Twenty-one Questions: A Zelink story

Chapter nineteen

"Apollo!" I rushed towards him and embraced him as tight as I could.

All of me had to stop from crying, half about Link and half about the man I was now reunited with.

he held onto me as tightly as he could. "Zelda, I am so sorry I ever believed those rumours to be true." 

His voice was so familiar and soft, like velvet  in my starved ears.

"It's okay." I buried my face deep into his neck and secretly vowed never to let go of him again.

"As soon as I heard, I rushed straight back." He cradled my face as I looked up at him, a smile creeping across my lips. "I have missed you so much." He sobbed.

"Don't cry, you're home now." I soothed.

"I'm so sorry."

"It's quite alright." I reassured.

He straightened up his posture. "How's things with..."

"Oh." I began to ponder. 

Well, they were very good, but now they were terribly pear-shaped.

I didn't know how to answer. I had to tell him that I had fallen for Link, right? I just had to reassure that I no longer felt that way. But he would inevitably find out that I was planning on letting him down as soon as he came home, so...

"Not good. I'm happy you're home." I half-lied, hoping not to be called out.

"Well, as soon as we can, I'll march right over to your father and tell him everything. Then we can get married as intended, no obsticles. And I promise to trust your word over anyone else's. Sound like a deal?"

I hesitantly nodded, picturing how I was going to ask Link for a divorce after everything he'd told me.

I was still fuming at him, and was not going to forget what he did, but...Part of me still wanted to go and listen to him, go and comfort him.

Too late, I suppose.

The bedroom was quiet. One might've thought that nobody was present at all, until I saw Link.

His posture was drooped and solitary. He looked up at me, his face displaying a mixture of guilt and pain.

"Apollo's back," I mumbled after a few moments of silence.

"Oh." Link shrugged. "Good."

"I don't forgive you, if that's what you were thinking." I lifted a suitcase out of the corner of the room and began packing some clothes. 

"I wasn't, but okay." His voice remained sarky and deep. "I just don't know why you decided to see him instead of actually listen to me."

"Because, Link, I'd been anticipating his arrival for weeks now."

"Well, good. I'm glad he's back and under your manipulation."

"Wha-" I halted and snapped up at him. "Manipulation?!"

"Well, until a couple hours ago, you were planning on telling him that you didn't love him anymore. But now that you're mad at me again, you're just going to go straight back to him and pretend as though you and I were never a thing."

"We weren't a thing, Link." I assured. "It lasted, what, one day? That's absolutely nothing, especially compared to three years."

"Well, you had sex with me, so I'd say that's serious." Link muttered. "What, are you saying you wouldn't mind if word got out that the rumours eventually became true?"

"Shut up!" I yelled. 

Silence settled for a couple seconds before I stirred again. 

"I just want to forget that anything ever happened. I just want to marry the man I was supposed to marry in the first place, and I want you to forget about me. I don't care if you love me," I lifted the suitcase off the chair and began shutting it. "I don't care about what I was going to say to Apollo. He's my husband, not you. And what you did was childish and selfish and ruthless and I cannot stay married to you."

Link sat on the bed, his shoulders still drooped. "I'm sorry."

I picked up the suitcase and headed for the door. "I'm staying with Apollo tonight. Tomorrow, the divorce can commence."

Link's eyebrows furrowed as his eyes saddened. "Yep. Bye." 

I headed out the bedroom door, but upon leaving the front door, I glanced back inside the bedroom through the crack. Link's face was in his hands, and his shoulders shook as he sobbed silently.

Oh God. It was harder than I thought it would be, leaving him.

But I went forward, continuing with my plan.