53

Chapter Fifty-Three

" Honor is simply the morality of superior men."

H.L Mencken

This chapter is dedicated to Tsuru Hiromi, March 29, 1960 – November 16, 2017. Thank you for helping create such a beautiful world.

"Arctica!" Cooler rushed into his aunt's bedroom, as she had retired the evening prior, her heart unable to handle the strain any longer. The older prince had not been able to sleep at all, his mind racing with the potential out-comes of the battle on Namek.

"Yes Cooler?" she mumbled tiredly, as she had not been able to sleep, the proof in her voice.

He didn't comment on the dark circles beneath her eyes, the stress clearly visible on her tired face,

"It's Frieza." He clicked a remote and a holographic screen brightened Arctica's room from the far wall, the Arcosian's pale, tired face appearing in front of them.

"Frieza!" she shot up, her face contorted with a mixture of relief and anger, "You damn fool!"

He looked taken back through the exhausted mask on his face,

"Ah good to see you too aunt, you seem awfully unenthused about seeing me alive." He dead-panned, his usual knack for dark humor watered down by his lack of strength.

"You destroyed a planet! You could have gotten yourself killed! And all over some damn wish with those ridiculous orbs! Where's Adalina?!" she questioned the last part with less confidence than the others, as she could not see the chipper second in her usual post behind the tyrant.

Frieza grimaced but chose not to argue with the woman at that point in time, as he had already explained himself far too many times already,

"She is resting. While her wounds are healed, she still lost quite a bit of blood, so I am allowing her to sleep in." the weariness was prevalent in his voice, but something else was hanging onto the fringes of his tone.

Arctica arched a delicate brow bone as she picked up on the tone in his voice,

"Something happened between you two, didn't it?"

Frieza scowled once more, to hide his embarrassment,

"That's none of your business you pariah, we have more pressing matters to discuss wouldn't you say?"

It was then that Adalina's tired face came into the frame, her hair tousled from sleep,

"What's going on?" she questioned through a yawn, "Oh hi Arctica!" her chest fluttered at the familiar sight as it was something to remind her of familiarity, "I thought I'd never see you guys again." She beamed as she caught sight of Cooler as well.

The two Arcosians released silent sighs of relief when they saw the girl was unscathed, meaning there was still hope for the tyrant to continue on his path of redemption. She certainly had seen better days, but she was alive.

"It is good to see you as well. It has been a long couple of days, but yes, Frieza, we do have much to discuss. Whilst you were occupied with your idiotic dream, Lilith and her subordinates attacked the palace. Zarbon and I managed to hold them off and drive them back, but damage was caused to the palace." Cooler explained in a tone that suggested he was none too happy with his brother.

"The palace is the least of our worries," Frieza smirked, "Though you always were one for interior decoration weren't you brother? By the way, where is Zarbon? I have not had the motivation to check on the status of my soldiers yet, though I'm sure I've lost most of my fleet."

"Actually." Adalina interrupted, pulling up a comprehensive list of every scouter owned by the Frieza Force, "Everyone made it off the planet, I thought for certain they had perished but they must have been wished to Earth." She explained, looking at the location they were all clustered at.

"Yes, and Zarbon is on his way there now. With you two out of commission, leadership fell to him. We wouldn't want your unruly bunch stirring up trouble." The older Arcosian smirked, taking pride in his own force for their polite and calm demeanor. He was always a fan of brains rather than brawn.

"Hey now, those are my soldiers too." Adalina chided, her head whipping up to glare at the monitor. The motion made her feeble stability crumble and she nearly fell backwards.

Frieza placed his tail behind her back for support,

"Why are you up? You are not well." He scolded her quietly, hoping the other two would not hear.

"Because I don't like sitting in bed all day." She retorted, "It's boring."

"I suppose we'll leave you two alone for now, are you on your way here?" Arctica questioned with a smirk.

"Yes, we will arrive by this evening." Frieza was doing his best to ignore his aunt's perverse stare, but it was beginning to agitate him, "Goodbye." He spat, ending the call as his aunt's chuckling filled the speakers.

"Did Lilith really attack the palace?" Adalina questioned as she took a seat on one of the cushioned benches in the leisure area of her ship. The Arcosian sighed as he stood, still in his final form, and walked over to her, taking a seat beside his precious second.

"That is correct." She was picking up a sense of stress that had never been noticeable before, was he finally lowering his walls around her? If only a little, "While I do not know the full extent at the moment, I am quite sure Arctica will brief us upon our arrival."

"Are you okay? You seem stressed out." She questioned, even though she wanted to use the situation to try and show him the dire error of his ways -Polarra and Arctica could have died while he was too busy on Namek killing Earthlings. She was still mad at him, but they would have plenty of time to discuss things after they were both healed and in a better mental state. Though neither of them could shake the odd tension in the air. It was as if they were both choosing to ignore what had happened on Namek.

"I should be asking you that." He dodged the question, taking the attention away from himself, "You are aware you woke up screaming on more than one occasion last night, yes?"

Adalina stiffened, she had remembered but hoped he wouldn't bring it up, as she didn't particularly want to talk about the reasons just yet,

"I am aware." Her eyes went blank as she stared into some corner of the ship, her hands began trembling slightly, "I don't want to talk about it."

"You were tortured, by one of those cretins no less. I will make sure they suffer for this indiscretion." He scowled as he clinched his fist in front of him.

"I said I don't want to talk about it Frieza." She stood up, breaking him from his stance as his face softened, his eyes widening and mouth opening in a slight 'o'. He wasn't familiar with that type of situation. He thought that inciting a feeling of vengeance by speaking about the event was the best way to go about it, but it seemed he hadn't quite gotten a grip on the woman's fragile emotions.

But still, curiosity nagged at him as he allowed his mind to meld with hers. He got quick flashes of blood and screaming before the images went completely dark, "Stop it." She glared at him.

He had taught her to recognize all types of telepathic and telekinetic powers, and his mind reading was no exception. Of course, she probably noticed him concentrating harder as well, it wasn't a move he used in combat because it dropped his guard so drastically.

"Who do you think you are to give me orders?" he spat out of instinct.

Adalina glared at him and bent at her waist, putting her face in his, causing him to lean back,

"I think that I'm the girl you kissed and professed your love to last night." His face took on a pink tinge as his eyes widened, completely caught off guard, "I suppose that means we are courting and I am your girlfriend." She smirked, relief flooding her as she successfully maneuvered their topic of conversation to something lighter hearted.

He frowned, narrowing his eyes,

"I do not like that term, it sounds juvenile. On my planet we call each other mates." He tried to recall what his dating customs even were, as he had never had interest for another no matter how many women his father shoved towards him. In fact, as experienced as he liked to think himself, he had only been with a handful of women to satiate his occasional need for release.

Adalina's face went red,

"On my planet that is used to describe two people who intend to have children later on-"

"It doesn't have the same meaning on my planet." He interrupted, "But refer to me as you please, and I will do the same." He leaned forward, a smirk on his face as he captured her lips in another kiss. He wasn't sure what had gotten into him, but he felt the need to be as close to her as possible, as much as possible. In a world where only crushing his enemies beneath his boots made him feel good, it was nice to have an alternative.

The Zandonian felt herself melt into him as he pulled her down to straddle his lap, noticing that she was trembling from standing for so long -of course he had his own guilty reasons for his actions as well.

Adalina felt her body flush with an unknown heat, almost like an itch that she needed to scratch. It was completely foreign to her, but it felt nice. She relaxed her hands against his shoulders as one of his hands cradled the back of her head, lacing his fingers through her hair. The other one settled against her waist, the thin material of her night clothes not enough to shield her skin from his cold touch.

Frieza deepened the kiss, gently tilting her head, silently instructing her on what she needed to be doing. While that particular form of affection wasn't what was customary on his planet, it was universally recognized and accepted, well, usually. He was more excited that she lacked experience, his dominating nature loving the challenge. He attributed his feverish behavior to having gone so long without contact of the sort, in fact, he had not had any relations with consorts since Adalina came into his life.

The Zandonian felt his hand begin creeping upwards from her waist and pulled away,

"We should eat breakfast." She stood up, nearly falling over. Frieza stood along with her, putting a hand on her lower back as he had done the previous night, "Huh, you're taller than me in that form, not fair." She pouted.

"Come on, let's see what kind of 'food' you have stored on this heap." He rolled his eyes, as he was quite aware of his second's affinity for junk food.

"I have actual food, I swear." She defended herself as they walked to the kitchen.

He didn't reply, his mind still elsewhere. He was disappointed that they had stopped so early, but he wouldn't push her, he was called evil for many things, but that certainly wasn't one of them.

Adalina stood in front of the fridge, looking for anything that resembled breakfast food. Frieza was beside her, close enough to catch her if she faltered,

"None of this resembles anything edible." He scowled.

"You like these." She pulled out a carton of over-sized eggs, "This is breakfast, right?" she sheepishly smiled at him.

He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes as he took the purple container from her trembling hands.

"I can prepare the food, you need to rest."

"Do you even know how to cook?" she couldn't recall a time she had seen the man do anything so mundane.

"You do realize there was a point in my life where I had to fend for myself, yes?" he almost seemed offended at the teasing statement, and Adalina found herself feeling guilty.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't assume like that." She smiled at him, "I would love for you to cook me something."

Frieza scoffed and continued scanning the contents of the refrigerator, looking for any other ingredients he could use. He picked up a few more items with his tail before closing the door,

"I will return shortly. Lay down before you pass out." He gently instructed, as he was aware she was feeling ill and did not want to upset her.

The Zandonian nodded, hobbling over to her couch once more and laying down. It was silent on the space-craft, until the distant hum of Frieza cooking took over the room, the sent drifting to her. She smiled softly, her stress melting away for a mere moment in time as she enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere. Her mind kept replaying the few intimate moments her and the Arcosian had shared and it made her entire body light with an unknown energy.

Adalina still couldn't believe that he had returned her feelings, and he had been genuine about it, and vulnerable, something completely out of the norm for him, and she had been allowed to see it. It made her love for him grow even more, if that were possible.

She smiled and nuzzled into a pillow, drifting off as she dreamt of things to come.

Frieza stood in front of the stove, cooking to the best of his knowledge. He really wasn't one for such menial tasks, but for some reason he couldn't find it in himself to tell her he had no idea what he was doing, because then she would have opted to cook for herself or not at all, and neither of those options were healthy. He tried to recall distant memories of his mother humming away at the stove in the palace kitchens.

"No, I will not let you feed my children that pompous excuse for food." She had told both their father and the kitchen staff, "They are growing boys and they need things to compensate for that, not fancy food in ridiculous dishes."

"My Queen, we can prepare something more to your liking-" the head chef began.

"You should not be lowering yourself to such a menial task, Orithyia." King Kold chided.

The fierce Queen sent him a glare, "I will do as I see fit. Need I remind you that I was not a pampered welp?" the argument was ended, as he did not have the energy to refute his stubborn wife.

"Yes, of course love."

Frieza smirked at the memory, but was suddenly shocked back into reality when he saw that the egg he had started to cook was beginning to crisp at the edges, he knew his second hated the yolk cooked and promptly removed the edible as carefully as possible, dropping it onto a plate. Conventional cooking was far easier than anything he had done in the past.

"How are we supposed to survive out here?" a much younger Frieza asked his older brother.

"It is quite simple, we must fend for ourselves." Cooler replied, trying to ease his sibling. Truth be told, he wasn't sure how they were to survive on the foreign planet either. Their father had dropped them with no warning, only telling them he would be back in one week. He was certain it was some form of brutal training their mother had no idea about.

The planet was tropical in nature, and seemed to be only inhabited by animals with no higher form of sentience. It had been quite a shock to both of the boys when they had to find and kill their own food and cook it over a barely lit fire.

Yes he quite found that the prepped ingredients, and stove made the process much easier.

He finished cooking and plated everything as neatly as possible, turning the stove off with his tail and setting them onto the table,

"Adalina, your breakfast is finished." He called out as he walked back towards the cozy common area. He didn't hear a response from the young woman, and wasn't surprised to see her curled around herself, fast asleep. He walked over to her and ruffled her hair gently, "I know you're tired but you need to eat something." He repeated words he had heard long ago.

The Zandonian blinked sleepily, turning over to stare at him,

"Oh I fell asleep." She said sheepishly, smiling lightly.

"Yes you did, you can go back to bed after you eat if you would like, I will not wake you until we are closer to Arcos."

She pushed herself up to a sitting position, still feeling weak. Frieza noticed she was struggling and extended a hand, pulling her to her feet with ease and grace.

"You've been so sweet to me recently." She commented with small smile.

"I've always been courteous to you, in comparison to my treatment of others." He didn't particularly want to have that conversation; why did she bring such an embarrassing topic up?

"Ah, yeah, I suppose that's true." She replied, picking up on his uncomfortable tone.

"Come, let's eat."

The two alien super powers sat at the table and enjoyed their first meal together in quite some time, taking the time to silently reflect and energize themselves. By the time they had finished, the young woman was tired once again, her eyelids fluttering. He found her serene and content look ignited something in him.

"I think I might lay back down for a bit." She said, yawning and standing up, some of her strength returning, "Perhaps I will be back to health after a nap."

Frieza swooped her into his arms in one swift movement, holding her in a bridal position,

"And conserving your energy will also help." He commented, his face a light pink tone. He had gotten a sudden urge to be close to the woman once more.

She giggled but said nothing, allowing him to carry her to the bedroom. He was quite fond of her laughter, as it almost made him feel the same joy.

The galaxy's most feared leader sat the woman down and carefully covered her in blankets with his tail,

"Goodnight my dear, I will wake you when we are close." He flipped the lights off before giving her a light kiss on the lips.

He didn't know what had suddenly possessed him after watching her delight in the food he had cooked, but it was like he had been drawn to her light even more. Part of him, one that still burned from his youth, screamed for him to give in to his feelings completely, and allow them to devour him. He sighed lightly under his breath,

"What have you done to me?" he quietly questioned as he typed in a command for the ship to announce when they were ten minutes from Arcos.

Frieza gently clambered into bed with the woman and wrapped his arms around her mid-section, his tail entwining with her legs and pulling her close.

Adalina smiled, feeling safe and sound, like nothing could touch her ever again.

A/N: WOO another chapter. SO life got really weird again and I am taking a semester off school due to stress and because of my university messing up my finances somehow. ANYWAY. I have a proposition for you guys. I recently started a patreeon account for this fiction. I thought it might be a good way to bring in a little extra income so I don't have to work as much and can devote more time to finishing this fiction for you guys and creating more stories in the future. THIS WILL NOT PREVENT YOU FROM READING THE STORY. I am still going to be posting on fanfiction publicly and will never make you pay for fanfiction, as I'm not even entirely sure that's legal? Anywho, if you become a Patron there are little awards set up like sneak peeks at chapters and video chats and blah. My account is LolitaKG. You absolutely do not have to sign up. I just thought it would be an interesting little way for me to interact with you guys a bit more. And of course if you guys hate this idea and think I'm being an awful person I will remove it ^^'

Until next time! Next chapter will focus on Arcos and Lilith!