Has it been over a month already since I last updated? WOW. I did not mean for it to take that long! Doing my best to make sure that won't ever happen again, but, without further distract, please enjoy. (AND REVIEW LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW.)

Leaning forward on the railing that lined the river, Trunks observes the city life around him. Honking horns sounded about the traffic along with the occasional police or ambulance siren, as workers hurry down the plaza's sidewalks to take their hour lunch breaks in the afternoon sunlight. For his entire life he had lived in the city. He didn't mind it as much as other people, but honestly he never had the opportunity to get a taste or rustic life. It was when a hand clapped over his shoulder that he turned around.

Gohan stands behind him with a friendly grin on his face. "Hey, you."

He looked quite the business man in his suit and tie with matching glasses.

"Gohan?" he asks, returning a hearty smile.

"I didn't know you came here. What's a fat cat like you doing here?"

"My office is right across the street. I guess I just decided to get out a bit. What are you doing here?" Trunks countered in a jokingly suspicious manner.

"I always come here for lunch." Gohan replied. He holds up a brown fast food bag in front of him.

"Oh... well, it's been a while since I've last saw you. You're the first guy Goten and I call to go out on the weekends."

"I don't really have time to spare too much anymore," The man replied simply. Unlike his younger brother and Trunks, Gohan had his own family to take care of. "Videl's been saying I've been working too hard and wants the family to go out every weekend."

"No kidding," The younger man laughs back. "I've known you long enough to know the order for you is work first, family second, everything else third."

Gohan shrugs and pulls out his burger. "Yeah, I guess it seems that way, but it's not. Family is always first." He softly says. "Sometimes I get carried away with work and before I know it I've missed two school plays and my wife's birthday."

"Sounds familiar. You were always like that with high school when we were younger." Trunks turns back to the railing and looks out across the river.

"Heh, well… I have nothing planned this weekend. We should all go to your place and spar. It's been a while since we've teamed up." He unwrapped it and begins to eat.

"Actually, I wanted to invite you and your family to my birthday party this Friday afternoon. If you can fit it into your schedule."

"Oh, yeah, thanks! You're turning twenty four, aren't you?" he points out. "Damn, you're getting old."

"And this is coming from the guy who is nearly a decade older than me."

Laughing lightly, Gohan pats his friend's back. "Yeah, but that's why it's okay for me to pick on you."

The president of Capsule Corp. walking around a communal plaza quickly drew attention. Gohan could tell by the stares and eyes glued on Trunks as they passed. It was always a bit strange to see someone as high up in the chain as Trunks was to be casually standing about while he usually managed to fit in wherever he went. Nonetheless, he was still going to enjoy a short break with his long time friend.

The taller man stands beside Trunks and also leans against the railing, as he joins Trunks in looking out to the water. By the look on his face Gohan could tell Trunks wasn't just enjoying the view. After a few moments of silence from both men, Gohan hit his friend is the arm. "What is it?" he gently asks.

Trunks quirks an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

Gohan shrugs and takes the last bite of his burger. "I mean, you looked pretty deep in thought before I came up to you, like you do when you tell me about your TI guys messing up the system, but I'm probably just mistaken."

Trunks couldn't help but smile in the way Gohan explained himself. "No, nothing like that. I was just thinking about life."

Gohan shifted back on his heels. "City getting to be too much for you?"

"How did you know that?"

"Well, it's not like I've lived here my whole life like you. I know how great life can be out there," he smiles." Yeah, it might have taken a while to fly to the high school and it was a bit difficult to balance my schedule, but to look out towards the mountains and forest as I came home each day made feel kind of okay with it. Then when I got married I wanted more than anything to move back to where I was raised to raise my own family, but I knew that would be impossible."

"Why's that?" Trunks asks.

"Honestly?" Gohan responds. "Well, I knew Videl would never want to. It would be a great burden to go to and from work even if we flew every day. And she needed to be close to the station because we never knew whenever the police needed her to handle a situation. Not to mention the budget we were on didn't really allow for us to get too choosy." He turns and tosses his trash in the waste bin beside them. "I did a lot of training with Dad out in those open spaces. I even trained Videl and Goten out there. Anyways, I've always wanted to raise Pan where I grew up. She would have loved it."

"Surely it would have gotten a bit, uh, lonely out there."

"Nah," Gohan smiles as he shakes his head. "I had my family. And friends. It's just a shame my mother lives out there without anyone."

"Right." Trunks agrees and he leans forward a bit more. He wasn't interested in talking about Chi-chi, especially not now. It would only make things worse if Gohan even had a hint of how close they had actually gotten.

After saying goodbye to Gohan and reminding him about his party, Trunks continues to watch the buoy in the river bob up and down and let his thoughts be consumed by Chi-chi.

If, by chance, he and Chi-chi had a 'serious' relationship, moving in with each other would be inevitable. Going to work at Capsule Corp. would be near impossible. Working at all in West City would be tricky. He hadn't considered moving as he was now, and when he did it was always focused on penthouses in the deepest parts of the city. But there was something different about a rustic home, and from what Chi-Chi had shown him, it was beautiful.

Moving suddenly did not seem like a bad idea.

However, that was out of the equation until one of them made the first move.

While his eyes were drawn to the water, his thoughts were endlessly consumed by that raven black haired woman he realized he was in love with.

Trunks closes his eyes and let the small breeze in the air console him. It was true. He had no way of knowing it would ever happen. She didn't force him to become in love with her. It happened because he was the one who wanted to be with her.

Never in his twenty three years of life had he figured he'd be deciding whether or not he should make a move on her. Not to mention all the other things he had been thinking of that involved her, which were more friendly than it probably should have been, considering the fact he was just chatting with her son.

His fairly social upbringing had meant many dating opportunities, and most of them had been focused on their public image than personal attraction. The women he had gone out with shown more interest in his money and fame than him. Chi-chi, on the other hand, was genuine. She always had put others before herself and he was confident that he knew her long enough to trust her with anything. And somehow, knowing that just made her all the more attractive. She was not the racy girls who had pursued him in the past. She was a woman, kind and loving. It was wonderful.

Although their friendship was so important to him, they'd only just gotten comfortable with each other. He never would want to jeopardize what they built together.

But if he waited any longer maybe that's all Chi-chi would think of them as. Just friends. He wanted to find out if she would ever consider ever being more. He wanted to feel her against him again. He wanted Chi-chi.

Trunks was so deep into his thoughts that he almost forgotten it was near the end of his break, let alone the vibration of his phone alarm in his pocket. After turning it off, he went on his way back down town.

He could not keep her off his mind, though. All he ever wanted to do was to be with her. He'd developed some kind of over reliance on her, and it was very unsettling. After all, Trunks never liked being distracted, a trait gained from years of studying in high school and college. Their interactions and conversations were something he found himself thinking about time to time, even the little ones.

However, as he thought about the times they've been close, like the many times they would call each other, or the time they held hours of conversation in her home, and also that time in the bathroom, he realized he cloud no longer wait.

He was not certain on how he would say it, but if it was the soonest time he'd see her, then he would. As soon as his party is over with, it would be time for Trunks to reveal to Chi-chi what she really means to him.

There was no way he wasn't going to.

The morning drive to town was a bit difficult because the rough country roads were never gentle on the old clunker of a vehicle Chi-chi owned. It also started raining, which made the decently paved ones slicker in some parts, and that was always great to drive a junk car over.

Although the drive was long, she finally reaches her destination in one piece.

It took longer than she had expected it to get to the mall since the only streets she knew in town were the ones which led to the grocery stores. When she passes through the parking lot and sees that it wasn't packed with shoppers, she sighs in relief. It wasn't that she hated shopping, in fact in the times Bulma had taken her on a few occasions Chi-chi had adored it, but to have thousands of others in her way as she looked for a gift wasn't exactly appealing to her.

Apart from the pre-ordered book, she'd received a tea set, candles, and a $50 gift card to a superstore in West City on separate visits. And it wasn't even her birthday, Trunks simply just did it. Even though she greatly appreciated all those presents, she loathed to receive them since she would feel extremely guilty if she didn't pay him back.

And so here she was, with only forty dollars to spare in her purse, and a lot of searching to do.

Chi-chi pulls on her raincoat and wraps her scarf around her head before getting out of the car.

...

Chi-chi sighs as she leaves the last store. At some point during her four hour venture into the mall she wound up in the clothing store. Most of the clothes she found weren't exactly what Trunks would wear, but she would not give up until the perfect gift was found.

She had tried her best to avoid any stores with electronics, since his whole job was based off of inventing new technology, or anything too expensive that Trunks could buy himself anyways.

It wasn't that she wasn't experienced with looking for gifts, she just had no idea what to get a guy who already had everything. Of course that didn't stop her from climbing a ladder in the young men's department, pulling out something from a stack of tennis shoes, and thus caused the stack to fall unto her when she got back down.

And so the morning soon turned to late afternoon and Chi-chi still hadn't managed to find a birthday gift for Trunks. She refused to settle for anything that wasn't good, so anything from the mall, or any other store for that matter, was out.

With a look of defeat on her face, Chi-chi casts one last glance inside the clothing store before stepping outside to get home before dark. Leaving with at least an idea of what to get Trunks would have taken a load of her shoulders when she eventually would go out again. Without it, things could get bad very fast with the birthday part only a few days away.