No Regrets.

Act Six.

By Zoicyte aka Johnnyjosh.

Rating; NC-17.

Warnings; Lemon, language.

Disclaimer: Don't own em, just borrowing them for a little playtime.

Notes; OOC, some sap, and as always, I have written this to take place in AU, so don't yell at me if things don't follow the anime, I like to change the storyline to suit me *LOL*.

This is for Larania, who bugged me to no end to finally write a Piccolo/Goku lemon, and who patiently answered all my questions.

Pairings; Duh! Piccolo/Goku obviously!

Special thanks to Angelita for the encouragement!

"Denotes speaking"

*Denotes thoughts*

Six years later,

Dende's Lookout...

Time had flown by quickly. The earth had settled back into a peaceful, normal routine after the horrors visited upon it by Cell. The only real after-effect being the decision to resurrect the 'World Martial Arts Tournament', which would be held in about three weeks. Vegeta and Piccolo had briefly discussed the possibility of entering, but decided, given the expected competition, they would only end up fighting each other in the end, and they could do that on the lookout anytime, so why should they bother?

Vegeta had kept up his end of his bargain with Piccolo, making regular visits to the lookout, never missing Viola's birthday, and taking time to train her and teach her about the Saiyans, including their language and folklore. Viola, for her part, was a quick learner, eagerly taking to languages in particular. Both of her 'parents' were thrilled that she was able to speak both of the nearly dead languages so fluently. Her training was also going extremely well. She had mastered the split form just before her sixth birthday, and of course, in typical child-like fashion, immediately recognized the mischief making potential of the technique. She would often perform the technique when Vegeta and Piccolo left the lookout to do some intense training. Dende and Popo were hard pressed to keep up with one Viola, but their problems grew exponentially with two of them to watch over. Dende, for his part, was just grateful Piccolo had nixed the idea of teaching her to fly, for fear she would try to leave the lookout, and be discovered by one of the other Z fighters. She'd grown quickly, at almost seven years old she was already nearly as tall as Vegeta, but she was still quite slender. Her skin had turned out to be slightly paler than Piccolo's, but her hair and the fur on her tail were still the same deep, hunter green.

Trunks, who had been a constant playmate for Viola the first several years of his life, had stopped coming to visit months ago, instead choosing to become best friends with Goku's second son, Goten. At first, Viola had simply accepted that something had happened, and he'd show up next time. But as days turned into weeks, she realized something had changed.

Finally, she had watched Dende one afternoon, as the young guardian peered over the side of the lookout, observing the planet below. She crept up beside him, nervously stepping closer to the edge. "What are you looking at?" she asked shyly, reflexively gripping the end of Dende's cape as a stiff breeze ruffled her hair.

Dende had smiled softly, one hand coming up to rest on her shoulder. "I'm watching over the earth, as is my duty," he answered, before giving her a brief explanation of how he was able to see all the way down to the surface.

Viola picked up on the idea quickly, amazed at all the things she was able to observe. However, she was less than thrilled when her gaze fell on an isolated valley, where two boys were playing. One had wild, spiky black hair, and wore an orange gi. The other had lavender hair, a green gi...

"Trunks?" she whispered, tilting her head to the side as she stood motionless for several minutes, watching them play. "Oh...." The girl finally turned and wandered away, realizing her only friend had forgotten her, running off instead to play with someone new.

She'd been angry at first, but the anger had faded into a withdrawn moodiness as the months crept by. With nothing to do besides train, the child quickly grew bored and distant. She started to lash out whenever Piccolo or Vegeta tried to get closer to her, until finally, after several unsuccessful attempts to reach her, Vegeta had no choice but to ask Bulma for assistance.

Vegeta and Bulma, after a bit of a rocky start, had finally managed to form a working friendship. Vegeta's official residence, if you will, was at Capsule Corp. He spent his nights there, used the gravity room freely, and spent time with his son. But he was free to come and go as he chose to go to the lookout to see Viola and Piccolo. It had taken some time, but Bulma finally gave up on trying to force Vegeta into a relationship, and accepted what they had. Ironically, it was after she backed off that their relationship began to grow stronger. They still tiptoed around subjects like intimacy, Vegeta could still be distant, but they seemed to be settling into a kind of partnership.

Capsule Corp., two days before Viola's 7^th birthday...

Vegeta paced back and forth in the hallway outside the gravity room, grumbling under his breath. "Baka brats...always getting in my way," he mumbled, peering down the hall and watching as Gohan prattled on about his schoolwork to Bulma. He smirked as he watched Trunks roll his eyes and walk away, bored with their conversation.

"What's wrong, son?" he asked, sneering slightly, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall.

"Gohan is talking to mom about his schoolwork again, before that it was that dorky outfit of his," Trunks scowled, making his way to the kitchen.

Vegeta laughed at the mention of the Saibaman outfit. "Why doesn't anyone tell him how it really looks?" he wondered aloud, unable to fathom how anyone would consider the mismatched outfit 'cool'.

Finally, Gohan turned away from Bulma and drew up beside the prince. "Hey, Vegeta, how's it going?" he asked, grinning brightly at the other Saiyan.

"Well, I'm doing better than you, that's for certain," Vegeta drawled, eyes raking over the teen's body. "You've gone soft, all that studying, no serious training. Hmph! If there was a new threat to earth, you'd certainly be in no condition to offer any help." he growled, pushing off from the wall and stalking away.

Gohan ran a hand through his hair, blushing, looking thoroughly chastised. "Well, nice to see things haven't changed much around here, I guess..." he murmured. The young demi-Saiyan shook his head, then decided to join Trunks in having a snack.

"Woman." Vegeta barked, following her down the hallway. "I need to speak to you."

"For the last..." Bulma sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Alright, what is it? I suppose you want more work done on the gravity room?" she frowned.

"No, actually..." Vegeta winced, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "It's about Viola." he said softly.

"Oh?" Bulma looked around, then led Vegeta to her lab, closing the door behind them with a snap. "What's wrong?" she asked, without preamble.

Vegeta frowned, taking a moment to organize his thoughts, before he launched into an account of Viola's recent behavior. He described, in depth, her moods, her occasional hostility, and the way she'd gone from eager to learn, but mischievous, to quiet and apathetic.

Bulma listened carefully, brow furrowed as an idea began to take shape in her mind. "Vegeta," she said slowly, glancing over at the door. "When did all this start? What was going on at the time?"

Vegeta sighed, leaning back against the corner of Bulma's desk. "Right around the time Trunks started hanging out with Kakarott's brat." he said.

"Uh huh," Bulma nodded, slumping down into a chair. "I figured that. Well, I think we both know what the problem is, don't we?"

Vegeta nodded, meeting her gaze as he too took a seat.

"She lost her best friend, her only friend, really." she began, picking up a pencil and twirling it between her fingers. "You, Piccolo, Popo and Dende, you're her family. It's not the same as having a friend her age." Bulma paused, biting her lip, her expression on of deep concentration. "We need to do something to cheer her up."

"Well, I know that," Vegeta snapped, scowling. "That much is obvious. But what, exactly, can we do?"

"You need to get her off that lookout, for one thing," Bulma snapped right back. "Honestly, she's cooped up there, all the time, with nothing to do but train. That's no life for a child, Vegeta."

The Saiyan rolled his eyes, deciding now was not the time to launch into a speech about his own childhood.

"Wait a minute," Bulma said, lips quirking up into a smile as she remembered something. "Isn't Viola's birthday coming up soon?"

Vegeta sat back, eyes widening as he looked over at her suspiciously. "Yes... What does that have to do with anything?" he asked, baring his teeth as he hoped he was wrong. *She can't possibly want to...*

"Well then, why don't we throw her a birthday party, down here at Capsule Corp.? We can have Trunks here, and Goten and Gohan too!" she grinned, nodding enthusiastically.

*Damn, she does want to.* Vegeta thought, grimacing as he imagined Piccolo's reaction to such an idea. "Are you insane?" he shouted, launching himself up out of his chair. "We can't bring her down here, you know how Piccolo feels about anyone finding out about her!"

"Oh, Vegeta," she shook her head, then stopped, staring up at him with narrowed eyes. "You know, something has always struck me as funny about you two."

"What?" Vegeta demanded, stalking toward Bulma and looming over her.

"Well," she began, a smirk tugging at her lips. "It was always 'Piccolo this', and 'Piccolo that', 'Piccolo doesn't want anyone to know'. It was never 'We don't want this' or 'We don't want that', why is that, Vegeta? Seems to me that you really didn't care if anyone knew or not. I think if you talked to Piccolo, maybe she would change her mind. You seem pretty proud of Viola, you should convince Piccolo to be, too."

"It's not that easy," Vegeta murmured, but he did have to admit, Bulma made a good point. "But, very well. I will try to talk to her."

"Then it's settled! I'll start looking around for party favors, and making up invitations." Bulma grinned, rising to her feet and moving toward the door.

"Hold it!" Vegeta barked, moving quickly to block her path. "You're not planning anything just yet! I haven't even tried to talk to Piccolo yet."

"No, not yet," Bulma admitted, then snickered as she waved a finger in his face. "But I've learned by now just how tenacious you can be. Even I know better than to get in your way when you really want something, and right now, you want to do something to make Viola happy."

Vegeta reared back, a slightly perturbed expression on his face as he realized she was right. He had already made up his mind to do what he could to make the girl feel better, and the prince found himself slightly disturbed by the notion that he would so easily go out of his way to make someone else happy. With a shrug, he stepped back and let her pass, shaking his head as he tried to picture Piccolo's reaction to this particular suggestion.

Dende's lookout, an hour later...

"You want to do WHAT?!!" Piccolo shrieked, grabbing Vegeta by the front of his shirt and lifting him off the ground so they were looking eye-to-eye. "Where in the hell did you come up with a lame-brained idea like that?!"

Vegeta struggled out of his grip, glaring up at her angrily. "Bulma, actually. I had to talk to someone about her behavior recently. Bulma thinks it's because the girl's got no friends her own age, no one to play with, relate to," the prince said, straightening out the wrinkles on his shirt with a huff.

"But...a party? That means other kids, other kids parents..." Piccolo shuddered. "No, I can't do that, I can't risk them seeing her." She shook her head, walking away from him.

Vegeta sensed someone watching him, and spun around. He smiled slightly as he noticed Viola peeking out from behind a large stone pillar. The prince lifted a hand in greeting, but scowled as Viola ducked away without so much as a smile. "Come on," he growled, snatching up Piccolo's wrist and pulling her into the air. "We need to talk." The Saiyan flew away from the lookout, tugging Piccolo along with him, until he was certain they were out of earshot. "What's the problem?" he demanded, folding his arms and narrowing dark eyes at her.

"The problem, Vegeta," Piccolo answered crossly. "Is that I don't want everyone seeing her, and asking questions about when she was born, who her father is, especially people like ChiChi and Gohan." She sighed, pulling off her turban and running a hand over her bald head.

"It won't be a problem," Vegeta countered. "We'll just give everyone the same story we gave Bulma."

"That you and I..." Piccolo trailed off, nose wrinkling slightly. "Slept together? Bulma bought it because...well, it's just Bulma. But do you really think anybody else will believe it?" she gave the prince a disdainful look.

"Why are you giving me that look?" Vegeta scowled, shoulders hunching. "What's so hard to believe about that?" He seethed. "I'm a Saiyan, and I have to say, a better looking one that Kakarott, probably better in b...mmph!" The prince's tirade was cut short by a large green hand clamping over his lips.

"Don't even go there, Vegeta." Piccolo said, eyes wide, a slight blush on her cheeks as she shook her head quickly. "You don't bring up the subject of us as a couple, and I'll think about this idea of yours, deal?"

Vegeta pulled his head back, and nodded, still looking a bit miffed. "Very well. You bring her to Capsule Corp. the morning of her birthday, the onna will plan it out, do the decorating, and take care of the cooking."

"Fine. Now," Piccolo turned back toward the lookout. "You stickin' around for awhile?" she asked.

"Yes, I think I will. Are we going to tell her about her party?" Vegeta asked, falling in beside the large Namek.

Piccolo pondered the question for a few moments, then shook her head with a smile. "No, we'll let it be a surprise."

To Be Continued....

Hm, it'll be a surprise alright, for everyone. But will it be a pleasant one?

Feedback craved and appreciated!

JJ