At eight in the afternoon, Trunks arrived home, after a hard day at university and, as he had done every day for more than a month, after putting his jacket and writing case in his room, he goes upstairs to take a look at his father. Every afternoon he finds him sitting on the bed, with his gaze lost out of the window in front of him. Bulma's death was a hard blow for everyone, but for once the Prince really feels the loss. For him, Humans are divided into two classes, the pathetic and weak Humans (all) and the one exception (Bulma). Yes, maybe life continues after the exception disappears, but, what meaning is there to live among the pathetic and weak Humans? If she isn't here, why?
Trunks knocked on the door. "Dad, can I come in?"
As he didn't answer him (usually he told Trunks to leave him alone), he went into the room. Trunks found him with his hands on his knees and his head bowed. The young man approached his father and put one hand on his shoulder "Come on, Dad, you have to cheer up..." He said softly.
He didn't reply, didn't even move. Trunks continued as softly as before "It isn't good for you to stay in here all the time... This isn't going to change anything..."
The muscles in Vegeta's arms tightened, but he immediately relaxed them again. "Leave me alone," he requested in low voice, nothing like his characteristic cold tone. "I don't want company."
"What?!" Trunks said angrily "I have been coming here day after day for more than a month to see how are you and you always give me the same answer !! I'm sick!! I'm sick of all this!! In case you haven't noticed it, I miss her too!! I'm sick of seeing you sitting here for hours and hours without moving!! But this ends right now!!" Trunks grabbed his father's arm "You will go out right now and you will go and fight with me, whether you want to or not!" With a strong jerk, Trunks forced him to get up. Carrying, almost dragging him the young man took out his father of the house and when they were opposite each other he warned him. "I hope that you are thinking about fighting because I'm going to use all my power in this combat."
He placed himself on fighting stance, but noticing that his father hadn't change his stance, he almost shouted at him "What the hell are you waiting for?"
"I don't want to fight. Why?"
"DO IT!!" roared Trunks
Slowly, Vegeta lifted his arms and he adopted a defensive position for his son.
Usually he would have been the first to attack, his eyes would have a fighter's glint, his muscles would be tight, completely prepared for battle. Usually, not lately.
Trunks, upon seeing that his father didn't have any intention of attacking him, clenched his fists and teeth with rage. Really, he didn't want to fight, he couldn't believe that his father had said that, why were they going to fight.
Trunks shook his head, trying not to think of those words and he summoned his ki, making a blue flame that wrapped around his whole body. He hurtled towards his father, who didn't seem to notice what was going to happen for a moment because of the position of his arms, again at the sides of his body. Trunks gave him a strong punch in the face, making him fly some meters back before falling to the ground. "Come on father, get up!!" He shouted approaching him, turning SSJ. Seeing that he didn't get up, he grabbed him by the shirt and pulled up, lifting him. Of course, Vegeta didn't resist.
"You are so cowardly that you won't even defend yourself? What the hell you do you think you're going to gain with all this? Mum would be ashamed of you if she saw you like that!!" He shouted again, throwing him back. "Really, I expected more of you, father." Said this time more quietly.
Vegeta heard his son's words while saw the sun falling behind the nearly buildings. An image passed through his head; the sunset that he showed to Bulma the first day that they *dated*.
When Trunks, once in his normal state, was about go, he noticed how his father tightened his arms and clawed the ground, pulling up earth and grass at the same time.
Slowly, Vegeta began to rise "How do you dare to say that?" He said in low voice. Once he had arisen, it was as if Trunks' words joined with the evening had unchained all his fury. Closing his fists, he shouted at him while he was changing into SSJ. "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT, BRAT??!!!"
Through his now blue eyes, Trunks, who couldn't understand the tremendous change in his father attitude, could see a killer stare.
"HOW DARE YOU?!!" He shouted as he rushed to attack. With a roar, he hit Trunks strongly, first in the stomach and then in the face, making him fall back. Trunks rose, cleaning the blood on his mouth. He saw how his father approached to him, with his teeth and fists clenched and with that murderous glance in his eyes and he decided to change into SSJ too "Father, what...?"
"How dare you insult my warrior's honour in that way?! Who do you think you are to talk me that way, brat?"
"Father..."
"When I finish with you, my honour will have been avenged. Now, on guard, brat!!"
Trunks was still shocked, but he placed himself in fighting stance. He immediately avoided his fathers assault, who was suddenly taking all of the month's pain and using it as a weapon against his son. Luckily for Trunks, his father had only turned SSJ, if he had concentrated to the point where he became SSJ2, the youth have been in serious trouble. After stopping his father's assaults for a few minutes, he saw that he wasn't going to attach anything, so he decided to attack as well. Without paying attention, Trunks hit him strongly, making him crash onto Capsule Corp's walls, with such strength that he pierced it and fell onto the street. Vegeta rose and, although blood ran from his right arm, now covered only with several shreds of cloth, he didn't seem to notice it at all, because he raised it to chest height, aiming at the hole he had left in the wall. He opened his hand and shouted "GYARIC HO!!!"
At once, a powerful energy ha left his hand towards Trunks. Trunks, seeing the energy ha that his father had thrown, crossed his arms before his face in a defensive position, getting ready to receive the tremendous impact. If he didn't do so, the energy ha would destroy a great part of the city.
After the explosion, there was a great cloud of dust in Capsule Corp's yard. Vegeta stayed near the wall waiting for the dust to disappear. He roared when he saw his son's silhouette. Trunks lowered his mangled arms until they were in the guard position and sighed with relief upon seeing that he had succeeded in stopping it without serious injuries, but soon he frowned. He wouldn't be able to stop many more attacks like that. Somehow he had to stop him before that he destroyed half the city, but how? And why was he trying to kill him? Maybe because of what he had said to him? He had hoped for a reaction, but he hadn't imagined that he would take it so seriously.
Without allowing him to think of a solution, his father charged him. "You're still standing? Now you will see!!"
"Great!" thought Trunks "If I give him a good punch..." He just had time to avoid a kick directed to his head before grabbing his father's right fist a scarce distance from his face. In that instant, one of the last rays of the sun made something shine on his arm.
While Trunks looked at what it was that he was wearing on his arm, Vegeta took advantage of his son's distraction to hit him several meters away.
When they were opposite each other, they watched each other for some moments and charged against their opponent, passing each other, right fist leading. When they hit, there was a flash of light and both remained with their back to the other. Trunks leaned his knee on the ground, putting one hand where his father had hit him and he returned to normal. He turned his head back and saw his father on his knees with his hands leaning on the floor. Now, he wasn't SSJ. Trunks rose with effort and approached him. "Father, are you all right?"
He nodded, trying to catch his breath. When he got it, instants later, he rose and put one hand on his right arm. They looked each other at for a few moments without knowing what to say until Trunks asked "What are you wearing on your right arm?" He pointed at the object.
"Huh? It's nothing..." Vegeta replied avoiding his question and putting his hand on the object, with no intention of revealing what it was. Although it was night, maybe Trunks could get an idea of what it was if he saw the silhouette.
"But I saw it shining while we fought..."
"I have told you that it is NOTHING!" Vegeta replied, annoyed. "Didn't you hear me?"
Trunks smiled at his words. THIS was his father. It seemed that the fight had been useful for something other than piercing the Capsule Corp's wall and destroying their clothes. "Okay Dad, you win, don't tell me if you don't want to. It's late, I think we should eat something," he commented as he looked at his watch "I'm going to call to the pizzeria okay?"
He agreed and they both walked into the house. Inside, while they waited for the pizzas to be delivered, Vegeta went into the bathroom to take a shower. In few minutes, the bathroom was filled with steam, veiling the mirrors and warming the room. He got in the shower, letting the hot water fall on his mangled body. After being in the water, hardly moving, for a few minutes he looked at his wrist, at the object Trunks had asked him about. Luckily it hadn't been broken by any of the blows.
Once dry, as he put on a t-shirt, he thought that it would be better if he removed the object from his wrist, because he didn't want his son to see it. He put it in his jeans pocket and went out of the bathroom. In the dinning room, Trunks waited for him, sitting down at the table flanked by two towers of pizza boxes. Vegeta sat down too and both began to gobble pizza.
From time to time, Trunks looked secretly (and without stopping eating) at his father's arm, trying to find that mysterious object that he hadn't allowed him to see before.
"Trunks, can you stop looking at me like I'm a strange vermin?" His father asked, a little annoyed by his scrutiny.
"He... ah... I... gomen," replied Trunks, lowering his head, embarrassed at having been discovered.
Without giving major importance to the matter, both continued eating.
After a while, when the boxes didn't contain a single piece of pizza, Trunks stood up. "Well Dad, I'm going out."
"With who?"
"Eh... with my school friends." He changed the topic. "But don't worry, Biddle won't be long bringing Bra home. She said to me that she couldn't sleep there tonight"
"She didn't tell me anything about sleeping at home..."
"She didn't? Are you sure? Well, she is in Gohan's house, but Biddle said to me that tonight Mr. Boo and Mr. Satan would be sleeping in her house and she wouldn't have any spare beds," he said while opening the front door. "Will you be all right here alone?"
"Yes, now go, you will arrive late if you stay here talking."
"Sure?"
"Sure! Go out now!" he said, almost tossing him out of the house.
"Well, see you later, I won't be home late," Trunks said just before his father closed the door on him. He considered it totally unnecessary to have a *nanny*, even less if that *nanny* was his own son.
He sat on the couch and turned on the television, hoping to find something interesting to see. As Trunks wasn't at home, he could put the object back on his wrist again without risk of him seeing it. He took it out carefully and after a few tries he puts it on again.
Five minutes after Trunks went out, somebody knocked on the door. Vegeta got up from the couch and went to open it.
"Komban wa, Vegeta!!"
"Kakarot! What the....?"
"What are you doing with a slave on the wrist? I didn't know you had one..."
"And what the hell is it to you if I wear one or not?!" He almost shouted at him.
"Well, it only was a comment..." Gokuh replied, a little hurt by his reaction.
"Anyway, it isn't mine..." he said, turning his back on Gokuh.
Evidently it wasn't his. Gokuh understood quickly. "It was Bulma's, wasn't it?" he said softly.
He didn't answer, or move. He only closed his eyes, trying vainly to contain a sigh. Gokuh came closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Gomen, I..."
Vegeta placed his hand on Gokuh's and removed it almost gently from his shoulder. "I don't want your compassion."
"I didn't mean to..."
"Why are you here?" Vegeta said, turning around and changing the subject.
"Trunks told me that if I could come here tonight until Bra gets back, so here I am."
"You shouldn't have come. I don't need company."
"I know, but he made me promise and you know that I'm a man of my word."
"Now that you have kept your promise, you can leave. I'll tell Trunks that you were here and that your wife called you so you went home. I have never needed a nanny and I am not going to need it now, okay? Anyway, I've already talked to Trunks about this."
"Vegeta, you mustn't nag the boy, he only did it because he is worried about you, nothing more. I don't think that that is reason to punish him."
"He worries too much..."
"Because you give him reasons for it. C'mon, don't look at me like that, Trunks told me everything. The boy tries every possible way to help you and he thought that you shouldn't be alone, that's all."
"Hmpf." Vegeta grunted, crossing his arms.
"Well, now I see that you don't have any problems - or fewer apparently - and that you don't want MY company, I'll go home since I promised Chichi that I would clean the dishes after dinner."
"I haven't said that."
"What are you saying?"
"I never said that I didn't want your company especially, I said that I don't want any company, neither yours nor anybody's."
"Are you saying that you aren't tossing me out of your house?"
"Come on, go away, didn't you have to clean the dishes?"
"You're right," he said, smiling. "Well, I'll be back another day that I don't have to clean the dishes. I promise!" he said walking back and beginning to float in the air. He said goodbye with his hand and he left.
Vegeta followed him with his eyes until he was lost in the night. He stayed some moments looking at the stars that one could contemplate in spite of the potent city lights. Orion had always seemed to him a constellation worthy of being contemplated and a long time before that Betelgeuse had been one of his favourite stars. On nights like this he had gone thousand of times to a nearby mountain to contemplate the stars, almost always alone, sometimes accompanied, but tonight he wasn't in the mood to see the stars, so he went back inside the house and when he saw the time he decided to go to bed. He didn't have to get worried about Trunks and by Bra... well, she is bigger now so nobody is waiting up for her.
He went upstairs and got to his room. He turned on the light and looked inside from the door. The room was as she had left it. An innumerable collection of crystal and china boxes of different sizes full of rings, earings, collars and bracelets were placed on the boudoir. In the built-in wardrobe were all her clothes and even that blue t-shirt with *Bulma* on the front. The only thing he had done in the room was make the bed. The hardest part of the day was being confronted with an enormous room only for him and a marriage's bed that would only be occupied only by half.
He shook his head to stop him thinking of these things. He had to begin to accept that she had left and that she wasn't going to return, but that wasn't easy. She was the first (and almost the only) one that had accepted him as he was, the first person that taught him the meaning of the word *love*, unknown to him. The mother of his children , his wife and mate through good times and bad, the only person in whom he could really trust.
A piece of paper with the lyrics from a song decorated the frame of the boudoir's mirror. She always had the small paper in her mirror, as if it reminded her of something that she doesn't have to forget.
[...]Que en mi eterna oscuridad -------------- [...]That in my eternal darkness
el cielo tiene nombre: tu nombre ------------- the sky has a name: your name
Qu� no dar�a yo por contemplarte ------------ What I wouldn't give to contemplate you
aunque fuera un solo instante... --------------- although it's only for an instant...
A. Sanz "Siempre es de noche"------------------ A. Sanz "Always at night"
He had never understood his wife's enthusiasm for that small bit of lyrics, but he had decided to leave everything as it was, and that inclueded the small paper fastened to the mirror frame. He sat on the bed, removed his trainers, turned off the light and he lay down fully dressed, because after an hour or an hour and a half tossing and turning in the bed he always got up again. So at least this way he didn't have to get dressed.
He closed his eyes and some moments later (a rare thing lately) he fell asleep.
When he woke up he was in a place that was quite familiar to him. He wasn't in his room, or even on Earth, but he was wearing his trainers and the same clothes that he wore when he went to bed. Some small yellowish clouds covered almost all the ground, so that when he walked he stepped on them. He saw something like a house in the distance, the only thereabouts and he decided to approach it. Upon arriving, he noticed that it was the building where the Supreme Judge sat. At his side the souls went for one side or another driven by their respective guardians towards Heaven or Hell. He assumed that he was dead and he decided to approach to the building so that he could be judged (again). He placed himself in front of the Judge and asked "Well?"
"Ah! Are you, well... here is your companion and guide. You have all night to go for a walk with her in Heaven."
"??" He looked at his companion, of whom all he could distinguish was the silhouette. He didn't know what do or say. And who did he want to stay with all night? Maybe he wasn't dead?
Suddenly, the woman that would accompany him walked forward a few steps, allowing herself to be seen. There was a gold hoop over her head, a sure sign that she was dead. Some hair from her lavender fringe fell in her eyes.
"???" He gasped, unbelieving. He couldn't believe that he was seeing her, even in the other world. "Bulma?" He said in a low voice.
The woman nodded and she approached him, hugging in front of an excited Supreme Judge. Separating, Vegeta commented "You haven't changed. You're just as beautiful as always."
Bulma blushed at his words. "Oh, come on..." She grabbed his arm making him follow her. "C'mon, we only have one night."
While Bulma drove him to Heaven's entrance, Vegeta asked "One night? I'm not dead?"
"Of course not, silly. I decided that instead of me going to Earth for one day you should come to Heaven for a night."
"Huh...."
They began to walk to Heaven and when they passed a beautiful fountain, Bulma commented "You know? It's very boring to be here alone... if at least I could invent something..."
"Huh, you haven't been in the Hell. I prefer thousand of times to be bored in Heaven than be spending my time in Hell without it serving for anything."
"Yeah, of course, I agree with you. In any case, I still say that it's very boring. You at least could carry on with your eternal training but me.... there isn't anything to do here. Also, I'm already bored of going on trips with the other souls that are here."
"You would prefer to return? You would prefer to return with me to Earth than be here without a reason for anything?"
"Of course yes, silly! How can you think that I prefer to be here surrounded by souls instead of being with you, Trunks and Bra? Although, there is a good guy here that gives me flowers every day..." she said to make him jealous.
He grabbed her hands, forcing her to stop in the park. Without looking away from her eyes he said "I wanted to tell you that you matter to me, that and many other things, but not even at the last moment could I do it. Don't ask me why, I don't even know, I suppose that I thought it was enough to have demonstrated it to you sometimes, but I never thought that maybe you would want me to tell you, as is normal between Humans when you are with the person you love. I have been thinking about it over the last month and a half, I haven't been able to do anything else, thinking about all the things I didn't do and that maybe I should have done." When he finished he let go of her hands and lowered his head.
"Vegeta..." she said, moving closer to him "I've never needed you to say anything like that. I always knew that you loved me even without you saying it to me, I saw it in your eyes when you looked at me, in what you did when you were with me, even in that last moment I felt it, I knew, even in the instant before dying, that you loved me."
He lifted his head and looked at her. In his normally indecipherable expression there was now an infinity of expression. In his dark eyes there was a special shine, a gleam that demonstrated his more intimate emotions.
The tears fell from Bulma's cheeks as she hugged him. "You're the most marvellous and adorable man that I could have found on Earth," she whispered.
"I don't want to lose you again," he said, fighting to contain the tears that slid from his cheeks. "I can't be without you."
"I know, but there isn't any way out, nothing can return me to life..."
"You must always keep hope, even if it a slim one," said a voice. "I'm Ro Kaioh-Shin and I speak from Kaioh-Shin Kai."
"The God of fifteen generations ago...."
"Hai. I couldn't help but hear your conversation. There isn't anything within mortal reach that could return you to life, but one must never loose the hope of meeting again. There are times when just by hoping something you can make it real. It has never happened to you? Hmmm... I think not. Well, anyway, I haven't interrupted you just to give you a lesson in morale. Enma Daioh asked me to tell you that your time is over. You only have five minutes."
"Only five minutes? But haven't we got all night?"
"Yes, youth, but dawn is only five minutes away. Gomen, but you don't have any more time."
"Only five minutes..." sighed Bulma. She gave a small jump as she remembered something that she had prepared. "I want to give you something..." She took out a chain out from inside his t-shirt and caught it in her hand. "Do you know what these are?"
"Hmm, iie, but they remind me of something..."
"How can you not remember? They're..." He put one finger on her lips to silence her.
"Of course I remember, silly. They're our wedding rings."
She smiled and unfastened the chain, taking the two rings out of it before putting on it again "Take it, as long as you have it I'll be able to feel you at all times," she said putting on one ring and giving the other one to her husband. Looking at him, she saw something familiar on his arm. "Isn't that bracelet mine?"
He nodded and when he was going to remove it she stopped him. "Iie, keep it. I want you to wear something of mine when you return to Earth," Bulma said trying to hide her sobs.
"Don't leave..." She hugged him. "I need you by my side... When I arrived here I was alone and afraid; nobody said to me "Don't be afraid, I'm here" . I felt like as if I was missing something, I didn't have you, I was missing you. I don't want to be alone again..."
""The sky has a name: your name. What I wouldn't give to contemplate you although it's only for an instant"." He recited the lyric from the mirror. "I don't want to return alone to Earth either. My greatest wish would be that you return with me..."
They kissed. This was the goodbye kiss that they had been left over from the last time that they saw each other in life, since they didn't have the time to do it and, even if they had, neither of the two was brave enough to really do something that they both desired but that neither dared to do.
While they kissed, Bulma saw her husband start to shine. His time was over. Every time he shone more intensely and when the splendour was so brilliant that she couldn't do anything but close her eyes, he disappeared.
"I'm going to miss you... " she whispered before fell on her knees with her face in her hands "I would give anything if it would make it possible for me to return..." she said between sobs.
"It isn't necessary that you give anything," said the enigmatic Ro Kaioh-Shin. Bulma lifted her head, confused.
With fright, he materialised. He looked around twice, trying to guess in the dark where he was. His heart was beating like a mad horse's and his breath was fast. When finally his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could verify that he was in his room, on the bed, as he was when he had gone to bed. Everything had been a damned dream. But, if it had been only a dream, why was he wearing his wedding ring on his right hand?
He got up, confused, and went to the window intending to lift the blind so that the first light of day could enter and clarify the mess.
Upon lifting a little the blind, he heard a soft grunt of protest. Turning, he could see that there was nobody in front of him as he had thought. What or who had complained then? Or maybe his mind was playing tricks with him?
When he was about to go to the door, he heard another noise. This time there was no doubt that he had heard something. It was as if somebody was crawling on the floor on the other side of the bed.
Slowly, he walked around the bed and arrived on the side where the noises seemed to be coming from. He held back an exclamation and walked straight back, colliding with the boudoir and making the small boxes peal as they collided against each other. Another soft grunt was heard. He walked slowly towards the figure that moved again on the floor and he knelt down beside it to wrap it softly in his arms. Slowly and with much gentleness he left it on the bed and left the room. As he went downstairs to the dinning room, he found Trunks coming into the house.
"Ah, hi Dad... what are you doing up at this hour?"
"I should ask you that, ne? Do you think that this is any time to arrive home?" he asked reproachfully.
"Er....I..." At that moment, Trunks thought that there wouldn't be enough room in the world to escape the punishment that was about to fall on him.
"This time I'll let it pass, but there won't be any more concessions, right?"
Trunks nodded, relieved upon feeling the dryness in his throat ease. "And Bra?"
"Sleeping. Before I go downstairs I'll check on on her."
Trunks nodded again and as he was going to go to the kitchen, his father stopped him.
"Trunks, follow me."
"??" Trunks, totally confused, followed his father upstairs. "What...?"
"Don't ask and follow me without making any noise."
The youth shrugged his shoulders and followed him to the corridor on the second floor. Vegeta opened the door to his room and pointed at the figure who slept on the bed.
"Holy Cats!!!" exclaimed Trunks, unable to contain his surprise. "How...?"
"I told you not to make any noise!" He snapped while he gave him a slap.
The figure on the bed woke up and half-woke. "What had happened? Trunks?" she said seeing the youth in the middle of the room.
The tears ran across the youth's face as he ran towards her. "Mum!!" He threw himself into her arms like a small boy "Mum... how I missed you..."
"Me too son, me too," she said while she caressed his hair. Bulma looked at the door when she heard a small sob. "Bra?"
The little girl, in her father's arms, cried unable to contain the emotion of meeting her mother again. Vegeta approached them and left Bra to hug her mother while he sat on the bed.
It had been a long time since he had seen them so happy. Again, the four were together, the family was complete and from his small planet, Ro Kaioh-Shin smiled, satisfied that his theory had been proven.
No more lonely nights... (Paul McCartney)
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