4 drabbles [Zelda, various characters]

[unwritten_icons]

Title: Follower
Characters: Link (Oot universe)
Rating: G
Summary: I'll follow you, wherever you go.
Note: Written for 100wordstories prompt was "time"

Time casts a shadow on his back.

It follows him as surely as his own thoughts; it lurks behind his footsteps, stealing his breath. It reminds him of the seven years he'd spent slumbering, away from those he loved, from those he has failed to save. And though he holds Time between his fingertips, he knows, he knows, he does not control time: time controls him. It reminds him with every swing of the Master Sword, each time he raises the ocarina to his lips; you were late, it hisses, keep up, Hero – I'll follow you, wherever you go.

Title: Coda
Characters: Zelda (Oot universe)
Rating: G
Summary: But those are fantasies.
Note: Written for 100wordstories prompt was "fantasy"

She thinks of them, the spaces and the fantasies.

She thinks of the spaces between herself: the guise and the woman, the Princess and the Sage. She is all these things at once: She is the Sheikah with redwater eyes, the mask. She is the woman inside it, bound to her guilt. She is the Princess, young and hopeful, dreaming in riddles. She is the Sage, the bringer of light, the Wisdom to his Courage. Zelda (or Sheik, or Princess, or Sage, she no longer knows) is all of these things, but those are fantasies, no more real than darkness.

Title: Hemophilia
Characters: Midna (Link/Midna implied)
Rating: G
Summary: His blood does not clot.
Note: Written for 100wordstories prompt was "almost empty"

There is a blankness to this, this act of death.

Midna has seen her share of death, each newer and more horrible to the last, but this death is unlike those. He does not writhe, or beg, or pray; he lies in her arms, quite calmly despite the blood on his lips, breathing slowly. At least I did it, he says modestly, reaching toward her face, and she lets him, because it's her real face, not an imp's. And she wonders blankly why his blood does not clot, how she'll remove it from her hands, how she'll wash him away.

Title: Time dances
Characters: Ghirahim, Zelda (SS universe)
Rating: G
Summary: "No dream, this."
Note: Written for 100wordstories prompt was "a dream"

First and last, he says, close to her face.

First and last, because our time is short, and time, is not on our side. He smiles, pale pointed teeth, gleaming – he guides her around a room without corners. They waltz. Zelda is dizzy, following his footsteps, hand in his, Ghirahim's breath cold, silver shimmering slivers. He dances with her, dreamlike – no dream, this, he whispers, sibilant. She lets him lead, and when it ends, he kisses her lips, bites until she bleeds – and she claws away his face, and she wants to scream and – she wakes.