Disclaimer: Chapter two. Lime time warning.
To lime, or not to lime: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous passion, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? To lime: to sleep with; And more; and by a sleep to say they begin the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd.
I think that's what ol' Bill Shakespeare really meant, ne?
Coordinates were set for the next planet, and the ship had just lifted off. Atsarute picked up the bloody gloves that she took off earlier and went towards a door. "Since the only part of you that's dirty besides your clothes are your face and arms, I suppose you wouldn't mind if I take my bath first?"
Piccolo was still trying to find a way to fumble out of his cape without the soot wafting up and making him cough. "What? That bath is anything but small. It's larger than a public bath back at Earth. We can both go at the same time, right?"
She growled at him and threw the gloves into the laundry. "That reminds me, I forgot to rip off your ears like I promised."
"I'll just regenerate them. Come on, it's not like your embarrassed about being seen in the nude."
"And I'm not… but I'm not giving you anymore chances to touch me again."
He laughed, and projected to her mentally, You liked it and you know it.
A long hiss came from her. "Fine. If you're going to be an ass about it, we can bathe together. But keep away from me. I don't want to be forced to get your purple blood in the water." Her hands reached behind her back and began to peel off the leather from her body. Piccolo scoffed at the bare green lines from where her scant clothing used to be contrasting with the rest of her sticky, blood-soaked body.
She rolled her eyes and pulled off her boots as well, throwing everything into the laundry. "You can put your clothes in the wash too, if you want… though I doubt you will since you can just form it from nothing."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
"I still don't see why you wouldn't let me scrub you…"
Atsarute groaned. "And I still don't see why you have to flirt so god damn much. I mean you didn't hit on me nearly this bad back all those years ago, counting that Valentine's night."
"I have my reasons." Piccolo grinned and turned away, arms crossed in his classic pose.
Atsarute growled and dove under the water of the large bath to settle on the bottom and rest, figuring it would be preferable to Piccolo's odd behavior. As she suspected, he didn't dive after her. Just because he's acting strange doesn't mean he isn't dependable. At least I can count on him, I suppose…
Piccolo kept his eye closed, pondering on what his next move would be. Continuing to bug Atsarute wont do me any good. I should just stop trying to joke around and get to the point. But how the Hell should I word it…? He shifted slightly and reclined back.
Not many seconds later, Atsarute popped up out of the water not a meter away in front of him, eyes already set seriously on his.
"What's with you?" He grumbled, not liking being taken by surprise in such a fashion.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking that question? I could sense your tension in your last motion in the water after being still so long." She glared at him. "Do you have something that you want to say?"
Well, it certainly isn't a roundabout approach, is it? "Yes, in fact, I do."
Instead of barraging him with demands to "get on with it", she kept herself still in front of Piccolo and waited, staring at him thoughtfully. The prospect of her giving him her full attention unsettled him slightly, but this minute anxiety was shortly lived as he aptly pushed it away. "You were wondering why I wanted to come with you so badly, right?"
"You said earlier that you panicked."
"I did. But it has to do with—" He stopped himself when he was about to say "my feelings". It sounded so stupid in his mind! Bad approach. "Okay, I'll put it this way. The flirting is mostly in jest… but I've been doing to, I guess, loosen us up in each other's presence." He paused to let her speak if she wanted, but her silence urged him to continue. "They do reflect my intentions to an extent, however…" He still couldn't pull up a good phrasing for what he was trying in Japanese, but half-a-dozen phrases that didn't sound half-assed came up to his mind in Namekku-go, so he blurted out one of those.
There was another silence (one that felt to Piccolo incredibly long and awkward). Doesn't she know Namekku-go? Perhaps I was mistaken… Maybe if I translate it literally into Japanese for her—
She brought her hand up to her face and chuckled. "Good lord, I forgot how much the concept of 'love' matters in Namekku-go (how many words do they have for it?). In almost every language, a phrase that would mean basically the same thing is usually put in polite, cute, or sexual terminology. Your own language is probably the only one that can pull off a way that sounds proud without sounding like an ass."
Piccolo gritted his teeth and turned to the side, folding his arms more tightly. "How the fuck else am I supposed to put it, huh?"
"I didn't say it was inappropriate. It sounds better than what I've heard in most other languages… and even the some I've heard in Namekku-go. It doesn't sound bloody absurd."
An angry blush sat on Piccolo's cheeks as he glared at the woman. "Well? Is that all you're going to say about it?"
She smirked and waded closer to him, stopping not 7 cm away, her arms crossed very much like his while putting herself back into silence. Piccolo dropped his own arms and looked at her with some sweat running his temples that weren't due to the bath. He could sense that she was plotting to do something to him.
"Suki yo!" She squealed in a high-pitched, girlish cry, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly.
"GYAAH!" He scrambled back from her and out of the tub in a skittish panic, pointing a finger at her accusingly. "THAT SHIT AIN'T FUNNY!"
Atsarute was left in her own sidesplitting guffaw. "Serve's ya' right for your bloody fawning!"
"Shut your fucking mouth!" he growled at her, "Telling the truth to you is like setting your head on the chopping block!"
She still didn't stop her laughter, but she was gaining control and calming down. "I suppose so. It isn't the first time I was told that."
He gave her another snarl before reaching for a towel and turning to walk off. Fucking bitch…
"Oi! You aren't leaving all ready, are you?" She called after him.
"If I stay in any longer, I'll prune," he said sarcastically.
He felt her ki move quickly from the bath to behind him. "Then I'll get out as well."
He stopped. "I've grown tired of this conversation, Atsarute."
"Hold on. I'm trying to offer you something."
"I'm not interested in anything you have. I've said many times all ready that I don't care about becoming a general, no matter how big my army would be."
"Imbecile. I'm offering you the same thing that I offered Sanatoasu."
It took Piccolo a full second to catch on to her. "Are you condescending to me?"
"Am I the type to condescend?"
He gazed sharply back at her. "You have to be making an exception. I'm not stronger than you, and, if I'm not mistaken, that's a requirement."
She spoke in a serious manner, "I've already thought about it, Piccolo. I just have to be careful…"
"Atsarute—"
"You can call me 'Atsa'."
"…" Piccolo turned fully to her. "You're sure this isn't a foolish decision?"
"Certainly, it's foolish…" She slumped her shoulders and moved against him before reaching around him in and locking her hands behind him. "But who cares?"
Not seeing any other option besides what was placed before him, he folded her into him and rubbed her back lightly with his fingers. The action made her jerk as her scales ruffled and grab at his back roughly.
"Are you okay?"
Her eyes closed tightly in a determined motion. "I'm… fine." She pulled her head up and kissed the side of his jaw. "Continue."
He proceeded as she asked, earning more squirms and whimpers as he felt around the non-erogenous zones, about to stop again when he realized she was shivering. Geez… you wouldn't know that she wasn't a virgin. But he didn't get a chance to stop; she started to do the same for him, and before long was scratching at his flesh with her own set of spiked canines.
Piccolo stilled his own actions. "…Atsa?"
Just keep going, she projected to him with her fangs still busy with his skin. I'll be fine.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
"So, Atsarute-sama and Piccolo-sama will be coming to this planet?" Arufuredo adjusted his glasses for perhaps the third time since Goku teleported everyone from Sui-sei to one of Atsarute's branch bases on a planet that's name was a bunch of numbers and letters in sequence.
Jakkaru didn't turn as he continued to lead them forward through the corridor. "Yes. Atsa got the transmission of Komugiko's intentions and told us that she would be coming here as soon as possible. We just got word of her approach."
"So, she'll be going immediately into strategy, then?"
"I don't know. She told us to have this planet's Three Twenty-two calibrated so that she would be able to speak to Katatsu when she arrived. I am unsure of her intentions…"
"Perhaps she wishes to supplement her army with Katatsu-sama's? Or maybe it has to do with Piccolo-sama?"
"Or both. Who can tell, really? Atsa's intentions are hard to place. I've always said that there has to be a plan. There's always a plan when Atsa's involved."
These words didn't calm Piccolo Sr. "My son has been confirmed to still be with her, correct? Are you sure that he sent no word in the transmissions?"
The Puroeriun didn't acknowledge the question with a direct answer. Instead, he stopped short of the landing pad and said, "They will arrive shortly."
Not 2 minutes after, a spark could be seen in the sky, and the quick decent of a ship burst into view. Landing jets interrupted the fall and the vehicle touched down softly.
A ramped door opened, and the two occupants walked out slowly, holding their bruised and bleeding shoulders while they leaned against each other for support.
"Piccolo-san! Atsarute-san!" Gohan yelled out, "What happened?"
"A simple training session, right?" Piccolo said. Atsarute nodded silently in agreement.
Piccolo Sr. frowned. "It doesn't look all that simple to me. What kind of training have you been putting him through, Atsarute?"
A grin pulled her lips over her fangs. "Routine general training. This idiot did a bloody 180 and decided he wanted to take up Katatsu on leading some of his army."
"What? Where did that come from, Piccolo?"
He shrugged. "Some things happened and I changed my mind. Is that illegal?"
"'Some things happened,'"Atsarute huffed, "I give you a speech on it, and you ignore me. We share some time completely unrelated to it, and then you won't listen to me talk you out of it! Tsh… idiot."
"You're an idiot too, Atsa."
"Yes, yes, we've already established that." She shifted to her own weight and brought herself towards Jakkaru in a dragging pace. "Jako. I want you and the two Piccolos to talk to Katatsu about what's happened… Komugiko and whatnot. Have the video sent to him if he hasn't already seen it himself. I'll be resting… and have the younger one go last and rest while he's waiting as well… He needs recuperation more than I do."
"Okay, Atsa… I'll go set orders to make sure your room is ready." He left with Atsarute short after.
Piccolo Sr. broke away from the rest of the group and stomped over before his son, proceeding in Namekku-go, "Where the fuck has your judgment been lately? What the bloody Hell have you two been doing?"
The younger laughed slightly and answered in the like language, "You would be surprised how similar the responses to those questions would be."
"What? …Oh god, your judgment really has been bad. I don't know what the whole pressure is with the suitor being stronger than the heiress on Sui-go, but I do know that it's not something to be messed with. It doesn't lie entirely in tradition or superstition."
"I wasn't exactly in a position to decline."
"You're not exactly in a position to be able to say something that stupid, idiot!"
The Saiya-jin and Humans that came along looked at the scene in confusion, unable to figure out what was going on since the argument before them was in a completely different language. Bulma caught a phrase or two, and somewhat understood the syntax, but wasn't any more enlightened than the others on what was happening. Plus, Neil and Toniko were still on Sui-sei training, so there weren't any native translators to help out, either.
Luckily Jakkaru popped back in and dispersed the awkwardness. "The line is ready."
Suki yo – A feminine version of "I love you". (Lit. "I like you"; Japanese rarely use "aishiteru" or more literal versions of "I love you".)
And now you are reminded why I don't usually write citrus-y things.