Chapter Text
Goku went back to school the next day and kicked himself for skipping the day before. Now he was even more behind on his homework than usual.
Even though talk of the dance had died down, his friends were still adamant about him giving up all the details about him and Vegeta’s date. Goku blushed and stuttered but remained firm that they were just friends.
Honestly, Goku was only slightly disappointed. Being friends with Vegeta was more than he could have ever hoped for. When Vegeta came over or he walked by him in the hallways at school, they said hi to each other. They could even hold a conversation with each other now. It was awesome!
He wasn’t ready for all three of them to hang out together, not yet at least- but Raditz cooled off enough by that weekend that he and Vegeta were gonna hang out just the two of them. Goku was so excited he could barely sleep. When Saturday morning finally did arrive Goku looked around and checked that his room was clean, even though he’d made sure it was spotless the night before. He double-checked that his TV was set up so they could finish watching the box set he had bought Vegeta as a gift from his secret admirer. Goku blushed. He still couldn’t believe he’d thought that was going to work.
Oh well, they were friends now so really everything had worked out in the end.
Balancing Kakarot and Raditz was going to be a little bit of work, mostly due to the latter. For the following week, Vegeta mainly spoke to Kakarot at school, even though he came over frequently to spend time with Raditz. He figured he'd give the man some time to cool down, and reassure him for certain that nothing was really changing. Kakarot wasn't a replacement for Raditz, far from. They were nothing alike.
Vegeta's reputation at school was still fine; if anything, it was Kakarot's rep that had improved, with people seeing him with and presumably under the protection of the coolest guy in the school. And Vegeta would be happy to provide it, if it ever came up. Like directly making up for ever bullying Kakarot before.
Vegeta wasn't sure how it happened, but it had happened naturally, and by Saturday he was heading over to the Son house to hang out with Kakarot, not Raditz. He was confident it'd go smoothly, and he'd likely chat with Raditz for a little while before heading home too. He would leave it up to the brothers to figure out if and when they were willing to try hanging out together, though.
He knocked on the door, and as usual, Gine was the one to let him in. He exchanged very brief pleasantries before heading straight up to Kakarot's room.
Goku heard a knock at the front door and couldn’t help but smile. He was so happy this was happening. He made a silent promise to be on his best behavior so Vegeta would want to come back and hang out with him again. He did a quick sweep with his eyes to make sure he didn’t have anything embarrassing out, but he didn’t see anything. He heard Vegeta greet his mom and then walk up the stairs.
Goku got comfortable and Vegeta walked in without knocking like he owned the place. Goku gave him a huge smile and wave, patting down on the bed next to him for him to sit down.
“Hey,” Vegeta greeted, coming in and taking his usual spot. “You really think we can get to the finale today?” They were in one of those awkward spots where trying to squeeze in the last couple of episodes before a reasonable bedtime might be tight, but if they waited until tomorrow they'd only watch one or two. All they could do was try, though.
“Hey Geta.” Goku greeted him back with a large grin.
He listened to Vegeta’s question earnestly. If they watched it to the finale tonight that was more time they got to spend together.
“Yeah, totally! We can do it!”
They settled in and started the next episode. They sat next to each other comfortably and Goku could feel Vegeta’s body heat radiate next to him. Goku forced himself to pay attention to the show, not the boy next to him. It was so natural to laugh at the same jokes and be in awe of the same intense scenes.
It just felt so right.
Goku had to remind himself every two seconds that they were friends. That was it, and he was grateful to be just friends with Vegeta. He was amazing and worth it. He went back to paying attention to the show.
Getting to the last episode took a little longer than Kakarot was expecting, and a little shorter than Vegeta was expecting. A good in between. Though they were both starting to run a little low on steam, the two beginning to lean on each other as it got late.
Goku was getting more and more tired, but didn’t want to make them stop early, they were so close to being done. He noticed he and Vegeta had naturally gravitated toward each other. He smiled to himself. Lots of things between him and Vegeta were natural.
As the final credits rolled by, they were both silent until Vegeta slowly turned to Kakarot. “What did you think? I'm.. pretty impressed. Usually these things fuck up the ending,” he said earnestly. He was feeling things.
The show ended and Goku felt bitter sweet. Vegeta asked him what he thought but he couldn’t think much past how much fun it was to watch it with him. Luckily his non committal hum seemed to satisfy him, and he didn’t need to voice his opinion further.
“Uh.. thanks, for.. watching with me,” the older boy said, a bit awkwardly. “I never really watched anime with anyone except Raditz, and he doesn't have the patience or commitment for most series.”
He was staring at Vegeta, trying to soak up their last few minutes together when Vegeta looked over at him. Goku was startled, but didn’t have time to look away because the way Vegeta looked back at him was different. He tried to look deeper, to figure out what it was exactly when he noticed Vegeta leaning in.
Vegeta had paused what he was saying, lifting his gaze to Kakarot again. He just stared for a few moments, before, almost suddenly, moving in and pressing his lips gently against Kakarot's.
Goku's brain shut off well before their lips met. It was the last thing he expected. He had told himself over and over they were just friends.
The kiss was brief, Goku barely had time to move his lips in an attempt to kiss back, but it felt like forever. His heart skipped a beat and butterflies fluttered in his stomach. When Vegeta moved away he couldn’t help but sigh.
The rest of the weekend was a blur. He mostly still avoided Raditz now. He apologized, by force, and Goku was still hurt by his actions. So he mostly stayed in his room, and had plenty of time to keep thinking about the kiss. By the time school came around on Monday he was still on cloud nine. His friends noticed. They kept commenting on how spaced out he was. He wasn’t ready to tell everyone, even though they all seemed very supportive. But he still wanted to keep it between him and Vegeta for now.
That didn’t especially work with Bulma who basically cornered him and dragged it out of him. And okay maybe he really wanted to tell someone without 17 or 18 finding out. He was still a little bitter from the secret admirer fiasco.
“And then he really kissed you?” Bulma squealed.
“Yes, but shhhh! I don’t want the whole school to know.”
Goku tried to cover Bulma’s mouth but they both ended up giggling.
“You guys are so cute together. Really, I’m glad he finally found someone after hounding me for so long.”
Goku thought for a second.
“You know Bulma, this all happened because of you.”
“Me? Really?” She asked incredulously.
“Yeah, if you hadn’t told me he didn’t have a date to the dance, I wouldn’t have thought up my secret admirer scheme.”
She laughed at that, and they went their separate ways to class. Goku couldn’t help but keep thinking about it. It hadn’t been a disaster at all, it had brought them together. And for that, Goku was grateful.
Vegeta cut off the kiss sooner than he would've liked, because he realized he hadn't asked and had sort of just gone for it in the moment.
After that was an awkward rush of adrenaline. He left shortly, but not too shortly after. He'd been confident, always, with Bulma. Even as she had constantly rejected him. So this was new for him, bogged down by the complications of teenagehood. Vegeta knew he wasn't texting him the rest of that day, but over the whole weekend he went back and forth about it.
He knew he wanted to be more than friends with Kakarot. The realization had dawned on him almost suddenly, but he knew it to be true. The younger boy had seemed happy after their kiss, but Vegeta didn't know for certain if that meant anything. Eventually he decided that texting was too cowardly for him, and that he would confront Kakarot personally on Monday.
He couldn't find him in the morning, but at lunch he approached the boy at his friends' table without hesitation. “Hey, Kakarot.”
The End?