TITLE: To Love and be Loved
AUTHOR: Dean
RATING: PG; good, clean shounen-ai fun.
PAIRING: It’s a surprise.
SUMMARY: He loves someone, who loves someone else, who loves yet another
someone else. Sappiness ensues.
WARNING(S): Ultra-fluff, my trademark. Would you expect less?
FEEDBACK: Like, of course! Private responses are preferred and can be sent
to deanybean@aol.com . Unless of course you feel the need to post the
response. Either way, feedback is of the good.
DISCLAIMER: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don’t own shit. We all know this part.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is for Little Saru. Also, special thanks to Kiya for the
beta and the Chibs for her input.

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“Come here,” he whispered. “I have something to show you.”

The shorter man followed him through the trees to a clearing near the
river. Both men moved soundlessly, although one of them had no idea why
they had to be so quiet. As they came upon the clearing, they crouched at
the edge, and he quickly grew impatient. “What is it?” he spoke
mellifluously back. “I see nothing.”

“Just wait,” replied the other man. Soft laughter drifted from closer to
the river, but they could see no one as the embankment prevented it. The
slightly larger man pointed towards a tree near the riverbank edge.
“There.”

Slowly, two figures came into view and rested next to each other at the
roots of the tree. The smaller man was puzzled as to why the larger man was
showing him this. “Is that all? That’s not unusual,” came his curt
whisper.

“I said to wait,” he responded.

They remained there, hidden behind the bushes and trees of the forest,
observing the other two individuals. Suddenly, a gasp caught in the shorter
man’s throat, his brow knit as he saw the larger of the two beings in front
of him kiss the other. He swallowed hard, knowing that the taller man with
him surely saw the disappointment on his face. Silently, he moved away from
the clearing edge and ran in the opposite direction.

Once he got far enough away, he stopped and just stood there, staring
blankly into space. He barely registered the other man appearing behind
him. “Is that what you had to show me?” the smaller man questioned.

“Yes,” he answered. “You needed to see Piccolo and Gohan together. Don’t
you understand? You need to realize that Piccolo will always only love
Gohan. They’ve loved each other since they were children. Like Trunks and
Goten, in a way. You _know_ that. They are just meant to be together.
Just because Gohan had married Videl and had a child with her, that didn’t
mean that they’d stay together, especially since he had always been in love
with Piccolo. True love cannot be denied. You _knew_ that eventually Gohan
would leave her to be with him, and he _has_. Piccolo _can’t_ love anyone
else. Not even you.”

“Why does no one else know about them?” There was no masking the hurt in
his voice.

“Hell, _I_ wouldn’t have known about them had I not stumbled upon them by
accident myself a few weeks back.” The taller man shook his head. “I don’t
think anyone else knows.”

Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, the smaller man began walking
away. “Vegeta,” Yamcha pleaded. “I didn’t show this to you to hurt you. I
just wanted to open your eyes. I don’t want you making the same mistakes I
made.”

The saiyajin prince whirled around to face him. “And _what_ mistakes would
those be?” he spat out.

Yamcha rubbed the back of his neck. “Loving someone who will never love you
in return. The pain of wasting your life pining for Piccolo isn’t worth
it. Trust me. I have some experience in that area.”

“Who did you waste your life on?” Vegeta queried.

“It doesn’t matter,” came the soft reply. “He’ll never care for me like
that, and I’ve accepted it.”

“_He_.” The saiyajin eyed him curiously. He’d never realized that Yamcha
had an affinity for other males. He knew that the human, obviously, was
very open-minded and had no problems whatsoever with same-sex-oriented
relationships, but still. The Yamcha he’d always known had been into
females. This was certainly a new development. “Who was he?”

“I said it doesn’t matter,” Yamcha grounded out. “Just drop it.”

“No.” Vegeta reached for Yamcha’s shoulder and gripped it tightly. “Do you
still love him?”

“Of course I do,” the taller man answered, his brow furrowed. “But like I
said, it doesn’t make any difference. He won’t love me…not like I love
him.”

Vegeta scowled deeply. “Well, who _is_ this prick? I’ll beat some sense
into him.”

“Just let it go, Vegeta,” Yamcha sighed. “That wouldn’t be helping.”

“Does he know?” asked the saiyajin. “Have you told this gutless wonder how
you feel about him? And has he told you that he could _never_ love you?”

The human shook his head again. “No, no, no. No one knows. Just me. But
I know him. He’d never accept me.”

Vegeta studied Yamcha’s face, searching for some flaw in his defenses. The
other man wasn’t meeting his gaze, which gave Vegeta a good opportunity to
really look at him. As the human’s words tumbled through his mind, he began
to piece the puzzle together. Yamcha was just _so_ evasive, almost to the
point of being ridiculously so. Vegeta frowned as he looked at him,
irritated that he couldn’t figure out what was going on inside the other
man’s head. Suddenly, Yamcha raised his eyes to meet Vegeta’s and grinned
broadly.

“Hey. Why don’t we get away from here? Maybe get a drink or something?” the
taller man suggested. “We could always just go back to my house and chill
and stuff.”

Vegeta stood firmly. “It’s Kakarrot, isn’t it…?”

An incredulous look smeared across Yamcha’s face. “Oh, Kami, _no_! I mean,
don’t get me wrong; Goku is a great friend and all, but…he doesn’t do
anything for me in that way.”

The prince somehow found that oddly comforting. “Then who? I’ll make you
tell me. You realize this, of course…” Yamcha didn’t utter a word but
simply looked away again. Vegeta grew increasingly frustrated. “Dammit,
human, tell me! You knew how I felt about the namek, so why can’t you tell
me how you feel about this other person?!”

“Because it’s you, all right?!” Yamcha shouted back. “I’m in love with
_you_.” Taking a step back, a strained chuckle escaped his throat. “_Now_
do you see why I didn’t want to tell you?” He suddenly choked on the laugh
as tears welled in his eyes.

“I don’t know how to respond to that,” Vegeta said softly.

“It’s okay,” the human offered. “I know how you feel.”

“How _dare_ you make assumptions on _my_ feelings!” the saiyajin roared.
“You never asked me how I felt!”

“I don’t want to know,” whispered Yamcha. “As long as I don’t hear you say
it, my heart doesn’t have to break.” He turned his eyes to look directly
into Vegeta’s. “Can we please just forget this?”

“We should talk about this,” Vegeta stated.

“No!” he yelled. “No. I just want to forget we had this conversation and
go back to the way things were five minutes ago.”

“But, you didn’t love me five minutes ago.”

“Yes, I did…you just didn’t know it.” The taller man heaved a deep sigh.
“Let’s just forget it, okay?”

“No.”

“What? No? Why?”

“Answer me this, Yamcha,” Vegeta said coolly. “Why would I want to forget
that you love me?”

He shrugged a little, shaking his head and frowning slightly. “I
don’t—Just…what are you trying to say here, Vegeta?”

“You assumed that I could never love you. Why?”

“B-be-because…you’re Vegeta, the prince of all saiyajin, and I’m just plain
old Yamcha, a weak and stupid little human. I mean,” Yamcha closed his eyes
and deepened his scowl. “What would someone like you ever see in someone
like me? There’s nothing to see. It makes plenty of sense that I would
fall for you, but…our friendship? Even _that_ makes no sense. Sometimes I
can’t even remember how we became friends.”

“I remember,” replied the prince. “I wanted to get to know you. It was
mainly curiosity on my part. I couldn’t understand how someone could choose
to play a game like baseball rather than to fight and be a warrior. I
thought you weak and pathetic. But I was wrong. You have a different kind
of strength. And I came to enjoy it. _That_ is how we became friends.
Because I was wrong about you.” The saiyajin took a step closer to him.
“Have you ever considered that you could be wrong about me?”

Yamcha’s chest tightened. He whispered, “Am I wrong?”

Vegeta’s eyes bore into Yamcha’s. “I won’t lie. I’m not in love with you
now, but I could fall. Very easily, in fact.” He reached up and stroked
the other man’s scarred cheek. “I know I could fall in love with you. If
you let me.”

Cupping the taller man’s face in his hands, Vegeta pulled Yamcha’s mouth
down to his. He drew his bottom lip in between his lips, sucking it
lightly, tasting him for the very first time. The tips of their tongues
gently touched each other in a light caress as their arms wrapped around the
other’s body, pulling them close together. Their soft kiss ended with a few
feathery pecks, and they stayed in each other’s arms. Vegeta gazed up at
the human under hooded lids. “Mmm. I could get used to more of that.”

Yamcha bit lightly into his lower lip. “Are you sure, Vegeta? I don’t want
to be the rebound guy. If you’re still into Piccolo…”

The saiyajin prince placed a finger against Yamcha’s lips. “Shhh. If I had
known I could’ve had you all this time, I would never have wasted my time on
someone who would never want me back. You’re so much more than everyone
gives you credit. Don’t worry.”

Yamcha shook his head a little. “But—.”

“There’s no need to talk about this anymore,” Vegeta said. “We can just
skip all of the other parts. The getting-to-know-each-other part, the
building-of-trust part…they don’t apply. You’re my friend. My best
friend. And I want more. Can you just kiss me again?”

A smile broadened across Yamcha’s features. As he was about to consent to
the kiss, his attention was brought away by a burst of laughter and
clapping. Both men quickly turned their heads to the source.

Piccolo whooped and continued clapping with an atypical grin on his face.
“It’s about time,” he remarked.

Gohan fluttered his eyelashes at Piccolo and clasped his hands together just
beneath his chin. “Can you just kiss me again?” he mimicked after Vegeta.
Piccolo chuckled as the younger man snuggled up against him.

The saiyajin prince’s eyes narrowed at the two. “How long have you been
there?” he questioned.

“We just caught the last part,“ Piccolo replied. Gohan nodded in
agreement. “We’ll leave you alone now.”

“Yeah,” the demi-saiyajin added, “we just…wanted you guys to know that we’re
happy for you. Love is a funny thing. You can’t help who you love.” He
leaned back against the tall namek and smiled.

Vegeta actually returned the smile. “That’s true,” he said. “Good luck…and
thank you.” The other two males flew off, and the saiyajin prince turned
his attention back to Yamcha. “Now… Where were we?”

“I think,” Yamcha said, moving his lips to just a hair’s breadth away from
Vegeta’s, “that we were about to head back to my place for dinner.”

The smaller man jerked his head back. “Dinner? What do you mean, like a
date?”

“Something like that.”

“Are we at least going to have sex tonight?” Vegeta asked.

Yamcha grinned. “We’ll see,” he said, taking off into the air.

“Tease.” Vegeta smirked and followed after him. At that point, the small
saiyajin didn’t care either way. He just wanted to love and be loved.
Everything else was a distant second.