Um

Um... Ooh, I know! It's "Make Your Own Disclaimer" Day! Have fun with it!

Ok, should the dream girl show up on Chikyuu? Or should she have died in the past? Or something else? And just who is this girl? After you read this chapter, let me know what you think! I have nothing more written past this point (but I do know who the girl is, so you can't really affect that) and too, too many ideas, so now you get to help write the story! (That sounded so cheesy! Eh, who cares, really?) Review, email, ICQ, I don't care how you do it! J And I know you all want more B/V, but from this point on, she features a lot less. She (or at least mentions of her) will still be in the story, but not for a little while. I gotta get Cell in here sometime, too, so thing's'll speed up a bit! At least, I hope they will…

Oh, and yeah, I figured out about the screwy timeline in one of the other chapters. That line that said the funeral forced them to reunite almost a year early should have said something along the lines of a few months early. I've changed it in my copy, but not the ff.n one. Oops!

The Ones You Touch - Ch. 3 - Secrets

"Your highness, I've finished my chores for the evening. May I play now?" The girl was the one from his previous dreams, still small, though she was probably 5 or 6 now.

"Of course, if you've finished your school work." Vegeta watched the child as she walked into the small bedroom they shared and frowned. Sometimes something about her very existence bothered him. She was full-blooded Saiya-jin, but so weak, nowhere near the power level she should be. And her eyes… Like none he had ever seen before, vibrant and full of color. Lately in those eyes he could see that she had been hiding things from him, keeping secrets.

He rose to follow her, setting aside the plans for the next day's purging mission for more immediate concerns. When he reached the door, he saw her efficiently pulling back and smoothing his bed coverings. Her small pallet was in the corner waiting for her, as well. She always went to sleep hours before he did but made sure to have his things ready.

"I thought you were going to play." It was their nightly ritual. Vegeta knew well the reason she was performing these tasks. She did this every night, waiting for him to come "play" with her. If he had not come by the time she finished, she went to bed quietly, knowing he did not want to be disturbed. Knowing his part, he reached into a small cabinet and pulled out an old chess set. He didn't know where it had come from, only that it had been a spoil of war and was a strategy game. Vegeta considered it part of her education.

He sat at the table and quickly set up the pieces. The girl sat across from him, keeping her head lowered, not speaking. Unusual.

"What's wrong, little one? Are you mad at me? Hm?" Vegeta reached toward her, trying to make her look at him. Suddenly his hand stopped.

The child had looked up. And the look on her face was enough to scare him. He'd never seen anything like that from her before.

She looked at him with so much hatred, so much hurt in her eyes. Vegeta knew instinctively he was dreaming again but couldn't get out.

The dream girl accused him: "You left me! You abandoned me, and I needed you! Didn't I mean anything to you?" Her voice lowered and tears fell, truly a heart-breaking sight.

Vegeta felt his heart shatter at the words. "No…" The single syllable barely above a whisper, an almost silent plea for her to stop, but he couldn't affect anything in this dream world. "No! I saved you! I got you away from them! They were hurting you. Don't you remember?"

She sobbed out the only answer a lonely, frightened six-year-old could: "Why didn't you help me? Why didn't you stay with me? Didn't you want me anymore?"

With a burst of power, Vegeta bolted out of the bed, breathing hard and covered in sweat, glaring at the pillow as though he thought it would come after him. Goku immediately burst through the door, and not for the first time Vegeta regretted accepting the other Saiya-jin's offer to share his home.

True, sometimes it was almost a comfort to see a familiar face after some of the dreams, 'Like this one…' his mind whispered, but one of these days Kakarotto was just going to get blasted to another dimension rushing in like that.

And along came the brat as well. Gohan ran in seconds after Kakarotto, woken by the power surge moments before.

"Go back to bed, son." Goku's voice was quiet and deadly serious, like when the battle had just turned bad, and though Gohan wanted answers, he knew better than to go against it. But, still… His father was never like this unless something was really wrong.

"But what-"

"Vegeta and I have everything under control. Go." He went. "All right, Vegeta, what happened? Another one of those dreams?"

"Yeah. Go on, Kakarotto. One of us should get some rest tonight." Vegeta went to stand by the window, watching the sky's edge slowly lighten in preparation for the morning.

Goku let out a tired sigh and complied. "But you know where to find me if you need…" His voice trailed off at the end as Vegeta turned slightly and nodded.

Leaving the room, Goku reflected on how much the Saiya-jin no Ouji had changed since Bulma's death. At first he had taken full responsibility for baby Trunks. He was a good father, but refused to set foot on Capsule Corp. grounds, getting Goku to take the baby to see his grandparents every couple of weeks. He hadn't stopped his training, but it changed. He no longer cared about being strongest. Goku could tell the new training regimen was nothing more than an attempt to keep what remained of his sanity as intact as possible.

After a month of this, Goku asked Vegeta to move into the Son's home. It had taken some convincing to get both Chi-Chi and Vegeta to agree, but Goku could be extremely stubborn when he wanted something. And amazingly, his plot worked. After few days of living together, the two were actually getting along. Kind of. Chi-Chi and Gohan both took an interest in Trunks' well-being and care, leaving Vegeta more free time. He and Goku were sparring again, but nowhere near the intensity they had been before.

Then Vegeta's dreams started waking Goku. The power surges after a nightmare, the tossing and turning and moaning from the bad dreams, the obvious lack of sleep, all of it bothered Goku, and he was eager to help his friend however he could.

His friend… Goku wryly smiled at the thought. Before, Vegeta yelled every time he uttered the dreaded word. Now Goku saw the prince's eyes lighten when Goku mentioned their relationship. It was almost funny. After Bulma… Well, - after - , Goku expected Vegeta to turn in on himself, push himself, kill himself, anything but what he actually did. He became human-like; he turned to others (in a Vegeta-like way that was kind of weird and almost scary, of course), Goku especially. Emotions and words were still an improbability for him, unless you could read his eyes. They showed everything now, and begged not to be hurt again.

Suddenly Goku frowned and stopped, remembering what Vegeta had said while they were sparring the day before.

"I'm not going to fight them. I thought you should know," he said, firing a ki blast at the shocked Saiya-jin.

"What? Vegeta, why?" Goku dodged and threw two back.

"'Why' what? Why fight for this miserable planet? Why fight for something that I hate?" Vegeta knocked the blasts away and sat on the grass. "Why should I?"

"Vegeta, as much as you may hate it here, this is your home, yours and your son's. It's not like you can go somewhere else." Vegeta turned away, knowing the truth of the words, but Goku wasn't finished. "If there's anything on this planet you care about, I know it's him. Please, Vegeta, at least fight for Trunks' future."

Vegeta rose and turned his back completely on the tall Saiya-jin to walk into the house. "I'll think about it. You should rest."

"Huh? Vegeta, you're acting weird." But the other Saiya-jin was already gone. Oh, well. A nap did sound nice.

"Rest?" he asked himself, seeming unaware he was speaking out loud, "Maybe Vegeta really is losing it. … Oh, I'm just going back to bed!" And he continued toward the stairs, not really paying attention to the sounds around him.

But if Goku had been listening, he could almost have heard something that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle coming from the door he had just vacated.

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Ooh, Vegeta chuckling cannot be a good thing… Can it? I'm not sure… Don't forget to vote for "dream girl." Should she come to Chikyuu? Or did she die and Vegeta just hasn't had that nightmare yet? Or something else? You can vote for who you think she is if you like, but you probably won't change my mind unless it's something I would never have thought of. Leave your vote in a review, ICQ message, or email, pretty please! J