Goku X Vegeta Oneshots

My Shadow

*ermergerd we're back again... Heehee, hi! I'm gonna take this off hold because DH is slow. This is kinda of a songfic, but won't include lyrics from the song. It's called My Shadow by The Veer Union. Listen to the acoustic version; it's better. Anyway, here ya go!*

Vegeta ran his fingers on the wall, pondering the use of shadows. The bright lights behind him warmed his back. His shadow stood before him on the blue wall, deep and strong; it was like the piece of himself that he loved and hated the most was projected outward for everyone to see. But then again, everyone had shadows. Everyone had dark pieces of their soul that everyone else saw in the guise of their shadow. Vegeta liked his shadow. It was a stark silhouette of himself. It showed that he was strong... on the outside anyway.

"Vegeta?"

The Saiyan turned to peer at the doorway through the intense light. He saw Bulma, watching him worriedly. She offered him a friendly, albeit nervous, smile and slowly approach. "What are you doing?"

He looked back at the wall, letting her know that he wouldn't chase her off. "Just... looking at my shadow."

"Your shadow?" she queried. "What on earth for?"

"I really don't know," he replied softly, still locked in his thoughts and somber mood. A thought entered his mind, and he blinked away tears before again turning to face her again. "Bulma... do you think Kakarrot had a shadow? I never noticed." He didn't hear her sigh or even begin to speak, but went on. "Is it weird that I never saw Kakarrot with a shadow? Maybe it was just me. You know what? No. No, he didn't have a shadow. Everybody else has one, as a reminder of the things we've thought, the things we've done-"

"Vegeta, please-"

"But Kakarrot didn't need a shadow." Vegeta's voice sounded almost happy, but tears now streamed down his face. "No, he didn't need one. He was perfect, just perfect. Perfect people don't need shadows. They're innocent. They haven't done anything. But... babies have shadows, so what does that mean? Is it the potential for a dark future? That's got to be what it is." Vegeta nodded, still staring at the blank wall. "Kakarrot didn't need a shadow because nothing could faze him. Nothing could corrupt him- not me, not Frieza, not anything!"

Bulma watched Vegeta fearfully, watching him visibly sinking further into madness. He needed Goku back. It had been three years since Goku had died, and it shattered Vegeta from day one. For a while she thought that maybe she and the others had set him on the road to recovery... "Vegeta, turn the lights off," she said calmly. "Come spend time with me and Trunks."

"No, we need the lights," Vegeta growled, his tone of voice shifting suddenly enough to frighten her. "We... We need the lights. My shadow's big enough the way it is..."

Bulma left, starting to cry. Vegeta had developed an irrational and seemingly inexplicable terror of the dark exactly one week after Goku's death. He'd had nightmares every night up to that night, but on that night... something changed. And whatever it was made everything infinitely worse.

~~Flashback~~

Bulma was ripped out of a relatively peaceful sleep by the most bloodcurdling scream she'd ever heard in her life. She'd watched more than her share of horror movies, but nothing could even compare to it. Vegeta thrashed beside her, half-awake and terrified. "Kakarrot! Kakarrot!" She'd never heard someone sound so lost, so hurt, and so afraid.

"Vegeta, wake up! Snap out of it!" Upon realizing that Vegeta was deep in a waking nightmare, she called for her father. She couldn't handle a panicking alien on her own. "Dad! Dad! Something's wrong with Vegeta!" She tried to soothe him verbally, but he was deaf to her words. She turned on the bedside light, and it all stopped just like that. With the sudden flood of light came Vegeta's tears. For hours, she held the inconsolable Saiyan. He refused to go back to sleep, and when she tried to turn the light off, he literally attacked her, begged her to keep it on. She complied even as her heart sank. The look in his eyes revealed a broken heart and a breaking mind.