Author's Notes: Second installment! A little shorter than I would like but I like the depth of this chapter. I'd like my readers to know that this isn't going to have many fluffy moments like Sustenance with Love did. There's nothing wrong with fluffed up one-shots between the two but there's far too many out there. Let's add a little bit of substance to the relationship. You can't build a relationship off of purely adorable moments. I want my readers to know that's the sort of effect I'm attempting. Bra wanting to understand her father's heart. If you review, please keep that in mind. I don't want to write a fluff and if I start going in that direction I want you to tell me so I can fix it. I'll write a fluff later.

"So, what was it like on the ship, Dad?" Bra looked at Vegeta curiously across the counter. He was making his morning cup of coffee and she had been able to catch him before he ran off to the GR.

"Which ship?" he dryly inquired.

"Frieza's. Duh," Bra waved her hand in the air in a typical teenage fashion.

"It was fantastic," came his insincere response.

"Really?" Bra hadn't caught the sarcasm.

"No."

Bra blinked, "Well, why not?"

"Because everybody I cared for was dead and the dictator who ruled over me and what remained of my people was a tyrant who beat me to a pulp on more than one occasion just to remind me that he could. To remind me that I'd never beat him," Vegeta hadn't met her eyes once since she asked him about the ship. Obviously he didn't like talking about Frieza's ship, which was a curious thing so she'd pursue that a little more!

"But you DID beat him," Bra reminded.

"No. I didn't," Vegeta scowled, taking a drink of his coffee.

"He's not here anymore and he would be if you hadn't helped. I think that means you beat him."

"He killed me, Bra."

She opened her mouth, a bit startled by this development as Vegeta met her gaze finally. It was a frank sort of look. An expression that read 'I can't believe you're still bugging me about this nonsense'. She'd seem him give the look to Trunks a thousand times before. "Killed you?" she croaked.

"Yes. Killed me," Vegeta informed her, "I was beaten. I couldn't move. I lied on the ground like I had a million times before that moment without the ability to protect myself. Normally he would have just laughed, he would have just toyed with me… He didn't, not that time. He put a laser through my heart, Bra. I told Kakarrot everything. I told him about the pain this demon had put me through and with my last breath I begged him to end it."

Her father shook his head and took another drink of coffee. "I begged him to end it because I knew, even then, that he was far stronger than me. I understood he had powers I'd never hold. I hated it. I still hate it. He was the one who ended Frieza's reign of terror. He was the one who sacrificed himself to stop Cell. He was.. is the Saiyan that the universe fears. Not me.

"Any tedious thing I did to help," he barked an absurd laugh, "No, I wasn't doing it to help. I wasn't trying to save the universe like they were. That's not anything I've ever striven for. The universe does not concern me. I wanted my revenge on Frieza because of the things he did personally to ME. I wanted the dragon balls to have MY eternal life. I helped Gohan and Krillin because they would get ME to MY goals faster.

"And because I am selfish, I am not the one who killed Frieza. I never have been and I never will be. No matter how much they embellish my involvement in the journey… No, Frieza would be dead by Kakarrot's hand no matter where I was in the universe."

Bra looked at him in surprise. She'd never heard such self-loathing from her prideful father before. He would never say that's what the monologue was but she knew that's exactly what the speech had been. It had been a 'I'm not worthy' confession and it absolutely irked her. Frieza was somebody who had formed his personality very acutely, so these stories were more accurate than she was sure her father even knew.

This soliloquy in which her father had just spoke could have been to anybody, it was in no way specially fitted to a conversation with her. He could have taken that confession and been speaking to 18, that's just how emotionless he'd just been.

It bugged her.

"You're not selfish," Bra huffed.

"And you'd know that how, Bra?" Vegeta tilted his head slightly, "Enlighten me."

"If you were selfish you wouldn't have married mom. You wouldn't have been brought back after the Buu fiasco because you never would have sacrificed yourself to save us!"

"I wouldn't have been possessed by Babidi if I wasn't selfish."

"Ah-…" She shut her mouth as she realized there was nothing she could say that would make him back out of that frame of mind.

"This is not a conversation I should be having with you. You're far too young for this chatter," Vegeta scowled.

"I don't think it's chatter. It's interesting, Daddy," Bra smiled at him gently.

"I'm glad I interest you." Gee, for some reason that didn't seem very sincere when accompanied by that signature scowl and eye roll.

"But you do. I want to know what made you you, Daddy. You're different in the best way and I wanna understand that!"

By the stoic expression on his face, she could tell that he didn't appreciate her 'wanting to understand him'. "I'm not a book for you to study," he simply informed her.

"I never said you were," Bra stood firm.

"You implied it."

"No, you're inferring I want to study you. I don't, Dad. I just wanna get you better. Is it such a crime to want to be close to my father?"

Vegeta took one last drink of his coffee and put the cup in the sink before he turned his back to her. "Maybe not now. It will be when you hear everything, though. You won't want to be close to me then."

He strode out of the room calmly and Bra frowned. Then she thought back on the sentence. When you hear everything? He obviously had confidence in her prying abilities because he seemed sure she'd find it all out.

Now she had to decide whether or not it was worth pursuing if he was going to get moody after every talk.