the following story deals with many unpleasant themes like child abuse and unhealthy relationships, physical and psychological violence between adults; it's hard for my to list all the potentially triggering content; narration is unreliable.


You cannot take it back, make it undone. Chapter 1

Lost somewhere between the stars

Gohan had changed greatly in past months. Since he had been taken from Earth, he had spent time on two different planets and traveling through space. He was not sure how much time had actually passed. Three months? Four months? He did not even kept track of passing days any more; not to mention that 'days' lasted for different amounts of time on foreign worlds.

His limbs became thinner, lean muscles clearly visible now. His skin became darker, tanned by the alien suns, and rougher from staying outdoors all of the time, covered with many scratches and bruises. His eyes looked wild, his expression cautious and guarded. His hair became longer and messier, and now flea-like insects made their home in it. All he wore were tattered rags. You couldn't say he was too clean, either. Illuminated by dim light inside of the space pod, he appeared half feral.

At the moment, Gohan was calm and unalarmed. His breath was steady and he made himself comfortable on his uncle's lap. He leaned against Raditz's chest and watched as the other made adjustments to the flight path of the spacecraft, or at least that's what Gohan assumed he was doing. Their journey was nearing its destination.

An outline of irregular massive rock emerged from surrounding blackness, illuminated by the light of nearby stars. Gohan recalled reading a book back on Earth, where such rocks were dubbed as asteroids. A glimmer of reflected light caught his eye and brought his attention to metallic-clear cut surfaces that contrasted with uneven face of the asteroid.

The pod dropped onto the landing pad of a space station. 'Station Theta', as Raditz informed him.

Once he exited the craft, Gohan glanced in every direction and sniffed the air in hopes of absorbing as much information as possible about this new place. The premises seemed positively deserted. It was very cold.

"Come," Raditz urged Gohan, who trotted after him without objections. Raditz wasn't in any hurry. It was just that the small child needed to move his legs much faster than very tall Saiyan to keep up.

They passed through a heavy door and entered one of the rooms along the corridor. Inside stood several pieces of equipment, which looked vaguely like what Gohan expected cupboards in an alien space station to look like. The design was reminiscent of the space pod, albeit the pieces of equipment were not entirely spherical in shape, just somewhat curvy. On the opposite wall stood a transparent door that lead to another empty room.

"Disinfection Chamber," informed Raditz. "Strip!" He ordered, without further explanation.

Gohan did as he was told. He didn't want to, it was already too cold for his liking. Raditz also stripped bare and crammed his things into one of the cabinets.

Gohan stood naked and barefooted, awkwardly clutching the remains of his once fine and vibrantly colorful clothes to his chest. Goosebumps covered his tanned skin.

"Just drop them. Those are hardly good for anything anymore. We'll find you some new ones," Raditz offered. Once the rags laid on the floor, he incinerated them with precision and left just a small pile of soot.

Next, Raditz opened another cupboard and gestured to Gohan to come closer.

"Swallow this and drink up," Raditz ordered. He placed a small reddish pill in Gohan's palm and gave him a cup of water. Gohan observed he was not the only one undergoing this treatment, as Raditz put a similar pill in his mouth and chugged a healthy dose of water.

A moment later, he gave Gohan another cup along with a new set of instructions: "Just rinse your mouth. Don't swallow. Spit it out when it starts to feel hot."

Gohan obeyed diligently. He did not want to spit on the floor, so he settled for spitting the disgusting substance back into the cup he had received it in.

Next Raditz knelt before Gohan and gently lifted his face up with one hand. "Close your eyes." He wiped Gohan's eyes with a wet pad. Then he bent over the small boy once again, a small dial in one hand. He steadied the boy's face once again. "Keep your eyes open, 'till I'm done," he ordered. Cautiously, he administered an unknown concoction.

For a moment, Gohan lost his sight and the discomfort forced him to close his eyes. Quietly uttered curses informed him that Raditz had most likely subjected himself to the same treatment. When he opened his eyes again, the world was still swimming.

Raditz continued the procedures that Gohan learned later were a preliminary part of the standard disinfection process. He put transparent clamps around Gohan's eyes that stuck to the boy's sockets with what felt like suction. Lastly, he placed a breathing device over Gohan's nose.

"Inhale. You better keep your eyes shut once the process starts and don't open your mouth," Raditz advised and placed a breathing device over his own nose.

Raditz opened the transparent door, and together they entered the disinfection chamber. Next, he pressed some buttons on the command panel near the door. The last thing Gohan saw before he shut his eyes tightly was some sort of gas or steam filling the chamber.

Bright light temporarily blinded him even through closed eyelids. Then came a blast of almost unbearable heat, followed by freezing chill. Gohan could feel the sound waves pass through his body, although he couldn't actually hear them. He was sure they changed frequency over time. At one point, Gohan felt powerful gusts of air, almost strong enough to carry him away, and he wondered if they were being sucked out into vacuum of the space.

He did not know how much time had passed before Raditz finally told him to open his eyes. Gohan felt nauseous. His limbs could barely support him and his skin crawled unpleasantly. Weakly, he followed his uncle out of the disinfection chamber. His hair, like Raditz's, was ruffled and tangled and stood up in every direction, more so than usual.

"I hate the procedure," Raditz complained. "But you get used to it after few times." He removed his items from the cupboard; Gohan assumed it was a 'disinfection chamber' for clothes and equipment.

"Now to get you some clothes," Raditz proclaimed. He looked down at Gohan who, after exiting the disinfection chamber, shook like a leaf from the cold.

Raditz put his shorts back on and readjusted the garters around his thigh and bicep. He pulled on his boots but didn't bother with the rest of his gear. He grumbled that his armor was useless, so he stuck it under one arm and left the room.

Gohan hurried after him.

On the way, Raditz made various stops to press buttons and push some levers.

"There is no one here besides us, is there?" Gohan risked a question. After the time the two had spent together, he was no longer scared of Raditz per se. That did not mean he wasn't wary of him, or that he trusted him. In Gohan's experience, Raditz proved to have a bad temper and erratic mood. So far, he had not done anything worse to Gohan than slapping him, but each of his strikes easily sent the little boy to the ground.

"'S right. The station was abandoned long time ago, before we made it our base," Raditz explained. "It comes with its own set of problems, but beats staying in Frieza's barracks. We've been using here since... a few years ago in your terms now." The 'we' in Raditz' explanation meant - of course - him and the two other Saiyans.

They arrived at a room of substantial size. It was not entirely dark, as in one corner lamps, which presumably simulated solar light, shone over crates filled with soil and some forlorn-looking plants.

On the shorter wall was a large window that showed the stars outside. As far as Gohan could tell, the room was mostly empty. Near the centre was a circle of what looked like stones surrounded by all manners of blankets or covers and big, stuffed sacks. On the one side of the circle stood the only bigger piece of furniture in the room, if you could call it that. It was a structure Gohan immediately identified as the 'nest' and was easily big enough to fit five or six adult Saiyans. Later, he learned it had been constructed from several 'standard' sleeping platforms that had belonged to the original equipment of the space station. To suit more Saiyan sensibilities regarding sleeping spots, it was padded with all sort of soft items: pelts, blankets, pillows, delicate shawls to feathery boas and even, surprisingly enough, one or two plush toys.

Raditz casually dropped his burden and strolled to the center of the room.

"That's our main living area," he explained, "We sleep here. That is, us and Nappa. Vegeta sleeps elsewhere." He knelt by the 'stone' circle and suddenly a fire blazed up. Only, Gohan observed, it wasn't real fire. There was nothing burning, although he could feel the warmth radiating from the direction of the stones from his place slightly behind Raditz. It did not keep him from shivering.

Raditz grabbed one of the blankets from the floor and then stood up. He promptly dropped it on Gohan's head before the boy made any move to get closer to the "fire".

"Standard electric light on this station is pretty unpleasant. You'll see. So we got this thing instead. Pretty neat, huh?" Raditz stated.

Gohan nodded and wrapped himself in the piece of fabric. At least that gave him some protection from the cold.

"Come. We are going to find you something to wear in the armory." Raditz walked to one of the doors in the room, but not the same they first had come through.

Gohan obediently trotted after him.

The armory turned out to be a complex of several rooms, all filled with different kinds of equipment. Gohan noted that there was much more stuff than the Saiyans could possibly need and a lot of it seemed to be of little use to them in the first place.

Raditz found Gohan a short sleeved shirt that hung loosely on his frame and a pair of shorts, which tended to slide down unless he held them up by wrapping his tail around his waist. To Gohan's relief, they were almost knee length (and not the 'only-cover-your-ass' variety Raditz wore). Unfortunately, there were no boots in Gohan's size, the smallest set of armor was too big for him and there were no decent forearm guards or gloves. Frustrated, Raditz tossed Gohan pairs of leg warmers for both his legs and forearms, and explained they were essentially made from the same substance as standard armor. That should give him at least some protection.

Thus Gohan remained barefooted for the time being, save for the too large leg warmers, which slid down past his ankles and covered some of his feet around the heels.

Gohan wondered briefly why military equipment came in child sizes, then concluded it either had to do with Saiyan lifestyle, or that some alien species only grew as big as human children.

Once he dressed, Raditz suggested they grab something to eat and then take a tour around the station.

The kitchen and food storage rooms were located on the opposite side of the living area that used to be a canteen before the station had been abandoned.

When they arrived in the kitchen Raditz put a huge pot on the stove, big enough to hold enough food to satisfy both of them and then some, but by far not the largest available. He filled it with some water, threw in a considerable amount of freeze-dried meat, and said that it needed some time to cook. Absentmindedly, he hurled a small piece of cold, dry meat to Gohan as well.

Gohan sniffed at the scrap in his hands. It smelled different from anything he had eaten before, was - quite frankly- hard and cold, and did not look appetizing at all. He nibbled at it and tried not to think about the even less appetizing things he had eaten not so long ago.

Meanwhile, Raditz brought some dry rations from the storage. He gave Gohan a bar that could easily feed a grown man for two days. That is, a grown human man. For a Saiyan child, it was just a snack.

They returned to the main living area.

"That's Nappa's little project." Raditz pointed towards the crates with plants. "I don't know why he's taken to gardening, but there it is. Though I'm pretty sure none of the things growing here are the ones Nappa actually planted. I have no idea where these weeds came from," he went on. "He got real soil and all. Even got worms. To scarify the soil, so he says, like that is any help. Anyway-" he turned his gaze from plants to Gohan - "don't eat worms. If Nappa finds out, there'll be hell to pay. Trust me, it's not worth it."

Raditz shook his head. "Any reasonable space horticulture enthusiast would invest in hydroponic gel, hopefully to cultivate something edible, instead of playing in the mud," he mumbled. They left the room to explore further.

Raditz wore a tank top now. Gohan had not seen where he produced the article of clothing from, or when he put it on. In his mind, he pictured Raditz pulling it out of his thick hair like some cartoon character. The thought made Gohan smile.

Raditz noticed the smile, and not knowing what caused it, sent Gohan a self assured smirk.

They walked down the corridor while Raditz explained what laid behind each door as they passed. Sometimes, they stopped to look.

"That's Vegeta's place. Used to be captain's quarters. Don't even think about going in there, unless you're ordered to clean it up," Raditz warned. Gohan could not imagine willingly going near Vegeta or into any space he considered his.

"Here's the tactical room. You can go in here, except when there's a tactical meeting. You're probably going to be invited when you're older, and then you'll have to attend, but that'll be a while yet." Raditz leaned over the table in the center of the room and took something out from a box resting on the top of it. "You can take white, fluorescent markers and scribble on the corridor walls or whatever. There's a plenty of them to spare. We don't even need them. But, don't touch the colorful ones. We sometimes use those for planning." With that, he handed Gohan the felt pen he just fished out of the box. "Here. Keep this. It'll come in handy when I'll teach you how to read."

"But I know how to read and write already," Gohan protested. Despite that, he clutched the marker tightly. It was nice to have something for himself even if it was just a plain old felt-pen. Well, technically it was not plain old, at least not for Gohan. It was supposed to be fluorescent after all.

"Oh-" Raditz's brow arched. "So tell me, smart guy, what does that say?" He pointed towards a sign on the nearest wall."

"I...-" Gohan gulped. " I don't know those letters," he admitted.

Raditz laughed. "Seriously?"

Gohan nodded and sighed inwardly with relief. At least Raditz appeared to be in good mood today.

"What got you so freaked?" Raditz sneered. " Whatever. It's not a big problem. Sucks you have to learn to read again, but it'll probably be easier if you already can read your planet's writing."

They continued the tour. The toilets and cleaning facilities differed from their Earth counterparts and Raditz had to explain how to use everything. Oddly enough, he seemed to find it entertaining. Then again, Gohan had noticed quite a while ago that the Saiyan liked to talk, especially when he was in good mood. It was not even particularly important what he was talking about.

The med bay was a wonder to behold - it would make medical professionals on Earth jealous. It was filled with the advance tools for conventional surgeries, diagnostic equipment, and medication that they could ever wish for, all organized neatly, and at their disposal.

Gohan approached a huge machine that looked like a peculiar, empty fish tank, wondering what it was for.

"It's a healing tank." Raditz proceeded to explain the purpose of the machine.

Gohan was fascinated, but he soon learned that machine was unfortunately not to be used.

"Healing liquid for the tanks is made from nano-machines, nutritions and bacteria, or some shit like that," Raditz said. "It can only be used for a short period before it expires, since it's bioactive and all that. But it takes rather long time to brew up, longer that we usually stay here. 'S why it's expensive to use healing tanks. That and all the restrictions put on the technology, you know, to leech off the poor suckers who need it. So even though we have a healing tank here, and even have all the ingredients to make the liquid, it is too impractical to use." He sighed. "If we need to, we can use the healing tanks in any of the Frieza's bases. It's costly. More than it should be. But no other place I know would allow Saiyans to use their tanks."

"Come. I'll show you the mechanical workshops," Raditz offered.

Workshops were located near the landing area. There were several; all but one were restricted to Gohan. He was not allowed to go in without supervision. The last one was filled with broken equipment, which was of little use, save perhaps spare parts or materials for mending less destroyed machines. Raditz told Gohan that he could tinker with it (or destroy it even more) if he liked.

"You can run around the corridors and play how you like. Just keep out of all the places I told you about, and don't open any sealed door." The station had been designed to house around 300 people; the Saiyans decided to seal away significant part of it to minimize costs of exploration. Still, it felt empty with so few of them.

"I can play?" Gohan inquired.

Raditz regarded him quizzically, as if he did not know what to make of the question.

"Yeah, once you're done with training and all your chores for the day, you can do whatever you like." He looked at Gohan wistfully and placed one hand on top of the boy's head to ruffle his hair. "It sucks that you have no other kids to play with. Not much fun."

"What kind of chores do I have to do here?" asked Gohan.

"You're on a cleaning duty indefinitely, pal." Raditz grinned. "Don't worry, it's not that much work. Bots clean a better part of the station. Except for our main room and Vegeta's quarters. There's usually something to clean in the kitchen as well. Eh, basically you clean whatever anyone tells you to. I'll show you how to work the cleaning equipment, but we still have time 'till Vegeta and Nappa are back, so there's no hurry."

"And that is everything?"

"Yeah. Pretty much." Raditz shrugged. "That, and you'll be helping me in the kitchen when I ask. If you were bigger, I'd have you cook. But for now you are simply too small to move pots, so that'll have to wait. I will teach you how to do all the maintenance work for the station and our ships too, but all in due time."

Gohan nodded. That he could do. That wasn't so bad. Just regular house work. Or as regular as you got on alien space stations. Plus, he would be learning more about real spaceships. And that was cool.

Next they went to the training room. It was bigger than the living area. Raditz explained how it was the largest room in the station, except for the hangars. The ceiling was high to provide enough space for flight training, which was very fortunate, since Gohan had just learned to float in the air and was still in serious need of practice.

"Since we are already here we might as well do some warm up," said Raditz.

"Are we going to spar?" Gohan asked.

"Tomorrow." Raditz looked at Gohan critically. "As much as we need to make a capable fighter out of you, we both need some rest. Today we just warm up our muscles and do some stretching. Gods know we need it after being stuck in the damn pod for so long."

Gohan did not question it. He just started with his regular regime, and Raditz began his own.

Doing exercises warmed him up. He did not need to wrap himself with the blanket any more.

"Hungry," asked Raditz when they were done. "Me too. Back to the kitchen we go," he ordained as Gohan's stomach growled. He looked the boy over. "We need to put some meat on those bones."

They went back to the kitchen. The soft sound of Gohan's bare toes patting against cold floors followed the louder taps of Raditz's boots along chilly, empty corridors. The kitchen was much warmer when they arrived.

"Come!" Raditz signaled with his head that he wanted Gohan to go to the storage rooms before he disappeared behind the next set of doors. "Carry those!" he instructed once Gohan joined him, and placed parcels of culinary ingredients in the boy's outstretched arms. He took a large stack of packages.

Back at the cooking area, Raditz dropped his burden on the counter near the stove. He took the parcels from Gohan and placed them there as well. After a second of consideration, he snatched up Gohan by his growing hair and also placed him on the counter next to the food supplies.

Cooking was fun. Raditz let Gohan smell and try every new thing he unpacked before he threw the rest in the pot. Gohan liked sampling even though most things, which were apparently freeze-dried vegetables and some types of spices or herbs, did not taste very good on their own. Raditz also explained what each thing was and in some cases provided useful information about them.

Sitting on the countertop, Gohan felt he was at least learning something. And was having was fun.

Raditz was enjoying himself as well. To Gohan, who was getting better and better at reading his moods, it was apparent by the way he smiled.

"We need to make a supply run soon," Raditz informed while he stirred the stew. "We still have a safe amount of food here, even for four Saiyans, but there's no variety." Almost as an afterthought, he added: "And we're almost out of booze."

"What is booze?" asked Gohan, who was very young and did not know what the word meant, though he thought he had heard the adult Saiyans mention it at times.

"That? Liquor, you know, alcoholic drink." Raditz explained.

"Like that thing Grandpa drinks that sometimes makes him act funny?"

Raditz laughed. "Yes! That."

"Mommy says I'm not allowed to drink that it until I'm eighteen."

"And why is that?" Raditz inquired with some skepticism.

"Because alcohol is bad for growing," Gohan explained. "And for learning," he added.

"In that case, there's no booze for you till you're eighteen," Raditz decided thoughtfully. "Sorry, pal." At that point, he started to mix what he proclaimed to be minced grains and dried egg powder with water in a huge bowl.

"It'll be ready soon." he announced and poured the contents of the bowl into the boiling pot.

After the stew was cooked they went back to the living area, or the 'cave', as Gohan started to mentally dub it. Raditz carried the steaming pot, while Gohan was tasked with bringing some dishes and spoons.

The food was okay, but certainly better than anything Gohan had eaten in the last few months. After several helpings, they started to talk once again.

"How d'you like my cooking?" Raditz asked. He sat on one of the bag-things around the artificial bonfire. Gohan sat nearby on the pelt just next to the 'fire'.

"It's good," Gohan said. "But not as good as dishes my Mommy makes," he risked.

"I bet." Raditz apparently wasn't surprised nor upset in the least. "It's not as good as the food mine used to make. Hell. I can do better with fresh ingredients," he claimed.

"You didn't cook when... You didn't cook when we were on the planets," Gohan stated with question hanging in the air.

"Too little time," Raditz explained. "I'd have to look for pots, as we hardly can take any with us in our pods. Besides, I know little about edible stuff we find on each new planet. It's safer not to mix."

That sure made sense, given everything Gohan had learned so far about surviving on foreign planets.

"So, what do you want to do today?"Raditz asked after they both ate their fill.

"Teach me to read your writing!" Gohan blurted without a second thought.

"That's it? I told you we have this day to rest and what you want to do is... learn to read?" Raditz was perplexed.

"Yeah... and about space travel." Gohan flushed. "We don't have such technology on Earth. I want to know how to pilot a spaceship."

Raditz blinked. Gohan was apparently very excited by the idea of learning new things. Light shone in his eyes and the corners of his slightly agape mouth rose up.

"Okay."

"Really?!" Joy spread across Gohan's features as he jumped a little in place, tail swinging with anticipation.

Raditz grinned then rose up. "Yes. really. Come, let us find a piece of a wall to write down all the signs."

Gohan jumped up eagerly. At last, he was permitted to study something again.

"Learning piloting and navigating in space will take some time. You'll have to learn a lot of complicated math to be able to do it," Raditz warned.

"That's great. I love maths."

Raditz blinked again, surprised, then laughed aloud. "Man, you're weird little cub."

Gohan dimmed and sunk a little. "I'm sorry."

"What the fuck are you sorry for now?" Raditz asked, exasperated.

"For being weird," Gohan said quietly after a moment of quiet.

Raditz sighed. "Whatever. It's not a problem."

A suitable wall was not difficult to find. In fact, they settled for one in the nearest corridor leading to lavatory.

"Give me your pen," Raditz requested.

When Gohan handed over his marker after a barely noticeable moment of hesitation, Raditz wrote down all the signs of the syllabary that served as a standard writing system for interstellar travelers in this part of the cosmos, then explained what each sign stood for. Next,Gohan wrote down their meanings in Earth's alphabet. They repeated the same procedure for the numbers.

Gohan was a fast learner. Soon Raditz suggested they find some reading material to test Gohan's memory and practice reading further. Gohan learned that literature was a rare commodity in interstellar society. All that could be found on the market were different types of manuals. Books were stored on data crystals that were placed in a tablet-like device in order to be read. Mindful of Gohan's earlier declaration regarding interest in space travel, Raditz suggested they start with a navigation manual.

Before they continued with the reading lesson, Raditz insisted they take a break for a snack. Gohan happily agreed. They finished what remained of the stew Raditz had cooked earlier, but it was too little to satisfy their appetites. So Raditz produced two big jars from the pantry.

"It's cream made from puza fruit cores. It's good." He gave Gohan one of the jars and they went back to the 'cave'.

The treat inside the jar turned out to be very sweet and kind of nutty. It tasted as if someone had mixed peanut butter with equal amount of sugar. In Gohan's opinion it was not very tasty, but it was very filling and satisfying.

The navigation manual turned out to be a difficult read, even though Gohan easily remembered all the signs of the syllabary and all the numbers. Unfortunately there were many other mathematical signs they had not covered beforehand and Raditz had to explain what they meant. In addition, there were numerous terms Gohan did not know and that he always asked to have explained. The lesson turned out to be tedious work for Raditz.

Raditz stretched out as much as he could with Gohan sitting on his lap, tablet in hands. He looked at the boy.

"Tell you what, we're finished for today."

"Okay. Can we go back to it tomorrow."

"Ha. Told you, you're weird. No other cub would be able to sit still and read for this long, much less look forward to more."

"This is very interesting." Gohan curled a little bit in himself and murmured: "I like when you teach me things."

"Right." Raditz turned to look somewhere else but smirked. He put his hand in Gohan's hair and tried to divide its strands with his fingers.

"Your hair needs some grooming," he stated. "So does mine." He pushed Gohan from his lap. "I need to find a needle. It's too tangled up to manage without a good, sturdy needle."

Gohan knew already that Saiyans did not use combs for their hair. Generally their hair routine was different from what Gohan remembered from Earth. Usually it involved taking out manually whatever local vermin had decided to make its home in the Saiyan's hair. This procedure was preferably repeated every day. Gohan thought it rather impractical. Saiyans did not wash their hair with water, and when asked about shampoo Raditz just made a puzzled expression. Occasionally some of their hair became tangled up. Given the structure of Saiyan hair it did not happen too often to be a serious inconvenience, even for Raditz, whose hair fell easily past his knees. When it did happen, Raditz used a thin, sharpened stick, referred to as a 'needle', to untangle the knots. He kept one in his pod, but he often simply improvised one from whatever was around whenever needed. Gohan's hair, however, had different and more human-like texture. He really could use a comb.

After a moment Raditz returned with a suitable needle, a small device which turned out to be like miniature vacuum cleaner, a bottle of sanitizing liquid, and cleaning pads.

Now that Gohan knew the interstellar syllabary, he could read the label on the bottle; it proclaimed the substance inside was suitable for mammalian skin.

Raditz told Gohan to use the sanitizer if his skin still itched after the disinfection procedure. It helped.

Together, they managed to untangle the chaos that was Raditz' enormous mane of hair. As expected, this took some time. Gohan learned that the small vacuum machine is used to remove all bits of safely dead and sterilized fauna or flora that remained attached after disinfection. It was cleaner and quicker than picking everything out by hand.

As soon as they were finished, Raditz sat Gohan on his lap and started patiently untangling the boy's hair strand by strand until he could freely move his fingers between Gohan's locks. Then he rubbed sanitizer into Gohan's scalp. Gohan thought it was very calming, pleasant even, but after it was done he needed to have his hair untangled once again, albeit this time it did not take as long. When Gohan's hair was finally smoothed out again Raditz grabbed him under his armpits and moved him from his lap to over one shoulder and then stood up.

"We have shit to do tomorrow," Raditz proclaimed. He strolled for the nest with Gohan draped over his shoulder and dropped them both on the soft bedding.

The nest was full of scents. It felt oddly comforting to Gohan. He quickly concluded that Saiyans selected items for building their sleeping spot not only to provide protection from the cold, or even a soft place to rest, but because they liked the smell.

"It'll be several days before Vegeta and Nappa come back," Raditz said. He lay on his side, head resting on his bended arm. "We need to have everything running in perfect order in here by then."

Gohan sat and brought his knees to his chest. He looked at Raditz warily. He didn't like where this was going. Today had been a good day in Gohan's book, the best day he had since leaving Earth. He wanted things to continue being like today.

"They are going to be in the bad mood when they arrive from Frieza's base." Raditz sighed. "I guess there's no need to worry about it now." He placed a hand Gohan's head again. "So... you like it in here, don't you?"

"It's not bad," Gohan admitted.

"Maybe not," Raditz agreed, but the look on his face was peculiarly sad. " 'S the closest things we have to home now."

Gohan felt that Raditz included him in that statement. He wondered if he would ever be able to return home, but he wasn't allowed to dwell on that thought long as Raditz spoke once again.

"We rest now." With that, he moved his hand from Gohan's head to his shoulder and pushed him with enough force to topple him over. "Sleep!" he ordered in a soft voice.

Gohan laid for a short while in the same spot with open eyes. He glanced at Raditz, whose eyes were closed and his breath was evening out, but Gohan suspected he was not asleep just yet.

The light grew dimmer. Maybe the artificial fire was reacting to the lack of movement in the room, or maybe it was programmed to reflect day-and night time.

Gohan drew closer to Raditz and curled against his chest. It was warm and comfortable. Gohan inhaled Raditz's smell. He had gotten used to it. It was calming and somehow it made him feel safe. It was weird. Gohan was always wary of Raditz when the latter was awake. But he liked him when he was asleep. It was comforting to sleep next to him.

If only things could always be this way! But no, Vegeta was coming in several days. Gohan's heart pounded. He didn't need to think about it now. He did not want to think about it now. He just wanted the present now. Not the past. There were things in the past, things better left untouched. And not the future. He just wanted here and now. It felt safe to be enveloped in Raditz' scent. His heart rate calmed.

A tail brushed along his leg and lightly wrapped itself around him. Gohan pressed himself closer to his uncle's chest and reached out his own tail to wrap around Raditz.

He was falling asleep.

They still had several more days, right?


Authors note: Many thanks to Over8000 ( u/2444770/) for beta reading this story.

Two main characters of this story are a small child and an alien. Don't expect either of them to share your brand of common sense. Don't expect the author to follow the status quo, or the fanon either.