He told him that, about four years ago, he had met a girl, one day, while training. Firstly he didn't notice her presence and, when he finally discovered her, observing him astonished from below, half hidden, he knew that she had watched the whole thing: that he was able to fly, that he could become a supersayjin, throw energy balls, everything. He flied down beside her and, in the beginning, she tried to escape out of panic but he got to stop her and told her not to be scared. That he didn't mean any harm.
With someone else he would have gone on training, he made Trunks notice, but not with her; he had noticed with only one glance that she was different. He felt odd.
Forgetting all about training, his only wish was to talk to her.
So he had calmed her down (after all, nobody was surprised because of something a bit out of normality those days), and they sat down, just like the boy and he was sitting then, to talk.
Son Gohan told Trunks that he had never seen a more beautiful girl.
"You couldn't even imagine her", he murmured, hardly sketching a smile, and Trunks shrugged in response.
He simply couldn't take his eyes off of her. She had short, black hair, and blue eyes, huge and gorgeous according to Son Gohan. In the beginning of their conversation her eyes had been dubious, fearful; little by little, while talking, their expression progressively became relaxed, until she showed Son Gohan what he, from then on, considered the most beautiful thing in Creation: her smile. He said to Trunks that there was no point in trying to describe it, because he would not be able to. He had tried it before and he had never been able to. It was, simply....
He remained silent for some instants, looking for the exact word, and shook his head.
"Perfect", he concluded.
Trunks bit his lips, with a shy expression. He was amazed because of his master; he had never seen such a visage. It was like a mixture between an unending sorrow and something else, something else that he did not know to identify until much, much later, one day, looking at his reflection on a mirror: love for a girl.
Nevertheless, he did not know anything about his master's look, so he kept on staring at him, though he still had his gaze lost on the horizon, and mindfully listening to him, though only half-understanding, astounded.
After that first time, they started meeting regularly. It was a gradual, slow, with little sudden changes. They ended meeting every day, nearly without realising how they had got to that point.
Trunks showed his surprise. He had never seen his master with any girl, and mother had said nothing about it either, he made him note.
His master sadly smiled and explained that that was because he hadn't wanted anyone to know. He could not tell very well why. Probably because he had been afraid, it was some kind of irrational fear. As if, only by speaking with someone about it, she would disappear or their relationship would end abruptly. But also for it had been his secret so far. His and hers, no one else's. Something special that the girl shared with him only.
They met when his mother and he thought that he was training.
"You didn't tell because, when you were younger, your mother hardly ever let you get out of the bunker, do you remember?", Gohan explained, looking at him for the first time since he had started speaking.
He nodded. Now it was a bit more relaxed (though not too much yet!), but Trunks could recall when, only a bit ago, mother would go literally hysterical if he went out of the bunker on his own. There was no use in making her remember that she spent the day out, herself, in Cc, working on the machine or whatever, and that, in the end, she was much weaker than Trunks. No, she didn't even want to hear a word about it, if he was not with Son Gohan, he was not going out. So, despite the child's protests, she had him almost the whole day hidden inside the bunker, which walls were designed by Bulma's father, made the energies from inside very faint and unnoticeable, so that they could not be noticed by someone from the exterior, as vice versa.
That was the reason because Trunks, doing his homework, drawing, reading or playing any video game, did not notice that there was a girl with his master, a girl that was spending more and more time with him everyday.
They became closer friends each time. Gohan could think of nothing else, he needed her, he needed to see her, to talk to her, to see her smile. One single day without meeting, because of any reason, whatever, became torture.
And, finally, the next step happened. As the rest of their relationship, it was calmed, spontaneous and not forced at all; one day, one random day, they kissed each other.
Trunks moved a bit, feeling a bit ashamed, but weird above all. His master had never told him about that, never with that voice. And now he felt as if he shouldn't listen, to all he was telling him. As... as if he was an intruder.
But Gohan didn't seem to notice and he kept on speaking, always in a whisper, with tearful shining eyes and with his look locked straight forward. He did not look like he was talking to him. It was more as if he was thinking aloud, meditating for himself.
The need of one another started growing, progressively, till the point that the minutes he did not spend with her were unbearable. When they met, they held each other sharply, stating that need, and they kissed long and passionately, as if wanting to make that moment everlasting, as if wanting to have the other completely inside, inside in all, inebriated with that contact. Gohan loved her with delirium, totally, he was completely crazy about her. He had never felt something of the sort for anyone.
Trunks had lowered his gaze and was playing, almost unnoticeable, with a little yellow flower, but, since his master stopped, all of a sudden, he looked at him again.
His gesture frightened him. He looked sick, nearly fainting.
"Gohan...", he whispered. He didn't know why, but he wouldn't have felt right if he had spoken out loud. "Are you alright...?"
He assented slowly and rubbed his eyes with one hand. After that he went on speaking, with more speed than before, as if he was on a hurry to finish.
One day when it rained they first made love. As everything in their relationship, it was something that happened when it had to, not forcedly at all, little by little. They had taken shelter in a store when the first drops started to fall. They started kissing and stroking one another until their wish was impossible to take any longer and they ended on some blankets that they found there, covered with dust from head to toe but with identical happy smiles. That day, when Gohan went back home, he felt like he was in heaven, floating among the various clouds. He was not even thinking of that Monster any longer. Only her, her and her smile, her and her sweet kisses, her and her smooth hands occupied his mind. She was giving him life. When she was not there, he was dead. He didn't give a damn about anything else than the moment when seeing her again, just that.
Trunks, frightened, saw that big tears were travelling down his master's face, but not daring to say anything; he just rested his hand over his shoulder, trying to comfort him. His master looked at him without really seeing him, and went on speaking.
They did it again several more times, four, five, six, until he had lost count. By then he could not help but tell her every moment that he loved her, he couldn't live without covering her with kisses. And he started insisting that he wanted her to go and live in the bunker. He was worried, terribly worried, because of the fact that she had to live on the surface, totally unprotected from the surprise attacks that the Monster was so fond of. In fact, he was, when he was not seeing her, sick with worry, during the times he spent in the bunker, he lived with an ear stuck to the radio, for being constantly informed on the Monster's attacks.
Trunks knitted his brows for a moment. He could, confusedly, remember a time when, indeed, his master did not let the device, even reaching the point of shouting at him if he ever thought of speaking during a news broad cast.
But she was not totally convinced. That was, of course that she wanted to live with Gohan, and all, but... there was the problem that her father implicated. He had been one of the most important people in the world, he told Trunks, and he nodded, swallowing saliva. It was terrible to see Son Gohan in such a state. It was making him feel completely vulnerable. If him, his master, didn't know how to react in that situation, how would he, who was still a child?
He would rather not think about that. He shyly clasped his hand around his master's arm and he went on speaking.
Yes, he had once been one of the most important men in the world and he was terribly proud. He would never accept anyone else helping him; he would rather do everything by himself. No, he wouldn't want to accompany his daughter to her man's bunker. And she couldn't leave him out.
Of course when it came to choose between Gohan or her father, the balance unmistakably inclined towards the first. More so when their relationship took one step further. And then they were not a couple.
Perhaps that was what shocked them more of their life together, for none of them had thought of having a baby, not at the moment, being the Earth in its current situation. They had used condoms every time; but they supposed that some of them could have been in a bad state. After all, they got them from an abandoned pharmacy. Who knew how long they had been there, on the shelves. They used to take the ones that had not overpast their 'best before' date, or, if they all had, the ones that had recently overpast; in the end, the date was only illustrative. However, although all the precautions they took, they failed some point, and there was no use wondering where. The fact was that they would have a baby.
And they only had nine months to get ready for it.
Gohan, more enthusiastic each time with the idea of being a father, would not stop asking the girl to move to the bunker. Then, if it was possible, he was even more worried about her than before, for, added to the fact of living totally unprotected from the Monster, in a normal and common house, half ruined, were, besides, the sudden sickness and, above all, that energy that showed itself more explosively every day inside the girl's belly, and that could act perfectly as a magnet for the Monster.
Trunks could feel a heavier weight on his chest as his master spoke. Gohan had stopped crying, but he had red eyes and his face was wet. He felt that the moment was growing near. He did not want to listen. He did not want to hear.
But he didn't find the strength to interrupt him and his master went on speaking.
Gohan was trying not to think about it, but he couldn't help it, it was eating him alive inside, he would die if he were not beside her to protect her from any attack. And he couldn't help but repeating, tirelessly, every minute, and every way, that she had to move to live with them.
And she, little by little, let him convince her. After all, she was dying to live with the man she loved. More so, with the girl expecting a baby. It was not only her security that was at risk any longer. Obviously, she was afraid of living on the surface, without any protection, but it hadn't looked that grave. Now, however, with the baby, things were different. She could not leave her child to live without security warranties. Gohan's bunker, under the ground, with energy-attacks-resistant walls and able to hide the chi seemed to her the most appropriate place for their child to be raised. Moreover, it was already the time to move to live with Son Gohan. For them and for their future children. She did not want their child to have his parents living apart... And she would be able to see him the whole day, all the time! They would go to bed together and they would wake up with the other one on their side, hugging each other and happy. They wouldn't have to be separated ever more, not at all like they were then, when every goodbye meant torture... she could not imagine more happiness. Gohan and she together, with a child of their own totally secure under ground...!
Finally, she agreed. Her father would have to understand; one day, the girl told Gohan that she would explain everything to her father and that, as soon as she could, they would move together to the bunker.
Frightened, feeling his heart very small, the smallest, Trunks noticed that his master was crying again. He saw him raise a hand and rub his eyes, but he got nothing. He turned again, not looking at Trunks anymore, and he hid his face between his knees. When he spoke, Trunks hardly recognised his voice. In fact, there was nothing he recognised about that man. He hardly seemed his master, the proud man that never allowed himself to be defeated by anything he knew of.
"Can you remember the attack some years ago? The one that destroyed half the West City?"
Trunks said that he did, in a whisper. He could remember, he had been very afraid. Mother had hugged him until she nearly choked him, hidden in the bunker, while they could hear the explosions and earthquakes coming from the surface. Theoretically, their bunker should resist the attacks but, as it had never been proved, they couldn't be totally sure.
And above all, he could remember that when that had all happened, Gohan had gone outside the bunker and had not come back until much, much later. He could remember that his mother and he had been terribly worried. That they had not known if he would ever come back.
For some dreadful hours, they thought that the Monster had killed him. After all, he was not strong enough to challenge it. Trunks could remember himself, six or seven, crying and begging his mother to let him go find his master, getting out of her embrace nearly hysterically. But she didn't want to hear a word about going outside. She even slapped him in order to make him see sense, and him, stunned, had to bow before the evidence, stopping struggling. Even if he went out, there was nothing he could do to help his master. It would kill him too.
Finally, he could remember himself, slowly and sobbing, falling asleep in her mother's arms. When he woke up, he was in his bed, as if nothing had ever happened, as if it was a normal day. He even thought, relieved, that it had all been a horrible nightmare. But when he went out of his bedroom, he found out the hurtful reality. Gohan had come back, indeed, but he had come back terribly wounded. He lay on his bed, unconscious, while mother was trying to do as much as possible for him, covering his bruises with iodine and wrapping the ones she considered the most important.
Of course he could remember. That memory would never be erased from his mind although centuries passed. It made him realise that they were not as secure as it may seem. And the worst: it made him realise that, someday, Gohan could die. From there on, that idea had been fixed in his brain, almost imperceptible, as a noise in the back that never abandoned him. It was always there, always, making him remember in a murmur that made him shiver.
Gohan sighed deeply, as if asphyxiating, and a shudder went through him.
Trunks did not want to listen. He did not want him to tell him. He nearly wished he could put his hands on his ears, run away, flee from that all.
But Gohan did not stop. He heard he swallow saliva and getting prepared for letting it go.
"She died on that attack", he finally murmured.
Trunks looked down, hardly holding the tears back.
They were not in time.