"Nepenthe"
by Acey
Disclaimer: Incredible that I still have to put one. All right, I'll oblige. DBZ is Mr. Akira Toriyama's. Not Miss Acey's.
Author's Note: Some of the more recent K/18's I've started to see around here are following almost the exact same plotlines e-ver-y time (I'm not kidding! I can tell by simply the summaries!), though far from all, thankfully. Seeing as the romance may become cliched... (which I really don't want to happen), I'm doing my own while I still can. With something of a twist, maybe something of an A/U, and my specialty angst. Other people have neat specialties like romance or mystery or A/U... mine's just angst. But it's okay. Me and the angst category go way back... I hope you enjoy.
This fic is dedicated to my very good friend Rachael. You're a really great person, don't forget it!
A blonde woman sat beneath a tree still untouched by autumn's onset. A short, scrubby thing, it had somehow managed to withstand the cold chill of winters past, but the chances were slim that it would ever become more than what it was, one of the many.
"You're bored," her brother said, absently half-throwing his tarnished ax at another tree. It flew straight through the trunk of the first tree and into another. He smirked out of pure reflex at the sight, watching with a methodic expression as the first fell, and then the second tree with it, a domino effect.
"Nice deduction. You should take up psychiatry," she said. The usual double-edged response to the usual sardonic statement.
"Can you imagine them letting the highly armed, esteemed, and dangerous cyborg into the classroom? No, Juuhachi, I prefer it here."
"You don't." This was a new thought, one that had come to mind only the second before she had said it, one that she would have regretted had Juunanagou not been in a sadistically good mood, and had she not been his sister. He cocked his head mockingly.
"Really? You think so?"
She rolled her eyes, thinking 'juvenile' but refraining from saying it. She leaned her back slightly against the tree, picking up a dried leaf.
"Juunanagou, look around. There is nothing here. Nothing."
Her brother silent, Juuhachigou continued.
"There isn't a single person here within twenty acres. That should mean something to you." It once had. "Well? Are you afraid?"
An interesting thought, Juuhachigou decided. Perhaps that was the reason for her twin's withdrawal from society, from cities, from the humans. And with his withdrawal had come her own.
He replied with a laugh, caustic, devoid of much in the way of feeling as he brought the axe down on one of the fallen trees.
"Afraid of them? The Saiyans? No. I can stand them to a point. Even the Namek. But they'd catch on to both of us if we went back to our usual activities. I don't think that being destroyed is on either of our agendas."
So Juunanagou realized through his blind pride that they were stonger than him. He disguised the fear, if indeed there really was one (in Juuhachigou's experience there had been, but she was not completely sure as far as Juunanagou went), with reasoning, with logic. All well and good and true to being. He was designedto be rational, to think with an ever-annoyingly clear head, and would had it not been for his self-centeredness, his conceit. Such human characteristics, vaguest proof of his former self, were such a downfall. No wonder he was the one with the flaws.
"You are an egomaniac," she said wearily, and went back to the cabin.
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"The cabin" being their home, Juunanagou's main accomplishment since Cell, though Juuhachigou seriously doubted that either of them would ever call it with the term of endearment. It served its purpose; it gave them a better place to sleep than the forest's ground did, and that was all that mattered about it. Neither of them had bothered to put any decorative work into the place, believing it to be unimportant if they even thought of it at all. Two rough beds, chairs and a table were the only major furnishings, sufficient enough to suit their needs, at least--
"Juunanagou."
Her twin was on the other side of the room, having followed her back, flipping through a paper taken from who knew where.
"Yes."
"I've decided what it is that's wrong with this place," she said, expecting the response she was given, a sarcastic "really" and a return to whatever the piece of paper had to offer.
"Yes. It doesn't have windows."
The other cyborg raised his cold gaze from the paper, eyes mocking.
"You never specified that it needed them, Juuhachi. I thought you prefered the-- ah, rustic look. Windows were a luxury once, after all."
She shot back the first words she thought of.
"Juvenile. Every place needs windows, every place but this has windows."
No wound evident from the look on her brother's face, a near-mirror image of her own. No wound at all. Juunanagou replied, sounding less childish, almost bitingly unfeeling.
"Calm down. I didn't think you would notice if I didn't put them there, that's all. Our eyesight's a bit too good to truly need glass to let in the light, don't you think? And you didn't notice until now."
"Playing another game, this time on your only sister?" Juuhachigou said finally, flippantly. "If so they must be getting more and more boring to you. Windows. How long were you guessing that I wouldn't notice?"
He raised a few fingers, quickly, as though there was a timeer somewhere that would explode if he did not do so in as much hurry as he could manage.
"Three weeks. It took you four. So much for what's left of your humanity." He paused, uncaring. "Or both of ours."
************************************************************************
Disclaimer: Incredible that I still have to put one. All right, I'll oblige. DBZ is Mr. Akira Toriyama's. Not Miss Acey's.
Author's Note: Some of the more recent K/18's I've started to see around here are following almost the exact same plotlines e-ver-y time (I'm not kidding! I can tell by simply the summaries!), though far from all, thankfully. Seeing as the romance may become cliched... (which I really don't want to happen), I'm doing my own while I still can. With something of a twist, maybe something of an A/U, and my specialty angst. Other people have neat specialties like romance or mystery or A/U... mine's just angst. But it's okay. Me and the angst category go way back... I hope you enjoy.
This fic is dedicated to my very good friend Rachael. You're a really great person, don't forget it!
A blonde woman sat beneath a tree still untouched by autumn's onset. A short, scrubby thing, it had somehow managed to withstand the cold chill of winters past, but the chances were slim that it would ever become more than what it was, one of the many.
"You're bored," her brother said, absently half-throwing his tarnished ax at another tree. It flew straight through the trunk of the first tree and into another. He smirked out of pure reflex at the sight, watching with a methodic expression as the first fell, and then the second tree with it, a domino effect.
"Nice deduction. You should take up psychiatry," she said. The usual double-edged response to the usual sardonic statement.
"Can you imagine them letting the highly armed, esteemed, and dangerous cyborg into the classroom? No, Juuhachi, I prefer it here."
"You don't." This was a new thought, one that had come to mind only the second before she had said it, one that she would have regretted had Juunanagou not been in a sadistically good mood, and had she not been his sister. He cocked his head mockingly.
"Really? You think so?"
She rolled her eyes, thinking 'juvenile' but refraining from saying it. She leaned her back slightly against the tree, picking up a dried leaf.
"Juunanagou, look around. There is nothing here. Nothing."
Her brother silent, Juuhachigou continued.
"There isn't a single person here within twenty acres. That should mean something to you." It once had. "Well? Are you afraid?"
An interesting thought, Juuhachigou decided. Perhaps that was the reason for her twin's withdrawal from society, from cities, from the humans. And with his withdrawal had come her own.
He replied with a laugh, caustic, devoid of much in the way of feeling as he brought the axe down on one of the fallen trees.
"Afraid of them? The Saiyans? No. I can stand them to a point. Even the Namek. But they'd catch on to both of us if we went back to our usual activities. I don't think that being destroyed is on either of our agendas."
So Juunanagou realized through his blind pride that they were stonger than him. He disguised the fear, if indeed there really was one (in Juuhachigou's experience there had been, but she was not completely sure as far as Juunanagou went), with reasoning, with logic. All well and good and true to being. He was designedto be rational, to think with an ever-annoyingly clear head, and would had it not been for his self-centeredness, his conceit. Such human characteristics, vaguest proof of his former self, were such a downfall. No wonder he was the one with the flaws.
"You are an egomaniac," she said wearily, and went back to the cabin.
************************************************************************
"The cabin" being their home, Juunanagou's main accomplishment since Cell, though Juuhachigou seriously doubted that either of them would ever call it with the term of endearment. It served its purpose; it gave them a better place to sleep than the forest's ground did, and that was all that mattered about it. Neither of them had bothered to put any decorative work into the place, believing it to be unimportant if they even thought of it at all. Two rough beds, chairs and a table were the only major furnishings, sufficient enough to suit their needs, at least--
"Juunanagou."
Her twin was on the other side of the room, having followed her back, flipping through a paper taken from who knew where.
"Yes."
"I've decided what it is that's wrong with this place," she said, expecting the response she was given, a sarcastic "really" and a return to whatever the piece of paper had to offer.
"Yes. It doesn't have windows."
The other cyborg raised his cold gaze from the paper, eyes mocking.
"You never specified that it needed them, Juuhachi. I thought you prefered the-- ah, rustic look. Windows were a luxury once, after all."
She shot back the first words she thought of.
"Juvenile. Every place needs windows, every place but this has windows."
No wound evident from the look on her brother's face, a near-mirror image of her own. No wound at all. Juunanagou replied, sounding less childish, almost bitingly unfeeling.
"Calm down. I didn't think you would notice if I didn't put them there, that's all. Our eyesight's a bit too good to truly need glass to let in the light, don't you think? And you didn't notice until now."
"Playing another game, this time on your only sister?" Juuhachigou said finally, flippantly. "If so they must be getting more and more boring to you. Windows. How long were you guessing that I wouldn't notice?"
He raised a few fingers, quickly, as though there was a timeer somewhere that would explode if he did not do so in as much hurry as he could manage.
"Three weeks. It took you four. So much for what's left of your humanity." He paused, uncaring. "Or both of ours."
************************************************************************