This is my first time writing a one-shot that is Goten centric and it's been forever since I've actually updated this story, so I hope you guys enjoy!

Goten's Worries

Age 780

Spring was in the air, and those with allergies could really feel it. (Lol). Flowers were in bloom as the Sun was beginning to emerge more from behind the clouds and envelop the Earth in a warm blanket of love. With spring came rebirth, and new life after a cold winter had seemed to bury everything under the snow and ice.

As the Sun was coming up, 13-year old Goten was packing a small bag of things to take with him before going to Yahhoy City to visit his oldest sister, Chiyo. She had moved out there with her wife, Lucie, and Lucie's 2-year old son, Ryan, shortly after the two women had gotten married. It was a nice place from what Chiyo told everyone, and Goku had a few memories from there as well since he had been there once as a kid.

Regardless, Goten wanted to go out there to see his oldest sister, who he hadn't seen in a while. Besides, everyone else was busy anyway: Goku was doing some solo training, Gohan was on a family vacation with Videl and Pan to Dream Land Amusement Park, Chinku was training at the Satan City Police Academy, Daichi was at his weekly comedy lesson with King Kai, and Chibi was on what she dubbed a "practice date" with Trunks. To put it bluntly, no one else was really available to hang out with. I mean, that's not entirely true since Goten could spend time with his Mother, but…..the two weren't exactly on good speaking terms at the moment.

Either way, Goten thought it would be a good idea to leave to see his sister. He could make it to Yahhoy and back before dinner, and Chi-Chi wouldn't even notice he was gone. Once he made it outside, Goten took to the air and sped off towards his sister's home. His somewhat longer hair flapped in the wind as he soared through the clouds. Long-gone was his old hairstyle where he looked like a miniature version of his Father, and now he was sporting a somewhat surfer-dude hairstyle that his Mother wasn't the biggest fan of. However, he liked it, and that's all that mattered to him. Due to his somewhat rigorous training that his Father made him do, Goten made it to Yahhoy City about an hour after leaving home.

As soon as he touched down on the ground, Goten noticed how busy the place was. It was nowhere near West City or Satan City levels of activity, but it was still compact enough to be considered a city, that's for sure. As he walked, he noticed the people walking by. They were mostly young couples walking with their hands interlocked with one another or with one leaning their head on their partners' shoulder as they walked. He also noticed kids around his age running about, and he even got stopped by a pretty girl who thought he looked really cute. (The whole interaction made him completely flustered).

Upon rounding the last corner that he needed to, Goten noticed a couple walking by with the woman pushing a baby stroller. The baby in said stroller looked directly at Goten, and Goten felt like it was judging him. It unnerved him, and he quickly dashed by it and its parents before coming up to a lovely three-story building at the end of the street. He went up to the front door and rang the doorbell. It didn't take long for someone to answer. The door opened to reveal a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties with short blonde hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexation on the other side. She smiled upon seeing Goten.

"Goten, what a surprise," Lucie greeted her little brother-in-law. "I didn't expect you to be coming over."

"Hi, Lucie," Goten greeted back, remembering the manners that had been drilled into him since he was younger. "I was just dropping by to see Chiyo. Is she here?"

"She's upstairs in her studio," Lucie explained before opening the door wider. "You can come on in. I'm making some tea right now."

Accepting the offer, the young teen walked into the house and noticed the tea-kettle on the stove and the 2-year old boy with brown hair and familiar blue eyes in the living room watching a highlight reel from Hercule's latest press conference on the upcoming tournament in two months.

He didn't say anything as he made his way upstairs to the third floor of the house, where the landing led to a room that had walls as white as snow. Covering them were painting canvas that were filled with familiar and unfamiliar images to Goten. Many of them seemed to be themed around his friends and family. There was one where it seemed to be portraying Gotenks as a super saiyan; another had the seven dragon balls swirling around what looked to be Shenron, the dragon; another one was of the lookout. Each painting held significant meaning and displayed an array of vibrant colors.

"Woah," He mumbled under his breath as he looked at the paintings. He had seen a few of them before, but there were also painting that he had no recollection of ever seeing before. It didn't surprise him since this was what Chiyo did for a living. There were bound to be paintings that he'd never see.

That's when he saw that his sister was sitting at the other end of the loft-area behind a canvas. She had her hair completely down, a rare sight to see since Chiyo liked to keep it in a proper braid most of the time. She must've been in a serious art mood if she didn't care whether or not she had her hair upright. "Let's see," Goten could hear Chiyo say aloud as she worked on the painting. "Maybe it needs a more grey tone."

"Um, Chiyo?" Goten spoke up to get her attention. He had managed to walk over to her side without her even noticing.

Chiyo jumped a bit when she heard Goten speak. However, she settled down when she saw that it was just Goten. "Oh, Goten," Chiyo chuckled a bit when she saw her little brother. "You startled me there. I must've really been in the zone not to notice you come up."

Goten nervously laughed a bit. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to disturb you or anything," Goten apologized. "If you're busy, I can come back later."

"Oh no, you're fine," Chiyo insisted, putting her paintbrush down in a little mug that had twenty other brushes inside them.

Goten noticed how Chiyo's hands were covered in little splotches of paint, and the white smock that she was wearing was covered in purple and grey. He glanced at the painting to notice that the piece she was painting looked to be a water-color one. The purple seemed to engulf the landscape scene in the image in its eerie blanket. It gave off a less-than-pleasant vibe in comparison to Chiyo's other paintings. "What's this, Chiyo?"

"Oh, I was feeling a bit down today. Something from when I was younger kept popping up in my head, and I had to paint it."

"Ah….What is it, if you don't mind me asking?"

Chiyo let out a winded sigh and explained to Goten the return of the villain Garlic Jr who wanted revenge on the Earth for being imprisoned in the dead zone. She told him how Garlic released the Black Water Mist onto Earth and turned any who breathed it into horrible zombie-like creatures. It didn't take long for her to tell him the gist of how she, Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo managed to save the Earth and turn everyone back to normal before any irreversible damage could be done. (She also mentioned how Krillin had a girlfriend at the time, but that was beside the point).

"Woah, that sounds terrifying."

"It was. Sometimes that stuff doesn't really go away, but you learn to live with it and deal with it in healthy mediums. For me, that's painting. Now, what brings you by, Goten?"

Goten quickly clammed up after his sister asked him that. He could tell her the real reason he came over or give her the excuse he worked on while flying over there. He decided to go with the latter. "I just wanted to hang out with you, Chiyo. We don't really get to do that anymore."

Chiyo was a bit suspicious. I mean, it took Goten about half a minute to actually answer her. He seemed to be hiding something. However, she didn't want to push him, knowing all too well how that felt. Her mom did that to her when she was a kid, and it just made her not want to talk to her about anything at all. He'd tell her when he was ready to. "All right. Well, I'm done with this painting, so why don't we head on downstairs? I heard that Lucie was making tea."

"Yeah, okay."

The two made their way downstairs to find Lucie finishing up the tea and pouring three cups of it. Chiyo took her cup from her wife, and Goten grabbed his own cup before going to sit down at the little kitchen bar next to the living room. "So, Goten," Lucie began sitting down next to the young man. "I see you're going for the surfer-dude look. It suits you."

"Y-You think so?" Goten asked, blushing a bit at the compliment. "Mom's not too big a fan of it."

"Because she knows when you go to school, all the girls won't be able to take their eyes off you," Lucie joked, chuckling to herself and rubbing him atop his head. "Just keep yourself away from troublemakers, Goten. That's all I gotta say."

"Troublemakers?" Goten repeated, not sure what Lucie meant by that.

"Troublemakers," Lucie repeated. "I dated a few in high school and college. Let me tell ya, I was a wild one before meeting your sister."

"You still act like a wild one, everyone now and again," Chiyo joked, smiling sweetly at her wife.

"Well, it's because you're so chill, Chiyo," Lucie stated, putting down her tea-cup. "Considering all the things you've been through, I have no idea how you've managed to stay so calm. I mean, I could do a whole news segment on you alone, let alone your whole family."

"Let's just keep that between us, okay? The last thing anyone wants is news reporters on their lawns. I mean, I live with one, after all."

Goten thought the two women were flirting back and forth between each other, but he wasn't sure and decided not to question it.

After having the spot of tea that Lucie had made, Ryan wanted to go outside and play in the backyard, and Chiyo thought it would be good to get some fresh air. Lucie agreed with her, and soon all four of them were outside. Goten and Chiyo went and sat on the back porch while Ryan played on the swing-set Lucie and Chiyo built for him. The 2-year old pumped his legs back and forth to get as much air as he possibly could without needing to be pushed by his mom.

Sitting outside, Chiyo brought out a small sketchbook and a pencil with her in case inspiration struck her, and she needed to jot down a quick doodle for reference for later. Goten would've questioned his sister on why she would want to do this, but she had always done that ever since he could remember. Whenever she wasn't studying, she was doodling or painting.

"So, how's everyone doing at the house?" Chiyo asked after trotting down a doodle of a bird resting in a tree.

"Oh, they're good," Goten replied, taken a bit off guard by his sister's question. "Dad's still Dad with his training and stuff; Daichi's still going to those comedy lessons; Chibi's on a practice date with Trunks; you know, nothing too major is really going on."

"And Mom? How is she doing?" Chiyo followed up.

Goten paused for a brief moment. "…..She's fine too."

So that's what's bugging him, Chiyo thought to herself. She was perceptive of things like that. "That's good. Is she taking it easy with everything going on?"

"Y-Yeah," Goten stuttered, looking down at his legs. He didn't really want to talk about his mom. That was the whole reason for coming here to get away from that stuff. He had to shift the focus off of him and onto something else. Looking over at Chiyo's sketchbook, Goten wanted to get a peek at the drawings Chiyo was going on. That seemed to be a good topic to discuss with his sister.

"Whatcha got other than the bird drawing?" He asked as she closed the book and put it down.

"Just some sketch ideas," Chiyo stated, turning to her brother when she spoke. "It's nothing too fancy."

"Well…can I see some of the drawings?" Goten questioned. He knew his sister was sometimes secretive about her art, but he hoped that this would be a perfect distraction from talking about his Mother.

Thinking it over for a moment, Chiyo nodded and gave Goten the sketchbook to look over the drawings. The first few pages were of flowers and sites in the city, nothing that really stood out too much to the young boy. However, the next few pages did hold some exciting images. The first one was a sketch to catch his eye was of Piccolo meditating on top of the lookout, followed by Chiyo and Gohan dressed as the great saiyagirl and great saiyaman respectively, then a drawing of their Father as a Super Saiyan 3, and then the rest of the pictures were nothing too special. Then, Goten found one to be of an unfamiliar young man with spiky hair going up like a super saiyan, but there was lighting around his body as well. He couldn't quite figure out who this was. "Hey, sis, who's this?" Goten asked, showing his sister the picture in question.

"Hmm?" Chiyo said, looking up from watching Lucie and Ryan playing. She looked at the picture, and her eyes slightly widen before returning to normal. She gave her brother a small smile before sighing. "That would be Gohan when he went super saiyan 2 for the first time."

"Oh yeah?" Goten questioned. The more he looked at it, the more he realized that this must've been his oldest brother when he was younger. That explained the super saiyan aesthetic.

Chiyo nodded. "Yep. He was so strong that he was even stronger than dad at that point."

"Really?" Nowadays, Goten couldn't imagine Gohan being stronger than their Father. Their dad was always pushing himself to go beyond his own limits and fight at his maximum, going to levels of gods. Goten knew Gohan had potential, but he didn't think his brother would ever fully overtake his dad again.

"Oh yeah. It was an exciting yet scary time." She flipped the page to reveal a young Gohan smirking picture as he glared off to the side. "Gohan let the power get to his head, though. A lot of people were put in danger because of it…and I almost lost my best friend." Chiyo's eyes momentarily glazed over as she thought back to that time when her brother's power almost took him over completely. He became a completely different person under the influence of super saiyan 2, and she figured that was partially why he didn't go super saiyan that much anymore, to avoid feeling that way again. "He and I talk about it every now and again. He's not that same person anymore."

"Was it really that bad?"

"Yeah….But like I said, he's not like that anymore. Sometimes, when one of us is feeling down, we call the other twin to talk to. It's what you do as a family."

Goten bit his lip a bit as Chiyo took the sketchbook back. How had she circled everything around to family like that?

"….Listen, Goten, why don't I show you something real quick?" Chiyo said, standing up from her seat.

"Uh, okay," Goten replied, standing up too.

He followed his sister over to a small shed in the backyard's corner. Chiyo opened the door and turned on a light to reveal a stack of canvas paintings covered by a sheet. Chiyo stripped the sheet away and revealed that the canvas all had miscellaneous pictures painted on them. Most were very well detailed and didn't seem like they belonged in an old shed.

"What is this?"

"I call it my dump shed. You know how I was doing that painting earlier?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, it's going in here in a little bit."

This puzzled Goten. His sister seemed like she was nearly done with that painting, and now she was talking about throwing it into some musty shed with some other canvases? That didn't make sense at all, especially considering that it looked like it was a lovely painting.

"Why do that? I thought you liked the painting."

"I never said I liked the painting. Sometimes I paint to get my frustrations out." Chiyo then began rummaging through some of the canvases before pulling out one with a painting of the Frieza guy that had come to Earth before. He was white and purple in this one and towered over a little girl that Goten figured was Chiyo. The Chiyo in the painting looked terrified. "There are things that even I can't talk about with Gohan, but I know that I can't keep them inside. Bottling up emotions just makes things worse, Goten. Believe me, I know."

"…I don't wanna talk about it, okay?" Goten figured out what Chiyo was doing by showing him the shed and its paintings inside. He just didn't want to talk about it.

"I'm not saying you talk about it with me, Goten," Chiyo quietly told her brother. She walked over to him and got down on her knees so that she was eye-level with her little brother. "But I am saying you shouldn't bottle up your emotions like you are right now. I know that things at home are crazy right now, but hiding your emotions isn't gonna help you, bud."

"I just….I don't know how to feel, I guess," Goten sighed and slid to the floor, leaning up against one of the shed walls. Chiyo sat down next to him. "I'm excited that Mom is gonna have another baby, but….I guess I'm scared."

"Of what?"

"I don't know; maybe, having all the pressure of being a big brother? I mean, what if I'm no good at it? Mom and I got into an argument about it the other day and….I said some mean things to her."

"I see." Chiyo smiled at her little brother and parted some hair from his face. "Well, you wouldn't be the first to say some stuff to her."

"But I never fight with Mom, ever! I didn't mean to yell at her, but she keeps talking about the new baby and putting all this pressure on me about being responsible and stuff, and I….I don't think I'm ready to be a big brother."

"No one's ever really ready to be an older sibling, Goten. Gohan and I weren't ready to be a big brother and sister to four other kids. But we did the best we could."

"That's not all, though." A look of worry was settling onto Goten's face as he pulled his knees close to his chest, and he rested his arms on top of them. Then, he placed his chin on his arms as he looked across the room at the other side of the shed. "What if….I get forgotten by Mom and Dad and everyone else?" Small tears pricked the side of Goten's eyes as he tried not to cry.

"Oh, Goten," Chiyo said before wrapping her arms around her little brother and pulling him into a warm hug. She stroked his head as she held him. "Listen, Goten, no matter what, you're not going to be forgotten, do you understand? Family doesn't forget family. Just because a new baby is coming doesn't mean you'll be left behind."

Goten chuckled, and he looked up at Chiyo. "You sound like a Disney movie."

"Well, when you have a 2-year old who watches either Hercule press conferences or Disney movies, you pick up a few things."

Coming home later that day, Goten opened the door to the house and found that his mother was in the living room, stitching up a few clothes with her slightly rounded stomach. She hadn't noticed him come in yet. He thought about going upstairs and not saying anything but decided to not ignore the issue anymore. "Mom?" Goten said from the doorway of the living room.

Chi-Chi looked up from her work and over at her young son in the doorframe. "Yes, Goten?" She asked, putting down her stitch-work. She was surprised that Goten was talking to her considering the fight they had had a while ago. "What is it?"

"…I….I wanna talk to you if that's okay."

Chi-Chi blinked a bit when she heard this but smiled softly at her son. "Of course, it's okay, sweetie. Come over here, and we'll talk."

Welp, this kind of ripped my heart out. Goten is a good kid and needs more love and attention. Can we all agree on that? Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this little chapter and I hope to see you next time, either here or on the main story. Have a good day everyone and remember to wash your hands!