The Legend of Zelda: Timeless (old)

Chapter 37

The sky above Zelda was turning shades of pink and purple by the time she had finally plowed through the stack of paper in front of her. She yawned and stretched out her arms. Even though she knew he had no idea where this garden is, she still had a small portion of her thinking Link would come out there at any moment. Then, maybe, they could talk about the thing that was always on her mind.

Their marriage.

He had seemed more accepting of it than she had thought he would, though obviously, it was just a business deal, only done to allow her to become queen.

That was the part that bothered her.

It should have been wonderful to her, the idea that she would marry the man she loved, and they would rule Hyrule together. She should have been thrilled, but she wasn't. The fact that it had been arranged made the difference to her. If only they would give her time. It was obvious that they would've gotten married eventually, but it would've felt entirely more real if it had been their choice.

She sighed as she pushed those thoughts out of her mind. She straightened the stack before standing up and walking back to the door. The peaceful quiet disappeared when she opened the door, replaced by the loud sounds of the castle.

She hurried to Sarth's office, placed the stack on his desk, and walked back towards her room.

Link was pacing back and forth when she walked in, obviously lost in thought,

"Hey," she said, and in the back of her mind wondered about her still-whispered voice,

"Oh, hey," Link said, turning to her and smiling, "Where have you been hiding all day?" He walked over to her and kissed her forehead,

"My place. I'll have to show you sometime," He nodded. Now was the time, "Link, I need to speak with you,"

"Ok, what about?" She swallowed and walked past him. What would he think?

"Our engagement," She turned towards him. He suddenly looked really nervous, a rare thing for Link,

"Oh, yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that too,"

"You can go first," she said, sitting on the bed. He took a deep breath and nodded,

"Ok. Well...I've been thinking a lot about this. About...if I really want to go through with this. It's taken me awhile, but I've finally decided," He paused, looking down. Zelda braced herself, suddenly nervous,

"I'm not going to let them control me anymore," he said quietly. She remained silent, stunned,

"Oh.." She managed to say.

He took his time taking a deep breath before looking back up to her, smiling smally,

"So I've decided to take matters into my own hands," She looked back at him, confused,

"What do you-"

"This isn't how I want to do things. I don't want to be wed to you because of some arrangement. I have decided, and I've decided that I never want to lose you. I want you to be mine, and only mine, and I want everyone to know it. I want to do things the right way. Not their way," Zelda had no words as Link got on one knee. She put her hand over her mouth,

"Zelda, I love you, more than anything else in the world combined. You make me a better person, and I want to be with you every day, for the rest of our lives. When I'm with you, everything that's happened doesn't matter anymore. It's just you and me, love, and that's how I like it," He reached into his pouch.

He pulled out a small gold hoop earring. The surface had small twisting silver lines crossing over it, with several small diamonds going in a straight line down the middle. It was simply stunning,

"Princess Zelda of Hyrule, I promise to love you unconditionally for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?" She let out a shaky breath, tears in her eyes,

"Of course I will," she said, wishing it hadn't come out so quietly, but Link beamed just the same.

She jumped up and hugged him. He picked her up and spun her in a circle. They were both laughing, and then were kissing.

Something had happened to Link while he was away. She imagined this was more of who he was before Ganon's reign. She didn't know what had happened to cause this change, but she had no objections.