Grace and Love || Link x Mipha

Handling Burdens

Link's POV
I was sitting with all the other Hyrule guards on the staircase. They were all talking and I was looking down at my hands, lost in my own thoughts. I wasn't really sure what I was thinking about. Although, I do know that one of those many thoughts about Mipha. How nice it was to see her again. If only my anxiety would've let me speak to her.

I finally peered up a bit and I saw Zelda and Mipha walking towards me. I stood up and walked towards them.

"Link, we will be showing Mipha how to control Vah Ruta now," Zelda instructed. I nodded and we started walking up the staircase to head into the direction of Ruta. Before we even got to the final step, one of the Hyrule guards ran up to us.

"Princess, we just got word that the King wants you to return to the castle immediately."

"Oh, what does he want now?" Zelda sighed, "Link will you please show Mipha how to work Vah Ruta? I will come back as soon as I can. You just stay here until I come back." I nodded and Mipha waved goodbye to her. Why did Zelda have to leave? Now I have to explain all this complicated stuff to Mipha and I won't be able to explain it well because my anxiety loves to mess with me. It doesn't help that ever since seeing Mipha again, my heart would flutter every time I thought of her.

"Shall we go Link?" Mipha asked. I nodded slightly and we started walking out of the domain. We got to the waterfall that is next to the East Reservoir. There was sky octoroks and lizalfos. I knew that we wouldn't be able to sneak past them, so my only option was to fight. I immediately ran into view and starting shooting my arrows at the lizalfos. Luckily Mipha understood my plan without me having to tell her anything. As I was distracting the lizalfos, she threw her spear and shot through two skyoctoroks. She kept going until she killed all of them. I was still fending off the last of the lizalfos and she luckily came and helped me kill them.

Mipha turned to me, "You should really let me know your plans before we fight, Link. You shouldn't be so reckless, but I guess that's one thing that hasn't changed."

"Yeah, sorry," I said a bit embarrassed. We continued on and we got to the top of the reservoir. We swam over to Ruta and walked inside. The first thing that greeted us was a rogue guardian scout.

"Mipha, get behind me!" I brought out my shield and I readied my sword. I was hitting it with my sword getting a good amount of damage on it, but then it shot it's beam at me. I wasn't able to get my shield out in time and the beam hit my arm. I yelled in pain. The sensation was burning. Mipha immediately sprung into action and finished the guardian off with her spear.

"Link!" Mipha exclaimed worried, "are you ok?"

"Y-yeah," I stuttered out. I was angry and confused. I should've been the one to finish it off. I'm the Hyrule Champion. I'm the one that's supposed to protect everyone! And then I have to get saved from someone else. No one should have to save me!

"Link, your arm..." I lifted my right arm and it was bleeding and bruised. "Let me heal you right now." I shook my head.

"No, I'll be fine. Let me show you how to control Ruta." We travelled throughout Ruta and I explained do her how to control it. After, we went on top of the trunk of the beast. I rolled up my sleeve and Mipha started to heal my arm. "I was thinking..." Mipha began, "this reminds me of the time we first met. You were just a reckless child... always getting yourself hurt at every turn. Every time, I would heal you. Just as I'm doing right now. I thought it was funny how, being a Hylian, you looked grown-up so much faster than I did. I was... I was always willing to heal your wounds. Even back then." Mipha stopped healing and I looked at my arm. Even after all these years, it still amazes me how every time it looks like I never got hurt at all.

"Link, may I ask why you've gotten so quiet lately? You used to be so talkative, is everything ok?" My heart skipped a beat at her question. I get asked this question all the time and my answer is always the same: yes. People always believe it and just don't question it after that, but if I just say that to Mipha, she'll know that I'm lying. There's no point in lying to her, I might as well tell the truth. I pulled out the master sword and laid it on my lap.

"Ever since I got this sword, I realized the weight that my duty to Hyrule is. All of Hyrule is counting on me to kill Calamity Ganon so that Zelda can seal him away. But what if it's not enough? What if I don't do enough? I would just let down everyone, the royal family, the other champions,... and you. Once I got the sword, I decided to bare my burdens in silence because Hyrule doesn't need another problem on their hands."

"Link, I feel the same way. All of us champions do. So if this Calamity Ganon does, in fact, return, what can we really do? We just don't seem to know much about what we'll be up against. But know this, that no matter how difficult this battle might get... if you- if anyone every tries to do you harm, then I will heal you. No matter when, or how bad the wound. I hope you know... that I will always protect you."

"Thank you, Mipha, really. It's nice to finally talk to someone about this." She smiled and looked down at her hands. I couldn't tell if she was blushing or if it was my eyes seeing things.

"Link," Mipha began shyly, "once this whole thing is over... maybe things can go back to how they used to be when we were young. You know... perhaps we could spend some time together." I blushed. I hope that she couldn't see it.

"I'd really like that, Mipha." We both sat there and watched the beautiful sunset.

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In this chapter I used the 'Mipha's Touch' memory.