Remember When...(Link x Reader)

|| Chapter 38 || The Letter

Edited 04.28.23

Hyrule Castle is a rather massive structure, containing several different floors, rooms, and hallways. Its size allows for the royal family, staff, and many visitors to live comfortably without feeling crowded, however it also makes it quite difficult to find anyone if you don't know where to exactly look.

With some people, it's easy to predict where they'll likely be. Guards are usually at their post or in the barracks, the cooks in the kitchen or dining room, and the King either sitting on his throne or in his office hidden behind a library bookshelf (although most don't know that).

Then there are those harder to find. The Princess, for example, can be rather difficult to locate especially when she doesn't exactly want to be found. It's nearly impossible to know whether she's wandering around the castle or if she has somehow managed to escape once again.

While Princess Zelda certainly holds a record for having the most challenging games of hide-and-seek, there's someone else who has gotten very good at disappearing as of recently, at least whenever Link is the one trying to find her.

So far, he's spent well over an hour searching for you. He first tried the courtyard, hoping to find you working on some guardians per your typical routine, however you were nowhere in sight. From there, he checked your office, your favorite spot in the garden, the library, and even the kitchen (he didn't really think you'd be there, but he needed a snack to help his frustration).

He's beginning to give up, well aware that it isn't a mere coincidence he hasn't been able to find you yet. You've been purposefully avoiding him lately and honestly, he's guilty of doing the exact same.

It's been a while since the incident at the Ancient Columns. Initially, he thought keeping his distance from you would be the best way to avoid any awkwardness, but the memory is still fresh in his mind, playing over and over again with each rewind filling Link with more guilt.

Deep down, he's always known that avoiding you isn't going to solve a single thing and that, eventually, he'll have to acknowledge what happened. It isn't that he's even mad at you and he doesn't want you to think that either. You're allowed to have your own feelings whatever they may be, he just...he just needed some time to think things over for himself which is much easier said than done.

Princess Zelda implied that you see him as more than a friend – no, she didn't just imply it, she shouted that you apparently only favor him because of love. Now, you've always been kind to Link, but he had never considered it to be anything outside of the same kindness you show everyone else – purely platonic, of course – so what Zelda said took him by surprise.

He was blind to the different way you behave around him compared to the other Champions, however with Zelda's claims in mind, he began reviewing your relationship through a closer lens which soon brought those previously unnoticed details to light: the way you're a bit 'touchy', making excuses to hang on his arm or hold his hand when on missions...How you insist you don't have anything on your schedule whenever he asks for a second of your time, often hushing anyone else who dares even think of reminding you about a upcoming meeting then...Those giddy smiles you show only him...The faint embarrassment that's sometimes present on your face for seemingly no reason...

Link isn't much for romance, at least he says that anyways, however admittedly, there have been times when it has come to mind, after all, legendary hero or not, he's still a teenage boy. The consideration would sometimes appear briefly when seeing couples walking through Castle Town hand-in-hand. Other times, it came while lying awake at night feeling particularly lonely. During those moments, he'd secretly wonder what it would be like to have a girlfriend, but he also made sure never to dwell on such an idea for too long, judging it as too much to ask for and something his job probably wouldn't allow anyways.