Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Kiss from a rose ❯ chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Thank you CardDragonBall for Beta'ing this chapter *hugs*. ^_^

Disclaimer- I do not own DBZ or Seal's 'Kiss from a rose'.

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Mrs Briefs laid out his enormous breakfast for him on the table and his mouth watered at the sight of it. Although Goku had already eaten breakfast earlier this morning, he hadn't been able to resist this offer; in his mind Chi-chi and Mrs Briefs had to be the best cooks in the world.

In other words; if Bulma had offered him breakfast he would have flat out refused.

Trunks soon joined him on the table, muttered a greeting and began to chow down at a ferocious speed, but like his father, he managed to hold 'some' of his dignity whilst stuffing his face.

When Bulma entered she smiled warmly at the earth raised Saiyan, her eyes were too red and puffy for Goku's liking and he watched her closely as she gave the three year old Bra in her arms a peck on the cheek and placed the small girl on a high chair.

There was no falseness to her actions; even the smile seemed completely sincere, she turned to him again. "Hi Goku, how are you? You're here later then usual!"
He smiled the best he could with a mouthful of food and swallowed quickly, "I went shopping." Then inserted more food into his mouth.

Nonchalantly, Bulma edged in another question while trying to keep Bra from taking a nosedive out of her chair; which was rather useless considering Bra was half Saiyan.
"With Chi-chi?"

Goku just finishing his food, sat back in his chair and let out a satisfied burp, he pardoned himself, remembering his table manners. "No, I went Christmas shopping; I wanted to get there early so there weren't too many people around. I hope Vegeta doesn't mind… um, where is he anyways?"

Tears shimmered in Bulma's eyes for a moment before they vanished; it seemed Goku's question had gotten everyone's attention, all eyes fixed on Bulma for an explanation.

The young Bra tugged at her mothers sleeve to get her attention and Bulma immediately turned to her daughter; Goku smiled at the 'Kodak' moment shared between the two, the resemblance was so uncanny that it was difficult to tell Bra wasn't human.

The young girl's questioning gaze fixed on Bulma, uttering words she didn't need to say. The tears were coming back, threatening to spill. Before she could begin a suitable explanation for the 3 year old, Trunks was out of his seat lifting Bra from hers, and bribing the young girl with toys and games. Bulma mouthed a 'thank you' to her lavender haired son.

In all the years he had known Bulma, never had he felt uncomfortable in her presence, at times a little frightened, but never uneasy.
She was like a ticking time bomb, the tears were still there, shimmering in her eyes, and Goku just sat staring, hoping the dam wouldn't burst.

Her bottom lip began to tremble and he held his breath, eyes unconsciously searching for a quick exit; not once did the realisation dawn on him that he was mastered in the art of Instant translocation.

"What do you do in your sparring sessions?"

He looked at her oddly for a moment not sure how to answer, it could have been one of those reeto...rhetori… question thingies. "We…um Spar." He gave the blue haired woman a wide smile, hoping she would be happy with that answer.

"Are you sure, because I don't know what he's…" And the tears came, one after the other, faster and faster until she was sobbing quite hysterically.
Goku stood and decided to be honest with her, his oldest friend.

"Well there was this one time after sparring; I was kinda hungry so we went back to my house to look for food. Chi-chi was home and she cooked us both lunch. Vegeta told me not to tell you and we came back here and had lunch again."

Goku looked down at the floor in guilt, completely missing Bulma's look of incredulity; he almost jumped out of his skin when she let out an abrupt bout of laughter.

He soon joined her, not exactly sure what he was laughing at, but glad she was not crying anymore. "…Goku, how is it you always make me happy, even when you don't know the problem." She exclaimed, still breathless from her laughing.

"Um…" Before he could think of an answer to the question, she wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his chest, she sighed, somewhat sadly; "Goku, you're such a baka."

It was a quiet mutter with a childish hue to it but he heard; he smiled down at her while he stroked her hair. He heard sniffing from her and was a little unnerved at the fact that she was using his clothes to wipe her nose, but when the sniffles stopped, her quiet mumbling began. "He stays in there all day. That damned stupid GR! We never see him anymore; and when we do he just ignores us." The mumbling stopped and he heard a choked sob from her.

"It's even worse then when he first came here, at least then he went to sleep, he doesn't come to bed! He just stays in there, training until he passes out; he comes in here in the morning to have breakfast then he goes to spar with you."

Goku grimaced, mentally berating himself for not noticing any change in the smaller Saiyan, but he said nothing, letting Bulma hold him tighter and soak his gi with her tears. "I wait up for him every night; I can't sleep knowing that he's in there, killing himself."

That struck a nerve, because Goku didn't know what he would do if the Prince died; he knew that when the older Saiyan trained, he didn't hold any regard for his own health.

What bothered him more was how? They sparred everyday excluding the weekend; their sparring sessions lasted 4-6 hours and at times went on for the whole day. To go on to gravitational training after that is too much for the body, he feared Bulma could be right, Vegeta was slowly killing himself.

He held her close, wrapping his arms around her shoulders; he would speak to Vegeta later, he was sure there was a cause for this; the Prince had reasons for everything he did.

Bulma suddenly slipped out of his grasp, looking a little frightened; the rising ki by the door immediately told him his sparring partner had arrived.
He turned, a broad grin already in place, and for the first time in weeks he studied Vegeta, seeing the signs he had never noticed before.

The bruises on the arms and undoubtedly under the clothing that never seemed to heal; the bloodshot eyes that at times looked like he would cry blood. Even the flame shaped hair seemed to have lost its shine, some tendrils drooped in front of the Prince's eyes.

There was hurt in those eyes now, he looked so unguarded. Goku wondered what he could have done; maybe it was because he was late. The silence was confusing him; Vegeta was looking at him like he did something…bad.

"When you've finished with my wife Kakarot, maybe we can get going."

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This chap was a bit slow… Ok very slow, but it was needed (I think.)
Please leave feedback (…I promised Vegeta I wouldn't beg… don't make me beg!!!) ^_^