Night and Day, by LadyVegeets

~01~ Prologue

The world was cold, black, and filled with pain. Incredible pain. He was blinded by it, his very body torn apart and left a hollow battered shell, trembling in agony. When the burning finally ebbed, he opened eyes as black as the universe to see.

He was alone. Darkness stretched out, eternal and unrelenting, as far as he could behold. A creeping dread washed over him. Was this to be his existence: isolated, alone, forever?

Something clawed at the fringes of his memory — an incredible and unexplainable sense of loss.

It was gone. Whatever 'it' was he knew not, only that he was not whole without it.

The crushing weight of his existence bore down on him, killing his will to fight, to survive. What was the point? As he closed his eyes to succumb to his pain, he caught something in his peripheral vision. There, a short yet unreachable distance away was a glowing light. It burned, more pure and warm than anything he had ever known. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen — it was the only thing he had ever seen.

He would later find it to be his salvation.

~xox~

Vegeta, God of Night, stood at the edge of the Veil and waited.

Visible only to the immortal eye, the Veil was a colossal wall of cosmic energy which divided the divine and mortal realms. It shimmered, translucent, rippling like water. Vegeta was intimately familiar with it. Every evening since his birth, this was where he crossed to bring night to the world below. It was a lonely existence, but one he was accustomed to.

Currently, the light beyond the Veil was fading. The sky was smeared with oranges and pinks as the day came to an end, sunset in full effect. The bleeding colors grew purple as the light retreated.

It left a bittersweet taste in Vegeta's mouth. Every evening he had to watch her fade away. Her brilliant light, able to fill the darkest places of the world, melted away behind the horizon.

Going.

Going—

…Gone.

The Veil shimmered and she stepped through.

For a fleeting moment, Day and Night were reunited. Bulma, Goddess of Day, glowed so brilliantly that Vegeta could hardly look upon her. Or perhaps that was his own reticence. Despite sharing the same birthday and the same sky, they had never spoken. He couldn't bring himself to do so.

His eyes met hers, a blue as stunning and bright as crystal waters. Her skin was more luminescent than the stars that kept him company at nights. Her smile, as radiant as the day she brought, burned away the frost growing around his heart until the muscle beat with new longing.

He was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. She possessed some quality, some pull that he was helpless to resist, like a ship caught in a whirlpool, slowing circling to their doom. But their respective roles kept them apart; his shift began when hers ended at sunset.

The moment passed and Vegeta let his gaze slip away. He had a job to do. Stepping across the Veil, he left her behind to carry out his duty.

The night was cold, black, and filled with pain.

He was alone.

~xoXox~

I post this in honor of the solar eclipse occurring over North America tomorrow, August 21st 2017. And yes, there is more to come.

AN: beta-read by the incredibly talentedArtephile / Marcella-Duchamp. The idea for this AU is all her doing :) She also made a soundtrack to accompany the AU. Please check it out!

This story wouldn't exist without Artephile / Marcella-Duchamp who gave me the idea for this AU and helped me brainstorm and edit, and Stupidoomdoodles, who also helped me develop and flesh out the ideas/plot. Stupidoomdoodles also drew the most AMAZING fucking art for this AU that you should check out.