#jerrin

“Robbie!” A woman exclaimed. “We have guests!”

After only a couple footsteps, the door opened to reveal a middle-aged woman with a neighborly smile. She looked to Zelda first and, not recognizing the Princess in the slightest, focused on Link.

“Why Link!” She exclaimed. “If you’re here to use Cherry, you don’t need to knock. Come on in!” 

She stepped aside, Zelda entering first, but very slowly, spinning around and taking in the whole room of messy research that matched so much the inside of her brain. Link perched himself in the open doorway, crossing his arms and feet and leaning against the frame, of course with a smile of adoration towards his Princess.

Before the woman could even inhale to introduce herself, Zelda had rushed towards the Ancient Oven, standing on her knees and studying it with a hand on the head.

“Oh, Miss, I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” the woman said with a step forward. “Robbie isn’t too fond of strangers touching Cherry.”

Zelda turned her head.

“He named it Cherry?”

“Yes,” the woman said, her voice taking on a slight frustration at the reminder. “After his—“

“First love,” Zelda finished, to the woman’s surprise. “I remember.”

Zelda turned her head back to studying the furnace.

“She must have perished in the Calamity,” Zelda said quietly, before her mind started really focusing on the technology. “Remarkable. I was there when he drew it up. I never thought it would actually work, but he must have found a way around the interface incompatibility. Does it really repurpose ancient energy? How did he contain the power of the blue flame? Unless it’s rerouted through the conduits like a guidance stone. But even then, creating an intelligence able to take and receive orders is a feat on its own. I wonder how he managed it considering the margins of error.”

She beamed a smile back at Link.

“This is incredible.”

“Incredible, huh?” She heard a much older voice spout, standing up. “Has my wife finally come around to my precious Cherry?”

He came about to Zelda’s sights, looked up and his jaw dropped.

“Your Highness!” He exclaimed suddenly, his arms extending outwards and making him look like a starfish. “What a surprise! And a miracle! You have no idea how many specs I wanted to run through your brain over the years. I almost took up a sword and rescued you myself!”

“Your Highness?” The woman asked with a step forward.

“Yes!” Robbie said, placing his hands up his hips. “This is none another than Princess Zelda herself. Wrestled from her prison with the Calamity by none other than our Link!”

“I apologize for not recognizing you,” the woman said, shaking hands with Zelda. “The Calamity was long before my time, thirty years before I was born to be exact. My name is Jerrin.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Zelda said.

“If you’re the Princess,” she said. “That means you knew Robbie when he was…what…about twenty?”

Zelda nodded.

“Yes, all of them,” she said. “Purah, Impa, Cherry. We worked closely together on studying sheikah technology.”

“And we’ll be happy to catch you up,” Robbie said. “Although I can’t help but obsess over the fact that you called Cherry incredible. She doesn’t get a lot of appreciation around here.”

“Robbie,” Zelda insisted. “Cherry is absolutely marvelous, how did you…”

They emerged into what Link would describe as incoherent technobabble between the both of them, finishing each other’s sentences and poking and prodding every inch of the ancient oven. Link watched amused as Jerrin sauntered over to him, the words flying completely over his head but Zelda’s smile shooting straight into his heart.

“She’s an interesting one, isn’t she?” Jerrin asked, stopping next to Link. “Not what I would expect of a Princess.”

“No, not at all,” Link said, watching Zelda.

“You saved her from the Calamity but before that, you were her…?”

“Knight attendant,” Link answered, Jerrin nodding.

“Do you know if she plans to rebuild the kingdom?” Jerrin asked.

“I’m not sure,” Link said, finally turning his head. “She mentioned something about it last week but she seems so much happier here in the wild that I wouldn’t be surprised if she just let it be. The people of Hyrule have gotten used to life without a centralized kingdom and although it could help unify it, I think Hyrule can prosper either way with the Calamity now gone. Really, I think it’s up to her as to what she wants her future to be.”

Jerrin nodded.

“And you’ll continue to protect her?” She asked. “Without being sworn to by a standing kingdom?”

Link almost laughed.

“I can’t imagine myself not,” Link said. “I plan to protect her and love her as long as me being by her side makes her happy.”

“That answers my next question,” Jerrin mused before Link felt Zelda grab his arm, pulling him further into the lab and in front of the oven.

“Put something in!” She exclaimed. “I want to see what we can get!”

“All that are available are weapons, Your Highness,” Robbie said. “Link already purchased the guardian armor a while ago.”

Zelda’s head spin to Link was quick.

“What?”

“Oh, right,” Link said, clearly forgetting.

“Are you serious?” She said before taking his hand with both of hers and pressing up against his arm. “Armor made from repurposed guardian parts…how could you keep this from me?”

Link looked into her face with a blushing smile. 

“Oh? Did you want to see it?” Link asked teasingly.

Zelda nodded quickly.

“Yes, please.”

Link pecked her lips.

“Okay.”

He stepped a bit away from Zelda, rummaging in his seemingly endless inventory before he realized that Jerrin, Robbie, and Zelda were all staring at him expectantly.

“I know I took my shirt off in here once, but maybe a bit of privacy?”

They quickly realized their error, Robbie returning up the stairs to peer up at the encroaching stars of the approaching night and Jerrin leaving to find a merchant at the nearby stable to collect ingredients for dinner.

Zelda waited outside impatiently for Link to emerge, and it seemed the longest five minutes she had ever experienced. She was even surprised at her lack of patience, keeping Ganon at bay for one hundred long years.

The door opened and her heart quickened, pushing away her immediate thoughts as she really studied him, Link stepping out with a slight spin.

“One guardian-covered significant other ready to be studied.”

“Fascinating,” she breathed, stepping forward. She touched the inactive guardian eye on his helm first. She walked around him, her hand grazing along his shoulder, his back, before she stopped at his left hip, kneeling, her fingertips tracing the orange lines of the greaves.

“How does it do against Guardian attacks?” She asked.

“It isn’t impervious,” Link explained. “But I take less damage. The burns are less severe, barely even showing up. If it hits directly it only burns the armor.”

Zelda nodded.

“Just like they are to each other,” she said. “Their lasers can harm each other, but not as easily as flesh.”

She looked up.

“In an early stage, Robbie mentioned auto-regeneration. Does this have that?”

“Auto regeneration?” Link asked.

“He talked about channeling the type of energy from the Shrine of Resurrection, the energy that healed your injuries. If you took damage, the armor would slowly heal you.”

“No,” Link said with a shake of his head. “Nothing like that.”

Zelda nodded as she sat up.

“Again, the compatibility issue,” she said. “Different types of sheikah technology don’t transfer well without a proper conduit like a guidance stone, to funnel the flame into a different phase of matter. But the Shrine of Resurrection isn’t powered by any flame we could find. To this day, we still don’t know how the ancient Sheikah repurposed the energy to heal wounds.”

Link loved the way she went on and on, happily standing still to prompt it.

“This armor really is amazing,” she said with a chuckle. “I can tell what type of guardian each one of these parts came from, even since they’ve been repurposed.”

Her eyes shifted to the helm, noticing Link’s unrestrained hair.

“I imagine you took out your hair because the ponytail wouldn’t fit under that helm.”

Link nodded.

“It was pretty uncomfortable otherwise.”

Zelda stepped back, placing her finger on her lips. Link expecting her to make another scientific observation with the way her green eyes scanned him.

“That blue fabric underneath is made by the Sheikah, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, why?”

“It’s pretty tight,” she said with a smile.

What Zelda could see of Link’s face flushed red.

“Turn around again,” Zelda commanded, with a swivel of her finger.

“I thought you were interested in this for research purposes,” Link said as Zelda tipped her head.

“Oh, I am,” she said. “But it just flatters you so well. It’s an added bonus”

“Okay,” Link said turning around. “Now you are just looking at my butt.”

“I got distracted,” Zelda said. “You can pull off anything. Usually you aren’t wearing what I’m studying. I’d never get anything done.”

“I suppose I see what you mean,” Link said. “If I had you along on one of my adventures, I’d lose my head completely. If we had to save Hyrule again, it would end horribly because I’d be so distracted by you.”

“Link,” she said with a smile and shakes of her head. “You say the absolute worst things with the absolute best intentions."

Zelda walked forward and tipped the helm up so she could she his blue eyes. 

“Although, I do agree with you that the end of Calamity Ganon being the end of our troubles is a good thing. Nothing lurking, nothing waiting for our death, or for its next move, just us.”

Zelda took off the helm completely before seeing him with his hair down for the first time. She ran her fingers through it slowly as Link’s eyes flitted to her lips. Zelda’s hand stopped itself on the back of his head, clutching his golden locks and bringing his forehead to meet hers. Her other arm was around his neck, with the helm dangling off her fingers

“Kissing me in guardian armor must be…”

“A turn on?” She breathed, finishing his sentence. “Yep.”

She kissed him, only after a couple seconds their heads tilting to let each other in, their mouths opening and their kiss deepening.

Link picked her up with his next breath as they continued, her body pressed up against his as he leaned back, holding her tight. He set her down gently.

“But honestly, Link,” Zelda said breathlessly. “It’s mostly you. Technology or not, I’ll always love you no matter what you wear…or no matter how little you understand my…what did you call it? Technobabble?”

Link nodded.