Taste of Crimson

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.

A/N: There are so many wonderful other author’s fics. I have read and continue to read. It’s a huge list. If I were to try and list them all, it would be a whole separate chapter.

This is also one of my biggest problems with updating. I can’t read and type at the same time, so this story takes second place to other author’s inventions. Besides, I think this story is going fairly well, if slowly, for a story that was only meant to be a PWP in the first place.

Again, MANY thanks to Mechanical Butterfly for beta reading for me: THANK YOU, THANK YOU and THANK YOU.


Type of story: A/U
Rating- PG-13
Pairing: None

“X” indicates spoken dialog

‘X’ indicates thoughts

~X~ telepathy


Fifth chapter- ‘Innuendo’


~o0o~


Goku found that eating hot fish off of even hotter rocks wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. ‘Why didn’t I bring a plate? Or even just a fork for that matter?’ He thought to himself as he blew on his fingertips. He grabbed another finger full of fish, “Hot, hot, hot!” ‘No, this isn’t any fun at all.’ All of that fish still cooking in front of him, and he couldn’t do a thing about it. “Oh, sure, I can catch ki balls all day long, but I can’t even pick up hot fish.” He had tried placing a small ki shield around his fingertips earlier, but had only managed to scoot bits of fish around on the rock. Those rice balls he had eaten on the way there weren’t holding his stomach over any longer.

Exasperated, Goku looked around and spotted a small stick. He got up, walked over, picked it up and brought it back to the fire. He sat back down on his gi pants and used the twig to break away a chunk of cooked fish, and then poked the stick through it. Goku smiled at this achievement, placed his hand under the tidbit, brought it over to his mouth and blew on it until he thought it might be cool enough to handle. Then he picked the couple of bones that were in it out, and popped it into his mouth. ‘Awe, much better.’

Goku noticed Vegeta’s ki signature approaching, but was more busy worrying about his stomach than he was about why Vegeta was on his way towards him. After all, it had been a day and a half since he had had anything to eat, with the exception of the lollipop; he was hungry ‘I won’t know what he wants until he gets here anyway.’

Moments later, Vegeta landed a short ways off from Kakarott. He watched the process of eating hot fish with one stick, “That has got to be the slowest I have ever seen you eat,” he said. He admired the view though. Kakarott hadn’t gotten around to putting his pants back on after his fishing.

Goku just nodded his head. Uncharacteristically he swallowed what was in his mouth before answering, “Yeah, well I forgot to bring anything to eat with,” he smiled goofily, and scratched the back of his head. Then he noticed the way Vegeta’s eyes were roaming over his naked body. He blushed a deep scarlet, letting his arm drop back to his side.

Vegeta noticed the other man’s discomfort. He smiled wickedly, letting his eyes continue their disconcerting activity. He didn’t say anything though, ‘Let the baka be uncomfortable for a moment.’ The Prince walked closer to the fire and Kakarott.

Goku’s heart started to pump wildly in his chest. The look Vegeta gave him sent adrenaline coursing through his veins. He didn’t know what to make of the look. ‘Is he still upset about Bra?’ Goku didn’t think so. He had given his apology, and Vegeta had accepted it. It wasn’t a glare the Prince was giving him. As a matter of fact, there was a decidedly strange gleam in those dark eyes. A gleam Goku was having trouble making sense of. ‘Of course little about anything that’s happened today is making sense to me.’

Vegeta could practically translate what Kakarott was thinking through the baka’s body language alone. “I’m just admiring the scenery,” he let his facial features relax into their accustomed smirk.

Goku’s eyes narrowed, and the rosy color left his cheeks. He had come out here to do a little fishing and to think things through. He didn’t know if the Prince was playing some sort of game, but, if he was, Goku didn’t like it. ‘Would the universe come to an end if, for once, Vegeta just said what was on his mind without having to beat or humiliate the information out of him?’ Frustration turned into aggression, a familiar habit for Goku when dealing with his highness. He didn’t even notice that his body language was giving away his thoughts. Didn’t notice that he answered Vegeta’s smirk by pulling his lips back barring his teeth.

For a moment the Prince was taken back by the hostility radiating off of Kakarott. This, this was how the earth-raised sayian behaved when he was fighting. This reaction, out side of a fighting environment, was new, ‘So Kakarott does have instincts after all.’ How far this would play out, Vegeta didn’t know. Vegeta did know that he wanted to keep the upper hand in this potentially volatile situation. Although antagonizing the other man had almost become a hobby for Vegeta over the years, this wasn’t the time or place. He held out the bundle he was carrying, “I brought your shirt,” he said, unwrapping the article of clothing he was referring to.

This tactical change of subject quickly shut Goku’s awakening instincts off effectively. He reached his hand out and took the shirt from Vegeta’s grasp, placing it conveniently into his lap. He wrinkled his nose a little, smelling Bra’s scent mixed with his own on his shirt. ‘I’ll have to wash it, and soon.’ “Thanks for getting it from her for me,” he said, not looking up from his lap for a moment.

He hardly noticed Vegeta’s movements, the proximity of the other male not concerning him. Suddenly Vegeta was uncomfortably close behind him. He saw a gloved hand reach into his view, the arm attached brushing teasingly up against his ribs, “Here, you can use these, I brought extras,” Vegeta said quietly into his ear.

Goku willfully stilled a shiver that wanted to make his whole body tremble. He was fairly certain he should be offended by Vegeta’s invasion of his personal space, but thoughts leading toward that kind of confrontation were forgotten as he saw what the other man was holding out. He took the chopsticks from Vegeta, “Thanks!” He immediately started attacking his late lunch, almost dinner, with vigor using the unexpected, though much needed, utensils.

Vegeta shook his head, ‘Ah, the power of food over Kakarott! What’s that earth saying? ‘If there is only one constant in the universe it is that everything changes.’ I think I have discovered another,’ the Prince mused. He resisted the urge to run his gloved fingers over Kakarott’s bare side as he stood up. Turning his attention away from the feeding frenzy, he unwrapped the rest of the bundle. He placed the cooking oil and spices a little ways off from the fire. Then he turned back to observe Kakarott’s progress. The baka had finished the first fish and was making his way to the second by scooting around the fire to get to the next part of his meal. ‘His gi pants aren’t going to last long if he keeps running them through the dirt like that.’ Of course, Vegeta really didn’t care that much for the life expectancy of Kakarott’s pants. Thinking how unremorseful he would feel if those pants weren’t fit to be worn by the end of the meal, his face once again took on the wicked smile he had worn the first few moments when he had arrived.

Goku was so involved with his meal he didn’t notice at first when Vegeta started to strip off his clothing and set it next to the other things he had brought with him. When he did look up at a movement he had caught out of the corner of his eye he inhaled accidentally. Once again his lack of observation had scandalous consequences. Vegeta was standing there, naked. Goku coughed, trying to get the fish out of his windpipe. Vegeta laughed, “I didn’t give you the chopsticks so you could literally inhale your food.”

“I wouldn’t have inhaled it if you weren’t standing there like that,” Goku responded, waving his hand at the royal’s lack of clothing.

“ ‘If I wasn’t standing here like’ what?” Vegeta asked. He wanted to hear the third class say it.

Goku drug his eyes away from their view, “If you weren’t standing there naked, like nothing has happened,” Goku said, taking the Prince’s bait.

“I never knew you to be the modest type Kakarott. Besides, if I were acting as though nothing had happened, would I be standing here naked?” Vegeta challenged. He turned and walked towards the river, not waiting for Kakarott’s reply. ‘I wonder if he is even trying to figure that out.’

‘What the hell does that mean?’ Goku thought to himself. He quickly abandoned the thought in favor of watching Vegeta walk towards the river. ‘No, I have never been modest, but he has never been one to display that much skin before.’ Goku swallowed his next mouthful with an audible gulp. His imagination flashed, and he visualized about himself moving up behind Vegeta, grabbing his hips and licking the slightly pinkish tail scar. He came out of his reverie with a shiver. He noted, sadly, that Vegeta was already in the river and returned to finishing his meal.

Goku was on his fifth salmon when he heard a thump over by the river. A fish had landed next to the shoreline. Goku shook his head, ‘That’s too close to the river; the fish can just flop back in,’ he snuck a couple of bites while watching for his prediction to come true, but the fish didn’t even twitch. A second fish landed next to the first, this one wasn’t moving either. He wondered how Vegeta was killing the fish before he through them up on the shoreline, because he wasn’t detecting any energy spikes that would indicate that the Prince was using ki to accomplish the task.

Several more thumps later Vegeta came wading back up to the shore. After he gutted his fish he blasted the entrails with a low level blast. He ignored Kakarott, as the baka had turned to look at his energy expenditure, and washed his catch off in the river. Then he carried a dozen assorted fish back up to the fire. As he had foreseen, Kakarott was already finished with his meal, and was eyeing the fish Vegeta carried. “If you want some of these your going to need to get more wood, the fires dieing,” he ordered. Vegeta was a little frustrated that the fish were the only thing Kakarott seemed to be eyeing.

Goku was use to Vegeta’s mannerisms, so a lack of a please wasn’t as abrasive as it could have been. He didn’t bother to put pants on as he got up to go get more fuel for the fire. ‘If Vegeta is going to stay naked, then so am I,’ he felt that Vegeta’s nudity was some sort of challenge, and he wasn’t backing down.

By the time Goku returned with more firewood, Vegeta had already oiled, salted and seasoned the fish. They were on the rocks cooking: slowly, but cooking all the same. Goku placed chunks of wood on the fire. While he was doing this he noticed something funny about the fish. Bending down for a closer inspection he exclaimed, “You bit through their heads?” ‘Ew!’

Vegeta was a bit startled by Kakarott’s exclamation, “Something wrong with that?” Vegeta inquired, tilting his head to the side when he asked his question.

Goku noticed this, and remembered his thoughts earlier about that pose. ‘Yep, I still want to lick his neck.’ He restrained himself from putting thought into action, ‘What’s wrong with me?!’

Goku brought himself back to the present, and answered the Prince’s question, “No, I guess they’re dead either way,” he shuddered. ‘Yah, I’d kiss his neck, but I certainly don’t want to know what the fish tasted like when he bit into their skulls.’ The fire had now heated up enough that Goku could smell what was cooking, “Why do they smell different?”

Vegeta stood up to walk back to the river, “I seasoned them,” he called over his shoulder.

‘He’s still hasn’t put any clothes on,’ Goku noted, ‘and he’s doing so intentionally,’ he concluded. The continued display of flesh was almost driving Goku insane. If Vegeta wasn’t already heading towards the river he would have gone for a quick dip in the cold waters.

As Vegeta walked towards the river he smiled in anticipation. He had seen the way Kakarott was looking at him. The ‘Not so oblivious,’ look he had seen in the courtyard earlier this afternoon was starting to take on a gleam of lust in the other man’s eyes. He bent over and grabbed a hand full of sand from the riverbank. Then he waded further out into the river and used it to scrub his chest, arms and hands. Anywhere the slimy fish had come into contact with his body. Feeling Kakarott’s gaze still on him, he took his time, deliberately dragging out the washing process.

Goku watched as Vegeta scrubbed himself. ‘I guess he didn’t want his clothes smelling like fish,’ he thought. His hands twitched, wanting to be the one touching. He almost pouted, ‘I guess I was reading more into his actions than what was really going on.’ Now he was feeling a little silly about having been naked this whole time, ‘I wonder if Vegeta is reading anything into that.’ Goku kind of doubted this though. Vegeta had seen him naked plenty of times, ‘Nothing unusual here. Except maybe I have no real reason to be naked anymore.’

Vegeta splashed himself with water to get most of the sand off of his body. Then he slipped under the water’s surface to rinse the rest of it off. When he came back up, he pushed his hair out of his face, and looked back up on shore. He caught Kakarott just as the baka was turning his head away, ‘Right. Whatever. I guess coy is a couple of steps up from unaware.’ He didn’t bother to dry himself once he was out of the river.

Goku tried to act like the cooking fish were the only thing on his mind. That was really difficult to do when Vegeta stepped up on the opposite side of the fire, still naked with water running down his sculpted body. ‘Could he at least sit down?’

“Did you like it?” Vegeta asked, phrasing the question purposefully.

The question startled the other man, “U-uh, did I like what?” Goku stuttered, refusing to look up.

“The fish baka, did you like your fish?” Vegeta smirked as Goku blushed.

‘Oh, okay, phew,’ “Yes, I did.”

“I think you’ll like this better,” Vegeta said. The implications and inflection in his voice made it so the statement could be take several different meanings.

“What?” Goku once again fell for it.

‘This is almost too easy,’ “These, I think you’ll like these fish better,” he clarified. “What did you do while you were waiting for your fish to cook?”

“I went to the hot spring, to soak and think,” Goku said.

Vegeta found the fact Kakarott couldn’t seem to look any higher than his knees highly amusing. “Want to show me where it’s at?”

‘Anything is better than you standing there taunting me, even if you aren’t doing it on purpose.’ Goku now wasn’t certain if any of Vegeta’s actions meant anything more than what they seemed to be. ‘I am making a bigger issue of things than really exist,’ he acknowledged to himself. “Sure,” Goku got up to lead Vegeta up to the hot spring.

Vegeta admired the view the whole way. This was one of the few times he appreciated letting Kakarott take the lead. He had an almost irresistible urge to run his fingers up and down the quickly healing scratch marks on Kakarott’s back. ‘From there, trace my finger around his tail scar,’ his mind wander through a whole lot of other things he’d like to do. Some of them couldn’t be done while they were walking.

They topped the rise that blocked the hot spring from view. Goku stopped at the top, and motioned Vegeta towards his destination. “There it is. Nothing grand, but it is hot and feels really good.”

‘I know some other things that are hot and feel really good.’ “Your not coming?” Vegeta couldn’t help but put a slight emphasis on the last word.

He received another hilarious reaction from Kakarott, “Uh-uh, no. I was in there e-earlier. It’s all yours now,” the taller man was blushing fiercely.

‘Pity.’ “Don’t eat the fish while I’m gone,” Vegeta admonished as he headed down the hill.

Goku watched him go, ‘I don’t think that I’ll be thinking about fish.’ He turned and walked back towards the fire. He noted the sun was getting lower in the sky. “I’ll gather more firewood,” he hollered back over the hilltop. He stopped in his tracks, just out of Vegeta’s view. Gathering more wood meant he had plans to stay longer. He questioned himself of his motives. Oh, the possibilities if Vegeta stayed too. Doubts about his feelings for the Prince were quickly becoming extinct. As those doubts evaporated, different ones took their place. Such as, what were Vegeta’s thoughts, if he had any, about such a situation as the just the two of them staying the night out under the stars… naked….

“If I were acting as though nothing had happened would I be standing here naked?” Vegeta’s question from earlier ran through Goku’s head. This was the only clue Goku had to go on. He guessed he would have a little time to think about the answer before Vegeta was done with his trip to the hot spring.

Smiling a little to himself Goku got his feet moving again. “How would Vegeta react to an invitation to stay the night out here?” He asked himself out loud. ‘I suppose I will find out.’

Vegeta walked over to the hot spring, knelt down and ran his hand through the water, “Not bad,” ‘But I need something to get this stink off.’ He looked around his surroundings. Noticed a cedar tree close by. He walked over and stripped it of the bottom half of a branch. He carried it back to the pool of water and tossed it in. Then he stepped into the hot water. The oils and resin in the cedar needles were quickly released into the air and water by the natural heat of the spring. He sat back on one of the boulders and reclined his back against the side of the hot spring. It did feel really good. Vegeta let his head fall back, planning on reminiscing about other things that had to do with feeling really good and Kakarott. ‘I might be here for a while.’

“I guess not. I wouldn’t want Kakarott to eat my fish,” he said out loud. He momentarily thought of something else that would have gone good with the fish, but the idea quickly left in favor of much more entertaining thoughts.

‘Ah, thoughts of Kakarott while sitting in a hot spring, can things get much better?’ Vegeta thought to himself. He smirked, “I hope so.”


…………………………………………..

A/N #2: This chapter is a little shorter than what I usually write, but it was either that, or make it so long people would fall asleep in the middle of it. I chose to go this way. ::winks:: You’ll see what I mean.