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Prologue
By : Herpb4uDerp
Category: Missing Data > Missing Data
Views: 194 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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Chapter List
- 11
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Brotherly Love

Goten has ransacked three closets already and can't find it anywhere. He pauses when he hears the front door click open. Shit. I was so hoping to avoid him.
"'Ten? Is that you?" His older brother sets down a briefcase and smiles, "It is! What a... welcome surprise."
Goten sits back on his heels and looks at his brother who does, for a change, seem genuinely happy to see him. Then he snorts at the dorky sweater vest and the glasses he has always suspected were just for looks. Saiyans with eye problems. Goten shakes his head at the thought.
"It's been... a while. What are you doing here? How are you?" There is no response as Goten keeps rooting through the closet, “...How’s-”
Goten sighs loudly, Why does he always insist on doing this? "Fine. I am fine. Trunks is fine. Bra is fine. And yes, Gohan, even Vegeta is fine. Is there anything else you want to know?"
"I- well, you see Pan all the time, don’t you? She's always running over to Capsule Corp. and-"
"No. I really don't. Trunks sees Pan all the time." He continues digging through the assortment of junk he assumes mostly belongs to Pan.
Gohan laughs uncomfortably, "Yeah I guess they're... pretty close these days."
Goten shakes his head as his brother’s brilliant naivety and shoves the piles of things around him back into the closet and moves to another room. Gohan follows him and leans against the door frame.
"Mom called yesterday. ...She asked about you.”
Goten’s expression rolls in something deeper than annoyance and there's a long tense silence while Goten continues his search.
“She... would really like it if you came by."
"No. She really wouldn't." He shoots back with his usual venom on the topic.
"She would." He says sternly, with his 'I'm the big brother, I'm in charge' voice. Goten can't help but grimace at the familiar tone.
"You're right." Goten finally halts his efforts and faces his brother, "She would like it if I came by. She would like it even more if I introduced her to my new rich wife. I'm sure she would loo~oove it if I came home to wave my fancy professor job in her face and-!"
"Oh grow up, ‘Ten! Can't you turn it off for five minutes and pretend to get along-"
"Turn it off?! TURN IT- What is wrong with you!? How could you even think to ask me something like that?" They're now standing toe to toe but he's not quite eye-level. Gohan has always been one of the privileged few able to look down on him. “No!” Goten snarls, “ I can’t turn it off you insensitive-”
"You know that’s not what I meant!”
“Oh? What did you mean Gohan? What am I supposed to ‘turn off’?”
“Your-” he hesitates knowing even what he really meant wasn’t going to do this conversation any favours, “your attitude.” He says honestly. Goten relaxes and backs down. "I didn’t mean- ... She's your mother, ‘Ten. She may be set in her ways but she still loves you. She asks about you all the time. She just wants to hear from you that you’re doing ok." Even though you’re not.
"Well, she calls me and asks me as much as I call her and tell her. Never. Just the way we like it. Don't interfere."
Gohan adjusts his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose with fatherly frustration, "Does it have to be like this every time?"
"You're the one who brought it up." Goten pushes past him.
"Look- fine- I'm just-" he sighs, "I assume you're here rifling through my family's things for a reason then, what do you want?"
Goten mumbles something from another room and Gohan is sure he misheard.
"You want what?" Gohan follows him and finds his little brother rummaging through his office desk. He keeps his distance, arms crossed and watches with silent curiosity until Goten looks back at him with a glimpse of vulnerability only a brother gets to see. Why... would 'Ten want that? "...It's not in here."
"Where then? I've-" Goten gestures to the ransacked office, "I've looked in every stupid closet and-! Where the fuck" he walks down the hall and into another room, "did you put it? I know you have it."
Gohan raises a brow. “Where do you think? ...It’s next to mine.”
Goten pauses in his thoughts and walks back into the hallway, “Really?”
The older brother frowns. "Even though you might think so, it's not junk." They walk upstairs together and turn a corner into a cool expensively furnished room. Gohan opens his closet and reaches to the back. Even after almost a decade it still looks bright, comfortable and-

Fucking ridiculous. Goten moves to take the orange fabric from his brother’s grasp. I’m gonna look like a goddamn cartoon character in this thing.

"What do you want dad's gi for?" He painfully remembers the last time it was in Goten's possession. It felt like forever ago. Who knows what Vegeta had been telling him about their father, but whatever it was it had the desired effect because Goten came running back from a training session furious and tried to burn it. He tried to burn everything. Gohan rescued it at the cost of taking a fiery ki blast and the act started an all out war between brothers. Gohan being the stronger of them at that point won and kept it safe but it was weeks before they spoke again. They never fought as bad as that before or since. Gohan reluctantly lets go of it.

"I..." Goten thinks carefully over his words. He knows if he says the wrong thing Gohan will never let it leave the house, "Tell me... something... about dad."
Gohan smiles incredulously, "You- you want to know… about dad?"
"Yeah, tell me something about him."
He feels a strange sort of relief. I can't believe after all this time, he's finally asking... He pushes down the suspicion of his brother's sudden interest with hope that he’s finally letting go.
"Mom just cried... when I used to ask. And Vegeta…” Goten pauses with a smirk, “If he says anything it's usually-"
"Profane?"
"To say the least."
It suddenly hits hard just how left in the dark his little brother has been, "And I was never there, was I?"
"Yeah. Family man."
Gohan's smile turns sad as Goten begins to strip off his shirt and pants to put on the gi which would be worthless to him if it didn’t fit. He also had a feeling wearing it might help convince Gohan to let him keep it. Because it was going to fit. It was going to fit perfectly.

"I guess I could tell you about Cell. And being in the time chamber with him. I was terrified at the time, but looking back now it was…." Goten drowns out his brother's fond memories with his own thoughts. He really didn’t care about how their father knew Gohan would surpass him if he put him in enough danger. What an asshole.

“No, no” Gohan stops his story to correct his little brother, “you have the sash wrong.” He points to the blue fabric that Goten had fastened with a crude knot. “You’re supposed to wrap it. Then tie it.”

“Huh? Oh, like this?” He redoes it then flexes a few times in front of the mirror before pulling the band out of his hair stopping his brother mid sentence.
“Yeah that’s- …. …. .. .” Gohan remains silent as he stares at his little brother’s reflection with an open mouth.

Promising. Goten decides to see just how perfect it really is and reaches his hand behind his neck to copy a motion he distantly remembers seeing his father do many times.
Gohan’s reaction is immediate. “W- Why did you do that? What- when did you start doing that?”
Goten looks back at his older brother with an innocent look. “Doing what?” Perfect.
“....Goten…” He finally manages to say. “You…” He puts a hand on his little brother's shoulder and turns him around to look him dead in the eyes with a serious expression, "You're not leaving, are you?"
"What? No." He shrugs off the hand.
"You've been stepping up your training in the last few months; don't think I haven't noticed."
Normally, he would have glowed with pride, his brother was not so subtly telling him he'd gotten stronger I knew it! but the feeling is muted by the accusation.
"I'm not running away. I don’t run away. I'm not like him-" He grunts and turns back toward the mirror, "anyway, I'm taking it."
"You still haven't said why."
"I don't need to have a reason... I'm the only one who still trains... I just thought it would be..."
"Fitting?"
"Yeah." He's lying through his teeth and Gohan knows it. His mind runs through a list of possibilities... It's been over a decade now... dad’s… probably not coming home… Not that he ever really did... What's the worst ‘Ten could do with it? ... Besides destroy it? He sighs dejectedly.
"So who wore it better?" He flashes a cocky grin at his brother. “Don’t lie, I make it look fuckin’ good, don’t I?”
Gohan lets out a short sarcastic laugh.
Goten looks down at himself, "What?"
"Nothing..." he smiles, “you just… reminded me…” that you’re right. You’re nothing like him. “I- I'll never forget when you came back from wherever you went with him knowing the F word." He rolls his eyes. "You would not stop saying it. Mom was mortified, yelled at dad for hours. Took weeks to get you to stop and you never did tell us who taught you."
"Tch, I never stopped. It was probably Trunks."
"Yeah. Probably." Gohan shakes his head and laughs, then gives his brother a thoughtful look, "Goten, I know everyone expected- expects- a lot of you because they idolized him.... and mom... definitely never made it any easier but-" he sighs, Goten's expression clearly wondering when he's going to stop lecturing so he can leave, "you're not him. You’re not. You're Goten. You’re my brother.” Goten walks over to the window and slides it open and Gohan takes his cue to hurry up his thoughts, “My only brother. Please, don't do anything reckless."
"Oh, Gohan.” Goten says with a mischievous smile, “You know me. I would never." Then he disappears out the window and Gohan is quite sure his little brother purposefully picked the least reassuring way to say that.
- 11
- 12
- 13
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Prologue	By : Herpb4uDerp Category: Missing Data > Missing Data Views: 194 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer:

Prologue