zelda (OoT); link/malon
Fandom: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Characters/Pairings: Link/Malon
Title: fifty sentences
Rating: light R
Notes: Some pre-game, some during, some in some weird post-game AU arc as if Link hadn't gotten sent back home at the end... -_-; Whatever. Beta set.
Posted: 1sentence
#01 - Walking
She had been walking through the market when she first saw him - just a boy, looking wide-eyed and innocent and strangely out of place - and being a friendly little girl, of course Malon had gone over and said hello; she had never expected so much to come out of one little greeting.
#02 - Waltz
"But I don't know how," she protested (only half-heartedly) as Link pulled her to her feet, resting a hand on her back and gently placing her right hand on his shoulder; but soon they were dancing, and it didn't matter that they were in the stable with only the horses for audience - Malon felt like a princess at the royal ball.
#03 - Wishes
What Malon had always wished for was a knight in shining armor who would come and sweep her off her feet; what she got was a fairy boy in a green tunic, but she liked him better anyway.
#04 - Wonder
There were times when he would wander into the ranch in complete silence - sometimes panicked and struggling for breath, sometimes eerily empty of feeling - and all Malon could do was hold him and wonder, helplessly, what he could have gone through.
#05 - Worry
She hated how he went out to fight the battle and she stayed at home, worrying - as if they were a married couple, as if she were good enough for that.
#06 - Whimsy
One of the few things she regretted about them was that with Link, kisses were never products of whimsy or caprice; they were happy things, yes, but invariably tinged with desperation.
#07 - Waste/Wasteland
It was bad enough, after seven years, that Link came back to a Hyrule dark and ravaged, but it was worse to find Malon in the middle of it, so changed - gone was her smile, gone was the sparkle in her eyes - and so he vowed (secretly, of course; solemnly, to himself) that he would bring her back.
#08 - Whiskey and Rum
When she felt Link's lips at her neck, first Malon wondered whether it was just the alcohol, and second she wondered (rather disjointedly) where in Hyrule he had learned to do that.
#09 - War
His war, fought outside the walls of her shamefully cloistered world, was the one thing that kept them apart - but with each passing day, the walls caved a little more, and as the danger grew closer, so did they.
#10 - Weddings
Hidden, she watched her father laugh as he said he was only joking, Link was far too young to marry Malon; what ten-year-old Malon couldn't see from the doorway was the way Link's face fell.
#11 - Birthday
The first time she'd ever seen him unsure of himself was when he had lowered his voice, as if imparting some dark and shameful secret, and whispered into her ear that he didn't know when his real birthday was.
#12 - Blessing
There was a look he would give her every so often, an earnest glance full of pride and love and gratitude; Malon only wished that she deserved it.
#13 - Bias
They say there is a fine line between love and hate, but Malon had always been so far to one side of it that she was never even aware of its existence.
#14 - Burning
On hot nights they could be found breathless in each other's arms, ablaze, skin burning upon contact, heat and flame and steady rhythm and oh goddesses, even all of Din's fire couldn't compare.
#15 - Breathing
And afterwards Link would lie still in the darkness, his knee still pressed between Malon's thighs, and breathe into her sweet sweat-soaked hair; he'd try to forget that he was supposed to be saving the world, and even that the world needed saving at all.
#16 - Breaking
And Malon listened to his quiet and understood - she knew that he thought he could hide it, but she could see it, see how he was slowly breaking - and so she'd roll back onto him, offer herself up; and as the heat started up again, maybe for a moment he'd be able to let go.
#17 - Belief
Sometimes he felt like her belief in him was the only thing that kept him sane.
#18 - Balloon
When they were still young they would play for hours in the barn without a care in the world; her skirts ballooned like a parachute as they dropped from the rafters, and hay mingled seamlessly with his hair as they landed gently, with no pain or tears - laughing because it was funny, so funny to fall.
#19 - Balcony
She told him once that she wished she had a castle with a moonlit balcony for them to sit on, like she was sure the princess had, but "I'd much rather sit in the kitchen with you than on a balcony with some princess," was all that Link had said, tilting his chair back, smiling; and somehow, that was all Malon had needed to hear.
#20 - Bane
After peace was restored to the kingdom and the royal family was safely ruling once again, Link and Malon were careful never to discuss the castle - with all its formality, luxury, extravagance, and obligation - because Malon wished she could belong to that world, and Link wished he could escape from it.
#21 - Quiet
The first time she told him she loved him, it was so quiet that he had to ask her to repeat herself; then she looked right up into his face and yelled it, and would have run away if Link hadn't kissed her first.
#22 - Quirks
There were some things that only Malon knew - that there was one precise way that Epona liked to be brushed; that her father's three "special cuccos" were, in fact, completely ordinary; that the Hero of Time had, just like everyone else, once been afraid of the dark.
#23 - Question
Malon woke early on that fateful morning and saw him awake, walking out of the barn and into what she was certain would be his downfall; she ran to him, breathless, full of dread - asking, even as she knew - "Where are you going, oh Link, please don't-"
#24 - Quarrel
Malon had always insisted as a child that the moon was a pearl that one of the goddesses had dropped, but Link said one day that he thought it was a fairy that had gotten lost in the sky (a theory that Navi did not endorse), and the two argued about this for nearly an hour.
#25 - Quitting
Then, in a rare moment of anger, Fairy Boy told her he didn't want to be her friend anymore, and little Malon hid in the cow shed and cried until Link came in with a cookie - snitched from Malon's kitchen table - and, offering it to her, said he wasn't mad anymore.
#26 - Jump
The first time Link had visited the ranch after meeting Malon at the castle, he couldn't tell if he had been jumped by a wayward enemy or just tackled by a particularly affectionate ten-year-old; but as time went on, he got used to Malon's enthusiastic greetings, and maybe even (just a little - just the tiniest bit) started to look forward to them.
#27 - Jester
Although Malon hadn't realized it at the time, her jokes and games and mischief had kept Link going when nothing else could; when you're a ten-year-old boy charged with the fate of a kingdom, sometimes you just need to laugh.
#28 - Jousting
During childhood Link would often practice with his sword at the ranch, partly because he liked to show off for Malon, and partly because it made him feel like he had some control over that terrifying steel edge - that little harbinger of death that had come to rest, inexplicably, in his childish hands.
#29 - Jewel
Looking at Malon in the sun's dying light - as her hair shone red in the sunset, as she laughed and leaned warmly into him - Link realized that, as silly as it sounded, he didn't need another thing; he had the world's greatest treasure right beside him.
#30 - Just
"I just," she sobbed, "want you to be happy."
#31 - Smirk
It was the first time that he had seen her smirk like that in over seven years, and as the old mischievous gleam returned to her eyes, Link couldn't help but feel triumphant.
#32 - Sorrow
When Fairy Boy stopped coming to the ranch, Malon thought it was her fault, and she changed - her smile became more reserved, her cheery demeanor wilted just enough to be noticeable - but she was unaware that there was another reason to mourn; that even as Link was slipping into sleep, a sleep that would last seven long years, Hyrule was slipping into darkness.
#33 - Stupidity
"I love you, and I don't care about the mistakes you've made; what is it that you don't understand?"
#34 - Serenade
Link used to sit unseen outside the stable doors while Malon sang to the horses; she sang happy songs, sad songs, love songs, and he wished more than anything that they were meant for his ears.
#35 - Sarcasm
"I must look really beautiful right now," she said bitterly, wiping tears away; he hated the sarcasm in her voice.
#36 - Sordid
Link remembered the blood staining his hands, the fountains of red, the last shuddering breaths of his enemies; he looked into Malon's eyes - pure, unadulterated blue - and suddenly he couldn't bear to touch her.
#37 - Soliloquy
And Malon asked him what was wrong, and when he didn't answer, she talked and talked - trying to get him to laugh, to smile, even to look up - but he just kept staring down at his hands and didn't say a word.
#38 - Sojourn
That night she stole out from her room, chose a horse, and made the frightening journey to the Temple of Time - where she knew she would find him, brooding, awake - she took his hands and made him touch her; he told her he was sorry; she told him not to talk.
#39 - Share
Link had convinced himself that he could never be the knight in shining armor that Malon wanted, and Malon had convinced herself that she could never be the beautiful princess that Link deserved; they were perfect for each other, but in their shared guilt, neither could see it.
#40 - Solitary
"If you don't start being more careful, I'm going to end up as an old widow one day," Malon told him, jokingly, after he'd stumbled, bleeding, into the ranch for what seemed like the thousandth time; but Link knew that the idea upset her more than she let on, and so he wasn't surprised when she began to cry.
#41 - Nowhere
"Nowhere," he answered, catching her, stroking her hair - even as they both knew it was a lie, even as his sword was strapped firmly at his belt, even as Epona waited outside to carry him to the castle - "I'm not going anywhere, it's all right, don't cry."
#42 - Neutral
Malon watched with quiet resentment as Link walked into the ballroom with the princess trailing on his arm; she noted the expression of utter adoration and contentment on Zelda's face - the same expression that Malon had been wearing only hours ago - and she knew that she was being selfish, so she pretended that she didn't care.
#43 - Nuance
The songs she sang that day were subtly different, but no one - not even Malon herself - yet knew why.
#44 - Near
As much as Malon wished that she were the kind of royalty worthy of Link's company, she knew deep down that this was where she belonged - where she could be near the horses, and the fields, and the sky - and that castle walls would only stifle her singing voice and keep it from rushing out to meet the wind.
#45 - Natural
Link would probably marry the princess, it was only natural; so why couldn't she stop hoping?
#46 - Horizon
Looking into his eyes felt like lifting her gaze over the horizon on a cloudless day and forgetting which way was up in all the blue.
#47 - Valiant
"I'm not," he interrupted suddenly - eyes dark and stormy, voice breaking - "stop saying that, I can't take it; I'm anything but that."
#48 - Virtuous
Sometimes he just wanted to give it all up, never to touch that hellish sword again, but there was something that always stopped him - Malon called it virtue; Link called it guilt.
#49 - Victory
She opened her eyes and the realization hit suddenly and mercilessly, as it always did - it had only been a dream; it was far from over.
#50 - Defeat
Malon was always waiting for the threat of his horribly inevitable defeat to disappear; she wanted so badly to see him smile without thinking, Will this be the last time?
Characters/Pairings: Link/Malon
Title: fifty sentences
Rating: light R
Notes: Some pre-game, some during, some in some weird post-game AU arc as if Link hadn't gotten sent back home at the end... -_-; Whatever. Beta set.
Posted: 1sentence
#01 - Walking
She had been walking through the market when she first saw him - just a boy, looking wide-eyed and innocent and strangely out of place - and being a friendly little girl, of course Malon had gone over and said hello; she had never expected so much to come out of one little greeting.
#02 - Waltz
"But I don't know how," she protested (only half-heartedly) as Link pulled her to her feet, resting a hand on her back and gently placing her right hand on his shoulder; but soon they were dancing, and it didn't matter that they were in the stable with only the horses for audience - Malon felt like a princess at the royal ball.
#03 - Wishes
What Malon had always wished for was a knight in shining armor who would come and sweep her off her feet; what she got was a fairy boy in a green tunic, but she liked him better anyway.
#04 - Wonder
There were times when he would wander into the ranch in complete silence - sometimes panicked and struggling for breath, sometimes eerily empty of feeling - and all Malon could do was hold him and wonder, helplessly, what he could have gone through.
#05 - Worry
She hated how he went out to fight the battle and she stayed at home, worrying - as if they were a married couple, as if she were good enough for that.
#06 - Whimsy
One of the few things she regretted about them was that with Link, kisses were never products of whimsy or caprice; they were happy things, yes, but invariably tinged with desperation.
#07 - Waste/Wasteland
It was bad enough, after seven years, that Link came back to a Hyrule dark and ravaged, but it was worse to find Malon in the middle of it, so changed - gone was her smile, gone was the sparkle in her eyes - and so he vowed (secretly, of course; solemnly, to himself) that he would bring her back.
#08 - Whiskey and Rum
When she felt Link's lips at her neck, first Malon wondered whether it was just the alcohol, and second she wondered (rather disjointedly) where in Hyrule he had learned to do that.
#09 - War
His war, fought outside the walls of her shamefully cloistered world, was the one thing that kept them apart - but with each passing day, the walls caved a little more, and as the danger grew closer, so did they.
#10 - Weddings
Hidden, she watched her father laugh as he said he was only joking, Link was far too young to marry Malon; what ten-year-old Malon couldn't see from the doorway was the way Link's face fell.
#11 - Birthday
The first time she'd ever seen him unsure of himself was when he had lowered his voice, as if imparting some dark and shameful secret, and whispered into her ear that he didn't know when his real birthday was.
#12 - Blessing
There was a look he would give her every so often, an earnest glance full of pride and love and gratitude; Malon only wished that she deserved it.
#13 - Bias
They say there is a fine line between love and hate, but Malon had always been so far to one side of it that she was never even aware of its existence.
#14 - Burning
On hot nights they could be found breathless in each other's arms, ablaze, skin burning upon contact, heat and flame and steady rhythm and oh goddesses, even all of Din's fire couldn't compare.
#15 - Breathing
And afterwards Link would lie still in the darkness, his knee still pressed between Malon's thighs, and breathe into her sweet sweat-soaked hair; he'd try to forget that he was supposed to be saving the world, and even that the world needed saving at all.
#16 - Breaking
And Malon listened to his quiet and understood - she knew that he thought he could hide it, but she could see it, see how he was slowly breaking - and so she'd roll back onto him, offer herself up; and as the heat started up again, maybe for a moment he'd be able to let go.
#17 - Belief
Sometimes he felt like her belief in him was the only thing that kept him sane.
#18 - Balloon
When they were still young they would play for hours in the barn without a care in the world; her skirts ballooned like a parachute as they dropped from the rafters, and hay mingled seamlessly with his hair as they landed gently, with no pain or tears - laughing because it was funny, so funny to fall.
#19 - Balcony
She told him once that she wished she had a castle with a moonlit balcony for them to sit on, like she was sure the princess had, but "I'd much rather sit in the kitchen with you than on a balcony with some princess," was all that Link had said, tilting his chair back, smiling; and somehow, that was all Malon had needed to hear.
#20 - Bane
After peace was restored to the kingdom and the royal family was safely ruling once again, Link and Malon were careful never to discuss the castle - with all its formality, luxury, extravagance, and obligation - because Malon wished she could belong to that world, and Link wished he could escape from it.
#21 - Quiet
The first time she told him she loved him, it was so quiet that he had to ask her to repeat herself; then she looked right up into his face and yelled it, and would have run away if Link hadn't kissed her first.
#22 - Quirks
There were some things that only Malon knew - that there was one precise way that Epona liked to be brushed; that her father's three "special cuccos" were, in fact, completely ordinary; that the Hero of Time had, just like everyone else, once been afraid of the dark.
#23 - Question
Malon woke early on that fateful morning and saw him awake, walking out of the barn and into what she was certain would be his downfall; she ran to him, breathless, full of dread - asking, even as she knew - "Where are you going, oh Link, please don't-"
#24 - Quarrel
Malon had always insisted as a child that the moon was a pearl that one of the goddesses had dropped, but Link said one day that he thought it was a fairy that had gotten lost in the sky (a theory that Navi did not endorse), and the two argued about this for nearly an hour.
#25 - Quitting
Then, in a rare moment of anger, Fairy Boy told her he didn't want to be her friend anymore, and little Malon hid in the cow shed and cried until Link came in with a cookie - snitched from Malon's kitchen table - and, offering it to her, said he wasn't mad anymore.
#26 - Jump
The first time Link had visited the ranch after meeting Malon at the castle, he couldn't tell if he had been jumped by a wayward enemy or just tackled by a particularly affectionate ten-year-old; but as time went on, he got used to Malon's enthusiastic greetings, and maybe even (just a little - just the tiniest bit) started to look forward to them.
#27 - Jester
Although Malon hadn't realized it at the time, her jokes and games and mischief had kept Link going when nothing else could; when you're a ten-year-old boy charged with the fate of a kingdom, sometimes you just need to laugh.
#28 - Jousting
During childhood Link would often practice with his sword at the ranch, partly because he liked to show off for Malon, and partly because it made him feel like he had some control over that terrifying steel edge - that little harbinger of death that had come to rest, inexplicably, in his childish hands.
#29 - Jewel
Looking at Malon in the sun's dying light - as her hair shone red in the sunset, as she laughed and leaned warmly into him - Link realized that, as silly as it sounded, he didn't need another thing; he had the world's greatest treasure right beside him.
#30 - Just
"I just," she sobbed, "want you to be happy."
#31 - Smirk
It was the first time that he had seen her smirk like that in over seven years, and as the old mischievous gleam returned to her eyes, Link couldn't help but feel triumphant.
#32 - Sorrow
When Fairy Boy stopped coming to the ranch, Malon thought it was her fault, and she changed - her smile became more reserved, her cheery demeanor wilted just enough to be noticeable - but she was unaware that there was another reason to mourn; that even as Link was slipping into sleep, a sleep that would last seven long years, Hyrule was slipping into darkness.
#33 - Stupidity
"I love you, and I don't care about the mistakes you've made; what is it that you don't understand?"
#34 - Serenade
Link used to sit unseen outside the stable doors while Malon sang to the horses; she sang happy songs, sad songs, love songs, and he wished more than anything that they were meant for his ears.
#35 - Sarcasm
"I must look really beautiful right now," she said bitterly, wiping tears away; he hated the sarcasm in her voice.
#36 - Sordid
Link remembered the blood staining his hands, the fountains of red, the last shuddering breaths of his enemies; he looked into Malon's eyes - pure, unadulterated blue - and suddenly he couldn't bear to touch her.
#37 - Soliloquy
And Malon asked him what was wrong, and when he didn't answer, she talked and talked - trying to get him to laugh, to smile, even to look up - but he just kept staring down at his hands and didn't say a word.
#38 - Sojourn
That night she stole out from her room, chose a horse, and made the frightening journey to the Temple of Time - where she knew she would find him, brooding, awake - she took his hands and made him touch her; he told her he was sorry; she told him not to talk.
#39 - Share
Link had convinced himself that he could never be the knight in shining armor that Malon wanted, and Malon had convinced herself that she could never be the beautiful princess that Link deserved; they were perfect for each other, but in their shared guilt, neither could see it.
#40 - Solitary
"If you don't start being more careful, I'm going to end up as an old widow one day," Malon told him, jokingly, after he'd stumbled, bleeding, into the ranch for what seemed like the thousandth time; but Link knew that the idea upset her more than she let on, and so he wasn't surprised when she began to cry.
#41 - Nowhere
"Nowhere," he answered, catching her, stroking her hair - even as they both knew it was a lie, even as his sword was strapped firmly at his belt, even as Epona waited outside to carry him to the castle - "I'm not going anywhere, it's all right, don't cry."
#42 - Neutral
Malon watched with quiet resentment as Link walked into the ballroom with the princess trailing on his arm; she noted the expression of utter adoration and contentment on Zelda's face - the same expression that Malon had been wearing only hours ago - and she knew that she was being selfish, so she pretended that she didn't care.
#43 - Nuance
The songs she sang that day were subtly different, but no one - not even Malon herself - yet knew why.
#44 - Near
As much as Malon wished that she were the kind of royalty worthy of Link's company, she knew deep down that this was where she belonged - where she could be near the horses, and the fields, and the sky - and that castle walls would only stifle her singing voice and keep it from rushing out to meet the wind.
#45 - Natural
Link would probably marry the princess, it was only natural; so why couldn't she stop hoping?
#46 - Horizon
Looking into his eyes felt like lifting her gaze over the horizon on a cloudless day and forgetting which way was up in all the blue.
#47 - Valiant
"I'm not," he interrupted suddenly - eyes dark and stormy, voice breaking - "stop saying that, I can't take it; I'm anything but that."
#48 - Virtuous
Sometimes he just wanted to give it all up, never to touch that hellish sword again, but there was something that always stopped him - Malon called it virtue; Link called it guilt.
#49 - Victory
She opened her eyes and the realization hit suddenly and mercilessly, as it always did - it had only been a dream; it was far from over.
#50 - Defeat
Malon was always waiting for the threat of his horribly inevitable defeat to disappear; she wanted so badly to see him smile without thinking, Will this be the last time?