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Frigid’s pale amethyst scales were smeared with darker violet blood. The worst of the gashes were still bleeding by the time she got back to the main ship. The Frieza Force had been hit hard while attacking Earth, forced to retreat before they lost entire troops. The reptilian alien waited in the entrance area for further orders while the more gravely injured soldiers were sent to the medical bay. She didn’t think she was seriously hurt, so she didn’t immediately go to have her wounds treated. Instead, she tried to take inventory and see about how many soldiers were down. Scanning over the crowd, her eyes fell on the battle-worn emperor, who was giving orders to a general. He made his way around, telling the high ranks what to do with their soldiers, until he came over to her. He looked entirely done with the whole situation, trying to contain his rage from being defeated yet again. His smooth, porcelain body was tainted by burns and broken scales. "Frigid, come get yourself cleaned up. I can't have you leaving bloodstains all over my ship." His voice was as cold as ever, yet it was a surprising relief to know that he was concerned for her.
It was such a surprise that it took her a moment to process what he said. "It—It's not that bad—" Her voice was even more unsteady than she expected. As soon as she said it, though, she realized she shouldn't even suggest that she didn't want his help. "Alright..." Why would he specifically want to stay with her, though?
His exasperated glare softened, and he began leading her through the halls, passing by a guard and telling him to go monitor the med bay before bringing her to his quarters. The metal door opened to reveal a large room with dark red curtains drawn over the large windows, a purple sofa, a silky, red and ivory bed. The furniture was undoubtedly of the finest quality—of course the self-proclaimed emperor of the universe would accept nothing less. The room had its own bathroom, where Frigid went to clean her wounds. Being in his chamber felt wrong—everything there was meant for him alone. She supported herself on the marble sink, finally seeing just how bruised and battered she was in a mirror that was meant for someone shorter than her. Darkened, discolored patches marred her exposed scales, singed from burns. That was when the weight of the battle finally set in. She could’ve been killed. Frieza could’ve been killed. He was still hurt—she failed to protect the one person she was supposed to.
He dragged a stool from a desk over to her. “Sit and let me take a look at your injuries. You’ve fought too hard for me to leave you in this condition.” The fury behind his eyes was gone now that he had something else to focus on. They both knew all the healing pods were taken by soldiers in a worse state than her. Frigid tried to sit down as painlessly as she could, trying not to bend her back. Her tail limply dragged over the floor.
“But… it still wasn’t enough…” she said weakly. Frieza grabbed a towel, and had gauze ready to bandage the lacerations until they’d sufficiently started to heal.
“I know,” he said, his tone turning dark for just a moment. “You’ve continuously fought for me with all your strength. I don’t often show people this amount of kindness, but I want you to be able to keep fighting, so I must make sure you recover.” He finished cleaning and wrapping a gash on her arm. The water stung and made her tense up, but his cold hands, tinted violet from his own blood, were gentle as they slid over her. It was a strangely comforting feeling to someone who normally hated being touched.
“I—“ before she even fully decided on what she was going to say, she winced in pain as he pressed the towel against her back. The whole process of bandaging that area was by far the worst. From just below her bio armor to the base of her tail, she was scraped and cut and was still bleeding. She gripped the edge of the sink until her hands trembled, eyes tightly shut as bolts of stabbing pain ran down her spine.
“You’ll be fine,” he assured. He worked quickly, but the longer it went on, the more overwhelming it became. Her eyes stung as she fought back tears. After everything that had happened, she just wanted comfort—wanted him to comfort her more. After what felt like much too long, he finally finished. “Now, go lay down and rest for a while.”
She made her way over to the sofa, her legs aching with each step, and sat down, managing to draw her legs up onto the cushion and lean against one of the arms. She didn’t feel like she deserved so much attention from the emperor, yet she craved it. Everything about him was almost addicting. Frieza took the time to finally clean himself up before coming back to the main room. He walked over to her as he heard her breathing grow uneven. Her body faintly trembled with each shuddering breath, her head turned away from him. He sat beside her with a quiet sigh. “You’re going to be alright,” he repeated, quiet but firm.
“I couldn’t protect you...” Frigid’s voice was barely more than a harsh whisper as she tried to keep it steady.
“Look at me,” he said with an authority that no amount of fatigue could mask. He didn’t wait for her, instead reaching a hand out to the side of her face, fingers brushing against her chin before tilting her head towards him. He, of all people, must have felt bad for her to be so gentle, or he just didn’t have any energy left to take his frustrations out on someone else. “You’ve fought well, and risked your life for me. You don’t have the strength to defeat everyone in my way, but you did everything you could...” His voice was low and silky, a tone that he rarely ever used, but was impossible to ignore. “You have great power.”
She looked at him with glassy eyes, struggling to fight back tears. She didn’t know why she was suddenly so distressed by losing a battle. It wasn’t the first time an attack had gone poorly, or her troop had to fall back because they weren’t powerful enough to fight on the front lines. No one in the Force could take on Frieza’s most formidable enemies like the emperor himself could. This time, though, even he seemed to struggle, and it was seeing the possibly of him being beaten that worried her. She didn’t want to lose everything she was fighting for—his army, his rule over the planets they subjugated. It was his empire that she wanted to be part of. “I… don’t want you to get hurt…” she mumbled.
“I’ll be fine. Don’t let one loss make you feel like a failure. You aren’t the reason we were defeated.” Crimson eyes stared at her, always so vibrant and commanding, no matter what happened to him.
Frigid dug her head into a pillow, tears collecting in the corners of her eyes until they were too great to contain. “You’re too important to lose…”
His tail reached around her waist, careful not to touch the sensitive areas of her back. He slid closer to her. “I’m not going anywhere.” She sank into his touch, beginning to relax a little. She wished she could lay there the whole day with him. “Few people give me such genuine loyalty and prove themselves to be useful. You still have work to do to get stronger—but you need to heal first.”
She never wanted to be seen in such a pathetic state, but he made her start to believe that everything would be alright. Steadying her breathing, she closed her eyes and gave in to exhaustion. Frieza moved to the other end of the sofa to lay down, his tail curling over hers. He wanted nothing more than to relax there for a while and not be bothered by anyone.