Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Step-parent Saiyan Blues ❯ Some things Humans do Better ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: Toriyama created DBZ, and Toei Animation Co and Funimation own it. I only own Fermi, Bohr and Stellari, my fan characters. This is for entertainment only and I make no money writing this.

 

Some Things those Humans Do Better then Saiyans

By Trynia Merin

 

Thanks to Butterfly V for reviewing this story. I hope some of those questions will be addressed in this next installment. This takes place before the 'hunting lodge' scene around the time Raditz first starts training the twins. Italics indicate flashbacks and telepathic conversation. I know that some people might think the idea of Raditz not being able to swim and being scared of sea water might seem strange, but I'm trying to show a different side of him here.

 

***

 

Raditz flair of frustration snapped her momentarily but she reassured him it was only for training's sake. Just how jealous he could be thrilled her and scared her simultaneously.

 

"I never went that far with him," Stellari returned.

 

"You are my mate! And he was around your children!"

 

"I never 'knew him' in the Biblical sense!" she said aloud.

 

"Ah," Raditz said. Faint pink tinted his angular cheeks at his mistake.

 

"You males are all alike, no matter what the race," she grumbled. Into existence on her palm crackled a softball sized ball of purple ki. It intensified.

 

"Human females are fickle indeed," he egged her on. Stellari snorted with indignation, holding her hand aloft and pivoting on her left foot.

 

"Take THIS, you baboon!" she shrilled. "Saturday Crush!"

 

Into Raditz gut the sphere impacted. The force tossed him backwards, exploding in his face with amethyst light. Although it was far too small to cause harm, it did sting his dense skin with the smell of thick ozone. Panting, Stellari held her stomach while leaning over. Sweat dribbled down her face and pooled on the floor. He staggered backwards, barely catching himself on his outstretched hand.

 

"Well done!" Raditz laughed, throwing his head back. Partly he lay on the floor propped on one arm to look up at her with pride.

 

"You jerk, you did that deliberately to make me angry!" she realized.

 

"Anger, fear, hatred are very powerful emotions."

 

"I see the need for them, but they're not very…"

 

"Not very Christian like emotions? Allow me to correct you? Weren't there many instances in your so called Old Testament where the Hebrew people you admire used their anger to 'get even'?" he asked.

 

"If you've read as much as you knew, you'd know we're supposed to 'love our enemies'," she panted.

 

"But war is warranted, love," Raditz responded. "Even in the end of your Good Book there is a huge battle between good and evil… as all fight against your so called Beast… Armageddon?"

 

"Revelation is the least understood of the books. There are still those that believe it as a literal plan for the End Times, and others that say it was written by Saint John to give hope to the Christians under Nero, and is merely allegory," she glared at him. "But I see your point."

 

"I have read much, love. For as much piece and love exists, this Book speaks of war and bloodshed just as much," Raditz said quietly, extending his hand to help her up. "But there is much I don't comprehend."

 

"Hence the need for others to help you," she responded, letting him pull her to her feet.

 

"Your ki is very strong. It's grown greatly since we've been together. You have the ability to be devastating in your attacks, why don't you release it?" he answered. Slowly she reached up to rest her hand against his armored chest. Raditz wiped sweat from her cheeks with one hand.

 

“I guess because I'm tired of blowing things up and destroying them. I got to admit part of me enjoys fighting, but the rest is just putting it behind me,” she answered.

 

“Let me see what you've done. Let me into your mind a bit more to share,” Raditz quietly urged.

 

“When you feel comfortable to share with me perhaps,” she answered. To this statement, Raditz furrowed his dark eyebrows. Through their developing bond she felt the resentment along with a slight tinge of understanding a second later.

 

“Point taken,” Raditz answered.

 

“Maybe we should go home and call it a day,” she suggested. Raditz nodded. Both boys quietly entered carrying fresh towels and bottles of water. Sensing their parents' quiet mood, Fermi and Bohr glanced nervously from one to the other.

 

“Thank you,” Stellari smiled. Raditz grunted, softening the frown on his face while bending over to extend one arm to the twins.

 

“Most appreciated, young warriors,” Raditz gruffly said. Bohr raised the small bottle of sport drink to him along with a towel. Fermi handed Stellari the same two items.

 

“We're going home now boys. I think that's enough for one day,” Stellari answered. Sweat was absorbed by fluffy towels at the same time body fluid was replenished by huge draughts of water. The twins could feel the silent tension, yet felt the reassurance that it was just an ordinary type existing between two people growing into a new relationship. Through her bond with her sons, Stellari sent much reassurance. Raditz body language was disciplined like all Saiyan warriors to show little emotion beyond indifference. Still Raditz hand that Bohr clenched remained steady and strong indicating no malice but acceptance.

 

***

 

Thirty minutes later the weary family returned home with gym bags slung over their shoulders. Fermi and Bohr hung their backpacks up neatly along with jackets next to the Addidas bags that Raditz and Stellari tossed down. Still she wore the blue breastplate over her t shirt. Instead of properly slipping her arms through the sleeves of her raincoat she draped it around her shoulders like a cape.

 

“Good grief, who piled all these books here!” she gasped. Her eyes darted around the vertical stacks of books by the sofa.

 

“Er… I was reading about your history,” Raditz quickly answered.

 

“He was studying,” Fermi said, nudging a pile of books with his toe.

 

“You usually put the books BACK when you're done!” Stellari groaned.

 

“My apologies,” Raditz said sheepishly. “I'll do so now.”

 

“Boys, put your used clothes in the bin with mine, and I'll think about dinner,” she said. “After I shower and change of course.”

 

“You shower, I will procure food,” Raditz answered.

 

“But you don't cook…” she trailed off. “And takeout every night isn't good.”

 

“I've watched you use the cooking machines. It cannot be too difficult,” Raditz waved his arm. “Besides, I'm sure the instruction manual…”

 

“I'm too tired to think straight,” she groaned.

 

“I can help a bit,” Bohr insisted.

 

“Huh you would,” Fermi mumbled. “Trying to get out of your chores?”

 

“I took out the trash last week so you could trade for laundry!” Bohr argued.

 

“Boys, enough, Mommy needs a shower!” Stellari grunted.

 

“I'll put away the books, you do your chores, and then see me when you're done,” Raditz interrupted. “Your mother needs our assistance, we shall be glad to give it, right young ones?”

 

“Okay,” Bohr said.

 

“Right Mom, sorry, just as long as he doesn't…” Fermi started.

 

“Enough. Mind Raditz, that's a good boy,” Stellari pleaded. She removed the loaned armor from Raditz and set it on the floor, then leaned over to kiss either son on the forehead before moving back to the shower. Fermi and Bohr opened the bags and removed the sweaty clothes to take to the laundry chute. Raditz busied himself putting the books away that he'd pored over.

 

“You can't wear armor all the time can you, sir?” Fermi interrupted him. Raditz spun around to see Fermi carrying a neatly folded pair of shorts and a capsule T shirt.

 

“Mom's idea. She said your armor smelled funky, sir,” Fermi shrugged.

 

“Why do I get the idea that was your word?” Raditz laughed. Still it had the hard edge of a Saiyan, but the boy giggled along with it. He accepted the items so he could go back to their bedroom and change out of his armor.

 

“I'm gonna figure out a way to surprise Mommy about dinner,” Fermi whispered. “Sometimes we make some kind of huge salad. We'll fix it up, you take a shower.”

 

“You say I smell, boy?” Raditz asked.

 

“Well kinda. Not that it's bad, but if mom complains…” he trailed off. “You smell like a guy who's worked out really hard. Like me an' Bohr.”

 

“Like old gym socks?” Bohr added. He wandered up to where they were standing.

 

“Or just sweaty T shirts?” Raditz added.

 

“Sweaty tee shirt kinda smell. Not the weird corn chip smell like a locker room,” Fermi joked.

 

“I don't care, but Mom does, and you know…” trailed off Bohr. “Taking a bath everyday's way too much!”

 

“We'll make up that huge salad for Mommy and open one of the capsule meals that she has ready when she'll all tired,” Fermi nodded. “You shower the funk off, sir.”

 

“Mmm, I shall take care of that detail,” Raditz answered. He carried his clothes back to his room, and then sensed that there was no shower going. Instead the large spa-like tub was filled and he saw candles flickering. The ritual of a bath was something that Stellari said women often did to relax. He was relieved that the boys seemed to have a good deal of self sufficiency then he had originally thought earth males did at this age. However instinct told him that the lack of a father figure had pushed them towards independence far faster then necessary.

 

Setting the T shirt and shorts on the bed, Raditz slowly opened the door and stopped. “Precious one, I'm here. May I enter?” he said gruffly. Instinct also told him that human senses were woefully incapable of telling them when someone was there. Judging from the memories he'd gleaned of her past, she hated being surprised.

 

“Yes. Are the boys ok?”

 

“They said they'd see to Dinner. I understand one of them said I smelled `funky?” Raditz grunted, shucking off his armor till he was only in his spandex.

 

“Well, I confess I'm behind that. I figured you could have a nice quick shower. And the boys know how to cook a few meals. I know that's not exactly Saiyan culture…”

 

“Not all food preparation is left to females after a long hunt. Children sometimes take on that role. Since you have no daughters…”

 

“Hmm, I'm not going to call you a chauvinist, I mean I was raised with certain `traditional' roles,” she said, sitting up in the bath a bit. Raditz strode past her, and then tugged off his spandex and bracers so his scarred body was visible. Long hair covered everything strategically on his back, to her annoyance.

 

“I… will get used to your worlds strange customs,” Raditz mumbled, his tail dropping from his waist to swish indecisively back and forth. He glanced from the bathtub to the shower, wondering if she would let him join her, or if she wanted `space'. She had only filled it partway, so her knees had stuck up from the surface where rose petals and bath salts floated. Did this show she expected someone else to climb in since the level was far shallower?

 

“You can join me if you want,” she said quietly, seeing him bite his lip. Raditz carefully stepped up onto the side of the tub, and then slid down in so he wouldn't cause a tidal wave when his massive body displaced the water.

 

Fortunately it was large enough for two people to sit in. As he sat down opposite her, his long legs tangled a bit against hers, and she laughed. His long hair he let drape down on the floor, then she pushed the tray of bath things forward. Strategically it covered her mid body when he had walked in, but now he sniffed the strange soaps and chemicals with surprise. It all smelled floral, overloading his sensitive smell to where he sneezed.

 

“Sorry,” she apologized.

 

“I can't smell anything anymore,” he complained.

 

“Uh oh,” she said. “I guess then you're just like a puny human then?”

 

“Another point for you,” he grumbled, grabbing the strangely shaped sponge and dumping the nearest bottle of pink stuff onto it. Soap was soap to him, and since they didn't use that on Vegetasei, the whole way humans bathed was foreign. Most of them used oil or sand, because Vegetasei was a desert and who'd waste water for bathing when a sweat lodge or oil was used with special surfactants. Sand was also an effective method for getting off grime. Oddly enough, many Saiyans didn't even CARE for water to immerse themselves because apart from using ki to move, swimming was considered undesirable. Rushing back to his mind came the first experience he had shared only a few days after coming to this planet and accompanying his new mate to the beach for some unwinding time.

 

Walking along the beach was something Raditz hated. He detested salt water and wet sand. Dry sand was fine, for running in the Vegetasei deserts was something he liked. However swimming was something very unfathomable to a being from a world where water was underground or in small lakes. Two thirds of Earth was covered in briny salt and he detested the taste.

 

Stellari whooped and grabbed his hand, pulling him along. “C'mon, give it a try.”

 

“I can't smell a DAMN thing…” he cursed, sneezing the salty air.

 

“It's a human past time,” she laughed, pulling him towards the surf. Raditz gritted at the feeling of the sand in his toes. Briny sea lapped at his toes, and he felt the cold pull of the water. Tides and seas he had seen on other worlds, but Earth's huge oceans just made him balk in fear.

 

“I… cannot,” Raditz said quietly, standing still.

 

“What do you mean?” Stellari asked, standing near him.

 

“I… don't swim,” Raditz huffed. “It's a foolish human waste of time!”

 

“Are you insane? It's the BEST exercise!!!”

 

“Saiyans DON'T swim… unless… necessary. We can hunt from the sky easily without having to immerse ourselves in brine!”

 

“Oh… so swimming's not GOOD enough for you?” she laughed. “Are you afraid of the ocean?”

 

“Salt water is awful,” he sneezed.

 

“It won't hurt you. Your body is mostly salt water!” she glared at him.

 

“I don't swim!” Raditz grunted.

 

“Haven't you tried? In all the worlds you purged, you can't tell me you didn't' learn to swim once?”

 

“I never had the need,” Raditz confessed. “I… sink.”

 

“You can float in the ocean,” she said. “It's not fresh water.”

 

“The last time I swam was… not very pleasant,” Raditz grunted.

 

“Here… we'll just wade. C'mon, if I a puny human can, you can too!” she snorted, grabbing his hand. “It's like flying!”

 

Stellari tugged at him. Raditz grunted as she held his hand and slowly walked him towards a tide pool. He liked the natural park, but when it came to setting toes in the ocean, he hated it. Yet Stellari loved it. Salt air erased his senses, stinting his throat and nose. Yet her damp hair and creamy white skin glistened with the drops of water, making her suit stick to her curvy body in a most erotic way. First they let the tide wash over them, and then he grew used to the dragging pull of the ocean.

 

“Planet Vegeta had two moons, and two suns. But no seas,” Raditz said. “Only large freshwater lakes. Only one or two seas we avoided at all costs.”

 

“Why don't you like swimming?” she asked.

 

“We… lived in trees then caves. We had no need to swim,” he grunted.

 

“Humans fish,” she said.

 

“We can fish with our ki,” he said. “I know Kakkarot swims, but many of us don't.”

 

Stellari glanced at the waves lapping up. To Raditz shock he swore the wet line of sand was further inland since they arrived an hour ago. “Is… the water… rising?”

 

“It's closer to high tide,” she said.

 

“High what?”

 

“Tide. The moon pulls on the earth… and creates the tide. What you don't have TIDE on your worlds?”

 

“Well yes but I never thought about it!” he grunted.

 

“Well over here you can go out a bit more,” she said, tugging his hand. Raditz submitted, letting her guide him to where the current and the waves were deeper. As they waded out, the pull became greater. Suddenly a large swell slammed into them, and Raditz felt his hand ripped from Stellari's.

 

“Glaargh!” he gasped, his feet tugged from under him. Gasping he struggled to find a foothold, but the sand made for a poor one. Before he knew it the tide slammed him into the water, and drew him out with each pulse. He scrambled to stand, only to fall and be pulled further from shore.

 

“Raditz!” Stellari cried. She saw him feebly struggling to splash, but his soaked hair weighted him down, and he forgot to use his ki. Panic set in. He couldn't concentrate his energy to even levitate as the water closed in over him, and his neck dragged back. A mouthful of salt swirled in, and he halfway forgot to hold his breath. Survival told him to kick and flail and fight, but he could only barely keep his head above the surface. Something seemed to be dragging him inexorably out.

 

“Raditz!” someone screamed. Frantically Stellari swam out after him, forgetting all the rules of swimming. Her body floated easily as she let herself drift after her mate. Eyes closed and she struggled to think to him.

 

“Lay on your back fool. Don't fight!” came her thoughts.

 

“I can't… breathe!”

 

“Stop fighting! Lie on your back and arch it! You'll float! Trust me!” came her thoughts. Raditz forced himself to stop fighting and struggled to follow her directions. To his shock once he arched his back his chin and jaw automatically rolled upwards. He spat out a huge mouthful and gasped while he floated just under the surface. Visible to him was the expanse of blue sky filled with wispy clouds. Sea birds squawked and skated on the briny breezes overhead while the lone sun hung halfway on the horizon. Since his ears were immersed every sound was magnified. The huge soaked mass of his hair acted like a deadweight, water logging him from drifting out much further.

 

Splashes and thumps sounded, and then he felt her thoughts very close. A hand reached out and grabbed his calf tightly. From the size he judged it was Stellari's. Her face poked up, nearsighted eyes staring at him through goggles as she spat out water. Never so glad was he to sense her presence thrusting water from around her as now. Then she hooked her arm under his neck and slowly kicked with her other legs, turning him around. “Relax,” she spluttered. “Don't fight.”

 

“I… I can't believe I was so weak! I'm a Saiyan warrior and I couldn't concentrate!” he stammered.

 

“Hush, relax…” she urged.

 

“I'm too weak to move… can't generate any ki!” he spluttered.

 

“Raditz, let me,” she urged. “I can pull us both.”

 

“How can you?”

 

“Don't worry, I've been swimming for years,” she reassured him. “Just lay still and float. I shouldn't have pushed you.”

 

“I'm freezing,” Raditz shivered. His dense body barely floated in the saline ocean, but if it were fresh he'd be in great trouble even on a low gravity world. Not to mention the drag of his massive waterfall of hair saturated with brine. There was very little body fat on him unlike most humans. Only ten percent if that because his body metabolism was ten times hers. It dawned on him just how sorely he'd underestimated the human race. Bardock had insisted he should learn to swim, but in his arrogance he'd scoffed at the notion. Stellari with all her generosity of body fat had a distinct advantage staying well afloat. Her one arm swam for both while her legs kicked, dragging them inexorably back to shore.

 

“I don't have the energy to fly us both, but I can swim us back…” she urged.

 

“Even with the current?”

 

“I'll try my best,” she huffed.

 

“But you're carrying our brats too… I can't allow you to…” he spluttered.

 

Something brushed past his skin, stinging him. “What is that?”

 

“Jellyfish,” she groaned.

 

“Something to eat?” Raditz brightened up. Before she could stop him he reached out with one hand and scooped up the poisonous thing. IN a few bites he stuffed his mouth full of jellyfish and gratefully swallowed it. Stellari refrained from commenting at his flailing hand grabbing another.

 

“Er… you can also eat the seaweed,” she said, grabbing something that tangled around his legs. Raditz sniffed at the salty plant, and then devoured it. Their course took them along the coast, pulled by the current. She had not made much headway, and she was rapidly loosing strength.

 

“Why do you not use your powers?” he asked.

 

“I'd burn out my energy faster then just swimming,” she answered.

 

“I… will try and fly us,” Raditz panted. “I've regained enough control to martial energy.”

 

Wrapping his arms around her, he summoned the ki. Energy crackled, and he surrounded them both in his envelope. Slowly they rose just over the water, Raditz using enough energy to keep them aloft. It was a drastically weak portion but enough to levitate himself and her towards the coastline. Cursing himself Raditz rocketed back to shore then landed with a thump on the beach. His long legs stood in the gritty sand as he held Stellari in his arms.

 

“Thank you,” she gasped.

 

“It is I who should thank you, woman,” Raditz said, hefting her carefully. Saiyan pride dictated he should carry her the rest of the way back to their vehicle so he could find food. It also urged him to flare his ki to dry the brine off them. To his annoyance he still felt the crusty salt left behind caking on his skin and hair. She pulled up the goggles then snuggled into his bare chest so Raditz could walk along the lonely stretch of beach towards where they had left their blanket. A time later, he sat on the blanket devouring capsulated sandwiches. Along with bits of kelp he soon filled his gurgling stomach. Stellari wrapped her robe around her and ate along with him. That day had reduced him to deep thought.