Disclaimer: Don't own, too sleepy to want.
Dude Where's My World?
Revised.
Chapter 3: First Impression
Bulma smiled at Josie's uneasy demeanor and put a comforting hand on her tense shoulder, as she gestured with her other hand for her to follow after her son who —carrying the still unconscious Valerie — lead them down the hallway. It was strange to Bulma that these girls seemed to know things about them that no one outside of their assembled group knew; and she had felt wearier once she realized that her husband had brought them here because he was worried they could be a danger to the planet. He was lucky that their daughter was not on the premises, otherwise she would have had some very colorful things to say to the man for bringing a potential threat home with him.
Looking them over now though, as she followed behind the clearly nervous teenager, she already knew that he was dead wrong about them. She couldn't help but feel her maternal instinct kick up a notch when Josie had kneeled down next to Valerie and asked Bulma to please check on her friend first. Did they know an unsettling amount of information about her friends? Undeniably, if the tidbits Goku and Vegeta told her were any indication; but they were still only two scared — and seemingly defenseless — teenage girls.
Entering the infirmary, Trunks quietly put Valerie on an examination table, before stepping back to allow his mother to take charge. Josie eyed the large room with awe; though the room really had no décor, the sleek humming of all the machines in the room, utensils, bright lights above, and smell of antiseptic made Josie's nerves ease a little because this was something she was use to dealing with. Josie smiled at Bulma, belatedly realizing the older woman had been telling er something important; she blinked, confused, as she was ushered into Trunks arms and already being gently guided out of the safety of this room. "—I just don't want you to see me set it." Bulma finished explaining. "But I will have you back in here in no time to get started on your injuries, if you don't mind waiting a little."
"Oh," Josie thought aloud, making Trunks stop as she smiled at his mother. "It's okay, don't worry about me—HOLY COW IS THAT A REGENERATION TANK?" Josie's eyes widened and her upper body swayed, barely registering Trunks arms locking around her sides to keep her upright, in a blind panic. " Oh sweet Talledega Nights, that is so freaken cool!" Josie exclaimed in a groan, as Trunks surprise gave way to a small snort of disbelief and amusement; he looked over her head towards his mother who wore a similar expression on her face. When she noticed his eyes, Bulma grinned at him briefly and gestured them away with a nod towards the door. Trunks gently herded the open mouthed Josie out the door and down the hallway to where Goku, Vegeta, and Goten still waited in the living room.
When they got there was when Josie finally resisted the hands on her shoulders, tensing noticeably in the created more questions, Trunks thought to himself curiously. He looked easily over her head, trying to silently communicate his questions to his father through his eyes, but his father seemed to have no attention for anyone but for the girl at the moment. Trunks blinked with surprise at the intensity of the glare on his father's face and he looked down at the girl in front of him, wondering what the heck the small girl could have done to get so deeply in his father's bad graces."…Hi…" Josie cleared her throat with a nervous smile for Vegeta and everyone else, wide eyed, again.
"Sit." Vegeta ordered, pointing to the couch he was standing in front of, uninterested in her attempts to play the innocent girl.
Josie hesitated, taking a step back into Trunks unconsciously. "You know, that's ok actually, I'd rather stand here, if it's all the same to you." She replied with false calm.
"It isn't." He said simply, pointing again. She sighed, grumbling as she went forward and sat where he'd ordered her too. The others silently gathered around her in different levels of comfort and discomfort as they sat, while some stood. "Now that your friend isn't here anymore to censor your answers, you will tell me us the truth. Who are you?" Vegeta demanded, sitting directly in front of her on the coffee table to allow her no escape from his intimidating person.
Josie pursed her lips nervously, her hands shaking slightly on her lap, not for fear of the man before her, but of what she was supposed to tell him. He was already more onto them than she thought, having caught onto the fact that Valerie had been holding her back from admitting everything she knew. What would happen if she told them the truth? Or better yet, what could happen if she didn't? One would think that those would be the most pressing questions, but there was still a bigger issue that scared her the more the minutes passed by: She hadn't woken up yet; warm in bed from the most realistic dream of her life, or even in a hospital bed from the accident with her home-made machine; meaning, she and Valerie were at the mercy of these incredibly powerful beings right now, and they may not feel as inclined to help them if they caught her lying.
But at the same time if she told them the truth…she wanted to groan, knowing she'd always preferred checkers over chess because of her lack of good strategy in anything she did; was this how she'd have to learn? She eyed them all, seeing them all stare back at her with curiosity, sans Vegeta. Decision made, Her resolve to remain quiet dissolved the tension in her gut, with a flutter of anxious butterflies taking its place instead. "Okay…" She nodded. "Um…Well, me and Val —the girl that passed out—" She added for the sake of Trunks and Goten who still didn't know her by name. "We come from…" Her frown deepened. "Another universe," She grimaced, unsure of how else to explain it, eyes coming back to look right at Vegeta's. She could catch bits of the confused expressions on the others faces through her peripheral, but she refused to look anywhere else right now; knowing that this man before her, would be the hardest to convince of the truth.
Vegeta's eyes narrowed a little at the explanation, but he too, did not look away; eventually he nodded for her to continue, with a barely perceptible nod. "Our world — I guess someone in it created yours...we've seen you all grow up and become the fighters you are." She explained slowly, wishing that their was some other way to describe it other than creepy voyeurism. How was she supposed to tell them that they watched them for entertainment in her world? Maybe if she put a huge emphasis on how great it was for them personally, and how much she and Valerie supported them throughout the years? "Me and Val have loved dbz since we were little kids." She added with an embarrassed smile.
"What's DBZ?" Goku asked curiously.
Josie tensed and her eyes widened in disbelief; had she really used that word? She desperately wished she could excuse herself from the intense eye whip lashing Vegeta was giving her, so that she could scoot to the side a few inches and repeatedly hit her forehead against the coffee table that he sat on; and from there, she would call herself every disparaging word on the planet she could think, because 'whoops' didn't quite seem to cut it. "Uh, Dragon Ball Z." She muttered, glancing at Goku with a dismissive shrug, in a bad attempt to do some damage control and make the previous slip seem unimportant.
Trunks choked on his saliva, and Goku's eyes widened. "What do you know about the Dragon Balls?" He asked, surprised.
Scowling at her own stupidity, Josie admitted, "Everything" Sighing and wanting desperately to run her hand over her face, Josie sat back on the couch as she came to the realization that she really sucked at discretion. Valerie would throttle her if she overheard her right now.
"Everything?" Goku asked, in awe.
"Everything." Vegeta repeated the word but with a snort of derision. "You wouldn't struggle to answer any questions we may have then, to verify all of this, would you?" Vegeta added as an afterthought, smirking at the incredulity on her face at being questioned on the rubbish she was spewing and attempting to pass off as truth. Vegeta stared her down with contempt as the surprise finally faded from her face to be replaced with curiosity.
"About what exactly...?" Josie asked, head tilting.
"About us-" He said with a light shrug, that was truly anything but, "-If you know so much."
Josie studied him for a moment, knowing his words for what they were: a challenge. He thought she was full of crap and fully intended to prove it here and now. Josie's palms tingled with excitement at the prospect of being tested on material she actually knew for once, of maybe even earning her hero's respect. "Go ahead." She agreed nodding eagerly, a grin on her face as she crossed her arms and leaned back on the couch to show her ease. "But…" Her momentary confidence was lost in a flash, replaced by insecurity, as she reluctantly added. "It can only be about your past; I can't say about your future." The others shared looks, before nodding in acceptance of her terms.
"I'll start," Goku offered eagerly, good humored about this whole crazy thing. "Who came to help when the androids attacked the earth?" Goku asked, smiling, having no reason to not believe anything she'd said up to this point. The sudden appearance of these girls was definitely the most exciting thing that had happened in the last few years of peace and he found himself really hoping they were fighters too.
"Trunks," Josie answered, easily.
"Wrong." Vegeta interrupted. "Trunks was a barely born brat when the androids came; a mere child." He said with a smirk.
Josie looked at him with surprise. "You know that's not the Trunks I'm talking about! I'm talking about the Trunks from the future." She corrected with a small glare at the obvious and cheap attempt to throw her off. "Mirai Trunks."
Goten looked over at Vegeta, confused, not noticing the tick of irritation on his jaw as he flexed it. "Why did the Trunks from the future come here?" He asked, honestly not having heard about this before, and though the question wasn't directed at her, Josie answered instinctually.
"To prevent Goku from dying and to stop your earth from suffering the same fate that his did." She answered for him, eyes still locked with Vegeta, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
Goten's eyes widened even more. "What the heck! Why was my dad going to die?" He asked with panic, arms flailing; Why did no one tell him anything?
Josie continued to answer without looking at him, "He was going to die from a heart disease that there was no cure to at that time. Dying like that — from a natural cause — would have killed all chances of him ever being brought back to life; and without Goku…" She drifted off with a shrug, finally tearing her eyes away from Vegeta to give Goten an apologetic smile. "The planet didn't do well." She explained to the best of her ability.
After ten more minutes of constant questions being fired and being answered in seconds, the room fell into a tense and uncomfortable silence, while Josie continued to happily sit on the couch, looking immensely pleased with herself. So far they hadn't asked a single question that she hadn't been able to answer, and Josie couldn't help but add a little fake yawn that emphasized the fact that all these questions were too easy. Her feigned calm evaporated the moment her eyes landed on Bulma and Valerie coming back into the living room. "Val," Josie immediately sat up, getting up and moving around Vegeta to inspect her friend. "You okay?"
Valerie nodded, holding up her casted arm with a smile. "Got a new souvenir." Josie chuckled at that, glad to see her handle waking up in this strange place better than she had the last time.
"And your head?"
"No concussion," Bulma assured. "How about you, Josie, you ready?" She asked. Josie gulped and shot her such a nervous smile that Bulma couldn't help but laugh at the how clueless the boys in the living room still appeared to be about how harmless these two were. Maybe Valerie would have a better shot at helping them figure it out. "Come-on, honey," Bulma said warmly, wrapping an arm around Josie's shoulder. "How would you like to get in the regeneration tank you saw earlier once we do your CT scan?" Josie's eyes widened but Bulma noted that she never tensed with the contact, if anything, she relaxed into Bulma's side, a picture of complete trust. "It'd only be for a little while though," Bulma warned with a fond smile. "Just to avoid dealing with any discomfort of stitches, and prevent any long term scars."
"Really? That sounds so cool, Bulma!" Josie squeaked, voice faded as they delved further in the corridor.
Valerie rolled her eyes, unable to stop the small smile from appearing on her face when she heard her friends excitement carry all the way over here. She turned back to the living room and blinked in surprise, much like Josie had done when she'd come across the room of Saiyans who stared at her. She felt even more uncomfortable than Josie did with the attention. "So," Vegeta started, raising an eyebrow, unconcerned with her discomfort. "What can you tell us about this 'Dragon Ball Z'?" He asked. Valerie's eyes widened, turning her head to glare at the corridor that Josie had just been in.
She was going to kill that girl.
After a minute of considering her escape options and finding them all severely lacking, her shoulders drooped and with a grimace, she answered. "It's kind of like a TV show." She mumbled nervously, as she looked down at her shoes, scratching the tip of her shoe on the carpeted floor. "That we watch sometimes. Josie watches the american dubbed version but I like to watch the original Japanese version..." She murmured, unsure of how much had Josie told them.
"Why's that?" Goku asked, smiling at the scared girl, wishing she would look up so he could reassure her that she was in no danger.
She shrugged, eyes remaining trained on the ground. "It's just better." She said. "They allow you to see more...violence." She mumbled embarrassed, blushing at the thought that these people probably now thought she was a deprived freak who got a kick out of blood and gore. "And it's a bit more perverted." She added, hoping that would diminish her earlier statement and cringed when she realized what she just said was probably worse than her confessing she enjoyed violence. She definitely wouldn't mind if the earth opened up and swallowed her whole right about this time…
"Perverted?" Trunks asked, amused. "In what way?"
"I don't know." She mumbled nervously, scratching her arm absently as she considered the question. The silence was heavy and awkward as she considered other options, since the earth didn't appear to plan on opening under her any time soon; maybe she could go back into the infirmary and ask Bulma to reset her arm? Because surely anything would be better than this… "Oh!" She exhaled finally thinking of something to explain it, "Like…Goku's pat-pat and Roshi's puff-puff." She froze after the words left her mouth, mouthing profanities at the carpet beneath her at how progressively worse her answers were becoming.
"What are you talking about, human?" Vegeta asked, thinking it was impossible for him to find any creature more annoying than the previous one, but somehow this girl had proven him wrong; All this girl did was stutter, blush and looked at the ground. She snapped her head up at the tone, and would have shrank back further, if she hadn't also noticed Goku cringing from her words. She looked at him curiously, wondering if he remembered any of this that she was mentioning. "You remember?" She asked him, fascinated.
He groaned with a laugh, nervously scratching the back of his head. "Sort of." He said, ducking his head.
"Huh." Valerie mumbled, intrigued at this turn of events. "So I guess this is a mix of the American and Japanese version?"
"I'm so confused." Goten stated unhappily, why was their so much he didn't know about his parents lives? He'd rarely ever seen his father blush and here a girl had him a brighter red than he'd ever seen him before.
Valerie glanced at him. "Well, when Goku was a little guy and lived with only his grandpa, he didn't ever get to see any other human beings, so when he finally did start to interact with them he had a bit of trouble telling the difference between a boy and a girl-"
She stopped at Vegeta's choked cough. "KAKARROT?" Vegeta asked in amazement, eyes wide. His mouth twitched as he tried in vain to stop from laughing. "I…I knew you were stupid but this…" He exhaled in complete disbelief.
Valerie continued, "—Eventually he developed a way to tell the difference, of course, but it was kind of weird. He'd pat the area between a person's legs." She explained, smiling with fondness at Goku who only blushed more. Goten and Trunks doubled over, howling with laugher, as did even Vegeta, surprising Valerie.
"It's not that funny!" Goku tried to defend, grinning with embarrassment as he ducked his head even further.
"What an idiot" Vegeta howled, his laughter definitely mean-spirited unlikely that of the boys who were patting Goku's shoulders amidst laughter.
Valerie glared at the prince, "Yeah well, I'm sure you wouldn't be laughing if you knew who the first person to receive a pat-pat was." She mumbled defensively, unhappy that she'd accidentally embarrassed her hero.
And just like that, Vegeta's laughter silenced; he turned to her, his eyes narrowing.
Uh-oh. She thought, eyes wide. "What was that?" He quietly demanded, although he had heard exactly what she'd said. Valerie gulped, trying desperately to think of a way to answer this without loosing her head: If she told him the truth, he'd kill her and if she refused, then he'd still probably kill her. "Do not play dumb with me, girl! I heard what you said." He confirmed, angrily.
"Heard her say what?" Goku asked, anxiously. "I didn't hear her say anything." He laughed nervously.
"Shut up Kakarrot, I was not asking you. One of you will tell me the truth if you don't want me to scatter your ashes in the wind." Thankfully, at that moment Bulma came up behind Valerie, with a smile for errant boys, who still, appeared to be tense, much to her amusement. Her smile brightened, amazed by how wrong the guys were on this one; why were they so bent out of shape? How much could two little girls really know?
"I just put Josie in the tank, she should be ready to come out in another fifteen minutes." She announced to the group, laughing when Valerie hid behind her. "Guys I really think you're exaggerating about what these girls know—"
"Woman," Vegeta interrupted. "Who did Kakarrot…who did he do this—stupid pat-pat thing I'm hearing about?" He asked, watching her carefully for a reaction. Having been completely blindsided by the question, Bulma's eyes widened considerably and her face paled, looking between Goku and Vegeta.
"Who-I-h-how did this come up?" She stuttered out through her mounting feelings of surprise, outrage, and anger.
Everyone immediately pointed to the girl hiding behind her. Valerie's eyes widened even more and Bulma gave Valerie behind her a weary look; clearly reconsidering every good thought she'd had about how harmless the knowledge these girls possessed could be. Ultimately, the heavy blush on Valerie's face, and the pathetic-ness of her cowering behind her made her strengthen her resolve to continue to defend the girls. She turned back to her stubborn husband who glared fiercely at Goku, his body tight and ready to spring as soon as she gave any answer. She rolled her eyes and threw her hands upward in exasperation. "It was me, okay! Geez, we were both just kids, Vegeta. Honestly it really wasn't a big deal!"
"Yeah, Vegeta!" Goku agreed nervously, as he too, noted the expression on the older Saiyan's face. They'd both known him long enough to know that the guy was going to start getting physical pretty soon, if they didn't cool him off. "It meant nothing and-frankly, her girl parts scared me-" He shrunk back at the glare that Bulma gave him.
"What the hell is wrong with my girl parts, Goku!"
"UGH!" Trunks groaned, covering his ears fiercely to tune out the gross situation that was quickly developing in front of him. "I'M GOING TO GO CHECK ON THE NEW GIRL." He shouted, still wishing he could block out the offensive images his mind was trying to show him, as he left the room.
"Psst." Goten silently hissed in Valerie's direction, she blinked at him from behind Bulma, confused as to what he could possible want to tell her that was important enough to discuss now — in the midst of Bulma yelling at Goku that her private parts were perfectly normal and that he was just the small freak-alien child who had no idea what he was talking about —Valerie carefully made slow steps towards Goten, who slowly did the same, trying desperately not to catch the grown-ups attention.
"Yeah?" She whispered, when they finally stood beside each other, a few steps away from Bulma, and oh-so close to those tempting swinging doors that could possibly lead away from this mess.
"You might want to sneak out of here." He advised with an amused smile. "I've seen that look on Vegeta's face before. There will probably be some fighting pretty soon." He warned.
She looked back at the others guiltily. "Because of me" Valerie finished for him, miserably.
Goten shrugged it off with a brighter smile. "Hey, don't worry about it! This used to happen at least once a week back in the day; if you ask me, we're overdue." He tried to reassure with a grin.
"—I didn't know Bulma!" Goku defended weakly. "I did it to Chichi too and she didn't—"
"—YOU WHAT?" Bulma shouted, outraged.
…
Down the hallway, Trunks had just opened the door and entered the infirmary where the other girl was still sound asleep in the regeneration tank. He carefully closed the door, looking over his shoulder at her as he did so. Once he was sure that no others were going to follow and force him back out there to listen to the apparently gross tales of his parent's teenage years, he turned his attention back to the new girl.
What had his mom called her?
"Josie" He mumbled quietly, trying out the word. He studied her for a minute, before unwittingly turning his attention away to a large cabinet on the opposite wall of her. Usually the cabinet was stockpiled with medical scrubs outfits, but right now he was only seeing some light gray scrubs bottoms, with unisex drawstrings. He pulled it out with a sigh, unhappy that that was all they appeared to have at the moment. He lightly threw them on a small metal table nearby and glanced over at Josie. She seemed to be only a little bigger than his mom.
He left the room, glad that he had another seven minutes before she woke up. Trunks carefully maneuvered behind his mother and quietly crept up the stairs, cringing and quickening his pace when he heard the sounds of glass breaking, shouting, and all out chaos erupting behind him. He quickly went up to the third floor and raided his mom closet, finding the nearest white t-shirt and jogged back down the stairs, stopping midway down with his mouth wide open.
Their front window was broken, with his mother standing by it screaming curses at his father, who he wasn't surprised seemed to have been responsible for the damage. That, however, was not what made him stop in mid-step; what made him come a complete stop was the sight of the strongest man in the universe sitting at the far corner of the room, hugging his knees to his chest as he rocked back and forth gently. He was clearly scared and mumbling something to his son who kneeled beside him, patting his back comfortingly; blushing lightly in embarrassment, Goten tried to quietly explain to Valerie who stood a few feet behind them, why his father was behaving that way. Trunks took a few hesitant steps forward, unsure if he wanted to get involved in this new mess.
"…Did anybody mention needles?" He asked finally, too curiously to keep hiding. His mom snapped her head in his direction, turning her heated glare that was intended for Vegeta towards her son; when he put his hands up to admit defeat, she turned her annoyance back to a more deserving target, her rude and cowardly childhood friend.
"Yes!" Bulma angrily huffed. "All I did was mention that I'd put Josie in the regen tank to avoid any bandages and needles and the dumb Saiyan pulled a Hercule." She explained, gesturing at his fetal position. She glanced at Trunks, with a sigh. "I'm TRYING to take care of the food on the stove on top of all this, can you do me a favor and deal with—" He nodded, holding a hand up.
"Don't even worry about it, got her covered." Trunks assured, holding up the shirt as proof.
Bulma nodded, giving him a tight — but genuinely grateful — smile. "Thank you, son." She said honestly, disappearing through the double doors muttering to herself that this was happening over something that happened over twenty years ago.
"Come-on, dad!" Goten tried to reason with his still scared father. He put his arm underneath him, trying to heave him up, but his dad insisted on staying where he was. Valerie went to his other side, both trying to encourage him to his feet. "You have to get up before Vegeta comes back!" Goten insisted.
Trunks took a step back before turning around and heading down the corridor of that first floor. He entered the infirmary again and saw he still had two minutes before Josie came out. He neatly folded her clothes and took out a few towels, setting those aside incase she needed more. He leaned against the examination table that stood in the middle of the room, a few feet in front of the Regen tank she was currently in. He comfortably leaned there, with a towel in his hands, as he crossed his arms and watched her closed eyes, waiting for her to wake up. He didn't have to wait more than a minute before her face started scrunching up lightly — and without a warning — suddenly sneezed.
Trunks blinked in surprise; it had kind of looked like she sneezed anyway. He had seen a ton of his friends and his father spend time in a regeneration tank throughout his entire life, but he could say with sincerity that he had NEVER witnessed anyone sneeze in that thing. Josie frowned, opening her eyes, as she, startled, looking at her surroundings with worry. Her eyes almost immediately locked onto his when he stepped forward and pressed a button to release her.
Josie heard a click and the water started to slowly drain. It didn't even take a minute for the water to disappear and Trunks opened the door, wordlessly leaning in a little to help her remove the mask that covered her nose and face but Josie's hand stopped his. He paused calmly, staring at her and waiting. Josie lifted her unoccupied hand and pulled the mask off her face, revealing a trembling smile. "You're really here…" She sighed with relief, squeezing his hand briefly to verify it, before letting it go and wrapping both arms quickly around him.
Trunks blinked, surprised at both the wet hug and the words, but he politely patted her back after a moment, finding it impossible not to smile at the bewildered words. "Oh! I am SO sorry!" Josie gasped, pulling away, remembering that she was soaking wet; she grimaced when she caught sight of his shirt, Trunks' eyes following her line of sight with disinterest.
"Don't worry about it." He insisted, offering her a hand, which she sheepishly took, murmuring another quiet apology. He helped ease her feet back on the ground and let her go, reaching for a towel; when he brought it around her shoulders, he noticed her distractedly twitch her nose, thoughtfully frowning. He stopped. "…Did you sneeze in there?" He asked curiously, unable to hide the amusement in his voice, having thought that he might have just imagined it. She raised her head to look at him, still looking thoughtful.
"…I think so." She nodded, confused.
He laughed as he wrapped the large towel securely around her. "I didn't even think that was possible." He admitted, grinning at her own infectious laughter. Most of the time the warriors went in there clad in only their underwear but he had been pretty confident that his mom had let this girl go in there fully clothed, sans her jacket. Josie gratefully held the large towel to herself and rubbed her eyes and face. After a moment she stepped away to stretch comfortably, while Trunks closed the regeneration tank's door and locked it securely. "Do you feel better?" He asked, as he fully shut down the machine with his back turned to her.
She studied what he was doing and nodded. "Lots" She quickly added, realizing he couldn't see her.
"Glad to hear it." He said honestly, easy smile over his shoulder. "There's some clothes on the table there, I know it's not much but it's all we have on hand at the moment." He said sheepishly, turning back towards her as she studied the clothes with a grateful smile.
"They're perfect, thank—" She bit her lip suddenly as she held the clothes, and glanced at him, before quickly looking back at the clothes, blushing.
"What's wrong?" He asked, straightening up, confused.
"Nothing!" She quickly tried to reassure. He raised an eyebrow and silently waited it out, not having known her for more than thirty minutes, and already knowing she was lying. She sighed, and the blush on her face got even brighter. "It's just there's no under... stuff here." She tried to explain.
"Oh…" He mumbled, stunned, as blush rose to his face as well and the two teenagers quietly remained in the awkward silence.
…
Trunks had been unable to do anything but offer his trademark GT brown jacket and hastily retreat to let her do the best she could with what she had. He tried to shake of the blush still staining his cheeks as he came back into the living room just in time to see Goten coming in from the double doors that led to the kitchen, holding a large pot of rice. He frowned. "Goten?" He questioned. Goten spared a quick look for his best friend, before continuing on his mission towards his father. "What are you doing?" He asked, confused, as he stepped forward.
Goten scoffed at the ridiculous question, knowing that Trunks would be doing the same if he'd been dealing with what he had been dealing with the for the last ten minutes. "Vegeta's back, your mom and Valerie are trying to distract him outside and give us a little time to escape but my dad's not snapping out of it. Yet." Goten took a deep breath, looking genuinely troubled by what he was about to do. "I'm sorry dad, this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you." Goten assured, holding the pot over his head and quickly spilling it's steaming hot contents on his father's head, before Trunks could do little more than widen his eyes.
That definitely did the trick though because Goku's eyes widened to abnormal proportions for a few seconds, before jumping up and bumping his head on the ceiling. "IT BURNS! IT BURNS!" Goku shouted in shock, as he landed back down, scrambling in circles for a solution to the pain. He grabbed his youngest son by the collar of his shirt. "Goten it's going down my shirt!" He shouted, frantically, as he furiously and without much progress tried to pat down what felt like fire all over his body. Goku jogged in place desperately. "HOTHOTHOT! Help me, son!" He demanded. The two tried in vain to shake his shirt, but now some had managed to get into his trousers.
"KAKARROT!" Vegeta shouted, rushing through the window, and glaring menacingly at his nemesis. He momentarily looked confused, but his glare came back full force as he came to the conclusion that his rival must be dancing in place as a deviously cunning strategic move to merely distract him, and make him forget all about the lower class' transgressions.
"I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE!" Goku shouted, before taking off out the window, hoping to make it to the nearest body of water.
"Come back here, Kakarrot!" Vegeta demanded, as he too, took off in pursuit of the younger Saiyan.
There was a moment of eery silence in the living room of the partially destroyed Briefs home, before Goten sighed. Trunks glanced at him. "…What a waste of food." Goten simply mumbled unhappily, looking genuinely upset at the remainders of rice on the ground all over the ground. Trunks rolled his eyes, but froze when he saw his mother enter the house and glare murderously at the two with Valerie at her side; Valerie immediately recognizing the woman's foul mood, and the danger it presented, and took two large steps back out of self preservation.
"Heya mom," Trunks greeted uncomfortably.
"What did you…" Vein throbbing on her forehead, Bulma clenched her jaw in an attempt to reign her fury. "Never mind!" She hissed through clenched teeth. "You two get this place cleaned up, now or no video games for a year." She threatened angrily, before storming off towards the stairs to make a few calls from her office to fix some of the damage inflicted on her home by her very own family.
"Phew." Trunks loudly exhaled, grinning at his old best friend and giving him a firm pat on the back. "That's not so bad; who has time for that now anyway?" He asked, happy that they hadn't gotten into more trouble.
Bulma slowed at the stairs, turning slowly back to the boys. "You're right." She said simply, taking the two necessary steps to get back down on the floor. "Clean this place up AND get that window replaced or else Goten gets no food whenever he comes to visit." Goten's eyes bugged out at that.
"WHAT?" Before she could blink, Goten was clinging to her pants leg with a look of absolute horror on his young face. "Bulma, no!" He pleaded, horrified. "Please, please, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'll never do anything mean or bad ever again, but please, please feed me!" He squeaked pathetically, burying his face on her knee, shaking like a leaf out of fear.
"Oh geez Goten." Trunks groaned with a roll of his eyes. "Don't be such a wuss." Bulma looked up at her eldest son and raised an eyebrow. She patted Goten's shoulder, urging him to get up. He did so, sniffling, and she smiled in affection for the simple half-Saiyan miniature Goku.
"Don't worry Goten, you can eat." She assured. His face immediately lit up and he crushed the blue haired genius to his chest, happily. She patted his arm awkwardly, and pushed him off after a moment, turning her eyes towards her belligerent son. Trunks was carefully trying to make another escape. "And Trunks?" She called; He froze.
"Yes, Mother?" Trunks asked sweetly, as he turned back towards her trying to dazzle her with the charm he'd inherited from her.
Unaffected, Bulma dealt the final blow, "The mirror in your bedroom and bathroom will be removed, as will your combs, hair spray, gel, mouse, and I personally will make sure that you have access to no others in this house. See how you like being an intern in the office with unprofessional hair. " Trunks gasped in horror.
"What." He took a step forward, shocked. "Mom…no!" She was about to start walking away and he hurried to catch her. "Wait, mom, no please —I'm new you can't do thi— Wait! I'm sorry! I really am, I'll do anything! I-I'll um..clean the windows, take out the garbage, I'll feed and walk the dog—anything!" He begged desperately. "Mercy, Mother! Have mercy on my poor, lost, misguided soul!" He cried.
She turned to him, looking completely unmoved. "No." She said simply.
"Mom!" He whined.
She wrangled her arm out of his grasp and turned back the other way, hoping to get away from her son. She tried to go up the stairs this time, instead of trying to go down the corridor. "PLEASE!" He shouted, throwing himself at his mother's feet, pounding on it in a desperate attempt to sway her. "PLEASE MOM! I'm sorry!"
"Trunks, will you get up?" Bulma ordered, embarrassed.
"No!" He said stubbornly, holding onto her ankles for emphasis. "Not till you forgive me and give me my things back!"
"FINE!" Bulma shouted, annoyed. "You can have your hair supplies back." She offered, trying to wiggle her ankle free from her son's supernatural strength.
Trunks held on. "WHAT ABOUT MY MIRROR?" He demanded, wide eyed, as he stared up at her.
"That too already!" She agreed, frustrated. "Now let go, Trunks!" He pushed off the floor in a moment and hugged her tightly.
"Thanks mom!" He said happily.
Bulma sighed, fighting not to show her amusement, as her son held her tightly. "Oh and Trunks?"
"Yes, Mother?" Trunks asked blissfully happy, smiling with his eyes closed.
"We don't have a dog." Bulma reminded. Trunks stopped swaying them at that reminder, and opened his eyes with a small frown. With the distraction she was able to pull away and leave up the stairs to momentarily get away from the infuriating Saiyans in her life. Trunks wiped the staged tears with the backs of his hands and turned around, annoyed to see that Goten had remained there for the spectacle.
Goten stood there with his arms crossed with a large grin on his face, looking like he just witnessed the Piece de Resistance from the best show of all time. Goten opened his mouth and Trunks glare intensified, waiting for it, and Goten did not disappoint. "…And I'm supposed to be a wuss…" Goten reminded, gleefully.
"Shut up Goten." Trunks muttered straightening up, trying to regain as much of his dignity as possible, as he walked toward the swinging doors that led to the kitchen area.
"Trunks?" Goten called, stopping Trunks as he opened the door to leave.
"What, Goten?" Trunks asked, a little annoyed.
"…A dog?" Goten asked with a smirk.
"Be quiet!" Trunks shouted as he pushed the door angrily and stormed off, ignoring the pearls of laughter that erupted from his best friend the moment he left the room.