Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ. DBZ is owned by various companies and individuals world wide, I am borrowing the characters for my own evil purposes nothing more. Insert the usual disclaimer here.

Author's notes: I apologise for my recent lack of decent author notes. Those of you who have been paying attention will notice a new addition to the layout of the fic. That is this beastie the humble asterisk anything contained between two of them is a telepathic conversation. Thank you, Dora mouse for the inspiration for that. There has been a noticeable lack of reviews of late. So, if you happen to read this please leave a review.

"Double quotations indicate conversations."

'Single quotations in italics indicate thoughts.'
Asterisks indicate telepathic conversations

Glossary :

Ohayo: Good morning

Baka: Idiot

Kuso: (Generally) damn or shit.

Hai: Yes

Otousan: Father

Katana: literally a Japanese sword, generally refers to the typical samurai sword.

It was cold and dark. Mid morning and the world seemed trapped in a gloomy half light. A thick layer of black clouds held in the cold, a clear, sharp cold that froze all living things to the bone. Winter, it seemed was announcing her imminent arrival. Only above the heavy rain, laden clouds did the sunshine. Pale, washed out and more yellow than gold, it reflected off the smooth oval of white tile with startling brilliance. The reflected light surrounded the platform in a strong white aura. Anyone watching would expect the light to blind the occupants of the tower. In reality, the small group hardly noticed it.

Currently the tower only had two permanent residents. The third had of late flitted in and out, all be it with some reluctance. At this present moment, he sat at a small round table, with a pair of chopsticks poised over a heavily laden plate. He had paused to watch his two friends who had just reached a stalemate. Yajarobe couldn't hear the words of their conversation, only the tone of their voices. Maya's voice had dropped to a deadly, unimpressed rumble it was this that had caught his attention. So, he sat at the table with his chop sticks still hovering half way between his mouth and the plate.

The woman sat on the on the top step, legs crossed, inclined against a column. She regarded her companion from under a tangle of lashes with shrewd glittering eyes that didn't quite match her quiet, respectful tone and language. Part of her got a kick out of the quiet battle of wills. She had a sneaking suspicion that Korin was up to something. Not that she had any proof he just looked so pleased with himself. Maya didn't doubt that most of the time Korin knew a lot more than he let on. ' He could look more pleased with himself, look at the way he's smirking.' Korin watched her with amusement he too enjoyed a battle of wills. Korin to outside appearances spent most of his life with his eyes closed even so he didn't miss much. Korin noted Yajarobe's half hypnotised gaze and smiled. 'Nice to see that Maya hasn't frightened Yajarobe off.' A small, very smug smile. Not that the idea hadn't been in the samurai's head to start with, it had, he had just helped it along. It had been nothing, nothing at all. Korin looked at Maya, he was fairly sure she suspected something. Which was one of the things he liked about her. She was observant, at least most of the time she had her blind spots though. Which of course he was perfectly happy to take advantage of. He liked the small stubborn woman, quite as much as Kami did. Korin had been rather pleased when he first noticed Yajarobe's growing interest in Maya. He was fairly sure that it was only a matter of time before things panned out the way he wanted. So all in all Korin was rather pleased with himself.

Which on the whole made Maya more suspicious. She glared Korin irritably 'nice to see someone's in a good mood.' Maya wasn't she had a dull tension headache, to add to the general aches and pains. To make matters worse she'd drunk a little more wine than was really good for her the night before. She wasn't exactly hung over, just a bit dehydrated, and over tired. She hadn't slept very well. She almost never did, but this time it hadn't been her nightmares that kept her awake. It had been Gohan's. The small boy didn't have the full blown screaming terrors she did, but they were bad enough in their own way. Korin had fallen silent for the moment. Maya closed her eyes and slowly exhaled. 'Nothing like a 4am start after a poor nights sleep.' She tilted her head back and scrapped the long loose tendrils of honey coloured hair away from her face. For once, Maya's hair was loose and even in the odd light it shone. Her hair spilt over her folded arms hiding the restless tap of her fingers against the inside of her arm. She rested her eyes from the strange light and listened to the soft almost silent movements of Korin's feet. 'What is he doing now?' Maya sighed and peered at Korin through her lashes.

Korin still smiled he had shifted across the expanse of tile, so he had a clear view of Yajarobe and Popo. He caught Yajarobe's eye. Yajarobe returned Korin's steady gaze briefly before embarrassment caused him to look away and plunge his chopsticks back into the plate of food. Korin was playing with Maya, Yajarobe knew. He had the vaguest notion that Korin might be playing with him too but he pushed the idea away. The woman seemed well aware of it and largely unimpressed. 'She seems quite unimpressed about everything. To busy living to give a damn. She works hard though.' The previous evening had held a few surprises. Buruma Kuririn, Gohan, and himself had all ended up staying the night, though not all together willingly. In away he'd been relieved he felt more confident with the others there to fill the inevitable silences. Maya perhaps covering her own uncertainty had feed them a little to well. She was a good cook. Yajarobe had to admit he was surprised though he hardly knew why. The thing however, that stuck in his mind, wasn't the relatively peaceful evening. It was the discovery in the early hours of the morning of the Maya sitting on Gohan's bed gently rubbing his back through the blankets. The memory hung in his mind.

The noise carried in the darkness. The hollow groan that penetrated the thick walls, wasn't part of a dream but real. For a moment in the darkness, he was disorientated, unsure of his surroundings. As he lay there his eyes adjusting to the darkness the noise increased in volume and frequency. He brushed the hair out of his face. He knew now where he was and that the moaning was Gohan. The noise continued as Yajarobe hunted around for something to protect his modesty.

His feet were totally silent on the cold timber boards. The darkness enveloped him. There was no moon the only light was a soft, faint, blue glow from the little light in Gohan's room. All else was a vast expanse of black. Yajarobe paused at the door to Gohan's room it was ajar. He moved cautiously towards it. It was early, very early still and silent but for Gohan's heavy moans. His own breath and heartbeat sounded very loud. Tentative he peered into the room. Yajarobe froze. Maya sat quietly on the edge of the bed her body enshrouded in a heavy silk wrapper. Illuminated by the pale blue light, Maya had an almost ethereal quality. Her small pale hand rubbed Gohan's back through the blanket she spoke too but so very softly that her words were inaudible. Yajarobe stood very still rooted to the spot he tried to breathe quietly in short shallow breaths. The cold air pressed in. His heart thudded against his ribs, he couldn't move. Her gentleness and her obvious maternal instincts stunned him. Some how it was hard to think of Maya as anything beyond a warrior. She was a woman but it was only recently that anyone had really though of her on that level. The cold slowly penetrated his skin. All he could do was watch. There was no denying her femininity at that moment. It did nothing to help him only served to confuse him further. Yajarobe didn't know how long he stood there in the shadows, unseen. It took him sometime to calm down it had been strange, like been trapped in a dream. The strong maternal instincts he didn't think she had, visible in every movement and every line of her body. He slipped away without her seeing him. And spent the night alternating between sleeping and thinking about her. Dreaming of her and worrying.

He'd woken at eight to a house wrapped in silence. The light that came through the window was a very pale subdued yellow. Hardly enough on it's own to wake him. Yajarobe had found his clothes clean and neatly folded on the chest of draws by the door. He padded around the house silently but found no one but Maya's cat Socrates curled up on the kitchen windowsill. The cat greeted him with lazy indifference. It was only late after he'd found the breakfast left out for him that he found everyone except Buruma in the stable yard.

The stable yard was clean and tidy, populated by the two colts. One of the dogs rolled clownishly on the concrete. Kuririn was sprawled on the grass from where he could watch Gohan. Who leant half though one of the railed fences feeding the small black pony squashed fruit pastels. Tied to the wall near the fence was the grey colt. He stood smug and clean beneath a heavy jute rug, with his nose firmly embedded in a hay net. A few feet away Maya polished the brown colt's coat with a piece of neatly hemmed silk. She must have been at it for some time as both colts glowed. Their coats lay as close and smooth as glass, and gleamed where the pale sunlight reflected off of them. Maya had blackened the colts' hooves with several thin layers of Stockholm tar. Gone were the playful spirited hooligans of the previous week. In their place stood two elegant, aristocratic individuals. Yajarobe leaned on the top rail of the wooden fence that enclosed the yard. There had been a brief exchange of good mornings and did you sleep well's but all the while Maya continued working. Yajarobe watched curiously as Maya changed the colts' rugs woollen day rugs, and head collars. Only moments later a dull heavy rumble preceded the truck up the drive.

"It's completely impractical and you know it, so why are you belabouring the point?" Yajarobe felt his spirit flop down in to the chair with a jolt. A strange sudden sort of reawakening, he smiled. 'She's dropped the formalities already.' Not that he was surprised. He'd heard Maya backhand a few comments to Kami and Korin now and again when she got frustrated. They might have the upper hand where age and wisdom was concerned, but they weren't her gods. They had no propriety over her but that which came from bringing her to this world. Neither Korin or Kami seemed much fazed by this. For the most part, they seemed rather amused by her stubbornness and pride. For all that, they respected her. Her survival wasn't a fluke one didn't survive so long by luck alone.

Maya regarded Korin darkly from under her lashes. She had dropped her hands back into her lap, where they fiddled with an elderly hair tie with restrained frustration. 'I said no. Why can't anyone just accept it? Why must everything become a battle of wills?' It the last four days she'd said no a lot. It wasn't getting any easier. Maya had no intention of going to Namek. Maybe it existed maybe not, she wasn't sure. At any rate, it seemed sheer craziness for everyone to go. She'd rather stay and keep watch. Cowardice perhaps, but she refused to go. Maya had a thousand logical reasons for staying, most of which safely concealed the fact that she was afraid. Some primitive part of her demanded to be heard. It beat a restless tattoo in her blood. Warning her. She felt sure that if she went, if she left, and began the journey to Namek she would not return. Korin she was sure was playing with her, not something all together uncat like. She exhaled slowly, and reorganised the series of neat polite and totally logical answers in her mind. Maya frowned and pushed the tangle of fair hair back out of her face. She wasn't enjoying this she wasn't enjoying it at all.

Korin was as always unfazed. He was glad to see that he had finally succeeded in ruffling Maya's feathers. Eventually he'd get the information he was after it just needed a little push at the right time. Korin was of course perfectly capable of telepathy. In fact, on the whole Korin was sure that Maya was perfectly capable of it herself. She just didn't use it. He was sure that she used it to communicate with her animals. Maya ran on instinct and subconscious response. He had tried once or twice to communicate with her in that way, but she had effectively shut everyone out and Korin was no exception. Korin watched the frowning female calmly. Her entire being radiated stubbornness. It wasn't going to be hard. Maya's perpetually frayed patience was only going to help Korin. Her irritability was fairly recent. Previous to the Saiya-jins arrival, she had been quite placid but lately that seemed to have disappeared.

Maya bitched and moaned in the back of her mind. She did not want to get into another unpleasant situation, but it seemed inevitable. 'He's goading me the,' quite frankly she couldn't think of a term that suitably conveyed her annoyance. She could feel herself being backed into a corner. She was sick to death of it. She still felt weak and vulnerable from her physical injuries. She'd had enough. 'I'm too old for all this. I'd rather be left effing well alone.'

"What is it exactly that you want?" She was on the defence and it showed. Korin remain serene, for which Maya could have gleefully brained him.

"You won't like it." Maya ground her nails into her palm. 'Quite. Hardly surprising I would have thought.' Part of her ached for her earlier peace, when everyone was too cautious to question her. It was well past the time however to move on.

"Of course not. So you might as well just ask and get it over and done with." Korin tried to hide his amusement. He had expected fireworks but this was a marked improvement.

"Those things that Gokou mentioned seeing in your world, what were they?" 'Is that all?!' Maya looked Korin in disbelief.

"That's it?" Korin nodded.

"Why do you want to know that?" Maya couldn't get over it. It was the craziest thing she'd ever heard. 'More to the point surely he already knows.' Maya regarded the hair tie with equal disbelief.

"You never know when it might come in handy. So what are they?"

"A bunch of idiots who wanted to live forever." Her eyes twinkled ruefully. 'In a manner of speaking anyway.' A muffled coughing drew her attention.

"In a manner of speaking?" Maya frowned and glared at Korin. The cat watched her, his ears sharply pricked, and a curious gleam in his eye.

"Hmm, everything is." Maya was still trying to watch Yajarobe out of the corner of her eye. He had recovered from the bout of coughing, caused by choking on a mouthful of rice. Korin followed her eyes.

Yajarobe's nearly dying of curiosity.

I know. Amused deeply amused.

Since when have you been able to do that?

Oh I'm not sure a long time at any rate. She was still watching Yajarobe, quietly, just quietly. She felt an odd warmth for him. 'He's so totally unassuming,' Maya frowned, 'unassuming!' There was something very strange going on. Maya glared at Korin. 'I might have known.'

"That was you wasn't it?" Maya's eyes glittered.

"It's true!" Korin sounded so pleased, Maya's glare sharpened.

"Don't care if it's true or not. Kindly butt out."

"What ever you say."

"Hmm, that question that was a ruse wasn't it? You know damn well what Gokou saw." Her eyes narrowed. The cat smiled. A smug pleased smile. 'Ah I knew she'd work it out.' 'That unbelievable bloody cat, I knew it he was up to something. What was I thinking. . . the underhanded . . .'

"You're not a deity at all you're an old grandmother in a cat suit." Korin's smile broadened, though he was sure he could hear every god and deity in existence laughing themselves hoarse. Not that Korin cared he was far too busy watching for Maya's reaction.

Maya didn't know what to think. 'How much has Korin really influenced my feelings for Yajarobe? And exactly how much of Yajarobe's feelings are his own?' Part of Maya was very, almost blindly, angry at Korin's interference. A greater part of her was amused. And secretly a little pleased that Korin approved of her. Maya closed her eyes and thought. 'Would I really feel anything for Yajarobe if Korin hadn't interfered?' Maya opened her eyes, for a minute she watched Yajarobe. Trying to see him for what he was. Seeking an answer . . . True, he wasn't the most handsome man alive and of course, his love of food was fairly obvious. Though, he was fairly heavily built anyway. 'Does it really matter?' Such thoughts were undoubtedly shallow, but she'd be a liar if she didn't at least acknowledge it. She looked, she thought, part of her hoped in the most frantic fashion.

It took a while for Maya to search inside herself for an honest answer. 'No, it doesn't matter.' Maya was relieved to find that it did not. 'I respect him for what he is. How many people would manage so well in his situation?' She smiled and dropped her eyes allowed her hair to hide her face. A joy, almost savage in its intensity filled her. 'Dear Yajarobe, I admire you for your strength. A samurai living with a deity. It beats me. Somehow you mange though even stuck between two honour codes, two worlds and your own conscience.' Maya knew herself. Faced with Kami and Korin she still refused to accept them as gods or the possibility of the existence of their equal in her world. She treated Kami, Korin, and Popo as her elders. She refused to grovel at anyone's feet. She had come too far to give up her dignity for anyone or indeed anything. Maya glanced at Korin. 'Well no harm done.'

All right I admit you haven't done any harm, but that doesn't mean I approve. Are you finished? Can I go home? Her eyes twinkled filled with the newly discovered joy. Korin smiled he wasn't really finished with her but he felt that it would be judicious to let her lie. 'For now.' On the whole, it had been a profitable morning.

"Hmm you can go." Korin's grin widened. 'When doesn't he smirk?' Maya stood up, she felt oddly joyous. She couldn't work it out at first. All the strain of the previous week, of the previous year was lifted from her soul. For the first time, Maya felt that she was a part of the world. A part of this world. This strange place had in a moment become home, not just where she lived, but home. The tremendous bright joy diminished the quiet shadows that lingered in her eyes. The deep courage and pride of her people reasserted itself.

(2002)