Raising the Stakes; Zelink Coffee Shop AU (The Legend Of Zelda)

Chapter Fifty Six; Epilogue

My way of thinking changed forever the moment I met Urbosa. My life changed the day I met Link. Not to say that wonderful man was the only thing that changed me. My father had banished me from Urbosa under the pretense of showing me I couldn't write to survive. That brought me to Link, and he, along with Urbosa, inspired me to change my own life.

Sometimes... sometimes I think about some other life. Some alternate universe where my father wasn't a terrible human being. Would I have met Link through Urbosa? Would I still have fallen in love with him?

I'd like to think I would have.

I wouldn't admit this to anyone but my husband... but in my spare time I write stories of us. When my novel writing has worn me out, I turn to write my fanfiction. Goddess, why does admitting that embarrass me so much? I'm a cheeseball.

Sometimes I write the two of us starring in one of the Legends worlds. Once, I was a pirate princess, and he was a hidden prince hiding as a stowaway on my ship. Sometimes we're simple teenagers having a simple life.

Another time, Hyrule was a vast land hidden above the clouds, with Hylians possessing wings...

Only Link knows that I'm the one who writes them...

Completely embarrassing topics aside! Link formally proposed to me four months after Christmas. We hadn't actually told anyone that he had asked me that night... which kept us safe from Urbosa.

I finished the rough draft of my book three months after that - I was ecstatic!

I lived and worked with Urbosa in First during the engagement. I had been determined to publish my book before I got married. And I had.

Tetra Hart's debut novel had taken off like no one could have believed. I'd had a little head start help in marketing from a connection in the family, but it was still such a relief to finally see it all realized.

Finding time to see Link while living two hours away was not the easiest, but we made it work. It made our time together all the sweeter when we were finally living together under the same roof.

The shop closed for a week, but we didn't go on a honeymoon. Everyone thought we were crazy, but all we really wanted was to just be home. To know that we had a place together, that our lives were exactly where we wanted them to be.

I found out I was pregnant almost exactly six years after we had first met. By then I'd published my third and final book in my series, and had begun another. Along with having several online works completed.

I wondered just how writing with a baby was going to work out for me.

... Turns out not so well, but oh was she worth it. Melody was my shining star, even when she smeared things all along the wall.

I was a mother. I wasn't just a part of a family now... I'd created another member of it. She was mine, and I was hers, and she would have the love that I had gone so long in my life without. Nothing pompous, nothing expected. Only love, and affection, and no falling down the stairs. Which was difficult. No really, she was a baby gate hacker and I could not take my eyes off her for a second when we were in the living room.

We had to get a door installed at the top of the stairs, and a lock she couldn't reach.

Her grandmother loved her.

By the grace of the Three, my mother had been acquitted from all that she had done the night I'd escaped. She'd moved to the neighboring country of Faron. She still made many trips to visit.

My mother became a true part of my family after twenty one years.

I still have nightmares, I still have panic attacks... but my whole life led me to this, and it was entirely worth it.

~*~

It is not where you began in life, or who brought you into the world. It is not who fed you, be it love or lies. It is not legacy that defines who you will become.

Your story is what you make it.

-Tetra Hart

"Coffee for you, m'dear," Link said as he tucked his hand under my hair to rest on my neck.

"Thanks," I replied as I leaned into him. "This scene is as difficult as Revali," I muttered.

"Or trying to get Mel into bed," he replied.

I smiled. "Speaking of..."

He chuckled. "She's down."

"Thank Hylia..." I said, then ran my hand along his lower back. "Thank you."

He smiled and trailed his finger across the back of my neck, then along my jaw. "Is there anything I can do to help you with this scene?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes. "You just made me lose all interest in it."

"Ah, I'm sorry," he replied.

I leaned close and pressed my nose against his cheek. "No you're not." 

. . . ~*~ . . .

Thank you so much to everyone who followed this story to the end! This took me quite a long time and more grief than I'd like to admit for me to finish! But I'm extremely happy with the story that I created. Whether you were with me through the hiatus, or just read the story in one go (staying up till 3 am to finish)

I'm so glad you liked it.

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