Goku X Vegeta Oneshots

The Meaning of Decay

*The events following Dreaming of You.*

Vegeta's heat came to a sudden and unexpected halt. It had lasted less than twenty four hours, whereas his normal heat cycle lasted a week. But... they both began to notice something.

Two days after the peculiar and scary incident, Vegeta noticed that he looked... rounded. His stomach had swollen slightly. The next day he was throwing up blood, and a lot of it. This resulted in a quick trip back to Capsule Corp., where they learned that Vegeta was pregnant.

With a dead, ten week old cub.

Despite the lack of life in the cub, it grew very rapidly over the next two weeks. Vegeta lost almost sixty pounds and Goku was absolutely positive that his skeletal-looking mate was going to drop dead any moment. Vegeta was too weak to walk, too weak to eat, even too weak to speak. His dead eyes grew dimmer even as Goku tried to help him stay with them. He couldn't sleep; he'd wake up with those raspy whimpers that scared the crap out of everyone because he sounded like a ghost or an evil spirit.

Then the cub stopped growing. Vegeta seemed to be in more pain than usual, so Bulma decided that now was the time to remove it. The anesthesia did nothing to Vegeta, so she was forced to cut the cub out anyway. Scarily, Vegeta did not make a sound. He just kept his eyes focused on Goku.

The moment the cub was pulled out of Vegeta's body, it awoke with a sneeze and a croon. No one could understand. The cub had been dead the whole time. But even more amazingly, Vegeta began to recover right before their eyes, his color quickly returning as he finally drifted off under the influence of the anesthesia. Goku held his repeatedly sneezing cub while Bulma sewed the massive wound.

"Well... what to name you?" Goku murmured, still completely shocked to his very core. "I can't think of any names that'd fit you, little fella. You scared the shit out of me and your papa and everybody else. I don't like cursing around ya, but there's no nicer way to put it. I'll have to ask Vegeta what the Saiyan word for miracle is. Or maybe fear. I don't know." The cub sneezed yet again. "Goodness, sneezy. Heh, that's what I'll call you for now."

"No," Vegeta protested sleepily. How he was aware enough to carry out a conversation, much less hear anything, was beyond Goku. "Precious... Precious... He... I told you... he was beautiful... didn't I?" he managed to slur.

"He is," Goku agreed. "Ok, Precious. Hey, Vegeta. Do you have a name in mind?"

"Thought about... Disaster... but that's... mean." Vegeta smiled slightly. "Thought about... Vegito... but he doesn't look... like him." Vegeta struggled to focus on staying awake. "How bout... uh, Aka... Aku-" Vegeta became tongue-tied. "Bleh. Ha, can't talk."

"Oh, Begeta, I love it when you get all loopy," Goku chuckled. "Take it slow, sound it out."

"Akumu. That's it. Yeah. Akumu."

"Nightmare," Goku mused. "It works, considering."

"Or, uh, Ketsueki?"

"Blood. Vegeta, just... no. Why are you thinking of dark, creepy names?"

"Because this... brat came to us in a dark, creepy way. The fucker was dead, for Begeta's sake."

"Vegeta," said Bulma chidingly.

"You try carrying around a dead cub in your stomach for two and a half weeks. Not fun. It hurt!" Vegeta's indignation had made him somewhat more aware. "How about Dorimi? Dreamer? That's how I met him."

Bulma reached over and increased the anesthesia, effectively knocking Vegeta out cold. "Finally, thank God. He's so chatty on this stuff. Heh, even worse when he's on nitrous oxide. Psychopath."

Goku continued to gaze at his cub. "I like Dorimi. He looks like a dreamer." The cub glanced at him as he spoke, an uncanny intelligence in his eyes. "Yeah, you've definitely been with her. Nice to have you back, buddy." He brought the cub to his face and kissed him, loving the smell of his babyness. "I love the way babies smell."

"Me too," said Bulma with a smile. "Ok, I think I'm done. Let's wake up jabbermouth."

When Vegeta was awake, he finally got to hold his baby. It felt just like in the dream, but he could actually smell his cub instead of metallic blood. The little kisses were endless; he played with the cub's fuzzy tail and let the cub run his tiny tongue over his nose and cheeks. So long had he waited for this moment. Last time he'd had his baby snatched away from him for unknown reasons, but he felt as if he understood now. Begeta was ensuring that he would let absolutely nothing come to this cub or any others after him. Vegeta knew that he'd sooner kill, kill himself, kill anyone if it meant giving this child another breath.

Goku could see the morbid protectiveness in his mate's eyes. Poor Dorimi would be coddled and sheltered until the day Vegeta died, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. Vegeta closed his eyes wearily and did not release his deathgrip on Dorimi. When Goku tried to ease him away, Vegeta began to growl, sleeping though he was. Goku shook his head to Bulma; there was no way in heaven or hell that Vegeta was letting go of the cub right now.

When Vegeta healed sufficiently, they went home. The cub was cuddled between them. It felt... odd, having a new addition to their family, but Goku was grateful. His mate and his son were alive.

Vegeta hugged his ancestor as tightly as he could. "Thank you so much," he whispered. "Thank you for giving my baby back. He's so beautiful, Begeta." He looked at her. "But I have to know... what happened? In the field? Why were you acting so strange, and why did you cry blood?"

Begeta narrowed her eyes. "My son, you did not enter the field during your trials. I watched you from here, but never once did you come to me."

"But I did," Vegeta protested. "You were here and so was my cub!"

"Vegeta, I tell you this in truth. You were not in my field."

"Where was I then?" Vegeta whispered, feeling a little scared.

"Your son is... deceptive. He has great powers in his mind, hidden for now. Never again will they be used to harm you, but he used them from across the void to reach you... and he used them to come back to you. I had no part in his return."

Vegeta felt cold. "I don't understand, Mother."

"Sometimes you don't have to," Begeta replied with a shrug and a smile. "All that matters is that you and Kakarrot have your child. Expect many, many more." She kissed Vegeta's forehead and allowed him to return to his restful sleep.