Chapter 15. Truths
Akane jerked awake from her own snoring and wiped the trickle of drool from her mouth, finding herself still sprawled on her back on the grass with the Prince sitting back on his hands aside her naked. He was snickering.
"Charming." Vegeta said, his low voice sounding as mellowed as she felt.
Akane snorted a laugh. She sensed that even if he put it forth as sarcasm, she really did charm him, though she hadn't a clue why her drooling and snoring should be such a delight to him.
She stretched lazily, enjoying the feel of Earth's sun on her naked skin. It was nothing like the two red suns of Vegetasei, which had been scorching enough to blind you if you looked directly into them, but Earth's sun's gentle warmth was pleasant nonetheless. The yellow orb was already over its highest point now, a blazing pin prick up in the blue sky that beamed down on her over the tops of the mountain range surrounding the valley where they leisured.
She couldn't remember the last time she had felt this relaxed. Her life had been about surviving for so long that this simple, easy setting seemed like an immeasurable gift to her. She was thoroughly satiated, both from the meat they had taken from the fire pit to tear through together and their coupling before that meal. Stuffed and happy was what she was and it was a miracle that her life had taken such an unexpected turn for the better. She certainly hadn't envisioned finding herself here when she went into hyper sleep after their last purging mission for Cold. She had not expected to ever find their lost Prince either.
"I think I get it now." Akane said, folding her hands behind her head comfortably. "Why you chose to stay here. I could get used to piss-arsing about like this."
"No, that's not me, little one. Everything I do has purpose. I don't arse about." Vegeta said, though the easiness had not left his low voice. "And you would grow very wretched indeed if your life was reduced to sunning your tits all day."
Akane laughed. He was right about that. He was getting to know her well. "My tits like the sun though."
"They do." Vegeta agreed amusedly.
Akane liked the way his eyes swept her body so openly, so utterly without scrupules. He enjoyed what he saw and he wasn't hiding it. Very direct, her Prince was. Rather foul in the mouth at times too. Not the eloquent diplomat his father had been, but certainly very engaging in his own way.
"Your father never got that about me. How I hated idling away my days inside the palace." she mused.
"My father was a fool, wasting potential like yours." Vegeta said rather impatiently. "And you are a fool too for thinking I would do the same."
"You can't expect me to know how to play the game when you change the rules." Akane threw back with matching impatience.
"I don't play games, Akane. I want you for myself, but I will not get in the way of your aspirations. You just continue building that power of yours. I would like to see how far it can get you. You can keep your station as well. Those bleeders seem rather hopeless without you."
Akane's impatience left her in a flash. She could only love him for allowing her to just remain herself. His father never gave her quarter for her warrior ambitions. She also appreciated how forthright Vegeta was with her. It was a good counterbalance to her own manipulative inclinations. The Sweet Mother knew she played enough games for the both of them. She hadn't been wrong when she whispered it in his ear. He really was made for her.
But would he be hers? That was the question. The way he acted around her left no doubt that he was growing fond of her and that, at least for now, he preferred her company over that of his main woman. Yet how long would that last? He hadn't even told that Earthling cunt about taking her for his concubine. He said he would never place her beneath the main woman and as a result he hadn't placed her anywhere at all. So where did she fit into this picture exactly?
Akane gave a rough snarl and pushed her thoughts aside. Why was she riling herself up? She only had to be near the Prince to feel how drawn he was to her. The look in those dark eyes told her exactly how fascinated he was with her, and the way he fucked her was all the proof she needed that he was finding great pleasure in being with her. That last coupling had been especially intense. It almost felt like they had been one... It hadn't been like anything she was used to in any case.
He even said outright that he wanted to plant a son in her and what was even more important: he hadn't acted on it because she didn't want him to, showing her that he really was inclined to take her wishes into consideration. He was giving her everything that she could ask for, everything she wasn't entitled to anymore now that she was his concubine so what more did she want? Why question it? Why the need to define it? Why not just leave it the fuck alone and enjoy the attention he lavished on her?
Because in her heart of hearts she wanted him to be her mate. She would never voice this, but she wanted him for herself as well. The notion that the things he did to her were the same things he did to his main woman, that he shared intimacies with the Earthling, spent leisure time with that cunt like this, it made Akane want to fly into a fucking rage. Her easy mood truly left her now and that frustrated her most of all. She just couldn't give herself the bleeding room to unwind even for a second.
"It always catches up with you in the end, doesn't it?" Vegeta observed as if hearing her thoughts.
"Sod off." Akane spat seeing the amused expression on his handsome face. He wasn't just getting to know her well, he was getting to know her far too well.
She flipped to her stomach, planted her elbows on the grass and practicaly rammed her chin in her hands, all set to wallow in her ill temper. He pulled her out of it instantly, not at all moved by her savagery. Yes, she loved him for that too.
"Is this where the fire bit you?" Vegeta asked, putting his forefinger to the faded scar on her arse cheek. "That's not so bad. You made it sound like your whole arse was ablaze."
Akane threw a look down herself over her shoulder. "It was. My arse just wasn't quite so big back then. I filled out around the scar, didn't I?"
"You sure did." Vegeta slipped to his side to bring himself to eye level with her and gave her the little smirk that made her heart jump. "And very nicely so." he added, squeezing her arse to emphasize his words.
"I pegged you more the tall and skinny type." Akane said dourly. "Judging from your fuckhole."
Vegeta laughed. "There is nothing wrong with tall and skinny, but I wouldn't enjoy you half so much if you weren't this abundantly endowed." He became more serious then. "You should stop calling her that. Whatever enmity you feel towards her, it belongs with me."
"I have no enmity towards your fu..." Akane caught herself reluctantly and finished in a hiss: "her."
"Good, because there is no need." Vegeta took her by the jaw so that she was forced to answer his demanding stare. "She is not your competition. You and your big arse made me lose what little interest I had left in her. But I do need her to be safe. She is the mother of my children. Nothing changes that, not even if you decide to give me a son like I want you to. I need to know that you are able to deal with that without your foul temper getting the better of you."
Akane wanted to look away from those probing dark eyes, but he didn't let her.
"I need your word." Vegeta pressed.
Akane bared her teeth at him, then relented and said: "Fine. You have my word."
His smirk returned and he put a lingering and very enticing kiss to the corner of her mouth, just where her scar was.
Akane felt the heat in her rise relentlessly. She ignored it and asked vaguely: "You are serious about that then?"
Vegeta knew exactly what she was referring to however because he said very to the point: "Was I not clear enough about it before? I want to get you fat with child. Nothing would please me more. I'll do it right now if you let me."
Akane cleared her throat. It felt rather a bit tight all of the sudden. "And if I don't?"
"Why wouldn't you?" Vegeta asked, growing impatient with her again. "Have you seen my son? Imagine throwing your awesome genetics in with mine."
"That would be pretty neat." Akane agreed. It would be. She had no doubt about that. A whelp of their combined make up would have power she couldn't even comprehend.
"Pretty neat." Vegeta snorted. "It would be legendary. I am certain of it."
Akane snarled dismissively. "No, it weirds me out. I already bore you two brothers."
Vegeta looked taken aback by that. So he hadn't known. It figured. Her sons had been taken from her so soon after they were born, there wasn't even enough time for the news of their birth to get out. And the King had always been very careful to keep his affairs in the concubine's wing seperated from the rest of his life as the ruler of Vegetasei.
"I gave your father twin boys." Akane explained, ignoring the reocurring constricted feeling that came to her throat. "His main woman killed them. Smothered them in their sleep when they were naught three days old."
She turned away from the sudden sympathy in his eyes. She wanted to weep.
"And that's another thing," she snarled forcefully, her temper irradicating any feelings of bereavement that were stirred up in her. "You talk about the safety of your fuckh... of her. What about me? Did you consider that she might see me as competition? That were I to give you a son, she could resort to such unspeakable deeds as your father's main woman did? That lousy cunt didn't pose a threat to me either, but she needed skill nor strength to snuff out the lives of two defenceless boys."
"You have nothing to fear from the woman. This is not Vegetasei and I am not my father. I would not put you in harm's way." Vegeta eased her face back towards him in an oddly tender way. "I understand that it might be painful for you and that you need more time to reconcile yourself to this. I didn't know. I wouldn't have pressed it so hard if I had. Mind you, I do still want it and I hope that in time you wil want it as well. I can wait."
He was giving her so much leeway, was approaching this with so much regard for her feelings that Akane didn't know what to say or think or feel about it and so, as it ever was with her, her temper took her over and she sifted out the one thing in his whole forthcoming declaration that she could take as an insult to use as a means to get out of the situation.
"It's not painful for me." she said roughly. It was. Much too painful. "I put paid to it. Ripped her fucking head right off her bleeding neck. It weirds me out, I told you. And it was hardly your father's fault that the bitch went rabid on him."
Vegeta searched her with his eyes, the look on his face almost incredulous. "You are loyal beyond reason. Who's fault was it if not his? It fell to him to protect your boys."
Akane was appalled by the hate she could suddenly feel coming from him. It was invading her space and stuck to her like muck. Her own emotions, no matter how painful, were shouted down by it instantly.
"Is it because they took you away?" Akane asked, not understanding where this sudden hostility was coming from. "You shouldn't hate him for that."
Vegeta laughed and it sounded very bitter. "Took me away? You keep saying that. I don't know what he told you, but I assure you that was not the way of it. He used me as a pawn in his conquest for power."
Akane shook her head resolutely, trying to shake off his horrible hatefulness clinging to her at the same time. "I don't believe you. Losing you destroyed him."
"My father was there, Akane." Vegeta still looked as unmoved as ever, but he sounded absolutely murderous now. "He handed me over to Frieza himself. I was due for my two years of service in the WTO and he let them take me. Only, I never returned."
"Then they cheated him!" Akane shot up to get away from that consuming hate in him and started pacing back and forth, giving her sudden rage an outlet that didn't involve kicking her Prince in the perfect teeth. "It was never his wish that you shouldn't return. You were his heir! He sent out company after company to bring you back, leaving Vegetasei's air defences gutted. Why do you think he reinstated me? I had no more business being in the forces after he claimed me for his concubine. He restored my position when the Royal Fleet was all but lost. We needed everyone that was left to strengthen our Air Forces. I was his last hope of getting you back. And then that fucking Cold overtook us. I failed him. I failed you."
Vegeta snatched her by the wrist and pulled her back down to the grass with him, his calm exterior at last giving way to his own fury. It was an alarming thing to behold the vengefulness in his face.
"You don't strike me as an ignorant cunt. You must see that the choices my father made had severe consequences for both our lives. That alone should prove to you that he is not what you make him out to be, but if that isn't enough for you, how about the fact that there isn't a Saiyajin left alive apart from us? His duty was to protect his people. He only ever served himself. His reign brought about the demise of our whole bleeding race. You failed? He is the one that failed. He failed us all."
"You are right." Akane agreed as furious. She wasn't backing down, even if he had the right of it. This was her King he was talking about. His own bleeding father! "But this hate, he doesn't deserve it. You shouldn't think so little of your father. He loved you, Vegeta. He brought ruin upon us all for the sole purpose of bringing you back. He was a good man."
"You just promise me one thing." Vegeta hissed in her face. "You said you follow me. I need more than that from you. I have no use for mindless loyalty or blind adoration. Not from you. You never follow me blindly. You think for yourself and when you find me at fault, you tell me. And you tell me to my face, not via some fucking byroad like you did the first time."
Akane nodded, lost for words and unable to get away from the hands that had come to clasp so tightly around her upper arms. Neither could she get away from the idea that had Vegeta been King in his father's stead, none of the horrors their people were put through would have been allowed to happen to begin with.
Vegeta let go of her and sat leaning back on his hands again, seemingly appeased now that he'd had his say, except that he felt the need to send a blast of energy at the picked apart carcass at the edge of the glade to obliterate it, leaving nothing but a scorched patch of grass behind. It wasn't entirely uncalled for. The carcass had already started attracting all manner of crawling critters. His blast had done away with those as well.
"It started stinking up the place." Akane agreed, breaking the silence and looking to broker a peace.
It was a relief to see his trademark smirk return to him so readily. Yes, she loved him for his astonishing equilibrium most of all. Since she was so utterly void of it, it was only fitting that the one to complete her possessed so much of it.