"So where are we going, Dad?" Trunks asked, his hands clutching the dash-board in front of him as he leaned forward in his seat, watching the stars stream by them.
"We'll discuss that in the morning. You need to go to bed now."
"But Dad...," Trunks whined, letting out a short breath. "I'm not tired!
Vegeta scowled, still staring forward as he steered the ship.
"I haven't even had dessert yet," Trunks added, folding his arms, and finishing with a look of determination.
"And you aren't getting any tonight either, now do as you've been told."
Trunks stared for a few seconds, eyes wide, then they narrowed as he decided to challenge. "No."
Vegeta's ear twitched. Was it possible? Did he hear...? Had his son just openly challeged him? He turned his vision to his child, glaring deeply and with threat. "What did you say?"
Trunks flinched. 'Uh-oh, now what?' He was being given a death stare. He faultered, trying to keep his determined stance, but that look...it drained all his confidence. "...Uh..."
Vegeta's eyes narrowed further as he spoke in a calm, low (and DEADLY) voice, "You get in that bed right now and go to sleep. And if you even THINK of saying 'no' to me again, I'll burn a hold in your butt with my bare hand."
Trunks blinked, petrified of the mere thought. He'd only been spanked by his father a few times, but if he'd NEVER felt his wrath as such it would have been too many times... "...uh...yes sir," Trunks quickly hopped out of his seat, slinking around the edge of the ship and into one of the two bedrooms. He sighed, scowling. Now that his father wasn't watching him he could be angry in peace.
* * * * *
Bulma sat down at the bar in the kitchen for a few seconds, wiping the sweat off her brow. She was glad her dish duty would be cut in half now, with Vegeta gone. There was a bit of sorrow deep in her heart. In the far recesses of her mind she felt perhaps she had gone too far when she'd kicked him out for good. And even farther when she'd said she didn't expect him to see his son again.
Bulma sighed heavily as she stood. It was time to have a talk with Trunks about this. He wasn't going to be happy, she knew that, but she couldn't keep it from him and there would be no use in even trying for a few days or weeks. Her legs felt like they were weighted as she came closer and closer to her son's room. He wasn't making any noise. Strange. Maybe he'd gone to sleep already.
"Trunks, honey? Are you awake? We need to talk...," Bulma opened the door. The room was empty. "Hmm," Bulma tried to determine where he would be. 'Perhaps he'd gone to watch TV? Or maybe the gravity room. No. Not right after dinner. But it has been two hours now.' She checked both places, but he wasn't in either. Something was beginning to feel wrong. Bulma decided to call Chi-chi, just in case Trunks had violated rules and flown to their house to see Goten. Trunks usually was pretty good about not leaving the house. It was one rule he rarely broke. He'd gotten quite a spanking from Vegeta, on Bulma's prompting, when he'd done it at the age of 5 and that was the LAST time he'd done it.
A panic was slowly making its way through her mind, but Bulma was shoving away the thought. Trunks couldn't be gone. Where would he go? Then a thought occured to her. Could it be...? Had Vegeta taken him? She tried hard to dismiss it. Why would he do something like that? There was no reason for him to. Suddenly Bulma gasped, her eyes widening as a realization hit her. Her face went pale as the words echoed in her head and she was able to recall the slight inflection in her husband's voice: "Aren't you going to say goodbye to Trunks?" she'd asked him. "I don't need to." "I don't need to."
"Noooo! VEGETA!!" Bulma didn't even realise she was screaming. "Trunks!" she fell to the floor, sobbing as she pounded her fist against the carpet.
* * * * *
Vegeta sighed heavily as he set the controls on the ship. He was exhausted. Something was eating him away inside, but he was ignoring it and propelling himself with his anger for his mate's words and his possessiveness of his child. NOBODY would take Trunks away from him in ANY way, shape, or form.
After using the bathroom Vegeta trudged into the bedroom. His eyes widened. There was Trunks, sprawled out across the middle of the bed, sound asleep. Vegeta was about to tell him to wake up and sleep in the other room, but he stopped. It'd be better
not to wake him. He could just carry him in there, but...he was too tired to deal with it. Instead Vegeta just moved him to one side of the giant king bed and climbed in on the other side, falling asleep almost immediately.
He awoke several times during the night. Once when Trunks' hand had slammed into his face, once when Trunks had kicked him in the leg, and once when he'd heard a loud thud and a soft murmur, "Ow," as his son crawled groggily back onto the bed and promptly fell back asleep. Now it was morning. Vegeta opened his eyes to find Trunks draped across his chest with his legs on one side and his arms and head on the other, face down. He was snorring lightly.
Vegeta rolled his eyes. He'd watched his child sleep before, but never long enough to realise how much he moved around! Evidently he'd gotten used to his sleep being disturbed by the boy. He couldn't imagine how else he could have stayed asleep when his son had come to be in this possition. Vegeta squirmed out from under him. Trunks sat up groggily, blinked a few times, then promptly fell backwards onto the bed, fast asleep once again. Vegeta shook his head at him as he stood, a small smirk creeping onto his face while he pulled some clothes from his bag and headed for the bathroom. Unbelievable. What an active sleeper!
Trunks decided it was time to get up after he felt the cold, unwelcoming floor under his soft skin once again. Sitting up he rubbed the new bump forming on his head and moaned slightly. At home he had a small ledge on either side of his bed and pillows lined on the floor just in case the "bumpers" on the bed didn't work. Thanks to his mother, of course. The floor here was quite harsh. And very HARD. He staggered into the kitchen, yawning a time or so as he stared up at the cabinets. There was no food on the table. Hmm. But he was hungry. Trunks wondered if there was anything he could eat, but he wasn't awake enough to think of actually looking just yet.
"Comb your hair, son, you look like a ball of fuzz," Vegeta walked into the room, a towel draped around his neck.
Trunks turned, his eyes not fully open. "I'm hungry."
"So? Eat," Vegeta looked at him awkwardly as he walked by, opening the refridgerator to assess what was already in it. He wasn't particularly surprised to find very little. But he'd come prepared. He had a number of capsules with plenty of food inside.
"Eat what?" Trunks asked, sliding into a chair and yawning.
"I don't know. Don't you have eyes? Find something."
"But...Mom usually makes me breakfast. I don't know how to cook."
Vegeta frowned, turning in the child's direction. The boy was staring at him blankly and filled with childish innocence. It almost made him smile...almost. He was waiting. Depending on his father to find him some food. "What about cereal? You MUST know how to make THAT," Vegeta folded his arms.
Trunks eyes lit up. "Yes, I can make that!"
"Well what are you waiting for? DO it then!" Vegeta rolled his eyes and started out of the room. "And comb that hair! You look rediculous!"
"Ok, Dad," Trunks climbed onto the counter, pulling a bowl and a spoon out of the cubboard. He never bothered to get down as he poured the cereal in the giant bowl. His eyes widened as he stared in the refridgerator. "...uh...Dad, there's no milk in here!" he called.
"What?" Vegeta looked up from the controls in the steering room, thinking briefly. Then he grabbed a handful of capsules and brought them back in the kitchen. "Check in these. And don't you dare eat all the food in them either! If the milk isn't in there, put the food back away," he instructed, then paused, turning with one eyebrow raised as the realization hit him that his son was standing on top of the counter, shoes on and everything. "And get off that counter, boy! I did not raise you to be a manner-less animal! You're a royal Sayain, for heaven's sake!" he shook his head with disgust as he exited.
Trunks hopped off the counter and started opening the capsules one by one, searching for the milk. It was in one of the last ones he opened. Once his stomach was full he glanced around the room. "Oh boy." The place was covered in food. Now he'd have to put it all away or his Dad would get mad. Instead of re-capsulizing everything, he started shoving it in the refridgerator. And once that was full, he starting putting stuff in the cubboard. He just hoped he'd guessed right about which stuff didn't necessarily have to be refridgerated and which stuff DID.
Milk did, he knew that much. Milk was a drink, so that meant drinks had to go in the refridgerator. Now what about meats? Hmm... His mom always pulled meats out of the over, so maybe that's where they went. He knew ice cream and stuff that came in big bags went in the freezer. Except cereal. That went in the cubboard. Now cheese. Where did cheese go? Trunks thought for a second. He knew he'd seen cheese in the refriderator before, but he was sure he'd seen it in the cubboard too. Better put it in the refridgerator just to be safe. That in itself was a problem concidering it was already almost stuffed to the brink with the drinks he'd stashed in there. Oh well. He'd put as much as he could in there and the rest would just stay out.
Satisfied with the job he'd done, Trunks retreated to the back room and changed into some fresh clothes. Then he quickly made his way up front, plopping down in the passenger seat.
"So...can you tell me where we're going now?"
"No."
"But you said you'd tell me in the morning," Trunks complained. "It's morning
now, isn't it?"
Vegeta let out an irritated sigh. "All right fine, but it won't make any difference to you. You've never been there. We're going to the planet of Ghandis."
"Why? What do they have there?"
"A much stronger species, for one," Vegeta muttered.
Trunks continued to stare at him, waiting for more information. Vegeta was quite annoyed by this feeling of scrutiny.
"All right, all right! Stop staring at me! The race of Ghandii is a much stronger people, it has a much better system of schooling, an appreciation for royalty..."
"But that's not why we're going is it Dad? I mean...don't they have some kind of cool park or something?" Trunks interupted.
Vegeta raised an eyebrow. His child wanted a park. Figures. What could he expect from an eight year old? "Yes, they have parks, but nothing extraordinary."
"Well what are we going to do there then?"
"Enough of this. Have some patience. It'll be quite some time before we arrive. Go do something."
"Like what?"
Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Use your mind, Trunks. I KNOW you have one!"
Trunks sighed, moving onto his knees and resting his arms and head on the dashboard in front of him. He stared at the stars as they passed for a few minutes. "Dad?"
"What?" Vegeta wasn't sure he wanted to know.
"Do all those stars have planets orbiting them?"
"What?!" Vegeta had much to learn about the workings of children's brains. What kind of question was that?
"My teacher said Earth orbits around the sun and the sun is really a star. And there's 8 other planets that orbit it too!" he seemed excited to know such a fact. "And Vegeta-sei, being a planet, must have orbited a star too. Soooo, do all these stars have planets orbiting them?" Trunks explained his question.
Vegeta hid a smirk. He couldn't remember so far back as to not knowing this sort of thing. "Most stars do, yes. But not all."
"How come we don't stop at any of those planets?"
"Many of them are uninhabitable," Vegeta answered.
Trunks stared at him blankly, blinking a few times. "...Oh... Dad?"
Vegeta fought the urge to yell. "What?"
"Why does a planet have to be able to be in a habit for us to stop there?"
Vegeta looked at him awkwardly for a moment, then broke out laughing as he realised what the child was thinking. "Uninhabitable means people aren't able to live there."
Trunks raised his eyebrows, and his face flushed a light color of pink as he turned to face forward again. "Oh," he was obviously embarrassed.
"Trunks, there's a video game station in the closet of the backroom. Why don't you use that for awhile?"
"Ok!" Trunks was glad for the opportunity to escape. He'd looked stupid in front of his father! He'd never gain any respect for him now.
* * * * *
Bulma had laid awake all night, unable to sleep. It was her parents' suggestion. They'd told her Vegeta was probably just mad and wanted her to worry. It would only be playing into his hands and cause her undue pain to think about it right now. They were sure he'd come back with Trunks in a day or two. Afterall, he wasn't used to spending long amounts of time with the boy. Even if his INTENTION had been to take him, he wouldn't last very long. Bulma tried to agree with them and do as they'd suggested, but it wasn't in her heart. Nothing was there but a hole. She felt hollow without her son's presence. And as much as she HATED to admit it, her husband's too. Right now she ignored that though and focussed only on her hatred of him. How could he do such a thing!?
"Come eat, dear, I've made breakfast," Mrs. Briefs walked cheerfully into Bulma's room.
"I'm really not hungry right now, mother," Bulma stared at the ceiling, her arms
behind her head.
"Sulking won't do any good. It's best that you get up and go about your normal routine for now. Give him a little bit of time. It's not like you'll never see him again..."
Bulma choked on a sob. "You can't say that for certain, mom! You don't know where either of them are! We don't even KNOW for certain that it was Vegeta that TOOK him!"
"Search your heart, Bulma. You've got great intuition and I'm sure you know more than you're admiting right now," Mrs. Briefs smiled as she left the room.
Bulma let out a sigh of frustration. Vegeta had him. Her mother was right and her intuition told her so. But even so, she wasn't as convinced as everybody else that he would bring him back to her.
"We'll discuss that in the morning. You need to go to bed now."
"But Dad...," Trunks whined, letting out a short breath. "I'm not tired!
Vegeta scowled, still staring forward as he steered the ship.
"I haven't even had dessert yet," Trunks added, folding his arms, and finishing with a look of determination.
"And you aren't getting any tonight either, now do as you've been told."
Trunks stared for a few seconds, eyes wide, then they narrowed as he decided to challenge. "No."
Vegeta's ear twitched. Was it possible? Did he hear...? Had his son just openly challeged him? He turned his vision to his child, glaring deeply and with threat. "What did you say?"
Trunks flinched. 'Uh-oh, now what?' He was being given a death stare. He faultered, trying to keep his determined stance, but that look...it drained all his confidence. "...Uh..."
Vegeta's eyes narrowed further as he spoke in a calm, low (and DEADLY) voice, "You get in that bed right now and go to sleep. And if you even THINK of saying 'no' to me again, I'll burn a hold in your butt with my bare hand."
Trunks blinked, petrified of the mere thought. He'd only been spanked by his father a few times, but if he'd NEVER felt his wrath as such it would have been too many times... "...uh...yes sir," Trunks quickly hopped out of his seat, slinking around the edge of the ship and into one of the two bedrooms. He sighed, scowling. Now that his father wasn't watching him he could be angry in peace.
* * * * *
Bulma sat down at the bar in the kitchen for a few seconds, wiping the sweat off her brow. She was glad her dish duty would be cut in half now, with Vegeta gone. There was a bit of sorrow deep in her heart. In the far recesses of her mind she felt perhaps she had gone too far when she'd kicked him out for good. And even farther when she'd said she didn't expect him to see his son again.
Bulma sighed heavily as she stood. It was time to have a talk with Trunks about this. He wasn't going to be happy, she knew that, but she couldn't keep it from him and there would be no use in even trying for a few days or weeks. Her legs felt like they were weighted as she came closer and closer to her son's room. He wasn't making any noise. Strange. Maybe he'd gone to sleep already.
"Trunks, honey? Are you awake? We need to talk...," Bulma opened the door. The room was empty. "Hmm," Bulma tried to determine where he would be. 'Perhaps he'd gone to watch TV? Or maybe the gravity room. No. Not right after dinner. But it has been two hours now.' She checked both places, but he wasn't in either. Something was beginning to feel wrong. Bulma decided to call Chi-chi, just in case Trunks had violated rules and flown to their house to see Goten. Trunks usually was pretty good about not leaving the house. It was one rule he rarely broke. He'd gotten quite a spanking from Vegeta, on Bulma's prompting, when he'd done it at the age of 5 and that was the LAST time he'd done it.
A panic was slowly making its way through her mind, but Bulma was shoving away the thought. Trunks couldn't be gone. Where would he go? Then a thought occured to her. Could it be...? Had Vegeta taken him? She tried hard to dismiss it. Why would he do something like that? There was no reason for him to. Suddenly Bulma gasped, her eyes widening as a realization hit her. Her face went pale as the words echoed in her head and she was able to recall the slight inflection in her husband's voice: "Aren't you going to say goodbye to Trunks?" she'd asked him. "I don't need to." "I don't need to."
"Noooo! VEGETA!!" Bulma didn't even realise she was screaming. "Trunks!" she fell to the floor, sobbing as she pounded her fist against the carpet.
* * * * *
Vegeta sighed heavily as he set the controls on the ship. He was exhausted. Something was eating him away inside, but he was ignoring it and propelling himself with his anger for his mate's words and his possessiveness of his child. NOBODY would take Trunks away from him in ANY way, shape, or form.
After using the bathroom Vegeta trudged into the bedroom. His eyes widened. There was Trunks, sprawled out across the middle of the bed, sound asleep. Vegeta was about to tell him to wake up and sleep in the other room, but he stopped. It'd be better
not to wake him. He could just carry him in there, but...he was too tired to deal with it. Instead Vegeta just moved him to one side of the giant king bed and climbed in on the other side, falling asleep almost immediately.
He awoke several times during the night. Once when Trunks' hand had slammed into his face, once when Trunks had kicked him in the leg, and once when he'd heard a loud thud and a soft murmur, "Ow," as his son crawled groggily back onto the bed and promptly fell back asleep. Now it was morning. Vegeta opened his eyes to find Trunks draped across his chest with his legs on one side and his arms and head on the other, face down. He was snorring lightly.
Vegeta rolled his eyes. He'd watched his child sleep before, but never long enough to realise how much he moved around! Evidently he'd gotten used to his sleep being disturbed by the boy. He couldn't imagine how else he could have stayed asleep when his son had come to be in this possition. Vegeta squirmed out from under him. Trunks sat up groggily, blinked a few times, then promptly fell backwards onto the bed, fast asleep once again. Vegeta shook his head at him as he stood, a small smirk creeping onto his face while he pulled some clothes from his bag and headed for the bathroom. Unbelievable. What an active sleeper!
Trunks decided it was time to get up after he felt the cold, unwelcoming floor under his soft skin once again. Sitting up he rubbed the new bump forming on his head and moaned slightly. At home he had a small ledge on either side of his bed and pillows lined on the floor just in case the "bumpers" on the bed didn't work. Thanks to his mother, of course. The floor here was quite harsh. And very HARD. He staggered into the kitchen, yawning a time or so as he stared up at the cabinets. There was no food on the table. Hmm. But he was hungry. Trunks wondered if there was anything he could eat, but he wasn't awake enough to think of actually looking just yet.
"Comb your hair, son, you look like a ball of fuzz," Vegeta walked into the room, a towel draped around his neck.
Trunks turned, his eyes not fully open. "I'm hungry."
"So? Eat," Vegeta looked at him awkwardly as he walked by, opening the refridgerator to assess what was already in it. He wasn't particularly surprised to find very little. But he'd come prepared. He had a number of capsules with plenty of food inside.
"Eat what?" Trunks asked, sliding into a chair and yawning.
"I don't know. Don't you have eyes? Find something."
"But...Mom usually makes me breakfast. I don't know how to cook."
Vegeta frowned, turning in the child's direction. The boy was staring at him blankly and filled with childish innocence. It almost made him smile...almost. He was waiting. Depending on his father to find him some food. "What about cereal? You MUST know how to make THAT," Vegeta folded his arms.
Trunks eyes lit up. "Yes, I can make that!"
"Well what are you waiting for? DO it then!" Vegeta rolled his eyes and started out of the room. "And comb that hair! You look rediculous!"
"Ok, Dad," Trunks climbed onto the counter, pulling a bowl and a spoon out of the cubboard. He never bothered to get down as he poured the cereal in the giant bowl. His eyes widened as he stared in the refridgerator. "...uh...Dad, there's no milk in here!" he called.
"What?" Vegeta looked up from the controls in the steering room, thinking briefly. Then he grabbed a handful of capsules and brought them back in the kitchen. "Check in these. And don't you dare eat all the food in them either! If the milk isn't in there, put the food back away," he instructed, then paused, turning with one eyebrow raised as the realization hit him that his son was standing on top of the counter, shoes on and everything. "And get off that counter, boy! I did not raise you to be a manner-less animal! You're a royal Sayain, for heaven's sake!" he shook his head with disgust as he exited.
Trunks hopped off the counter and started opening the capsules one by one, searching for the milk. It was in one of the last ones he opened. Once his stomach was full he glanced around the room. "Oh boy." The place was covered in food. Now he'd have to put it all away or his Dad would get mad. Instead of re-capsulizing everything, he started shoving it in the refridgerator. And once that was full, he starting putting stuff in the cubboard. He just hoped he'd guessed right about which stuff didn't necessarily have to be refridgerated and which stuff DID.
Milk did, he knew that much. Milk was a drink, so that meant drinks had to go in the refridgerator. Now what about meats? Hmm... His mom always pulled meats out of the over, so maybe that's where they went. He knew ice cream and stuff that came in big bags went in the freezer. Except cereal. That went in the cubboard. Now cheese. Where did cheese go? Trunks thought for a second. He knew he'd seen cheese in the refriderator before, but he was sure he'd seen it in the cubboard too. Better put it in the refridgerator just to be safe. That in itself was a problem concidering it was already almost stuffed to the brink with the drinks he'd stashed in there. Oh well. He'd put as much as he could in there and the rest would just stay out.
Satisfied with the job he'd done, Trunks retreated to the back room and changed into some fresh clothes. Then he quickly made his way up front, plopping down in the passenger seat.
"So...can you tell me where we're going now?"
"No."
"But you said you'd tell me in the morning," Trunks complained. "It's morning
now, isn't it?"
Vegeta let out an irritated sigh. "All right fine, but it won't make any difference to you. You've never been there. We're going to the planet of Ghandis."
"Why? What do they have there?"
"A much stronger species, for one," Vegeta muttered.
Trunks continued to stare at him, waiting for more information. Vegeta was quite annoyed by this feeling of scrutiny.
"All right, all right! Stop staring at me! The race of Ghandii is a much stronger people, it has a much better system of schooling, an appreciation for royalty..."
"But that's not why we're going is it Dad? I mean...don't they have some kind of cool park or something?" Trunks interupted.
Vegeta raised an eyebrow. His child wanted a park. Figures. What could he expect from an eight year old? "Yes, they have parks, but nothing extraordinary."
"Well what are we going to do there then?"
"Enough of this. Have some patience. It'll be quite some time before we arrive. Go do something."
"Like what?"
Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Use your mind, Trunks. I KNOW you have one!"
Trunks sighed, moving onto his knees and resting his arms and head on the dashboard in front of him. He stared at the stars as they passed for a few minutes. "Dad?"
"What?" Vegeta wasn't sure he wanted to know.
"Do all those stars have planets orbiting them?"
"What?!" Vegeta had much to learn about the workings of children's brains. What kind of question was that?
"My teacher said Earth orbits around the sun and the sun is really a star. And there's 8 other planets that orbit it too!" he seemed excited to know such a fact. "And Vegeta-sei, being a planet, must have orbited a star too. Soooo, do all these stars have planets orbiting them?" Trunks explained his question.
Vegeta hid a smirk. He couldn't remember so far back as to not knowing this sort of thing. "Most stars do, yes. But not all."
"How come we don't stop at any of those planets?"
"Many of them are uninhabitable," Vegeta answered.
Trunks stared at him blankly, blinking a few times. "...Oh... Dad?"
Vegeta fought the urge to yell. "What?"
"Why does a planet have to be able to be in a habit for us to stop there?"
Vegeta looked at him awkwardly for a moment, then broke out laughing as he realised what the child was thinking. "Uninhabitable means people aren't able to live there."
Trunks raised his eyebrows, and his face flushed a light color of pink as he turned to face forward again. "Oh," he was obviously embarrassed.
"Trunks, there's a video game station in the closet of the backroom. Why don't you use that for awhile?"
"Ok!" Trunks was glad for the opportunity to escape. He'd looked stupid in front of his father! He'd never gain any respect for him now.
* * * * *
Bulma had laid awake all night, unable to sleep. It was her parents' suggestion. They'd told her Vegeta was probably just mad and wanted her to worry. It would only be playing into his hands and cause her undue pain to think about it right now. They were sure he'd come back with Trunks in a day or two. Afterall, he wasn't used to spending long amounts of time with the boy. Even if his INTENTION had been to take him, he wouldn't last very long. Bulma tried to agree with them and do as they'd suggested, but it wasn't in her heart. Nothing was there but a hole. She felt hollow without her son's presence. And as much as she HATED to admit it, her husband's too. Right now she ignored that though and focussed only on her hatred of him. How could he do such a thing!?
"Come eat, dear, I've made breakfast," Mrs. Briefs walked cheerfully into Bulma's room.
"I'm really not hungry right now, mother," Bulma stared at the ceiling, her arms
behind her head.
"Sulking won't do any good. It's best that you get up and go about your normal routine for now. Give him a little bit of time. It's not like you'll never see him again..."
Bulma choked on a sob. "You can't say that for certain, mom! You don't know where either of them are! We don't even KNOW for certain that it was Vegeta that TOOK him!"
"Search your heart, Bulma. You've got great intuition and I'm sure you know more than you're admiting right now," Mrs. Briefs smiled as she left the room.
Bulma let out a sigh of frustration. Vegeta had him. Her mother was right and her intuition told her so. But even so, she wasn't as convinced as everybody else that he would bring him back to her.