Chapter Five:

Fraus Virgini

Night had fallen, like it did everyday after the clocks had announced the hour for the nineteenth time that day and now, in the early evening, five hours before midnight, the black darkness had invaded the palace, spreading through the halls like thunder clouds slowly covering the entire sky as far as the eye reaches in the silence before the storm. Or like the fog, descending on the earth, covering the ground with a veil of misty clouds and gradually blurring the sight of all those who find themselves being in that thick haze.

A dead silence reigned the halls of Vegeta, vacant of every and any sound apart from the lone footsteps of the servants who quickly made their way from the one quarter of the castle to another, cautious of the dark and the emptiness of the broad passages and high corridors of the magnificent home of the King.

The only things that could offer just a little bit of hope to those who feared the nights on Vegeta were the pale, crescent moon in the almost black sky, shining its clear light onto the upcoming blackness, and the chirping crickets in the garden of the castle, breaking the almost deafening silence with their nocturnal songs.

And he listened to those songs absently as he hid in the corners of her room. With a blank expression he watched the bed that was bathing in the ocean of moonlight he wanted to avoid at all costs. With an occasional sigh he waited for the princess's return.

More than he actually wanted to admit, Gohan was anticipating with anxiety her return. She was late today… Or at least, later than usual. She was always back before seven in the evening, after dinner, never has she been a minute later. The castle was 'creepy', to use her term, after seven and he knew her well enough to know that she'd rather be in her room, her comfortable, private room than to roam the darkness of the halls of the King, where there always seemed to be moving something in the corners of your eyes and where the silence was cold and frightening.

And he couldn't help but admit that he felt a little wary about her being away for longer than he had been expecting. Not only was he a little concerned about her, he also longed to see her face and to hear her voice…

… And yes, even to touch her body.

Because she was a nice company. Fiery, yes… but never a boring moment with her at least.

He didn't have much time to think about it. Because after a short while he heard footsteps outside the door, the steps faint in the beginning, but becoming louder as it approached the room.

Gohan immediately sat up. It was the princess. He clearly heard the light yet swift footsteps that belonged to her and which he had learned to recognize in these past few months.

But she wasn't alone. Someone was with her, he could hear another pair of feet walking on the marble floor, swift as well but heavier than Videl's. He could hear the muffled voices becoming louder and louder, until Gohan could unmistakably hear someone speaking to the other person in high-pitched voice, and his heart made a small leap when he recognized that voice to be the Princess's.

"…you about my laundry, it's unheard of. I truly can't tolerate this."

The door swang open, revealing a furious Princess and a young Saiyan woman Gohan recognized as one of Videl's maids.

"I never gave you my consent to remove my clothes from my bedroom." Yelled a fuming Videl to the woman who was barely older than her and who had narrowed her eyes and carried a define scowl on her face, watching the Princess with obvious aversion. Her loathing was evident. Not that Gohan could really blame the maid for that. Videl was human after all, and even though she was a princess, she didn't possess the strength any Saiyan possessed by nature. And thus, she was inferior. The maid knew this, Gohan knew this… Videl didn't.

"What if something important was in my pockets? What if it got lost while you were doing my laundry? Or worse, what if it fell into your hands?" Videl continued to yell at the maid. Gohan sensed that the maid's power level began to rise a bit but she kept herself fairly under control.

"From now on…" Videl concluded, "…you shall only remove my clothes when I give you permission to. Do I make myself clear?"

The maid growled but nodded, and she turned around rapidly and made her way to the door, clenching her fists in anger, disappearing through the door and leaving Gohan and Videl alone in the room.

Videl sighed in exasperation and let herself fall onto the bed, staring at the ceiling as she was rubbing her temples while her whole body was exposed to the pale, invading moonlight. He looked at her for a while, until from the darkness Gohan spoke.

"That was not very nice."

Videl jumped up and with a startled expression she looked at the corner he stood in, the corner that was covered in shadows. When she realized who it was, a scowl came to her face and her tense body relaxed.

"Oh, you again." She said as if she talked to a cockroach that just wouldn't die.

Gohan chuckled. "It's always me again. I thought you would have known by now."

Videl rose from her bed and walked to the glass doors that divided her room from the balcony. She shoved aside the long, transparent curtains. "Don't flatter yourself. Excuse me that I can't get accustomed to someone watching me at night." She muttered as she watched the dark night.

"Every night." He added.

He could see her shiver, but she didn't say anything to that. Instead she stared at something outside Gohan couldn't see. For quite some time he watched her as she stood there, the white makeup on her face, almost shining in the light of the moon. She possessed a cold beauty, sometimes very much like the marble statues in the halls of Vegeta. And then she would move and he would realize that he was looking at a stunning piece of living art.

"So what is wrong with the laundry?" He asked to break the long-lasting silence.

She frowned but she didn't tear her eyes away from the spot she was looking at. "That's none of your business." She replied icily.

"But it is my business when you anger your maid to the point that she'd happily finish your life. I am supposed to keep you alive here." He approached her soundlessly in the darkness. She didn't appear to notice.

"The maid wouldn't dare to harm me. She'd single-handedly restart the war with Earth."

Gohan chuckled joyously. "You seriously think that would have mattered to her? You are human, Princess and the most naïve of your kind. It is sometimes as amazing as distressing. The childish simplicity of your mind is so incredibly refreshing. And that at the oh so tender age of seventeen… Not a child, not yet a woman either."

This time the Princess turned to him and looked at him with those deep, magnificent, yet ice cold blue eyes.

"Says and man of what age?" She asked haughtily.

He grinned at her question. "It is all about experience."

Gohan saw she had a remark burning on her lips. She wanted to come with a witty reply to that reminder of her lack of experience, that almost personal insult, but nevertheless she kept her silence and looked to the world outside the room again. She turned her gaze to the spot that she'd been looking at previously and stood there, staring as if she'd forgotten all about her guard and the insult he made to her and for a few minutes she became the marble statue again. Then all of a sudden her hand reached out for the door handle and she opened it and stepped out of her room, onto the balcony and the cold of the night.

Gohan watched her with suspicion. The nights at Vegeta weren't exactly the warmest and if she just wanted to take some fresh air, she was hugely underdressed with her thin, silk kimono. And it didn't comfort him either that he couldn't follow her, because he'd immediately reveal himself in the moonlight.

She took a few steps onto the balcony, Gohan following her closely with his eyes, and leaned against the gray stoned banister of the balcony for a while. After what must have been only a few minutes she walked to the left side of the balcony and the walls of the room prevented Gohan from seeing her from the place he stood. She completely withdrew herself from his sight.

Gohan growled a bit. He didn't like this at all. In all the time he had been watching her at night, he never lost her out of his sight. She was always there, always under the watchful eyes of the Praetorian. It sort of gave him a smug satisfaction, the thought that she couldn't escape from his sight gave him power over her. But now that he couldn't see her, he felt powerless. And yes, he admitted reluctantly that he also felt worried. It just wasn't right.

He moved closer to the balcony door without stepping into the moonlight. He still couldn't see her. He decided that all there was to do was to wait for her return to the room. Eventually she'd come back, she wasn't dressed to the cold.

And he waited.

Several minutes went by but still she didn't return to the room.

As the minutes passed by he was getting more and more anxious. He wondered why she remained outside, why she didn't come back, why she chose that particular place to stand, and not in the realm of his vision.

And as he wondered that last thing, realization began to slap him in the face hard.

In panic he made his way to the balcony door and stepped into the light. He looked around and realized his suspicion hadn't betrayed him.

She was gone.

She wasn't on the balcony anymore.

All kinds of doom scenarios crossed his mind. She fell over the banister, she was recaptured by her own kin, she was shot by one of the guards and had fallen down. But even though his panic governed him, he could see the impossibilities of those scenarios.

He walked to the place she'd walked too before she had disappeared; the left side of the balcony where he couldn't see her. And then he saw what he couldn't see before.

Rose branches.

All the way down.

And right now, the branches were moving.

Panic made place for blind anger as Gohan realized that she was neither killed, nor abducted, nor had fallen down but that she had orchestrated her disappearance all by herself. She was trying to escape.

And as Gohan walked to the stone banister, his assumption had been confirmed. Because there he saw her, climbing down the rose branches, several feet above the ground.

She hadn't seen him standing there yet. And Gohan decided that she wouldn't see him either. In a flash he dove down the balcony and within less than a second he stopped right behind her. He saw her freezing in her movements as he hovered behind her for a while. She didn't move, she didn't turn around, she didn't try anything, because she knew she was busted.

"Bad move, Princess. Bad move."

And then he hit her with just the right power across the temple. She released the branches and fell unconscious in his arms.