The Meaning of Pride
5
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The Meaning of Pride
Card
Time
for the warnings portion:
tab-stops:list .75in\'>mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt\'>A.
12.0pt\'>I own nothing but my own two hands.
All the characters portrayed here were kidnapped from their show DBZ and
forced to enact my wishes.
tab-stops:list .75in\'>mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt\'>B.
12.0pt\'>Whilst mostly I strive to make this “in character” and not “AU” we must
all remember it is fanfiction. (I’m
getting a bit snotty here, aren’t I?)
tab-stops:list .75in\'>mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt\'>C.
12.0pt\'>Smut. Vegeta POV.
(That’s two boys bumping uglies, by the way.)
tab-stops:list .75in\'>mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt\'>D.
12.0pt\'>If you didn’t read the warnings, you are on your own I have no sympathy
for you.
And
lastly:
style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'> Got this idea off the DBZ Saiyan
Slash mailing list. Will probably be
posting it there and at AFF.net
~~***
you’re always telling me that I don’t ‘have pride’ and all that.
supposed to be proud of.”
That’s
what the idiot said. Explained
everything about him in two sentences.
It wasn’t just that Vegeta had neglected to tell him what he should be
proud of; but that everyone he had ever known had not told him.
that ability to admit that he wasn’t the strongest, that came because he truly
did not understand the depths of what he had accomplished.
galaxies, all through time, had trained and trained and worked to become Super
Saiyans, and this baka right here had done that.yes\"> Surpassed that three times over.
And he didn’t understand it at all.
No
wonder he always did that damn-annoying shrug ‘that was a good one, Vegeta’
thing that he hated so much. Because he
didn’t know. And Vegeta certainly
hadn’t spent his time giving the baka lessons.
Because being a Saiyan was something you were.yes\"> It was not something you were taught.yes\"> But he could see the parts of the idiot that were still Saiyan,
constrained and bound by the laws of this earth-bound existence.
his son out into the universe and not even given him a way to know who he
was. (Didn’t care that Kakarot should
have remembered and would have remembered if he hadn’t have bumped his
head.) Hated Radditz for attack him own
brother and getting his dumb ass kilin tin the process.
“Geta?”
He
realized he had been standing there staring at the baka for a good five
minutes, and cleared his throat. “Why
do you want to know?” Felt a dim
annoyance at himself and his inability to just say ‘yes, Kakarot I’ll tell you
about our home planet.’
“Because.”
do. I mean, I could wander around
again. But I did that when I was
little.”
“And
what do you want to know?”
“I
don’t know. Whatever you want to tell
me. I mean, I don’t know anything.
Yes.
humans. Stood in defense of them, gave
his life for them and they did nothing but betray him time and time again.
the credit for winning the Cell Games.)
Perhaps more than that, he hated that Kakarot allowed himself to be
talked down to, by the Prince, by his wife, by everyone and anyone that ever saw
him. Let himself be told that he was an
idiot and worked to make everyone else happy.
To keep life alive.
Idiot.
“There
were two suns,” Vegeta said.
“Really?”
“All
the boys were drafted into military service.”
pan>pan>Wondered why he was saying this.
It was stupid little things.
Idiotic tidbits of information that he remembered.
him to keep talking like a child waits to hear a bedtime story.
Willing. Waiting.
they could get.”
“Didn’t
they love them?”
Vegeta
snorted. “Saiyans are warriors, not
poets. Love is for weak species like
earthlings.” He paused there, to wonder
if that was true. Because what he felt
toward Bulma was something that the baka would probably call love.
a son. He had been pissed when she
died, and not because he was afraid his child wouldn’t be cared for.
ready for her to leave him. “Children
are raised to training age and then enrolled in the military.”
Kakarot
actually sat down. Crossed his
legs. And was completely silent.
Waiting for his every word. When
he paused and stared, the baka whined and said: “Oh, come on Vegeta.
“Of
course I do.”
This
pause seemed to have alerted the baka to his stomach, because he stood up
again, pressed his hand flat to his waist and said: “Are you hungry, too,
‘Geta?” His stomach growled.
of us?”
“Nobody
has enough food for you, Kakarot.” Then
he turned and started toward his home.
Realized only much later that he had sounded affectionate.
And
he liked it.
~~~**
It
became their thing. Fight in the
mornings—every morning but Sunday—and have lunch at Capsule corp where Vegeta
told him and their two sons about their home planet.yes\"> Taught them stupid things about their heritage that made Goku
start to understand more and more of the Prince.yes\"> Their sons were picking up the language, but Goku was as clueless
as he was before they started this lunch thing.yes\">
And so it happened, two weeks
later that Bulma ambushed him as he was getting ready to leave (and Vegeta had
gone to the bathroom.) She trapped him
in her kitchen and said: “So?”
“So
what, Bulma?”
“Has
he said anything? He’s been acting even
weirder.”
Actually,
he hadn’t really noticed that. He was
still getting bruises everywhere from their spars, still trading verbal jabs
with the Prince. (Still trying to
understand why it was that everything Vegeta did was dripping with pride as if
he thought of everything he did before he did it and made sure it gave off the
right impression.) “Uh…
Is he still being difficult?”
Bulma
just gave him an open mouthed stare.
Like he was insane. (And if her
mouth stayed open very much longer, she would be the one drooling.)
Not difficult. But, since when
do you two get along all chummy like?
And Trunks has started talking in a different language.
Okay,
now Goku was very confused. Because
Vegeta laughed a lot. Granted, it was
more of an evil chuckle or a laugh at how Goku failed to be a proud-ass
difficult Saiyan. Or a laugh at one of
his enemies about how he pitied them.
“He hasn’t said anything, Bulma.
Why don’t you ask him about it?
He would probably tell you before he would tell me.”
And
he wondered why he hadn’t thought of that before.yes\"> Because it certainly made the most sense.
why he was being so un-lovable for the past two years.
things about his original home. He
liked that.
“Fine,”
is what Bulma said to him, coolly, “I’ll do that.”
She
moved and let him leave, and he was left wonder what the heck he had done to
make her glare at him. Decided that he
might never know and thusly should not concern himself about it too much.
Vegeta called it—and laid down, stared up at the clear sky and thought about
life. About how different life was
now.
He
missed Chichi. Thought that it was
horrible she had to die in pain, wished that he could have found a way to allow
her to die without pain. Thought of his
littlest son—who was practically living in Vegeta’s house, and he heard plenty
about that from the Prince. Thought of
Gohan, who was going to be a father himself soon.yes\"> Considered that his life was pretty darn good.
Thought
of what he had learned about the planet Vegeta.yes\"> Closed his eyes and tried to imagine it.
trained to ignore perking up. Let it
move through him, felt something like a symphony running all through him,
rising and rising. Making hee tee the
vibrant colors that Vegeta had tried to explain, let him watch the classes full
of young Saiyans training. Let him
imagine the ships as they departed, the women as they waited for their mates to
return to them. Smiled when he could
see a whole planet full of dark-haired Saiyans with brown tails and black
eyes. And then—oddly enough—he imagined
Vegeta ruling over it all. Understood
why he was so much like he was.
Because
a Prince was Pride. That was all
he was. A proud figure that commanded
his peoples to go and take everything.
Commanded his people to their doom.
But was proud, so all his people would be proud.
been taken from Vegeta.
Wanted
to find a way to bring Freiza back, just so Vegeta could kill him—to avenge all
those that died. Goku had defeated the
icejin and the future Trunks had. But
Vegeta had not been given that pride.
No wonder he hated Goku.
But
the dream worldt het he had constructed, it moved around inside of his mind,
undisturbed by the truth of what had happened to it.yes\"> Goku watched the Prince rule over his people, found it extremely
odd that he wasn’t in his dream-world.
That he couldn’t even find a single Saiyan in his minds’eye that looked
anything like him.
Snorted
to himself, opened his eyes, and thought ‘that’s probably what Vegeta was
always talking about. He had no pride
in himself.’ Didn’t want any.
keep proving to himself that he was better than everyone else.
anyone. He was just himself.
save them when he could.
Thought
about Vegeta again, and sat up, saw that the very person he was thinking of was
standing not that far away from him.
Arms crossed over his chest.
Scowling. Dark.
(Pissed
off.)
And
he narrowed his eyes and said: “What’s wrong, Vegeta?”
he was hauled to his feet by a rough hand in his hair and punched in the
face. Felt himself falling back,
hitting hard ground, and then Vegeta was there, very close to him.
“I
don’t care if you live or die,” he said to Goku, “I don’t care about your dead
wife or your kid or your stupid questions about my planet.”
Ok.
Vegeta
pulled away. Seemed to be satisfied
with that. But he didn’t leave.
of him that he had no control over.
Goku
stood back up, looked at Vegeta, dusted his pants off.
that mind, but found that he had no clue.
Dark eyes were staring at him.
Intently. As if they were trying
to see through him. The stance broke
for just a bare second.
Vegeta
scowled deeper. “I don’t know what that
idiot woman was talking about.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***
Gasp.
Gk: Oooo!
Vegeta: No.
carrying. *points at fifteen bags
strapped to him. *
Gk: I’ve gotten
you out of weirder clothes than that.
Vegeta: Then, by
all means, take me.
Gk: Alright!
Jaygoose:
I
felt bad about Chichi too. (Not for
very long, but for a few minutes.) And I’m
very pleased that I’ve managed to show Goku & Vegeta’s “hidden traits.”
Mechanical Butterfly:
Goodness.
chapter! *Blushing right now after
reading the review.* *In fact the
blushing is giving me a headache.
Goodness.*
Getarian:
I
got a Gamecube for Christmas & the Budokai game and then just recently got
a PS2. So I’m going to go get that
Budokai 2 game eventually.
I
was trying to build up to the point where they could get along without having
to kill one another. Because once I
feel I’ve gotten to that point the story will move along a bit more speedy
like. (At least that’s the plan.