Piccolo did not 'miss people.' Missing people was an unnecessary human affectation that he had no use for, he had lived his early years in complete solitude and his idea of a perfect day was meditating in complete silence. No Piccolo did not 'miss people'; he thought firmly to himself as he flew down from the Lookout, he was beyond such feelings.

Besides if he was going to miss anyone it would have been Gohan, but Gohan, despite deciding to ease off his training after the Cell Games had always made time for Piccolo, visiting him at the Lookout or by his waterfall, or in the desert. Even now, one month after they had defeated Buu, Gohan came to see him.

'To be fair' Piccolo thought 'these days he spends most of the visits talking about that short haired female'

Piccolo smiled to himself, Gohan deserved to be happy, and for whatever reason Gohan seemed happy with the girl. In Piccolo's opinion she resembled his mother too much, loud, opinionated and bossy. Piccolo reasoned it was some defective family trait that Gohan and Son shared that led them to enjoy being pushed around.

No, Gohan was all the company Piccolo needed, he thought as he grew closer to his destination. Other friendships while, pleasant, were unnecessary.

Well, maybe he had also missed Son after his death, not much though, only a little, barely at all. It was only natural that he had noticed Son's absence after his death. He had been living with the idiot for three years prior to the Cell Games and had spent most days with him training. After he had died it would be impossible not to notice his absence, of course Piccolo had noticed his absence, in the same way that you would notice a loud noise that constantly followed you around being suddenly shut off. Maybe it was a bit lonely losing Son, Piccolo allowed himself to admit, since Son had been one of two few people who had looked at him without suspicion or fear, who had believed that he was better than he thought he was. Piccolo reasoned that believing the best in former megalomaniac villains was another defective family trait shared between Gohan, Son and most recently Goten.

But Son had come back to life recently and had resumed interrupting Piccolo's life. In the last month since Son had been resurrected he had seamlessly managed to upset Piccolo's routine as if he had not been dead for over seven years, coming to ask him to spar, or to go fishing, or to join his family for dinner.

The Son family were expectations however, Piccolo thought firmly, there was no one else on this planet he was capable of missing,

So why in hell am I here? Piccolo thought to himself as he landed outside of Capsule Corp.

Sure Dende has needed to return some scientific thing to Bulma and Piccolo had volunteered to do it. Piccolo's offer had surprised Dende since the last time he had asked Piccolo to deliver something for him the response had been something along the lines of:

"I am not a fucking delivery service, get Popo to do it"

To be fair, Piccolo reasoned, he had only agreed since Dende and Popo had been busy trying to put the world back in order after the whole Buu incident. He had certainly not agreed since he was likely to run into Vegeta at Capsule Corp. No that thought had not even crossed his mind, not even once.

Sure, Piccolo had not seen or spoken to Vegeta in over a month, not since everyone had been reunited on the lookout after being wished back after Son had killed Kid Buu. Which, had been the longest Piccolo had gone without seeing Vegeta in the last seven years. Though Piccolo had barely noticed, the absence of their bi-weekly sparring sessions had been annoying, but Piccolo missed the sparring, he certainly did not miss Vegeta. Piccolo sighed. And prepared to knock on the door, he wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. Before he could knock the door opened automatically with a soft whoosh to reveal a startled looking Bulma.

"Piccolo?" she started looking confused.

"Yes" Piccolo said, hoping his usual neutral expression would hide his momentary shock of the door opening so suddenly "Dende asked me to deliver this….thing to you" he finished holding out a medium sized metal box.

"Oh yeah, I forgot I even lent that to him, thanks Piccolo" Bulma said brightly taking the box, then immediately bowing under the weight of the thing " Oh crap, I also forgot how heavy the damn thing is, you want to help me take it back into the lab?" Piccolo grunted noncommittally but took the box from Bulma easily holding it under one arm.

"Thanks follow me" she said turning into the complex weaving down long corridors past an inane amount of doors and hallways.

Piccolo followed, he was not especially happy to be indoors. Human dwellings always made him feel awkward and oversized. Even though he had magicked away his shoulder armor before entering the house he was still seven feet tall and quite broad. The few times he had been forced to come to Capsule Corp for picnics by Gohan he had very consciously stayed outdoors. As they walked Bulma explained the device and its many uses to Piccolo who heard most of the explanation and absorbed none of the information. Eventually Bulma led him into a large concrete area filled with tools and workbenches Piccolo could only assume was the lab.

"Thanks again Piccolo, just put it down anywhere there's room"

Piccolo scanned the room which was in a state of complete disarray with tools and machine bits littering almost every surface, eventually deciding to put the box down next to a workbench in the far corner. As Piccolo turned to leave Vegeta nonchalantly walked into the room, Piccolo cursed himself wondering how he had not noticed Vegeta's chi, though to be fair both of them had masked their power levels. Piccolo thought he did an admirable job of keeping his expression neutral expression despite an odd momentary impulse to smile at Vegeta.

"Namek" there was no smile but a slight nod acknowledging Piccolo's presence.

"Vegeta" Piccolo said with a similar nod in Vegeta's direction.

"Oh Vegeta," Bulma said walking next to Vegeta and giving him an affectionate squeeze on the arm, "Piccolo was just here dropping off something for Dende, anyway I am going to get dinner started, we need to eat early since I'm taking Trunks and Goten to the amusement park tonight." Bulma smiled at them both before leaving the room and hummed as she walked down the hall.

"So the other Namek has you playing post-boy? I'm amazed you agreed" Vegeta said raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms.

Piccolo glared at him, the tips of his ears and his cheeks flushing purple. Piccolo took a breath forcing himself to calm down. Vegeta could not possibly know about that stupid shirt, Piccolo reasoned to himself, he wasn't even on the planet when the whole idiotic driver's license debacle had taken place. Just in case Piccolo reminded himself to burn that shirt for good measure the next time he was at the Son residence.

Vegeta stared at Piccolo, knowing he had hit a nerve, Piccolo was not normally so expressive, but not knowing what had set him off. He decided he would ask the woman about this later.

Piccolo regained his composure quickly. "Well, I have a lot to do back at the Lookout, I'll be on my way" he said turning back to walk toward the entrance.

"Hmm" Vegeta replied arms still crossed.

Piccolo could tell Vegeta was thinking about something, part of him wanted to ask, but he stopped himself knowing Vegeta would not appreciate his prying.

"Namek," Vegeta said quietly as Piccolo was entering the hallway knowing Piccolo's hearing would pick up the noise, "I will see you on Tuesday to spar."

Piccolo turned and nodded, then continued down the hall and out of the building. As he took to the air to fly back toward the Lookout he was surprised to find that he was smiling to himself.

Vegeta located the Namek's chi and flew toward it as the sun rose. He knew the Namek had already found a suitable training ground for their spar that day. For as long as they had been having their bi-weekly spars Piccolo had chosen the training grounds. The only exceptions had been when Vegeta had explicitly invited him to train in the Gravity Chamber though Namek had always seemed off during those fights, although he had never complained or said anything Vegeta had figured out that noise of the machinery was too loud for sensitive hearing. After that Vegeta had never brought up the gravity room again. Not to be kind to the Namek, he just couldn't stand not having his opponent at full strength. As Vegeta flew over the grasslands toward the chi signature he wondered, not for the first time, if the Namek had some sort of encyclopedic knowledge of all the abandoned wastelands on this planet.

He eventually located him in the middle of a large grassland area devoid of trees. As Vegeta dropped out of the sky to the ground he was not surprised to see the Namek meditating, eyes closed and floating a good two feet above the ground. Though the Namek did not acknowledge his arrival, Vegeta knew he was aware of his presence. In the beginning Vegeta had been annoyed at being ignored, no one ignored the Prince of all Saiyans, and had tried all manner of things to snap Piccolo out of his meditations. The only time he had succeeded he had whistled loudly directly into the Namek's ear. The result had been hilarious; Piccolo had fallen out of his meditation, literally, and glared daggers at Vegeta. He smiled at the memory, he was half tempted to try it again, though he remembered seeing the blood pouring out of Piccolo's ears after the incident and decided against it. Hurting the Namek in a spar was one thing rupturing his eardrums for his own amusement was another.

Vegeta had long ago got over being initially ignored by the Namek, apparently coming out a deep meditation took time, or so the Namek said, and Vegeta was in no particular rush to start today, though he had not been consciously avoiding the Namek, he was apprehensive. He sat down heavily next to the meditating figure and lay on his back watching the sun finish rising and waiting for the Namek to rejoin the world.

Piccolo felt Vegeta's chi arriving and began to end his meditation. He was never sure how patient Vegeta would be with him and his need to slowly end a deep meditation. He could sense Vegeta sitting next to him as he slowly lowered himself out of his meditative position, he could also feel waves of agitation coming from Vegeta's chi. As Piccolo opened his eyes, adjusting them to the sunlight he saw Vegeta laying seemingly contentedly looking up at the sky, he knew better than to let the posture fool him, something was bothering Vegeta.

Though Piccolo and Vegeta didn't talk often over the last few years, there had been times where they had, guardedly, spoken about themselves. It was sporadic and was usually brought on by some outside event, but it did happen. Piccolo was sensing that this was one of those times. He would be the first person to admit he wasn't particularly adept at analyzing social cues, analyzing cues in battle was easy, but social situations remained foreign to him. He did however know Vegeta and his body language fairly well. Piccolo supposed that it had to do with the amount of time they had spent together; you don't see someone more than once a week for seven years and remain complete strangers.

"Nice of you to wake up, Namek."

"Nice of you to show up, Vegeta."

Vegeta raised an eyebrow "If I didn't know any better I'd say you missed me."

" Good thing you know better," Piccolo shot back " besides if that shit with Buu taught us anything it's that we need to keep training."

Vegeta paused and looked to the sky, "Yeah about that, alright Namek, I know it's coming just get it out of your system now and we can get this over with."

Piccolo stared at Vegeta genuinely confused "What the hell are you talking about?"

Vegeta looked at him angrily "You have nothing you want to say regarding Buu? Nothing that you want to lecture me about?"

Piccolo shook his head slowly; maybe he had been wrong about being able to read Vegeta. He had no idea what he was on about.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?" Vegeta roared standing up and beginning to pace back and forth. "I basically let myself get brainwashed by an evil wizard to settle a stupid grudge which resulted in me killing hundreds of innocent people and allowing Majin Buu to be resurrected. I almost kill Kakarot, and then go fight a battle on my own and get myself killed. After all of this, NO ONE MENTIONS ANYTHING! I come back to life and you people act like nothing happened. I mean even Bulma didn't say anything, Bulma! The woman yelled at me for an HOUR once for not folding towels properly. Yet she fails to mention anything relating to this. How is all of this so easily forgiven?"

Piccolo stared for a moment, wondering what to say, or if he should say anything at all. Sometimes it was easier to let Vegeta rant to himself for a while.

"Well Namek? I asked you a question!" Vegeta stood next to him arms crossed.

"To be fair you were under the spell of an evil wizard, so there is that." Piccolo replied shrugging.

"Really that's ALL you have to say? I brought that on myself Namek, I could have tried harder to fight him off, I was too focused on trying to kill Kakarot at the tournament to even try." Vegeta scoffed.

"Well…." Piccolo started slowly, "… there is a pretty long precedent of people trying to kill Son at the World Martial Arts Tournament. I mean, when I did it, I blew up the entire stadium, and blasted a hole through Son's chest. No one really mentions that anymore." Piccolo smirked at the memory, he wasn't proud of that time in his life, though it was interesting to remember a time where he and Son were evenly matched in combat "Honestly if I had been in the ship I can't be sure he would not have been able to control my mind. We're warriors Vegeta, we don't let go of defeat easily."

Vegeta shook his head "Even without Bobadi's influence I still would have put my grudge against Kakarot and my pride ahead of the well-being of the universe."

Piccolo snorted "This isn't exactly the first time you've done that, that stunt you pulled letting Cell absorb Android 18 comes to mind. You want me to lecture you for being prideful and selfish? They're basically your core personality traits. You've never beat yourself up over it before? Why start now?"

Vegeta glared, but didn't argue. The Namek had a point. Had everyone just come to expect him acting selfishly and somehow tolerated him in spite of it? Why had he always taken this for granted previously?

Piccolo continued ignoring Vegeta's glare, "the point is, even after all that you sacrificed yourself to try and take down Buu, then came back and helped Son save the earth. That matters more, the good ends outweighing the bad. The Dragonballs can fix the collateral; you helped make sure there was a universe left to save."

"I suppose, you know you people and your capacity to forgive is insane." Vegeta sighed, sitting down again

"As someone who also benefits from being forgiven of past crimes I really can't complain" Piccolo finished shrugging.

They sat together in silence for a moment or two longer, Piccolo not entirely sure what to say and Vegeta not entirely sure how to continue.

Vegeta wasn't sure if he had ever apologized to the Namek, Hell he wasn't entirely sure he had ever apologized to anyone that wasn't Trunks or Bulma and even that was a recent phenomenon. Though he wouldn't admit it, what the Namek had just said had eased his mind significantly. He had come expecting a lecture; Piccolo had never been shy about letting Vegeta know he had fucked up in the past. He had been avoiding him because he did not know how to address the other thing that happened during the fight. Vegeta took a breath, it was perhaps easier just to say it and see what happened.

"I'm sorry."

"What?" Piccolo rarely doubted his hearing, but he could not have heard that right. Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans did not apologize.

"Don't make me repeat myself Namek!" Vegeta shouted turning red.

"Okay, about what?" Piccolo was genuinely confused, was he apologizing for avoiding him? Of all the things Vegeta had done that warranted apology why was this the time he said it?

Vegeta rolled his eyes. All this time dreading apologizing and the idiot Namekian didn't even understand. "About Gohan."

Immediately Vegeta got a reaction, though not the reaction he had been expecting. Instead of yelling at him and blaming him for letting Gohan get injured the Namek had turned a shade lighter stared intently staring at the ground. After what felt like an eternity the Namek finally spoke.

"You have nothing to apologize for," Piccolo said quietly, slowly, "it was my fault Gohan got hurt. If I hadn't been so weak and unprepared, if I hadn't let Dabura surprise me…. I could have been there….he wouldn't have been hurt."

Vegeta shook his head though he doubted the Namek had noticed. Piccolo was still staring; Vegeta noticed his fists were clenched so tightly his palms were beginning to bleed. "No, Namek that's insane, how the hell were you supposed to know being spit on would turn you into stone? It was me being an idiot and insisting on fighting Kakarot that caused Gohan to go up alone against Buu. You had nothing to do with it." Vegeta expected the Namek to agree with him, to blame him, to yell at him. To do something, but Piccolo didn't move.

"It's my job to protect Gohan, and I failed. No one else is to blame." Piccolo said, his deep voice resonating, fists still clenched. Vegeta had been expecting a bad reaction from the Namek. It was part of the reason he had avoided him this past month. He had been reluctant to mention the situation at all, he had assumed the Namek would lash out at him, but this reaction, this self-hatred was far worse.

"Look…. Namek, if you can forgive me for basically dooming the Universe, again, because of my pride, you should be able to forgive yourself for this. Gohan is strong; if he gets hurt it can't always be your fault." Vegeta ran his fingers through his stiff hair wondering if he got through to the Namek at all, Piccolo was much better at giving advice.

Vegeta watched as the Namek sighed deeply and released some of the tension in his fists.

"Maybe you're right, Vegeta. Maybe….." Piccolo trailed off.

"Of course I'm right Namek, I, Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans, am incapable of being wrong." Vegeta wore his most arrogant expression and glanced sideways at Piccolo raising an eyebrow.

Piccolo rolled his eyes but couldn't stop the corner of his mouth from tugging upwards, "Of course, clearly I am mistaken." he said.

"You know Namek, for the longest time I thought you were a complete idiot for throwing yourself in front of Nappa's blast to save Kakarot's brat, absolutely insane." Vegeta thought back to that moment, Piccolo clearly knew he couldn't survive the blast but he died for some child, one that clearly was not his progeny. Vegeta whose entire life had been geared toward surviving battles had been baffled; he had rarely seen a warrior as powerful as the Namek act so selflessly.

Piccolo laughed lowly to himself, "Yes I remember you saying something to that effect previously, I also remember you saying you would never do something so stupid."

Vegeta rolled his eyes, "I suppose my perspective was a bit different back then."

"I know that feeling; I remember thinking Son was an idiot for sacrificing himself to kill Raditz, though to be fair to you, for a split second before Nappa's blast hit me I thought I was an idiot too. But seeing Gohan survive that battle made it worth it, even if I had never come back to life and ended up in hell it would have been worth it." Piccolo closed his eyes and sighed.

"I feel very much the same, though things turned out alright this time" Vegeta looked at Piccolo who seemed more relaxed. Vegeta was surprised how relieved he felt, as much as he was loathe to admit it, the idea that Piccolo had been angry at him had been, annoying. He didn't have many people on the planet he could stand to be around. Losing one of them would have been, inconvenient.

"You got off easy, after that whole speech we had about being reincarnated and having to go to hell, you managed to come back to life, hell you probably spent the least amount of time in the afterlife out of any of us." Piccolo punched Vegeta affably on the arm.

"Get the hell off me Namek," Vegeta said swatting Piccolo away half-seriously. They sat again in silence. Though this time the silence was more amicable.

"Also, while I am here I suppose I should thank you."

Piccolo snorted "First you apologize and now you're thanking me, I am shocked that the Prince of all Saiyans can do either of those things."

"Shut the hell up Namek, don't make me regret trying to be nice to you." Vegeta snapped turning red. "I only intended to thank you for taking care of my son in my absence,"

Piccolo snorted "Oh that? I don't deserve thanks; I deserve some kind of medal. I thought training Gohan was bad, your kid is strong I'll give him that, but the lack of discipline is going to get in the way of any real skill."

Vegeta's first reaction was to hit Piccolo for insinuating his child was anything less than perfect, except he knew he was right. His son was a brat sometimes and even he had trouble training him. He didn't want to imagine what it was like for Piccolo to try and train both of the brats at once.

"You know you're right Namek, unfortunately I am hopeless at training children, but you…."

"I don't know if I like where this conversation is heading…" Piccolo said eyes narrowed

"You trained Kakarot's brat, are you saying my son isn't good enough to be trained by you? Admit you'd be a much better teacher for him then I would be." Vegeta shot back.

"Well obviously I would be a better teacher but…" Piccolo started.

"Perfect I knew you'd agree" Vegeta said quickly cutting him off. "When can you start?"

Piccolo made a noise halfway between a sigh and a grunt and began to massage his temples. "Fine, fine I'll train him, just promise me I will never have to train him and Goten at the same time ever again."

"I promise" Vegeta smiled

"And promise me you and your wife won't get in my way, I train Trunks any way I see fit." Piccolo stared pointedly at Vegeta who continued to smile.

"You have my word Namek." Vegeta held out his hand and he and Piccolo shook on the terms of their agreement.

Neither of them noticed a faint shimmer in the air behind them.

"What are you guys doing?" Goku asked, instantly appearing behind Piccolo and Vegeta. Piccolo only sighed, having gotten used to Sons' instant transmission while training for the androids. Vegeta however screamed and jumped straight into the air landing in a battle stance.

"KAKAROT, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING" he shouted staring bug eyed at Goku "Are you THAT ready to go back to the Otherworld? Because if you pull that shit again I will kill you!"

Piccolo stifled a laugh; Goku only looked confused at the outburst.

"Well I felt the two of you together and I thought 'Oh great they're going to spar I should join,' but then your chi's stayed low so I wondered what you were up to sitting quietly talking together for so long, then I figured I should leave you guys alone to talk, BUT THEN I thought maybe you were planning my birthday party, so I came to tell you my birthday isn't for at least four months so you really shouldn't plan this far in advance, we should just spar instead." Goku smiled looking at both of them expectantly. "Well?"

"Wha- " Piccolo began, then stopped. He had almost forgotten how inane Son could be at times. Yes there were moments when he swore the man was brilliant, the brief intuitive flashes that Son had in battle or in conversation that made him think he had a brain. Then, then there were these moments, where he wondered if there was anything going on in his head at all.

Vegeta only looked at him, eyes wide, and mouth agape. "Kakarot, why the fuck would we be planning your birthday party?"

Goku managed to look completely surprised and completely hurt at the same time. "Well you aren't sparring? Why else would my two best friends be sitting here talking to each other?"

"Two-" Piccolo started,

"Best friends?!" Vegeta finished,

"Well yeah, you guys are my two best friends!" Goku smiled.

Piccolo rolled his eyes; Vegeta's reaction was significantly more dramatic. "We. Are. Not. Best. Friends" he said slowly through clenched teeth."

"Well if I'm not your best friend who is?" Goku said seriously, arms crossed.

"God, I don't know probably Piccolo, honestly anyone but you Kakarot" Vegeta screamed, a moment later he realized what he had said and turned white. He turned slowly and glared at Piccolo, who looked equally shocked and raised his hands in mock defense.

"Ooooh" Goku smiled "that makes sense, no wonder you were talking for so long!"

"Kakarot, I was merely…..merely being sarcastic! I refuse to take part in this idiotic conversation any longer." Vegeta glowered at Goku who returned the stare equally as seriously. Piccolo was not entirely sure who threw the first punch but before he could blink both Son and Vegeta had turned Super Saiyan and had launched into the air. As they traded blows above him Piccolo sighed and slowly removed his weighted training clothes.

"I'm not entirely sure how or where, I went wrong. I went from trying to kill the both of them to being called their best friends." Piccolo thought to himself shaking his head "I will never let Vegeta live this down."

Piccolo powered up and looked for an opening to attack Son or Vegeta who were grappling mid-air. Smiling as they traded blows. Piccolo felt oddly excited at the prospect of sparring with the both of them again. And for a moment he allowed himself to admit that he had missed seeing Vegeta, if only a little.

A/N.

Well this took longer to write then I originally intended. Sorry about that. It's also a lot longer than I had imagined it would be.

So anyway here is the last chapter of the original trilogy I had envisioned this thing being. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I wanted this last bit to be more comedic in tone and to mirror the first chapter, bring us all around full circle. I wrote this chapter with the firm belief that Piccolo and Vegeta were close friends, but also uncomfortable admitting that they were close friends.

Thank you to all the faves and follows and reviews. Especially the reviews. I hope this meets your expectations.

I have one more chapter with some short stories already written so that should be up next week after I edit them. That being said I am not against adding more to this if anyone has a suggestion or a scenario they are dying to see me write. I had a lot of fun with Piccolo and Vegeta in these

Thank you all,

V