~Author's Note~
Yay, I decided to start a fancier new "Author's Note" here, so whatever even though by the incredibly *small* amount of reviews I've had I'm sure not too many care at the moment; so whoever is reading this, be honest about it to both me and my friends; tell me if it sucks so I can adjust, or tell me it's great so I can continue and you can tell your friends to read it too! ^_^
Anyways, I sat down today and wasted my science class time to dribble down a 4-page thought sheet that formed a sort of outline for the first huge chunk of this fan-fic so I finally have a clue where I'm really going and can do what I do even better, hopefully, though sometimes an outline throws me off in terms of quality as I tend to hurry to the next point on it, so let me know if I seem like I'm rushing the storyline. In this short chapter I've tried to show some insight into the Vegeta-Briefs family as well as the usual fun stuff. Anyways, the disclaimer that I don't own DBZ, any characters I make up are mine, and all that stuff I forgot the past two chapters are all here right now, let me know if I have to do the stupid thing on top and enjoy!
~gok~
Trunks awoke to the sound of shuffling feet nearby, his eyes opening and squinting as he found his bedroom light shining down on him brightly, covers twisted about his boxers and T-shirt clad body.
'What the…' was the saiyan's first thought as he pushed himself up and looked over at the figure shuffling through his dresser drawers; Goten was apparently looking for something, though Trunks could only smile slightly with a glow of love yet confusion hidden in his blue eyes. Last night had been… special…
The evening before had been rather uneventful, he added in a less arousing retrospect as he itched his short blue-purple hair with one hand and stretched with the other, stifling a yawn just barely and making Goten turn around and offer him a lopsided grin, his muscled bare chest gleaming with morning perspiration.
Bulma had returned to find Vegeta snoozing in his armchair with the television turned to MTV as Trunks and Goten scrambled away from the couch where they had been momentarily cuddling to opposing yet "friendly" sides. She had obviously been shocked that Goten had returned, and with a 6-year-old eye-rolling Bra in tow and an armful of groceries had somehow managed to embrace and exclaim over him nonetheless. Trunks had stood by somewhat awkwardly as Bulma proceeded to wake up her husband (Whom wasn't too pleased and after a little couple argument went back to sleep) and run about making a dinner fit for a king --- or a family of hungry saiyans and half-saiyans.
Goten had proclaimed that he intended for his return to be a secret yet to his family until the morning after he had gotten a lot better looking and psyched up, or so he had claimed, and the dinner had gone off quite well. Afterwards, the family had continued to lounge and talk, Bra was reintroduced to her best friend's uncle whom she barely recalled from 2 years before, and they had turned in early for the night.
"Maybe they shouldn't have let us stay in your room." Goten quipped suddenly, making Trunks snap out of his thoughts and open a drawer next to his best friend and pull out some fresh underclothes, their shoulder's bumping and making them glance at one another uncomfortably.
"Yah, you made a mess of my nice and clean room." Trunks stuck out his tongue, gesturing towards his rather large and rich looking room, which the night before had been grandiose and clean as if by a maid. (Goten had thought it probably was though the way his friend had changed from wild-child to rich yet intellectual being could have fooled him.) The huge bed in the middle had been made, the lounge-chairs, loveseat, and television, everything in its place. Through the course of the night of "rough-housing" it had been considerably redecorated and turned into what resembled a dorm-room.
Trunks shook his head from his thoughts and went to his personal (And equally technological, well-furnished and rich) bathroom and took a shower as Goten waited outside, thinking with a grin about the possibility of sneaking in the shower with him, though he pushed it off and took his turn, the pair arriving downstairs to find Vegeta impatiently finishing off a plate of breakfast and reading the newspaper.
"About time you ladies came down, time for some real training to begin." He looked up, chortling slightly as he shook his head and swallowed some coffee to remove the thoughts that were creeping into his head. Way too many thoughts by too many people, he assumed, this morning.
"Morning dad."
"Morning Vegeta."
The boys quickly sat down and shoveled in their warm breakfast as fast as Bulma could bring it to the table; Goten naturally was last to finish, several helpings afterwards of course.
"Goten, have you decided on whether or not you'll be having that surprise party for your mother and brother tonight or tomorrow night? I have everything we need, and I can't keep Bra from seeing, talking to, calling or chatting with Pan forever. She was already bugging me to see your niece bright and early this morning, though I told her she could train with you guys instead." Bulma asked from the expansive kitchen counter where she pulled out a tray of sausages from a strange silver machine that seemed to work like something from the Jetsons, though was in fact a modern everyday appliance of technology.
Goten swallowed a handful of sausages and made an excuse cover from the answer by slurping some orange juice as Trunks blinked in accordance with his father at the blue-haired woman.
"Bra's training with us? But she can't even exceed two-hundred gees, and we were going to do some extreme training!" Trunks groaned, catching his father's eye, the elder's face nearly unreadable though the 20-year-old knew his father enough to catch the subtle ki sense that he wasn't too pleased but already had accepted it; Trunks had heard his parents had always argued a lot when he was younger, though as of the last few years it was a mutual agreement they always seemed to have; what Bulma wanted she got, what Vegeta wanted he got, whenever they wanted opposite things they'd either still get it or come to some incredibly ludicrous compromise after a quick and snarling battle of wits, though they always seemed normal afterwards.
Bulma picked up a plate from the counter and sat down to eat seeing her husband lean back as he customarily did whenever he finished eating (Vegeta was a light eater for a saiyan; three or four servings rather than the normal six or seven, or ten plus for a member of the Son family) while Goten chugged another pitcher of OJ and burped loudly, stretching his arms.
"We'll just have to put off the extreme training to another day and teach your sister how to fight then, won't we?" Vegeta winked, making Trunks roll his eyes though he couldn't contain a chuckle. It had been Vegeta's goal to make all his children as strong as they could be; while many human parents of some cultures may have been upset that one of their children would be a female, in saiyan general hierarchy it didn't matter; in fact, excluding the Royal Family, whose child was whose didn't matter as much as how strong that child was to the general race and secondly its parents. Thus, from the time Bra knew how to crawl she was subjected to increases in gravity, starting with 15 (Naturally being a saiyan she could easily stand 10x Earth's forces) and working her way up, training into passive battle stances and moves as her father and brother both mock and really trained with her. In fact, Trunks thought in retrospect, she was possibly as strong as he was at 6, and definitely smarter. As much as he would like to claim he had taken his mother's brains and his father's battle genius, he had more of an uneven blend of 60% second, 40% first, while his sister had the exact opposite. She may not have been quite as naturally skilled at battle, or yet anyways, but she was already starting Calculus-level mathematics in her accelerated classes at the Satan City Special Education Facility, while her classmates stood back in her dust struggling with basic number-comprehension.
Snapping him out of his thoughts, Bra chuckled from somewhere in the living room as a loud curse word was heard from the television.
"Honey, I thought I said no Osborne's before lunch!" Bra shouted though she didn't appear to care.
~~~
Vegeta was the first to open the main graviton's door with Goten, Trunks and Bra suited up in lightweight training gear behind him, the digital display on the wall behind them reading 7:47am. It was also he who first held up a hand to prevent entry to the room as the sleek door slid into the wall, revealing a room set to 3,000 gees and a silent figure standing alone with closed eyes and relaxed pose in the classic Yoga tree-pose.
Trunks was the first to talk through knitted brow and bedazzled clear-blue eyes.
"Billy?" he asked, though Vegeta grabbed his mouth in a firm grip and shook his head, the backside of the spiky black tips bobbing with his silent belaboring.
Indeed it was the new handy man, his short blond hair not even bent under the stress of the graviton; no aura came from his body, his perfect creamy and handsome face serene as a still water lake at dusk beneath tuffs of cumulus, his body dressed in a simple red tunic, his seemingly small and agile muscles not even bulged to the air. And oddest of all, even with the door that sealed in the ki-chi-hider open, no sense of living other than perhaps a twinge of level 1 ki came from him.
Bra fidgeted and simultaneously Billy popped open an eye, glancing at them and then coming out of his pose, gesturing a hand at the controls and turning the gravity to normal as he started towards them in one swift movement. Vegeta was, needless to say, both shocked inside and externally furious.
"Tell me now what you were doing in there and how you were able to sustain those levels of gravity without stress!" he stated through aggressively gritted teeth, a vein popping in his forehead, one fist clenched as his son and his son's best friend behind him each held a protective hand on young curious Bra's shoulders.
Billy sighed long and sadly almost as his secret eyes looked down a moment to ponder, body totally relaxed and neutral in stance.
"I was taking advantage of the training facilities and I apologize for causing you any grief. Shall I say that I am a stronger person than I appear and leave it at that?" he finally stated calmly.
Vegeta was the same height as him as they stood a meter apart. At last, as the fire from his father's eyes dimmed, Trunks noted the change in his sense; Vegeta was going to let Billy go, after seeing what he was capable of and not knowing anymore more than he was a good studious worker whom had just been hired a month ago? Every fiber in Trunks' body screamed protest though he was curious and didn't want a confrontation. Shit, 3,000 gees and he wasn't even… powered up?
Goten stepped aside and pulled Bra with him, the girl looking up at him and then Billy as the adult's business swept past; however intelligent she was she wasn't intellectually mature enough to fully realize what was occurring here, though her father's inherent gut told her something had changed in everyone.
Billy walked to the locker room down the hall and went in, leaving the bewildered "family" outside staring after him, excluding the Prince, whom stared deeply into the graviton.
"Let's get our training done with, we stop at noon. It would appear we have a new reason to train." Came his words at last in a pressed and serious tone, one that even Bra was able to realize as the end to any fun that morning, as Trunks and Goten exchanged frustrated looks. Not only was there something far more intriguing than the approaching Son Family Reunion and the two young men's secret affair, but also now the maintenance man whom worked around them all day long was quite possibly as strong as if not stronger than they, and had just strode past them without a care in the world?
'I have a feeling this isn't going to be the start of anything as fun as we'd hoped…' Trunks shot his friend an "Ugh…" look and telepathic message, to which Goten could only respond with a shrug.
'I can't train hard and not eat till noon…' Goten finally added telepathically as he was last to enter the room. 'I'm hungry already!'