Peripheral Reality

Chapter 1

Everything was a blur of color and sound. Goku tried to make sense of the chaos whirling around him, but he could scarcely see in front of his own nose. His tail lashed in agitation as he felt something around him, near him, in him rip and tear free of the reality he knew, and he was slammed into unconsciousness in the moment that his insanely high power level crashed, his vision fading out to black.

X

Whoever he was, he was a stranger. Kakarot cautiously approached the unconscious person sprawled on the limb of an old tree. The limb had cracked a little under the weight of the person, who was lying in a painful looking tangle of limbs, twigs tangled in a long black snarl of hair, cuts and bruises marring the lush red fur that covered much of the stranger's body. Maybe he was dead...

Picking up a branch that had broken off of the tree, Kakarot approached the person and, warily, as if the limp form might attack him, he prodded one furred shoulder with the stick. He immediately dropped into a defensive crouch, but the person didn't react. Kakarot's blonde eyebrows furrowed over his green eyes, and he crept forward again and placed two fingers on the strange person's corded neck, below the jugular. He could decipher a pulse, slow though it was, and knew the person was alive. Unconscious and very badly injured, bleeding heavily, but alive.

"Hey, Kakarot!" a rough voice shouted from behind him. He turned, tail swishing, to see his sparring partner running to catch up with him; Vegeta, irritated at the universe as always.

"What do you have there?" the older Saiyan asked, peering over Kakarot's shoulder at the unconscious body splayed on the tree limb.

"I'm not sure," he admitted, "I found him like this. At first I thought he was a jzagalo, but he doesn't look like one."

Jzagalos were large, red-furred wildcats that roamed the steppes of Vegeta-sei, they were a known nuisance for attacking Saiyan villages and stealing young cubs that strayed too far. Vegeta's brother Tarble had almost been a victim to such raids when he was little.

Vegeta snorted, "No, he's definitely not a jzagalo. But then what is he?"

Kakarot shrugged, "Whatever he is, he's hurt really bad. We should help him."

He didn't know why, but he wanted to make sure this stranger would be okay. Whether he was friend or foe didn't seem very important as of yet.

The prince rolled his eyes, "Fine, we'll see what we can do. But don't get attached, Kakarot. Remember, you're betrothed to Broly, you can't go messing around with strangers you find in the woods."

Kakarot's tail drooped slightly, "I know." He didn't have a choice in who his father had picked for his mate, but he wasn't very fond of Broly. The man was all muscle and no brains; but at least he couldn't tease him about being his elder like Vegeta did, because they were the same age. Born on the same day, even. Still... he wished he had at least had a say in the matter. He wanted to mate with who he chose, but that wasn't how Saiyan tradition worked. Especially because Kakarot was a Super Saiyan; it was important that he mated with someone worthy. Vegeta had been a candidate, but his father had picked Broly because of his age and because of a grudge between Bardock's and Paragus's families. The arranged mating was more of a peace treaty than anything else, and Kakarot didn't like that. It made him feel like he was just a possession that could be bartered and controlled. It killed his sense of free will.

"Come on," Vegeta hooked an arm under the strange person's bulky shoulder, gesturing for Kakarot to do the same with the other side. They supported the unconscious person between them and made their way back to the royal city, "Let's get this guy to the healers, they'll do what they can."

X

Goku woke in pain. Everything hurt, but the worst ache seemed to be in the front of his forehead where he'd likely hit it on something extremely hard. He opened his eyes painfully, squinting past his bangs at the unfamiliar scenery. Where am I?

He'd retained his Super Saiyan Four form, and he wondered how he'd managed to do that when he'd been knocked unconscious by... something...

Gods, what a stupid mistake that was. He thought ruefully. He had never, ever raised his power that high. The strain must have caused him to pass out or something.

He realized he didn't recognize the room he was in at all. He was lying on a bed near the window, which was curtained with wine-colored drapes. The room itself was the color of terracotta, with an almost cave-like feel to it. An animal skin rug on the floor drew his attention. Whatever animal it was, it had had dark red fur, and it had been enormous. Slowly, the confused Saiyan sat up, wincing. He smelled like herbs, and he noticed bandages covering various appendages, a large one on his shoulder almost totally soaked through with blood despite the bandages being fresh.

He tried to get unsteadily to his feet, bracing his weight against the metal bed frame, and managed to stagger a step before collapsing to one knee. He didn't need bandages, what he needed was a senzu. But since he had no idea where he was or how he'd gotten here, first he needed to get out. Exhaling slowly, he tried to stand up again. This time he got two or three steps in before his legs gave out, and he fell hard, unable to catch himself and falling on his face with a frustrated growl, squeezing his eyes shut to block out the pain resonating through him.

He heard footsteps and felt a ki signature approaching, one he didn't recognize. His mind was pretty muddled right now though, so he wasn't surprised. He doubted he'd recognize anyone's ki right now.

Then he heard laughter. The sound was very familiar for some reason, and he tried to raise his head, gritting his teeth in pain.

"You're brave," a cheerful voice said, "Trying to walk with those injuries."

Goku's vision flickered. The voice had sounded blurred, and everything was wavering. He knew he was about to pass out again, likely from pain, and he tried to hold onto his dwindling consciousness, not wanting to be vulnerable in a strange place with a strange person he didn't know.

"Up you get," the voice said, and a person was lifting him, supporting him over whoever it was's shoulder. He felt himself being guided and laid back in the bed he'd awoken in. He couldn't protest, in fact he could barely keep his eyes open. But he wanted to know who his rescuer was. He wanted to know if he should be thankful or fearful.

He forced his blurry vision to focus on the person before him. Blonde, spiky hair, green eyes, pale skin. A long golden tail. Suddenly the familiarity of the face dawned on him, and he lost the battle to keep conscious when he fainted out of shock.

X

Kakarot smiled and shook his head slowly in amazement. It had hardly been a day, and the strange person had already recovered enough to try to walk. Not that he'd been successful, but still, his determination was admirable. Despite himself, Kakarot was growing to like this person. He liked the way he looked; foreign, wild, yet somehow familiar in some distant way. And he especially liked his eyes. Even clouded with a haze of confusion, exhaustion, and painkiller drugs, they were a beautiful hue of gold, and they were rimmed by red around his eyelids, shadowed by an intense brow. In a word, this stranger was fascinating. He wanted to know more about him. He wanted to hear him speak, wanted to see him recover so he could glimpse the lithe grace of movement promised by the person's sleek muscles.

But he remembered Vegeta's warning. Don't get attached. He could help this person recover, but he shouldn't get too close to him. Vegeta was right, much as Kakarot didn't want to admit it. He wanted to get to know this person, but he shouldn't.

He sat on the edge of the medical cot thoughtfully, resting his chin in his hands, elbows on his knees. He only had a few more months of relative freedom before he would be mated to Broly on his – actually, their - twenty-third birthday. He wasn't looking forward to that day. And he most certainly was not looking forward to yielding to that brute Broly, since he most certainly wouldn't be allowed the dominant position in whatever awkward relationship they struck. His low status and slighter size would guarantee that much. Super Saiyan counted for nothing. Broly was one too.

He heard a knock on the door, and looked up to see his brother Radditz step in, glancing around before his eyes fell on the pair on the bed.

"I heard what happened," he said, nodding to the once-again-unconscious form lying on the bed, "Why did you want to help him? You don't even know him."

Kakarot shrugged, "It seemed like the right thing to do. You and Dad are always telling me to trust my gut, and my gut said to help this guy."

It was true, his brother and father were constantly reminding him to think before acting. He tended to, as they put it, "jump in with both feet" in just about every situation. And his exuberance had come back to bite him in the backside many times. But he didn't see how it could do that in this situation. He wasn't doing anything wrong, and he had thought this through before acting... sort of. If Vegeta was okay with it, it must be alright. The prince's judgment was unquestionable.

Radditz grinned, his long dark hair rippling as he tilted his head, scrutinizing the unconscious person, "He's a looker, I'll give him that. Whoever he is."

A growl rumbled in Kakarot's throat, and he blinked, startled. He wasn't sure why he'd made that almost possessive sound. He wasn't... possessive of this stranger, was he? He couldn't be jealous of Radditz, that was ridiculous.

But that didn't change the fact that when Radditz had commented on the stranger's appearance, Kakarot's first thought had been; You won't touch him, he's mine!

TBC

(( Only my second KakaKu fanfic. This one of course will be a lot longer than Vertigo. I'm pretty proud of it. We'll get into some Kakarot/Goku interaction in the next chapter!

Thank you, readers, for your patience and support, as always.

-Shinsun))