Author's Note!

I am uploading this story for Stephanie Seal. She made this! Credits go to her!

Chapter 21

Of Past and Present

Vegeta sat down on a sofa, in the living room, all alone around midnight. He had to let his mind rest for a moment, for the events that had happened this past week had been unbelievable. The fact that Bulma had spoken a good two words to him since he had returned from the first battle with the androids had stung his pride a great deal. She was giving him the 'cold shoulder' treatment and boy was it harsh.

But who could blame her? Not even Vegeta dared to strike her with false accusations of being over dramatic…this time he'd really done it good. He couldn't even believe that he had almost watched her and their son die as he stood back and did nothing. He'd even had the audacity to yell at her about something that wasn't even her fault…

The woman that he had allowed his pride to fall for was slipping away at him. Not only was his pride and arrogance in a trouble, but so was their bond. Since Bulma was so hurt by his actions, she was causing a great gap in his power…that damn weakened bond had weakened his power…that is why he had so much trouble against 18…that he never wanted to remember…

FLASH BACK

Vegeta and the Z-fighters had found themselves in an all out battle against the android twins 17 and 18. About an hour ago android 17 had murdered Dr. Gero without a moments notice and had already began to wreak havoc on the planet Earth…no wonder Trunks was so passionate about not freeing them…

Android 18 had especially picked out Vegeta as her target. Of course the arrogant prince didn't mind being in an all out war on top of an 18-wheeler in the middle of a busy highway.

"Wow! They could have really picked a better place to fight…those things are getting in the way!" Turles screeched across HFIL.

"Those 'things' are called cars dumb ass!" Nappa rolled his eyes. "You really need to be educated in Human things…"

Punches were being thrown at an alarming rate… Vegeta was very happy that this time he could use energy blasts against that bitch of an android…so he used them as liberally as possible. Sometimes it was his only defense against the blonde terror. She was a lot stronger than Vegeta had given her credit for.

"Gallet Gun!" Vegeta hurled the large ball of light directly at the female and laughed when it hit her square in the stomach. "So you're tough…but maybe not tough enough…" Vegeta jumped off of the 18-wheeler and onto the hood of another car that 18 was currently standing on also.

"Well I must admit that you fight well…" 18 paused as she watched the face of the prince rise and them fall, "…for such a little man." She smirked when Vegeta had a look of despise in his black eyes.

"Oh!" Radditz yelled out. "Thems fighting words!"

"Why you little bitch!" Vegeta hurled a punch at her and they both landed on the ground about 10 yards from the busy highway.

"I think it is time I really started fighting with you Vegeta!" 18 laughed and started charging towards the prince.

"She is holding back?" He thought to himself… "What have I done?"

END OF FLASHBACK

Vegeta hissed at the thought of that memory. That battle hadn't ended well either. Some how or another he had ended up back around the general area of the Z-fighters and had managed to get both of his arms broken by the twin duo…eating that damn Senzu Bean had been one of the most painful pride issues he'd ever had to deal with…

HFIL was freaked out also. After all of the hard labor and training that had gone on in 3 years…they couldn't imagine going into this battle cold….like they had in the future.

It was torture for King Vegeta to watch his son fail his battle with the androids and to listen to Freeza's cheers for the siblings…

Vegeta took in a deep breathe and then heard his son begin to wail from his crib. The prince got up from his position on the couch and headed towards his son's nursery in hopes that his very pissed off mate would stay asleep…he didn't want her to be any more pissed than she already was.

When he entered the nursery the crying stopped immediately. Vegeta noticed his son begin to pull himself up with the bars of the crib so he could get a better look at his father. The prince smirked and walked towards his son and couldn't help but laugh when his son gave him 'well it's about freakin' time' look. His son could only gurgle at this age…but it was amazing how he could get his meanings across with a single look. He would be just like his dear old dad after all.

Trunks began to get a little irritated when his father looked as if he was never going to pick him up and he started to clinch his face in an attempt to get his point across. Vegeta laughed even more and finally gave in. With one swift movement Vegeta picked up his son and headed towards the kitchen to get him a bottle.

His son…was going to be very strong…

FLASHBACK

A huge clock and mist surrounded Vegeta and his future son. That clown Kakkarot had mentioned that the name of this odd place was called the 'hyperbolic time chamber'…he had also said that one day in this room was the equivalent to and entire year, so this was the perfect chance to get in some training! Unfortunately his future son was getting to share the year with his dear old dad.

A lot had happened to bring them to this point… After all of the struggling to fight the androids another villain had entered the arena making all of the Z-fighters attempts in vain.

His name was cell and he looked like one over sized grasshopper. He had the audacity to march right into the battle between the androids and the Z-fighters and suck up android 17! That really sucked…literally.

That's how he and his future brat ended up here. They needed more time to train before they got to fight this Cell person… especially if he was stronger than the androids.

So there they were and it had already been a day or two…well only a few minutes in real time…and they hadn't managed to say anything to each other. Vegeta was really trying to avoid any heart to heart moments! That was until his son had finally opened up his big mouth.

"Father…why don't we spare together? I am sure that it would be beneficial to both of us…" Trunks looks at his father and raised an eye brow.

"That is probably one of the smartest things you've said since you reached our time boy!" Vegeta moved towards his son and threw a punch that Trunks easily dodged.

"Man, I really hope they'll get along! I mean Trunks is so freakin' cool!" Captain Ginyu licked the cheese off of his purple fingers and handed the bag over to Dodoria.

"Yeah for real! I hope Vegeta doesn't decide to do something stupid again and blows him to pieces!" Dodoria shook his head and threw a bunch of Doritos in his mouth.

Trunks and Vegeta spared together for two months straight until Vegeta decided he needed to do some training on his own. "Brat! I need to have some alone time with my training. You're a 'big boy' now…I believe you can train all by yourself! Your mother would be so proud…" Vegeta sarcastically laughed over to where Trunks was standing. His son didn't look amused at all and decided not to even bother with fighting his father…he needed to use all of this precious time to save the past.

END OF FLASH BACK

Vegeta was holding his son as he fed him a bottle. He watches as his son's eyes never left his…it was almost as if they had a bond between them…

His lavender hair was in a big mess on his head and his blue eyes were looking as if they were desperately fighting sleep. His son had much determination for such a small being. If Trunks would become any where near his future self, Vegeta had come to grips with the fact that he would be proud.

Vegeta heard a noise coming from the staircase and immediately sensed his future son approaching the kitchen. "What are you doing?" Trunks yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"What does it look like brat? I am feeding the past you!" Vegeta rolled his eyes and looked down to see that his infant son had lost his battle with sleep.

"I heard you down stairs and wanted to make sure everything was okay…" Trunks bowed his head and looked back up. "So mom hasn't let you back in your room yet, huh?"

Vegeta snarled as he began to remove the bottle from his son's mouth. "Well you certainly didn't inherit your mother's brain or you wouldn't have to ask that question."

"I wish Vegeta would form a bond with his son." King Vegeta thought to himself. "Like he didn't get to do with me."

"Well you know you deserve it. You kind of almost let her and me die ya know!" Trunks whispered loudly in an attempt not to wake his past self.

"Do you really think so brat? This whole time I was just thinking she was being mean for the hell of it." The prince rolled his eyes and began to bring his son back upstairs and was followed by the future one.

They both entered the nursery and kept bickering. "If you wouldn't have been so damn proud you would have saved her." Trunks glared at his father.

Vegeta quietly marched towards the door after laying his baby son down, grabbed his future son's arm and headed back down stairs.

"You know nothing of my pride boy!" Vegeta looked almost fuming and it shock Trunks a bit.

"Do you really think you know everything about me brat? You seem to believe that you do…well let me inform you that you don't!" Vegeta yelled lowly. "You walked back into the past with all of these predestinated thoughts about me and never did you ever once try and put yourself into my position."

"Oh come on! What position did you have Vegeta…obviously it was on the other side of saving mom and me!" Trunks began to join into the argument.

"I am sure that you know nothing of our heritage boy! And for your ignorance of the subject I will give you a little bit of room to speak." Vegeta's heart rate was speeding up dramatically…he would take this time to humor his son on the subject.

"There is no such thing as pride when it comes to your mother and me. We are mated with a very powerful bond that allows us to put aside meaningless emotions such as this arrogance and pride you speak of." The prince went on. "And since you are my son and didn't get to be raised by me I will let you in on a little secret…"

"Do you seriously think that I intentionally let your mother get shot down? Well here is the answer…how about no!" Vegeta watched his son's expression drop from anger to peaceful. "Never in my entire life have my judgments been blocked in one moment. I didn't have time to think or react! So now I have you , your mother, and everyone else believing that I was just going to let her and yourself fall from the sky to your doom!"

Vegeta retreated back to the comforts of the couch and watched his son's expressionless face. He cursed himself for allowing the boy too much knowledge… but he figured that it was in the boy's best interest to really know what was going on.

"I am sorry father…" Trunks bowed his head once again in front of his father. Vegeta was right and Trunks couldn't believe it…

His entire life he had grown up with stories of his father and never once had they been about what was really going on inside his mind…he couldn't even begin to imagine his own reactions to the same situations.

"Sayings never ask for forgiveness boy!" Vegeta immediately corrected him. No son of his would stoop so low as to give apologies.

"Yes father…" Trunks answered back. "So what are we going to do with these three days…"

"I don't know about you, but I am going to train like hell!" Vegeta lied his head back on the couch and put his fingers over his eyes in a massaging manner.

"Damn straight!"

"You better train or you'll be screwed!"

"Too bad they didn't get a whole other year!"

"And so will I…" Trunks took in a deep breath and sat down on the other side of the couch. "Will three days really do us much good?"

"A minute would do all of us a world of good…just imagine the effects of three days." Vegeta remained rested on the couch.

"I am surprised that you're not out in the G.R. training right now…" Trunks was interrupted by his father.

"There is much you need to learn about your people Trunks…one of the things is that a warrior is only as strong as his mind. You could be the strongest man in the universe and still lose if you are not mentally prepared…hence the whole car exploding situation which we are not going to go back into thank you very much!" Vegeta watched his son smirk.

"So what else about the saiyan race can you tell me…" Trunks was now in for it. From that question until about thirty minutes later, he got an earful of saiyan history. From great battles to legends and from the planet to their enemies…Trunks could have graduated from Saiyans 101 in a single night.

Vegeta held up two fingers to his son and said, "This means 'we will be victorious'. It sounds stupid, but when the saiyans would enter a planet they were about to destroy, it was sort of a heads up of how they estimated the battle would go. About 95 of the time we would be given that symbol by commanding officers…there weren't too many battles too big for us.

"I had no idea that the saiyans had that much history…" Trunks was fascinated by what he was learning. His mother nor Gohan were very educated on the saiyan race and Trunks was robbed of his heritage. Hearing all of this and quietly bonding with his past father was a blessing for him.

"Well if it wasn't 1:00 in the morning I would go on, but seeing as how we both have a huge day of training tomorrow, I suggest we call it a night." Vegeta put his head on the pillow of his temporary bed (hopefully) his son turned to him one last time.

"Hey dad…" Trunks held up his two fingers and left his father smirking on the sofa.

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AN:

Content made by user Severussweetie aka Stephanie Seal!