Author's Note: Honestly I'm surprised at the rate of speed at which I'm getting these chapters out. I guess it really helps when they've been sitting on your computer, taking up space for so long. I'm not a complete fan of this chapter, but its part of the story. You may think that I'm moving things along quite quickly, but I'll have to admit that I'm a lazy writer ;) At least I was when I wrote this….yet I'm not doing much to fix this stuff now. Although I will say that before I post the chapter I have reread it…good thing too 'cause I've found some rather interesting typos ;)

Chapter 11

Dinner hadn't been easy that night for East Kaioshin. In fact, it had been pure torture when the meals were brought out and the normally pleasant gaze he would get from Sabrina hadn't been there. He had glanced up to see if she was looking at him when she put North Kaioshin's plate on the table, but instead she had adverted her eyes in another direction entirely.

East had hoped that if he lingered around the dining hall once everyone had left that perhaps Sabrina would've come out to talk to him when she was done cleaning up. When she hadn't, he slowly strolled towards the parlor, where he decided to try to finish that book.

Unfortunately, those plans he had made were quickly tossed when a servant came bowing up to him. "Master East Kaioshin," he said slowly and very softly. "Lord Dai Kaioshin has requested you join him in the study."

East sighed and nodded. "Thank you." He passed by the servant and changed his destination to the study, where he soon found the others gathered inside.

"Good; now that we are all here, I can begin," Dai Kaioshin started. "Majin Buu has been released once again."

"So soon?" West Kaioshin asked. "He had just been put to rest."

"I know," Dai Kaioshin replied. "But Bibidi has moved him to the northern quadrant. North Kaioshin made a trip to the planet we sensed him at."

"I couldn't have left there any sooner," North added. "I didn't see him, but the power I felt was enormous. I've never felt something so terribly mighty and evil."

"The devastation he leaves is disastrous and disgusting," East added.

"It is," agreed Dai Kaioshin. "But he has taken a galaxy."

"An entire galaxy this time!" South Kaioshin asked standing up quickly. "In such little time?"

"It was monstrous," North said shaking his head. "There's nothing worse than sitting behind and watching planets becoming bits of dust in the airless space."

East Kaioshin agreed quietly to himself. He wondered what else could possibly happen between now and the time he went to bed. He was overly tired, and depressed on top of that. If only he hadn't made such a fool of himself in front of Sabrina, perhaps he would be better able to take the thoughts of Majin Buu.

Yet with Sabrina in the back of his mind, East Kaioshin was beginning to think that life was going to be downhill from there.

"East," West jabbed him. "Are you alright?"

East looked up and nodded. "I'm fine."

"I've been thinking this over for some time now," Dai Kaioshin started again. "I'm afraid the only thing I could come up with was combining all of our powers."

"Do you think it's possible to defeat him?" North asked. East could see how troubled he was after seeing the devastation in his own quadrant.

"We can only hope," the great god replied. "It's still on the verge of decision whether we should ask for the help of the other Kais in the lower regions of Other World."

"Would they be strong enough?" West asked quietly, knowing that they, the Kaioshins, were much more powerful.

"Every little bit helps," Dai Kaioshin told her. "If they could assist in any way, then so be it."

East Kaioshin sat quietly for the next hour listening to the words of his friends. He wondered if it was possible to stop Buu. What he feared even more, however, was the thought if Bibidi lost control of Buu completely. Then what would become of the universe?

After the meeting had ended, it was late. East Kaioshin was more than ready to rest his mind and body by the time the meeting was over. At first, a nice hot bath sounded good and extremely tempting, but after yawning several times during the walk up the stairs, he decided against it.

Approaching the corridor of his bedroom, he took a double take at something he thought he saw. When nothing moved in the slightest, he figured it was his worn out mind playing tricks on him. However, when he opened the door, he felt the life energy of someone else inside. No one was allowed in the gods' rooms.

For a moment Kaioshin wondered who would possibly sneak around his room; then he felt exactly who it was. He smiled to himself, knowing now that this person ended up inside by accident.

"Sabrina, you may come out now," he said softly, standing by a cushiony chair and ataman near the center of the room.

For a moment there was stillness and silence. Then one of the closet doors began to open slowly and a body stepped out.

Sabrina slowly closed the door behind her, her eyes fixed on the floor, and her hands behind her back. "Forgive me," she said in a very hushed voice. "I know I must be punished."

Kaioshin raised his white eyebrows and then chuckled. "Punished? Why would I have you punished?"

"Because servants are not allowed in a these rooms," she replied softly.

Kaioshin gave a gentle smile as he walked over to her. Using two fingers, he lifted her chin up and their eyes met. "I'm sure you have a reasonable explanation," he said just as softly as her voice had spoken.

Sabrina took her eyes away from his and looked at the small yellow ball that hung from one of his ears. "I…I wanted to apologize for the way I acted today. I came down here, and I was going to knock on the door, but then I heard someone coming…and I came in here because I didn't know it was you."

Kaioshin listened, his eyes looking over her now rosy-colored face. He could feel the tension in her heart, seeing that she was afraid she was in a heap of trouble.

"I'm sorry. I was wrong."

With a smile, he asked, "Sorry for which part?"

Sabrina looked up at him a little perplexed, wondering if he was joking or serious.

"You said you came to apologize," Kaioshin told her after realizing his previous statement hadn't been put very well.

Sabrina looked away again, and if he wasn't mistaken, he thought he saw a trickle of water run along the bottom lids of her eyes. "I acted against my heart and your kind gesture," she said. "Kaioshin, I didn't want to leave you sitting there like I did. I was just…" her voice trailed off.

"You were just what?" Kaioshin urged, his voice barely a whisper.

"I don't want you to get into trouble."

With a slow shake of his head, Kaioshin took her hand and brought it up to his lips; he placed a small kiss on the top of her knuckles and looked at her face while doing so. "I can understand why you did what you did," he replied. "The rumor of West Kaioshin and me didn't take long to start up; although I'm surprised it did seeing that it was such a short connection."

Sabrina looked at her hand as he held it. His hands were smaller than other male hands she had seen, but they looked soft and gentle. She assumed he could hear her heart pounding in her chest, although she wondered if his was acting the same way.

"For my own curiosity's sake, what is the latest rumor of my affair with West?"

Sabrina blushed madly, afraid to speak up. "You and Lady West Kaioshin are intense lovers and presumably had a child that was well hidden and shipped off to live with another family."

Kaioshin couldn't suppress the laughter that emitted from his chest. "I'm sorry," he said calming himself down quickly. "It strikes me on how a story is stretched."

"I don't understand."

Kaioshin chuckled lightly as he led Sabrina over to the cushiony chair. He let her sit down on the chair itself, and placed himself on the edge of the ataman. "Sabrina, let me clear the rumor up to the truth. West and I were never intense lovers. I never even shared a room with my friend in the 1,042 years I've known her. We shared a kiss here and there, and that's the extent of it."

He could feel that tension in her spirit weaken and her face seemed to hold a much lighter expression now. "West and I are good friends," he said. "Best friends, if you want to say that, but nothing more. I promise you that."

There was a moment of silence, where Kaioshin knew Sabrina was thinking everything over. Yet her next question came as a surprise to him. "Then if you don't mind me asking, why have you shown interest in me? I'm not nearly as pretty or smart as West Kaioshin."

"You are prettier than the night sky and the many exotic planets I've ever seen in my life," he said. "No one has ever treated me as a normal Kai like you have. I know I can talk to you without you wanting to crawl all over me like others have thought of doing in the past. Your heart is pure and I admire that in you."

For a moment Sabrina looked as if she was going to cry. Then she said, "No one has ever said something like that to me before."

"Someone should have," he said leaning closer, but not close enough for her to feel his breath on her face.

"I'm glad you were the first, though," she said…and then took the chance to close the gap between them.

Kaioshin inwardly smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck after he had rested his hands on her waist. The feel of her lips on his sent his mind on a wild race and he could feel his stomach churning.

Kaioshin wanted to give Sabrina the world, but he didn't want to hurt her. She was so delicate and young, and the thought of hurting her tore him up. He hadn't any intentions on letting their encounter go any further than what it had started out to be, but soon he felt his tongue ignoring his rational thoughts and push between her lips.

The very slight moan Sabrina let out was enough for Kaioshin to pick her up and bring her to sit on his lap, a leg on each side of his body. He wanted this to go further, but he was honestly scared to let it. "Sabrina," he said finally, but his mouth couldn't stop. It found the side of her neck and he kissed it softly.

Sabrina's fingers raked through the Mohawk on his head and it sent chills down his spine. "I love you," he heard her whisper into his ear and that had been the breaking point. He couldn't stop himself now, and he knew that she couldn't either. He hadn't wanted to read her thoughts anymore, but when he had it caused him to pick her up and bring her over to his bed.

Then again, being the gentleman East Kaioshin was, he couldn't continue without making sure she knew what would happen. "Sabrina," he said with a short loss of breath. "I'm acting like Arden claimed I would. I don't want you to think I'm using you, because that's not the case at all."

Sabrina lay under him, one hand on his shoulder, the other brushing the back of her hand over his cheek. "I don't mean to be forward, especially because you're East Kaioshin, but…"

"Yes," he said before she could finish. "I do love you."

Sabrina caught his full attention when she used her hand to bring his head down to her so she could kiss the pointed tip of his ear. "Then show me."

East Kaioshin had never felt something so invigorating in his entire existence. His heart was beating like thunder the entire time. Bibidi and Majin Buu were long forgotten, along with anything that he had worried about in the past few days. He had no care for what the rules claimed he could not do, although he knew that if Dai Kaioshin found out what he was doing with Sabrina, a servant that had no authority over anything, his goose would be more than cooked; it would be burnt to a crisp beyond awareness.

Then it was over as quickly as it had started. Deep breaths and exhaustion ran over him and he suddenly felt a chill hit his heated body. For a moment, he thought it had been a dream, but seeing Sabrina sitting up and moving away from where he lay, he quickly realized that everything had been very much real.

"Where are you going?" He asked, propping his upper body up with his elbows.

"Back to my room," she said softly, as if afraid that she had overstayed her welcome. Her eyes were searching the floor for her discarded clothes.

Kaioshin reached out to her and took her forearm in his hand before she could stand up. "Stay with me."

Sabrina looked at him for the longest time. He thought she had gone into shock, but her eyes never stopped twinkling under the light of the moon that shone through the still-opened curtains on the windows.

He knew that she saw the sincerity in his face, and he didn't have to add any more words to persuade her to spend the night with him. She climbed back to the center of the bed where he laid back down and she rested her head and hand on his smooth, toned chest.

Kaioshin lay looking at the ceiling of his large bedroom, his hand brushing the top of her head at a steady pace, and he could feel her cool breath hit his skin, which kept him thinking about what they had just shared.

"Kaioshin?"

"Hmm?"

There was a short pause. "Do you regret this?"

Kaioshin's sharp eyes adverted to her own, which looked up at his face lovingly, yet with a hint of fear. "Never in a million years," he told her softly. "Do you?"

"No." For a moment he thought she had fallen asleep, but then she spoke again; "What would happen if someone came in here and found us like this?"

"No one's allowed in here unless I say so; not even the other gods," he told her reassuringly.

"What about someone like Sashay? What if she realizes during the night that I never went back to our room?"

"We'll let her believe she was dreaming, or you had gotten up for something to drink," he said. "Let it be yet another rumor."

Soon after that, Sabrina had fallen asleep, still in the same position she had put herself in, although her hand had moved to hold the god instead of resting on his torso.

East Kaioshin had never felt happier—and more concerned. He couldn't let Sabrina go, at least not yet. If it turned out that they couldn't be together, so be it. But he loved her; he loved her so much he'd give his life for her without a second thought. The only thing that troubled him was losing her to the fate of being dismissed from Kaioshin-kai if Dai Kaioshin had ever discovered their relationship.

But as East Kaioshin felt his eyes become heavy, he let any negative thoughts breeze past him, only remembering ten minutes ago, and the girl that lay next to him under the moonlight.