Link's POV

Zelda sounds so desperate and broken, I can't just stand here and listen to her prayer for another second. I turn around and don't care that I'm a dick for interrupting her prayer.

"There is nothing wrong with you," I say in an assertive tone. She doesn't turn around to look at me. She stiffens and wipes a tear from her cheek. "You continue to sacrifice yourself so everyone else can learn from your wisdom, how can't you see that? Just because you've made a few mistakes doesn't mean that you're going in circles. Progress takes time, trust me, sometimes it's not a straight line and it's hard to see that, I know, but it's true. I've seen you grow more than anyone else over the past year. I'm serious about that."

She looks shocked. Or scared? Maybe a little insecure? I don't mean to be yelling, I just want her to understand and see herself the way I see her.

"I..." she begins to fumble for the words but I already know what she's going to say. She's going to tell me that she's not good enough. I don't give her a chance to debate with me right now.

"There's nothing wrong with you," I say. "And I hate that you think you're broken or something. I'm not yelling at you, I promise. If anything, I understand how you feel. When I woke up from my coma without any memories, I kept screwing up and I felt like something inside of me was broken for good. But you were there for me and never gave up on me. Even now, you're still trying to carry all the weight on your own shoulders and I'm here to tell you to stop acting even more stubborn than your dad and to finally accept the fact that we can carry the baggage together."

"Link–"

"Please believe me," I practically beg. "You're not a failure. If you still think you're alone in all of this, then maybe that makes you a fool, but you're not a failure."

She nods, and for a moment I thought she finally understands, but then says, "But—"

"No," I stop her. She opens her mouth again to change my mind and deny everything I just said but I won't let her! "You're not alone in this, you hear me?" I want her to believe me once and for all! "We'll grow together, I will not leave you behind!"

"Link, listen—"

"No, you listen! You have to believe me!" Tears are running down her face and I feel like my words aren't reaching her at all. "I didn't mean to make you cry! I just want you to know—"

"Link!" She silences me.

"What?!"

"I love you!"

Uh... Okay, maybe I shouldn't have interrupted her like three times.

She smiles at me and falls into my arms. I catch her, my heart racing while my mind is trying to make sense of this whole situation. She was crying a second ago, then she suddenly started smiling, and now she's sobbing and laughing at the same time and I'm sort of smiling too and I totally forgot how to breathe on my own.

Her tears are drenching my shirt. I'm pretty sure those are happy tears? She was so sad a moment ago, but she said she loves me, which I think is a good thing? I mean, she must be somewhat happy if she's thinking about love.

Overthinking is pointless, I just hold her until she's done crying, and when she looks up at me a few minutes later, her eyes are glossy and there's a big smile on her face. I wipe her cheeks with my thumb and realize that I was so busy sorting my thoughts that I forgot to reply to her I love you.

"Those words are overrated," she sniffs before I get the chance to say something. "I just really wanted to tell you."

I search my brain for a good response but all I can think about are those three amazing words that she just called 'overrated'. Does she not want me to say them back?

Thunder interrupts my thought process and I look up at a dark, cloudy sky. "Shit," I involuntarily say out loud.

"Excuse me?" Her eyebrows scoot together.

"I forgot about the laundry," I tell her, slapping myself mentally. "If we don't get back to the house before the rain starts, the laundry will get wet." Dad's so gonna use this against me in the future! "There's something I want to do with you tomorrow, I want to take you somewhere special. But we can't do that if I'm spending our last day hand-drying the clothes that I forgot to put inside."

She gives me an understanding smile. "We better hurry then."

...

It's pouring like crazy by the time we get back to the house. Zelda and I are drenched from head to toe and our clothes are covered in dirt from galloping through the muddy fields on our way back.

I don't know why I'm still rushing to get the laundry. It's clearly too late to get them inside.

Zelda seems to be having the time of her life for some reason. She's giggling while I pull her across the field. The high grass sticks to our skin as we run from the stables to the garden, and on our sprint toward the clothing line, she slips in the mud and tries to hold on to me but ultimately pulls me down with her!

We plunge into a big brown puddle together just as more thunder rumbles.

"Nice going," I tease.

"It's not my fault!" She laughs out of breath. "It's too dark, I can't even see my own two feet!"

"That's because your eyes are covered in mud!" I laugh along and wipe some of the mud off her eyebrows. "You look like a racoon."

"And you look like a panda," she says, wiping my cheekbones.

"Take a photo, maybe we can turn it into a gif."

She laughs even harder now, so much that she is forgetting to take breaths in between.

I help her up and don't even try to save the laundry. I already know I'm gonna have to hear it from dad tomorrow. At this point, my objective is to get out of our clothes and under the warm sheets.

"We have to rinse off before we go inside," I say when we reach the back door. "But you're not going to like it."

I grab the garden hose. Zelda takes a big step back and raises both hands above her head.

"Please have mercy on my soul," she says, her eyes wide.

"Sorry, I don't have a choice," I play along, then I fire and she lets out a scream.

"Shh!" I whisper and press my hand against her mouth while I try so hard not to burst out into laughter myself. "You're going to wake my family!"

She steals the hose from me and starts splashing me. Surprisingly, the water from the hose is warmer than the rain, so I actually don't mind it that much. But this is pointless because our clothes are still soaking wet and we can't enter the house dripping like this.

I turn the water off and try to get out of my drenched shoes and socks first, then I pull my shirt over my head. It's sticking to my skin and I have to wrestle my way out of the sleeves.

"Come here," I whisper to Zelda and help her take off her top.

Trying to cover her chest with her hands, she says, "Your father and uncle are–"

"Fast asleep," I assure her. "Unless we're too loud. So just don't make noise, okay?"

She gives me an excited nod and doesn't say another word while I help her out of her shorts and socks. Then it's my turn until we're both in our underwear.

"Okay, let's sneak inside," I whisper.

She nods again. Lucky for us, the rain is banging against the roof with so much force that the sliding of the doors makes no sound in comparison.

On tippy toes, we rush through the dark house and to our room. As soon as I shut the door behind us, Zelda pulls me into a passionate kiss, which quickly turns into a series of makeouts. The excitement is taking over, making my hands reach for the back of her bra to unhook it.

"Link," she pants.

"I won't look," I promise.

"I wasn't going to stop you," she breathes against my neck.

I remove her bra and drop it on the floor. Her skin is cold and wet from the rain, but I love how it feels against my chest. My hands hold her by her waist and even though there's no room between us, I still try to pull her closer. I crave her! How far does she want to go? Would it be okay if I move my hands somewhere else?

"Wait," she tries to interrupt our kisses but I find it really hard to stop. I force myself to pull away and look at her.

"What?" I ask.

"Stop," she whispers.

What? Did I do something wrong or went too far?

She surprises me by saying, "Stop thinking so much and start feeling."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Your kisses are driven by thought, not by emotion," she schools me. "Because you're overthinking everything right now, aren't you?"

"You can tell, huh?"

"Yes, because I used to do that too. But I've come to learn that sometimes it's better to... not think. Sometimes all you have to do is feel." Her fingers draw little circles on my chest and slowly make their way down to my stomach. "Can you turn off your brain and just feel?"

I nod, staring into her big, green eyes. "I can do that," I say breathless and kiss her without another worry on my mind.

———
Hey guys! Hope you had a super duper fabulous week! 💜 For those of you who are still considering to join us on Patreon, we're currently 20 chapters ahead of Wattpad! Just sayinnngg 😗

Also (Completely unrelated) my semester starts on Monday and I'm kinda nervous AHHH! Wish me luck!