Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or its characters.
Warning: I underline words I think would be stronger language because I don't use strong language in my stories. There are hints of sap (but not really that much) and possibly a little OOC, depending on how you read the show. I would call it a little bit OOC, but not a whole lot. Also, this follows on the same timeline as "To Make You Proud". Some of what's mentioned in this may make more sense if you've read the other one, which takes place when Trunks is 11. Trunks is 15 in this story.
Like Father, Unlike Son
Vegeta paced around the gravity room muttering. He'd trained hard, as usual, over the past several years, but it was starting to really eat at him that Trunks was so infrequently in there now. In general he didn't want to force his son to do what he didn't want to do, but what sayain didn't want to fight? Trunks had been different since that time Vegeta had yelled at him when he was 12. He'd trained less and less since then. Now it had been several months since Trunks had been following any schedule at all.
At first Vegeta let it slide because he was gone so often for long periods he thought perhaps he'd just missed his son's sessions. But after awhile it was became more and more apparent that Trunks wasn't getting any stronger. In fact, he was getting weaker. Basics were basics and he knew those, of course, but in brute strength Trunks was back-sliding.
Trunks was turning into a lazy weakling, obsessed with having fun. He spent most of his time playing video games or going to the amusement park. Once in awhile he would have Goten over and heaven only knew what they did. It wasn't train. Vegeta knew that much. They hadn't spared in his presence since they were young boys. Now they were teenagers and developing an attitude. That was something Vegeta wasn't going to stand for either. Trunks would be respectful and that was final.
Vegeta growled, clenching his fists. He wasn't much for talking, but this was getting ridiculous. If Trunks wanted to behave like a little child, Vegeta would treat him like one. He'd put him back on a schedule like the boy had had when he was very young and he'd make him stick to it.
Unable to concentrate, Vegeta headed out of the gravity room and up to his son's room. Just perfect. The kid had his music blasting. Vegeta didn't bother to knock. It wouldn't have been heard anyway. Instead he just burst through the door.
"Turn that junk down!" Vegeta yelled angrily.
Trunks reduced the volume a little and looked at his father with surprise. "Dad? What are you doing in here?"
"Funny, I could ask you the same question," Vegeta crossed his arms noticing his son was playing videogames on his computer.
Trunks blinked. He couldn't fully control the attitude in his tone. "It's my room, dad."
"Get downstairs," Vegeta demanded.
Trunks didn't move. "Why?"
"Because I just told you to, that's why!" Vegeta spat.
Trunks rolled his eyes and stood, openly showing his protest as he walked.
Vegeta growled and gave his son a hard knock to the head as he walked past.
"OW!" Trunks tear dropped one eye, clenching his teeth and clutching his head. "What was that for?!"
"The attitude," Vegeta responded as he walked past in his usual regal stance.
Trunks let out an indignant breath and followed, scowling. All he'd been doing was listening to music and playing games in his own room. His father was the one being all temperamental, not him! As they came closer and closer Trunks realized where they were going. At the door to the gravity room he stopped.
"Dad, I don't want to train!" Trunks protested.
"I never asked if you did," Vegeta retorted.
"Daaad!" Trunks whined.
"Get in there; you're giving me a headache!" Vegeta scowled, loosing patience.
"Aw!!" Trunks marched forward and stood just beyond the doorway with his arms crossed and his brows furrowed.
Vegeta ignored him, closing the door and going to the middle of the room. "You're too soft, now get to work."
"This sucks!" Trunks scowled.
Vegeta shot a blast straight into his stomach, knocking him to the floor. "What did I say about that attitude of yours? Can it!"
Trunks scowled further as he pushed himself up and began stretching. It was all he could do to keep from muttering. The little boy that used to look up to his father, wishing to be just like him didn't exist anymore. Now Trunks saw something entirely different. He saw a man that had spent his whole life in pursuit of something he could never achieve. Why work like that for no return? Trunks had made up his mind soon after he was 12 that he wouldn't do the same. He would enjoy his life. Training certainly wasn't enjoyable.
"Why do I have to train and not Bulla? Why don't you get her to train with you?"
Vegeta let out a breath indicating how absurd he thought the question was. "Don't be ridiculous! Bulla's just a little girl! She's welcome to train if she wants to."
"Why does she get the luxury to choose?!" Trunks was indignant
"Because that's the way it is, Trunks, and I don't want to hear another word about it!"
Vegeta began punching at invisible enemies while Trunks looked on with boredom. He didn't want to train and the more Vegeta was trying to force him, the more spiteful he became. Instead he put forth a visibly poor effort for a short while then he sat cross-legged and began playing with ki blasts—juggling them like balls.
"Trunks!" Vegeta turned. "Stop fooling around!"
Trunks glared at him. Vegeta's eyes widened. Trunks had never had the nerve to challenge him in such a way before! It was a look of fearlessness. Vegeta had always been sure his son had proper fear of him in the past. What was happening?
"Dad, I told you already. I don't want to train."
Vegeta clenched his fist, growling and angry. He let out a scream and a surge of power. "And I told you I don't care whether you want to or not!!"
Trunks eyes widened a little. He was the same height as his father now, and probably not done growing yet either, but his father was far stronger. Defying him was going to be painful.
"Now get up!" Vegeta yelled.
Trunks stood, staying calm on the outside, though his heart was pounding.
Vegeta waited. Neither of them moved. "Son, you have turned into a lazy, fun-loving, goof-off. You haven't kept up your training at all and from now on that has got to change. If you're going to act like a child, then I'm putting you back on a schedule like you had before."
Trunks eyes widened and he let out a breath of indignance.
"Every day you will get up at six and spend the first four hours of your day training. You may then go to school and report back to the gravity room for another two hours afterward. Understood?"
"No!" Trunks folded his arms and frowned. "I'm not going to do it."
Vegeta's eyes widened and hardened at the same time, his energy rising. "I'm not giving you a choice! I'm your father and I'm telling you this is what you're going to do, like it or not!"
Trunks tried to prepare himself for the pummeling he expected to get. "What's the consequence if I don't?"
Vegeta lowered his voice and glared intensely. "I'm the consequence, kid. Until you're strong enough to beat me, you'll do as I say."
"Dad, I'll never be strong enough to beat you!" Trunks began showing some of the emotion he was bottling up. "You train fourteen hours per day, every day! The only times you aren't training is when you're eating, sleeping, or off on one of those things you do! If I spent every waking moment of my life training I'd only ever stay just this far behind you!"
"Then I guess you'd better get started," Vegeta smirked, his arms crossed.
"Dad! I don't want to waste my life like you have!" Trunks spit it out, his eyes more pleading than angry.
Vegeta's eyes widened and he blinked with shock.
"All you've ever done is try to get stronger than Goku and what has it accomplished? All I've ever seen is dissatisfaction! Every time you think you've got him beat he seems to be one step ahead and you come home mad as a hornet and lock yourself away for months to train some more! Where does it end, father?"
Vegeta clenched his fists and exploded a punch to his son's stomach.
Trunks fell to his knees and doubled over, coughing a little.
"How dare you, you ungrateful little brat!" Vegeta tried hard to control himself. He felt like beating the crap out of Trunks, but at the same time he could never allow himself to hurt his own son. "How many times have I kept you from harm?! Answer me that?! You think I could have done that without training?! You're alive because of that and don't you forget it!"
Trunks coughed again and opened his eyes, looking up with a few tears on the rims, which he forced back.
"You have some nerve showing such disrespect!" Vegeta added.
"I'm sorry, father. I didn't mean disrespect," Trunks voice was quiet and his eyes down. He hated how his father made him feel. It sent him back to his childhood when his father's approval meant everything to him. He still wished for it, even now, but he'd long ago figured out that he could never fully have it.
"Get up!" Vegeta demanded.
Trunks pushed himself to his feet and stood eye to eye with his father. He was still much thinner and, obviously, not nearly so muscled. Vegeta was very intimidating and Trunks felt a feeling of defeat, yet he still had no intentions of training. He wasn't going to spend his whole life trying to gain his father's approval at the expense of living it.
"Now what is this really about, Trunks?!" Vegeta waited for his reply. "Is this all? You truly just think I've wasted my life? Or is there more?"
Trunks was surprised. His father was allowing him to speak? He didn't know what to say. His father's eyes were so scrutinizing. "I don't know… I… I just don't want to spend all my life trying to live up to your standards for me. I can't be as strong as you are; I don't even want to be."
"Is that what you think I want, Trunks; nothing more than for you to be stronger than me?"
"I don't know what I think, Dad."
"Well you haven't had a lack of words up to now, now have you?" Vegeta crossed his arms and leaned his weight onto his back foot. "Tell me, Trunks, since you're so the expert. What is it I want from you?"
Trunks blinked. His father was pushing him into a corner. Nothing he said would be correct. "…I don't know what you want from me…"
"Yes you do! You sure do think you do, so tell me what it is you think," Vegeta raised his voice.
Trunks let out a breath and his eyes darted a little. "I don't know… you want me to be stronger than Goten and Gohan? …You want me to bring honor to your name or something by beating whatever comes my way… To showcase your pride because I'm related? You want me to be strong because it'll reflect poorly on you if I'm not. That's what I think," Trunks finished.
Both were quiet for a few seconds, eyes locked on each other.
"Well that just figures," Vegeta finally spoke.
"And I'm wrong?" Trunks challenged, beginning to believe he'd hit it right on the head.
Vegeta smirked, closing his eyes, arms still crossed. "Well of course, you're wrong, Trunks."
Trunks frowned. He didn't believe him. "Well what, father? If I'm wrong, then set me straight," Trunks crossed his arms and waited.
Vegeta's eyes popped open again glaring straight through his son and Trunks lost the confidence he'd had before. "Darned right I will! Somebody has to protect this world from harm. They certainly aren't going to protect themselves! And your mother and sister… what about them? And what about you, Trunks?"
"You and Goku are here to do that, dad, you've already made that quite clear!"
Vegeta stepped back smirking with his eyes closed once again. "Foolish child! We won't be around forever. One day we too will grow old, if we aren't killed first. What then?"
Trunks took in a breath. He understood his father's point, but he didn't agree with it. Besides there was still another he would never be stronger than anyway. "Gohan's strong dad, he'll defend the world."
"Where's your pride, Trunks?!" Vegeta scowled.
"Beating bad guys isn't the only thing that gives me pride, dad!" Trunks shot back. "And you're the one that told me I wasn't strong enough to come along when you fought bad guys anyway!"
"You were a child, Trunks!" Vegeta shouted with indignance. "You were meant to continue your training so you could get to a level advanced enough to hold your own! You need to be able to defend yourself before you can come along, but instead you've just given up trying! I'm not always going to be around to look after you, and I'm not going to hear of your death!" Vegeta let out a scream, powering up once more. "I've witnessed your death twice, Trunks, and I am not going to do it again!" Vegeta's muscles and face began to twitch.
Trunks eyes widened as he watched. His father rarely got so emotional, especially in front of him. He didn't know what to say… wait, had his father just said twice? He'd died twice? He could only remember dying once.
Vegeta drew in several breaths, trying to calm himself from the memories that were flooding through his mind, and refocus on the present.
Trunks couldn't get his mind around the thought of having died twice and finally he worked up the nerve to ask. "Did you just say I died twice?"
Vegeta's eyes widened a little with realization. He'd never discussed the past with his son, nor had he ever intended to. Everything Trunks knew aside from his own memory was things his mother or the Son family had disclosed.
"I don't remember dying twice. Was I a baby or something?" Trunks blinked, still confused.
"It's not important!" Vegeta clenched his teeth.
Suddenly Trunks' eyes widened with a thought, "Oh, was it him?! Gohan told me all about cell and that I came from the future, only… can you really say that was me? I mean, it was me, but it couldn't have been me, me because I was already alive and a baby and everything, right? So… hmm, that's sure confusing isn't it?" Trunks put a hand behind his head and sweat-dropped, a little enthralled with the oddness of the situation.
"I don't want to discuss it!" Vegeta couldn't stand this conversation.
"Sorry," Trunks looked down. It was obviously far more emotional for his father than he would have guessed.
"I want you to train, Trunks, so that you can keep yourself and everyone else from harm," he finished. "That's the truth."
Again they both stared at each other, this time less harsh, though only those that knew Vegeta would have noticed it in his eyes.
"Dad, I'll always do my best in defending others when the need arises, I promise," Trunks voice was low. He knew his father wouldn't accept that answer.
"It's not enough. If you don't train during times of peace, you won't have the strength when you really need it."
"Well…," Trunks looked away. "I don't know what to say."
"Then don't expect me to defend you in all your battles. If you won't train here, then you'll train on real enemies."
Trunks eyes widened a little with hurt and surprise. "…You'll just leave me to die if I'm in trouble?"
"I didn't say that!" Vegeta's eyes flashed with anger. "Of course I'd never just let you die! What I said is I'll let you fight your own battles! If you don't want to learn here at home, in a controlled environment, then you can just learn the hard way, which will be much more painful, but you'll certainly grow. You'll probably get pummeled within an inch of your life, but if that's what you really want, so be it."
"Fine, I understand," Trunks only continued looking at his father.
"Get out of here," Vegeta was tired of fighting. His son had won, for now. He was clearly still a child inside and didn't comprehend such responsibility. Vegeta would have to just keep him from serious harm awhile longer. Until he could grow up some more and accept what he needed to become.
Trunks hesitated. "Dad?"
"Go," Vegeta repeated, waiting until his son was at the door to speak again. "Trunks."
Trunks turned.
"This isn't over," he waited a few seconds. "As long as you're alive I'll fight to keep you that way. If you get too soft for me to bear I will make you train. Consider this fair warning."
Trunks nodded nervously before leaving.
THE END
A/N: Other stories that follow on this timeline (I really should say event-line) are "To Make You Proud", "Flight Lessons for Bulla", and "Daylight". ("Flight Lessons for Bulla" is more of a stand-alone brother/sister moment though; not of much importance to the on-going father/son battle in this and the other two stories.)