Okay. Me again. Here's another one of my short stories. I did a nice little tear jerker about Goku's
family recently. So, I decided to do
Vegeta's here. Here's a violent, yet
touching look at how Vegeta really feels about his son. I know these have been done before, but I've
never done one. My next fic will be
funny, I promise. There's some humor in
here, but very little. As anyone who's
read my stuff knows, I like to write
short stories. Maybe I'll make my next
a little longer, but I don't want to go Steven King on you!g Enjoy.
PG-13 for violence and cussin'.
Oh, yeah. I don't own Dragonball
Z, nor am I the emperor of Japan. All
characters are fully licensed and ruined by Funimation, yatta yatta yatta, gun
to my head, pulling the trigger….
"A Father's Lesson in Love"
The gravity room rocked with explosions and thunder. Vegeta was, as usual, training in Dr.
Brief's crown achievement. Also
training was his 8-year-old son, Trunks, whom we all know and love. While not having nearly the power of his
father, little Trunks was still able to throw kicks and punches that would make
Tyson cower in fear. As usual, however,
his father wouldn't let him train any where near him. "Off to the other side of the room with you, boy!" Vegeta would
holler. "This is a man's training
session. You're not nearly strong
enough to train with me." And this, as
usual, hurt the young Saiyan's feelings.
His father's comments about his strength didn't faze him. It was the sadness of never, not once in his
8 years, having a real dad. A dad who
would take him to the park. A dad who
would play ball with him. A dad who
would read him stories. And, a dad who
would once, maybe just once, show him some love. Vegeta, of course, was oblivious to this. Trunks would never bring it up. After all, in his father's eyes, emotions
were a sign of weakness.
Trunks thought of the time he had gotten hurt training. He sat there, just 4 feet from his father,
holding his knee and crying. "Dad!", he
yelled. "I…" "Oh, shut up!" hollered Vegeta, "you're pathetic! Go get your mother to lick your blasted
wounds! You're no son of mine." Those words hurt.
Now, in the gravity room, Vegeta was, of course, ignoring
him. 5600 pushups, and still his father
didn't look his way. Super Saiyan
transformation? Dad didn't care. Heck.
If he had beaten Buu with a flick of his finger, his dad still wouldn't
approve. Goten. Boy was Goten lucky. He didn't have as many toys as Trunks. And, his family didn't have as much
money. But, Goten had a father and a
brother who loved him to death. Trunks
had nothing but his mom. And, even
though he loved his mom and she was great, there were certain things a boy didn't
want from his mother. Playing in the
park. Wrestling, or just plain watching
TV. Those were things only a father
could do. Alas, however. The boy had to deal with the fact that he
was, against his own will, a momma's boy.
"Dad," Trunks now called to Vegeta, "I wanna get out,
now. I'm bored in here." "You'll leave when I'm done! You know opening the door resets the
gravity. Now, just sit down and
wait. And, stop whining!!!"
2 hours later, after Vegeta had done every exercise known to
man, or Saiyan, they finally exited the room.
It was almost dinnertime, and Trunks was starved. As they sat at the table, the usual
conversations broke out. "So Vegeta,"
Bulma began, "how did Trunks do today?
Did you boys have fun?" "Fun?,
said Vegeta, while stuffing two chicken legs into his mouth, "training is not
fun, woman! Training is serious. And your boy, as usual, couldn't keep
up with me." "He's only a child, you
idiot!" Bulma yelled. "What do you expect him to do, blow up
planets!" Trunks tried not to
laugh. As usual, he was amazed. If anyone called his father an idiot,
anyone, they would die. A violent,
horrible, bloody morbid death. His mom
could do it, and Vegeta did nothing but grunt and keep eating. The fact that he didn't rip her head off
was, Trunks guessed, and expression of true love. Well, at least mom got that.
"Hey, dad," said Trunks. "Can we
go somewhere after dinner? Like, to the
park or to that festival their having in town?
Pleeeeeeaaassseee." "Didn't I
suffer through enough time with you?"
came dear old dad's reply. "Oh,
take the boy out, you radish haired bastard!" yelled Bulma. "What kind of dad are you?" "A busy one! I don't have time to sit around all those worthless people just
so the boy can get some exercise. He
got enough exercise today!" "But you
won't get any tonight if you don't take Trunks out!" said Bulma with a cold
stair. "Grrrrrrrr. Okay, okay.
Have it your way. One hour,
Trunks, do you hear me? One hour in the
damn park, okay?" "Oh, boy! Let's go," said a happy Trunks. Through his happiness, however, he couldn't
help wondering what the hell his mom was talking about. But, whenever she threatened to not give dad
his "exercise," he would do anything.
He just didn't get it.
So, I take you to 20 minutes into the future. Trunks running around in the park, and
Vegeta sitting on a bench looking pissed.
"Come on, dad! Let's race! I bet I can run faster then you!" "You know you can't," said Vegeta, "so why
bother." He just didn't get it. "Well, um, let's get some ice cream! Remember you had ice cream once and said you
liked it? So, let's get some!" "I'm not hungry, boy." "Well," began Trunks, "then let's…" "Times up," Drill Sergeant Vegeta said. "Time to go home." One hour, and Trunks played alone.
Later that night, Vegeta was in the gravity room…again. He was in the middle of an intense
workout. Suddenly, the door
opened. "Integrity breached," said the
computer, "gravity returning to 1X." "Damnit! What the hell happened!" Vegeta had been at 1200X gravity, which was
new for him, and was quite pleased he was able to handle it. He looked towards the door, and there was
Trunks. "What in the HELL do you want,
boy?", yelled Vegeta. "I, um, I just
wanted to tell you I had a nice time and…"
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT! DO YOU
REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE? YOU DISTURBED
ME! HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU NOT
TO DO THAT! I CAN NEVER GET UP TO THIS
MUCH GRAVITY WHEN YOU'RE HERE, AND WHEN I FINALLY GET IN HERE ALONE, YOU RUIN
IT!" Trunks looked at his father, teary
eyed, and turned around and walked away with his head down. Father of the Year then shut the door and
continued his workout.
Later, Vegeta climbed into bed next to Bulma. He was ready for his next workout. He touched Bulma's arm, and she turned and
gave him a look that would have brought Cell to his knees in tears. Vegeta knew the look. It was the, "You're the biggest fuck up of a
father I've ever seen why did I ever hook up with you I need to have my head
examined I must have been on crack when I slept with you blah blah blah blah"
look. Vegeta knew he'd have a better
chance winning Miss America. So, he
turned around and went to sleep.
He woke up to Bulma hitting him on the head with a baseball
bat. If he'd told her once, he'd told
her a thousand times. To get him up on
time, use the gun. But, finally the
tapping got mildly annoying, and he got up.
"What?" Vegeta said. "Put down
that blasted toothpick." "TRUNKS IS
GONE!" Bulma yelled. "He's gone!" "What.
Where?" said Vegeta. "IT'S YOUR
FAULT, YOU PRICK! IT'S YOUR FAULT! LOOK!"
She thrust a note into Vegeta's face.
It read:
Dear mom and VEGETA:
I'm running away.
I'm going to try to find a real family, one with a real dad who cares
about me. I hate living with someone
who hates me. I'm never coming back
again. I don't want to live without a
daddy anymore.
PS: Tell VEGETA
he's a jerk.
Trunks
"You've got to go find him!" said Bulma. "He left late at night! God know how far he could have flown." Now, we all know Vegeta isn't as heartless a
bastard as he portrays himself as. Even
he knew this was serious. But, he still
didn't get it. Why was Trunks mad at
him? Was it because he yelled at him? "Don't worry," he said, "he's just pissed
because I yelled. I'll find him and
we'll, we'll, we'll have ice cream or something. I'll be back right away.
I can sense his power level, so I'll find him quick.
Vegeta flew off. He
scourered the countryside and could sense, or see, nothing. He flew into the city. Still, not a trace of his son. Maybe he had his power level low. But, Vegeta knew his son couldn't hide it
that well. And, Trunks had almost the
same power reading as he, because of their genetics. The fact that Vegeta could pick up his son's power level was
beginning to get disturbing, especially as night fell.
Vegeta returned home to his crying woman. "I don't understand," he said. "I can't find him." "What if something terrible happened to
him?" cried Bulma. "What could happen?"
Vegeta said. "No human can harm that
boy. No one on the planet's able to
hurt him. He must really be hiding his
power. But, I've got an idea."
"Hello," said Chi Chi as she picked up the phone. "Oh, hi Vegeta. How are you? You want to
speak to who? Kakarott? Who's Kak.. Oh! You mean Goku. One
second. Goku! Telephone!" Goku picked
up the phone. "Hello? Oh, hi Vegeta. What's up? Haven't heard
from you since we took out Buu. Uh,
huh. Uh, huh. Oooh. That is
strange. Okay, I'll be right
over." Goku hung up. "Gotta go to Vegeta's for awhile,
honey. No time to explain." Putting his fingers to his forehead, Goku
vanished. As the wind brushed Chi Chi's
hair, she wondered what was up. Goku
looked worried. She hoped no super
villain or monster was back, because it took a lot to worry her man.
Vegeta sat next to Bulma, trying to calm her down when he
felt the unimaginable power. In a
second, Goku appeared. "You have got to
show me how to do that one day," said Vegeta.
"That's exactly why I called you here.
In order to transport like that, you have to sense the power level of
someone near where you want to go, right?"
"You got it, bro," Goku said.
"Okay, then," said Vegeta. "Use
the technique to find Trunks and take us to him." "Why did he leave?" asked
Goku. "Vegeta is an asshole!" cried
Bulma. "Yeah, I know. But why did Trunks leave?" "Never mind, Kakarott! Just do it, will you?" "Okay, okay chill." Goku put his fingers to his head. He began to search. Though the pathetic power levels of the
humans, it would be easy to find Trunks.
Goku searched and searched. 30 seconds
went by, a long time to find someone only on earth. After one minute, Goku had scanned the entire earth. "I, I can't find him. I don't understand. No matter how much he hides his power, I
should be able to zero in. In fact, the
only way I wouldn't be able to find him is if he were on an extremely distant
planet, which we can rule out, or he's…"
"He's what?" said Bulma. "Uh,
sleeping," said Goku. "Yeah, yeah,
that's it. Sleeping." Vegeta looked at Goku and understood. "Kakarott, take us somewhere."
"Where?"
"Anywhere"
Before Bulma's eyes, Goku and Vegeta were gone.
"He can't be dead!" said Vegeta. "That's outrageous! Who
would have the power to kill him! "I
don't know," said Goku. "Every time he
gets upset, he usually comes and talks to me or Gohan." "Upset?
What do you mean, Kakarott.
"Well, I..I didn't want to tell you this because Trunks made me promise,
but under the circumstances… Sometimes,
Trunks comes to us, real depressed. I
mean, crying, everything. He always
tells us that you don't have time for him."
"I spend time with him," Vegeta says.
"We train together all the time."
"You know," Goku began, "there's more to life then training. A good dad has to do more. Read the kid a story. Take him out. Play cards with him. Take
him to a movie…" "His mom does
that. What does he need me for?" "Because it takes a dad to do certain things
with a boy." "Well," Vegeta began,
"your wife did a decent job on Goten while you were a corpse. He's not emotionally wrecked." "No, but he had a big brother. You're forgetting that." Vegeta took it all in, and for once in 8
years he understood. Like his first
transformation into a Super Saiyan, when he understood power had nothing to do
with it, he finally got it. He finally
realized what it meant to be a father.
"Please, Kakarott. We have to
find him. You have to help me." "PLEASE."
Goku knew the stroke or brain injury had finally hit. Did Vegeta just say the "P: word? That was like Freeza saying, "Let's stop
fighting and go take in a move, Goku."
"Sure. I'll help. But, where do we start." "Let's do a super speed flyover of the
earth," said Vegeta. "Maybe with our
combined eyes we'll get lucky."
And so, 1500MPH, they circled the globe. After about three hours, Goku thought he saw
something. "Vegeta!" he yelled. "Down there, about 100 miles from your
house!" Goku landed first. He walked towards a figure lying in the
grass. As he got close, he saw it was
indeed Trunks. He walked over to him,
and was shocked by what he saw. There
lay Trunks, dead. His lifeless body was
spread on the ground, arms out. A frown
on its face. Blood everywhere. "Oh, God no," said Goku, quietly. "Oh, dear God." Vegeta landed and saw Goku standing over a figure. "Stay back, Vegeta!" Goku hollered with his
arms outstretched! "It's nothing, it's
just.. it's just.." Vegeta pushed by
him. He looked down. The grizzly site brought him to his
senses. There lay his boy. His son.
His only son. Not a son from the
future he hardly knew, but a boy he knew for eight years. A boy he knew, and loved. Vegeta's eyes were wide and horrified. "Trunks," he yelled. "Trunks!
Get up! GET UP!" It was the insane optimism all humans, and
Saiyans, express when a loved on is gone.
He'll get up. He's just
sleeping. He's fine. But, we all know the truth. "TRUNKS!
NO! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Vegeta screamed for all to hear. "GET UP!
I LOVE YOU! IS THAT WHAT YOU
WANT TO HEAR! I LOVE YOU! NOW, STOP TORTURING ME AND GET UP!" More insane optimism. As Vegeta slumped to the floor, his hands
over his face, Goku saw, next to Trunks, a small, hand scribbled note. He picked it up and began to read.
Dear Mom:
I know dad won't care, but I'm dead. I'm going to shoot a beam into the air,
outrun it, and let it hit me. I have
nothing left to live for. Dad hates
me. You're always working on some kind
of project. No one really loves
me. What's the point? I'm tired of being alone. I only have one friend. Goku always said being dead isn't so bad, so
I want to be dead now, too. By mom, I
love you.
Goku dropped the note and began to cry, as his own sense of
guilt set in. Vegeta stumbled over and
picked up the note. As he read it, his
mind disintegrated. He had gotten to a
state of grief, a state of guilt, that only a few people, inside or outside of
a fanfiction, have ever reached. The
kind of emotion that scientists have studied to see if it really exists. A state of emotion so powerful, it kills the
mind like a bullet kills the body.
"It's my fault." That was the
last thought Vegeta's mind could register.
For, after that, there was nothing.
After Bulma got over the initial shock, years of depression, she buckled
down to the task of visiting her lost love.
Vegeta was in a hospital. He
hadn't spoken for years. He had to be
fed, dressed everything. She looked
upon him with hate and pity, and he looked upon himself this way, too. At least, until he woke up.
Vegeta rose with a start.
His heart was pumping, sweat dripping down his face. He flew out of bed, knocking poor Bulma to
the floor, and ran into his son's room.
Trunks was already up, as it was 9AM, and playing some kind of video
game. He turned and saw his father's
wide eyed gaze. "Hey, dad. You still mad about last night?" Vegeta ran over and hugged his wide eyed
son, relieved. After the long embrace,
Vegeta said, "Trunks. You know I love
you, right?" "What?" "I said, 'you know I love you, right?'" "Yeah, dad.
I know. You don't say it, but I
know." "Good," Vegeta said. "Come on.
Get dressed. Let's go out for
breakfast, and then we'll go to a movie."
"REALLY?" "Sure. Be quiet and don't wake your mother. I'll leave a note." On their way out, Vegeta stopped. "Hold on, son. I've got something to do."
Vegeta pointed his hand towards the gravity room and blew it up. "Why did you do that, Dad!!!!" "Because," Vegeta said. "I'm tired of that place. We can train in the park from now on. After all, ice cream would melt in the
gravity room." Trunks looked at Vegeta
and they both laughed. "Oh, by the way
son," Vegeta said. "You aren't fast
enough to outrun one of your own Ki beams, are you?"
The end
