trouble as the princess.”

Link wrinkled his nose. Of course they were absolutely right, but it still irked him to hear.

“Alright.” Bindle stood up, putting his pins on a nearby vanity before giving him a look. “Do try not to move too much, will you, Sir Link? Wouldn’t want to undo all the work we’ve done so far, after all.”

He nodded. “I understand.”

They left, and once the door was closed behind them, Link was alone once again.

He appreciated that he didn’t have to stay as still as while being fitted, but being left alone in this room with nothing to do wasn’t much better. Especially since he wasn’t exactly free to do as he pleased if he wasn’t to move much and knock all the pins loose.

He tried to occupy himself walking around as he looked at the room. But he’d already seen everything of note while looking around while being fitted earlier. The changing screen, the vanity, the wash basin, the chaise, the balcony…

Link sighed and tried to resist the urge to pull at the hem of his doublet. Surely that action would earn him Bindle’s ire. Instead, he took the time to study his outfit once again.

The doublet was a deep red color, with gold trim and embroidery on it. And the patterns weren’t like the simple ones on his nicest outfits, but resembled the elaborate designs on Zelda’s formal dresses. At least the trousers were more familiar, if a tighter fit than usual. He’d already seen the headpiece he’d wear and the cloak in case the early autumn weather wasn’t welcoming for the outdoor ceremony. Altogether the ensemble would be…

“Dashing.”

Link turned around to see Zelda closing the door behind her. He intended to say something immediately, but seeing her in the dress she was meant to be fitted for left him unable to do anything but stare for a minute.

She was wearing a deep blue dress he’d never seen her in before. The neckline cut deeper than the ones she usually wore (though he quickly looked away from that detail once he realize that he could see the top of her breasts) and there were sweeping sleeves that nearly brushed the ground. The embroidery on her bodice precisely matched that of his doublet with the golden thread and pattern, but there was even far more embroidered on the sleeves and skirt, making the entire piece far more elaborate than his.

Zelda raised an eyebrow. “What? Can’t repay the compliment?”

Link hadn’t realized his breath hitched until he had to consciously take another. Lack of air must’ve been why his face was so red—nothing to do with the sight of Zelda in her wedding dress. “You look… gorgeous. Though no one will be able to see your shoes.”

She pulled a face and pulled up the offendingly long skirt. “Won’t stop me from wearing my favorite pair.”

Having now had time to recollect himself, Link finally managed to say what he intended to earlier. “What brings you here, anyway? I heard you snuck off somewhere.”

“I did. Here.”

Oh.

“As for why,” Zelda continued. “This next week is so full of preparations that I won’t be able to sneak off to see you. But since you’re actually here at the castle today, I thought I’d come see you.”

Link smiled at hat. “Can’t say I’m not glad about that. Though I could also just come visit you the last few days instead of the other way around. Better than you getting in trouble just to see me.”

“I’m quite used to getting into trouble for the pleasure of seeing you. But I’d love for you to visit, too!” He always loved when she looked so clearly delighted. “But do you really not have anything to do until the wedding?”

He shook his head. “Grandpa’s already told me he’ll handle the jobs himself, so I should focus on preparations. But all I need is to finish memorizing my vows and pack in preparation to move…”

He sighed at the reminder. Perhaps the thought of moving out of the little room that had been his for as long as he could remember was the most intimidating part of marrying Zelda. He could stand everything that came as part of being royalty as long as she was by his side, but even she couldn’t pack up his room itself and bring it to the castle.

“I’m jealous!” Zelda pouted. “But if you’re coming to share the misery of wedding preparations with me, I can’t really complain.”

Link raised an eyebrow at that. “Share the misery? I’ll come see you, sure, but I’m going to have as little to do with making any decisions as I can. If anything, I’m going to repay you for all the years where you came and distracted me while I was at the forge.”

Her mouth fell open. “Aren’t you petty!”

He shrugged. “At least this isn’t nearly as dangerous. The worst that will happen is a bouquet not matching the rest of the color scheme, not someone getting injured.”

“It almost sounds like you don’t care that much about our wedding!”

“I never said that!” he protested. “Besides, you’ve complained to me at least once a week since our banns about not caring about all the preparations and wishing someone else would make all the decisions for you.”

She stopped trying to hide her smile. “Fine! You’re right! I just don’t want you distracting me so it takes even longer to get through all those silly decisions!”

Link grinned, leaning in closer. “What if I snuck you out, then? Distracted you that way?”

Zelda’s grin far surpassed his own. “You know how to make a girl happy.”

“Nah. Only you.”

And his reward for the comment was the flush that spread on her cheeks. “Well, good thing I’m the only girl you need to worry about.”

And then she leaned forward and kissed him.

It was only a peck, really. There and back with far too little time for him to return it.

Now he was a blushing mess. “Z-Zelda!”

“What?” she asked, with an all-too-pleased on her face. “I don’t think that it’s so unreasonable to kiss my betrothed when he’s just said something sweet!”

He looked down. “It wasn’t that sweet. And besides! I thought we were kissing to practice for the ceremony! How useful is it when I can’t kiss you back?”

“If you want to kiss me again, you could just go ahead and do it instead of complaining.”

“No I—!” Oh, that grin. She was teasing him. Well, he’d show her.

So Link grabbed her cheeks and leaned in to kiss Zelda.

He lingered there long enough for her to start kissing him back. He started to pull back now that it had been a more proper kiss, but she threaded her fingers through his hair before he had broken away from the kiss. Ugh, she was mussing up his ponytail—he’d have to fix that later, after the kiss.

But for now… practice, right? He liked their typically simple kisses, but he could use that since he wasn’t going to pull out of her grip. He tilted his head, deepening the kiss.

Zelda made a startled noise and pulled away, staring at him a little breathless, cheeks flushed. “Are we really going to kiss like that at our wedding?”

“Uh.” Link’s cheeks must have been burning even brighter than Zelda’s were. “Not… not necessarily. I mean, we’ll have an outrageous amount of makeup on again, won’t we? Like we did for the banns?” She nodded, so he continued, “Well, then we won’t want to smudge it all and have to spend the short time before the banquet getting it all put on again.”

“You’re right.” Zelda crossed her arms and frowned. “Though… we’ve only kissed with makeup on that one time. If we want to avoid that fate you mentioned, I suppose we’ll probably need to practice with it again.”

He raised an eyebrow, trying to act like he was able to be blasé about kissing Zelda, when in truth he still felt the same nerves leading up to and thrill during each kiss as he had that first one. Their daily practices had only taught him the anticipation before and dread following each kiss since he’d have to wait another day to kiss her again.

He… wasn’t sure what to make of how much he enjoyed kissing her.

“That certainly sounds like good practice, but… when are we going to be able to try it? If you’re locked up in those meetings all week…”

“You said you’d sneak me out, wouldn’t you?”

Link held up a finger. “I’ll try. But I’m not good at it as you are, and wearing a face full of makeup is hardly what you need to go undetected in town, isn’t it?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Well, I suppose we could just enjoy tromping around Hyrule Field. But I still wouldn’t want to be all dolled up for that. Not that I’m so worried about most of the makeup, but the lip—”

Zelda paused, and immediately started searching the room.

“Zelda?” What was she trying to do?

“We can practice kissing now,” she said by way of explanation. As though that had anything to do with tilting the vanity mirror to see if there were anything behind it.

Link’s face flushed anew all the same. He took a deep breath to try to control it before asking, “Not that I mind, but… we already practiced today. And it’s not like we have makeup to practice more right now.”

“Aha!” With a triumphant smile, Zelda turned around, holding up a small glass jar with something red in it that she had just found rifling through the vanity drawer. “No, we do have some lip paint. And it’s what we need to worry about smudging the most, right?”

He did recall how much it had smudged onto his lips the last time she had worn some, so perhaps she had a point.

He swallowed. “Uh. Is there any brush in there to apply it?”

After a quick check she frowned and shook her head. Then she removed the lid. “Fingers it is, then.”

He looked at her very fine dress and blanched a bit. “Uh! Zelda! Should you really be getting that on your fingers while you’re wearing your wedding dress?”

Zelda glanced down at her dress and pouted. “You’re right. Verona would kill me if I got it stained.” She handed Link the jar. “Fine! You put it on, then.”

He blinked, glancing down at the jar, his fingers, and her lips. Her puckered lips.

Link gulped.

After a few seconds passed and he still hadn’t done anything, Zelda opened her eyes and gave him a questioning look. “Will you help?”

He took a deep breath to steady himself and nodded. “Yes! Yes… I will.”

Then he dabbed his fingers and carefully applied the paint to her lips. He held his breath, trying (and failing) not to be too nervous about how close they were and the fact that they were going to kiss right after.

Once it looked evenly spread and covered, he set the jar back down on the vanity and gingerly grabbed both her cheeks.

Zelda’s eyes shot open just as he began to lean forward. “What are you doing?”

Link froze. “Kissing practice. Isn’t that what you said you wanted?”

“The lip paint is still wet! It will definitely smudge if you kiss me now.”

That was a fair point.

“Besides,” she continued. “I want to see how good of a job you did!”

He blanched as she headed towards the vanity. He’d tried his best and it looked quite neat, but the thought of her scrutinizing it felt so… so…

He shook his head. It was just Zelda, just the same, fun, ridiculous and silly girl that had been his best friend for most of his life. Sure, she could be a little vain sometimes, but why was he so worried about her reaction now?

“Not bad,” she said, admiring her own reflection. “Though not as good as my handmaidens usually manage.”

“They usually have brushes, though. I doubt they’ve ever had to use their fingers.”

“True.” She turned back to him and leaned in to kiss his cheek.

Link’s ears were on fire. “ZE—ZELDA!”

She grinned mischievously. “Just testing out how much it’s dried. I think we’ll need to wait a bit longer.”

He glanced towards the vanity with its mirror and saw the very distinct outline of her lips in red on his cheek. He gulped, and brought up his fingers to gingerly trace it.

“I’m sure we can find a handkerchief so you can wipe it away if you don’t like it.”

His eyes snapped back towards her. “I never said that I don’t like it.”

“Oh.” She looked away with her cheeks flushed and a smile at her lips. “Well, then… since we need to wait at least a little longer for it to dry, and we’re already in our wedding clothes… should we do what we can to make it as close to the real thing as we can?”

That didn’t sound terrible, but… “I have no idea where they keep the headpieces we’re supposed to wear, there’s nothing we can use for a bouquet here… and shouldn’t something be done with your hair?”

“I know we can’t do everything! At least not without sneaking out, and… I’d rather not risk getting caught. So let’s just do what we can.”

“Are you asking me to do your hair?”

Zelda shrugged.

“The fanciest thing I know how to do is a braid,” he warned her.

She turned around so he had better access to her hair. “I know, those take a while, so you better get started.”

“I’m faster at them than you!” he protested. Not that he didn’t immediately walk over and remove the ribbon that was tying some of her hair back out of her face already. It certainly wasn’t because he wanted to kiss her that much quicker or anything, not at all.

“I’ll still probably be able to braid your hair quicker when it’s my turn, anyhow, because mine is so much longer than yours.”

That proved to be true enough, even if when Link felt behind his head to see how good a job she did, it felt a lot rougher than his. It was clear that she was a princess that had no reason to do anything with hair on a regular basis.

She smiled hopefully at him. “Is it good?”

“Good enough,” he told her. And it was—it would at least hold for the few minutes until they finished their practice, at least, assuming that she didn’t dig her fingers into his hair during the kiss again.

“Alright. Then the only thing to do is check if it’s dry.” And with no more warning than that, Zelda leaned in and kissed his other cheek. Then pouted. “I guess it really is. Too bad, I was hoping to make it match on both sides.”

Link tried to ignore his cheeks burning once again. Was it going to regularly be like this once they were married, with him being so constantly flustered? “That means we’re ready to practice the kiss, which is what we want, anyhow, right?”

“Yeah.” She positioned herself to stand directly across from him. “Should we try to make this more like the real ceremony will be?”

He gave her a flat look. “I haven’t even memorized my own vows, forget whatever anyone else is supposed to say.”

“Oh, my poor, dumb, betrothed.”

“Hey! Just because I’m not as smart as you doesn’t mean I’m du—!”

“You may now kiss the bride.”

That made him pause. Permission to kiss her, and… well, they’d been betrothed for half a year, and while the entire time he’d been well aware that they were going to be married, it was quite another to hear her called his bride. Which she wasn’t quite, not for a week yet.

But it sunk in anew that Zelda was going to be his wife. Soon.

He blinked, realizing how startled he’d been, and decided that if it had taken this long already, he might as well savor the moment.

Link brought his hands up to cup Zelda’s cheeks, and then went on his tiptoes so that he could meet her lips in a brief, chaste kiss.

She was frowning when he’d pulled away and opened his eyes to look at her again. “I suppose it didn’t smudge, at least, but… shouldn’t a wedding kiss be deeper than that?”

“Uh…” He probably was being a little selfish, but his inhibitions didn’t stop him from saying, “We can always keep practicing, then. To make sure we figure out exactly how we want to kiss once we’re married.”

That brought a brilliant smile on her face. “Then let’s do just that,” Zelda said, grabbing his waist and pulling him closer to capture his lips in a kiss.

As it grew deeper, Link’s arms made their way up around her neck to help support himself, especially with the way she was starting to dip him backward and—

The door burst open.

“There you are.” Lady Verona (because of course it was Lady Verona herself who found them) studied them. “I know you two are eager for each other’s company, but you can enjoy it once you’re married. But your wedding is still a week away, and the preparations for that need to be finished before you can do whatever your hearts desire.”

Only then did Link realize what a sight they made, holding each other so closely with the imprint of her lips on his cheek and a quick glance told him they had not succeeded in subverting any smudges.

“Oh, well,” Zelda whispered into his ear, apparently having noticed the same thing. “I guess we’ll just have to keep practicing until we get it right.”

He wasn’t heartbroken over that.

Chapter Text

On the morning of her wedding, Zelda woke with the dawn.

It wasn’t her choice—in fact, one of her handmaidens had to rouse her.

The ceremony itself wasn’t until late morning, to be immediately followed by a banquet for lunch and then a ball, but she had to wake up this early for her to be given a scented bath, and her hair to dry while she was fitted into her corset and then her gown. Finally after that her hair was done up in dozens of braids that pulled back behind her head and looked ridiculously elaborate but admittedly pretty, and then her makeup was done with care.

Next was the billiment, blue and gold to match her dress. And since the weather was holding fair so far, the cloak was given to a handmaid to hold onto during the ceremony if it fouled.

Things were a blur after that, going through the halls that were busy with preparations for the wedding and banquet and being pulled away for a dozen last minute preparations until finally she’d been handed a bouquet (she doubted the flowers were actually wild as requested, but at least there was a charming variety) and Papa was standing next to her, acting like he was about to cry as he talked to her in the antechamber.

“Just know that… even though you’re going to be a married woman, you’ll still always be my little girl, alright?”

“Papa, why are you acting like you’ll never see me again? I’m still going to be in the same room I’ve always had. The only difference is that I’ll be sharing it with Link.”

He tried to take a deep breath, she could could tell, but it was more sniffly than anything. “I just know marriage will change things more than you realize.”

Zelda smiled at him. “I’ll enjoy spending more time with Link, sure, but that hardly means I won’t want to spend any time with you, either. If anything, I’ll have more time to spend with you since I don’t have to trek across Hyrule Field to spend time with him.”

Papa gave her a wistful smile. “I hope you’ll remember that. Though eventually you’ll have an entire family to escape in order to keep that promise, not just a husband.”

Her face started to flush underneath the makeup. Of course she was aware that such a thing would happen eventually—that was why she had asked Link to marry her, after all—but since their betrothal they had only discussed it enough to decide that they’d focus on the wedding first and make decisions about having children sometime after.

“But that’s enough about my worries, you have better things to focus on today, my little sweet tooth.”

Papa kissed the crown of her hair and excused himself to his seat for the ceremony.

Those last few minutes before her life would undeniably be changed forever seemed to stretch out in the anticipation. Zelda sat, nervously tracing the embroidery on her skirt until finally someone called for her to come out.

She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders before heading out to be wed.

Though she had been involved in all of the planning, this was the first chance Zelda had to see the castle gardens all decked out for the ceremony. Banners strung between the battlements and keep, a path open for her between the onlookers with a yellowing carpet of grass, and at the end of it, the bridal arch with the last of the season’s flowers and Link standing underneath it.

She took in the sight of Link as she approached. She had seen his outfit last week, but it was quite nice to see him in it now, with it being freshly pressed rather than half fitted and full of pins falling out of it. His hair had also been tamed into a neat braid, far nicer looking than the one she gave him last week, and atop his head he wore a bourrelet that was a deep red and gold to match his outfit. The overly neat look didn’t quite suit him, but it also looked quite nice.

She knew that he had been required to don makeup, too, even if his was meant to be less obvious than hers. It was thick enough to conceal whatever the true color of his cheeks were, but it couldn’t hide the red hue of his ears or the look of awe on his face as he took in the sight of her.

Zelda didn’t dare try to hide her grin as she approached. His reaction last week was nice, but this was even more gratifying than that had been. And if her amusement at her best-friend-turned-bridegroom’s reaction helped her have the gaiety befitting a bride, so much the better.

Once she assumed her spot next to him underneath the arch, she leaned over and whispered to him, “You should probably close your mouth. Wouldn’t want to swallow a fly today of all days, would we?”

He promptly shut his mouth, and gave her a glare that he managed to maintain for all of about five seconds. Then he melted into a smile. “I’m sorry if my bride is so beautiful that I can’t think about things as properly as I ought.”

That brought a flush on her cheeks that made Zelda curse the makeup more than before. She wished Link could at least see how much he affected her when he said something like that, perhaps not casually, but certainly so easily.

Especially since she didn’t have a way to convey it to him verbally, because then Sturgeon came up to stand on the opposite side of the bridal arch, and the ceremony began.

The ceremony itself didn’t really stick in Zelda’s mind. Not when they’d practiced probably half a dozen times in the past week (Verona had been all too eager to take advantage of the fact that Link was visiting her daily to such an end), so none of the words were new and able to grab her mind, and certainly not in the face of all the silly faces Linkwas making at her—she knew it was solely to make her need to stifle giggles, with that little grin he wore every time she had to bring up her bouquet to hide her mouth.

The most interesting thing about the rest of the ceremony was the fact that Link stuttered on his vows, but otherwise everything went smoothly.

And then finally it was the moment they had been preparing for.

“You may now kiss the bride.”

Bride. Zelda was now Link’s bride, and he her groom. They were married.

Link took a deep breath and stepped closer, cupping her face (gingerly so as not to disturb her makeup) and kissed her. When he finally pulled back in the midst of all the cheers around him, there was no smudge of paint on his lips.

Zelda smiled, and leaned close and whispered low enough that even Sturgeon couldn’t hear, “I suppose that all our practice this past week paid off.”

He laughed and started to lean in for another kiss.

Zelda glanced nervously at the audience surrounding them, still a little unsure about this display of affection in a public manner. That was the one aspect of her wedding kiss she deliberately hadn’t practiced for. But then she turned her attention back to Link, and it wasn’t so difficult to lean in and just enjoy yet another celebratory kiss as long as she focused on him.

Besides, it was only one day that she would be expected to show this affection so blatantly to others.

Once the cheering and kisses died down, they were whisked away to a small room to rest in until the banquet was prepared. But at least, now that they were married, they didn’t do anything to separate them any more.

“That,” Link groaned as he collapsed onto the chaise, “was the most exhausting ordeal I’ve ever gone through.”

Zelda wished she could collapse and relax like that. But no, it would be uncomfortable with her corset still on, and it was enough an ordeal to put on that she would rather just bear with it until the end of the day. So she made do with sitting next to Link on the chaise.

“The day is only half over.”

He groaned more at the reminder.

“And you’ll have to get used to some days like this happening regularly, even if our wedding is extra immense pressure. Remember, you no longer are simply Link Smith, but Link Smith Hyrule.”

He pushed himself into a sitting position to glare at her. “Sometimes, when things like this come up, I seriously wonder if I should have accepted your proposal.”

“Well, considering that I am subjected to all of this regardless of whether or not you’re at my side…” Zelda looked down at Link and smiled. “I’m really quite glad you said yes.”

He returned her smile, and then went and rested his head against her lap. “Well, when you put it up that way, I guess being royalty isn’t really that inconvenient if it’s to be with you.”

They fell into a comfortable silence, and Zelda enjoyed brushing Link’s bangs out of his eyes until the new glint of gold on her hand caught her eye. She paused to inspect it more closely. The details made it look like a crown of flowers, woven together.

“What’d you stop for?”

“Just appreciating the fact that I’m yours now once again.”

He opened his eyes, and saw what she was looking at. “Admiring Grandpa’s workmanship, more like.”

“I can do both at once.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “It really is quite impressive, especially since Master Smith—” She paused. “I suppose I should start calling him Grandpa now that we’re actually married, shouldn’t I?”

“Mmm, he’d probably love that, but it’s up to you,” Link said. “Especially since sometimes I’m convinced he likes you better than me.”

Zelda rolled her eyes. “Well, I still love the details on these, especially since he’s not as accomplished a goldsmith as a blacksmith.”

“He gave you the prettier one.” Link held up his left hand, and pointed to a particular spot on it. “See? There’s a blemish on mine.”

It did stick out a little. “Well, they’re still matching, even if not perfectly so. I like them. Probably my favorite accessory.”

“Even more than shoes?”

That made her pause. “Well. Uh…”

“I knew it.”

“But you’re the one who gave me the joy butterfly shoes! Of course I like them better!”

His eyes widened, and redness came to his ears. “Did you wear those shoes today?”

“Of course!” she smiled, and lifted up one foot to show him. Of course her skirts slid up her legs some, but she’d never been too self-conscious around Link, and besides, he was her husband now. It didn’t matter if she was modest around him. “How could I wear anything else!”

He didn’t have a chance to respond when a knock came at the door. “The banquet is ready, now,” Lady Verona reported through it. So they hurried to stand up and make sure their clothes were straightened and not frumpled and followed after her to the banquet hall.

The wedding banquet blurred together for her. The meal was delicious, with ham and meat pies and stews and that salad Link had liked and a dozen other things she couldn’t remember a thing about other than that everything was superb. And, oh, all the cream puffs! Wheaton and Pita had truly outdone themselves on those, and she made sure to seek them out to inform them of that. And then everyone around her tried to stop her from having as many of them as her heart desired—surely if there was one time it was alright to enjoy a pastry, it was at her very own wedding!

Of course, there were also the speeches. Papa was blubbering too much to say much of anything, but Minister Pothos embarrassed Zelda by talking about how much trouble he had searching for her since she always skipped her lessons to go visit Link, and Master Smith embarrassed Link by telling of the time when he was eight and thought marriage only consisted of wedding rings and forged some for the two of them and was so disappointed when he learned that more was needed than just that.

Zelda leaned towards him at the conclusion of that story. “Where are those rings now? We could’ve used them!”

He looked away, which was how she could tell he was lying when he said, “I… I don’t know.”

She poked his side. “Yes, you do!”

“Alright, I do!” Link admitted. “But I was only eight, so the craftsmanship isn’t very good! Not to mention that the sizes are certain to be off now, if they ever were right.”

She wanted to tease him more, but then Lady Verona stood up to give her recollections of them growing up.

And, oh, she was by far the best, embarrassing both of them with her remarks. At every occasion and event since they were four, she remembered how impossible it was to get Zelda to do anything since she solely wanted to play with her best friend. As for Link, he followed her around constantly, also providing a distraction at inopportune moments. Apparently, it was clear to anyone with eyes that they had been utterly infatuated with each other for over a decade.

It was a relief when the speeches drew to an end and the dancing began, so they couldn’t be embarrassed anymore.

Of course, this was when the wine began to flow more freely, so there were entirely different issues at hand. Whenever they took a break from the fast dancing between sets, their goblets were kept unfailingly full. And the dancing didn’t help, when it only seemed to make the drink sink into their blood faster, making her more giddily drunk than she’d ever been before.

“How is it?” Link panted right after they left the dance floor once. “That I can run for longer than you without running out of breath, but when it comes to dancing, it’s the other way around?”

She smiled after she took another sip of wine. “I have more practice with it?”

“You always seemed to drag me to practice with you, too,” he grumbled.

Zelda hummed. “Yeah! Because I like you! And I couldn’t dance with you if you didn’t know the steps or could keep up!”

He gaped at her. “You… you like me?”

She nodded. “Mmm-hmm! I re-e-e-e-ally like you! That’s why I married you!”

And with that she leaned forward and kissed him.

Oh… the kissing.

There had been plenty of it at the banquet earlier—calls for it with every speech, every time Papa sniffled (which was a lot), every time glasses clinked together. And with her earlier realization that the audience didn’t bother her if she could focus on Link, Zelda didn’t mind going along with it so often.

And once the dancing and drinking started in earnest… well, her inhibitions were lowered even more, and she chose to kiss him between dances and at about any opportunity the dance was slow enough that she had a chance. Soon enough, he knew to expect the kisses and was leaning in to meet them. And the now-drunk crowd gave raucous cheers to each one.

It was finally late in the evening that they stumbled off the dance floor and Zelda felt her feet burning. She hissed with every step.

“What’s wrong?” Link asked, attentive to her even when drunk.

“My feet,” she whined.

He immediately crouched down in front of her. “May I?”

She raised one foot towards him in permission—then had to stick both her arms out to either side because spirits were not good for her balance. He gingerly took off her shoe, her pretty, pretty joy butterfly shoe that only he had seen today, and winced.

“You got blisters.”

Zelda puffed out her cheeks. That was annoying.

She switched out which foot she was standing on (it still hurt to put her weight on the blistered foot, but at least the cool stone of the floor felt nicer than the now-sweaty inside of her shoe) and allowed Link to take the shoe off her other foot, which apparently was just was blistered.

He grabbed the shoes and stood up and scooped her into his arms in a proper bridal carry, though he stumbled back a little bit (apparently spirits weren’t good for his balance, either). Once he was steady again, he met her eyes. “It’s late. And with your feet, you won’t want to dance any more. Shall we head up to your— our rooms now?”

Zelda grinned, and leaned her head onto his shoulder. “Mmmm, yes.”

Chapter Text

Once they arrived back at her room, Link sat Zelda at the end of her bed before turning back to close the door behind them.

She blinked at the THUD of the door. Alone in her room with the door closed with Link… such a thing had never been allowed before, being considered improper. Her face flushed with the realization that it didn’t matter anymore. Not now that she was married to him.

Zelda flopped back on her bed to stare at the ceiling as Link collected the water pitcher and washing basin, kneeling on the floor at the end of the bed and using it to wash her feet. The cool water on her burning feet… the gentle touch of his hands… well, obviously she’d rather not have the blisters in the first place, but considering that she did have them, this was pretty nice. She hummed contentedly.

After he was done washing her feet and patted them dry with a towel, Link looked up to her. “Do you have any bandages or ointment I could use on your feet?”

“Bandages are in the armoire. But you’d have to go all the way to the infirmary for an ointment. I don’t keep them on hand.”

He nodded, and stood, heading to the door.

Zelda frowned. “Where are you going?”

“The infirmary.”

She puffed out her cheeks. Yes, some ointment would help her feet heal much faster, and be greatly appreciated, but… she didn’t want him to leave! “It can wait until tomorrow!”

His head swiveled back to look at her, his hand resting on the door handle. “But—!”

“I’m tired! All I want to do is get this blasted dress off and go to bed! Bandages will be plenty for changing into bedclothes!”

Link still looked uncertain.

“Besides,” she admitted. “I’d rather you not leave.”

With a sigh he lowered his hand and made his way back towards her. “Alright, but you better not stop me from heading over first thing in the morning.”

Zelda grinned. “Of course.”

“But let’s get those bandages on for now.” He went over and grabbed the bandages she had pointed out earlier, making his way back to her feet. “Then I might be exhausted enough to not even bother with bedclothes.”

She raised an eyebrow. He didn’t have a corset to deal with, of course, but his closely-tailored outfit didn’t quite seem very comfortable, either. “I thought you would’ve been the one to complain about these stiff outfits more than me.”

He chuckled, but didn’t look up from his work bandaging her feet. “I’ll probably take off the doublet, I’ll admit. And the boots of course. But it’s not like I have my bedclothes to wear here. I won’t be bringing over my things from home until tomorrow. And it’s still early enough in autumn that a blanket will be warm enough.”

“So… you’ll be sleeping shirtless?”

“I suppose.”

It wasn’t until he glanced up and caught sight of Zelda’s flushed cheeks that his ears followed suit. “Uhm! But… I don’t have to! If you’re uncomfortable with that! I’ll… just have to figure out what to do instead.”

“I have some spare nightgowns. You can borrow one, as long as you don’t mind it will probably be large on you and have lots of ruffles.”

“Oh no! Not ruffles!”

She took the foot he wasn’t bandaging to lightly kick at Link, but the laughter helped diffuse some of the tension from before.

Though perhaps some of their uncertain awkwardness was still lingering, or maybe it was just that they both really were tired, because they were both silent until Link finished wrapping her feet and stood, glancing at the bed. His ears flushed again.

“So… what will the sleeping arrangements be?”

Zelda blinked. It seemed obvious to her, enough that she hadn’t even thought to talk to him about it. But since theirs wasn’t a typical arrangement, she could see why he was uncertain. “We’ll share it, of course. It’s plenty large, and since you’ll be living here from now you’ll need a bed of course.”

“Of course, of course.” He nodded slowly, shifting his weight from one foot to the next. “And so… our wedding night… will…?”

Her cheeks flushed as she finally understood what it was that Link really wanted to ask. They were married now after all. And they’d have to consummate that marriage at some point so she might have an heir. There was no reason that couldn’t be tonight, as was typical, yet… there was no reason that it had to be tonight, either.

It seemed silly, to consider that so much bigger a step than marriage in the first place. But marriage had been easy—asking Link to remain her best friend and stay by her side for the rest of their lives when that’s what she always imagined would happen anyways. Hugs and holding hands had never quite disappeared from their relationship. Kissing, on the lips, that had been new, and intimidating, but she’d gotten quite nearly comfortable with it in the months since that first one.

But faced with this, she felt the nerves before the first kiss return in full. Or perhaps even greater than that first time.

Zelda took a deep breath. “We… won’t have a typical wedding night. After all, it’s not a typical marriage, for love or for political alliance. We’re drunk, we’re exhausted… and taking things at our own pace and having some time before we even might have children sounds very nice to me right now.”

“Oh.”

There was something strange about the way he said that, but Zelda couldn’t quite put her finger on why.

“Are you disappointed?”

He glanced up and met her eyes, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. “That’s not it. You’re right, that we’re probably better off going slowly about it. And I still get flustered from kisses, so that would be… too much.”

Then what are your thoughts on it? she thought, curious as always. I said mine. I wouldn’t want to tonight, but it’s for both of us to decide.

But before she could say any of that, he simply pressed a kiss to her head and went over to the armoire to grab two nightgowns for them.

Well, there would be other chances to talk about this. When they were less exhausted. For now, she couldn’t fault him for wanting to sleep.

Link tossed her one of the nightgowns (the one with more ruffles, while she recognized the one he chose as her plainest) and then turned around. Zelda unthinkingly watched him remove his doublet before realizing that he had done so to give them privacy as they changed. Very reasonable, especially since they had just agreed they were going to wait to consummate their marriage.

She quickly stood, relished the briefest moment how much better her feet felt now than when she’d last stood on them, and then put her back to Link.

She usually had her handmaidens to help take off all the layers of these formal gowns, but they hadn’t come with her tonight for obvious reasons. And considering that it was expected she’d have no help other than that of her bridegroom—unfamiliar with such dresses—to remove it, it was simpler than most of her formal gowns. Zelda was pleased at how easily she was able to remove the outer dress and petticoats on her own.

The trouble was when she got to the corset. That laced it the back and tied in between her shoulder blades.

After a few futile attempts, she sighed. “Link?”

“Hmm?”

He’d be done changing by now, with his far simpler outfit. And he was helpful, so she doubted he’d say no to the request. And even if it were… a bit more immodest than showing an arm or a leg, being in merely her shift beneath her corset, he was her husband now, so it didn’t really matter if he saw her in such a state of undress. It would just take her a while to become accustomed to that being acceptable.

Besides, what was her alternative? Sleep in her corset?

It was that unbearable thought that made her take a deep breath and finally ask, “Will you help me unlace my corset? I… can’t reach it myself.”

“Uh-mmm. Of course!”

She glanced back to watch him approach, but as he arrived she faced forward, face flushing a bit in embarrassment.

The first tug at the laces was a fumble. It was no fancy knot that Link would have never encountered before, so he must share her nerves at the situation. But it didn’t take long for him to overcome that and pull the knot out, and set to work loosening the rest of the corset.

“I normally prefer corsets that lace in front,” she began apologizing as he worked. “I can manage those myself, even to put it on. But they apparently don’t lace tight enough for some events, though I usually have my handmaidens to help remove it at the end of the day.”

“I don’t mind helping.”

“Thank you, but I do hope that isn’t too often. They’re rather uncomfortable to wear.” She smiled as she took in a properly deep breath for the first time since this morning. “Though your help is most welcome on the occasions I am forced to wear one.”

“I can also help with taking out your braids if you like.”

She hadn’t even thought that far ahead. “Anything that lets me fall asleep faster.”

“Then should I also help removed your make up? I already washed mine off.”

Zelda glanced back at him, an earnest smile on his face. “With how helpful you’re being, it almost seems like you’re trying to get something from me.”

“I just want to get to bed faster, too!” Link protested. Then he paused. “Though… I would like cuddling in bed, if that’s okay?”

She chuckled. “Of course! You didn’t even need to ask for that.”

Zelda woke up to the soft sound of someone humming, the security of strong arms around her, and the feeling of fingers running through her hair.

At first she was sleepy enough to simply enjoy it. Then she woke up enough to be alarmed—this was very unusual! What was happening?

She scooted away from the source of the humming and stopped when she saw Link’s face. He stopped humming.

With that, her mind finally was able to fully chase off the bleariness of sleep. Right. The wedding was yesterday, and now she was to start the rest of her life… married.

She blinked up at her husband. Glanced at the light from the early morning filtering in through the windows, and then back to him, clearly awake. “This is strange. You’re never up before me.”

“Well, apparently I am sometimes. At least, when I’ve actually been able to have a good night’s rest.”

“That’s what you get when you don’t go off playing hero when you should be sleeping, I suppose.”

“Probably, since I was able to get up fairly easily yesterday, too. But also…” Link pulled Zelda closer and buried his head into her hair. “I think having the best pillow had something to do with it.”

“Pillow?” Zelda swatted his arm. “I’m your wife!”

“Ouch! My pillow’s hitting me!”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “We’re literally married now, but here we are acting like kids.”

“Why not? Nothing wrong with being childish. Besides, I meant it—you really are the best pillow.”

“What every woman loves to hear from her husband—how soft and squishy she is.”

“And huggable.”

She smiled. “True. That’s the most important part.” She lay quiet for a bit, just enjoying the feeling of Link’s arms around her. Until she couldn’t any longer. “Okay, but I really, really need to go pee.”

“Oh!” He let go of her, and even pushed himself up halfway into a sitting position. “Go right ahead.”

Zelda wasted no time heading to the privy.

She didn’t think she took very long, but when she came out, she frowned at the empty room. Where could Link have gone? She hadn’t even heard the door open.

…was he hiding from her? She wouldn’t put it past him.

So she began searching. Not underneath the bed, not squished into the armoire… was there even anywhere else large enough for him to fit?

The door opened, and she turned to see Link coming in with a jar of… something and an armful of bandages. So he had gone out. That made sense. She didn’t think he knew how to be as quiet as minish.

“Sorry for the wait,” he apologized, letting everything fall from his arms onto the bed. “I just ran to the infirmary to grab ointment for your feet.”

Oh, right. He’d told her he’d do that last night, hadn’t he? Though the pain hadn’t been enough to draw her attention on its own.

“You went all the way to the infirmary in your bedclothes?” she teased as he directed her to sit on the bed.

His ears went red. “Well. I’m worried about your feet. Who would fault a newlywed husband for caring this much for his wife?”

Zelda tipped her head back and studied the ceiling, realizing that she must have simply grown numb to the pain of her feet with how soothing that ointment felt as he applied it. “I feel a little guilty. I have the sweetest husband in the world, and he doesn’t even love me!”

She felt the hands at her feet stop. “If I don’t love you, then please tell me why am I wrapping up your feet like this?”

She looked down to meet Link’s eyes. “Fine. He doesn’t love me romantically.”

Link smiled and got back to work, softly shaking his head. “Can’t believe you thought I’d do this for just anyone.”

“Who said that, either? Though you very well might save the kingdom for any old stranger’s sake.”

He rolled his eyes.

“I’m serious! You’re a little too heroic sometimes!”

“Even if you think so now, that certainly wasn’t the case when I was ten. I wouldn’t have done it for any less than my very best friend.”

“This is doing nothing to disprove that you’re the sweetest, you know.”

“But only for you.”

Zelda smiled. “That’s not so bad to hear from my husband.”

Link bent his head down further while he finished up with her feet. It did nothing to hide the redness of his ears.

Once he was done, he looked up cautiously. “Well, that should help, but maybe don’t do too much today to test how good my bandage-wrapping skills are.”

“Trust me,” she said. “After how exhausting yesterday was, for once I can look forward to doing absolutely nothing. Papa said that we could have a week before I have to go back to fulfilling my duties. I think just curling up in bed with a good book from the library would be just perfect today.”

“Are you planning on just staying in the room the entire day?”

She lit up. “Not originally, but that does sound nice! You can bring me my meals and some books from the library, and I won’t even have to change out of my nightgown!”

He wrinkled his face. “I don’t want to be cooped up in here all day, and I’d like to have meals with you, at least.”

Zelda narrowed her eyes. Of course she wanted to spend the time with him, too, but… she equally didn’t want to get dressed if she could help it. “What were you thinking of doing?”

“Well, after breakfast, I’ll probably go to Grandpa’s and bring my stuff here.”

While she didn’t regret that she didn’t have to travel so far to see Link every day anymore, she would miss getting out of the castle. And she would like the chance to see Master Smith again—she’d barely seen him at all in the chaos of yesterday. “Can I come, too?”

“No!”

“Why—?”

“Feet.”

She glared down at the bandages, as if that would make them heal quickly enough that she could go along with him.

“Fine. Then what about after you get back?”

Link shrugged. “Not sure. Probably put things where they’ll stay. Maybe go to the gardens to play like when we were kids, take a nap…”

“Didn’t you always in trouble for taking naps in the gardens when we were kids? Are you sure you wouldn’t rather just take a nap in this nice, comfy bed?”

“I think I mostly just got in trouble because Grandpa had trouble finding me when we needed to head back. Besides… taking a nap in bed where you’re supposed to sleep simply isn’t the same!”

Zelda laughed. “Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’ll get dressed.”

He looked down at the nightgown he was still wearing. “I should, too, but… all of my clothes are still in my room at Grandpa’s. And your dresses would be too large for me to wear—it’s one thing for a nightgown, but I’m not going to go about my day in a loose dress.”

She bit back the comment she had been about to make, and said instead, “I think you could find someone who can help you find clothes, if you don’t want to simply just wear your wedding outfit again.”

Link made a face. “Would you want to wear such stiff clothes again?”

“Alright, fair.”

“But I do like your suggestion. I’ll go find someone, and then come get you for breakfast. Sound good?”

She nodded, and he left, though her handmaidens were apparently on the other side of the door, so he let them in.

Zelda gladly accepted their help in getting dressed—she felt a bit like being pampered today. Though she did make sure she had a front-lacing corset. She doubted there’d be any more help in getting undressed than the night before, so she’d rather be able to manage on her own, even if Link was perfectly capable of helping.

“How would you like your hair today, Your Highness?” Agitha, the handmaiden helping with her hair, asked.

Zelda hummed. “Just the usual, I think.”

“The… the usual?”

She opened her eyes to look back at Agitha in the mirror. “Yes. Why, is something difficult about it?”

She quickly shook her head. “Not at all. It’s simply that… you’re married now.”

Oh. She… she was, wasn’t she? Somehow, Zelda hadn’t realized the extent to which marriage would affect her life. She had expected the grand wedding, the constant presence of her husband in her life, and eventually having children, but… not that she would now be wearing her hair up, like all married women did. Tying it out of her face with a ribbon wouldn’t be enough any more.

“Ah. Right,” she said as though it had merely slipped her mind rather than never having been a thought before. “Then… something simple today.”

Chapter Text

Grandpa raised his bushy eyebrows as he spotted Link coming in. “I’m surprised you’ve already come for your things. Don’t most newlyweds like to bask in the honeymoon as long as possible?”

“Well, as much as I’d love to just enjoy as long as they’ll let Zelda and I get away without any responsibilities, the fact that I had to choose between wearing my wedding outfit again and borrowing some clothes to even come here this morning… Well. I didn’t want to wait.”

“I’m surprised Zelda didn’t come along.”

“She wanted to, but she danced too much last night, so I insisted she stay and let her blisters heal.”

Grandpa merely nodded, but followed Link upstairs to his room.

“You know, for borrowed clothes, those fit you surprisingly well.”

He balked as he looked back at Grandpa, then bashfully rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, apparently they had the tailors take the measurements they got for my wedding outfit to get started on an assortment of clothes befitting my… my new position. But I do not want to wear them constantly. They aren’t the most comfortable.”

“Not comfortable being Prince Consort yet?”

Oh, did he really have to put up with this teasing? “It’s only been a day. Besides, it’s not exactly the change to come after the wedding that I was focusing on.”

Grandpa reached up and patted his back. “I’m glad Zelda has someone like you to love her rather than the position.”

Link couldn’t help the smile that worked itself on his face. “Well, even if things had worked out differently and anyone like that tried to marry her instead, I wouldn’t have simply stood by and let it happen.”

He entered his room—his old room, that is—and looked back at Grandpa. “So? You going to help me carry these boxes back to the castle or do you need to get back to the forge?”

“Oh, I fully planned to take today off. I’m not young enough to recover from an all-day celebration like that so easily anymore. Sure, I’ll join you. Not tired of your face just yet.”

Link rolled his eyes. But he was glad because he knew he’d miss seeing Grandpa so often—and also the fact that it would have been somewhat difficult to balance one box atop the other for a trip as long as this.

“About you getting old,” he said once they’d both carefully navigated down the stairs. “How much longer do you think you’ll keep the business going, anyhow? I’m sure Zelda and I could provide for you.”

“Are you saying I should move into the castle?”

He didn’t even need to glance back to see what his opinion on that suggestion was. “Not unless you choose to, though I’m sure King Daltus would be happy to provide you rooms.”

“I’ll think about retiring, but I am not moving anytime soon.” Yeah, about what Link figured. Grandpa would need to be unable to live on his own any longer to agree to that. “Though I also don’t think you should be calling Daltus by his title anymore, considering he’s now your father-in-law.”

His shoulders raised. Just when he thought there were no other changes to his life now that would take him by surprise, he found out he was wrong. Admittedly, at least for this one, the topic hadn’t come up yesterday and he hadn’t had a chance to talk to his father-in-law at all this morning. “I… haven’t really thought about it. What should I call him?”

“‘Father’ is usually good.”

“It feels too respectful.” Might be an odd thing to say about a king, but in personal settings, where Link had grown to know him best, he was mostly a jovial and sentimental man. The formal term didn’t suit him at all. “And ‘Papa’ like Zelda calls him is… a little too familiar. It’s one thing for her to call him that since that’s what she’s always done, but it’s different for me to start calling him that when I’m seventeen and married.”

“You never were cute enough to call your father anything other than ‘dad’ even as a toddler. I don’t think it’s just your age.”

Link just ignored it. “Daltus” would suffice, he thought, and if the king didn’t like it, he could decide what Link should call him himself.

“Link?” Grandpa said, drawing his attention. “Since you’re married now… would you like any advice?”

He furrowed his brow. “For.. what?”

“Getting along, keeping the peace?”

“Wouldn’t that be the same as being friends? Or… or courtship? Being nice, fully enjoying our time together, and apologizing when necessary.”

Grandpa snorted. “The fact that you knew to say that… you’re already better off than when I was newly married. I rather took our relationship for granted after the novelty wore off. Make sure you don’t do the same.”

Well, considering that, emotionally speaking, they were still the same friends they had ever been, the novelty had worn off long ago. Link wasn’t worried about that happening, though there was some different concerns considering the way they were going about this marriage.

“I doubt I could ever take Zelda for granted,” he said.

“I doubt you could,” Grandpa agreed. Though he seemed to still be a little disappointed. “But… well, if you ever have any need of advice, feel free to ask me. It can be about anything, not just being married.”

It probably never would be about his marriage. It felt like he had missed his chance to tell Grandpa about the exact situation between himself and Zelda, so what could he honestly ask him about?

Though other stuff… could potentially be useful? Definitely when he, sometime in the future, became a parent. So Link took a breath and nodded. “I will.”

Eventually, they arrived at the castle.

“Hmmm-hmm-hmmmm…”

Link stiffened when he heard the sound. Oh, no. No no no no no. That was the way Grandpa hummed when he had an idea.

“Should I go see what the quarters you now share with Zelda look like?”

Yup. Terrible idea. It may still feel more like Zelda’s than his for now, but that hardly meant he wanted Grandpa to come intrude on it without warning. There probably were servants to clean it, but he didn’t know if they’d do so while Zelda was in the room, and since she couldn’t come with him she’d gone right back there to lounge away as much of the day as she could after breakfast. It still might be a bit of a mess, with the two of them leaving their clothes and nightgowns tossed across the floor, and—no! Just no!

“I’d rather you not.”

Grandpa just raised a bushy eyebrow, questioning.

But what should he say to dissuade him from coming?

“Because, uh, I… wanted to spend some time alone with Zelda,” he weakly said.

To his surprise, Grandpa didn’t try to argue with that, and simply sighed. “Ah, I remember that, being newlywed and not wanting a thing to do with anyone other than your wife. I’m lucky to have seen you at all today.”

Link blinked. That worked?

“But you let me walk with you all across Hyrule Field and you’re going to send me right back? I thought I told you, I’m an old man who finds it harder to recover energy now.”

“You could go see Ki—Daltus,” he suggested. “It’s been a while since you two have visited without it being about the wedding, hasn’t it?”

Grandpa nodded. “That would make the trip worthwhile while still getting out of your hair. But before I go, promise me one thing will you, Link?”

“Hmmm?”

“You and your bride will come visit me sometime this week?”

He nodded. Once Zelda’s feet had healed enough, he was sure she’d be keen for the opportunity. “Gladly.”

“Then can you handle both of these boxes on your own?”

“Uh—” At least it was more feasible, with it being a far shorter distance, but it still didn’t exactly sound enjoyable. Link cast his eyes around for someone who could help, and happened to see a footman nearby. “Excuse me?”

The man immediately turned to him. “Yes, Your Highness?”

Link froze. He’d heard the term of address hundreds—no, probably thousands of times. But it was always directed at Zelda. The Princess.

But… he was married to her now, making him the Prince Consort. Prince Consort, so… deserving of the same honorific.

How long would it take for him to become aware of every single way his life had just drastically changed?

The man was still looking at him expectantly. Right. So Link took a deep breath and asked, “If you’re free, would you mind carrying this box?”

“Of course.” He bowed. “Your Highness.”

Link gritted his teeth.

Zelda glanced up from where she was sprawled out on the bed, reading… Legend of the Picori? What was she reading that for?

The footman quickly set down the box and bowed before excusing himself, and she waited until the door was closed before she said anything. “That was faster than I expected. Didn’t you stay to talk with Master—Grandpa Smith at all?”

“He came with me, and we talked on the way back,” Link answered, sitting the box he’d been carrying down as well. Now that it was here, he wasn’t so worried about going through it right this moment. “He wants us to visit sometime this next week, by the way.”

As he sat on the bed next to her, she shot a flat look up at him. “Could’ve been today.”

He sighed. “What was I supposed to do? Carry you the whole way?”

“Maybe.”

His eyes widened. “The walk takes close to an hour! How strong do you think I am?”

Zelda giggled. “Aren’t you supposed to be sustained by your love for me?”

Link groaned as he leaned back onto the bed. “Maybe if your love for me was greater than your love for pastries.”

Now she sat up and scowled at him. “Oh? Are you going to be separating me from my one true love now?”

“No-o-o-o. Just don’t expect me to perform impossible feats in your name unless I place first in your heart.”

Zelda gasped and then placed a hand to her chest as if she were scandalized. The dramatics lasted for all of two seconds before she devolved into a fit of giggles.

The sound of her laughter made Link smile. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

“You know, Link,” she said, resting her head on his chest. “I’m glad I can be silly with you.”

“We’ve hardly ever been serious with each other.”

“We’re serious when it matters. But I mean…” She sighed. “Everyone acts like once you’re an adult, and especially once you’re married, you can’t ever have fun again. And sure, maybe we haven’t been adults for long, and have barely been married for any time at all, but I feel like that’s something I’ll never have to worry about with you.”

“Of course,” he mumbled. “I could never take you seriously.”

She snorted.

She stayed quiet a while after that.

“Hey Link?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think you could manage to carry me down to the gardens?”

Link forced his heavy eyelids to open so he could look at her all-too-hopeful face.

“You promised we could go once you were back!”

He hadn’t exactly promised, but… he also had a hard time telling her no. And he had sounded pretty certain about going this morning.

But right now he was just so tired.

“I was just about to fall asleep,” he whined.

“Already? Even I’m not ready for a nap yet.”

“I walked out in the sun for quite a while on top of how exhausted I already was. Of course I’m ready for a nap.”

“Weren’t you telling me about how it’s more fun to take a nap where you can get in trouble for it?”

He glared at Zelda. How dare she turn his words from when he had more energy against him?

He finally forced himself to sit up. “Fine! Let’s go to the gardens! Maybe once we’re there you’ll actually let me sleep!”

Once Link was sitting, it wasn’t too much harder to get onto his feet, though he was glad he didn’t need to put his boots back on. It was a little more difficult to hoist Zelda over his shoulder from the bed, but he had the strength built up from the years of blacksmithing and adventuring, so he managed, even if he stumbled back a bit.

Though the way she squealing and flailing wasn’t making it any easier.

“HEY!” she protested. “This isn’t the way I wanted to be carried!”

“You didn’t say how you wanted to be carried.”

“The way you did last night!”

Link felt his ears heat up. He’d been full of liquid courage and concern for Zelda last night to not even think about it, but now with his wits about him in the full light of day? That was something else. “The… bridal carry?”

“I’m your bride, aren’t I?” She reached an arm back to poke his burning cheek. “There’s no better time to get away with doing this than as newlyweds.”

He sighed. There was a point there. “I still don’t see why you can’t walk to the gardens yourself. They’re not that far.”

Zelda groaned. “Oh, my feet, my feet! They hurt so much!”

He snorted at the dramatics. “And trying to go with me earlier? They didn’t hurt then?”

“Not at all.”

Link rolled his eyes, but he finally acquiesced to setting her down long enough to carry her in his arms. He didn’t mind it, really. It’s not as though the other way would draw any less attention to them, and this was the more comfortable way to carry her. It also helped that like this, she was able to wrap her arms around his neck and do more to balance herself.

Once they were in the corridors, she looked around nervously at the people they passed by.

He leaned in and whispered, “I thought you wanted this.”

“I do, but… that doesn’t mean it’s not still at least a little embarrassing.”

For a moment, Link just stared and appreciated how pretty she looked with that flush on her cheeks. Of course, she had also been gorgeous yesterday, with her makeup done precisely and her hair immaculate and her dress oh-so-fine, but he preferred now. Without any makeup on and only an unpracticed smile because she knew he loved her regardless of how perfect she may or may not be. Her natural charm came through better—Zelda came through better—and that was who he liked rather than a pretty face, even if it was a very pretty face.

“You didn’t seem to mind it too much yesterday,” he said, still taking in the sight of Zelda.

“First of all, that was our wedding day,” she countered. “And I… focused on other things to not let it ruin the day for me.”

“So… all I have to do is distract you, right?”

He leaned in and kissed her forehead.

The beauty of her flush really came through this time. “Link?”

“I’m.” A peck to her left cheek. “Just.” Right cheek. “Distracting.” Nose. “You.”

He placed a quick chaste kiss to her mouth in conclusion, smiling when he pulled back and got to see the rare sight of her flustered face.

“Is it working?”

Zelda glanced furtively around the corridor that she was probably thankful was mostly empty. “Yes.”

Link’s smile widened.

“But let’s hurry down to the gardens,” she told him. “I’ll mind less kissing you there.”

Link all but sprinted the rest of the way to the gardens, Zelda holding tighter to him and laughing the whole way.

He slipped behind a hedge near the castle so that nobody would see them before setting her down, and then went on his tiptoes to steal another kiss from her. Though she grabbed his cheeks before he could pull away and deepened the kiss, but he found that he didn’t mind, his hands coming up to snake around her neck and ran his fingers through—

Er, not run his fingers through her hair. It was all bound up in a bun at the back of her head, and he’d forgotten about it in the moment.

Link pulled out of the kiss in order to pout and glare at it. “I can’t mess up your hair when it’s like that! Why did your handmaidens style it differently than usual today?”

“Ah.” Zelda, who had also been pouting from the broken kiss, scowled and her shoulders drooped. “I… am a married woman now, so of course I can’t simply go about with my hair down all the time.”

He blinked. Of course married women wore their hair up, it was just strange to think of Zelda as a married woman, just as much as it was odd for him to be royalty.

He pursed his lips. “Well, you’re the princess. I doubt anyone would tell you that you can’t if you decide to leave it down.”

She brought a hand up to her bun. “I don’t mind it, really. It’s just different. Really makes it feel like getting married actually means things changed.”

Link sighed. “I think I know what you mean.”

“Oh?”

She had that twinkle in her eye that told him that she wasn’t going to stop pestering him until he gave her the explanation to that—perhaps even longer if she wasn’t satisfied with what he told her, no matter how true it was. So he decided to save himself the hassle and just told her right away.

“Someone called me ‘Your Highness.’”

Zelda snorted.

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, I know you’ve dealt with it all your life, but to me—”

“No, I wasn’t going to tease you about that again.” She shook her head. “I’m just comforted that we both were bothered by such trivial things. Makes me feel better about thinking so much about my hair all morning.”

Link chuckled, though it quickly cut off in a yawn. Right. Spending the time doing things with Zelda had chased it off for a while, but he still was rather tired.

“Do you mind if I take a nap now?” he asked.

“Only if I can take one, too.”

He needed no further prompting to lay back and close his eyes, listening to Zelda do the same next to him.

She grunted, which prompted him to open his eyes again and look at her. She had her nose wrinkled and was touching her bun. “This is most inconvenient for naps.”

“Then, here,” Link sat up, and reached to the ribbon holding her bun up and untied it. “You should probably have your handmaidens teach you how to make a neat bun so you can put your hair back up yourself whenever you want to take a nap, but I should be able to do… something with your hair before we go back inside.”

Zelda smiled and ran her fingers through her now-loose hair.

Link paused and stared at the sight. She was always most beautiful when smiling, and something about the sight of her like that with all of her hair loose and catching the sunlight like that caught his breath.

She laid back down, smiling to herself as she made herself comfortable. “I thought you were the one who really wanted to take a nap?”

“Oh, right.”

He quickly laid back down and closed his eyes again, but until sleep claimed him he couldn’t help but think that he didn’t mind that he didn’t have to share the sight of Zelda with her hair down with anyone else.

Chapter Text

Link missed the forge.

He’d known that once he married Zelda, he wouldn’t be able to forge every—or even most—days. He’d also decided that marrying her was worth that sacrifice.

But still, he missed the pervasive heat, the clanging of metal on metal, the satisfaction of a final product.

So when he and Zelda made the promised trip to visit Grandpa at the end of the week, he begged Grandpa to let him help with his work.

Grandpa crossed his arms at the request. “Why should I? I don’t want to work when my grandson and granddaughter-in-law are visiting.”

“Then just let me,” Link begged. “You don’t have to work, too!”

Finally he relented. “Fine. But only for an hour. Then you have to spend time with us.”

Then Grandpa also informed him that he was in between projects at the moment, so he had nothing to work on right now besides horseshoes, because everyone always needs more horseshoes. But even only an hour of hammering out horseshoes was better than not forging at all, so he accepted it.

Zelda peeked her head in shortly after he started. “How can you stand to be in here so long? It’s so hot!”

He shrugged, though he was already starting to build up a sweat even after only a few minutes. “I’m used to it, I suppose. And there’s not much choice.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Well… I think I’ll go talk with your Grandpa instead. I don’t want to be in here, either!”

Link had to admit that he didn’t exactly want to be alone in here, because he did prefer having company. That was one thing about being taught by Grandpa—he’d never been alone in the forge. But if he didn’t have very long to forge until his next visit, then perhaps it was fine. He’d be able to focus on his work now, and better appreciate the company after he was done.

Half an hour in, he took a break to go to the kitchen to get a drink.

“…building it is taking a few weeks longer than I expected it to,” Zelda finished saying as he came in.

The door finished closing behind him, and they both turned at the sound.

“What are you doing?” Link asked as he walked over to the water barrel, ladling himself up a cup. He had no idea what they had been talking about, but what was really strange is that they had been standing around the table, rather than sitting.

“We’re making danishes!” Zelda replied with a grin, holding up the one she was working on.

He frowned after he finished drinking all in his cup and started putting more water in. “Now that I live at the castle, too, I know for a fact that they do not feed you too few pastries. Why do you need some when we’re visiting Grandpa?”

“I like danishes, too. And I don’t mind having help making them,” Grandpa said.

Link refrained from making a comment about all he figured his wife’s help was worth in this area. But he came over as he started to drink his second cup and examined their work, and while Zelda’s weren’t as neat and composed as Grandpa’s, they weren’t terrible, either.

He glanced to see the oven already had a fire in it—ah, so that’s why it didn’t feel like as much of a relief to step out of the forge as usual. “Will they be done by the time Grandpa forces me out of the forge?”

Zelda snickered at that. “Mmm… probably?” She turned to Grandpa. “Will they?”

He laughed and nodded.

Link smiled. “Well, then I’m going to get back to work, but I’ll definitely look forward to it.”

By the time Grandpa was calling to tell him that his time was up so he better hurry and finish up, Link managed to make eighteen horseshoes. Since Grandpa had made it clear that he wasn’t planning on forging anything more today, he got to work making sure everything was cleaned up and cooled down properly.

Once all of that was done, Link went into the kitchen and couldn’t strip off his gloves and apron quickly enough. Of course the temperature here was better than the forge, but the oven fire still had yet to die down, so he couldn’t cool off as quickly as he liked.

“I’m tired of being cooped up inside,” Zelda spoke up first. Though it was after she looked at him trying to fan himself off as best he could with his tunic, so perhaps it was at least partially for his sake that she said it. “How about we go on a walk? To the river, maybe?”

“A walk sounds nice,” Link agreed. “But isn’t it starting to get cold for swimming?”

“I didn’t say ‘let’s go swimming!’” she argued, placing both hands on her hips. “I just thought that we could walk along the river.”

“Well,” he said, grabbing a danish (still hot) to bring along with him. “Let’s get out of here. I want to cool off.”

“I’ll make sure the fire goes out before I catch up,” Grandpa said. “You two go ahead.”

“Oh, wait a moment!” Zelda called as Link headed towards the door. “I need to put my shoes back on!”

He barked out a laugh. “What did you even take them off for?”

He opened the door and then froze as he looked outside.

“Because I felt like it!” she said. “Why are you asking like I’ve never gone barefoot at your house before? Alright! Got them on! Let’s go!”

He heard her footsteps approach. “What’s wrong? Why are you just standing there?” She poked her head over his shoulder. “Oh! Look! A kitty!”

Zelda squeezed past him and crouched down to let the orange-and-white cat standing in the path leading up to the door sniff her finger. It almost immediately rubbed up against her, and she smiled and started petting it.

“Will you let me pick you up…?” she muttered, and gently reached to try to. When it allowed her, a wide grin broke out on her face, and she stood up with it in her arms. “Well aren’t you a sweet—” she checked “—girl. Definitely a girl.”

She turned to Link, who still hadn’t budged. “Want to see her?”

He took a step back and shook his head, mouth clamped shut.

“Why no—?” Zelda stopped herself, eyes widening. “Oh, right! You’re terrified of cats, aren’t you?”

“You would be, too, if you’d ever been the size of a rodent and seen some giant claws heading your way!”

“Well, you’re not that small now,” she pointed out. “Is she really that scary when she’s a quarter your size?”

Link glared at Zelda. “A quarter? Just how small do you think I am?”

“Alright, alright, you’re not that tiny. Point is, she’s way smaller than you right now.”

He took a deep breath and looked at her. He definitely could take her in a fight no problem at this size, if she were out to kill him for some reason. Not that she seemed likely to, with how docile she was, purring and rubbing up against Zelda right now. Besides, he had fought and defeated monsters several times his size more times than he could count—there was no reason to be afraid of a cat.

The logic still wasn’t quite the same as feeling not-terrified. But it was enough that, painstakingly steadying his breath, Link was able to fully extend his arm so that the cat could sniff his hand. And then it started to lick his finger, and a smile melted onto his face.

“Alright, maybe this isn’t so bad,” he admitted.

She immediately nipped at him, almost as if solely to prove him wrong.

Link pulled his hand back to his chest, clutching it protectively as he glared at her. “Or maybe it is. Why are you so keen to make me like her, anyways?”

Zelda bit her lip. Uh-oh. He knew that look in her eyes. “Well…”

“Zelda.”

“You’ve seen all the mice there are at the castle!” She protested. “It’s been a few weeks since the last ratter died and we need a new one!”

“Are you sure you don’t just want a new cat to play with?”

“I do,” she admitted. “But… not so much that I’ll bring her back with us if you really don’t want me to.”

He didn’t like that she was leaving it up to his choice. While he was starting not to mind this particular cat… it was something else to say he wanted to see it around constantly.

“ZELDA!” Grandpa called from inside. “Are you terrorizing my grandson?”

“Not unless he agrees to it!” she called back.

Link sighed. “Fine. I was alright seeing the old ratter around the castle, so we can definitely bring it back there.”

Zelda grinned. “And can we let it sleep in our room?”

He frowned. He didn’t really want to, but that hopeful look in her eyes… he didn’t dislike the cat enough to tell her no. “I suppose… we can try.”

Without any warning, Zelda’s laugh of joy got cut off as the cat jumped out of her arms and started walking away.

“Oh no,” Link said with no emotion in his voice. “I suppose it’s not interested in becoming a pet. How terrible.”

She glared at him. “The cat is a she.” She pursed her lips and looked forward to watch the feline continue walking away. “But… sadly, it seems you are right.”

He didn’t try to hide the grin that came to his lips.

Just as soon as that, though, the cat paused, looking back at them and meowing. Then she didn’t continue forward.

Link frowned. “What does she want?”

It meowed again.

“Maybe she wants us to follow her,” Zelda said rather optimistically.

“You just want a cat.”

“So I’m not giving up as easily as you, is all.” She grinned at him. “C’mon. Let’s see if that’s it.”

Well, there was no harm in seeing, he supposed. So he suppressed any grumbles as he followed his wife and the cat.

The cat, for her part, seemed content to keep going, though she kept looking back to check that they were still following.

Not that she led them far, just a bit past the path to the house, and then she ducked under a bush.

Link and Zelda shared a look, uncertain if she wanted them to follow, or if they had misunderstood her wanting them to follow at all in the first place. But then she peeked her head out from underneath the large bush, and made it blatantly clear what she wanted by meowing at them plaintively until Link crouched down and moved the lower branches out of the way so that they could see…

Link’s eyes widened. The number of cats just multiplied.

Or, should he say kittens? Very tiny kittens, small enough that their eyes must have just opened, mewling as they made their way over to their mother for a meal. Three had her orange-and-white coloring, and the other two were brown tabbies, probably taking after their sire.

“Aww…” Zelda cooed, crouching down to get a good look at them herself. “They’re adorable! Link, please, can we—?”

He sighed. “I already agreed to bringing back the one cat. Of course I wouldn’t deprive the kittens of their mother.”

He wasn’t exactly thrilled about this development, but kittens were no more nerve-wracking than having a cat at all. And that grin that spread on Zelda’s face… well, that made it worthwhile.

Though he was going to hold her to what he said about seeing if he was fine with sharing a room with them.

While she stayed gushing over the cats, Link ran back to Grandpa’s house to grab something to bring them in, now that it wasn’t simply the singular adult cat they had to worry about.

“Grandpa!” he called as he opened the door. “Can I borrow a crate and some old cloth?”

Grandpa looked up from where the oven fire was nearly out by now. “You know where the crates are, and… I suppose your old sheets could easily be spared, but what do you need that for?”

Link headed over and grabbed a crate, starting to head up to his old room to grab the sheets. “Zelda and I are adopting a family.”

“Wha…?”

He didn’t think much of the reaction as he grabbed the sheets. It wasn’t until he headed downstairs and saw the look on Grandpa’s face that he realized how it sounded. “Why are you already planning on adopting? You’ve barely been married a week—you wouldn’t even know if Zelda’s pregnant yet, let alone if it will be difficult or impossible!”

Once his words sunk in, Link’s eyes widened. “No! No! Cats! I meant cats!” His face was burning, but he took a deep breath, trying to form a clearer response. “The… the cat we saw at the door earlier had kittens. And Zelda wants to take all of them back to the castle.”

“Oh.” Grandpa took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That… makes a bit more sense, I think.”

Link sighed in relief, too. That misunderstanding was a bit mortifying, though a good reminder for a conversation with Zelda that should happen sooner than later. They had agreed to wait until after the wedding, but in the week since… well, they’d been having a little too much fun together instead, he supposed.

“The fire is almost out. I’d like to go see these kittens, too.”

He quickly arranged the blankets in the crate while waiting for Grandpa to finish smothering the fire. Once they headed out, they found kittens crawling all over Zelda, who was smiling about it. One on her head, two on her shoulder and arm, and one in her lap.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Link asked, pointing at the one kneading her lap.

“Well, yes, a little,” she admitted. “But it’s just so cuuuuuuuute!”

He frowned, a little, at how much attention she was giving the cats. He didn’t quite like it, and it didn’t quite feel like it was entirely because he was a long ways off from coming to love them as much as she did, either.

“Well,” he said, pushing those emotions aside because he had already agreed to take them back to the castle. He set down the box he had prepared for them. “Let’s get them ready to move.”

“So four kittens and a cat…” Grandpa observed, picking up the orange kitten that had been sinking its claws into Zelda’s thighs. “Seems like you’ll have a bit of a handful.”

“Four…?” Link frowned, paying a little more attention. He knew there had been another earlier. “Where’s the other tabby?”

“Uh,” Zelda laughed nervously. “Check my back.”

He peered over her shoulder and saw the tabby look up and him and mewl. Its claws were sunk into her dress, apparently climbing up to join its sibling on her shoulder.

Link abruptly plucked it off and none-too-ceremoniously dumped it into the crate. Then he did the same for the one on her head, shoulder, and then arm. Grandpa gave a small scratch at the top of the head of the one he was holding before gently placing it inside, smiling, as Link picked up the mother and placed her in the crate too. (He set her down carefully, because while he wasn’t going to coddle the kittens, he didn’t want to see them injured, either.)

“I suppose,” Grandpa sighed, “that I should let you get back to the castle to take care of them.”

“Probably,” Zelda said. “But we were supposed to have dinner with you, too. And you barely even got to see Link!”

“I’m fine as long as you two promise to visit often enough.” He looked at Link. “Especially you. And no more spending most of the time sequestered in the forge.”

He wrinkled his nose. “I still want a way to forge!” he protested. “At least a little?”

Grandpa narrowed his eyes. “We’ll see… But not on the next visit.” He sighed, his expression softening. “Promise you will visit, at least?”

Link nodded. “Especially since Zelda’s supposed to be back to doing a bunch of boring things tomorrow, so I think I might be able to find the time.”

Zelda shot him a dirty look. “I’m tempted to figure out a way to drag you into those boring things with me, you know.”

The very mature adult that he was, Link turned and stuck his tongue out at her.

She responded by kicking him in the shins.

At least Grandpa took it in good humour, but since the sun was starting to get low and they wanted to settle the cats in before dinner, they didn’t waste more time before saying their goodbyes.

Zelda spent the entire walk back musing about names for the cats—mostly suggesting pastries. Link rolled his eyes at most of them, but finally agreed on “Creampuff” for the mother, because it was Zelda’s favorite, she was appropriately sweet, and the coloring seemed right. They started to talk about names for the kittens, but quickly decided to wait to get to know their personalities better, especially since they couldn’t tell them apart from each other yet.

At dinner, the cats were all the conversation at the table.

Link sighed in frustration, as he had started to get weary of the subject.

But she continued. Mostly about Creampuff and how sweet she was. And then about the kittens—they’d determined the three orange ones were boys, and the tabby two were girls. Everyone at the table seemed to have suggestions for what they could be named, but Zelda ultimately decided to abide by their earlier decision… though once they returned to their rooms, she hurried for a quill and paper to write them all down to keep in mind.

By the time they were in their bedclothes, lying in bed, Link was even more frustrated. Probably had something to do with the fact that Zelda simply had to bid goodnight to all the cats still in the crate in the corner, kissing each cat on the head in the process.

Why was he so bitter about it? Just because he wished that Zelda was giving such adoring attention to him, instead?

…oh, that was exactly it, wasn’t it?

Link flopped an arm over his eyes and groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Zelda asked.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to admit that he was being envious of kittens.

She sighed. “I know you’re not asleep, Link.”

He refused to respond, even when she poked his cheek. Even when she grabbed a lock of his own hair and tickled it under his nose.

“Liiiiiink!” she whined. “Are you really going to make me take out all my hairpins myself?”

Link sat up quickly, hopefully not seeming too eager. He really did like helping her with this, and definitely didn’t want to give up the opportunity of seeing her hair down at the end of the day.

But as he was carefully removing the pins from her hair, watching her hair fall down with each one, Zelda asked again. “So, what was that groan about?”

He paused. Shook himself, and got back to work. She deserved an answer, at least. “I’m just exhausted. It was a long day. That’s all.”

She snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“What makes you think that isn’t it?”

“Because, if that was all, you would’ve said it when I asked earlier. Duh.” She tipped her head back to look at him. “So? I’m terribly curious—and you know how annoying I can be when I want to know something.”

That… was true. Frankly, it wasn’t really worth having secrets from her. So Link sighed and relented.

“I… wish you didn’t give all of your attention to the cats today.” At least that didn’t sound as pathetic as being jealous of them.

She chuckled. “I didn’t think I neglected you that much.”

“Well, maybe not. But… it kinda felt like it to me.”

Once he’d removed the final pin and set them all on the nightstand, she turned to him, smiling. “Then, let me fix that.”

Zelda grabbed his head tenderly, and pressed a kiss to the top of his head like she had the cats.

He still pouted. “That wasn’t enough to make me feel better.”

“Oh? Then what should I do? Tuck you in? Brush your hair? Give you scritches under your chin?”

Link leaned up and kissed her—on the lips this time.

She leaned back, spluttering. “Link! I haven’t washed my face since kissing the kittens!”

He shrugged, crawling forward so that his face was next to hers. “I don’t care.” And then he kissed her again.

Her face was flushed when he pulled away, but looking more flustered than angry. “Since when did you become so needy?”

“Since today.” Link reached his arms around her, holding her tight, and she brought her hands up to run her fingers through his hair. He smiled, humming contentedly at the sensation.

Zelda laughed. “Alright, alright, I’ll try to give you enough attention that you don’t have to be jealous of the cats.”

He smiled at that.

“You’re not going to be like that when we have children of our own, are you?”

Now it was Link’s turn to blush, quickly pushing himself up enough that he met her eyes. “Uh, no? I don’t think so! Not… not as much. Besides, then we’ll have more time to prepare for the idea of a child than we did for the cats today.” He sighed. “Though… I’d probably love to get your undivided attention at the end of the day, even then.”

Zelda’s face went red. “My attention at the end of the day… so we definitely want children instead of just one child?”

Not what he was intending to convey, but, he supposed that they would have crossed that threshold by the time they had a child, so it was hardly impossible.

“Uh. Mm. I suppose I wouldn’t mind, and I definitely know there were times we both would’ve liked having a sibling for a playmate when we were growing up. I mean, not that we didn’t love having each other as friends, it’s just… not quite the same as having someone at home. Even if the way other people talk make it sound rather aggravating.” He snorted, but it didn’t take him long to sober up, trying to take the questions as seriously as he could. “Though… I’m not the one that has to give birth. And especially since we aren’t like other couples, I think the decision should be yours, more than mine. Especially since we haven’t even had a first child yet.”

“True. We’d need to start with one.” Zelda’s flush renewed. “Not that I want to change that yet!”

“Of, of course not!” he agreed. “It’s too soon. I think that kisses are the most that I’m alright with for now.” Link took a few deep breaths to calm himself. “But… when?”

She worked at her bottom lip. “Mmm… I’m not sure. But as teenagers certainly feels too young, right? How about… we wait until we’re both twenty, at least? See what we think then?”

He slowly nodded. That was a bit over three years. That gave them time to get used to the idea.

Link grabbed her hand, intertwining her fingers. “Then, until then, let’s try to get as familiar with physical affection as we can. Slowly. Seems better than… all at once, right?”

Zelda quickly nodded. “Yeah! Definitely!” Then she grinned, leaning towards him. “Is that why you’ve been kissing me so much, even after the wedding was over and we didn’t need to practice for that anymore?”

No. He had simply… felt like it. And she hadn’t protested either, so he kept kissing her whenever he felt like it. But if this justified kissing Zelda whenever he felt so inclined… “Uh, yeah.”

And he was rewarded by her leaning forward to kiss him. So he had no regrets about saying that.

When she slowly pulled back, she brought up a hand to his cheek, making his eyes meet hers. “Did I sufficiently make up for not giving you enough attention earlier?”

More than enough, but he wouldn’t complain about extra attention. “Not quite.”

She laughed and leaned in to kiss him again.

Chapter Text

Zelda did not wake up in Link’s arms.

It was strange. They hadn’t woken up still cuddling, not like they had this entire week they’d been married.

And after only a week, she already missed waking up in his arms.

Wrinkling her nose and blinking against the morning light, she shifted around to see what the cause of this most grievous offense was.

It didn’t seem impossible that he was out of bed, considering that he really had done considerably better at waking up early now that he wasn’t off adventuring in the middle of the night. Or he’d subconciously pushed himself away from her—he did tend to overheat, after all.

It was neither. Link was awake, but still laying in bed.

Staring at the cats curled up on his chest, eyes wide in terror.

Zelda sleepily chuckled in amusement. Apparently, at some point last night, Creampuff had decided that he made a perfect bed, and all the kittens either chose to follow their mother or she brought them along.

Link heard her and looked over, glaring. “It’s not funny.”

“Yes it is,” she mumbled, scooting closer towards him and extracting a hand from under the blanket to pet them all. “You’re the one who doesn’t like them as much, yet they seem to have decided they like you best.”

He groaned. “Oh, please tell me this isn’t going to be a regular occurrence. I want to cuddle with you, not the cats.”

A pleased grin came to her face. He liked to indulge in their morning cuddles just as much as she did? “Well… I don’t mind them as much as you, of course, but I wouldn’t mind having our time for cuddling in bed uninterrupted, either.”

She snuggled closer to Link, trying not to disturb the cats while placing her head on his shoulder.

He tried shifting to wrap an arm underneath her, but that jostled the cats, and Creampuff opened her eyes just long enough to hiss at him.

Link sighed.

Zelda chuckled. “Here.” She grabbed his hand. “You can at least hold my hand until we need to get up and get ready for the day.”

“It’s not the same,” he complained. “Wait. We need to? I thought I was free to just lounge around in bed all day.”

That made her raise an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t like the cats, yet you don’t want to force them to move?”

“Only because I’m terrified to see what will happen if they do, in fact, come to hate me.”

Now she was definitely laughing. “You’re so silly. Fine, I’ll move them if you don’t want to. I don’t want to stop having breakfast with you just because I have to go do things after it, now.”

He sighed. “Well… breakfast and no cats does sound nice. But staying in bed sounds even nicer.” He looked at her and pressed their noses closer together. “You don’t want to go to your lessons anyhow, I’m sure. What if we just… ‘slept in’ instead of ditching them?”

Tempting. But did she really think she could get away with it after a whole week of avoiding such responsibility?

No, that wasn’t likely. But it didn’t mean she wouldn’t take advantage of staying here in bed as long as she possibly could.

She glanced at the clock and sighed. They probably really shouldn’t wait to head down. No matter how much she’d rather just stay in bed with Link and put off all thoughts of needing to rule the kingdom one day.

Zelda sat up.

“What are you doing?”

“I at least want to eat before getting roped into lessons. I’d probably have better luck ditching them than staying here to be found all-too-easily. You’re free to choose to stay here if you really want, but I suppose I could spare the time to imprison the cats first if you want to come with me.”

“Please free me, Zelda,” he begged immediately.

She smiled, and started by picking up the two tabby kittens to carry them over to the box set up for them. One started squirming and mewling something terrible, while the other didn’t even stir from sleep in the process. Perhaps she could keep that in mind when thinking up names, though she didn’t have the time now. She did, however, manage to note that the squirming one’s right ear was all black while both of the sleeping one’s were more brown.

After she gently set them in the box (she wasn’t going to drop them in like Link had so rudely done last night), Zelda grabbed the boys and tried to see if she could notice any differences between them. No such luck, with how much each of them wriggled, keeping her hands too full trying to stop them from escaping her arms to take note of how their patterns might differ.

And last was Creampuff, who immediately twisted her entire body to wrench herself free of Zelda’s hands after being picked up and slinked beneath the bed.

She peeked under, where light caught the glint of her eyes, and she hissed from where she was huddled against the wall.

“Uh… should we worry about her?”

Link had extracted himself from the bed and crouched down to get a good look at her. “We still need to get dressed. Let’s see if she’ll come out on her own.”

Zelda nodded in agreement. That sounded like an excellent idea.

It didn’t take long for them to choose out their clothes for the day from the armoire and do their now-customary turning around to give each other privacy as they changed. After they put on their shoes, Zelda let her handmaiden in to do her hair more neatly than Link could manage himself. Link crouched down and peeked under the bed to check on Creampuff.

“Still huddled back there,” he reported. “And still looks upset.”

Zelda sighed. “Should we just leave her there, then?”

“Hmm?” Agitha asked. “What are you talking about?”

“The cat that we found yesterday,” she answered. “She did not like getting picked up in the middle of her nap, and now she’s sulking about it.”

“Could I try to coax her out?” she asked. “My brother works in the kitchen, and I saw that they were preparing some fish. I could get some scraps and see if that works.”

“Sounds better to me than crawling under to pull her out and getting scratched up in the process,” Link noted.

Zelda laughed. “Go ahead. But if she doesn’t come, just leave her and let her come out when she’s ready. I don’t want to stress her out when she’s just started to live here. But please keep an eye on her, and if she hasn’t come out by the end of the morning, get some milk for the kittens.”

“Can I play with them, too?”

“Sure.”

Agitha squealed excitedly.

Once her hair was done, they made their way down to a hearty breakfast of pancakes and cucco eggs.

“Oh, Zelda?” Papa asked while they ate.

“Hmmm?”

“Could you and Link come to my study after breakfast?”

“I’m not sure.” Zelda turned to Link. “Link, do you have any plans after breakfast?”

The corners of his mouth turned downward enough that she knew he was fighting to keep a straight face. “I’m afraid so. I’ll be too busy avoiding getting wrapped up in official duties of any kind.”

She sighed. “Sorry Papa, I’m afraid not.”

Then she glanced back at Link, and once their eyes met their facades crumpled, bursting into laughter.

Once their laughter died down, Zelda looked back to Papa and sobered up quickly. He didn’t look amused at the joke.

She took a deep breath and apologized. “Sorry, Papa. We can go.” It would be better than being forced to her usual tutored lessons (the one thing she wished would change now that she was married but hadn’t). “What’ll it be for?”

“Creating your wills.”

She paused mid-bite. Right. He’d been bugging her to make one for a while now. Ever since she’d become an adult.

“Why do we need that?” Link asked after he finished chewing the bite he’d been on. “I mean, we’re not even twenty yet! It’s unlikely that we’ll die anytime soon.”

Zelda sighed, setting down her fork. “No, Papa has a point, I’m afraid, Link. Mama was only twenty-nine when she died, after all. And when royal succession is in question… well, it’s best to be prepared.”

He still grimaced at the thought, but he accepted it, though was definitely subdued through the remainder of breakfast.

After they went to Papa’s study, where Minister Pothos waited to help them compose the wills, they began the discussion, though not without Link complaining about not wanting to think about dying. Or Zelda dying. Or even Papa.

But they kept things fairly simple for now, only accounting for things as they currently stood—who would inherit what upon the other’s death. Link and Zelda simply decided they would inherit each other’s personal possessions.

And then came the line of succession.

Of course, the line of succession was quite well figured out, in case of some disaster came that wiped out many of them. First in line was Zelda herself, of course, and then a second cousin of her mother’s, then her children, then a fourth cousin, a fifth cousin once removed, and so on.

“But now that you’re married to the Princess,” Minister Pothos explained. “You have a claim to the throne following her, if you so chose.”

Link rapidly shook his head. “Uh, no. I don’t want that at all.”

“Not even once we have children?” Zelda teased, though her cheeks heated up at the mention of children.

He glared at her—probably because he remembered just as well as she did that they’d discussed the singular possibility of how he might rule when she first proposed to him. Only if they had a child not old enough to take the throne before her own untimely death.

Okay, maybe he had a point. That was a bit of a dour to think about.

“I thought we were only worrying about things as they stand now,” he complained.

She smiled at him and poked his cheek. “I know. You’re just fun to tease.”

Minister Pothos cleared his throat. “May we continue?”

They both quickly nodded—this had been going on for over an hour now, and they were both eager to be done with it.

So they let Minister Pothos guide them how it must be phrased for no confusion according to the inheritance laws of Hyrule. And then they were handed other pieces of parchment to write it out nicely since apparently the first was a mere draft. And then they finally signed theirs, and then each other’s as witnesses, and then Papa and the minister did the same as well.

Link was eager to escape once they were done, and while there were certainly other places she’d prefer to be, Zelda chose to linger.

“Shouldn’t you be off to your lessons, Zelda?” Papa asked with an eyebrow raised at her.

She clasped her hands behind her back and stuck her lip out in a pout. It had been a while since she’d tried to act so cute to get something from Papa, but she felt like it today. “Can’t I just spend the time with you, Papa?”

He chuckled. “Why are you acting like you’re six and not sixteen?”

She looked away, knowing he would figure it out too easily.

“Especially since you clearly want to avoid your lessons…”

She rested her head on Papa’s shoulder. “Please?”

He side-eyed her, but there was a smile playing at his lips. “You sure you want to spend the time with me and not Link?”

“Yes,” she lied. That is—she thought Papa wouldn’t let her fully shirk responsibility like she could with Link. Zelda greatly preferred spending time with Papa when both of them were free to fully ignore their duties for a time.

Papa snorted. “I don’t believe that, but… I suppose it wouldn’t hurt for you to get some experience dealing with some petitions, rather than more theory on it.”

She wrinkled her nose, reminding herself that this was still better than lessons for something she’d been learning quite extensively since she was six. And there was a greater chance that she could convince Papa to let her go earlier than her tutors.

And… she supposed, if she were actually as mature as she ought to be by now, this was more practical for her learning her duties to being queen one day.

So she took a seat next to him and looked over the petitions next to Papa. And was surprised at how much sense it made to her. “Oh! This one’s a land dispute, between Lords Crenel and Trilby.”

“Indeed!” He sounded pleased. “And who do you think has the right over this area?”

Zelda hummed, looking more closely over it. “Well… Trilby has been using the land for agriculture. That takes precedence over mining, doesn’t it?”

“Yes… but the disputed territory was granted to Lord Crenel’s great-grandfather to manage, and their family has not sold or even let out the land in the time since. He would have to be compensated.”

She frowned. “Why doesn’t the petition mention this?”

“Because it was submitted by Lord Trilby, who wants it to look favorable to his case.”

Ah. That made sense. “So… we deny his petition?”

Papa nodded. “And what else?”

“Make sure to never take it at its word without verifying all pertinent information. So I can make the appropriate judgement.”

Papa smiled. “Exactly! Now, shall we move onto the next?”

Zelda nodded. She hadn’t been eager for this, but… she found herself enjoying it more than she anticipated. This is something her lessons couldn’t teach her, at least not nearly as concisely as this first-hand experience.

She smiled and leaned forward to look at the next petition.

Papa did let her go early. And as much as she enjoyed looking over the petitions, and looking over the reports of taxes collected and expenditures from the royal guard, she’d rather spend the time doing as she pleased.

Right now, that was to go to her room to see if Link was there.

He was. Sitting on the bed, once again with kittens draped across his lap. Creampuff had also come out of her hiding, but was curled up just next to him instead of on him. And, to Zelda’s astonishment, he didn’t seem to mind, instead scratching her behind the ears while she purred.

“You’re back early,” he remarked.

“And you’re covered in kittens.” She quickly kicked off her shoes and flopped onto the bed, enjoying the opportunity to pet the cats once again. And immediately grinned and sighed in contentment. “They’re sooooo soft! Thank you for agreeing to keep them.”

Link cleared his throat and looked away, as if that would hide his red ears. “Well… I’m starting not to mind them as much. They are cute. And I’m not minish-sized.”

She smiled. “And the fact that they’re soft and seem to love you far more than me doesn’t hurt, either.”

“I suppose not…”

Zelda pushed herself up to her knees so that she could plant a kiss on his cheek. “Well. I’m glad you’re starting to like them, too.”

He had a pleased smile on his face. “Are you free for the day, then? Out of your mind-numbingly boring lessons?”

“I was actually helping Papa look over some petitions.”

“To get out of your lessons?”

She batted at his shoulder. Sometimes she couldn’t help but wonder if he knew her too well. “Yes, but he let me go early. Which was the entire point.”

Link leaned in closer to lean his head against hers. “Well, if it means I get to spend more time with you, then I can’t complain. I was so bored while you were gone.”

“Really? Weren’t you playing with cats?”

“With kittens. Their energy doesn’t last that long, and then they decided to take a nap on me, preventing me from doing anything else.”

“You could always move them,” she suggested.

He glared at her and made her wonder which of them had wanted the cats in the first place.

“More importantly, we can find you something to do when I’m stuck with being a princess.”

“Like what?”

Well, that came to mind first, but… no. That was supposed to be a surprise, one that would be worthwhile to keep. So Zelda stayed her tongue and teased him instead. “Well, you are the prince consort now. I’m sure we can find you some duties to manage.”

Link groaned, and she laughed. “I’m just kidding.”

“No, you weren’t.”

“Okay… but you won’t need to have as many as me. You’ll probably just… be in charge of the decorations at the Picori Festival or something.”

“Isn’t Lady Verona in charge of that?”

“Something small you don’t have to worry about very often is the point.” She leaned over to rest her head against his shoulder. “Do you think you can manage that much?”

“Do I have a choice?”

She jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

Link burst into laughter. “Alright. I will. For you.”

Zelda returned his smile.