Babysitting Trunks

By Ice Queen

Authors rant: Welcome all my friends to the show that never ends, I'm so glad you could attend, step inside, step inside.

Marai Trunks found himself on his knees staring up at his father and a younger version of his mother. He looked around to see that the sky was rapidly lightening, and the birds were starting to sing. "Um, What am I doing here?" Vegeta smirked and motioned for Bulma to start.

"Well, we need your help with something." She sounded cautious for some reason. M. Trunks didn't understand why, she knew that he was always willing to help.

"Sure. Is it another villain that Pop and Goku can't handle by themselves? That's what I'm here for!" Vegeta laughed for some reason.

"It's something that we wouldn't WANT to take care of, brat. We need a babysitter for the next month." He smirked, evilly. He couldn't wait until M. Trunks met Tiger.

Bulma was trying to be more tactful in explaining the situation. "Well, Trunks, I have a seminar that I have to teach this month, and there's no one that we could trust more then you to take care of... Well, you." M. Trunks was confused, this was the thing important enough to wish him here with the dragon balls for? To be a babysitter? (Yes I know that it's been done, but play along, would you?)

"Why didn't you ask Gohan to do it?" Bulma looked even more apprehensive then before.

"Well, he has school to take care of." She started out. Vegeta cut in with an amused smirk.

"Plus the fact that he still hasn't recovered from the last time he babysat Trunks." Vegeta appeared quite proud of that fact for some reason. "No son of a third class baka is good enough to deal with my son." Trunks didn't know whether to be proud of the fact his father was inadvertently complementing him, or to be offended at the remark about his ex-sensei. He chose to ignore it all together.

"What hasn't he still recovered from?" He asked.

"Oh nothing." His mother said quickly. "Just a few small misunderstandings. Why don't I show you to your room? Chibi Trunks should be home within an hour, and you can get to know each other before we leave."

"We? Is father going too?"

"Well, yes. He said that he didn't trust those, and I quote, 'Blathering simpletons' to spend an entire month with me. He's such an overprotective baka sometimes. Either way, I'm sure that you'll do just fine by yourself. I mean, who better to tolerate Trunks then you?" With that cryptic statement she left him.

Trunks sat down on his bed and pondered his current situation. He hadn't had much of a childhood, and he wondered what type of difference it would make in his younger version. They had met before, but never had they spent much time together, and most likely Chibi Trunks had been too young to remember it. (Am I right here? Like I said, all of my info comes from the manga.) He sighed. This younger Trunks couldn't be TOO bad, after all, look at what a great guy he turned into! He jumped up from the bed and headed back towards the front of the building. ** This ought to be interesting. ** He had no idea how right he was. ***************

C. Trunks threw his backpack into the corner and bellowed for his mom. This time it really WASN'T his fault! And there was no way on earth that he was going to get in trouble for this. His mother came from around the corner, curious about what he had done this time. Vegeta came right behind her, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What did you do this time brat?" He asked; trying to hid his amusement.

"I didn't do anything! It was all that little brat Suzy's fault!" Trunks vehemently denied. M. Trunks was standing around the corner listening to his younger self. He was a firm believer that when going into any situation it is best to have the element of surprise, especially in a situation like this.

Bulma smiled to herself. All week long she had heard all about this little girl, and how much Trunks hated her. She sensed a small romance in bloom. "What did Suzy do this time, Trunks?" She asked.

"She said that the class hamster smelled funny!" Vegeta was having trouble concealing his mirth.

"And what did you do, Trunks?" Bulma asked patiently.

"I told her that it wasn't the hamster that smelt funny, it was her, and then I threw her in the aquarium, because she needed to take a bath!" That made perfect sense to him. He had no idea why his mother was suddenly turning red, all he knew was that was the exact same thing that his teacher had done before sending him to the principal's office.

M. Trunks covered his mouth to keep from laughing; unfortunately Vegeta was not so self-controlled. "Bwahahahahah! Smelt funny... Aquarium! Wahahaha! My Kami! It's a classic!" He was literally rolling on the floor by then.

Bulma was not happy with EITHER of her men at the moment. Really, How could you discipline a kid when his father was rolling on the floor laughing at what he had done wrong?

She looked over at the laughing prince disgustedly. "Vegeta! That is no way to set a good example for your son! If you aren't going to help why don't you keep quiet!" Vegeta would have made a scathing reply, but he was still busy laughing. **That man has the strangest sense of humor! It's no wonder that Trunks turned out the way he is! ** Bulma thought. She turned back to Trunks, who she had at least a SMALL measure of control over.

"Go to your room young mister! You can come out when you've figured out what you have done wrong." Trunks opened his mouth to protest, but thought better, and stomped off in the direction of his room. As he turned the corner he ran straight into... Well, himself.

"Oof." Chibi Trunks fell back. He hadn't been powered up, and the older Trunks weighed much more then he did, so of course, he was the one to move. C. Trunks looked up, and swiped at his bangs. "Watch where you're going you baka! You're in my way!" About that time he noticed that who he had ran into looked oddly familiar. "Hey! You stole my face! Give it back, jerk!" He jumped to his feet and started to power up.

"Trunks! What do you think you're doing? I told you to go to your room!" Bulma came from behind C. Trunks to see the little stand off that had started to develop. C. Trunks was powering up, and M. Trunks had his hand firmly on the handle of his sword. She could almost hear the theme song from The Good The Bad and The Ugly playing in the background.

"Trunks stop that!" She said to the younger one. She looked over at the other, "And you, Trunks! I expected better out of you! He's just a little boy!" Trunks scoffed silently, he might be just a little boy, but he could sense that the kid had already reached the SSJ level, and was a very dangerous little boy, when he wanted to be.

"You mean he's stolen my name, too?" C. Trunks bellowed. Then he looked over at the older version of himself with an evil smirk. "You're going down, pretty boy!" He launched himself at M. Trunks, who had no other choice but to defend himself.

"STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW OR NEITHER OF YOU GETS DINNER!" That got a reaction. C. Trunks stopped in mid-punch. He was straddling his older counterpart's chest, and had one hand holding M. Trunks by the collar of his jacket, and the other pulled back, aimed at his face. They were both staring at Bulma with their mouths gaping open in horror.

Bulma allowed herself a slight smile, that one got him every time! She quickly replaced her smile with a firm look. "You!" She said, pointing at the younger one. "Get to your room!" She looked over at M. Trunks. "You!" He looked positively shocked at all that had happened, so she decided to take pity on him. "Come with me, I'll show you around. I'm sure that there are some differences between what you're used to, and what's here."

Trunks followed her silently, still trying to figure out exactly what had just happened. Bulma hid her smile and started pointing out where everything was. When they reached the gardens she decided that they could talk freely.

"I bet you weren't expecting that were you?" She asked, knowingly. "You must have been much different as a child."

"That's the understatement of the year." Trunks mumbled under his breath. He looked around in wonder. "Wow! We don't have a place like this in my dimension, Mom said that after the androids started attacking she had to let all the animals go, because there wasn't enough supplies in the community to supply for them." (Be nice, I'm guessing here.) He took a step back to get a better view of the place and heard a squashing sound from under his boot. He looked down to see that he had accidentally stepped on a frog. (Guess who.)

"Oh no! Did I kill him?" Trunks looked really worried. Bulma looked down to see a very familiar looking frog and smiled.

"Oh, that's okay. I'm sure that he'll be fine." She grabbed M. Trunks arm and directed him in an opposite direction. Behind them a very flat Captain Ginyu feebly raised one arm and croaked. (How often have you heard that pun before? That's okay; everybody's got to kill the frog at least once.)**********************

Chibi Trunks sat on his bed and pouted. Why was he the one in trouble all the time? He looked up at the sound of someone clearing his throat. His father was leaning against the doorway to his room. Vegeta's arms were crossed against his chest, and he had on his face the same smirk that Trunks saw in the mirror every morning.

"So you threw her in the aquarium, huh?" Vegeta asked. Trunks scowled.

"She asked for it! She should never have insulted Mr. Fluffy pants." He crossed his arms, looking uncannily like the man he was talking to.

"Sounds to me like he was asking to be insulted. No creature with a name like Mr. Fluffy pants deserves respect." Vegeta smirked.

Trunks thought about it for a second, and then smiled. "Well that's not nearly as bad as the last hamsters name. It was Mr. Snuggly Wuggly. He was a cross dressing hamster every Tuesday when the girls got to take care of him." They smirked at that thought, neither of them wanting to be the first to laugh.

"So what do you think of the guy you called Pretty boy?" Vegeta asked.

"He's okay, I guess. He's kind of a pansy though, he didn't even fight back!" Trunks was irritated at that fact. He had really wanted to take his irritation out on someone, but the older guy hadn't even given him a good fight.

"Well kid, he's you. But he's from the future." Vegeta announced. (Rather bluntly if you ask me.)

"What! I turn out to be a pretty boy pansy! Nooooo!" Trunks wailed. (I'm not making fun of M. Trunks, C. Trunks is, so don't flame me, please?)

Vegeta laughed silently. He HAD made a difference by being there! Now Trunks had the arrogance befitting of a prince. He completely ignored the fact that Trunks was also a lot more outspoken and mischievous. That was blamed on Bulma. He gave his son a slight smirk then walked away. He had found out what he had come here for. He glanced back over his shoulder to tell Trunks one last thing.

"Oh yeah, that pretty boy is going to be your babysitter for the next month." He walked away from the sounds of his son's bellowed protests. He had done his part of the job, now to find out if Bulma had done hers. *******************

"So what do you think of your younger counterpart?" Bulma asked him. M.Trunks was caught off guard; because they had just been discussing the blue print for his time travel machine, Hope.

"Well... Um, he seems okay, I guess." He didn't want to say what he was thinking, because he was afraid of hurting Bulma's feelings.

"Oh, he'll grow on you. He was just having a bad day. He's really quite sweet and even tempered." She REALLY tried to keep from laughing. Who was she kidding? Even she knew that C. Trunks was more trouble then most people could handle, but she was really desperate for a babysitter, and all that were available in this dimension refused. C. Trunks was well known as the scourge of babysitting. Not to mention his pet cat. Speaking of Tiger, where was she? She usually made her presence known by this time in the game. Bulma was starting to get worried, but she covered it easily.

She casually turned the conversation back to the blue prints. Now all she could do is hope that he survives the next month. Hopefully Vegeta gave a reason for the other Trunks to behave himself while they were gone. ****************

** How could they leave me here with that pansy? ** C. Trunks thought. He was sitting under his favorite tree, or the remains of it at least, and bemoaning his current situation. His parents had just left. Bulma had been slightly hurt, because C. Trunks had refused to come out and say goodbye, but there was nothing that she could do, she had to leave right then in order to get to the seminar on time.

M. Trunks stood at a distance, watching his younger counterpart mope. He didn't look too terrible at the moment; in fact he looked rather lonely. He approached C. Trunks cautiously, and sat down beside him.

"They will be back, you know." He glanced over at C. Trunks, then glanced away again.

"So? I don't care if they ever come back!" C. Trunks started pulling at the grass beside him. "I don't need them! I don't need anybody! Especially not you!" He threw the grass in M. Trunks face, and ran away. M. Trunks looked at his retreating form and shrugged.

"I suppose I'll have to go after the spoiled little brat. I had better be getting paid for this!" Just then Tiger jumped out of one of the trees and landed on M. Trunks head. (That was one of her favorite pastimes, especially if it was Vegeta that was passing by.)

"WHAT THE... WHAT IS THIS THING? GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" He started running around in circles, batting at the thing on his head wildly. C. Trunks turned around, saw what had happened, and started laughing.

"That's... Bwahahaha... That's Tiger! I think she likes you! Wahahaha!!" Now knowing that it wasn't some evil creature bent on messing up his perfect hair, M. Trunks calmed down. He shot the small boy a death glare as he removed the small kitten.

"That's it! First you try to beat me up for not watching where YOU'RE going; now you sic your attack cat on me? You're going down little man!" He took off his jacket and rushed at the smaller Trunks, catching him off guard.

C. Trunks was amazed. None of his other babysitters had wanted to FIGHT him before. He was quickly brought back to the situation when M. Trunks right handed him lightly across the face. Then again, he just might grow to like this situation. They started brawling, both of them having a hard time getting in a blow, because they seemed to know exactly what move the other would make. Finally they broke apart to take a quick break. They grinned at each other.

"Not bad for a pretty boy." C. Trunks said.

"You're not bad, yourself, brat." M. Trunks said with a grin. Tiger came up to him with a purr, and curled up in his lap. C. Trunks face-faulted, Tiger NEVER did that with one of his babysitters! In fact, the only people who could get close to the cat were he, his father, and his best friend, Goten. Tiger just tolerated his mother.

"Hey, he isn't so bad after all!" M. Trunks said, scratching Tiger behind the ears.

"He's a She, and her name is Tiger. How'd you do that? She normally doesn't like strangers." C. Trunks asked. M. Trunks thought for a second, and then smiled a little.

"She must think that I'm you. I bet she relies on her sense of smell more then her vision."

"Huh." C. Trunks accepted it at that and went on to more interesting things. "I've just got to show you to Goten! He'll be so jealous! He doesn't have a future self, like I do!"

M. Trunks was so busy being dragged that he didn't have time to figure out if he liked being referred to as a new pet, or not. ** Oh, well. Things could have been a lot worse.** M. Trunks told himself. **I could have been stuck with two of him. ** He didn't know how it could have happened, but the way his life went, he wouldn't have been surprised.

So, C. Trunks has accepted M. Trunks as his baby sitter, but what will happen when C. Trunks gets bored? And we all know how mischievous he gets then! Stay tuned for the next part of "Babysitting Trunks."

If you're wondering where Tiger came from you might want to read my story Kitty Litter. See you next time!