Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A tiny twist in time ❯ Learning ( Chapter 10 )

        Goku opened his eyes wearily. Another training disc completed. He laid the headset aside and made himself more comfortable on the bed as he began reviewing the new information he’d forced himself to listen to. He’d long since decided he was the king of a race of bastards who were better off dead, so it was a good thing the only three of them left were males. Not that that meant they couldn’t have kids, just that any kids would be part something better, like his Gohan had been.         He sighed. It no longer seemed like yesterday that he had felt his son die, watched his prince murdered. Now, it seemed a distant nightmare, another life. If he was honest with himself, it had been a different life. Now he was the King of the Saiyans, a pirate’s lover, and… wanting it all to end. Okay, so at least one thing hadn’t changed. He still hated himself, it seemed. Turles’ little abuses, like Chi-Chi’s, were something he deserved for not being good enough. Not a good enough husband, good enough father, good enough lover, good enough king. The only thing he proved consistently was that he was a good enough fighter, easily winning any spars he engaged in.         The tapes were sparking something within him, though. Some of the things he was learning seemed almost familiar. It was just, nothing he learned was anything he was comfortable with. His was a warrior race, one that seemed to have a great deal of pride in its strength, and little in the way of honor. Goku had been raised to be honorable.         Which was why he’d gotten married to Chi-Chi. He’d agreed to marry her before he knew what it meant, and held to his word, still not knowing what it was he was doing. Goku hunched forward, fisting his fingers in his hair. Turles had told him he was his: had he somehow married the other Saiyan without knowing he’d done so? He tugged harshly once, twice, and then grabbed for the next of the educational discs.           “Hey, King, you’ll miss supper if you don’t hurry.”         Goku looked up, his dark eyes full of misery. “You’re my mate,” he said softly.         “Yeah, of course. You gonna come eat?” Turles approached their bed, noting the number of discs littering it. “Or you planning on listening to more of those damned tapes?”         Goku returned to his examination of his toes as viewed from between the arms clasping drawn up knees. “I’m not hungry.”         Turles frowned. Kakarot hadn’t changed a whole lot from when he’d first brought him aboard. His eyes were still empty most of the time, flat and lifeless. That changed when he was sparring, getting fucked, and sometimes when he ate. However, Turles had been having more and more trouble convincing his king to eat much of anything. Eyes narrowed. “Are you pregnant?”         Goku looked up, sheer shock writ across his features. “Pregnant?”         “Pregnant Saiyans have episodes where they won’t eat. Haven’t learned that yet?”         “I’m… male,” Goku protested.         “You’re Saiyan, Kakarot. Some of our males can get pregnant, and it’s usually the lower classed warriors, like us.” Turles gestured to the tapes. “It’s on one of them.”         Goku focused his attention on himself, then shook his head. “I’m not pregnant. It’s just….” He trailed off, unwilling to be ridiculed again.         Turles watched him a few moments before seating himself by the younger man and pulling him close. “King, shit happens. That’s just how life is. Now, if you aren’t pregnant, what’s with you not eating?”         Goku sighed, and leaned into the muscled warmth of his mate. “When I first got married, it was because I had given my word that I would. I didn’t know what marriage was, but she was gonna cry if I said no. It was a couple years after that that I saw her again, and she reminded me of my promise. I still hadn’t learned what marriage was, but I was raised to keep my word, so I did.”         Turles grunted, wondering how long it would be before he could get something to eat. His king’s next words were much like a super-powered sucker punch. “I mated with you the same way. I didn’t know what I was saying meant I wanted to be your mate, or that you agreed to anything so….” Goku shook his head. “So permanent and serious.”         “So you don’t want to be my mate?” Turles growled.         “What?” Goku tipped his head up just enough to recognize just how seriously pissed the other male was. He curled in on himself even more. Turles would be even more brutal with him tonight than usual, no matter what he said, and he knew he would allow it because he had earned that brutality. Why had he said anything? Had he really expected Turles to understand his bewilderment at how he’d gotten himself married without his knowledge again? To be happy with being mated to an idiot?         Goku cringed. Of course he hadn’t. Turles was growling at him, so he’d better come up with a better answer than a stupid question. “I…”         But he was too late. Turles flung him from the bed, rounded on him where he fell. “Too bad, King. You’re mine.”         Goku didn’t have another chance to try to explain. He accepted the punishment his mate gave him as passively as he could, as he had accepted Chi-Chi’s beatings with the frying pan when he’d been particularly stupid. Turles left him battered and bloodied, trembling with the knowledge that his snarling mate would be back to finish the lesson when he’d had a meal.         He added not being a good enough mate to his list of failures, and arranged himself for the viciousness he knew was coming. Stupid he might be, but he was learning.