Disclaimer: I love creating and developing OCs. But I guess I should also own up to the fact that Piccolo and the idea of the World Martial Arts tournament are not mine.
Chapter 3: The World Martial Arts Tournament
Nine months passed and Tessa had grown extremely strong under Piccolo's tutelage. All the while, the nightmares still came each and every night haunting her sleep and often stopping her from getting any restful sleep at all. Still Piccolo hadn't revealed her past to her but instead had filled her head with hopes of furthering her training by competing in the World Martial Arts Tournament. He hoped that by exposing her to other fighters that she'd be able to better learn how to handle herself in a real fight, even if the tournament did have rules.
"You know I'll win."
"Don't be so confident."
"I bet if I really, really wanted to, I could beat you," she teased, her hands resting easily on her hips.
"Not in your present condition."
"Humph. Yee of little faith. You're such a downer. You're an awesome trainer so I'm sure I'll be fine." Tessa stood outside the arena for the tournament and did a pose flexing her arm. The muscles were toned and defined and several guys passing by stopped to stare. She flashed them a winning smile before looking back up at Piccolo. "Come on, if I don't catch them gawking at my good looks, I'll catch them with my uppercut," she said demonstrating on him and paused just as her knuckles tapped his chin—it was a bit of a stretch without jumping. "Besides, I've got so many tricks up my sleeve…"
"And if you were wise, you'd keep those for the final rounds," Piccolo warned.
Tessa nodded her head in understanding. "I am getting nervous though. I mean, I'm sure I'm strong enough to beat these guys but I've never fought anyone except you. You just gotta promise not to disown me or anything if I end up not doing so hot. You're my cheerleader now."
"If you don't hurry, you won't even get in for the preliminaries."
Tessa grinned as she waved and ran into the arena. "Don't forget your promise!" With that she disappeared inside. Piccolo frowned. Perhaps he'd been wrong to tell her that if she won he'd tell her how to get to King Kai for more training. But he didn't know of many other trainers still living on Earth who could provide her with the challenge she needed to keep growing.
Tessa went inside and felt like she'd walked into a whole other world. She was surrounded by fighters who were all much bigger than her. The only ones she was even somewhat bigger than were the kids running around entering the junior division competition. She herself was just barely too old for the junior division which cut off at age fifteen. She had turned sixteen after only a few weeks of training with Piccolo and so there had been no sweet sixteen party for her—just another day of training and some fresh bruises to serve as presents. She pushed her way through the crowd and found the chart listing.
She looked down at her chest at her registration number-lucky thirteen-and then back at the chart that seemed nearly endless. But that made sense as she had to be amongst hundreds of fighters and the semi finals would only put the top eight fighters into the center ring to be watched by thousands in the stands. In the mean time, she'd have to fight her way through the masses and prove herself. She was fighting on the first platform for the preliminaries. She made her way back and entertained herself by watching the other matches. She had to push and wriggle her way towards the front just to get a view, but in that way, her small size had been a boon. Nobody seemed to upset if she stood in front of them, because not even her hair was able to block the view of 99% of the other fighters.
"Fighters thirteen and fourteen please enter the ring." She grinned as she dove forward, easily vaulted up onto the fighting stage, and watched for her opponent to appear as well.
A large barreling man slowly walked onto the platform and laughed at her. "This is too easy. Just an ittle wittle girl." A load roar of laughter came from those watching and Tessa shot them all glares.
"You know the bigger they are, the harder they fall."
"FIGHT!" Without warning Tessa popped down low and delivered a swift kick that knocked the man's feet out from under him. He fell backwards off the platform and was immediately disqualified. "Fighter thirteen wins by opponent leaving the ring!"
A hush fell as she jumped back down. Thus far that had been the fastest finish to a match yet and it had come from a fighter that everyone had assumed was an upjumped youth contender. They parted to allow her her old front row position to watch the matches that followed. It hadn't taken her very long to earn some respect and they still hadn't seen anything yet.
It was going to be a while until she got to fight again because there were just that many competitors. So she wandered off to watch other platforms' bouts in order to get an idea of what she might be up against if she made it to the semi-finals. But she was stopped at the first one she came to.
"Fighters one-forty-one and one-forty-two please enter the ring." The first fighter to step up was a handsome boy somewhat close to her own age. Very early twenties, tops. He had blonde hair that fell into his eyes and was tall and muscular with a tan.
Tessa felt her bottom jaw drop and pushed it shut again with her hand. It's not that her time spent in the wilds with Piccolo had reset her expectations in guys. It had more to do with the fact that in all of her time living with the Reynolds she had never, ever seen anyone who even came close to this guy. Not even on TV or in the movies. And she was glad that she'd caught herself and regained her composure, because before the round started, he glanced her way and winked before looking at his opponent. She had to do a double take to make sure he'd meant it for her as she wrenched her neck around to see if there were any other women in nearby. Considering that she was flanked by overly muscled, sweaty guys, she was left with the conclusion that he must have meant her. She leaned against the platform, her arms folded on the edge like many of the other front row observers and she watched with fascination as the match started.
The blonde fought with very little exerted effort and looked bored. The two fighters exchanged punches but it was obvious from the start that the blonde was going to win. He finished the match off quickly by grabbing his opponents arm and bodily throwing him out of the ring. "Fighter one-forty-one wins!"
The blonde jumped down out of the ring near her and Tessa got a better look at him as the crowd instinctively parted. Even after nearly a year of training, Tessa had only grown to be 4'6" herself, so the fact that the fighter was a little over a foot taller than her certainly didn't put him into any extraordinary height ranges, especially compared to some of the much taller men around them. He was dressed simply in a pair of jeans and a white muscle shirt, and was extremely well toned. Thus, she couldn't tell if he had any formal training or not. "So you're the chick on everyone's tongue," he said turning towards her and again the masses moved in order to allow him to pass right next to the stage until they were standing right next to one another.
"Oh…I wouldn't…really?" She could feel herself blushing under his gaze, which she broke by ducking her head and glancing back at her hands on the platform.
"Well, I don't see too many other spiky red haired girls that made it through the first round." He was right. What few girls had entered had almost all been eliminated.
She unconsciously reached to her ponytail and laughed nervously. "Gee, I coulda sworn I'd seen a half dozen walking around," she replied cooly as she looked back up at him.
"None as pretty as you though." At this distance she could see his blue eyes clearly and they twinkled for a moment before he popped his eyebrows. He was daring her to come back at him with another joke.
She opened her mouth to respond but heard her number being called. "Fighters thirteen and sixteen please enter the ring."
"I…uh…gotta go."
"Perhaps we'll face each other later on."
"Yeah…'til then." She turned and ran back to her fighting platform.
"Last call, fighter thirteen."
"I'm here!" She placed her hands on the platform and used them for leverage to easily jump onto the platform.
"Bout time, Girlie."
"Okay, didn't you see what happened to the last guy who insulted me? Seriously, what's the learning curve like amongst you boys? It's looking a little stagnant from here."
"FIGHT!"
"You want an insult babe…fine. You'll be an easier knock out than my grandmother."
Tessa narrowed her eyes at the lug and hurtled straight at him. She delivered a sharp upper cut to his jaw. For a moment, he didn't move, his eyes rolling back up into his head. He was so massive that it took a few beats before his muscles finally lost their strength and he collapsed into a heap on the platform. Tessa glanced up at the referee for their platform and cocked an eyebrow before making a rolling motion with her hand. He looked startled for a moment and then cleared his throat before tapping the microphone and then speaking. "One…two…three…Fighter thirteen wins by K.O.!"
"I'd like to see your gram try that." Tessa muttered as she turned her back.
When Tessa got down from the platform she saw Piccolo watching through the doorway. She still didn't understand why he hadn't entered the competition but to be honest she was kind of grateful. All of these guys she could beat if she set her mind to it. No big…but Piccolo…she'd been fighting against him for months and had only come close a few times.
"Now that was a good match." Tessa was brought out of her thoughts and tore her gaze from Piccolo to see the blond behind her.
"Hi again. We gotta stop meeting like this." She could feel herself turning as red as her hair.
"I don't mind at all. I don't believe I got your name before," he smiled warmly as he slid his gloved hands into his back pockets.
"Oh…it's…um…" she stammered still not quite sure how or why this ridiculously good looking guy was in this tournament let alone talking to her. She'd seen some of the girls hanging out just outside and the was pretty sure that compared to them, she was ranking somewhere around a four or a five at best.
"Um? That's unusual," he commented, his head cocking just slightly to the side.
"No! I mean it's Tessellation…Tessa…Tess."
"That's pretty. My name's Melon."
"That's really unusual. That's like my friend who's watching me…" She looked back but Piccolo was gone. "Well, his name's Piccolo. You know like the instrument." She was babbling but for some reason the blonde seemed interested.
"Piccolo? Hmm…that sounds familiar to me." His brows furrowed over his sharp blue eyes for a moment before relaxing.
"Oh…I wouldn't know why. He's some kind of hermit who doesn't get out much. Total loner. Honestly, I'm surprised sometimes that he even puts up with me."
"Not like you though. I bet you're hitting the clubs every night," Melon teased watching the girls flush creep back up in her cheeks again.
"Not exactly," Tessa replied, her nose scrunching up a little. "I'm more of a train 'til you crash then wake up really early to watch the sunrise type of girl."
"You sound like a dedicated fighter."
"I'm trying. How long have you been training?"
"Since I was fifteen," he said before pausing as if trying to calculate in his head. "So six years. You?"
"Oh…well…nine months." She hung her head and glanced off to the side. That sounds so stupid compared to him.
"Nine months! Wow, you're really good if you've only been training that long. After the preliminaries are over, I'd like to meet up with you. You know, so we can talk some more."
"What? Oh, um…sure. I guess my friend won't mind."
"Then it's a date." He flashed her a charming smile and left her leaving feeling dazed and confused.
"A date…A date!? What did I just agree to?" She didn't have time to think it over anymore before she was again being called up to the fighting platform.
"Fighters nine and thirteen please enter the ring!"
For the first time, Tessa found herself going up against a female competitor. The girl had long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and a dark complexion. She looked Indian and very determined to win. "Good luck." Tessa held her hand out to shake her opponent's and the other girl took it.
"I won't need it." Her grip was hard and brisk and Tessa was shocked by her strength. Tessa rubbed her hand before awaiting the start of the fight.
"FIGHT!" The girl was quick too and was in Tessa's face before she knew it. The girl threw a high punch at Tessa's face and Tessa did a back flip to get out of the way. She regained her stance as the girl came again and she was able to easily block each punch. She gave the girl a hard shot to the stomach, which sent her stumbling back a few steps. Tessa used the space to deliver a hard flying kick to the side of the girl's face. The other girl stood a moment longer before collapsing and tripping off the stage. "Fighter thirteen wins!"
Tanga hurriedly jumped off the platform at the girl's side and knelt down next to her to make sure she was okay. She helped the girl back up to her feet so that she could lean back against the platform. "Are you gonna be okay? I didn't mean to hit you so hard."
"That's why it's a fight." She rubbed her jaw absentmindedly as she leaned back against a wall. "You're awesome. What's your name?"
"Tessellation…but you can just call me Tessa. And you?"
"Trish. It was awesome fighting you."
"Thanks." Tessa grinned.
"The fights will resume in one hour! If you fail to show up…you will be disqualified."
"Come on, I'll treat you to some chow." Tessa linked her arm in Trish's and led her away from the fighting platforms.
They went outside and found a stand selling burgers and sodas and Tessa insisted on paying for both of theirs. They found a table then that was off to the far end away from the rest of the fighters who were either griping about their unjust losses or proclaiming their greatness. "So what were you gonna do with a million Zeni anyway?"
"I was going to pay for my brother's surgery. My parents just don't have the cash so I thought maybe I could pay for it."
"Oh."
"What about you? I bet you've got great plans."
"Actually not. I'll tell you what. If I win, I'll give you the money. I don't need it, not where I'm gonna go."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go train with King Kai."
"King Who? Cute joke, Tessa."
"I'm not joking. He's like the most awesome trainer in the universe. Well, one of them at least. My friend, he told me that once I train with this guy, that I'll eventually be able to train under Supreme Kai who's the ruler of the universe!"
"I think your friend is pulling your leg. Sounds like a bunch of hooey," Trish said taking a big bite out of her burger.
"Well, I believe him. He wouldn't joke with me like that. Besides, once you meet him…you'll believe just about anything."
"Yeah, why's that?"
"Tessa!" Tessa forced herself not to wince under that growl. Piccolo was standing directly behind her. She tilted her head back to look up at him and smiled.
"Hi Piccolo. This is Trish. Trish this is my friend Piccolo."
Trish stared up at Piccolo and nearly spat out her soda before forcefully swallowing. "You're green!" Tessa couldn't help but grin even more at her new friend's expression of awe. "Okay, you're totally right. You would have to believe just about anything after meeting him," Trish said thumbing in Piccolo's direction as she looked back at Tessa.
"I thought I told you…" Piccolo started to admonish her but got cut off.
"I'm sixteen, Piccolo. I'm going to be sociable. Like it or not. Oh, I've got a date, tonight after prelims…I don't know when I'll be back so…don't worry, okay?"
"No, it's not okay. If you make it through preliminaries, the quarter finals start tomorrow. You need to rest, not be out partying."
"Did I say party?" Tessa asked looking up at him as her eyebrow arched up towards her hairline. "No, I said date. Just a quiet dinner to discuss fighting strategies."
"He's another fighter?"
"Well, duh, are there any guys here who aren't fighters?" Tessa asked gesturing at the surrounding tables filled with guys wearing muscle shirts and gym shorts, a few gis sprinkled throughout like spices in a soup.
"Wait!" Trish interjected. Tessa stopped bickering with Piccolo to look back at Trish who'd been pretty much left out of the conversation. "Who you going out with tonight?" Tessa looked around quickly to try and find the blonde and spotted him sitting at a table surrounded by other fighters.
"Over there," she pointed, "The blonde guy with the muscle shirt." She smirked up at Piccolo, challenging him to find fault in him. Piccolo just narrowed his eyes.
Trish sucked in her breath at first before letting it out in a soft whoosh. "Oh him…no wonder you said yes! He's a total babe."
Piccolo cleared his throat but the signal was missed.
"I know, I thought my heart was gonna fall out of my chest when he asked me. Do you know who he is?" Tessa asked as she finally turned her attention away from Piccolo and back to her new friend.
"No. How'd you even get to talk to him?"
"I was wandering around checking out the other fights and saw his. When he finished he jumped down and started talking to me and said he'd heard about my first match where I knocked the guy out of the ring."
"UH HMMM!"
"Oh, what Piccy?" Tessa sighed as she rested her hand on her cheek and gave him the most innocent batting of her eyelashes that she could manage.
"Don't call me that. You should be concentrating on your upcoming fights. Not picnicking or planning dates." He was agitated that she wasn't paying attention to the competition and seemed more concerned with dating.
"I have been. I've already checked out the guy I'll be going up against next. He's right over there." Tessa thumbed behind her to a guy who had the number eight pinned to his back. "He's got brute strength but he's kind of low on the brains." As she spoke the guy shoveled an entire sub into his mouth in one bite. Dressing and toppings dribbled down his front. Trish looked completely grossed out watching him and pushed her burger away in disgust. "You gonna finish that?" Trish looked at Tessa like she was nuts for even asking but she ignored it as she finished it off licking her fingers.
"You can't judge your opponents on appearances. He may be better than you think," Piccolo warned.
"I'm sure I can handle him." Tessa turned slightly to narrow her eyes at Piccolo. He realized that he wasn't going to be able to change her mind. She'd just have to learn the hard way.
Tessa was irritated with Piccolo to say the least. It was almost like he didn't trust her judgment in the slightest. That fat guy wasn't even worth worrying about. She'd get through this match in a minute tops. The guy would probably have to be a knock out because it'd be difficult to toss him out. She was putting all of her attention on this match.
"Fighters eight and thirteen please enter the ring!" Tessa jumped up and glanced around for the fatso. Instead, she spotted Melon looking on as he waited for his next match.
Due to her distraction, she missed the appearance of her opponent on the platform and he cracked his knuckles menacingly while he waited for the start. "FIGHT!" Melon waved and winked as well and as Tessa waved back, she nearly lost her match because of it. Her opponent swung a hard right at her that sent her skidding back several feet. She caught her footing just before she reached the edge. It wouldn't have mattered if she'd gone off except she'd be revealing her powers in only the preliminary matches. It was too soon for the light show.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to hit a girl?" She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Okay, so maybe that wasn't all of my attention.
"You're no girl. You're too damn ugly." She narrowed her eyes and jumped up and over him as he tried to kick at her. He was sluggish compared to her lightening reflexes. As she jumped she used his shoulder help push herself up and over and twisted in the air to face his back. She pushed off the ground and kicked him square in the back. He fell off balance and stumbled forward several steps right off the platform.
"Fighter thirteen wins by opponent leaving the ring!"
She jumped down off the platform near her hefty opponent. "You really shouldn't talk, buddy." He grunted as he pushed himself up but hung his head as he walked away.
Tessa fought the urge to wander off and watch Melon's match. She knew that Piccolo would never forgive her if she didn't stick around and see who her next opponent would be.
"Fighters twenty and thirty-two please enter the ring!" Both of the fighters looked pretty lean. Both were obviously good and had been training a long time. One was older, probably in his thirties while the other was closer to her age. She watched with interest as the fight began. The older was definitely more experienced but beginning to get past his fighting prime. He wasn't nearly as fast and was slightly behind in the strength department.
Watching them fight, Tessa began to wonder if her lack of experience would hinder her. She was almost like the last guy she'd just fought. Pure power and brute force. She wasn't that good at strategizing yet or anything. Piccolo had done a good job at training her and it was partly her fault if she came here and humiliated herself. She was impatient and didn't want to wait another four years. When Piccolo had made the deal with her that if she won the tournament she could train with King Kai she'd gotten excited. It was an opportunity she didn't want to pass up. Besides, these Kais were ancient and would know more than Piccolo about who she really was. Obviously there had to be something more to her than just a poor, abandoned orphan.
Thinking of Piccolo, lately, more than ever, she'd been getting the feeling that he was keeping something from her. He always asked her how she'd slept and if she remembered any of her dreams. It was a strange thing to ask. For the second time in the last few minutes she found her mind wandering. If it wasn't Melon interrupting her thoughts, it was Piccolo. Damn men and that effect they have.
She began to watch the fight again focusing on each of their moves and how the defended and attacked. The older seemed to be more erratic trying to mess with the younger's head. However, the younger fighter was more direct in his approach using a consistent pattern of attack. Two punches, a knee to kick, then a left, right kick, and repeat. It was almost like a dance with him. So long as he kept the pattern, he stayed on balance.
Despite the fact that the older fighter recognized his opponent's pattern, he just wasn't quick enough to get back on the offensive. He was slowly being backed out of the ring…and he stepped out. "Fighter thirty-two wins by opponent leaving the ring!"
The younger guy held his hands up in the air like a boxing champ. "Who's the best?! Hoo ha! You're all looking at the champ, right here baby!" The way the winner was acting, he was extremely cocky. That meant he'd most likely underestimate her simply because she was smaller and female.
He finally jumped down and allowed the next match to go on. Tessa knew that this was the last match before hers but she could see that behind her Melon's match was still going on. It was almost like he was purposefully prolonging it. She looked back at her own fighting platform and eyed up the two fighters. They seemed like equals so it should take them at least a little while. She pushed through the crowd to watch Melon finish his match without another thought.
She managed to get up next to the platform and watched as he danced around his opponent. He was light on his feet and almost seemed like he was floating on air. She banished the thought though because she doubted that there would be any other fighters capable of flight like she was.
She caught his eye and a smile played across his lips. He dodged another fist and delivered two of his own. Both connected and his opponent backed off squinting though the swelling. Using the new space, Melon used a series of kicks to keep his opponent on a backward spiral. He kept his hands up towards his face trying to block attacks but Melon moved them lower to his gut. Eventually his opponent stepped backwards off the platform and the spectators simply parted and let him fall all the way to the floor. "Fighter one forty-one wins by opponent leaving the ring!"
Melon jumped down and caught Tessa by the shoulders. "What'd you think?" he asked grinning broadly.
"You're awesome!" she gushed feeling every bit like the school girl she used to be.
"Thank you."
"I…uh…I should get back. Don't want to miss my own fight." She smiled up at him and thought she'd wind up melting right there in his hands.
"Sure thing. We can leave right after you finish, if you like," he suggested as his hands slid down her arms to grab hers.
"That works for me." She said slipping her hands out of his and turning away from him and resisted the urge to jump up and click her heels or something else childish. She did get a big goofy grin on her face. Her first date was about to start as soon as she kicked some cocky guy's butt. As she reached the platform, the other fight finished and she immediately jumped up. Her opponent seemed just as anxious to start as he was up there as soon as she was.
"Ready to eat dirt, chicky?" her opponent asked as he ground his fist into his other hand.
"As if, numb nuts. Get a clue," she snorted, crossing her arms over her chest and popping her hip out. She was tempted to knock him out that instant just for being a jerk.
"FIGHT!" She let him come at her first and decided to pull a slight stunt. She used zanzoken leaving an after image of her behind. The dip wad struck at her image and looked stupefied when all he hit was air. It also threw him off balance and she swung a fist around, striking him from behind. He spun around and stared at her as he fell off the platform. "Fighter thirteen will advance to the quarter final matches tomorrow."
She jumped down from the platform and without missing a beat, Melon linked his arm in hers. "Ready to go?"
"As I'll ever be," she smirked as she glanced up at him.
He grinned broadly in return and moved his arm to around her waist as he guided her off. "That was a pretty good performance. You moved so fast that your opponent was attacking nothing but air. I don't think I've ever seen a man look so shocked before."
"It's no big deal," Tessa said trying to wave the comment off dismissively. There was at least one small part of her that realized that Melon was going into the semi-finals with her and she needed to downplay her advantages as long as she could.
"You've gotta be kidding! You beat every single one of your opponents in less than a minute."
"Well, thirty seconds to be exact. I'm sure you could've done the same. It seemed like you were always toying with your opponents. I'm just a straight shooter. Get it done and over with so I can move on to the next thing."
"Well, I hope you only do that in your fighting," he teased looking down at her and winking.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She looked up at him confused as they walked away from the competition site. She didn't know where he was leading her and she really didn't care either. If she was willing to follow a man who was clearly an alien out into the wilderness for a couple of months, she figured she could handle one night on the town with Melon.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it." He gave her another charming smile and immediately she forgot what had bothered her.
"So where are we going?" she asked.
"With the competition in town, there's also a carnival. I thought that would be fun. Something to take our minds off the fighting."
"I haven't been to one since I was little. Probably since I was six, when I first moved in with my adopted parents."
"Well, then you're in for a treat. Japanese carnivals are the best. You'll be so overwhelmed you'll just want to watch the people," he said urging her along at a faster pace as they began to catch up with the milling crowds that were also on their way to the carnival. Up ahead they could see the lights beginning to twinkle as darkness began to fall.
"Oh, I don't think so."
Melon was right about the carnival. It was amazing. Women walked around in brightly colored kimonos and their dark hair tied in knots above their head. Everyone wore traditional sandals and Melon insisted on outfitting Tessa properly in the festive wear.
He browsed a rack of brightly colored costume kimonos and finally settled on one in purple, covered in green ivy so that it matched her fighting uniform. A sales girl helped Tessa into it and the teen girl spun around before a mirror to examine her appearance and smiled. It'd been a long time since she'd played dress up as well. She almost didn't recognize herself. Melon watched her, a grin playing on his lips. "Well, what do you think?" she asked.
"You look beautiful," he said earnestly. Tessa could feel the heat rising in her cheeks and it only got worse as he tucked a stray strand of hair back behind her ear. She couldn't remember a single time in her life when she'd been told she was beautiful. At least not since her mother had died. Most of the time she was getting teased about her looks, not complimented. "Absolutely perfect. Shall we?" He offered her his arm and led her back towards the festivities. "So where are you from?" he asked as they walked through the center of the carnival's festivities stopping every now and then to point things out to her.
"America," she answered watching as small children tried to fish out goldfish from a small pond. "You?"
"South of here."
"Oh, you don't look Japanese," she said knotting her brows.
He chuckled and nodded. "You're right. I grew up in Europe. I only moved south of here when I turned twenty-one."
"So less than a year, then, huh?" she noted and he paused, his brows furrowing for a moment and he nodded. Tessa smiled and watched a group of dancers for a while before turning her attention back to him. "What kind of name is Melon, anyway? Family name? Nickname?"
"More like my family decided to hate me from the start. My full name is Melon Ball, so you get the picture," he glanced down at her and his expression was quite comical, clearly reading, 'can you believe that?'
"Yeah, that's pretty harsh," she said sympathetically.
"What about you?"
"I was adopted and my mom was a math teacher, so she wanted to name me for the most beautiful thing she knew, thus, Tessellation."
"See, now that's actually a good reason behind a bad name. My parents just figured it'd be funny," he cracked a smile though as he wrapped an arm around her waist again.
"Are they here for the tournament, you know, to support you?" Tessa asked. It seemed strangely comfortable for him to be so close with her.
"No, they died a long time ago," Melon said glancing away before turning back to force a smile. "You?"
"My mom died in a car accident when I was little," Tessa said and left it at that. She didn't particularly feel like discussing her adopted father.
"Well, on that dour note," he said, leading her over where she'd seen the children playing earlier. She was handed a small paddle made of tissue paper and had her own chance to try to catch a gold fish from the pond. She laughed when she thought she'd finally gotten one, but the paper broke and the fish dropped back into the water splashing Melon. He wiped off his face with the back of his hand before standing back up. "Well, that was fun," he chuckled catching her eye.
"I don't remember ever having this much fun," she admitted. It was sad actually that she'd been more or less deprived of a normal childhood since her adoptive mother's death.
"We've only gotten started."
He led her up to a giant Ferris Wheel and Tessa shook her head violently. No, I've always hated this ride. I know it's stupid, I'm not even afraid of heights. It's just that drop, I keep thinking the seat's gonna fall right off."
"I won't let anything happen. Promise." He took both of her hands in his own and walked backwards leading her towards the ride.
"I really don't want to."
"It'll be fun." She tried to pull back but felt for a moment like she couldn't and then she was in line. Is he really that much stronger than me? I pulled as hard as I could! A few minutes later, Tessa found herself being seated on the Ferris Wheel next to Melon. He placed his arm across her shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze. "It'll be fine, Tess. I promise."
"Yeah, I know. I told you it was a silly feeaarrr!" The ride began moving as the seat swung backwards. She gripped the hem of her kimono at the jerk and continued gripping the fabric even after the seat had stopped swinging. Melon smiled at her kindly as he peeled her fingers away from the fabric. He held her hands in his and gently rubbed the backs of them with his thumbs.
She could almost feel all the stress and tension leaving. It was so relaxing that she didn't even notice that she was on the ride anymore. All she could notice were his blue eyes that were staring back into her own. "I'm sorry."
"For?" he asked.
"I was kinda staring off into space there," she said blinking as she blushed and glanced away before finally looking back up at him. He didn't say anything, just smiled as he gave her hands a squeeze. Again she felt like all of her worries were just slipping away.
Eventually the ride came to an end and she stepped down feeling light headed. She didn't know if the feeling was from her fear, or some kind of effect that Melon had on her.
Overhead there was a large boom signaling the start of the fireworks and he led her to the end of the carnival where they were setting the fireworks off in a field. Tessa sat down in the grass and ran her fingers over the blades in silence as she watched the explosions overhead. She didn't even realize that her hand had found its way back into his again while she sat there. She yawned lazily and rested her head on his shoulder, gripping his arm for balance before falling almost instantly asleep.
"Tess." She opened her eyes to see Melon shaking her shoulder. The fireworks were over and people were milling away in the darkness that had completely settled.
"I can't believe I slept through that," she said sitting up straight in surprise. She looked around astonished to see that they were quickly going to be the last couple left in the field.
"You must be exhausted. I'll walk you back." He stood up and offered her his hand, pulling her gently to her feet. They walked side by side back to the arena in peaceful silence. When they got there, Melon paused and Tessa did the same next to him.
"Something wrong?"
"I don't know where you're staying," he admitted.
"Oh, well, don't worry about it. I'll make it the rest of the way on my own." She did her very best to not look nearly as tired as she felt and to wave dismissively as if she were staying in one of the hotels right on the same block as the arena.
Melon considered it for a moment, studying her face closely under the lamp lights but then nodded. "Goodnight, Beautiful," he said, leaning down to kiss the back of her hand before turning back the way they'd come.
Tessa watched him walking away and marveled at all they had seen and done that evening. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that he'd parted with such chivalry. It was something she was not at all accustomed to. She waited until he was completely out of sight before she kicked her power up a notch and took to the sky. She and Piccolo were camping slightly outside of the city. Apparently, he didn't want her getting soft by sleeping in a real bed since she hadn't had one in nearly a year. She'd barely reached camp before she started feeling light headed. She landed and rolled to a stop near the fire that Piccolo had built and found that she could barely lift her head and almost immediately Piccolo was hovering over her. "Where have you been? What happened to you?"
"I don't know. I'm just really tired." She rolled over and stared up at her green friend as she allowed her arms to flop out to the side.
"I told you that you shouldn't have gone out."
She suddenly found a burst of energy thanks to her temper and sat straight up. "What's wrong with you? Are you jealous of the fact that I've met some new people and I'm not spending every waking second with you? I don't get it, Piccolo, so why don't you tell me straight up." But as quick as the newfound energy had come, it seemed to disappear just as fast as her eyelids fluttered and she collapsed back down with Piccolo catching her by the shoulders.
"That's ridiculous. I'm concerned because you shouldn't be like this. Something's wrong and I have a bad feeling about your new friend."
"You are jealous! You just don't like Melon," she muttered despite the fact that she was barely maintaining consciousness.
"He's your opponent. You should treat him that way. You can't honestly believe that he's trying to be your friend. He's using you."
"That's not true. We had a good time just hanging out. Why do you have to constantly worry over me? You're not my father by a long shot so stop acting like it." Almost instantly she regretted her choice of words. Had he not been a better father figure than her adoptive father? She bit her lower lip to keep herself from saying anything else she might regret.
"I'm trying to look out for your best interest. I can't do that if you are unwilling to listen to me." He set her down on the ground and stood up. "Now, I suggest you sleep. It's going to be more difficult tomorrow." She grumbled as she settled down and was out almost as soon as her cheek had touched the long blades of grass.
