Chapter Text
I threw my hands in the air, said, "Show me something"
He said, "If you dare, come a little closer"
His breaths are still ragged and he can feel drops of sweat rolling between his shoulder blades, tracing the creeks and valleys of the scars on his back. They burn like the dream still unfurling behind his eyelids, Frieza and the lashing, the cries of a boy no older than ten. It's not the first nightmare after Namek, after his death and resurrection and he's fairly sure it won't be the last.
“Here.”
Vegeta tries to focus his gaze on the glass of water she is putting in his hands. Her touch is cool and soothing, her reflection on the water trembles. He licks his dry lips before swallowing the fresh liquid in one go. She keeps her hands to herself, knowingly, but her gaze is fixed on him, a laser beam that digs deeper and deeper like she is trying to decipher his atoms, to dissemble him, piece after piece, and put him back together, fixed, repaired, a mystery unsolved. He feels so exposed and raw that he snarls at her - he can't help it - and it's her time to flinch. His eyes are darker than night itself, a color so black it suckles the dim lights of the corridor, like a black hole, antimatter.
She sighs and straightens her spine, eyes still sharp but softer: “Tell me if you need anything”
“Leave.”
His voice is coarse as his manners but he doesn't need her comfort, nor her pity. Nor the curious stare she uses on her experiments. Her full mouth is reduced to a thin line, a border he does not dare to cross.
“Fine.”
She leaves but the dawn is still far beyond his reach.