Chapter 70. The Heir III
Present day: year 15 AR
Four years later and my mother was close to finishing the time machine. It had taken her almost as long to accept Rei as her daughter in law, their exchanges awkward and strained. But my mother doted on our Fair Vegeta, no matter her complaining about the name I had chosen to give my son and she was equally happy about the second grandson that would be born any day now.
The night wore on and I became more than a bit drunk while my very pregnant mate grew sleepy. She finally caved, bid me a fun evening, refused my offer to either join her or zap her up to our quarters, and went up to bed. I watched her collect Fair Vegeta from beneath the high table where he lay zoned out in a sweets-induced stupor combined with too many waking hours. The two smallest of my half-siblings were lying under that table as well, as were several toddlers from the tribes who had joined their parents to the palace. Their sleep was conducted under the watchful eye of Suzuna sitting on the steps leading up to the dais. She was accompanied by the intimidating tribes woman Gine and Ruirdo, General of the Royal Fleet who had been one of my more persistent boyhood obsessions, but I had lost my interest in her completely upon meeting my beautiful mate. Those were the slender, long legs I was eyeing as Rei made her way out of the great hall with our son slumped over her shoulder fast asleep.
I went to join the Southerners at their table, feeling that I had fulfilled my duties as the heir and seeking to just be me for the remainder of the evening. What better way to remind myself that I was a mere man than by treating myself to some well-earned and much needed tribal abuse. My father was there as well to receive the same, though he did not need the tribes people to cure the swollen head all the reverence had by now given me. He never let himself get carried away by visions of grandeur. It were big footsteps I was following in.
As expected, my father wasn't very impressed with my half-cut state. I threw him my widest grin, the wine giving me just enough edge to put forth that I was more than okay with being a man who enjoyed a drink every once in a while. He cut me slack because every single person of drinking age inside the great hall, and his very own Queen in the lead, was on the hoy tonight. Him and Goku were the only ones that did not indulge in drink this evening. They sat next to each other on the bench facing away from the table, Goku reclining with his elbows planted on the table top behind him, my father leaning against it with his back, his legs stretched out ankles crossed and arms folded in his usual pose. As always, they were talking battle lore.
The uneasy truce my father had agreed on with his self-proclaimed nemesis in order to advance himself had long since grown out to genuine comradery and together the two warriors had sought to unlock the true potential of the Saiyajins. They uncovered the God Power ritual chronicled by the Ancient Namekians in their Book of Legends with the help of Piccolo and Moori and from what I picked up of the conversation, it sounded like they were planning another visit to Namek to continue their unending search for martial excellence.
Goten beckoned me from across the table where he sat staring at our fathers' backs. He budged up to make room for me on the bench and slapped me on the shoulder as I dropped down next to him, sliding a fresh cup of wine under my nose.
"How's life in the South?" I asked my best friend.
Goten grinned, his teeth standing out very white in his tanned face. He was almost as dark-skinned as his uncle Turles who sat booming with laughter at his other shoulder. They looked so much alike while they sat there sloshing wine and drawing from their pipes, it was almost scary.
"Hot." he answered my question.
His eyes fell on the stunner that sat next to his grandfather further down the table. The smirk he gave his mate was a very indecent one and he mouthed something at her I probably didn't want to be privy to. Dolgoon flipped him off in return, her lip upturned in an intimidating snarl. The girl Goten had spent close to eight years chasing after before she finally gave over and allowed him to take her for his mate, might just be the scariest of all the tribes women present tonight. Her savage ways outdid even the Queen's. Dolgoon and Goten were at loggerheads most of the time and I didn't understand what the appeal was in that, but my best friend was as happy with his mate as I was with mine.
Goten blew her a kiss over the table to which she actually gave a furious cry and threw an empty pitcher his way. Goten was really laughing now and he plucked the pitcher out of the air with a showy gesture that made his grandfather guffaw.
"Pup." Bardock intoned appreciatively.
"Don't tell me you had a row." I said to my best friend with playful sarcasm.
"My moon goddess is narked about the babe I planted in her belly last night." Goten said throwing another smug grin his mate's way.
"She's not happy carrying you another child?" I asked somewhat surprised. From what Goten told me, his mate was of a mind to follow in the Queen's footsteps and give him as many descendants as she could manage. They were well on their way too, she had given him a child a year for the past three, all now sleeping beneath the high table on the dais.
"Oh, she's happy." Goten assured me. He swallowed a mouth full of wine. "It's the timing. I cheated her out of becoming ripped to the tits tonight. Your mate about ready to pop that son out?"
"Couple more days." I answered, taking a healthy swallow of wine myself. "Is Gohan competing in the tourney this year?" I really hoped he was. It had been a long time since I last saw him. Gohan was the only Son that didn't take to Saiyajin life and he wasn't over on Vegetasei much.
"Nope." Goten said dispassionately. "My brother is staying on Earth."
"Too bad." I said.
Goten gave a non-committal sound of the throat. "His loss."
"There they go." Goku across the table suddenly said. The air shifted as he instant transmitted and reappeared seconds later holding a startled looking Pan at the wrist. At the same time my father was signalling Bra to come over from where she had been about to sneak out of the great hall with a chuffed looking dude having his arm wrapped around her shoulders.
Bra stomped her foot, showing that she might look like a young woman, she still was more a girl at heart and she came over with a thunderous look on her pretty face. It got erased when she froze in front of our father and I could picture the look he was giving her at the moment all too well. I was glad to not be on the receiving end of that.
Goku was berating his granddaughter looking almost as abashed as Pan herself, the both of them rather hot in the cheeks. My father wasn't burdened with that. Goten and I both pricked up to watch it go down, remembering the time when he had this conversation with us. My father didn't often give a lecture, but when he did, he knocked it straight out of the park.
"Let's keep the fun inside this hall." my father suggested.
Bra had a hard time fighting off her irritation and Pan who had come to her side was still blushing and cringing.
"Can I sit with grandfather at least?" Bra asked through gritted teeth.
My father held out his hand to signal that she was free to go and Bra and Pan bounded off to the table where The Great Vegeta sat with the few of the gentry present tonight.
I sat back feeling disappointed and just a little done wrong by while Goten next to me all but deflated in his seat.
"How the hell did they get off so easy?" my best friend demanded put out. "I was so looking forward to hearing that speech again."
"I could give it to you, brat." my father mentioned without even bothering to turn and face us. He laughed quite wickedly. "But I think your mate is schooling you plenty."
I snickered and Turles boomed a laugh.
.
.
Year five AR
Goten and I stood in the practise grounds. Muras, the rugged, one-eyed man at arms of the palace was badgering his fledgeling members of the King's Guard about their deplorable skill while he sicked them on each other over and over. The injuries they sported ranged from bloody noses to fat eyes and the occasional lost tooth. Goten and I observed it all dry-eyed from our place aside the armoury. We had been there too often ourselves. It was a luck that my Saiyajin genetics allowed me endless dentition, otherwise I wouldn't have had a tooth left in my mouth by now.
The two girls we were chirpsing got called into the fray by Muras and we gave him a look to signal our objection. The man answered with a snort of laughter.
"That short one's a bit of alright." Goten declared. "I'm moving in on her."
His eyes were trained on the girl's admittedly very nice bum, but I liked her tall companion way better. She reminded me of General Ruirdo with her slick black hair and slim physique and because this one wasn't outside of my age range or league, I decided on her as my own next conquest.
Goten's girl received a smack in the mouth that had her swallowing some teeth herself and when she turned around to give my best friend a bloody, gap-tooth smile, he recoiled with a disgusted look on his face.
"I'll wait a week."
His revolted expression had me laughing so hard that it made me tear up. Goten gave a sadistic little cackle as my girl got her face smashed in turn, leaving her with an unappealing fat keeker.
"That fucked off look on your face!" Goten brayed at my disappointment.
"Let's just go to the South after we're done here." I suggested. "We promised to hook up with Serori and Dolgoon anyway."
"I don't know, man, that Dolgoon is really shitting me up. One minute she's giving me the glad-eye, the next she is kicking me in the balls for taking her up on the offer. Girl's tuned to the moon."
My best friend might indeed have bitten off more than he could chew with that one.
I liked Southern girls. They were nothing like the coy girls we went to school with on Earth or the meek servants we encountered inside the palace. Some of the girls in the Forces, like the two we had been chatting up, were another matter, but even they couldn't compare to the girls of the tribes. Southern girls were forceful, uninhibited and entirely without shame. To boys looking for a good time, that was the exact disposition one hoped for.
"So ditch her. There's enough pretty girls in the South." I suggested.
"But she is so bang tidy. It's just my luck that she has to be a right nutter." Goten sighed. "My granddad said I don't have what it takes to be with a girl like her. That she needs an alpha and I'm clearly not that. You think he's right?"
"I wouldn't know." I said smirking cockily. "I never have problems getting a girl to give it up for me."
"Yeah, I wonder why that is." Goten muttered sourly.
"What?" I demanded, feeling provoked.
"I don't have a title to throw around." Goten shrugged.
"I don't throw my title around." I denied hotly.
It did give me a head start that I was the heir to the throne, Goten wasn't wrong, but I disliked him for using that against me. He was such a cheeky, confident bastard that he usually still ended up receiving more attention than I did.
"Had I been a prince, Dolgoon would be on me like a dog with two dicks, is all I'm saying."
The remark took the sting out and we both laughed. It was one his grandfather's many sayings. Bardock used it when he came across someone who was overly enthusiastic about something, like whenever Goten brought his uncle fried chicken from Earth and Turles upturned the bucket over his huge mouth to down it all in one.
"Well, you can always bag that one." I joked with a gesture at gap-tooth getting her trimming in the yard.
"She's a double bagger by now." Goten topped me.
"Goten!"
Our laughing subsided immediately at the sound of Goku's outraged voice coming from behind us.
"The way you talk about girls is repulsive." my father said in his usual unaffected manner.
I could see that he meant business even so and his words made it clear that they had been standing there listening to us far longer than I liked. Our fathers were now so far ahead of everyone else, no one, not even Goten and me, could detect them with our senses.
"That sex is considered a pastime amongst Saiyajins does not mean you get to use these girls for your amusement." my father went on. "You make sure to show them the respect they deserve and give them a good time. It's supposed to be rewarding to them as well."
"Give them a good time?" Goku echoed in an affronted way. "They are too young to be..."
"You listen to me boy, and you listen well." my father cut across the other adult Saiyajin impatiently, his finger held up at me threateningly. He snapped them in Goten's severely blushing face, adding: "And you, brat. Sex is the highest form of disregard if you engage in it so carelessly. It is no achievement to spill your seed in a woman. Animals do that. The most disgusting, undeveloped species on this planet can do that. What does it make the girl you're with if you only use her as something to spill your seed in. You want it to mean a whole lot more than this pissing contest between the two of you, otherwise it is depraved and you have sod all to set you aside from a bleeding beast."
Goku looked as impressed with the speech as we were, but it didn't stop him from putting in: "I still think they are way too young."
"Get with it, Kakarot. They're obviously not." my father rounded on him. He focussed back on us. "You two wise up. If you want to be men, start acting like it."
.
Present day: Year 15 AR
Goten nudged me. "Look at the sad little bastard." he said, motioning with his chin across the table to my half-brother Mikan.
Turles at Goten's side snickered and supplied: "Poor sod."
Mikan sat facing us beside my father who still had his back turned to us. The boy was leaning into him securely and showing that he was no less fond of his father than the mother he was yet again spell-bound to. He had his cheeks cupped in his hands, elbows on the table and he mooned over the Queen seated at the far end of the table having boisterous fun with the tribes people. Their merry making was accompanied by a lot of swearing and cheering, that part of the table almost completely shrouded in pipe smoke as they all sat smoking and throwing back wine.
Mikan was nodding off repeatedly and jogging himself awake again, unwilling to miss a second of his mother's fun or have this evening end. My father leaned in to say something to him, clamping eyes on the Queen as well at the bark of laughter she let out, the sight obviously pleasing them both. Mikan sighed emphatically and shook his head. Then my father did something he had sparsely done when I was Mikan's age. It made me realise again just how much he had changed over the years. The King lifted his arm and Mikan turned his back to us as he burrowed himself in his father's embrace.
As I sat there, my surroundings started to flicker suddenly. A panic broke out all around me as people started vanishing into thin air.
"What the fuck is going on?" Goten next to me hissed as he came to his feet.
I rose with him, watching my father standing up in his usual primed agility from across the table. Our eyes met and the look of horror on his face had a kind of knowing to it, as if my father had been expecting something like this to happen. When I looked around, there were only six people left inside the great hall, two full-blooded Saiyajins, three demi's and one quarter Saiyajin. Everybody else was gone.
The next thing I knew, the deserted hall was taken from my view and I opened my eyes to the sight of my bedroom at the CC house. And it struck me that all that history, it had been nothing more than a dream…