"Wicked Game" Ch. 12
By Shawna
For a moment Katsu could not remember where she was. There was something soft beneath her; not soft like a real bed but far more comfortable than the cot she had become accustomed to. She shifted over onto her other side and a cold weight pressed against her thigh. There was a metallic clink.
She opened her eyes to Vegeta's bedroom and it all flooded back to her. She groaned and shifted back to her other side to get the chain off of her body. It was much later in the morning then she was accustomed to waking. Vegeta was still asleep in his bed. A pang hit her when she thought suddenly of Shiro. What was he thinking? He probably thought she had escaped, or had been caught and killed. She had to let him know that though she was still here, she was alive. She began banging the chain around her wrist against the wall. Vegeta stirred.
"Wake up, your Highness," she said sarcastically. "You should be calling for your breakfast soon."
He groaned and shifted. "Stop that," he called angrily, his voice muffled by sleep and the blankets around him.
Katsu hit the chain against the wall with greater force. "You'd better hurry and get up," she said. "Before I knock a hole in your lovely wall here."
He groaned again and sat up in the bed, staring right at her. His eyes were sleepy but full of anger. Katsu stared right back at him, smirking. Neither of them moved for a few seconds and then Vegeta threw back the covers and rose from his bed, completely naked. Katsu gasped and turned her head away, her instinctive reaction, and shielded her eyes with her hand.
Vegeta laughed and she heard his footsteps approaching her. He gripped her wrist, pulled her hand away from her eyes. His grip tightened to a painful extent and she whined through her teeth, falling back against the wall.
"Scared to look?" He asked. "That's funny, I figured you would probably gape."
Katsu was uncomfortably aware of how close he was to her, unclothed. Her cheeks felt hot and she knew she was blushing. Vegeta snickered.
"Look at you blushing. You act like you think you're a seductress or something, but you're an innocent. You're more like a child than a woman."
Katsu jerked her wrist, surprised when he let it go easily and she was free of his grasp. "That's not true," she said angrily, rubbing at her aching wrist. She looked up at Vegeta, staring him in the eyes, fighting back her embarrassment of his current state. He was smirking.
"Oh, it isn't? We'll see."
With this he turned and walked away from her, leaving her hot with embarrassment but with a strange feeling in her stomach. She could not deny it; she had gotten a rather good look at his entire body. At the same time it surprised her, seeing him that way made her feel...
She blushed furiously and shook the thoughts away. She hated the prince, more than anyone. He was wrong about her; she was no innocent. She was not going to let a little bit of nudity on his part intimidate her. She had shared intimate contact with him; his body should not surprise or embarrass her at all anymore.
Vegeta dressed, left the room, and returned a few minutes later carrying a length of chain. He silently attached this length of chain to the one she was currently wearing and then left the room without saying a word to her. Katsu was startled when the door slammed shut; she had been busy wondering how much farther she could reach about the room. She stared at the closed door for a moment, confused, suddenly wondering what Vegeta had meant when he had say "we'll see."
She collapsed back onto the bed and went back to sleep. She was not sure how long she slept, but the room was still empty when she woke up. For a few hours, it was nice to do nothing at all; a nice change of pace from working hard as a slave around the castle. For a few hours, it was nice. After that, it was downright boring. She had been alone all day with absolutely nothing to do. The new length of chain made it possible for her to reach the bathroom, but not far enough to use the bathtub or shower. She needed a bath, too; badly, but she would probably be too embarrassed to use Vegeta's bath anyway. At any rate, she was sick of being here, sitting around, bored. Even working was better than this, because at least it was something to do and she had Shiro for company.
Shiro. Katsu wondered what he was doing right now, what he thought had happened to her. It might have reached him that she was alive and safe, but chained up in Vegeta's bedroom. It might have reached him, but it likely had not. She had to find some way to communicate with him.
Katsu was still contemplating when Vegeta came back into his room that evening. He was dressed in one of those bodysuits the Saiyans seemed to like so much, and he was flushed and sweaty. He greeted her with a smirk as he passed by, already peeling off the suit. He disappeared into the bathroom and a second later she could hear the shower water running. She sighed wistfully; she needed a shower too. Vegeta's body suit came flying out of the bathroom and landed on her. She squealed in surprise and then in disgust, kicking the sweaty garment away from her. Vegeta stuck his head out of the bathroom and laughed at her.
"That's revolting!" She said, grimacing.
"That's why I'm taking a shower," he said. "You could probably use one, too, speaking of revolting." He looked her over appraisingly. "You look awful. I can't imagine you smell any better."
"Well, whose fault is that?" She said angrily. "I certainly didn't chain myself up so I couldn't reach the bathtub."
"You can't reach it?" He asked, seeming surprised. Katsu got the distinct impression that he had known full well that she would be unable to reach the shower. "Well, that's too bad." He disappeared back into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. She growled in frustration.
It was a full thirty minutes later when Vegeta reemerged, wrapped in a bath robe. Katsu snickered.
"Cute robe," she said sarcastically.
"Cute?" He looked utterly insulted by the word. "In that case, I'll take it off." He undid the bathrobe and let it slide to the floor. Katsu rolled her eyes.
"Why do you insist on parading yourself naked in front of me? You're going to have to be a lot more subtle than that if you're trying to seduce me."
He snorted, going over to the closet next to his bed. "I wouldn't even have to try to seduce you. All I have to do is start kissing you and you go all submissive on me."
Katsu huffed. "Is that so?" She asked. "Well, how come I've pushed you away so many times? That doesn't sound very submissive to me. Nor does it make it sound as though I'm so easy."
He slipped into a pair of boxers and then a pair of pants and a loose fitting shirt. Katsu kept her eyes on the wall as he dressed, and avoided looking at him even when she heard him approaching her. He crouched next to her and gripped her chin, bringing her head around to face him.
"You're an innocent," he said. "You know what your instincts tell you, and that is all."
"Maybe so," she said. "What do you care, anyway?"
He laughed softly. "I don't really. It just makes me laugh, because you have such a skewed perspective of your own sexuality. You know so little."
She set her jaw defiantly. "You once told me I knew nothing about you," she said. "Well, now I might say the same thing. You don't know anything about me." She jerked her chin out of his grasp and turned away from him. At the same time that she burned with indignation at his words, she wondered how right he was. She had felt longings for him, done what she had felt like doing, but what did she really know? Whether or not she was physically a virgin, she was mentally one. Was that why he was toying with her? He saw her innocence and found it amusing?
"You're stubborn," he said. Out of the corner of her eye, Katsu could see him draw a cylindrical object out from one of his pockets. It was a key; it looked like the one that went to her collar. "This key undoes your chains."
Katsu heard this and whirled on Vegeta, trying to take the key. He held it back out of her reach and laughed. "No, no, pussy cat," he said with a smirk. "I'm not going to give it to you, but I might be persuaded to take off your chains long enough to let you bathe."
Katsu stared at him evenly, annoyed. "And how might I persuade you?" She asked evasively, dreading what he might say.
"Nothing too fancy," he replied. "Just ask me respectfully."
A sense of reproach rushed through Katsu. He wanted to make her bow down and treat him with respect. She rankled at the thought of being respectful to him ever again. He grinned when he saw the look that came over her face.
"What did I say? Stubborn." He started to rise. Urgency rushed up in Katsu. She needed a bath, she wanted out of these chains, he was in charge anyway whether she wanted to be rebellious or not, it would not matter if she feigned respect for a few seconds. She reached out her hand and gripped his calf before he could leave. He turned around and looked down at her.
She released him and lowered her upper body down. "Please your Highness," she said, trying to keep her voice clean of anger and resentment. "Will you remove my chains long enough for me to shower?"
She kept her head to the ground, angry with herself but looking forward to bathing. Vegeta crouched down beside her.
"All right, serving girl," he said. "But don't take too long in the shower."
She rankled at being called 'serving girl,' but forced herself to remain calm while he slid the key into the hole on the shackle around her wrist. It beeped and then opened, falling off her wrist. Katsu sprung to her feet and made a dart for the bathroom, throwing the door closed behind her. She half expected Vegeta to tell her to leave the door open or something like that, but there was only silence from the bedroom. She breathed a sigh of relief and peeled her dress off of her skin. She sniffed lightly at the dress, made a face, and kicked it into a corner of the room.
The shower was quite exceptional. It was situated in the middle of the bathroom, with the shower head coming straight down from out of the ceiling. An octagon of glass, frosted up to what would be about shoulder height on Katsu, surrounded the tile and drain. Katsu stepped lightly into the shower, closing the glass door delicately behind her. The knobs for adjusting the water were attached to the shower head, and she could barely reach them. One of the knobs caused icy cold water to pour down on her and she gasped, pressing herself against the glass. She reached up and gave the other knob a twist and the temperature of the water evened out to a comfortable warmth. She stepped under the downpour and simply let it run over her body for some time. There were two bottles in the shower, one filled with a smooth gel and the other full of something that felt slightly gritty. She chose the gel for her hair and the course cream for her body and gave herself a good scouring. There was no soap down in the showers that the servants had to use, and it felt incredibly good to Katsu to be thoroughly clean for the first time in quite a while.
She had no idea how long she took bathing, but her fingers were beginning to prune when she finally turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. She wrung out her hair gently, shook water the water drops from her body. There were dry towels hanging on a rack and she helped herself to a fluffy looking white one, reveling in how soft and clean it felt against her. It had been so long since she had enjoyed such amenities. She could not even remember, in fact...
It hit her then, a very vivid memory of a very hot bath. She saw herself in her head as though watching a movie. Steam rose in thin tendrils around her face, and she was damp with more than just the vapor in the air. She was crying, tears streaking down her face, and an overwhelming feeling of sadness came over Katsu; she was remembering how she had felt at the time of this memory. She could not, however, remember why she had been crying.
She stood for some time remembering, wrapped in the towel, staring into space. It took a light rap on the door to snap her from her reverie. She turned as the door opened. Vegeta stood in the doorway glaring at her. She gaped at him.
"You can't just barge in here!" She said, aghast. "What if I wasn't decent or something?"
"Like I would have cared," he said, brushing aside her indignation. "I told you not to take a long time in my shower. What could you possibly have been doing all that time?"
She blushed. "I was... I had a memory come back to me; I was thinking about it."
"Don't waste water doing things you can do outside of the shower," he said firmly. Katsu wondered if Vegeta really cared at all about conserving natural resources, or if he was just looking for an excuse to be angry with her.
"Sorry," she said softly, turning away. She moved to retrieve her dress but stopped in midstep. It would not make sense to put that dirty thing back on when she had just gotten so clean.
"Um," she said hesitantly. "I, uh, don't have any other clothes with me, and I'd really like to put something clean on..."
She felt silly asking Vegeta for clothes, surely he would tell her no. To her surprise he said nothing at all, simply leaving the room. She watched him cross his bedroom and almost gasped out loud when he went to the closet and pulled out a clean blue shirt. He came back to the bathroom and threw the shirt to her wordlessly, closing the door behind him as he left. Katsu held the shirt in her hands and stared at the closed door. He was being almost kind to her; letting her shower and giving her something clean to put on. Why? He was an enigma; Katsu could never hope to understand the undoubtedly complex workings of his mind. At the moment, she decided she should just be grateful for his unexpected hospitality.
The shirt felt wonderfully clean and comfortable against her skin as she slid it over her head. It was far too big; the sleeves went past her fingers and drowned her arms, and the bottom hem hung almost to her knees. It was then she realized she also needed clean underwear. She would have to ask Vegeta if she could go down to the servants' quarters and get some from her meager collection of belongings.
Vegeta was waiting for her right outside the bathroom when she opened the door. A pair of white panties hung from a finger of his outstretched hand. She gaped.
"I figured you would want these," he said, smirking. "Don't look so scandalized; they're yours. I had one of my guards bring them while you were showering."
Katsu felt a blush creeping in her cheeks. She snatched the panties from him, embarrassed, and went back into the bathroom to put them on. Vegeta had thought about what she would want, had had one of his guards fetch it. It was almost too considerate a gesture for her to fathom the prince thinking of, embarrassing as it may have been. Tonight was one of those times; those odd times when he seemed like an almost decent person.
She found him sitting on his bed when she emerged from the bathroom. She hesitated, and then went quietly to the bed on the floor that was hers. He watched her silently. Neither of them moved or spoke for several minutes. The tension in the air was almost tangible; thick and weighted. The way Vegeta watched her made Katsu's chest feel tight, but it was not an unpleasant sensation. She became gradually aware of what the tension was. It was lust. She wanted him and could almost feel the mutual feeling coming from him. At the same time, she felt a sudden stab of fear when she realized that should they start now, there would be no running away, no sudden fight to stop it, no going back. It would go all the way.
Vegeta rose slowly and Katsu began to tremble with both anticipation and apprehension. He approached her, stood over her silently. His hand reached down and he touched her cheek lightly, tracing his thumb across her lips. She looked down as he bent over, taking her face into his hands, tilting it up, and pressing his lips to hers. The kiss was light at first, tentative, as though they were kissing for the first time. Vegeta's hands slid down Katsu's neck, slipped under her arms and then he pulled her to her feet. He pinned her gently to the wall, one of his hands going under her shirt while the other came up to her chin and pushed it gently down, opening her mouth to him.
At first Vegeta had seemed very calm, but Katsu could feel his need rising. His kiss became more demanding, his hands assaulted her body roughly. He gripped the backs of her thighs, forcing her legs up around his hips. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, clinging to him desperately, both reveling in and afraid of his driving passion. He put one of his hands under her, supporting her, and the other went under her shirt again. His mouth broke from hers, only to latch onto her neck. He bit hard enough to make her cry out. The hand under her shirt moved down, into her panties. She breathed hard, afraid again, but unable to deny the longing that seemed to well up from some deep, forgotten part of her psyche. His fingers worked her body, but when one of them slid inside her, she cried out again as shudders wracked her body. Vegeta drew back, seeming surprised.
"Have you ever done this before?" He asked softly, his voice husky. He was obviously fighting for the control to speak.
Katsu shook her head. "I don't know," she said, her voice sounding desperate. "I can't remember."
Vegeta's face softened. His eyes, glazed over with need, changed just a bit. He took his hand out from under her shirt and wrapped his arm around her back, keeping the other underneath her, and moved away from the wall. She clung to him and he carried her across the room, dropping her onto his bed. She gasped as her back hit the bed, and Vegeta immediately came down on her hard. His hands gripped the bottom hem of her shirt and lifted it, drawing it over her head and up her arms, which were stretched above her head. He left the shirt bunched up around her wrists and turned his attentions to her body. His warm mouth came down on her chest and her back arched. She moaned as his hands roamed across her body, one of them removing her panties in its progress. He broke from her for just a second, and as she was about to open her eyes to see what the problem was, he came back down on her, now bare chested. Fear was again with her. She suddenly did not feel ready for this, did not want to go all the way with him. She began to tremble again.
He raised his head, placing one hand on her face. "Relax," he said huskily, his other hand still tracing over her body. "Just relax, and I can make you enjoy this."
Katsu took a deep breath and hoped he was telling the truth.
* * *
Wow.
This was Katsu's next coherent thought, and it came more than an hour later. It was dark in Vegeta's bedroom, pitch black now that the night was late. Katsu was laying on her back in Vegeta's bed with him sound asleep on top of her. HIs head was on her chest; neither of them had bothered to dress. Katsu's hands were on Vegeta's back, lightly tracing the contours of his muscles. Her legs were wrapped around his, her ankles locked around his calves. She was in as much physical contact with him as she could possibly be, and it felt good. Somehow, despite all that had happened, it felt good to be with him now.
He shifted just a bit, forcing Katsu to move as well, and she became aware of the ache deep inside her. There were also bruises on her back from being worked hard against the bed frame, and bruises on Vegeta's back as well; low on his back, circular bruises from where the backs of her heels had kicked him hard. Her thighs, wrists, and waist hurt as well. She ached all over, in fact.
I wonder if all the men on this planet do it that way, and if they all have such… stamina. Katsu mused briefly at this. It had been so incredible, so unexpected, not like anything she had ever thought of before…
But I betrayed Shiro. I betrayed myself.
Katsu's eyes went wide when these thoughts entered her head unexpectedly. She had. She had betrayed Shiro, and more importantly, she had betrayed herself. All of her hatred towards the prince, all of the rebellious spirit she had displayed, all of that she had betrayed in letting him take her to his bed. She had given in to him without a fight at all.
Tears sprung, unbidden, to her eyes. What have I done? She sobbed quietly, trying not to wake Vegeta. Anguish wracked her mind; guilt flooded her senses. She had not wanted this.
One of Vegeta's hands came up a second later and touched her cheek lightly. She froze as his fingertips traced the path of one of her tears.
"You're crying," he said softly, needlessly. She said nothing.
"Katsu…" He said her name, for the first time. She was taken briefly aback; she had not even been sure if he knew her name. He said it again, tenderly, almost sadly.
"Katsu, I'm sorry if I was too rough with you. I didn't mean to be violent. I wasn't trying to hurt you."
Katsu remained silent for a moment. "You're… you're sorry?" She said almost inaudibly.
"Yes," he replied. "But don't ask me to say it again, because I won't. I just thought you should know that it wasn't fully intentional to cause you as much pain as I think I did. I wasn't really expecting you to be a virgin."
"I was a virgin?" Katsu asked.
"Yes."
Katsu said nothing to this, and Vegeta's breathing eventually became even again and she knew he had fallen back to sleep. I was a virgin, she mused. I was one. I'm not anymore.
She had learned another thing about her past, even if it was not from a direct memory. And this planet had taken another thing from her that she could never have back.
**To Be Continued…**
