Reminiscence

Author's note: I just wrote this thing off the top of my head without any thought as to what would come next after each sentence. I guess you could call it "free-writing." It's virtually plotless, but hey, it's kinda cute anyway.

The days before Cell's Game were slowly decreasing in number. Goku and Gohan were taking the time to relax and enjoy life, before the time would come to endanger it. All were gathered at the Kame House, doing things that basically amounted to nothing.

Future Trunks laid belly down on the floor, fascinated by whatever it was on the television. The other males were busy in a friendly poker game and ChiChi and Bulma were in the kitchen conversing in the way ladies converse when alone. They were also preoccupied with cooing over baby Trunks. Gohan was bored. At eleven, he was still too young to join in the fun that the grown-up males were having, yet he felt too uncomfortable to be in the same room when ladies chatted alone. Shaking his spikey golden hair as if to bring out an answer, he decided to join Trunks in watching tv.

"Whatchya watchin?" he asked quietly. Trunks barely heard him. The boy had such a soft innocent voice, it seemed nearly impossible to believe that he was a saiya-jin, let alone the son of Goku.

"Oh me? Nothing much. It's just neat to see what's considered current in this time when it is actually old news in my time. Uhhhh, shouldn't you be studying?"

"It must be weird for you?"Gohan asked, ignoring Trunks' question.

"A little, but not as bad as I thought."

Gohan nodded in understanding. "Yes, but you said that I, err, the Gohan of your timeline trained you. Isn't it weird for you to see me like this?"

"Not really. I vaguely remember you when I was a little boy. You were basically a teenager when I can first remember you, but I can see the similarities between you two." Then it dawned on Trunks to try his question again. Eventhough he didn't really know ChiChi all that well,he based his theory on the reactions of everyone else. She was a force to be reckoned with. He didn't want to upset her, especially by keeping Gohan away from his studies.
"Uhm, Gohan, do you have any studies to do?"

Gohan turned his head back towards the doorway where he'd set his books.
"I feel like a break. Calculus is hard."

"Calculus?!"

"Mm-hmm."

"Y-you're doing Calculus?! At your age?!"

Gohan nodded. "I completed algebra when I was five. Is that good?"

Trunks choked in surprise at the boy's naivety. "I haven't had much schooling since the androids. I haven't even had algebra yet. You, err, the Gohan from my timeline taught me a little school-related stuff, but I needed the martial arts training more."

"Really? Hmm, mom makes me study all the time. Since I don't go to a regular school, I don't know what kids my age are learning. I just study what my mom tells me to study."

"You mean you don't have any friends your age to hang out with?"

Gohan shook his head.

"So who do you play with?"

"Mom doesn't let me play much. She doesn't like me training either. I do both by myself in the forest whenever I can. I had a little dragon friend, but I haven't seen him in a while."

"Aren't you curious about what it'd be like to play ball or tag with others?"

"I'm curious, but I don't mind. Mom keeps me really busy. I enjoy doing things that make her proud of me."

"You're different than the Gohan of my timeline."

Gohan's eyebrows perked in curiousity, urging Trunks to continue.

"Gohan, my mentor, was different. As a kid he said he started to study, but once the androids appeared, he had no choice but to train constantly. He didn't study at all from that point on...and he never will." Trunks said slowly, tears beginning to form up in his eyes as he remembered Gohan's death.

"So, aside from your mom, you're now alone too." Gohan said softly, the emotion within it hinting at Gohan's understanding.

Trunks nodded solemnly.

"What are you going to do if you defeat the androids and Cell of your timeline?"

"I, I don't know. I don't want to think about a future until I know I have one."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it was a good question."

Suddenly...

"GOHAN!" came a loud voice from the kitchen.

Gohan and Trunks both cringed. Gohan quickly got up and headed for the kitchen.

"Yes mom?"

"Are you studying?"

"Uh, yes." Gohan replied softly, his voice cracking somewhat.

"You'd better be. Just because you're that super thing doesn't mean you have to act like a punk too."

"O-okay mom. I'm sorry." Gohan said with his head and voice low and then returned to the living room.

Bulma observed the entire conversation between mother and son. She waited for Gohan to leave before speaking.

"ChiChi, if I didn't know better, I'd say Gohan's beginning puberty."

ChiChi sputtered at the sound of the last word she'd said.
"My Gohan is too young for that!"

"ChiChi, look at his growth. Eventhough he was in the Room of Spirit and Time, it was for a total of one year. His height's increased and he's taking on more responsiblity and is getting bolder. His shyness is fading."

"It's probably caused by being a super saiya-jin."

"Oh really? I've seen Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks in super saiya-jin and I don't see any height changes. The personality quirks...well Goku and Vegeta have always had those."

"Trunks is taller and bulkier now."

"Not by much. He just filled out and completed his adolescence a year early as a result from being in that room. He probably had one last growth spurt to complete to begin with. Boys always take longer than girls." Bulma stated as she looked at baby Trunks. "You're going to be tall and handsome...yes you are. No short-genes from your daddy." she cooed while bouncing baby Trunks on her lap. Baby Trunks just giggled and drooled.

ChiChi looked back towards the doorway Gohan had walked through. No matter how much she wanted to deny it and prevent it from happening, her little boy was growing up and wasn't so little any more. She sighed sadly. "They grow up so fast."

"It's the cruelty life has on a mother. You've done well though. He's going to be a fine young man. You just wait and see. Who knows, he may even surprise us and not look too much like Goku."

"He looks like his father too much already. And since we've cut his long mane off again, his hair is patterning after his father's."

"Well, you could always give him that bowl cut and gel it again."

Both ChiChi and Bulma laughed. Baby Trunks joined in for no reason at all.

ChiChi caught her breath. "I won't do that to him again. I thought it was cute for a while, but now that I look at the old photos of that time...poor Gohan."

"Yes, I'm sure those are ones he'll never want to show his kids when he has some."

"My Gohan having kids. He's just a kid still. That's well off into the future."

"You hope."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Boys will be boys."

"Not my Gohan!"

"If you say so. But.." Bulma trailed as she began sniffing then wrinkled her nose. "Somebody did a poopee." she said to baby Trunks as she held him up and at arm's length from her. Baby Trunks made a sour face and began to cry. "Let's go change that. I'm sure you don't enjoy sitting in that." Bulma said as she got up and headed towards the bathroom where she had the diaper bag.

Meanwhile, Gohan had returned to his books. He dragged them over to where Trunks was still laying, sat indian-style and pried open a text. As Gohan studied one of his subjects, Trunks curiously browsed through a couple of Gohan's other books. Gohan stopped his studying for a moment and watched Trunks.

"I could teach you some of that."

Trunks peered out from under the text.

Gohan continued. "Why not surprise your mother when you return? She'd probably like you getting an education."

Trunks couldn't argue there. Eventhough he wasn't attending any school in his timeline, his mother made sure he read novels and had some learning. Trunks blushed and flipped over to the text's cover. The subject was biology and the chapter he was browsing just happened to be reproduction. He didn't even remember consciously selecting that chapter, it just happened.

Gohan smiled a Goku smile. "That's my favorite chapter in that book too, but please don't tell my mom that. She'd go ballistic on all of us and blame dad and his friends for being bad influences on me again."

"Aren't you a bit young to be thinking about that?"

"Why? It's an easy topic. Even my dad could learn this stuff."

Trunks laughed. "Hasn't he already? I mean, he helped make you."

Gohan thought about it then joined in the laughter. "I guess you're right. Hey my dad learned something beyond fighting afterall."

At the table across the room, Goku sneezed and blew everybody and everything, including the table over. ChiChi and Bulma rushed in to investigate and saw a bunch of guys buried by the table with Goku just sitting upright in his chair laughing. "Sorry all. I forgot how dangerous it is to sneeze as a super saiya-jin."

Gohan and Trunks shared in the laughter until ChiChi glared their way. Gohan shut up, cowered and buried his face in a book. Trunks looked at Gohan, then back at ChiChi, then Gohan again. What power ChiChi had over two of the strongest warriors in the world. Common sense told him to duplicate Gohan's tactic. He buried his face in one of Gohan's texts.

This caught Bulma's attention. She walked over to them. Both Gohan and Trunks kept their faces in the books.Bulma decided to try a new tactic. She set baby Trunks on the floor and he immediately began crawling towards the two hiding boys. With neither paying attention to him, baby Trunks got mad. He tugged at the text Trunks was holding. Trunks couldn't figure out what force was pulling the text so he peered over it only to end up nose to nose with the angry baby. Trunks yelped and lurched backward away from the baby. Gohan, who was astute enough to sense baby Trunks' ki rising, laughed at the spectacle before him.

"It's not funny. He scared me. Those cold, blue eyes." Trunks answered. "Hey wait, am I insulting myself?"

Gohan, Bulma, and ChiChi laughed harder. Gohan had forgotten that he too was in the path of the angry little tike.Suddenly he screamed loudly, powering up at the same time. "OWWWWWW, LEGGO!!!"

Bulma quickly tried to grab baby Trunks away, but he didn't let go and only tightened his grasp. Gohan continued to yelp in pain.

"Trunks, that's NOT a toy and that one's not yours. Let go of Gohan."

By this time, Goku and the rest had made their way over.The other males cringed in simulated pain upon seeing where baby Trunks had latched onto Gohan. Goku immediately tried to help Bulma pry open baby Trunks' grasp. Eventually they succeeded and now Goku needed to calm a very powered up Gohan who still had tears of pain running down his cheeks.

"Gohan relax. It's okay now. You've taken worse hits than that before."

Gohan's gaze burned into his father's. "That area's sensitive now. In case you haven't noticed, I'm growing up!"

"I know, I know. I was your age once too. Course I never got hit there, but..."

Gohan concentrated on ignoring the pain and powered down. When he was calm enough, Bulma spoke.

"Gohan, I'm really sorry. I didn't know he'd do that. He's never gone grabbing like that before except for his daddy's face."

Gohan accepted her apologies and slowly made his way to the soft, plushy sofa, well out of the reach of the baby's strong little hands. And for the first time ever, a seemingly powerless baby saiya-jin defeated a super saiya-jin in a single move.

End. 1