Mourning
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Author's Note: Hi...this is a one-shot I decided to do one morning. This is my first DB fanfic, so please review, but do so kindly...also, I decided to use the Funimation names because it seems to me that Vegeta is far more common than Bejiita here, and I didn't want to sound unprofessional by using half romanized names and the other half Funimation. I was, however, very liberal with the storyline...consider it Alternate Universe if it pleases.

Enjoy.

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Mourning

In the gray hours of morning, when traffic is silent and not even the birds have begun their daily activities, a lone figure walks across an empty graveyard to an all too familiar monument. Many times he has been here, mourning; this man comes here nearly every week. And every week he leaves flowers, or a bowl of milk, to appease the spirit of the man he killed.

"Kakarot," says the visitor, "Kakarot it just isn't the same anymore."

He sighs.

"We've had this talk many times, haven't we, cousin?"

The grave said nothing. Vegeta, prince of all saiya-jin, was alone.

Vegeta knelt before the headstone and laid a small bouquet of wildflowers on the grass. Then he stood and continued their conversation, the same one they'd been having since Goku's death.

"She still won't let me see my children. That woman is unbelievable. Imagine, a mere human standing up to a being with a power level far beyond three hundred million!"

He laughed, but it was an empty, hollow sound, and the way it bounced off the tombstones around him gave him chills. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, discomfort building in his stomach. But it was nothing new to him.

He stared at the words on the monument. Goku, Earth's Greatest Hero. Loving husband, devoted father, and friend to many. Memories came rushing in as his eyes lost their focus, and he shook his head to regain control. "What is my life coming to, Kakarot?!"

Vegeta fell to his knees beside the grave and clutched at the earth, his head pounding with the guilty memories of their last battle. He struggled to suck in air, his chest tight and heavy, his arms and legs impossibly weak, swimming with emotion.

Vegeta's head swam. So many things could have been different that day. Kakarot could have went Super Saiya-jin 4. Vegeta could have decided not to use the relatively weak Makankosappo attack.

"I...I could have...just let it be," Vegeta hissed through clenched teeth. "I have been a fool, Kakarot!"

This too was nothing new.

Ever since Vegeta had pressed that they were none the younger and demanded that they duel as he had always wanted them to do. He could still see in his head the almost perfect aim of the Makankosappo tearing through Kakarot's body, ruthless and quiet in its horror. He could see Kakarot's wide eyes water and hear the gasp; his own heartbeat in his ears drowned out that terrible cry mercifully. The image of Bardock's son laying there on the ground before him burnt itself onto his eyelids every single night as he tried to sleep, and the terror of it all is that none of it is as he dreamt it to be.

"She took my children, Kakarot!" Vegeta screamed, rising up on one hand and his knees. Someone down the street yelled something rude, and a dog barked. "She...wouldn't let me see them...after I..."

He sighed and his body relaxed. Nothing was different. He could never make his peace now. In the end he had gotten exactly what he wanted ever since coming to Earth. But with a terrible price to pay.

Vegeta stood. The sky was bright now and the sound of the world coming to life was already beginning to start. A bird chirped in a nearby tree. Somewhere he heard what sounded like a basketball being bounced. He imagined whoever was playing with it, happy.

"I miss you, Goku-sama," said the prince of all saiya-jin as he wrapped his arms around himself and walked out of the cemeterey.

The gravestone stood silent.