Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ Revelations ( Chapter 34 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: Sardines in the fruity soils of May. Stairs of birds are mooing across the jumping stars. Make any sense? No? Well, it makes about as much sense as saying I own DBZ (which I don't). ^_^

(A/N: Boy, I'm getting desperate for original/creative disclaimers... *sweatdrops*)

Outside and a fair distance away from the island where the others were, Goten and Trunks floated above the ocean facing each other, both in Super Saiya-jin form and panting slightly. The grinned in unison and dropped out of their defensive stances, wiping sweat from their brows as they glanced at the slowly rising sun.

"Trunks, I'm hungry!" Goten complained, clutching his stomach as it growled loudly. His wide, innocent blue-green eyes locked onto Trunks's matching orbs in a pleading look. "D'you think maybe breakfast is ready?"

"Only one way to find out!" Trunks grinned, rubbing his own empty belly in anticipation of another wonderful meal cooked by Lunch. "Race you back to the house, Goten!" He powered up and sped off towards the dark speck on the horizon that was the Turtle island.

"Hey! No fair! That's cheating!" the younger demi-saiyan protested. In a flash, he charged up and flew after his friend as fast as he could. "I'm gonna beat you, Trunks!"

"In your dreams, Goten!"

The two boys raced back to Kame house, Trunks in the lead, with Goten trailing not far behind. For the two Super Saiyan chibis, it was only a matter of seconds before they reached the island, barely touching their feet onto the ground before they took off at a dead run for the house. Fortunately for the building, the door was still open and it was unnecessary for either boy to open it. Given that they were still powered up, the door probably would have been torn off its hinges by one of the two hyperactive boys.

"I won! I won! I won!" Trunks laughed, dashing into the kitchen where everyone else was waiting impatiently.

"No fair! You had a head start!" Goten pouted angrily, folding his arms and giving his friend a look that said that he thought he should have won. The blond nine year old shrugged and grinned.

"Hey, come on, it's not like it's the end of the world or anything." Trunks reached out and tugged his friend's tail playfully, not enough to hurt, but just enough to show his friendship. "Besides, now we're here and we can have breakfast!"

Goten immediately brightened up and he cheered, "Yay!! Breakfast! I'm starving!!"

"If you're so hungry, then why the hell did it take you so long to get here?" Vegeta snarled bad temperedly. Once again he was being shown physical proof in the form of the two Super Saiyan chibis that he had been surpassed twice, even if they were both from the future. On top of that, he was hungry as well, and being made to wait had done nothing to improve his less than pleasant demeanor.

"I guess we got distracted," Goten explained sheepishly, placing one hand behind his head in the hereditary Son family gesture as he grinned. "Gomen nasai!"

"Whoa, hold on a sec," Bulma interrupted, her hands on her hips as she leveled her best glare at the two blond boys. "Who are you two, and why didn't anyone tell me about two more Saiyans?" They were obviously Saiyans because they both had tails like Saiya-jin have, and they looked familiar. Especially the smaller one when he had grinned in that goofy sort of way.

"What's she talking about, Trunks? What two Saiyans?" Goten looked at his friend in a puzzled manner, then glanced around the room in hopes of spotting the mysterious two extra Saiyans.

Trunks mirrored his friend as he, too, searched the kitchen for signs of any other Saiyans, until he happened to look at Goten again. "Oh! I get it! Goten, power down, you dummy! You're still in Super!"

Scowling at his friend, Goten dropped out of Super Saiyan mode, his golden hair shifting back to its normal black, and shot back, "Hey, if I'm a dummy, then you are too, 'cause you're also in Super!" The nine year old boy flushed slightly in embarrassment as he realized that the younger chibi was right. He quickly reverted to his normal mode, yellow spikes of hair suddenly becoming limp and purple, falling back to their original bowl cut.

Eyes wide as saucers, Bulma could only gape for a minute as the two boys transformed from complete strangers into the two sweet little kids she had met earlier that day. Beside her, Yamcha was equally surprised, while Master Roshi and Krillen only looked slightly startled. They had, after all, already witnessed Trunks turning into a Super Saiyan. Lunch couldn't care less as she just smiled sweetly and set a large pot of rice on the table along with the rest of the food she'd already prepared.

"Well, since we're all here, you can all start eating now!" she said brightly as she headed back to the kitchen to tend to the other things she was cooking. One tableful of food was not going to be enough to feed six hungry Saiyans and five humans, no matter how high the food was piled.

"FOOD!!!" Goku, Goten, and Trunks cried out in simultaneous crows of delight as they literally attacked the food on the table. Not far behind them, though slightly more restrained in their decimation of the miniature mountain, Bardock, Radditz, and Vegeta joined in, making a total of six people-shaped vacuum cleaners that seemed to inhale food faster than the humans could inhale air. Beads of sweat rolled down the back the heads of everyone present as they watched the living black holes exert their powers over the food.

"Good... Kami... and I thought Goku was bad," Bulma muttered, the incident with the color changing hair already forgotten. Watching Bardock and Radditz eat made her realize that Goku's appetite was relatively small, if such a word could be used to describe the amount of food Goku could put away in just a few minutes, compared to an adult Saiyan's appetite. She was glad that she and Yamcha had already eaten breakfast, because she did not want to try to compete with those six for food. Instead, she settled for watching Radditz as he ate, noting how he seemed to be moving rather gingerly because of his wounds. Figuring this was the perfect opportunity for her to try to get closer to the teenager, she sat down next to Radditz and scooched a little closer to him. If he had been human, she would have offered to help feed him so he wouldn't have to move around as much, but she didn't think she could keep up with that appetite!

"How did you get your hair back to normal, dad?" Radditz mumbled through a mouthful of food, raising an eyebrow as he examined Bardock's once-again black hair. Bardock was about to answer, but Bulma cut him off, seeing this as a great way to catch Radditz's attention.

"I brought some hair dye over," she told him proudly, idly dropping a hand to rest on his thigh. Maybe if she dropped enough hints, he'd get the idea that she liked him. Radditz frowned warily at her and scooted away from her so her hand was no longer on his thigh. In response, she only edged closer to him than before. "Brown and black." Her eyes once again drifted over his bandaged injuries and she flipped her hair over her shoulder flirtatiously, smiling at the older boy. "Since you're probably in a lot of pain, maybe I could wash your hair for you," she suggested in the most seductive voice she could manage. She was surprised when Radditz suddenly started choking on his food, bits and pieces flying from his mouth as he tried to cough some rice out of his food. "Y'know, you should be more careful eating," she scolded, slapping him on the back a few times, both to help him clear his air way and as an excuse to put her hands on him again.

Jumping like a spooked rabbit, Radditz leapt away from the table, sweating nervously. "I'm fine!" he half-shouted. "It's just that..." He trailed off, eyes darting for a good excuse to flee the house. His gaze settled on the small form of his brother, who was still tackling the food as though he would never see a meal like it again, and he hastily plucked the boy away from the table. "Kakarot and I need to talk!" he blurted out in a rush, practically running out of the room.

"Hey! I wasn't done eating yet," Goku protested with a look of confusion and longing on his face as he took one last look at the table of food before he lost sight of it. "And what's a kakarot? You and 'tousan have both mentioned it now and I still don't know what it is!"

"Sorry, kid, but I needed to get away from your friend," Radditz explained, slightly sheepish, once they were out of hearing range of the others. "Besides which, you and I haven't really had a chance to talk yet. We can eat later. I'm sure that Lunch will have plenty more food when we get back."

"Oh. Okay. But you didn't answer my question, niichan," Goku said. "What's a kakarot?"

Blinking down at the boy he held in his arms, Radditz recalled that his father had been referring to his brother as Goku. "Kakarot is the name you were given as a baby."

Goku appeared to think this over for a moment, then asked in a confused voice, "So I have three names? Son Goku Kakarot?"

"Yeah, I guess so, kid," Radditz chuckled. "Which name do you like best?"

"Goku," the seven year old said adamantly as though there was never any question about it. "That's the name my grandpa Gohan gave me, and he's the one who raised me."

A hint of sadness crept into Radditz's heart at this, hearing his little brother reject, even in so small a way, his Saiyan heritage. He shook his head to clear away the emotion and headed for the front door of the house.

"So... what did you wanna talk about?" Goku squirmed a little in his brother's arms as though he would prefer to walk under his own power. Fortunately for him, Radditz noticed this and set the boy down. A few moments of silence passed as the two walked outside together.

"Uhh... I don't really know," the older boy admitted with chagrin. "Maybe we could spar a little, see how strong you are compared to your oniichan?" He cast a curious look at the miniature version of his father. He really didn't quite know what to make of the kid. He was too innocent and trusting, traits he'd apparently picked up from hitting his head too hard as a child and then being raised by the soft Chikyuu-jin. However, he was his brother, which counted for something, and he was still Saiya-jin, even if he didn't act like it. Beyond that, he didn't really know enough about his sibling to really be able to judge him.

At the mention of fighting, Goku visibly perked up and he grinned eagerly. "Sure! I'd love to spar with you!" At that moment, Radditz thought that his brother was acting more Saiya-jin than he had during the entire two days he had observed the kid. Then he blew the whole image by allowing a concerned look cross his face. "But... aren't you hurt?" he asked, pointing at the bandages that concealed the injuries he'd received during his spar with Prince Vegeta.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Radditz shrugged it off casually. "Saiya-jin tend to heal pretty quickly, and Vegeta-ouji took it fairly easy on me." Not wanting to look bad in front of his little brother, he conveniently forgot to mention that 'taking it easy' on Radditz, for Vegeta, had still done more damage to him than he cared to admit. Besides, the boy couldn't be much of a match for him at his age, even as injured as the teen was. "I can probably handle anything you can throw at me," he boasted cockily.

In response to the clear challenge in Radditz's voice, the seven year old smirked and crouched down in a defensive position that Radditz didn't recognize but, for all that it was unfamiliar, was quite flawless, once again revealing his Saiyan heritage. The teenager grinned and got into his own stance, thinking to himself about how this was much more preferable than sitting inside that house trying to avoid that ningen female's advances. "Begin," he stated simply.

Watching his son flee in something as close to panic as he'd ever seen the boy, Bardock's eyes sparkled with concealed amusement. He knew exactly what his oldest son had been running from... or, to be more specific, who he had been running from. As he watched the human girl's expression shift to disappointment at Radditz's disappearance, it was all he could do to keep himself from chuckling at the situation. It was rather enjoyable to see his son squirm like that.

Bardock wasn't the only one to notice Bulma's attraction to the teenage Saiyan. Vegeta had no such qualms about hiding his laughter and promptly burst out laughing when he realized what was going on between Bulma and Radditz. For several moments all he could do was clutch his sides and laugh derisively, completely ignoring the food in front of him.

"You... You're in love with him!" he gasped out between bursts of laughter. "I don't believe it! The weakling onna has a crush on a Saiyan warrior! This is too rich!" He broke off into another fit of mocking laughter, wiping tears from his eyes with one hand.

Shame and humiliation burned in her cheeks as Bulma could do nothing but sit there and stare at the table. She couldn't even deny it, because it was true, damn it! It wasn't the fact that it was true that irked her so much as it was the fact that if she opened her mouth to say anything, the only thing she could say would be an admission of that bakayaro being right! She would die before she did that!

"What? The baka onna has nothing to say?" Vegeta smirked broadly. "Brain too slow to think up a good lie?"

This was too much. She'd just been humiliated, had her newfound feelings discovered and ridiculed, and now this... this... boy dared to insult her intelligence! Blinking back hot, salty tears, she rounded on the child prince, clenching her fists tightly as the desire to punch him in the face warred with the knowledge that such an action would do her no good. "I'll have you know that I'm one of the most intelligent people on this planet!" she shouted angrily. "My father and I invented those capsules you've been using to store things in, you know!"

"I don't care what great things you think you've done, onna," Vegeta remarked lazily, leaning back in his chair. "You're still a baka chibi onna."

My father and I invented those capsules... The words rang inside Bardock's mind, echoing back and forth and shoving all other thoughts out of his head. My father and I... my father and I... invented those capsules... Somewhere in the back of his mind, a memory stirred and another voice spoke in his mind, speaking words that were eerily similar to the ones that Bulma had just said.

*These are Hoi Poi Capsules. My mom and grandpa make them.*

Trunks had spoken those words back on Vegeta-sei, what seemed like months ago, but was in reality only a week or two. Trunks. Vegeta's son. My mom and my grandpa make them.... My father and I invented those capsules... It finally clicked inside Bardock's brain and he could only stare in fascinated horror at the fiery tempered girl and the equally hotheaded prince who were currently trading insults back and forth faster than any barracks soldier... and more colorful ones at that!

Masaka! Bardock's stunned mind could barely comprehend the revelation he'd just received. BULMA and VEGETA?! No way!!!

End chapter. Please review. ^_^