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Chapter 3
All of the royal families arrived at the same time this year due to the new plan. Vegeta was shocked by the change in scenery when they stepped off their transport. In the courtyard rings had been erected and already there were warriors going through their different fighting styles. In the distance he could see targets set up for a different test of skill. He cracked his knuckles and smirked at Raditz and Nappa who wore equally pleased looks. This was going to be the best year yet on the Moon.
This year the Queen was missing to greet them but given all that was going on it was no surprise. What was a surprise was there was no bouncing blonde princess eagerly awaiting them either.
"Wonder where your shadow is today." Raditz whispered quietly to the Prince who glared at him in a silent order to shut it. His father was fortunately too engrossed in conversation with his Generals about whether or not they were going to enter the contests or leave it the younger generation.
Before they could make it to their assigned quarters they were stopped short by a group of girls hurrying in from the opposite direction. He heard Raditz let out a low whistle.
"Well, well looks like the little princesses have grown up some since last year."
Vegeta's eyes widened just slightly and he couldn't help but agree with Raditz. Still he didn't like the way the other Saiyan was sizing the girls up.
"She's still four years younger than us you perv."
Raditz smirk grew even more pronounced as he turned slowly to his Prince. "I said Princesses, plural."
If looks could kill Raditz would be six feet under in two seconds flat. However, since they couldn't Vegeta simply settled for his usual sneer and brushed past the other Saiyan refusing to dwell on his slip up. It meant nothing after all.
Usagi was leading the group her usually odangos swapped for a high ponytail. All three were dressed in slim, lightweight pants and tight long sleeved tops. Perfect for training and perfect for showing off the curves that each girl was slowly growing. The blonde to the right of the Princess was definitely ahead of the others in development, she was Usagi's cousin if Vegeta remembered correctly. Rei was also with them and she was eyeing Raditz as if she had never seen him before. The moon princess smiled politely and curtsied followed by both her Senshi.
"King Vegeta, I apologize my mother was not able to meet with you right away. She sent us to show you and your warriors the training grounds as soon as you are settled. She seemed to think you would want to.." she paused for a second her smile growing, "scope out the competition."
The Saiyan King smirked, the Moon Queen had definitely become accustomed to the Saiyan way of thinking.
"Thank you Princess Serenity. Give us just a few moments."
The group of Saiyans were ushered to their rooms and they all immediately set to changing into their training gear.
As they were changing they could just barely pick up the sounds of the three girls conversation. Raditz just smirked while Nappa rolled his eyes. Vegeta's gaze was concentrated as he tried to piece together the bits he heard. Mostly it was the blonde cousin and Rei talking with Usagi giggling in the background.
"..never noticed.. so good-looking.. what to do.. this is the plan.."
When they all finally met back out in the hallway the three girls were still giggling but after much elbowing and the appearance of the King they managed to control themselves.
They lead the group of about fifteen Saiyains to the training ground. The group was made up of the King, his Generals, and their children. Immediately the broke into groups by age and begin warming up. Surprisingly the three girls stayed but drifted over to a group of younger Saiyains and leaned against the temporary fencing.
Raditz frowned and Vegeta and Nappa just shook their heads at his displeasure, he never liked when female attention was anywhere but on him.
The young males eyeing the girls began becoming more and more aggressive in their attacks on one another. Usagi and Minako bumped shoulders playfully and giggled at the display. Rei let out a whistle when one of the boys managed a complicated maneuver resulting in his opponent flat on his back.
Raditz having enough spiked his power rapidly and flattened the other warrior he was practicing with. Rei and Usagi deliberately ignored him while Minako whirled around smiled briefly and whispered something to the other girls. Rei flipped her hair still keeping her eyes straight ahead, Usagi succumbed however and her gaze flickered over to them and when Vegeta managed to catch her eye she blushed and turned away. He rolled his eyes and gave his full attention to training, he didn't know why she was acting so weird but he hoped she got over by the time they met to train.
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The customary welcoming ball commenced that evening. Vegeta was pleased to see that the Earth family had made excuses not to attend the yearly renewal of interplanetary ties.
"Couldn't stand the thought of losing to us." Nappa chuckled as he leaned against a pillar in the grand hall. Haruka and Michiru stood with them with matching smiles. They too were pleased at the absence of the Earth royalty. However, Haruka's smile quickly turned to a frown and she excused herself.
They all watched as she marched over to the blonde moon princess who seemed to be flirting with one of the young Saiyans she had been watching earlier. The Uranian Princess swept Princess Serenity into her arms and to a dance. The shorter girl gave her protector a disapproving look but allowed herself to be whisked away.
Michiru sighed, "I knew this day would come but I feel like it's happened too fast." The Saiyans looked confused at the blue-haired woman. "You know.. the girls all growing up. Getting crushes. In two short years they'll be old enough to get married.. and then.. then.." her eyes grew misty and the men all looked alarmed. "Oh calm down", she said noticing their frantic eyes "I'm not going to start bawling all over you."
They all looked back to Haruka and Usagi as they spun round. Usagi laughing and Haruka smirking down at her Princess. Michiru knew this would be hard on her lover but she also knew she couldn't keep the other girl shielded forever. She looked back at the Saiyans was surprised to find the contemplative look on the Prince's face as he watched the two dance. Certainly he wasn't interested in their little moon girl?
She narrowed her eyes as she saw Usagi's gaze flit in their direction, meet the gaze of the Saiyan Prince then leap away. At that exact moment the three Saiyans mumbled some excuses and wandered away. Within minutes she was watching Usagi extract herself from Haruka and meet Rei and Makoto who looked like they had been waiting for her. The three girls made a poor attempt at glancing around to see if anyone was watching before slipping away. Michiru decided if her senshi were with her then the princess should be fine, and honestly she wasn't sure she wanted to know what was going on.
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"Okay what is going on why are two acting so weird!" Jupiter's princess stared at the other two girls who were giggling to themselves.
"Rei has a crush," Usagi announced in a sing-song voice.
"So do you!" The fiery princess retorted with a glare.
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Do NOT!"
"DO TOO!"
"What the hell are you all screaming about." The three Saiyans rounded the corner and eyed the pair suspiciously. The two girls immediately turned bright shades of red while a knowing look entered the eyes of the tallest of the three.
"You've got to be kidding me," Makato mumbled as the other two just glared at her.
"Absolutely nothing, besides we have more important things to discuss." Usagi was quick to change the subject but the three young men still eyed them warily.
"We need you to train us for the competition."
Raditz outright laughed, Vegeta just shook his head with a smirk, and Nappa rolled his eyes heavenward wondering how he got roped into all this.
The moon princess' gaze turned dark and she stomped her foot while glaring at them, all traces of her earlier blush wiped from her face.
"You've been training me anyway Vegeta, why not Rei and Makto?"
"I've been teaching how to fly and harness energy. Not actually fight. Isn't that what you have those two for anyway. Plus a whole slew of other guardians."
He recognized the stubborn gleam in her eyes, however the calculating look that went with it was new.
"I told you Rei," the blonde whirled around and faced the raven haired girl. "We'll just have to ask those other boys."
Raditz eyes narrowed and Rei made a big show of sighing loudly. "I don't know Usa, last time they were awfully handsy with us. I think whatshisface was even trying to feel me up! But I do really want to learn.." she trailed off sadly.
"Forget that, we'll do it." Raditz barked out angrily before Nappa or Vegeta had a chance to respond. No way in hell was he letting any of his girls get felt up! Usagi squealed happily and latched onto Raditz arm with a smile.
"Thank you, thank you! You're the best." She beamed up at him and he smiled down at her before she was roughly pulled away by a scowling Saiyan prince.
"Damn it Raditz. Fine, you train the Mars girl and Nappa can have sparky over there." Makato glared at him but went to stand with Nappa. Rei and Usagi traded triumphant looks and Nappa resisted the urge to groan while wondering how else Raditz hormones might get them into trouble.
Still they had just agreed, or rather Raditz agreed for them, so they all separated far enough apart to begin.
Vegeta sighed but took a defensive stance and beckoned her forward.
"Okay, try to punch me."
He was surprised when she confidently walked a few paces away and then spinning around she took a couple of running steps and spun in the air aiming a kick at his face. Reflexively he yanked on her leg to toss her to the side but corrected himself and instead yanked her to his chest before she hit the ground. So instead he ended up in the dirt with her sitting triumphantly on top of him.
"What the hell Usagi!"
"High kicks are my specialty. If I'd known you were going to be so easy to take down we would have done this years ago."
He growled and rolled over pinning the small blonde to the ground. He leaned down so his face was inches from hers a scowl marring his handsome features. She glared up at him oblivious to their position.
"For being your specialty you suck at it. Plus kicking throws off your balance so its a poor choice for an attack unless you are knocking someone's legs out from under them. Like you could really beat me that easily, princess."
Her lips went from scowling to pouting and she began to squirm trying to get out from under him. For a second he was tempted to keep her pinned, to lean down just a little further.. he released her suddenly and leapt up.
She narrowed her eyes but took up the same defensive stance he'd been in earlier.
"Okay, show me what to do."
Vegeta stood apart from her for a moment his mind whirring, what the hell was he thinking? It was Usagi for fuck's sake. She was like a.. a cousin or something. Practically family. He'd been around her for the past two years. She was a child. She was.. was.. just Usagi. He looked at her again and steeled himself to get closer. Meanwhile she was watching him worried.
Had he hit his head? Why was he acting so weird? Certainly he wasn't really mad about training them? She pushed all thoughts aside when he reached out with a booted foot and nudged her left foot back a little more and then reached out and adjusted the angle of her arm.
"Like this, and pull your shoulders back a little more."
She straightened up and he shook his head moving behind her and placing one gloved hand on her shoulder and pressing into the small of her back with the other. He was so close she could feel his breath on the top of her head and suddenly she was blushing. When they'd been rolling around on the ground she'd been to irritated to realize the position they were in.
He moved around to her front and took up a similar stance, not noticing the stain across her cheeks.
"Okay, now hit me. For real.. no more kicking crap."
She forced a laugh and then narrowed her eyes and threw her weight into a punch. Unfortunately for her he easily dodged and yanked her arm while he stuck his leg out for her to tumble over. Once more Usagi was in the dirt but this time by herself.
"Again."
She said nothing but bounced up and then did it again. And again. And again. Until she was able to land a hit and recover in time to avoid his counter-attack. They moved on to more complex moves and he was surprised how quickly she picked up some of the maneuvers. He was even lightly sweating by the time they were done though Usagi was drenched. As were the other two girls when they joined them.
"Maybe this was a bad idea," Rei groaned as she glared at a beaming Raditz.
"You're a quick learner my little fireball. See you all back here tomorrow?"
The girls all just nodded and limped off to their rooms.
The three males chuckled.
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Every night they trained together. Since the girls had been in some form of combat training since they were young they were able to pick up the Saiyan's more advanced martial arts quickly. Still they could barely hope to match their speed unless they transformed and the contest forbid them from transforming or from the energy users from going above a certain level.
The tournaments began at the end of the month. The first day was archery. Rei, Makoto, Michiru, and Ami all entered with Michiru coming out the winner. The next was sword fighting which Makoto, Haruka, and surprisingly Minako all tried their hand at. The Princess of Venus shocked everyone further by barely beating Haruka but rumors were the other girl was just too shocked to properly battle her distant cousin.
The last three days were hand to hand combat which had the most participants. The only division between participants was men and women other than that it wasn't broken down any further by skill, age, or experience.
The first day had Vegeta and Nappa facing each other while Usagi with most of her senshi watched from the sidelines. It was a short but brutal fight that left Nappa on the ground and Vegeta bleeding from a cut just below his eye and a fracture to one of his ribs. He couldn't help but smirk at the blonde princess who jumped up and yelled when he put his friend in the dirt to win the first round. She didn't have time to stay and congratulate her mentor though because her fight was up next against the Princess of Mercury.
Since their Princess has entered the contest all the other guardians had as well. Most of them were paired up with a non-senshi to start except for Usagi and Amy and she knew it's because the tournament master assumed all the senshi would wind up winning anyway and this at least stretched it out longer. However, Usagi and Ami were considered the least capable when it came to hand to hand fighting so it was fair to eliminate on of them first. At least that's what Usagi assumed when she heard her and Ami were to fight each other.
"Good luck Ami!" The moon princess smiled as they entered the ring.
Ami nodded and smiled back at her princess before they both fell into a familiar fighting stance.
Vegeta hadn't even taken the time to clean up in order to make it over to the fight in time to see if his training had paid off. Raditz and Nappa joined him shortly and they watched surprised as the two girls began.
They expected a few punches to be thrown and then it'd be over but both girls were giving it their all and they seemed evenly matched until Usagi tried out one of the new moves Vegeta had taught her and the blue haired princess found her back to the ground and her leader standing over her.
She blinked up surprised and then a slow smile fell over her pretty features. "That was excellent highness."
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The next days Vegeta and Raditz were paired up and it was a long and dirty fight. Each of them pulled out every trick they knew to beat the other into the dirt. Usagi and Rei cheered and gasped as the two Saiyans moved in perfect sync with one another. It almost seemed like was going to be a draw when suddenly Vegeta slipped a punch under Raditz arm that sent him flying backwards. Rei jumped up and started forward before Usagi yanked her back down. No one knew about their friendship with the Saiyan's and it was less complicated if they could keep it that way. So instead they waited breathlessly as the judge counted down to Vegeta's win. Raditz struggled once to get up but finally fell back down with a groan and stayed there.
Finally Vegeta went over and yanked him up and they hobbled off to be healed.
Rei turned to her blonde friend, "that was intense".
Usagi only nodded and the two girls wandered off to try to nonchalantly wait near the healers tent for the guys to emerge. Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones. A couple of Minako's cousins, on her father's side, were also waiting for them. They pounced as soon as the two warriors emerged.
"Hi there, I'm Lydia and this is my sister Kiera. That was amazing. You guys are so strong." The two girls tittered and each latched on to one of the Saiyan's arms.
Rei and Usagi merely gaped at them completely caught of guard. Most of the other people in their solar system were too afraid of the Saiyan race to ever come right up to them. Still there was no accounting for hormonal teenage girls.
"We were just going to grab a bite to eat before the next round starts. Care to join us?" Kiera, who was attached to Raditz purred and smiled up at him. Both Saiyan's briefly flicked their gaze to the two shocked females who said nothing.
"Lead the way ladies." The four walked off while Rei began sputtering angrily.
"What the hell! Those are.. are.. OUR Saiyans. They need to find their own!"
Usagi couldn't help the twisting feeling she felt in her stomach when Lydia and slid her arm over Vegeta's bicep and smiled prettily up at him. She waited for him to shake her off and when he simply said nothing and allowed himself to be led away she couldn't help feeling betrayed. She tried to reason with herself there was no way she should feel that way. It's not like she had any sort of claim on him. He was just her friend, barely that, her trainer. Why should she even care!
"Come on Rei, we have to go get ready anyway."
Her voice was determined and she marched away angrily but trying to clear her mind. Her next fight was up against a girl from one of Jupiter's moons, a girl who hated Usagi more than anyone. She had been best friends with Makato and Rei when they were younger before they became senshi and joined Usagi on the moon. Ever since they left all they ever talked about was the blonde moon princess and her jealousy grew into resentment and that grew into hatred. She'd been waiting for a chance to get back the other girl for years.
