"Milady, you're sighing again..."
Zelda looked up from gazing a hole through her vanity, as Ruby stopped combing her hair and waited for a response. "Hmm? Oh, it's nothing. You may continue."
"I doubt it's nothing, Your Majesty," Ruby snickered as she resumed tending to Zelda's long honey brown hair. "At dinner, you kept poking at your plate as though you weren't hungry, which I know couldn't be true since you skipped lunch. When it was time to get changed, you had your gloves off before I even arrived, and you kept touching the right one. You spent much longer than usual in the bath, nearly to the point of pruning, and now you're sighing into space. I think there is definitely something on your mind. Or rather, someone."
Zelda's blue eyes flashed open wide, and quickly met the golden eyes of the cheeky girl reflected in the mirror before her. "I am not thinking of him."
"It's alright, Milady, we all support you. In fact, my mother and Aunt Aveil think you are a wonderful match for Lord Ganondorf. They've never seen anyone care so much about his wellbeing, not even their own mother or the other Gerudo elders. Plus, you two are just so cute together."
As Ruby went on singing the praises of Zelda and Ganondorf's compatibility, the facade Zelda had built to appear as a prim and proper adult promptly began to crumble. By the time Ruby declared that Zelda and Ganondorf would "have such lovely children", the facade had collapsed to bits and in its place was a very embarrassed twenty year old.
"Ahh, Ruuuby!" Red all the way to her ears, Zelda whipped around on her chair and pulled on Ruby's cheeks. "No no no! Don't be talking about getting married and having babies and all that other nonsense! We barely know each other! It was just a kiss, alright?"
"So you did kiss him?"
"NO!" Zelda let go of Ruby, and began restlessly rubbing her cheek where Ganondorf had kissed her. "It was a peck, nothing more! He was very gentlemanly."
Ruby nodded in understanding, before snickering. "Well you can't deny the cuddling, I at least saw that part myself."
"I thought you were elsewhere chasing bugs," Zelda snorted. "...Maybe we did cuddle a little. If you consider holding hands to be cuddling."
"Gerudo don't really have a lot of interaction with their mates," Ruby explained. "I mean, I lived with the Termina Gerudo, so Hyrule Gerudo may act a little differently, but there are a lot of similarities. Most Gerudo are like wild animals, in that the male doesn't hang around. It's rare for a Gerudo to have a partner, so when they find one, they like to show affection. In your case, Lord Ganondorf really is cuddling, even if it's only hand holding for now."
"And I suppose that means he'd like to do more," Zelda mused, turning back to the mirror so Ruby could finish her hair. "...Maybe I'd like to do more, too."
Ganondorf headed back to his room with a smile on his face, caused by reflection of the day's events. Zelda didn't back off when he kissed her cheek, which gave him hope that maybe she'd let him go a little further. He knew he'd have to be careful, though, because the last thing he wanted was to seem like he was trying to use her. No, he was definitely NOT going down that road...
When he opened the door to his bedchamber, he got quite the surprise as a pair of boots went flying past his head and onto the floor. "What in the name of...?"
"Your wardrobe is hideous!" A few more garments hit the floor, before the owner of the voice withdrew from the closet. "You are a king, and yet you wear such disgusting and ill tailored slop?" Kona shook her head as she dropped a shirt to the floor. "How do you intend to win over your bride while wearing such rags?"
"Bride?!" Ganondorf stepped back in shock, while Kona rolled her eye like nothing happened. "What do you mean bride? And stop throwing my clothes on the floor, these are all I have!"
"Aveil left for the Valley several hours ago to check in on everyone, she is going to bring you more clothing when she returns," Kona rattled off. "As for your bride, don't play dumb. I may be missing an eye, but that doesn't mean I'm blind. The queen cares for you very much, even if she doesn't realize it herself yet. Why else would she go through the trouble of rehabilitating you into a gentleman?"
Ganondorf blanched at the suggestion. "Marry Zelda? W-what's gotten into you?"
"What's gotten into YOU, young man?" she snapped back in her mommy voice. "I saw you at dinner. For starters, you let Queen Zelda and Ruby eat their meals and leave before you even touched your plate! Zelda was even poking at her dinner like an anxious little child. After she finally ate and left, you started daydreaming as you were eating, and even mixed your greens and spuds! You hate doing that."
"I did that?" Ganondorf murmured to himself, shaking it off as he got back to the conversation. "Okay, so I was distracted today. That doesn't mean it's appropriate to just assume we want to marry!"
"Who's assuming?"
Ganondorf threw his arms up in exasperation, and stomped over to the window. "...You're going about this the wrong way, anyway. Gerudo King or not, Triforce of Power or not, Zelda is still the Queen of Hyrule and outranks all of us. She'd be the one who decides whether or not to propose marriage."
Kona snickered. "Then you just need to make yourself the most attractive suitor. Besides, you have it easy."
"...And why is that?"
"As far as I can tell, you're the only suitor."
Ganondorf groaned, and stared up at the stars. "Don't talk about Zelda like that, she probably has tons of suitors pestering her." In actuality, Ganondorf knew no one was hurrying to wed the young virgin queen that surrendered Hyrule to the Twili usurper Zant. He even heard a pair of Zelda's so called 'advisors' discussing whether or not it would be a good idea to wait until Ralis came of age and possibly installing him as king. He kept his mouth shut for the sake of keeping the peace, but he wanted to strangle them.
"Besides, Kona, I'm not Ganondorf, King of the Gerudo in this situation." Ganondorf walked over to the closet, and picked up one of the simple outfits Zelda had provided for him. Pants in a dark maroon color, a cream button up shirt, vest with trim that matched the pants, and banded arm sleeves down to the wrist. As a courtesy, Zelda had the top of the vest draped with a Gerudo cloth, much like Ganondorf's armor.
"You're definitely not king in that thing," she snorted.
"I'm here for Zelda, because Zelda brought me back to life. If she likes simple clothes, then I like simple clothes." Ganondorf smiled at the outfit, and hung it back up along with the others that Kona had tossed onto the floor. "She was nice enough to include our culture in her designs, so we can be nice enough to wear them. Ruby wears Hylian fashions as well..."
Kona narrowed her eyes, keen to Ganondorf's gambit. "Smarty pants... Ruby is on duty, and besides she looks beautiful. Like a priestess, almost." After a pause, she mumbled, "...Okay, I get your point, Gerudo can be lovely in other nations' clothing."
Ganondorf smirked in his victory. "Good. ...So why are you still here?"
An evil grin spreading across her face, Kona whipped out a pair of scissors.
