Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Trinity ❯ Chapter 5

Trinity

Author: Xero Sky

Pairings: Vegeta, Vejitto, and Goku, or various combinations thereof.

Warnings: YAOI AU, lemon, language, violence, at some point. Silliness here and there. Intelligent Goku. Plus whatever warning's appropriate to intimate contact between a fusion and his separate selves . . . O.o

Author's note: Thanks to legendary chibi vegeta for beta reading.

Disclaimer: All copyrights belong to their appropriate owners. No profit is intended from this work of fan fiction.

Chapter Five

Once upon a time, there was a medium-sized blue-green planet of great beauty. It was called Chikyuusei, and it was located out at the ass-end of its galaxy. It had the misfortune to be populated by relatively intelligent beings who were astonishingly ignorant about the universe around them.

By coincidence, it was also inhabited by the most powerful beings in the universe, the last of the saiyajin race. Despite various challengers, there was really no question of their might. They certainly had the kais outclassed, and even their young children were far more powerful than the local Guardian.

Despite the regular bouts of destruction that the planet suffered since the saiyajins arrived, it had escaped relatively unscathed, if you didn't count the recent complete annihilation. In fact, anything short of catastrophe was taken in stride now. The amazing thing that happened next was almost completely overlooked by everyone.

It wasn't that the mighty Vejitto had taken the powerful warrior Goku into his arms and kissed the daylights out of him. It wasn't that Goku hadn't been sleeping much since then, thinking about it. It wasn't that the legendary saiyajin prince Vegeta found out all about it and didn't kill anyone right off. It wasn't even that the Son family house survived the ensuing (but unrelated) fight completely intact.

It was that, for one whole week, absolutely nothing else of interest happened.

Goku showed up for work early the next day, looking much the worse for wear after a titanic fight with the delicate flower he'd married. Vegeta said nothing about the previous day, and the pair had trained just like normal, violating both the topography and the laws of physics with their usual feral enthusiasm.

Goten and Trunks, after lectures of varying intensity, were sent back to school. Neither intended to stay there if something interesting happened. Their escapade with Vejitto had reminded them of precisely the thing that Chichi wanted her sons to forget: they weren't human. Technically, they only cooperated with the ningen school system. There was no way that any ningen, even their mothers, could make them do anything.

That little bit of knowledge made school a lot more tolerable, at least for the moment. At least for the boys. The way Trunks now announced that class could begin once he had arrived was a little problematic for his teacher. And Goten's sunny, indulgent grin was frankly starting to get on his teacher's nerves. But those were ningen problems, and no one capable of flight much cared.

There had been a lot of yelling at Goten's house, but his father wouldn't let his mother yell at the boy at all. Goku had completely deflected all of Chichi's rage away from her youngest boy. Goten hadn't even been punished. Goku had simply asked him to go to back to school, and Goten was happy enough to agree to that.

Chichi, forced by her husband's unfamiliar firmness into complying with his wishes, became more and more convinced that something had to be done before her husband's influence on her sons became irreversible.

Trunks had been lectured for ten or fifteen minutes by a mother who had no illusions of actually suppressing her son's saiyajin side. Then he'd been sent off with a kiss, not having seen his father since he'd spilled his little secret to him. Vegeta trained all day and all night, just like in the old days.

Gohan went back to school and found Videl still furious at him. It was harder for him to care. He was even more distracted from his schoolwork now; the sight of Gotenks had made the memory of his failures against Buu and Dabura sting all the worse. His nocturnal habits continued unabated. Being with another saiyajin now, even himself, seemed to be the only way he felt comfortable.

Considering which planet this was and who lived there, everything seemed back to normal, until one morning…

**********

"What the hell…?"

"Morning, sunshine."

Son Gohan stared at the vision of saiyajin masculinity and religious desecration in front of him and blinked, hoping it would go away.

It didn't.

Orange Star High School was about half a block away from one of the oldest shrines in the city. Although the cosmology was rather confused there, most people were unaware of that, and the shrine and attached monastery were well respected. Even the high school students who passed it every day were respectful, sometimes bowing to the large stone dragon that lay coiled before the main gate. It was said to be lucky.

Gohan, who had seen both Shenron and Porunga in the flesh, so to speak, thought the statue was a pretty crappy likeness of either one of them, but he was a respectful sort. He'd never bowed to the dragon, but neither had it ever occurred to him to lounge along the broad stone back, sunning himself and reading, while a pair of elderly monks berated him from both sides.

Relatives could be so embarrassing.

Snapping the book shut and casually tossing it to one of the monks, Vejitto hopped down and went to meet his son. Behind him, the monk looked at the book and dropped it like it was on fire. Over the next several minutes, a group of monks and nuns gathered outside the shrine, arguing over the book and who was supposed to dispose of it. Gohan could see some of that out of the corner of his eye, but for the moment his attention was fixed on Vejitto, who'd apparently been shopping recently.

Gone were the training clothes, and the white gloves and boots. Instead, his almost-father wore fitted yet comfortable gray pants and a black tank-top. The laced-up leather boots were actually fashionable, as far as Gohan could tell. Gold hoops had replaced the long-vanished Potara earrings.

The wild hair, the perfect body, and the devilish smirk were pure saiyajin, of course.

"What are you doing here?" Gohan asked, noting a distinct feeling of doom in air.

"Waiting for you, of course," Vejitto said. "Let's go get some breakfast."

Gohan grimaced. He'd been up too late last night and he'd slept too late this morning. He hadn't had time for breakfast before running out the door. Offering him food right now was almost a sucker punch.

"I can't. I'll miss school," he said sullenly.

"So? Who cares?"

Gohan sighed.

If he could sum up his problems with Vejitto into one concept, that answer might as well be it. He knew his father, despite the time they'd spent apart. He knew Vegeta at least well enough to be able to predict his reaction to things. But Vejitto… he was so familiar, and yet Gohan never knew what to expect from him. It constantly threw him off balance.

Even worse, Vejitto's incredible power made Gohan feel even worse about his fighting skills right now. He'd been the one who was meant to save the day - after all, why else had the old Kai spent so damned much time powering him up? Yet he'd gotten slapped down and… absorbed. He had a hard time repressing a shudder as the memory of cold, damp flesh wrapping around him came back.

He knew very well that in Vejitto's timeline, which Bulma kept calling the "proper one", Vejitto had saved everything. Including Gohan himself. Inadequacy wasn't the word to describe how he felt about that.

But the worst thing about Vejitto by far was simply that he was a fusion between Gohan's dad, whom he adored, and the saiyajin who'd been Gohan's secret crush when he was younger. The saiyajin who Gohan was sure would slap him across the continent if he ever found out. That little fact didn't make Vejitto unattractive: it made him downright creepy.

Although, honestly, Vejitto didn't really seem anything more than embarrassing to know this morning, at least.

One of the monks pointed at Vejitto and demanded he explain himself. The fusion paid no attention, but the group of senior-class girls passing by certainly did. It was rare that the monks ever said anything at all, much less anything quite so graphic. Wide-eyed, they looked at Gohan with a mixture of outrage and predatory interest, and began that most dreaded of teenaged girl activities: group giggling.

One of them had a backpack with a plush Mr. Satan dangling from it.

Gohan wondered idly if this morning could get much worse, but quickly avoided that train of thought. In his experience, it could. He just wasn't sure how, exactly.

"C'mon, quit worrying. We can spar afterwards. Food and a fight. What more can a young saiyajin want?"

"How about not provoking my mother again so soon?"

Vejitto laughed. "That's totally out of your control, kid. If you don't piss her off, something else will. Might as well accept that and enjoy yourself, Gohan."

He opened his mouth to defend his mother, as he always did, but a warm finger was suddenly laid across his lips. Startled, he met dark, knowing eyes and was captured.

"I know, Gohan," Vejitto said softly. "I know." He took his finger away slowly. "But you have to let go some time."

It was an odd moment, deeper than he wanted or expected. Flushing lightly, he looked away, not wanting to be here with Vejitto, everyone he knew from school, and the monks, talking about his mom. He loved her, but she hurt people he also loved, and never seemed to realize she'd done anything wrong.

Vejitto leaned close and spoke quietly into his ear.

"Besides which, if we stay here much longer it'll be my pious duty to explain to our religious friends over there that I got that book from your private library. I'm not sure they're broad-minded enough to appreciate fine literature. Even though the naked catgirl on the cover was pretty damned hot."

Wide eyes went even wider with shock. "Wha… What?!?"

"Don't try that with me, kid," Vejitto said with a smirk. "Your mother and father might not know about your stash, but Goten and I do…"

"Go… Goten?!?"

"And Trunks, of course."

"T… T… T…"

"C'mon, Gohan, you're looking pale," Vejitto said, putting an arm around the young saiyajin's shoulders. "Obviously some breakfast is just what you need right now."

Close to death from sheer mortification, Gohan lost the will to fight. He nodded numbly and was led away, so embarrassed that he didn't regain his composure until eight courses later.

Behind them, the monks argued until the head of the monastery appeared. Displaying his superior wisdom, he simply slipped the book into the sleeve of his robe and glided off for some solitary contemplation of the follies of the world.

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

Hundreds of miles away and hours later, another Son was confused and annoyed by another saiyajin with royal blood. Vegeta was pissed off, and Goku didn't know why.

Vegeta being pissed off was not, in and of itself, particularly surprising. He had a gift for it; it had once been his natural state of being. Arriving that morning to find Vegeta grumpy enough to wipe out the solar system hadn't put Goku off his stride at all. Having been dead for the last eight years, he was more used to the angry Vegeta than the… less angry Vegeta of the present.

What was making Goku tense and frankly nervous was that Vegeta was pissed off and not taking it out on him. In fact, as far as Goku could tell, Vegeta hadn't taken anything out on him since… well, for days.

Oh, there was a lot of violence going on, to be sure. Monumental, epic violence. It was just that none of it was particularly cruel or spiteful, nor had Vegeta called him anything more colorful than 'moron' all morning. From the prince, that was almost term of endearment.

And Goku could see him holding back. Teeth and fists clenched, Vegeta would turn away and mutilate the coastline instead of going after Goku with the venom obviously burning in his veins.

It was creeping Goku out. He watched as Vegeta took a hit he should have been able to block. Fury flared behind those eyes, but the ouji only growled and recovered, his teeth clenched. Goku backed off, unwilling to go on with this much longer.

Besides, it was lunchtime.

"Hey, Vegeta, let's call a halt for lunch, okay?"

Making a sound of disgust, Vegeta sneered at him, but immediately headed for the place they'd stashed their supplies for the day. Left hovering in the air behind him, Goku could only blink in astonishment. Since when did he get lunch without an argument? Vegeta seemed to prefer fighting to the point of exhaustion these days, and he would have skipped lunch entirely if Goku's stomach had allowed it.

Bemused but grateful, Goku immediately followed him.

Vegeta ate quickly and brooded silently. Both were habits from his youth, when savoring his food in the mess hall was likely to attraction the attention of someone larger, hungrier, and too much more in favor with Furiza to risk a fight with.

He'd learned something early on in Furiza's service, something that had unsettled and even unseated his mind for a time: his smallest actions could cost Nappa and Radditz their lives. Anything that was precious to him would be stripped away if he drew attention to it, and his guards would waste their lives to prevent it.

Even after their deaths, the core of the lesson had remained with him. Anything he valued he would lose, if he brought attention to it.

So he had been silent. He hadn't said a word. Not even in the quiet of his own heart. Even now he didn't quite understand how he could have feelings like this for Kakkarot. He didn't even understand what they were, or why he wanted to protect and annihilate Kakkarot at the same time.

Fantasies he understood. Sex was one of the fundamentals of the universe, and he wouldn't have been saiyajin if he hadn't had a double handful of sex fantasies about Kakkarot. He hadn't been embarrassed by them even back when he still despised the saiyajin. Kakkarot might have been an irredeemable bakayaro, but he had a fine ass, and Vegeta would have had to be blind to ignore it. He'd been fine with it. It was normal.

What saiyajin wouldn't have fantasies about Kakkarot?

The rest of it though, these…feelings… He wanted to spit to clear his mouth of the word.

The universe had a sucky sense of humor. Vejitto had kissed Kakkarot, and Vegeta had lost his mind.

Damn it!! Why did he care? Kakkarot wouldn't have cared if the situation had been reversed!

He turned his back on the idiot, refusing to look at him. Of all the creatures on this planet whose sex lives interested him the least…

He started suddenly, and hid it badly by coughing into one gloved fist.

Sex life? They hadn't… Trunks had said… But who knew what they could have been up to all this time. And Kakkarot had come to spar every morning like nothing had happened!!

Had anything happened?

He resisted the urge to turn and look for… hickeys or something. Maybe an indefinable glow of sexual satisfaction. He snorted. Maybe he should just ask Kakkarot how his ass was today. Feeling sore, are we?

Wait, though… if they were having sex, he'd be able to smell Vejitto all over Kakkarot, right? And he hadn't. He'd probably been closer to the saiyajin than his own wife lately, and he hadn't smelled anything but Kakkarot and himself.

Which, of course, was what Vejitto smelled like, right? Or did he? Vegeta couldn't remember.

Bah. This was driving him mad! And all for a person who meant nothing to him! And to whom he meant nothing!

But Vejitto had no right to be making moves on Kakkarot in the first place. Vegeta was the saiyajin no ouji; they had no right to be sneaking around his back!

He glared at nothing, determined not to care about any of this for a millisecond longer.

"Vegeta? Can I ask you something?"

He whirled around as if caught doing something particularly embarrassing. "What?!?"

Goku stared at him. "Uh, maybe it can wait…"

"No, it can't." Flustered, he growled at the other saiyajin.

"You don't even know what it is!"

Vegeta clenched his jaw. "I will if you shut up and tell me!"

Goku just looked at him for a moment before deciding not to point out the problem with that statement. It also seemed unhealthy to keep quiet. He plunged in.

"Have you ever kissed another man? I mean, a saiyajin?"

Vegeta blinked.

Trust Kakkarot to bring up the last subject he wanted to talk about, ever.

"I-- What do you care?" he snapped. He had no idea what he wanted Kakkarot to say to that.

"Well, I, uh…" Goku said, rubbing the back of his scalp. He tried to grin, but it came out more like a grimace. He was nervous anyway, and Vegeta's behavior wasn't helping. "I wanted to know if it was normal."

"Normal?" Vegeta asked, arching an eyebrow and folding his arms. "You want to know if it was normal for male saiyajins to kiss each other?"

"Um, yeah…"

Vegeta grasped his own arms, wanting to punch the other saiyajin. Or scream. Or something. He opened his mouth to say something devastating, but he wasn't supposed to know about that kiss, was he? He wasn't sure that it was worth any kind of advantage, but he didn't really want to admit that he knew about it.

"Why?" he asked evenly, trying to act like he didn't know anything, and didn't care even if he did know something. Which was true. He didn't care. Damn it.

"Well… the other day Vejitto kissed me, and they, well, ningens say males aren't supposed to do that, but it didn't feel like it was wrong to me, so I thought maybe it was a saiyajin thing?" Goku said in one big rush, his words almost running together. "I mean, Chichi would kill me if she knew, but… but I kind of… I kind of liked it."

Lost in his recollections, Goku failed to notice the prince's reaction. "He smelled so good, and he was warm… No one has ever kissed me like that."

Vegeta's expression had turned lethal. Oh, shit! Goku thought. He's totally revolted! I knew I shouldn't have asked him!

One of the prince's eyes twitched. In Goku's experience, that usually meant that destruction on a planetary scale was on the way.

"Vegeta," he started. "It really wasn't…"

The saiyajin no ouji silenced him with a raised hand. Goku waited for what he knew was coming.

"Shut up," Vegeta said quietly. Goku raised a wary eyebrow at him. "I don't care who else you kiss, or what species, for that matter. For your information, the rest of the freaking universe has already clued into the fact that, unless you're looking for offspring, gender only matters if you want it to."

"So…"

"Shut up," the prince hissed. "You stay away from him, Kakkarot. We don't even know if he's stable. If the Old Kai is what those earrings produced the first time, why should we expect Vejitto to be any saner?"

"Vegeta, you know I can read people. There's nothing wrong with him."

Vegeta stood up suddenly and growled down at Goku, his face contorted with fury. "Kakkarot, I promise you, if I catch you near him again I'll make sure it's the last time."

There was a moment before Vegeta took off skyward when he could have said something. He could have pointed out certain realities, or simply said that he would see Vejitto whenever he wanted, damnit. He could have said a thousand things. Yet words failed him before a single flashing look from those dark eyes.

He had seen Vegeta die; he'd buried him with his own hands. He'd been the one to tell him of Bulma's death, and he'd seen what that did to him. He'd fought with or against him in countless battles. And yet there was something new here, equal in intensity, yet unfamiliar to him. He had the sense of something unwillingly exposed to the light after having been entombed for many longs years. Above everything else, he felt the wave of protectiveness that Vegeta hoped to wrap him in.

Despite everything, Vegeta was trying to protect him. It was absurd, but he felt it. Against Vejitto, who Goku knew full well meant him no harm? Or against himself?

Goku didn't understand, but he didn't think less of Vegeta for it. He had only rarely understood the saiyajin prince in the past, and there was no reason he'd suddenly start now, he supposed.

Yet even in his confusion, he somehow felt warmer inside, as if some part of him understood exactly what Vegeta truly meant and wanted, even if the prince didn't quite understand it all himself.

Smiling gently even though he was alone, he gathered up his belongings and contemplated the rest of his day. He was fairly certain he wouldn't be seeing Vegeta again today, though he fully intended on showing up for work tomorrow. He knew that his employer would be too stubborn not to be there too.

With a sigh, he cast his senses outward, wondering if anyone else was out and about at the moment. Going home early to Chichi would raise a host of questions he had no intention at all of answering, and eventually it would lead to the inevitable 'Why can't you get a real job?' debate. Given a choice in the matter, he'd rather go visit Hell than go home to that again.

Blinking in surprise, he realized that Gohan and Vejitto were together a few hundred miles to the south, well away from the city. What was going on? Their kis were low and steady, so they weren't sparring… and shouldn't Gohan be in school or something?

A tiny spark of jealousy flared briefly in his heart. He wasn't really familiar with the emotion; his life hadn't shown him too many things he hadn't been able to achieve. The strangeness of it only made the sting greater. It shouldn't matter to him that they were together at an odd time of day, even though his son didn't really care for Vejitto much. It shouldn't bother him that he had no idea what they were doing.

But it did.

He was airborne and heading south in the blink of an eye, all thoughts of Vegeta pushed aside until he could make some sense of them.

~tbc~