DISCLAIMER: Don't own Akira's people, just Sofia. Now for important business… The excerpted passages of the fan fiction within this chapter ARE NOT BY ANY MEANS MINE! THEY ARE NAMEK KAIA'S AND BELONG TO HER WONDERFUL STORY "Shattered Glass" WHICH CAN BE FOUND AT THIS SITE OR ITS NAWTIER AFFILIATE! I REALLY TRIED TO TRACK HER DOWN AND ASK IN PERSON FOR PERMISSION, BUT I CAN'T FIND HER. HER EMAIL HAS BEEN MADE OBSOLETE FOR WHATEVER REASON, AND SO HAS HER SN. IF ANYONE KNOWS HER PERSONALLY OR HER NEW INFO PLEASE SEND ME A MESSAGE WITH AT LEAST HER EMAIL. IT WOULD BE A HUGE HELP!
Extra Disclaimer: Violence, Language, Lewd Humor, and HORMONES OF COURSE!
Chapter 10
Lust gone Bust
"Speech" 'Telepathy' Thought "Dream" "Other Language" "Reading out loud"
The energy collision rippled violently even after she hit the ghostly weighted ground. Staring up as the shockwaves dissipated to flurrying flashes, she relaxed the tension in her back to make it easier for her to inhale hearty breaths of air. After the sonic booms roared to dullness, a sense of tranquility reigned in the white endlessness. Her half lidded eyes snapped open as she regained her breath and the fluctuating of the atmosphere settled into calmness.
Sitting up as if magically resurrected, Sofia scratched the back of her neck and chirped, "Wow, did I win?" Her body froze stiffly and her face paled as her eyes connected with the murderous onyx death threat she was receiving from her sensei. Piccolo sat rigidly on the chamber floor a half mile from her, his usually apathetic semblance sculpted into a mask of rancor, with a glare as cold as ice to match. His tattered cape snaked flatly on either side of him, his gi scorched from the dodging of ki blasts and the part of a bandage woven around his turban had gotten undone and now hung dejectedly by the side of his face. His fierce malice-filled stare did not let up as he swiftly stood to his impending height, and began to stalk over to her, his fists bawled up and his jaw set.
Snapping to attention, Sofia scrambled up from the pale ground and fortified her outer resolve as Piccolo came to glower down at her. Lowering to accommodate her still shorter stature, Piccolo bore his dark depths into her surprised spheres.
"No! You didn't win," he spat contemptuously, "neither of us did. Big surprise there!"
Piccolo had hit the roof of his level of patience this time. WEEKS! For now innumerable weeks since they had stepped into the chamber, they had both trained on the edge of muscle deterioration, and both still were struggling to beat the other in their daily spar match, just to end up in a draw. Piccolo absently started grinding his teeth at the reminder that he was so anxious for change that he would've been content to lose to her, HER, the smart-mouthed, foul-mouthed bane of his existence! To make today even more vexing to him was the fact that she seemed to not be as vexed by it as him. As a matter of fact, she had even become more brazen over the past weeks, her flirtation pushed to a level that Piccolo found purple-in-the-face embarrassing. Needless to say he had started regretting that kiss…
Her resolve springing back to its usual cool air, Sofia snapped Piccolo out of his brooding by grabbing part of his tattered cape to wipe the sweat off her face. "No need to get all sulky and grumpy about it, Piccolo. You'll always have tomorrow to kick me around again, and who knows, maybe you'll finally get me to touch the floor first," she chimed in a sardonically smooth tone.
Piccolo's glare intensified as he snatched his cape out of her grasp and slapped it behind him. "Who says you're done for the day, brat?! It seems to me that you could use some more training," he ground out, eyes narrowed as he grabbed her by the forearm, spun her in direction of the chamber palace, and literally dragged her behind him as he stalked in a stomping pace to the golden-domed edifice.
His short-lived satisfaction fluttered back to brooding surliness as they came feet from the pillared entrance and he let her forearm go with repressed disdain. "You're gonna do a hundred laps around the palace. You are to count off each lap as soon as you pass the last pillar of the entrance," he tersely instructed as he glowered down at her. "And after you finish that, you're gonna do a thousand push ups in front of these steps," he crossed his arms, adding snidely, "and don't think you can pull a Son on me and do something else while I train," he nodded his head over to the east of the palace, "I'll be exercising right over there, and I will make sure that you're doing what I've told you to."
Sofia took her nonchalant cross-armed stance, tossing her hair out of her face to cascade down her back. The shredded hem of her shirt rode up her now lithe abdomen, her improvised jean shorts hung on her hips and were ragged from the wear of the past weeks, and her battered sneakers were in dire need of duct tape. Raising a delicate eyebrow up at her sensei, she clicked her tongue against her teeth and shrugged her shoulders. "Yes, Piccolo-sensei, whatever you say. Did you want standard or one handed push-ups?" she remarked coyly, cocking her head to the side to glance up at him.
With a pulsing vein coming to life on his temple, Piccolo answered her wise remark by glaring down at her and by showily and audibly punching his fist into his palm, cracking his knuckles. "Surprise me, kid," he barked out, his tone dripping with acid.
Sofia gave him a challenging lopsided smirk. "I intend to, Green Bean," she mused tactfully, turned away from him and started jogging off to turn the corner of one of the chamber hourglasses. Before she disappeared behind the marble edifice, she gave Piccolo a heated glance and blew him a kiss.
Piccolo's temples were throbbing from his anger, his cheeks heating from the slight blush tinting them. He shook his head and growled in exasperation, then turned on his heel and stalked agitatedly to where he could exercise and keep watch of her. He was really losing his temper around her more often than ever, and feeling more self-conscious about having her so close to him. Her flirtation aside, she overwhelmed him with her assertiveness and her sneak-attack kisses! Nail once compared it to being like when a human male child just discovers that his female playmate likes him and experiments with kissing, but he wasn't a human child…and she was no little girl. Not to mention that she was the one always kissing him! It's not like he encouraged it by being the aggressor and cornering her for a session of tonsil hockey. His annoyance was boiling over around her, and so was his embarrassment.
Grunting, he brushed his distracting thoughts aside and kicked into his exercises, absently glancing over whenever Sofia counted off a lap and turned along the back corner of the palace.
"…Should've never kissed her back, dammit…!"
"Eighty seven!" she counted off as she passed the last pillar, sweat clinging in a thin sheet on her forehead and temples. She was pleasantly happy with her stamina today. Ki training, a two hour spar session, and now a hundred laps that I'm almost done with after 20 minutes, she smiled meekly as she glanced over at Piccolo, whose intense gaze bore into her as he changed up from a set of five thousand three-finger push ups to standard ten thousand push ups. Her pulse skipped and her heart did summersaults in her chest as she looked away and sprinted around the back of the building. It had been a good few weeks since they had their first kiss, or was it months? She sighed happily, not caring or keeping count anymore. Her mind was preoccupied with swooning, training, and finding ways to kiss Piccolo. Sure it had become more of a challenge to tease and annoy him during training, but the ultimate pay off was kissing those great lips of his and seeing his bashful and embarrassed streak of blush light up his emerald features with deep violet and the tantrum he'd throw before stomping out to train by himself. She knew he liked every kiss, even though he never took the initiative of kissing her first.
She sighed pensively as she came to the last pillar again, too distracted to count off. Sure he must be pissy because he hasn't won any of the spars, and I'm a little annoyed with it coming out in a draw too, but I've greatly improved, and so has he, that's what's important. She hummed distractedly as she once again passed the pillar and didn't count off. I am pretty exhausted from it all, but I wouldn't change this for the world…maybe make him drop the a and become sexual, but just being around him makes me wanna grin like a doofus. She wiped the sweat from her brow and snapped her rogue bang behind her ear. God he's such a great kisser…
"HEY! Pay attention, will yah!? You already did the laps you needed to do. Quit day dreaming and get to the push ups," Piccolo hollered at her as he pulled his weighted gear off and went back to his exercises. Sofia almost tripped on herself to run into the chamber hourglass she was going to pass before she skidded to a halt. She was panting from her exertion, her calves were aching and her thighs were sore from the mad-dash sprint she went into after getting distracted by her thoughts.
"Yes sir, sugarlips. Getting to it right now," she sighed out and trudged over to the palace steps, not realizing that she had spoken her new nickname for him.
"What did you call me?!" he barked over at her, his gaze snapping to her as she jumped and clamped her mouth shut. She blushed furiously and couldn't meet his heated glare, and began laughing nervously.
"Uh—Nothing! I said I was getting to the push ups now, what else would I say?" she tried to cover up and put her hands behind her back, crossing her fingers in hope that he'd buy it. Jeez, those satellites he calls ears could pick up my brain farting if he strained enough!
Piccolo wasn't convinced in the least. Standing in his cross-armed stance, he grunted as he glared over to her. "Sofia, get over here. NOW!" he shouted in restrained exasperation, emphasizing his command by gesturing and pointing down to the ground in front of him where he wanted her to stand. Suppressing her flinch from his shouted command, she rolled her shoulders back and fortified her temerity as she strode over to stand in front of her aggravated Namekian hunk. After drilling his gaze on her and dragging his glare up and down her body, Piccolo huffed and looked away, his abrupt action causing his exposed antennae to vacillate. Sofia couldn't help internally swoon at him for his gorgeous visage, the thought of tackling him to the floor and teasing his antennae crossed her mind more than once. "I'm starting to think that you enjoy demeaning me, kid," his rogue remark caught her off guard, causing her to self-consciously narrow her eyes and cross her arms.
"Whatta hell would give you that idea? I only tease you in fun, not—" she was cut off as Piccolo looked back down at her, his expression unreadable.
"I've told you before to stop saying all that smut to me. The name calling is one thing, but those demeaning nicknames are completely grossing me out! I mean, why the hell must you call me "sugarlips" when I obviously don't have lips made out of sugar!" he snapped in a sullen tone and crossed his arms irritably, his scowl resembling more of a pout to her as his brow knitted together in a conflicting expression and his intense gaze set on hers.
"…because you're lips are just as sweet as sugar, DURR!" she barked out in laughter, her chuckling turning into loud cackles that would've made Vegeta sneer. Just as Piccolo's patience snapped and he opened his mouth to yell at her, Sofia threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, slamming his scolding down his throat and making him yelp in surprise. Pulling his neck free of her grip, he pulled back from the kiss and snarled at her. Sofia dropped to her feet and continued to cackle, her laughs ragged from the kiss. "That nickname is a compliment, you naïve Green Bean. Even when I'm the one that kisses you it's your lips that entice me. They're just good enough to nibble on," she mused in between giggles, making Piccolo sweatdrop and grunt in mounting frustration.
"I don't want any of your perverted compliments, dammit! I told you already that I'm not here to be your perverted infatuation, let alone your 'french-kissing' partner," he vehemently shouted at her. "Whatever stupid girlish attraction you have with me needs to stop now, or I'm cutting your training off and you'll have to figure it out for yourself, understand!?"
Sobering, Sofia's gaze turned dark as she muttered coldly, "You won't do that unless you don't give a fuck about what I know of the future, Namek. The only reason you agreed to coming along with me to train in here was because you have a stake in what I know, so your idle threats are really wasted upon me!"
Piccolo simply crossed his arms, and actually gave her a smug smirk as he remarked condescendingly, "Now who's being naïve, brat. Who the hell said I tagged along because of that? I couldn't care less about your 'privy' insight, and I've done just fine before you stuck your nose where it didn't belong. I came here to train, and train only for when all hell breaks lose—"
"Which you wouldn't've known shit about if I hadn't told you! As a matter of fact, if I hadn't stuck my nose where it didn't belong, you would be flat on your ass meditating somewhere, clueless about it until Frieza's ki signature came up to bite you in the ass!" she snapped vehemently. Piccolo's expression of rage was poignantly topped off by the fact that she was right. They both stood their ground, their raging auras sizzling around their frames. After an intense stare down that was going nowhere fast, Sofia huffed and crossed her arms, her aggravation seeping back into herself. "Let's make a deal. From now on, we stop threatening each other…its stupid," she muttered as she glanced haughtily off to the side.
Piccolo crossed his own arms tighter, his aura backing down, also looking away with a dejected air. "Fine, but you have to stop with the nicknames," he muttered tersely, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.
Sofia scoffed lightly. "I'll try, but no guarantees on that," she remarked truthfully, her mood returning to its coolness. "You could always make up nicknames for me, you know," she mockingly purred and poked his chest in a light-hearted manner. Piccolo wrinkled his nose.
"Fine. How 'bout, 'P.I.T.A.'?" he remarked with a coyness she didn't pick up.
"Oh? What's that mean?" she cocked an eyebrow and glanced at him with avid curiosity.
"Pain In The Ass." Sofia glowered at him. "I think it suits you perfectly. Not to mention it won't be hard for me to address you," he snorted with arrogant amusement.
Sofia tried to glare at him seriously, but the amusement of his remark was too much for her to ignore. Smiling the way someone does when sizing their opponent up, Sofia turned on her heel, giving her back to Piccolo. "Touché Namek, but I might not need your training after all, seeing as I have twice as much stamina and drive than you," she mused tactfully and looked back at him over her shoulder.
The scowl returning to his features, Piccolo humphed. "All you got that has more stamina than me is your smart mouth, kid. The only thing impressive about your progress is that you're still standing. Be grateful I haven't broken you down—"
"Not like you haven't tried, right?" she interjected smoothly, turning back to semi-face him. "I bet I could last twice as long than you at any of your little jazzercises."
Piccolo's jaw clenched and unclenched as he tried to keep hold of his temper. "I'll take that challenge on right now," he growled darkly, his eyes narrowing. "Right now, those push ups you're gonna do, they just doubled, and I do have a preference for the style."
"You're on, Piccolo. And I assume you'll be angstily glaring at me from the sidelines?" she condescended to him as she ran her fingers through her bangs to comb them back.
Piccolo's narrowed onyx orbs flickered with something wicked as he gruffly stated, "No, I'll be under you for this little competition."
Sofia's eyes shrank to pinpoints as she face-faulted to the floor.
"Would you balance out your weight and stay fucking still already? Your jerking around is throwing my counting off," Piccolo growled in mounting agitation over his shoulder as he paused in mid push up.
Sofia dug her fingers into his back through his plum gi shirt, gritting her teeth from the exertion and insane amount of coordination she was trying to muster in order to keep herself balanced in the handstand she was performing on his back. Piccolo's back was like marble, only coming alive whenever he pushed up and lowered down on his arms. "I will when you square your freaking shoulders and flatten your back out more, dammit! Your half-assed push-ups are throwing my equilibrium off; can't get one push up in," she snapped back as she attempted to perform the handstand push ups he had ordered her to complete, but swayed slightly back. Setting her jaw, she pulled her legs to balance herself straight on her hands, fortifying her handstand more. GRR! When he said he'd be below me, I didn't expect this type of workout, she seethed in her mind.
They had switched over to her side of the chamber, and were several yards away from the curtain-draped entrance to her private quarters of the palace.
Widening the breath of his arms, Piccolo lowered close to the ground and squared his shoulders, allowing his broad back to flatten a little more. This elaboration of his push-up position brought more of his and her weight to press down on the spot between his shoulder blades, making it all the more challenging to push himself back up and lower down into the push up. "There. Last I counted, I was at 1,100 push ups, and you've only done less than half of that. Not living up to your own hype, kid," Piccolo condescended over his shoulder at her as he pushed up and down, not even breaking a sweat. Sofia forced her arms up and lowered them back down in a jerky move, her shoulder blades feeling like they could give way and strain her back. Glad to have gotten the detriment of her hair pulled back into its standard bun so as to prevent tripping her up or matting to her sweaty features and her necklace tucked snugly under her shirt so it wouldn't smack her in the face with each movement, she rasped hearty guzzles of air in and out. Growling at his condescending remark, she shut her eyes and focused on pushing her arms up and lowering them down level with her elbows to then repeat the process about a thousand and a half times over.
Growling at the possibility of having to deal with a snooty Piccolo later on, Sofia V-shaped her legs to do away with the pendulum effect of Piccolo's movements and her wavering equilibrium. "No se como carajo Goku y este jodon pueden hacer esta mierda sin sudar! Maldita Sea!" (I don't know how the hell Goku and this pain in the ass can do this shit without breaking a sweat! Goddamn it!) she ground out in Spanish, the only way she could articulate her aggravation without giving her frustration away to the Namek beneath her handstand.
His ear twitching at her turbulent-sounding words, Piccolo cocked a brow ridge. "What did you just say?" he said without pausing his exercise, his tone submerged most of his curiosity and vibrated his back slightly, tickling her flattened palms.
Picking up the curiosity he tried to submerge, Sofia smiled despite the aching of her shoulders and upper body, getting more of a hang on the workout. "Curioso, Piccolo? Pues no seas tan jodon y quizás te lo digo," (Curious, Piccolo? Then don't be such a pain in the ass and maybe I'll tell you) she mused playfully to intentionally annoy him and hopefully distract him in his workout so she could get the lead.
Pausing abruptly in his push up, Piccolo glowered at her as best as he could from over his shoulder. "If you're saying any smart-mouthed remarks about me in that language of yours, I'll backhand you," he stated icily, his nose wrinkling in disdain and his antennae vacillating from him having to hold his position and talk at the same time.
"Heh, now you know how it feels when you start muttering in Namekian to yourself," she grunted in between her workout. "You look and sound like an old fart who needs his medication," she mumbled humorously, mentally counting off 1,131, leading her sensei by one push up. "Sometimes I dunno whether to poke you with a stick or kiss you."
Piccolo's expression became smug and calculating as he watched her rise up and down in her handstand. "Now that I let you catch up, work on getting your bearings right so you can stop swaying like a branch in the breeze," he tactfully stated and went back to his own repertoire.
Sofia blinked at him and paused in her handstand. "Oh Piccolo, you're such a sweetheart, thinking of lil' ol' me," she batted her eyes goofily at him when he scowled back at her.
"Quit messing around! I'm not surprised that you haven't figured out the secret to that stance of push ups—"
"The whole channeling your ki to balance out the rest of your body? I got that after the 50th push up. Can't sense my ki, remember?" she mocked, her expression as cool as her tone. She could feel Piccolo's back tense from his boiling temper, his shoulder blades gliding back and forth vigorously under his thick, leather-like skin as he growled and vehemently continued pushing his arms up and down, not caring about accommodating her any longer.
"I heard my name during your yammering. I want to know what you were spouting off about," he stated in his trademark commanding low tone, not even short of breath.
Smirking mischievously, Sofia slid her palms to allow the breath of her arms to widen. "I was just saying how after I win this workout challenge my prize could be giving you a full-body massage followed by a warm bath together, and that could be accompanied by a fierce make out sess—ACK!" she was cut off as Piccolo flinched from embarrassment and suddenly jerked his position to the side, throwing Sofia off balance, causing her to tumble out of the handstand, and sending her crashing on top of him.
"OOF!" They both gasped as their bodies collided together and with the cold chamber floor. Piccolo had ended up on his back after leaning and losing his balance, with Sofia splayed back-first against his chest, her hair mussed after coming loose from its tie.
Piccolo registered how physically close they were, how good her hair smelled as it brushed the side of his face and tickled his chin; body damp with sweat pressed against his, and he realized for the first time how cool her bare skin was to his. Sofia's eyes were wide and her body was slightly rigid from being pressed so close to his solid form so unexpectedly. Sitting up to try to stifle her embarrassment, she looked back at Piccolo with a tint coloring her tanned features.
"Why do we always end up like this," she commented out loud, trying to submerge the pounding of her heart to his acute hearing.
"It was your fault…by distracting me," Piccolo muttered without sitting up. Diverting his gaze in conflicting embarrassment, he mumbled. "Get off so I can stand."
Snapping back to reality, Sofia came to realize that she was straddling Piccolo's hips and that her rear was positioned in the area where he lacked definition. Her face turning crimson, she fumbled up to her feet, allowing Piccolo to do the same, but more gracefully. After he physically composed his features and put his weighted gear back on— after snapping his fingers and mending them back to their usual look— he couldn't help his curiosity peek at how she could be so perverted in some instances and extremely bashful in others.
Shaking his head in a dismissing manner, Piccolo turned his gaze off to the side as he apathetically remarked, "A tie once again… this is getting old." Regaining scraps of her composure, Sofia glanced over at him. "We were both at 1,199 before we came to a draw," he elaborated further without turning his gaze to her.
Sofia sighed and lowered her gaze, attracting his gaze back to her as she stated, "If it'll make you feel better, I actually didn't enjoy that exercise regiment of yours."
Piccolo snorted dryly. "You'd be a masochist if you did. Training isn't supposed to be fun, or remotely enjoyable. The only pay-off is knowing you've surpassed the goals you've placed for yourself, and if you haven't, then you'll keep working at it until you do," Piccolo sagaciously reasoned, earning a smile from Sofia, a smile he had never seen.
"I agree…we both have our own goals we're trying to surpass," she spoke softly, her expression and gaze becoming gentle and almost soothing. Only one other person had ever graced him with such fondness.
Grunting, Piccolo turned to face her. "So another spar session wouldn't be a problem, seeing as we both need to surpass each other and neither of us have managed that yet," he stated with a gruff amiableness. "How 'bout it, kid?"
Her expression turning cool as marble, Sofia dipped into her unique fighting stance. "Bring it, sugarlips," she charged provocatively with a smirk.
Piccolo lowered into his predatory crouching stance, sizing her up with a glare. "Just for that, I'll take my time putting you in your place." With that, he phased behind her and rooted the heel of his palm in her back, sending her stumbling forward.
Gaining an opening, Piccolo went to strike her down with a chopping kick to her back, when she whirled around and blocked his kick, allowing her to swipe in and plant her fist in his gut. Bracing his fall, he back-flipped and landed back into his stance as Sofia increased her speed using her ki polarity technique and went into a flurry of punches, jabs, palm hits, kicks, ducks and dodges that Piccolo was equally defending and countering. Both enjoying the rush of the moment, they couldn't help exchange wry smiles and smirks as one dodged or blocked the other's strike.
"I still think that style and stance of yours is more detrimental than effective, you know," Piccolo remarked casually as he dodged, swung, and missed a punch.
Buffing her hands and swaying out of the way of a roundhouse, Sofia smirked as she pulled into his left and landed a palm hit to his side and then blocked a punch. "Well, I still think you ought to let me give you a massage one of these days and get the tension out of your back, you—oof!" she cut off as she doubled over from a punch to her abdomen.
"Stay focused and suck it up! I'm not into sucking face or any of the mating rituals you females subject your males to," he barked scornfully, and decided to add a scoff for the effect of riling her up, "and even if I was, I would never be interested in a weak, unfocused little girl like you."
Her expression rigid and blank as if someone dumped a bucket of water on her, Sofia felt her insides burn and her blood roar in her veins at his stinging insult. Baring her fangs at him like a threatened predator, she actually snarled and let her aura flare, all to Piccolo's surprise and awe. Her speed doubled, and her attacks were blind with fury, but by no means unfocused. Her palm hits turned into clawed slashes, her punches aimed not only to go through him, but to tear into him, all of which crackled and charged with her defiant crimson aura, and aggravated the pulsing and flaring of the garnet stone of her pendant that throbbed its glow through her shirt. Piccolo barely got away from her thrusting claws of iron, and was barely able to dodge her frenzied attacks, let alone get a chance to attack back.
He had never seen her attack or react in such a way before, and couldn't see how, led only by her rash anger and rage, she could be so brutally focused and keenly precise with estimating his movement when many novice warriors were blinded and led astray by their emotions in battle.
Managing to clip her in the side with a jab, Piccolo unknowingly left himself open. Sofia growled, bawling up her fist until she dug her nails deep into her palm and pulled back her arm. "What do I have to do to get your respect you fucking asshole!" she ground between bared fangs and swung her fist at his opening with all her resolve, punching him right in the face. She felt the crunch of cartilage against her knuckles as the punch snapped his head to the side, causing him to stagger slightly back and waver from the blow. The momentum she used for the full-force punch propelled her to trip and land on her knees, her fist throbbing and knuckles smeared with blood, purple blood. Her chest instantly began to ache from the ki exertion and her fury waned and died away as she gasped and huffed hearty breaths of air. The crimson aura sunk and retreated into her, and the pulsing of the pendant settled back into dormancy as she composed herself and began to regain her focus.
"Shit…that was a solid punch," Sofia's ragged gaze snapped up to stare at the figure that loomed over her. Piccolo hissed slightly as he cupped his nose in his hand, hiding her handy work from her as he crouched into a sitting position next to her. "You got me good; didn't even see it coming," he stated gruffly, almost too off-handedly as he bit back the painful stinging the blow had actually caused.
Sofia fell back from her kneeling position to sit in front of him, the aching in her chest subsiding slightly. She finally noticed the stinging of her fist and realized she had gashed her palm, and that her knuckles were smeared with purple. Her eyes widening, she snapped her attention to Piccolo, who was looking intently off to the side as he tentatively felt the cracked bridge of his nose and absently cupped it.
"Jeez, Piccolo, I didn't mean to do that! I'm really sorry. Let me see, maybe I can help," she said with true regret as she sat up towards him and tried to pull his hand away so she could see the damage her punch caused.
He flinched, pulling back, and slapped her hand away. "Stop babying me! It's not the first time I break my nose," he tersely scolded, adding, "besides, there's nothing you can do about it when it'll just heal anyway. It's nothing."
Feeling incredibly awful for what she did, Sofia leaned closer to him and placed her hand on the one he was using to shield his nose. "Please let me see, Piccolo," she pleaded in a soft, somber tone, her brown orbs gleaming with regret.
Scoffing a huff, Piccolo relented and lowered his hand, his semblance stoic and mystifying, even with the discolored bruising on either side of the bridge of his nose, which was slightly crooked and bleeding. His palm was tainted with violet blood and mucus, which he wiped off on his pant thigh and sniffled the runniness that threatened to drip from his injured nose as he wiped most of the blood away with the back of his hand. "See? Not that bad. It'll heal completely in a couple of hours that's—" his casual and gruff remarked was cut short as Sofia pinched the bridge of his nose. The pain shot to his senses. Piccolo grabbed her wrist and squeezed as he growled, "Whatta hell was that for!? I didn't fucking poke your leg when it was slashed open, dammit!"
"I just wanted to feel where the break is. Relax!" she argued as she pulled her wrist from his grip. "You need to snap it back into place or it'll stay crooked like that," she stated as she tentatively pressed the sloping area of the nose bridge, making Piccolo growl in annoyance.
"I told you it'll heal and that also means it'll snap itself back into place, you twit!" he spat with a sneer as he pushed her hand away so he could stand, but she pulled him back down by his cape collar.
"You said it'll take a couple of hours to heal when you could just snap it back into place now and allow it to heal faster, you dunce! Wouldn't it save you the time and pain of it healing if you just let me align it for you now?" she haughtily asked as she sat up on her knees.
"I think you've done enough," he stated snidely as he wiped his nose with the back of his hand again. "Besides, if you're so keen on my well being I can damn well snap it back into alignment myself."
Sofia huffed. "Stop being such a stubborn bitch and just let me do it! If you do it you'll probably just end up making it worse, especially since you don't have the right perspective of how to straighten it and I do," she chastised and glowered at him.
Piccolo scowled and muttered unintelligibly as he crossed his arms, snorting a sniffle as he gave her an intense glare. After a short and tense pause, he relented. "Fine, be quick about it," he muttered tersely and dropped his arms as he squared his shoulders more and straightened his posture, allowing her a better advantage at taking in his facial proportions so she could distinguish how exactly to align his nose.
Resting her knees against his tucked legs, she steadied her vantage by placing her palms on both sides of his nose in a closed clap, so her palms acted as splints for his crooked nose. "Alright…you might want to brace yourself," she warned in a slight mumble.
Without making any move to do so, Piccolo's dark eyes stared down then back at her. "Just do it," he commanded gruffly.
Sofia curtly nodded, "Ok…one, two, three!" at three, she snapped his nose back into perfect alignment— the snap and crunch of cartilage quite audible. Piccolo didn't even flinch, and just pushed her away as he tentatively felt his nose, already feeling substantial relief from the stinging pain. He sniffed noisily and grunted as even that didn't hurt as much as it had.
After debating quietly with himself, Piccolo crossed his arms again and focused his graphite gaze on her. He mumbled something under his breath and went to stand, but Sofia once again pulled him back down by his collar.
"What was that?" she asked with playfully narrowed eyes.
Piccolo's gaze intensified before he clenched his jaw and forcefully stated, "Thanks."
Sofia's expression softened for a moment, before returning to its cool semblance as she remarked, "You're welcome, you pain in the ass," and leaned close, draping her arms over his heavy and solid shoulders pads, and kissed him on his boyish lips, once again surprising her Namek roommate and infatuation. Pulling back from the kiss, she chuckled softly and wiped his still slightly bloody nose with part of his cape, and remarked in an amused tone, "You are one big fucking asshole, you know that don't you?"
Piccolo gave her a stoic look as he remarked apathetically, "Just like you're one annoying foul-tempered bitch."
Sofia laughed at that, sneaking one quick peck on his lips before she stood up, allowing him to do the same. Both their injuries beginning to heal, Piccolo sank back into his surly-but-stoic demeanor. "You just can't take a hint, can you," he muttered gruffly as he crossed his arms, causing Sofia to giggle.
"Just like you just can't admit you like it, can you," she countered and also crossed her arms.
Piccolo grunted, turning away from her. "You're done for the day. Get back to the palace and rest. Tomorrow I'll show you no mercy, so you'll need your strength," he instructed in his deep tone.
"Fine. Don't exert yourself too much, or you won't have the advantage against me tomorrow," she remarked with shrouded sincerity in a humorous tone, earning a dry grunt from him in reply.
Sofia exhaled softly, pretty exhausted and broken in for the day, and turned to head back to the palace. "Hey." Sofia stopped and looked back at Piccolo, who was still giving his back to her. "You did good today, kid. For all I put you through, you've improved well over time…and you did get my respect way before today," he paused and looked back at her over his padded shoulder, "just thought you should know that so you'll have your facts straight the next time you sock me like that." With that said, he faced away from her and blasted off into the air, his energy trail flaring behind him as he jetted further out in the chamber for his own training.
Her eyes still wide from his remark, Sofia laughed and smiled with unrestrained fondness as she turned and started walking to the palace. "God, I really need to get that Namek into bed," she humorously remarked to herself as she crossed her arms and shook her head with a lopsided smile quirking her lips.
Pulling off her socks to dance barefoot around the small palace, Sofia hummed absently as she went into the kitchen and dropped her dirty plates in the sink to be washed later. Her hunger sated for the moment, she stretched languidly— arms over her head and on tip-toe, small pops and cracks snapping as she yawned like a predatory cat of myth. Her spirits were in the stratosphere after her somewhat 'endearing' day with her sensei, and for the first time in weeks she didn't feel like crashing face-first in a mattress and passing out of consciousness from complete exhaustion. Deciding to just hang around and kill time waiting for Piccolo to come back from his loner training, Sofia strutted through the tussling air current of the eerie dimensional divide into her quarters, unceremoniously tossing her socks on the piled mountain of dirty laundry and dramatically tossing herself unto her bed. Breathing out a huffing sigh, she stared up at the dome-shaped ceiling.
"He's too sexy for his gi, too sexy for his sash, too sexy it hurts!" she belted in a mock baritone inflection, "He's too sexy for his cape, too sexy for his turban, too sexy too care!" she leaped up on her mattress and started jumping and dancing to her own mock-homage to Right Said Fred's only hit. "He's a Namek, you know what I mean, and I watch him shake his butt on the catwalk, yeah on the catwalk, shake his cute butt on the catwalk! DOOM-DOOM-DOON-DOON-DOON!" she jumped, doing a flip in mid air, and landed gracefully on the cold tiled floor, once again stretching the fatigue out of her back, more from boredom than real strain.
"Hmm, angsty man ain't getting back for a good while, but really don't feel like getting to sleep yet," she mumbled to herself as her gaze traced her quarters for something to do. "Don't feel like drawing…hmm," sulkily sitting on the floor, she dejectedly raised her hand and telekinetically guided her Piccolo action figure out of her backpack, and made it dance on her dresser, humming the remnants of the song.
After a few minutes of that, she grew quickly bored and let the action figure drop back in her backpack, which reminded her that she had something she wanted but forgot about in said backpack. Her concentration more precise, she levitated her backpack off the dresser to float towards her and to land in her lap. Rummaging through the heavily cluttered bag, she absently bit the tip of her tongue under a pointed fang until her fingers dug against a thickly folded wad of papers. Pulling the folded papers out and returning her 'purse' to its usual place, she quickly unfolded the papers, which were stapled securely together at the corner, and stood to her now formidable height.
"Shattered Glass by Namek Kaia… OH YEAH!" her eyes sparked with recognition for the fan fiction title as being the one she printed the day before she had stumbled into the DBZ realm and had stuffed in her backpack for safe keeping. A sinful smirk quirking her lips, she ran into the main room and decided to sit against a pillar at the entrance of the palace, where she was close enough to the kitchen and snack provisions for her reading. Tugging on the jean material from riding up her rear as she crouched into a sitting position, she crossed her ankles and went right into the story, which starred Piccolo and an original character of the author's.
She read through the first two chapters quickly, very enthralled by the author's writing style and descriptiveness. As the storyline between the two characters began to develop, Sofia couldn't help her schoolgirl squeals and giggles peel in the echoing chamber with every description of Piccolo's body or attire, and the innovative way he was portrayed in the somewhat smutty fan fiction.
Biting her lip and suppressing a husky giggle, she read silently and avidly over a specific passage. Blood rushed through him and settled at his groin, causing his pants to feel even more constricting around his large lower frame. He felt hot suddenly, but all he wanted was more. Using all his strength to stay standing under her ministrations, Piccolo reveled in the feeling of her velvety tongue against his burning skin. His hands tightened their grip on her, one massaging her scalp and the other holding her in place as he subtly grinded his hips into hers to relieve some of the pressure that was steadily building between his legs. She moaned at his actions and he nearly came undone at the sound… THIS IS SO FRIGGIN' HOT! She shouted in her mind after avidly reading the passage and braced her back fully against the pillar behind her as she raised her legs towards her chest.
Her chocolate eyes roamed the typed text as she absently chewed on the inside of her cheek, the story taking certain suspenseful turns and diving back into the scenes that would make any rabid Piccolo fangirl squeal with their fists in the air from admiration and hormones. Piccolo now leaned back on both his hands, watching her examine him with great interest as he reveled in the feel of her touch. It was so erotic, the way she made him feel while she was touching him with such innocence. He was hard pressed to decide whether he would have her continue her innocent exploration or change to a more aggressive touch. After a few moments, he came to the decision that he would take his time with her. There was no sense in rushing the one thing he might not ever get the chance to do again. He didn't bother to hide the half-smile that spread across his lips at the thought that he was about to lose his virginity to such a beautiful woman. "This is the hawtest thing I've ever read," Sofia breathed in a mumble to herself, feeling her cheeks heat up and her nose twitch in warning of an intense nosebleed.
Pinching her nose to stifle any drip, she read on through the second to last chapter, the characters ensnared in acts that she wistfully substituted herself in place of the female character in her fantasized machinations. "What I wouldn't give to be in her place…" she sighed pensively and pinched her nose tighter as she came on a passage that robbed her of her breath.
She gasped when he lowered her onto his shaft, and then released a moan so loud that he wouldn't be surprised if Dende himself had caught wind of it. Her back arched eagerly against him for him to begin moving, her legs in such a position that she could do nothing but wait for him to release the immense need that was built up almost to the point where it couldn't climb any higher. With a slow motion of his hips, Piccolo filled her to the hilt and reveled in the sound of pleasure that echoed through the room. A sound that he had brought to life—
"What are you reading?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The unexpected baritone question that rumbled from behind and over her shoulder startled her enough to earn a scream of mortified horror at being taken by surprised, and made her stumble trying to get to her feet only to cause her to face fault to the floor and toss the lustfully orgasmic fiction up in the air to swat against the ceiling.
Piccolo's wide-eyed expression and sweatdrop dissipated as he reached out and caught the printed fiction after it fluttered back down. Sofia sat up and rubbed her face and swore haughtily in every language she knew, while Piccolo glanced at her with a raised brow ridge and scowl. "Hm, what the hell are you up to that you'd freak from a simple question?" he said in his deep monotone and glowered over at her as she rigidly looked up at him, still rooted to the floor on her rear as she glanced at the evidence of her perversion in his hand and back at him.
"Nothing! You sneaking up all stealthily and shit just freaked me, that's all," she muttered tersely, hoping that she didn't come off sounding too defensive as she scratched the back of her head.
Grunting unconvinced, Piccolo's gaze traveled from glaring at her over to the printed papers in his hand. "I just asked you what you were reading that had your attention so held that you didn't even notice my presence," he remarked gruffly and quickly skimmed over the first few paragraphs of the random page the fiction was bent at. Sofia's eyes widened in aghast shock as she realized the predicament that was unfolding due to his curiosity.
"Just give the thing back to me already and stop being so freaking nosey!" she snapped and went to lunge for the printed papers but was thwarted and held at bay by Piccolo's foot.
Pushing her back on her rear, Piccolo flipped through various pages after skimming over some of the passages, until something jumped out at him on one of the randomly flipped pages. "Why is my name in this?" he inquired in a commanding tone as he redirected his intense gaze to her.
Sofia flushed and sweatdropped. "Jesus, Piccolo! Just give me the fucking thing already!" she defensively chastised and went to get up and lunge for the papers again, but was cut down by the angry and intimidating glare and warning growl of the Namek looming in front of her.
Looking back at the passage that contained his name, Piccolo read out loud, "Emerald hands roamed further down a creamy stomach until they reached her pants. After fumbling to undo them with no avail, he finally just ripped them off with a grunt and a nip to her lower lip," Piccolo's brow furrowed in confusion while Sofia's eyes bugged out of her head and her face flushed deeper. She remembered what came after just one more sentence in that passage and paled at the fact that if he read why his name was in that certain paragraph, he would nuke her entire existence. "A moan that sounded more like a whimper escaped her mouth and her eyes fell closed against her will after he moved between—"
His awkwardly gruff baritone narration was cut off by her shouted cry, "NOOOOO!" as she formed a small ki ball in her palm and threw it at the printed fiction, igniting the top margin and completely taking Piccolo by surprise as she staggered up, snatched the papers from his hand, threw them down to the floor, and stomped on them to put out the crinkling flames. Frozen in a wide stare, Piccolo merely watched her glance at him with blank features, snatch the slightly singed papers from the floor, and run out through her doorway in a mad-dash that he was too flabbergasted to follow.
Standing rooted to his spot in the middle of the main room, Piccolo rubbed the back of his neck as he let the lines of the passage flutter in his mind. After a long pause that stretched into confused silence, he grunted. "Emerald hands…?" he muttered to himself, and quickly shook his head to impede his curiosity from venturing any further. Grunting with a stoic semblance, he remarked to himself in a sigh, "Nevermind. I really don't wanna know…" and crouched into his trademark meditating stance, crossing his arms and going into his concentrated scowl.
"Ah, that was such a hot fic! When I get back I definitely have to check up on it," Sofia chimed to herself as she grinned and stretched out her legs from their previous lotus position. Hopping into a crouch, she sensed Piccolo's position, and found the unique reverberating ki signature still rooted in meditation in the main room of the palace. Standing up, she somberly looked at the printed smut she held in her hand. "Hmm, I guess I should really do away with it before it falls into Piccolo's hands again," she remorsed with a sigh and gave one more fond look at the papers before tossing them in the air and blasting them to nothing. "No more evidence," she mused as she walked over the edge of the palace roof and floated down to the pale ground.
Having escaped to the golden edifice's roof in order to read the rest of the fan fiction after being caught by Piccolo, she figured he was still too naïve to put what he read and the reason his name was in the passage together, since he made no haste in tracking her down and giving her an earful about how smut equals a pissy Namek. Grunting in amusement from the previous embarrassing situation she suffered with his impromptu narration, Sofia stepped past the draped entrance into her room. Hmm, I really need to do something about all that laundry… she sardonically instructed to herself as she eyed wearily the pile of battered and abused clothes she had been stuck alternating for the past few weeks. I wonder where Kami put the laundry room in this place.
She remembered how a few days back she found out that the dimensional divide extended further past the threshold of her room when she had jogged around the front of the palace after having gone out through the archway entrance in her room, and noticed how she changed from 'real' to 'DBZ', the only difference being that the change was hardly noticeable compared to that of walking through the doorway in and out of her room. She later speculated that even if she was to go out into the void on her side of the divide, if she was to go onto the opposite side of the divide when out in the void, she would pass the dimensional divide provided by the chamber, same occurring if Piccolo went from his side of the divide to hers while out in the void. Lost in her musings, she decided to track down where she could wash her clothes. Wandering back out the entranceway, she went around back the wide edifice to see if maybe there was a discreetly placed laundry room attached to the palace that she might have missed before. "It's gotta be around here somewhere," she muttered to herself as she walked around the extension of outer wall that was part of her quarters to the back of what would be the main room. Looking for signs of an entrance of any kind, she started growling in aggravation as she found none. "Grr! Jeez, I know none of the Saiyans bothered changing their clothes when they were in here during the Cell saga, but c'mon! There should be at least a washing machine around here somewhere," she tersely grumbled to herself. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw a minute shift of paper. Sure enough, there was a small note stuck to the wall close to the corner where the edifice's wall angled out. Walking over and snatching the piece of thick parchment off the wall, she grunted in curiosity as she notice the familiar handwriting on it.
Sofia, if you find this parchment then I assume you went in search for the palace's laundry room. Unfortunately, Mr. Popo and I were forced to discard any excessive clutter of appliances and palace alcoves in order to reconstruct the palace to its unique setup for your stay. Since the change needed to be adequately balanced out with the dimensional space of the chamber, we had to remove the laundry room alcove in order for the palace to fit within the dimensional space. I am very sorry if this causes you any inconvenience, but I am sure that, if requested nicely, Piccolo would gladly volunteer to create new garments and attire for you until your stay in the chamber is completed. –Kami
The sound of crumpling paper and a vehement swear word echoed in the expanse of the chamber…
Pssh, why would I think meditating would relax me when I haven't been able to go deep in my consciousness for weeks now, Piccolo grumbled to himself as he sulked out of his trademark meditating stance. His ear twitched at what he thought was a shouted curse word, but didn't have time to wonder where it came from.
'Can't meditate?' Nail's nonchalant tone resounded in his mind, to his dismay.
'Nail, why don't you go and take a permanent nap. It'd do me a huge pleasure not to hear you drone on today,' Piccolo tersely grumbled to his counterpart.
'Well, I did stay quiet during the entirety of your day with Sofia, so I thought you deserved the pleasure of conversing with me now,' Nail chimed in his offhanded tone, earning a growl of annoyance from the other.
'When did conversing with you ever become deserved,' Piccolo snidely remarked, 'and besides, I'm not in the conversing mood.'
'Hm, as if you were ever in any other mood besides brooding,' Nail said matter-of-factly. 'Well I just wanted to talk about Sofia, but since you're thinking of her constantly nowadays anyway, I guess I won't distract you from your musings.'
'Nail!' Piccolo growled in repressed scorn. 'Just spit out what you really want to say and stop jerking me around! I am in no mood for your jargon shit today.'
A short pause reigned before Nail went directly to his point. 'Her power flared wildly today after that insensitive comment of yours,' a pause, then, 'Do you revel in being reckless or are you simply stubborn enough to ignore the warning Kami-sama gave you about how she could be harmed by her own emotions?' His sharp tone wasn't ebbed, only punctuated by the grave inflection his words took on telepathically.
Surprised by Nail's rhetorical statement and delivery, Piccolo crossed his arms tightly and set his jaw.
His tone returning to his characteristic tenor chime, Nail continued, 'Her attraction to you is getting stronger, and so is her emotional conviction in this situation. Challenging that alienates her emotions, something you do not want to do knowing the consequences.'
Clenching his jaw tightly, Piccolo responded apathetically, 'She needs to learn to control her own damn emotions. It's not my job to handle her with kid gloves just cuz of the ramblings of that old goat. I'm not here to babysit her, and I refuse to do otherwise.'
A terse pause. 'Then what if she dies? What if the "ramblings of that old goat" are exactly right, and something does happen to her if she lets her emotions take over!?' Nail stated sternly, his hard tone echoing across the central bridge of their consciousness.
Piccolo dug his pointed nails into his palms. 'I won't let that happen,' he growled with restrained determination to his counterpart.
Sobering his tone, Nail continued, 'That's all I wanted to hear you say,' he paused, and added carefully, 'can you now admit to yourself that you care about her, at least to the level that you care about Gohan?'
Scoffing a huff, Piccolo countered, 'When you say me, you actually mean admit to you, right?'
'…that would be good too,' Nail remarked aloofly.
'Humph,' he grunted, thinking about the question. 'Well, I guess—' his telepathic snorted remark was cut off by the grumbling muttering that he picked up entering the main room.
He snapped out of the telepathic conversation just in time to see Sofia pace right by him, her features furrowed in aggravation and her stride stalking as she went to the kitchen, ignoring him as if he weren't even in the room. He could hear her still vehemently grumbling and swearing as the sounds of cabinets swinging open and shut echoed into the room. Then she emerged from the kitchen gripping a bottle of dishwashing soap, still muttering turbulently to herself in a mix of Spanish and English as she paced right by him and stalked into her quarters.
Raising a browridge, Piccolo grunted and stood up. 'Whatta hell is her problem?' he telepathically muttered.
'Hm, how should I know? I would find out for myself, but you know—' Piccolo cut him off with a grunt.
'Fine, I'll go see what stupid thing she's getting bent out of shape about now,' he rumbled stoically and strode over to the dimensional threshold dividing their realms.
As he stepped through the swishing air current into her reality, he paused and stared as he almost got hit in the face by a tattered white shirt. Sofia was deep in the middle of a pile of laundry, sifting through what was salvageable and what needed to be taken out back and blasted out of existence, muttering about how pathetic she'd feel asking for anything from someone so pigheaded and arrogant.
After some time of staring at her erratic behavior, Piccolo's semblance became apathetic as he crossed his arms and rumbled tersely behind her, "What the hell are you doing?"
"Laundry," was the repressed snarl he got as an answer, her attention never addressing him as she still sifted, tossed, and piled certain clothes in their respective categories.
Cocking a brow ridge, Piccolo eyed the formidable pile of clothes as he remarked, "Why would you need to do laundry?"
Pausing rigidly in her task, she turned her berating glare towards him. "What the hell kind of dumb question is that? Because I need clean clothes! We've been in here for weeks and I've run out of clean clothes," she snidely answered and snatched another dilapidated shirt and tossed it to its rightful pile.
Deeply scowling at her harsh tone, he growled, "I meant why the hell would you waste time doing laundry when you're in the middle of training! Any moron would know to just stay dressed in one set of clothes and get used to it."
Wrinkling her nose in disgust, Sofia sneered. "So you're telling me you get grossed out when people eat, but you have no qualms about wearing the same nasty, sweated, dirty-ass clothes for more than a month? Jeez, have you even taken a shower since we've been here? I bet you're green from the fungus you haven't bothered washing off your body. Ewwww!" she antagonized mockingly and stood up from the pile.
Baring his fangs in a gruff growl, Piccolo barked, "Of course I've taken a shower since I've been here! And when I said any moron should get used to one set of clothes I meant specifically someone like you, a mere mortal who can't even create their own clothing—" Sofia's eyes narrowing and her features set in a frown, she interjected his sentence with a scoff.
"Oh, like someone like you, right? Grr, of course—rub in the fact that you can simply materialize your own threads by just picturing them and a point or snap of your fingers," she scoffed in disdain and brushed back her bangs from her face as she continued, "Hm, well so sorry that I can't picture myself wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt and snap my fingers, and VOILA!" With a snap of her fingers, she suddenly felt a swish of air current caress her frame and surprising warmth wash over her and dissipate quickly.
Grunting stoically and cocking a brow ridge in slight humor, Piccolo sardonically rumbled, "You were saying?"
Snapping her gaze down at herself, Sofia found a pair of snug-fitting blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt hitching along her generous bust. Eyes widening as she glanced at Piccolo and then back at herself, she stood there in complete awe. "…" turning and picking up a random piece of clothing, she placed it on top of her bed and stared at it. Picturing the tattered shirt back to its original condition, she snapped her fingers and watched the garment dissolve into the image that had been in her mind's eye. Her eyes widening again, she turned to stare at Piccolo. "HOLY SHIT! YAAAAY!" she cried in jubilee and started jumping and shouting in elation.
Piccolo couldn't suppress the lopsided smirk that quirked his boyish lips. "Now will you stop your grumbling and complain—" he was cut off as she jumped in his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly. His brow arching in surprise, he grunted down at her, and was once again thwarted from escape by the kiss she planted on his lips.
Pulling away and playfully rubbing the tip of her nose against his, she purred, "Alright, I won't grumble anymore if you agree to take the initiative and kiss me first one of these days, alright sugarlips?"
Growling deep in his chest, he repressed a sneer and stuck his nose up in an air of disdain. "Fat chance, kid!" he grunted, then bore his intense gaze on her as he rumbled, "I don't intend to indulge any of your perversions," he paused and furrowed his brow as he added, "and by the way, what the hell was it you were reading before?"
Coughing as a slight blush spread over her cheekbones, she evasively chimed, "Just reading up on certain techniques and whatnot." The kind that I can only fantasize doing with you…
"Hm," he snorted. "And what kind of technique requires emerald hands to roam down a stomach, huh?" he inquired gruffly, and at Sofia's dumbfounded expression, he continued with a repressed wry tone, "I really don't see what someone with hands made out of a certain mineral has anything to do with fighting, especially if all he's doing is groping someone's stomach."
Cocking her head from total confusion, she grunted. "Huh? What are you talking about?"
Frowning, his features set in their characteristic brooding scowl, he tersely muttered, "Don't play dumb! I'm not stupid enough to not know what emerald is; it's a gemstone that comes in different blues and greens. Humans use them as 'birthstones'…" he trailed off as he watched Sofia's features light up with humor. "What?!"
Smiling coyly at him, she simply leaned forward and kissed the tip of his nose, getting him to pull away and frown deeper at her. "You are so cute when you spout off naively like that," she mumbled in his ear as she released her tight grip around his neck to playfully rub his clothed pecs.
Snarling in annoyance, Piccolo realized he was still holding her against him in his arms, and presently dropped her out of his hold, sending her to land on her rear against the cold tile at his feet. "ACK!" she yelped and scowled up at him. "You are so HARSH!" she snapped with a goofy inflection to her tone. Pulling herself back up from the floor, she absently rubbed her derriere as she thought up a new way to annoy her chamber roommate and Namekian crush. "Just for that, you can stay here and help me choose…" she mumbled in a diabolic tone to the unamused Namek.
"Choose what? I'm not here to waste my time on your female nonsense," he grumbled as he went to step back through the dimensional threshold, but was stopped by an invisible force that seized his legs. Looking over at her with unrestrained agitation, he growled, "Let go, or else!"
Of course, Sofia ignored his biting command and simply focused on the mental picture she wanted to materialize. "Alright," she snapped her fingers, and magically her present attire dissolved into a polished set of combat boots, low-riding and snug-fitting Capri jeans, and a red halter top shirt that had the logo "I'm a sucker for Green Beans" across the bust line, all of course accessorized with the onyx necklace and pendant with garnet stone that hung pressed over the shirt. Doing a brazen spin for him, she chimed, "Whatcha think?"
'I think she looks very fetching,' Nail remarked with a knowing coy tone.
Ignoring his counterpart's approving comment, Piccolo crossed his arms. "Hate the shirt," was all he grumbled as he glowered at her.
Smiling, Sofia put a hand on her hip while she snapped her fingers to materialize the next ensemble, which was more of a gag costume than anything else. "How 'bout this?" she inquired as she flexed her arm under the constricting blue spandex-like material.
For the first time, Piccolo really had to make sure he held his gaze above her neckline as he tried to remark with nonchalance, "You look like that midget Vegeta's twin, now let me go."
Mockingly frowning and tugging on the white glove of one hand, she chimed, "But you have to help me pick out my outfit for tomorrow." At his angry huff, she started snapping her fingers in a frenzy, her clothes dissolving and materializing with the speed of a snapshot as she hummed and danced a circle around him. "Well hurry up and pick one or I'll never let the telekinetic charge on your legs go," she commanded in a cool tone to the Namek who followed her movement around him with his bored graphite gaze.
Growling deep in his chest and showing off the tip of a pointed fang with his sneer, Piccolo barked snidely, "You could show up to train naked for all I care! Now let GO!"
Pausing in front of him, Sofia connected her gaze with his in a searing stare. "Only if you agree to go in the buff too," she remarked in a sultry tone. With the death glare she received as her only response, Sofia relented with a sigh as she waved her hand and erased the kinetic hold on his legs. Setting her in his intense glare, he grunted, turned, and went to head through the doorway, when she called out, "Hey, Piccolo," he turned his sulking gaze back to her, "when is it that you take your showers?"
Furrowing his brow, but still maintaining his general scowl, he grunted, "Whenever you're asleep and I have the time," he paused and cautiously added, "Why?"
"Oh, just cuz I was thinking about taking one now, and since water conservation is always a good thing to practice, I was wondering if you'd like to join me and share the shower, I mean, while you rinse down your back I could scrub your front—hey, hey! AW, that's HARSH, C'mon! Hear me out at least!" she mockingly protested as Piccolo poignantly shot down her lewd proposition with huffing growl and the retreating of his cape-festooned back through the divide, into the main room and out past the pillars where he blasted off to broodingly train away from the sex-crazed female.
Chuckling to herself, Sofia tugged on the material of her shirt. "This is so awesome! Perk Numba 4!" she mused and walked through the threshold into the main room to head towards the bathroom for her shower. As the swishing air caressed her skin and hair, she collided with this wall of heat that seemed to invisibly cling to her skin as she stepped into the other side of the dimensional line. Feeling a streak of blush slash across her features, Sofia pressed her palm against her forehead and felt the sweltering heat that resembled a high fever as she leaned against the wall to compose herself. "Whew! What the hell is this?" She pushed herself off the wall and stalked over to the bathroom. Bowing her head from bumping against the upper frame, she entered the bathroom and shut the sliding door behind herself. Her body felt like it exuded heat, and she felt as if her body temperature was increasing to a height no human could survive. Stripping free of her now oppressive garments, she pulled the shower curtain open and turned the shower spray on to spout ice cold water. Stepping into the tub and pulling the curtain shut, she stood directly under the cascading torrent, not even feeling much the chill of the water that would usually make her teeth chatter and her frame tremble. Although the cold of the water wasn't even registering on her skin, her body temperature did seem to lower the longer she stood under the spray. Sighing as she tipped her face up to the cascade, she began to go through her bathing ritual when two out of her many senses heightened dramatically. Her sense of smell was being stimulated by a scent that still clung in the small but immaculate room. Washing the soap out of her eyes and rinsing it out of her hair, she stood under the spray and inhaled deeply through her nose, and sorted out every single mingling of scents in the room, until she came upon the one that had stimulated her sense in the first place. It was a scent that seemed to radiate from the tiled walls, earthy, heavy, and most noticeably, musky. It was a musk that had settled even within the person's aura shadow left over from being recently in the room…
Inhaling the scent once again, she closed her eyes and saw, through her mind's eye, the subtle strands of aura that still wafted on the walls of the room. She could detect how long it had been since the owner of the aura had been in there just by how faint the strands were, but the scent still remained heady and rousing as it clung to the surfaces around her. Sighing as she exhaled, Sofia opened her eyes and shut the nozzle off. "Hmm...desert soil, rain, and sweat…" she mumbled in a sort of daze as she stepped out of the tub. Her body didn't even feel the cool air that circled the small space. Wringing out her hair and towel drying it, she frowned as she noticed that none of the other towels had been used by her roommate since there stay. Hanging up the towel, she whipped her hair back and let her aura surge outward, the burst of ki drying her from head to toe. "Ugh, it's still hot. Might as well go with the usual pajamas," she mused out loud and pictured her sleeping robes for the night. With a snap of her fingers, a scant and tight undershirt and matching short shorts panties materialized to fit her feminine frame. Brushing her teeth and tying her hair back, Sofia pulled the sliding wooden door open and stepped into the main room, still feeling the heat cling to her. Walking through the doorway and into her room, she sat on her bed in the lotus position and stared at her pile of clothes.
"Alright!" she voiced and slapped her hands together, "time to fix all of this stuff and put it away." She levitated garment after garment, picturing its original state and snapping her fingers to restore it.
By the time Piccolo returned from the chamber's void, Sofia had dozed off on her side with an arm dangling off the bed. When he went in to check on her, he found that she had gone through more than half of the pile and put the restored clothes back in the dresser. Grunting at the sight, he went over and pulled the covers from under her and then on her sleeping form. Instantly, she growled in her sleep and kicked the comforter off herself and rolled onto her opposite side. Cocking a brow ridge at her action, Piccolo pulled the comforter on her again, and once again Sofia kicked it off and curled on her side. Grunting, Piccolo rolled his eyes and gave up, walking back out the doorway. Deciding to skip his shower, he pulled off his weighted shoulder pads and turban, plopping them down by the luxurious purple-draped bed of the main room. Stretching his back, he yawned for the first time in a couple of weeks, his fangs fully revealed as was the rest of his impeccable ivory teeth. Pulling his plum gi shirt off with one quick tug and discarding it onto the rest of his gear, he decided that he should get some of the rest that he had been deprived of from not being able to meditate.
Sitting on the plush bed, he grunted as he kicked off his brown moccasin. "Can't believe I actually have to sleep…so stupid," he muttered and cut himself off with another yawn as he laid back onto the welcoming mattress. Scratching his chest as he propped the pillow better behind his head with his arm, he closed his eyes and let the exhaustion of weeks wash over him, and slowly dozed off into the beseeching calm of sleep, lightly snoring with every exhale of breath.
Little did he know that this would be the last moment of hearty rest he would receive for quite sometime, as the events of the oncoming day would stifle any sense of tranquility in his turbulent enough existence…
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