Blood Runs Deep
When he next woke it was to a voice calling his name. He opened his eyes, and smiled. It was Goten!
Goten crawled over his body to give him a kiss bestowed by the Gods. Trunks' dreams faded as he became lost in the overwhelming sensation of Goten. Oh Goten......
"I love you," Goten breathed, their lips still together.
"I you." Trunks had never meant it more. And then Goten kissed him again, and Trunks slowly encircled his dear in his arms, playing a tender part. Still kissing, Goten pushed himself up, so he could rub his body along Trunks', his tongue working wonders. Eyes shut, mouth open, Trunks pushed his blankets down so they could be closer together, but Goten ended the kiss then.
"I just wanted you to know that I loved you," he said to Trunks' asking eyes.
"Why?"
"I just did that's all." They smiled at each other, a shared gaze.
"You been asleep long?" Trunks blinked, as the spell was broken and his memories returned. Vegeta, oh God, him and Vegeta.
"I don't think so." Where was Vegeta now? How long HAD he been asleep?
"Good." Goten shifted to sit on his legs. He played with Trunks' belt loops. "I wouldn't have wanted to have disturb you." Could Vegeta still be in the gravity chamber? Working that lovely, tempting body of his?
"You okay Trunks? I mean, lately, I dunno," he paused. "I've just been worried about you." That beautiful, beautiful back... "You haven't been yourself lately."
"Mm-hmm."
There was a long, unresponsive silence between the two while Trunks thought about Vegeta.
"I guess that's a yes." The pause was painfully awkward now, though Trunks didn't notice. "Looks like all that helping Bulma must have made you tired, huh?"
The red light, bouncing brilliantly off his chest. And the feel of his energy all around, the power that could kill anything.
"Well?" Goten interrupted his thought.
"Well what?"
"I said all that work must have made you tired."
"Huh? What work?" Yeah, he'd been working, but not the way Goten was talking about. Goten's normal look of devotion started to fade.
"With your mother?" he prompted.
"What? Why would I work with her?" Trunks watched in horror as these simple words took his Goten away from him and across the room.
"You did! You lied to me!" His voice wasn't happy, and he wasn't smiling anymore. ..... Huh?
"What are you talking about, Goten?" A bewildered Trunks followed his lover and tried repeatedly to lay a hand on his arm.
"You don't even remember? I asked you if you wanted to get together after school today and you said no! You said you had to help Bulma." Goten kept a constantly changing six feet between them.
Trunks' stomach dropped to his feet. He stopped trying to catch Goten. Oh no.
"You said you'd be helping her and now you say that you weren't!"
No, no, no....
"Everyday this week you've had something planned, somewhere to be, anywhere but with me!"
"Please Goten, calm down." Oh shit, what had he done?
"No! No, I'm not calming down until you tell me what you did after school today." Goten's words sounded like an accusation. :: I was sitting in the gravity room getting felt up by my father. What were you doing? :: But accusation or not Trunks had to answer. He chose honesty.
"I was training with Vegeta."
Goten's emotion got the better of him. His face drew into one, fine, line of his lips. His eyes narrowed to dagger slits. "Vegeta. Training......with Vegeta." Trunks nodded and thought for that second Goten was going to hit him. But then Goten spun around to face the window, though not before Trunks saw his eyes glisten. Goten.....
"Goten, why are you mad? What?" Not Goten, his Goten couldn't be mad at him!
"Do you honestly expect me to believe you've been training with your father? How dumb do you think I am? I just wish, after all we've been through, that you had the guts to tell me the truth." Goten's voice was hard. Like he had forced it to be that way, such an unnatural thing.
"What? But that is the truth." Goten kept his back to him. "You don't believe me? Look at my chest." He held up his shirt for Goten, who turned to see. Goten's eyes widened, then narrowed as they took in the red bruises smeared across his chest and stomach.
"What is this? What happened to you?" He was now checking Trunks' back and arms, examining him like a doctor. Trunks would have smiled if he didn't have to explain.
"Relax, they're just from the gravity chamber." Goten cast him a doubtful eye. "When you flop strait down on your stomach at 1200G in non-super Saiyan form, you tend to bruise a little."
"What?!! 1200, were you even powered up?" Trunks shook his head. "Why not?"
That was an easy answer to explain, and a not so easy one to understand. "Because he wasn't."
"So?"
"I had to be at the same level as him to prove I could take it. And besides, once I was down, I couldn't power up, I couldn't even move."
Goten didn't like this answer at all apparently, because his brows rose up in very, very high disapproval. Striving to keep his dignity he drew himself up and said, "To PROVE you could TAKE it?! Did HE make you believe that? What kind of a father trains his son that way? My dad would NEVER do that to me! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"
Where did Goten think he was coming from, to talk about Trunks' family that way? What business was it of his? Goten's father wasn't even around.
"Look, Goten," he replied coolly. "That's just the way we train, that's all. There's nothing more to it. Promise."
"Okay fine." Goten let it go. "But that still doesn't change the fact that you LIED to me!"
"I....."
"You what?" Goten was running out of patience.
"I just, well, didn't want you to know, that's all."
"Know what? That you're cheating on me? That you don't want me anymore? What is it? No, don't shake your head, you TELL me what it is!!"
Trunks swallowed. What was he supposed to say? What could he? "That's all there is Goten, really!"
Goten took in a breath, about to speak, but then thought better of it and stormed to the far side of the room.
Trunks stayed where he was.
Goten took a long time to gather his thoughts, making Trunks both fearful and irritated at the same time. Goten had never been angry like this. Or at least at him. And he hadn't even done anything wrong.
When he finally did speak the tremor in his voice wretched Trunks apart at the seams. "You've been avoiding me for days now, Trunks." He took a deep breath, let it out, took another, and continued. "You say you're fine, but I know you're not. You don't want to talk to me when we get together. You're a million miles away from me. And you treat my feelings like they're nothing."
"Goten. No I don't."
"You do! Just the other day you pushed me onto the floor and jumped out the window. Right in the middle of something. Then you didn't talk to me for two days. What am I supposed to make of that?"
As if Trunks had the answer! He let sarcasm get the better of him. "Gee, I don't know Goten, why don't YOU tell me."
Goten looked at him, shocked by his sudden tone. Trunks stared back. He had done nothing wrong! Then Goten got up, crossed the room, and softly shut the door behind him.
Trunks stood there for a moment, then did the same. Goten allowed him to follow, but Trunks didn't speak and neither did he. He walked fast to keep up. Goten was streaming energy, and would hurt the house if he didn't get outside soon. Oh man, who did he think he was-
SLAM!!
A floor below them Vegeta had just left the gravity chamber. "See, I told you I was with him!" He whispered, keeping his voice low. Goten just shrugged and continued. Down a floor and through the hall.
"Trunks!" Vegeta's voice stopped him, but Goten kept going. He was torn between the two. Goten expected him to follow, but Vegeta wanted him.....well, it would only take a second.
Turning on his heel he jogged back towards his father's room. "Yeah?"
His breath was stolen away and he had the sensation of flying backwards, then hitting a body that must have been Goten's, and last going through a very painful fall.
.....
He blinked away the worst of the dizziness and looked upwards. They were outside, tangled in a heap on the lawn.
Trunks rubbed his head and looked down where he had been struck.
"Are you okay?" he asked Goten.
Goten was already up and glaring at the damaged house.
"I must have left my towel in his bathroom."
Goten looked down at him. "Did you."
Trunks looked at the red Ralph Lauren resting on his stomach. "Yeah."
"So he throws it at you?"
Trunks nodded, and thought of how easy it would have been to drop it down the laundry chute.
"Aren't you going to do anything about it?"
Trunks closed his eyes. Everything was becoming so complicated. He just wanted to lay here forever in the cool, cool grass.
"He would just get mad at me."
Goten knelt beside him, by his face, still. "Why do you let Vegeta treat you like that? Trunks, if you were to challenge him, fight him for real, you could win!" Trunks shook his head. "And then, he COULDN'T boss you around. He wouldn't have the right."
"Goten, I can't challenge him. He'd kick my ass from here to London."
Goten shook his head and looked down at him.
"Besides he's my father, and I love him. He's not a very good one, but I don't care. He's what I've got."
"But he hurts you."
"So? He hurts everybody. That's just the way he is."
"But he hurts you."
They were silent, looking at each other. Vegeta was part of who he was. He had trained him and now he was capable of fighting as a warrior. No, there was nothing wrong being tough on your kid. It was how some of the greatest were made. And besides, he knew for a FACT that Vegeta loved him. Had not there been two occasions in the past week where they had shared something close? In the library, Vegeta had told him some of his most private things, and now they both knew that they liked men. And then he had tried so hard to make Trunks feel good. Nothing Goten could say could destroy something that special.
He got up, and gazed at the part of the building that housed the gravity chamber. They had been so close then, pressed up right against each other. God, he wanted that again.
No. There was nothing wrong with Vegeta. And anyone who thought otherwise wasn't worth his time. After all, Vegeta was family.
Goten was not.
"I don't think there's anything left to say," Trunks voice was hard as he rose. He looked down at his boyfriend, his lover, his friend. Goten was surprised the tables had turned and now defended himself.
"Trunks...." Goten fought off the shackles of his gaze and stood to face him.
"You don't like him, then get over it. I think my situation's just fine thank-you-very-much."
"But Trunks..." Trunks' gaze didn't falter. "I-I......." Goten moistened his lips. "I don't think you can really see what's going on here."
"I know exactly what's going on here. You're jealous of MY father 'cause YOURS is never here." Goten's eyes flashed. "I see that perfectly well. And so you try to make me hate mine? That's cold Goten, real cold."
"Whatever Trunks," his voice was angry, and to Trunks ears, hurt. "Don't say something you can't take back."
"Like what? That your father cares more about fighting than he does about you?"
Goten was dumbstruck for quite a few moments. "That is NOT true and you know it." He had brought Goten to the verge of vehement tears. His heart ached at this sight but he knew it was too late to turn back now.
"Shoot, he wouldn't come back to life to be with your mom and Gohan, he stayed in heaven to FIGHT. And when he finally is alive again, he leaves."
"He left because he had to! He had to..."
"See? You don't even know! He cares about himself more than he cares about his family." Trunks crossed his arms, smug at the blow he had landed.
"My dad's family is the most important thing to him! Take that back." His voice was low, dangerous.
Trunks laughed, and looked away to prove he didn't believe it.
But as he did Goten attacked him, hitting his face and knocking him down. Suddenly enraged, Trunks jumped up to Super Saiyan and flung Goten into the earth. Yellow light shot from the hole, and a fully powered up Saiyan turned his fists on Trunks' body.
Trunks attacked Goten. Goten attacked Trunks. That was how their fight went. Each took the attack from the other and then tried to best it. But Goten was more angry then Trunks ever thought he'd be at him. And to tell the truth it was scary. The thought crossed his mind that he had gone to far, but he refused to stop and fought his losing battle. He tired quickly this way, and in less than an hour they stopped, panting, face to face in the air.
"Is this how you want it to end Trunks? Fine!! You're just as fucked up as the rest of your family. All Vegeta cares about is fighting and being the best. That's ALL."
"What?! You take that back!"
"Your dad hates you. One day you'll see that but you know what? By then it will be too late. I'll be gone. Off spending time with a dad who LOVES me."
How dare he! "That's not true and he'd kick your sorry ass if he ever heard you say that! So fine! Be that way! Go home to your mommy and snuggle up in those nice bit tits of hers!"
Goten sneered. "Man, you ARE fucked up!"
And then he was gone.
Part Eight |
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