Disclaimer: (To the tune of 'A hunting we will go'.) They don't belong to me, they don't belong to me~ No matter how I wish they did, they don't belong to meeeh~~ *Cough* Thank you.

Warnings aka Author notes: Okay - the Shounen-ai hints have become plain Shounen-ai as this story has progressed so I'll just warn everyone now. Don't blame me, blame the plot, it has a mind of it's own.

A Simple Wish

Chapter Five:

Gokou slowly walked down one of the many hallways that criss-crossed the interior of the Lookout searching for his eldest son; his mind not really focused on the task as he attempted to process the dream he'd had earlier.

It had seemed so real, but Gokou couldn't understand it. He had feelings for Vegeta as a friend, certainly; but nothing more…so why the dream?

The Saiyan was jolted briefly out of his thoughts as he banged into someone.

"Oh, sorry." He muttered, not bothering to look up as he ran the images from the dream through his head again.

"Dad?"

Gokou paused as he registered the voice and looked up, his gaze immediately alighting on a familiar door in front of him. His absentminded wandering through the Lookout had brought him to the room of the very man he was so wrapped up in thinking about. How had he ended up here?

Behind him Gohan's eyebrows drew together as he frowned, "Hey, Dad!"

Gokou jumped in surprise and turned around. "Oh, Gohan. I was looking for you. You mother rang and wants you to go back home for your end-of-year exams."

Gohan nodded, "Videl told me. Mum bullied her into coming up here to get me." Gohan laughed a little nervously.

"Well…just try to hurry back." Gokou said with a half smile, trying to hide his disappointment at loosing his son's help. "Oh, and who's in with Krillin right now?"

"Eighteen went in there a few minutes ago. She wanted to talk with Krillin about something." Gohan said, glancing quickly at the door and looking slightly edgy. "She didn't look that happy."

There was a moment of silence as Gokou thought about the possible reasons Krillin's wife might have for wanting to see him; and then the world exploded.

That is to say the hallway shook, knocking the two Saiyans off balance and forcing Gokou to reach out and steady himself on the wall as bits of loose mortar sifted down from the ceiling and a thick burst a smoke streamed out from under the door of Vegeta's room. And the scream of rage that accompanied it all didn't help matters much.

Gokou made a quick dash for the door, jumping back from it in surprise as it flew open as he reached for the handle and spat out a bewildered Krillin. Gokou stumbled back out of his friend's way in time to avoid being flattened by Eighteen who rushed out after her husband.

"What happened?" Gokou demanded, worry tingeing his voice, "Is Vegeta okay?"

"Relax," Eighteen said and flicked her hair out of her eyes, "I only blasted above his head."

"Yeah, but did you have to throw me out the door?" Krillin said reproachfully, rubbing his head.

Eighteen turned her head and simply looked at Krillin who sighed and changed the subject. "What are you doing up here anyway, Eighteen? I mean, it's good to see you and all, and I'm…"

"Daddy!!"

Krillin stopped in mid-sentence and turned in time to scoop Marron, his five-year-old daughter, up in his arms and give her a hug.

"Hiya, honey. So you came up to visit too, did you?"

"Actually we're leaving." Eighteen said, and began to walk down the hallway, "Now, Krillin!"

"Wh…what? Leaving?" Gokou exclaimed and stared after the woman.

"Yes." She said without turning.

"But… Krillin you can't leave. What about Vegeta? Gohan has to leave as well, there's no one el…"

"We're leaving." Eighteen snapped and glared briefly over her shoulder at her husband and then stalked around the corner, out of sight.

"Sorry, Gokou." Krillin said apologetically and hurried after the woman he loved, still carrying his daughter in his arms.

Gokou watched out the window as Eighteen's plane took off and disappeared from sight, "Well, I guess I'm in next then." He turned to his son. "You better get going, Gohan. Try to get back if you can, but we can manage for a while."

Gohan nodded after a moment and then he and Videl took off out the window, disappearing from sight nearly immediately.

Gokou stared out at the sky for a moment and then turned and stared at the door to Vegeta's room nervously.

"Pathetic."

Gokou turned in startlement to see who was behind him.

"Oh, Piccilo. Hi…"

"It's not going to bite, Gokou."

"What? Bite? Oh… No. I was just… I mean…" Gokou trailed off at the disinterested expression on Piccilo's face.

"That's two down. I didn't think Krillin would last long, or Gohan. " Piccilo said, his tone clearly stating he'd been expecting what had happened today to happen.

"Yeah, well. I don't think we'll be seeing Krillin again till all this is over." Gokou said morosely.

Piccilo snorted at Gokou's stating of the obvious and then brushed passed him and headed to Vegeta's door, "You can go back to sleep now Gokou, I'll take over." And, in a flash of white cloak, he disappeared inside.

******

"What?!" Yamucha nearly screamed down the phone at Gohan, "Krillin's gone home and he's not going back to the Lookout?!"

// Yeah. Eighteen won't let him go back up, not that he's complaining though.// Gohan replied.

"Well if he's not going back then neither am I."

// What? Yamucha, there's only four of them left if you don't go back. Bulma won't be able to get back for ages and Videl and I have exams! // Gohan said urgently.

"Gohan, he creeps me out, okay. If Krillin isn't going back then neither and I!"

----

"Gokou… Uhmm… Are you going to go in, or just stand there?" Dende, the soft-spoken guardian of the earth, said after watching Gokou stand outside Vegeta's door for ten minutes, fidgeting nervously.

"Huh? Oh! Oh, yeah. Just a minute." Gokou said, shaking himself out of his daze and turning to face Dende.

"Are you okay, Gokou?"

"Oh, yeah! Sure." Gokou answered with a laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. "So, I better go in then. Bye, Dende!"

Gokou gave Dende a small wave and opened Vegeta's door, slipping in and shutting it again quickly, his gaze roving around the room as he prepared to dodge any kind of 'attack'.

This room was different than the one Eighteen has destroyed earlier that week; it was slightly bigger and had a second room leading off of it. A bathroom for Vegeta's personal use.

Vegeta clearly wasn't in the first room and Gokou, feeling to edgy to sit, stood near the door and waited for Vegeta to show himself; which he did a few seconds later, emerging from the bathroom dressed in nothing but a towel around his waist.

Gokou stood frozen on the spot, his shoulders pressed back against the closed door. What if he launches himself at me like that?! He's… He's…

Gokou's thoughts trailed off quickly as he realised that Vegeta hadn't even seen him yet. There was still a chance… Putting two fingers to his forehead, Gokou vanished and reappeared a moment later on the other side of the door.

"…Gokou?" Dende, who's Ki Gokou had used to focus on, exclaimed in startlement and turned from where he was talking with Mr. Popo, "Is something wrong?"

Gokou grinned, "No. Vegeta was just… He just got out of the shower so I thought it was better if I wasn't in there right now."

Dende and Mr. Popo nodded in sudden understanding and, with a smile of encouragement, left him to it and walked down the hallway and outside.

Gokou waited, his back against the door, until he figured Vegeta had to have gotten dressed and then pushed the door open again and peered around it.

There was no sign of the other Saiyan and Gokou entered, this time settling himself nervously on the edge of the bed, rubbing his sweaty palms over the legs of his pants.

As he relaxed he noticed that the towel Vegeta had been wrapped in was lying near his feet, on the floor. Good. At least he's dressed.

No sooner then the thought had crossed his mind then Vegeta appeared out of the bathroom again and, to Gokou's despair he was far from dressed. In fact he was as naked as the day he'd been born.

Gokou stared, his face heating rapidly from the blush that was quickly spreading across his face, as he was reminded, forcibly, of the dream he'd been worrying over constantly for the past week.

"Ahhh…" he said intelligently.

Vegeta glared at Gokou from where he'd frozen in the doorway, his eyes narrowing in an expression that hadn't been on his face since the day of the miss-wished wish.

"What are you looking at, Kakorotto?!" Vegeta demanded in irritation.

Gokou sat up straight, his eyes going wide in surprise at Vegeta's words. That expression. That tone. Was the wish…? Maybe it had…worn off?

"Vegeta?" Gokou hesitated.

"Kakorotto, you've come back to me." Vegeta continued in a much softer voice, his expression moving from irritation to love in an instant, "My Love!"

Vegeta made a lunge for Gokou, who rolled backwards, putting the bed between him and the Saiyan prince.

"Vegeta, are you…? I mean what did you…?" Gokou broke off as the naked man made another dive for him and he jumped back again, barely managing to escape.

Had he really heard the man right? For a flickering moment, Vegeta had been his old self again, cool, arrogant and irritated. Could it be that Vegeta was fighting the wish? It made sense to Gokou. Vegeta would never stand around and allow himself to act this way. The thought cheered Gokou immensely.

Blinking, Gokou's eyes came back into focus and he suddenly realised that he'd spaced out. Spaced out, in fact, staring at the still naked Vegeta. Gokou's eyes darted away quickly and then flicked back in alarm as Vegeta began to pace slowly towards him, a sly smile gracing his lips.

"I don't mind." Vegeta said softly.

"Mind? Don't…mind what?" Gokou backed up till he hit the wall, not catching what the prince meant.

"I don't mind you looking, Kakorotto. I'm yours to look at."

Gokou blushed bright red. He couldn't handle this. He couldn't deal with it. Searching for some way out, Gokou jerkily shoved two fingers against his forehead, sensed around wildly for the first strong Ki he could find and disappeared.

As he reappeared he staggered slightly and then tripped, landing hard against what he briefly thought might be concrete and lay still. A horrible realisation filled him as he acknowledged the fact that there was someone lying on top of him, nuzzling his neck.

A pair of familiar feet entered Gokou's line of sight and he looked up at Piccilo, his face still bright red, "He… He was… And I tried… But he… I…I just… I…"

"You tried to use instant transmission to get away from him and he grabbed you." Piccilo grated out helpfully, his expression carefully neutral.

Gokou nodded frantically, "Help."

Piccilo stared at the scene in front of him uncertainly for a moment, "And what do you expect me to do?"

"Get him off me!" Gokou said starting to sound hysterical.

"You have got to be joking. Get him off yourself." Piccilo grated out before stalking away, his cloak swirling.

"Picciloooooo!" Gokou cried out desperately, but Piccilo ignored him.

Sighing, Gokou lay bonelessly on the ground, his cheek pressed hard against the slightly warm concrete; trying to think of what to do next and ignore the fact that Vegeta was nibbling lightly on his neck.

He only had one choice really; he had to get Vegeta back to his room before someone else happened across the scene.

Pushing himself up onto his knees, Gokou ignored Vegeta's arms wrapping around his chest and took a look around, trying to figure out where he was. They were still at the Lookout, luckily.

So, all Gokou really had to do was get Vegeta all the way from where they were, out on the huge expanse of clear space in front of the Lookout, to Vegeta's room which was somewhere near the centre of the building.

Gokou stared at the doorway to the building uncertainly and hoped Vegeta was in an obliging mood, "Vegeta. We have to go back inside."

Vegeta's arms tightened their grip and he kissed the back of Gokou's neck lightly, "What's wrong with staying out here?"

Gokou tried to resist his urge to throw Vegeta off of him and run away screaming, "It's…ahhh… It's very…open. Don't you think?"

He felt Vegeta's lips turn upwards in a smile against the skin of his neck.

"You're right." Vegeta's purred, "Let's go inside."

They managed to get back to the prince's room without mishap and the first thing Gokou did when the door closed was nail his gaze to the wall, "Vegeta, please put something on." He said in a would-be calm voice and then added uncertainly seeing the almost hurt look on Vegeta's face, "You…umm…might catch a cold…or, or something."

Vegeta sighed then, without protest, moved over to his dresser and opened one of the draws pulling out his usual black shirt and jeans.

Gokou stood rigidly near the door, careful not to look in Vegeta's direction as he dressed, "V…Vegeta do you…remember what you said to me…e-earlier? When I was…well I didn't mean to but I was sort of…" Gokou broke off as Vegeta stopped buttoning up his shirt in favour of pressing himself against Gokou's side and brushing his fingertips across Gokou's lips.

"Of course I remember, Kakorotto. And I meant what I said." The prince was now running his fingertips down Gokou's cheek. "I am yours to look upon-"

Gokou jerked away from Vegeta abruptly, running his hand through his hair nervously, "That's…umm, not really…what I meant-" But once again Gokou was cut short.

"I understand, Kakorotto." Vegeta said, taking a defeated step away, "Your not ready, why don't we just sit for a while. I'm happy just to be with you."

************************************************ ******************************************

One Month Later

Gokou shut the door to Vegeta's room behind him silently as he crept out into the hallway and headed in the direction of his own bedroom.

Over the last month Piccilo, Dende, Mr. Popo and himself had created a routine that basically put Gokou looking after Vegeta a few hours after lunch, until he went to sleep, and either Piccilo, or Dende and Mr. Popo took over the next morning.

Of course Piccilo had been taking morning shift much more often as it became apparent that Vegeta was getting more and more…aggressive in his pursuits of his 'loves'.

Gokou rubbed his right shoulder and tried to get the feeling back into it. Tonight, Vegeta had decided he had to snuggle and Gokou had simply given in and let the man get comfortable and go to sleep. It hadn't been till later when he'd been attempting to get out from under the Saiyan prince so that he could search out his own bed that he'd wished he hadn't given in quite so easily. If he'd accidentally woken the man up then he could guarantee he wouldn't be sleeping until Piccilo came to relieve him; and that wouldn't happen for another three or four hours.

Turning down a side hallway, Gokou's thoughts turned to Vegeta's growing agitation. The man's irritated nature was beginning to shine through, even in the face of the wishes their son's had made, and Gokou was convinced it was because they kept the man cooped up inside all the time. It was unfair to keep Vegeta locked away from the world like a dangerous animal - after all, it wasn't his fault he was acting like he was and he might not be as aggressive if they took him out…it didn't even have to be for long; just enough time for Vegeta to smell the fresh air or see some sunlight.

Finally arriving at his bedroom doorway, Gokou decided he would talk to Bulma about it in the morning, since she was coming to check on their progress, though he couldn't really see how they could possibly make progress in this sort of situation.

****

Gokou had barely managed a few hours sleep when he was woken up by the sound of Bulma's screaming voice.

Listening intently, Gokou eventually caught one word that made it clear to his sleepy mind what the problem was.

Yamucha.

He guessed he must have forgotten to tell Bulma that Yamucha had stopped coming up for his shifts and according to the list the woman had created before Krillin, Gohan and Yamucha had left, Yamucha was supposed to be in with Vegeta today.

Gokou yawned and simply lay comfortably in bed, his hands behind his head basking in the warmth of the sun that shone brightly through his window.

The minutes passed and instead of getting up Gokou felt himself drifting further and further into sleep…

---

Gokou sat up abruptly, his legs immediately tangling in his sheets and sending him crashing to the floor as he tried to disentangle himself. What had woken him up? Whatever it had been, it was loud.

Blinking sleep-blurred eyes, Gokou managed to unwrap his legs from the sheets and then jumped in startlement as the loud sound came again; it sounded as though someone was trying to break his door down.

Stifling a yawn, the Saiyan heaved himself off the floor and took the few steps required to reach his door, but before he could get to it, it flew open and Bulma came storming in with a murderous look in her eyes.

"Gokou!" The women yelled her cheeks flushed with anger. "Why didn't you tell me Gohan and Krillin left? Not to mention the fact that Yamcha hasn't been turning up!"

Gokou stumbled back a few steps from the verbal assault, "I…well…I didn't want to bother you. You said not to…"

"Unless it was something important!" Bulma interrupted.

"You said…"

"I said?" Bulma questioned menacingly, crossing her arms over her chest in a posture that reminded Gokou of the stance Chichi took when she was getting ready to break things.

"Well… I didn't really think it was that important Bulma, it was nothing we couldn't handle." Gokou finished finally.

"Humph!" Bulma turned to face the door; "Well then, I hope you don't mind 'handling' it for a while longer then!"

Gokou blinked as the woman stormed out of his room, the electrical charge of her anger making his skin tingle in aftershock, even after the door had slammed shut behind her and she was gone.

What was she so mad about? Sure, he'd forgotten to tell her that half her task force had dropped out, but he'd been telling the truth; it was nothing that he and Piccilo couldn't handle. Though her command that they keep handling it got him a little worried. He guessed Bulma wouldn't be getting away from Capsule Corp. like she'd been hoping she could. Still - it was probably a good thing with the way Vegeta had been acting.

Gokou's hand immediately came up and he slapped himself in the forehead. He'd forgotten to ask Bulma about letting Vegeta out for some fresh air. Though maybe it was a good thing with the mood she was in…

Shrugging, Gokou threw the sheet he still had clutched in one hand onto the bed and then began retrieving and donning his clothing in preparation of searching the fierce woman out to broach the subject.

---

Bulma was getting ready to leave in her Capsule Plane when Gokou finally caught up with her.

Glad that he had caught her before she'd left Gokou got her attention.

"Ah, Bulma?" He said, stepping back uncertainly when Bulma rounded on him, glaring.

"What?"

"Ah…it's just…well… I was thinking that maybe we should take Vegeta out…or…something." He trailed off at the expression on Bulma's face.

"Out?" She said faintly.

"Yeah…" Gokou continued, "I think it would be good for him. We shouldn't keep him cooped up in his room for th…"

Bulma interrupted him, her voice slow and deadly, "What, Gokou, makes you think that you know what is good for my husband?"

"I wasn't…" Gokou started.

Bulma continued, her voice going slightly hysterical, "And where do you think you'd would take him? The Zoo?! I don't even want to think of what could happen!"

"Bulma, I…"

"Not you, or anybody else will be taking him anywhere! Do you hear me, Gokou? NO ONE!"

Not even bothering to see if Gokou would agree with her, Bulma climbed into her Capsule plane and hit the ignition. The plane jerked up into the air with a loud roar and Gokou jumped backwards, out of the way, and stared after the retreating speck forlornly.

Taking Vegeta out wouldn't cause all that much of a problem, would it? Not if he and Piccilo were watching the man and kept to unpopulated areas. Maybe some training would improve Vegeta's temper…

But Bulma had said 'no'.

With a sigh, Gokou raked a hand through his hair and went in search of the kitchen and breakfast.

-----------------------------------

End Chapter Five.

Read and Review! Constructive criticism welcomed. Flames Laughed at and used to warm my feet. Praise printed out and hung on the wall. ^_^V

~Justice-hime