Disclaimer: Fat man in a corsette! Dear God no!
A/N: Ok, I guess I left a lot of you completely confused after that last chapter. I apologize profusely. But that was necessary...you'll see why in the next few chapters.
Read, review, guess the card in the middle of the deck.
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Petrified Tears
chapter 43
Gohan turned away from the window and started towards the stairs, pausing to throw a blanket from the back of the couch over his brother's sleeping form as he lay on his back, sprawled over the couch in a way that only Goten could ever pull off. Within instants of the blanket covering him, Goten was tangled up and the blanket was taking up just as much room as it's user. Laughing, Gohan continued up the stairs, determined to find out just what in the name of Dende Trunks was doing in his daughter's room.
Outside the door, he hesitated, knowing that he was going to more then likely face the worst upon opening it. Grinding his teeth and squeezing shut his eyes, his hand gripped the knob and slowly turned it, pushing the door slowly open as if afraid that if he opened it too quickly, a can of paint would come crashing down on him.
No paint came, and neither did the worst.
Opening his eyes, he noticed the innocent placings of those on the bed: she sound asleep with her head on the pillow, one leg bent and throwing a shadow across his face as he slept like the dead with his head resting on her stomach and the majority of his lower body hanging over the abyss that separated him from the floor.
Gohan chuckled quietly, his tail swishing playfully from side to side behind him. He hadn't had the heart nor the courage to cut it off after regrowing it upon the announcement that Pan was leaving the country for four years, and once he'd learned that the power he possessed allowed him the option of choosing to transform, he'd decided that he'd keep it, until the day came when he began to grow weak from age or illness.
Pan's hand twitched in Trunks's hair, and Trunks moved to nuzzle her hand, barely rubbing his head against her, but all the same, Gohan didn't miss the movement.
His laughter faded as he moved closer to the bed to retrieve the boy and saw the blood on the sheets and the scrapes and cuts on both of the younger semi-saiyans. He knew it was necessary, but he would have liked to have been informed of it.
With a sigh, he lifted the boy and slung him over his shoulder, grabbing Pan's quilt from the foot of her bed and throwing it over her, chuckling again as a corner hooked itself over the end of her nose and she broke into child-like struggles and fought to shake off her attacker. The corner fell away and she calmed, grabbing the edge of the quilt and rolling over onto her side and hugging it to her chest as true slumber claimed her.
Gohan left the room with his living cargo in tow.
Downstairs he instinctively went to the couch to deposit the boy, but then paused as his brother offered up a quiet snore from his half-opened mouth. Gohan chuckled again and thought of where else to put the boy.
There really wasn't anywhere else. Goten had been his exact opposite while at the same time had been exactly the same as him. Both possessed the innocence and need to help that had belong to their father, but while Gohan had always been neat and tidy and organized, but Goten was messy, chaotic, and about as organized as the family junk drawer.
Which left Goten's room out of the question.
They didn't really have a spare bedroom...that had turned into Goten's room when Goten had decided that he would either live with his brother or his mother-depending on who's cooking smelled better on what night.
With a sigh, Gohan left Trunks at the kitchen table, throwing a comforter from the linen closet over top the boy completely, knowing from experience that Trunks either slept curled up on top of the blankets, or completely buried under them.
The boy just sat there hunched over the table as the comforter smothered him, snaking a hand out from under the edge by his head and grabbing a hand full, pulling it under his chin.
"Night Kid," Gohan sighed, shaking his head.
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A/N: Ok, so it was Veggiehead then Gohan in the last chapter...you guys remember me mention Gohan regrowing his tail upon the announcement that Pan was leaving for college now? That's something about the stuff I write. I won't let you forget. Which sucks because it's thusfar taken me more then six months to write this. But don't worry, even if you do forget, I'll make it more then clear as to what its purpose is...whatever "it" is, anyways. ;P
-Panabelle ;P
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