Future Trunks + Gohan
Gohan 1st POV
I didn't really think much of it at first. He had just shown up out of nowhere and defeated Frieza and King Cold like they were nothing. To him, they were. He told us he knew when and where my dad was coming back to Earth. None of us were really sure at first, but we decided to trust him. After all, he had just saved all our lives.
He wouldn't tell us his name or where he was from. But he offered us drinks. We all sat around, bidding our time, waiting for Dad. He just sat there, talking as little as possible. He was very quiet, shy, and polite. We didn't think anything of it then, but he kept watching Bulma and Vegeta out of the corners of his eyes. He also kept watching me.
It wasn't until years later that we finally knew who he really was. Trunks was Vegeta and Bulma's son from the future. His was a bleak horror filled world, where people were constantly hiding in fear and hardly daring to hope that they'd live to see the next day. He'd grown up knowing nothing else. Everyone who could have possibly been there to help him fight had died when he was a baby.
Everyone had died except for me.
In the future, I had become Trunks's master and friend. I was both his brother and his father. Bulma and I were all he had. Trunks never really told us anything too detailed about his life, but I do hope that I embraced the roles that were placed upon me for him. I've spent years of my life living without a father. I know how it feels, but it had to have been worse for Trunks. I always knew Dad would be coming back. There was no chance for anyone to come back into Trunks's life.
While we were waiting for Dad to land on the planet, there were a few times that I noticed Trunks watching me. I hadn't really put much thought into it. I had merely questioned to myself why he looked so sad. I wondered why he had a look of longing and grief in his eyes. I didn't ponder it long. Krillin would draw my attention to something, and I'd forget.
When Trunks came back to help us with the Androids, I learned what I had been for him. I had known that I was the only one to live through the Androids' initial attack. I had known that they killed me thirteen years later. I had known that I knew Trunks. But I hadn't really known how much I meant to him.
I think it was confusing for Trunks to be around me in my timeline. After all, in his world, I was ten years older than him. I was an adult while he was a kid. Here, the roles were reversed. He was the adult. He was the stronger one, the more experienced fighter.
It was confusing for me too. I felt like I had a responsibility to be that figure Trunks had known. But I didn't know how to be. I was still just a kid myself. Trunks seemed to always look to me when something went wrong for leadership. When the wrong androids appeared, he looked to me as though I had the answers. When Vegeta stood by and Bulma and baby Trunks were nearly killed in an explosion, Trunks looked to me as though I could explain his father's mannerisms. When we discovered that Cell came from Trunks's timeline, he looked to me as if to ask my forgiveness for his wrongdoings. When he came back to life after I defeated Cell, he looked to me as though I were his hero.
Yes, he got closer to Vegeta in the time that he was with us, but he always still seemed to look to me as the one for guidance and as his mentor. But I was just a kid. I didn't have any leadership qualities. I was always unsure of my power. I didn't know how to be a father figure to a young man seven years older than me. It really wasn't fair to either of us. But neither of us could help it. Trunks couldn't change the way he saw me, and I couldn't change the fact that I wasn't what he had grown up with.
By now, I am grown up, and we haven't seen Trunks in years, not since his last visit to tell us he'd killed the Androids and Cell of his timeline. Every once and awhile I think about him. I wonder how he and his mother are doing. I wonder how their world has recovered. I wonder if Bulma would ever think to go to New Namek to use their Dragon Balls. I also wonder what Trunks would think of me now. I'm fully grown, not quite as old as when I died in his timeline, but close. I wonder how different I am from my future counterpart.
Thinking about the possible differences in us always makes me laugh. I know both our Trunks and his future self are infinitely different. Vegeta was definitely a big influence in the young boy's life. Goten probably is too.
Our Trunks has always liked me, even if he did think the whole Saiyaman thing was nerdy. He's always super excited when I visit Capsule Corp. It never matters if I have Goten in tow or not, and he's always sad when I leave, begging me to come back the next day to play more. We aren't as close as our future counterparts were, but I think there's something to fate. I think I was meant to be a role model for Trunks, no matter what time or circumstances we find ourselves in. It's sort of nice to know that somewhere you're always needed.