A/N: I wish everyone a happy new year.

Chapter Ten:

Filius Princeps

The next few weeks she wandered outside the palace far more often, despite the weather getting colder and colder the more winter approached. She had seen snow for the first time in her life when she woke up one morning. On Earth, the climatic circumstances of her hometown didn't allow snow, not even during the winter. This was the first time she touched the cold, white mass with her fingers, the first time she let it melt on her skin. She was fascinated by it. The gray world of Vegeta seemed a little brighter now with a white veil of snow covering it.

With the innocence only a child could have she dressed into something warm and after breakfast she went straight to the palace gardens. She walked through the new world and marvelled at how different everything looked. She let herself fall into the soft snow and felt the tiny icicles in her neck and face. She smiled. And laughed like a child. She hadn't laughed like a child since she left the castle of her father.

As her laughing faded and she lay her head onto to soft pillow of snow she thought about that last time she really felt like a child. It was only in the protected environment of the castle on Earth that she had felt like one. Outside the castle doors, everything changed. A difference from day and night. Somewhere between leaving the castle doors and ending up in this dreadful place she had become an adult. The happy feelings she used to have, like there was no care in the world, were replace by dark emotions of despair and fear. And most of all loneliness. How much she had changed since she left her father. She figured he wouldn't recognise her when she returned.

If she ever returned..

She released a deep sigh and looked at the grayishly-white sky.

All of a sudden, she heard a plop next to her. With a startle she sat up immediately and looked to her side. There was a squashed snowball on the ground. It had obviously been thrown to… her?

Videl looked around but saw no one who could have thrown the snowball. She raised herself from the ground now and observed her environment like a prey looking for her hunter.

"Who's there?" Videl asked with raised voice as she still saw no one.

There came no reaction.

The young princess became nervous as she found herself being watched by someone she couldn't see. All of a sudden there was a sound of cracking snow, in which she could identify the sound of footsteps closing in. Despite herself Videl panicked.

"Hello?" She said hesitantly.

There was silence now. She couldn't hear the footsteps in the snow anymore. Videl swallowed deeply. The fear in her stomach was rising. She wanted to make a run for it, but her legs felt like lead.

Suddenly, she felt a slap of something cold against her head. She was hit by a snowball.

"Hahaha, I've got you, I've got you!" A child's voice then laughed as Videl turned around to see who was laughing.

She saw an adorable boy, no older than seven or eight, standing right next to a tree a few feet behind her. The boy had lavender hair and a slightly large head in comparison to his body, and big light eyes that looked at her mockingly. He was wearing a dark blue robe, under which he had a long, turquoise tunic that came to his ankles and a brown belt.

As she saw it was only a child and not the full-grown Saiyan assassin, large Vegetian monster or anything creepy she had expected, Videl's brows knitted together and she crossed her arms.

"So you're the one who's throwing snowballs at me." She said sternly. The boy never stopped grinning.

"You didn't even sense me." He said in an melodious tone, half-annoying, half-endearing.

"Maybe you shouldn't sneak up to people like that. You really gave me a scare."

The boy stopped grinning and looked at her with his big, light eyes. He examined her from tip to toe, before his gaze crossed hers again, one eyebrow cocked in puzzle.

"But you're old." He stated, as though he was talking to his mother.

Videl opened her mouth in shock. She was insulted. "Excuse me, I am not old."

The boy shrugged. "Well, older than me. Pray, how old are you actually?" As he asked this he came closer to her until he wasn't a foot away from her, looking at her with curious eyes.

Videl looked at him surprised and was quite honestly a bit enchanted by his beautiful light blue eyes, as she now saw them more closely. "I'm seventeen. How old are you?"

"I'm eight." The boy said proudly. "But hang on. If you're seventeen, how could you get scared?"

She stared at the boy. "What do you mean?" She questioned.

"Big people never get scared." He said, obviously certain that this was the truth.

"Well, I get scared sometimes." Videl replied. "Who told you big people never get scared?"

"My father." He said, suddenly grinning. Videl smiled, despite herself.

"Your father is wrong though. Even big people get scared. I bet your father is scared himself sometimes." She explained, catching herself as she sounded slightly motherly.

The boy's brows knitted together and he pouted his lips. It was cute. "My father is never scared." He said defiantly. "He's King. And Kings are super brave."

Videl's heart froze as he heard what the boy said. King? The King? As in that insufferable, cruel, despisingly loathsome prick of a Saiyan?

"Who's your father then?" She asked with growing interest in the young boy, although already knowing the answer to her question..

"Who is my father?" The boy replied, suppressing a laughter. "My father is King Vegeta, of course."

Videl stared stupidly at the young boy. She didn't know the King had a son. She couldn't really imagine him being a father either. And here she was talking to his child, a precious child as well. It somehow felt strange to be chatting with the child of someone she loathed for the rest of eternity. But then, she should have known. Which children other than the King's live at court. And now that he was closer and she could watch him better, wasn't that belt a tail? A Saiyan's tail?

"What's your name?" She questioned as she quit her musing, infinitely curious of the boy now.

"My name is Trunks. What's yours?" The boy countered.

"I'm Videl."

Now it was Trunks' turn to look at her with amazement. "You're the Videl? Of Earth?" He asked as he stood on his toes to move his face closer to hers to watch her.

"Er – Yes, I suppose so." Videl replied as he brought his hands to her face and touched it. They shared an endearing moment together as he discovered her face with his small hands and looked at her with awe.

"You are just as soft as mum." He muttered, his little fingers tingling her skin, before he released her and sat down in the snow before her, always watching her with his big eyes. Videl sat down next to him.

"Your mum? What do you mean?" Videl asked puzzled, still a little warm from the touches of the young boy.

"Mum's also an Earthling . She feels soft, just like you." Trunks replied with a smile on his lips.

Videl smiled as well, but was slightly amazed by what she was hearing. "Your mother is an Earthling? But your father is a Saiyan."

"So?" The boy shrugged, as if this was not at all strange or peculiar.

Videl gawped at the boy. She almost opened her mouth to say 'But your mother's an Earthling and your father's a Saiyan', repeating herself stupidly, but fortunately she swallowed her words just in time. She wondered. She didn't even know Saiyans and Earthlings could have children together. But one look at the boy was enough to conclude that it was not only possible, but that it also produced beautiful children. Come to think of it now that she looked at him closely, he looked, for the most significant part, human, with his lavender hair and light eyes, but he had something about him that was obviously Saiyan, and she was not only talking about the tail. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, maybe it was the piercing and slightly wicked look in his eyes.

"Hang on…" The boy said after a while, looking at her puzzled. "…If you're the Princess of Earth, why isn't your face covered?"

It was the first time Videl noticed that she wasn't wearing any make-up, nor a veil and that the little prince could see her face.

"Oh no!" Videl cussed as she touched her face with her hands. She must have forgotten to put any make-up on in her enthusiasm to go to the snow. She was incredibly lucky no one but the boy had seen her. After all, just a boy seeing her face didn't matter, did it?

"You wouldn't tell a soul, would you?" She asked Trunks, almost apologetically.

"Of course not." Trunks beamed.

"Thank you. How do you actually know I should be covering my face?" Videl asked curiously.

"Mum told me. She had to do it too when she lived on Earth. She was a very high noblewoman."

"Was she?" The princess replied. It was true. Noblewomen, that included her, covered their faces. It was a custom on Earth. "What's her family name? Perhaps I know her family."

Trunks blinked as if he didn't know what she was talking about. "I don't know. She's Queen Bulma." As if everything was said and done with that.

"Oh. Right" Videl responded simply. But then she gave it more thought. An Earthling as a Queen of Saiyans. She was astounded by it. That woman wasn't a concubine or a mistress that wasn't acknowledged and her son wasn't a child that wasn't recognized, they were full-fletched members of the Royal Family of Vegeta. It was a mystery on itself why an Earthing would have chosen a Saiyan as her husband and why she had been willing to bear his child. On the other hand, wasn't it extremely strange that a Saiyan, and an exceptionally insufferable sort of them, picked a human as his wife? And that the Saiyans accepted an Earthling as a Queen? Of all races?

Videl's head was dazzling with questions. All the social structures she learned on Earth seemed to be absent here. Or maybe not absent, just different. Open to even someone who belonged to the enemy race. On Earth it would never be possible to marry a Saiyan. It'd be high treason. How bizarre.

These thoughts soon disappeared from the mind of the Princess as Trunks showed her around the garden. Together they admired the beautiful winter wonderland and he showed her all the secret places around the palace. Videl found out that there was a small stream of water flowing through the gardens, in the northern part of the gardens were no one came. The water came from underground, from little caves beneath the palace. It was carefully hidden underneath a thick layer of bushes.

"And that's for good reason. It's the sewer." Trunks explained.

They quickly left the smelly place and the young prince led her to the forests.

"I always play here." He said. "The forest is huge. Mum doesn't want me to play here. She's afraid I get lost because I haven't learned how to fly yet. But I secretly go here all the time. It's a pity though I haven't got anyone to play with. I bet you can play great games of hide an seek here. Hey, do you want to play?"

"No, we'd better not. Or we might get lost." Videl answered slowly, not taking her eyes off the forest. She imagined they offered a very safe hiding place, especially because it was so thick and huge. She wondered how far it reached. She asked Trunks, but he didn't know.

"I never got far. It gets quite dark in there. You can hardly see a thing after a while." He explained.

Videl found this very interesting. But just as she wanted to ask more about the forest, she heard a voice behind her.

"Trunks, what are you doing there?" The Princess of Earth and the young Prince of Vegeta both turned around and looked upon a woman. The woman had short blue hair and the fairest skin Videl had ever seen. Her pale blue robes reached to the ground and was outlined by snow white fur. Underneath the robes Videl saw a white dress, with little crystals sewn onto it that sparkled in the faint daylight. The woman's face was beautiful yet stern as she looked from the boy to her.

Trunks dutifully walked towards his mother and looked apologetically towards Videl as he stood next to his mother. The girl was prey to the sharp gaze of the woman, whom she knew was the Queen. She got a little nervous under the stare of the woman.

"I-I was just showing her around." Trunks quickly explained as there was a dreadful silence between them, clearly also a bit scared of his mother.

"Be quiet Trunks, I know what you were doing. You know you're not allowed here." She replied with soft, yet authoritative voice.

"And you…" She barked as she directed herself to Videl again. "…come here."

Her tone was so strict and demanding that Videl didn't dare to object her. She swiftly walked towards the woman and shyly stopped in front of her. She hated that she was this obedient.

The Queen gave her a thorough examination with her beautiful eyes – the same as her son's as Videl saw them more closely now – and sighed.

"Come inside with me. You're being watched." She spoke.

"Watched? By whom?"

"Guards. They've been watching you all these times because you're with my son."

Videl didn't understand. She looked at the woman puzzled. "But where are they?"

The Queen looked at her significantly. "Everywhere. Now come along, you."