Piccolo's Fate
"Piccolo's Fate: A DBZ Love Story"
By Green Angel
Chapter One | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3
Chapter Four
They walked down the stairs to the basement, passing the rejuvenation
room and walking into her lab. They were lucky to not pass the
kids and get them all frantic at the site of Aya. Bulma motioned
for Vegeta to lay her down on the long flat worktable in the center
of the room as she walked over to a drawer and pulled out some clean
thin work gloves. She always kept at least four extra pairs around
her lab, just incase. She walked back over to the table and turned
on an overhead lamp, bringing it close to her face. She leaned
over and carefully took hold of her face, tilting it to the sides
so she could see clearly the condition of various areas around her
eyes. For a long time, neither one spoke. Vegeta just stood and
watched her, a bit impatient with the whole situation. He had thought
she would’ve deflected the attack, or dodged it, at least. He couldn’t
think of distraction so big as to take her off guard like that.
It didn’t matter, now. What’s done is done. She’ll either be
lucky and heal up, or fortune will turn its back on her and she’ll
go blind. Vegeta frowned at the latter possibility.
Bulma at last stood up, a scowl on her face, and turned to him.
“Well, it looks like it’ll heal.”
Vegeta was relieved greatly, but didn’t show it. His pride was
too much at risk constantly to show relief of any kind. He nodded
and asked in his usual stern voice, “How long will that take?”
Bulma snapped back at his lack of understanding. “It’ll take as
long as it needs! It’s not like a little scrape on the leg, Vegeta!
These are her eyes!! She’s not going to be able to see properly
for a long time! She’s not even going to be able to use them at
all until months after the tissue around them heals. Even then,
it may look like she’s looking directly at an object, but the truth
is she won’t be able to define any distinct characteristics or details.”
She straightened after setting him Vegeta straight with the facts.
“She won’t see anything, Vegeta. To her, everything will just be a blur.”
Vegeta stared at his mate. He didn’t really know what to think.
It was his fault that Aya is temporarily blinded, but he didn’t
feel guilty. He never did, but for some reason, he knew he should
be feeling it now. She was partly his responsibility, but he didn’t
even really care about her. But he knew he should. Now that she
couldn’t see, he wouldn’t be able to train her, and she would be
restrained from a lot more than what she would be if she hadn’t
wasted the chance to deflect the ki blast. Or, more so if he hadn’t
thrown the ki blast right between the eyes. Yes, ultimately, it
was his fault. And, yet, he didn’t give a damn. After thinking
this through, he looked back at Bulma and asked again. “So? How
long will it take for her to heal?”
Bulma fumed at this, turning around to look at Aya’s body before
answering. “The skin itself will take around two weeks to heal.
The eyes, on the other hand, could take a good three to five months
to repair themselves. Until then, she shouldn’t open them at all
since the exposure could lead to future infection. I’ll work on
it as much as I can. But, in the end, only time can heal this kind of wound.”
There was a long pause, and neither one of them spoke. Vegeta,
after processing all this information, finally turned and walked
out of the lab, leaving Bulma to work on the injury. Now, there
was nothing he could do but wait. He hated waiting, it was a waste
of time. He closed the door to the lab softly, deep in thought
of this recent dilemma. He walked up the stairs and into the living
room, where his two kids were watching cartoons on TV. He sank
into the chair beside the sofa where Trunks sat. Bra was laying
on her stomach in front of the TV, her head propped in her hands.
She turned her head to her father. “Hi, daddy!”
Vegeta didn’t answer. Trunks took his turn then to great his dad.
“Hey, dad.” Still no answer. Of course, neither of them expected
one. Vegeta never spent energy on such trivial actions. Silence
spread through the room, broken only by the TV’s sounds.
Bra was the first to speak as soon as the cartoon show ended.
She spoke with spunk in her voice, young and energetic. “Daddy, where’s Aya-san?”
Vegeta snapped his eyes open. Kuso! How was he going to tell
them?? Could he tell them? He had to, no matter how it was done.
But what would be their reactions? They’re only kids; if they
got mad, they’d forget about it the next day. He’d just break it
to them like another one of their trivial matters. He looked down
at his kids. They were looking at him, waiting patiently for an
answer. At first, the words wouldn’t come out right. His lips
parted and he spoke, but not what he intended to say. “She’s down
in the lab with your mother.”
Trunks got up and Bra stood as well as they were about to make
their way into the lab downstairs. “Okay!” was all either of them said.
“Hold on,” Vegeta stopped them before they reached the stairs.
They turned back to him. He looked at them for a moment, and then
gestured with his hand to come over to him. They obediently did
what he wanted. He relaxed in the chair again, trying to look as
nonchalant as possible. He closed his eyes as if with exhaustion,
and spoke to them through a long, drawn out sigh. “She’s hurt kinda
bad. It’d be better if you didn’t go in there for a while...”
They were surprised naturally. Trunks asked his father,
curiosity in his voice mixed with concern, “Hurt? Is she hurt really
bad? How long until we can see her?”
Vegeta didn’t move. He mumbled out of pretend-tiredness,
“She’ll make it. Give your mother a couple hours. You can see her then.”
Bra stepped up to him and took his enormous hand in her tiny ones. “Daddy?”
Vegeta opened his eyes and slowly looked down at his little
daughter. She looked worried in the face, the same look she’d get
before she’d bust out crying. But she didn’t cry. She only looked
into her daddy’s eyes, sending him a mixture of feelings swirling inside him.
She asked him what he didn’t want to here. “Will she be okay?”
Vegeta stared at her for a long time, not sure how to answer
her. He finally squeezed her hands gently and spoke with reassurance
in his voice. “She’ll be fine.”
That took the worry off her face, but they both were still
disappointed. They left the room, leaving their father to rest
lazily in the chair beside the sofa in the large living room.
Hours went by. The children were restless. Every now and
then they’d go to knock on the door to the lab, only to here their
mother call from inside “Not now!” They’d then return to their
previous activity or find something different to do. It was nearly
6 hours until Bulma came out of the lab, her eyelids drooping and
tired. She didn’t let her kids in the lab, though. She said that
Aya needed to rest and that they shouldn’t disturb her for the rest
of the day. She went back into the lab with a glass of water.
Trunks and Bra unhappily drooped back to their rooms, still wanting to see the namek.
For nearly a week, Aya stayed in the lab for Bulma to tend
to her wound. She was finally moved out of the lab and into the
spare bedroom where she could lie comfortably in an actual bed...
a much greater relief to Aya than anything else. A long bandage
had been wrapped around her head to protect her eyes and keep them
shut. Her face wasn’t as damaged by now, since Bulma had managed
to clear up a little bit of that part of the injury. Her face would
scar, though, if it wasn't treated properly. Bulma wasn’t nearly
as worried about that as she was about her eyes. The bandages would
come off after a few weeks, but she’d still need to keep her eyes
shut for at least three months. And during that time, she’d need
to learn to do almost everything all over again without the aid
of sight. It would be a long three months.
The first week was easy, since Bulma and the kids got almost
everything for her so she’d stay in bed. The second week, however,
was incredibly difficult. Bulma was demanding that she’d start
learning how to deal with the handicap by the second week after
the injury. Either Bulma or one of the kids would help her walk
around the house, making her try to mentally orient herself in the
huge building so she’d eventually learn to walk about on her own
without needing to feel the walls to get around. That took her
more time than expected, but what was worse was reading. Bulma
had to teach Aya to read Braille, something that was actually the
hardest thing for both Bulma and Aya. It was terrible, and both
of them knew that by the time she mastered the ability, the bandages
would probably be off. Everything had gone utterly crazy.
One day, Aya had managed to make it from the refuge of her
bedroom to the kitchen without help from anybody. It was a big
step for the woman. Vegeta was shuffling through the fridge, looking
for enough food to satisfy him after hours of training in the gravity
room. He noticed her in the kitchen when he stood up with his arms
full of food of all kinds. She was patiently waiting by the table
for him to leave so she could do what she needed. But he didn’t
leave. At first, he stared at her, wondering whether or not he
should help her. It was the least he could do to make up for his
mistake... but was he willing to actually help? Him, the Prince of Saiyans... help?
Aya heard movement nearby and knew Vegeta-san was still
busy in the room. That was okay, she could wait as long as she
needed to. She didn’t want to disturb Vegeta-san as he went about
his business, and she knew better by then to not disturb a hungry
saiyan... ^_^ She suddenly felt two large, strong hands take hold
of hers, slowly pulling at them and guiding her. She was a bit
surprised, naturally, but allowed Vegeta to lead her. She felt
a hand let go and heard a chair screech as it was pulled away from
the table. His other hand put hers on its backrest and she automatically
sat and politely folded her hands in her lap. He gently pushed
her up to the table, making her gasp a little out of non-expectancy.
She then waited quietly, listening to him walk over to the sink,
open a cupboard and shuffle through the glasses before shutting
it again. She heard the faucet turn on briefly, filling the glass
three quarters full before ceasing the sound of the rushing water.
Vegeta had no idea why the heck he was doing this. Sure,
he really did her in, but that still didn’t mean he had to do this.
He didn’t have to do anything. Normally, he had too much pride
to do anything. He could just dump the water down the drain set
the glass in the dishwasher and forget the whole thing. But he
didn’t. He held out the glass in front of her. “Here.” There
was nothing more to say, nothing more she needed to hear.
She reached out her hand and he slid it into her fingers.
She could feel the tension in him. Something was eating at him,
but he wouldn’t say. She thanked him timidly and listened as he
sat to the side of her and began eating. It didn’t sound like he
was eating as fast as usual. She could feel his eyes on her as
she slowly sipped the glass of water and, after a while, it was
getting a bit annoying. Something was up. “Vegeta,” she started.
No answer. “What’s bothering you, Vegeta-san?” No response.
She then knew what was the problem. She was surprised she didn’t
think of it in the first place. “Is it because of my eyes?” Silence.
Vegeta had suddenly slowed in response, as if trying to think of
how to react. She wouldn’t let him. “It’s not your fault this happened, Vegeta-san.”
Vegeta let out a snort. “What do you mean it’s not my
fault? Of course it’s my fault! If I hadn’t been so stupid as
to think you could handle training, you wouldn’t be wrapped in that stupid bandage.”
Silence fell among them. It came out so suddenly, it stunned
the both of them. Aya finally managed to respond. “No, Vegeta.”
She spoke with a slight fierceness in her voice, dead serious of
what she was saying. “You’re wrong. It wasn’t your fault. I was
distracted.” Vegeta eyed her, not sure whether or not to believe
her. But she was determined to get her point across. “It was my
fault I was distracted. I should have been concentrating more...
but I wasn’t. What’s done is done.” She paused before continuing.
“But, I want... I want to keep training.”
Vegeta didn’t know what to say. Train her blind? Could
he do that? Could she handle it? He recalled how many times that
one question has raced through his mind, already. “But, without your eye’s...”
She stopped him in midsentence. “Just because I can’t
use my eyes doesn’t mean I can’t tell where you are. I may not
be able to see, but I can sense.”
Once again, a quietness fell on the room as Vegeta pondered
these knew thoughts. It seemed from the way she was talking, she
sounded pretty sure of herself and that she was ready to continue
with her lessons. After hearing what she had to say, he guessed
he had no more objections. She at last heard him sigh. “Well,
if you insist, I’ll do it. But let me tell you this: even though
you’re blind, I won’t be holding back. I’ll be coming at you as
if nothing was wrong, got it? Just as if you had your sight.”
Aya nodded and smiled with relief. “Fine. I can manage that.”
“Good. We’ll start in a couple hours. You better go change
and prepare yourself until then.”
Aya again smiled and nodded. “Yes, Vegeta-san. I’ll get
ready right now.” With that, she quickly downed the rest of the
water, set the glass on the counter by the sink, and walked out
of the kitchen. Vegeta took note that she could navigate much easier
around the house. He was a bit relieved at that, and a sense of
pride returned to him as he thought of her courage to train under
her condition. Looking down at the food in front of him, Vegeta
suddenly didn’t feel hungry, anymore. Now, Vegeta felt like going
outside and training like hell.
Chapter One | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3
