Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Shadow in the Twilight ❯ Chapter 17 ( Chapter 17 )

Chapter 17

"Jen, my love, what is it?" Tristan was in the middle of packing his instrument into its case, when his mate doubled over. Her blond hair suddenly plastered to her forehead with sweat while her pretty face grimaced. Lluvia, having changed out of the silver bodysuit into one of her regular street outfits, dashed over to see what the matter was. A puddle of liquid on the floor between Jenika's legs gave her the answer.

"Oh, shitcakes! I think my water just broke!" Catching her breath, Jenika laughed aloud at the realization. All the others, with the exception of Lluvia, joined Jen in her delight.

Lluvia swallowed hard and cursed softly under her breath. Dammit! Not now!

Tristan glanced over at his best friend with a confused look. What's wrong with Yu-vee? She doesn't look too thrilled about this!

He didn't have time to ruminate about Lluvia's strange reaction to Jen's water breaking. His first priority was getting his mate over to Vegeta-sei's main infirmary in preparation for her labor and delivery. Jen had given him ample warning that the women in her family were fairly quick deliverers. Above all, he didn't want her inadvertently giving birth way out here in the arena's dressing room!

Keeping watch in the outer hallway, Bardock's sharp hearing caught the raised timbre of excited voices coming through the dressing room's closed door. Tristan poked his head out of the doorway to find the Saiya-jin standing at the far end of the corridor. Tris motioned Bardock over to let him know what was going on and to inquire about the fastest means available to get Jen to the central infirmary. Before anyone could dispute his actions, the Saiya-jin calmly walked in, silently swept up a very astonished Jen into his arms and walked out of the dressing room. Once clear of the outer hallway entry, he ignited his aura, and flew to the city center to deliver the pregnant woman to the med techs.

"What the…!" Lluvia's mouth dropped open in shock.

"Wow!" Adarath whistled in admiration. "Now that's what I call a 'take-charge' kind of guy!"

A short while later, the group reassembled at the infirmary to check on Jen's progress. She had already been changed into a hospital gown and assigned a delivery bed. The attached monitoring devices indicated that her contractions were in the initial stages. Tristan was given a scrub gown to wear while he took his place on a stool positioned next to the bed, holding Jen's hand, ready for the vigil ahead. All the others were ushered out of the room by the attending med techs.

Despite Lluvia's cursory searches of the immediate vicinity, Bardock was nowhere to be found. At this point, her emotions were in an ambivalent jumble regarding her feelings towards the Saiya-jin warrior. The wound of his betrayal had scabbed over sufficiently enough that she wanted to thank him personally for bringing Jen to the infirmary. After all, it was the least that she could do on Jen and Tristan's behalf.

Staring at the closed infirmary doors, Raoul was the first to break the silence. "Is anybody else hungry?" Many affirmatives greeted his open query. After a performance such as that evening's, most of the entertainers were fairly ravenous from the amount of energy they'd expended. The general consensus was the baby wasn't going to be making its appearance any time too soon, so why not grab a little snack at the mess hall in the meanwhile?

Adarath looked over at his preoccupied leader. "Yu-vee, darlin', don't you have somewhere to be right about now?" Lluvia looked down at her wrist chronometer and gasped aloud.

"Omigosh! I promised to meet Zarbon for that shindig at the Royal Palace at 2100 hours!" She pivoted on the balls of her feet and sprinted at full tilt towards her rooms.

Lluvia was hopping awkwardly about the room on her left foot, in the process of coaxing on her right shoe when the door alerted her to an arrival to her quarters.

Shit! I don't have time for this!

Annoyed, she barked into the intercom, "State your name and your business! And make it snappy, 'cause I'm stuck for time!"

Because of the little incident with Prince Vegeta the previous evening, she'd placed one of her specially-made clips into the control panel of her door. It would now only permit access based on her distinctive voice print pattern. The last thing she wanted this final evening on Vegeta-sei was the arrival of any more uninvited visitors into her quarters.

"It's me…Bardock."

Lluvia stopped struggling with her uncooperative shoe strap and froze with one foot suspended in the air. Half of her was apprehensive, not quite sure if she'd want to be in close quarters or alone with him ever again. The other half was ecstatic beyond belief by the thought of being near him for whatever the reason. The dynamic show she'd done earlier had done the trick in working most of the accumulated anger reserves out of her system. The Saiya-jin's unexpected and solicitous gesture in flying Jen directly over to the infirmary after her water broke in the dressing room had effectively dissipated the rest of Lluvia's ire.

"Enter."

The Saiya-jin walked into Lluvia's quarters to encounter an incomparable vision standing in the middle of the room. The dancer/singer he'd come to have known in the last few days was no longer in residence. In her place was a creature who appeared as if she was of noble birth.

"Don't tell me I look that bad, Saiya-jin?" An amused Mona Lisa smile played about the corners of her mouth as she weighed his reaction to her outfit.

Bardock's mouth went dry and his carefully prepared words fled the scene. He was dead certain that his heart's drumming could be heard clear over into the next building. All he could manage was a slight shake of his spiky head in reply.

A softly sparkling, midnight-blue dress seamlessly covered her from her neckline down to the floor, the see-through fitted sleeves coming to a point over each hand. The fluid material clung to her curves like it was spray-painted onto her body. The front view of the dress was certainly more modest than most, but the back!

When she turned around to retrieve the matching wrap lying on the bed, Bardock's eyes nearly fell out of his head. A single large cutout draped from the back of her collar down the length and width of her open back, ending just above her back cleft. The design allowed a hint of her chain to be seen and served to emphasize the fact that she was quite tailless. The enticing expanse of lilac-hued bare skin behind her would no doubt raise a few eyebrows during dinner.

Lluvia sported no jewelry except for a pair of round earrings, which matched the three small brilliant buttons vertically aligned just under the back aperture. Her normally loose and shaggy hair was pulled up into a severe upsweep. The beaded braids were artfully integrated into three circlets, framing the upper part of her face.

"Lluvia." Bardock had found his voice once more, but the sound came out in a husky croak. He wanted to say so much to her. Don't go, little baka. Don't go to the palace. Stay here with me, he silently pleaded.

She hesitantly glided to within a pace's breath in front of him, studying his features with her eyes. His familiar masculine scent made her already erratic heartbeat quicken inside her ribcage, forcing her breaths into a series of rapid inhales and exhales. I'd better get my act together or else I'm going to hyperventilate!

In order to center her rampant thoughts, she reached up to absently finger a loose curl of white-gold hair resting on the nape of her neck. "It's kind of funny, but that's the first time I've ever heard you say my given name out loud. I'm not used to it. I think I like 'baka' a whole lot more! In this instance, it's probably more appropriate."

"What…" She cutoff his interjection with a small quelling gesture.

"Bardock, let me finish, please. This is hard enough to say without interruption." Bardock stood ramrod-straight, forcing himself not to move any closer to her. If he did, the next movement he would make would be to collect her into his arms and directly onto the nearby bed. And may the devil take everyone and everything, especially that blue-skinned poser and the royal brat!

"My late sensei, Master Masaki, would have taken me to task for letting my guard down so readily. I have been living my life these past years on Theta Seven without encountering any real conflict and I have forgotten that beings like your Prince Vegeta exist out in the galaxy; vindictive types, to whom the rules of simple decency are a foreign concept. Vegeta-sei is a long-established monarchy which demands unquestioning loyalty from its subjects, regardless of who is currently on the throne or who may soon take that throne.

As such, I have reluctantly reached the conclusion that I cannot compete against a lifetime of ingrained conditioning. I cannot fault your fealty to the prince, for you are but a conditioned product of your Saiya-jin society."

During her recitation, she stood hugging herself with her eyes closed, not trusting her emotions enough to look directly into his eyes.

"You're wrong, my little baka. Prince or not, Vegeta had no right to try exact his twisted sense of retribution upon you."

At this denial, she started shaking her head slowly from side to side. His sincere words made tears sting the back of her eyes. She bit hard into her lower lip in an attempt to keep it from quivering.

"You know I'm right, Saiya-jin. It was also extremely foolish of me to assume that you and I might have something more substantial existing between us than a quick physical attraction. You know, like two ships passing in the night; thatsort of thing." Lluvia faced away from him to drape the wrap around her shoulders with her trembling hands and to force down her rising tears. The words coming out of her mouth conflicted with her aching heart, but she felt that they must be said. Tomorrow, she would be out of here and back to Theta Seven where she could drown herself in her work and eventually forget what happened to her in the last few days here on Vegeta-sei.

Bardock listened intently to the spoken words, but he didn't believe them for a nanosecond. "Just 'two ships', little baka? You cannot deny what you feel, anymore than I possibly could."

Lluvia wheeled on him with her eyes brimming. "I have to, Bardock! I would not be able to go on as before without you if I couldn't convince myself otherwise!" Her teary eyes went wide as her hands flew up a hair too late to cover her treacherous mouth. Oh Kami, what did I just say?

The next thing she felt was his strong arms encircling her, pressing her shuddering body close into his muscular, warm form. Her own arms found their way around him, pulling him closer toward her, not wanting to ever let him go again.

"Bardock," Lluvia's gulping whisper of his name shot an indescribably delicious tingle into the recesses of his lower belly. "Bardock, I'm so sorry…"

"Be still," he shushed into her hair, his hot breath disturbing the tightly wound tendrils of hair.

"I was so mad at you…I blasted you! And…and…" she swallowed hard, "I could have really hurt you!" That elicited a subterranean chuckle from Bardock.

"Apparently, my little baka onna, you have no idea just how tough we Saiya-jin warriors really are!"

As she raised her head to look up at him, a renegade giggle emerged to spite her overflowing eyes. "And you have no idea how much I actually held back on that ki discharge!"

"What? No way!"

"Yes, way! Regardless of how angry I was at you, I just couldn't bring myself to really hurt you! I…I…" Bardock cut off her heated discourse with an intense and soul-felt kiss.

The ardent kissing session went on for a few minutes more until she forcibly pushed herself off from his chest.

"Don't do this to me! Not now! I have to make an appearance at that ridiculous dinner party! Shit! Shit! SHIT! Why did I ever agree to go?" He gently pulled her back into his embrace and was nuzzling against the side of her lightly perfumed neck. The vibrations of his low, throaty purr were sending waves of delight down her spine.

"Please don't go, my lotus blossom," he whispered. His hoarse entreaty was making her head spin and her knees go watery with desire.

"I have to! My heart won't be in it, but if I don't show, you know that they'll send someone to retrieve me!"

He growled possessively. "I cannot abide the thought of that damnable Zarbon fawning all over you! You belong to me!"

She reached up to gather his face in her two hands. "Bardock, I need you to go back to the infirmary and keep tabs on Jen's labor for me. Come fetch me as soon as the baby is born and I will happily ditch that friggin' fête, just like that!" She snapped her fingers to emphasize her vow. "I will be counting every single nanosecond until I'm with you again, sweet Saiya-jin mine!" With that fervent declaration, she pulled his face down to meet hers and kissed him hard on his mouth to seal the promise.