Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Forgiven ❯ Older than dirt ( Chapter 4 )

The cube was the first thing Goten wanted to look at when he got home, but it wasn't possible. He'd had to bring all his gifts home in a storage capsule, and the gifts had overflowed his room when he unencapsulated it. Naturally, the gift he'd thought he'd never see again was the one that went rolling out the door to land at his mother's feet.

She bent and picked it up, her lips thinning and eyes narrowing. "Just what is this?" she hissed.

"One of my presents, probably," Goten answered, kicking a few other items back into his room without looking up. "They went everywhere when I opened the capsule."

"Someone gave you a box of sex toys for your birthday?"

Goten froze in the act of reaching for a gift that had gotten under the hall table. His mother's icy voice sent shivers down his spine, but the malice was what truly scared him. "Sex toys?" he managed, and looked up to find her holding the gift he'd believed Bulma had disposed of. "I thought that got trashed!"

He spent a moment in panicked silence, trying to decide what was expected of him. "That gift wasn't marked, I got it when the kids were there, before everyone else showed up. I had Bulma take it away, I thought she'd got rid of it," he said at last.

She said nothing, brushing him aside as she went into his room. He followed, watching in bewilderment as she began going through everything he'd gotten. He caught a glimpse of the cube when she moved to put some of the clothes he'd received in the closet, and quickly stuffed it into the pocket of his loose pants. "Um, Mother, don't you want me to put my stuff up?"

"I think I should ensure that nothing else you have is inappropriate. Get out."

He swallowed, and ran. Except for the cube safely in his pocket, there was nothing else he'd received that she would disapprove of. And it, she would have disapproved of because of the giver, without ever looking at the contents. He fled the house entirely, heading for the pool where he knew his father would be fishing.

Goten never even realized he was crying until his father wrapped his arms around him and began wiping the tears away. "Daddy, she hates me. What did I do wrong? I thought Bulma got rid of that present! I wouldn't have brought it home, I'd've thrown it away myself! Why doesn't she love me anymore?"

Goku merely patted his back, making soothing noises until he'd calmed down. "Sorry, Daddy. I guess I didn't make much sense."

"Not really. Wanna fish?"

"Sure." Goten chose one of the extra poles his father had brought, and cast the line in before settling himself comfortably in the grass. "Somebody from school got me a box of sex toys for my birthday."

Goku choked, then started laughing. "Well, at least you think it's funny! I thought Bulma had got rid of it for me, but it was in the capsule of presents when I brought them home… and it was the first thing Mother saw. She's going through everything else now to make sure there's nothing else inappropriate."

"Is there?" Goku asked with bright interest.

"No. I managed to grab the only other thing I thought she'd have fits over."

"Oh, what's that?"

"A cube." Goten fished it from his pocket and held it up. "Vegeta gave it to me."

"Vegeta, huh?" Goku sighed. "Yeah, your mom would take anything he'd given you. Saiyan taint, and all that. That's why all I got you was those T-shirts. Nothing bad about them."

"Why does she hate Saiyans so much, Daddy?"

"It isn't just Saiyans, son. She's none too fond of Nameks, either. She used to be so sweet. Overprotective, but sweet. Maybe it was just being married to me that changed her. I was always fighting, or training, always gone or dead. Piccolo kidnapped her baby, and I insisted that she let him live with us for awhile when I came back from… hmm… where was I that time? Dead, or training in space?"

Goten smiled, then changed the subject, looking uncertain. "Daddy… Trunks… he um… he kissed me."

"Kissed you?" His father, sprawled in the grass next to his pole, sat up to look at him. "Did you like it?"

Goten's mouth dropped open as he stared incredulously at his father. "Um, Dad? He's a guy. Aren't guys not supposed to kiss?"

"Oh, right. I forgot about that." A faint trace of something crossed his father's face, then he grinned again. "I think it doesn't matter too much if you kiss a good friend. I saw Yamcha kiss Krillin once when they'd had too much to drink and were in really good moods."

"Oh, yuck! That's just… yuck!" Goten screwed his face up in an expression of sheer disgust. "Yamcha and Krillin? EWWWW!"

"Well, that's kinda what I thought, but everybody laughed. Even Vegeta, so I figured it had to be okay."

Goten scowled. "It figures he would. Trunks says he calls me your pretty-boy spawn. I suppose that's his way of not mistaking me for Gohan."

"Oh, probably." There was a momentary pause. "Vegeta calls him my… oh! 'gutless waste of sperm', or something like that. Geeky waste of sperm? Anyhow, Vegeta doesn't seem to consider him worth anything. I guess he values your looks."

"What? Oh… yuck. That's just… Vegeta? No. Nononono. That's just wrong, Daddy! Besides, he scares me. And he's older than dirt."

Goku fell back over, wrapping his arms around himself as he rolled back and forth, laughing so hard tears streamed down his cheeks. Goten watched him for a bit, and gradually began laughing himself, if not so hard. Vegeta would kill him if he ever heard what he'd said about his age!

They spent a pleasant couple of hours fishing, and returned home to find Gohan passed out on the couch. "He came to see you," Chi-Chi said to Goten, "but he fell asleep waiting."

"Oh." Goten calculated rapidly, and came to the conclusion that he'd better wake his brother up. He did. "Hi, Gohan."

"Goten?" Gohan rubbed blearily at his eyes and looked at his watch. "Oh, I'll be late! Happy Birthday, gotta go!" He started for the door, then whirled to give Goten a quick hug and hand him a small package. "Sorry, bro." Then he was gone.

"Well, what did he get you?"

"I 'unno, gimme a minute." Goten ripped the paper from the small package and regarded the cube thoughtfully. "It's a data cube. He probably wrapped me up one of his lectures."

"You don't need to sound so disappointed," Chi-Chi said tartly. "Your brother is a brilliant lecturer!"

The room grew suddenly darker as the sun slipped behind a cloud. Goten stared down at the cube. "I know, Mom. I'll… go look at it now, okay?" He hurried towards the hall.

"Chi, you don't need to be so hard on him. He's a bright boy just …" Goten shut his door firmly on the conversation, sinking into the chair at his computer. Gohan's cube was dropped next to the machine, Vegeta's pulled from his pocket. The wrongness hit him then, and he turned.

His posters were gone. His music collection. Turning back to the computer, he realized most of his games were missing, too. His desk held only a textbook, and his bookshelves had been stripped of everything but classics… and even a few of those were missing. Leadenly, he walked to his dresser, then flung open the closet door.

His school uniforms, one gi, and little else other than very plain underwear. He walked to the door. Locked it. Shoved the bed in front of it. Turned his desk to face the door. Put his headphones on. Put in Vegeta's cube. Took the headphones off, and checked the plug for his speakers. Then sat back and watched the Saiyan Prince, and learned what he needed to be knowing.

He took that cube out after backing it up on the computer, and put Gohan's in. Found himself smiling. Gohan knew… he knew. Vegeta must have told him, 'cause Dad was dead on his thirteenth birthday. I wonder when he found time enough to make this for me? Must have been in spurts, I can see how the recording jumps. Either that, or he thought he needed to change clothes a lot. Vegeta wasn't nearly so embarrassed!

He took that cube out as well, and carefully labeled the two in careful block script. Vegeta's Lesson read the first, and Gohan's Lecture said the second. Goten dropped the two cubes into his nearly empty drawer, and sighed. And the only thing I have to look forward to is a tail maybe appearing. Gods below, Mother will shit gold bricks if that happens. And cut it off. No way she'd let me keep it. I wonder if Trunks' has ever grown back? He must have had one when he was born, right? Gohan did. There's pictures of him with a tail.

One thing remained on his wall, a framed print of his brother and himself. Neither of them had tails in the picture, and Goten knew he couldn't have been more than a few months old. But then again… there's not a single picture of me with a tail. Or of Trunks with one, either. Maybe we weren't born with tails?

He moved the furnishings back where they belonged, unlocked the door. Slowly, he made his way down the hall to the kitchen His father was gone, but he'd known that. Goku had taken off for somewhere, he'd heard the thunderclap of air filling the space his father had shot through.

"Mother? Where are my things?"