Main Pairing: Vegeta/Android 17
Side Pairings: one-sided Bulma/Vegeta
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Homosexuality, mention of Heterosexuality, AU after the Android and Cell sagas
Disclaimer: Written purely for the enjoyment of mine and yours. I take no credit for creating the characters in this story, just for playing around with them a bit.

Drops of Ebony

a Vegeta/Android 17 one-shot

Vegeta, Prince of the planet Vegeta and all the Sayians, was absolutely bored, leaning against the wall of his gravity machine, waiting for Bulma to fix it, yet again.

"Honestly Vegeta, I don't know how you manage to break this so many times," the genius complained. After all it was the fourth time this week that Vegeta had completely destroyed the core of the machine and then demanded that she replace it.

"I wasn't aiming for the machine," Vegeta huffed. "I was aiming for the stupid robots of yours."

Bulma was a bit surprised that Vegeta was defending his actions. It wasn't really the sort of thing she would expect from the Prince.

"However, your stupid droid wasn't strong enough to stand up to the attack." Vegeta waved his hand at the partially melted core, "And that was the result."

Now Bulma understood. Vegeta wanted better training bots... again. But she just didn't have time to make them. She was a busy woman after all, and even if she had all the time in the world to spend slaving away for the Prince of all Sayians, she wouldn't do it anyway. Vegeta would just have to deal with it until she got around to making better training robots, practice some restraint maybe.

"Well, this is going to take me the rest of the afternoon to fix," Bulma commented.

Vegeta got the hint she was trying to give him and left the room. Bulma sighed mentally in relief. How long had Vegeta been staying in Capsule Corp.? And she still wasn't used to him.

Vegeta looked out over the barren land impassively. This spot was where he came most of the time when he had destroyed the gravity chamber. The most annoying thing was that this time he had not actually been trying to destroy the gravity machine, yes that was the issue. He should have known that the robot would be disintegrated and that the blast would hit the machine, but he had been to caught up in fighting to care. It was happening more and more often these days, and while normally he wouldn't care one way or another, it was a sure sign that it was that time again. Every twenty years or so male Sayians who were not mated went into a special type of rut that was called, for lack of better words, Mating rut. And while he had survived the actual rut cycle, which happened every ten years or so to unattached Sayian males, he was starting to dread the Mating rut cycle. For while it was not necessary for him to mate during a rut cycle, mating would be unavoidable in a Mating rut cycle. His Sayian instincts would seek out the most compatible and strongest mate which he had seen, heard, or touched and would compel him to find and mate with said person. Of course he had been in contact with millions of denizens in his lifetime and if the denizen that was most perfect for him was dead now or mated already, he would feel nothing. However, if said potential mate was not... Vegeta shuttered mentally. While regular rut lasted for about a month, Mating rut would last for as long as a year if necessary, and there was no place on Earth where he could lock himself in until the mating rut cycle was over. His last mating rut had occurred when he had been under Frieza's command and fortunately the slimy lizard had not taken advantage of the situation and had forcefully provided Vegeta with a cell that the Sayian could not break through. Of course this was when Vegeta had been one of Frieza's favorites... but the problem of his Mating rut cycle still remained.

Of course Vegeta had not mentioned the Mating rut cycle to Bulma because he was not sure if it would actually occur. After all, this planet had no moon and the moon was a large influence on Sayian cycles. Getting over caught up in battle was only one of the conditions that sujested he would enter that particular rut cycle in the near future. The woman already knew about the Sayian rut cycle because of Trunks and she was aware that if he were to attempt to make her his mate, she would not survive the bonding process. Lost in the haze of rut he had been tempted but had restrained himself from sinking his teeth into her neck and starting the bonding. Now looking back he was very glad he was able to withstand the urges of rut. Humans just weren't strong enough. Well, maybe some humans would be strong enough... if they trained half as much as Sayians did.

With a start Vegeta realized that the earthen sun had set during his thinking and smiled. The woman should be finished with the repairs by now. Unfortunately the training droids would not be strong enough to withstand his power, but he would apparently have to deal with it.

Bulma did indeed fix the gravity machine, but it took until the next morning. Vegeta had chosen to just not comment, it wasn't as if what he would point out was anything new, and it was hilarious to see the woman's expression when he didn't start ranting. Humans really were funny sometimes.

But the gravity machine had been fixed and Vegeta wasted no time after breakfast in turning it on, setting it to his normal 500x gravity. He easily fell into his training, running through the routine warm ups and then setting into fighting. One robot fell at his hands, then another, and another, until all of them had been felled as Vegeta methodically shot them down. And yet again, he was completely submerged in fighting so that when a ki-blast appeared shooting towards him he easily deflected it, turning to jab at his new opponent. The daze of fighting seemed to ware off as Vegeta recognized who he was now sparing with.

"Took you a minute to recognize me, Vegeta. I'm insulted," the crisp voice spoke as Vegeta moved back away from his opponent.

"What are you doing here android?" Vegeta asked in a bored tone. "And how the hell did you get in here?"

"I'm bored and resourceful," was the reply. And Vegeta saw little indentations in the door where the android must have forced his entrance into the room.

"And stupid," the Sayian added, turning to shut off the gravity. Didn't the android know the risks of opening the gravity chamber? Now he would have to make the woman check over the door to make sure it would seal properly... yet more wasted time.

"You needn't worry. The door seals the gravity in well enough," the android remarked, watching the Prince look over the door. After a few moments of silence he added, "You seem to need new training droids as well."

Vegeta raised an eyebrow, realizing that he had in fact destroyed all the training droids. Inwardly he swore, getting so caught up in battle so he lost track of his surroundings like that was unacceptable.

"Will you hurry up and leave so I can continue training?" Vegeta asked tersely, sending the android a scowl.

"But if I leave, who will you train with?" the android asked, almost sweetly. He watched one of the Prince's brows raise in confusion. "Sure, I'm not as strong as you, but at least I can't be destroyed as easily as those were." the android gestured flippantly to the corpses of the robots.

A smirk found its way onto the royal's face and he flipped the gravity back up to 500x. "True. But you can't complain if I destroy you then." And with that Vegeta launched himself at his opponent.

Three hours later Bulma Briefs activated the panel to the intercom of the gravity machine, noticing the slight abrasions on the door. She frowned but shrugged it off. The machine was obviously sealed or else... well she knew that Vegeta liked to train at 500x the earth's normal gravity so she would have known if the machine was not properly sealed.

"Vegeta, supper's ready," she spoke and waited to make sure the Sayian monarch heard her. Sure enough the low hum of the gravity machine stopped and she turned to go, but stopped as not one but two figures emerged from the gravity machine.

"Vegeta... what's he doing here?" she asked, looking pointedly at Android 17.

"What does it look like woman?" Vegeta muttered walking past her and entering the main building of Capsule Corp. Well to Bulma it looked as if they had been sparing. But as Android 17 took off to who knew where without a word or a look in her direction, Bulma couldn't help but wonder what exactly was going on.

Junnana was satisfied, he decided later, with the events of the day. Yes, he was not match for Vegeta in attack power, but since androids never tire, he was more than a match for the Sayian Prince if they just stuck to physical blows. Junnana had landed on a cliff overlooking the city and leaned back against the rock face thinking. He had been created with all of the knowledge of the Sayian Prince Vegeta and smirked as he could see the signs that Vegeta's Mating rut cycle was about to begin. Two or three weeks was maybe all the time he had left, but that would be enough. Exactly enough time to appeal to Vegeta's Sayian instincts. Junnana was attracted to the arrogant Sayian, and this attraction had been the first real feeling he had felt since his birth as an android. Then when Vegeta was no longer in his presence, the lack of this or any feeling which he had been used to until his first encounter with the Sayian Prince felt barren and dead. He had been somewhat pleased when Vegeta had, in his arrogance, followed the three of them, because at just hearing the Sayian's voice the feelings had returned, the empty void filled with emotions. Despite the facade of nonchalentness he had shown to the rest of the world, Junnana had secretly wanted to fight Vegeta, wanted to discover exactly what it was about the Sayian Prince that awoke such feeling inside a being that should not feel anything at all. Junnana had realized this feeling's name: attraction, lust, want; when Vegeta had faced off against Cell shortly after he had been absorbed by the cretin. Through Cell's eyes, the android had watched the Prince, watched the subtle shifts in his stance as the Sayian's mood changed, watched the way he flowed through his actions in battle; and Junnana, Android 17, had wanted Vegeta with a passion he thought should not exist for him... and yet it did.

So when Vegeta went into his Mating rut cycle in the upcoming weeks, Junnana was going to make sure that it was to him that Vegeta found himself suddenly attracted to him, suddenly needing as much as the Android needed the Sayian. The daze Vegeta seemed to fall in and out of was when his hidden Sayian instincts were taking control and beginning their search for Vegeta's most "perfect" mate. Of course, since 17 was the only one who knew of this (and because of the fact that there were a limited number of Sayian worthy creatures on this planet anyway), he had much more of an advantage in appealing to Vegeta's instincts than would a potential mate if Vegeta and himself were on Vegetasei right now. Yes, 17 would do whatever took and follow whatever customs of Vegetasei's mating rituals necessary to make sure that he did not go back to feeling dead inside again, and if Vegeta was the way to do that... then it was all the better for Junnana.

About a week after the confrontation between the android and Vegeta, the blue haired genius finally came to understand the situation. Bulma sighed, drifting in and out of concentration on her newest project. Something strange was going on, she knew it. Vegeta had been changing, albeit slowly, into someone else whom she had only seen once. Once, when Vegeta was in rut, and even then she had been somewhat drunk. Rut. Sayian mating instincts. Yes, Vegeta's instincts were slowly changing to be that of a Sayian in rut, but only much stronger than she had seen through the haze of alcohol. Maybe now that he was older the urge to mate was stronger, or maybe there were different kinds of rut, but that didn't explain why Android 17 had suddenly started showing up to spar with Vegeta. Of course there was the innocent explanation that maybe the android was bored and wanted something to do, but that wasn't the case most likely. There was also something strange going on with 17, and somehow Bulma's mind was connecting his behavior with Vegeta's.

For a week the android had show up sometime during the day, and Vegeta had even admitted to looking forward to having a sparing partner, looking forward to seeing 17. It was just to weird. And when things got weird for Bulma, she went for the coffee cup. Yet, the her current coffee cup, not to mention the entire coffee pot, was empty. Oh well, that's why people created instant right? Bulma slowly found her way to the kitchen, pausing when she heard an animalistic growl coming from Vegeta's room. Seconds later the Prince himself emerged, his eyes glowing a dark red color, the color of blood, the color his eyes had been in her nightmares when she had been afraid he would kill her. But his current stance as he walked wordlessly to the door and left Capsule Corp. and the look on his face, the one of animalistic hunger and longing - it was one she knew and could still remember what it had looked like aimed at her that night. Vegeta's rut had finally taken over and he was going to find that potential mate.

"Good luck Vegeta. Hopefully you'll find someone strong enough to mate with you." Bulma whispered. Sure she had been upset that she could never have Vegeta as her own so long ago, but she had been touched that he had cared enough to realized that she would have died had he started the mating process with her. Now she was glad that she had not made him marry her, he deserved the complete bliss which could only be given to him by his perfect mate, something which she had finally accepted she could not give. "Good luck."

Vegeta woke staring at the ceiling almost hatefully. What was going on? Vegeta held back a yelp of pain as a wave of heat rolled over his body to be followed by more. Almost staggering to his feet he saw his reflection in a mirror. Red eyes... he hadn't seen red eyes on himself or any Sayian unless... Vegeta growled, the full situation hitting his being as he locked gazes with his reflection. Mating Rut. It had started after all. And somewhere on this miserable planet with all its human pollution, was his perfect mate. The one being who could give him a reason to exist. Vegeta held back the urge to purr. Yes, he knew his mate all right. Perfection in ebony, that was his mate. And tonight he would find his prey and make his prey his forever.

Vegeta moved through Capsule Corp. with the grace of a cat, one of the hunters of prey that roamed the land mass of earth. His senses were all much sharper than usual, his hearing so acute he could hear the steady, sleep-filled breathing of Trunks in his room though three or four walls. He heard Bulma wish him good luck and he smiled into the darkness of the night. He wouldn't need any luck, his mate could handle the mating, and maybe even enjoy it too.

Vegeta took off in the direction which would lead him to his mate, flying, although in this state running was a much... better way of chasing his prey. But the planet was a rather large one after all, and he couldn't run on water no matter how heightened his senses were.

His mate would sense him coming in this state, but that was fine with him. Yes, he was moving. Vegeta purred. His mate had already sensed him and he had not been moving for more than a few moments. This would be a good chase.

Junnana sensed Vegeta coming through the haze of sleep, but something seemed different about the Sayian Prince. Then it hit the android as he bolted upright in bed. Vegeta's Mating rut had started... and he was coming this way. Well, that now labeled the potential mates down to three, himself, his sister, and Krillen as it was at their house that Junnana was currently staying. Junnana smirked, it was time to see if he was successful. Quickly grabbing some clothing, not caring if they matched or not, Junnana all but threw open the window and launched himself into the night sky. As he moved he could sense Vegeta's course change as well. Yes, he mentally congratulated himself. Vegeta was his, but Junnana would not let the Sayian prince take him without some resistance. He would not be so easy to catch.

Junnana landed on a field somewhere, he had lost track of exactly where he was by now, and waited. A few minutes later he was joined by Vegeta, the Prince of all Sayians, his eyes glowing a bloody red color as they gazed at him.

"Good evening Vegeta," Junnana managed to say as the Prince continued to look him up and down.

"Good night for hunting isn't 17?" the Prince asked taking a step forward, the ritualistic words falling from his mouth. 17 stepped back a step.

"It would depend on what one was hunting, Vegeta."

"Well, Junnana. I am hunting. And as for who I'm hunting... you will be the perfect prey." Vegeta purred.

All of a sudden Vegeta sprang forward and Junnana took off at a run. He could hear the feral growl behind him and could almost feel Vegeta chasing him.

Vegeta let the rut take full control now. Junnana had not resisted the hunt so as far as the Prince was concerned, the Android was his. Ironic though, the Androids were created to be perfect... therefore Vegeta should have known his mate would be the ebony haired android.

Blood pounded though his senses as Vegeta chased Junnana. 17 he knew, would never tire, so Vegeta would have to rely on strategy to catch his prey, something which the rut instincts of a Sayian was very good at. Vegeta fought back the urge to howl like a wolf at the nonexistent moon, the chase had begun.

Junnana wondered how Vegeta could keep up with him, even with the heightened state caused by rut. Three hours they had been running but Vegeta only seemed to get faster. How long could he continue to do this? Oh, wait, he knew the answer to that... a year. Mating rut could last a year if necessary...

The earth was not Vegetasei, that much was obvious. On Vegetasei the planet itself molded itself to the chase of the Sayians. If the chase occurred near the poles, rivers were known to flow even in freezing temperatures. Thunderstorms were known to either start or halt in their tracks for the chase. Yes, all of the nature on Vegetasei knew of the importance of this chase, what it symbolized, and nature had nurtured that importance and ingrained it into every fiber of the planet. On earth it was not so, but still the nature of the human's world knew of the importance of this late night run and endeavored to do it the honor it would receive. Roots that would have caused a runner to trip if he was not watching the ground sunk deep into the soil so that they would not hinder the runners. Tree branches moved out of their way. Vegeta had somewhat suspected that his would occur, but it took the android by surprise and that was what ultimately gave the chase to the Sayian Prince.

Vegeta pinned Junnana underneath him, growling softly. "I win."

The android smirked. "I think it's more of a tie." Gently he covered Vegeta's lips with his own in a kiss that deepened quickly as Vegeta purred into it.

For they were all that mattered that night. The lush grass of the earth cradled their bodies and the stars shown brightly down for them from the sky. The wind that howled down from the mountain peaks whispered softly over them speaking the whispers of the night to them. The whole spirit of the earth gave witness to their union and rejoiced for them.

Finis Est