NSFW ahead :)
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The princess expected to see a guard stationed outside of her bedchambers, so when she rounded the corner and found herself alone in the corridor she was both shocked and delighted. Perhaps her declaration was being recognized. Maybe, just maybe, she was finally getting some freedom—some autonomy back in her life.
She and Link had split at the top of the castle steps so that they could both get cleaned up. Inviting him straight to her bath to wash together was a thought that crossed her mind, but she ultimately decided against it. Practicality wise, his own soaps and clothes were in the guard's quarters.
Despite the layer of mud cloaking them upon entering into the castle, the Hero of Hyrule was beet red with shame under the scrutiny of the castle staff. Zelda would've been embarrassed herself, if she wasn't so fond of the look on him, instead.
"I can't believe I let you fall off my horse," he had lamented under his breath.
She giggled. "That's what you're so worked up about?"
The confirmation was in his scrunched-up features, accompanied by a pained sigh.
What a simple boy. She couldn't resist stealing a quick kiss before they went their separate ways to wash up.
Zelda got out of the bath and put on her silk, button-up nightgown. She climbed up on top of the blankets of her bed just as Link knocked on the door and entered inside with two piping hot plates of roasted meat and potatoes. His clean skin was practically glowing and his hair was still a bit damp. He stopped a few steps into the room. She gestured to her dresser as indication to set the food down, and then motioned for him to come closer. She crawled to the foot of the bed and knelt there as he set the food aside.
"Thank you for today," she said, taking his hands in hers when he approached. "It meant more to me than I can probably ever express." She kissed him sweetly, and pulled away to study his handsome face. He smiled lovingly back at her, brushing his thumb against the back of her hand.
The calloused touch made her heart squeeze—a reminder yet again that she was the reason he picked up a sword and fought. She slid her hands up his arms and onto his chest. The chest he had shielded her with, and would undoubtedly do again without so much as a hint of requisition.
His lips parted and he looked down to her hands splayed over his tunic. She tilted her head and kissed him again, feeling bolstered by the lusty glaze that came over his eyes when she did.
...The day isn't over yet, she supposed.
Her hands left his chest to slowly begin unbuttoning her nightgown. Cerulean eyes widened as her fingers worked their way down, enticed by the small slivers of skin that became exposed to him. Zelda undid the last button but paused with the nightgown still veiling her body. Link took the cue and dragged his tunic overtop his head, throwing it to the floor. Then he shuffled his pants down his legs so that all that remained was his undergarments, and it was all Zelda could do to watch wide-eyed, herself. He twisted down to free his ankles of his boots and pants, and she marveled at the glimpse she got of his muscled back.
He was covered in scars—some raised, some pale, some healed enough that they had nearly faded away. They were unbelievably attractive. He straightened before her, tall and stoic and inarguably carved by the Goddesses themselves. There were two distinctive scars running diagonally across his defined abdomen—one from his shoulder, traveling across his left pec, and the other coming from the right side and reaching his toned abs. He let her trace the upper scar gingerly with her fingers. She caressed it with hardly a whisper of a kiss, and his breathing hitched. Someday she would ask about the stories behind these scars.
Her hand then glided to the lower scar that stopped by his navel, and she eyed the defined V that dipped beyond his waistline. Peering up at him through her eyelashes to seek his consent, he swallowed thickly. Then nodded.
She hooked her thumbs inside the hem and slid the undergarment down from his hips, while at the same time he brushed the nightgown off of her shoulders. Pairs of gazes stayed glued on the other's body as they each shed their last article of clothing and tossed it aside.
Sure, they had already had sex together, but this was the first time they were seeing each other completely naked. Utter infatuation reigned as she drank in every dip and bend, not caring at all that she was staring or what part of him she was staring at. All of him was mesmerizing. Glossy, cerulean eyes mirrored all of her emotions and more as he beheld her in front of him, breathing already labored.
When the space between them became unbearable, Link braced one knee on the bed and Zelda wrapped her arms loosely around his neck. She kissed him softly as he brought his other leg up and they eased back onto the bed. The feel of his skin on hers sent electricity running through her blood. The weight of his body pinning her down brought a strange sense of serenity.
He placed a kiss on the side of her mouth, her cheek, then her jaw. His mouth continued to work its way down the length of her neck before trailing down to her collarbone. Further still it traveled, eventually to her breast, where he at last bestowed the princess with the kiss she had requested on the night of the Peace Festival.
He palmed her other breast and licked the nipple of the one in his mouth. She whimpered and arched into the sensation.
He mirrored this action before continuing down past her navel, leaving more kisses behind in his wake, until finally pausing before the space between Zelda's thighs. Anticipation faltered the air in her lungs.
She gasped sharply when he began. She shuddered and twisted as he worked, necessitating him to grip the inside of her thighs to keep her in place. Fumbling for a pillow, she squished it over her head in order to muffle herself. She continued to writhe, trying to escape the intensity of his mouth but also not wanting him to pause for even a heartbeat.
Like a pot coming to a boil, the effervescence inside grew hotter and wilder until she was digging her nails into the pillow and shrieking. Back arching completely off the bed, her head burrowed further into the cushion. At last Link slinked back on top of Zelda and removed it from her face so that he could see her flushed expression. She kissed him through jagged breaths.
Still reeling, he positioned his hips at hers and began to sink into her. She cupped his face with her hands, coaxing him further with her kisses. Hips withdrew, and this time pushed until they were pressed flush with her own, causing Zelda to whimper into his mouth.
Their time together at the lake and in the forest had been frenzied and ardent—a catharsis for years of bottled-up desire.
But this was something completely different—a more poetic expression of love. Like they were fate's inexorable sculpture, forged from the same white hot steel. It was slow and sensual and allowed Zelda to savor every aspect of him—the clean smell of his hair, the smoothness of his skin despite its scars, presently in stark contrast of his calloused hands tracing the planes of her body. She trembled at the sounds he made, the breathy kisses and the fullness of him inside her.
As steady rhythm settled, Link found her hands and interlocked his fingers with hers, anchoring her arms to the mattress above her head. His hips rolled, eliciting a new kind of pleasure within Zelda. All of her other senses fell away and all she was aware of was the feeling between her legs, of him moving in and out of her. He rested his forehead against hers, also unable to focus on anything now but burying himself inside her.
His breathing was like thunder against her ear. As her climax drew tantalizingly close, she said through her own hot gasps, "I want to go together."
His response was hardly coherent, more a bedraggled noise of agreement. Or perhaps her head was too deluged with him to hear it properly.
Her hips moved against his in synchrony with each thrust, driving him in deeper, moans mingling in the space between their lips.
"I'm about to—"
She wasn't sure which one of them said it, but it didn't matter because a heartbeat later they were both eclipsed by the same tidal wave of euphoria. Her voice rose higher, fingers clawing at his hair, and he said her name like a prayer against her neck. They clutched at each other as desperately as lovers on the precipice of calamity, continuing to cradle one another until the molten ecstasy pulsing throughout their veins at last subsided enough for them to respire again.
Then they laid there, with him fully seated in her, and inhaled each other's gasps.
Her arms loosed enough to dangle around his neck, and he eventually rolled off to her side before collecting her back into his embrace. She tucked her head under his chin and savored the feel of his bare skin against her cheek.
"I love you, Zelda." He tightened his hold on her. "More than anything."
His voice thrummed in his chest and she felt every word reverberate through her. It coursed through her body like a potent drug, echoing deep into the shadows of her heart where hopelessness and fear had resided for far too long.
Tears pricked her eyes. Through endless days and sleepless nights she only dreamed of sharing her life with Link, but never had the audacity to believe that she would ever be lucky enough to actually do so. He was her best friend and hero. He was her everything.
"I love you, too."
They were the only words she dared to utter, lest this unimaginable happiness vanish from her. But as she squeezed him back, a single thread of despair began unwinding deep in her heart. For the first time in a long time, the future held potential.
The potential to wake up next to him each morning and revel together in the hues of lavender, magenta and tangerine as vivid as the destiny that brought them to each other.
The potential to hold the person who fought hardest for her through the changing seasons, good or bad, and prove that she would fight for him, too.
The potential to stand at his side and face whatever hardship may come their way for the remainder of not just one, but perhaps infinite lifetimes.
She felt it, then. They were bound by something bigger than she could ever comprehend—an archaic fate of some sort. He was the gravity that pulled her from orbit. The rightness of his embrace transcended this lifetime; she had been in his arms before. Though she still didn't fathom the full weight of their souls' history together.
Perhaps the curse that resurrected them to fight evil time and time again, Zelda might have mused, was no curse at all if it meant spending an eternity returning to this moment.
Whatever her destiny, it was, is, and always would be beside Link, and it was a fate she embraced with everything she was.