Remembrance

By Xero Sky

March 2004

Pairing: Bardock x Turles

Warnings: Yaoi, AU, sex, brother incest, some angst, profanity, mild violence, and poor behavior in a public place. A one-shot.

A/N: A PWP-ish sequel to my story "Dominion". //...// equals telepathic communication.

The Central Repository of the Public Archives of Vegetasei was a big, sprawling building located an hour's flight from the palace. Several wings radiated outward from the central dome, an airy structure that let sunlight in on the large fountain in the midst of it all. It was a fairly opulent place, designed to show off the stable wealth of the empire. Over all, the building gave an impression of elegance and strength: here was a fitting home for the history of the saiyajin race.

Saiyajins of all classes could be found amongst the rows of data storage discs and players. Social standing on Vegetasei depended largely on breeding and power levels, but it was otherwise fairly egalitarian. The archives were open to anyone, just as education at all levels was free. Every kind of official and private record was kept in the archives, and all kinds of saiyajins came to look at them.

It was no real surprise to the staff, then, that the tall, handsome saiyajin monopolizing the holoviewers in section 6E was wearing the royal crest on his armor.

Later on, when another royal arrived, bearing a striking resemblance to the first, the staff was more intrigued than anything else. To their jaded minds, this was only very slightly more interesting than usual.

They should have known better. The second royal, with a smirk on his scarred face and a playful swing to his tail, headed directly for the first. In retrospect, it was clear that this was the point when the staff should have evacuated the building.

In the days to come, some of the staff would fondly remember this as the least boring day ever.

*****

"In the fifth year of the reign of our lord king Vejiita the 23rd, unrest among the elite resulted in an assault on the king's private quarters. Although the ascended king refused to personally decimate his own elite warriors, repeated attacks by the Royal Guard broke the siege in its 17th day. Notable in combat were..."

"Fuck, Turles, are you gonna spend all day in here?"

Turles smiled at the open impatience in his brother's voice. Without looking at him, he paused the playback, freezing the holographic news image of a young Vejiita surveying the carnage. Behind him stood a row of his closest advisors and personal guards, including a scarred saiyajin with two young boys peeking around his legs.

"Damn, I was good-looking back then," Bardock said approvingly.

"You're not so bad now," Turles said, leaning back against him. Arms were wrapped around him accordingly. "Good thing you take after me in looks."

Bardock snorted, leaning his chin on his bond-brother's shoulder. The two of them were very similar in appearance, despite the scar on Bardock's face and the darker hue of Turles' skin, but they weren't twins.

Bardock was somewhat older, and their lives had taken vastly different paths for many years: the elder had fought at the side of the king since Furiza's death, while the younger had suffered the life of an icejin slave. Though both were more lean and muscular now than most saiyajins, the marks of the past were there to be seen.

"You're lucky both of us take after Mother," Bardock said, nuzzling the nape of Turles' neck. Neither of their fathers had been particularly handsome.

Turles laughed lightly, but then he gestured at the still image. "You want to tell me about this?"

"Not really. What are you digging through this stuff for, anyway?"

"Because I missed it the first time around."

Bardock sighed gently and kissed the back of his bond-brother's neck. Turles had been spending a lot of time here lately, looking through the news of the last several years. He'd been gone off-planet all that time, and the gaps in his knowledge frustrated him. It made him feel even more of an outsider than everything else did.

He'd been home for almost a year now, but that didn't mean he felt at home.

"There was a rumor," Bardock said quietly, "after Vejiita inherited the throne, that he hadn't really ascended. After all, there weren't many witnesses when he killed Furiza. So some idiot elites talked themselves into believing that Vejiita was just another kid, and they tried to take him hostage. He could've killed them all in a second, but he wouldn't ascend. He said Furiza would be laughing in hell if he killed his own elites."

Turles turned in his arms to look at him, and Bardock shrugged.

"We waited it out in his quarters until we ran out of food, and then he had to send the Guard out against the morons. Killed maybe a third of them. And that was it. The next day he ascended in the sky above the palace. He just stayed there until everybody got a good long look at him."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. The whole thing was hell for him, but I was mostly bored, watching my brats tear up the place," Bardock said. He was not particularly convincing, and the telepathic bond between them conveyed images of blood, fear for his sons, and rage before he quashed it.

Turles said nothing for several moments. Then, finally, he looked up and said, "You know, I would've been there..."

The rest was unsaid, but it hovered in the air between them. ...if things had been different.

"I know," Bardock murmured. He rested his forehead against his mate's. For a moment they were quiet together, breathing in each other's scent. Then Bardock straightened up again and, smirking, looked Turles in the eye.

"But that was then, and this is now. What are you gonna do for me today?" he asked. He pressed himself up against the warm body in front of him and licked delicately at the base of Turles' throat, making his invitation obvious.

A tail whipped around and caught Bardock across the ass with a loud smack. He wasn't wearing his armor, for once, and the vulnerable flesh stung under the assault, making him lurch backwards.

"What the hell was that for?" he demanded loudly, baring his teeth. Bardock looked angry, but his own unfurling tail told a slightly different tale, and Turles could read him perfectly, even without their bond.

Bardock had baited him, trying to break him out of his mood, and now he was going to have to pay the price.

Happy to toss his melancholy mood away, Turles leered at his mate and advanced on him, pushing him up against the tall shelves behind him. Thousands of data storage discs rattled in their cases as he kissed Bardock, thrusting his tongue into a willing mouth. He rolled his hips against him as his tail captured the other's, stroking against the fur and making Bardock shudder. As soon as fingers began fumbling with the catches on his armor, however, Turles broke the kiss and stepped back. He flicked Bardock's tail away as well.

Folding his arms over his chest, Turles said, "That was for teasing me this morning and then disappearing."

Still flustered from the kiss, Bardock spluttered in outrage. "I had to go to the palace! Vejiita would've stripped my fur off if I'd missed a war council!!"

An eyebrow rose skeptically. "So why did you start with me?" Turles' voice dipped low, into a rolling purr. "There I was, all spread out beneath you, ready and willing for you to fuck me through the mattress... but no. You had to go to work, didn't you? Couldn't miss a meeting, even though your mate was naked and slick and waiting for you in bed..."

"Turles..." Bardock groaned. Every word was making his cock twitch and ache. He tried to look more alpha, to look like Turles wasn't already driving him crazy. He was the elder of them, after all, and it was undignified to lose so early in the game. "You trying to get yourself bent over and mounted in a public library? Because that's where this is going!"

"You think so?" Turles' tail swung behind him, lacing the air with musk. His eyes gleamed. "Think you're up to it this time?"

Turles' scent... Of all saiyajins, everywhere, Bardock was the least able to resist it. Complex and primal, it filtered into the primitive part of his brain and seized control.

"I think that I'm your mate," Bardock said, leering and grasping his younger brother's chin in one hand, "and that I can take you at any time and in any place I want."

He pulled Turles forward into a kiss that was deep, carnal, dominating, and perfect. One hand and his tail reached out to caress the younger saiyajin in front and behind, making Turles shiver.

Bardock slowly pulled away, looking into his mate's dazed, half-closed eyes and feeling, rather than hearing, the low purr in Turles' chest. He smoothed the hair away from his brother's brow and kissed him there, gently.

"Any questions?" he asked.

"Yeah," Turles said huskily, sighing as he looked up into Bardock's eyes. "Can you swim?"

Bardock barely had time to widen his eyes before the tiny energy blast caught him in the chest and hurled him backwards through five rows of shelves, his body arcing upwards and then down again as he slammed into the fountain with a titanic splash.

There was a long moment of quiet, broken eventually by the sounds of saiyajins with well-developed instincts for self-preservation fleeing the library. They had caught the musk in the air and were running from the fearsome prospect of royal saiyajin foreplay.

Neither brother noticed. Turles had powered up to just below the level of ascension, and Bardock burst into the air above the wrecked fountain in a huge cloud of steam.

"Playing hard to get, boy?" Bardock grinned at his lover as he stripped the remnants of his shirt away.

The carefully controlled violence of the blast hadn't truly injured him. In fact, it had excited him. His tail swung back and forth eagerly, spreading his own musk, as he watched the most powerful saiyajin in history rise up in the air... and start absently grooming his own tail.

"Did you say something, Bardock?" Turles asked absently, paying more attention to the plush fur of his tail than to his mate. "Hmmn?"

Bardock smirked. If it wasn't for the musk in the air, and the poorly concealed lust thrumming through their bond, he might almost have believed Turles. Almost.

The brat was gonna get it, good.

*****

Outside the building, a heavy thump sounded and the ground shook. Dust rose from the foundations of the western wings, and the few remaining birds in the area fled. The Head Archivist ended her call and pulled her scouter off so she could rub her temples. A scarred veteran of many wars, she was unimpressed with the scene in front of her.

"Horny idiots," she said, her voice heavy with disgust. She leaned against a tree on a hill to the north of the building, away from the crowd. Saiyajins might flee from immediate danger, but curiosity always kept them around to see the show. She'd gotten reports from most of her staff now, and was fairly certain who was ravaging her library.

Beside her, her junior assistant nearly foamed with outrage. "How can they do that!?" he snarled.

"Do you want the biology or the morality behind getting it on in a public library?" she asked dryly. Her assistant was relatively new, and painfully immature. He obviously hadn't read much of the history of the archival system on Vegetasei. Or much of the tabloids, either.

"Royals do what they want," she said. "Nothing to do about it but clean up the mess, and hope Vejiita-sama pounds their skulls flat."

"But the archives!! That's the whole history of Vegetasei in there! Our entire past!" the assistant nearly wailed.

The Head Archivist smacked him upside the head. "Moron. The real archives are 50 miles underground, over seven thousand miles from here. The records up here are copies. We're saiyajins, aren't we? You think this sort of thing has never happened before?"

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"So what do we do?"

"Wait for the Royal Guard to come get them. And in the meantime, hope that someone in there brought some lubricant, or else we might lose the whole damned building."

The assistant looked on in awe as a howl rang out from inside the library, making the upper windows shatter.

*****

Bardock laughed breathlessly as he brandished Turles' captive tail at him. On his hands and knees, his armor gone and one boot missing, Turles looked up from the pile of rubble he'd landed in and snarled at his mate.

"Bastard!"

"Didn't like having your tail pulled?" Bardock asked innocently when he got his breath back. "You shouldn't have smacked me in the face with it, then."

He carefully groomed the dust from the long, velvet fur, knowing that it was sending prickles up Turles' spine. The younger saiyajin huffed and tried to get to his feet. Bardock, grinning, pulled his tail again and he slid down the glittering pile of data discs, ending up back on his hands and knees.

Something changed. The look Turles turned to give him now was far colder than the first. Bardock had gone too far without even having a clue he was nearing the edge. His smile faltering, he stared back.

"Let. Go."

Turles spoke coldly, calmly, but his tail fur had bristled and his muscles had tensed. One simple image flashed through their bond before Turles slammed his end of it shut, and Bardock, stunned, realized what his teasing had triggered memories of.

Saiyajins might be nearly indestructible by most standards, but the tail was always a weakness. Turles had been a slave, and his various masters had known how to keep saiyajin slaves in line. Bardock shuddered convulsively at Turles' memory of having his tail partially skinned as punishment for trying to escape.

Turles looked away. Much of the psychological damage of being a slave had been repaired in the saiyajin way, through revenge, but some things remained. Things he tried to keep from Bardock, like the feeling of his pelt being tugged and torn away.

Turles flexed his tail out of Bardock's lax hands and carefully wrapped it around his waist. Standing up, he looked past his mate and surveyed the damage they'd done. Much of the interior was in ruins, but the building was still structurally sound. He was aware that someone would be on the way soon to arrest them; royal or not, saiyajins did not get away with this sort of thing on the homeworld.

Let them try, he thought, grinning nastily and letting one fist glow with gathered energy. His vendetta against the king might have been erased, but that didn't mean he was going to be pushed around. Those days were long over.

He grimaced at the burning in his throat, knowing that it was disgust and anger at his sudden fear. He hated, absolutely despised, losing control like that. Even worse, this time he'd let Bardock see into his memory. Their violent flirtation had been fun and brutally exciting. Then the hard hand on his tail had tugged just so... and for a second he'd been back there again, hoping he'd pass out before he screamed.

Still so fucking weak, after all this time...

A soft kiss on the back of his neck brought him back to the present. He started to say something, but Bardock grasped his chin from behind, and turning his head slightly, began to lick gently at his ear, his jaw, and the strong, corded lines of his neck. It was a delicate, warm feeling, and it made Turles shiver despite himself.

This need for taste and scent was essential to saiyajins. They were an engineered species and far closer to their wild oozaru roots than evolution would have placed them. Sex and violence, dominance and submission, aggression and tenderness: saiyajins might be a space-faring species now, but they were still wired for the old ways.

Turles hissed as Bardock drove sharp teeth into his flesh, but he wasn't surprised. His mate drank from him, as he should, as he needed him to. He felt the burning in his mind as Bardock forced the bond-path of their thoughts wide open.

// Mine. Now. Always. No other's. Remember that.//

The thoughts were clear and strong, cutting through Turles' resistance. Bardock wrapped his arms and tail around him, holding him still. Turles could have broken free, but not without hurting him. And he would never do that.

// No harm. No shame. //

Bardock licked at the wound he'd made, and Turles moaned softly. It hurt, but he didn't mind. The pain grounded him, and pulled him back into the present. He sank back against his mate, letting his head rest against his shoulder. The furious glow in his hand disappeared harmlessly.

// My brother... my soulmate. Understand? Now quit being an asshole, so I can do unspeakable things to you. //

Turles blinked at the ceiling a few times, and then, laughing, tried to drive his elbow into Bardock's gut. The elder saiyajin danced to one side and managed to evade most of it without letting go.

"Moron," Bardock said fondly. "You know I love you. A memory is a memory, but I'm not gonna let you tear yourself up over having one."

"You're right." A sigh. "I hate it when you're right."

"Suck it up. You're the one who's a freaking god by most standards. You can take it," Bardock said, licking over the bite mark again and grinning.

Their bond pulsed with affection.

Bardock celebrated the tender moment by groping him thoroughly, with an attention to detail that bordered on the obscene. Turles twisted free and backed away from him, trying not to smile.

"Bring that heavenly ass back here, boy," Bardock purred, advancing.

"'Boy'?" Turles sneered. "You are two, count 'em, two years older than me."

"But a lot smarter. After all, who's the one walking away from an epic fucking?"

The bite ached wonderfully as Turles shrugged and snorted. "Epic? Right."

Bardock growled and launched himself at his mate. Turles sidestepped, but Bardock was ready for it; he twisted and caught the other saiyajin around the waist. His momentum sent them both tumbling across the wreckage and sliding across slick piles of discs. When they came to a stop, Bardock was on top. Pleased, he grinned down at his lover and ground his hips against him, pressing rock-hard flesh against rock-hard flesh.

"You doubt my talents?" he asked, pulling Turles' shirt off without effort. Sucking a nipple into his mouth, he tongued it, biting now and then only to apologize with kisses.

"Nnnnnh..." Turles managed, his head falling back as he pushed his hips up against Bardock's, looking for pressure or friction or something.

Long-fingered hands stroked down his sides, finding the waistband of his pants and tearing the fabric free. On the way back up, the smooth backs of sharp nails glided over tingling skin.

Turles bared sharp teeth as Bardock abandoned him suddenly to tear his own clothing away. With a hiss as hot bare skin met, they embraced fiercely, twining limbs and tails. Mouths tasted, teeth drew blood here and there, and warm tongues eagerly tasted. Panting moans and inarticulate growls echoed up to the cracked ceilings.

Grinning, Bardock drew back, pushing Turles flat on his back when the younger saiyajin tried to follow. He reached down and palmed the head of Turles' cock, letting his hand glide across the soft, damp skin. Impatient, Turles lashed at him with his tail.

"Got a present for you," Bardock said roughly. Turles' tail snaked between Bardock's legs and found his cock, brushing back and forth as Turles raised an eyebrow and leered back.

Bardock pulled the tail away - gently - and held it in one hand, rubbing his thumb beneath the fur. "You want your present? Stay still for a moment, brat."

Turles purred softly and smirked, knowing that he would get what he wanted eventually. He was fairly patient, for a saiyajin.

Bardock quieted his breathing, concentrating. He held his free hand up, curling it into a loose fist with the thumb outside, and stared at it. Turles felt a very small flow of ki in the air, but he saw nothing until Bardock started to uncurl his first. When he did, Turles saw the glow of a thin ring of ki between his thumb and forefinger. The ring grew as the fingers drew apart, until it was almost two inches across. It was a steady manifestation, shining with a mellow glow, and seeming to pulse slightly, perhaps in time with Bardock's heart.

Turles was impressed with the control that sort of thing must take; it would be much more difficult than simply blasting something. He started to say something about that.

Then he caught the expression on Bardock's face and realized what the ring was for.

"No way in hell!!"

Laughing, Bardock threw himself on Turles as the latter tried to scramble away. Working an arm around his mate's chest and grabbing hold of his shoulder, Bardock pinned him to the ground. He kissed him, trying to distract him as one knee managed to spread Turles' legs.

"C'mon, handsome..." he wheedled. "It'll look great on you."

In point of fact, Turles didn't mind too much, but he wasn't gonna give in so easily.

"Pervert!" Turles gasped, trying to look indignant. "Only you would manage to make a cock-ring out of ki!"

"Actually," Bardock said, in between nibbles at his lover's neck, "Vejiita showed me..."

Turles grimaced. "I do NOT want to know..." The rest of his words were lost in a sort of breathless moan as a hand was wrapped around his shaft. He was stroked lightly a few times before something warm and gently throbbing was slid down his length, nestling against his sac. He had a reflexive moment of fear as the ring shrank around him, but it stopped before becoming uncomfortable. It was simply snug now, serving its purpose.

He closed his eyes, concentrating on the odd feeling. It was heated and organic, and the faint throb of Bardock's life-energy around his cock sent little shock waves of pleasure up through his spine. All the fur on his tail lifted as the sensations intensified.

He arched upwards.

//Too much!//

Bardock smiled at his mate's protest, but he let his eyes drift closed so that he could concentrate on the ring, lessening its potency.

//Better?//

"You're a sadist..." Turles groaned, but he was already winding himself around Bardock again, eager for that sweat-slicked warmth now that some of the pressure was gone. The ring was still there, throbbing and confining him, but the sensations wouldn't overwhelm him. Not too soon.

"And you're so fucking sweet..." Bardock said, in between kisses and nips at swollen, eager lips. He ran his fingertips over the ring and knew what else he wanted a taste of.

They moved in synch now. Turles laid back and spread himself so that Bardock could move down his body, leaving a wet, bruising trail of kisses behind him. The elder saiyajin licked at his ring, one of his marks of ownership, and purred at the strange thrumming it sent through him. He had always been good with his mouth. He licked, tormented, and suckled, taking the eager cock down to the ring and flicking his tongue back and forth as he came up.

The ruined building echoed with Turles' appreciation of his brother's skills.

A perfect body writhed, hard muscle flexing as a velvet tail moved back and forth. Soft, guttural sounds were heard as pleasure became pleading.

Bardock relinquished him, but he'd already begun to make him ready for the next step. Turles ached badly, but he'd given up control already. He didn't protest when he was turned over, obligingly bracing himself and flipping his tail up and out of the way.

"Slut," Bardock said appreciatively, licking at hot curves, and Turles only smacked him with his tail again, hard. Dark eyes under dark lashes met, and then Bardock, snarling, spread his mate wide and sank his cock as far and as deep as it could go into welcoming heat.

It hurt so bad and so good; Turles shouted Bardock's name as he was mounted. He wasn't given any time to adjust before Bardock drew back, outraging stretched muscles, and then thrust back in hard. Turles groaned in appreciation, moving his hips slowly and snaking his tail around Bardock's neck.

There were hard, punishing movements as Bardock thrust into that luscious, tight body. Turles was his, only his, and the feeling of that hot flesh around him was a goddamned sacrament. He tried to let go of his lover's hips so that he could torment the heavy cock between his legs, but the pounding rhythm wouldn't allow it. Fortunately, he was saiyajin and had other resources.

Turles keened as thick velvet coiled around his cock. Already the pleasure was overwhelming, and the ring became cruel, keeping him away from the peak, making him reign his wild need in so that he wouldn't ascend and banish his brother's control altogether. He liked it this way; it was good, better than anything. He could easily overcome Bardock, flip him over and fuck him through the floor, but that wasn't what he needed. Bardock above him, taking it all out of his hands, was sheer, sleazy, reckless, rough, wet perfection.

Bardock hissed, feeling his climax building, and he stopped, rearing up and bring Turles down hard in his lap. His arms wrapped around his brother's chest and stomach as he lifted him up and slammed him down hard again, the sweat pouring down between them making every movement a flicker of slick ecstasy. Turles' head fell back and he spread himself wider, if that was possible, offering everything up. Sharp nails left crimson lines across his chest, scoring one nipple, as Bardock suddenly howled, his body straining as he pulsed out hard and deep inside his mate's body.

Everything stilled for a moment, except for lungs pulling in great gasp of air, and the trembling of Turles' body as he remained in his brother's arms, frozen on the edge of ecstasy. Only through ferocious willpower was Bardock able to keep the ki ring intact as pleasure rocked through him.

Turles could escape the ring. He could overcome it without thinking. It took all his concentration not to. He had submitted to the ring and Bardock's desire to see him this way; it was an act of devotion to remain bound and helpless, waiting for Bardock to reward him with his release.

Bardock smiled and licked once at the back of Turles' neck while he slowly unwound his tail from his lover's swollen cock. He wasn't going to make him beg, but he wasn't going to hurry, either. He wrapped his hand around Turles' aching flesh, enjoying the feel of it: the soft skin over hard flesh, with the pulse hammering against his palm. It was a privilege to touch him that way, and to hear the small harsh sounds his touch evoked. He ghosted his fingers down the shaft and felt his ring in its place. With a soft kiss to Turles' ear, he let his resolve go, and the ring vanished.

All hell broke loose.

Turles let go, his self-control lasting no longer than the cock ring. To his own surprise and pleasure, the painful bliss of an orgasm too long denied smashed through all his barriers, triggering that rarest of saiyajin gifts: ascension. Bardock yelped as the body he was still wrapped around, still buried in, suddenly seemed to explode with light and power, glowing within and without, sending a shock wave through every part of both saiyajins.

Bardock held on for dear life as Turles' body spasmed, the corded muscles of his neck standing out as he arched into a bow. His tail, coiled around Bardock's waist, tightened convulsively, the hard muscle beneath the soft fur digging into his brother's skin and squeezing the air out of him. Despite this, with the blessed alien heat streaming through his flesh and filling his mind, Bardock stiffened and felt another orgasm claim him.

His eyes flaming green, Turles cried out Bardock's name. A corona of light and energy wrapped them both, destroying everything that didn't matter -- and nothing mattered now but the lovers and their joining.

For a long, glorious moment, they remained that way, an avatar of day wrapped in the arms of night. Their minds and their flesh joined, they were aware of nothing but each other.

Then his flames went out and his golden aura inverted. Turles slumped back in Bardock's arms, both of them sweating and breathing hard and savoring the press of heated flesh. After several moments, Bardock slipped free of his mate's body and moved them both several yards so that he could lean up against a fallen pillar while Turles sprawled across his lap. That took all the strength Bardock seemed to have left.

After a short time, Turles stirred, sitting up and turning to press his mouth against his mate's brow. Bardock was slumped against the cracked pillar, still breathing hard. He looked much the worse for wear. His tail was frizzed out and ragged, the fur lifted and skewed in every direction. In contrast, hair was matted evenly across his forehead. Sweat dripped down into one eye, and he glared tiredly at his brother.

//So,// Turles sent, unable to keep the smirk off his face or out of his tone. //Was that epic enough for you?//

//You did that on purpose, didn't you?// Bardock sent, crossing his arms and scowling.

Turles laughed out loud. "Have a little pride! It's not every saiyajin who can fuck me golden."

He leered and then leaned over to delicately lick at Bardock's scar.

"I'd better be the only one..." Bardock growled, pulling his mate down for a deep kiss. When he finally let go of him, Turles was breathless, and happy enough to stay in Bardock's lap, leaning up against him and listening to the thunder of his heart.

After a while, he began gently grooming his brother's tail, smoothing the fur down with careful fingers. It wasn't so much an erotic feeling as a loving, comforting one, and Bardock reciprocated, laying the coarser hairs down over the silky fur underneath with drowsy concentration.

At some point, Guards would be showing up to roust them out and try to arrest them. Nappa himself would probably show up; the two of them were royals and thus specifically his problem to deal with. There were consequences for behaving this badly in public, and not even their family ties made them exempt before the law.

Not that it mattered much. The brothers felt sated, possessive, and sleepy, but not particularly cooperative. Eventually the rubble they were laying in would dig far enough into Bardock's ass to make moving seem like a good idea, but for now they were as comfortable as they could ever hope to be.

Closing his eyes, Bardock nuzzled the dark, unruly hair of the one he loved most, feeling a slow, heavy purring resonate between them. Their mate-bond glowed with silent affection. For now, he wanted nothing more or less than the feeling of his mate in his arms and against his body. This was home, for both of them.

Somewhere in the distance, there was a groan of outraged architecture as the roof began caving in. Neither lover gave it any notice.

.

*****

The Head Archivist was not amused. A few minutes earlier, every scouter in the area had exploded, including the one in her hand. She was high-level enough not to be hurt by such a thing. However, as she watched the roof of the east wing collapse, she was surrounded by the bitching and groaning of injured saiyajins. Her tail snapped irritably back and forth as she regarded the Royal Guard commander in front of her with a sour eye.

"Get your ass in there and get them out of my building," she said slowly, as if explaining it to a small child.

The commander shook his head. "Not me. We're waiting for Lord Nappa, and since he's on the south continent right now, you're going to have to be patient."

"What the hell is Nappa going to do that you can't?" she snapped.

"Lord Nappa," the commander said, stressing the title.

"My ass," she returned steadily. "He's my cousin, and if you don't go in there and drag those assholes out, I'm going to tell him what a bunch of cowards he has in the Guard."

The commander bristled. He knew a thing or two about the couple inside that this loudmouth female did not. Unfortunately, he couldn't say anything about it, or why he was more than reluctant to interrupt them.

She took the words out of his mouth, coming up close and pitching her voice very low. "Look, every scouter within miles just blew out, and the Archives look like a meteor hit it. You think I don't realize who's in there? Nobody has sex that catastrophic unless they're ascended. And that's not Vejiita no Ou or his mate in there. Get your royals out of here before more people show up and guess that either Bardock or Turles has gone golden."

He looked at her, sizing her up. It was true that Turles' ascension was still a state secret; it was going to be a surprise for Kula, hopefully a fatal one. The last thing they needed now, before the war had really gotten underway, was to have speculation about Turles or his mate splashed all over the evening news.

She was right.

"Look at it this way," she added as he sighed. "You know for sure that they're in a good mood right now."

"Great," he muttered, before mentally contacting the rest of his squad. Squaring his shoulders, he went to meet his fate.

*****

"Kakkarot."

"Mmmn...?"

"Your father's a horny bastard, you know that?" Vejiita said, somehow both amused and annoyed by the report he'd just gotten. Sitting back down, he dangled his legs in the water.

Kakkarot rolled over in the bathing pool and rested his head on his arms, looking up at his mate from beneath dark lashes. His tail waved lazily in the warm water. "What did he do now?"

"Apparently, he and Turles fucked a public library to death."

"Mmnn...."

Vejiita leaned down, his lips quirking into a smile, as his hedonistic mate continued to enjoy himself, unbothered by any family folly. Brushing the damp hair from Kakkarot's brow, he asked, "Is that all you have to say about it?"

"Nope."

"Oh?"

Water splashed everywhere as Kakkarot pulled his mate into the pool, wrapping him in his arms and kissing him soundly. With his mouth busy, his response was purely telepathic.

//Good thing I take after my father, now, isn't it?//

~The End~