"You know, I'm mildly surprised that my father allowed me to go outside today." Zelda commented as she dismounted, casting a cheerful glance around at the field just behind the Royal Ancient Tech Lab. Dozens of wildflowers blanketed the gently sloping hill that they had stopped on, lending a sweeter smell to the air than usual.

"Isn't that a. Good thing?" Link asked, glancing up from a clasp on Epona's saddle that had come undone as he dismounted and frowning slightly at the Princess.

"Yes, but taking recent events into account... I thought for sure that he would say no!" Zelda responded. "Especially considering the fact that Sheik had to help Impa with that demonstration for the Royal Guards."

Link finished fixing the clasp, the corners of his mouth lifting upwards slightly before he moved away from Epona. "Lucky for both of us."

"He is a bit much to deal with." It was clear that Zelda was trying to stifle a laugh as she replied, judging by the poorly hidden smile on her face. "Speaking of which, how are you two getting along so far?"

"Do you want. My honest answer or. A lie?" Link deadpanned. For a brief moment, his gaze flickered over to the castle, then returned to the Princess's face.

She actually laughed at that, despite the fact that he hadn't really intended it to be funny. "Honest answer, if you would."

That was a good question, actually. The other knight confused the hell out of Link, to say the least. It seemed like he was getting friendlier, but at the same time, it felt like he was making a conscious effort to keep him at an arm's length. He didn't exactly blame Sheik for this, considering some of the educated guesses that he'd made about the other knight's past, but it was extremely frustrating. Especially because he hadn't actually done anything (aside from take the position of Zelda's personal knight, which Link hadn't even wanted in the first place) to Sheik that would justify such treatment.

He chose to ignore the fact that hearing him say his name was very satisfying. Something about the way he said it was just... well, the feeling was hard to properly articulate. 

"He's... a lot. To deal with. Most of the time he's. A jerk. But he has his moments." Link finally answered. "I think he's. Getting a bit more. Friendly. But that's also. Kind of an exaggeration. It's very slow. Going. He's a good swordsman. So it's worth it. But that doesn't. Mean. It isn't frustrating. I don't know too. Much about his. Life until now. So I try not. To judge his reactions. To anything I do. Too harshly. You know?"

Zelda nodded, an unreadable expression on her face. After a moment, it turned into a little half smile, but she turned away before he could properly gauge her reaction to what he had just said. She walked to the crest of the hill and sat down, which confused Link. Was this conversation done? Had she just wanted to get information out of him?

Yeesh. Was this where Sheik got it from?

With a quiet sigh, Link walked forward and (somewhat hesitantly) sat down next to her. Only then did she finally turn to look at him again.

"You're not wrong there. I would explain more, but..." Zelda sighed and trailed off. "He'd get angry with me if I said anything else. It's his decision what to tell you or not. All I can say is that I have a feeling you two will be excellent friends once he gets over his pride."

"And here I was. Thinking that you'd be. An easy. Route to answers." Link joked. He didn't comment directly on the last part, but it made him surprisingly happy to hear. That was a bit weird, but not completely unexpected. After all, he did like spending time with the other knight when he wasn't being a complete asshole, and those moments were getting more and more frequent. He definitely did want to be his friend, since he got the same feeling that Zelda did about the two of them. Also, it seemed like Sheik had a lot of things he needed to sort through, and despite how unpleasant he had been towards him, Link wanted to help him with it. Nobody deserves to suffer, regardless of who they were. 

"If only it was that easy. Getting the answers for myself was like pulling teeth."

Link coughed into his hand to stifle a laugh. "Princess, you do know that. It's not too. Hard to pull teeth. Right?"

"Maybe for you, being as strong as you are. Though, I've never actually done it for myself, so that might actually be correct." The familiar distant look that Link had come to associate with Zelda trying to think through every angle of a situation and gather a reasonable conclusion came over her face as she spoke, but she snapped out of it fairly quickly. "Either way, I just wanted to check to see how you're dealing with him. I know we haven't really gotten off on the right foot, but I'm always happy to listen if you want to talk about stuff that's bothering you."

Good thing that she wasn't nearly as hostile as Sheik was. Link wasn't sure what he would have done otherwise. "Thank you, Princess. I appreciate it." 

"Just Zelda is fine."

Awkwardly, Link looked away from her, poking at the grass just so he had something else to focus on. Situations like this stressed him out, if he was being honest. There was nothing in the knight's code to explain how to interact with other people. Especially not royalty. Beyond the fact that you were supposed to treat them like an untouchable statue, of course. Knights- especially those who came from a commoner bloodline, like him- didn't befriend the royals they protected.

He could tell that she was waiting for an answer, though. Unfortunately, not many people were very understanding of the way he fell back on silence when he didn't know what to say. They wanted answers, not realizing that the lack of one actually told them all they needed to know. So, he sighed and glanced up from the grass. "That wouldn't. Be very. Uh. Proper?"

"Do you honestly think I care about that sort of thing?" Zelda asked quietly.

"Well. No." 

"Exactly." Zelda sighed and rested her chin on her knees.

Now he felt bad. Link wanted to respect her request- he really did- but it just felt so... weird. Though maybe it couldn't hurt to try. Especially if it would cheer her up a bit, considering that she was under so much stress all the time.

Her burdens were very similar to his, when all was said and done. Of course, she was still the Princess, and had the extra pressures of that position, but they were both expected to save Hyrule from the Calamity. Link wouldn't wish this on anybody, because it felt like he was slowly being crushed under the weight of his unwanted destiny. So, if he could do something to help Zelda... it was worth it. Proper etiquette be damned.

"Sorry, Zelda."

She turned to look at him, a soft noise of surprise escaping her lips. Her shocked expression quickly turned to a tentative smile, which was nice to see. He returned the smile, though his was barely even visible. Neither of them spoke. Which was good, because Link didn't know what he would say to begin with.

And then, of course, the moment was broken as something behind him caught Zelda's attention. She rose to her knees and scooted past him, unclipping the Sheikah Slate from her belt as she did so. "Robbie wasn't kidding about these flowers!" Zelda exclaimed, her words punctuated by the faint clicking noise that the Slate made whenever it took a picture. She hesitated for a moment to glance apologetically back at him, suddenly seeming to be hyper aware of how quickly she'd switched from one topic to another. "...that was random, I'm sorry, but look!" 

Politely, Link leaned closer to get a better look at the screen of the Slate when she held it out to him. All he saw were regular flowers, but then again he wasn't the greatest at identifying plant life. He could tell if it was edible or not (most of the time,) but that was about it. "Am I looking for. Something specific?"

Zelda laughed and zoomed in on a particular section of the photograph. "These two are native to the Tabantha region, but they can grow in Central Hyrule as long as conditions are right. And then these," she zoomed in on a different part, "are from Lanayru. Some of the researchers had been conducting an experiment to see if we could get some of the most stubborn varieties of flower to grow outside of their natural habitat. The findings from that study were going to be applied to the ongoing efforts to grow Silent Princesses in captivity, but current events have forced the work to come to a halt. In the meantime, this is probably the most remarkable flower garden in all of Hyrule. Besides maybe the Royal Gardens, but I think this one has the edge. Mostly because it's, well, free."

Unsure of how to respond to that, Link just nodded thoughtfully and studied the actual flowers in front of him. After a moment, he looked back at the screen of the Sheikah Slate, marveling at how realistic the image it produced was.

"Ah! Speaking of which..." Zelda scooted a bit closer to a particular flower, being careful not to crush any of the others under her knees. "Here's a Silent Princess. They're an endangered species, though they were only recently placed on the list. I think it was some time in the last fifteen years? That was what prompted a conservation effort focused on trying to grow them in captivity, like I just mentioned, but even before they had to stop and switch to all hands on deck with the ancient technology research, they weren't having much luck. Notice how it's the only one in this entire little garden?"

Link crawled closer to get a better look at it. After about thirty seconds of intense thought, he sighed in resignation and returned his focus to Zelda, seeing as he couldn't spot anything special about the delicate looking flower. "That's. Kinda odd, I'm guessing?"

"Yes, exactly." Zelda nodded enthusiastically, looking pleased that he was at least trying to involve himself in the conversation. "See, in the past, Silent Princesses were fairly common, because they naturally produce a lot of seeds as long as conditions are right. When they're placed under stress, seed production slows down dramatically and they don't spread as easily. At least, that's what the studies show so far. There aren't any concrete explanations for the sudden scarcity of the princesses, but who knows? Maybe we'll see an increase in their numbers if we just wait it out and let the flowers do their job, without expecting them to do it on our timeframe." Her voice took on a more melancholic tone then, and she reached out to lightly brush her fingertips over the petals. 

Once more he found himself at a loss for what to say, so he remained silent. Though, in doing so, he worried if Zelda would perceive it as him being disinterested in the conversation or just being flat out rude. Which was far from the truth- he was actually quite enjoying this, and he was pretty sure that she was too, aside from that last comment. It had seemed to carry a double meaning, based on the subtle (or maybe not so subtle, it could be difficult for Link to tell the difference sometimes) shift in her overall demeanor after she finished speaking.

"Either way, I do hope that they are able to survive in the end. I can think of several things that wouldn't really be the same without them. Including- hold on a moment!" Zelda cut herself off and lunged forward. She spent a moment crouched over like that, her hands cupped in front of her in the grass, before straightening up again. Her hands were clasped in front of her now, creating a little cage of sorts. "I wasn't expecting to see one of these! Usually I'm not fast enough to catch them, but I managed it this time. In any case, when the right conditions are met, these have powerful effects on the body." Zelda removed her left hand with a flourish, revealing a squat green frog crouching in her palm. "Tada!" 

The frog tried to jump out of her hands and onto Link in a desperate gamble to escape, but she blocked its attempt easily. He had a feeling he knew where this was going, and he didn't like it. "You're not about to. Ask me to eat it. Right?" Link asked, a little nervously. Aryll had pulled this on him once, though that frog had been more brown than green.

The mischievous glint in Zelda's eyes, which he had quickly learned to recognize in the past two months, answered his question before she spoke. "This isn't exactly ideal for an experiment, because of all the outside factors that could affect the results, but that's alright. I just want to test the castle's research, which was actually done in a controlled environment, and see if throwing a lot of variables at the subject- er, I mean, the person eating the frog- has anything to do with the potency of the effect. And you just so happen to be one of the best people for the job!" She hesitated for a moment after that, then added "Also, you're kind of the only person available at the moment."

"Thank you so much. I feel very valued." Link muttered, leaning farther away from the frog. Zelda only leaned farther forward and held it closer to him. She wiggled her eyebrows, looking far too enthusiastic considering what she was trying to get him to do.

"Hmmm. You've been spending too much time around Sheik." Zelda scoffed playfully and leaned back on her heels a bit. For a second, it seemed like she was going to release the poor frog and let him off the hook, but that proved to not be the case. She flipped it over onto its back and poked its belly. The frog let out an indignant croak. Link felt very similarly about the whole situation. "Actually, I can't remember if you're supposed to eat the frog raw or if it's supposed to be cooked..."

"How about neither?"

"It's for science, Link. Neither isn't an option."

Link stared at her for a moment longer before sighing in resignation. He held out his hands to accept the frog, then stared distrustfully at the green amphibian. It stared back at him, croaked, and then tried to hop at his face. Again. He put his right hand up to stop it, and the light impact of the frog's head against his palm was an odd sensation, to say the least. "If it's supposed to. Be cooked. Can I just. Not eat it?"

"I... didn't think about that." Zelda looked a bit put out by this discovery. "And I guess it wouldn't be all that pleasant to eat a live animal without at least killing it first."

"Great!" Link exclaimed. He wasted no time in setting the frog on the ground and letting it hop away, never to be seen again. The little thing certainly could move fast, seeing as it was gone in less than fifteen seconds after being freed.

"This just means I'm going to have to find a way to get you to eat a cooked frog at some point." Zelda was clearly trying not to burst out laughing as she spoke. "I'm determined to get the answer."

Despite himself, Link found it incredibly difficult to keep a smile off his face as he scoffed playfully and crossed his arms. He was trying to seem indignant about the whole situation, but it was really difficult to keep a straight face. This basically ruined the effect, of course. Shortly afterwards, they both burst into laughter, though his was a lot more restrained. Moments like this, where he was able to forget about the burden on his shoulders for a little while, were invaluable to him. What a good birthday present, huh?

Once they had both calmed down a little, a rather odd expression appeared on Zelda's face. Link tilted his head to the side, asking a silent question. Had he done something wrong? He totally had. That was the only logical explanation. It was his fault. Nice going, dude.

"I don't think I've ever actually heard you properly laugh before. Interesting..." Zelda finally said, which efficiently put (most) of his worries to rest. 

A little embarrassed, Link moved his hand to rest on the back of his neck and refused to meet her gaze. "Ah. Well. Surprise?"

Now he could only hope she didn't try to pry any farther than that, since the discussion could rapidly take a turn into far more personal stuff, which he definitely didn't want. After all, his feelings didn't matter. He might hate being the Hero, but he was nothing more than a weapon now. No better than the Divine Beasts at this point. 

An awkward hesitation lingered in the air between them for a moment, with both of them unwilling to speak next out of worry that they'd upset the other by doing something wrong or saying something insensitive.

"Oh! That reminds me!" Zelda smacked her forehead with her palm in an almost comically exaggerated manner, efficiently breaking through the awkward layer of ice that had settled over them. "It's your birthday, isn't it?"

Link nodded, too caught off-guard to verbally respond. How had she found that out? He didn't remember mentioning it to her, though it was possible that she had gone through his medical file or something. Creepy, yes, but possible. (And he wouldn't exactly put it past her, either. She could be very nosy when she wanted to, though she had enough sense when to pry and when not to.)

"So, you're seventeen now?"

He nodded again. Then, upon seeing the next question forming on her lips, he laughed awkwardly and fiddled with the strap that held the Master Sword in its scabbard to his back. "It's not exactly a. Big deal. I haven't celebrated. My birthday in a few. Years. So this one's. No different."

"In that case, I have the perfect idea for the occasion." Zelda peered up at the sky, shading her eyes with her hand, then sighed quietly. "Damn. As far as I can tell, it's just past two. Judging by how long it took us to get out here, then how long it should take us to get back compared to how long drills usually take..." Her words trailed off as she got lost in thought, so Link just waited patiently for her to finish thinking things through. "Giving it another hour before we return to the castle would be best, I think."

"Right." Link responded, casually concerned by the fact that Zelda said her idea was perfect. In his limited experience with her, that usually led to him being used as a test subject in an experiment. "Just to clarify. This isn't. Anything too bad?"

Zelda's only response was a sly wink that did absolutely nothing to curb his worries.

-/-/-/-

Sheik was waiting for Zelda and Link at the gates when they returned, seeing as the training session with the guards had finished sooner than he had been expecting it to. Or, well, that was what Impa had instructed all of the people involved to say, since it was much better than using the "training accident" excuse. That one was generally reserved for drills in the field that ended with somebody dead. This had just been a case of somebody getting knocked out cold, alongside various other injuries acquired by other guards that made it difficult to justify continuing. 

As he watched the duo ride up to where he was standing, he winced slightly and shifted his right arm. He was probably going to have a nasty bruise there later, but that served him right for messing up while Impa was using him as a demonstration. At least it wasn't on his face this time.

"Long time, no see." Sheik commented dryly as they stopped in front of him. Still, despite all appearances, he was actually happy to see both of them, as evidenced by the little smile that had somehow crept onto his face.

"Miss me?" Link shot back. Surprisingly, there was a small smirk on his face. Sheik chose to ignore the odd feeling that seeing it gave him.

"Not particularly."

"Hey. Be nice." Zelda chided, rolling her eyes as she did so. However, her mildly annoyed expression quickly turned into her classic 'I have a plan' face. "Which reminds me... how would the two of you feel about posing for a picture?"

"What?" Both knights spoke at the same time, sounding equally as shocked. Link turned around in his saddle so quickly it almost looked like he was going to fall off.

"You heard me." Zelda responded, looking far too pleased with herself. "Seriously though, I want to have at least one picture of the two of you together. I've been taking pictures everywhere else for record keeping, but I have none for you two. Also, it would be a crime to not immortalize your 'rivalry' or whatever." The pure sarcasm that dripped off her words as she said rivalry, accompanied by air quotes, was undeniable.

"Wait. Was this your idea. That you mentioned. Earlier?" Link asked flatly.

Zelda just winked at him, leaving Sheik feeling a lot like he was missing something here. Which, of course, he was.

"Either way. Can it wait. Until we get back to the. Stables?"

"Does this mean you'll do it?" 

"Yeah. I guess. Though I. can't speak for. Sheik."

He stayed silent for a minute or two, trying to get his irritation under control. That was mostly for Zelda's sake, though. Holy Hylia herself, she really needed to stop trying to force them to get along. Especially because he was dead set on preventing that from happening, despite how he was beginning to think that they could probably be really good friends. After all, they did work well together whenever they managed to put aside the petty arguments and do their damn job.

"Fine." Sheik finally responded. He could tell that Zelda was surprised by how easily it seemed that he'd given in, but he didn't really care too much. Granted, he'd probably regret not resisting more later. It would just be another thing to add to the list of stupid stuff that kept him up at night, which was fitting considering that it was related to Link.

"Excellent!" Zelda exclaimed. "Now, let's get a move on, shall we?"

She was about to start forward when Link spoke up, a slight frown on his face.

"Wouldn't it be a. Little more efficient to. Have him ride. With one of us?"

Zelda looked at Link, then at Sheik, and back again several times. A sly little smile appeared on her face- Goddesses damn it, she was planning something now- and it was evident that she was trying not to laugh. "Yes, I do believe that would be a good idea. However, we can't have people getting the wrong idea about my dear friend and I, so he'll have to ride with you, Link."

"I can walk." Sheik snapped. It was getting awfully difficult to keep his temper under control, but he was going to have to manage. It was unfortunate that he'd decided to let Link take tonight off of sparring to hang out with people he actually wanted to be around, considering that it was his birthday. 

His companions shared a glance, then Link twitched the reins of his horse and ended up right next to him. Wordlessly, he offered Sheik his hand. He very nearly slapped his hand away, but a last-second look over at Zelda proved that he really, really shouldn't do that. Unless he wanted to get chewed out later, of course.

"I hate you both." Sheik grumbled before he accepted Link's hand and swung himself up into the saddle in front of the other knight. He was almost entirely certain that his face was bright red, so it was a very good thing that Link couldn't see it. Zelda, though... she was going to tease the hell out of him later.

"Shocker." Link replied. Due to their current position, he ended up having to loop his arms half around Sheik's waist in order to hold the reins, which really wasn't helping matters.

The stables had literally never seemed farther away.

Despite everything, when the trio was about three quarters of the way there, Sheik let himself relax a little bit. This was actually very nice- what the hell? Goddesses, he must've missed proper physical contact more than he realized, if he thought this was nice.

"You see? It's not that bad." Link whispered. They were so close that Sheik could actually feel Link's breath as he spoke, which was a very unfamiliar sensation. 

"Don't get ahead of yourself."

Even as he spoke the words, doing an excellent job of sounding thoroughly pissed off if he did say so himself, a little voice in the back of his head agreed with Link.

He really didn't want to know what the hell that meant.

Upon arriving at the stables, he was determined to look everywhere but at Zelda after he dismounted. He already knew that she had a devilish grin on her face, and he had no desire to get teased right now. Or ever.

Thankfully, she refrained from saying anything while Link was inside the stable itself. When he stepped outside again, she clapped her hands together once and (poorly) disguised a small laugh with a cough. "Right, so, what exactly do the two of you do after I retire to my room for the night?"

"Usually we spar together for a little while." Sheik responded. "Why do you ask?"

"I'll walk down there with you, take the picture, and then go back to my room." Zelda said nonchalantly. "Or maybe I should stick around and make sure you two are actually doing what you're supposed to."

Damn it, and Sheik had just started to get over his embarrassment. He was blushing like mad again, and he wasn't even sure why! He didn't need to get so worked up about such an obvious jab, because it wasn't true. To his surprise, Link actually looked mildly flustered as well.

"Awesome." Sheik sighed and briefly pinched the bridge of his nose.

Zelda winked at the two knights and started walking in the direction of the training grounds. As she passed Sheik, she paused long enough to whisper "That was certainly entertaining."

He didn't bother responding to that. Why would he? It would only give her more fuel to tease him with later.

In an attempt to steady his emotions, Sheik was determined to focus on anything except Link, who had fallen into step beside him as usual. This meant he paid a great deal more attention to the individual bricks in the castle walls than he ever had before. It was quite successful for a little while, but his thoughts inevitably returned to Link and what had just happened.

"Just so you know. I didn't have anything. To do with that." Link said, speaking in a near whisper. The comment came totally out of nowhere, startling him out of his thoughts (which he was actually quite grateful for, because he didn't want to think so much right now).

"I didn't think so." Sheik responded, also keeping his voice low. It wouldn't do for Zelda to overhear their conversation.

Link didn't reply, having said what he needed to say.

Shortly afterwards, the trio arrived at the training grounds. Zelda then busied herself with ordering both knights around, a task which she never seemed to grow tired of. She ended up making them stand side by side, ideally looking like they somewhat tolerated the other. Judging by her reaction once the picture had been taken, they hadn't done a very good job. Mercifully, she didn't make them retake it, and promptly left them alone.

They stood there in awkward silence for what felt like an eternity, but was realistically only a few minutes. That seemed to happen a lot, though it was usually due to the underlying tension all of their conversations carried. It was a lot harder to pinpoint an exact reason for it this time. Times like these made it very easy for Sheik to understand why Zelda liked experiments so much. Only one variable was changed, causing another variable to react. Control like that was nice. Real life was unfortunately nothing like an experiment, despite how much easier that would make everything. If that was the case, then there would only be one thing he needed to change in order to fix... all of this.

"If you'd like, you can take tonight off. Go spend time with some of the other guards." Sheik said quietly, breaking the silence between them.

Link shook his head. "No. I'd much rather. Stay here with you."

Hearing those words wasn't unlike running headfirst into a brick wall. Which he had actually done once. It wasn't very fun. Granted, it hadn't really been his fault, but Impa sure had made it seem like he was useless for not being able to correct himself in time to avoid running into the wall.

All of his prior frustrations and anger half faded away- they definitely weren't gone, but he could hardly feel them now- just to be replaced by shock and a whole lot of confusion. Thankfully, Link seemed oblivious to how much his words had impacted him, but holy Hylia herself.

Sheik cleared his throat awkwardly and said one of the most intelligent things that he'd ever managed to think up, completely ignoring any and all possible implications of what Link had just said.

"Right, then. Stances?"