I had this idea for a while and I wanted to test it. Hopefully, it'll pull off decently.

Bitter Better Ends

He first saw him in the Lost Woods and asked, eyes filled with innocence and childish curiosity, "Who are you?"

The adult (he looked adult-ish to him) looked surprised by the question, as if he didn't expect for anyone to see him.

His surprised look, however, quickly melted into a sad one, and it only made Link wonder why he was looking at him in that way.

"Hurry! We have to get to Castle Town!" Navi urged, seemingly ignorant about the other presence with them.

Link followed the fairy, passing by the adult along with that.

"Good luck, Hero..." Link heard him saying.

For the first adult he's ever met, he was rather nice.

He saw him again seven years later, standing in the exact same spot and looking at him with that same look of sadness.

He's not that old, Link concluded. He looked the same age as him (well, the age he looked anyway). In fact, he could even say that he looked a bit like him, no one else wore a green tunic and hat in this land except for the Kokiri, and he was sure that he never saw this guy before.

"Who are you?" he asked again, though this time, it wasn't with the same childishness as before. The dark days he woke up to prevented him from ever feeling the same.

His somewhat look-alike only looked with guilt at him, whispering a quiet, "Sorry."

For what?

His look-alike (spirit?) was no longer there.

For the better part of his journey, Link wondered about the reason for his apology.

He didn't expect him to look at him in the same sadness, he expected a surprised look just like the one he casted the day they first met.

He shouldn't be able to recognize him, he'd made journeys throughout different timelines, he saw too much, fought too, lost too much to be the same child.

The spirit standing peacefully in front him knew what he went through, knew that he was the same no-fairy kid from Kokiri he saw the first time, that he was the adult with the mind of a child who had the Evil's Bane Blade...

That he was now the child with a mind belonging to a different time...

"You know me?"

The spirit knelt down to his level, and with a fond smile he nodded. "It's an honor to meet you once again, Hero of Time."

He remembered, in a time where no one did.

For that, Link was grateful.

"I realized now that you are rather short, spirit."

The said spirit looked slightly sheepish at his notion, and sulked once he realized that it was true. "I have you know that I grew quite tall in my days, I'm just stuck to appear in this age is all."

"Really now?" Link asked amusedly, not convinced about that. His amusement, though, turned to curiosity after comprehending what the other had said. "Why is that?"

It's been long years since the time he returned from Termina, and now he was the Knights' Captain under Queen Zelda's rule. People may not remember his accomplishments in another Hyrule, but the fact that he protected the kingdom from Ganondorf's plans in this timeline was much appreciated.

He visited the Lost Woods less and less as the years passed, but he was always greeted by the same kind spirit that remained there.

It comforted him that someone out there understood him, even if it was the spirit of a teenager dressed like he did long ago. They got close, enough to be friends even.

"Because that's the age I was recognized to be a hero, the age I first awakened the Master Sword," the spirit answered, his expression oddly serious and wary.

"You are not a normal ghost, are you?" It was a long time since he heard that sword's name, and to hear it from someone he thought to be a normal lost spirit.

"No, I'm not. I was like you once, someone chosen to fulfill a destiny," the spirit started, his serious expression still remaining, "I did succeed but a cycle was created because of my actions. Demise promised that his hatred will never cease, and so to fight it every time it got reborn, a hero and a princess will be reborn also. You, Link, are one of the heroes caught in this cycle. Zelda is also caught in it."

He lowered his head, looking heavy with guilt. "I was the reason all of you suffered so much and for that, I am sorry."

He now knew the reason why he looked so guilty all this time, why he looked at him with sadness the day his quest began.

"You shouldn't apologize," Link said after a while of complete silence, "sure, there were a lot of things I'd rather not face but I would go through them all over again if it meant saving people. I'd hate it if I wasn't there to help."

The spirit only looked at him with disbelief.

"And I really appreciate it that you are still here, even if your time is long since passed." Link smiled reassuringly. Having him around made him feel less lonely, and he couldn't be more thankful for that.

"I have to," the spirit said, slowly breaking into a smile himself, "to guard you. All of you."

"You should go, Link, you don't belong in this world anymore."

It's been a year since he died.

He was too careless, that stab was a bit surprising though.

Ever since then, the first hero (like he dubbed him, calling him a mere spirit was rather unfitting) sought to make him move over, to leave the ties he had in this world.

The thing is, he couldn't do that.

"I was too careless... I didn't have the chance to pass my skills to a worthy descendant."

It was a mantra he kept repeating to himself, filling him with regret, and blinding him from the light that was right in front of him.

"Staying here will do you no good, you saw the fate of those-"

"I was too careless..."

The first hero didn't try to make him move over anymore, he only stayed with him quietly in a seemingly fruitless wait, even as he bitterly watched how Link's soul shattered.

After returning from teaching his long awaited descendant the secret skill, he saw the welcoming smile of the first hero who was standing before the light.

"I see you did well with teaching him," he mused, looking at him proudly.

Link smiled for the first time in centuries, his soul restored and no longer being a desperate skeleton in a golden armor. Instead, he looked like he did after waking up from a seven years' slumber. "He was a handful to say the least." But he'll make it, he'll make me proud.

"Good, now can you leave this place, please?" the first hero teased.

I did make him wait for long. "Honorable predecessor, am I that overbearing to stay with?" Link asked in mock-hurt.

His predecessor looked like he believed he hurt his feelings and quickly scrambled for an answer. "No! You're great to have around! I was just kidding!"

Link couldn't keep it any longer and laughed his heart out, he never knew that the first hero was that gullible, even he, the kid from the forest, was harder to trick.

"You had your fun, now go. A lot of people are waiting for you there, you know?" He smiled warmly as he watched him being happy for the first time in many years, he didn't even look bothered by the fact that he was laughing at him.

I shouldn't keep them waiting any longer, huh? Stepping towards the light, Link asked for the final time, "When will I see you there?"

"When the cycle ends," the first hero answered, "now go get your happy ending, Hero of Time."

Said Hero of Time snorted at the title, and he gave one happy grin before he left.

He watched as his descendant finally moved over to a peaceful place, happy that his suffering was finally put to end.

He caught the meaning of his last grin effortlessly, he stayed with him for a long while after all.

"Thank you."

"When the cycle ends."

He never came.

End.

Maybe I'll make another from SS's Link POV, this one is too vague, right?