All those long seconds drawn out in time contract all at once, and the spell that held them both here begins to disintegrate. Her hands tangled in his shirt, his desperate grasp on her shoulders. He doesn't want to. He wants to stay in this moment for all time, feeling her breath against him, her hands, her touch, her hair, her heartbeat--
He has to let her go.
He knows. He knows, as he has known from the moment he first saw her here, and even though he does not want to, the deepest parts of his heart all know that he must. For a second, just a second, he follows her as she pulls back, but of course they break apart, her hands balled into fists on his chest. Finally she has found a place where he cannot follow her. Perhaps her younger self would feel satisfaction, at that, with all her stubbornness untempered by time.
This is the moment, he realizes, and he doesn't have to see Zelda's face to know it, but he looks anyway, taking in every inch of her that he can before that inevitable final second.
Don't try to stop me, she said before, as though Link has ever been able to stop her from anything. Here, too, he knows that is a battle he would not win. He can't say it in words; instead he kneels. For a moment, he bends his head to her, the same fashion as he once did as her Knight. Then he picks up the baubles. Standing, he holds them out to put them in her hand.
One hesitant moment later,] I ... I won't give up on you.
[His voice wavers and cracks slightly with everything he's holding in, all the love and affection and longing for a different option that's difficult and painful to voice. But his expression is clear, the same fire and determination he has carried for most of his life. A promise, both to her and to himself.]
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All those long seconds drawn out in time contract all at once, and the spell that held them both here begins to disintegrate. Her hands tangled in his shirt, his desperate grasp on her shoulders. He doesn't want to. He wants to stay in this moment for all time, feeling her breath against him, her hands, her touch, her hair, her heartbeat--
He has to let her go.
He knows. He knows, as he has known from the moment he first saw her here, and even though he does not want to, the deepest parts of his heart all know that he must. For a second, just a second, he follows her as she pulls back, but of course they break apart, her hands balled into fists on his chest. Finally she has found a place where he cannot follow her. Perhaps her younger self would feel satisfaction, at that, with all her stubbornness untempered by time.
This is the moment, he realizes, and he doesn't have to see Zelda's face to know it, but he looks anyway, taking in every inch of her that he can before that inevitable final second.
Don't try to stop me, she said before, as though Link has ever been able to stop her from anything. Here, too, he knows that is a battle he would not win. He can't say it in words; instead he kneels. For a moment, he bends his head to her, the same fashion as he once did as her Knight. Then he picks up the baubles. Standing, he holds them out to put them in her hand.
One hesitant moment later,] I ... I won't give up on you.
[His voice wavers and cracks slightly with everything he's holding in, all the love and affection and longing for a different option that's difficult and painful to voice. But his expression is clear, the same fire and determination he has carried for most of his life. A promise, both to her and to himself.]