Morning had arrived. The sun rose from the horizon, bathing everything in its path in a light of gold. One gold stream managed to find its way through the huge window of the ouji's room and onto the bed to reveal, to all those without night vision, two sleeping figures wrapped heavily in blankets. But because of the heat the beams of light gave so quickly, the thick blankets were pushed down. Goku snuggled closer to her ouji, basking in the warmth and golden aura of her now husband. Even though they didn't get married the way ningen do on Earth, she was still happy. If this was the saiyan way of doing it… so what? What mattered the most to her was that she finally got her hearts desire. Her master and her ouji; Vegeta. Vegeta slid his arms down and wrapped them securely around Goku's slender waist, pulling her even closer than she was before. She lifted her head up and was met with the kakkoii ouji's smiling face.
"Ohayo," she greeted.
"Ohayo, koi." He greeted back, leaning forward to brush his lips against hers. Goku lifted her head and parted her lips, allowing that same cunning tongue to do with her mouth what it pleased. Though the kiss was short and tender, it left Goku aching for more. She opened her eyes and smiled at him.
"How did you sleep?" she asked.
"Wonderfully, with you in my arms, of course." He replied huskily. She smiled.
"Do you think anyone missed us?" he shrugged.
"Only your friends, my father and the entire Saiyan Council." Goku flinched a bit.
"Gosh, are we in trouble?" she asked, worrying a little bit. "I'm sorry if I…" Vegeta silenced her with a kiss, lifting to finger to her lips once he removed his own.
"Shhh, Bubbles." He whispered reassuringly. "You don't have to be sorry. It's not your fault that they're after me. I love you. I want to be with you." Seriousness flickered across his face. "Or…don't you want to be with me?"
"No! No! That's not it!!" Goku quickly said. "I want to be with you, I always have…well, since I met you. But…I don't want anything bad to happen that might separate us." The seriousness in Vegeta's eyes disappeared as he smiled and nuzzled into the crook of her shoulder and she wrapped her arms around his chest.
"Nothing they could ever do will be able to keep us apart, Bubbles." He promised her. "Not now that I've got you." Goku clasped tightly to his bare back, the tears slipping down the sides of her face. Who would've thought that Vegeta could be so loving and devoted? But that was most likely what made him so complex and intricate. The fact that you don't understand him until you're fully in. And right now, she thought. I must be the luckiest woman in the entire universe. Vegeta kissed her neck as he felt her shoulders quake. "Hey," he asked as he pushed her back to look at her face. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing," she sniffed. "It's just that…that what you said before was so…so beautiful. And…I can't help but think that I must be the luckiest women in the universe to have someone as loving as you." She leaned forward and gave him a gentle peck on the lips. "You know, millions out there have searched their entire lives looking for what we have and they've never found it. And…I just wonder if it's going to last."
"I promise it'll last." He said. Goku smiled. She knew that Vegeta wouldn't have said that unless he meant it, and now she was sure that this was real. She leaned up to him and pressed her lips against his, tongue gliding along the smooth edges of his lips. Vegeta smirked as he opened his mouth and thrust his tongue into Goku's mouth. Both moaned and clasped even tighter to one another than before. But their passionate embrace was soon broken up by the rapping on the door. Vegeta hesitantly broke the kiss.
"Yes, what the fuck do you want?!!" he barked at the intruder.
"Umm…gomen nasai for waking you, your highness," came Raditz's voice. "But your father wishes to see you." Vegeta rolled his eyes.
"Fine! Tell him I'll be there in an hour." He turned back to Goku, who was wearing a smirk and had a familiar glint in her eyes that he had seen earlier that night. He smirked back. "Make it two hours…"
"Where is that ungrateful little prick?!" bellowed King Vegeta for the fiftieth time.
"Sire, please!" begged Raditz. "Vegeta no Ouji said he would be here in two hours time." King Vegeta gave a frustrated growl before returning to his throne. It had already been an hour and a half, and he was getting more and more upset as the minutes went by.
"I never should have given that little bastard a choice!" he muttered. "I should've just picked a mate for him and let it be!" Raditz shifted a little uncomfortably by the door, hoping King Vegeta wouldn't suddenly pick on him. "Raditz!" He gulped. "Go back to that maggot of an ouji and tell him to come to me immediately!!!" Raditz silently let out a sigh of relief, glad that the King didn't decided to relieve his anger on him.
He quickly slid out the hall before King Vegeta changed his mind and walked back to Vegeta's room. This is really strange. He thought. I wonder what could be going on. Last night, Vegeta and Kakarot did the Tsukino Rei against his father's will, and now King Vegeta is all pissed off. I can understand why he's angry…but to the degree he's angry at…it just doesn't make sense! What's going around here?! All efforts to understand what was happening between the three of them were fruitless, though pondering about it did give him something to do while he walked to Vegeta's room. Gingerly, he knocked on the door again. He could hear his ouji's voice in the living room, and he didn't want to walk in if they were discussing something important.
"Hai?"
"Vegeta no Ouji," Raditz spoke up. "The king wishes for your immediate presence."
"Bastard…" he heard the prince mutter. "Very well, I won't be a minute. Come in." Raditz silently opened the door and slipped into the room.
"Ohayo gozaimasu, Raditz!" Goku cheerily greeted from her spot on the couch. Raditz smiled at his little sister.
"Ohayo gozaimasu, Bubbles." Just then, Vegeta came stalking into the room.
"Well," he asked. "What does this tyrant of a king want with me now?"
"I have no idea, you highness," Raditz honestly replied. "But he seems pretty pissed off about something. I think it has to do with you not choosing a mate from the line of women he gave you."
"Hn," he grunted. "He would. Anyways, I might as well go and sort this out before it becomes a boil on my ass. Raditz, I want you to look after Bubbles."
"Hai, Vegeta-sama." He nodded. Vegeta turned back to Goku.
"Gomen nasai, but you know I have to go." She smiled.
"Don't worry, I understand. I hope it all goes well, 'Geta." He smiled at her, his heart leaping that the 'marriage' between them hadn't changed her at all. Well…the bed issue is different from anything else. He just made a discovery on that.
"Me too," he leant down and gave her a chaste kiss. "Ja ne."
Vegeta smiled as he left the room, leaving a deeply in love Goku and a bugged eyed Raditz. Did he…does he…can't be!!…Can it?
"What's the matter, Raditz?" came Goku's happy voice. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
"Well, I've just seen something I never would have thought in a million years could happen!" he honestly admitted.
"Oh, what might that be?" she challenged, still smiling happily and giggling.
"Well…I never would have thought that I'd ever see Vegeta and you…you know…"
"But you haven't." she said cheekily, causing Raditz to blush.
"Umm…yeah. But what I meant is I never expected Vegeta to have sex with anyone before he mated." Goku smiled.
"Hee hee hee…" she giggled.
Raditz at first frowned at her giggling, but his eyes went wide as it suddenly clicked.
"NANI??!!!" he freaked. "You…you…you mean…you and Vegeta are…are…"
"That's right!" she giggled. "We're married!!"
"Married?"
"Well, I call it 'married', you call it 'mated'." He nodded, understanding what she meant now.
"You mean to tell me that…Vegeta has chosen you for his life-long mate?!" she nodded her head ecstatically.
"Hai so desu! It happened last night after we danced!" she sighed. "Isn't it romantic. I was also surprised at first because I was just a slave and 'Geta's the Saiyan no Ouji! But now that he's chosen me…it just makes me feel so special!" Goku let out another daydreamish sigh.
"So…you mean to tell me," Raditz asked. "That the title of becoming the Saiyan no Jyo-ou means nothing to you?" Goku shook her head.
"Nope! 'Cos 'Geta says he's not going to become king!"
"NANI??!!"
"Hai! He told me himself! He knew that his father and the Saiyan Council were going to have a conniption about him mating with me, so he's decided that if he can't have me as his wife when he's king, then he won't be king at all!"
Vegeta walked down the corridors, practically skipping with joy. Goku was his now, and he was hers. Could anything be more perfect? He abruptly stopped when he remembered where he was going and what business he had to attend to.
"My father," he growled, almost hatefully. He had gone against his father's wishes, he had defied the counsel, and now he was to pay for it. Like fuck! I'm so not paying for doing something I want! Most likely they're going to discipline me, or warn me that if I don't get things up to scratch, I won't become king… he thought bitterly as he marched on down the corridors. Well, fuck that! I don't want to be king! I don't want to be ruler of this miserable planet! All I ever wanted was to be love and to love. And now that I have it…I am not going to lose it!! He carried on through, his temper get worse with every thought, but his soul becoming even more determined to chuck it all back in his father's face.
Finally, when he came to the two huge yellow wood doors, he had to calm himself before knocking and entering. After rolling his shoulders and neck a bit, he knocked rather boldly on the door.
"Enter," Vegeta gingerly pushed the door open and walked into the large room.
"You sent for me," he said with a hint of loathing. "Father?"
"Hai, I did." He replied. King Vegeta may have had his back turned to his son, but that did not necessarily mask the irritation and strain of his voice. It was as though he was trying to contain something. Most likely his anger. Vegeta thought, a smug smirk pressed to his lips on knowing how much shit he was causing.
"Well?" he asked, wanting this to be over and done with so that he could get back to his beloved and start his new life. His better life. His life with Goku.
"I called you here on a very important matter," he said in a 'matter-of-fact' tone, fighting to suppress the anger within. Vegeta still heard it, though, and decided to push King Vegeta so he could use his anger as his advantage.
"Really?" he asked, voice silky. "And what might that be?" he asked, as though he didn't know. King Vegeta's shoulder's visibly tensed.
"You know very well." The careful words he had chosen came out as a hiss, to his dismay, and Vegeta found it much to his advantage.
"As a matter of fact," he said smoothly, noticing how King Vegeta's fists were clenched and shaking. "I do not." That was it. Vegeta had managed to snap the last bit of his patience. King Vegeta turned around and glared at him.
"You know very well, you little punk!" he spat. "You danced with your slave last night! You went against my orders!"
"And what about it?" Vegeta asked loudly. "Is it a crime to dance with your own slave?!"
"No, but you didn't do just any dance!" he growled as he stalked from the window to his throne. "You did the Tsukino Rei! That dance belongs to our race, you little bastard!! It's a highly symbolic dance between two of royalty, signifying…"
"Their love for each other, the commitment they are going to give." He finished for him. "The fact that they will do anything and give everything just to have the other. That they would kill and die for the other. That they will bond and be married within the next few weeks." He finished with a nasty look on his face. "Is that what you wanted to say, ou-sama?" King Vegeta stared at him with shock. But that shocked face turned red with anger.
"You know," he hissed. "You know, and yet you went against my wishes!" he paced from the throne to the window. "Don't you realise that that was the one chance you had to choose a mate?!"
Vegeta now stared in shock at his father. He now realised something that made his blood boil. He…he doesn't know. He thought as he clenched his fists until his knuckles were white.
"You don't…you don't get it, do you?" he growled, glaring at the floor. "You don't understand, do you?"
"Nani? What in the hell are you talking about?!" he snapped. "You ruined the Tsukino Rei…"
"Only for you, ou-sama," he said icily. "The Tsukino Rei, in my eyes, was the most prefect dance ever performed since two centuries ago. Everything about it was perfect!"
"Like what?" King Vegeta yelled, stepping even closer to Vegeta.
"Like the moves, the air," he paused briefly, hoping that it would nudge his father onto what he really meant. "The mate…"
"What mate?! You danced with a slave, you fucked up little runt!!" By now, Vegeta had had enough. He dropped as many hints as possible, but it appeared his father was too much in a rage to notice. Either that or he had too a hick skull!
"Gee, I don't know," he hissed sarcastically, taking a step closer to his father. "Let me spell it for you…" he took in a deep breath and let it out. "She…is…my…mate!"
King Vegeta stared at him with wide eyes, in absolute shock in hearing this. At first, all he could do was stare. But finally, when he had finally digested what Vegeta had just told him, he pulled his arms back and socked Vegeta right on the nose. Vegeta took it, full force. He stumbled back a bit; slightly dizzy from the bone break hit, clutching his nose which started to pour with blood. But he could care less. He scowled at his father through thin slits, as did King Vegeta to him.
"You little asshole," he said, breathing in heavily. "Do you know what you've just done?" Vegeta didn't answer. "You went and fucked up the whole line of Vegeta's, you fucked up cunt!!!"
"Says you," he muttered as he released his nose, allowing the blood to gush down his lips and drip off his chin and onto the cold, marble floor.
"You're supposed to fuck the botch without marking her, you bastard!" The moment King Vegeta spoke ill of Goku, Vegeta lashed out at him. He soon found himself lying on the floor, the side of his face throbbing mercilessly as Vegeta stood over him, glaring very hatefully.
"Don't…you…ever…insult my mate." He growled, tone even and calm, yet very threatening. "I don't care, about who the counsel wants me to marry. I don't care, about what you want me to do. In fact, to be brutally honest, I don't give a rats ass about this whole royalty shit!" he spat. "If being mated to her means giving up my royal title as the Saiyan no Ouji…I'm all for it!" he glanced at his father as he took a step back. "I never wanted to be king, anyways…"
He turned around and walked towards the door. But before he could get there, King Vegeta's voice stopped him.
"So that's why you did this?" he asked, trying to mask some other emotion in his voice. "Because you didn't want to become king?"
"Iie," he replied without turning around. "I did it because I love her."
"And just what are you planning on doing, now that you are not royalty anymore?" Vegeta could hear the wisp of cape as he got up.
"Doesn't matter to me," he replied as he finally turned around. "I only care about my mate." King Vegeta rubbed the huge bruise almost hidden underneath his beard. Man! He packs a wallop! He thought as he rubbed the aching spot. He felt rather lightheaded, but he presumed that it was just because of the punch Vegeta hit him with.
"You know it's not that easy, Vegeta." He said in a sneering tone, failing miserably at sounding reasonable. "You can't just walk away from it all. You are the Saiyan no Ouji, you can't just walked away from your responsibility!!"
"Well, right now, it isn't my responsibility, is it?"
"You don't understand!!" he yelled, his tone becoming desperate, rather than mocking. Vegeta frowned. It wasn't like his father to get so worked up about this. It was almost like he was hiding something from him. But Vegeta continued to fight.
"I don't understand what?!" he yelled back, twice as loud as his father did. "What is it that you want of me?!"
"You have to become king!!"
"Why?!" he yelled. "Why must I become king of this miserable planet?! Why?! Just spit it out!!" Vegeta's whole body was shaking now. Not only with anger and frustrating, but pain as well. How could his father not see that he didn't want to become king? He knew he was the only heir to the throne, but what was the big deal? Surely he should only start to act this desperate and panicky before he died?
King Vegeta drew in a breath, finding he was suddenly running low on oxygen.
"Because I…because I…" he started gasping. Things became too hot, all of a sudden. His airway suddenly blocked up and he was finding it very difficult to breathe. Hell with it, he couldn't breath!! He couldn't figure out what the hell was going on, until he remembered. The virus!! He thought with dread. It was kicking in, and there was nothing he could do to stop it!
Vegeta watched as his father stood, gasping for air.
"What is it?!" he said in an irritating tone. "Spit it out!" But when King Vegeta just carried on gasping for air, he began to worry. But only a bit. "Ou-sama?" he questioned.
The floor began to swirl under King Vegeta's feet, becoming almost liquid. Threatening to drown him, consume him; kill him on the spot. The stone walls suddenly turned white, and the vision that was Vegeta, his son, became very, very blurry. He was dying, and he knew it. And he knew there was nothing he could do to stop his deadly virus from killing him. So why resist? He could already feel all his energy being drain from his body, his legs being the first to go.
Vegeta watched as his father dropped onto his knees, still struggling to breathe and supporting himself on his arms.
"Ou…ou-sama?" he questioned nervously, not liking the looks of what was happening. His eyes widened as King Vegeta finally gave in, and dropped to the floor, unconscious. Forgetting about their previous squabble, he rushed over and shook his father's shoulders. "Ou-sama! Ou-sama!!" he yelled, trying to wake him from wherever he had gone. "Father!!" he shrieked, panic setting in. As quick as his feet could carry him, he rushed over to the tone and punched in the numbers for the infirmary.
"Royal Physician."
"I need help!" he yelled into the intercom, trying not to sound jittery, but he couldn't help it. "My father has just collapsed, and from what, I don't know!!"
"Who is this?" the voice asked suspiciously.
"The fucking prince, you jackass!!" he screamed.
"OH!! I'm…I'm terribly sorry, your highness…"
"Never mind that! Just get over to the throne room as quick as you can!!" with that, the intercom gave a click, and the voice was gone.
Vegeta slid down the side of the throne, body trembling and shivering with shock. Yes, he had seen pain and suffering before, and yes he had hidden the feeling of disgust and shock. But he had never seen it like this before. His father, the only paternal source he had ever known, collapsing right in front of him for some unknown reason. His body continued to shake as he curled up at the foot of the throne. Daringly, he cast a glance at the body lying on the floor. But that was a mistake. Just seeing his father lying there, lifeless, made his heart ache.
Without knowing it, and without his permission, the tears slowly made their way down the sides of his face. Burying his head in his hands, he managed to utter one last thing before he broke down in sobs.
"Papa…don't leave me…"
Red: okay! This is not finished! I have still about a chapter or two to go, so stay right where you are! Because I think I got my groove back!! (dances about room)