Chapter 27
"It's ok, I got ya."
Yamcha's arms are quick to pluck Washu from the tree she was scaling when a branch snaps beneath her feet. He hovers backwards with her squirming in his arms and yelling at him to let her go.
"Woah, easy now. C'mon you're gonna hurt yourself at this rate. Just calm down Washu. Do ya seriously believe Vegeta over me?" Yamcha is still trying to calm down his lover after the lie the Saiyan spread about him, though he doesn't hold it against him for he believes he deserves it after the role he played in the capture of Ryoko. He is not one who likes to use his strength on Washu if it can be avoided but sometimes she leaves him with little choice, especially when she is falling out of a tree when trying to reach the place he is levitating. She might be a super genius with no organic equal but she is no tree climber that's for sure. Washu continues to fidget around in Yamcha's inescapable embrace and glower at him.
"I told you before, I don't like being held like this so get your hands off of me you liar." She wriggles around as he continues to descend, truly disliking being carried like she were some helpless infant. Their feet touch the ground but Yamcha still keeps his arms around her.
"Washu, babe, I ain't no liar. I might not be a saint, but c'mon now, d'ya really think I'd be stupid enough to cheat on you. Look what Vegeta did to you, this is just him trying to cause you more hurt." He speaks calmly and soothingly into her ear. One of his hands lets go of her and wipes away the thin red line of dried blood from her chin. Now partially freed Washu turns around to face him, her face centimetres away from his, and holds his hand tightly in hers.
" I have many, many imaginative and none too pleasant ways of getting the truth out of people … but I'll let you off, for now. If I ever catch word of anything like this again …" She lets the threat hang as her cold eyes continue to stare at him.
"Trust me Washu, you won't. Why would I ever need another woman when you're the one I love." Yamcha warmly smiles at her and watches as her face turns redder than her hair, her green eyes fall away from his face and her hand holding his give a little surprised squeeze. He continues to joyfully smile affectionately at her as he hugs her and teasingly remarks how cute she is when embarrassed.
Across the lake from the reconciling lovers two frozen and huddled royals appear before the large wooden house. Still shivering from the cold and shaking off the deposits of snow from their bodies, Vegeta brings Ayeka back to his house with the energy he borrowed from her. The Saiyan's hand loses grip of the princess's and his arm falls limply by his side. Ayeka turns herself towards the house and begins calling for her would be protectors to come and aid her. There is movement within the house as they hear this female voice from outside, the one who avoids all means of assistance remains deathly silent. His world feels as if he were still within the effects of his gravity training room. Vegeta's breathing is heavy, his eyes flutter open and shut and then he begins to keel over onto his side. Then he is gone.
Ayeka looks back at her unconventional saviour only to find that he is not in sight. She looks about her to see if he has crawled off somewhere in the short amount of time she was looking away but there is no sign of him but a patch of snow on the ground from when he teleported in. Thinking to herself that he has gone and hidden himself away to lick at his wounds in private like an animal, she forgets about him as Kiyone and Sasami come into sight followed by a woozy and staggering Mihoshi clutching at her head. The cops rush and carry her into the house as fast as Mihoshi can manage whilst Sasami questions her sister about how she is and what happened.
Soft, springy and all too welcoming is the material Vegeta falls onto. His eyes slowly blink twice as he stares at the ceiling above him and wonders why it isn't blue sky he is seeing. The light fixture hanging above his head is turned on and the light is beginning to offend his weary eyes, he raises a hand to shield his face and struggles to sit up when he realises where he is. A slight stench of alcohol, curtains thrown wide open to reveal a view from the rear of the house and a smirking figure standing before him. He is in the pirate's room and sat upon her messy and unmade bed. Ryoko waves at him and sidles up then seats herself beside him.
" Ryoko what am I-" The confused Saiyan begins to question her about why she brought him here but before he can finish forming his query she places a hand upon his naked chest and pushes him back down onto her mattress. He tries to put up resistance. His arms tense as do his abdominals but he barely has the power to move himself never-mind contend with her strength. Vegeta's teeth bare themselves and grit together as he snarls out of pure hatred of his own weakness and getting overpowered by someone who's strength is so beneath his own. She smiles down at him but it is not a warm smile.
" Damn you Ryoko. First you try to fool and deceive me and now you mock my failing power, I take it that you value my honour and pride as much as you do Ayeka's life." His irritation and annoyance at her grows as she continues to just darkly smile at him and hold him in place effortlessly. Her smile fades though as he mentions the name of the Juraian princess and her eyes narrow ever so slightly but Vegeta's vision is nowhere near good enough to make out these details on her face. "What do you want?"
She retracts her hand from his chest and watches as he tries to persuade his body to work and for him to perform just one sit up and watches as he fails and remains laid down on her bed. He frowns and growls in anger as watching his feeble struggles amuse her and asks her again what her intentions are. Ryoko does not reply. In silence she grabs each of his limbs one by one and positions them diagonal to his torso and does it quickly so that he will not undo her work before it is complete by simply moving. A ball of red ki manifests itself in her hand, she points her hand at his arms and legs and fires a small ring at each of them. Vegeta knows this technique for it is his own as he struggles against the shackles of energy binding him to the four corners of the bed. Now with him completely and utterly unable to evade or escape her, Ryoko is willing to talk to him.
"I suppose sparring with you did teach me something useful, and now that I have your undivided attention ..." Ryoko looks down at her prisoner and strokes his chin. Her evil smirk widens as she swings her legs onto the bed and places her arms and legs on either side of Vegeta. Straddling his prone form Ryoko sits down on his stomach and leans in close to him. " … you and I are going to have a little talk."
Vegeta stares at her coldly. For some reason he is getting the impression that there might be more to this than just wanting to chat with him, for one conversations normally don't require someone to be forcefully tied to their bed. Her hands creep down and start messing with his raven black hair still with specks of snow in it.
" What I want to know, Vegey, is what's going through that noggin of yours." Fingers running through his coarse black spikes of hair flow downwards and begin to caress his cheeks. His colourless eyes continue to stare back at her feline pupils, no emotion shows on his face of stone. She moves her head closer to his.
" I'm thinking that I'm not going to like where this is leading. Ryoko I released you when you asked me to now repay the favour." Vegeta drops his eyes from her countenance as he speaks and looks up at the shackles to see if there is any flaw in her ki, or the bed, that could gift him freedom. Ryoko tuts disapprovingly and lets out a hollow laugh. Her golden eyes darken, her fingers begin to stroke at his chest and trace his scars and wounds. She begins to apply a bit more pressure to her stroking so that it becomes painful to the prince, he does not let it show though on his face.
"No, no, no, not what you're thinking now. … What I need to know is about you, me ... and her." She speaks in a low and hushed voice, barely breathing out those last words that are so foul and repugnant to her tasteless tongue. Her face drops all pretence of a smile as she intently watches his face, his eyes and his mouth for any reaction at all. Patiently she waits, listening to his slow and steady breathing. Vegeta says nothing. Ryoko sits up straight and chuckles to herself darkly as a very sadistic look crosses her face and her fingers claw slightly at his skin before she retracts her hands from his flesh.
"Oh Vegey, Vegey, you better start talking. I kinda need to know right now and you being silent and all is starting to make me think of ways to get you to talk." Vegeta nonchalantly yawns in response to her request and implied threats. He truly doubts she has the ability or capability to actually try and torture him for information and so he calls her bluff and remains silent. The pillow beneath his head feels so comfortable and just the act of laying down diminishes a substantial amount of the fatigue and pain within his body. Ryoko's eyes spy him getting a little too comfortable, her hands begin to fiddle restlessly with the front of her dress.
"Vegey, tell me now. Or else I'm gonna have to make you." She adopts a more authoritative and commanding tone to her voice as she speaks to him and crosses her arms across her chest. Vegeta snorts in derision before closing his eyes. Ryoko snarls at his overbearing behaviour, how he is her prisoner and is still acting as if he is in control of everything. She cannot take this for much longer.
Her mind is frantically trying to remain calm as his silence eats away at her resolve. She is so absolutely desperate right now for him to give her an answer, her heart cannot bear it anymore after this traumatic day. She needs to know, she has to know and he is the one who is going to tell her and settle everything like he always does: or so she believes. Vegeta though is in no mood to cooperate with her, he is completely and utterly spent and his empathy has shut down along with most of his body. Ryoko rubs at her face before wedding her fingers together and nibbling at the nail on her thumb.
"... Please, Vegey, I have to know … y'see she said something a bit – a bit weird and all I want is to double check something with you. Well it's like, uh that silly princess was under some really crazy impression that … th-that after you you ki-kissed me that … that well you went and did something very, very silly and did the same to h-h-he-her!" Ryoko starts in an almost pleading tone and ends vehemently with passionate anger rampaging out as she shouts in fury at him. Panting hard, her hands are around his throat, she doesn't know when they got there and releases her grip as she looks up at his now open eyes. His brows are furrowed. He coughs repeatedly to clear his throat after her slight choking. All he can see above him are two golden orbs beseeching him, imploring for him to dispel all malignant doubts worrying her heart.
"You want to know if I kissed Lady Ayeka after you? You were there weren't you, well then you should know."
"Vegeta! No! No, you didn't!" Ryoko shouts back in denial at his leading words. Her blood freezing in her veins, her worried hands touching his neck trembling violently and her eyes continue staring into his as she hopes that what she is hearing is not true. He lets out a sigh.
"Wrong answer I'm afraid." Vegeta states with an innate absence of emotion. A hand whips across his face and nearly knocks him senseless from the power of the blow.
" … Y-you … what? … You-you-you … NO! How could you?! Vegey?!" It hurts, it hurts inside her so much. The feelings welling within her meet and then surpass what she suffered within the dark laboratory, her anguish and heartbreak growing and growing to levels she hoped and feared did not exist. Tears well and fall from her eyes onto the scarred chest of the Saiyan. Her hands clutch at her chest, the source of her torturous pain that is wracking her body and sending out throes of agony with every beat it makes. The Saiyan cannot feel the warm tears raining down upon his pecs.
"You left her a broken and beaten royal suffering from a harsh defeat at the hands of someone belonging to a lower class with everything she held dear to her torn to shreds before her eyes, I sympathised with her situation." A fist impacts square into Vegeta's chin and then a second follows up slamming down hard onto the bridge of his nose.
"NO! No! Don't you dare! You told us to fight and promised first place, first place, your kiss nothing for second place. All or nothing. … You ...no … you pr-prefer that bitch don't you? Don't you?!" Ryoko screams at him, her unbridled fury at him possessing her soul and alighting it with her rage. Her hands grip either side of his face, her nails digging into his worn out flesh, and yanks his head up at a painful angle. She weeps upon him as he coughs up blood onto his abdomen and her lap. Blood trickles down from his nose and into the back of his throat, he expels it as best he can from his airways so he can talk and won't end up drowning on his own fluids. He can feel the pressure from her hands clamping down on his head, a slight worry enters his mind of her potentially crushing his skull.
"I have already said I see you both as equals so what is so unbelievable about me having treated both of you equally?" Vegeta's exhausted mind churns out the only thing it can think of and it seemingly works for he feels the strength compressing his head lessen.
"Bullshit! Tell me! You would rather the bitch over me wouldn't you?" He thought wrong. Ryoko slams his head backwards, nearly breaking his neck but at least there is a pillow to cushion the blow. She yells at him, her voice screeching and shrill and her face millimetres from his own. Shaking him as if it will in some will elicit a response from him, her crying eyes stare hatefully at his bleeding face. Vegeta struggles to keep his eyes open and goes to rub at his face before the resistance his wrist meets reminds him that he cannot do that.
"No, I would not choose Ayeka over you, Ryoko." He answers truthfully with his eyes squinting from pain. She goes silent and lets go of him. Her tears still fall but she tries to wipe them off her face, the Saiyan continues to cough and splutter on his own blood. Ryoko's arms fall limply by her side as she feels a slight momentary reprieve grace her heart and mitigate some of her heartbreak.
"V-Vegeta? … D-does this mean-"
" It does not mean I would choose you over her. What part of grieving over my dead wife don't either of you understand? You two are equals in my eyes and equals you shall remain until I move on from the mother of my son." Vegeta's anger at being overpowered by her and being forced into a situation he would rather avoid surfaces. His curt responses now giving way to a half shout of irritation at the things he's had to go through over the past few days. The room goes deathly quiet. Ryoko recoils away from the Saiyan she is sat on with a look of abject hurt and shock on her face before she hangs her head and her cyan fringe conceals her sobbing. The prince realises far too late his foolishness in what he said to her and what he called Bulma. It comes as no shock to him when he sees her snarling face above his and a glowing rod of orange below his chin. She presses her energy sword against his throat.
"You bastard!" The blade singes and burns the stubble that had been growing near his voice box, Ryoko's leering face grimacing down at him as more and more saline liquid pours from her amber eyes. His poor choice of words has cut her to the core. It was not too long ago she was being told of her infertility to Saiyans and for him to carelessly reopen that wound in her heart has put his captor in a very dangerous emotional state. Seething at him with each breath as her bleeding heart causes her inordinate woe, grief and suffering, Ryoko howls in rage at him as he attempts to rectify his mistake.
" Dammit Ryoko I didn't mean it like that I just-"
"NO! No, you know damn well what you meant! You lying, cheating, heartless bastard! Yo-you said it didn't matter to you, you said! How could you? You promised me, Vegey, you promised me that you didn't care about it. It's your fault for destroying that machine, it's all your fault!" The sword at Vegeta's throat gets raised above Ryoko's head. She cannot bear this anymore; the pan, the rejection and the heartache is all too much for her to cope with. With both hands gripping the searing hot lance of ki, knuckles whitening as she clutches at it tightly, her arms maintain their position albeit whilst violently trembling.
The waters flowing from her eyes will not stop, her vision is getting all the more impaired with every second as the pain inside her breast crescendos. She wants to hurt him, she wants to make him feel the pain she is going through – the pain he has caused her – but she can't get her hands to move. He has kissed the Juraian as well and her confidence in herself has been shattered, before all that happened today she believed without doubt that she would end up with Vegeta but now she is not sure in the slightest. Her vision is so impaired from her cascading tears that she can barely make out the Saiyan at her vastly waning mercy. She lets go of her sword with her left hand to wipe at her eyes and try and clear her vision. Trying to sniff back her tears, Ryoko grits her teeth and wretchedly growls but still her tears linger and plague her vision. Her sleeve is sodden as are Vegeta's abdominals and her arm held high with sword in hand is faltering and wavering. She shakes her head side to side. Letting out a great keening wail her sword dissipates. Ryoko collapses forwards onto Vegeta, crying openly upon his chest as her fists feebly hit at him.
"Ryoko, I honestly don't care about it. Your reproductive capabilities are none of my concern, nor are they a reason for me to prefer Ayeka over you if that is what you are thinking. I apologise for my shit choice of words. I'm sorry." The Saiyan's eyes close. He winces from great discomfort and pain as the blows from Ryoko are not as weak to him as she believes them to be. He has lost the battle he was fighting. Ryoko continues to weep and sob after his apology but to his relief she does cease in pummelling him, already a good deal of bruises haemorrhage around where the woman lies upon him.
"Yeah right, how am I supposed to believe you after what you've done? Why would you – Why?" Ryoko speaks quietly and tearfully as she raises her head to look at his. She slowly pushes herself back up to a sitting position on top of the prince and feels his slow and deep breathing beneath her. Cursing herself for being so weak and unable to wreak her vengeance on him, she forms a fist and tenses the muscles within her arm. Her muscles relax though when she looks down upon her intended victim, her fingers uncurl and her hand hovers itself over her breast. She is furious with him and hates him for what he has said and done but at the same time he is still the man her heart belongs to, she cannot do it. She is incapable of forcing her suffering and pain onto him no matter how much she believes she wants to.
" I told you why. If you choose not to believe my words then me answering you again won't help matters. I am sorry Ryoko." His eyes remain closed and his mouth parts but a sliver as he faintly whispers these words. He is ready to admit defeat to the unremitting and ceaseless opponent he has been duelling with for the past few days. Vegeta's breathing slows down and his muscles tense and straining against the manacles of ki relax and go limp.
"How can I believe you after you've gone and betrayed me like that? I-I thought that we … that what we … I love you!" Ryoko screams aloud her feelings to him, not knowing what else to do or say to him. She wants the pain to stop, she wants him to stop acting so pragmatic and stoic all the time but in the end all she wants is him. Her golden eyes finally manage to clear themselves of the blinding moisture to see a small smile play across Vegeta's face and in her heart and on her lips she faintly reciprocates that smile. Somehow just the knowledge that her proclamation of love made him smile mildly eases the troubled waters broiling within her and settles her soul, to a degree. For a minute she just sits there enjoying the moment and this rare smile and awaits a verbal response from him but he fails to speak. He does not talk or say anything, all he does is lie still with his eyes closed. A realisation hits her.
" No. No, please Vegey, don't fall asleep on me. C'mon Vegey wake up." She pokes his face, no response. She pokes again but harder this time, she gently slaps his cheeks and then she shakes his shoulders but still she cannot get Vegeta to wake up. Depressed and disappointed at losing him to the shadow realm of slumber, Ryoko is at least glad that most of her heartache has partially died down for the time being. Her gaze stays on the sleeping Saiyan she is straddling and watches his sturdy chest rise and fall gently whilst he is dead to the world and all around him. Sighing at not being able to get any more important answers from him after he terminated the conversation by falling asleep a second realisation crops into Ryoko's mind and makes her small, content smile grow into a wide toothy grin.
Feline eyes now devoid of tears but still bloodshot and puffy from the recent deluge track up and down the beaten, bloodied and bruised form of the unconscious Saiyan warrior tied up to her bed. Not needing the ki restraints anymore she dispels all four of them with a flick of her wrist and begins to trace a finger in light circles across Vegeta's body. A dark and seedy thought has taken hold of her mind. Whilst awake he always ignores her advances or pushes her away but now he cannot do that anymore, now she can do exactly what she wants with him, or to him. He might have tainted his first kiss with her by sharing it with Ayeka but with this opportunity before her she can take it back and much more. She can take back her lead and make it so that he won't be able to spout that non-committal nonsense about her and the Juraian being equals in his eyes. She can win her Vegeta back, and have fun doing so. After she is done her victory will be assured and she will have beaten Ayeka in this most fierce of competitions.
First things first though is to set the stage. Ryoko hovers upwards and dismounts the Saiyan and her bed whilst looking at his helpless body all covered in her tears, his blood and many nasty wounds and scars. Setting her feet down on the floorboards, still with a wide grin on her face, she exits her room and briskly returns with a few wet flannels and a towel from the bathroom. Figuring that she has got all the time in the world until he wakes up, she has decided that she might as well tidy him up a bit and make him look a bit more presentable and have the excuse to touch his unaware body as much as she likes. His Saiyan boots drop to the floor as she takes them off his feet and then her hands grab the base of the lower half of his tattered and torn training gi and give a tug. She lets out a little disappointed sigh seeing those same shorts he was walking around in this morning still being worn beneath the clothing she has stripped him of. Her fingers flex and eagerly wriggle in the air as she lowers her hand onto this last article of clothing and giggles naughtily to herself.
Ryoko stops suddenly and freezes as her heart skips several beats and her face flushes red, her hand hovering several inches above Vegeta's last vestige of modesty. Not thinking of herself as a prude she is shocked to find that she just cannot bring herself to remove Vegeta's shorts from him. Every time she attempts it and lowers her hand a wave of embarrassment floods her and retracts her hand. Glowing red and ashamed at her inability to give her desires what they crave the pirate kneels down next to her bed, picks up a soaked flannel and begins to scrub and rub the lean muscles of the murderer who stole her heart.
Completely engrossed in the activity, she meticulously and a bit too thoroughly cleans every bare inch of Vegeta, even flipping him over onto his back and then back again once she is done. Smiling like an idiot, Ryoko enjoys the time she spends washing him and getting to explore his musculature and physique with her hands and caressing fingers. She discards the now bloody and grimy flannels to the corner of her room and dries Vegeta off with the towel. Halfway through she finds a spot that she noticed earlier and stops what she is doing to prod and examine this very large and sore bruise covering most of Vegeta's shin but as she is unable to see the fractured bone underneath she just shrugs it off and finishes off towelling down her Saiyan prince. Throwing the towel into the same corner as the wet rags, Ryoko stands up and admires her work and the perfectly toned physique at her mercy. Now that he is ready and still snoozing she sets about making herself ready.
Swearing as she knocks over an empty bottle littering her floor on the way to her drawers Ryoko begins rummaging about looking for something particular. For a while her mind wanders onto using the same outfit she tried to entice him with two nights ago but then she finds what she was searching for and knows that this is the one perfect for this moment. She lifts her blue and yellow striped dress over her head and finds herself turning to face away from the sleeping body as she removes her undergarments and slips on the piece of nightwear she has chosen for this evening's entertainment. A silken, pure white negligee with no fancy adornments, frills or decorations, just a velvety soft nightie cutting off a few inches down her thighs. Ryoko does a little twirl in her nightwear knowing that Vegeta cannot see her but just does it out of a growing giddiness building within her. Smiling gingerly to herself and still with a rosy colouration to her cheeks the pirate reaches behind her and picks up a fancy and ornate wooden brush made from the finest Juraian wood and with a name that is not hers engraved on the handle. She gently pulls Ayeka's brush through her thick cyan spikes and spends several minutes combing out the knots in her hair until it is as silky smooth as it will get.
Ryoko feels a few butterflies dance and prance within her stomach as she stands over the sleeping prince. Her left hand starts to mess and twirl with one of her recently preened and groomed locks out of nervousness as her devious mind starts conjuring up all the wild fantasies she could indulge in. Now that she has got this far and has him within her grasp and for the taking Ryoko is not too sure about what to do or what she wants to do. Her plan was to make it so that her would never even look at Ayeka as a woman again by showing Vegeta the things she can do that such a demure princess would never even dream of. She will not waste such an opportunity like this that might never come again and she will take back the ground she believed she held over Ayeka, but her chest constricts and feels ever so tense just looking at the comatose warrior. Ryoko bites her lips from her conflicting thoughts and feelings. She stops biting her lips, looks down at the mouth of the slumbering Saiyan and licks her lips; she supposes that out of all things she might as well start off with that.
Ryoko bends over Vegeta. She places her hands either side of his head to brace herself and looks down at his face. It look so strange and alien to her, this calm and almost peaceful look upon his face. She moves one of her fingers to stroke the rim of his left ear. Vegeta is not like her, that much has been made agonisingly clear to her on this day, and so such touching them means nothing to him but he knows the secret of her own elfin ears. Sighing to herself, she knows she has not truly forgiven him and will want to have words with him as soon as he wakes up; she cannot do anything about that now but she is damn sure she can do a few things to make sure he won't go kissing Ayeka ever again. Her nerves return to her and a strong rosiness blossoms on her cheeks as she leans in closer and closer to his face. He ruined their first kiss with the Juraian and now she is going to steal it back. Their lips touch. She kisses him fully on the mouth and then once just below his widow's peak.
That wasn't at all like she hoped it would be nor was it anything like it was when he kissed her. The warmth and passion was not present, none of those elements that made her first kiss feel so magical and enchanting where here at all. She has got her kiss back from him but it just leaves her dissatisfied and a tad frustrated. Anything she does now will feel equally as hollow and cold and she knows the reason being his unconscious state. There's no point to her kissing him or showing him her love if he cannot respond to it and reciprocate it. Disheartened by her great plan being foiled by the opportunity she tried to take advantage of, she watches him sleep and feels his breath on her face whilst thinking on what to do. She jumps slightly and looks about surprised as she feels something resting on her neck. With her golden eyes she looks to the side to see what it is and she smiles. Tender and loving is the warm smile on her face making her look truly beautiful and radiant. In his sleep Vegeta has fidgeted and rested his arm across her. Lifting her feet up from the floor and onto her bed she lays beside Vegeta with his arm holding her.
This is not cold and dispassionate like the kiss was. This makes her very happy indeed. She reaches behind her and onto the floor for wherever she tossed her blanket but cannot reach the floor without having to move and currently she is has no want to leave the position she is in. Her mind is set. Until he wakes up from his much needed sleep she will stay here with him and sleep next to him. Smiling gaily she rests her head on his shoulder and nuzzles against his neck and cheek. With a hand resting upon his chest and feeling his slow and steady heartbeat in her palm she kicks a leg across his waist and snuggles in as close to him as she can. Since she will not move to get any bed covers then she is just going to have to use his body heat to stay warm and he will be kept warm by hers. Ryoko thanks her lucky stars as she closes her eyes, eyes with a lone tear of happiness budding at the corner. A night in the arms of Vegeta. She cannot think of anything better.