Chapter
"Oh, my, gods." Pan looked over the new clothes Lord Seru chose for her, and shuck her head. "No, not I this lifetime." She put them down as if they burned her, and started to put her yellow Arabian trousers and short top back on.
"Ah, Lady Son…did you not find the garments I chose for you?"
"Yes. Right here." She handed them to him. "I think there was a mix up." She chuckled nervously, and kept her eyes closed. Lord Seru looked down at his hands, knowing he had picked out the right clothe for her. "Seems you gave me your wife's clothes by mistake. I wont tell, I promise." She blushed. "Milord." She bowed her head, determined to act around him properly from now on. Lord Seru looked them over, sure he had chosen the right clothes for her. But once he saw the heated blush on her cheeks, he chuckled. So she was shy about wearing such clothes was she? Well, to get out of this situation, he could play along. Wait, my wife?
"Wife? Oh Lady Son, I fear you have been misinformed." He chuckled again, mirth dancing in his eyes. "I have no such wife."
No, he probably doesn't need one with the harem his type all have.
"Oh sorry." She winked at him. "Your, others."
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"HA!" Lord Seru broke down into laughter, and had to wipe tears from his eyes.
"Huh…?" Pan was confused as his shoulders rose and fell with laughter.
"Oh Lady Son, you jest surly?" he chuckled. "Others? Do you believe me a warlord? Who has masses of women at his disposal?" But her silence and the look in her eyes, made the amused smile leave his face. "You did…didn't you?" she looked down at the floor.
"I…I am sorry. I just thought a man like you would have, you know." She shuffled uncomfortably. "Certain perks with your job. Even my great grandpa Ox did before he fell in love with my great grandma."
"Then let me assure you." He saw the embarrassed I-wish-I-wasn't-here look on her face, and chuckled. "As I have told you, my leadership has taken a great deal of my time. I rarely had enough time to sleep, never mind having 'others'." He tried to repress a laugh, as it would be cruel.
"And you don't have a wife? You're not married?" her eyes were wide, amazed. "You're parents didn't pressure you to marry! At all!"
"No." He chuckled, but felt an inward sadness. Was she really that pressured here? She seemed as if to be married was the norm, for people of his position to have harems of women to be the norm. no wonder she was so persistent on making sure he couldn't see her in the hot spring bath. She thought he was married. "Are yours?" her eyes closed and her bright face fell into a sorrowful frown. Pan walked with him from the steam bath, and inside the palace again. She answered as they walked.
"Yes…yes they do." She mentally recalled some of the more upsetting marriage talks she had been through, especially the more recent ones. "I am 16, well, 15 but 16 soon enough, a girl, and I dress like a boy. I bring dishonour on my family by doing this, and will never be able to secure my future and prosperity if I don't start acting like the woman I am supposed to be." She half quoted her mother, then she did her grandmother. "'I did not live my long life to let one of my granddaughters grow up like a ruffian. It is unspeakable the way you wear your hair short, and barbaric the way you scrap in the dirt with your uncle and his friends. You shouldn't socialise with them in trousers, in the ring, but in a dress, at social events. Only that way will you continue the family name like a true Son, part of this family'." She sniffled. "A true Son." Lord Seru listened intently to her, not passing up the opportunity to peer in through a window into her past. They walked back the way he brought her on his back, and Pan stopped at a junction. "To be a true Son, I have to wear long dresses, paint my face white, my eyes pink, my lips red and have hoops and hoops of hair on my head." She struck a pose, her arms out at each side, and she wobbled a curtsey. "Top be a True Son, I must be a true lady." She curtseyed. "I must walk as light as a feather, be as dainty as a flower, and as silent as the night sky." He saw a tear fall down her face. "Silent. How will anyone ever get to know me if I am silent? I am a person, I have thoughts and feelings. But how do I express them if I have to keep quiet, and remain perfectly still? I can't laugh." She listed on her hands. "I can't smile more than two inches, I have to bat my eye lids at anything in trousers, walk in sandals that are way too small for me, and pack myself into ornate dresses that make me have to waddle, not walk. Not to mentions the restrictions those things have on my tail." She fumed. "I must speak when spoken to, be seen not heard, agree with everything, everyone else says." She growled angrily. "And ignore every instinct, every principle and moral in my very core, lower my pride and self respect-" Pan ran her hands up in her short black hair. "Just so that I will seem perfect to marry by someone who is rich enough to provide for me. It doesn't matter who they are, or if they even know me. Oh no." she was on a rampage now. Her feelings about this matter had been bottled up for so long, it was all overflowing from her now. "It doesn't matter that I am an actual person, with my own views and emotions, with my own personality. No, why would that matter!" she growled, scowling at the wall. "I am a girl, a young woman. So obviously I wasn't supposed to feel, or think, or express myself in any way. I wasn't given life to live it. I was brought into existence, to submit to the will of another, a man, and spend every moment of my life searching for the one I would give up my liberties and indipendance for, just to find them and then spend the rest of my life after that, tending to their every whim!" her fists clenched at her sides, and she looked like she could kill something. "To please them and give my sweat and blood for them! to give them children!" Then, tears welled in her eyes, and her livid stance, softened into a sad one, her arms holding at her shoulders. "It isn't supposed to be that way…am I the only one who sees that? Am I…" she walked forward, and looked up, into a mirror. Her face was red from shouting and crying, and she saw Lord Seru walk behind her. "I just…" she sighed. "When I was little, when my Grandpa Goku Son held me in his arms before bed…he told me stories of…love." He stood behind her, not daring to touch her, encase she broke down again. "Love. He said it was the most important thing in the world, the most powerful thing in the world…and the most perfect thing in the world. With love, anything is possible." She smiled weakly. "That is what he told me as he kissed me at night…but…" she frowned again. "He isn't here anymore. He, was the only one who loved me for who I was. It didn't matter to him if I could walk with two books on my head, or wash the dishes properly. He loved y for me, who I was. What I was didn't matter. Love isn't superficial, he said. Love is pure, forever. So where is it?" for a moment, he thought she had asked him that question. "If love is this great big and powerful force that makes the world go round, where is it? Why cant I…" she hung her head forward. "Why can't I find it?" she laughed, but it made his heart cringe. "Maybe I can't find it…because I'm not looking for it anymore. Maybe, I can't see it, because I gave up on it. Like little children do with the tooth fairy, and invisible friends." Pan sighed again, and looked to the side, her eyes closed. "I just…I thought you married for love…not for anything else. Not because your marriage would be the best thing, or tradition, or even for prosperity or honour. I thought love was the most honourable thing there was? So what is so wrong about wanting to wait, for that one person you love to marry you? And not because you're of age, or it's proper…" she hung her head further forward when his hands held her shoulders. He gave them a squeeze, showing her reassurance, and pulled her back against him slowly, for support.
"Do you have to deal with these pressures often?"
"Every day…every hour. Always…"
"Then forgive me Lady Son, but I feel my dislike for your Grandmother especially growing."
"Well, it's only fair." She chuckled weakly. "I mean, she doesn't like you. You took the palace that belonged to her father, because you're a man and she isn't."
"I am glad I did. To think, I almost didn't. I wouldn't have been offered this place, if I hadn't returned a day early than expected, like I did."
"Returned from where?"
"My travels." Pan sensed that was as detailed as she was going to get, and didn't press it. After all, he was the Baron. She was just a common village girl. It wasn't her place to ask. "Lady Son…"
"Yes?" she then blinked when he turned her to face him. He slowly, so she could see what he was doing, enveloped her body to his, his hands resting innocently on the small of her back and above that, holding her to him.
A hug.
He was hugging her.
"I grieve for your domestic problems. I wish I could assist you in some way…at least…you will not have to deal with those pressures here." His magenta eyes then brightened up, making her raise her eyebrow at him. "That is your answer. Come here."
"Wha, what?"
"If you worked for me, you would have a well paying job. So the prosperity would be cancelled out, and if you came here…" he lifted her chin to look up into his eyes, so soft, so warm. "Then I could shield you from the pains that your family press upon you so unfairly. All you would have to do is come here, and I would protect you from such things. My palace, is your palace. This palace can be my home, and your refuge."
"You…you would do that for me?" her hands rested on his chest, and she looked up to him, feeling a sense of benevolence and omnipotence radiating from him through her.
"You are my friend Pan, and now my closest friend." One hand still held the small of her back, the other rested over her hands on his chest. "As friends, am I not supposed to help you where I can?" the question was rhetorical, and he rested his chin and mouth on the side of her head, gently caressing her with kindness.
"Thank you…" she slipped her arms around his back, and held him, as he held her. "Thank you so much Lord Seru."
"Please…call me Seru. And I will call you Pan."
"…Seru…" his name was like honey as it rolled off her tongue, and just as sweet.
"Pan." The hand that had held hers, now held the back of her head. "Pan?"
"Yes?" she looked up, her tears finally gone and her smile as bright as it had ever been. She had a friend, somewhere to come if she needed to, Seru…she had Seru.
"It is very late." He cooed, and held her hands in his, their bodies still very close. "We should…retire." At first she just smiled, thinking sure, it is late, I am tired….when…she saw the glint in his eyes…oh no. "Come. The servants have our room prepared for bed." He took that left turn he didn't take before on their way to the steam room, and led her forward, her face blank from shock.
He is never going to keep me to that bet earlier, is he?
But sure enough, he took her up the flights of steps, and to the very top level. She watched as they passed the old room her great grandpa slept in, and went further down the hall. She had never been in this part of the palace before. She had never needed to.
"Seru…" she was unsure about this.
"Come." He assured her, and his warm eyes seemed to dispel all her fears.
The room they entered, was pitch back, so she couldn't see anything.
"Seru." She said worriedly, when his hold on her vanished, and the door behind her closed. She was surrounded in darkness…and it scared her. Where was he? "Seru?"
"I am here Pan." He purred her name, and she felt his tail slither up the outside of her leg. She told herself that he did that, to let her know where he was. Even with his purring. "Fear not, I shall return with night clothes for you." She sweatdropped at that. No…he wasn't serious…was he? Pan panicked, and reached out for him.
but he was gone.
"Seru, I can't see you."
"I am right here." A hand pressed against her back, and she stopped.
His hand…was bare. And against her bare back.
"Seru…" she wanted to ask if he was naked again…but couldn't find her voice.
His hands then put something in her hands, and she was relieved when it was cotton and thick, not to mention long.
"I shall be in the next room, changing." Pan waited until she heard the door shut, and ripped her clothes off as fast as she could, before pulling the night gown over her head.
As she tucked it down, she didn't see the glimmering magenta eyes in the shadows, watching her every move.
Like they had from the moment he had brought her in here, and into his palace too. Her body, even if his view of her was brief, made his animalistic instincts roar wild, and his inner beast rear its head at the sheer sight of her perfect, Aphrodite worthy body.
For unlike Pan, he could see in the dark.
Perfectly in fact.
Perfectly.
Pan stood there for a moment, waiting. Seeing this, Seru coiled the end of his tail around the door handle, and slid it open, then shut.
"Seru?"
"I am here now." he walked behind her, and took her hand. She looked towards him blindly, as he led her to the vast silken bed. He smirked as she actually moaned upon sinking into it. "You like my bed?"
"Hell yeah! Not even Grandpa's bed was like this!" he watched as she stated to jump up and down playfully on the bed, and giggling like a child again. But when he chuckled too, she stopped, like a rabbit in the headlights. "Oh my Gods…I didn't mean to do that. I am so sorry." Pan then yelped as she was pinned to the bed, his heavy body pressed ontop of her. She only felt trousers on him now, as his arms pinned her shoulders, and one of her shoulders was now bare from the jumping around. Her hands also rested on his HUGE biceps, making her blush, and every ripple of his muscular chest and six pack, imprinted upon her body through the cotton night dress.
She thought it was thick, obviously not thick enough.
But when he lowered between her legs, her mind screamed at her, recalling Trunks' warning.
"Pan." He purred. "You apologies for too often." He chuckled, and his tail snaked under her, forcing her to arch her back against him…as his tail sought out her own. She felt the tip of his tail around the base of her tail, and she moaned loudly.
"No, no Seru, don't."
"Hush." He whispered in her ear, and coiled the end of his tail around hers. He then slid it down he tail, and intertwined his tail with hers. "That is all I wanted." He pulled it out to one side, and moved to lay on her other. He pulled her with him, and laid on his back. This heaved Pan to lay her hand and head on his shoulder and chest, while their tails came from the outside of their bodies, coiling together at the ends between them. "I have never met another with a tail…" he confessed softly, and Pan snuggled up to him. She felt so safe, even after the little misunderstanding a few moments ago. She thought he was going to 'try it on'. But she remembered who he was, and how much of a pure hearted gentleman he was.
Bless him. All he wanted was to hold my tail with his. If he hasn't ever met anyone with a tail before, he must have been very lonely. I take for granted that my father, uncle, Trunks and Vegeta all have the same tail as me. He was alone all this time… these thoughts made her hold onto him even more, as if to comfort him.
Seru smiled at this, and returned the gesture, holding her back in his powerful ivory arm. Pan felt something feather soft tickle at her nose, and she giggled.
"Then we really are two of a kind. Other than my family and the Ouji's. But still." She giggled again, and blew his hair out of her face. "You have longer hair than me."
"You have more of a temper in battle than me."
"You are more graceful than me."
"You are perfect as you are."
"Perfect? I don't think so. I-" for the second time that day, he stopped her words with actions. His free arm, not holding her, his fingers lifted her chin up, and he placed a soft, tender kiss on her cheek again.
But this kiss was closer to her lips…
She blushed from the 'friendly' kiss, and knew she had lost the fight.
"Yes, perfect. And that I admire." He kissed her cheek again, and laid back. "I appreciate perfection more than any other, I assure you."
"Seru?"
"Yes Pan?"
"…Thank you. For everything. You are the perfect one…" her eyes grew heavy, and closed.
"Thank you. And I would do it all again, willingly and freely, if ever asked of me. But only from you of course." He smiled as he felt her burry her face in his Herculean chest. "Good night Pan."
"Good night…" Their tails curled together even more, even though hers was slender and monkey like, and his thick and lizard in nature. His free hand crept onto his chest, and his fingers intertwined with hers…this alone was a testament, of what kind Pan didn't know. And not only because she was asleep now. Seru blew some of his own hair from her face, and craned his mighty neck over, just to place another kiss on her face, before closing his own eyes, and smiling in his sleep.
This feels…so right…
