The Hunter Captured by the Game

Author: Mei TwoMoons                                                                   Rated: PG-13

I've read allot of pairings in Dragonball fics, but it came to the attention of me and my fellow muses (whom I adore) that both Android 17 and Lime, a little girl about Gohan's age from just before the Cell games, are usually left out of the fun. 

Special thanks to all my beloved muses, who kept my butt in front of the computer writing, and in particular Lexxie, who gave me awesome insights and inspirations for this piece.

Disclosure: I don't own any of these characters.  And if I did, would I be writing fanfiction?  I think not.

Part 2: First Impressions

A girl named Lime woke in a haze of pain, not able even to focus her eyes on the ceiling beams she was staring up at.  And when she tried to move the pain that shot up her side told her why.  Every breath hurt.  Everything hurt.

She gingerly ran a finger over the bandaging wrapped around her chest and abdomen that was constricting her breathing to short fast pants instead of the deep breaths that would probably hurt even more.  She tried to swear, but her mouth was too dry, her voice frozen in her throat.  So since she couldn't speak or sit up, she tilted her head to the side to glance around the room as her vision cleared.  Nothing was familiar.  //Where the hell am I?//

She tried to remember what had happened.  She was in her favorite climbing tree near the river, the one she had always strayed into the forest to find because it had the biggest apples she had ever seen.  She had been climbing it as long as she could remember.  Could she have fallen from it?  She had once before, and ended up almost getting drown in the rapids.  She was lucky, as that Son Gohan boy had pulled her out.

Her brow creased in concentration.  She vaguely remembered a sound like a lightning strike as she was falling.  Could she have been shot?  She angled her head and squinted to look at a few flecks of blood, dried a rusty brown color on the front of her oversized shirt she was still wearing.  She HAD been shot!  Her surprise evaporated in a rush of white hot anger.  SOMEone had SHOT her!! And when she got a hold of the creep.. 

She looked past her view of the shirt and it's damning stains to a light beyond.  A slightly open door.  And the shadow of a man blocking it.  "Whose there?"  she croaked out as she tried unsuccessfully to sit up, wincing as she did.

"Oh look, it's trying to get up," came the smooth cold voice.

The girls face contorted in both surprise and anger at the comment, //IT??// but a rush of nausea negated her responding as she flopped back into place on the cot panting for breath.

A low chuckle from the figure still poised in the doorway.  The bastard was getting off on this!  This time Lime put everything she had into sitting up to give him a piece of her mind, and didn't feel her hand slip off to the side, the rest of her following it onto the floor.  She'd never thought it was possible for something to hurt so much you couldn't scream…  but that's exactly what she found as she slipped onto the cold hard floor on her side, legs still propped at odd angles against the cot.  It was all she could do to keep from passing out or hyperventilating.  And still, he just, just STOOD there.  //Damn damnit damnit DAMNIT  DAMN HIM!//

As the painful throbbing moved from her chest to the edges of her limbs, pricking her like scores of needles, her breath became even more short and rasping, squiggling patches of light and dark dancing under her eyelids. And then she made the mistake of trying to push herself onto her back.  A jolt of pain that ripped though her and she never even had the chance to hear her own pained cry as a blissfully numb blackness consumed her and she exhaled deeply as her muscles relaxed.

Juu watched the girls struggle with passive features, and even after she had managed to cause herself enough pain that she passes out, he still made no move towards her.  As far as he was concerned, if she preferred to reside on the ground then so be it.

He took the time to put his rifle above the fireplace, to remove his coat and hang it over the edge of his overstuffed chair, and to start a fire, the listening the whole time as her breathing became even and steady.  She had slipped into a deep sleep.  Too bad she wouldn't stay that way till she was recovered enough that he could get rid of her. 

Then the though occurred to him that the floor was drafty, and a human could become sick if exposed to the cold.. Especially one who was already injured. 

If she died, she died, no skin off his nose.  But the idea of her getting sick and that only prolonging the amount of time it would take her to heal was enough to motivate him to pick her up easily by her arms and lay her unceremoniously back on the cot.  He made sure that she hadn't started to bleed again (what a mess that would make) and almost without thinking tossed the rough woolen blanket back over her before heading back over to his seat by the fire. 

He really didn't require much sleep.  It was more of a way to pass the time something than a biological need, so he didn't mind the idea of staying awake to keep an eye on the fire from his comfortable chair all night, and maybe doze a bit before he started his normal morning routine. 

It didn't even occur to him to wonder why he was planning on keeping the fire going all night.  After all, androids don't get cold.