Vegeta shoved Bulma off of his body and scrambled to pull his tights up. With his sheer strength, however, he wound up tossing her off the desk entirely and her body smacked the floor with a loud thud. Gohan desperately looked away while Bulma stood up, glaring at Vegeta and not bothering to put her pants back on. His disgust overriding his teenage urges, Gohan slapped his hand over his eyes.

"Vegeta, you dick! Do I look like a blow-up doll to you?!" Bulma yelled, sounding like she'd just ran a few laps.

"Bloomers!" Vegeta yelled.

"That is not my name!"

"YOUR BLOOMERS!"

"Motherfu-!"

"I'm saying put your damn bloomers on, idiot!"

"…Oh."

After waiting a few moments until he was sure it was safe, Gohan lowered his hand, but still couldn't bring himself to turn towards them without unseeing…that. Vegeta broke the uneasy silence with a clearing of his throat, and then Bulma rushed to Gohan and put her hand on his shoulder. Gohan flung his arm away like her hand was covered in toxic waste, and Bulma flinched once she realized her error.

She nervously twiddled her thumbs. "Okay, so I know you probably never got the talk, but what you saw was two consenting adults-"

"Shut the fuck up!" both Gohan and Vegeta screamed.

"'Kay!"

Bulma slid back with a nervous laugh and rushed out of the room.

Now all alone, Gohan and Vegeta continued avoiding eye contact. From the occasional glance, Gohan could see red marks all around Vegeta's face; what the hell were they doing? Actually, he didn't want to know. But, figuring he would have to say something eventually, Gohan turned his red face towards him.

"What the fuck, dude?"

With a roll of the eyes, Vegeta defensively folded his arms. "Don't act like you haven't seen me do worse."

Okay sure, that might have been true. But he never saw him do that.

"And haven't you heard of knocking?"

"I did," Gohan replied, narrowing his eyes. "But apparently you two were too…preoccupied."

"Hn. Like you don't fantasize about doing the same thing with that loudmouth girl."

Gohan's face flared as red as the human body allowed. Vegeta certainly had him there. Regardless, he shook his head, trying to erase away the memory. After seeing that, he'd completely forgotten why the hell he had even been looking for Vegeta in the first place.

He was about to turn around, until he noticed Vegeta's scrutinizing gaze.

"…Since when are we the same height?" The prince asked.

Gohan opened his mouth to reply and gasped once he realized that answered his own problem, too. "Oh, right. About that…up in the sky, where this planet's God lives in his sanctuary, there's this room called the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Time and space operate differently in there – a day out here is a whole year in there."

"Seriously?" Vegeta asked, his eyes widening with intrigue.

"I spent the whole year…day…" Gohan sighed, still finding the whole deal disorienting. "…Whatever. I trained in there with Piccolo."

Vegeta raised his eyebrow. "Who?"

"The Namekian."

Reflexively, Vegeta sucked his teeth at Piccolo's mention. "What the hell doesn't this planet have? But if it worked for you then it will obviously work for me. With a setup like that, I wouldn't need to worry about when Frieza arrives."

"I think you should train in there with my father. You two will both get stronger."

As Gohan expected, disgust immediately took hold of Vegeta's face. And considering the highs he was apparently running on before Gohan arrived, the idea was obviously the furthest thing from his desires.

"Him?" he sneered. "You expect me to spend a year in some room with that sellout court jester? Apparently, your year in there did a number on your common sense."

Gohan rolled his eyes. The Saiyan prince truly was as stubborn as they came. "He's already sold on it, and he's waiting up there."

With clenched teeth, Vegeta leaned against the desk, drumming his fingers along the edge. Gohan knew that look on Vegeta's face – he was giving it legitimate thought, but at the same time devising reasons not to do it. The only appeal that would work would be to his pride.

Gohan locked his eyes onto Vegeta's, trying to project his intensity onto him. "I know you want another crack at him. You'll have 365 whole days to get it."

Vegeta's eye twitched. He scratched the edge of the desk hard enough that its shavings fell to the floor, hissing in anger. If Gohan knew anything about him, the memory of his spine being snapped was embedded in his brain. With how much class hierarchy meant to the Prince of all Saiyans, he probably wanted to defeat Goku nearly as badly as he did Frieza.

After a growl, Vegeta replied, "I could train with you in there, come back out and wipe the floor with him all the same."

Gohan snickered. "By then, you'd be so much stronger than him it'd be no better than pushing around Raditz."

"Because that's exactly what he is." Vegeta hopped off the disheveled desk. "He's from the same trash stock, and is to be disposed of as such."

As Vegeta headed for the door, Gohan flexed his jaw. "I come from that trash stock, too," he said, a flame igniting in his voice.

Vegeta froze in his tracks. While Gohan braced himself for any and all responses, he knew he had to assert himself; hell, the very same man across from him had urged him to do it. If he kept repressing his feelings every time Vegeta did something to piss him off, he'd eventually go right back to square one.

Instead, Vegeta grunted and turned his head in his direction. "You wished those people back?"

Gohan stared at Vegeta's back, trying to see through the other side to figure out his expression. He didn't need to figure out his answer, and suspected Vegeta already knew it, anyway.

"Yes."

Vegeta turned back around, his eyes less rigid.

"Good."

He left, leaving Gohan to sigh out of exasperation. Not a moment went by where the Saiyan prince didn't leave Gohan with questions. It appeared that Bulma had rubbed off on him…which, given recent events was probably the absolute worst choice of words to describe such a thing.

"Vegeta."

His name being called, he stopped and turned around.

Gohan took a deep breath, gathering the words from his chest. "I don't know if I'll ever forgive you. But I respect you. And until Frieza's dead, that's all that really matters."

The two Saiyans stared at each other for a few moments in silent understanding. Trying to remain stoic and guarded, Vegeta tugged his arms and looked away. "Hn. Well, if you respected me, you wouldn't have tried subjecting me to a year with Kakarot."

Gohan breathed a small sigh of relief. He had hoped that their relationship wouldn't somehow become sappier in the face of Vegeta's contrition. "I don't want to spend another year in that place. Besides, you'll get more out of it, training with somebody on the same level."

Vegeta lowered his arms, his usual edge returning. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Take of it what you will."

Gohan's reply came with just enough arrogance to arch Vegeta's prominent brows. But it was true; even before the room, he had already been at least twice as strong as Vegeta. A year of training in that hellscape and getting a stronger hold on his mind had taken his power to thresholds he didn't ever imagine possible in his lifetime.

"I don't know if you know this," Vegeta began, squaring his shoulders, "But I've recovered from you beating me within an inch of my life, and the boost has increased my power leaps and bounds. Even with your training, I'd bet we're a lot closer than you'd think."

"You think so?" Gohan challenged. Obviously, he couldn't sense Vegeta's real power, but he doubted one power-up would even come close to matching his training gains. "Let's bet on it, then. If you can beat me in the gravity room, I'll go in there with you instead of my father."

"Easy money," Vegeta boasted. "Even if you're a little stronger, you don't have my fighting experience. Meet me there in ten minutes."

"Why ten minutes? We can fight now." As soon as Gohan said it and gave it more thought, he grimaced. "Oh c'mon, don't tell me you and Bulma are gonna-"

"No!" Vegeta screamed, his already red cheeks flushing a deeper shade. He grumbled and set his eyes aside. "But I'll need her to turn the gravity back on. And after that, a cold shower."

"Disgusting…" Gohan looked to the side as well, mostly to avoid seeing Vegeta lest he think about what he walked in on again.

Ten minutes later, Gohan sat in the middle of the gravity room, meditating besides a line of drones. Before they left the chamber, Piccolo advised Gohan to make it a daily habit, because the work wasn't just finding peace – it was maintaining it. He had been right about the mind being a crucial component of his Ki control, as Gohan felt a powerful flow of energy within his veins just from intense concentration.

The caustic presence of Vegeta's Ki interrupted Gohan's focus. When he opened his eyes, Vegeta had been stepping inside in a pair of black sweatpants, closing the door behind him. Gohan stood up, already taking on a fighting stance.

"Hold on," Vegeta commanded. "The gravity."

Gohan looked over his shoulder at the control panel. "Oh, right."

"75 G's," Vegeta said as Gohan walked over to the panel. "Let's see you handle that."

"Easy," Gohan replied with a snort, hitting the necessary buttons until the number 75 popped up on the screen. Following a humming sound, the pressure inside the room intensified…yet Gohan didn't feel a thing. Just to show off how easy it was on his body, Gohan jumped away from the control panel and hopped back and forth on either foot.

Vegeta scowled at the boy's arrogance, though he showed signs of trepidation. Clearly, he wasn't expecting Gohan's body to adapt so easily. Miscalculation #1. Of course, whatever fear he had, he ignored it, as he crouched into his usual fighting stance with determination. Gohan knew in a real fight with Vegeta, he'd probably have to rip the bastard's heart out to truly finish him. Maybe it would have to go that way now, too.

As Gohan expected, Vegeta went on the attack, throwing a rush of punches his way. Every fist that thrust towards his face, Gohan could see coming at least a second before they were thrown; he could even pick up the trajectory with ease. He expertly ducked out of the way of every punch at whatever angle necessary, moving backwards until the only thing Vegeta's fist connected with was a window.

Glass cracking against his fist would stop the prince, however, and he spun back around with a kick intended to break a few bones. With his forearm, Gohan blocked it without feeling any pain. When Vegeta gasped in surprise, Gohan took advantage and punched him across the room. His body slammed into the wall and nearly broke through the steel, leaving a deep dent in his wake. Seconds later, he crumbled to the red tiles of the floor with heavy breaths. He tried standing up, but fell right back down.

"Impossible…!" Vegeta hissed. "Just from one…stupid punch?!"

"Might as well quit while you're ahead," Gohan said, his arms triumphantly folded. Admittedly, being on the winning end against Vegeta for once was an exhilarating feeling. The elder Saiyan lifted his head with a scowl of envy on his face.

"Bullshit!"

A massive wave of yellow Ki propelled from Vegeta's hand, but Gohan leaped away. The blast would be the last straw for the spaceship's ravaged interior, however, bursting through the wall. In a rush, Gohan kicked his way through and blitzed through the sky until he got in front of the blast's destructive path. With a thrust of his hands and a burst of his own Ki, Gohan disintegrated the light before it could damage the recovering city. Once the danger was taken care of, Gohan cringed at the busted spaceship in the lawn.

But while the ship had been broken, Vegeta's spirit was very much intact - he flew through the hole his blast left with another punch in tow. The only part of Gohan's skin his fist struck was his palm, however, and the half-Saiyan pulled him into a lethal punch that sent him all the way down to the lawn on his back. Gohan calmly floated down while Vegeta tried and failed to rise back to his feet.

"I reached a whole new level in that room," Gohan proclaimed as he landed. "And that's not all…"

Gohan squeezed his fists, channeling Ki from his lower body. A reservoir of power broke through the dam of his normal limitations, igniting his body temperature and releasing an intense aura. With a primal roar, Gohan allowed the energy to take complete control with no fear of its side effects.

An outburst of power later, Gohan stood in the center of the lawn while tornadic winds gust around him, the top of his hear standing up and his eyes golden. Genuine terror struck Vegeta's eyes as he bore witness to the transformation that had nearly brought about his death. The fear was enough to bring him back to his feet.

"That…power…" Vegeta gasped.

Gohan nodded. He needed to show Vegeta that he could control it; he needed to prove that his outburst wouldn't happen again. And more importantly, he needed to prove it to himself. Vegeta and the city around him had fallen victim to the power that robbed Gohan of his control over his destructive impulses, but now, he could stand amongst them easily.

"Unbelievable…" Vegeta marveled, "I've never felt anything like this…"

However, while Gohan's mind had conquered the form, his body still had a long road ahead before it could catch up. After a few spasms of his muscles, he thought it best to relinquish the awe-inspiring power. Once it left, he felt like he'd just got done carrying an entire planet on his back and collapsed with harsh gasps for air.

After limping towards Gohan, Vegeta cupped his chin in thought. "I guess you can control it now, but you can't maintain it."

Gohan rolled over onto his back and sat up. "Yeah," he replied, continuing to cough and pant heavily. "But nobody said Super Saiyan would be easy."

"I wonder, though…"

Gohan raised his eyebrow, wondering what Vegeta was about to postulate. The Saiyan prince's words trailed off, however, as something straight ahead caught his eye. When Gohan looked up, he saw someone standing at Capsule Corp's entrance, looking back and forth between them and the door. It was the mild-mannered girl with dark-blue hair from the wedding party the day Gohan and Vegeta first arrived, holding a large duffle bag in her hands.

"Uh, hey," she called out with a wave. "I don't mean to interrupt your fight, but you guys stay here, right?"

Gohan stood back up and dusted off his Gi. "Yeah, we do. What's up?"

"I've been trying to get in for a few minutes, but Bulma won't answer the door."

"Oh," Gohan replied. "She's uh…" he looked over at Vegeta with a haunted revulsion, "Recuperating, I guess."

"Hn."

"I can get you in there, though." Gohan hopped over to the door and got it open with an input in the nearby keypad. As he led her and Vegeta inside, Gohan thought back to that party and realized something had been amiss on that day. The blue-haired woman behind him had appeared seemingly from nowhere that day. In fact, there had been a blonde woman there whom he had to haggle Bulma's cigarettes from, and she'd been wearing an identical outfit. He supposed it wasn't worth the extra thought, however.

"Oh, Launch!"

Bulma joined the three in the hall in her bathrobe, her hair soaking wet following an apparent shower. "Sorry, I must've missed you. I've had…" She turned towards Vegeta with a frisky smirk. "Quite a day, to say the least."

When Vegeta grunted with amusement, Gohan covered his mouth while that nauseous sensation returned with a vengeance. He couldn't even begin to wrap his head around whatever the hell had been going on. Last time he checked, Bulma and Vegeta wanted to kill each other.

"No biggie," Launch replied, "I just needed you to help repair my motorcycle. My other half kinda wrecked it."

"What else is new?" Bulma snickered. "But yeah, that's easy. Just gimme a sec to change."

"No problem!"

As Bulma left, Launch took a seat at the nearest table in the lobby while Vegeta turned towards Gohan. As he began to speak, a fly raced towards his nose that he frantically shooed away.

"I'll go in the room with your stupid father," Vegeta grumbled. "But this transformation of yours…"

Vegeta stooped to observe Gohan, noticing that he was still panting. That power had taken a lot out of him, leaving him in a state like he'd just been fighting for an entire day with no breaks. To make matter worse, the fly that disrupted Vegeta flew towards his nose, too, and made him sneeze.

"What about it?" he asked, wiping off his nose.

"I assume you absorbed its power within yourself and learned how to activate it," Vegeta noted. "But something about it still doesn't feel right. Like the Saiyan body just isn't suited for it because it needs to transform. Maybe it isn't Super Saiyan…"

"What do you mean?" Gohan asked, sneezing again. That stupid bug had set off his allergies, evidently. "I just have to strengthen my body."

"Perhaps…" As Vegeta gazed ahead in thought, the fly flew back towards him. He swung at it and missed. "How can I not catch a damn bug?!"

Gohan laughed.

"But anyway…maybe the Super Saiyan doesn't come from such a complicated process. Even now, that power feels…toxic."

While the theory made sense, Gohan still had his doubts. "You're not just saying that because you can't do it, are you? Because it doesn't seem like your tail's coming back any time soon."

"Presumptuous turd…" Vegeta seethed. Making matters worse, the fly flew right back in his face. He swiped the bug in Gohan's direction. "All I'm saying is that there might be a different, greater power awaiting us. It's just a sinking feeling. The entire concept of this form has been one big guessing game."

"Whatever you say," Gohan replied, swatting the bug away until it flew to the table where Launch had been sitting. "That's why you and my father should train together. You two might figure something out."

Vegeta shook his head, hesitant to admit Gohan was right. Just as the two were about to leave, Launch sneezed, probably because of that fly. And then, something bizarre happened – her hair flickered from dark blue, to blonde. The face that had once been relaxed and friendly took a viscous turn. She sprung from the chair, opened up the duffle bag she had resting on the table, and retrieved a machine gun. After sprinting into Gohan and Vegeta's path, she pointed it right at them.

"Awright, buckos. Fork over whatever ya got and ya's might leave without a buncha holes in ya body."

The two Saiyans froze. Not out of fear, but because they had no Earthly idea what the fuck had just happened. This was the girl Gohan remembered nearly coming to blows with over Bulma's cigarettes until Krillin pulled her away. Apparently, her and the calm girl he'd let in were one in the same?

But where Gohan was frazzled, Vegeta was entertained. He raised his hand, a universal signal that a violent death was on the horizon.

"Sure thing, fool," Vegeta said with a dark chuckle. Gohan fastened himself, ready to stop him from attacking even if he had a flimsy justification to kill her. "Enjoy an early-"

"Oh, goddammit Launch!"

Bulma came barging in from the hall, only half-dressed in jeans and a bra. Gohan looked away…though his pupils kept drifting towards her. Both Launch and Vegeta gave her their attention.

"What have I told you about this?" Bulma scolded, glaring at Blonde Launch. "Not in the building!"

Though launch shrugged, she put the gun down. "Pfft. Whatever. A scoop's a scoop."

"Please," Bulma chuckled, her coy smile pointed at Vegeta. "Only thing of value this guy has is his dick."

"Seriously?!" Gohan groaned, staring at the ceiling and wondering what had cursed him to be around all this.

"Care to assess that again?" Vegeta huskily asked.

"Oh, fuck this…" Gohan walked clean out of the room.

Bulma reached out to Gohan apologetically, although her goofy smile betrayed her mischief. She turned her attention back to the blonde firecracker.

"Just head to the industrial lab. I'll be there in a few." Launch mumbled a few curses while packing her gun back up and marched down the hall. As she left, Bulma looked over her shoulder. "And I changed all the passwords, so don't bother!"

Vegeta stared at the blonde woman, now raising her middle finger, with his mouth agape. "Did that woman just turn into a whole new person by sneezing?"

Bulma shrugged. "Yeah, nobody's ever figured it out. One second she's a calm brunette, the next she's a blonde psycho on a rampage."

"What a strange transformation..."

"KA…ME…"

With his red aura blazing around him, Goku looked up into the white space at the super-charged Saiyan floating above him in the same pose. In his estimation, they had been in this exact scenario at least a hundred times thus far. Goku always thought himself a hard guy to keep down, but a few months with Vegeta let him know he wasn't even close. The bastard could have had no functional bone in his body and he'd still be out there training.

"HA…ME…"

Now, the usual part of their daily script was occurring. Goku would get the best of their fight, and Vegeta would flip out and try blasting him into smithereens. As far as Goku was concerned, the Saiyan prince didn't even need to learn the Kaio-Ken – his Kaio-Ken was just getting really, really angry and reaching a new level for a few fleeting, volatile moments. And a guy like him was always one tick away from a psychotic episode, anyway.

"GALLICK…"

Pink sparks jolted around Vegeta, like a fuse ready to explode. But Goku's flames were well-equipped to handle him.

"HA!"

"GUN!"

Both full-blooded Saiyans unleashed their signature Ki waves on each other, pushing their powers to the limit once they collided. Goku's veins sweltered as he tried standing his ground; twelve straight hours of fighting, after a week of battles that would leave him passed out from exhaustion, made pushing the Kaio-Ken past a ten a deadly proposition. He would have to go with what he had – if Vegeta had an extra reservoir of power, he would finally see defeat.

The blasts finally folded under the mutual pressure, ripping through each other and racing at their targets. While Goku had enough left in the tank to leap away from Vegeta's blast and only deal with the aftershock of the ensuing explosion, Vegeta could only hold his arms up to absorb the impact. Two enormous explosions filled the room, forcing Goku to shield his ears from the reverberating sound.

Once all of the smoke blew away, Goku rose back up against the protests of his joints. As he expected, Vegeta lay on his face without movement. Whether he had given into the pain or just passed out from exhaustion was anyone's guess. Every single fight they engaged in had ended this way; Vegeta would be out training the moment he woke up.

The Saiyan laying at Goku's feet had been an invisible ghost for the last nine years. He thought his brother Raditz was the person he would ultimately have to fight to win back his son – he thought he was the pinnacle of fearsome power. But evidently, Raditz had been at the bottom of the totem pole, and this little man was instead his obstacle. The proud flag-bearer of the entire Saiyan race, a group of planet-raiding savages whom Goku wanted nothing to do with.

And yet, he was one of them. If not for a chance fall off a cliff, he would have operated purely on violence, too. Hell, he already did, just in a less evil way.

Somehow, Vegeta's body twitched. With a few distressed grunts, he looked up with a sneer aimed at Goku. "D-Dammit…"

Goku shook his head and laughed in admiration. "I'll give ya one thing – you wouldn't throw anybody into a fire that hadn't already burned you to a crisp."

"S-Shut up…"

Goku's expression grew solemn as he observed Vegeta struggle haplessly to even roll over. That really was the crux of it all – it was a small wonder Vegeta had no problem dragging Gohan into that crazy world. If he could go through it and come out stronger, then anybody worth their salt could, too.

"I'm startin' to see why Gohan stands by you so much," Goku admitted. He crouched down, reaching his hand towards his prince.

"I don't…n-need praise from a peasant…" Vegeta spat. "And I don't need your help…"

"Well, we both know I'm gonna help ya anyway," Goku snickered. "You can get me back when we fight again."

Though Vegeta growled in protest, Goku lifted him up, slinging his limp arm over his shoulder and holding him by his waist. He flew back to the lobby, subconsciously bracing himself for an elbow to his ribs at any given moment. Fortunately, Vegeta could hardly move. Once they landed in the lobby and got close enough to the beds, Vegeta shoved himself away from Goku. The nudge had no impact whatsoever, but Goku let his grip loosen anyway and went to the kitchen. After grabbing a few snacks, he turned around and found Vegeta sprawled out halfway on his bed and the floor. Goku snickered and nudged his body with his knee to get him all the up, and then went to his own bed. As he chowed down on a rice ball, he overheard the other Saiyan muttering.

"B-Bulma…"

Goku blinked in surprise. Why was that hardly the first time he heard Vegeta utter his oldest friend's name in his sleep? Goku knew he had been living with her for the past few weeks and knowing their personalities, probably engaged in many a verbal spar. But the way he would speak her name in his sleep almost sounded worried. Longing, like he actually had feelings behind it. And if that were the case, he had no idea what the hell that was about. Relationships couldn't have been the furthest thing from Goku's wheelhouse – hell, he barely grasped his own relationship with his wife – but even the thought of Bulma and Vegeta having feelings for each other sounded preposterous. Then again, she and Yamcha were always at odds and her abrasive personality was certainly compatible with the Saiyan prince.

Whatever the case may have been, Goku smiled that even Vegeta could possibly find something worth fighting for besides himself.

Several days later, Vegeta and Goku were at it again. Try as he might, all of Vegeta's attacks were a step slow, his injuries piling up. Rubbing salt in the wounds was the fact that Goku hadn't once relied on the Kaio-Ken thus far. The angrier Vegeta grew after every miss or block, the less precise his attacks became.

After Goku blocked a punch, he hit Vegeta directly in the chest, knocking all the air out of him. And he earned another kick to his face on the way down. Only through sheer reflex did he flip to break his fall, and once he did, he fired a Ki blast that hit absolutely nothing

His bloodshot eyes nearly pulsed out of his head. This was what he was reduced to? Day after day for five straight months of being tossed around? When they first entered the room, their fights usually started with Vegeta dominating until Goku pushed ahead with the upper levels of Kaio-Ken; over time, he needed it less and less to secure his victory.

Another blast, another miss. Another kick that actually landed and sent Goku downward, only to be answered with an axehandle. When he went for another kick, Vegeta actually got the better of him and phased out of sight. However, the kick he tried to follow up with literally went through him until he vanished.

"Damn after-image!" he growled aloud.

That was the thing about fighting Goku – it had become painfully, abundantly clear that the bastard was just an outright genius at fighting. Such an instinct and awareness of techniques couldn't be taught, no matter how many brutal drills you could go through. If Planet Vegeta were still around, the low-class may have gotten to the top through sheer hard work and skill.

That didn't make Vegeta's dilemma any less infuriating as he flailed around wildly while Goku answered all his offense. He was supposed to be the most naturally gifted Saiyan, superior to everyone in every aspect of combat down to the footwork. His veins swelled just thinking about it.

Vegeta got into Goku's airspace while he was in the middle of throwing a punch, leaving the younger Saiyan helpless to avoid him. Yet Goku regained his cool, swept Vegeta's legs, and dropkicked him away. As he got up, Vegeta smacked the floor – he was supposed to be the one able to pull that off at the spur of the moment.

With his ribs hanging by a thread, Vegeta gasped for as much of the scant air as he could, growing dizzier as he tried dragging himself ahead. He was supposed to be on the other side, laughing at Goku as she struggled to breathe and hold his body together.

Aura exploded around Vegeta, flaring up like the spikes of his hair. He tried punching Goku's face with more power and force behind his blow, but his efforts only gave him both of Goku's forearms. It hurt his own fist more than it hurt Goku. As he shook his wrist, Goku took full advantage and punched him directly in the stomach, right in the same spot where Gohan impaled him.

Coughing up blood, Vegeta crumbled to the floor. Goku, as merciful as he was fearsome, immediately backed down with a concerned frown for the Saiyan prince rolling around and clutching his stomach with both hands.

"Aw, shit," Goku murmured. "I think I overdid it on that one."

Vegeta looked up with his blood-stained teeth on display. "Fuck you, Kakarot."

Goku didn't react, having been on the receiving end of that insult plenty of times already. But he soon gasped when Vegeta somehow rose back to his feet with a surge of energy.

"Fuck your pity…fuck your third-class power…" He dug his fingers into his palm hard enough to draw blood while his aura reignited. "Fuck this stupid planet!"

Goku's brows furrowed in recognition of the power growing before him. Running purely on his explosive emotions, Vegeta unleashed even more Ki from the depths of his spirit.

"I am Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans! I am a punching bag to nobody! Not you…not Gohan…"

The proud, broken prince squared his shoulders with his red eyes wide open. Goku crouched down and unleashed his highest Kaio-Ken energy.

"…And least of all, Frieza!"

Defying his own body, Vegeta released even more power until even his muscles swelled. He burst forward, as did Goku. When they met in mid-air, Vegeta rammed through him like he wasn't even there. As Goku fell, Vegeta leveled his shoulder with a brutal kick, grabbed his spiky-hair, and pulled his skull into a punch delivered to the tip of his nose. A shockwave later, and Goku was all the way down on the floor.

Vegeta curled his arms back and released a shower of Ki blasts typically reserved for a cluster of targets, now for one single low-class Saiyan. He didn't know if they were landing or not, but he didn't care. After all of the defeats he had dealt with not just since landing on Earth, but since he first let those grunts in Frieza's army bully him at age four, the man was simply done with it all.

Once he felt his energy waning, Vegeta gathered all that was left in electric energy to his hands, curling them back for his signature attack.

"GALLICK…!"

Beneath the smoke, Vegeta could hear the chant that had grown to haunt him.

"KA…ME…HA…ME…"

Vegeta's hands shook from the heat enshrouding them, and yet he smiled maniacally in response. If Goku was going to give him his best shot, then he would gladly answer him.

"GUN!"

"HA!"

One more time, their blasts collided. Vegeta kept pushing, even as his heart dangerously pounded inside his chest. He would burn through his whole life force if he had to; if doing so killed him, he would deserve it. After seeing how this played out the other hundred times in the room, he would be perfectly fine never seeing it again.

Little by little, he felt Goku's blast wither. That drove Vegeta not to relinquish his attack, but pump out even more energy to bring himself over the top. With a throat-splitting roar, the Prince of all Saiyans wrapped his hand around the throat of victory and squeezed as much out of it as he could until the blast broke through Goku's and exploded against the ground.

With smoke filling his lungs and his energy racing away from his body, Vegeta limply floated back down, not waiting for the smoke to clear to see the conclusion of his efforts. As soon as his feet hit the floor, hedoubled over and coughed up blood. He looked up, squinting his eyes until he saw a silhouette.

Beneath all the smoke, Goku lay unconscious with burns all over his arms. He wasn't dead, but he was defeated. Vegeta limped towards his body, wanting to laugh but to exhausted to do anything but cough. A few seconds later, he fell down. He was out before his head even hit the surface.

37 hours later, they woke back up and fought again.

Gohan sat at the dining table, gnawing at a strip of bacon. When a certain blue-haired woman walked through the door, he planted his eyes down and chewed his food like it was the last dish on Earth.

"Morning," Bulma said. "My dad and I are gonna repair the ship soon, so your training won't be on hold for long."

Gohan just kept chewing on his food, responding only with a hasty nod. Bulma laughed at his rattled disposition.

"Look, I'm sorry you had to see that yesterday. Especially how we were going at it-"

He nearly choked on his food, he forced it down so hard.

"And there I go again," Bulma grumbled. "Nice going, Bluma. I'll leave you alone."

As Bulma stood up, Gohan found his brain itching with a burning question that he would probably regret not asking at some point. After forcing his food down, Gohan groaned and spoke up.

"How?"

Bulma turned with intrigue. "How? Uh…if you're really clueless about sex I have a bunch of books-"

"Not that," Gohan grumbled. "God, I don't need the details. But how did you and Vegeta get…well…there? I thought you two hated each other."

Knowing the answer about as well as Gohan, Bulma sighed and took a seat across from him. "Honestly, I'm pretty sure we still do. But, like, as much as I want to chalk it up to us just being a couple of attractive, lonely, singles in our late-thirties…there's more to it then that. I mean, look at you. By every metric, you should hate Vegeta's guts, but you don't."

"You're right…" Gohan said, examining the field of emotions that resulted in him both trying to kill the man out of deep-seeded anger, and being shaken up about it. "He's magnetic. Some of the dumbest, boldest things I've ever done were just from his presence giving me more confidence."

"Right?! A guy like that, you can't help but want to be on his level." Bulma sighed deep enough in her lungs that Gohan squirmed away. That sounded like a moan to his ears. "It almost makes me forget just who he is. A crazy space Viking who kills for fun. But while you were gone, I saw another side of him for a few moments. I mean, he was still a dick, but it was just different."

That's where Bulma lost Gohan. While Vegeta had demonstrated that he cared about him, those demonstrations were hardly what he would call affectionate gestures.

Bulma rested her head in her right hand. "Doesn't make a lick of sense, really. But feelings rarely do. Even you understand that. You got a sweetheart out in space, right?"

"She's not my sweetheart," Gohan whined, growing more childishly upset when Bulma giggled.

"She's at least cute though, right?" Bulma asked, ignoring his response entirely. "Like, she's not one of those aliens that's really just a toad with a human body or anything?"

Gohan clenched his throat to stop himself from laughing, which just triggered a coughing fit. The alien that best fit that description was the duplicitous coward known as Cui, and the idea of anybody let alone Gohan being attracted to that freak was pure fiction at its finest.

"No," Gohan replied, gagging and laughing at the same time. "She looks normal. Hell, she's so normal-looking that I ran into a girl that looks exactly like her while I was searching for the Dragon Balls."

"No kidding?! Sheesh, you must've thought you were on drugs when you saw her. What are the odds?"

"Yeah…" Gohan stared at his reflection in the plate below him. He wondered if all that really had been a fever dream or at the very least a hallucination, a function of his desperate brain.

"I just miss her," Gohan confessed, restlessly tapping his plate. "She's just…so pretty. And funny. And she's kinda crazy, too. I've only ever been happy around her…" With his hand trembling, he grabbed hold of the nearest fork. "And right now, I don't know if she's alive, dead, captured, or what…"

"Aww, she is your sweetheart," Bulma teased.

Gohan's eyes didn't leave his reflection.

Bulma patted Gohan on his shoulder with a warm smile. "Just keep training. When this is over, you'll see her again and won't have to worry about a thing."

Gohan intensified his gaze at the plate, practically projecting his drive onto his own self. Bulma stood up, stretching herself out and yawning before leaving the kitchen.

"But when that happens, just make sure you two aren't up to what you caught me and Vegeta doing until you're 18 and ready to raise a kid."

The fork in Gohan's hands snapped in half. That woman really couldn't let a single moment of sincerity pass without inappropriate snark, huh?

Later on, Gohan sat in the wilderness with his scouter over his eye, meditating since he had no access to the spaceship. With his mind free of his negative thoughts for the time being, he could appreciate the sounds of birds chirping and squirrels frolicking about that served as reminders of what was at stake. By going to Earth, the fight with Frieza ceased to be a fight for his personal freedom, but a fight to protect the planet and people that mattered to him.

As he sat, he kept his Ki consistently flowing. Simply exercising it like he would any of his normal muscles would see it grow day by day, on top of his physical training. As he learned from Piccolo, he could grow his strength and maintain peace at the same time.

Of course, it was hard to maintain peace when a scouter would suddenly start buzzing in your ear.

Annoyed at first, Gohan's eyes shot open. A signal to his scouter could mean only one person. Gohan clicked the red button.

"Arepa?"

"But of course not, young lad! This is Frieza!"

Gohan stood straight up, his throat clenching. All of that peace he'd been maintaining went out the window, a scowl and a rapid heartbeat in his place. With both fists squeezed at his sides, Gohan tried gaining control of his breathing to center himself.

"What the hell do you want?!"

Suddenly, a familiar sound of playful laughter replied to him.

"Oh God, my impression of that bastard really is too accurate! It's my accent, ain't it?"

Gohan gasped once he realized the true identity of that voice. A half-ton of tension freed itself from his shoulders. "Don't fucking scare me like that, Arepa," he snickered.

"Hold on, Gohan, is your voice a lil' deeper?" Arepa asked. "That's where all that smokin' gets ya."

Rolling his eyes, Gohan sat back down. After a year, relative to his time, he'd forgotten how much he enjoyed this.

"Well, a lot can happen in a couple of days," Gohan replied. "What's up?"

"That's what's up. A lot of shit's gone down in just a day here, too."

Gohan brows furrowed, his concern growing. "What's going on?"

"Word on the space streets is, all the planets that the Frieza Force has purged the last few months just had their whole populations poof back to life. It's created a real shitshow."

The half-Saiyan breathed a sigh of relief. Good. The wish had worked exactly as it should have. "Really, now?"

"Yeah. Last I heard, Frieza was gearin' up to finally hit y'all on Earth, but with all this goin' down there's no tellin' when he'll leave now. His pops is AAAAALLLL on his ass about this shit. Kiyomi snuck in on one of their convos, and it wasn't pretty."

Gohan couldn't help but smirk, knowing that even that smug little lizard had people he had to answer to. Even if it meant there was a greater opponent on the horizon.

"But let's be real. This is just a teeny inconvenience. It'll take him a couple months, but he'll be back at you guys in a jiffy. I have a feelin' a lot of planets are 'bout to blow up," Arepa warned, tension rising in her voice. "And me 'n Kiyomi want no parts of the wars that are 'bout to pop off, so we're headin' to Earth as I speak. It's safer to be around you and Vegeta."

Gohan sprang back up again, admittedly excited. "Really? How long?"

"ETA's like, ten months or somethin'."

Gohan grabbed a nearby tree branch, focusing on that figure. Ten months. As far as he was concerned, he could bet on Frieza and his men arriving within that same time frame. He wouldn't keep his two prime targets waiting for too long.

"Got it. And hey, see if Kiyomi can get in touch with the folks on Planet Mamba. Tell them to stand down, so they can be safe from the rampage."

"Gotcha. God, you don't even know how much I've missed you, dude."

The sentiment had certainly been shared on both sides. Just hearing the sound of her voice gave Gohan a sense of comfort and security that he had been lacking recently.

"I know."

"Just keep at it. Can't wait to see your stupid face again…I'll see you soon," Arepa's voice had softened to a tone Gohan didn't recognize coming from her. "I love you."

Gohan snapped the branch in half.

"Aw fuck, hold on, that wasn't supposed to sound all stupid and sappy like that forget I even said-"

"No, it's okay," Gohan said, calming himself down. He opened his palm, gazing at the broken piece of the branch with his cheeks a crimson red. "I uh…love you too…I guess?"

Smooth.

"Do me a favor and never say that shit again."

"Got it."