Chapter 53. Heir
Vegeta was brought from his grand plans when Trunks spoke up. "Grandfather says that you are the King now. When did you become King, father?"
"When we arrived here." Vegeta answered.
"Do I become King after you?"
"If that is what you choose. It is something we should discuss." Vegeta felt it coming and hurried to add: "Later."
It was already too late and he braced himself for another round of unending questions from his son. The boy's inquisitiveness might prove that he had a mind not unlike that of the technological genius that was his mother, it was still a right ball-ache if you asked Vegeta.
"Can I be a prince and live on Earth?" Trunks began.
Vegeta resigned himself to the interrogation. It had been almost a fortnight since he last spent time with his son. The boy deserved some attention.
"You already are. You were born a prince." he explained.
"When will I be King?"
"When I die or step down."
"If I will not become King, who will?"
"No one. We would have a Queen. Bra is the second in line." Vegeta felt the need to elaborate so his son would not badger him with more questions: "And if she refuses, Aina will be Queen."
"But I get first say?" Trunks resumed without any sign that he was ready to back down. The line of succession on Vegetasei needed disassembly and thorough examination first. So worked the mind of his son. He needed to understand the mechanics of things. Many things. Every single bleeding thing.
Vegeta sighed. "Yes. You are my first born and the heir to the throne."
"And what if Aina doesn't want to be Queen either?"
Well that was not like to happen. His half blooded offspring might pass up their place on the throne for their lives on Earth, Vegeta knew this would not be so with Aina. She was going to grow up in the palace a Princess and she would understand her duty to her people. Akane was sure to raise her that way.
"I don't think that will be so."
Trunks wasn't satisfied. "But if it is?"
"Then there will be another son or daughter to take the throne. The succession is in accordance to the order of birth." Vegeta stopped his son before he could go on bludgeoning him. "You get one more question. Think on it hard, boy."
But Trunks didn't need to think about it at all. "Were you making another son or daughter with the Captain?"
Vegeta snickered. "Practicing for it." He raised a warning finger when Trunks opened his mouth yet again. "That was your last question."
"I wasn't going to ask a question." Trunks said defiantly, but it was quite plain that the boy was telling a lie. He grew pensive and wondered: "It must be hard. You practice a lot."
Vegeta and his father laughed at this.
"Wait till you come of age, lad. You will be practicing a lot as well." The Great Vegeta said.
Trunks looked rather flushed and disgusted by that promise. He did now. Vegeta grinned. His son would learn in time just how disgusting it was.
"What is your age?" The Great Vegeta asked his grandson.
"I turned twelve last month." Trunks announced proudly.
"The boy is two-and-ten." Vegeta translated for his frowning father.
"Ah." The Great Vegeta said, nodding that he understood. "So at least another two years of peace. Enjoy them, lad. Take it from your grandfather, the troubles with women are many and tiresome."
Vegeta didn't find the troubles tiresome at all. To her yes, but not to him. He would never grow tired of enforcing his little mate's submission and he counted on Akane to go rogue on him again very soon. She liked her games and he simply loved punishing her for it. Yet perhaps he should not have proceeded so driven in showing his little mate her place today. His cravings were not yet sufficiently catered to. It had been over far too quickly for that. But he had bled her out. So much so that she hadn't been able to stay awake long enough to make it to bed on her own after he ran through her in his greed. Well she asked for it. She would be asking for it again too.
"Speaking of women." Vegeta said when he became aware of the person that had arrived on the other side of the double doors. "I reckon she is not here to discuss warfare."
His father smoothened out the beard that encircled his mouth with his fingers to somewhat temper his immodest grin. The man really couldn't help himself. Yet another addict. The Great Vegeta had wasted no time getting back to keeping himself occupied with any means possible to cope with the death of his mate. He did it by collecting women. A harem full of them. Well, grief wasn't easily stilled. One needed new input on a regular basis. There would probably be a whole floor of concubines by the time his father was ready to say his farewell to this world. But not this one. Vegeta needed this one.
"If you plan to take her for yourself, I ask you to reconsider. I have just promoted her to the position of Air Marshal. I need her in the forces."
"Oh I have concubines enough." The Great Vegeta said unconcerned. "The dark one is just good company. She has quite some interesting things to say."
The arrival of The Great Vegeta's latest conquest was at last announced by one of the guards at the doors and tall Ruirdo was shown in with all the interesting things she had to say carved flesh deep in her comely dark face. It was almost obscene.
"My lord." she purred with lolling and very long, black tail. Finding Vegeta at the table she resumed with a fist on her chest and a lot less loose: "My King."
"General."
Vegeta rose to fetch Aina from his father who was now hiding his grin behind his cup of wine. He put his daughter's curled up frame in the crook of his arm and she opened her eyes to peer at him dangerously from behind the fluffed tail that lay over her face. The Princess decided that he wasn't worth any more attention and went back to sleep after dismissing him with a vicious snarl. Impudence… Already.
"We leave, boy." Vegeta dictated his other overbold descendant.
But Trunks remained in his seat, his blue eyes glued to the tall dark woman that came to sit at The Great Vegeta's other side. Vegeta snagged his son by the back of the collar to pull him out of his chair and give him a good shove in the direction of the exit.
"Until next time, young Prince." The Great Vegeta bid.
"Bye grandfather!" Trunks hollered as he stumbled out onto the hallway. The heavy doors thundered shut behind their backs and he guessed: "Practice?"
Vegeta laughed. His son wasn't half as oblivious as he led on. Disgust clearly wasn't the only thing he felt for the matter. Or for the tall Air Marshal. His curiosity for women was becoming more serious. Those naughty magazines he had nicked from the Kame House of that old pervert would soon elicit more than shared giggles with the spawn of Kakarot. Next time he took those out, Vegeta dared to bet that the brat much rather flipped through them in seclusion. And with tall dark Ruirdo occupying his mind. His son was on his way to becoming a man grown.
"Call it sex, Trunks. Once you take an interest, it will no longer do to be a boy about it."
Trunks blushed just like his mother always did when the subject was brought up. He decided to cut his son some slack. The boy had been confronted with enough sex for one day and he was going to have a tough time dealing with his horny instincts once they truly started kicking in. Once those left him with a battering ram down the kecks in the most inopportune moments. Trunks was going to be blushing a lot in the time to come.
"Have you been outside the palace yet?"
"No, Turles only showed me around inside." Trunks replied, relieved that the subject of sex was over.
"We'll have a dander together." Vegeta decided.
He could use some time away from the palace. He hadn't been outside once since their arrival. He should go out from this floor if he didn't want to risk having a run in with the nobility that was waiting for him on the guest floor. He would deal with them tomorrow.
Vegeta crossed the hallway to the tall stained-glassed windows at the end of it and threw them open, taking a passing peek to the courtyard below where soldiers were sparring on the practice grounds. The sight made him long back to his own overdue training. He would not get around to that today. Nor tomorrow. He could have sparred outside with his son if he hadn't been forced to watch over Aina. No, that wasn't fair. Akane had earned her rest. She had devoted all her time to maternity. Vegeta was obligated to put in some of his own. He would have his day in the field again. He was the King. He would make it so.
Vegeta slipped out into the sunlight. Trunks followed behind him and immediately voiced his awe for the glare of the two red suns high in the sky. He put a hand over his eyes to look up to them.
"Don't look directly into them." Vegeta said just in time. His son was already furiously rubbing his eyes with his arm. "They are not like the sun on Earth. Look long enough and you will be blinded for the rest of your days."
"Our sun is like that for mom and the other Earthlings." Trunks' arm fell away from his watering eyes and he smiled to show that he was alright. "Now I understand why she needs sunglasses."
They soared away from the massive black structure that was Vegeta's palace with the suns at their backs and the high winds snarling at their hair. Trunks stared his eyes out as they passed over the capital, the mountains behind it and farther. Vegeta was as absorbed with the scenery below. His planet was beautiful. It had excellent conditions too. Climates to both extremes, hot and cold in the South and North respectively, and also mild, according to Saiyajin standards, as it was in the capital. The world had high gravity and air that was heavy on the lungs, just the things a Saiyajin liked for his comfort.
"There are so many high base powers here." Trunks said at length.
They had long since left the capital behind and crossed over three more cities on their aimless roam over Vegetasei.
"That shouldn't surprise you. Saiyajins are made to be warriors." Vegeta said.
"I'm not surprised. It's just strange to sense so many high ki-levels. They are everywhere."
They had come to hover over an incomprehensible body of silvery water that rolled away to meet the half circle in the far distance. The Salt Stretches. The horizon was endless at this great ocean. Vegeta had never been beyond to where the Eastern quarter of Vegetasei lay. Somewhere there was the homeland of his little mate. She pined for it sometimes, the castle in which she grew up and the woodlands where she spent her childhood sparring and hunting and making mischief with her brother.
Trunks kept gasping his amazement at the waves that rumbled deafening beneath them. This far out on the great ocean every one of those waves was high enough to swallow up the palace. They made for the shore and landed on a deserted stony beach to watch the violence of the Salt Stretches. The shoreline retreated for miles, surging and swirling, then thundered back to throw itself on the beach and rush away again. The sequence of this endless rocking motion took minutes to complete and they followed several rounds of it in silence, both automatically slipping into meditation mode at the cadance.
"I like this planet." Trunks said after a while.
Vegeta did as well. "Then you will not mind spending much time here. You have a home on Vegetasei with me. I want you to visit often."
"Can I stay over too? In the weekends like children of divorced parents on Earth do?" Trunks asked.
"You can stay over any time you want." Vegeta gave him a warning look. He knew his son too well. "But always in agreement with your mother. You are not using your stays with me to get out of your responsibilities at home."
"I won't." Trunks promised. "So can I pick any room in the palace?"
"Rooms." Vegeta corrected him. "Like the ones your grandfather has. You can have your pick on the top floor. That is where the King and his family live."
"Sweet." Trunks had that smug smirk again. "Can I bring Goten to sleep over as well?"
Sure, what the hell. The palace was big enough for Vegeta not to be arsed by their buffoonery. "You know I like the quiet. Choose your apartments well away from mine."
Trunks agreed to this with a nod of the lavender-haired head.
"Goten is not going to believe that I am a Prince here." he mused with that self-satisfied smirk fixed in place. "I should tell him about his grandfather too. The one Turles went to meet."
Vegeta inquired about his elder daughter.
"She's asking for you a lot." Trunks told him.
Vegeta felt a pang of guilt and regret. He had found it in him to ask Kakarot to take him for a visit only five times since he left Earth almost a year ago. All visits had been short and, from the woman's end, rather hostile. Yet his daughter had been happy to see him and she had not forgotten who he was yet. He was due for another visit soon. With his succession and the trouble with the WTO he just hadn't the time now. He should make time for it, though. And soon.
Vegeta was drawn to a stirring Aina in the crook of his arm. The suns were in her pale face and she was up in arms about it. That one so small and adorable could look so very furious. She had her mother's fire. The suns made her shine too and the pristinely white bodysuit she wore made the red flame of her hair stand out even more. He turned her so that her face was hidden against his side and she gave one last ireful snarl, wriggled to nestle herself snug in his hold and resumed her favourite pastime. At least so it was during the days. At night she did not sleep all that much lately.
"Do you like being King, father?"
"I can't say that I do." Vegeta said plainly. Why lie about it? "I liked being a Prince better. A King has great responsibilities. Every decision I make affects the lives of our people. A lack of judgement from my part and all could well go to pieces. Everything I do has consequences. Not just for me or you or Aina, but for all Saiyajins. Your grandfather made the wrong decision once and it caused the downfall of our race. I…" The words died on his lips.
Vegeta wasn't one to admit his own flaws, not even to himself. He thus hadn't done so regarding this. He had not wanted to accept it. This thing that had been bothering him ever since he became King. He knew he could not get out of it this time. His son should know, should understand what it meant to be King. If the boy chose it, the place would be his own one day.
"I fear the power of my position. It is a burden to me that I should carry the fate of so many. That it falls to me to shape their future."
There, it was out. His weakness, his flaw, out in the open, admitted. That the planet hadn't turned to shit at it was a wonder. In fact nothing seemed to have changed. Perhaps admitting to flaws wasn't the end of the world after all.
Vegeta took a breath, glad that Trunks still looked up at him with the worship only a son could feel for his father. "But it is my duty, as it will be yours one day. And your right. You should be my successor, Trunks. You are meant to be the heir to the throne."
Trunks stared at the ocean for a long time. At length he said: "When I become King, I will be like you, father. I will have fear too, but I will do my duty and be brave about it like you."