A/N: Hay guys :3 sorry for such a long wait for this chapter I've not been very well for the past month :'( BUT I'm allllll better now YAY ^.^ so here it is chapter 10, hope it's worth the wait :D
The large ship landed in the docking bay, kicking up dust and debris as it descended to the ground. Bardock; Kakarot and Vegeta all had to shield their eyes and wipe themselves down once the craft had fully touched down. Bardock looked over to the craft then back to his son standing next to him and couldn't help but smile. "Everything will be fine." He laughed as he saw the mix of annoyance and dread on Kakarot's face.
"You say that Dad but you know we don't get on well at all. I have no idea why you asked me to come along today anyway." Kakarot huffed as he glared daggers at the craft which he knew held his brother.
"I know son but he is still your brother; and I asked you to come today because I thought it would be nice for the whole family to be here to greet him as he hasn't returned in so long." Bardock smiled again as he slapped his youngest son on the back before turning his attention onto Vegeta who was just standing perfectly still; arms crossed over his chest with a blank but stern expression on his face. "This will be the first time you'll be meeting Raditz right?" Bardock asked as he smiled warmly at his secret son-in-law.
"Yes it will be. I've looked through his service record and read his reports but I've never met him face to face." Vegeta let his mind wonder as he thought about what Raditz would look like, Bardock and Kakarot looked extremely similar so Vegeta wondered if Raditz would follow suit or if he may have taken after his mother who Vegeta had only ever seen pictures of.
"Oh well this should be an experience for you." Bardock laughed but before Vegeta could ask him to explain himself a loud thud turned everyone's attention back to the ship as its loading ramp opened and hit the floor. A large group of well build, loud Sayians came stomping out of the craft laughing and joking about places they have been and battles they have won.
Bardock, Kakarot and Vegeta all went unnoticed as the hoard walked right by them and out of the hanger to meet up with friends and families they hadn't seen in years. The action annoyed Vegeta more then he showed, he somehow felt invisible to his own troops and disrespected by them for not noticing royalty standing no more than 50 meters away from them. "Well that was unacceptable!" Bardock huffed, voicing the annoyance Vegeta felt, "They will have an earful later. How dare they come back to the home world and not even acknowledge the fact the PRINCE himself was standing right here!" Bardock huffed and waved his arms in the air making his annoyance clear for all to see.
When the flow of Sayians had turned into a gentle trickle a tall; somewhat overly build Sayian with hair flowing down the majority of his back stepped out into view. He looked around the hanger for a while taking in the first view of his home world in years. "Raditz!" Bardock yelled as he waved his eldest son over. Vegeta noticed that the closer to the group Raditz got the smaller his smile became. "Father" Raditz voice took Vegeta by surprise it was deeper than Bardock's and he had the deepest voice Vegeta had heard come from any other Sayians mouth, "It had been a long time, I hope you are well." Raditz continued as he slapped his father's shoulder.
"It's good to have you back boy." Bardock beamed and she stepped aside so Kakarot could say hello. At first the pair was silent as they glared at each other and would occasionally huff and sigh but after what felt like an amazingly awkwardly long time Kakarot finally spoke up. "I'm glad to see you're still alive." Kakarot huffed as he folded his arms.
"It takes a lot more then war to kill me. I see you're living a cushy life now… as I thought you probably wouldn't last 5 minutes out on a REAL battel field." Raditz huffed disapprovingly.
"What the hell do you know? I'm the Lieutenant of the Royal Guard AND Prince Vegeta's personal body guard. If I was you I would check that attitude before you come speaking to me like that again brother because as it stands right now I. Out. Rank you." Kakarot basically hissed his last words making sure they stung his brother.
"Well then I would hate to see the state the Royal Guard is in now with you being one of its leaders." Raditz hissed back. "And yes you may out rank me little brother; but you will always be 10 steps behind me in everything you do, and when the Prince sees this for himself he will soon be swapping our job roles, you just wait and see."
At this point Vegeta had heard enough, he didn't much like the way Raditz was speaking to HIS Kakarot and didn't like his attitude at all. "With an attitude like that I wouldn't hire you as a royal cleaner let alone my personal body guard." Vegeta's voice made Raditz jump as Kakarot stepped aside. "Kakarot was handpicked by me BECAUSE of the strength and loyalty he had shown to ME personally… Why would I replace him with a self-centred know it all like you." Vegeta took a few steps forward and stared Raditz down.
"I'm sorry my lord I meant no disrespect to you personally." Raditz begged as he fell to his knee and placed his fist on the ground, which was a soldier's way of saluting a member of the royal family.
"All I have seen today hasn't given me much faith in the team you have under you, they are unaware of their surroundings and have a complete and utter disregard for when the Prince himself is standing not 50 meters away." Vegeta huffed seeing now as the perfect opportunity to vent his anger at being ignored by the returning soldiers. Vegeta listened as Bardock stepped in and explained to Raditz how his men just walked right on past and didn't even notice Vegeta standing there.
"Anyway that's enough of this." Bardock smiled as he wiped his hands clean of the previous conversation. "Come let's all go back to my apartment; we can have a few drinks and some good food; and you can tell us all about your adventures and glory stories." Bardock smiled trying to make the atmosphere a little happier. Kakarot soon smiled when he heard food was involved and agreed to go along as he had a free schedule. Vegeta only nodded in agreement and walked at the front alongside a happily chatting Kakarot to Bardock's quarters.
"Father I knew you had a promotion but I didn't think you would ever be able to afford a place in the royal square." Raditz laughed in astonishment as he recovered from the shock of the surrounding area and the inside of his father's apartment.
"Are you joking even with my pay I couldn't afford this place?" Bardock laughed as Raditz gave him a puzzled look. "This place was a gift." Bardock laughed and scratched the back of his head like Vegeta had seen Kakarot do so many times before.
"Who gives such an expensive gift?" Raditz laughed.
"I do." Vegeta answered bluntly "I gave it to Bardock not long after he and Kakarot moved into the palace." Vegeta sat in his usual chair and thumbed through a book from the bookshelf next to him.
"You lived in the palace." Raditz gasped as he fell on the sofa behind him. "How much have I missed?"
"Well I did live in the palace for a time but Vegeta was nice enough to give me this apartment as it was closer to the science wing, Kakarot still lives in the palace thought with Vegeta." Bardock laughed.
"WHAT!" Raditz yelled looking over at his brother.
"Ye I've lived there for years now." Kakarot said bluntly as he sat next to Vegeta and peered over to see what book he was reading. Vegeta just smiled and turned the book so Kakarot could see more clearly, this was the closest they could get for the moment. Raditz still didn't know about them and even though Bardock was fine and supportive it came to the group decision not telling Raditz straight off the bat.
Vegeta and Kakarot continued to read together while Bardock filled Raditz in on all the details he had missed up until this point (obviously he omitted the marriage) and tried to answer all of Raditz's questions the best he could.
"So what happened to the old family home?" Raditz asked putting off the question till last dreading what the answer may be.
"Well the house is still there, it gets checked regularly to make sure it's alright. Vegeta arranged it all for us when we moved up to the capital." Bardock smiled over to Vegeta who quickly smiled back.
"I have to say my Lord you have been exceptionally generous to my family, I would like to thank you." Raditz laughed as he bowed his head.
"Just call me Vegeta; you can stop with the formalities, if I'm outside it's a different matter only Kakarot is permitted to address me on a first name basis outside; but indoors you can just call me Vegeta I don't mind." Vegeta half smiled and laughed trying to warm Raditz up to the idea that he was 2 very different people when he needs to be.
"I could never do that my Lord, it would be inappropriate." Raditz blushed as he thought it through.
"Raditz; Vegeta has given you his permission, he could technically make it an order." Bardock laughed. "Anyway Vegeta is part of the family now."
After some convincing it was agreed that Raditz would follow the others and call Vegeta by his name and not his title while they were alone indoors, he was soon swooped off into the kitchen by Bardock to help prep food leaving Vegeta and Kakarot alone.
"Finally." Kakarot huffed and he quickly cupped Vegeta's chin with his finger and thumb before moved his face towards his. "I thought we would never get a moment alone." Vegeta laughed quietly as Kakarot closed the gap between them. The kiss was hard and rough but they were as quiet as possible, as they paused for a break Kakarot smiled and held onto Vegeta's hand. "I'm sorry about earlier." Kakarot whispered into Vegeta's ear
"Why are you apologising?" Vegeta asked.
"The way I acted when Raditz first showed up, I lost my temper and even though I may not like him very much I didn't want you to have a bad first impression that's all." Kakarot smiled.
"It's fine Kakarot honestly, to be honest I didn't like the way he was speaking to you so I may have snapped a little too much?"
"To be honest it made me feel really happy when you came to my rescue." Kakarot laughed and held onto Vegeta's hand a little tighter. Vegeta could only laugh and kissed Kakarot softly then rested his head on Kakarot's shoulder, they sat there in silence for a while just listening to each other breathing and the occasional clang and bang which came from the kitchen. "Do you want to go away together soon?" Vegeta whispered not moving his head from its resting place.
"Where would you like to go?"
"I don't know; somewhere we can just be together and not have to worry about work or anything else." Vegeta laughed
"I would really like that, how about the beach?"
"Ye the beach would be nice this time of year, not to hot but not cold either. We can rent a nice little out of the way place for a bit."
"You wouldn't want to use the Royal holiday home?" Kakarot asked
"No not there; the servants would still be there and people know where that is so they can just bring work to us. I want to go somewhere where it's just you and me." Vegeta closed his eyes and he imagined the perfect holiday in a small one bedroom beach house, miles away from civilisation where he didn't have to be a Prince and Kakarot didn't need to be Lieutenant of the Royal Guard, they could just be 2 normal people doing what normal people do without having to worry about people seeing them.
"We could hold hands while we walk down the beach day or night and not have to worry about anyone seeing us." Kakarot whispered and kissed the top of Vegeta's head.
The start of the night went by slowly once Bardock and Raditz returned with mountains of food piled high on large plates, they sat on the floor together around the coffee table while they ate only stopping to laugh as Bardock cracked terrible jokes and to ask Raditz questions about his adventures in space, and as the night wore on and the alcohol started to flow more freely Vegeta found himself looking around at everyone and smiling thankful that he got lost in the woods so long ago and being found by Kakarot, without him Vegeta would never of known what it was to have an actual family, to have people who saw him as a person and not just a title, to be genuinely loved and be able to love in return.