Lil' something's and loads of nothing's
"My Dad Is The Bestest Coolest Dad There Ever Was And Don't You Forget It"
- Trunks
II
Flip…flip…flip…
He had never experienced something more irritating in his life…
Flip…flip…flip…
It just wouldn't stop. And at the rate this was going he would be blind soon enough…blinded by black inky drops that were sliding down…
Snip…
Oh…this was it! He'd messed up now…maybe it wasn't such a good idea…maybe it was because the color was to bright…it might have been bearable if it was something else…but no…it had to be such a horrendous hue!!!
---
Trunks took an exaggerated step back to get a closer at his looming reflection in the single rimmed mirror of his kiddy bathroom, balancing atop the closed toilet seat so he could get a clearer and more visible view of his head, and nearly slipped to his impending doom of a crash on the bathroom floor. It wasn't because he was clumsy or something as far-fetched as that he had convinced himself, only that he was finding it a tad bit difficult to function around in the cramped up bathroom, what, with the black goop trailing all over his face, getting into his eyes, stinging them. He'd wash it off but that would render his little experiment pointless as it was crucial he saw what results he'd achieved.
"They should make bathrooms more open…what moron decided on making it so…cramped!" he muttered out loud to no one in particular as he put his arms forward to balance on the sink basin, his legs extended back to the toilet seat still, sweat beginning to dot his forehead, mixing in with the inky consistency.
If his Dad found him at this moment, god forbid, he'd bring the house down, not to mention, the rest of the planet along with him, and maybe even take a few galaxies for a ride to. But if his mother found him…it would be even worse…that was no secret…she was the real threat held in the household and only her husband and son knew exactly how dangerous she could be if swayed in the wrong direction.
Of course, he couldn't complain since he'd seen how his best friend's mom got all riled up and made him wince to think of what TORTURE Goten must go through sometimes, what, with all that math he got piled up on his plate and not to mention, the frying pan. Goten never even did much, nothing like what he was doing at that moment, and yet he got into so many scraps he was nearly always getting punished for doing something or the other, normally something he led Goten into doing.
Suddenly, a worrying thought crossed Trunks mind and nearly made him topple forward so he had to tighten his grip on the basin. Goten got punished for little stunts so how badly would HE get grounded for doing what he was? This stunt had hit an all time blow of all the awful and terrible tings he'd done so far in his life span of a decade, a born trouble maker. This was something even his somewhat lenient mother would not be able to ignore and she would really blow a casket if she saw the damage he's created, possibly making ChiChi look tame in the face of delinquent children running wild.
'Can't back down now Trunks…too late'
Because backing down was a weak and spineless thing to do in the words of his Dad and according to Trunks, his Dad's word was law and that was that. Pointblank. End of story. Full stop. Period.
His Dad always said, if you've started something, no matter what, whether the cards dealt to you are for better or for worse, you went with them, and finished whatever you started, no matter how bad the consequences. The ends always justified the means was also something else his Dad kept emphasizing on, though normally this was about sparring and other fighting occurrences, when he had to practice and adjust to new techniques. He highly doubted his Dad meant applying this to experimentation of physical features but then again, who was he to question the law laid down, and with that decided firmly in his head, Trunks decided he wasn't going to be a rule breaker, no matter what.
He had no right to take second guesses with the authority of his Dad.
'I wish I could be like him. Dad would've done this right'
His Dad was so cool about everything. He'd faced so much, all sorts of nasty things like giant creepy lizards and cuts without band aids and even having to eat raw food without having a Mom to cook it up for him so why couldn't he just be like his Dad and not freak about it. His Dad had just taken all the horrible stuff life had thrown at him and punched it back with total and pure "awesomeness", a word reserved only for Vegeta in his rather extended and completely self-made vocabulary.
Balancing on his short little arms, wobbling about a bit but gaining control, he tried to gaze up into the mirror, little puddles of black forming on the tiles below him, looking threatening, like miniature black holes.
He could see the brim of a bit of his hair, coated in a sticky acrid substance and a bit of his forehead splattered with black splats. A little further and he would have it.
"Boy…where are you…!?!"
His hand slid off in shock and Trunks crashed head first to the ground with a blood curling shriek, landing with a nasty crack while the door handle was fiddled with, nudged and eventually beaten and blasted from the outside.
"What the blazes is going on in there?"
Sitting up, feeling rather sickly, he felt about his head and eventually came to the terrain of scalp where a bruise had risen and it ached like nothing before and he couldn't help but wince as the tears began to outline the edges of his eyes and he struggled to blink them back.
"Dammit Trunks! Open this DOOR!!!"
Eyes wild with fear, black goop dripping of his hair and all over the floor his head whipped around for something…something to cover him…before his Dad managed to get in…
---
Vegeta was pretty pissed off as he stood impatiently in front of the bathroom door of his one and only offspring ad couldn't for the life of him understand what that boy could possibly be doing in there that could be taking so long and was at a point where he wasn't even sure he wanted to know. Nevertheless, he pushed down on the doorknob was such force that it was beginning to crack around the edges. Of course, it wouldn't have taken any effort for him to simply yank the thing off and break the door down to barge in but the woman had been getting ticked off with the regular bill of doorknobs, as well as doors, and she hadn't exactly been very sympathetic over the door opening issues and had requested, not very quietly either, that he not go around breaking doors and their extensions.
'Why doesn't she just get NORMAL doorknobs that DON'T get stuck half way? And what sane person goes around putting locks on their doors with a brat in the house? It's as if she wants him to go ahead and do something stupid like lock himself in!!!' he thought to himself warily, his exasperation growing, as he banged against the door, waiting for some force to open it before he had to resort to drastic measures. His wife didn't terrify him that much.
And then the force occurred and the door was unlocked and opened a crack as a small head poked out, wrapped all over the top with a RIDICULOUS fuchsia colored towel.
"Ughhhhh…Hi Dad"
"WHAT THE H.F.I.L IS THAT???"
Trunks brought a protective hand up to his head, fingered the soft of the towel, and a sense of relief seemed to wash over his face at the realization.
"Ughhhh…it's just a…towel…"
"WHY is it such a preposterous color? Boy, is something up?"
"N..n…nothing's up…Dad…there just wasn't…any other towel…Dad…"
"WHAT is going on boy? What are you doing in there?"
"Ughhh …I was…ughhhh…taking a shower!"
"At 3am in the morning?"
"Yeeeeaaaah…it's…refreshing…?"
"Have you completely lost your mind or was it never there in the first place???"
"…ugggghhhh…"
"Can't you answer a simple question…?"
"Ugggghhhh…"
"Alright…that's it…"
Vegeta began to push hard on the door, fighting against his son to open it up, forgetting for a minute that he happened to be a full fledged omni-powerful Saiyan and this was just his tiny half blooded Saiyan son and therefore, the battle was already won.
The door immediately flew open on it's hinges and went crashing into the wall, while sending Trunks flying across the bathroom and crashing straight into the bathtub, the shower curtain coming off it's hinges and falling atop him while the plaster cracked of the walls and the door creaked and tipped a bit.
Not caring a bit about the injury done to his son, far be it he should concern himself with the destruction done towards a measly bathroom, he trudged in with a huff and felt his feet grow cold s he stepped straight into a nasty black puddle of goop and slipped…
---
"TRUNKS!!! WHAT IS THIS STUFF!?!?!?"
Trunks sat up in the bathtub, wrapped up toga style in his under the sea fishy shower curtain, the stained black fuchsia towel coming undone and slipping off, revealing tufts of black with just specks of purple visible underneath, to find his father on the floor. He had this expression of pure disgust written straight across his face from where he had fallen, the one Trunks himself had tried several times to imitate in front of the mirror but never really succeeding in copying it just right; he just looked like he'd bit his tongue to hard, not like he was mad or anything.
"Ughhh…it's…ink…" he answered, not really trusting himself as his Dad gave him the evileye from down below.
"Ink?!?!"
"Yeah…black ink…with…ummm…super glue…and…Mom's herbal shampoo…mixed…in it…"
It sounded absolutely ridiculous when he said it like that but he didn't think it had been SUCH a bad idea! In fact, if he could explain himself he was sure his Dad would get it since after all, his Dad was a prince so maybe he had an open mind on this type of stuff, because if you have to rule a planet, you have to be open minded, right? But as Trunks gazed down at the man sprawled on the floor, he highly doubted his Dad had any room in his mind to be open at that particular moment.
Pushing up of the ground, Vegeta felt very vexed and purely irritated as he picked himself up, preparing himself on ways to hold back his urge to murder the child sitting in the bathtub and wondering how much power he had over himself at the moment.
Whatever the nasty black stuff was- oh, wait! The brat had already told him; black ink, the stuff that never stops sticking and the woman's nasty smelling herbal crap- it was staining him all over with little splats and spots including the mass all over his face, dripping off like crazy. He even had some of the gunk in his hair and it felt so ferociously disgusting he wasn't sure how much longer he could take!
"TRUNKS!!!"
Getting to his feet in a flash he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and nearly cried out loud at the black mask that had rounded itself around his eyes like a psycho panda gone wrong, before turning towards the cowering boy, who was trying to untangle himself out of the shower curtain.
---
Trunks didn't need a second warning and as soon as he had writhed himself free, a lot or squirming involved, he leapt out of the tub and made a dive for the door, just barely dodging his Dad in the process. Tearing down the hallway, he turned to see his father chasing after him, looking like road kill, murder gleaming in his eyes.
Using all the knowledge he had of his house, all the shortcuts and other routes he used when sneaking in and out, he dived into one of the lower ventilation shafts, leaving a nice clear trail of black stains behind him while he crawled on.
---
'The woman is going to blow her head off!!!' Vegeta thought to himself as he followed the give away line of black gunk and saw the ventilation shaft's grills pulled open, hearing the thuds and clambering of Trunks crawling about inside. Not thinking for even a second, he dared to get down on his knees and fit himself in, pushing hard and realizing, when he couldn't get past his waist, that he was probably a bit to big and probably stuck in quite tight.
"That boy is going to have hell to pay!!!"
---
Trunks escaped from the other end of the ventilation system, trying to ignore the excessive amount of explicit vocabulary echoing about from inside, obviously the wonderful work of his Dad, and jumped down into the kitchen, hiding straight under the kitchen table, using the table cloth as a cover while he waited, resisting the temptation to begin sucking his thumb.
Waiting and waiting, he wasn't sure how long the minutes were taking, and as he pulled the fuchsia towel down over his hair once again, making sure it didn't slip off he panicked as he noticed the black puddles around him.
'Why'd I do it??? Man! I had to go and try and dye my hair!!! WHY???"
However, before he could answer that question he heard heavy footsteps and realized that someone had freed themselves from the air ventilation system.
---
Vegeta glared from right to left around the kitchen, rubbing his hands around his rear to soothe the pain while his face went shocking red from humiliation. He had all sorts of ideas prepared on what he was going to do to the little brat once he got a hold of him but his main concern at the moment was what the woman was going to do to him when she saw all that black around her perfect house. She would of course, never blame her wondrous baby, Vegeta pondered with some disgust, wondering, not for the first time, how he managed to get himself into these things, when he heard a soft dripping sound coming from under the table.
Suspicious he began to lean down, and instantly found Trunks crouched under there, towel and all and completely lost all senses as he pounced forward.
---
Letting out a blood curling scream that would take years to be rivaled Trunks managed to duck out of the way as his Dad lunged towards him and collided instead with the floor before trying to stand up and hitting the top of his head on the table. Not waiting to see how this would improve his mood he ran off towards the next location that came around the corner, the ever popular gravity room and entered tripping in and smashing straight into the control panel, setting the machine on maximum overdrive, messing the entire system up.
---
He was absolutely sure he was going to have a concussion at any given second but kept fighting with himself to heave off and stop being such a weakling. Nevertheless, his head was aching from repetitively banging it and he was actually surprised he hadn't cracked his skull open yet, even if he was a Saiyan. Getting to his feet, this time making sure he was a good few feet away from the table he shook his head clear before darting around to where the boy could have ran off next and heard the low humming of the gravity chamber. Taking off at the speed of light, Vegeta came clambering in the gravity room to find the towel practically glued to the floor and Trunks lying some distance away from it, glued to the floor, eyes popping out as his expression showed immense pain and horror. And a sense of complete hell torn worry consumed Vegeta, one of parental concern as he forgot his many numerous bumps and scars and went to rescue his son from gravity over load.
---
'I am so busted…'
Trunks sat on the floor of the gravity chamber, crossed legged across from his Dad while he tried to get over the woozy sensation he kept having after being pulled down by such an immense force of gravity. His Dad had one of his hands on the top of his head and was slowly rotating it about, observing his hair and the miraculous change at all angles with much concentration and focus. It was still dripping but not as much as before and though Trunks had quite a lot of black marks all over him he was as white as a sheet compared to the mess done all over his father.
"Boy…" he announced at long last and Trunks immediately sprung to attention as his Dad looked down at him, and he couldn't help but notice the amusement sparkling in his black eyes. "What exactly were you trying to do here…?"
Knowing he had no other outlet he opened his mouth to answer...
---
"I was trying…to dye my hair black…"
Given the answer to his question Vegeta found himself not to alarmed since that much had seemed pretty obvious to him.
"I can see that…" he responded, "and you've done a hell of a messed up job here to your credit…what I want to know is what provoked you to go ahead and do a stupid thing like that and what, on this damned planet, gave you the idea that ink, super glue and your mother's stuff would help in any way?"
Glaring down he couldn't believe it when he saw that his son's cheeks had actually COLORED, and quite deeply by the looks of it and he nearly found himself laughing at the hold situation and issued heavy self control not to do so. He had to at least appear as if he was in control at the moment.
"Well…go on…why?"
Trunks wasn't answering and it was beginning to get on his nerves severely so that he actually began tightening his grip on the boy's head, not to the extent of painful but to a point of force to order his son into spilling out the truth.
---
His Dad was insanely pressurizing on his head without realizing it and Trunks decided to give in and just tell the truth.
"Come off it Dad…that bugs!!!" he whined, picking at his Dad's much larger hand.
"First tell me why you went and turned your head black!!!"
"It's real stupid Dad"
"I don't care…"
"Dad!!!"
"Trunks…"
Hesitating her decided that their little argument was leaving them with no choice.
"Fine…I dyed my hair…because…I didn't like it purple…I wanted to make it black…like…yours…"
And just like that, all the pressure suddenly vanished, simply leaving his Dad's hand resting on his head.
---
Vegeta couldn't believe what he had just heard. His son had gone and dyed his purple hair black with that ridiculous concoction just so he could be like him, his father. Looking down at the tiny boy he couldn't believe the trouble the squirt had gone to and as he fingered those now black locks he realized he had really missed out on the whole fatherly experience, had missed out on what the woman and Kakarot had been going on about this whole time and he had REALLY missed out on the purple hair.
"Trunks…you…don't have to have hair like mine…you're already my son…that should be enough…"
---
Trunks sighed out loud, because clearly he needed to explain the picture.
"But Dad! Your hair is so cool!!! It's black and it sticks out on the top of your head…"
His Dad's free hand suddenly went to pat down his hair defensively but Trunks went on anyway.
"It's SO awesome!!! Dad…my hair is PURPLE!!! I wanted cool hair like yours…what's the matter with that…?"
"What's the matter with purple?"
"Dad…who HAS purple hair? It makes me look funny. It looks weird…no one has purple hair…!!!"
"Then isn't it cool to have it…no one else does…it's just yours…"
"Huh?"
---
Vegeta wasn't sure exactly how to go about this since it was becoming very difficult to convince the boy out of this notion that his purple hair was acceptable and that dying it black was not.
"Now listen to me boy…just because it's different doesn't make it weird. You should be proud you have…or at least HAD…purple hair. Do you see a single puny earthling with purple hair? Of course not. You aren't one of them…you're special…and your purple hair shows that!"
"How come you don't have purple hair?"
"Because my mother didn't have blue hair like yours does. Look at her. No one else had blue hair but she went ahead and kept it! She didn't go and dye it some boring black or blonde! She kept her blue and that's why you have your purple hair…"
---
Trunks had never actually listened to his Dad talk about his Mom before and frankly it was kind of strange the way he went all soft and sounded completely different whenever he did. It made him think twice about what exactly there was between his two parents, but he went on with his argument, not thoroughly convinced just yet.
"But Dad…people are going to think I'm weird with purple hair…no one will like me…"
"Did people think your mother was weird? No. Plenty of people like her…don't they?"
"Do YOU like her…?"
---
Vegeta found himself startled by the sudden shock of the question and felt the heat growing as it rushed to his cheeks and immediately felt flustered by the whole incident.
"That's none of your concern but I'll have you know I PREFER her with blue hair rather than any other outrageous color! You're a Saiyan! A Saiyan is never ashamed of how they look! That's a very petty and vain concern that makes you weak. As long as you look presentable that should be enough! Now, I never want to see your face with your hair any color but purple…you understand? I prefer purple on YOU!"
"Okay…I guess…if you think its okay…"
"I think it's just fine and that's final!"
"Alright!"
"One other thing…what exactly were you thinking putting all that trash in when your were making the dye?"
"Oh…that's easy Dad! I put black ink to make my hair black, super glue to make the color stick to my hair and Mom's shampoo because…well…you put shampoo in your hair…right?"
---
Bulma stretched out far once again as she made her way down the corridor and right about halfway she swore she could hear running water coming from Trunk's bathroom.
'What on earth could he be doing this early in the morning?'
Ambling in her night gown in a rather dazed motion she entered his toy littered bedroom and stalked off into the brightly lit bathroom with a broken door on its hinges, torn off shower curtain and puddles of black all over but that wasn't what caught her breath.
What did was the sight of her extra cheery son sitting in the middle of the bathtub in an explosion of steam erupting from the full on shower while her black inky faced husband scrubbed as ferociously as possible at her son's hair, armed with bottles of shampoo alone.
"Well, well…what is going on here boys?"
"Dad's just trying to get rid of all the black dye I put in my hair because I didn't like it purple…but don't worry, I like it purple now because Dad likes it purple. Just like Dad likes yours bl-"
Unfortunately he didn't have time to finish as Vegeta blocked his mouth by stuffing a sponge into it…