Who We Are; Zelink, Modern (The Legend Of Zelda)

Questions (17)

With medieval looking shackles around his wrists, a bleeding cut on his cheek, and red stains showing through his green shirt, Link knelt with his arms above his head. A chain from the shackles to the roof of the car held him in an upright position, not letting him fully rest against the floor of the car without putting his weight on his wrists.

Zelda stared at him and he looked up at her.

As their gazes met, she saw that his eyes were filled with relief, pain, fear, and something more she couldn't quite identify.

She hadn't seen him in the flesh for two months... for those two months she'd tried to convince herself he was evil.

"Link..." she breathed out, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Hey Zel-" he started but his voice cracked halfway through and he coughed.

"What happened to you? Are you alright?"

Link shook his head softly. "Could you... get me down..."

"Why didn't you yell or something?!? I could have gotten you free sooner!" she said as she climbed into the back of the car and examined the shackles.

"The key is hopefully... in the glove box..."

"Be right back then," she said as she ran to the front and searched through the box. She found several keys and ran back. She tried all of them, and the last one finally worked. She let out a sigh of relief, which matched Link's as his arms dropped.

He fell backwards onto Zelda and she yelped.

"Sorry...." he mumbled but he didn't move.

"By the goddesses, Link..." she started as she struggled lightly with his weight. "You going to be alright?"

"As long as we stay away from Maldus and everyone who works for him."

"They did this to you?" she asked as she shifted backwards to lean against the seats.

He followed her movements and most of his weight was on her now. "Yeah..."

She looked at his wrists; the skin was red, raw, broken and bleeding. Anger flared in her. Maldus had done this to someone who worked for him?

"Could you... maybe explain this all to me?"

He shook his head slightly. "Not right now... please."

Zelda bit her lip. She wasn't about to insist, not when he was in this condition. Not when he sounded so desperate. But there was still the chance though, however preposterous, that this was all some horrible elaborate plan. And so she reached out to the other telepath; the connection was still there. She bit her lip and then asked. I can trust him... right? Please... please tell me he is someone I can trust.

Link turned slightly against her, shifting his weight.

"Hold still," Zelda reprimanded as she looked down at him. Without thinking about it she gently extricated her arms from under him and gently wrapped them around his shoulders. "You'll hurt yourself more if you try to move too soon."

Link froze as her warm embrace held him steadily. "You... you should keep moving..." he said quietly as his hand raised and gently came to rest pressed against her forearm; his eyes squeezed shut.

"You need a minute," Zelda replied. "You seriously look like you were tortured," she said, and her arms unconsciously tightened around him in anger at Maldus again.

A weak humorless chuckle bubbled from Link's mouth. "It's nothing I'm not used to," he said. "Get a move on..." he added, struggling to to sit up off of her.

Zelda's heart, which she herself had tried to harden as much as she could over the last month, cracked wide open. He was used to being tortured?

"No," she said.

"Zel ple-"

"No!" Zelda repeated; pulling the weakly struggling boy against her and not letting him get away. "You aren't just going to brush this off like it's nothing!" she said hotly.

Link's eyes widened, and his mouth opened slightly, but for a solid minute nothing came out. "Zel I'm... I'm fine really, I'll live, so don't worry about me and worry about something more important..."

"You saved my life! What is more important than you in front of me right now?"

"You... Zel... I don't..." he started to say, but then a shudder overcame his body and he curled up slightly in his position on her lap. Once whatever it was had passed he turned slightly away from her. "How can you still care for me..."

"Why can't I care?" Zelda asked; restating what she had said two months before in her room, that fateful night before everything had changed.

"I tried everything I could think of to make you hate me... To make you see me as what I thought I was... that I was the enemy. Because I knew that you would be safer away from me..."

"You're an idiot," Zelda hissed.

Link flinched.

"And I mean that endearingly," she said as she looked down at him; he was covered in wounds that she was sure had been inflicted because of her. "Why would you go so far to protect me?"

"Because you..." he started and then seemed to draw in on himself.

"I'm not going to move until you explain, and if you want us to get going again before Maldus catches us, you had better explain."

Link chuckled slightly. "You... don't negotiate huh..."

"I don't. So spill."

"It hurts to talk..." he complained.

Zelda raised an eyebrow and then shrugged slightly.

His hissed in pain as her movement hurt him.

"No barrier to me," she said as she reached towards him mentally and tried to establish a connection. She stiffened as she realized that there already was one.