Hey :D
Here's another chapter. It is far too long, longer than any chapter I've written so far, longer than I had expected it to be, but it's a pure gh/vi chapter.
I seriously had this chapter finished a few days ago. But something was just missing in the end. I spent three day adding sentences, perfectioning the dialogue, skimming for mistakes and stuff... I even changed the ending like a hundred times or so. But now it is finally the best I could possibly make it (if I don't get a sudden urge to add all kind of things after I post this)
Okay, enjoy the chapter!
She came closer… with each step she took she came closer to the quarters of the General. The apprehension in her stomach increased and her breathing had took itself almost to the level of hyperventilating. Here lonely steps resonated through the hall but she heard nothing but the pounding of her own heart.
This was crazy!
She would turn around…
Now!
And she was about to turn around in the with torches lit hall. She really, really didn't want to go to his room. She wasn't ready to confront him, and most definitely not after the previous night, when she made such a fool out of herself.
But she couldn't just turn around and get the hell out of there. Because Stella would perhaps get in trouble if the General had to wait any longer. He would go to her and maybe punish her.
No, that was just stupid. She had been told that the General was very fond of Stella. He wouldn't likely be angry with her for this. He would merely ask why he didn't get his food.
And there lay the real problem. Because he would ask Stella… And she would know that it was Videl who was supposed to bring the food, but didn't do it.
If she really turned around now, Stella would find out sooner or later and what did Videl have to say about that? That she was too scared to go to the General? That she felt embarrassed with herself around him? That she felt uncomfortable with the feelings he summoned inside of her?
NO! Never that. She'd rather go to his quarters and embarrass herself even further than that Stella would know the depths of her heart.
Still, she could turn around and make something up. She could lie…
But how would that lie be? 'Sorry, I couldn't bring the General his food because… I forgot something in the meadows that I needed to get all of a sudden? Because I fell and sprained my ankle? Because I found a child that wasn't home yet?'
Who would believe that? Nobody would buy that lie, it was too… obvious.
She could fake-faint… And then wait till someone found her so she could back up her story.
But no, that was impossible too. Because the castle had so many rooms that it could take hours until someone finally found her.
Still…
No, what in the world was she thinking?! Was she really intending on lying herself out of this situation?! Was she really too scared to go to the General's room?!
Was she really that much of a coward?
She groaned plaintively. Why did these things always happen to her? Why couldn't she say 'yes, I'm that much of a coward' and get the hell out of there.
Why couldn't her damn pride allow her to sneak off while she still had the chance?
She had decided… She would go to his room, drop the food off, and dash away. Maybe, if she was lucky, he didn't even notice.
Maybe he wasn't even there!
No, she wasn't that lucky…
But really, how long could this possibly take? A minute… maybe two… That wasn't even that bad. She just had to grit her teeth and pull through.
She would not speak any more than necessary.
She would not make eye contact.
And if he wanted to ask something so badly, than she would reply with the shortest answer that she could give.
"It's not that much of a disaster. Just relax and don't forget to breathe." She muttered to herself in encouragement. She closed her eyes in a moment of serenity and when she opened them she found out that her legs had already carried her to the fourth floor…
… The floor that held his quarters.
Slowly, as if she wanted to postpone the whole confrontation by making time pass slower, she walked to the east side of the floor. She followed a tall hall, that eventually led to a long, broad corridor that led to the General's quarters.
Videl looked around the with torches lit corridor and she found herself getting even more anxious. Because the corridor looked so much different during the night, with the marble statues on her left being barely lit, a strange, gloomy shadow cast over their forms. She'd only seen it during day time, when the sun shone brightly through the windows on her right. It was Stella who showed her how to get to the General's quarters, just so she knew that she shouldn't enter the rooms if she was ever there by coincidence.
But now she was allowed to go in there. It was strange how it worked out this way.
When she reached the door and realized that there really was no way to postpone what she had to do, the apprehension and anxiety turned into a nervous feeling of nausea.
She inhaled and exhaled the cool air one more time to force her stomach to calm down.
"Just breathe Videl… Just breathe." She whispered to herself one last time before she raised her hand and knocked on the wooden, two-door entrance.
And she waited…
… and waited…
… and the nausea increased with every second.
But nothing…
Nobody answered the door, nobody beckoned her to come in… She heard nothing inside of the room.
She knocked again. Perhaps he hadn't heard the last knock.
But still nothing.
Videl frowned as she bend over and listened to the door. She really heard nothing. No voice, no movement.
Could she really be that lucky?
Could he really be away?
With an unsteady hand she reached out for the bronze door handle.
There was only one way to find out if he really wasn't there…
And she pulled down the handle. Silently one of the two doors opened and Videl gently pushed it open, anxious to find out what it revealed.
And it revealed…
… a hall?
Yes, a hall. A hall with a wooden floor with a red and gold carpet rolled over it. She followed the carpet with her eyes and found out that it ended at a wall opposite the door she just came through. The wall had a big… big window, reaching up to the 20-feet high ceiling. Two curtains were hung above the window; a simple white, transparent curtain, that could be made of voile, and the other was crimson, made of precious velvet. At the time, even though it was dark, the curtains were open, revealing the magnificent view of the forest, lakes and snow-peaked mountains in the night.
The walls were creamy white, almost a soft yellow. The color of seashells, Videl noticed. The walls were scarcely decorated with occasionally a painting here or there. As a matter of fact, the hall was remarkably simple compared to the rest of the castle. There were a few side-tables with vases with flowers on them, there was a full length mirror and there were a few pots with exotic plants. Not something too opulent.
The only thing that really stood out were the window and one devastatingly beautiful and doubtlessly incredibly pricey crystal chandelier on the ceiling, perhaps not the biggest she'd ever seen, but most certainly the most complex. It gave the hall a warm atmosphere as if it was lit up by a thousand candles.
Videl took a cautious step forward, while she silently admired the hall with surprised awe. She left the cart for what if was next to the door, which she had closed immediately after she stepped in.
After a few steps Videl noticed that the left and right sides of the hall both held two other arch-formed entrances. When she reached the first on her left and took a small peek, she saw it was some sort of library, with bookcases against every wall for as far a she could tell. But she walked past it, and she reached the other entrance on her right. It seemed some sort of sitting room, though she could not see much of it as she too walked past that room. She stopped, however, when she reached the second door on her left. Because she saw the glorious light of a crackling fire in a fire place.
Slowly and hesitantly, she entered the room and she took in her surroundings. The floors were, again, made of wood, with a beautiful crimson, black, auburn and gold rug in the middle of the room. It had all kinds of small figures on them. She recognized a prancing horse, a wing-spreading bird, a dashing lion and many more. It was truly amazing.
On her right side was a long window with in front of it a wooden desk. It was a rather messy desk, with all sorts of paper sheets, books, stationary and other sort of things that didn't even belong on a desk, like some kind of glass ball with a blue flower in it, a dagger in a leather sheath, a purple stone as big as her fist and a… flower?
Yes, a flower. To be more precise, a white lotus, obviously plucked recently because it was still fresh.
And on her left side was the fire place with the crackling fire. The fireplace was simple for the entire castle's standards. It was big, but not decorated so opulently as she had seen before.
There were also a few drawers and cabinets and side-tables with all sorts of personal things on them, such as a compass, a few letters and postcards, a wineglass made of silver and crystal and, and this woke her curiosity, a few miniature wooden figures. When she looked closer she saw a little soldier, a fish, a mouse, a rabbit, a sheep (though its head was far too small for its body) and, to her utmost awe, the masterpiece; a very elegant doe. They were all ingeniously carved from the wood, and so incredibly detailed that Videl wondered who had made them.
With a slight smile on her face she looked around the room further. If she had expected anything at all from the chambers of General Gohan then this was not it. Where was the gold? The silver? Where were the expensive pieces of art, the antique articles of furniture? Where were the diamond door knobs and the exquisite gems? Where was the place where you were afraid to turn your butt for fear of accidentally breaking something? The place where you did not even dare to point your finger at something?
But she found these rooms that were simple and slightly messy, but warm and cozy, much like her own room in this castle. She could definitely imagine why her master chose this interior for his private quarters. It felt like home.
So the opulence, the profusion of luxury, the magnificence of Chrystler castle was merely a façade? A boast of wealth?
So the General preferred simplicity and coziness, which would give anyone a homelike feeling, over the flawless beauty of something as extravagant as this Castle?
How peculiar…
She let her eyes go over the rest of the room. There were two bookcases against the opposite wall and Videl tried to read the titles on the leather covers, but found out she couldn't; they were all written in a different language, with a different alphabet. With a frown she looked next to the bookcases were she found two auburn cushioned chairs…
… and that was when she started panicking.
Because on one of the chairs lay a crimson cloak. The same cloak she had seen the General wear when he came to Chrystler castle the other day.
And then, to her horror, she saw something that made the nausea in her stomach return.
On the ground, next to the chairs, lay his characteristic armor, presumably thrown from his body without many thought or care as to where it landed.
The piece of armor lay in front of an arching entrance… and it was not the entrance she came from.
This room she was in now, presumably a study, led to another, unknown room. And it was in that room that she first heard the sound of someone walking.
She heard footsteps on the wood…
… and they came closer.
She froze to the ground as she realized that she was most definitely not alone.
Because she wasn't that lucky.
"Ms. Stella?"
She couldn't breathe. All the air left her lungs as she recognized his voice. It was him, and he had been in his chambers all along.
"Ms. Stella, I have a sealed letter here and I would like you to take it to the first guard. He must bring it to my brother, since I don't have time to…"
The voice went silent.
There was an aching silence, while Videl looked at the ground, not daring to turn her gaze to the entrance he had doubtlessly walked through just now. Because she knew just what she would find there. His form…
… half-naked.
Because even she was smart enough to put two and two together to find out that he had stripped away his cloak and his armor, which he had thrown away carelessly on the chair and the ground. And unless he had dressed himself, his upper body should be entirely bare as he stood there in the entrance.
She wouldn't look.
She would not look.
Whatever happened, she would not turn her gaze to him.
But she found out that that was more difficult than she thought. Because the more she forced herself to look at the ground, the more she wanted to fix her gaze at him.
It was a battle between her sense and her instincts, her sense forbidding her to look, her instincts begging her to take a peek.
To her delight, but at the same time to her utmost dismay, her instincts won. She slightly raised her head and she looked at him through her long lashes, like a deer looking at a lion.
And she didn't think that anything could prepare her for the sight she saw.
Because he was standing there alright, with his entire chest bare, as Videl had predicted. And her curious eyes met his form.
One thing was certain… No Greek God could ever compete with such degree of magnificent power and statuesque beauty that was combined as one in him.
His handsome face turned to her with surprise and question on it…
His bare chest, sculpted as if he were Adonis himself, only then several times better…
His tan skin, spun tightly over his muscles, glowing in the dim light of the fire…
His loose pants hanging dangerously low on his waist…
… Yes, his waist… not one ounce of fat on it, narrow and lean…
And then back to his face, where she found his dark eyes, unintentionally smoldering in their sockets.
A slight layer of sweat on his smooth forehead…
His firm neck, muscles tight as he swallowed deeply and thoroughly…
His shoulders, very broad compared to the rest of his body…
His abs…
His biceps…
His chest…
… all of it, all the muscles, well defined and flawless…
And then back to his face again, to his eyes, where they stayed.
He was masculine in every sense of the word, somehow savagely erotic in all his roughness and strength yet while possessing all the cultivated features defined by civilization and evolution. The ruffian and the gentleman we both obviously represented in him, but the one never more than the other.
It was a killer combination.
He was like a lion, powerful and intimidating… presumably dangerous. But also infinitely graceful and statuesque.
He had everything a male should have…
… and he was all that a man should be.
He was, in one word, perfect. There was no other word to describe him with.
"Perfect." She mouthed the words slightly, voicelessly… accidentally, while the silence lasted on and on, the seconds ticking by unnoticeably.
The surprise and the question was gone from his face. Instead he was looking at her with one of the most intense gazes she had ever seen or been under. And she found out that her breathlessness wasn't caused by shock any more…
… but by her heart that had stopped beating as she fell prey of that intensity in his eyes.
It was a moment…
And as the electricity sparked between them, they were both aware that this was a moment…
A moment of heavy physical attraction.
Like two magnets…
An unknown chemistry was there between them…
It lasted perhaps a second, but it was enough for them to come to the realization.
And then, after that long, never-ending second, in which so many thing seemed to have happened, he tore his gaze away from her…
… and the moment was gone. As if it never existed at all.
The warm air filled Videl's lungs as she could finally breathe again. Her heart started beating again and she was no longer frozen to the ground. But she wasn't even given the time to ask herself what had happened in that split second, because a low chuckle came from the General's throat.
"Miss Videl, you surprise me. Where do I owe this visit to?" He asked with a smug smirk on his face, as if the entire scene had never occurred at all. And Videl looked at him stupefied, questions filling her mind as she became more confused by the minute.
What the hell?
What had just happened?
Had she been hallucinating?
Didn't he just look at her with intense, smoldering eyes?
Or not?
And she saw his face, his handsome face, the grim amusement practically radiating off him… His lips were twitched in a crooked smile… no, smirk, and it was smug, patronizing. And it was as if he had carried that expression all the time…
… as if he hadn't felt anything between them.
She was so busy asking herself these questions, gazing at him all the while, that she almost forgot that he had asked her a question.
"I-eh…" She stuttered after a while as she felt a blush heating her cheeks. Why was she here again? "I have brought your dinner."
And she looked to the empty ground next to her… where the cart with food was supposed to stand. She could slam herself in her face when she recalled that she never took the cart with her, but that she left it in the hall. Reluctantly and sighing in exasperation while feeling more humiliated than she even should be, she turned to the General again, who was still smirking at her crookedly.
"Just a moment." She requested with all the dignity and pride she had left at that moment. And she turned around and bustled away to get the food that was getting cold in the hall while she felt both embarrassed and confused.
Embarrassed because of the obvious reasons. She had been staring at him insolently and she had acted like a stupid little girl. As if she never saw the bare chest of a male his age before. Heck, she had seen it more that she would have liked, she had grown accustomed to muscular chests with her father having been a martial artist. It wasn't like this was any different.
But she felt confused by his sudden change in demeanor. One moment he looked at her with the most intense, smoldering eyes she had ever seen, and the next he looked at her with that obnoxiously smug smirk on his face. Was this 'moment', this attraction that seemed to be both-sided, just, in fact, one-sided? Did she just imagine the whole scene?
No, she wasn't that creative.
And besides, the mind couldn't imagine such feelings.
Or could it?
This was bizarre… and exactly the reason why she shouldn't have come here.
But as she walked away, pondering about the possibility of her mind making up the moment between them, Gohan waited for her to walk around the corner and out of sight. And then he let out a deep sigh.
He knew she had noticed, realized, like he had, that there had been some heavy attraction between them. Her eyes reflected all that she had felt during that moment. Eyes wide open, lips parted, and she had been frozen to the ground. He could hear that she had stopped breathing, because she had been mesmerized by the look in his eyes.
But he didn't do it on purpose. It wasn't his intention to look at her the way he did.
When he was in the other room, his bedroom, writing a letter to Goten, he heard the door of his chambers open and someone had walked in. He assumed it was Stella, as she always brought him his food if he didn't decide he would eat it in the dining room. He heard the light footsteps of who he assumed to be Stella. As he thought of it now, he should have known it wasn't her. The footsteps had been much lighter, and the sloth could have indicated the hesitancy. But he didn't pay attention to it and finished the letter. When he did, he called out for Stella, but when he walked into the other room he found her.
She was startlingly beautiful, as always, and some sort of shock immediately went through his body when he saw her.
Why was she here?
Was this a dream? A very real dream?
But no, she was really standing there, as if she had never done anything else but standing there. And it was as if she already expected that he would enter and she had her eyes fixed on the floor. But slowly… shyly… hesitantly, she looked up.
His surprise to see her faded away as her eyes scoured over his body…
… his half-naked body.
And he had felt extremely good when he saw the awe, the admiration, the amazement that she definitely felt towards his body.
It was plainly arousing to see her looking that way. It was a delight to know that those magical eyes, those deep blue orbs that had enchanted him so frequently already, now saw him how he had seen her all along.
Oh, yes… It was so arousing.
And he had to look away. He had to break the gaze before his body would betray how he felt. So he did, and the moment was gone. And he put his smirk on his face, his mask, so she would not know. And it worked perfectly. She felt confused when she saw the smirk, wondering if the scene had really happened or if had just been her imagination.
That was exactly how it should be. Her wondering… Her being powerless… her being in the dark…
… him being in control.
This is how it should be and not, never the other way around. He was the master after all. And she was the slave, however deliciously attractive she may be.
With a lot of fuss, as she could hardly steady herself after the whole confrontation, she came in again, rolling the cart towards him, until there was only a foot between Gohan and the food. Normally he would drool all over it. He was very fond of food after all. But now he found something that was far more interesting than eating.
"Alright here's you dinner, General. Have a good evening." Videl blurted out quickly, too eager to leave this room to sound like she actually meant it. And she was about to turn around, when he stopped her.
"Ho, not so fast Miss." Gohan said with so much authority that she didn't move a muscle. She scolded quietly. So much for her perfect case scenario of going in, dumping the food and leaving. But then again, her plan had already failed when she was too curious to exit the room when she still could. And now she was stuck here with her half-naked master, a little detail she just couldn't seem to forget, who, at the moment looked at her like she was something to eat. That was also a quite interesting detail as she could not only ignore it but also made her feel more uncomfortable than she, Videl Satan, was supposed to feel.
And he just looked at her, forcing her to look at the ground as she clearly was the loser of this contests of stares. And to her dismay, the same cocky chuckle came from his throat.
"Do not feel uncomfortable, it's not that I mean you harm." He assured, though still with the glint of that smug demeanor in his dark eyes. She didn't twinge, however, but kept looking at the ground, avoiding all eye contact, not wanting to please him in replying to him. And patiently he waited for an answer. In the limited time he had been in her presence, especially at the Tauvegian market, he had learned that she always had some retort, even though it was highly inappropriate for her, as she was a slave. He could vividly remember the rather 'animated' conversation they had on their way to the Royal Palace, with her voicing her opinions and ranting on about very disputable subjects. She had been defying. And unless she had changed drastically in the few weeks of his absence at Chrystler Castle, she should still be defying. So naturally he was surprised when the only reply he received was a silence on her behalf.
"You seem uptight, but I assure you, there is no reason for that." Gohan tried again, but still not succeeding in drawing a reaction from her. Her brows knitted together in irritation though, a sign that she had heard what he said, but chose not to reply to it. He wondered if he had been wrong about her. That she really had changed drastically in the period of his absence. He felt a slight twinge of disappointment when he thought about that, something that he immediately tried to suppress when he felt it.
"You may speak now." He pressed, now being a little bit annoyed. "Or am I not speaking English?"
And finally she gave in to the temptation and she reacted. She rolled her eyes in exasperation and fixed her gaze at him, glaring the familiar glare he once saw on her face, as he noticed that her hands were clenched into fists.
"What do you want me to say, it's not that your words comfort me even the slightest bit." She spat at him, immediately regretting her answer as she hadn't wanted to give him the satisfaction of replying. And now when she did reply, the smirk on his face widened. She scolded at herself for being so easily tempted to do something she swore not to do so she could neither make a fool of herself any further, nor, and this was a whole lot less decisive for her, anger him with her sharp tongue.
He laughed slightly at her remark, secretly pleased that she hadn't changed since the day he bought her, while she continued looking at him with a scowl.
"That reply will do for present." He muttered with a glint of humor in his eyes, clearly satisfied with her outburst. And while he looked at her with mocking eyes, her glare intensified, as she was not able to control he anger if he looked at her that way. To prevent herself from bursting again and unconsciously entertaining him with her flared up temper, and only because of that, she reluctantly tore her gaze away from him and she started looking straight ahead, counting to ten to manage her rising anger.
After a few seconds he suddenly took one step towards the cart, the glorious food still not awakening his interest and he poured in some wine in a glass, calmly and not rushed at all, annoying Videl even further with his intentionally slow movements as she looked at him in a peripheral peek. And then he turned his gaze to her again, as he leaned on the desk behind him and started looking at her again with his mocking eyes, taking a sip from his wine every once in a while.
And he waited.
Apparently for nothing.
And a for Videl very uncomfortable silence filled the room.
He knew that this irritated her to death. But that was exactly why he did it. With smug amusement he saw her getting both angrier and more uncomfortable by the minute. Oh, she was such a firecracker…
And, indeed, Videl was getting angrier. She hated the fact that he had so much power over her, the power to force her to look at the ground with one gaze, the power to chuckle conceitedly while she couldn't do anything about it, the power to silence her while she was dying to open her mouth and hiss at him. The normal Videl, the Videl on earth, would have immediately asked 'what the hell are you looking at'. But now, she found that she couldn't even do that due to the fact that he was a thousand times stronger than her both physically and mentally. And not to forget emotionally, as he could master his emotions perfectly, something in which she failed miserably. She literally was, in all aspects, weaker than him.
And then the audacity of him calling her Miss. Did he try to sound more eloquent or something…
… or more civilized…
… than her?!
He made it sound that way. As if he was far superior only because he spoke to her in a rather formal manner.
How insufferably conceited he was.
But this she could still take, though with difficulty and though her hands itched to slap him right across the cheek. She was positive even he could feel the slap and the burning ache her flat hand would leave on his skin. But no, she wasn't that weak to actually give in to that desire. She had some self-control.
But her anger reached its pinnacle when she noticed that his eyes scoured over her body. Not in a way she had looked at him before, with awe and admiration in his eyes, no… no, with amused insolence. As if he had the right to look at her that way.
"Can I get you anything?" She eventually shot at him, sharply, as she could no longer contain herself. She had intended to sound like someone who should not be messed with, like someone who would gladly kick some ass, especially his, even though she knew she couldn't even land a punch. But it didn't matter, it was all about the attitude. She might be a slave, but she would never abandon her spirit, the same spirit that had kept her alive and defined who she was.
However, she completely failed in transmitting that message, because he cocked one of his eyebrows suggestively at her question. Only then she realized how stupid it was to choose those particular words. And she felt herself getting as red as a tomato.
Could she embarrass herself any more thoroughly?
Slowly Gohan put down the glass next to him on the desk, his mocking eyes never leaving her own as he folded his arms across his chest. As he now flashed her his teeth in a wider smirk, Videl suddenly felt her discomfort grow, despite the fact that she convinced herself that she wasn't afraid of him. But it didn't matter, she just didn't like that smug face… She vaguely recalled the glorious face with the intense eyes she had seen when he first came into the room. It seemed as if she was now facing a completely different person, as if the two persons weren't one and the same.
"Allow me to ask you something." He demanded, subtly ignoring her previous, snarling question. Videl just knew where this was going and she almost started scowling… at herself. "I want to know why I saw you last night."
It wasn't a question. It was an order.
"What do you mean?" She shot back icily, trying to evade any explanation she had to give him, smug because he would not know if she kept her silence. That was the only power she had left, because he would never know her thoughts if she didn't choose to tell.
He let out a short grunt at her reply, his eyes leaving her shortly as they shot to the ground, obviously thinking how to get an answer from her without using a threat to persuade her.
"Don't play dumb with me." He muttered eventually, just loudly enough for her to hear him. "I saw you in the family chamber at midnight. Not quite the place you should be at that time."
And she knew that, because her scowl disappeared and made place for a thoughtful expression. But still she was not inclined to tell him.
Now he was slightly angered by her behavior. The way she acted was very inappropriate, and unheard of for a slave. Slowly he left his desk and he walked towards her, her eyes widening a little with each step her took. And much like he had done before, at the market where he purchased her, he stopped close to her, towering over her as he tried to intimidate her with his proximity, but moreover his impressive form, being more than a head taller and much broader than her.
"You will tell me why you were there." He stated slowly, threatening her with every word spoken in that tone, and a shiver went through her spine as she heard the menace in his voice. But, stubborn as she was, she would not be frightened by him. He might be standing so close to her that their chests almost touched, he might be both taller and broader than her, he might be threatening her to death, she would not be intimidated.
"I thought I once told you, I don't respond to commands like that." She hisses with the same fierceness in her eyes as they once carried when they first met.
Gohan almost laughed at the déjà-vu, wasn't it for the fact that he was furious.
"So you still haven't learned, have you? I thought you would have known by now not to trifle with me." He countered with a low, steady tone, not intending on reflecting his anger in his voice.
"Well, then you have completely misjudged my character." She replied odiously, her eyes and voice carrying her loathing.
"Or you do not yet know mine."
"So far I have discovered very little."
Gohan sniffed dangerously and Videl unconsciously leaned back when she saw his glaring gaze. She knew she had insulted him, and she didn't feel comfortable with it, because he glared at her with a look that could have ended her life if looks could kill. She felt genuine fear now, especially now when he took one more step closer to her and bent his head down to her to subtly remind her of her powerlessness.
"It doesn't strike me as odd that you haven't discovered anything about my character." He growled with a hostile, almost hateful expression, chilling her even further. "I could not expect anything else of a person who doesn't look beyond the length of her own nose."
"But then, I don't have to. You are merely my master after all." She spat back, trying to suppress her fright, in which she succeeded for a change due to her own hate towards him. She intentionally empathized the word master, just to prove to him that she wasn't scared and that she dared to mock him.
"Yes, I am your master." He agreed. "And that is why you shall do as I say."
"I shall do what you ask, but I can choose not to answer a question."
This caused him to let out a dry, humorless chuckle, though his eyes were never fiercer.
"Wrong. You shall answer my question, because I order you to." He said through clenched teeth.
"Oh, and your will is law?" She shot back sarcastically, and unseen by her he pressed his lips together to suppress a smile, even though he was still furious.
"Exactly. So… I'm waiting…"
"Then I hope you enjoy your pointless waiting, because you won't get an answer from me now, or ever."
His eyes pierced into hers, trying to read her mood from them. She was just as furious as him, maybe even more as she challenged him with a hateful expression. But he could not help but slightly admire her for the fact that she refused to be intimidated by him. He had come across many creatures from different species from all sorts of different classes, all of them being far more powerful than she was… and who were scared to death of him. But she, the frail human, stood her ground to him, and she was not easily overruled by him.
He realized that she was far too difficult for a slave and that he had any right to either kill her or sell her just to be rid of that defying and disobedient character of hers. But the most peculiar part was that he didn't even consider either of those options.
He kept staring at her face, his anger diminishing as he was again awed by her beauty, and also, and this was new for him, her character.
So determined…
So fearless…
So stubborn…
Proud, fiery, brave…
… an impressive spirit…
… all in the body of a human, weak, fragile, frail. A body he could destroy any second of the day, a life he could steal with the snap of his fingers.
And he had all the right in the world to do that. She was his property, his slave, not to mention her defiance justified the action of him killing her.
Would he kill anyone else, any other slave who was as defiant as her?
No. No of course not, General Gohan Son didn't kill his slaves. Not even those who cause nothing but trouble. He wasn't a savage or a brute or something.
But would he sell them?
He couldn't know for sure. He had never met a slave, or anyone, who refused to acknowledge him completely as a superior.
It frustrated him…
… but even more so, it attracted him.
He was staring at her face, while her features softened the longer he looked at her, when he thought about that. When that realization hit him, he immediately took a few steps back, eyes widening in horror as a desperate dread filled his being.
What had he been thinking?
That he was attracted to her character?
It was a thought that startled him and, truth to be told, frightened him a little
Because so far he'd only been physically attracted by her. After all, who would not be? She was the closest person to a goddess. Her beauty was something one could not simply ignore, let alone be indifferent towards.
The kind of attraction merely her beauty summoned was, or so he believed, innocent. He had met a lot of beautiful women, and though none of them came even close to her what concerned beauty, he had felt some attraction towards them too. And that was it, nothing had happened.
But being attracted not only by someone's appearance but also by someone's character was an entirely different case. All told, that had happened to him three times before…
To his horror he realized that those three cases, and every single one of them, led to him attempting to mate.
Because he tried to mate every woman he had been interested in… three women… three times.
And now there was another interesting… intriguing woman, right here in his room…
NO! She was a human…
Just a weak human.
The fact that she was human made this attraction altogether impossible. And forbidden, not to forget. There were laws against such a thing. And he believed in those laws, he supported them. Because he completely agreed with anything that opposed everything that was interracial. He believed with passion that the Saiyans were the one and only dominant and superior race in the entire galaxy, and that there was no such thing as equality, as not a single society could survive without different classes, without the snobs and the scum, to elite and the proles, the rich and the poor… the masters and the slaves. And along with him, practically every Saiyan held the same opinion, with the exceptions of a few.
Then why did he find himself being attracted to the character and beauty of an insignificant creature like a human? It opposed everything he believed in!
This… This was insane.
And then there she was, looking at him with those wide open eyes, magnificent beyond belief, and with her breathtaking beauty, a frown still on her face, but question in her eyes.
She didn't understand what caused him to act that way and Gohan was thankful for that. Never was she to know how he felt. He believed she was treacherous enough to use these feelings for her benefit.
He had been so close to her. He could smell her. Even now her scent entered his nostrils, teasing him with the delicious fragrance of her body and her hair.
A very floral scent, the lotus flower, as usual, but for the first time he also smelled something different.
What was it?
Oranges?
Roses?
Orchids?
No, it was unfamiliar, completely new.
Then he realized with horror what that scent was…
… It was her own unique fragrance, something so characteristic only for her that he knew that there wasn't anything identical to it throughout the entire universe.
It was then that he knew that she had to get out of there, before he would come to more realizations.
"Y-you may go now." He said to her as calmly as he could, breaking their intense gaze and turning around so he would not be tempted to take another look at her.
This was bad.
This was really bad.
While he had turned his back to her, she looked at his form with question. For the second time this evening, she was filled with questions about him. One minute they were in an argument, and the next he just seemed to give up the whole discussion, letting her win that easily.
But she went nonetheless, before he would change his mind and keep her there after all.
And thus she walked out of the room, a little hesitantly as she took another peek over her shoulder to look at his rear and as she exited the room and his chambers, she left him alone, while he was pondering about this new revelation.
He heard the door of his chambers close and he knew she was outside, confused about his sudden change in demeanor.
He ran an unsteady hand through his hair as he thought about his realization.
He could smell her scent… her unique fragrance.
But she was just a human…
… only a human.
He hoped that he was just hallucinating, or dreaming. Because if he wasn't, then he would be in a whole lot of trouble.
Ha, a cryptic ending XD
Don't worry, it'll all be explained in the next chapter.
BTW, I never really explained this before, but the reason that Gohan is like 8 years older than Videl is because I want Gohan to be... hm, how do I say this... more powerful in any possible way. When he's several years older, he's bound to have more life experience than Videl. This is important because they both have very different opinions on different matters, Gohan's views being more realistic and wiser than Videl's. And there is also another reason: Gohan can't be a general at age 18. That's just too young.
I know there are some who think that perhaps I've messed too much with the main characters, that I've changed them too much, and I would have agreed if I hadn't stated in the summary that this would be AU. I still hope you enjoy reading this though, even though everyone is out of character (with the exception of a few, you'll see later on)
Okay, that having said, I think I'm done :)
Let me know what you think about this chapter, okay!
Review please :)