Younger

It was a morning like any other in the capsule house Vegeta had installed for Goten and himself in a beautiful forest clearing, aptly named Kasumi-Mori no Taki. Not far from the house, the muted roar of a pure, crystalline blue waterfall could be heard, splashing playfully onto the large, weathered rocks below. The veiled purple mountaintops in the distance completed the effect of a rare watercolor painting. Birds and squirrels chirped their daily serenade, flitting and scuttling between sunny patches of the clearing to high branches of shady evergreens, ancient trees and saplings of every Spring green shade painted by nature.

Vegeta had chosen the location more for its tranquil isolation than for its breathtaking view, but Goten loved it, spending more time outdoors with Vegeta than not. There were no neighbors to complain about their everyday nor more exotic excursions, and both had picked up early golden tans.

Now hurrying through their morning routine, both Saiyans were bent over the lavatory, brushing their teeth. Noticing Vegeta's disapproving gaze, Goten rinsed the minty bubbles from his mouth, drying it off. "What?"

"Goten, there are two basins," Vegeta reminded him flatly, "Why are there always dried spots of toothpaste on your side of the mirror?"

"I dunno." Chichi had often scolded him for the same thing, but now he frowned in embarrassment. "I never noticed."

"Well, I have, and it looks like crap," Vegeta commented irritably. He produced a spray bottle of cleaner and a rag from the cabinet below. "Get rid of that. I'm not standing over you like your mother," he informed him hautily.

Goten sighed impatiently but complied, making a mental note to pay more attention to such things. The last thing he wanted was for Vegeta to decide he was too immature after all, thus putting him off. "Sorry," he mumbled, replacing the cleaning items, "I'm just kinda spacey."

"No big deal." Vegeta's tone softened, his own thoughts appearing to be elsewhere. Lately he'd taken to critically scrutinizing his face in the mirror, a gesture most unlike him.

Goten frowned at his oddly acquired habit. "Is everything okay, Vegeta?"

"Yeah," the former waved him off, turning at his concerned look. "Do I look any different?" he inquired, comparing their reflections.

Goten pounced on an excuse to take his cheeks in his hands. Besides some dark shadows under his eyes from less sleep, probably his own fault, he looked the same as he always had. The depthless, slanted obsidian eyes, seething with mystery and thoughts as dark that never failed to charm the pants off him, his arrogant cheekbones and perfectly shaped lips that swelled with desire in his passionate kiss, his thick, wild mane that he adored plunging his fingers through, the ecstatic expression he was now longing for...

"You look the same to me," Goten observed, his voice turning sultry, "That's to say perfect." Aggressively he shoved Vegeta against the blue-tiled bathroom wall, kissing him long and hard until the basic need to breathe made them pause. Their mouths tasted of fresh mint, inciting Goten's tongue to probe searchingly, licking his teeth before thrusting it meaningfully in and out.

"I thought we were going to wait til we get back," Vegeta reminded him amusedly, though he wasn't complaining.

"I know," Goten's muffled voice mumbled reluctantly, "Just a little?"

"Your idea of 'a little' means everything will be closed when we're done," Vegeta pointed out dryly, "You'll have to settle for mine." His arms slid around Goten's waist, feeling his already hard bulge through their thin pyjamas grind instinctively against him. He was quickly rewarded by the desired effect of Goten's head thrown back in impatient ecstasy, always craving more.

Was it only that lusty, hormone-crazed expression he himself craved, Vegeta wondered, or something else as well? Goten's skin was still as firm and plump as a baby's, attractively blushed under wide, innocently sparkling eyes that no artifice could reproduce. Despite his formidable skills, his movements still carried the unsurety of an adolescent still adjusting to an adult body, and the whole of it turned Vegeta on crazily.

Was that all? the depths of his mind insisted, or was it because Goten gave him that again? It made no sense. Why was he thinking along such ways? Goten was the only one who made him feel that way. Other younger people, he only found to be ridiculous and obnoxious. Why did he have the impression to be missing something that a Saiyan never lost?

"Okay, enough." He squirmed out of Goten's hormonal death-grip with some difficulty, his latter thoughts having put him off anyway.

"Already?" Goten cast him his trademark look of reproach that usually made him crack, to his dismay.

"I said later," Vegeta snapped moodily, lately unaffected by Goten's air, and accusing him of being manipulative.

Goten blinked, sobered by Vegeta's inhabitual coldness that he hadn't seen from him in years, as well as something new and unidentified that seemed to be disturbing him greatly for the last few weeks.

"Alright. It's time to tell me what's wrong, for real." He folded his arms stubbornly and watched him expectantly, copping his mother's no-nonsense look.

Vegeta rolled his eyes, tired of being asked. "I told you, noth--"

"No, not 'nothing'," Goten persisted, "And not because the mail is late, or some incompetent clown, or not enough sleep. Our sex life is either non-stop or nothing, and half the time you treat me like a stranger. Training until hell freezes over won't solve anything. Pretending it's not there won't, either." Those were classic signs of something bothering him significantly.

"Don't you ever have dumb thoughts?" Vegeta returned obstinately, "It doesn't mean anything's wrong. Now get ready. The sooner we get there, the sooner we'll be back."

"I don't see the rush today," Goten commented dryly, "We just need a few things at the store, sake at the top of your list."

"I like my weekends free," Vegeta reminded him. He moved toward their bedroom to get dressed, but Goten stopped him.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me the truth," Goten persisted, earning him a raised eyebrow.

"Excuse me?" Vegeta's eyes narrowed, not taking kindly to being ordered.

"It's not my imagination," Goten informed him balefully, "Trunks and my mom also noticed, and I felt like an idiot saying I don't know. It affects me, too, y'know."

Vegeta sighed defeatedly, knowing he would have no peace until he replied. "Get dressed. There's coffee left in the kitchen."

Satisfied yet unreassured, Goten followed him to their room where they dressed in silence, then returned to the kitchen. Goten poured them each another café au lait and took his place, waiting for his mate to speak in his own time.

The latter sipped the warm beverage, observing Goten over the cup's rim. The younger demi Saiyan wore a Metallica Black Album T-shirt, a band whose music Vegeta actually liked. Ironically, it had been Goten who'd introduced him to it, and it had sealed their inevitably forming bond.

What seemed like a long time ago now, in reality only a few years, once Vegeta had entered the Capsule Corp living room where Goten was listening to it, alone and thoughtful.

"What's that noise all about?" Vegeta had inquired at a long guitar solo that fascinated him. Goten had merely pointed at the stereo, when the song's only lyrics came in, recited rather than sung:

"When a man lies, he murders
some part of the world.
These are the pale deaths
which men miscall their lives.
All this I cannot bear
to witness any longer.
Cannot the kingdom of salvation
take me home?" *

Vegeta had sat down, and they listened to the whole album in silence. "Who are they?" he'd asked when it ended, a bit astonished. Many of the songs seemed to narrate entire chapters of his life; he hadn't known music could do that.

Goten had smiled and handed him the album. "I got another copy. They have others, too, if you like it."

Vegeta had nodded and accepted The Black Album, adding others in time. The aggressive, heavy battery ones were great for training, and pumped his blood with a blazing fire he wished he'd discovered before.

Although he found it strange that other people listened to music in groups, it being for himself a private catharsis of sorts, he often listened to Metallica and similar music in Goten's company. He was different. He did not give him the impression to be shamefully baring his soul; perhaps because he simply understood, without question.

A couple years later, they'd exchanged their first kiss when Nothing Else Matters * played, seemingly just for them.

Now at their kitchen table, Goten watched him over his own cup, smiling at seeing him staring in a daze at his shirt.

Vegeta returned his secretive smile, squeezing his offered hand.

"Ohmygod, we are so dead," Goten echoed his past self of a bit later, from quite a compromising position.

"Perhaps," Vegeta echoed his own words, "But we can't be more dead."

"The best night of my life, I swear." Goten's eyes shone in his reverie, his fingers sexily tickling Vegeta's palm.

"Yeah... that never leaves me," Vegeta agreed, "Except--" His smile faded, as did Goten's, who took his hand patiently. Vegeta pulled it back uncomfortably.

It took him a moment to put his thoughts into words, with long, hesitant pauses between them. "You couldn't understand yet," he began, "It never occurred to me, either."

Goten silently stroked his hand again, at once powerful and elegant, acknowledging his search for words.

"Humans age," Vegeta said finally, "Saiyans don't. We remain... when do humans stop growing?"

"The last physical development stops after twenty-five," Goten remembered, wondering at the question.

Vegeta nodded. "Then our physical age stops then, comparatively," he said aloud to himself. To Goten's confused look, he muttered, "But I feel... old." He scowled, sounding as though pronouncing a new foreign word. Indeed, it was foreign to him.

Goten's confusion turned to concern. "Why? One of Trunks' friends thought you were my brother. You're faster and more flexible than I ever was."

Vegeta slumped in his chair. "I know that. My physique hasn't changed, but it seems like it should have. I desire and envy your youth at the same time. I miss mine."

Goten thought for a moment. "They say that happens to humans at mid-life, but Saiyans live much longer. You're nowhere near anything like that." Perhaps an Earth idea was getting to him.

"We had no such concept," Vegeta confirmed, "I never thought about it."

"Was it something I said or did, or someone else?" Goten asked.

"No." Listlessly Vegeta stirred his coffee, staring into the light brown swirls. "I'm tired, but my sleep hasn't changed. The thought won't leave my head."

Goten began to understand. That would put a damper on one's mood, he thought. "How long has it gone on?"

Vegeta shook his head. "Almost three weeks," he guessed.

"Maybe it's really something else," Goten reasoned, "Some of them gave us a lot of hell when they found out about us."

"Since when do I care about that?" Vegeta scoffed, smirking despite himself, "I know you didn't."

Goten grinned and their mischievous regards crossed, causing them both to snicker, at least breaking the tension.

"Know what, maybe it'll do us good to get out," Goten encouraged, "And I'm looking forward to that sake tonight."

"You got that right." Vegeta pulled him to his feet by the arm. "But not what comes after it, I suppose?" he asked innocently.

"That's what you'll find out." Still grinning, Goten tugged him toward the door. "I'll even excuse the bad pun."

"What pun?" Vegeta asked blankly, startled when Goten pulled him playfully out by the hair. "Hey!"
***
TBC in Chapter 2...
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Soundtrack:

* To Live Is To Die, Metallica: http://youtu.be/SMHpd1_077g

* Nothing Else Matters, Metallica:
http://youtube.be/SzsDHtzx6tl
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Temp. A/N: As I must retype this here, (6 chapters + a continued one-shot) it'll take awhile counting breaks. Thanks for your patience! ^_^'