We all are animals anyway

ZELDA POV

Gosh, I hate the sun rays on my face, I thought I had my curtains closed for THAT reason, who the fuck opened them?

Zelda slowly opens her eyes, and finds herself out in the field, on top of dry leaves, snow falling scarcely, and an arm around her abdomen. She widens her eyes as yesterday's events start to set in her memory.

Mother of… all right girl, get yourself together, you are all right, and feeling all right actually, damn… I should eat guts more often. Snow appears to be falling, if it's cold enough to be snowing why am I not cold? Oh… right, he is hugging me. Well at least it's just his arm around my waist, his body feels close too but not inappropriately close, I guess he must have felt I was trembling and decided to share his warmth… WAIT, does he have a fever or something? He feels too hot for it to be normal. 

Zelda turns her body to face Link, and finds him staring right back at her. But Zelda doesn't flinch, she just stares at him for a few seconds and decides to raise her hand and touch his forehead, she also touches her own with her other hand.

"What are you doing?" Link asks Zelda with curiosity and a little of concern.

"Checking if you have not broken into a fever, what are YOU doing?" Zelda asks looking down at his arm on her.

"Trying to keep us warm respectfully, does this offend you?" he asks raising an eyebrow.

"It… makes me uncomfortable if I think too much about it, but no, it does not offend me" Zelda answers.

Zelda frowns and raises herself to a sitting position, then crouches on him reaching for his neck. Links reacts immediately, and grabs her wrist twisting it.

"AAWWW, let go" Zelda exclaims twisting the rest of her arm trying to avoid the pain.

Link immediately releases her wrist, and also assumes a sitting position.

"I am sorry, that was an automatic response… let's call it an instinct, did I hurt you?" 

"I JUST WANTED TO CHECK YOUR TEMPERATURE" She says rubbing her wrist "I think my wrist is not hurt, and I also think you may have a fever"

Link touches his forehead and then hers. 

"I am all right"

Zelda stares at him frowning, Link realizes she is willing to fight him on this and sighs.

"This is my normal body temperature Zelda, I am not making it up, doctors have checked on it and they have not figured out why, all I know is you want me close in winter and far away in summer" Link tells her.

"Isn't that a convenient trait… ANOTHER convenient trait" she says bitterly and looks away.

UPS… the bitterness just flowed out of me, and now he must be angry and confused, damn I should have kept quiet, the last thing I want is to start a fight with him now.

Link exhales and stretches his arms "I answered your questions yesterday, today is my turn. Why do you hate me?" Link ask her with a blank face.

Zelda widens her eyes with a gasp; she then turns to him frowning.

Oh, he wants to know, like he DOESN'T ALLREADY, well maybe he genuinely doesn't. Well now he will now.

"BECAUSE YOU HAVE IT ALL" she takes a deep breath "you are strong, intelligent, you have the King and Queen's trust and respect, maybe even their love. The Queen is MY mother… why can't I have her love? You just came and took everything… in a day" 

Zelda stops her rant to search for something she can use to clean her nose from the mucus, and the tears from her face. Link reaches for a cloth napkin he carries in his jacket, Martin's idea of passing the savage boy for a gentleman. He hands it to Zelda, never taking his eyes from her. 

"It going to get dirty and sticky with my mucus"

"My jacket has a hole, I don't care… I am compelled to right some of the thing you said, would you listen?" Link tells her.

Zelda takes the cloth napkin and nods at him.

He needs to right this… what is he going to do to make this right? ask for forgiveness? That solves nothing but I will forgive him if he asks. He DID save my life. 

"To sum it up: I am strong, intelligent, trust worthy, respected and loved, you CAN'T hate me for ANY of that, I was not born with those privileges, nor did I take any of it from you, I earned them."

Because of course, what he meant was to CORRECT ME, not to ask for forgiveness

Zelda starts to refute "NO WAIT, you did not earn an-"

"My strength is not an inheritance, I had to work my body day and night to obtain it. I read and inform myself about every and any topic, knowledge is a powerful weapon. Strength and knowledge make me dangerous, someone you have to keep an eye on. Daphnes took a leap of faith with me, but don't think poorly of him, he has a keen head on his shoulders, he made me trust him first, that compelled me to show him I could be trusted, that was no easy path for any of us"

Link laughs at the memory and continues "I gained your mother faster but harder if you consider what it involved… she had to see me defend her King against the Akkla people… she had to consider me a valuable asset. I don't think they love me; they LOVE YOU, but they at least respect me"

I… have never bothered to give it so much thought to emotions, but I guess I get it, it's absurd to hate someone for something they worked hard for… does this makes me stupid? Childish even?

"I am not going to pretend you don't have a negative emotion towards me, but it can't be hatred, it would make you simple minded and stupid, I know you are none of that… what you feel is jealousy"

ME JELOUS OF HIM?... maybe a little, kind of like a LOT, all right, now that I have properly identified what I feel, I still feel disgusting, what do I do about it?

"The good thing about jealousy is that it can be overcome, I could help if you allow me"

LINK POV

AND THIS IS IT!!! This is how I get to do what the King asked of me

*What I don't get is WHY tell her she is not stupid, you know she is, this was fucking childish of her*

Because you never get what you want from a woman by attacking her directly, you deviate the attack. You let her feel bad about it but do not obliterate her, she could clamp on herself. THEN you present her your solution, that way she thinks she ¨choose¨ to do what you want her to do. Come on you know this too. 

"Help me with what and how?" Zelda asks not really wanting to hear his suggestion

"To gain strength, intelligence, and respect for yourself. If you are not against it, we could start with gaining strength by doing physical exercise, but not any exercise… I would love to instruct you into using a short blade, I want my future Queen to be able of defending herself"

Zelda covers her mouth, her eyes start to water but you could see she was smiling "OH, FOR NAYRU'S LOVE… YES!!!, I WOULD LOVE THAT" she says as she stands and jumps out of the leaf mattress exited at the prospect. She suddenly stops dead on her tracks.

"Wait, can you do that? I don't think the King would allow it" she tells him begging with her eyes for a solution to that.

*Well, that was easy, I am kind of excited about it myself*

Yeah, too easy… I am kind of sorry for her, she really needs… wants recognition. To bee seen as more than a pretty face.

"Don't worry about that, the King wanted me to instruct you remember? I will include sword wielding in your lessons, he may be a little apprehensive but if YOU ask him, he will fold, I assure you. Now let's start the day" Link says as he slowly stands, but he grunts in pain.

"Are you ok? Does it hurt much? Let me see"

Zelda reaches for his jacket but Link stops her.

"It hurts, but that is to be expected from an open wound, it does not feel like its actively bleeding, I would prefer if you did not tamper the wound"

The Princess rolls her eyes "I will not touch it, but let me smell it at least, to check it's not infected"

She can sme-… is she really NOT Daphnes's daughter? Or is this like a royalty trait? I don't have a bad sense of smell but these royals are putting me to shame.

"Take a sniff then"

Zelda circles him and raises the backside of Link's jacket a little.

"No pungent smell so you are good, what cologne do you use by the way? It's incredible it still smells a little"

Link turns to look at her squinting.

"I… don't use, should I start using?" Link asks her with sincerity.

"YOU DON'T? wow… That IS how you smell? Before you ask, you smell like pine trees with a little of spice, maybe your own sweat? It kind of reminds me of pepper since it's a woody smell" The princess notices Link staring at her a little troubled "don't worry about it, one would need to get really close to notice if that is what bothers you."

I get it, I need to improve my sense of smell… and maybe think of a cologne.

*Why though? I think she likes your smell*

And why would you think that?

*She thought you were already using a cologne*

Fair point.

They finally start heading east, Link tried to use his cellphone to verify if there is still a military training camp on the way, but the battery is dead. They continue walking for a few hours when Zelda suddenly runs off and drops on her knees, Link slowly gives chase.

"What is going on?" Link asks her.

"LOOK, its chantirel? chant… I don't remember the name, it's a mushroom, Rolo cooks them for us from time to time, they will be a perfect addition to the soup don't you think?" she asks as she continues to pick them and store them on her pouch.

"Chantrelles if I remember correctly, I am surprised you saw them and remember they are edible"

"How could I forget them, I was forced to eat them when I was 6, since I was refusing to, mom grind them and used a funnel to force feed me… that traumatized me." She says with a blank expression on her face, then reassumes happily picking the mushrooms "But they don't taste bad, I kind of like them now"

WOW, HAHAHA, I would have paid to SEE that, damn… I knew Claire was a force to reckon but this was plain brutality, she is a monster… I love my Queen.

"THERE, I think that is all of them, the ball is in your court now" she says standing up with the smuggest grin on her face.

Link looks at her lifting an eyebrow, Zelda rolls her eyes.

"You said that I cook and you hunt, SO HUNT, bring me something that I can pair with the chantrelles" Zelda says in a demanding tone, but the corners of her mouth betray her by showing the shadow of a smile.

She is having fun; despite the situation she is enjoying herself. And I thought I was doing a poor job here.

"YES, my lady" Link answers.