Chapter 52. Generations
Vegeta didn't think he should be smirking with the matters that previously had him concerned wanting to return to his mind. It would not leave him however, the smirk, and neither would the new memories he had just made with his little mate. Those would last him a lifetime. The glorious sight of her in the beam of Vegetasei's relentless suns alone was an image he would not forget. It was all he could think about at the moment, his fascination for her that had been given so little room since their return to Vegetasei reignited savagely within him.
Those hard yellow eyes he so loved had been hellish in the burning suns that shone on her and the hint of auburn that streaked through her wild dark hair too had been enhanced so that it came close to the vivid red of her tail. She belonged in those red suns, his little mate. She had never shone quite like that in the weak light of Earth. Life away from their planet had dulled her, taken the true fire from her. It was back now and she had been blinding with that smile on her singularly small mouth, put there to convey her wickedness while she broke him down. She reminded him once again of the miserable addict she had turned him into and he overdosed on her. What else could he have done? His adoration left him no other option. He was still dependent on her like a wretched lush on wine.
The matters of possible war and the prospect of having to meet the nobility of Vegetasei didn't get firm footing in his mind with the image of his blazing future Queen burned into it. Not so much in any case. What he did give brief thought to was that with the arrival of Akane's brother and the spokesman for the tribes, all the lords were now at the palace and that meeting them could not be held off much longer. He decided that his oration might just as well have place the following day. That was good. He would finally get to make Akane his Queen. The other matters that needed discussion tomorrow, he left alone for the time being. He had been agonizing over them for days and he honestly didn't feel like ruining his good mood. Besides, he had given himself the day off – much to his father's solicitations though – and he should enjoy having no concerns, if only for a short while.
Vegeta chose his way through the long hallways of his private floor to the place where he sensed his son's ki. He was greeted with nods of heads, fists on chests, curtsies and often a muted: "My King." as he passed the staff and inhabitants of this level. It were mostly members of the cleaning staff he came upon, maids ranging from the very young to the very old, but there were also men of the Royal Guard and even a concubine who had strayed out of the wing where was his father's harem.
The slight, whispy, almost hauntingly fair girl bore the same mark beneath her left eye as Akane did and it brought Vegeta to an involuntary stop. The concubine blushed a violent red when she met his stare and she hurried along after giving him a bow so deep she almost touched her forehead to the floor. His confusion kept Vegeta exactly where he stood. That mark to him held an indissoluble connection to his little mate. When he saw it he expected, and looked forward to being confronted with the savage unpleasantries of Akane, not with the curtsy of some frail wench. That might have been why the concubine had blushed so furiously. The prospect of being challenged with his little mate's scowls and foul mouth made his smirks rather suggestive ones.
His father's bed warmer could very well have gotten the idea that his eagerness was meant for her and that Vegeta fancied sharing his bed with her. Such put her in a difficult position as it would have been treason had it been true. The concubine had nothing to fear. Vegeta had Akane to warm his bed and her terrible fire was all he needed. Granted, the wench was a good looking one, his father did have outstanding taste when it came to women, but Vegeta much rather found and lost himself between the powerful thighs of his little mate.
Vegeta resumed his way and the more he thought about the encounter, the more it aggravated him to find on another something that he had come to recognize as a characteristic in his little mate's gorgeous face. Akane should have that thing removed. Vegeta hadn't seen the need for it before since the flame was his own sigil as much, but he wasn't of that opinion anymore. That was the mark of a pleasure slave. Akane would be his Queen. She could not bear it any longer and he would not hesitate to cut it out of her face himself if that was what it took to make it go. She already had two serious scars, what difference did one more make? She had proven she could carry it with her looks. Those fierce scars made her only more beautiful to him.
Vegeta reached what used to be the King's solar and was now renamed The Great Vegeta's apartments. The men on guard beside the double doors gave a salute, pushed open the doors and announced the King's coming to the lord inside. Vegeta entered to find his son, his daughter and his father seated at the long table in the front room. Turles was there as well. He stood aside the doors on the inside.
"My King." Turles greeted.
Vegeta folded his arms and examined the man standing rigid aside him. He smelled of at least four different women today. Another addict. "Did my son blunder in on you?"
Turles loosened up and his comport became more informal when he snickered. "No, he knocked."
"You were luckier than I then. I see my father failed to offer you a seat at his table. Come sit." Vegeta ordered and he walked further into the large front room to join his family at the table.
Turles sat down with him, apparently not sure whether he should feel burdened or not by the frown The Great Vegeta gave him. His guardsmen never sat at his table during his reign.
His father might hold to the old rules of court, Vegeta did not care much for them. Turles had become too familiar to leave standing at the doors. Apart from that Akane had already made known that she would have no ladies in waiting and that instead she wanted both her former men as her confidants. In that position Turles had rights to a seat at any table on Vegetasei.
"Turles is Akane's confidant." Vegeta explained because if possible, his father looked more uncomfortable than Turles did.
The Great Vegeta's face relaxed and a scrawny looking young woman came away from the wall behind his back at his gesture to pour Turles a cup of wine. Vegeta put his hand over the cup in front of him on the table in wordless decline as usual, and the cupbearer retreated to her place at the wall again with the pitcher of wine clutched to her chest, her eyes big as coins and repeatedly falling on Vegeta.
Vegeta paid no heed to this. A week of admiring looks had made him all but numb to it. His time on the Marauder had already given him a foretaste of the insistent female attention that was to befall him. Soldiers had more self-control than the common wenches inside the palace though, not counting the one that had flashed him her tits that one time. He had not received nearly as many glad-eyes like the one given by the cupbearer during the journey to Vegetasei. It could also be because of his succession. If he had been desirable as the Prince, being the King really had the women crawling for him. Madness. Pleasing, but madness all the same.
The Great Vegeta held up his own cup of wine with a smile and declared to Turles: "My apologies, good man. I would not have left you standing at the doors had I known that you are the confidant of our future Queen."
"P-Please… my lord… No apologies." Turles sputtered, scratching his temple awkwardly and leaving his wine untouched.
It was a pity Akane wasn't here to witness his discomfort at the courtesy that was given him by the man that used to be his King. Vegeta was sure his little mate would have gotten a real kick out of it.
Turles was saved from further embarrassment by Trunks who had seemingly already thoroughly acquainted himself with his grandfather.
"Turles is my friend. And also Aina's personal guard." the boy explained pointing a finger to the sleeping kitten on The Great Vegeta's arm. "And he has served under the Captain that is my father's mate and is the brother of my best friend's father too."
"I see." The Great Vegeta said playfully weighty. "Those are a lot of honourable titles for one man. Will you forgive me for slighting your friend, young Prince?"
Turles' eyes were bigger than those of the cupbearer now and he quickly hid himself behind his cup of wine for lack of composure. Oh yes, Akane would have found this very entertaining.
"Of course, grandfather." Trunks said with a grave nod. He turned to his father and asked: "Where is the Captain?"
Vegeta had difficulty keeping a straight face. "Sleeping. She was awfully tired." He would not be here right now had she not been. "You figured out where we are then?"
"On your home planet. Turles showed me around the palace and brought me here to meet grandfather." Trunks gave a cocky smirk that reminded Vegeta of himself. A young Prince indeed. "I showed grandfather that I am a super Saiyajin too."
"Showing off already." Vegeta said with an amused look to his father across the table.
The Great Vegeta was as amused. "A likely lad. He reminds me of you at that age. Full of beans and naught but cheek. The kitten was in super form so he could not lag behind. Surely you would understand such, son."
Of course Vegeta did. He took in his son's smug face. Despite the light hair and blue eyes, the boy bore a striking resemblance to his grandfather. Three generations at one table. Vegeta had never thought this day would come. That reminded him. He looked to Turles at his side.
"Akane said to send you down to the guest floor. Your father came to the palace with her brother."
Turles, who had just started to reconcile himself to the honour of his position at The Great Vegeta's table, came to look extremely off colour suddenly. This just wasn't his day. Vegeta suspected that Akane's awe for the tribes man that was Turles' father had not been unfounded. And if someone amazed Akane then it surely couldn't mean much good. Perhaps the tribes man was even more unpleasant than his little mate was. Turles' colourless face sure suggested it.
"The old man is at the palace? That is ace." Turles didn't sound like it was ace. He sounded like he was ready to chuck up his wine. "I should go meet him."
He downed the cup of wine in one for courage, gave an absent bow of the head to the others at the table and walked out of the front room as if he was being brought before the gallows.
Vegeta knew first hand that it wasn't easy to face fathers. It had worked out for him though, there was no more ill blood between him and his father. Not even about the shared history between him and Akane. Not after all those days spent at the war councils together.
"Did she give you any trouble?" he asked with a glance at the kipping Aina on his father's arm.
The Great Vegeta held up a chewed hand covered in dried blood in illustration. "Your lovely daughter bit me. I think she is about done teething. It felt as such in any case."
Vegeta rather hoped so. He was done having Akane spend her nights helping Aina through it. An addict needed his refill.
"She bit me too." Trunks joined in with a bare forearm covered in tiny teeth marks. "But it helps if you turn super. She can't bite that hard."
"She is not biting for the fun of it. She is in pain. It is hardly her fault that she came into a world so ill adapted to her kind of power." Vegeta rebounded with a cocky smirk of his own.
His pride was founded. Aina was a legend. She had ascended before being born. She came into the world a super Saiyajin. The first in thousands of years. His daughter was awesome and he planned to father at least one more like her. No two, or three. Maybe even four. Or more still if his little mate concurred. They would have the palace filled with their magnificent offspring. That sounded like a plan to him.
Akane would be able to handle a pregnancy without trouble now that she had ascended and she would become more lusty with every babe she brought into the world. She might even come to match his own power one day. They would have to make quite a few more babes for that to happen, but if there was one thing that could persuade Akane to bear him many children it was the promise of more power. In any case, once the thing with the WTO was taken care of, he was going to get her fat with child again. That was a certainty.