Chapter 25. Tricking the dragon
Vegeta leapt up from the bed at the urgent ramming on the front door. Disoriented for a second he took in the room around him and remembered where he was. The capsule house. He swooped up his clothing, slipped into it fast and made his way out while pulling on his boots, leaving Akane on the bed ever sleeping.
"Daddy! Open up, daddy!"
Just as Vegeta emerged from the bedroom Kaito pulled open the front door and Trunks barged in still calling out urgently. "Dadd… Father!" The boy corrected himself when his watery blue eyes met Vegeta.
"What's all the commotion, boy?" Vegeta rubbed his face with a yawn.
Turles, lying on one of the benches aside the table in the main room didn't look any less sleepy than he himself when he sat up and stared at Trunks in the doorway.
Vegeta froze in surprise when Trunks dashed over to hug him tightly around the waist and refused to let go again. His hand moved to rest on his son's lavender-haired head while he relaxed. This was after all the reason why he had kept his power level up: so that Trunks would be able to locate him at all times.
"Pull yourself together, son." Vegeta berated though he couldn't quite get his voice to sound stern. The warmth in his tone made his son literally emanate exhilaration.
Trunks finally let go and looked up at him with a happy smile. Vegeta gave him a quick pat on the cheek and motioned him to follow as he entered the small kitchen. He was starving. Through the round window Vegeta could see it was already light out. He had no idea what time it was exactly. The sun was pretty high up in the sky. He guessed it was close to eleven in the morning.
"Give me a hand." Vegeta demanded as he started to unload the fridge onto the small kitchen table.
Trunks did and before long they sat down on the two stools to eat breakfast just like any other morning. Vegeta admitted to himself that he was going to miss this most of all things on Earth. Just sit and eat with his son.
"Shouldn't you be doing schoolwork?"
"I snuck out." Trunks shrugged somewhat hangdog. "You didn't tell me where you were going. I thought… I was afraid I would never see you again."
"I promised you that I would let you know where I was." Vegeta pointed out mildly.
"I know." Trunks wiped the jelly from his cheeks and took another glass of milk. "But mom said you wouldn't come back to us. That you left for good this time."
Vegeta sighed. "I left your mother and the house and soon I will leave Earth, but I will never leave you. You are my son."
Trunks looked at him horrified. "Leave Earth? But you can't! How can I see you when you leave Earth?"
"We will find a way." Vegeta promised. He didn't know how yet but there had to be a way for him to continue seeing his son. If necessary he would travel from Vegetasei to Earth and back in a space pod. Whatever it took.
Trunks was on the verge of tears again.
"Listen, it will work out fine. You just have to trust me." Vegeta spoke reassuringly.
"Where will you go then?" Trunks asked bravely steady.
"Back to my home planet. We are going to wish it back with the dragonballs." Vegeta answered.
"Can I come with you?"
Vegeta frowned. "Don't you want to be with your mother?"
"Yes, but I want to be with you as well. Can't you just come back home?" Trunks pleaded. "Mom says Yamcha will come to live with us but I can kick him out for you."
Vegeta couldn't help but laugh. That was a son of his alright. "I can't come back. My home is on Vegetasei." He halted briefly. "And I think yours is here, with your mother and Bra. But I will visit you and your sister as often as I can. We will see a lot less of each other but that does not mean…"
Vegeta got cut off by Akane who ambled into the kitchen with her wild hair wet from a shower and looking more like her old strong and ill tempered self again. "You can visit your father whenever you feel like it, princeling. Just ask Kakarot to instant transmit you. I'm sure he won't have a problem with that. I gather he will be over a lot himself to visit his brother."
"He will!" Turles confirmed from the main room.
Trunks' face lit up. "That's a great idea, right father?"
Vegeta nodded wordlessly. It was a brilliant idea, even if it meant having to ask Kakarot for favours. He would without hesitation swallow his pride for his son.
"Good morning, Captain." Trunks now cheered with a full mouth and a huge smudgy grin.
"Morning princeling." Akane grumbled.
"You have to forgive the Captain, son. She just found out she hasn't slept for more than fifteen hours." Vegeta jested.
Akane threw him a dead stare while muttering imprecations under her breath which Vegeta found quite entertaining.
"How are you?" He asked.
"Starving." Akane growled, her hungry eyes roving the table. Then she continued a bit less ill-tempered: "My fever is gone."
Her little hands shot out to snatch everything to her likes from under their noses and she leaned back against the counter to eat standing up.
"No chicken?" Vegeta asked in feigned bewilderment. "This is outrageous."
"Cute." Akane mumbled sarcastically from behind a large peach. "Anyway, I think I suffered from an overkill. I can't even look at it anymore."
Vegeta smirked. "What did you expect after shovelling it in by the truckload every chance you had?"
Akane shrugged carelessly and munched down a couple more peaches to hide the smile that so obviously wanted to touch her face. How she loved revelling in her morning mood. Her fell eyes found Trunks and at last she smiled openly as she pointed out the green shirt she was wearing. "I haven't thanked you for my shirt yet. As you can see I am very fond of it."
"No thanks, Captain." Trunks mumbled in between chewing.
Akane bent towards him with something that looked like affection in her fierce face. "You sure look mighty handsome today, princeling." She wiped a smudge of peanut butter from the corner of his mouth and winked. "The girls on Vegetasei will be all over you in a couple of years so make sure to visit often. I'll leave you to talk with your father now." She straightened up and ruffled Trunks' hair on her way out, her free arm piled with food.
"The Captain can be so weird." Trunks entrusted to his father in a hushed voice when Akane was gone.
Vegeta snickered staring at her retreating back, her insane hips moving with a gentle sway. "Tell me about it."
.
.
"Will you look at that thing!" Kaito hollered in awe. "What a stonker!"
The sky was ominously black and above them towered the enormous dragon Shenron.
"Imagine the lizard wine you could make out of that one." Turles jested with a glance on Akane.
"That would get you bladdered alright." Akane laughed her rough laugh.
Vegeta found it nice to hear that hoarse sound again. She really was all better.
"Thank you for summoning me. In return I shall grant you two wishes." The immense creature boomed. Its magnificent breath managed to bend trees all around them.
Vegeta was positively surprised. Of course, how could he forget? When Dende became the new guardian of Earth he had altered the dragonballs, making them able to grant two wishes instead of one.
"I wish back the Saiyajin race and their home planet." He hollered up at the dragon.
There was a long uneasy silence. Had he phrased his wishes wrong?
"Your wish cannot be granted. I am not allowed to restore evil." The dragon finally boomed.
"What does that mean?" Akane demanded moodily.
"Evil?" Kaito echoed outraged.
Vegeta clenched his fists in frustration. Though infuriating, it made sense that the Earth dragon considered their people evil. It was a load of crap, but good and bad were in the eye of the beholder and since the beholder was a pathetic green fuck from planet Namek who's only experience with Saiyajins had been a bad one, it figured that their kind was regarded evil. Courtesy of Vegeta himself.
There had to be some way around it though. Maybe if they rephrased the wish somehow without the mention of Saiyajins or something like that.
"State your wishes now." The dragon demanded impatiently.
"Try to wish back your crew to this planet." Vegeta urged Akane unable to come up with anything better at the moment. "Without the mention of Saiyajins." He added hurriedly.
She frowned at him briefly, then nodded and turned to the dragon. "I wish back the Marauder S-4 and its crew to this planet."
The dragon's red eyes flashed. "Your wishes have been granted."
There was an explosion of light when the dragon disappeared and the dragonballs turned to stone before scattering across the planet.
"Oi, where did it go? I thought we had another wish!" Turles hollered perplexed.
"I gather that counted as two wishes: bringing them back to life and then to this planet." Vegeta mused aloud.
"So that means…" Kaito's disappointed voice trailed off.
"No Vegetasei." Akane finished for him dejected.
"It doesn't matter. We wait a year and try again." Vegeta forced himself to say casually, more to put himself at ease than the others. He reached out with his senses and quickly found a rather large gathering of fairly high battle powers somewhere East of their location. The wish had worked alright. "Your crew is back, Captain."