The Dark and Light side of Love

WARNINGS: More angst and another attempt at humor. *sigh* I need some different warnings in this story.

Zofo-Your reviews make me happy! I know that Kakarot doesn’t seem like much of a King. I’m trying to figure out more ways into getting him more like one. Ah, you presume wrong. I guess that’s my fault though…sorry. I meant it to be like a competition between the two of them and all of their armies. I wasn’t going to have the contest start right that second with the battle already going on and their men not knowing what’s going on. Besides, all of Vegeta’s men weren’t there. Half of them were still at the Lights’ hideout and the hundred comrades that the Lights rescued from the Shadows’ hideout were still weak from hunger and thirst, so it wouldn’t of been a fair fight. Also, both Vegeta and Kakarot just went through some emotional stress and aren’t thinking very clearly. They need to pull it together and come up with some strategies to get the other. :) But I forgot to mention that it wasn’t going to start right then. I should’ve had Vegeta say, “Starting the next evening,” or something. Other than that little misunderstanding, you’re on the right track. ;) Uh! Now I feel really bad for not putting it in there! *Bangs head against wall until brain turns to mush. Pulls self together again as a thought comes to mind* I’ll just put a reason for that in this chapter. *Smiles happily and bounces about* Anyways, now you’ll just have to guess who it is that I’ve decided to turn. *Stops bouncing to smirk evilly* (Which at this point, it might be pretty obvious).


~~flashback~~


Kakarot’s POV

“Idiot!! Why did you let him go like that?!” father yells at me again for the twentieth time since we got back from the battle. “You had him! You had him and you let him go!! Didn’t I teach you anything?!” he screams while slamming his fist into his own desk. I flinch. “Damn it! The Shadows could be finished right now! But noooo! You just had to have a moral center and let him go!!” He then runs over to me and puts his arms on either side of the chair I’m sitting in and yells in my face, “Whyyyyyy?!”

I look at my hands in my lap, afraid to look at the enraged look I knew he had on his face. “Because, father…we decided to…uhhh…” I hesitated. I know he’ll get even angrier at my response. I heard him growl in impatience and I hurried to finish my excuse. “To have a…contest.” I whispered the last part, but he still heard me.

“A what?! A contest?! A contest of what?!!” he got even closer to my face as he said this.

I leaned back a little, “To see who…who will get the other first.” I look to my right as I said the last part.

Father quickly pushed away from my chair to boil in his own rage and paced around his office. I sat there silently. I felt like a child being punished for skipping a day of training, but what can I do? Sure it sounds pretty childish, but…it’s the only way to get my love back. It’s the only way that I can get him fairly, so he won’t feel like he’s given up. It’s the only way to bare it.

Father stopped his enraged pacing and turns his back to me to look at the bookshelf in front of him. “You’re excused. Leave.”

I stared at his back a little longer and tried to think of anything else to say. When nothing came up, I slowly stood up and left the room.

I didn’t want to apologize. That would seem like I didn’t care about how my love felt if he were turned right where he stood. He would’ve felt weak and defeated. I don’t want that. I want a challenge. I want to prove to my love that I’ll do anything to have him. I don’t want him to feel miserable, knowing that he was turned so easily.

I entered the training arena to get my mind off of my love and our new ‘agreement’ for the time being, but it didn’t seem to be working. I started off with a few katas and let my mind wander.

~~As I ran back into the riot of Lights and Shadows, I turned back to look at my love. He was just standing there…looking at nothing. His eyes weren’t the same lifeless eyes that I saw before. They were…lost, hurting, and…defeated? I rubbed my hands together to get them warm again. He’s so cold…it makes me want to cry. But he’s still dead gorgeous (literally), and he smells and tastes delicious. I licked my lips at the thought.

I turned my attention back to the fight at hand and tried to think of a way to end it. We can’t have the contest here with both of us in such an emotional state and no determination whatsoever.

I looked for my father to see if I can convince him to go back to our lands. When my eyes finally found him, he was already staring at me with frustration in his eyes. I shivered. Okay, new plan.

I decided to wing it. “Attention all Lights!” I tried shouting loud enough for everyone to hear me and waited to see if anyone did. Our rescued comrades behind me looked at me and waited to hear what I had to say. “We must return to our lands! Half of our army is weak and there are more Shadows sure to be on their way here! We’ll be outnumbered! Please…” I came closer to them. “Tell all the Lights that we must retreat back to our lands before the rest of the Shadows’ army take us out!” I turned towards the battle. “C’mon! Hurry!” I took off into the battle again and tried to tell any Light who would listen to me and retreat.

I was surprised to see that a few of them obeyed. They just stopped, quickly bowed, and took off towards the exit. The next thing I knew, someone shouted, “King Kakarot has spoken! Retreat back to our lands before the rest of the Shadows come! We came and we saved our comrades! We got what we came for! We must flee!” I managed to look through the battle to see one of my fellow Lights try giving the word out to the others. I smiled.

I looked around the area to see how many Lights were left. Not very many. As I searched, I saw my father glaring at my love. As if he shouldn’t even be standing there…lost. He started to advance towards him. Again I shouted, “All Lights, listen to me! Flee! More Shadows are coming! We’re outnumbered! Hurry before its too late!” Father stopped his advance towards my love and hesitated. Then three of the Shadows ran over to my love and hissed at my father. He backed away and sneered at them, then ran to the exit.

I went to follow his example, but then looked back over at the Shadows by my love. One was that guard that is always by my love’s side. Jealously suddenly coursed through me and I wanted to go over there and drink that Shadow dry. In the nick of time, one of my fellow Lights snapped me out of it. “C’mon my King! Let’s get out of this cold death trap!” I nodded and followed him, leaving my love behind. Again.~~

I stopped my training and looked at the sky. Twilight. I headed back inside the hideout to get something to eat, or whatever I was in the mood of eating. On my way, I bumped into my father. “Oh, sor…”

“Kakarot! I was looking for you! Come! Eat with me!” he boomed happily, interrupting my apology. Sheesh. Almost forgot how short his tantrums were. I thought for sure he was going to be mad at me forever.

We entered the lunch hall and got something to eat and found a place to sit. Away from the few Lights that were in here. I gave my father a look. We could’ve eaten in our own lunch hall if he wants to talk about something important, but he’s probably too hungry to wait around for our meal to be ready. Father stabbed his fork in my direction, “So Kakarot. Tell me why you and Vegeta had to come up with this contest.” he demanded casually and dug into his meal.

I put my elbow next to my tray and rested my head on my hand. So this is why he decided to be on good terms with me. Too bad he caught me in a ‘not in the talking’ mood. I picked up an apple and studied it, “Well, Vegeta suggested that we should have it because he doesn’t want to be a Light and I don’t want to be a Shadow. So he thought he’d make it into a little competition and let fate decide for us.” I ended by taking a bite of my apple.

Father coughed on whatever he was swallowing. I stopped to look at him. He swallowed some wine and looked at me seriously, like I was kidding, “Fate? You…” He tried to keep a straight face. “You two decided…to let ‘fate’ take over and see what happens?” he did the bunny ears thing with both of his hands when he said fate the second time.

I nodded and he threw his head back and laughed. And just kept on laughing. The longer he laughed, the more I glared and tried to concentrate on my meal. When he finally had enough air to breathe, he spoke, “Oh! What a very ‘kingly’ choice for you both to make!” he laughed again.

I put down what was left of my apple and got up to dump my tray, no longer having an appetite. Father just continued to laugh and banged his fists on the table, struggling to breathe. As I headed towards the exit, I noticed everyone was looking at him with a concerned expression. Probably wondering if they should be worried about their retired King or not. I rolled my eyes and headed to my room. Jerk. He could at least act interested in our contest.

I entered my room and closed the door to lean on it. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I’m so tired. I haven’t slept since the battle, and that was last night. I decided to take a shower and relax myself. As I stood in the hot spray of the shower, my thoughts wandered to my love.

He said he could feel me. No. He said he could always feel me. I sighed and let my tears mix into the water. He can feel my warmth. I looked at my hands and clenched them and held them to my chest. We can feel each other…but I flinch away from his coldness while he comes closer to mine.

My heart almost broke when I made him cry his tears of anguish. I should have known better than to push him into a decision like that. Wait…what am I saying? It was the right thing to do! You should choose life! Not death! Well…being a Shadow was like being dead, but still. He should be with me. Not the other way around. Then again, he’s never been a Light before. I guess it’s only natural that he should feel a negative response towards the thought of becoming one.

I thought back to why he didn’t want to be a Light. He thought the Light wouldn’t except him. What did he mean by that? Did he think that I wouldn’t except him? How can he think that? Could it be possible…that he’s…afraid? Yes. That must be it. Why else would he be fighting himself about this? Oh my love. You don’t have to be afraid. I’ll be with you. Always. I’ll never leave you. Never again. More tears streamed down my face and the cold water washed them away. I looked into the spray. The water’s cold and I didn’t even notice. I shut it off and grabbed a towel and dried myself off.

I went back into my room to dress. As I was pulling on my yellow gi pants, there was a knock at my door and a muffled giggle. I rolled my eyes. “Come on in.” Father walked in with a huge smile still plastered on his face. I pulled on my loose, white, long-sleeve shirt to go with my yellow gi pants (now that I think about it, I don’t think they really match) and turned to look at him. “You here to laugh at me some more?”

He managed to keep that grin off his face for the time being. “Now son, I wasn’t laughing at you. Just the ideas of what you kids come up with nowadays.” He walked over to my balcony window and opened it and walk out onto the balcony. I joined him.

We watched the sky turn colors as the sun went below the horizon. “So,” father turned to study me. “What’s the contest? What are ‘we’ suppose to do?” he shrugged when he emphasized the word ‘we.’

I moved forward to lean on the railing and rested my head on my folded arms. “I’m not really sure. We just…fight for our life, I guess. He said it was like a competition between our men, but he also said whoever catches who first gets to turn the other.” I looked at the endless red desert with hooded eyes as sleep tried to take over me.

Father joined me at the railing and sighed. “It sounds like a game to me.” I looked up at him to see another smile on his face.

I sighed. “If you’re going to laugh again, I’ll just go to bed.” I wasn’t in the mood for this.

Father tried to suppress the smile. “No, I’m sorry son. It’s just that…well, it’s kind of…”

“Childish? Stupid? Pointless? One of those?” I finished for him. Knowing just what he means.

“How ‘bout all of the above? Ha!” he chuckled again.

I sighed and walked back into my room. He caught up to me. “Alright, alright…I’m sorry. Look, just…give me a strategy of some kind. What should I tell our men? To go along with it?” he leaned toward me a little.

I sagged my arms a little. “No. Just…no…I don’t know. I mean…if it’s just a challenge between our men and whoever catches the other…there isn’t really anything to tell. Basically…just a regular fight between the Lights and the Shadows.” I turned and walked over to my bed and sat on it.

Father came over and stood in front of me. “It isn’t just a regular fight between Lights and Shadows…it’s about life and death here! A way to prove ourselves that we can beat that cold-hearted King…” his words drifted away as I suddenly gave him a death glare.

I stood up. “He is ‘not’ cold-hearted. You don’t even know him. You don’t know what he’s even capable of feeling.” I said this as calmly and cold as I could. “I’m sick of this father. I’m sick of you treating me like a child that doesn’t know how to make his own decisions!” I paused. My sentences getting louder as I said them. I paced about the room. “And…maybe I am half the time! But I’ll show you father! I’ll prove to you that I can make my own decisions! They may not be wise ones! They may not be…fully planned out! But at least they’re good ones! Like, me deciding to turn my love into one of us! And, oh…I will turn him. You’ll see. I’ll prove to you that I can be responsible for him during his transformation.” I finished with a cold but unsure voice.

Father looked at me with a determined expression. He seemed…almost proud. “It seems like you’re finally taking things into your hands. So…shall you come up with the battle plans from now on?”

I slowly nodded and he nodded in return. “Alright then.” he turned to leave, but then paused at the doorway and didn’t turn to face me. “Oh and son…I know you’ll be responsible for him during his transformation.” he closed my door.

I sighed in exhaustion. Yes. I know you know father. But I’ll need some guidance. I don’t know what to expect in the transformation. But then, that’s what the doctors are for. I walked back over to my bed and laid in it. Despite my exhaustion, I couldn’t get any sleep that night as worry overcame my thoughts.

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O.o Is Kaky finally taking responsibility? Hm. What about our sad King? Ha! I said King this time! Don’t worry. Hopefully things will get better. I was going to avoid angst at the end of the last chapter, but it didn’t seem to fit with the rest of it. Can you tell that I’ve been trying to work on the scenery a little bit? Yeah. Thought I’d do that. Considering that I’ve been working on the story and people’s thoughts more than just knowing where the hell the character is. Haha. So…what I forgot to say on the last couple chapters…review, review, review! *Looks at everyone reading this story* Shun you non-reviewers! Shuuuunnn! Nah I’m kidding, but I do appreciate you all reading though. *Hugs everyone who reads my strange story*