Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Princess of the Saiyans ❯ The First Lessons ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Princess of the Saiyans
Chapter 2: The First Lessons

Note: Please keep in mind that this isn't in normal continuity. As to the reappearance of Vegeta's...uh...limb, let's just say it grew back... (I know it got cut off or something on the show, but this isn't the show) And you can just assume there haven't been many (or any) full moons lately.


Gohan was just finishing his work for the afternoon when Pan rushed by his desk, pausing only to kiss his cheek and shout, "Bye, Daddy!" before heading for the door.

"Hey!" he called after her. "Where are you going?"

"Trunks' house," she replied, starting to open the door.

"But Trunks and Goten aren't there now. They went to the zoo with his mother, remember?"

"I know!" Pan continued to pull the door open.

"So why are you going there?"

Pan gave him an exasperated look. "To see Trunks' Daddy!"

Gohan blinked several times after Pan went out of the door and closed it. Then he jumped over his desk and ran to catch up with her. She'd already reached the front gate when stopped her. "Wait! You're going to see...Vegeta?!"

Pan nodded and tried to go around him, but Gohan stopped her again.

"Sweetheart, I know you mean well, but I'm not so sure if this is a good idea. He might be busy, and-"

"He's not busy, Daddy," she interrupted. "He asked me to come over."

"He did WHAT?!"

"Okay, he TOLD me. But I think he meant to ask instead."

Gohan stared at her for a long moment. A million thoughts ran through his head, but none could decipher why Vegeta would ever want Pan around. "Well, maybe I should go with you," he said at last.

Pan frowned. "Daddy, he told me not to bring you! You'll make him mad if you go!"

That much, at least, Gohan did understand. But Pan was his only child, his little girl! There was no telling what kind of influence Vegeta might have on her, and there was Videl's opinion to consider, too. There was certainly no love lost between her and the Saiyan Prince.

"Daddy, he'll be mad if I'm late!" Pan suddenly whined. "Can I please go now?"

"Why does he want you to come over?" Gohan asked suspiciously.

Pan shrugged. "We had fun at the store, and he wanted to do it again."

She called it fun, but Gohan called it nothing short of kidnapping. Pan, in fact, was the only reason that Gohan hadn't attempted to kill Vegeta upon finding them. Well, that and Vegeta had a lot more experience in the area, and would probably kill him first.

Before Gohan could ask more questions, he sensed a familiar ki signature, and Vegeta himself appeared overhead. Gohan noticed, with great concern, that Vegeta was wearing his battle armor. He'd forgotten how intimidating the prince could look while wearing it.

Vegeta landed with his usual grace, crossing his arms over his chest and staring pointedly at Gohan.

Pan took advantage of her father's momentary silence and quickly ran to Vegeta's side, hugging one of his legs.

Gohan quickly found his voice, however. "Just when were you going to tell me about this?"

Vegeta looked somewhat amused. "I wasn't," he replied simply.

Gohan's eyes bulged, and again, it was again Pan's presence that kept him from losing it. "What are you doing with my daughter?"

Vegeta blinked once. "Nothing." His eyes darted down to Pan, and then back to Gohan. "Yet."

Gohan could see that Vegeta wanted to smile cruelly, but for some reason, he wasn't giving in to the desire. "Vegeta, I don't know what you think you're doing-"

"Exactly what you should have done," Vegeta interrupted, his trademark scowl finally surfacing. He glanced at Pan again, and then scooped her up with one arm. "It really does amaze me sometimes," he said, turning away.

Gohan blinked. "What?"

Vegeta glanced over his shoulder. "How you could dare to call yourself Kakarott's son." And with that, he was gone, along with Pan.

Gohan watched them until they became little more than a dot in the sky. Only then did the full meaning of Vegeta's words, and his now apparent intentions for Pan, become clear to him. And instead of flying after them, Gohan sat down and leaned against the gate. It was several minutes later before he realized he was crying.

* * * * *

Vegeta wasn't quite sure where the words had come from. They'd just...happened, as if they had always been there, waiting to escape from his mouth. But he was glad he'd said them, to a certain extent. He wasn't sure how Pan would react, but he soon found it was pointless to worry.

The moment they landed, Pan looked at him and asked, "Who's Kakarott?"

Vegeta chose to ignore the question, for now. "There are some things you should understand before we begin, Pan."

"You mean the secret stuff?"

"Yes," he replied at length. "First, never call it that again. The proper name is training."

"Oh."

Vegeta paused for a moment. There were so many things she obviously didn't know, and it was difficult to decide where he should start. "Do you know what a Saiyan is?"

Pan scrunched up her little face. "Kinda."

"Tell me what you know."

"You're one."

Vegeta blinked. "That's it?"

"No." She thought for a moment. "They're really strong. They can blow up stuff and eat tons of food. And they have lots of hair, too."

"Where did you learn that?" Vegeta asked.

"Trunks told me."

So that was it. Well, the boy had at least tried to help. But this definitely required a fresh start. "I'm going to show you something, Pan. It may startle you, but I don't want you to be afraid."

She nodded and waited.

Vegeta knew he was taking a huge risk by showing her, but it was necessary. "Another thing. Don't touch it, either." And with that, his tail emerged.

At first, Pan only stared with something he thought was horror. And then she smiled. "COOL!"

He hadn't been expecting that reaction. "You're...not afraid?"

"No! I want one!"

Vegeta almost smiled. "You can't have one. They've already cut it off for good, no doubt."

"You mean I had one and no one told me?!"

"Yes. A Saiyan with a tail is even more dangerous than one without."

"Why?" Pan asked, her eyes following the tail's every movement.

"Because if a Saiyan sees the full moon, he will turn into...well, a monster." That was probably the best way to make her understand. If he'd said monkey, she'd probably think it was cute.

Pan's eyes widened.

"Are you afraid?"

She blinked a few times, then shook her head. "No. I know you'd never hurt me."

"And why is that?"

"Grampa Goku and Trunks told me so."

Vegeta frowned, but didn't say anything right away. "Another thing. When we're alone like this, don't call me 'Trunks' Daddy,' either."

Pan tore her eyes away from his tail. "What do I call you then?"

"Sensei. But only during training, or when we're alone."

"What about when there's other people?"

"Vegeta-sama."

"What's that mean?"

"That's your first task," he replied. "If you ever don't understand why I ask you to do something, it's your job to find out why and tell me the next day."

"Okay." Pan looked up at him. "Sensei."

"Good." He glanced up at the sun, then sighed. "We're done for the day."

"We are?" she asked slowly.

"Yes. We'll start the physical training tomorrow." His tail tucked itself back into his armor. "I'll take you home now."

"But...but..."

Vegeta looked at her. "What is it?"

"I wanna stay."

"Fine. I suppose Trunks and Goten will be back soon."

"No." Pan's cheeks turned bright red. "I wanna stay with you..."

Vegeta stared at her. It was probably a bad idea for her to get attached to him. On the other hand, the more devoted to him she was, the easier their training would most likely go. It was a personal call, then. "Do you remember much about your grandfather, Pan?"

"Only what Daddy and Grandma Chi-chi tell me, mostly."

"Would you like to know more?"

She nodded enthusiastically.

"Very well. Walk with me and I'll tell you what I remember." He'd only taken a few steps when he felt her arms around his leg. He looked down to see Pan hugging his leg, smiling up at him.

"Thank you, Sensei."

Vegeta found himself resisting the urge to smile again as he picked her up and walked to the house.

* * * * *

"I am NEVER taking you two to the zoo again," Bulma swore as she pulled the car into the driveway.

"But it wasn't our fault, Mom!" Trunks cried. "The monkeys started it! Honest!"

"Yeah! They threw poop at me!" Goten added.

For once, Bulma could tell he wasn't lying, as she could smell the evidence. "That was no reason to rip open the cages. You let half of the animals out, and the other half were spooked beyond repair. It'll be months before the zoo can open again. And I'm getting a little tired of filling out incident reports at the police station."

"But we had fun, right?" Trunks asked hopefully.

Bulma sighed. "Trunks, go to your room. Goten, go to the bathroom and STAY there until I come in. It's going to take a lot of shampoo to get that mess out of your hair. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," both boys replied sullenly as they piled out of the car.

Bulma sighed again and went into the kitchen. Then she stopped.

There was a box of vanilla ice cream on the table. Only it had long since melted, and now there was ice cream all over the table, and a bit dripping to the floor. And for some reason, she couldn't blame the boys this time, as they'd been with her. She'd never known Vegeta to be fond of sweets, but the man would eat just about anything that got close enough to his mouth and didn't put up much of a fight.

She was considering screaming right there when she heard a familiar sound. Someone was typing on her keyboard. The one connected to the personal computer that no one but her was allowed to use.

Bulma took a few deep breaths, and then walked into her room.

Pan was seated on a stack of phone books in her chair, typing fairly fast for someone her age. Next to her was an empty cup, though it was obvious it had once contained ice cream.

Bulma instantly knew that her keyboard would now be very sticky. Slowly, she found her voice. "Pan? Sweetie?"

Pan turned around and smiled at her. "Hi, Trunks' Mommy!" She hopped out of the chair and flew into Bulma's arms.

Bulma sighed again. Pan was impossible to stay mad at for very long. "Honey, what are you doing here so late?"

"Oh. Well, Vegeta-sama told me some stories, and then it was late, so he made me dinner, and then he told me to look at some stuff on your computer until he came to take me home."

Bulma snuck at glance at her computer. Apparently, "stuff" was her compiled database information on all the Z fighters. "What did you have for dinner?"

"Pizza!" Pan replied with a grin. "It was frozen, but Vegeta-sama heated it with his fire. It was cool!"

"Did he tell you to call him that?"

Pan nodded. "He says it's the proper way to address him, cuz he's so important."

"I can believe that."

"Time to go home, Pan," said a voice behind them.

Bulma glanced back to see Vegeta standing there, his arms crossed over his chest, as usual. It was obvious he'd been training, as most of his body was covered in cuts and scrapes. "I guess I'll have to hook up the regeneration tank again, huh?" Bulma asked.

"That won't be necessary. Let's go, Pan."

Pan slipped out of Bulma's grasp and ran over to Vegeta, grabbing one of his hands. "Can we start early tomorrow?" she asked.

"We'll see." Vegeta walked into the hall with Pan by his side.

"Well, there's a strange relationship," Bulma muttered. "But at least I know who to blame for the ice cream." She sighed again, and then went to give Goten the longest bath of both their lives.

* * * * *

"Sensei?"

Vegeta glanced down at Pan, who was clinging tightly to his neck. "What is it?"

"How come Daddy doesn't like you?"

Vegeta was silent for a moment. "Why didn't he like me then or now?"

"Both." Pan stared at him expectantly. She'd obviously given this some thought.

"Well...he didn't like me before because I tried to kill your grandfather, but I told you about that already. As for why he doesn't like me now...he probably thinks I'm trying to take you from him."

"Why would you do that?"

"I wouldn't. That's why I think he's such an idiot. He's probably afraid you'll like me more than him."

"Oh. Would that be bad?"

Vegeta paused in mid-air, hovering for a moment. "That depends. Do you like me more than him?"

"I don't think so, but I'm not sure." She lowered her head. "Sometimes I wish he was home more, though. He's always working, and I don't get to see him much."

"He may tell you not to see me anymore," Vegeta admitted.

Pan's head snapped up. "But...he can't do that!"

"Oh? Why not?"

Pan searched desperately for an answer. "Because...sometimes, when I'm with you, I can remember Grampa Goku better, like today. And sometimes, when you hold me like this, I can smell him."

Vegeta blinked. "Smell him?"

"You smell like him," Pan corrected. "Like sweat and stuff."

Normally, Vegeta would've considered that an insult. But many were the days that Chi-chi had had to beg Kakarott to take a bath. It was funny to him, a man so strong forgetting something as mandatory as taking a bath. Vegeta took baths or showers when he thought he needed them, though Bulma claimed he should do it more often than a few times a month.

"Sensei?"

"Yes?"

She looked into his eyes. "Promise you won't stop training me, no matter what Daddy says. Please?"

"I promise, Pan," he said after a while.

She smiled and pressed her head to his chest. "Thank you, Sensei."

Though Vegeta didn't say anything else, he clutched Pan a little tighter in his arms, and regretted when he'd have to let go.

* * * * *

Gohan was still leaning against the gate when Pan and Vegeta returned. He'd been there all day, just sitting and thinking. He didn't even know they were back until he heard Pan squeal, "Daddy!"

She came running at him and dove into arms, greeting him with her usual kiss.

Gohan smiled faintly, mostly for her, and stroked her head. "Did you have fun?"

She nodded, smiling even wider.

"Well, go inside and let Mom know you're back," he said, gently patting her bottom.

She nodded again and waved to Vegeta, who merely nodded. Then Pan ran into the house, shouting for her mother.

Gohan slowly stood up and brushed off his pants.

Vegeta only stood there, waiting for him to speak.

"I guess you'll be back tomorrow," Gohan said after a few minutes.

"Maybe," Vegeta replied.

"She adores you, doesn't she?"

Vegeta arched an eyebrow and didn't scowl or smile. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"Will she be strong?"

"Probably."

"You'll keep training her no matter what I say, won't you?"

Vegeta finally smiled, and it wasn't a comforting sight. "Definitely."

Gohan nodded. It was, after all, the answer he'd been expecting. "Then I guess there's nothing more to say."

"There is," Vegeta said.

Gohan stared at him.

"Spend more time with her or I'll kill you myself."

Gohan watched him fly off in silence. Then he turned and went into the house.

Continued in Chapter 3: The Pains of Progress