Ashes

A year had finally passed since their time on Namek and things were getting back to normal on Earth, even though there had been no sign of Goku. There was no imminent threat, all was quiet. While Piccolo and Rori continued their normal routine in the forest, Gohan had gone back to studying at home.

As was his routine on hot afternoons like today, Piccolo was spending his time meditating under the shade of some trees. Rori on the other hand was still not very good at this.

"Wake up! You're supposed to be concentrating not sleeping!" Piccolo called to her nudging her with his elbow.

"Ow... how could you tell?" Rori complained, opening one of her eyes to take a peak at him.

"You were snoring..." he explained causing Rori to blush at her misdeed. With that she stood up and stretched her arms over her head.

"You know I'm bad at this... I'm going to go see how the kid's doing... maybe he needs a break from studying. It has been a while. Want to come?"

"No, I'll take advantage of the quiet to actually meditate." Piccolo smirked, teasing her.

"Suit yourself" she responded before kissing him on top of his head and made her way to Mt. Paozu to find Gohan.

As soon as she was gone however, Piccolo did not continue to meditate. He stood and headed in the opposite direction. He didn't fly. If he didshe might sense him and get suspicious. Before long he'd reached West city and Capsule Corp.

When he arrived Bulma, Yamcha, and Krillin were outside on the patio talking. Yamcha was the first to spot him, "What is this a bad guy convention?"

Piccolo said nothing, though the comment confused him, Bulma filled the blanks, "Don't mind him. Vegeta just arrived as well... He's in the shower. Where's Rori?"

"She's visiting Gohan." he answered and stood in awkward silence for a moment as the other's appeared to dissect him with their eyes, trying to figure out why Piccolo would possibly pay Capsule Corp a visit, "Can I speak with you privately, Bulma?"

The blue-haired scientist seemed taken back. Piccolo never visited, let alone asked to chat with her. She nodded anyway, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Sure, follow me."

Piccolo followed her back into one of her labs and she closed the door. "What's up?"

"This is... very embarrassing for me... This needs to stay between us, can you promise that?"

"Of course..." she said crossing her arm, now more curious than ever, "What's going on, Piccolo?"

"Rori and I have been trying to have a baby..."

"Ahhhh! Congratulations! That's so exciting! Is it a boy or a girl?! Do you know yet?"

"Stop... I said we've been trying... I'm not sure that it's possible."

"Yeah I was going to ask... with the Namekians... Piccolo, do you even have-"

"STOP. I'm cutting you off there. Just listen... Let's just say... I have all the equipment necessary, all right? We've been trying for a year now... and nothing. Even before that when we weren't really trying... we were still... I just... I don't know much about this, but something should have happened by now, right?"

"How much have you been doing it?"

"3 times"

"3 times a week is a good start, but-"

"No, per day"

"Oh...OH... well yeah... you're right, there might be something wrong..." Bulma walked around to some of her supplies and took out a large cotton and test tube before coming back to Piccolo, "Open up!"

"What?"

"Open your mouth." As soon as he did, Bulma stuck the cotton swab inside and took it back out putting it tube, "We'll get to the bottom of it... I'll need something from her too: a strand of hair, if you can get it. Don't worry I won't say a thing!"

Piccolo nodded, "I don't get women... she hasn't even noticed that something could be wrong... do you have any ideas of what it could be?"

"Well... it's just an idea, but keep in mind that that's all it is an idea, okay? Even if you have the... equipment... There's no guarantee that your two species can mix... It could be like a cat and a dog... nothing would ever come of it..."

He stood silent, letting it sink in. That could be. Most Namekians were asexual. For some reason he seemed to be an exception. If nothing came of this, that would be fine for him. He was never even meant to have children, but what about her? She was not just meant to, but she was a phoenix, it was almost her duty to have children.

"Hey, come on Piccolo, we'll find out. And even if that is the case, then we can just ask the dragon balls! Or there's adopting. Don't get ahead of yourself, that might not even be it. Get me her hair and we'll get to the bottom of this."

Meanwhile, at Gohan's house, Rori was sitting at the table across from Chichi as she complained about what a bad influence Goku has been on Gohan and how far behind he was on his studies. She'd been going on for several minutes now while Rori waited for Gohan to be done with his reading. If he wanted to take a break, he had to finish his reading as Chichi informed her.

At this point she had lost focus of the words Chichi was speaking, becoming lost in her own thoughts. She'd been worried for quite a while now that maybe there was a problem with her and Piccolo, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She hadn't become a super phoenix since they returned from Namek. It was too much for her. Piccolo kept encouraging her to try by telling her she could eventually learn to control it, but Rori wasn't so sure of herself. That was why they had been meditating so much recently. No it wasn't that. Maybe it was that she hadn't gotten pregnant yet.

"Chichi...?" Rori interrupted her rant about how Gohan was going to grow up to be a delinquent, "...when you and my brother got married, how long were you married before you had Gohan?"

Chichi stared at her, unsure of where her question came from. It was very out of the blue. "Well... let's see... I believe I got pregnant... just a few months after we got married and then I had him almost a year to the date after... Yeah that's about right..."

"Huh... Do you think..." she started, but stopped because Gohan came in the room.

"Rori... do you feel that?" her nephew asked with a worried look on his face.

And of course she did... if she focused. She would know that energy anywhere, "Freiza."

The two left as quickly as possible following the source of the energy until, they found Piccolo, Krillin, Tian, Chiaotzu, Vegeta and Yamcha on the way.

"He should be landing around here, dammit! I knew that Kakarot couldn't finish him!" Vegeta cursed. He appeared to be fuming where he was standing.

"Hey guys! Is Freiza close?" Bulma yelled as she got out of her helicopter and approached the group. Yamcha was surprised, cursing under his breath, "What the heck are you doing here?!"

"Come on! All that time on Namek and I never got to see him. I'm not missing out this time!" She said as if it were obvious crossing her arms.

After a few moments, they all watched as Freiza's ship flew overhead, landing in the distance. It was Vegeta who started to formulate a plan first. They all knew without Goku here, things would be a bit difficult. "Listen up! No one fly! We're going to walk over so they can't see us on their scouters!"

"You guys fought this guy? Unbelievable, there's no way... I hate to say it, but he'll crush us!", Yamcha said backing up slowly.

"Yeah I can't imagine... What can we even do against that kind of power?" Tian looked to Piccolo and then Vegeta, maybe between those two, but the rest of them would just get in the way.

Though Vegeta and the others were worried, Rori thought this might be an opportunity to become a super phoenix again and learn to control it. She was sure if she managed to kill Freiza, this time she would be able to calm the flames. This might be just the thing she needed. "Sorry Vegeta... I'm not sitting this out. You guys forget I was up there with Goku and even if his father's here with him, I can take him. No need for a super saiyan, you've got a super phoenix with you."

"Rori are you sure? you can't control it..." Piccolo started and this caused Vegeta to laugh.

"HA, we all remember how that went Rori... you may have ascended, but if you can't control it you might as well get yourself killed." Vegeta laughed as he approached her, "Now, you've made it painfully clear before that your bad at taking directions, but this isn't your choice. If you go in you're going to give away all of us."

"Screw you, Vegeta! I'm going... who is that?" Rori said as she was about to leave, before she felt another power similar to Goku's.

"It's my dad! It feels like him... like before on Namek." Gohan shouted happily, before they felt Freiza's power disappear.

"No." Rori said shaking her head, "Something's different. Let's go look!"

They all headed over to the mountain that hid the battle, seeing some strange super saiyan that had just started to fight Freiza's father and before long, he won. Not only did he win, but it appeared that he could control when he was a super saiyan. His hair changed back to a normal color before he turned towards them.

"Hey! I'm going to wait for Goku to arrive! Why don't you guys join me?" he yelled to them before flying off.

It took a minute for them to register his words. They all stood in silence looking from one another unsure of what to do before all at once they decided it was best to just follow.

The strange man pulled out a capsule fridge and began to take a drink out of it, "You guys thirsty? It's going to be a few hours, so drink up, if you want."

Bulma was the first to go over with Rori and Gohan. Before Rori went to take a drink, she noticed he had a strange yet somehow familiar scent and it appeared he seemed to notice the same thing about her as the locked eyes, but she thought better of saying so and brought a soda over to Piccolo.

"You know I don't eat or drink" he said surprised.

"Yeah but you could... right?" she asked blinking up at him.

"Well... I suppose... I've never tried." he answered taking the can from her hand. Initially, he thought maybe she just wanted two, knowing her saiyan-appetite, but decided to give it a try.

Little by little the others seemed to warm up to the stranger and had a prying question or two for him. Except Vegeta. He, as usual, only had remarks. "You can't tell us who you are, sure." "Oh so you don't actually know Kakarott!" "Lies! The only saiyans left are myself, Rori, Kakarot and his half breed kid. That's it."

"That's enough!" Bulma shouted at Vegeta in particular, but the others who were getting nosy as well, "He just saved us and the Earth from the guy you all were too worried about to fight. Can't you guys cut him a little slack? Geez!"

After an hour or so had past, the stranger was now sitting off away from the others as they waited. Gohan and Piccolo were talking training. Vegeta was sitting alone, pissed off as usual. Bulma and Krillian were talking theories on the mysterious new guy. Rori took this opportunity to go approach him while he was alone. Maybe one person was a bit less menacing than the group.

"Hey" she started smiling at him. He greeted her back, looking a bit unsure of what she was going to say, awkward in the kind of way that only teenagers know how to be. She tried to put him at ease, "So, a super saiyan huh? "

"Yeah... for a while now." he said with a nod and smiled back at her.

"Your parents must be proud."

"I really can't-"

"I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to pry. Just.. You can control it?" she asked, in all honesty she was hoping he could just give her some advice or something to deal with her own super problem, since Goku wasn't there to do so. When she asked this a look of recognition appeared on his face.

"You're Goku's sister Rori, aren't you?" he asked and she nodded, "Yeah... I can control it now, but I couldn't always... You'll get there. It took me a while too. The emotions are... intense at first."

Rori let out a sigh, her hand on her chest showing her relief, "It really is... I was beginning to worry. I haven't seen Goku since we were up against Freiza, so I wasn't sure that it could be controlled or if it was just me. To be honest, I haven't tried it since..."

"You should, it gets easier and easier. Promise." he encouraged knowing full well from the future that she would learn to control it one day according to his mothers accounts at least.

Piccolo watched the two talking from a far while Gohan explained something from one of the books he'd been reading. He could hear them talking and he knew it was innocent, but he couldn't help but feel a twinge of something he didn't like. Then he realized why he didn't like this. Before the only saiyans were Vegeta and her brother. And now he had Bulma's words in his head. Maybe you two just aren't compatible species... This guy was her species and he wasn't controlling and overbearing like Vegeta or related to her like Goku. This guy could be something with her. They could easily have something. He didn't like it. Neither the feeling itself nor that he couldn't seem to shut it down. It was small and in the pit of his stomach, but it was whispering to him nonetheless. Since when did he have feelings anyway?!

The stranger looked down at his wristwatch when it beeped "He should be here any minute now!"

It had been several weeks since Goku had returned. Rori and Piccolo had continued their training planning to meet up with Goku and Gohan once they'd had some much needed family time (rather… time to convince Chichi to let them train).

While things had gotten back to normal, Rori couldn't help but notice how strange Piccolo was acting towards her since her brother's return. Yes, he was known for being stoic... but this was a new record he was breaking.

This morning when she woke up he was already gone. Normally he at least kissed her or stroked her cheek, whispered something to her when he got up, letting her know he was leaving, but today, nothing. When she went outside, she found him sitting on the edge of a cliff just staring off of it, not meditating, not training, just... thinking.

"Do we need to talk?" she asked as she approached him, uneasy due to his silence, "you're acting weird"

"I'm not acting weird. I'm acting like me... or a least who I used to be before you came a long." he didn't move, he didn't look at her. His voice was calm, but his words were like ice.

"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" she asked confused at his sudden outburst. This really wasn't like him at all.

"You heard me." was all he said in response. There was a long silence before he started again, seeing as she hadn't moved to leave. He wasn't being clear enough, "Look, obviously we're going to have to train together for the next few years, but once we've defeated the androids, that's it for us. I'm ending it. I'm not myself around you and I'm done."

Rori could feel tears threatening to spill over her eyes, but she held them back, staying firm. This couldn't be right, "This is really what you want?"

He paused and finally looked her in the eyes. His face was hard like he was talking to an enemy and not his mate. His voice was firm, "This is what I want."

"Well..." she started, but took a minute before she continued, hearing her own voice crack a bit at her attempt to speak. When she was sure she could really get the words out she started again, "There's no point in waiting then... you should go train with Gohan and my brother. You did train him after all... Let's just make this easier for the both of us... You won't see me again until the androids come."

With that she left. She flew for hours unsure of where she was going, but in the back of her mind she had an idea. She ended up in West city on Bulma's doorstep, eyes puffy and red unsure of what to say. When Bulma opened the door, her eyes widened noticing something was off immediately, grabbing Rori and pulling her into a hug.

"Who is it?" Yamcha asked from behind her. As he approached, the girls pulled out of their hug and Yamcha could see her face, still wet from crying, "Rori, are you all right?"

Before she could answer, they heard an explosion off in the distance.

"Vegeta" Bulma explained rolling her eyes, "Ever since Goku got back he's been training twice as hard as normal."

"Oh..." Rori said looking toward where she felt a surge of his power and then back to Bulma with pleading eyes, "Please don't tell him I'm here. I really can't deal with him right now."

"Of course."

"Woman! This damn thing is broken again!" Vegeta's cry could be heard from all the way outside.

Bulma's face contorted in anger for a split second, before she hid it leading Rori over to Yamcha, "Hey can you show her to my room, I'm going to go take care of that meat-head and then I'll be right over."

"Come on" Yamcha said putting his arm around her shoulder rubbing it gently and lead her down the hall, "We'll get you fixed up."

Once they were in Bulma's room, Rori took a seat on her bed and Yamcha across from her at the desk. The two had never really been alone together before or talked much when Bulma wasn't there, leaving an obvious air of awkwardness in the room.

"Do you... want to talk about it..?" Yamcha offered, but she immediately looked upset at this, her bottom lip involuntarily trembling, causing him to stutter out whatever came to mind, "... or we don't have to... I get it... too soon. We can talk about clothes or... you know other girl stuff maybe. I don't really-"

"It's okay" she said taking a deep breath, which helped her even out her voice, "... Piccolo broke up with me... I'm not really sure what to do... On top of that, I can't stay there or with my brother because I can't be near Piccolo right now without... well… you know… And I just came to this planet, I don't know anything about it really or where to go..."

"Don't worry. I'm sure Bulma will let you stay here. She's got plenty of room and she likes you. You're the only other girl in our group." Yamcha said with a wry smile trying to make her feel better. There was another explosion outside causing the ground to shake in the room.

"No... I really can't be around Vegeta... Not this soon after Piccolo broke up with me... " she said her eyes focused on the ground as she shook her head. This wouldn't work. She shouldn't have come.

It was silent again before Yamcha stood up, slamming his fist in his other hand, proud of the idea he seemed to formulate, "hey why don't you stay with me?"

"...What?"

"Look, you said yourself you really don't know this planet. I know you're not 100% right now. No one is after a break up, but you need to keep busy. Here's your chance to live a normal life on this planet. You can stay with me until you can get an apartment in the city and a decent job. I play baseball in the city and my agent is always looking for athletic girls for cheer-leading and modeling and all kinds of stuff. I'll introduce you to him. Before you know it, you'll be right at home in your own place with a job and everything."

She stared at him for a few minutes with a blank look on her face, causing him to think that perhaps he was being to presumptuous or overstepping his boundaries. After all, Bulma did tell him once that girls don't actually want guys to fix their problems, they just want the other person to listen. And here he was trying to fix her problems like had for Bulma before; stupid.

"I wouldn't be putting you out?" she asked, her eyebrow knit together in worry. Yamcha let out a sigh of relief. She was just worried about imposing.

"It'll be no trouble at all. Besides my roommate moved out recently, so it'll be nice to have someone else around for a bit."

The door opened and Bulma came in with a tray of drinks her mother wouldn't let her past without taking, "Hey sorry about that guys. Now let's get you fixed up, Rori."

Rori stood up wiping the tears from her face, sniffing a bit, "Actually... I think we've got it all worked out."

Later that night Bulma went in to check on Vegeta. He was alone in his room doing push-ups, as usual after he'd blown up his training room. She didn't knock and just came in sitting on his bed. This was her house after all; no invitation necessary.

"Is Rori here?" he asked finishing his last push-up as he hopped up stretching the muscles in his arms, "I thought I sensed her energy."

"She was, earlier, but she's gone now." Bulma said crossing her legs, getting comfortable.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" he yelled and started towards the door.

"Stop!" she yelled causing him to do just so in surprise. She rose from the bed and walked out right in front of him pushing him back into the room with one finger, "I didn't tell you because: A: you were injured and B: she didn't want to see you! Her and Piccolo just broke up and the last thing she needs is you trying to get in her pants, as usual!"

"What?!" Even though Bulma said quiet a lot to him, it seemed the only thing that registered in his brain was that the last female saiyan was back on the market; "Out of my way!"

"Absolutely not!" she yelled back putting her arm against the door frame to block him from getting out.

Vegeta groaned in anger, "Grrrr, out of my way woman! I could kill you easily, you're one hand isn't going to get in my way, you know!"

"Maybe not, but you can't say I didn't try! And if you don't believe that by leaving this room you'll ruin any chance that I fix that gravity room of yours you like so much, than you're the dumbest idiot on this planet!"

"Gaahhh! Fine!" he said turning around back into the room, symbolic tail between his legs. He got down on the ground again and started doing more push-up, hoping a little training might calm him. This woman was infuriating.

Bulma stood in the doorway watching him with a sigh. Honestly she felt bad for the guy. He'd obviously been after Rori for most of his life and in an instant she was with another guy. Now that she was free again, she still didn't want him. Top that off with Gokur surpassing him in strength and he was having a terrible year. "Look, I know you want to go after her now, but girls need time. Trust me, I know. She's not going to be ready to be with anyone right now. I know patience isn't your thing, but give it some time... she might come around... you've been through a lot together after all. Besides you want her for real, not as some rebound right?"

"No." Vegeta had stopped doing push-ups as she spoke, holding himself in a plank and then came out of it kneeling before he punched the ground leaving a mark on the floor, "It's not...right. Nothing is. I'm the Prince of all Saiyans. I should be the one who surpasses the limit to become a super saiyan. The phoenix should be my mate. That's how things were supposed to be, but I was supposed to have a planet of people too. I don't. I can't even rule over the 4 and half saiyans left. And her and I, as much as I want there to be something between us. There isn't. Honestly... she's more of a sister than anything. She knows it. I know it and yet I keep reaching for it because it's the one thing that seems attainable... but it's not."

Bulma came in and knelt before him putting her hands on each of his shoulders, "You're trying too hard Vegeta. You need to let go and just let life happen. It might not be what was supposed to be, but that doesn't mean it can't be just as good. Better even. You never know what you may find. I broke up with Yamcha a few weeks ago. I'd been meaning to do it for a while, but I held on for so long because I thought it was what was meant to be. It wasn't. Once I let go... I've never felt better."

Vegeta looked up at her and then her hands on his shoulders. She blushed quickly and moved them, but before she could pull them back completely he grabbed them with both hands and pulled her in, covering her lips with his. Their kiss started out slow, almost trying to solidify the fact in their heads that they were actually doing this.

Soon their thoughts and cautions started to fade as a heat built between them and Bulma slid into his lap pulling her hands from his to wrap them around his neck, her fingers carding through his hair. They didn't stop for air, making sure if their lips weren't on each others' they were at least on each other's skin. One more word or even the time to breath and it might all end just as fast as it started. Whether they would admit it or not, the last thing either of them wanted to do right now was to think this through enough to stop.

Vegeta turned her around in his arms, so her back was against his chest as he slid her dress dress up over her head, kissing the skin on the back of her bare neck once it as exposed. She gasped at the feel of her back against his bare chest. She hadn't imagined just their skin touching could make her feel so alive. And she had toyed around the with the idea in her mind of fooling around with him since he'd arrived, though she would tell no one. This was real and it was already much better than her imagination.

Their clothes were strewn across the room and in seconds their bare bodies were all the other could consciously comprehend. Vegeta's hand slid up over her breasts, a feeling of relief running over him that something was happening now, that he didn't even know he'd been waiting his whole life for. Bulma leaned her head back on his shoulder kissing up the side of his neck before she let herself slid onto him. No turning back now. His other arm wrapped around her stomach keeping her body steady and close to his causing friction between the two of them as she moved on him.

Before long he could barely control himself, his hands moving down from her stomach to her hips to set the speed. She had been moving tortuously slow on him, enough to make him want more, but not enough to lose himself completely. Now that he was setting the pace, he could feel himself coming closer and by the sound of her wavering voice Bulma was too. He didn't think, he let instinct take over running his lips over the back of her neck before claiming her as his mate.

Things went white hot as the two finished, collapsing into each other. Neither spoke. Speaking would ruin it. They both knew it. They both contented to going for another round until they were too tired to even move, let alone speak and talk things over.

The next day when Vegeta woke he was alone. He dressed and went out to find that the training room was back in working order. Bulma was outside with her mother. They didn't say a word to each other. They didn't need too. And he knew she was his now. He'd made sure of that.

_
A/N : So this was a long time coming. A little less fighting in this one, since the last few were very much to get through Freiza and Namek. ... Don't hate me... this is far from over and I assure you all this is very much still a fic about Piccolo and Rori. They're far from over.

Also some Bulma Vegeta action finally, that has been requested by some of you. So... sorry not sorry ;)