"It hurts." Trunks sniffed. He clutched his bloody leg, sobbing as he poked at it gingerly. Crimson streaks stained his skin, running down his ankle in long channels.

    "It's fine," Vegeta stated coldly. " it's just a scratch, nothing more." He looked at the charred remains of a huge black bear, laying off to the side of the forest.

    Damned bastard, he thought. He walked towards it, inspecting the body. It couldn't have survived. A simple bear cannot withstand the brute strength of the Prince of All Saiya-jins. His son, unfortunately had not fared so well. Vegeta turned to look at him. The boy was sitting on the ground, squeezing his knee and watching the blood drip onto his fingers. His soft lavender hair fell over his face. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he bit his lower lip to keep from crying out.

    Weakling, Vegeta thought. His own son, sitting on his butt and sobbing, was beaten by an Earth creature. His eyes narrowed at the thought. The boy needs more training.

    "Get up," Vegeta said. He looked at the boy expectantly.

    "I can't," Trunks said softly, his voice lined with pain. "It hurts."

    The Saiyan Prince flicked his gaze onto the wound. It looked pretty bad, by human standards that is. The bear had torn open Trunks' flesh. Glistening white bone showed beneath the bloody shreds. He won't be able to walk with that, his brain told him.

    Do something. Bring him home. Bulma will know what to do. You don't. Leave the motherly stuff to her, baka.

    "Can you move it?"

    Trunks shook his head. He looked up at his father.

    "Papa?" the boy asked timidly. "Can I have a hug?"

    "What?" Vegeta stared at him.

    The boy looked down, thinking he had said something wrong. "Never mind, tousan. Gomen. I'm sorry."

    Vegeta looked at his son. A hug? What the hell is that for? Such a petty display of weakness!!

    "It's a custom here on Earth." Bulma had told him. "PEOPLE do it to show that they CARE." A pause. "To show that they love someone."

    She had waited for his reaction, trying to see what effect it might have on him, but Vegeta had simply turned away and waved it off. Now her words came back to him, ringing in his mind as he listened to his son's soft cries.

    Do I love him? He wondered. If you did, you wouldn't be questioning yourself, now would you?  His mind thought bitterly to himself.

    He is your son.

    His own father had never shown him any compassion. He had hated him for that, shutting     himself from the rest of the world, never whether he truly cared and was simply not showing it, or didn't care at all. King Vegeta had rarely given any words of encouragement, and when he did, they betrayed no hint of warmth or kindness. King Vegeta. That's all the King had to him. It was all he ever was. Never a father, never a friend, never a companion....he was...nothing.

    It had been the Saiyan custom that the son should be the one to kill his father. Emotions never existed between family members since children were shipped off to distant planets not long after they were born. He himself was lucky to even see his father at all.

    Not that it mattered much.  The bastard thought himself unlucky to even see my face everyday.

    Emotion. What need of it was there back home? No one on Planet Vegeta had ever felt such useless feelings.  No good would ever come it, he was taught.  He had never received any kind of emotion before he came to this planet. Not kindness, not compassion, no words of care or devotion, no love.....

    Hatred. It was all that he felt.

    Fear. It was all that they gave him.
 
    Death. It was all that surrounded him.

    Power. It was all that he wanted.

    Was it?
 

    Trunks would never kill him. He knew that. The boy was too human, he would never do that to his father. The Saiyan in him had been tamed by the peace of human blood.  Such an action was replaced by the power of love, love of a son to his father.  Vegeta would probably die an old man, a death not worthy of a great Saiyan such as himself.

    An old man would be able to see his son grow.... An old man would still be there for his son. For his wife. He would be able to see them live.....

    It was different here. Here he saw many things that he had never seen or experienced on his dead planet. Warmth, compasison, kindess, happiness, love.... Respect was a thing that had always existed on Planet Vegeta. It was respect that had saved him from death on this one.

    Mercy. It kept Kakkarotto from ending his life.

    Kindness. It had saved him from certain death at the hands of enemies more powerful than he was.

    Love. It was what had kept him here. What kept him from destroying this planet. It was love for another that kept him from leaving. It had saved him from himself. It had brought him a wife and a son.

    What more to life could you possibly want?

    Earth was a beautiful planet, far more lovely than any he had ever been to before. Course, it wasn't often that he stopped to admire the scenery. Most of the time he covered it with the ragged carcasses of his vanquished foes. He had never needed anything from any planet, just the experience of battle and the heat of war. None of them had anything of importance other than providing him with a continued lust for blood.  Nothing that he would ever cherish in the darkest pits of his heart.

    Save one.

    This one.

    His son from the future had grown up without a father. Full of hate and vengeance. Bereft of half of himself, alone in a world that offered nothing but death.

    Sounds just like home.

    Sounds just like you.

    Alive or not, do you really want that to happen to this boy?  This is your chance to start  over, to make life better for not just yourself, but for the others around you as well.

    What do I care of what happens to everyone else?  They mean nothing to me! Why should I make life any better for them?
 
    If that's what you really believe, then why are they still alive?
    Why are you still here?
    Why does that boy even exist?
 
    Shut up.
 
    Keep telling yourself the truth.
 
    Trunks dried his tears on his sleeve. He looked up at his father. "What's wrong with a hug? Mama would have hugged me." He sniffed.

    The expression on Vegeta's face softened He knelt down beside his son.
 
 
    You can't ignore what's truely there.
 
    "I'm not your mother," He said.

    Trunks looked downcast.

    "but......" Vegeta started.

    He looked at him expectantly.

    "I'll carry you home."

    Vegeta gathered him up in his arms, careful as to not bump the boy's knee. Trunks put his arms around him in a loving embrace, grateful simply for being with him. Vegeta made no motion of protest as he lifted himself into the air and flew towards Capsule Corp.

    Bulma never liked when he flew. She said it disturbed the neighbors. They were disturbed to begin with anyway. He didn't much care for what they thought of him. Home wasn't too far away.

    Trunks yawned. His crying and the pain in his leg had exhausted him. He leaned his head on Vegeta's broad chest and drifted off to sleep, safe and warm in his father's arms.

    Vegeta looked at him proudly. Despite the injury, the boy had fared pretty well against that bear. He had been taken completely by surprise, fishing at the lake, when the bear came lumbering up at him. He was lucky Vegeta had been nearby, otherwise the beast might have done more serious damage and he would have found himself in even sadder straits

    Kami knows what he might have done if the boy had been killed.

    Would you have done anything at all?

    Vegeta closed his eyes.

   Yes. I would have. I know I would. Should harm come again, I will.

    He is more than my flesh and blood.

    He is more than my life.

    He is more than I will ever be.

    He is my future, he is my past,

    He stands for what I was, and what I now am....

    He is my son...
 
    and I love him....

    I will protect him....

    Always.