Spiral

Disclaimer: I don’t own DB/Z/GT or any of the characters found in this fic. They are the property of TOEI ANIMATION in Japan and FUNimation in the U.S.A. I am making no profit from this work of fanfiction.

Warnings: Rated R for language, blood and pain. If you don’t care for that sort of thing, don’t read any more of this story.

BDSM (bondage [tied up], sadistic/masochism [I like giving pain/I like receiving pain]). Implied Snuff, (people being killed during sex.)

And finally yaoi lemon: men having sex with men. K/V.

A/N: If you’ve managed to come back to read this chapter, I am VERY happy to have you back! J The squick part is over, but the difficulties/complications are just beginning.


A HUGE thank you goes to Chibi Vegeta for beating this work of fanfiction. THANK YOU c_v!!!!!

Chapter 4 – 20/20


An hour later, Vegeta attempted to get the gag out of his mouth. He could bend his arm just enough to reach the cloth, but his broken hand still had little strength in it. He ran the back of his head against the dirt, quietly, hoping he’d be able to roll the knot back there one way or another, giving the material some slack. He lay there breathing heavily through his nose after he did accomplish it, slowly working the other sleeve out of his mouth with his tongue and lips.

When he had finally managed that, he hoped his voice wouldn’t fail him. He really had only one option: Goku. The moron was going to be full of questions of course, but Vegeta needed a senzu, badly.

He took a deep breath before he said “Fusion” as loudly as his damaged throat would allow. He hoped it was loud enough. He did not want to go through a round two with things as they stood.

Kakarott snorted once in his sleep, and then Goku dreamed of nightmarish things.


~o0o~


Goku woke with a start shivering from the cold, shuddering from his dreams. “Vegeta?” He whispered into the darkness. He was certain they had not finished their fight in the dark. He did not even remember lying down to rest.

He lifted himself up to his elbow, thinking he had heard something, other than crickets, to his right. It came again: a whimper. Vegeta did that sometimes, in his sleep while he was dreaming. Goku had learned not to wake the volatile prince under such circumstances. He was just about to lie back down, when he heard something else.

“Ka-Ka-ro..t,” Vegeta had been waiting, in pain, for hours for the other to wake up. He almost hadn’t heard the other say his name as he had been trying to meditate beyond his corporeal needs.

“Vegeta? Are you okay?” Goku asked a little louder. He still wasn’t certain if Vegeta was awake or just dreaming heavily.

“No,” Vegeta said quietly. It cost him a lot to admit that. An owl taunted him in the distance.

Goku searched for his pants, wondering what had become of his clothes before he had been put to bed. The only thing he could think of was that Vegeta had knocked him out during the fight, and then laid him down for the night.

“Where’re my pants Vegeta?” Goku finally asked in frustration.

“Over here,” Vegeta flinched, “Near me.” Another thing he was certain he would have to explain later. Things were so different from the way he had planned.

Goku thought that was odd, “Do you mind bringing them to me?” Vegeta usually kept his distance when they camped. He had never stripped him, or slept next to his clothes before.

“Can’t.” Fuck, how was he going to explain all of this? He whimpered involuntarily as his body tensed because of his inner turmoil.

Goku got up from the sleeping roll, and walked almost blindly in the direction Vegeta’s voice had come from. “Where are you?”

Vegeta took a frustrated breath, flinched at the pain it caused in his chest, and ended up coughing as coagulated blood from his internal injuries blocked his air passage.

Goku did not like the sound of that at all. Vegeta did not cough, not like this. The gurgling that accompanied the sound was disconcerting. There was really something wrong.

He managed to find his pants, but not in the way he had been hoping. He tripped over the material and the pile of boots, and fell before he could use his ki to catch himself.

Vegeta screamed as Goku’s full weight landed on his mangled ankle. Goku hurriedly pushed himself up, not knowing what had caused such an outburst from Vegeta. “What happened?” He asked while reaching around in the dark for the piece of material he had tripped over and listening to Vegeta’s labored breathing.

Vegeta had his teeth clenched tightly together. “You landed on my broken ankle.”

“Broken?” Goku said in shock. It took a lot to break a sayian’s bones, and even more to break them when they were encased in armored boots. And that had been one of the pointy boots he had landed on.

“Yes, broken,” Vegeta repeated.

“Vegeta, why didn’t you get a senzu bean?” Goku asked. There really was no reason for Vegeta to have been laying around in this much pain for no reason.

“Can’t.” Vegeta’s response frustrated Goku. He had never heard the prince use the word ‘can’t’ twice in one conversation. Well, that one confrontation with Brolli, but that had been a long time ago; Vegeta usually was not this pessimistic about circumstances. If anything, he was always biting off more than he could chew.

Goku took in a breath, thinking exactly how he wanted to ask his next question, but Vegeta beat him to it. “Injuries,” he stressed the plural nature of the word.

“Where, how many?” Goku asked, thinking he could probably tote the Prince over to look through the packs. He pulled his pants on while waiting for Vegeta to reply.

“Hand,” Goku did remember crushing Vegeta’s left hand, and he realized that was just about the last memory he had of the rest of the day. Then he remembered Vegeta had dislocated his shoulder after he had broken his hand. He wondered why it was not hurting now.

“Okay, any more?” There had to be more. Vegeta could have easily accomplished flying and fighting with those two injuries.

“Rib cage split. Right elbow separated. Left shoulder crushed. Back fractured. Hip fractured. Throat swollen and bruised. Nose…” Vegeta began to list them off, almost as if it were a military report.

Goku ran out of patience waiting for the answer to the biggest question. “Who did this?” Anger at Vegeta’s injuries and annoyance with the situation at large were evident in his voice.

Vegeta immediately fell silent. Goku rarely showed anger, and the voice filled with such dark emotion only reminded Vegeta of very recent events.

“Vegeta, you’ve got to tell me who…”

Vegeta closed his eyes as Goku started to repeat himself and yelled, “Just get me a fucking senzu!” He paid dearly for his out burst with another coughing fit. His ribs chose repeatedly to remind him they were no longer bound together.

Goku got up quickly and lit a small ki ball at the tip of his finger as he headed in the direction of his sleeping bag. Had he known he would have added to Vegeta’s suffering by tripping over him in the dark instead of worrying over Vegeta’s sensibilities, he would have done so earlier, but he had not known of Vegeta’s condition then.

He looked around at the scattered packages. Things that should have been safely capsulized were strewn all about in no seeming pattern. Someone had randomly gone through their things. The extra sleeping roll was tossed over the boulder. The tent was stuck in a sage bush next to the boulder. Extra clothes were thrown about. All the food containers were empty. And so was his senzu bag. He turned in it inside out, just to make certain, but came up with the same answer.

Goku got on his knees and crawled around with his one hand still acting as a flash light as he scoured the ground looking for one that may have escaped. He stopped and sat back on his haunches as he realized he was probably doing more damage than he was good by disturbing the dirt in the area. “Great,” he said aloud.

Vegeta heard panic and sarcasm in Goku’s voice. “What?”

“I can’t find any senzu.” Goku announced. He placed the empty bag on the ground and put a rock over it, hoping to mark the spot he had found it so he could look again in the morning.

Shit. That fucking bastard. “Never mind then. I’ll wait until morning.”

Goku stood up from where he kneeled and walked towards Vegeta, ki light still glowing at his fingertip. “I could I.T. you to Dende,” he started to suggest.

“You touch me right now, I swear, I’ll find a way to kill you, Kakarott!” Vegeta hissed, before he realized he was transferring blame onto the wrong ‘person.’

Goku was taken back by the conviction in Vegeta’s voice: until he finally stood over the other sayian, and saw the reality of the damage done to the other’s body. “Fuck, Vegeta.” He choked as he looked over the evident damage on the other’s nearly naked form.

The smaller sayian’s neck was totally blackened from bruising. There was a thick line of the same coloration down Vegeta’s chest, and then it faded into purple and yellow as it stretched out over his rib cage.

There were other obvious bruises adorning Vegeta’s abdomen, black in the center, tinged around the edges with a reddish purple, blue in the places that had not been damaged, but the blood was obviously pooling, as the blood vessels that would normally carry it away were unable to handle the task.

Goku saw the dried blood that had been flowing down Vegeta’s chin earlier, before Vegeta had enough of the scrutiny. “Shut the light off, Kakarott.”


Goku did so, but still saw Vegeta clearly in his mind. He did not wonder much at his mistake in thinking Vegeta had been dressed. The difference between the bruising and Vegeta’s usual training clothes were easily confused in the starlight. “I’ll bring Dende here.” He said, ready to take off that instant.

“No,” Vegeta said.

“But Vegeta…” Goku began.

“I’m not dying, Kakarott.” Vegeta assured the other.

“But he could heal you!”

“And then I would have another person asking questions.” Vegeta sighed, turning his head in the opposite direction of the other. Even in the darkness the gesture seemed necessary. “This…” he started and then faltered, not really ever wanting Kakarott to know what had happened or whose fault it was.

Goku waited. He knew if he pressed, Vegeta would not give him any answers.

“This is only between you and me.” Vegeta explained. Then he said something Goku did not understand. “And you were never supposed to know about it.”

Goku got a creepy feeling that his void of memory for a couple of hours had something to do with the situation. “Vegeta,” he started, “Please tell me what happened,” as the unease of his nightmares settled in the pit of his stomach.

Vegeta sighed to himself. He could still pull this off. It was not so unusual for him to be obstinate and belligerent. He did not need to tell the fool anything, and he knew he did not want to, but still…there was the tiniest little part of him that wanted to say something. Wanted to get his past out into the open. Wanted someone to hurt almost as much as he did. Had his desire to defeat Kakarott driven him to this self-destruction? He seriously thought about it, but in the end, decided the answer was no.

“Kakarott, I am suffering enough. Leave it until morning when I can look you in the eye, and tell you what I have done.” Vegeta finally said. He almost laughed as an idea came to him. He could pass this whole thing off as wishing to become stronger by making the only other sayian less inhibited.

It was not the answer he had been hoping to hear, but Goku knew now that Vegeta did know what had happened. Answers would come, even if the timing were dictated by the stubborn sayian. “Okay…” he finally compromised.

Goku turned and walked back to the ‘campsite’. He did not understand Vegeta’s hedging. It was not like the prince to not want to get one up on someone who had bested him. Then the words, ‘what I have done’, hit him. What could have Vegeta done that would leave him in such a shocking state? He had seen Vegeta in better shape after the gravity room had exploded around him.

He grabbed the sleeping roll he had been using and the one that had been thrown over the boulder. He placed ‘his’ on the ground, before unzipping the unused one, “Do you want to be covered?” He asked Vegeta.

There was a moment of silence, and Goku could almost bet the elite was pondering how cowardly it would be to say he was cold. Finally a quiet “Yes” came as Vegeta’s answer and Goku gently laid the sleeping roll over Vegeta’s body.

Goku settled himself into his own roll afterwards. He bit his tongue several times trying not to ask the same questions over, but that did not stop them from running through his mind at a million miles per hour.

Vegeta could sense that Goku was restless. He tried to ignore the other, but meditation was almost impossible now. It was not just the constant wiggling around from the other and the noise it caused; he could feel Goku’s unease.

And Vegeta had questions of his own, maybe asking his would get the other to forget. “How long have you suspected about my past?”

Goku’s attention was easily drawn to the other. Vegeta was all he had been thinking about. “What do you mean, Vegeta? There’s never been anything to suspect. You’ve always been honest about your past, if lacking in detail.”

Vegeta sighed. Kakarott would not have said or done some of the things he had if Goku had not speculated about…things. “How long have you thought about Frieza’s and my relationship to each other.” Vegeta asked point blank. He heard the other sayian’s breath stall.

“Vegeta, I…” Goku’s voice failed him; he did not know how to approach the subject at all. He sensed a lack of feeling as if…as if he did not know how such a thing could truly be, even if he had reached a conclusion years ago that there had to have been abuse in Vegeta’s past.

Vegeta did not want to play games. Even Kakarott’s stalling seemed as though he was not prepared to give an honest answer. The subject must have really disturbed the other, if Goku was willing to lie by omission.

“Vegeta, I…I don’t think it’s something I want to discuss in the dark.” Goku said, trying to buy him self some time. He did not want Vegeta to know what he thought. Then he would have to explain why he had even been speculating in the first place.

Vegeta closed his eyes trying to garner patience. “Fair enough, we’ll discuss this in the morning.”

Goku nodded, and then remembered how dark it was. “Okay. Good night, Vegeta.”

“Hn,” was the wounded prince’s response.

The rest of the night was fitful for both of them. Vegeta lay awake because of his pain, so he ended up listening to Goku’s soft snores, which became whimpers and slight shuffling as the other fell back into his dreams.

Shock finally reaped its harvest, and Vegeta dozed lightly. Pain and memories kept his sleep fitful and delirious. There was nothing restful about it.


~o0o~


Dawn caught the sleeping figures unaware. Goku rolled as sunlight hit his face trying to stay asleep for a bit more.

Vegeta was dreaming about slick white tails coiling around his throat when Goku’s foot, having escaped the sleeping roll through the undone zipper, connected with his elbow. As the burst of pain crossed over into his nightmare he woke screaming, starting Goku into immediate wakefulness.

When a quick search of the vicinity revealed no one other than vultures circling overhead and a small group of tiny birds settling back down to the ground to picking over their scattered things, Goku turned his attention back to Vegeta. The prince lay with his eyes clenched shut, breathing heavily through his mouth.

Goku did not bother asking if Vegeta was okay. It was obvious the other sayian was not. The parts of Vegeta’s skin that were not covered with bruising or the unzipped sleeping roll had a feverish, unhealthy sheen to them.

He turned his attention back to the small birds as they squabbled over something they had found, but was impossible for one of them to eat without reducing its size first. Their wings fluttered and they took short hops, using tiny, clawed feet to spur at their opponents.

Goku got up quickly when he noticed they were near the empty senzu pouch.
The birds that were not contenders at getting to the object took off at Goku’s hasty approach.

Two of them did not notice until he was almost upon them, their fight making them heedless of the goings on around them. One of the two finally saw the impending danger, and chose to relinquish his claim of the object for the safety of his life.

The other one, having thought he had won, took his time, picking it up with its beak, before turning around and seeing what had scared off his fellows. He took to the air with his prize at the sight of Goku.

Goku went after the bantam with blinding speed. The poor traumatized creature squawked and dropped the object as Goku’s fist gently caged around its body. Goku let the bird go as he caught the bean it had dropped. He turned back to take it to Vegeta and noticed the vultures from earlier were very brave (or starving) approaching Vegeta before he was even dead.

“SHOOO!!! Get out of here!!!” Goku yelled as he flew back, his prize clutched in his hand. The vultures’ downward spiral broke apart as they scattered. They reformed at what they considered a safe distance to wait and watch as they lazily continued their harassment from above.

“Vegeta! I’ve found a senzu.” Goku said as he touched down softly next to the smaller sayian.

Vegeta turned his head in the other’s direction and opened his eyes. Goku noticed how glazed they were, and that the white of the one next to Vegeta’s broken cheek had bled red. “Good.” Was all that Vegeta answered. One senzu was not going to be enough, but it would help a lot.

“I need to get a better look at your injuries. If what you listed off last night is the gist of it, we are going to have to give the senzu some help.” Goku told the other as he started to gently lift the sleeping roll away.

Vegeta closed his eyes and nodded. He was not looking forward to what Goku was saying without words. He wished dearly for a regeneration tank. Once he was clear of this mess, he planned on asking the woman to build one. He never wanted to have to rely on the little beans alone again.

Goku’s first glance at Vegeta’s body gave him false hope. It looked as though the bruises had already started to heal themselves. That is, until he looked closer, to where Vegeta’s body made contact with the ground. It was unnaturally dark between the dirt and Vegeta’s body. Heedful of Vegeta’s list of a fractured spine, Goku bent down and dug a couple of handfuls of soil away from Vegeta’s side. “Fuck.” he said before he could stop himself.

“What is it?” Vegeta asked. His voice was calm. One of them needed to be. Kakarott was always the more emotional one.

“The blood from your bruises has pooled to the lowest available spot.” Goku described what he was seeing.

“You’re going to have to set the bones Kakarott.” Vegeta said, confirming both of their concerns that one senzu would not be enough.

Goku’s hands shook as he looked for somewhere safe to place the senzu down. This was going to cause the other an awful amount of pain, and yet he knew knocking the prince unconscious at a time like this could mean his death. He stood up and looked around taking a few moments to calm himself. He walked away from the other and grabbed up the senzu pouch then came back while he deposited the little bit of hope into the bag.

He placed his bag next to the small pile of boots, two of which were his, one of which was Vegeta’s. Then he reached over and pulled the sleeping roll totally clear of Vegeta’s body.

He tried hard not to stare in horror. How anyone could have done this to Vegeta, he had no idea. The other had told the truth last night. Any of the injuries alone, with the possible exception of the fractured spine, weren’t life threatening to a sayian. If they were allowed to go untended though? With as many as there were? That was where the danger lay.

Goku’s shock over the visual horror distracted him from what his other senses were trying to tell him. Like the vague scent of…something, before he could not stand looking anymore.

“Where do you think I should start Vegeta?” Goku asked. He was still anxious about the task that had been left to him. Any thinking he did not have to do about what had to be done was for the better.

“Start with the ankle. My legs are mostly fine. I’ll be able to hold the injured one still while you work on the other injuries. If you were to set my upper injuries first, I would probably just jerk them back out again.” Vegeta tried to give his best assessment of the situation.

Goku drew in a deep breath. “Okay.” He sat down cross-legged near Vegeta’s feet. He pulled the injured foot into his lap. He tried to ignore Vegeta’s wincing as he looked the foot over. “The boot is going to have to come off,” he quietly told Vegeta.

“Yeah,” Vegeta said, panting slightly. He swallowed, his adam’s apple moving beneath the discolored skin of this throat. “Probably best to just cut it off.”

Goku nodded. Once again he lit his fingertip with ki, and ran it along the side of Vegeta’s boot, trying not to go too deeply with the energy. Then he ran the same finger along the bottom, and back up the other side. After his first pass, he tried prying the boot apart, and found his estimate had been too shallow. Vegeta yelped when he tugged too hard. “Sorry.” Goku said quietly.

“Hn.” Vegeta responded. “You’re going to have to wrap your mind around the fact you are going to cause me pain, and I am going to react. It’s alright, I know what to expect.”

Goku nodded, but he still did not feel any better about what was going to happen. He made another ki pass at the tough armored boot, and tried again. The back of the boot came off easily, but the tip stayed constricted around Vegeta’s swollen toes. “FUCK!” Vegeta yelled out while Goku held onto his heel and tried to pull the front off.

Goku stopped his process and settled for making an additional cut down the front of the boot and pulled it apart that way. Vegeta pounded the back of his head into the ground a couple of times, trying not to scream in agony. Goku noticed Vegeta was not the only one panting. “Vegeta, why don’t you just let me go get Dende?!”

“Kakarott! I said no! Suck it up and act like a sayian for fuck’s sake!” Vegeta shot back.

“You stupid, stubborn bastard,” Goku hissed under his breath. He closed his eyes, trying to focus. He shook his hands out to his sides, trying to get their trembling settled. He warmed them up with a bit of ki before opening his eyes and reaching for Vegeta’s foot again.

The skin was too tight from swelling to allow for the controlled pull Goku was going to have to perform in order to set the bones. “I’m going to have to massage it,” Goku told Vegeta.

Vegeta grit his teeth and nodded his head, trying to get into a mind set to allow for the pain to come. Of course, no amount of prepping was going to be enough. He whimpered a tossed his head from side to side as Goku used pressure and ki to get the circulation flowing in the broken limb. He tried desperately not to react to the pain in a manner other than that of hurting. ‘Goku’ would never understand.

Once the joint was loose enough Goku grabbed Vegeta’s heel in both of his hands and pulled steadily as he rotated. His eyes lost focus as he tried to ‘see’ the broken ankle aligning correctly. The multiple bones made this a dubious guess at best.

Vegeta’s scream echoed off of the ground as Goku pulled a fraction of an inch and rotated Vegeta’s ankle by the hold he had on the smaller one’s heel. Vegeta could not help kicking his other leg as he tried to stop jerking the one Goku held. He even batted his broken hand against the ground in a false hope of one pain sensor overriding the other.

Goku finally let his hands be drawn forward to close the gap. He turned his head to the side as his focus was lost, and he thought he was going to lose the contents of his stomach. After a couple of steadying breaths he supported Vegeta’s ankle with the hand that had been holding the other’s heel as he reached for what was left of the back of Vegeta’s boot.

He slid Vegeta’s foot into it, and reached for the other two parts. Once he had Vegeta’s foot balanced and the tops held in place, he worked his gi belt off. He used it to tie the pieces of the boot back together. It was the best brace he could think of.

Goku placed Vegeta’s encased foot on the ground and reached for his weighted boots to wedge Vegeta’s foot so the toes stayed upward. He stood up and walked a couple of short steps away once Vegeta’s foot was pinned in place.

The frazzled sayian bent over and placed his hands on his knees, looking as though he had run a marathon. Sweat trickled down the sides of his face as his lungs tried to work air into his stressed body. “What are you trying to prove Vegeta?” He asked, not turning to look at the other.

Vegeta was breathing so heavily it took him a moment before he could respond. “I’m not trying to prove anything Kakarott.”

“Then why won’t you let me get Dende?” Goku insisted.

Vegeta started to growl, but stopped when the vibrations hurt his throat and chest. “The hard part is over Kakarott. You only have to realign the elbow and set my collarbone. Then you can give me the senzu.”

“What about your hand?” Goku asked, stalling for more time as he tried to gain his composure.

“It’s fractured in so many places; it’s best to hope for the senzu to work.” Vegeta said. He hoped it would work, but he had a sinking feeling it was going to have to be re-broken and then set after he ate the senzu. Of what he knew of senzu beans, the healing properties would start on the life threatening internal injuries Kakarott didn’t know about first, before it started working on such trivial things as a broken hand or bruising.

Goku took one last big breath before he straightened up and turned around. His mind finally started wondering about Vegeta’s state of undress. Why were the sleeves of the training suit torn off, but one was resting around Vegeta’s neck and the other laying on the ground next to the injured sayian’s ear? Why had only one of Vegeta’s boots been taken off? Why were the legs of Vegeta’s training pants the only thing left intact and his shirt ripped down the center? He just could not bring himself to start asking those sorts of questions. It looked like…he just did not want to think about what it looked like.

Vegeta lay silent while Goku inspected the scene before him a bit more. He hoped the third class would not notice how his body had reacted unnaturally to the pain. Or if he did notice, that he would attribute it to shock, and nothing else. The prince felt uncomfortable, but there was not anything he could do other than yell at the other. He preferred to save his energy for better things. Still the scrutiny and stalling were starting to wear on his very frayed nerves. “Can we just get this done?”

Goku started with guilt, realizing that his stalling was leaving Vegeta laying on the ground in indescribable pain. He knelt down next to Vegeta’s mangled elbow. The forearm and palm lay at a 90-degree angle to what was normal. Once again he flooded his hands with ki.

He took hold of the upper arm in one hand, just above the abused joint, and then held the lower arm with his other hand. He drew in a steadying breath as he realized this was going to take more than just a simple turning. He pulled his hands apart, similar to what he had done with Vegeta’s ankle, but he rotated much slower. He could feel cartilage rubbing against bone, and had to pull even further apart. Ligaments warped under his fingertips like coiled ropes being rolled over stone.

Amazingly, Vegeta stayed quiet through out the whole process. He could not see Vegeta’s face, which the elite had turned away from him, but if Goku could have seen Vegeta’s face, he would have noticed that he had bitten through his lower lip, trying not to moan.

When Goku thought he had everything back in place, he let his hands come together slowly. Vegeta’s good leg jerked at that point. “Something is pinching,” he hissed under his breath.

Goku’s instincts were to pull his hands apart quickly, but he knew that would be disastrous. Once again he pulled slowly. The second time he let them come together, he wiggled Vegeta’s lower arm minutely back and forth, hoping to get things to rock back into place on their own. When Vegeta did not make any complaints he placed the other’s arm on the ground gently. “Hold it still. I want to make another splint.”

Vegeta nodded his head in response. Goku reached for the other white boot that had lain with his own. He made a quick cut of ki to separate the foot from the leg of the boot. Then he tore the front away so there was a slot to fit Vegeta’s arm through. He lifted Vegeta’s arm and placed the bootleg underneath it. Then he pried it open just enough for it to fit around Vegeta’s elbow. “You doing alright?” Goku asked, hoping nothing had changed in the alignment while he had been handling Vegeta’s elbow the second time.

“Yeah.” Vegeta replied through gritted teeth. “Just one more, then you can give me the senzu.” The prince tried to keep his voice neutral.

A mantra of ‘almost done’ began running through Goku’s head. He reached for the pouch containing the solo bean before he changed positions so he was seated at Vegeta’s head. He felt along Vegeta’s damaged clavicle, trying to feel what needed to be done in order to set it. “It’s broken in three places Vegeta. They are very close together.”

Vegeta nodded his head. “Just do the best you can.”

Goku tried to take his time, but he kept thinking about what Vegeta was going through. He made a couple of fumbling prods at Vegeta’s broken bone. Vegeta winced each time something moved, but not in the direction it was supposed to.

“I have an idea Vegeta.” Goku said as he took his hands away.

“What would that be?” Vegeta asked warily.

“I could manipulate them into place with ki. It would sort of be like a shielding. But…”

“But? Sounds like a good idea to me.” Vegeta said. Anything sounded better than Goku poking his fingers at the injury more.

“I-I have to go inside. You’d have to let your personal shields down.” Goku said, even as he cringed at the idea. By mutual agreement neither he nor Vegeta brought up the subject of fusion willingly. Although this would not be a full blending of the two of them, he feared the prince would have strong objections.

“You would be able to do the same to my rib cage?” Vegeta asked, trying to think of why this would be a bad idea.

“I could, but I could use an external ki field for that.” Goku demonstrated by reaching his hands over Vegeta’s chest and making a covering motion. A faint glowing light surrounded Vegeta’s chest. Goku concentrated a bit more to wrap it totally around Vegeta’s torso, before thinking about it coming together slightly.

Vegeta took an experimental deep breath. “That’s helping. I can breathe easier.”

Goku opened his eyes. His signature blue aura was meshed with Vegeta’s red, causing most of the shield to bleed purple. He found it odd there were splotches on Vegeta’s chest that remained blue to his other sight.

“I can’t do that to your shoulder though, it’s inside. In order to encase it, your shields have to come down.” Goku tried to explain again.

Vegeta nodded, closing his eyes. He did not do this often. He slowly unwove the ki that was almost like a second skin to him.

Goku waited patiently. He knew this was not an effortless thing for the prideful sayian. Vegeta’s body gave the physical indicator that he had accomplished pulling his shielding down. His muscles relaxed so much it looked as though the ground had shifted beneath him.

Goku did his best to reinforce his own shields, but this sort of operation demanded he open himself to some degree. He pressed his fingertips gently against Vegeta’s skin, pressing his shielding through. It was not easy. Even with Vegeta’s ki held low the prince’s body still did not want to accept another’s intrusion so easily.

Even as Goku concentrated on getting his tiny ki shields to mesh and pull together inside Vegeta’s shoulder, he started seeing flashes of images he had been dreaming of the night before.

Once the shields were holding Vegeta’s bones in place Goku withdrew as far as he dared without disrupting the work he had done. He had been thinking he could do the same with Vegeta’s hand, but the images flashing through his mind were disturbing him. He quickly reached for the bag, and dumped the senzu in his hand. He pinched it between his thumb and forefinger. “Here Vegeta. Eat it.”

Vegeta opened his mouth for the small offering Goku pressed into his mouth. He chewed at it gingerly a couple of times before swallowing. He heard Goku get up and move away from him, even as he could feel the bean’s power flooding through him. Just as his sternum knitted together he could feel Goku’s shielding drop and he heard what he thought was the other vomiting.

The bean worked better than he had anticipated. The internal injuries must not have been as bad as he had thought they were. He could feel his hand twisting and the bones knitting together. The only thing that was not healing all the way was his ankle and bruised skin.

Goku heard the other sit up, and lifted his head to look at the man. Vegeta’s back was still blotchy with bruising, from what he could see around the torn material still hanging from the prince’s shoulders.

“How could you let me do that?” He asked quietly. Vegeta turned to look at him questioningly, not yet knowing the third class had figured almost everything out. Goku noticed the bruising around the other’s throat had not faded much either.

“How could I do that to you?” He asked of both himself and Vegeta, his eyes wide in shock and realization. Spittle still dripped from his lips, his legs too shaky for him to feel comfortable bringing his hands away from the ground long enough to wipe it away.

Vegeta looked him straight in the eye. “I told you; this is between you and me. And I had hoped you would never find out.”