Goku and Piccolo glanced upwards at the familiar voice. It was none other than the prince of all saiyans himself glaring down at them, his arms crossed as usual. The three of them got into a silent staring contest, energy levels rising slowly.
"We got here first, so it is ours!" Goku called out, settling himself into a relaxed fighting position. Everyone was preparing themselves for a vicious territorial scrimmage for the island.
"Are we really going to get into a fight with Vegeta when we should be training for the androids? If this is a sparring match then by all means let's get it started, but it is not worth my time."
"I like your idea, namekian, why don't we make this a challenge. Winner takes the island."
"Absolutely not! We got here first, so it is ours. If you want to split it, we can," Goku chimed in, scratching the back of his head.
"How about this. Winner gets the island, the loser has to go to space to train.""
"I have a much better idea, Vegeta, if you win, we will leave this island immediately, if Goku wins, you have to stay here and train with us. It is much easier to get stronger when sparring against powerful opponents."
Both warriors stared at Piccolo in shock. Neither of them had ever heard him speak so much at one time. They agreed with Piccolo's idea and set some ground rules in place before getting started. It was to be done only in the air, first person to touch the ground lost. No energy blasts and no super saiyan technique for Goku.
"I'm going to sit this one out. My top priority is training Gohan for the upcoming attack. You two have at it," Piccolo said, heading off to the woods in search of Gohan and their dinner. Both of the saiyans agreed to the challenge and set some ground rules in place before charging at one another.
The fight was still going on when Piccolo and Gohan returned with meat to be prepared for dinner. Both of them watched the ongoing battle, seeing as both of the warriors were pretty evenly matched. After another hour of sparring back and forth, Goku snuck up on Vegeta and kicked him hard in the side before slamming his joined fists onto the back of his neck. The older saiyan went flying down into the rocks, officially ending the match.
After a lot of grumbling from the prince about losing to a third-class warrior, they all finally settled in to eat and discuss the next few days of training before Gohan had to return to do some schoolwork to appease his mother. Before long, the moon was high in the sky and the warriors set up camp and settled in for the evening.
Just a few hours after everyone split, Goku slowly snuck off into the woods. He walked until he found a large cliff overlooking the canyon below. Sitting down on the ledge, he peered off into the distance, lost in his own thoughts. Both the conversation with Piccolo about his home life and decision to train with Vegeta weighed heavily on his mind.
I know Piccolo won't say anything to anyone about Chi-Chi, but I still worry that someone knowing will come back to bite me in the ass. Vegeta being here is also not something I expected to happen. My friends have already been icing me out since I returned from space, and now that I am training with our old enemies, I wonder what that'll mean for our friendship. They've known me my whole life, so I just have to have faith that they trust me enough to know my sole purpose is to protect Earth with everything I have until my last dying breath.
Vegeta had noticed Goku leave the camp and followed him out of sheer curiosity. The only things he really knew about the man was that he loved eating, fighting, and sleeping. It was quite odd that he would leave in the middle of the night to go gods-knows-where. Maybe he was trying to get in some extra training and hoped no one would notice his absence. Fat chance at that. If Goku was going to be spending his nights training, Vegeta would do the same, less he would fall further and further behind the third-class runt.
When Vegeta finally caught up to Goku, he noticed the man sitting on the ledge of a canyon, presumably lost in thought. He waited there, watching him, for quite a long time, just waiting for him to start shadow boxing or practicing moves or using energy blasts, anything other than this…waiting. Much to the prince's disappointment, Goku stayed sitting there for a few hours before heading back to camp. When the sun began to peek its head from above the horizon, both men were back at camp and had only slept about four hours max. Vegeta did not go back to sleep when he returned, but instead was wondering what the hell Kakarot was doing just sitting there and wasting time.
If he is going to be sneaking away in the middle of the night, he may as well do something productive with his time other than just sitting there. What would be the point in just sitting for hours on end staring at nothing. He could have used that time to spar with Vegeta or do some conditioning work. Honestly, it is quite pointless to just sit around.
The day went on without much of a hitch. Vegeta complained constantly about having to train with what he considered to be "low-class wannabe-warriors'', Gohna was terrified of even getting close to the prince, Piccolo remained silent for the most part and only spoke when it was to chastise the saiyans, and Goku kept up his usual carefree attitude. Despite his best attempt at pretending to be fine, there were a few times the young saiyan caught Piccolo staring at him, studying him as if he was concerned about his well-being. While he wasn't alone in his staring, he was much more obvious than the prince's occasional glances.
When it came time to call it a night, the same routine happened again. Goku snuck off in the middle of the night and Vegeta followed him. While Goku was aware of his presence, he did not care to make that known. After the third day of the same routine, the prince finally had enough of Goku's solitary evening brooding.
On the third night Goku snuck away, Vegeta once again followed, but made it obvious he was tailing him. When they both made it to the ledge, Vegeta sat down a few feet away from Goku.
"What are you doing here every night, Kakarot? Your training is going to stagnate without sleeping and I'll be damned if I win against you because you were not at your best. As soon as the fight with the androids is over, you and I are going to settle our score once and for all. That means you need to make this a challenge for me and get your shit together. If you are so intent on not sleeping at night, use this time to train or something. Anything is better than this brooding you've got going on."
Goku did not have the energy to answer the prince and just continued to stare off into the distance. This only infuriated the prince more, making him stand up and grab the collar of Goku's shirt.
"Answer me, Kakarot, what are you doing here every night!" the prince yelled at him, pulling his shirt collar closer to the man. Goku flinched as soon as he was pulled, shutting his eyes. His reaction made the prince hesitate. "Goku, what's going on?" It almost sounded as if he cared.
Goku quickly regained his bearings and stepped back from Vegeta, nearly ripping his shirt in the process. "It is none of your damn business, Vegeta, so leave me the hell alone."
The prince had never seen Goku react angrily like this before. As far as he could tell, the few times he had seen the younger saiyan mad was when his friends' lives were in danger or if they had been killed. The two of them had always had a rivalry that usually resulted in Vegeta insulting and Goku laughing it off or changing topics. Not once had the man become upset over their banter.
"Kakarot, seriously, what is going on? You are clearly not in your right mind. I know we are rivals and we have a score to settle, but I am not going to be talked to in that way by someone who is far beneath me."
"I am sick and tired of your shit, Vegeta. You act all high and mighty when you are the prince to one subject, two if you include my son. I am a super saiyan and you are not. When it comes down to it, I am better than you will ever be. For your own safety, I recommend leaving me the hell alone." Goku lashed back, his hair flickering gold in anger. The prince just scoffed and turned, heading back to camp.
"And you wonder why your friends look at you as if you are a monster."