Trunks sat in his kindergarten teacher's office, staring down at his shoes. His teacher, Ms. Uchimura, was sitting across from him at her desk, scribbling away in her hefty agenda planner. Every so often the mousy middle-aged woman would pause to push her rimless glasses up on her nose, glance up at the wall clock, and then return to her scribbling. Trunks sighed and brushed away a lock of fine lavender hair that had fallen into his eye. His mom was going to make him get a haircut soon. He glanced at the empty chair beside him-just where was his mom at anyway? She was totally late for the stupid parent-teacher meeting. He wished he didn't have to be there, he already knew what his teacher was going to say about him.

The minutes dragged by as Trunks continued to sulk in his chair and Ms. Uchimura continued to write. A comfortable silence prevailed in the modest office until without warning the office door burst open and a shirtless, none too friendly looking man stomped into the room, slamming the door behind him. Trunks' eyes widened and he jolted up in his seat, but quickly slouched back down and averted his gaze back to his shoes when he met the man's stern glare. Ms. Uchimura yelped and her pen went flying out of her hand at the sudden disruption.

"What has the boy done?" the man demanded gruffly.

"I, n-, n-, nothing," Ms. Uchimura stammered, trying not to stare at the intimidating man's prominently muscled physique and spandex shorts that she wished left more to the imagination. She cleared her throat nervously and ventured, "I take it you are Trunks' father then? Mr. Brief, is it?"

"Vegeta," he replied, scowling at the woman. The earthling custom of having multiple names annoyed him. A single person required but a single name but these humans insisted on having two, three, even four names. It was such a useless, pretentious practice.

"Okay, Mr. Vegeta then. It's nice to meet you, I'm Tan Uchimura." The teacher just smiled at him awkwardly, sensing he wouldn't be interested in shaking hands, and gestured to the chair next to Trunks. "Won't you have a seat, please?"

Vegeta sighed and grudgingly plopped down in the chair beside his son. "Get on with it then," he ordered impatiently and crossed his arms. It should have been Bulma there at the ridiculous meeting, not him. But she had contracted some virus called the "flu" and claimed she was too sick to go, so she forced him to go in her stead. And her version of force was shutting down the gravity room in the middle of his training and refusing to turn it back on until he agreed to go. He went up to the elementary school without bothering to change into something decent just to piss her off.

Ms. Uchimura jumped in her seat, and in an anxious flurry of movement, she put away her planner and took up a folder on the upper right corner of her desk with Trunks' name on it and opened it. "Um, well, let's see here, right. I wanted to talk to you today about your son's progress." She had her nose nearly buried down in the folder, anything to keep from having to make eye contact with the frightening man. "He is doing quite well, er, academic-wise. He is an excellent reader, he seems to have an advanced knowledge of math for his age and his writing skills are above average."

"And?" Vegeta said disinterestedly. If she had some point, he wished she would hurry up and arrive at it.

The teacher looked up from the folder and pushed up her glasses. She closed the folder, set it aside, and laced her hands together on the desk. "And, well, he is a wonderful student and all but I am worried that he doesn't socialize with any of his classmates. You see, your son seems to have a tough time making friends and I was hoping you would encourage him to open up and get to know the other children. I think it will be good for his development."

Trunks scowled at his shoes. It wasn't his fault he didn't have any friends at school, he just didn't have anything in common with the kids there. And they were kind of stupid. Sure, Goten was kind of stupid, too and he still liked hanging out with him, but he could actually keep up with him and they could fight and stuff. There was no fighting allowed at school and playing games with his classmates was no fun because he had to hold his strength way back so he wouldn't accidently hurt them. He wished Goten was in his class but Goten wasn't old enough to start kindergarten yet. Trunks hated having to go to school with no one there he could play with but he still did his best when it came to his studies (his mom would kill him if he didn't) and just kept to himself.

Vegeta scoffed at the teacher. "How would it benefit the boy to befriend a bunch of weaklings?"

"I-, I'm sorry?" Ms. Uchimura faltered

Vegeta rose from his seat and headed for the door. This was even more pointless than he had imagined it would be and he was irritated the Uchimura woman thought this actually required his presence. Wasn't this what humans had telephones for? "Come on Trunks, we're going," he commanded. Trunks slid out of his chair and started after his father.

"W-, wait!" Ms. Uchimura called after him.

"What is it now?" Vegeta snapped, turning around to glare at her.

The teacher quickly opened the folder back up on her desk and retrieved a light blue sheet of paper from it. She stood up and extended it to him. "I asked the students to write about what they wanted to be when they grew up and to illustrate it. I thought you might want to take a look at it," she said earnestly.

Vegeta narrowed his eyes at the paper and strode across the room to snatch it out of her hand. He held the paper out in front of him for his inspection, and his severe facial expression softened ever so slightly as he began to read.

When I Grow Up

By: Trunks Brief

When I grow up I want to be just like my dad. He is the strongest fighter in the whole world and no one can beat him. My dad is not like other dads, he is the prince of all the Saiyans and he is the coolest. I am going to be tough and strong just like him one day and go super.

My dad trains really hard every day and teaches me how to fight. It is really fun hanging out with him. He is the best dad ever and I can't wait to be as good as he is. He never gives up no matter what and I'm going to be just like that too. I love my dad.

Underneath the writing was a drawing of Trunks and Vegeta standing with their arms crossed and wearing Saiyan armor. Trunks colored both of their hair and the area around them yellow and had tried to draw his father's trademark scowl as best he could. Vegeta noticed the eyebrows of his drawn self were pointing downward sharply in an unintentionally comical fashion and his muscles were excessively huge. The corner of his mouth twitched in amusement as he took in his son's interpretation of his likeness.

"Mr. Vegeta, sir?" Ms. Uchimura said hesitantly after several moments of silence.

He ignored her and folded up the piece of paper in his hands. "Come on Trunks," he said again and they left the office.

Trunks timidly snuck glances up at his father as they walked down the hall of the school building. He was feeling kind of embarrassed about his paper now. He didn't expect his dad to ever find out about it.

"Trunks."

The boy's head shot up eagerly. "Yeah dad?"

Vegeta smirked down at him. "You know, you're not a Super Saiyan yet, kid," he said smugly referring to his drawing.

Trunks mirrored his father's smirk back at him perfectly. "Not yet, but just give me a couple more years, tops, " he countered just as smugly.

Vegeta only chuckled as Trunks went on chattering excitedly about his plan to become the youngest Super Saiyan ever. The boy was overflowing with confidence, there was no hint of self doubt to be detected in him. His father, being quietly affected by his enthusiasm and conviction, couldn't help but feel a sense of pride swelling in his own chest at his son's pride. Vegeta had a feeling his son's ascension would come sooner than his future counterpart's - not by the time he was 8 years old though, that was ludicrous - but someday soon, Trunks' drawing would become reality and they would stand together side by side as Super Saiyans. He looked forward to it.