"I...See you later."

The princess and hero walked out of the Arbiter's Grounds feeling indignant. After the mirror shattered, like a supernova into thousands of shimmering stars, it felt almost sickening to stay there. Link, still shocked and distraught, waved his hand dismissively and muttered a quiet, "We should get outta here."

Perhaps that wasn't proper etiquette - or even proper Hylian for that matter - but even the stately Princess of Hyrule didn't catch his slip up. She too felt hurt at Midna's departure.

It was almost as if a rift was torn between two distant dimensions. They both felt it, and they knew Midna did as well. Like two sides of a coin, both worlds depended on one another for balance and simply existence. But like two sides of a coin, they could never come to contact with one another. They all knew the consequences of that.

So the walk out of the ancient prison was silent, save for the slashing of the few monsters Link quickly and almost viscously killed. There were times when Zelda wanted to speak up and offer reassurance to him, understanding the agony he was going through. She was just as hurt as he was, but she'd learned since a young age the difficulties of losing a loved one while Link, on the other hand, spent such a long time with Midna and no doubt had a deep connection with her. Zelda knew - from the short time that she's known the hero - that he was kind and caring. He was much better at forming relationships with others and cherishing them endlessly. But she quickly decided against speaking up, her instincts kicking in and telling her that all he needed was time and space to recover. As the bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom, she learned to trust her instincts.

Long after the sun had set from the sky, Link and Zelda walked their way to the Cave of Ordeals. Link could have probably remembered that he had Ilia's charm and that Epona would have taken both him and the princess back to Hyrule field quicker than walking would've, but at this point he was exhausted and the only thing that was keeping him walking was pure adrenaline and the heat of his mind reeling at two different speeds: all he could think about was Midna leaving forever and what he was going to do with his life now. It wasn't until Zelda spoke up that he broke out of his reverie.

"It's late. We should rest and move forward in the morning." She was right, Link knew, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to lie down and be alone to his thoughts at the moment. It wasn't until Zelda crossed his mind that he realized she was probably just as exhausted as he was – and of course, she was the princess no less. He couldn't let her go on just because he was afraid of his own thoughts. Exhausted and forlorn, he led her under a shelf of rock, getting ready to set up camp.

After she settled down, he asked the princess to wait - with no explanation, but at this point she might as well trust him with her life - and he walked off into the distance. Zelda was once again alone with her thoughts and it wasn't long before her mind returned to that of the castle, her home, and how it was demolished during the battle with Ganondorf. The place she'd been raised in, the halls she's walked through countlessly, the paintings she memorized that were hanging along each wall: all of it was undeniably ruined.

She silently prayed that no one was near the castle as it fell; her heavy heart could no longer stand any more tragedies. Secretly as well, she hoped to herself that her most treasured belongings didn't tumble with the towers either.

But that was no way to think. There was no time to linger in the past; after all that happened, she should be thinking of moving forward. And as she was just going through solutions and plans on reconstruction, and wondering if her kingdom could even afford that at this point, she saw Link trotting back with shards of wood.

Her eyebrows furrowed the slightest in confusion. How could he even find wood in the desert? She opened her mouth to ask him exactly that, but he interrupted her before she had the chance.

"Bokoblins camps," he answered, predicting her question without missing a beat. Still, even after all he'd done, he never ceased to surprise her. "Hopefully this will be enough to keep us warm for the night."

She nodded slowly, eyes getting lost in the distance as she drifted back into her thoughts; she wondered if that was the most he'd ever said to her. His voice was foreign, thick with an accent she couldn't name. It was so unfamiliar.

Then again, there weren't many times that they have seen each other, much less any time suitable for a proper conversation. It would be wise of her to try and get to know the hero who saved her country, but he was hardly in a place to talk now.

He was sitting cross-legged, frustrated at the lack of progress he's made with the fire. It was usually so easy to make a fire - he'd done it so many times before. Maybe it was the exhaustion that was getting to him, or maybe his mind was muddled from all the feelings mustering inside him. Without all the hype of battles and temples, it was harder to fight the battles raging within his mind.

Zelda reached out to him with open palms, a sympathetic expression softening the edges of her face. He glanced up at her with a look of confusion etched into his features and handed over the sticks. She simply started scratching them together, and within minutes a spark ignited and the fire was lit.

For the first moment since the Arbiter's Grounds, Link focused on the princess of light. She looked just as tired as he did, he noticed. Her eyes looked heavy, her hair was disheveled, and her white gown was covered in dirt and sand. He even noticed that goose bumps covered all of the skin that he was exposed to him, and yet she hasn't complained in the least. He wished he had a blanket or something to offer her, but there wasn't anything like that in his pouch and he never thought to bring one on his journey before.

But at least they got the fire going. He wondered how Zelda knew how to make a fire, or that she would know any basic survival skills considering that she had been stuck in a castle for her whole life. Midna and he'd discussed Princess Zelda many times before, and he always got the impression that she was as regal and refined as royalty can be. It was then that he realized how little he knew of the princess at all.

"So…" His mouth was dry and he was too tired to hold a conversation, but he felt almost embarrassed to keep quiet around the princess. Was it against proper etiquette to be silent for this long? Did she think he was ignoring her? At this point, he wasn't sure what to say, so he settled for the first thing that came to mind. "Are you all right? I-I mean, I'm sorry you have to be out in the cold like this-"

She held out her gloved hand and shook her head lightly. "There's no need to worry about me." She smiled then, subtly and practiced, and said, "I'm sure I can handle one night in the desert considering all you've endured for our country." He noticed she didn't refer to Hyrule as her country. It was under her rule, wasn't it?

In response to her admiring comment, he shook and lowered his head, his wheat colored bangs covering his eyes from hers. The conversation faded into silence again, Link staring into the fire and Zelda curling closer to it for warmth.

"There truly is a wondrous view of the night sky here, don't you think?" Link tore his eyes from the splintering heat to glance at her dazed expression and followed it up to the stars above.

"Yes, they really are beautiful," he replied, grateful at her efforts to keep the conversation going. It did good to distract him from his thoughts, too. "If you're lucky, you might even see a shooting star."

"Truthfully," she began, and he noticed her voice was unwavering, "I've never seen one before. The lights of Castle town are much too bright to get a clear view of the stars." He smiled softly, glancing back at her and taking the opportunity to study her.

Her eyes, he realized with the lights of the fire dancing in their reflection, were a unusual shade of blue. They were so pale, her eyes were almost silver; the color re-painted the image in his mind of the shimmering stones he threw in the pond of Ordon and the ripples of the water as they sunk past his sight.

Her hair was pulled behind her shoulders and somehow, with all the frizzes and wind pulling at it messily, looked nice to him. It was a color similar to the nuts stored in the trees back in Ordon and it reminded him of the earth of Hyrule. She turned to him, catching him stare and he felt himself blush in embarrassment. Her stare was intense and focused, and he wondered if she could read his mind.

The princess gave a small smile to him and he returned it nervously. "It's getting late; I fear dawn is approaching soon." Her voice was calm and he let out a shaky breath. "We should rest now before we begin our trip back to Hyrule in the morning." He nodded in agreement and it wasn't long before they settled down for sleep on opposite ends of the fire.

There were too many thoughts running through his head in the moment. It was just this morning he was racing through Castle Town with Midna, packing up potions and arrows. Now the King of Darkness was gone, Castle Town was destroyed, Midna was gone into another dimension forever, and he was alone in the desert with the princess of his country.

He blamed these rampant thoughts solely on his exhaustion, and was sure that the beating of his heart was built up from the stress and confusion of the day. Everything, he thought, would make more sense in the morning. He curled up tighter and edged closer to the fire. As his eyes closed gradually, he felt more and more relaxed. Exhaustion engulfed all of his mixed emotions and before he knew it, he drifted off to sleep.

He would arrange all of his thoughts in the morning.

Hello everyone! I hope you've liked my story so far. If you did, please leave a review or follow! I have many plans for this story and have already begun some of the early chapters. This is going to be a post Twilight Princess Zelink fanfiction, if you are interested. Also, I will try my best to take my time with this story and be as accurate to the characters and the plot as possible. Thank you for reading!