#idk it almost made me tear up seeing the rito kids on their own and trying to keep the village up and running while

[sage-nebula]

Not meme, but headcanons about Link's and Zelda's lives post-game? I like to think they just stuff Zelda's library in the Hateno home eventually since I don't think they'd spend much time in the house anyway, Link would be out there helping people and Zelda would be in Purah's or Robbie's labs, or otherwise warping around with the Sheikah Slate (or not, idk if it would allow non-Hero to warp. Regardless, she'd be out there for her archaeology passions). (I still need to finish 😅)

Sure!! I have lots of headcanons about this. ♥ I do include some information from the Golden Ending, so I’ll put that bit under a cut to give you the option of whether or not you want to read it. As for the non-spoiler stuff:

I do think they actually live in the house in Hateno. In my headcanon, Link bought it not only so that he would have a place to store the special weapons / a place to rest when he got tired, but also with the thought in mind that he and Zelda could possibly live there together once all was said and done. He was still regaining his memories of the past at the time, and they were disjointed and out of order; but the more he remembered, the more he remembered how close they once were, and aside from that, he figured (correctly) that Zelda wouldn’t want to live in the castle when all was said and done. She did spend one hundred years in there with Calamity Ganon, after all. Wouldn’t she want to spend her days somewhere else?So after the events of the game, he brings her back to Hateno. He already has his horse there with him thanks to the Dark Beast Ganon fight (in my headcanon this is Keith, but it could be any horse for any others), and so he helps Zelda onto the back of the horse and brings her back to Hateno. He blindfolds her with a scarf when they get near, leads Keith over to the little mini stables and puts him in the stall (next to the royal white horse, named Allura in my headcanon, but again, the name is irrelevant), and then when he goes back over to where Zelda is in front of the house, he removes the blindfold … and lets her see the house.“Ta-da!”Zelda blinks, staring at the house for a moment before she says, “… It’s a house.”“Yeah. It’s our house. I bought it.”“You … bought a house?” Zelda turns to look at him, staring, and Link laughs a bit awkwardly.“Yup. They were going to tear it down, so I bought it for 3,000 rupees and some wood. And, uh, some other stuff inside—it’s all decorated. Here, come see.”He takes her hand and leads her inside. Shows her the Champions’ weapons on the wall (“I figured it’d be best to honor them, instead of breaking their stuff in combat”), the table, the desk and bed on the second floor. He stutters and stammers over getting a bigger bed, or a second bed, before Zelda laughs and says it’s all right, she doesn’t mind sharing. They’ll need a bigger one, of course, but for now this one will do.“Really?” he says, his blush fading, but his heart still racing.“I’ve spent one hundred years alone, with only a brutish pig-beast for company,” she says, and Link’s heart cracks as Zelda wraps her arms around her middle. “I wouldn’t mind having someone soft and warm to lay next to at night.”They’re both blushing, now, their cheeks pink and indeed warm, so Link clears his throat. “All right. Well, then, I’ve got one last thing to show you.”That’s when he takes her hand again and leads her back outside, to the stable beside their house, where their two horses each have their own individual stalls. Zelda is in shock; she goes to the white horse and tentatively reaches out her hand. The horse sniffs, and then bumps her snout against Zelda’s palm.“That’s a descendant of your old horse, I think,” Link says. “I’ve been calling her Allura, but you can call her whatever you like.”“Allura is a nice name,” Zelda says, and she turns to look at Link in wonder. “Where did you … ?”“Plenty of time for that story later,” Link says, mostly because he has just remembered the room in the back. “Come on. One last thing, for real this time.”

The shed / room in the back of the house becomes Zelda’s new study. Link never minded her intellectual curiosities; aside from the incident where she almost made him eat a frog (Zelda pls), Link was actually always impressed by how smart and studious she is, and loved seeing how passionately happy she got when talking about her interests. So after he helps clean the room of spiders and cobwebs, they install nice lights and move the desk from the second floor of the house to the back room, so that can be Zelda’s study. She still does study with Purah, Symon, and Robbie, but she also has her own study at their house where she can go for private thoughts and reflections, just as she did at the castle.

Link does most of the cooking, because he’s gotten rather good at it over the course of his adventure, and Zelda—being a princess—never actually learned. She does have Link teach her, though, and he’s happy to show her new recipes. He’s less happy when she tries to add actual monster parts to food.“Zelda, no,” he says.“What? Monster parts can be used in elixirs. It stands to reason that they could be mixed into food as well. It’s worth a try, at any rate.”“No, it’s not. That’s disgusting.” Link pulls a face. “You should go hang out with Kilton. He’d love to lick Lizalfos with you.”“Who’s Kilton?”“I’ll introduce you sometime.”

They go horseback riding a lot. Since my headcanon gives them Keith (my black horse, my beautiful and brave and best boy) and Allura (the royal white horse), they actually make quite the striking pair. Only Link can warp with the Sheikah Slate (given that he’s the Hero), and he does warp them around sometimes, but Zelda also enjoys seeing the world by traveling on horseback, and Link can’t blame her. Even if there’s so much reconstruction to be done, Hyrule is still a beautiful place. So they go horseback riding a lot, either because they have somewhere to be or simply because they want to enjoy riding for the sake of it. One hundred years has not done very much to diminish their love of riding.

Although only Link can warp with the Sheikah Slate, Zelda is the one who carries it the most often. It was originally hers, after all. That said, they more or less share it now. Zelda was very thrilled to see all of the information Link had added to the Compendium. He, meanwhile, is very pleased that she’s so happy.

After showing Zelda the house, Link took Zelda to Kakariko so that she could reunite with Impa. Both Impa and Zelda cried at this reunion.

Now that she can actually practice and learn without King Rhoan being all D:

With that said, Link ends up taking her by Jini’s Mounted Archery Course, so that she can drill and get good at mounted combat. Jini is excited to have a new pupil, and warms up to Zelda just as quickly as he had warmed up to Link.

And then the kind of #spoilers things:

Although Link takes Zelda to a variety of other places for fun reasons as well (diving in Zora’s Domain, sand seal racing in the desert, listening to Kass’ kids sing in Rito Village, et cetera), they are still focused on reconstructing Hyrule. They maintain upkeep on the Divine Beasts and are actively working to try and unite Hyrule into one kingdom again, given how splintered the various settlements have been ever since the calamity. They do a lot of traveling for this reason, so even though they do return home when they can (either by warping or otherwise), they do spend nights out in the world as well, either by campfires or at inns, stables, et cetera.

Zelda, as mentioned, doesn’t want to live in the castle, ever again. But that said, she is still the kingdom’s princess (queen, now), even if she’s not sure she’s ready for that responsibility, either. Link thinks she is—she has always been a magnificent princess, and will be an amazing queen—but Zelda herself isn’t sure. Even so, she knows that if Hyrule is to be united and truly come together as a kingdom again that she’s going to have to start introducing herself as the queen, and so—with the help of their allies—they do start spreading that word. Zelda formally introduces herself to King Dorephan, Riju, et al as the Queen of Hyrule shortly after she is freed from the castle and is able to travel again. At least by starting with the leaders of each place, it can make it easier for people to see her for the queen she now is, whether she’s ready to be or not. (Although, running a kingdom out of a house in Hateno Village will be tricky, but …) So there’s a lot of political stuff to figure out, but Link assures Zelda that they can take it one step at a time.“We still have to figure out what those steps actually are,” Zelda tells him. “We can’t just … fly by the seat of our pants!”“Why not?” Link asks, and as Zelda gapes at him, adds, “It’s worked pretty well for me so far. Well, actually I was flying by the handles of my paraglider, but—”Zelda swats his arm.

They don’t come together romantically right away. It’s been one hundred years, after all, and things were complicated even back then. So for a long while they live together as friends, platonic roommates even as they share a bed and cuddle and find comfort in each other. Romance builds up slowly over time, and they don’t actually come together romantically until about another year has passed. That said? No one is surprised when they announce this. “Splendid! I must admit I thought you were already together, but even so, superb! Well done!” Sidon gushes.“Were you not … already together?” Kass asks, confused.And so on and so forth.

And that’s all for now!