A second black
cloaked figure stirred the pot that sat in the fire. A breeze blew
the hood covering the figure’s head off and the blonde-haired woman sighed.
She rolled her black eyes, taking off the cloak altogether and casting
it aside with the pile of material and fiberglass sticks that seemed to
be her tent. It had not been a good day for this woman. She
had spent it trying to get a Dragonball from the relentless villiagers
nearby. All her finagling had bore fruit late that afternoon when
they handed it over to her in exchange for 200 thousand zeni. She
had, of course, blown up the village immediately, but it had emotionally
drained her to the point where she just wanted to finish what she was doing;
eating dinner.
Two people
landed just as she was about to eat her bowl of miso soup and she looked
up. She dropped her soup. “Tales?!”
The man
in front of her just grinned and sat down. “You spilled your soup,”
he said, pointing to the stain on her knee.
She looked
down and brushed a piece of tofu off her leg. “What are you doing
here?!”
“It’s nice
to see you, too, Naoko,” Tales said dryly.
“Hi, mommy,”
said a very quiet voice.
She looked
around Tales to see Vegeta peering out cautiously. This was too much
for Naoko to handle. “Tales,” she said, her voice low and dangerous.
“What are you doing with my son?”
“Huh?
You mean our son? The one you never told me about?”
Naoko narrowed
her eyes at Tales and stood up. “Get away from him, Vegeta.”
Vegeta looked confused, but stepped out from behind Tales and stood several
feet away. Tales glared right back at Naoko and they were about to
blast each other when a bunch of trees in the forest nearby came crashing
down. A giant, unmistakably Nefarian stomped out.
“NAOKO!”
it said. “YOU TRAITOR! YOU WILL PAY FOR SELLING US OUT AT THE
SETTLEMENT ACROSS THE FOREST!” It roared and uprooted a tree, swinging
it at Naoko, who deftly dodged. Nearly hitting Tales with the tree,
the giant noticed him. “TALES! YOU KNOW BETTER THAN TO BE SEEN
AROUND TRAITORS! THAT MEANS YOU, TOO, MUST DIE!!” It swung
the tree at Tales several times, missing each as he ducked.
Naoko, meanwhile,
told Vegeta to hide somewhere, which he promptly did. She summoned
her “Demon Blade” and jumped into the air, launching herself from the ground.
She landed on the giant’s back and stuck it into the ugly, gray flesh.
Swinging it around, she severed the giant’s head and jumped the ground,
landing deftly as the giant fell.
Tales, however,
was not so lucky. The giant’s shoulder landed on him, twisting his
leg under him, leaving him completely helpless on the ground, his leg bent
at an odd angle. Naoko checked herself over, saw she was fine and
went to Tales.
“Kinda stuck,
aren’cha?” she asked slyly.
Tales glared
at her. “Shut up. It’s your fault.”
Naoko lifted
the giant’s shoulder off his leg and dragged him to a nearby tree, which
she propped him up against. She looked at his leg. “This hurt?”
She poked it.
Tales yelled
out in pain and swatted her away. “Leave it alone, bitch!”
She gasped
in mock surprise. “How dare you!” she said, her voice high pitched
in it’s falseness. “Call me that?” She grinned and sat down,
sidling slowly towards him. “I know you don’t really think that,”
she said. “You know better.” She slipped her arms around his
neck, leaning in close.
He wanted
to, he really did. He wanted to take advantage of her leaning so
close. To pull her down, to kiss her, to rip-No. He couldn’t
go down that road. Not now. Not ever again. “Get away
from me,” he growled.
Naoko sighed.
She knew, he knew, they both wished they could. It was too much,
though. It had been too long since then. They just couldn’t
do it again. She stood up and reached down
to help Tales up. He reluctantly took her hand and she helped him,
stumbling, to a log by her fire where he sat down next to Vegeta, who was
now close to fire because dark was falling.
Naoko sat
across from them and set to work making dinner for the three of them.
“As soon as this is ready, I’ll dress that leg for you, Tales,” she said,
not looking up at him. She couldn’t look up. She knew if she
did, neither would be able to contain themselves.
