K.K.

Ballad
Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/34773085.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/M
Fandom: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Relationship: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Additional Tags: characters playing Animal Crossing, Alternate Universe - Modern
Setting, Zelda saves Hyrule from Covid, Link doesn't know where to put
his farm
Series: Part 2 of K.K. Love Song
Stats: Published: 2021-10-28 Words: 8102

K.K. Ballad
by socksock

Summary

Things are looking up as Hyrule starts to comes out the other side of the crisis. So why does
she constantly feel like she's about to cry?
Why is she getting so emotional that Link is making friends with her Animal Crossing
villagers?

Zelda's hands are sweating.

She lifts her chin and smiles and tries to hold back the emotion that wells behind her eyes for no
reason.

"Good evening," she says.

The press bow and mutter back a good evening to her too. She reminds herself that she likes
having the whole press core back instead of just the three skeletal teams from the three main news
stations, spread at a distance across the room. The reporters are back in a thick pack. Zelda
wonders if they feel the same sense of claustrophobia as she now does when standing in a crowd.
She's relieved that she speaks from a podium.

"It is a great honor to announce that, as of this afternoon, the last two Covid patients in the Gerudo
Province have tested negative."

The press core cheers and it lifts tears towards Zelda's eyes.

"As you know, the Gerudo population has the largest percentage of people unable to receive the
resurrection technology cure due to preexisting medical conditions, and that has made stamping out
the virus more difficult than in other regions. We are keeping track of those exposed to the last
two patients: a group which consists of eight people consisting of medical staff and immediate
family members. His Majesty and Chief Urbosa have agreed that in two weeks on November 5th,
if there are no new cases, we will declare the province Covid-free and drop all travel restrictions
between Gerudo Province and the non-quarantined provinces."

Maybe the feeling she has is relief, but it feels too heavy for that, too overwhelming. Why is it
now when everything is calming down that she feels as if she's about to fly apart? She misses
wearing a mask, because that would hide the way her low lip threatens to quiver.

She carries on.

"After the delays in stage 2, I'm happy to report that the trials for the Zora resurrection technology
cure will progress to stage 3 next week.

"And finally, the first Rito cures will be administered tomorrow and will continue over the course
of the week. We hope to administer a quarter million cures over the course of the week and
100,000 on Friday and Saturday alone. We are arranging dozens of pop-ups available in schools,
government buildings, parks, libraries, and public transportation hubs. Rito City is hosting a fair
with live music and free food, and Tabantha Channel 4 is hosting a telethon with celebrities from
all over Hyrule. We encourage every Rito to receive the cure and be a shield to their people just
like the legendary Vah Medoh. We are hopeful that this would mean that 80% of the Tabantha
population will have received the cure by the end of Medoh Week. Tabantha has been Covid-free
for four months now, and if Medoh Week goes well, the Tabantha Elders have agreed to drop all
travel restrictions between Tabantha and the rest of non-quarantined Hyrule at that time."

It's all good news. Good news. Good news. But it feels too good. There's something she's not
thinking of that will bring everything crashing down as soon as she lets her guard down, as soon as
she lets herself relax. So she can't relax. It's been too long. Too much. The other shoe is going to
drop at any moment.

Maybe it will happen now as she takes questions from the press core.

Details about the reopening borders. Supply chain issues and such. Will she and her father be
going to Medoh Week? Where is her father tonight? Are they worried about renewed Yiga
activity in greater Hyrule once they reopen the border?

The press core always throws her a silly question when they're done, and her lips twitch when as
they're wrapping up someone asks, "That's an awful lot to happen on November 5th, isn't it?"

A few of the members of the press look confused.

"Yes," Zelda says. Then, "For those who are unaware, there is a large Animal Crossing update on
the 5th."

The press core chuckles.

"But of course honoring Gerudo Province's great achievement and the celebration of the return of
free travel in and out of the desert is far more important than the update," she says. "It's a shame,
but Mr. Outset and I are going to wait until the 6th to see all the new features."

"Mr. Outset is going with you to Gerudo Province?"

Oh. Shoot.

"I don't have an answer to that at this time. I'm referring to how he agreed not to play Animal
Crossing on the 5th in solidarity with my schedule."

Someone awws.

"Does that mean Mr. Outset knew of the royal family's plans involving the Gerudo Province's
Covid-free status before we did?"

"Yes. My hairdresser also knew before you did. As did everyone who listened to Chief Urbosa's
announcement that began fifteen minutes ago."

As they chuckle at how swiftly she put the reporter in place, someone asks, "Is he accompanying
you to Tabantha for Medoh Week?"

Well. There's no time like the present. Her chest tightens.

"Yes," she says.

They need every celebrity figure they can to turn out to support Mehod Week, and Link now
counts as a celebrity. The planning committee was relieved that he was one of the easiest gets.
Also...there has to be some event at which he is first publicly introduced as her partner. This will
be much more socially conscious than a state dinner. He's also likely to do a better job presenting
himself while encouraging smitten Rito to take the cure than he would trying to hold a
conversation with a grumpy ambassador.

"Our itinerary, along with His Majesty's, will be finalized tomorrow morning and presented at that
point."

There's excited muttering from the press corps, and Zelda picks up her notes to show she is not
taking any further questions. "Thank you. Have a good evening."

Link and the royal press secretary wait for her just off stage. The press secretary gives her a
thumbs up, which Zelda returns tiredly. The woman opens her mouth to say something, but then
someone calls her, and she makes a hurried excuse and ducks off with a distracted bow.

Zelda feels as if her hands are shaking. Something's wrong with her.

"Hey," Link says. He rubs her arms, bringing her back to herself. "So that went okay."

"It did go okay."

She straightens his already straight tie, and he cups his hands around her elbows. She's glad she
convinced Link to wear more than one suit. She can't gift him clothes, and he can't afford a full
wardrobe, but she found a designer who is loaning him outfits in exchange for the massive amount
of advertising Link gives him by just existing in a notched lapel.

"I'm exhausted," she says.

He nods. "Let's get out of here."

She's a little sad that he rests a hand on the small of her back to steer her out instead of throwing an
arm over her shoulders like he used to.

But it's fine. Everything's good. It's all good news.

As soon as they're down the hallway and far away from the press core, Link squeezes her hip.
"You're doing great," he murmurs.
Right.

It's all good news.

In south Castle Town, on the side of a Malo Mart, there is a mural with Link's face on it. It's a bust
of him in profile. He's in his green over-large hoodie, and it's photo-realistic except for the
cartoonish crown spray-painted on his head.

It's super embarrassing, and he's not sure if he should pretend it doesn't weird him out or if he
should have a panic attack in front of Z. After much fretting over it, he decides a middle ground is
in order.

"Someone sent me this today," he says, handing over his slate to show her the picture Niko sent. "I
thought I should tell you in case your people need to...I don't know, do something bout it."

She's changed into a T-shirt and a pair of very short shorts that are almost as soft as her skin. She
looks smaller with all her makeup scrubbed off.

She quirks an eyebrow. "Do something?"

"I don't know."

"Like what?" she laughs. "Paint over it?"

He groans and hides his face in his hands. "I don't know!"

She pulls his hand down to smack a bunch of kisses to his cheek in quick succession. When he
stops hiding, she pulls back, all business again as she hands his slate back to him and rearranges
more outdoor furniture on her Animal Crossing island. "Acknowledging it at all is a mistake.
Don't look like you're pleased with it and don't look like you're angry about it. You are above
noticing it."

"That's just it. I'm trying to be cool about it. Did it work?"

"Oh," she says, turning back to him. "Are you upset about it?"

She looks as though she's simply curious, her head tilted to the side and her eyes innocent and
interested. But he's spent a lot of time with her on voice chats, and he can hear the sudden
tightness in her tone. He does not like being the cause of her voice tightening.

He doesn't know how she wants him to answer, so he's just honest about it. "I'm not upset. I know
it's just people who don't know better being overly excited."

Some tension eases from her shoulders. "That's exactly right. Don't let it bother you. Our
relationship is our own business, and no one else gets to dictate the schedule of its progression.
Especially not someone who vandalized a Malo Mart."

He snorts pulling up his own Animal Crossing game and sinking back on the couch as Z snuggles
into his side.
"Can I come over?" he asks.

She nods and runs over to open her gate.

"If you come over, you can't work on your farm."

He grumbles. "I don't want to build a farm. Where would I put it? I have to remove something.
And a farm would be kinda out of place."

"Maybe up on your cliffs?"

"What if I had them as part of the farmer's market? Like I put the patches behind the stalls?"

She hums, which means she's not terribly invested in that idea.

When the update hits, the first thing Link is going to do is plant food so he can cook as quickly as
possible. Cooking is going to change the game. His island of restaurants and food stands is going
to be amazing. He is so excited.

That, and he's going to make friends with Brewster so Brewster can store his gyroids and give him
a part-time job making coffee for Isabel. Link can die happy if he makes coffee for Isabel.

The first thing Zelda is going to do is play the DLC like a woman possessed until she unlocks the
ability to rearrange the furniture in her villagers' houses, taking her obsessive attention to detail to a
whole new level. She is so excited.

That and she going to get new fences. She needs those new fences. He had to talk her out of
contacting the distributors and asking for special treatment so she could get the update a day
earlier. It's the only time she's really considered using her position for something frivolous, and
Link's relieved that it was easy to talk her out of it.

He walks out of Zelda's airport, but she's back in the main plaza where she's planning her new
fences. He bumps into Annalisa, Zelda's anteater villager, who is dressed like a Sheikah and
whose house has been converted to Sheikah Headquarters. He starts up a conversation. Annalisa
says "Snap" as a catchphrase, but he hasn't paid much attention to the dialogue in a while.

"Can you just add your new crops to your pumpkin patch?" she asks.

"I'm not putting carrots a the Lumpy Pumpkin!" He's almost offended that she would ask.

"You should just make a farm. Do a farm-to-table kind of thing. You have that apple orchard. It
can be like that."

It can be like that. But everyone has a farm. He wants to be special. Which is silly.

"It's a cider apple orchard," he corrects.

"Oh, I beg your pardon."

He gives Annalisa one of his "cider apples," which--yes--are regular apples except he has a sign
that says "cidery" and some barrels with taps. Apples are not Z's native fruit, so Annalisa is
impressed and hands him an ugly shirt.

Zelda tenses. "What was that?"

"What?" He leans over to see her screen, but can't see anything strange.
"What did you just do?”

“When?”

“With Annalisa. You gave her something.”

“Oh. Yeah. A fruit.”

“You...can give my villagers gifts?”

“Yeah, we’re to that first friendship level.”

She sits up and pulls away to spin on him. “You can’t be friends with my villagers.”

“Wh-why not?”

He must look pretty hurt, because she softens and reaches out to squeeze his knee. “I don’t mean
that I don’t want you to be friends with them. I mean that you can’t. They’re not programmed to
make friends with anyone off their island.”

“Do you know that for sure, or has no one ever tried it?”

“I—“ She frowns.

He raises his eyebrows. “I can give them gifts now.”

Her frown deepens.

He shrugs. “If it works, it works. No harm done. I’m just giving them fruit. I swear to the
Goddess, I won’t mess up their houses. I know how hard you worked on those.”

She's still frowning at him when she says, "That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to
me."

"That's sad."

Her look has shifted slightly. He can't quite read it.

"Link?" she asks.

"Yeah?"

She bites her lip. "The mural...are you pleased with it?"

"Like...am I proud someone made it?"

"Yes."

This feels dangerous. "Are you asking if I'm dating you for the murals?"

"No. That's not...that's not exactly what I'm asking."

She's asking about the fame that inspired the mural painting. She's asking about the crown painted
on his head. Is he pleased people think he's going to be king.

He sets down his slate. "I like..." He swallows. "I like that people think I'm good enough for
you. And...you can hear it when people talk about liking me, that they only care because they love
you. They want you to be happy. It's not like they like me because they think I'll make you better.
And it's not that they're interested because we're a big, dramatic train wreck that's fun to watch. So,
yeah, I'm proud that I can be someone who doesn't make your life harder. I'm proud that people
who care about you like me."

He tilts his head, wondering if he explained that well enough. She still has a little frown. It's
migrated mostly to between her eyebrows.

She lunges in to kiss him.

He scrambles to get their slates set aside as she pushes close, and he only manages to get the
volume turned down before his hands are full.

They're walking to the east receiving room to have brunch with her father the next morning while
Link says, "I have to learn twelve whole new songs from the update. I don't know if I can do it."

"Of course you can do it," she says. "You have the other...seventy memorized."

"Not all of them. Not all the words and everything. And I'm not made out of time anymore, so I
don't know how I'm going to get it done."

It strikes Zelda that he doesn't have to get that done, but watching him quietly fret about it is kind
of adorable.

She really wishes her father would stop insisting on having brunch with her and Link whenever he's
in the castle. She's started having Link visit her for dinner and insisting it's a date so her father will
leave them alone. The king does not have time for brunch with her boyfriend, and her father and
Link already know each other well enough, and she doesn't like that her father knows that Link
spent the night, and her father just generally needs to back off.

She knows (she just knows) that he's biding his time until he can say something truly rude about
Link. He's using these get-togethers as time to hunt for Link's less suitable. He's picking his
moment for when it will be the most devastating. He wants his insult to be so well placed that her
relationship collapses instantly.

Well, she's ready for him. And if he thinks he'll get away with it, then he's sorely mistaken.

"It's not as if you have a timeline for memorizing K.K. songs," she says.

"Right, but I want to serenade you with new tunes, so..."

She laughs and bumps his ribs with her elbow, which he snags, slipping his hand into hers. She
leans against his shoulder.

He slows his walk and holds up a forearm to a guard named Russell heading the other direction.
The men grin at each other as they bump their forearms in greeting.

“Hey, you get my text?”

Russell snorts. “I’m on duty.”

“So you didn't?”

Russell laughs and they both keep walking with Link turned half way around to keep speaking to
him. “Next week on Thursday at 7:00,” Link says. “Everyone else can make it.”

Russell thinks. He’s also turned around and walking slowly backwards. “Thursday...Yeah, I
should be free then.”

“Yes!” Link pumps his fist in the air.

He grins as he turns back around to Zelda. “Sorry,” he says. “I'm just wondering if I should cheat
and look them up instead of waiting until I get hold of the songs myself.”

Zelda’s eyes are very wide.

If Link had given Russell a fruit, the guard would have given him an ugly sweater.

Everyone in Castle Town is ready to give Link an ugly sweater.

That's a good thing. It's good. Great. The feeling swelling in her, threatening to burst open her
chest, must be affection. But she's never felt it like this before, and it's not like anything she would
have expected. It feels more like fear than anything, but that's ridiculous.

Being defensive around her father acts as a solid distraction, and then she's soothed by the sweet,
easy smiles that Link slips her. Her father makes a teasing comment about how Zelda gets when
she's irritated, hoping to laugh about it with Link (and why on earth is he doing that except as a
trap?), but Link begs his pardon and says that every time he's seen Zelda irritated, she's always had
a good reason.

Haha! She smirks triumphantly at her father. Take that. Link is far too smart to fall for his tricks.
Link is--in fact--the best.

She kisses him goodbye in the hallway outside the receiving room. He's still shy about kissing her
when the staff can see, but she holds him by the back of his neck and pulls him in, and that's
enough to distract him into kissing her properly. One of the butlers shows him to the garage, and
she heads back into the receiving room, re-takes her seat, and serves herself a second helping of
coffee cake.

Her father lowers his newspaper, giving her an odd look over the top of it.

She lifts an eyebrow in question.

"I know you don't want to hear what I have to say."

She straightens, instantly defensive. Here it comes. If her father pulls any classist nonsense, she
will publicly eviscerate him and never speak to him again.

At least he's saying whatever this is to her and not to Link.

"I'm hesitant, because you always do exactly the opposite of what I say," he says. "But...I like that
young man."

What?

Zelda rears back even straighter, and her father snorts. "See?"
Defensively, she says, "He's a good man."

"He is," her father agrees. "I'm impressed. He's definitely here for the right reasons. He's not here
for power or fame or wealth. He's here to support you. That is the main quality you should be
looking for in a partner." He shrugs. "And he's calm and even-keeled. He's not going to make a
scene and embarrass you. Goddess, remember that last one? With the infinity pool?"

She doesn't know what to do with this, and it has her greatly unbalanced. She never agrees with
her father, especially in maters of her personal life.

But she's not going to argue with him about this, because he's absolutely right. "He's sweet to me,"
she says.

Suddenly her father is frowning at her. "You're making a face. Why are you making a face?
You're not planning to break up with him now that I've said something, are you?"

"No! Of course not."

"Then what's happening?"

"Nothing! It's...it's nothing."

His lips narrow in annoyance.

She groans. "He made friends with my villagers."

"I beg your pardon?"

"The villagers on my Animal Crossing island. He made friends with them. He makes friends with
everyone. Bea even told me that she likes him more than she likes me."

"Who's Bea?"

"One of my villagers."

Now her father just looks confused. "They're...video game animals?"

She sighs and grabs for her slate. A quick search pulls up a picture of the mural, which she hands
to her father.

"Oh," he says, although it doesn't seem like he understands. She doesn't blame him. She doesn't
understand either.

"Are you worried that he's just after the crown?"

"No! Not at all. He doesn't seem at all interested. But he makes friends with everyone! He's
made friends with the guards. And a couple of the chefs. And the Sheikah techs. And Impa."

Her father gives her an appraising look before handing her slate back to her. "It's inappropriate to
call your subjects villagers...Unless they live in a village. Then it's acceptable."

"He's so charming! And friendly! And handsome! What's going to happen when he realizes that
I'm a mess and not worth it?"

His eyebrows lift. "If he doesn't know that you're a mess by now, it's never going to occur to him."
"Dad...I like him. I really like him, and I...I don't know how to handle that. I haven't ever--I mean,
what if--"

"Zelda," he says. "Stop. You're being ridiculous. You are stewing that you found a man who is
friendly, well liked, and loves you. You are looking for trouble, and it is not at all becoming."

"Do you ever worry when things are going too well?"

He sighs with an eye roll and goes back to his paper.

She is such a mess. Her father is right. And that's also a completely new experience that she does
not care for and yet shouldn't be mad about.

Link is great, and she likes him so so so much, and--

"You are thinking too hard," her father snaps. He's hidden behind his paper. She wonders how he
knew.

Link is at his grandma's apartment tonight. She invited him over for one last meal before his big
trip, which basically means that she invited him over to cook diner for her, which Link is happy to
do. While the gumbo simmers, he sets up Animal Crossing on the big screen and shows up to Z's
island with cupcakes.

He explains the lengths that he's gone to to get eleven birthday cupcakes when it isn't his birthday.
Apparently someone on the Sheikah net went time traveling and collected hundreds of them. Link
then bought enough for everyone on his island and everyone on her island in exchange for fifty
maple leaves. He only had 45 maple leaves, and had to buy five more in exchange for every kind of
after school jacket, which he just happened to have because he's been giving the villagers so much
fruit.

"Not even close to the weirdest trade I've done," he said, setting the cupcake on the outdoor table
between them for her to pick up and eat. He laughs at the way she scarfs it down.

"What?" she asks.

"You're cute," he says. Then he hops out of his chair. "Want to go on a walk with me? I need to
deliver these."

She hops up too and they set off on their walk.

"Do I want to know why you've gone to so much work to get birthday cupcakes?"

"I wanted to do something special for your villagers. They work so hard to keep your town
running."

"You're spoiling them. You know they talk about you constantly."

"Everyone talks about me constantly."

"Because you feed them."

"It's the fastest way to their hearts."

He runs up to Biff, who's walking around with a can of soda for no real reason. "When I can start
cooking, if I give the villagers food, do you think they'll eat it or put it in their houses?"

"I have no idea," she says. And then, "Which would you even want?"

"I don't know. I can't give your villagers food if they're just going to mess up your decorating.
Setting a casserole on a turntable or something."

Biff takes the cupcake, eats it, and then pulls a present from his pocket, mumbling in his little
mumbly way.

"Yes! Yaha!"

"Did you get your argyle sweater?" she asks. He's been looking for the black one because it will
complete his argyle sweater set, and he's been thinking about wearing it while he sets up his
flipping farm. (This means he can also put off making the flipping farm until he's found he
sweater.)

But that's not what this is.

"Biff gave me his photo."

There's silence on the other end of the line.

"Z?"

"I'm here."

Her voice sounds strange.

"Should...I not have done that?"

"It's fine."

"It doesn't sound fine."

"Don't be silly. I'm...It makes sense you would get along with Biff."

"I can stop giving them food if you want."

"No. It's fine. Someone needs to feed them. They certainly don't feed themselves."

He's not sure how to proceed. She sounds pretty upset that he's gotten Biff's picture. Is it a
jealously thing? She is very possessive of her island. He should stop.

Bea picks that moment to rush into the town square, because it's the time of day when the animals
all run around for no good reason.

"Do you need help with your fences?" he asks.

"Aren't you going to give Bea a cupcake?"

He feels like he's sweating. Is he sweating? Oh Goddess help him.

"Don't you dare give that dog a cupcake!" his grandma snaps.
"I know! What do I do?!"

She thinks for a moment, her knitting needles pausing. Then she nods. "Pretend I've had a heart
attack and you have to take me to the hospital."

"Okay." He lifts his voice unnecessarily, "Oh Goddess, Z, my grandma, she--"

"You two are awful," Z says.

"No, she looks real..." He trails off at his grandma's warning look and then course corrects.
"...Great? Yeah, she looks amazing. I can hardly believe she's having a heart attack."

"Neither can I." But Z is laughing now. "Oh Goddess, Link, I'm sorry."

"I'm going to find someone else to give these cupcakes to."

"You're going to give a stranger's villagers cupcakes? Don't you dare. Those are for my villagers.
If you're going to make friends with villagers that aren't yours they better be mine." She mutters to
herself, "Going to give cupcakes to some other woman's villagers."

Link grins. His grandma is already back to her knitting.

The royal entourage arrives at the Rito City airport Wednesday night, where the process of
showing their cure recipient IDs and getting tested is streamlined by the staff, so they are almost
immediately escorted to a repurposed hotel for quarantine. The press pool is quarantined to the
floor below them, but thankfully, the king absolutely requires immediate access to his staff, so they
are all "quarantining together" in the royal suite on the top floor. They have to stay there for
twenty-four hours before they are tested again and released, but while they're there they can move
around and talk to each other instead of being contained to their small rooms.

The king goes straight into a video conference, but Zelda has enough time before a video call with
the Zora that she gets to have a say in what the aids order for dinner from room service. Link has
already jumped in to help one of the secretaries get set up with the wifi and then to help someone
else set up the food in a kind of buffet, dropping all the cutlery in cups and unloading the
sandwiches from the cart left outside their door. One of the guards who's on break jokes that they
got too many sandwiches, and Link jokes back that there are never enough sandwiches when he's
around, and maybe they should order more.

Zelda slips into her room for her meeting before they can challenge each other to see who can eat
the most sandwiches.

When she comes out an hour and a half later, Link is explaining the rules to a complicated, nerd
card game to the press secretary (who looks boggled) and two aids with nothing to do. the king is
also sitting nearby, playing close attention, but he sits back and Link hasn't dealt him any cards.

Zelda grabs a sandwich and takes a seat beside him. "You're not playing?"

"I have an other meeting in ten minutes. How are the Zora?"
She sighed. "Another delay."

He made a noise between a grumble and a hum.

The press secretary's slate pings, and she looks down at it, starts typing, and then stands up from
her chair and leaves with a quick bow to the royals. No one even blinks, and Zelda slips into her
seat to take her cards, bringing her sandwich with her.

"I'm not sure you should be playing this game," her father says. "You have to purchase provinces
by stealing coins from the other players."

"Only if you do a thief build," Link says.

"A thief build is not a good look for royalty."

Zelda says, "I'm going to build a deck beyond reproach. Don't worry."

"What are you doing then?" her father asks.

"I'm not telling you! Or...I'm not telling them." She gestures at Link and the aids. The aids look
terrified, but Link just looks bemused.

Her father narrows his eyes and then stands, meaning everyone else in the room stands too.
Grumpily, he comes around the table and takes the chair slipped to him by an aid, scooting it closer
to Zelda. Everyone else sits down and Zelda leans in, covering her mouth with her fan of cards.
"I'm going for a Duke/Secret Chamber build."

He narrows his eyes, then covers his own mouth with his hand and mutters, "You'll have to count
cards very carefully. Buy silver first."

"This doesn't seem very fair," Link says.

Zelda and her father make the same dismissive hand motion at him, too absorbed in their
strategizing to give him too much thought. She's going to win this nerd card game.

Her slate chimes with a new image. From Link. It's her and her father with their heads bowed
together. She glares at him over the top of her cards, but he just smirks at her and gets the game
started by buying some silver. Her father looks bemused before narrowing his eyes at Link's and
then the next aid's plays.

A few minutes later, an aid says, "Your Majesty, I'm sorry, but your meeting with the Secretary of
Agriculture is about to begin."

He sighs, pointing at two cards in order (a very obvious order as if he doesn't trust her to make the
right move). He stands and everyone else stands with him, only sitting again when he's shut
himself in his room.

"There," Zelda says. "Now it's more fair."

"Slightly," he says.

She beams across the table at him, and by the time she goes to bed for the night, she's defeated
them three times.

Friday morning finds them in the gym of an elementary school. There are eight little stations set
up each with a folding chair and a table full of alcohol swabs, cotton balls, gifts bags of lollypops
and stickers, and metal coolers full of cures. Zelda and Link greet each of the nurses and the small
supply team who will be restocking throughout the day. They meet the principal and the vice-
principal. She gives a short interview to a news team, because she's thrilled for this big push at the
end of Medoh Week.

Like Vah Medoh, we must all be a shield for our people.

And then the first class comes in. Kindergartners. They hover at the edge of the gym, trying to
stand behind each other, but also trying to lean in over each other's shoulders.

The principal puffs out his chest and says, "Show time," before plopping into the nearest chair and
getting his jab, letting all the kids watch.

Their teacher is next, and by then the kids are ready, and they're jabbing eight kids at a time,
rotating them through, support staff calling the next child and running their paperwork, and
plopping them down and sending them to the other side of the gym with a gift bag and calling the
next kid. And soon enough the next class is there.

Reporters keep popping in to interview her, and Zelda playfully insists that they sit and get the jab
before she speaks to them. Most of them film it live, their star reporter grinning through it. Zelda
holds one cameraman's hand and jokes with him about how the kids are super interested in his
camera. It distracts some of them from their own injections. Zelda always hands the reporters off
to the principal or one of the kids who she noticed was very brave. She keeps the reporters from
bothering the nurses.

And while she's handling the press of it, Link distracts the kids, not really caring if he's being
filmed or not. (And he most definitely is.)

He's crouched down in front of a Rito boy, playing rock, paper, scissors, oh! You got me! Rock,
paper, scissors, haha! I won! Rock, paper, Gah! the boy's head whips around, but the needle is
already out of his thigh, the nurse already pressing a cotton ball under his feathers.

"You did it!" Link cheers. He holds out his forearm for a bump.

The boy grins. "I would have won that last one."

"Lucky for me, we'll never know."

Goddess help her.

Nearby, an anxious little girl is nervously preening her shoulder feathers.

"Hello," Zelda says, squatting down beside her. "I'm Zelda."

The girl gasps as her eyes go wide. "You're the princess."

"I am. What's your name?"

"Lari." The girl leans forward, and in a whisper that's not a whisper at all, she asks, "Do you really
play Animal Crossing?"

"I do," Zelda says, and she's distracting enough that Lari doesn't flinch when the nurse brushes
aside the feathers on her thigh and cleans her skin with an alcohol swab.

"Do you have a cardboard box for pears? I can't find one."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't think I do."

This does not slow the girl down. "My town is Pear Town, and I have only pear trees, and I have
them everywhere."

"Was that your native fruit?"

"No. I had oranges." She practically spits in disgust, and Zelda holds back a laugh. "But now I
have pears."

"How will you craft fruit baskets?"

"I don't need fruit baskets. Those have other gross fruit in them. I don't want those. Just pears."

"A little prick," says the nurse.

"Is your village decorated with pear furniture?" Zelda asks.

"Yes. And--" She twitches as the needle goes in, then relaxes as the nurse pats her shoulder,
already holding a cotton swab to her thigh. "And I only have green villagers. And I gift them pear
furniture. Now everything is pears except inside the museum, and I don't go in there."

"Your town sounds amazing."

She nods seriously, then gets distracted by her gift bag as the nurse hands it to her. "Bye, princess!
If you find a cardboard box with pears on it--"

"I'll keep an eye out."

Link is speaking to a camera crew. "...so excited to be a part of this. It's amazing how much the
Rito have turned out for Medoh Week. I'm so impressed. Tabantha has been so diligent over the
course of the pandemic, and you can feel it in the air how ready everyone is for this to be over.
And it's been a blast to see the kids. I was expecting there would be tears, but these kids all know
what's at stake. They all know that they get to be helpers, and they're all excited to be a shield for
their people. It's been mostly smiles here..."

Another little girl has sat down at the station closest to her, and Zelda pulls herself from the
fullness that wells behind her eyes by greeting her. She has her slate pulled out and ready to go
even though the kids are not supposed to have their slates at school.

Zelda wasn't going to say anything, but the girl hurries to defend herself anyway. "Ms. Marlu said I
could have it out just this once, because my mama said that I'm supposed to take a selfie when I get
my shot."

"Of course! Do you want me to be in the picture with you?"

Her eyes light. "Oh! Yes! Please!"

Zelda twists to sit next to her and smiles brightly at the slate. Together they wait for the jab, and
the girl clicks the photo the second she's stopped cringing.

"Ha!" She lowers her slate as Zelda pulls back. "My mama said she wants a selfie of me with my
shot so she can cry about it."

"Cry about it?"

"Yeah. She says she wants to know the second I'm not going to die." She turns to the nurse. "I'm
not going to die now, right?"

"Not from the virus."

The girl beams and clicks the last tap to send her mother her selfie. Then she hops up with her gift
bag and skips away.

That girl's mother isn't the only one who's going to cry.

Oh. Oh no. She's actually going to start crying. Why? What--It's a wave cresting inside her.
Unstoppable. She looks up at the ceiling in hopes gravity will help her, in hopes she can swallow it
down where it belongs, but she's too full. There's too much emotion to even identify it and it's all
welling up, out of her eyes, out of her mouth. She's going to start crying and then she's going to
start wailing and--

--Link's hand is at the small of her back. He's sweeping her away. Her feet are moving. She's still
looking up at the ceiling instead of where she's going, and her face is crumpling, and her eyes are
closing, and--

--A door closes behind them, and Link pulls her into his arms. "It's okay, Z. Let it out now."

And she does.

Her body sags and then heaves, her sobs noisy and bitter. Everything she's held in for so long, held
onto so tightly, rises up, loosens, collapses. She can't stop it. She clutches to the front of Link's
jacket and presses her face into his neck and collar. He holds her tight, holding her together as the
weight and the pain and the grief roll out of her into a mess of tears and snot. At some point he
shifts them to sitting, pulling her into his lap, but still holding her. He doesn't try to quiet her.
Doesn't try to get her to calm.

Why did any of this happen to them?

It's so pointless that she should be crying now. Now when things are so much better, now when
they're so close to the end. People thank her. People have things to look forward to--celebrations
and social events and game nights. People are out there going to restaurants and going to the
theater and painting murals.

She'll get to hug Urbosa next week. She has a great boyfriend. There's an Animal Crossing update
that she's wildly excited for. And that little girl out there isn't going to die.

She cries harder even as she gasps, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is so weird."

"It's not weird," he murmurs.

"Why can't I just be happy? What's wrong with me?"

He snorts, and she looks up in shock. The look he gives her is warm as he sweeps some of her hair
from her face. "I mean...Zelda...there was a pandemic."

She sniffs. "But I shouldn't--It wasn't that--"

"It wasn't that bad? Really? You're going to say that?"

She stares at him.

He cups her face in his hands. "It was that bad. And you held it together for your people for a
year and a half. And now...you don't have to so much. You don't need to keep it together. This is
the perfect time to let it all out."

"I...Link, it's been so hard." She buries her face back against him and he holds the back of her
head.

"I know, Z. I know. You did so good."

She feels empty and worn like fraying wire by the time the tears stop. She doesn't know if she
feels better, but at least she can make sense of the feelings she's held onto for so long.

She wipes her eyes and looks around. They're in what must be the gym teacher's office. It smells
musty and the space is crammed with hula hoops and small soccer goals, stacks of orange cones
and bags full of what can only be dodge balls. They're on a sofa that must be at least thirty years
old. The fabric is a nubby and fraying boucle, the seat cushion giving far too much under Link's
butt.

"You alright?" he asks.

"Oh no, your suit!" She dabs at the tear stains as if that will...dry them? Press them through the
suit so it comes out the other side? What's she doing?

He looks down at the damp spot, cringes, and then shifts around enough to shrug off the jacket. "I
bet it'll dry. Or the hotel can find me a stain stick."

"They would trip over themselves to find you a stain stick."

"Do I look okay like this?"

She sniffed. "You look amazing, but I think my appearance will distract everyone."

"Don't worry about it." Link brushes the backs of his knuckles against her cheek distractedly as
he fussed with his jacket and pulls out his slate. He holds it behind her so he can hold it with both
hands.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"I'm texting Pipit," he says, then second guesses himself. "Okay, please don't look at this like it's
us talking about you behind your back, but we've been kind of waiting for you to have a meltdown
for a while now, and he's got a plan in place to get your makeup fixed."

"I beg your pardon?"

Link shrugs.

The overwhelming emotion wells up inside her again, because Goddess, she loves Link. The tears
start to well in her eyes again.

Link panics. "We--"

"That's so nice!"

"Oh."

She grabs his face to kiss him.

#

Back at the castle after a successful Medoh Week that ended with them returning home through a
reopened border, Zelda is having trouble holding still. Link can't tell if she's excited or nervous.
Her eyes light as she scoots closer to him on her sofa and announces, "I made something for you."
But then she bites her lip and looks away.

"You made something?"

"In Animal Crossing. You should...you should come over." She nods her head in determination
and runs off to open her airport.

He was going to show her the spot he'd picked out for tomatoes outside the pizzeria, but her thing
sounds more important than a empty plot of dirt and a sign that says, "We make out own sauce!"
Actually, it doesn't say that because there's not enough room on the pixelated sign, but the word
SAUCE is large enough to get the point across.

He suspects that she's going to show him a Medoh Week commemorative T-shirt like the kind
everyone was gifted at the fair. At first she was excited when the code for making the shirt in
Animal Crossing showed up on the Sheikah net, proving that the event was a success, and she then
bemoaned that she'd missed the opportunity to have some sort of Animal Crossing cross-over or
tie-in or something. But lately she's been a bit obsessed with how the shirts (there are more than
one now) that are out there could have been done much better.

"Okay. What are you showing me?"

She taps her fingers against her slate. Then she takes a deep breath and says, "This way," leading
him through town until they're heading towards Timmy & Tommy's.

For over a year, Z has had her Nook's Cranny dressed up with simple panels and walls to look like
Malo Mart.

She twists on the sofa to face him as he jogs after her.

He slams to a stop.

She's changed half the simple panels.

Now instead of the recognizable peach-orange color of all Malo Marts, the simple panels now have
a mural. It's Link's face in profile, photo-realistic except for the cartoonish crown on his head.

He looks up at her. Her slate is in her lap, and she's biting her lip, looking hopeful, but her
shoulders tense as if ready to run.

This was not a T-shirt.

Slowly he says, "I thought we weren't supposed to acknowledge it."

"Well. I thought maybe we...could?"

He stares at her.
She wets her lips. Then she bursts. "I'm pleased the mural is there."

"Really?"

"Yes."

He can't really wrap his head around it. "...Are you asking--"

"I know that it would be a serious lifestyle change for you, and I know that it's an enormous
commitment and I have no right to ask that of you, but I do love you more than I can even describe,
and I know this year has not been a very good demonstration of what the job would be like or what
I'm usually like or what would be expected of you, but at least I could buy you suits, and the public
loves you so much and my father likes you and Bea even likes you, and I'm not technically asking
you because I technically have to ask my father before I ask you and I wouldn't want to announce
anything for a few months anyway until you've made more public appearances and can make an
informed decision, but it feels wrong not to tell you what I'm thinking, because I'm starting to make
plans, and you could always--"

"Yes."

"You--You shouldn't answer right away."

"Okay. I mean, I'm not answering, because you're not asking."

"Right. I'm not asking. I'm just...showing you what I've done to Nook's Cranny."

That has to be the most ridiculous thing she's ever said to him, and then she looks up at him with
scared, hopeful puppy eyes, and he can't help it. He bursts out laughing, pulling her in to kiss her
beautiful face. Her body sags, and she sighs as if she's been holding in that tension for a year.

"Link?" she says against his lips.

"Yeah?"

"It's hard for me to trust that things are good. That's why I get defensive when you make friends
with my villagers. Because it's good. I get emotional."

He nods.

She opens her eyes from just a few inches away. "I trust that things are good with you."

"Things are good with me." He kisses her again before pulling back with a start. "I'd make a
terrible king."

She shrugs. "Then when I'm crowned, you can stay Duke of Necluda."

"Oh." He thinks for a second. "I might be bad at that too."

She smirks, settling her arms around his neck and slipping into his lap. "The main requirement is
providing me a massive amount of carrots from your farm-to-table garden."

He groans.

She laughs and kisses him again.

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