(Art by @Kikiospirit)

"How are you ahead?!"

I turned back to Link after he yelled to me, my eyebrow raising in slight amusement as I watched him drag himself up the steep path. He was already a sweaty and heaving mess, which was a surprise since he could climb mountains with ease... I gotta tell you, though, seeing as I was more resistant to something compared to the hero - it did boost my confidence a slight bit.

"Back in my world, I trekked a mountain trail with a few buddies on a regular basis - it was sorta our thing, so that might play some part." I stated with a shrug, slowing my pace to give Link a chance to catch up. Sighing, I placed my hands behind my head and stared up at the rest of the mountain "I might not be saying that for long, though... I can already feel temperatures rising."

"I'm not the only one, then." Link wiped some sweat from his forehead, pointing to his pouch of elixirs after "When do you think we'll need these?"

"I don't know... wait," I dropped my arms down as soon as an idea popped up "That stable hand said equipment made of wood burns easily in the heat, right? If we keep something wooden on us, and it starts to burn, we'll know when the elixirs are needed."

"That's... not a bad idea." Link hummed out, impressed "Got anything like that on you?"

"Yeah, my - well, your bow."

"That'll work." He nodded, seemingly ignoring the fact I still had his bow, "We're going to want to savour these as much as possible, we don't know when we'll find better heat protection."

"Or whether we'll even get to Goron city with the time they'll give us," I held my hand over my eyes as I stared up at the rocky winding path, shielding them from the late morning sunlight "It looks like we'll at least still be on the road until sunset."

"Are you kidding me?!" Link yelled out, not on board with that idea, only to turn away from me and begin to walk down the path instead "Nope, I resign as hero!"

I rolled my eyes, and pulled the boy back by the collar of his tunic "Oh no you don't. If I'm doing this, so are you."

Link groaned, walking backwards as I pulled him along. Glancing back at him, my face fell into a deadpan at his childish behaviour - which I somehow learned to expect with Link. Sometimes he was the strong, hardened-eyed knight that didn't let fear define him... and at other times he was simply a boy that complained and messed around, despite the crushing responsibility hanging over his head.

"Link," I spoke up "We both know I wouldn't actually be able to drag you like this, so stop messing around."

"Fine..." My shoulder jolted back when Link halted his feet, only to remove my hand from his tunic and return to my side. Heh. He was pouting, how cute. We were walking for a little bit, enjoying the silence, but Link turned his head when he felt my gaze linger and raised an eyebrow "What is it?"

My face heated up, and my gaze fell forward "Nothing! I wasn't looking at you, I was looking at the scenery your big head's blocking, obviously!!!"

"...Right."

"What, are you calling me a liar?"

Link's mouth opened for him to retort, but then he paused as if thinking back on something. After a moment, his lips curled up into a small smirk as he leaned towards me slightly.

Oh no.

"I'm not calling you a truther~,"

"Ya know what Limp noodle!!"

He laughed out loud "You walked right into that one! Also your bow's one fire."

"I didn't walk into shi— wait what?" Frowning, I slowly turned my head towards where he was pointing, only to see smoke trailing up from my back. My eyes shot wide open in shock "Oh Quiznak!!!"

"Haha! Okay hold on, I got it." Link's hands grabbed my arms, stopping them from thrashing around to reach my bow, before removing it himself and dropping it onto the floor. There was no use putting it out, so we just watched it burn at our feet. The boy whistled and reached into his pouch "I think now may be a good time to take them."

"Agreed."

The two of us took a bottle each. I popped off the cork and stared at the substance, my nose scrunching at the slimy, unappetising grey sludge I was to drink. Even Link didn't seem too fond of it, and he was the biggest glutton I know!

"That lady didn't tell you what was in this stuff, did she?"

"No, but I don't think it's anything sweet... "

We looked at each other with a grimace. Link held his potion out to me, which I clinked mine against, and the two of us held our breath to brace ourselves.

Well, bottoms up.

Consuming the potion was hardly pleasant. I could practically feel the sludge run down my throat and into my stomach, and the taste it left behind was even less delightful. However, it did work. I instantly felt my body relieve itself from the burning heat of the mountain. I grimaced, my tongue sticking out as I tried to wipe the taste off it with the back of my hand.

"We really need to find an alternative..." Link shivered, every bit as disgusted as I was, and I couldn't agree more.

"Amen, my good sir."

We continued down the path. The smell of fire and molten rock got stronger with every step we took, but luckily we were unaffected. Even our clothing seemed to stay intact. However, I didn't take any chances with the beautiful Rito hairpin I was gifted, and therefore tucked it away where I knew it would be unaffected. Soon enough, we came across a canyon of sorts, which was decorated with ores and cooling igneous rock. Link and I allowed our eyes to wonder while we walked by; I suppose even an active volcano held its beauty.

"It's so pretty..." Link murmured, stopping for a slight moment to admire a rather large molten boulder before walking by, "Maybe this won't be so bad—,"

The ground began to rumble.

Link and I jumped as two loud crashes came from behind us. We exchanged glances, and slowly turned around to see what was going on. A large, molten rock beast stood over us, it's stony arms pounded the ground either side of us as a warming.

"Uhhh, it's getting less pretty." My voice shook as I slowly backed away "I think we should run."

The creature raised an arm overhead, obviously targeting us.

"Yep, run. Definitely run." Link grabbed my wrist and bolted in the opposite direction, his head turned back to watch the lava titan behind us. Multiple rocks were launched in our direction, but Link was able to maneuver around them in time. We might actually be able to escape this— "Oh sh*t!!"

Link abruptly skidded to a stop, which caused me to uncomfortably crash into his back. It was a dead end - the only way out was to climb or use Revali's Gale, but with all the boulders flying at us, I doubted we would be given a chance to succeed or even attempt that. Link sighed and turned to me, and reached back to receive his Steel Lizal bow.

"Okay Y/N," he murmured to me "You've never fought a Talus before, have you?"

"If you're referring to Dwayne the rock Johnson over there, then no I haven't."

He nodded with a hum, and pushed the bow into my hands along with a few arrows "Then I need you to do something. See the ore on top of its head?"

I looked back at the monster, my eyes fixed on the sparkling black stone that stuck out of it "You mean that tumour thing?"

"Call it what you like. That's its weak spot, so that's what you need to shoot. I'll distract it long enough for you to have a clear shot, and once you do, I can get onto its back and deal more damage."

"Is that even going to work? That thing is literally smoking, you could hurt yourself."

Link smirked "Fireproof elixir, remember?"

"Is that even going to work? Does it protect you against fire based enemies? Because that sounds rather op." I asked with a frown.

"Well we won't know unless we try - and we'll have to try soon because it's gaining on us. Duck!!"

I yelped at the sudden warning and quickly crouched to the ground as soon as a flaming rock was chucked at us. The Talus has been moving at a snail's pace up until this point, which gave us a little time to discuss a plan, but it seemed that time had run out. The rock exploded against the wall behind us, leaving us unscathed for now.

"Hah, that's hot..." I chuckled nervously, just before Link scrambled to his feet and ran towards the stone monster. Annoyed at his carelessness, I yelled at him "Link!"

"I'm the distraction, remember?" He called back "I'm trusting you to keep him from hitting me."

"How do you know I won't just let it crush you?!"

"Because you love me!"

"I—," I swallowed my retort. Why was I heating up? I'm pretty sure the elixir's still in effect. Scoffing, I placed an arrow to the bow he gave me "Just don't fall under its feet!"

"Yes ma'am!"

Like a hawk, I watched the Talus' every move, waiting for it to open up an opportunity for me to shoot its weak spot. In the meantime, Link was whistling at it to lead it away from me, and trying his best to give me the opening we needed.

There!

I let my arrow loose, and it pierced the ore like I planned. The beast lost its balance and fell to the floor, seemingly down for at least a few seconds. Link wasted no time rushing at it and grabbing hold of its rocky surface - however just as he did, he let out a pained cry and backed off immediately. The Talus slowly stood, forcing Link to momentarily retreat by sliding under its legs to get back to me.

"What happened?" I asked when noticing his painful wince, which he didn't bother hiding from me. He gave a strained chuckle and held out his hands, which were still slightly shaking from shock. His skin was burned and already blistering, still red and slightly steaming from the surface it came in contact with. I hissed through my teeth; that had to hurt, "Oh sh*t, ouch..."

"I learned the hard way that these elixirs don't protect us from fire based enemies..." he spoke sheepishly, "We're going to need to cool down the Talus' surface if I want to try climbing it again."

"But how? Water would just evaporate in this hea—," I paused, thinking for a moment "Did you pick up that wand after we defeated that creepy, flying gremlin wizard?"

"The ice rod?" Link reached back to pull out the requested item, though obviously finding discomfort wrapping his fingers around the handle "I got it right here, why?"

I took it from him and let out a breath, my gaze slowly moving to the Talus "Nayru's arse, I hope this works..." I ran towards the stone titan, ignoring Link's shout, and raised the wand only to wave it out in front of me. A wave of crystalized energy left the tip and flew towards the Talus, hitting it just as it lifted its arm to throw another rock. Steam lifted from its body, which began to cool and lose its fiery glow. Soon enough, its body was as black as its ore. It fell onto its front, and Link was quick to run over.

"Wow," he whistled "That work—,"

"Thanks but go go go!" I urged.

Link was quick to snap to attention, and ran over to climb up the Talus again. Except he hissed in pain as soon as he grabbed the stone. Cursing to myself, I joined him and placed my hands under his lifted foot, to push him up onto the creature. He looked back in surprise, but thanked me nonetheless and turned to the Talus' ore, just as it began to stand. I backed off and took my bow again, just in case it tried anything while Link was up there. With a large, golden hilt sword (which I had no idea he had) Link began chipping away at the Talus' ore, which had it turning its head in alarm, trying to find who was attacking it. It even tried to shake Link off, but he held on, and soon enough, the ore smashed into pieces. Link fell with the beast, but was able to land on his feet as it exploded into... gems?!

"Holy crap!" I gasped, bending down to pick up a rather large sapphire "Look at all this... did you know this would—,"

Link dropped his sword and began cradling his hand, his face twisted in obvious pain. Frowning, I shoved the remaining gems into a bag, before taking the boy by the wrist and leading him over to sit on a non flaming rock. I knelt down in front of him and took one of his hands, carefully slipping off his glove so I could inspect the damage. Doing the same with the other, I hummed to myself.

"Well, good news is only your fingers are burnt. Your gloves protected the rest of your hands." I exclaimed "All we gotta do is cool and dress the burns, and you should be all set."

Link nodded in understanding "I should have a bottle of water in my pouch..."

There was water in his pouch, like he said there would be. But when I picked it up, the warmth coming from the bottle concerned me. Popping open the cork, I moved my hand under the bottle so I could pour a little on it, just to see if the temperature was okay to treat Link.

It wasn't.

I hissed and pulled my hand back just as the scalding liquid hit my skin, shaking it to try and get rid of the sudden yet subsiding shock. "Yeah, no, we aren't using this."

"Ooh... You alright?"

"I'm all good, however..." I glanced down at his hands again, my lip between my teeth "I guess all we can do for now is patch you up, and find an alternative later. That also means holding a sword won't be very comfortable."

Link grimaced, "That's not gonna be fun... Will you be okay handling the majority of monsters until then?"

"I think so. I mean, I'll be using a familiar weapon this time, so I won't be as much of a disaster as last night."

The boy chuckled "Yeah, we'd both be screwed otherwise."

"Do you want my help or not?"

With a roll of his eyes he held his hands out, backing down from his teasing comments and allowing me to help. I huffed and pulled my bandages from my pocket, and took Link's hand to begin wrapping it around each finger individually.

"I'm not sure I like you as a tease, Limp noodle... Just keep still and quiet while I mummify your fingers."

"Mkay."

While doing this, I began to grow aware of the fact that this was the first time I had actually felt his bare palms . Every time before now, he had always worn his gloves, but this time...

His skin was rough and calloused, most likely from his days in combat, but feeling it against my hand was far from unpleasant. Even though I was supposed to be focusing, I began to relish in this rare skin on skin contact... Even when I was finished, I held on much longer than I probably should've, and just stared at them... not even saying a word.

I gasped when realising I had been drifting off into a daydream, and lifted my head to apologise to the blonde who's hands I'd been holding. However, my eyes locked with the blue irises of his, which widened as soon as we made eye contact. Had... had he been staring at me this entire time?

His face and mine seemed to redden, and in unison we turned our heads away, admittedly flustered.

"Sorry!!"

Goddess, we're a mess...

I was quick to scramble to my feet, in order to give the both of us some space, and turned away from him to retrieve his dropped sword, while trying to calm down my flushed face. Even simply feeling his touch these days was enough to send me to cloud nine... That can't be normal, can it?

Link cleared his throat from behind me, causing me to turn in alarm. He had just finished pulling his gloves on, and held his hand out for his sword. But, he was glancing off slightly to the side, and there was still a tad bit of pink dusted against his cheeks. God, I must've made him feel so awkward... I pursed my lips together and placed the hilt of his sword into his hand, which he lifted over his head and placed it onto his back. It was still slightly uncomfortable for him, but not so much for him to vocally complain.

"Um, so..." he coughed "Shall we keep moving?"

"What? Oh!" I laughed awkwardly "Yeah, yeah, l...let's get outta here before a blood moon pops up and revives that rock!"

Link nodded and led the way, with me close behind. What sucked was that I couldn't take my eyes off him, and I was sure he could sense it. I mentally buffed at myself, and reached up to run a hand through my hair.

I was starting to fear that no matter what I did, my feelings for Link would only grow stronger, until they become irreversible...

But what scared me more... was how Link had been acting with me. All those longing stares, and lingering touches, and especially that shield surfing incident... I really shouldn't think about it, but the possibility would not leave my mind.

What if I was wrong about him...

What if he really wasn't smart enough to not fall for me?

Even though it hurts to think about... in some twisted way... I really hope that isn't the case.

—-

Despite the struggling we endured to get to this point, the map fortunately showed us to be closing in on Goron city. In fact, we could almost see the the location from the mining grounds, which we were just passing through. The Gorons that seemed to be working there, had stopped what they were doing momentarily to watch us walk by. They seemed surprised to see two Hylians - well, a Hylian and a Hylian-look alike this high up Death Mountain. Admittedly, I had moved slightly closer to Link when I felt their gaze on me... the Goron's were a lot larger and buffer than I had expected, which meant they towered over both Link and myself, and could crush us between their hands if they desired it. However, from what I could see, they seemed to be friendly and passive people. One or two of them even waved at us when we passed them, which we politely returned without any words exchanged.

"You know, they won't bite," Link told me after awhile, having sensed that I had moved closer. I laughed nervously and stepped away.

"S-Sorry. It's just..."

"Never seen a Goron before?"

"Heh. Busted..."

He looked back at me and smiled, though it was only small "I wouldn't worry. From what I heard, Gorons are nice people- if not a little proud."

"Pfft, worried?" I scoffed, arms crossed "Who said I was worried? Ya gurl doesn't get worried."

"...Uh huh. You could've fooled me."

Pouting, I sped up my pace "I didn't ask for your sass!"

Even though I could see it, Link was most definitely rolling his eyes behind my back. We continued up the path, occasionally looking around in case any monsters popped up. I did stay in front of Link for this reason; I wanted him to avoid combat if possible, until we found something to heal his burns.

All of a sudden, the ground started to rumble, almost knocking Link and me off our feet. The volcano must have erupted, as from above us I could see multiple flaming rocks heading right for us.

"Look out!!!" Link yelled as he tackled me to the side, causing me to gasp and shut my eyes tightly, just as the boulders hit and exploded against the ground. I opened my eyes to see we were shielded by a curved rock. Link's back was against the rock, and me? My shoulder and ear were pressed up against his chest. My hands held his arms, which were encircled around my waist tightly, like if he let go I would slip into the danger zone. So we stayed like that, waiting... sitting on the ground, me between Link's legs, leaning against him and quite possibly having a heat stroke.

O boy, I think I need more heat protection...

Soon enough the eruptions ceased, and the two of us relaxed. Well, I semi relaxed. Link's chest expanded as he let out a sigh, and his grip loosened slightly to allow me to move. Pushing against his chest, I sat up slightly to meet his eyes, only to see that his face was very close to mine.

Once again, for the second time today, our faces flushed red.

Link retracted his hands and held them up, as if he were surrendering, and I was quick to shoot to my feet. However, when I did, the top of my head slammed into the rock that curved above us, and I instantly bent over to massage it.

"Ow!!"

"Oh god," Link held my shoulders for support "Are you okay?!"

"Fine! I'm fine!" I laughed painfully, straightening myself and waving a hand dismissively "Tis but a scratch! Nothing to worry about..."

"Well, okay..." he stared at me in suspicion "Are... you tearing up?"

"Nope." I denied, but Link arched an eyebrow in suspicion. However, he did sigh in defeat and let the topic go. I was grateful, however I realised I had left something unsaid, "Oh, and... thanks for pulling me away."

He turned back to me, the smirk on his face making me worry slightly "Did you think I wouldn't?"

Um!

"W-Well, no... I-I didn't really have time to think at all, actually." I began to ramble, my thumbs twiddling over each other "A-All I'm saying is I appreciate it, w-whether I expected it or not, and—,"

Link chuckled and lay a hand on my shoulder, halting my words "It's okay, I'm messing. You're welcome, Y/N."

"Oh... well, good." I coughed. After a moment my eyes trailed down to his hand, which was still resting on my shoulder, wondering if he had noticed. It seemed that he realised as soon as I silently acknowledged it, and retracted it instantly while clearing his throat.

"Aaaaaanyway, we should probably really start thinking about speeding over there. We don't know when the mountain will erupt again."

I nodded and matched his pace. "R-Right! Of course—,"

A loud, mechanical growl cut me off and halted our movements, as the mountain began to shake again. However, luckily no rocks came with it. Our attention turned to the volcano on top of Death Mountain, where the Divine Beast has stationed itself. It let out another roar and disappeared behind the volcano, leaving us slightly stunned from its sudden complaints... Each Divine Beast seemed to sense that we were approaching, and they all seem to warn us not to get any closer.

And as always, we don't listen.