Gohan // 001

[neededahand]

Who: Gohan + you.
Where: Western bay of the island.
When: All day Wednesday.
Style: Your choice.
Status: Open.

Hours of swimming, cataloguing the small saltwater fish, and Gohan finally spies a prize. Living in the city -- a living, thriving city -- is interesting in that they have everything ready-made. No need to sew your own clothes, grow or catch your own food, no need to even entertain yourself, really.

All the same, being surrounded by water gave him a terrible craving for fresh fish, and the only way to really ensure the fish was fresh was to do it the way his father had taught him.

The fish is a great gray beast, and looks just like the ones swimming in the freshwater rivers on Mt. Paozu. Gohan learned not to question the peculiarities of things like that long ago, and swims towards it slowly. It notices him approaching, but before it can bolt, he shoots his arm out and grasps it by the tail.

From that point, he powers his ki and shoots straight up out of the sea, water droplets rolling down his mostly-bare skin before drying in the wind rush. He throws the fish down to the beach, where it flops listlessly.

Gohan's gi and undershirt are folded neatly next to a ring of stones and kindling with the roasting spit he's already set up. He drops back down into the water with a grin and swims up to shore.

With sand sticking to his wet feet, he fires a ki blast at the wood and spears the fish, laying it over the spit to cook.

Comments

[fighting4afuture]

Trunks hadn't really been concerned about the lack of Vegeta around the island and the bubble until Bulla mentioned it as well. Things had been kind of tense between the two of them, so he'd just figured avoidance would be the best solution.

But when he hadn't sensed Vegeta's energy, not even the barest hint of it, no matter how hard he tried--and hadn't seen any sign of him, no matter how hard he looked--Trunks had to admit...it was likely that he was gone. Removed from Vatheon entirely. Despite having lacked his father's presence for most of his life already, it hurt now.

As always, when he didn't know what to do, he searched out Gohan instead--after a bit of brooding, he was still a teenager after all. And he also had promised his mother he'd talk to Gohan about the mechanical arm she'd been working on and still hadn't--he hadn't yet thought of a way to bring it up tactfully.

Tact hadn't worked for him very well lately, maybe he should just out and say it.

"Hey," he said, a small and rather lame greeting, looking faintly dejected and distracted in the bargain as he flops into the sand.

[neededahand]

"Hey," Gohan answered, because there was no use drawing attention to the smallness and lameness of the greeting. It looked like Trunks had hit one of his moods, and while Gohan was willing to be offer therapy, outlets, whatever-- it would probably be rejected if it didn't find a way to come up organically. Either it would or it wouldn't.

"Don't get sand on the fish, and I might share."

[fighting4afuture]

He's a teenager, Gohan, and a half-Saiyan at that, there will always be Moods. They seem to come as a standard feature. His mouth quirks upward in a half-smile that doesn't quite reach the point of being anything more than believably tired and frustrated and for lack of a better word dull, the brightness in his eyes that had started to restore itself in the time of peace shadowed again, like he'd drawn the shutters. Vegeta's leaving had affected him more than he's letting on, even to himself.

"I won't." It hadn't ever crossed his mind--really hadn't crossed his mind to move anymore at all.

[neededahand]

All of which Gohan had trouble grasping. Having never thought of himself as having moods, it's hard for him to understand in others. Or appropriately deal with.

Or really deal with, period.

He frowned, turning the fish over. "Why'd you come out here?"

[fighting4afuture]

"Vegeta's gone." Two words, and really he wasn't incredibly sure of them. But... "He hasn't contacted Bulla--she said he was training her, and you know how seriously he'd take that--and I can't sense him at all. Or find him the hard way."

He shrugged. "The island was the last place I had to look."

[neededahand]

"Sorry."

Because that was the only possible response, really. Gohan had tried more than once recently to quietly forget Vegeta's presence and only recently gotten himself out of the habit of scanning for his ki when he was alone. A quick once-over confirmed Trunks' statement (not that he'd doubted).

"How's Bulla taking it?"