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How Zelda convinces him to let her tie him up in the first place, Link isn't entirely sure.
True, her eyes did light up in that beautiful way they like to when she excitedly tells him about the newest find the Survey Team found. Then there was the way she asks him, so sweetly, wanting nothing but his comfort to come first, even when the curiosity seeps from her. And, of course he would be hard pressed to ever deny the woman he loved anything that was in his power to give her. If tying him up in "some of the most truly interesting knot and rope designs" was what she wants, then it's what she gets.
So perhaps the earlier statement was a bit of a lie; Link did have some idea how he found himself being the test subject of an ancient Sheikah literature experiment. The books title, when roughly translated, read as 'Love, Life, and the Principles to Guide', something he learned from Zelda's time with the tome. There were several things Link learned from Zelda's time pouring over it, actually.
Link dear, did you know, during some of the most intensive activities, the Sheikah would establish a word that halted everything? Isn't that so smart?
Link, did you know, there's a spot within Hylian and Sheikah males that they can climax with alone? It says there's a similar spot within female anatomy too that makes penetration all the more enjoyable!
Link, did you know what a person eats can change how their bodily fluids taste? Is that not the most curious thing?
Love…I was wondering, well hoping really, if you might help me try something I find interesting? Only if you'd want to!
There was absolutely no way for him to expect the effect such a book would have on his life, though.
Zelda insists he wear one of his sleep tunics before she began, all with the intention to reduce any irritation her inexperience might bring to the mix. Link, for his part, trusts and knows his lover would never do anything to harm him.
Him having a singular full arm made for more research on Zelda's part, as many of the knots and holds called for two complete appendages.
Still, despite her concerns and his missing limb, Zelda finds a way to satiate her curiosity with him as the willing subject of experimentation quite well. That was how he found himself, sitting on the edge of the shared bed in their Akkala home, watching Zelda's face screw up in concentration as she honed the final touches to her work.
"There, I think that should about do it. Can you move for me some, tell me if the rope is hugging or gripping too tightly?"
He nods and purposefully moves his shoulders, feeling the rope hug against his movements where it crossed over his chest and around his shoulders, his wrist held behind his back by a attached cuff made of braided rope. What remained of his right arm pressed against his side, firmly, held in place by the ropes as well.
"Feels fine to me, can't move either arm much."
"Good, good! For a first try, I'd say you look rather lovely like this, my heart."
He feels Something push a sourness into his thoughts, something he quickly tried to batter back down. It must have shown on his face either way, because Zelda's petting along the back of his neck stops when she asks,
"Would you prefer a different word to 'lovely'?"
"It's not that, it's…"
It's just that her kindness tugs at Something in him that he can't put a finger on. Pulls at a voice from somewhere down in his dregs that wants to say…wants to say what?
"Do you need to use the safety word?"
He shakes his head, determined to handle a little…whatever this Something was.
"I don't think so. It just…"
His body tenses, the words getting stuck in his throat. Zelda's hands rest against his shoulders, a warming and grounding balm in the rising tide of pressure within him.
Why did her words make him feel like such an imposter?
"Are you still able to speak?"
For her, anything.
"Yes."
"Thank you, love. I can see you thinking through something and still try to be here with me. You're very good, you know? Letting me try something new."
There was that feeling again, that Something, like a painful gasp trying to push past his ribs—
"But I'm not. Zelda I am not good."
The words leave him before he can stop them. He feels his body pull against the carefully tied rope, the Something in him wanting to pull away from the gentle hand paused in their gentle petting because he didn't deserve it—
The rope holds him fast, just as much as Zelda's beautiful, caring eyes did.
"Oh…oh Link, you are good."
Her words are like a wedge against the cracks in his heart, the ones he hadn't thought about since he let her fall. Since he saw the Kingdom she loved nearly be laid low once again. Since he saw her choke down the stone currently sitting around her neck. Since he had to wrench a sword from a screaming dragon's skull.
He swallows, hard, and can only offer a shake of his head in response.
How could he be good? How? Not when there was so much evidence of his personal failings all over Hyrule. It was in the Ring Ruins still towering over Kakariko and the completely altered path up Death Mountain. In the abandoned Stable by the once entrance to Gerudo desert and the fact that he couldn't stop the Calamity from happening a century prior. In the villages wiped from maps and history. It was everywhere.
How could he be good if his mistakes marred the country his lover built up with such tender care? How—
The feeling of soft hands cupping Link's face are what breaks his spiraling thoughts, those same hands tilting his face up to meet Zelda's eyes. Her thumbs brush across the apples of his cheeks, adoration and love pour off her like heatwaves. The Something pressing out from within him wants nothing more than to turn away from such devotion. But her hands and her eyes and her ropes hold him still. Still enough for the cracks to begin to fissure open.
"How can I be good when I've done so much to fail you?"
It's hard to push the words through the thick, murky mire of emotions seeping out of him, but he manages. For her, he manages.
Zelda smiles softly at him, her thumbs still caressing his cheeks as she answers,
"I wish you could see yourself like I do, my love. You're good because you care; for me, for our friends, for all of Hyrule when you hardly knew any of it. You're good because you're kind; to me, to our neighbors, to any animal we might come across. You're good because you don't give up, even when it would be so much easier to do so. I'll say this every day, for the rest of our lives, if I need to, for you to believe it. You're a good man Link and I love you."
The fissures within him split wide open and there is nowhere for him to run but towards her devoted hands, eyes, soul. He feels his face crumple as he leans into her palms, a sob from somewhere soul deep shuddering out of him.
Time becomes a haze of many things at that point for Link.
He apologizes for failing her, for which she reminds him each time that he never failed her to begin with.
He thanks her for loving him, for which she tells him she always will.
He asks how she can stand to touch him, for which she responds with a kiss, all her love and care poured into it.
Mostly…he cries.
Into Zelda's shoulder, her chest, her lap. All while her hands never stop in their tender attentions of running through his hair, petting along his temples and cheeks, rubbing gentle circles between his shoulders.
It's only when his crying begins to subside does she undo her handiwork, the knots and rope falling away from his form only to be replaced by her fingers carefully rubbing out sore spots he didn't know where there. His throat is raw, his eyes burn and his voice is almost entirely gone…but for the first time since he woke up from the Shrine of Resurrection, Link feels lite.
There is nothing in his chest being held back, no words stuck or Something's to push down to deal with later. The viscera of emotion has been flushed clear out of him.
A calm, warm feeling settles over him at the realization. Settles into his very being, all soft and sweet, making it easy for Zelda's words to wash into him.
"Thank you, for being brave and sharing all this with me. You must have been holding all that in for so long."
"You are so handsome, inside and out. Your heart has steered you true, time and again."
"I love you, so dearly I love you."
"You're good Link. You are so, so incredibly good."
He falls asleep with her arms around him, held close to her chest, her heartbeat a soothing lullaby to his raw heart.
It's as the morning sun is just peeking above the horizon that Link is able to voice the want he couldn't the night before.
"Zelda?" He croaks, throat still raw.
"Hmmm?" She hums her response, her hands busy running soothing paths up and down his back.
"Can…can I read through that book? I want…want to see what else is in there. For next time?"
Zelda's careful hands continue to rub at the points on his arm that the rope left imprints along, gently working out any kinks and tension that may have built up there as she says,
"Of course. Though…I was wondering if, perhaps next time you might be willing to tie me up?"
The gooey good feeling soaked into him deeper at her request, prompting Link to press his face against the softness of Zelda's chest, sighing contentedly.
"I think I'd like that a lot, actually."
Zelda uses an altered box tie position when tying Link up in this fic. I used this page to research it.
This piece consumed me, put me in a fugue state to write it, and now we are here.