Full Summary:

It's Summer Vacation after their last year in High School and Trunks and Goten are ready to cut loose and have a fun summer filled with lazing around, hanging out with their friends, and of course fighting.

Featuring: A Dragon Ball Hunt, Vegeta's refusal to open up about his emotions backfiring on him, Raditz being wished back and then constantly bullied, Marron discovering Godtube, a stealth crossover with Homestuck, and much more!

All the while Goten and Trunks are coming to terms with their Saiyan nature, their Earthling nature, and what exactly are they in relation to one another. But hey, no one every said that life and true love was going to be easy.

Notes:

I'm posting this first on ao3 and then crossposting here, so if you want to be more up to date you can check out this story on ao3.

So this is sort of a sequel to a long Vegeta POV fic I'm working on where Saiyans have a version of Kismesis from Homestuck. I'm still working on that fic but it's a different beast and probably won't be posted anytime soon. You will see an exploration of the differences between Red and Black romance later in this fic with regards to Goten and Trunks, but they are their own ball of confusion.

Cliff notes! Basically, Saiyans have two forms of romance and two types of relationship they look for:

Red Romance/Mates: Our normal perception of romance, your lifemate who you want to settle down with, including having children and all that typical domestic nonsense. As seen with Goku/ChiChi and Vegeta/ Bulma.

Black Romance/Kismesis: A hatemance/rivalry with benefits. It's as deep and committed of a relationship as having a mate, and is sexual in nature. The one that you dedicate your life to being better than and the one you want to eventually be your death-mate, be it the two of you together against a foe or a fatal duel between them both.

Using the canon setup that Saiyans maintaining their youth until their later years (around 80 years), at which point they age suddenly and severely, and inspired by some stuff from Dragon Ball Online about how Goku and Vegeta died. It's the goal and norm of Saiyans to want to die in combat before that onset of age, and what better blaze of glory is there then to go out with your greatest rival?

In that story, which I've nicknamed Saiyan Kismesis, Vegeta in an angry pining tsundere who develops a black crush on Goku during the whole Saiyan-Frieza sagas, but perceives Goku's lack of reciprocation as rejection as opposed to Goku just being completely oblivious and having no perception of kismesis nor of how romance works unless someone explains it to his face. (So, you know, basically canon).

This goes on (and on and on) till Super era, where Vegeta finally admits his feelings for Goku, who once hearing this is an option is pretty into it. After an embarrassing talk with Bulma and ChiChi, they settle into an ethically non-monogamous relationship where they are allowed to be with their wives and their kismesis.

The general reaction of friends and family ranges from "Oh so Vegeta's Goku obsession has a name" to "Please don't kiss each other where I can see". This is all well established by the time this fic takes place and will mostly exist in the background, but will be addressed later.

Fic Proper Start:

Chapter One: 'Cause They Couldn't Find A Word For Our Kind of Insane

(Trunks)

If Trunks had to describe his relationship with Goten in just a single sentence it would be this: it was complicated.

Now that wasn't complicated in a negative sense exactly, but complicated like the twin engines on his favorite custom supersonic hoverbike was complicated. Consisting of thousands of separate moving parts that required precise precision to work properly, and when you heard a strange noise or saw an error light, you knew it meant doing a full days teardown and reassembly in his workshop, and hours upon hours of troubleshooting and tracking down just where the flaw in the design was, which honestly was one of Trunks's favorite things to do on a,

Wait, where was he going with this? Oh right, him and Goten. See, much like Trunks's precious hoverbike, his relationship with Goten was for some reason everyone else thought was incomprehensibly complicated to everyone else, but all Trunks could do was marvel at the elegance of its complexity.

And okay maybe this wasn't the best analogy. Goten would probably complain about him making it all seem unnecessarily mechanical it for the sake of showing off to everyone who didn't have Trunks's genius level intellect. But it wasn't like that! It was just how Trunks's brain worked, and it wasn't like Goten was wrong that he didn't need to explain it in such terms, it was just the first comparison that came to his mind when he tried to think of an analogy.

Because for all that the relationship between him and Goten seemed sometimes overly complicated, and it wasn't not that, but to Trunks it was also spectacularly simple.

They were two parts of one whole. They were meant to work together, meant to be together.

Trunks was only 18 years old and he already knew who he was meant to spend the rest of his life with, which sounded ridiculous of course, but it wasn't ridiculous to him because it was just a truth that he'd known for over a decade already.

If Trunks was feeling particularly sappy (or particularly drunk) he might even have used a different word entirely: Soulmates.

But that was not something Trunks was ever going to admit out loud or sober, because he could just imagine how everyone else would react to hearing it. Or hell how everyone else would even react to knowing they were "dating", they kept that information on lock down, and with good fucking reason.

So if you asked Trunks what he would call Goten out loud, he'd have to go with "best friend", because that's what they'd agreed upon. Which was absolutely fine by Trunks, even if most people would think it was a little vague, because Trunks knew that Goten felt the same things he did.

Goten had a whole speech he must have prepared about how superior "best friend" was to "boyfriend", it was right there in the name "best" was clearly a superior modifier then "boy". And it was also delightfully vague and obtuse to hide behind. Sort of like the word "partner" which was just as accurate in every sense of it but at the same time didn't come close to encompassing everything about them.

Besides, there was something so very… juvenile about the word boyfriend, something that seemed to diminish what they were. And maybe Trunks had heard a few to many stories the "Dragon Gang" had told over alcohol of how they had all met, where his mom had first set off on the quest to find the Dragon Balls all in order to wish for a boyfriend. Which, had led her to meeting Goku and everyone else, but it wasn't exactly a story Trunks liked hearing.

(It was also one that made his Dad annoyed about and usually demand a spontaneous sparring match with Goku to get his jealousy out.)

Yes best was clearly better than boy. And even if no one else understood everything that was being said when they used the word, Trunks did. He knew Goten's soul like he knew his own, a fact that was only made literal when they formed Gotenks. So he had no problem keeping the extend of their relationship a secret form everyone for the foreseeable future, they didn't need anyone butting in like it was their business.

Something just for them.

"It's over, oh god it's finally over!" Calcula cried as surged out the doorway of their Calculus classroom and into the afternoon sun, before turning back to Trunks who followed her out. "No more cramming, no more studying, no more review, final exams are done!"

"Here, here." Trunks laughed as she took to spinning in circles to express her joy, as they made their way to The Tree that they always hung out at, and sure enough they weren't the first there. Stapular was on his phone, Goten was leaning against the tree in relaxation, while Inka was at work filling doodling over up and down his left arm.

Goten was the first to notice they were approaching, of course, he was far too tuned into Trunks's ki-it would have been impossible for him not to. He opened his eyes and waved at them with the arm that wasn't currently being monopolized by Inka and her pens. "Hey!"

"About time you two got out of the class," Stapular called as he glanced up from his mobile game before immediately going back to it."We've already been done with our history finals for the past 15 minutes already."

"Now, we just have to wait for Krayron to get out of his Bio class," Inka said pausing in her drawing while Calcula flung herself on the bench next to them. "You know what an ass Bookins is, always holding everyone to the last minute, because he hates that we have lives. Anyways, how was the Calc exam, Calc?"

"Har har, I can't wait to hear that joke again," Calclua said rolling her eyes dramatically and finally settled down enough that Inka went back to drawing, "Oh right, I don't have to! Because it's over! I did pretty good, only had a few that I'm worried about."

"Oh stop it, you're the top of the class, you did fine," Trunks said, giving her a very gentle shove to make enough space for him at the end of the bench.

She shoved him back, harder, with enough force that had been a regular human it would have been enough to knock him off the bench, but for Trunks it was basically nothing. Still he had to fake some reaction to avoid seeming to suspicious, but it was worth it because his slight flinch seemed to infuriate Calcula even more.

"Oh shut up, I'm only the top of the class because you don't turn in your homework," she hissed with a long simmering frustration. "You always get better scores than me on the tests."

"Yeah but that's only homework," Trunks said with an exaggerated shrug just to see her scowl.

"I think going to burn all my Trig notes," Stapular interrupted, as he put his phone down to look at the rest of the group. "Inka, you were as miserable in that class as I was. Want to join me in my ritual purifying bonfire?"

"Speak for yourself, my Trig notes have some of my best drawings I did this whole year."

"No wonder you had such a hard time remembering the lessons," Goten teased.

"I'm not going to need math when I become an artist," Inka said, before finally removing her pen from Goten's arm. "And done! Just like you wanted, one Eastern-Style Dragon!" Goten smiled and waved his arm around to get a look at the design that wrapped his way around his right arm.

"Oh hey, you got Shenron," Trunks said, taking a closer look, "But he's red and gold."

Inka made a face, "Yeah Goten wanted him in green but I don't have enough green to make it work. Also I'm calling him Fuzanglong after the Dragon of Hidden Treasures. Where did you get the Shenron name from anyway?"

"Just an old story we heard when we were kids," Goten said, eager to change the subject. But thankfully an interruption arrived in the form of Krayron pirouetting over with his hands in the air yelling, "I'm free! I'm free!"

Krayron liked to announce his presence the same way he did anything, be it improv club or passing the ball on the field: flamboyantly.

"And now the gangs all here under our tree, but it's for the last time, how tragic and sad," Krayron faked a mournful tone

"Good riddance!" Calcula yelled and the rest of them joined in on her cheers.

"So Goten, how's it feel to be graduating a whole year earlier than you should have, skipping grades like you did," Inka asked.

Goten rolled his eyes, "For the hundredth time, I never skipped a grade, it's not my fault that my homeschooling already had me cover the material ahead of what I was supposed to."

He didn't say that it was probably a deliberate move on his mother's part when they were younger. Trunks was confident it sprang from a conversation with Bulma in despair about Trunks's lack of attention or focus on schoolwork, and how maybe if Goten was on the same curriculum it might even trigger their competitive nature and make them want to do well. Which if that was in fact the case it certainly worked, as they both enrolled at Sunrise School in West City for their last two years of secondary school together.

There they had met the group of weirdos they now called their friends. Call it a natural predilection towards freaks and deviants, but Trunks and Goten had found themselves fitting in with these outsiders much more than they did with the majority of their classmates.

Krayron was an outgoing guy who split his time between the soccer team and the acting club. He wanted to be an actor, but had a knack for sports that he was going to use to get him into a decent school. Calcula was the smart girl who annoyed her classmates with her overachieving status. Stapular was way too into video games and reciting nerd trivia. While Inka was the weird girl who drew too much.

"Yeah, yeah you're still a year younger than the rest of us. So you're the baby of the group," Krayron proclaimed.

Goten rolled his eyes, "Well I guess someone needed to make sure Trunks didn't ditch school every day to play in his workshop."

"Well now I have all summer to spend time in my workshop with my projects," Trunks said.

"Same but with my games and shows." Stapular said.

"And my art!" Inka joined in. They all laughed.

Krayron was running his hands through his hair with his excess energy, "Well unlike you people who live indoors I'm going to be spending the summer at acting camp, before training for soccer starts up in July." Then turning to glare at Goten and Trunks, he made sure to add, "I'm still salty you guys refused to join the team, we could have done even better in regionals with you guys on it. I know you two would have killed it on the team."

"Sorry," Goten shrugged. "The Satan Dojo requires a commitment to prioritize it over other all other forms of athletics."

Years of hearing the stories about Gohan and his disaster of a high-school baseball game from Videl had told them it wasn't worth the trouble dealing with Phys Ed at the school. And of course Hercule was all to willing to offer his "help", and sign the paperwork and declare both Goten and Trunks students of his dojo, and get them an exception.

Never mind that they had never even visited the place or that they had both picked up more knowledge about martial arts around the house when they were kids then the entirety of the school's courses available. It was a convenient excuse, and also got them out of requirements to participate in Phys Ed, which was a good time to get homework done. Well at least Goten's homework while Trunks spent the time tinkering with whatever his gadget he's smuggled in a capsule to gym class that day.

To Calcula's eternal frustration for the past two years, Trunks refused to take any of their classes as seriously as she did. But it wasn't like Trunks was worried about needing good grades to get into a decent college, with his mother's name on the tuition checks, and his impressive scores, he'd be getting into whatever schools he wanted to attend.

But much to the disappointment of many a school recruiters, he only had one determining factor that would play into which college he picked, whichever one Goten was attending. His future was already secured, he would work at Capsule Corp. Whatever weird artsy school Goten wanted to go to work on drawing was fine with Trunks.

"So, have you finally got around to coming out to your parents so are you just going to let them make their inferences about the acting camp?" Inka changed the subject.

"Dude you still haven't done it yet?" Trunks asked, genuinely surprise. Subtly was only something Krayron could do when he was playing a part, it did not come naturally to him.

"No, I'm waiting to till I officially move out for college," Krayron shrugged before turning it into a glare directed at Trunks, "and you're one to fucking talk, you haven't told your parents that you're bi. And they're going to take it a lot better than my parents will."

"I'm still say Trunks is just a mechaphile ," Calcula said, "One of these days you're going to introduce me to the sexbot you've built and are currently dating."

"I'm not going to build a sexbot," Trunks said, not for the first time.

Stapular laughed, "You call your hoverbike your girlfriend, dude, I think you're already halfway there."

"First of all, Baby is my platonic girlfriend, our relationship is pure and unsullied by the perversions you try to project on it. Second, I am not giving my mother any confirmation about my dating life until I'm absolutely forced to. She's incapable of doing anything halfway, I tell her I'm bi she'll host a pride event or some shit. I tell her I'm dating anyone she'll start planning a wedding. Hell to the no."

Also because telling his mom would mean outing Goten to everyone and Trunks didn't want that any time soon, he liked keeping a secret just between the two of them, they hadn't even told their friends yet. Speaking of which.

"What about you Goten, going to tell your parents that you're gay?" Inka asked. Unlike Trunks who had been out for years to the group, Goten had only fessed up to Inka earlier this year after a disastrous incident where she'd tried to make a pass at him. Trunks still wasn't completely sure if Goten was telling the truth to Inka when he said he was gay or if he was just embarrassed and wanted to turn her down as gently as he could.

They'd never talked about it directly, Goten got all flustered about topics like this, and Trunks hadn't seen the need to press. Trunks knew for a fact that Goten was at least somewhat into guys, or more specifically, he knew that Goten was into him, and that's all that really mattered as far as Trunks was concerned.

"I don't know, yeah someday I'm going to have to, but I really don't want to have to explain it to my mom, I mean I think she'd get over it eventually, but she'd just be upset about the lack of grandchildren." Goten scrunched up his face, "Also I remember how bad my mom was when my older brother started dating, no thank you."

Trunks sighed, "Goten, ChiChi will be fine with you being gay, I mean she doesn't have a problem with your dad being bi. Even if she kicks up a fuss at first, she'll get over it."

Krayon perked up, "Wait your dad's bi? The full-time martial artist and sometimes farmer? I didn't know that was allowed."

"Yeah," Goten shrugged, a blush starting to form, he hated any discussion about his parents sex life, with good reason. But then again, it would be unsportsmanlike to just leave an obvious counterattack lying there, and Goten turned to glare at Trunks. "Besides, so is yours."

"Wait, what? Really?" Inka asked.

"Yeah, he comes from a place where it's more normal, and mom knows and everything so that's how I know they'll both be fine with it."

"What, where is that!" Krayron demanded to know. "Why haven't you mentioned this before, I want to visit it now!"

"It's a real remote place, you would have never heard of it," Trunks answered quickly.

"I swear the more you guys talk about your families the more questions I have." Calcula said, giving them both a shrewd look, studying them for signs of weakness

"You don't know the half of it," Trunks was so proud of his ability to keep a straight face, while Goten rolled his eyes.

"Okay enough about Trunks and Goten's mysterious family lives, let's talk about our plans for WaterWorld in a month!" Stapular said.

"Yeah, that's the week after acting camp, so I'll be able to make it." Krayron said with a grin, "This is great, I've never been out to Yahhoi."

"I've never been to a waterpark period," Goten said.

"Well no time like the present Ten, I'm sure you'll love it. WaterWorld was a lot of fun when I went with my folks," Trunks said, not mentioning how his father had abandoned the trip half way through when he was just overwhelmed by the crowds. "It's basically a resort with an attached waterpark. And I got a reservation for one of the villas for us all to stay at, it will be great!"

"As long as you're paying for it," Stapular laughed, "not like you can't afford it."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll pick up the tab," Trunks agreed. Being the son of the CEO of Capsule Corp came with some perks.

"Woo! This is going to be the best summer ever!" Inka cheered and the rest of them joined in.

Several days later and Trunks was heading out to Mount Pazou to hang out with Goten and get a training session in. They usually did it at Capsule Corp because of its better amenities, mainly the gravity chamber, for three sessions that lasted a few hours a week before Goten flew home in the evenings. On days they didn't train or weren't suffering under a mountain homework they usually ended up playing video games or watching dumb stuff online.

Vegeta only willingly relinquished possession of the gravity chamber to them because he knew arguing about it was liable to end up an official timeshare chart that would mean actually clocking how much time he spent in there. And that would only be used against him in future arguments.

He still griped about them not taking training seriously, because they weren't pushing themselves for 12 hours straight 300x gravity, but that was its own ongoing standoff. Both Vegeta and Goku still had trouble accepting that their kids weren't really that interested in attempting to achieve godhood.

He just liked having fun with Goten, and it just happened that training together was something they both enjoyed. They hadn't even been fighting in all their more recent training sessions, Goten had taken up a bit of an interest in dance a couple months back and had abused his puppy-dog eyes and pout to convince Trunks to give up one of their three weekly sessions to just focus on that. Granted they still had to set the chamber to 50x gravity, which was apparently the bare minimum amount that Vegeta deemed "adequate" enough to keep from making disparaging comments about it.

Trunks knew his dad just wanted what was best for him, and really was trying to be a decent parent to him and Bulla, but he also knew it wasn't easy for him.

He was flying out in his two-seat speeder, it had been his side chick project for when he felt like taking a break from working on Baby, it was actually a lot harder to get the bigger car up to the same speed as his bike. True, he could still fly faster then them both all on his own, but that wasn't the point.

He landed at Mount Pazou, but he didn't sense Goten around where he usually was. Huh. Oh well he did sense Gohan inside his house, so he went to go bother him.

"Hey Gohan, is Goten around?"

"Oh he's off training in the hills with Dad." Oh, poor Goten. "Vegeta and Bulma are out there too."

"My parents?!"

Fuck, what were they both doing all the way out here? They always made Goku come to them, he was the one with Instant Transmission. And it wasn't just his Dad flying out for a jaunt in the wilderness, Mom being here meant they had to take one of her planes, and that was a trip that must have taken hours! Something was up, what reason could they possibly have had to want to come all the way out to bother Goku about?

They weren't here to try to talk to Goku and Chichi and figure out if he and Goten were not-dating where they? No, of course not, Trunks was being paranoid. But he also took off very quickly in their direction to make sure he could overhear as much of their talk as possible.

He touched down to see Goten exhausted on the ground and his parents ragging on Goku about the tournament tomorrow, and sounded like Goten was unhappy about it. Interesting.

"Oh, so you decided to join us." Great his mom was in a mood, and taking it out on him.

"So Goten, I hear your entering the tournament tomorrow?" Trunks asked

"Yeah," Goten was glaring at Trunks, undoubtedly sensing how amused he was at his current predicament.

"I don't want to but Dad's making me, plus I had a date tomorrow too." That was a fun euphemism for Inka's planned drawing stream that Goten was going to help mod. Goten had taken to calling them dates to get his parents to stop interrupting and accuse him of not doing anything. Trunks had no clue if Inka knew she was his pseudo-cover story.

And okay was that just Trunks's imagination or was that an eye roll from his father? And Bulma looked skeptical too, or maybe she was just that annoyed at Goku and Trunks. Yeah, that was it.

"Quit whining, you can go on a date any day," Goku said.

"Hah, looks like both all our sons have become slackers when it comes to training." See, it was bullshit sniping like this that Trunks had to put up with.

Goku laughed, "Yeah… but at least that means the world's at peace."

Trunks sensed what felt like a small ball of ki approaching at a fast pace, and he looked up just in time to see Pan drop down and come running at them.

"Grandpa! I just flew around the world!" She was also incapable of not ending a sentence with a metaphorical exclamation mark attached.

"Great! I think that was your fastest time yet!"

"YAY! I'm getting better!" She looked around in surprise to see more people present then she was expecting, "Oh! Hiya everyone! You guys gonna come see me tomorrow?"

Trunks felt a feeling of dread creeping up his spine, "Is, uh, Pan going to be entering the Tournament too?"

"Yep yep!"

"What? But there's no longer a kids division!" Bulma scolded, "You're not going to let her fight with the grownups, Goku?!"

Vegeta scoffed,"Saiyan children were often sent to conquer planets, I hardly think a tournament is going to pose much of a challenge for the girl."

"Yeah don't worry, she'll be fine," Goku agreed, patting Pan on her head. "She probably won't win, but she'll do okay, she's got the most moxie out of any of us.

That was… putting it mildly. Pan was enthusiasm incarnated in the form of an adorable girl who thought the "funnest" thing in the world was fighting. She had all that Saiyan enthusiasm for fighting that seemed to have skipped the rest of them.

"And you say there's going to be an Earthling of potential that will attend… I think I will attend as well," Vegeta said.

Oh good, that meant Trunks could have some peace and quiet and spend some quality time with his Side Chick, he'd really needed to get a look at her capacitors if he had any hope of getting her up to a serviceable-

"Which means that you will be participating as well Trunks!"

"What! But I have plans!"

"Well you're going to be canceling them or your allowance is going to be cut in half."

"WHAT!"

Goten, the absolute traitor, burst out laughing. "Oh no, looks like you'll have to be there too." He gave one of those smug grins he saved exclusively for when he thought Trunks was getting a rightful comeuppance. What a terrible best friend.

"It's not even your money, it's mom's money." Trunks was not above sulking. But he was ignored.

Bulma was instead focusing on the opportunity presented to her, "Well if all of you are going to be there, we might as well make a big day of it. I'll call up the gang and see who can make it, oh we can even have a big dinner afterwards! I'll call around and find a restaurant that will let us let us reserve the whole place, it'll have to be one with a big kitchen, gods know we'll need it with seven Saiyans.

"Oh and Trunks," she broke her rambling to shoot her son a piercing glare, "You're going to be flying back home with us, we're going to be discussing the lack of schools you've been applying to."

Fuck. His. Life.