Title: My Sunshine
Anime/Manga: Dragonball Z
Cannons: Gohan and Goten
Type: One Shot/Fluffy/Comfort/Hurt
Theme: Bounding of Brothers
Words: 2193
Rating: K+
Summary: A simple nightmare brings two brothers into a moment of bounding.
Again it came, that same damn dream that haunted the black hair youth as his eyes darted under lids as if watching something no once could see. Such sinful laughter as a voice taunted him over and over of what events had conversed nearly Seven years ago almost to the date. Such a twist smile on pale lips as frozen cobalt eyes in the figure of the dream stripped away the true sins of the youth for the moment.
"You killed him Gohan, it is all your fault like so many other deaths huh?" The voice was cold and foreign but sharp as any knife edge as the youth in the dream lay chained down to the earth. "Far to late to save your father boy?"
Trembling for the moment, he pulled at the chains, feeling cut into his skins and making crimson rivers to fall. "Noooo! It's not my fault!"
Such anguish from the boy as he pulled more on the chains as the cold eye tyrant only laughed harder if finding the boys demises something of a humorless joke. "Oh but you did! Far too weak to save one simple life, only thing you could do was watch huh? Gohaannn?"
He only pulled harder at the chains, growling at the monster with fangs flashing in how sickly sweet this man made creature had said his name. Drawing out each latter over his lips and fangs in almost purring manner. Watching in narrow onyx eyes that flashed a heart beat to blue in his captive rage. "Cell!"
Cell was the name of this monster that had taken away the one person Gohan had come to love and admired above all else. Ever watching as the monster only laughed for the moment in his taunts of the boy. Yet the screen was none to real but only a dream in the youth's mind but it was real enough to him. Always the same repeat of dreams like this, his guilt open and raw on his soul in his one mistake he carried alone.
Sending his father to death, watching as the true hero of earth had taken the burden to sacrifice himself to save the world and his only son.
Over and over in his dreams did Gohan relive those few moments as his father Goku gave his son one last deep smile, yet sparkling in undoubting love and understanding to his only son at the time. Feeling the guilt of knowing what he has done plagued the hybrid every night from that moment on.
Yes he had killed Cell but the monster had reformed in his mind as a manifesto of his guilt and anger over the death of his father, always taunting with the blunt truth of his madness. Maybe Gohan was slowly going mad?
"Oh was that my name Gohan? You sure sounded angry with me but in truth, its all your fault and you refuse to give in. Just like you don't give in when you needed when you had to kill me and who did it? Your father, you failed as daddy's little boy?" He taunted, smiling murkily all the more as the boy was hit by the words. "You failed as not only a fighter but also a son! Now that's the main joke! You're a false Son Gohan!"
Gohan for the moment felt his face twist from anger to sadness to nothing but a undisputable rage of the made up machines words. Pulling all the more in the chains but they sank into the ground to pull the teenager to his hands and knees like some animal as he growled like a madden dog. Tears started to pool in his onyx eyes in also expecting Cell was maybe right.
"Now that's a good look for you Gohan, acting like a beast and now on all fours just like one. Stay like that for now on. "Cell smiled, showing off a bit of his fangs, "So you can watch me once more take something you love."
What else could Cell take from him? Gohan shook his head in misery as a single small voice broke his mind.
"GOHAN!"
It was a child' voice full of pure fear and need, crying out in pain for help of any kind. Voices that from day one of hearing him cry kept the young fighter alive and waking up day to day.
"GOTEN!"
Cell held his little brother by his tail, as the cub struggled with tear stain cheeks and reached out for his big brother "Gohan save me!"
Gohan only felt and animalist need to save his brother hit his nerves and flood his very body for the moment. Trying to gather his feet under him all the more to get free of these bounds of his own making and forging.
Yet no matter what, the boy watched in a panic as Cell only smirked and point his finger at the temple of the battered boy. A lethal red light forming at the end and dead eyes taking in the joy of the pain he was about to unleash once more. Letting it build as glowed on the pale skin and reflected in the onyx eyes of Goten.
"Say good bye big brother." He said, smiling as he unleashed the ki right into the head of the little boy and blood sluing out.
"GOTEN!"
Eyes shot open, as he shoot up for the moment, his cloths socked by his sweat as his eyes darted madden around the room clocked in nighttime. Hands had ripped into his sheets once more from the power of the youth as long shallow breathes filled the void of the space. Bangs clung on his forehead as the sweat dripped down his brow and to his cheek to fall in straining the sheet for a moment.
Had it been a dream again? How many had it been this week in which he woke crying out in seeing his little brother dye by the hands of Cell? Palms coming to bury his face for the moments in feeling the tears of guilt enter under closed eye lids.
"Why Goten? Is it due to he looks so much like dad?" Inners thoughts reflected as he took longs breathe to measure down his heart and blood pumping in his veins.
All he could do was shake from the image of his little brother, covered in blood from a hole dripping on the side of his head. Shaking a moment and trying to re-center his mind from the blasted nightmare that had come in every night of his life for the past 7 years. His body moved on its own in coming to stand and leaving the bedroom to walk down the hallway and look into his little brother's room.
Snuggled deep into a black blanket with dragons on it, only a tuff of black spikes spoofed from the sheets. Faint sounds of snoring filled in the void as his ki was peaceful like always for the child of Son Goku. Gohan himself walked into the room for a moment and let his brother's scent come as a comfort to him that it had been a dream.
Smiling down at the little boy, he let his body sit on the end of the bed to lightly reach out and touch the mass of black spikes a moment. Gohan had been there from Goten's first cry into the world to his latest trip to the doctor for a check up. He had been both teacher and father to the boy from learning his mother was carrying Goku's newest offspring. Giving up much of his own youthful days to play baby sitter and watching Goten learn to sit up and to walk and to even his very first word. Above all else, Gohan had come to live and breathe only for Goten in his life. He was like a ray of sunshine that made the hybrid wake up in the morning.
"Gohan?" A sleepy voice broke his thoughts as the blankets pulled down and drowsy eyes blinked in seeing his brother on his bed. "You ok?"
His features soften more in feeling a slight guilt in waking the boy, but he had to see him to make sure he was ok. "Yah sunshine I am, just checking up on you."
Goten smiled in hearing his nick name affectionate fall from the lips of his big brother. "Ok…."
Gohan lingered a few more moments in watching his little brother seemed to think a instant then got up and crawled over to Gohan a moment. With out even asking he stood up and came to capture the teenager in a hug and squeezed him a bit to bury his face into the crack of his shoulder and neck. He sensed something was wrong or had upset his brother some how and he needed him!
Blinking a moment, Gohan could only lightly place his left arm around the diminutive body to bring him closer and snuggled into the scent of innocent that was all Goten. Did he know? Could he sense something had upset the once hero of earth? Goten had always been better then anyone in reading the untold signs of his brother.
"What's wrong Gohan?" Goten asked, cuddling more into the warmth of the boy. "You have a bad dream again?"
Thus once more the little hybrid caught the man off his rocker in seeing something untold he did not share with anyone. Many might think Goten was simple sometimes in how he saw and acted but in truth it was just pure naivety.
"Ya kinda sunshine, nothing to worry about to much bro." Gohan whispered a moment, glad of the pure ki of his brother to drive away the images of the nightmare.
Goten frowned a moment in sensing his brother's ki and still felt the edges of hurting and something he had yet to name. He knew Gohan had bad dreams but Mama did not, often seeing his brother checking up on every time and sometimes more then once. So what could he do?
"Want to sleep with me tonight? I'll protect you!" Goten said, pulling away with a bright smile even the darkness could not hide.
Goten protect him? Somehow it was just to innocence to hear from the boy that Gohan had to laugh a bit in the concept yet Goten did protect him. He kept the young man going and living more then anything, he had come to protect his very soul in many ways.
"Sure Goten, I'll sleep with you tonight but just tonight ok? Also how did you know I have been having dreams sunshine?" Gohan asked, his eyes narrowing a bit in the darkness.
The juvenile saiyan thought for a moment as his tail twitched in inner thoughts, "Sometimes your crying in your sleep and whining and saying Dad and Cell and its my fault. You also thrash a lot when you sleep and make a fist, so it has to be a bad dream right?"
Blinking a bit, it was quit the list for Goten to list but it was all a bit to true for Gohan in his liking. "Ok sunshine, but don't tell mom ok?"
"Ok Gohan!" He said, smiling but also yawning at the same time.
All Gohan could say about his brother that he was a endless wander everyday. Somehow Goten threw always for a loop in how the little boy was growing up. Was this what normal was for a childhood? Only could Gohan daydream of such a concept for his own lost days.
Watching a moment, the miniature boy once more cuddle into his blankets and shoved over to make room for his big brother and let his own head hit the pillow and moments dreams enclosed his mind. While Gohan took in the moment with a fatherly smile at seeing the younger boy just expect things and slip into peaceful dreams. Moving his body, he laid down to feel the smaller heat of his brother against his back and closed his eyes.
For the first time in seven years, no dreams or nightmares came to the young man's mind but only the peaceful bliss of his brother snoring filling his ears.