Chapter Text
“You… Loved him?” Zelda asked tentatively, her arms curling around herself, “I’ve never heard you say that you’ve loved anyone before.”
Link couldn’t face her, staring out the window of their home in Hateno. “I know. I’m sorry, it just came out.” He signed, angling his hands so she could see.
“I’m not asking you for an apology, Link.” She stepped closer, and he tensed. “It’s just… I knew there had been something between you two but I never thought it would be like… That.”
Biting his lip, Link couldn’t help but shake at how he nearly instinctively wanted to whistle out his anxiety. After the Calamity- whistling was purely functional, this other side was completely forgotten until Tulin confronted him. He couldn’t help but wonder if his past self, his dead self, whistled often; mimicking tunes of the time, beckoning steeds, talking to Re- him.
“You don’t have to talk to Tulin if you don’t want to.” Zelda cut through his thoughts, she’d gotten close enough now to put a hand on his shoulder, “I can tell him what happened.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” He signed back without thought. The moment his hands were done with the motion he froze and spun to face her, “I didn’t mean that to sound so-”
“No- no it’s alright.” Her eyes were widened, her posture regal, “I understand.”
“This is just something I need to do myself.” He forced the sign out before pulling her into an apologetic hug, ignoring how his hands wrapping around her waist had closed the conversation.
If she minded it, she didn’t say, instead leaning further into his hold and returning the embrace.
“At the very least, I insist I accompany you when you recall those events and retell them to Tulin. Allow me to be there for you.”
The pit in his stomach grew larger: he hated being the reason she relegated her words back to being that amiable princess she loathed. Still, he nodded and laid a gentle kiss atop her head.
They would both sit down with Tulin. Link would remember, allow those long-hidden remnants to gush out of himself. In his mind, he owed it to Rev- that Rito whose name still wrenched at feelings he couldn’t quite decipher. He loved him. Can love be forgotten?
No, that didn’t matter. This wasn’t his story he was telling, he told himself. It was nothing more than the legacy of two dead men. Ancient history.