AN: Sorry! I'm sorry!
Goku's green eyes widened as he watches the figure in the door appear and he can almost feel himself go slack. Bulma is everything that he imagined! Beautiful blue eyes, silky hair tied back into a ponytail, an inviting face that's currently contorted in shock, but that was forgivable. And Goku can definitely tell where Trunks got his looks from!
Before anyone gets a word in (Goku especially didn't want Turnks to ruin his first impression), he steps up to Bulma, a shy blush on his face and he starts speaking rather quickly.
"Um... Konnichiwa Bulma-san. You don't really know me, but my dad told me all about you! By the way, I'm Ximitar Goku, Vegeta's son, but you can call me Goku! Well, Ximi's okay, too, but I don't really use it that much. Boy, you really look nice and you're not so distorted as the others I've seen so far. You have no idea how much I wanted to meet you! But Dad and I both thought you were dead. And he told me so, so many stories about you! Is it okay if I hug you?"
The fast talking blows over his audience, taking it a few seconds to register what Goku just said, while the young saiyajin anxiously waits for Bulma to actually say something.
Vegeta's face changes from one of shock, then of anger, then to one of absolute mortification. Meanwhile, Trunks starts to turn red, holding a hand to his mouth, his shoulders shaking as if he's choking.
Confused, Goku's eyebrows knit together as he looks around at the two of them. "What's the matter? What did I do? Dad?" he questions his father who can't even look at him in the eye properly.
Finally Trunks can't take it anymore. "Goku, you IDIOT!" He shrieks with laughter and falls down to the ground. "That's Mirai!!"
Goku's body goes rigid and he slowly pulls away from the very wide eyed counterpart of Trunks. "Oh no..." he moans weakly.
"Oh no! It's okay!" Mirai says quickly, putting his hands on Goku's shoulders. "It was an honest mistake! Maybe the long hair confused you!" He looks up at Vegeta and wonders, Good lord, have you never gone over sex-ed with him?
Goku mutters, "I heard that."
"Prince Goku, stop mind reading!" Vegeta snaps.
Suddenly Mirai snorts, "I can't believe you're still calling him Prince Goku?" Before the eldest saiyajin can give an angry retort, Mirai shoves himself against his father and hugs him. "I can't believe you're still alive."
Goku twitches. Okay, this is the second person that gets to hug his father like that. Calm down. It's probably a rare thing. But he can't just hug his father like that! Suddenly he finds himself embraced by the same arms. "You have no idea how much I missed you too, Goku."
The young prince blushes, any resentment vanishing like smoke. "Uh..." he says intelligently.
"Anyway," Mirai lets him go, leaving Goku in a state of shock. "Come in! Both of you! Mom's been going absolutely crazy since Trunks called."
Mirai moves to enter, when Vegeta suddenly grabs him by the bicep. "Wait. Mirai. Your mother's still..." He lets the question hang.
His eldest frowns for a moment, trying to decipher it. But then, "Ohh...No, don't worry about that. But ChiChi..."
"Holy crap, you're joking!" Vegeta laughs out loud. "Well, somebody we know would be pissed off if he..." and he lets it hang again , letting he, Trunks, and Mirai snicker about it.
"...You're taking advantage of my ignorance aren't you?" Goku mutters darkly.
"Got that right," Trunks says with a smile.
Mirai leads them into living room, that hasn't changed at all to Vegeta's relief and disbelief, where they can see a mountain of food on the coffee table along with a massive amount of decorations. And there's one rather large lumpy sign that seems to be moving of its own accord.
"Mom?" Trunks says. At once the lump is replaced with a head and torso. Goku sees the distorted form that is woman again, but is struck dumb by the frighteningly familiar blue eyes. "Vegeta?" she whispers taking those eyes off of him and onto his father. "Vegeta!" she shrieks and jumps over the coffee table right into Vegeta's arms. "Oh god! Vegeta!"
"Bulma," he whispers, holding her close and gently. Gods, she hasn't changed at all save a few gray hairs and a couple laugh lines. She's still as beautiful as ever. Relief and pure ecstasy fill him as he presses his nose into her hair. And she's still wearing that same god-awful perfume.
Goku restlessly plays with his foot against the carpet, keeping his eyes averted from the inevitable make out. He's never actually seen it, but after his father's description of it, it sounds like the most vulgar thing in the world. He peeks upwards for a second, only to look straight back down at the green carpet again this time with his face as red as a ripe tomato. Oooh yeah, that does NOT look pretty.
Mirai laughs, "Get a room you two."
Goku peeks upwards again, this time seeing Bulma stare at him with tear struck eyes. "Oh Son-kun! I missed you, too!" She grabs him and plants a nice wet one right on his lips. Goku stares at her, his jaw dropping in shock, and he suddenly chokes and starts feeling faint.
His father quickly catches him before he falls to the floor and brings him over to the couch. "Onna! This is your fault!"
"My fault?!" she shrieks, instinctively taking to the defensive.
"He's not used to intimate contact! You just put him into shock!"
"You never said anything like that! And if it put him into shock then why didn't you stop yourself from flinging yourself at me before!"
Vegeta's jaw drops in exasperation, "WHAT?! I did not fling myself at you!"
"You did too!"
They pull themselves into the inevitable argument, with Trunks and Mirai watching on the standby. Trunks merely smiles at the yelling couple. "They got back to their old habits so quickly."
"Yeah, it's nice," Mirai says bemusedly.
"Son-kun, you sure you're alright?" Bulma asks gently, laying a hand on Goku's bicep.
The young saiyajin just makes a nervous laugh, "I'm fine, really." He pulls away from her and pays more attention to the food that's in front of him. For the past five years his diet consisted of only plain rice and roasted meat. Pork buns, pizza, noodles, cakes! Oh gods the cakes! Goku gives a goofy smile of delight as he reaches for yet another one of those newly discovered flavors. He doesn't care what anybody says, but he's in paradise.
"Goku! Leave some of those for the others!" Trunks growls, finding yet another thing to harp on him with.
Okay, maybe it's not quite paradise. "I told you, it's Prince Goku to you!" Goku snaps, defiantly wolfing down the last Black Forest cake. He hands the rest of the cakes on the plate to his father. "Here you go, Dad. I'm sure you missed it." He smirks at the glare his half-brother sends him.
Vegeta sweatdrops, especially when Bulma starts glaring at him. "This is not my fault, onna!"
The woman genius sighs and says to her son, "Trunks, stop antagonizing Son-kun. He's just a little confused and very fond of cake." She smiles at Goku again, "Alright, you better finish up soon. I want to start testing you right away."
Both Vegeta and Goku suddenly choke on their food, "Testing?!"
Bulma says defensively, "Well I have to do it before his family gets here tomorrow!"
"But what are you testing him for?!" the eldest prince demands. However, Goku's mind gets stuck on the words 'his family'. What? But isn't this his family?
"You've said it yourself, Vegeta. He's bone scrawny! I want to figure out why! I also want to test this psychic ability of his and to inspect his eyes."
Before Vegeta can retort, he suddenly freezes in his chair and looks towards the direction of the door. "We have company," he mutters darkly, setting aside his food and getting up.
Mirai gets up as well. "It must be Gohan! I knew he wouldn't be able to wait until tomorrow."
"Well, I am going to get rid of him," Vegeta declares, heading towards the front door.
"Vegeta! Don't you dare!" Bulma yells.
Goku looks at the lot of them, wondering in confusion why the heck this is such a big deal.
His father storms over to the door and opens it. Instantly his anger is replaced by shock when he doesn't see the teenager he was expecting but...a full grown man, who looks a hell lot like his father! with the exception of the hair and the glasses...and the suit.
Behind his gold rimmed glasses, Gohan's eyes widen as he takes in a very old sight. "Vegeta? Holy cow! You haven't changed a bit! Where's my dad?" he asks quickly.
Vegeta shakes away his shock quickly and growls, "No-" only to get cut off when Mirai pushes him aside.
"Sorry dad," he says with an apologetic smile. "Gohan! Your father's right in here, but-"
Only he gets cut off when Gohan unapologetically pushes him aside as well and he rushes to the living room. "Dad!" His eyes quickly scan the room, only to light upon Goku instantly. "Oh my god..." he whispers, eyes wide, taking in his much changed father.
Goku squints his green eyes at him, suddenly getting the feeling that he's seen this person before. Before he can really think on it, for the third time that day, he's suddenly embraced by a complete stranger and drawn into a very, very, very close hug.
"Oh my god, Dad! I can't believe it's you!" Gohan cries out in muffled sobs as he lifts his much shorter father off the ground in his hug.
Almost instantly Goku bolts out of the embrace. "HOLD IT! What?! Who the heck are you?! And are you nuts?! You're older than I am!"
Gohan can only blink, stunned by his father's behavior. "Dad?" He quickly gets pulled to the side by Mirai.
"Hey, I tried to warn you!" Mirai says in a hushed tone. "He can't remember you. Your dad has amnesia. Plus he thinks that my dad's HIS father."
"...Say WHAT?!" Gohan nearly cries out.
"Yeah, we're all kind of shocked by that one," the purple haired demi admits. "But look, my dad's really, really protective of him, so it's not going to be easy to um...actually talk with him 'properly'."
Gohan turns and sends Vegeta a glare. "Oh?" he says bitterly.
Mirai whispers, "Look. You can't really blame him. Goku was the only thing in the world my dad had for the past five years. They were bound to get attached to each other. Plus I think my dad's a little off his rocker from the isolation because he actually believes that Goku's his biological son."
"...Wow."
"Just mince your words around your dad, or else my father's going to go ballistic on you." Already the two see Vegeta by Goku's side, trying to make sense of the intense confusion that Gohan presented.
"Look, he's just a whack-job. Don't listen to a word that he says," Vegeta says in a deadly serious tone, pointing over to the two conspiring demi's.
Trunks says indignantly, "Dad! Quit encouraging it!"
Vegeta merely smacks him one over the head. "Quiet!"
Sighing, Bulma shakes her head and pulls Goku away from all the chaos. "Come on. Now's a good a time as any to start your check-up."
Gohan says quickly, "I'm coming too!" and follows the two to Bulma's medical lab. Vegeta, glaring at the Son, quietly follows as well.
Bulma's blue eyes scan the results of the quick carbon and protein scan. "Well, your body seems to be perfectly fine. With the exception of the very dense muscle mass that you have. That imperfection must still be at work then. But when you're around oh...16 or 17, your muscles should start to show properly.
She takes out a small flash light and shines it straight into Goku's green eyes. "And your eyes seem normal as well. The only change is the color of your iris'. Why did this forest spirit change them again?"
Goku shrugs, "I have no idea. Maybe she just wanted to make some sort of taint. Said it had something to do with my heritage though."
Bulma sends a glance over to Gohan and Vegeta. "You've seen this Bardock guy right? Did he have green eyes?"
The prince scowls, "I never heard of Bardock."
"Oh that's flat out denial!" Gohan snaps at him. "But to answer your question, Bulma, he had black eyes like the rest of us."
"That's odd," Bulma mutters, flashing that annoying light in Goku's eyes again. After a sigh, "Well, it's all normal there. I already collected your blood and the labs should be done with the DNA report by tonight. There's just one thing that I want to test now. Your psychic ability."
Almost immediately, a wry, evil smile works its way onto Bulma's face, easily scaring Goku into scooching a bit further away from her. "I've never had a psychic test subject before!" she laughs like a woman possessed.
Beads of nervous sweat form at the back of Goku's head as moves even further away from the excited scientist. What the heck is she going to do? Cut his head open?!
"Onna," Vegeta says irritably, "exactly how are you planning to investigate it? The most you can possibly do is poke around it."
Bulma just sighs, "Oh Vegeta." Then she pulls Goku over to a large machine over in the furthest corner of the lab. "I haven't been able to use this machine yet. I got it about three years ago to test out mental capacities and I think it applies in this situation."
She brings out two white discs and a large set of what looks like glasses both connected to the machine by thin wires. "Put on the optical moniter and put those neural scanners on each temple," she orders while moving to start up the machine. Frowning, Goku puts on the delicate equipment and peers through the dark lenses. "Right!" Bulma declares when the instrument's completely fired up. "Now Goku just relax and start using that psychic ability of yours."
Vegeta looks at her in alarm. "He can't do that!"
Gohan grins, "Why not? Afraid that he'll find out the truth?"
"You've gotten very bitter haven't you?" the prince sneers. "I thought that I shouldn't expect that kind of tone out of the one who abandoned us five years ago." Gohan stares at him and shuts his mouth.
"HEY!" Bulma yells. "Don't you try to pull that over Gohan! He's suffered enough self-guilt as it is!"
Gohan however, remains quiet, unable to look at Vegeta in the eye. Goku just frowns at the three of them. It seems that confusion is going to be his main mindset for a while.
The prince sighs, "Fine. Whatever. Let him use his new 'powers'. I'm not afraid of him finding out the truth. He already knows what it is." He nods at his son and ruffles his hair. "Prince Goku, you go ahead. It may be a bit confusing for you though. But it's only this once that you're allowed to read minds." Then he turns to leave.
"Where are you going?" Bulma asks.
"Me?" the prince smirks. "I'm going to go and find my other sons."
Gohan watches him leave warily and looks over to his father, who reflects his stare almost angrily. "I'm going to go after Vegeta," he says suddenly and leaves Goku and Bulma alone together.
The scientist clucks her tongue and then smiles at her subject. "All right! Shall we get started?"
Out in the hall, after a couple bounds Gohan catches up with the prince and yells, "Vegeta! Wait!" Vegeta pauses and turns, crossing his arms as the demi walks up next to him. "Vegeta, I'm..." Gohan sighs, "Vegeta, I'm sorry. It's all my fault, I know. I shouldn't have just left you and- And I'm treating you like you're the bad guy here and it's not right. So, I'm sorry. And I guess that um..."
Gohan sighs, "I guess that what I'm trying to say is that you'd make a good grandfather."
Vegeta blanches, "WHAT?!"
At once a wry smirk comes onto Gohan's face, "You know Vegeta, if you're keeping up with this my father's your son thing, you have to realize what that makes me."
"...Oh dear gods..." Vegeta mutters, weakly walking towards someplace to sit. "I'm too young to be a grandfather."
"Well..." Gohan says slyly, "I don't want to burst your bubble, but you may be a great-grandfather soon, too."
At which point, Vegeta trips and falls.
"You sure that you want to keep calling my dad your son?" Gohan asks innocently, leaning over the fallen prince.
"Oh! I see what you're trying to do now," Vegeta growls as he swiftly gets back to his feet. "You're trying to get me to say that Prince Goku isn't my son!"
"No," Gohan answers just as quickly. "Just not your biological son. If you feel he's like your spiritual son I can understand perfectly."
"He IS my son, you brat!" Vegeta snaps. "I can't understand it myself and I don't know how it happened. But he is mine!"
"That's just insane! What about Bardock then?!"
"I don't know!" the prince yells back. "There! You happy?! But just because they look alike doesn't mean they're necessarily related! I've heard about this Turles before, you can't deny that!"
"But what about the age difference! You were only a child when my dad was born!"
"ENOUGH! I won't stand for this!" Vegeta storms off as if to get away from the questions that have been plaguing his own mind for the past two years.
Gohan huffs in annoyance and yells after him. "This also makes my mother your daughter-in-law!!" Then he smiles at the horrible screams of mental agony coming from down the hall.
Bulma carefully puts the instruments away and smiles down at her subject. "You feeling okay?"
Goku stares at the area in front of him in a daze. "I have never been so confused in my life."
His long time friend merely pats him on the head. "It'll be okay, Son-kun."
"Hey! Now I know what you mean by that!" Goku says excitedly. "At first I thought you said that because you wanted to call me 'son' but now it's just because it used to be my last name." He sighs, "There goes that intimate nickname."
Bulma says quickly, "Oh, Goku, I don't mind calling you my son. Hell, I feel responsible for you ALL the time. I mean ChiChi would always call me and she talked about everything you did and that just didn't help anything. But Goku, you just have to understand that your version of reality is just a bit confused."
Goku frowns. "What about my dad's version of reality?"
"...I'd say he's even more confused than you are," Bulma mutters. "Anyway, your results should be done in a couple minutes."
"So...you really don't think that I'm my father's real son."
Sighing, Bulma plops down next to Goku on her lab table. "To tell you the truth, I don't know. It doesn't seem possible, but I've hardly ever seen Vegeta so convinced about anything in his life. And besides," she says with a wry smile, "weirder things have happened." Then the machine starts to spew papers. "Oh great! I forgot to put the paper tray on it!"
Grumbling, she kneels down on the floor and starts gathering the papers. Then she happens to glance at one of them. Suddenly, it seems as if her entire body goes cold and rigid. "Bulma-san? Are you okay?"
"Goku," she whispers, "a weirder thing has just happened right now."
"What are you trying to say, onna?!" Vegeta demands.
Everyone is gathered in Bulma's lab that night, trying to decipher her words about the big news. Goku hangs back over next to his father, his behavior almost subdued.
"Look," she says in frustrated excitement, "Goku's creative, analytical and overall mental capacity potential has skyrocketed! It must be for his brain to accomadate this new power that he has!"
"Speak English, Bulma!"
"Or saiyago," Goku puts in weakly.
Bulma pulls the young prince over to her and plants her hands on his shoulders from behind him. "Goku, our dear, sweet, somewhat naïve Son Goku, has the makings to be a child protégée."
"...Of what?" Trunks demands.
"Of anything he wants! That's the point! He can memorize the entire unabridged version of Webster's Dictionary in seconds if he wants to!"
"If he knew how to read English," Vegeta mutters, staring at Goku as if he's never seen him before.
"He could learn how to do that in an instant!" Bulma says excitedly. "It's absolutely amazing!" Then she adds smugly, "Obviously it comes from MY side of the family."
"Onna," Vegeta growls warningly.
Bulma brushes the remark aside. "All right, all right. Forgive my wishful thinking."
"Ximi," the prince says, looking over at his stunned son.
"Since when did you stop with the Prince Goku?!" Goku yelps in surprise.
Vegeta nods over to Trunks, "I finally had him unhypnotise me. But are you alright with this...new development?"
"Don't really have a choice, do I?" Goku mutters ruefully.
Gohan smiles, "But this is great news! You can accomplish anything that you want to! I'm sure that you'll love it in the end."
"Yeah," Goku sighs, then moves to leave.
"Dad?" his son calls after him.
"Just leave him alone," Vegeta says in warning, glaring at his 'grandson'. "He never even wanted to come here in the first place."
"You couldn't have just stayed there that whole time!" Trunks objects, his anger rising. "And why are you worrying about what he's thinking all the time?!"
"Cool it, Chibi!" Mirai says, slapping his hand on his counterpart's shoulder.
"I thought that he would be happy with it," Bulma sighs, staring at the space where Goku was. Suddenly the phone rings, startling the lot of them. The scientist picks it up and says, "Hello?...Yes...Oh my god...Yes, send it over right now!" She slaps down the phone and nearly runs to her fax machine.
"Mom, what's going on?" Trunks demands.
"I just got the DNA results from the lab!" Bulma says in a rush. Her fax begins to whir and fire up, spitting out three papers into the tray. She flips through them quickly coming upon the desired images. "Oh my god..."
"What is it?" Gohan says in alarm, warning bells going off in his head. Especially when Vegeta gives him a smug grin.
"W-well," Bulma stutters, "I'm not pretending that I know h-how saiyajin DNA works, I mean, it could be completely different than what- we expect and-"
"Enough with the babbling, onna," Vegeta smirks. "Just tell them what I already know."
"Just give me a moment to recover!" his mate snaps. After a long pause, she finally works it up and says slowly, "Goku's DNA has 13 alleles in common with Vegeta's."
AN: Oh man, that took WAY too long to update. I hope that you guys enjoyed this!
