I started re-watching DBZ the other day and this came up after watching the Cell/Buu Saga. I just can't get enough of these two. Enjoy.
A small, personal glance at Trunks' and Vegeta's relationship through three moments of their lives.
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It hits him like the hardest of blows, but draws no blood from his body. It pierces as deep as a blade and stings as if being set on fire, yet still renders no flesh nor burns him to ashes. Vegeta was ready for Cell to rise, even ready to finally knock him out on his own to remind the world he is the prince of the fearsome Saiyans, and Saiyans never falter in battle, much less loose to lesser beings. However, he was not ready for witnessing Trunks die before his eyes.
Since the day Trunks arrived, Vegeta has treated him with hostility and indifference rather than with any sort of affection despite having learned that he is in fact of his own flesh and blood. Now, as Vegeta stares back at the lifeless form of the boy he's had to deal with for over a year in the damned Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he realizes that for the first time he is not thinking of him as the kid from the future or the annoying brat, but as his son. His son is lying dead right beside him, and the notion is so heartrending that the only thing he can do at first is freeze. There was a time when such a thing as bearing offspring was nothing but a distant thought, only justified by the importance of legacy. To Vegeta, concern about his progeny was a distant thought even as Bulma announced in style that she was carrying his child, and continued to be so after said cry baby was born. But his death hurts.
For once, Vegeta allows himself to ponder that he might have been wrong, that he should have never let Cell absorb A-18 and thus prevented tragedy. He remembers how foolish Son Goku had seemed to his eyes when he saw him plead for mercy to Raditz over his son's safety, and he thinks he'll never consider him foolish for that again.
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Once young Trunks returns to the future after being brought back to life and peace reigns again, Vegeta walks into his infant son's room, still with the steadiness of a warrior in battle, and glances down at the boy. He has been able to witness many shades of what his son will grow to be, and though he will not speak of it, it makes him swell with pride to know that the prowess of his line will carry on. Vegeta glances around as if ready to pounce on any pray; he is not fond of having Bulma sneak up on him, even if it is not a common event. He then glares back at the baby, who has been sleeping peacefully for hours in his crib and gently picks him up. Vegeta can count the times he's held his son with one hand and he can't help but marvel slightly at how so much potential can be stored in such a tiny little being. He pulls the boy against his chest and listens to his breathing, listens to him gurgle in his sleep and somehow ends up thinking that he'll never let this life drain again while he lives. Earthlings would call it a promise, but for him, a promise is not enough. It has become a reality.
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"I haven't held you once since you were a baby, have I?"
The question could not be more rhetorical, because Vegeta is the first one who knows he hasn't. Trunks stares at him, eyes wide open and confusion written all over his face. Vegeta wants to laugh and tell him that everything's okay, that everything's going to be okay because he'll live. Trunks will live and right now, it's everything that matters. Instead, he holds him close and says what he should've told him sooner. He feels Trunks' breath hitch and he is suddenly glaring up at him with those deep blue eyes that they've come to share, and Vegeta hits him with the greatest of affection – but hits him nonetheless. A sudden calmness takes over him at the sight of his son lying unconscious, so alike the time he watched him die yet so different. Over the years, Vegeta has had time to reflect on his actions and though there is no word for regret in the Saiyan language, there is one for mistake, and he's pretty sure he's made quite some of those throughout his life. Moreover, he's made little good deeds, most of which were probably committed in ignorance. But there is one thing Vegeta's done right in his life – more than right– and that is giving life to his son, something he can truly die proud of protecting.
Hope you liked the father/son theme. Reviews are highly appreciated, especially since this is my first DB story :)