The child's wails echoed down the corridor. Displeased, the tiny prince turned his feet in that direction.
When first we met
Prince Vegeta had, as expected, tired of the "training" quite quickly. His natural talent that had wowed his teachers had also ensured that his progress would quickly exceed the training regimen planned for him and he, at the moment, was left working out his bored frustration on some unfortunate Saibamen.
Nappa frowned for a moment, watching as Vegeta disposed of the last batch of the little green insta-clones. If Vegeta wasn't given new entertainment soon, he, Nappa, would probably be presented for the young prince to vent his excess energy on. Indeed, a new training regimen was in short order, as well as the Saibamen. Vegeta went through that last supply far too quickly.
"Prince Vegeta," called the burly Saiyajin to the increasingly agitated youth via the intercom, "didn't you wish to speak with your father earlier?"
"Nappa," nodded Vegeta thoughtfully. "Yes, I did." Thus said, the prince made his way out of the training room and down the hall, intent on speaking with his father, King Vegeta of Vegeta-sei. Nappa trailed after, wondering what exactly had the prince interested enough to make him drop his entertainment (he was certain that if they looked around they could probably scrounge up one last case of the Saibamen.)
Young Prince Vegeta was currently going over some lines in his head about how they needed to replace the incompetent trainers he had with more skilled ones: he didn't feel like he was making any progress in his training regimen and he needed to get stronger, he desired strength, had to become the Legendary Super Saiyajin, the Densetsu. It had to be him.
A soft wail broke into his train of thoughts. It grew increasingly louder and louder and louder – and they were not anywhere near the infant ward. Frowning, the Prince paused in his steps, head turned slightly to better hear it. He shrugged it off and started walking again, determined to get his mind back on track of the soon to be had conversation with his father. He needed to speak about—
"WAAAAAAAH!!!!" the baby shrilled.
Prince Vegeta blinked, his train of thoughts broken once more. He paused thoughtfully, listening.
The child's wails echoed down the corridor. Displeased, the tiny prince turned his feet in that direction.
'I'll make that child shut up,' Vegeta thought darkly. 'How dare that child unsettle me like that?'
Nappa's brow furrowed as he saw them near the noisy infant ward, slightly confused since he was certain that the throne room was in a completely different wing than this. He glanced over at his prince's darkened visage and, somehow, was quick to catch on.
"Now, now, Prince Vegeta, remember what your father said: 'Today's bellowing brats are tomorrow's fortuitous future.'"
"…" Vegeta glared at Nappa from the corner of his eye. "Do you have any idea what that means?"
"Yes… No. You want I should get a dictionary?" He paused and gestured in a direction opposite to the ward.
"You do that. I'm going in." The prince pulled open the doors, letting them swing behind him. (Nappa briefly wondered when, exactly, they got there.)
"Buh- But… okay." He followed him.
"Now who is doing all that wailing." It was more a statement than a question as the the young prince haughtily surveyed the nursery.
Nappa looked around in confusion, the piercing sound seeming to press in on him from all sides, almost crushing him.
"The sound's loudest from there, I think. Or maybe over there – I think there's an echo in here."
"Hmm." Vegeta looked around then paused, suddenly hearing a new pair of voices. Hearing the topic of the conversation, he moved towards them.
"Quite a powerful set of lungs," commented one of the doctors, tall and skinny and with a strangely sallow skin tone – strange since his skin was a vivid green – to his shorter associate.
"He's got a very strong fighting spirit," noted the portly one, nodding thoughtfully, but being so muscular that the only movement evident was the bunching of the muscles around his neck, slightly odd for the fact that the particular species of reptilian-like aliens were noted for being more slender and sinewy.
"Shame his power level can't match it," the first doctor shook his head.
"Yes," agreed the second doctor, "and that other baby he made cry – whimper, really – insanely high power level…"
"I think the king… Shh! It's Prince Vegeta!" The two doctors spun around and saluted respectfully.
"Ah, Vegeta-sama,what brings you here?" the shorter doctor nervously rubbed his hands together.
"That loudmouth. Where is he?" Vegeta sniffed in annoyance.
"Over there, your highness," he replied, gesticulating a bit to an aisle on the right.
"We can't get him to be quiet," shrugged the tall one, looking rather awkward due to his lanky build.
Vegeta spun on his heel and marched over to the wailing infant, floating off of the ground to get a better look at the child. The naked baby, a boy, kicked its tiny feet fretfully at the air, tiny hands balled into even tinier fists held close to his small chest, and dark brown tail twitching below its small body. Vegeta stared.
"I want to… poke him." Vegeta removed his gloves slowly, keeping his eyes trained on the child, placing the gloves on the table below the newborn Saiyajin. He moved his now bare fingers towards the child, closer, closer, closer…
"Waaaaaaaaaaauuuuugggggghhhhhhhh!!!!! Aaaawaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!" the tiny child's cries pierced the air, making the infant in the next crib over sniffle and whine, trying to curl in a ball. Nappa glanced nervously at that infant – the power reading on him must've been wrong…
…and the young prince's finger poked the crying baby on the cheek.
"Hey you…" Vegeta muttered, finger pressed against the soft cheek.
"Oh man, where's my earplugs when I need 'um?" muttered Nappa, expecting the wails to increase in volume.
The baby hiccupped to an almost halt and looked up at Vegeta. "Coo?" he gurgled softly, still hiccupping.
"…" Vegeta stared at the now docile baby, hardly daring to believe his good luck.
The child wrapped his downy tail around Vegeta's wrist, cocking his head to the side and blinking up at Vegeta cutely. Eyes like obsidian glittered in the florescent light overhead and for a moment Vegeta was mesmerized – for a moment.
"…Shut up," ordered Vegeta stoutly at the baby.
In reply, the child sniffled a moment before hiccupping again.
Heaving a silent sigh big enough to raise his shoulders almost to his chin, he picked up the child, patted him on the back, and placed him back down, tugging the little bit of cape that the child managed to get a small fistful of away and then brushed little tail away from his wrist.
"AAAAAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!" the infant shrieked as soon as he was placed back in his cot.
"Aw doody," Vegeta wrinkled his nose in annoyance. 'He was quiet earlier…' He wrinkled his brow in thought before turning to the burly Saiyajin next to him. "The baby–" here Vegeta paused to look at the placard beneath the young one that had his name and power reading inscribed "– Kakarrotto, just need to be held. You, Nappa," Vegeta picked up Kakarrotto, who immediately clung to him, "will hold him. I still need to speak with father." Thus said, he deposited the stunned little warrior into the larger warrior's arm and left.
Kakarrotto was quiet for all of three seconds before, with a sniffle, continuing with his wailing even louder than before.
"I need pills, big large horse pills. I need to sleep, like, right now," muttered Nappa, leaning against the wall, rubbing his forehead with his unoccupied arm – if he pulled out his hair anymore he was sure it eventually wouldn't grow back.
The two doctors nearby and an incredibly strong infant silently agreed.
Author's Notes
[As usual, standard disclaimer applies.]
'Today's bellowing brats are tomorrow's fortuitous future.' Here Nappa said "fortuitous" when really he meant to say "fortunate" Fortuitous is more along the lines of accidental or unexpected while fortunate is lucky, happy or privileged; luckily, though, both could mean "chance" so technically Nappa was right. (I made the line up though so, technically, he could never have been wrong.)
I forgot what the doctors looked like – I think one of them looked like a pterodactyl but I'm not certain.
Like in the series, Vegeta is five; Goku – Kakarrotto – is a few days old. Goku should be heading off planet any day now. I just thought it would be nice for them to meet before Goku leaves for Earth.
Despite the fact that QuickEdit refuses to cooperate with me on a few points, I'm posting this up now since it is my opinion that I have gone far too long without posting.
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Sorry for taking so long with updating! However, the reasons I haven't updated are very good ones, all listed on my profile page. At any rate, I found an old copy for the chapter of Vegeta ½ that I'm working on and noticed some of it conflicts with the way I wrote the previous chapter so I'm currently rewriting the soon-to-be-posted chapter (hopefully) to be able to be reconciled with the original version. Oh well, in the end it will all have the same outcome.
Here's another factor – I'm working on my fanart, mainly a Naruto comic I'm trying to work out (it makes me think a little bit of "Some Like It Hot" – luv that movie – though it was not inspired by it at all… however the gag art is!) So, if all works out, I'll get that up on Deviantart in around a month. (Won't post it if it's incomplete so I'll see how that will turn out, ne?)
So until I'm done with my usual stuff, here's a little "Goku-and-Vegeta"-style treat – hey, look, Goku likes him! I'nne a cute baby?
At any rate, I'm going to a wedding shower tonight, a good friend of mine. I'm not really into this sort of stuff but I love that girl to death so let's hope I have fun, ne? Till next time, enjoy each day as it comes - Mikki