Bedtime Story:  The Second Chapter

"Did you get enough to drink?"
"Hayup."
"So…where was I?"
"The prince is at the castle!"
"Oh…that's right."

"Like I said earlier, the prince was actually a princess the first time he met King Yuu and the three princesses. 

One of the princesses had long brown hair and a kind, gentle smile.  Another princess had short hair, brown and shiny.  Her smile was smart and sly, like a fox's.  The third princess had long hair, as dark as night.  When one of her sisters started to bother Sentaro, the third princess made her stop and asked Sentaro if she wanted to be friends.  Her smile was like sunshine that warmed Sentaro through and through."

The man paused.  The next part of the story was a little more graphic than he wanted to explain to a little kid.  The fewer details he could dish out, the better.  So he changed the story a little.  We'll save that version for when he's a little older, he thought decisively.
"What's wrong?"
"Sorry buddy, for a second I forgot what happens next.  But I remember now."
"Oh, goodie!"

"When Skuld, the third princess, found out that Sentaro was a martial artist, she asked if they could spar in the castle dojo.  They had a good time sparring," the man paused to snicker softly, "and Sentaro learned that Skuld didn't really like boys…especially boys who were martial artists.  Because of this, Sentaro felt really bad when Skuld found out about his curse."

"How did she find out?  Did he get splashed?"
"You could say that…"

"The story behind Sentaro's curse was soon revealed (that means they told everyone about it) and King Yuu proudly introduced the three princesses.

Belldandy, the princess with the soft smile, was the eldest.  She had taken care of the castle and the rest of the family when the queen died many years ago. 

Urd, the one with the cunning smile, was the middle princess.  She was in charge of the household accounts, and did her best to keep the kingdom prosperous.

The youngest princess, as you already know, was Skuld.  She was the heir to the family's martial arts legacy and the closest in age to the prince.  Despite the fact that neither she nor Sentaro wanted to be engaged, the rest of the family agreed that Skuld and Sentaro would be the two to unite the kingdoms.

Now matter how angry he seemed about the engagement, Sentaro was really secretly pleased.  He wasn't ready to get married, he would probably never be ready for THAT, but he decided that if he was going to marry someone, maybe marrying Skuld wouldn't be that bad.  After all, they were the same age and both liked martial arts (even though he was a lot better than she was).  But there was something else. 

Even though he had just met her, he felt comfortable around Skuld.  He was miserable when he first arrived at the castle but, the moment she smiled at him, he felt as if everything would be all right after all.  He soon discovered that, when Skuld smiled at him a certain way, he felt a fluttering in his heart, he went all gooey and gooshy and a funny grin wanted to creep it's way onto his face.  Unfortunately, Sentaro wasn't sure what to do with all these new feelings.  They made him feel soft and squishy inside and, as a result of his father's past speeches on manliness, he decided that soft and squishy feelings were definitely unmanly and bad.  Since Skuld's smiles tended to bring out these soft and squishy feelings the most, Sentaro did everything he could to keep those smiles from coming.  This meant calling her names like uncute, tomboy, and violent just to make her mad." 

"Calling people names is bad, isn't it?"
"Well, sometimes calling people names is okay if you mean it in a funny way."
"Like when you call me monkey boy."
The man laughed.  "That's right.  I call you monkey boy because you jump around like a monkey.  It makes you laugh when I do that, right?"  The little boy nodded.  "But, you should never call people names just to be mean."
"I know!  But when you call Uncle 'Yoga Mr. P aren't you doing that to be mean?"
The man cleared his throat.  "Hey, do you want to hear the rest of this story or not?"
"Story!  Story!"

"From that day on, Sentaro and his father, King Ginta, lived in the castle with Skuld and her sisters.  Life in Nerima was very interesting for Sentaro, Skuld, and the rest of the family.  All kinds of people appeared out of nowhere.  Some of them wanted to marry Sentaro, some of them wanted to marry Skuld, some of them wanted to marry the people who wanted to marry Sentaro and some of them…well, you get the picture.  On top of all this, demons and monsters were always popping up and kidnapping Skuld.  Needless to say, the very brave, very handsome Sentaro was always there to save the day.  It was very important to him to keep anyone from taking Skuld away.  For a long time, Sentaro thought that there wasn't a challenger he couldn't beat.  One day however, he met his match."

"I need the bathroom!"
"Now?  We're just getting to the good part!"
"I gotta go…NOW!"
"Can't you hold it?  I thought you were a big boy.  All big boys can hold it.  You're ruining the story here."
"I AM a big boy!  I just really need to go.  If I don't go now, I might wet myself.  If I wet myself, I need to take another bath, new 'jamas, new blankies…"
"Okay, okay.  So go to the bathroom already!"