Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or any of its characters.

I'm going to keep trying to get these up faster, I've just got homework in my way, as well as the occasional writer's block, so keep me notified on how I'm doing in your reviews please.

Chapter VII

Goku and Vegeta were both surprised to find Bardock wasn't actually all that far from level two, even. They let him know this and said they would both try and get him as far as they could before he was due back in hell. The three took a break from fighting-related conversation and settled down to share things that had happened since Bardock had died. When late afternoon managed to shift to early evening the trio split, Vegeta invited Bardock to his house to meet the other half-saiyans, Goku urged his father to go ahead while he went home, knowing Chichi wouldn't like it if he wasn't home for dinner.

"Are you sure you can't just skip on it, son?" Bardock asked.

Goku shook his head, "Chichi would have me doin chores for a week if I try and pull that again…"

Vegeta nodded in agreement.

"Alright, I'll be back at your place in a bit then." Goku nodded and went home, Vegeta showed the way to capsule corp.

Sometime later, Goku was lying in bed earlier than usual, taking a much needed nap, or so he told Chichi. He lay awake in bed, though his eyes were closed and he feigned sleep. His mind stayed stationary on two energy signals that were a good distance away, they had settled in one spot for a long time now, though he couldn't guess why, it could be anything. He allowed his mood to sink, his father was treating Vegeta more like his son than the real one, and he wasn't sure why it bugged him so much. 'Could be that I'm simply jealous that dad would seem to forget about his actual son and go spend time with my heartache, or maybe it's because I feel left out…or maybe it's because I love to pity myself over this entire situation!' Goku breathed deeply, turned onto his side, and let his eyes drift open so he could gaze out the window. He silently wished he was also at CC joined in the conversation they must be having, but it didn't help for him to not do anything about it.

A few hours passed and Chichi went to check on her husband, he seemed to be asleep, but she couldn't tell since his back was to her. "Goku, honey? Are you awake?" she asked in a quiet, kind voice.

Goku grunted, and turned around to look at his wife, "Yea…Did you need somethin?"

"Well I was just checking up on you, dear, I was coming to bed soon and your father isn't back yet, should I lock the door?"

Goku sighed, "I'll have to call and see if he's coming home or not…" Chichi nodded and went to get a phone, when she handed it to Goku he hesitated, "Could you dial the number? I…Don't remember it…" so she dialed the phone and handed to him, standing near the bed to listen for the outcome.

The phone rang around CC and Trunks jumped through the house to answer it after the third ring, "Hello, this is Trunks?"

"Hey Trunks,"

"Goku? Hey! Great to hear from you, you've got quite the father," he said happily.

"Indeed I do Trunks, how've you been?"

"Well enough, how are you comin on the sleep troubles?"

"Pretty good," Goku got a nudge from Chichi, "Hey Trunks, I need to talk to your dad…Or mine whichever, I need to know if he's planning on spendin the night here, or there."

"Well, hang on, I'll get my dad." Trunks walked into the living room and told his father to pick up the phone, which he did.

"Yes?" he moved the reciever away from his mouth for a moment, "Hang up the phone, Trunks!"

"Hey Vegeta, I just need to know if I'm supposed to be leaving the door open for my dad."

"Why are you asking me?"

"Um…cause Trunks gave you the phone…?"

Vegeta sighed, "Well why don't you ask him," he handed the phone over.

"Dad, are you stayin there, or do we need to leave the door open?" he said, now a bit irritated.

His father heard his tone of voice, checked the clock, and replied, "I'll be home within the hour, that okay?"

"Sure, talk to you later then."

"Bye," Bardock said as he clicked the phone off, "He sounds a bit upset…Do you think you're a little hard on him, Vegeta?"

"I'm not hard on the baka, if anything, he asks for it. Leaving so soon?" the prince said, trying to change the subject.

"Not quite yet, but they'll want to be lockin the house up soon, so I shouldn't be too long." Bardock relaxed for a moment, while silence took its turn. "Vegeta…I don't suppose you'd ever consider…"

"No, Bardock, don't even go there." Vegeta said, rolling his eyes. The older saiyan stared at the prince, looking him in the eye, before Vegeta realized what he was trying to do, "Don't even GO there!" he said louder this time, along with breaking eye contact.

Bardock snickered, "Alright, alright…I'll leave it be…I just wish there was something I could do to help him out, you know?"

"I guess…I've done as much as I'm willing to do."

"Can you at least explain, maybe, what he's been doing then? I'm not sure I understand the entire situation."

"It began with this problem of sleep, he wasn't sleeping well at all, and I found this out the hard way when he came to train with me one day and was unable to actually do much. So I told him to go home and sleep, and later at night felt he was still awake, so I went to check on him. Ended up being the source of comfort for the baka…he didn't actually tell me until a night or so later…I don't remember the details…"

Bardock nodded.

Goku lay restless in bed, his wife had come to bed a while ago and he was waiting to hear from his father in any way, shape, or form, but his energy stayed stationary, and he grew impatient. 'When is he coming home?! It's already been over an hour!' he turned over to look at the clock. 'I stand corrected, it's almost been two hours now…' He decided he'd waited long enough, getting out of bed, the saiyan slipped on some pants and shoe-like slippers. Walking quietly out of his room, he made his way through the house and was about to lock the door when he thought about it. Instead, he lifted off the ground and headed towards his favorite lake nearby. He made sure he had a key, and locked the door behind him too, if his father came home, he'd have to find his son to get in.

After another hour of conversation, Bardock took a peek at the clock and realized he had overstayed what he had said, "I should get going, I might be locked out!"

"Kakarott wouldn't do that to his own father, besides, he's still awake. Anyway, I guess I'll be catching up with you tomorrow then?"

Bardock nodded, "Most likely, nice to meet you Trunks," he said as the teen walked from the hall into the kitchen for a snack, Trunks waved in return.

He left quickly and went towards his son's mountain home. 'What in the world can I do for those two? It's going to be near impossible to get the prince to, not necessarily understand, but to get them near each other will be the biggest challenge.' He stopped as he flew over a sparkling lake, some movement had caught his eye, looking down he saw a familiar figure lying sprawled out on the ground. His son gave a small wave to let him know it was actually him, Bardock took the bait and spiraled to the ground.

"Kakarott? What're you doin out here?" he asked as he neared the young saiyan, sitting down in the grass by him.

"Can't sleep, plus had to wait for you to get home, I thought I'd just come out here…What took you so long? You said within the hour." He sounded a bit peeved.

"Sorry, we just got a bit caught up in it all I guess…"

Goku sighed, "Well here's the key," he pulled a small keyring from his pocket with the dull bronze key jingling along. "You can get in the house and I'll just use instant transmission to get in there later on, go get some rest, I've a feeling tomorrow's going to be long."

"I'm not going til you tell me what's wrong, You're acting a bit strange, bein out here, plus I know you're angry about me staying late over at, capsule corp. was it?"

Goku nodded, "Yea, but that's just the beginning of it…"

**

Alright, hope it was okay, and if you didn't catch my note from a little bit ago, I had found a problem with chapter one, and it's now fixed, you might want to check because I really don't know if it had been that screwed up before. I'll update as soon as I can!