A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Honestly, I wouldn't have bothered writing this chapter otherwise.
By the way, I changed the rating to T 'cause someone suggested that the first two chapters were not suitable for kids and I guess there are going to be people out there who will agree. It was going to go up later anyhow, might as well change it now.
Disclaimer: If Dragon Ball belonged to me, we would all know how the hell Bulma and Vegeta became a couple. And all the fights would take like two seconds to finish, but then it wouldn't be Dragon Ball at all, would it?
Summary: Sometimes, the most beautiful moments are the simplest ones. Series of one-shots/drabbles revolving around our favourite characters.
Childhood Dreams
Pairing: Bulma/Vegeta, Trunks
Genre: Humour
Rating: K+
World: AU
Word Count: 1083
Summary: Trunks takes his life in his own hands.
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No matter how strong and proud Trunks was, there was one person whom he had always bowed to unconditionally, and that was his father. He had always looked up to the Saiyan prince as the strongest, wisest, and coolest person in the world, and for the majority of his childhood, he had tried his best to gain the cold man's approval. In doing so, he gave up things that were otherwise normal for children his age, such as watching television, painting, or riding bikes. Rather, from the very beginning, he had devoted all of his time to training with his father and keeping up with his mind-numbingly fast pace, but none of that helped him achieve his goal. Everything he did only resulted in a stream of sneers and sarcasm.
Unbeknownst to Trunks, his father had always held a keen interest in his hidden potential. He constantly pushed his son beyond his limits in hopes of seeing him one day become the strongest warrior in the universe. When that day came, no one would be more proud than Vegeta, who had, in his lifetime, always remained one step behind Kakarott.
Trunks was tired though. Everything Trunks did, it seemed, had been useless. He had tried to gain the appreciation of the Saiyan prince, but nothing was enough. His father was never truly happy with him. When Trunks reached the level of Super Saiyan three, his father's face lacked even a ghost of a smile, and that was the moment when the young boy finally realized that this was a fight that he was never going to win.
He finally raised the white flag, his interest in pleasing his father discarded into the darkness. He quit training and began to avoid his father, for fear of being confronted and forced to resume the aimless training. For the past few weeks, he had stayed clear of the gravity room and tiptoed around his house, only making an appearance where his father's ki was absent.
Today, however, was going to be different. He had awoken with the newfound courage to confront his father and say what had been on his mind on the past few weeks. He would make his wishes known to his father, and he would stand his ground regardless of whether or not the man approved. After all, he did not want to get roped back into doing all of the extreme Saiyan training stuff forever, especially if he was not going to get his father's acknowledgment in the process. And if he was not going to get the acknowledgment he sought by doing what his father wanted, what difference did it make if he did something his father did not want him to do?
See, he had been doing some re-evaluation of his goals in life. He had received a television set for his seventh birthday and he was making full use of it. After using the device to conduct some thorough research, he had learned that there were many other ways to be a special and cool and popular and ultimately fantastic than just to be strong.
And so, he had made up his mind. The world was saturated with heroes and villains. The Z fighters and their enemies were enough. And all those people, Trunks noted, were really lame, especially with their geeky costumes and geeky names. Gohan was a great example. He had probably taken 'Superman' and 'Super Saiyan' to coin the term 'Saiyaman'. And Trunks was not even going to think about the outfit he adorned.
Trunks was going to be different. He was not going to follow in his father's footsteps and train obsessively for the sake of greater power. Nor was he going to be like Gohan and waste his power on weaklings while looking like a total fool.
Not when a world of opportunities was staring at him in the face.
No, Trunks was going to be something better. And he knew exactly what he was going to be.
Although brimming with confidence when he entered the gravity room, Trunks practically fled after making his bold statement, using his father's moment of disbelief as an advantage to gain some ground before getting caught.
Trunks travelled halfway across the world in those few moments, dropping his power level to a bare minimum and huddling in a cave, inwardly praying that his mother was home to help delay the sentence the prince would rule upon him.
Within seconds, the gravity room collapsed as his father's power level rose with his anger. Although the inhabitants of West City panicked thinking that an earthquake was occurring, Vegeta's wife knew better.
"Vegeta, what the hell do you think you're doing?" asked Vegeta's livid wife, hands resting on her hips. She could hardly believe that he had broken the gravity room for the third time that month. She had half a mind to never build one for him again.
His jaw twitched as he turned to glare at her. "You. It is all your fault the boy is like this." The ground was cracking with his energy.
"What are you talking about?" she inquired, looking completely unphased by her husband's changing appearance. She was used to seeing the grump transform into a Super Saiyan by now. Hmph. Talk about abusing power.
"Your human blood," he responded spitefully, "Has tainted his Saiyan roots!" That was the only explanation for his son's insanity.
Bulma crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, perfectly aware that she could have argued that it was Vegeta's Saiyan roots that had tainted her son's humanity. She decided not to push it, however, and instead, she urged calmly, "Explanation for what?"
A vein pulsed madly on her husband's gaping forehead, which made her want to giggle. Did he even realize that he had finally reached the level of Super Saiyan three?
He swallowed, almost as if he was finding it hard to formulate the words. "Your son.."
"Our son," she corrected, finding it hard to fight the smile from spreading across her face. After all these years, Vegeta's bursts of anger had become honestly endearing, if not completely hilarious. Besides, she could hardly imagine that anything her seven year old son could have done was truly worth making such a huge fuss over.
He clenched his fists to his side and glared at her before continuing. "Your son.. wants to be an image consultant," he spit out.
Bulma's uncontrolled laughter could be heard all the way to Dende's lookout.
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A/N: I'm totally going to find a way to fit 'over 9000' somewhere in one of these shorts! Just watch; one of the next 2 to 3 ones will definitely have it somewhere.