A/N: A little AU I cooked up for ganlink week prompt 6 "prince and pauper". Ganondorf is the prince of Hyrule, Zelda's grandson, and Link is a street rat raised by the Gerudo. It is mostly a friendship fic. I decided to continue this because it is very fun to write. Enjoy!
"Highness, we've caught a thief in the pantry!"
Ganondorf, Prince of Hyrule, stopped his spar with the trainees and came over to the guards. They were holding a small teen, dirty and malnourished. He was draped in rags carrying designs of the desert tribe. Scratches covered his arms and legs from the scuffle with the guards, and a small amount of blood formed a line from his hair to his chin.
"What's this, the Gerudo rats have started taking in tramps; or were you so desperate for clothing that you were willing to bear their emblems?" Ganondorf snorted at the sight. He hated the Gerudo, ever since he learned how they cast out his mother for falling in love with the son of the Hylian queen Zelda. Both of Ganondorf's parents thought such a relationship would help mend the rift between the two cultures, but instead it deepened it. And now the one male born every hundred years was on the other side.
The thief said nothing, but peered up through his dirty blonde hair at the prince. Yes, he was trying to steal. It bothered him how the very clearly Gerudo prince could forget his heritage, in favor of those who had oppressed their people. Was he ignorant of what really happened?
The prince scoffed at the disrespecting glare. "If he won't admit to his crimes, throw him in the dungeons until he does. But be mindful, if he really is with the Gerudo, there will be others nearby. They never travel alone. Don't tell anyone else that this prisoner is here."
"Yessir!" the guards chimed, and began dragging the thief away. Sparing one last glance, Ganondorf noticed something on the thief's left hand. It was wrapped in a bandage, but poking out from the top was a dark marking resembling the tip of a triangle...
Prince Ganondorf waited until nightfall to visit the dungeons. The fewer people that knew about his suspicion, the better. He slipped down the dark passage with barely a sound, and found the boy in the last cell, laying on a plank attached to the wall. Ganondorf knocked on the wall to get his attention. "Boy, tell me why you were stealing from the pantry."
"...Isn't it obvious? I wanted to be imprisoned."
"Why? What are you planning?"
The boy sighed as he spoke. "Hylians treat their prisoners as humans. They get a place to sleep, two meals a day, and don't have to worry about being cooked to death in their sleep."
Ganondorf was stunned. "If you think I'll fall for a lie like that, thief, you are sorely mistaken..."
"My name is not 'thief', it's Link. I wasn't lying. And I didn't actually steal anything, that would be rude. I was hungry, but it was not my right to take others' food."
"So, your name is Link... I suppose that means the marking covered up on your hand is the Triforce," Ganondorf said with a sigh. "Grandmother is going to be very cross with me when she finds out I've kept this from her. Tell me, boy, why are you dressed as a Gerudo and why do you take their side?"
Link sat up from his plank and took the wrap off his hand. "I was orphaned when I was very small. Everyone who saw this mark refused to come near me, except for a pair of kind old Gerudo women. They took me back to their village and everyone took care of me. No one called me a curse or a burden. But everyone spoke of how they were shunned by the Hylians. They wanted me to know that no matter how badly the Hylians treated them, they still loved me regardless of my origins."
"That's when I heard about you, Prince Ganondorf," Link said with a smile. "You think the Gerudo cast out your mother. Have you or your mother ever tried to reconnect with them? I know the chief at the time was pretty sour over the relationship, but the new chief Nabooru is really nice. And your Gerudo grandmothers are actually really proud of you. You're going to be king of Hyrule someday, and can unite everyone!"
Ganondorf thought for a moment, before unlocking the cell and stepping inside. "Let's say I believe you, you really are Link, the hero of legend and that mark on your hand is legitimate. Why should I even bother entertaining your ideas? Everyone knows I'm a powder keg waiting to blow, even Grandmother looks at me sometimes like I'm living on borrowed time. The only one who ever leveled with me was my mother, who was taken by illness three years ago. What can you possibly do for me?"
"I can be your friend. I'm sure no one else understands the burden of carrying a piece of the Triforce," Link said as he picked up the prince's right hand and turned it in his own. "People dislike me because I'm crazy-"
"You're crazy?"
"Let me finish! I hear voices. All different voices, some good, some bad. Auntie Koume says it's the whispers of those who have held the piece before me. I zone out sometimes, too. Auntie Kotake says it's because a previous me was robbed of his childhood, and was terribly traumatized by it. But as long as I have somebody with me when I konk out, I'll be okay. How about you, anything like that?"
Ganondorf nodded, and told Link about the time he destroyed his bedroom after a horrible nightmare involving an execution and a dark mirror. "Grandmother says I have an overactive imagination, but that's a lie. She's the Bearer of Wisdom, she has to know what I see aren't simple nightmares."
Link wrapped his arm around the prince's shoulder. "It's okay, Prince Ganondorf. I'll be your friend. We'll go talk to your grandmother together. Then maybe I can take you to meet Auntie Koume and Auntie Kotake?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, kid. You still have to serve out your sentence for thievery."
"Aww, how long is that?!" Link pouted.
"Until I determine that you've learned your lesson. But don't worry, I'll come visit you every night and make sure you're healthy," Ganondorf laughed. "I'll have to make sure you get a bath every now and then too. Plus I have to move you to one of our 'high security' cells. Actually, it should be near my own chambers so I can keep an eye on you. Sneaky boy..."
Link then realized that deep down, Ganondorf was truly elated to finally have a friend to confide in. "If you insist, Your Highness. But I also demand three meals a day instead of two."
"Are you crazy, you'll be getting four. I can't have my new friend and sparring partner looking like a twig!"
The two boys laughed as they exited the dungeon. Elsewhere in the castle, Queen Zelda smiled as she felt her Triforce resonating. The final piece of the puzzle had been found, and could now balance out her rambunctious grandson's temper. Perhaps then, it was time to mend the rift she had caused all those years ago...
