Daddy's Girl
Chapter 8
I don't own DBZ
I repeat some scenes from the previous chapter and from my other story, Learn to be Faithful, since it is a sequel, for you who haven't read. I hope it is fine. And I also split this chapter into two because I think its too long.
Well, I hope you enjoy!
"I can see you get stronger since the last time we sparred, but I'll always be stronger than you because I train with my Dad." Sitting under a tree of the Son's backyard, two little best friends released their exhaustion from sparring. The sparring session was something they usually did when their mothers took them to visit each other. This far, Trunks, the older Demi Saiyan, always won, and it spoiled his arrogance he inherited from his father in his veins.
Goten glanced at him through the corner of his eyes. He wasn't surprised by what Trunks said. It always happened, "But I train with my mom." He said innocently in defense, but it was proved to be ineffective because Trunks burst out laughing of that.
"Yeah, you train with your mom." He dropped his back to the ground and used his hands as pillows, "Like if that means anything, Goten. You know that nobody can win against Saiyan and my Dad is the strongest Saiyan ever."
"No, it is Gohan. And my Dad is even stronger than your Dad."
"Gohan is busy studying, it makes him weak and your Dad is dead. You know that." Trunks looked at his best friend and then realized that Goten had a sad face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. Come on, don't be sad."
But the sadness was brought to home and the six years old boy curled over his mother and refused to close his eyes in his bed time.
"What's up Goten? You can't sleep?" Her tone was very soft, like always when she spoke to him, the tone which would be his lullaby to sleep. But this time he held his eyes wide opened. He was bent on being awake till he got the answer he wanted from his mother.
He tightened his grip on his mother's hand, "Mom..?"
"Hm..?"
"Why don't I have a Dad? Like Trunks?"
There was an awkward silence between them. Goten counted the seconds before his mother changed the subject and left him, like what always happened every time he asked the same question. And so he didn't release her hand. He had to get the answer, the true answer, now.
"Mommy, please. I'm not a little baby anymore."
Chichi sighed, she knew she couldn't avoid it all the time, her little boy was growing up. She just wasn't sure how she had to start explaining, "Of course you have a Dad. Who says you don't?" She tried to keep her tone as soft as possible. He is just a child, Chichi, a child, and he has right to know.
"Why is he dead? I really hope he isn't dead so I can train with him, like Trunks trains with uncle Vegeta."
"But you train with me, isn't that the same...?" She knew it wasn't true
"Mom, please..."
"I think Gohan ever told you a story about it."
"I want to hear it from you."
"What's the different?"
"Mom, please..."
"Okay, what do you want to know?"
"Gohan said Dad died when he fought against Cell?"
"That's right, he was a hero..."
"Why wasn't he wished back to live?"
"He couldn't, he had ever been dead once before. That time, only dead people who never had been died before could be wished back to live. Do you understand?"
"Why didn't you go to the New Namek? Gohan ever told me a story about it. He said, the Namekians have Dragonball which can grant all wishes, even to bring back to live somebody who ever died many times before."
Chichi frowned, where does he get all those words? He is getting smarter, may be, it is better to tell him the truth. "Well, he refused to be wished back, he said..."
"He didn't love you? Gohan? Me?"
"No, that's not true..."
"No mom, that's true. He didn't love us, that's why he refused to be wished back." He hided his face behind his pillow. Chichi's heart was sink by the scene. What could she say? That's the way she often felt every time she memorized about her husband.
He peeped through his pillow and he almost could see that there was a new wrinkle on her forehead. It always happened; he knew that, every time she thought about her husband. In these ten years, he had witnessed the change on her figure run much faster than every ones else he knew, like aunt Bulma. She was supposed to be five or six years old than his mother, right? But now, Chichi seemed like if she was the one who was ten years older. She had more wrinkles, she always looked more tired, and she even had grown some gray hairs. Goten blamed his father for that.
When his father got back to live after the Majin Buu incident, Goten saw how happy she was. Not even once she lost her smile. And her cheerfulness brought happiness to the whole home. It made him happy too. So he forgave his father. It was a wonderful thing to have a father. He had grown fond on the older man soon after they met. They were too much alike, not only by the look, but also by the manners. Goku was a cheerful man, innocent, and carefree, too much like him. Day by day he tried hard to keep himself alike his father. He wanted his father to love him always and never left him and his mother again.
But Goku was a man of his own, he stayed whenever he liked and training was his natural call. He would fly anywhere he could find potential match. He was a Saiyan, and a Saiyan couldn't live without fighting.
Goten's old wound was opened again. Goku left his wife sobbing at the Budokai to train with Uub. If it wasn't for Chichi, Goten would not be too affected by his father's departure. He had been a teenager, he had his own world. He was busy with school and girls.
He knew his cute face always attracted some girls to get closer to him and tried to get his attention. No one of them really attracted him. He had his own choice, a childhood friend who grew with him. At the beginning he didn't realize that he loved her, he thought she was just a childhood friend, that he was used to her presence. They always played together. She was his only other best friend beside Trunks. Since Trunks was very busy as the heir of Capsule Corp that he often didn't have time for him, he grew fond on her. He would fly to her home whenever he couldn't find Trunks to play with. And it lasted till they grew adult when he could really see her beauty grew.
She had long blond hair. Wind of the sea shore always blew her blond and covered part of her innocent face whenever she stood by the shore. With no shoes, her bare feet played with the sea water. He always brought these images to his dreams, every times he closed his eyes. She was his first love. It was easy to say, "I like you," to a girl he didn't really love, like he often did to his ordinary school mates or to girls he met somewhere. But it was different to her. He found his tongue locked and his body trembled whenever he stayed beside her after he found out his true feeling toward her. He kept his feeling for himself then. Years passed. He was busy with his college, she was busy with hers. He dated so many girls but her, without any serious intension. But he never forgot her. Someday, when he had finished his college and had a good job and earned money as much as Gohan had, he would tell her about his feeling. He knew there would be possibility that other men would try to have her too. She was as beautiful as an angel. But he knew her well, they had known each other since they were children. She wouldn't easily fall to anyone. He believed in that. He would wait patiently.
"Goten, will you come to Bulla's party tomorrow? Mrs. Briefs called me and forced me to. I don't think I'd really like to." She said one night through phone, talked about Bulla Briefs' eleventh birthday party.
"Hey, you should come! I'll come too, we can meet there." He was enthusiast. It had been a long time they didn't meet. He missed her a lot. She was busy with her college now, in another town, like he was busy struggling with his law book to pass the lawyer exam, his first exam to get his license, after he finished his school in Satan City Law School. As a fresh graduate, he had joined a good enough law firm in Satan City. But he needed to pass this exam to get his license as a lawyer. So he intended to pass it successfully, so there would not be any second exam. If he succeed, the way to join the best and the biggest law firm in town would be opened and he would make himself a partner in a relatively short period. Not that being a lawyer was his first choice ever. His mother always said that it was one of the most prestigious profession on earth. He understood his mother's trauma on her jobless husband. And so he would make his mother proud of him, like she was always proud of Gohan, the perfect brother, who succeed both in studying and in training. No matter how, his brother now enjoyed peaceful life with his family due to the fact that he hated fighting, he was used to be the strongest Saiyan ever when he defeated Cell, right? Goten wondered if he would ever reach his brother's achievement someday.
If he would ever reach it, he blond angel would be a bonus for him. He would say good bye to all cheeks he dated half heartedly this time and he would give all himself to his true love. He couldn't wait again.
"Goten?!" Her sing sang voice brought him back from his trance,"I don't think I'll be able to enjoy the party, Goten. You know, it will only be a kind of reunion for our parents. I'll be stuck there with nobody to talk."
"That's not true. Mrs. Briefs just wants all the Z fighters' children to know each other. Don't worry about that. I told you I'd be there. And you'll meet Trunks. You'll like him, you know, he's my very best friend..."
"The Mr. Perfect you always told me? I don't think so. With a reputation like what you always said, I'm not sure he'll even look at me."
"Hey! The Mr. Perfect is my best friend! And I have no problems with him. I've told you you'll like him. Trust me!"
"Well, okay, if you say so. I'll come. But please promise me that you won't leave me alone in the corner with none to talk."
"Okay, I promise. See you tomorrow at the party, Mar."
"See you tomorrow, Goten."
He smiled at himself until the party day, the day when he realized that actually he didn't really know about her. His calculation was wrong. It wasn't her who stood alone in the party's corner with none to talk, it was him.
When he was about to greet her there, he saw her not alone anymore. She was with his best friend. He was right about one thing, that she would like Trunks, but not in the way he expected. From the way Marron and Trunks looked at each other, it was obvious that they had fallen for each other. It was something he thought would never happen. He thought he knew her well, they had known each other so well since they were children, right? But he was wrong, so wrong...
He stopped dead in his track by the scene. What could he do now? He couldn't blame her nor Trunks. They didn't know anything about his feeling. It was his own fault that he had waited everything for too long.
Not even her could refuse Trunks Briefs' charm. He was the Mr. Perfect. He was perfectly handsome, smart, rich and he had everything in the world which could make anybody fall before him.
Goten was only a black shadow compared to him. That's what he'd always been all this time. He was dumb for not realizing that earlier. And now everything was too late.
Trunks called him a week after the party.
"Goten, do you remember our childhood friend?"
"Who?" He knew whom his best friend meant, he just didn't know how to react.
"Marron."
"Oh." She's my childhood friend! Not ours! He wanted to scream, but then only let out a prideful tone of "What happened?"
"I dated with her. I think I'm in love with her. She's gorgeous, you know. And guess what."
He actually didn't want to know but, "What?"
"She said yes when I asked her to be my girlfriend. And so she's my girlfriend now."
"What's so special about that? You've already had so many girlfriends."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?! You know that's not true. Yeah, may be a little when I was in college, but not for the past few years. She's my first girlfriend in this past few years, you know that."
"And for how long this time?"
"Oh! Come on, Goten! What's your problem? You're not jealous, aren't you?"
There was a pause before Goten could say "No, I'm not." He released a heavy sigh, "But she is my very special best friend. Treat her in a good way, Trunks. Remember that. I'll never forgive you if you hurt her."
Goten's words brought a realization to Trunks that there was something with his best friend. Goten loved Marron. That's it. But what could he do now? Even if he knew earlier about Goten's feeling, he wasn't sure if he would give up so easily. Marron was an angel. And Trunks wondered why Goten dated with so many girls if he loved Marron. So it wasn't his fault, was it?
"Don't worry, Goten. I don't intend to. I'll take a very good care of her. I promise you."
"You better do, Trunks. You better do..."
It was Goten's first experience with love and he was broken heart. It needed a long time for him to cure himself. It wasn't Trunks' fault, neither was Marron's. Even if Trunks didn't exist, would Marron ever look back at him and replied his feeling the same way as him? He wasn't sure now. This thought made him feel worse. He couldn't console himself. His life became a mess. The lawyer exam before his eyes turned into a series of confusing words and images of Marron on the seashore and the perfect Trunks Briefs; they made a perfect couple. And what was left for him? Nothing, since the beginning he never had anything; only a coming and leaving father, a perfect brother who succeed in both studying and training, a perfect best friend who deserved everything on earth and a childhood friend who never looked back at him. He never became anything; he was the weakest Saiyan ever, it was obvious that even his niece, Pan, would be stronger than him someday. He would never inherit his father's legacy as the savior of the earth, nor reach Gohan's achievement as the strongest Saiyan ever or as a great scholar. And he would never be as famous as Trunks Briefs. Every bodies around him were perfect, and he was a failure to them. He was a black shadow compared to his surrounding.
He only could answer less than a half of the questions in the exam and he wasn't even sure if half of his answers were correct and of course he completely failed the exam. His new career in the law firm was in danger, he knew that. So he spent the announcement day at the bar, prepared himself for the bad news.
After few glasses of beers, his blurry eyes met a beautiful figure sit next to him. He could say that she smiled at him, very nicely. He didn't try to ignore her. She might become a good consolation for his stress, who knows?
"You are drunk, aren't you?" She said through her nice smile. What kind of question is that? Even the drunken Goten knew it was so stupid. Of course he was drunk!
"No." Goten said and tried hard to keep his speaking smooth.
"Ow, I'm sorry." She shrugged.
Goten grinned, "What's a beautiful lady like you doing here?"
"So, you think I'm beautiful? Really?"
"Of course you are! Even Trunks Briefs will say that too, trust me."
"Trunks Briefs? Who's Trunks Briefs?"
"You don't know Trunks Briefs?"
She shook her head innocently, "No, who is he?"
"Well, that's not important. Nice to meet you Miss..."
"Paris, and you?"
"Son Goten, call me Goten miss Paris."
Review, please...