Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Sculpted In Gold ❯ Uh oh... trouble just walked in... ( Chapter 13 )

Disclaimer: DBZ still isn't mine!! `Nuff said.

Sculpted In Gold

Chapter 13

"What the hell kind of an outfit is this anyway, Zarbon?" Napa growled tugging unhappily at his bowtie again. When one of the slightly built servants attempting to comb Radditz' impossibly long hair noticed what the enormous bald Saiyan was doing, he again came running over and slapped at his hands which made Napa angry again, so he shot straight up out of the chair and growled at the tiny man who ran over and cowered behind Zarbon, again.

"That is considered standard dress for the men of court, Napa. It is called a tuxedo, and you are very lucky that you lost all that weight while you were on De Arran, because the one you are wearing had to be specially made for Captain Ginyue a few months ago, and if you didn't fit in it, I had no idea what to have you wear on such short notice, because Radditz is wearing the one made for Raccome and the one made for Burter would be too tall, even on you… So, you are very lucky. At first I was afraid to look at you in it, but I'd actually have to say you look… nice, Napa. Taking in the seams in a few places was all it needed." Zarbon chuckled from the doorway. "Let go of that and stop it. Growling at them won't help, either. Honestly, Napa, it took five servants almost an hour to get that on you, they aren't about to let you take it off. Besides, you'll probably forget all about your neck tie when you see what the females will be wearing."

Napa sank lower into the overstuffed chair and scowled, crossing his arms over his chest which was bigger and broader than before the mission to De Arran. Coupled with the downsizing of the huge warrior's stomach, Vegeta had to admit, he hadn't really noticed before, but Zarbon was right. Napa looked pretty good, in that suit. All three of them had been ushered into bathing quarters where they had gotten cleaned up from the mission and even fed hurriedly before being dressed these, after Vegeta and Napa had landed at the Base located at the other end of the Palace grounds.

He glanced at Radditz, whose hair was finally being gathered back into a ponytail and gave another approving nod, noting that he had really gotten into shape while on De Arran, too. Both of his fellow Saiyans had more than doubled their power levels while they had been on that mission, so Vegeta didn't know why he was surprised. After all, without him to lead them and since at the time neither could have made the moon orb, Radditz and Napa had been forced to use their own brains for once, just to survive on that mission, and Vegeta had to admit he was actually proud of them. How often had Vegeta heard about the Killjarrin missions lately? At the last count he had heard about, more than one hundred of Frieza's fighters had lost their lives on the five hardest missions that were supposed to have been easy on paper. After all the mistakes Radditz and Napa had told him about in the scouting reports for De Arran, Vegeta could only hope that Frieza had destroyed those Killjarrin bastards. How many forces had he heard about taking on one of those missions only to loose more than half of their men or worse even find themselves actually defeated or even killed lately? And yet one small two person team had survived, on their own for more than a month without their leader or back up? And De Arran was thought by many to have been the most difficult mission of all twenty that had been offered to the Purge Alliance by the Killjarrin delegation. Vegeta smirked, Radditz might only be third class, and Napa was a destructive idiot who often seemed no more grown up than a toddler, but at least they had proven themselves as tough, adaptable and brave as Saiyans were supposed to be.

"So, how long is this marriage thing going to take anyway?" Napa growled again trying to stick his finger between the tight collar of his shirt and his thick neck.

"Marriage? This isn't the wedding Napa, this is just the Engagement party." Zarbon told him. "This is where the other nobles from around the Empire will come to congratulate Vegeta and Shannelle on deciding to get married. Elves don't believe making important decisions like this suddenly. A year from now is the absolute nearest date that Empress Shinesta would be willing to consider for her daughter's wedding."

"What?? This is stupid, why do we need to be here if we aren't even having the wedding yet? Does this mean next year I have to wear this again??" Napa groaned, still trying to pull his bowtie off, or at least loosen it from his neck.

The servants finally seemed done with Radditz's hair, so Zarbon moved to the door. "Alright you three, lets go. Napa stop it, it isn't going to kill you to leave that alone."

"Where are we going now?" Napa growled like a pouting child. "Can't we just forget about this, I can think of a few hundred planets I'd rather be on, getting back to work, than here."

"Prince Vegeta might find it awkward to have to explain his absence to his fiancé's mother if he doesn't attend. After all, the entire palace knows you have arrived, and Shannelle herself has quite a stake in this too, she would likely call it grounds not to marry you."

"Why would Prince Vegeta care what his future mother in law thinks?" Napa laughed.

"She is Frieza's political consort, Napa. She plans all the functions of state, all the banquets, holds dinner parties, even plays croquet and has afternoon tea served in the gardens every day. Basically, she knows more of the visiting dignitaries than I do, at any given time here in the palace. If she chooses to, Empress Shinesta can make life very uncomfortable at court for anyone even Frieza, except that he just doesn't care. Luckily she has a soft heart and uses her influence to try to right wrongs and help save lives. She is a tireless champion of lost causes and without a doubt, the bravest woman I've ever seen- and damn it- here she comes. Now what??"

"Zarbon!" The Empress said urgently, making a beeline straight for the Saurian. "Zarbon, we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"Do you remember the- Oh I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were with guests. Well, well," She giggled. "Hello again, Radditz. You look absolutely wonderful! Well, much better than Captain Ginyue did in this, at any rate, so then, you must be Napa, and Prince Vegeta, I assume." She said nodding to each of them in turn, though she did try, she couldn't quite keep the frost from her voice as she had guessed Vegeta's name. "I'm pleased to meet you all, but I'm afraid I need to borrow Zarbon for a moment."

"I don't think we have time to talk right now." Zarbon nodded his head, as Frieza strolled through the lobby and over to the entrance to the grand Ballroom.

Shinesta's silver eyes narrowed as she quickly walked over to where Frieza was heading. When he went inside the huge room, she followed him and they all heard a resounding slap. Radditz's eyes widened thinking for a moment if Frieza had to have killed her… but Zarbon was trying not to laugh, already quietly closing the doors to the huge room as the tiny empress began to very quietly yell at Frieza.

"That little female… the one that was just over here talking to us- did she just-" Vegeta quickly punched Napa in the stomach to shut him up but not hard enough to hurt him and draw attention, since a few of the other guests were beginning to enter the lobby.

All at once the Empress's angry tirade was silenced mid rant and Zarbon rolled his eyes, he already had to stand right next to the door to hear what was going on, after all, Shinesta was used to being angry at Frieza and having to try and hide it but the three Saiyans had been able to hear almost every word she had said with their sensitive ears. Now none of them heard anything and even Vegeta found himself wondering if the bold little female was alright. He glanced at Zarbon and noted the Saurian was looking at the top of the stairs, where there were more guests milling about. The ground level of the lobby around them was beginning to get filled up with guests too. Following Zarbon's gaze, he saw what had his attention- it was her. Shani was up there, surrounded by more elves and close beside her stood an enormous female with a peaches and cream complexion and strawberry blonde hair, which seemed to be looking at Radditz- or Napa it was hard to decide which.

Zarbon sighed inwardly, as he looked at the guests, and then forced himself to smile. "Well, since our guests of honor have arrived, I think it's time to welcome you all to the Palace. Some of you, I'm sure, know why you are here. Others just received word of tonight's little party a few hours ago. On behalf of Lord Frieza, and Empress Shinesta, your host and hostess for tonight's gathering I would like to welcome you all to the Engagement Party of Prince Vegeta and his intended Fiancé, Princess Shannelle, who just happens to be the daughter of our hostess. I'd like to direct your attention to the Grand Ballroom, where we will be having music and dancing and a light buffet before dinner is served. Please, make yourselves at home."

Much to Zarbon's relief, as he opened the door, Lord Frieza and Shinesta were neither fighting nor kissing anymore. Frieza was standing at the door, waiting to greet his guests, while Shinesta was pretending to straighten a large flower arrangement on one of the buffet tables along the far wall opposite the doors to the Veranda all of which were open to let in the evening air.

Zarbon made his way over to Shinesta quietly. "Are you alright?"

"Thanks to you I'm still dressed, at least." Shinesta cracked a grin. "I think he'd like to kill you right about now, I wouldn't suggest that you go near him for a while, till he cools off a little. Thank you, Zarbon, if I had to let him..."

"Oh!!" Squealed a perky voice, as a two legged woman with six eyes and four arms scrambled over to where the Empress and Zarbon were talking. "Wonderful job on the decorations, Lady Shinesta, it looks like tonight will be a wonderful success for you! And congratulations too, on your daughter's engagement! With all the terrible things going on in the universe right now- well it's just lovely to see two young people in love, isn't it?"

The Empress quickly forced herself to smile. "Yes, thank you, Lady Jasmine. I'm sure our two lovebirds will get along just fine."

"Well it's nice to see we have her on our side." Zarbon sighed, smiling and nodding politely as the guests filtered through the buffet line and politely offered their congratulations. "Lady Alana and Lady Mildred seemed a bit skeptical when I ran into them this morning."

"Oh no! I forgot to tell you what I came to tell you earlier!"

"What is it?"

"Durmast is bringing a date to the party."

"This ought to be interesting. Do you know which one yet? I doubt any of the nobles will find the presence of a pleasure slave as amusing as Lord Frieza and Durmast always do."

"Durmast and the other members of the Purge Alliance are all worse than animals. Interesting isn't quite what I would call it. Frieza may not care… but I don't want any of my Empire's allies to have their kings and queens propositioned like house slaves or worse by Durmast and his friends. This is ridiculous, what a farce. Frieza does whatever he wants to and leaves the political messes he makes for you and I to try to clean up."

"What are you doing over here, Mother?" Shani asked, curiously. "Why do you two look so serious anyway? I thought you told me that this was supposed to be fun."

Shinesta never got a chance to answer her daughter though as a huge man dressed in black leathers wearing a long black cape over one shoulder came sauntering over to the doors with an absently smiling, lavender skinned female with long hot pink hair clinging to his arm. She was wearing a little bikini in ruby red satin and a bold, fully transparent, red wrap over it. And the number three was tattooed on her slim upper arm in bright red ink. "If Frieza lets Durmast in here with that… Oh, I'm going to be sick. Zarbon! Do something!"

"Who is that?" Vegeta asked, joining them with Radditz and Napa tagging along, both of whom were also staring in surprise as Frieza let the man bring a pleasure slave into the party.

"That would be Durmast, the second most powerful man in Frieza's empire. And on his arm is Frieza's favorite pleasure slave, number three. What exactly do you want me to do, My Lady? Our lord is allowing it, hell it was probably his idea."

"Probably." Shinesta sighed, glancing at the shy and demure little pleasure slave. As always when she was brought to a party, number three was polite and soft spoken as she clung to Durmast's arm. A few of the more daring male dignitaries who were without their wives or consorts came over to Durmast to talk and seemed to want to include the girl in their discussion. Shinesta growled. "At least she is pretty. Even for a pleasure slave, there really is something interesting about her. And I've talked to her, she actually is intelligent and well mannered- but damn it! She is still a created slave, and this is my daughter's engagement party! Durmast is such an asshole! I'm going to have Raya cast a very long, very powerful impotence spell on him tonight, I swear it!!!"

"Mother!!" Shani gasped, actually taking a step back from her normally annoyingly prim and proper mother. "I don't believe you just said that."

"I'm sorry darling, but that overgrown ox of a man does this at all the dinner parties I am forced to hold here at the palace for Frieza and the rest of the Purge Alliance! But it is worse when it is only them, because the slave he brings with him will be sitting in his lap, feeding him with her fingers… Durmast is worse than a barbarian, because he knows perfectly well what proper manners and behavior are. His presence here tonight is a way for Frieza to try and anger the nobles, while he pretends to sit innocently on his throne. As if it were not disgusting enough that Durmast is a slave trader, a gladiator and an occasional Space pirate, he also sits on the visible throne of the single most powerful planet in Frieza's Empire. Kwanzaa is a den for all sorts of illegal activities, besides being the main center for the slave trade and Frieza's most powerful backer in the planet trade, as the universe's second largest bank. All of it thanks to that man, right there. Only a flamboyant peacock like Durmast could make depravity like this seem so irritatingly normal."

Zarbon chuckled. Vegeta, who found the presence of a pleasure slave at his engagement party every bit as disgusting as the Empress seemed to, glared at Zarbon. But the Saurian didn't seem to notice; since he was keeping an eye on Frieza... the tyrant was almost done greeting his guests and would probably proceed to his throne. When Frieza sat down, the music would start and the party would actually begin. Vegeta paid little attention to ceremony and decorum at court, since he was never there, but even he didn't need anyone to tell him he would be expected to dance the first dance with his "fiancé".

He growled quietly, he had been unwilling even to let himself look at her, and so far, he had been doing an excellent job of ignoring her. After all, with the interesting discussion Zarbon and the Empress, had been having, he had plenty to think about, but he knew he'd eventually have to at least make it look like he was interested in marrying Shani… and that meant he'd have to dance with her, talk to her and sit next to her at dinner… Speaking of his intended- where was she anyway?

**

Shani had been cornered and dragged away from her mother and the others, by a bunch of the court's other young females, and was being asked questions so quickly she couldn't answer them, so she was just trying to nod and smile to the excited, very friendly bunch of girls. This was her first real party; it wasn't fair that she wasn't really here to enjoy herself. This should be fun, she should be as excited and thrilled just to be here as these girls were- and instead her stomach was in knots wondering what- if anything Vegeta would say to her. Would he dance with her? Would he ever actually look at her tonight? Did she look pretty? She sighed, and looked down not even noticing that the musicians had just started to play the first chords to the first song.

"Excuse me ladies." Purred a very sexy voice, and Shani looked up to meet the midnight stare of her fiancé. "Come, my Princess, I believe this is our dance."

"So you will consent to talk to me here, after all?" Shani quietly inquired, slipping her arm into his, she let him lead her out onto the empty ballroom floor. Everyone was watching them so she made herself smile as she said it.

"Depends on what you have to say, I suppose." He smirked coldly and Shani had to force the grin back onto her face as he pulled her against him suddenly. He was careful not to hurt her but firm and she stared at him in disbelief. Her skin felt warm a moment ago just looking into his eyes again! Now feeling her entire body pressed close to his, there were butterflies in her stomach again, and she knew he could probably feel her aroused nipples through her gown. Shani growled, leave it to a Priestess of Love to choose a sheer gown of pure white silk for an evening where it would be so important to keep things proper. She took a step back and scowled.

"How dare you?" She whispered, her eyes leaving his for the barest second, Vegeta knew without following her gaze that she was looking at her mother. "This evening will see us engaged; Vegeta, but it will not see me in your bed."

He gave an indignant snort, but continued to give her his arrogant little smirk. "Silly girl, we've already been there together. Need I remind you that you enjoyed it immensely?"

"In case you haven't noticed we are supposed to act like we haven't slept together. Please be a gentleman and remember that I'll be expected to slap you if you grab me like that again." Shani rested her left hand high upon his shoulder and her other hand in his, out to the side, determined to keep a respectable distance between them for the waltz. Almost before she was ready, he was already spinning her around the dance floor.

She was a little surprised, as she realized he was a good dancer. She had been taught all the dances of court by Raya and her mother, long ago, but it was different some how, to do it with a boy. She blushed a little, wondering when he might have learned to dance with as busy as he was with the planets he had destroyed. Vegeta was naturally graceful, and she liked having his hands on her body again, although she was trying to ignore it, so she started making herself count the steps to their dance instead.

He chuckled, practically purring as he looked at her. Her eyes were everywhere but his and he could tell by her scent that she was as attracted to him as he was to her. Whoever had done her clothes and her make up and her hair was very talented, he decided. He had thought, when he saw her the first time, that there would never be any way to make this girl more beautiful. He knew better now. Her long hair was down in the back, but the sides, and her bangs were drawn up and back away from her face, held in place by delicate diamond and platinum combs so that only a few tiny ringlets escaped to frame her beautiful face. Her gown clung to her so beautifully it looked almost like it had been poured onto her body. The plunging neckline, sheer bodice and off the shoulder styling was definitely not what he had expected her to be wearing. He had thought she would be wrapped up in so many layers that she'd resemble a wedding cake and be unable to move in it. Then again, he glanced at her mother's ensemble. The Empress too, was dressed in a gown that was as alluring as she was beautiful, although hers was rich powder blue brocade, and was held up by only one wide off center strap, perhaps it was just in the nature of Elves to dress so sensually.

Many other ladies wore the frilly, flowery sort of gowns that Vegeta was expecting, but a few of the more adventurous looking ones were wearing outfits that seemed more similar to the sheer, colorful, much sexier gown like the one that the Empress was wearing, though no one looked as comfortable as she did in hers. Then again, Vegeta noticed as he and Shani swept around the dance floor that Durmast and the rest of the Purge Alliance members seemed to be eyeing the females that had dared to dress differently than the majority of the women present. Vegeta could see that the nobles and the Purge Alliance were staying on separate sides of the Ballroom, and although the party was just getting started, he doubted that that would change; the room had a very tense feeling about it.

As the musicians at the far end of the room played their final notes, Vegeta released his hold on Shani's waist, bowing to her, as she curtsied before him. He completely ignored the applause and began to lead her back over to where Zarbon seemed to be babysitting Napa.

"Well," Zarbon turned around and sighed as the two of them walked over. "The two of you almost looked like you were glad to see each other again, at first. Shannelle you were waltzing perfectly, you didn't need to count off every step. And you, Vegeta, couldn't you have at least tried to pretend like you might be able to think of something to talk to her about?"

"Well excuse me. You know, three days ago I wasn't even old enough to attend this kind of a party, Zarbon. Technically I'm still not old enough to be here, but I since it's kind of an emergency, I tried to be nice. I tried to talk to him and of course all I got back was that smirk and a little more sarcasm. If I didn't concentrate on something I would've fallen asleep out there." Shani crossed her arms over her chest and growled, as she walked over toward the punch bowl.

The Empress and Zarbon just looked at each other and sighed, while Vegeta turned his attention to the rest of the party with a shrug. There were about fifty couples dancing now, and yet things were still very uneasy, Frieza seemed bored on his throne and Durmast and his escort were apparently on their way out into the gardens. Vegeta growled, as several other guests followed rather indiscreetly.

"What is wrong, Vegeta?" Napa asked quietly, which got Zarbon's attention too.

"Is that fool really going to leave this early?"

"Actually the party would be better off without him, but alright." Zarbon sighed, but crossed the dance floor heading toward Frieza's throne, where he paused for a moment, and then continued out the door that Durmast had gone through. A moment later a rather startled looking black garbed giant, came back into the ballroom and Vegeta smirked, when Zarbon was gone for a while, supposing that the Saurian was taking the pleasure slave back to the harem where she would be safe.

"I wonder what these are." Radditz said, quietly to Napa as he picking up the last of some sort of an orangish, three segmented food sticks off of what had been a huge tray of them.

"I don't know, but they taste pretty good. Better than Dodoria did anyway." Napa shrugged, making Radditz laugh.

The Empress giggled, walking over to join them. "I see you two have found the crab legs. Personally I like these, little shrimp tails when you dip them in that red sauce over there. I'll have the servants bring out another tray of those. I thought Zarbon told me he had arranged to feed you three earlier."

Napa cleared his throat and stammered a little. "He did, before they made us start getting dressed in these they brought in lots of food… but this just looked really good. Sorry I guess we weren't supposed to eat the whole tray… were we?"

Shinesta giggled as both of the huge Saiyans looked down at the floor, as if they were expecting to be scolded. "It's alright. We have more trays full of them, I have just never seen anyone eat that many that quickly before. Try whatever you like, that is why it is here but remember there will be a huge dinner later as well."

"Well," Vegeta growled, watching the Empress leave to go find some servants to replace the tray. "All things considered, I'd say that so far, you are both behaving rather well, keep it that way."

The two Saiyans beamed happily at their prince before they resumed eating, and Vegeta decided to try a few of the different types of the sandwiches.

"Where did she go?" Growled a low voice coming from behind Vegeta, and the three Saiyans turned around to see the black garbed Durmast glaring at them.

"Where did who go?" Napa asked, giving the man a blank stare.

"Oh you know, the little golden bitch, you were just talking to her. Empress Shinesta, she was just over here, but where did that little whore wander off to…"

"How dare you talk about my mother that way? She said that you don't have any business being at our party anyway!" Shani planted her hands on her hips and glared up at Durmast.

"Well, well. If it isn't little miss birthday present." Durmast laughed out loud, then leered down at her rather menacingly. "Yes, you are beautiful, aren't you? Frieza has always had quite an eye for women… You remind me a little too much of your dam. I don't suppose you know where she went though, do you, little princess?"

Another man in dressed in all black, this one shorter and considerably smaller built than Durmast peered around him. "Well boss, if they all look this good, I think maybe we ought to ask Shetar if he needs any help over there governing Talon. But actually, I'm kinda partial to this little bitch. I like `em feisty. I wonder if Frieza would..."

"This one is already spoken for; perhaps if you had been paying attention earlier you'd know that, idiot." Vegeta growled, before he could stop himself, and he was about to walk away, dragging Shani with him, but the other man spoke again.

"Aww." Durmast's flunky laughed. "What's the matter little monkey? Oh that's right, there's no little girl Saiyans left, are there? So Frieza had to give you something else to play with, didn't he? It's really kind'a sad to see you so attached to your first lover, Vegeta. I'd say I'm disappointed, but we all know about how you feel about capturing females and stuff…"

Vegeta glared at him, more than a dozen of the nearest nobles were now staring right at them, in disbelief, but before he could say anything, Zarbon arrived, folding his arms across his chest. "Durmast! Put a muzzle on that little pet of yours before I do it for you. This is a party. Why don't you find something fun to do?"

"We were going to do something fun… till that little bitch Shinesta spoiled things again." The guy with Durmast growled, as the two men turned to head back to the other side of the room.

"She didn't have anything to do with that, actually." Vegeta laughed. "I sent Zarbon to stop you. I figured anyone so pathetic that they needed to bring pleasure slaves into a party where there are already so many beautiful females, just doesn't deserve to have sex. Zarbon, what is this dog's name? He dared to insult my fiancé and then admitted that he can't get a woman of his own without raping or buying her."

"I take it this means you intend to challenge Clayton?" Zarbon seemed amused and Vegeta nodded with a smirk.

"I-I didn't say that!! I just meant, I…"

"Since now he is calling me a liar, I wouldn't say he is giving me much of a choice, would you?" Zarbon chuckled as he moved over toward Frieza's throne, taking Durmast and the other warrior with him. Vegeta chuckled smugly, but before he could say anything else, Shani tore her wrist out of Vegeta's grip.

"Vegeta, NO! This is ridiculous!" She hissed trying to be quiet. "So he's an idiot with a brain the size of a pea! So what? You don't have to fight him."

Vegeta turned to glare at her. "Stay out of this. The sooner we make it clear to everyone that I refuse to be insulted by having my name linked with yours, in a scandalous manner, the sooner we will quell any chance of there being a scandal. You ought to be thanking me for this."

"Thank you? For causing a scene at our engagement party?? I hope that was a joke of some kind." Shani growled.

Shinesta, who had finally come back, also gave Vegeta a hard look, only Radditz and Napa seemed unconcerned, as they continued to eat crab legs. "You should wait. You don't know anything about Clayton! He is a professional gladiator, trained to fight in Arena Darkskull by Durmast himself, he knows every dirty trick there is and he has never been beaten in…"

Vegeta growled audibly, interrupting her warning, his tail flickering angrily behind him. "Perhaps you have forgotten who I am, My Lady. I am Prince Vegeta of the Saiyans. I have been destroying entire planets since I was five years old. This mere gladiator is a fool if he thinks I will let him get away with insulting me as if I were some weakling descended from powerless bureaucrats, like you. It is my responsibility to protect what is mine as I see fit, and if I'm not mistaken, as of tonight, that includes your daughter."

"Yes, but his power level is higher than yours." Shinesta whispered. "I was only…"

"Really?" He smirked as he looked the other man over. "Then this party might just get interesting after all."

OK… in the next chappy, we are going to get it on!! LOL, I mean fight *giggle *. Review please!! You know I'd love to hear from everybody!! ^_^