Author's Notes:
I would like to sincerely apologize for this chapter being up a day late. It is inexcusable, and me not keeping my word to all you lovely readers and supporters cannot be taken lightly. I will do everything in my power to make certain this does not happen again. You are all wonderful, and I appreciate your consistent support of me, my story, and my writing more than I can express. Thank you for waiting the extra day.
Next chapter, Twenty-Six will be uploaded on time, Sunday the 18th of November. I will be out of town Thanksgiving weekend, so the Sunday 25th will not have a chapter. It will be uploaded the following Tuesday.
My sincere apologies and thanks.
- Shikatoki
Chapter Twenty-Five:
Kakarrot felt dead to the world, medication in his knee working its magic. It was powerful stuff, whatever they had given him. Vegeta said it was a lot like regeneration fluid, but stronger, and made for internal injuries. Whatever it was, he felt dazed. Still, with his prince's strong, secure, sleek arms enclosing his torso, it was difficult to complain.
They had been back in the prince's wing for over an hour, lying in comfortable silence. Mmm, he's so warm. Kakarrot thought absently, snuggling closer to his royal lover. The heat outside could never compare to the gentle, loving warmth that radiated straight from Prince Vegeta's skin. Three days like this sounds amazing. They still had yet to bathe, afraid to jar his just barely healing fracture. They would later, as they both needed it, but he was too tired just then to do anything more than enjoy the steady heartbeat beside his.
Cchini's dried blood remained on them, but Kakarrot and his prince had both carefully stripped before lying down, so as not to get it on their sheets.
Now that the whole ordeal was over, Kakarrot allowed his mind to wander, the fact that Cchini was dead finally seeming to catch up with him. He pondered that for a while, attempting to grasp what exact emotions that realization brought forth. How did he feel about Cchini's death? The teenager had all but forgotten him in those glorious six months with his prince. The damage that man had caused in his life still lingered, and certainly always would.
He hated the damn bastard, all he had said, all he had caused. Cchini had stripped him of his innocence for monetary gain, demanded he serve or die, beat him, whipped him, crushed his spirit, and quite nearly killed him on more than one occasion.
He would never get over that terrifying sensation of being beaten senseless by someone exponentially stronger than him, get over how much it hurt to be called a whore, or to be used and discarded so carelessly as he always had been. He would never be able to regain the innocence of the years before he had been so forcefully thrust into service at The Carved Crown Inn. Shame and humiliation burned in the pit of his stomach, head spinning and joints throbbing from the mixture of both coupled with the nausea of medicine.
Closing his eyes, Kakarrot sidled deeper into his prince's embrace, fighting back the wave. He whimpered, attempting to get his bearings in the onslaught of bad memories, intensified in his weakened state. Vegeta...
~•~ POV Change ~•~
Vegeta's eyes fluttered open, his light sleep breaking when he felt the inner turmoil lacing his lover's thoughts. Kakarrot was shaking, a small whimper building in the back of his throat and seemingly holding back tears. Flashes of fear and humiliation not his own assaulted the prince, a frighteningly disorienting experience. Is this what he meant when he said he felt me? My emotions like they were in him? It could be. But all the same, Vegeta knew their source. He lifted a sleepy, warm hand, brushing it lovingly down the side of a young cheek as calmly as he could manage.
"What's bothering you, my love?" He whispered with concern, sighing into thick locks of disorderly black hair.
The teenager leaned into his embrace, ears shifting to tell the Vegeta he had frowned, though he couldn't see it. After a long pause, he whispered back just as softly, a slight tremble to his words. "Thinking... Thinking about Cchini."
Vegeta mentally groaned. How that man could rise up from the dead to snatch at his companion's thoughts... The old innkeeper had hardly been dead for five hours now, and by the prince's own hand. This is my fault. "I'm sorry..." He began, heart hammering in his chest. The foreign emotions were draining away, less powerful now that Kakarrot was more widely awake.
The mass of shaggy hair shifted, indicating that the teenager was shaking his head. "Don't be. He deserves to be dead." He whispered in a rough voice halfway between bitterness and upset. "You did the right thing in killing him."
Cchini had always been a hard subject for them to discuss. Though the innkeeper had never physically raped Kakarrot himself, he might as well have. He had been cruel to the point of it being sickening; unsympathetic, and greedy to the core. I made Vegeta's blood boil even now, while he still had the disgusting excuse of a man's dried blood across his knuckles. That anger, the wish to kill him again, to make it slower, longer, agonizing, terrifying... He sighed.
"I hadn't meant to." And that was true. He had gone for information, to free his lover, not to stir awake this upset, sadness, and fear. Vegeta felt responsible for the teenager's shaking, maybe not being the cause of it, but having reawakened the memory.
Kakarrot exhaled deeply. "I know, Vegeta. But I don't regret that you did. I had forgotten about him... Partially. I don't ever think I can forget him entirely." He shivered, making the prince instinctually tighten his protective embrace. "He didn't deserve life. Even if it was an accident, it's better that way."
"I lost myself, Kakarrot. Yes, he deserved to die, but it wasn't my place to kill him... After all, he's never harmed me. It was you he hurt." He whispered, heart aching. It had been a nagging worry in the back of his mind all day. It hadn't been his right to kill the old innkeeper. He could justify it all he liked, but the truth was the truth. It had been Kakarrot's right to kill the man hat had cause him such pain. Yet, he had denied the teenager that privilege.
Carefully, Kakarrot rolled over to look the prince in the eye, gingerly shifting his healing leg. "Listen to me, Vegeta." He whispered, just a little sternly. "Stop feeling bad over it, and don't say you're not, because I can feel it."
Vegeta opened his mouth to interrupt, but was silenced by a warm finger over his lips.
His tone softened. "I am honored that you would protect me so completely, even from the shadows of my past. Maybe... Maybe it was meant to be that way." He felt the other set of warm fingertips brush at the hair behind his ear, bodies edging up closer together, face-to-face. Deep brown irises studied him intently, wide, dilated pupils contracting slightly when a ray of sun from an overhead window shone across his glowing, honey-tanned skin. "I hate the horrors in my past. I hate Cchini, and I could never forgive what he put me through. But you... You protected me. Back when you first found me... Just a few hours ago, too." His finger atop the prince's closed lips fell away. "You severed that link to my old life, making me free to be with you, to be yours, and yours alone." His brow crinkled. "I could never regret you saving me, either time. I have had the best time of my life with you, Vegeta. I... I belong with you. You are all I need, everything to me." His eyes became glossy, translucent tears of raw emotion spilling forth to wet the richly woven sheets upon which they both lay. "Thank you." He whispered sincerely. "Thank you for ridding me of that."
Vegeta's heart was in his throat. Yes, they could have blamed the emotion Kakarrot exhibited on the medications, but it would have been a lie. Kakarrot meant this with every ounce of his being, the prince could feel it. The truth thrummed in the undercurrent of those soft, heartfelt words. He felt helpless under their empathetic, understanding onslaught. Such a deep acknowledgement left him emotionally bare, soaking in the gentle flow of love and returning it in kind, the two partners to a whole, the connecting of a circuit.
"Thank you, my love..." He sighed, unsure what else to say.
By the beaming, tear stained grin that lit the larger man's face, he understood no more need be said. Vegeta let a small smile claim his own lips, replacing his arms around the younger man's waist to pull their bodies closer together. Kakarrot purred contentedly, returning the embrace in his turn, resting his head beneath the prince's chin. Despite, or perhaps due to the sudden upswing in emotion, he felt suddenly, uncharacteristically relaxed. Vegeta felt so drained all of a sudden, the warmth of his lover's strong body pressing to his was welcome, as opposed to oppressive like the heat outside. In little time, his purr joined beside Kakarrot's, dissolving them into a world of calm as sleep overtook them in the middle of the day.
~•~ POV Change ~•~
King Vejiita strode furiously into his royal office, landing on the plush chair behind his desk with a thud before the door had even finished swinging shut. The loud slam alerted any in the palace that he was not to be disturbed, as if the loud growl in his chest all the way there hadn't been enough. Vejiita's bearded face was enveloped in a large palm, propping his head up so as not to let it fall on the desktop. He was livid, gritting his teeth from annoyance and every imaginable sort of fury. There had been no sign of his son anywhere, having personally checked all the places the prince frequented. The King Vejiita had alerted the guards, about to call for a search to find his missing son. If he's left the palace again... He had thought angrily, not forgetting the previous time. Finally, after over an hour of furious pacing, he had been informed that Prince Vegeta had retired back to his rooms for the day, with no word of his activities earlier on. Like it wasn't enough that his son would shirk his responsibilities in the evenings, now, suddenly, the prince wished to leave midday? Retire to his rooms like a child? Enough was enough.
The king reached up to the side of his face, angrily jabbing a sequence of buttons on the side of his red-shielded scouter. The line beeped annoyingly for a span of several seconds while he waited for the signal to connect. Eventually, his commanding guard answered, his deep tone of voice loud in Vejiita's ear. "Yes, my king?"
"Endive," He greeted coolly, finally having gotten his angered breathing under control. "Send a squad of my guards to Prince Vegeta's quarters. They are to escort him back to my office immediately."
"Y-yes, sire, of course." The captain replied, sounding more than a little confused. "Anything else, your Majesty?"
"Yes." He growled deeply, putting emphasis on each word. "Make. It. Fast."
~•~ POV Change ~•~
Vegeta was curled around Kakarrot in the expansive, royal bathing chamber. The larger man sat relaxedly between his legs, lazy purr causing ripples across the surface of the water. The warm, soap-clouded, liquid felt amazing, the uncomfortable sensation of dirty, dried blood soaking away in the large tub.
He idly ran his fingers through his lover's dark spikes, mussing them playfully before using his nails to delicately knead and scratch the scalp.
"Mmm, thank you, Vegeta." The teenager mumbled sleepily, head lolling back.
The prince smiled warmly, pulling Kakarrot's head to the side so that he could kiss the muscled neck, carefully avoiding the bronze collar. "No trouble." He replied, inhaling deeply the scent of his lover's wet hair. It was soapy, but the faintest hint of his natural, sexy, masculine musk lingered beneath the unnecessary, extra fragrances.
Kakarrot shuddered at the kiss, tail wrapping around the royal Saiyan's waist beneath the water. "How'm I gonna do your hair?" He slurred, words mashing horribly together just as they had been for the past ten minutes.
It was obvious that the medication was affecting his young lover's senses, making him weary and half-conscious, not sharply perceiving much of what was going on. His long, wet, brown tail coiled lovingly around the younger man's sculpted bicep, squeezing with sweet reassurance.
"You're not, Kakarrot. You're going to wait until I'm done cleaning the both of us, and then I'm going to hold you until you're all better."
"Tha's no' fair..." He mumbled almost unintelligibly, muscles slackening enough to make him sink another inch into the bath.
"Well, I'm your prince, you have to do what I say." Vegeta chided lightly, kissing the soft patch of sensitive skin behind his ear.
Kakarrot just barely managed to gather the strength to turn his neck, looking at his lover through half-lidded eyes. "Also no' fair..."
The prince chuckled, nipping playfully with his lips at the side of the teenager's exposed throat. "Who ever said I was fair?"
The younger man sighed deeply through his nose, ripples appearing on the water's surface. "I did. You lis'n t'me."
The slur was getting steadily worse, his lover's body-heat rising with every passing second of his slackening muscles. "It's time to go back to bed, love." He whispered kindly, unwrapping his tail from its previously coiled position over his lover's arm.
"M'kay..." He purred lightly, consciousness drifting.
The young features finally gave way, falling into a calm, sweet, achingly adorable expression. Were it not for his gigantic, muscled body, he could have looked like a child with that lazing, innocent face. He stroked it lovingly, carefully removing himself from behind the man to let the water out of the tub. Vegeta dried hastily, pulling on a pair of loose pants to cover himself before dashing into the bedchamber to throw a towel over the pillows.
There was no way he could single-handedly dry Kakarrot and then move him to bed. They could deal with being a little wet for a while until the warm sunlight saw fit to dry them.
The prince scooped his sleek, bare arms beneath the teenager's back, lifting the larger, sopping wet body from the empty tub. With care, he walked back to the bed, smiling when a cheek pressed against his neck, beads of water from the shaggy mass of black hair soaking his shoulder again. He laid the unconscious Kakarrot down, throwing the sheets over him. They became translucent in places where water seeped through them, but Vegeta paid it no mind.
He made to crawl in beside his lover when rapping sounded from the anteroom door. What the hell? He thought, head flying up and ears at attention. I expressly told Raditz and Chiva not to bother us. He thought angrily, grabbing his scouter from the bedside table to rush out and answer the insistent knock. He closed the bedchamber door behind himself, lest any unwelcome eyes find the collared 'servant' sharing the Saiyan Prince's bed.
"Sire," A deep voice called from the outer wing. "I must speak with you."
Vegeta grabbed the handle with annoyance, his haughtiest glare surfacing as he cracked the enormous, silent door. "What the hell do you want?" He growled furiously, a few strands of his wet hair falling into his face.
Chiva and Raditz were standing with sour looks on their faces, glaring at the back of the man standing before Prince Vegeta's door. They were obviously regretting the power of his rank, sending apologetic glances at what they could see of the prince's furious expression through the barely-opened door.
His father's commanding officer, Endive, stood proudly in his outer wing, authority drawn around him like a shroud. The man didn't even flinch at his harsh tone, arms crossed over his expansive, armored chest. "Sire, the king demands your presence."
"Tell him I'm busy." He ordered flippantly, making to close the door.
Endive grabbed the knob, holding the door in place. "I'm sorry, sire. The king demands your presence immediately."
"Too bad, he'll have to wait."
The man sighed. "Prince Vegeta, this is not open for discussion. I have seven guards here to escort you to his Majesty's office, whether you be willing or not. I'd prefer you come quietly."
"You make it sound as if you plan to arrest me." Vegeta said incredulously.
"Not at all, my prince. Merely to take you to the king's office."
Vegeta weighed his options. Refusing would more than likely invite them to barge in, taking him by force. He was many times stronger than the Commander, but knew such a fight would have been foolish at best. Yes, he could easily have killed him, as well as the seven guards he had brought along, but that wouldn't keep them away forever. Besides that, his father would be even more furious with him. Still, if he did as ordered and went quietly, he would be unable to stay with Kakarrot. Vegeta wasn't one to break his word, and leaving his lover in this confused and weakened state was a hard decision to make. Finally, he conceded.
"I'm half naked, Commander. At least allow me to be decent when I meet with my father."
The man grunted. "Fine, but a guard has to be in with you."
The prince glowered at him. "Why?"
"No offense, my prince, but you have escaped before." Endive nodded lightly, as if commending his escape attempt of six months previous. "It is my life on the line if you are not before the king soon. I don't take such a task lightly."
Vegeta snarled at the man, gritting his teeth. "Fine." His gaze shifted to another face down the hall. "Raditz," He gestured, opening the door to admit him. "follow me."
~•~ POV Change ~•~
The long-haired bodyguard followed Vegeta into the chamber, leaving his mate to occupy Endive for the time being. The Commander was infuriatingly big-headed at times, and downright power-drunk at others. He sent a silent, wordless, mental caress to Chiva as he strode in the doorway, wishing her luck. The prince began talking as soon as the door was shut, gesturing him to walk to the bedchamber and then straight to a large dresser.
"Kakarrot's medicines have finally kicked in. He's dazed and pretty out-of-it." He grabbed a spandex shirt from a drawer, pulling it over his still damp skin. "I planned to stay with him, but now that this has come up, it's no longer an option." He said sadly.
Vegeta gestured that Raditz turn around, giving him privacy enough to change into his spandex pants. The prince spoke to his back. "I will need you or another guard -preferably Chiva or Elry- to stay with him, keeping watch on him at all times."
Raditz swallowed, suddenly afraid for his younger brother's well-being. "Is he in a dangerous state-"
Vegeta cut him short, staying the older man's worry. "No, no, he's fine. It just may be that he wakes and is confused. I don't want him walking on the injured leg, and if I'm not here when he comes-to, he will no doubt go looking for me."
Both men turned when they heard the sound of shifting fabric. Kakarrot rustled on the bed, heavy breathing turning into a deep, purring snore. Vegeta sighed with relief, quieting his voice a little when he continued speaking with the older man.
"I need someone we trust to be taking care of him. The gods only know how long my father will need to speak with me for."
"So, we're making sure he's comfortable while you're gone, that's it?"
The prince nodded. "I will be back as soon as it is possible. If he wakes while I am gone, be sure to tell him that."
The long-haired brother made a sound of understanding. "Will do, Vegeta." He stated, clapping the younger man on his now armored shoulder. "We'd better get back out there. I'll let Chiva know and then get Elry here as soon as Commander Asshole and he troops leave."
Vegeta chuckled lightly at that. "Good." He agreed, hand making a shooing motion towards the door. "I'll be out in just a second."
Raditz understood, turning to walk from the bedchamber. From the corner of his eyes, the guard caught the blurred image of the prince turning back to the large, canopied bed, kneeling beside it. Vegeta's soft, gravelly whisper could just barely be heard above the voices outside, but Raditz tuned it out. Such a message was for Kakarrot's ears, and Kakarrot's alone.
~•~ POV Change ~•~
King Vejiita sat behind his desk, hammering his gloved fingers on the polished top. He had already received the report via Commander Endive's scouter, waiting for his son to stride into the Royal Office and launch into a tirade.
There was much he needed to discuss with his son, and now was not the time to allow the prince to get cocky. There were serious matters, things looming in the near future for Vegetasei that Vegeta could not shirk out on. Such discussion had their whole world at stake.
After a short while, the Commander stepped in, bowing at the waist. "Your son, my king." He announced stepping calmly aside to allow the irascible prince admittance.
Vegeta strode forward, glowering a frown worthy of his father's. "You wished to speak with me, father?" He growled, gritting his teeth.
Vejiita nodded coolly, fury mounting now the object of his anger was within grasp. "Yes, indeed." He stated, turning his attention from the younger man to address his Commander. "Endive, leave us."
The man bowed lowly again, retreating out of the plush office, leaving both seething royals to glare daggers at each other from across the room. The tension was so thick it could have been cut with a knife, filling the entire space like a thousand, brittle strands of silent hatred. One might have thought hatred to be a strong word, but it was in the forefront of each man's mind while they stared each other down. Finally, the king had had enough, breaking the silence like a gunshot.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Vegeta?" The older man growled. "Leaving all your responsibilities and duties at the door while you go off to sulk in you chambers!" He stood, leaving the chair in favor of glowering down upon the young man, as opposed to up.
The prince made a move to interrupt, but the king stopped him.
"Where even were you today?" He demanded, beginning to pace, hands clasped behind his back to keep himself from hitting something. "You have been gone since six this morning until now, hardly two in the afternoon. Eight hours, Vegeta!"
His son's face suddenly paled, but quickly regained it's angry, reddish tinge. "What I do in my own time is none of your business, father." He snarled lowly, arms crossed in their customary, defensive stance.
"It is not your own time when you are dodging your responsibilities!" Vejiita shouted.
"They are not my responsibilities! They are the ridiculous rules and restrictions you force upon your adult son!" The prince bellowed back. "It is not unreasonable of me to wish a short time of peace!"
Energy crackled around him like lightening, a veiled threat. Vejiita discounted such a display, laying every ounce of contempt he could into his reply.
"Peace?" The king scoffed, stopping before the desk. He pressed the flats of his palms to the polished surface, leaning his weight on his arms until his and his son's faces were a scant inch from each other. He kept his teeth clenched as he spoke, hot angry breath clouding the young royal's scouter. "We are warriors, Vegeta; there is no place for peace in these times."
Sinking back into his seat, Vegeta threw his hands exasperatedly into the air, looking at him with furious incredulity. "What do you plan to do, start a war?"
The king leaned back a small ways, sitting upon the cushioned armchair behind his desk. He stared the young royal dead in the eye, a satisfied smirk playing at the corner of his lips. "That is exactly what I plan to do."