"Mama?"

"Hmmm?"

Quiet filtered through the air. Recognizing this tactic, Bulma glanced down from her mechanical blueprints to the mop of lavender hair below her. "Nani, Trunks-chan?"

Wondrous blue eyes swelled up at her, and she was sure she could see her reflection in them. "Where's dad gone to?"

This query was not an uncommon one. It was almost typical for Trunks to wander into her labs and tug on her pant leg, wondering where his elusive and reclusive father had spirited off to. And, despite her massive intellect and the frequency of the Saiyajin no Ouji's disappearing acts, Bulma had yet to riddle out a factual answer for her child. But she had developed a safe, satisfactory response over time. "Your dad's just gone off for some alone time," her lips laced into a tight smile as she twisted back to her paper strewn desk. "He'll come back soon, Trunks-chan," she added reflexively.

"But he's always alone," Trunks piped, startling Bulma. The young boy's face was a mask of imperceptible rejection and confusion. He concealed it well (she was sure he had his father's genes to thank for that) albeit barely so to her motherly attention. Her heartstrings plucked painfully at the slight frown that pulled his chubby cheeks downward, at the firmness of his set jaw. "Why doesn't he ever invite us along?"

"Well, I—" Bulma stuttered over an explanation, her mind grasping valiantly for something proper to say. "It's just … that's just your dad, Trunks-chan. You know that."

"But why?"

She bit her lip. Usually, Bulma could trick up something agreeable to her son. But even she suffered complications in getting her brain all the way around this issue. Like when she caught herself thinking of it, tangled up alone in her blankets, as the night beat down her windows, and she'd think of him on mountains and--

"He's not gonna be like Goten-kun's dad, is he?"

Yellow acid raced up her throat and Bulma turned sharply away from her child. "Trunks-chan! You don't say things like that!" She gasped, suddenly breathless, and she pressed a hand over her chest. When she settled a tentative glare upon Trunks, he seemed unsettled by that aching reprimand. "That's mean to Goten-chan," Bulma chided him, as bullets of salt water threatened the coasts of her lashlines.

Trunks harrumphed like his father and folded his arms defiantly against his mother's gentle berating. "I was only sayin'," he grumbled. "I don't want my dad to go away like that."

A wisp of a smile feathered over Bulma's lips, and her hand extended to lie lovingly atop her child's lilac tresses. "He's not going to, sweetie," she reassured him in a way that surprised her. Her ears burnt under the words. "Between all your questions and all of mommy's nagging, sometimes dad just needs to go be somewhere quiet."

Trunks ducked out from under her hand, and he playfully swatted her red nails away. "Awe, I can be quiet, mama! You can, too!" He put his index finger to his lips and blew out air between his teeth. Shhhhh.

Inclined to laugh though she was, Bulma knew better. She opted for a silent smile instead and shook her head against his hopeful beaming. "I think even if we tried our best, your dad would still be able to hear us, Trunks-chan."

The boy slumped all over, defeat riddled in his features; he'd make it known if he wanted it to be known. An affectation of overdramatic emotions – which he most certainly inherited from her. "Boooooo," he jeered and immediately righted himself. Strong soldier one second, optimistic child the next. "But he's gonna come back soon, right?"

"Of course he will," Bulma laughed at his buoyancy, the back of her hand dismissing her son. He hurrahed loudly and skittered out of her lab, thumping flat-feet down the hall, his laugh reverberating around her.

Azure eyes cast down to the prints spread out across the tabletop, though the images seemed so briefly nonsensical. Bulma tapped her nails impatiently against the intricately dashed lines beneath her hands, trying to decipher the pattern.

Author's Note: One of my shorter chapters, I know. I felt this scene didn't need too much to it, I think it speaks quite well the way it is.

I always thought it was cool that Vegeta - who struggled very much with his affections for his family and his feelings towards Earth - never really left for prolonged periods of time, like Goku did. But I don't think he wouldn't have stayed there 24/7. Vegeta's got his limits, and seeing how conflicted he was around the Buu saga, I'm sure he took some time away from his family to battle with himself over it, but he'd eventually come back.

This will be kind of a three-part piece to my collection. I'll end up doing a Vegeta centric piece, then one on his coming back.

I imagine Trunks around age 5 here, so I'd place this at three years or so before the Great Saiyaman arc, a little over four years Post-Cell.