Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Goten No Sakura ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

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Goten No Sakura by saiyansecretater

A year later~

-:-

ChiChi emerged from the bathroom one evening, distraught, having almost turned it upside down. She wandered into the living room, where her son was mindlessly watching TV.

"Goten, have you seen my pain pills in the medicine cabinet?" Smelling of menthol and camphor, she held a tube of pomade for back pain, the price of she and Goku holding to their wish of going out more often.

"No," Goten replied indifferently, staring at a digital courtroom scene, with no idea of what it was about.

"I didn't think so," his mother waved off as she turned to leave, "Never mind, there are two refills left."

" 'Your Honor, we motion that the Court take into consideration the attenuating circumstances of my client's act,' " the defendant's lawyer on TV stood to add.

Perhaps there was something to be said for poetic irony.

-:-

The next day after school, Goten waited for Rensen to walk her to her bus, as always. Everyone was restlessly impatient for summer vacation to start.

"Hey, Goten," she began cheerfully when she appeared, "How'd you do on the math test?"

"Dunno," Goten muttered apathetically as they walked. The buses were late as usual, so they sat down on a bench.

Rensen frowned to herself at the dull expression on her friend's face, which looked darker than ever. In an attempt to lighten his mood, she asked, "Was your mom serious about kidnapping me if I didn't accept for dinner tomorrow?"

Goten scowled. "I had to have my dad make her quit talking about 'future grandbabies.'" Clearly, ChiChi didn't realize how much worse she was making his situation. "It's her way of saying she likes you," he smoothed over at her consterned look.

Ren was unconvinced. "Are you okay?" she asked in a lowered voice, disliking his unsteady gait, and dazed expression.

Goten nodded with a tired sigh. "Ren, this charade isn't fair to you. I know you've liked a guy for almost a year now, and he won't ask you out thinking you're seeing me. Anyway, the plan obviously isn't working." That much was true, and keeping up the appearance was getting as exhausting as it was useless. And she did deserve better.

"I'm still your friend." Ren squeezed his forearm as firmly as her voice. "And I think Trunks is right to be worried. Anyway, the other guy goes to a different school, so he doesn't even know you."

Goten only stared quietly at the ground, and at that moment, the line of buses pulled up to the curb.

"Promise we'll talk tomorrow?" she insisted.

Goten looked up at the urgency in her voice, nodding. "Yeah."

She leaned down to kiss his cheek, squeezing his shoulder. "Take care of yourself, Goten. You're the best friend I have." She turned slowly, and he watched her board her bus.

He waited until the buses drove away, before slowly walking a couple of blocks to a deserted alley, then took to flight. Enough was enough. Now, it was simply ridiculous.

-:-

Goten flew for a distance, in no hurry, and with no specific destination in mind. All that was important to him was to get away. Someplace where he could be alone, not be found, and just forget it all.

He was beyond anger, nor feeling sorry for himself, nor feared anything more. Shit happened. He was no different than some poor bastard in the wrong place at the wrong time, and run over by a truck. So many people died at a young age, he knew, and were buried at an old one, their only true goal being some escape.

He found a mid-sized, unfamiliar forest, and landed amidst a thicket of trees beside a quiet stream. It was not his own hidden place, which would not be appropriate. This one would do.

He sat on the grass and leaned against a willow tree bent over the water's edge, staring emptily at the sparkling stream. In the distance, he spotted a falcon. It soared gracefully against the blue sky, circled him a few times, then landed on a tree branch not far. They were messenger birds, Goku had told him, but he ignored it. A crow would be more fitting, he thought grimly, and reached into his pocket.

He shook out the remaining generous handful of pills, then stood up and knelt by the stream. Obtaining the two refills had not been difficult, nor had been finding a doctor to prescribe more. No more difficult than cupping one hand, and bringing enough water to his mouth to swallow them all.

He sat beneath the willow again, and closed his eyes, waiting for the familiar euphoria to carry him away. It was over three times as much as he usually took, but he was becoming too accustomed, and needed more right now. Just a few minutes…

-:-

"What the hell are you doing out here, whelp?" an indignantly accusing voice demanded, "This is my training spot, so go elsewhere!"

Goten's eyes opened to see the only person capable of making his heart sink like lead to the pit of his stomach, though he was too numb to care. "This forest is big enough for an army," he retorted flatly, "And I was here first."

"You're not even training!" the prince continued, his voice turning caustic, "Where's the girl? You could be getting a piece of ass."

" 's not like that!" Goten seethed back, unaware of his voice beginning to slur, "Sh'visiting 'er grandparents t'day."

"Pfff. You finally get some pussy, and you think you're a man," Vegeta began disgustedly, hesitating at the strange voice and ki emanated by the demi Saiyan. He stepped forward to inspect the anomoly, but did not smell any alcohol. Still… "What are you on?" His voice had lowered, and rang of morbid curiosity.

"Nothin'." Goten's eyes closed partway as the other's voice seemed to fade. "…sleepy," he mumbled. The tingling that always began in his limbs spread quickly to the rest of his being, and he slowly smiled.

"Goten?" The bitter sarcasm had faded from Vegeta's tone, and may have sounded like concern from someone else. "Answer!" he commanded, the alarm in his voice not making sense to Goten. He felt just fine.

"I mean it!" Vegeta had knelt beside him, peeling back his eyelids to note his pupils shrunken to pinpoints, then felt his pulse, which was abnormally low. "What did you take?" he demanded, frantically emptying his backpack. Only a textbook, notebook, and pens spilled out. "Goten!" Panicked, he slapped his face several times, shaking him hard by the shoulders.

The teen did not react, but an orange bottle had fallen out of his jeans pocket. Vegeta seized it with shaking fingers, his face paling in recognition of the label on the empty bottle.

"No!" Vegeta heard himself yelling in panic, "You didn't!" Again he slapped his face repeatedly, half aware of his own vision blurring wet as he dragged his limp form to the edge of the stream. He was fading fast.

Vegeta held Goten's face over the stream's surface, splashing it again and again with the icy water. "DON'T DO THIS TO ME, YOU ASSHOLE!" he was screaming, "Punch me out, beat the shit outa me in my sleep, but don't leave me! GOTEN!" Out of despair at feeling his ki so weak, he quickly plunged the demi Saiyan's face into and back out of the cold water.

"Hn?" Goten managed, then spoke no more.

Yeah, that's it... Barely hearing his faraway voice, Goten was lighter than air, his etherical body floating higher than the birds and clouds, higher still, warmed by the sun, then drifting past it until his world looked dark, and felt cold now. But that was okay.

Cool, I'm in space, was his last coherent thought, then quiet. So quiet.

"No! Goten, please!" Vegeta held Goten in his lap, his back shaking in silent sobs to feel his lifeless form. "You'll never know I… couldn't…" It was difficult to speak around sobs so intense they barely made a sound, muffled against his shoulder. "You idiot, I… love you!"

But it was too late. Too late, because it had been himself the idiot, and now his only wish was to join him…

Vegeta bolted upright, remembering the pouch Goku had given him. The other Saiyan knew at what point he overdid his workouts now, having twice landed himself in the hospital. He'd tied,to his waistband the precious pouch, that contained his only hope now.

Goten's eyes opened wide, brutally awakened by what was choking him. Fingers were removed from his throat, and he instinctively swallowed the familiar, bitter green taste of a senzu bean.

However, it was nothing next to the astonishment of finding himself cradled in Vegeta's lap, with his memory intact. All he hadn't properly heard, he could remember nonetheless. While he'd been unconscient, he'd had the eery impression of returning, standing next to his physical body, and of changing his mind. He'd no longer wanted to fly away, but to reintegrate his body. And that, because of what he'd somehow heard. All those months ago, Vegeta had made him want to die, and today he'd made him want to live again.

Goten looked up into his piercing black eyes, now carelessly drenched and reddened, mirroring back the very same things. An exact reflection that rendered words unnecessary. Only a long, and much-needed embrace, that felt like a collective sigh of relief from all of nature around them.

-:-

The resulting silence was awkward, both lost in thought for a time. Vegeta had sat Goten upright in his lap, otherwise neither moved.

The full-blooded Saiyan had been forced to see what he'd refused to acknowledge, in the same way he'd pushed Goten's face into the icy water in despair. He could not love him. It was unacceptable. What had endlessly droned in the back of his mind for… how long?… like a worn-out, broken record, had been snapped in half by the cruelest of revelations, making his former thought now seem trivial. If not for blind luck, the demi Saiyan would be dead now, by his own hand, and Vegeta's words. No, he could never have lived with that.

Goten's face was a frozen mask, torn between relief and horror. What have I done? his own inner broken record droned, for a different reason now. All this time, he'd believed Vegeta unaffected, yet he'd almost destroyed him. He, too, was shocked to silence. His perpetual shield had been pierced, which gave him an insight to his senpai's own thoughts.

Though both kept their eyes averted, Goten saw the falcon that had remained perched the whole time as though watching them, take to flight.

"Something I remember from the afterlife," Vegeta mumbled randomly, pausing to clear his parched throat, "I was told souls who idly took their own life couldn't be brought back, even by the Dragons." He scowled, still looking at the ground.

When the meaning of his words sunk in, Goten protested, "But I wasn't trying to die. Just get high and forget for awhile. Guess I OD'd." He mentally rewound his own words, frowning. "I know, it was dumb."

"Yes, it was," Vegeta snapped bitterly. He looked away, but his fingers unconsciously dug into his back.

"I'm sorry." Goten clutched him tighter. He knew his apology to be a lame understatement, but Vegeta seemed to accept it. "Wait, you know what they are?"

"Bulma once needed a… root canal?" he remembered, "And those same pills. They made her wierd and sleepy, so she explained what they are." He hesitated. "Are you addicted?"

"A little," Goten admitted ashamedly, "You must think I suck."

Vegeta scowled, knowing himself to be the cause of them. "No, you don't suck. But you have to slowly stop. I'll see to it myself, if you don't want your parents to know. You'll stay with Trunks as usual otherwise, okay?"

Goten nodded reluctantly, considering that to be fair enough. "Thanks. I don't wanna hear it from my mom." He paused in thought. "I really thought you hated me."

"Likewise," Vegeta informed him dully, "The things you want now are normal," he continued, "Not that I can blame you, but tell me the truth. Am I really so easily replaced?"

Goten looked puzzled for a moment, before comprehending. "She's just a friend," he admitted with more embarassment, "A good friend, but just a normal one. I don't sleep with her or anything."

"That's not the impression you gave," Vegeta added dryly, "She looked like she couldn't wait for you to rip her slutty clothes off her." If he sounded no older than Goten, he didn't seem to care.

"Just to make you jealous," Goten confessed, "She went along with it. I should've known it wouldn't work."

Vegeta looked pained in his search for words. "It's not that, Goten. I understand your hormones wanting a ride, and you can't be mine yet. It's what looked to me like an open rejection."

"See?" Goten reproachfully pointed out, "Why can't I be yours? You're the one who rejected me, and you still do. Would two more years and a couple months've mattered on the old planet?"

"We only measured ki and physical development," Vegeta agreed, "But it's different here." And he'd been on Earth long enough to be accustomed to its way of life, he needn't add.

"Like anyone needs to know." Goten looked away, not trusting his own voice.

Vegeta studied him, carefully choosing his words. "You seem to think it's easier for me, constantly questioning my own sanity. Haven't you thought maybe I have more respect for you, and that you're more to me than that?"

"Oh." No, Goten had not thought of it that way. "Well, thanks," he replied, also carefully weighing his words. "But don't you know you're more to me than just some crazy hormones? It wouldn't make it go away, Vegeta. Nothing will. Don't you know it's you who are more to me than that? You… you're everything to me. I just need you to show me that."

Vegeta smoothed his hair back, remembering too well how soft it felt. "I'm just asking you for some patience. Can you do that for me?"

Goten nodded soberly, gingerly placing his hands on his shoulders. "You know I respect you. Can you just show me what I never thought you'd ever say?" His eyes shone sincerely, and Vegeta felt himself lost in their wide, black depths, too late to resurface.

Goten was already lost in Vegeta's slanted, piercing eyes, which shone and softened now for him. Drawn together as strongly as by gravity itself, slowly they were enclosed in a true embrace, their lips connecting. Softly and hesitantly, but sincerely.

At first, that was all they wanted, their heads spinning with another, better kind of euphoria. The fact that the warm lips and embrace of the other was very real, put even their most daring fancies to shame.

Goten stood on a fine line between cute and desirable with perfect balance, Vegeta mused, which drove him insane.

Sensing it, Goten's desires pushed him to deepen the kiss, to indulge what he'd suppressed for so long.

As much as Vegeta's being screamed at himself to shut up for more, he knew how quickly and very easily it could all go too far, and he didn't want it to so soon. It would ruin something more important.

"Calm down." He took Goten's cheeks in his hands. "Hold still." Softly, he kissed the demi Saiyan's lips and face, slowly and as many times as he wished. Often he'd dreamed of doing so, half the time drifting off to sleep before anything more. Goten closed his eyes obediently, understanding, and allowing what had been scraped raw somewhere within them begin to be soothed.

"I know," Vegeta acknowledged their mutually obvious desires, which knew no better, and meant no harm. Goten had always been there for him, and he would show the demi Saiyan that he was there for him. Locking Goten's intense regard, he told him firmly, "I'll wait for you. I promise."

Stunned to silence for a moment, Goten held him tightly. "Me, too," he promised in return, "There's nobody else, and there won't be."

"You see now you're already mine?" Lazily, Vegeta played with his hair. "You're the only one who knows about this place," he reflected at what seemed ironic.

"Really?" Goten looked up, surprised. "I have a place no one knows about, too," he confided, hesitating. "I'd like to bring you there, if you want."

"Sure," Vegeta replied curiously, "Where is it?"

"There isn't much to see right now," Goten told him mysteriously, "It's better in the Spring."

"Alright," Vegeta accepted, intrigued. Much about Goten intrigued him, which was seemingly endless.

They talked for a long time, answering some questions, while opening others. As of now, the hidden facet of their relationship was strange and contradictory, as it could not accurately be called a relationship yet.

It was near early evening when they agreed it was time to go, first stopping by the Sons' home for Goten to pack a few things as well as the rest of the pills, as he'd promised. His parents would find it strange for him to be going there after such a long, deliberate absence, though it should not be difficult. Goten insisted on a last kiss, which would be rare, before they took to flight.

-:-

Goten politely stood aside for Vegeta to enter first as he let them in, startled to be greeted by a stern look from Goku, who stood with his arms crossed.

"Goten, we've given you a break so far," the former began, "But this time, you'll have to explain." He set a new bottle of ChiChi's prescription, with a few sheets of paper, on the coffee table. "I think it's better me than your mother," he added when Goten coldly looked away. At his silence, he demanded confoundedly, "Their misuse is dangerous! Why didn't you tell someone about it?"

"He did," Vegeta affirmed, backing up his lack of surprise.

"When?" Goku turned his darkened gaze at him.

"Today," Vegeta replied, matching his firm tone, "I already asked the same questions, and made him promise to let me sever him. I didn't think you knew."

Goku nodded to himself in thought. "At least someone here will talk. Why don't we step outside a minute, Vegeta."

"Sure," the other Saiyan replied, with a nod at Goten's sharp look.

Vegeta followed him to the back yard, watching curiously as he turned his back.

"I'm guessing you had this talk a few hours ago," Goku said aloud, as though to himself.

"Yeah, why?" Vegeta asked curiously.

"Because for several seconds, his ki got very faint, then almost vanished," Goku reported tersely, "Then suddenly, it was back to normal." At Vegeta's affirmative silence, he asked, "Is the senzu bean I gave you still in your pouch?" His voice suggested he already knew the answer.

Vegeta was silent at his turn, before confirming, "No."

Goku wasn't surprised at that, but was otherwise confounded. "What I don't get, is that you avoided each other for months. Then suddenly, you saved his life and everything's apparently fine."

Vegeta nodded. "I didn't know why he performed so poorly the last few times he trained with us. I lost my temper, said why does he bother training, and much worse. I guess I took my own problems out on him. I saw him today by dumb luck, also that it's for me to fix."

Goku studied him, sensing a missing piece. "Yeah, that's understandable. But that it should be the real cause of whatever the problem is… just doesn't add up."

"True," Vegeta agreed, "But wasn't it you who always said that what's told in confidence should be respected?"

Goku considered his comrade with a new kind of respect, knowing there to be more than met the eye, and that it concerned a considerable change for them all. Yet, he also knew he could count on him. "Thanks, Vegeta." He clapped him on the shoulder, adding in a lowered voice, "Take care of him." Vegeta nodded, and Goku turned back toward the house, certain that he would. Though, at what cost?

-:-

TBC in Chapter 4…