Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z, nor do I own the song "Hitchin' a Ride", it belongs to Green Day.

AN: Contrary to belief, I have not abandoned this fic. Sorry for the long delay, needed a bit more inspiration for this chapter, and I'm still not sure if it's quite up to your expectations, but I hope it is. Also, I lost most of this chapter due to incompetence on my part, so I apologise profusely.

No major warnings except for angst (duh) and possible OOC-ness. Enjoy.

I wake up to warmth so divine that I debate whether I have even woken up at all. I look to the side of me and see him lying there, slightly on top of me, his body pressed tightly against mine and radiating warmth so fierce that my sudden desire for this sleeping angel sparks and flares up again.

Of course this means that we're going to have to move soon or I'll have a very embarrassing situation on my hands.

I move slightly, not enough to startle him immediately out of his deep sleep, but enough to make his eyelids flutter and for him to emit a soft moan as he curled into me tighter.

Damn, this is making things worse. I ponder the situation in my slightly befuddled state for a second. Fuck it. I push him off to the ground and get up, heading towards the bathroom.

Hey Mister where you headed?

Are you in a hurry?

I need a lift to happy hour

Say oh no.

"Trunks!" I peer over my shoulder to see Goten rubbing a hand against his backside. "What was that for?"

"You wouldn't get up. I'll be in my shower." I turn back around and head up to my room and lock the door this time before I begin the morning bathing ritual.

A few minutes later, I emerge. My hair was smelling freshly washed and feeling light and silky. My skin felt a lot cleaner, and slightly cold due to the decrease in my usual temperature for the water.

I suppose we must all take necessary steps on occasion.

I brush my hair and teeth and pull on a pair of gi pants styled after my fathers. No one would see me, except Goten, so it didn't matter that I was walking around my house with my bare torso exposed and my lower abdomen and legs covered in a skin tight material that only seemed to emphasise the curves in the lower half of my body.

Satisfied with my appearance, my stomach growls and I smile sheepishly as I exit my room. Guess I forgot about breakfast. I wonder if Goten's staying for long. There was no doubt that he wouldn't miss breakfast with my family, but I hope that Goten is able to stay for longer. I haven't seen him in such a long time, we have to catch up.

"Morning sweetie," my mother was certainly in a cheery mood this morning as she bustled around with grandmother, heaping food on everyone's plate. Goten and father were already digging in.

"Hey mum, dad, Goten." Dad and Goten just look at me in greeting and return to their food. I grin. Typical Saiyans. I follow their lead and soon all that can be heard around the table is the sound of cutlery hitting plates.

As soon as my hunger is partially satiated, I turn to Goten and ask, "So, are you going to stick around today?"

"Can't. I've got to help Gohan with something."

"That's too bad. Do you want to do something next week then?"

"Sure." Goten rose. "I should be heading off now. Thanks for the meal Bulma."

Mother smiled. "That's okay hun, you know you're welcome any time."

"I'll see you off." Goten looks at me strangely but shrugs it off. We walk to the door where I stand nervously before opening it.

"You okay Trunks?"

"I'm fine." Well, actually I'm not, my insides are churning and I'm getting really flustered just standing here with you and I really wish you wouldn't go. I look up into those deep onyx depths and I feel my resolve crumbling.

"Gods I've missed you Goten." You look surprised at the emotional outburst, but manage to keep it in check.

"I've missed you too Trunks. But we'll see each other next week."

"Yeah." I smile and clap him on the shoulder in a friendly manner. "I'll see you then I guess." I open the door and he steps out with a smile.

"Yeah. Later Trunks." He takes off with a wave and I watch him go until I can no longer see even a speck in the distance. I sigh and close the door then trudge back to the kitchen.

Do you break for distilled spirits?

I need a break as well.

The well that inebriates the guilt

1,2. 1,2,3,4.

Later today I find myself, for some bizarre suicidal reason, going to talk with my father.

Notice I said talk, not train.

How is that possible you ask, well simply this: I start my father talking by saying how much I enjoyed our last sparring session. Being two months ago, he will snort in disdain and ask me to cut to the chase or get the hell out of the gravity room. I collect my fatherly advice and use it in whatever way I see fit.

Simple enough.

Of course this time I wasn't here for fatherly advice or because mother sent me to 'bond' with my father. I was here to get answers.

The door opens and I go in, my hands tucked nonchalantly into my jacket pockets, which I donned at my mother insistence. She doesn't seem to grasp the fact that as a half Saiyan, I don't get cold as easily as other humans. He looks up curiously at the intrusion but doesn't stop his workout until he's completed his movements. My father's picky like that.

"What is it Trunks?"

Hmm, it seems I've caught him in a good mood. Or maybe he's still worried … no, he must be in a good mood.

"I wanted to ask you something." So much for the subtle approach.

He raises an eyebrow in inquiry.

"What the fuck did you do to me on Friday night?" I glare at him so coldly I think it stuns him.

"What are you talking about?"

"The drug father, what the fuck was it?" I know I'm getting angry, but I couldn't care less.

"Oh, that." He shrugs and returns to his routine. "A harmless amphetamine designed to target the Saiyan metabolism. Why did you feel slightly sick coming home Saturday?"

"If you call a splitting headache and severe nausea bad enough to make me pass out mild, then yeah, I did feel slightly sick." I can see that he doesn't appreciate the sarcasm, but I couldn't care less.

He looks slightly curious and … wait, was that worry I saw on his face? Okay now I am officially freaked out. As if this wasn't bad enough, I've managed to worry my father even more.

"Did you take anything else?"

"Do I look stupid dad?"

"No I mean anything at all. Headache tablets, sleeping pills?"

I freeze. "Yeah, two headache tablets the next morning."

"Idiot!" He exploded and grabbed me by my jacket. "Do you have no sense at all? I thought they you'd been taught never to touch anything else if you've taken drugs for over forty-eight hours."

I slapped his hands away and glared right back at him. "Well I wouldn't have had that problem if you hadn't done something to me in the first place!"

"I told you about it, you should have been prepared."

"My head was threatening to spilt open. I tend not to recall much when I'm in that sort of condition."

"You should, I thought I'd drilled it into you as a child to ignore pain."

"Well in life threatening situations yeah I try and keep focused, but this was a party." I shake my head disgustedly. "Look, just don't do it to me again dad, I don't like passing out for over a day."

"You said you were sick before you came home though?" Vegeta still looked concerned. "Did you take anything that night?"

"Dad, I told you I'm not stupid." I tried to think back on the night but I couldn't even recall what the hotel room that I stayed in looked like. I frown slightly. That's a new experience. I don't think I can ever recall not remembering something about nights when I got trashed.

Of course if I forgot that I didn't remember anything that's even worse.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I bark back at my father's question.

"Well if all you came here to do was show me how pissed off you are, you've done it."

I look at him. Is there a question in his eyes? No, it must be a trick of the light. I shrug. "Fine, I'll leave." That didn't quite go as I'd hoped. I'm so confused now.

"Trunks."

I turn around, he's staring at me with an unreadable look.

"Is there something else bothering you?"

I debate telling him about everything. I hate lying to anyone, my father especially, but I can't tell him. So I shake my head. "No, there's nothing to tell."

He looks pained and frustrated but in an instant it's gone and replaced by a look of irritation. "In that case, if you're not going to train get out."

"Sure." And here I thought he actually cared.

Cold turkey's getting stale, tonight I'm eating crow.

Fermented salmonella poison oak no

There's a drought at the fountain of youth,

Now I'm dehydrating

My tongue is swelling up I say

1,2. 1,2,3,4.

Lethargy has never been my thing, but every so often I really have to just do nothing.

So here I am, lying here on my bed, staring at the white ceiling trying to relax but finding it's completely impossible. However, I've discovered that if you stare long enough at a single patch of white you can actually start to see pictures.

…

Okay now it's official. I am completely insane. I have to do something.

I get up and walk over to my desk, intending to do homework. Why? I don't know. It is the holidays after all, but then I've nothing better to do.

Which basically tells you how sad my life has become.

I attempt to do work on some of my assessments, but it's only a short while before I throw my pen down in frustration. I can't concentrate on anything. I'm so angry with my father and what he did to me. My mother is seriously starting to bug me with her ideas for 'improving' me. She's organised yet another party for next week. Luckily, Goten promised he'd come, and besides that's the weekend he said he'd stay with me.

Goten and my situation with him is actually the main thing frustrating me. Gods, I need him so much, I want him so much, but I don't know how he'd react to everything if I told him.

I growl in further frustration. I quickly change my clothes into something less revealing and more commonplace. Then I open my window and go outside, grabbing my wallet as I leave. No one will miss me going, it's almost eleven at night. Even father would be going to bed soon.

I need something to occupy me.

Troubled times, you know I cannot lie.

I'm off the wagon and I'm hitchin' a ride.

I don't quite recall how many bars I went to tonight.

I do recall that it was a lot.

However, I should state more accurately that I knew how many bars I went to before I met up with them. That was about a dozen stops. Whoever said that thirteen wasn't an unlucky number was mistaken. I knew I should have quit when I'd finally gotten pleasantly tipsy, but no, I just had to go and try the new vodka mixes at this new classy bar that just opened.

Of course, considering they'd been raving about it at school I should have been aware that it was likely I'd meet up with some of my less desirable peers, but in my defense I'd like to point out again that I was already tipsy.

I should really try and stop making excuses for myself.

"Trunks Brief." I winced as I heard that annoying voice. I turned, knowing whom I'd find.

"Riley Lars. Wow, fancy running into you." Damn, I did not need this fucker screwing up my crawl. Lars was the son of mother's largest business competitor. He's hated me before he even met me. I seemed to get that impression from everyone at school. Most of them were children of business people who were competitors with Capsule Corp. I really couldn't care, but sometimes the superior attitude they had bugged me.

Mostly because, unlike them, I knew I was better than they were.

"Care for a drink with us Brief?"

"No thanks, I think I can manage to find the bar without your help." I started to turn away and moved over to the bar, only to find my way blocked by an expensively clad arm.

"But don't you think it would be more fun if you drank with us?" His greasy smile soured my stomach and I pushed him away.

"I don't think so."

"But I insist." He grabbed me by the arm, surprised I think when he felt my rock-hard muscles underneath. I glared at him, my look as dark as something my father could produce, but somehow it didn't seem to faze him.

He patted me on the back and released my arm.

"Perhaps some other time then."

"Don't count on it." I continue to glare at him as he walks back to his groupies and flatterers. They're either glaring or smirking in my general direction and I recognise most of them.

That little incident completely spoiled my night and I turned disgustedly out of the bar and walked off in search of another so I could rid myself of the incidents.

So here I am now, at my umpteenth bar, slowly drinking myself into oblivion in an attempt to escape them.

My father would hate me right now, they all would, I know. I'm such a coward.

There's a drought at the fountain of Youth,

And now I'm dehydrating.

My tongue is swelling up,

I say … Shit!

I don't know the time, I can barely realise that this is indeed my room that I have flown into. Luckily, I left my window open. Having done this many times, I realised after the first few times of breaking the glass when I'm drunk that it doesn't bode well for me to have my parents wake up and see me in this state. So I leave my window open after I fly off earlier.

Yet another habit I've gotten into relating to my drunkenness. I'm seriously starting to wonder if I'm getting too deep and am simply using alcohol as a form of escape.

Right now though, I really couldn't care and I don't have enough strength to think about it. I barely manage to make it over to my bed before I collapse heavily on it.

A flicker of ki alerts me to the fact that my father is still awake.

Shit. He knows about this. I'm so in for a major lecture tomorrow … or today technically. But again, I don't have enough energy to care.

Before I completely loose myself to the oblivion of my drunken state, I think I hear my door open and detect a slight change in the light as my father comes into my room.

I don't think he's done that since I was young, so I know that I'm dreaming, or hallucinating when I hear him slowly making his way across the room to my bed. But then, I can feel the shift in my bed as he lightly perches on my bed beside me and I swear that's a real hand caressing my face so gently. I can't help it, a tear slowly escapes my eye and slides down my cheek. There's just so much wrong and I want him to know, I want him to help, but I know that he'll just hate me for everything.

"Trunks," he whispers and now I know it's not a dream. "Please let me in, I can help you. I worry, your mother does. You've become so distant."

Gods, he sounds so upset. What have I done? Are they really this worried about me? Another tear escapes me and he brushes it gently away.

"I can't even tell you this when you're awake. Some father I am." He snorts derisively and I can sense his distaste with himself. "I know that I could never turn you away, but I don't think you know that. I never had the guts to tell you. Don't push me away Trunks, you'll only hurt yourself more." I felt the bed shift again and his hand gently brush my face again, wiping the tearstains away as he did so.

I heard him walk over to the door and open it before I was able to gather enough courage and energy to rise from my state of semi-consciousness to reply.

"I'm sorry."

I can feel him turn and smile at me. I know he heard me, despite the fact that it was barely a whisper. Then he quietly left and closed the door behind him, allowing me to drift into a more peaceful sleep than was usual for the state I was in.

He really does care, he doesn't show it often, or as blatantly, but I love him for it. Perhaps tomorrow I could tell him, maybe he won't hate me. Maybe he could help me.

Right now though, I really need to sleep.

Troubled times, I know I cannot lie

I'm off the wagon and I'm hitchin' a ride.

I feel the warmth of the sun shining brightly on my face and I wake slowly.

Strange, I don't feel groggy or sick as I usually do after a crawl of that proportion. And I don't have a headache. I shrug and smile at my good fortune and go into my bathroom to get ready for this new day.

I jump the stairs two at a time after I'm finished, feeling rather energetic and joyful.

I guess I owe a lot of my good mood to my father. I see him sitting in the kitchen with my mother and grin.

"Good morning mother." I walk over and give her a kiss on the cheek. She smiles at my display of affection. "Good morning father," I greet as I take my seat. He looks up at me with a raised eyebrow, noticing the change in my usual mood.

"Well Trunks, you certainly seem to be in a rather good mood." My mother carried a plate of food over for me.

"I guess I am." I glance over at my father to see him smiling in my direction. Only a small smile, nothing that would make it seem like anything was going on. You wouldn't even notice it if you didn't live with him for your whole life. That brightened my day even more than my mother's happiness at my change and her delicious cooking.

I guess I've been worrying both of them.

"I'm home!" We all turn to the door as we hear the familiar shrill voice echo down the hallway.

"Trunks!" I get up and open my arms and grin as my little sister runs delightedly and jumps into my embrace. "I've missed you so much."

"I missed you too squirt. How was your time staying at Pan's?" I sit back down with her in my arms as my mother passes by, giving her baby daughter a quick kiss on the cheek, and goes to talk to Videl in the hallway. My father had gotten up after giving his precious princess a quick smile and was on his way to the gravity chamber.

She picked up a piece of my bacon and shoved it in her mouth before answering. "It was good. Pan's daddy helped us make a tree house. And then Goten came around and helped us paint it. It was fun and we got to put paint in his hair." She giggled and I grinned at the image of Goten with pink paint in his hair, for I know Bra would have chosen that colour for the house despite any of Pan's protests.

"That must have been fun."

"It was. Where did daddy go? He promised we could train when I got home." She gasped, thinking of something. "You don't think he forgot do you?"

I grinned, knowing that father would never forget something like that. "I don't know. Maybe we'd better go and check just in case he did."

Bra grinned and nodded. "We should."

I got up again and carried her over to the gravity chamber and opened the door.

"What do you think you're doing?"

I grinned at the expression on Vegeta's face. I could tell he was pretending to be angry for Bra's benefit but was in fact enjoying seeing his daughter get riled up.

"Daddy, you promised I could train when I got home."

"Exactly. So why are you still in those clothes?" Bra grinned as she understood why Vegeta was acting like this. "I don't have time for someone who isn't ready to train. Perhaps Trunks would like to train with me instead." I grinned as I saw the amused gleam in his eyes. This was almost like a tradition between the two. I know he loved training with Bra, she was his pride and joy.

Bra squealed. "No! I wanna train! I'll go get changed right now." I laughed as she sped off eagerly up the stairs to her room and looked over at my father who was smiling fondly after her.

"Make sure she doesn't hurt herself in her eagerness."

"Will do." I smile and follow my sister up to her room. She rushes back past me, he training gi already on. I smile and continued on to my room after making sure she didn't fall down the stairs.

I grabbed my clothes from the bathroom to take out to the laundry and frown as I notice something in my jacket pocket. I take out an envelope wondering where I could have gotten it. I open it up and read the letter enclosed and pale. I flick through the other items and stare at them in shock.

I stumble back to the wall and slide down it, my face a mask of horror. I know my hands are trembling and tears are starting to form in my eyes, but I couldn't care. Everything was screwed. I've completely fucked up my life and nothing I or anyone else can do will fix it now.

AN: I hope you enjoyed that. Hopefully the next chapter will be out sooner than this one was.