Vegeta opened his eyes and looked to the form sleeping on the floor beside his bed. He was so beautiful, he looked like some sort of god sleeping there on Vegeta's floor. Vegeta was torn between cuddling up to the beautiful form, and beating it, marring it's magnificance. No Saiyan had ever been so beautiful; Seyians had no business being so beautiful. Saiyans were fighters, warriors. Built for fights, built for wars. The thing laying on his floor was to beautiful to be a fighter, he was worthless. A worthless Saiyan, a disgrace. He should have been killed long ago, in fact, everyone who had ever met him, had thought him dead...
"HALT!" Vegeta roared, and all noise ceased as every Saiyan bowed to his prince. Vegeta saw the creature cowaring against the wall, the only one who did now kneal to Vegeta. The thing was trembling, crouched against the wall. Vegeta approached it, with every intent to kill it for trespassing on his planet. Then he saw it, a white tail stained with dirt and mud, curled between the things legs. Though the color was wrong, there was no doubt it belonged to a Saiyan. Vegeta grabed the creature by the neck and pulled him up from the wall. The creature opened pure blue eyes to the prince, white hair equally stained with dirt and a red substance. Vegeta allowed himself to look the creature over in full. It was puny, firm muscle tone, but even Vegeta with his short stature possed more bulk that this creature. It was naked, save for a torn wrap tied around his waist. The rest of the creatures body was covered in dirt, mud, and blood from the scrapes of the rocks. The creature startled Vegeta by jerking away. Vegeta had not expected the move, and was caught off gaurd. But the thing did no more and returned to his possition against the wall, this time facing Vegeta, glaring at the prince with fear and anger.
"Where did this creature come from?" Vegeta asked of the crowd. One spoke up.
"He landed here in a space craft, and he came directly here. We followed him, but when he tried to enter the palace, we began to stone the hidious thing."
Hidious? Vegeta thought. Is he blind? The creature, even through the blood and mud, was beautiful! Then Vegeta glanced around to the women in the crowd, just has bulky and hard as the men. He's not hidious, he's just different from their standards...
"Where do you come from?" Vegeta demanded of the creature.
It hesitated, then answered. "The planet Cryian."
Vegeta knew of the planet, it wasn't to far away. It had been anexed by the Saiyans long ago. The race, while a beautiful one, held no purpose. They weren't strong, so the Saiyans could not use them as fighters, but as it turned out, they could withstands a lot of physical strain, so they had become a slave race to the Saiyans. Vegeta eyed the stranger, he did posess some of their features, but compared to the beauty of people of Cryian, he looked pretty ordinary.
"You are not Cryain, Cryains do not have tails." Vegeta pointed to the strangers curling tail.
The stranger glanced to it as well. "16 years ago, you banished a Seyian woman there, for trying to raise a rebellion. She died recently. She was my mother."
"It's a half breed!" someone cried from deep within the crowd. "Kill it!"
"Yes! Kill it! It's a bastard, a disgrace to our pure race!"
The cries quickly grew, but Vegeta was watching the stranger. With each cry, the look of anger on his face grew. Finally, Vegeta raised his arm to silence the crowd. They fell into quiet soon enough.
"If you came here looking for a home, a people, you came to the wrong place." Vegeta raised a fist, and landed it soundly on the strangers neck. He fell like rock. Vegeta turned to the crowd, which tried to rush forward to the fallen stranger. "This is royal business!" he barked, and everyone stopped in their tracks. "Go home, all of you! And forget the disgrace you have seen here. It shall be taken care of immediately." Slowly, they gathered mob filtered away. Vegeta grabbed up the stranger, slung him over his shoulder, and entered the palace. He took a secret passage where no one would see him, so no one ever knew what became of the beautiful stranger. Not the peasants, not the servants, not even Vegeta's father. Only Vegeta and the stranger knew.
"That depends. My people believe you dead, and I don't mind making the fiction fact. Keep that in mind. Why did you come here?"
"The Cryians banished me from their planet. They don't have a great love for Saiyans, or even a Saiyan/Cryian half breed. Without mother there to fight them off, I could not resist them. They sent me here, I didn't choose to come here. They said since I was so... ugly, I'd feel at home here, with the beastial Saiyans."
Vegeta absorbed all this, and took his time responding. "No Saiyan has ever tainted our noble blood with another species. Never. You have the honor of being the first disgrace this race has ever seen."
"Then why am I not dead?" the stranger retorted.
Vegeta blinked. "What?"
"If your race is so noble and grand, and I'm such a disgrace, why am I not dead? Why haven't you killed me?" he demanded.
Anger swelled in Vegeta's breast, no one dared demand anything of him. He was the prince, for god's sake! To fast for the stranger to react, Vegeta grabbed him by his throat again, pressed him against the wall. The stranger had attempted to fight back, but his Cryian roots took strong hold. He was not a fighter, and as Vegeta tightened his grip, the stranger stopped.
"Let's make one thing perfectly clear, I'm the one in charge here. I am Prince Vegeta, your prince and master."
"What?" the stranger squeaked out.
"I am prince over all Saiyans, and since you are in part Saiyan, I'm your prince. But you are also Cryian, a slave race to my own, so I am also your master. Make sure you remember that."
Vegeta released the stranger, and he fell to his knees, gasping for air. Vegeta curled his lip, the half breed really was pathetic. He should kill it, it was a disgrace! But then he looked up at Vegeta with eyes that were purely Saiyan. He looked as though, had his body been willing, he would have torn the prince to pieces. But he replied simply "Yes."
"What do they call you, half breed?"
"Piao."
"Piao? That's a strange name," Vegeta sneered at the stranger.
Piao's jaw tightened, then relaxed. The look of anger faded from his crystal eyes. "It means 'ugly one' in the Cryian language."
Vegeta slid from his bed and stood over Piao's sleeping form. He knelt down and picked up a lock of Piao's beautiful white hair in his glove, watched the strands cascade back to the floor. Over the years, Vegeta had grown quite fond of the boy. He really was intellegant, more so, he was insightful. He always knew what Vegeta needed, whether Vegeta wanted it or not. When Vegeta fought with his father and was sent to his room, Piao left Vegeta alone to seeth off his anger, sitting quietly in a corner of Vegeta's room (Piao was never allowed to leave Vegeta's room, and because of Piao, Vegeta allowed no one in his room; Vegeta gaurded his secret well). When Vegeta over worked himself, and his body complained of exhaustion, Piao was the one who coaxed Vegeta to rest it. Piao praised Vegeta in ways none of his followers ever could. When the salutes and hails came from his minions, Vegeta felt nothing, but when Piao done the same, something warmed inside Vegeta. The feeling had started Vegeta at first, he had resisted it, sure it would weaken him, inhibit his training. And maybe it had, but Piao was also stubborn, and regaurdless of how many times Vegeta had ordered him not to give him such praises, no matter how many times Vegeta had struck him, Piao continued to worship and praise him. And Vegeta discovered the more he heard Piao's praises, the more it warmed him, until every second spent away from Pioa was agonizing coldness. Also, Piao's face was becoming bruised less and less. Vegeta found himself "keeping to himself in his room" more and more often, until every second not spent training or warring was spent with Piao.
Vegeta's mind wandered to the first time Piao had kissed him...
Piao's eyes wandered to Vegeta's lips, and gently touched his own. He closed his eyes and fantasized it was Vegeta's lips pressed there. It wasn't the first time he had had this fantasy, and the more Piao thought about it, the more he craved the feel of those strong lips on his own. Of course, if he dared try, Vegeta would surely beat him for it. Piao was so ugly, such a disgrace, it would be an offence to kiss his sweet prince. Alright, alright, no one but Piao would ever call Prince Vegeta "sweet," and not only because he would murder anyone who would think such a thing. Vegeta was arrogant, cruel, and self centered. But Piao admired him, admired his strength, admired even his character. If only Piao could be so cool, so arrogant. That's how the infatuation started, as admiration, but it quickly accelerated into obsession.
Just one kiss, just one... Piao stood and bent over his sleeping prince. He would have to be gentle, otherwise the prince would wake. Softly, Piao pressed his lips against Vegeta's, but that wasn't enough. Just a little more, just a little harder... And so Piao did. He opened his mouth and kissed Vegeta harder. To his surprise, Vegeta reacted in his sleep! Vegeta opened his mouth and kissed him back! Piao knew he should stop, the prince would wake, but it was getting so good, Piao couldn't stop, until Vegeta's eyes snapped open. It had been weeks since Vegeta had struck Piao, but Piao then recieved a beating like he'd never had. Vegeta had never struck him more than once, there was no need. One hit was all it took to over power Piao. But now, the enraged Vegeta struck him again and again. Piao couldn't help but fight back! He landed one good punch in Vegeta's jaw, and bought himself enough time to scramble off Vegeta's bed. He dashed to the bathroom and had almost reached the door and Vegeta was on top of him, pounding him into the floor.
He had scared Vegeta. Yes, Vegeta, Prince of the most ruthless, beastial race in the cosmo's, had been frightened by this beautiful, pale boy. In that split second before Vegeta had opened his eyes, he had known it was Piao kissing him, known how his body was reacting, and had love it. Vegeta had the warmest, most comforting feeling surrounding him. This is what scared Vegeta. He could face a legion of the ugliest, strongest fighters in the galaxy, but this feeling of warth was something totally new, something he was completely untrained for, and it scared him. So he beat Piao, so the boy would never try a stunt like that again. Deep inside, Vegeta was hoping Piao would hate him for this, that the very sight of Vegeta would frighten and disgust him. That would make it a lot easier to ignore the feelings Piao was stirring inside him. But such a thing never happened.
Vegeta remembered the following weeks. All of his time was devoted to bandaging Piao's wounds, and feeding him as best he could. Piao lived off soup for the longest time, then gradually graduated to soft foods. Vegeta remembered the humiliating experience of having to chew up Piao's food for him, before placing it in his mouth. Even then, Piao had given him what he needed, turning his head away from Vegeta, so no eye would see the prince of the Saiyans stoop so low. Things were different after then. Once Piao could move around some, and feed himself, he no longer spoke or looked at Vegeta. Which had been what Vegeta had hoped for, he had wanted Piao to hate him, to dispise him for what he had done, but Vegeta's reaction had not been the one he had expected. Instead of making it easier to hate Piao in return, it made it harder! Not only that, it made Vegeta's life a lot harder. Suddenly Vegeta found it hard to concintrate on his training. Hell, Vegeta was discovering Piao's hate was making it difficult for Vegeta to even breath, much less fight! Something had to be done. Vegeta's first plan had failed, misserably. It had been time to try another method.
Something broke in Vegeta, some bridge he had built long ago, and Vegeta's body was flooded with warmth more intence than the luke warm feelings Piao's praises had ever been able to arouse. Vegeta felt as though he would die from the sensation, it was so incredible. After a time, Vegeta released Piao from the lip lock, and leaned back to study his reaction. Piao opened his crystal blue eyes to Vegeta, and they held no fear, no repulsion. Piao seemed a little out of breath, even! He was staring back at Vegeta with gentle hunger. He leaned forward, with the intent to kiss his prince again, but Vegeta stopped him with a hand to his chest.
"No," Vegeta had said. "Not too fast."
Piao nodded, and understood. He always understood. He understood this was all new to Vegeta, and maybe he understood that this frightened the great prince. If he knew, he never let on.
Did Vegeta love Piao? Vegeta wasn't sure. Was he disgraced because of Piao? Probably. Did he care? Yes, but not enough to rid himself of his disgrace. He was as low as the halfbreed Piao now, or maybe, it was as high as him.