AN:
Suggested soundtrack: Albinoni-Adagio from Concerto Opus 9 No. 2 on trumpet and organ
HEY! If you search "Hyrule Castle High" on you tube, there should be a playlist called that which has all the songs in the suggested soundtracks for this story AS WELL AS songs to come and other cool songs. You should check it out!
conniethecat, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the reviews! I'm so glad you're enjoying it :)
Also thank you to Moonlight Raven Grave and Izzyboopers for reviews. You two are wonderful and I wish this site would let me use a heart emoticon!
Chapter 7: LE FAMILY FEUD
Ganondorf had been standing outside Shadow's door for at least two hours, shoulders hunched as he procrastinated what he knew he had to say. Some song about waiting and an upbeat guitar riff drifted past the door from inside. As if slowly cracking out of a stone shell, his hand rose, curled into a fist, and lightly rapped on Shadow's door.
In response, the nice rock music turned to heavy metal and rose to a thunderous volume.
Ganondorf's face turned as red as his hair. "RAAAAAAUGH FORGET IT!" He stormed away in embarrassment and anger, sitting at the kitchen counter, steam rising out of his ears and nose.
He waited for the end of the song. As soon as there was silence, he bounded back to Shadow's room, vibrating the whole house with each step. He had almost made it when a new song started.
"RAAAAAAAAUGH!" He slammed on the door repeatedly. "OPEN THE DOORRRRRRRRRR!"
Third time's the charm, right? He left the door and sulked on the living room couch, which was only a few feet from Shadow's door.
The music stopped. Ganondorf practically pounced on the door from the couch. He slammed into the heavy door, not even bothering to knock, squashing his nose in the process. As he waited for Shadow to either open the door or play another song, Ganondorf stood flush against the door, silent.
Moments passed.
He heard the quiet strummings of an electric guitar, but no actual music. Shadow was using earphones. Ganondorf's fingernails clawed against the door and scraped down. In one swift motion, he stepped back and smashed his foot into the door, sending it flying off his hinges into the room.
He heard Shadow cry out as he stormed in. The youth was sat on a stool next to his amp and speakers, earphones on his head and guitar cradled protectively in his hands. "D-Dad! What!"
Ganondorf towered over the cowering boy. "WHEN I KNOCK YOU WILL OPEN THE DOOR!"
Shadow shrank more, looking more than a little shaken. And scared. He averted his ruby eyes, his dark lashes shadowing the light in them, darkening them, hiding from him. As if they could.
A different pair of eyes haunted him, just like the ones he saw on his son. It was the last look before she left him. Before she—
"I'm . . . sorry," Ganondorf forced out.
He hated saying sorry. Whenever he had to say sorry, those hidden eyes would suddenly spill over with tears.
"What do you want?" Shadow asked. A small droplet fell onto the neck of his guitar. He wiped it away furiously, but not before Ganondorf saw.
"I bought . . . I . . ." Ganondorf recognized he was standing between Shadow and the door, and suddenly scurried a couple feet away into the mess of clothing that lay about the floor. "Just go look in the kitchen . . ." He scratched the back of his neck.
Shadow moved out of fear more than any sort of curiosity. After all, what horrible experiment did his dad want to show him? He set down his guitar and left the room wordlessly. Ganondorf stayed in the bedroom, every muscle in his body taut like, well, the string of a guitar.
After five minutes of silence—that's what it felt like, anyhow—Ganondorf peeked out the now-doorless door frame. Shadow stood in profile looking into the kitchen. His expression was emotionless. He just stared.
Ganondorf took small steps out of the room and behind and little to the left of Shadow, looking over the kitchen counter into the kitchen itself. On the ground were twelve boxes of Rabbitland Snacks, each box containing eight bags of the things. "I bought them wholesale!" Ganondorf mentioned, a modicum of pride in his voice.
Shadow glanced at him, nothing more.
Ganondorf clenched his fists, and his teeth. "I . . . I am sorry for not listening to your wishes regarding . . . your diet." The next bit was extremely hard to bite out, but somehow he managed. "I saw you liked these, so I bought a pile. I hoped this would make up for my earlier intolerance."
Some emotion passed over Shadow's face, as if Ganondorf had missed the mark entirely. Exasperation, and none of the hurt had gone away.
When? When would his son look at him with joy again? When had he stopped, and why? Ganondorf's eyes slowly fell to Shadow's hands. He knew when. He knew why. The boy was still wearing those blasted fingerless gloves, the ones that went past his wrist, almost to his elbows. He never took the things off.
Ganondorf reached a hand out, but stopped it when it was hovering over Shadow's shoulder. Then he removed it. No. That will only hurt him more. Hands firmly at his sides again, he waited.
Shadow released a breath of air, then breathed sharply in. Ganondorf thought he would speak, but then Shadow just breathed out, again. His mouth was set in a stiff line, forehead crinkled in that particular way.
Ganondorf let out a breath of his own, and said quietly, "You look exactly like your mother."
Ruby eyes flashed up. Of course, that would get his attention. Ganondorf's mouth bent into a soft smile. Then he strode a few steps away, looking at his watch. "I never could make her happy, either . . ."
Shadow blinked slowly. "Then . . . why did she marry you?"
Ganondorf wasn't expecting that question, nor the accusatory tone it was said in. He dropped his watch hand and put both hands in his pockets, back to Shadow. "Because . . . she thought I was something I wasn't, and I let her believe that."
"You're sick," Shadow ground out.
His father turned, raising an unamused eyebrow at him. His golden eye glinted in the dark. "Yes. I suppose I am."
"Why did you do it?"
"Because I loved her, and I was afraid someone else would steal her away from me." He turned away again. "In the end, we both lost. She died."
Shadow knew that last part already, of course, so Ganondorf didn't feel like reliving it.
"Giving birth to me," Shadow finished. Ganondorf nodded. "And . . . I look exactly like her?"
Ganondorf turned around again. "My door boy, have you not looked at the picture I gave you?"
Shadow appeared to think. Obviously if he had, it hadn't occurred to him to think he looked like her, much less acted like her and shared her expressions. Shadow ran to his room and dug under the clothes to his nightstand, the drawer from which he pulled an old pictograph and stared at it intently, as if it were a test at school or something else equally brain tasking.
Ganondorf pulled out his wallet and opened it. A smaller version of the same pictograph resided in the clear pocket of it. A beautiful woman stared back at him, long hair like midnight shadows, skin as white as snow, and ruby red eyes. Her face was angular, her nose distinct, her chin small but still held up in case you made the mistake that it was weak.
"I really look like her?" Shadow asked.
"Well you don't take after me at all, of course—" Ganondorf cut himself off. "Why don't we . . . go watch some pictovids of her, so you can see?"
Shadow glanced up. "Really?!"
"Yes. You know you can watch them whenever you want."
"Okay!" Shadow leapt out of his room and pranced toward the entertainment room.
"WAIT!" Ganondorf stopped him with a hand. Shadow paused with a slight flinch. Ganondorf looked at him, deadpan. One side of his mouth snaked up as he said, "Snnnnacks." He punched his fingers through the top of one of the snack boxes and picked it up.
Shadow's eyes lit up a little, and he poorly hid a mocking giggle. His father, eating vegan snacks! He ran away to hide his mirth, but Ganondorf heard his laughter anyway. He smirked and followed the boy.
"Dad? Who is the man in the video?"
They were watching his and Hilda's wedding. Ganondorf sat on the couch, taking up most of it, and Shadow lay backwards on the recliner, watching the TV over the lowered back of the chair. The man Shadow was referring to was the best man, a big, light-haired fellow. The picture was in black and white, but it was easy to see the man had striking eyes.
"That . . . is an old friend. He's . . . dead now."
"Oh. What's his name?"
". . . I don't remember."
Shadow grinned disbelievingly. "What? He was your best man, and you don't even remember his name?"
"He wasn't THAT much of a friend."
Shadow sighed disapprovingly. "Well Mom sure seems to know him well."
Mom. Ganondorf had dreamt about hearing his kids call her that. She had, too. If only some dreams had actually come true for her. "They were . . . close. She probably would remember his name. It was her idea to make him the best man."
"Didn't you have any friends?"
"Not . . . really. It was hard keeping friends going from foster home to foster home, and obviously I have no family, so . . ."
"Did Mom have family?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"They . . ." Ganondorf had never told him this before. How could he? "They wanted nothing to do with me after your mother died."
"Oh." The smallest hint of hurt crossed his features, as Ganondorf knew it would. "But what about me? Don't they want to see . . . me? I'm family, aren't I?"
Ganondorf stared into his almost-empty bowl of popcorn and shuffled the unpopped kernels around a bit. "I invited them to birthday parties, asked them to babysit, called them a lot." He started to get frustrated. "Emailed them, pestered them. One even dared to try to get some kind of protective order against me to make me stop bugging them."
"What? Why?"
Ganondorf glanced back at the door he'd kicked down. "I was a different man back then."
"But why would they leave me with—" Shadow caught himself barely in time, but Ganondorf understood his question.
"Why did they leave you with a man such as me and not even try to be part of your life? That I would like to know as well. I have no answers for you."
His words were cold, but he didn't know how else to say them. Shadow retreated into himself then, for a while, staring at the floor in thought. "Did you . . . try to get rid of me?"
Ganondorf tensed and he turned his head sharply toward Shadow. "NEVER!" He shoved the popcorn bowl off his lap and clasped his hands. "You are your mother's child, I could never—I couldn't—not like my parents. I couldn't. I would never put you in a home. I could never give you up. I never wanted you out of my sight!"
Shadow seemed surprised at the sudden outburst of pseudo affection. Then he looked at the people on the video, all his mother's family, all those who had ignored him. Turning away from the picture, Shadow punched the Off button on the remote. "I don't wanna see that one anymore . . . is there another one?"
Ganondorf clenched his fists in anger again. How dare they. "Uh . . . I don't know. I'll go look." He stood and walked to the protected safe in the wall that currently stood open. It was full of pictovid cases. Most of the later ones were of only him and Shadow . . . well, mostly Shadow. After his mother died, Ganondorf became somewhat paranoid about death and strove to document every moment of Shadow's life until just a few years ago, when he and Shadow had stopped . . . well . . .
He pulled one out titled with a very old date and removed the tape. I think this is the one . . .He walked to the TV and put the tape in, then sat back on the couch. Shadow perked up eagerly.
His father appeared past the static, and then the picture became clear. This one was in color. A melodic, burbling giggle filled the air. Apparently it was his mother recording. Mrs. Dragmire set up the camera and then sat across Ganondorf at the dining room table, one Shadow didn't recognize, in a house he didn't recognize, either. The younger Mr. Dragmire in the vid looked completely befuddled as to what his wife was up to. Mrs. Dragmire was beautiful, and Shadow saw he really did have her eyes.
"Wow," Ganondorf heard him whisper wonderingly. "Mom's a babe."
Ganondorf smirked. "Yes, she was."
She smiled at Mr. Dragmire mysteriously and placed a box in front of him. Mr. Dragmire stared at it suspiciously, and somewhat dumbly. "What?" he asked.
"Open it," she said, and Ganondorf could practically hear the grin spread across Shadow's face from hearing her voice more clearly.
Mr. Dragmire suffered her incessant giggling only a little bit longer before touching the box with a single finger, as if it might explode. This made Mrs. Dragmire burst out loud in laughter. Raising an eyebrow, a look Shadow was well familiar with, Mr. Dragmire opened the tiny box. It was so tiny he could barely fit two of his thick fingers into it. He barely managed to pull out a tiny piece of cloth that looked like some sort of teeny little bag. "What is it?" Ganondorf asked immediately.
Mrs. Dragmire laughed. "Oh come on."
"No seriously. Is it like a scent bag or—come on, Hilda, what is this?"
A good-natured facepalm. "It's a booty, you moron!"
"A booty?
"A baby booty."
"A baby b- . . . wait, you mean—" Mr. Dragmire's eye looked like they might pop out of his head. Shadow was already giggling madly in his chair.
Mrs. Dragmire began to cry. "I'm pregnant!" she sang with happy arm gestures.
Mr. Dragmire suddenly stood up, mouth agape, the booty still in his hand. He crossed the distance between them in a single step and grabbed her by the shoulders, staring deep into her eyes, looking for confirmation. She grinned happily in response, still crying. Mr. Dragmire kissed her passionately in joy—
A crash drew Ganondorf's attention away from the vid. Shadow had full on jumped three feet in the air at the sight of his parents kissing, and had literally tumbled off the chair and to the ground.
Ganondorf burst into laughing, loud and raucous. "Bet you never thought you'd see THAT, didja, boy?
Shadow got back up, dazed, and stared back at the screen, in which Mr. Dragmire was twirling his wife around in the air in the living room almost out of sight of the camera. "Wow, she's so really happy about me."
"Your mother loved you very much, and wanted you very much, despite what the rest of her family thinks."
Shadow was still watching the screen, and it took a moment for Ganondorf to realize it was an altogether different clip. They were now at a doctor's office, Hilda sitting on the doctor's table. An ultrasound machine was next to the table. Ganondorf racked his brains to remember what this was.
A man's voice, not Mr. Dragmire's, was behind the camera, singing stupid songs and getting the camera uncomfortably close to Hilda's face. Shadow stepped closer to the TV instinctively, as well. Hilda kept
waving the man away, giggling, "Stop! Stop!"
"Here we are," the man was saying, "Waiting for Hilda's first ultrasound of her in vitro babies. Rah! Rah! Will she have healthy babies, OR WILL THEY BE MUTANTS!"
"Oh shut up, Ravio, I'm already stressed as it is!"
"In vitro?" Shadow asked.
"Yes. We had . . . trouble conceiving. It was our last resort. Thank the Goddesses it worked."
The man, Ravio, was still talking. "One baby, OR FIVE HUNDRED?!"
Hilda rolled her eyes. "Oh my goddesses, seriously, Ravio!"
"Sorry," the man chuckled apologetically.
Shadow piped in. "Dad, where are you?"
Ganondorf was equally confused. "I don't know. I guess I couldn't get off work. Had to work a lot those days . . ."
Ravio leaned over next to Hilda and into the camera lens. He made a dorky face and Hilda stuck her tongue out. Shadow recognized the man. It was the best man from the wedding video, except here he had black hair.
"Who's the weird guy?" Shadow's voice was laced with suspicion.
"Oh, I forgot that idiot dyed his hair black. Said he wouldn't grow it out until we had a healthy baby . . ." Ganondorf was getting a bad feeling . . . there was something he needed to remember desperately about this one ultrasound.
"Okay!" The doctor said. "I'm getting a heartbeat!"
"OH! OH! SHUT UP SHUT UP RAVIO!" Hilda hissed loudly.
"A heartbeat?" cried the mysterious Ravio. "Does that mean it's working?"
"SHH!"
The three adults cooed over the sound of a hearbeat they could hear only through earphones.
Heartbeat . . . the thought seemed incredibly familiar. Heartbeat. When did Violet tell him about the first heartbeat? He racked his brains, scratching his head vigorously.
"Oh—oh wait!" the doctor was saying.
"What?" Both Hilda and Ravio said with sudden alarm.
The doctor was looking at the video of the ultrasound. "I think I see . . . give me the earphones."
That doctor visit. Ganondorf thought. What was special about that doctor visit? . . . WAIT! Ganondorf scrambled to find the remote, but it had fallen somewhere after Shadow fell off the chair. He leapt up to turn the screen off.
The doctor listened intently, and then her face lit up brightly. "Thought so! Congratulations, Mrs. Dragmire, you're having twins."
Ganondorf pushed the off button just a second too late.
"WHAT! DAD!"
"That was nothing!" Ganondorf was saying, pulling the tape out and quickly returning it to its case and stuffing it into his pocket.
"BUT DAD!" Shadow was shouting. "TWINS! THE DOCTOR SAID TWINS! I—" suddenly his face became somber. "Did he die?"
"No—" Ganondorf said without thinking.
Shadow clambered forward on the chair, making it fall backward and he rolled to a stop at Ganondorf's feet and grabbed his legs. "YOU MEAN I HAVE A TWIN?! I HAVE A TWIN OH MY—" he broke into some colorful swears he'd heard his father say once.
"WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!" Ganondorf yelled.
"WHERE IS HE? WHERE DOES HE LIVE CAN I SEE HIM? HER? IS IT A HER? IS IT A HE? WHAT'S-SHER-NAME-DADDY?"
"Shadow!" Ganondorf pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers.
Surprisingly, Shadow shut up.
"I can't tell you. I can't—you can't—rrrrrrgh." Ganondorf let out a huge sigh, suddenly unable to speak.
Shadow's mouth gaped as he realized Ganondorf was about to cry.
"I can't tell you until you're older," Ganondorf said.
"Why not?"
"Because . . . his family wouldn't want it."
"His family? I thought WE were his family? Dad, is HE in a home?"
"No!" Ganondorf replied sharply. "Just . . . Don't ask me about him. Not now."
"But why?"
"It's . . . complicated."
Shadow looked about to shout 'why' again, so Ganondorf took him by the shoulders and leaned down to level with him. "What do I have to do to get you to forget this until you're older?"
"But—"
"You CANNOT know him, Shadow. I wish it weren't so."
For a second Shadow looked as though he may protest yet again, but finally he just ducked his head a little, then glanced up. "Anything?"
"Yes. Almost. NO LAB STUFF." He added when Shadow was about to obviously ask him to release all the animals.
Shadow sighed, and thought. And smirked. A large, wily smirk.
Ganondorf gulped.
Shadow tightened his bow tie around the collar of his starch white shirt. Then he put on his tuxedo jacket. What? He knew how to be smashing . . .
He even had coattails, like a musician, and his hair was combed through and left hanging in waves around his head. On his breast he pinned the insignia of the Hyrule Academy for Boys. Jumping in front of the floor length mirror in the bathroom, he struck a pose. His coat even had coattails, like a musician, and his hair.
Oh, his hair!
It had been bleached to heck and back, and then dyed the most royal color of purple. It fell in flashy, sparkling waves like some kind of merman hair.
Purple.
Ganondorf had nearly died at the request, but he couldn't back out, now could he?
So here was Shadow, ready for a dance in a long, purple 'do and a smashing tux.
