Chapter Text
It was a peaceful evening in the Son household. Goku was in between training sessions with Whis and Beerus, giving him a chance to spend some much needed time with his family. After Goten came home from school, Chi-Chi had him do his homework before calling him and her husband for dinner. Goku immediately began to dig in, but Goten hesitated, taking his meal slower. Chi-Chi noticed her son's lack of ferocity in eating. She knew something was up, but she couldn't immediately confront him. Instead she used a more gentle approach.
"So how was school today, Goten?" She asked. Goten perked up. He was a teenager, but he still liked to indulge his parents with the latest happenings at school. Although he wasn't sure about his parents' reaction to this...
"Nothing much," he replied before taking a small shovel of food into his mouth. He looked between his parents. His eyes shifted downwards as he attempted to appear aloof. "Uh, one of my classmates, she came out as trans."
"Oh, that's interesting."
Goten looked at her tentatively. "You're fine with that?"
"Of course! I wasn't born yesterday." Participating in the PTA meetings kept her up to date on the modern going of things. She struggled sometimes understanding here and there, but she tries nonetheless. Goten let out a small sigh of relief. "Why do you ask?"
Goten sat straight up. "N-no reason!" he sputtered. He returned to his meal, his intake becoming ever slightly more fierce. She felt like there was a reason, but she decided not to push. She resumed her own dinner, letting silence fall at the table.
Just like that, another peaceful, uneventful evening on Earth.
Except for, however, a certain hungry Saiyan.
"What's a trans?" asked Goku aloud. His family paused before him.
Unlike Chi-Chi, he usually concerned himself with the more action-packed aspects of life. Multiple decades straight of constantly saving the world meant that he wasn't as knowledgeable about certain topics. Especially when said topics weren't about fighting.
"It's someone who is one gender but thinks they're another." She felt like she didn't have to tell Goku what gender is. All those pat-pat incidents should have drilled it into his brain. "So with Goten’s classmate..."
“She said she’s trans”
“So she thinks she’s a girl.”
Goten hid a small cringe. "Uh, not quite Mom. She doesn't think she is a girl, she is a girl," he corrected.
"Oh, then she thinks she's a boy?" asked his father.
“No, no. She came out to us that she's a girl.”
“What did she come out of?"
"It's an expression, when you announce what you are."
"Why does she have to announce she's a girl?"
"We didn’t know she was a girl. We thought she was a boy.”
“Oh yeah, I had that problem too when I was your age. I didn’t even know girls were different!” He let out a small laugh. “I didn’t even know your mother was a girl. I had to-“ his mouth was suddenly filled with food. Chi-Chi pushed the piece of meat further in with her chopsticks.
“Let’s not bring that up, dear,” she said, her sing-song voice clashing with her sudden rise of Ki. He took the food obediently, sensing her energy. She turned back to her son. “You were saying, Goten?”
“Y-yeah, so, she told us she was a girl, but was born in the wrong body, a boy’s body.”
“How did that happen?” He couldn’t figure out how a girl ended up in a boy’s body without the work of the dragon balls.
“It just happens. Sometimes you’re born looking different to how you feel. Like Dad, you look like a boy.”
“Yeah?”
“And you feel like a boy.”
Goku paused in thought.
“I … guess?”
“You guess?” asked Goten, confused.
“I dunno.” He never really gave it much thought. He also didn’t want to give it much thought right now.
“Well, how would you feel if you were in Mom’s body?” Goku glanced at his wife, taking in her features.
“I’d be fine with it.”
Chi-Chi slapped his arm. “You dog!”
“What? As long as I can train, I don’t really care what I look like”
“Even if people thought you were a girl?”
“It doesn’t really matter to me.”
“Of course not. The only thing that matters to you is fighting!” Exclaimed Chi-Chi.
“I mean, there’s more I care about. Like food! And you guys.”
“Ever the romantic,” Chi-Chi huffed. The three shared a laugh and finished their meals, talking about nothing in particular.
In the back of Goku’s mind, something was brewing.
Later that night as the family head to bed, Goku found himself restless. He kept thinking back to the conversation earlier.
The wrong body
You guess?
It doesn’t matter to me.
He never really thought much about who he was. He had always felt sure of himself and his identity. He was a fighter. A husband. A father. A Saiyan. And he was a man.
Right?
He didn’t mind being in the body he was in. It helped him protect his family from the various threats throughout the years. Even below was okay. He wasn’t particularly fond of it, but he didn't mind. He thought that it was normal to find some parts of your body strange or uncomfortable.
He turned and gazed at Chi-Chi’s sleeping figure. He liked her more slender frame, but wouldn’t want it per se; bigger hands mean bigger punches. But maybe having a smaller waist would feel nice. Like, really nice. Like, extremely nice.
And her chest, well, his was fairly comparable. He recalled the times Bulma and Chi-Chi would tease about the size of his pecs, how they were basically boobs and how much they wanted to sink into them. He didn’t think much about it at the time, other than feeling a bit embarrassed, but remembering their words now felt different.
He shook his head. He may like certain feminine features about himself and even wished he had more, but that doesn’t mean he’s a girl. And he likes his masculine parts too. He doesn’t even want to change himself that much. He has to be a guy, he has to.
So why doesn’t it feel right? Why does thinking he is make him feel weird?
He turned back over, facing the wall. He fluffed his pillow roughly. He never thought about any of this, and now he wished he hadn’t. Maybe these feelings will go away with some sleep. As sleep slowly overcame him, he hoped that maybe there would be another villain who plans to destroy Earth. That could take his mind off things. If not, he knows a certain Saiyan to be the next best thing.
…..
It was an average morning in the Briefs household.
Vegeta was at his usual haunt, the gravity room. He usually trained before breakfast. He was concentrated, only aware of the targets around the room. One by one he took down the targets, leaving only a single robot. Quickly he shot out a ki blast.
It just so happened that Goku had decided to instant transmission to him.
“Hey Vegeta-“ was all he could say before taking an entire mouthful of ki, knocking him down.
“Kakarot! It’s the morning, what the hell are you-”
Goku got back up with a slightly disturbed expression. He stuck his tongue out and groaned. “Ugh, your ki tastes awful!” He tried to pat the taste off of his tongue.
“Why, you!” Strangely offended, Vegeta threw a punch towards Goku. The taller man blocked it and smiled.
“I guess ya know what I came here for.”
Vegeta smirked back. “As if it would be anything else.”
The next hour was a back and forth brawl between them. Battling against the intensified force of gravity, the two traded punches, kicks, and ki blasts. Bruise upon bruise made their way onto their bodies, and by the time the two decided to stop, at least one of them could use a senzu bean. The two men laid on the floor of the chamber, exhausted, yet satisfied. Or, at least one of them was.
“That…was pretty good…” huffed Goku.
“You make it … sound like … we had sex …”
“We didn’t?”
“Fuck off,” groaned Vegeta. The two continued to lay in silence as they gathered their stamina back. This left Goku with his thoughts.
This morning Goku still felt weird. He thought maybe a quick spar with Vegeta would help. And the sparring was really good; fighting always helped him with his thoughts. Clearly however, it wasn’t enough. He tried to steal a look at Vegeta without the other noticing. He had always teased the man about his short stature, but he actually didn't really mind. In fact, Goku kind of liked it when his enemies were bigger than him. It felt more satisfying in a way, to see such towering characters fall. He would probably be harder to hit. But that doesn't mean he wanted to be a girl.
There was also Vegeta's body itself. Its sharp and bulky structure, up to his jawline. Goku wasn't too far off from him, but there was a time where he looked different. A young adult, he looked rounder and softer. He knew his face had grown more sharp edges since then, but it still felt odd to see in the mirror sometimes. He had believed it was because he aged, but looking at the other man, he realized it wasn't that. He was fine growing older, and he did not at all regret the musculature he gained. It was something else. Something he couldn't put into words.
Wrong body
Soon Vegeta got up and stretched. He turned off the gravity force. Goku pouted as the older man started to make his way out.
“Aw, no cuddles?”
“Sorry, Kakarot, but you were just a one night stand.”
“Not even a kiss?”
“You’re lucky you only got one ki blast.” Turning around, a small ball of ki formed in Vegeta’s hand. “Unless you want another?” Goku raised his hands in surrender.
“I’m good! No kisses or cuddles needed here!”
With a smarmy grin Vegeta dissipated his ki ball. He opened the door. Suddenly Goku felt compelled to tell him about all of this.
“Actually, there is one thing I want to ask.”
“Kakarot, the joke has gone on long enough.”
“No, seriously Vegeta.” Goku’s tone shift caught Vegeta’s attention. Usually the third class was always joking around, only serious when there’s a threat. But they just got back to Earth. Is there already someone? There couldn’t be, but the Saiyan’s face said otherwise.
“Tch. Spit it out then.”
“How do you know you’re a guy?”
Nevermind.
Vegeta sighed, aggravated. "I understand you're stupid, but are you really that stupid?" He pointed at Goku's crotch and said "If that doesn't give you the hint then I don't know what will." He left the chamber, closing the door - well, slamming it - shut.
“That could have gone better.”