"Ugh..."
Peach woke with a groan and a slight headache. She closed her eyes again, cutting off the blinding light.
Then she shot to her feet as the memory of what had happened came rushing back.
"Tabuu is back! How could he possibly be back?! And he... he came into this world instead of only being able to exist in Subspace..."
Glancing around, she noted that she was alone in an unknown forest. She wasn't sure where home was, or where the other Smashers had been scattered to, but she knew that she needed to make her way back to the Mansion. After the disaster during the last Tournament, the Smashers had all agreed that if they were scattered but able, they should head back to the Mansion as soon as possible.
With that thought, Peach set out. Since she wasn't sure where the Mansion was, so she chose whichever direction felt right and went that way.
Several hours of walking later, she came upon a line of broken trees. She stepped over the fallen logs and gasped.
There, in the middle of a small crater, was Ganondorf.
She suspected that as soon as she returned him from trophy form he'd be rather the worse for wear, but seeing him sent a rush of relief through her. He was safe, and she felt whole.
She rushed over to him and tapped the trophy base, freeing him from his frozen state. Luckily, he seemed to have been in trophy form while he landed: he had only one wound, a slash across his chest that had apparently been mostly absorbed by his armor, since the actual injury was quite shallow.
He sat up with a groan. "Peach?"
"I'm here."
"Where are we?"
"I'm not sure. A forest somewhere, that's as much as I can tell."
"I see." He grumbled something in another language, then stood.
"Be careful! It looks like you took a hit from Tabuu's chain."
Ganondorf waved it off. "It's hardly worth worrying about." The wound began to glow, and a second later it closed as if it had never been there.
"Good as new."
"Oh, good. Well, shall we head out?"
"Not right now. It's nearly sunset; we should make camp and rest for the night."
"Oh! That's a good idea." She glanced around. "I can go and look for firewood."
"No need. I can create a magical fire."
"Oh. Then what can I do?"
"You can wait here."
Peach frowned. "I don't want to do nothing."
"Can you hunt?"
"No, but I know a lot about plants. I can find something we can eat around here, I'm sure."
"That will do." He nodded. "I'll set up a shelter and create a fire. You can forage. Return here before the sun sets completely."
"I will."
Peach went happily about her task, gathering enough edible plants for something of a salad, along with several herbs in case they needed to season anything – like meat.
Sure enough, when she came back, Ganondorf was roasting some sort of wild animal on a spit over a small fire. She handed him the herbs she'd gathered and he nodded his thanks as she sat beside him on one of the fallen logs.
"These will do nicely. Was that all you gathered?"
"No, I also found some plants for a salad."
Ganondorf made a bit of a face. "I never did like vegetables."
"Well, they'll help us stay healthy. It's important to get all your nutrients."
He gave her a sideways glance and a low chuckle. "It's cute how you worry about my health."
"Well, you know, we only have each other out here for now. And…" she turned her face away slightly, blushing. "I care about you."
With a finger on her chin, he turned her head to face him, pressing a kiss to her lips. "Thank you. I've very rarely had anyone who worried about my welfare."
"Well, you have me now."
After a hearty meal, Ganondorf rigged up a shelter using the logs around and a large tarp he conjured.
At first, Ganondorf tried to keep a respectful distance from Peach, but it became harder when she fell asleep and consequently pressed herself into his chest. He wasn't quite sure what to do with his hands, so he held them by his sides until she started shivering slightly in her sleep. At that point, he decided that any possible rules of propriety could go hang themselves and wrapped his arms around her slim form, pulling her in tight to his chest.
There was one part of his anatomy that was excited by this move – well, more than one, but the other one was more pressing. He tried to will away his erection with disgusting thoughts, but it was clear that having the object of his affections pressed up against him was a more powerful aphrodisiac than pretty much anything else he could think of.
Eventually, he managed to stop thinking about it and fall asleep.
Peach woke up slowly, comfortably snuggled against something rather hard and warm. She stretched slightly against the surface and was rewarded with a strangled moan. She moved again, wriggling closer to whatever it was, only to receive a grunt and movement from the thing in return.
Finally waking up properly, Peach belatedly remembered where she was and who she was wriggling against. She blushed hard and stopped moving completely.
She opened one eye tentatively to find Ganondorf looking at her, amusement and embarrassment written on his face.
Embarrassment?
She suddenly realized where she was and what exactly she was near, in a rush that had her blushing even harder. Even so, she didn't break eye contact with Ganondorf. She just smiled her best politician's smile, covering anything she was feeling with a bright façade.
"Good morning," she whispered.
"I would say so," he muttered back with a filthy grin that made her want to straddle him.
"You would." She smacked his arm with her free hand.
With that, he released her, and she rolled away from him, sitting up and them standing to step out from under their tarp.
"Should I go find us some breakfast?" she asked, pointedly keeping her eyes off of Ganondorf as he put his armor back on.
"That would be a good idea."
She headed out of the clearing, mind definitely not on Ganondorf and how he'd felt pressed up against her.
Over the next several days, they traveled an unknown distance west, in what Ganondorf said was the general direction of Smash Mansion. They hadn't yet made it out of the forest, but every day the trees thinned out more and more, indicating that the woods were coming to an end.
Each night, the two started out sleeping several feet apart, but inevitably they'd wake up side by side, often with Ganondorf's arms around Peach. It was becoming more and more difficult for them both to stop themselves, but neither of them wanted to voice their feelings – Ganondorf because he felt like he'd be forcing himself on her, and Peach because she felt he would look down on her for being so forward.
About a week after the attack on Smash Mansion found Peach and Ganondorf sitting together by the fire. She stared intently into the flames as though they could answer the secrets of the universe.
Ganondorf stared at Peach.
He admired the way the red firelight lent her hair a bright glow, and how the blue of her eyes intensified in the light. The intense look in her eyes only added to her appeal, and he couldn't resist her any longer.
"Peach."
She looked away from the fire right into his eyes, the gold of his irises captivating her. She could stay locked in his gaze forever.
It seemed natural that they should come together, pressing their lips together, at first chastely, then with increasing fire until they couldn't breathe for the passion. They separated for a moment, gasping for breath, then came back together with such force it nearly drove the breath from them again.
Peach began to pull at Ganondorf's tunic, just as he reached around her back and began fumbling with the strings of her dress.
"Peach," he rumbled, breaking the kiss for a moment. "Are you sure? I'm afraid… I won't be able to stop myself."
"I don't want you to stop."
A/N: There's definitely smut here, but I didn't want to raise the rating of this fic. Instead, anyone who wants to read this can PM me and I'll send you a copy.
