Teenage Trunks sauntered into the kitchen early in the morning, looking to grab a quick snack before retreating back to sleep. Afterall, teenagers needed a lot of sleep, didn't they? He was surprised to see Vegeta in there, feeding the baby some mashed up foods.
"Kinda early isn't it?" Trunks asked.
"Babies wake early. Besides. It's not that early anyway."
Trunks rolled his eyes. "It is at my age," he pulled out the milk and began drinking.
"Don't drink all of that. The nine year old you is going to need it when he wakes and I'd just as soon have some left for the four year old to."
"I take it the baby's had his?"
Vegeta raised a full bottle in response.
"Oh, I see."
"Happy...whatevering."
Vegeta rolled his eyes as the teenager stumbled back into the bedroom. Maybe there would be some drawbacks of that age when he reached it with his current Trunks.
"Oooohhh," Vegeta's attention turned at the sound of his nine year old sauntering into the room, his eyes squinted mostly closed and one hand rubbing the back of his head.
"Serves you right!" Vegeta narrowed his eyes. "Sit down, young man, and I DO mean YOUNG!"
"Aw Dad, can't you lecture me later? My head is killing me."
"I'll bet," Vegeta shoved a glass of milk at him. "Drink this and eat something, then you're getting cleaned up."
"Cleaned up like what? A bath?"
"No, I'm going to put ointment on those scratches."
"Not that, Dad! It burns!" Trunks whined.
"Perhaps you should have thought about that before you diliberately disobeyed me and left this capsule!" Vegeta glared at him. "And as soon as I'm done with the ointment, then you'll get your punishment."
"Isn't the ointment bad enough?"
"No!"
The baby stared at the boy across the table curiously.
Trunks glared at him. "What are YOU looking at?"
"Hush!" Vegeta snapped. "Eat your breakfast.
Trunks shifted his gaze briefly to his father, then began eating. He was still shoveling it down while Vegeta filled the sink and bathed the baby. And when he fished the playpen out of the closet and put him in there to crawl around.
"Finished yet?" Vegeta watched as his son slowly forced food in his mouth. He was completely stuffed and just stalling now. Did he really think Vegeta didn't know it?
"No..."
"Yes you are, now get in the bathroom. I will not have you throwing up for overeating," Vegeta grabbed his arm and shoved him into the room, pulling the ointment out of the cupboard. "Now hold still," he began dabbing the stuff on his hand.
"Ooooowww!" Trunks began flinging his other arm around wildly. "It's burning!"
"Stop your yelling!" Vegeta grabbed his face and held it still as he put some on the gash on his cheek.
Trunks clenched his teeth and squinted his eyes, jerking backward but to no avail. Tears sprang from his eyes though he was trying to hold them back. He bit his lip rather than crying out and only sniffled.
"It's your own fault! I tell you things for a reason, you know!" Vegeta wiped his arm off.
Trunks let out a short yelp, still squinting his eyes. His entire body was tense.
"If you disobey me one more time, your backside is going to be burning a lot worse than this stuff for an entire week. Do you understand me?"
Trunks nodded, turning his head away as some more ointment was dabbed on his arm.
"As soon as I'm through with this, I want you to go in your room and stay there until I say otherwise. And if you even think about leaving just remember what I said..."
It felt like an eternity to Trunks, but in reality, it was only a few more minutes before he was done. The four year old had waken by the time he was back in the room and had managed to pull out half the toys in the room. Trunks quickly wiped his eyes dry and went to the window, trying to hold back the new onslaught of tears threatening to escape.
It was dark and rather lonely looking outside. Then there was a series of blasts that erupted in the distance and slammed into some moutains nearby. Trunks forgot all about how much his father hated him and how everything he did was wrong and got him yelled at. He watched as another bunch of blasts erupted, coming a lot closer to the ship this time. Something was going on out there and it was beginning to alarm him. Those blast were getting closer to the ship. What if they hit it? But he couldn't tell his father or he'd get spanked for leaving the room. Hmm... He had to do something, right?
"Dad!" Trunks yelled through the door. He pounded on it a few times and called again. "Dad!"
"Quiet down in there!" came Vegeta's reply.
Trunks was somewhat indignant. Couldn't he be heard just this once? "But Dad, there's a bunch of blasts outside and they're getting closer to the ship!" Trunks waited a few seconds. "Dad?"
"I heard you and I'll take care of it! You just sit still and be quiet in there!" Vegeta's reply was rather impatient.
Trunks narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists, moving back to the window. He was just trying to help and he STILL got yelled at!
"What's going on?" the four year old pushed his way around Trunks' chest.
"Hey!" Trunks shoved him over a bit.
Both the children stared out the window as another bunch of blasts came yet closer. Trunks eyes widened as he realised one of them was heading straight toward them.
"Duck!" he pushed his four year old counterpart away from the window and toward the wall. Both boys crouched in the corner as the blast burst through the spot their window and had been and diagonally across the room and out the opposit corner from the children.
Vegeta burst through the door, eyes wide as he quickly scanned the room and
rested his vision on the boys. Quickly he grabbed the four year old with one arm and his nine year old with the other, carrying them into the kitchen where the teenager was holding the baby.
"What is going on?" the teenager asked.
"I'm not sure. All of you stay right here," he set the kids down on a chair and stormed out of the capsule.
"What is this? Foreign beings on my planet? I order you to bow down before your master, the sayain prince!" a much younger Vegeta stepped into sight.
"You!" Vegeta was somewhat surprised to see his younger counterpart. "You idiot!"
"How dare you speak to your prince in such a way!"
Vegeta formed a large blast and shot his young counterpart before he could react. "That blast you shot just about hit the child you will one day have!"
Vegeta looked up, slightly dazed. He hadn't expected any fighting back. But he was up to the challenge. "You're dillusional! I would have nothing to do with the slimy brats! I hate children and I'd die before ever creating one of my own!" he stood, brushing the dust off himself.
Vegeta grabbed him by the neck. "Now you listen to me, you self-righteous, arrogant, nobody..."
"How dare you!"
"Quiet!" Vegeta powered up to super sayain without hardly realising it. "I am you in the future. I know what you think at this point and it almost disgusts me that I used to be this way! But I have four versions of my son in that capsule, each from a different time period and if you so much as harm one hair on any of their heads I'll break your neck and make you a paraplegic for the rest of your life.
"Well," Vegeta smirked, hiding his surprise at this whole situation. "If what you
say is really true, then if you harm me, you'll never have that child of yours."
Vegeta's scowl deepened. He was right and it was obvious he wasn't yet convinced of what he'd been told. "Come on," he pushed the other man ahead of him.
"All right, I'm game," Vegeta walked toward the capsule, amused by the goings on.
"Is that Dad?" nine year old Trunks watched as the two men walked back toward the capsule.
"It looks like it," the teenager stood behind him, watching.
"What's that funny thing he's wearing on his chest?" the four year old asked.
"It's sayain armor," the teenager answered.
"Pretty goofy, huh," the nine year old giggled.
"They're coming in, everybody sit down," the teenager rushed to the table.
The baby let out a squeel as they all sat down.
Vegeta raised an eyebrow as he stepped into the capsule and looked at each of the kids. The baby sqeeled again.
"Quiet," the teenager whispered.
"They look like a bunch of clones."
"They're the same person at different ages," Vegeta showed no amusement.
"Oh. And how did they come to all be in one place?" past Vegeta challenged with a smirk.
"That one," Vegeta frowned as he pointed to the nine year old, "is from my time. He hid in here when I went back to talk to the Vegeta from that one's time," he looked to the four year old. "Then the old one showed up by mistake and some monster from his time popped up and froze the four year olds' parents, and then went to kill the baby. So, I took the four year old and got to the baby just in time to grab him and destroy the monster. He'd already frozen the parents from his time too though."
"I see," Vegeta played along, not buying any of it.
"Are you super sayain yet?" the nine year old spoke up.
"What's it to you, brat?" Vegeta narrowed his eyes at the child.
"Enough. All of you, go in the other room."
"Why?" Trunks objected. "He never answered my question."
"Hey, now's not the time," the teenager grabbed the younger one by the shoulder and bent down a little bit, whispering. "The answer is no."
The younger Vegeta narrowed his eyes.
"Enough you two, get out!" Vegeta deepened his order.
"All right, now tell me for real. What is going on?" the younger Vegeta demanded.
"You've heard, you just don't want to believe it."
"I find it impossible to believe I would ever have a child. I want nothing to do with the things."
"Not now you don't. You're too wrapped up in ruling the universe and beating Kakarot."
The younger Vegeta's eyes widened slightly, but he tried to hide his surprise.
"Unfortunately that wont change much even when Trunks is born. It wont really change until he's eight."
"Trunks, huh?" Vegeta smirked. "What kind of a name is that."
"Don't even try it! I know your every thought," Vegeta frowned. "You know as much about that name as I do."
"Fine, I'll give you that one. If I ever did have a son, that's what I would call him. However, the thought sickens me."
"You haven't even had the child and already you're hiding your care for him. Even this very moment you like the thought of it. It makes you proud, but you're far to arrogant to ever admit to something like that."
Vegeta scowled. "How dare you! I want nothing to do with any child of any sort! They scream, they cry, they whine, they're messy...children disgust me!"
"Yes, I never said they didn't, but you love that one."
"I couldn't care LESS about him!"
"Go ahead and try to hide it! But I can see it in your eyes already. It's the thing you've pushed away more than anything else and while you're nowhere near admiting it because you haven't the strength yet, you want that boy. Deep down, you've always wanted him."
The younger Vegeta stood, powering up. "You pompus..."
"Enough!" Vegeta shot straight to super sayain 3. "You're already destined to ignore the child, but for training him to be better than Kakarot's children, until he's 8 and you realise you will never beat Kakarot. He will always be a step ahead of you. Go ahead and ignore the fact that this child will become the single most important thing in your life. Live the years I've already been through and see for yourself! Now get out of here, I have work to do in returning these children to where they belong," he let out a large blast of sweeping air that threw his younger counterpart right out the door.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Kinda early isn't it?" Trunks asked.
"Babies wake early. Besides. It's not that early anyway."
Trunks rolled his eyes. "It is at my age," he pulled out the milk and began drinking.
"Don't drink all of that. The nine year old you is going to need it when he wakes and I'd just as soon have some left for the four year old to."
"I take it the baby's had his?"
Vegeta raised a full bottle in response.
"Oh, I see."
"Happy...whatevering."
Vegeta rolled his eyes as the teenager stumbled back into the bedroom. Maybe there would be some drawbacks of that age when he reached it with his current Trunks.
"Oooohhh," Vegeta's attention turned at the sound of his nine year old sauntering into the room, his eyes squinted mostly closed and one hand rubbing the back of his head.
"Serves you right!" Vegeta narrowed his eyes. "Sit down, young man, and I DO mean YOUNG!"
"Aw Dad, can't you lecture me later? My head is killing me."
"I'll bet," Vegeta shoved a glass of milk at him. "Drink this and eat something, then you're getting cleaned up."
"Cleaned up like what? A bath?"
"No, I'm going to put ointment on those scratches."
"Not that, Dad! It burns!" Trunks whined.
"Perhaps you should have thought about that before you diliberately disobeyed me and left this capsule!" Vegeta glared at him. "And as soon as I'm done with the ointment, then you'll get your punishment."
"Isn't the ointment bad enough?"
"No!"
The baby stared at the boy across the table curiously.
Trunks glared at him. "What are YOU looking at?"
"Hush!" Vegeta snapped. "Eat your breakfast.
Trunks shifted his gaze briefly to his father, then began eating. He was still shoveling it down while Vegeta filled the sink and bathed the baby. And when he fished the playpen out of the closet and put him in there to crawl around.
"Finished yet?" Vegeta watched as his son slowly forced food in his mouth. He was completely stuffed and just stalling now. Did he really think Vegeta didn't know it?
"No..."
"Yes you are, now get in the bathroom. I will not have you throwing up for overeating," Vegeta grabbed his arm and shoved him into the room, pulling the ointment out of the cupboard. "Now hold still," he began dabbing the stuff on his hand.
"Ooooowww!" Trunks began flinging his other arm around wildly. "It's burning!"
"Stop your yelling!" Vegeta grabbed his face and held it still as he put some on the gash on his cheek.
Trunks clenched his teeth and squinted his eyes, jerking backward but to no avail. Tears sprang from his eyes though he was trying to hold them back. He bit his lip rather than crying out and only sniffled.
"It's your own fault! I tell you things for a reason, you know!" Vegeta wiped his arm off.
Trunks let out a short yelp, still squinting his eyes. His entire body was tense.
"If you disobey me one more time, your backside is going to be burning a lot worse than this stuff for an entire week. Do you understand me?"
Trunks nodded, turning his head away as some more ointment was dabbed on his arm.
"As soon as I'm through with this, I want you to go in your room and stay there until I say otherwise. And if you even think about leaving just remember what I said..."
It felt like an eternity to Trunks, but in reality, it was only a few more minutes before he was done. The four year old had waken by the time he was back in the room and had managed to pull out half the toys in the room. Trunks quickly wiped his eyes dry and went to the window, trying to hold back the new onslaught of tears threatening to escape.
It was dark and rather lonely looking outside. Then there was a series of blasts that erupted in the distance and slammed into some moutains nearby. Trunks forgot all about how much his father hated him and how everything he did was wrong and got him yelled at. He watched as another bunch of blasts erupted, coming a lot closer to the ship this time. Something was going on out there and it was beginning to alarm him. Those blast were getting closer to the ship. What if they hit it? But he couldn't tell his father or he'd get spanked for leaving the room. Hmm... He had to do something, right?
"Dad!" Trunks yelled through the door. He pounded on it a few times and called again. "Dad!"
"Quiet down in there!" came Vegeta's reply.
Trunks was somewhat indignant. Couldn't he be heard just this once? "But Dad, there's a bunch of blasts outside and they're getting closer to the ship!" Trunks waited a few seconds. "Dad?"
"I heard you and I'll take care of it! You just sit still and be quiet in there!" Vegeta's reply was rather impatient.
Trunks narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists, moving back to the window. He was just trying to help and he STILL got yelled at!
"What's going on?" the four year old pushed his way around Trunks' chest.
"Hey!" Trunks shoved him over a bit.
Both the children stared out the window as another bunch of blasts came yet closer. Trunks eyes widened as he realised one of them was heading straight toward them.
"Duck!" he pushed his four year old counterpart away from the window and toward the wall. Both boys crouched in the corner as the blast burst through the spot their window and had been and diagonally across the room and out the opposit corner from the children.
Vegeta burst through the door, eyes wide as he quickly scanned the room and
rested his vision on the boys. Quickly he grabbed the four year old with one arm and his nine year old with the other, carrying them into the kitchen where the teenager was holding the baby.
"What is going on?" the teenager asked.
"I'm not sure. All of you stay right here," he set the kids down on a chair and stormed out of the capsule.
"What is this? Foreign beings on my planet? I order you to bow down before your master, the sayain prince!" a much younger Vegeta stepped into sight.
"You!" Vegeta was somewhat surprised to see his younger counterpart. "You idiot!"
"How dare you speak to your prince in such a way!"
Vegeta formed a large blast and shot his young counterpart before he could react. "That blast you shot just about hit the child you will one day have!"
Vegeta looked up, slightly dazed. He hadn't expected any fighting back. But he was up to the challenge. "You're dillusional! I would have nothing to do with the slimy brats! I hate children and I'd die before ever creating one of my own!" he stood, brushing the dust off himself.
Vegeta grabbed him by the neck. "Now you listen to me, you self-righteous, arrogant, nobody..."
"How dare you!"
"Quiet!" Vegeta powered up to super sayain without hardly realising it. "I am you in the future. I know what you think at this point and it almost disgusts me that I used to be this way! But I have four versions of my son in that capsule, each from a different time period and if you so much as harm one hair on any of their heads I'll break your neck and make you a paraplegic for the rest of your life.
"Well," Vegeta smirked, hiding his surprise at this whole situation. "If what you
say is really true, then if you harm me, you'll never have that child of yours."
Vegeta's scowl deepened. He was right and it was obvious he wasn't yet convinced of what he'd been told. "Come on," he pushed the other man ahead of him.
"All right, I'm game," Vegeta walked toward the capsule, amused by the goings on.
"Is that Dad?" nine year old Trunks watched as the two men walked back toward the capsule.
"It looks like it," the teenager stood behind him, watching.
"What's that funny thing he's wearing on his chest?" the four year old asked.
"It's sayain armor," the teenager answered.
"Pretty goofy, huh," the nine year old giggled.
"They're coming in, everybody sit down," the teenager rushed to the table.
The baby let out a squeel as they all sat down.
Vegeta raised an eyebrow as he stepped into the capsule and looked at each of the kids. The baby sqeeled again.
"Quiet," the teenager whispered.
"They look like a bunch of clones."
"They're the same person at different ages," Vegeta showed no amusement.
"Oh. And how did they come to all be in one place?" past Vegeta challenged with a smirk.
"That one," Vegeta frowned as he pointed to the nine year old, "is from my time. He hid in here when I went back to talk to the Vegeta from that one's time," he looked to the four year old. "Then the old one showed up by mistake and some monster from his time popped up and froze the four year olds' parents, and then went to kill the baby. So, I took the four year old and got to the baby just in time to grab him and destroy the monster. He'd already frozen the parents from his time too though."
"I see," Vegeta played along, not buying any of it.
"Are you super sayain yet?" the nine year old spoke up.
"What's it to you, brat?" Vegeta narrowed his eyes at the child.
"Enough. All of you, go in the other room."
"Why?" Trunks objected. "He never answered my question."
"Hey, now's not the time," the teenager grabbed the younger one by the shoulder and bent down a little bit, whispering. "The answer is no."
The younger Vegeta narrowed his eyes.
"Enough you two, get out!" Vegeta deepened his order.
"All right, now tell me for real. What is going on?" the younger Vegeta demanded.
"You've heard, you just don't want to believe it."
"I find it impossible to believe I would ever have a child. I want nothing to do with the things."
"Not now you don't. You're too wrapped up in ruling the universe and beating Kakarot."
The younger Vegeta's eyes widened slightly, but he tried to hide his surprise.
"Unfortunately that wont change much even when Trunks is born. It wont really change until he's eight."
"Trunks, huh?" Vegeta smirked. "What kind of a name is that."
"Don't even try it! I know your every thought," Vegeta frowned. "You know as much about that name as I do."
"Fine, I'll give you that one. If I ever did have a son, that's what I would call him. However, the thought sickens me."
"You haven't even had the child and already you're hiding your care for him. Even this very moment you like the thought of it. It makes you proud, but you're far to arrogant to ever admit to something like that."
Vegeta scowled. "How dare you! I want nothing to do with any child of any sort! They scream, they cry, they whine, they're messy...children disgust me!"
"Yes, I never said they didn't, but you love that one."
"I couldn't care LESS about him!"
"Go ahead and try to hide it! But I can see it in your eyes already. It's the thing you've pushed away more than anything else and while you're nowhere near admiting it because you haven't the strength yet, you want that boy. Deep down, you've always wanted him."
The younger Vegeta stood, powering up. "You pompus..."
"Enough!" Vegeta shot straight to super sayain 3. "You're already destined to ignore the child, but for training him to be better than Kakarot's children, until he's 8 and you realise you will never beat Kakarot. He will always be a step ahead of you. Go ahead and ignore the fact that this child will become the single most important thing in your life. Live the years I've already been through and see for yourself! Now get out of here, I have work to do in returning these children to where they belong," he let out a large blast of sweeping air that threw his younger counterpart right out the door.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~