Archive of Our Own

The water was cold, biting.

Link adjusted his hold on Zelda as they both broke the lake's surface, wrapping his arms underneath her legs and around her shoulders, holding her tight to him.

Water dripped off them as they walked out of the lake, the weight of Zelda’s dress making her harder to carry than he thought. He didn’t care though.

The breeze was warm around them though, thank Hylia, Link would probably throw a conniption if after all Zelda’s gone through to get here, she managed to finally be free and end up getting sick.

It seemed both a millenia and only a moment to wait for Zelda to wake up, Link holding his breath as his heart practically beat out of his chest. He isn’t confident in the world to give him Zelda back so easily after all this, no matter how much he wants it. Needs it.

And then, Zelda’s eyelids fluttered and opened within a second of each other.

She sat up, her eyes finding his own, confusion written across her face. “Link? How are you…”

He didn’t know how to respond to her unfinished question. The truth is, he had no idea. No idea how she was here with him, back as a human. All he knew was that he’d go through everything he’d experienced the past few months all over again if it meant her being here right now.

She adjusted to feel around with her one hand, Link’s gaze tracking the movement. Her hand was shaky, unsure. “But I was…”

I know. He wanted to say. I know, Zel, I know everything that happened.

The Master sword flashed in its sheath on his back just then, Zelda’s eyes snapping to it. “It reached you after all.”

The relief in her voice was enough to make his knees feel weak. This whole time, she’d just waited for him, hoping that he would get the sword and come save her again. No, not save her. He remembers every detail from those tears he collected. She gave everything up once more, with no hope of getting it back. It was almost enough for him to quit everything at the time of learning it, but if he didn’t do what Zelda asked of him in what was thought to be her last moments as a Hylian, well, Link just wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

But she’s here now. She did everything she was supposed to do, and she was so brave. Link wants to tell her all that and more, but he just can’t form the words. He hopes she sees it all in his eyes, how grateful he is for her and how glad he is that she’s here in front of him, whether or not he deserves it.

She gasps then, and he knows then it’s finally all sank in. He could read her every move.

“He’s gone… The Demon King… I’m not in a dream right?”

Link’s heart panged in his chest. No, you’re not in a dream. Somehow, some way, you’ve found your way back to me. The fact that even for a second this is something she needs to doubt makes him want to double over and clutch his chest.

The look in her eyes settles on something warm, something relieved. Link wants her to have that look forever until forever is no longer.

“You did it.” Her hand clutches the stone on her neck, “Oh, Link, you really did it!”

Of course I did it. Of course, I found a way. Anything to get you here by my side again.

Link moves before he thinks, shooting forward to hold Zelda in his arms. Like he couldn’t bear to not hold her anymore, as if she’d transform back into a dragon and float into the sky or he’d wake up and this would all be some dream he made up to cope with the fact that he’d failed her once again. That when he woke up those five years ago in that pool of blue water and barely even knew his name, he promised to never fail Zelda again even when he had no face to put to the name.

He woke up guilty and carried it with him. From what he remembers he probably died with eons of guilt already.

He shakes as he clutches Zelda, arms wrapped tightly around her as they’re sprawled in the grass. She says nothing, simply letting out a gasp and sinking further into his arms, her fingernails digging into his back in her desperation. Link doesn’t mind, barely feels it.

He’s so caught up in her, her heart beating against his, the skin of her back exposed by her dress familiar and so real. He can’t tell if he’s shaking so bad she is too, but it doesn’t matter.

He knows in his heart that she must be delighted — if not overwhelmed — by this contact. It’s been so long since she’s felt something like this, centuries upon centuries. Link tried, so hard, to offer her the kindness he could once he knew she was flying up in the sky among her fellow dragons.

When he first found out, after collecting all those tears she’d strewn across the land, looking up at her was painful. Sitting down and clutching his chest painful. He remembers, sitting in the newly amassed growth of silent princesses on that swirl on the coast, feeling like maybe there was no point anymore. Link would, of course, do the one thing he’d already set out to do, the thing that Zelda gave her autonomy for. After that, he wasn’t sure.

How could he live in a world without Zelda in it?

And so he picked himself up, teleported back to Lookout Landing and numbly made his way to Purah. He honestly can’t remember much of what happened that night, or the couple after. He vaguely recognizes concern from Purah and anyone else who was in the vicinity, and he’s sure he must’ve looked like he’d seen a ghost. Perhaps because he had.

To wake up once more and have Zelda be gone, to remember this time, that moment in which his hand failed to grasp hers, might as well have been like her dying. The only reason he had to believe she wasn’t was a ghost telling her so and the Purah Pad ending up in his possession from a Steward Construct to whom Link said not a single word. To see her again in those memories he gathered was a sense of deja vu so painful it was already hard to talk about, and for most of his journey gathering them the only person who knew about them was Impa, having given him the quest herself. To add on the knowledge of them all, that Zelda had been here the whole time, floating as a dragon through the sky all the way back to when he was a baby and even before that, was grievously painful. Telling Purah was numbing, sure, but the moment he was alone once more it all came back ten fold.

That night, breaths so quick he was slumped against the wall, Link felt all the grief he’d held since waking up with his new arm. Anything left over was bottled right back up, in order to keep going.

Until this moment, with her back in his arms, human and alive. Not a ghost.

It isn’t until he feels her hand running up and down his back and shivers are sent down his spine that he realizes he’s crying. In fact, he’s pretty much one more wave of emotion away from letting out gun wrenching sobs.

Zelda is humming in his ear, soft and sure, and while it’s surely intended to make him calm down, it only makes cry more. He’s just so happy. Happy she’s here, happy this is mostly likely real. By now he would’ve realized it was a dream. By now he would’ve woken up.

“Oh Link, shhh. It’s okay, I’m okay.” Link nodded against her neck, which he had at some point buried his head into.

“I’m not quite sure how this happened. How I’m here.” Link pulled back a bit, and she did as well, now searching his red rimmed eyes. “How I’m…like this. Me again.”

Link could not search for the words if he tried. Even he was not sure how she came back to him, only that Rauru and Sonia put their hands on his, which erupted in a soft light and rained down on Zelda, returning her to her Hylian form. Next thing he knew he was plummeting to the lake they just rolled out of, holding her in his arms for the first time in what has felt like an eternity.

Zelda found all the answers in his eyes somewher though, as she always does. She pulls away enough to now stand up, wobbling unsteadily. Link follows suit, feeling cold from the lack of her touch while still soaked from their splash in the lake.

“No. I understand.” She stands there then, looking up at the floating castle, now free of gloom. “I had been sleeping all this time. But when I felt something…like a warm, loving embrace, I woke up.”

Link stands there, breath stolen from him watching her.

She sucks in a breath, eyes shutting. “Thank you.” She whispers, and he echoes the sentiment in his mind.

Thank you. Rauru and Sonia, for everything.

She turns to him then, smiling brightly, cheeks crinkled just the way he adores. “Link, I met such wonderful people. I saw Hyrule as it was. I have so much to tell you. So much happened!”

“Oh, Link…I’m home!”

In this moment, at least partially, it sinks in that they are free. This feels final. That Link had a second chance, to save her, and succeeded. That perhaps, more importantly, she has saved him. All their hard work, all the pain and the struggle, is over. Whatever comes next, they will always have each other.

She was smiling brighter than the sun, and when he ran to her to hold her face and press his lips to hers, he thought, “Oh, I’m home too.”