03: Chapter 03
Gohan was brought out of his musings as a weeping SSJ Trunks of about his own age appeared on his bed after a bright flash of light. His pupils dilated at all the light as his eyes became wide and surprised making him appear more than shocked. He wasn’t quite sure what to do. Trunks seemed hysterical to say the least. He didn’t even seem to notice Gohan as he curled up on the bed where he had appeared, sobbing relentlessly.
Gohan had soothed his kaa’san’s tears many times with a warm hug.
So, the thought occurred that perhaps, the same would help Trunks. He eyed Trunks rather cautiously. Trunks looked much younger than the last time he had seen Mirai Trunks… What if this wasn’t him or this was the Trunks from this time line or something? He wasn’t sure but it was obvious that no matter what, this boy needed his help.
Gohan, being such a sweet boy and never one to let someone go needing help, wrapped Trunks into a gentle embrace, putting his hand on the back of Trunks’s head and patting him on the back with his other rather gently. He had no real concept that this might be too much closeness for someone he had just met. Besides, he knew two different versions of Trunks; not to mention Gohan hadn’t met too many new people in his lifetime that weren’t Namikan, so he had no clue what was and wasn’t proper edicate for such things.
From Trunks’s point of view the numbness and pain slowly drained out as warm golden ki seemed to surround him and tug him from the grips of despair. It soon dawned on Trunks that this ki was the very ki he had sought out and missed for the past several weeks… It was Gohan’s. His eyes slowly slid open from their little slits of squeezed tension to blink at him, with curiosity and embarrassment as he had just been weeping like a young child. He wiped at his eyes and sniffled a bit, noting deep within his confused mind that this Gohan was his age. That certainly seemed less than normal. In the brink of this new found information Trunks momentarily forgot his sorrows, replacing them instead with intrigue when suddenly he felt something tugging at his pants.
Little Goten may have been but two years old, but he still knew the ki of his very best friend when he felt it. He had then quickly made his way to his nichan’s room with his short chubby legs and grabbed the leg of his friend with his chubby little fingers, tugging and demanding attention.
“Tru-Tru.. Tru-Tru…”
Trunks at first was on edge, thinking himself under attack. However, once he saw the chibized version of Goku tugging at his leg he simply felt even more confused, though he calmed slightly, having tensed in case of enemy invasion.
Gohan's sweat-dropped. It seemed Goten had the worst timing. He blushed just remembering the other day when he had been changing, and Goten had stumbled his way in, only to be followed by his kaa’san. Humiliation was an understatement for what he had felt.
Gohan knew this wasn’t a good time to pin poor emotionally unstable Trunks down with questions, pressures, and commentary from his already overbearing mother. So, he quickly plucked the tiny kawaii chibi from the carpet and pulled him into his lap.
“Umm… Kaa’san! Goten’s going to stay in here with me for a while!”
Chichi smiled to herself as she heard her helpful son yell in her direction that he would take care of his little brother for a while. He was such a good and helpful boy though she did worry about him a large portion of the time. He seemed so lonely and isolated, but he just wasn’t ready for public school yet. The boy sure did miss his father, almost as much as she did she imagined, though Goten coming along when he did had helped a great deal.
Trunks blinked and wiped at his tears, blushing and continuing to eye Goten.
“G-Goku-sama???”
Gohan had almost forgot Goten didn’t even exist where Trunks had come from. It was thanks to this boy that he had such a wonderful little brother. He felt compelled to hug him once again but instead he just gave a soft smile and shook his head.
“Iie, this is Goten… My little brother.”
This news shocked and confused Trunks further, and he scooped Goten into his arms, reading his ki patterns and inhaling his scent of baby powder and half saiyajin sweat. The baby easily sensed this was somehow his favorite friend, all be it larger, and glomped onto Trunks with a big warm hug and happy warm ki. The simple gesture definitely seemed to relax Trunks a bit.
Gohan was starting to feel a bit greatful for this simple interruption. It certainly seemed to have helped. He looked deep into Trunks’s red puffy tearstained eyes with a bit of hope.
“Are… Are you ok now, Trunks?”
Trunks blushed quite a bit deeper, feeling awkward now. He didn’t even know where he was and he had just been bawling his eyes out without so much as a simple explanation. He looked down at his hands.
“G-gomen… Gomen, Gohan-sen.. Gohan-san… I just.. I… The androids… They.. They… I couldn’t save Kaa’san.”
Trunks continued to look down with shame as he felt like a complete and total failure. It had been his job to protect his mother and the people from his time-line, his job solely since Gohan had died, and he had failed.
Goten seemed to sense Trunks’s unhappiness and tried tickling him which just resulted in Gohan plucking him off of Trunks and telling him to “go see Mommy” before he pulled Trunks into another tight hug.
“I’m sorry, Trunks,” he whispered with true sincerity and worry plain in his tone.
Trunks’s face became marred with a frown as he shoved Gohan away gently and shook his head.
“No, it was my fault. I was too weak to save her… too weak to save anyone.”
This worried Gohan further, and he shoved Trunks’s hands away as he continued to hold him close. He wanted so badly to ease his pain and make it all ok somehow. Trunks’s words brought up errie memories of that horrible day with Cell, the day he felt responsible for his own father’s death… the day he could have killed Cell, but had been to emotionally weak to do so. He still blamed himself to this day.
“No Trunks, I’m sure you tried your hardest, and that’s all that can be expected.”
Trunks struggled slightly at first but soon gave in to the warm touch and familiar scent of his sensei that he had longed for so very long now. He closed his eyes tight and inhaled sharply, willing it not to be a dream or a fantasy as he moved trembling arms up around Gohan to return his embrace.
“S-Sensei…”
It was then Gohan’s turn to blink in confusion once again. What had Trunks just called him? Teacher? He was no teacher, and certainly not a teacher for Trunks. He pulled Trunks slightly back from him so that he could look into his face questioningly.
“Nani?”
Trunks’s eyebrows raised together in the center, and he bit at his lip with deep nervousness.
“I umm.. G-gomen. You… In my time-line, which is obviously different from this one… *sweat-drop* I uhh… You sort of.. well, you were my teacher. You taught me everything I know… Though you died before you got to see me go SSJ.”
Trunks’s words had been wracked with sorrow so much that Gohan felt his grip naturally tighten again, though he started to worry his kaa’san could walk in at any moment. What if they got caught. He wasn’t supposed to have guests without asking first, and somehow he doubted she would understand the explanation. Heck, Gohan wasn’t even sure of the explanation. It didn’t seem the right time to ask considering… Gohan cradled and rocked Trunks quietly as time seemed to be becoming something less than real, the sounds of their breathing and beating hearts appeared so loud in the given silence. Gohan had no idea how much time passed as he held Trunks. He wasn’t even sure after a while if he was holding Trunks or if Trunks was holding him. He began to loose his grasp on reality and soon felt nothing but the warm ki so close to his. The thought this was making him feel a bit better was one of his last coherent thoughts as he seeped away into a thoughtless world of warm fuzziness. Sadly, that was when the shrill shreaks of his mother’s voice broke the warm comfort he had longed for and needed for so long.
“Gohan-chan!!! Dinner!”
Trunks had also been lost in the moment until his ears were pierced with sound, and he felt a shiver go through Gohan at the high pitched annoying intrusion. However, Trunks had never known a Son not to get overly excited about the prospect of dinner. Then again, Gohan had been the only Son Trunks had ever known. Though, he had heard a lot about the Son family’s love of food from his kaa’san and Gohan which made him feel as though he knew them. He found himself staring into blushing cheeks and dark worried eyes, and he awkwardly moved back from the warm comforting embrace and ki.
“Ano… You’re kaa’san is… Dinner is ready.”
Gohan couldn’t help but smile at the thought of dinner as Trunks had known he would. He wondered if he should mention Trunks to his kaa’san or just hide him in his room like a lost puppy. Actually, in Gohan’s prospective, Ickerus would probably be a better example, though he knew that wouldn’t work. It hadn’t even worked for Ickerus so there was no way he was going to be able to hide a teenaged human being. He looked to the door as he felt unhappy it was dinner time for one of the first and probably only times in his life.
“Um… Uh… She’s probably going to give you the third degree.”
*frown*
Trunks frowned too. Great, just great, of all the things… Trunks had no idea whatsoever on how to handle Chichi or her nagging questioning, especially now. Though, Trunks knew he just couldn’t hide in Gohan’s room forever. He took a deep breath and found his way too his feet.
“I guess I owe you and her an explanation…”
Gohan shook his head as suddenly the prospective of hiding Trunks under his bed sounded a whole lot better. He stood to meet Trunks face to face.
“Chances are Kaa’san is going to freak out. You stay here, and I’ll bring you some dinner. Then we can go see your parents and figure out what you’re doing here. Sound good?”
Trunks stuttered on an answer before finally just nodding his head and sitting uncomfortably on the bed, looking around the room with curiosity. He hadn’t even caught the part about his parents. Had he, he probably would have chased Gohan down to ask questions or something. Gohan, of course, quickly rushed to the table with his usual excitement for food substance. He was quite happy to find tonight’s meal was sesame chicken.
Gohan ate his meal as expediently as usual though he took extra portions than usual and stored half of his normal portions away for the forlorn boy in his room. Chichi had smiled, just assuming that her food had been extra good that night. Goten wouldn’t seem to shut up most of the dinner. He kept looking to Gohan’s room and muttering “Tru-tru” and squirming around in his highchair. Chichi sighed and told Gohan she was taking him to his bath after dinner with prayers that it would settle him down a bit. Of course, Gohan secretly knew the real disturbance though it amazed him how smart his tiny brother could be about certain things.
Trunks found himself very curious about everything in Gohan’s absence and couldn’t help but look around a little. After all, it was very disorienting to find himself in a strange time where Gohan is his age and still alive with a little brother. Although, for the most part Trunks just sat on Gohan’s bed feeling like he shouldn’t be touching anything or looking around too much, but everything visible was caressed over several times by his curious gaze which meant he learned quite a bit about geography and science from all of the educational mobiles, not that he didn’t already have an extensive grasp of such things.
By the time Gohan returned Trunks was curled up asleep on the corner of his bed, snoring softly. Gohan just gave him a soft smile and covered him with some of his blankets. Then, he pulled out his guest mattress from under his bed and set a place for a himself to sleep, guessing he could better figure out things tomorrow.
