MarshAngel

watsonma@hotmail.com
http://angelmoon.sinfree.net
rated R-NC17
disclaimer: standard i.e.: no claim of ownership has or will be made
 

Touch
Chapter 10

 

Usagi’s eyes opened wide at the sudden change of light and temperature. The ground was hard and cool, but dry. She was inside. How did she get here? wherever here happened to be.

She looked around. It was dark, but warm. Even with what little she could make out the room seemed familiar. Directly ahead of her was what appeared to be dark fabric draped along the length of an entire wall. Something about the smell of the room invoked a memory and she immediately remembered where she was.

“What are you doing here?”

The harsh deep voice sent a chill down her spine. Usagi turned her head around swiftly.

“Endymion,” she whispered, not so much surprised by his presence as much as she was confused by the fact that he didn’t seem to be at all surprised to see her. He sat in a plush dark armchair in a dark corner of the room with one leg up on his knee, an image of contemplative comfort. Her reaction to him surprised her. She simply stared at him, devouring every inch of the form she hadn’t realized she’d missed. Her heart pounded with nervousness and unnoticed desire.

“What do you want Usagi?” His voice was cold and she recoiled from the harsh unwelcoming tone of it.

“I…” She couldn’t quite get it out. Had she meant to come here? Did she bring herself here?”

“Cat got your tongue Little Bunny?” He asked mockingly.

“Please don’t make fun of me.” Her plea sounded pathetic to her own ears and her voice sounded childish and clouded from her sobs.

“Then answer my question. Why are you here? What could you possibly want?”

Usagi sighed, holding back a sniffle. She really did make a big mess of things.

“I missed you,” she whispered. He didn’t respond.

“I’ve been thinking,” she began quietly, “that maybe you were right.”

Still, he said nothing.

She got up from her seated position on the floor and walked over to the big bed and hopped up unto it, sinking comfortably into the feathery soft mattress. The bed was so high that her legs didn’t touch the ground, she felt like a child, wringing her hands and sniffling quietly

“Everything’s out of control, and the more I fight the worse things get. I thought I knew what I wanted, what I believed…” Her voice trailed off and she paused, merely looking at him looking back at her intently but with a face so still she couldn’t venture a guess as to the thoughts in his mind.

“You’d think after all those speeches I spouted about love and justice I’d have some idea of the words meant,” she muttered bitterly.

 “I wasn’t raised to believe in love. My mother…that is, Queen Serenity, married out of duty and my father died before I was even born. I wasn’t raised to expect to fall in love. I was told fairytales, were just that and nothing more.

“I think I missed out on a lot as a princess. I never had flights of fantasy, the dream of finding a handsome prince and living happily ever after, or any of the typical hopes and dreams normal girls my age indulged in. I had a fiancée by the time I was five and my entire life had been planned for me. All I have ever known is duty.

“I was feeling rebellious when I met you; I guess I didn’t put too much thought into the plan to stir in some excitement into my dull, overly organized life. Even when it should have been obvious that being with you had changed my life forever, I always assumed that we would end and my life would go back to the way it was; I hadn’t been raised on hopes and dreams. I didn’t even imagine the possibility of a world where we’d be together, where I’d get to make that choice.

“I didn’t want to fall in love with you then because I was certain it would never last. I suppose it was naïve to assume that I could just move on and forget what we had, or that I could completely control what I wanted to feel, but I tried. I was raised to be the one in control, the one in charge at all times and with you it was always a power struggle. But somehow I managed to convince myself that I never loved you.

“I guess I should stop apologizing for the past now,” she said wryly. “But I’ve made so many mistakes. “I’ve lied to you and to myself. I guess what I’m trying to say is…. I love you.” It was harder than she’d believed but in some ways easier than she’d expected.

“I’ve always loved you Endymion.” More tears ran down her cheeks and fell unto her hands as she stared down at them sitting in her lap. “I should probably go now. I understand if this means nothing to you now, that maybe it’s too late for us…”

She got up and walked towards the door. It hadn’t been the way she’d come in, but her mind was in too great a state of confusion to concentrate on teleporting out when she couldn’t figure out how she’d done it in the first place. She kept hoping he’d move, that he’d even show the slightest indication that anything she’d said had had an effect on him, that he’d get up and stop her from walking out the door.  But she walked the entire length of the large room; past the chair he sat in, and towards the enormous double doors without a response from him.

Her hand reached for and began to turn the doors handle.

“I wouldn’t go out that way if I were you.”

She froze for a moment before taking her hand away from the door without turning around. Those were not the words she’d expected but it was enough to give her hope.

“Why?”

“The palace isn’t what it used to be.”

Usagi was amazed at her own stupidity for not having recognized the room for what it was. This was Endymion’s room in the Earth’s main palace millennia ago. So much was the same but the feeling was entirely different.

She turned around slowly and only just managed to stifle a scream as she found him standing right before her. She’d never quite figured out how he always managed to sneak up so quietly.

As if on his command her heart began to pound furiously. She had never thought for a moment she’d be this close to him again. She didn’t dare look up at his face however. He didn’t need to see her crying again. Endymion nudged her face upwards however, and caressed her face gently, wiping away her tears.

“Don’t leave, not now, or ever again.”

He pulled her into a close hug, and she buried her face into the warm firmness of his chest, luxuriating in the feeling of his heart beating heavily against her.

“I’ve been dying to hold you,” he whispered. “It’s time you realized that we were meant to be together. I’ve never lied to you so always remember when I say, I love you and I’ll never let you go.”

“I thought you did,” she sniffled into his shirt.

“No,” he replied and she could hear the smile in his voice. “I was waiting for you to come to your senses.”

“I almost didn’t but only a fool makes the same mistake twice and I’m sick of being the fool.”

He kissed her then, gently first but passionately a moment later, tasting her fully. When he released her lips they were both breathing hard and her lips were brightly colored and swollen.

“God I’ve missed you,” he groaned before surprising her by sweeping her off her feet.  She laughed softly.

“I missed you too Endy.”

He dropped her unto the bed and she bounced a bit, giggling happily. She watched delightfully as layers of clothing were tossed aside, leaving him standing before her naked as the day he was born. She couldn’t help but stare and smile. He really had missed her.

He climbed unto the bed beside her, looking down at her lovingly, tracing her jaw all the way down to the line of her blouse. “Have I ever told you, you’re the most beautiful woman I know?

“Not recently,” she replied.

“”Well I’ve been remiss. I think I should apologize a bit too. I’ve been a something of an ass. I can’t promise to change however; I think I may be too old for that. But I will be making up for a lot of bad behavior.”

Usagi laughed out loud. “I think I’ll enjoy that.”

“I’m sure you will.”

He rested his hand on the far side of her hip and pushed her blouse upwards. She eased up a bit to let him pull the shirt over her head. He cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow when she was shirtless and he could see her breasts through the sexy, sheer, lace-edged bra that did amazing things for cleavage. The entire surface of her skin flushed pink beneath his gaze and her nipples hardened, pointing visibly through the thin, translucent, fabric.

“I thought you said you were sixteen?” he teased.

“We can have sexy underwear too,” she defended, understanding his implication easily.

“What made you think I was talking about your undergarments?”

She slapped him playfully, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her up against him.

“Be careful, or this might not be as gentle as I planned.”

“I don’t remember asking you to be gentle,” she whispered huskily.

“Remember you said that,” he whispered as he skillfully removed her black pants and the rest of her clothing. His hands commandingly slid over her bare skin making her gasp and moan with the skill of his caress. He kissed and caressed what seemed to her like every pleasurable zone of her body with wild abandon, torturing her nipples and bringing her to exquisite climax with his hands and tongue. He seemed to know her body even better than she did and did everything in his power to make her scream his name. The sounds echoed in the cavernous room.

Their bodies moved together wildly, hot skin against skin, the very sensation of their bodies against each other enough to make them both whisper and moan. The excitement of their coupling finally culminated in a synchronized climax. It was a while before either of them could speak.

The next words spoken moments later however, were not the ones Usagi expected to hear.

“Marry me?” Endymion put forth.

Usagi was stunned.  Her body stiffened against his and he could feel the physical reaction his words had caused.

“I… I don’t know if I can.” She regretted the words. She wanted to, she really did but there were so many reasons why she probably shouldn’t.

“Say yes to this,” he pleaded huskily kissing her bare breast. “Say yes to us.”

“But…”

“No ‘buts’ Rena. This time it’s our turn. Duty has had its chance. Now we have ours. Just say yes.

She was silent for a moment.

“Yes.”

He was obviously happy with her decision. “Now lets see if I can get you to say that a couple more times,” he smirked at her.

 

 

Usagi sat up suddenly in bed, groaning slightly at the effort it took for that basic movement. Endymion’s hand that had been resting across her waist as he slept now sat heavily in her lap. She looked around hurriedly, wondering at the time. There was no clock, no light streaming in through the heavy drapes; it could be midnight or midday but she had no clue.

The only thing she was certain of was that she had to get home. She rolled away from her lover and off the bed. She winced slightly at the weariness and soreness of her body as she gathered pieces of clothing that had been tossed aside. He hadn’t lied; their lovemaking had been thrilling, exciting, and wild but not in the least bit gentle. The proof was all over her body.

Endymion woke up as he felt cool air replace the warmth of her body. He sat up in the large bed looking at her as she got dressed. “What are you doing?”

“I have to go home.”

He rolled out of bed immediately and stood towering over her intimidatingly. His nudity didn’t lessen his intensity; in fact it seemed only to heighten it. She was immediately struck by the feeling of being an inch tall.

She could immediately sense the chill of anger that ran through him.

“Your home is with me, Rena.” His voice was calm but she didn’t miss his meaning.

“I know that Endymion but I still have to see my family, she placated. My mother is probably in a panic about my not coming home and my father…” she grunted. “He’s probably harassing some police officer at the moment or something.”

He was still angry.

“What?” she questioned, quietly but not without already having a vague idea about the source of his anger.

“So this is it? You’re just going to go back out there and pretend that none of this happened?”

“Of course not!” she snapped back. “But they’re my family. They are worried about me.”

“And when you go back there what are you going to tell them? That you’ve decided to marry your millennia-old lover?”

“I don’t know.”

“When I asked you to chose us Serenity what did that mean to you? Maybe I’m being unfair but I don’t feel like sharing your attention again. I’ve been down that route before. Do you think that you can be a part of me for a time and then just go back to your world and live another life? Do you think that’s going to work for you, for us? Just what does marrying me mean to you?

Usagi was silent in consideration. What he was asking her to do was a shock to her system. It was finally coming to her realization just what she had said yes to. She had agreed to marry him, which meant she couldn’t be a little girl anymore. As any husband would, he expected her to leave her family behind and be with him. It wasn’t an unfair demand, wasn’t that what wives did? But was she prepared to be a wife, his wife?

“Endymion, I love you and I have every intention of coming back but I have a life out there too. I have family and I have friends. You can’t just expect me to just disappear on them one day and not say a word.”

He ran a hand through his tousled hair and let out a frustrated breath.

“I understand that you want the best of both worlds but I’m not sure if you realize that it might not be possible. And I’m not sure I’m willing to fight for supremacy with your sense of duty. I want you to be my wife, to be a part of me, and whatever comes we will face together. Maybe it’s unfair but I have been out of your world for a long time. I don’t belong there anymore.”

“It is your world too, Endymion. You belong there.”

“No. I don’t. Too much has changed. This is where I belong.”

“How can you say that? You were brought here against your will.”

“And now my will is my own again and I choose to stay here. I have a life here.”

“In the Dark Kingdom? What kind of life is that?”

He stalked across the room to the heavy drapes and pushed the folds aside harshly.  Light immediately flooded into the room and Usagi’s mouth hung open in shock.

The Dark Kingdom was not the dark depressing place she had thought it to be.

“How?” she whispered, not quite believing her eyes. In the distance the sun was rising over lush mountains and green forests, birds flew through a brilliant blue sky and though the glass screens prevented her from stepping out into the crumbling balcony, she could almost smell the freshness of the air.

 “It’s beautiful.

She turned to him, a question in her eyes that she voiced. “ I don’t understand.” She turned toward him with a questioning look.

“It’s just another dimension,” he replied. “It’s a lot like Earth actually, maybe it’s just a different dimension of the same planet.”

 He could almost hear the unspoken question he saw on her face. “Why would Beryl and Metallia make such an effort to take over your world when she had one of her own?” He shrugged. “Revenge mostly. This world had no intelligent life. There was no one here to dominate, to torture or kill.  She damaged a lot of it but it’s beginning to recover and so are the people who she brought with her, poisoned, and turned to her cause. The ones that survived her reign are beginning to wake up from whatever spell she had them under.”

“And they recognize you as their prince again,” she finished, understanding fully that the world she’d left in death and he in sleep was awakening. He nodded. He stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “I ask a lot of you, perhaps more than I should. But I suspect you belong here even more than you do there. I’ve watched you struggle. You know more about building and maintaining a kingdom than you do about geometry tests and literature.”

“Are you asking me to help you to rebuild your kingdom here?”

“I’m asking you to be my Queen.”

Usagi’s eyes went wide. A Queen? At sixteen she would be a queen?

Could she do that? Was she ready for that? When Queen Serenity had been alive had she been ready then? She had been trained her entire life for precisely that job.

She leaned into him. “I don’t know if I’m ready to be a Queen.”

“I believe you are, but if you wish I can make the honeymoon last until you are.” She giggled a bit before turning in his arms to face him, her face serious.

“This is a hard decision for me Endymion. I know I said yes to being your wife but I don’t know if I’m ready for all this; to leave my friends and my family behind for an entirely new world, with new responsibilities…”

“I don’t want to pressure you but we’ve been apart too long. Just be with me. The rest will fall into place.”

She nodded in agreement.

“I can’t just leave them wondering. Give me some time. I have to go, if just to say goodbye.”

She heard the quiet sigh expelled as she leaned into his chest.

“Alright,” he whispered, holding her tightly to him before holding her at a distance. He kissed her gently on the forehead. “Come back to me.”

Usagi nodded and tried to concentrate on how precisely to teleport. The memory came back almost instantly and with a shimmer Endymion’s face disappeared and she reappeared in her bedroom.

 She immediately sank into her bed, staring blankly at the walls. The pale pink walls, the beige carpet, the cluttered desk covered in neglected and half-completed assignments, the stuffed animals randomly tossed around the cluttered bed and floor, nothing seemed to have changed here. It seemed odd when in a few hours her life had changed forever.

The sun had risen fully over the horizon and the light flooded in through the thin curtains. She got up and walked over to the window, pushing the curtains aside so she could see. Looking out over the sea of houses, carefully placed trees and streets, she was struck by how different this world was from the one she’d just left. Just then her stomach growled and she frowned.

She moved away from the window and walked out of her room and down the stairs. It was still early on a Saturday morning. Even her parents wouldn’t be awake yet.  She went to the refrigerator and pulled out a few items.

“Usagi!”

The voice almost made her drop the bowl in her hand.

 “Mom!” Her mother was standing there in her robe looking at her with a near frantic expression on her face. She could almost see herself through her mother’s eyes, as she looked her up and down.

She hadn’t changed her clothes, which were now wrinkled, from having been soaked and then dried. Her hair was an unruly mess, as much from her activities as well as from having been air-dried. As she looked down at herself, she saw right down her shirt to a small bruise, a love-bite, she’d heard it called once, between her breasts. She fought the temptation to pull the neckline higher though she new her mother couldn’t really see it from where she stood. She wondered how many more bruises she had on her body. She was sore in a dozen different places.

“Where have you been?” Ikuko demanded. “I’ve been up all night worrying. Hisahiko came back and said you just disappeared. The poor boy seemed to be in shock. We managed to convince him he must have been seeing things, that we were sure you just needed some time…

Are you ok? What happened? Why didn’t you call? When did you get back?”

“I….” She needed more time to think through and formulate a decent explanation, to explain what she would have to say.

Her father walked into the room just then.

“What’s going on?” he questioned. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you come home last night?”

“I…” she began again. She swallowed and closed her eyes for a moment… so many questions. “I have an explanation but I need some time. I have to organize my thoughts before I explain everything to you.”

“What in god’s name do you mean you have to organize your thoughts?” Kenji demanded. “What’s so difficult about explaining where you’ve been?”

“I have something important to tell you but I need some time to think it through. Just let me go back upstairs and take a shower and I’ll explain everything soon.”

“But…” Kenji began but his wife placed her hand on his shoulder indicating he should let her go.

Usagi rushed upstairs to her bedroom and with a change of clothes in hand, into the bathroom. She stripped off her rumpled clothing and studied her reflection closely in the mirror. Her face flushed at the bruises on her neck and her breasts. She wondered if her parents had noticed. But then how couldn’t they? There was an enormous hickey on her neck that was quite frankly, utterly embarrassing.

She prolonged her shower as long as was reasonable. How could she say goodbye to all this? How could she convince them she was doing this because she wanted to? And did she really want to?

When she got out of the shower and got dressed she momentarily considered hiding the bruise on her neck but decided it was pointless, as they had no doubt already seen them. She pulled on some clothes and walked downstairs slowly as if delaying the event would make it less difficult.

Her parents were sitting around the breakfast table talking. There was immediate silence when she walked into the room however. She sat down at the table

For a moment she was stuck on where to begin.

“Well?” her father questioned impatiently.

She decided it was best to be blunt. “I was with Endymion last night.”

“You were what?” her father snapped loudly. “How could you…” he had a hard time finishing the sentence, …“with that bastard?” Her mother on the other hand seemed disappointed but not surprised. 

“Dad please,” Usagi pleaded.

“But why Usagi?” her mother asked. “I thought you said it was over.”

“I thought so too but I…” her voice trailed off. “I love him. I always have.”

The room was silent but tense.

“Please tell me you were at least safe?” her mother pleaded.

Usagi paled and then flushed. Of course they hadn’t been. She hadn’t even thought about it. She couldn’t answer the question and see the disappointment in her mother’s eyes. So she changed the subject.

“He asked me to marry him.”

She was faced with silence and the angry tensing muscle in her father’s clenched jaw as he tried to withhold the angry yell she knew he wanted to let loose. She sighed, quietly. It was going about as well as she expected, perhaps even a little worse.

The last thing she’d wanted was to leave them angry. She just wanted to hold them one last time, to tell them that she loved them.

“I know you think that he’s all wrong for me but I really do love him. I just took such a long time to realize it.”

“You said yes didn’t you?” her mother asked.

Usagi nodded.

“You cannot marry that man!” her father snapped. “You are sixteen years old, you live under this roof and I don’t give a damn what your extracurricular activities are; you are not going to marry him. I’ll send you to boarding school before I see you with that man.”

“Daddy, this isn’t your decision and I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it,” Usagi replied calmly in a mature voice that said a lot more than her actual words. “I might seem like a naïve sixteen year old girl to you but in this case I can honestly say that being forty-five couldn’t have made this decision any less difficult or changed it in the least.”

 “But Usagi you can’t be serious about this,” her mother stated unbelievingly. You are so young and have so much ahead of you. Why would you want to restrict yourself in this way?”

“It’s not a restriction Mom. For the first time in a long time, I get to make a decision for myself that benefits me and not someone else. I get the chance to do something that I ‘want’ to do. Endymion is the man I should have been with so long ago. Just once I want to put myself first. Maybe it’s selfish, perhaps even wrong, but I’m tired of sacrificing my happiness for my duty.

“When I marry Endymion I’ll be doing what I was raised to do.” She turned to face her mother. “You were right Mom; I can’t be a senshi forever. I was raised to be a queen. Had I had my own choices I might have married Endymion and ruled by his side, as I am about to do now. I understand that this might not fit into what you envisioned for me but this is what I want.”

“But sweetheart, Endymion is so much older than you. You’re only sixteen surely this can wait a few years,” her father pleaded. He could see by the determination in her voice and tone that convincing her not to marry Endymion wasn’t working. 

“We’ve been apart a long time Dad. Now is our time together.

“I don’t understand honey,” her mother sighed, frustration evident in her voice. “What is it that makes you think you need to do this now? And precisely what is it that you’re thinking of doing? Because if you are about to do what I think you are then I don’t know if I can handle that.” The tears began to flow and Usagi’s heart almost broke and gave in.

“I am going to marry Endymion Mom.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I know it’s nearly impossible for you to be happy about this, but I really wish you could. I know you want me to be a little girl for a little while longer and you want to stay here and be all the things you dreamed I would be, but I have made my choice.

“To be honest, I came here to say goodbye.”

She heard her mother sniffle loudly and her father’s face had an indefinable expression.

“You’re right we aren’t happy about this,” Kenji muttered, attempting to console his sniffling wife. “I can see we can’t change your mind about this, but where do we go from here? Are you just going to walk out of here and leave your family behind forever?”

“I don’t know,” Usagi whispered. “A part of me wants to stay but an even bigger part of me wants to be with the man I love and his world is an entirely different one from this one.

“I’m not going to be your little girl anymore and come home to dinner every night. I can’t make promises as to when I’ll see you again but I will, I promise, but I have to go.”

She pushed away from the table and walked out of the room. She didn’t dare look back. Saying goodbye once was hard enough.