Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Barracks ❯ Part 24 ( Chapter 24 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: chayron 
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Hentai / Sci-fi / Angst | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 05.14.2011 | Pages: 6 | Words: 7.9K | Visits: 279 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Hentai / Sci-fi / Angst | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 05.14.2011 | Pages: 6 | Words: 7.9K | Visits: 279 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z – it belongs to its respective owners. This fan fiction is not a commercial project, and I am not making any money from writing it.
Warnings: Alternate Universe. Yaoi (male x male). Goten x Trunks and vice versa. Other pairings.
<b>Barracks</b>
by chayron (lttomb@yahoo.com), beta-read by quatreofdoom
Part 24
It was the second time this week that they were having this kind of stamina training. Goten glared grudgingly at the ceiling of the small claustrophobic room he and other two savars were locked in. Basically, the whole point of it was to see how long they could withstand the artificial moonlight without transforming into Oozaru. With every new session, the light was intensified and the time they had to stay in the room was extended.
In fact, there was no danger of them transforming. They had been given wristbands which reacted as soon as the body started showing noticeable signs of transformation. The wristbands cancelled the conversion and, at the same time, just to be on the safe side, sent out a signal which turned the artificial light off.
Goten wasn’t certain why they were put in these rooms in threes and fours, but figured it was either to strengthen the competitive spirit among them or only because there was not enough space for every savar. There was no furniture at all, all three of them sitting on the hard floor.
The third-class wondered how much time had passed since they entered this room. He wanted out and as soon as possible. He had never been good at controlling his transformations. The skin on the back on his neck was prickling and he could feel his tail starting to unwind again. This had already happened five or six times since he came in here – it would just unwind and start swishing on its own. He also had an erection, which was both embarrassing and inconvenient.
A low warning growl erupted from Goten’s throat when one of his current inmates inched closer to him. The other savar moved backwards. The proximity of other people irritated Goten. The third-class wondered if he would have growled under normal circumstances and came to the conclusion that he wouldn’t have; he usually wasn’t so territorial. Not without horror, he realized that if they threw in a female here, he would probably go on a rampage, fighting the others for her.
He hated it when his body and instincts took over.
Goten fixed his gaze on the door, hoping it would finally open and end this torture. He wondered how his father was doing. It had already been over a month since he and the other people went missing. Maybe he was dead. Just like Gohan. Somehow, Goten didn’t believe that. His father…the man was pretty irresponsible, simple-minded, and couldn’t hold an intelligent conversation even if his life depended on it, but there was something very natural and vibrant about him, something which attracted people to him.
Kakarott’s love for fighting was bigger than that of an average Saiyan’s; that was why he didn’t mind being sent on missions over and over. Goten had hated that awkward pat on his head his father would give him before going away. It seemed so hypocritical when he knew that Kakarott was really looking forward to the missions. However, Goten also knew that it wasn’t really about that. His father didn’t know how to express his love, but most men didn’t, so he shouldn’t have felt so hurt. He had been just a kid back then, though.
The third-class sighed. He would always wait for Kakarott to return. He remembered being angry with his father and the whole world when he went away but, oh how he waited! The occasions when all three of them would be at home were very rare since his father was often away on missions and Gohan was so busy with school.
Goten shot a warning look at the same guy who was approaching him again. Whose freaking idea was it to lock him in together with two elites? Must have been the sergeant’s. Goten eyed the two elites. Malom was right beside him, giving him a not too friendly stare, while Sorada was sitting farther away, looking utterly annoyed and glaring at the opposite wall. All of them were tense, the artificial moonlight making them feel as if they wanted to crawl out of their skin.
“Stop growling, you idiot,” Sorada said to Goten. “You’re sitting on his jacket.”
“Am I?” Goten wondered, spreading his legs and looking between them to see the green pattern of the uniform under his ass. “Whoops,” Goten said, standing up.
The third-class yelped as he was pushed backwards and his head was slammed against the wall.
“The fuck?! Malom!” Sorada yelled. “Let go of him!”
For a moment, Goten saw nothing but stars. Then his instincts took over. He punched out, almost blindly, but his arm was grabbed. Then he kicked and his attacker went down. The light suddenly went off in the room, but the body underneath him was still struggling and threatening.
At some point, Goten’s rage started waning and he noticed that he was being held face down on the ground by a bunch of officers. Suddenly, he felt very uncomfortable.
“That’s it, he came to,” the drill sergeant said, feeling Goten’s body go completely still and rigid. He let go of Goten’s right wrist. Uncertain, but trusting the man to know his savars, the other officers released the third-class as well.
“What category is he in?” Ardema, the lecturer in ki-attacks, asked, watching the now docile youth sit down on the floor. The youth was still out of it.
“A bit above average,” the sergeant said and all four officers turned to look at him in disbelief. The sergeant could see the look on Ardema’s face, which was more than mistrustful. The lecturer in ki-attacks was an elite and he obviously didn’t believe him. “It’s just his wristband,” the sergeant explained. “Must have failed and partial transformation took place.”
The officers looked at the savar. Sometimes wristbands malfunctioned, but none of them had ever seen someone possess so much strength while there weren’t any visible traces of outside transformation. Besides, the lights had gone out long ago. Now it was just the usual lamp.
Ardema had seen the youth’s face many times even though he knew the savar had never attended his lectures. Yet, he had seen the kid around. Then he remembered. Wasn’t this the infamous troublemaker, the prince’s lapdog? Or was it the other way round? Ardema watched the confused savar and was left wondering who was whose lapdog in that peculiar relationship.
“What happened, sir…s?” Goten asked. He wasn’t certain who he should direct his question to, thus tried to look at all of the officers at once.
“From what I could see,” the sergeant said, “a serious concussion has taken place, a broken arm and a leg, a dislocated jaw and maybe quite a few broken ribs.”
Goten looked at himself. His body felt perfectly fine.
“No, not you, idiot. Malom. You beat the living crap out of him.”
“Oh. He…<i>attacked</i> me,” Goten said, quite stunned, now remembering what happened.
“Yeah, we saw that,” the sergeant nodded. “But don’t you think you have gone overboard in your self-defense?”
Goten hesitated. “It just kind of…happened, sir.”
“Never mind that,” the sergeant muttered. There wasn’t much point in blaming Goten – the artificial moonlight addled one’s brain, especially for someone as untrained as Goten. “Why did he attack you?”
“I have no idea, sir. Honestly.” Goten gave this some more thought. “Maybe it happened because I was sitting on his jacket,” he mused absentmindedly.
The drill sergeant’s face brightened. “Ah, were you?”
“Yeah, I was. Sir,” Goten added quickly, now aware that his monologue hadn’t gone unnoticed. “But it wasn’t as if I had done it to spite him.”
“Why were you sitting on his jacket?”
“I don’t know, sir. It was just there, under my…bottom.”
Ardema, who was listening in on the conversation, looked at Goten’s unruly crotch. He said something quietly to the sergeant. The sergeant gave Goten’s face an evaluating look. The youth was indeed exuding pheromones, but the savar wasn’t someone you’d turn to look at for a second time when walking past; he wasn’t handsome but he wasn’t ugly either. He was probably what people called “common”.
“Actually,” the sergeant wondered, “did Malom try to…hmm…have sexual intercourse with you?”
“Ehh… What?” Goten asked wide-eyed, his face flushing red while his legs folded themselves so that his knees nearly touched his chest. “Oh, did he? Really?” he muttered in a second, even more stunned, at which point the sergeant and the other officers burst out laughing. But there was no sense in that – Goten could understand if he were a female, then the moonlight could indeed have had that effect on the other savar, but… “But…I’m male…”
The sergeant doubled over with laughter.
Ardema gave Goten a look. “I must inform you that we are aware of that,” he said. Then he looked at the sergeant. “Is this really the one that half of the base has set their sights on? He’s retarded.”
The sergeant was nearly crying with laughter. “Oh, oh, don’t say that. He’s a fine lad, he is, just a bit slow in these matters. I hear he’s still a virgin.”
The lecturer in ki-attacks gave the sergeant a quizzical look. “Huh? Is he going around bragging about that?”
“I think one of his friends wrote it on his forehead once.”
“Ah. I heard about that. So that was him.”
The sergeant nodded. “Yep.”
Ardema shrugged. “At least he’s amusing. As for why Malom attacked him, we won’t find out unless we ask the perpetrator himself,” he said, indicating that the gathering was over. “I’ll leave it to you. I am not particularly interested in the results,” he added, already walking away, specifying who was going to be responsible for all the paperwork.
The sergeant watched the other two second-class officers follow the elite officer obediently. One of them outranked Ardema, but this didn’t mean much when one was faced with an elite. When it came to Ardema, like most elites, he expected the lower classes to obey him unconditionally, no matter their rank. Ardema, however, more or less acknowledged the ranking system, or rather respected the skill behind it. Ardema had been on the base for about five years already, and the sergeant had never seen him undermine any of the second-class officers. The rumor was that he was bedding a second-class officer as well.
The sergeant huffed. Actually, faced with the sight of Ardema and Kanua almost daily in the officers’ club and bumping into the pair once in a while in the officer’s barracks, he could not call it a “rumor”; it was already a well-established fact. There was some dissatisfaction, but as long as there were volunteers, Ardema was ready to take out any of them. The sergeant didn’t think that there was anyone foolish enough to confront the powerful elite directly.
“Well? Are you growing roots?” the sergeant snorted at Goten, who was still sitting on the ground. The youth gave him a pitiful look, making the sergeant roll his eyes. “Hasn’t it gone away yet?”
Goten pouted. “I would appreciate it, sir, if you'd stop spreading weird rumors about me.”
“Ah, you mean you’ve already lost your virginity?”
Goten glared at the grinning sergeant. “Sir, could you stop making fun of me? It was bad enough that he called me a retard.”
“He also said you were amusing, and I must agree with that.”
Goten shook his head forlornly. “It would seem that it’s my only value, sir.”
“Well, it’s better than not having any value at all, isn’t it?”
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
The prince looked up from his plate to the door where a bunch of clamoring savars appeared. Sure enough, it was Goten and his company. Despite the fact that they had just entered <i>Matilda</i>, some of them were already having trouble standing upright. The shaii scooped up some mashed potatoes and cabbage salad and chewed thoughtfully while watching the savars stumble to the table in the corner. The shaii was aware that the other savars and officers present in the club were awfully familiar with the members of the noisy group; there were a lot of greetings and glares aimed their way.
The shaii gave his cutlet a disapproving look when he heard them order more drinks – from what he had seen, Kyon had mostly carried Goten in. They were being particularly noisy today as well. The prince turned to watch their table where Goten was telling something to Kyon. It seemed that Goten was bent on explaining something dead serious, but his drunken expression and his slurred and garbled words made it impossible not to laugh at him, which was exactly what Kyon and the others were doing.
Sighing, the prince shook his head and concentrated back on his cutlet. It had been three weeks already since he and Goten had talked on the roof. It was astonishing how the third-class had managed to avoid him all this time. If not for the report on the incident during full moon training, he would have not encountered Goten’s name at all.
So this was Goten’s answer. How cowardly. But it was still an answer.
Had there been a question, though? He hadn’t really asked, hadn’t talked to Goten at all.
Screw this. There was no point in asking anyway, was there? He wouldn’t know what to do with a positive answer anyway.
Ah, but maybe he would.
“To your eighteenth birthday!”
“Yeah!”
The prince raised his head to look at the clamoring table again. So that was the reason for the noise – Goten’s eighteenth birthday. Right, he had forgotten about it completely. Soon it would be half a year that the third-class was on the base.
Moodily, the prince sipped his tea. He wondered how the third-class would react if he went over and congratulated him on his birthday. Then he realized that if he did that in front of everybody, Goten, in his drunken anxiety, would probably throw up. The shaii rolled his eyes. If things had already reached this stage, maybe he should ask for a transfer.
Nah. Would be too easy.
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
“Sir!” Goten saluted smartly.
The shaii motioned at the chair in front of his desk. “Sit down, Goten.”
“Thank you, sir,” Goten said, getting comfortable in the chair. He still didn’t feel like standing too much; his birthday three days ago had nearly killed him.
“I offer my most sincere congratulations,” the prince said when Goten settled down.
“Thank you, sir,” Goten thanked awkwardly. The congratulations were belated, but now he was wondering if he was supposed to invite the shaii for a drink in thanks for them. That would be just…scary and careless and would wipe out all his previous efforts to steer clear off the prince.
“I wonder what we would do without you. Oh, I know!” the prince said cheerfully. “I, for one, would have my paperwork cut in half!”
“Umm…” Goten drawled, not quite certain he was following his superior. “I am certain Toharu didn’t mean to break that table, sir. All of us had a little too much to drink that day.”
“What table?”
Goten gave the prince a confused look. “The one he broke while dancing on it, sir. Isn’t that the reason I’m here?”
“Never heard about any table. I’m talking about this,” the shaii said, grabbing a thin newspaper from his desk and tossing it in front of Goten.
The third-class took the paper. It was of poor quality, black and white, and it was very likely that the pages had been bound by hand as well. After looking at the front page, it indeed appeared that it was the local print and the edition was only fifty copies.
“Sir?”
“Page eight.”
Goten opened to page eight where he saw a lot of black and white photographs. He read the headline: <b>TOP 15 MOST DESIRABLE MEN ON THE BASE</b>. Interested, he started to skim over the pictures.
“Sir, you’re number ten!” he laughed. “Way to go!”
“But you haven’t seen who number one is yet,” the shaii purred dangerously.
Goten’s eyes fixed on the largest photo with a star on the corner. It was a photo of him in the canteen, stuffing his face with noodles, with 'I’M A VIRGIN' written on his forehead. “Oh gods,” Goten gasped in horror, fighting his breakfast to make it stay down. “I had no idea that I'm so unphotogenic!”
“Congratulations,” the shaii repeated maliciously. “But it seems to me that not being photogenic is going to be the least of your worries.”
“Ohh, Toharu is number eight!” Goten exclaimed joyfully, completely ignoring the prince. “He’s going to be ecstatic!”
The shaii’s eyebrows rose at the lack of response. “Goten…?”
“Sir, I refuse to react!” Goten suddenly declared with vehemence. “I’ve had enough of all this shit with… They can do and think whatever the hell they want! I don’t care!” he yelled.
“Well…” the shaii drawled, taken aback slightly. “For one who doesn't care, you sure are shouting quite a lot.”
Goten closed the paper with a rustle and slapped it down onto the prince’s desk. “To hell with it,” he muttered. “Toharu has turned me into a joke. Nothing else but a joke. That asshole.”
“Calm down.” The prince said, ruffling through his hair. “Virginity, especially a man’s, is a trivial thing,” he said then, shrugging. “I suppose it’s just that there’s nothing much else to do here that they are so interested in you.”
“Oh really?”
The prince opened his mouth and then closed it with a loud snap, realizing how Goten took it. Goten was casting him a triumphant look. There was also much bitterness and hurt, but there was mostly triumph. Had Goten really been waiting all this time just so he could tell him “I told you so”?
“Are you a masochist?”
Goten gave him a look bordering between surprised and disturbed. The shaii leaned his elbow on the desk and lowered his chin on his palm, watching Goten thoughtfully. He was suddenly overtaken by a melancholic feeling.
“Sir?” Goten drawled uncertainly.
“Mm?” the shaii hummed without opening his mouth.
“Why is sir looking at m-”
“Oh, I was just thinking that I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my life trying to figure you out.”
“Uhh… That would be a grand waste, sir. Spending your life like that.”
“I suppose so,” the shaii agreed. “But I suppose everything’s a waste when it comes to that.”
“Well, yes, sir. No matter what we do, we die. And then everyone else we have ever known disappears as well. Nations die, planets die. There will be time when the universe is going to shrink into itself and there will be no life left anymore, so yeah, from that point of view, anything we do is pointless.”
“Hmm… I suppose so,” the shaii hummed. “I am not certain how our conversation got to this point,” he wondered aloud after a pause. Then he tapped his fingers on the local paper. “But yes, from that point of view, you shouldn’t give a fig about being hot guy number one.”
Goten chuckled. “If it were only that, I think I’d be pretty pleased, sir. But it’s more of a joke.”
The prince smiled. “You have a quite big ego, don’t you?”
“You noticed that only now, sir?”
The prince leaned back into his chair. “No, not really. But I think everyone likes attention, no matter who they are. It’s kind of…a proof to oneself of one’s value. All of us want to be valued for one thing or another.”
“Even if, sometimes, we do nothing to deserve it, right?”
“You forgot to add ‘<i>sir</i>’,” the prince warned.
“<i>Sir</i>,” Goten said obediently, smiling. “Sir, I think you’ve forgotten why you ordered me to come here.”
“You’re being insolent now.”
“Can’t I?”
The prince watched him from the depths of his chair. “Are you flirting with me?”
“Did it seem like that? No, I don’t think I was, sir. I wouldn’t know how. I’m just an innocent virgin boy after all.”
“Don’t get too carried away,” the shaii said. “Just go to the med-bay and take a day off if this starts bugging you too much. I see that it already is, though.”
Goten lowered his head to stare at his hands on his lap. “Yeah. I think I’ll do that. Thanks, sir.”
“Do you want to bring charges against Malom? For trying to…?”
Goten laughed loudly, waving his hands in front of him. “Oh gods, no, sir. I nearly killed him; I think that’s plenty for retribution. And to think that the poor sod was just influenced by the moonlight… Besides, the numbskull that I am, I didn’t even realize he was trying to…”
“Well, bashing your partner's head against the wall isn’t a part of the usual pick up process.”
“You’ve seen the security video, sir?”
“Yes. It was pretty awful.”
“Actually, sir, I think he was just trying to push me down onto the floor, and the wall was just in the way of my head.”
“Yes, it seemed so. You overreacted.”
Goten tensed up. “You could say I’m not used to rough sex, sir,” he said, his eyes burning.
The prince watched Goten for a few seconds, then rubbed the back of his neck, sighing. “Listen, you don’t need to get defensive with me like that – I am not blaming you. And I am not trying to piss you off on purpose either. I am genuinely worried about you.”
Goten lowered his eyes. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m a bit…edgy.”
“I can see that. Really, just take a day off before you do something stupid.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that, sir.” Goten blushed. “I mean, I will take a day off.”
The prince laughed softly. “Alright. Dismissed.”
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
Goten snuggled deeper into the sheets. The curtain was rustling in the light breeze coming from the open window. The air was cooling rapidly. Lazily, the third-class watched the billowing material. He had spent the entire day sleeping in the medical bay; he had come early in the morning – saying his head hurt madly – and now it was late evening already. Any other savar would have probably aroused at least mild suspicion. He, however, was treated with kid-gloves as he was someone National Security was interested in. This was the first time Goten was glad about it – he even managed to avoid taking any medicines for his nonexistent headache.
He was hungry as well. Starving, in fact.
Thinking that he should get up and do something about it, Goten rolled over onto his back and stayed in bed. He yawned. He felt stupid for acting as he had in the shaii’s office. It really must have bugged him, this entire business with his virginity.
“A trivial thing, huh?” Goten muttered. “Why don’t you take care of it, then?” He rolled his eyes at himself after saying that. If any of those dreams he had recently been having were real, the matter would have been taken care of about a month ago. “Ahh…” he sighed, “this is such a pain in the a…” No, the absence of it was exactly the problem.
Goten snickered and rolled his eyes at himself again; he really was getting retarded, just as the lecturer in ki-attacks had said. He climbed out of the bed and retrieved his uniform from a small wardrobe in the corner. He dressed and left the ward. It took him about ten minutes to find the head physician and tell him that he was leaving. The man gave him a once-over, then shrugged and waved him off.
After having some leftovers in the kitchen, he went to his barracks. It was about ten o’clock in the evening already. The second-years were missing, but he found Kyon leafing through a cookbook. It was the one he had recently bought, and the pages were already stained with fatty fingerprints.
“Hey, welcome back,” Kyon greeted tentatively. “How are you?”
“Fine, I think,” Goten said, walking over to his bed.
None of his friends had visited Goten in the med-bay because he had told them not to. Even Toharu had listened to him this time and hadn’t attempted anything annoying. Maybe Toharu felt guilty for all the commotion with that poll. Slim chance. It was more likely that Toharu felt jealous of him taking first place. If that was true, he was probably also busy coming up with a reward to demand from Goten for helping him to become so popular.
Kyon tensed when Goten’s eyes fixed on a piece of newspaper stuck on the wall above the desk. It was a scrap of Goten’s picture with the infamous writing on his forehead.
“Err…” Kyon drawled, closing the cookbook and pushing it aside. “Daram hung it there. He said that now he would be able to brag that he is sleeping with the hottest guy on the base.”
“Sleeping as in one room, you mean?”
“Well, yeah. He thinks it’s a great joke.”
Goten took another look at the picture. Now he wondered why he had flipped out as he had. It was just a joke – nobody took it seriously and everybody was going to forget him in a month or two.
Kyon watched his roommate’s moody face. “Do you know that our sergeant was one of those who hardly missed making it into top 15?” he asked.
Goten was taken aback. “What? Really?”
“No. I was just checking to see if you’re listening to me.”
Goten sighed. “I am okay. Really. I was just a little bit upset about the whole thing. I mean, I’ve been ridiculed to the point where people whistle and laugh at me!”
“They simply don’t have anything better to do. They will forget you as soon as something new and interesting happens. Or when you finally get a boyfriend.”
The third-class looked at his roommate askance. Kyon had turned toward him with his chair, his cookbook forgotten and lonely on the desk. The second-class was looking at him expectantly. “So we are going back to that…” Goten drawled.
“Well, it has already been a month since last time we spoke. I believe you’ve had plenty of time to think about everything and finally decide what you’re going to do.”
The problem was that, actually, Goten didn’t want to do anything. If possible, he would just go on not doing anything and playing it safe, however, he knew that he would have to take action at some point. Hopefully, not today.
“I don’t want a partner.”
“Why?”
Goten gave his photograph on the wall one last look and sat down on his bed. “Well, I just don’t want one.”
“Why?”
“And why should I want one?”
Kyon’s eyes flashed angrily. “Don’t play with me, Goten. Don’t I at least deserve to be told why you are so bent on rejecting me?”
Goten leaned forward, sighing. He stared at his feet on the floor.
“Well, that just pisses me off even more,” Kyon growled standing up. “It seems that I’m just a nuisance to you, nothing else! Fine, have it your way!” He turned towards the door.
“Wait.” It was Goten now who grabbed his roommate by his clothing to prevent him from leaving. With growing horror, Goten realized that if Kyon left now, a lot of things would become unstable. Despite the fact that he found it uncomfortable to admit to himself, he sometimes thought of Kyon as his back-up plan. Any romantic relationship with the prince was determined to fail in advance and Goten knew that. Deep down, he had hope that Kyon would somehow… Goten simply didn’t want to be abandoned; if nothing else, then he would just be content with maintaining the status quo.
Kyon stared down at Goten for a few seconds, then shook his head, frowning. “Listen, you either let go of me this instant, or just keep your hold on me for the rest of your life. Choose. Now.”
Goten let go of Kyon, laughing softly. Then he tensed and growled out desperately, “I’m a third-class, Kyon.”
Kyon stared at him, uncomprehending. “What? What are you saying?”
“I’m a third-class,” Goten repeated. “I’m saying that you’re way out of my league.”
Dizzily, Kyon took a few steps back and flopped back onto the chair at the desk. Disbelieving, he shook his head again. “Is this a joke? Like your last resort in getting rid of me?”
“I’m a fucking third-class, you idiot!” Goten snapped. He covered his face with his hands. “Ah shit!” He knew he shouldn’t have told his roommate. It was so stupid of him. He was so ashamed and he shouldn’t have shouted at Kyon and everything was just fucked up.
“But it can’t be. You are not...” Kyon trailed off. Goten wasn’t looking at him – he still had his face covered. Now it dawned on Kyon. This was why Goten distanced himself from any relationship. Numbly, he leaned back in the chair.
“Oh, but I am,” Goten said softly.
Goten removed his hands from his face and their eyes met. Goten's gaze showed everything at once: regret, amusement, relief, and fear. Kyon studied him for a little longer, then rubbed his forehead fervently. This did not make any sense; not with Goten’s abilities and power.
“Maybe a half-breed? Mixed classes?”
Goten shook his head. He shuffled his feet on the floor absently. “Nope. I’m a pure product of two third-classes.”
The voice was bitter, with an edge of sarcasm, and Kyon took it for what it was – a defensive reaction. The second-class pursed his lips, thinking. “Let me ask you, then. What are you doing at an officers’ school?”
“I have no idea. Believe me, the call-up papers were quite a surprise.”
“Does Ranvera know?”
Goten shook his head. “No.”
“Good.”
The third-class gave him a searching look.
“If you think that your real class is going to change anything, think again. I am not particularly picky about my partners.” Kyon winced. “Ugh… now that didn't come out like I intended.” But he shouldn’t have worried about that – Goten seemed to be too astonished to take it as an insult. “Or did you give your class away to me in hopes of keeping me from coming on to you? That would make me really angry.”
Goten shook off his surprise. “Err, no. No, of course, no. I kind of…didn’t think you’d be so…” He waved his hands about awkwardly. “I suppose, I am…” He laughed softly. “I think I’m very relieved.”
Kyon watched him thoughtfully. “So you’re the only third-class on the base? So this is the reason you were fucking around with Ranvera and me so much? Oh man,” he groaned after Goten nodded, “that's so freakin’ adorable! So annoying as well!”
Goten appeared to be unsure about what was going on. He had a very hopeful aura around him, but at the same time, he seemed to be afraid of hoping.
“It’s okay, Goten. I don’t care. Really. I had a few third-class friends back at home. The community in my village was small and we needed every hunter we could get; it doesn't matter who wields the gun as long as they are a good shot.”
“Oh.” Goten stared at his hands on his lap and realized that it was going to be him who would need to get used to the thought about himself being a third-class and his roommate knowing that. This was unexpected.
“You look as if you just admitted to having planned to kill the king.”
Goten laughed uneasily. “I didn’t think that… This is somehow…embarrassing.”
Kyon chuckled, amused. “Do you want me to hug you and tell you that everything’s okay?”
“No. Not yet.”
“Ah. You know, this is still somehow pissing me off.”
Goten pursed his lips. “Good.”
Kyon watched him, then shook his head, grinning. “Y-”
Both of them jumped at the sound of sirens going off, and, automatically, their gazes went to the window. They could see nothing unusual.
“The base is under attack. I repeat: the base is under attack. Proceed to the first and second armories for weaponry. This is not a drill. I repeat: the base is under attack. Proceed to the first and second armories for weaponry.”
Goten and Kyon stared at each other, wide-eyed, then scrambled towards the door at nearly the same time. Once they were outside the barracks, they headed for the first armory. There were so many people running around that he and Kyon lost sight of each other in three seconds. It was also obvious to Goten that he was not going to get any weapons in time; there were too many people in front of him.
This was no good. Goten could tell that from his first glance at the sky. While waiting in the queue, he stared at the sky where lonely dots suddenly started flaring up. Not grasping the situation, the third-class continued to stare at the fireworks in the sky until something whipped just past him and the spaceship hangar blew up. The gust of wind raised him into the air and threw him several meters away where he hit the asphalt painfully. It started raining molten asphalt, chunks of iron, savars, and sand all around him.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” he yelled desperately, covering his head and summoning his ki to create a protective shield.
In a few seconds, he dared to raise his head and look up. The automatic defense system of the base was working full blast: the flashing lights up in the sky were exploding enemy ships. Then he realized that he had already seen this scene somewhere. Right, in the pool on the edge of the world: hoards of flying Ice-jin ships.
With a curse on his lips, Goten stood up and saw the warehouse shatter into pieces. He could hear the whipping sounds of the laser cutting through the air somewhere further ahead. He needed a weapon, and right now. Something powerful enough to take a ship down.
Goten made his way through the throngs of savars and into the armory. Commanding officers were already present and were taking control of the situation, but most of the first-years were just running around blindly. Goten noticed three second-year elites charging a few laser cannons.
Goten grabbed two first-years who, against all logic, had been running away from the armory. “You two! Come with me!” He gritted his teeth when the first-years just stared at him, panicky. “If you don’t want to die, come with me!” he shouted at them. “We are going to get some cannons,” he informed them, starting to forcefully drag the two men towards the armory. In reality, he didn’t know how to use a cannon. In the worst case scenario, he planned to at least bring it for others to use.
The third-class ran into the building, the two savars going in after him. He roughly shouldered through the crowd, his eyes skipping past the writing on the walls. “Here.” He turned in to one of the rooms. He rushed up to several cannons that were still standing there. He had no idea what kind of cannon was best, so he just grabbed one that seemed similar to the one the elite second-years had been using.
“You, take that one!” Goten motioned with his head at the man that had finally broken through the mass of savars to join him. “You, take one box of the loads.” He motioned with his foot at a nearby box. “And one of those batteries,” he said, pointing at another box after reading the trademark on the laser cannon that the guy had just grabbed.
Goten and the two other savars ran back into the now near-empty corridor and outside. While they had been absent, the order in the base had been mostly restored: the higher ranked officers had taken command, the first-years mixing with the more experienced men.
“You three!” the sergeant shouted at Goten. “Bring the cannons and loads here!”
Goten jumped to the side and rolled over as soon as he heard a loud hiss somewhere nearby. Most of the savars also ducked or ran, rained on by the flying debris of bricks and asphalt that the first armory had turned into. “Oh shit,” Goten’s eyes widened as he suddenly realized what was going to happen. “Everyone away!” he screamed, running. “Away! It’s going t-”
A second later, the armory exploded, the mushroom cloud billowing high into the air, enveloping all the slower savars in the blast. The whoosh of air and heat from the explosion sent the savars who were further away scattering all around.
“Crap,” Goten mumbled, dropping his ki shield. He had been close to the armory, but the heat hadn’t penetrated his ki shield. He turned around and saw the sergeant’s body sink to the ground, shrapnel sticking out of his forehead. The two guys with the loads and the cannon were still intact. They were panicking again, one’s uniform was smoking a bit, and the other was trying to put the fire in his hair out, but in general they were functioning.
“Cut it out!” Goten yelled in an authoritative tone. “We need…”
“Put the cannons on the ground. Start loading them,” the firm voice came from behind Goten’s back. The two first-years immediately complied. They kneeled onto the ground to put the cannon and the loads down.
Goten turned around to see the shaii. The man looked like he just rolled out of bed, which probably was indeed the case, his clothes in disarray, his lavender hair loose and tousled, the denim jacket simply thrown on his bare body, the jeans without a belt. Goten startled as the steel blue settled on him like a whip as if asking why he was tarrying. He quickly set the cannon down. He had no idea where to put the loads in. His eyes rose to the shaii, who had whistled a signal to another officer. The officer nodded and sent over several second-year savars.
Goten gasped as the shaii grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and started dragging him away from the armory.
“Why the fuck are you bothering with the cannons?” the shaii hissed at the third-class, hauling him further away from the noise of the shooting cannons. Once they were several meters away from the people, the prince let go of him.
Goten looked up at the sky, wondering about his strange wish to get the cannons. Personally, he didn’t really need them. Not when he could already see the ships clearly. He instinctively knew he was more than capable of taking them out with his ki alone.
“Take the one on your right,” the prince instructed. Goten’s eyes widened when a huge ki ball appeared in the shaii’s palm. He had never seen anyone able to gather such an enormous amount of ki in such a short time, except himself or his brother.
Goten summoned his ki in his right palm and threw the blast at the ship. The blue-colored ball crossed the sky like lightning, meeting the metallic hull and passing through it without stopping. For several seconds, the ship continued to fly, then went up like a match.
“Are you any good at combo blasts?” the prince asked, throwing three blasts at once, then, with a weird motion of his hand, making them explode inside the ships. Goten wondered at the technique – he already wanted to learn it.
Goten nodded. “Which one does sir want to use? Kamehameha or Final Flash?”
“Final Flash will be more effective in this case. Try to make the diameter as wide as possible,” the shaii stood beside Goten, holding his hands forward.
“Right,” Goten nodded. He closed his eyes, letting the surge of his ki build.
“Now!” the prince commanded.
They released their ki together, the two streams mixing into one, overflowing and spreading from their hands, taking an inconceivable shape and power.
“Whoa. Fuck!” The shaii’s hand found the back of Goten’s neck, and hurled them both to the ground, instantly creating a protective shield around them. The sky above them shook, the explosions brightening the entire space all around the base, the burning debris from the destroyed ships raining down to the ground and over their bodies, sizzling and evaporating as soon as it hit the shield.
As soon as the burning rain eased up, the prince yanked Goten up to his feet and dispersed the shield. “Now the opposite side,” he said.
“I don’t think I have much ki left, sir,” Goten said, unsure, looking in the direction the shaii was indicating towards. In fact, he had no idea how much of it he had. “I can try, though.”
They went through the same procedure again, then ducked, the shaii creating the shield around them once again. Goten shielded his head with his hands just in case some debris passed through the shield, although he knew that with the amount of ki that was currently used to create the shield it wasn’t possible.
“Now go finish off the rest of them,” the shaii commanded after they got to their feet.
“Yes, sir!” Goten saluted and ran towards the training field where he could already see several pink figures. He thought about launching a blast to get rid of them, but then changed his mind – some the savars were in the way and he wasn’t that accurate with blasts. In addition, he didn’t have much energy left and to waste it recklessly might mean his death.
The third-class ran forward, jumped to the side to avoid the oncoming blast, flash-stepped to the first Ice-jin and punched him so hard that his face broke in with a sickening crack. The scent of blood filled Goten’s nostrils. It had a strange tinge, as it was not Saiyan, but it was blood nonetheless.
A series of struggles to Goten’s left caught his eye, and without a single thought, he flash-stepped into the fight and kicked the lizard in the back, the sound of breaking vertebra filling the air. The lizard and the elite, whom he had been trying to kill, flew about five meters through the air before hitting the ground. The elite kicked the dead lizard off himself and ran towards the next one.
Goten dropped to the ground to avoid the foot that was targeting his head. He kicked out at the Ice-jin’s legs, sending him to the ground, then grabbed a chunk of concrete off the asphalt and banged it on the Ice-jin’s head. Goten stood up. A ki blast swept just several centimeters away from his face, but he'd already had his protective shield on. With a roar, Goten launched himself on an Ice-jin to his left.
TBC
Warnings: Alternate Universe. Yaoi (male x male). Goten x Trunks and vice versa. Other pairings.
<b>Barracks</b>
by chayron (lttomb@yahoo.com), beta-read by quatreofdoom
Part 24
It was the second time this week that they were having this kind of stamina training. Goten glared grudgingly at the ceiling of the small claustrophobic room he and other two savars were locked in. Basically, the whole point of it was to see how long they could withstand the artificial moonlight without transforming into Oozaru. With every new session, the light was intensified and the time they had to stay in the room was extended.
In fact, there was no danger of them transforming. They had been given wristbands which reacted as soon as the body started showing noticeable signs of transformation. The wristbands cancelled the conversion and, at the same time, just to be on the safe side, sent out a signal which turned the artificial light off.
Goten wasn’t certain why they were put in these rooms in threes and fours, but figured it was either to strengthen the competitive spirit among them or only because there was not enough space for every savar. There was no furniture at all, all three of them sitting on the hard floor.
The third-class wondered how much time had passed since they entered this room. He wanted out and as soon as possible. He had never been good at controlling his transformations. The skin on the back on his neck was prickling and he could feel his tail starting to unwind again. This had already happened five or six times since he came in here – it would just unwind and start swishing on its own. He also had an erection, which was both embarrassing and inconvenient.
A low warning growl erupted from Goten’s throat when one of his current inmates inched closer to him. The other savar moved backwards. The proximity of other people irritated Goten. The third-class wondered if he would have growled under normal circumstances and came to the conclusion that he wouldn’t have; he usually wasn’t so territorial. Not without horror, he realized that if they threw in a female here, he would probably go on a rampage, fighting the others for her.
He hated it when his body and instincts took over.
Goten fixed his gaze on the door, hoping it would finally open and end this torture. He wondered how his father was doing. It had already been over a month since he and the other people went missing. Maybe he was dead. Just like Gohan. Somehow, Goten didn’t believe that. His father…the man was pretty irresponsible, simple-minded, and couldn’t hold an intelligent conversation even if his life depended on it, but there was something very natural and vibrant about him, something which attracted people to him.
Kakarott’s love for fighting was bigger than that of an average Saiyan’s; that was why he didn’t mind being sent on missions over and over. Goten had hated that awkward pat on his head his father would give him before going away. It seemed so hypocritical when he knew that Kakarott was really looking forward to the missions. However, Goten also knew that it wasn’t really about that. His father didn’t know how to express his love, but most men didn’t, so he shouldn’t have felt so hurt. He had been just a kid back then, though.
The third-class sighed. He would always wait for Kakarott to return. He remembered being angry with his father and the whole world when he went away but, oh how he waited! The occasions when all three of them would be at home were very rare since his father was often away on missions and Gohan was so busy with school.
Goten shot a warning look at the same guy who was approaching him again. Whose freaking idea was it to lock him in together with two elites? Must have been the sergeant’s. Goten eyed the two elites. Malom was right beside him, giving him a not too friendly stare, while Sorada was sitting farther away, looking utterly annoyed and glaring at the opposite wall. All of them were tense, the artificial moonlight making them feel as if they wanted to crawl out of their skin.
“Stop growling, you idiot,” Sorada said to Goten. “You’re sitting on his jacket.”
“Am I?” Goten wondered, spreading his legs and looking between them to see the green pattern of the uniform under his ass. “Whoops,” Goten said, standing up.
The third-class yelped as he was pushed backwards and his head was slammed against the wall.
“The fuck?! Malom!” Sorada yelled. “Let go of him!”
For a moment, Goten saw nothing but stars. Then his instincts took over. He punched out, almost blindly, but his arm was grabbed. Then he kicked and his attacker went down. The light suddenly went off in the room, but the body underneath him was still struggling and threatening.
At some point, Goten’s rage started waning and he noticed that he was being held face down on the ground by a bunch of officers. Suddenly, he felt very uncomfortable.
“That’s it, he came to,” the drill sergeant said, feeling Goten’s body go completely still and rigid. He let go of Goten’s right wrist. Uncertain, but trusting the man to know his savars, the other officers released the third-class as well.
“What category is he in?” Ardema, the lecturer in ki-attacks, asked, watching the now docile youth sit down on the floor. The youth was still out of it.
“A bit above average,” the sergeant said and all four officers turned to look at him in disbelief. The sergeant could see the look on Ardema’s face, which was more than mistrustful. The lecturer in ki-attacks was an elite and he obviously didn’t believe him. “It’s just his wristband,” the sergeant explained. “Must have failed and partial transformation took place.”
The officers looked at the savar. Sometimes wristbands malfunctioned, but none of them had ever seen someone possess so much strength while there weren’t any visible traces of outside transformation. Besides, the lights had gone out long ago. Now it was just the usual lamp.
Ardema had seen the youth’s face many times even though he knew the savar had never attended his lectures. Yet, he had seen the kid around. Then he remembered. Wasn’t this the infamous troublemaker, the prince’s lapdog? Or was it the other way round? Ardema watched the confused savar and was left wondering who was whose lapdog in that peculiar relationship.
“What happened, sir…s?” Goten asked. He wasn’t certain who he should direct his question to, thus tried to look at all of the officers at once.
“From what I could see,” the sergeant said, “a serious concussion has taken place, a broken arm and a leg, a dislocated jaw and maybe quite a few broken ribs.”
Goten looked at himself. His body felt perfectly fine.
“No, not you, idiot. Malom. You beat the living crap out of him.”
“Oh. He…<i>attacked</i> me,” Goten said, quite stunned, now remembering what happened.
“Yeah, we saw that,” the sergeant nodded. “But don’t you think you have gone overboard in your self-defense?”
Goten hesitated. “It just kind of…happened, sir.”
“Never mind that,” the sergeant muttered. There wasn’t much point in blaming Goten – the artificial moonlight addled one’s brain, especially for someone as untrained as Goten. “Why did he attack you?”
“I have no idea, sir. Honestly.” Goten gave this some more thought. “Maybe it happened because I was sitting on his jacket,” he mused absentmindedly.
The drill sergeant’s face brightened. “Ah, were you?”
“Yeah, I was. Sir,” Goten added quickly, now aware that his monologue hadn’t gone unnoticed. “But it wasn’t as if I had done it to spite him.”
“Why were you sitting on his jacket?”
“I don’t know, sir. It was just there, under my…bottom.”
Ardema, who was listening in on the conversation, looked at Goten’s unruly crotch. He said something quietly to the sergeant. The sergeant gave Goten’s face an evaluating look. The youth was indeed exuding pheromones, but the savar wasn’t someone you’d turn to look at for a second time when walking past; he wasn’t handsome but he wasn’t ugly either. He was probably what people called “common”.
“Actually,” the sergeant wondered, “did Malom try to…hmm…have sexual intercourse with you?”
“Ehh… What?” Goten asked wide-eyed, his face flushing red while his legs folded themselves so that his knees nearly touched his chest. “Oh, did he? Really?” he muttered in a second, even more stunned, at which point the sergeant and the other officers burst out laughing. But there was no sense in that – Goten could understand if he were a female, then the moonlight could indeed have had that effect on the other savar, but… “But…I’m male…”
The sergeant doubled over with laughter.
Ardema gave Goten a look. “I must inform you that we are aware of that,” he said. Then he looked at the sergeant. “Is this really the one that half of the base has set their sights on? He’s retarded.”
The sergeant was nearly crying with laughter. “Oh, oh, don’t say that. He’s a fine lad, he is, just a bit slow in these matters. I hear he’s still a virgin.”
The lecturer in ki-attacks gave the sergeant a quizzical look. “Huh? Is he going around bragging about that?”
“I think one of his friends wrote it on his forehead once.”
“Ah. I heard about that. So that was him.”
The sergeant nodded. “Yep.”
Ardema shrugged. “At least he’s amusing. As for why Malom attacked him, we won’t find out unless we ask the perpetrator himself,” he said, indicating that the gathering was over. “I’ll leave it to you. I am not particularly interested in the results,” he added, already walking away, specifying who was going to be responsible for all the paperwork.
The sergeant watched the other two second-class officers follow the elite officer obediently. One of them outranked Ardema, but this didn’t mean much when one was faced with an elite. When it came to Ardema, like most elites, he expected the lower classes to obey him unconditionally, no matter their rank. Ardema, however, more or less acknowledged the ranking system, or rather respected the skill behind it. Ardema had been on the base for about five years already, and the sergeant had never seen him undermine any of the second-class officers. The rumor was that he was bedding a second-class officer as well.
The sergeant huffed. Actually, faced with the sight of Ardema and Kanua almost daily in the officers’ club and bumping into the pair once in a while in the officer’s barracks, he could not call it a “rumor”; it was already a well-established fact. There was some dissatisfaction, but as long as there were volunteers, Ardema was ready to take out any of them. The sergeant didn’t think that there was anyone foolish enough to confront the powerful elite directly.
“Well? Are you growing roots?” the sergeant snorted at Goten, who was still sitting on the ground. The youth gave him a pitiful look, making the sergeant roll his eyes. “Hasn’t it gone away yet?”
Goten pouted. “I would appreciate it, sir, if you'd stop spreading weird rumors about me.”
“Ah, you mean you’ve already lost your virginity?”
Goten glared at the grinning sergeant. “Sir, could you stop making fun of me? It was bad enough that he called me a retard.”
“He also said you were amusing, and I must agree with that.”
Goten shook his head forlornly. “It would seem that it’s my only value, sir.”
“Well, it’s better than not having any value at all, isn’t it?”
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
The prince looked up from his plate to the door where a bunch of clamoring savars appeared. Sure enough, it was Goten and his company. Despite the fact that they had just entered <i>Matilda</i>, some of them were already having trouble standing upright. The shaii scooped up some mashed potatoes and cabbage salad and chewed thoughtfully while watching the savars stumble to the table in the corner. The shaii was aware that the other savars and officers present in the club were awfully familiar with the members of the noisy group; there were a lot of greetings and glares aimed their way.
The shaii gave his cutlet a disapproving look when he heard them order more drinks – from what he had seen, Kyon had mostly carried Goten in. They were being particularly noisy today as well. The prince turned to watch their table where Goten was telling something to Kyon. It seemed that Goten was bent on explaining something dead serious, but his drunken expression and his slurred and garbled words made it impossible not to laugh at him, which was exactly what Kyon and the others were doing.
Sighing, the prince shook his head and concentrated back on his cutlet. It had been three weeks already since he and Goten had talked on the roof. It was astonishing how the third-class had managed to avoid him all this time. If not for the report on the incident during full moon training, he would have not encountered Goten’s name at all.
So this was Goten’s answer. How cowardly. But it was still an answer.
Had there been a question, though? He hadn’t really asked, hadn’t talked to Goten at all.
Screw this. There was no point in asking anyway, was there? He wouldn’t know what to do with a positive answer anyway.
Ah, but maybe he would.
“To your eighteenth birthday!”
“Yeah!”
The prince raised his head to look at the clamoring table again. So that was the reason for the noise – Goten’s eighteenth birthday. Right, he had forgotten about it completely. Soon it would be half a year that the third-class was on the base.
Moodily, the prince sipped his tea. He wondered how the third-class would react if he went over and congratulated him on his birthday. Then he realized that if he did that in front of everybody, Goten, in his drunken anxiety, would probably throw up. The shaii rolled his eyes. If things had already reached this stage, maybe he should ask for a transfer.
Nah. Would be too easy.
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
“Sir!” Goten saluted smartly.
The shaii motioned at the chair in front of his desk. “Sit down, Goten.”
“Thank you, sir,” Goten said, getting comfortable in the chair. He still didn’t feel like standing too much; his birthday three days ago had nearly killed him.
“I offer my most sincere congratulations,” the prince said when Goten settled down.
“Thank you, sir,” Goten thanked awkwardly. The congratulations were belated, but now he was wondering if he was supposed to invite the shaii for a drink in thanks for them. That would be just…scary and careless and would wipe out all his previous efforts to steer clear off the prince.
“I wonder what we would do without you. Oh, I know!” the prince said cheerfully. “I, for one, would have my paperwork cut in half!”
“Umm…” Goten drawled, not quite certain he was following his superior. “I am certain Toharu didn’t mean to break that table, sir. All of us had a little too much to drink that day.”
“What table?”
Goten gave the prince a confused look. “The one he broke while dancing on it, sir. Isn’t that the reason I’m here?”
“Never heard about any table. I’m talking about this,” the shaii said, grabbing a thin newspaper from his desk and tossing it in front of Goten.
The third-class took the paper. It was of poor quality, black and white, and it was very likely that the pages had been bound by hand as well. After looking at the front page, it indeed appeared that it was the local print and the edition was only fifty copies.
“Sir?”
“Page eight.”
Goten opened to page eight where he saw a lot of black and white photographs. He read the headline: <b>TOP 15 MOST DESIRABLE MEN ON THE BASE</b>. Interested, he started to skim over the pictures.
“Sir, you’re number ten!” he laughed. “Way to go!”
“But you haven’t seen who number one is yet,” the shaii purred dangerously.
Goten’s eyes fixed on the largest photo with a star on the corner. It was a photo of him in the canteen, stuffing his face with noodles, with 'I’M A VIRGIN' written on his forehead. “Oh gods,” Goten gasped in horror, fighting his breakfast to make it stay down. “I had no idea that I'm so unphotogenic!”
“Congratulations,” the shaii repeated maliciously. “But it seems to me that not being photogenic is going to be the least of your worries.”
“Ohh, Toharu is number eight!” Goten exclaimed joyfully, completely ignoring the prince. “He’s going to be ecstatic!”
The shaii’s eyebrows rose at the lack of response. “Goten…?”
“Sir, I refuse to react!” Goten suddenly declared with vehemence. “I’ve had enough of all this shit with… They can do and think whatever the hell they want! I don’t care!” he yelled.
“Well…” the shaii drawled, taken aback slightly. “For one who doesn't care, you sure are shouting quite a lot.”
Goten closed the paper with a rustle and slapped it down onto the prince’s desk. “To hell with it,” he muttered. “Toharu has turned me into a joke. Nothing else but a joke. That asshole.”
“Calm down.” The prince said, ruffling through his hair. “Virginity, especially a man’s, is a trivial thing,” he said then, shrugging. “I suppose it’s just that there’s nothing much else to do here that they are so interested in you.”
“Oh really?”
The prince opened his mouth and then closed it with a loud snap, realizing how Goten took it. Goten was casting him a triumphant look. There was also much bitterness and hurt, but there was mostly triumph. Had Goten really been waiting all this time just so he could tell him “I told you so”?
“Are you a masochist?”
Goten gave him a look bordering between surprised and disturbed. The shaii leaned his elbow on the desk and lowered his chin on his palm, watching Goten thoughtfully. He was suddenly overtaken by a melancholic feeling.
“Sir?” Goten drawled uncertainly.
“Mm?” the shaii hummed without opening his mouth.
“Why is sir looking at m-”
“Oh, I was just thinking that I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my life trying to figure you out.”
“Uhh… That would be a grand waste, sir. Spending your life like that.”
“I suppose so,” the shaii agreed. “But I suppose everything’s a waste when it comes to that.”
“Well, yes, sir. No matter what we do, we die. And then everyone else we have ever known disappears as well. Nations die, planets die. There will be time when the universe is going to shrink into itself and there will be no life left anymore, so yeah, from that point of view, anything we do is pointless.”
“Hmm… I suppose so,” the shaii hummed. “I am not certain how our conversation got to this point,” he wondered aloud after a pause. Then he tapped his fingers on the local paper. “But yes, from that point of view, you shouldn’t give a fig about being hot guy number one.”
Goten chuckled. “If it were only that, I think I’d be pretty pleased, sir. But it’s more of a joke.”
The prince smiled. “You have a quite big ego, don’t you?”
“You noticed that only now, sir?”
The prince leaned back into his chair. “No, not really. But I think everyone likes attention, no matter who they are. It’s kind of…a proof to oneself of one’s value. All of us want to be valued for one thing or another.”
“Even if, sometimes, we do nothing to deserve it, right?”
“You forgot to add ‘<i>sir</i>’,” the prince warned.
“<i>Sir</i>,” Goten said obediently, smiling. “Sir, I think you’ve forgotten why you ordered me to come here.”
“You’re being insolent now.”
“Can’t I?”
The prince watched him from the depths of his chair. “Are you flirting with me?”
“Did it seem like that? No, I don’t think I was, sir. I wouldn’t know how. I’m just an innocent virgin boy after all.”
“Don’t get too carried away,” the shaii said. “Just go to the med-bay and take a day off if this starts bugging you too much. I see that it already is, though.”
Goten lowered his head to stare at his hands on his lap. “Yeah. I think I’ll do that. Thanks, sir.”
“Do you want to bring charges against Malom? For trying to…?”
Goten laughed loudly, waving his hands in front of him. “Oh gods, no, sir. I nearly killed him; I think that’s plenty for retribution. And to think that the poor sod was just influenced by the moonlight… Besides, the numbskull that I am, I didn’t even realize he was trying to…”
“Well, bashing your partner's head against the wall isn’t a part of the usual pick up process.”
“You’ve seen the security video, sir?”
“Yes. It was pretty awful.”
“Actually, sir, I think he was just trying to push me down onto the floor, and the wall was just in the way of my head.”
“Yes, it seemed so. You overreacted.”
Goten tensed up. “You could say I’m not used to rough sex, sir,” he said, his eyes burning.
The prince watched Goten for a few seconds, then rubbed the back of his neck, sighing. “Listen, you don’t need to get defensive with me like that – I am not blaming you. And I am not trying to piss you off on purpose either. I am genuinely worried about you.”
Goten lowered his eyes. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m a bit…edgy.”
“I can see that. Really, just take a day off before you do something stupid.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that, sir.” Goten blushed. “I mean, I will take a day off.”
The prince laughed softly. “Alright. Dismissed.”
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
Goten snuggled deeper into the sheets. The curtain was rustling in the light breeze coming from the open window. The air was cooling rapidly. Lazily, the third-class watched the billowing material. He had spent the entire day sleeping in the medical bay; he had come early in the morning – saying his head hurt madly – and now it was late evening already. Any other savar would have probably aroused at least mild suspicion. He, however, was treated with kid-gloves as he was someone National Security was interested in. This was the first time Goten was glad about it – he even managed to avoid taking any medicines for his nonexistent headache.
He was hungry as well. Starving, in fact.
Thinking that he should get up and do something about it, Goten rolled over onto his back and stayed in bed. He yawned. He felt stupid for acting as he had in the shaii’s office. It really must have bugged him, this entire business with his virginity.
“A trivial thing, huh?” Goten muttered. “Why don’t you take care of it, then?” He rolled his eyes at himself after saying that. If any of those dreams he had recently been having were real, the matter would have been taken care of about a month ago. “Ahh…” he sighed, “this is such a pain in the a…” No, the absence of it was exactly the problem.
Goten snickered and rolled his eyes at himself again; he really was getting retarded, just as the lecturer in ki-attacks had said. He climbed out of the bed and retrieved his uniform from a small wardrobe in the corner. He dressed and left the ward. It took him about ten minutes to find the head physician and tell him that he was leaving. The man gave him a once-over, then shrugged and waved him off.
After having some leftovers in the kitchen, he went to his barracks. It was about ten o’clock in the evening already. The second-years were missing, but he found Kyon leafing through a cookbook. It was the one he had recently bought, and the pages were already stained with fatty fingerprints.
“Hey, welcome back,” Kyon greeted tentatively. “How are you?”
“Fine, I think,” Goten said, walking over to his bed.
None of his friends had visited Goten in the med-bay because he had told them not to. Even Toharu had listened to him this time and hadn’t attempted anything annoying. Maybe Toharu felt guilty for all the commotion with that poll. Slim chance. It was more likely that Toharu felt jealous of him taking first place. If that was true, he was probably also busy coming up with a reward to demand from Goten for helping him to become so popular.
Kyon tensed when Goten’s eyes fixed on a piece of newspaper stuck on the wall above the desk. It was a scrap of Goten’s picture with the infamous writing on his forehead.
“Err…” Kyon drawled, closing the cookbook and pushing it aside. “Daram hung it there. He said that now he would be able to brag that he is sleeping with the hottest guy on the base.”
“Sleeping as in one room, you mean?”
“Well, yeah. He thinks it’s a great joke.”
Goten took another look at the picture. Now he wondered why he had flipped out as he had. It was just a joke – nobody took it seriously and everybody was going to forget him in a month or two.
Kyon watched his roommate’s moody face. “Do you know that our sergeant was one of those who hardly missed making it into top 15?” he asked.
Goten was taken aback. “What? Really?”
“No. I was just checking to see if you’re listening to me.”
Goten sighed. “I am okay. Really. I was just a little bit upset about the whole thing. I mean, I’ve been ridiculed to the point where people whistle and laugh at me!”
“They simply don’t have anything better to do. They will forget you as soon as something new and interesting happens. Or when you finally get a boyfriend.”
The third-class looked at his roommate askance. Kyon had turned toward him with his chair, his cookbook forgotten and lonely on the desk. The second-class was looking at him expectantly. “So we are going back to that…” Goten drawled.
“Well, it has already been a month since last time we spoke. I believe you’ve had plenty of time to think about everything and finally decide what you’re going to do.”
The problem was that, actually, Goten didn’t want to do anything. If possible, he would just go on not doing anything and playing it safe, however, he knew that he would have to take action at some point. Hopefully, not today.
“I don’t want a partner.”
“Why?”
Goten gave his photograph on the wall one last look and sat down on his bed. “Well, I just don’t want one.”
“Why?”
“And why should I want one?”
Kyon’s eyes flashed angrily. “Don’t play with me, Goten. Don’t I at least deserve to be told why you are so bent on rejecting me?”
Goten leaned forward, sighing. He stared at his feet on the floor.
“Well, that just pisses me off even more,” Kyon growled standing up. “It seems that I’m just a nuisance to you, nothing else! Fine, have it your way!” He turned towards the door.
“Wait.” It was Goten now who grabbed his roommate by his clothing to prevent him from leaving. With growing horror, Goten realized that if Kyon left now, a lot of things would become unstable. Despite the fact that he found it uncomfortable to admit to himself, he sometimes thought of Kyon as his back-up plan. Any romantic relationship with the prince was determined to fail in advance and Goten knew that. Deep down, he had hope that Kyon would somehow… Goten simply didn’t want to be abandoned; if nothing else, then he would just be content with maintaining the status quo.
Kyon stared down at Goten for a few seconds, then shook his head, frowning. “Listen, you either let go of me this instant, or just keep your hold on me for the rest of your life. Choose. Now.”
Goten let go of Kyon, laughing softly. Then he tensed and growled out desperately, “I’m a third-class, Kyon.”
Kyon stared at him, uncomprehending. “What? What are you saying?”
“I’m a third-class,” Goten repeated. “I’m saying that you’re way out of my league.”
Dizzily, Kyon took a few steps back and flopped back onto the chair at the desk. Disbelieving, he shook his head again. “Is this a joke? Like your last resort in getting rid of me?”
“I’m a fucking third-class, you idiot!” Goten snapped. He covered his face with his hands. “Ah shit!” He knew he shouldn’t have told his roommate. It was so stupid of him. He was so ashamed and he shouldn’t have shouted at Kyon and everything was just fucked up.
“But it can’t be. You are not...” Kyon trailed off. Goten wasn’t looking at him – he still had his face covered. Now it dawned on Kyon. This was why Goten distanced himself from any relationship. Numbly, he leaned back in the chair.
“Oh, but I am,” Goten said softly.
Goten removed his hands from his face and their eyes met. Goten's gaze showed everything at once: regret, amusement, relief, and fear. Kyon studied him for a little longer, then rubbed his forehead fervently. This did not make any sense; not with Goten’s abilities and power.
“Maybe a half-breed? Mixed classes?”
Goten shook his head. He shuffled his feet on the floor absently. “Nope. I’m a pure product of two third-classes.”
The voice was bitter, with an edge of sarcasm, and Kyon took it for what it was – a defensive reaction. The second-class pursed his lips, thinking. “Let me ask you, then. What are you doing at an officers’ school?”
“I have no idea. Believe me, the call-up papers were quite a surprise.”
“Does Ranvera know?”
Goten shook his head. “No.”
“Good.”
The third-class gave him a searching look.
“If you think that your real class is going to change anything, think again. I am not particularly picky about my partners.” Kyon winced. “Ugh… now that didn't come out like I intended.” But he shouldn’t have worried about that – Goten seemed to be too astonished to take it as an insult. “Or did you give your class away to me in hopes of keeping me from coming on to you? That would make me really angry.”
Goten shook off his surprise. “Err, no. No, of course, no. I kind of…didn’t think you’d be so…” He waved his hands about awkwardly. “I suppose, I am…” He laughed softly. “I think I’m very relieved.”
Kyon watched him thoughtfully. “So you’re the only third-class on the base? So this is the reason you were fucking around with Ranvera and me so much? Oh man,” he groaned after Goten nodded, “that's so freakin’ adorable! So annoying as well!”
Goten appeared to be unsure about what was going on. He had a very hopeful aura around him, but at the same time, he seemed to be afraid of hoping.
“It’s okay, Goten. I don’t care. Really. I had a few third-class friends back at home. The community in my village was small and we needed every hunter we could get; it doesn't matter who wields the gun as long as they are a good shot.”
“Oh.” Goten stared at his hands on his lap and realized that it was going to be him who would need to get used to the thought about himself being a third-class and his roommate knowing that. This was unexpected.
“You look as if you just admitted to having planned to kill the king.”
Goten laughed uneasily. “I didn’t think that… This is somehow…embarrassing.”
Kyon chuckled, amused. “Do you want me to hug you and tell you that everything’s okay?”
“No. Not yet.”
“Ah. You know, this is still somehow pissing me off.”
Goten pursed his lips. “Good.”
Kyon watched him, then shook his head, grinning. “Y-”
Both of them jumped at the sound of sirens going off, and, automatically, their gazes went to the window. They could see nothing unusual.
“The base is under attack. I repeat: the base is under attack. Proceed to the first and second armories for weaponry. This is not a drill. I repeat: the base is under attack. Proceed to the first and second armories for weaponry.”
Goten and Kyon stared at each other, wide-eyed, then scrambled towards the door at nearly the same time. Once they were outside the barracks, they headed for the first armory. There were so many people running around that he and Kyon lost sight of each other in three seconds. It was also obvious to Goten that he was not going to get any weapons in time; there were too many people in front of him.
This was no good. Goten could tell that from his first glance at the sky. While waiting in the queue, he stared at the sky where lonely dots suddenly started flaring up. Not grasping the situation, the third-class continued to stare at the fireworks in the sky until something whipped just past him and the spaceship hangar blew up. The gust of wind raised him into the air and threw him several meters away where he hit the asphalt painfully. It started raining molten asphalt, chunks of iron, savars, and sand all around him.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” he yelled desperately, covering his head and summoning his ki to create a protective shield.
In a few seconds, he dared to raise his head and look up. The automatic defense system of the base was working full blast: the flashing lights up in the sky were exploding enemy ships. Then he realized that he had already seen this scene somewhere. Right, in the pool on the edge of the world: hoards of flying Ice-jin ships.
With a curse on his lips, Goten stood up and saw the warehouse shatter into pieces. He could hear the whipping sounds of the laser cutting through the air somewhere further ahead. He needed a weapon, and right now. Something powerful enough to take a ship down.
Goten made his way through the throngs of savars and into the armory. Commanding officers were already present and were taking control of the situation, but most of the first-years were just running around blindly. Goten noticed three second-year elites charging a few laser cannons.
Goten grabbed two first-years who, against all logic, had been running away from the armory. “You two! Come with me!” He gritted his teeth when the first-years just stared at him, panicky. “If you don’t want to die, come with me!” he shouted at them. “We are going to get some cannons,” he informed them, starting to forcefully drag the two men towards the armory. In reality, he didn’t know how to use a cannon. In the worst case scenario, he planned to at least bring it for others to use.
The third-class ran into the building, the two savars going in after him. He roughly shouldered through the crowd, his eyes skipping past the writing on the walls. “Here.” He turned in to one of the rooms. He rushed up to several cannons that were still standing there. He had no idea what kind of cannon was best, so he just grabbed one that seemed similar to the one the elite second-years had been using.
“You, take that one!” Goten motioned with his head at the man that had finally broken through the mass of savars to join him. “You, take one box of the loads.” He motioned with his foot at a nearby box. “And one of those batteries,” he said, pointing at another box after reading the trademark on the laser cannon that the guy had just grabbed.
Goten and the two other savars ran back into the now near-empty corridor and outside. While they had been absent, the order in the base had been mostly restored: the higher ranked officers had taken command, the first-years mixing with the more experienced men.
“You three!” the sergeant shouted at Goten. “Bring the cannons and loads here!”
Goten jumped to the side and rolled over as soon as he heard a loud hiss somewhere nearby. Most of the savars also ducked or ran, rained on by the flying debris of bricks and asphalt that the first armory had turned into. “Oh shit,” Goten’s eyes widened as he suddenly realized what was going to happen. “Everyone away!” he screamed, running. “Away! It’s going t-”
A second later, the armory exploded, the mushroom cloud billowing high into the air, enveloping all the slower savars in the blast. The whoosh of air and heat from the explosion sent the savars who were further away scattering all around.
“Crap,” Goten mumbled, dropping his ki shield. He had been close to the armory, but the heat hadn’t penetrated his ki shield. He turned around and saw the sergeant’s body sink to the ground, shrapnel sticking out of his forehead. The two guys with the loads and the cannon were still intact. They were panicking again, one’s uniform was smoking a bit, and the other was trying to put the fire in his hair out, but in general they were functioning.
“Cut it out!” Goten yelled in an authoritative tone. “We need…”
“Put the cannons on the ground. Start loading them,” the firm voice came from behind Goten’s back. The two first-years immediately complied. They kneeled onto the ground to put the cannon and the loads down.
Goten turned around to see the shaii. The man looked like he just rolled out of bed, which probably was indeed the case, his clothes in disarray, his lavender hair loose and tousled, the denim jacket simply thrown on his bare body, the jeans without a belt. Goten startled as the steel blue settled on him like a whip as if asking why he was tarrying. He quickly set the cannon down. He had no idea where to put the loads in. His eyes rose to the shaii, who had whistled a signal to another officer. The officer nodded and sent over several second-year savars.
Goten gasped as the shaii grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and started dragging him away from the armory.
“Why the fuck are you bothering with the cannons?” the shaii hissed at the third-class, hauling him further away from the noise of the shooting cannons. Once they were several meters away from the people, the prince let go of him.
Goten looked up at the sky, wondering about his strange wish to get the cannons. Personally, he didn’t really need them. Not when he could already see the ships clearly. He instinctively knew he was more than capable of taking them out with his ki alone.
“Take the one on your right,” the prince instructed. Goten’s eyes widened when a huge ki ball appeared in the shaii’s palm. He had never seen anyone able to gather such an enormous amount of ki in such a short time, except himself or his brother.
Goten summoned his ki in his right palm and threw the blast at the ship. The blue-colored ball crossed the sky like lightning, meeting the metallic hull and passing through it without stopping. For several seconds, the ship continued to fly, then went up like a match.
“Are you any good at combo blasts?” the prince asked, throwing three blasts at once, then, with a weird motion of his hand, making them explode inside the ships. Goten wondered at the technique – he already wanted to learn it.
Goten nodded. “Which one does sir want to use? Kamehameha or Final Flash?”
“Final Flash will be more effective in this case. Try to make the diameter as wide as possible,” the shaii stood beside Goten, holding his hands forward.
“Right,” Goten nodded. He closed his eyes, letting the surge of his ki build.
“Now!” the prince commanded.
They released their ki together, the two streams mixing into one, overflowing and spreading from their hands, taking an inconceivable shape and power.
“Whoa. Fuck!” The shaii’s hand found the back of Goten’s neck, and hurled them both to the ground, instantly creating a protective shield around them. The sky above them shook, the explosions brightening the entire space all around the base, the burning debris from the destroyed ships raining down to the ground and over their bodies, sizzling and evaporating as soon as it hit the shield.
As soon as the burning rain eased up, the prince yanked Goten up to his feet and dispersed the shield. “Now the opposite side,” he said.
“I don’t think I have much ki left, sir,” Goten said, unsure, looking in the direction the shaii was indicating towards. In fact, he had no idea how much of it he had. “I can try, though.”
They went through the same procedure again, then ducked, the shaii creating the shield around them once again. Goten shielded his head with his hands just in case some debris passed through the shield, although he knew that with the amount of ki that was currently used to create the shield it wasn’t possible.
“Now go finish off the rest of them,” the shaii commanded after they got to their feet.
“Yes, sir!” Goten saluted and ran towards the training field where he could already see several pink figures. He thought about launching a blast to get rid of them, but then changed his mind – some the savars were in the way and he wasn’t that accurate with blasts. In addition, he didn’t have much energy left and to waste it recklessly might mean his death.
The third-class ran forward, jumped to the side to avoid the oncoming blast, flash-stepped to the first Ice-jin and punched him so hard that his face broke in with a sickening crack. The scent of blood filled Goten’s nostrils. It had a strange tinge, as it was not Saiyan, but it was blood nonetheless.
A series of struggles to Goten’s left caught his eye, and without a single thought, he flash-stepped into the fight and kicked the lizard in the back, the sound of breaking vertebra filling the air. The lizard and the elite, whom he had been trying to kill, flew about five meters through the air before hitting the ground. The elite kicked the dead lizard off himself and ran towards the next one.
Goten dropped to the ground to avoid the foot that was targeting his head. He kicked out at the Ice-jin’s legs, sending him to the ground, then grabbed a chunk of concrete off the asphalt and banged it on the Ice-jin’s head. Goten stood up. A ki blast swept just several centimeters away from his face, but he'd already had his protective shield on. With a roar, Goten launched himself on an Ice-jin to his left.
TBC