Had you been in better spirits, you likely would have been admiring the beautiful location Sidon had brought you to to study. The Zora prince had led you up a tall staircase to a private area that overlooked the Rutala dam reservoir, which was breathtaking enough on its own. With the sun beginning to set, it was even more beautiful.
You could barely even see the scenery, though, with the tears currently clouding your vision. You gripped the scroll in your hands hard as you willed the tears to dissipate, tying to no avail to focus on the words in front of you. Several piles of scrolls and other reading materials were laid out on the stone bed, and though you had been sitting here for well over an hour, you had hardly even made a dent on the mass of papers.
After a few moments of staring at the document with no success, you pressed your palms flat against your eyes, rubbing desperately with the hope that the tears would go away. Maybe if the knot inside your chest would untangle, then you would be able to find the information that Link needed, and not be such a deadweight to him. As it was, though, you felt as though your presence was doing more harm to him than good.
The events of the day replayed in your mind, and if anything, the knot in your chest only tangled further. Really, you didn't know whether you wanted to cry from feeling miserable, or out of frustration at Link. You really couldn't make sense in your head just what it was that you had done to make him give you the cold shoulder, but it was eating away at you.
Though the interaction with him had happened several hours before, you felt as though your heart hadn't quite stopped aching since, and it was beginning to take a toll on you. You felt exhausted, and if the emotional pain wasn't enough, there was still a slight dull aching in the back of your skull.
Part of you screamed to just give in, succumb to the weight of the emotions building up inside of you, and cry. The other part was still so busy trying to figure out just what you had done to make Link so upset that it couldn't even decide whether or not you should cry.
The emotional side won.
Sucking in a small, harsh breath, you allowed your first tears to fall in earnest. They rolled heavy down your cheeks, and left your face contorting into an expression that you knew was ugly.
You couldn't bring yourself to care what you looked like, though, as you gave into the weight of the emotion that had settled itself over your heart during the day. As tears stained their way down your skin, you leaned back on the bed until you were staring up at the ceiling of the awning.
You weren't sure how much time passed like that, staring up at the cerulean stone with tear-clouded vision, but eventually the sound of footsteps pulled you out of your emotional fog. At first, you thought it might have been Sidon coming to check on you.
At least, until you sat up and were met with the sight of one blond knight who made your heart feel like it had been ripped out of your throat.
Oh.
Well, now you definitely cared what you looked like.
You rushed to wipe at your cheeks, knowing that there truly wasn't anything that you could do to disguise the obvious evidence that you had been crying, but still trying nonetheless.
In an attempt to act even more casual, you cleared your throat, now trying to nonchalantly wipe the snot from your nose. Gross. And, great, you probably looked like an overly-emotional wreck to him, cause this is definitely what you wanted him to see when you guys next spoke.
Just great.
If Link noticed your tears, though, he didn't say anything. Instead, he kept a fair distance away, standing by one of the banisters of the awning that hung over the little makeshift study area. While his gaze was mostly focused on the floor, he briefly looked up at you, raising his hand in a tiny half-wave.
"I... Hi. I mean, um," he started, now bringing that hand up to drag over his face. "I'm sorry. I... I'm not good at this. I just—Can we... Can we talk?"
And damn it, despite the frustration and misery you had been feeling all day, your heart softened just seeing him standing there. After a moment of hesitation, you relucted, nodding gently and scooting over on the stone bed so that there was enough room for him to sit without crushing the documents that were strewn all over it.
To your surprise, Link gave a small, relieved smile, and tentatively began to make his way over to where you were sitting. You kept yourself half-turned away from him, though, still too embarrassed by the tears you knew had stained your face. You kept your gaze focused now on your lap, and tried desperately to arrange your thoughts, and prepare for whatever it was that Link was going to say to you.
And if that thing was going to be him telling you he no longer wanted to travel with you, then, well.... Then you were going to accept that, and move on.
As best you could, at least.
The knight sat down beside you, though far enough away that the two of you weren't touching. The silence weighed heavily on your chest, and you were sure he must have been able to hear the pounding of your heart.
Seconds dragged on to minutes, until finally he made the first move. To your surprise, he took hold of one of your hands, before settling a small warm bundle into it. Your brow furrowed in confusion as you studied the thing—it was some type of leaves, wrapped with twine. And it smelled absolutely delicious.
As he passed it into your hands, he made the gesture for you to open it. So, carefully, you unwrapped the twine, peeling back the dried leaves to reveal...
Rice balls.
You couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, and your stomach grumbled at the sight. You dared to take a look at Link, and he met your glance, a bashful expression on his face.
"I... Bazz told me you hadn't eaten any of your lunch. I thought you might be hungry..."
His voice was so gentle it made your heart ache, and though you were hungry, you moved to set the bundle of rice balls beside yourself on the bed. Hunger could wait; more than anything, you wanted to settle just what the issue between the two of you was, no matter how painful it might be.
Link looked slightly taken aback by your move to face him, and bit his lip. You tried not to follow the motion, instead looking down at your hands, and hoping that he would speak when he was ready.
After a few moments more of silence, Link sighed, before cautiously reaching a hand forward to place over your own. Though the contact made your stomach leap, you stayed still, though allowed your glaze to flick back up to his now conflicted expression.
"I'm sorry, [y/n]. The way that I... that I've been treating you today. It hasn't been fair. And I've hurt you."
You began to interject, wanting to apologize instead, but he held up a hand, effectively silencing you.
"I owe you an apology. I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have been so cold to you. I just... I was angry." You frowned, apology already reforming on your tongue, when he continued. "I was angry at myself, because I couldn't protect you."
Wait, what?
You had been expecting him to scold you, tell you you had been too reckless, and that it had upset him—not that he would be angry with himself.
"That's stupid!' You interjected, and he looked a little bit startled by your response. You huffed out of frustration at yourself, brow furrowing as you looked down at the stone floor. "It's my fault for being so reckless in the first place. You shouldn't have to be responsible for yourself and me! That isn't fair to you."
If he looked startled before, he looked downright confused now.
"What?" Link shook his head, moving forward to now take both of your hands in his own, a sincere if not concerned expression on his face. "I told you I would protect you. Your safety is important to me... How are you not furious with me for letting you get injured?"
Your expression contorted through a range of emotions as you tried to unravel this all in your head. Eventually, you sighed, shaking your head slowly.
"How could I be mad at you? You've done nothing but help me since I woke up, and... you still got me here, and got me help. I'm furious with myself, if anything... I've done nothing but be a burden for you since we me-"
"Don't say that."
His interruption took you by surprise, enough to shut you up and give him the opportunity to speak.
"You aren't a burden. I've never seen you as a burden. I want to be here beside you, to protect you and help you to get all of your memories back. I know how scary it is to wake up and not know even a single thing about yourself, and if there's even the smallest thing that I can do to keep you from going through this alone, then... well, then I'm gonna do it."
And here, like this, with your hands clasped in his calloused ones, you couldn't help but want to cry at his sincerity. Your [e/c] eyes stared into his own blue ones, but there was no hesitance in his gaze.
The expression he met you with was one of determination, and the most tender softness you had ever seen painted across his features. Ignoring the swirling of emotions in your chest, you hung your head, closing your eyes tight as you thought.
After a moment, and once you had gathered enough courage to look back into those brilliantly blue eyes, you raised your head once more, offering a small smile.
"Then... we just have to start doing a better job of looking after each other, huh?" You did your best to keep your tone light, and felt a weight lift off your shoulders when Link chanced a small smile back at you. "I... I want to protect you, too. That's why I fired that arrow in the first place. I didn't—I didn't care what happened to me, if it meant that you didn't get hurt..."
The confession made Link's hold on you stiffen, slightly, before he gave your hands a tight squeeze.
"Okay. We'll watch each other's backs," the knight replied, and you couldn't help but smile at him.
"Promise?"
And as you asked, you lifted one of your hands from his hold, pinky outstretched. He couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the gesture, entangling his own pinky with yours.
"Promise."
As you allowed your fingers to untangle, the tension finally began to dissipate from between you. You heaved a relieved sigh, yet your stomach grumbled loudly in protest at the lack of food inside of it.
Link reached over you to grab the bundle of food that you had set off to the side, and you made a noise of appreciation as you took it from him, almost having forgotten that it was there. While you set to work tearing into the delicious little rice balls, Link busied himself by looking over the papers that had been strewn across the bed.
You stood to give him some more space to settle in over the paperwork, moving to rest against the banister that Link had been standing beside just a little while earlier. As you leaned, you munched happily, and finally a comfortable silence settled between the two of you.
During your time wallowing, you hadn't noticed just how much time had passed. The sun had long since set, and while you couldn't see the moon from your current position, it cast a beautiful glow over the entire area. It's light danced over the surface of the reservoir, and as you admired it, a twinkle dashing overhead caught your eye.
A falling star.
You hastily set your food down as you took a few strides out on the dock to watch after it, a noise of awe leaving you. Part of you wanted to chase it down, but your rationale reminded you it was probably impossible to catch a falling star. Instead you settled to simply watch its glimmer cast over the night sky as it travelled, sighing in wonder.
Before you realized it, though, there was a slight warmth emanating from beside you, and you turned your head slightly to see that the knight had come to stand with you at the end of the dock.
The silence was comfortable, though, and you couldn't help but smile to yourself as you moved to sit slowly down on the edge of the dock. The moon shone so brightly that the time could've been mistaken for early morning, or perhaps that was just the way that it reflected off of the brilliant luminescent stone of the domain.
You sighed in a sort of subdued wistfulness as you gazed out over the reservoir, the bottoms of your boots just barely dancing over the surface of the water—not enough for them to get wet.
Link came to sit down beside you, though his body language was a little more tense than your own. While you sat nonchalantly, he kept his legs tucked up against his chest, resting his chin on them.
Still, though—it felt safe. It felt comfortable. You dared to let your eyes close as you basked in the cool night air and the warmth of the person beside you.
You weren't sure how much time had passed before the silence was broken, and in all honesty would have been happy just to bask in the moment for a while longer. The tone of his voice had your focus settling in entirely on Link, though, and you straightened from where you were sitting as you listened in earnest to the young man.
"[Y/n]... I want to tell you. About... About my past."