Bardock had returned home to grab a few essentials before leaving to trace the prince. Upon opening the door the most delicious smells met his nostrils. He seemed to float into the kitchen, saliva building at the corners of his mouth. Standing at the stove was Kakkarot clad only in loose workout pants and cooking a mass of vitals. Bardock talked around a mouth full of spit, "What are you doing home...and what are you cooking?" Kakkarot turned and gave a lopsided grin.
"Hey dad. Well, I got done early today so I thought I'd fix us up some lunch." He turned back to the stove top and stirred a pot. "Hungry?"
Bardock moved beside his son and looked down into the mess of frypans and pots. He stuck his finger into one and quickly licked it clean as the heat burned his fingerpad. "Mmmm....I'd love to but I've got go." Bardock grabbed a slab of meat from the mornings kill that had been stewed and took a large bite. He looked at Kakkarot with an appreciative smile, "Why don't you ever cook like this when I can stay and eat some of it?"
Kakkarot laughed. "Well this way _I_ can actually eat some of it." Kakkarot removed a pan from the fire and scraped it into a plate. Bardock had taken another chunk of meat and moved into the other room to grab what he initially came for. "You want me to pack you something before you leave?" Kakkarot called.
"That'd be great." Bardock walked back through the kitchen, pulling a uniform down over his head. Smoothing out the wrinkles with one hand he grasped another handful of food with the other. "But hurry up, I need to get going."
Kakkarot laughed and pulled a skin from the cupboard and filled it with meats, potatoes and bread. He tossed it to his father who had to hold a ham leg in his teeth to catch it. He nodded and said a muffled goodbye as he blew through the door. "Bye!" When the door shut, Kakkarot turned back to the stove and removed the last pan from the heat. He set two plates on the table and a pitcher of bloodwine. "You can come out now, he's gone and the foods done."
A door from the farside of the house clicked open and shut softly. A light patter of bare feet grew closer and a small frame stood in the doorway of the kitchen. Cherise Mann let her eyes sweep over the guard she'd decked earlier, taking her time and savoring the sight of taught tan flesh. Kakkarot looked up from the table and grinned, "Well...aren't you hungry?" Cherise smirked and walked to the table, setting herself lightly in one of the large oak chairs. Kakkarot watched her and leaned forward, brushing a stray spike from her eyes. Suddenly the door flew open and Kakkarot jumped in front of Cherise, staring at his father who now stalked back into the house.
"Uh...forget something dad?" Kakkarot shifted uncomfortably. Bardock moved quickly into the next room, allowing Kakkarot a moment to breath.
"Yea...do you know where... nevermind found it!" Bardock came back to the kitchen, beaming and holding an elite badge that he clipped to his blood red sash. Kakkarot returned the smile weakly as his father waved and walked back out of the house. Breathing a sigh of relief he turned to Cherise who had shrunk into the chair slightly. They both started to laugh when a clearing throat snapped them to attention.
Bardock stood in the doorway with his hands on his hips, looking from Kakkarot to Cherise.
Kakkarot scratched the back of his head and began to stammer, "Uh...dad I can...uh...explain..." Bardock moved forward and stopped in front of Cherise. The woman's mouth went dry but she refused to look away from the stare. Bardock drew himself up.
"I have one thing to tell you both..." Kakkarot held his breath. "...the roast is a little dry." He winked at Cherise who breathed an inaudible sigh and slapped his son on the back as his booming laughter filled the kitchen and slowly disipated as he left.
"Well...that was...different." Cherise took a deep breath and let it out slow. Kakkarot nodded and plopped into a chair. "Uh...Kakkarot?" The change in her tone made Kakkarot look up. Her eyes smoldered and she licked her lower lip slowly. Kakkarot watched that tongue and grinned.
"Yea?" His voice grown husky.
She leaned close, her breath tickling his ear. "Your pan is on fire." Kakkarot blinked and turned. Jumping from the table with a light shriek he slammed a cover over the small grease fire bubbling on the stove. Cherise clutched her stomach in laughter as Kakkarot ran to the door and flung the grease onto the walkway, the fire now out.
Dragging his feet as he came back in, Kakkarot sat in the chair and rested his head in his hands. He groaned lightly shook his head, dark spikes bouncing slightly. Cherise had calmed and wiped a tear from her eye. She put a hand on Kakkarot's arm and smiled when he looked up. "It's okay. It's not every day you sucker punch some guy who then offers to make you dinner. Let alone putting on a fantastic floor show." Kakkarot growled and leapt from the table leering at Cherise. The table wobbled and the chair flew backward onto the floor. Cherise let out a light squeak as Kakkarot jumped at her, knocking them both to the floor. He leaned over her, hair falling slightly in his face and grinned as he pinned her arms abover her head. "Dinner is going to get cold..." She reminded him.
He laughed low in his throat and licked his lips. "That's okay. I'll just start another fire." With a knowing smile she giggled wondering just how hot the flames would get.
*~*~*~*~*
Vegeta never would have guessed it would get so cold after such a beautiful day. But after the sun set, the temperature dropped steadily and he found himself shivering in a thicket with the brute that called himself Radditz. They had walked for most of the afternoon and into early evening before walking into the trees and finding a resting place for the night. Even though Vegeta wanted to rattle the man for making him come out in the middle of no where to sleep cramped in the cold for another night, he knew that if he'd stayed in the town the best of the elites would surely come looking and he wouldn't be able to stay away for one last day in peace.
Radditz had been quite busy, he'd removed branches from low conifers and made a light nest that cushioned the hard ground. The better of the two going of course to Vegeta. He made a low fire, but refused to let Vegeta make it any bigger for fear of being spotted. So here he sat, the prince of all sayajins, shivering not a foot away from a miniscule fire with the company of a brute. As he grumbled to himself, Vegeta heard a light rustling from the bushel bed close by and looked to see Radditz painstakingly attempting to remove his shirt. Vegeta watched in transfixion as the large man curled lightly one way and then another, almost like a cobra in a death dance. Radditz stopped abruptly and took a panting breath before trying to remove the shirt again. Vegeta became confused, not fully understanding what this man's problem was when the shirt finally inched its way up high enough to show the dried dark brown of shield muck. Grunting, Vegeta got to his feet and strode behind Radditz and grasped the shirt by the bottom and gently pulled it over the mans barrel chest. Radditz sighed deeply as his struggle ended and thanked Vegeta several times as he pulled the shirt the rest of the way off more easily.
"Thank you, Vegeta." Radditz sighed, the confines of the snug shirt finally removed. He pulled a corked bottle from the bottom of the basket he had carried with him and removed the cork with his teeth. Vegeta took his seat by the fire again and looked over the flames as the man poured a trickle of liquid into his palm and carefully began working it over his ribs. The muck seemed to ball up and fall off in patches, with each piece that dropped, Radditz seemed to both relax and tense. Radditz poured a little more into the opposite hand and worked it into the ribs on his right and across his abs. Vegeta watched his hand move in slow circles across his damaged, chisled flesh and heard the small sighs and grunts as Radditz worked away. A light flush came to Vegeta's face and he looked away, leaning into his nest and crossing his arms across his chest. His hands shook lightly as he moved them and he clamped them under his elbows.
With a contented sigh, Radditz nestled himself in the brush and put his hands behind his head. He looked at the stars and stretched his long legs, unaware of the stollen glances from across the fire. "Vegeta..." Vegeta jumped, thinking he was caught and began to blush feverishly. "Why are you running away? You've got an easy enough life...you don't have to scrape from the bottom and pummel your way up the ladder."
Vegeta frowned, "Not that it's any of your business...but it isn't all tinsel and glitter at the top." Radditz sat up slowly with a light groan.
"Don't stop there...how is it so hard?"
"You have no idea what it's like, trying to describe it to someone as low as you would be a waste of my time!" Vegeta sniffed, turning slightly away. A light rustle and a gutteral grunt, and a body eminating heat was sitting close by his side.
"Look, Vegeta. Not everyone is against you. So you've got problems home or just in your life...everyone does. It doesn't give you a right to be bitchy." Radditz pulled his hair across one shoulder and finger combed the ends as he spoke.
Vegeta turned eyes to him, watching him finger comb his hair without realizing he was. "I've watched people die."
Radditz snorted and gave him a funny look. "So what? I've watched hundreds of men die. Hell, I've killed hundreds."
Vegeta squinted at him, his frown deepening. "What do you mean?"
"I've been in the Royal Guard since I was old enough to walk. I learned to fist fight when I was six and to control ki when I was seven. Just recently I took a test for the elite, but the war got in the way." Vegeta's eyes widened slightly and he uncrossed his arms and sat up. "Ouji?" Vegeta reached out a trembling hand. Radditz began to shy away.
"No." Vegeta whispered. He twined his fingers in the thick heavy spikes of hair and carefully stroked them. This time with a stronger voice, "Kneel." Radditz looked at him dumbfounded.
"Wha-?"
"I said, _kneel_." Radditz didn't question further but rose to one knee and placed a fist over his chest. Vegeta took a sharp breath and gently pushed the unruly hair into Radditz face. Radditz didn't move, could harldy even breath as his ribs ached and his mind could barely register that the prince was stroking his hair. "You..." Radditz lifted his head and looked questioningly up at Vegeta. Radditz hair tumbled lightly to the left, Vegeta saw the deep laceration running along his cheekbone and ran a thumb across it slowly. Radditz shivered slightly and felt goosebumps rise on his flesh. "You were dead..."
Radditz shook his head slightly, Vegeta's hand still lightly cupping his cheek. "No...never dead."
"I watched you fall. You were dead. Bleeding and broken...you were the last man standing." Radditz thought back to the end of the battle and remembered kneeling to the crest of the Royals before he lost consciousness.
"Not dead...unconscious. I was the only survivor..." Radditz voice trailed as he saw pictures of the boy Natha flash in his mind. Vegeta let his hand drop to his side and sat again in the brush nest. Radditz stayed knealt for some time, thinking and unmoving.
Vegeta watched him, his mind reeling with possibilities. Finally the wheels slowed and he felt fatigue grasp his brain. "Radditz, it's time to sleep. There's quite the journey tomorrow." Radditz blinked several times and stood carefully. He nodded to Vegeta and walked to his own little nest, sitting gingerly and pulling his discarded shirt now covered in a light frost back over his head and gingerly down his sides.
"Good night, Ouji sama." He lay back in the nest, pulling the tatters of his uniform over himself for warmth. There was no reply and Radditz looked over to see Vegeta curled around the dying fire and glowing embers, shivering. Crawling carefully across the frosted earth, he looked down at the beautiful man, sharp features pulled tight against the cold, eyes closed. Radditz drapped the remains of his uniform over the shivering form of his prince and sat close, the heat from his body slowly warming the other. Vegeta fell into a restless sleep of nightmares, Radditz sat watching him and clutching his arms around himself to retain some of his own body heat. So they stayed through the cold, the fire eventually died completely leaving Radditz to fend off chills and watch the sleeping Ouji who whimpered now and then in his sleep.
As the morning sun began to thaw the thicket they rested in, Vegeta awoke to find a rough material smelling of deep musk draped over his shoulders and Radditz curled into as tight a ball he could manage and still remain sitting, completely asleep. He sat up slowly and took the material from around him, knowing at once what it was and lay it gently across Radditz knees. He watched Radditz a moment longer before standing and stretching.
When Radditz awoke nearly twenty minutes later, he sat cold and alone. Vegeta had long since abandoned him.
"Hey dad. Well, I got done early today so I thought I'd fix us up some lunch." He turned back to the stove top and stirred a pot. "Hungry?"
Bardock moved beside his son and looked down into the mess of frypans and pots. He stuck his finger into one and quickly licked it clean as the heat burned his fingerpad. "Mmmm....I'd love to but I've got go." Bardock grabbed a slab of meat from the mornings kill that had been stewed and took a large bite. He looked at Kakkarot with an appreciative smile, "Why don't you ever cook like this when I can stay and eat some of it?"
Kakkarot laughed. "Well this way _I_ can actually eat some of it." Kakkarot removed a pan from the fire and scraped it into a plate. Bardock had taken another chunk of meat and moved into the other room to grab what he initially came for. "You want me to pack you something before you leave?" Kakkarot called.
"That'd be great." Bardock walked back through the kitchen, pulling a uniform down over his head. Smoothing out the wrinkles with one hand he grasped another handful of food with the other. "But hurry up, I need to get going."
Kakkarot laughed and pulled a skin from the cupboard and filled it with meats, potatoes and bread. He tossed it to his father who had to hold a ham leg in his teeth to catch it. He nodded and said a muffled goodbye as he blew through the door. "Bye!" When the door shut, Kakkarot turned back to the stove and removed the last pan from the heat. He set two plates on the table and a pitcher of bloodwine. "You can come out now, he's gone and the foods done."
A door from the farside of the house clicked open and shut softly. A light patter of bare feet grew closer and a small frame stood in the doorway of the kitchen. Cherise Mann let her eyes sweep over the guard she'd decked earlier, taking her time and savoring the sight of taught tan flesh. Kakkarot looked up from the table and grinned, "Well...aren't you hungry?" Cherise smirked and walked to the table, setting herself lightly in one of the large oak chairs. Kakkarot watched her and leaned forward, brushing a stray spike from her eyes. Suddenly the door flew open and Kakkarot jumped in front of Cherise, staring at his father who now stalked back into the house.
"Uh...forget something dad?" Kakkarot shifted uncomfortably. Bardock moved quickly into the next room, allowing Kakkarot a moment to breath.
"Yea...do you know where... nevermind found it!" Bardock came back to the kitchen, beaming and holding an elite badge that he clipped to his blood red sash. Kakkarot returned the smile weakly as his father waved and walked back out of the house. Breathing a sigh of relief he turned to Cherise who had shrunk into the chair slightly. They both started to laugh when a clearing throat snapped them to attention.
Bardock stood in the doorway with his hands on his hips, looking from Kakkarot to Cherise.
Kakkarot scratched the back of his head and began to stammer, "Uh...dad I can...uh...explain..." Bardock moved forward and stopped in front of Cherise. The woman's mouth went dry but she refused to look away from the stare. Bardock drew himself up.
"I have one thing to tell you both..." Kakkarot held his breath. "...the roast is a little dry." He winked at Cherise who breathed an inaudible sigh and slapped his son on the back as his booming laughter filled the kitchen and slowly disipated as he left.
"Well...that was...different." Cherise took a deep breath and let it out slow. Kakkarot nodded and plopped into a chair. "Uh...Kakkarot?" The change in her tone made Kakkarot look up. Her eyes smoldered and she licked her lower lip slowly. Kakkarot watched that tongue and grinned.
"Yea?" His voice grown husky.
She leaned close, her breath tickling his ear. "Your pan is on fire." Kakkarot blinked and turned. Jumping from the table with a light shriek he slammed a cover over the small grease fire bubbling on the stove. Cherise clutched her stomach in laughter as Kakkarot ran to the door and flung the grease onto the walkway, the fire now out.
Dragging his feet as he came back in, Kakkarot sat in the chair and rested his head in his hands. He groaned lightly shook his head, dark spikes bouncing slightly. Cherise had calmed and wiped a tear from her eye. She put a hand on Kakkarot's arm and smiled when he looked up. "It's okay. It's not every day you sucker punch some guy who then offers to make you dinner. Let alone putting on a fantastic floor show." Kakkarot growled and leapt from the table leering at Cherise. The table wobbled and the chair flew backward onto the floor. Cherise let out a light squeak as Kakkarot jumped at her, knocking them both to the floor. He leaned over her, hair falling slightly in his face and grinned as he pinned her arms abover her head. "Dinner is going to get cold..." She reminded him.
He laughed low in his throat and licked his lips. "That's okay. I'll just start another fire." With a knowing smile she giggled wondering just how hot the flames would get.
*~*~*~*~*
Vegeta never would have guessed it would get so cold after such a beautiful day. But after the sun set, the temperature dropped steadily and he found himself shivering in a thicket with the brute that called himself Radditz. They had walked for most of the afternoon and into early evening before walking into the trees and finding a resting place for the night. Even though Vegeta wanted to rattle the man for making him come out in the middle of no where to sleep cramped in the cold for another night, he knew that if he'd stayed in the town the best of the elites would surely come looking and he wouldn't be able to stay away for one last day in peace.
Radditz had been quite busy, he'd removed branches from low conifers and made a light nest that cushioned the hard ground. The better of the two going of course to Vegeta. He made a low fire, but refused to let Vegeta make it any bigger for fear of being spotted. So here he sat, the prince of all sayajins, shivering not a foot away from a miniscule fire with the company of a brute. As he grumbled to himself, Vegeta heard a light rustling from the bushel bed close by and looked to see Radditz painstakingly attempting to remove his shirt. Vegeta watched in transfixion as the large man curled lightly one way and then another, almost like a cobra in a death dance. Radditz stopped abruptly and took a panting breath before trying to remove the shirt again. Vegeta became confused, not fully understanding what this man's problem was when the shirt finally inched its way up high enough to show the dried dark brown of shield muck. Grunting, Vegeta got to his feet and strode behind Radditz and grasped the shirt by the bottom and gently pulled it over the mans barrel chest. Radditz sighed deeply as his struggle ended and thanked Vegeta several times as he pulled the shirt the rest of the way off more easily.
"Thank you, Vegeta." Radditz sighed, the confines of the snug shirt finally removed. He pulled a corked bottle from the bottom of the basket he had carried with him and removed the cork with his teeth. Vegeta took his seat by the fire again and looked over the flames as the man poured a trickle of liquid into his palm and carefully began working it over his ribs. The muck seemed to ball up and fall off in patches, with each piece that dropped, Radditz seemed to both relax and tense. Radditz poured a little more into the opposite hand and worked it into the ribs on his right and across his abs. Vegeta watched his hand move in slow circles across his damaged, chisled flesh and heard the small sighs and grunts as Radditz worked away. A light flush came to Vegeta's face and he looked away, leaning into his nest and crossing his arms across his chest. His hands shook lightly as he moved them and he clamped them under his elbows.
With a contented sigh, Radditz nestled himself in the brush and put his hands behind his head. He looked at the stars and stretched his long legs, unaware of the stollen glances from across the fire. "Vegeta..." Vegeta jumped, thinking he was caught and began to blush feverishly. "Why are you running away? You've got an easy enough life...you don't have to scrape from the bottom and pummel your way up the ladder."
Vegeta frowned, "Not that it's any of your business...but it isn't all tinsel and glitter at the top." Radditz sat up slowly with a light groan.
"Don't stop there...how is it so hard?"
"You have no idea what it's like, trying to describe it to someone as low as you would be a waste of my time!" Vegeta sniffed, turning slightly away. A light rustle and a gutteral grunt, and a body eminating heat was sitting close by his side.
"Look, Vegeta. Not everyone is against you. So you've got problems home or just in your life...everyone does. It doesn't give you a right to be bitchy." Radditz pulled his hair across one shoulder and finger combed the ends as he spoke.
Vegeta turned eyes to him, watching him finger comb his hair without realizing he was. "I've watched people die."
Radditz snorted and gave him a funny look. "So what? I've watched hundreds of men die. Hell, I've killed hundreds."
Vegeta squinted at him, his frown deepening. "What do you mean?"
"I've been in the Royal Guard since I was old enough to walk. I learned to fist fight when I was six and to control ki when I was seven. Just recently I took a test for the elite, but the war got in the way." Vegeta's eyes widened slightly and he uncrossed his arms and sat up. "Ouji?" Vegeta reached out a trembling hand. Radditz began to shy away.
"No." Vegeta whispered. He twined his fingers in the thick heavy spikes of hair and carefully stroked them. This time with a stronger voice, "Kneel." Radditz looked at him dumbfounded.
"Wha-?"
"I said, _kneel_." Radditz didn't question further but rose to one knee and placed a fist over his chest. Vegeta took a sharp breath and gently pushed the unruly hair into Radditz face. Radditz didn't move, could harldy even breath as his ribs ached and his mind could barely register that the prince was stroking his hair. "You..." Radditz lifted his head and looked questioningly up at Vegeta. Radditz hair tumbled lightly to the left, Vegeta saw the deep laceration running along his cheekbone and ran a thumb across it slowly. Radditz shivered slightly and felt goosebumps rise on his flesh. "You were dead..."
Radditz shook his head slightly, Vegeta's hand still lightly cupping his cheek. "No...never dead."
"I watched you fall. You were dead. Bleeding and broken...you were the last man standing." Radditz thought back to the end of the battle and remembered kneeling to the crest of the Royals before he lost consciousness.
"Not dead...unconscious. I was the only survivor..." Radditz voice trailed as he saw pictures of the boy Natha flash in his mind. Vegeta let his hand drop to his side and sat again in the brush nest. Radditz stayed knealt for some time, thinking and unmoving.
Vegeta watched him, his mind reeling with possibilities. Finally the wheels slowed and he felt fatigue grasp his brain. "Radditz, it's time to sleep. There's quite the journey tomorrow." Radditz blinked several times and stood carefully. He nodded to Vegeta and walked to his own little nest, sitting gingerly and pulling his discarded shirt now covered in a light frost back over his head and gingerly down his sides.
"Good night, Ouji sama." He lay back in the nest, pulling the tatters of his uniform over himself for warmth. There was no reply and Radditz looked over to see Vegeta curled around the dying fire and glowing embers, shivering. Crawling carefully across the frosted earth, he looked down at the beautiful man, sharp features pulled tight against the cold, eyes closed. Radditz drapped the remains of his uniform over the shivering form of his prince and sat close, the heat from his body slowly warming the other. Vegeta fell into a restless sleep of nightmares, Radditz sat watching him and clutching his arms around himself to retain some of his own body heat. So they stayed through the cold, the fire eventually died completely leaving Radditz to fend off chills and watch the sleeping Ouji who whimpered now and then in his sleep.
As the morning sun began to thaw the thicket they rested in, Vegeta awoke to find a rough material smelling of deep musk draped over his shoulders and Radditz curled into as tight a ball he could manage and still remain sitting, completely asleep. He sat up slowly and took the material from around him, knowing at once what it was and lay it gently across Radditz knees. He watched Radditz a moment longer before standing and stretching.
When Radditz awoke nearly twenty minutes later, he sat cold and alone. Vegeta had long since abandoned him.