Vegeta, the proud and powerful Prince of Saiyans. Yes, I used to be called that... Vegeta mused as he lay on the dark carpeted floor, bleeding. Tears came to his eyes as he lay there, useless, dying.

The blood trickled from the old, reopened scars from his past. The slashes that were across his wrists from when he had just turned 21 on Frieza's ship.

He remembered it well...too well. He had gotten himself a fit and fine lover...they had been together since his 18th birthday, without anyone but themselves knowing. They were happy.

Until Frieza found out.

Fresh tears sprang to his eyes as he remembered the beautiful body and voice of his deceased lover...the perfect masculine physique...the deep husky voice...the lustrous black hair...shining obsidian eyes...the beautiful sable tail...

He choked on a sob as he remembered the last thing he'd ever said to him...

"I will always protect you...nothing will ever tear us apart..."

The words taunted and teased him. He'd failed. He hadn't protected him...he'd been forced to watch as Frieza mercilessly raped and murdered him...right before his eyes before Frieza turned to him.

"Mister Vegeta...we do not allow relationships on my ship...it's time you learned that..." Frieza had closed in on him and then all he remembered was a brutal beating and then being woken from his bed by Radditz a few days later, who was asking him if he was okay.

I failed him... Vegeta thought, tears running down his cheeks rapidly. I promised to protect him and I failed...

An image of Bulma and his son danced across his vision and he blinked his eyes angrily.

I disgraced him for her...I didn't even like her that much...I just missed sex...one time and she was pregnant...I couldn't leave her...

And his situation had gotten worse than that. He had fallen in love with someone...someone pure and innocent...

"Kakarott..." He coughed up some blood and looked to his bleeding wrist, which was lying in a small puddle of his deep red blood.

I fell in love...I never thought it possible...but I did... Damn you Kakarott...that's why I 'hated' you...I didn't want to admit that I loved you...more so...than him...

It was painful just thinking of his male Saiyan lover...it hurt more than anything he'd ever experienced...thinking his name would just destroy him...

He searched for Goku's ki and was downcast to find it happy and content at his house.

He's not coming to help me...he doesn't even know...He took a deep gasping breath and stopped himself from sobbing. I love him...but it's probably best this way...this way I won't see his face when he finds out what happened...how I feel...I won't ruin anybody's lives...just my own...

His whole body was starting to go numb...he felt cold...but he wanted Goku to know how he felt. Slowly and painfully, he took most of his remaining energy to write a short message for Goku in his glistening blood.

He felt the last of his energy draining and Goku's ki began concentrating.

H-He...finally...noticed...Vegeta thought as his body became fully numb and his vision went black. Goku's ki appeared next to him and he got to hear the voice of the one he truly loved before he died, speaking his name softly. He tried to speak, but his energy was gone and his conscious left his body, heading for the heavens.

Goku looked upon the cold, dead body of his once rival, enemy and friend and whispered his name softly, looking at the slit wrists and the blood seeping into the carpet.

Tears sprang to his eyes and he saw words written onto the carpet in blood.

The tears fell from his eyes and he crouched next to the body, holding and cradling it into his arms as he pressed his face to Vegeta's chest, the tears seeping through the navy fabric and onto the pale skin that was once a beautiful bronze colour.

Vegeta...I love you too...

His body wracked with sobs as he cradled the body closer. Suddenly, it disappeared from his gentle arms and he raised two fingers to his forehead, disappearing also.

The only evidence of Vegeta's death and love for Goku was marked into the carpet of the desolate room...found a few hours later by Vegeta's 8 year old son, who read the words slowly...tears in his eyes.

Kakarott, I love you...