Father son talks
.
Benot was in a sort of a daze. He never really thought that his REAL father would want to talk to him. He saw him from time to time at the school with the woman that he was sitting with at the table. He never approached him. He felt kind of stupid about last time that he ran up to him. He did feel silly about what he did to him when he was younger. Running up to him and clutching onto his leg and calling him daddy. He still blushed about that and he grew mad and the thought that that Ligh fellow manipulated him and his family
He had chewed his lip as he stood by the table and said hi to him. He never thought he would be in this situation. He was not supposed to be part of his life.
"Benot?" Brennen had said in a low voice and looked at him worriedly. "How have you been?" He actually cared about what he had been doing. He didn't expect that.
"Okay," he had lied. Marron put his hand on his shoulder and asked who he was. Did Marron ever see Brennen? He couldn't remember. She told her and she went a little pale at that.
The brunette looked at him curiously and asked Brennen how he knew him and without a hesitation that made his heart swell, "He is my son."
After getting over the drama of the woman fainting, Brennen stumbled over an explanation that he helped with and so did Marron a bit. The woman took a little bit to get over it and obviously did not believe the explanation. She started to get mad. He could see the pain that came over his face as she started to ask why she was never told before.
Benot was the one that explained it in a startling way. "His doppelganger is my father, in a different place and time where my mother met him and had us. My father died saving us from evil and allowed her to live and come here. She was not supposed to meet him in this place, but she did, but it was to late. Mom already found another."
Mom had accepted Goten, even though he fought that relationship in every possible way he had even begun to think of him as dad. Especially lately, since mom has lost her mind.
"I didn't know how to tell you all this. It is still rather confusing for me," he said to her and grabbed her hands. "Don't hate me Melody. Please. I can't help but think of them as my son's even though I hardly know them and then after seeing her other one, Cyrus."
"Is he your also?" She said quickly.
"No. He is not, but oh man; I didn't even know what he looked like. I just saw a kid that looked upset and lost. It wasn't until he told me where he lived that I clued in." he said.
"You saw Cyrus?" Benot said.
"Yeah. I told him not tell you mom that I helped him. I didn't want her to flip out at me or something or worse, that big guy that she is with," Brennen said. "He isn't around here, is he?" He looked nervously over his shoulder as if Goten was going to just appear.
"No," Benot said and looked at the two boxes of pizza that were on the table rapidly cooling. Junior had said that he had to go to visit the compound. He could guess why but he wasn't about to go back tonight. His stomach still ached from where she hit him. He didn't want to see Goten or his mom tonight and now that his real dad was talking to him.. "They have other problems tonight." He said in a low voice and he found Marron's comforting hand on his shoulder again.
His girlfriend Melody eventually got over the shock even though she didn't believe the time travel thing, but it was pretty hard not to. Brennen in this time was only 26 now and it was pretty hard to have a nearly 13-year- old boy.
He was glad to see Brennen. Brennen again asked him questions about how he was doing in school and how he was doing in sports. He gladly told him that he was doing well in everything but he wasn't going to do sports anymore.
"Why now?" he asked.
"I don't want to train anymore and all sports you have to practice at and I don't want to do that anymore," he said. "I just want to be a kid."
"What kid doesn't play sports?" Brennen asked.
"Huh?" he said.
"I sucked at basketball, but I still played it. I knew that I wasn't going to go pro or anything like that, but I still played every weekend with my friends," he said. "Why would you want to stop? I have seen you at school on those teams last year. You were good."
"I just don't want to fight anymore," he said. "I don't want to be a monster." His voice was low and he could feel the threatening tears coming again. He wanted to run into his arms and be held by him but he settled for leaning against Marron who smoothed his hair again.
"What? A monster?" Brennen then remembered what happened last time they had encountered each other. "Oh. That stuff, when your hair turning color and stuff." Poor Melody looked so lost.
"I don't want to do that. I stopped." Benot said.
"But why?" he looked so shocked that he would want to stop. "You are all so strong and fast. Why wouldn't you want to be like that?"
"You didn't see her," he said and gasped. He didn't even understand. Why did he have to ruin such a nice conversation? He was having a nice time talking to his dad about trivial things.
Thankfully he didn't push the topic any further. He must have been afraid that it was too much information and he did not look like he wanted to get dragged down back into their family. Yeah. That was a good way of describing it. Being dragged down.
It had been nice talking to dad and he even got his phone number from him and e-mail if he ever wanted to contact him. "I know that your mother and new father won't approve of it, but I really wouldn't mind hearing how things are going with you," he said as he wrote the stuff on the pizza box that were certainly cold by then.
It was really nice knowing that he had some sane blood in his veins.
He had slept well that night with the torn top of the pizza box stuffed in his bag as he curled up in the spare room of his uncle's house. He had heard some worried voices when Junior returned but did not head them.
He did feel better this morning as he walked to school. He hoped that Legen brought his homework with him, but he was sure that he could talk his way around it if he had too. He wasn't about to go home this morning and he wasn't too sure that he wanted to go to his own house tonight.
Junior told him that his mom had calmed down a lot and felt really bad about hitting him. He knew that Marron talked to him about meeting his father, but just gave him a look that was waiting for him to talk to him about it.
But he wasn't about to talk about that with anyone.
He still was in a state of shock about learning that Brennen thought about him.
............
Gohan had never seen his father look so sad. He didn't think it was possible. He had seen him flash with anger in battle but he did not see the sadness that was now present in him. Mom had come to him saying that he wasn't sleeping and not eating. She was not acting like he normally did.
She asked him to talk to him.
He didn't know what was bothering his father. He worried quite a bit about how everything seemed to be crumbling now that Bulma had passed away and Vegeta and Soyna were at odds.
It wasn't his fault.
But he acted as if it was.
He was looking at the empty house that Bulma and Vegeta once lived in together.
"Hi dad," he said and stood by his father. He never seemed to change. He always was the same. He was always constant. It was just the way things were supposed to be. Dad was supposed to be the anchor. He did look a bit older than he remembered him when he was younger. He didn't know how to describe it. It wasn't like he had gray hair or wrinkles. He just looked older and tired.
Goku looked at him and tried to flash a smile at him, but it was pathetic and did not suit his father. "Don't you have to teach today?" he asked. "It has to be near noon."
"Field trip," he said. "What are you doing out here?"
"Vegeta went in there. He stormed out of Trunks house and went in there. I haven't seen any movement in there since," he said.
"Are you okay dad? You are not acting like your normal self. Mom is worried about you." He said and saw a flash that could only be described as pure anguish! It looked so unnatural on his father that it almost scared him.
"I have been making her worry again," he sighed heavily and looked at him with a slow and sad smile. "I guess I am not good at hiding my feelings."
"No your not dad," Gohan said with a smile. "Why don't you come in and eat something? That will make mom feel better."
He took a look at the house that he was looking at and then back at him. "Okay. I guess I should eat something. I am a little hungry." He started to walk slowly towards their house. He looked over at his dad and couldn't read the look he was getting from him.
"What?" Gohan said and rubbed his shirt, "Is there something on my face?" He ran his hands over his face.
"No," Goku smiled. "I was just thinking of how proud I am of you."
Where did this come from?
"You have never left Videl. You are always there for her, Pan and Fry. You are always there," he said. "I was never there for you or your mother."
"You were always there when it counted," Gohan said.
"I wasn't there for so much more. For all the other stuff. The family stuff. I have tried to fill in those gaps for all of you but I just can't seem to do that," he said. "But you and Goten, you two are good husbands. You don't leave your wives. You don't leave your kids. You are strong and there for whatever it is and you all fight it together. I always left your mother behind without even a kiss goodbye."
"Dad. You couldn't help it. There was always something coming. You were the only one that could protect us all," he said but he could see that his words did not comfort him at all.
"I should have made her more important," he sighed. "Watched out for her much more, just like you and Goten do."
"Dad?" Gohan looked at his dad worriedly.
"I will try not to worry her anymore. With Bulma leaving us," he let out a great sigh. "ChiChi is getting on in years.."
"Mom isn't going to die any time soon. She is to stubborn." Gohan said.
"So was Bulma."
"Don't even think like that dad!" Gohan said and grabbed his arm and stopped him from walking. "Dad. So many times, we have pushed the envelope. We have pushed the limits of everything! Everything and I have learned a long time ago-- from YOU-- that you should not worry about that stuff, because it all has to work out in the end. Dad. Everything happens for a reason. It always works out. It just has to."
Dad's eyes were so large. He almost looked back to normal. Wide-eyed and shocked. He didn't look so old anymore.
"Things happen and it make us all go nuts, but we are alive. I know we will all see each other again in the other world if something happens," Gohan said. "Before, mom was sad that she would not even see you in the Other world. Now she knows that she will. Dad. Everything always works out."
Gohan saw his fathers eyes turn to the house that Goten and Soyna shared.
"I should have never let Shelong leave me," he said. "I should have stayed in control and learned how to prevent those wishes from being stolen." He could see the sadness return to his eyes and that look of age returning. No, it wasn't age. It was guilt.
"You couldn't have stopped what happened. Things happen for a reason," Gohan said.
Goku looked at his son again. "When did you get so smart?" he said and threw and unexpected arm around his shoulder. "Your mom raised you well."
"Dad you had a hand in it as well," Gohan said as they started to walk again. "You are a good man to have as a father."
"I just wish I could have been there," Goku said as they entered the house and the cheery Goku emerged again as he asked for food. You could hardly tell that it was a façade.
...............
"You will tell her to take off that apron, right?" Cyrus said to Goten. "Mom does not look good in pink."
"I will," Dad said. "You should hurry or you'll be late for your first class."
"It's okay. I can catch up. They are just teaching me stuff I already know anyway," Cyrus said. His other siblings had already walked to their prospective groups and Legen to the junior high. "Oma taught me well."
"I am sure that she did," Goten said, his voice a touch sad.
"Dad, can I ask you something else? It's about mom."
"Sure."
"Why does she take things so personally?" Cyrus said but he somehow knew the answer as soon as he said it.
"Well, son, it has to do with how she was raised," Dad said. "She felt she had the job of protecting her family and it is hard for her to think that anyone else can do it."
Yes. He knew that. Grandpa Trunks wasn't there for when she was younger. She had to raise Uncle Junior and be in charge of the family with the help of Bulma in the other time. He knew that. How, he didn't know, but he knew that from somewhere. Mom had admired her dad so and him leaving hurt her a great deal. That was why she was the way she was, but it didn't explain this latest episode that involved an ever smiling woman that resembled his mother.
"Go in son," Goten said. "I don't want to get a call from your teachers about you. You are supposed to be the good kid."
Dad was half joking.
"Just get mom back to normal, okay," he said and walked off. Unfortunately he heard his dad mutter under his breath. "I hope I can." That made his heart sink.
..............
Trunks promised her that he would talk to him, again. Crystal was insistent that he was going to leave and that it was going to be bad if he did. She wouldn't tell him why she knew that, she kept saying that it was going to be bad.
He knew that he usually gave in to his daughters easily. They would look at him with those liquid eyes and he would just give in. Pan called him to easy on them and didn't like being the bad guy all the time.
He couldn't help it.
But this time he got her to promise him that she was going to start to learn to handle her strength. It was hard to get her to do that. But with watery eyes, she finally did. She didn't have to learn to fight like they do, but he made her promise to learn to control herself. He didn't want her to find a temper in that calm body of hers and blow something up.
He had planned on leaving his father over there to work it out alone.
Now he had to deal with his father.
Again.
He entered the house and the air was stale. Dad had not opened any of the windows. Bra had done a quick clean after mom had passed away. Pan helped her, but he had been so busy with other things that he wasn't too sure if anything else was done.
"Father," he called out.
"What do you want?"
He turned to see his father at the top of the stairs. He was surprised to see that he did look better than he saw him last. He looked rested. His eyes were bright again and he looked like his own determined self.
"Are you okay here?"
"Of course I am," he snorted and came down the stairs. He looked so much better. "Why are you here?"
"I just thought."
"I do not need a babysitter. I am fully capable of taking care of myself," Vegeta cut him off. Didn't Soyna use that line once before a long time ago on him? "You can leave now."
He blinked a few times. His father was just dismissing him? He felt an old rage rise up in him. He pushed it back down. "Do you want to come over for dinner? Pan cooked enough food for dinner."
"I am capable of fending for myself. I don't need a child to worry about me." Vegeta said sharply.
"A child?" Trunks said in a low voice. "Are you calling me a child?" The rage was rising again. "Do you know what I have even gone through while you were wallowing is self pity?" He didn't realize that he was this angry with his father. "I have not even had time to mourn the loss of my own mother because of all the responsibilities that have been laid upon me! ME! Not you! The husband! No. ME! The son. I was there when she died, dad! I was there! I was there when the doctor came out and told me that she had a stroke. I was there! Not you! I was the one that told you that she was dead. I was the one that made all the funeral arrangements and all the phone calls. I was the one that had to fight the plummeting stock prices by sending out press releases to minimize the damage. I was the one that Bra came to for comfort when you shunned her. I was the one that was there! I was the one that people were shaking hands and patting the shoulder of and I had to deal with it all!" He fumed. "And you call me a child."
The air seemed heavy in the room.
The anger had taken feelings out of him that he didn't even know that he had. It was like a weight had lifted off his chest and now he looked to his father. He stood still as if he had been struck by the words and was silent for a while.
He had that sad look again. That tired look. It looked as if he were trying to form his words together but couldn't figure out what to say. Finally he spoke, "Are you done?"
That was all his father had to say to him?: Are you done?
"Dad," he said and ran his hand through his hair and started for the door. "I do love you dad. I really do, as hard as you make it at times, but you do try my patience. You really do."
Vegeta's eye twitched.
"I have to go home now and deal with my little girls, your grandchildren, who are worried about you. Think before you act, will ya, dad. We don't want to loose you too," he said and left. He knew that there was nothing else to say.
............
.
Benot was in a sort of a daze. He never really thought that his REAL father would want to talk to him. He saw him from time to time at the school with the woman that he was sitting with at the table. He never approached him. He felt kind of stupid about last time that he ran up to him. He did feel silly about what he did to him when he was younger. Running up to him and clutching onto his leg and calling him daddy. He still blushed about that and he grew mad and the thought that that Ligh fellow manipulated him and his family
He had chewed his lip as he stood by the table and said hi to him. He never thought he would be in this situation. He was not supposed to be part of his life.
"Benot?" Brennen had said in a low voice and looked at him worriedly. "How have you been?" He actually cared about what he had been doing. He didn't expect that.
"Okay," he had lied. Marron put his hand on his shoulder and asked who he was. Did Marron ever see Brennen? He couldn't remember. She told her and she went a little pale at that.
The brunette looked at him curiously and asked Brennen how he knew him and without a hesitation that made his heart swell, "He is my son."
After getting over the drama of the woman fainting, Brennen stumbled over an explanation that he helped with and so did Marron a bit. The woman took a little bit to get over it and obviously did not believe the explanation. She started to get mad. He could see the pain that came over his face as she started to ask why she was never told before.
Benot was the one that explained it in a startling way. "His doppelganger is my father, in a different place and time where my mother met him and had us. My father died saving us from evil and allowed her to live and come here. She was not supposed to meet him in this place, but she did, but it was to late. Mom already found another."
Mom had accepted Goten, even though he fought that relationship in every possible way he had even begun to think of him as dad. Especially lately, since mom has lost her mind.
"I didn't know how to tell you all this. It is still rather confusing for me," he said to her and grabbed her hands. "Don't hate me Melody. Please. I can't help but think of them as my son's even though I hardly know them and then after seeing her other one, Cyrus."
"Is he your also?" She said quickly.
"No. He is not, but oh man; I didn't even know what he looked like. I just saw a kid that looked upset and lost. It wasn't until he told me where he lived that I clued in." he said.
"You saw Cyrus?" Benot said.
"Yeah. I told him not tell you mom that I helped him. I didn't want her to flip out at me or something or worse, that big guy that she is with," Brennen said. "He isn't around here, is he?" He looked nervously over his shoulder as if Goten was going to just appear.
"No," Benot said and looked at the two boxes of pizza that were on the table rapidly cooling. Junior had said that he had to go to visit the compound. He could guess why but he wasn't about to go back tonight. His stomach still ached from where she hit him. He didn't want to see Goten or his mom tonight and now that his real dad was talking to him.. "They have other problems tonight." He said in a low voice and he found Marron's comforting hand on his shoulder again.
His girlfriend Melody eventually got over the shock even though she didn't believe the time travel thing, but it was pretty hard not to. Brennen in this time was only 26 now and it was pretty hard to have a nearly 13-year- old boy.
He was glad to see Brennen. Brennen again asked him questions about how he was doing in school and how he was doing in sports. He gladly told him that he was doing well in everything but he wasn't going to do sports anymore.
"Why now?" he asked.
"I don't want to train anymore and all sports you have to practice at and I don't want to do that anymore," he said. "I just want to be a kid."
"What kid doesn't play sports?" Brennen asked.
"Huh?" he said.
"I sucked at basketball, but I still played it. I knew that I wasn't going to go pro or anything like that, but I still played every weekend with my friends," he said. "Why would you want to stop? I have seen you at school on those teams last year. You were good."
"I just don't want to fight anymore," he said. "I don't want to be a monster." His voice was low and he could feel the threatening tears coming again. He wanted to run into his arms and be held by him but he settled for leaning against Marron who smoothed his hair again.
"What? A monster?" Brennen then remembered what happened last time they had encountered each other. "Oh. That stuff, when your hair turning color and stuff." Poor Melody looked so lost.
"I don't want to do that. I stopped." Benot said.
"But why?" he looked so shocked that he would want to stop. "You are all so strong and fast. Why wouldn't you want to be like that?"
"You didn't see her," he said and gasped. He didn't even understand. Why did he have to ruin such a nice conversation? He was having a nice time talking to his dad about trivial things.
Thankfully he didn't push the topic any further. He must have been afraid that it was too much information and he did not look like he wanted to get dragged down back into their family. Yeah. That was a good way of describing it. Being dragged down.
It had been nice talking to dad and he even got his phone number from him and e-mail if he ever wanted to contact him. "I know that your mother and new father won't approve of it, but I really wouldn't mind hearing how things are going with you," he said as he wrote the stuff on the pizza box that were certainly cold by then.
It was really nice knowing that he had some sane blood in his veins.
He had slept well that night with the torn top of the pizza box stuffed in his bag as he curled up in the spare room of his uncle's house. He had heard some worried voices when Junior returned but did not head them.
He did feel better this morning as he walked to school. He hoped that Legen brought his homework with him, but he was sure that he could talk his way around it if he had too. He wasn't about to go home this morning and he wasn't too sure that he wanted to go to his own house tonight.
Junior told him that his mom had calmed down a lot and felt really bad about hitting him. He knew that Marron talked to him about meeting his father, but just gave him a look that was waiting for him to talk to him about it.
But he wasn't about to talk about that with anyone.
He still was in a state of shock about learning that Brennen thought about him.
............
Gohan had never seen his father look so sad. He didn't think it was possible. He had seen him flash with anger in battle but he did not see the sadness that was now present in him. Mom had come to him saying that he wasn't sleeping and not eating. She was not acting like he normally did.
She asked him to talk to him.
He didn't know what was bothering his father. He worried quite a bit about how everything seemed to be crumbling now that Bulma had passed away and Vegeta and Soyna were at odds.
It wasn't his fault.
But he acted as if it was.
He was looking at the empty house that Bulma and Vegeta once lived in together.
"Hi dad," he said and stood by his father. He never seemed to change. He always was the same. He was always constant. It was just the way things were supposed to be. Dad was supposed to be the anchor. He did look a bit older than he remembered him when he was younger. He didn't know how to describe it. It wasn't like he had gray hair or wrinkles. He just looked older and tired.
Goku looked at him and tried to flash a smile at him, but it was pathetic and did not suit his father. "Don't you have to teach today?" he asked. "It has to be near noon."
"Field trip," he said. "What are you doing out here?"
"Vegeta went in there. He stormed out of Trunks house and went in there. I haven't seen any movement in there since," he said.
"Are you okay dad? You are not acting like your normal self. Mom is worried about you." He said and saw a flash that could only be described as pure anguish! It looked so unnatural on his father that it almost scared him.
"I have been making her worry again," he sighed heavily and looked at him with a slow and sad smile. "I guess I am not good at hiding my feelings."
"No your not dad," Gohan said with a smile. "Why don't you come in and eat something? That will make mom feel better."
He took a look at the house that he was looking at and then back at him. "Okay. I guess I should eat something. I am a little hungry." He started to walk slowly towards their house. He looked over at his dad and couldn't read the look he was getting from him.
"What?" Gohan said and rubbed his shirt, "Is there something on my face?" He ran his hands over his face.
"No," Goku smiled. "I was just thinking of how proud I am of you."
Where did this come from?
"You have never left Videl. You are always there for her, Pan and Fry. You are always there," he said. "I was never there for you or your mother."
"You were always there when it counted," Gohan said.
"I wasn't there for so much more. For all the other stuff. The family stuff. I have tried to fill in those gaps for all of you but I just can't seem to do that," he said. "But you and Goten, you two are good husbands. You don't leave your wives. You don't leave your kids. You are strong and there for whatever it is and you all fight it together. I always left your mother behind without even a kiss goodbye."
"Dad. You couldn't help it. There was always something coming. You were the only one that could protect us all," he said but he could see that his words did not comfort him at all.
"I should have made her more important," he sighed. "Watched out for her much more, just like you and Goten do."
"Dad?" Gohan looked at his dad worriedly.
"I will try not to worry her anymore. With Bulma leaving us," he let out a great sigh. "ChiChi is getting on in years.."
"Mom isn't going to die any time soon. She is to stubborn." Gohan said.
"So was Bulma."
"Don't even think like that dad!" Gohan said and grabbed his arm and stopped him from walking. "Dad. So many times, we have pushed the envelope. We have pushed the limits of everything! Everything and I have learned a long time ago-- from YOU-- that you should not worry about that stuff, because it all has to work out in the end. Dad. Everything happens for a reason. It always works out. It just has to."
Dad's eyes were so large. He almost looked back to normal. Wide-eyed and shocked. He didn't look so old anymore.
"Things happen and it make us all go nuts, but we are alive. I know we will all see each other again in the other world if something happens," Gohan said. "Before, mom was sad that she would not even see you in the Other world. Now she knows that she will. Dad. Everything always works out."
Gohan saw his fathers eyes turn to the house that Goten and Soyna shared.
"I should have never let Shelong leave me," he said. "I should have stayed in control and learned how to prevent those wishes from being stolen." He could see the sadness return to his eyes and that look of age returning. No, it wasn't age. It was guilt.
"You couldn't have stopped what happened. Things happen for a reason," Gohan said.
Goku looked at his son again. "When did you get so smart?" he said and threw and unexpected arm around his shoulder. "Your mom raised you well."
"Dad you had a hand in it as well," Gohan said as they started to walk again. "You are a good man to have as a father."
"I just wish I could have been there," Goku said as they entered the house and the cheery Goku emerged again as he asked for food. You could hardly tell that it was a façade.
...............
"You will tell her to take off that apron, right?" Cyrus said to Goten. "Mom does not look good in pink."
"I will," Dad said. "You should hurry or you'll be late for your first class."
"It's okay. I can catch up. They are just teaching me stuff I already know anyway," Cyrus said. His other siblings had already walked to their prospective groups and Legen to the junior high. "Oma taught me well."
"I am sure that she did," Goten said, his voice a touch sad.
"Dad, can I ask you something else? It's about mom."
"Sure."
"Why does she take things so personally?" Cyrus said but he somehow knew the answer as soon as he said it.
"Well, son, it has to do with how she was raised," Dad said. "She felt she had the job of protecting her family and it is hard for her to think that anyone else can do it."
Yes. He knew that. Grandpa Trunks wasn't there for when she was younger. She had to raise Uncle Junior and be in charge of the family with the help of Bulma in the other time. He knew that. How, he didn't know, but he knew that from somewhere. Mom had admired her dad so and him leaving hurt her a great deal. That was why she was the way she was, but it didn't explain this latest episode that involved an ever smiling woman that resembled his mother.
"Go in son," Goten said. "I don't want to get a call from your teachers about you. You are supposed to be the good kid."
Dad was half joking.
"Just get mom back to normal, okay," he said and walked off. Unfortunately he heard his dad mutter under his breath. "I hope I can." That made his heart sink.
..............
Trunks promised her that he would talk to him, again. Crystal was insistent that he was going to leave and that it was going to be bad if he did. She wouldn't tell him why she knew that, she kept saying that it was going to be bad.
He knew that he usually gave in to his daughters easily. They would look at him with those liquid eyes and he would just give in. Pan called him to easy on them and didn't like being the bad guy all the time.
He couldn't help it.
But this time he got her to promise him that she was going to start to learn to handle her strength. It was hard to get her to do that. But with watery eyes, she finally did. She didn't have to learn to fight like they do, but he made her promise to learn to control herself. He didn't want her to find a temper in that calm body of hers and blow something up.
He had planned on leaving his father over there to work it out alone.
Now he had to deal with his father.
Again.
He entered the house and the air was stale. Dad had not opened any of the windows. Bra had done a quick clean after mom had passed away. Pan helped her, but he had been so busy with other things that he wasn't too sure if anything else was done.
"Father," he called out.
"What do you want?"
He turned to see his father at the top of the stairs. He was surprised to see that he did look better than he saw him last. He looked rested. His eyes were bright again and he looked like his own determined self.
"Are you okay here?"
"Of course I am," he snorted and came down the stairs. He looked so much better. "Why are you here?"
"I just thought."
"I do not need a babysitter. I am fully capable of taking care of myself," Vegeta cut him off. Didn't Soyna use that line once before a long time ago on him? "You can leave now."
He blinked a few times. His father was just dismissing him? He felt an old rage rise up in him. He pushed it back down. "Do you want to come over for dinner? Pan cooked enough food for dinner."
"I am capable of fending for myself. I don't need a child to worry about me." Vegeta said sharply.
"A child?" Trunks said in a low voice. "Are you calling me a child?" The rage was rising again. "Do you know what I have even gone through while you were wallowing is self pity?" He didn't realize that he was this angry with his father. "I have not even had time to mourn the loss of my own mother because of all the responsibilities that have been laid upon me! ME! Not you! The husband! No. ME! The son. I was there when she died, dad! I was there! I was there when the doctor came out and told me that she had a stroke. I was there! Not you! I was the one that told you that she was dead. I was the one that made all the funeral arrangements and all the phone calls. I was the one that had to fight the plummeting stock prices by sending out press releases to minimize the damage. I was the one that Bra came to for comfort when you shunned her. I was the one that was there! I was the one that people were shaking hands and patting the shoulder of and I had to deal with it all!" He fumed. "And you call me a child."
The air seemed heavy in the room.
The anger had taken feelings out of him that he didn't even know that he had. It was like a weight had lifted off his chest and now he looked to his father. He stood still as if he had been struck by the words and was silent for a while.
He had that sad look again. That tired look. It looked as if he were trying to form his words together but couldn't figure out what to say. Finally he spoke, "Are you done?"
That was all his father had to say to him?: Are you done?
"Dad," he said and ran his hand through his hair and started for the door. "I do love you dad. I really do, as hard as you make it at times, but you do try my patience. You really do."
Vegeta's eye twitched.
"I have to go home now and deal with my little girls, your grandchildren, who are worried about you. Think before you act, will ya, dad. We don't want to loose you too," he said and left. He knew that there was nothing else to say.
............