Saiya-jin

Vegeta-Ou paced to the window of his son\'s room again and looked out. He wasn\'t about to admit to anyone that he was worried...but he was. It shouldn\'t have taken his son more than a few minutes to finish off the third-class warrior and return and now a whole night had passed.
The saiya-jin no ou breathed a small sigh of relief as Vegeta-Ouji suddenly flew up to a side window in the room and lightly touched down.

Vegeta-Ouji jumped as he saw his father standing at the other window. \"Otousan!\" he cried.

\"Keep your voice down, boy,\" Vegeta-Ou growled. \"Right now, I\'m the only one who knows you were gone all night. I want to know what the hell happened to you - surely that third-class brat didn\'t give you that much trouble.\"

Vegeta-Ouji gulped and looked at the floor. \"N-no, Otousan,\" he said. \"It\'s taken care of.\"

Vegeta-Ou looked his son over critically. \"What the hell happened to your clothes?\" he demanded. \"You look like you\'ve been through a war zone, not cleaning up a third-class punk.\" He walked a little closer and realized that his son smelled of freshly washed. \"And you took time to stop and bathe on the way back. Is there a reason why?\"

\"Ah, it\'s just that I had more problems than I expected, and I...ah...\" Suddenly, Vegeta-Ouji\'s head snapped up and his eyes glazed over, almost as if he\'d felt a sudden jolt of pain.

\"Vegeta!\" Vegeta-Ou shouted. He grasped his son by the shoulders. \"Vegeta, what\'s going on?\"

Vegeta-Ouji\'s eyes remained glazed and expressionless as his knees gave out and he sank slowly to the floor.

Vegeta-Ou tried desperately to keep him on his feet. \"Vegeta!\" he cried again. \"Vegeta, snap out of it!\" He looked around frantically but didn\'t see anything that should have caused the teen to collapse. He pulled Vegeta-Ouji close to him. \"Guards!\" he cried.

*

Bardock made his way through the quiet morning air to his house. It was dark and quiet inside; he was surprised, his parents were both usually up by sunrise. He entered quietly so as not to wake them.

He was just about to go up to his room when a noise made him stop; it seemed out of place in the house, as it sounded almost like a muffled sob. Bardock walked tensely toward the source of the noise.

It seemed to be coming from his parents\' bedroom. Bardock rarely disturbed them when they were alone, but something didn\'t seem right. It sounded like his mother was crying...he hesitated, then pushed open the door curtain a crack to peer inside.

Kuzuko was sitting on the edge of their bed, cradled in her husband\'s arms. Gobou was rubbing her shoulder awkwardly, trying to give her some measure of comfort.

\"I...I just forgot,\" Kuzuko sobbed. \"I can\'t believe my son\'s gone...it seemed so unreal, I just called him downstairs out of habit...\"

Gobou sighed with frustration. \"I know, Kuzuko,\" he said. \"Try not to think about him for a while. We\'ll get through this.\"

Bardock shook a little in shock. They thought he was dead? What had gone on after he\'d left with Vegeta? He pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the room. \"Okassan,\" he said hoarsely. \"Okassan, I\'m all right.\" He reached out to take her hand.

Gobou and Kuzuko looked up in shock. Kuzuko started to reach for Bardock, but Gobou jumped between them.

\"Demon!\" he shouted. He grabbed Bardock\'s wrist and threw him out of toom.oom. He was immediately in front of Bardock again. \"Our son is dead, and you dare come here in his guise?\"

Kuzuko appeared behind Gobou then. \"Gobou!\" she said furtively. She clutched his arm. \"What if it is Bardock?\"

Bardock nodded in agreement. \"I\'m no demon, Otousan,\" he said pleadingly. \"It\'s really me. I...I know I fought Vegeta-Ouji yesterday, and I\'m really not able to explain to you why I\'m still here, but please try to understand...\" He reached pleadingly toward his parents.

Gobou paled and pushed Kuzuko behind him. \"Ghost,\" he whispered hoarsely. He suddenly found his voice. \"Get out of this house,\" he said menacingly.

\"Otousan, what...\" Bardock started to ask.

\"Get out!\" Gobou shrieked. \"We\'ve had enough grief for one day!\"

Bardock backed toward the door. He was unable to find his voice for a moment. When he finally could speak, it was in choking gasps. \"H..hai...\'tousan...\" He stumbled out the door.

Once outside, Bardock slumped to the ground with a thud. He sat in stunned silence for a moment wondering what exactly had happened. His heart suddenly ached - he hadn\'t realized how closely he felt about his parents. The thought of them seeing him as dead and never wanting to look at him again shot a stiff pain through his chest and momentarily winded him.

After a moment, Bardock regained himself and looked around. He was going to have to find some place to stay now; he wasn\'t about to be caught sleeping in the street like lowest-class weaklings.

Suddenly another voice interrupted his thoughts. \"Bardock, what\'s going on?\" Vegeta-Ouji demanded. \"I felt a sharp pain from you all of a sudden; I must have collapsed because Otousan has the doctor here.\"

Bardock groaned inwardly. \"I\'m sorry, Vegeta-sama,\" he replied mentally. \"My parents didn\'t take seeing me well...they thought I was dead...Otousan thinks I\'m some kind of ghost or demon or something...he threw me out of the house...\"

The tumbling thoughts stirred up their mental conversation a bit, but Vegeta-Ouji\'s voice broke through again. \"Do you need a place to stay? I could try to pull some strings...\"

\"No,\" Bardock replied. \"I don\'t want you getting in trouble over this...I\'ll manage, I always have.\"

\"All right,\" Vegeta-Ouji replied. \"Try to forewarn me next time if something comes up; I wasn\'t expecting to feel your feelings so strongly; Otousan\'s already suspicious and now I think he\'s even moreso.\"

\"I will,\" Bardock agreed. The conversation seemed to have ended, so Bardock stood up and set his mind to the task at hand. He remembered that the cliffs on the edge of town were riddled with still-empty caves and headed in that direction.

*

Vegeta-Ou stood at a distance and watched his son staring listlessly out the window. He clenched and unclenched his fists in frustration. The boy had not spoken since he\'d collapsed, though at the moment at least nothing seemed to be physically wrong with him.

The court doctor walked up beside Vegeta-Ou, and the king spoke tersely to him. \"You found nothing wrong at all?\" he questioned.

\"Nothing, m\'lord,\" the doctor replied. \"He\'s in perfect health.\"

Vegeta-Ou crossed his arms over his chest. \"This isn\'t normal behavior for my son,\" he stated. \"Even if it\'s only a theory or a long shot, I want to know anything that might be causing this.\"

The doctor hesitated. \"May I speak plainly, m\'lord?\" he asked.

\"You may,\" Vegeta-Ou replied.

\"Sire, the only thing in my experience that this resembles is a person who\'s begun the bonding process but has been separated too early from his partner. You may wish to question the prince\'s acquaintances; his partner should be feeling similar effects now or shortly if that is the case.\"

Vegeta-Ou stared at the doctor for a moment in thought, then he looked back at his son. \"You know of nothing else?\" he asked.

\"No, m\'lord,\" the doctor replied.

\"Very well then,\" Vegeta-Ou replied. \"You are dismissed.\"

The doctor nodded. \"Thank you, m\'lord,\" he said. He bowed and left.

Vegeta-Ou watched his son stare out the window. Now that the doctor had mentioned it, he did recognize the listless gaze and tired demeanor. \"Who are you thinking t, bt, boy? he wondered. He watched his son a moment longer, then left the room.

Vegeta-Ouji barely noticed him leave. He wanted desperately to be with Bardock, and he worried about the young man wandering the streets homeless now. He knew Bardock could hold his own, but even the strongest of warriors needed a place to sleep. He was suddenly shaken out of his thoughts when a stack of books was dropped in front of his face. He looked up, startled.

His father stood next to him with his arms folded across his chest. \"You need to do some reading, boy,\" he said solemnly.

Vegeta-Ouji looked at the stack of books. They were all thick, leather-bound volumes from the palace\'s library; the top one appeared to be a textbook about bonding. \"Otousan, I already know-\" he began.

Vegeta-Ou cut him off. \"I know what you\'ve already been taught,\" he snapped. \"But it seems you need a refresher course. If your behavior isn\'t back to normal indirectly, people will start talking.\"

Vegeta-Ouji looked down at the books again. \"Hai, Otousan,\" he said quietly. He picked up the top book and opened it.

Vegeta-Ou watched his son for a moment, then shook his head and walked away. He was frustrated beyond anything he\'d felt before. The boy needed to be with his new partner, and both of them knew it. He wondered who the boy\'s partner could possibly be to make him so stubborn.

*

Bardock leaned into the mouth of the small cave before him loo looked around. It was dark inside; not much sunlight reached the depths as it seemed the cave angled upward. It seemed uninhabited, so he climbed carefully inside and stood up. He lit a small ball of ki in his hand and his eyes widened in surprise as the cave was lit up before him. It was actually much larger than it appeared on the outside.

Further examination showed that the cave was an irregularly-shaped gouge out of the ground around it, creating smaller side caves, some shallow and some rather deep. The deepest extended down a short corridor and opened into a sizable hollow.

Convinced that the cave was safe and more than suitable for his needs, Bardock scratched his name in the entrance to claim it as his then stepped outside and looked around. He still felt a sense of unease, but now it wasn\'t so much fear as restlessness. \"Hn,\" he thought. \"Dead indeed. I\'ll show Otousan how dead I am...I\'ll have a greater home famifamily than he ever dreamed of having! This cave\'s large enough for me to have three or four strong sons living in it.\" He sat down on the ground in front of the cave and watched the wind whistle past, rustling dust. He sighed. \"Who am I kidding? No one\'s going to touch me now; anyone who doesn\'t believe I\'m a ghost is going to think I\'m some kind of a liar or con artist to have not been killed by Vegeta.\" He looked wistfully out over the barren landscape. Just thinking of the prince\'s name brought a sharp retort of pain to his side. He longed to go to the palace and find him but knew even without considering it that it would be suicide.

A low, curdling growl from his stomach reminded him that he hadn\'t eaten yet today. The yellow glow of the sun beating down on the dusty terrain told him it was nearly midday, almost late enough for lunch instead of breakfast. Unfortunately, that also meant that most prey animals would be hiding or sleeping in their burrows until the day cooled off again.

Bardock sat down with the initial thought of waiting out his hunger, but the more he tried to ignore it, the more it kept eating away at him. Finally he stood up and scoured the terrain. He saw a forest on the horizon in the distance and knew that it meant there was water somewhere. Where there was water, prey animals would come to drink. He quickly flew to the edge of the forest and hovered for a moment. His suspicions were confirmed when he spotted a winding stream twining through the edge of the forest and out into the plain beyond it. It wound through the trees and scrub and meandered toward the depths of the woods.

Bardock followed the stream and found a small natural pond in a shady part of the woods. Footprints in the mud indicated that animals did come here to drink. Seeing the tempting clarity of the water, Bardock knelt down and took a few handfuls himself, then backed away from the water to lay in wait for anything that might come along.

The afternoon sun passed lazily overhead and began to sink in the horizon, creating long, dark shadows around the pond. The sky overhead darkened as night crept up, and things began to slowly stir around him. Bardock went on full alert and pressed himself lower to the ground, carefully watching the pond from the shelter of dense brush.

Slight movement in the fallen foliage caught Bardock\'s ear, and his eyes flickered involuntarily toward the sound. After a moment, a tall, lithe creature walked out of the brush, followed by a smaller replica of itself. They had dark brown hides mottled with patches of greens and browns, making them almost invisible against their background as they walked; their tiny, hoofed feet barely made a sound as they picked a trail toward the pond.

Bardock sized them up carefully. Four legs, light-looking frame, hoofed feet; they could probably run like the wind. Large ears that even now were twitching alertly; they\'d hear him if he made even a sound. As they bent their long, graceful necks to drink, Bardock noticed that they had pert, wedge-shaped heads. Yes, these creatures were made for speed, not strength, and he would have to be careful to catch them off guard. A small smirk twisted his lips as he also mused that the mottled coat would make a fine hunting jacket.

Bardock started to stretch himself forward carefully, silently, never losing his proximity to the ground. Ever so slowly his hand stretched out and carefully set back down, followed by the opposite foot, then again his other hand and foot. He crept ever closer to the pond, never taking his eyes off his prey.

The wind shifted suddenly, and from his left Bardock caught a familiar scent. Something else was creeping up on the same prey, and not just another predator, another saiya-jin! His eyes narrowed and he carefully flicked his gaze over the area of brush to his left. The other saiya-jin was invisible to most, but slight wavering in the brush gave away his or her location. \"Idiot,\" Bardock thought to himself, \"those animals will hear you coming in no time.\" Sure enough, as Bardock glanced back at the pond, he saw his prey\'s ears flick alertly toward the brush, picking up and analyzing the sounds of the moving twigs and leaves. The larger of the two lifted it\'s head and gazed intently at the source of the noise, and began to carefully sniff the air currents floating past.

Bardock knew that he only had a split second to move; that animal was now aware of the other saiya-jin\'s presence and would instantly determine it as a danger. He burst from the brush with all the speed he could muster and flew toward the pond. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the silhouette of a saiya-jin male leap from the brush and fly on an intercept course.

The teenaged saiya-jin turned and faced the challenger. He knew his meal was now long gone, and a quick glance over his shoulder confirmed it as all that could be seen was flashes of white from the underside of a tail as they bounded away through the woods.

Bardock turned back to the other saiya-jin with arl.arl. \"What\'s the big idea?\" he demanded. \"That was my dinner!\"

The other saiya-jin started to growl in response but suddenly stopped. \"Bardock?\" he asked. He almost sounded like he was in shock.

Bardock recognized the voice. \"Toma?\" he replied. \"Is that you?\"

\"H-hai...\" the reply came slowly. \"Bardock, how...? We thought you were dead.\"

Bardock was silent for a moment. \"I don\'t know how to explain...\" he said truthfully. \"But why don\'t we start by getting out of these woods so we can at least see each other while we talk?\"

The two of them lifted off the ground and hesitated for a moment, just hovering over the forest. The pale light of a large half moon shone down on the two of them.

Toma\'s hand shook a little as he reached toward Bardock. \"You are real, aren\'t you?\" he asked.

Bardock rolled his eyes. \"Of course I\'m real, Toma,\" he said. \"Do you really think I\'d need to be hunting for dinner if I wasn\'t?\" He crossed his arms over his chest. \"Speaking of which, you owe me dinner and a new jacket, asshole.\"

Toma laughed. \"I suppose I do owe you dinner; we\'ll see about the jacket.\" He grinned. \"Though, someone with your streak of good luck should be able to have one just fall out of the sky or something.\"

\"Good luck?\" Bardock asked. \"What do you mean?\"

\"Come off it, Bardock,\" Toma laughed. \"There\'s no you you beat Vegeta-Ouji in a fair fight. Something had to have turned the tables in your favor.\"

Bardock turned red a little and turned away from Toma. \"What makes you think that?\" he said haughtily. \"Maybe I\'m stronger than everyone\'s giving me credit for.\"

Toma snorted. \"Right,\" he said. \"You, a third class warrior born to third class parents, stronger than the saiya-jin no ouji himself? I don\'t think so, Bardock. Hell, even your parents knew better; I\'m surprised they haven\'t had a funeral already.\"

Bardock clenched his fists and fought back tears at the mention of his parents. \"They will, undoubtedly,\" he whispered hoarsely.

Toma saw Bardock\'s rigid arms shaking with emotion. \"Bardock?\" he asked. \"What\'s wrong?\"

\"Nothing,\" Bardock spat. \"My parents believe I\'m dead. My father threw me out of the house thinking I\'m some kind of ghost. I\'m sure they will have a funeral before long.\"

Toma reached toward Bardock again. \"Oh, Gods\" he said. \"Bardock, I\'m sorry, I didn\'t know...are you going to be all right?\"

Bardock shook the emotion from his voice. \"Of course I\'m going to be all right,\" he snapped. \"I\'m not dependent on them. I\'ve even found a place for myself already.\"

\"Ne?\" Toma said. He grinned a little. \"You do realize you\'re going to have to show me,\" he said. \"You know we and the others could use a good party house.\"

Bardock made a face. \"Follow me,\" he said. \"But I\'m not offering it up for a place for you guys to trash.\" He lead Toma back to his cave.

At the cave entrance, Bardock stepped inside and lit it up once again with ki. \"I\'ll need to get some torches or something to have permanent light in here, because it\'s pretty dark,\" he said, \"but other than that it seems perfect.\"

Toma stared around him. \"Hai,\" he said. \"It\'s well large enough for you.\" He smirked and jabbed Bardock in the ribs. \"Planning on having a big family?\" he jibed.

Bardock snorted. \"I need a woman before that can happen, Toma,\" he sulked. He suddenly smirked at Toma. \"Unless, of course, Celipa\'s still available.\"

Toma growled. \"You know I want her, Bardock,\" he said. \"Don\'t even think about it. I\'ll win her over one of these days.\"

Bardock laughed. \"Yeah, the day she can\'t knock you on your ass for even suggesting it!\" He paused. \"But speaking of her, I suppose she and the others should know that I\'m all right and that I\'m living out here now,\" he said.

\"No problem,\" Toma waved. \"I have to get back to check in at my parents\' any way,\" he said. \"We were all going to go into town for a bonfire tonight anyway; we can just detour out here instead.\"

Bardock nodded. \"All right,\" he said. \"I\'ll see you then, Toma. I\'ll try to get some light and food in here in the meantime.\"