Chapter 25: The prince's legacy

"All right, you're doing pretty good for now at this level. Now, let's see how you'll do..."

Vegeta's finger pressed the red button several times: Trunks gasped in surprise, struggled for a very short moment, and finally fell on the floor. Vegeta sneered.

"Trunks, come on. It's only twenty times Earth's gravity," he said severely, glancing at his son over his shoulder.

Only twenty times? And he said that as if it were nothing! Putting all his strength on the matter, the four-year-old boy managed to sit up. Panting, his hands clutched on his lap and his muscles refusing to help him any more than that, he lifted up his blue eyes and stared at his father. The prince hadn't reacted one bit at the sudden change of gravity in the capsule. Nothing had changed for him.

"St-top it," he said, struggling to speak with his chest feeling so compressed by the air.
"No, I ain't stopping before you get on your feet," Vegeta replied stubbornly.

Of course. Why did Trunks even bother to ask? It was always the same thing, every time Vegeta made this harder to his son: he would not lower the gravity until Trunks managed to get on his feet properly. His face twisted in an awful grimace and his whole body trembled in an meaningless effort to stand up like his father wanted, but he did not move at all. Vegeta took a few steps forward.

"You can stand that, Trunks," the Saiyan said, crossing his arms like he did so often.
"How... how much can you-?" he asked, wondering how much work he had to do to be as strong as his father.
"Me? I can stand under five hundred times Earth's gravity."

He sighed.

"If I ever let you try that, don't tell your mother, she complains that it may break the engines," he carelessly finished.

Trunks' sapphire blue eyes widened.

"F-five hundred?!" he repeated. "Really?"

Vegeta nodded once, and Trunks smiled. His father was truly the strongest man in the Universe, the greatest warrior, like his mother always said!

"That's so cool!"

The Saiyan prince smirked, his arms still crossed.

"Well, then show me what you've got."

Trunks tried again - he had tried before, but he tried even harder, for he did not want to disappoint Vegeta. Now that he knew how strong his father was, he wanted to make him proud. Inch by inch, the boy managed to get on his feet. His face was all tense with the effort, his legs were shaking, and sweat was rolling down his cheeks and small muscles, but he was finally on his feet, though he looked a bit unstable. Vegeta nodded in appreciation, although he did not seemed impressed whatsoever: he turned and headed for the control panel.

"No!"

He stopped at the sound of his son's voice.

"Don't stop it just yet, dad, I wanna see how long I can do it!"

A smirk creeped on Vegeta's lips, although Trunks could not see it. That's the spirit. Vegeta turned back and looked at him: his face was all focussed as he jumped a few times, landing quite awkwardly on the ground, but always on his feet.

"Here goooes!"

Trunks' entire body stretched: he was obviously trying to take flight. Quite amazingly, he managed to do so. It did not last long, however: after about five seconds, he dropped back quickly and noisily on the floor, falling on his butt.

"Ow..." he whimpered, rubbing his painful bottom.
"Not bad," Vegeta commented, pressing the button to stop the gravity device. "Let's go eat now."
"Yay! I was starving!"

He jumped towards the door and opened it, but turned to his father before going any further.

"Say, dad... can we play a game next time?" he asked hesitantly.

Vegeta froze for a moment.

"Perhaps later," he replied, passing next to him to walk towards the house.

Disappointed, for he knew that it meant "no", Trunks bobbed down.

Few hours later, he was laying on his bed. Bulma grinned at him, replaced the blankets comfortably, and kissed his forehead.

"Good night, darling," she said softly.
"Good night, mom."

She caressed his lavender hair one last time and headed for the door.

"Mom..."

The scientist turned with a smile.

"Yes, Trunks?"
"I wondered..."

The boy sat in his bed, slightly blushing as he stared at the blankets in silence for a while. Then, his cobalt eyes lifted up to meet with their twins, and he asked shyly:

"How come dad never wants to play with me? All we ever do is train, and training is fun, but I'd like to do something else with him sometimes," he finished, sounding both embarrassed and sad.

Bulma's heart sank and she bit her bottom lip. Damn you, Vegeta.

"Well, your father..."

She sighed, and closed the door. Vegeta's ears were incredibly sharp - though, thanks Kami, not as much as Piccolo's - and she figured he wouldn't be too happy if he heard what she was about to explain to Trunks.

"Your father's different," she continued as she sat on the edge of her child's bed. "He's not from this planet-"
"I know," Trunks interrupted her, almost impatiently. "He told me, we're Saiyans! But Goten and Gohan's father was a Saiyan too, and Gohan says he was much nicer than dad!"

Bulma frowned.

"Gohan said that?"

Trunks nodded.

Note to self: kick Gohan's butt ASAP.

"You can't compare," she simply said. "Goku grew up on Earth. Did Vegeta told you anything more than the fact that he's a Saiyan?"

The boy shook his head.

"No, he just told me that I was so much stronger than the others because he's a Saiyan. He said I could kick Yamcha's butt!"

Bulma couldn't help but smile faintly: Vegeta was probably right on that.

"Well, Vegeta isn't just any Saiyan," she said. "He's the prince of all Saiyans."

Trunks' eyes widened.

"Wow, that's just so cool! Can we go there and be like, the royal family and all that? Dad can be the king now, you get to be the queen and I could be the new prince! Maybe I can get Goten to be my servant-"

Bulma laughed.

"No, you see..."

She sighed. She would've liked much better if Trunks learned this by Vegeta himself, but she doubted he'd ever open up that much in front of his son, and she wanted Trunks to understand why his father was so cold, even with him.

"Long ago, the Saiyans were a race of proud and powerful warriors."
"Yeah, dad told me, we kick ass big time!"

His eyes widened and he covered his mouth as Bulma glared at him for using such a bad word.

"Sorry," he mumbled behind his fingers.
"Well, nevermind for this time. They worked for a man... no, he wasn't really a man... they worked for someone called Frieza. Frieza actually feared the Saiyans' power so much that one day, he decided to get rid of them by destroying their planet. Vegeta was still very young, yet so strong that Frieza did not kill him like the rest of his people. But you see... with his family gone and no one but Frieza to take care of him, your father had a very tough life. It's not that he does not love you: it's just... well, he doesn't really know how to show it."

She smiled.

"But he cares about both of us," she said. "I can tell. And if you listen to your heart, you'll be able to tell it too."
"Do you think he's proud of me?" Trunks asked hesitantly.

Bulma gave him a tight hug.

"I'm sure he is, Trunks," she said, giving him a comforting smile. "Now, off to bed, young prince!"

Trunks smiled back at her and laid again comfortably. She rearranged the blankets one last time, and left the room. She gasped in surprise when she almost bumped into her husband.

"God, Vegeta, you scared me-"

He stared at her in silence for a short while, then walked away.

"Thanks for explaining the little one," he simply said over his shoulder.

End of the chapter: There you go ;) hehe, Vegeta was eavedropping on his wife and son, bad Vegeta! BAD! XD