Father Figure

by Karumi

Author' s note: This is the first fic I posted on FF.net. It's not my best work; but a lot of people seem to like it. Revised because it had a lot of spelling errors, hence the fact that it was written over a year ago. Sometimes I can't believe I actually wrote this *cover's her face and hides under a rock* Anyway…Enjoy!

***

            Bardock raced trough the town as fast as his legs could take him, dodging objects and bumping into people. Everybody was giving him a weird look, but Bardock didn't care, he just wanted to get home in time to see his son's birth. He was still half a mile away from the house, yet his wife's screams were already hearable. Five minutes later Bardock opened the door and went to his wife's side and took her hand.

"C'mon Maya, just one more push" commanded the nurse.

"That's easy for you to say" huffed Maya.

The nurse only smiled, "here it comes".

And with one last push from Maya a relentless cry filled the room.

"It's a boy" announced the nurse; then she handed the baby to his mother, checked to see if Maya was okay then left wishing the family good luck.

Maya cleaned up the baby and hushed him until he was silent. She looked up at Bardock and smiled; Bardock could only stare at his firstborn and remember….

"I'll never be like him"

  Bardock never really knew his father; he was absent most of the time and when he was around he hardly paid any attention to him. So the night before his tenth birthday Bardock finally got the guts and walked up to confront his father. He knew this could be his last chance, because it was obligatory for all saiyajins to begin training at the age of ten.

"Dad?" Bardock asked softly. There was no answer. "Father?"

"What do you want?" replied his father with a cold tone; hitting the table with the can of alcohol he was holding.

Bardock closed his eyes and took a deep breath "Why do you hate me?"

After a few seconds that seemed like hours, Bardock's father turned around and for the first time that Bardock could remember, he looked at him.

"Look kid" Bardock's father reply still with the cold tone in his voice "I don't hate you, I just don't have time for you."

Bardock clenched his fist and close his eyes, rejecting the tears that were already there as his father turned his back on him again.

"So you don't have time for me…" reply Bardock repeating his father cold tone and adding a little sarcasm to it "…your only son, and yet you still have time to sit here and drink…well dad maybe you don't hate me but I'm sure I hate you." Bardock didn't wait for his father to reply and he didn't expect it either; he just left…not ever looking back.

***

Around a year after his training began Bardock receive a notice that his father had died in a planet takeover. That night all that Bardock could think about was the last conversation he had with his father and the last thing he had said to him…

"I hate you"

"What do you want?"

"…your only son…"

"I just don't have time for you"

"I hate you"

Then he made a promise to himself. "If I ever have a family I'll be a good father; I'll never be like him, I'll be a good father and no matter what I'll always have time for my kids."

I'll never be like him"

***

"Can I hold him?" asked Bardock.

"Of course silly, he's your son" responded Maya as she handed him the baby saiyan. Bardock just stared at the newborn, who was crying his lungs out and his tail was wrapping itself around his father's arm.

"So?" asked Maya "what should we called him?"

"Umm…" Bardock thought for a moment…"Raditz" he announced full of pride.

"Raditz?!" Maya asked surprised" what kind of name is that?"

"I don't know, it just suits him"

"Well okay" accepted Maya "but I get to named the next one."

5 years later

"Hey! Bardock, now that we've finished with this planet why don't you go back to Vegetasei and see your son?"

"Who would go all that way just to see the kid of a hopeless low-level soldier?….Tell them to do whatever they want with him."

Author's note: The last thing is an excerpt from the "Bardock special"