To Truly See, part 3
By: Chocolate-chan

It seemed over the next two weeks that Trunks never slept, always doing something for Goten; bathing, dressing, trying in vain to find something that he would accept in his half-delirious state and eat; cleaning when he couldn't hold it down...
...Comforting... Goten seemed to be experiencing hallucinations. He would wake screaming, which was something of a misnomer, since he never really woke completely, not enough to acknowledge Trunks' presence. Sometimes... well, often he cried or spoke... when he spoke it was odd. The sentances were jumbled, usually to Tsuki, about food or school...
Trunks slept usually on a pallet on the floor. He laid on his blanket, half delirious himself as he waited for when Goten would need his attentions again.
"Tsuki!"
Trunks woke with a start. I didn't mean to fall asleep...
"You know he does so stop."
Trunks rose and moved to his side, rubbing sleep from his eyes and creases from his clothes absently as he yawned, pressing his wrist to his mouth to halt the sound.
"Don't talk that way about he's your father so stop...." and he murmured something else and went quiet again.
Trunks blinked and sat back. He had to wonder what was happening in his lover's mind.
"He loves you but it doesn't matter anymore... not for me... maybe nothing there isn't anything left.... maybe it was maybe a long time ago...."
"Goten wake up!" Trunks bodily picked him up and shook him. "Wake up, dammit!"
Goten was all but lifeless in his arms, limbs hanging from the hold he was in as Trunks slapped at his face less and less gently. He gathered Goten differently against him and noticed his body heat yet again. He laid the damp cloth across his forehead again and called his name.
Filmy dark eyes opened to look at him, and Trunks waited as he blinked it away and looked up at him solemnly. Goten looked at him in complete silence, and Trunks wondered briefly if he simply didn't register or if he didn't have anything to say to his husband. Goten blinked a time or two, still seeming disconnected but awake.
"Wake up, okay? You need to eat, and..." Goten blinked at him and tilted his face up a little more.
"Trunks."
"Yeah... that's me," he said, as Goten's stare turned no less flat. "Are you okay? I've been really worried about you."
"Really?" That seemed to be said with some difficulty, and Trunks nodded at him quietly, laying a hand to the cloth over his forehead, already warm. He rinsed it and returned it, feeling Goten shiver slightly at the cool wetness.
"Of course I have. How are you feeling?"
Goten's eyes drifted off toward the window and fluttered shut as though returning to sleep, but after a moment he said, "Tired." And then he frowned as though another of Trunks' light touches to the cloth on his head reminded him. "And really hot."
"Are you hungry?"
Goten frowned, which was not his usual reaction to the mention of food. "Yeah."
Trunks bid him to lay back and went to heat up some of the soup he had previously tried. He returned to the bedroom where Goten was still trying to retain a grip on consciousness. He allowed himself to be fed very slowly, until at last the whole bowl was gone. Trunks sighed slightly and sat back, glad that one less worry was off of his mind. Goten laid back onto the pillows, his eyelids no longer wanting to remain open. After a moment, however, he was struggling up again and past Trunks into the bathroom. He rose with a profound sigh and held the younger demi-Saiyan upright as his stomach revolted and relieved itself of its meal the wrong way. Goten was nearly out again in Trunks' arms before he finished, but Trunks cleaned it all up and mused that at least he had eaten more than he had thrown back up. He put the younger man back into bed, feeling the way the exhaustion drained his body limp and his face frightfully pale.
Wash the sheets tomorrow... Trunks laid back on his pallet and waited. Goten only went deeper into his constant sleep.

The phone rang several times before Trunks made it to the front hall, where the phone had sat since before he could recall, Chichi having not wanted its constant interference right in the middle of her home. He picked it up and answered.
"Tou-san?"
"Rei-chan. What's up?"
"I wanted to call on behalf of all of us and find out if you're okay."
"Oh. Goten's not doing much better but he's not much worse. I managed to get some food into him today."
"And how are you? Taking care of yourself as well, I hope. It'd be awful if you got it because you were too weak to resist." The concern in his daughter's voice was warming.
"Everything's okay. I'm a little tired, that's all. Other than that I feel fine. Where are you?"
"I'm at Capsule Corp. with everyone else. We all came. We gotta take care of the boys. It's not as if they can feed themselves or anything." She laughed lightly, not really feeling it.
"Tsuki does a fair job," Trunks mumured, and realized it was only an excuse for them all to be together. "Try to keep sanity. I'm going to go see the doctor today and see if there's anything new we can do for him."
"It's been a long time, Tou-san.... two weeks? Three? Are you sure everything's alright?"
"Yeah. I think I see someone coming up the walk, so I'll let you go, alright?"
"Alright. Bring him home soon." She clicked off as Trunks opened the door.
"Doctor, I was about to come see you."
"Everything's cleared up in the area, and I just wanted to see Goten and make sure he was doing well. Some aren't so well afterward. I've known him since he was born, as a matter of fact."
"He's still sick. Did you say there's a treatment?"
"He's still sick? And he's still alive? That's amazing!" The man began to go through his bag. "In most cases he should be either dead or well by now! Did you have an appointement?" The doctor went in past him as he continued to search his bag. "I still haven't met them all. We've been so busy. But I thought I should come check on him. His father helped build my lab. He was so strong!" He went on as Trunks closed the door and followed. When he entered the bedroom the man was sitting and filling a needle as he spoke to an unconscious Goten. "This'll make you all better, and you won't feel a thing..." The needle went in and out just as quickly and the man disposed of it. "Go get some cool water, will you Trunks?"
He did so and when he came back there was a new film of sweat on Goten's face. "Is he supposed to be reacting that way?"
"Yes; it'll be over soon." Trunks stood over the man's shoulder and watched as Goten struggled with breathing.
"Good thing it's so fast-acting," he said aloud to Trunks, who nodded distractedly as Goten moved slightly, almost a cringe.
Then his eyes opened. He stared at the ceiling for a long, long time. Trunks thought that was rather strange. Whenever he himself was sick, he woke to search the room quickly and determine where he was. Goten relaxed from his previous struggles and huffed a few weak breaths into the air of the room. His eyes drifted half-closed as he lay there. He seemed to gain some measure of wakefulness after a moment as the two watched silently. He blinked several times, squeezing his eyes tight shut and then opening them as wide as he could manage, blinking rapidly at the ceiling. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, his face turning toward the warm shaft of sun from the window. He rubbed his face and the back of his neck, then suddenly turned toward them slightly and sniffed the air.
"Trunks...?"
"Goten. You're alright?" He could hear the concern in his own voice and tried to tone it down but failed. He reached for Goten, but paused before touching him.
Confusion lanced across his face as Goten reached back, hand groping toward him clumsily before finding his own hand and holding onto it for a minute, fingertips studying it. "That's you?"
"Of course it is, Goten... what's wrong?" He sat on the bed and tilted his chin upward toward his face with one hand. But Goten's eyes didn't really focus on him. Not really.
"I can't... see you..." Trepidation crossed his face as he gripped Trunks' hand.
"Doctor?" Trunks turned away as the man came closer, motioning him to rise. Goten didn't let go of his hand, so Trunks stood near him as the doctor produced a simple flashlight and shone it in the man's eyes, conducting a rudimentary vision test. Goten gave absolutely no sign that the light was present, only occasionally blinking and staring straight ahead with a frown as he failed to recognize the presence before him.
"Goten, tell me what you see."
"Nothing."
"Any more specific?"
"Black..." Goten whispered, holding his head in one hand as though adjusting the angle would help it to cooperate, like he only needed to wait for it to return. He was sweating, and Trunks laid a hand to his forehead again.
"He still has a fever," Trunks said with a frown.
"Yes. It will break. The important part was waking him up. He can drink a little, if you'll hand him that glass."
"Yeah, I am pretty thirsty..." Trunks put the glass to the hand that Goten was holding onto him with, and the other came up automatically to grip it. Goten raised the glass, his hands shaking slightly, and downed nearly the whole contents without a breath. He tried to offer it back to the elder, but it slipped right out of his white-knuckled hands, and Goten cringed as it shattered against the wooden floor. "I'm sorry-"
"It's nothing," Trunks interrupted and bent to brush it into a pile and throw it into the trash can.
Goten took another moment to orient himself after the water was gone, and the doctor suggested, "You may want to take him into the city to receive whatever treatment you could get for him. There's nothing I could do for him here, especially if his fever caused this. It's known to happen; especially in young children who are catching the childhood diseases for the first time. If the fever is too high or lasts too long, sometimes they just can't do things anymore. Destroys braincells. I've seen more of it over the past two or three days than I have my whole life. Usually modern science can prevent it."
"I'm... blind?" Goten asked suddenly, turning his head up by habit to face the direction of his voice. "I...?"
"Well, it remains to be seen, but Goten... I think there's a good chance nothing can be done," he said solemnly at last.
Goten was silent, lips pressing tightly together. Trunks was struck silent as well, until the doctor bid him to go into the hall. "Be right back," he said as he left. The doctor gave him instructions which he logged for future reference without really hearing.
"Are you sure?" He asked at last. The man only nodded and left the house then. Trunks stared out the window for a moment, then returned to the room where Goten was wiping his brow and rubbing hard at his eyes with a frown.
"Goten..." Trunks came to him and sat on the bed, laying a hand lightly on his arm. Goten relaxed just slightly after a moment.
"You took care of me?" He asked.
"Y.. yeah," he said hesitantly. "Tsuki's home... they're worried about you. Even my dad wants me to bring you back."
"Really?" But there was something small in his voice as he said it.
"Tsukishiro and I have spent some time together, I mean, when he came to Capsule Corp.... we talked. I don't think... I mean..." This is all coming out wrong. "Maybe he doesn't hate me so much now."
"He never hated you." Goten told him matter-of-factly, dropping his arms to hug himself about the stomach.
"Really?" Trunks felt his courage faltering as he tried to continue. "He... oh, he's such a smart kid, Goten. He's really great. He made me see some things, though, and it.. .really hurt."
Goten listened closely. He looked so tired. "He gets it from you."
"I always think about how much he's like you," Trunks told him honestly. "I realized... I mean...." Trunks quailed. There was no way to explain himself, to make things up; no way to make what had passed between them hurt less. "I want you to come home, Goten. I don't wanna... be apart from you-"
Goten was clinging to him. "I don't want to talk about it now," he said, voice muffled in the man's shoulder as he clamped his arms tightly around him. Trunks pulled him into the embrace on instinct, holding him as Goten stiffened.
"We need to..."
"Not now," Goten said, and he sobbed silently. Trunks held him tighter, feeling Goten strain to hold him back just as firmly, his whole body shaking slightly. Trunks buried his face into the dark hair and simply held on.

Goten woke slowly, something in him trying to lull him back to sleep even as his body proclaimed hunger and wakefulness. Goten opened his eyes... well, it didn't even really feel like opening his eyes, since he couldn't connect it to anything. He began to feel a little frightened once again as he thought of never being able to see again; of being helpless, being unable to watch his grandchildren get older, of never laying eyes on Trunks...
There had been profound apology in Trunks' voice as he had spoken before. His fingertips, lightly brushing his mate's arm, had been more reassuring than he cared to admit to himself. Part of him was still hurt.. a rather large part, but he felt a sudden profound isolation at the darkness that refused to go away.
The youngest Son opened his mouth to take a shuddering breath, and inhaled Trunks' scent. He was brought up short; he didn't want the other man to see him cry yet again, and he moved closer to the warmth he could detect nearby, pressing his body to Trunks' and soaking up the heat and the scent of him. I can't believe you're here...
Trunks' voice had been so soft and as loving as it had ever been in the past, and it had nearly broken the tortured younger man's sensibilities. He breathed in Trunks' musk, the scent imprinting itself yet again on his consciousness, bringing old memories. The pictures against the back of his eyes were as brilliant as ever, and Goten thanked Kami for the memories, at the very least.
"Chibi?" Trunks' arms came up around him as he woke, cradling as he leaned forward to press a rough kiss against his mouth, his style a little less refined than his dark-haired familiar could remember, but his flavor every bit as intense as Goten recalled. Trunks' mouth opened and pressed a somewhat tentative kiss to his lips, drawing back slightly after a moment. Goten could feel his warm breath on his face as Trunks spoke. "I'm so glad you're okay... I was starting to get scared, you were sick so long...." Trunks brushed a palm over his cheek and Goten jumped slightly at the warm contact.
"I'm still... I don't know..." Goten tried, and swallowed. "I don't know if I can believe you. But I want to, and I'm scared of being alone right now. Trunks, you won't leave me, will you?" His voice was pleading.
"I won't, Go-chan, I won't." Trunks' voice was right near his ear. The embrace pulled him securely close. A sigh passed through one of them and the other shook in unison. "Never again."
"I do want to talk about it, Trunks... if you want now..." Goten ducked his head slightly and pressed a fingertip into his chest, running it across the seam of his shirt and further as though getting to know him for the first time by touch alone.
Trunks' hands caught his still, wondering at the warm tension in the graceful digits.
"I was hurt too," Trunks told him. "I would never have behaved the way I did unless I had some stupid childish reason in my own mind for doing so. My express purpose wasn't to hurt you, but things were so much easier when we were apart. In the blink of an eye Tsukishiro was fifteen, you were fed up, and I was alone and emotionally cold."
"Trunks... how did I hurt you?" Goten asked, softly, tugging gently at his shirt. "Tell me what I did."
"Do you remember when the baby died? Whose fault was that?"
Goten blinked out of reflex, focusing his sightless gaze on the air between them. "Why, Tru-chan... that wasn't anyone's fault, of course not! Whatever could make you ask a question like that?"
"Maybe it was no one's fault," Trunks allowed. "Perhaps it was mine."
"How could you say that?"
Before he could go on, Trunks placed fingertips on his lips to silence him. His fingers trembled slightly and he hoped the younger man did not notice. "If I had agreed to let you take the baby, there was a good chance it would have survived, wouldn't it?" He asked the question firmly, not giving Goten the option of backing out.
"You know very well that by that time there was probably nothing we could have done.." It was very quickly making Goten uncomfortable, distressing him more than Trunks wished to do, but he refused to drop it.
"Probably, you said. You don't know. You can't be sure. I know you, Goten. We've been together for a long time; I knew you since forever. I know you still think of it, as I do sometimes. Now, sixteen years ago, if I asked you in the blink of an eye whether it was my fault, would you have said yes?"
"Trunks-"
"Don't hedge with me, Goten. I need the truth. At any time, was it ever my fault, to you?"
"I....." Goten thought, his gaze dipping as he focused on the world of his darkness. "I honestly don't know." His voice was a whisper.
"There." His chin turned up in surprise, his dark eyes widening. "Do you see now?"
"You thought I blamed you?" Goten bit his lip. "This is about what I said before, isn't it!" His eyes filled now with tears that he refused to let spill.
"No Goten, no." Trunks pulled Goten's face into his shoulder. "This is about sixteen years ago. That day in the hospital, that day when they told us our baby was going to die... I thought the world would spin out from under me. I would have let you take it, even before then."
"I should have been better!" Goten said suddenly, loudly. "I should have convinced you; I know well enough how you are! I know you as well as you know me, maybe even better... I should have done something different. I know you just wanted to protect me... "
"Shh, Goten... " his words were murmured against a quivering black mane. "'Sokay, baby.. it's not your fault, no one ever blamed you, especially not me. But I still wouldn't blame you if you admitted that you blamed me, that you thought it was my fault... not if you told me you were angry or you hated me, I would never have blamed you for any of that! I wanted your baby, Goten, as much as you did. That's why I tried again. I know how upset you were, but I had to. I had to try again. I knew you would be worried, scared maybe, but I never expected how angry you would be. I should have anticipated you."
"Trunks, I love you... I always did... even when I screamed that I hated you and that I wanted you to go to hell, I knew if it happened I would have to go too." Goten paused, taking a halting breath against his shoulder, holding tightly to him. Trunks took a moment just holding him, just smoothing circles over his back comfortingly, once again glad to have the compact dark demi-Saiyan in his embrace. Goten was crying now, and Trunks murmured to him softly.
"I could see it in your face that day, Goten, and knowing how you were hurting, knowing what you must have thought of me... I didn't want to look at you day in and day out and see that look lurking behind your eyes... that look like you didn't trust me, didn't know me... and it was worse because it wasn't something you could help doing." Trunks sighed and tried his damndest to piece his thoughts together.
"I didn't, Trunks, I didn't... not really, I didn't..." He sniffed slightly, arms holding tighter around him.
"What did you think, Go-chan?"
Goten shivered against him, almost a spasm at the warm caress of that, one of the favored nicknames. The affection it spoke of. "I just thought... I don't know. I guess I didn't know what to think of anymore, Trunks... you gave up!"
"Gave up...?"
"You didn't try! You were hurting, I know it, but you didn't... and yeah, I'll admit that that hurt me.. it upset me... I don't know if I'll ever forget that. You were always so strong and resourceful... you never gave up, Trunks, not ever... but that day I felt like both of us lost something." His hand gripped tighter in the material it fisted in. "It just felt like..."
"I want to start over, Goten.. start over from there. I would like to forget what happened, but I know we can't ever really do that. I still love you, don't get me wrong... I've never stopped caring about you, even if I had to deny my feelings, push them away." Trunks nuzzled into his face affectionately, cheek pressed to his, following the line of his jaw. "We both really screwed up this time, Chibi... we both did. What happened happened, and it was a long time ago, now."
"Was it really so long ago?" Goten wondered softly.
"It was, believe me. And some days it was a longer time than others." Trunks pulled back slightly, taking a breath of air that wasn't so heated from their closeness of breath, heat, and bodies. "Get some rest, Goten. Sleep a little more, okay? And tomorrow...I guess we'll begin."
"Begin what, Tru-chan?" Goten's face was totally trusting, and Trunks mused briefly on how much he had missed that as well.
"Begin to take it one day at a time, I suppose," he said. "And as soon as you're strong enough, I can take you home. We can see Tsuki..." although Goten couldn't see Tsuki... "And the three of us will spend some time together, okay?" Goten was nodding, his eyes closing steadily as Trunks spoke. "And I'll do everything I can for you; don't ever doubt that. I'll get you to someone and see if there's anything we can do.. teach you all over again, if necessary, how to read, to walk, to move, everything. And I'll never leave your side, okay? I promise."
"You promise?" Goten was little more than mumbling now, his lips barely moving.
"I swear it."
"Be here when I wake up?"
"I'll be.. nearby. Just call for me."
"Trunks-"
"Yes?"
"Just testing it out."
"Go to sleep, you nut," Trunks chuckled at Goten's tiny smile, kissing him affectionately. He sighed then, his eyes sweeping over the pale-cinnamon planes of his round little chibi face. "What would I ever do with you? Or without you...?"
But Goten didn't hear him. Trunks waited as the younger man transcended the lower levels of sleep, and slipped out from his embrace, sliding out of the bed and tucking him in just the way he preferred... each action strangely new and old.. he slipped just as quietly out of the bedroom, out to the front hall, and his hand rested on the phone. For some strange reason though, he simply fell in a chair, fighting that burning sensation behind his eyes.
It felt from his perspective the way it had when he had lost Marron... just looking back one day and realizing that it was more than something physical that was gone, that an entire chunk of his life and the years he had spent was gone and he could never have it back. The knowledge that he had lost something precious in his son's childhood. He had been there, but not there.
It was times like this that he thought of Mirai Trunks. Why couldn't he simply go back and time and make them as naive now as they had been then? Told himself to piss off and get over himself... told Goten to take heart.. made sure that the family was on the right track, straight and narrow...
He knew it was too simple. It was foolhardy. It would be too inconsiderate, too all-encompassing....
He still wanted to.
Last time Goten made that retreat from him. Trunks hoped that it would happen again.

"Are you sure you're ready?"
"You keep saying that..." Goten murmured, face turned down. "I feel tired, but I'm okay." He suddenly tilted his chin up as though something had occured to him. "Did you tell them?"
"Iie," Trunks admitted. "I didn't think I could, they would be imagining worse than you actually are. You just seem hungry all the time, other than that a glance would say you're normal." He smiled as he put on his best tone for the man's benefit. "I remembered the other day... do you remember that night in your apartment, just after you came back?"
"You can't mean the night we-"
"Yeah," Trunks interrupted. "I remember back then that I told you you were special. And I remembered that I could tell from your face that you wondered if it was just because I was drunk... I wanted you to know that I realized since that night I haven't touched alcohol? Except maybe that wine we-" he flushed.
"Didn't drink," Goten said, his face almost studious across on the passenger's side. He leaned over, one arm on Trunks' forearm guiding him to kiss him on the cheek. "I noticed at first. I didn't want to say anything back then, I remember. I wondered if you would notice on your own."
"Even when we fought I never felt the need." Trunks sighed a bit. "But every now and again when I was with Marron I did. Away from her, of course, but..." His fingertips smoothed haltingly over the back of Goten's hand. "Kami, Chibi... I love you."
Goten was silent for a long moment, their hands lacing together. Trunks' fingertips seemed rougher than he had ever realized, the individual ridges making themselves known to his senses as their hands brushed. Goten had always thought his hands were rather soft before, but now... they weren't unpleasantly rough, they just had more texture. For a moment he wondered to himself if they felt the same as before in... everything the man did. Wondered if they felt the same during sex, touching him. It had seemed like so long, Goten was almost too shy to think about asking now. He tucked his thoughts away. "Demo, it's a little late to be asking if I'm ready now. There's nowhere to go but in."
So Trunks rose from where he sat and moved around to open the door for Goten, reaching out a hand to pull him out. Unbeknownst to the other, he watched carefully to see how well Goten could move about. At first he had had trouble moving around the Son home, where he had grown up, even, without tripping and all but hurting himself. Trunks had helped him familiarize himself with it in greater detail, as best he could. They would explore a section of shelf, Goten would carefully imprint the details of certain objects onto his memory, and Trunks would ask him questions until he was sure that Goten had memorized where everything was supposed to be. Then they would continue, with furniture. Various small things like remote controls, silverware, and kitchen appliances. Goten had become frustrated several times over the week they had spent learning how to learn together, but they rediscovered the art of directing and encouraging each other.
After the end of the week, working all day every day, Goten could find and object on a table and tell him what it was and whether or not it belonged there, and where it belonged, anywhere in the tiny Son home. He had begun to unconsciously walk through rooms while avoiding furniture. Trunks knew it would take quite a bit more doing at Capsule Corp., but he would take whatever steps were necessary and so would Goten.
In the front door; house was quiet. There was talking in the other room, and Trunks set the bag Goten held out of the way.
"Hey, is anybody gonna welcome us home?" He called, hearing the conversations stop.
"Father! Papa!" Tsuki ran out yelling, and Trunks caught him before he would have barrled into Goten. He held the boy up- not a boy, all long gangly limbs and teenager, really; deceptively light but still half-grown- and let him hug on Goten from a position that included no momentum. Goten covered his surprise at the awkward grip and hugged him back; Trunks could see him inhaling as though to memorize his scent.
"Papa, what's wrong with you? Aren't you better?" By this time Rei and Akira had come from the other room, and their smiles of welcome and relief turned to frowns of consternation at Tsukishiro's sudden inquiries. Damn, shoulda known he'd figure it out right away. "I'm glad you're back, Papa! Something's not.. right..." Tsuki trailed off.
"I can't see, Tsuki." Goten set the boy onto his feet and placed hands onto his shoulders. Kami, Trunks could see from this angle that Tsuki had inherited most of Goten's height genes too. Trunks himself had not been so tall at that age. Goten, however, had grown like a weed. Tsuki was now just about level with Goten's cheekbones. God damn! When did that happen?? Trunks himself was taller than both of them, but not for that much longer, he realized.
"What? What do you mean?"
"Goten-san?" The added voices of Ai and Marron chimed with Trunks' children's gasps as the others realized that they were present as well. Trunks felt his father nearby; he probably heard as well.
Ai made her way to him, reaching up to brush his bangs from his forehead with a gentle touch and take his temperature out of habit. "Tou-san, the fever?" She asked softly. He nodded.
"Ah.." Marron had learned a lot about her mother's profession, at times even considered doing it herself some day. "He had a fever too long... brain damage.." Marron supplied for the others. "Oh, Jii-chan!" She ran and hugged him even as Ai was doing, and Goten folded them both in.
"No way, it can't be! Papa?" Tsuki looked up at him with consternation written across his features. Trunks half-way expected the boy to burst into tears for a split second. He stood on his own and sniffed slightly, in the middle of the floor all alone. Trunks reached for him, and Tsuki allowed arms to be draped around him as Goten spoke to his daughter.
"Dammit, Trunks; I tell you to bring your mate home to make me tea, and now he can't even do that! Is this your fault?" Vegeta crossed his arms and stood in the doorway, shoulder kicked up against the frame. Dressed in black like that, he still looked like a young punk.
"Vegeta-san, did you know you make it good to be loved?" Goten laughed slightly as he raised his head in the direction of his father-in-law.
"Whatever, boy." Vegeta left the room and Trunks felt him retire to the gravity room. The others went their ways, to talk about it privately with each other, to call friends on their various cell phones to get advice, or to sit and think. Trunks waved the last of them away and told Goten it was time to fulfill his part of the bargain and go directly to bed. Goten dropped his chin and nodded. He let Trunks pull him slowly up the staircase, hand on the rail, encouraging him to pick up the case and inclination of the steps; their height, their span... Goten plodded silently up the steps and turned with a slight push from Trunks.
"He used to..." Goten yawned suddenly, the rest of his words muffled around it.
"What's that, Chibi?" Trunks wrapped an arm around his waist comfortingly, hoping his slap-dash cleaning job in the master bedroom had held up. He wondered how long it would take his lover to notice.
"... Come to see me every day, and we would have a cup of tea. And every day it was "Tsuki needs to be trained", "Tsuki this," and "Tsuki that," and he'd tell me over a cup of tea..." Goten stifled over a yawn.
"What are you talking about, Go-chan?" Trunks asked in consternation.
"Vegeta-san," the younger man murmured. "He used to come and we'd have tea every day when you were at work or in the attic. When Tsuki was at school or something. Sometimes it felt like I was sneaking around with a lover, 'cause he didn't like the thought of you knowing what he was doin'..." Goten allowed himself to be sat down on the edge of the bed. Trunks kneeled before him and began to undress him carefully, running a finger along the front of his shirt to peel the buttons open, taking off his shoes.
"What exactly was he doing?"
"He was raising your kid," Goten told him, his lips barely moving. "He was the one I used to ask things to... those times you would get mad at me about what I was doing over him or his education or whatever... I always used to follow his advice. Somehow it was fitting, I don't know. You would never realize what a fatherly type he is," Goten said. His hand rested lightly on Trunks' head as the elder tugged at him to get him into his pajamas. "He raised me, and Tsuki... even the boy doesn't know that, though. I dunno if I was supposed to tell you, prob'ly not..." Goten smacked his lips the way he often did when really exhausted. "I'm hungry, Tru-chan!"
"I'll make you something to eat when you get up."
"Okay." Goten's hands ran through his hair, comforting. "I have things to tell you, some day, Trunks. One day."
There was something odd in his voice now. Trunks wondered if he should go ahead and ask.
"But he would come see me nearly every week day and we would exercise, or... just shoot the breeze and chill out. It was always real quiet around Capsule Corp. when he was around, even way back when. It was only a short flight anyway, and he always made me feel a whole lot better, even though I guess that wasn't what he was really tryin' ta..." Murmur.
"And you made him tea?"
"I made him tea," Goten said. "I wanna make it again. He likes my tea. Even I like my tea."
"I always loved your tea, Go-chan. Get under the covers now?"
"When are you comin' to bed?" Goten climbed under the the blankets and pulled the pillow around how he liked it.
"Later, I promise." He reached down and brushed Goten's messy hair from his face. He needed a cut; his hair was going to gather up into those points again in a few weeks. He planted a kiss onto the warm slope of his forehead.
"I wonder how long it took you to clean this room out," Goten mused as Trunks tucked him in securely. I'd like it better if it still smelled like you..."
"I smell like me. I'll be in soon enough, kay? Get some rest." He smiled onto Goten as he realized his mate knew exactly where he was the whole time. "I'll be back to check on you. Yell if you need me."
Goten was in the process of nodding, but the strains recovering put on his system had stressed him and he was out almost immediately.

"Goten tells me you used to come and see him."
"Tells you that, does he?" Vegeta punched at a robotic toy, covered with a thin layer of some soft cloth. "Boy doped up on painkillers?"
"I wanted you to tell me about that time."
"Why?"
"Just because I wanna know."
"You missed a lot." Vegeta threw another left and right at the machine, and a kick for good measure. Trunks almost wanted to feel the thrill of the fight again, but not without Goten, for some reason.
"I know I did. I wanna hear from you what that was."
"Your kid grew up. I heard a lot of him from Goten. It was always about that boy. It was almost pathetic. The man is always so cheerful and happy, but he didn't really have any reason to be besides that damn kid. Smart kid... always a bit leery of me..." Vegeta grunted slightly as the dull impact of the metal after a few hours was making his hands and feet smart. He stood back and sat down as he searched for his bottle of water.
"I kinda meant Goten. I know I missed a lot about Tsuki, but I can get some idea of that from him. Goten, however, doesn't like to speak of it, and there's really no one who can tell me on an adult level. Was he.. angry with me?"
Vegeta paused for a long moment, looking at the far wall. "He loves you, for some reason I am unable to comprehend. He was... saddened. He never blames you aloud, even when the stress gets to him he feels guilty for cursing you even in his mind. He entered into his relationship with you understanding your personality and behaviour fully well. He assumes that anything he didn't forsee was his own fault and blindness."
Trunks thought it sounded like a cold way to describe a desperately unhappy man, but from the way his father seemed to pause and think it through even as he said it, he didn't seem so completely detached as he usually was.
"When he says he forgives me, does he? I mean, could he really? I don't... I'm not sure I could were I him." Trunks sat, one hand holding his head as he tried not to look sideways at his father. "You kept him company? I mean, he wasn't.. alone all the time?"
"I saw him regularly," Vegeta said at last. "Whether he was alone was beyond me."
"I see," Trunks said at last, thinking of simply leaving.
"No, That's not true. I know that he was lonely. Even when I listened to him speak, especially then. His need for companionship was far more than what little a man like me could provide. He always seemed so happy to see me. No one was ever as thrilled to see me as he was. But I don't know how much good it really did him."
Vegeta sounded as though there were something he wasn't saying. Trunks wanted to ask... some part of him begged him to ask. But at last, he decided that with a tone like that, whatever it was that depressed his father most about Goten was something he didn't want to know.
"I'm going to the lab," Trunks decided at last, and rose from his seat, rationalizing that his thanks would make the other man uncomfortable.
"One thing, boy; you are my son and you and Goten are part of my family, therefore among my belongings. I won't watch you behave the same way as before with him." He was standing now, his voice firm and yet not angry. He levelled his dark gaze on Trunks quite seriously.
"It's not like that, Papa..." Trunks wondered suddenly what it mattered to him. He was grateful that the man had done what he had not, almost as though they had traded places, with Gohan raising him and Vegeta raising Tsukishiro... the two families were linked more deeply than he thought. "He's sleeping, and he gave me an idea... I want to record it before I forget the details. I'd spend time with him now if he was strong enough."
Vegeta looked as close to embarrassed as the man had ever seen him; not because of the reply but all of it. "I have spoken."
Trunks closed the door and went out, wondering about that for a long moment. Why does he care?

*~*~*~*~ TBC...
^_^ Wow, this is fun.