Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Shadow in the Twilight ❯ Chapter 21 ( Chapter 21 )

Chapter 21

"What in the absolute hell are you doing?" Lluvia twisted around at the sound of Bardock's tense whisper into the back of her head. "Are you harboring some sort of manifest death wish that I should be aware of?"

The Saiya-jin warrior had discreetly entered into the dining hall just in time to catch the latter part of the tableau. He'd nearly lost it altogether when he eyed what she was gripping in her right hand. Remembering his subordinate rank in the royal palace, he came forward to be acknowledged and managed a quick kneel towards the royals before stalking up to his charge, who was standing with her back towards him.

"Hey, Bardock!" She leaned backwards slightly as he began to waggle an admonishing index finger into her face.

"Don't you 'Hey, Bardock' me! I demand an answer and I want it now!" She offered up a crooked little grin in response, which only served to exasperate him more. "What possessed you to wield a weapon like that in front of all of these people?"

"Tch," she clucked. "If you had arrived just a shade earlier, you would have realized that I brought it forward at the behest of your own prince! Haven't you ever heard of the old showbiz adage 'give the people what they want'?"

Lluvia had brought the blade around her back and was holding onto the emerald handle with both hands. As she and Bardock were having their softly voiced argument, she swished it slowly back and forth in a measured, rhythmic metronome swing. Bardock's tail was twitching in equal measure, although its motion was prompted by a mixture of concern and irritation with Lluvia's reckless behavior.

"You haven't come all this way just to bust my chops about my katana, have you, Bardock?"

Recalling the original purpose for his arrival to the dinner party, he shook his head, furiously scowling at her all the while. In the same instant, Lluvia playfully grabbed at his extended finger with her left hand and whispered teasingly, "Didn't anyone ever tell you that you could put somebody's eye out with that thing?"

It was taking nearly everything he had to suppress the urge to smile at her in front of his fellow Saiya-jins. He growled as he pulled his finger out of her gentle grip. "You friend has finally delivered the brat. She and her mate have requested your presence at the infirmary!"

"Wa-hoo! What great news!" she hooted with delight and relief. Now I have an ironclad excuse to bail out of this inane gathering!

Lluvia tipped up the blade behind her back to grip it with her left hand. She hummed an abbreviated series of notes, which signaled to the Dragon's Kiss that it was no longer required to be in its current state. It softened into a pliable form as she belted it around her lower waist, conjoining the tip and pommel into a single piece once more. Glowing with a silvery-white light, the humming blade transitioned back into its chain form, settling on top of her dress.

King Vegeta narrowed his eyes, analyzing the body language of the alien female and the tall, scarred warrior as they spoke in lowered tones to each other.

Hmm, he pondered. Either Bardock is taking his assigned guardianship of that female with just a hair more dedication than necessary, or else… His dark eyebrows suddenly arced up into his broad forehead. No! It cannot be! But, wait a moment… King Vegeta's gaze narrowed for a second time when Lluvia playfully captured Bardock's finger. Unless I'm severely mistaken, and I doubt it, that gesture is indicative of a comfortable familiarity between them. I wonder if anyone else here picked up on that nuance?

His eyes quickly scanned around the room, making note of the expressions on everyone's faces as they observed the two in the room's center. Prince Vegeta was slumped dejectedly in his chair, sulking mightily and tossing back yet another glass of wine. The resourceful female had called his bluff in grand style and the heir to the throne of Vegeta-sei was not at all happy about being bested in public. Zarbon looked equally miffed, but only because he believed Lluvia was overtly flirting with yet another male right in front of him.

I'll be damned, thought the monarch, intently listening in to the twosome's muted conversation. Could the scolding tone in Bardock's voice be masking something else? A budding attraction, perhaps?

Lluvia turned back address the occupants of the royal table. "Your majesty, I am truly sorry, but I must take my leave of you. It was a pleasure to be in your august company."

"I, too, am disappointed that you must depart, Lluvia. You certainly know how to enliven a dinner party. I don't remember ever having such a diverting and unusually eventful evening!" Lluvia smiled and curtseyed deeply to the king then she turned to affect a quick dip towards the petulant prince.

"Zarbon, would you be a dear and hand me my wrap?" He retrieved the garment from her chair and stood up to hand it over the table to her. As Lluvia leaned forward to take possession of the wrap, he quickly grasped her right hand, enfolding it within his two larger ones.

Bardock's tail was whipping madly behind him as he threw fiery visual daggers at Zarbon; all of which went completely unnoticed by the blue-skinned dandy.

"Lluvia, must you really leave so soon? I thought that we might have our dance together!"

"Oh, the pavane! In all the excitement, I clean forgot! Zarbon, darlin', would you mind terribly if I took a rain check on that? I made a promise to my dear friend and his mate that I would go the infirmary to see their newborn baby as soon as it arrived. I'll do my best to make it up to you!" She beamed up at him with such a charmingly apologetic smile, that Zarbon couldn't help but nod his head in acquiescence.

"Don't make me wait too long, my dearest Lluvia!" With that, he placed a lingering kiss on the top of her hand before surrendering it and the wrap to their owner.

As she walked up to rejoin Bardock in the middle of the room, her left hand fished into a cunningly incorporated pocket for an item she had concealed within the wrap earlier in the evening. Her searching fingertips touched the item and a determined look clouded her face.

Bardock's jealousy had neared critical mass status when he witnessed Zarbon placing his proprietary kiss upon Lluvia's hand. The Saiya-jin was just about to take Lluvia's arm and unceremoniously haul her from the room, when she stopped to look questioningly up at him.

"Bardock, I need to beg your indulgence a little longer. Would you step outside into the hall and wait for me there? I just remembered one last task I need to take care of before I quit this bash for good."

An impatient grumble was his reply. "No way! Forget it, baka! We're leaving now!"

"Please, Bardock," she softly pleaded. "I won't be but a moment, I swear it!" The tone of her voice and the imploring look in her eyes gave him pause.

"You're not going to do anything stupid again, are you?"

Her familiar grin returned and she slyly winked at her suspicious escort. "Who, me? You've got to learn to trust my judgment more, o' mighty Saiya-jin!"

"You have exactly one minute, baka, to take care of this so-called 'task', and not a fraction of a second more, you got that?"

She nodded her head vigorously. Bardock briskly pivoted and stalked from the room, muttering a whole new set of Saiya-jin curses under his breath, which caused a few of his fellow warriors within earshot to chuckle at the sound.

From where he sat, Prince Vegeta was in full sail with three sheets unfurled to the wind. The quiet parley taking place between the dancer bitch and that pathetic third-class his father had assigned to her was beneath his royal notice. Draining another glass, he briefly closed his eyes to envision salvaging what remained of the evening with one of the more accommodating and supple palace courtesans. The alien entertainers were scheduled to depart Vegeta-sei around midday tomorrow and, thank Kami, they were taking that little lilac-skinned headache with them!

As he rubbed his bleary eyes, Prince Vegeta had already dismissed Lluvia from his wine-drenched thoughts. That is, until he cracked open one dark bloodshot eye to discover her standing directly in front of him, carefully draping a white leather glove over his now-empty wineglass. Her delivery completed, Lluvia drew herself up in queenly fashion and proceeded to impale the intoxicated prince with the most glacial look he'd ever seen. It was almost physical in its icy contempt for him.

Prince Vegeta felt the wine-induced flush drain from his face as he stared in disbelief at the glove. Sobriety made an unchecked dive-bomb into his fogged-up thoughts.

That glove! He'd taken it off when he was in her room last night and…

Lluvia wordlessly scanned his face as the dawn of remembrance and realization rose slowly over his sharp features. Their gazes met and she lanced him with one more frigid look.

Check and mate, Veggie-boy!

In a sparkling midnight swirl, she backed away and regally sauntered out of the hushed dining room. The footman automatically closed the door behind her departing figure and the guests all glanced expectantly over at the king, awaiting his reaction to this latest development.

Since Lluvia's vivacious presence was no longer illuminating the dining hall, the dinner party had lost its appeal for the Saiya-jin king. He rose to his feet and announced the festivities to be at an official end, much to the disappointment of many hangers-on who were looking forward to a few more hours of bacchanalian consumption.

Prince Vegeta was on the verge of affecting his getaway from his father's notice when King Vegeta caught his eye and firmly signaled both him and his bodyguard into a nearby private antechamber. His father was most anxious to glean from one of them how the entertainer came to have one of his son's gloves in her possession. King Vegeta was not going to accept anything less than the truth from either of them, even if it took them all night to relay the tale.

"You appear a little too pleased with yourself, little baka. What did you do back there?" Bardock eyed the woman in his arms suspiciously.

Lluvia mischievously grinned as she replied, "Oh, nothing. I rid myself of an unwanted souvenir, that's all! C'mon, Bardock, can't you fly any faster? I'd really like to see Tris' and Jen's baby sometime before it starts cutting its milk teeth!"