Chapter Twelve: Goku gets his act together

Goku read the card at least four or five times. Here was his chance! Now he could fix things with Vegeta, and maybe they could even take things to the next level! Goku hugged himself excitedly, totally ecstatic at the prospect of seeing his bestest best friend again. But, before he left, there were a few things he needed to do.

"Hello, Gohan speaking."

"Gohan, it's me, dad!"

Gohan frowned.

"Look, dad, I've told you before, don't call me unless you've sorted out your priorities!"

"But I have! Just hear me out, please, Gohan! I'm gonna fix things!"

Gohan leaned against the wall, and saw Piccolo coming towards him. Gohan rolled his eyes, and slid down the wall, inspecting his nails.

"You've got twenty seconds. Explain." Goku took a deep breath.

"Vegeta sent me a letter, well, he dropped it off, and I'm gonna go meet him and say sorry and also because I broke up with Claudia this morning and I'm so glad that I did because I don't want to lie to myself anymore and I know that I've been an idiot and I wanna say sorry to Vegeta, and to you and Goten and the whole gang because I owe you a proper apology and I think my twenty seconds are up PLEASE DON'T HANG UP ON ME!" yelled Goku in one very long breath.

Gohan raised his eyebrows at Piccolo, who nodded.

"Okay, dad, you've got your chance. Roshi is planning to have a party with all of us on his island at four this afternoon. Meet us there, and I want you to apologize to all of us. Understood?"

Goku nodded vigorously.

"Yes, of course! Thank you so much, Gohan! I promise I'll make it up to you guys!"

"You should be thanking my mate. I was planning to hang up on you. "

"Tell Piccolo I say thanks!"

"Don't worry, he can hear you. See you this afternoon, then."

"I won't let you down Gohan. I'm so sorry for being such a stupid idiot. I've been a really bad father."

Gohan's face softened, as he played with the phone cord.

"It's okay dad. Really, it's okay."

Goku arrived at Roshi's island that afternoon, bearing lots of food and gifts. Before they had their meal, Goku said his apology. They all stood in front of him, arms folded, as he began.

"I know that I haven't seen you guys for the last eight months or so, since I met Claudia. I was a totally dumb jerk, because I thought that she could replace all of you in my affections. But she couldn't. Maybe I was happy for the first two months, but after Vegeta left, I started sliding into depression. I just didn't want to live anymore. But I was too much of a coward to leave her. She was like Chichi in that way. I spent the last six months saying "yes, dear," or "no, dear" and being pulled along to parties. I gave up my family, my friends and my best friend for some woman that could never accept me as I am. "

Goku breathed out.

"I'm really sorry, everybody. What I did was so wrong. I think that I hurt Vegeta more than anyone else here. I'm going tonight to meet him, and I'm going to beg him for forgiveness, and if I don't get it, I deserve it. I don't really deserve anyone's forgiveness, but I just wanted to let you all know how sorry I am. I want to fix everything. I want to be my sons' father; I want to be everyone's friend. I want to be Kakarot again, and I'll admit it to all of you now, that I love Vegeta. I had the chance to be with him, but I threw it away. I hurt him, and I hurt all of you. I wish that I'd realized it sooner, but I was too blind to what should have been obvious.

I'm so sorry, guys."

Goku looked at all of them, shoulders slumped and hands clasped behind him, as he rubbed the back of his calf with his foot. There was silence, until Goten stepped forward.

"I forgive you, dad. Welcome back, I'm glad that you've admitted you were wrong. Now, go get Vegeta, and bring him back. We miss him, and you're the only one that can bring him home."

Goten smiled and hugged his father, and Goku started crying, he felt so happy.

Everything was going to work out after all.

After being welcomed back into the group, Goku felt a lot better. He organized a home for his puppy, while he was gone (Trunks offered to look after it) and waved goodbye to all of them, and soon, he was ready to go. He gathered together a few things, just the basics, and stood on his lawn. He then realized, that in order to produce a ki spike that Vegeta would be able to pick up all the way in space, he would have to transform into super saiyan three. He might even destroy his house. He teleported to a distant desert, then started charging up. He took a deep breath, and burst into super saiyan three. He braced himself, then started pushing up his energy. He grimaced as his aura grew even bigger and started swirling faster. He screamed, and his energy reached his peak. He held it for a minute, then dropped out of it. He brought his head down, smiling. This reminded him of that time when they were summoning Kid Buu to the planet of the Kai's for battle. Goku reverted to his normal form, and waited for a replying spike. After three or four minutes, Vegeta's signal came thundering towards him. Goku looked up at the sky, towards where he felt Vegeta, the sun nearly blinding him. he grinned widely.

"HANG ON VEGETA! I'M ON MY WAY!"

Vegeta was in the entrance hall of his massive ship, his tail wagging excitedly as he paced up and down the carpet. He'd been napping when the ship had detected Goku's signal. The computer had woken him up, and he had sent back a signal as soon as he could, transforming into a super saiyan four to do it. Then he waited in the hall, having quickly thrown on some jeans and a shirt, since he was in his sweaty training outfit. He'd never felt so excited before to see anyone. His stomach felt like there were birds flying around in it, and his pace quickened. He was biting his nails, his tail starting to whip around, instead of wag. He felt nervous, although he wasn't quite sure why.

Where is he…?

There was a buzzing sound behind him, and Vegeta stopped. He turned around, and he could have burst into tears of joy right there and then. In front of him was the person that he hadn't stopped thinking about for the last six months, who he'd loved for ten years and couldn't live without. Orange-clad Kakarot stood there on the carpet, smiling broadly as he dropped the back pack off him. And just in time too, as Vegeta sprinted towards him and threw his arms around his neck, laughing through his tears as he hugged Goku as tightly as he could. Goku just laughed and bear-hugged Vegeta back.

"You're back, baka!" cried Vegeta into Goku's gi, not caring any more that his pride was tapping him on the shoulder and telling him to stop doing that leaking thing.

Goku just held him even tighter.

"I couldn't be without you anymore, Geta, it was killing me, and I was stupid to believe that Claudia was better than you."

Vegeta looked up at him, while suspended a few inches above the floor by Goku's grip.

"I'm glad that you've finally realized how unbelievably thick you've been."

Goku put Vegeta down and took his hands in his.

"Vegeta, I'm so sorry. I know it sounds so lame, compared to all I've done to you. You gave me your heart, and I broke it, you gave me your trust, and I shattered it. I took our friendship and nearly destroyed it. I don't even deserve your forgiveness, I know I don't. But I want to try again, and I want to be with you forever. I've been a prize bastard, and I want you to know that you mean everything to me, and I realized it far too late. I lost you to my selfishness. I don't know how I can make it right again. But will you give me a chance? Please?"

Vegeta held Goku's hands against his chest, and smiled.

"Hey, don't be that hard on yourself. I should have just told you how I felt years ago, and we could have avoided this. Mind you, I did get a new level of super saiyan out of it, so I guess it wasn't that bad. Actually, I lie. It was horrible. I could go on for days about how much you'd hurt me, and what a foolish third class you've been, but I won't. I guess love is about being able to forgive. Maybe I won't forget, but I can forgive. I say that we try again, and this time, it'll be just you, and me." Vegeta paused, as though to think, and his smile grew even wider, as he flung his arms around Goku again.

"I'm so happy now that you're here with me, Kakarot. Don't you ever leave me again!"

"I'll be here forever Geta. I promise."

An – and so, our two saiyans have been reunited, and they are gonna be just fine. The end is nigh, dear readers, but hoo boy, have I got a story coming out. Second Sacrifice alone is quite meaty, and I've also got a Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo triangle coming, (quite humorous) and my long promised Vegeta and Piccolo one. I'll try put them onto hard disk, they're currently on paper. I'm sad to say, but my updating will become a lot less frequent, but I can only try. If you want frequent updates, from now on, then expect shoddy work. (actually, my work is horrendous, just expect it to be worse than usual.)

I'll leave all my thank you's for the end, since there are only (drum roll, if you please) two chappies left, not including credits and review thanks.  And before I go…if I think that Vegeta can forgive Goku, then so be it! If you love some one, you learn to forgive!!!! I also didn't want to drag this story out because Vegeta wants to test Goku or something. He misses him, he loves him and he knows that Goku is a silly baka that doesn't know how to balance his life, so he's willing to forgive. That makes him bigger than Goku. But Goku is very sorry. Do you have any idea how hard it is to apologize? It's not something I do often. So the next reviwer that thinks that it ends too abruptly, then write your own! But other than that, I have had some magnificent reviews that make up for the not so magnificent ones.

Rant over. This is Zogeta, signing off for Insanity Fanfiction! Off to update other stories…