"Wicked Game" Ch. 13
By Shawna
Katsu awoke before dawn. The first thing she saw upon opening her eyes was Vegeta asleep next to her and she nearly screamed. It came flooding back to her, though; what had happened the night before. She rolled over onto her back and her body seared with pain. She gritted her teeth and hissed, spreading her legs slowly, hoping to find a position which would not hurt her so much. There were two bite marks, one on her neck and the other on her stomach, and they both ached now. She hoped they were not getting infected. She suddenly felt angry with Vegeta for causing her so much pain.
Vegeta's hand traced up the outer edge of her thigh suddenly, and Katsu jumped, causing another jolt of pain through her sore body.
"You're awake early," he said softly. Katsu did not turn to look at him. "You look like you're in pain. You must be really sore, because even I ache a little bit."
"I can hardly move without causing myself so much pain I feel like I could pass out," she said through gritted teeth.
Vegeta laughed scornfully. "Well, you'd better get over that, because you're going back to work today."
Katsu flipped over to face Vegeta, ignoring her body's painful protest to such rapid movement. "Work?!" She whispered harshly, so angry she could barely speak. "What do you mean, work? You can't send me back to work now."
Vegeta regarded her coolly for moment, and then he moved so rapidly Katsu could not tell what he was doing until she was flat on her back on the floor. Fire ran through her muscles.
"Obviously, I can do whatever I want," Vegeta said from atop the bed. "Now get dressed and get out."
Katsu scrambled to her feet, her face contorting from the pain of so much movement.
"I knew I was making a mistake," she said, quivering in anger. "I never should have let you-"
"Let me?" He scoffed. "You couldn't have stopped me if you'd wanted to, which you didn't. You're just lucky I was gentle with you."
"Gentle?!" She fairly screamed at him. "You weren't gentle at all! That was the most painful experience I've ever had, next to the time you whipped me! You don't know how to be gentle!"
He shrugged. "Well, that was gentle for me. But it doesn't matter, you'll never have to go through it again. I told you that you were just entertaining to toy with. What does one do with a toy after it is broken? Throws it away. So get out."
She breathed heavily through her nose and glared daggers at him before turning on her heel, heading towards the bathroom. Her dress was still laying rumbled in a corner and she snatched it off the ground, brushing it with her hands to try to ease the wrinkles from the fabric. She slipped the dress on and stormed from the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
Curses streamed from her mouth all the way down the stairs. The servants' quarters were still dark and quiet when she entered, it being nearly a half an hour before dawn. Katsu went quickly to her empty cot and flopped down on it, feeling pain course through her body, angry with Vegeta and even more so with herself. She fumed in silence for several minutes before a whispered voice spoke.
"Katsu? Katsu, that is you, isn't it? You're alive."
She turned her head toward the sound. "Shiro?"
He was beside her cot a second later, wrapping his arms around her, clinging to her desperately. She gasped lightly at the pain of being squeezed but did not fight Shiro off.
"Katsu," he said, his voice thick, sounding as though he were on the verge of tears. "I thought for sure you had been killed. I heard that you had been caught but I didn't know that you were still alive. I was so worried."
She brought her arms up slowly around him. "I'm all right, Shiro," she whispered. This was a lie, though, of course. She was far from all right, as both her body and mind were angry with her for what she had done.
The pair of them stayed in each other's arms until dawn broke and the other servants began rousing themselves for another day of work. Many of the servants were shocked to see Katsu back and still in one piece. Everyone had heard of her failed escape attempt and she received several contemptuous and mocking sneers. She brushed these off, too busy worrying about more important matters to bother with what the other petty servants thought of her.
Shiro never asked Katsu where she had been for those days after she had been caught, and she was glad for this. It took several days, but her soreness eventually faded away to nothing. Something seemed empty inside of her, though, and it hurt more than her body ever had. Vegeta had tossed her aside just like the broken toy he had told her she was. That night, she had almost felt as though she could actually grow to like the prince, but he had sent that vision crashing to the ground in pieces. Now she did not know how to feel.
She became reticent and irritable, much to Shiro's chagrin. Vegeta never called her wanting anything and so for more than a week she saw nothing of him.
"Katsu," Shiro sat down on her cot one night, looking concerned. "I'm worried about you. You've been acting really strange since you came back a week ago. I want to know... If you need to talk about it, you can tell me. Did they do something to you Katsu?"
Katsu turned away from Shiro. "No," she said. "I was locked in the dungeon and whipped a few times, but nothing more than that. I'm just upset because I got so close to getting out of here."
Shiro hugged her. "I'm so sorry you didn't get away Katsu. I really hoped you had escaped, and when I heard that you had been caught my heart just broke for you."
Katsu said nothing, wondering, as she always did, at Shiro's sincerity. He liked her having her around, she knew that. Perhaps he really was not so sad that she was still here. Either way, he was now the only comfort she had and so she clung to him and allowed herself to cry for the first time that week.
Shiro held her until she had wept herself dry. He took her chin in his hand as she was drawing away from him, and wiped away the damp trails the tears had left down her cheeks. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, enjoying the feel of his soft, delicate fingers caressing her cheek with infinite tenderness. Vegeta would likely never know how to touch her with such care, even if he had continued his relationship with her for their entire lives. It just did not seem that he had the gentleness of spirit in him anywhere.
Her eyes were still closed when Shiro's lips brushed gently across hers. At first she thrilled in the softness of this intimate gesture, having not felt a gentle show of affection for some time and her last intimate encounter being nearly violent, but then a sense of being tainted, of not deserving Shiro's attentions because she had been dishonest with him came over her and she pushed him away.
He kept his hands on her face even as she pushed him back. "Katsu," he said softly, sadly. "Why won't you let me love you? I do love you, Katsu, and I thought maybe... I thought you returned my feelings. What's the problem? Please be honest with me and tell me why you don't let me show you how much I love you."
Katsu's face contorted painfully. "You love me?" She breathed. He nodded earnestly. "Then I'm sorry," she said, her voice full of weariness. "I'm sorry that you fell in love with me."
His face fell into a look of extreme hurt, but Katsu turned away, putting her back to him before he could speak or she could see any more of his sad face. A few seconds passed and then she heard him rise slowly, hesitate, and then move away from her cot. He sat down heavily on his own and she avoided looking in his direction for the rest of the evening.
Her sleep that night was light, fitful, and plagued by nightmares. She had not dreamt of the amber-eyed demon recently, but tonight it filled her dreams with its harrowing face, and something new: a ghastly banshee shriek that it threw back its head and howled into the world of her mind. She tried to run from it but could not escape it no matter what she did in her dream. It was an ever present force, and yet it did not once try to hurt her. It merely stayed at her side.
The blanket was damp and stuck to her sweaty skin when she woke in the morning. She groaned and threw it off, glad for the cool air that immediately rushed over her body. She breathed deeply, relaxing herself, trying to banish the memories of the nightmares she had had. Of course that did not happen; the nightmares would torment her almost as much while she was awake as they had while she slept.
She went through the motions of the morning routine with Shiro; straightening up in the third floor. She rankled at the thought of Vegeta in his room, sleeping comfortably in his huge bed, the bed he had shared with her and then kicked her out of as though she were nothing. These thoughts had driven her crazy every morning since what had happened. Hatred ran like ice water through her veins now; she wanted nothing more than to kill the prince.
She was on her way back to the staircase, quite a ways behind Shiro, when a hand gripped her arm. She whirled around to face Vegeta, bringing her arm up to strike him without even thinking about it. He caught her fist in his hand and smirked at her.
"Still feisty," he said, sounding amused. "Come to my chambers tonight after the other servants are asleep."
She jerked her fist out of his grip. "Why should I?" She asked. "You don't still want to play with this broken toy, do you?"
He ignored this comment and repeated himself. "Come to my bedroom tonight. I'm not asking you." With this he tossed her aside and walked back to his room.
"I won't!" Katsu screamed at his back. The door to his bedroom slammed shut in response. She shook all over, fuming, staring at the closed door and clenching her fist. She whirled around on her heel to see Shiro standing in the doorway to the stairs, eyeing her quizzically. She brushed past him and took the stairs two at a time down.
To her surprise, Shiro did not ask what the whole episode had been about. She went through the rest of the day in seething silence and Shiro seemed a bit afraid to approach her at all. This did not bother her; she was rather glad for the fact that he was not prying into the details of her life that could lead him to a knowledge of what had happened between her and Vegeta. This was something she would be much happier keeping to herself.
That night, Katsu lay on her cot wide awake. The other servants were drifting off; their breath becoming even in sleep.
I will not go to him. I absolutely will not.
Katsu wanted to go to him. She would not admit this, least of all to herself, but she wanted to. She was not sure what would happen between them if she did, but she wanted to know. In the back of her mind, she actually wanted to be with him again.
I won't go to him, I won't go to him, she began chanting in her mind, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to will herself to sleep. No such luck; she was very much awake and very much ready to hop out of this bed and go up those stairs.
I won't go to him, I won't go to him. She kept up the chant, but it seemed to be losing its strength in her mind. By the sound of the breathing, Katsu could tell that only one more person was awake in the room.
I won't go to him, I won't go to him, I won't go to him. The breathing fell into a rhythm. Everyone in the room was asleep now. Katsu lay still for a few seconds, keeping her eyes squeezed shut. There was no sound in the room. A second later, Katsu got up, and went to him.
She went up the stairs as if in a dream, cursing herself the entire trip, until she stood before the doors to his bedroom. For several seconds she did not move and then the door opened on its own and Vegeta pulled her into the room, slamming the door behind her, pressing his mouth to hers, kissing her violently.
She pushed him away with a snarl. He stood, staring at her, smirking.
"You think I'm going to just fall back into your bed?" She asked angrily. "You hurt me, physically and emotionally. I don't usually make the same mistake twice, Vegeta." This was the first time she had called him by his name to his face, and she spat the word as though it tasted bad in her mouth. He merely stared, still smirking.
Katsu took a deep breath. She had increased in skill at raising her power level with anger, and since she was already seething with rage it took very little concentration and even less time to raise her power to its fighting level. A second later, before he could see what she was doing, she flung herself at Vegeta, fists flying. One punch found its target before Vegeta retaliated, blocking her and throwing his own blows. The two began to fight viciously.
The fight lasted only a few minutes before Vegeta grabbed her fist as she was punching and gripped it so hard that she gasped in pain.
"I didn't bring you here to fight with you," he said.
She jerked her fist out of his grasp and rubbed at it. "Then why did you tell me to come here at all? You told me you weren't interested in me anymore because I was 'broken.'"
He shook his head, scoffing. "Well, now I see that your spirit isn't as broken as I thought it was. And, besides, admit it, Katsu. It was good. You know that and I'm painfully aware of it. That's why I told you to come here again. I figured you would know that one on your own."
Now it was Katsu's turn to scoff. "I already told you that I don't make the same mistake more than once."
"You think it was a mistake?"
"I know it was."
"Then why did you come back?"
She faltered at this question. Why had she come? She really had not been forced to, despite him telling her that he was "not asking" her to come. She could have stayed in the servants' quarters.
He smirked. "No answer to that? You see now?" He took a step towards her. She held her ground, setting her jaw defiantly.
"Stay away from me," she said firmly. "I will never let you touch me again."
"You can't stop me."
"So you're going to prove yourself to be the animal I've always thought you were?"
He narrowed his eyes at this, and Katsu saw the anger flicker below his eyelids. He took another step, grabbed her wrist and pulled her against him. Before she could react, he had pulled both of her wrists behind her and was holding them tightly.
"I hate you," she snarled into his face.
"And you think I love you or something?" He replied. "But the way I see it now, we have two options: keep fighting or start fucking."
Katsu just glared at him. Both of them were seething, almost tangible waves of anger coming off of them. They stared into each other's eyes, and then suddenly their mouths clashed together. Tongues warred, hands tore at clothing; it was the only other thing they could with their anger besides kill each other. Vegeta wrapped his foot around Katsu's ankle, tripping her, letting himself fall atop her as they hit the ground. They did not make it to the bed at all that night.
**To Be Continued**
