My Inner Demons

Chapter 14

Gohan was sitting on the roof of the lookout palace, watching the events unfold. He was slightly shocked by what Vegeta had said, though he could tell the saiyan prince was torn by his guilt. Guilt that shouldn't even have been his. Gohan hadn't meant for any of this to happen, he didn't want his death to break his prince. Nor did he want to hurt anyone else, he just wanted peace. He just wanted to go to a peaceful place where he didn't have to feel so guilty, or the hateful stares from his friends and mother. He just wanted all the pain to stop and leave him alone, but instead of that happening, he felt even worse. He watched as his mother paged through the photo album, explaining the pictures to his little brother. They were all searching for him now and he didn't know whether he wanted them to or not.

"How are we supposed to find Gohan when we can't even see him?" Piccolo asked, he was still standing at the front of the lookout with Vegeta, Dende and Mr Popo. The others had split up to try and find the broken teen.
"I can try sensing for him," Dende said softly and started to concentrate.
Gohan pulled his knees up to his chest as he felt his heart clench and tears run down his rosy cheeks. He rested his head on his knees and hugged his legs with his arms. Gohan felt his shoulders begin to shake as he gave up. He didn't care anymore as he let out heart breaking sobs, trying to cry his pain away.
Dende and Piccolo turned at the sound of his cries, trying to pin point where it was coming from.
Vegeta gave them strange looks as the two Namekian's looked around, searching for the location from which the cries are coming from.

Chi-Chi, Bulma, Krillin, Eighteen and Marron walked over towards them, noticing the Namekian's were looking around rather frantically. Marron looked up, seeing Gohan sitting there, shaking. She tugged on her mother's pant leg, gaining her attention.
"Momma, the boy is over there," she said, pointing to where Gohan sat on the roof. The others looked up, not being able to see the teen. Vegeta started floating up towards Gohan.
"Be careful, Vegeta!" Piccolo yelled after him.
Vegeta nodded and flew to where Marron had pointed, landing softly. He concentrated, faintly, he could hear the boy's cries.
"Gohan?" Vegeta asked, voice soft for the prince.
Gohan looked up, not having expected Vegeta to have come. He expected it to be Piccolo or maybe even Krillin.

Vegeta sat down, propping one leg up and resting one of his arms on there as he leaned back on his other hand. He was sitting a lot closer than Vegeta usually would, their arms touching, but Vegeta doesn't know, because he can't see the teen. Vegeta sat in silence not knowing what to say or do.
Gohan stared at Vegeta, tears still running down his cheeks before he whiped them off, his cheeks and eyes red. Gohan took a deep breath before he made himself visible for Vegeta as well. He had discovered that he could make himself visible to anyone he wished, but not for long unless he turned into a super saiyan, then he could hold his form for as long as he wanted, a plus was that he could feel then.
"Vegeta," Gohan said softly.
Vegeta nearly fell over, though didn't show it as he hadn't expected the boy to show himself.
Vegeta nodded at Gohan, staring off into the distance.

It was silent for a long while until Gohan decided to ask his prince something.
"Is that really how you feel?" Gohan asked quietly.
Vegeta stared at him, slightly confused until he registered what the boy meant.
"Someone had to carry Kakarot's guilt," Vegeta said.
"No, no one had to carry his guilt, because there wasn't any guilt to carry," Gohan said, voice slightly louder.
"While Kakarot was gone, I had to fill that father figure for him, it's the way of the saiyan's. When you died, Kakarot would have felt guilty that he hadn't noticed what was going on sooner. But, Kakarot wasn't here, so I had to carry the guilt of not noticing," Vegeta explained, though not being very fond with talking about his feelings.
"I didn't want this. I didn't want anyone to feel guilty, because it's all my fault, I killed dad, it's my fault that everyone hates me," Gohan said, a frown forming on his face.