Chapter Text
The air was thick with the smell of heavily perfumed flowers and tantalising cooking smells from the kitchens.
It had happened in an instant. One moment, Zelda had been sitting in her courtyard, glancing worriedly towards the window, anxiously keeping an eye of what was happening inside.
And in the next moment, seven years of life had spilled in to her head.
Zelda went rigid, gazing down at hands that were suddenly too small for her. She had done it, hadn't she? Her future self had returned the Hero to his time, but in being the one to do that, she still remembered everything.
And she knew how to stop it.
But instead, she simply sat there, too-small arms wrapped around her too-small knees, gazing at the flowers that would be destroyed when Ganondorf ruined her home.
She wasn't alone for long - Impa soon rounded a corner, giving her a curious look at her sudden melancholy pose. "Princess?" she enquired gently.
Zelda gazed at her for a moment, uncertain. It had been three and a half weeks ago and seven years in to the future that she had last seen her, and now... "Impa," she whispered, and the tears began to slide down her cheeks.
Frowning, Impa crossed over to her, sitting next to her on the steps and rubbing her back soothingly. And before too long, Zelda was spilling it all out - what the following days would bring, the seven years of hiding away, the Boundary. About Link, about Sheik. About what she had done so that Link could regain his life. About how there was no way she could have helped Sheik.
And when she finished spilling her story to Impa, light, cautious footsteps signified Link's arrival.
He gazed across at her, a stricken, too-old expression on his face. "Do you remember?" he whispered without even a greeting, the soft words carrying across the still air.
Zelda nodded silently, and Link deflated, his shoulders slumping. "I hoped I would forget," he murmured, "All the things I had seen... but then, I'd forget him, and..."
It was bizarre talking to this Link. Zelda half expected to glance across and see him almost fully grown, the words he spoke innocuous enough but tinged with an adult's regrets. "I was a child in an adult's body," he said quietly, "And now I am an adult in a child's body."
"As am I," Zelda murmured.
Quietly, they made plans. Not a child's simple ideas - these were the sophisticated tactics of adults, to be aided and implemented by Impa. It was only a day or two away from the night Ganondorf would kill the king - they would have to move fast.
And at the end, Link said, "I'm going to leave for a while."
"Leave to go where?" Zelda almost whispered, and the Hero-turned-child shrugged.
"Where ever the wind takes me," he smiled sadly, "I can't just... stay here. I need time to clear my head."
Zelda nodded once. "May the Three go with you," she said with a soft little smile.
Link returned it sadly. "And you," he murmured, and took his leave.
Zelda gazed after him, then glanced back at Impa. "We have to do something for him," she said softly, "He sacrificed so much to save Hyrule - he should not be left in misery."
There was a long silence, and then Impa said, "There may be something."
"Oh?" Zelda queried.
Impa told her. And Zelda smiled.
Almost two years to the day, and Zelda's hands were pressed against the glass of her window.
Link's letter had arrived earlier that week, giving an approximate date of his return. That date had been today, and now Zelda was simply waiting.
"He will be here soon, Your Highness," a soft, slightly accented voice said from behind her, the speaker's feet soundless against the plush carpet.
Zelda huffed a short laugh, turning to glance back over her shoulder, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I told you," she said with a smile, "If we're going to live side by side for the rest of our lives, then you can call me Zelda."
"Yes, Your Highness," the other replied playfully, a smile of his own quirking his lips.
Zelda laughed then, a proper, genuine one, and beckoned her companion over. "Yes, he'll be here soon," she echoed, and continued to wait.
She was waiting in her courtyard, hands folded in the skirts of her summer dress, sunlight pouring down on her. Lurking in the background, as always, were her faithful shadows - a barely audible sound of a footstep against dried grass, and Impa detached herself to investigate.
And a moment later she returned, following a boy silently.
He was taller, now, although not by much, and broader across the shoulders. The sword on his back was unfamiliar, as were the myriad pouches strapped to the sword belt. He had acquired gauntlets somewhere, wore loose white trousers beneath the familiar green tunic.
Link was almost thirteen, now, an age he had never experienced in his waking life, his journeys to Termina changing him subtly from both the boy she had first seen in the garden and the Hero she had farewelled in the Temple of Time.
A small smile crossed his face when he saw her. "Princess Zelda," he said by way of greeting, "It's been a while."
"It has," she murmured, rising to take his hand - then pull him in to an impulsive hug. "I've missed you."
"I missed you too," he said quietly, carefully extracting himself from Zelda's embrace. "And... well."
He trailed off there, but he didn't need to say it. Zelda understood.
Which was why she grinned up at him, mischief and joy and I've-got-a-secret glimmering in her eyes. "Link," she said, suppressing a smile, "I would like you to meet someone."
Taking a breath, she gestured to where a gangly teenaged figure was lurking in the shadows. "Link, this is Impa's apprentice and my future guardian." She took a breath. "And Sheik, this is Link, the Hero of Time."
Sheik glanced across at her uncertainly, then took a step in to the light, self-consciously fiddling with the edges of his trainee guardian uniform. "Link," he said softly, "The Princess has told me much about you. It is good to meet you."
For just a moment, Link was rendered speechless. And then a slow smile spread across his face, the stress and pain and anxiety of the past two years and the next seven slipping away, replaced by peace and joy.
"Sheik," he breathed, and reached for the Sheikah's hands, cupping one in both of his. Sheik glanced down at their hands curiously, then across in to Link's eyes, seemingly caught by something himself. "I... it's good to meet you too."
And standing to one side, watching the two with a wide, content smile, Zelda realised with a jolt that was almost physical that everything would be alright after all.