Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball / Dragonball Z / Dragonball GT.

Happy reading!

"So it's really over?"

"Positive."

"Our Gohan said Frieza survived dad's Spirit Bomb in our time."

"You don't believe in yourself?"

"I didn't say that… whydcha ask?"

"Well, think about it, Goten," said Trunks to his friend as he laid his father on the damp ground, "We just unleashed our best attacks, combined, when we fused, on him. There's no way he could've survived that! And can you sense him?" he asked, to which Goten replied by shaking his head after a quick check, "Good, that means he's gone! Hey, c'mon… we've done what we had to do, just like you said. We're the heroes of the universe!"

"You're right, Trunks," Goten smiled at his friend's remark of being heroes. At long last he was finally able to carry out a feat on par with that which Gohan had done back in his timeline. "So are we gonna celebrate?"

"Yeah. Let's return to our ship and tackle whatever's left in the fridge."

"But we'll run out of food for our way back home."

"Don't worry, I brought five capsules of food. I always prepare well for big trips," declared the lilac head proudly as though it had been a major accomplishment.

"Yeah, except the camera," Goten retorted with a roguish grin he rarely ever showed. He would only exhibit that particular smile when he thought his comeback at Trunks was successful and there hadn't been many occasions that it had happened. "And you still say you're well-prepared?"

Trunks shot Goten a strange look. Was he challenging him? Last time he checked, it was Goten who had volunteered to bring the camera with him. "Oh yeah? I can say the same. You didn't prepare anything back then, right?" he countered, earning a pout from the raven-haired boy, "I dunno how you remembered to bring your game but not the camera."

"Well, it's yours! Why do I have to be responsible for something that's not mine?"

"Because you volunteered, that's why!"

And just like way back yonder in the days of old, they were in no time engaged in childish arguments over one stupid, trivial, insignificant matter. Eyes fastened to each other's gaze, tension began rising between them as they lunged toward one another with all their strength—or what was left of it. The next moment both boys rolled on the ground; fist met fist and foot met foot, they were locked in an even struggle. This tussle would continue for at least two minutes, but apparently no one was going to emerge as the winner.

"Uh… guys," a soft voice interrupted from nearby, "What are we gonna do now?"

Gohan's question stopped whatever it was that the future hybrids were doing. To tell the truth, they had been too engrossed in the idea of celebration they forgot about the little halfling who had been there all along. Feeling totally abashed for having exhibited such puerile behaviour in front of Gohan—heck, he might be even more mature than them despite his tender age!—Trunks and Goten returned to their feet and dejectedly stooped their head before apologising to each other as well as to the single audience who was actually amused at their little fight.

"You two are so funny," Gohan smiled, causing his brother and friend to blush in embarrassment, "I guess you must've been friends for a very long time, huh?"

For a moment Goten navigated around his memories of a bygone day before replying to his brother's question, "Um, yeah. Mom said Trunks was there for my baby shower. She said he was already very naughty when he was a kid… see this?" the 'older' Son showed to his brother a tiny scar on his left temple, just next to the eye. It was nearly invisible; one wouldn't possibly see it if he wasn't looking for it. "He made this one. When I was sleeping he threw his toy truck on my head. Thanks, huh, Trunks," he said as he turned to Trunks, a deep furrow forming between his eyebrows.

"It was a test of your strength, because you look very weak back then," Trunks jeered at him in reply.

"Hello, I was just a baby, okay? At least I wasn't chubby like you were."

"Say what?"

Again, Trunks and Goten looked ready for yet round of needless scuffle, but this time Gohan was quick enough to forestall it from happening. When he tried to separate them he saw his brother—the more childish of the two—sticking out his tongue to Trunks, and much to his pleasant surprise the self-appointed leader actually reciprocated with exactly the same action. The fact that they weren't acting someone their age was beyond Gohan's comprehension and he found it entertaining at the very least.

"It must be fun to have a very close friend," he said, but mainly to himself. A perceptive ear would notice a tinge of sadness in his voice; he wanted to be happy for his brother, but a spark of envy prevented him from being sincere. "I've never had one before, because I lived in the mountains with dad and mom, far away from everyone else. Every day mom told me to study, so I never really went out to play…" he continued, this time earning a look of pity from the mischievous duo, "I guess Piccolo's the closest to a best friend I've ever had, but now… he's…"

Suddenly the air felt very heavy and the mood turned bleak. Trunks and Goten looked at each other; guilt started eating away at them since it was they who had—inadvertently, but that was beside the point—caused this to happen. They didn't mean to drag the poor little kid into such a heavy topic for him to deal with, and they had to set things straight. Feeling extremely sorry for Gohan, Goten decided to take the initiative to console him, an action that earned him a nod of approval and admiration from Trunks.

"Gohan…" the spiky-haired preteen knelt in front of his brother and put his hand on his shoulder, unsure of what he would respond with, "We don't have to talk about it if you don't feel like it. It's okay. Wanna talk about something else?"

A rather long silence followed, and Goten was actually starting to think he failed at solacing Gohan. However, Gohan then lifted his head to meet Goten's gaze with his own, an innocent gaze radiating a peculiar mix of strength and sadness, but with the former more dominant than the latter. "… it's okay, Goten. You've avenged them for me… they must be happy now," he said while trying to suppress his grief, "Of course I'm gonna miss them so bad, and perhaps I can't ever forgive those jerks who killed them… but mom once said you gotta learn from hard experiences since they help you grow…" he paused for a while, then smiled through his sadness, "… so I guess I'll just have to move on, right? I mean, they'll be sad if I don't."

"But Gohan, with Piccolo and Guru…" Goten paused, trying to find a appropriate euphemism of the word 'dead' to avoid unnecessary outburst of emotion, "… um, now far away, there won't be any Dragon Balls…"

"Yeah, I know… but I guess that means we just gotta live like normal people. They can live without the balls. We can, too," replied Gohan somewhat assuredly, "People come and go, Goten… that's the way it was, and that's the way it should be… Piccolo, Krillin, and the others are still living, here," he said, pointing at his heart.

Gohan's strength really came as a total surprise for Goten and Trunks. He was just a child, yet he was able to absorb the full force of the ugly impact of the events that had marred him both physically and mentally so severely. At first Goten didn't fully comprehend how his brother was able to handle it better than he had expected, but soon he figured why.

"Goten?"

For someone his age, Gohan had experienced too many crazy incidents. The poor child got kidnapped by his evil uncle, lost his father shortly afterward, forced to train and live a harsh life for a year by Piccolo, witnessed the very same mentor he had loved so much sacrificed himself for him, caught wind of Krillin's death, and finally watched Frieza mercilessly kill Dende in front of his eyes—for the love of all that's good, he was the only friend Gohan's own age he'd ever had. He was only five years old, but life hadn't been easy for him. Nope, instead of Aces, life had dealt him countless Jokers, but he managed to live through all of them. He had been a very strong child all along.

"Goten? Hey, big brother?"

"H-huh?"

Goten's train of thought was broken by a call from Gohan. He was so deep in his mind he failed to notice his brother's attempt to gain his attention.

"Are you okay?" asked Gohan. All traces of sadness had vanished from him and he now sported a cheerful—albeit slightly concerned at Goten's unresponsiveness—expression.

"Uh… yeah, I was just thinking," replied Goten as he gathered his thoughts together, "What is it?"

"So what are we gonna do now?"

"I guess we agreed on having a big meal on our ship. You wanna come and join us?"

"Woah… really? What do you have?"

"Hmm… I think there's beef stew, ham sandwich, steak, curry. Hee-hee, there's a lot of food in our fridge."

"That's awesome! Let's go!"

At the thought of eating so much meat Gohan had to struggle hard not to salivate since he knew it was extremely rude and disgusting. Not wasting a single second, he hastily climbed on his brother's back and they flew into the distance. Goten happily complied when Gohan asked him to twirl and spin around like a rollercoaster car or fly in a vertical zigzag pattern, and he even did a little stunt by throwing the kid high into the air and catching him mid-fall—since Gohan knew how to fly there was no danger in doing it. He had actually encouraged Gohan to be childish and enjoy his life as much as possible; the child more than deserved it after all the nonsense he had to go through, and Goten had made a promise to do whatever it was that his brother asked of him as long as he was able to realise it. Before he had to return to his timeline, he would use the time to be a good 'big' brother and spoil Gohan with everything he had. Yes, they were happy, especially the little halfling…

… but it seemed someone wasn't as happy.

"Okay, what the heck?" still standing on the same spot where he had been, Trunks glowered as a bead of sweat ran down his temple, "I can't believe those two left without me…"

"I swear, the only thing that registers easily in your mind is food."

"Gee, sorry, Trunks! We got too excited!"

The middle hybrid had himself a long, nice interrogation session when the eldest returned to the spaceship. Trunks would've appreciated some help in bringing his father back, but to his dismay Goten and Gohan just blasted off without even looking back, seemingly having forgotten about him who had been there all along. And how envious he was upon finding out Goten had somehow managed to persuade Gohan to teach him the Masenko while he wasn't around! When they first saw their version of Gohan use it, he and Goten thought that particular technique was very cool and they had resolved to learn it someday. The fact that Goten had had a head start in figuring out how to use it came as unfair to him, so he vowed to himself that he would do the same before they returned to their timeline.

Satisfied for having playfully grilled his poor friend, he was left with just one more problem before their banquet could finally begin: Vegeta. The full-blooded Saiyan was still knocked out from the two-hit combo they had delivered as Gotenks; to make him at least more comfortable in his unconsciousness, Trunks dragged him into the bedroom, laid him down on the springy bed, and seated himself on the floor, leaning against the wardrobe. He was going to wait until his father woke up before throwing the celebration, since he thought he would appreciate some good food after a hard day's unreal load of work. However, after fifteen minutes of fruitless waiting, he soon drifted into blissful drowsiness…

… but a knock on the door yanked him back to the land of the wakeful. Trunks stood up and let out a huge yawn while stretching, and again another succession of knocks could be heard.

"You don't have to knock, you know. This is also your room."

Then came the Son brothers strolling into the room. From the look on his face, it was obvious Goten was going to raise a complaint about how Trunks took so long. In addition, with his hand on his stomach, Trunks could predict what Goten was going to say.

"What's taking you so long? I'm hungry," said the twin terrors in unison.

Completely flabbergasted at his friend's 'mind-reading' ability, Goten looked at him incredulously. "Howdcha do that?"

"You're so predictable. Can't you just wait until he wakes up, so we can have a good start?" asked Trunks. His own body, however, didn't agree; as though contradicting what he had just said, a rumbling sound came from his stomach. Hearing this, Gohan couldn't help giggling and Goten gave him an even stranger look, to which he responded by grinning sheepishly. "You know what? Forget about dad. Let's help ourselves with the food!" he exclaimed.

"He's still out cold. I thought you wanted to wait until he gets up?" Goten asked in a matter-of-fact tone. However, he was actually starting to worry if they had overdone it when trying to get the prince to safety during the fight earlier.

"He's such a sleepyhead. Well, it's not our fault if he misses all the good food," said Trunks as he casually walked out of the room, "C'mon! I'm not gonna wait for you if you're late."

"Have a good meal!"

Being a polite kid he was, Gohan carefully considered what he would like to eat, took just the right amount, and started eating slowly and gracefully. In complete contrast to him, however, Trunks and Goten did act; unheeding of common etiquettes they very swiftly and efficiently devoured everything before their eyes and made a pig out of themselves. Seeing them eat just like his father, Gohan was left with no choice but to reserve the food he was interested in before his brother and friend had the chance to finish it.

Their festivity was briefly interrupted by someone who had been unconscious for some time. This particular someone was awakened the irresistible aroma of meat, and when he went downstairs to the pantry he was surprised to see three brats voraciously—well, except one—gobbling untold amount of meat dishes on a rather small table which was actually starting to give in to the sheer weight of the food. The eldest of the three noticed him and invited him to the banquet; he snorted, but accepted the offer nonetheless since he couldn't deny the fact that he was starving. However, true to his personality, he decided to settle in the corner of the room rather than having to share a table with those boorish imps.

He then so rudely asked what had happened to him, but when the brat with that strange hair colour informed him about Frieza's demise at the hands of someone named Gotenks, he was most irritated. He believed his anger could be justified by a reason: for his terrible deeds he had done in the past, Frieza was supposed to die at the hands of a Saiyan. He figured this was a perfect time to interrogate the preadolescents once again, and this time he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Come what may, he had resolved to squeeze every drop of truth out of them, so he began by asking the most fundamental question: who were they?

"Me? I'm Goten, and this is Trunks," replied the spiky-haired boy nonchalantly.

"Do you think I'm stupid? I already know that!" Vegeta growled in exasperation, "Tell me where you came from!"

"You know that's a whole different question, right?" Trunks shrugged. Before his father broke out into yet another outburst, though, he followed with his reply. "We're from earth, as I said."

Of course that wasn't the kind of answer Vegeta considered satisfactory. Now totally frustrated, he needed to make his point clear. He confronted Trunks and Goten about the little details he had picked up since they first met, such as their knowledge of the 'over nine thousand' incident, how Trunks had said something along the lines of 'the same old story' when giving him the senzu bean, how they had been aware of Ginyu's ability, Gohan getting angry at Frieza for hurting his 'brother', Goten's knowledge of Kamehameha which as far as he knew was only exclusive to Kakarot, and finally Trunks's motives of taking a taste of Frieza's Death Beam in his place.

Presented with such great an amount of details, Trunks and Goten could only gawk at Vegeta's critical—and very remarkably so—observations. Goten knew it would come as a hard blow to his friend since he had been headstrong not to reveal their heritage to Vegeta, but right now all the evidence had been laid neatly on the table and there really was no point in covering up anymore. Trunks sighed, and with Goten by his side for support, he began to reluctantly divulge everything to his father just like what his best friend had done with Gohan earlier. To minimise the impact and increase his credibility, he broke the news in a rather indirect fashion.

"My mom is… Bulma, the lady who went here with Gohan. As you already know, Goten and Gohan are brothers. And yeah, like them, I'm… uh, a half-Saiyan, but… I'm not related to them…"

There. He spilled it. Slowly letting go of his hopes of being born in this timeline, he braced himself for the worst. Gears started spinning in the purebred's head, and slowly but surely the pieces arranged themselves very nicely. When the puzzle was finally solved, Trunks and Goten could've sworn they saw a crazy mix of confusion and anger on Vegeta's face.

"WHAT? I, the Prince of Saiyans, will father a half-breed with an earthling?" the grownup hollered, "Absurd! It doesn't make sense in the slightest bit, this is preposterous!"

Yes, just exactly the reaction Trunks had expected. For five full minutes Vegeta would ramble on and on about things he and Goten couldn't even make sense of. You can't blame him, though; the entire time travel and space-time continuum affair was something so technologically and scientifically advanced not even Gohan could comprehend as of now, and with that sheer influx of information Vegeta's flipping-out was totally understandable.

When he finally settled down an uncomfortable silence followed, the tension was high, and nobody had the guts to say anything. Trunks realised he needed to apologise; encouraged by Goten with a "good luck", he approached his father and gathered the courage to start the conversation.

"Vegeta, I…" he began but immediately paused, unsure of what to say next, "I'm sorry I had to keep this a secret. I just… didn't wanna mess up with the course of time anymore. I thought it would be best to let things flow naturally, and I didn't wanna influence your decisions. That's all. I'm… really sorry about this."

Another silence followed. Vegeta was actually at an impasse; he too was uncertain of himself. As much as he was disgusted at the thought of mating an earthling woman, he couldn't dismiss the fact that this boy who had done wondrous feats was his son, albeit from another timeline. How should he react? Should he show his pride and denied any relation with the woman, or swallow it and admit the child prodigy who was his son?

Then, perhaps for the first time in his life, he finally decided to carefully divulge the truth about his feelings. "Hmph. Imagine this. My son saved me from death three times, even risking his own life to do that. Very respectable," he said, much to the surprise of everyone present. Vegeta acknowledged Trunks as his son? Gohan almost choked on his ham sandwich when he heard this statement which was—knowing Vegeta—certainly a breakthrough. "And he managed to kill Frieza and avenge the Saiyan race. You are a true warrior, and I must say, boy, I'm proud of you."

Hearing his father's speech, Trunks's eyes were glimmering with hope. "Does… that mean…"

"Don't get me wrong!" the father interjected, "I was only saying you've done a very honourable deed, and that's all there is to it. You're a good example for my heir."

That was all Vegeta needed to elicit a very huge sigh of relief from Trunks who felt like his heart just skipped a few beats. At first he couldn't believe his ears, but after seeing Goten and Gohan exhibit similar reactions that just screamed confusion, he knew his brain wasn't playing tricks on him. And what was that final sentence Vegeta just said? His heir? So he was planning to father a child after all! How happy beyond comprehension Trunks was at the realisation; he was so happy he suffered to wobbly knees and fell on the floor. The Son brothers quickly came to his aid and helped him return to his feet while grinning and patting him on the back.

Trunks could, and would, still exist.

"Okay, so… we're finally ready to go home! Yay!" exclaimed Gohan in excitement, earning similar reactions from his brother and friend. Although his mission wasn't a complete success, they had neutralised a bigger threat to the universe; the sacrifice, according to Gohan, was well worth it. "I'm gonna get Bulma. Do you wanna come with me? Besides, you'll get to see Trunks's mom when she's still young," he tried to contain his giggle, "Who would've thought she's gonna end up with Vegeta?"

"Hmph! Ridiculous! Listen, boy," Vegeta snorted and looked at Trunks. He was never fond of such mushy stuff the earthlings so affectionately referred to as 'love'. He had always believed that possession of emotions was an unmistakable determinant of weaklings. "You might be my son in your timeline, and I don't know what that father of yours was thinking when he did that, but things aren't bound to be the same here."

There was something in Vegeta's words which caught Gohan's attention. "When he did what?"

"Something you'll know when you get older," Trunks quickly answered without making eye contact with the innocent child. He didn't want to take the blame for corrupting his mind.

"Uh, okay…?" having caught his brother's nervous chuckle at Trunks's reply, Gohan eyed them suspiciously. He quickly dismissed it nonetheless and turned to Vegeta. "But I thought when you threatened Krillin and me to give our Dragon Ball, you said something about Bulma being gorgeous…"

"What? I didn't…" Vegeta hollered. He could hear surprised gasps and suppressed murmurs interrupted by chuckles from the other hybrids. "You idiot! It was a figure of speech, I was being sarcastic!" It took everything in him not to blush although trying to suppress it proved very painful.

"Well, that's new. My dad would never say that to mom, go figure. Maybe you're different after all," Trunks smirked. He was clearly deriving entertainment from teasing Vegeta for his approach toward Bulma. Maybe, just maybe, instead of cancelling his birth in this timeline, he could make it happen sooner.

"You brats are sickening me! I said shut up, or I'm going to blast all three of you all the way to earth!"

"Wowee, you can do that?" Goten responded teasingly, "That's good, because we can save spaceship fuel! But…" he tilted his head to the right in an attempt to look adorable, then produced a wide mischievous grin that threatened to split his face in half, "… that means you'll have to get off this planet with Auntie Bulma, just the two of you… ooohh."

The other two hybrids immediately burst out into a paroxysm of insane laughter at Goten's surprisingly clever remark, especially with that 'ooohh' he let out very, very mawkishly. Trunks struggled to catch his breath between his laughter and Gohan—somehow he understood the context of the conversation, although how he managed to do it was beyond everybody. Books, perhaps?—buried his face in his arms while pounding the table with his fist in a futile attempt to get over his exhilaration. Who knew the normally innocent and shy Goten could be this ruthless when teasing other people? It looked like the saying 'still water runs deep' was true after all; never underestimate a calm person, for his quiescence may belie the unexpected qualities he may possess.

Of course, Vegeta was nowhere near pleased at these bratty halflings' jollity. He shot up from his seat and formed a rather large energy sphere in record time. "You rotten…!"

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, dad!" Trunks speedily interrupted—although still in crazed laughter—before his father could cause any serious damage to their only means of getting back home, "If you destroy this ship then it's gonna get even worse. You'll be stuck here with all of us and mom, and we're gonna annoy you to death."

"Besides, look. You've always been proud of your Saiyan heritage, but with no more Saiyan women out there, how else do you think you can preserve it? It's not that bad of a deal, think about it!" he elaborated after he had calmed himself down. To his surprise, Vegeta seemed to be seriously considering about it now. Just a little bit more persuasion, now… "Plus, on earth, you can spar with Goten and Gohan's dad anytime, anywhere! Cool, huh?"

At the thought of pounding his archrival into a pulp, a smirk graced Vegeta's lips. "I have to admit, the prospect of fighting Kakarot and show him what happens if he messes with the strongest Saiyan makes your suggestion of staying on earth worth accepting. Besides, you've seen the power of this brat of his. He may make a good training partner, and I, too, shall one day become a Super Saiyan," he said, but a vicious scowl quickly replaced his smug expression, "But there's no guarantee that I will father you! Do I make myself clear? Well, do I?"

"Okay, whatever you say, I guess," replied Trunks casually while making his exit from the dining room.

"I guess everything turns out better than we expected, huh, Goten?"

"See? I told you. You worried too much. That fight we had earlier on Frieza's ship was unnecessary…"

"Yeah… sorry about that."

"It doesn't cancel your promise of being my shield next time."

"Hey guys! Ready to go?"

Trunks and Goten's conversation was broken by Gohan's cheerful voice. Looking all set and ready for their quest for the princess, he sported this wide grin on his face and his huge obsidian eyes were radiating an untold dose of excitement. Of course, who wouldn't be happy at the prospect of finally getting home after being away for quite some time, not to mention the harshness of those days? Besides, Gohan would get to spend so much time with his brother whom he had very easily grown attached to; after Frieza's defeat, Goten and Gohan were practically inseparable with the latter following the former wherever he went. The thought of enjoying his well-earned happy childhood, although perhaps just for a moment before Goten had to return to his timeline, was more than enough to cast a perpetual smile on his face.

"Yeah. Let's get my mom before dad does and brings her here on a white horse, Prince Charming style," Trunks smirked. He purposely spoke louder than necessary to make sure Vegeta heard what he said.

"That's not going to happen, because I'm staying here!" came Vegeta's grumpy voice, "Now hurry up and get that woman, so I can go to earth and fight Kakarot already!"

"You hear that, Goten?" the lilac head asked his best friend with a mischievous grin, "Dad wants mom here fast! Ooohh." To further aggravate the irritated adult, Goten quickly followed with his version of 'ooohh' which was infinitely schmaltzier.

"GO AWAY BEFORE I BLAST THAT SORRY BOTTOM OF YOURS!"

The prince's threat was met with another crazy giggle from the terrible trio. Countless ideas of teasing Vegeta and Bulma during their trip back home had already been coursing through their collective mind, and pulling one prank or another on them was a must-do. Oh yes, with the two adults travelling in the same ship as the boys, the journey was sure to be one heck of a living anathema.