Once Upon a Dream

"Kat, can you and Goten handle this for a while?" Bra asked when the flow of customers slowed down when the daylight turned towards the night. She wiped her hands on her apron and lifted it over her head. "Arigatou!"

"Wait a minute!" Kat shouted from the kitchen. "Where are you going?"

Bra blushed. "That's none of your business!"

"She has a date with Camell-ouji," Goten informed his boss as he passed by with a tray.

"Oh really?" Kat smiled. "Well, you can got then. Just come back here before I close up shop. V-chan would kill me if I lost track of you."

Bra pouted. "I'm not a little girl anymore."

"Believe me, Bra-chan, you'll always be 'Vegeta's Little Girl'."

She smiled. "That's good to hear but I really have to go. He's meeting me at the park."

Kat nodded and smiled. "Have fun! And if you see Gavin, tell him to come see me. We have a date today. Though, I think your father is going to be a little difficult because you like someone. You should have heard him start on me."

Bra grinned. "He better not or I'll sic Kaasan on him!" She practically skipped to the door. "Ja!"

Once on the street, she tried to remember where to go exactly. Camell-ouji had told her that morning but she was so busy staring at him, that the directions did not sink in.

"Do I turn right on Rose Street or turn left?" She stood on the corner, staring into one direction and then the other. "Oh I don't know!"

"Excuse me," a woman asked her gently. It was the same woman, Alissa, that Vegeta had startled before. "You seem to be a little lost." She smiled. "Can I help?"

Bra sighed in relief. "You bet! See, I was on my way to the Imperial Gardens and I sort of got turned around. I'm meeting someone there."

Alissa peered at her closely as she shifted the basket on her right arm to the left one. "Aren't you the girl that was with the loud man before?"

Bra nodded. "I'm sorry if my father was rude. He's always that way."

She nodded. "I see. No harm done. But people usually don't scream and shout here." She shrugged. "I guess it's the calm atmosphere."

Bra nodded politely, anxious to get to the park. "Is it left or is it right?"

Alissa smiled. "I'm sorry for talking so much. I'll take you there, I have to pass by anyway."

Bra smiled. "Thank you!"

The Imperial Gardens were really beautiful. It was surrounded by tall hedges, with brick columns at each corner. A cobble stone path led from the entrance and branched off into two different directions. An inner hedge bordered it on the other side. Bra stopped at the juncture and looked both ways.

"Which way to the fountain?" She asked herself. "Please don't let this be a maze!" She then decided to make an educated guess. "This path splits in the exact middle so I don't think it matters which way I go." She shrugged and turned left.

As soon as she rounded the corner, she faced a dead end. Bra groaned.

"I was wrong, I guess." She backtracked and took the right path. After a couple more confusing twists and turns, she finally made it to the center where Camell was seated by the side of the fountain in regular, although expensively made, clothes. A blue tunic with gold edging, matching leggings, and black boots. His hair was unbraided and hung loose down his back.

"Bra!" He smiled at her. "You made it!"

She smiled as well and took a seat beside him. "Kat let me go for some odd reason."

"Did you get lost trying to get here?"

Bra started to shake her head no then she blushed. "Sort of. This is some garden."

"My great-grandfather built it when he became king. He wanted a place for everyone to go to relax." He motioned at all the other people around either standing by the fountain or having picnics in the grass. "If you want to play a game, people usually go to the larger park on the other side of town. It has more space."

Bra nodded, not really hearing him. She was thinking how wonderful he looked in blue.

"Bra?" He asked, waving a hand in front of her face. "Bra? Are you in there somewhere?"

She blinked and blinked again. Nodding, she blushed. "Um, yes."

"The fireflies are coming out to play. Do you see?" He motioned all around him where the tiny glowing bugs frolicked among breeze.

Bra nodded. "I see. It's almost dark, isn't it?"

Camell rose and pointed off to the eastern part of the Capital. "When the fireflies come to play on this day of the year, there is a festival. It marks the beginning of Summer Solstice."

"There's a festival today?"

"Yes and we could go if you like."

Bra began to smile and she hugged him. "That would be wonderful!" After a moment she caught herself and backed away, coughing nervously. "Um, sorry."

The prince just smiled. "Don't apologize. I don't mind." He took her hand and they began to walk to the exit. "Shall we go?"

She nodded in agreement. "Yes we shall."

***

The Summer Solstice Festival took over a whole entire section of the city. There were glowing and colorful paper lanterns strung up everywhere and booths in front of every business. There were games, shows, and especially lots of food. The smells were enticing Bra already.

"You know, this is wonderful!" Bra could not get enough of everything. "Where I come from, we never have something so big. Besides the tournaments."

"Oh? Where do you come from Bra?"

She stammered for a moment before she grabbed his hand and pointed to a booth. "Look! What's over there?"

The prince had barely enough time to look before he was dragged off into that direction.

All conversation was limited from that point on for majority of the words were exclamations of excitement. Bra had expanded Camell's slang vocabulary in just an hour. Everyone recognized the prince too but no one stopped long enough to 'worship' him. It seemed that they treated the royalty as equals, not as gods. It was certainly interesting. Her father probably would have said it was as things should be. Then again, maybe not.

The prince was practically penny-less by the time Bra was due back to Kat's restaurant. She had several stuffed animals, had tasted many different foods, and had loved every moment of it. It was really a night to remember.

"That was wonderful Camell!" Bra could not stop smiling. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time!"

"I'm glad you've enjoyed it, Bra. It meant a lot to me too."

They sat upon a high hill that overlooked the city. People milled around everywhere below, like little insects in a maze. The stars were just starting to come out as the darkness grew deeper and you were able to see the Capital clearer. They sat there for a while, not saying a word, until Camell broke it by first taking Bra's hand.

"Bra, I would like to give you something. To," he blushed slightly and cleared his throat, "show how much I care about you."

She stayed silent until it was apparent that he wasn't going to continue without a little prompting. "Yes, Camell?"

He released her hand and reached underneath his shirt. Pulling something free, he removed it from around his neck. "It was my mother's," He said by way of explaining.

It was simply a small golden heart on an equally golden chain. The heart itself was actually made of several overlapping ones topped by a green jewel in it's center. He pressed the necklace into Bra's hand and closed his own around it.

"My mother gave it to me right before she died." He fell silent for a few moments before he continued. "She told me to only give it to the one that I could not think to spend my life without."

Bra was truly touched but still she had to ask one thing. "How come she gave it to you and not Vegeta?"

Camell sighed. "She knew that, even then, that there was a evil presence lying dormant in my brother. A darkness that was just waiting for the right time to consume him. She though it would be best to give it to me because she thought that I would be a better king than Vegeta."

He looked so sad and doubtful of his own ability to lead that Bra had to say something. "You are ten times the person that Vegeta is. You should always remember that."

"But that's not all Bra! He didn't used to be this way! No one knows who or what changed him. I feel terrible that I wasn't there to help him. No matter what he does or what he becomes I will always love him."

Bra gently removed her hand from his grasp to fasten the pendant around her own neck. "I will take this now, but you may change your mind later on. I won't hold it against you if you do."

Camell just smiled. "Now who's the one filled with self-doubt?"

She laughed. "Touché."