Teela's Visitor Chapter 14
"I want to know everything!" exclaimed Teela as she pulled slightly back from their embrace. "I want to know when and how you got the ability to turn into He-Man. I want to know how you learned to use your powers! I want to know who made the decision of who you could tell your secret to! I want to know…"
Adam interrupted her ramble by laughing heartily. To silence her, he squeezed her tightly and dragged her name out amusingly. It had the desired effect. She blushed at him, and he knew she realized she was getting a little carried away with her questioning. He smiled at her and stared deeply into her eyes. "I'll tell you everything you want to know and then some," he assured her, "but I will warn you that it will take some time. It's a long story with a lot of…complications."
"I don't doubt that," she replied softly, rubbing one of her hands up and down his back as they continued to hold one another. "We can handle one topic at a time. We have plenty of time to discuss everything. After all, isn't that what our courtship will be all about? We're supposed to get to know one another better. I just didn't realize that we'd actually have the need, but it turns out we do."
He nodded as he let go of her body, took her hands, and intertwined their fingers together. "Precisely," he agreed, "and I can't tell you how happy I am that you know now. I've wanted to tell you everything for so long—it's almost unbelievable that I finally have the opportunity. I'm so glad that you'll be able to get to know the real me and not fall in love with a shadow or an incomplete version of myself. You don't know how much of a relief that is."
She smiled and leaned forward to kiss him briefly on the lips. "You never had to worry about that in the first place," she whispered as she pulled away slowly.
"What do you mean?" He squinted his face a little to show his confusion.
She smiled and squeezed his right hand a little harder than she had been briefly. "Adam, I've loved you since we were kids. He-Man has only been around for the last couple of years, so the boy I knew and fell in love with when we were children was really you."
He smiled widely and asked, "You've loved me since we were kids?"
"Yes, and trust me, I spent many nights as a child wishing I was a princess or part of the aristocracy, so I would be the kind of girl you are supposed to have."
He frowned and lifted both of his hands to her face. He held her gently and said forcibly but tenderly, "Teela, never believe that you're inferior to any of those women in court. I've certainly never viewed you that way. I've loved you since we were kids, too, and when I thought of the future then and now, you were the only person I could ever imagine myself with. To hear that you worried over castes and our feudal system…it makes me hate that I'm a prince." When she widened her eyes a little, he leaned forward and kissed her gently. "I now realize we might have been a couple a long time ago if my birthright had been a little less royal."
She shrugged as he dropped his hands from her face. "That might be true but maybe not. I think I might have been worried if you were even a merchant's son." She sighed a little when he lifted a brow. "Adam, the truth is I really don't know my birthright. Yes, I know my birth father was a member of the Royal Guard, but any man of any stature can join the Guard…and my mother, well, I don't know anything about her at all. You know as well as I do that a lot of people—not just the aristocracy—look at class when deciding who to marry. Women who have questionable lineages usually don't end up with men of high nobility."
His frown intensified at her words. "My family has never cared about social classes, you know that. My father certainly didn't marry royalty, and my mother's background is as questionable as anyone's on this planet could get." He lifted his hand to brush his fingers across her cheek. "I wouldn't care if both of your parents were beggars on the street." He then placed his hand over her heart. "What comes from here is the only thing I care about, and when judging from that alone, you're a queen."
Instantly, Teela wrapped her arms around him again as she chuckled a little. "How in the world did we go from discussing you being He-Man to our places in society?"
He hugged her tightly and answered, "I've always known that you've longed to know who your mother is, and because of that, I'm sure certain anxieties have gone along with that desire over the years." He pulled back to look into her eyes. "You obviously needed and wanted to discuss our societal ranks—it was bothering you, so I'm glad we got it out in the open. Just know that I love you for who you are and I don't care about anything else." He grinned a little and asked, "Do you got that, Captain?"
She nodded and laughed a little more. "Yes, I do."
"Besides," he added happily, "my father is going to handle that aspect of things. If he deems you worthy, no one has a right to say anything and we already know thanks to what's currently in my dresser drawer, among other things, that he doesn't have a problem with 'us.'" He gestured with his finger back and forth between them.
At that, her smile widened and she laughed a little harder. "That's certainly true! I wonder what your admirers in court would think about the king giving you condoms so you could have sex with the Captain of the Guard!"
He immediately wrapped his arms around her and corrected, "You mean 'make love.'" Then, he leaned down slightly and kissed her. He moved his lips against hers softly, almost like he was giving her a massage with them. He then pulled her against him tightly and held her there as her hands travelled up and down his back leisurely.
When they pulled their lips apart, she smiled and looked down at the floor somewhat shyly before she met his gaze again. "Yes, that's what I meant," she whispered. "And, do you know what I just realized?"
He lifted his eyebrows questioningly.
A blush suddenly appeared on her cheeks and quickly spread across her face and down her neck. Continuing to whisper, she told him, "You've told me your secret now, so that means…nothing is holding us back now." He knew what she was referring to. She tried to look down to the concrete beneath them again, but he wouldn't let her.
He placed his fingers under her chin and said comfortingly, "That doesn't mean that we have to do anything, Teela. We'll make love when we both know the time is right. I know you might want to know more about He-Man before we go that far, and that's okay. I want our first time to be right for the both of us. I will do whatever you want to make sure everything is perfect for you…even if we have to wait until we're married."
She chuckled a little. "You sure are putting the cart before the horse, Adam," she teased. She slapped him on the chest playfully. "We haven't even had our first official date yet or announced to the public that we're courting. I haven't even had my meeting with your father to discuss my place in the Guard…" She shook her head and laughed again. "And, here you are, already talking marriage."
He shrugged and smiled at her unrepentantly. "You've already told me that you love me and that you've decided you want to be with me even if that means becoming the Princess of Eternia. There's only one way to do that, you know." He winked and then added, "Besides, I want you to know what my intentions are, so there will be no misunderstandings or debating with yourself. We've done enough of that as far as I'm concerned now that we know how long we've loved each other and that our insecurities and uncertainties kept us apart." He stared at her intently and stated, "I plan on marrying you, Teela. Like I said earlier, I've only ever imagined you as my wife, even when we were kids, so I want to do everything right and I'll do whatever it takes to make you happy, even if that means waiting until we're married to make love or telling everyone that I'm He-Man."
She grinned, lifted her head, and kissed him softly. "Well, I won't ask you to do either, I don't think, especially the latter. But, it does mean a lot that you'd be willing to if you thought it would make me happy."
Before he could respond, he was interrupted by someone clearing his throat. They both turned to see King Randor standing in the doorway.
Widening his eyes, Adam looked at him worriedly and asked, "How long have you been standing there?"
The king laughed at his son. "I just walked up. No reason to get jumpy, Adam. I didn't hear your conversation." He grinned amusedly and explained, "I just wanted to find Teela since I now have a spare moment. I thought it would be a good time to talk about her duties with the Guard. I heard voices coming from this room, so I assumed it might be you two since Teela's training session with some of the troops finished up not too long ago."
Before either of them could say anything, the king ordered, "Come along, Teela. We'll meet up with Adam at lunch in less than an hour."
Without any objections, Teela did as she was told but not before Adam grabbed her and kissed her chastely one more time.
=)=)=)
Adam walked into Man-at-Arms' workshop and saw his mentor tinkering with something he couldn't identify. "Working on something new?" he questioned.
Duncan immediately glanced over at him and set the item down. "No, it's part of the console for the AttakTrak I was working on earlier. Truthfully, I've been waiting for you to show back up."
He walked to his friend and asked, "How did you know I'd show back up before lunch? You might have been waiting for a long time."
"An educated guess," Duncan answered. "I know you left earlier to talk to Teela. I thought there might be news since the Sorceress said you could tell her everything." They stared at each other for a moment. "Did you? Did you tell her?"
He smiled brightly and nodded. "Yes, and Duncan, I would never have expected her reaction in a million years." At Duncan's questioning look, he continued, "She wasn't angry with me for not telling her before now. I pretty much prepared her to hear the news. I told her before today that I had a secret that I wanted very much to tell her but couldn't because of a promise I made. I'm so glad I did. She…" He paused. "Well, it's good news for me but not for everyone involved."
"What do you mean?"
He blew air out of his lungs slowly and explained. "The first thing she wanted to know after I convinced her that I was He-Man was who else knew." He watched as a look of understanding flashed across Man-at-Arms' face. "I…had to tell her. I don't want anymore secrets between us. When I told her about you and Orko…she lost it. There's no other way to explain it."
Duncan nodded. He seemed to have expected that reaction from his daughter. "Did you explain that we didn't have a choice either?" he asked. "That we were not permitted to tell her your secret either?"
"Yes, I did, but that's not what she was angry about. She's angry with you and the Sorceress for…" He stopped speaking again. He didn't know how in the world he was going to word it. Taking a deep breath, he simply told it the best way he knew how. "She's convinced that both of you didn't handle things with me properly. She thinks you didn't help as much as you could have with my secret." He shook his head. "Just so she doesn't blindside you, you should know one of her arguments is that you're a member of the Guard, so your job is to protect me. She said you simply watched me hurt myself, my reputation, and my family and friends, so you fell short. She thinks you should have helped me to come up with a better way to hide my secret from everyone. She is rather insistent that you must have seen the possible ramifications of my ruse and simply chose not to do anything about it."
Man-at-Arms turned his back on him.
"I told her she was mistaken and that you did help me," he assured him. "It might take a little while, but we'll convince her. I tried, but we got onto other subjects and then my father showed up to talk to her about her place in the Guard. I just wanted you to know just in case she corners you before I can speak with her again. You can come up with a decent argument to give her, because we both know she's going to talk to you about it eventually no matter what I say to her."
He watched as Duncan hung his head low and mumbled with his back still to him. "I don't know what argument I could give to that, Adam." He turned around. "She's right to a certain extent."
His jaw dropped open. "What?"
Man-at-Arms took off his helmet, set it on the table, and rubbed his face several times. "Look, son…" He paused and then sat on a nearby stool. He gestured for Adam to do the same. "I can argue why I couldn't tell her your secret without any problems whatsoever, but trying to convince her that I couldn't have helped you more and that I didn't see the problems with your cover story…well, that's a little more difficult. A lot more difficult, actually."
Adam was still flabbergasted. Blinking rapidly, he asked, "What are you saying?"
Duncan reached over and squeezed his knee. "I'm saying that…Adam, you know what happened the first time you turned into He-Man to help someone. You were with a group of people and had to run to change. You being scared and running away made sense, so when people said it, I didn't correct it. I simply said we should let you explain…but then you went along with it. I knew you would have problems when you made that choice, but I made another promise to the Sorceress that I never told you about."
He wrinkled his brow in question.
"You know you are constantly tested to see if you are worthy of the powers bestowed upon you. The Sorceress knew this would happen, so she wanted you to be able to come up with your own solutions and problem-solve. It's why she wanted you to figure out what your powers were on your own, as well. She told me to let you handle most of these things, so I did."
Adam placed his elbow on the table beside him and held his forehead with his hand as he leaned on it. "So…coming up with a way to protect my secret and handling other things like this was another test? I suppose I failed that one miserably or if I did pass, it wasn't by much."
"Not exactly," answered Duncan sadly as he avoided Adam's eyes by looking down at the table constantly. "It wasn't really a test from the Elders. The Sorceress had simply wanted to prepare you for the big responsibility you had suddenly received, so she made you responsible for those decisions. She wanted you to handle the consequences of your actions on your own whenever possible." Finally, he looked up at Adam. "Besides, you were eighteen when you received the Sword of Power. The things that occurred because of your cover story kept you grounded, in my opinion. You didn't let all of that power go to your head, because you had people…"
Adam interrupted him with a mumble. "Yeah, because I had people telling me how bad and disappointing I was constantly."
Duncan frowned. "I wasn't going to say that."
He shrugged, "But it's the truth." He stood and began to walk away.
"Adam!" Man-at-Arms stood up and went to his side quickly. He squeezed the prince's shoulder and said, "Look, Lad, I know things were hard on you and they still are at times, but…"
He shook his head. "I'm not mad at you, Duncan, or the Sorceress," he stated softly. "I understand why you did it. I just feel…disappointed? I don't know, but I think I have a right to feel that way."
Duncan nodded. "Yes, I suppose you do."
He nodded and began to ease himself away from Man-at-Arms as he continued to look at him. "Yeah, so I'm going to…uh, get ready for lunch. Oh, and I want to meet with Teela beforehand. Umm, I'm sure she will have news after meeting with my father." Without waiting for an answer, he turned around quickly and left the room. As soon as he shut the door, he leaned against it as a tear slipped down his cheek. He, then, wiped the incriminating evidence of his true feelings away hurriedly.
Unfortunately for him at that moment, Teela was walking by, probably on her way to look for him. She stared at him and gasped as she witnessed him wiping the tear away. "Adam?" she questioned. "What's wrong?"
He tried to smile at her. "Nothing," he answered. "I was just about to go look for you..."
He didn't get any further than that, because Teela snapped, "What did my father say to you? What happened?"
"Teela," Adam said with a shake of his head. "Nothing…"
She frowned and stated firmly, "No more secrets, Adam!" She didn't give him any time to respond. Instead, she spat, "Better yet, I'll find out from Father! He has a lot of explaining to do anyway!"
She stepped forward and reached her hand out to open the door to her father's workshop.
=)=)=)