"Gohan? Honey?" Chichi leaned in the doorway of her son's room, "Are you feeling alright?"

The boy looked up from where he lay on his bed, "Yeah, mom. I'm fine."

Chichi didn't move from where she stood. It was obvious something was bothering him, he had been in his room for three hours now, laying on that bed.

Not sleeping, just staring blankly at the wall. He had been very sick lately--not so much physically as something else.

He had no fever, his eyes were clear, his cheeks were pink and he was just as strong as ever.

But something was very, very wrong with him.

"Mom? I just want to be alone right now," the boy said, rolling over so his mother couldn't see his face.

"Gohan-chan..........please. You can talk to me." Chichi came over and sat on the edge of his bed, "Is it trouble at school?"

"No."

"Are you worried about my pregnancy?"

"No."

"..........Is is Goku-san?"

"No, nothing like that, really mom."

Chichi watched her son lay there, his only motion being the slow rise and fall of his shoulders as he breathed.

"It is Goku-san, isn't it."

The boy sat up and spun to face her, "Mom, no! It's not Dad! It has nothing to do with him!"

"Then what is it?!"

The boy turned away again to hide a sudden redness that crossed his face, "It was just a bad dream."

Chichi studied his profile for a second before tentativly asking, "Do you want to tell me about it? I may be your mother but-?"

"No!" the boy quickly said, "Please, mom. Just.........go away. I need to be alone."

He lay back down again, back to his mother.

Chichi sat with him for a few more minutes before patting him gently on the shoulder and leaving.

"Bulma?"

"Chichi-san? What's wrong? You sound like you've been crying."

"I have been........a little."

"Are you still upset about Son-kun's death?"

"No.......well, yes. But that's not why I'm crying. I'm worried about Gohan-chan."

"Oh? Why? Did something happen to him?"

"No.......well, I'm not sure. He's been so detached lately. I don't even ask him to study. All he does is just lay there on his bed. He won't talk to me, and I can hardly even get him to eat. He's starting to lose weight."

"He must still be upset about losing his father. Poor boy, it really hit him hard."

"But he never missed a meal before! He says it's because of a bad dream."

"It's just an excuse, he doesn't want to admit that he's mourning. When did he start acting like this?"

"About a week ago.......Bulma what am I going to do?"

"He's probably just trying to put up a tough front, but really wants and needs company."

"But I tried to keep him company! He just wants me to leave all the time."

"Then bring him over here, together I bet we can set him right."

"Okay. I will. Thank you, Bulma."

Gohan sat on the couch at the Capsule Corps building, hands resting nerviously on his knees.

His mother had abandoned him to talk to Bulma in the kitchen, leaving him alone and exposed in the home of the very person who haunted his dreams.

"What are you doing here, brat?"

The boy's whole body stiffened.

"Well? I asked you a question."

Slowly, he turned to see Him, Vegita, standing in the enterance--and Gohan's only exit.

At the sight of the Saiya-jin, the boy's whole body seemed to clench up. He opened his mouth but no sound came out.

"What's your problem anyway?" the prince asked.

Gohan said nothing.

"The females all seem so worried about you and your stupid little problems that-"

"I wish they wouldn't!"

Vegita became silent.

"I wish everyone would just..........leave me alone."

With that said the boy cast his eyes downward and his thoughts inward.

He shouldn't yell at Vegita because of some stupid dream he had! It wasn't the Saiya-jin's fualt, after all.

Vegita carefully looked the other over.

With his head down like that, his bangs cast shadows over his eyes.

His jaw was clenched and Vegita's eyes hung on the boy's lips, remembering what pleasure they had given him with a little persuation.

As he looked at the boy, watched his shoulders move as he breathed, Vegita felt that same stirring he felt everytime he looked at him too long.

A small, glittering tear slowly drifted down the boy's chin, reminding Vegita yet again of the last time he had seen him cry, laying there in the grass, his naked body pale in the new moon light.

Suddenly Vegita wanted to see it all again. Feel it all again. The stirring he was feeling turned into a need.

"Kid, let's go outside."

The boy jumped, a look of absolue fear and dread on his face, "Outside?"

"Yeah. Outside. Ya know, not inside?"

The boy cast a look to the kitchen where his mother and Bulma were talking. With them this close, Gohan felt safe, untouchable.

But if he went outside........... But what could he tell Vegita?

He couldn't say no over a stupid dream, could he? It did have to be a dream.

But.........if it were a dream why did he still hurt when he woke up?

Why were his eyes still red and puffy from crying?

No, it was a dream. A stupid, vivid, painful dream.

The boy got up from the couch and followed Vegita out the door. The Prince didn't stop in the yard, he walked to the edge of the property then started flying.

"Where are we going?" Gohan asked, hovering to Vegita's elevation.

"Were we can talk alone without those two baka women interupting," Vegita said, and took of like a light.

Swallowing his fear, the boy assured himself once again that his memories were just dreams as he followed the Saiya-jin prince.

The two flew in silence over the city. Past the city limits. Past the outskirts of civilization. Up and over the mountains Gohan called home.

The boy felt more and more uneasy the farther he got from the places he was familiar with. He willed his fear away.

It was just a dream, it was just a dream, it was just a dream.......

Vegita finally stopped and landed, looking behind him to see if the boy was following. He was.

Vegita was happy.

As the youth landed, he carefully noted his surroundings. Lush, grassy hills surrounded by trees, he could find no dangers in such an environment.

He looked down at Vegita, sitting on a rock. He didn't look too dangerious........not any more than normal.

It was just a dream..........

The boy landed.

"Now," the prince said, "Now that we're alone, tell me what's bothering you."

The boy studied Vegita. The only other time he had heard that odd gentleness in his voice was in his dream.

Yet, even now, it was relaxing. The Saiya-jin didn't seem to want to try to hurt him.

"It......was a dream I had a while ago," Gohan said, hesitantly sitting on the rock next to Vegita, "You.......you were...appologizing to me."

The boy cringed, expecting Vegita to get mad, or at least sarcastic. To cuff him, or yell at him or insult him. To act like Vegita.

The prince said nothing.

He continued to sit in peace.

"And........you......you......."

"Did this?" Vegita asked, and before the boy could do or say anything, the prince put one tender hand behind his head and brought his lips to the boy's.

It wasn't a passionate kiss, though it did seem to linger.

Oddly enough, Vegita wasn't forcing it in anyway.

Gohan, for all of his pain and tears, could still find nothing wrong with it. He didn't want this, didn't want it to happen, but in this one, simple moment, the boy didn't want it to end.

Vegita was surprised when the boy responded so fast, pushing against him, breathing heavily.

The prince broke the kiss first. As he pulled away, he caught the look on the boy's face.

Eyes closed, lips still slightly jutting outward. When Gohan opened his eyes, his face returned to normal with a splash of red on either cheek.

Vegita smiled.

"It wasn't a dream........"

"It was for me," Vegita said, and moved his face closer to the boy's, their noses almost touching.

The boy's breath tickled against the prince's chin, "Was it.....a dream.....for you?"

With each word the prince tilted his head and assended his lips back to the boy's.

For the life of him Gohan couldn't control his body!

He didn't want this to happen, but with Vegita so close........without knowing it he moved his mouth forward expectantly.

And even as skin melded with skin the boy feared what lay ahead.

The pain, the shame, the helplesness.

But this kiss................

He wasn't aware until the dewy grass was beneath his back that Vegita had somehow gotten his shirt off without breaking the kiss.

Vegita was nearly on top of him, using his body and the ground to keep the boy from breaking away.

Their lips still cealed, the boy floundered his hand around on the grass until he found his missing shirt--it had been torn off.

Gohan wasn't surprised, just scared and............there was some other feeling he couldn't place.

Even as he opened his mouth and let their tounges meet, he wanted to shove the prince off him, grab his torn shirt and fly away.

Vegita sat up, looking down at the boy who was still floundering around his own emotions to react very well.

The prince traced a gloved finder down the boy's chest, drawing little invisible swirls on his stomach, circling his naval a few times.

He went lower and tugged at the band of the boy's pants in annoyance.

Gohan could only lay on the grass, his eyes closed, feeling Vegita feel him.

He wanted to leave. But his body didn't seem to care.

Neither did Vegita.

"You like this, kid?" Vegita asked as he lowered his mouth and pressed his lips against the boy's neck.

Gohan gasped slightly but said nothing. Vegita sat up and looked down at him.

The boy opened his eyes, looking up at the prince with fear in his eyes.

He would not, could not answer that. He didn't know.

Vegita cuffed him in the side of his head, sending the boy's mind into an even more confusing whirl.

First the prince is kind, then he's stradling him, now he's hitting him......

"I asked you a question," Vegita said, bending down to administer to the boy's neck again, his head sliding down to linger on his chest, teasing his already tense nipples.

"Huhhn....," Gohan said, trying to sort through the pain and.....pleasure? Was he accually finding pleasure in this?

No!

With a sudden, half-hearted resolve, Gohan raised his arms and tried to push Vegita off him.

Vegita was amused.

This boy had more than the power it took to push him away--his struggling was all an act....a very amusing one.

The prince grabbed the boy by his wrists and pinned his arms above his head with one hand, using his other hand to caress his milky cheek, "You are enjoying this, aren't you?"

Vegita slapped him, hard enough to rattle his mind even more.

Gohan could not respond. He couldn't even if he knew how to.

The rush of pleasure and pain was too great for him, mixing with all his other associations he felt strongly about......

Pain while training--but he trained with the people he loved the most, enjoying every second he had with them, even if it ment being hurt by them......

Pleasure and pain......pleasure and pain......

Vegita kissed him roughly, biting his lip and lacing his hand behind the boy's head, tilting his head into the kiss.

Gohan readily opened his mouth, returning Vegita's fire with his own.

The prince grabbed both the boy's arms at the bicep, digging his gloved fingers into the boy's skin, even as he bit the boy's lip hard enough for it to bleed.

The taste of blood seemed to make them both press harder together. Even through his gloves, Vegita's fingers broke skin.

Pleasure and pain.......pleasure and pain.........

In his daze, Gohan was hardly aware when Vegita turned him over onto his hands and knees, but once in the position, he knew what was coming.

He squeezed his eyes shut.

Pleasure and pain.........

They lay, naked, on the grass together. Tears silently rolling down his cheeks, Gohan could not let himself look at Vegita. Again.

It had happened again. He was bleeding, worse that before.

Vegita had hurt him more than last time, longer than last time.

Why? He hadn't done anything to the prince to deserve the kind of pain he had suffered. The kind of humiliation.

Why had Vegita done it to him?

Vegita couldn't see the boy's tears; his face was buried in Gohan's hair, but he knew. He knew the boy was crying agian.

As cruel, or heartless as it was, the tears only made Vegita feel the urge all over again.

This time was definatly better than last time.

Hotter. Sweatier. The boy had screamed louder.

The prince closed his eyes, remembering every sweet detail as vividly as he could.

He felt the urge begin to return.

Even as the boy's shoulders began to shake as he started to give way to small sobs, the prince wanted to do it all over again, right there, right then.

Self-restraint. He needed to use it.

Though he could do it again, perhaps two, three more times--kami, the boy's milky skin was soft--he knew Gohan couldn't take it.

Yet. It would happen again.

Perhaps soon.

Gohan had responded readily this time. He would again.

The prince was already beyond the boy's ability to defend, now all it took was time.

Slowly, Gohan fell asleep on the dewy grass.

This time, Vegita did not clean him. Did not try to cover up what had happened.

The boy would not tell anyone. He wouldn't know how.

It would be their little secret.