After All This Time, I Finally Found You

by Kuraiarcoiris

Summary:

Hyrule was summoned by a Great Fairy, his aunt Cobalt. She sends him on a quest given him by the Fairy Queen to guide a young hero as he saved his kingdom from Ganon. Taking on a new name, Hyrule throws his all into the quest to protect his young charge.

Notes:

The original idea of Hyrule being Navi is from tumblr, specifically this post. I am not the OP of that post and want to give them credit.

Decided to post this on Mother's Day because Hyrule is giving motherly vibes in this one.

Chapter 1: Lost

Summary:

Link is sent to another time to help a young boy. He does, grows to deeply love his boy, and is then torn away from him.

Link neared his favorite fairy fountain, the one that reminded him the most of his mother, and spun himself into his fae form. His glow shifted to the color of the fountain which was blue as the Great Fairy of the fountain rose. Aunt Cobalt smiled fondly down at him.

 

“My favorite little nephew,” she boomed, and Link took the opportunity to flitter to her. “I have an important message from her majesty.”

 

“The Fairy Queen?” Link’s tinny, feminine fairy voice asked. All fairies sounded female to Hylian ears, and sometimes his own voice in this form startled him.

 

“Yes. She wants you to play this,” Aunt Cobalt said. She held out a harp. A harp that Link had only heard of in legends. The Harp of Ages once owned by the Hero of Legend.

 

“Play the Harp of Ages? Me? You know I can’t play anything except my flute.”

 

“If you can call what you do to that poor flute playing,” she teased. Or despaired. Link struggled to know which was which with his Great Fairy aunts. “Try not to make any of your cousins’ ears bleed.”

 

Tittering giggles broke out around the fountain, and Link felt his ears burning. He fluttered down to the strings without changing forms. He was more musical as a fairy. A little. He hoped.

 

The moment he strummed the strings with his whole arm, his vision went black. When his vision cleared, his surroundings had completely changed. His glow flickered and remained Aunt Cobalt’s blue. A giant forest surrounded him, and he immediately spun to become Hylian again. He floated up, sparked, but remained a fairy.

 

Link panicked and tried again. A loud, deep chuckle followed his second failure. Link turned to the direction of the sound. A giant tree smiled at him. He flittered back and away. He had never seen a tree so big before. Or one with a face on it that smiled.

 

“My thanks for heeding my call. I am pleased to know I couldst count on her majesty, the most honorable Fae Queene, to direct the perfect fairy for my most exceptional child.”

 

“I’m sorry? What are you talking about?”

 

“Thou dost not know? Didst the Fae Queene not send thee?”

 

“I…I think so? But I don’t know why?”

 

“Ah. I understand. Her majesty hath decided that I shouldst explain. I willst do so,” the huge tree sighed. The tree proceeded to tell Link of an odd situation. Of a strange race called the Kokiri. About a Hylian boy who was raised among them. The story sounded familiar. Link remembered his own childhood. A Hylian child with fae blood, raised by his fae family instead of his Hylian one. It had been too dangerous for him to live in a land filled with people who hated the mark he bore on his hand. This boy had to be hidden in the woods for the same reason. Born with that same mark on his hand. “The time draws near for my exceptional child to fulfill his fate. He willst need a guide. Wouldst thou please act as his companion and guide him?”

 

“I will,” Link said without hesitation. “What is his name?”

 

“Link,” the giant tree, the Deku Tree, spoke. “What might be yours, my fae friend?”

 

Link did hesitate this time. Giving the Deku Tree his true name would be confusing. Also he felt a faint fae magic strangling his name in his throat. If the Fairy Queen herself had set him on this task, she might have also trapped him in this form and sealed his name. Names were dangerous for fae. If he was trapped in this form without a title like his aunts, he might accidentally curse himself into servitude. Best to use a name that was not his.

 

“Navi,” Link—no, Navi said. Best to keep his thoughts straight. And he would have an easier time answering to his mother’s name. “My name is Navi.”

 

“Navi,” the huge tree repeated solemnly. “Thou shouldst repose for a time and then watch over my exceptional child. Do not reveal thyself to him. Not yet. I willst tell thee when it is time to go to him.”

 

L—Navi nodded. He flittered off to speak to his cousins that had been hovering nearby. In a few minutes, the child marked by fate had been pointed out to him. As he had been instructed, Navi watched the boy. He saw the boy mocked for having no fairy companion. Saw him pushed aside by his Kokiri brothers and sisters in a way that Navi never was by his fae kin. Navi saw how lonely the boy was, and the fairy longed to go and be by the boy's side even before the child started to fulfill his destiny. But his orders were clear. He was to wait. Like his fae kin, he could not go against the Fae Queen’s orders. Maybe if he took Hylian form, he could defy her majesty's orders. But not in fairy form. Not unless he wished to have his magic collapse upon him and crush the life out of his body. He would be no good to his boy then.

 

His boy. Navi had decided. This child, so much younger than even he was when he started to fight monsters with a gifted sword, would have a friend throughout his whole adventure. And if Navi had any say in the matter, his boy would survive to live whatever life he chose after fulfilling his fate.

 

The Deku Tree called for Navi several days later. The wise tree told Navi to fly. That the world depended on him. Navi cared for the world, but he cared for his lonely boy more. Perhaps he was too forceful in his direction. Too noisy and persistent in keeping his boy safe. But Navi’s boy survived. He faced his fate and finished it. Even after being frozen seven years and thrown into a body too big for him and a world seemingly too broken to be mended, Navi's boy succeeded. Navi’s boy became the hero his Hyrule needed. Like Navi had been.

 

Navi watched glowing bright as his boy struck Ganon down with his Zelda. Navi’s own Zelda would have been as proud of the girl as Navi was of his boy. Then that wise girl sent his boy back. Sent him back to his boy's original time permanently so Navi's boy could grow unburdened by the title and responsibility of a Hero. Navi approved and was grateful the wise girl freed his boy from the shackles that came with that title.

 

The last notes of the Zelda’s Lullaby faded, and Navi and his boy returned to standing before an undrawn Master Sword. Instantly Navi’s body was pulled upward and away from his boy. The notes of the song that had seemingly faded started up again, and he flew in loops trying to get down. To get back to his boy. But the magic in the music pulled him upwards. A magic sent no doubt by the Fairy Queen.

 

Once his boy was out of sight, Navi’s world became black.

 

He awoke back in Aunt Cobalt’s fairy fountain.

 

“And that, my dear boy, is how you play an instrument,” boomed the Great Fairy’s loud voice. “How was your trip?”

 

“Send me back!” Navi cried. He dove for the Harp of Time, but it was yanked out of his reach. He tried again, and the Great Fairy hid it away deep in her fountain where only she could access it. “Give it back! I have to go back! He needs me! Please, aunt. Please. Send me back!”

 

“Dear Link, what has gotten into you? You know better that to go against the will of her majesty,” his aun—the Great Fairy said as she grabbed him by his wings. He wriggled in her grip. “Stop this tantrum at once before I have to take extreme measures.”

 

Navi spun, and for the first time in what had to be years, he regained his Hylian form and plopped into the enchanted water. He still could not reach the harp. A hand grabbed his tunic and tossed him out of the fountain.

 

“Calm yourself, young man,” the Great Fairy scolded, but Navi barely registered it before diving into the fountain again. He was caught and held in an inescapable grip. “What has gotten into you?”

 

“He needs me!” Navi yelled straight into the elder fae’s face. “No one in that time knows what he did and how it changed him. But I know. I know. Aunt. Please. He needs me. He can’t even go home. If he goes back the Kokiri Woods without a fairy, the others will go back to bullying him. He will eventually grow too large to be accepted by the woods at all. He doesn’t have anyone but me. Please, please, please. I’m begging. Fairy Queen’s orders or not, I have to go back.”

 

“Oh, honeysuckle,” the Great Fairy cooed, using the name most did for cute young male fae. But Navi wasn’t being cute. He was being serious. He needed to go back. “Her majesty did give me a message for you, so listen carefully.”

 

Navi writhed and struggled to loosen her hold. She shook him hard to get him to stop.

 

“Hey. Listen,” she barked. The words broke something inside Navi. How often had he said those words to his boy? Had he demanded the boy pay attention to the danger or the weak spot of an enemy? Or the message on a sign as Navi read it? Tears clumped in his eyes. Him. The stupid wild boy who faced fate with a gifted sword, reading for someone else. Because like him, his boy had never been even taught to read. Navi’s own Zeldas had worked hard to help him learn after his adventures. Who would teach his boy to read if he wasn’t there to keep helping him? Navi hadn't even gotten a chance to explain what each symbol meant and how they formed letters. He had thought he had time after his boy defeated Ganon. That he had time to stay beside him and help him grow. “You’re not listening, honeysuckle. The Fae Queene herself told me to pass along this message: you will see the boy from the woods again. Be patient.”

 

“He needs me now!” Navi screamed and struggled harder. “Send me back now!”

 

“You know I can’t go against the her majesty's commands even if I wanted to,” she said with a small sigh and placed him at the edge of her fountain. “Just like you could not resist her call to return.”

 

He should have. He should have fought harder, figured out how to return to his Hylian form, screeched at his boy to put in him in a bottle, done anything but allow himself to whisked back to his time without warning. He didn’t even get to say goodbye. Navi—no, Link. He didn’t get to bear the name his boy called him when he failed him so badly. (And Link was his boy’s name too. It was the last link, haha, he had to him.) Link curled in on himself and smothered his tears with his knees.

 

“There, there,” boomed the Great Fairy above him. A hand slipped into his hair. “Her majesty knows what she is doing.”

 

He jerked away from the hand and stood up. Fury sparked his magic, his not the fae-given one, and he stared the Great Fairy straight in the eye.

 

“From this point on, I renounce any relation to the Fairy Queen and all her kind.”

 

“Honeysuckle, you shouldn’t—”

 

“Until the day I see my boy again, I will not take fae form. I will not carry out any request or command give to me by the Fairy Queen or any of her minions. I will only come to a Fairy Fountain to receive healing as is the right of any Hylian Hero. Every fairy I find will be placed in a bottle and thanked according to their help and no more. The Fairy Queen will have my allegiance and help again when I and my boy are reunited. Until then, I am a Hylian and only a Hylian. Tell your majesty that.”

 

“How dare you speak of her majesty like that? And disavowing your relation to us? How she could have ever decided to show you favor, I don’t know—”

 

The Great Fairy continued, but Link was done listening. Link strode out of the Great Fairy fountain and headed towards Hyrule castle. Maybe his Zelda or her great niece had an answer, a way for him to know when his boy existed. A way to send Link back to him. The Zelda of his boy’s Hyrule had had a means to send the young boy through time. Maybe his Zeldas would too.

 

He had to do whatever he could to get back to his boy. He would do whatever it took to go back and help him. It was too dangerous for his boy to go alone.

Chapter 2: Found

Summary:

Link asks Hylia for a way to find his boy. She puts a swirling portal in front of him.

Link sat at the foot of the towering statue of Hylia. He stared up at her and then back down at her feet. His adam’s apple bobbed, and he laced his fingers together. Zelda Aurora had claimed that Hylia had spoken to her 100 years ago and warned her to hide the Triforce of Wisdom. His Zelda had even said the deity had kept her company in her dreams.

 

‘She’ll listen to you, Link. Her power wanes every century that passes, but for the love she has for her heroes and people, she lingers and does what she can. If the Fairy Queen will not listen to you, she will. You’ve searched for over a year in every corner of our kingdom and beyond. What could it hurt to ask her for help?’

 

Link trusted his Zelda with his life, and Zelda Dawn had agreed with her. He couldn’t argue with them both. But if Hylia ignored him—Link didn’t know that he could ever trust another female deity again. He clasped his palms together and looked up.

 

“I don’t know if you know about the Fairy Queen’s actions, but she sent me through time. Maybe to the past, maybe to the future. But she chose to send me to a giant talking tree called the Deku Tree, and he asked me to help a lost boy defeat the great evil, Ganon. Same guy I took down here. The same one who your other legendary hero defeated. And my boy did it. If he was your hero like I supposedly am, you might know who he is. Maybe. He might be from the future, but you should have some clue who he will be even if he’s from the future, right? Can you please help me find him? I want to make sure he lives to be more than your hero.” He wondered if Hylia would find that insulting, so he added, “Being your hero is an honor, but it’s hard. I want him to get to wear that title with honor but—but I want him to find a life outside it. That’s okay to want, right?”

 

He tilted his head fully upwards to look straight into the statue’s face.

 

“If you care for your heroes at all, please please let me see him one more time. I want to see him happy.”

 

The air beside the statue rippled, and a large dark triangle appeared. The inside of the triangle swirled with dark and light magic. Link blinked and titled his head. Was this the answer to his plea?

 

He stood and meandered close to the strange magical triangle whose tip was around three heads above his. He covered his hand with the faintest magic and touched the swirling energy. It yanked at his hand as if trying to pull him in. He considered pulling back and away from the greedy magic, but he fell into instead. Instantly he stumbled into a familiar enchanted wood. His heart raced, and he hurried to where he knew the Deku Tree had stood.

 

The magic of the forest did not guide his way as it once had. Darkness pervaded the tricky but neutral magic. It no longer playfully suggested twisted, confusing paths or spun in silly circles. The magic grasped at Link and tried to drag him down to an abyss that had not existed when he was here last. Whatever had occurred to the Lost Wood, it was not the place Navi and her boy had known. Hylia had likely sent him to a time either long past or long before the Deku Tree or Deku Sprout kept the corruption of malice out of their wood.

 

Using his magical senses, he escaped the corrupted wood’s deadly pull. Staring back at the vaguely familiar entrance, Link mourned the Kokiri’s corrupted home, his boy’s corrupted home. Maybe in the future the Deku Tree would reign the chaos in and raise his boy in the enchanting forest. Maybe the Deku Tree already had and the corrupted woods would remain like this until the end of this era as the darkness ate itself and left nothing but ruin. Or perhaps a new, unknown custodian would shape the woods back into somewhere inhabitable. Like Link’s own Hyrule, the future could be bright or dark depending on the people of this time.

 

A strange creature clattered out of the forest followed by two fairies. The wooden being was not a Kokiri, but if it could live in this corrupted Lost Woods, it would have to be either the most corrupt or most resilient of people. Perhaps the wooden being could give Link a hint as to whether this was before or after the Deku Tree’s time.

 

“Who are you?” one of the fairies flew forward and into Link’s face. Her glow was bright yellow, and she didn’t seem to understand personal space. Link had had trouble for years understanding that standing too close to strangers made them nervous. He occasionally used that knowledge to his advantage. “You’re wearing clothes like Link, but you aren’t Link. Also Link doesn’t wear those clothes anymore.”

 

“Link?” he asked. There were legends and myths that said that every hero chosen by Hylia was named “Link.” Perhaps the old texts that his Zelda liked to quote were true despite what Zelda Dawn liked to say. He and his boy had shared the name, why not the other heroes? “Is he the hero of this era?”

 

“Hero of this era? What are you talking about?”

 

“I think he’s implying he’s not from ‘this era.’ He must be from someplace else like we are,” the darker fairy flew over and pulled the light yellow one out of Link’s face. He had a uniquely deep voice for a fae. “Also don’t you feel it? This guy’s family.”

 

The light yellow fairy fluttered quickly and leaned away from the darker fairy’s hold to peer at Link. She chimed and burst a puff of pure magic in Link’s direction. Link literally blew it back at her. She spluttered and hurried to circle around the wooden creature’s head.

 

“Careful, Skull Kid. This guy’s dangerous.”

 

“Yeah. Stay away from him,” the second fairy joined in and agreed.

 

“Do you know Link?” the strange creature creaked. The creature’s voice reminded Link of the Deku Tree in a way but more flat and eerie. Also it was very odd to hear someone ask if he knew himself or maybe his boy. But if there were more heroes named Link, he couldn’t be sure if he knew this Skull Kid’s Link.

 

“I don’t know. I am looking for a Link, but I don’t know if he’s your Link.”

 

“You’re looking for Link?” the light yellow fairy shrilled. She was suddenly back in his face. “You had better not be looking to hurt him!”

 

“Tatl! He’s dangerous? Remember? We just said that,” the darker fairy flew to drag her away from Link again. He decided that this conversation was going in circles, so it was time to move on. After one more question.

 

“It was nice meeting you, but I have to find out where—or maybe when?—I am. I was wondering if you knew a Deku Tree by chance?” His Zelda always emphasized that his politeness was endearing and made it easier for even their prickly people to part with information. In other words, she wanted him to be more polite to people and not just demand information because he wanted it. Link had found using polite terms did get better results. Sometimes. It made his Zelda happy when he didn’t threaten to fry people, so he tried to be polite first.

 

“Nope. No Deku Tree,” the darker fairy said as he pulled the light yellow fairy further away from Link.

 

“Ha! Yeah. Definitely no Deku Tree. Now the Deku Sprout—”

 

“Tatl, shut up.”

 

“Tael, I can say what I want.”

 

“You shouldn’t tell strangers anything.”

 

“I wasn’t telling him anything!”

 

The two fairy’s squabble descended into chiming, incomprehensible fae chitter. Instead of focusing to understand whatever they were saying, Link thought about the Deku Sprout. Fairies could live a long time, and the Deku Sprout could have simply continued to use that title instead of his father’s out of respect. Link had never met a talking tree besides the Deku Tree. He didn’t know their naming conventions. Maybe the Deku Sprout was a full grown tree at this point. Or maybe these fairies’ Deku Sprout was Link’s Deku Tree before it was the Deku Tree.

 

“Hello,” came a new voice, cutting through the fairies’ chiming argument and Link’s attempts to figure out when he was. A blond boy a head shorter than Link stepped near the corrupted wood’s entrance. “Could any of you tell me where I am?”

 

“Another one!” cried Tatl. “Where are all these blond hylian Link-look-alikes coming from? Let’s go, Skull Kid, Tael. We need to go back into the forest before they keep multiplying.”

 

“What if Link needs help?” the Skull Kid rasped.

 

“Link’s fine. He’s the strongest guy around. Let’s go!” Tael insisted, and the two fairies succeeded in pushing the wooden creature back into the forest.

 

“No! Wait!” the newcomer cried as he rushed to follow the fairies and Skull Kid. Link caught his hand and stopped him. A strangely colorful and yet brown-eyed glare pointed imaginary daggers at him.

 

“If you run into that forest, you’ll be lost forever,” Link explained. “Plus I don’t think those three are very helpful in giving information. I tried being polite, and they tried to lie to my face.”

 

“How did you know they lied to your face?” The glare melted into a fully curious look.

 

“I have my ways,” Link said vaguely. Sure the Tatl fairy had a big mouth, but those with fae blood can ferret out lies pretty easily. Those two were unique in that they seemed fine telling straight-up lies. “You wouldn’t happen to live in this time?”

 

“‘Live in this time.’ That’s an odd way to put it. But I think it might also be a right way of putting it. I’m not from this time. I appeared here a few minutes ago while talking to some…friends about some kinstones.”

 

“Kinstones? Never heard of those. You must not be from my era either. My name’s Link. What’s yours?”

 

“Link,” the short boy answered with a half-smile. As if he were putting together that them both being Link and not from this time was significant. It was since they were both probably heroes, but Link—he himself not this new one—was distracted by how Hylia had apparently granted his wish in the most annoying way possible. This guy was not his boy. Link himself had not asked to meet any Link. He had wanted to meet his boy. And if he had to guess, this new Link wasn’t the famed Hero of Legend either. The depictions of that hero never drew him to be this short, not even during his first adventure. Maybe if he asked for a hero title he could have a better guess as to when he was?

 

“I was given the title of Hero of Hyrule,” Link offered. He thought the title was a bit pretentious, but as the hero before him was simply called the “Hero of Legend” and known to be the hero across multiple countries, his was chosen to show that Hyrule claimed him as theirs alone. He loved his home’s people enough to carry the title. “What’s yours?”

 

The short Link cocked an eyebrow and snorted. “I’ve been called the Hero of Men, Hero of the Minish, and Hero of the Four Swords. Take your pick.”

 

“I’d rather you pick. I don’t want to accidentally pick the one you like the least.”

 

“Four Swords then,” the short Link decided. “It’s the one I like a whole lot.”

 

 Something about the short Link’s wording was funny, but Link himself shrugged it off. “Would Four do?”

 

“Four works,” the newly nicknamed Four grinned, seemingly overly pleased with the name. “Hyrule okay?”

 

“Do you have a kingdom called Hyrule?”

 

“Yes. But I like the name for a person.”

 

“Hyrule’s fine then,” Link himself—Hyrule agreed. He did like carrying the name of his beloved home. “Do you think there will be more of us?”

 

“Yes. Definitely.”

 

And there were. Seven more. Though when they introduced themselves, many of the others had refused to share their titles. The captain seemed ashamed of his, the veteran annoyed, the rancher sad, and the old man seemed to simply like being cryptic. None of them looked or acted like Hyrule’s boy, but he kept an eye on the four since he doubted his boy would have been given the title Hero of the Sky or the Hero of the Wind. Both Links were nice and kind, but Hyrule didn’t see his boy in them at all. Why would his boy love the sky or ocean when the forest was his home? As for the Hero of the Wild, that was a title possible for Hyrule’s boy, but nothing about the cook pointed to a hero that had faced Ganon with only a fairy by his side. His was a different wildness.

 

Also the thought of his boy carrying such deep scars scared him.

 

Hyrule did wonder if perhaps his boy wasn’t any of these heroes. Perhaps his boy had stayed in his own era? Apparently there were many Hyrules (the kingdom, not himself), and even if this place resembled the one his boy had explored, that didn’t make this one the Deku Tree’s Hyrule.

 

Then their newly formed group had to battle with a moblin similar to the ones his boy had fought, and Hyrule wondered if maybe this was the right era after all. The cryptic old man claimed this Hyrule Kingdom as his own and lead them to a familiar ranch that belonged to him and his wife.

 

“Are there Lon Lon Ranches in your guys’ Hyrules?” Hyrule ventured to ask as the old man kissed his wife and basked in her presence. He seemed very happy.

 

“I have one,” Four answered.

 

“I have the ruins of a prominent ranch in mine. It could be Lon Lon Ranch,” Wild chimed in, as if that wasn’t a horrifying reality.

 

“None in mine,” Wind had piped up, and Sky nodded to indicate the same. The rest mumbled similar denials, and Hyrule’s hope flared. Perhaps this was shortly his boy’s era. The Lost Woods and the Lon Lon Ranch being near each other had to mean something.

 

“Boys, meet my wife, Malon.”

 

Hyrule instantly focused on the woman’s face. He could the vestiges of the little girl and young lady who helped her boy. Malon could be a family name. Her father’s name had been Talon, and he let the other Links step forward to greet her while pulling Four back.

 

“Was there a Malon in your Lon Lon Ranch?” he whispered.

 

“Yes?” Four answered quietly back. “She looked a lot like this one.”

 

The situation could be a family resemblance and inherited name then. He didn’t see his boy having any particular preference for the Malon of his youth, but then his boy was barely ten. Why would he be interested in marriage so young? Maybe he had found the redhead more attractive later in life.

 

He released Four, and they moved to greet their friend’s wife. She was lovely, and seeing her with the old man brought a pang to his heart. The old man could be his boy. If his boy grew to be happy with a wife and a home like this, Hyrule would explode from joy. He-he might not have been needed after all.

 

His boy could have survived without him. Over a year of restless, hopeless searching, a plea to a patron deity that was barely his, a refusal to interact with his fae kin, all unnecessary actions because his boy didn’t need him. But he would count all that time and effort spent worth it if his boy was happy and content. He had begged Hylia to see his boy, not save him.

 

The lost eye would haunt him though. He was sure he could have stopped something like that. He would have taken the blow himself rather than allow his boy to lose something so vital. But the old man didn’t seem to care about his lost eye and seemed so at peace. He began to truly deeply hope that his boy was the man so happily teasing his wife. Even if that meant that Navi was no longer needed.

 

As they split up for chores, Hyrule stuck close to this Malon (his boy’s Malon?). He had questions about her family history and possible ties to other heroes. Heroes who might have come out of their now corrupted Lost Woods.

 

She handed him a bowl of milk.

 

“Help me feed the fairies?”

 

“You feed fairies?” Hyrule asked as he carefully held the bowl and struggled not to drink the whole bowl himself. It smelt wonderfully sweet.

 

This Malon giggled. “My Link has a soft spot for fairies. He also hopes that putting out our special sweetened milk for them will someday help him find his old friend.”

 

“Old friend?” Hyrule croaked, hope clogging his throat. Could it be…? Was he right?

 

“He had a fairy friend when he was a young boy,” this Malon—his boy’s Malon explained. Hyrule mindlessly followed her to a flower garden. She placed the bowl on the grass and waved at him to do the same. He did. “When I met him, he had this loud blue fairy with him. Floated by his side wherever he went. Until she didn’t. One day, she was gone. And so was he. He came back, but she didn’t.”

 

“Not all fairies are girls,” Hyrule said absently. Could his boy was still looking for him? Could his boy need to see him as much as Navi needed to see his boy? He had to be sure. “What was your Link’s fairy’s name?”

 

“Navi.” The name was barely out of Malon’s mouth before Hyrule-no Navi spun. His glow was not the Great Fairy Cobalt’s blue, but his own bright Triforce gold. Would his boy recognize him with a different glow color? One way to find out.

 

Navi zipped away from his boy’s wife (his boy was old and married) and to the pasture where the old man had taken the rancher out with the horses. He flew faster than he ever had and the second he saw the old man yelled in his tinny voice.

 

“HEY! LISTEN!”

 

Shock gaped on his boy’s older, marked face as Navi crashed into his cheek. He was under the empty eye socket, and despite it likely being useless, he kissed the cheek and poured his healing magic into where an eye should be. Sadly his skills did not allow him to regrow the eye, but he hoped any remaining pain had been eased. Under his tiny arms, his boy’s cheek grow wet.

 

“Navi?” the older voice of his boy cracked. Navi let go of his boy’s cheek and fluttered directly before his eyes.

 

“What do you think?”

 

“Navi,” his boy repeated. His face crumpled into deep wrinkles that filled with tears. “Why did you leave? I looked for you everywhere. Why didn’t you—? I needed you to stay. Why didn’t you stay?”

 

“I wanted to stay,” Navi cooed. He hurriedly wiped as many tears as he could. “The Fairy Queen sent me back to my time. She didn’t even give me time to say goodbye. I told her, begged her to send me back. I didn’t want to leave you alone.” Tears of his own trickled down in tiny golden crystals. “I tried to find a way back to you. I even pleaded with Hylia herself. And then that portal appeared in front of me and I found myself here. I finally found you. I’m so sorry it took so long for you.” He patted the top of the eyeless cheek. “I wish I could have found you sooner.”

 

A large hand appeared behind him. He didn’t stop it as it pressed him against his boy’s cheek.

 

“After all this time,” his boy whispered. “I finally found you.”

 

“That’s my line,” Navi scolded, but he held tight to his boy’s fingers.

 

“Who’s this?” another voice interrupted. Navi had forgotten they had an audience. Right. His boy had gone off with the rancher. “Where did she come from?”

 

“This is Navi,” Navi’s boy said softly and shakily. “She…she helped me through my first adventure.”

 

First? He had more? Ones that Navi wasn’t there to help with? He should have found his boy faster.

 

“Link!” called a feminine Hylian voice. Link’s wife had followed him. She halted her run and bent over breathing hard. Without letting go of Navi, his boy helped his wife straighten and encouraged her to lean on him. But she recovered and waved him off as she straightened up. She gawked at Navi. “Is he…Is he Navi?’

 

“He?” the rancher asked. Hyrule let out a small fairy snort and wiggled out of his boy’s fingers. He spun and landed in full Hylian form on the grass.

 

“You don’t really think that all fairies are female?”

 

Both heroes stared at him with mouths agape and eyes wide. Navi grinned widely.

 

“You were a hero all this time?” his boy finally croaked out.

 

“Yes,” Navi nodded.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Navi’s boy sounded hurt.

 

“It didn’t feel important. I was stuck in fairy form so I thought acting like a full fairy would be better.”

 

An arm swung over his shoulder, and he was pressed against his boy’s wife’s side. “So you’re the one who kept my Link safe during his quest to take down Ganon. Thank you.”

 

Navi felt himself flush. “I was doing what I was brought to this time to do. And I—I left.”

 

“You said you didn’t want to leave,” Navi’s boy asked in a voice that reminded Navi too much of the young boy who had the world’s fate dropped heavily on his shoulders.

 

“I didn’t,” Navi reassured.

 

“Then that’s that then,” Malon stated and let him go. So Navi did something he had wanted to do his boy’s entire adventure. He embraced him in full Hylian form. His boy was no longer small enough to enfold in his arms like he would have been back at the start, and Navi barely got his arms around the pure muscle his boy had become. But he still got to hug more of his boy than he did in fairy form.

 

Large arms clung to him.

 

Later Navi’s boy would tell him what the boy went through to find his fairy. Navi would mourn being the cause for his boy suffering through a seemingly endless loop of days. His boy would excuse it, saying that if he hadn’t gone there, Termina would have been destroyed. Navi would then tell the stories of his own adventures to his boy to eager, admiring ears. And they would treasure every moment of their second shared adventure.

 

But right then, the two held each other tight. Perhaps Navi had missed large parts of his boy’s life. And he would most likely have to say goodbye again someday. But his boy was happy and had lived to be a horse rancher and a husband. He wasn’t alone.

Notes:

One day they would discover that Navi came from a world where the Hero of Time failed. Navi would wonder how that was possible, and the Hero of Legend would guess that the change would have been that the Navi from that fallen timeline would not have been a hero. He would have been a regular fairy with no heroing experience and would not have known every enemy’s weakpoint and have been unable to read. And try as that Navi would, he would not have been able to protect his boy.

 

But their Navi succeeded.