Aeris steadied herself as she stepped gently down the darkened stairs, one hand braced against the wall, the other on her stomach. Her bare, swollen feet still managed to make little to no sound as she reached the bottom of the stairs, and she slipped into the darkness of the corridors.

It had only been weeks since the revelation of her pregnancy, but her stomach had nearly doubled in size. Stretching the skin tight and leaving a handful of tiny silver marks near her hips.

She paused cautiously as a guard turned the corner heading in the opposite direction, leaving Aeris unnoticed in the faint darkness. Her shirt flowed about her easily, made of mostly gossamer fabric that opened over her stomach and flowed down her arms.

The fabric floated behind her as she made her way down the hall, moving at a pace somewhere between a walk and a light jog. She kept one hand braced against her stomach, mostly for her own comfort, as the motion did little functionally.

She avoided the corridors she knew were being actively patrolled, each of them were committed to memory and easy enough to bypass.

Her brows were set in concentration as she hurried toward her destination, the library. Ganondorf had moved most of his paperwork out of their quarters, so he could work at night without disturbing Aeris and her much-needed sleep. Though, his absence actively kept her from sleeping most nights.

She paused before the final turn, listening intently for any signs of an approaching guard, only proceeding when she was sure her path was clear. She ducked through the open doorway and paused as the scene before her unfolded.

A gentle smile crossed her face and she padded gently across the room. Ganondorf was seated at the table in the center of the room, books and papers were scattered across the wooden surface in a kind of organized chaos that only he could manage.

A low snore broke the silence of the room and Aeris had to stifle a giggle. His arms were crossed in front of him and his chin was tucked against his chest, peacefully asleep amidst the worn pages of the library.

She rounded the table and ran her fingers across his shoulders. "Love,"

His eyelids fluttered and his snores skipped a beat but he remained oblivious to her presence.

"Ganon," She shook his shoulder gently and his eyes slowly opened as he stretched his neck toward her.

"What are you doing here?" His fingers grazed her chin as he reached to kiss her.

"The sun rose an hour ago, love," His eyes widened as he turned to stretch his back and shoulders. "Why did no one wake me?"

"I'm not the only one that needs rest you know," He paused mid stretch, arms raised high above his head and sighed.

"I know," His gaze softened as he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Your rest simply more important than mine at the moment,"

She scoffed as she reached to cup his hand against her cheek. "Nonsense,"

He opened his mouth to reply but she shushed him. "You and me," She guided the hand on her cheek down to her stomach, not missing the subtle change in his expression as his fingers brushed that taunt skin. "We're having a baby,"

His eyes flicked back to her face for a brief moment then settled back to their joined hands. "I'm not alone in this, you're as much of a part of this as I am,"

He looked back up at her with the softest of smiles on his face. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"Sands only know," She chuckled before pulling on his hand in an attempt to guide him from the room.

And he let her.

They meandered silently back through the halls with no real destination in mind, letting their feet guide them.

A deep laugh rumbled through her as Ganondorf wrapped his arms around her. "Someone must be hungry,"

Aeris blinked slowly as he kissed the top of her head. Slowly realizing that they were only feet from the kitchens. "Oh," She smiled and ran her hand over her stomach. "Well it's not me,"

"Ah!" She doubled over suddenly as air hissed between her teeth. A sharp pain raced from the bottom of her stomach down to her toes, like a bolt of lightning.

Ganondorf's grip around her tightened and she felt his breath still against her back.

After a moment the pain passed and she sighed heavily as she leaned against him. "I'm fine, Amearu warned me about this," She kept her tone calm, even if her hands were trembling. "The muscles and ligaments in my pelvis are stretching to accommodate the weight of the baby,"

There was an odd pained look on his face as he gently brushed his thumb over her cheek. "I'm sorry,"

"Don't," She smiled up at him and took his hand. "We wanted this,"

"Yes, we did,"

She felt coated in sugar as he looked down at her. His golden eyes were warm, casting a warm fuzzy feeling across her skin.

"There you are!" The two of them turned suddenly as Nabooru appeared at the end of the hall. "I've been looking for you," Her face was screwed up in a tight grimace as if she had bad news for them.

"I hav—"

"Ganondorf," Aeris spun, anger already building as twin figures rounded the corner behind them. Moving eerily in sync, like two moving as one.

"Mothers," Ganondorf moved in front of Aeris and Nabooru moved closer, shielding her from the twins' view. "It's been some time,"

Koume and Kotake looked… tired. Silver was creeping through their crimson hair in long winding streaks and their once bronze skin was taking on a waxy grey pallor.

"So, it has," koume settled to a halt with one hand perched on her hip.

"It's been far too long," Kotake stopped beside her sister, a perfect mirror image.

"We've been rather busy," There was an edge to Ganondorf's voice. It would appear that he was less than thrilled at his mother's sudden reappearance.

"Yes," Aeris took another step into Ganondorf's shadow as Koume and Kotake's gaze turned to her. "So we see,"

Aeris had thought of this moment, dreamed of it really. Of all of the ways she would handle seeing the twins again. She wanted to scream, to raise hell and throw things and tell them that they would never lay another finger on him ever again.

She wanted to smirk and tell them that their plans would never work, that they had already failed.

She wanted to cry and scream that he was hers and that she would do anything to keep him by her side till her dying breath.

Instead she found herself frozen, locked in place by their hypnotic golden gaze. Nabooru's hands on her shoulders kept her grounded and Ganondorf standing before her kept her sane, but her knees trembled at the thought of them maybe just maybe being able to worm their way back into his heart.

Nabooru's grip on her tightened and Aeros swallowed around her dry tongue. "Koume, Kotake," She shrugged Nabooru off and stepped forward taking Ganondorf's hand in her as she settled beside him. "How have you been?"

Their heads turned to the side in unison. "We have been well," Kotake smiled as she spoke and for a moment Aeris almost believed her.

"We have been communing with the Goddess,"

"The sands are pleased with the two of you," Another wave of pain rippled through Aeris as Koume spoke, low and burning in her pelvis.

"You've done well in our absence,"

"You trained me well," Ganondorf spoke through gritted teeth and his hand tightened around Aeris's.

"So we did," Aeris couldn't tell if the trembling in her hand was from her or if Ganondorf was standing beside her shaking, and whether that would be from rage or anxiety a mystery to her.

"Love," Her voice was soft barely a whisper really as she turned to look up at him.

She paused.

His jaw was set and his eyebrows lowered casting a dark shadow over his features. Ice crept through her veins as he completely ignored her, his gaze was set on his mother's and all else seemed inconsequential.

Somewhere behind them Nabooru shuffled her feet, obviously trying to hold herself back from speaking out of turn, or worse.

Anxiety clawed its way up Aeris's throat settling like a lead weight just behind her tongue.

This was bad.

This was very bad.

A loud gasp suddenly broke the building tension and Aeris blinked, confused, as all eyes turned to her.

Her hand flew to her stomach as another low sound left her lips.

There somewhere in the bottom of her stomach something rolled.

It was barely there, more of a fluttering movement than anything else.

But it terrified her.

Nothing like this had happened before, never not even once during her first pregnancy had she felt this.

It happened again and she reached blindly for Ganondorf or Nabooru, whoever was closest to her, to ground her.

Her head was spinning, frantically flipped through the pages of the books that Amearu had given her trying desperately to remember anything she could about what could be causing this.

Fire and ice suddenly clawed their way through her consciousness and she blinked to find Koume and Kotake inches from her. Their hands braced against her stomach sending pulses of hot and cold through her system.

The flutter happened again, stronger this time and Aeris instantly recoiled. She stumbled back and sturdy arms wrapped around and then the world was spinning.

She barely had time to process what had happened before she was being passed off to Nabooru and Ganondorf was turning back to face his mother's haunches raised and teeth bared.

"Don't you dare lay a finger on her," There was something off about his features, they were almost contorted in rage and for a moment he looked more a beast than a man.

"Are you alright?" Nabooru spoke just loud enough for Aeris to hear and she nodded in response. "And the little one?"

The flutter happened again as Nabooru laid a hand against Aeris's stomach, softer and more gentle this time.

"Perfect," The pieces finally clicked together and Aeris smiled softly as she turned to face Nabooru. "Absolutely perfect,"

The world around them faded back into view and she became acutely aware of the scene unfolding before them.

Ganondorf was stalking toward Koume and Kotake as energy crackled across his arms, arcing and popping against his skin and the walls. The twins were retreating, obviously taken off guard that their son would ever take action against them.

"You will never touch her or my child ever again," Anger rolled off of him in waves as he advanced. "I won't let you corrupt them with your vile sadistic—"

"How dare you!" Aeris didn't know whether it was Koume or Kotake that spoke, perhaps it had been both of them. "After all that we've done for you,"

"We made you a king!"

"No," Ganondorf's voice was a low growl as he halted his movements. "One of you birthed me, I would have been king even if a stable maid had done that,"

Koume and Kotake's widened almost comically as he pointed at them. "All you've done my entire life is lie and manipulate me into being the perfect little puppet,"

"She," Aeris flinched as his attention was suddenly directed to her. "Has done more for me than you ever will,"

"She has made me a better man," The energy arcing across his body faded as his eyes softened. "And for that I am eternally grateful,"

"You ungrateful little—" For the briefest of moments Aeris could have sworn Twinrova appeared before them, in all of her twisted glory, though that illusion faded as soon as Ganondorf lifted a finger to silence them.

"Leave," He tucked his arms gently into his sleeves. "You are banished from this fortress and outcast from the people to wander the wastes endlessly or until the Goddess herself has mercy on you and may that mercy come by way of death,"

Ganondorf turned with a smug little grin and extended his hand to Aeris. "Now I believe that I promised my girls some breakfast,"

Aeris's eyes darted to the still dumbfounded twins as she took his hand. "I believe you did,"

"Nabooru," Ganondorf turned to the woman in question who looked as if she was trying her best to not start cackling at any moment. "If you would please deal with… that,"

Nabooru's eyes sparked with wicked glee. "I thought you would never ask," They watched as she stepped forward and crossed her arms.

"Alright you two you heard him, you are hereby banished and all that so get going!" She motioned down the hall with one hand and to Aeris's surprise they complied.

The twins turned looking more than a little lost and broken and one of the shackles around Aeris's soul fell away and disintegrated.

"Was I too harsh?" Ganondorf suddenly sounded unsure of himself and Aeris tugged him down into a gentle embrace.

"No, not at all," He smiled softly as he pulled away and she cupped his cheek with her palm. "I'm so proud of you,"

He hummed softly and leaned down to connect their lips on a warm kiss. "I didn't scare you did I?"

"No," And to Aeris's surprise it was the truth. It was rare that he used his magic, even more so that it was used in an act of violence, but it had been fitting that the greatest gift they had given him would be used against them. "It was beautiful,"

"So it was," A chuckle rumbled deep in his chest. "Now what do you want to eat?"

"Oh!" Aeris's eyes lit up as she thought of all the possibilities. "Fruit!" Her sweet tooth had expanded in the past weeks. "Oh, with cream,"

Ganondorf laughed as she wiggled her hips, absolutely giddy at the thought of food. "Alright then berries and cream right this way,"

Something about the way he phrased it irked her but the thought of food overwhelmed any other thoughts as he led her the rest of the way to the kitchen and the soft flutter in her stomach accompanied their laughter.