Until The Last Breath

21 - What A Beautiful Wedding

Link thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, but then Ganondorf stepped into his room.

"Don't worry, I'm even more excited about it than you are," the Gerudo said flatly, falling onto the bed Zelda had once sat on.

The emotions he was going through right now were too much to process all at once, which is maybe why he had just shut down. He didn't have the energy to glare at Ganondorf, and he didn't have the energy to cry over what had just happened.

Had he made the right choice?

Zelda had confessed her love to him. It was all he ever wanted, to know if she loved him back. Now he knew, and he had pushed her away. Why did he do that?

She said she didn't care what people thought, but Link didn't believe that would be the case if they actually got married one day. After a while, the things people say start to get to you.

"No! You're joking!"

Link heard the maids giggle, and his curiosity got the best of him. What were they talking about?

It's not as if he didn't have the time to stay back and listen. Zelda was having dinner with the king and a future suitor, so she would be busy for a while. There was no need for her personal guard to be there.

Link was torn. He wanted to be there, just to see how things were going, but he also didn't want to watch some random prince flirt with Zelda for two hours. It would kill him inside.

"The king would never approve if he proposed to Zelda, champion or not."

Link's ears perked up, and now he had a feeling the maids were talking about him. It wouldn't be a surprise. He had caught many others talking about him before.

"Not to mention, he started off as a commoner. Still is, if you ask me. His family isn't even rich."

He could feel his blood boil, and now he knew what the maids were talking about. His relationship with Zelda, which was none of their business.

"He doesn't even have a family, don't you know? His parents died when he was young."

"An orphan?"

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"The princess could never marry him," one of the maids tittered, "though I would in a heartbeat. Have you seen his arms?"

Clenching his teeth, Link marched in the opposite direction of the two maids. He tried to brush it off, but what those maids had said stung. He was a poor, orphan boy who had nothing to offer the Princess of Hyrule, champion or not. He never stood a chance.

And he was stupid to think Zelda might love him in the first place.

But that kiss...it was something else. And the crestfallen look on Zelda's face when he had shifted away from her hurt more than Link thought it would.

"So, how'd you manage to get the princess angry? Is she finally tired of you two being joined at the hip?"

Link turned away from Ganondorf, facing the wall. He still couldn't shake the feeling of Zelda's lips on his, the fierceness of her kisses, how she probably wouldn't have stopped there if he didn't stop her first.

He was lying to himself, and he knew it. He didn't want to see Zelda get married to anyone that wasn't him, but he knew that day would come eventually. Zelda would marry someone else. He would be the perfect husband. He'd be rich, handsome, and a king that all of Hyrule would adore.