A Place in the Dirt

Talltree-san;;
Thank you for the review. :)
Don't worry, I think I made this chapter a little longer~

AN: I don't think I mentioned the fact that the title chapters are the prompts and this one is two prompts added together to make a longer chapter. It's not all that, but I had to set a scene for a later chapter to come (aka ch.6). ;)


Chapter Three: sky. degrees.

“What are you doing Kakarot?” The question was directed towards the younger Saiyan that was currently pressed to the window. Ogling at the stars and such that was around them.

“Isn’t it so amazing Vegeta? I love being this close to the sky.” He laughed, though he knew very well that this wasn’t exactly the sky. It was just space. That’s all it was. It was pitch blackness in most areas; there were stars that burned bright out in the distance. There were the occasional planets; the occasional space debris from one of the stars burning out… from a meteor exploding. They even passed a planet here or there. Of course, they were going at a speed that would make a normal person sick just to look out there. The ship was fast, it had to be to get them where they needed and to get all the dragon balls before the year was over.

Vegeta just huffed and shrugged his shoulders, “I grew up with this Kakarot. Have you forgotten? When you are so used to seeing this all the time, it doesn’t have that much value. You haven’t been out here a lot, sure every once in a while… but Kakarot… I was out here for years.” A grimace found its way across Vegeta’s face, “I was tortured up here for way too long. I rather not have to associate it with my past, but that’s what it means to me. Nothing.”

The younger Saiyan frowned. That’s not the way he wanted to think about it at all. It was an awful way to look at it, but he couldn’t argue with the Saiyan prince. He knew that Vegeta had a major conflict with anything that reminded him of what and who he once was. Rather it was because of the way he grew up – filled with lies by Frieza or the fact that he considered himself to be a better person now and didn’t want any part of the bad one he was.

Vegeta let out a heavy sigh as he noticed the frown upon the other’s lips as Goku’s eyes were still trained on staring at one little spot in the ‘sky’.

That’s not what it meant to Goku at all. The sky was supposed to be a very intimate thing to most people. It represented so much. When someone dies, it’s a place to look and know that the special someone is up there somewhere. When some people needed guidance, the sky was the place that held their altar. It was their escape to know that there was something good out there.

“I guess it is… beautiful if I don’t think about that though. It’s different to look up at it from the planet than straight out into it,” he shrugged once more as he went to go stand next to Goku.

The frown then left and the younger Saiyan nodded his head in agreement. He pulled himself away from the glass and leaned more towards Vegeta. “It does look different… do you like it more when you are on earth?”

“I… like it more when I’m not stuck in a spaceship with nothing to do. I guess it’ll be more entertainment when we finally reach that planet tomorrow and find that dragon ball.”

“You bet,” Goku grinned at as he watched Vegeta lean his forehead against the window and close his eyes. It was quiet for a while after that and he wondered if he did something wrong by even suggesting the little concept of the stars. It was obvious that the older Saiyan was deep in thought now which made Goku shift nervously. He reached out and placed his hand on Vegeta’s shoulder and leaned closer to him with a smile, “hey… you’re okay right?”

Vegeta turned his head just enough to see Goku smiling back at him and let his own partial smile cross his face. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Uh…” the younger Saiyan laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. Vegeta really didn’t look okay, but now he wasn’t sure how to even explain that.

Vegeta turned completely around and shrugged, “stop over thinking it Kakarot. I’m fine. After all, you are around…”

Goku was taken back. His wide eyes stared at Vegeta in disbelief, but the older just dismissed the comment and walked away from the window and to the hall way, “Let’s go find something to eat now. I’m starving and I’m sure you are.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!”

…

Goku stepped into the control room with his arms crossed over his chest as he tried a feeble attempt at trying to get warm, “gee, Vegeta… it’s getting colder by the minute.”

“We’re a good bit away from the galaxy’s sun Kakarot. I expect that the planet we are going to is going to be a lot colder than this,” Vegeta chuckled at the other Saiyan as he watched the pout form across the usually happy face.

“Man! I don’t usually get cold like this though! It’s a lot colder than it is anywhere on earth. I don’t even have anything warm to wear on the planet if it is cold.” He crouched down next to Vegeta and watched as the other messed with the controls. They were close now; only a few minutes away from the planet that the dragon radar was indicating at.

“This is so exciting! Our first dragon ball…”

“Do you get excited about everything? You’ve been searching for the dragon balls before.”

“Yeah, but not like this… I never had to go after ones that were all on different planets before!” He grinned up at Vegeta, who only stared down at him dumbfounded. Goku really did find joy in the smallest things – why couldn’t he do that? Though he would never admit that he really wanted to…

“Alright Kakarot… Now sit down and strap in before we land. I don’t want you splattered on the wall or something worse. That would be an awful mess to clean up.”

“Thanks Vegeta,” the younger Saiyan replied sarcastically and crossed his arms with a fake pout after he had gotten himself buckled up into his seat.

Once Goku was sure they were landed and that the ship wasn’t going to move anymore he unstrapped the buckles from his seat and stood up to follow Vegeta to the door to exit the ship. Vegeta pressed the button and the door slid up exposing them to the arctic air that hit their skin immediately. There was snow covering the entire ground which made it impossible to see anything else that could decorate the planet. They didn’t see any trees and the only thing that was in site besides the snow was what looked like a city in the distance.

Vegeta pulled the radar out of his pocket and stared at it before letting out a low growl, “the damn thing isn’t working.”

“What do you mean it isn’t working!?” Goku snatched the radar from Vegeta’s hands and looked it over. He shook the device once he realized that it sure enough wasn’t on. It took a good attempt before he gave up and tossed it back to the older Saiyan.

“It must be frozen. I guess we are going to have to do this the hard way,” Vegeta stepped out of the ship and sunk into the snow. He was not pleased to find that it came to his waist and the snow was very unpleasant against his cold skin. “Maybe flying to the city would be the best option. If we are lucky they would know where the ball is.”

“Wait!” Goku looked up as Vegeta hovered out of the snow, “we can’t just fly there. They might think we are bad guys or something Vegeta. These people may not be used to that kind of thing. Besides… the air would be colder if we flew fast enough than it would be than walking through the snow.”

“Whatever Kakarot. We can at least fly half way there. It’s freezing out here and we should be in a hurry to get this over with!”

The Saiyan prince took off and left Goku to sigh in frustration. The older Saiyan never listened to him and he knew that being careless with their powers could get them into trouble eventually. Still there was no point in him walking behind when Vegeta was going to ruin it and fly anyways so he took off after him. At least Vegeta was right about the fact that it would be quicker…

It really was only a quick flight and they had to land to avoid causing any possible alarm amongst the planet’s inhabitants. “How can anyone live here… it’s so cold.”

“Stop complaining you idiot… If the planet is always this cold, don’t you think the people would be made for it? Living things adapt to their surroundings.”

Goku crossed his arms and turned away from Vegeta. He was already annoyed and they hadn’t even been gone from earth that long. What happened to his plans of getting Vegeta to warm up to him? This was failing already. They stopped once they reached the entrance to the town. They already had eyes turned to them and checking them out.

“Oh you poor things… you look cold,” one of them said and held out blankets towards the two Saiyans.

Goku smiled at his greeter and took the blanket that was handed to him while the other was given to Vegeta, “thank you. It is really cold on this planet.”

He looked over the being in front of him. These people weren’t really all that strange looking compared to some of the others he had seen. They were actually pretty close to humans, but they were slightly shorter and their skin was extremely pale with a gray shade to it. They were also very questionable on what gender they were since they did not have any major differences in their body structure that was noticeable.

“What brings you two here?”

“Where…. Looking for something,” Goku was skeptical to answer since he knew that if he actually explained the dragon balls it could put them in danger of someone wanting the wish to themselves.

This answer of course wasn’t good enough and Vegeta knew so. There were other ways of explaining what they needed after all, “our home is in danger because of something that belongs there… if we don’t return it then something bad will happen and everybody there will lose their lives.”

“Oh my! That doesn’t sound good at all… so you think this thing is here?”

“We know it is. There’s actually more than one and we need them all back home…” Goku replied, he decided that maybe Vegeta did have the right idea of explaining that their home was endangered, maybe it would make the people feel more sympathetic towards them, “it’s an orange ball and it has one to seven stars on it. Have you seen it anywhere?”

“No, I’m sorry. I can’t say that I have seen anything like that around here… it sounds a lot like a children’s ball if you ask me,” the alien grinned back at him, “how do you know that it’s here though?”

“Well… we have a radar that normally tells use, but when we got here it was too cold and I guess the thing is frozen or something,” he pouted as he remembered why exactly that had gone to the city without getting the ball first.

“That is really misfortunate. What do you plan on doing?”

“Going to look for it with our eyes,” Vegeta grunted at the thought. He wasn’t sure how big or how complicated this was going to be and he did not like it. They would probably just have to dig through five feet of snow just to get to the damn ball and if they looked that way then they would never find it!

“Right now? It will be dark soon and if you haven’t noticed we don’t have much lighting on this planet since we do not have a sun and then moon is on the other side of the planet during this session. You should at least stay in the city tonight. Maybe you will find what you are looking for here in the limits?”

“Is there somewhere we can stay?” Goku asked hopeful, which also meant food if he was lucky. He could tell Vegeta wanted to protest the suggestion. The Saiyan prince was grinding his teeth and making his annoyance obvious.

“You’re in luck. I’m the inn owner,” a grin passed over the greeter’s lips as he bowed slightly to introduce himself, “you call me Yanly. And you…?”

“I’m Goku and he’s Vegeta,” the Saiyan was extremely happy now. Warmth, food, a place to stay – the only thing missing was the dragon ball. It really seemed that things were starting to get better since they had landed on that ice ball planet.

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AN: Oh, but something always goes wrong, doesn't it? Why don't you keep reading to find out?