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Link crouched behind a boulder that had fallen from the island’s peak, watching with a poorly-restrained grin as Medli wandered across the beach some twenty feet away.
They’d agreed to meet this afternoon, taking advantage of her getting a break from her attendant duties, but Link was in a playful mood and couldn’t resist the urge to do something silly. He figured: What’s the harm? Medli was normally very serious and not the type of person to play pranks, so he had no idea how she might react to being the “victim” of one.
He hesitated momentarily, his reckless grin slipping a little. She won’t be mad, right?
Medli paused on the sand, cocking her head to listen. Her soft voice rang out, calling his name. When Link didn’t respond, she began to turn around in a slow circle, supposedly looking for clues. Her gaze briefly landed on the King of Red Lions. She knew that he’d arrived safely on the island, so where was he?
Breath held, Link waited until she turned away from his hiding place. Then he crouched low, wiggled his backside like a cat, and pounced.
He somehow managed to move so fast that even though Medli heard him coming, she couldn’t do anything to avoid him. The noise that escaped her throat was less of a scream and more of a squeak as Link crashed into her, pulling both of them into an uncoordinated tumble. Despite the natural cushioning of the sand, the impact was hard enough that Link winced. Gingerly, he pulled his head up to assess the situation.
Medli was lying on her back, staring up at him with wide eyes, her hands lifted as if to push him away. Her breath was coming in short bursts.
“What are you doing?” she managed. Link winced a second time, but was relieved to note that she sounded more shocked than annoyed.
“Eheheh... Sorry...” he stammered, pushing himself away from her and awkwardly offering a hand for support. She ignored it and climbed to her feet without any help, letting out a quiet huff.
“That doesn’t answer the question,” she said.
“It’s something Aryll does to me a lot,” he tried to explain. “She likes to tackle people - you know, to surprise them. I just thought... I thought it might be funny.” Even to his own ears, the excuse sounded lame.
“I see...” Medli brushed the sand off her clothes in a slightly pensive manner. Her hair was a bit ruffled, but she either hadn’t noticed or didn’t care about fixing it. Link wanted to run his hands through the fiery tresses until they were perfect again. He immediately blushed at his own boldness (even if it was only inside his head). “It’s fine,” she continued. “Though I’d prefer if you didn’t do that again. I don’t really like being jumpscared.”
“I won’t,” he promised, feeling a bit bad. “I didn’t mean to scare you. It was just a dumb joke.”
As if to apologise, he reached out and brushed away the grains of sand clinging to her sleeve. She managed a weak smile, and they continued onward up the mountain together, falling into their usual pattern of conversation as they chatted about the events of the last week.
A few days later, getting wind that Medli was taking the morning off work, Link once again made the three-hour journey to his favourite island. Tossing a rope over a nearby tree stump to keep the King of Red Lions moored in place, he hopped onto the beach and lifted his gaze to the sky.
It had become routine for Medli to swoop down and join him within minutes of his arrival. However, on this particular morning, the skies were empty. Valoo was keeping a lookout from atop the crater, but Link had no way of asking the sky spirit if he’d seen his attendant lately.
Weird. She definitely said she had the day off... Unless I got the wrong day? Or the wrong time? It wouldn’t be the first time he’d messed up something like that. He was the Hero of Winds, not the Hero of Calendars.
The idea that she might be angry with him after his stupid prank the other day briefly crossed his mind, but was quickly dismissed; Medli wasn’t the type to hold a grudge like that, and besides, she’d acted normal throughout the rest of their afternoon together. Link considered himself pretty good at reading people. He would have noticed if something was on her mind.
Frowning slightly, he resolved to go inside the mountain and ask one of the other Rito residents if they knew where she was.
The moment he turned in that direction, the air whispered behind him and a weight struck his back, shoving him forwards into the sand before he could so much as yelp, let alone identify his attacker.
A peal of laughter rose above the tide as Link pulled his head up, trying to snort sand out of his nasal passages. The weight resting on his back shifted, accompanied by the rustle of wings being folded up, and his dazed brain pieced together what must have happened.
“Medli?!” he coughed.
The laughter snapped off as though someone had put a lid on it. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are you all right? I thought I was flying quite slowly, so I shouldn’t have hit you with too much force, but maybe I--”
With a surge of strength, Link flipped onto his back, displacing the panicking bundle of Rito onto the sand. This new position allowed him to put his hands up in a placating gesture - as well as to see her face, which was stricken.
“It’s fine, it’s okay!” he said hurriedly. “You just caught me off-guard, which was kind of the point anyway! You didn’t hurt me or anything.”
Medli blew out a breath. “Oh, thank the gods! I’ve never tried to do something like that before...”
“You wanted revenge for the other day, didn’t you?” said Link teasingly, recovering from the shock and shooting her a grin.
She blushed. “N-not revenge. I just thought...” She trailed off, which only intrigued him further. Using his hands, pushed himself into a sitting position so he could look directly into her eyes, which he suddenly realised were having a hard time meeting his.
“Hey,” he said gently. “I wanna know the reason.”
Medli shifted awkwardly, but whether because of his pleading tone or her own desire to avoid hiding the truth, she relented. “Well, it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now... I know I’m not the most, um, playful person. You enjoy pranks and jokes a lot more than I do, and you laugh so easily... Doesn’t it bother you that I’m not like that?”
All of a sudden, the mirth in the air felt fragile. “Why would that bother me?” he asked, genuinely puzzled but hanging onto every word in hopes that he might understand. “We’re different people. We don’t need to act the same way. In fact, it would be boring if we did!”
She finally succeeded in meeting his gaze, and Link stiffened. The look in her eyes went beyond simple guilt or even the self-esteem issues that both of them, but Medli in particular, were sometimes plagued by. It was obvious that this had been worrying her for a while.
“But surely you want a friend who you can have fun with,” she said. “I’m not that person, am I?”
Link scrambled to find the right words; this was far too important to mess up.
“I know that you’re not as playful as me,” he said. “But that’s not a bad thing! I’ve known loads of people who don’t like jokes or stupid pranks. The King didn’t, unless you count the time he called me “dull-witted”, and Tetra thought jokes were annoying most of the time... I don’t care that you’re not the same as me.” He swallowed and squirmed, mentally swapping out some letters in the next sentence before it came out of his mouth. “I like you just the way you are, Medli.”
She had stayed very still and quiet throughout his speech, head tilted to one side in a way that told him she was paying close attention. By the time he finished, there was a hint of a flush on her face, but she didn’t look displeased. In fact--
“That’s... really nice to hear, Link,” she said in a small voice. “I, um... It might be a while before I fully believe you, but I really appreciate you saying all of that.”
“I’ll say it as many times as I need to,” he declared, puffing out his chest and feeling on top of the world. Sure, things weren’t perfect, but they’d made progress! “Why do you think I come here so often if I don’t like hanging out with you?”
“I suppose I just assumed that you don’t have many other people to spend time with,” she admitted.
Okay, that was partially true. Aside from Aryll, he wasn’t particularly close to anyone. But he wasn’t about to tell her that. “You’re my favourite person,” he said with complete honesty, letting his grin soften as he looked into her eyes. It had the desired effect; Medli averted her gaze, clearly flustered, but the expression on her face was more than just embarrassment. It was joy. The kind of joy that a poet might compare to a sunrise over ocean waves.
It gave Link an impulse.
Surrendering to it, leaned forward and firmly pulled her into a hug before his better judgement could convince him not to. Her clothes were well-worn yet soft, and she smelled of smoke and salt and a hint of dawnbreak freshness. She stiffened against him for a moment, then let out a sigh and cautiously wrapped her arms around him in return. Her grip was light at first, but gradually tightened until Link felt like they were in the middle of the sea and he was the only piece of driftwood for miles around.
He’d expected to feel more flustered - this was their first real hug, and it hadn’t exactly been planned. But the longer they sat there together, bathed in the glow of morning and safe beneath the watchful gaze of the great dragon, the more he found himself melting into her. This wasn’t awkward or weird or embarrassing. It wasn’t forced. It felt right.
It was home.