Sweet Charade
Chapter Two - Technicalities

Trunks tapped his pen lightly on his desk, cradling his chin in one hand and basically being bored. All this paperwork. It had to be done but... but he wasn't in the mood to do it right now. Goten's plane should have arrived this morning. Why wasn't he here? Then he could whisk him away from the office and they could goof off.

Trunks didn't get enough chances to goof off nowadays. Ever since he'd graduated from university, his only break in work was when Goten came back from his frequent travels.

Well, Trunks was being selfish. Goten might want to see his family too, before him. Goten would show up eventually. He was actually on vacation time now. Three weeks of it. That was plenty of time to fit in a bit of goofing off for the president of Capsule Corps, and for Goten to visit with his family.

Trunks had heard about Goten's split with Parisu. He wasn't really surprised, a part of him was actually releaved. She really was a ditz, Goten deserved better.

The lavender-haired demi-saiyan sighed as he fiddled with one of his desk's many non-functional ornamental toys. It was a set of metal balls strung side by side. Trunks lifted the ball on the end and watched as the one on the opposite lifted as if pushed, and the original did the same seconds later. Such taudry trinkets were so... boring.

Boring seemed to be the word of the day.

Trunks sighed and lifted his pen again, doing his best to concentrate on the new designs in front of him, and failing miserably.


____________________

Blink. Blink blink. Blink.

"Uh..." Pan said, the word coming out long and unsure. "Did you just say what I thought you said?"

Goten winced and turned towards the wall, shoulders slumping. "I understand Pan. You think I'm disgusting. You can leave. You don't have to stay in the room with me if you don't want to." Goten said, finishing his speech with a shuddering sigh.

"Uncle Goten?"

Goten didn't respond. He simply sagged a bit more on the bed. Dumb. Why had he told her?

"Uncle Goten, are you sure? I mean, really sure that, that your like that?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't lie about something like this, and I wouldn't say it if I thought it was a maybe and not a definite yes."

A sigh from Pan. "Oh Uncle Goten. This has been giving you alot of sleepless nights hasn't it?"

Goten paused. "Maybe."

"You'd sleep better if you'd just accept it then. It seems your fighting it, and if it's well, you know, true then you can't do anything about it."

Goten turned around slowly to face Pan. "When did you get so smart? I'm the one who went to university."

Pan sighed and smiled softly, sweeping up her considerably larger Uncle in a crushing hug. After a surprised moment, Goten hugged back just as tightly.

"See Uncle Goten? Your still the same you." Pan whispered over her shoulder. Goten felt a slight change in the way she was holding herself as she gave out a laugh. "And, you and me can go guy hunting together. You for considerably older guys of course, but you can give me your opinion on the guys I choose."

Goten pulled back and flashed Pan the Son Grin. "Thanks Pan. You don't know how much that means to me, I mean, the fact you didn't run screaming into the night."

Pan tweaked his nose with her thumb. "It's day uncle Goten."

The spikey-haired demi-saiyan glanced out the window. "So it is." He grinned.

"Oh." Pan said, sobering up a bit. She looked at Goten levelly, and the man felt a bit of apprehension. "I think that you should tell Trunks. I mean, It'll just be akward if you don't."

Goten's eyes widened. Tell Trunks?! He had a plan. That plan involved not telling anyone until they found out themselves. "Um, akward? How?"

"For you Uncle Goten, and him. I mean, when you start checking out his ass... he's going to notice sooner or later."

"I'm not going to be checking out Trunks' ass!" Goten cried, flushing crimson. Pan grinned. "Sure you are. I mean, it is very nice. Getting a bit dumpy though. He should start training again."

"Pan! Wait, how would you know?"

"Hey, I'm sixteen. I can look where I want. No one ever told me it was wrong to oggle an unattached man."

Goten's eyes practically popped out of his head. "You oggle Trunks?!"

"Would you believe such an obvious lie like no?"

"No."

"Then yes. Everyday. Even in my dreams."

Goten groaned. "I didn't need to hear that."

"Don't you oggle?" Pan prodded with a smirk on her face.

"Not Trunks. He's my best friend! Do you oggle Bra?"

"Do I oggle other members of my own sex?"

Goten blinked, then scowled. "Shut up."

Pan ignored her flustered Uncle and began to bounce exitedly on the bed. Goten was quite afraid it would break. It was only supposed to support the wieght of a six year old child after all. "Can I set you up then?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"That would mean you'd have to tell someone and you said you wouldn't."

"Oh yeah. Damn. Oh well. If you need any help, or anyone to talk to, I'm here. I'm supposed to meet mom at the store... half an hour ago so... I've got to go." Pan said quickly with an apologetic smile and a glance at her watch. She got up off the bed carefully and turned back towards Goten, right before leaving with a serious look on her face.

"Oh yeah, and Uncle Goten?"

"Yeah Pan?"

"Tell Trunks."

Goten cast his eyes downward and muttered a "Fine."

"I mean it Uncle Goten."

Goten shifted uncomfortably. "I know."

"Promise?"

"Yeah." Goten sighed. Great. Now he did have to tell Trunks. Dammit all. He didn't want to! This was why he hadn't told anyone about this. He was now being forced into spreading the word.

Pan grinned and ran out of the room.

The moment Pan slammed the door, the bed collapsed, and with a surprised grunt, Goten fell, ending up sprawled next to the bed stand.

Great. Now how was he going to explain this bit of destruction to his mom?


____________________

Trunks was back to pen tapping. The whole "let's get work done" idea just hadn't worked out. Too bad, so sad. He really was distrught about it. Really.

Trunks sighed and brushed a couple strands of lavender hair out of his eyes. He placed the pen carefully on the desk and watched as it rolled off slowly, not even attempting to catch it as it fell to the floor with a small click. He picked up another pen and did the same thing.

"Bored?" A amused voice asked. Trunks started and almost fell backwards into the chair as he glanced in the direction the voice had come from.

Goten was leaning on the door frame, clad in a plain white shirt and a pair of black pants, grinning that infamous Son Grin.

"No. Studying the aero-dynamics of pen shaped objects for a new invention."

A blink from Gohan. "Oh."

Trunks grinned broadly and pushed his heavy desk chair back so he was standing. "I'm kidding. Come on!" He exclaimed, sauntering up to the window and flinging it open wide. "Your a life saver Goten. I've been dying of bordom and skipping work alone just isn't as fun." He hopped up on the window-sill, resting one arm on the side and looking back at Goten, his eyes practically glinting with mischief. He looked a bit like a demonically grinning demon, crouched in a tree waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting victim.

Trunks jumped, his suit coat fluttering up over his head and lavender hair spinning wildly about, whipping his face erratically.

He landed on one foot with a soft thud, hearing Goten land a scarce second later.

Trunks smirked and whipped out a pair of designer sunglasses, settling them expertly on his nose and tilting them up, tilting his head a bit too. A charming move he'd perfected over the years.

"Now." He said, pulling a small capsule out of his pocket and breaking it on the ground to reveal a shiny silver convertable. "There's this new place downtown that just opened up. Lots of girls. Maybe we'll get lucky."

Both men settled into the drivers seat and Trunks glanced sideways at Goten over his glasses. "Lets go play." He grinned, starting the ignition and pulling the stickshift sharply towards himself.

The two screeched out of the Capsule Corps compound, leaving treadmarks as black as night.

____________________

Goten fiddled with his seatbelt casually. He didn't want to tell him. Pan would never ever know if he did right? Somehow, Goten thought she'd find a way to find out. And if he didn't tell, he'd be in alot more trouble.

The dark-haired demi-saiyan sighed and turned towards his best friend. "Trunks?"

Trunks turned his head away from the road and fixed his eyes casually on Goten. "Yeah Goten?"

Goten sighed. "I..."

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