A scuttle across the clearing. Familiar ki bursting upon his senses, warm and inviting as ever.
Vegeta looked up, already knowing whose gaze he would meet.
Goku stood before him, wild bangs and spiky hair buffeted by the wind. Torn scraps of gi revealed a lightly bleeding arm, but otherwise he was unharmed. Impressive, considering how many days they’d been in this hellhole.
But then, this was Goku, after all. Vegeta would have been downright disappointed by anything less.
The two Saiyans locked eyes. That one moment was enough to convey all the things they hadn’t said and didn’t want to say. All their sorrow, their arguments, their ‘could have beens.’
All boiled down to this one moment, where both understood that only one between the two would make it out alive tonight.
Goku smiled, that same sunlit smile Vegeta had fallen hard and fast for the first time they’d met. “Hey, Vegeta.”
“Kakarot.” Vegeta acknowledged with a nod. His tail flicked freely, even now relaxed in Goku’s presence. “So, down to just the two of us, huh.”
Goku’s teal eyes had right then held the look of someone who didn't know true humour. “Seems so.”
-snippet from my Hunger Games DBS universe for @kakavegeweek “Tournament” prompt.