A Rebel\'s Heart

After a sumptuous meal, their frustrations over a day's events seemed to have dissipated, and the king poured them another cup of an exotic, expensive liquor imported from one of their colonized planets. It was difficult to get a Saiyan drunk, yet Bardock felt a little giddy, riding a gentle buzz that the luquor distilled from a rare fruit afforded.

King Vegeta and Bardock were laughing over the face that Frieza would surely make over their relatively easy victory, thus thwarting him of an opportunity to mock them for their weakness, and the fact that refusing payment would cause him to lose face in front of his minions.

"Don't worry about that, Bardock, I knew exactly who I sent for this mission," King Vegeta reflected, turning the liquor around in his cup, "Frieza was expecting me to send a couple of whelps for such a weak population." He smirked triumphantly at Bardock, seeing his compliment well received.

"We did nothing more than our duties, Majesty," Bardock replied, "The 'coincidence' of Rinajin happening to show up on the same planets at the same time doesn't escape us." His jaw was set firmly.

"Bardock, how many times do I have to tell you 'at ease'?" The king's tone softened. "A warrior deserves his rest."

Bardock nodded. The stress of seeing his eldest son sent off so often to fight the bloodthirsty Rinajin as well as being so often subject to Frieza's humiliations did not help, any more than did seeing his youngest baby son sent to Earth because of his weak ki. Kakarot was all he had left of his former mate, and she had not survived the childbirth due to permanent scarring from a former battle. Now both were gone, and Bardock steeled his resolve that he would never again fall prey to the cruel feeble state that was love, which gave with one hand and took back with the other.

The king knew this, as well as the fact that he channelled it through a fierce, protective family bond toward Raditz, hope for Kakarot, and unshakeable loyalty to his people and king. There was something special about Bardock and his lineage, and the king intended to show him that. "Bardock?" he called into his trance.

"Sorry." Bardock's attention snapped back to the present. The melancholic phase of the liquor was settling in, to his consternation.

"Finish your cup," the king told him, "You'll find something special about that one." Bardock mentally shrugged and downed the rest, noticing that the taste was a little spicier. For a moment his vision blurred with a strange tingling sensation on his skin, then his eyes focused, recognizing a familiar heat pooling in his depths. He looked at his sire, suddenly blushing furiously at the erotic thoughts of him that assailed his mind. Damnit. Why was this happening now? He knew that he must not think of the king in such a way. He could never be a heat partner when this type of thirst need be slaked; if he were to receive the favors of his royal...

Suddenly it occurred to Bardock that it was more than a victory celebration he had planned for him, otherwise Fasha would have been invited as well. Why had that fact escaped him until now?

King Vegeta considered Bardock. He could tell the difference when the courtesies addressed to him were given sincerely or through gritted teeth, and Bardock's case was definitely the former. He'd had his eye on him for some time, and noticed that he only took a break to smoke and to sleep. Bardock had not even casually been with anyone since his mate's passing, which had been several months to date. Bardock was the man who everone knew they could count on, to the point that he almost entirely avoided thinking of himself.

Tonight the king of Saiyans intended to see that Bardock thought of one thing and of nothing else for the rest of the night.
*
TBC...