Chapter Text
"May I ask,"
"Do you really remember me?"
Although it wasn't intentionally so, that question was ominous for our hero. He wanted, with all of his heart, to answer “yes”, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t lie to the princess- no, his princess.
After only a night of insomnia, blankly staring at the ceiling with that question lingering in his head, he finally made up his mind.
Every other night, he would sneak out of Zelda's somber grasp, take the Sheikah Slate and his Hylian outfit in silence, change behind their home and travel Hyrule in effort to restore his memories.
Every other night, he'd travel to where one of the dozen photographs were taken and try to remember what happened before and after their corresponding memories.
Every other night, he remained unsuccessful.
He takes a look at his Sheikah Slate, gazing at one of the photographs. A tear drops from his face onto the screen. He wipes it off with his sleeve.
"Why?" He whispers to himself, for no one was in his sight to hear him.
"Why what?", responds a familiar, albeit concerned voice.
Closing his slate, Link looks behind his back to see his follower.
It's her.
Did he fail to sneak out this time? Was he too loud, too quick, too warm and cozy? Whatever the case, he looks back at his closed Sheikah Slate, firmly in his grasp.
"What are you doing here?", he asks, in a melancholic tone.
Zelda responds wisely, "I could ask you the same question", her eyes glancing at the closed Sheikah Slate. She silently realizes his objective.
Link, breaking the silence accompanied only by chirping grasshoppers, answers.
"I... I remembered my memories, the ones that took place where you took those pictures, by simply… glancing at the environments they showed..."
His hands begin to shake, his voice showing mild signs of cracking, "Why... can't I remember the rest?"
Zelda stays silent, allowing him to pour his tears out to her, as he once allowed her all those years ago.
"I- I want to remember... I want to remember my past, your past, but- but I can't! No matter what I do, squinting at sights, staring at the photographs, nothing- nothing's clicking. Why can't I remember?! Should I-“, he hesitated, taking a breath to try to relax, “Should I pray to the Goddesses?"
That last question got to Zelda. She remembers her whole life being dedicated to prayer, yet the Goddesses never responded. Her powers unleashed when it was too late, forcing her to seal herself and her knight away for a century, wiping his memories in the process.
"Please, Link... Don't go there", she trembles.
Link now takes his turn being concerned; his eyes already swelled with tears.
"Don't- don’t pray to them… Don’t pray for all of your life, only for it all to be of waste…” Her mind is heavy, now. “Don't make me wait another century for you…" Her eyes quickly matched his in volume of tears.
"I-... I won't, Zelda. I promise...", he responds, looking down.
His words calmed her. She spots the slate, remembering why she followed him.
"Link, thank you…” She wipes her tears. “But I followed you for a reason.”
He now looks at her, with full attention, tears still dropping.
"Every other night, I notice you leaving, but I don't react, so as to not concern you..."
Link's gaze shifts to the right, his head still facing hers.
"Every other morning, before you wake up during the lunchtime sun, I notice how the slate is on the map or the album, rather than the compendium or the runes as I usually leave it. I notice that its recordings of where you travelled get dense around where I took those photos one hundred years ago."
"Zelda... I-" he tries to explain, getting interrupted.
"I understand that you're trying to remember, Link, but why?"
He puts the slate on his hip, walks towards her, their eyes meeting.
"Zelda, less than a minute after I... after I rescued you, you asked me a question..."
Zelda then recalls that question, her asking if his memories were successfully restored.
"Link, you don't need to be ashamed about that. It's my fault for hoping so pettily that you'd recover everything just from a few photographs of important places. It's me who should feel bad, not you. You tried your hardest, Link-" Her lips moved as if they were about to speak further, but he responded quicker than she could think up another word.
"I don't want you to feel bad. I want you to be happy, to smile, with good reason. I want a truly happy smile, not some... royal mask of emotion."
"Link..." she sighs to herself. "Link, I don't understand why either, as to why you can't recall any further, but perhaps you just need assistance, with someone who remembered for you."
Those words... he understood her implication, and opened the Sheikah Slate, revealing a picture of a tree in the sunlight. "Hmm... is this the memory where-" she asks, interrupted.
"Where you tried to get me to taste a hot-legged frog."
Her face expresses sudden confusion and thought. "Aha!" She exclaims, reaching a breakthrough, "There's your error! You see, I didn't try to get you to taste a frog, you full on licked it!"
His face fills with a mixture of good and bad emotions, them being love, relief, disgust and shame.
Then, something clicks.
"Zelda?" He asks.
"Yes?"
"Can you stay there?" He points to a peculiar spot, "Next to the tree, over there."
Zelda walks over, "Okay...", she soon realizes his brilliancy. "Oh! You think my presence can jog your memory?"
He nods, staring for a while, then taking a picture and staring again, a face of disappointment showing,
"Hmm, perhaps you need more visual." She bends down on her knees, positioning her hands into a bowl, lifting them up to Link's head.
The clicking returns, becoming frequent.
Link does the same. He gets on his knees, forms a bowl and scoops it up to hers.
Zelda mimes the passing of that frog to Link, him answering by lifting his hands to his mouth, slowly.
Zelda's eyes widen, her smile, too. He's mimicking what took place one hundred years ago, but she stays silent, to not interrupt his memory jog.
He sticks his tongue out, with hesitation written all over his face, and he licks the air above his hands, though he sees a frog in the daylight.
His face shines green, he covers his mouth to try not to vomit, dropping the non-existent frog.
"Oh Goddesses, he's doing it! Every inch of his face, too!", she thought, screaming internally with glee.
The ticks grow frequent enough to no longer be noticed. Link's face jumps to a shock, gasping like every other time a flashback ended.
"Z-Zelda... I-!"
"Link, you did it! You remembered!"
"Wh- How did y-"
"You repeated your past so precisely! Including the facial expressions!"
Both of them bare a stone talus-sized feeling of success, jumping to each other and grasping tightly, smiles on their faces.
The sun rises.
"Link, we've been up all night. We should return home. Let's continue this afterwards, okay?”
Link nods happily, eventually shutting his eyes as he grows tired. Zelda begins to do the same. Urgently, she stands up, picking him up in the process. They take turns in being awake and carrying the other as they make their way back home.
They now have a new journey set upon them,
A journey to remember.