- CHAPTER FOURTEEN -

Location: Planet Freeza

Impatiently waiting at his diner-table Freeza was fumbling with his napkin. Somewhat annoyed he glanced over at his father, who was sitting on the other side of the table.

There was no way he could keep him away from tonight's diner, since he wanted to taste Alyx' cooking.

"She's sure taking her time, isn't she, son?" King Cold asked him in a bored tone.

"It takes time to prepare a good meal, papa," he replied.

"What if she's burnt the whole lot?" he grinned.

"I don't think she did that," he said as he stared at his fork and knife. And at the little fork and knife and the small spoon on the other side of his empty plate.

The doors to the diner hall opened. Freeza and King Cold stared at the entrance to get the first glimpse of the food.

It was Alyx, holding two plates with a little something on them.

"Is that all?" King Cold asked somewhat disappointed.

Freeza rolled his eyes. "Please don't be so rude, papa!" he hissed at him.

She smiled as she placed the plates in front of them.

"This is just the appetizer. It's sweet melon served with smoked ham."

King Cold stared at the little plate in front of him and cut a piece off of the melon and ham to taste it. He put it in his mouth. While chewing and tasting it, his eyes turned to the right………… to the left………and then rolled down to the plate again.

"Hmmm, not bad!" he cut off another piece he put into his mouth in a neat way.

Freeza let out an unheard sigh of relief and blinked at Alyx. She smiled and quickly made her way out of there before she started to blush.

As soon as she had left King Cold gave his son a probing look.

"I saw that," he said and put another piece of melon in his mouth.

"Hmmm?" Freeza mumbled with his mouth full. As he emptied it he asked. "Saw what?"

His father held down his little fork and knife and tilted his head slightly to the side, looking his son deep into his eyes.

His father's look told him enough. "So WHAT?" Freeza stuffed another piece of melon in his mouth.

"You fancy her, don't you?" he teased his son with a grin on his face.

"SO?"

"I knew it the first time I saw you together with her in your chambers," he grinned.

For a moment Freeza was saved from more teasing comments when a servant came to pick up the emptied dishes.

"Tell your cook to bring an extra plate, will you?" King Cold asked the servant as he made his way out of the diner-hall.

"What are you up to, papa?" Freeza demanded to know.

"What do you know about her?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'd like to find out in private!"

"Yeah, me too. She'll join us and then she can tell us all about herself."

"BUT PAPA!" Freeza exclaimed, but this time it was his father who was saved by the opening door.

A servant rolled in a table on wheels that had the serving dishes on it, covered with silver lids in a half-round shape.

"Why do they always put those lids on them," King Cold complained. "Is that to annoy us?"

Another servant placed those warm-hold-thingy's on the table with little candles under a metal plate to keep the food warm, you know, like in restaurants.

As the servants placed the dishes, covered with the silver lids, and the extra plate with knife, fork and spoon on the table, Alyx came in.

"Well, dear, tell us what you've cooked," King Cold said impatiently as he gestured her to come to the table.

With a friendly smile she removed the first lid off of one of the dishes.

(( AN: I'm using earth-food-things here, cause I'm not gonna make up a whole alien menu ))

"First we have a nicely grilled deer back in a bed of cranberry sauce. Served with fresh vegetables," she took the lid off of another dish showing the vegetables.

"And of course some properly fried potatoes and cooked rice, flavored with herbs and spices." She took the last lid off. "Last but not least, a delicious salad with cucumber, tomatoes, cheese cubes and several more ingredients."

"Looks great!" Freeza said.

"Hope you made enough for three," King Cold smirked.

She gave him a questioning look.

"Have a seat, my dear," the huge Ice'jin gestured her to sit down at the table.

She glanced at Freeza for a sec.

"Don't worry, he's alright with it," King Cold said before his son could say a word.

She sat down at the table where the empty plate was put by the servant.

King Cold took the big fork that came with the deer-back dish and took out a slice of meat, holding it up so she could see it.

"How many would you like?" He asked her most friendly.

She smiled a bit uneasy. "I'll start with one, thank you."

"Freeza says he doesn't know anything about you," he started a conversation when all three of them had their plates filled.

Freeza gave him the 'YEAH-blame-it-ALL-on-me' look. Alyx smiled as she saw that. She realized he probably didn't want his father around at all right now, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

"I don't know that much about him either."

"I heard you didn't even know what he looked like?"

Her cheeks instantly started to glow but King Cold just chuckled.

"That's a new one, haven't heard that before," he grinned. "SO, where did you come from?"

"Oh, from everywhere. I lived on like a dozen planets. We liked to move around, me and my family."

"I was wondering what race you belong to, next to your Ice'jin-half, that is," he got straight to the point.

"Azori'jin," she replied without hesitation.

"Never heard of that race before," King Cold stated. "How about you, Freeza?"

He shook his head. "Me neither."

"And we have conquered quit a large part of the universe."

"Azoria is very far away. I'm a long way from home."

"So how did you get your Ice'jin blood?" King Cold curiously wanted to know.

"Well, my Azori'jin father met my gorgeous Ice'jin mother and they fell in love. What more can I say about it? I'm one of the results of their relationship."

"You got any brothers and sisters?" Freeza asked her.

"I got an older brother," she told him.

He let out a sigh. "Me too."

"Hard, isn't it?"

He nodded.

"You were the difficult one, Freeza, not your brother," King Cold reminded him.

Freeza gave him a hateful look and at that moment he really hated his father's guts. How could he embarrass him like that in front of this most beautiful young lady.

"Yeah, well, so was I," she said to Freeza's relief.

Freeza grinned.

After dinner they moved to the lounge to relax. It didn't take very long before King Cold dozed off into a deep sleep.