A/N : It's tough on a new account. Lol.

Warnings! : Language, violence, angst, non-con, m-preg, homicide, suicidal thoughts, insanity, drug abuse, many other things that probably shouldn't have seen the light of day. Did I mention insanity? Okay.

Pairings : Goku x Vejita, past Raditz x Vejita, maybe some one-sided GhxV depending on how I feel later on.

Note : After the intial entrance, each chapter set in the past will be from a different character's perspective (Goku, Gohan, Chichi, Yamcha, Bulma, Piccolo, Krillin.) so don't expect any character bashing, especially of the Chichi/Bulma/Yamcha variety. I'm not down with that, yo. (And if you wonder what language I imagine for the Saiyans, I can't ever get Dutch out of my brain. For me, it has to be German or Dutch, no questions asked, but Dutch just does a little better for me. ;))

This is basically a story in which I intended to mash together every Dragonball Z fandom cliche ever. Like, every single one I could think of (you know them when you see them), because I've always wanted to do my own cliched story, and here it is! ;_; Totally fan-service for myself, but I decided to go ahead and slap it up anyway, just because. That being said, however, I still strive for a reading experience in which the English language is not mangled, nor are characterizations.

Again, expect every cliche known to mankind, good and bad. I'm super serious about that. Srsly. :D Reviews are always welcome. Slow updates, longer chapters later on. Not really meant to be taken all that seriously as much as it is for a good time (for me). So, again, don't be like, 'omg this is so cliche swear to god I just wasted three hours of my life,' cause, like, I told ya already.

Lines On A Page

Chapter 1

It was a little more noticeable with every day that passed.

Maybe it shouldn't have taken them so damn long to realize it, but everything had been going so well lately that it was possible they had been ignoring it without being aware of it. Intentionally avoiding it. Their greatest victory of all, the defeat of Buu—why would they ever want to dampen the spirit of well-being by admitting that one of their own might have been deteriorating right before their eyes?

Bulma had been the first to notice it, of course. Why wouldn't she? She lived with the man, after all, and knew him better than any of them. She had been the first to finally open her mouth and address it.

Gohan would have liked to say he had been the first one to realize there was something wrong, but he hadn't picked up on it until Trunks had, and therefor Goten had. Sad. The kids had known before he had.

By then, it had been a long time, perhaps, since Vejita had been going downhill.

Damn.

Gohan had been so excited at the prospect of never having to fight again that he had merely cast aside the subtle warnings. Had turned his head, and so easily. Vejita was a little different, that was all. He had always been different, so they thought that maybe it had just been imagination, or reading into things too much.

Or it could have been that they just hadn't cared enough.

There had been a little twinge of resentment at first; hell, he wasn't gonna lie. Everything had finally settled down and had been going as well as it could have ever been, so it had agitated Gohan that there was something disrupting this welcome calm. Didn't want anything to be wrong, because he was sick and tired of things coming and ruining the peace.

He had pushed it aside as quickly as it had come, knowing the second it had crossed his mind that it wasn't fair.

Vejita, after all, had wanted nothing from them, not a goddamn thing, so it wasn't right to blame him for lulling them from their sense of security. They had plunged into concern all on their own. Vejita asked for nothing.

Never had.

The only request that Vejita had had all of these years had been for them to respect him. To not look down upon him. He had never asked them for their worry, or their pity.

All the same, he had it now.

They had finally acknowledged it to each other, and there was no turning back or just forgetting about it now. Whether he liked it or not, Vejita had become one of them. Vejita was, to put it simply, a good guy now, a part of the gang, and they always stuck together.

It had started simply, according to Bulma.

After being brought to life, after coming to terms once and for all that Earth would be the only place he lived for the rest of his days, after accepting the fact that he would never be the strongest, Vejita had still come home that day with something close to a smile on his face. He had almost been happy, she said.

Happy.

A strange word in reference to Vejita.

She had assumed at first that he had been grateful for this second chance, or maybe that the fusion with Goku had imparted some kind of sense of well-being. It almost hadn't mattered; Vejita had been happy.

For a while.

And then, like the changing of the tide, it had started to fade.

Contentment turned into melancholy. Vejita's training regiment, although perpetual, started to slack a little. Bulma, as smart as she was and as observant, had told Gohan that she suspected it had something to do with Goku, although why or what she could not say.

Somehow, that hadn't really surprised Gohan much.

The relationship between his father and Vejita had always been a complex one, and he wouldn't pretend to fully comprehend it. They probably didn't even comprehend it. Or, at the very least, his simple father certainly didn't. What had happened between them during that long fight? Whatever had clearly hadn't been enough for Vejita.

The fading of a fragile happiness had been hard for Bulma to watch, and Trunks too, although the child didn't have as clear a grasp on things as his mother did.

What was it that was going on in Vejita's head?

And his father's, for that matter?

Sometimes it came to Gohan, right there on the tip of his tongue, but before he could grasp it he was cast back into darkness, and comprehension fled. It was so close. Yet still it eluded him, and Vejita drifted farther away.

Every day, it seemed to get a little more obvious, at least to those who really knew the man the most.

Gohan accounted himself among them, and even though his father had more history with Vejita than he did, it still stung a little bit when Goku had come up to him and said, in a hushed voice, 'Say, don't you think Vejita's been acting a little strange lately?'

Gohan had nodded his head, then, even though some part of him had wanted to snip, 'I'm surprised you've been around long enough to notice.'

Maybe he had been getting worse, too.

He couldn't put his finger on when exactly it was that he had become resentful of his father. Maybe at the same time that Vejita had started to fade. It was easy to blame his father, even if he didn't know why. Maybe, despite his declarations otherwise, maybe some part of Gohan just wasn't content with peace. Maybe he had become reliant on having to fight for the Earth, and this quiet just made him think too much.

Sometimes he wanted to go up to Goku and say, 'This is your fault! Go fix it!'

Yet, he didn't.

Because his father would have said, 'How is this my fault?' and Gohan didn't know how to answer that question, because he didn't really know what was wrong.

Still, he felt that his father could have tried harder.

Instead of slinking over to Gohan to inquire about Vejita, why couldn't he just go over himself and ask Vejita how he was? When had they started avoiding each other? Goku had never had trouble waltzing up to Vejita confidently and asking bold questions. What had happened? Goku was avoiding Vejita and Vejita was just floating around like a damn ghost.

They hadn't said a word to each other since then.

Gohan didn't understand.

So, Vejita just suffered silently in the wake of their ignorance, and Gohan watched his father with irritability whenever he was near.

His head hurt most of the time, and he couldn't figure that out, either. Like some voice was always nagging him. Couldn't stand this atmosphere, this tension, this helplessness.

He had tried to ask his mother if his father had been acting strangely as well, and beleaguered Chichi's response had just been a curt, 'How would I know? I never see him anymore.'

Granted.

Months and months went by, years, and then suddenly Trunks was eleven, and Vejita looked so different that it was like staring at a stranger. It was like going back in time and meeting him all over again, only this time instead of rage there was only defeat.

They had almost started accepting his decline, as if there was just nothing they could do about it.

Honestly, they pretended that they had tried, but they never really had. They had half-assed, as they always had in everything else, not taking all that seriously. Vejita dissolved before their eyes and they just kept shrugging their shoulders.

Even so, Gohan was reluctant to give up on him like everyone else always had, and Bulma was really the only one that would have done anything and everything for Vejita, but even she couldn't figure this one out.

If any of them tried to approach Vejita with worry, the automatic response was always the same.

'I'm fine.'

Fine. Yeah, right.

Vejita hardly seemed to be aware of who was asking the question or where he was.

Fine.

Looking at him now, Gohan could only see the Vejita that had come to Earth for the first time so long ago. Tiny, lean and slender. Hardly intimidating, at least at first glance. When had he slimmed down so much? Couldn't be healthy, not for him. Not just a physical transformation, either, but even more of a mental one. Vejita was always gone now, up in his head. Where did he go?

It was so obvious, this decline, that even those who didn't come around much had noticed it.

Yamcha and Chichi, who weren't exactly frequent guests anymore, had voiced their concerns, and even Eighteen, who had always enjoyed teasing Vejita about his height, had fallen strangely silent in his presence. As if she were afraid that a gentle jab might be too much for him.

And yet, even now, even as he stood so weary and tiny before them, the greater majority of them were still far too intimidated by him to pry much. Vejita may have been slimmer, might have looked more like a cat than a lion, but at that size he had nearly sent Goku straight to heaven, so it was perhaps ideal to be a little cautious.

A Vejita who was not in his right mind was far more dangerous. Unpredictable. Gohan wasn't afraid of Vejita. Hadn't been since he was a child. Hadn't been ever since Vejita had returned to Earth from Namek. All the same, he still couldn't seem to find the courage to corner Vejita and force some answers out of him.

Cowards, all of them. Pathetic. And they called themselves warriors.

Vejita had saved their skins on so many occasions, whether it had truly been his intention or not, whether his motives had been clean or not, and now they couldn't go to him and save him from the slope of depression.

The only one who could really talk to him was Bulma, and she was coming up empty-handed. He wouldn't give her the answers she sought, no matter how hard she pressed him. It hurt her, that much was obvious to see. Bulma loved Vejita, and Vejita loved Bulma, but that wasn't enough this time. Trunks was still too young to really worry. To him, Vejita always had been and always would be invincible.

To Trunks, Vejita was a god, and therefor nothing could be wrong with him.

Gohan wished he still had the luxury of pretending.

Bulma had been speaking to him a lot more lately, although Gohan couldn't say whether it was loneliness from Vejita's distance or her worry for him. Both, likely. She confided private things to him that Vejita would have never wanted anyone to know. Sometimes, Gohan wasn't even sure if he should really know these things, if Bulma should really be telling him things that Vejita had always wanted to be private.

Vulnerabilities. Even Vejita had them.

Especially Vejita, it could be said.

Nightmares had started up ever since the last battle had ended, night after night, and Bulma was certain that it was Babidi's intrusion that had brought them forth. Forcing open parts of Vejita's mind that had been mercifully closed off. They didn't sleep in the same bed anymore. In the midst of one nightmare, Vejita had struck out blindly and very nearly hit her, as she had tried to grab him to calm him down, and, she said, he had been so upset at the prospect of hurting her he had banished her immediately into her own bedroom.

Like he always had, Vejita chose to suffer alone. He wouldn't allow himself to rely on anyone.

Ideas came and went, and so did the days.

Together, Bulma and Gohan plotted away, and Vejita just wandered.

Goku stood back, watched, and stayed silent. Gohan hated him for it, sometimes. What held him back? Goku knew so much more than he let on, even if maybe he didn't truly realize it. Goku was key, as he always had been, but this time he didn't come running to help, and, whether it was fair or not, Gohan resented him for it.

Every day, Vejita became more distant.

What could they do?

Sand, slipping through their fingers.