A Love Like No Other





Serena
Chapter 20- Flirting With Demons
 

        Tuxedo Mask and I continued seeing each other.  He would sneak into my room late at night and we would either make love or just talk.  Sometimes we would spend all night reading to each other.  I loved him so much.  He came to the palace four times a week.  We did not want to risk everyday.  Besides, we did need our sleep.  We would have become nocturnal.  Whenever there was a social function commencing in the palace, we would not see each other that night.  There were too many people around and that would mean a higher probability of being noticed.
        During our talks, I really got him to open up.  He told me all about the crash and how he found his way through the woods until he got to the community center.  He also told me why the patch was such a sore subject with him and how he had vowed never to show it to anyone.  When he told me that, I finally understood how much I had impacted his life.  He went from completely against humanity, to showing a princess (a rich snob, in his old opinion.  He had always regarded royalty the ultimate in humanity's downfalls) his most personal and humiliating trait.  I told him it did not matter and that it was not all that bad.  He then explained that he felt it was just another thing setting him apart from everyone else.  I never quite understood why he hated humans and their violent tendencies and yet it still bothered him that he was set apart from us.  Twisted reasoning, if you ask me.  But he was different now.  He said that through me, he was able to see the good along with the bad.  The other side of the story.
        After five months, he admitted to me that he had killed someone.  I knew he regretted it without him even saying he did.  He was simply so against violence that for him to have done it himself must have made him feel like the biggest hypocrite.  He told me about his theories and where he drew them from.  I learned more from talking with him in one night, than I did with any of my tutors in a year.  One time, I had to write an essay about human behavior based on history.  My paper was so well written and so well researched and backed up that the instructor asked me if he could publish it.  I of course gave him permission.  Tuxedo Mask laughed when I told him.  He said it just went to show that tutors do not know everything and if they listen, can learn a lot from their students.
        Tuxedo Mask was the wisest man I knew.  He was also the most romantic.  Occasionally, I would meet him at his house for a play and we would watch it from his perch above the stage.  He would hold me close and tell me that he loved me during the performance, making it almost impossible to pay attention to the play.
        For my fifteenth birthday, he took me to see my favorite play, Snow White.  We used the disguise power pen and sat in the second row.  It was in a real theatre on Venus.  He put his arm around me and caressed my hand with the other for the whole performance.  It was a beautiful play.  Afterward, he brought me to a hotel filled with red roses.  Then he made a telephone call and ordered room service.  After dinner, we made love to each other all night within the wonderful aroma of a thousand roses.  I woke up in his arms and we spent the day on Venus.  He returned me to my chambers that night and we parted ways.  I would have never dreamed of meeting someone so cold and having him turn out to be so warm.
        Micah and my mother were not happy with me the next day when they found out I was back.  Micah had planned out a similar evening, (except without the play or dinner, and not on Venus.  Other than that, it was the same.) but he certainly did not have the same intentions as Tuxedo Mask.  I lied and said I was with Mina, who had kidnapped me to a surprise party on Venus, and that I had ended up spending the night there.  Luckily I contacted Mina in time and she covered for me, but I could not be so irresponsible again.
        From then on Micah became increasingly abusive.  He was trying to take my love and body much more vigorously now.  It was a full time job keeping him out of my quarters.  I was starting to fear him in a much more real way.  Occasionally I would have bruises from where he grabbed me.  One time he got so violent he threw me down on my pavement balcony and tried to slam my head into the banister.  Luckily, Mother was around and he helped me up.  He told her I tripped.  I nodded, confirming his story.  Micah left that day and I knew he had crossed the edge of annoying to a threat.  If it were not for my increasing powers, I would surely have succumbed to him long ago out of sheer exasperation.
        Now quite a few of my nights with Tuxedo Mask were spent with him holding me in his arms and comforting me.  He asked me, "If Micah were to meet with an 'unfortunate accident' resulting in his death, would that help?"
        I told him I did not want him to kill again and not to stoop to Micah's level.  He told me he had already planned out a way to assassinate him and all I need do was give him permission and that I need not worry about his emotional state after killing.  He would be doing the universe a favor.
        As much as I agreed with him, I could not allow murder to be the solution of my problems.  For now, Micah had my days and Tuxedo Mask had my nights.  Needless to say I slept in a lot.  And I had tutoring during the day.  LOTS of tutoring.
        Then the inevitable happened.  We had been seeing each other for almost two years.  I was sixteen now.  Tuxedo Mask came over.  I was wearing a new sexy underwear set that I had just bought.  He started stripping me down when my bedroom door flew open.  Yes, it was locked, but power had opened it.  Micah stood in shock as he saw Tuxedo Mask and I together for the first time.  Tuxedo Mask pulled me to him and reached for my robe.  I dressed behind him as to not be exposed to Micah.  I had still managed to never let him get my clothes off.
        Micah was furious.  He lunged at Tuxedo Mask and pulled him to the ground.
        "YOU!  You attacked me that night in the theatre!  Now I find you in bed with my fiancée.  You will die for this!"  He raised his hand and in his fist he created a fire like ball of raw energy.  He brought it down on Tuxedo Mask's face.
        I dove in between them.  The fireball hit me in the back.  I was stunned for a moment.  I felt the power of the Silver Crystal absorb the energy that had hit my body.  I could not move.
        "Serena!  No!  Serena?  Are you alive?  Talk to me!!"  I could hear Tuxedo Mask's desperate cries to me and eventually found the Silver Crystal giving me power to fight.  I tried to get up but before I could Micah had created another fireball in his hand.  Tuxedo Mask ran at him and plowed him down and the fireball released, hitting the ceiling.  They were in a fist-fight on floor when my mother appeared at the door.
        "What is the meaning of this?!  Serena, what is going on?"
        "Mother, I can explain..."
        "Who is that?" Mother yelled looking at Tuxedo Mask.  "Did he try to attack you Serena?"
        "Yes.  He did.  I saved her, Your Majesty." Micah claimed, standing up, out of breath.
        "You LIAR!!" Tuxedo Mask screamed and punched Micah in the mouth.  Micah fell to the floor.  I ran to be in Tuxedo Mask's arms.  He embraced me and I looked up at him.  I had never seen him so angry.  "Are you hurt, Baby?" I asked.
        My mother looked at me.  "What?" was the only thing she could mutter.
        Tuxedo Mask and I were forced to explain what had transpired between the two of us.  Micah sat there and listened and drank up every word.  When we got to the part about Micah's abuse, he denied everything, which only erupted in yet another argument.
        My mother was tired.  It was the middle of the night and she wanted to be able to assess events rationally...with the Court.  She separated all of us and posted guards outside of all of our doors and outside the palace.  She would summon all of the Court to session in the morning.

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