Through a Child's Eyes

Prologue

Goten's head snapped up when he heard his mother start to scream at the top of her lungs. He could hear her all the way from the other end of the house where he was currently bugging his big brother. It wasn't at him, never at him, but undoubtedly at his older sister.

The boys' conversation stopped short as they listened to their mother start her rant. This was normal for them. They would wait out the hurricane, standing aside as it tore apart their sister.

Goten closed his eyes as the sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed in his ears. He had been hearing too much of that lately. He could feel Gohan, his big brother, tense up beside him. The silence was thick. The sound of something fragile shattering made both of them jump. Goten took a step forward, but that's as far as he got because Gohan put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back.

"So anyway—"the older boy started. That was how it was. They would stop to listen and then start again as if nothing had happened.

Goten kept his stricken gaze on the door. He wanted to help. He wanted to make this all stop. It wasn't right. He clinched his fists and gritted his teeth but remained still. If Gohan wouldn't do anything, then what chance did he have? He was just a five-year old who didn't know what he was talking about, right? Then, why did he want to grab his older sister and run to Trunks's house where it was safe?

But no...

Goten turned his gaze back to his brother. He would wait. When he was older, people would have to listen. He would stop it then. Until then, it was, "So anyway—"

Usagi curled up around one of her pillows and buried her face into it; she didn't want the sounds of her sobs to reach outside of the room. Maybe if no one heard her, then she could pretend that it never happened, that the pain wasn't real, and that this was all just a long nightmare. Who was she kidding? The whole forest could have heard the beating she just got.

Her cheek was throbbing with pain from where she was sure a bruise was already starting to form. She didn't even want to look at her arm; it was bleeding. The tip of the broken vase had sliced through her upper arm before embedding itself into the wall. The actual vase broke in her mother's hand. The deep gash would be next to the bleeding fingernail imprints.

What had she done this time? Oh yeah, her clothes were dirty from where she and Trunks had played tag. Was that as bad as to deserve all of this pain? 'What did I do?' she thought. 'What did I do? What-' her question was interrupted by a knock at her bedroom door. She uncurled herself and with her good hand quickly wiped away her tears.

"Yeah?" It opened to reveal her little brother. "What is it, Goten?"

His head was bowed, and his feet were scuffing at her bare floor. "I heard."

She turned her head away at those two words. She could never hide her pain; everyone always heard. She wasn't ungrateful for her brother's help, but sometimes she wanted to be alone so that her self-pity could consume her. But no... It was always like this: Goten would hear, come in, and patch her up. When it was all over, Goten would always be there for her.

'Thank Dende for little brothers.' Her eyes closed; a few unwanted tears escaped down her cheeks. "I hurt, Goten. I hurt," she buried her face in her pillow again.

Goten watched silently and let a few tears of his own leak out. His sister was in pain. He had stood by and let someone hurt her. 'Why can't I be braver? Why can't I help more?!' His sobs mixed in with hers. He was never able to stand seeing her cry. He climbed on her bed and wrapped his small arms around her, being careful to avoid her wounds, seeking comfort.

And together, they cried – two lost siblings clutching one another against all of the wrong in the world, against all of the wrong in their house.

And that's how Trunks found them. The lavender-haired demi-Saiyajin stood stunned in the doorway and watched his best friends cry together. It had happened again. He quickly closed and locked the door before hurrying over to them. He climbed onto the bed on the other side of Usagi.

"Trunks..." The girl turned in her brother's grasp and clutched onto her best friend for dear life. She buried her face in his shirt and let her tears soak the front of it.

Trunks wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her tightly against him. "Shh, Usa, I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. Shh, you're safe now," he continued whispering comforting words until he felt her slacken in his arms. She was asleep. Trunks looked over Usagi's head and down at Goten. "What happened?"

The younger boy had his arms wrapped around his sister's waist, and his head buried into her back. The back of her shirt was soaked with his tears. He rested his cheek on her back and listened to her quiet breathing for a moment. "It was bad, Trunks. The worst it's ever been."

Trunks touched Usagi's bruised and swollen cheek lightly. If he had come earlier, then maybe he could have stopped this from happening. 'Maybe- Maybe...' his thoughts trailed off when he caught sight of her bloody arm.

"Goten!"

The black-haired boy shot up in surprise and started to look around frantically. "What? What?" he asked while looking around for any possible threat.

"She's bleeding."

Goten snapped his head around and looked down at her crimson arm. "Oh, Dende. What do we do? Is she going to die? I don't want her to die!" the boy's eyes started to water.

Trunks rolled his eyes heavenward. Was this really supposed to be his best friend? "She's not going to die, baka!" he snapped to the hyperventilating boy. "Where do you keep the first-aid kit?" he asked while pulling Usagi off of him and laying her on the bed.

"The first what?"

Trunks gritted his teeth in annoyance, "The Band-Aids! Where do you keep the Band-Aids?" Goten blinked, "Oh. Well, why didn't you say that before?"

"Just get me the fucking kit!" he yelled at his dense friend. When his patience ran out, he tended to pick up his father's cussing habits. 'But now is not the time for playing around,' he mentally amended.

Goten raced out of the room as fast as he could. When his friend started to use bad words, he knew that was the time to shut up and do as told.

Trunks looked down at Usagi and winced when he noticed her cheek was now purple and had swollen to twice its normal size. With gentle fingers, he smoothed away the hair that had fallen in her face. He hated to see her like this.

Goten came back carrying a huge assortment of medical supplies and was nearly covered in a linen wrap. He resembled a badly wrapped mummy. Trunks motioned for him to dump everything on the bed. He selected what he would need and began to work.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Goten asked while looking over his friend's shoulder to watch him work.

"I've seen my Mom do this a bazillion times. I get hurt a lot when Dad and I spar." Trunks poured alcohol over both the fingernail marks and the gash. He dabbed it with a towel and grabbed some ointment. Afterward, he wrapped it tight with some of the cloth hanging from Goten's hair.

"Wow, Trunks. You should be a doctor when you grow up!"

Trunks smiled proudly at his work. "Nah. I'm just good at everything," he stated arrogantly.

Goten looked at his sister, "We forgot something." He was gone and back in a flash holding a bag of ice. This part he knew all about. With practiced hands, the small boy wrapped the ice to his sister's head to keep the swelling down. The two sat back and watched her sleep.

"She's never bled before," Goten's quiet observation echoed in the silence.

Trunks stared at the glass of the kitchen table with his brow crinkled in confused thought. His eyes were glazed over as his fork made circles in his mashed potatoes.

The adults shared a look. "What's wrong, brat?" Vegeta asked. His son had been too quiet for the past few days.

"I'm worried about Usa," his tone was distant.

The adults shared another glance. This time Bulma spoke, "What about her?"

Trunks contemplated his juice for a moment. "She was asleep when I went over to play today."

Vegeta snorted, "So she was asleep. That just says that she's lazy." Bulma kicked her husband under the table. He glared at her; she happily returned it.

"She was asleep when I went yesterday. Goten said she hasn't woken up for three days. Ever since..." Trunks trailed off and looked at his father pleadingly. He knew, like Goten, that he was too young to be taken seriously. Plus, Usagi had made him pinky swear not to tell anyone. But that didn't mean that he couldn't give hints, and if there was one thing his father was good at, it was being observant.

Vegeta recognized his son's look. He knew there was something the boy wanted him to know.

"Since what?"

Trunks bit his lip and shrugged. Vegeta narrowed his eyes. Trunks couldn't tell him; that much was obvious.

Bulma was oblivious to the exchange. "I hope the poor thing isn't sick. I wonder why Chichi didn't say anything about it. I hope she's better by tomorrow. It would be a shame for her to miss Open House at the school."

I know that I shouldn't be starting another fic when I have not one but TWO unfinished stories that needed my more immediate attention. I started this fic when the ideas for Saiyajin no Oujo stemmed a little. This fic isn't done....chuckles not by any means. I have plans for this fic. So far, this fic will go into detail about the childhood of Usagi, Trunks, and Goten and how they've become inseparable through the hard lives of Z- members . It will span until they are 18....and believe me they will have quite a few adventures. I'm sorry that this first chappy was kind of depressing, but I think that it'll get better as it goes. If you haven't already guessed, this will be a Trunks/Usa romance...eventually.

The reason that I hadn't submitted this in sooner was because I didn't want to have any pressure in finishing it....because, well as we can all see, that pressure on my writing kind of turns me off completing the story for some strange reason. It's not nearly completed, but I think that you'll have to keep that in mind as well as the long chapters. So have mercy please...I'm trying, and trying to balance AP courses, a boyfriend, job, my electronically cursed house, etc. Just give me a break, please. Katlin Grace

NEway, I hope you enjoyed it and will review. Tell me what you liked, and what you think I could improve on. I'll try to update weekly on what I have.