Romance Evolving

Neither of the young lovers were quite able to meet Bulma\'s eyes during lunch, for fear of seeing a certain knowing, mischievous glint there. After the meal was over, they all went into the living room. This was another of Bulma\'s ideas; the struggle against Majin Buu, in which she and her entire family had fallen, had made her realize just how precious time with them was and how it could be interrupted with no warning. So recently, she had started trying to get the entire Briefs clan to spend some time together after lunch at least once a week, even if it was just watching television together.



Goten began to walk down one of the side halls. He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw the ever-inquisitive face of Dr. Briefs. "Going somewhere, son?"



"To Trunks\'s room. I think I\'ll play some video games until you guys are done with your family time together."



Dr. Briefs raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I see." He took a sip from his coffee mug. "Let me remind you of something. It\'s been nearly twenty years since Yamcha was Bulma\'s fiance, but there he is, sitting there with Pu\'ar and little Roga. Raditz is YOUR uncle, but he\'s there too with his wife and daughter. Broli and Tullece have no connection to us at all. Now if someone like those two can count as members of this family, you certainly can. As far as I\'m concerned, you\'ve been one since the first time your mother brought you over here to play with my grandson. And that goes double since you and he fell in love." He took another sip of his coffee. "Family is about more than blood and marriage."



Smiling with relief, the young demi-Saiyan turned around and returned with the older man to the living room. As the doctor sat next to his wife on a love seat, Goten headed for one of the couches. Trunks was on it already, reclining against one of the armrests. Looking at his partner, he cocked an eyebrow (a mannerism he had picked up from his grandfather). Goten knew that meant that not only had he divined his intentions, he also disapproved of them and was glad to see him return; the rapport the two of them shared allowed this level of near-telepathic communication.



***



His peripheral vision caught by movement, Vegeta glanced away from the TV he was channel-surfing on. Goten was laying back on Trunks, resting his head on his chest. Trunks, meanwhile, had draped an arm protectively over Goten\'s shoulder.



Vegeta snorted to himself.



***



Trunks barely paid attention to the show on TV, some kind of true crime program about a string of grisly dismemberments (the tiny part of his mind that was watching reflected that this was why his father shouldn\'t be given control of the remote, or at least not after a meal with lots of red sauce). Most of his attention was focused on Goten, on his body heat, on the feel of his toned chest under his hand, on the soft scent and neck-tickling caress provided by his sexy mane of unruly black hair.



Goten, too, was too preoccupied to really notice the gory details. He was instead concentrating on Trunks, on his gentle embrace, on his lithely muscled form against his back, on the comforting pulse of his heartbeat. Absently, he reached up and back to stroke his partner\'s gorgeous, perfectly trimmed lavender locks.



***



Eventually, Vegeta\'s interest in the program began to wane; it had moved into the much less interesting areas of the killer\'s arrest and trial (though he was still hoping for an execution to wrap things up nicely). As his attention drifted, his gaze flicked back over to the couch occupied by the two co-champions.



They were off in their own little world, soft smiles plastered on their faces as they caressed each other.



Bulma noticed as well. "Aww...isn\'t that so sweet?" she whispered to her husband. He grunted.



"Any sweeter and I\'ll be at risk for diabetes." She elbowed him in the ribs.



***



The show was over, and one by one the watchers left for their own projects, Vegeta grumbling as he did so that the serial killer had "gotten off light" with life in prison. Finally, only Goten and Trunks were left, helping one another rise from the couch. They returned to Trunks\'s room, softly holding one another\'s hand as they walked down the long hallway.



"So what did Grandpa say?" Trunks asked, as he pulled the door to his room closed behind them, making sure to lock it.



"That I should consider myself a member of your family," Goten replied, sitting on the edge of the bed. His lover sat beside him, laughing softly.



"All these years and you never had before? I didn\'t think you were THAT slow." Goten gave him a light punch on the arm, then pulled off his shoes, his lover following suit. They reclined back, leaning into one another and closing their eyes.



They had enjoyed snuggling far too much not to resume it now.



Several minutes later, Goten opened his eyes. The older teenager\'s body had gone a bit tense against his own.



"...Trunks? What\'s wrong?"



Trunks opened his own eyes. "D\'you think...that I\'m a member of your family, too?"



The younger demi-Saiyan met his gaze. "Of course you are!" He looked askance at him. "I\'m supposed to be the stupid one here, not you." Now it was Trunks\'s turn to softly punch Goten\'s arm, before pressing their lips together softly, their eyes closing again. The kiss lasted for quite some time.



***



The next day, the two of them had dinner over at the Son house. After the meal was over, the young couple helped to do the dishes, collect some firewood, and miscellaneous other chores.



"Thanks for the good night, Chi-Chi-san," Trunks said after it was all done, as he and Goten began to walk toward the back of the house.



"Where are you two going?" she replied, a tad coldly. The two of them exchanged a quick glance.



"To bed," Goten said. "That\'s what we do at night," he added in an attempt to lighten the mood. It didn\'t work.



"Not this time. Maybe you\'ve always slept together before, but now that you\'re actually dating, it wouldn\'t be proper. Trunks, you can sleep on the couch. I\'ll go get the spare pillow and blanket and set of sheets." She walked down the hallway to the linen closet.



No, not proper at all, she thought as she collected the items needed to create a makeshift bed. It was bad enough that they had almost certainly sharead the bed in Trunks\'s room over at Capsule Corp. Between Trunks\'s silver tongue and Goten\'s easygoing, eager-to-please nature, Kami alone knew what they had already been up to. That certainly wouldn\'t fly here.



***



Once the couch was made up, Goten gave Trunks a hug and a peck on the cheek. He went to his room, got the spare set of pajamas that Trunks always stored there, and handed them off. "See you in the morning," he said as he walked back into his bedroom. He put on his own pajamas and got into bed. It was comfortable enough, but until know he\'d never really realized how empty and chilly a bed could be with only one person in it.



He didn\'t sleep well that night. Being alone in the bed didn\'t help, but what really disturbed his rest was the sparks of anger that he kept sensing in Trunks\'s ki.



***



The sparks had turned into a full-fledged simmering fire by the next afternoon.



"How dare she," Trunks snarled between clenched teeth. "How DARE she!" He was stalking through the hilly fields behind the Son estate at a rapid pace, Goten hurrying along behind him. It was rare to see him in this kind of mood; normally whenever Trunks got angry, he could find some way to calm him down fairly quickly.



Not today.



At breakfast, just when it looked like things were cooling down, Chi-Chi had stoked the flames again. She had announced that maybe Goten shouldn\'t spend the night over at Capsule Corp. at all anymore, since Bulma was so much more "lax" when it came to proper standards of behavior ("no offense meant, Trunks, your mother is a lovely woman, but it is true, you know").



Trunks had said he understood, and grinned, but Goten knew that grin. It was a shark\'s.



"Relax," Goten soothed. "Just relax." Trunks whirled on him, his bright blue eyes flashing.



"Why should I? What right does she have to tell us what we can do? It\'s not like I\'m some kind of stranger who\'s going to use you and dump you. We\'ve been best friends before we could WALK! Before we could TALK!"



"I know, I know," Goten said, catching up and resting his hands on the older teenager\'s shoulder. "Believe me, I know. She was just like this with Gohan and Videl, right up until they got married."



"Was she now?" Trunks stopped, his anger draining quickly from his eyes. His gaze unfocused, turning inwards. Goten sighed to himself in relief. This was him with some kind of plan. The world was back to normal. "Well...nothing to do about it now. But I bet I can work something out before long. For now, though, I think I\'ll head on out." Goten nodded, and they kissed softly before Trunks flew off.



The younger teenager stared after him for a few moments, then began to walk back to his house. He had a plan of his own.



***



Three days later, they returned to East City, meeting for lunch at a rather upscale restaurant. They made light conversation throughout the meal, each of them too nervous to notice how nervous the other was. They didn\'t even notice that their appetites had been suppressed to a more conventionally human level.



After the main course had been cleared, and dessert was being prepared in the kitchen, Trunks cleared his throat. "Can I ask you something?"



"Sure, go ahead."



Suddenly Trunks was out of his seat, down on one knee, his hand extended. "Son Goten...will you marry me?" In his hand was clutched a gold ring with a large, glittering diamond.



He had been praying for a yes. He had been dreading a no. He had not at all anticipated the reaction he actually got.



Laughter.



He blinked, watching in stomach-twisting disbelief. "W-what?"



"Oh, I\'m sorry..." Goten said, getting himself under control. "Of course I\'ll marry you!" He reached down and took the ring, sliding it onto his finger; it fit perfectly.



"Well, that\'s a relief. But why the laughter?" Trunks slid back into his chair.



"This is why." Suddenly it was Goten out of his seat, down on one knee, hand extended. "Trunks Briefs...will you marry me?" He too held a golden, diamond-bearing ring.



Then it was Trunks\'s turn to laugh, as he slipped the ring onto his finger, where it too fit perfectly. "Yes, you know I\'ll marry you!" No wonder Goten had laughed. This was a perfect example, as if they had needed another, of just how perfectly they fit together, body, mind, and soul. "But how did you afford this?"



Goten smiled as he returned to his seat. "With some of my prize money from the Budokai, of course."



When the dessert came, it was gone in a flash.



***



Lunch had taken a while, so the fast-flowing gossip pipeline (even from allegedly less shallow East City) had managed to beat demi-Saiyans in transit. When they arrived at Capsule Corp., they were met by Trunks\'s immediate family. Bulma greeted them with a hug that more closely resembled a flying tackle. She looked up at her son and his new fiance, the beginnings of joyous tears glinting in her eyes. "My boy," she whispered. Trunks blushed, while Goten grinned.



She turned to face the latter. "Welcome to the family," she said, and kissed him on the cheek. "Again."



As Mirai and Jennifer took them in a group hug, they heard Vegeta grunt "Low-class freeloader," from behind them, but it was obvious his heart wasn\'t in it.



***



"Hey Videl, did you hear the news?" Gohan asked his wife as she returned home from a long day of crimefighting.



"Yeah, I sure did." She couldn\'t help but chuckle, just the slightest bit nastily. She was happy for the two of them, she really truly was; but she was also deriving more than a fair amount of satisfaction from envisioning her mother-in-law\'s reaction.



***



Chi-Chi hummed to herself as she did some sewing. Her husband and father-in-law were out in the fields doing katas, her father was chopping wood, so she had the television turned on for some background noise.



"...And in celebrity news, we have an engagement to announce! This was the scene earlier today in a downtown East City restaurant as Trunks Briefs, one of the heirs to the Capsule Corp. fortune, and Son Goten, his lifelong best friend and recent boyfriend, proposed to one another--"



***



"Chi-Chi!"



Goku and Bardock walked inside the house, the former shaking his head like a dog to rid himself of the sweat. "Chi-Chi, is supper ready?"



No answer.



"Chi-Chi?"



Frowning, he went to where he sensed her ki. She was collapsed on the living room floor, fainted dead away. Her thumb was bleeding from where she had given herself a nasty jab with the sewing needle.