The Unbroken Circle, part 2
By: Chocolate-chan

Ai brushed her hair and pulled it up on her head. "Tou-chan, I'm leaving in a bit!"
"Aren't you going to eat?"
"I'm not really that hungry."
"You need to eat. Eat or no training today."
"Tou-chan," Ai said with a small frown and moved to the table to comply.
"Hey, you forget just how much I know about training. You know the way I eat. One time, training after I was sick I thought I wasn't hungry. Trunks punched me in the stomach and I blacked out."
"I got it, and you won't let Rei have any mercy on me so, I'm eating, I'm eating."
"No mercy is the idea, and I'm not training you today. Be good for Trunks-kun, I'll probably be a little late."
Goten tapped her on the nose as she finished her cereal. "Ja."
"Saraba, I'll see you this evening." Ai bent down by the door and picked up her shoes and skates and left.
"Geez, I could have taken her, but she loves those skates..." Goten shook his head and went back to his contemplation of the funnies in the newspaper.
At the bottom of the stairs Ai sat and strapped on her skates.
"Hey."
"What did you do, wait for me?" Ai asked as Shiro skated to a stop in front of her.
"I usually leave about this time when I don't do work in the mornings," Shiro said, folding his thumb and making a chopping motion with one hand as the other held onto his bookbag strap. "But maybe I waited for you a little."
"You should have told me you would, I wouldn't have let Tou-chan make me eat breakfast. Though he said if I didn't I couldn't train this afternoon." Ai rose and stuffed her shoes into her book bag as Shiro laughed and asked her if training was life-or-death important to her. They took off down the road.
"I just like it, that's all. You should see the things Tou-chan and Trunks-san can do, I wanted to do that when I saw. I'll never, not in ten lifetimes be that good, but I'm better than most humans, or so Tou-chan says. Dunno yet if he's humoring me."
"He doesn't seem like the type that would protect someone from the truth." Shiro murmured in thought. "Here, I know a shortcut this way." He led her through a back lot, and they picked their way over pine needles.
"Besides, Ai-chan, you can do so much. You could probably do anything you wanted, even be better than them."
"You wouldn't understand," Ai told him carelessly as they came to a section of metal laid across a gutter, riddled with holes.
"So make me understand," he said as he skated jarringly across it.
"I can't, I'm sorry. I...don't think I can cross that."
"Sure, you can do it, just come on." Shiro reached a hand toward her and Ai made her way across. She started to fall, but Shiro caught her by the hand, fingers lacing in with hers as he pulled her to the side of the road again.
"See, you made it." He dropped her hand after a moment, and looked ahead thoughtfully as they started out quickly along the road. "You're very interesting, Son Ai."
She made a face. "You don't think I'm a freak or something?"
"Why would I think that? You're just special."
"I can fly, I'm adopted, and it was by the weirdest family, if you only knew... if you knew some of the things that my family knows about. I mean, things no one else on the planet knows about."
"I'd like to hear some of those things some day."
"Not likely, unless you marry into the family or something." Ai frowned as they moved onto the road for a slew of school kids and dog walkers.
"Are you offering?" Shiro teased.
"Cut it out!" She yelled.
"Do you feel like you don't fit in or something, Ai-chan?" Shiro laughed. "Everybody already forgot about your flying stunt. They might suddenly remember when you come back, but you're still that quiet dark-haired girl that sits near the front to them."
"It's all easy for you to say, you're a normal human being." Ai decided that she wasn't really stressed or anything, it's just that every kid wishes they were normal.
"If everyone knew..." he said suddenly.
"Nani yo?"
"No one knows that much about me at school. My best friends are that skating gang, and they're all losers."
"Rei-chan says you're pretty popular. She's usually in tune to that stuff."
"People seem to like me alright, it's just that... my family's really poor, you know?"
Ai was silent.
"I mean, we live in the poorest part of town."
"So do I, and we're not poor. I think you're exaggerating."
"You live there because that's all the space you need. It's perfect for you, but I have a family of four and we're always wedged in close. My siblings are still little enough that they can share a room, but when they get older, I'll have to share my room with my baby brother. You don't know how much I would like to come home to a nice bright house, and have a studio of my own..." Shiro twirled on his skates, putting his hands behind his head.
Ai watched her feet as they moved in half-circle motions. "I don't really know anything about having little brothers or sisters. I'm lucky I have Goten."
"I've seen you with Trunks-san's kids. You adopted them as your siblings, and you're really good with them. They look up to you." Shiro turned around to skate by her side again. "I always worry about my family. My mom's built really delicate like you are, all small and slender, and she gets sick really easily. Since we don't have a dad to take care of us anymore, I always help her by getting as many small jobs as I can. We're still alive and the kids are happy, so I guess we're not doing so bad."
"If you don't mind me asking.... I thought you said your dad left when you were really little, so..."
"Oh, my siblings? They're my half-brother and -sister, but they're mine, so it doesn't make any difference. They pigged out on Chinese last night." Ai laughed with him.
"I still remember when I met you, last year," Ai said suddenly. "When you knocked off my books."
"Book. It was _a_ book. And I picked it up. I had a job fifteen minutes after school ended and the place was twenty-five minutes away." Shiro shook his head. "They're still really good clients so I didn't mind."
"I bet Trunks-san will pay you well," Ai said. "He's good about stuff like that, but then again he can be."
"Hmm. 'Dju hear about all that homework we had yet?"
"This _is_ my first day back."
"You don't talk to people from class?"
"Tou-chan says I'm really shy. I don't know, I just don't talk to them beyond the level of acquaintances. Rei-chan and the others are my best friends, 'cause I met them first, and our families are so close that we're always seeing each other. I swear I've worn every outfit in Rei's closet." Ai chuckled.
Shiro laughed too. After that he was silent for a long time.
"Oi, Shiro!" There was the sound of skates as the gang of people Ai had seen him with before moved up to encircle them. "Found yourself a lady?"
"Dork," Shiro snorted. They all laughed a bit. "You be nice to the lady. You call yourself a gentleman... guys, meet Son Ai."
Ai took a breath as they all turned to survey her. "Hey guys," she said.
"You're one of those Capsule Corp. chikies, ain'tcha?"
"She's cool," Shiro insisted. "She lives right by me." Ai saw their faces relax slightly. "Besides, my brother and sister had dinner on Capsule Corp. last night."
"Aw, cool. I'm hungry." One of them said.
"He's like your dad," Shiro said and hitched a thumb at the guy. "He can really pack it in."
The guys introduced themselves to Ai, and one of them asked, "How come you spend so much time with the rich kids if you're like us?"
"They're really nice. My dad grew up with theirs, and I train in the martial arts with the oldest."
"Chotto matte kudasai," one of them said. "Shiro-kun, you can't just be bringing another martial arts fan in here. We all know I'm the man." The guys clapped a bit for him and turned to Ai.
"My dad won second place in the Tenka-ichi Budoukai, junior division when he was seven."
The guys watched the volley go back and forth. "Junior division reeks."
"Then he and Trunks-san snuck into the adult competition!"
"Yeah right!"
"I think I remember that one!" Shiro said. "I've seen every televised Budoukai, and I have family members that have been to every single one. I heard about the two kids. Some woman messed up their costume."
"That was Juuhachigou. She was the mother of Marron, the woman who married Trunks-san, Rei's mother."
"You've got some deep martial arts roots."
"This girl dies if she doesn't train." Shiro said with a laugh.
"I've been sick, so I'm really looking forward to hitting it this afternoon. My dad's starting us out on a new weapon."
"So which is it, weapons or martial arts?" The same critic asked with a frown.
"Both."
"I seriously doubt you're better than me. Why don't we find out some time?"
Ai shot him a grin, appraising him. "You come to Capsule Corp. when you're ready to make your challenge. I'm there usually every weekday except Thursdays." The guys laughed when she said it, telling each other that they'd have to see that.
They arrived at school and stumbled up the stairs in no time. Ai once again got into her seat at the last moment.
"The first time that bell rings and you're not in your seats, Son and Takeuchi, I'm not going to be lenient."
"Gomen nasai, sensei," Ai said.
"Just what is it you do that keeps you goofing off so long in the mornings?"
"Yeah, Ai-chan, I don't see why you don't fly everywhere." Shiro said as they left school that day. "If I could fly, I'd never touch down."
"If you could fly you'd rob a bank," one of Shiro's friends said in passing. Shiro stuck out his tongue.
"I gotta go," Ai said as she spotted Rei. "I'll see you."
"Ja."

"Come on, Rei-chan, is that all you've got?"
"I think I can take you, Ai!" Rei grinned and came toward her.
The doorbell rang inside and Hikaru ran to answer it. "Oi, Shiro-san." Hikaru held the door open for the three.
"Guys, this is Hikaru," Shiro introduced them to her. They bowed.
"They're cute," Hikaru said. "They're waiting on you? It's okay, they can go play with Keisuke, he's my little brother," she told them. "Go upstairs, take the hall to the left and listen for noise. Introduce yourselves and tell him who your brother is." She pointed up the stairs. They hesitated and looked at their brother.
He nodded, and Hikaru told them, "It's okay, go ahead, you'll see what room he's in." They scampered up the stairs, smiling shyly back at her.
"Domo," Shiro said. "Kaa-chan's at work today."
"It's fine, I'll go get my father." After a moment Trunks came in.
"Konnichiwa, Shiro-kun. Come to the back with me." Shiro smiled and followed him to a small building in the back. As they came out, Trunks yelled for Ai and Rei to hurry up since he and Goten wanted to spar. Shiro noticed that he was in a gi.
"Here's everything. I hope none of it decides to act up, but some of it does. If so it's okay, come get Goten or I to start it. The gardens in the south and west sides need to be weeded. I'll pay you extra if you take the hoses and water them too. Don't bother with the garden on the east side, that was my wife's so I usually do it myself."
"I could do that one if you wanted," Shiro offered. "I'm really careful."
"Oh... alright, that's okay then. Can you manage?" Shiro nodded. "The girls will move the mat for you when you need them to, but I recommend waiting until after they find a winner. They get upset if they're interrupted." Shiro nodded to all this and pulled the lawnmower out.
"My brother and sister are upstairs with your kids, Hikaru-chan sent them up there, I hope you don't mind."
"It's not a problem. What's a couple more?" Trunks smiled and told him to come inside when he was done. "Thanks, I have work to do and I really hate mowing and stuff."
Shiro mowed the front, and when he came around again Rei and Ai got up from sitting on the mat and held it aloft as he ducked under it to mow the matted-down grass beneath. They waited, floating silently and setting the mat down gently when he moved around the other side of the house. The trimming was a cinch, and Shiro started on the weeding last.
"Shiro," Ai said. She came up and handed him a bottle of water. "Sorry I didn't get to say hi."
"Fighting is life," he teased as he took a drink and sat back for a moment. She plopped onto the grass next to him for a moment. "You two are really good. I bet you're a match for Ryuu."
"Hmm?"
"The guy that wanted to challenge you?" Shiro reminded her. "I just bet he might too, if you poke at his pride enough." Ai just smiled.
"I have to finish my set with Rei for today. I'll talk to you in a bit probably." Ai got up and tightened the belt of her gi as she moved away.
Shiro pulled the rest of the weeds and took the machines back into the shed. Trunks came out just as he was putting them back. "Here," he said.
"It's too much," Shiro said when he received his pay.
"That's what I paid the people who did the same amount of work you did for the same time before, when I kept them around. You have a regular job doing my lawn if you want."
"You mean it?" Shiro asked, then remembered his manners. "Arigatou gozaimasu."
"No need to be formal."
"Oi, Trunks!" Goten's voice came ahead of him as he walked out to the shed. "Where's the- Hey Shiro." Shiro waved. "Where's the quarterstaffs?"
"Why do you want them?"
"I want to see if I can trip the girls up a bit by bringing them back."
"Wakarimasen, you put 'em up last."
"Oh, there they are," Goten said, pointing to a high shelf. He levitated onto a pile of boxes and reached for them. "Why'd you put 'em up here? I know the girls wouldn't come up here."
"Oh those are the good ones," Trunks said.
"I'll give them these then if you don't- hey!"
"What?"
"There's something up here!" Goten let the quarterstaffs slide down to rest against the boxes. He came back with a wooden box. "Wonder what it is?" He blew dust from it and coughed. He sat down on the boxes and Trunks and Shiro came close in curiosity. Goten opened the box and Shiro heard Trunks' intake of breath.
Inside the box was a bunch of photographs, and some other small things. Shiro reached forward and picked up a pretty ring as it threatened to fall, then placed it back into the box as he saw Trunks' expression.
"Wow, Marron was so pretty here. How come I've never seen any of these?" Goten asked.
//Didn't Ai-chan say 'Marron' was the mom's name?// Shiro wondered briefly.
"Put it back, Goten." Trunks said quietly.
"What? Joudan desu ka? The kids would love to see these. Whenever I tell them about her they ask me why there's no pictures of her with them. The family ones don't count, no one's happy in those."
"Just, just put it back, okay?"
"Son of a bitch..." Goten said slowly in surprise as he paused, one hand still submerged in the photos. Shiro was pretty sure it was because he was surprised, anyway. "Trunks..."
"Put it back!" Trunks frowned, apparently forgetting Shiro was there.
"Your children are starting to forget her. Are you sure that's the best idea? Even your oldest daughter has lived over half her life without her mother. Kids' memories gather dust faster than this box is." Goten offered it towards him, the faded people confronting him in the face. "You put it there seven years ago, didn't you."
"Damn it!" Shiro backed away as Trunks lost his cool. "Why don't you ever listen to me?" He suddenly reached out and slapped the younger man, and Goten's head snapped aside in shock.
"Did you see that? He slapped me," Goten said to Shiro who shrugged nervously. "He thinks I won't finish any fight he starts," Goten addressed that last to Trunks, who glared at him.
"Just do as I tell you for once! Let the dead lie still!" Trunks looked as if he would hit Goten again, but Goten slowly closed the box and whispered, "Sorry, Marron."
"I don't want you fooling with that," Trunks said, pointing to it.
"You're making a mistake. I know they would be so happy to see these things; they miss her too." Goten stood before Trunks could retaliate again, and placed the box back where it came from. "I think you need to re-evaluate some of the things you've said to me recently, Trunks. It seems you're the one who can't let the dead lie in peace. If you can't forget her, what are you doing right now? You can't live in the past and the future, Capsule Corp.'s time machines be damned." Goten jumped down onto the floor in the small space there was, and headed out the door as Trunks watched him with a stone face. Shiro looked between them and decided that 'some of the things he'd said' referred to something in particular.
"I'm just glad Marron isn't here to see you like this," Goten said over his shoulder on his way out.
That seemed to do the trick. Shiro jumped against the far wall as Trunks seemed to explode into life with a glowing battle aura.
"What?! How _dare_ you say anything like that!" Trunks yelled so loudly that Shiro could see the girls screech to a halt in their practice outside. "She was my _wife_! 'I knew her too' isn't going to get you anything this time!"
"I'm glad she can't see what a child you're being," Goten said. Trunks didn't waste any other words, diving from the building and knocking Goten onto the grass, punching him in the mouth.
//This family gets more and more interesting,// Shiro told himself as the two struggled on the ground.
He crept around them from the building and over to where Ai and Rei stood uncertain on the edge of the mat.
"You aren't going to do anything?"
"They get like this every now and then," Rei said uncertainly, and Ai frowned at her as she spoke. "They always spar to work out arguments. The loser has to be honest. It's normal..." her voice trailed off as she watched them roll around and try to throttle each other.
"How upset are they, Shiro?" Ai asked uncertainly.
"Goten-san's not really, but Trunks-san got upset when Goten said something about 'Marron'..."
"Kaa-chan?" Rei whispered, staring at the two men.
"That means Trunks-san is really upset," Ai said. She grabbed the other girl by the arm. "Look at that, Rei-chan! They're not sparring, they're trying to kill each other! We gotta stop them!"
"They're way stronger than us and you know it!" Rei insisted, trying to shake her off. "We'll get hurt and then get in trouble for interfering!"
Goten received several punches to the jaw, face stunned, and Ai threw Rei aside. "If you won't do anything, I will!" She yelled as Hikaru and Akira ran out at the noise. Ai ran to them and grabbed onto Trunks' shoulders, trying to pull him off of her father. When that didn't work, Rei ran over to help her and so did Shiro, the twins standing immobile. They all had no effect, and Ai let go, going around. "Tou-chan!"
Goten didn't hear her, struggling against Trunks, and Ai crouched slightly, then delivered a kick to Trunks jaw, and another when he paused that sent him sprawling away with both kids hanging onto him. He looked at them both, rubbing his jaw.
"Tou-chan!" Rei said, grabbing onto his entire arm and looking up at him with large eyes. "Stop it, don't hurt him, you're not acting right! Tell me what's wrong!"
"He's your friend, right?" Shiro asked, adding his voice to Rei's. "It's not worth it to hurt someone you care about! You'll be sorry later if you do!"
Ai bent over her father, who shook his head and sat up, nodding to her inquiries. "You shouldn't interfere ever again, Ai-chan, but thank you." He stared across at Trunks, who glared at him for a moment before standing and throwing off the kids on his arms, going inside without another room.
"Are you going to go in his room and lock the door and fight again, Tou-chan, even though you should leave him alone?" Ai asked with a frown.
"Of course, but I think I'll give him a little of that time while the planet stops spinning," Goten quipped.
Three more kids came running out. "Aww!" Keisuke exclaimed. "We missed them sparring!"
"It wasn't sparring, 'Suke-chan," Ai informed him, rising and moving over toward him. "They're fighting again." Ai wrapped her arms around the boy when he ran and buried his face in her stomach.
"Are they going to go and slap each other and break pottery again?" Keisuke asked, fearfully.
"Come here," Goten told the boy, and he did. Goten pulled the young boy to him and hugged him. "Your father and I will work it out, we always do. It's just the same old stuff."
"Demo..." Ai's soft whisper broke slightly. "You've never fought about Marron before...!"
"Hey," Akira said, putting a hand on Ai's shoulder. "You and I have, so it's nothing new. _We're_ still friends, right?" As Ai nodded, Akira squeezed her shoulder slightly. "It'll be fine."
"Who are you guys?" Goten asked, as Shiro's siblings approached.
"This is Akane, and my brother, Akai." The kids smiled slightly as they were introduced.
"Your mother must be a card, naming her kids 'scarlet' and 'red'," Goten said. "Where do you fit in?"
Shiro shrugged. "We'd best go." Goten nodded as they left.
"Come back and play sometime!" Keisuke yelled after them and they waved.
"Can we, Nii-chan?"
"We'll see, probably."
Goten caught his breath as the other kids moved away, muttering to each other. Ai stood in front of him, and Goten looked up at her for a moment.
"You were the one who told _me_ to be gentle with Marron's name here," Ai told him softly.
"Do as I say, not as I do. I guess I'm not too good at leading by example," Goten said as Ai hugged him and then moved away with a troubled expression.
Goten heard silence as he passed the five kids, and he moved upstairs, pausing at Trunks' door and leaning his forehead against it, listening. If Trunks knew he was there he would yell at him, but there was silence within, so Goten reached down and tried to turn the knob. It was locked, so he applied the slightest bit of effort and broke it, going into the room.
Trunks didn't say anything to him, but Goten knew if he did it would be a command to leave him be. Goten closed the door and found something to wedge beneath so that it wouldn't swing open. Goten leaned against the door for a long moment, watching his lover's labored breathing.
Goten moved slowly across the room and climbed onto the bed, stretching an arm across him. When Trunks pushed him away, Goten caught his arms and held them to the bed. "Are you calm?"
"Yes," Trunks sighed.
"Tell me what it is about those photos and the things in that box. You have pictures of Marron around here, why not those?" Goten frowned as Trunks sighed.
"You hit on it before, no one was happy in those pictures. It's that... Marron didn't like pictures, not her own, but she was happy in all those pictures, and I.... I never wanted to just forget her, you know?"
Goten nodded as Trunks looked appealingly into his face.
"But I couldn't stand it. In those pictures she was a new mother, several times over, or a new young bride, or a crazy kid, and she was so happy.... I couldn't walk through my house and see all of those reminders of her the way she was... when I couldn't be with her anymore."
"Trunks..." Goten brushed his hair back from his sweaty forehead. "I only remember Marron happy."
"So do I. Well, nearly... it was hard seeing the pictures, the kind the you just sneak up on someone and take, because they captured the real Marron. I kept them in here right after she died. I would answer the screams of the baby and went to all the rooms to comfort their dreams, and then I came back here and looked at her face... and I cried every time I did. All of the memories just came back in a rush, and I just... one night I tried to do it, I tried to torch them all in the back yard, and... I couldn't, there's no way I could bring myself to do that. So I shoved them way back into the shed and tried to forget they were there, and I did until you found it. Kuso..."
Goten smiled as the epithet was obviously intended for him. "You shouldn't forget about her life, your life with her. What's in the box?" Goten asked as that argument received no comment.
Trunks blew more of his longish purple hair away from his face, and rattled off apparently memorized; "Pictures of Marron and the three older kids from the time they were born, some wedding pictures, a few really old ones, some even with you in them. Our wedding rings, her engagement ring, the first flower I ever gave her, pressed of course; her favorite hair clip, a butterfly pin, a cork from some of the champagne we had at the wedding. The little bride and groom from the cake, she insisted we keep that. Actually.... the locket I gave Rei on her thirteenth birthday was in that box for six years."
"You knew it was there, you little monkey! You didn't forget. That's not fair you didn't share with the kids." Goten waited for this to sink in, then smiled and tickled him a bit. "Trunks-kun... cheer up."
"How can I? I feel awful." Trunks sighed and turned his head aside. "Gomen nasai."
"For what?"
"For hitting you, slapping you and stuff. I shouldn't do that kind of stuff to you, even if that's how we grew up."
"If I couldn't take a hit I wouldn't be a Son," Goten said, poking Trunks in the ribs some more, and the other man squirmed slightly.
"Still. I really hate being slapped, it's so demeaning.... being punched shows that you're equals, and you're fighting back and all. Being slapped is condescending."
"So it is..." Goten answered, and sighed. "I don't take it personally. I just forget about it."
"You shouldn't have to," Trunks told him. "I know I don't treat you right."
"You try, and that's what's important to me. I know how quick your temper is, believe me." Goten rubbed his jaw with a grin and won a smile. "And I just look at Vegeta and thank my stars that it's you and not him. Some things run in the blood."
"That's no kind of excuse."
"No," Goten agreed mildly. "It's not, and I accept your apology."
Trunks turned his head to look back up at Goten. At last he said softly, "I wasn't lying to you before...."
"Nani?"
"That I want to marry you. I love you, Goten. And just sometimes I know why."
"Why?"
"Why spoil the mystery?"
Goten smiled to himself a bit, eyes sliding shut for a moment as he reached down and placed a hand on Trunks' chest above his heart, feeling the slowing beat as his eyes caught at baby blues. "I love you Trunks, and I don't think I'm ever sure just why that is. You really piss me off sometimes. You disgust me and you make me want to kill you or die..."
"So encouraging," Trunks muttered.
"...But despite all that we always work it out and I love you anyway. I know in my heart how much I need to be with you, and I'm just glad when you need me too."
"Don't say it like that; I always need you. Sometimes I'm just too stupid to admit it."
"I think you took it the wrong way at first, earlier, it seems; I'm not glad that Marron's not here. Just sometimes I know she would worry herself sick over you."
"So what are you saying?" Trunks asked as he pulled the slightly smaller man close.
"I guess I'm saying, I'm not glad she's not here, but I'm glad I am."
Goten rested his head on Trunks' shoulder, hearing his heart beat. //You're so solid and real... I sometimes wish I could keep my love from you but I know it's better that I can't.//
"Goten-chan..."
"Hmm?" Goten answered lazily, not bothering to open his eyes.
"Marry me."
Goten's eyes did open now, but he was silent.
Trunks could feel his body tense slightly. "I guess... I mean..." Trunks sighed and started over again. "I love you. You've been here when I needed you, and I always felt really close to you from when we were children. You always put everything in perspective for me, and you've always complimented me. We're exact opposites. Don't they say opposites attract?"
Goten didn't respond.
"And I know it's that that leads us to fight, but we always get around to figuring out that nothing's more important to us than us."
"What about the kids?"
"You know what I mean, I'm talking about us you and me, not the seven of us."
"I mean, what about the kids?"
"For mine, it's a nonissue."
"_Now_ . What do you honestly think their reaction would be?" Goten asked skeptically.
Trunks was quiet for a moment. "They know you. They like you a lot. You've been good to them and taken care of them ever since you came here. They would need to get used to it, but once they did I think it would be fine." Goten didn't say anything, and Trunks told him, "You're the only one who makes the nightmares go away."
Goten pulled away from him slightly and looked at him with a frown.
"The feelings of insecurity I have. I've always felt that whatever I tried to do, if you agreed with me and you supported me, then there was no way I could be wrong. And if I wonder about the kids, you've always given me an accurate opinion. I never have to wonder about what someone else would say or what Marron would feel, I always know that between us we're doing as good as anyone. It's with your support that I can get anything done; I tie myself into knots when you're not around."
Goten smiled a bit at that since they both knew it was true. But the smile fell away again.
"Ever since you came back I've thought about you, and I fell in love. I don't have time to be sad and think back on Marron."
"You want to be with me... because I make you forget?" Goten looked a little upset, and Trunks denied it quickly. "Then explain what you mean."
"It's part of that perspective thing. After her, there was no one else ever, until you. I was..."
"Say it," Goten insisted when he felt Trunks hesitate.
"I was lonely, and it was eating away at me slowly. You never gave me the time to be alone. And when I was alone, I was thinking about you. I still love Marron and I probably always will. But I don't love just Marron, and I won't let myself be stupid enough to let you get away again."
Goten's eyes widened slightly, uncertain.
"I let you go and live in Kyoto before, and I didn't even try to stop you when I knew how much I still needed your friendship. I know I'll be miserable if I give you the chance to go away again. One of these times I'll go too far with you and you'll walk away again to protect yourself. At least if we were married, I would have an excuse to come after you and bring you back. I know I couldn't do it without you anymore. Please just think about it. I know you think it's a terrible idea and there's no way we could make it work, but I think you're wrong, we could be happy. At least give it a chance." Trunks eyes held tightly onto his dark ones, and Goten found Trunks more appealing in that moment than he had realized in a while. He wanted to leave the words behind and just stay here with him, but he forced himself to get up, breaking easily from Trunks' grasp, and moved across the room, pulling the door open.
Trunks sat up on his bed in silence and watched him. Goten stepped out into the hall, and Trunks followed him to the stairs, stopping at the top. Goten made it halfway down before he stopped and turned back up toward him. "Maybe if I think about it, I'll find enough reasons to be as crazy as you. Then again..."
It was Goten's way of asking for time. The kids came from the other room and watched discreetly from the door.
Goten walked back up to where Trunks stood and stopped on the step below him. He tilted his face up and kissed Trunks gently, their arms finding their way around each other as they leaned together, mouths melding and bodies pressing together as if they could unify their bodies and hearts and souls. After a moment, Goten's hands intervened and he stepped backwards one step down. His hand found his mouth as his unreadable dark eyes looked at Trunks, whose body was held in a pose of surrender, his expression pleading slightly.
Goten turned and walked to the bottom of the staircase, held a hand toward the door. Ai came out and took his hand, looking up at him and wanting to know what was happening. Goten led her out of the door and down the sidewalk, and the two took off into the air.
Trunks sighed heavily. //I tried. I guess we'll see.// He sank down onto the top step. Keisuke came from the other room, coming halfway up the steps and crawling slowly the rest of the way up into his father's lap.
"You smell like Goten," Keisuke said.
"Goten-san," Trunks corrected automatically.
"You look sad like him too."
Trunks pulled the boy to him and was silent for a moment.
"Did you work it out?"
"Hmm?" Trunks inquired distractedly.
"Do you still love him?" Keisuke looked up at him with dark eyes. Trunks was immediately reminded of Marron's subdued penetrating gaze, the one she used to get when she knew he was trying to avoid telling her something. It was a different kind of dark from Goten's; Marron's eyes had shone when she was happy and reflected held-back tears when she was upset. Goten's eyes sucked in all light and energy and returned nothing but a feeling of detachment, which was often how Goten himself felt. Goten's eyes gave you no clues unless you knew his expression, the subdued look was almost always there. He was solemn.
"Yes, Keisuke-chan, I still love him."
"A lot?"
"A whole lot."
"Do you..." Keisuke seemed a little disturbed by the thought, but not very much. "Do you love him more than Kaa-san?" Trunks wondered why he showed so little emotion for a moment. He looked at his son carefully and measured him. He had a spot in him that longed for his mother, but he had few feelings attached to her other than that; he was the only one who had never known her. Marron had seen her second baby son one time and died looking up into her husband's face.
"I don't know how you could even ask that," Trunks said. He noticed the other kids had crept up to the bottom stair.
"I don't mean anything by it, I just..."
"It's not that. Think of it this way. You love me, right?" The boy nodded, and Trunks continued, "You love your big brother, right?" Keisuke nodded again. "Well, when you need someone who will play with you and talk about things you know more about, you go to him."
"Yeah... he understands some things easier than you." Keisuke grinned sheepishly and the other kids moved up around them, back slightly where they could still hear.
"You come to me when you get hurt, or sick, or have a bad day or if you're upset at your siblings." When the boy nodded, Trunks continued. "You know I love you, and you come to me for certain things that your brother can't do. You love us both, but in a different way."
The young boy looked a little lost, and Rei climbed up to sit beside her father. She looked at Keisuke and said, "Chibi-nii-chan, he's trying to say that he loves Goten-san and he loves Kaa-chan, but different."
Keisuke didn't look one hundred percent. Trunks stroked his elder daughter's cheek and told them, "I still love your mother. I miss her a lot. But I love Goten. You don't love two people the same way. I would never want to use him to replace your mother. And if it were the other way I would feel the same."
Hikaru came to him and leaned against him. Trunks looked down at his elder son and waited for a long moment. Akira gave him that same subdued Marron-look, and said to him, "Would you marry Goten though?"
Trunks forgot to correct him, and raised his eyebrows, trying to appear surprised. He didn't really think it worked, but he said to the young boy, "How would you feel about that?"
"I dunno..." He squirmed a little. "It would be weird."
"Since when did weird stop our family? You didn't really answer the question, you know."
"I dunno, I said... I don't really... see how it could be bad. That's kinda not fair, is it?" Akira asked. "You get us used to things one thing at a time until we sit here and say, 'It's not that big of a change.' But overall, it is a big change. It's a lot, Tou-san!" Akira looked a little distressed.
"Wakarimashita."
"But... I've seen you around him, and then I've seen you without him. You're an emotionally clumsy person sometimes." Akira sounded as if he knew what he was talking about.
"Aren't we grown-up today," Trunks remarked. "Very well, make your point."
"You're sad without him and he's... well, I dunno, he's happy with you. I guess it's all that's left now that you're in love, iddin’ it?" Akira smiled at last. "I guess it's not that big of a change."
"So does that mean you're going to ask him?" Rei asked.
"Of course he is, Nee-chan." Hikaru hugged Trunks and looked around him. "Can't you see what big saps they both are?"
"Sou da ne, demo..."
"It could be worse. Goten could be the wicked stepmother from those fairy tales.." Hikaru held up two fingers on her head as horns and lunged at her little brother. He laughed and grabbed onto Trunks.
"Why don't you children say 'Goten-san'? You're bad, bad little children. You don't call an adult by their name alone." Trunks shook his head. "Dame, dame, dame!!"
"Us ‘bad, bad, bad’? Never," Rei said.
"I don't know," Akira said. "This could work. I mean, would you want any more kids around other than the five of us? This way..."
"Akira!" Rei gasped. Hikaru covered her ears. "I'm not listening!! Lalala..!" Keisuke blinked up at Trunks, saying "Nan na no?"
Trunks gave his son a scandalized expression. "Dame dame dame!!"
"See, you're making us 'bad!'" Rei told him. Akira grinned and apologized for his coarse humor, although Trunks thought it was kinda funny too.
"So it would be okay with you if I did?" He asked after a moment.
"It would be just like it is all the time, except Goten-san wouldn't have to interrupt our fun with Ai to go home." Rei grinned. "I could call her 'O-Nee-chan.'"
"I think she'd like that," Trunks said with a smile.
"And...! She could help me beat up on Akira and we could _both_ use the excuse 'I'm your big sister so you have to listen to me.'"
"Uh... I don't think that'll fly."
"Can we say that if we only say it every once in a while?"
Akira was frowning, so Trunks said, "Sure. Every once in a while. But Akira-kun gets to think of his own."
This seemed to work for everyone, so they all grinned at each other.
"Geez, that wedding would be weird," Akira remarked scratching his head.
"I know, right?" Trunks answered. He noticed that particular wrinkled-nose expression on his son's face as having come from his father. //Nice to know they _kind_ of look like me.//
Trunks told them "I'm going out for some ice cream. Anyone who's not at the door with their hair brushed and their shoes on in five minutes doesn't go." They all scrambled off of him and up to their rooms.

Goten sat and looked out the window. Ai saw Shiro outside with his brother and sister and told Goten she would go down to see them.
Goten watched them. Shiro seemed very happy to see her. //He likes my little girl. She's still so little... No she's not. She's going to high school next year. Gohan-nii-chan met Videl-san in high school. Is he going to end up marrying my little girl?//
Thoughts of marriage were too close to home. Goten shook his head and watched as the four of them sat on the steps of another building near the soda machine, and Shiro and Ai talked while the kids played in the sun. After a moment they rose and approached.
Goten heard them at the door, but didn't rise to get it.
"Konbanwa, Goten-san," Shiro said.
"Hey." Goten said, moving his hand away from it's spot on his chin. "You've got your cute siblings with you."
"Yeah, they're good kids. Did everything work out with you and Trunks-san?"
Goten didn't answer and Ai said, "He usually has a lot to think about. You guys wanted to see our place?" Ai showed them some of the stuff that was around.
"It's laid out like ours but it has more stuff up on the walls and everything."
"Tou-chan doesn't care much to stay inside, that's kind of why he likes to be at Capsule Corp. because there's enough room for him to train. He's the 'physical' type." Ai showed them the rest of the place, and Goten looked out the window again as he heard them comment on many of the pretty things Ai had up in her room. After a moment, Ai came out and said, "Shiro-kun wants me to meet his mom, is it okay?"
"Sure. Go ahead. Just don't stay playing all night." Ai hugged him and left, seeming to know that he needed that time to think alone.
"I'll see you later. Maybe we'll do dinner." Ai said.
Goten stood. "You know what? That's a good idea. Why don't you invite Shiro's family for dinner?" Goten said, moving to the door with them.
"Mmm.. dinner..." Akai said with a grin.
"I don't hear too many arguments. If your mom accepts, Shiro-kun, tell her dinner is at roku-ji-han." Shiro nodded happily and they left. Ai smiled back at Goten as she turned to go with them.
//This'll get my mind off of it for a while,// Goten told himself. //What can I make for six?// He glanced at the clock which read 5:30. //In a half hour?//
[ To be continued, ne? ]