Chapter Text
Frost usually excelled at calculating his plans in the moment, but he’d barely gotten the chance to study his opponents, let alone a moment to breathe, before the Tournament of Power began to wage around him. Any plan he could reasonably concoct in advance had been swiftly dashed. His needles were still illegal weapons and multiple parties, from the assassin to the angel, had frisked him to ensure he had removed them all. Plan B relied on the two tanks of the team, but Botamo and Magetta had already waddled off to their own battles, playing piggyback.
So, until he found his Plan C, he’d have to rely on his godly-praiseworthy survival instincts and lay low. The lizard was thankful that the arena hadn’t remained flat for long, finding some secrecy tucked in a mess of rocks. An alcove that offered him space to catch his breath and enough shadow to be left alone to think.
His plan needed to be absolutely ingenious, not only to help him win, but also to impress the newfound compatriot he’d found in his parallel, Freeza. An emperor with an iron fist and a steely glare like him would certainly have something dastardly up his non-present sleeves– how could he pull his weight in this partnership if he had nothing to present in exchange? His tail briefly tensed into a kink at the thought of being inadequate for him–
“You seem to have made yourself cozy.”
Frost’s introspection was halted by another voice encroaching on his hideout, prompting him to flinch to life with a snarl-like yowl, a bright red bead of ki lighting on his finger and almost being recklessly fired off…
…before he realized it was only Hit, the assassin’s dark-coated attire making him further blend into the shadowed cavern wall of katchin behind him. The glowing red-eyed presence had slipped in unnoticed, probably in the blink of a Time Skip, leaning back with his arms crossed. This was likely the least tense he could get, his muscles still seeming like they were stuck with pins, given the circumstances unfolding around them– not that any foes had been a sweat for him so far.
Frost would have been perfectly willing to proceed and shoot at the assassin but, alas, they were still on the same team for this game. With a grumbling sigh, he extinguished his beam. “What do you want, Hit? If you’ve come to catch me slacking off, I’ll have you know this is just the most convenient place for me to run my analysis of the playing field and you won’t get any intel if you interrupt me before I’m finished!” The lizard turned his head with a huff.
“...You’re still formulating?” The assassin inquired, briefly turning to shadow as the scarlet gleam of his eyes dimmed with his slow blink.
The lizard’s tail stiffened, offended. “Well– We can’t all have brain supercomputers, can we? And besides, you can’t keep riding the coattails of a singular plan; you need Plans B through–”
“...Or is it because you know your new friend will pick up the slack if your brain comes up short?” Hit muttered just loud enough to cut him off.
The piercing of his emphasis caused a hard gulp to fall down Frost’s throat, deep blue dusting his nose. He could have sworn he had kept his fraternizing with Freeza under wraps, but… “...How… did you know about that?”
“I have good hearing. I overheard you two conversing earlier while I was trying not to focus on Goku trying to talk my other ear off.”
“Well…” In trying to explain himself, voice still faltering, Frost was able to quickly ramp back into a dismissive scoff, but he was unable to cloak that this only caused his face to further darken. “It’s none of your business anyway and I’d prefer you keep it to yourself. It’d be a hit to my reputation if Lord Champa thought I was communing with the enemy.”
“And this isn’t ‘communing with the enemy’ how exactly?” Hit quirked a brow. The lizard only puffed his cheeks in reply. “I just don’t see how this would be a good idea in the long run…”
“Hmph, did you really think I’d drum up an alliance without seeing if the chemistry matched up? You heard us talking, yes, but clearly, you didn’t comprehend. That man is the ideal complement that’d make such a joint venture that much more powerful~” The longer he rambled on about his counterpart, the more his self-assertion started to sound like fawning. If he wanted to prove this was merely an alliance, his expression wasn’t selling it; perhaps the heat on his face was from oxygen not reaching his brain. “Freeza is the breed of machiavellian that I could only dream of being if I didn’t have to hide myself during that whole charade!”
An empty beat passed between Frost’s kissing up and Hit’s reply. “And have you thought through the part where he’s from a different universe… and only one of our universes can survive?”
“Oh, that’s, uh… quite simple!” Frost stumbled. “Clearly, if he wins the whole shebang, he’ll use the Super Dragon Balls to wish me back so we can rule side by side!”
“Did he tell you that? In those words?”
“Well– not exactly… No—”
“I’m pretty sure those Dragon Balls only grant one wish– and a man of his nature probably has an entire scheme orchestrated while he can quite easily acquire a brand new lapdog to replace the old one.”
“Lapdog?!” Frost’s yelp was nearly loud enough to blow the two’s cover. “Pardonne, I am no lapdog to that man!”
“...That’s how he seems to treat you though.” The assassin, in contrast, barely audibly mused, averting eye contact.
“What do you know?! I’m the one who’s gotten to know him; you’re just the one who’s been eavesdropping without context!” The reptilian’s tail cracked in a wave like a whip. “And more importantly, why does it matter to you who I fraternize with? Why do you even care–”
Frost’s boiling blood began to cool when the realization struck him, stunned eyes narrowing as he adopted a cat who ate the canary smirk. His whipping tail eased into a giddy little squirm. “Oh-ho-ho, I see what this is about now~”
“About how I know a manipulator when I see one–?”
“You’re jealous~” The lizard started closing the gap between the two, his hips swaying with his steps. Now, it was Hit’s turn to feel like a stone was sinking in his throat, not that he’d admit he felt it. “Why didn’t I suspect it sooner? After all, devoting all your time to chasing one specific man does carry certain connotations.”
“Frost, do you understand the gravity of our situation right now? This is a battleground, not a rumor-filled schoolyard.”
“Maybe it’s because you understand the gravity that, before it's too late, you wanted to corner me off to the side in a place where we can’t be seen.” Frost’s hands soon moved to cup around the assassin’s hips. He didn’t move his gaze to meet the lizard’s, but he did hear a faint little jingle, fingers fidgeting with the buckle of his belt, probably not even realizing the most he could do with it was untether his coattails. “What a mind you have on you, Never-Miss~” It was hard to tell if Frost’s suspicion was serious, what with the snicker in his voice– at least until he felt his thumbs starting to migrate downward from the belt buckle…
Within a blink, Frost’s hands were empty, Hit untangling himself from the lizard’s reach with a Time-Skip and reappearing behind him. It took only one heavy exhale to settle his minor lapse in composure, but he could feel a stripe across his face glowing a deeper violet against his wishes. “We don’t have time for this. We have roles to play that aren’t romping in the hay.” The assassin shoved his hands in his pockets, in turn closing the part in his coattails.
“Ah, so this is a ‘save it for when we win’ sort of affair, hm?” Frost, despite being blocked, still retained a mischievous little grin, winking. “Then, you better step up and win it, then~”
His tangent soon dropped with his attention as, just then, crossing into their sphere by either mere coincidence or proving that speaking of the devil did make them appear, Freeza came pacing into view, dusting himself off from likely dispatching some ‘irrelevant riff-raff’. The glowing yellow ring crowning his head was an indicator that he was on loan from the underworld, but it felt horribly ironic that such a man was haloed like a seraphim.
“But, if you’ll excuse me, I have prior arrangements.” The blue lizard strode out of the shade and towards his more pallid parallel. “Ah, Freeza! Fancy seeing you in this corner of the arena!” His entire tone seemed to shift; if his intent was what Hit suspected, his flirting game was instantly degrading into awkward territory.
Freeza met his attention with his own little smirk that poorly hid the worst intentions. “And if it isn’t my loyal partner in conniving~ Knows how to come without needing to be called… making him much more useful than anything my own ‘team’ could offer.” He let out a suppressed note of the sadistic cackle the assassin had previously heard echoing across the battlefield. “Might you have anything useful to report?”
“Oh, plenty!” Frost was eager to appease, despite telling Hit a moment prior that he was still devising. “I was able to observe quite a few weak links–”
To the blue lizard’s dismay, Freeza’s eye contact was not on him, but instead on Hit, still clinging to the shadow of the katchin with a ruby glare of skepticism. “Ah, before we proceed, I would prefer this to be a private discussion, if your nosy companion doesn’t mind– unless he’d rather I introduce him to the benches.”
“Companion?” Frost looked back to spot that the assassin, who he could have sworn had already left in a flash. “Oh, Hit… Beats me why he hasn’t buzzed off yet.” There was a particularly growling emphasis for the man behind him, knowing quite well why he persisted and watched them with unease. Thankfully, he got the message without the prodding.
“Proceed. This doesn’t concern me. You’re not my problem yet, Freeza.” His glare shot to the seventh-universe serpentine almost as quickly as he vanished with his oddly-nonchalant threat.
Hit used his skipped time to gain higher ground on one of the rocky peaks emerging from the stage floor. It served as a suitable lookout point to scope out where his expertise was needed and the status of the team he had been given the duty to manage– with the caveat that it made him easier to spot, although only the foolish would dare attempt an ambush.
It also came with the downside of still being within earshot of the two scheming lizards.
“May I recommend one for you to pick off– bald humanoid, short, orange gi. Seems to be one of Goku’s ‘friendship picks’, though I can’t perceive his value for the life, or lack thereof, of me. Easily distracted and caught off guard.”
“Got it… though I can’t see why you want your own teammates dispatched.”
“It’s to muddle any suspicion of our connection… and it’s not like I have any particular fondness for that one regardless, so perhaps it’s also spite.” Freeza gave a tiny little chuckle. “But, do be careful with him, he is rather fragile and prone to exploding– would be hilarious if not for that pesky ‘no killing’ rule.”
“Pull my punches even though I don’t want to, understood.” Frost sighed with shared displeasure.
“Atta boy~” Hit slightly shuddered at that icing to Freeza’s tone and he couldn’t help but notice, from afar, him briefly propping Frost’s chin up as if giving a dog a scratch. The two parted in their own directions not long after, the blue lizard disappearing into the purplish mist of a smoke ball.
The assassin struggled to ignore his revulsion– Frost was always adept at survival and picking his confidants with scrutiny, yet all of this talent seemed to instantly go to waste upon crossing paths with Freeza like the other lizard was some seductive siren killing his inhibitions. He’d realize soon enough that he was being strung along but, if he didn’t listen the first time, Hit wouldn’t be swooping in to catch him when he fell.
At least a significant amount of time had passed during that conversation with no casualties, bringing them closer to the end of the tournament while retaining secure numbers… Hit glimpsed behind him at the large center pole of the arena, only to find it had barely slid down. His sense of time was usually spot on and he could have sworn it had been much longer.
He added that to his mental list of things he’d prefer not to think about.