#vegeditz

His arms folded over my own, and his hands clasped mine. After evening treatments—just like the night he returned—he’d often curl at the corner of his bed, leaving space for me, and shoulder to shoulder, we’d tell stories deep into the night. But we’d never sat so close as this. The prince bowed his head, leaving his neck exposed to my cheek as I leaned into him. His pulse fluttered beneath my lips; heat smoldered between us as if we warmed ourselves with energy.

***

Rain rushed over our pod’s round red window, rolling down in thick streams like tears down an already wet cheek. Neither of us moved to open the hatch. Still drowsy from stasis, the downpour occupied our silence. The pod was never meant for two passengers, and Vegeta had to sit in front of me between my spread legs, his back pressed to my chest, but we didn’t mind it. My arms tightened around his waist, and I rested my head on his shoulder. Warm—we’d left our armor behind. No room, and no protection would it offer if Freeza decided to punish us.

His grip tightened, fingers trembling. As my eyes drifted shut, visions flashed before them. For a moment, I felt the gentle clutch of an embrace as if my own arms encircled me, as if I occupied the prince’s space instead. Though Fuenghi’s effects were waning, I recognized the ghostly touch as Vegeta must. No one had held him like this since his mother had all those years ago. When Arcos was just another distant, meaningless world beyond the stars.

A flash of lightning, and the distant roll of thunder. We’d stay like this a little longer yet. Until the storm broke—the prince wouldn’t have to provide an excuse, justify anything. I wouldn’t call attention to it. I nuzzled his hair and breathed in his scent. My thumb stroked the back of his hand rhythmically, offering a small distraction lest the rest overwhelm him.

“I remember the first time I ever stepped inside the royal city,” I told him. Another distraction. Another story from a different life. “The day you were crowned prince and your mother named queen, actually. You were too young to remember. You’d just come back from your mother’s country. Lots of people talked about how strong you were, but I didn’t really care about the rumors then. They always say the newborn royal is strong. But I knew something was different when they named you Vegeta right then and there. You never knew any other name. Always Prince Vegeta.”

He nodded.

“I remember because they let even classless people through the palace gate. People like my mother had been. No one could believe it, especially with how your father was. But we all crowded in to see the forbidden grounds, to see you. Lots of shouting, fights in the square.”

I chuckled to myself. “I kicked an elite brat’s ass that day. Got myself to the front where I could see everything. Then it all went quiet when your mother stepped out with you and Nappa. Just whispers. Like she put a spell on everyone.”

Vegeta’s tail loosened from his waist. He let it drape over my thigh, the tip curling under my knee. When my hand shifted from his to his tail instead, tension melted from his shoulders.

“Then the king announced that there would be a tournament when the moon was half-full.” I went on. “The strongest; class didn’t matter. The gods alone would prove who was worthy to fight at your side, he said. You remember the tournament, of course. When we first met. But that day, when you were crowned—that was the day I decided I’d train, and I’d be the one to win.”

The rain slowed to a drizzle. The prince turned in my arms, then activated the hatch, opening it. Warm mist, tasting of the nearby sea, blew into the pod even if the curved walls still sheltered us from the passing storm. I thought Vegeta might step outside then, but he didn’t. He instead leaned back against my chest. Both of us looked out overhead; the wind chased somber clouds across the horizon.

Cautiously, my hands returned to his waist, and his tail, brushing my forearm and remaining loose, reassured me if his silence didn’t. “That was when the fighting broke out again. When your father presented the challenge. I flattened a few more noble brats. And I got thrashed too.”

I laughed. “But it was one of the best days. I was glad to be saiyan. Battles for the rush of it, low-classes and nobles together. It went late into the night. People from all over the world. Giving away food and wine in the streets. Got drunk for the first time, actually. Or maybe my head was spinning from that hard kick. I honestly couldn’t tell you.”

Vegeta hung his head. When he crossed his arms over his chest, his nails dug in and pulled at his bodysuit. “Gone. Doesn’t matter.”

I took his hand, twining our fingers together and unhooking them from his suit. “I know all of it’s gone.” I squeezed his palm and pressed it to his chest, holding him tight against me. “But it was good. That’s what I try to r-remember…”

I had to stop, choking up and desperate to compose myself. “It was good, and it’s worth fighting for. Avenging. So what if we die trying. It won’t be for nothing. However hard it is, it means something. It means that life was good sometimes, for someone, somewhere. Even if it isn’t for us. That we’re still here and still fighting—it proves just how much it matters.”

The prince captured my wrist with his other hand and used that grip to fling me away. He stood. Clambered out of the pod. His tail coiled tight around his waist as the wind whipped his hair into a jagged mess. “No,” he said, keeping his back to me. “What we’ve—seen…dealt…pointless.”

His fist so tight, his knuckles whitened. “Thought you’d know better. Killed all those children, didn’t you? For what? No glorious battle there, was there? So why’d you do it? Why does Freeza purge people he just sold a planet to, like the ones who lived here last season? It’s fucking pointless. Just the whim of a filthy lowlife. And the gods let all of it happen. Everywhere. There’s nothing you can do, Raditz, but make your enemies suffer. Make them pay for what they’ve taken.”

I got up and out of the pod as well.

Vegeta must’ve heard me, felt me. He raised his voice, daring me to step closer. “We’re alone against this universe. And if I transform, it’ll be in spite of the gods, not because of them. Alone. Hear me?”

“That’s not the Vegeta I know.” I didn’t come closer, but I hovered behind him. “I didn’t enter the tournament because I wanted to fight with you, you know. Thought it was a load of fucking royal nonsense as usual. Gods, I couldn’t fucking stand you. Like having a third-class partner was a fucking insult even though I fucking won—”

“Who cares about some pointless tournament?”

“Let me fucking finish, Vegeta.” I grabbed his shoulder even if I expected punishment. “But then you promised me you’d take Freeza down. That you’d make things right. That night on Freeza’s ship. Only believed you because I wanted to believe it. Hardly more than a child. All we had. Doubted it deep down even though I held on.”

He shuddered. “Raditz, don’t.”

“Then Fuenghi. Everything changed. I believed it—not just nonsense and stories. Really believed it. I promised I’d tell you. Couldn’t tell you on Arcos, not what really happened. [SPOILER].”

He froze.

“I lied to everyone. Zarbon, Rhysling, even Nappa. Would’ve lied to Freeza too. But I’m not lying to you. I wish you remembered so you could feel it like I do. It’s not pointless. It can’t be. It can’t.”

“D-don’t believe you.”

***********************************

Part 9: Between the Stars

Chapter 1: Marks

“I don’t remember giving you this one.”

I reached for my discarded bodysuit as Cui’s fingers traced the outline of a dark bruise at the center of my chest.

“Hm, was it Vegeta who did that to you?” he asked. He applied a bit of pressure. “Looks like it still hurts…”

I slipped my shirt on so the mark couldn’t draw his attention anymore. “Just training,” I answered.

“Does he know where you are right now?” He brushed a stray lock of hair away from my face and smoothed it against the tousled mess his play had left. “Does he know about us?”

Turning away, I stood up from the hired bed. “He doesn’t care if I live or die. But he’d kill you if he knew.”

Cui chuckled to himself. “That doesn’t sound like he doesn’t care.”

“You should leave the station. I know you’ve got another planet to clean up before Sytrus. We’ll be here a little longer.” I retrieved my boots and scouter from the corner of the small room. “He really will kill you if he finds out you’re here.”

He pointed at the scouter. “Read my power level.”

I did. Roughly equal to Vegeta’s, but Cui didn’t need to know this. The prince had made considerable progress since Arcos in spite of everything. Though I hadn’t been able to catch Zarbon unaccompanied, he’d delivered Vegeta back to our quarters himself after I’d woken up alone in the medical wing. He would’ve seen evidence on his scouter if something had gone awry with Vegeta’s energy, and he may have investigated without my prompting. I could only pray that this had happened, and I couldn’t dare ask the prince to contradict it. Whatever the case, when Vegeta joined us, answering our looks with well-versed silence, he was as strong as he’d ever been.

“See?” Cui scoffed. “Last I saw the little saiyan prince in the flesh, his power level was under one thousand. Even if he’s recovered from his…accident by now, there’s no way he’s anywhere close to me.”

“Still.” Now I reached for my armor.

Cui caught hold of my arm before I could pull it over my head. “No,” he said. “The boots and scouter—leave them. You want to stay for a while.”

In truth, I did not. Cui’s crew received cleansing assignments from Zarbon and Dodoria, and there was a small chance I might hear something of their travels or whereabouts. Cui himself could believe whatever he wished about why I’d sought his company. “Not too long, though,” I told him, setting the armor back down against the wall. “You know I’ll be punished.”

“Mm, but you like to be punished, don’t you?” Scaled arms encircled my waist, the gesture almost familiar and saiyan. Cui had learned much despite the infrequency of our trysts. With my suit now protecting my bare chest from his, I could almost forget that cold clamminess against my skin. “Were all of your kind like that, or is it just you?” he asked.

“Couldn’t tell you.”

“But you don’t deny it.” He nudged me back towards the bed till I sat.

Instead of towering over him, now I looked up into his face.

“And neither does your body. How that…thing”—he grimaced—“between your legs swells after pain has left you weak, and I’ve stretched you too far…”

I shivered, and my stomach turned. “Don’t see what you get out of it.”

“I suppose there isn’t a physical component for me like there is for you.” He grasped my chin and tilted my head back so my mouth could receive his. “But surely you saiyans understand the pleasure of finding your enemy’s weakness?” Now that slimy tongue forced my lips apart, slithered between my teeth to taste me from the inside.

“Thought we had an arrangement,” I got out.

“I stopped paying you years ago.” Small, serrated fangs scraped my lower lip. “You and I aren’t enemies anymore, no. You come because you’re lonely.” He let go of my chin only to tangle his hands in my hair, cradling and caressing me as he kissed me again. “Must be dreadful to be a creature that needs someone else… So lonely that you’ll do anything, tell me anything.”

I pulled my legs up onto the bed and backed away, putting some distance between us. “Vegeta would’ve never been your enemy if you hadn’t…”

“No.” He crawled into the bed after me. “I did what I did because he was my enemy already. Lording over all of us, stealing Lord Freeza’s attention… He never did anything to deserve his rank. Just another one of you disgusting monkeys.” Cui’s hand strayed down my chest and abdomen, then between my thighs. He licked his lips when he found me half-hard. “How wretched. No matter how strong you can be on the battlefield, you lower lifeforms languish without such base things as this. Don’t know what Freeza sees in you.”

“W-what makes you think Freeza’s attention is something to be desired?”

“As stupid as you are vulgar.” His fingers crept beneath my waistband so he could tease and toy with me. Bending and rolling me between his thumb and forefinger while I was still soft enough for it. “I’m sure you’ve never actually listened to your superiors. If you did, you’d know that the Planet Trade will make this galaxy a different place. Maybe it doesn’t matter to you, since you’re the last of your kind, and your lifespans are so short. But Lord Freeza will rid the universe of vermin like you. He’ll sell planets to those more worthy. In the end, only people like him and myself will remain, and then I will be prince of an empire greater than any monkey could imagine.”

My hand joined his, and though he could overpower me easily, I moved to still it. “It’s less that I haven’t listened and more that you’re just hearing what you want to hear, Cui.” Our fingers intertwined. “If he tortured you, you wouldn’t want to be Freeza’s favorite anymore—fuck—!”

Retaliating, he’d pinched that most sensitive spot under the head of my cock so sharply that I was certain he’d drawn blood, torn the delicate skin. “Lord Freeza does you a kindness”—soothing with light touches that did little more than draw more attention to the echoing pain—“with how you creatures crave to be destroyed. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“If you really want to be Freeza’s favorite,” I answered when I could, “then I hope he notices you. Truly—anything you want. Vegeta and I never meant to deny you anything.”

A nibble at my neck, the sting acute enough to detract from that between my legs, but gentle enough to send a shiver down my spine that was almost pleasant. “You’re always so thoughtful after you get what you want.”

When Cui’s fist circled me to stroke properly, I knew I’d found my chance. “We…I can see you again… If you tell me where Zarbon’s sending you. You aren’t meeting with him, are you? Know it’s dangerous—but I’ll do it. For you.”

“Mm.” He pulled me free from my leggings. “I’ll consider it.”

Obliging him, I removed the shirt I’d used to hide my scars and bruises from his view. Tracing them while his eyes followed, my fingers whispered across my chest till my fur bristled and my nipples stood erect. I met his gaze as I took up rubbing them, tugging and pressing them for him to watch while my cock hardened in his hand.

“I might tell you if you’re good,” Cui purred. “Now tell me something. Does Vegeta do this for you too after he hurts you?”

I arched my neck for him as he leaned in to suck at a conspicuous row of four purple marks. “No,” I answered. “I’m not what he wants.”

“Such a pity…” He stroked a little faster, tightened his grip just enough. How closely he’d observed that first time, forcing me to pleasure myself lest I subject myself to something more painful and humiliating.

“He never touches me like this.”

“Because he imagines himself better than you?” He paused to spread the wetness weeping from my tip over the head of my cock, thumbing firmly and leaving my toes and tail curling at the overstimulation. “But I know the truth. He’s just as filthy of an animal as you are.” Stroking me again while he spoke softly next to my ear. “A simple, battered creature that’s known nothing but suffering as long as it’s drawn breath. Even before your planet was destroyed.”

He kissed me, long and, if I didn’t know better, tenderly. “That night long ago now… When nothing I did brought a single tear to your eye…even after you were screaming and bleeding and begging me to stop. After I grew tired of it, and I held you to my chest, only then did you break down and tell me all about what that wicked lady did to you.”

“Cui…don’t.”

“But you’re not struggling, Raditz.” Another kiss. “You love to suffer now. A beast whose lowly appetites were never fed anything but misery, and you’ve learned to survive on it. Tell me I’m wrong.”

But he gave me no chance to reply. Instead, his free hand seized my jaw, and he shoved two fingers through my lips and to the back of my throat till I gagged and spat up onto my chin.

“Don’t bite—you said you’d be good.” He pressed down hard on my tongue, massaging, making my stomach turn and my mouth water involuntarily. “Yes, I am meeting with Zarbon, actually, so you’ll have to be very careful indeed.”

Once he withdrew, he let go of my cock to tug on my waistband. Then he ordered, “Pull these down and spread your legs.”

I did.

“Such a well-trained monkey.” The pads of those two slicked fingers pressed and swirled around my puckered hole like the flat of an unnaturally cool tongue. “Look at you—so loose and ready for me no matter what you say. Even after everything I’ve done to you. Raped you, beaten you, shamed and disgraced you for all of the Planet Trade to witness. Still you beg to see me. Risk your life.”

My breath hitched as he nudged his fingers inside me. Deftly, he curled them upwards and pushed against my sweet spot rhythmically while his other hand returned to work my cock. “Where, though, Cui? Please…”

He ignored me. “So lonely… Ever since you came back from Fuenghi. Sad looks, long sighs. Your prince is a man now, isn’t he? And you’ve loved him longer than that. Because he hurts you like no one ever has. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“Don’t—don’t want to think about him. Just you.” I rolled my hips into his caresses, curled my tail around his wrist.

“Very good.” He rewarded me by rightly fucking me with his fingers, hitting that spot behind my balls again and again till my muscles quivered and clenched, and whimpers escaped unbidden from my mouth.

Unaffected by my unraveling, he continued evenly, “There’s another famous pleasure house along the route to Sytrus. You know how Zarbon likes to collect his slaves. Visit me there. There will be enough depravity going on that no one will notice a little more.”

I bit my lip to contain a moan and nodded. I’d gotten what I needed; Cui could think that he’d won, and it wouldn’t matter. I let my eyes roll back, and instead of Cui, I slipped and imagined Vegeta fucking me, those narrow, strong hands around my neck instead of my own broad ones.

“So filthy—won’t even reach your release without strangling yourself like he does,” Cui muttered. “Broken little slut of a monkey. You like hearing what you are, don’t you? A desperate, whimpering whore who loves to be abused.”

My hands flew to clutch the bed beneath me, and I gasped sharply as Cui fucked me hard through the first spasms of coming. Blood rushing back to my face and air to my lungs, I floated above my body, weightless and high. I couldn’t hear or cringe at the pathetic sounds he wrung from me till it was too late, and it was already over, and I was shivering and groaning while he continued to fuck me mercilessly despite freeing my cock from his grasp.

He chuckled darkly to himself after he withdrew. “I’m not even one of you, but I know I do it better than Vegeta ever would. All he knows how to do is kill them. He doesn’t listen to you like I do. And he doesn’t touch you like I do either. So you say.” He leaned over me and pressed his hand to my lips, fingers wet and scented with my own come. “Clean me up,” he demanded.

Mindlessly, I licked him clean, swallowed myself down. I already felt my heart sinking. I shouldn’t have come so hard by his hand, hearing such venomous lies.

“Now the other.”

A different scent. I cringed away automatically.

“Oh? You don’t like this?”

Perhaps he didn’t understand. To him, each part of my body he had condescended to touch was no different than the other. Primitive organs of elimination.

His amphibious face didn’t often contort into expressions I recognized outright, but the one he wore now I couldn’t mistake for anything but malicious glee. “I haven’t given you my actual schedule, you know. If you aren’t good, I’ll have no reason to give it to you. So lonesome without me…”

I gritted my teeth and bit back every fuck you that rose to my lips. Maybe he knew, and he just didn’t care. Either way, I had no choice. The prince’s life could depend on it, my warning Zarbon. Holding my breath, I opened my mouth and sucked on his fingers till he was satisfied.

“See? Even the mighty saiyan can be tamed.” He took me in his arms then, and he ran those wretched fingers through my hair. “Here, Raditz, I’ll hold you as long as you need. Anything you want, you can tell me. I’ll show you the coordinates, and you can comfort yourself that you’ll see me again soon.”

In spite of everything, the tingling caresses along my scalp did help to distract me, and I let them. As long as I saw Zarbon, I wouldn’t have to see Cui again.

A scouter’s alert. The brief flash of green light told me it was mine.

“You were very good. I’ll get it for you,” Cui said. He stood and retrieved it, then offered it to me without bothering to look into whatever had appeared in the glass.

I didn’t look closely either. It didn’t matter. It was the perfect excuse. “I have to go,” I told Cui.

“Will you miss me?”

“I’ll come to see you,” I lied as I fixed my clothes, got up, and shuffled into my boots and armor. My heart pounded in my throat, and that familiar emptiness widened within me. It always happened after I spent such time with Cui; even he had noticed, always probing my weaknesses, and he would stay to soothe me if only to catch whatever more of myself I spilled.

“I’ve grown fond of you, I admit.” he said before I could escape into the corridor. “I will miss you.”

“Fucking gods,” I cursed once the door had shut, and I was alone. I hurried for a decontamination chamber. Vegeta would have no mercy for me if was already back at our rented rooms, and I hadn’t yet washed, and he found out what I’d done.

I paid the meager sum, stepped inside, and tried not to inhale the harsh chemicals before they were sucked out into space. I only checked my scouter’s alert once I’d already left and made it halfway across the station.

It was from Nappa. Cui is aboard the station. The prince is looking for you, it read simply.

“Fucking gods,” I cursed again. I prayed that I’d reach the rooms before he did, and I hastened to ensure it.

And by the grace of those same gods I frequently cursed, only Nappa was there when I arrived. “I saw your message,” I told him between breaths. “I don’t know about Cui. I didn’t see him. I just went for a drink and took my scouter off.”

“You really shouldn’t drink as much as you do,” he admonished after staring me down. I had never given him many reasons to trust me.

“I know. It’s just…”

“Difficult,” he finished for me.

“Yes, it’s just so fucking hard.” I removed the scouter from my face, folded it, and tossed it into an open compartment. “Why is everything so fucking hard?”

Nappa shook his head. Only then did I notice the half-empty container of dark liquid in front of him. “I have more dreams when I drink,” he said.

I sat down beside him, nudged the container away. “You’d better hide that. Vegeta won’t like it.”

Another solemn nod.

“I’m going to get myself out of this armor. Wash up. Take care of yourself, Nappa.” I squeezed his shoulder before I turned and left him. He’d never spoken much, but he spoke even less after we left Arcos and those seasons of torture behind.

I couldn’t say how long I spent scrubbing Cui’s ichthyian mucus out of my skin, how many times I rinsed out my mouth. But the crash of shattered glass against a wall snapped me out of it. I stepped out of the washroom and stumbled to find new clothes while Vegeta’s low threats loomed closer.

“Where is Raditz?”  he snarled.

A pause.

“He’s here?”

Another silent pause.

I pressed my bare back against the cold wall, hoping it could bear my weight if my knees could not.

“Get out. And don’t dare bring anything back with you but your scouter and the suit you’re wearing.”

Nappa must not have moved after I’d left, and the crash I’d heard had an easy explanation.

A moment later, the click of a door broke the rhythm of pacing boots. More pacing, then it stopped after growing louder, nearer the sleeping quarters I’d shut myself in.

Hesitating.

I kept my eyes shut, my back pressed to the wall.

A click, then more steps. So close now that I could feel his presence, hear the nearly imperceptible hiss of breath through parted teeth. Then the whispered warmth of its ghost whisked against my chest. He stood just in front of me, and I had nowhere to run.

I looked at him.

Our gazes, however, did not meet. Vegeta’s ran over my body. Scars and marks he recognized, new ones and old. Though some of them he did not recognize, and these he lingered on.

“Vegeta, I—”

He smothered whatever I had to say into a kiss. Hard, each gloved hand clutching my face between them, as he, in all his strength, pinned me against the wall. Bruising, desperate. When he broke away only to pant open-mouthed over my lips, we tasted our scents mingled rich between us.

“Listen—” he began, but he couldn’t stand to continue, and he sank into another kiss instead. A muffled groan hummed behind his lips as he dragged his hands from my face down my naked chest. If only he didn’t insist on wearing those damned gloves.

“Listen,” he began again, and this time, he didn’t try to keep himself from kissing me. Rather, he leaned into my neck, and between words, he gave in and brushed his lips and tongue against my pulse. “You—you belong to me. Hear me? You…are mine.”

“I’m yours,” I answered without a second thought. My knees went weak as if he’d captured my tail and wrung it in his ruthless grip.

“Mine.” Though even as he uttered this, he pulled himself back from me. Whatever anger I’d dreaded before, yet missed, he wore now.

“I—”

“Dress yourself, take your scouter, and get out.”

“Please…”

“You heard me. Leave, and don’t come back until you’ve been called.”

“But I have to—”

“Leave. Now.”

I could do nothing but rush to find my boots, then the clean shirt I’d laid out. I didn’t have time to take the armor.

“And don’t you fucking dare forget what I told you.”