Radditz's Date

Part 4

What, oh, what am I doing?

This though played over and over in Radditz's head as he flew over the out-skirts of the city. He didn't know why he had the sudden impuse to go ANYWHERE with this pethetic creature. She would be useless in sparing. She wasn't fast enough to hunt. She was just a drag. A limp form to be flown everywhere, usless. Radditz looked down at her as he flew along with her. She looked genuinly amazed that they were flying. He reminded himself that she had never flown on her own before.....nor was she now. Radditz's scowl deepend when he thought that she never WOULD fly on her own. But why should that bother him? After tonight, he had no plans to ever see her again. But for some reason, this thought put him in a worse state of mind. Why? That was beyond him....

Dayna had never flown before. They were so high up....so very very high up...... She thought that she should be frightened. She may not have had a fear of hights, but she still had the average human fear of being too high up. But....but this....this was AMAZING!! Radditz seemed to not even seem to know she was there, he flew along with such expirianced ease. To her, the very thought of flying without technical assistance was null. As far as she knew, it was imposible. But, oh. Radditz seemed to be capable of the impossible.

First his display of super human strength at the restraunt, now he showed his grace. No, Radditz had never thought of flying as being graceful. He had only though of it as his most practical form of transportation. Much ashe thought nothing of his strength. He was the weakest Saiyan alive. Even when the Saiyans were many he would have been considered weak. He was always looked down on, sent to the weakest planets, made to train with the other Saiyans that were years younger than he. He hated it. He HATED BEING WEAK!!

They touched down in a forest. A pretty little glade that one could swear to be a scene from Eden. The sky was perfect, the moon was full, the crickets chriped and the mosquitoes were at a tolerable number. Dayna and yes, even the impassive militry strict mind of Radditz noticed the sheer beaty of their surroundings. Flowers and fresh green grass, already gathering dew from the air, shimmered beneath the diamond studded sky.

"Oh, wow.....it's beatiful......," Dayna said, having momentarily forgotten their flight, as she slowly danced in the small clearing Radditz had selected. Radditz thought that she seemed radically out of place in this primitive natural beaty. Her clipt, modern outfit, so chic in the city, was muted when held agenst this scenic backdrop.

Dayna turned to Radditz, who was scowling at the ground and mentally lecturing himself.

"Now what, oh Saiya-man?" Dayna asked, making a joke off of Radditz referance to her as 'woman.'

"Now?" Radditz looked up at her. He truely didn't know. He didn't dare to spar with her, nor could he count on her playing an active part in a Saiyan hunt, "Sit. I'll come back in a moment with a REAL Saiyan meal. Then you'll know what eating's all about."

"You're gonna leave me here?" Dayna asked, "Alone? By my self?"

"Sure, why not?" Radditz was baffled as to why she should be scared of such a lovely place.

"There's ANIMALS! You could go to get food only to return to find some other animal decided I would fill THEIR belly!!"

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Radditz asked, still struggling to grasp that someone would accually have FEAR for some simple minded animal.

"Fire!" Dayn said after a moments thought, "I hear animals are afraid of fire!"

"Fine," Radditz said, walking to the nearest tree. With one punch to the trunk, the tree collapsed onto its base, the lower half of it reduced to splinters.

Dear Dayna was left staring in shock.

"This enough to burn 'til I get back?" he asked, not noticing her amazment. For a warrior such as himself, he was rather inexpirianced in recognizing human (or any other) female emotions.

"Yeah.....thanks....," Dayna said, then snapped out of her state at another thought, "But I don't have any matches! I didn't put any in my purse cause I don't smoke......."

"Matches?" the word was foreign to Radditz.

"You don't know what matches are?" Dayna asked, looked at Radditz strangly.

"No....should I?" Radditz asked, wondering what the heck was so important about this mystery thing called matches......

"Yeesh, you Saiyans must be out of touch! Matches are what we use to make fire!" Dayna said.

"You need instruments to make a fire?" Radditz asked, wondering why anyone would need equipment to do a task that a quick chi blast could handle. Perhaps the trees of Earth weren't normal....maybe they didn't burn without being first.....whatever it was that matches did..... Radditz wondered what he should do, if that was the case.

"Well, we humans can't just CONGURE up a fire in our hands, now can we?" Dayna mocked, but was cut short by a surprising display.

Radditz was disturbed to learn that it wasn't the trees that wouldn't burn, but it was the fact that these humans just couldn't make fire. He made a small chi ball, forming it half a foot above his hand. For effect, he made sure it was a redish-orange colored chi ball. It looked like Radditz accually HAD congured up a flame from no where (it wasn't that far from the truth, either.)

"This what you mean?" Radditz asked, holding the soft-ball sized sphere of concentrated energy up, it's light casting moving shadow in all the cravaces on his and Dayna's face. Radditz admitted to feeling slightly bemused by the sheer surprise on Dayna's face.

Radditz tossed the chi onto one of the large pieces of lumber, and it caught on fire faster than a match could light a newspaper.

"Are you a wizard?" Dayna asked, in awe as she watched the flames dance about on the log.

"No," Radditz said as he turned to get on the hunt, "I am a Saiyan."

Dayna watched in wraped awe as Radditz gracfully slipped back into the air, flying with the breeze, but never once altering coarse, off in hot persuit of prey that Dayna was not aware was even there.

"Woo, what a guy.....," Dayna said to herself as she sat down and rocked back on her heels, thinking of an amazing, handsom raven-haired fellow with a tail.

****

Radditz flew toward the small herd of elk he had heard lowing earlier. It was a tiny group of males, for males and female elk migrated seperatly. This small group had lost track of their larger herd when they scattered from a pack of wolves, and were now only numbered with five full grown bucks, two older, weaker stags, and three youths, on their first migration away from their mothers.

Radditz surveyed this clutter of herbavores with the cold calculation of the predator he was. He didn't see a cute little elk, barely budding its horns. He saw a tender, tasty piece of walking meat. Had he been hunting alone, he might have just taken one of the young ones into the air and eaten it alive, for its flesh would still be so warm and juicy. But he had to remind himself how humans ate. They only ate cooked food.

Dead cooked food.

Radditz sighed and flew down on the herd, already with his prey, a fat young buck, targeted. Before the creature could even comprehend it was in danger, Radditz had already plunged his fist through the skin of its neck and grabbed hold of its spine. The creature spazmed once, then it's whole body went limp and Radditz crushed its vertibre.

Radditz held the body up to inspect it. The creature was still quite alive, though in shock. Its eyes rolled, exposing the whites in them. The creature wheezed and foamed, snorting steam from its mouth that dripped saliva and blood. Its quivering skin gave a few twitches. Radditz did not see an animal in pain. He saw meat, preserved in life, for rot did not take on living bodies as fast as it did dead. Radditz acute senses, which included taste, could taste any sign of taint in meat, even if it had only been dead for a few hours. Smiling, he took off for Dayna. He carried the animal with his hand still under the skin of its neck, holding tightly to its crushed neck bone.

It didn't take long to reach her. Nor was it hard to find her (though it would have been hard miss her, with her raging fire going.) As he landed, Radditz held his prize catch up for her to see. Dayna looked at the wheezing, still liveing carcass. She stared blankly for an instant, then her colour changed from peach, to a white-ish palour.

She smiled blankly and said dazed, "That for us to eat?"

Radditz took his hand out of the elk's neck and said, "What else?"

"Yum yum.....," Dayna said queezily.

Radditz took the buck by its back, it was almost dead now, his hands held onto the scruff of its neck and the end of its haunch. With no emotion on his face, he tore the animal into two pieces. The creature's body gave one last shudder, then life finally left it.

"You want heads or tails?" Radditz asked, holding out the two halves of the buck, still attached to eachother by a few dangling intestines. Dayna didn't answer, but she ran behind a bush where Radditz could have heard her technicolor yawn a mile away. Shrugging, Radditz tossed the upper half, being the head, forelegs, and upper abdomine, into the fire.

"I'll let you have the choice piece!" Radditz called to her, still behind the bush. He really wanted to have the front half of the elk, the brain being a delicasy rich with taste and nutrients, would have made any Saiyan perk up.

The thought that Dayna might be repulsed by eating raw, jelly like brains never crossed Radditz's mind. He sat down and started to eat the lowerhalf, ripping through its hide to reach the sweet meat below. Dayna peeked her head out from behind the bush. The caracass burning in the fire had lost its shape, the fur had burned off and the head was hard to find in the black outer covering.

The half Radditz was eating had been stripped of its outer skin, curtesy of Radditz teeth, and looked almost like the packaged meat you could buy in the supermarket. Not as horrified as before, Dayna finally got herself to come back the warm fire, where she sat by Radditz, not close enough to see all the details of his feast, but close enough to see the strange cold gleam in his ebony eyes exposing his natural carnivorous nature.

They sat for a while in silence, no sounds save the occational crunch as Radditz bit into bone, or a slurp as he sucked up a smaller organ like spagetti. The fire poped and snapped, and after a time, Radditz stuck his hand into the fire and pulled out Dayna's half of the meal. He tossed it to her, and waited to see if she would eat it.

Dayna looked at the piece. It no longer resembled an elk. It just looked like a HUGE piece of bar-b-que (A/N: How DO you spell BBQ?) Dayna had been to cook-outs before. All of the meat she had at them had a black, flaky outside, and a warm, juicy inside. Doing her best to convince herself she was only eating a well cooked turkey leg, she slowly raised a for leg and took a VERY hesitant bite. The charred outside tasted like...well...char. But once Dayna had gotten down to the meat, she could swear her taste-buds were melting. She had eaten many types of meat, but never was it this fresh, or tender.

Radditz noticed her look of pure delight when she tasted the meat. He was glad that she liked it, for it was his first kill for her. It was a good omen.

They ate for a long time, filling themselves to each their respected maximum, though Radditz had to finish Dayna's for her (which was fine, for he got the brain after all.)

So stuffed their eyes were glazed, they sat back agenst eachother. Somewhere between the begining and end of their meal, Dayna had sub-consciencly scooted closer to Radditz. Dayna had soon dozed off, leaving Radditz time to think in peace.

This human woman.....this Dayna. She was no Saiyan. She was dull, weak, and had no stomach for blood. But there was something about her that made Radditz think back to a different female he had once known......

****

(A/N: sorry, I don't normally do fics that take place on planet Vegita, but this is just a little flash-back, so bear with me.)

They were still so young. Radditz was not fifteen, and she was not sixteen, but they were inseperable.

"C'mon, Cabbia (pronounced: cab-ee-ya)!" the young Radditz cheered to the female Saiyan who floated a few feet in front of him, "Fight me!"

Cabbia smiled and said in a gruff, but feminine voice, "No, Radditz. I want a challenge. You're too weak."

Radditz lowered his head. He had hoped to fight her so bad. He had trained himself so hard to get stronger, but he was having a very difficult time. His body just didn't get stronger, for some reason. Perhaps it was a birth defect, or hereditary. His little brother was so weak, too, born with such a low powerlevel.

"Please?" Radditz pleaded, "I trained so hard! You just have to!"

Cabbia smiled. Radditz never did find out why she smiled, but she just said, "Okay."

Radditz attacked first, hitting with everything he had. For some reason, Cabbia seemed to have a hard time blocking him. He pressed his attack, hitting her eveywhere, but never going for the face.....that face.....her face........

He hit her back, they floated apart once again. Cabbia had some minor bruses, but for some reason, she had yet to try to hit him.

"You win, Radditz," Cabbia said, dusting herself off, "You're stronger than me."

Radditz didn't understand. She was one of the strongest fighters he knew. He looked up to her like a goddess, but here, she was admitting defeat to him almost the instant the fight had started. She just smiled back, then vanished before his eyes. He wasn't fast enough to see where she went, but he found out soon enough when she reappeared behind him and put him in a gentle but firm head lock.

"Don't you tell anyone, though......" Cabbia whispered in his ear, her breath giving a pleasant tickle.

"Not a soul....." Radditz gasped back. She released him, and they went to eat their daily rations, not close enough for anyone else to notice, but their tails brushed agenst one another whenever they had the chance.

Three days later, Planet Vegita....and Cabbia......were destroyed.

****

Radditz smiled. It wasn't until afterward did he understand why she had submitted. He had been so young, he had yet to concieve the idea of 'taking it easy' on someone. It was always custom to him before to go all out on any apponent, but she had shown him a different path.

She had liked him. He realized that now. He had always thought that his silly crush on her was fantasy. He held her at such high reguards, he never even considered that she would accept him as her.....partner, for they were too young to have mates.

After Planet Vegita had been destroyed, Radditz had kept himself busy destroying lives for Freiza. He took all of the jobs he was given, and voluteered for any extras, and he had little time to think of anything else, and he never did think too hard in that life, not up till his death.

Once ressurected, he was too idle. He had nothing to do. He was forbidden to kill, he had no equals to spar. His eyes hurt if he watched too much television.

So he thought. He thought of the past. He thought of his youth, and he thought of Cabbia. He became lonely, and even slightly jelous of Kakarot and Vegita. They each had mates who they loved, and who loved them back. He bacame desparate for female company of his own, though not even he would admit it to himself.

Finally, he asked Kakarot for help. His brother did not mock him, that surprised Radditz. Kakarot was not only helpful, but he was encouraging. He never flauted his superiority over Radditz, nor did he ever taunt.

They soon had writen that personals add, and that led them to this.

Radditz's back was hurting, leaning against a knob on a tree. He slowly stood up, lifting the still sleeping Dayna in his arms. She did not wake as Radditz took to the air and flew back into the city, to a little cluster of apartments, searching each till he found the address he was searching for.

Dayna's aparment.

He rung the doorbell, careful not to stir Dayna too much. Chalsee answered, for she shared the place with Dayna.

"Oh, my," Chalsee whispered, glancing at Dayna as she rested in Radditz arms, "Just bring her in and put her on the couch."

Radditz did as Chalsee had said, then left without a word.

He flew in silence back to his little capsule house in the Son's yard. He entered to find Nappa and Turles asleep infront of the television, as they were anyother night. Radditz made his was to his bed, and settled down under the covers, not bothering to remove his clothes.

He fell asleep thanking the strange events that took place in his life to bring him to this. He dozed off and had dreams of little red-haired children with tails that he would not remeber apon waking.

The End