Chapter 2
A few hours after dinner, while Vegeta trained in the GR and Bluma went to lie down for the night, the cubs felt a powerful being nearing earth in a high velocity.
"Stay here." Gohan said to Trunks and Goten as he moved towards the front door.
"No way, bro-bro. We wanna see who that is, too. Right, trunks?" Goten skipped near his brother.
"Yeah!" Trunks joined.
Gohan rolled his eyes, "Whatever. If Bulma finds out and kicks your ass, s'not my fault." He shrugged and went through the front door and flew towards the being. He really didn't mind the children's company, the being felt not extremely powerful, barely reaching SS1.
…
Kicking down the GR's gravity to zero, Vegeta immediately felt the fast approaching object to earth's atmosphere. When he scanned the house for the cubs' kis, and find out they're on their way towards the being, he forgot whatever he wanted to do, and blasted towards the incoming object.
As Vegeta approached the powerful being, he could spot Trunks Goten and Gohan standing near a mint colored lizard type creature and its spaceship pod.
In closer inspection he realized this being is of the Tylenn species, a powerful and venomous warriors.
As he got closer, a distinct fear scent hit him like a punch in the nose.
"Get the fuck away from my cubs." Vegeta all but roared at the standing threat, as he touched down on the ground between the cubs and the creature.
Vegeta glanced at the cubs from the corner of his eye, eyeing the terrified older half breed and the two kids turned SS1.
He powered up as he waited for the Tylennese to make a move, internally thinking why Gohan isn't powering up to match everyone's ki.
"Prince Vegeta of Vegeta-sei, I am Tarbuk of the Tylenn people, allies of Vegeta-sai. I am here to pass a message from King Vejita." The creature said, taking a step back in submission to the prince.
Glaring at Tarbuk, Vegeta said "Vegeta-sei was destroyed years ago, what are you saying?"
"That is correct, however, four moon cycles ago, Vegeta-sei reappeared in the solar system with hundreds of saiyans. Of realization they were brought back to existence in the land of the living, his majesty immediately demanded of your finding. After much research, we pin pointed your last whereabouts at this planet." Tarbuk said.
Snickering behind the full blooded saiyan, Goten whispered to Trunks "The wish actually worked, Trunks!"
Snapping back, "What have you done, brats?" Vegeta barked at them.
Goten hid behind Trunks, as the latter said "When we wished for our tails back, we also wished for Vegeta-sei to come back and for the Saiyans to come back to life."
"You did what?!" Gohan shrieked, as fear engulfed again Vegeta's nose.
"Calm down, Gohan." Vegeta hissed as he instinctively powered up even more. Looking at Tarbuk, he asked "What is the message from my father?"
"King Vejita calls for your immediate return to the homeland, your highness." He replied.
Take aback, Vegeta sneered, "When or if I will return, it will be in my own will and to no demand." Vegeta said, annoyed. "You may leave now."
Tarbuk took a step forward and said, "Your highness, I-"
"Leave or die." Vegeta said as he took a fighting stance.
Sighing, Tarbuk said "My order was to take you back in all cost. The king assumed there might be resistance, therefore sending me, one of the most powerful Tylennese." Tarbuk took a fighting stand as well, saying "I do not wish to hurt your cubs when I restrain you, but I will do as I was ordered and bring you back. The reward is too sweet to pass, really." He smirked.
"Kick his ass dad!" Trunks said.
"Yeah Vegeta!" Goten jumped.
Tarbuk licked his lips and waited for the prince to make a move.
"Get the fuck away from here." Vegeta hissed to the half breeds.
Not wanting to get even worse on Vegeta's bad side, Trunks and Goten flew back to Capsule Corp. at high speed.
Seeing the hesitation in the prince's striking, Tarbuk started to gather ki in his hands and levitate high, leaving Vegeta and Gohan on the ground.
Vegeta took one quick look at Gohan and growled at the teen, he was on edge already because of the anxiety, panic and fear coming off of Gohan in waves. "Why aren't you moving, brat?" He growled.
"I-I can't power up, I don't know what's happening." The teen said in an unusual fearful tone, his tail squeezing his waist tightly in fear.
"Shit! Did he touch you with his slimy palms?" Vegeta asked as he got closer, shielding Gohan from the upcoming ki blast. Vegeta gathered ki to form a ki shield and embraced for the force of the blast.
"No!" Gohan said as he tried to get away and run from the impact.
"Cub!" Vegeta growled. "Stay close to me!" He said as he widened the shield, just in time with the powerful blast.
Gohan, realizing he got to stay close to Vegeta in their disadvantage point on the ground, in order to basically stay alive, he back tracked, almost bumping into the prince in the process.
Being this close to the frightened teen, Vegeta's instincts kicked in full force, making him even angrier at the threat to his adopted cub and for making him this fearful.
"I'm sorry, Vegeta." Gohan said quietly behind him. The scent of tears released as they started to fall down his cheeks.
And that was the breaking point for Vegeta, he powered up to SS2, pushed the wall of ki towards the alien, making him fly away from the shock wave.
Vegeta quickly blasted himself in flight towards where he could feel Tarbuk, and sent precise blasts towards his lying form.
The scent of tears lingered in his nose as he let out his rage towards the unconscious body, ending its life and turning his body into ashes in mere seconds.
Turning back towards Gohan, Vegeta let out a sigh of relief seeing the teen sitting on the ground without a scratch.
He flew to his side and stood there, waiting for the teen to compose himself and stand. When a few second past, and Vegeta couldn't stand the scents surrounding the weeping teen anymore, he crouched near him, letting go of the control he had over his instinctive need to calm the crying cub.
"Gohan." He said sternly. "Get up."
Gohan didn't get up, but he did look at the older man with his tear streaked face, puffy eyes and a trembling lip. "I'm sorry." He mumbled as he hid his face back between his raised legs.
It was heart breaking to see Gohan this scared. Being one of the strongest, and probably the strongest being in this part of the Galaxy, Vegeta never though he will ever see him this fearful.
"Cub…" Vegeta said fondly with a tiny smile tugging at his lip, caused by the adorableness of the teen. "The creature is gone. You're safe." He said quite proudly.
"I know." Gohan said quietly, stifling his whimpers. "I don't like being defenseless, Vegeta." He said angrily as he looked up at Vegeta. The second the teen saw Vegeta's rare smile, all anger bled out of his face and a smile replaced his scowl.
"How do you feel?" The prince asked, laying a hand on Gohan's shoulder, inching it towards his face to wipe the tears, but he froze and snapped the hand away.
"Fine, I guess. Just feel like crying for some reason." Gohan chuckled and wiped his face. He let a nervous laughter out and said "Sorry... I don't know what's wrong. I don't usually cry like this. Like. Never." He scratched the back of his neck like a certain Son, which for some reason irritated Vagete.
He looked pensively at Gohan, and said decisively "It's the tail."
"What do you mean?" Gohan asked as he stood up.
"Can you fly?" Vegeta asked, ignoring Gohan's question.
"No… I can't concentrate on my ki" Gohan said, looking down. However, before he got the chance to really feel embarrassed, Vegeta scooped Gohan to himself in a bridel hold, and took off towards CC.
As they flew, Gohan couldn't help but to feel safe and cared for in his father figure's strong arms. He snuggled his head to lean on Vegeta's chest, listening to his heart beat strongly, lulling him to sleep as the prince's smell comforted him. Without noticing, Gohan closed his eyes and started subconscious purring. A few seconds past by untill Gohan realized he's purring. When he did, his eyes snapped open and he looked at the full blooded saiyan, hoping he's not mad. What he saw shocked him. Vegeta had a grin plastered on his face and he tightened his grip on Gohan.
Hiding his face in Vegeta's chest, Gohan felt a blush spread to the back of his neck.
For all Gohan knew, purring was a very childish thing to do.
When Goten was younger, he would purr every time Goku or Gohan would cuddle, touch lovingly or hug him. Nowadays, Goten almost never slept with Gohan, nor did he hug him, so he barely showed any affection towards the older half breed through purring.
When Gohan himself was a kid, being left alone with his non affectioned mother, he don't really get the chance to show much love towards his elders, or anyone in that matter. His father was not much of a father figure, he was too absent for a young child to bond with, and every time he got back from the dead, Gohan would get his heart broken yet again by the father who chose to die and sometimes stay dead.
When Gohan looked at Vegeta again, his look was very thoughtful.
In their way back, Vegeta thought about all that came to his knowledge. Now that he knew Vagete-sei was back in the sky and that the saiyan race is no longer going to extinct, he needed to come to a decision.
As they touched down on the ground and Vegeta let Gohan go, Trunks and Goten ran towards them with a sea of questions and an angry looking Bulma in tow.
"Did you kill him, dad?" Trunks asked.
"Hn." The prince grunted. "Woman." He acknowledged.
"What the hell happened, Vegeta?!" Bulma asked loudly. "Are you two okay?" She added worriedly.
"We need to talk." Vegeta said.
"Okay." She said as they walked towards the house. "What happened?"
Looking at the two youngest cubs, Vegeta said "When the brats wished our tails back, they also wished Vegeta-sei and the saiyan race back." He looked at the teen, smelling a bit of anxiety coming off of him.
"They did what?!" She exclaimed. "What would you do that?" She asked them as they came into the house.
"We just wanted-" Goten started to say.
"Sit." Bulma commanded and pointed to the couch. Looming over them with her arms crossed, she asked again with a threatening tone "Why would you do that?"
Trunks and Goten looked at each other and Trunks started to talk when Goten sent him a pleading look, "We wanted more saiyans like us to play with. Besides, we thought dad would be happy to have his dad and friends back…" He said, looking at his feet.
Letting an aggravated sigh, Bulma massages her temple with her palm and said, "Not all of the Saiyans are like Goku and your father. There are a lot of them that are bed people."
"But Bulma!" Goten said, "We only asked Shenron to rise from the dead the once from heaven. The baddies are still in hell." He said with a proud grin.
"Yeah!" Trunks added, high fiving his other half.
"Brats…" Vegeta interrupted, anger coming off of him in waves, "Go to your separate rooms and stay there until decided otherwise. Now." He growled.
When the young cubs ran away to their rooms, Vegeta sunk to the couch with a heavy sigh.
Bulma set in front of him and Gohan by his side, she said "The kids told me about the alien. What are we going to do?"
"We are going to Vageta-sei." He said sternly.
"We? What? Who are these 'We' you are speaking of? Why?" Bulma started panicking.
"Me and the cubs, women. I don't have time for this, go get the spaceship ready."
"You are not taking my baby away from me, and if you think Chichi is going to let you take hers, you are wrong." Bulma retorted.
Gohan set quietly by Vegeta's side as the argument continued, and imagined Vageta-sei from the few words he heard Vegeta say over the years about the planet.
"We have to go. They'll just keep sending here warriors to get me to come back." He said rationally.
"I don't care!" Bulma screamed at him. "Just kill them for all I care! Or even batter, go alone."
"It's not the only reason." Vegeta said, looking at Gohan with a pensive look.
Getting a bit worried, Bulma lowered her tones and asked, "What is wrong?"
Letting out the tenth defeated sigh, Vegeta said "Since the cubs wished for our tails back, a few things started to change in our bodies. Tails are one of the main sources of our hormones, pheromones and scents, causing instinctive action."
"What are you getting at, Vegeta?" Bulma asked, irritated.
"If you let me finish, woman!" He snapped, turning to talk directly to Gohan, "Our tails need Gama-reys from Vegeta-sei's moons, in order to develop properly. Basically, Saiyan puberty is happening to you right now, but because you don't get the sufficient light here on earth, it can't fully develop and your human hormones and saiyan ones contradict one another and making your ki and emotions unstable."
"Oh." Gohan voiced. "I-I think…" His voice started to tremble and his eyes became watery as he pleadingly said to Vegeta "Please don't remove my tail again." He took his dark brown tail to his arms and hugged it to his chest, sniffing the tears away.
"I am not going to remove your tail, cub." Vegeta said truthfully. "Besides, it won't help anyway in this stage." He shrugged. "And as for Trunks and Goten, they need it too." He said to Bulma.
"Okay. I'm coming then, too." Bulma said.
"No, you aren't." Vegeta said as he stood.
"And why the hell not?!" She screamed at the prince.
"Because you'll be crushed by Vegetasei's gravity, you Baka!" He snarled and left the leaving room to his bedroom to shower and think about upcoming events.
"Oh, yeah." Bulma whispered to herself in embarrassment. "I guess you're going to Vegetasei, huh?" She smiled at Gohan.
"I guess… Mom's going to have a fit when she hears."
"She sure will." Bulma said as she took a step towards Gohan and said, "Good night, sweetie." And left him.
A few seconds later, Gohan, too, went to his bedroom in CC. When he went past Trunks' and Goten's rooms, he could feel their ki low and steady, deep in sleep.
…
After a few hours of laying in his bed and not being able to fall asleep, Gohan got up and walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
The day's events played in a loop in his head while he thought about the upcoming trip to Vegetasei and leaving earth once again.
When Gohan got back to his room and laid down, he concentrated on his ki, trying to get it to level steadily and stop wavering so much. When he gave up, on the fortieth time that night, he got upset yet again and almost started crying again. Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on Goten's ki, then Trunks's and lastly Vegeta's. When he felt Vegeta is probably awake, he got up and walked towards his bedroom.
Peeping into the room through the slightly open door, Gohan saw Vegeta's shirtless form laying on his back with his arms behind his head and his eyes closed.
Assuming he is asleep, Gohan started to leave, when a voice startled him.
"What are you doing here, brat?" A deep voice asked.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't meant to wake you up." Gohan said quickly and started to retreat when Vegeta spoke to him again.
"Come here." He ordered.
Coming into the room, Gohan was overwhelmed by Vegeta's scent fuming in the room. Taking a deep breath of the sweet and spicy musky scent, Gohan asked, "Yes?"
"Why aren't you asleep?" Vegeta asked.
"I can't fall asleep, can't stop thinking of the trip and everything." Gohan said sheepishly.
"You reek of stress, cub." Vegeta noted.
"Sorry, I'll go to sleep now." Gohan said, squirming uncomfortably under the prince's stare.
Before Gohan had the chance to turn back on his heels, Vegeta pulled his covers from the empty side of the bed, and looked at the teen.
Blushing as his heat started racing, Gohan didn't know how to respond to such invitation.
"Get in." The prince ordered, snapping Gohan out of his shocked state.
"Uh..."
"Now."
Gohan nodded once and walked the extra three more steps to the bed and set at the edge, lying slowly and as far as possibly from the older man.
As his head met the pillow, a strong arm pulled him closer. His back was almost pressed to Vegeta's bare chest.
After a few moments, Gohan turned around and whispered, "Vegeta?"
"Hn…" Vegeta grunted with his still eyes closed, pulling Gohan closer.
"Thanks." Gohan said.
Vegeta opened his eyes and smiled down to Gohan.
Seeing how genuine Vegeta's rare smile and equally smiling eyes, Gohan couldn't control the happy purr rattling in his chest, and his tail subconsciously went up his thigh and fell onto Vegeta's.
"Sleep." Vegeta deeply whispered. Closing his eyes, he returned Gohan's purr with a deeper one of his own.
Gohan never had his purrs returned, the gesture made his racing heart skip a beat.