Men with benefits.

Vulnerable

Vegeta sat on the sofa, voices kept relaying through his mind like a broken record.Reminding him of that night, flashbacks of the abuse, his body started to ache remembering the pain, the torture. Not wanting to disturb Goku's sleep more, he lied telling him he was going to get himself a drink; that he was okay. It was getting exhausting, to lie, to pretend, to hide that vulnerable side. He wasn't wanting to talk about it, to relive it, to be seen as a victim. He gritted his teeth as the voices grew louder, piercing through his ear drums causing his ears to ring. He threw himself to the floor sat on his knees, nails dug into his scalp, he gritted his teeth as his eyes started to water. Unable to take it any more he yelled out "stop!". All of the noise in his head disappeared in an instant. It was like being stuck between two realities: one that was imperfect, but doable. The other the vision where it mostly clouded his mind was full of pain, lies, and regrets. His mind wandered off, picturing what his life would of been like if he hadn't of made those mistakes. He certainly wouldn't be sat in this mess that's for darn sure. He started to focus breathing in through his nose, and out through his mouth, he felt himself slowly starting to relax coming into his current reality. The one where it was imperfect, where it seemed one bad thing was happening after the other. He dropped his hands on top of his lap as he looked up at the ceiling, he couldn't understand why his boyfriend was still with him or what he saw in him. He's a mess, a complete utter fuck up, damaged. He heard the door slowly open, he quickly wiped away his tears and sat back on the sofa, he quickly grabbed his laptop to look busy.

"Um, I heard you shouting out...are you okay?" Adele peeped through the door looking rather sheepish, too anxious to step forward.

Vegeta didn't look over, he didn't want to let her see that he had in fact been crying; and he wasn't okay. "Must be hearing things." He shrugged it off scrolling through his emails, hiding his vulnerable side, the side that felt close to breaking point. He heard as the door closed silently, and foot steps hastily traipsed towards him. "If you are expecting me to apologise for yesterday. you can forget it, I meant what I said!" Vegeta resisted the urge to glance over to see her expression.

"Actually, I've got the login details for you. To close the blog down. It was insensitive of me, and I'm sorry" Adele leaned on the arm of the sofa, she looked down at the floor whilst tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Vegeta scrunched his eyebrows, he quickly glanced over at her. Clearly her cousin had spoken to her and forced her to apologise. "I still think you're a brat." Vegeta grinned at her causing her to scrunch her nose up at him.

"I thought that you sharing this will help bring in more money for you guys, people love real life stuff the side that many don't see." She shrugged watching him chuckle as he scrolled through his emails.

"Well you thought wrong."  He placed the laptop down grabbing a pen and paper, he handed them to Adele. "Now write down the login details!"

"Or we could just do it on the laptop?" She raised a brow, seeing the serious expression on Vegeta's face she didn't want to push him further. "Fine." She started to scribble down the details glancing up at Vegeta noticing his eyes looked slightly bloodshot. "You been crying?"

"The fuck is with you ,and your family?" Vegeta looked away rubbing his eyes, if it wasn't Goku pestering him about his feelings, it was now his cousin. "I'm just tired!" He grabbed the paper and pen off Adele avoiding eye contact.

"Was only asking." Adele got up from the sofa reaching for the tv remote, she raised her brows noticing Vegeta glaring at her. "What?"

"What do you think you are doing?" Vegeta quirked his brow watching as she turned the tv on and sat next to him. "Seriously?"he scoffed.

"I'm not allowed to watch tv now?" She scoffed back at him.

Vegeta snatched the remote from her hand "not till you've made me coffee." He lightly tapped the remote on her head before switching the tv off. Adele glared at him, noticing he wasn't budging and returning the glare back. She groaned getting off the sofa and headed towards the kitchen. "That's what I thought." Vegeta sighed as he looked at the blog details that Adele had scribbled down. He placed it in his pocket, staring absently at the laptop. His thoughts started to relay the flashbacks again. He closed his eyes focusing on his breathing, doing his best to ignore them. He started to feel phantom pains from that night causing him to wince wrapping his arms around his abdomen. The more he tried to ignore it, the worse it had become. "Vegeta?" a recognisable voice echoed through his thoughts, slowly he snapped his eyes open seeing Goku knelt in front of him. Vegeta just stared at him, lost for words as he slowly brought himself back into reality.

"I thought you'd of come back to bed, everything okay?" Goku rested his hands on Vegeta's lap looking up at him with concern.

"I'm fine." Vegeta said reassuringly forcing a smile. He avoided eye contact as he noticed Goku studying his facial reaction. He hated it sometimes specially when he wanted to be left alone, of course 'I'm fine' hardly sufficed. "Will you stop?" Vegeta folded arms still avoiding eye contact he looked towards the door as Adele slowly walked in holding his coffee.

Goku furrowed his brows at Vegeta, he could tell something was up with him and he wasn't sharing. He glanced at Adele slowly rising to his feet. "Oh, you managed to get Adele to make you coffee?" He raised his brow watching as she handed Vegeta the coffee.

Vegeta passed Adele the tv remote before taking a sip of the coffee. He smirked back at Goku as Adele muttered some profanities under her breath. "Shame you weren't up on time, could of got her to make you one." He chuckled as Adele stuck her middle finger up at him.

Goku shook his head whilst smiling over at them both. "Child labour that." He folded his arms smirking at Vegeta.

"Please. I haven't asked her to do house chores...say, that isn't a bad idea." Vegeta looked over at Adele who was pretending to not listen. Goku chuckled as he sat next to Vegeta resting his hand lovingly on Vegeta's leg.

Adele glanced over at them both "I hope if you ever adopt, the child makes your lives a living hell." She pouted as they both laughed at her.

"Never gonna happen, so don't need to worry about that." Goku poked his tongue at her before glancing at Vegeta's face, he looked absent in thought again. Goku lightly shook him causing Vegeta to stir and smile awkwardly at him. "You sure you are fine?" He raised a brow watching as Vegeta took sip of his coffee nodding slightly.

Finishing his coffee as Adele and Goku we're talking amongst themselves throughout the tv programme they were watching. Vegeta felt a lump in his throat, voices started to slowly flood in, he struggled to hear what was going on around him. He planted a kiss on Goku's cheek before placing his cup down. He noticed the concern look on Goku's face again. "I'm going upstairs for a lay down." He forced a smile before heading up to the room.