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The Spaces In Between	By : ctsama Category: Dragon Ball Z > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1625 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball Super, Resurrection 'F', or Battle of Gods or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 5
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Midnight in the Garden

“Hey, Vegeta? Where’re ya goin’?” Goku asked sleepily when he felt his favorite space heater rolling away from him in the night.

“Nowhere. Go back to sleep, I’ll be back soon.”

Goku tossed and turned a bit while Vegeta watched him in amusement, grumbling about being cold now before slipping quickly back into his dreams.

“Idiot,” the prince whispered fondly before grabbing some clothes to throw on.

________________________________________________________________________________________
It had taken Whis several nights to figure out exactly what it was that drove him away from his vast library of ancient books and rare artifacts night after night to restlessly walk the face of this planet he already knew so well. How was he to recognize something so so long-forgotten to him as an emotion?

It was anxiety that disturbed his peace.

He sighed, making his way to one of his favorite places, a garden that seemed quite bland compared to the opulence of Beerus’ palatial planet. Only at night did its greenery bloom, into colors and scents born on a hundred different worlds. Tonight he sat, not in the winding vines of the bower he’d crafted but on the ground, in the center of it all.

But even the delicate aromas, the mossy earth under his toes didn’t help his mood. He rested his head on his knees, looking sideways at a translucent blossom that swayed in the breeze. Things had all been so easy when he’d formed this little plan of his. One of the last two remaining full-blooded Saiyans of Universe 7 was a child-bearer, and had bonded to the other in the old way, no less. Whis had waited thousands and thousands of years for such a lucky confluence of circumstance. Empowering both of them just enough to take down Beerus and controlling them from the sidelines thereafter… it was all so simple.

Except now it wasn’t. Things had so quickly become complicated. Goku was… well, he was Goku. Endearingly charming and eager, and so obviously devoted to his new mate Goku had wormed his way past Whis’ defenses with an unsettling quickness.

Vegeta was just as troubling, if not moreso. Despite his gruffness and harsh manner Vegeta was caring - even loving, if only one knew how to see it. And he was almost too clever. He seemed to see everything, sometimes even more than Whis intended him to see.

What had all seemed so clear to his vision had become a murky mess. These weren’t the weak-willed, dim-witted beings he’d envisioned in his ages-old plans. They wouldn’t blindly follow his wishes. He’d have to blackmail, threaten or otherwise force them into submission. He wasn’t Freeza or Beerus with their particular failings, he would be successful at controlling them where those other tyrants had failed. Goku and Vegeta would bend the knee to him, he would give them no other choice. And they would hate it.

Strangely, that now bothered him.

But it was for the best, for more living beings than even he knew. What was the happiness of two beings compared to that?

‘This is the only thing to do, the right thing to do. This is right. This is-’

“If you aren’t going to sleep, you could at least haunt the hallways more quietly.”

“Ah,” Whis smiled, knowing his bare feet and flowing robe weren’t noisy enough to disturb anyone. “I’ll try to keep down the racket.”

“See that you do,” Vegeta huffed, eyeing the soil dubiously before asking, “are there any worms in here? I hate worms.”

Whis blew a puff of laughter. “Of course there are. But they’re pretty deep in the soil. Just don’t dig down and you’ll be fine.”

That seemed to be enough reassurance and Vegeta took a seat beside him in the midst of the fragrant blooms. The night was quiet except for the soft calls of nocturnal animals and insects. They sat in companionable silence while Vegeta inspected and poked at one of the more garish flowers. To his surprise some part of Whis relaxed, a part of him he’d thought long dead.

“I heard an interesting thing about you,” he finally said.

“Oh?”

“Were you really the one that wiped out the Rellians back when you worked for Freeza?”

Vegeta gave a harsh smile. “I wiped out a lot of races for that asshole. You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“Insectoid. Smelled like week-old socks and had the rather nasty habit of regurgitating on people they didn't like.”

“Oh yeah, them. You make it sound like they were all bad.”

Whis finally turned to him in complete incredulity. “You’re of royal blood, hell, your own father was the most hedonistic king your people have ever had. Surely you were as appalled by their complete lack of decorum and sense as I was! To say nothing of that tasteless sludge they called ‘food!’”

“I won’t argue any of that,” Vegeta replied calmly, waving away a curious passing bug.

“Well?” Whis demanded. “What could possibly be redeeming about such a people?”

Vegeta shrugged. “High in protein.”

“You- you can’t mean...” Whis blinked at him for a moment. Then he began laughing. He laughed longer and harder than he had in several hundred years at least while Vegeta watched him in unconcealed amusement.

“It’s not like it was my first choice. My subordinate and I were starving. It was either eat that crap they lived on or eat them. They tasted terrible, but I imagine it was still better than eating the sludge.”

A thought occurred to Whis and he slowly sobered. “I suppose it isn’t right, to laugh at the end of a species, even one so unmourned as the Rellians.”

Vegeta made a small, annoyed sound. “I’m in no position to judge you if that’s what you’re looking for. And if you want to discuss right and wrong you’re going to have to wake up Kakarot. Morality is a luxury reserved for those with choices, the rest of us just do what we have to. I won’t apologize for what few lighter moments I could find, not even to him.”

“But it was all so easy when you didn’t have to care about anything but your own goals. You did things you didn’t agree with, things you knew were wrong even back then,” Whis said darkly. “How do you reconcile that to the life you live now? How can you face that and still manage to live with yourself?”

He stopped short, suddenly aware of what he’d been saying. For a moment he froze, realizing how badly he’d overstepped. In the middle of the night Vegeta had followed through on the first honest offer of friendship he’d had in far too long. The prince had come here out here, offered his company and his experiences and he’d just attacked him for it.

But if Vegeta was offended, or even surprised by his uncharacteristic outburst he didn’t show it.

“As I said, I won’t judge you,” Vegeta repeated softly, a rare thing. “I can only tell you that what I’ve learned on Earth doesn’t change the situations of my past. Freeza gave me orders, and I rarely felt good about following them. But following his orders well kept me and my surviving people alive for one more day. That was my life back then and there’s no changing it. We’ve both done the best we could, Whis. All we can do now is take all the shit we’ve survived and use it to grow something better.”

Whis stared at him for a moment, mouth open in surprise. “I… I apologize for-”

“As I said,” Vegeta interrupted with a wry smile. “I understand.”

“I see.” That comfortable silence descended once more and it was a shock. He knew by now how independent to a fault Vegeta was, and Whis knew he wasn’t much better. And yet here he sat by choice, for no real reason at all and both were at ease with the company.

But myriad lifetimes worth of destruction didn’t lend to easy trust. “We have… much in common,” he finally said, “more than I ever suspected. But you don’t know me, not really. And you have every reason to doubt my motives. What do you expect to get out of this? I understand Bulma’s favors, she thinks I can protect her and Trunks should Beerus decide to destroy Earth. But you know better. Why are you trying to help me?”

The former prince sighed, quite clearly deciding whether to make something up or just tell the truth. “Because I can,” he finally said with a small smile. “And because I want to. I have been alone in the decisions I’ve been forced to make and the way I’ve had to live. I thought I was happy being that way, but now that I have Kakarot I realize how much I fucking hated it. As you say, we have much in common. You shouldn’t have to walk the hallways alone if you don’t want to. Now… you have a choice. I don’t need much sleep. Wake me next time you need company.”

A lump formed in Whis’ throat. The unsettled feeling that had driven him out of his comfortable rooms in the first place began to change. Into what, he wasn’t sure, but it choked him. Without thinking he scooted a little closer to Vegeta, something solid in an existence too busy rearranging itself to pay him any mind.

Vegeta easily recognized Whis’ feelings and he sympathized. It had been the same with him in the past. Somewhere between the pleasure of watching Goku getting his ass kicked and stepping in to stop it was the confusion over why he was doing it. Though he always told himself it was because he alone had the right to kill the idiot, that explanation had never felt quite right.

“Stop agonizing over whatever it is that’s got you out here night after night, Whis. If it’s me and Kakarot that have you worried, don’t be. The idiot is my responsibility and I’ll protect him no matter what you decide to do.”

“You say that so easily. But truly you have no idea what’s going on around you.”

“Maybe,” Vegeta admitted easily. “Or maybe I see more than you think. In any case, we can settle the bill between us when this is all over if it makes you feel better. Until then… the way I see it, it’s safe to say you have a better view of things than we do. And of all the super-universal beings I’ve met, you’re the only one I actually respect. So do what you have to do.”

He stood, turning to leave but stopped, just for a moment. “We don’t have to stay the same, Whis. It's never too late to be better than we were. Kakarot taught me that one. Fuck,” he muttered with a dry smile. “I can’t believe how much he's got me talking like him now.”

Though it had taken Whis several nights to decipher his own anxiety, it had taken only minutes to discern the new things beginning to pummel him as Vegeta spoke. They were things he hadn’t felt since he’d been forced to watch the planet and people he loved vaporized into nothing, as though they’d never been.

Concern, warmth…

Friendship.

And just like that, he didn’t want to go back to his isolated existence.

“I’d like to hear why you hate worms so much.”

Vegeta shuddered in distaste and Whis chuckled. “That’s a story for another time. Kakarot doesn’t like sleeping alone. If I’m gone too long he’ll stumble in here and fall asleep on my lap.”

“That sounds almost disturbingly delightful.”

“I’d stay here and show you but he needs the rest; he was wiped out from training earlier today.”

Whis hid his disappointment as well as he could, hoping he wasn’t as transparent as he felt. “Well, if I can’t keep you now… I’m usually ravenous after a night of hallway-haunting, and you seem to be more of an early riser than your mate. Perhaps… you would join me for breakfast?”

It was an obviously hesitant invitation, and it was just as obvious that Whis had made the same decision Goku had forced him to make. He was through being alone.

“Hn. If you insist. Trying to drag Kakarot out of bed every morning is training in itself.” He stood, leaving as quietly as he’d arrived and Whis watched him go.

“Why do I get the feeling that there’s no turning back now?” he asked the gentle night. Though he received no response he sat for a little while longer, but the garden seemed to have lost most of its allure. He finally stood, brushed himself off and headed back to his rooms with more a spring in his step than he could remember having in a very, very long time.

His future plans were still in flux, but they no longer seemed quite as threatening. He smiled to himself, thinking about the immediate future.

He had a breakfast to plan.

___________________________________________________________________________________________
Vegeta thought about what he’d done earlier, wondering if it was Goku’s influence or if he genuinely saw something in Whis that drew him in. He shrugged; it was probably a bit of both, after all, it hadn’t been Whis’ footsteps in the halls that had awoken him.

He undressed, musing that he was looking forward to the morning and breakfast almost as much as he was looking forward to returning to Goku.

He crawled into bed as gently as he could but as usual Goku turned over and dragged him close as soon as he was in range. He couldn’t help chuckling as Goku once again made himself comfortable against his chest before fussing once more at the inconvenience of losing his favorite bedwarmer.

“You like Whis better than me,” Goku grumbled.

Vegeta smiled, running his fingers through the wild mop of hair. “Of course I do. But it’s been years since I’ve really tried to kill you. So there’s that.”

Goku now smiled happily, sleepily nuzzling into his chest. “You do love me.”

//Good boy, you’re finally getting it. Now sleep, I’ll bring you breakfast in the morning.//

Thank… y….

Vegeta listened to his thoughts dissolving into the blankness of sleep and kissed his head before settling down himself.

//No, thank you Kakarot.//

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Next: Goku gets a surprise during his time spent taking care of Vegeta.

If you’re reading this, success! I can’t tell if the chapter is uploading or not. Hopefully it’ll be there when I check tomorrow!
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The Spaces In Between