come find me in the afterglow // revali x link

you look just fine on your own

Revali just stares at the black-haired knight traveling alongside the princess. What a strange choice for a knight, he thinks. He's bouncy and undignified, and he's got purple bunnies stitched all over his tunic.

Revali decides he doesn't like the knight the moment he opens his mouth. He just doesn't stop talking, actually interrupting Princess Zelda several times to interject something irrelevant.

Even their names are disgustingly similar, Revali thinks sourly. And it's a stupid name, at that.

Ravio.

~

To his great dismay, Revali ends up on a three-day journey from Rito Village back to the castle with Zelda and Ravio. Which means he actually has to interact with this insufferable twit of a knight.

Ravio talks enough for all three of them, rambling on about any whim that pops into his head. "Don't you ever breathe?" Revali snaps after an hour of incessant yapping. That would shut any normal person up, but Ravio just grins blithely—"of course I do"—and continues chattering.

They can't reach Castle Town soon enough.

As they pass through Castle Town, Revali catches sight of a blond Hylian hawking fruit on the street. He's—the first word that comes to mind is pretty, which is an absolutely absurd thing to think. Especially of a Hylian. But then he catches Revali's gaze, big blue eyes staring into his own, and he winks.

"Hey, handsome," he says, ignoring everyone else clustered around his stand to lean across and chat with Revali. "In need of anything? Ironshrooms? Herbs? I'd offer you my best stock of Mighty Bananas, but..." He looks Revali up and down, and gives him a cheeky smile. "You don't seem like you're lacking in that department."

Exaggerated as his actions and his sales pitch are, Revali reluctantly finds him charming. He opens his beak to ask the man his name, but before he can do that, Zelda is at his side, tutting and hurrying him along.

"Who was that?" he asks, twisting around in the princess's grasp to try and see the man again, but he's been swallowed up by the crowd gathered around his fruit stand.

"I don't know, but he's always out here flirting and selling his fruit," she says breezily. "Come on, we have to see my father."

Right, the king. Revali straightens his shoulders and walks on.

~

They fight the Calamity, and they win. Revali returns to Rito Village a hero, finally receiving the attention and accolades he knows he deserves. With Hyrule at peace for the foreseeable future, he turns to training the young Rito, holding archery lessons at the Flight Range and teaching them to harness the power of the winds for themselves. He still doesn't settle down with anyone, though both male and female Rito alike fawn and pine over him, but he's more than content anyway.

And not once, for the rest of his life, does he spare a thought for the odd but striking blond Hylian who'd tried to sell him fruit in Castle Town.