Chapter Text
Prince Adam proceeded at a leisurely pace from the Palace, across a courtyard towards the enclosed physical training area, having decided to surprise Teela by showing up for his training session early.
His mind began wandering as he walked up the pathway, palace guards snapped to attention and saluted as he passed.
Teela’s words from an hour ago kept repeating in Adam’s head, gnawing away at him. That she felt confident in her newfound desires for women enough to tease him on the subject, should have been a sign that all was going well. Their friendship was repaired and certainly they had a new shared interest. Given enough time and a little more respect in his approach, she might even be inclined to grant his original suggestion of indulging in passion with another woman in his presence.
But something was wrong. Instinct often alerted Adam when a situation seemed too good to be true. Usually a prelude to some plot by Skeletor or the other forces of evil that plagued Eternia. While clearly this was nowhere near as extreme, that old gut feeling told him that he ought to be worried.
It struck him that the idea of being absent from this latest training session had aroused no ire from Teela, something he honestly couldn’t remember happening before. While the Captain of the Guard would do her duty and stand by her commitments to the Crown Prince. Teela’s light-hearted, almost nonchalant response implied that she would be quite content if he didn’t show up, leaving her to spend more time breaking in her new trainee Ileena.
Sweet, brave, beautiful Ileena, On the one hand, Adam was happy that she would have the chance to live her dream, of standing side-by-side with the woman she looked up to. But on the other hand, no amount of training could prepare her for the warrior’s life she had chosen. Even as He-Man, with all the power of the universe at his command, Adam had seen things that were straight out of a nightmare.
On the subject of warrior women, he cast his mind back to Teela’s relationship with Huntara. During her two week stay at the palace, the imposing, intense Silaxian rarely left Teela’s side, except when the Captain’s duties demanded it. His friend seemed relaxed, more self-assured, almost in awe of her devoted protector. Whose eyes seemed like they could burrow into a person’s soul and whose stoic, emotionally guarded nature meant that sometimes Adam couldn’t be sure if she wanted to kiss Teela or punch someone’s lights out.
But then Huntara left Eternia. He had seen Teela go through the whole spectrum of emotions during their shared upbringing, but this was new. In the days following her companion’s departure, she could best be described as stiff, quiet, formal. Going through her routine with an air of detachment, so as to hide her feelings. When he asked her what had caused them to part ways, she replied in an unusually soft voice “She has her oaths, Your Highness, and so do I”.
‘Your Highness’? The use of his royal title had Adam truly concerned. The one time he had become frustrated and dismissed her by rank, she took it as the worst form of disrespect. Even Cringer wasted no time in taking him to task over such behaviour. Adam suspected that Teela was hiding a lot of emotional pain behind that mask of formality.
She had spoken to her father, able to confide in him as she always could. When Adam had later discreetly enquired, Duncan replied “She’ll come back to being the friend you know, Adam. But give her space, let her get there on her own time. What she is going through right now is something I’ve experienced in my own life. A pain that I sincerely hope you never have to feel.”
Teela’s liaison with Huntara may have started as a noncommittal fling, but by the end, had blossomed into love. Without knowing the details, it was clear to Adam that their parting had left her heartbroken. Days passed, and it seemed that Teela was back to something approaching her normal self. When she was granted permission by the King to bring Ileena to the palace for long-term training, she was excited to have her friend back in her life.
Friend …
That was what the little voice inside was trying to tell him. Now that Teela had known a woman’s love, was she looking at Ileena differently now? Certainly the blonde maiden had an obvious crush on her idol, had done for years. What if they did decide to pursue a romance of their own?
Adam had known Teela all his life, and it was no secret they cared about each other deeply. He thought that one day they would be able to figure things out and be more than friends. But ever since taking up the Sword of Power, the need to hide his secret and protect those he loved meant showing a totally different persona to his best friend. One who didn’t care, who didn’t take anything seriously. Inept, cowardly, indolent. It pained him to see the look of disappointment on her face, hear her angry words, know that with every lie told and every promise not kept, her respect for him as a man died a little more each day.
Now it seemed, his own words had pointed Teela’s heart away from him. Only now did he begin to understand the mistake he had made. Not only by disrespecting her and reducing her love life to his personal fantasy material, but underlying that was the arrogant assumption that she would never look to someone else for genuine affection.
Well, he thought, that all changes now. Duncan and the Sorceress may not approve, but if Teela figured out the secret as a result, then so be it. He was going to show her the same Prince Adam that Etheria knew, the aspects of himself that made her willing to follow He-Man into danger. Teela would see that he did take the defence of the Realm seriously, that he could step up. That the man she spent years trying to make him into was there all along.
As he approached the PT area, the path took him past the boundary wall on his way to the open iron gates that flanked the stone archway, welcoming trainees and veterans alike to the open-air courtyard filled with training mats, obstacle courses and wooden practice dummies.
He could hear the sound of grunting, short yelps, flesh slapping on flesh and raised voices. Sounds as commonplace as birdsong when the training facilities were filled with Guardsmen honing their skills or young men barely out of their teens, going through their physical tryouts to become cadets. Except this time, it was the voices of two women that Adam recognised very well.
“No, no, no, that’s no good! Harder! Faster!”
“How about…this!?”
“Oh yeah, that’s it! Don’t stop!”
“Had enough yet?”
“Not on your life, girl! Keep it up!”
Hearing those words sent Adam’s imagination into overdrive, but didn’t help his mood any. Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself and walked into the enclosure, ready to face what he assumed he would find…
To his relief, he found both women engaged in a serious, intense grappling contest on the mat. Ileena on her back, legs in an open guard position, Teela was on top of her. Gritted teeth, a visible sheen of sweat on their skin, both sets of hands locked, struggling and straining. Teela was trying to force Ileena down for the pin and the blonde maiden was fighting desperately to keep at least one shoulder up. Alternating back and forth between arms as the mentor sought every advantage and the pupil looked for some way to tip the balance back in her favour.
So engrossed in their battle, neither noticed Adam walk up to the edge of the mat until he cleared his throat and announced himself. “Teela?”
Breaking her focus, the redhead relaxed her grip, “Adam?”. The distraction was enough for Ileena to bring her feet under Teela’s midsection and launch her head over heels, landing on the mat with the wind knocked out of her. Wasting no time, Ileena then planted her hands behind her head and using them to push off, flipped backwards and landed astride Teela’s midsection, holding her wrists down for the pin. Breathing hard, the experienced warrior looked up at her protégé and saw no mischievous smile this time. Ileena was focused, with fire in her eyes. She was here to fight, not have fun. She had fully embraced the mindset that would be needed to survive contact with a real enemy and seeing that made Teela’s chest swell with pride a little. Still, best to reign her in for today.
“Time out, Ileena, that’s enough for now. Ease down…ease down.”
Ileena’s expression softened, she released her grip on Teela’s wrists and moved over to sit on the mat beside her teacher, who also sat up and tried to catch her breath.
After a few seconds, Teela looked up at the new arrival who had caused her to lose. “Well, look what Cringer dragged in. How come you’re so early, Adam?”
“I thought I’d surprise you and get our sparring session started ahead of schedule.”
Teela stood up. Still a little out of breath, she reached up and wiped the sweat from her brow. “You’re right, that is surprising. But what’s that expression the Queen used: ‘never look a gift horse in the mouth’? I certainly won’t.”
Adam gave a little playful rejoinder. “Are you sure? Seems like Ileena’s worn you out. We can always do this another day.”
She responded with a smirk. “Nice try, Adam, but you’re not going anywhere. If you’re here early, that must mean you’re finally ready to take my lessons seriously. You don’t get to back out now. Just give me a minute, there’s something I need to do.”
Teela offered her hand and Ileena accepted, being pulled to her feet and then immediately brought in for a hug. The redhead rubbed her protege’s back for reassurance while murmuring encouragement in her ear. “You did good today, Ileena, you did good. You made me proud, just like you wanted.”
Almost trembling with emotion, the trainee whispered back “Thank you, thank you so much.”
Teela pulled back from the hug and smiled. “No, thank you . I expect the best and you gave me the best.” She then pointed to the bench where their boots and tiaras were neatly laid. On the wall behind was a marble basin into which water flowed from a lion’s head statue. “Get some water from the fountain, have a seat and watch carefully. This is now the ‘show’ part of the lesson.”
Ileena nodded to her mentor, then turned and bowed respectfully. “Your Highness.”
Adam waived off the formality. “Woah, Ileena, you know me, we’re all friends here. Titles are only something you need to observe when my parents are around. Just call me Adam, like Teela does.”
“I’ll try, Your High-...I mean, Adam.”
“You’re telling her to imitate me? You’re going to regret that when she’s the one throwing you all over the place.” Ileena put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.
Adam shot a wink to the blonde as he put out the bait that hooked Teela every time. “Well, at least I know that she’ll win with some humility.”
“Ooo, that’s it, mister. You’re going down hard for that!”
Ileena settled in to watch the show as Adam moved on to the mat and Teela backed up to give him a fair amount of distance. “Last chance to change your mind, Teela.”
Instead of rising to the challenge, the Captain turned and addressed her student. “You see, Ileena, this is what I was telling you about. A new opponent comes on to the field. You’re tired, you’re sweating, you’re beat up, you’re not properly dressed for battle. None of that matters, you have to start all over. The people you’ve sworn to protect are counting on you to keep going.”
Without warning, Teela ran forward into a front handspring manoeuvre which she turned into a flying kick that Adam barely dodged. “Hey! What are you doing!?”
Barely had the words escaped his lips than he had to jump to avoid a roundhouse leg sweep “Element of surprise, Adam, look it up!”
Dodging and weaving, very much in retreat, Adam tried to play defense. Blocking as best he could while Teela tried to light him up with punches and palm strikes.
“I thought you were teaching me a lesson, not beating me up!”
“I’m teaching her a lesson - about how to beat people up.” From the sidelines, Ileena watched with rapt attention.
“You said no spectators.”
“She’s earned it…and you’ve earned this!” Teela charged and shoulder-tackled Adam full force, knocking him to the mat.
He looked up to see her standing over him, offering a hand. “Try to do better, my Prince. Set a good example for our student.”
Wary, he took the hand and was surprised that she merely helped him to stand, instead of throwing him across the courtyard. “ Our student?”
“Of course. The sooner Ileena learns the ropes, the sooner the two of us can protect you.” She leaned in close. “That is why you couldn’t wait to get started, isn’t it?”
Adam was a little flustered “Well, I, uh…”
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’”. She moved back to the centre of the mat, fists raised in a fighting stance. “Let’s go another round.”
Adam puts his hands up, begging off. “Can you at least give me a chance to get ready?”
Teela smirked. “What’s the matter? You said you wanted to get physical with two women.”
“Is that what this is about, what I said to you before? I apologised for that, I thought we were good.”
“I said I forgive you, Adam. I never said I would go easy on you.”