Disclaimer: I definitely do NOT own Dragonball Z.

"Boy, show your mother what you showed me." Vegeta said with his arms folded.

"I thought we were going to the park-"

"Just show her quickly and then get dressed!" He huffed.

"Fine." The eight-year-old raised both of his fists, and in a flash his hair began to glow and his pupils turned teal. The boy's mother nearly fell over from the explosion of golden light.

"Super Saiyan." Bulma finally breathed, "But how? Did something happen to him?" She shot an accusatory look at her husband. Ordinarily, a Saiyan reached this legendary state only after extreme emotional strain. At least, this was true of her husband and her old friend Goku. As far as she knew, there were no other Saiyans that could prove otherwise.

"He simply did it. There is no telling how or when he got this ability. I questioned the boy myself."

"Can I go get ready now?"

His parents nodded.

The boy levitated for a moment and zoomed through his house, scattering anything beneath his path with a gust of wind.

"Power down, Trunks, before you break something!" She called uselessly. The boy was already upstairs before she had even started to speak. She sighed, but a wide smile remained on her face. When she turned to Vegeta, though, it faded slightly.

"Call me crazy, but you don't seem as happy about this as you should be."

"You're crazy."

"No, really." She insisted. She then lowered her voice, knowing she was treading on dangerous territory. "Is it because it came so easily to him?"

He flinched and was about to walk off, not wanting to discuss his own shortcomings or feelings with anyone. Especially something as foolish as "not being happy enough." Obviously he was proud of the boy. Why else would he show her the transformation?

"Maybe he picked it up from you." She remarked as he simmered.

"What?"

Bulma tapped her pointer finger at the edge of her jaw and tipped her head to the side, as she usually did when tackling a problem.

"I don't know about Saiyan kids, but human kids tend to learn things faster at a young age, usually through intense observation." She looked up at him before continuing, "Since you're always walking around here and training as a Super Saiyan, maybe he was able to pick up on it?"

"And you suppose the same is true for Kakarot's second brat?"

"Goten can transform too? My gosh." She remarked softly. Still, she tried to defend her theory.

"Well…he's always over here, and with Trunks. Maybe they learned it together from watching you. It's probably a subconscious thing, like when kids learn to talk. Maybe growing up with a Super Saiyan around is the answer?"

Vegeta doubted any of this was true, especially the part about the kids learning the transformation because of their human traits. He stated as much and added, "The boy from the future-our future son- was only able to transform after watching Kakarot's first son die in that timeline."

"I didn't know that."

Vegeta had heard the story from the boy during one of the rare moments they took breaks from training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Vegeta asked Future Trunks about his transformation for practical reasons, and wound up with an emotional story. Vegeta shook his head. These Earth fighters constantly linked love and compassion to the battlefield. They all claimed it made them stronger, but he did not want to understand that.

"Kakarot's boy trained as a Super Saiyan in that timeline as well, and he had helped raise Trunks. Trunks would have had ample opportunity to observe the legendary state. What then is the difference between the future version and ours?"

"It was just a theory. Jeez, I don't have all the answers." Bulma shrugged. "Like I said, Trunks and Goten today have been around your Super Saiyan self almost daily since they were little. Maybe Gohan in that timeline didn't do it as much?"

Vegeta was about to argue further until Trunks finally made it down the stairs, still with blond, spiky hair.

"I told you to turn that off, Trunks." His mother said warily.

"See…here's the thing…I'm not really sure how I changed back the first time." He was still trembling with excitement at the prospect of going to the park with his father. He could count on one hand the number of times Vegeta wanted to do anything with him aside from training.

"Calm down." His father said.

"I can't, I wanna go to the park!"

"You can return to normal if you calm down." His father clarified.

"Oh." Trunks took several deep breaths, and after a few moments the gold streaks in his hair returned to lavender.

"The boy still lets his emotions run him." Vegeta muttered as he watched his son fly out the front door.

But maybe that was part of it. Maybe something about these humans' obsession with sentiment explained why they could reach these extremes. He had been told that Kakarot, like Future Trunks, ascended over the loss of a friend. Vegeta himself ascended due to his own despair. But this child had known no such struggle. Could it be that simply being half-human made the boy more equipped for ascension through human softness? Or was it because Trunks was a child absorbing information like a sponge? Vegeta frowned.

Or maybe there simply was no rational explanation for why these children could transform.