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Cellbit POV (Somewhere in Brazil - Office of Immortal and Magical Regulation)
At the end of the day, it was easiest to make a deal with the international government. Mortals wanted to live an oblivious life, and the supernatural community wanted to be left alone - and that’s where Cellbit’s team came in.
Anything strange , that’s what he handled until he could figure out if it was one of his people or just some mortal who really went off the deep end. He never had to hire new employees, because the team he had would never die.
They couldn't die.
Most of them had tried, in one way or another, and it had always been unsuccessful. A few had gone missing, of course, but he knew they would turn up in one way or another after a few decades unless they’d truly gotten themselves stuck somewhere.
So instead they just worked on keeping the immortals and the mortals separate and peaceful, and that was how it had to be.
“Another weird one, boss,” Bad leaned over the desk and dropped a thumb drive on his desk. “Video footage from a museum in Algeria, I was told to bring it directly to you.”
“Really?” Cellbit frowned, picking it up and turning it over before moving to one of his shittier laptops, in case it was some kind of virus. “You don’t know what’s on it?”
“Nope. Can I watch?” Bad grinned. “I can make us popcorn.”
“I’ll take care of it. If you can help with the case, then I’ll show you.” Cellbit rolled his eyes. “It’s probably just some kind of ghost, which they know we can’t help with.”
“Aw, alright.” Bad groaned but wandered away to bother somebody else, despite the pile of paperwork on his own desk across the room. Cellbit rolled his eyes and closed the door to his office before opening up the files and selecting the first video - and his exasperation only grew when he recognized the figure sneaking through the museum.
Vegetta.
There was no way he was still obsessed with that statue, was there? Cellbit had told him hundreds of times that the likelihood of that statue actually being him was ridiculous - Foolish had led cults and religions for decades, and there were statues and etchings of him all over those excavation sites, many of which were broken . So even if Foolish was still conscious in his prison, the odds of restoring him were slim if not impossible. He’d been stupid and gotten in over his head, and wherever his body was trapped was probably in a place he would never be-
The video proved him wrong.
Cellbit blinked, staring at the screen as grainy images showed Vegetta setting up a ritual, and then-
Then the statue started to move.
Stone crumbled, and an all too familiar figure collapsed out of it into his lover's waiting arms.
“Oh, shit.” Cellbit didn’t even bother with the rest of the video files, instead grabbing his phone and slamming the laptop shut. “Answer answer answer-” voicemail. “Fucking idiot .”
They needed to get people on this. Foolish was an infamous statue by now, his painted face was on hundreds of textbooks and news articles about the well-preserved temple site, he couldn't just walk around the world. Vegetta knew that, he should have-
Well, he did. He did try to get Cellbit’s help… dozens of times.
“Fuck me.” Cellbit stormed out, relieved to find Roier Max and Bad were all in the same place, grouped around Max’s computer as he showed them some kind of code. “Get the fuck in here, all of you. We have a problem.”
“Hey! Language,” Bad scolded, wagging a finger even as he hurried over, Roier and Maxo close behind. “Is it about the videos?”
“Yeah,” Cellbit sighed, leading them in and opening it up again. “You each get one guess about what just happened.”
“The moon landing was proved fake?” Roier leaned on his desk, ruffling through a drawer to find gum.
“Your sister did something stupid again?”
“No, and no,” Cellbit glanced at Bad, whose eyes had narrowed into slits at the sight of the first frame of the footage. “How about you?”
“He was right, wasn’t he?”
There it was.
“Yeah.” Cellbit sighed, skipping forward far enough and pressing play. “Vegetta was right. I need everyone on this- we need to find them. Roier, he won’t answer my call. Can you…”
“Fucking hell- already on it, hold on.” Roier abandoned his search for snacks and darted out, going to retrieve his phone.
Bad on the other hand pushed forward, leaning down to squint at the grainy footage of Vegetta and Foolish leaving the museum, getting into a truck, and disappearing into the night.
Then he rewound to the beginning, which was from months ago when apparently Vegetta had stayed after hours for the first time and studied the etchings around Foolish’s feet.
“Bad-”
“You need us all on this.” Bad snapped. “I’m on this. Let me watch it.”
“We had no way to know it was actually him. You even said it wasn’t likely, you even went to visit!”
“I was wrong .”
“We were all wrong.” Cellbit glanced at the screen, watching Foolish fall to his knees again. “Maxo-”
“I’ll get us a flight.” he was already typing away on his phone, and didn’t even look up to respond. “If Roier can get ahold of him, I can get us to the closest airstrip.”
If not… Well, Vegetta had resources of his own. Cellbit was almost worried that the both of them would up and disappear before they could talk.
Vegetta POV (A ship in the Mediterranean Sea)
“Just rest, here-” Foolish was uncoordinated, stumbling with the rocking of the boat, and hands shaking whenever he tried to hold something. But Vegetta got him into one of the cots where he could lay comfortably.
For the first time in centuries.
“Just lay here, we’ll be in Spain… soon.” Vegetta adjusted the pillow and Foolish blinked up at him, and every part of Vegetta wanted to scream at the lack of recognition. “Just rest.” It would be about a week, honestly, until they were home. But compared to thousands of years, that was soon.
“Okay.” his voice sounded painful, still, but that was only to be expected.
“I-I will be right out here,” he nodded back toward the door. “If you need anything at all, just tell me.”
“Sure.”
This was almost more painful than seeing him frozen in stone. Vegetta left him to rest and went back out to their supplies, glancing at the computers and the ship’s captain to ensure they were still on their way back home.
Good, good. The further they got from Egypt the faster, the better. Once they got to his home they would be untraceable, and Foolish could recover from this experience.
Soon everything would be back to normal.
Vegetta really wanted to believe that.
“You’ve been gettin’ calls,” the captain informed him idly, gesturing toward his bag. “They the people we’re s’posed to be avoiding?”
“Ah…” Vegetta paced over, pulling his phone out of the bag just as it began to ring again, and Roier’s name popped up on the screen. Instinct made him go to answer, but-
He was working with Cellbit still, these days, most of his old friends were. Had they really found out about this so quickly? If so, he should ignore the calls.
But if it was something else, and something had happened to Roier or Cellbit or Maximus… damn it. He would just have to act like nothing was going on, and if Roier asked about Foolish he’d know the situation.
“Roier, my friend!” He greeted, turning away from the captain and pacing out to the deck, squinting at the sunrise over the coastline. “I’m sorry, I was away from my phone. How are you?”
“Oh, you know-” he could hear the sound of voices hushing and objects moving around in the background. He was probably in the office. “Work and things. Cellbit got a report about you, you know.”
“A report?” Vegetta frowned, leaning on the rail of the ship. If all else failed, he could drop his phone into the sea. “What do you mean? I’ve been behaving myself, you know that.”
“You’ve been performing reverse rituals in a museum at night is what you’ve been doing, Vege.” Roier sighed, dropping his very short-lived act. “You have him with you? You have Foolish?”
“I seem to recall you and your friends didn’t care about Foolish,” Vegetta snapped, narrowing his eyes. “You could have been there with me if you did. Why are you asking now?”
“Because there’s security footage of a statue getting up and walking away, that’s why! Do you know how stupid-”
“Damn, the cameras.” Vegetta rubbed his eyes. “I knew I forgot something.”
“Oh, you forgot it alright! What were you thinking?”
“That the love of my life was trapped as a tourist destination ,” Vegetta said blandly. “If it was Cellbit, what would you have done?”
“Th-that’s not fair.”
“Oh, isn’t it? Why are you calling me, Roier? Do you think I’m going to go on the news and tell everyone that immortals and magic exist?” He wasn't that stupid. “All I wanted was to help him, and I have. No thanks to any of you .”
“Where are you going?”
“Why?”
“Come on- Vegetta, listen. You know we had no way of knowing that it was him. You know how many statues-”
“Oh, yes, I know you think I can’t recognize his face. That was made very clear.” Vegetta sighed irritably. “Why do any of you want to know where we’re going? So you can register him with the government and make him sign those documents of yours?”
“He’s our friend, too, Vegetta!”
Oh, sure, that was fair. They’d abandoned Vegetta in every way when he tried to get Foolish restored, and now that he’d done it on his own they thought they were owed something.
“Let me talk to him, he’ll want to-”
“No.” Vegetta grit his teeth. “Roier, listen… he was stone for a thousand years. He is… he is…”
“Wh- is he alright? You do have him, right?”
“He is with me, and he will be with me for a long time.” Vegetta cleared his throat. “But he is not alright . Again, because of all of you.”
“ We didn’t curse him.”
“Not directly.” Vegetta sighed. “Listen, maybe… maybe someday. Maybe when he is more… himself.”
“Vegetta, please.”
“I said no, Roier.”
“We can help! Bad’s already watching those damn tapes over and over again and crying, can you just- just tell us where you are, so we know? And- and keep us updated?” Roier insisted, and Vegetta heard a door close, and the background of the call got quieter. “Are- hold on, are you on a boat?” damn , now Roier could hear his surroundings far easier.
“I will try to keep you updated,” Vegetta muttered, glaring into the water. “But I will not be telling you where we’re going. Tell Cellbit, and Bad, tell them not to bother me. If he asks for you, I will reach out.”
“That’s all I’m gonna get, huh?”
“That’s more than I intended to offer,” Vegetta admitted. “So agree, and leave us alone for the time being.”
“Who are you talking to?” Foolish’s voice made him jump, and Vegetta nearly dropped the phone. “Nobody else is out here.”
“I- goodbye, Roier,” Vegetta hung up in the middle of Roier’s protest and tucked the phone away, turning to smile at Foolish. “It’s a- a newer piece of technology. This allows people to speak to each other from very far away - that was Roier.”
“Okay…” there was little recognition there, but Foolish’s brow furrowed together as if he was truly trying . “Th- is it magic? Or one of-of the electricity tablets?”
“Not magic,” Vegetta smiled softly, taking Foolish’s hand. It jolted slightly but didn’t pull away and Foolish tightened his hold as soon as he seemed to right himself. “Humans haven’t really dealt with magic in such a long time, only myself and a few others.”
“R-right. And…” he rubbed his face with the other hand and leaned against Vegetta and the rail all at once. “So- okay. V-Vegetta?”
“Yes.” he’d given his name when asked, as painful as it had been, and this wasn’t the first time in a few hours that Foolish had asked for another clarification on it. “We are ah… old friends. I lived when you did, before…”
“A-and- okay, yeah. That’s how you… you know magic, and- and my name.” Foolish whispered with a pained wince. “M-my name…”
“Foolish,” Vegetta assured him, heart crumbling to pieces. “You’re right, that is your name. They struck it from the temple walls, but you’re right.”
“R-right, right, yeah.” Foolish nodded idly. “Vegetta… Foolish. Roier?”
“He was our friend then, too,” Vegetta explained softly. “But he isn’t nearby, not anymore. You don’t need to worry about that, love, you just need to rest.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Foolish pouted and for one of the first times since his restoration, actually seemed like himself. “I-I am. I miss… walking, though.”
Right. Right . He’d been stuck in one place for a very long time, it only made sense that he would want to wander.
“I have a large bit of land, where we’re going.” Vegetta cleared his throat. “You’ll be able to wander wherever you like, as long as you stay nearby… we’re not meant to- to spend much time around the mortals, though.”
“Why?” Foolish frowned. “Mortals love me- you saw the temple. Why can’t I… well,” he coughed weakly. “I-I guess they thought I was imaginary, after finding the temple again. Didn’t they?”
“Most mortals do, now. They don’t make people into gods the way they used to.” Vegetta said apologetically. “They would only ask questions, and bother you.”
“Oh.”
He knew so many odd bits and pieces of the current world - he even knew one or two modern languages, apparently - and that meant he had been able to see and hear and think all those years. Centuries buried under sand, decades being dusted off and stared at and theorized over by archaeologists.
Vegetta wished he could have been faster. He wished Cellbit’s organization would have helped when he asked - the first time, or even at all. He wished this had never happened in the first place, and Foolish had never been cursed into a statue by stupid mortals who thought he was an evil god.
He was neither evil nor a god - but he did like to pretend he was both. That’s why Cellbit had said he got himself into his own mess, and why he refused to believe that the statue found was the same one he was trapped as.
“But you- you aren’t mortal? You’re…”
“We’re both magicians- immortals, Eternals, demigods… there’s a lot of words for it. We both are, I won’t be going anywhere.”
“Okay, I-” Foolish gasped, head whipping around as the sun finally rose above the horizon, more than just a few beams at a time.
How long must it have been since he felt the sun on his skin?
…
How long had it been since he felt anything at all?
Foolish POV (1 week later, in a mansion on the coast of Spain)
Every part of his body hurt . He could feel it, crawling through his skin and muscle and bones.
He had skin and muscle and bones again.
Foolish didn’t know when the last time he’d felt so many sensations was, and even though it hurt he never wanted it to end. It was beautiful, and he’d gotten so used to feeling nothing that he hadn’t even really missed it. But now he had it again- and he had this person, too. He’d tried to get to understand the researcher as much as he could, on the journey over the sea. Foolish had fallen asleep eventually, and he’d forgotten how restful that could be, but in the time he was awake on their journey he tried to give the man company.
This… Vegetta. This man who had studied him for months - maybe over a year, maybe over a decade? Time was so strange to even think about, now. Vegetta had worked for however long it had been to help him, and he’d lifted him up and taken him out of that place and spoken kindly… and Foolish knew he should probably remember who this person was.
He had always been familiar. His name, when Foolish heard it, made so much sense . It was getting easier to think, over time, and Foolish figured his mind had stalled the same way the rest of him had while he was trapped in stone.
After the sun had risen, Foolish had even felt a hint of magic return to his veins - but it was still such a small amount, he probably had to wait to try and use it or he’d just hurt himself more.
Part of him endlessly wanted to know what it would feel like, to hurt even more . But Vegetta was worried for his health and well-being, so Foolish kept himself from trying that for the time being. Instead, he was just getting used to feeling everything the way he did now. Warm sunlight, smooth and rough surfaces in Vegetta’s home - soft carpet, soft clothing, the worn cover of books.
He might have gotten carried away with it, as well, going from room to room to run his hands over everything he could find just to feel it. Walking so much made his legs ache terribly, but that was another feeling that he hadn’t been able to have, and now he had it .
At some point in his wanderings, Vegetta split off to do something in his house and Foolish was left alone to marvel at the return of life to his body, and the beautiful home Vegetta had put together in the time they were, apparently, apart.
Most of the interior doors were unlocked, so he wandered through display cases and library rooms filled with different artifacts - some of which he recognized, some of which seemed bizarre and new like the ‘technology’ the mortals had been coming up with.
Currently, he was looking through a stack of preserved pieces of very old papyrus- some of them even tugged at his memory, reading over the records they kept, and Foolish was positive he’d either written them or at least been there when they were written.
And then there was the one on the bottom of the stack.
He knew his own name in the languages he knew, of course, he did- so this, with his name written so clearly in its original form, stood out. The strange part was the way it was connected with another name that was a bit harder to decipher- he hadn’t read any of these ancient languages for so long unless he managed to spy something in the hands of an archaeologist.
But… it didn’t take too long for him to decipher, and with the understanding, his stomach turned back into stone in his body.
Foolish, married to Vegetta-
More or less, at least, that’s what this old writing said and meant.
Vegetta had said they were old friends, but he’d also had that expression on his face for so many strange moments- oh, fuck.
Maybe he was misunderstanding it, maybe it really had been too long since Foolish was able to truly read and study and understand something. He would remember if he had a husband , right? Especially one like Vegetta, who was kind and strong and beautiful.
Then again, sometimes Foolish doubted his own name .
He needed to talk to Vegetta.
Foolish set the glass frame down and stepped out of that room, peering down the hallways as if Vegetta would turn up just at the right time.
He didn’t. The mansion felt empty and cold, and Foolish paced through the halls and part of him reveled in the panic and guilt he could feel- the way his heart beat faster and the way his lungs struggled to take in enough air. The rest of him… just wanted to find Vegetta.
He did, eventually, when he untangled the hallways and managed to find the front entrance, where Vegetta stood at the door arguing with someone.
Oh. Maybe this was a bad time…
“I told you not to bother us,” he said angrily, Foolish couldn't see who was on the other side of the door, but he could hear their voice. “Go. Leave. I do not want you here .”
He sounded furious- what had this person done to Vegetta?
“This whole time, you’ve been going on about what you want!” a shrill voice snapped back. “What about him ? What does he want? Just let me talk to him, and I’ll-”
“You have no right.” Vegetta hissed. “Even if I let you in, Foolish wouldn’t recognize you. Something which could have been avoided, if you hadn’t abandoned him!”
“Wh-” someone sputtered, and Foolish’s chest tightened painfully.
He’d forgotten so much, hadn’t he? But- who was this? Who had abandoned him?
“What do you mean, he wouldn’t recognize me?” the other person wasn’t angry anymore. He just sounded scared, and upset.
“Oh, you think he’s going to be perfectly fine after being left like that?” Vegetta asked scathingly. “If you’d helped me when I found him the first time, we could have gotten him out centuries earlier.”
“Th-that’s not fair.”
“None of this is fair .” Vegetta almost sounded like he was going to cry. Foolish bit the inside of his mouth just to feel it sting, then cleared his throat.
“Am uh- are you okay, Vegetta?”
“Foolish!” he spun around, and sure enough there was a glisten to his eyes that could only be unshed tears. “I didn’t see you there, I apologize.”
Stepping forward, Foolish caught a glimpse of the person on the other side of the door. He was wearing all black despite the hot weather, and when he met Foolish’s eyes he burst into tears as well.
Oh, great.
“Who’s this..?” he asked, reaching for anything- and finding Vegetta’s hands to hold. “Do- we know him?”
The newcomer sobbed harder, pressing a hand over his mouth.
“We used to,” Vegetta said tightly, keeping himself placed between the two of them. “His name is Bad. You were friends, once.”
That felt familiar. That felt as familiar as Vegetta’s name and face, and it felt as familiar as the concept of marrying the man-
“Foolish- Foolish, I’m so sorry!” Bad choked out. “I didn’t know- if I knew it was you in there, I… I would have…”
Part of Foolish wanted to shut the door and leave the guy out there, crying in public and embarrassing himself. It would be funny- but he had questions, and he wanted answers. So he ignored the open door and looked at Vegetta, who was very nearly failing his attempts at staying composed.
“Was he there when we were married?”
“How-” Vegetta blinked, bewildered. “You remember that?”
Oh, shit. Foolish winced, looking away, and Vegetta deflated.
“No, I-I found it written down.” oh, he was the worst. He shouldn’t have brought it up. But if Bad was a good enough friend that he’d been at any kind of wedding for them, then… then he would at least try, here, to understand what he was trying to say. “Was he there?”
“Yes.”
“Come in, Bad.”
Vegetta scowled but didn’t argue when Bad stepped inside, still sniffling and wiping tears away with the sleeve of his jacket, and Foolish gently closed the door.
“He abandoned you, Foolish. He abandoned us.” Vegetta snapped. “They all did. They all could have helped me undo the ritual, but they tried to stop me and that’s why it took so long! Whatever he was before doesn’t matter , now.”
“Was he the one who cursed me?” Foolish asked, squinting critically at the man. Bad definitely had a bit of magic in him, and he was clearly just as immortal as Foolish and Vegetta were. But he shook his head vehemently at the accusation, and Vegetta reluctantly sighed.
“No. The person who cursed you was human, and she is dead. We killed her.”
“Hm.” that made sense. Immortal spells were almost impossible to undo unless the caster themself went to reverse it. Mortals, though, their access to magic had always been flimsy at best.
“You are too forgiving,” Vegetta said harshly. “You always have been, my love- he abandoned you. For decades, he refused to help me try and recover you. You have enough to worry about right now, you don’t need him trying to make amends!”
“I- Foolish, just hear me out!” Bad said desperately. “I- if I knew for certain it was you, I would have been there in a heartbeat! But- but the idea that we could try and fail and- and get our hopes up…”
“Are your hopes up now ?” Foolish asked. “I don’t even remember who you are. I might as well still be a statue, for all I know about you.”
Bad’s face dropped, and he stepped back to brace himself on the doorway.
“I don’t really care, either way,” Foolish admitted, looking down at his hands to flex them. They could move again. He could breathe and feel again. That was what he cared about. If he even tried to care about the people he’d left behind, he… oh, he might crumble to dust the way he’d been afraid of doing, all those years being made of stone. “But forgive me, Bad, if I trust the person who saved me more than I trust you.”
“But-”
“What?” Foolish narrowed his eyes into a glare. “But what? Vegetta says you weren’t there to help, and I never once saw you coming through to visit me the way he did. I may not remember centuries ago, but I remember the past few decades. He was there, and you weren’t.”
“I-I’m so sorry , Foolish,” Bad said weakly. “I really am.”
“So am I.” Foolish shrugged helplessly. “But that means more to you than it does me. This is Vegetta’s house, you should probably leave and not come back until he says it’s alright.”
Bad’s mouth dropped open to protest- but then a moment later he seemed to change his mind and nodded, wiping tears away from his eyes again.
“And- and tell whoever the others are,” Foolish added, relieved to see that Bad would at least listen to him the way he told Vegetta he would. “To leave us alone. I don’t want to see them. You’ve heard it from me now, so- so there.”
“Okay.” he sounded miserable, it made Foolish’s chest ache.
But he didn’t want to have to untangle centuries of pain with more than one person at a time, and he owed Vegetta everything . Not only that, but their past was apparently far more complex than Vegetta had let on, and he wanted that to be his priority - if he had any at all.
“T-take care, okay?” Bad opened the door again, rubbing his face with the end of his sleeve. “Just- just take care of yourself.”
“Sure.” Foolish watched him leave, then closed the door behind him before looking back toward Vegetta.
He was crying , one hand over his mouth to stay quiet while Foolish had been talking to Bad.
“I…” Foolish didn’t know what to say, but he had to do something . “Why… didn’t you tell me we were married?”
Vegetta just sobbed harder, then, and Foolish tentatively took him into a hug, guiding him gently through the hall toward a sitting room he’d been shown a few hours earlier.
Hours were so short , weren’t they? God… all of this was so difficult, but at the same time, true struggle was something he had missed when he was stuck on that plinth.
Vegetta was inconsolable, for a good length of time. Foolish sat with him, of course, but he couldn't think of anything right to say - and anything he did say just made Vegetta cry harder.
It made sense, honestly. Foolish tried to imagine how it would feel if he’d been in love with someone and been in Vegetta’s shoes. Having to try for centuries or even thousands of years to find someone, only for all his friends to abandon him in the end? And then, to be forgotten…
Foolish understood the dread of being forgotten.
His name had been chiseled from the walls of his temple, by those who trapped him inside it. He’d been buried under sand in the desert for centuries, in darkness and feeling like he could be crushed and crumbled and killed at any moment. When someone dug him out, a few decades ago, Foolish had wanted to cry with relief - but of course, as a statue, that wasn’t something he could do.
The people who discovered his temple and turned it into an exhibit and an excavation site didn’t know his name or anything about him, and at that point, Foolish had barely held onto the last bits of his identity anyway.
He knew the fear of being forgotten far too well.
The only problem was that Foolish wasn’t sure he remembered what love felt like, and that was the other half of Vegetta’s despair.
He tried to consider it, sitting beside Vegetta as he cried himself into a restless sleep, slumped against him on the couch.
Vegetta had called him ‘love’ even when he was still stone- but archaeologists and researchers were sentimental people in general, so that hadn’t been odd. Now, though, Foolish tried to think back on that and dissect what it meant.
He remembered the fondness he had felt, for some of the researchers. Vegetta included- it was almost like the day got better despite his curse when he could see a familiar face. Was that love, or desperation to still feel like a person?
…
He tried to consider the struggles Vegetta must have gone through, over hundreds of years, to hold onto hope and retain knowledge of the rituals that could have been used in this. The dedication he had, the way he’d returned time and time again to double-check the runes and the engravings until he knew for certain he could pull Foolish out of his prison of stone.
Maybe that was love.
Foolish wished he’d held onto his mind more, so he could claim to be as dedicated as Vegetta clearly was. But he’d forgotten. Vegetta had done so much for him, and Foolish couldn't even remember him.
Maybe that was why Vegetta hadn’t told him they were married. Of course, that was why. Foolish dug his fingernails into the skin on his arm, relieved to feel the pain it brought just as a distraction. He hadn’t had much distraction from his thoughts, over the centuries… but even his thoughts had grown so muddled, over time.
This wasn’t… fair.
The harder he dug in his fingers, the more it hurt- the more he felt . It had been so long since Foolish truly felt pain, and for the past week or so it had been a welcome return. At one point, his nails even broke the skin- letting out blood that for centuries had been frozen in his veins, under skin that wouldn’t break no matter how much sand grated over the top of him and crushed him.
Foolish wasn’t sure how long he sat there, letting Vegetta rest, but it was incredibly sudden when Vegetta sat up, and then gasped, snatching Foolish’s hand away from his arm.
Oh.
Oh, wait- he was bleeding, wasn’t he?
“Foolish! What- what are you doing?” Vegetta asked, aghast. “Don’t hurt yourself, love- hold on, one moment.”
No, no- fuck. He ruined it, Foolish had wanted to talk to Vegetta about other things, that’s why he sat here so long and waited.
“I’m okay.” he pulled away and inspected the cut, wincing at how jagged he’d accidentally made it. “Sorry.”
“I’ll be right back,” Vegetta rubbed his face, waking up the rest of the way as he stumbled out of the room and returned with a packet of bandages.
Foolish stayed quiet, letting his arm be cleaned and bandaged, similar to the way the archaeologists had first made sure to keep him intact, when they uncovered him from the sand.
“Why- Foolish…” Vegetta put a hand over the bandages and sighed, head dropping forward to land on Foolish’s chest. “Why did you hurt yourself?”
There were a lot of things Foolish could say to that. Instead of anything intelligent, his voice spoke before he took a moment to think it over.
“Why not?”
“Foolish!”
“Sorry- I…” Foolish winced. “I meant- I… I didn’t realize what… I just wanted to feel it. Y-y’know? I haven’t felt… I-I missed feeling things.”
“There are other things to feel than pain , my love,” Vegetta whispered, holding onto him tighter. “There is so much else to feel.”
“I know.” did he, though? Pain was such a strong sensation, it was so wonderfully overpowering. “I-I’m sorry.”
“Don’t… do that again.”
Foolish wasn’t exactly sure what ‘that’ was, from the tone of Vegetta’s voice. Context said ‘that’ was hurting himself, but the way he had to choke out the words made Foolish wonder if he was being told not to be petrified and lost for another thousand years.
Either way, he would do his best.
“A-are you feeling better?” he asked weakly, draping his free arm across Vegetta’s back, bringing him closer.
He was so warm, like the sun. Foolish could feel him breathing, he could almost feel the way Vegetta’s heart thrummed with anxiety.
“I apologize,” Vegetta murmured. “I have been trying to- to keep myself together, for you. This is all just… too much, sometimes.”
“I’m sorry I forgot.” Foolish offered. “I-I… I really am sorry. I wish I remembered more.”
“It’s not your fault,” Vegetta said, voice trembling. “I… should have expected something like this. Anyone in your situation… anyone would be hurt, somehow.”
“Why didn’t…” Foolish bit his tongue, shaking his head. Asking that before had only made Vegetta more upset. This time, though, Vegetta just laughed sadly.’
“I… I’m worried, I suppose.” he offered. “What if I had told you we were married, but you didn’t believe me? You would stop trusting me, and you could get hurt or lost or- or something.”
“Why wouldn’t I believe you?” Foolish asked, frowning. Vegetta huffed slightly, shaking his head against Foolish’s chest. “What? Being married to you makes so much sense .”
“It makes… sense?” Vegetta asked incredulously, moving to sit more comfortably against Foolish’s shoulder and chest. “It doesn’t seem ridiculous, to you?”
“No, the opposite. Having you around feels safe, it did even when- even before, when I was still stone.” Foolish wasn’t sure exactly how to explain this. “When I-I read that we were married, it was kinda scary, and at first I was confused and thought maybe I misunderstood what it said. But the more I-I think about it, the more I…”
“Hm?”
“The more it just makes sense. Feels right.” he made a face and shrugged. “I think if there was anyone in the world I’d marry, they would be like you. So of course it makes sense that it is you.”
Maybe that’s what love felt like, then.