Chapter Text
Ganondorf watched Epona and Link fade into the distance, he and Zelda side-by-side as they remained behind.
"Do you think-"
"I didn't-"
They spoke at the same time, Zelda first and both of them stopped.
"You first?" She offered, burying her hands in the folds of her dress as they slowly walked back to the castle. Ganon's shoulders hunched as he followed, the stares and the whispering too similar to that of Gerudo Town so many years earlier. "Ganon?"
"... They do not approve." He answered her pensive look with one of his own as he continued. "He does much to assuage their fears that neither you or I can match."
"I never thought to ask, but has Link expressed his reasoning? And his preference?" She questioned carefully, keeping her tone low but light.
"His preference is both sides of the fence," Ganon mentioned as they strode together down a scarcely guarded hallway. "I've yet to hear it if he had offered one to me."
"May I be perfectly frank with you?" Zelda asked as she spoke louder in a deserted corridor.
"It cannot be any worse than our battle cut short." He echoed her tone, the Calamity rumbling under the surface. Pushing it aside for the moment, he concentrated on Zelda's fierce gaze.
"Do you like Link better? Is he the only reason you stay in this arrangement?"
Ganon rocked back on his heels in surprise. He'd thought her angry, but anger covered many things, nervousness included, at times.
Did he like the Hero better?
Certainly, it was easier to confide to the man and get in return a somewhat reasonable opinion on a subject he knew little about. He and Zelda were certainly physically compatible, for all that Link had had to do the initial push, but did he like her the same way?
He mulled over their solo interactions and concluded thoughtfully, "No, I do not like you the same way. You are another person altogether and therefore my reaction to you is variant. I stay because my word is my bond. I agreed to marry both of you." Ganon found that Link's words echoed through his own, though the conclusion came from himself, "You are... a companion, with the potential for more. May I now request something from you, Princess?"
"Zelda and yes, you may." She leaned against one of the tapestries, her relief at his words stirring something in him that wasn't, for once, the Calamity.
"Link touched me often and somewhat absently but... could you do the same?" The words grated out, the beast snarling at the perceived slight that it wasn't strong enough to handle a week or more without touch. Ganon swatted it aside while repeating the mantra that peace was better than death.
"He does have a way of growing on you. Would throughout the day suffice then?" She laughed at that, the hint of light in her eyes somehow endearing her further still to Ganon.
He doesn't have the courage to ask for more, despite the power he carried or perhaps because of it.
Zelda, stripped of her court dress and in her usual outfit, took issue with him wandering through the castle on his own. "Unless you have a better suggestion, Princess, I intend to know all the secrets this castle holds."
"I do but before I continue, may I know how far you've gotten?" She asked. "Link knows this castle like the back of his hand and he's never been in the same part of it twice within the week."
"... Not very far." he grudgingly admitted. "What did you have in mind?"
"Well, there's a woman offering to teach you Hylian Sign. I know for a fact that you need more diplomacy; I'll approach my former tutors about doing the same for you as they did for me, years ago." Zelda replied. "Between hammering out all the minute details, I'd like a break. Maybe we could explore... together?"
His right hand flexed as he started to reach for her and stopped just short of her sleeve, pulling away until she extended her hand back. The trust within the sky blue gaze nearly burned him for how sincere it was; she was honestly trying to get along with him. "I'd... like that."
When their palms met, skin-to-skin, he released a shakey breath.
"Ganon?" She glanced up from under thick brown lashes.
"You trust me." He said reluctantly.
"Of course. Your word is your bond." Zelda hummed as she walked and he followed.
"You and Link are the first to do so."
Zelda stopped mid-stride, turned on her heel and looked him directly in the eyes. "Then we'll have to change that, one step at a time."
"Why bother?" Ganon rumbled, straightening himself to his fullest height. "What could I have done to earn your trust?"
"Link does not trust easily and the fact that he trusts you now is all the endorsement I need." The simple statement felt like a slap to the face. "You listened to his, admittedly reckless, proposal. You stayed when you could have run out of the castle at any moment. You endure ridicule and loneliness for our sake and the sake of peace. You keep your word and in the world of the court, your word means nothing unless you back it up with action."
The Calamity roared within, Ganon bracing his feet as it rocked through him. It implied that perhaps Ganon had been onto something after all; take over the kingdom from within.
-NO!- He protested as his body locked up from trying to contain it.
"Ganon?!" Zelda caught him as he slid down the corridor wall, pillowing his head on her thigh.
"It's the Calamity. Pay it-Haugh!-no mind." He gritted out, teeth clenched as the pain spiked briefly. Zelda brushed back his hair, her touch cooling and he leaned into it. She petted and stroked along his face until the spasm had passed.
"I most certainly will not ignore the fact that you're in pain. What helps?" She chided as she continued with her gentle minstrations.
"You," he confessed, his pained state inducing the truth from his lips. "your touch."
"Touch calms the Calamity...?" Zelda murmured.
"Yours and Link's; no others." Ganon muttered as he reached up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"The TriForce is fighting the Calamity, I think. Power and the Calamity are opposite forces and they're both contained within you. Power must be reaching out for support from Wisdom and Courage." She shook her head and sighed as she ran her thumb just under Ganon's lower lip. "There's still so much we don't know about them."
He sat up from her lap, his lips barely half an inch from hers. "You're incredibly brilliant. May I?"
Zelda met him the rest of the way, both of them gasping as they pulled back at the cleared throat of one of the castle servants. Ganon flushed as he helped Zelda to her feet and gallantly offered his elbow for her to take.
"Lessons first?"
"Lead the way, Princess."
They walked a ways away before both of them let out matching chuckles at the expression they'd seen.