((Finally getting around to updating this bad-boy. Sorry it's taking forever, I'm a little stuck for inspiration right now and I've been sleeping half my life away and working the other half.

Anyhow, the only time I get inspiration appears to be either right in the middle of class, or right in the middle of the night. And... this chapter may be short, but the beginning chapters of NIAMY were also short, so...

Thanks for putting up with my crap and my slow updates,

-Shinsun))

Twists And Turns

Chapter 2

I suppose I was lucky I got a moment alone that night. It gave me time to think. Dwelling on things wasn't a normal pastime for me; usually if I thought about something for too long it made my head hurt. Don't get me wrong, I had definitely given myself a headache by the time I'd simplified this conundrum into some kind of pattern, but it was more because the subject of my pondering was so complicated and frustrating than anything else.

"Goku," the voice of my wife jerked me from my reverie, and I blinked, surprised to find her standing a few feet away, watching me expectantly. I hadn't sensed her approach, and I knew her ki as well as I knew my own.

Somehow the fact that she was staring at me made me nervous. I didn't usually care what others thought, especially if they were members of my family, but I felt that ever-present guilt niggling at my mind as my wife scrutinized me, as if she could read my thoughts just by meeting my eye.

"What are you doing up so late?" she asked, a small smile crossing her face.

I leaned an elbow against the arm of the chair I sat in, "'Can't sleep," I sighed, voicing the sentence – if it could be called that – as a fragment. A habit of mine, one I actually had to maintain consciously now. Watching my speech and actions to appear my normal self was proving difficult, and I'd never noticed how freely I used to speak to my friends until I actually had secrets to keep.

"Well..." ChiChi said slowly, the small smile widening to a grin, "The boys are asleep... and it's been a while since we had some time alone..."

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Of all the times she could have been in the mood, she had to pick the one time I absolutely was not.

"No thanks," I muttered, crossing one leg over the other as if to indicate my denial.

ChiChi blinked, confused. It occurred to me that I hadn't ever refused her advances – few though they were – before.

"Are you okay?" she asked, propping one hand on her hip.

I could tell from her tone and body language that the question wasn't heartfelt, it didn't matter what I might say in response, she was just giving voice to her displeasure and perplexity through a commonly-spoken question. It was just words.

"I'm not in the mood," I said flatly, knowing it was nearly impossible to say no to someone as stubborn as ChiChi. But I was going to try.

As I expected, she walked up to me, trying to get me to change my mind; swaying her hips slowly and undoing the top three buttons of her shirt, revealing an excellent view of her cleavage.

I let my gaze flit over her for a moment; thoughtfully, almost bored. It took a second to hit me that I actually was bored. Where this showing of skin would have at least triggered some sort of interest from me before, I was utterly indifferent. Does this mean I'm not even vaguely attracted to my own wife anymore?

Of course, she was no Saiyan, but as far as human females went, ChiChi was slim and pretty, with echoes of remembered muscle from her days as a fighting princess. Anyone else would feel privileged to be with her...

But, I reminded myself, she had been the only woman I had ever shared my bed with. While I had a pretty good idea what passed for an attractive female, thanks to Roshi, ChiChi was the only experience I had... I had nothing to compare her with.

Until now.

And my body's refusal to respond to my wife's display made it clear what my preference was.

I almost jumped as ChiChi's soft lips covered my own; I'd gotten lost in thought and hadn't been paying attention to her efforts. I didn't push her away – to my credit – but nor did I really participate. Eventually ChiChi stopped and just looked at me.

"What is going on with you? You're never like this." she said bluntly.

"I told you," I retorted, "I'm not in the mood."

ChiChi's sharp gaze roved over me almost accusingly, "Clearly," she said shortly.

With that she turned and walked away irritably, flopping on the bed across the room.

I assumed she wouldn't appreciate my company there; and I sighed, looked at the ceiling, and returned to my thoughts.

X

Bulma called me the next day, and I was glad for the chance to talk to someone who wasn't either the ex-rival that I didn't want but my body did; or the wife who wanted me but my body didn't.

"Hey, you know, it's been a long time since I've seen you," Bulma said, I could hear the smile in her voice, "Want to drop by this afternoon for lunch or something?"

It had indeed been a while since I'd seen my old friend, and I guessed the conversation would be a relief from the conflict weighing on me.

"Sure," I agreed.

"I'll see to it that Vegeta's not too much of an ass," the woman added.

My breath caught; I'd forgotten that Vegeta would be at Capsule Corp too.

"Uh... yeah," I muttered, "I think he's mad at me anyway."

"Why?" Bulma asked curiously.

"We were sparring yesterday and I sent him away because..." I broke off, disgusted by how close I'd gotten to actually saying what had happened, "...He was being strange." I finished carefully.

"Well... I'll tell him you're sorry for that and we'll see if he'll loosen up, alright?"

I forced my mind not to dwell on the dual subject of Vegeta and things loosening, knowing it would only add to my discomfort.

"Okay," I said, "Uh, see you then, Bulma."

"See you," Bulma chirped.

I hung up before I could make a bigger fool of myself.

X

The sun was high in the sky and I crossed Capsule Corp's neatly manicured lawn, running through a mental list of remotely sensible things I could say if I ran into Vegeta.

...And just my luck, I quite literally ran into him. Or rather, he ran into me.

As if he wasn't looking where he was going, as if he'd stumbled – but the prince never stumbled...- he crashed into my chest, nearly knocking himself over backwards as he struggled for balance.

"What are you doing?" I asked flatly, carefully keeping any surprise or confusion out of my voice.

He shot me a look that was somewhere between mutinous and... surprisingly panicked.

"...Tripping?" he said blankly.

I couldn't help but laugh at the response, though my heart wasn't really in it. I was far too nervous in his presence to let my guard down.

A few seconds of silence passed, wherein I tried to read his expression and he tried to avoid my gaze.

I cleared my throat awkwardly, waiting for him to insult me for standing in his way and daring to question him.

He seemed about to speak, but just swallowed hard, as if he had something in his throat.

"Why are you here? What do you want, Kaka… ?" he trailed off, averting his gaze quickly.

Figuring it was better to be honest than not, I responded tactfully.

"I came to see Bulma, she wanted to talk to me,"

I noticed Vegeta's expression then. It was as if he'd run headlong into a wall and was just now registering the aftershock. His eyes were wide and his face was pale, his mouth slightly ajar as if he'd lost his powers of speech.

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "Vegeta? What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost,"

The prince blinked rapidly, snapping back to attention.

"I-I'm fine, Kakarot," he stammered, "The door is unlocked; go on inside and see the woman."

I scrutinized my ex-rival for a moment, forcing myself not to study the planes of his face, the sharpness of his profile, the dusting of an awkward flush across his cheeks; I forced myself to simply read his expression, but he kept it carefully impenetrable. As usual.

Eventually I just shrugged and walked away, glad to be putting distance between the prince and me.

TBC

((Obviously these first few chapters are going to be the easiest. There's not a lot of dialogue and for the most part these two Saiyans are separate from each other, so I can create new writing and don't have to rephrase and re-evaluate my other content. Once it gets into the actual plot – especially when it overlaps with the side-stories I already wrote – it's going to get challenging finding new ways to write things and new introspective views on things we all already know.

Anyway, this chapter was short, yes, but it was a breeze to write, and it's Monday tomorrow so I needed a chapter like that tonight.

Thanks, as always, for reading and reviewing. I really appreciate those nice reviews.

-Shinsun))