Everybody Loves Vegeta

Chapter 18

"Marron, where are you going?" Vegeta caught her leaving the house late at night again. She stood still in the open front door. One of her snow boots was already knee-deep in the pile of fresh January snow outside.

Her eyes narrowed. "Just goin' on a walk! Nothing special!"

"Why are you wearing gardening gloves?"

"Because it's cold outside," she said curtly.

"Are you going to go gardening in the snow?"

"N-no."

"Then why are you wearing gardening gloves?"

"They're warm."

He smiled. "What kind of trouble are you about to get into?"

"No trouble! I'm just going outside to enjoy my youth. Is that so wrong?"

"May I come along?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I'll see you later, Uncle." She slammed the door behind her.

Goku's first six months away from Vegeta sucked. Hardcore.

When he thought back on what little he'd accomplished in a half year's time, it filled him with frustration.

Traveling underground pissed him off. Anya and Boris brought plenty of small firearms and machine guns for all of the prisoners, despite his protests. The weight of the weapons slowed down their small army so much that on a good day, they traveled more than a mile. Goku figured it'd take a hundred years before they reached the capitol city.

None of his plans to expedite their journey worked.

He tried carrying everyone's belongings on his back, but no one could keep up with his fast pace. He offered to teach everyone rudimentary martial arts to strengthen their stamina. Secretly he also wanted a reason to get rid of the guns. But besides Boris and Anya, everyone was too weak to make the time training worth the effort.

At his wits' end, he offered to carry everyone one-by-one to the end of the tunnel, but Boris vehemently disagreed with that strategy. "The men can't be separated," he insisted. Goku asked why. All Boris said was that it'd be too dangerous to be divided unless absolutely necessary.

So all summer, Goku made traveling above ground a necessity for himself. It was his only chance at reigning in his sanity.

Of course, he did the noble thing and retrieved food for his comrades every time he abandoned them. He'd instant transmit himself to Korin's Tower and gather as many senzu beans the cat had available. One bean kept everyone full for ten days, much to Goku's relief. Too bad the beans could only bring everyone back to their normal state of health—which was still unfit for traveling a thousand mile journey.

To spoil himself while in the normal world, Goku did things he couldn't enjoy under Boris' watchful eye. Like practice katas in the winter storm. Or simply go running. He wasn't given much time to himself, but what time he did have was precious.

A lot of his time was spent doing things for Vegeta. He'd promised himself to send the Prince a package before winter. Unbeknown to Boris, Anya offered Goku to take anything from her home as a gift if he so wished. She was empathetic toward Goku's heartsickness. Boris was not.

Originally Goku balked at the offer. But at the end of the summer, he walked through the raging snowstorm just to retrieve an old polaroid camera Anya mentioned was in her bedroom. After he found it, he traipsed another few hundred miles and discovered small villages outside of the storm's range. He took pictures of anything that reminded him of the Saiyan Prince. Which was everything.