Yasmine watched in silence as Piccolo took off and flew away. So close, they had been so close that she could feel his breath on her face. She sighed, her brown skin gleaming in the dying light of the campfire as she turned her head to look down at Tategoto.

Tategoto was still sound asleep, smiling at a dream and curled up on his side with his cape draped around him like a blanket. His turban had come part-way off, and one of his little antennae were poking out from underneath. Yasmine reached down to fix the turban, but Tategoto's eyes popped open when she moved it.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. Yasmine signed.

Yawning and showing off his fangs, Tategoto giggled and sleepily signed, You didn't wake me up. I woke myself up.

Grinning, she extended her pinkie and thumb, pointed her hand so that her bent fingers were facing the ground and bobbed it up and down three times, signing, Oh, I see.

The young Namekian boy sat up and stretched. His turban fell over his eyes, and the image was so comical that Yasmine started to giggle, wishing she had her camera as she reached over and pushed it up for him. Tategoto just giggled himself and fixed it so it was sitting correctly on his head. Then he shook the dirt off his cape and winced as the soreness from yesterday's workout started to make itself known.

Are you OK? Yasmine signed.

Sore. He signed back, I started training yesterday. My father is fun!

Yasmine nodded in agreement, then glanced up when the sky started to show signs that morning was coming. Tategoto scrambled to his feet and headed to the stream, sniffing the water before he took a drink. The water was warm, but the warmth didn't affect the taste. Yasmine sat down on the edge of the stream next to him, and when he plunged his hands into the water to wash his face, there was a small splash that got her wet.

"Hey!" She laughed and flicked a small amount of water at him.

"Gah!" Tategoto flinched away with a small squeal of delight, then quickly plunged his hand into the water and flung some more droplets back at her. The splash caught Yasmine full in the face and she made a surprised face at him as the water got her hair wet. She laughed, took off her shoes and started kicking her feet in the water. Laughing his squealing childlike laugh, Tategoto copied her, and they started kicking the water at each other.

The waterfight had officially begun.

Unseen, Piccolo stood on the top of a huge rock that looked like a giant stalagmite, watching Yasmine and Tategoto's waterfight. When he had first seen this starting to happen, he almost went down and put a stop to what was going on, but then something made him stop. The boy looked so…happy. Piccolo hated erasing that smile, and had ever since the time he'd almost killed Tategoto to "end his misery". I think I'm glad I kept him around…

Looking at Tategoto was both pleasure and pain to Piccolo. Pleasure because he knew that the boy would be a powerful fighter when he was older. Pain because he was like the image of the innocence that was lost so long ago.

The sun started to come up on Piccolo's left side, and the light fell over his shape until half of his body was in light and the other half was in shadow. Still, both of his gleaming onyx eyes stayed clearly visible, as if they had their own inner glow. He squinted and his cape rustled as he raised a hand to block the glare out of his eyes, then turned back to watch Yasmine and Tategoto. When he looked at Yasmine, he felt the same swirl of feelings that had flooded his mind when she'd nearly kissed him.

Those feelings scared Piccolo because he didn't understand them, or why he was having them. The closest he had ever come to loving anybody in any way was the time he'd trained Gohan and the times now with Tategoto. But those were the father/son kinds of love, and he hadn't really called it 'love'. Until Yasmine had said the words to him, he hadn't know what to name the swirling, hard-to-figure-out feeling.

Piccolo's dark eyes flickered in the sunlight as another loud burst of Tategoto's laughter caught his attention again. Yasmine had him on his back on the ground and was going about tickling his sides, laughing at his squeals and giggles. Tategoto was kicking his feet and trying to tickle her back, but not having much success.

A faint smile pulled the corners of Piccolo's curving lips for a moment as he watched his son's flush-faced mirth, his large glittering black eyes visible even from so far away. Then he turned his eyes slightly to watch Yasmine as she tickled the child, the way her hair fell over her shoulders and almost touched the ground because it was so long. Tategoto kept grasping handfuls of it and letting go as he laughed.

"No! I can't be weak!" Piccolo said aloud at himself, then realized that Tategoto may have spotted him. He quickly dove off the rock he was standing on, caught himself with his ki and floated to the ground, straining his ears to hear if they were approaching or not. He knew that eventually, he'd have to go back there to get Tategoto so the day's training could commence.

But first he had to make sure that he could keep himself together when he had to face Yasmine. Steeling himself and hardening his expression, Piccolo walked around the large rock and trudged the several yards that seperated him from the other two, his cape dancing on the wind behind him as he moved.

That one is a monarch butterfly. Yasmine signed as she pointed to the picture in the book. She figured that she might as well entertain Tategoto until Piccolo returned, and she did love the child like he was her own son.

The emotional display Piccolo had shown led Yasmine to believe that in a small, hidden part of his heart, there was still a frightened child that needed to be held in comforting arms. What he had told her while under hypnosis had moved her to tears, knowing that he had been born into hatred and felt so lost. She had seen his tears, something that he must have held back all his life.

"I did let him know how I feel…" Yasmine told herself as Tategoto tugged the sleeve of her shirt and pointed to a brownish-black butterfly with yellow and blue spots on the outer edges of its wings. She smiled and signed, That's a mourning cloak.

Tategoto giggled, linked his thumbs together and moved his fingers like wings. Yasmine imitated him and grinned, honking his tipped-up nose afterwards. He laughed and signed, You're silly!

You're more silly then me, She signed back.

"Ahee!" He shook his head and laughed as the wind ruffled the pages in the book, flipping them to a bunch of cocoon pictures. His large black eyes doubled in size and he pointed with a pointed white fingernail at the images and signed, What are those?

Those are cocoons. Her chocolate brown hands and manicured nails moved with water-like grace as she explained the entire life-cycle of a butterfly in sign language. The amazement on Tategoto's face kept growing and growing until his mouth was hanging partly open. Oh, little Tategoto…your father is trapped in his own cocoon of pain and hate. Help me get him out before he suffocates… She thought as she finished the explanation.

Yasmine pretty like the butterflies. Tategoto signed.

Yasmine blushed at the compliment, touched her hand to her mouth and moved it away again to sign, Thank you.

Tategoto smiled just as a shadow fell over them both. Yasmine turned to see what was blocking out the sun and knew right away who it was when she saw a white cape out of the corner of her eye. Tategoto got to his feet and ran over to his father, crossing his arms to copy his stance.

Piccolo nodded down to Tategoto and briefly signed, Start your stretches. You remember them don't you?

The younger Namek nodded and immediately began a series of stretches that looked as if they might have been painful, but they worked the soreness out of his muscles. Piccolo started to go through the same stretches, doing them more casually then Tategoto was, and ended by sliding into several different versions of the splits, urging his son to go as far as he could. There was no sign language going on between them, but more of a silent conversation that consisted eye-to-eye looks and small nods of the head.

Yasmine watched them together in silence, the sun having dried her hair of all evidence of the waterfight. She had to say something to break this awkward silence, and needed to know whether or not she had ruined the fragile friendship she had with Piccolo. "…Piccolo?"

"Yeah?" Piccolo replied, ducking his head to stretch his neck and to avoid making eye contact.

"I'm sorry if I upset you earlier…" She paused to carefully think of what she wanted to say, her eyes lowering slightly, "I just wanted to tell you how I felt about you. So you could know that you have more then one person that cares about you, won't judge you by your past and won't forget about you." She strode to a large rock and leaned on it with her arms crossed, letting her long dark hair fall around her. It was loose, so the slightest breeze would cause it to flutter like the feathers of a raven's wing. "So please…don't be angry with me…"

As always, Piccolo turned his back to her to make himself feel more comfortable when he spoke to her. "I'm not angry with you, Yasmine." He said in a low voice that was almost a whisper, but still containing the cold raspy edge that his voice always seemed to have.

"Then what are you angry at? You're mad at something, so what is it?" Yasmine's voice grew in strength as she felt her courage rising again. She stopped leaning on the rock and stood up straight, staring straight at the back of Piccolo's head.

The large Namekian was silent, watching the younger one finish his stretches.

"Don't stay locked in that shell of hate forever, Piccolo. One of these days it'll collapse and crush you."

Piccolo tightened his lips and forced down the volcanic explosion of anger that was trying to rise up. He bore his teeth, whipped around fiercely and clenched his fist in front of him as his cape fluttered around his body. "Don't tell me what to do, Yasmine. I'm an adult now and can handle things fine alone." He didn't dare turn around again, knowing that he might accidentally hit Tategoto if he did.

Tategoto tugged on his father's gi pants, trying to make him calm down. Piccolo glanced down at him and sighed, letting his face relax to emotionless to satisfy the child's concerns. He pointed to the west to indicate the direction they were going to run, then turned his attention back to Yasmine.

"You've been alone too long, Piccolo. I told you that before and I'm telling you again." Her voice lowered slightly as she took another step towards him, knowing full well by the way he was tensing that he could do anything at any moment. "You're still a child, deep in your heart. Trapped and afraid."

Angrier then a hornet, Piccolo growled under his breath and clenched his fists until purple blood started to flow. Yasmine was right, and he was pissed at himself for letting her get too close to partially figure out what made him tick. The pain brought him back to awareness and he realized what he'd done to his hands, able to vaguely smell the blood as it dripped to the ground. He shook off the memories it brought and leveled his eyes with Yasmine's. "I am Ma Junior, son of Piccolo Daimaou, the Demon King. I fear NOTHING!!!!!!"

"Except maybe the truth!" Yasmine shouted back.

Piccolo suddenly turned and threw a single punch that reduced the tree next to him into splinters. The fire behind his eyes was growing out of control. He could feel the pulsations in his muscles as his power level rose slightly, but he forced it back down again before he did something too dangerous. "I. Fear. Nothing." The words weren't totally honest, but much easier to say then to admit that he was wrong in saying them.

An odd look came to Yasmine's face when she looked down at the spot where Tategoto was a few seconds ago. Then she glanced around to see if he was hiding somewhere, but she didn't see him anywhere. "Piccolo…"

"What!? What now!?" The angry Namekian snarled, V-shaped wrinkles forming on the bridge of his nose and giving him a feral look. When angry, he seemed to grow a foot taller then he really was, and the large shoulderpads and magnificent cape only added to that, making him all the more intimidating.

"…Where's Tategoto?"

Tategoto had gone ahead and started to jog, not aware that his father wasn't following and unaware of the verbal dispute that was going on behind him. He ran tirelessly, continuing on until he was ready to signal that he was tired. Then he realized that nobody was behind him and stopped, panting and afraid. Beads of sweat ran down the sides of his green face, and any that were wiped away were quickly replaced.

Looks like I have to stay by myself 'till father comes to get me. Tategoto thought as he sat down and rested his elbows on his knees.

Vibrations on the ground made him jump to his feet a moment later, and he watched as a herd of frightened triceratops-like dinosaurs appeared in the distance. Trailing behind them, with a gaping set of slavering jaws full of swordlike teeth, was a very hungry looking tyranosaurus-like lizard with armor plates growing out of its head. Only when they came a little closer did Tategoto realize that they were heading straight at him.

The dinosaur that was giving chase opened it's mouth, and Tategoto felt an intense vibration as it roared.

Scared out of his young mind, the young Namek started to run, trying to ignore the vibrations that jarred his teeth and sternum. The moment he turned to check over his shoulder, his foot caught in a root and sent him sprawling onto the ground. He saw stars for a moment and the world seemed to slow down as a wave of nausea cruised through his body, and a hoarse, animalistic childlike cry of pain escaped his throat.

By the time Tategoto had regained his senses and had managed to get to his knees, the heard of running dinosaurs was already upon him.