Diego and Vegeta flew back to the palace. Diego carried Nicole, despite Vegeta protesting of the fact that Diego would get blood on her. But Diego’s response was that she was already blooded up by her own blood to worry about anymore getting on her. They got into the palace through Diego’s bedroom window.
Diego didn’t want to put Nicole down. Vegeta made sure Diego’s door was locked to avoid any interruptions from any of the servants or King Vegeta himself. He looked back at Diego and said, “We need to see how much she is injured.”
“We need to clean the blood off of her first,” Diego said in an absentminded voice staring at Nicole’s face. He then walked to a walkway to another room connected to his. There was a Jacuzzi tub in the room and he sat down in it still holding Nicole. Vegeta walked into the room. He could sense Diego was still upset about Nicole.
“Shower, turn on warm water,” said Diego.
The shower cut on and water started pouring down on Diego and Nicole, washing away the blood on them. As the blood cleared away from Nicole’s face, Diego almost lost it seeing the bruises forming on it. He held her closer and started crying. “Why did you come here?” he whispered in a shaky voice. “Why?” he cried out.
Vegeta hadn’t seen Diego in this state of emotion in a long time. Diego was hurting seeing the one person he cared for more than anyone else in the universe besides his own son brought to the brink of death.
Once Diego saw the blood was off both of them he ordered the tub to activate the drying mechanisms. Wind blew around them so that they were dry within two minutes. He then stood up and carried Nicole out of the bathroom to his bed in his bedroom. Vegeta pulled down the covers and Diego laid her down and covered her up.
“Now what?” said Vegeta, “We have to get her healed and yet we can’t take her to any of the rejuvenation chambers without raising suspicion. She shouldn’t be here.”
“She cut her hair…” muttered Diego.
“What?”
“Why did she cut her hair and why is she dressed in these clothes? It isn’t like her, especially coming here the day after she took her queen exam yesterday.”
“It seems she ran away-.”
“Father, can I be left alone for a while?”
“What?”
“I need to just be alone is all, please.”
“Fine.” Vegeta then left the room, locking the door before closing it.
Diego lay down beside Nicole. He laid there for at least an hour, staring at her, waiting for her to wake up. He wanted to touch her, hold her, but was afraid of hurting her more. He finally drifted off to sleep.
Nicole started coming back into consciousness. All she felt was pain. She let out a little painful moan as she tried to move. She opened her eyes. She was shocked to find herself in a canopy bed.
“Where?” Nicole whispered.
“You’re awake?”
Nicole turned her head slightly to find Diego looking at her and lying next to her. “Diego,” she whispered.
“Hi, Princess,” said Diego, trying to smile.
Nicole tried to smile back but found it too painful to do so and grimaced, which that hurt too.
“Are you in pain?”
“Yes,” she whispered, “But I’ll live.
“Why did you come here?”
“That is a long story.” Nicole then closed her eyes.
Diego thought of changing the subject. “Did you pass your exam?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good.”
“Yes and no.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ashen has angered me.”
“How so?”
A tear slid from Nicole’s closed eyes.
“Nicole?”
“He made a decision without me, which I have no choice about. So I ran away.”
“It must’ve been a pretty devastating decision.”
“Yeah. He told me he had set me up to marry someone.”
Diego’s heart sank.
“I refused to marry someone I don’t even know. So I disguised myself as a boy and came here.”
“But why here of all places?”
“I wanted to go to you.”
“You almost died.”
“I would rather die than marry an unknown person to me.”
Diego sighed, turned to lie on his back, and put his hand to his forehead. “I don’t know what I would have done had you died…” he muttered.
Nicole opened her eyes and looked at Diego. “Well…I’m not dead so…don’t-.”
“Nicole, of all places, you came here. The saiyans will kill you where you walk because they know you aren’t a saiyan. What am I going to do with you, huh? What if my grandfather finds you here? Then what?”
Nicole sighed. “I’ll remain as a boy,” she said.
Diego shot her a look and said, “What?”
“I’ll remain disguised as a boy. Make me your servant. We can pull this off.”
Diego sat up. “Do you even know what you just said? Do you have any idea of how hard a servant’s life here is on Planet Vegeta?”
“Make me your personal servant. I’ll never be out of your sight.”
Diego thought for a minute and said, “Okay. This could work. But we are going to have to make your disguise more convincing…after, of course, you heal some to at least smile.”
(I do not own any of the Dragonball Z characters or any of the story line directly linked to the series. All said content rights go to Akira Toriyama, the creator of DBZ)
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