.... And yet you only speak good things about him."


"Suffering, I wouldn't say it, but ... let's put it this way, we don't necessarily share the same views ..."


He glanced quickly at the door, as if he were afraid someone would overhear them.


“You're not making it easy for him either.” The smile disappeared from her face and gave way to sheer seriousness, as Trunks had never seen her before. Still, this time he couldn't prevent his eyes from rolling annoyed toward the ceiling. "Me? He doesn't make it easy for me. He's always ordering me around, Trunks do this, Trunks do that, what a wimp you've become, Trunks."He mimicked his father in a mock growling tone. It sounded funny even to his own ears and Bra looked at him in amazement for half a second before she laughed out loud." Oh Trunks, thank you! "With that she fell around his neck, hugging her face very tightly against his. At first he didn't know what to do, only felt his face go red again. Then he put his arm around her Back and stroked it tenderly.


Nobody knew how long they sat in this position. But at some point they parted again and no one exchanged a word about it, either at this moment or later.


A little later, Trunks left her room, thinking about what Bra had said. No, he liked his father very much. But there were disagreements between them that no being could remove from the world. But something had changed since that day without his knowing exactly why. At the table in the kitchen he had made his last attempt to change his father's mind.He hadn't tried again, which was partly thanks to Bras. She had given him something back that he had lost for a long time. Something he'd last had as a little boy when he was twelve. Namely the trust in his father.






“Two more days, then it's off to hell!” Goten sighed. He was lying on his bed with his arms crossed behind his head and staring at Trunks. Trunks sat on a mattress that was on the floor just before Goten's bed. After a long time, it seemed to him, he would stay with his friend for the night again. His mother had dragged Vegeta to the hospital without further ado, where she underwent an examination. She was not sick, it was purely routine, as one should do once a year, according to medical professionals. But since she didn't want to go alone, especially since she hated hospitals, especially as a patient, she dragged his father along, who didn't like the whole thing.At the beginning he had defended himself with his hands and feet, tried to explain to her that he couldn't because Trunks was not yet fit enough for the entrance exam. For this reason he persevered, so that Bulma had finally called Goku and asked him if he would take care of Trunks. Even Vegeta didn't have an excuse for that, although he was more than angry. "My son is not training with a second-rate fighter!" He had yelled through the whole Capsule Corporation building, causing the heads of the scientists in the basement to jerk up to the ceiling in confusion. In the end, however, nothing helped, because even he couldn't counter Bulma.


Trunks should only stay during the day. But he knew his father well enough to know that he would come home in a mortz mood and train him until he drops over the night. The offer from Chichi was just right for him. She had already offered him the morning before they started training to stay for the remaining days until they left.This, in turn, he could hardly accept, especially since his father wanted to train with him.


“Man, I'm really exhausted.” His friend sat up briefly in bed and reached for a bottle of water that was on the floor by the bed. He unscrewed the lid slowly, almost deliberately, before he half emptied the bottle with one gulp. Trunks just nodded, especially since his friend was right. Training was tough, especially when Piccolo came up and joined them in the afternoon. Even with his father he had never been so exhausted, which was perhaps also because he was not used to Goku's training methods. He was only used to the force of gravity in the gravitational space, which his father increased many times over every day. But at Goku's they ran through the forest, jumping from one rock to another. His father would say they were primitive training methods, but Trunks could well imagine that they were the most effective. He also had to admit that his friend had made progress.If he had always been the weaker of them in the past, he had now reached Trunk's strength, if not exceeded it. He really had gotten better. Was that because of Goku's training?


“What is it?” His friend gave him a confused look that Trunks knew only too well.


He looked up, looked for a while into Goten's dark eyes. "Tell me, do you think we can take this weird entrance exam?"


Goten just shrugged. "Before the theoretical one I also feel jittery, I have absolutely no idea about it. I imagine the practical one to be interesting, especially against whom I have to fight, so who my fear is ..."


"Any idea ??"


His friend shrugged again, but this time a big grin spread across his face. “Well, maybe I have to face a pretty girl who tells me I'm ugly!” He laughed out loud and even Trunks joined in his laughter. "You and your girls!"He shook his head, looked at Goten for a full two seconds, when this time the whole room was filled with laughter from two friends. They laughed for a long time, holding their bellies with laughter. Trunks hadn't laughed so freely for a long time and he felt, how all his worries suddenly disappeared from him and happiness filled him. Only when a loud "Son Goten, Trunks, Dinner" resounded through the laughter did they slowly stop. But only slowly, the laughter became quieter, finally subsided, until they just looked at each other with a grin.


“And who do you have to fight against?” His friend screwed up his right eye and gave him an exaggerated, authoritative look. "Against a group of girls who all adore you or against your father?"


Trunks just shrugged his shoulders, got up slowly, especially as his stomach answered, followed by Gotens, who sounded a lot louder than his only one. "Maybe I have to fight against you and your voracity?" he teased his friend, laughing.Goten just grinned. "Well then, be careful."


With that, they left the room and tripped quietly down the stairs. Downstairs you could already hear Chichi's nagging voice, which once again went on about her husband. "Son Goku, we have guests, you wait until everyone is seated at the table!"


"Oh, you don't care, Trunks doesn't care ..." he tried to calm his wife down with a calm tone, which was the complete opposite of Chichi's loud organ. The next moment the boys entered the dining room and the conversation fell silent. "There you are." Were they greeted by Goku, "Thought I was starving!"


Trunks grinned broadly, while Goten gave Piccolo, who was sitting at the table, looking a little disgruntled, a quick look. "What are you still doing here?"


Piccolo grimaced. "I wonder that too ..." He gave Chichi an angry look, which Chichi returned just as angry. "You may be the devil's son, but you don't scare me."

Trunks didn't understand anything anymore. Frowning, he let his gaze wander back and forth between Piccolo, Chichi and Goku, Goku's expression clearly differing from the angry impaling of the other two. You could clearly see the embarrassment on his face and as if it wasn't clear enough, he also scratched the back of his head, as he always did in embarrassed situations.


"Well Piccolo, that's what happens when you offend food!" Goku grinned mysteriously.


"Aha ..." muttered Goten, but said nothing more, devoted himself more to eating, which his father did the same for him the next moment. Suddenly the room was filled with smacking and rattling plates. Trunks also reached out hard, but in contrast to his friend and Goku, he still behaved reasonably normal. At least not in a way that every inn would have thrown him out on the spot. Chichi just shook her head, but then looked expectantly at Piccolo, who just sat and watched the Saya-Jins eat.“I'm waiting for Piccolo!” Her voice sounded hard and cutting, so that everyone stopped eating for a moment and looked at them both spellbound. He looked even more disgruntled before he started to eat. All in all, it was a fun dinner, especially since Piccolo was the first time you saw Piccolo among people. He also seemed to really like the food, which he did not admit, but could well be imagined with the amount he was eating.


Trunks enjoyed the meal too, ate more than he had for a long time. He was no longer used to having a fresh meal in the evening. His grandmother only cooked for lunch because it was too exhausting for her in the evening. After all, she was already around 70 years old. In the evening they always had to warm themselves up, unless you relied on Bulma's cooking skills, which were famous for making your stomach upset. In the end, however, with the best will in the world, he couldn't eat anything, no matter how hard the food smiled at him.He sank back heavily and groaned softly.


“Did you like Trunks?” Chichi leaned down to him, throwing a glare at Piccolo, and looked at him expectantly. Trunks grinned contentedly. "Great, haven't eaten so well in a long time ..."


“... which is no wonder with Bulma's cooking skills.” Goku smiled, thinking back to the old days when he had already made the acquaintance of his long-time girlfriend's cooking skills.


Goten grinned. "But your frozen food tastes great!"


"SON GOTEN !!" His mother looked at him warningly. He swallowed. "I just mean ..." his friend pressed around in front of him, so that everyone laughed again, except of course Piccolo, who seems to have lost this gift a long time