Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Foreign Tears ❯ Just There ( Chapter 1 )

Foreign Tears

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or any of the Dragon Ball Z characters. They are owned by those who own them. I do, however, own the fic all of this is in. That is all.

He stood at the grave like he had done so in the past month, barely even moving for hours on end even if his body wanted to give out from standing so much. Always alone as he didn't want anyone to see him in this mournful state. Always straight faced until he reached the spot he knew all too well now. The spot where his child son's lifeless body slept eternally.

Vegeta stared at the headstone in front of him, barely able to hold back the tears that he wanted so desperately let out. The Saiyan looked around to make sure no one was looking at him nor was there anyone else present before kneeling onto one knee and placing a hand on the stone that sat in front of him. It was chillingly cold despite that it was a fairly warm day and the sun was beating down onto the grave, but he didn't care about that. Everything that he once knew and once had was gone now for the most part and he couldn't get them back.

"Why?" Vegeta asked the wind herself, bowing his head down to the ground so that he could attempt to mask the tears that were forming. and, yet, he knew the answer to that small question. He knew why he was there, but he had to tell himself over and over again in case there was something he missed. Something he left out. Something that wasn't right about this. Unfortunately, it was the same thing that he replayed in his dreams that left him in a cold sweat.

How could such a thing happen? Why did it have to happen to him? Why couldn't this have happened to someone else? Someone that deserved it more then he did? He couldn't answer those questions nor would he ever be able to. He just knew the foreign feelings within him where welling up inside of him so much that he didn't know how to release them into the world around him. The world in which wanted him to show these things to it.

The Saiyan Prince banged a fist into the top of the head stone, not real hard but enough to make several cracks open up where he had put his fist into. He knew it was his fault that his son had gone before him. It was his fault that his wife had left their bed because he wouldn't open up to her. It was his fault that everyone saw him as the uncaring bastard that killed his own son. If only I hadn't made him train that day. Of only I hadn't pushed him, maybe then. Maybe he wouldn't laying under the dirt, so cold. So lifeless, Vegeta thought to himself, shaking his head as he raised his eyes up to meet the sky.

He had killed many people and destroyed many planets in his lifetime, feeling nothing for those lives that had been killed all because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. If there were even two lives that he felt something for, one of them was now underneath him, dead to the world that he had known only for a few short years.

He remembered what had gone on that day like it had happened just a few seconds ago. Like a movie he was made to see over and over again but it was playing in his mind like a broken record. He couldn't get it out of his mind even if he tried to push it out. Why? He thought to himself once again, standing up as he put his hands by his side, closing his eyes as he did. Oh, he remembered. Remembered it so vividly......

Flashback---One Month Earlier

"Boy, get out here now!" Vegeta bellowed from outside the Capsule Corps. main building, his arms crossed over his chest and the usual sneer he wore on his face. It was getting to the point at this time of year when the cold weather was leaving and the warm fronts would move in for the Spring and Summer months. Yet, there was still that certain chill that hung in the air between the cold Winter and the warm Spring. However, even the nipping wind didn't stop the Prince of Saiyans training. He refused to go about any other business until his several hours of steady, non-stop training were in and only then did he allow himself to do anything else. "I don't want to have to pull your screaming ass out of there today."

"Coming, coming," Trunks grumbled as he flew out of the opened door of the building, barely able to put on his boot before he landed in front of his father. Vegeta raised an eyebrow, snorting as he stared down at his son. "Why can't we train inside today? You know mother made a training room in there."

"Because, you little good for nothing brat, you have go to be prepared for everything and anything. The coldness will help you anyways, so stop that whining so that we can get the training done."

"Nothing's coming anyways, so why bother?"

"You always got to be prepared," The elder Saiyan growled out, pitting his face just millimeters away from his son's. "Just because we are in times of peace doesn't mean anything. You don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. I want my son to be the strongest, do you understand?"

"Y-Y-es," Trunks stammered out, taking a step back. Even though his father was stronger then he was and could easily put fear into most anyone that was weaker then him, the boy didn't fear him as he used to. Then, when he was first training with his father, there was so much fear in the boy that he could barely stand up in even in the smallest amount of gravity that there was. Now that he was old and stronger, Trunks could stand up to the Saiyan Prince more then before.

"Good," Vegeta smirked, rubbing his son's hair as he turned around and started to walk a little ways from the main building of Capsule Corps. "If you can get two half-assed punches on me, then I can take you and your friend to the park."

"YAY!" Trunks shouted out as he ran to catch up with his father. Together, they would find a perfect place to train......

End Flashback

Vegeta opened his eyes slightly, a single crystal blue tear rolling down his cheek. He knew they never made it to the park that day even if the boy had wanted to go there. Before something happened that he wished hadn't happened.......

Flashback

The Saiyan beat down onto his son as the two floated in the air, the boy barely able to keep up with the punches that his father bore down onto him. Vegeta had found a perfect spot to train his young son, away from prying eyes that might wonder what was going on. Away from Bulma Briefs's cries of "Don't bee too hard on him!" to "Vegeta, damn it, stop being so aggressive on him! He is only a small child after all.". A child, he had thought so many times before, that had to learn how to fight in order to stand up for himself.

The two had been going at this for over an hour already and so far, Trunks had managed only one real good punch to his father. The way he was going, Vegeta reckoned, the boy would have two or three good punches in before the training part of the day was over and done with. The Saiyan Prince had to admit that Trunks was taking a lot more crap then he had a few months prior. By the time the year would be out, there would be a new Super Saiyan wandering about.

"Dad, can't we take a rest?" Trunks huffed, breaking away from his father's beating before zooming towards a nearby cliff that overlooked the field the two were training at. Vegeta took chase, a low growl emitting from deep within his throat.

"No we won't! I've been too soft in the past abut this sort of thing, and I'll be damned if it is going to continue!" He bared out, firing several blasts towards the child. Trunks dodged all but one of them, which made him lose control of his flying ability and plummet towards the ground at an angle. He smashed into the cliff ahead, so hard and so fast that it made several boulders come loose from the top and fall down directly where he laid.

Vegeta landed onto the ground near where his son touched down, a sneer surfacing onto his face. He had pushed Trunks to the point of near exhaustion and sometimes near death, but the boy always seemed to pull through. Just like his father, Dr. Briefs had comment several times before and the Saiyan half-heartedly agreed with that statement.

"Ugh," Trunks grumbled a half hour later when Vegeta pulled the boulders off of him after the boy hadn't surfaced from the place where he had landed. He was bloody alright, alive more then dead, and a few deep cuts here and there. Nothing too serious in the Saiyan's eye.

"Come on, boy. We'll finish training if you can hit me one more time. Then I can take you and that good for nothing friend of yours to the park later," Vegeta snapped out, crossing his arms over his chest, turning around and walking away from his injured son. Trunks pushed himself out, crawling onto the ground towards his father. He wanted to fly away at this point but he didn't feel like he had enough strength to even stand at this point.

"Dad...."

"What?" Vegeta growled, stopping as he turned his head over his shoulder. He snorted at the sight of his son barely able to sit on his knees, a anger boiling inside of him. "Get up, NOW! You still got a lot of training to do! Now resting until you are done."

"But, dad!" Trunks whined, standing up even though his legs hurt too much to do so. "I can't even stand anymore. Can't we just stop for today? I don't care about going to the park."

"If I didn't care about you getting better then Kakkarot's own blood, then I'd stop training you. But, you do care about going to the park and I do care about you becoming better. So tough it out and quit that whining."

****

Trunks' chest moved up and down very slowly, blood oozing out of the many deep cuts that he had all over his body as Vegeta carried him back home, not even the slightest bit worried about his son. It was like any other training session but more intense and more violent then it had been before. The child had finally collapsed after another four hours of constant training, not even strong enough to put in another punch to his father. Vegeta had caved in about the park after he had picked up his son and started the journey back home, muttering all the way how he was becoming too soft for Saiyan Royalty.

"What in the hell did you do to Trunks this time?" Bulma screamed out as soon as Vegeta had landed in front of the Capsule Corps. building complex. She had obviously been standing there for a little while, waiting for the exact moment when father and son came back from their training. She had expected Trunks to be flying next to his father like he had done in the past, mostly beat up because of the training but not like he was at the moment.

"So he was thrown into a cliff by one of my blasts. No big deal. He survived, didn't he?" Vegeta grumbled as Bulma rushed up to them and snatched her son from his father's arms.

"Survived the initial impact, but that doesn't mean anything I've told you many times before, Vegeta, that I think it is great that you want to train your son but he is just a boy and can't take everything that you think he can take," Bulma hissed, fear, worry, and anger all swirling around on her face as she rushed into the building with her son in her arms. Vegeta narrowed his eyes, balling his fists in anger as he followed the woman inside.

End Flashback

The Saiyan squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to block out the rest of the images that he knew that would follow this. It was those pictures of his son, barely breathing and barely alive, that haunted him the most. Haunted him every night while he laid in bed, alone and unable to change something that he had total control over but he refused to take that responsibility.

"Vegeta?" A female voice asked from behind him. The prince snapped his eyes open, turning halfway around to see who was there as he wiped any remaining tears away so that person wouldn't see it. Standing there was Bulma Briefs, her eyes flaring with anger but a face full of wonder and confusion as she stood several feet away from her husband. "What are you doing here?"

"None of your damn business, woman," Vegeta snapped out, turning his head away so that she wouldn't see his puffy eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"This is, after all, where my son was buried after you killed him."

"How was I supposed to......"

"Oh, come on, Vegeta. You were the one that pushed him too hard to become better than Gohan. You were the one that made him train so hard that day that it drove him to an early grave. You were the one that decided to train on the day of his funeral. You were the one that blocked out emotions when someone tried to comfort you.

"Don't assume that, because I wasn't there, I was off training," Vegeta snapped, turning his back on his wife as he stared down at the grave in which Trunks now slept in. He ignored the rustling of grass as Bulma walked next to him, leaning around the Saiyan to get a good look at his face.

"You weren't training?" She asked in disbelief, unable to understand that simple notion that her husband was doing something else besides training or eating. "But, I thought...."

"That's the problem right there, damn it. You only assumed that I was training and never asked what I was actually doing. You only assumed that I felt nothing and never asked what I really felt."

"W-what were you doing? What did you feel?"

"That...." Vegeta took in a deep breath, quickly taking control of the feelings that were swirling around him as he shook his head. He didn't have the time for this nor did he want to show these feelings to her at this moment. He had to get out of there before anything else could happen as he lifted off the ground. He was about to soar higher before Bulma reached out and grabbed his wrist to pull him back down to Earth. Vegeta glared at her, his eyes narrowing into slits. "Let go of me so that I can....."

"Vegeta, please," Bulma whispered, her own tears forming at the base of her eyes. "I want to know what you were doing. I want to know what you were feeling. I want to know what you are feeling now."

"Why?" The Saiyan asked, snapping his wrist out of her grasp. "Why should I stay here and pour my feelings to you? It is just a waste of time."

"Was it a waste of time coming here when you should be training?"

Vegeta opened his mouth to retort that but closed it back up. He found himself landing back onto the ground as he sat down onto the soft soil next to his only son's grave, his eyes looking down at the blades of grass that blew in the wind. He had asked himself the save question when he had come to the cemetery, but didn't go off to train. Instead, he came to where Trunks was buried and stood there, wonder what in the hell made him give out all of a sudden. He knew his son was a fighter just like his father, yet something went wrong. Something that couldn't be explained in his mind.

"Why?" Vegeta whispered as Bulma sat down next to him. She placed a hand onto his, giving a squeeze as her husband looked away from her. "What happened? I know he could have survived that, but still."

"I know he could have, but maybe he was afraid that you weren't proud of him," Bulma said slowly, half afraid of what the other might do. "Maybe that is why he just gave up all of a sudden. He was too scared to face you again."

"I never wasn't proud of him. I just didn't tell him. I..."

"Hush, Vegeta. Just cry. Cry so that I know that you are hurting inside. Stop trying to be so strong when you and I both know you aren't."

"I don't know any other way to be," Vegeta muttered, moving his head to where his wife was, his tears streaming down his cheeks. Bulma lifted her hand to his face, wiping away several of the tears that were there. He then grabbed that hand, holding it close to his cheek to feel the warmth that she held in it. "Don't go yet."

"Vegeta, I need to go back to work now. It is the only way I can get through the pain of losing my only child."

"You still have me," He whispered as Bulma pulled her hand away from under his hand, standing up slowly as she stared down at him.

"You are barely at home anymore and when you are, you don't say a word to me. what am I supposed to do?" She wondered to him as Vegeta stood up as well. He wrapped a arm around her waist, bringing her to him as he stared into his eyes.

"Then give me a reason to stay there and I'll stay."

"I can't, Vegeta. I can't now. If only you had been there from the beginning then we wouldn't be in this mess right now."

"But....."

"But, nothing. I am sorry," Bulma whispered, moving away from the Saiyan as she backed up, turning to walk away from the person that she used to know.

Vegeta watched her go, unable to stop her from walking away forever.

To Be Continued