Disclaimer: the Dragon Ball franchise is the property of Akira Toriyama and Shueisha.
A/N: this fic contains references to DBZ Movie 10 and The Jump Special. Also, I don't regard GT as canon, so 'Present Day' Trunks is based on my observations of Kid Trunks and what little we had seen of Teen Trunks at the end of DBZ.
Doppelganger
Their birth certificates carried the same details, from the fractions of seconds in the time of their birth to the name of the deputy clerk that had signed it. From several once-overs, it looked like all the genes that they had inherited from their parents had been expressed in the same way, from their facial features to their height and frame. They shared more similarities than identical twins. They were identical, right down to their fingerprints.
The sound of chatter, broken by occasional laughter drowned the buzzing of cicadas that gathered under the light posts in the Capsule Corp. garden. Outside the circle of noise and activity stood the conglomerate's heir along with his lifelong friend, the former swishing his red wine that glittered in the moonlight around in his glass that he had yet to take a single sip from. The visitor from the alternate universe was in the center of his field of vision, painstakingly dissecting him with his narrowed eyes as though he was some rare specimen.
As he compared every detail about his doppelganger to his own, Trunks recalled his arrival this morning as the family gathered around the breakfast table before heading out to their daily destinations. His father in an atypical reaction dropped his morning roll, gaping out of the window as materialized out of thin air the Time Machine that their unexpected guest had used to cross the boundary between their worlds. His mother spilled her coffee on her business suit, a sob emanating from her glossed lips that she clapped her palm against, and tears scattered behind her as she rushed out into the garden to draw the visitor into a motherly embrace. For his doppelganger it was only a few months, but for his parents it was over two decades.
"Trunks, it's been ages!"
The half-Saiyan immediately turned around at the sound of his name, raising a brow at the hyperbole with which the caller had exaggerated the time that they had not bumped into each other, which was since Bra's birthday party. Not bothering to conceal the perplexity in his eyes, he smiled as he greeted back, "Yamcha-san! It's been... two weeks?"
The shocked looks that his scarred elder and the airborne sidekick gave him as they froze in their tracks explained what that was about. Trunks' eyes twitched as he thought that for the entirety of his other self's stay, he should think twice before responding when someone was calling his name!
An awkward silence numbed the lifelong duo as they noticed for the first time the youth with the same name as the one that they had just addressed. Yamcha stammered once he found his voice, facing him properly, "I-It indeed is! How's college?"
Yamcha's discomfort doubled as in response, the younger man eerily kept displaying that polite smile that contrasted with the irritation flickering in his blue orbs. He laughed nervously, "Well, catch you later!"
Goten worriedly eyed his friend whose face darkened sullenly once the older man walked past them to join the others, who gathered like a cordon around the one that his brother had ended up labeling 'Future Trunks' to avoid confusion. Goten did not know what Trunks was sulking about; he thought it pretty cool that there was another version of his friend leading a different life in another dimension. Actually, he found it all quite badass how this version of Trunks had traveled all the way from a bleak future to save his father's life with a medicine that was not available until years from then, fought with everyone when his friend was still in diapers and ended up becoming a hero in his own world.
Downing the remainder in his glass, Goten placed under his own microscope the one who was a perfect replica of his friend, save for his hair that he had tied back in a low ponytail. He used all the traits that he had come to associate the Trunks that he knew with as a basis for the comparison that he made next.
Goten noted as he listened in how Future Trunks' tone that ringed with politeness, his choice of words that indicated restraint and the shyness his eyes would avert with as the conversation touched upon personal details all contrasted with his friend's audacious and free-spoken nature. In silence, the air that they carried around them was strikingly different as well. His friend with the arms he folded over his chest—a habit that he had picked up from his father—and the illegible expression on his face as he gazed into the others would come off as unapproachable, sometimes as intimidating, at least to those who did not know him on a personal level. Future Trunks on the other hand had a welcoming air about him that would put you at ease, and judging by that, Goten suspected if he had what it took to pass the Nimbus test.
To sum up all of his observations, they were both good and cool individuals, but with different attitudes and behavioral patterns that were all affected by the environment they had grown up in and the people they were surrounded with.
The humming of engine, accompanied by the rustling of grass, filled the vicinity as several drones dispersed throughout the garden. Next, clattering sounds briefly replaced the chattering of the crowd as they exchanged their empty glasses for a plate of finger food. Gobbling the small bites like popcorn, Goten's eyes darted to the others' faces to view their reactions in the wake of the tales narrated by the visitor about the reconstruction and the peaceful days that dawned upon his alternate world of ruin.
The talkative crowd bombarded the visitor with questions, demanding further details every time the narration took a pause. Bulma-san was occasionally dabbing at her teary eyes with a handkerchief that became stained with eyeliner as she fondly noted the happiness in her son's eyes that they must have been missing back then. Bra-chan, who was standing next to her mother, had her finger against her parted lips as she occasionally looked back and fro between her brother and his look-alike. Vegeta-san and Piccolo-san had an atypical smile upon their usually grim faces as they listened with interest, looking glad to see the visitor after all those years.
And even though the visitor was around their age, his elder brother had dropped the wise and preaching big brother persona as he conversed with him animatedly, as though he was catching up with an old classmate he had not seen since campus days. According to the stories that he had heard of the Androids and the Cell Games, his brother was still in elementary school back then, while as Future Trunks was in his late teens. It must be a subconscious thing that his brother still regarded him as his elder, and seemingly will always do.
"I have some news for you…"
It was as if Future Trunks had hit some mute button with his announcement, as all became silent except for the cicadas' buzzing and the trickling of water on the surface of the fountain.
"It may be hard to believe, but…"
Trunks gritted his teeth, feeling the heat rising in his chest as he watched his other self averting his eyes as redness crept into his cheeks. For someone who was not the type to beat around the bush, it was quite painful for him watching someone with the same face as his struggling through the silence, the others' gazes and a shyness that he himself was not attributed with to spit out whatever he needed to say!
"I'm going to become a father!"
A rustle traveled through the expanses of Capsule Corp. garden as the evening breeze slipped through the trees of many genera. In the wake of the last thing that they had expected hearing from the visitor's own lips, the anticipation on everyone's face overturned into shock, making them look like codfishes as they gaped at him with eyes wide like saucers. As for Trunks, it was as though a petrifaction spell had been cast upon him as air tickled his eyes with the tips of his hair that encircled his face. He ingested with difficulty that at some point in the future in another world, he was going to sire a child with a woman he probably never met!
"Does that mean I'm going to become an aunt? I've never met someone my age who's an aunt before; I can't wait to tell everyone at school!" Bra's excited exclamation as she tugged at her mother's arm ended the silence in a burst of sounds expressing disbelief and questions regarding the who and when. Bulma, however, knelt to match her daughter's height and had to explain to her that spreading the news will only cause problems for her brother of this time.
"Her name is Cocoa." Future Trunks took out a photograph from an inner pocket in his cropped jacket and handed it to his mother (who immediately gushed at how pretty the girl in the picture was as she crouched down to show it to her daughter) to pass it to the others. "After defeating Cell and rebuilding the city, my mother and I journeyed around the world to offer help to those rebuilding their homes," Future Trunks explained. "We came at the ruins of a village to the north and found the survivors hiding in the caves deep in the mountains. We informed them that the Androids had been defeated three years ago and offered them to come and live in the city, but they declined, saying that they'll rebuild their village. Cocoa's grandfather, however, was very old and required medical attention, so we took them with us. Mother invited her to stay with us while her grandfather was in the hospital, and Cocoa insisted that she helps with the housework as a way to repay us. We saw a lot of each other over the past months and it just… happened..."
By that time, the visitor's face turned beet red, his vocal cords knotted and his eyes lowered. His elders smirked, taking with sheer amusement in the bashful state that overtook him. And Oolong, who received the photograph from Tenshinhan, flashed his teeth and snickered impishly as he pointed at the picture, "so, over the past months you had this cutie do a little more than change your bed sheets and wash your underwear for you, eh?"
"Lucky bastard!" Muten Roshi's envious, high-pitched cry as he snatched the photograph from the pig's paw distracted the crowd from the visitor, whose head jerked up, looking all flushed and flustered at the insinuation that was just made. As the old man undressed the girl in the picture with his eyes behind his shades, his mind began to operate like an erotic visual novel. He imagined with his wrinkled hands trembling what it was like having a cute young girl playing maid for him, without having around a cyborg of a mother who will serve him a knuckle sandwich every time he attempted to cop a feel.
As it appeared that the Turtle Hermit had drifted in lewd thoughts of his own, Kuririn hastily seized the picture before it gets stained with the blood and drool that began to leak from him. According to his understanding of the old man's mentality that he had gained from decades of living under the same roof with him, he must be visualizing what it was likehaving a young girl serving him breakfast with his adult magazines subscriptions in bed, wearing nothing but an apron, a maid hat and a pair of slippers!
Trunks' lips puffed, his brows furrowed - a girl named Cocoa who lived with her grandfather in a village up north. The name stirred a distant memory… her background information sounded like that of someone he had met in the past…
The photograph was passed from Gohan to his wife without much stimulation of her memories before handing it to her mother-in-law, who then handed it to her husband. As the photograph returned to Future Trunks after completing its circular journey, he looked over the crowd that surrounded him; he smiled as he raised his hand holding the picture, "you guys wanna see?"
Trunks was alarmed as his other self addressed them all of a sudden and flinched as his lifelong friend piped with "You bet!", and the grass rustled under Goten's sneakers as he trotted to fetch the photograph and ran back to his friend's side. Next, a picture dating to a week back was slid into Trunks' field of vision, in it was a girl with pastel blue eyes and curly short hair who was donning a T-shirt emblazoned with Capsule Corp. logo over a pair of jeans. She was sitting in a faded armchair with the wide window of the living room that was cracked in places behind her that revealed the cloudless blue sky.
Sensing Goten's grip on his shoulder as he moved in closer, Trunks attempted to extract the girl's identity from overlapping her appearance with her name and background information. After a moment of brain-wracking, his sapphire eyes widened in recognition as a memory of a frightening encounter that resulted in him wetting his pants resurfaced.
"Goten!" Trunks pointed out, seething with anger at himself for how pathetic he must have looked back then as his ass was handed to him within seconds of that fight. "Remember when your sister-in-law dragged us in that search for the dragon balls to see Shen Ron? This is the girl that we met back then!"
Goten scrunched up his nose as he failed to salvage that memory. In addition, his memory bank had no record of him bumping into a cute girl around their age with short curly blond hair, and if he had, why hadn't he asked for her number? He shook his head at his friend as the girl in the picture and his friend's statement did not connect.
"Remember Broly?" Trunks hissed through gritted teeth, "We were searching for the four-star dragon ball and came by that village with the tradition to sacrifice their children to some dinosaur. This is the girl that was about to be sacrificed back then. We saved the day and we and the entire village had that dinosaur for dinner!"
Goten yelped as that name alone evoked several memories all at once that sent chills down his spine. His hand then grasped his chin as he took another look at the modernized girl in the picture, "but last time, she was wearing that baggy dress and her hair was long and in pigtails. She looks like an entirely different person now!"
"Yeah, it's her alright!" Trunks muttered matter-of-factly as he noted the glow in her face, her loving smile and the fondness that reflected in her aquamarine eyes as they focused on the camera lens. He surmised that this must have been taken by none other than her lover - his other self. His eyes then moved downwards onto her hand on her still-flat stomach; he supposed that when you're living in a world in which the majority of its population had died out, you're consumed with the desire to fill it with children who will fill it one day with even more children.
He felt a hot sensation akin to jealousy lurching in his inwards. People feel jealous when they envy others for being better than they are, but did he think his other self was better than him? Absolutely not!
Jealousy can also be defined as hating someone for stealing the affections of your beloved, but did he love this girl and was jealous that she had become smitten with his other self? No; he had been inclined to risk his neck for her and the villagers back then because he thought that was the right thing to do, not because he had taken a shine to her.
Jealousy also consumes us when we covet things that others have that we don't. He eyed the expression on the girl's face and examined her body language around her lover once more. His other self was the axis around which a good girl's life revolved, and he will be provided with love and warmth when he seeks it beside him at night. On the other hand, he was surrounded with brainless fangirls who saw him as nothing but sex in a stick. Their constant fawning over him and the extent that they went at to catch his attention always made him wonder if he had not been born into the Briefs family, would they have been tempted to get close to him? If good looks did not run in the family, would he have managed to pique their interest with his personality alone?
"Wow, what a small world!" Goten commented. He then looked sideways and snickered as he whispered into his friend's ear, "just imagine it, Trunks-kun: just some time ago in another dimension, you were screwing each other like bunnies and you laid it into her!"
"Sh-Shut up!" Trunks shot out, redness coloring his cheeks at the off-color implication.
Nevertheless, Goten did not heed his friend's demand as he cooed teasingly, "Who knows, maybe after we left that day, this girl had wished upon a shooting star for you to return one day and ask for her hand in marriage!"
"I know! I know! Why don't we pit those two against each other?"
Gokuu's exuberant announcement interrupted Trunks' retort. The colored hybrid wondered as the male crowd murmured excitedly amongst themselves as they looked back and forth between him and his other self what part of the conversation he had just missed.
"Trunks, did you reach Super Saiya-jin 2?" Gokuu directed his question at their guest.
"Actually, no," Future Trunks replied, avoiding his father's gaze and the displeasure that he knew his face would darken with in reaction to this tidbit. After defeating the Androids and Cell, he did not have much incentive to train and gain new powers.
"Then this will even the stakes out!" Gokuu placed his hands on his hips, and then directed his speech at his youngest son's best friend, "what do you say, Trunks? You won't back out now, will you?"
"And who said I was gonna back out the first time?" Trunks replied heatedly, infuriated as he realized that his elder's questions to both of them stemmed from his doubt that he will put up a fight that will entertain them with his lack of training these past years.
"Man, I've never looked forward to a fight this much since the Trunks and Goten match over a decade ago!" Kuririn exclaimed, holding up his balled hands that trembled with excitement as he was ushered with the others to the Gravity Simulator Control Room.
The wind whipped at Trunks' face that darkened with recollections of last night's fight, revealing his forehead and ears as it brushed his hair back as his air car soared through the cloudy morning sky. His little sister was seated beside him with her black kitten school bag and matching lunchbox at her feet, humming softly in the silence between them as she went through his new CD purchase. Sunlight slipped through the space between the passing clouds which caused his eyes to narrow, his hands fisting around the steering wheel as his memory slideshow arrived at the moment of his defeat…
The energy to go on forsook him as his back collided ungracefully with the hard floor of the Gravity Simulator, his hair losing its golden color and spiky texture as it went back to lavender that draped over his scalp. Though that the Saiya-jin blood that coursed within him will never incline him to back down from a fight, no matter what the odds against him were, he had feared this outcome all along; after all, the last time that his other self fought was months ago, in a major battle that decided the fate of humanity from which he had emerged victorious. However, in his case, the last time that he fought was a decade ago against the leftovers of the army of some alien lizard, and his sloppy performance made the veins in his father's forehead visible with the look in his eyes screaming murder at him.
As he panted for breath, his ears picked up the sound of approaching footsteps. He looked up and saw through the curtain of hair that covered his eyes his opponent that crouched before him, his hand, palm outwards, stretching down in a silent invitation to lift him up. Trunks gritted his teeth, filled with the urge to smack that hand away, but ended up plastering a smile on his face, not wanting to appear like a sore loser as he accepted it. A sensation akin to bugs' crawling traveled up his arm as their hands entwined and squeezed into the other as he pulled him to his feet.
"You fought well," he forced out, sounding with his acting skills impressively casual.
"You too."
His doppelganger returned politely, as though humoring him, and Trunks contained a grimace. No, he had not fought well. The whole thing felt more like a dodging game from his part, and even in the rare occasions when he got an opening, his opponent would evade with ease, take advantage of his mediocre aiming and dull reflexes and punch or kick him to kingdom come. However, the pain that poked at every side of his body and his injured pride could not compare to the look that his father greeted them with as they rejoined the crowd. As soon as his father turned away from the victor, at whom he had smiled, the expression on his face darkened, making Trunks feel as though he had shrunk to minuscule size as he glared daggers at him.
Scowling as she concluded for the hundredth time since she started riding to school with him that her brother's tastes in music contrasted with her own, Bra shoved the CDs back into the drawer with a loud clatter. Instead of turning on the radio in hope she will come across one of her recent favorite songs like she always did, she turned to her brother, ending the silence that dragged on between them since they had left, "Trunks... Do you hate him?"
Trunks did not need to ask that by 'him' his sister was referring to his other self. He chuckled with his eyes fixed on the cloudy sky ahead of them, "what gave you the idea?"
"Well, at the party yesterday you didn't join in the conversation and remained at a distance the entire time. I even overheard some of the guests mentioning it." She then added, chidingly, "There were times when his eyes kept following you, as though wanting to make conversation, but the way you kept avoiding him didn't give him much of a chance."
Trunks frowned, and then responded, sounding casual, "He didn't wrong me in any way, did he? So why would I hate him? It's just that it feels a bit eerie being around him."
No, a part of him actually detested him for being a better fighter and for their father's acknowledgement of it. He detested him for monopolizing everyone's attention whenever they were in the same room. He detested him for getting together with a girl who loved him for who he was, without being lured in prior by the sparkle that surrounded him being the heir to the world's biggest conglomerate. He detested him for seemingly being a better person, and overall, he detested him for being one step ahead of him in everything imaginable. However, since he would never admit it openly and did not want to look like an ass through his adoring sister's eyes, he played the role of the misunderstood.
Bra fell silent, scrunching her nose as she put herself in her brother's shoes as she imagined how that must feel like. After all, she too had been crept out at the beginning by the uncanny similarity between them.
"So, what were you two talking about over breakfast before we left?" He had actually cooped himself up in his room until the usual time of their departure earlier this morning to avoid interacting with his other self around the breakfast table. He had made an excuse that he was finishing up an assignment and would grab something to eat on the way.
"He said he will propose to his girlfriend!" Bra beamed, "he and mom had made plans to meet at her lunch break; he'll be heading back tomorrow and she couldn't take another day off, so she wanted to spend more time with him. I bet she'll pass him off as you if someone she knows ran into them!"
"How nice!" Trunks forced a smile at the last part. He then heard the sound of clapping from beside him as his sister exclaimed excitedly, "Mom and I also made plans to go shopping after school for a wedding gift, but we gotta make sure it won't take too much space in the Time Machine!"
As he noted the fondness that rang in her voice towards the other him, Trunks kept the sarcasm off his following comment, "You two seem to have hit it off!"
"Well, it makes me sad knowing that you had grown up in another dimension without having dad and me around; mom in that world gotta be sad too." Her tone then turned from solemn to elated, "but you know, it makes me glad knowing that despite of that, you grew up to be the same Trunks that I know and love. I'm so proud of you!"
Trunks took his eyes off the sky to look down at his sister who continued to smile at him with her ponytail waving like a banner in the wind that rushed past them. Despite the many different personality traits that set him and his doppelganger apart, they were still regarded as the same person through the eyes of their only sister. The way that this ten year old perceived his other self's circumstances also made him feel a bit embarrassed at his immaturity and self-centeredness.
Unlike him who had spent the first eighteen years of his life taking the things that he had been blessed with for granted and worrying about trivial things, his other self's everyday life was a battle for survival in a seemingly endless nightmare. While he was concerned about when the next game in his favorite Giant Robot series will come out, he was in another dimension overwhelmed by all the unanswered questions about the father that he had never known. While he was planning where next to sneak into with Goten and pouring his energy into forging IDs that will get them past the security guards, his other self was desperate to keep those around him alive. And while he was in his late teens concerned about losing his virginity before graduating high school and ending all the rumors about him being gay for Goten, his other self was fighting a losing battle all by himself and shouldering the fate of the two dimensions.
His heart sank as his thoughts then drifted to his mother in the other dimension. How she must have felt after receiving the news of his father's death and all the others that followed? What horrors had haunted her as she prayed and waited for her son's safe return from his daily clash with death?
Bra became bewildered by her brother's prolonged silence. As he returned his eyes to the horizon that now unveiled her school in the distance, a smile lit his profile, and with his sight still glued to the sky before him, he stretched one hand to stroke her hair, causing redness to dust her cheeks.
"I'm lucky to have such an adorable, caring sister!"
They descended in front of the school amidst the chirping of the kids who poured in. Bra's friends were chatting by the gates, apparently waiting for her arrival before heading in, and a girl with cropped, black hair and oval eyes that she had inherited from her mother was distracted from the conversation upon their sight.
"Bra-chan, Trunks-san!"
As Pan waved at them, catching the attention of the others who immediately imitated her, Trunks met them with a two-finger salute. As the door clicked closed behind his sister, he took off into the sky.
"I'm home!" Trunks' announcement echoed in the empty foyer, the entrance door that he pushed closed with the tip of his boot blocked the afternoon light that momentarily colored the marble tiles golden. With his textbooks and note books pressed against his midsection and one arm laden with references that he had borrowed from the library, he carefully made his way to the living room, from which emanated what sounded like the TV news report.
Upon his entrance, he smiled as he spotted the back of his father's flame-like hair from the nearest couch, with his muscular arm draped over the backrest. He opened his mouth to salute him, but clamped it shut as he took notice of his other self sitting on a nearby armchair, the remote control clutched in his hand on the armrest. As his habit of not lingering wherever he was at kicked in as one foot retreated a step, he scowled at his spinelessness, and the library books threatened to tip over as he marched in and took the seat opposite him, his mind screaming territorially that that was his house!
"Well, we're heading out!"
The three Saiya-jin males turned towards the entrance of the living room to see Bulma, who had changed from her business suit to casual attire, her designer purse that dangled from her shoulder implied that she was going shopping. Bra who had emerged beside her was out of her school uniform and looked almost like an antique doll with her velvet dress, matching shoes and lacy socks - all what she lacked was a bonnet. Four sets of blue eyes then followed the father as he wordlessly got up and disappeared through the sliding door that led to the front yard to resume his afternoon training session. The mother then looked from her heir to his ponytail replica and stated before walking out, "get along, you two!"
As the clicking of her heels faded into the distance, a silence that even drowned the voice of the news reporter in their ears loomed over the two that remained. Trunks caught his doppelganger casting a glance at him out of the corner of his eyes before focusing back on what the man behind the screen was saying. Trunks supposed that when being in an alternate world, one of the first things to be curious about was what its inhabitants were passing their days doing while their other lives on the other side of the dimensional rift were struggling to rebuild their homes from the rabble. And as he listened in, Trunks wondered if his other self did not want to roll his eyes at how the people of this dimension were immersed in frivolities such as beauty pageants, joke of martial arts tournaments and trends that no sane person will catch himself following.
The newsbreak shifted to a reality show, and seemingly, after quenching his curiosity what the premise of such program was about, the other occupant of the room got off. Trunks' speculation was that he was going to join their father in the Gravity Simulator, but instead of the screech of the sliding door, the click of rubber detaching from a fridge door parting open followed. Next, a can of beer hovered in front of his face.
"Uh… thanks," Trunks muttered as he accepted it. The popping sound of their cans that they opened simultaneously followed as Future Trunks returned to his seat and began surfing between the channels. As tension built up in the silence that dragged on between them, Trunks picked up the topmost library book to occupy himself. And as he was beginning to get absorbed in the author's biography, Future Trunks' apologetic exclamation cut through the silence like a knife, making him look up from his book with a start.
"I'm sorry, are you studying?"
The voices and music of the TV subsequently vanished as the speaker hurriedly switched it off. As their identical cat-like blue eyes met for the first time today, Trunks blinked, struggling in the midst of his awkwardness to formulate a response. He smiled, clarifying, "No. These are references that I borrowed from the library for my thesis!" He held up the book in his hand in emphasis.
The flustered look on the man sitting across from him turned into that of geniality, as though glad that the ice wall that stood between them was finally melting. Future Trunks then asked, as he maintained his taking the initiative to establish communication between them, "so, how's school? Me and everyone around my age in my world didn't get to go to one, due to the constant threat of the Androids. I was actually taught at home by mom and Gohan-san."
"It's quite eerie hearing him speak," Trunks thought, looking at the man seated opposite him silently, "it's like hearing my own voice echoing back with different words." He then contemplated his answer; if it were him, he would be offended if he found out that details had been altered or withheld from him out of pity, so he answered frankly, "I was cutting class all the time and was a member of the go-home-club, so there isn't that much to say. The only reason why I didn't skip any grades and become one of the youngest college graduates in history was because Goten will be too bored and helpless without me!"
"That sounds just like mom!" Future Trunks chuckled. "She told me a lot of stories how she used to skip school all the time to go on adventures with Gokuu-san and the others." He then asked, "So, are you seeing someone?"
Trunks averted his eyes. Since the subject of school life usually branched off to interrogations and reminiscing about love and past crushes, he was kind of expecting this to come up. He shrugged, "I dated a girl back in high school, but it didn't last long. As for now, college assignments, coupled with interning at the company leave me with no time for girls."
His mind then went back four years and memories of the only relationship that he ever had resurfaced. It all started when Goten was caught by student council members having sex in the Gym storeroom after school. The president blackmailed him that she would not report it to the headmaster if he set her up on a date with Trunks Briefs. And Goten, who at that time feared nothing more than the prospect of being castrated if his mother got a wind of the real reason why he had been suspended from school, had no choice but to start nagging him to go on this blind date.
At first, Trunks refused vehemently, citing that going out with someone he did not know on a personal level will make him feel awkward and it will only make him appear desperate to hook up with a girl. But eventually, Goten had managed to convince him that this girl was in no way affiliated with the fangirls who kept bugging him and that she was a sophisticated young lady with a good head on her shoulders. It quite surprised him that it turned out to be none other than the school's Ice Queen, who was also nicknamed by the female side as 'Queen Bitch'. She had always been extremely nice to him and Goten despite their mischief record, though; he didn't know it was because she did not want to leave a bad impression of herself on him.
During dinner, to his surprise, she captivated him with her charm, sexiness and how cultured she was; couple that with how she, while batting her eyelashes, kept throwing hints that she wanted to do more than dining with him, he ended up finding himself disheveled and sweaty in a Love Hotel later that evening. They were a happy couple at the beginning, with him thinking that she was not as bad as everyone made her out to be and that she was just a stickler for rules who took her position way too seriously. At that time, driven by his developing fondness towards her, he was determined to teach her that it was not wrong to let loose and turn a blind eye sometimes.
After a month or so, it caught his attention how his fangirls were subjected to accidents that ranged from being bullied, having their possessions and properties vandalized, receiving threats and even being driven to transfer out of school. It eventually caught his ear that his girlfriend, who was being driven by her jealousy and possessiveness of him, was the one behind it all. Sure, those girls were shallow and annoying, but he could not live with that they were being persecuted because of him, so he had confronted her, and it evolved to a big fight that ended in him dumping her. It was after that that he had learned from Goten about the deal that she had struck with him.
In the next day, and in her vile way to get back at him, she spread rumors that Trunks Briefs had lost his virginity to her and that he was pretty lousy in bed. While the boys' side who were already fed up with how all the girls were obsessing over him had relished on this tidbit, the girls didn't budge. On the contrary, they joined efforts to make anti-president sites and declared that they would be honored to teach him the ropes!
Trunks shut the book in his hand and placed it back on the tower of books on the coffee table. He looked crestfallen as he was tempted to ask, "so, how's mom doing there?"
Future Trunks understood by his melancholic tone that he was inquiring about his own mother. He smiled proudly, "mom is a lot stronger than anyone of you could imagine. She isn't much of a fighter, but the peace that dawned upon the two worlds after the Androids and Cell was actually the product of the hope that kept her going all those years." He then recalled the happiness that she had concealed as she had been proven wrong about his father as he told her the story of how he had rushed at Cell after he had fallen. He then thought, "I want mom to spend the rest of her life without a single worry, surrounded by her grandchildren!"
Trunks reflected the smile on the man sitting opposite him. He then imitated his father's earlier sitting position, as he placed one hand over the back rest, finally feeling talkative as he asked, "so, what was the reason for specifically traveling to this year to deliver the news instead of going back twenty years like you did after defeating the Androids?"
"Actually, I was curious what I could be doing at this exact moment and what kind of person I'll grow up into in a peaceful world where everyone had survived."
"And what impression did I leave on you?" Trunks questioned insinuatingly, "I bet it was that of a standoffish, spoiled rich brat, or so the way I've been acting like till a moment ago!"
"Actually, you kind of reminded me of father, or at least, your body language and the air that you carry around you is similar to his," Future Trunks chuckled. "Father isn't the type that takes to people easily, and it took him a while to finally accept me back then. I assumed that since you had him as a role model while growing up, it might take you just as long!"
As he continued smiling silently at him, Trunks felt guilt nipping at his heart. According to the stories that The Cell Games topic brought up about this man, and unlike his father (and him) who liked to flaunt their powers and play around with their enemies before finishing them off, he was decisive and did not like to waste time in battle. However, in contrast to the ruthlessness that he would show to his enemies, he was magnanimous and always believed in the good in those around him.
"I'm also glad to see that that everyone is doing well after all those years." Future Trunks smiled fondly, "it turns out I have a little sister and an uncle, Gokuu-san is alive, and Gohan-san is happily married and had fulfilled his mother's wish and became a scholar in this world!"
"If you'd like, we'll contact Uncle Tarble to come and meet you the next date you visit." Trunks suggested.
"That would be great!" Future Trunks accepted. He had heard about his uncle from his mother over lunch today, and that he was the exact opposite of his father in every possible way. She also told him that he and his aunt-in-law, Gure, had made it their habit to stay over for the entirety of the holiday season to celebrate with the entire family.
"By that time, I'll make it really hard for you to get a hit at me," Trunks smirked, "let us go at it one more time!"
Future Trunks nodded as he smirked back, both feeling their Saiya-jin blood surging at the challenge. From that moment on, they were going to be rivals for life.
The sky outside turned to a fiery golden color, the cawing crows that flew into the sun that now neared the horizon heralded the approaching dusk. Trunks turned from the view through the window to his doppelganger as something occurred to him, "Goten and I will meet up this evening and go hang out in Satan City, why don't you come?"
"But what if someone you know saw us together, how would you explain it?" Future Trunks reminded, though tempted by the idea of hanging out for the first time in his life with men his age.
"No problem," Trunks reassured as he got up, stuffed his hands in his pockets and motioned with his head for him to follow, "I'll just tell them that you're my cousin on my father's side of the family and that all the males in the family look more or less alike!"
Future Trunks got up and walked with his other self to his air car. While he would never trade the life in which he had known the Gohan-san who had died to protect him and the amazing mother who had solely raised him while silently enduring her pain of loss, he had always wondered about what kind of influence his father will have on him had he lived.
It quite uplifted him that despite all of his father's pride and obstinacy that had rubbed off on him in this world, he still inherited his mother's compassion. It quite relieved him to see that over the years, his father had turned from a cold and remorseless man, solely driven by his ambitions, to someone whose family meant everything to him, or so indicated the stories that his mother had told him. His little sister who had her father wrapped around her little finger and whose personality was a perfect blend of that of her parents was the living proof of this change.
He was glad he had made this trip to witness it all with his own eyes!