Cub Check-Up

Sage gets his first check up...and neither Radditz nor Zarbon is particularly pleased.

By talonsage and Manawolf

This follows "Hope"

He didn't usually resort to cracking his knuckles, or any of his joints, though they tended to be more flexible than their mammalian counterparts. But he is annoyed and slightly nervous. He's no medic, but thus far the orders to the Saiyajin to have the newborn checked out by the special team that Freeza had put together had been met with unusual united defiance. For starters, the birth had occurred off planet, when Vegeta and Radditz were alone!! That right there had sent Freeza's blood pressure through the roof. Then, coming back nearly a month after scheduled, and the way they'd closed ranks...well, Freeza wasn't happy, and Vegeta was feeling that right now. Separate and weaken them. Nappa and the cub Kakkarot had been sent off on a purge. Vegeta was doing penance with Freeza...he tried not to think about what the young prince would look like when that was over...and Radditz and the new spawn should be on their way here.

Radditz held Sage close to his body as he made his way through the ship. Everyone wondered where the baby had come from - there were no Saiyajin females, after all - but everyone could also see that Radditz guarded the newborn with his life. It was clear from the sharp, defensive-aggressive, almost feral energy he carried with him. There were plenty stronger than him, but none willing to go through THAT kind of fight just to satisfy a minor curiosity.

Surreptitiously he edged through the door, light on his feet, tense enough to break. He HAD to do this. Vegeta put himself on the line to give them a safe birth, and keep Sage's first few weeks clear of Icejin, but he was paying for it now... and Radditz wouldn't let that be in vain. Still, he doesn't move past the threshold, frozen as he fights the urge to bolt.

Zarbon looks up as Radditz enters, cub tight against his body. The Saiyajin wasn't wearing armor, surprisingly, and his mane seemed to shadow them both. He's about to speak sharply to him, when he realizes just how tense the monkey is. His weight shifts as he considers this, unfolding his arms and placing one hand on his hip thoughtfully. Still no one yet had gotten a good look at the cub. From what he can see, it's all fur and fuzz. But Radditz is hovering in the doorway, in shadow. "Radditz, come in." He keeps his voice neutral. He's dealt with the monkeys alot more than he would like to admit, but his demeanor is less out of concern for them, and more for making his job easier. The cub stirs in the boy's arms fitfully, making a mewling sound.

"What's the matter with him? Is he ill?" He wouldn't be surprised, as tiny as the cub was, and that he hadn't been properly delivered. Elders, that Radditz himself seemed to be...healthy enough was nothing short of amazing. "Come IN Radditz. Don't make this difficult."

Radditz was mildly surprised that he didn't jump out of his skin when Zarbon spoke. Still, he reacts with palpable viciousness. "He's NOT sick, he's FINE." So fine, he doesn't need a fucking checkup, but he knew better than to express that opinion. What he thought didn't matter, it was going to happen one way or the other. What's the big deal, anyway - it's just a check, they're not going to... do... anything to him. Right? Yes... He quiets Sage gently, stroking the baby-soft fluff of mane.

Nervously he forces himself to move away from the wall, and after a pause, he walks forward, keeping a buffer zone of several feet between himself and... well, everything. He was thin, and hadn't recovered quite as fast from the birth as he thought he should have. Of course, he had nothing to compare it to, so maybe it was normal, what did he know. Maybe it had to do with Sage's feeding... he'd been awful hungry, but he was ALWAYS hungry, so he didn't think anything of it. He also stayed more than arm's reach away from Zarbon, wide eyes watching every corner of the room for potential threats to his cub.

"You don't know he's not sick Radditz, you're still young yourself. That's why you need for me to check him out. It is a he, right?" Elders the boy was wound tighter than a virgin prostitute on her first night out. His eyes are sharp enough he can see small fingers opening and closing on the material of Radditz's top and...is that jewelry? Wound around the boy's arm...no...that was a tail. Duh. Slow Zarbon, take it slow. Otherwise he'll bolt, you'll have to chase him down and subdue him, and then examine the grub, and we all know how much fun mammal larva are. They were oozy and leaky and moist. Disgusting.

"Uhm. Yeah. Yeah, s'a boy," Radditz murmured back. 'course he was a boy, though he wasn't sure why he'd always been certain of that even before Sage had been born. It was... you need a girl involved somewhere to make a girl, don't you? Something. He was distracted by Sage playing with his shirt, and something about that lowered his blood pressure immensely. He wasn't relaxed by any means, tail coiled tightly beneath the over sized black shirt he'd... appropriated from somewhere. Just not quite so extremely paranoid. He still made no move to come near Zarbon.

"Good, good. Radditz, for elders' sake, at least turn him around so I can see him. I am not going to harm your cub." Not until I have orders anyway. "Look, give me some numbers to start with. What day was he born, using the Icejin standard calender. How much does he weigh? How old is he exactly?" Of course, he'd get the weight when he could get the damned Saiyajin closer to the exam table. Sheesh. There's a disgusting slurping sound coming from the cub. "What... what is he doing??" He didn't see any sort of feeding device, Radditz hadn't displayed any mammary glands, so what was that noise?

Radditz grinned despite his tension, turning Sage over so the cub could see the room, and Zarbon. Coincidentally it also allowed Zarbon to see Sage, as he'd asked. "Suckin' his thumb." Duh... "Lessee... 4th of Icujatsu..." That was the 29th of Thin-moon. Fucking calendars. Sage WOULD know his birthday in THEIR calendar. "Ah... I don' actually know how much he weighs.... but he just hit four weeks."

So he was. How could something so small make such a loud, disgusting noise? He eyes the cub, and it is as he thought. Hair and fuzz. He doesn't move closer yet, but he can see the light glinting off the nearly transparent hairs all over the baby's exposed skin. Not that there's much of it. He knows it's rather cold on this ship for the mammals, but at least their heat came from inside. Luckily as Freeza's second, he has certain amenities so his blood doesn't freeze. And things. Very bright black eyes. He has yet to see a Saiyajin without the typical black hair and eyes, but he's never seen one so young. And he is tiny. His legs curl up to meet his belly and his free arm waves in the air. "Where did you get...clothing for it...him?"

Radditz shrugged. "Scavenged onna purge. Bullied a little." Anything valuable was Freeza's, of course, but as a rule warriors lived off the land while purging - it saved the expense of having to transport supplies, which was impossible in the pods anyway. And they, of course, were likely that way because the occupants were expected to live off the land. Circular thinking.

Actually, clothing had been something they weren't prepared for. In retrospect it was obvious they should have thought of it, but it wasn't like either of them had experience. So Vegeta had to scavenge one of the cities before wiping it off the map. When Sage got older, standard body suits would fit - there were some amazingly short aliens around - but in the meantime... scavenged clothing from now-dead cities, and cloth diapers they'd raided from a lucky trade transport. He didn't remember whether Vegeta let them live or not, he'd still been struggling to walk on his own two feet. He shifted his weight, scented the air - still no sign of anyone but Zarbon - and ducked his head to let Sage play with his chin.

He wouldn't have thought of clothing, but then, his species young spent their youth breathing through gills in schooling ponds. Still, it was interesting that they had provided for the cub...that way. Mammal spawn could be so backward, but he sees clear coordination as tiny fingers reach and poke at Radditz's skin. Radditz wasn't even fully grown himself yet, and he was the elder of the pair by several years. And now they had a baby. Perfect. He didn't care that Freeza had more or less planned this, reproducing wasn't something you did until...well, until it was time. Focus. "And he eats...what exactly?"

Radditz blinked at him, eyes betraying dark rims for a second. Then he shifted Sage's weight to one arm, rolled back the long black arm-warmer on his right forearm, and wordlessly held it up. It was lined with a long row of bite marks. Sage cooed happily at the sight, and Radditz hoped quietly that he wasn't actually hungry. He didn't really want to have to feed him here, in front of Zarbon.

Zarbon blinked. All right. That was entirely barbaric. "You mean he is a parasitic leech whose dependence on your body did not end when he was birthed?"

Radditz dropped his arm, sleeve falling back down, and gave Zarbon a look that would curdle milk. "Of COURSE he still depends on me. I suppose he oughta walk, talk n'cook his own meals straight outta my stomach?" He growls something unintelligible in Saiyago, cuddles Sage a bit closer to his body and paces for a bit, pretending to calm the cub but in reality trying to calm himself, as mothers often do.

Zarbon rolls his eyes. "Oh pipe down Radditz, honestly. He did not come out of your stomach, he came from a vestigial female organ that was abnormally prominent in your gene pool. Now. What did you name him. As we presume his father is Vegeta..."

Radditz sputtered. "It's not - That wasn't - But you..." Oh, FUCK this. "He is," the third-class grumbled. You KNOW he is... He's certainly not Nappa's, and he's not a half-breed. "Name's Sage." Just Sage.

Zarbon frowned. "Sage?" That's not exactly..." What I expected went unsaid. He sighed. "All right, fine. Sage. You need to bring him closer into the light so I can see him Radditz. And if you put him on the table, we can get his measurements, once you strip him down."

Radditz' tail fluffs out, uncoiling to swipe at the air behind him. He knew... he knew this was coming, but... Briefly he entertained the fantasy of making a break for it. He knew what the result of THAT would be, and surely it was worse than doing this voluntarily? Right?

Hesitantly he shifts forwards, feeling more and more resistance from his inner bundle of nerves and neurosis the closer he got to Zarbon's personal space. "S'cold in here," he objects.

"The ship is cold Radditz. The sooner the cub adjusts to it, the better. Besides, it will only be for a few minutes. It won't hurt him. I need to get proper measurements." He's amused though, as the cub gnaws on his thumb and waves his feet, the little, surprisingly long tail coiling and moving around his...parent's arm. And he feels the scrutinies of tiny, black eyes. What was a newborn Saiyajin's eyesight like? Were they nearsighted, like most mammal babies? Or had his vision developed already? They were a warrior, hunting, pack species...how did that affect the development of their young? Freeza had not been over interested in the very young Kakkarot, who had been old enough to walk and talk when they brought him in, but not much more than that. Why was he so interested in THIS child?

He's too YOUNG to adjust, Radditz wanted to say. Instead he scuffles back and forth, eventually convincing himself to move up to the table by pretending Zarbon wasn't really there. He starts to take his shirt off to protect Sage from the cold metal table, but remembering how thin he was and how his scar was still red after a month of healing, changes his mind and strips the arm-warmers off instead. He lays them side-by-side, overlapping at the middle, then tenderly strips Sage down to the cloth diaper, holding the cub against his body to preserve heat. Finally he lays the tiny Saiyajin down upon the strips of fabric.

"Well that was a production." He's exasperated, and he doesn't try to hide it in his voice. And he doesn't bother to tell Radditz to remover the diaper, he does that himself, moving Radditz's hands away as the weight comes up...just under five standard weight units. Wow...that's tiny. "Oh calm down Radditz, he's not even upset yet." The baby moved under his cool hand, and he shudders at the sensation of the creepily soft grub-like skin under his sensitive fingers. The cub WAS covered in down, from head to feet. He moves his hand and lets the table scan for length, head circumference and other body measurements. It was easier and more accurate than trying to do it by hand.

Radditz fidgets anxiously as Zarbon shoos him away. Sage didn't have the resources to keep himself warm for very long... that's what he told himself he was worried about, anyway. He could see he had to be out of the way for the table to scan properly, but... he hated letting Zarbon so close to his child. He didn't trust the alien as far as he could beat him in combat... not even Vegeta could do that. Yet. At least, so far, Zarbon was right about Sage; the cub was happily self-absorbed, burbling over his own fingers. However... "N'less you wanna have to clean up that table, better lemme get his diaper back on..."


"In a moment..." Ugh...the thing was disgusting. Distastefully he lifts it up, turning it this way and that to get a better look at it under the light. "Looks fully formed." Wait, what's he doing. Suddenly the cub looked...different. He tries to hand him off to Radditz, just incase, but it's too slow, and it spews from it's mouth. "Oh ELDERS!!" And if that wasn't bad enough, a shriek emerges from the grub. It's clearly ill, but he can't focus on that with the smelly black globs of whatever it spit up...surrounded by curdled...something. "Take it!!!"


Radditz snarls and would have nipped Zarbon to get his cub back if the alien hadn't been so eager to hand him back over. "Shhh... It's okay," he murmurs in Saiya-go, reaching into his back pocket for a cloth and wiping the mess off Sage's face and belly. "Thought fer sure that one would stay down," he grumbles. Despite Sage's fussing, he maneuvers the tiny legs back into the diaper, and without further preamble bites into his own arm to let the cub nurse. It would calm him, and replace some of what he'd just rejected.


Zarbon manages his disgust long enough to get a sample of what the grub vomited before sending for someone to clean up. "Radditz..." Wait, what the FUCK... "What are you doing??" Okay, he is NOT going to lose his lunch, he was not going to faint. He is a warrior and a manager of all things Freeza, he'd had most of his appendages up inside Saiyajin bodies, this was no worse. Right? Right. Right. Oh elders, he's SUCKING BLOOD!!! And enjoying it too, from the sounds the larva is making. So. Revolting.


"Calming 'im down an' replacing what he threw up," Radditz returned in a completely reasonable tone. Of COURSE that's what he's doing. He hadn't wanted to let Sage feed in front of Zarbon, but if it needed doing then it needed doing. Besides, Zarbon sounded faint. This was a point in their favor. The less he wanted to do with them, the better. As for that matter, the sooner they could get out of here, the better... he was tired. He got tired really fast these days, moreso than he thought was really warranted just taking care of Sage, but what did he know about it anyway? They were all making this up as they went along.


"I...good. I guess. Go sit down...there." He gestures vaguely towards a couch as a clean up crew comes in. HE wasn't about to sully himself cleaning up mammal vomit. It was bad enough he had to do this in the FIRST place. "He IS ill then. Perhaps the medical bay would be the best place for him."

"He's NOT sick!!" Radditz protested loudly, keeping his distance both from the wary clean-up crew and from Zarbon. "We're jus' having trouble finding a milk he can stomach t'supplement his diet. He's fine when he only feeds offa me. But... Normally he'd also have merg milk, or we'd find a female Saiyajin t'help out, an' there ain't no more of either." He's too agitated at the thought of being separated from Sage to sit down.


"He IS sick, if he is vomiting like that." Granted, he didn't know that much about mammal infants, let alone Saiyajin ones. Merg milk? Saiyajin females? He knew there had been Saiyajin females, he just had trouble picturing any of them feeding a cub. Why had Freeza assigned him to this? Why?? "He is very small Radditz. He can't be growing well." Granted again, he had no idea if the brat had grown from his birth to now anyway.

"He's NOT sick f'we don't feed 'im something he can't digest," Radditz grates. Gods, didn't Zarbon know the difference between sick and Sick? As for... his size... well what could you expect, with neither of his parents full-grown yet and there never bein' enough to eat around here? "Mebbe f'I got enough t'eat he'd be able t'get more nutrition outta me."


Zarbon frowned. "You do not get adequate nutrition?" That was something new. Though Freeza-sama didn't go out of his way to provide gourmet food for his troops, even he knew that underfed soldiers bred discontent. "Our nutritional experts assure us that the standard rations are sufficient for the variety of species we employ."


Radditz glared at him in disbelief. "Then they sure as hell never studied Saiyajin. m'ALWAYS hungry. Sometimes I scrape up 'nough to eat onna purge, but..." He shrugged. He was used to it. It was such a fact of life that he found it hard to believe it wasn't done deliberately, or that Zarbon didn't know about it. Like the ship being cold. Zarbon wasn't impressed by that, so why was he suddenly interested in this? "Whuzzitmatter," he grumbled, scuffling uncomfortably.

Zarbon's voice was tight. "It matters because such things are MY responsibility. You Saiyajin are here on sufferance, I know you know that. And you are dirty job do-ers. Amongst other things. But Freeza wanted this pregnancy, and this cub. He desires Vegeta. I will adjust your rations accordingly. When Vegeta returns, have him write up a proper request and nutritional and caloric intake sheet and submit it to me. In the meantime, I will assign you double rations, for the time being." It wasn't pity or compassion, Zarbon simply took pride in doing his job correctly and well. While Freeza would no doubt NOT care that the Saiyajin were constantly hungry, to Zarbon it meant that he had not been doing his job properly. And that was simply intolerable.


Radditz was... shocked. It was that easy? Why the hell hadn't anyone ever told him? Of course... he really wasn't sure how many calories he needed. That wasn't exactly the sort of thing he'd ever been taught, and he wasn't certain Vegeta knew either. But they'd figure that out later. "... Thanks." Once the word was out, it was out, and he couldn't retract it, even though it grated to be in Zarbon's debt for anything. He told himself he was saying thanks for Sage... yeah, it wasn't because he'd taken to self-consciously hiding his ribs beneath oversized clothing. Not at all.


Zarbon hissed something profane in his own, sibilant language. "I merely take pride in doing my job correctly. When he is...finished, perhaps we may continue?" Ah, sarcasm...was there anything you couldn't do?


"What, there's more?" Radditz sounded distinctly petulant, even to his own ears. Again he considered simply making a run for it, and again he knew he wouldn't like the result of those actions. Besides, he was tired; he didn't think he could make a good account of himself anyway. Sage was only feeding idly now - it hadn't been that long since his last meal - so Radditz detached him without too much trouble. "What now," he grumbled, itching to re-cover his arms but delaying the retrieval of his arm-warmers; they were closer to Zarbon than he was at the moment.

Zarbon's face wrinkled in distaste. "I need to ascertain a few things." He moved through a few screens on his data pad. "What planet was he born on, and how was he delivered. I will need to see the incision site; you and Vegeta told the doctors that the...cub...would need to be retrieved surgically. Freeza-sama wishes to know how this was achived outside of his ship." That was an understatement. Of course, he was probably beating it out of Vegeta at the moment, but that didn't matter. "And any notations of his growth and development in the past four weeks." Damnit, he'd have to check him over again, a little more thouroughly. He wasn't looking forward to it, but for the moment, let's just...talk. Yes. Work back up to touching the oozy thing.


"Uuh-mmm..." The third-class' tail fluffed up and bristled, and he wrapped it back under his shirt to hide the reaction. He wasn't sure if he was glad to have the immediate focus away from Sage, or ready to crawl out of his skin at the thought of Zarbon getting a closer look at his torso. Nothin' he ain't seen before...


That was a lie. Between his weight and the struggling-to-heal scar, he knew he didn't look the same. It struck him as more than simply self-consciousness... he would be baring weakness to an enemy. Isn't this a long time to heal? What if somethin's wrong?


Well, if anything WAS wrong, he sure as hell didn't want Zarbon knowing about it... he could deal with it on his own. Certainly without HIS help.


to be continued...