*(*(*(*well, Matt FINALLY knows about ffnet! Great! One more family member
I bribe into reading my story. (Ok, so he's the only family member reading,
and I don't have to bribe him THAT much but nevermind) hope you've liked it
so far, Yamateo-san. ^_^ ok, if/when he gets himself a pename, I'm going to
disclose it and I want anyone who's reading this to go check out his work
too. He IS my brother after all. He HAS to be good. And BTW, contrary to
popular belief, *drumroll* I DO NOT OWN DBZ!! Isn't that wonderful?*)*)*)*
And sadly, today, Veggiekins has nothing to add to my author's note.
V: That's right. Oh .. oops...I said something. _;
A: that's it! You're fired!
V:.... ....
A: You heard me! Shoo!
V:... .....*leaves*
A: NOO!! Wait!! I'm sorry!! Come back!!! I have cheese!!
V:.....is it cheddar?
-Chapter 7-
Friendship
We discovered that our young Turles was three when we found him; his parents had died before the great destruction. He was the son of nobles, we also found. His father had won many honors in the Tsukad army, and his mother was head dancer1 for the Rei`tai Day festivities. My mother had been a great dancer as well... the best on Vegetasei...
Turles and Keera became the best of friends, and we rarely saw them apart. They shared the same small bed, they played at pretending together, and when it came time, they trained together as well.
}~*~{
She was four years old.
And she thought she ruled the universe.
Keera laid another punch at Merkiori's kneecap, missing. He only stepped out of her way as she came at him again flailing aimlessly. Her inertia caught up with her and she fell to the ground roughly, in turn reducing to a fit of tears. I couldn't stand it any longer. I stormed over and hit the back of her head less than softly.
"Delko du saiyadan!! Dei aroque` maz naio!! Paure`!2"
She whimpered softly, wiping her pudgy little face. "Eh... ete` dubio...3"
"Dei. Paure`. Altui.4"
"Nnnn...." her eyes welled up again. Her lip quivered as she gave me that liquid emerald gaze. My stern frown softened somewhat under this teary assault, and I had to look away before it was too much to bear.
"Paure'." I said in a stony monotone.
I heard her sob. The sound pained me. Stop it, damn you. Why do you have to be so gawdamn adorable?!
I gave in. It was just too much. I picked her up and comforted her, hugging her tightly. I quickly set her down before someone saw too much of my softened side. This was getting embarrassing. I tried to be tougher on her. But... but it was damn near impossible! I just had to let her win. She was my.... my keera5.
Oh, hell! If I was going to be soft on her for the rest of her life she'd never learn anything! I walked back to my bench, sitting angrily and folding my arms. I was just thankful Radditz, Nappa and Shiromi weren't about. I'd never live it down.
"There there, lit'l sheila, it didn't hurt that bad..." Merkiori said, patting her back. I guess he was the only one I didn't mind seeing my vulnerable brotherly side. He showed me his, I guess. In a way. Oh, you're going soft again, damnit. I had to get up and start punching something before I started blathering like a fucking female.
I stood and turned.
And was face to face with a grinning Shiromi.
My face faulted and I immediately hit the ground. (AN- I'm allowed to make him anime` fall. So there.)
I hastily found my feet again and blushed profusely, sweatdropping and rubbing the new sore spot on the back of my head.
"Doku nui jari maz eirai???6"
She didn't respond. She just kept smiling. How unnerving.
"Ku-." I stopped short, seeing Krystal walk in from the air lock opposite the sparring floor.
In looking back, I found Shiromi STILL grinning.
"Say something, damnit! No- wait, don't say anything. I don't want to hear."
"Daaa..." she began, taunting.
"Dei!" I covered my ears, turning away.
"Daaaaa- beeee.." she said louder, leaning her red head over my shoulder.
"Dei shi-.. I can't hear you." I corrected myself, closing my eyes and stepping away from her.
"DABIO EIDUJAAAAA!!8"
"Domne` aiou.9"
"What was that???"
The icy-shrill sound of the ice-jin's voice caused both of us to freeze. Lovely.
"I'm afraid I didn't understand you primates. Mind translating?" the menacing female said in that sickeningly sweet voice. How did she make her way across the unit so quickly??? She was three feet away from us, swishing her tail slowly. I felt my stomach twitch a bit nervously. I dropped my hands from my ears, looking up at her with the most innocent eyes I could muster. Krystal may have been a veritable ice queen, but she all but melted for a well-staged pair of puppy eyes.... Or so I'd heard.
"We're sorry, Miss Krystal. It..it just slipped! I cant imagine how it could have possibly escaped my lips-" I faked a sudden shuddering sob. Shiromi patted my back, sniffling.
Krystal remained unmoved. She raised an eyebrow, looking at me as if I were mad.
I dropped my act. "Damn. Were going to get pummeled today, I can just TELL!" I hit Shiromi roughly. "It's HER fault. Not mine."
"WHAT??? You were using our language too!!"
"YOU STARTED IT, WENCH!!"
"... WHAT did you just call me??!!??"
"A wench, I believe. Not very harsh, but effective, I think." The ice-jin said thoughtfully.
We looked at her sidelong, giving her flat looks of disbelief.
"Oh, don't let me interrupt. Please, continue. It's entertaining."
Again our flat looks.
Then we started up again.
"I dare you to come closer and say that word again."
I stepped up to her. "Wench. Wenchwenchwenchwenchwench."
She punched at me. I evaded her fist, sticking my tongue out at her and crossing my eyes in mockerey. "WENCH!"
"Oh, you may be a prince, but you're a dead prince. A dead, dead prince." She growled, snapping into stance.
I turned my back on her and began to walk away. I could hear her enraged hiss of saiyan profanities under her breath. I smiled.
I caught her foot as it came flying to the side of my head, twisting it ever so slightly and flinging her over my head to the floor. She smirked and began attacking me with several quick blows, each of which in turn I either blocked or parried.
Keera watched on with wide eyes. Turles, who was practicing with Merkiori, paused to look as well.
For several minutes, this same thing went on. She tried to hit me and I wouldn't let her. While she was off-guard, I grabbed her wrist, turned her around, grabbed her elbow, pushed her into a kneeling position and pulled her arm into a shoulder lock. This, of course, all done in a matter of milliseconds.
Grinning, I tightened my grip. "Say it."
"Say what?!" she said angrily, a tinge of pain in her voice.
"Your favorite word. Tell me what you are."
She turned her head to glare up at me sideways. "Never. Cut off my tail first."
"That could be done..." Krystal piped up helpfully.
Shiromi gulped, sweatdropping slightly. She looked away and murmured something inaudible.
"Well, that's not fair. Lady Krystal wants to hear too." I said, grinning irresistibly. Such sweet revenge.
"I'm a fucking wench. Now let go, for the love of Icaduei!10"
I did so, laughing heartily. I dusted my hands and turned to Krystal. "Will that be all then, m'lady?"
She smiled, obviously pleased. "Yes. Yes, that was worth at least a turned head, I believe. Don't let me catch you speaking that gibberish again, though. You'll find yourself jettisoned into space without a suit. Yes... I hear it's ten times more painful than being executed on the spot... or maybe I could stick needles into your skin until you very slowly and excruciatingly bleed to death... no, no, wait, I've got it!! I'll peel off your skin piece by piece over a period of two months, scraping off the scab tissue so you'll continue to bleed, and hang you for the saibamen to nibble on!! No.. that's already getting old. I know! I'll-.."
We didn't wait around to hear her next thought aloud. I suppose she never noticed us gone. Krystal was always a little... less than there, if you know what I mean. Her brothers were more sane than her. Hell, Judoi Kold thought she was crazy. (AN- in the words of George Carlin: "She was fuckin' nuts, man!")
}~*~{
After dinner, we decided to assemble in our usual "assembling" spot: the old control room. It had been disabled years ago, possibly before I was born, and was now used only for assorted storage. The crates that had been placed there had been long forgotten, and contained some kinds of dead civilization technology. One of Shiromi's favorite hobbies was to dig through the crates, finding strange gadgets and guessing their uses. We all found this a fun game after awhile, but Shiromi was the only one who actually made points, if anyone was keeping score.
This storage room was where we now lounged, with absolutely nothing to do. The discussion came up again, the same discussion we had been discussing for the past three months now. The reason why we had nothing to do. We all knew we had to get stronger; push our training ten fold. We had to keep up, or, quite literally, we would be left to Krystal's devices. That was a fate far worse than death. And what of the little ones? Would they even be spared? They were far from useful to the ice-jins at present. So...what was to be done?
"Well, they're almost good enough to start learning to use gyure`11... once they learn, it's all downhill from there, right? They can take their first mission to a moon-planet." Shromi said. Ever-live the great optimist of us all.
We were speaking in IGU for two reasons: one Krytal's threats (and trust me, that's enough for three reason) and two, we didn't want the little one's in on the conversation. They still only knew our tongue, thankfully... well, hopefully..
"Technically, they could take a mission to a moon planet already." Radditz added. The poor shei`o. He probably didn't even know what technically meant.
"It's better to know they have gyure` in case anything goes wrong. Like, say the moon had been destroyed, or maybe not enough Z-rays12 were being reflected for a transformation." She must not have wanted to bring the losing of tails probability into the discussion. It's a painful thing to think about.
"Shiromi's always fucking right. I hate that." Nappa muttered, raking a hand over his dirty red-brown hair. (AN-yes, he still had hair at 20. you baka for thinking a saiyan loses hair! We'll get to that later.)
Radditz sighed and Shiromi tapped a finger on her arm as they were crossed.
"So... shall we go and train now.. or... I'm still a bit sore from today's training though.." Radditz said, probably talking to himself.
There was a silence as everyone had nothing to say. Everything that would have been said was already known. There was nothing new. Same shit, different fucking day. Hell wasn't fire and pain. Hell was boredom.
I turned to the sound of a giggle, looking at the little ones. Keera was laughing and pointing at Turles' hair... which was now a mat of untidy braids sticking out everywhere. I couldn't help but laugh.
"Keera, jari cho doko maz??13"
Assorted chuckles were heard around the room.
"Dui na ito Tarules loriii!!14"
"Eh, sheina drau neru ets!15" I rubbed her head playfully.
Turles gave me a sorrowful look and touched his hair as if it were no longer his. I cracked up again. Keera shoved him softly; he made an irritated sound and shoved back. She tackled him and they rolled about the floor like a couple of mischievous kittens.
I was glad we had the little ones around. They were a constant entertainment from the usual daily existence. I looked to Shiromi, who was giggling as she watched the toddlers play. She met my gaze, a twinkle of memory in her aqua eyes. We, too, had made at play not unlike the current scene. How pure young friendship was. How perfect was young love... I blushed at this thought and looked away, breaking that psychic contact before she read my thoughts through my eyes. Did I... could I possibly be...
Hell, how could I be in love if I didn't even really know what it was? Right?
...right?
And sadly, today, Veggiekins has nothing to add to my author's note.
V: That's right. Oh .. oops...I said something. _;
A: that's it! You're fired!
V:.... ....
A: You heard me! Shoo!
V:... .....*leaves*
A: NOO!! Wait!! I'm sorry!! Come back!!! I have cheese!!
V:.....is it cheddar?
-Chapter 7-
Friendship
We discovered that our young Turles was three when we found him; his parents had died before the great destruction. He was the son of nobles, we also found. His father had won many honors in the Tsukad army, and his mother was head dancer1 for the Rei`tai Day festivities. My mother had been a great dancer as well... the best on Vegetasei...
Turles and Keera became the best of friends, and we rarely saw them apart. They shared the same small bed, they played at pretending together, and when it came time, they trained together as well.
}~*~{
She was four years old.
And she thought she ruled the universe.
Keera laid another punch at Merkiori's kneecap, missing. He only stepped out of her way as she came at him again flailing aimlessly. Her inertia caught up with her and she fell to the ground roughly, in turn reducing to a fit of tears. I couldn't stand it any longer. I stormed over and hit the back of her head less than softly.
"Delko du saiyadan!! Dei aroque` maz naio!! Paure`!2"
She whimpered softly, wiping her pudgy little face. "Eh... ete` dubio...3"
"Dei. Paure`. Altui.4"
"Nnnn...." her eyes welled up again. Her lip quivered as she gave me that liquid emerald gaze. My stern frown softened somewhat under this teary assault, and I had to look away before it was too much to bear.
"Paure'." I said in a stony monotone.
I heard her sob. The sound pained me. Stop it, damn you. Why do you have to be so gawdamn adorable?!
I gave in. It was just too much. I picked her up and comforted her, hugging her tightly. I quickly set her down before someone saw too much of my softened side. This was getting embarrassing. I tried to be tougher on her. But... but it was damn near impossible! I just had to let her win. She was my.... my keera5.
Oh, hell! If I was going to be soft on her for the rest of her life she'd never learn anything! I walked back to my bench, sitting angrily and folding my arms. I was just thankful Radditz, Nappa and Shiromi weren't about. I'd never live it down.
"There there, lit'l sheila, it didn't hurt that bad..." Merkiori said, patting her back. I guess he was the only one I didn't mind seeing my vulnerable brotherly side. He showed me his, I guess. In a way. Oh, you're going soft again, damnit. I had to get up and start punching something before I started blathering like a fucking female.
I stood and turned.
And was face to face with a grinning Shiromi.
My face faulted and I immediately hit the ground. (AN- I'm allowed to make him anime` fall. So there.)
I hastily found my feet again and blushed profusely, sweatdropping and rubbing the new sore spot on the back of my head.
"Doku nui jari maz eirai???6"
She didn't respond. She just kept smiling. How unnerving.
"Ku-." I stopped short, seeing Krystal walk in from the air lock opposite the sparring floor.
In looking back, I found Shiromi STILL grinning.
"Say something, damnit! No- wait, don't say anything. I don't want to hear."
"Daaa..." she began, taunting.
"Dei!" I covered my ears, turning away.
"Daaaaa- beeee.." she said louder, leaning her red head over my shoulder.
"Dei shi-.. I can't hear you." I corrected myself, closing my eyes and stepping away from her.
"DABIO EIDUJAAAAA!!8"
"Domne` aiou.9"
"What was that???"
The icy-shrill sound of the ice-jin's voice caused both of us to freeze. Lovely.
"I'm afraid I didn't understand you primates. Mind translating?" the menacing female said in that sickeningly sweet voice. How did she make her way across the unit so quickly??? She was three feet away from us, swishing her tail slowly. I felt my stomach twitch a bit nervously. I dropped my hands from my ears, looking up at her with the most innocent eyes I could muster. Krystal may have been a veritable ice queen, but she all but melted for a well-staged pair of puppy eyes.... Or so I'd heard.
"We're sorry, Miss Krystal. It..it just slipped! I cant imagine how it could have possibly escaped my lips-" I faked a sudden shuddering sob. Shiromi patted my back, sniffling.
Krystal remained unmoved. She raised an eyebrow, looking at me as if I were mad.
I dropped my act. "Damn. Were going to get pummeled today, I can just TELL!" I hit Shiromi roughly. "It's HER fault. Not mine."
"WHAT??? You were using our language too!!"
"YOU STARTED IT, WENCH!!"
"... WHAT did you just call me??!!??"
"A wench, I believe. Not very harsh, but effective, I think." The ice-jin said thoughtfully.
We looked at her sidelong, giving her flat looks of disbelief.
"Oh, don't let me interrupt. Please, continue. It's entertaining."
Again our flat looks.
Then we started up again.
"I dare you to come closer and say that word again."
I stepped up to her. "Wench. Wenchwenchwenchwenchwench."
She punched at me. I evaded her fist, sticking my tongue out at her and crossing my eyes in mockerey. "WENCH!"
"Oh, you may be a prince, but you're a dead prince. A dead, dead prince." She growled, snapping into stance.
I turned my back on her and began to walk away. I could hear her enraged hiss of saiyan profanities under her breath. I smiled.
I caught her foot as it came flying to the side of my head, twisting it ever so slightly and flinging her over my head to the floor. She smirked and began attacking me with several quick blows, each of which in turn I either blocked or parried.
Keera watched on with wide eyes. Turles, who was practicing with Merkiori, paused to look as well.
For several minutes, this same thing went on. She tried to hit me and I wouldn't let her. While she was off-guard, I grabbed her wrist, turned her around, grabbed her elbow, pushed her into a kneeling position and pulled her arm into a shoulder lock. This, of course, all done in a matter of milliseconds.
Grinning, I tightened my grip. "Say it."
"Say what?!" she said angrily, a tinge of pain in her voice.
"Your favorite word. Tell me what you are."
She turned her head to glare up at me sideways. "Never. Cut off my tail first."
"That could be done..." Krystal piped up helpfully.
Shiromi gulped, sweatdropping slightly. She looked away and murmured something inaudible.
"Well, that's not fair. Lady Krystal wants to hear too." I said, grinning irresistibly. Such sweet revenge.
"I'm a fucking wench. Now let go, for the love of Icaduei!10"
I did so, laughing heartily. I dusted my hands and turned to Krystal. "Will that be all then, m'lady?"
She smiled, obviously pleased. "Yes. Yes, that was worth at least a turned head, I believe. Don't let me catch you speaking that gibberish again, though. You'll find yourself jettisoned into space without a suit. Yes... I hear it's ten times more painful than being executed on the spot... or maybe I could stick needles into your skin until you very slowly and excruciatingly bleed to death... no, no, wait, I've got it!! I'll peel off your skin piece by piece over a period of two months, scraping off the scab tissue so you'll continue to bleed, and hang you for the saibamen to nibble on!! No.. that's already getting old. I know! I'll-.."
We didn't wait around to hear her next thought aloud. I suppose she never noticed us gone. Krystal was always a little... less than there, if you know what I mean. Her brothers were more sane than her. Hell, Judoi Kold thought she was crazy. (AN- in the words of George Carlin: "She was fuckin' nuts, man!")
}~*~{
After dinner, we decided to assemble in our usual "assembling" spot: the old control room. It had been disabled years ago, possibly before I was born, and was now used only for assorted storage. The crates that had been placed there had been long forgotten, and contained some kinds of dead civilization technology. One of Shiromi's favorite hobbies was to dig through the crates, finding strange gadgets and guessing their uses. We all found this a fun game after awhile, but Shiromi was the only one who actually made points, if anyone was keeping score.
This storage room was where we now lounged, with absolutely nothing to do. The discussion came up again, the same discussion we had been discussing for the past three months now. The reason why we had nothing to do. We all knew we had to get stronger; push our training ten fold. We had to keep up, or, quite literally, we would be left to Krystal's devices. That was a fate far worse than death. And what of the little ones? Would they even be spared? They were far from useful to the ice-jins at present. So...what was to be done?
"Well, they're almost good enough to start learning to use gyure`11... once they learn, it's all downhill from there, right? They can take their first mission to a moon-planet." Shromi said. Ever-live the great optimist of us all.
We were speaking in IGU for two reasons: one Krytal's threats (and trust me, that's enough for three reason) and two, we didn't want the little one's in on the conversation. They still only knew our tongue, thankfully... well, hopefully..
"Technically, they could take a mission to a moon planet already." Radditz added. The poor shei`o. He probably didn't even know what technically meant.
"It's better to know they have gyure` in case anything goes wrong. Like, say the moon had been destroyed, or maybe not enough Z-rays12 were being reflected for a transformation." She must not have wanted to bring the losing of tails probability into the discussion. It's a painful thing to think about.
"Shiromi's always fucking right. I hate that." Nappa muttered, raking a hand over his dirty red-brown hair. (AN-yes, he still had hair at 20. you baka for thinking a saiyan loses hair! We'll get to that later.)
Radditz sighed and Shiromi tapped a finger on her arm as they were crossed.
"So... shall we go and train now.. or... I'm still a bit sore from today's training though.." Radditz said, probably talking to himself.
There was a silence as everyone had nothing to say. Everything that would have been said was already known. There was nothing new. Same shit, different fucking day. Hell wasn't fire and pain. Hell was boredom.
I turned to the sound of a giggle, looking at the little ones. Keera was laughing and pointing at Turles' hair... which was now a mat of untidy braids sticking out everywhere. I couldn't help but laugh.
"Keera, jari cho doko maz??13"
Assorted chuckles were heard around the room.
"Dui na ito Tarules loriii!!14"
"Eh, sheina drau neru ets!15" I rubbed her head playfully.
Turles gave me a sorrowful look and touched his hair as if it were no longer his. I cracked up again. Keera shoved him softly; he made an irritated sound and shoved back. She tackled him and they rolled about the floor like a couple of mischievous kittens.
I was glad we had the little ones around. They were a constant entertainment from the usual daily existence. I looked to Shiromi, who was giggling as she watched the toddlers play. She met my gaze, a twinkle of memory in her aqua eyes. We, too, had made at play not unlike the current scene. How pure young friendship was. How perfect was young love... I blushed at this thought and looked away, breaking that psychic contact before she read my thoughts through my eyes. Did I... could I possibly be...
Hell, how could I be in love if I didn't even really know what it was? Right?
...right?