Christmas With You

“Jeez! Could Snowpeak have been ANY colder?!” Midna complained as she shivered hard.

“Well...yeah, that's why they call it Snowpeak.” Link said dryly.

They had just finished in retrieving the Mirror Shard from the yetis up at their mansion in Snowpeak. Seeing all the snow reminded Link of the upcoming Holiday that Hyrule celebrated. The time of the Great Giving, as they called it. In other places, it was called Christmas.

It was rarely cold enough to snow in Hyrule, but it was said that sometimes every few years, it would snow a little bit on that evening. They also said that if you experienced watching the snow with the one you love, you'll be together for the rest of your lives.

They were now in Hyrule Field after having just left Zora's Domain. It was still fairly early in the daytime, with clouds hanging overhead.

It was the day of Great Giving, and Link could only feel sorry for how the children of Ordon felt, not being able to celebrate with their families. Not to mention their parents, relieved that their children were safe in Kakariko Village, but were facing the unfortunate loss of being unable to spend the holiday with them.

“I feel so bad for them.” Link muttered to himself, unaware that he was speaking his thoughts.

“Feel bad for who?” Midna asked him.

“Today is the day of Great Giving.” Link said softly, looking to the sky. “The children in Ordon can't celebrate with their families, since they're in Kakariko.”

“....What's that?” Midna asked, looking at him blankly.

“Oh. The day of Great Giving is where we give gifts to our loved ones and even others around, and we celebrate alongside those we love and sing songs, we get a tree and decorate it with lovely ornaments, we above all go to make others happy with the things we give them.” Link explained.

“....Okaayy, you Light dwellers have a day like THAT?” Midna looked baffled.

“Yeah, don't you?”

“Kind of. In my realm, we have a day called Koroven Mikyaniye, it's kind of like your day, but it's more for the children. We give them gifts if they've been good during the year, and sometimes the adults may exchange gifts also. It's on a different day and not today, though.”

“Ah.” Link nodded. Then he thought for a moment, getting an idea. “Midna, why don't you and I have our own little Great Giving time?”

“Huh? How do we do that?” Midna wanted to know. “And where are we going to find the time? We have to get the remaining Mirror Shards!”

“C'mon Midna, we could both use a break. And the Mirror Shards aren't going anywhere.” Link assured. “Let's just have a little time for ourselves for a change.”

“I put business before pleasure, Link.”

“But Great Giving day is only today, and we just got ourselves another shard. Don't you think we should reward ourselves a bit?”

“....Touche.”

Link smiled at his imp companion. “So, do you want to?”

Midna hesitated, and then sighed. “Whatever. Let's do something then.”

“All right! Let's go to Ordon, we'll have it in my house.”

“Sure.” Midna said, transforming him into a wolf and warping them to Ordon Spring.

--

They came to Ordon Spring, where Midna changed him back to his human form and slipped into his shadow until he got to his house.

Going into his house, Midna popped out of his shadow just as he closed the door. No one knew he had come back to town so they were likely to be undisturbed.

“So. How are we going to do this then?” Midna asked flatly.

“Well, I have a little tree here.” Link went to his basement, and then came back with a potted pine tree. It was meant to be small, so it didn't grow anymore, but it did need some essentials. “Fetch that box under my desk, it has the decorations.”

Midna nodded and floated over to where he'd directed her. She grasped the box and took it out, placing it in the middle of the floor with her hand hair.

“Careful, they're fragile.” Link warned.

“Yes.” Midna rolled her eyes.

They opened the box and slowly took out the ornaments, decorating them on the tree. Midna even helped, despite how she was feeling about all this.

She wanted to enjoy some “fun” time with Link, but with her worries of the Twilight Realm, the Mirror Shards, Zant and Ganondorf, it was hard for her to enjoy herself.

“Midna? What's the matter?” Link asked, noticing her troubled looks.

“Nothing.” Midna replied, placing the star ornament on top of the tree. She didn't know why, but somehow she felt that the star should be on top. “Everything's fine.”

Link didn't buy it. “Midna, you look gloomy and distraught. What's the matter?”

“I said it's nothing!” Midna shouted.

“Come on, it's better to talk about these things. Talk to me, Midna. I'm your friend, and I'll listen.”

“Fine. You want to know? It's everything, Link! We have to get the Mirror shards, I have to save my people, you have to save yours, Zant is still out there, and Ganondorf is doing who-knows-what and is possibly keeping Zelda's body as prisoner in her castle! I can't relax and feel happy knowing that all of those things are happening!” Midna cried.

Link was pretty surprised at her reasoning, but yet he understood. He could tell that she was really stressed and distraught over it all, and felt she couldn't have fun knowing that others weren't having as much fun. He felt the same way, but there was a fine line between taking care of yourself and slacking off.

“Midna, don't think of it as slacking off and laughing in people's faces while we have a good time with them suffering. It's taking care of yourself.” Link told her. “Taking care of yourself will only help you regain yourself and have more strength in upcoming situations. If you work yourself too hard all your life, you're only going to cause health problems. You should never hesitate to take care of yourself, Midna. It's important.”

“....Link...” Midna uttered, looking down at the floor, holding a red ornament ball in her hands.

Smiling at her, Link lifted her chin to meet his gaze. She blushed a bit, since his smile was always sending her heart into oblivion and feeling that everything was going to be all right.

“It's okay, Midna. Don't ever think like that, because it's not true. Okay? Now cheer up, let's get back to work.”

With a nod, Midna smiled a bit and went back to helping Link decorate the tree. He was definitely right about taking care of yourself, resting up and gathering your energy before battle was definitely smart. Midna didn't realize that before, but with Link letting her know it was OK to relax at times, it made more sense.

Especially accompanied by the damned smile of his.

Despite being a fearless, formidable and downright tough hero, Link was without a doubt one of the most kind, gentle and sweet men you could ever meet. He was also very shy, keeping to himself a lot and not speaking. With his closer friends, such as Rusl, Ilia, and Colin, now with Midna, he actually spoke.

With Midna on the other hand, he was a bit more of a chatterbox than she remembered.

It didn't take very long to finish decorating the little tree. It soon looked very cute, all nice and decorated.

“So now what?” Midna asked, crossing her arms.

“I have roasted cuckoo locked away in my icebox in the basement. Can you help me get it? Your hand hair will come in handy bringing it back up.” Link said.

“Okay.” Midna nodded and floated after him as he descended into his basement, taking out his lantern so that he could see.

Going over to a large bin hidden away in another section of the underground basement, Link lifted the lid and held out a packet of wrapped meat, which he handed to Midna who took it in her twilight hand hair.

They ascended out of the basement and went over to the fireplace to cook the meat. Link lit a fire and placed the meat on a rotisserie. He was about to rotate it, but Midna used her twilight hand to rotate it, to make it go faster since they would have both hands free.

While the meat was cooking, Link went to work on making a steamed vegetable and pumpkin side dish.

It didn't take very long until the meat was cooked and ready to eat. Although Midna was hesitant on eating food from the light realm, Link reminded her that she had before, and that she'd once said that the food in the Twilight realm was about the same.

Link cleared off his table, set a couple of plates, forks and knives, a couple of glasses filled with water from Ordon Spring, and a carving knife and fork.

“Can I carve it?” Midna asked. “I've never done it before.”

“Sure.” Link smiled and handed her the carving fork and knife.

Midna stumbled a bit, since they were too heavy for her little hands. But she solved that problem effortlessly as she used both hands to hold down the mini pitchfork, and used her hand hair to carve the knife into the meat. She'd seen it done several times at dinners she'd had to attend to back in the Twilight realm, so she was no stranger to this kind of thing.

She first cut a piece for herself, and then Link, who was serving them each a bowl of the steamed vegetables.

“So...what next? Do we eat?” Midna asked as she sat down in her seat.

“Want to make a toast?” Link asked, holding his glass up.

“But I don't want toast.” Midna said.

The Hero chuckled. “Not that kind of toast, silly. During a celebration or special occasion, someone often holds up their glass and proposes a toast, where you speak of something about the occasion, what you want to dedicate to. Then everyone at the table hold up their glasses and repeat after what the first person said, clink their glasses, and then take a sip.”

“Oh.” Midna realized. “Well in my realm, we called that a kyorhektikshee.”

“Oh. Well okay, I'll propose a kyorhek...whatever that was.”

Midna giggled.

“To saving Hyrule, restoring the mirror, and destroying Zant.” Link said.

“Hear hear! But you forgot one thing.”

“What?”

“....Us.” Midna blushed.

“Oh! Right.” Link blushed also. “And to us.”

“To us.”

They clinked their glasses and took a sip of the water before digging into the food.

“Goddesses, this is so good!” Midna cajoled, cutting herself another piece of meat.

“It really is.” Link agreed. “We did a good job.”

They chatted for a while as they ate, sharing stories and telling some funny jokes. During all this, they just took a little while to forget about everything around them, like their responsibilities and obligations that were to come up.

Midna decided that Link was definitely right. It was a really good idea to take time off from being a hero, and just relax, forget about everything for a while. It really did help.

After they'd finished eating, Link cleared the plates and washed them while Midna helped, and she was wondering what they would do next.

“I have something for you, Midna.”

“Huh?”

“A gift. You know, on this day you give your loved ones a gift.”

“....Oh...okay...” Midna blushed a little. “But I didn't get you something.”

“That's okay Midna, I really don't care.” Link smiled. He went to his bed and pulled out a box wrapped in neat wrapping paper, handing it to Midna. “Here you go.”

Midna accepted the box, and unwrapped it rapidly. The box was dark blue and velvet, big enough to hold a necklace. She opened it, revealing a lovely necklace of dark blue jewels, accompanied by rubies.

“.....Link....this is....oh my goodness!” Midna was speechless.

“Do you like it...?” Link asked.

“Are you kidding me?! I love it!” Midna grinned happily for the first time in a long time. “Put it on me, Link!”

Link chuckled and nodded. “Sure, Midna.”

He went over to her, took the necklace from the box, and moved behind her. Carefully, he brought the neck around her tiny neck, and clasped it in place. It was a bit big for her, but it looked fine.

Turning around, Midna gave Link a genuine smile.

“Thank you, Link...this was a really nice gift. It means a lot more to me than the other gifts I'd gotten.”

Link smiled and kissed her on the cheek, making her blush. “You're welcome, Midna. I saw that in a store in Castle Town and thought of you. So I bought it and decided to give it to you sometime.”

“Link....I....” Midna uttered, close to tears. She didn't know what she did to deserve such a sweet boy, but she wasn't complaining. “Oh Link, I don't deserve you!”

Smiling more, Link brought his arms around the little imp and hugged her warmly. She blushed to her ears, but hugged him back.

“You do deserve me, Midna. After all, I want to be around you, and I wanted to give you a little gift, and so it would cheer you up a little after this whole ordeal you've been through.”

“Link....I....”

They both pulled back a little, looking into each other's eyes. Neither of them said a word, and could feel the longing tension between them. Slowly, they leaned forward and their lips met.

Midna's eyes widened, but she immediately returned his kiss and pressed closer to him. Link held her closer and kissed her more, tilting his head lightly as she did hers. He traced his tongue along her lips lightly, requesting entrance. Midna moaned at this and immediately opened her mouth to grant entrance to his curious tongue. They explored each other's mouths and ended up in a wild tongue battle for dominance. If Midna hadn't been an imp, she would've won.

After a few moments, they pulled back for air and couldn't look away from each other, panting slightly.

“Midna...I wanted to tell you that I...I love you.” Link whispered.

A small gasp escaped the little imp as she let his words sink in. A tear pooled in her eye, and it fell down her cheek. She couldn't believe it. He loved her, she was loved by a wonderful man, a man she didn't deserve.

“Link...I...” Midna sniffled.

“Shh...it's okay...” Link soothed, gently wiping her tear away. “I love you, Midna. I love you so much.”

“I...I love you too, Link.” Midna uttered in half a sob, throwing her arms around his neck and nuzzling the crook of his neck. “Please don't leave me, I don't want to be alone ever again.”

“I'll never leave you, my little imp.”

“Oh Link....my wolf...”

Link then had an idea. He gently carried Midna up to the loft, and then to where his “lookout” window was. It was dark outside, but most of all...it was snowing. Actually snowing.

“Link...it's snowing!”

“It is...wow. You know Midna, they say that when it snows on the day of the Great Giving, you'll be with the one you love forever.”

“...Really, Link?”

“Yep.”

Midna blushed and smiled, cuddling into him as she looked outside at the softly falling snow. “Happy Great Giving, Link.”

“Happy Great Giving, Midna.” Link held her close. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

They watched the snow for hours, into the wee hours of the night. It was truly the best time of the Great Giving ever, since now Link had someone special to him to celebrate it with.

And same for Midna.