I had pretty much just sold myself for a one way-ticket to Fuck Town, where I'd get to be the God-damned mayor.

"Fuck!" I cried and scrambled to my feet. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" I hastily began throwing on my clothes. I had literally seconds. I threw on my pants, and pulled my shirt over my head just before my parents came into view.

Da landed first, stone-faced. Papa followed, looking pissed.

Kage regarded them with his head cocked, as he lit up a cigarette.

I put my hands behind my back, so that they wouldn't see them trembling, and know how nervous I was.

"How ya doin'?" Kage asked with a nod of his head; as if they were buds.

Without skipping a beat, Da launched himself at him, and punched him in the face. Kage fell to the ground, and the two of them started fighting. Well, Da was fighting. Kage was pretty much just there.

Blow after blow delivered without even a block in sight. I wondered why Kage was not fighting back. He seemed willing to lay there and take it all night, if needed be.

Papa finally managed to pull Da off. "Stop it, Vegeta! You said you wouldn't overreact,"

"I just said that to make you shut up,"

Papa frowned, and then the two of them began to yell at each other. Kage sat up, picked up his cigarette that had fallen to the ground, and put it back in his mouth. The right side of his face had broken out into one giant, angry purplish bruise. He watched my parents with a docile, unconcerned expression.

Finally, when they decided they were done, they turned back to Kage and I.

"You," Da nodded at me. "You were told specifically to stay away from him, where you not?"

I hated it when he talked in questions. I bit my lip, but thankfully, he did not wait for me to respond.

"And you," He turned to Kage, "You and I made a deal. You were supposed to stay away from them, or don't you remember?"

Kage got to his feet and cracked his neck. "Yeah, I remember. If you caught me with one of them, you'd kill me. I know."

Da seemed irritated. "So then what happened?! At what point did the agreement go awry?!"

Kage put up one finger as he flicked away his cigarette butt. "First of all, never expect an addict to keep a promise. Second of all, you said if you caught me. I weighted the options, and figured that there was a 99 per cent chance that you'd catch me."

Da seemed bewildered, as well as pissed now. "So then… what? You thought that you'd fall into that 1 per cent range?!"

Kage nodded. "Yeah. I'm not much of a gambler." He stretched again nonchalantly. "So you're going to kill me now, or something? I'm getting kind of bored,"

Even Papa made an expression as if to say, 'Are you truly that dumb?'. No man spoke like that to Da. It was practically a death wish.

"You want me to kill you?" Da asked, a smirk falling across his face. He turned his palm upwards and began gathering energy.

Kage shrugged, face completely serious. "I don't have anything to live for at the moment."

I'll admit, that hurt a little. I wasn't worth living for? Not even a little?

Da's smirk widened. "Alright, if you say so." He went to fire the blast, but Papa knocked his hand out of the way. Da turned to him with a look of rage. "Why?!"

"You're going to kill him without asking any questions? What gives you the right to decide if he should live or not?"

I silently praised Papa in my head.

"What gives me the right?!" Da cried, his eyes rolling with frustration. "He's a God-damned pedophile!"

Papa cocked his head. "You weren't upset last Rut Season, when Trunks and Gohan mated,"

I died a little bit. My brothers had mated?! That's another image that I didn't really need to think about, but inevitably would for many months afterwards.

Da's eyes narrowed. "What's your point?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Well, he was Aizel's age. How come you didn't go try and kill Gohan?"

"That's different,"

"How?"

Da closed his eyes, trying to contain his frustration. "Kakorot, you know this is different."

Papa shook his head. "I don't think I do." He took a step closer to Kage. "You just don't like him. You're looking for an excuse to kill him."

"He killed me!"

"Yeah," Papa agreed, "But he's sorry for it. Aren't you?"

Kage nodded seriously, his eyes shifting from me to Da to Papa.

"It's obvious he's been beating himself up about it for... years probably, and since he didn't hurt you directly I don't think you have a right to kill him."

"Who cares what you think?" Da snapped.

Papa raised his eyebrows. "I would think you would care a great deal about what I think."

Oh, I know that burned.

Da glanced sideways, his eyes falling on me. "Fine. I won't kill him. But you," He beckoned for me to come closer to him. "Have deliberately disobeyed me. First I'm going to beat the shit out of you, and then we'll see what mood I'm in, and then I'll decide your punishment."

"You shouldn't have known he'd disobey you," Kage commented, lighting up another cigarette. "You can't keep him on that island for a month. I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did."

Da rounded on him. "You are not in any position to tell me what I should have known! I'm so close to killing you I can almost taste it,"

Kage blew a puff of smoke. "The more boundaries you give your children, the more likely they are to break the rules."

"Don't you tell me how to raise my kid!" He lunged again and Papa held him back once more.

"Vegeta, relax. Yes, Aizel disobeyed us. Yes, you should have the right to beat him if you want,"

Who's side was he on?

"But I think you should sit down, and just listen to what Kage has to say. He's a lot smarter than you think,"

"I can't believe this!" Da said, stalking away from the group. "You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I'm not on anyone's side," Papa replied. "I'm the voice of reason."

"Reason?!" Da scoffed. "How much more reason do you have than me?!"

"Why are you yelling?" Papa asked, confused. "Can you not hear yourself or something?"

"Kakorot, do not mock me!" They began to argue once more.

Kage stepped away from them and came to stand next to me. "Are they always like this?"

I shook my head. "Usually only when they talk about me."

He nodded and took another drag. He offered me the cigarette. See? He just didn't know what was socially acceptable.

"Don't give him that!" Papa suddenly cried, happening to look over at just the right time.

"See?!" Da yelled. "He can't be trusted,"

"I wasn't going to take it," I said defensively.

"Do you want him to turn out to be a worthless addict too?" Da asked, motioning at me.

That must have hurt. I glanced over at Kage, who had gone rigid. His face was stony though, a mask over top of it.

Papa fell silent, thinking. Everything became quiet. The wind didn't even blow. It was so hot here. Finally, Papa began to walk over to us.

He pulled me aside, as if doing so would keep our conversation secret. I knew that Da and Kage could hear us though. He knelt down to my level and put a hand on my shoulder. "Aizel, I want you to think about something. Kage has really messed up his life. He has a good heart though; I can tell; and he wants to do the right thing. I don't trust him, but I do trust you. I know you can make the right choice."

He sure did lay the pressure on thick.

What was the right choice? I had been given too many mixed messages. He wanted me to do what was right, which appeared to be to stay away from Kage. But he always told me to follow my heart. Well, how was I supposed to do both? I loved Kage; I really did. And it wasn't just spontaneous teenage love. It was real love. I knew it was.

I shifted my weight to my other leg and look around nervously. I wanted to please my parents, since I disappointed/pissed them off so often, but I didn't want to give Kage up for anything.

It made me angry. The fact that they were making me choose. It would have been better if they just forced me to stop seeing him, so then I wouldn't feel so bad when I disobeyed them.

I felt myself about to break down, but I held myself together; just barely.

I looked back over to where Kage and Da were standing. Da was glancing from me to Kage, a look of anxiety on his face, and the need for vengeance on his mind. Kage was staring off into space, lost within his mind.

I opened my mouth to say something, but I was interrupted.

"It's alright. I understand if you don't want to see me anymore." Kage said, that lost look still in his eyes. "It's cool." He turned away, but then turned back around again. "I want you to know that I still love you."

I wasn't sure who he was talking to. I prayed it was me. I was ready to beg him to say that he was talking to me, even if it wasn't true. Even if it was one of his lies.

Before I could say anything more, he took off into the sky.

When he was gone, my parents both turned to me.

I was silent for a long while, trying to fathom what had just happened. He had broken up with me? Because he thought I wanted to break up with him? What if I hadn't wanted to? I hadn't wanted to. I had no intention of doing so. He just… assumed that I did. That prick.

My face slowly shifted into a frown. This time, I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep myself together. I was going to snap, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

"I hate you!" I cried, wildly, "Both of you! I hate you!"

"Aizel," Papa began, stepping closer to me.

"No! Stay away from me! I hate you! You're dead to me!"

I saw the hurt in his eyes, but he did not step back again. "We're only doing this to protect you,"

"I don't need protecting! I don't need anyone's help! I'm just fine on my own! I don't care if I never see either of you ever again!"

He took another step towards me, and this time Da moved as well.

"Don't do it!" I warned. I saw a rock on the ground that curiously resembled a razor blade. I picked it up and held it to my throat. "Get away from me, or I'll do it!"

"You're being over dramatic," Da said with a roll of his eyes.

"You think I'm joking?!" I screamed. "Don't fucking test me!"

"Vegeta, what should we do?" Papa asked stepping closer to him, and thankfully, further away from me.

"Nothing. He's not serious. His hormones are all out of sync. He's just having an episode,"

I growled loudly, bearing my teeth. "I'm having an episode, huh?! I don't see Lysander out here trying to slit his throat, do you?!"

This seemed to unnerve them. They had realized this. But they didn't want me to realize it. Why?

Probably because they thought it was going to push me over the edge of a cliff I had been climbing since birth.

"I don't want you to interfere with my life anymore," I said lowly, "I want to do what I want."

"You're fourteen years old. You're not old enough to make decisions like this." Da replied with a scoff, crossing his arms.

"I'm fifteen, Da. And I think that if I'm old enough to procreate, then I'm old enough to decide who I love and who I don't."

He shook his head. "You don't even know what love is."

"Yes I do!" I cried back. "I love him!"

He shook his head again. "How could you possible know what love is? There's no such thing as love,"

I sighed with frustration. "You're such a God-damned liar!"

"Alright, let's say there is such thing as love. How could a fifteen year old know what it is?"

"Because." I replied. "I just know." I paused. "How do you know that you love Papa?"

He didn't even hesitate. "I don't love him."

That was a slap in the face, even for me, and he wasn't even talking about me. Papa looked down at the ground, letting his eyes fall shut.

"I don't love him because there's no such thing as love, boy."

"Don't call me boy, Vegeta. I hate it when you call me that."

"That's what you are. A boy. A teenage boy that's completely out of his mind. Put your pathetic little rock down, and come here. You and Lysander are going to switch places."

I shook my head. "I'm not going. I'm going to go find Kage, and he and I are going to go up into space, so you'll never see me again."

Vegeta nodded. "That's a brilliant idea. Run. Go to your addict of a fuck buddy and go off into space. I don't care."

"Fantastic!" I spat. "You won't have anyone to worry about anymore! You can focus all your attention on your precious Lysander and your darling Vienna! You can be a nice, happy family of four instead of five! There won't be any worthless screw ups around to distract you!"

That shut them both up. They were silent for several seconds as they exchanged looks of surprise. I couldn't stand the silence anymore.

I tossed the rock onto the ground. "Have a nice life." I gave them the finger and took off to find Kage.

You would think that a purge of emotions like that would leave me feeling better. But actually, I felt worse. I felt guilty, anxious, scared, worried… I wasn't angry anymore… just drained.

I landed on the front lawn of Capsule Corp, and fell to my knees, wracked with violent sobs.

I was shaking again, but this time was because of an emotional overload. They were not coming after me. I could sense they were still over by the volcano. They were probably not even talking. They were probably still staring at each other, lost in thought.

And then anger surged through me.

Why didn't anyone realize I was so fucked up? Why didn't anyone said, 'Hey, I think there's something wrong with you.'

Lysander and I shared the same DNA. Genetically, he and I were the same person. So then why was he so perfect? So normal? Why did everyone just automatically fall in love with him, and not me? What about me made us so different?

"Kage," I cried his name over and over again, until finally, someone paid attention to me. It wasn't Kage, though. It was Bulma.

She came outside in a robe, with her hair all up in curlers. "Lysander?" She asked, stepping out onto the lawn.

"No," I spat. "I'm bad Lysander. The good one's not here."

She seemed confused, and knelt to the grass. "What happened? Why are you crying?"

"Because I'm a fuck-up," I replied simply.

Her eyebrows knitted together. "What do you mean?"

I shook my head. "Never mind. Is Kage inside?"

She hesitated. She knew she wasn't supposed to let me see him. "Yes, he is… but I can't let you inside."

"My parents said it was alright."

She stood up. "I'll give them a call, and ask them first."

"Don't bother. They're not at home." I got to my feet as well as went inside without her permission. I practically lived in that house anyway, damn it.

"Aizel, you can't-"

I shut the door on her and locked it. I quickly wiped away my tears and went to go find him. Bulma was pounding on the door from outside, cursing and making a scene. It didn't matter.

I found him in the kitchen, sitting at the table. He wasn't drunk anymore. That whole thing was probably a buzz-kill. He had a cup of coffee in front of him, but it didn't look like he'd drank any of it.

"Hey," I said softly.

He did not turn to look at me. He continued to stare straight ahead. I watched him for several seconds, until he blinked, and then I took a seat across from him.

"I decided I want to go with you." I said after taking a deep breath. "Up into space."

This seemed to get his attention. "You want to go into space?" I nodded. "Really?"

"Yeah. I can't stand this place anymore."

"Have you ever been to space?"

I shook my head. "What does that matter, though?"

He cleared his throat. "Never mind." He paused. "What made you change your mind?"

I shook my head. "I was never going to break up with you. I might have said I was going to in front of my parents, but I would never have actually said goodbye."

He half-grinned and ruffled my hair like he used to. "You're a good kid."

I didn't know how I felt about him calling me a kid, but I did appreciate that he would lie to me.