The AU turned out to be too long so yeah...

Across The Sky

AU.

Recall.

"How do I look?" she asked cheerily, twirling in a lovely crimson dress.

The boy she was asking — same age as herself, she observed — smiled brightly, making her heart flutter. "You look great!"

Zelda woke up with a start and immediately felt her heart sinking after she saw her surroundings. So this dream isn't going to last long too, huh? she thought, utterly disappointed.

Getting up from bed with a yawn, she readied herself for a new day. After all, being late on this exact day wouldn't do her good at all.

Finally finished fixing herself, she looked approvingly at her reflection in the tall mirror. She needed to look perfect; playing the role of Hylia was something huge. With it, she could finally steer her acting path away from teen-flicks.

Most people would raise their eyebrows at her ambitions, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to act as the people who helped out with the world — no matter how small their role was. But somehow, she ended up playing roles in movies and series she wasn't interested in and actually got famous for them.

She was a mere teenager, young and fresh and lovable. She should feel thankful that she was getting that famous as it was. Try as she might though, her heart longed for meaningful roles.

And then her father told her that she was being asked to play the role of Hylia in a highly anticipated historical movie. The Hylia. The one her land was utmost grateful for.

It was too good to be true. She couldn't believe the chance she was getting.

So she practiced with all her might, read every single thing she could find about Hylia's history even before the script arrived. Her father was rather amused at her enthusiasm and happily helped her with her quest, being a history expert himself.

It was the day she would officially start her role.

And she was absolutely nervous.

"Don't worry, dear. You'll do great," her father said, taking a moment to squeeze her hand in assurance as he drove her off to the studio (he insisted to be the one to get her there, and she dearly appreciated that).

"Thank you, father." She smiled gratefully and squeezed his hand in return.

She still had her fears though, which was a bad thing. She would surely mess up big time if she arrived in this state.

Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts…

Apparently, her mind translated happy thoughts into the weird dreams she was having these days.

She smiled happily when she remembered them. Ever since she got the role of Hylia, she dreamed of living in a land high up in the sky, just like the legends, where the clouds were underneath her feet and an eternally blue sky was above her head. She never saw much of it though, the dreams were too brief to fully see everything.

Those dreams brought her peace yet filled her core with longing.

Especially longing for the boy she saw frequently in them. Link, as her dream self called.

She saw them as children, running off between the bridges and the small houses. She saw them riding beautiful, enormous birds (do creature like those exist anymore?) expertly, laughing as the air ran over their skin.

She saw herself — well, dream self actually — smiling lovingly as Link dozed off to sleep on her shoulder.

She was sure that her dream self loved him; the way she gazed at him was an evidence enough.

Besides, the feelings in her dreams reached to her real life.

It was unreal, Zelda thought with a chuckle, how she was irrecoverably in love with someone she only saw in her dreams.

But hey, she mused as she got off the car, she wasn't feeling nervous anymore.

After the first scene was finished, director Owlan thought that it was a good chance to introduce her to her PA, seeing that she arrived mid-filming. One look at her PA, though, got her gaping with shock.

That unkempt strawberry-blond hair, those bright blue eyes, that handsomely boyish face.

In front of her was none other than Link, the boy she was convinced she would only see in her dreams.

Oblivious to her shock, Owlan noted excitedly, "Link, this is the lovely Zelda Gaebora. She's the one I talked to you about before. She's a great fit, don't you think?"

The boy, Link, beamed at that. "Absolutely." And offering a handshake, he continued, "pleasure to meet you, miss."

Zelda stared at him for a while before she awoke from her daze and shook his hand. "Uh… yeah, you can call me Zelda, no need for formalities." Especially from you, her mind provided.

He looked hesitant for a moment before he shrugged and smiled again. "You can call me Link then. I'll try my best to help you out, Zelda."

She fought a blush from appearing at the thought of him calling her by her given name, even though she was the one who asked him for that.

Owlan chuckled amusedly before he spoke to her, "Don't feel shy to smack him if he lazed off, he's known to be rather unmotivated."

Link looked sheepish, adorably so. "I can't help it if the couches here were comfortable…" he mumbled.

"I'll leave you two to get to know each other, you'll be together for a while so it is best that you get along," Owlan remarked before he called out another actor for his scene.

Both of them stood there quietly, unsure as to how to approach.

"Are you really that lazy?" Zelda asked, attempting to start a conversation.

"No, I stay up late at night reading sometime is all," he replied. "Owlan is just exaggerating."

Link was lying, he was lazy.

She didn't mind it though, she thought that it was rather cute actually.

Even with the fact that Link liked to sleep and laze around a lot, he was a pretty reliable guy. Everyone in the studio counted on him and asked him for favors and he always accepted without a second thought. As a PA, he was really helpful. He found ways to make her relax, a thing her previous PAs never bothered to do.

With the days passing by, she realized that the Link from her dreams and the Link from her reality were really the same person all along. So it wasn't a surprise that her feelings grew even more, threatening to consume her if she didn't show them.

But how could she? She couldn't just walk up to him and say, "Hey, I've been dreaming about you before we even met. How about we date?" Even though Link was the nicest person she has ever met, she was sure that he was going to get rather weirded-out by her confession.

"Why the long face?" Speak about the devil…

She turned and saw Link seating himself beside her, his expression genuinely concerned. "I've been seeing you like this for a while now, is there something wrong?"

Why is he so frustratingly nice? "No… I uh… I'm just too worried about the knighting scene." This was a total lie of course; she finally got herself together and she was no longer afraid to act as Hylia. She would do her best and more to make her performance memorable. And the knighting scene was one of the first things she practiced.

Link, bless his soul, seemed to believe her lie at least. "Oh…" He mouthed, suddenly standing up.

And the next thing she knew, he made her stand up and said, "Just pretend that I'm someone you're knighting," before he knelt in front of her, one hand pressed against his chest and the other resting above hers.

"Alright…" now what lines were she supposed to say again?

When she finally remembered them and looked at Link to start, a sudden feeling of sadness swelled up inside her, and she could no longer breath from how choking it was.

The scenery had changed into one she was sure it came from her dreams.

She was wearing a white dress, one she saw in books talking about ancient legends. And Link was…

He was wearing a green outfit, the one real knights wore many, many lifetimes ago. It was ripped and cut and burned and dirtied all over, indicating that he must've been through a lot. The Link she was seeing at that moment wasn't smiling cheerfully, instead he looked… devastated.

"I'm going to ask you for a favor, sleepyhead. Will you come to wake me up?"

She couldn't breath.

"I promise…"

She couldn't…

"Zelda? Why are you crying?" Link asked, standing up and wiping her tears away, "was I really that bad looking as a knight?" He laughed sheepishly.

"No," she answered, deciding to bury herself in his chest to hide her sobs. "You looked perfect, like a hero." My hero.

"I don't think that I'm a good hero if you continue crying like that." He smiled warmly, not minding her embrace and instead holding her more closely. "So stop crying, okay?"

"Okay." She smiled in return.

She'd apologize for her outburst later, but for now, she'd savor this moment.

Another image flashed in her mind, and all of her sadness washed away instantly.

"Will you stay with me in here?"

"I will."

They looked happy, not burdened, not sad, not desperate. Just happy with each other.

So they got together in that dream…

Hopefully, this would also apply in reality.