Apothecary

Chapter 27

The two of us left the Spirit's Spring in silence.

Link...was understandably beside himself. He seemed to want to walk as far away from me as possible without completely abandoning me there at the lake. When we left the dark of the spring's cavern, he made a hasty and immediate dash for the shoreline, and as I slowly walked up I noticed that his head was bowed, that he was staring into the lake's depths.

 I wasn't entirely sure how to handle someone who'd recently been possessed by the forces of darkness, so I approached as slowly as I could, trying not to rush or crowd him. Once I got within a stone's throw of him, he noticeably flinched, but he didn't pull away any further. When I finally stood beside him at the lake's shore, he made no move towards me but seemed to wilt, folding his arms around himself and refusing to look anywhere in my direction.  I couldn't decide between looking at him and looking out at the water's surface. 

Lake Hylia was beautiful in the early morning, with the mist rising off the surface and the birds just waking up and everything--but as I looked over at Link I doubted if any of that view was reaching him at all. I just didn't know what to ask, how to begin the conversation--what to say to tell him it was alright. And Link didn't either. 

"Y/N, I..." 

Once or twice he would try for words, but his voice would always break. In the end, he settled for simply staring out upon Lake Hylia with me, seemingly too ashamed to do much of anything else. 

Far off I saw Fyer eating breakfast on the porch of his floating house--he was drinking what looked like a cup of tea, smiling at the birds who swooped down to gather their own breakfasts from the lake--and a little further off I saw Teres pulling the canoe we'd used back across the lake, headed back up Zora's River. She waved a hand out of the water when she saw where we stood, and I waved back, but Link didn't feel up to even that.

I was about to break our silence myself, seeing at a glance how badly he felt, but then he opened his mouth and it was clear that what was eating him up inside was nothing more than overwhelming, mind-numbing guilt.

"...I just--dear Goddesses, Y/N, but how could I...? I didn't mean to--but how can I even begin--?"

He was rambling almost incoherently when he was finally able to speak, his eyes darting anywhere and everywhere but unable to meet my gaze, and as his voice began to rise and his hands rose to clutch at his head, I was vividly aware of the fact that he was probably going into a panic attack. "I--I mean--you saw. You saw and you heard and I was just...it was completely inexcusable, and I...I know what I said and did are entirely my--ah!"

He stopped worrying out loud as I did what I had wanted to do ever since Lanayru cured his mind and pulled him into a violent hug.

"Link," I said quietly. "Breathe."

He didn't try to say any more, but I could feel how badly he was shaking now that I was so close, and when I pulled him in tighter I felt him tense up--and then I heard his breath catch--and then he was sobbing into my shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed. "Goddesses, but I'm sorry, Y/N."

I shushed him softly, and we stayed for a while like that, him trying to get himself under control, and occasionally giving in and sobbing even more bitterly. I took deep, loud breaths against his chest, trying to soothe him, and eventually he managed to time his breathing with mine, barring the occasional hiccup. 

At length he pulled away, wiping his face, and turned to gaze back out at the water, unwilling to meet my eyes. "...well, I did say I needed your help, Y/N," he said, chuckling mirthlessly. "Turns out I was even more right than I'd thought."