Kera:
Kera knocked on the door of the gravity room where Vegeta was busily training. When Vegeta noticed her, he turned off the gravity and beckoned her in. With a sucking sound, the door slammed shut behind her again.
"How are you?" asked Kera, hugging her brother in greeting.
"I haven't made the progress I thought I would," he said sombrely. "It can't be that Kakarrot has reached the level of a god and I still haven't. What about you?"
"Actually, I wanted to know how you felt, but fine. There's no progress with me yet either."
A grin spread across Vegeta's lips. "Training fight?"
Kera mirrored his grin. "That's why I'm here."
Sweaty, they stepped out of the gravity room a few hours later.
"Let's get a drink outside."
Kera followed Vegeta out onto the terrace and a little way down the garden path. There they refreshed themselves at a small drinking fountain.
"How nice to see you again." Bulma stepped out from between some bushes and looked at them angrily. Vegeta swallowed. "Piccolo and I hardly get to see you guys anymore. You guys are so nailed and all you do is train."
"We want to get stronger than Kakarrot."
"Go ahead and do what you want. By the way, I have a dinner date now."
"What? With whom?"
Was Kera imagining it or was jealousy speaking from Vegeta's words?
"With me," it fluted from behind the bushes. Whis stepped onto the path.
"Whis?" cried Kera and Vegeta at the same time.
"If you were home more often, you would have noticed that I regularly have dinner with Whis." She stepped very close to Vegeta to whisper in his ear. "To convince him of what delicious things there are on Earth. And that it's not worth destroying the Earth."
"Good idea," Kera whispered back.
Vegeta pushed Bulma aside. "Whis, what is your relationship with Beerus?"
"I'm his servant and his trainer."
"Trainer? So you're stronger than him?"
"Who knows," Whis replied mysteriously.
"Take us with you and train us," Vegeta begged, getting down on one knee. Kera did the same.
Whis regarded them for a while. "You can become stronger if you can gain control of your energy. However, that is very difficult."
"Then please, train us," Kera now asked too.
"I might be able to do that. If one of you agrees to become the next God or Goddess of Destruction. And if you bring me something else wonderful to eat."
Kera and Vegeta looked at each other. They pulled back for a brief consultation and then enumerated what dishes they could think of. Vegeta even suggested cooking something, but Kera stopped him.
"Let me cook something. You help me with it."
Somewhat reluctantly, Vegeta agreed. In no time at all, with Bulma's help, they gathered the right ingredients and Kera cooked a simple but delicious noodle soup in the kitchen of Brief's mansion, which Whis was more than thrilled with.
Satisfied, he patted his stomach as he put the cutlery aside and leaned back in his chair. "Most delicious. Who cooked this?"
"The two of us together," Kera replied, who had waited anxiously with Vegeta until Whis had finished the soup.
"All right, I'll take you."
Kera and Vegeta exchanged a quick glance. The triumph Kera felt was reflected in Vegeta's eyes.
"When do we leave?", Vegeta wanted to know.
Whis turned his gaze to the sky and remained silent. When Kera was beginning to fear that he would say nothing at all, he finally answered.
"I'll pick you up here in three hours. If you are not there, I will return to Lord Beerus' planet alone." With that he disappeared in a swirl of light.
"Good. I'll pack my things and go talk to Piccolo. I'll see you here in three hours."
Vegeta nodded, but he didn't look at her any further. His gaze followed Bulma, who was just disappearing into the house through the patio door.
Kera gave her brother one quick pat on the shoulder and then flew off in a rush. She focused on the connection between herself and Piccolo. The golden thread that connected them forever.
Since their quarrel, she had shielded the connection, had sent neither feelings nor thoughts to her mate. She had to admit to herself that this behaviour had been childish. But at some point she had passed a point from which she could not simply return to the daily routine. Now she had to talk to him. She didn't know how long she would be away.
She sent Piccolo a picture of a rocky landscape with the request to meet her there immediately. The reply that promptly followed made her gasp. She had almost forgotten how it felt to communicate with him this way. It felt so much more intense than just talking. It felt like she was coming home.
A warm feeling spread through her chest and she had to smile involuntarily.
Piccolo:
Piccolo was enjoying the peace and quiet. Reyak and Menka had flown to Dende with Gine, Kera was with Vegeta as she often was and he had the forest to himself. He used the time to meditate. It did him good to concentrate completely on himself, on the energy within.
Kera's thought hit him unexpectedly and with such intensity that he opened his eyes in shock and for a moment did not know what had happened. Then he realised that Kera had contacted him through their connection.
He had almost forgotten how it felt. Before their quarrel, they had used this connection every day, sometimes to have intense conversations without other people noticing, sometimes just to exchange a kind word or to give the other person a mental hug.
Since their argument, Kera had blocked the connection. She didn't even seem to notice the attempts when he wanted to share something with her. rAt some point he had finally given up on it, which pained him greatly.
So now she was using their connection again. Piccolo wondered what the occasion was. She had merely sent him a picture of a place, asking him to meet her there. He had left immediately and pondered during the flight why she was suddenly using the connection again and why she wanted to meet him there of all places.
Piccolo felt Kera's aura already close to him when he landed and only two seconds later she landed as well. She immediately sank into a deep bow.
"I want to apologise to you," she said, without a greeting.
Surprised, Piccolo raised an eyebrow. "For what?"
"For not listening to you about Gine."
Now his second eyebrow went up too. He hadn't expected that. "Why the sudden change of heart?"
He saw Kera stiffen and then slowly straighten up, as if she were carefully considering the words. "I don't want to argue with you any longer. We need to find a solution together, not against each other. I can't concentrate properly if I can't tell you everything." Then she looked him straight in the eye. "I miss you," she whispered.
A smile flitted across his lips. "So now you want to bind Gine's powers."
He could see her inwardly fighting against shouting at him. Her expression darkened. She took two deep breaths before answering. "I don't know. We don't know what will happen if we imprison her powers. What if that makes her feel disadvantaged? What if that very thing causes chaos to erupt from her? So that we achieve exactly the opposite with this?"
Piccolo opened his mouth and closed it again. Damn! How could he have let that out of his sight? "I hadn't thought of that," he admitted meekly.
A brief smile flashed in Kera's eyes. That it was directed at him warmed his heart. Kera hadn't looked at him like that in months.
"I hadn't thought about it either. It was Vegeta's first thought for that."
"You told him about it?"
She nodded. "At Bulma's birthday. He realised we weren't talking to each other and asked what happened."
"I didn't think he was that sensitive."
Kera shrugged. "He's not as bad as you think." Then she took another deep breath. "So can we please find a solution together, if we need one at all?"
He waited a moment, then nodded. Relief flitted across Kera's face and she took a step towards him uncertainly. When he also took a step towards her and opened his arms, she jumped towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Overjoyed, he hugged her tightly and nuzzled his cheek against hers. Oh yes, he had missed her so much.
Kera murmured his name. A shiver ran down his spine, over his arms and legs and even made his toes tingle. How had he managed for so long without her touch? Without her whispered vows of love, without being so close to her soul that they were almost one?
He pulled her as close as he could, would have liked to melt into her. He just wanted to forget this quarrel. She had been stubborn, but he had been just as insistent on his point of view and had had no understanding. "I'm sorry too."
He felt her nod against his cheek. 'We'll never argue for so long again,' she said in his mind.
Piccolo smiled. 'So we're going to fight again?'
In his head he heard her laugh. It filled him with the greatest happiness he could imagine.
'Of course we will fight again. We are, after all, mates. And we are both stubborn.'
He too now sent a laugh down the golden thread of their soul-connection and felt her not only press her body closer to his, but also how her soul seemed to embrace him.
His lips sought the soft spot below her earlobe and gently stroked it.
A low moan escaped her mouth and he felt his blood welling up.
"Do you promise?" he whispered close to her ear. A tremor ran through her body.
"What?"
"That we'll never fight for so long again?"
"I promise."
She placed her lips on his, sealing their promise. There was so much longing, so much desire in that kiss. He felt like he was burning up inside. Kera's lips opened, found his tongue and played around it. A sigh escaped his throat.
Kera's hands slid to his belt as she intensified her kiss. Hungry, demanding.
Piccolo didn't want to wait any longer. With a wink of his power, he made Keras and his clothes disappear, readying them for a soft camp right next to them. Keras's fingers, which had earlier tried to pull his belt aside, now stroked his skin. A shudder gripped him as her fingers slid lower.
"Lie down," she murmured.
Without breaking away from her, he complied with her request, bedding himself down. She now sat astride him and began to roam her lips down his body. He ran his fingertips over her body, exploring every hill, every valley, as if he had forgotten what she felt like.
Kera:
A silent cry escaped Kera's lips as everything in her body contracted and she climaxed together with Piccolo.
Only a few breaths later she let herself sink forward, laid her cheek against Piccolo's sweaty chest and listened to the sound of his heart beating in the same beat as hers while his arms wrapped around her fully.
For what felt like an eternity they lay there in silence. Words were not necessary to know how much each other's closeness meant.
"I'm going away for training," Kera finally interrupted the silence. She held her breath, not daring to look at Piccolo for fear of his reaction.
Piccolo below her stirred. "Where to?"
"To Lord Beerus' planet. Vegeta and I were able to convince Whis to train us."
He straightened, startled, and she followed the movement. Still sitting astride his lap, she wished for her clothes at that moment so she could better concentrate on the conversation.
Piccolo seemed to have read her thoughts, for just as quickly as he had conjured away her clothes, he had now conjured them back to her body. She smiled gratefully.
"Do you think this is a good idea? He is the god of destruction."
"I know. We'll be sweet and kind. I just want to ..." She shrugged, searching for the right words. "I also want to reach the level that Kakarrot reached at Bulma's party, but without needing anyone else's power to do it. And I want to keep an eye on Beerus. I need to find out why he didn't destroy Earth after Gine ran towards him."
"You mean he didn't destroy the earth because of Gine?"
"I don't know. When I had her in my arms, her eyes had flashed purple for a moment. At least, I think that's what I saw. I'm not sure anymore."
"Did you tell anyone?" Kera heard the unspoken question: why didn't you tell me?
"Only Kakarrot and Vegeta." She sighed and looked at him. "I didn't tell you because we weren't talking at the time."
He smiled, grateful for the explanation. "And your brothers probably weren't too worried."
"Kakarrot not at all, Vegeta a little."
"I'll tell Dende. Maybe he'll have an idea."
Kera stood up. "I've got to get going. If I don't get back to Vegeta on time, Whis won't take me."
"You're leaving already?"
Kera saw disappointment flash in Piccolo's eyes and put her hand to his cheek. "I'll be back soon and I'll send you a daily picture of how I'm doing. I'm sorry to leave you alone, my green one."
"The main thing is that you'll be back soon."
"I promise. Give the kids a kiss for me and tell them I love them."
"I will." He leaned towards her and brushed his lips over hers. "Take care of yourself, beloved."
"And you take care of yourself."
One last kiss, in which she placed a promise to return to him as soon as possible, then Kera turned and flew off to where the next challenge of her life awaited her.