Hey you all! srry i havent updated for a while; and to those who suspected it, no, im not dead. yipee rite?! :P
ok, so this is a small chappie, kinda like the conclusion of the messed up nite of the birthday party. if only bdays were so exciting as a kidnapping pervert and a vigilante rescue, plus a handsome prince all thrown in for some good measure, eh?!
on to the story, shall we?
warning: this story is lathered with yaoi if you please. :D and to those who hate yaoi/are homophobes, kindly fuck off; and to others who are ok with it but havent read any, pls join the dark side...its has cookies! AND yaoi! :3
disclaimer : i obviously do not own ben ten alien force!
THE FAIRYTALE WAY
Chapter nine: Safe at home
Green Shadow landed nimbly on to the green grass that was dark in the late hour. Gasping, never having felt this excited before, he took a deep breath trying to calm his senses. Quickly, he changed his costume from his special spot beside his home, and donned the suit he had worn during the Ball, only to remember that he had left the coat in the Hall whilst playing 'waiter'.
"No matter," he consoled himself, "It is just a coat."
His cheeks flushed as he remembered the brown eyes gazing densely at him, and he felt pride swell within his chest as the realisation dawned upon him like a golden halo; he had saved the Prince's life!
Smiling to himself, he walked up to the front door of his home, and let himself in. There, he found his three brothers and their respective wives chattering and ranting on and on about the calamity that they nearly faced. To think the way they talked it seemed they had been fighting to save the Prince's life as well! Fanning themselves as they rested upon the large luxurious couches, they chattered all simultaneously in sharp, quick notes of relieved shock.
"Oh, the horror! Those terrible men howling at us!"
"And their flashing swords!"
"My heart nearly stopped, I almost had one sword brush into my suit!"
"Well, I never! What a frightening end to a birthday!"
"I'll say!"
When Benjamin's presence was suddenly felt in the room, stark silence fell in the room. All the six faces turned to him in scorn, observing him from top to toe.
"You are here finally; you're unhurt?!" remarked the eldest stepbrother Garfield. He sounded sourly surprised that the young man had survived.
"Very, thank you," Benjamin answered politely. He did not get any polite returns, not that he expected any, so he made to walk upstairs to let Mother Willow know of the great deed he had successfully accomplished. But a voice called out; the voice of his second eldest brother's wife, Glenda, "Where were you all the while?! And where is your coat?!"
Benjamin paused at the foot of the stairs and turned, smiling, "I am so very slight in form, Ma'am, that I was washed away with the tide of fleeing villagers to the very other end of the kingdom! I am sorry I took time to reach here, I tried my very best to come as fast as I could!" His lie was believable, hence the woman huffed, and she turned to the rest of the occupants in the room, changing her countenance altogether to a pleasant one, "Alright then! We have all had our fill of dinner from the Ball, haven't we, my sisters, brothers, and my dear?"
The five of the adults nodded airily in agreement. "Hence, I say we retire to bed for the night." And they all stood up from their seats, bustling about to straighten their fancy clothes and retreat to a good slumber and sleep away the panic they had been stung with tonight. Just when Benjamin turned to climb the stairs, a third voice called him in raised volume, "And who shall fetch the children from Melody's?"
It was Cynthia, the youngest of the three wives, who had asked so; and even though she had spoken 'who', it was understood that she had meant 'Benjamin'. Biting back a sigh, Benjamin smiled, "I shall fetch the little children from Melody Richardson's home, ma'am!" bowing politely. Cynthia simply smirked as she gave out a mannerly yawn which she hid behind a dainty gloved hand, "Oh, too much excitement for one day..."
o.o.o
Benjamin had finally fetched the happy children, and proceeded to help his brothers and their wives in arranging their rooms for a good sleep; spreading new bed sheets, lighting gentle soothing candles, sweeping the rug at the foot of the beds, whilst they took their respective baths (which he prepared for them while they groomed over themselves) and so forth. And all the time, he had not even changed his clothes or worried about the small wound on his abdomen that he had achieved during one of his duels with Gellaven. It wasn't a deep gash, it was merely a slight brush; he could heal it once he was done with his chores.
And finally, when the elderly men and women were comfortable snuggled in their beds, Benjamin walked up the stairs almost too fast that he nearly tripped over his own feet. He tore open the door to his mother's room.
"Oh, mother! You wouldn't believe... oh I'm sorry, I should have knocked, have I woken you?" he breathed, seeing his mother with her face calm in gentle slumber upon her cozy bed. But her sharp eyes shot open, and she smiled widely, "No, child, I had been waiting for you; I simply played asleep so that your brothers and their partners would not bother me!" she even winked at him, as she sat up. Benjamin was immediately that her side, helping her adjust the pillows so that she could lean back and talk.
"Well? How was your Ball? I take it from the commotion downstairs that something had become quite a stir?"
"Oh, mother! Quite a terrifying but exciting stir it was! My word!" Benjamin gasped, his face flushed as he smiled like a child. He opened his mouth again to say more, but the old woman suddenly raised her wrinkled hand to stop him, "Wait, Benjamin, I sense a wound in you! Lift up your shirt, my dear! And what ever happened to your coat?"
"I shall soon tell you, Mother!" he smiled, as he unbuttoned his inner-coat, pulled out his tucked shirt, and lifted it up to his ribs. He himself was surprised to see the large gnash upon the left side of his abdomen, pooling a little blood into the shirt and some trickling to his pants. "Oh! I hadn't quite expected it to be this bad... I suppose I must be growing more powerful in magic to have not felt the pain, is it not, Mother?"
"Indeed! And, I may very well ask you what you have faced to actually sustain a wound which, clearly as I sense it, has been made by a magical blade; but I suppose I should hear the proper event-to-event explanation from you?"
"Yes!" he smiled wider as the mother leaned closer, twiddling her fingers over his creamy fair skin. Small sparks and sparkles of lime green flitted about the wound, Benjamin hissed a little, as she healed the special wound with her magic. "Then, tell me, Benjamin, how it all went?"
And hence, the young brunette spoke unstopping for a long time, giving her a detailed explanation of all he saw and felt. The awe of the huge castle, the waiter's role he played, the meeting with the handsome prince, and finally to fighting Gellaven. And the mother who had finished healing him half the time, sat back and laughed as she pictured the words he described his fight in. He had however omitted the intimate moments, when he had felt over-whelmed by the prince's ambience of beauty, leading him to nearly lose his opponent. But the mother was clever enough to suspect a thing or two!
And after he completed his speech, he sighed, "Oh, mother! I have finally fulfilled my wish of protecting the prince! How glad I am! I feel twice as honourable I did!" his face shone bright in sincere joy and his mother smiled too, she reached out holding his small round face in her wrinkled hands, drawing his face closer. She pressed a warm kiss upon his forehead and hugged him, "I am so very proud of you, my son; and I am more than happy to know you have fulfilled your wish! God bless you, child!"
Benjamin smiled from within the embrace, his mind suddenly showing him the beautiful prince smiling at him.
o.o.o
Collin lay calmly in his bathtub. The pure marble structure was large and wide enough to accommodate ten people in comfort. The prince sighed as he let himself indulge in the warm water gnawing gently at his smooth skin, the water peppered with rose petals and creamy bath salts, giving off an alluring sensuous scent that brought peace and calm to his mind. Foams floated like clouds upon the water.
The bathtub was carved into the mosaic floor of the large flamboyant bath, with steps lining one side of the round tub for the prince to walk out of it.
As he lay there, leaning against the wall of the tub, his mind was swimming in and out with visions of Green Shadow and Benjamin, weaving in succession to each other. He could not stop thinking of both; he had met two people, both at the same night, whose presence he actually found pleasing and attractive.
As he sighed at the ceiling, his thought went back to that one moment when he was about to fall to his death; when the beautiful pair of green eyes had gazed at him so coolly. He remembered second-by-second of his experience; the manner he was held close, the voice whispering to him gently, the jolt as he was twirled once, and the manner the vigilante tried to run away but left behind a...
His head, that had been laying back again the support in the tub, snapped up in surprise.
"The small glove!"
He turned to his left, craning his neck to look over his shoulder, where the man-servant had previously neatly folded his blood-splattered suit for washing. There was no one else in the room at the moment, because although he usually had the man-servants massage his back for him, he had requested some time alone to reflect upon tonight's events.
Climbing off the tub, the naked form of the tall handsome prince walked to the folded clothes; his glowing skin glistening with the slick film of scented water, his dark hair pasted to his head, neck and forehead. He rummaged through the suit pockets and when he felt the silken fabric of the glove, his face lit up. Pulling out the small glove, he smoothened it out on his wet palm and gazed at it, the fingers of the glove stained with the blood from his cheek. Almost as if in a daze, he walked to the large mirror and marble sink. He looked at a glass bowl holding a few flowers in it. He emptied the flowers on to the marble counter and filled the glass bowl with warm water. He dipped the glove into it and personally washed it with the bathing soap salts till the stains were no more. Wringing the glove ever so gently, he smiled proudly at himself on his feat of washing a cloth article for the first time; he could have easily asked any of the man-servants to wash it, but he did not want anyone else to know about the glove that belonged to the famed vigilante.
"How small and slight the hands would have been to fit into so feminine a glove...and yet something about the same cloth says that he is an expert swordsman..."
He walked out of the bath and placed the wet cloth near the fireplace in his bed chamber. He then walked back into the bath.
Once he had finished his scented bath, been dressed by his man-servants and tucked into bed, he was finally alone to fetch the glove which he hid from sight. He gazed at it longingly, stroking the soft fabric, imagining the sword dance against the vigilante's opponent in such supreme skill that the prince's heart moved oddly just by thinking about it. He thought about how the younger man had so easily fought the skilled Gellaven, protecting him so bravely. He remembered those beautiful green eyes, and then, he could not fathom why, but the green eyes diverted his thoughts to Benjamin.
He pushed down the heavy silken covers to his waist, and looked up at the designed ceiling; every curve and twirl in the designs reminded him of the graceful curls that lit up in the green eyes of the young Benjamin. The more he thought of him, the more his heart burned in some odd feeling he couldn't name. He held the glove to his face and wondered, "I... I wish I could see him again...I wish to see Benjamin...spend time with him... his presence is like no other person I have been with; he did not pretend to be mannerly and try to impress me with flattery or such nonsense; he was honest and polite, he talked simple yet so elegant...I wish to see him, to be his friend... I want to see him... I must... I must..."
The eyelids slipped unnoticeably over the brown irises, and the young prince fell deep asleep, holding the glove against the thin cloth of his gold-laced bedclothes, where his heart drummed softly.
- End of Chapter -
Ok...that was a poor excuse of an update! srry for the really small chapter; :P lots of exciting stuff happening in mah life at the moemnt so, updates came slow! :P
for those following this story, thnk you a ton! :D i feel priviledged that you all like this story! :D rock on, readers!
and...review pls!