June 4th, 767
Vegeta considered leaving the moment his heir disappeared, but he saw that Trunks left with Kakarot's brat and the short bald one, so he figured it was a temporary absence. Dealing with everything that happened in the past week or so had been a confusing struggle, and he still had unfinished business with the two half-breeds. It had been only one day, and yet, Vegeta felt restless.
With Kakarot's mate invited in as well, and seemingly for a long stay, and without a Gravity Room to isolate himself in, Vegeta found himself ruffled the wrong way, cornered and tense. The doc didn't want him anywhere near the lab, either, the kitchen was always busy, and other sections of the compound were either always infested by employees of the corporation, and the inside garden, the sole territory of the small black minion that controlled the Doc, was also off limits. Vegeta knew better than to cross the creature. Because his heir could come back at any time without warning, he refused to leave the compound altogether.
His mate had him watch over the baby once, as the boy started walking and she thought he would be interested in seeing his progress. Vegeta hissed, but he didn't refuse the woman. His motor skills weren't precise enough to begin training, he still needed at least an extra Saiyan year before being of tangible interest, but his mother announced he had just turned one year old. At least the boy knew a few words already and displayed quite a temper.
'Perhaps there's some value in not maturing in an incubator,' the Prince observed as he silently passed over the blocks for the little brat's building skills for a couple of hours that afternoon, while the women were out doing something with doctors. The moment they were back, the boy went to his mother, and Vegeta disappeared in the one place he still knew would be fairly undisturbed. The music room. He sat where his heir sat and played, and he tentatively pressed a key, then grumbled at the horrible sound that produced. Whatever the brat did with the large item sounded much better than his index just did, so he didn't try again. He stayed there, skipping dinner, searching for answers.
That same evening, he went straight to his mate's bedroom where she was working on one of those portable machines, after the boy had been put in his crib for the night. Vegeta didn't understand the use of those special baby beds. If the boy wanted out, he'd be out, but he wasn't going to interfere with earthling parental customs.
Bulma saw him come on silently and close behind him, and she had a questioning look on her face. Vegeta didn't usually approach like that, but he wasn't unwelcome. He dropped gloves, shoes, shirt, pants and underwear by the entrance, as he'd been taught that 'bed' meant 'no clothes', and climbed on the empty side of the large comfortable and incredibly soft piece of furniture. Under the sheets, too.
Bulma had grown used to Vegeta's communication patterns, and if she'd understood anything from their previous conversation, the poor thing was conflicted.
"I saw you on the piano. Want to see big Trunks play it?"
Vegeta glanced back, he was sure he had closed the door, then he grumbled something about spying tech vixens. Then he heard the sounds, the same type of sounds his heir produced. The woman got a little closer and showed on the computer the brat playing music; a different melody he had heard. He stared at the screen, showing him a back view of his child in nightwear, sword against a leg, practicing something very different than the piece he had witnessed. A soft, slow melody with limited sounds, and peaceful in a way the alternative parents couldn't quite put into words.
"He played this the day before fighting Cell. Other melodies are known and I have the sheets," she quickly switched to show what music sheets were, then went back to the video. "But not this one. Does it sound familiar to you?"
"Play it again and be quiet," he grumbled.
The interruptions had irritated him, and he got closer to the screen to stare through while the melody played again. A couple of minutes afterwards, Vegeta shook his head no, he didn't recognize it. Then again, he had had little time or opportunities to listen to music of any kind, before or after his settling on this little planet. Why would he recognize it anyway?
"Well it's nice, but the melody isn't from here; the style is not anything earthling-like. During his stay, he played a lot, so I have a few hours of footage. I'll put them in a player so you can listen whenever you want, alright?" Bulma winked as she leaned against Vegeta's shoulder for a moment.
"Play another," Vegeta huffed a little lower and closed his eyes to listen when Bulma started another one, then pulled back the computer to her so she could continue her work.
The engineering genius appreciated the moment of peace with her companion half asleep by her side, listening to their 'big' son play music, all while trying to break through the files she had gotten from a computer similar but not identical to her own.
Trunks had resumed smoking since his return from the Cell Games wearing Vegeta's armor, and was even less chatty or agreeable than usual. The scolds for smoking in the lab with her father were met with a cold reminder that she wasn't his mother. He had a mission and would be gone as soon as possible. Save his twenty-year-old self, the one that died at Cell's hands, the one Trunks was obsessed with ever since he took that Time Machine back to the lab for diagnosis and repairs. It was only three weeks ago, but Bulma saw the teenager guard that Machine, observe it, study it, touch it.
Vegeta was clearly down, and if Bulma knew any better, she'd even say 'depressed'. Vegeta and Trunks were far more similar deep down than they were at a surface level, and discussing it with Chichi, Gohan and Krillin meant only she saw it. Their reserved nature, their aggressiveness and their quiet moments, their traumas and their stress levels, which they dealt with with some arguable coping mechanisms. Yes, they spoke differently, because it was a Bulma who raised Trunks, but while Vegeta remained a feral alien with serious communication issues, Trunks was a barely tamed tiger who knowingly refused communication. And considering what she knew of them, she would say Trunks was the most ruthless one of the duo.
As she went through the files that were password free and saw the footage of her alternative son in front of the piano, Bulma tried to come to terms that her life had just changed so much once more, even with Trunks, even with Vegeta seemingly staying. Big Trunks would leave soon, and Son-kun was gone. Son-kun, her oldest friend, for almost half her life at this point.. had died, and refused to return, in order to keep everyone safe, as she had been told. Gohan confirmed it, as Trunks only gave the barebones before jumping on the next mission: getting ready to go to 787. That child was surrounded by too much death to actually mourn, and Bulma only felt bereft. The shock of Goku's death was slowly wearing off to the truth that she would not see that goofball ever again.
Bulma could use a cigarette.
.
July 18th to 19th, 787
"Holyshit you'reagirl!"
Trunks approached the sofa, slowly, eyes wide at the realization, the initial shock that sent him off wearing off and the rudeness of his reaction hitting him. He felt he had touched something he shouldn't have, he even stayed there far too long for it to have been an accident, regardless of how it had been Tora's guidance that led his hand there. It's not like he had any idea what was going on. The information just didn't make any fucking sense and he tried to link what he felt to what he'd learnt about this younger version of him over the past week or so.
"How?! I mean, the Dragon Balls? I never thought I wanted to be a girl?" His first thought went to one of their main differences, during their first trip to the past, as that Tora had stayed in 764 to use the Dragon Balls. Was wishing for a Senzu sprout a lie?
Tora's eyebrow twitched, she had extended her hand to summon a brighter ki ball to give them both some light since his own disappeared the moment he fell back, but for an instant she thought about using said ki to blast him. Instead she chose to be explicit and spell things out. She would later realize how similar she had been to Vegeta during their.. talk.
"No, I was born female. I'm a girl. I was always a girl. I am still Trunks, daughter of Vegeta and Bulma, born on November 21st, 766.."
Trunks didn't know what to do, how to react, as the girl in front of him grabbed her sword and hugged it close with her free arm, her eyes unfocused. He saw doubts and conflict for a short moment until the ki light disappeared.
He should have noticed boobs even under loose clothes! They fought in close combat too.
And as much in sync as they'd been previously, because if she had been in his position she would wonder about that exact same thing, Tora answered the how Trunks was trying to find the right words to ask.
"It's.. Because of Eighteen, Mother designed something to keep them hidden. Made with the same material as Father's armor…" Tora explained.
Trunks now understood the item of cloth he had taken for weighted undershirts was something else entirely.
"Eighteen was an absolute monster to women," Trunks understood, and eventually sat back on the sofa. Tora nodded, confirming. "But why? Why did you go and fight them?"
"Stupid Saiyan genes," Tora explained with a broken voice. "I wanted to help Gohan-san, I wanted to save people, I wanted to get revenge.. being a girl didn't matter, and Mother and Gohan-san saw they couldn't stop me, so she.. gave me tools to protect myself instead. And.. before I went to 764, Mother said.. such a version of Father would flip if we met."
"Another super Saiyan that's not him already had him blow a gasket.." Trunks agreed with Tora's mother's assessment. He remembered how 767-Vegeta reacted to Eighteen absolutely wiping the floor with him, so 764-Vegeta meeting a woman stronger than him, a super Saiyan on top of it all? It wouldn't have ended well, to say the very least.
"We didn't want to endanger my existence.."
"So you presented as male." The Brief brain kicked in. The postulate was there, he had to accept it as he had empirically verified its truth, and so it was easy to deduce what Tora had done and why.
"I already kept my hair short because of Eighteen. I just.. never corrected them." Tora admitted; Trunks had seen pictures of her, similar pictures he himself had with his mother, with his version of Gohan. She never said anything masculine about herself, she never positively lied.. Even if she did everything for others to assume she was male. "And then when I came back to 767, I wanted to just be, but Trunks was born a boy …" She sighed and a slight metallic sound filled the room; she had gripped firmly on the sword to get more comfort out of it. The sword that represented the few who did know.
Trunks couldn't help himself, he moved closer, wrapped back his arms around her tense shape, and laid down back in their original comforting position. The storm and the memories it brought didn't matter anymore, this aloof younger version of him had lived his life, but she had the extra identity crisis to deal with. No wonder she went to great lengths to never say 'mother' and 'father' about any version of Bulma and Vegeta that weren't her actual parents.
"You kept it a secret because you didn't want young-mother to be confused when raising the baby.." He guessed from his own thinking patterns, and Tora nodded, not relaxed, but not refusing the contact either. He too had to make sure his existence didn't affect how 767-Bulma (and Vegeta?) raised the baby; their circumstances were different, and he hadn't wanted to be their model either.
"That was the goal too, but now, you, that baby, and the baby you met are also boys. They don't know. They can't know. Bulma-san, Krillin-san, Gohan-san.. Me being a girl shouldn't affect other timelines, it's my identity, not the babies', not yours… " Tora whispered, she told Trunks. "You're not.." she tried saying something about Trunks, but couldn't phrase it.
It was all too much, too long pretending, too long without her mother to comfort her, she had given some truths to Mika, Syowa and the Cyborgs in 767, but they couldn't begin to understand the strain it was, and she didn't want them to. She needed them to know basic facts because of the information they already had, but understanding? Deep, profound understanding and trust? Only Trunks could give her that. A Trunks that had defeated the Cyborgs, brought peace to his world, succeeded in his mission, gave happiness and comfort to his Bulma. A more stable, more confident and mature version of her, despite having less power. And yet she feared bringing him down with her own crisis.
"I won't tell them," he reassured and held her firm and close while she quietly cried the tears she'd held on for so long. "It's a shock but, eh, young-mother tried to get into my pants, so.. I'm fine. I mean, we're time travelers. Multiverse theory." He had had his own moments of doubts and issues about who he fundamentally was, and meant to be, when he saw the baby on his second trip and pondered the life that baby would have, but years of living in peace with his mother in his own world had put those worries to rest. Tora didn't have the benefit of those peaceful calm years. Tora was still in the middle of her second trip to the past, her Cyborgs were still alive.
"If we apply the law of large numbers, I bet there are many other Trunkses who are girls out there. Your sample isn't representative, now, is it?"
"Yes, I guess so," Tora snorted a quiet laugh, relaxing a little at the attempt at getting her Brief brain to kick the fears away. Trunks gently rubbed the back some more for reassurance. Her status as a girl didn't change much about what he thought about her as a person. The tears dried off.
"And there are Trunkses out there who were born with their tails," he added as they had mentioned their lack of tails in one of their prior talks. Neither he nor she, nor any of the babies they met were born with their tails, unlike all versions of Gohan they met.
"You think it would have been brown or mauve?" Tora welcomed the distraction and played along, and they chatted about theories concerning their potential alternate selves until a nightmare-free sleep claimed them and allowed them to rest without an alarm to wake them up.
The thirty or so days they still had together prior to the arrival of Bulma, Krillin, Gohan and Dende was spent almost just like the first week. Despite the shock it had been when he was made to feel her and the subsequent realization that indeed, multiverse theory, Trunks did his best to let his Brief brain take over and 'just roll with it'.
The uniqueness of their situation, having met a past version of themselves and changing their own circumstances helped them get through the absolute mindfuck it was; they had a first hand experience concerning their multiple existence and that was otherworldly. Trunks got a little more self-conscious and at the very least stopped going around shirtless. Tora didn't really change her demeanor, after her initial doubts and fears were eased, as she blindly trusted her alternate self. The Brief brain was resilient, despite the doubts and fears, she didn't let it bring her down. Her body language, her speech patterns nor her manners changed after letting Trunks know she was indeed a girl.
Except she stopped binding outside of their spars, which made Trunks wonder if his stares had become more 'inappropriate' now that he knew, but he soon realized his interest in his alternate self had begun prior to his knowledge. It didn't help that Tora stared back with just as much fervor. Despite realizing that they were checking each other out, and had been doing so since day one, they didn't stop. Both knew they weren't really looking just to see what would have been if they had indeed been the other gender, nor because of the uncanny reaction of seeing oneself but not in a mirror, but neither actually put it into words.
Since she otherwise didn't change how she touched him (after a couple of days of shy interactions about being allowed to, since the cat being out of the bag), he pushed away all awkwardness and happily touched back just as much. Tora was the same person, after all, why would their bond be affected? She hadn't lied about who she was, fundamentally, she just didn't disclose her gender. It didn't matter, especially considering how touch starved they both were, and how nice it felt. 'This changes nothing.'
Their talks about the different people they met in their respective worlds, and in the 764 and 767 worlds they visited, also had them realize how they were different, but the others were mostly the same. Both their versions of Gohan were identical, but the 767 Gohan they both met were different due to how different their 767 had been (mostly because of Cell).
Trunks had more or less stayed away from the past version of his mentor, but Tora hadn't, and it was probably because the one Trunks met didn't go through training with the goal to obtain super Saiyan. Trunks would have talked Goku and Gohan out of it, like Tora tried to, considering the painful memories associated with the form. Tora mentioned she had gotten closer to Gohan since they found Trunks' Time Machine.
Quickly enough, Trunks was catching up on Martial Arts technique, out of super Saiyan. There was an initially awkward moment when Tora taunted him about 'hitting a girl' just to get a rise out of him, but he didn't bite. He really didn't care about the gender of his enemy; after all, he had killed Eighteen. The apprehension came from hitting an ally. He also had no problem accepting Tora being a more capable and powerful fighter than he was, despite being younger, he was thankful he could learn more so the Cell fiasco didn't happen again. Tora was ruthless with him, but it was what was needed, and her sword was put to good use to simulate someone with a longer reach, and force Trunks to work on his speed, which was arguably one of his weakest points, while it was Tora's strongest.
Tora passed over a bottle of water, they were both sitting outside the compound after a spar session, enjoying the late July morning sun. Trunks accepted it and tossed his tank top aside to wet his skin and refresh a little, while Tora remained in her looser black t-shirt and her binder. One of the differences the two of them noticed was that Tora had a lower natural temperature and a slower heartbeat than Trunks, and as such suffered less from the heat.
"And Father couldn't care less about young-mother and baby-me," Trunks lamented, continuing their conversation. "I was there to save them from Gero, thankfully. It seems there were more Cyborgs and Androids we weren't aware of.."
Trunks had also come to the conclusion that Nineteen and Twenty may have existed in his world too, but he (and Gohan and Bulma) didn't know about them. 'In our worlds, Gohan-san wasn't there to see them when they first struck, and by the time he arrived, Nineteen and Twenty had probably been disposed of at some point during May 12th, and it was Seventeen and Eighteen who became the menace we know. There was no reason for Gohan-san and Mother to find out Father and everyone else had killed two other artificial humans before Seventeen and Eighteen killed them,' Trunks had masterfully explained his reasoning to Tora and she agreed.
"Oh, you arrived earlier than me. In my 767, I arrived only after Seventeen and Eighteen had been activated. The Time Machine was a little off. Gero attacked 767-Bulma and the baby too, but it was Tenshinhan-san who stepped in to save them."
"Thank Kami for that. Father, though…" Trunks couldn't hide how disappointed and angry he had been about Vegeta. Tora agreed with the sentiment tenfold.
"He misread the situation. He expressed some sort of.. regret, when I confronted him about it. But you don't know the worst of it, when Mother says 'stupid Saiyan genes', the idiocy is beyond comprehension." Tora frowned at the memory, and with her own bottle and leaning forward, she wet the back of her neck and her hair to freshen up as well. "You know, about Cell."
"What about it?" Trunks was afraid but he was also too curious to pass on the opportunity to know more.
"So its goal was to absorb the Cyborgs. By the time Vegeta-san and I came out of the Room of Spirit and Time, it had already absorbed Seventeen, but Eighteen was in hiding. So we went after them, Vegeta-san wanted to fight it first because he was frustrated about- well, about me." She rubbed some water on her face and sighed. "I will come back to that so keep it in mind," she had promised she'd go into detail about her stay with Vegeta in 'the strange white void' at another time. "We found it when he started destroying islands to draw Eighteen out, and Vegeta-san dominated , the monster couldn't do anything. Until stupid Saiyan genes decided that it was a boring fight not worthy of his time."
Considering Trunks knew Cell had indeed managed to absorb Eighteen and that later, Gohan killed it, his mind went quickly through the possible scenarios, knowing the outcome and knowing Vegeta was involved.
"Don't tell me he postponed the fight and demanded a rematch once Cell had gotten Eighteen."
"I won't tell you, then," she grumbled. "He let it go, yes. I rushed after Cell to end it myself because I didn't want to risk it and if Vegeta-san wanted a good fight, Goku-san or myself would have given it to him later. But Vegeta-san saw it as me interfering, and he attacked me."
Trunks winced at the second-hand betrayal. Another reason why Tora called Vegeta by his name and not 'father', like he did.
"Broke two of my ribs too." Trunks couldn't help a grimace imagining how much strength it must have required. He barely managed to actually land a hit on his younger self. "So I blasted him out of my way. Could have killed him if I actually knew how to properly convert my ki," she shook her head and chased the memories away. Trunks understood, as Tora had shown him how to properly form ki blasts, the energy output and destructive potential was much higher.
"Anyway, I spotted Eighteen but she was with Krillin-san, and I didn't want to risk his life, so I told himto destroy Eighteen since I was told he had the remote, and went after Cell. Bad call on my end, I should have blasted them all." Knowing how Trunks had used the remote to destroy Seventeen and then he had to kill Eighteen, both Briefs now thought that the remote only worked on Seventeen. Trunks wasn't surprised Tora regretted not sacrificing Krillin if that meant killing Eighteen, he would have done the same thing; the two of them were ruthless like that, and they'd lived an existence where sacrifices were often necessary.
"Krillin-san is brave," Trunks commented, and Tora agreed. Krillin had confronted her when he thought she was an enemy and had Gohan near her, he also tried attacking Cell for absorbing Eighteen, despite knowing the vast gap between them. And he had a kind heart. Much kinder than hers.
"He is. He's a good man, too. So, I went after Cell, but it blinded me, then it ate Eighteen, beat Vegeta-san to an inch of his life before I stepped in, but I failed to destroy the monster as well. Then it decided we were interesting enough, and since Goku-san was going through a similar training, Cell thought this was too fun and organized the tournament I told you about already."
"At least it let you both live." Trunks tried to see the good side of it, even if he wasn't that convinced about it.
Tora thought about it. Cell did want to kill Vegeta, so she intervened. And Cell didn't kill her because of.. Seventeen? 'Fuck'. Tora wasn't ready to explain to Trunks that the Cyborgs in her 767 were still alive, as Trunks and the gang destroyed the cyborgs in the Lost timeline (as they called the 767 Trunks had visited, because the Time Machine was likely to return to the 'new Timeline' according to both 787-Bulma and 767-Bulma), but she had at least mentioned her versions weren't 'as bad', as they hadn't rampaged as soon as they were activated.
"Stupid Saiyan genes saved us; Cell wanted us to train more and challenge him in that stupid Tournament, and the prospect of fighting Goku-san really excited him," she added with disgust.
"Thank Kami it didn't have any 'Trunks' cells. You and I tend to make it quick, after all," Trunks observed and Tora agreed after she finished her drink. Both of them saw enemies as threats to get rid of as soon as possible, not as fun challenges or a chance to 'prove themselves'. That mentality was only reserved for friendly spars with each other and perhaps other allies.
"Let's continue?" Tora offered, and Trunks stood, ready to keep training.
Tora didn't hesitate to be brutal and punish any of Trunks' guard flaws, as Piccolo and Tenshinhan had been with her, and like she did with the two martial artists. She talked through everything, comparing to key fights they had studied earlier on the videos and solving each opportunity to strike, each defense decision like a puzzle to solve. Tora barely managed to make an acceptable clone, so teaching the Multiform Technique was out of the question. That and she was resilient enough for Trunks to actually be challenged and needing to use the teachings as he couldn't just overwhelm Tora with raw strength or speed.
Tora became more and more on edge with Trunks around, something irritated her beyond comprehension when they fought, and even their affinity to touch and find physical comfort with each other kept her tense. It was becoming unbearable, and it had only been a few days since she let him know she was a girl.
And Trunks mentioned that while his temperature was naturally higher than hers by half a degree, making him a natural 35°C, his current one was a solid 37°C. Tora had him sit on the couch and verify with a thermometer, because he mentioned she felt 'colder' than usual. She verified her own, she was still at her usual 34.5°C.
"Trunks." Tora frowned, she didn't know how to even start this.
"You're.. turning twenty-one, right?" As he confirmed, she mumbled to herself. "I ended mine when I was eighteen and a month.. So I should start the next one at twenty-two and a half.. Unless.." she groaned, folding her fingers one by one as she did the math that didn't add up.
"Why?" He asked, impatient and not understanding the frustration. And Tora heard herself ask that exact same question to Vegeta, with the exact same intonation.
"You're in heat," she gave him a weary look, the exact same look Vegeta had given her.
Trunks stayed silent a moment as the words registered, then he spat out his iced tea and paled, gesturing his surprise as he cleaned up.
"What the fuck- 'in heat'? What do you mean? How?!- No wait, hold on, don't tell me how you know I don't want to know. Are you sure?"
Tora couldn't help a smile, Trunks reacted the exact same way she did, verbatim. But she wasn't going to be Vegeta when explaining it to him, she was a fucking Brief and she won't be intimidated by an intellectual challenge.
"I know because your temperature is higher, but as far as I know, no, you've not been spreading pheromones, and my nose isn't that sensitive to pick up the scent ," she anticipated her next reaction, and Trunks stared, baffled, pale.
"Wait you've had this talk before…"
"That's correct."
"I know how sex works," Trunks couldn't help it.
"It's not about sex," she got red and looked away, embarrassed. 'So that's how Vegeta-san felt…' "Vegeta-san gave me this talk when we were in the Room of Spirit and Time. I was in heat then too, and it had been distracting for him. Remember I told you he was frustrated when we left the Room of Spirit and Time? That was why. My 'Saiyan in heat scent' had us stop sparring for a while. So he sat me down and just.. told me everything."
"He knows you're a girl then?"
"He said it was the same for men and women alike, so hopefully not," Tora dreaded the possibility, and the memory of her waking up from the dead with Vegeta's armor crept up in her mind. She chased it away, she'd have to think about that later. She stood and let Trunks keep cleaning the spilled drink. "I'll be right back, I wrote everything down, it'll be easier..."
A minute later, with the notebook in hand and with the couch properly cleaned, the two Briefs sat down, one to teach and the other to learn.
"Take it all with a grain of salt, as Vegeta-san didn't seem to know that much about it all considering he was about eight years old when the planet was destroyed by Freeza, this isn't exactly a proper physiology book."
"Wasn't he five?"
"It's what he told mother, but those were Saiyan years. A Saiyan year is twenty of our lunar months. Divide by twenty, multiply by thirteen."
"Got it." Trunks' mind quickly did the math, even if for a split second he wondered 'why thirteen' until he remembered a lunar month was 28 days or four weeks. Fifty-two divided by four...
"So for full-blooded Saiyans, sex and mating are two different things," Tora started explaining.
Clearly Trunks hadn't had that talk with his 767 version of Vegeta, and while Tora loathed it, she was secretly thankful another version of her would be her guinea pig to see whether the information she had was clear enough to pass on to 767-Bulma for everyone's benefit. She continued.
" Apparently sex just doesn't carry the same for them as it does for earthlings; Saiyans have sex with whomever for whatever reason and that doesn't make them a couple, imply commitment of any sort. What's important is mating, which is why they go into heat; to signal their single status, find reliable strong allies, and have children. Vegeta-san made it clear to me that for his lineage, it was a big deal. Sex itself doesn't produce babies, but sex with one's mate does."
"So.. Father-?"
"Father chose Mother, and he chose to have a child with her, yes. All four of us were willed." Tora beamed. The information had meant so much for her, and Trunks' face warmed up too, then he frowned. Tora anticipated the thought. "He fucked up when he didn't intervene to save them from Gero, because he trusted Bulma-san and the baby would survive. Stupid instincts forgot Mother is just an Earthling, I guess."
"Ah. Oh I see." The excuse was plausible. "I hope he apologized for that."
"Me too. The version I met did ask me how to apologize the Earthling way so there's that… Yours hopefully did too."
"It's still a Vegeta so he probably made amends some other way. Good. Please continue."
"So, mating," she agreed to carry on, after drinking some juice. "According to Vegeta-san, Saiyans can mate outside of the heat cycle, or when already mated, and mated partners have children whenever. The heat cycle itself is just meant to signal availability. Vegeta-san told me that 'third-classes' weren't monogamous, and would get with various mates because.. pack mentality? Safety? Multiple partners meant less pain when one died in battle?" Tora shrugged it off, she didn't know. "But he insisted that elites and royals, of which I am part of in his mind, and I do want to believe it extends to you, only choose one mate. He made sure I was to choose someone that wasn't 'below my worth' and not 'some third-class waste of blood'. He thought I was interested in Gohan-san." Tora yucked at the memory of what Vegeta had implied.
"Isn't Gohan-san about nine in 767?" Trunks was disgusted at the prospect. Tora confirmed Trunks' reaction as being the same as her own.
"It's exactly what I told him, but he said, and I quote: 'Doesn't matter. He can fight off other suitors until he goes through his own cycle. He's acting on instinct. And you better refuse him, he's no match for an elite.'" Tora did her best impression of Vegeta when he told her that. "Though this Gohan-san is almost ten, because of the Room of Spirit and Time. Vegeta-san also said he knew I wanted him too and threatened me. I like him, don't get me wrong, but not anywhere like that."
"He better never find out how close we both were to our versions of Gohan-san."
"That was my thought too," she confirmed again.
"Father loathed Goku-san after all, and Gohan-san and him didn't exactly have a good relationship. I remember how careful Gohan-san was when I asked him to tell me more about him," Trunks reminisced.
" 'Reluctant ally' is one way of saying 'he hated my guts'," Tora laughed all while confirming she had had that exact same conversation with her Gohan-san before his death.
"Father wasn't exactly…"
"Agreeable." Tora used the word Tenshinhan had used, and Trunks accepted the word as polite but accurate.
"Our version of Gohan-san might have been in heat when we were children, which was maybe why we both wanted to be close, since he died before we hit our own first heat. Father probably never taught him anything about it all before his death." Tora observed with regret. Despite their strange situation, both Trunkses considered the Gohan that died in 780 to be the same person, but not their respective Bulmas. Tora had already told Trunks that her version of Gohan knew she was a girl, and yet their fights against the Cyborgs, their training and their experiences with him were identical. Gohan didn't treat them any differently.
".. It can't be all just scents and instincts, though." Trunks disliked his free-will being chained by biology like that.
"No, probably not. I loved my version of Gohan-san, as much as I love Mother; it's just a little confusing because I was thirteen and he was the only one who could understand us even a little.."
"As we were the only two Saiyans left and we lived under constant stress. Yes, I agree."
The two found comfort in each other's arms on the couch, somewhat at peace with it all. It was hard to feel understood on such a profound level.
"So, how do I not mate ever?" Trunks had to ask and Tora chuckled quietly; clearly the two of them were on the same wavelength. Same questions, same reactions…
"You do that by having sex and exchanging blood." She gestured at her hand and made a cutting motion to indicate how, and rested her head back on his shoulder.
"Wait wait wait, what if two-"
"Two men and two women can do it too, and yes, they can have kids because as far as I understood, it's the blood sharing that creates the zygote. Vegeta-san said they started using incubators a while ago; the whole 'being pregnant' thing seems like a 'stone age practice'. Anyway, that is for full-blooded Saiyans. Us and Gohan-san? Uncharted territory. But there's something going on, clearly." She placed a hand on his forehead to feel his temperature, as a proof of how clearly some Saiyan biology was happening there. Trunks closed his eyes to appreciate the contact.
"So your usual temperature is naturally lower than mine, but we both had the same delta… He must have picked it up," Trunks wondered while leaning into the touch.
Two whole degrees. That was a lot and too unique not to notice. Vegeta didn't give Tora details about how high a Saiyan temperature rose during their cycles. She guessed he didn't know. After all, the planet was destroyed when he was a child, and he did not get formal biology education on his extinct species...
"Yes, but he said it was my scent more than my temperature. He thought my 'cycle' would end a few days afterwards, but it lasted a few extra weeks, so.. half-breeds are different."
"Talk about doing science with representative samples."
"Considering there's one of you in your world, one of me in mine.. We are a representative sample for half-breeds," the Brief brain appreciated good and bad science alike. "Truth is.. I mostly wrote everything down for 767's benefit; our Gohan-san was never able to obtain this sort of information because Goku-san knew nothing and Father died early. Vegeta-san made it clear he wasn't going to repeat himself, so I wanted Gohan-san, Trunks, and Chichi-san's second child to have at least something. "
"Chichi-san's pregnant in your 767?" Trunks inquired. Another change, perhaps.
"Yes, she had morning sickness by the end of May, and she announced it early June, so perhaps your version of her was too, she just didn't announce it yet.." Tora wasn't sure how long Chichi had been pregnant.
"I left before that," Trunks confirmed the possibility.
The unborn child should have been conceived in that other 767 timeline too, as Tora couldn't consider both worlds to have had different events between August 764 and May 12th 767. After all, baby-Trunks was born on June 1st regardless of how different Tora's first stay had been from Trunks'. Tora knew little about pregnancy stages, but she knew morning sickness happened at least a few weeks in, which made conception after May 12th unlikely, as Chichi was sick on May 22nd.
All through their discussion, Trunks read through the notebook Tora had given him, trying to see if he understood correctly the information he heard from her.
"So," Trunks decided to concise the information as he understood it. "For Saiyans, sex is free for all and doesn't require commitment, love or anything like that. Mating is for kids and trust, and more or less corresponds to what we'd consider a marriage, at least 'for royals' since other classes practice poly-mating. We are supposed to only have one mate, which we get by having sex and exchanging blood directly with a chosen person, regardless of gender, because something-something-Prince-of-all-Saiyans royal stuff. At least in theory."
Tora couldn't help but laugh at how Trunks phrased the 'reason', and agreed. Neither of them were actually forced to obey whatever 767-Vegeta ordered, after all.
"That is how I understood it, yes. Your mate is your most important person."
"And non-mated Saiyans go through heat cycles to signal they're available, which means having a scent, which neither of us can pick up because we're dirty half-breeds, and a temperature jump of two degrees. How often?"
"Vegeta-san told me Saiyans go on heat once every four and a half years for about twenty weeks, except the first one which basically lasts all of puberty, which for Saiyans is about three years between fifteen and eighteen. My first heat ended a little after I turned eighteen, at least according to the thermometer," since she clearly didn't notice, she had to trust the measuring tool.
Trunks did some math. Eighteen plus four and a half years meant he should have gotten his second heat at twenty-two, not twenty. He wasn't sure his first heat happened at all, but Tora didn't realize it either until Vegeta told her about it. He assumed he ended his own first cycle at the same time as she did.
"That means I'm early." Trunks spoke out loud. "Oh Kami I need to track this shit like girls do, don't I?"
Tora gave him a solid punch on the ribs, just to draw the point. Trunks rubbed the future bruise and apologized.
"So, mating.. Saiyans can mate without caring for the heat period, and since Saiyans need to mate before creating a child, the heat isn't related to fertility." Tora had to redirect.
"And sex alone can't create kids, correct?"
"Correct, at least for full-blooded Saiyans. Vegeta-san was absolutely shocked to find out earthlings could have kids by accident, and I, uh, had to explain contraception and reproduction to him."
Trunks stayed awfully quiet for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Nooo you didn't."
"He called condoms 'plastic bags'," Tora winced at the memory, and Trunks only laughed some more. He wished he'd seen Vegeta's face, that seemed priceless.
"Speaking of that, do you menstruate?" The question itched him.
Trunks, like Tora, was bold and when the Brief brain kicked in to know more, there was no shame and no boundaries, especially with a trusted person. Tora blinked slowly and stared right into her counterpart's eyes, then got even redder. The whole ordeal was embarrassing beyond belief, but the genuine curiosity deserved an answer.
"I don't anymore because I use a contraception patch, but I did menstruate. Else Vegeta-san would have smelled it." She shuddered at the prospect of that sort of misstep.
"Smart move." Trunks praised, until something clicked. "Wait, hold on. You've had sex before?" That potential difference blew his mind.
"When the fuck do you think I would have had time to do that? " She punched him harder, on the arm this time, but she still didn't move away from his hold.
"Ouch! Right, right! Shit we truly are similar," Trunks admitted, all red.
"Men are disgusting. I found your lewd stash, don't try to deny it." She pointed a playful but accusatory finger, but left him off the hook, enjoying the beet red face as sufficient humiliation.
"I was trying to figure myself out, alright. It doesn't help that I'm incredibly attracted to you. " He grumbled in all honesty and anticipated Tora's next thought. "Yes, even before I knew you were a girl."
"Talk about narcissism," Tora couldn't help but laugh awkwardly at her own stress-induced joke, but at least it confirmed it wasn't just her having issues with it all.
"I prefer 'self-love'," Trunks played along with a kinder smile, and Tora gave him a lighter punch, awkward at the strange confession.
"I can't smell the 'heat scent' but I do find you attractive too." The two of them were aware none of it made sense and that their paths were to break away soon. 'It's not like our biology takes time travel into account, after all.'
"Mother must never know," Trunks' face twisted at the idea of his mother finding out about any of those shameless conversations.
Tora agreed with the sentiment with an uncomfortable nod. 'At least Vegeta-san didn't try to get into my pants. Probably because he was already mated, yikes.'
"I don't want your version of her to know I am a girl, either." Tora made Trunks promise, and he agreed and held her a little closer.
It was a strange ordeal, considering the looks they'd been giving each other for the past two weeks and how Bulma considered them twins . They might have been siblings, genetically, but both of them fundamentally saw each other as different beings with similar experiences. They weren't siblings. They were adults who just met but who shared similar memories and a similar life.
The pair spent most of their sleep time together, Tora more or less abandoning her room to enjoy the warmth of Trunks' bed. It took her a little while to leave the sword on his desk instead of keeping it as a comforter, but eventually the comfort of holding each other was better than the object. Like Gohan when he shared her bed after the Cell games.
It had been years since Tora had nightmare-free full nights of sleep, and Trunks was happy to share that peace of mind with his younger counterpart. A taste of what was to come for her, once she returned home and destroyed her Cyborgs and Cell.
It was a temporary thing, and in both their hearts they knew their path was to diverge in a few weeks, never to meet again, but they decided to make the most of their little bubble of profound and mutual understanding, as they found their inner turmoils to be 'a Trunks thing' and not just 'a me thing'.
The calls to the Gravity Room were often as promised, from all parties. They found out some other differences between both young adults, one of which being that Tora was a smoker; Trunks found out when Bulma mentioned in passing that she had quit and Tora should, too. Tora shrugged it off as a minor difference, but like in the Room of Spirit and Time, she realized she didn't crave it at all since Trunks' return which was why she didn't bother asking for tobacco when he went on errands. She already knew smoking was a stress-relief habit, but the pattern itself still eluded her (not that she actually cared to find out). She promised this older version of her mother she had quit since she finished her last pack, and Trunks happily confirmed he'd not seen the other smoke.
All was well between mother and son, and Tora and Gohan often asked to speak to each other about their mutual progress on that 'ascended super Saiyan', as they'd nicknamed it; while the 'beyond' she and Vegeta had worked on and the permanent state Goku and Gohan had mastered were both just different ways of channeling super Saiyan, the form they both had unlocked through the desperate need to protect someone else was something else entirely. Neither Gohan nor Tora really cared for fancy names and didn't bother digging further. It was better than 'that special form I used to kill Cell' or 'that form I had for a split second before I died', or any variation of its descriptors (hair rising higher, electricity sparks…). The advantage of being on a planet meant that Tora could summon it in relative safety, while Gohan mostly focused on mental training.
Tora noticed how the boy kept her dogtags, and a couple of weeks into their return trip, when they were left to chat alone, she inquired about his sleep and his nightmares.
"It's been better, thank you, Tora-san," Gohan avoided eye contact with the camera, looking visibly down. "I am just eager to be back," he looked back up with a faint smile. The boy was weary, but he was sincere. He had begun sleeping in short sleeps like Tora did to fight off the nightmares, but the change was not easy, Gohan liked sleeping long hours.
"I see." Tora knew Gohan hadn't been sleeping well, but she couldn't really insist further nor do anything about it. "Once you're back, I will tell the story," she promised while pointing at the hilt behind her with a warm smile. "It's another difference between Trunks and I, so he and Bulma-san don't know it either."
"I can't wait," Gohan smiled wide.
The little information he found through Bulma about Trunks, and by extension about Tora, just wasn't the same, even if the little crumbles of shameful childhood stories. Bulma had given him, Krillin and Dende some trivia about her son. As such, Trunks used to sneak out at all hours to fight the Cyborgs with Gohan, he was obviously a late bloomer as he'd yet to date anyone (and Bulma couldn't fathom him doing it behind her back, as he barely left her side), he was good at math and physics but loathed literature, loved strawberries as much as she did, and had taken an interest in architecture when they started rebuilding their world. Gohan inquired about music, as Tora played, but she said he tried when he was a kid and dropped it. 'Another difference.'
Time had the strange effect of being both fast and slow at the same time; it had only been a little less than forty days before Trunks was brought back to life, but he and Tora felt like they'd been living together for decades when Bulma announced their arrival for the next day, giving an ETA and a landing spot for the two to meet them. The plan was to see the planet first, then go to the Lookout and go from there.
August 28th 787. That was going to be the date of the end of the summer parenthesis both young adults allowed themselves to enjoy. They could perhaps have a couple more days of enjoying each other's company, as the Time Machine had yet to finish charging, but Trunks knew Tora had to roll back 'being herself', at least in terms of physical comfort, with everyone's return. Her need to protect the baby Krillin and Gohan knew vastly outclassed her comfort, and she wanted to go back to that timeline with as few people as possible knowing.
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Thank you all for your support and comments, I'm sorry I upload so weirdly on ffnet but the document editor is often such a paaaain...
Reminder that while I use Tora in the narration, she still thinks of herself as 'Trunks' and the native Trunks does call her Trunks too. It's just for ease of reading. She kind of wants to be called Tora by those not from her timeline though, helps her keep the 'role' ;)
You'll find a helpful time travel chart on my tumblr and twitter, where my handle is secretsofdbz: secretsofdbz. tumblr com / post/ 689805114249199616/a-different-baby-purpose-arc-chapter-10
Bulma asked Vegeta about Trunks' piano melody she didn't know, it's meant to be this melody (a piano version of the Sora track from Escaflowne, youtube watch?v=U5v6PVLlvc8
On my pinned twitter thread, too, you'll find the different images I used as references; the occasional outfit for instance ;) Or you can just check the "my trunks" tag on my tumblr too!
Do not worry, I will keep the main fic Teen rated and nothing more explicit than what you've seen already will be there. Both Trunkses are awkward about what's going on with themselves and each other and that's by design.
To answer some reviews:
1. Shahryar, Someone in 767 (beyond Seventeen, Eighteen, Mika and Syowa, and arguably Panchy :p) knows Trunks is a girl.
2. I'm glad it gives you life, Black Rose of Twilight!
3. Book N Quoll I have no idea what you mean about "Trunks would never do that", it seems we've not read the same manga!
4. Tinfoot: I don't understand your comment about Venus, whose gravity is lower than Earth's, as compared to Planet Vegeta's circumstances. Canon Planet Vegeta has 10G, and that's just about all we know. Considering Vegeta's sleep pattern in canon (he stayed awake for a week on Namek, come on), it's normal to assume "longer day-night cycles". I more or less extrapolated from those two elements to imagine a larger, slower rotating planet. Venus might have been the first inspiration for Toriyama, but Toriyama knew squat about space travel in 1989, he just made shit up. It's fine tho XD DB has always been blerh at sci-fi (at least at the sci part), we just.. roll with it ^^
5. Anonymously96; Goku did refuse to be teleported by Shenron, but we're not certain as to why, at least in the manga. "Needing time to control Super Saiyan" and "ooooo i found amazing people i need to learn their techniques!" are both valid and in character reasons. But he never explicitly said it to his 6yo son, so Gohan just assumes. The fic is 100% subjective from different PoV. Nothing is objective. As for why everyone wanted to fight instead of following Bulma's idea of just preventing the whole thing.. Well, it's explained that "a common enemy means Vegeta will not off us all", but he did NOT off everyone in the future timeline (where he didn't know a new threat was coming, but still trained like there was no tomorrow to surpass Goku), so... Yeah. Too many concussions lol. Poor Trunks.
Note number two: here's the chart with the timelines! tinyurl co m / adbtimelines1