BotW Zelink Drabble

It was another day in the life of the personal knight of the Princess. Link was just about finished with his duty for the day, and his replacement for the evening was going to be coming soon to relieve him. Zelda was holed up in her chambers all day. From the noises he heard through her door, it sounded like she made a breakthrough discovery and lost track of the time.

This was a normal occurance for his liege- most times she wouldn’t come out for days, and when she would emerge- she smelled ripe and had a growling stomach to go with her unkempt appearance. But Link would stand at attention at the stairwell leading up to her study and chambers. The knight wasn’t much of a person for a casual chat with his fellow men, but the princess was surprisingly easy to talk to.

Today just happened to be one of those days- as soon as night began to fall Zelda came out of her study after a long day of reading texts and trying out different experiments. As far as the bangs, explosions and smoke rising out of her windows told Link all that he needed to know- his princess was having the time of her life for once. Her father - the King, was always hard on her for not living up to her namesake. Those times he accompanied her to the throne room, as he kneeled before the King, Link needed to bite his tongue to keep himself from lashing out against his harsh lectures to his daughter.

Zelda walked down the stairwell to the courtyard below her study in the towers above, nearly passing by her knight on her way down. It took her a moment to realize that he was sitting out in the sun all day, and all of his exposed skin was scarlet from a sunburn.

“Link, you know you don’t have to torture yourself standing out in the sun. Just look at you- that burn must look painful. If this happens again, I want you to come in my chambers. That way you’re still doing your job, but you won’t be burnt.”

Zelda walked up to her knight and poked at his burning cheeks. Link winced from the now sensitive skin was demanding to get cooled off.

“Why are you poking if you know that my skin hurts? I can handle this pain... it’s what I was trained to withstand…”

“I’m not going to stop till you let me treat your sunburn- let me help you.” she insisted, as she tugged on the sleeve on his champion’s tunic. “We’re still childhood friends, remember?”

“We’re not children though anymore, Princess-” he almost finished his sentence before Zelda began to pout.

“I’ve told you when we’re alone, it’s okay to drop the formalities and just address me like you used to…”

The knight sighed and loosened up his stiff attentiveness, “Right, right. It’s a habit of mine. I don’t know who’s lurking in the shadows. The chambermaids love to gossip about anything and everything…”

“Let them gossip, I don’t care about them. Now let’s go, you’ve got enough freckles already.”

“What’s a few more? They look better than my old scars I got from my days as a paige..”

“That’s my point Link- you need to take better care of yourself... I’ve just got this terrible… terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach when I see you like this.” her grasp on his cerulean tunic only tightened as he looked down worriedly as his Princess.

He finally yielded and let Zelda take him back into her chambers. She dug through her ointments, and found a thick poultice. Link took off his tunic and white undershirt before she smeared the thick paste onto the angry, reddened skin.

Zelda took a moment to gently caress some of the scars that marred his porcelain skin. Her touch sent shivers up his spine and what little hair he had stood up on end. Zelda giggled as soon as she saw the goosebumps rise over his skin. She knew exactly what made him tick- from all the times that his father brought him to the castle to play with her as children.

“What’s so funny? You know that tickles when you do that!” he snarked.

“Nothing, nothing at all,” Zelda replied as she proceeded to smack the burnt skin. Link yelped from the spasm that ran over his skin, “Now get your shirt on- otherwise somebody might see us through the window, and it’ll cause a scandal.”

“Whatever, let them fantasize…” Link hummed as he began to pull his blue tunic over his head.