Blue Roses

Bouzi Neo

Chapter Seven: Worthy

When Trunks snuck in, Bulma knew it would have been out of character to not pretend to be worried, but she couldn't say that she knew where he had been. She was grateful to Gohan, for her pampered son hadn't a scratch on his body, just looked a little worn out and tired. She yearned for the exact details of what had happened, but she had to quiet down the curious nature that all scientists had. "Hello, Trunks, Dear, where have you been all day?"

Trunks, in fact, had expected her to ask. He frowned as she looked at her. Her tone was so tired; she was lying on the couch and looked as if she hadn't gotten up all day. Why was she so upset? He felt so sorry for his mother, and that he was so angry when she was talking about 'Son San'- although... He frowned as he tried to justify it... just a little anyway. Why didn't she ever talk just a little bit about Vegeta? He yelled at himself on the inside, 'Stop it! Can't you see she's upset and all you can think about is why she hurts too much to talk about some... some dead guy!?!?' But as much as he tried to make himself pretend like he didn't care about Vegeta, the more he really wanted to know and the less he meant it. Dead guy. He could never think of his father just as a dead guy. "Mom, you alright?"

Bulma blinked, "Huh? Now Trunks, stop changing the subject. I'll go get the dishes ready for dinner." And, 'While you tell me where you were' was implied.

Trunks sighed, Gohan promised to come in behind him not to make it seem suspicious although he would have been more comfortable, but he followed her and did not answer the question. He usually didn't answer anyway; so hoped pretending that it was just a normal day would be good enough for his mother. At least until Gohan could help him.

In the same daze that made Trunks so uncomfortable, Bulma set the table and sighed as she stretched over Trunks, looking towards the door, "Where is that boy?" She murmured. So Gohan wasn't a boy, anymore, but that didn't mean that she couldn't spoil him just a little bit. She owed it to poor Chichi, up, worrying all night, to make sure he got enough to eat and was safe while he was under her roof.

The two continued their own private worries and ate in silence. No talk about 'Son-San'.

Trunks was grateful.

Gohan sighed and sat down. So he would wait about an hour and train himself a little more. But he didn't want to train. He felt like he was letting so many people down because of it. Like he should have been training to beat them instead of sitting there and thinking about some woman that would never look at him in any way. Maybe she would respect him, but he would never really be a man to her.

He felt childish and stupid, like a teenaged boy falling in love with a teacher. It was stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She was so much older than he was, she was older than both of his parents!

He sighed, same stupid argument every stupid time he thought about her. Getting up, he forced his thoughts of everything but Piccolo and Kuririn away.

'They're dead...' He taunted himself, 'Killed at the hand of two artificial devils!' Gohan looked down, flinching, 'Those two won't stop killing and killing just because it makes them happy! Their favorite game is seeing how many people they can kill, ten points per human, ten points per life! These people, they've never even had half a chance! Never! It's my job to protect them! To avenge Piccolo, and Kuririn, and all these people, these innocent people that never even had a chance! To kill them, to, to, there's so many horrible things that those two have done! Where can I start? I have to destroy them! I have to get stronger! I can't let Trunks down! I have to be worthy of being called his master; I have to be worthy of being my father's son! I have to be worthy! I have to become stronger! That's all that matters! Liberating this forsaken world is on my shoulders now and I have no time to be a child about it! Now! Go! Go! Go! Push it foreword, Gohan, force this pain out, make this pain energy, use this energy, use the pain, the one thing that these androids always leave behind to go against them, to create strength, to make sure they're gone, for once and for all! To end this destruction! For mankind! For Father! For Mother, and Piccolo, and Kuririn, and Bulma! For all of you, this is my responsibility! I will prove myself! I will make things right again as my father before me has done so many times! I will succeed! Failure is not an option!'

The next thing Gohan knew, his hair, golden, was turning darker, darker, jet black, and he never knew the dirt tasted so bitterly welcome when focus was getting so black.
o.O Poor Gohan.

Next time: While Gohan loves Bulma so deeply, she only seems to treat him as if he is her own son. And, as for her real son... a sudden change in attitude takes over him, causing the hero Gohan to worry.

Reviewer's Corner:

Chewy-Baka: Beautiful? Thank you. That is too sweet. Yes, eventually it will be G/B/J, but there will be some G/B fluff here and there.

Sailor Universe/PMRGChik: I'm glad you love it. I shall update as soon as I can. You can't believe how many versions of these edits I've gone through, and I'm only up to chapter seven.

Trunks'Grl: Why does Juu have to be in it? -Shrugs- For plot reasons, because he is, because that's the whole gist of the plot? Yanno, Gohan and Bulma get together secretly, Juunana finds out and not only does he have a soft spot for Bulma, he wants to use this against Gohan to ultimately defeat him in battle?

Vegeta Goddess: I'm loved! Oh, God, what's gonna happen when I finish it?! -Sniffles- That's so sad to think about, though, you know? I hope you'll like the G/B/V fic I do after this. I think I gave a little bit of the plot away in one of the R/C's a few chapters back...

Celeb Ryu: Yes, it is terribly hard to do the Vegeta bashing. But the Gokou/Trunks thing is really fun to do.

Sakura-Chan: Telling me that I got the traits and responses down was probably one of the biggest compliments ever. I try very hard with this fic and it takes a while to think about what they would do. My usual stlye is that I want to leave things to what just pops out of my head on impulse, but sometimes, the impluse doesn't want to work, and that's usually why it takes a while for me to update. I don't want to write it until I can actually see it, dream about it, act it out. I'm a Role-Player for DBZ, I do all the female characters, specializing in Bura and Buruma. I did a lot of Mirai Buruma at one time, so that is actually wonderful practice. I love RPing Mirai-Time to warm me up for this fic.

Saki: Believe me, later in the fic, towards the 20s, Gohan will get VERY protective of Bulma and Juunana will take advantage of that. Gohan's obsession with her grows with every moment they are together and when they are ripped apart after being together for an incredibly short amount of time...