Monsters

Creak. Silence. Creak-creak-creak. Silence. Cre-e-eak. Silence.

Vegeta's eye twitched violently with each little sound coming from the hallway.

Creak!

With a low growl he rubbed his temples with his fingertips. Minutes of this nonsense had passed yet his mate hadn't stirred from her slumber. It was times like this he was astounded at the dull senses of humans. Setting that thought aside, he groaned when he heard one last creak right outside the door of their bedroom. He knew who was there because he could feel the small, flickering ki. He glanced over at the clock and saw that it was only a few minutes past midnight. Even though the brat had a habit of waking up early, this was beyond ridiculous.

Tap. Tap-tap.

Vegeta sighed heavily through his nose and sat up, raking his fingers through his hair. What had he ever done to deserve this torment? For what wrong in his past was he currently being punished?

Tap-tap-tap.

It was inevitable. There was no way to avoid this confrontation no matter how long he tried to pretend he had heard nothing. He was almost disappointed the other occupant of the room was still asleep. Let her deal with this. Unfortunately, it seemed she was no closer to waking than she had been when this first started, so his only options were to wake her and deal with her groggy wrath or attend to the midnight visitor.

Taptaptaptaptap.

The efforts to gain his attention were becoming more desperate. If the tapping hadn't given that away, the more erratic flickering of the ki would have. Vegeta rolled his eyes to the ceiling, silently imploring Kami why he was being forced into this idiocy. Receiving no answer, he finally pushed himself out of bed and silently crossed the room to the door.

Tap. Taptap. Bang!

Vegeta grabbed the door knob and hardly bothered twisting it before yanking the door open. "What, brat?" he hissed.

A wide pair of black eyes looked up at him pleadingly. Below them, a tiny pointed nose sniffled and lips trembled. Vegeta tried not to notice the various fluids running from different orifices on the childish face of his rival.

"D-daddy!" Goten wailed, throwing himself at Vegeta's legs. He latched onto one with an unbreakable grip that would have hurt anyone other than the saiyan prince.

Rather than reprimanding the child for once again calling him something so vile, Vegeta rested his hand on his head in a small effort to keep him quiet. With another quick glance over his shoulder to make certain his mate was still asleep, he gripped the back of the child's shirt with his other hand and plucked him off as easily as if he had been a small beetle.

"What is the meaning of this?" Vegeta demanded quietly.

Goten sniffled again and reached his hands out to the adult who was just out of reach. The beginning of another wail rose from his throat. Hearing the oncoming auditory onslaught, Vegeta tucked the child under his arm and carried him down the hall to a safer distance from his bedroom. As if the physical contact was all the soothing he needed, Goten immediately quieted down.

At the end of the hall Vegeta set him on his feet and stood straight, arms crossed over his chest. "What do you want, brat?"

Goten wiped his runny nose with the back of his hand, earning a disgusted sneer from Vegeta. Not seeming to notice the response his actions had, he answered, "I'm s-s-scared." His eyes shifted away and a faint tinge of red colored his cheeks.

Vegeta scoffed. "Scared of what?"

"Monsters!" Goten squeaked out. No sooner had the word escaped his lips than he was latched onto Vegeta's leg again. He whimpered miserably even after he felt the weight of Vegeta's hand resting on his head.

"Of all the stupid…" Vegeta's words trailed off as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "If there are monsters, kill them."

Goten shook his head frantically. "I can't! They're too strong!"

What an absolutely pathetic problem. Vegeta was disgusted, but he knew there would be no returning to sleep until the matter was resolved. However, there were obviously no monsters around so it wasn't as if he could blast them to oblivion, thereby easing the child's senseless fears enough for him to return to bed and sleep. Honestly, where did he get such an idea anyway? He had never complained of there being monsters before. And anyway, what sort of monster could frighten a saiyan child? Much as he hated to admit it, Vegeta knew the child was ridiculously strong for his age, even for a saiyan – even a saiyan elite.

"There aren't any monsters, brat," Vegeta informed him. Perhaps the child would see reason and settle down on his own.

Goten again shook his head. "They're in my room! I saw them."

Reason was apparently not going to work. Vegeta sighed as he pulled the child off his leg and turned toward the room where his son was sleeping. The only ki there was Trunks'. Not that that came as a surprise. He shook his head in exasperation. "Show me the monsters and I'll blast them."

Goten looked toward the room where he had been sleeping up until a few minutes ago before turning back to Vegeta and grinning. He knew going to him was the right thing to do. The monsters wouldn't stand a chance against his daddy. In his excitement and relief he jumped up and down as he led the way back to Trunks' room. "Yay! I knew Daddy would save me!"

Vegeta winced at the child's sudden shouting and clamped his hand over his mouth. "Do you wish to wake everyone in the house?" he growled.

Goten's eyes widened for a second before he shook his head and pushed the hand away. "Sorry," he whispered.

"Hn." Vegeta followed the boy the last few strides to his son's bedroom and quietly opened the door. Shadows were cast on the walls and ceiling from the city lights streaming through the curtains. Was that what had the brat so scared? He stood in the doorway and surveyed the room quickly. "There is nothing here."

"They're hiding," Goten assured him. He pointed to the closet door, which was slightly ajar. "In there."

Vegeta felt a massive headache coming on. Stepping lightly through the dark room, careful to avoid the toys, books, and games strewn about haphazardly, Vegeta made his way over to the closet. Goten followed closely behind, hiding behind him and peeking around his legs as they approached the monsters' secret hideaway.

Silently, he pulled the door open. At this point he was half expecting a monster to come leaping out given the boy's growing fear, and frankly he would have welcomed some sort of adversary to relieve his irritation. But, as was reasonable, no monsters attacked and none cowered even in the darkest corners of the closet. Vegeta even made a show of looking on the high shelves and behind the few boxes on the floor.

"There are no monsters here," he reiterated to the demi-saiyan who was now clinging painfully tightly to his leg.

"Are you sure?" Goten whined.

"I'm sure," Vegeta said, not bothering to hide the annoyance he felt.

Goten's small hands clung tighter until Vegeta was sure he would never escape their grip. "They're here," he insisted. "I s-saw them."

Vegeta rolled his eyes and spun on his heel after quietly closing the closet door. "Then they're gone now." He was fed up with fooling around with this nonsense. "Go back to bed."

"M-maybe they're hiding under there," Goten suggested, pointing to Trunks' bed.

"They are not," Vegeta replied curtly.

"How do you know?" Goten asked. He could sense the adult's souring mood, but he was too scared of the monsters to care about how he was the cause of it.

The saiyan prince threw his hands up in the air. What a waste of time! Growling, he knelt down and peered under the bed. It was dark, and there were a few wadded up articles of clothing, small boxes, and lost toys, but there were definitely no monsters. Not a single one.

"There are no monsters," he informed the child, more forcefully than before. Still, he was careful to keep his tone low so as not to wake his son. While he didn't expect as much wrath from him as he would Bulma, he didn't want him knowing he had been in his room searching for nonexistent monsters.

Goten's gaze fell to his feet, which he shuffled, kicking slightly at the floor. "They were here."

"Then apparently they were just passing through," Vegeta reasoned. He'd had enough. He started for the door to the hall, but two tiny hands grabbed his wrist and held on tightly.

"Don't go yet," Goten pled.

Vegeta smacked his forehead with the palm of his free hand. He really wanted to go back to bed, but it seemed the little brat was going to do anything in his power to keep that an impossible dream. He glared at the child who was looking up at him with such hopeful eyes it almost made him want to vomit. Those were hardly the eyes of a saiyan; no, they were much more like the scared, dewy eyes of a helpless little animal.

"Fine," he groused, breaking his arm free, "I will stay here and kill the monsters if they return. Go to sleep, brat."

He watched as the boy crawled into the bed he shared with Trunks and nestled into the covers. Even when he turned away and sat on the floor with his back leaning against the bedframe he could feel the boy's eyes on him. What, did he expect him to go back on his word and leave? Of course he wouldn't – not until the boy was asleep anyway. Hopefully that wouldn't take long. Suppressing a yawn, he brought one knee up to his chest and rested his arms on it.

What had he been reduced to? Playing guard for the third-class brat. What a joke. He was the prince of all saiyans, not a lowly guard. Besides, there wasn't even an enemy to guard against! Vegeta scoffed at the absurdity of his situation. He looked around the room, but he couldn't make out much of anything in the dark. What caught his attention was the cover of a video laying on the floor near the television. He didn't recognize the title, but the picture was more than enough to tell him what the movie was about. He snorted. Monsters.

Well, that explained why the brat was certain he had seen monsters in the room. Either he was remembering the movie he watched before going to bed or he had a bad dream about them and woke up scared. No wonder Bulma never wanted Trunks watching such movies, especially when Goten came over to visit. The brat must have trouble telling the difference between reality and fiction. At least Trunks wasn't so foolish.

In the quiet room Vegeta could easily hear the boys' breathing. The breaths that had been quicker gradually slowed until they were as long and deep as the other. Vegeta waited a few minutes longer to be sure Goten was fully asleep before he stood up and stretched, finally allowing himself the yawn he had repressed until then.

He had only taken two steps toward the door before he heard one of the boys stirring. He froze in place, not wanting either of them to wake. Once the boy settled, he took another stealthy step to the door, but the stirring resumed, this time accompanied by quiet whimpering. Vegeta felt like pulling the hair out of his head. If the brat was awake again and saw him leaving…

He turned around, ready to silence the brat, but he saw that it wasn't Goten who was making the noise. "You have to be joking," he growled. Silently he returned to the side of the bed and bent over, resting his hand on his son's head to quiet him down. He wasn't awake yet, and Vegeta prayed to Kami that he wouldn't wake fully.

Unfortunately, though, Kami must not have heard his prayer because Trunks opened his eyes and seemed only slightly surprised when he saw his father standing at his side in the middle of the night. "Daddy!" He reached up and wrapped his arms around Vegeta's neck.

With yet another sigh, Vegeta knelt down and loosely put one arm around his son. "What is the matter with you?"

Trunks held onto his father tighter until Vegeta could feel his slight trembling. "I had a s-scary nightmare."

Vegeta pried the arms away from his neck and gently pushed his son back down on the bed. "Is that what you were making so much noise over?"

"Sorry," Trunks mumbled.

"Hn. Go back to sleep." Vegeta stood up and turned to the door.

"Wait, don't go," Trunks said, grabbing his father's hand.

Vegeta pulled his hand away, but he didn't make any other moves. He stood there silently for almost a minute before he clenched his hands into fists and sat down with his back against the bed again. He didn't know why the children wanted him to stay with them when they were scared. Regardless of the reason, he knew that staying with them until they were both asleep was the quickest and surest way to allow him to get back to bed. And so, he sat there and listened for the sounds of his son falling back to sleep.

After several minutes had passed, Vegeta was sure Trunks and Goten were both asleep, but he was so tired himself he didn't bother getting up right away. Before he knew it he, too, had fallen asleep.

It was only when dawn started lighting the room that Vegeta woke. He shook his head to clear it of the morning grogginess and looked around at his surroundings. It took a second for him to remember where he was, but as soon as he did he leapt to his feet and whirled around to make sure his sudden movement hadn't woken the boys. They were still sleeping soundly, though during the night they had shifted positions and kicked off the blanket.

Practically tiptoeing, Vegeta finally escaped their room and shut the door behind him. Groaning and rubbing his aching neck, he leaned back against the door.

"Vegeta, what are you doing out here?"

The saiyan prince jumped when he heard Bulma's voice. He groaned again, this time because he would have to reveal what he was doing all night.

"The brats detained me," he grumbled. "Never let them watch monster movies again."

Without explaining further, he finally walked back to his room to take a shower and get on with the day. He wasn't happy about missing out on sleep, but it wasn't enough to throw off his routine. He ignored Bulma's giggling when she passed him on her way down the hall to the stairs. She no doubt knew what had happened and for some reason found humor in it.

Fine then, Vegeta decided, next time he would let her deal with their baseless fears.

A/N: Bet no one ever thought I was going to update this one! Hell, even I didn't think I was going to. But, it seemed like it would be easier to write a one-short sort of deal than a chapter to one of my unfinished stories. Sadly, I'm not even sure where I was going with them anymore... Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually. Maybe.