hello :) here is a heavier chapter focusing on vegeta's last day on earth before the tournament of power. please enjoy and review if you feel so inclined :)

I can feel the tension in the air the moment I wake up. When my family eats breakfast, we sit mostly in silence. Bulma won't make eye contact with me as she nurses Bulla, and my wife's behavior seems to be rubbing off on our son, as he gazes around the table with a confused look on his face. He attempts to start a few conversations, cracking some jokes to get his mother to smile. She grants him a few soft smiles and one laugh, just enough to make him feel relieved enough to leave the table and ask if he can go visit Kakarot's youngest spawn.

Unaccustomed to seeing my normally obnoxiously loud wife soberingly quiet, I quickly eat all of my food and escape the kitchen as fast as I can. Her severity unsettles me. I flex my fists, feeling frustration seep into my muscles at the knowledge that she wouldn't have to worry if I was stronger. She wouldn't be sitting in the kitchen looking out the window like she wants to memorize everything before it's gone if I was a better protector.

I walk to the gravity room but pause with my hand on the door handle, frozen in revelation. What's the point? I ask in my head. I already have trained in the hyperbolic time chamber. What is one more day of training going to truly change? A dark acceptance seeps into my bones.

We're screwed no matter what.

I shudder at the thought, squeezing the door handle, wanting to curse every eternal god for this final, ultimate twist of fate in my life. It seems a fitting punishment for a killer like me. Finally, I have everything I never knew I wanted. Finally, I have accepted a life of peace.

And just when I was beginning to think of Earth as home and just as the demons had started to go away, everything's about to be ripped right out of my hands.

I thought Bulla's birth would give me a fresh start. It seems that I will not get the chance to redeem myself as a father.

Defeated, I head upstairs, past the doorway to my present bedroom and down a few halls to my first bedroom here on Earth. When I open the door, I see that everything is essentially the same as I left it. Bland white walls, a military-esque cot thrown on the floor. Sheets tucked perfectly into the side of the bed. A closet off to the side of the very small bedroom. Standing in here now, I feel so claustrophobic. The first time I stepped into this room, I felt tears sting my eyes at the thought of having a room of my own for the first time since I was a child.

Easing myself onto the bed, I lay back, folding my arms behind my head. Patronizing voices crowd my head, insisting I should be with my family- no, I should be training- no, I should have left this blasted mudball a decade ago. Tiredly, I massage my forehead. If I'm honest, all I truly want right now is to sleep. Closing my eyes, I feel myself slowly drifting off, part of me hoping I may wake up and this will all be a nightmare.

"Vegeta?" I hear the woman's voice in my ear, and I mumble before blinking to gaze up at her. She sits on the edge of the cot next to me, holding Eschalot.

"Vegeta, darling?" Her gentle hand, the one not holding our baby, reaches out to smooth my hair. Still drowsy, I sit push myself up to a sitting position. Bulma's eyes watch me, her blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight that shines through the window.

"What time is it?" I manage to mutter.

"It's twelve in the afternoon. I think you've been sleeping since breakfast this morning." She answers, giving me a lopsided grin. I shake my head at myself, angry. Tension floods my body, and I go to stand up to go and do something, darn it, but her hand reaches up to my shoulder and my neck immediately relaxes.

"I'm glad you slept. You're going to need all the energy you can get." She whispers, the haunted look returning to her eyes, making me want to raze the universe.

I grunt in response, shifting my eyes to look at Eschalot, who sleeps peacefully in her mother's arms.

"At least she has no idea." Bulma says, smiling warmly at our daughter. I feel as defenseless as I did when I sparred Frieza as a child, and my gut feels like Kakarot just delivered a well-aimed punch to it.

"Vegeta, I want you to know something." My mate's eyes have regained their normal fire, and I restrain myself from running away from the moment I know we are about to have. She needs this, and I am willing to give her anything before we meet our untimely demise. When I think that all of this might be erased, I think I can admit that I need this too.

"You are absolutely the strongest person I know. When I invited you to live here at Capsule Corp., I did it because I saw something in you that I.. recognized. I don't know how else to put it. I know you hate when I get sappy, but I want you to know that every fiber of my being knows that you and I were destined to be together. You're the only person who can put up with me. And I want you to know that no matter what happens, I'm so incredibly proud of you and I wouldn't want to face possible annihilation with anyone else by my side." Her hand cups my cheek and she smiles, a genuine smile, all tears gone from her eyes.

I blink, processing her words, before catching her chin in my hand and leaning over to place my lips on hers, trying to convey all that I feel. She kisses me back just as hard as I am kissing her, her mouth moving over mine.

I pull away, knowing that Eschalot is still in her mother's arms, sleeping. Looking down at her, I gently touch the fuzzy blue curls that are growing from her head. Bulma's chest rises like she's about to say something, but I see her swallow her sentence. After all these years, I've learned how to speak and she's learned how to be quiet. Truly, it's a miracle.

"I will not fail you." I look at Bulla and then up at Bulma, resolve in my voice. For a moment, I truly believe what I am saying. How can I fail when these females are relying on me? How can I never train with Trunks in the gravity chamber ever again, or lose the years of Eschalot growing up? How can I look at Bulma and allow myself to forfeit this bond that's formed between us through years of toil and attraction and blood.

I lost my family once, when I was barely old enough to remember. I will not lose my family again.

Bulma nods, her eyes shining with hope and confidence.

"I would expect nothing less from you, Prince Vegeta."

Smirking, I again capture her lips with my own. She breathes out heavily, sliding her tongue over my mouth. I bite her lip in punishment.

"You should put the child down for her afternoon nap." I hiss headily between a kiss.

She giggles, planting one last kiss on my mouth, and stands up. Stopping at the doorframe to look at me, she raises an eyebrow.

"I'll see you in our bedroom, your Highness." With a wink, she's out the door and I hear her footsteps patter on the floorboards.

Exhaling, I begin to pace my old bedroom, still uneasy about tomorrow. Still uneasy about what I want to leave to my family. Uncertain, a plan begins to form in my mind. I remember the old scraps of paper I'd keep in my closet in order to draw schematics at night when I couldn't sleep. Opening the closet, I find the pile of paper right where I left it. Pulling the paper and a pen out, I collect my thoughts and write. I will tell Bulma where to find these letters before I leave. They will at least have one piece of me left, even if I die and the Universe is saved.

And if the Universe is not saved, they will at least understand why I risked my life for them.

Bulma-

Thank you. For your faith in me. What you've given to me is a debt I can never repay.

D'todo en alvelt, ikh'uridant faqat.

Yours,
Vegeta

Trunks-

Son, you carry the House of Vegetasei on your shoulders with pride. Watch after your

mother and sister,

Your father, Crown Prince Vegeta VIII

Eschalot-

No matter who you grow up to be, you will be the Princess of Vegetasei, named after your

grandmother, Queen Eschalot. Carry your title with pride. Know that I am always with you, chou'chou.

Your father, Crown Prince Vegeta VIII

* D'todo en alvelt, ikh'uridant faqat. : a combination of many languages that translates to "Of all in the universe, I want only you."

* chou'chou: cabbage-cabbage, a French expression that means "darling"