Crossroads

Chapter 15

Back on Planet Vegeta, Goku emerges from his pod with only Leno and Emeri there to greet him. They smile at him, and Leno hands him a capsule, tells him to keep it and the clothes inside of it, and says that they'll see him around, giving him a wink. They go on their way quickly after that. Goku looks around for a moment, trying to reorient himself on this area, and he catches a glimpse at the fourth empty pod. Vegeta, of course, is nowhere to be found. He must have landed first and thank goodness for that.

He walks inside without much thought and was nodded at by the flight pod specialist who told him, "Welcome back," as he passed, but that was all she said.

He was feeling rested from his journey and he figured he would head to his room first, clean himself up and relax, figure out exactly what day and time it is, and then get something to eat. He needs to call his brother and his father, but his phone is in his luggage at the moment. The only thing he put in his pocket out of the capsule before leaving Earth was his room key, so the calls would have to wait.

He made his way through the castle, blending in quickly with the crowds of people running about, shouting at one another. Goku wondered at the scene for a minute before he figured they were all undoubtedly excited for the Prince's return. He didn't care about that, though, he was too busy being impressed with himself that he remembers his way.

Once he got to his room he felt better. Far better. In fact, he wasn't sure if it was the room itself that he's come to miss, or if it was just his own personal privacy that he was thankful to have back. Either way, he sighed and then popped open the capsule Raditz had given to him and let everything lay there in the middle of his living room. It looked just the same as it did when he'd put it all inside. He looked at the second capsule for a moment before doing the same with it, tossing it open to land on his other pile of clothes, not that he would need any of them, but making the mess was like a small bit of rebellion. Of course, he'd clean it up later, but the fact that he could fling his things around and not have someone look at him strangely for doing it made him feel good inside. Trivial, yes, but it felt like a victory to him, nonetheless. Then he headed to his bedroom to shower.

He spent this time in thoughtless glee. No Prince Vegeta. No Dukes or Duchesses. No dinners or lunches or meetings. No Leno. No Emeri. No Bulma Briefs. He let his head rest on the tile of the wall and just stood there. He stood there for what felt like forever, actually, and only after he figured the water was never going to turn cold did he decide to start cleaning himself up. Again, he took his time. No one is there to yell at him to hurry up or tell him what to do, so why not? He even groomed his tail and scrubbed his feet a little longer than usual. Hell, he shampooed his hair twice, and it had nothing to do with trying to get Vegeta's scent off of him, even though he was pretty sure it was already long gone. The memories weren't, but he tried not to think about that or about the inevitability of seeing him again.

Once he finished, he started to feel like himself again, and he got out of the shower and brushed his teeth before he went back into his room. He let his towel drop as he walked, completely complacent to finally be alone for a while, and he planned on making it last as long as he could, although his stomach was grumbling and that he couldn't ignore. He rummaged through his closet for his uniform, knowing that he had to wear the Royal's colors, on duty or off, and he found one quickly amongst the few items he'd hung up in there, and threw it on without thinking much about anything other than the promise of a good Saiyan meal.

He headed back through the hallway and stepped over to the pile of clothes he'd left on the floor and sifted through everything, looking for his phone and his scouter. He found both, put his scouter on, turned his phone on and placed it in his pocket, picked up his pay card and his room key and then finally turned to head out the door to get something to eat. That's when he saw it- his schedule- and he clicked his scouter for the date and time, and when he looked back at the schedule, he groaned to himself as he realized that he's scheduled today. In an hour. Why is he scheduled today? They just got back?!