Standard Disclaimer applies. 

Trunk's POV

Speech

I'm siding with my father.  I hate all Sons.  You especially.  And, like my father, I only want to be with you. 

Sometimes I wonder if I'm anything more than a good time to you.  Sure we've been friends since forever…but it could have been just about anybody else.  I could have been anybody else, and you'd have been 'best friends' with him just like you are to me.  Anybody else could have given you what I have.  Anybody else would have.

I'm not questioning our friendship.  I-I'm…sorry.  I didn't mean for it to sound like that.  What I'm questioning is…me, I guess.  And you.  And-well, still you and me, I guess.

I forget sometimes about those things, the way they are.

It's sort of like how I can never remember those mall pictures you goggle over so much, the ones that change every time you look at it.  It's a woman if you look at the black and a dog if you look at the white and some kind of ugly bird if you look at the red.  And yet it's just a swirl of colors if you look at it all together.

Sometimes I look at us in the red, and it's different than the white friendship we had.  Have.  Yeah.

Well, anyway, we're here.  Goten?  We're at your hou-Oh.  You fell asleep.  Again.

You _always_ fall asleep.  I swear, eat, sleep, and laugh; those are your basic functions.  You're just like at cat, you're so lazy.  Just like a cat, stretched yet curled on the backseat, on hand cradling your head while the other arm hangs over the edge at the wrist, showing the pale, almost luminescent quality of your arms and long strengthy fingers of your family. 

My father never really quit regretting that my hair came out so flat, and your ebony spikes catch what little porch light there is and suck it inside itself, throwing jagged shadows over the unnatural paleness and gentle yet sculpted contours of your face.  Father says Saiyans never had such pale skin; it's some kind of defect or abnormality in Goku-san's blood.  He says things like that all the time about Goku though. 

It doesn't change a thing for you.  It doesn't look like a defect on you.  You look so…so you, I guess.  The way you always look.  You know. 

I can't see your legs or even most of your body, but I really don't need to.  I know what they look like.  I've looked at them enough.

I get out and around to where you were, yanked open the door and almost yanked you out too, but I didn't.  I could have yelled at you too, or poked you until you woke up, I didn't do that either.

I could see your face better from this angle, and I'm suddenly overcome with the urge to smash your face flat, to pull you out and slap you over and over again, until you put your hands on me and touch me to push me away or hit me back, so I could grab and hold you so close and so tight so you couldn't hit me and you couldn't get away and I could keep you and look at you and touch you whenever I wanted.

I want to touch you.  Right now.

My fingers brush your hair, and I think briefly to father and my own hair and I'm listening super-close to your respiration and heartbeat.  Except that I can't hear anything over my own heartbeat, so I watch the rise and fall of your chest and shoulders instead.  Your hair is a lot coarser than mine, more than any human girl's, but it's really light, clear.  No gel, no mousse.  Just natural, and organic.  Just real.  My fingers almost follow my gaze to your chest, but then they touch your skin and I completely forget about it.

Your skin is burning, not painful or alarming, but so warm it's a shock, a beacon in the brisk fall night.  Or I was cold, anyway.  I traced my fingers over your skin, and I can't even describe it right.  I can barely remember it right.  I do remember it wasn't all smooth.  Some parts yielded more easily to my fingers than other.  Some parts were just meat, other was just bone.

I guess,…maybe it really wasn't that remarkable.  I mean, it's not like I haven't touched you before.  I usually do at least once a day.  Sometimes I even notice when I haven't, and then I want to.  But this time it was different.  You didn't know right then, it was a secret.  It was my secret.  It…wasn't so much what you felt like.  The big deal was what I felt inside.  In my mouth, the top of my throat, the center of my chest.  It…it was weird.  It was really weird.  It hurt…but I kind of liked it too.

I almost touched your lips.

I almost did, but I didn't, so that's what's important.

Almost.

I knew they'd be dry.  Dry, and not exactly smooth, but not rough, and very firm and full.

I almost touched them.

But I-

That doesn't matter.  I'm being,…stupid I guess, and that isn't really my role, Go-chan, that's yours.  Just kidding, just kidding, geez, relax man, I didn't really mean it.  If you were awake, I'm pretty sure you would've hit me already or pouted or stuck your tongue out or something but you're asleep so you didn't and I didn't so it's OK really, so let's get you inside before your mom kills me right?  Right.  Ok.

I grab your shoulder and pull you out, working on autopilot and not really paying attention to you but trying to concentrate on what your mom is going to say and what I'm going to say and how to close the door with my foot without putting a dent in it.

And not, I repeat not, thinking of how you feel in my arms.  Or how your head feels against my chest.

And then we're at the door.

I don't even have time to knock.

Ohayo, Chi-Chi-san, how-  No, he's not-  We tried to call earli-  Big project for biolo-  No, Goten doesn't even _ like_  part-  Gomen-nasai, Miss, we-  That's alright, that's alright, we-  Or I could just takehimupnow??

I have to spit out the last line to get anything in.

Domo-  Yeah.  I guess he does look kinda cute when he sleeps.

And you do.  But she's looking at me funny, and visions of cast iron frying pans are parading through my future.

I mean, inna sort of sleepy, kittenish, you know, kiddish way, that, um

She's still looking at me funny, so I just grin and shrug and bow my head a bit then I'm sliding cautiously to the stairs before dashing up to your room. 

My feet perform an immaculate mine sweep for lost clothes, dishes, picture frames and other unknowns on the floor of your darkened room on the way to your bed.  I know by heart where it is, I even know what it feels like and what it smells like. 

I lay you down roughly with your feet on the pillow then leave the without looking back or touching or even closing the door, said a brief and insincere good-bye to your mom and drove off at 30 before accelerating to 90.

My body is sending various signals and commands to my brain but I block them all out with something of a struggle, grudgingly thanking my dad for whatever self-control he taught me.

I yank the car to a halt, registering and secretly delighting in the scream and pain of the brakes while the car fish tails in the middle of the road, kept in loose check with little bumpers of ki.

When all movement stops, I'm still trembling.

When did I start trembling?

I wrap my arms around the wheel and lean my head against it, being careful not to press down on the horn.

And I wait until the tremors pass.

I almost touched your lips, Goten.

I almost but I didn't.

I could have though, I could have, and you wouldn't have to know about it.  Nobody would ever have to know about it.

Remember when I said I wanted to hit you?  Remember when I said I hated you, that my father was right?

Well, it's still true.  I want to hurt you.  I want to hurt you because you hurt me.  And I want this hurt to go away, and you're causing it, so if I get rid of you I get rid of the pain right?  Right?  Makes sense.

I can't see the white anymore Goten.  Even when I squint my eyes and clench my teeth and try really hard I can't see it anymore.  It hurts my eyes.

I hate you with everything I've got, and I only want to be with you.