Disclaimer: Believe it or not, I still don't own Dragonball Z or any of its characters.

Chapter 3

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And the next morning the spell was broken. Goten woke up early and lay awake, drinking in the last fleeting moments he would be able to look at his Trunks. Right when the sunlight, leaking in as it always did, hit his eyelids, Trunks fluttered awake.

"Aw man," he said, smacking his lips thickly, "I feel like shit. I'm gonna lie down a little bit longer, okay?" He turned away from Goten.

Goten shook where he lay. "Trunks," he said but nothing came out. He cleared his throat, and Trunks looked over. "What?" he asked, a little harshly, and Goten replied, "Nothing!" before thinking. Trunks pulled the covers back over himself.

About half an hour later, Trunks sat up and turned to Goten, who was still lying down. "Wake up, lazybones," he said, shaking Goten, whose eyes were wide open the entire time. Goten sat up robotically. "Oh, your hair, Goten, ha ha, it looks like you slept on it funny or something?"

"What?" Goten asked. He felt it, and then looked at the bedside mirror. It looked the same as it always did.

"Did you change shampoos or something? I like the old one better."

"No…, Trunks I haven't changed my hair at all."

"Huh. Well, it's cute as always anyway," he said smiling and rubbing his hand through it to muss it up.

"T-Trunks?"

"Mmhmm?"

And Goten flung himself onto him, squeezing tightly, and awaiting Trunks's hand to knock him back, disgusted. It did not come.

"Trunks, don't you hate me?"

"Hate you? Why would I hate you, sweetheart?"

"The p-potion, it was supposed to wear off today."

Trunks released Goten at this point and stood up, hands on hips. "Did I not tell you that my love for you had nothing to do with a potion? You said you gave it to me, when, a month ago? Goten," Trunks began, holding his hand. "It's been years."

And Goten smiled up at Trunks through tears. "Years?" he squeaked.

"Yes," he said reassuringly, sitting down next to Goten. Reverting to a more natural tone of voice, he continued, "I can't remember exactly when, but it sort of gradually developed when we were twelve or thirteen, like five or six years ago. Has… has it been that long for you?"

Goten smiled, "Not quite so long, no," he said, wiping a tear out of his eye with his palm. "Valentine's Day, two years ago. Neither of us had Valentine's dates, so we just kinda hung out, knocked back a couple, and watched movies."

"Yeah, I remember," Trunks smiled, turning toward the closet to get dressed.

"That night, I guess it was the lovey-dovey atmosphere, or maybe the romantic comedies you rented that night, or something. But the moonlight played off your features in such an amazing way," he smiled to himself.

Trunks brought a hand to his face to wipe off a tear of his own before turning around with gathered enthusiasm, and asked Goten which shirt he should wear.

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One morning about a week later, Goten arose as though waking from a long dream. Suddenly more acutely aware of his surroundings than he remembered being for ages, he immediately looked to his left, and let out a sort of sigh of relief that Trunks was there. A small trickle of drool hung from the corner of his mouth, as it sometimes did, but Goten did not exactly find this cute. Actually, the whole scene seemed sort of sloppily put together: Trunks lay sprawled out, his skin seemed rougher, and his hair appeared to have lost some of its luster.

Perhaps we're getting older, Goten thought to himself, before shaking his head and reminding himself it had been a week, just a week. Careful not to wake up Trunks, he snuck off the bed, went to the bathroom, undressed and stepped into the shower.

How strange, he thought. I want to go home. I don't want to be here right now.

He paused for a minute, hearing Trunks stir over the noise of the shower. Shit, he's awake.

And he stopped himself. "Why?" he asked aloud, though quietly enough not to be heard, "Why don't I want to see him? It's not like I'm tired of him. Am I?"

Goten completely dressed himself before approaching the half-naked Trunks sitting on the bed. Trunks greeted him with a happy "Good morning," which made Goten's stomach turn strangely, as if from an ex to whom he never spoke. Goten was even a little repulsed by the idea of touching him, and considered asking him to put on clothes, before responding with a simple "You too."

Trunks got up and made to peck him on the cheek, but Goten backed up to dodge his advance. "Oh," said Trunks with a sly smile. "Is that how we're going to play it?" Trunks quickly grabbed Goten's wrists and pinned him onto the bed.

"No, Trunks…" Goten squeaked out.

"Mmm, I love it when you beg, sweetie," he replied, laying light kisses across his face.

"Stop it…"

Trunks purred in response and began working his way lower, lightly biting Goten's neck, and Goten felt a lurch in his stomach that made its way to his eyes. Trunks looked up and saw the tears beginning to form, and stopped at once.

"Sweetie, are you okay?"

Goten backed away from him on the bed. "Yeah, yeah, I'm just… not in the mood, I guess."

Trunks sat for a minute looking back and forth at the bedspread and Goten, as if trying to work something out or remember something. Goten shifted uncomfortably, at how bad he surely made Trunks feel, but there was something wrong. He then looked at the calendar on his wall, and Goten followed his eyes.

Trunks returned his gaze to the bedspread, and asked how Goten felt, without making eye contact.

"Umm… fine," he lied.

"Really fine? How do you feel about me?"

"Good, I guess."
Trunks sighed, maintaining his gaze on the bedspread. "Can you kiss me?"

Goten's eyes darted around for a second before quickly making up his mind and kissing Trunks on the lips. His lips were dry and cracked and there was a distinct smell of morning breath seeping between them. Something about the entire kiss seemed off. Goten kept his eyes closed and forced himself to pull away slowly, for it to appear not to be a chore.

"How was it?" Trunks asked slowly.

"Good," Goten lied again. He hated having to do all of this lying.

"Better than, say, yesterday?"

"Well, I would say not, but you haven't brushed your teeth yet, and I…"

"Goten, I gave you love potion."

Goten stopped immediately and looked at Trunks, let out a nervous chuckle and said, "What?"

"I gave you love potion. The same damn love potion you gave me from the same damn Valentine's Day tent and Shirley the crazy gypsy lady."

Goten could not believe it to be true, but he had never said anything about Shirley or where he got the potion, and so he must have known, "But how… I mean, I've liked you for years."

Trunks nodded, close to tears now, "I've been giving it to you for years now. I have been hard in love with you for five or six years now, and one Valentine's Day a couple years ago I got ridiculously drunk, wandered downtown, and bought up just about everything in sight. Including like three bottles of Shirley's love potion. I'm pretty talkative when I'm drunk so I told her all about you, and how I've been all in love with you for a few years, and she assured me it would do the trick. Of course, she could've sold an Eskimo a refrigerator in the condition I was in.

"And well, I could tell it worked, pretty much right off. It was almost like your eyes changed color, and you seemed to fumble around me a lot more, like you were trying to impress. We stopped sparring to avoid embarrassing situations. And, I know it's selfish, but I wanted a Goten that could love me the way I love him.

"So, after realizing it was working, but still not having the balls to pursue anything without some sure sign—you kept yourself pretty secretive, I must say—I took the remaining bottles down to the lab, had it analyzed and dissected, and was eventually able to make my own. And so, on Fridays, during our beer and movie nights, I've been sneaking it into your drink.

"And," he stopped a second before continuing, "Well, last Valentine's Day, I saw that you had… had done the same for me. I saw the empty love potion vial in the garbage, and took that as the sign I've been waiting for. And…, when you told me about it, I took that as a sign that our love does run deeper than the potion. And, already about two weeks since I had last given you some, I decided not to give you anymore. I was so sure, I'm so sorry," finished Trunks, a couple of tears gradually rolling down his nose.

Goten, still a little repulsed by the messiness of the new Trunks, or the old Trunks, lay a friendly hand on his back.

"Trunks," he began. "You know I can't blame you. I did the same thing. I know what it's like to feel so desperate for that reciprocation, even if it was all artificial and imagined." Goten sighed, fearing the conversation was taking a bad turn. "Listen, Trunks, as it stands, I don't feel the same way about you that you do about me. I'm actually a little surprised it's so strikingly and suddenly clear to me. There's honestly no spark, no chemistry.

"But this last month has been about the best of my life. I truly cherished this time." Trunks winced, and Goten assumed it was at his use of the past tense. "Really, I don't know how I'll be happy without you, and I think it's also clear you won't be happy without me." He pauses and Trunks nods.

"So," Goten said smiling, as though answering a question, "let's watch a movie. Could you get me a beer?"

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End.