DBZ X-Readers, Vol. 2

Cell x Reader Pt. 13 'Nuptial Gift' (LEMON)

The extreme urgency faded, but the need was still there, and thankfully they were too busy worrying about Cell's announcement and the week they'd been given to really bother much with your problems. It would save you the trouble of lying about a sudden sense of nausea or a headache or something like that.

You excused yourself and headed out into the hall, figuring that you needed some time alone to actually think this over. There were enough corridors and such in this place that you could probably walk all afternoon and still not cover most of it. You needed to get away from the others...

...and away from that smell.

You recalled the past, or rather, the future. He had been fun, in a way, but it was more in the sense of delinquency than anything else. He'd given you the ability not to care what someone else thought of your activities. You were the predator, after all. What does a predator care for the opinion of its prey?

And gradually, you'd stopped telling yourself it was wrong. You'd managed to put the tail to use giving either well-deserved or merciful endings to those you did happen to...eat.

Maybe it was just a losing battle. Maybe you were just fooling yourself.

Maybe you were just as bad as he was.

As angry as the others were at Cell, as determined as they were to beat him, you had to wonder--if they knew what you yourself had done, wouldn't they feel the same way about you? Or would they assume that he'd made you do it?

No.

No, you couldn't think like that. You couldn't keep thinking of yourself in relation to him; you were your own person and despite everything Gero had done to ensure otherwise you were capable of making your own decisions. It was just going to take extra effort to stay on the straight and narrow, as it were. There was just a slight handicap, but you were sure you could do it.

You could do it.

You could...

You just needed some air, that's all.

Clear your head, sort of thing. So you went on out into one of the outside, almost parklike areas.

Flowers, trees. Mrs. Briefs was a wonderful gardener.

Almost unnaturally so. Though you supposed with the kind of money that she had, she'd get the best seeds, the best fertilizer...

You took to flight and glanced down at the flowerbeds. How beautiful they looked from above.

You remembered the time or two when Cell had tried bringing you flowers. He tended to pick up the more weedy ones, but you'd had the sense to accept them with a smile. He'd tried, and expressed frustration on the last occasion because he didn't know what to do automatically.

'What does instinct tell you?' you'd asked him. It was more curiosity about what Gero would have let him know than anything else, but you were fairly certain of the answer.

He'd answered by confirming your suspicions, and despite feeling a little desirous of more romantic behavior...that was one of the first moments you'd wondered why you were softening toward Cell.

You knew better than to ask him again. But you did ask why he stopped bringing flowers.

The answer was very simple: their scents interfered with yours, and he didn't like that.

Absently, you drifted in another direction. There was a sweet kind of chemical smell on the wind...probably some factory or the other making scented bleach. Who knew for sure.

Instinct. That's what it kept boiling down to.

Rather a sudden thought, really, but the more you thought about it, the clearer it got. As strange as it was, Gero had managed to rig up a way to make them work against you. With Cell, it was different--he'd had time from day one to fix how things would work. Genius, he was, mad, but quite, quite genius.