The king and queen tried to put their concerns about the baby's gender aside, but it was a frequent topic of discussion, along with all the struggle that came with both sides.
"You know she is going to date, right?" Dora asked, resting in the tub. The room was extended from the master chambers, concealed by a transparent curtain. The room was heated, and lit, by a fire burning in a hearth nearby, and the tub square carved out of the stone floor. Hanae always made the most amazing smelling baths, with hot water and the most relaxing combination of oils. The water eased her tired body by helping to hold up the extra weight.
Ganondorf hesitated before peeling off his shirt. "My daughter," he said, "dating?" He shook his head and stepped out of his breeches. "No," he said firmly.
Dora smiled with amusement, but she was too busy taking in the sight of his strong physique to laugh. "You better believe it. And if she is anything like me..." She let her silence speak for her.
The prince of darkness lowered himself, begrudgingly, into the water beside his wife, and rested his arms along the edge of the tub. He only joined her feminine bath because she demanded it, and he could not bear to see her fall into another fit of uncontrollable tears. He shot her a side glare and growled, "How dare you?"
She leaned against his shoulder and took a deep breath of his sweat smell. "We can only hope she marries a man who cherishes her as much as you do me."
He laughed. "I may lose my sanity with two of you running around. Not only will she be beautiful and have a deep love for physical pleasure, but she'll be blood thirsty and reckless," Ganondorf said, testing his limits.
Dora retorted with equal wit. "If I had to live with two of you I would be driven out of my mind. You would always be arguing about who is right, who is more powerful. The narcissism would be unprecedented."
He grinned evilly and said, "We both know there is nobody better than me."
She tended to agree, but he was eating up the attention, so she said, "There's barely enough room in this castle for your ego alone." His proud look made her laugh, and she wrapped her arms around his waist to hug him. In the silence, the darker side of their situation came to the front of her mind. "Aren't you nervous?"
His smile faded, and he nodded, but would never admit it aloud.
"I am, more for the delivery than the parenting," she elaborated.
"How much longer?" he wondered.
"About two more months. She is really active, though." Without asking permission, she slid his hand over her round stomach and waited. His hand was large enough to cover most of her expanded stomach, but she still had some growing to do. Dora held her breath, and then felt the familiar bump against her abdomen of a little fist or foot trying to poke out.
Ganondorf's eyes went wide. "Incredible," he breathed. Something clicked, something in the back of his selfish, arrogant, power hungry brain clicked, and he realized, that was his creation in her stomach. "She is strong."
"Just like her daddy," she complimented.
The idea of being called anything other than King of Evil, or the Demon King, was foreign to him, and the last scenario he could imagine was an innocent little girl calling for her daddy, and that man being him. He wrapped his arm around Dora's shoulders and pulled her close. He caressed her stomach, eagerly awaiting the next faintest movement. Something slid underneath Dora's skin, from one side of her stomach to the other, and Ganondorf was speechless at this wonder.
"What are we going to name her?" Dora asked, letting him enjoy himself.
Being a parent seemed to be full of a lot of decisions that had unforeseeable consequences.
"I have been thinking about Nadina," she suggested.
"Din," Ganondorf said with certainty, as if any other name was absurd.
Dora smiled, easily identifying the importance and the symbolism. She ran her fingers through his amber hair and said, "That's perfect."
He realized it had been a few minutes without any movement inside her belly. "She stopped," he commented, disappointed.
"You put her to sleep," Dora said, adoring his child like interest. "She can feel your touch, so she must find it as comforting as I do." She shifted to look from her belly to his eyes, and melted. Those evil eyes that stared at her held a lust for power and hunger for his enemy's demise, but when they gazed at her she knew she was the most important person in the world to him. She rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes. His arms tightened around her and she felt how much he needed her. In the silence, she could hear the rhythm of his heart, and with every beat how terribly he missed her while they were apart. That moment was everything she had ever dreamed it would be.