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Link is the stong, silent type (heroingreen) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-05-21 17:55:00

Who: Zelda and Link
What: Visiting the cows
Where: Link’s farm
When: A few weeks ago...
Rating/Warning: PG, for flirting and some scary memories
Status: Complete


Zelda wasn’t too worried about driving herself to Link’s place, as she figured that no paparazzi in his or her right mind (minds?) would be up this early to follow her around. So she drove herself. She had a rather expensive, fairly new Mercedes, in a deep, sparkly purple color. It was fairly easy to spot, another reason that she took care where she drove herself.

This was far, far too early. Thank God Zelda had an espresso machine at her house. She’d finished her mocha on the way, and was now feeling a bit excited, a bit caffeinated. Getting to see Link first thing in the morning made her heartbeat quicken. Once she arrived, she pulled up to Link’s farmhouse and headed up to ring the bell.

--Which, on second thought, was probably not a good idea. Would she wake his roommate?

Huck could sleep through a zombie apocalypse, so ringing the bell wouldn’t have done any harm. However, it was a moot point as Link had heard the car drive up through one of the open windows. Even over the sizzle of frying eggs, he could hear Zelda’s car. His ears had been tuned to it, waiting and not exactly patiently. He’d felt a little giddy since waking up.

He quickly scooped his breakfast onto a plate -- and he’d made extra, just in case -- and dried his hands as he headed toward the door. “Hey, good morning,” he said, as he tossed the towel aside. He opened the screen door and took her in for a moment. Kissing for the second time was like establishing a pattern, but it was a pattern Link definitely wanted to set up. He embraced Zelda’s shoulders and gave her a welcoming kiss.

"Hi." If she'd been grinning before, it was nothing in comparison to the bright smile that lit up her face when Link opened the door. She let him lead her in, and returned the welcoming kiss. A deep blush filtered across her face. This pattern was something she could definitely get behind. "Mmm," she said come over she could keep going indefinitely, "that definitely makes it a good morning."

He tasted the coffee on her lips and thought of breakfast, but asking her if she’d already eaten didn’t sound very romantic. Instead, Link held her hand and walked back to the kitchen. Milking cows meant keeping up his energy. He definitely needed to eat something before they walked to the dairy barn.

He was quiet. It was refreshing. Zelda wasn't sure if that was good or bad, though, sometimes it was hard to read. She was silk blushing as he held her hands and led her to the kitchen. "It smells wonderful in here. Did I disrupt your breakfast?" The rarest of the rare was happening: Zelda Hyrule was shy.

Link looked over his shoulder at her as he picked up his eggs and coffee from the counter. “I’m just running late,” he replied. He was running late because he’d woken up early to shower and trim his beard down to the right amount of scruff. He wanted to look good and smell good for Zelda... at least for a while, until they got to the cows.

Zelda hoped that it wasn’t her fault he was running late today. She moved to the table and sat down, smiling shyly and still pink from the welcoming kiss. “Don’t let me keep you up. But get a second fork so I can steal some of your eggs,” she teased. Well, she was half-teasing. The shy smile spread into a grin.

For good measure, Link quickly grabbed a second plate. He’d made extra, in case Zelda showed up hungry. “Do you want more coffee?” he asked.

“No no, I’ll start shaking if I have any more.” Zelda said, shaking her head. She hopped up to help with... whatever... though she had no idea where things were. So she stood for a moment, awkwardly, then accepted the plate from him. “Thank you for cooking.”

Link giggled at her comment about the caffeine and pushed some of the eggs onto the second plate. He gave her a fork, too, along with putting some ketchup and water glasses on the table. Now, they were set. “Well, if you weren’t here, I’d just have ended up eating it all. So... thank you for keeping me from getting fat.” He giggled again, although a little awkwardly.

That brought a giggle out of Zelda, too. "I have a feeling you're more than a few extra eggs away from being fat," she said, sliding back into the seat at his table. "But you're welcome, nonetheless."

Link grinned at her from across the table. He ate quickly, because he didn’t want to hold things up. She’d came to milk cows, so he didn’t want to keep Zelda waiting.

He hoped she would enjoy it. Or at least not hate it.

Zelda ate, gave her dishes a quick wash, then followed behind him as he led the way to the Dairy Barn. His place wasn’t as new as hers, wasn’t as big and beautiful, but it was a really nice home. And he had a lot of land. She was surprised by how much, actually. "I'm not exactly experienced with milking cows, so you'll have to lead me here," she said, playfully.

Link had twelve cows and they needed to be milked every day, although he had farmhands who would come a few days a week to take that job off his hands. *Ba Dum Bish!*. If he had more, he might consider doing the milking electronically, but really he prefered to do it the old fashioned way.

He led Zelda out to the dairy barn, which was a good walk from the house, especially since the path through the artichoke fields wasn’t especially direct. The wood was a faded green color with white trim. Link unlocked the door and pulled it open. “...And welcome to the smell.”

That was definitely the first thing that Zelda noticed. The smell. While not overwhelming, it wasn’t exactly pleasant. She lifted her sleeve to cover her nose, breaking into a self-deprecating grin. “Wow. It’s... not as bad as I thought it’d be.”

Thank goodness she’d worn long sleeves and old jeans. (This was her gardening outfit, complete with boots.) “Well, show me how it’s done.”

The smell was easy to get used to, actually. After a while, you stopped noticing it -- although everyone else would know where you had been unless you took a loooong shower.

Along with a clean bucket, Link pulled out a pair of stools from the corner and set them down beside the first cow in the row. It wasn’t one of the Lon Lon cows, thank goodness. It was a regular cow, one of the older ones, so it wouldn’t fret over Zelda’s inexperienced hands.

“Okay, so the first thing you want to do is let the milk come down,” he said, taking a seat. He warmed up his hands by rubbing them together and then started to gently pat and prod the full udder beneath the cow. “The baby will bump his nose against there to let the mom know he’s ready. Mom’s got to relax first.”

It was actually a pretty intimate thing to discuss, especially with lady. He’d shown Huck how to milk, but it was different talking to someone who actually had *ahem* breasts.

Not that Zelda’s breasts were anywhere near the milking phase. She nodded, sitting on the stool and watching what he was doing. “That makes sense. How else would the Mother Cow know to um... make milk?” ...was it a conscious thing, or unconscious thing? Subconscious? Like sweating or like peeing? Damn. Now Zelda was thinking about peeing.

Focus, girl. Focus. “Then what happens?”

Even though he was nervous about her hating this, Zelda’s babbling was still pretty cute. He got distracted for a few seconds. “Oh, uh. Well... you do this.”

Link folded his hands around the one of the teats -- not wrapped, folded -- and gave it a squeeze -- and not a tug! A lot of people thought you were supposed to pull on the teats, but it just wasn’t so. The milk splashed in the bucket. “You squeeze ‘em like that.”

“Wow.” Zelda grinned as the milk went into the bucket. It was exciting, and she was a little nervous, and still babbling. “...how much milk comes out of one cow? How long does it take?” She added, noticing that that wasn’t all that much milk to come from one squeeze. She assumed it would take some time to get all the milk out of the cow. “Does it hurt the cow to be milked? I mean, she’s not even wincing, is she?” Though, how did one tell if a cow was wincing? “Can I touch her?” She added, lifting her hand to brush along the side of the cow--but she waited for permission, of course.

“Go head,” Link said, deciding to answer Zelda’s last question first. He gave the cow a pat himself. “No, it doesn’t hurt at all. You can see she hardly notices it. They want you to get the milk out, cos unless they have a baby to drink it, it’s gets pretty heavy. It can take up to a half-hour to get all the milk out.”

“Wow.” Zelda lifted her hand to gently stroke the cow’s side--like she was tentatively petting a strange dog. Then she turned to watch him milk the cow. “...how does it not hurt? Nevermind.” She added, shaking her head. “I guess I’m not a cow. ...heavy? The milk, like, pools in there?” She reached over to run her hand along the cow’s udder, near where Link was milking her. Now she had permission, she wasn’t all that shy about touching the cow. Tentative? Yes. Afraid? No.

“Yeah, it’s full, so it gets pretty heavy.” He blushed a little. “Like, if you had to nurse a baby, the milk has to go somewhere. It’s kinda the same thing.”

Baby? Yeah, babies were way, way out of Zelda’s grasp. She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to have one, to nurse one, to change a diaper... She was too young for all of that. And she hadn’t had any other babies in her life to watch over or take care of, so she really couldn’t wrap her mind around it. “I see. So, she makes the milk, and it pools and gets heavy... why doesn’t she just... not make milk until she needs it?”

It might be showing her innocence in asking these questions. Maybe just a little.

“Oh, well she can’t control it. They just fill up after they have a calf.” Link’s blush cleared a little. “She’ll keep giving milk until you stop milking her. Her body thinks she’s got a calf to feed until you stop.”

“Oh.” Zelda didn’t make the connection between cows and human beings the same way other people might have. She wasn’t really thinking about the cow’s udder like a human breast. “...can I try?” She asked after a moment of fighting with herself. She wanted to, but she was intimidated.

"Sure," Link said, shuffling his stool to the side, giving Zelda some room. "It's way easier than you think it's going to be. And didn't you do this on a school trip, or something?"

“I did.” At least she was proud of that fact. She’d been close to a cow before. She’d even milked a cow before. On a school trip. He had a good memory. “But that was like, a decade ago, or something. Gosh, doesn’t that make you feel old?” She asked, grinning, and shuffled in closer. Her hand came up to grip the cow’s teat like he’d done, and she squeezed gently--no pulling. The milk squirted into the bucket, and Zelda gave a little laugh.

The squirt made a pleasing tinny sound when it hit the bottom of the bucket. Link grinned back at Zelda and adjusted her hand a little bit. "I was ten."

Zelda’s heart nearly skipped a beat at the feel of his hand adjusting hers. It was silly, but he made her giddy. She tried again, gently squeezing without pulling. There was another squirt of milk hitting the bucket. “So was I.”

"Did you think then that you'd ever date a farmer?" he asked, too innocent to be assuming anything. "I'm not sure I ever thought I'd date a movie star."

Zelda was about to respond when he used the words ‘movie star,’ and then she blushed deeply, giving the cow’s teat a gentle squeeze again. She brought her other hand up and started to milk in earnest, giving most of her attention to the cow instead of Link. That made it a little easier to think.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I ever thought about dating outside of the boys at school I had crushes on.” She shrugged, speaking honestly. “...what sort of girl did you think you’d … date?”

Farmers weren’t known for keeping full social calendars. The truth was, farmers tended to date and marry other farmers, but that wasn’t something Link wanted to say out loud right now. “I don’t know. Just a regular heiress, I suppose. Not a movie star heiress.”

That almost made Zelda snort with laughter. Almost. She blushed and shook her head. “Who knows if I’m going to be any good at this acting thing.” She added, busying herself with milking the cow. (Wow, a whole half hour of this? Sheesh. Didn’t his hands get tired?) “So you might end up with just a regular heiress if the movie flops.” A little grin, over her shoulder at him hid her insecurities about her acting skills, her possible new career. “I hope that won’t bother you.”

Link smiled shyly. He was rather proud of himself for making her laugh. Brushing off his hands to clean them, he touched Zelda's shoulder and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Zelda’s cheeks went rather pink at the kiss. She turned to smile at him, also shyly. “You’re distracting me from the task at hand, you know.” She said, though she wasn’t complaining.

Yeah, there were a lot of cows to be milked, but honestly watching Zelda break a light sweat working with her hands... Well, it was doing something for him. Link turned a deeper shade of red and turned away. “We’ll be here all afternoon at this rate,” he chuckled.

“I’m sorry,” Zelda responded quickly. “Am I not doing this fast enough?” Now she was worried that she’d done something wrong. “...I’m not keeping you from something important, am I?”

“Oh! No, I was just kidding,” Link said quickly. “You said I was distracting you.” Honestly, Link wasn’t about to make her milk cows all day, either way. He had some people ready to come and help, just a phone call away.

“Oh.” Zelda blushed. “Well... I can try to go faster.” She gave him a little grin. “Can... can we milk all four at the same time?” The cow had four teats, anyway. “Would that make it go faster?”

Link lifted an eyebrow and peered over Zelda’s head to look at the other cows. “We could have a race,” he said. He’d raced his parents all the time.

“Oooh, to see who can get the milk fastest?” Zelda probably wouldn’t do all that well in the race. Her hands weren’t as strong as his, nor as big, and she hadn’t been doing it as long. But she was more than willing to jump in and give it a go. “Okay, let’s go. I get a little head start, though!” She gave a little laugh and continued milking the cow, though with more speed and gusto now. --Still very carefully, though, so she wouldn’t hurt the poor thing.

Link hopped up and picked up his stool. His phone was in his back pocket. He pulled it out to have a look. “Well say... ten minutes? And we’ll see who’s ahead.”

He carried his seat to the other side of the barn, grabbing a bucket along the way, lining up in the stall opposite Zelda. He sat down beside the cow and smirked.

“Okay.” Zelda was still milking. “First one to... what, fill a bucket?” She wasn’t sure if she could actually do that, but she would try her hardest. She was a fast learner, and this seemed to be coming somewhat naturally. “And,” she added, playfully, “what do I get when I win?”

“First one to fill a half bucket,” said Link, though he imagined Zelda’s hands might start cramping even sooner. He didn’t want to make it that her hands ached so much that it was impossible to move them. “I think that if I’m making you do manual labor, you should be able to pick your own prize.”

"Oooh, my own prize, hmm?" Zelda’s hands were already starting to cramp up at the actions of milking the cow, so she was fairly confident that Link was going to win this one. Not that she really minded. She could win at future challenges. Let him have this glory. It was his area of expertise, after all. "There are so many things I could ask for!" A laugh. "What do you want if you win?"

Link turned his head upward, as if regarding the idea from a distance. His hands never missed a beat. "A walk-on role in your movie," he said, joking of course. "Or a kiss. Your pick.

Zelda laughed. "How about a tour of the set?" She asked. "I don't think I can get you a speaking role, but I could absolutely sneak you in as an extra." She blushed deeply. "My kisses come free. You don't have to win anything for that."

With a light chuckle, Link tried to focus on the task at hand, squeezing the udders and squirting milk into the bucket. Amidst the mooing and other cow sounds, the dairy barn was filled with rhythmic, tinny splashing. But Link had kissing Zelda on the brain, now. The contest was inherently silly, but suddenly it seemed very silly to be doing anything except kissing her.

“In that case...”

So Link stood up, leaving his bucket behind, and walked back to Zelda. He brushed his hands on his jeans to clean them and took her by the shoulders. He’d get his work done somehow, just not right now.

Zelda went really pink at the hands on her shoulders. She turned to look up at him, finding that her heartbeat sped up at the proximity. “You’re trying to distract me now, I can tell.” She said. There was a mischievous glint in her eyes--a playful grin on her lips. “It’s not going to work, Mr. Link.”

“Oh no?” Link began to massage her shoulders. The heat from his face traveled down his arms.

"No," Zelda said, though she had no conviction in her voice. Her eyes fell closed and her hands slowed, then stopped entirely. "Okay, maybe a little."

“What the hell am I doing milking cows when you’re here?” He chuckled softly, making circles with his thumbs along the ridge of Zelda’s shoulderblades.

“Nnng,” Zelda responded, then gave a breathy laugh. He hit a knot at the edge of her shoulder blade, and his gentle massage felt absolutely amazing. “...I think I was the one who asked to meet the cows,” she mumbled.

Link scowled at the knot, as if he could banish it with his own mind. “What, do they have you doing your own stunts on that movie set--?”

And then, Link stopped abruptly. He gulped and swallowed. His eyes were on Zelda’s pail, where the milk had collected to the height of an inch. He could see it now, a faint sparkle. Lon-Lon Milk. Another one of his cows had turned into a Lon-Lon cow.

"I do, actually." Zelda said, then turned to look up at him again when he stopped. "What... What's wrong?"

Link bit the inside of his lip and hesitated to answer. How many cows from Malon’s ranch was that now? Four?

“Nothing, it’s just...” he finally said, stepping forward and picking up the bucket. There was no sense in hiding it. He tipped the bucket forward to show her. “Cows from my dreams keep showing up. Cows that give sparkling milk.”

She’d been afraid that she’d done something wrong, the way he was looking into the bucket. She leaned forward and took a good look at the milk. It sparkled, there was no denying it. Of course, Zelda had no idea if milk was supposed to sparkle or not straight out of the cow. For all she knew, something in the pasteurizing process took away the sparkle. She hadn’t really noticed until he said something.

“That’s not... not normal?” She asked, pointing. “What do you mean, ‘from your dreams’?”

“No, it’s not normal,” he replied, scratching the back of his head. Where all his cows going to turn magical? How the hell was he supposed to market magical milk? “There are cows in my dreams that give, like, enriched milk.” Link wasn’t sure how else to put it. Milk that refills half your heart-meters? He didn’t think so.

“Huh.” Zelda said, looking down into the bucket. Dreams were powerful, sure. But dreams that made cow milk sparkle? She wasn’t sure if she could believe it. Of course, she’d heard about other people having strange, dream-related things happen recently. “...does it taste good?” She asked, finally turning to look back up into his eyes with a smile on her face. “What happens when you mix it with the regular milk?”

Link frowned and shook his head, placing the bucket back on the floor. “It tastes really good, actually. But I haven’t been selling it. I’ve been keeping it all in a special refrigerator.” And he had a lot of it by now.

Zelda nodded, the smile fading just a little. “...what do you do with it?” She asked, curiously.

“I just... keep it.” Link smiled a bit. “I drink it myself. I cook with it. But even I can’t drink all that milk. I throw a lot of it away.”

“That’s a shame. I mean, that you throw it away.” Zelda said, crinkling up her nose. All that good, Sparkling milk going down the drain felt like such a waste. “You can’t... sell it? Donate it? Give it away?”

“People don’t want milk that looks weird,” Link replied. He shrugged. “I’ve tried. Believe me.”

“Oh.” Zelda sat up a little, taking a moment to pause and finally looked at him again. “Can I try it?”

Link didn’t hesitate to nod. “Sure,” he said, straightening out his legs and rising back up. He patted his new Lon-Lon cow on the back. “It’s back at the house. It’s not pasteurized, though. Are you cool with that? I promise you it’s safe.” The fact that it wasn’t pasteurized was another reason why Link had trouble selling it, and why it didn’t last long. When it went through the machine, the sparkling milk would curdle.

"As long as you promise," Zelda teased, then she stood from her stool to join him. Of course, she trusted him even without the promise. Something about Link made her feel safe. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but just being near him felt secure. Like nothing bad was going to happen--or if it did, he would protect her. She slipped her hand into his so he could lead the way up into the house.

The walk back to the house passed more quickly than the walk to the barn, as returning journey’s tend to do. Link held her hand the whole way, helping Zelda avoid obstacles like furrows and budding artichokes.

Once they were at the house, he took her to a room where she had never been before: the garage. It was a big space, with room for two cars, but Link only had one so the rest was just storage, which included a large, squat refrigerator. He finally let go of her had to lift the lid, exposing many glass bottles of sparkling milk. They actually seemed to give off their own light in the dark space.

Because artichokes bite, man. Zelda learned that first hand. She was glad to have the help around, and followed him into the garage. Her garage at her house was about twice this size, and she had three cars in it. The rest of her space was appliances, too, only hers were a lot newer. She moved to the fridge and looked in. A gentle “ooh” escaped her at the sight.

“They’re glowing.” She commented unnecessarily. Anyone with eyes could see it.

It was an old science fiction movie, just substitute pod people for quarts of milk. “Weird, huh?” He picked one up and gestured with his head toward the door, which joined with the kitchen. He wanted to pour the milk into glasses, rather than have Zelda just take a swig, which was what he likely would have done.

She probably would have, too. As prissy as she normally was, she had her off the cuff moments. ...whatever that means. She followed him into the kitchen and perched to watch him, leaning against the back of one of his kitchen chairs. “It looks sweet. Is it sweeter than regular milk?”

Zelda was pretty excited about it now.

“A little, actually. Yeah.” Link grinned and rubbed the back of his neck. For some reason, seeing that Zelda wasn’t freaked out by all this was a big relief. “It’s sort of flowery, too.”

It was all like some strange dream. Zelda really didn’t believe any of this with Link was real. It was too good to be true, so why not sparkling milk? She was just going with the flow now, following along and taking it all as they went.

“Okay, let’s try it, then.” She said, pulling up off of her perch and moving close to him. “The anticipation is killing me!”

Link snapped off the cap and the pop echoed of the garage walls. Immediately, the faint earthy scent of the milk wafted into his nostrils, turning the dank smell of the storage area into something far more pleasant.

He held the bottle out to Zelda.

“So... just sip?” Zelda asked, accepting the bottle. This almost felt like a rite of passage. Like she was experiencing a part of his life that he didn’t offer up to most people. It smelled earthy, flowery. She brought it to her lips, and sipped.

Suddenly, a spark set off in her head. A rush of memories came to her--as if she was playing them out in her mind, vividly remembering things that had happened, but were caught somewhere in the folds of her brain. No, they hadn’t actually happened, but may as well have.

A dying father, a jealous brother, the Triforce of Courage, a magician casting a terrible spell, and then sleep. Until Link...

Zelda blinked, giving a little start. Her heart was thundering, her breathing shallow and labored. She nearly dropped the bottle as her eyes came to focus on Link’s face. The face from her vision, from her memory. The taste of the milk was still on her tongue, having sparked this unusual sensation within her. She remembered now. Remembered another chapter in the confusing saga of Link and Zelda’s previous and alternate-universe history.

The sudden, almost explosive charge of fear on Zelda’s face was just as frightening from Link’s perspective. His skin turned cold from the shock. Immediately, he reached his hands out and took her by the shoulders. The milk bottle would probably fall, but he didn’t care. In fact, his first thought was that the milk itself had done something to her. “Woah! Zelda! Are you okay?”

“You... you saved me.” Zelda managed to say, looking up into his eyes. The eyes she remembered from her dream. The first thing she saw when she woke from that cursed sleep. Some sort of twisted, Sleeping Beauty tale. A second set of memories where Link saved her from evil. Saved the Triforce, saved her life. Maybe that was why she felt so safe with him.

“I was sleeping and you woke me.” She breathed. The milk bottle slipped from her hands just before she lifted her arms to wrap around him, pulling him in to kiss him. It was a kiss of thanks, a kiss of understanding, but more importantly, it was a kiss of emotion. Affection. Longing. Attraction.

Link’s eyes were wide and round as golf balls, and his mind was spinning in confusion. As Zelda kissed him, he looked around the garage as if there was a clue hidden somewhere that would explain what she meant about sleeping. Of course, there wasn’t one. He felt totally at a loss.

Gently, he pushed back a few inches. “Zelda... what are you talking about?” Was it some kind of metaphor for something poetic that she felt about him, or had something seriously weird just happened?

Something seriously weird had just happened. But for some strange reason (maybe the sparkling milk?) Zelda wasn’t afraid of it. She embraced it. Link was her savior--just like in that other dream. Now things were starting to fall into place, starting to make sense. Even though it just raised about a thousand more questions.

“I had this dream about you. Remember? With the sword?” She’d told him about it. Zelda at first thought that it had to do with the photo on her phone--the one of him pulling the sword from the stone at Disneyland. But maybe that wasn’t the case. “It was so real, like memories of things that had actually happened, not like a dream. Well, when I sipped the milk...” She blinked.

“Oh gosh, Link, the milk! I’m sorry!” She said suddenly, then turned to bend down and start cleaning up the mess around their feet, picking up glass fragments of the broken bottle.

Link crouched down, all but fighting her to clean up the glass before Zelda cut herself. “I think we need a broom...” he murmured, but he was thinking more about the dream she had recalled. Something in the milk had brought the memory back to life, which made sense. The milk was magical, after all; it was part of their shared past.

He had risen back to his feet. Now, he looked over his shoulder. “You mean, you really remember?” His voice was as serious as it could possible sound. His heart quivered. It had finally begun.

Zelda didn’t cut herself this time. Though she managed to pick up a couple of the larger pieces before he stopped her. A broom was a good way to go. Paper towels, too, to mop up the milk. It was also all over their shoes from the splash.

“...I remember. I remember you saving me from Ganon, on Death Mountain. That’s the dream I had. And just now... just now I remembered another time you saved me. You woke me from that cursed sleep.” She said, standing with him. She was still holding the shards of glass in her hands. “...You’re... my hero.”

Link walked back to her and held out his palm for Zelda to drop the glass into. She looked dazed. He didn’t like the idea of her handling something sharp while in a daze.

Quietly, he pondered what she said. He recalled Ganon and Death Mountain, but the two hadn’t coincided. And he also didn’t remember anything about this cursed sleep. “Do you... do you remember Shiek? And Impa?” he asked.

Zelda shook her head. For a moment she looked disappointed. "No. Shiek? But I remember Impa. I sent her to find you--a hero to save me from Ganon." That part brightened her up a bit. "And she did. She found you."

Beat. "Wait, you're having dreams about me, too, but they're not the same," she said, for clarification. "How.... How is this happening? What does it mean?"

Link swallowed. There was a lump in his throat. “Maybe we just haven’t had the same dreams, yet; like we’re seeing different parts of the story.” Although he was pretty sure he’d dreamed the whole tale, now. He had a beginning, a middle, and an end. “Shiek is you, actually. I mean, you disguised yourself when Ganon took the throne.”

She'd seen two separate tales now--what little part she took in them, anyway--and neither of them had Ganon on the throne. But he had a point. They could very well be more dreams to dream. It was starting to feel a bit strange. He was seeing things she'd done that she didn't know about. "I don't remember Ganon taking the throne."

Link walked to a trash can to drop the broken glass into it. It clattered against the tin. “I entered the Temple of Time to secure the Triforce, but when I did, Ganon was waiting there. He touched the Triforce and it broke into three pieces. He took Power, I recieved Courage, and you had Wisdom. But you had to go into hiding. He turned Hyrule into a wasteland.”

"Oh," Zelda breathed. Her beloved homeland. She felt like she needed to sit down. "Are you seeing the future? Is that something that's going to happen?" She certainly didn't want it to.

Link rubbed his forehead. He had no idea. If only he could see Zelda’s dream for himself, then he might be able to place it within his own. “Didn’t you say you saw that the Triforce was broken?”

Zelda took a couple of steps over so she could sit down on... something. This was all so strange and confusing. The initial rush of the memories flooding her brain had worn off now, and the bizarreness of the situation was settling in. She felt a little light-headed. “In my first dream. I broke the Triforce into eight parts so that I could hide them from Ganon, and then sent Impa to find a hero to save me.” She explained. “In the vision I just had, moments ago, it wasn’t broken into eight... My father had hidden the Triforce of Courage, and my brother wanted to know where it was. But I didn’t tell him.”

She lifted her hands to rub at her temples. “Is any of this familiar to you?” Maybe they were just both having the same acid trip.

Link closed the lid of the refrigerator and hopped up, patting the space beside him. “Kinda. I mean, all the pieces are there. It’s just slightly different.” Just different enough to give him a headache. How could there be two versions of the same past, with the same people. Maybe the story was just a lot longer than he realized. He took Zelda’s hand to comfort himself, and massaged her fingers. “It’s definitely you, though. You’re definitely the Princess.”

Zelda moved to sit with him, and found comfort in his holding her hand. "And you are definitely my hero."

Slowly, Link moved his gaze from their hands to Zelda's face. In spite of everything, it felt like he was taking her in for the first time, even down to noticing flecks of silver in her eyes he was sure he hadn't seen before. In both worlds, she was the girl of his dreams.

Link realized it then... He was in love with Zelda. Desperately. In the passing of a second, he knew it, and it was so intense that for a moment the room spun.

A long moment passed. Zelda looked up into his eyes until she felt too shy, then tore hers away to look down at his hand holding hers in her lap.

"I really am sorry about the milk," she said, softly. There was still a puddle on the floor.

“It’s okay,” Link said, his voice just as soft. He chuckled a little. “Like I said... it would probably end up thrown out anyway. At least it wasn’t totally wasted.”

Realizing he was in love brought on a resurgence of the anxiety around Zelda that he thought was passed. His cheeks were bright pink. What did being in love really mean? Link was sure he’d never felt this before.

Well, Zelda definitely didn't know what love was. She'd never felt it before, so she didn't know what it was supposed to feel like. She wasn't sure she felt it now--though what she felt was strong and pure. It could very well have been love. It was a good feeling, even though it was also a little terrifying.

"You're going to have to send me home with a few bottles now," she said, unable to stop smiling. "To heck with my diet. I'll drink lon-lon milk all day instead of eating."

Link chuckled again, but his expression retained an air of seriousness. He rubbed her fingers and sighed. “Let’s not talk about you leaving right now.”

"I'll stay." She said softly. "Forever, if you want me to."