My jaw dropped open in shock when I heard what Turles said in front of everyone. Tarble's face flushed a shade of red that I had only ever seen on canvas. Vegeta folded his arms over his chest and made a dissatisfied noise low in his throat.
"Tarble, you try my patience. You and me are having a talk right now," he commanded, and he drug his protesting brother out of the room by the scruff of his neck. Turles and I looked at each other and I smiled encouragingly.
"How was it?" I sat down with a sigh at the table, my hip screaming in protest. Turles brought over a glass of water and my pills and I took them from him gratefully. He pulled out a chair and sat down with me.
"It was...intense," he answered truthfully, and I smiled as I took my medication.
"Well...it was drug induced."
"Yeah, but I didn't think he would become a fucking machine for some reason. Damn that kid can go for hours," he groaned and leaned back in his chair, and I laughed.
"Ah, maybe don't go into detail. I might get jealous, don't you know." I winked at him and he grinned sheepishly.
"Yeah, he really thinks we're into each other, you know?"
"Hm...yeah, you look too much like me for me to really consider it," we laughed together again after that.
"Ugh...how did your night go though?"
"Oh...you mean...w-we didn't...ha, uh…" I became a stuttering fool when it came to Vegeta and I had no idea why. Turles raised a brow and smirked at me in amusement.
"I didn't think anything would happen, anyways. You've got a pretty intense wound that you're recovering from." I smiled and sipped at my water more.
"They might be awhile, what do you want to do?" He asked flirtatiously, and I felt flattered.
"Well..I kind of need to pick something up from the office, but...I don't want to go alone, and I don't think I should leave without telling Vegeta...let's just watch a movie, Turles. Maybe by then my brother will be back…" I frowned and got up slowly, gasping as a small lancet of pain shot through me at the action. Turles was by my side in an instant, helping me over to the couch and letting me lay down.
He sat down at the other end like he usually did and propped my legs up on his lap out of sheer habit and I drifted off, not really paying attention to the reality tv show he was watching. I wasn't asleep for very long before I heard Vegeta come into the room and tap his foot impatiently. Wanting to see what he would do if he thought I was still asleep, I tossed my arm over my eyes which made my shirt ride up, exposing some of my scars and my hips.
"What are you doing, Turles?" Vegeta sounded very unimpressed. "You know he's mine." I barely refrained from smirking at feeling Turles stiffen in surprise.
"You think I'm...no, you've got it all wrong, sir. I...do you want me to move?"
"That would be preferable, runt." He growled, and Turles carefully moved my legs off of him as I feigned waking up. I stretched as sensually as I could and opened my eyes to view Vegeta watching me like a hawk.
"Vegeta, you're back," I said around a yawn, and moved my legs so he could sit down.
"You don't have to change how you were, I don't mind your legs being on top of me." I blushed at his boldness but let him touch my legs, moving them back to how I'd been a few moments before. Turles moved to the other couch with a huff, but said nothing. My nerves were on fire being so near Vegeta again, and absentmindedly I started tracing the scars on my stomach. When Broly had kicked me repeatedly, his shoes had apparently torn my skin open thus they'd given me stitches and I had long, angry red scars on my lower torso. Vegeta's eyes flicked over to me automatically, and I regarded him curiously while I flirted with the hem of my shirt. He growled low in his throat, but it wasn't anything like the way Broly did...this noise spoke volumes of pleasure, not pain. The way he was looking at me made my heart beat in my chest hard with excitement, but anything further was interrupted by Raditz coming home.
The front door opened and slammed shut and I started, sitting up too quickly and then gasping when my hip protested.
"Kakarot!" Vegeta and Turles were both there and I waved them off, clutching my hip and angry at myself for being in pain.
"I'm fine, guys. Really!" I held onto Vegeta's hand a little longer than was necessary and looked at him as he drew his fingers slowly out of my grasp.
"I hope I got what you wanted, Kaka." He had a suitcase in one hand and a plastic sack in the other. I hobbled over to him carefully and had him carry my things into Vegeta's room. I didn't know any other room's in the house, and since I'd already been sleeping in his bed for almost a month now, it was just second nature to go there.
"Oh, by the way, I got you something else as well…" he trailed off as he started rustling around for something, and then pulled out what looked suspiciously like…
"Raditz Sarada, I'm GOING TO KILL YOU!" I raged at him, and he stood there while I beat on his arms guffawing loudly. Vegeta and Turles poked their heads around the corner and the cane fell to the ground with a loud cracking sound. My face was crimson in embarrassment, the heat making my ears and neck hot.
"You should have seen your face! Ha Ha Ha!" He laughed, doubling over and clutching his stomach.
"Just give my stuff and get out of here, you asshole." I yelled at him, and shoved him towards the door as hard as I could which only served to make him laugh harder. I frowned and my hand itched to throw something at him, but unfortunately I couldn't stoop down to reach anything fast enough. Wisely, everyone else decided to leave me be for a moment which I was grateful for. I limped over to the bedside table and tugged the suitcase along with me, sitting down on the edge of the bed and opening the sack. I plugged the charger to my phone into the outlet and then put it into my phone, a small pool of dread settling into the pit of my stomach as I turned it on.
Sure enough, the moment it turned on, it started getting flooded with messages from him. Feeling sick, I went into the messages and read through them.
'Where were you today?'
'Is everything ok?'
'Talk to me!'
'...are you avoiding me? It's been a week since you've been here.'
'You can't just not talk to me and not show up to work for two weeks, Kaka. I didn't even hurt you that bad. Do you think the silent treatments' going to work on me?'
'Next time I see you you're going to get it, hard. I won't go easy on you like I did last time either.'
'It's been three weeks, Kakarot. I'm going to hunt you down, hunt your son down, I'll hurt you both!' I stopped breathing, my eyes blurring as the device dropped out of my hands, my fingers going numb.
"R-Rads?" I called, my voice barely above a whisper. There were more messages, each ranging in severity of how badly he wanted to hurt me when he saw me again, and I my eyes filled with tears that spilled over my onto my cheeks. I knew he wouldn't hear me and the fear coursing through my chest only served to paralyze me further. I was stuck in that room, the walls shrinking around me and my world caving in, my heart beating too fast and my body breaking out into a cold sweat. I was seeing red, and my body started shaking as anger began to take over. How dare he threaten my son, my baby! It was at this point that I felt someone kneel in front of me and gently shake my hands.
"Kakarot?" his voice drew me out of the pit, but I was spiraling out of control fast.
"V-Vegeta…" I drew in a shuddering breath and heard him tell me to slow down my breathing.
"Sarada! Get in here!" He called over his shoulder as I started shaking harder. Raditz came in and upon seeing the state I was in ordered Turles to bring me a special set of pills that had been prescribed to me a long time ago for times like these. It took me forever to use them since I really didn't have these episodes very often, however I wasn't sure they'd help me since I was almost beyond their help.
That fucking bastard...how dare he threaten my son, how dare he think that he had any sort of hold over me! Raditz forced my head upwards to look at him and pushed the pills into my mouth, holding my mouth shut so that I would swallow. I felt Vegeta move out of the way and I reached out for him, my fingers snatching the sleeve of his shirt and tugging him towards me.
"Calm, little brother. Calm." Raditz's voice went an octave deeper, the way they'd taught him a long time ago before Gohan was ever born. He repeated the come down words and I slowly started coming back to earth.
"R-Rads?" I whispered, blinking at him in surprise. He frowned down at me but then sat next to me on the bed.
"What's on your mind, Kaka?" he was still using the deep voice, keeping me calm, and it was only by a thin strand that I wasn't completely flipping out like I had in the past.
"I...I need you to contact mom and dad."
"Ok, why do you need me to do that?"
"I need them to take Gohan for awhile." He looked at me in shock and I clutched Vegeta's shirt tightly, desperately wanting him to stay. He was watching us like a hawk, his eyes not missing a beat and taking it all in.
"I understand. This isn't because of the cane thing, is it?" He asked in bewilderment. I smiled in spite of myself, the action feeling foreign.
"N-No, Rads. It's...something else." I shut my mouth before I could say anything else and watched Raditz's receding back as he left the room. He shut the door behind him quietly and it was like the calm aura left with him. I started shaking again and felt Vegeta wrap his arms around me. I sobbed my fear out into his shoulder and didn't realize that I fell asleep in his arms until I was waking up hours later and it was dark outside.
"'Geta?" I whispered into the dark, feeling one of his arms underneath me, cradling my head, and the other on my chest. We were laying down on his bed, and I'd been moved so that I was underneath the blankets with him.
"Kakarot." He said lowly, and I curled into him, relishing in his warmth. He was quiet for a moment, but it seemed like he was trying to choose what he was about to say.
"...I saw the messages on your phone." I stopped breathing and snapped my head to peer up at him.
"Uh…'Geta, I can explain, please…"
"Kaka, I'm not mad at you, and I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to kill him for what he's done to you," he grinded out through clenched teeth.
"'Geta please, he said he would hurt my son!" I clutched onto the front of his shirt and pleaded with him, tears gathering in my eyes. He reached up and ran a hand through my hair, making soothing noises.
"He's not going to hurt your son, Kakarot, I promise you that, I'm going to have someone watch over your family."
"Oh thank god," I wrapped my arms around him and focused on breathing, and for good measure started counting to 100 as well, an old trick they'd taught me when I was young. I still felt a rush of relief coursing through me when I heard he wasn't going to throw me away like everyone else always did, he was actually going to help me protect my son.
"Kakarot, why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Because...because I was afraid," I whispered hoarsely. He continued stroking my hair and fresh tears started leaking out of my eyes at the pure intimacy of the motion.
"Afraid of what?" He asked. I took in a deep breath to steady myself before I opened my mouth once more.
"I thought that if I t-told you, you'd think I was too much trouble and stop pursuing me. That alone I could deal with, but I moved here to make a better life for me and G-Gohan," I sobbed when I said his name, and he helped me back down from the hysterics that threatened to overwhelm me.
"Go on," he urged soothingly once I was coherent again. I sniffled and he wiped my tears away.
"I...I wanted to try and fix it myself, I thought I was doing something wrong. I should have known it would have ended up this way...he knew about my skin condition and u-used it against me."
"That bastard," he said through clenched teeth.
"I...I was trying to protect my son. I would d-do anything for h-him."
"It is commendable that you survived his abuse for so long, Goku." I blushed when he used my other name, not used to hearing it from his mouth.
"Vegeta...I don't mean to get you caught up in my drama, I…I feel really bad that your whole family has gotten involved…"
"Don't feel bad. You have nothing to feel ashamed of, darling. If I didn't want to help you, I wouldn't be. I...actually really do like you, you know," he said offhandedly, as if we were talking about the weather. I blushed hard.
"Oh...well I…" I wasn't sure what to say, the truth of how I felt about him being not as complicated as how I felt about Broly; I definitely liked the man in front of me. He smirked down at me deviously and shifted so we were nose to nose again.
"You...what?" he asked teasingly.
"'Geta…"
"Kaka." I blushed again, wanting to sink into the floor and die of embarrassment.
"You don't want me really, do you? I've...I mean, I'm sure you've read my background files…"
"Broly's a liar, Kaka. You're not a whore. You did what you had to do at the time, the best you could with what you had at the time. You're an incredibly diligent employee, a good father, and," he leaned forward and stole a soft kiss from me before continuing, "a remarkable kisser."
"I...if you're serious, then so am I. I'm just...really nervous."
"I understand. We'll work through it together, ok?" I smiled at him, the motion stretching my face, and he leaned in to me once more. We didn't part for a long time after that, my heart soaring with hope for the future.