For What it's Worth

AN: An introduction to a new pairing that will be minor in this fic. It is important to the Trunks and Goten though, so don't freak out. XD

Chapter Four: Of Spite and Secrets

Goten’s eyes were following his brother around the room. There was definitely something he had missed, wasn’t there? “Gohan…?”

“Yeah?” The older Son looked up from the folded cloths on the bed to see the wide and curious eyes of his younger brother. He was just the same as when he was little when it came to asking questions – he could still be so clueless sometimes.

“What… are you doing?”

“Um…” Gohan blushed as he looked down and Goten suddenly realized it wasn’t a good question to ask. Apparently this was a sensitive topic that he was treading on. The younger of the two demi’s was sitting on the only part of Gohan’s bed that did not have something scattered all over it.

“Are you going on vacation?”

“Mom didn’t tell you…?” Gohan asked as he frowned down at the demi from where he stood.

“No.” Goten laughed, but soon stopped when he realized that it probably wasn’t an explanation to anything.

“Of course, she probably didn’t tell dad either.” He sighed as he shook his head, not wanting to explain this again. It didn’t go over to well with his mother when he something to her in the first place.

“I’m moving back home for a while… until I can get me an apartment or something in West City.” Gohan scratched the back of his head nervously and wishing that Goten would stop with the questions. They weren’t going so well so far.

The younger was silent for a long time frowning once Gohan was sure the other understood where he was going with this explanation. “You… are you and Videl getting a divorce?”

“Yeah…” He dropped his last shirt down on the bed on top of the others and let out an unsteady sigh.

Goten already knew that his brother was the closest thing to an emotional wreck he had seen besides there mother and that something like this was probably bond to happen with the way he had seemed lately. It was extremely sad though for that to be the case, why was Gohan always so unstable about things, there family wasn’t bad and at first it really seemed that his marriage wasn’t bad. It still didn’t seem that bad…

“What –“

“Goten… Please, don’t ask questions right now.” Another drawn out sigh came from the oldest brother as he looked away, “I knew this was going to happen for a while. I have my reasons… I just don’t feel like talking about them now. Okay? You would understand if you ever actually cared about anyone instead of sleazing around.” That few words actually did come out harsh and obviously they were regretted when Gohan walked into the other room – leaving Goten with a shocked expression.

Goten stood up after the shock sunk in and stomped into the living room. A sneer was plastered to his features as he glared at Gohan. “I don’t do anything ‘sleazy’ with those girls. I’m sorry that you thought you found the right one with the first girl you ever dated seriously. I haven’t exactly found a person like that yet!” He threw his hands up in frustration, a sudden urge to punch the other male was pushed away, “I’m glad I didn’t either. I didn’t want some bossy bitch to try to tie me down. You didn’t even have a damn choice!” There was more that he could have added, but he knew it would be the worst thing to say. Wouldn’t it be awful for him to actually point out that Gohan had gotten that awful habit from his father?

“Shut up!” Gohan turned around to look at Goten, truly looking spiteful. He didn’t have the words to retaliate back. He had learned a long time ago that it was pointless to carry on a fight with anyone when he was just going to end up saying things that he did not mean in the end.

Goten rolled his eyes, knowing that there wasn’t going to be any more of this argument from Gohan now. If only he had picked up on that trait as well, but without any more words he just stomped his foot and turned to leave. It would have been a bad thing if Piccolo hadn’t been waiting outside the house and caught the door before Goten slammed it and caused it to fall off.

He glared at the Namek on his way out before taking off back to his own house.

“Well, that went so smoothly.”

“You shouldn’t scowl like that, it’s not like you.” Piccolo smirked with his words as he ducked into the small house.
…………….

It had been two days since the trip had been over and the events that had happened were already driving Trunks crazy. Why did he have to worry so much about what had happened?

He was standing in the door way of his mother’s lab and trying to get the words out to make himself known. She didn’t even have to turn to know he was there, “Hey hun.” She stood up straight from her work and looked over at him, a frown crossing over her face. “What’s wrong?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing was coming out. There was something in his brain that was telling him that he should just turn around and forget about it – after all, you aren’t supposed to tell secrets. It was pretty hard keeping something that was bugging him so much to himself though and his mother was the only person he could even think to talk about it with.

After a small minute of silence Bulma was close to panicking as she walked over to him and pulled him into the room, shutting the door to the lab. Maybe it was the lack of privacy that was keeping him quiet...?

“Mom… You can’t say anything to anyone, okay?” The look in his blue eyes was pleading as he looked down at her. She could tell that he was really worried about this and she nodded her head, “You can tell me anything Trunks, what’s wrong with you?”

The demi shifted uneasy now that he was so close to telling her what was on his mind and he backed up some to feel less suffocated as he tried to get the words out. “Goten…” He trailed off as he blushed – this was not going to be easy to tell her. There wasn’t a hundred percent chance that she would even go lightly with this conversation. Still, he was pretty sure that she had no problem with the topic – they had been in situations before were she seemed fine with it in everyday life. “He thinks he’s… gay…?”

Bulma wasn’t sure to laugh or to scold Trunks now; she questioned why exactly he was telling her this in the first place. She chuckled and shook her head, “Trunks, you shouldn’t be so upset about that. He’s your best friend; you are supposed to accept him for everything!”

“No! I don’t mean, no… “ He put his hands up in defense and shook his head, “It’s not that I have anything against it… it’s just… I… I really don’t know why it bothers me.” He frowned to himself more than anything; he wasn’t sure how to explain it without knowing what was wrong.

An exasperated sigh escaped his lips as he decided to start the explanation over again. “It’s just, the way he explained it to me… I think he’s in denial or something. That’s probably what bothers me the most. He doesn’t need to be unhappy with some girl just because he is afraid to admit it to himself.”

His mother smirked as if she knew something and this fact made Trunks almost afraid of what she was going to say. “Sounds like you’re jealous.”

“What!” He almost screamed it and as if he didn’t think he could feel any hotter from the blood boiling in his face.

“If you are and you deny it, isn’t that you being a hypocrite?” Bulma turned away from him and went back to her project she was working on. Now that she was sure that no one was dying or that there wasn’t some big important event that could damage them all – she could focus more on what she was doing before her son had come in.

“I almost…” Now that he thought back on it, he really did feel something the one night he had stayed up with Goten. Something probably really would have transpired between them if it wasn’t for his father being awake. The sentence didn’t get finished though - he wasn’t actually going to tell his mother that he really did almost kiss his best friend that night.

‘Ugh, why?’ He felt completely miserable now and his mother really didn’t seem to help. The only thing she did was make it obvious to why Trunks kept thinking about Goten’s secret. “I’m going to bed.” Sleep was the closest thing to putting himself out of his misery than actually doing the deed and regretting it in the time it would take to get over what had just happened.