#there was nothing nappa could actually do about it

[spilledbeans116]

Just In Case

(Vegeta x Reader)

Vegeta x fem!reader -6,207 Words - SFW - No use of Y/N

Fan of Vegeta x Bulma? Find an alternate version here! (The first parts match up!)

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This fic is based on a headcanon I have involving the prince and his constant need to wear gloves. I'm putting this here as a side note, but the first chapter is a bit violent. I hope you all enjoy it.

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    Nappa was smiling, as proud as a warrior-nanny could be given the circumstances. Vegeta had aced his first mission under Frieza’s rule without a single hitch, having wiped out an entire planet on his own in just a couple hours. They had hit three more after that, completing twice the work of an adult saiyan could have mustered up. And what, he was only 6? Never before had such latent power been shown in such a young saiyan; his power already rivaled Nappa’s own. On late night’s when the bar was full and Raditz and Vegeta were in bed, Nappa would sit and brag to the other soldiers of Frieza’s army how talented the kid was.

    The bar was dim, the tables around having been emptied as all the patrons gathered around Nappa and listened to his tales. Among them were Ginyu, Burter, and Jeice, all three of whom were rolling their eyes at the display.

    “You should have seen the way he shot through that thing! It was almost three times my size, maybe bigger!” Nappa hiccuped, taking a swig from his mug before slamming his fist on the bar’s counter-top. “It was incredible!”

    From around the corner, a young saiyan who should have been in bed smirked. His smile quickly faltered however, as someone else spoke up.

    “Psh, right,” Ginyu laughed, giving Nappa a shove. “Like a kid could take down one of those on his own. Even Guildo struggles with them!”

    “No, Nappa’s being serious, I saw it myself!” Another soldier yelled, slamming his drink down on the bar. “The kid is a beast! A monster!” 

    Vegeta nodded, crossing his arms and leaning through the doorframe a bit to watch as the older men debated his feats.

    At that Ginyu and Burter laughed, “please! He’s an ape!” Ginyu snorted. “You think that monkey could actually do that on his own? He’s weak, just like his old man. Maybe he got lucky, but nothing more than that.”

    Vegeta clutched his cape and held it at his sides, his anger overtaking him as he fought not to run in there and sucker punch Ginyu in the face; he had already learned once that it wasn’t a good idea, and wouldn’t make an idiot of himself again. Ginyu didn’t believe he could do that? Didn’t think that Vegeta could fight his own battles or overtake a stronger opponent? Fine. He would prove he could; he would show everyone exactly what he could do. And he wouldn’t stop until they believed him.

—

    Months had passed, but for Vegeta, time moved strangely. It felt fleeting and yet too long at the worst of times. Then again, he was still only a child. He had already gotten stronger, not that anyone but Raditz or Nappa noticed and he didn’t give a damn what they thought. Each day and night was the same, he was degraded by the Ginyus to his face and behind his back. His family was gone, his home was gone, and his race was all but eradicated. He was the last remaining saiyan royal and ruled over two; he wasn’t the strongest on the ship nor was he even close to beating Frieza… yet. That day would come, he reassured himself. Until then he was destined to be miserable, to spend everyday fighting to be better only to get no recognition from anyone. That much responsibility and pain weighing down on a child surely wasn’t healthy, especially not when they were forcing themselves to do even more than everyone else.

     Vegeta couldn’t keep track anymore of how many planets he had slaughtered. Their cries of mercy fell on deaf ears. At night, he had nightmares about the faces of those that had met their end in his hands. He wondered who they were, what lives they lived. He was doing to them what had happened to his own home. He tossed and turned each night, enough for Raditz to complain to Nappa that it was keeping him awake.

    Soon he turned 7, still a child in the eyes of a saiyan. After each fight he felt dirtier and dirtier, and visited the showers once, twice, three times a day. The soldiers on the ship joked that the prince was a germaphobe. He was too royal for their peasant germs. He was killing without purpose, without a fight and the guilt was eating away at him slowly, crumbling his sanity with each life he took. He was 8 when it happened.

    Nappa was heading to the bar before he stopped. Something in him, some primal, strange instinct, told him to go to the boys room. He rushed down the halls and to their room, where Raditz was snoring loudly with his arm draped across his face. Vegeta, however, was gone. He couldn’t ask anyone else if they had seen him, as he’d surely be punished for roaming parts of the ship he shouldn’t without Nappa present.

    Vegeta had gotten back late from a mission and decided to go take a shower. His body was covered in blood, none of which was his own. He watched as the red water swirled down the shower drain and slowly became pink, scrubbing his body with a bar of soap as he grunted to himself. Arms, chest, legs, feet, tail, and finally his hands. He lathered the soap between them, watching the bubbles form up and over his hands before rinsing them off in the water. To his surprise, the water revealed the blood was still there.

    “Damn shit must have stained them,” he huffed, turning off the water and drying himself with a towel. He quickly wrapped it around his waist and made his way to the sinks, grabbing his toothbrush and lining it with toothpaste. Until he saw his hands again. No longer tinted red, they were coated in blood. The fur on the end of his tail began to spike as he stared at it, quickly flipping them around to see if he had any open wounds. He ran the water and shoved his hands under it, scrubbing at the blood to get it off. 

     “What the hell!” He snapped, watching as nothing changed. He began to scratch at it, trying to peel it off to know avail. He hissed as he turned the water up, the heat becoming blistering hot as he started to claw at his own hands in a desperate attempt to get the blood off of himself.

    “Why isn’t it coming off!” He yelled, starting to get louder and louder as he grew more desperate. He felt filthy as his consciousness weighed down on him, his sleep deprived body and nightmarish life finally getting the better of him. “Get it off me!”

     Nappa knew he had to be in the showers, as it was the only place the kid ever went to when he wasn’t in the dining halls or his room. With how late it was, the dining halls would have closed ages ago. As he made his way down the corridors of the ship he could hear something. It was quiet at first, but slowly became louder and louder as he got closer to the men's showers. He could hear Vegeta, screaming out in pain. Nappa shot off and slammed through the door to the bathroom, following the sounds of the hysterical screaming until he found the prince by the sinks. Vegeta was sobbing, hands burnt red from the water. 

    “The hell has gotten into you!” Nappa yelled, ripping him away from the sink. He was going to scold the prince when he saw the claw marks all over his hands. Vegeta tried to shove him away, crying out for Nappa to let go of him but it all sounded like gibberish to the older saiyan. 

     “What are you doing!” Nappa yelled at him as Vegeta slammed a hand against his face, trying to make his way back to the sink. “You’re hurting yourself, what are you doing!”

    “I CAN’T GET IT OFF!” Vegeta screamed between sobs. “MY HANDS! THEY’RE COVERED IN BLOOD I CAN’T GET IT OFF!”

    “Vegeta there is no blood!” Nappa yelled, grabbing his wrists and holding him still. “But there’s going to be if you keep tearing at your skin!”

    “DON’T TOY WITH ME NAPPA JUST GET IT OFF ME! PLEASE I CAN’T- I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS PLEASE JUST GET IT OFF!”

    Nappa grabbed the prince and his clothes, clamping a hand over his mouth as he ran out of the bathroom and back towards his room. Vegeta dug his nails into the flesh of Nappa’s hand, sinking his fang’s into Nappa’s palm as the older saiyan grunted in pain. Vegeta was still trying to scream but Nappa’s hand remained firm, refusing to let anyone see the prince like this. The door to Nappa’s bedroom slammed shut as he locked it and tossed the prince on the bed, who immediately tried to book it back out the door. Before he could grab the doorknob, Nappa was in front of him, blocking his escape in the dark room. Vegeta beat his fists against Nappa’s chest, trying and failing to shove him out of the way. Nappa knelt down, taking Vegeta’s hands in his before sliding a pair of white gloves over them.

    “Look! There’s no blood! Now please Vegeta quit it!” He turned the prince’s hands over slowly, showing that nothing had seeped through. “See? You’re fine!”

    Vegeta glanced down, a sniveling mess as he turned his hands over on his own and studied the gloves. They were white, pristine, new, and soft. They cooled his burning hands and the silken fabric felt nice against the cuts he had created. “Th-there’s no more b-blood?”

    “None, Vegeta. There isn’t any blood. Okay?”

    Vegeta nodded as Nappa stood up slowly, making his way to his cabinet and pulling out gauze and ointment. He applied it to his palm first after cleaning it with a towel, Vegeta’s fangs having taken quite the chunk out of his skin. Then he bandaged it, sliding his gauntlets on over after so the prince wouldn’t see the reddish hue that would seep out soon enough. After tossing the towel, he made his way back over to Vegeta, who had calmed down remarkably and yet was still standing in the same spot Nappa had left him. He was staring at his hands, eyes lidded as sleep finally began to overpower him. Nappa grabbed him under his armpits and lifted him over to the bed, setting him down and getting the ointment ready. As he began to pull off Vegeta's gloves, the prince started screaming again, kicking Nappa away and tugging them back down.

   “NO!” He cried out. “NO YOU CAN’T TAKE THEM OFF!”

��   “DAMN IT VEGETA I NEED TO MAKE SURE THOSE SCRATCHES DON’T GET INFECTED!”

    “NO! I’M YOUR PRINCE, I DEMAND YOU WILL NOT TAKE THESE OFF! EVER!”

     “Vegeta,” Nappa sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You can’t keep them on forever you’ll have to-”

    “I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT!”

    “Vegeta I swear to-”

    “THAT’S AN ORDER NOW DROP IT!” Nappa didn’t say anything after that, handing the prince his pajamas and turning away. Vegeta changed quickly, grunting when he was done. Nappa frowned at the sight of the prince wearing gloves with his pajamas, but chose not to push it further. They’d deal with it in the morning and go to see the doctor then as well. 

    “Do you want me to walk you back to your-”

    Vegeta was quick to cut him off, voice trembling as he ran his hands together in his lap. “Can I stay here tonight?” His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper as he refused to meet Nappa’s eyes. Nappa looked down at the prince, an ache in his chest as he stared at the child that was forced to carry so much; but he was just that, a child. He shouldn’t have had to do any of this, not until he was much, much older. He should have been in the palace right now, spending each day training under his father to be the next king, not turned into a killing machine by a freak that regarded them as nothing.

    “Of course, your highness. You can stay here for the night.” Nappa quickly went and changed into his sleep shorts, scooting Vegeta over enough so he could fit along with him on his bed. The prince held his arm tight, body trembling as Nappa laid awake, staring at the ceiling, trying to piece together whatever the hell had just happened. Even after Vegeta had finally dozed off, Nappa remained awake, unsure with what to do with the prince.

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    As time went on, Vegeta learned to live with it the best he could. The cuts he had caused on himself that night healed over, leaving small scars to forever remind him of his own shame and guilt. The blood he saw on his hands never truly went away after that but he learned to pretend he couldn’t see it. With time he was able to remove his gloves, but only for short periods before he’d quickly slip them back on. Just long enough to shower, trim his nails, or give the gloves a quick wash.

     After everything that happened on Earth, after what he did to Nappa, it was as if he were a kid again. The gloves would not come off. Ever. He had killed the man who gave them to him, who had tried to shield him from himself. For what? A power move? Now the gloves themselves were another reminder of his sins, but he found himself unable to swap them with a new pair. Now he was living in some Earth woman’s home after embarrassing himself in front of Frieza and a low level saiyan piece of scum. He slaughtered the Ginyu force, which was a bit of a two edged sword for him. Kakarot was gone at who knows where and he was stuck here, failing to do anything substantial. He had truly lost all meaning to his life.

     The gravity chamber the blue haired woman had helped build was where he spent most of his time. It gave him a break from dealing with everyone, including you. You were the most confusing out of everyone that was on this idiotic planet. He could never get a proper read on you. You were too… upbeat. He didn’t like to dwell on what he thought of you, and unfortunately found himself thinking of you during training at the worst of times.

    He had put his hand up to guard his face at the last moment as the battle bot shot at him, successfully blocking it but not without slight damage to his glove. There, on his right hand, was a clean tear.

    “Shit!” He yelled. “Damn it damn it damn it!” He blew the robot to bits before it could do anymore damage, throwing on his shirt and making his way back towards Bulma’s house. He felt sick as he glanced down at it, the deep red shade staring back at him through the slit.

    He made his way in through the back door, speed walking through the living room and down the hallway to where his bedroom was located. He didn’t have spares, he had never needed a spare. He searched around for anything that could be used as a makeshift glove. He ripped apart shirts and tried to cover it to no avail, too stressed to tie the knots properly with one hand. He shoved the fabric under the glove, only to rip it further. “Shit!”

     He didn’t know how to sew, he was a prince for the Gods’ sakes. He felt sick at the idea of what he was going to have to do but quickly realized there was no other option. He was going to have to ask for help.

—-

    You were sitting at Bulma’s kitchen table, waiting for your friend to get back from her date with Yamcha so the two of you could go shopping. You were sipping a glass of apple juice, the only thing in her fridge at the moment in terms of drinks. The coffee maker was on the fritz ever since Vegeta tried to beat the shit out of it to get it working. Apparently the glowing blue button wasn’t obvious enough for saiyans. You paused mid sip, wondering if perhaps he was partially colorblind. Your thoughts trailed off as he was suddenly standing in front of you, arms crossed and glaring in your general direction.

    “Juice? Seriously? What are you, five?” he frowned, opening the fridge and looking around for something.

    “Good morning to you too, your highness,” you grunted, raising the cup to your lips. “I was going to have coffee but for some reason the machine is broken.”

    He huffed in annoyance but said nothing else. You could tell he had just finished training as he was a dirty, sweaty mess. The singe marks across his suit only proved your point further. “There’s nothing in here,” he frowned, slamming the fridge door shut.

    “Yeah, I heard someone has been staying over and eating everything,” you replied, taking out your phone and scrolling through it. “I have no idea who it could be though.”

    Either he didn’t notice your sarcastic tone or he didn’t care. “Tell the other woman to go get more food then,” he snapped. “It’s not my problem.”

    “You could go get it yourself.”

    “With what money?”

    You rolled your eyes, “You’re a prince, aren’t you?”

    He slammed a hand down flat on the table, leaning beside you to try and meet your eyes. “The hell do you mean by that?”

    Without looking at him you opened your text messages, Bulma’s name quickly popping up. “What do you think?” He tried to glance over at your screen to see what you were going to text her before you shifted the phone away; it was like he was a child. “Do you mind?”

     “Are you texting her? Tell her to get the vanilla protein powder as well, I won’t eat the chocolate one. It’s disgusting.”

     “Yeah yeah sure,” you sighed, instead typing “his royal majesty is awake and grumpy. Please get here soon.” She replied by laughing at your message before sending a picture of her and Yamcha laughing in whatever breakfast restaurant they were in. For now, you were stuck with him.

    “She’s with the beta-male, isn’t she?” He frowned. You nodded.

     “They’re on a date I think? I don’t know, sometimes it’s hard to tell.”

    You were surprised to hear him chuckle at that. “True. However I’d say they’re made for eachother. They’re both annoying and a pain in my ass.”

     “I’ll agree with that first part,” you giggled, setting your phone down and glancing over at him. You took another sip of your juice glass while he looked out the window. “Want me to make you a PBJ or something?”

    “Sure. While you’re at it can you pour me some juice as well and put it in a sippy cup?” He grunted, turning to face you and making an effort to roll his eyes. You don’t know why you even bothered.

    “Just trying to be polite.”

     He seemed like he wanted to say something else before he looked down at his hand. He began to fidget with his gloves a bit, the white things worn to death. When Bulma had offered him new ones he refused, rather rudely you might add, so you chose not to mention them. When designing new training outfits with her for him, gloves were always discussed but never elaborated on. “When is the blue-haired woman coming back?”

    You shrugged, “not sure.”

     He sighed, and for a moment, he sounded relieved. You went to ask him what was up before he started talking.

     “You’re a woman,” he grunted, pulling out a chair and sitting beside you. “You sew, right?”

     Ever charming, this one. “Fuck you but yes, I sew.”

     “I need you to fix my gloves,” he grumbled, continuing to mess with the one on his right hand.

    “I can just make you new-”

    “No,” he snapped, cutting you off quickly. “I need them repaired.”

    “Fine,” you said curtly. “Just leave them by my door and-”

    “No, you'll fix them now.”

    You crossed your arms, “Vegeta I don’t just carry a sewing kit on me.”

     He stared at you blankly before his eyes moved to your purse, which was resting on the back of your chair. “Then what the hell is that for?”

     You pinched the bridge of your nose and inhaled sharply as you chose to ignore his question. “Why should I help you in the first place? You’re not exactly-”

    “Please.” The word was uttered so quietly, so pathetically, you were almost positive you had dreamed it. There was no way on Earth that Vegeta had said ‘please’ to you of all people. You skimmed over his face to find he was looking at the table. After a few moments and your lack of response, his eyes snapped up, his face flushing a bright red. “Stop staring at me like that! I’m not going to repeat myself damn it! It’s embarrassing enough!”

    You blinked a few times, trying to hide the shock as you spoke, “come on, I have a kit in my room.” You placed your empty juice glass in the sink, beginning to walk towards the spare room Bulma had designated as your own. 

    The sound of his boots clicked across the wooden floor as he followed you. He was embarrassed to admit he found himself admiring your outfit. It was rare he ever saw you in anything besides casual or training clothes. Today, however, you seemed to be stepping it up. He felt his ears begin to heat up as he stared at your ass and hips before quickly looking at your hair. “Why are you dressed like that?”

     “Like what?” You frowned, glancing back at him. 

    His eyes briefly shot to yours before he glanced away. “You’re… dressed nice.”

     You almost tripped when he complimented you, “oh, uh, thanks.” You said, clearing your throat. “Me and Bulma are going out later.”

     “Why not wear your training gear? What if something were to happen?”

     “Then I fight in this,” you shrugged. “My clothes aren’t what makes me a fighter, Vegeta. Plus with you guys around I’d only get in the way.”

    “Sure, but you’re already weak enough as is. Extra protection wouldn’t hurt.”

    You didn’t know if he was trying to make sure you were safe or simply making fun of you. “With how burned your suit is from the training bots, I don’t think armor makes much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.”

    He simply grunted, watching as you grabbed the handle to your room. You opened the door and made your way to your desk, pulling out a drawer and rummaging around for your sewing kit. Vegeta stood in the walkway, staring at the floor before you pulled the kit out and set it on top of your desk. You tilted your head at him as you sat in your office chair, motioning for him to take a seat on your bed.

    “I’ll stand,” he frowned, stepping in apprehensively and making his way over to you. He had never been in your room before; he never had a reason to be in it. It was very… you. He wasn’t sure how else to describe it. It had your scent and although he’d never admit it, he liked it. It made a shiver run down his spine.

    “No, you’ll sit,” you countered. “I sew better sitting, and I don’t want you looming over me while I do it.” You flicked on your small lamp and smiled at him softly.

     He grumbled under his breath, something about how he doesn’t ‘loom’ over people, before sitting on your bed carefully. He was trying to sit as close to the edge as possible to be somewhat polite. It creaked a bit as he did so, one of your plushies tumbling over and onto the floor. He sneered at it before you picked it up and set it back in its place.

    “Alright, let me see it.”

    He shoved his hand in your direction and you stared at him as if he were an idiot. “Vegeta you’re really starting to piss me off, give me the glove.”

    “You can fix it as it is,” he snapped. “I’m not taking it off.”

    You crossed your arms again and leaned back in your chair. “Are you trying to fuck with me? Is this a prank or something?”

    “Why the hell would I do that!” He yelled, clenching your quilt in his fists. He heard the snapping of threads and quickly relaxed his hand. Whether from the glove or the blanket he wasn’t sure, but neither seemed like good options to damage. “This is serious! Do you think I’d ask you for help for fun?”

    You wheeled your chair closer to him, motioning for him to place his hand in yours. He held it out hesitantly, palm facing the ceiling as you took it carefully in your own. A shiver ran up his spine once as he watched you trace the tear with your finger tips before he quickly looked away.

     “I should be able to stitch it up, but I’m worried I’ll poke you with the needle by accident.” Vegeta didn’t say anything after that, face slightly pale and body tense. You squeezed his hand softly, “I need you to tell me what the deal with the gloves is. I won’t judge, and I won’t tell anyone else.”

     “Like I’d trust you,” he snapped back as he ripped his hand away. “This was a mistake.”

    You shook your head, setting his hand back in his lap as you began to thread the needle. “You don’t have to tell me I guess, but it would make everything easier. Maybe I can go get a spare glove from some-“

    He was quick to cut you off, growing more and more agitated the longer he stared at the open slit in the fabric. “I should've just done this myself. God forbid you be good for someth-”

     “Vegeta, I am trying to help you!” You yelled, finally having had enough. The prince seemed taken aback by your sudden outburst as you slammed the needle on the desk. “The first thing you do in the morning is belittle me, complain, and act like you own the place! Well you don’t! You treat me like shit, my friends like shit, and I still wanted to help you! Don’t get mad at me for trying to do something you asked me to do! If you want to do it yourself, fine, take my fucking kit and leave.” When you saw the look he was giving you, you immediately felt bad. His eyes were wide with shock, mouth slightly agape. It was the first time you had seen him make an expression that was anything like this.

     You went to start apologizing before he ripped the damn thing off and tossed it at you. It thumped against your cheek before landing in your lap. You grabbed it and waved it at his face haphazardly.

     “You didn’t have to throw it at me!”

    “Just hurry and fix it!” He yelled back, crossing his arms and refusing to meet your eyes. His hand was shoved under his armpit as he tapped his foot rapidly against the wooden floor.

      You quickly got to work, the prince growing more and more impatient as you fixed the tear. “Would you hurry up?”

   “I’m trying! I want to make sure it’s done properly so I don’t have to redo it!”

    He leaned forward slightly to watch you work. It was impressive how quick you were with it, precise as the needle wove in and out of the fabric with ease. He watched as you bit your lip and began to tap your foot just as he had. He watched as your hair slipped down from behind your ear before you quickly pushed it back into place. Your eyes seemed to sparkle in the dim lap light, and his heart began to race. For a moment and a moment only, he finally relaxed. Then you were pulling the seam closed, tying the knot and smirking at your work.

   “Here, it’s done now you can-” He snatched it from you in an instant, struggling to put it on. You rolled your eyes, “a thanks would be nice.” He slid it on quickly, finally breathing a sigh of relief as he stared at the now closed seam. He could barely tell there had been a hole at all. He opened and closed his hand slowly to watch the fabric shift and ensure your work was good. Then he fell back on your bed and stared at the ceiling.

    You wheeled over to him again, watching as he shut his eyes tight and laid limp against your mattress. “Thank you,” was all he mustered up.

    “You’re welcome.” You replied, surprised he had even said anything. Your tone was soft when you spoke again, and he hated how it made him feel. “You can lay here as long as you need to.”

    Your phone went off in your pocket and you pulled it out quickly, finding a text from Bulma letting you know that she was home and going to take a quick shower. You stood up to leave before Vegeta sat up quickly, grabbing your wrist.

     “Can you stay?” He asked quietly, the glove soft against your wrist. You nodded, and quickly sat back down in your chair. He made his way once again to the edge of the bed, leaning his elbows against his legs as he clasped his hands together. He looked down at them, hunched over as he thought of what to say.

    “Ever since I was a kid,” he started, voice so low and deep it sent a shiver up your spine. “I have been a killing machine. It’s what I was made for and it’s all I’ve ever known.”

    You got up slowly and he paused before you nodded for him to continue. You shut and locked your door before walking back over to him and sitting in your chair. He nodded in thanks before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

    “I don’t have many memories of my father, and the ones that I do have are… complicated. Nappa raised me, if you could even call it that. Raditz was more of a nuisance than anything. Our goal was to survive, and one day I wanted to become powerful enough to beat Frieza. What a joke” He scoffed, shaking his head and looking back to the floor.

     “At first, taking lives was easy for me. I was doing nothing more than what I was assigned; I started to do more, go beyond what was required of me. The only one to praise me was Nappa, and even then it was never to my face. I was ridiculed and mocked, but it only pushed me farther, to do better. It was never what I wanted, but more so what needed to be done.”

    He didn’t know why the hell he was telling you this; he had never told anyone this. And yet now it was as if he couldn’t stop, he couldn’t shut his mouth long enough to think about what he was doing. “What was once hundreds went to thousands, then millions. I was eradicating races in the blink of an eye. Soon they weren’t just obstacles to me, but people with faces and lives I had ripped away from them. I had so much blood on my hands; I still have blood on my hands. So much blood that I will never, ever be able to get off.”

    He opened and closed his hands once more, the sounds of the fabric shifting in his grip. “I’m not a good man. Hell, I've never claimed to be one. But now Frieza is gone and it feels like everything I’ve done, everything I worked towards for years, was for nothing. The things I see in my sleep, what I feel when I’m awake, what I’ve gone through was for nothing.” He stopped for a moment, voice and tone becoming so quiet and serious you couldn’t believe it was the same person who had spoken to you just minutes ago. “I haven’t been able to look at my hands the same way since I was a child.”

     He finally looked up at you, eyes lidded as he smirked. You realized he was on the verge of tears. “Do you know how sad that is? A beast scared of his own damned hands. I’m a damn disgrace to my people.” He laughed after that, wiping his eyes and setting his hands back down. “Look at me, a prince crying in front of a damn lower life form.”

     You reached out hesitantly, tapping his hand with your fingers apprehensively. When he didn’t pull away you continued, scooting closer to him and pulling his hand up to lay between you both.

   You carefully ran your hand over his, sliding your fingers up and under the glove before pulling away slowly. You looked at him again, waiting for him to react or move away, to tell you to stop. Vegeta shut his eyes tight but didn’t pull away, his face pale as you set his glove carefully in your lap. To your surprise, his skin was soft, with yours perhaps being even rougher than his. Then again, you suppose that made sense if the saiyan never fought without them. 

    You traced your nails gently over his palm, studying the grooves in his skin and how neatly trimmed his nails were. “Well,” you started slowly, his breathing coming to a pause. “I don’t see any blood now.”

    Vegeta opened his eyes slowly, looking at your face carefully as you studied his hand. You were so delicate with him it made his breath hitch in his throat. 

    “Sure, maybe there was a lot there in the past, but not anymore. You can’t change what happened, but you can acknowledge it and move on, try to do better this time around.”

     When Vegeta looked at his own hand, he almost gasped in shock. It was his hand, as normal as any other. He looked back to you as you ran your thumb over top of his, gently moving your hand back and forth from his wrist to his knuckles.

     “You haven’t done good things, Vegeta. But I don’t think you’re a bad person. I think you need time and care to heal, and the first step towards that was acknowledging what we talked about today.” You paused, thinking carefully over your next choice of words before smiling softly. “I think there’s good in you. No, I know there is.”

    He watched the way your hair tumbled down and around your face, and how gentle your stare seemed to be. You weren’t repulsed or disgusted, but caring and considerate. He felt a blush rise first to the tips of his ears and then his cheeks before he pulled his hand away and slid his glove back on. He stood up after that, walking briskly across the room without turning back. He unlocked the door and opened it, pausing to think for a moment. Then, he made his way down the hall, wondering what the hell had just come over him as his heart raced out of control.

    A few days later he came home to find a second pair of gloves folded neatly on his bed along with a note, “just in case <3.” His face flushed as he went to crumple it up, but upon reading it just one more time, he found he couldn’t. He shoved it in the drawer of his bedside table, grumbling under his breath as he left to go train.

[galexibrain]

Vegeta casually being added to the main cast is the funniest shit. His death on Namek would have been a fitting end to his entire arc, and no one would have complained if he hadn't been resurrected by Shenlong (simply count him as one fo Freezer's and he's a goner) but here he is, alive, on Earth, and everyone just rolls with it. They're probably used to Goku bringing in villains by now. What's one more?

It's been ... six weeks ... more or less ... since he came to Earth and almost killed everyone but no one seems too bothered about his presence. The Namekians glare at him a little but apparently he lived at Capsule Corp while they were still there too and nothing happened?

Even Piccolo vanished into thin air for a few years after Goku beat him at the tournament.

And Vegeta just accepts it too! Bulma invites him to come too and he does? I know the anime has him leaving Earth for a while but afaik he just stays there in the manga, save for leaving to train by himself.

Like yeah, man's been going through a small crisis on Namek and it's not like there anyone, anywhere in the universe he could actually go, so why not enjoy some good food (and sex) while he's at it?

Imagine Raditz, Nappa, Freezer, Ginyu Force ... everyone Goku was willing to let live do the same ... they would have to open a "former villain shelter" on Earth ... to be adopted out to the right owner. May bite. Misses a limb or two. But cute once you get to know them.

Anyways. Vegeta adapted to life on Earth so fucking quickly it's hilarious. We see him in casual clothing more often than Goku.

[zeevoidlight]

Vegeta and Nappa, why did Vegeta killed him.

One of my favorite characters of all time since i was a child is without a doubt Vegeta.

I've seen this question being asked constantly so i'll give my take one it now. I know many people don't like the "because Saiyans" type of explanation but one cannot ignore that their nature is much different from humans and is a great part of who they are and why they do the things they do. So my approach is usually try to see what of all that is actually because of their nature and what is just being used as a cultural shield, specially when it comes to both Vegeta and Goku. More Vegeta because he lies a lot as well, and despite being Saiyan his status as royalty changes the usual dynamic a bit compared to others of his own species. (note that i watched the latin version so my interpretation of the character might be different from that of the english one)

So regarding the topic:

Realistically and sadly, as much as I like this alternate reality people usually like to portray of Nappa being Vegeta's assigned babysitter, taking care of Raditz as well, the three of them being like a small family unit given that they only had each other as survivors of their people's extinction... I think the reality is a lot more complicated.

Being a Saiyan, and more than that the strongest Saiyan by far in their recent history, even stronger than the King himself, Vegeta was capable of taking care of himself better than Nappa. He never saw Nappa as a protector because Vegeta was leagues ahead of Nappa in terms of strength and rank. We see that on the first Bardock movie where he treats Nappa as a servant, and even asks Frieza to let him go alone to a more challenging planet to conquer where he ends up killing everyone, sitting on a rock in the middle of a pile of corpses of his own making and eating twinkies or something as he was getting news of his Planet's destruction, thinking already what was going to be his next move and hiding his concern from Frieza's informant. All of that at the age of 5.

He never saw Nappa as akin to family because for as young as he was Vegeta was still his superior. Plus Vegeta considered himself smarter than him too, and he actually was even as a child. Vegeta was, on the contrary, protecting Nappa and Raditz, and consequently himself, against Frieza and his men by playing the long game while those two probably constantly screwed up and tried to engage in an unwinnable battle. This kid didn't had the opportunity to be a kid since he was born. Always on a minefield.

As how I see it, the reason why Vegeta killed Nappa then wasn't only because Goku broke Nappa's spine and paralyzed him leaving him quadriplegic and unable to fight rendering him as dead weight, but because he was years long fed up with Nappa as well. Maybe even with what he represented as the last remains of the Saiyan kingdom and the past since he was perfectly comfortable being the last Saiyan alive as representation of what a true Saiyan was in his own understanding and values of it, considering himself the peak of that and the example for everyone else to see, which being a prince he was kinda always pressured into being that and thinking of himself as such anyways. And Nappa's embarrassing fight was the last drop and the perfect excuse to get rid of him. Dude couldn't fathom something so disgraceful that he preferred to kill him than keep enduring his presence any longer while pretending he cared (and the emotions were kinda running high).

Even after in GT when he sees Nappa again there's nothing but contempt against him. And you could say anything about GT but what I appreciate greatly of it is the character consistency.

Note: I've been watching DB and Z and it's very clear from the moment they arrive to Earth that Vegeta can't with Nappa's recklessness. When Nappa destroys East city Vegeta is like 'dude, has it ever occur to you that the dragon balls could have been here? You idiot! Don't destroy the planet, we could sell it, don't be a stupid, think, fight better, concentrate, his not fighting intelligent... Lol, by the time of Nappa asking Vegeta for help I can totally imagine Vegeta was thinking 'you know what Nappa... FUCK YOU' *yeet!

[duhragonball]

Thanks for answering my ask, well, about the sparkling zero thing is that the game will feature some what if stories and scenarios that looked like fan fiction which might be rather interesting to hear you talk about, I am getting the game today to form my opinions but in case you do look at those I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on them

I finished all of the Story Modes that were available to me, and I have to say, I'm not impressed with the What If scenarios. But then again, I wasn't expecting to be in the first place.

Most of the Budokai and Sparking games had What-If content of some sort, but it's usually pretty thin. Budokai 3 had some grand plans to give every character a story mode, but by the time the actual game released, all most of the characters got was a bunch of sound files from the scrapped stories. You unlocked these as "Memories of [X]" capsules in the game. Either they cost a lot of money, or you had to wish for them with Dragon Balls, I forget which.

I remember the Android 16 one had audio of him having some sort of climactic match with Goku, and there's audio of Goku conceding defeat and accepting that 16 will kill him, but I think he spares him. So it's a what-if scenario in my book. So was that Uub story mode that actually made it into the game, where Uub has to save the world from Omega Shenron. That was pretty cool, but the "Memories of..." capsules pointed to a much bigger project that never materialized.

Other than that, the most memorable what-if content was probably that "Fateful Brothers" think in BT3, where Raditz turns good and Goku takes him in. They have to stop Piccolo from killing him, and he warns him about Vegeta and Nappa. I think it ends with Raditz meeting Bardock in hell.

But a lot of it is pretty flimsy stuff. Not bad, just nothing earth-shaking. It's usually just some cutscenes to set up an unusual match that you could just as easily arrange yourself in vs. mode.

And that's kind of the gripe I have with Sparking Zero's what-ifs, because they're really just minor tweaks to the original story. There's one where Frieza and his goons invade Earth instead of the Z-Fighters facing him on Namek. And it's fine, but it's basically the same series of battles you'd fight in the "correct" version of events. There's one where Vegeta and Trunks actually cooperate in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and they end up getting the big win over Cell, which sounds awesome, but it's not all that different from going through the Cell Saga normally with Vegeta, Gohan, and Goku.

I haven't unlocked much of this stuff myself, mainly because I'm still getting the hang of the game, and a lot of these branching paths require a lot more skill to activate the right win condition. But I've been watching Kirran and Grant play the game on Goodtimes Zone, and I've found myself enjoying their live reactions more than the stuff they're reacting to. And they like the what if stuff we're getting, but I keep noticing a hint of disappointment, like they were expecting a bit more. More branching paths, and bigger divergences from the canon story.

For example, they were hoping Cooler would show up in the middle of any Frieza-related branches, and yeah, that seems obvious, doesn't it? Hell, King Cold is in the game too, isn't he? Do a thing where he shows up on Namek, or maybe have Cooler wipe out the Androids because he's here to get his own revenge on Goku.

Instead we got... well, I'll cut for spoilers if anyone's interested...

We got Gohan Black. Now this might sound pretty impressive at first, but it kind of doesn't work. So the what-if scenario is that Gohan actually beats Frieza in Res-F before Goku arrives to help, and then Gohan starts training more seriously, so he joins the U7 team for the Destroyer Invitational and defeats Hit to win the whole thing. (Oddly, you don't get to play Gohan vs. Hit, which seems like an oversight in a what-if scenario, but whatever.)

So when the Zamasu arc starts, it turns out that Zamasu steals Gohan's body instead of Goku's in this version, because Gohan was stronger at the time. And that's fine, but it doesn't actually change very much. The real Gohan joins Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks in the battle, but it's the same Zamasu and Black. The only difference is that Kyle Herbert is playing Black in this version instead of Sean Schemmel. Actually I guess in Japanese it might not be that different at all, since Masako Nozawa plays Gohan and Goku.

Gohan Black doesn't even look that different from Goku Black. He just kind of looks like the original Goku Black with a different haircut. He fuses with Zamasu in the end, and they actually changed the Fused Zamasu model to reflect this, but they didn't have to change it very much.

And you have the real Gohan in the story, which is something new, but here's the problem: You already play the Zamasu arc in four other story modes: Goku, Vegeta, Future Trunks, and Goku Black. And it plays out the same way every time.

Good guys vs. Black

Good guys vs. Black and Zamasu

Good guys vs. Black and Zamasu again

Good guys vs. fused Zamasu

Good guys vs. fused Zamasu (corrupted)

I was already sick of it before I bought the game, because I hate the Zamasu arc. But for some reason the game devs thought we should play it five times. And yeah, Gohan remembers the damn jar for the Mafuba in his version, but so what? I still have to look at that ugly-ass stage the whole time, and I still have to listen to Zamasu preach during the fight.

As I understand it, there's a what-if where Trunks joins the U7 team for the Tournament of Power, and that also sounds like a decent idea, except it's kind of the same problem. We see the Tournament of Power in five story modes already: Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Frieza, and Jiren. I hope Trunks has something fresh to do when he runs through it a sixth time, but I'm not optimistic.

It just feels kind of weak. Maybe they're saving cooler what-if scenarios for DLC, but that seems like a poor strategy when the base game has such weak what-if scenarios. It leaves me skeptical that they even know how to write a cool one. I mean, you've got a bunch of GT and movie guys on the roster. This should be easy. Middle schoolers do this stuff. Here's some ideas I thought of off the cuff.

Goku invites Cell to compete in the Tournament of Power instead of Frieza.

Kefla defeats Goku and now she has to defeat Jiren and Goku's teammates to win the tournament. Vegeta and Gohan fuse into Vegehan in a last-ditch effort.

Golden Frieza Black.

Cell wins the Cell Games and accidentally releases Buu from his ball while terrorizing the Earth, and now he has to team up with the Z-fighters to stop him.

Dabura convinces Babidi to seal Buu up again, and they do evil stuff with Majin Vegeta on their team.

Vegito kills Super Buu, so now Dragon Ball Super plays out with Vegito.

Piccolo survives Nappa's blast and fuses with Kami to sweep the next several dozen episodes' worth of bad guys.

Ginyu Force-Kamikaze Fireballs War.

Turles shows up on Namek and kicks Frieza's ass with fruit power.

Gero sics Android 13 on the Z-fighters during the Saiyan invasion, so Vegeta and Nappa have to do a truce to stop him.

I could probably think of better ideas with some more time, but the point is that none of this would require a lot of extra assets that aren't already in the base game. But they would involve a lot of different battles and settings that you wouldn't see in the other story paths. I don't understand why they didn't get more creative with things. They had all the stuff they needed. All they had to do was think outside the box a little.

[yeowangies]

dangerous - chapter IV

❧

Chapter I I Chapter II I Chapter III | Chapter IV: New Routine

PAIRING: Vegeta/Reader RATING: Explicit CONTENTS: Explicit sexual content, Canon typical violence WORDCOUNT: 4327

Summary:

You missed connecting with other people, other humans, so much it hurt. You missed your parents, your friends, your pet; you missed sleeping on your own bed, that was ten times more comfortable than the mattress you had in that room in Frieza’s palace. You even missed sparring with someone who you knew could give you a good punch but would still worry about your well being afterwards.

Training. That’s what you needed then. To let out some emotions.

Notes: Hello! It's been a while since I updated this fic, but it's been on my mind for a while. I have the outline of it written down, so I hope I can release a new chapter fairly often? And since this is a work in progress, I hope you can bear with me if there are any inconsistencies 😭 This story has a point, and I know where I wanna go, so please be patient!

I'm surprised of how popular this fic is among all my fics, and it remained the one with the most hits on AO3 until recently, so I hope yall stay with me until the end 💕

Vegeta was not the same man he was years back. Having destroyed planet after planet without actually meeting someone who could match him in strength had led him to a certain feeling of boredom and numbness that had engraved into his soul. 

For all purposes, he was still the same, however. He was still working under Frieza, with a silly plot in mind to overthrow him someday, but at the same time knowing he wasn’t nearly strong enough to do it. His bloodlust had decreased along with his interest in purging planets, but it changed nothing because that was still his job in the Frieza Force. He trained whenever he was staying on-planet, in between missions, like he always did. 

That loop he was trapped in made him wonder over the years if the time when he could overthrow Frieza would ever come. Vegeta had calculated how much stronger he needed to be to defeat him, but it seemed unreachable. Especially if his sparring partners were Nappa and Raditz, who were still incredibly inferior to him. 

At least, you showing up in his life had been a pleasant surprise. 

Your presence hardly changed anything. It’s not like you had some hidden power that would prove to challenge his own strength. You didn’t have any information regarding the legend of the Super Saiyan; you weren’t even a Saiyan, though your species resembled them physically, but only physically. Every time Vegeta touched you, he got the feeling you might bruise. 

And you did bruise, especially the first few times he had lay with you. Vegeta was restraining himself whenever he shared a bed with you, but in retrospect, he probably wasn’t doing that much the first couple of times. He had a lot of pent up energy, anger and lust for things he couldn’t have, and it didn’t help the way you enticed him. It was a strange feeling that invaded him when he noticed the marks he’d left on you, almost like he felt bad. Almost. In any case, you seemed to like whenever he hurt you, though. 

What would such a feeble being mean to him, though?

Vegeta didn’t really understand the feeling that invaded him as he got to spend more and more time alone with you. It was pleasant, that much he could tell, even the words he exchanged with you before and after sex. He had never entertained himself with any feeling that made him feel ‘warm’ like then. Violence and battle had never awoken something like this in him. 

He felt vulnerable. 

Which was stupid, because who could hurt him? You? Certainly not. Your power level was puny, even when you claimed not to be as weak as you looked. He could kill you with a finger if he so desired. 

That was what was scary, though. He didn’t want to kill you. 

Maybe not yet. Vegeta told himself that he didn’t want to kill you yet. You were a good lay and a nice distraction from the stress and ire he had whenever he was alone, or surrounded by his subordinates. He had spent over thirty years under Frieza’s wings and he was nowhere near as strong as he was, and your presence made everything else fade to nothing. 

Even through all that, he sometimes still didn’t understand you. 

“Vegeta, how old are you?” You asked him, as you lied beside him.

It had been a few minutes since you both had reached your peaks (you had gotten there twice, and he was proud that he knew your body so well, he could make you orgasm with simply his fingers), and you were still trying to catch your breath when you turned your face to look at him. You stared at him too often, and he felt bothered by it at times.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because I’m curious?” Vegeta quirked an eyebrow in your direction, and you rolled your eyes. “I just want to know if I’m sleeping with a 100 year old man, or if it’s someone younger. Am I not allowed to know?”

“Do I really look like an old man?” He chuckled.

“Well, no. But I mean, I know a lot of species that don’t age, so I wouldn’t know.”

“Saiyans don’t reach adulthood until they reach their fifties. I will still look like this for a couple of decades.”

“Oh…” You remained silent for a few seconds before repeating your original question. “So, how old?”

“I’m thirty two.” Vegeta said, at last. The wide smile on your face made him frown. “What?”

“Nothing. I’m twenty nine.”

“So?”

“So I’m glad I’m younger.”

Vegeta didn’t understand you at all, most of the time. 

When you carefully nuzzled closer, and trailed a hand down his abdomen, he did understand that. He kept his eyes on your face, staring at you with desire as you wrapped your hand around his erection. It had only taken him a minute for his cock to stir back to life after he had already spent his load; it was something that happened all the time when you were around. 

Vegeta kept his eyes open even when you leaned to chastely kiss his lips before trailing lower down his neck and chest, slowly moving your hand over his length. He tried to keep his gaze on you when you licked up the underside of his dick, staring right back at him as you kittenishly lapped at the head. When your lips wrapped around his cock, Vegeta couldn’t focus on anything else, except the sensation of your warm mouth as it engulfed him entirely, almost like it was easy, like it belonged there. 

He remembered the initial small fear the first time you put your lips on him. Not that you could ever really hurt him. But after he had given in that time, he couldn’t get enough. At least he never had to ask, or worse, beg, for you to use your mouth on him; you seemed more than eager and willing to pleasure him.

Shame on him. He had actually given you power over his body. 

But Vegeta couldn’t care less in that moment, when you were bobbing your head up and down, humming contently as the tip of his cock grazed the back of your throat. He groaned, hips jerking upwards, seeking more of that wet heat. You gazed at him through glossy eyes as you sped up your moves, trying to hold him inside for longer, as the muscles in his abdomen tensed.

The heat inside him unraveled, making him growl as he spilled cum down your throat, feeling the intense burn of release pulsing through his veins. You swallowed all of it, and he heard you gag around a mouthful of cum as you slowly pulled back, pumping his cock with your hand to help him ride out his orgasm. He opened his eyes to look at you then, sporting a playful smile as you licked your lips clean of every drop that might have been there as you crawled back over him. 

You let go of his length to wrap your arms around his neck as you kissed him, nice and slow. Vegeta returned the affection, wrapping his arms loosely around your waist. He had gotten used to ‘kissing’ after the first few times he had sex with you, even when he had rarely done that with whoever he had fucked before. But you seemed eager to do it every time, and he would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it. 

Your heartbeat was going fast again, he could feel it when you pressed closer to him. You had told him it had nothing to do with fear, something he had associated with it before. Seemed like your heart was always beating that fast every time you were with him. He wondered why, what kind of emotion provoked that in you?

It must have been something good, as it did not slow down when he reached your entrance with his fingers. He was pleased to know that you were still wet, obviously from sucking him off, but also due to the previous load he had spilled inside you the first round, his cum and your slick mixing in and making it so much better for him to slide in again. 

Vegeta had not expected your brash and lewd attitude to be so attractive. 

If he had to be honest, he hadn’t had sex as often as his two henchmen probably had. He wasn’t as experienced, but it’s not like he knew nothing. However, he wondered how much he did not know when you were with him. You hadn’t mentioned his lack of experience at all, he tried his best to hide it and so far, you seemed unaware of it. But the things you did to him sometimes left him wondering how many things could be done in intimacy. 

The first time you gave him oral sex, it intrigued him, but when you had taught him something called sixty nine, it fascinated him. And apparently sex wasn’t exclusively reserved for the bedroom. He knew that, but doing it in the shower had been pleasant. 

Vegeta didn’t dwell on anything when he pushed his cock inside you, grunting against your lips as you started rocking your hips. He was overwhelmed, not only by how tight and warm and wet you were; your sweet scent invaded his nose, making him feel drowsy, and your moans were music to his ears, and even his name sounded so honeyed every time it spilled from your lips. It was like being in a haze, drowning in bliss, as he came inside you, holding tightly onto your hips, afraid you might disappear. 

You were exhausted afterwards, and fell asleep minutes later. 

Vegeta took that opportunity to leave. Most of the time he usually waited for you to fall into a deep slumber before taking off. He never spent the night. He already felt weak for having sex with a human more than a handful of times, but it was difficult sometimes to leave that warm bed of yours at times. 

He was getting softer. He was aware, and he had no one to blame but himself. You had given him a small sense of purpose, but it was frail. He only liked to fuck you, what good would that do to him? 

Grumbling in annoyance, Vegeta gathered his clothes, putting them on before leaving your bedroom.

*

You were used to waking up alone the morning after having sex with Vegeta. You were used to it, but it didn’t make you feel any less used. You could understand why he wouldn’t spend the night, but you were still human enough, and not sleeping together at least once made you feel disposable.

Whatever. Vegeta wasn’t your boyfriend. 

Running your hands through your hair, you took a shower, getting rids of the remains of your activities from the night before. 

It had already been almost two months since you got back to planet Frieza 80 (was it 80? 81? You weren’t sure). Over three months since you met Vegeta, Raditz and Nappa. Vegeta kept showing up at your door occasionally. More often than not, actually. It surprised you; it had been a shock the second time he knocked your door when you were on that spaceship months ago, it was still a surprise that he actively had been visiting you even after that mission was over. He didn’t show up every night, but he did it so often, he might as well have. The only time he didn’t were a few weeks in between when he had been on a mission God knows where along with Nappa.

You tried to keep a lot of your emotions in check frequently, but seeing Vegeta intimately so often made it difficult. You knew he wasn’t close to being emotionally invested in you, he showed it every time you interacted with him outside the bedroom; he treated you like he treated everyone else, like shit. But his ability to be somehow soft with you in private confused you. He obviously just wanted to get laid, as much as you did. 

You were just lonely. 

It had nothing to do with Vegeta or anyone else. You simply missed being in contact with someone who had the emotional depth of an actual sentient being, and not just slaves of Frieza’s army. You couldn’t blame anyone; being under a tyrannical reign would make you distrust your own shadow, it was only natural no one revealed anything about themselves to anyone else. It was a miracle the three remaining Saiyans even trusted each other. 

And if you were honest with yourself, as much as you liked Vegeta, you weren’t sure if you trusted him at all. Sex meant vulnerability, but you couldn’t show it with someone you knew was always on guard, even when you were being intimate. 

You felt like you were turning into one of those soldiers without emotional depth.

You tried not to tear up as you put on your clothes after your shower. You missed connecting with other people, other humans, so much it hurt. You missed your parents, your friends, your pet; you missed sleeping on your own bed, that was ten times more comfortable than the mattress you had in that room in Frieza’s palace. You even missed sparring with someone who you knew could give you a good punch but would still worry about your well being afterwards.

Training. That’s what you needed then. To let out some emotions. 

The training rooms used by the Saiyans were reserved for only them, and other high ranking officers that might want to use it, but you knew Vegeta was the one who visited it the most (you had to repair it often because of him). You also knew he wasn’t going to be there so early after spending the night with you, so after grabbing something quick to eat, you headed to the training room. 

You didn’t expect to see Raditz there, however. 

“Hey, doll,” He greeted you with a grin, and you rolled your eyes. He kept calling you that and it just stuck. “What brought you here?”

You stared at him for a long minute; he had been training too, wearing only his trunks and boots as sweat ran down his body and settled in places that made you want to look at him for longer than what should be allowed. 

“I wanted to warm up a bit,” You averted your eyes quickly, focusing on the wall behind him. “But if you’re using the room, I’ll come back later.”

“Warm up, huh?” Raditz asked, obviously mocking you by the way he was smiling. “I want to see what you got.”

“You wanna spar with me?” You blinked, confused. 

“Yeah, or am I too much for you, human?”

He was provoking you, you knew it, but it was working. Your power wasn’t low, but you weren’t sure if you could actually match Raditz in a one on one battle. But this could be a good way to find out. His power was the lowest among the three Saiyans and he had been the nicest to you, so maybe he wouldn’t kill you if your power proved to be puny compared to his. 

“Alright, I’m game.” 

“Sweet!”

You took a step back to get rid of your armor, and you felt his eyes scanning your body as you adjusted your skin tight suit. He and Nappa never stopped leering at you any chance they got, and every time you had to remind yourself it had to do with the fact that you looked a lot like a Saiyan. They only seemed to like it more when you tell them to stop anyway. 

Raditz changed the gleam in his eyes when you faced him; he obviously didn’t see you as a threat, if anything he seemed to be mocking you by daring you to fight him. 

You launched at him, and he saw it coming easily, no matter how fast you were, grabbing your fist with one hand when you aimed it at his face, then grabbing your leg when you tried to kick him in the face again. And so on and so on with any physical attack you tried to pull off. 

Raditz didn’t even flinch with any attempt you made at connecting with him, and it was starting to piss you off. You were only just getting started, but he obviously wasn’t taking you seriously, remaining on his spot with a smirk as you tried to actually deck him. 

There was no point in holding back if that was how it was going to be. 

Taking a few steps back, you threw yourself at Raditz, aiming to hit him in the chest with your feet. You barely touched him when he grabbed your legs with both hands, a wide smirk on his face, and you couldn’t help but smile back as you got your hands up in his face, firing a ki blast in a split second that made him stumble back. He groaned loudly, the grip he had on you loosening, giving you the chance to actually kick him in the face this time, and swiftly wrapping your legs around his neck to throw him to the ground. 

A loud thud echoed in the room when his body hit the floor, and you stared down at him with amusement. 

“Fuck!” Raditz grunted, a few drops of blood dripping from his nose as he pulled his hands towards his face. 

“You could have easily avoided all those attacks if you had taken me seriously from the beginning.”

You took a step back as Raditz stood up again, smirking as he wiped the blood off his face. 

“I won’t make the same mistake again.”

And he didn’t. 

You supposed Raditz was going easy on you at first, but at least he took your attacks seriously, and once you had thrown him to the ground twice (being small and flexible in comparison was a great advantage against him), he’d seemed to have enough. He actually started to hit you back, throwing punches and kicks that left you breathless with the sheer force he was using. 

Fuck it. You started this a warm up or a spar, but he was fighting for real. 

Ki blasts flew from both sides until it basically looked like a firework show, and dodging them got even more difficult for the both of you. Raditz had more stamina, his body was built for that, but this confrontation had been dragging on for a while, you could tell he needed a break, and so did you; the places he had managed to connect with ached like a bitch, and you’d end up with bruises all over your body if you didn’t end this quick. 

Gathering what little energy you had left in the palm of your hand, you threw a ki blast right in his face, which he avoided easily, only to be met with your fist. He grabbed it swiftly like you expected, and you consequently held onto his arm with your other hand. Using it as leverage, you lifted yourself up to land a kick on his face with both of your feet, making him fall on his side. You barely had any strength left, so you let yourself fall beside him, groaning in pain when you hit the floor. 

“Time up…” You panted, struggling to even speak. “You win…”

“How the fuck is this my win? You knocked me down.” Raditz grunted, sitting up and glaring at you. 

“I don't have energy left, you could easily give me the final blow…”

“I’m not pleased to ‘win’ like this against a human.” He said, and you could feel in his tone he was genuinely frustrated. 

You remained quiet, unsure of what to say. Strength, battles and discipline was viewed differently in this world than it was in your planet, and you didn’t blame him. You didn’t have to actively fight for survival when you lived on Earth. When Earth still existed. 

You jolted when the door suddenly opened, and Zarbon walked in, followed closely by Vegeta and Nappa. You sat up, staring wide eyed. You had only seen the guy a handful of times, but he was looking straight at you, and trepidation quickly bubbled up inside you. 

“You, human girl,” He addressed you with a loud, imposing voice. “You’re a mechanic, aren’t you?”

“Yes?”

“Not anymore. You’re similar to the Saiyans, you'll be joining them in your next mission.”

“What?!” You complained as you stood up on shaky legs. “Why?!”

“Quit your whining.” Vegeta said, glaring at you. “It’s been decided, so shut up.”

You faltered, his words settling in your brain. You didn't even whine that much. 

“I had no idea you had that kind of power.” Zarbon kept looking at you, scanning every inch of your body, and you felt the need to cover up, even though you were fully dressed. “Puny, compared to mine, but enough to make yourself useful.”

Your eye twitched but you said nothing until he finally left a second later. 

“What is going on?!” You asked, screamed, eyes flickering between Nappa and Vegeta.

“Your little fight caught the bastard’s attention.” Nappa grumbled, annoyed. “He saw the whole thing.”

You sighed, frustrated. All training rooms had two way mirrors, though you’ve rarely seen anyone actually using them. 

“You’re going to train with us starting tomorrow.” Vegeta said. You knew him enough to know how angry he was, though you weren’t sure why. 

“Fine.” You grumbled. 

Vegeta glared at you and Raditz before he turned to leave, followed closely by Nappa. You sat on the floor next to Raditz as he turned to look at you with curious eyes. 

“Pleased to make yourself useful?”

“I am useful even if I don’t fight.” You scoffed, stretching your arms. 

“The real fun starts now.” Raditz grinned at you. 

You wanted to return the smile, but you couldn’t. You weren’t looking forward to the torture that was going to be training with beings who were genetically designed to fight endlessly. You were just a human; you had trained enough to achieve a level to be on the par with Raditz, but you would probably never get to go that much higher. 

“I had fun training with you.” You said after a while, as you both got up. And this time, you did smile. “I think I needed it.”

“I enjoyed it, too.” Raditz replied, smiling faintly. “Let me know when you want to do it again, girl.”

You watched him walk out the room and down the corridor before you turned to leave in the opposite direction. You needed to get some painkillers and hopefully something that would make the bruises fade away quicker, if there even was such a thing, at the medical unit. 

After picking up food in the dining room, you took the rest of the day off. You showered and applied ointment on every visible bruise you could find on your body (and there were many) before settling down on your bed. Tiredness settled in quickly, but it would take a while for the painkillers to kick in; both of your sides ached with every move, so you could only lie in bed and stare at the ceiling until you dozed off. 

After a couple of hours, Vegeta’s ki moving towards your room woke you up. You hoped to God he wasn’t thinking of actually fucking you that night; you didn’t know how much of your fight with Raditz did he see, but it must have been obvious that you weren’t capable of moving too much that night. Not to mention that it had pissed you off that he had told you to shut up the way he did. 

Vegeta stood outside your door, you could feel his ki flickering (nervously maybe?), but given that you were a little pissed at him, you waited; you wanted him to actually knock. And he took his damn time, only knocking once after a few minutes. 

“Open up.” His voice ordered from the other side, making your annoyance increase.

You opened the door just enough so he could see your face and part of your body in your sleeping clothes, visible contusions tainting your skin. His eyes scanned you quickly and when he tried to push the door so he could walk in, you stopped him. 

“What do you want?”

Vegeta raised his eyebrow at your tone, and you could see him struggling to find the right words to say. 

“Let me in.”

“No.”

“What’s wrong with you?” He frowned, obviously irritated as well. 

“What's wrong with me? You really expect to just walk in here like every other day? Like you don’t see the bruises all over my body?!” You yelled, making Vegeta scoff.

“Humans are so fragile-”

“Well, too bad you’re sleeping with one.” You interrupted him, earning one of his most heated glares in return. He obviously hated being interrupted, but you were too annoyed to care. “I’m sure you’ll find someone else to entertain yourself with.”

“What the fuck is your problem?” Vegeta asked through gritted teeth. “You were begging me to fuck you the first time!”

“And now I’m saying ‘no’ because you’re a jackass. Who do you think you are?! You will never tell me to shut up like that again!” You seethed, pushing him with a hand on his chest. He did not move an inch, but he was staring at you with eyes wide open, evidently surprised about your reaction. “Goodbye, Vegeta.”

You closed the door swiftly in his face. His ki spiked briefly, and for a second you thought he might burst in. He never did, and some minutes later, you felt his presence get further away as he retreated. 

[treepan0]

August lore dump because why not?

August is actually the most detailed of my ocs, starting off with my own surprise about an unpopular choice in the dragonball fandom. August has multiple different outcomes, mainly because of her complexity as a character. but for the most part her pre-series, classic, Z, super, and introduction lore is consistant. keep in mind she is a mutated Tuffle oc, with life as her main theme and that does affect her lore. under read more for obvious reasons.

~Pre series, introduction & classic

August doesn't remember much of life before the saiyan-tuffle war, as she was only five when it broke out. she and her mom stayed on the run for seven years, before she decided to face things head on, rather than running away. unfortunately during a fight a year later, her life would change forever.

this fight resulted in her mutation, and the first presumption of her death. the second would happen five years later, she was hit by a blast causing her ability to teleport her away, and stay in a dream like state for a long time. due to her ability however, the passage of time was like nothing to her.

I imagine her introduction a bit different then most; during one of Goku's dragon ball searches with Bulma is when they first meet, reasonably August is scared, and Goku is confused. August fearing for her life, attacks out of self defence, and is defeated pretty easily. however out of a desire to fight her again, she was spared leading to her genuine respect for Goku.

her arc in dragon ball would be about starting to move on from the past, and letting go of grudges against those who never deserved her wrath.

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~DBZ lore~

Z is where things interesthing; you know I mentioned she was hit by a blast? well it was a ki blast that went straight through her diaphragm, kick starting the first more interesting detail about her. August despite everything felt horror when learning of Raditz' death, because in a way she knew long ago that could have been her. while it doesn't destroy her relationship with Goku, it does change her views on him significantly.

leading up to Vegeta and Nappa's arrival, she would train as she believes the only way to maintain the life she worked for, is to fight for it. in the end however it didn't matter, as vegeta was strong enough to make her ability unable to protect her. so she's kind of stuck dead, until the end of the Frieza to be revived alongside everyone else.

the time spent between the Frieza and android sagas, is spent a bit more relaxed like everyone else, but she doesn't give up training. she never does really, since it's also one of her coping mechanisms, and Vegeta sure does upset her. Despite that fact, I can still see her baking cookies to help cheer everyone up. (she lets Bulma save some for Vegeta, but they never get eaten and just go stale due to his distrust.)

there isn't much special I could see for the android saga, she's really just another fighter there. In the Cell saga however I can see her body creating a poison for imperfect Cell in its compounds, since her ability is adapting for survival. This reasonably angers Cell, but it's not enough to kill him, just repel him like a mosquito.

in the Buu saga August still doesn't fully get along with Vegeta, but she puts it aside mainly for Trunks and Goten. She barely escapes being absorbed, but still ends up exploding with everyone else. afterwards I can see her baking treats, and sending them to Mr.Satan since it's already something she likes to do, and she now has someone to enjoy the baked goods so they never go to waste.

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~Super~

I'm doing super first since GT has branching timelines.

during battle of gods, I don't see many interactions except for one: remembering August bakes as a hobby, and is really good at it Vegeta tries to get her to help please Beerus. August is well aware that the GoD could kill her easily, but she sees a pretty obvious problem and asks him: "Bake? with what ingredients, tools and supplies?" Unfortunately Vegeta forgot you can't bake sweets from thin air. at least she tries to help settle Buu down when the two fight over the pudding cups.

resurrection F has very few special interactions, she does however promise to make Beerus some cookies as their first direct interaction. August follows through with her promise during a filler arc, and is simply a spectator in the 6 & 7 tournament.

I can see most of her super interactions being related to Baking, fighting, the reality of what she is and just generally being kind to Beerus and Whis, since most of super doesn't have many interactions that would need her less flattering side.

regardless her absence in the universe tournament is contributed by her mutated status, most of her abilities would disqualify her realistically in her eyes, so she decided better safe than sorry. thankfully this gave her the chance to realize just how much she despises Frieza, as he's deceptive and takes lives without a care.

outside of that I've only seen the anime and movies, due to a limited budget so the last additional detail notes will be simple. August would likely have a soft spot for Broly, just as I could see her having for Goku, Gohan, Goten and Trunks as it's mainly caused by her choice to be kind, and what remains of her instincts before her mutation.

and the only thing from the manga that I will bring up, is I can see her having a bit of an almost sisterly relationship with Granola, mainly due to what they have in common more than anything else.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~Base GT/Canon compliant GT timeline~

August never leaves with Goku, Pan and Trunks in any of the GT timelines. She helps distract Baby, but that's about it. She's horrified and disgusted by his actions. how could another Tuffle do such a thing? she hates him so much, he's hurt her friends, and the children she promised to look after. if it wasn't for her fear of Vegeta, she would break his nose, and wipe that smug grin off his face.

in the end she dies alone much later, her body finally wearing down enough so she can rest in peace within the grass.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~GT 'B' timeline~

Baby has defeated Goku, out of desperation she dashes into Baby. She hopes the result will take after her more, giving up both their existence in hopes to save everyone she ever loved. this is the timeline that resulted in my Xenoverse 1 character Auggy, who started off as a what if.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~GT 'G' timeline~

Baby is redeemed, and August lets him bunk at her place. they still dislike each other at first, but due to having somewhat similar goals, and quite a bit in common they end up surprisingly close. admittedly however Baby had to take the first step, so I am not exaggerating when I say slow burn enemies to lovers timeline.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~Legends~

due to the desperation the timeline tournament has brought her to, and the fact vegeta has pushed her away for many years, leaving her pretty much unable to team up with any of her friends, August ends up on a team with Cooler and Baby.

August is the mediator and medic. Cooler is the more strict of the three, the one who makes sure to enforce things, and is more of the leader if anything. Baby is definitely more childish compared to the other two, but his ability to hide in the shadows so well makes him a great scout and rogue, in combination with his abilities and skills he helps provide information so the three can form plans together.

no one ends up showing interest in each other, due to not spending nearly enough time to feel such feelings.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~Xenoverse~

Outside of the GT Bad timeline another version of August is a Conton city resenant, who mainly ends up there due to being one of Auggy's components. this version of August feels the most content, since in Conton city she would have; a husband and two adopted kids (three if you count Auggy), what she wanted.

And yes those adopted kids are Kamin and Oren, because I couldn't unsee it with her personality.

[risingsouls]

I mean, while the narrative by no means excuses them, they're shown as being desperate survivors, resorting to cruel acts to survive a universe that pm doomed them to extinction. And arguing for genocide is disgusting. And on Bulma, I agree, original material is not the friendliest to female characters, they hardly get to do anything before being married off and forgotten about. like how does someone forget that raditz/nappa/etc were only doing that to survive...? frieza drove them to it

[Part one here:]

[I saw this and thought the goons had come back to argue with me lmao. But I'm glad that isn't the case and it's someone else that saw how...uh...problematic the narrative of the other side of the argument was positing.

Under the cut for length and ~drama~.

As you said, the Saiyans were by no means good, but they didn't deserve to be wiped out (I mean...that's not even why they WERE wiped out...at least so long as we ignore implications of Beerus telling Frieza to do it which was dumb anyway so). No one does. I will say that, at least from what I understand (and accept; they seem to change the Saiyan's history every other saga), the Saiyans were always looking for a fight, and, according to at least the dub I know, they did go to other planets to do that and wreak havoc even before King Cold got his mitts on them. Whether that was to CONQUER said planets or not also depends on what part of the series you're watching it seems but you know. So they've definitely always had some questionable practices, but that doesn't mean they're evil by design and deserve total destruction.

And that's not even talking about basically ANYTHING we see of Saiyan culture/lifestyle IS post colonization by the Colds. We don't ACTUALLY get to see what their culture WAS without it being tainted by being ruled by another empire. We get some hints, most of which end up contradicted or something as I mentioned earlier, but we have no way of knowing what was purely from Saiyan culture and what got changed, adopted, or expunged.

The point I was trying to make with the Bulma and Vegeta stuff was that a lot of Bulma's behavior stifles or at least attempts to stifle even the most innocuous portions of Vegeta's Saiyan-ness he can practice and show like simply training/fighting (which is part of their culture and maybe even biology, despite what the arguers wanted to say). This is more headcanon-y, but that would probably extend to other aspects of his personality, practices, etc. that did come from his Saiyan heritage that didn't jive with how she wanted him to be or expected him to be. The folks in question unfortunately took that to mean I meant the worst parts of his old lifestyle which wasn't what I was talking about at all. Vegeta himself has no interest in conquest anymore, so their arguments were ridiculous from the get go. However, the things Bulma says and does on screen reveal that she wants him to be an Earthling husband. She wants him to act fully like an Earthling, and she has never been shown to care about his history or learning about it and his culture (i.e. Vegeta has had to inform her and the others of different aspects of Saiyan lifestyle and biology, stuff that she could have easily already known if she, imo, bothered to understand that part of him). And I'm not even saying that's REALLY a huge problem on the surface; you can't really blame her when that's all SHE knows and how her character is. Sexism aside, she is meant to be a spoiled, self-serving brat from the beginning. When it DOES become a problem is that, as I mentioned, she doesn't TRY to understand him on that level, and there are no hints that she has tried. She basically seems to pull exactly what the people that had a problem with what I said did in just assuming Saiyans are just genocidal killers with nothing else to them (and a note: I know Vegeta would probably be difficult to talk to about this but you get me I think).

Overall, I think they were just mad that I dared to call Bulma abusive and is a second Frieza for Vegeta based on this singular post where I didn't really get into the meat of why I think that because I've talked about it several times before. Yes, the writing for her is oftentimes sexist and awful like it is with pretty much every other woman in the series, but that...doesn't really play ball here. The point I was trying to make is that, while it's not on purpose or maliciously (another nuance of my post the people with a problem failed to even ask me about because they went immediately on the attack), is that Vegeta basically ended up in another relationship where he was being controlled by another person (again, perhaps not in a malicious way but she held a lot over him in terms of having a place to live and survive, especially when we know the dude was super depressed post Cell Saga; man was not about to have the wherewithal to fucking find a job and get a place of his own on a planet he knows so little about, so yeah...he's gonna take the easiest option available), something that I think is more apparent in Super than Z but it's still there. And yeah, I actually agree that he should just ignore her when he wants to train or leave or do something that isn't what she wants him to do at the time. But if we go by canon and how it's written (which I can say THIS would be where the sexism comes in), that's not what happens. Bulma does whatever she can to get what she wants from Vegeta in apparent and subtle ways that come off as pretty abusive.

And I'll say it now: Vegeta is fucking abusive and toxic, too. I've said it a million and three times, but since I didn't say it in the post in question, apparently I just don't think that. Which isn't true. Vegeta is shitty to Bulma from day fucking one. I really don't understand why they end up together as, again, I've said a million times. The choice is absolutely disrespectful to Bulma's character. Something else I've said ad nauseum. But again...this one post was the one they cherrypicked to get pissed over.

I got accused of not seeing nuance in any of this during this...debate. Thing is, this take is based on what happens in canon. This is my reading of the relationship based on canon events, and even then, it's just a SLIVER of what I think about their canon relationship. If I had my way? This relationship wouldn't exist or, at the very least, would be written VERY differently, from making Bulma be less of a sexist stereotype (in the relationships and in all aspects) to how Vegeta reacts to her always forcing him to do shit he doesn't want to or, perhaps, isn't even comfortable with (see: parties, huge get togethers for her work, vacations). I would actually write it more like we see in the Buu Saga and GT, where the two DO eventually seem to have an understanding of each others boundaries and have maybe actually gotten to know each other (something I really don't see in Super...at all). It would be more realistic for the two of them rather than this over the top ridiculousness we get from canon and fanon that doesn't fit the relationship. The post I made was about their CANON presentation, not what I would care to see or anything that would "fix" the ship.

Point is, people got in their feelings because I said canon sucks in handling Vegeta and Bulma, and I pointed out that their fave is problematic, all to base their accusations of me being sexist and unable to see nuance or understand the definition of culture on a single post that wasn't near as detailed as I've been in the past (and I've probably still missed thoughts here). They came off as super problematic because of that anger at my take and made comments that painted them as basically okay with the Saiyans being eradicated because of one aspect of their lifestyle which, in some regards, was something they had no choice in at the point of their demise (even if they might be doing similar anyway; problem is we can't know what they might have done if they had agency that wasn't marred by being ruled by the Cold Empire). But it is what it is.

I'll end saying this because, again, they missed every other post I've made about this. I don't hate Bulm, and I actually do hate how she's written. The biggest reason I criticize her and Vegeta in terms of this relationship is that most of the fandom and the ship's stans don't want to actually SEE that. They don't see how her writing is sexist a lot of the time and that her behavior doesn't make sense and IS actually toxic. The RELATIONSHIP is toxic on BOTH SIDES as it's WRITTEN (unfortunately, yeah, the writing makes Bulma MUCH WORSE than Vegeta in Super; I stand by that) and that's what I'm getting at. I point these things out because this fandom likes to paint Vegeta and Bulma as #couplesgoals and pretend they have no issues when that's just not true. It's red flag central up in there, but their rose-colored glasses are too thick for them to see it because they love the "beauty and the beast" "regular girl domesticates feral man" and "love conquers all" tropes and refuse to see the problems with the relationship.]

[sith-qween]

Come, Let Us Teach You

Fandom: DBZ

Pairings: Reader x Vegeta, Reader x Nappa, Reader x Raditz

Words: 3.6K

Rating: M (later on)

Warnings: Sayian Reader, Mating Cycles/Heats, Ginyu Force, Dark Frieza, No protection, probably more, I will update as we go lol

One | Two | Three | Four |  Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen |

After floating around in the darkness, your body unmoving and your senses dulled; you started to wonder if maybe you did die after all. There was nothing but darkness, and you were alone. It was comforting and yet it scared you, you had only really just started to put together your life and it was snatched up from under you like a drop of the hat. It was eerie how easily everything could end, just like that; with no rhyme or reason.

Then you tried, as a last ditch effort, to move your fingers; surprised when you actually felt something under them instead of nothing. It was kind of scruffy and worn, but it was also somehow soft; and very familiar. Taking a deep breath your chest lifted before slowly falling, a very dull scent reached your nose as you realised the same feeling was also all around your body. Was it a blanket? Testing it, you moved your hand, grabbing a fistful of the sheets before the pain shot up your arm causing a weak groan to escape your lips.

Your body tensed up from the waves of pain the movement had caused, 'Okay, definitely not dead yet..' you thought to yourself in pain. Taking another breath to try and reanimate your heavy body takes some conscious effort to manage to finally peel your eyelids open. [E/c] optics flickering shut once more before they open to the blurry haze of faint and dull colours of your room. Noticing that you were in one of the housing rooms, and not a healing tank, you started to wonder why that might be and your mind slowed down and reeled back, trying not to overwhelm you and cause a dizzy spell.

"[Y/N]" an uncharacteristically soft voice called out to you. Your mind tried to figure out who's voice it was, none of them ever sounded so soft and careful, it almost scared you. Then the silence followed once more, shutting your eyes to try and rebuild some kind of strength. You turned your head in the direction of the voice, eyes opening again to see three very familiar faces. Something about seeing them caused you to relax again, and another part of you wanted to scream, who knew what they would do; the things they would say and how they would lecture you and make you feel worse.

But nothing followed. They all watched you with care, almost as if they were scared their gazes would break you, like speaking might shatter you in your fragile state. However, even in this state you could feel something, something old and familiar start to bubble up. Seeing such soft and pitiful looks coming from them caused your eyes to narrow in their direction. A sudden wave of strength washed over you, even if it was only there to prove a point. Seeing it you sneered and pushed yourself upright, ignoring the screams and protests that followed in your body, fueled by your Saiyan Pride, you wouldn't sit back and let them treat you like some lesser being.

Almost instantly, the three twitched as if they wanted to move forward and make you rest, but the glare that followed made them stay where they were. They could see it in your eyes, the pride and defiance that was fueling your body now, and there was a glimmer of pride reaching their eyes at the sight. You were weak, broken, and maybe even a little bit terrified; but you weren't dead yet.

Having sat up, you needed to take a few heavy breaths, the movement having taken a lot more out of you then you had originally expected, but instead you shut your eyes and took a single deep breath; fighting against all of your natural urges. Opening them you looked over your body, seeing the bandages that covered the lengths of your arms, covering the obviously red and scarring marks from when the ground shattered and cut into your skin. Aside from that, you could see all of them, the bruises. The large dark purple marks that danced with greens and yellows, painting your once clear skin.

You were not wearing your normal suit, instead it was a simple tank top, but you could feel the tightness around your stomach, your brain wincing at what kind of damage could be under the bandages there; well aside from the ribs that had been clearly broken. Taking a few painful breaths you knew they had taken you to a pod before, you weren't nearly as bad or as broken as you should have been, but you had been bad enough to be left with leftover pain.

The silence had been hanging in the room for far too long. The only sound was your slightly broken breaths, and the soft sounds of you moving around in the bed. None of the men said anything, they just waited patiently in silence for you; which you found weird as well. Glancing over at the trio with a confused expression you silently hoped one of them would explain, not knowing just yet if you trusted your voice not to break and waver at the moment.

Noticing you were finally ready, settled in, recomposed; the three finally moved. Shifting around into more comfortable positions from where they lounged in your room as your eyes fell on Vegeta. He stood against the wall with his arms across his chest, his face watching yours intently.

"I'm sure you have many questions, and before you ask; I will try and get you up to date with what has happened." he said, his deep voice slicing through the heavy silence like a knife. While he seemed his normal composed self, you could see the caution in his eyes as he spoke. Giving him the smallest nod he took that as his sign to continue on.

"The other day we seemed to have an unwelcome guest who overheard you before we left for the mission, needless to say that Lord Frieza doesn't take that kind of crap, from anyone. After his little warning, we took you to the Medical Bay where they managed to patch you up. Cuts and bruises were the least of your worries. He managed to break 7 ribs, as well as your collar bone. We had to put you in a special tank that tends to inner damage, so you will have to deal with a few scraps for now.. after that we brought you back here, waiting for you to come to."

The silence followed again. Peeling your eyes from the Prince you looked over at Nappa and then Raditz, before glancing back down at your covered body. Taking in a deep breath to try and absorb the information you have been given, you could feel the remains of the broken ribs in your chest, the phantom pains lingering and scratching into your chest as you breathed a little deeper than normal. Yeah, the damage done was believable, especially considering that Frieza had tossed you around like some kind of rag doll, you were surprised that was all.

"Now that you are up to speed, why don't we go and get something for you to eat, surely you need some kind of nutrition." he stated, his words breaking through your train of thought. Looking over again you pressed your lips together and gave him a small nod. Yeah food sounded like a perfect idea, however at the moment with the stinging in your muscles and the ghosting pain; what you really wanted was to have a warm shower.

"Food sounds great, but I think I will shower first; and then I can meet you three down there." you said watching the three hesitate before nodding. Without thinking about it further, or even stopping to give a crap that they were in fact still in your room, slinging your legs over the side of the bed and forcing yourself up, ignoring the protests in the movement. On your feet now, your tail followed behind you, helping to give you the added stability that you knew you would need as you grabbed a towel you had in the closet and some undergarments before vanishing into the small bathroom you had.

In the background you could register the sound of your door closing and sighed and you turned the hot water on and stepped in, feeling the water instantly scorch your skin. The feeling caused a small hum to escape your lips, making you feel something other than pain since you woke up. Each drop that cascaded your body, caressed and soothed the ache that had come to be noticed in your muscles, making it easy to relax into the water.

…

With the ability to move around freely again, your natural Saiyan instincts were starting to kick in and take the pain as a challenge. Like a few broken bones would actually stop you from carrying on and keeping up with missions, with training. You mentally scoffed at yourself as you ran the towel through your [H/L] [H/C] hair, stopping to put it aside to pull on your favourite undergarments, needing something more normal to help ground you after the incident. Looking back over at the damp bandage you had removed the clothing you had been in before you didn't exactly want to slip back into that, but before you could confirm you wanted your normal suit you heard a faint groan in the other room, like someone trying to get comfortable.

Your head turned to the door and you narrowed your eyes. You could have sworn you had heard them all leave earlier, and you grabbed the damp towel and wrapped it up around your chest, nothing but the [F/C] straps of your bra showing. With caution you moved to the door to the bathroom and pushed it aside to poke your head into the room to see Vegeta having got comfy on the couch, looking over some of the things you had kept near it.

You let your eyes draw over his form sitting there, watching as his fingers carefully fiddled with the object he had selected to busy himself with. Sensing that you were there he froze, his hand stopping and then setting down the object as he slowly lifted his head to face you, standing there in the door half naked. You could feel the soft prickles of the goose flesh starting to prick away at your skin and in the moment you couldn't tell if it was the bite from the air after your shower, or how he was looking over your body. Without thinking you gripped the top of your towel closely and gave him a curious look

"I thought you were going with the others to get food.." You started watching as he lifted his brows and offered a small shrug of his shoulders in response.

"Never mind that," he brushed off, clearly having something else on his mind. Then his hand stopped fiddling and you could feel your gaze jolt to his now steady hand, something about his loss of focus on the object made an uneasiness start to bubble up in your chest. As his head turned and his gaze landed on you, it was hard to tell if it was from the cold bite from the air, or how his eyes were wandering over your form - that caused the shiver that ran along your spine. His eyes watched you, a flame of emotions dancing and fighting behind his eyes as they locked with your own.

"Do you have any idea the situation you had gotten yourself into?" he asked, his voice was a sharp tone, cold and serious. However behind your eyes you knew there was meaning to it, even if his words did sting a little bit, "The fact that you are standing here alive, is both a blessing, and a curse. Lord Frieza doesn't let anyone walk out alive; he's killed people who served him loyally, simply because he was bored. You should be afraid, terrified as to why he left you alive.."

You could feel the realness of his words hit you. You feel each word sinking into your skin as reality starts to race at you, causing your eyes to drop from his, inspecting the floor. Your brain reeling back into the very thought of it, he could have destroyed you, left you to die, or just kill you then and there - it wasn't like it would have been very hard. Each thought raced in your mind, rushing past one another causing you to become distracted, and it wasn't until a strong hand lifted your chin did you realise that you had even spaced out.

"Did you even hear what I said to you?" he snapped, his face mere inches from your own. Your body jolted and you protectively tighten your grip on the towel, narrowing your eyes.

"Of course I heard you! Think that it's very easy to hear?! 'Don't worry, you're being kept alive for fun'!?" you snapped back at him, fighting the urge to unwrap your tail from your waist, wanting nothing more than to lash it in frustration. While holding your ground, you watched as his eyes flickered across your face, and slightly lower; taking in the much closer sight of you. Something about how predatory his gaze seemed, made you feel weak at the knees, something you had never felt before, with anyone. It was new and you were torn between being furious at him, and wanting to find out why he suddenly had this effect on you.

"You stupid woman! Do you understand how hard all of this is on us as well!?" he growled, his tone dangerous and threatening, and yet you could see it in his onyx gaze, there was something more to his anger. Something hidden within, and you glared back, "Don't you realise that we don't want to lose you! We can't lose you! I can't lose you!" he snapped, his words spewing out faster than he could control them, leaving the two of you in silence for a few moments, as your gaze softened with confusion. You could see the turmoil behind his eyes, he was fighting with himself, his words had taken you off guard - but also himself as well.

Then his lips were on yours, hard and heavy. Something about the way your lips connected seemed urgent, hungry. Having been so confused, your body jolted at the sudden action, and you melted into his kiss at first. However the second you could feel the smugness tug at his lips you stood your ground, pressing back just as hungry. Lips moving together in a fight for dominance, as he has grabbed your hips, pulling you closer to his own, needing to feel you closer, know that you were there, with him in that moment.

"You have made more than just a mark of lust on us, and I don't plan on giving that up - that will be solely mine," he started as he pressed back against you, rushed, urgent. Advancing on you until your back hit the wall and you were trapped between him and the wall. "You will belong to me." he stated. His tone was serious and his eyes met yours, your chest heaving as you fought to catch your breath. Something about the wild lust driven look in his eyes, held something more passionate and it ignited something within you, something you had promised yourself wouldn't happen with any of these beastly Saiyan men.

There was a flutter in your chest, something so foreign and different, it controlled your actions. Still holding the towel around to cover yourself, you pressed against him, pressing your lips on his, this time starting it, demanding it; and oh, was the Prince ever so happy to give you what you wanted. Grabbing your hips once more he pressed in closer, one of his hands toying with the edges of the towel that hung over your thighs, covering your modesty. His fingers brushing against your chilling skin, you should feel shivers race up along your spine, and goosebumps starting to reline your flesh.

He must have felt it, he had to have felt it because his hand moved higher, closer to the one spot you didn't even know you wanted him, until it had happened. Unlike the last time you had spent with him, you rolled your hips against his hand as it brushed against your mound.

Breaking away from your lips he grinned down at you, with a smirk that only spelled trouble, and you would be lying if you said it didn't excite you. Moving away he trailed kisses down your neck, making sure to stop and give one spot just under your ear a little extra attention before moving lower, taking his own sweet time trailing kisses so soft, it was hard to imagine it was Vegeta doing it. Not bullying you by pulling the towel away, he pushed it aside, revealing you to him as his fingers pulled the thin material to the side.

There was no teasing, there was no stalling; he was getting straight to business. Now kneeling before you he dove in, his tongue assaulting you quickly, brushing over your most sensitive place, causing a loud gasp to slip past your lips. A hand slapped over your mouth as you blushed, a hot glare being sent down to the man between your thighs as he grinned against you, running his tongue over the full length, making sure to suck and nip on your clit as he did so.

Everything you had been working so hard to fight and deny since you joined the squad of hooligans was starting to fly out the window. However you could feel the ache in your body, and the dull strain as the wall created some friction against your skin, and the beautiful contrast between that and the blooming pleasure was enough to make you question your sanity.

Had it been any other day, any other time, any other situation; you would have pushed him away in a fit of rage at being handled. But you couldn't place why you didn't push him away, why instead your fingers danced through his ravenous black hair, teeth grinding into your lip as you fought to keep quiet. Maybe it had been because your body was so weak and tired after your little roundabout with Frieza. Maybe it was how brutally honest he had been moments before, and the fact that he actually expressed some kind of emotion towards.

Whichever was the case, all you knew was that this felt so much better than anyone you had been with before. The very idea of why was sitting on the tip of your tongue; maybe it was because of the emotion that had been expressed - and would obviously be twisted or denied at a later time. Perhaps it was even because there was some kind of previous connection with the man; he wasn't just someone who would do it for the night. Mind you, any of this being said aloud would be quickly shouldered off by both of you, and clearly laughed about by the other two.

The moan escaped your throat before you even noticed it bubbling up. His tongue danced along your folds, stopping only to roll over your bud before he continued his attack. You would be lying if you said it didn't surprise you how good he was at this. He hadn't even touched you with anything but his mouth and you were already puddy in his hands. Oh how you hated that he had the upper hand, that he had the control over you like this - but how you also craved to live in this moment, just savouring the pleasure the prince was granting your body.

However you both knew it wasn't long, and the prince was clear to show his knowledge of this. Nipping at the bud he put his thumb over it and started to tease it that way as his tongue continued to devour you. In those moments the room was silent aside from the breathy pants coming from you as his assault continued. Leaning your head back into the wall you didn't even notice as your tail wrapped around his forearm, fighting to keep him where he was while you bathed in the bliss,

"Vegeta..." you breathed out as you felt the string snap. Everything came undone as your fingers tugged lightly at his scalp, your release breaking forth as he continued to eat you to the very end. You could feel the pleasant tingle that danced along your spine as you reached the end, your body relaxing against the wall as your eyes opened to face the ceiling before glancing down to the prince between your legs. Watching as he licked his lips, you could feel a shiver run along your spine.

Silence fell between the two of you, your eyes holding his onyx ones. You could see in his eyes, the thoughts, the consideration and the agony. He was making a choice and something deep in your core was hoping to be able to guess what the choice was. Your eyes never left his as he slowly stood, the sexual tension sparking between the two of you before he fixed the towel that covered your modesty before speaking,

"You should hurry up and get dressed, I am sure the others are wondering what is taking us so long." His voice betrayed every emotion you could see in his eyes. You could see the lusty haze, the wild desire; and yet all you got was a calm and collected voice, acting like this was nothing. Blinking a few times in surprise you couldn't form the words to reply as the prince turned and stepped outside of your room, shutting the door behind you to give you some privacy to change before you both would head on down to the lunch room.

AN: Hey! Here's another chapter for ya! Gotta start getting spicy here, so i hope you enjoy reading this! Remember AO3 sees it first!

Find me elsewhere, https://linktr.ee/DesolatedSith

I hope you enjoyed!

[radiomonkeys2]

On the Appeal of Primal Saiyans/Yabans

A collection of different artists (the only two I commissioned being Seacar14 on the left and Salvamakoto on the bottom left of the right), but generally the look of the Saiyans and my personal take on why exactly I find them fascinating enough to dedicate this many years of my life on the Yabanverse when I still have so many other projects I could be focusing on more.

An explanation of why the Saiyans and the Primal Yabans especially tend to fascinate me. It runs deeper than just "Dragon Ball Z is cool." If you took Saiyans out of DBZ (as I originally had with the Yabanverse up until 2023), they would still be cool. In fact, arguably cooler if you could actually run with them as a fantasy race on their own merits

At multiple points between 2018 and 2022, people told me "You could totally sell this to people if you just made the Yabans fully "not-Saiyans" instead of just "Legally-Not-Saiyans". Why did I not change Yabans out to be tail-less psycho warriors like even more insane Mandalorians or Viltrumites? Essentially because the Saiyan attributes themselves were the point. If you take away the extreme hair, the primate tail, and ridiculous superhuman strength, then you take away most of the appeal (to me at least). Kind of repeating what the image says here, but as a sort of TLDR even, Toriyama accidentally created a race that's at the center of bunch of "science fantasy warrior race" Venn diagrams. All the primal savagery of Cimmerians and Orcs and Yautja pushed even further into the realm of almost seeming devolved into a more simian state of evolution, all the extreme superhuman strength of Viltrumites and Asgardians, all the warrior culture extremism of Klingons and Warboys and Space Marines. And yet Toriyama laughed, killed them off before the story began, and the main batch of them we deal with is a homoerotically-obsessed egomaniacal neurotic manlet and a prodigal hick, with most of their "Saiyan-ness" being about how much they glow and change colors. That's why we loved the man, but it always did feel a bit like a lot of missed opportunities. "For what?" For generic sci-fi barbarian action I suppose?

Probably the funniest part about it all is just that the Saiyans are only the way they are because of Goku and his characterization in the 4 years before Raditz' introduction. All the Saiyans really are at the end of the day (at least in the context of their introductory arc) are "Evil Gokus" Raditz mostso, but to an extent Nappa and especially Vegeta were essentially answers to the question "What if our overpowered crazy-haired gluttonous and generally good-natured monkey boy protagonist was evil and twisted?" Heck, the only reason I even think of their "primitiveness" at all is because of literal minutes of filler in a throwaway episode that kept getting referenced time and again; as far as any manga-only reader cared, Saiyans were high-tech space mercenaries (which was still a contrast to the relatively grounded and very mystical Son Goku and his martial artist friends and even the relatively goofy high-tech of Bulma and Capsule Corporation). It just worked out that even Freeza and his men saw the Saiyans as nothing more than primitive barbarians, like Neanderthals in a space fleet, and that view of them became dominant over the decades. And while both angles work (especially when you really 80sfy the sci-fi-ness of the Saiyans and Freeza Force), they really do tend to work better as barbarians.

[acoldsovereign]

{{ Just gonna say this before I get to my next replies and whatever else but--

For those who know JJK, I've obsessively thought about how hilarious it would be if that version of Maiz (who looks like this by the way):

--saw Yuji out one day and she decided to take him in and Yuji is confused because "AREN'T YOU A CURSE??????? A CURSED SPIRIT AT THAT?!???"

JJK!Maiz: "Actually, I don't know what I am, and I do not care. But call me what you wish."

Yuji: "HUH? THAT MAKES EVEN LESS SENSE!!"

She's just wants to adopt (read: abduct) the funny, loud little superhuman boy because she thinks he's cute. That's it. There's nothing else. She doesn't even want to eat him. She's just an asshole.

I think the worse part is that she'd actually enjoy his company while Yuji is just like: "?????" the entire time because all he knows are that curses are evil and hurt people and she definitely does but she's being nice (read: aggressive/forceful) with him and it's confusing and weird. Everytime he tries to fight her or tell her to stop hurting people, she just pats his head and tells him to go to sleep like she's his mom or something. He could scratch and claw her--she'd just regenerate/heal herself and look at him with this heavy, penetrating stare and right when you think she's had enough of him, she merely laughs and tells him he's grounded. And she puts him ass on time out. If there's no corner, she'll make one. *insert scene of Nappa destroying East Village during Saiyan Saga* 🤣

Bonus points if Sukuna shit talks him the entire time and insults him for being lured in by a creature similar to him, to which Yuji would yell, "NO! ONE OF YOU IS BAD ENOUGH! I DON'T WANT TWO BAD CURSES WITH BAD BREATH ON ME-" and then Maiz just sees him punch himself (but it was really Sukuna who did it)--

please give me funny scenes, I beg

[saiyanmazen]

Vegeta hated fast food. Despite being calorically dense, it was devoid of nutrients and the sense of being full quickly dissipated after an hour or two. It did nothing good for his body and was never really appetizing to him. Nothing about it was worth the money, cheap as it was.

Then why was he back at this particular burger joint west off the Earth's moon for the fourth time this week?

He could try and fool himself, like he had with Raditz and Nappa, and say that the burgers were at least decent compared to other places. But they weren't; if anything, they were worse. After the first week, he'd started to throw it in the trash as soon as he left the dining area.

He could also claim that it was the close proximity to his workplace and less time for cooking that led him to this ridiculous drive-in. However, it was actually out of his way and when he got home, he had very little to do, except cook and train.

The truth of the matter was that he was here to see her.

That blue haired waitress with long, shapely legs and big beautiful eyes bore into his soul. The woman who almost seemed to dance between the levitating cars as she flew on her jet-powered boots. The most captivating creature he'd ever beheld.

“Oh, hello, cutie! What a pleasure to see you here again,” she greeted him as he slowed down to a stop by the ordering area. He didn't know why she always acted like he hadn't been there more than a dozen times the last three weeks since he saw her for the first time.

Since then, he'd learned how to make sure that she was his waitress every time by waiting outside the diner's orbit until she had finished the order for her latest customer. Tonight he had let two other cars cut ahead of him, so she was free to serve him.

“I'm hardly what you can call cute,” he grumbled, a blush burning his cheeks.

“Well, how about handsome then? No one can dispute that,” she smiled flirtatiously. He wondered if she did it to everyone. Her hand played with her shoulder length hair where it was dyed hot pink at the tips.

“I'm a lawyer,” he said without thinking, “It's my job to dispute everything.”

“That explains the expensive car then.” She placed her elbows on the open windowsill of his convertible and rested her chin on her gloved hands, leaning forward like she was interested in him. “I'm more into science, but I've met a lot of lawyers in my time. What firm do you work at? In which field is your expertise? Do you like your job?”

She was wearing the standard uniform for the diner, if one could call it anything she wore ‘standard’. It consisted of a short, flared skirt in silver with matching thigh high socks, only allowing a sliver of pale thigh to be seen. The upper part consisted of a tiny strapless crop top which showed off the generous bosom on her petite torso.

While he'd seen other waitresses in the same uniform, enjoying the tips they got by flaunting their skin - likely why Raditz and Nappa frequented the place in the first place - this woman wore a pale green high neck top underneath the silver top. It was still incredibly sexy, but tastefully so.

Vegeta kept his gaze at her face to avoid staring with appreciation at her breasts as her arms pressed them together. He then realized that he had to look away entirely, lest he fell into the lure of her sky blue eyes.

“I work in estate planning,” he murmured uncomfortably, “at Cold and Sons.”

“Oh,” she breathed and leaned away from the side of his convertible. His hands tightened on the steering wheel. He was glad that he couldn't see the disappointment and perhaps even fear etched on her face. Cold and Sons was a well known firm, but their reputation was anything but clean.

He expected the conversation to be over, that any feigned interest she might have had in him was completely gone, and he put the car into gear. It was ridiculous that he'd come here at all.

“So, you're a bit of a bad man, aren't you?” Her tone was teasing and he cautiously turned his head towards her. She was poking her tongue out behind her grinning teeth, biting it playfully.

He was utterly flabbergasted by her cheekiness and couldn't come up with a response, although he wasn't sure that she expected one. She just giggled and held out a hand to him. “I'm Bulma. My shift ends in 10 minutes, so how about I show you a place with a decent menu? Then you don't have to waste your money on food you'll throw in the bin as soon as you leave.”

She knew! She knew that he wasn't here for the food, but for her.

With that, she flew off to the next customer, leaving him incredibly embarrassed. He contemplated flying away, never to back after this interaction, but he did want to see where this was going.

Did she say her name was Bulma? That was a highly unusual name. He'd only heard it once. Everyone knew about the child progeny Bulma Briefs who had left the public eye to ‘find her own way’ according to her father and CEO of Capsule Corp. Could it be her?

He groaned, wondering what he was getting himself into and if it was worth it. Without thinking, he planted his face into the wheel in front of him. To his horror, the car horn predictably went off, making every head turn towards him, including hers; she guffawed loudly when she saw it was him making such a racket.

He quickly sped off, promising himself not to return again after that humiliation, well aware that he had never been very good at keeping his promises.

I bought this volume of the manga with this Vegebul cover and I had to draw it!

Toyotaro you are giving ideas for fics that I would read a lot ahshahshs ❤️

[spilledbeans116]

Just In Case

(Vegeta x Bulma)

Vegeta x Bulma - 5,965 Words - SFW

Fan of Vegeta x Readers? Find an alternate version here! (The first parts match up!)

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This fic is based on a headcanon I have involving the prince and his constant need to wear gloves. I'm putting this here as a side note, but the first chapter is a bit violent. I hope you all enjoy it.

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    Nappa was smiling, as proud as a warrior-nanny could be given the circumstances. Vegeta had aced his first mission under Frieza’s rule without a single hitch, having wiped out an entire planet on his own in just a couple hours. They had hit three more after that, completing twice the work of an adult saiyan could have mustered up. And what, he was only 6? Never before had such latent power been shown in such a young saiyan; his power already rivaled Nappa’s own. On late night’s when the bar was full and Raditz and Vegeta were in bed, Nappa would sit and brag to the other soldiers of Frieza’s army how talented the kid was.

    The bar was dim, the tables around having been emptied as all the patrons gathered around Nappa and listened to his tales. Among them were Ginyu, Burter, and Jeice, all three of whom were rolling their eyes at the display.

    “You should have seen the way he shot through that thing! It was almost three times my size, maybe bigger!” Nappa hiccuped, taking a swig from his mug before slamming his fist on the bar’s counter-top. “It was incredible!”

    From around the corner, a young saiyan who should have been in bed smirked. His smile quickly faltered however, as someone else spoke up.

    “Psh, right,” Ginyu laughed, giving Nappa a shove. “Like a kid could take down one of those on his own. Even Guldo struggles with them!”

    “No, Nappa’s being serious, I saw it myself!” Another soldier yelled, slamming his drink down on the bar. “The kid is a beast! A monster!” 

    Vegeta nodded, crossing his arms and leaning through the doorframe a bit to watch as the older men debated his feats.

    At that Ginyu and Burter laughed, “please! He’s an ape!” Ginyu snorted. “You think that monkey could actually do that on his own? He’s weak, just like his old man. Maybe he got lucky, but nothing more than that.”

    Vegeta clutched his cape and held it at his sides, his anger overtaking him as he fought not to run in there and sucker punch Ginyu in the face; he had already learned once that it wasn’t a good idea, and wouldn’t make an idiot of himself again. Ginyu didn’t believe he could do that? Didn’t think that Vegeta could fight his own battles or overtake a stronger opponent? Fine. He would prove he could; he would show everyone exactly what he could do. And he wouldn’t stop until they believed him.

—

    Months had passed, but for Vegeta, time moved strangely. It felt fleeting and yet too long at the worst of times. Then again, he was still only a child. He had already gotten stronger, not that anyone but Raditz or Nappa noticed and he didn’t give a damn what they thought. Each day and night was the same, he was degraded by the Ginyus to his face and behind his back. His family was gone, his home was gone, and his race was all but eradicated. He was the last remaining saiyan royal and ruled over two; he wasn’t the strongest on the ship nor was he even close to beating Frieza… yet. That day would come, he reassured himself. Until then he was destined to be miserable, to spend everyday fighting to be better only to get no recognition from anyone. That much responsibility and pain weighing down on a child surely wasn’t healthy, especially not when they were forcing themselves to do even more than everyone else.

     Vegeta couldn’t keep track anymore of how many planets he had slaughtered. Their cries of mercy fell on deaf ears. At night, he had nightmares about the faces of those that had met their end in his hands. He wondered who they were, what lives they lived. He was doing to them what had happened to his own home. He tossed and turned each night, enough for Raditz to complain to Nappa that it was keeping him awake.

    Soon he turned 7, still a child in the eyes of a saiyan. I’m the eyes of anyone, really. After each fight he felt dirtier and dirtier, and visited the showers once, twice, three times a day. The soldiers on the ship joked that the prince was a germaphobe. He was too royal for their peasant germs. He was killing without purpose, without a fight and the guilt was eating away at him slowly, crumbling his sanity with each life he took. He was 8 when it happened.

    Nappa was heading to the bar before he stopped. Something in him, some primal, strange instinct, told him to go to the boys room. He rushed down the halls and to their room, where Raditz was snoring loudly with his arm draped across his face. Vegeta, however, was gone. He couldn’t ask anyone else if they had seen him, as he’d surely be punished for roaming parts of the ship he shouldn’t without Nappa present.

    Vegeta had gotten back late from a mission and decided to go take a shower. His body was covered in blood, none of which was his own. He watched as the red water swirled down the shower drain and slowly became pink, scrubbing his body with a bar of soap as he grunted to himself. Arms, chest, legs, feet, tail, and finally his hands. He lathered the soap between them, watching the bubbles form up and over his hands before rinsing them off in the water. To his surprise, the water revealed the blood was still there.

    “Damn shit must have stained them,” he huffed, turning off the water and drying himself with a towel. He quickly wrapped it around his waist and made his way to the sinks, grabbing his toothbrush and lining it with toothpaste. Until he saw his hands again. No longer tinted red, they were coated in blood. The fur on the end of his tail began to spike as he stared at it, quickly flipping them around to see if he had any open wounds. He ran the water and shoved his hands under it, scrubbing at the blood to get it off. 

     “What the hell!” He snapped, watching as nothing changed. He began to scratch at it, trying to peel it off to know avail. He hissed as he turned the water up, the heat becoming blistering hot as he started to claw at his own hands in a desperate attempt to get the blood off of himself.

    “Why isn’t it coming off!” He yelled, starting to get louder and louder as he grew more desperate. He felt filthy as his consciousness weighed down on him, his sleep deprived body and nightmarish life finally getting the better of him. “Get it off me!”

     Nappa knew he had to be in the showers, as it was the only place the kid ever went to when he wasn’t in the dining halls or his room. With how late it was, the dining halls would have closed ages ago. As he made his way down the corridors of the ship he could hear something. It was quiet at first, but slowly became louder and louder as he got closer to the men's showers. He could hear Vegeta, screaming out in pain. Nappa shot off and slammed through the door to the bathroom, following the sounds of the hysterical screaming until he found the prince by the sinks. Vegeta was sobbing, hands burnt red from the water. 

    “The hell has gotten into you!” Nappa yelled, ripping him away from the sink. He was going to scold the prince when he saw the claw marks all over his hands. Vegeta tried to shove him away, crying out for Nappa to let go of him but it all sounded like gibberish to the older saiyan. 

     “What are you doing!” Nappa yelled at him as Vegeta slammed a hand against his face, trying to make his way back to the sink. “You’re hurting yourself, what are you doing!”

    “I CAN’T GET IT OFF!” Vegeta screamed between sobs. “MY HANDS! THEY’RE COVERED IN BLOOD I CAN’T GET IT OFF!”

    “Vegeta there is no blood!” Nappa yelled, grabbing his wrists and holding him still. “But there’s going to be if you keep tearing at your skin!”

    “DON’T TOY WITH ME NAPPA JUST GET IT OFF ME! PLEASE I CAN’T- I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS PLEASE JUST GET IT OFF!”

    Nappa grabbed the prince and his clothes, clamping a hand over his mouth as he ran out of the bathroom and back towards his room. Vegeta dug his nails into the flesh of Nappa’s hand, sinking his fang’s into Nappa’s palm as the older saiyan grunted in pain. Vegeta was still trying to scream but Nappa’s hand remained firm, refusing to let anyone see the prince like this. The door to Nappa’s bedroom slammed shut as he locked it and tossed the prince on the bed, who immediately tried to book it back out the door. Before he could grab the doorknob, Nappa was in front of him, blocking his escape in the dark room. Vegeta beat his fists against Nappa’s chest, trying and failing to shove him out of the way. Nappa knelt down, taking Vegeta’s hands in his before sliding a pair of white gloves over them.

    “Look! There’s no blood! Now please Vegeta quit it!” He turned the prince’s hands over slowly, showing that nothing had seeped through. “See? You’re fine!”

    Vegeta glanced down, a sniveling mess as he turned his hands over on his own and studied the gloves. They were white, pristine, new, and soft. They cooled his burning hands and the silken fabric felt nice against the cuts he had created. “Th-there’s no more b-blood?”

    “None, Vegeta. There isn’t any blood. Okay?”

    Vegeta nodded as Nappa stood up slowly, making his way to his cabinet and pulling out gauze and ointment. He applied it to his palm first after cleaning it with a towel, Vegeta’s fangs having taken quite the chunk out of his skin. Then he bandaged it, sliding his gauntlets on over after so the prince wouldn’t see the reddish hue that would seep out soon enough. After tossing the towel, he made his way back over to Vegeta, who had calmed down remarkably and yet was still standing in the same spot Nappa had left him. He was staring at his hands, eyes lidded as sleep finally began to overpower him. Nappa grabbed him under his armpits and lifted him over to the bed, setting him down and getting the ointment ready. As he began to pull off Vegeta's gloves, the prince started screaming again, kicking Nappa away and tugging them back down.

   “NO!” He cried out. “NO YOU CAN’T TAKE THEM OFF!”

    “DAMN IT VEGETA I NEED TO MAKE SURE THOSE SCRATCHES DON’T GET INFECTED!”

    “NO! I’M YOUR PRINCE, I DEMAND YOU WILL NOT TAKE THESE OFF! EVER!”

     “Vegeta,” Nappa sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You can’t keep them on forever you’ll have to-”

    “I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT!”

    “Vegeta I swear to-”

    “THAT’S AN ORDER NOW DROP IT!” Nappa didn’t say anything after that, handing the prince his pajamas and turning away. Vegeta changed quickly, grunting when he was done. Nappa frowned at the sight of the prince wearing gloves with his pajamas, but chose not to push it further. They’d deal with it in the morning and go to see the doctor then as well. 

    “Do you want me to walk you back to your-”

    Vegeta was quick to cut him off, voice trembling as he ran his hands together in his lap. “Can I stay here tonight?” His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper as he refused to meet Nappa’s eyes. Nappa looked down at the prince, an ache in his chest as he stared at the child that was forced to carry so much; but he was just that, a child. He shouldn’t have had to do any of this, not until he was much, much older. He should have been in the palace right now, spending each day training under his father to be the next king, not turned into a killing machine by a freak that regarded them as nothing.

    “Of course, your highness. You can stay here for the night.” Nappa quickly went and changed into his sleep shorts, scooting Vegeta over enough so he could fit along with him on his bed. The prince held his arm tight, body trembling as Nappa laid awake, staring at the ceiling, trying to piece together whatever the hell had just happened. Even after Vegeta had finally dozed off, Nappa remained awake, unsure with what to do with the prince.

------------------------------------------------------------

    As time went on, Vegeta learned to live with it the best he could. The cuts he had caused on himself that night healed over, leaving small scars to forever remind him of his own shame and guilt. The blood he saw on his hands never went away after that. With time he was able to remove his gloves, but only for short periods before he’d quickly slip them back on.

     After everything that happened on Earth, after what he did to Nappa, it was as if he was a kid again. The gloves would not come off. Ever. He had killed the man who gave them to him, who had tried to shield him from himself. For what? A power move? Now he was living in some Earth woman’s home, after embarrassing himself in front of Frieza and a low level saiyan piece of scum. He slaughtered the Ginyu force, which was a bit of a two edged sword for him. Kakarot was gone at who knows where and he was stuck here, failing to do anything substantial. He had truly lost all meaning to his life.

     The gravity chamber the blue haired woman had helped build was where he spent most of his time. It gave him a break from dealing with everyone, including her. She was the most confusing out of everyone there was on this idiotic planet. He could never get a proper read on her. She wasn’t like any woman he had spoken to before. He didn’t like to dwell on what he thought of Bulma, and unfortunately found himself thinking of the damned woman during training.

    He had put his hand up to guard his face at the last moment as the battle bot shot at him, successfully blocking it but not without slight damage to his glove. There, on his right hand, was a clean tear.

    “Shit!” He yelled. “Damn it damn it damn it!” He blew the robot to bits before it could do anymore damage, throwing on his shirt and making his way back towards Bulma’s house. He felt sick as he glanced down at it, the deep red shade staring back at him.

    He made his way in through the back door, speed walking through the living room and down the hallway to where his bedroom was located. He didn’t have spares, he had never needed a spare. He searched around for anything that could be used as a makeshift glove. He ripped apart shirts and tried to cover it to no avail, too stressed to tie the knots properly with one hand. He shoved the fabric under the glove, only to rip it further. “Shit!”

     He didn’t know how to sew, he was a prince for the Gods’ sakes. He felt sick at the idea of what he was going to have to do but quickly realized there was no other option. He was going to have to ask for help.

—

     Bulma was in her lab, a sweaty mess as she tinkered with the broken training bot that lay before her on her work desk. Her hair was glued to her skin and she sighed, wiping her forehead with her arm and setting down the wrench that was in her hand. Her yellow overalls hung off her arms as she attempted to cool herself off, her white crop top sticking to her body. She pushed out her desk chair, rolling and spinning across the room to her fridge. She opened it and pulled out a can of beer, pulling the tab and cursing as it foamed up and over her hands. She licked it off quickly before shaking out her hand and wiping it on her pants. She’d call someone in to clean up what had spilled on the floor later.

     Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out, glancing over the text from Yamcha as she took a sip. “Caught up with some friends, will get there when I can.” She rolled her eyes, shoving it back in her pocket and not bothering to give a response. She didn’t know what to make of her weird situation-ship with him, but she did know that this was one of the reasons they weren’t actually dating. He was just too immature sometimes for her to handle. Canceling plans last minute, leaving her waiting for him to show up; she deserved better than that. She deserved a prince.

     She laughed at that, shaking her hand and taking another drink before rolling her chair back to her desk. She had a prince living with her, and it was nothing like what she pictured. Sure, he was handsome and strong, but he was more of a pain in the ass than anything. She wanted to feel like a princess, not a maid. Yet here she was, cleaning up another one of his messes. She began to reconnect some of the wires in the bot before she paused. The sound of boots stomping their way into her lab made her roll her eyes long before he even began to speak.

    “Woman!” As charming as ever she noted. “Woman! Where the hell are you!”

    “In here your royal highness,” she huffed, picking up a screwdriver and unscrewing a latch in the machine. Oil sprayed out and covered her hands before she yelled and covered it with a rag. She sighed as the oil pooled around the table, the rag only soaking up half of it. “Damn it!”

    Vegeta came to a halt in the doorway of the lab, arms crossed as he looked her over. She was a dirty mess, grease stains coating her clothing and her hair curling up slightly from the humidity of the lab. He frowned. “You look like shit.”

    She spun around to face him, crossing her arms and glaring at him. “So do you.” Her eyes glanced over his form, noting the burns and tear marks in his blue one-piece outfit. “I just made you that suit, how is it already torn up?”

    He bristled, the hairs on the back of his neck beginning to stand on end. “It’s not my fault it’s shitty material.”

    “Maybe you’re just bad at dodging.”

    “You’re ridiculous! Do you know how annoying-”

    She rolled her eyes again, turning back to her work as she removed the rag and tried to mop up the rest with a clean one. “What do you want, Vegeta? I’m busy.”

    “How dare you cut me off!” He snapped. He stomped over to her, slamming his hand down on the table. She didn’t look up. “Who the hell says I need anything from you!”

    “Why else would you be here?” The two rags were tossed in the bin by her feet haphazardly, flicking oil on the prince’s boots. His nose crinkled up as he leaned against the desk and once again crossed his arms.

     “I destroyed another one of those robots.”

    Now it was her turn to get upset, slamming her hands down on the table and standing up abruptly, startling the prince. “Are you kidding me! So what, you need a new suit and new training aids?”

     “Maybe if you built them stronger I wouldn’t have to keep coming into this mess of a lab and telling you to make more!”

    She took a step towards him, jabbing a finger into his chest, “maybe if you weren’t such a dick you could realize that’s what I’m trying to do! These materials don’t just grow on trees!”

    He didn’t like how he felt as he tried to hold her gaze. He didn’t like how he felt with her standing so close to him either. He could practically feel her breath against his face as she spoke, and those eyes; it sent a chill down his spine. He turned away completely, huffing as he continued, “whatever! That’s not even why I came in here!”

    “Then get to the point so you can leave!”

     He began to fidget with his glove on his right hand before glancing at Bulma over his shoulder. “I need you to fix my glove.”

    “Done. I’ll make a new pair in a day or two now can you please-”

    “No, I said you need to fix it. Not replace it.”

    She groaned, running a hand through her hair and leaving oil streaks, “fine! Just leave it on the desk and I’ll get to it!”

    “I need it done today. Now.” He grunted.

    Bulma stomped her foot, “what do I look like to you!”

    Vegeta turned, running his eyes over her before once again meeting her gaze. His tone was cold as he looked at her with a bored expression. “Do you want my honest answer?”

    That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. “That’s it! Find someone else to help you, I’m done!” She shoved the chair back into the desk, making her way past him and to the bathroom down the hall. He ran after her, shouting all the while.

    “Woman stop!” She did not. “I’m serious, would you just wait a minute!” The door to her bathroom slammed shut, locking behind her with a click as Vegeta banged his fist against it. “Open the door this instant woman!”

     Bulma turned on the sink and lathered her hands and arms with soap before scrubbing off all the oil and grime from her work in progress. She pretended she couldn’t hear the prince as he had his little temper tantrum outside the door. She splashed the water over her face next, drying it off with the hand towel hung up on the rack beside her. She glanced at herself in the mirror, her hair still a mess but at least she didn’t feel as gross. She’d have to take a shower later to get the rest of it off. Suddenly the prince was quiet, and she smirked as she realized he must have left. However, she would have been wrong.

    “Please, woman. I need your help.” His tone was quiet, so quiet she thought she might have misheard him. Perhaps she was hallucinating. She opened the door suddenly, spooking Vegeta for the second time today. He was close, and she could smell the sweat on him each time she breathed in. Somehow, she didn’t mind it. She liked being this close to him.

    “What did you just say?” He couldn’t meet her eyes.

    “Don’t make me repeat it,” he grumbled. “It’s already embarrassing enough.”

    “Come on, I keep my sewing kit in my room.” She brushed past him, a shiver running up both their spines from the contact as her bare arm brushed against the tears in his suit. Both, of course, ignored it. Vegeta walked with his hands by his sides before quickly tucking his hands under his arms again in his typical fashion.

    She glanced over her shoulder at him, frowning slightly at how disheveled he looked. Was it because he had pleaded for help? When he noticed her staring, his ears flushed. “What the hell are you looking at!”

    She shrugged, “I’m not used to this side of you. I’m committing it to memory so I remember you have a soul sometimes.”

    “Oh you shut it!” Her overalls were practically falling off her waist now, and the prince found it hard to concentrate on anything besides her hips. Just another thing to distract him during training. He grumbled a couple curse words under his breath as she stopped to open the door to her room. Stepping inside, the place was a wreck. Random items strewn about the floor, a mix of papers, gadgets, trash, and so much else. Her bed wasn’t made and a pile of laundry sat in the corner. Somehow, it was fitting.

    “Your room is disgusting. How do you live like this?”

   Bulma shrugged. “You keep me busy enough that I don’t have time to do much else. Besides, most nights I sleep in the lab.”

    Vegeta made a face as he stood in the doorway and leaned against the frame, “is it really my fault?”

    She raised an eyebrow as she rummaged around through her desk drawers, kicking aside a pile of magazines to get to it. “No Vegeta, I’m just joking with you.”

    “I thought you had maids?”

    “I don’t like them messing with my stuff. It’s… organized chaos.” She offered.

    “I agree with the chaos part.” He huffed and looked at her walls as she bent over, studying the posters she had pinned up everywhere.

    “You can come inside you know,” she chuckled, pulling the kit out and setting it on the table. “You can take a seat on my bed. I don’t want you hovering over me while I work.”

    “I don’t hover!” He snapped, floating off the floor to avoid stepping around the mess entirely before sitting on the very edge of the bed. Beside him lay a bra, which he quickly covered with the bedsheet before he began to turn pink. Bulma giggled at his reaction as he began to turn more red. “What are you laughing at!”

    “You. Has the mighty prince Vegeta never seen a bra before?” She snorted, threading the needle and turning on her desk lamp.

    “Why the hell do you care!” He replied. “Of course I have! Tons even!”

    “Mhm, sure,” Bulma snickered. “Alright, now pass me the glove.” Vegeta stuck out his hand and Bulma set the needle on the desk. “No, seriously. Hand me the glove.”

    “You can work on it like this,” he replied, glancing at the tear before quickly turning away. He seemed pale now.

    “Vegeta, I’m not great with sewing and I will stab you repeatedly with this needle. Give me the glove.”

    “You’re a woman! How are you bad at sewing?”

    “WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!”

    “DON’T YELL AT ME!”

    “This was a mistake,” Bulma snapped, starting to stand up. “I agree to help you and for what! For you to treat me like shit? You asked me for this, you dingus! I’m choosing to do this! Just like I choose to let you live here! Like I choose to feed you, clothe you, and give you a little playroom like a stray cat! Even though you ruin all my shit and treat everyone like trash! If you don’t want my help, for fuck’s sake get out!”

    For the first time ever, Bulma witnessed a look of shock take over the prince’s features. His eyebrows were raised as he stared at her, finally speechless. She felt bad for yelling at him but she needed to get it off her chest. Before she could say anything else, she was surprised to feel the glove slapping into her face before falling in her lap. “YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO THROW IT AT ME!”

    “JUST HURRY UP AND FIX IT!” He shouted back, shoving his hand under his armpit as he began to tap his foot anxiously. She was going to comment on that but shook her head, grabbing the needle and getting to work. The faster she was done, the faster he would leave.

    Vegeta found himself focusing on her to help calm his nerves. He watched the way thin strands of her hair would fall in front of her face before she quickly tucked them back behind her ear. Or how beautiful she looked as she concentrated on patching up the glove, biting her lip occasionally before she would relax again. Something about her drew him to her, and he hated how his heart raced when she was around. Suddenly she was speaking to him, bringing him back from his thoughts.

    “It’s done,” she said as she tossed it back to him. He grabbed it quickly and immediately slid it on before opening and closing his hand a few times to ensure it wouldn’t tear again. He couldn’t even tell where it had been, and sighed as he spread out his arms and flopped back into her bed. She scooted over to him in her chair, bumping his knee with hers. “A thank you would have been nice.”

     Vegeta remained silent, shutting his eyes and ignoring what she had said. Her eyes softened as she stared at him and wondered what he was thinking. “So what’s the deal with the glove?” She asked quietly. 

    When she didn’t answer again she sighed, standing up and turning to walk out. “You can stay here as long as you need to then. I’m gonna go take a sh-”

    A firm and yet gentle grip took hold of her wrist and she froze, glancing back to see the prince was once again sitting up straight. His eyes were pleading as he spoke, “please don’t leave.”

    She nodded, surprised at how gentle he was with her. She sat back down and crossed her legs before he let go of her wrist. He leaned forward, his elbows against his legs as he clasped his hands together. He looked down at them, hunched over as he thought of what to say.

   “Ever since I was a kid,” he started, voice so low and deep it sent a shiver up her spine. “I have been a killing machine. It’s what I was made for and it’s all I’ve ever known.” He looked to Bulma for reassurance before she nodded. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “I don’t have many memories of my father, and the ones that I do have are… complicated. Nappa raised me, if you could even call it that. Raditz was more of a nuisance than anything. Our goal was to survive, and one day I wanted to become powerful enough to beat Frieza. What a joke” He scoffed, shaking his head and looking back to the floor.

     “At first, taking lives was easy for me. I was doing nothing more than what I was assigned; I started to do more, go beyond what was required of me. The only one to praise me was Nappa, and even then it was never to my face. I was ridiculed and mocked, but it only pushed me farther, to do better. It was never what I wanted, but more so what needed to be done.”

    He didn’t know why the hell he was telling her this; he had never told anyone this. And yet now it was as if he couldn’t stop, he couldn’t shut his mouth long enough to think about what he was doing. “What was once hundreds went to thousands, then millions. I was eradicating races in the blink of an eye. Soon they weren’t just obstacles to me, but people with faces and lives I had ripped away from them. I had so much blood on my hands; I still have blood on my hands. So much blood that I will never, ever be able to get off.”

    He opened and closed his hands once more, the sounds of the fabric shifting in his grip. “I’m not a good man. Hell, I've never claimed to be one. But now Frieza is gone and it feels like everything I’ve done, everything I worked towards for years, was for nothing. The things I see in my sleep, what I feel when I’m awake, what I’ve gone through was for nothing.” He stopped for a moment, voice and tone becoming so quiet and serious Bulma couldn’t believe it was the same person who had spoken to her just minutes ago. “I haven’t been able to look at my hands the same way since I was a child.”

     He finally looked up at her, his eyes lidded as he smirked. That’s when she realized he was on the verge of tears. “Do you know how sad that is? A beast scared of his own damned hands. I’m a damn disgrace to my people.” He laughed after that, wiping his eyes and setting his hands back down. “Look at me, a prince crying in front of a damn lower life form.”

     She reached out hesitantly, tapping his hand with her fingers apprehensively. When he didn’t pull away she continued, scooting closer to him and pulling his hand up to lay between them both.

   Bulma carefully ran her hand over his, sliding her fingers up and under the glove before pulling away slowly. She looked at him again, waiting for him to react or move away, to tell her to stop. Vegeta shut his eyes tight but didn’t pull away, his face pale as she set his glove carefully in her lap. To her surprise, his skin was soft, with hers perhaps being even rougher than his. Then again, she supposed that made sense if the saiyan never fought without them and she only worked with her bare hands.

    She traced her nails gently over his palm, studying the grooves in his skin and how neatly trimmed his nails were. “Well,” she started slowly, his breathing coming to a pause. “I don’t see any blood now.”

    Vegeta opened his eyes slowly, looking at her face carefully as she studied his hand. She was so delicate with him it made his breath hitch in his throat. 

    “Sure, maybe there was a lot there in the past, but not anymore. You can’t change what happened, but you can acknowledge it and move on, try to do better this time around.”

     When Vegeta looked at his own hand, he almost gasped in shock. It was his hand, as normal as any other. He looked back to Bulma as she ran her thumb over top of his, gently moving her hand back and forth from his wrist to his knuckles.

     “You haven’t done good things, Vegeta. But I don’t think you’re a bad person. I think you need time and care to heal, and the first step towards that was acknowledging what we talked about today.” She paused, thinking carefully over her next choice of words before smiling softly. “I think there’s good in you. No, I know there is.”

    He watched the way her hair tumbled down and around her face, and how gentle her stare seemed to be. She wasn't repulsed or disgusted, but caring and considerate. He felt a blush rise first to the tips of his ears and then his cheeks before he pulled his hand away and slid his glove back on. He stood up after that, walking briskly across the room without turning back. He unlocked the door and opened it, pausing to think for a moment. Then, he made his way down the hall, wondering what the hell had just come over him as his heart raced out of control.

    A few days later he came home to find a second pair of gloves folded neatly on his bed along with a note, “just in case <3.” His face flushed as he went to crumple it up, but upon reading it just one more time, he found he couldn’t. He shoved it in the drawer of his bedside table, grumbling under his breath as he left to go train.

[motoringdaily]

A review of the Mazda CX-9.

By Emmanuel Omeri.

I have been fortunate to be among the first people to get a feel of the new Mazda CX9. Having driven the car for almost a month and done over 2000 kilometres of mixed driving, here is my review.

The Mazda CX-9 fills a very under appreciated gap in the Kenyan market. A market that is seemingly on demand in the US and Australia. What do you buy when you want a huge SUV, but you don’t need the heavy duty 4WD equipment like low range and locking differentials?

For most people, this would be easy! Get a BMW X5, a VW Touareg or even a Mercedes GLE! Okay then, what if you want something larger than the X5s? What if you want something more reliable? That niche market is what this car tries to serve. It is a unique market here that only the CX-9 served until recently when Hyundai introduced the Palisade.

Without going into much detail, the CX-9 is bigger in terms of general size than the Land Cruiser Prado, the BMW X5s, VW Touaregs and Mercedes GLE. It is actually about as long and wide as a ‘V8’. Just not as tall. Let’s go to the good stuff now. The good, the really good and the bad. Nothing is ugly here please.

Most people would agree that Mazda has been designing some fantastic looking vehicles since they started this Kodo design philosophy. I think the exterior look is this car’s most attractive element. It looks really good.

Then there is the interior. Mazda did not cheap out! Everything you touch is either leather(nappa), metal or rosewood. No cheap plastics anywhere. The Germans would charge you almost twice as much to get this level of quality. It has almost every modern feature that you actually need in a car. Anything you need, it has it. Want wireless charging? Want apple car play? Want cooled seats? Want a 360 degree camera? Want heated rear seats? Want premium audio? Want a heads up display with maps function and traffic sign recognition? Want lane keeping assist? Want adaptive cruise? Want 7 seats? Electric Tailgate? Its all available.

What about performance? Well, it is not anything exciting in terms of performance (at least for me). But for the people that get excited by Prados & LC200s, this will excite you more. It pulls harder than those. (It will however not keep up with the X5s and Cayennes) Power comes from a relatively small 2.5 litre turbo charged engine coupled with a 6 speed automatic transmission and an All Wheel Drive system. Pretty basic set up but it does what 99% of people need. 250 or 227 horsepower depending on whether you feed it premium or ordinary fuel. It also lashes out 420nm of torque.

Handling and Comfort are also really good. Pushed it around some twisted roads and it did better than i expected. You will never need more unless you are a racing driver. But this is where things seem not so good in my view. For a 2.5 litre engine, fuel consumption is a bit on the higher side. Urban driving gives you an average 7-8kilometres per litre(kpl). Highway driving gives you 7-11.5kpl depending on how you drive.The Germans can achieve this with 3.0 litre + engines with 300+ horsepower. Perhaps its the weight and few 6 gears that make it a bit inefficient. But i feel like Mazda could have done better here and i think they will in due course.

This next issue can be a good or bad thing depending on the kind of person you are. This car was not sold in Japan. So it will never be a ‘Kenya uniform’ . If you want one you either go to CMC Motors- The official Mazda dealer in Kenya or import from Australia. Of course this means it will be an exclusive vehicle to have. CMC reckons that they are only about 60 of them in the country. But it can also mean no parts are available unless you import or get from the authorized dealer.

[yeowangies]

Blood Stains

CHAPTER IV: A Formidable Woman

❧

PAIRING: Raditz/Reader RATING: Mature CONTENTS: Canon Divergence AU, Slow Burn, Eventual Smut, Enemies to Lovers. WARNINGS: None WORDCOUNT: 3100

Summary:

This isn’t the kind of conversation you expected to have today, you didn’t even know Raditz was going to show up at your balcony like he’s some kind of Romeo. He isn’t Romeo by any means, but you had never liked any kind of Prince stereotype anyway. When you turn your gaze towards him, you notice how close he actually is.

Notes:

Things are finally moving along 😏

You can check the tag #*bs if you wanna see the previous chapters.

Raditz had remembered what he heard Vegeta and Nappa say through his scouter when he was practically on the brink of death after his fight with Kakarot and Piccolo.

Revive him? We’re better off without him.

That has been Vegeta’s voice talking about him. 

To say that he got mad was an understatement.

He blasted through a mountain, effectively making it explode and leaving nothing behind. It was almost time for a full moon as well, and he was tempted to just look at it and destroy the fucking planet in his Great Ape form. 

But he didn’t. 

The moon never even showed up in the sky in all the time Raditz had been in the open. He guessed it’s probably Kakarot’s doing. It would have taken Raditz maybe a couple of weeks to kill every inhabitant of this planet in that form, but he didn’t want to do that anyway. And he knew it had everything to do with you. 

Thinking about it now, as he flies all the way to a mountain area where he has been the past few days, he knows it wasn’t only because of you. You have been an influence, but it’s not only that. 

As Raditz noticed he could feel your energy, and a lot of other energies around him, he realized that that’s how his brother must have found him when he kidnapped his nephew. He doesn’t have control of that ability yet, but the more he sits down and focuses on it, the better he gets. Yours had been the easiest to find, because you had been around him for weeks, so he got used to it. 

He doesn’t need his scouter, but that’s also when he thinks that there’s a reason why you and your friends need it. Kakarot had the ability to read and find distinctive energies, but you didn’t seem capable of that, it made sense that you would want to keep his scouter as some kind of radar. 

Which makes Raditz think that a radar is the way to find the so-called Dragon Balls. You did mention that they scatter around the world, and that you had to find them. Assuming that you were telling the truth (he can’t be sure since he knows you lied about some details before), then it’s not as crazy to think that a radar to find those magical orbs exists. And if it does exist, then he has to get it and find the Dragon Balls himself.

What for, though? What does he want?

Vegeta wants immortality. Kakarot’s friends want to bring him back to life. But Raditz is not exactly sure what he wants. 

Immortality seems like a safe option, considering how little disregard his own comrades have for him. Especially if they plan on one day confronting Frieza to destroy him. 

But Raditz doesn’t want to live forever. He got a taste of a certain amount of freedom in just a few days since he’s been on those highlands, and he’s enjoying it. He’s just enjoying living. Eating when he’s hungry, sleeping when he’s tired, bathing when he feels like it, and training when his body asks him to. And his mind is not even thinking about living forever because just being able to live like this is enough for him.

There’s only one thing he wants that he doesn’t have. 

But he supposes that asking the Dragon Balls to let him have you is a bit extreme; he never had to force himself on a woman and he never will. He’s pretty sure you want him too anyway. He just needs to make a move, and he would have if he hadn’t seen you look so upset about what he witnessed when he found you. It sent him on edge, so he couldn’t blame you. He really should have ripped that guy’s dick off. 

Raditz feels how ridiculous he’s being the more he dwells on that. He washes his face in a nearby river, staring at the dark sky for a long time. He just needs to get laid, that’s all. It has been a while since he’s had sex, over a year for sure. He’s getting too obsessed over a human girl he just happened to see when he got to Earth. 

He just needs a fuck.

He’ll get more time to think about it afterwards, but he has to get those Dragon Balls. He has to find out if a radar for those exists first.

*

“You’re telling me someone tried to attack you, and Raditz saved you?!”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I just said.” You reply to Bulma, taking a long gulp of her very expensive wine. 

“This is such a wild turn of events.”

“I say.”

Bulma looks you over for a long time.

“So… did something else happen?”

You smile, amused. You were waiting for her to ask that, because of course she would. 

“No, nothing happened.”

“Are you telling me the truth or are you still mad at me?”

“No, I’m not mad at you.” You chuckle, eating more of the snacks she had laid out at the table for the both of you. “It’s the truth. I… I thought maybe he would make a move or… I don’t know. Nothing happened in the end. But I didn’t feel well enough anyway, so it would have sucked…”

“It’s weird that we are talking about an alien that came to Earth to recruit his brother and who set the planet up for an imminent destruction.” Bulma commented, way too casually, as she took a sip of her glass.

“Well Yamcha tried to rob and kill you and Goku when you met him so…”

“That’s nowhere near the same thing.”

“I know…” You sigh, drinking the whole glass at once.

“Well, I’m not judging.” She smiles, reaching for some chips. “I mean, the way I see it, maybe you can save the Earth this way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, maybe you can bang him and he’ll decide to convince his buddies not to kill everyone here, you know? Like, the pussy is so good he’s not a bad guy anymore.”

When you burst out laughing, Bulma laughs with you. 

“I think we should stop drinking, you’re just talking nonsense.”

“Oh, I make perfect sense.” Bulma says, but still puts her glass away. “Do you wanna stay? Maybe you’ll feel better here.”

“Yeah… Yeah, I’ll like that…”

You help Bulma clean up the kitchen before you turn to leave towards the room you usually stayed at. 

“Hey, about what I said the other day,” She begins, walking with you down the hall. “I didn’t mean any of it, I was angry…”

“It’s fine. I slapped you so we are even.” You smirk, and she rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m letting that one go for now.”

You chuckle as Bulma pats your shoulder before leaving once you reach the door of your room. 

It wasn’t in your plan to stay at Bulma’s but you always felt a lot better there than you did at your own apartment. Besides, your room is almost as big as your place anyway, and her house is so huge that it’s basically like living on your own. 

Some days go by, and you wonder what the hell is Raditz up to. You have no idea where he’s staying, and the TV news don’t mention anything about a crazy looking guy wrecking havoc, so he must be staying low. But doing what? You don’t doubt that he can take care of himself, you’re not even worried about that. But you’re damn curious about everything else. 

You spend a good amount of time thinking about everyone else; Goku, Gohan, the rest of your friends, and even Piccolo. You hope to God Piccolo did not harm Gohan, explaining that to Goku when he’s brought back it’s going to be awkward. It has been four months since he died, you wonder what kind of training he’s doing. It’s weird that dead people can still train.

Bulma seems less preoccupied, though she still sometimes complains about Yamcha ‘still being gone and all’ (you figure she only does it because she misses him because there’s no way she doesn’t know about the severity of the situation, but you’re no one to preach about it anyway). Sometimes she would ask for your help regarding some technology project or something, but other than that, you used your time to work.

You’re sitting by your computer, when you feel a sudden rush of air hit the balcony windows, making them rattle. You stand to check on them and make sure they’re closed when you practically have a heart attack, as you notice Raditz standing, or floating, right outside. 

“What are you doing here?” You ask him when you step out, confused. 

“Hello to you too, woman.” He says with a smirk. 

He isn’t wearing the shirt you gave him (you figured it wasn’t going to last anyway), and the pants are now basically shorts, though he still has his boots and gloves. With his arms crossed across his chest, he flies a little closer to the rail without actually getting on the balcony, as you step out. You rest your arms on the handrail, looking him over; he looks okay, more than okay if you compare to the last time you saw him, he had scratches on his skin then, but he’s all healed now, and it doesn’t seem like he’s been doing anything dangerous. 

“How have you been?” You ask.

“Is that really what you want to know?” 

“Well, yeah. I don’t even know what you do with your time.”

“I don’t know what you do with yours either.” He smirks and you snort. 

“Ah, so we are doing this, now?”

“I see your hand healed pretty well.” 

Raditz stares at your hand, and you take a quick glance at it. Your nails grew back a bit and your hand looks fine; obviously since it has been just a superficial injury. 

“Yeah, I’m afraid I don’t have a battle scar.”

“Now that would have been sexy.”

“You’re telling me I would look sexy with a scar?” You raise an eyebrow when he chuckles.

“Absolutely, it would be a reminder that you won.”

“Like I said, it was hardly a battle, and I didn't win, you saved me.”

“You still defended your honor well.”

“You’re weird.”

It’s his turn to snort, and you smile. Raditz does look a lot better, the last time you saw he was obviously on edge. He must have been like that for you maybe, but you don’t want to conclude that. 

“It must be a cultural difference.” He says, still smirking. His eyes are lingering on your face for so long, you can’t help but feel your face heat up. “What’s considered attractive on this planet?”

“Uh… I don’t know, it depends…” 

Your eyes trail down his body. You don’t know if Raditz is considered attractive in space, but he sure as hell is attractive on Earth. He’s tall, muscular, he has a defined jaw and his long hair just makes him look rebellious enough to attract those teenage girls who like the bad boy image. You are not a teenage girl, but you get his appeal. 

When your eyes land back on his face, you notice he’s grinning.

“What?”

“So I’m considered attractive.”

“Of course you’d get to that conclusion.” You roll your eyes, looking away to try and hide the blush on your cheeks. 

“Are you telling me you're not attracted to me at all?”

This isn’t the kind of conversation you expected to have today, you didn’t even know Raditz was going to show up at your balcony like he’s some kind of Romeo. He isn’t Romeo by any means, but you had never liked any kind of Prince stereotype anyway. When you turn your gaze towards him, you notice how close he actually is. You have to look down to meet his eyes because he’s flying low, but if you move a couple of inches your noses can touch. 

“I think we already had this conversation, don’t you remember?”

“I remember. I was wondering if you still feel the same way.”

“I don’t know, why are you asking?” Your face is positively on fire, but you can’t help your smile. He’s still grinning widely, and you lean a little closer to him. 

“Curiosity is getting the better of me.”

“So you flew all the way here?”

“Yes, I’ve been up all night and all day thinking about it.” There’s a mischievous gleam in his eyes. You can’t wrap your mind about it; he’s openly flirting with you. 

“I should put an end to your misery then.” You say, biting your lower lip.

“You should, you started this after all.” Raditz takes a quick glance at your lips before meeting your eyes again.

“I started this?”

“If I remember correctly, you’re the one who walked out of that house with those tiny clothes.”

“Like you didn’t come here wearing only an armor and your underwear.”

“That was not my underwear.” He laughs. “You were trying to distract me from my mission here on this planet, didn’t you?” 

“Oh yeah, I sure knew an alien was gonna get here, and my secret weapon was my bikini.”

“What a formidable woman you are.” Raditz smirks, obviously playing with you.

Your eyes light up at the compliment nonetheless, and you smile wider. 

“I suppose I am if all I need is a swimsuit.”

“Maybe I should look at you wearing that again, we’ll see how effective it is.”

“You’re a perv, you don’t wanna check that at all!”

“You’re right,” His nose is almost touching yours as you hold in your breath, unable to tear your eyes away from his handsome face. “I already know that you are the one who has power over me.”

No matter the fact that you see it coming from a mile away, when Raditz kisses you, it still leaves you breathless. It’s surprisingly soft too; it's just his lips pressing against yours, but you feel electricity pulsing through your veins. 

You can’t help your smile when you pull away, and you’re happy to know that he’s grinning just as gleefully. You take a step back as he flies over the rail, wrapping his arms around your waist in an instant and leaning down to capture your lips once more. 

This kiss is a lot more heated and passionate than the last one as he presses his body against yours. Putting your hands on his shoulders, you hum contently when he licks your lips, coaxing you to open your mouth, and you comply with no objections, tangling your tongue with his fervently. His hands are gripping you firmly and you can’t help but gasp, thrilled about it as you imagine what it would be like to feel them on other parts of your body.

You’re not sure if Raditz can read minds, but his hands start roaming your back, stroking your skin through your shirt before sliding downwards and settling on your hips. You wrap your arms around his shoulders, not wanting to break the kiss anytime soon.

Soon comes quickly when Bulma calling your name from outside your bedroom door catches your attention. Raditz doesn’t seem to care as he keeps kissing you, but you know better, pushing him away by his shoulders. 

“Ignore her.” 

“I can’t…” He kisses you insistently, leaving you at a loss of words for a second before you hear Bulma’s voice again. 

“Why not?” He grunts against your lips. 

“Because she won’t go away until I answer… I-I love her but she’s annoying.”

Raditz growls lowly as he pulls away only an inch before stepping back, his body finally leaving yours. He looks frustrated and tense as you look him over. You straighten your clothes, feeling your cheeks with your hands to cool them before walking into your room. 

“Why didn’t you answer?” Bulma asks impatiently when you open the door.

“Sorry, I was with my earbuds.” You lie. She looks you over with a curious look before speaking again.

“I need your help with something, can you come to the lab?”

“Sure, I’ll be there in a minute.”

“…Why can’t you come with me now?”

“Because I… need to use the toilet.” You know you don’t sound too convinced but she shrugs before walking away. 

You sprint across your room to check the balcony, calling Raditz’s name in a whisper when you don’t see him. 

He left, and without actually saying goodbye. You’re a little disappointed, but it’s not like you’re never gonna see him again, so you close the window to head downstairs. 

You almost fall down, startled, when you hear a loud explosion. An explosion that sounds way too familiar. 

“Oh, no, Raditz, what did you do?” You mumble to yourself, heading towards the sound of the blast. 

Turns out it has been on the other side of Bulma’s laboratory, where she kept some of her big inventions and capsule designs. By the time you get there, there’s only debris and dust flying around, but nothing else. 

“This was your boyfriend!” Bulma exclaims in anger, walking through what used to be her lab. 

“Raditz is not my boyfriend…”

“Why did he do this?! What was the point?!”

You don’t know, so you don’t answer. While Bulma keeps lamenting to herself you look around, not exactly knowing if anything is missing, until you hear another explosion that makes you both fall down again. 

“Fuck!” Bulma screams in the highest pitched tone you have ever heard. “I’m going to fucking kill these Saiyans myself!”

You try to contain your laughter as she runs out of the room to head towards where this new explosion was. 

What the fuck is Raditz doing? What was the point of destroying Bulma’s laboratory? 

She stays pissed about it for a few days while all the areas affected get fixed, she would even glare at you whenever you were around. As if you have anything to do. And you don’t see Raditz at all for the next few days. He really just wrecked havoc and disappeared, with no explanation. You’re confused but still a little lightheaded about the kisses you two shared. You feel bad about Bulma’s lab rooms and everything, but goddamnit, you can’t stop thinking about those kisses you exchanged on the balcony. It could even be considered romantic, you weren’t expecting anything like that at all. 

But where the hell does Raditz even go? 

[parkersgeorg]

The Watsonian explanation I'd readily give actually parallels the Doylist one: things have changed a lot for Vegeta between Earth and Namek. On Earth he is Freeza's favored lieutenant, which fuels his ego as well as his shame, and both feelings would fuel his need to act as if nothing can touch him. One might think it's strange that Vegeta doesn't care about Nappa and Raditz - they're the last two Saiyans aside from him! - but it's actually because he should care about them that it's even more impressive if he doesn't. Look at how cool and above it all I am. Look at how confident I am in my own power - I'll kill my closest allies, the last two members of my own species, I don't even care. I don't need them. (This ties into Vegeta's main motivation being, deep down, fear rather than anger - he needs to be the most powerful because that means he's safe; since he isn't more powerful than Freeza, he needs anything that'll make him feel like he's the most powerful. Another reason the encounter with Goku rattles him so badly.) He'll do anything to establish his dominance over his enemies, to impress them, to shock them. He's probably been cultivating his detachment - even contempt - for the other two for a long time, too. After all, they're weaker than him, and the Saiyan mindset (we can't blame everything on Freeza or Vegeta's existential terror) encourages Vegeta to view basically everyone weaker than him as subhuman. What's intriguing to me about Vegeta letting Raditz die and killing Nappa himself is actually their reactions. Like you said, they both thought Vegeta would help them. That's because, I think, he's actually a pretty calm and polite guy at first - again, like Freeza that way: how exquisite to do this, how refined. Another way to prove that he's in control. And maybe it's also the fact that he's their prince - we sort of forget that even though he keeps shouting it every two seconds? Vegeta isn't just any old Saiyan, and his pride is something special; he feels especially burdened with the need to uphold it. And then there's just his personality - he never fucking stops, never backs down (except this one time against Freeza, which made it all the more tragic). In a nutshell, Raditz and Nappa are what Vegeta's always accused Goku of being - third class. They're not very clever, they're not very discerning, and they trust blindly in the Saiyan hierarchy, not realizing that Vegeta will use that very same hierarchy to justify their murder. We can compare that to Vegeta's relationship with Freeza: he behaves with Freeza essentially the way Raditz and Nappa behaved with him, but he doesn't believe for a second that Freeza might be inclined to spare him - and he's right. When Freeza kills him, Vegeta, even in the depths of despair, wouldn't dream of begging him for mercy, not necessarily out of pride at this point since his pride has been well and truly shattered, but because he knows mercy just isn't something Freeza is capable of. He begs Goku instead. Underneath all that ego, Vegeta is pretty good at reading people.

So that's Earth. Namek is so different. Vegeta isn't Freeza's loyal lieutenant anymore - he's now openly plotting against him, killing his men, breaking into his spaceship, stealing his shit. And, unlike Earth when he was ready to murder his own people just to prove how confident he was in his own power (I don't need them, I don't need anyone, not even my two closest allies, not even the last two members of my own fucking species, here, I'll prove it) Namek!Vegeta fully accepts he's not the strongest player.

Over the course of the arc, as he kills more and more of Freeza's men, he starts deluding himself that he actually can do this, that he's growing stronger at such a crazy rate he'll soon surpass Freeza. It's not even that much of a delusion - he does defeat people he could have never overpowered just a week before. His mistake is vastly underestimating the gulf between Freeza and Ginyu, his most powerful lieutenant. That's why the reveal of Freeza's power hits him harder than Cell and Buu will later - Vegeta breaks down against them too, but never again to the extent he broke down before Freeza, because his confidence against Freeza wasn't just pure ego - he had genuine reason to think he could pull it off. But I digress.

The point is that the Namek Arc shows us Vegeta not just in a vulnerable position (isn't he always, really?) but, for once, fully aware of it, fully accepting of it, and working overtime to fix it. Now is no longer the time for stupid posturing by killing your allies, or even just letting them die. He needs help against Freeza and a non-negligible number of his underlings. Of course his pride won't let him admit that, so he claims that he's only saving Krillin and Gohan to "show off", but he's actually doing the very opposite of showing off. Showing off was murdering Nappa. Saving Krillin and Gohan is Vegeta's strategic mind telling him you need every fucking ally you can get, make them last. Just the fact that they're allies is huge! And even before that, when they weren't, Vegeta knees Gohan in the stomach but doesn't kill him, threatens Krillin and Bulma but doesn't do anything to them either. I like to think part of that was Vegeta already aware he might need them soon.

And then there's the matter of whatever he might be feeling about them. That's buried deep, certainly too deep for him to access consciously. But I do think he sees himself in them, in a very literal way: they're his allies - not like Raditz and Nappa were; Vegeta never needed them. On Namek, Gohan and Krillin are the best Vegeta's got. He's saved them several times at this point, because no one else is coming to help him. To see them suffer - to see them die - is to see an extension of himself suffer and die. They're his team, and his team's losing badly. We circle back around to pride: he tied himself to them, so their defeat is his defeat. And we circle back around to fear: he can't do it without them, so if they die he'll soon be dead too.

It ain't much, but it's honest character development! What I really like about Vegeta's overall arc is how much time it takes. The whole of DBZ is like... about Vegeta, in a way? Goku's character doesn't change or evolve - he was born perfect. It's Vegeta who's impacted by everything that happens, Vegeta who's radically transformed. That's what makes him so compelling to so many people. He doesn't suddenly become a nice guy like Piccolo. He changes, and he hates it, and he's doing everything he can to fight back, and we're with him every grueling step of the way. The culmination of DBZ is Vegeta's "number one" speech to Goku. And the very last panel of DBZ is Vegeta staring after Goku, mumbling that he'll surely beat him next time, for sure. He's what it's all about, man. We can't rush that.

So no, I don't think he cares about Krillin and Gohan on Namek, not on a personal level, not at this point - and that's what makes it so good, that he'll still fight for them even though he doesn't care about them yet - when he wouldn't have lifted a finger to help his nominal allies in the previous arc - and that he'll helplessly, inevitably come to care about people later, which will break him even more than Freeza ever did.

I was thinking about the Namek Saga (as I often do ngl), and I find it really interesting that, despite all attempts to claim otherwise, Vegeta seems to care about Gohan and Krillin at least a little bit by the end of the arc. He's upset when he thinks Krillin got killed by Freeza.

He saves Gohan without any actual benefit to himself.

Although he does immediately claim it was to show off. Which I could take at face value I guess, but seriously? That's a pretty weak excuse. Especially because Freeza seemed to pick up on Vegeta having some concern for Gohan earlier.

I do not believe you, Vegeta. Also, wow that was fucked up of Freeza, nice touch on the evil.

So I'd say that Vegeta does have at least some level of concern for Gohan and Krillin, which has formed impressively quickly given that they've been teamed up less than one day. I guess they did both assist in kicking Vegeta's ass a few weeks ago, which probably went a decent way toward winning his respect. It's not a level of concern deep enough for him to actually risk himself on their behalf, but he seems distressed by them being hurt. It would sort of make sense if this tenuous bond formed earlier when they fought the Ginyus together, but Vegeta actually saved them first.

Again, I could take this at face value but c'mon. Saiyan prince, but tsundere king.

They do rescue him back, so maybe that's what earned them a tiny bit of loyalty.

However, Vegeta certainly didn't seem like he was expecting it and is even annoyed that they did it. Which is a bit hypocritical of him given that he just saved them. However, this could be the reason why he rescues Gohan from Freeza later on. He could be repaying the favor. He doesn't gain any tactical advantage from that, same as Gohan didn't really gain anything saving him here. But it honestly doesn't even seem like he's thinking of this moment later on. It seems like he just saved Gohan sort of by reflex and then had to justify it to himself (and everyone else present).

Why Vegeta gets invested in Gohan and Krillin is already pretty interesting to me. (I've seen the opinion that Vegeta sees himself in Gohan without realizing it, which is possible. The parallels between them has been the subject of a few tumblr analysis posts. I've also seen the idea that Vegeta sees Gohan as a subject to protect because he's a Saiyan child. However, neither really explains Krillin.) I'd be interested in other people's opinions on it. I can see it being some level of mutual respect or even just the pure pragmatism of being able to use them later.

But I also end up with a secondary question. If Vegeta can save others, or care about them in this span of time, why does he treat the people who he's been partnered with for at least 25 years like this?

Seriously why is he so callous about them both? It's fascinated me for ages, especially because I can directly contrast it with his behavior in the following arc. Obviously the Doylist answer is that Vegeta went from basically pure evil one-off villain who was supposed to die to an antivillain with a smidgen of sympathetic traits between the first and second arc. But I want a Watsonian one. Especially because both Raditz and Nappa seem to think Vegeta would help them.

Why would they think he'd help them? And why didn't he do it? Especially because he does help his new teammates in the next arc. Did the three of them have an epic argument at some point recently and Vegeta isn't over it? Had Vegeta been gradually internalizing more of Freeza's values and decided to rebel against the values a little too when he switched to open rebellion? Had he been slowly losing respect for Raditz and Nappa and this was the final straw, but Krillin and Gohan had earned more respect? Or did he grant both of his teams the same level of concern but Gohan and Krillin do a better job at being competent on their own?

[risingsouls]

[Apparently, it’s just OOC day (sorry to people waiting on replies 😬), but at least half(?) of those posts counting this one are about my characters.

Nappa gets me emotional. And like this isn’t the first time, but damn. So, for context, I was writing the latest chapter of the fic and, long story short, got into a conversation with Lea ( @synthetixviola​ ) about the dragonballs and how they were (and weren’t) used between the Saiyans’ arrival and after Namek. If you keep up even with just this blog, you’ll know that I took a page out of TFS’s book and had Nappa be revived via the technicality of the fact that Vegeta was working for Frieza technically when he killed Nappa, and the wish made on Earth’s dragonballs revived everyone killed by Frieza and his men (I know that at least some translations if not all actually have Popo specify on Namek but listen; I do what I want here if that wasn’t clear enough already).

Anyway, those of you who know about Lila know that she’s from East City, which is where Nappa and Vegeta landed. Somewhere along the line, Lea had mentioned that the people of East City were never wished back. Since I was doing research (and having a near crisis about plot holes and inconsistencies which is normal; this one was solved, though), I saw that, by the logic I applied to Nappa, the people of East City should have been revived for at least my story which put a damper on a conversation they were going to have. Until Lea brought this idea up:

Wasn’t Nappa working for Vegeta? Could you technically use that? For a minute, I was like, nah I don’t think that really sticks but then I considered it more and was like...You know what? That absolutely could work simply because of who Nappa is, his history, etc., and it’s fucking emotional when you think about it that way.

Basically, by going with this idea, it’s basically stating that Nappa’s loyalty to Vegeta and the Saiyan race (what was left of it from the physical Saiyans left to what he could maintain of their culture and lifestyle) was far stronger than his loyalty to Frieza. And at first, and I had this half typed out to Lea before I erased tf out of it, I was like, “I don’t know if that would work because, due to self-preservation, Nappa would likely follow Frieza’s orders over Vegeta’s.” But...I don’t think that’s true. I think if it ever came down to it, even if it meant his death, Nappa would have maintained his loyalty to Vegeta and, by proxy, the Saiyans. And, since it was Shenron making this distinction, this is basically a god CONFIRMING just how deep Nappa’s loyalty for Vegeta and his race went. Which is bad news for East City but damn. Damn, Nappa, you’re not supposed to have this kind of depth what gives???

But seriously, I’ve always loved exploring the depth Nappa could and should have had. He’s a character in a very interesting position and, as usual, we don’t really get to see how that manifests. The Saiyans may have been employed by Frieza and the Cold Empire, both the army as a whole before the planet was destroyed and the OG Squad, but Nappa’s (and, I imagine, MANY older Saiyans’) allegiance was ALWAYS to the Saiyan race and the crown until his dying breath (fucking Vegeta), and damn does that fucking hit. Man had it fucking rough.]