Author Notes: For greentrickster – for dragging me into this rare pair hell. The cookies are too nice. And at least I can always drag myself back to GoChi.
Title (and chapter names) pulled from a song. A song that inspired something that was festering in my mind all this time. If you know what the song is, or figure it out, then, hah, enjoy wondering how this is gonna end. I can't believe this is an actual thing now. Also, ages are twisted - explanation below.
Thanks to silverandsapphire for beta-reading for me. Oh, I hope I used all that military lexicon correctly; come yell at me if I embarrassed myself xD
Pairing: Raditz x Yamcha
Words: 2,166
AU Setting: High School / Military AU
~!~Travelin' Soldier~!~
~!~Part 1: Two days past eighteen~!~
[West City Limits]
Raditz set a hand on the green sign, leaning over a little to stretch his back. As he dropped his dark green duffel bag in the dirt, he straightened up to give his neck a nice pop for good measure, a hand slicking through the sweat on his forehead and pushing it back into his hair. Walking for so long could be so tiring. Even if he had grown used to marching in his full battle rattle for long distances, the trek from his base camp to his brother's house was still nothing to sneeze at. Especially alone. Especially in the middle of summer.
Which is why he wasn't wearing full battle rattle; heck he hardly had on every piece of his fatigues. Screw. That. Oh sure, he'd started out that way, including the uniform cap he was required to wear, too. But eventually he packed it up, piece by piece. Of course the cap that looked so ridiculous on top of his hair had been the first thing to go, as soon as he was well away from any military base (and the main paved roads and highways at that). After that, he'd pretty much stripped down to his white undershirt, camo pants, and muddy black boots, keeping his pants bloused where the boots reached up to mid-calf. Every effort to be comfortable, as well as every effort to stay unnoticed in case some wandering eye were to report him for breaking protocol.
With a yawn and another popping stretch, he shrugged his shoulders and plopped down in the dirt around the city limit sign. Back dirt roads hardly traveled at all made for the perfect route for him, but the dust sure did spread when you moved around in it. Still. His aching feet were practically begging him to take a break with all that incessant throbbing they were doing. Getting himself comfortable against the sign, he grabbed his half-full canteen and dumped some water over his face, relishing in the cool (well cooler than anything else) liquid splashing him in this god-awful heat.
Oh, normally he might care about his waste of water, but he was right around the corner from his brother's house anyway. A walk around the edge of the city to the woods and then, well, compared to his journey so far he was pretty much at his destination already. Sure, he was taking a break now, but once he decided to get off his ass he'd be at his brother's place in no time.
Might as well enjoy a few minutes of rest right here at the city limits. Besides, his brother would probably be busy with his after-school martial arts training anyway. Gods knew the little brat loved his fighting. Stuck taking summer classes probably, but still insisting on a little time in the gym afterward. He just wouldn't be Goku if he did otherwise.
Ignoring the mixture of sweat and water tickling his neck and chest, Raditz closed his eyes and hummed. The sun was at his back. That much was enough to tempt him to enjoy a little nap out here. He'd been walking into the sun for hours. Traveling west always led to a little less-enjoyable afternoon. Gods. And the heat didn't help at all.
Just when he was getting to the enjoyment part of his nap, Raditz heard a loud vehicle rush by his position...and then slowly come back. Great. And then a voice calling to him. Double great.
"Hey!" The voice said, a boy no doubt just recently fresh from puberty. "You okay?"
Raditz opened his eyes, glaring over at the youth for interrupting his almost-nap. Before he could snap at the curious brat, he found his breath stolen by the sight in front of him. Well, technically to the side of him except for Raditz was looking...whatever. A youth recently fresh from puberty indeed. Puberty that had been kind. Hella kind.
A nice, strong jaw at such a young age with a pair of dark eyes that glowed like smoldering charcoal once the goggles were lifted to his forehead. And yet those cheeks looked soft, like a baby face waiting to be pinched. That face alone made him wonder about the boy's actual age and why there was something so vaguely familiar about him.
Beyond that, the youth's hair was an untamed mess, fanning out around his shoulders, though most of it seemed to be pulled back. Probably for easier riding. Damn kid had some fancy motorcycle – probably a gift from a rich Mommy and Daddy who had too much money on their hands. Kid could've done better with what he was wearing, too. Jeans and a dark green tank (with red trim and oh, complete with a symbol of some sort in the center) – not exactly ideal wear for riding such a bike. Kid was probably a brash risk taker.
Even more reason to like him. Shit.
"Hey, buddy," the kid said as he climbed off his bike. "It's not really a good idea to sit out in the sun like that. You're gonna roast yourself alive."
"Buzz off, kid," Raditz said, waving his hand. "I ain't your buddy."
"Clearly," the kid snapped. "I can tell by your uniform you aren't from around here."
Eyeing him, Raditz gave a small sarcastic smirk. "Oh, damn, thought for sure I could sneak into enemy territory dressed like this."
The dark haired youth blinked, standing a couple steps away from his bike and looking for all the world like someone had confessed to murder in his hearing. Well in a way...Nah. Being a soldier of an aggressive land-seeking nation didn't mean he'd killed the people of this one, yet. Except he had, but, well, that wasn't the point. He hadn't straight up confessed his sins – and never would do that for a stranger anyway.
All that aside -
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of more motorcycle engines. Oh, how lovely. More guests. And by the look of things, not friends of the hot young rich kid. Too bad. So much for a nap. The afternoon had just gotten hella interesting.
Three motorcycles came into view, circling the dark haired youth. Raditz put his hands behind his head and leaned back against the sign as the brash little risk-taker was surrounded by the small gang. The kid seemed nervous, eyeing his out-of-reach bike like he was wishing he hadn't stepped away from the thing. Well, every action had a consequence as far as Raditz was concerned. It would be interesting to see how this played out.
"Yamcha," said the supposed leader, who was even more of an idiot youth for not wearing a shirt in this weather and riding a motorcycle like that to boot. "Should've known you were the bike thief."
Raditz raised an eyebrow. Bike thief, huh?
Suddenly, he was looking at the dark-haired youth – at Yamcha – in a completely different light. Not some lucky rich kid then. If it was true, he was even more of a risk-taker than previously believed. Now Raditz was even more interested.
"Ah hah," Yamcha said, holding his hands up. "You want the bike back, Tien? It's right there. No harm, no foul. I'll just – uh – walk home."
"I don't think so," Tien said, climbing off his bike, a shine of sunlight reflecting from his bald head; the blond chick who had been behind him moved forward a little gripping the bike's handlebars. "That's the third one since the start of the summer. You owe me two."
Almost instantly, Yamcha's eyes narrowed and his body twitched as Tien walked toward him. "I didn't steal anything else. Just the one."
Tien scoffed. "Like I'll believe that."
Raditz watched the bald kid step forward – and wait, was that a tattoo of an eye on the kid's forehead? What in the hell? Shaking his head, Raditz turned his gaze to Yamcha as the shirtless, 'three eyed' brat forced the actually nice looking youth to take a defensive stance. Heh. What was with these kids? Both of them looked like they'd fit right into his brother's martial arts obsession. Raditz rolled his eyes. Maybe it was something in the water here. Dumb kids.
By the looks of it, Yamcha wasn't too confident in his abilities, either. But Raditz couldn't really blame him. Being surrounded by, what was it, one, two, three, four, five guys? Even if one was a midget, that wasn't very good odds. Typical gang behavior, though. He had to wonder why Yamcha was out here at the city limits anyway.
Nice to have the kid's name, at least.
To their credit, Raditz couldn't really tell who threw the first punch. For kids, they were fast, and once they got started dust was flying everywhere as they danced around each other. At least it was just Tien and Yamcha fighting. The others were there but hanging back. Raditz rolled his eyes again and let out a grunt. Dumb martial arts honorable nonsense. Like this fight was actually full of any honor.
Oh, and there went the other fighters into the fray. Well, that honor certainly didn't last long.
While the martial arts showdown – or scuffle, or beat down, really – began, Raditz tried not to watch too closely. He was the bored yet curious bystander here. Not that he was worried about gathering attention. Let those kids beat up on their good looking peer. He didn't care. Heck, he was only vaguely intrigued by Yamcha's moves against the overwhelming odds. He wasn't doing too bad for himself. Until – ouch – until that Tien fella stepped his game up. Then it -
Eyes narrowed as metal flashed across Raditz's field of vision. Metal that he recognized. With a turn of his head, he glared, catching sight of a gun of all things. That fine looking blond chick was aiming a pistol at the gang beating.
Raditz's hands reacted by instinct. Less than a minute to get his rifle out of his bag and put together. Damn. Less than that by a long shot, too. Thirty seconds? Twenty? Fifteen? He should've timed himself. Basic training had never seen such fast hands.
When he stood up and barked a command to "put the fucking gun down," the noise of the fighting scuffle immediately died as everyone around instantly froze. Even if he was only half-dressed in his fatigues, the image should have been enough. With the butt of his rifle at his shoulder, the end of the barrel pointed mostly at the ground for now, he narrowed his eyes and tried to make it obvious that he wouldn't hesitate to shoot if they refused to listen to him.
"Holy shit," he heard Tien mutter. "Chill out. This doesn't concern you."
"Hell yeah it concerns me," Raditz snapped back, stepping forward, and very slightly waving the barrel toward the blond haired chick. "Your bitch brought a gun to a knife fight. Hell, it's not even a knife fight. Even so – that's crossing a line."
Tien's eyes flashed, but he turned his glare to his woman. "Launch, how many times have I told you to keep that thing away from the public?"
Launch scowled. "We weren't dealing with public until he stepped in."
Nevertheless, she put her pistol down and raised her hands, much to Raditz's amusement. Man, it was kind of a good feeling having all these kids fucking terrified of him. Just to heighten the tension, he stretched his mouth into a grin and kept his eyes wide open, hoping to give the image of 'crazy military guy with a rifle.' Well. It wasn't too far from the truth.
"All right, so," Raditz said, smirking at the way they cowered at each movement he made. "You should probably leave now. Sorry 'bout the bike thing. But you'll survive, I'm sure."
To his great pleasure, the gang picked themselves up quickly, hopped onto their bikes, and got the fuck out of dodge. Raditz sighed as they disappeared back into the city, motorcycle engines revving their fear and frustration as dust swirled through the air along the old dirt road. Good for them.
"Dumb kids," Raditz said, walking over to Yamcha to offer a hand. "Don't know about theirs, but my gun wasn't even loaded."
Yamcha took his hand, wide-eyed and a little skittish (disappointing reaction, that, if expected). "Uh, yeah, thanks and all but -"
"Go on," Raditz sighed, waving his hand. "I need to hunt down my brother anyway."
Yamcha barked a shaky laugh. "Hunt down...right..."
Without another word, the dark-haired youth climbed aboard the stolen bike, started the thing up, and then he too was gone, back into the city. Darn. He wanted to congratulate the kid on a nice steal. Even if he had helped a little.
Oh well. Not like he'd ever come across any of these guys again anyway. Kinda sad to think about, though. He really had liked the look of that Yamcha kid.
~!~
((I don't normally do Author Notes at the end but there are a *few* things I wanted to mention))
Raditz likes to assume a lot. He had to grow up really early on in his life, too, so even if the ages actually might be close – he's still talking like he's some veteran old man with the 'oh kids theses days' lines. Hah. Then again, I remember acting like that when I was 18, so… ((shrug))
Bandit Yamcha in an AU – lol, lookie there. That was unexpected. Going off of what I know in the GoChi HS AU (same universe where this takes place, though this one starts off 2 years before the GoChi one), I doubt he keeps the motorcycle though. Really doubt it. Also, I know he's getting beat up in the first chapter, but like, uhm, it's not so much that he's weak – just – unlucky as all hell. I swear.
Oh! Ages! Right! So, I've decided I'm making them up. Like? For the purpose of having most of the crew in high school (for my GoChi-focused AU), Goku is 15 at this point, Yamcha is only 16, as is Vegeta and Bulma. Chi-Chi and Krillin are also 15. Uhm. Tien, Launch, Chiaotzu, jury is still out, but let's go with they're all either 15 or 16 and call it a day. I don't even know if/when they'll all show up, but I've pretty much decided everyone's ages now when before in my high school fic I was keeping it vague. Oh. Raditz is 18. As the chapter title suggests. So, yeah, it...doesn't match up with canon age differences at all.
Tien's gang – he's my antagonist in the GoChi HS AU so, uhm, here he is? (I was asking my sister, or maybe our skype group I dunno, about how to incorporate his third eye – and – uhm – well, I don't know who suggested it or if I did originally but the tattoo is a thing now and I'm just going to giggle in a corner uncontrollably). I think Tien/Launch is a ship here, but I dunno? It's kind of vague? Maybe I'll eventually go write a Tien story in this universe (hell no stop me now hah; I'll have one for everyone if I'm not careful)
Their accents - I have to say something because Raditz freakin' said 'ain't' and shit. So, uhm, let it be known I'm not a fan of writing in accents, especially not very thick ones. However, because of where I live, my country manner of speaking may filter in when it's appropriate. It's the gonna and the ain't and stuff like that. I'm not sure who's going to end up with what, but I'm sure it'll happen. Just. Because of how I see or hear them. ((shrugs))
One last thing: there will be time skips. There will be. A lot. Of time skips. 3 chapters between each one, though. Until we get closer to the end, but then, well, anyway, we get there when we get there. 16 chapters planned. Aiyaaa.
