Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Shadow in the Twilight ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10

At the arena…

Standing in the middle of the arena floor, Lluvia depressed the MAARCU's control button over her ear and looked around. "Initiate light pattern sequence utilizing override. Engage sync with musical test selection 15." The haunting, ethereal sounds of "Tubular Bells" poured out from the PA system, the sound patterns synchronizing with the lights along the topmost rim of the arena, alternating and strobing onto the arena surface in time to the music. Bardock stood back with the arena groundskeeper and observed as Lluvia studied the light patterns, adjusting the intensity of both the arena's sound feed and the timing of the lights onto the arena floor through the controls in her MAARCU.

Satisfied with how everything was working thus far, Lluvia depressed the main control button once more, dimming the lights and music in preparation for her own version of a dry run. "Initiate full light and sound run, sync with 'Breathless', on my mark…and one…and two… and three…"

Go on, go on…leave me breathless…come on,

Hey…yeah…

The daylight's fading slowly, the time with you is standing still,

I'm waiting for you only,

The slightest touch and I feel weak,

I cannot lie, from you I cannot hide,

And I'm losing the will to try, can't hide it, can't fight it,

So go on, go on, come on, leave me breathless,

Tempt me, tease me, until I can't deny this lovin' feeling,

Make me long for your kiss, go on, go on, come on

Yeah…come on…yeah…

Suddenly, she became a joyful sprite, skipping and prancing over the length and breadth of the arena floor, as the music filled the air. The system override clips worked like a charm on the public address system, while the spotlights tracked her movements via her MAARCU.

And if there's no tomorrow,

And all we have is here and now,

I'm happy just to have you,

You're all the love I need somehow,

It's like a dream,

Although I'm not asleep,

And I never want to wake up,

Don't lose it, don't leave it…

At one point in the upbeat dance, she shrugged off her short leather jacket and playfully tossed it at Bardock, who caught it with one hand. The smell of the tanned hide and her own scent coming off of it was a bewitching combination.

Just look at her! Dancing like she hasn't a care in the world!

And I can't lie,

From you I cannot hide,

And I've lost the will to try,

Can't hide it, can't fightit…

The synchronization played out without a hitch as the lights and music faded out at the proper moment.

Lluvia bowed to the non-existent audience and trotted back from the center of the arena to rejoin the Saiya-jin and the groundskeeper, who was applauding her performance with a singular gusto. She flashed the worker a brilliant smile, which caused his face to redden under his tanned skin.

"How was that, Bardock?"

She retrieved her jacket from Bardock to sling it over her left shoulder. "That'll do, woman. That'll do."

"Golly gee, Bardock! If I didn't know you any better, I'd almost call that a rave review!"

"Oooo! Bardock! Down there, in that patch of water! Please take me down!"

The Saiya-jin grunted in annoyance but landed beside the small pond as requested. Lluvia wriggled out of his grasp and trotted over to the water's edge to peer at the large pink-tinged flowers floating on the surface, their luminous petals in sharp contrast with the murky water below.

"Omigosh! How beautiful! I've never seen such absolutely humongous lotus blossoms in my life! I've just got to see them up close!" She squealed with delight while quickly doffing her jacket. Her boots were zipped off next to join the discarded leather jacket on the grass along with her MAARCU. She bent over and rolled up her pant legs to just under her knees.

"You are such a baka! They're just ordinary flowers!" Bardock couldn't comprehend why she was so taken with mere plants. Already ankle-deep in the somewhat chilly water, Lluvia halted in her progress to flash a disparaging look back at her escort.

"And you, Sir Bardock, are a jaded philistine! The lotus just happens to be my signature flower!" Making her way gingerly over the brackish water on the top of some slightly submerged rocks, she found her perch on a flat, water-smoothed stone just shy of a dozen large blooms. Carefully balanced in a four-point crouch on the stone's slippery surface, she leaned over the nearest lotus to inhale its sublime scent.

"Ahh," she sighed pleasurably with her eyes closed, lost in savoring the airborne fragrance. "An ancient philosopher once said: 'The lotus flower blooms most beautifully from the deepest and thickest mud'. Have you ever truly seen anything more gorgeous?"

Tilting her head a bit to catch his brooding eyes, she graced him with a gloriously happy smile. His heart skipped a beat at the joyful look on her face, for once its expression genuine and totally without guard.

Her pale form was posed on the rock over the breeze-stirred, inky water, the dusky sky a dark crown over her bright head. The color of her hair was a near-perfect match to the adjacent petals floating atop the water. In his eyes, she suddenly transformed from a mortal female into a faerie creature of ancient legend.

"No, little baka. I can honestly say that I have never seen a more beautiful sight than the one before me right now."

Did he mean what I think he said? Lluvia wondered quizzically. Nah! A guy like him…a Saiya-jin warrior, no less, wouldn't be looking at me like…or is he…Bardock?

Dazed by the revelation, she stood up a shade too quickly on the algae-covered stone and her precarious traction on its smooth face was swiftly lost. Her bare feet flew out from under her and she fell backwards into the hip-high water, right into the middle of the lotus blossom cluster. What of her that wasn't totally soaked sported either a water-logged flower or green pond scum.

"Uh, Bardock? A little assistance here?" The initial look of shock on his face at her appearance was quickly replaced with an amused smirk, which only served to annoy her. "So what's with the shit-eating grin, Saiya-jin?"

"It's just that I always thought that dancers were able to keep on their toes at all times!"

A couple of ineffectual swipes at her face and hair resulted in worsening her swampy camouflage appearance, leaving green streaky smears in their wake.

"Hell, I never said I was perfect!"

Chuckling at her predicament, Bardock floated over to grasp her upraised arms, carefully keeping her sodden body at arms' length and brought her back to the grassy bank. As soon as her bare feet touched down on the cool grass, she feverishly tried to scrape the offending pond scum off her skin and clothes. Bardock reached out and plucked a tiny lotus blossom tenaciously clinging to the top of her head and handed it to her.

"I hope the pursuit of this flower was worth all that aggravation?" Her reply was to spin on her heels and wade back into the water to return the lotus blossom to its fellows. Bardock was stupefied by her actions. "Of all the crazy…what are you doing, you bloody baka? I just fished you out of the water and now you're back in?"

Satisfied with the flower's replacement, she trudged back through the water. Dripping with every step, she arose from the water, now appearing more like a wild watery naiad instead of a faerie, and stalked back until she was standing in front of the incredulous warrior.

"The lotus cannot be owned, do you understand? Its beauty is to be experienced as a true gift of nature. For those who know what they have found, it's enough to be in its presence, even for the moment!"

Like you, little baka, Bardock thought, his amused eyes taking in the image of the decidedly less-than-glamorous female dripping in front of him.

"AAAHH-CHOOO!"

Oh, great! I'm going to catch my death out here and all he can do is stare at me! How am I supposed to get dry? I can't fly out of here like this!Lluvia inelegantly wiped at her streaming nose with a wet forearm, her gaze still locked in a confrontational glare with the Saiya-jin.

"Come here, you silly little baka. I can get you dried off, but you'll first need to put your arms around me."

His suggestion elicited a skeptical frown. "That's quite the 'come-on' line, Bardock!"

"It's not a 'come-on' line, as you so cleverly put it! The offer is legitimate and I guarantee, if you'll do as I say, you'll be dry in no time flat."

The twilight breezes danced over Lluvia's exposed wet skin causing her to break out in a bumper crop of goose bumps. The chilly sensation also made her think the better of Bardock's proposition to warm her up.

"All right, you win! Anything to get warm and ward the chill off! But I'm warning you, no funny stuff!" That warning brought forth an exasperated huff from the Saiya-jin. He scowled at Lluvia and motioned her to come closer to him. Taking a firm hold of her outspread arms, he leaned her into his body, and then wrapped his muscular arms securely around her.

"Now hold still! This will take a minute or two to complete." With that said, he ignited his powerfully warm blue aura, the heat rising in an upward motion from his feet. The contained updraft quickly dried the thin material of her pants. Her hair blew dry almost as quickly as the pants, the braids caught up in the forceful vortex, fluttering over her head like three quivering antennae. The leather bustier, however, took a little longer to rid itself of most of the dampness.

Lluvia sighed and relaxed into Bardock's embrace, feeling the shivering depart as the induced warmth effectively chased away the last of the clamminess off of her skin. Her tenseness and reluctance dissipated before the feeling of placid contact, her arms gently enfolding about his muscular torso.

Bardock's finely tuned sense of smell detected the lotus blossoms' residual fragrance bloom off of her own skin's sensual aroma. The combined scents touched a deep visceral reaction within him, shocking him with its intensity. Neither Raditz's nor Kakarott's Saiya-jin dams had ever wrought such a concentrated and foreign emotion from him. To be sure, his impassioned couplings with both females had been mutually pleasurable and each had produced his offspring, but that was all.

This can't be happening to me! She's just some bloody alien female!

His embrace, however, belied his internal denial, imperceptibly tightening around Lluvia while he slowly powered down his aura.

"Umm, that was wonderful, Bardock!" The heart-shaped face that had fallen into tranquil repose against his shoulder turned to look up at him with a blissful expression. "And just when I thought you couldn't possibly take my breath away twice in one day…"

The gentle, vulnerable smile and half-lidded midnight eyes shining up into his own undid the last of his firm resolve not to fall under her exotic charms.

He bent his head slightly as his lips touched her parted ones with hesitation, for a second unsure if to proceed further. The unexpected tenderness of the gesture likewise negated Lluvia's own inner determination not to get entangled with this planet-purging, heartless Saiya-jin warrior. Rising up on her toes, her soft lips parted further to meet his half-way with a tentative, searching graze. Uttering a small groan, Bardock's mouth came down on hers, his demanding tongue darting into the sweet, heady taste his vision had promised. Her own rosy mouth responded in kind, probing with her own tongue and nibbling at his lips until he thought he would lose his mind.

Without any preamble, Lluvia's eyes flew open and she broke off her impassioned kisses, crying aloud, "STOP! WAIT! NO! NOT NOW!"

Bardock was incredulous. "What is wrong with you, female? I know you want this as much as I do!" He frowned down in frustration at the struggling form in his embrace. Irritation was quickly replacing the feeling of desire in him.

"BARDOCK! LET ME GO! NOW!" With that, she shoved against him, breaking his grip on her. Lluvia ran off a few steps and stood with her back to him, her form bent in what he assumed to be a posture of anger or denial or both.

Now he was absolutely incensed! How dare this baka…! He was not going to be denied without some kind of explanation, and if nothing else got accomplished, he was going to tell her off…

He stalked up behind her just as she was feverishly unlacing the front of the leather bustier. After it was loosened sufficiently, she did a funny shimmy. At the same time both hands holding the freed sides of the bustier shook it a couple of times. Her reward for all of this motion was two tiny fish falling out of the bustier, wetly plopping onto the grass.

Bardock stared in incredulity at the two fish flopping on the damp ground. His fury at her supposed rebuff was gone in a heartbeat, replaced by a bemused smile and a chuckle. With her left hand and arm securing the sides of the loosened bustier as best she could, Lluvia bent down to pick up the squirming fish with her right hand.

"Of all the rotten. stinking timing!" She turned her head, fully expecting to encounter a very ticked off Saiya-jin, but instead saw Bardock fall backward onto the ground, expelling his mirth to the evening sky.

"What's so damned funny?" She growled in annoyance, first at the bothersome fish dangling in her grasp and then at the sniggering warrior. With a snappy backhanded toss, the fish re-entered their watery home accompanied by a plish-plish sound.

"Hey, Bardock! I'm talking to you!" Unable to stop laughing at her discomfiture, he merely held up his left hand to her. Thinking that he needed an assist to stand, she reflexively grabbed at his wrist with her free right hand and made to pull back. Instead, he forcibly pulled her down toward him so that she landed face down in a spread-eagle on top of him. In a bid to brace herself against the fall, her left hand automatically released its hold on her loosened bustier and ended up grasping a handful of amazingly soft black hair.

"Damn it, Bardock!" she fumed and growled down into his grinning, confident face.

Her subsequent attempts at righting herself were thwarted by the vice-like grips his hands now had around her wrists. In addition, her body was pinned firmly onto his, due in no small part to the powerful coil his tail had made about both their waists. Lluvia's angry writhing only served to make matters worse as the laces of her bustier threatened to unravel altogether.

"You really shouldn't be wriggling about like that, baka! That is, unless you want something to happen!"

Lluvia snarled into his amused countenance for a second or two and arched her back against his tail's constraining grip. The Saiya-jin warrior grunted in surprise, not only at the strength she was exhibiting, but also at the realization that she was not putting forth any real effort in trying to escape. Her last struggling movement was just enough to ensure the final undoing of the bustier's topmost laces and affording him a bonus eyeful at the same time.

They really are pink! Just like in my vision!

She followed the direction of his fascinated gaze down to her obvious state of partial undress. It was enough to cease her struggles for the moment. Plus, the not-too-unpleasant sensation of her freed breasts rubbing against his armored breastplate was only serving to get her very aroused in spite of herself. Lluvia slowly brought her eyes back up and stared into his.

The sounds of the pond's stirring nocturnal inhabitants became a serenading counterpoint of chirps and peeps to their increasingly panting breaths. The early evening's freshets fanned across their heated bodies, causing a couple of passing frissons to wend their way over both of them at the same time.

Utilizing a reversal move that was artful and unexpected, Lluvia adroitly twisted her hands to break his hold on her wrists and in turn captured his, pushing his forearms forcibly down onto the grass and straddling his hips with her strong dancer's thighs. The snug leggings he wore did little to hide his obviously rising ardor. The twinkle of amusement and triumph in her brilliant eyes took him unawares, along with the next thing she did.

Awash with desire and feeling playful at the same time, Lluvia bent her bright head forward, licking her parted lips and looking like she was going to devour him once more with her kisses. Instead, she slid up ever so gently and sensuously nipped him on the tip of his nose.

Bardock's entire being trembled with sheer animal pleasure, as his dark eyes closed in instinctual response to the gesture. To him, it was an affectionate, playful act, signaling exclusivity and ownership to bonded Saiya-jin couples.

Why did I just do that? Lluvia wondered, pulling back to stare at his nose and the faint mark she'd just made on it. When she brought her eyes back up to Bardock's, the look of naked desire in his ebony eyes made her heart leap about her chest. Kami! I want to make love to him! What is wrong with me? This is not part of the game plan! A mechanical chirping broke into her heated thoughts. It's my MAARCU! Somebody's trying to reach me!

"I've got to answer that!" Lluvia abruptly released her hold on Bardock's wrists and began to slither out of his embrace.

"Oh no, you're not!" The Saiya-jin wasn't letting her go and his tightened grasp around her writhing body was saying as much. Not this time!

"I have to, Bardock! It could be an emergency!"

Grrr! Before the warrior could stop her, she was already out of his arms and had picked up the MAARCU from atop her discarded jacket and boots.

Pushing a button and adjusting the unit over her left ear and eye, Lluvia spoke up. "Yu-vee here! What's up?"

Bardock remained on the ground, lying onto his side and fuming with frustration. She remained close enough for him to hear both parts of the conversation.

"Yu-vee, baby! Girl, where the dickens are you? What'd you do? Take the scenic route?"

"Addy! Well, actually, we found this pond on the way back from the arena and it had the most incredibly gorgeous lotus blossoms…"
"Wait! Stop right there! Say no more! I know how you are when it comes to lotus flowers!"

Laughing aloud at Adarath's knowledge of her floral obsession, she continued, "That's not the whole story! I managed to fall into the pond and got myself soaked to the gills trying to get close to those blooms!"

It was Addy's turn to laugh into her ear. "Sounds like something you'd do! Listen, boss. Jenika asked me to call you to see if you could stop over at their rooms and give her a back massage. The baby's been kicking up a storm and she swears that unless she gets one of your patented backrubs, she's not going to get any sleep tonight!" While Addy was relating this request, Lluvia was already zipping up her boots and was quickly re-lacing the bustier, much to Bardock's vexation.

"That's a roge-o! Let Jen know I'm on my way!"

"What's your ETA?"

A fully re-clothed Lluvia turned to look down at the sulking warrior. She couldn't help but grin at the look of disappointment on his face. "We should be back in a trice, give or take five. Yu-vee out!"

Reclining on his side, Bardock was ripping up fistfuls of damp grass with one hand in an effort to alleviate his pique at this inconvenient turn of events. Lluvia ambled back and offered her right hand to help him up.

"C'mon, Bardock. Duty calls! You know how it is!"

His reply was a non-verbal grunt and growl as he arose to his feet with her help. When she began to pull away, he brought her back into his steely embrace.

"You are not getting away from me that easily, baka!"

"Of course not! I'm just a little weakling ningen female! And you're a big ol' badass Saiya-jin!" That teasing remark and the twinkling gleam in her midnight eyes caused him to smile down at her.

"You will be mine." He bent his head down to softly whisper his avowal into her right ear. His words sent a surging electric thrill down to the pit of her stomach. Her right hand had come up to rest on his breastplate and she felt his heartbeat's mighty tempo match her own through her palm.

Holding onto him tightly, she hardly felt their rapid ascent, for her heart had already begun soaring long before her feet lost contact with the ground.

Bardock and Lluvia returned to the mess hall to check in with the entertainers. Word of the lively jam session had spread throughout the city via the Saiya-jin scouters, which also doubled as communications devices. It was now SRO in the mess hall and the entertainers were winning the Saiya-jins over with their vast musical skills, playing and singing request after request.

"Guys, I'm going back to the guest quarters and see to Jen. Don't forget to get sufficient shut-eye tonight, `cause we've got the rehearsal and the first night's performance on the morrow! And I want you all to be bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and ready to rock! Catch you later?" Her departing question was aimed at Bardock, who caught its laden meaning and discreetly nodded back.

Adarath's observant gaze swung between the Saiya-jin and Lluvia.

Oh wow! he thought with a small grin. There's some seriously heavy chemistry brewing between those two!

Bardock planted himself next to Adarath once more in the noisy room. The dancer's eyes had affixed on the Saiya-jin's expression as Bardock's hungry gaze followed Lluvia's figure until it disappeared through the double doors.

"She's really something, isn't she? If I was even this close to being hetero, I would have claimed her by now!" Raoul's ears caught that statement and he darted a scathing look back at his partner.

"Honestly, Adarath Benavin, you aresuch a liar! You know damn well that the only reason Yu-vee made you her principal partner is because you're guaranteed never to get a massive woody when you two dance together!"

Addy laughed aloud, saying, "Oh yeah, that's right! How could I have possibly forgotten that tiny detail?"

Realizing that now would be as an ideal a time as any to prod the chatty Adarath into continuing his story about Lluvia and Tristan, Bardock queried, "So what happened after the sensei rescued them from the chicken hawks back on Xenobiron?"

Breathless - The Corrs