!!! Warning: Some actual YAOI this chapter. So if you aren't into actually reading that bit of information…maybe you should only read the first section of the chapter. !!!
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The stars did not shine as they normally did to Legolas' keen eye. No, this night the stars looked washed out, faded and blurred. The elf sat on the edge of the fortress rim, settled in the nook for an archer between two large stones. He refused to let Aragorn's death weigh heavy on him, it seemed silly that the ranger would have dove from a cliff instead of dying surrounded by piles of dead with so many arrows and daggers decorating him he looked like a pincushion. He always assumed the man would go down like a blazing fire, just when it looked like it was out it would spark again and leap to destroy even more.
A hand in the pocket of his tunic fingered lightly the charm inside. The evenstar pendant was resting carefully in the depths of cloth. Waiting for Aragorn's late arrival so it may be returned to him. Legolas snorted at the thought, surely if Aragorn had fallen from such a height, he would not come for the cut piece of glass.
Legolas sighed deeply, gazing up into the heavens again, trying to see if there was a new star born in the never ending darkness. There were clipped footsteps coming closer and the elf stiffened, waiting for the company he did not want and the consoling he did not need. There was a stutter to the stride and a pause. Closing his eyes, Legolas breathed slowly, trying to get his raging emotions under control.
Just when it felt like the stranger would speak, the steps moved on. Opening first one eye and then the other, a flush of relief washed through him and he leaned back slowly to peak out around the stone to see who had passed by. A sad frown settled onto his face at the retreating back clad in violet.
"Piccolo?"
The back stiffened and the Namek spoke over his shoulder, not turning more than was necessary. "I didn't realize you were up here." Legolas' face screwed up in perplexity, the simple sentence sounded like an apology and an accusation.
There was a dramatic pause, Legolas staring intently at the Namek's back wondering if he should accompany him and drain his weary thoughts. Piccolo stiffened again, turning to the west and inspecting beyond the Gap of Rohan. Legolas stood then, quailing as the Namek's face blanched. He followed the direction of his intense gaze and saw a far off light flash brightly in the night and then just as suddenly fall away to shadow.
"What is it?"
Piccolo hadn't moved, still peering into the night. "Trunks." Legolas nodded, accepting what the Namek had told him without wondering why or how the creature knew. "I'll leave you alone."
Legolas was a bit surprised and strode forward, catching Piccolo's elbow. "No. I have had enough time to wallow." He released the Namek and walked silently as they descended the stairs.
They had wandered aimlessly back to the hall of chambers where the fellowship slept. The tension between them was wholly unwelcome, never before had they been so horribly uncomfortable in the others presence. "It is awfully late for a stroll on the battlements." Legolas spoke quietly, trying to relieve some of that stress from the atmosphere.
Piccolo glanced at him from his peripheral vision. "I wanted some air."
They stood, paused outside their own rooms, ironically across from each other. "I have a balcony. Not large, but you are welcome to sit out on it." Legolas forced himself to meet Piccolo's gaze.
There was a second when Legolas was sure the Namek was going to turn and step into his quarters, but his large jade hand fell from the handle of his door and Piccolo nodded before silently following him into his chambers.
The room was much like his own, simple and modest. The building was, after all, a place of fortitude and strength, not housing for comfort and luxury. True to his word, Legolas pushed open a small rectangular door to the far of the room that opened to a cramped balcony, no more than a slab of concrete with a small stone enclosure. Piccolo felt a little irritated that he didn't have one off of his rooms, but he realized that Legolas' rooms faced out into the plains while his was again buried into the mountain side. It wouldn't exactly do to have a veranda that opened into stone.
Piccolo carefully stepped up onto the sill, testing the strength of it before actually standing on it entirely. He was sure that if it didn't hold the fall wouldn't kill him, but it would break damn near every bone in his body twice. He stood, facing in the exact direction he could feel Trunks' settled ki and stood in the stale air.
There had been no noise from inside the room, and Piccolo thought maybe Legolas had left, leaving him to brood. But as he turned to check he saw the elf sitting on the edge of his cot, staring beyond the granite wall and hands clutched so tightly together his knuckles had gone white.
There was a fleeting thought of jumping from the balcony so that he wouldn't have to face such a taught and hurt expression. Piccolo knew he was no good with consoling people, hell half the time with Gohan he had told the boy to suck it up or die. Well, maybe not that harshly but to the same effect.
He ducked and turned to fit back through the small doorway and stood next to Legolas, searching his thoughts as hard as he could to find something to say. He opened his mind, prepared to say whatever first popped into his head when a flash of Aragorn dragging himself from a swelled river flickered across his mind. Piccolo blinked, clearing his mind and trying to let it fall blank again, this time an image of two hobbits, looking bored and irritated sitting high in a tree brushed him.
Enough of that. Piccolo shook his head and looked down on the elf, still caught up in his thoughts that he didn't seem to notice Piccolo standing there over him. The Namek lowered himself to his knees and rested a tentative hand on the elf's forearm.
He expected a jump of surprise, a jerk away from his touch, but the eerie turn of the elf's head, so agonizingly slow and being bored through with non-seeing crystalline eyes was a little much. "Legolas…" At his name, the eyes cleared lightly before clouding again. Piccolo chuffed through his nose and repressed the urge to shake the creature until he broke out of his stupor. Instead, he settled for his 'Gohan-scolding' voice. "Snap out of it. Sulking isn't going to make things better."
There was a flicker of emotion in the dead eyes, something that looked like muted anger. Piccolo smiled to himself, silently pleased. "Stop acting like a child. You are a warrior, and warriors aren't supposed to cry."
There was a fracturing, somewhere deep inside the elf, and Piccolo watched transfixed as that raw anger boiled somewhere below the surface and when he met those eyes again, they were flaring. "How dare you preach to me?" The voice was little more than a grating whisper. There was a quick snap of a fist, and Piccolo felt his lip split along the side and that first sweet sting.
"What's the matter?" Piccolo narrowed his eyes, a self-satisfied smirk on his lips. "Would you like me to find you blanket? Maybe a bottle?" Those stunning eyes flashed, and Piccolo saw the next fist coming from a mile away and sat, waiting for it.
There was a cry of rage—somewhere along the way it was strangled with a sob—and the hardened body of the elf warrior tackled him to the cold stone. Fists connected with horrid accuracy, a hard hook split jade skin over a sharp cheekbone, several into his stomach and chest. Piccolo waited, occasionally blocking a blow and increasing the fury that bundled on top of him. Many of the blows didn't account for anything, not even enough to bruise his flesh as they connected to his shoulders and chest, but those that clipped his face smarted well enough and once he faintly recalled blinking away a haze of purple blood from his eye.
It was not even ten minutes later, Legolas flopped sideways, sitting beside Piccolo on the floor with his back to the bed. His breath was ragged and his hands looked raw. Piccolo sat slowly, wincing at the sharp pain that lanced through one of his antennae and licked the blood from his lip.
There was a sharp look from Legolas, but the anger was gone. Piccolo wiped a trickle of violet from his cheek and spoke softly. "Feel better?" There was a small look of surprise on the elf's face before he smiled lightly, a mere curling of the lips, and he nodded.
"Good." Piccolo grunted as he stood, still tonguing the split in his lip. His vision blurred a second and he raised a hand carefully to his head and winced harshly as his fingers probed a deep bruise at the base of his antenna.
Piccolo made it to the door, bound for his quarters by the time Legolas realized it and stopped him. "I am sorry. I did not mean to …" He waved his hand at the damage on Piccolo's face.
There was another smirk that pulled the split open a little more. "It's alright. I know."
"But it is not fine!" The bark of anger took Piccolo off guard. Usually a bout of hostility and beating things did well to drain out his raging emotions, and it worked with Gohan the majority of the time too… Legolas ran a hand through his hair. "I had no right to take out my anger on you. I should have seen what you were trying to do and just let it be."
Piccolo frowned, this isn't the way it's supposed to go. "Legolas…" The elf was staring past his shoulder, fuming silently at his lack of control. Piccolo brought a hand up and cupped one pale cheek in his palm. There was a nervous flicker in his chest that he ignored. Bending slightly he brushed a ghosted kiss along the elf's aristocratic cheekbone and turned the elf's face gently in his hand pressing his lips against the silken pout. Pins prickled up his back and almost reluctantly Piccolo stood his full height, dropping his hand from the elf's creamy skin and left, shutting the door calmly behind him.
Legolas gaped a moment at the closed door, unconsciously raising his hand to his face and touching his fingers to his lips. There was a light smear of purple on his finger pads as he pulled them away to stare at them. If nothing else, it was proof of what he thought only was his imagination.
There was a click of a door from in the hall and Legolas pressed his ear to the crack. "What the hell happened to you Namek? Fall off the battlements?" Vegeta's voice carried through the door. There was an incoherent mumble that apparently Vegeta heard and understood well enough as Legolas heard the saiyajin huff. There was a slam of a door that Legolas took as Vegeta and he pulled his own open with a flourish expecting to see Piccolo in his entry.
Instead, Vegeta was leaning against his doorjamb and he was staring at Piccolo's closed door with enough force to push it over. The saiyajin caught sight of Legolas in his entry and a small grin slipped onto his face. "So that's the Namek's problem." Legolas opened his mouth to ask him just what exactly was wrong with him but Vegeta cut him off. "Wipe your lip, elf." Legolas mindlessly raised his hand to his face and wiped at them.
There was a wry smile twisted onto Vegeta's face and a bark of laughter as he turned into his own chambers and shut his door with a solid thump. Legolas looked back and forth between the two doors and finally settled on the carven oak of Piccolo's. He touched his lips again and smiled lightly before closing his door and throwing himself across his cot.
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Goku turned as he heard Vegeta shut the door solidly behind him. "What's going on 'Geta? I thought I heard Piccolo."
Vegeta shook his head but grinned widely. "Nothing I'm sure he can't handle." Vegeta walked around the room, running his finger of the edges of tables and shelves and frowned at the layer of dust on his fingertip. Plopping solidly into a chair, he looked up and noticed Goku had turned back to the window.
"What is it Kakkarot?"
Goku looked over his shoulder and shrugged lightly. "I'm kind of worried about Trunks. Why would he have to charge up? And in the middle of the night? I hope he's okay." Goku mumbled and began to chew his lip thoughtfully.
Vegeta stepped up beside him, gazing out into the twilight. "It was a dream most likely." Goku looked down at him with an arched eyebrow. "When the boy was here last he'd wake up in the night screaming his fool head off. I thought it was just something stupid, but one night I had had quite enough of being woken up by the simpering brat and stormed into his room." Vegeta's eyes had gotten distant and Goku turned fully toward him in worry. "He was curled up in the corner of his bed whimpering like a dog and when I shook him he screamed. It was all profanity and some mumbled nonsense about the androids and when he finally snapped out of it and saw I was standing over his bed he shut up entirely, his eyes dry and pretended that nothing had happened."
Goku frowned, something about this explanation sounded familiar. "What Vegeta?" His voice low and comforting. The saiyajin prince sighed deeply and looked up at Goku.
"It is not my place to say. But everything, the nightmares, crying and sobbing until you realize it was a dream, putting up the façade that you were being foolish and everything was perfectly fine…" Vegeta trailed off, looked down at his feet. At some point he had crossed his arms over his chest but instead of it looking defensive he seemed to be hugging himself.
Pulling Vegeta into his arms and ignored the prince as he stiffened. Goku set his chin on his Ouji's head and glared in the direction of icy ki. He had seen Vegeta simpering in his sleep and whenever he woke him or asked him about it in the morning, Vegeta would get defensive and angry. But Goku wasn't simple, he knew that Freeza had done horrible things and the majority of them were unnamable. He didn't need to protect Vegeta, but damned if he didn't pull that effeminate beast limb from limb for causing his prince pain.
There was a poke to his ribs and Goku yelped. Vegeta turned his face up and smirked. "Stop growling, baka."
A sly grin wormed onto Goku's face. "Make me."
Vegeta's eyes widened a fraction before narrowing into slits. "Was that a challenge?"
Goku stepped back, cocking his head to the side appearing as though in deep thought. Finally he stroked his chin and nodded. "Yes, I think it was." He grinned widely and let out another deep growl that had little to do with anger before Vegeta leapt at him, tumbling them both to the floor in a heap.
Goku tried not to laugh at the situation, but a peal rang out anyway. Vegeta glared up at him from his perch on the larger saiyajin's chest. Not pleased with the results he bent forward and bit into the sensitive skin at the juncture of Goku's neck and shoulder. The laughter immediately died away and Vegeta grinned as he lapped at the sore tissue.
A small purr rippled the air as Vegeta continued to nip and kiss at the exposed skin of Goku's neck and chest. Goku fisted Vegeta's hair in one hand and traced slow circles along Vegeta's back with his fingers. An aura of total contentment melded into them and Vegeta noticed that his eyes were drooping shut slowly and after a few minutes struggle, lazily kissed Goku on the lips and curled up lightly on the man's chest.
Silence met them and Goku sighed softly, running his fingers through Vegeta's hair and staring up at the steeple ceiling. "'Geta?" The saiyajin prince recognized his name but hadn't the strength left to answer and settled for a quiet 'hn' and nuzzled his face deeper into Goku's chest. "We could die here."
Vegeta struggled to lift his head and squinted at Goku's face. "Right now?"
Goku laughed a little and Vegeta grinned as he bounced. "No, I mean, we might not make it back to our world. We could get really hurt." There was a grunt from the bundle on his chest. "I mean it Vegeta. Don't do anything stupid okay?"
The Ouji lifted his head again, looking annoyed at not being allowed to sleep. "Fine, Kakkarot. I won't do anything foolish. But you can't play the hero." Goku nodded. "And if someone gets killed I don't want you blaming yourself, got it?" Vegeta narrowed his eyes and poked his finger into Goku's chest for effect.
"Got it, 'Geta." Goku sighed and Vegeta snuggled back in. Time passed and Goku continued to rub at Vegeta's back. "Do you think you could get up, the floor isn't very comfortable?"
There was a small growl from the prince followed by a clipped, "No."
Goku grinned and tightened his hold on Vegeta before rolling to his side and standing, taking his ouji with him. He stepped to the bed and dropped Vegeta. The small saiyajin let out a startled, eep, before he bounced on the bedding. Growling, Vegeta grabbed hold of Goku's tunic and hauled him down, biting into his shoulder hard enough to draw blood. Goku yelped struggled to get away, laughing, while Vegeta pulled him down to the bed and frowned at him with blood on his lips.
"If we're going to die soon, we may as well make the best of it." Vegeta grinned at Goku's perplexed expression, gripped twin handfuls of tunic and reamed on the stiff material until it split down the middle, leaving an exposed chest and stomach and a gaping Goku.
Realizing his mouth was open, Goku clacked it shut and began to formulate some semblance of coherent thought like, just what the hell did Vegeta think he was doing, and how was he supposed to fix his shirt? But before any of them could make it to his throat for vocalization the overload of tactile sensation sent him teetering on the edge of oblivion. Or at least that's what it felt like, sweet excitement and adrenaline, that borderline feeling that you're insane for doing this but just as insane if you stop.
Hands, teeth, lips and tongue were dancing and flittering over every bit of flesh that was open for exploration. Goku groaned as a thigh pressed into his groin, and in reply was rewarded with a nip on a nipple and a ghosting hand searching for something at his lower back.
Not one to play unfairly, Goku fisted the hair at the back of Vegeta's head and effectively hauled the ouji back up his body and kissed him hard enough to bruise. When he pulled back, Vegeta's face was flushed with a wicked glint in his eyes. There was a snapping snarl Goku didn't even realize he let out as he craned the Ouji's neck to the side and laved the exposed column with his tongue and grazed at the pulse beneath his lips with sharp teeth.
A low growl from the Ouji, in warning or lust he wasn't sure which, and he grinned and settled for nibbling an earlobe. Strong fingers still dug into his back and Goku had nearly forgotten about them between his own ministrations and the friction of that maddening thigh that still rested between his legs, but he remembered them with a bright flash of light and harsh panting cry as those same fingers pressed into a small spot just about his tailbone. When his vision finally blurred back into focus he gazed at Vegeta's hovering face in awe. The saiyajin prince was looking contentedly down at him but the deep flush and hunger in his eyes told Goku that the smaller enjoyed whatever he had seen.
A smirk pulled at lightly swollen lips and Vegeta lowered his head and breathed into his ear. "Again?"
Not sure he could speak if he wanted, Goku nodded. As he felt fingers travel again he clamped Vegeta tightly to him as delicious pressure was driven through him. Goku arched from the bed, hissing through his teeth and felt the clothed heat above him and decided that it just wouldn't do.
As soon as he grabbed hold of Vegeta's tunic the rest of their clothing was lost in a flurry of movement and eagerness. The slide of slick skin was nearly enough for their undoing and Vegeta bit his lip until blood trialed down his chin. Goku lapped at the trickle, feeling fire burn in his stomach at the copper on his tongue.
"'Geta…" A breathy groan barely able to contain the name and Vegeta nodded, knowing the deep need and pull of fulfillment all bound into that one word. He coated his hand in saliva and gripped Goku's manhood, trying to keep the larger saiyajin from bucking him, and rested his free hand on Goku's chest. Raising himself, Vegeta painstakingly lowered himself atop Goku, the third class holding his breath stroking Vegeta's face and neck.
It took only a moment's time that felt like a blessed eternity until Vegeta began to rock. Goku growled, feeling a horrible need to leap into super saiyajin but his energy was bound tight under that invisible barrier. Vegeta groaned, pulling Goku up and kissed him long and hard, losing himself to everything. The next morning he would surely go over this and compare it to the fantasies he had ever had and would blow each of them out of the water with all the nearly painful-it-was-so-damned-pleasurable sensation.
A deft hand was curled around his waist, and Vegeta didn't have the breath to cry out as thick fingers ground into his tail scar. Stars danced in his vision and every muscle in his body curled tight and released, his climax hitting him so hard and sweet he thought he'd pass out.
Goku grunted and pulled Vegeta hard to his chest nipping at his neck and breathing heavily into his ear as his Ouji peaked and he groaned as tight muscles clamped around him and he buried his face into Vegeta's shoulder as he cried out in release.
The panting died away, Vegeta still clutched to Goku's chest, and slowly he let the ouji go and rolled over and grasped the remains of his tunic. He cleaned them up lazily, a somber and languid mood draped across him. He dropped the soiled garment to the floor and pulled Vegeta to him. The ouji curled into him, nearly asleep, and Goku pet his damp locks and gazed out the window into the night. More worried thoughts began to seep back into his head and he pushed them away. Vegeta was purring lightly in his sleep and Goku kissed the top of his head before pulling a blanket up over both of them and tried to rest.
