Author's Note: Hello! Sorry for the long wait! It's been almost five months since my last update. So sorry (bows head in shame). I've been so busy with work and school and I've had a terrible case of writer's block. Last night, I don't kow what happened but I finally had a break through, and BAM! This chapter happened!
This is actually two chapters merged into one. My original plan would've left this chapter very short and not making much sense, so I think merging the two chapters was the best thing to do. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out, though I'm not 100 percent sure of it. If you find any mistakes along the way, let me know. I've reread it a few times but I just really wanted to get this up ASAP for everyone.
A very special thanks to everyone who continues to review this story. You really keep me going and encourage me to keep working to update and battle with that terrible writer's block. So thanks and please continue to send me your comments/questionse/etc. Also feel free to check out my DeviantArt account (link in my profile), where I post fanart of this story.
Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 21:
All for You
"So who's taking you to prom, Misa?" Charisma asked as the two friends carried their trays to the lunch table on Monday afternoon. The cafeteria was loud and bustling as usual with rowdy and diverse students all around.
Misa shrugged and grinned haughtily as the girls took their seats. "Well, I've gotten quite a few offers," she said happily, trying to keep herself from sounding too excited. "I'm still not sure who to pick though…"
Charisma clapped her hands quietly to cheer Misa. "Aww…how lucky…I haven't received any invitations yet…"
"Really?" Misa asked, sounding surprised. Charisma nodded her head but waved her hand as if to shoo the thought away.
"Yeah, but it's okay…it'll be fun with all of us there, right? None of us will be alone."
"…Except for Trunks," Goten butted in as he suddenly took a seat in front of the girls and let his tray smack against the table.
"What?" Charisma asked as she quickly turned to face him. "But why?"
"You already know how he is," Goten said casually before digging into his lunch, the contents of which slightly spilled over sloppily when he slammed the tray. "It's really no surprise, though it is a shame."
"That dummy…" sighed Misa as she crossed her arms and shook her head. "Tsk, tsk. As always, Trunks the party pooper… I'm starting to think the word 'fun' doesn't exist in his dictionary."
Charisma felt her shoulders fall slightly. She turned her head around to watch Trunks as he grabbed his lunch. Misa noticed the dazed look on Charisma's face and nuzzled her with her elbow.
"So…do you agree to bribe him?"
"Huh?" Charisma swirled around immediately.
"Yeah, do it!" Goten said enthusiastically. "We all know he can't possibly say 'no' to you."
"What are you talking about?" Charisma felt herself blushing. "Of course he says 'no' to me. He does it all the time."
"You're so oblivious…but it's so cute!" exclaimed Misa with her hands over her heart. "But can you try to convince him to go?"
Charisma shrugged and smiled at her friends. "I was planning on do that from the start."
"I knew it!" Misa held her hand up in victory.
Before she could say anything else, Goten noticed that Trunks was heading over and signaled for the girls to remain silent. Trunks arrived to find the group eating their lunch calmly…too calmly.
"…What's wrong now?" he asked solemnly while waiting for a fallout of some sort.
Charisma lifted her eyes to him as he sat in front of her. She took a deep breath and smiled wide and happily. Trunks flinched slightly, taken off guard.
"Trunks! So are you looking forward to prom?" she inquired, keeping her voice cheerful and her eyes large and innocent.
Trunks took a deep breath and shook his head. "…I thought about it, but I don't think I want to go."
Charisma's smile faded slightly but she recovered after a few seconds. "Really? How come?"
Trunks shrugged. "Honestly, I don't see any point in going. I'm not really into parties very much. I don't dance. So I don't see why I should go…that's all…"
Charisma's smile faded completely and she shook her head. "What does that matter? We'll all be together, even if we're not dancing. We'll still have fun. This is the last major thing we're gonna do before graduation. Aren't you looking to make more memories with us?"
"Charisma, please don't try to guilt me into going," he said suddenly.
Charisma frowned.
"I've already made up my mind…"
Charisma sighed and looked down at her food. Misa and Goten exchanged a glance and followed along by remaining silent. Trunks sighed and crossed his arms. "I don't see why it's such a big deal."
Charisma nodded reluctantly. "You're right…"
Misa and Goten looked at her quickly.
Charisma turned to Misa and grinned. "Well, if there are any guys you don't want to go with, just send them my way, all right?"
Misa smiled and nodded her head. "Sure!"
Trunks lifted his eyes from his food to look at the two. Goten noticed this and chuckled to himself. 'I knew we could count on her!'
…
That evening, Charisma headed over with Trunks to his house for another round of last minute studying. After greeting Bulma and Bulla at the door, Charisma and Trunks headed for the main living room. They took their usual seat on the ground at centered coffee table. Setting their things down, they quickly took out their notebooks and materials and got on to studying.
"…You're really not going with us, huh?" Charisma inquired, suddenly breaking the silence.
"I'm trying to study," muttered Trunks without even prying his eyes off his work.
Charisma sighed and put her pencil down. "I'm only asking…" she mumbled as she cracked the fingers.
"I know you," Trunks replied blankly, still working.
"You might regret it someday. This is a once in a lifetime thing, you know. So what if you can't dance? There are people who are horrible dancers but do it anyway! Who cares what anyone else thinks?"
"I'm not listening…"
Charisma frowned and turned to him. she watched as he continued scribbling equations and numbers onto the white sheet of his notebook.
"Please? I really want you to be there with us," she protested. Trunks remained silent and Charisma took a deep breath. She really did want him to go, probably even more than Goten or Misa wanted for him to go. Her motives for wanting to convince him to attend were probably more selfish than she even realized.
"Sorry, but no," he finally said blankly. Charisma didn't know what else to say, until she registered a thought that suddenly came out as words from of her mouth.
"Even if I ask you to go with me?" she exclaimed loudly enough for it to seemingly echo in the large room.
There was an immediate silence. An awkward silence.
Charisma's hands instinctively lifted up to her mouth as if she'd said something completely inappropriate. She turned around to face the opposite direction to avoid the surprised looked that Trunks would surely have on his face.
That statement definitely pried Trunks' attention off his homework. He sputtered before collecting his thoughts as he felt his cheeks burning. "…What?"
Charisma shook her head. It took a moment to compose herself. She slowly turned herself around, shyly lifting her eyes to his. She felt her heart jump to her throat.
"…That's…not what I meant," she choked out with a pout. "…Don't look at me like that…"
Charisma knew she was lying. Only she didn't mean to ask him. She didn't think he'd say yes, but she did expect his reaction to be exactly like this. Not that it made her feel any better.
"…Are you that desperate for a date?" Trunks finally said. Charisma was taken aback by his blunt comment.
"What? No!" she quickly snapped her cheeks still red. "When I said 'me' I meant 'us.' You know, Goten, Misa, and me."
"I see," Trunks replied and turned back to his work. It was no use now, though. His concentration had been completely broken. Charisma bit her lips and face-palmed and she turned away from him again and attempt to focus on her school work. Her concentration had been broken long ago.
"…it just won't feel right without you there, Trunks," she said softly. "The four of us have always done everything together. This is the last event before graduation, where we can see all of our classmates together having fun before graduation. I feel like it means a lot to everyone because of what it signifies: our passage into adulthood and the rest of our lives. Things won't be easy anymore once we're adults."
Trunks lifted his eyes to her. Her eyes were nostalgic as she traced the torn edges of her notebook. "I'd hate for you to miss it. It won't feel the same. Goten and Misa feel this way, too. But if you really feel that strongly against it, then I'm not going to ask you anymore."
Charisma forced herself to continue jotting down notes and work into her notebook. Trunks took a deep, exhausted breath. "You're really something…"
Charisma looked up at him instantly. "What do you mean?"
Trunks folded his arms across his chest and faced forward towards the television. "I'll rethink it, okay?"
Charisma couldn't contain the smile on her face. "You mean it?"
"I didn't say yes," he swiftly said and looked at her. "Only that I'll think about it again…"
"I know, I know," Charisma answered with a grin and nudged his arm with her elbow. "It's better than saying no. You won't regret it!"
Trunks smiled back down at her. "Right."
"Well, I guess I'd better go," Charisma said cheerfully as she stood up and stretched her arms over her head lazily.
"Already?" asked Trunks with surprise.
"Yeah," Charisma replied and gathered her things. "You'll be fine without me, won't you?"
"Sure, but…" Trunks shook his head. "Whatever. I'll see you tomorrow, then."
"Okay!" Charisma hurried and headed out the door.
...
"So what did he say?" Misa asked as the girls gathered at their lockers the next morning.
"Well, he hasn't budged much," informed Charisma as she dug into the contents of her locker. "But I did get him to at least start thinking about it."
Misa clapped her hands happily. "Yes! That's great! Then that means we can still convince him to say yes somehow. Not all hope is lost."
Charisma shut her locker and smiled at Misa. "Yup. But I'm at a loss of what to do now. How can I get him to say yes?"
Misa and Charisma began walking off through the student-filled hallways of the school. "Let me think of something, okay? I think I have a plan…"
"Really? A plan?" Charisma inquired as her eyes widened with surprise. Misa wasn't one who usually planned on anything. "What are you thinking of?"
"Hmm, you'll see…" Misa grinned and headed into a different corridor than Charisma to her first class of the day. "I'll see you later!"
Charisma waved weakly as an uneasy feeling filled her being. She brushed it aside and decided to trust in Misa's reasoning and headed off to class.
...
Misa entered her first class and quickly took her seat beside Goten. She grinned over at him. "Good news: Trunks might reconsider going to the prom," she informed him.
Goten looked at her and held up a fist victoriously. "Yes! Charisma was able to sway him, right?"
"Of course," Misa replied as if it were obvious. "Only, we've got to make sure he agrees to go for sure, and that he does in fact keep his word and go. I've got a plan, but we can't tell Charisma, as well as Trunks."
Goten looked at her strangely. "Why not? Isn't she the best weapon we have in our hands?"
"I'm not saying she's not going to help us. She definitely will." Misa stopped talking when she saw the professor heading into the class. He greeted the array of students, who unenthusiastically greeted back. This particular professor was as boring and strict as a professor could get: every student's nightmare, practically.
Misa tuned the professor out as he spoke and leaned into Goten to whisper her plan. "You've noticed just as much as I have that they probably have feelings for each other, right?"
Goten peered over at her and whispered. "Yeah…we're going to set them up?"
"Yup!" Misa chuckled.
"Miss Suna," the professor called out her name sternly, causing her to shut up instantly.
"Yes, professor!" she replied, sitting up and folding her hands on the desk innocently.
"You seem energetic today," he deadpanned and held out a piece of chalk. "Please, come up here and show us what you did on the first problem from last night's homework."
Misa frowned and reluctantly scurried to the board.
...
Charisma was sitting in her bed that night and flipping through her textbook. Her television was on a drama, to which Charisma was increasingly being distracted away from her studying. Her eyes budged when they darted back to the screen. "Kyah! I can't believe he just did that!" She tossed her book carelessly onto the bed and grabbed a pillow to sit on the ground in front of the television.
"Let's be together," the handsome male lead told the beautiful female protagonist.
"But your entire family disapproves," she cried. "I don't want to ruin anything for you…"
"You're all that matters to me…"
Charisma squirmed in her place. "How sweet! I wonder what's gonna happen next…!" Charisma was frightened by the sudden ringing of her cell phone as it sat on her desk at the other end of the room. "Oh, what now?"
Reluctantly, and with her eyes still on the screen she hurried to pick it up. "Hello?"
"Hi Charisma!" a perky voice spoke on through the receiver.
"Misa!" Charisma greeted. "What's up?"
"Tomorrow's Saturday and none of us have anything to do," explained Misa. "You wanna go see a movie or something? I'm going to invite Goten and Trunks to come along, too."
"Oh, that sounds fun," agreed Charisma enthusiastically. "It has been a while since we've all hung out together. Where are we meeting?"
"Let's meet at the mall downtown at around noon, all right?"
"Cool!"
"Great! I'll see ya tomorrow."
"Okay. Goodnight, Misa." Charisma shut her phone and smiled. Her smile immediately died when she whirled around and found commercials playing on the television instead of her drama. "KYAH! I missed it!"
...
Sure enough, Charisma was at the center mall in downtown West City at noon, all by herself. She stared down at her wrist watch and frowned.
"Where is everyone?" she wondered and flipped open her cell phone. Misa hadn't called or anything. Charisma figured maybe she was running late. Trunks was making his way over from the opposite end of the street with his hands in pockets. He noticed Charisma standing at the entrance to the mall.
"She's early," he remarked and headed over. "Hey," he greeted as he stood beside her.
"Hi!" she said happily. "I'm so glad you're here. I thought everyone had ditched me."
"Are they late?"
"Yup. I can't believe Misa would be late. It was all her idea for us to come here together, after all." Charisma's cell phone chimed a cute tune and Charisma opened it. "Oh, new text…" Trunks looked at her and watched as her face fell.
"What's wrong?"
"Misa says she woke up with a fever and can't get out of bed," Charisma said gloomily as she punched buttons to send a reply. "What terrible luck. I hope she gets better soon."
"That's strange," remarked Trunks but thought nothing of it. "But what about Goten?" Trunks' phone chimed at the sound of Goten's name as if perfectly on cue. Trunks grabbed his phone out of his pocket and frowned when he read the message. "Goten is bailing on us."
Charisma gasped and looked over at Trunks' phone. "Tell everyone I'm sorry," Charisma read out loud. "I have a date planned for tonight. I totally forgot about it when Misa asked if we could hang out. I can't go. Have fun without me."
Charisma and Trunks exchanged a glance.
"So…I guess it's just us then, huh?" Charisma said softly.
Trunks nodded and put away his phone. "I guess it can't be helped. So what do you want to do?"
Charisma put way her phone as well and shrugged. "I don't know. You want to get something to eat first? I kind of rushed out of the house and didn't really eat much."
"That's no good," Trunks remarked as they began heading into the mall together. "You shouldn't skip meals."
"What are you, my doctor?" chuckled Charisma as she playfully shoved at his shoulder. "I'm fine, thank you."
...
Trunks and Charisma sat at a table in the food court where they munched silently on pizza. "Have you found a date yet?" asked Trunks out of nowhere.
Charisma was taking a sip of soda and almost spit it out when he asked. "No…not yet…why do you ask?"
"…I'm just curious," he replied casually. "You seemed bent on finding a date."
"Really?" Charisma replied quietly with her eyes cast downwards. "That's not really the case. I'm not really worried about not having a date or anything. While it would be fun, the most important thing for me is being with my friends. Nothing else matters." She grinned up at him, batting her eyelashes innocently.
Trunks stared at her silently. Her smile faded. "What is it?" she asked curiously.
"You have pizza sauce on your cheek."
"Eek!" Charisma squirmed and quickly reached over the table to grab a napkin. Her wrist bumped into her cup of soda and knocked it over. Luckily, she grabbed it quickly enough as to not let too much of it spill over, but just enough to cover a nice area of the table.
Trunks laughed to himself at seeing her so frantic. 'Looks like someone's lying…' he thought to himself. Charisma used the napkins to clean the spilled soda with the sauce still lingering on her cheek, totally forgotten.
"I'm such a klutz," she mumbled with her cheeks flushed in shame. Her lips puckered together to form her usual childish pout.
Trunks shook his head and grabbed a napkin. While Charisma was still wiping the table, Trunks reached out and gently wiped the sauce off her cheek. Charisma froze when she felt it and lifted her eyes shyly up to him.
"It's not a big deal," he said, sounding amused.
"Don't laugh at me," she continued pouting and stopped cleaning. "And what about you? Have you considered asking anyone?"
Trunks scoffed at the idea. "There isn't anyone I'm really looking forward to taking if I in fact decide to go. If I go, it'll be alone and I'm completely fine with that."
Charisma sighed and nodded her head. "I suppose…but you know; there are lots of girls in school who'd love a chance to go with you. I've had girls come up to me and ask if you're available."
Trunks' eyebrows lifted curiously. "For real? What did you tell them?"
Charisma grinned. "…I told them you were, but weren't at the same time. Isn't that the truth?"
"You did well," Trunks smirked back at her. "Most of those girls are like hyper teeny boppers."
"That's mean," Charisma retorted, yet couldn't help but laugh. "You have more admirers than you deserve."
"What's that supposed to mean?" he protested.
Charisma laughed and stood up from her seat. "I'm done. Should we continue?"
...
Trunks and Charisma avoided shopping. Mostly because Charisma knew how much Trunks detested it and would detest it much more if Charisma was his shopping buddy for the day. Instead, they headed directly for the video game arcade on the lower level of the mall.
Trunks was an excellent player at pretty much every game. Charisma greedily took his tickets. He didn't care about the prizes anyway.
"I'm so glad I came with you!" Charisma cheered as the basketball game machine spit out tickets as if hitting a jackpot. "I'm going to get something really awesome at the prize counter!"
"You're such a kid," Trunks teased as he threw his last shot.
"Great job!" the machine announced as it spurted out a couple more tickets.
"Look who's talking," Charisma shot back and blew a raspberry at him. She turned and ran over to the prize counter where she quickly picked out the largest teddy bear she could afford with the tickets.
Charisma carried it proudly to where Trunks sat at one of the racing games. "Isn't this the coolest thing ever?" she exclaimed. "You're like a good luck charm! Thanks for the tickets."
"I still think you're a kid," replied Trunks flatly, as he stared up at her blankly. He groaned loudly as a mass of fuzzy white faux fur hit him in the face. "Hey!"
Charisma had shoved the large fluffy bear in his direction and laughed as she walked off. "I'm going to get some more tokens. I'm going to beat you at that racing game."
"In your dreams," he yelled back.
Charisma walked past a group of four guys around her age on the way to the token machine. She stood at the machine gathering her money she noticed them approaching. They stopped around her and she grinned at them.
"You can go ahead," Charisma said sweetly, moving away to allow them to get their tokens first.
"You're very nice," one of them said smoothly. "You go to Orange High, don't you?"
Charisma nodded her head. "Yeah. Oh, you do, too?"
"Well, I used to," he replied. "Not anymore though. They didn't want me there."
Charisma's eyebrows furrowed curiously. "Oh, that's too bad." She continued counting her money.
"They just didn't like me," he announced. "But I used to see you walk through the halls and at gym all the time. I always thought you were really cute."
Charisma blushed and scratched her arms nervously. "Thanks…" She keep her eyes focused on the coins in her hand. 'I don't like this guy,' she thought to herself.
"Why don't you hang out with us?" he proposed and came closer to her.
"You mean right now?"
"Yeah, is that a problem?"
"Kind of…I'm with someone…" Charisma pointed at a direction. The guys looked over to see Trunks eyeing them hotly from the other end of the arcade.
"Oh, that guy," the boy said as if it were nothing important. "Just ditch him. It'll be worth it to hang out with us instead. We know how to have fun."
"What?" Charisma asked and shook her head immediately. "Sorry, but no."
"Aww," the guy said, pretending to be hurt. He reached out for her hand and clutched onto her wrist. Charisma gasped and squirmed uncomfortably. Before she could say anything, she felt someone instantly latch onto her shoulders and draw her back into their chest. The main creep suddenly let her wrist go.
Charisma looked back while expecting it to be one of this creep's friends and getting her fist ready to swing. She immediately relaxed when she looked up at Trunks' stern face.
"Let's go, Charisma," Trunks said lowly and began steering her away.
"Hey!' the creep called out. "We were talking to her!"
Trunks ignored him and his friends as they called out. He continued steering Charisma out of the arcade.
"Trunks!" she protested with a frown. "What about my bear?"
Trunks steered her near the game he'd been sitting at and she quickly grabbed the large bear and hugged it closely as Trunks led her out of the arcade.
"Be careful with those kinds of people," Trunks said, grabbing her by the hand and leading her on as they continued walking, without even realizing it.
"I kind of already knew that," Charisma told him. "I didn't like the vibes he was giving off."
"He was expelled from school for assaulting a classmate," Trunks informed her. "We used to be in the same class."
"Really?" Charisma replied, sounding slightly surprised. "What a creep! I knew something was up!" Charisma brushed it off and smiled sweetly up at Trunks. "You really don't have to be so worried, though. I can defend myself."
Trunks sighed and stopped walking which caused Charisma to bump into his shoulder. He realized she was right after all, but then turned back to realized he'd been holding her hand tight for the last minute or so. Their eyes met and Charisma blushed as she slowly took her hand back.
"In any case, I appreciate that you were worried about me," she said gently. She laced her arm around his and smiled warmly. "It's good to know I have someone like you on my side, Trunks. I feel almost invincible."
"…Same here," he replied faced forward. 'More than you know,' he thought to himself.
"Huh?" she asked, not sure what he was talking about. "How do I-?"
"It's nothing," Trunks shook his head and brushed off the question. The two began walking towards the movie theater.
...
Charisma and Trunks sat in the back of the dark theater watching an action movie. Charisma wasn't into this kind of movie but didn't protest it because she knew Trunks' taste in movies was the opposite of hers. It didn't matter to her much anyway. She couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable with nervousness as they sat amongst other movies goers. Some were with a large group of friends, like Trunks and Charisma had planned. Others were there with their dates, much like Trunks and Charisma looked like now.
Charisma realized how close to a date this was at that moment and blushed. She was grateful that the darkness masked her face perfectly.
As the movie went on, Charisma's eyes would dart from the screen to Trunks. At one point, Trunks' eyes darted to hers and perfectly in time to meet with hers.
Charisma squirmed. 'Did he notice? I need to stop!' Charisma looked forward and blushed.
"Are you that bored?" he said. "You want to leave?"
"No, no," she responded and grabbed the popcorn and stuffed her face. Trunks chuckled and faced forward again.
When Trunks and Charisma stepped outside of the mall to head home, the sun had long gone down the sky was dark. White streetlights illumined the way as they walked back to their houses. Charisma hugged the teddy bear tightly like a child would. Trunks peered over at her and chuckled.
"You really look like a kid holding the bear like that," he remarked.
Charisma glared up at him. "Oh shush, you!" she responded but grinned back at him.
The ten minute walk back to their houses was mostly silent. The silence wasn't awkward or uncomfortable, though. Charisma was content enough with being able to walk with him. Her eyes were on her feet, studying the ground as she realized their footsteps matched one another. She smiled to herself like a little girl.
'This kind of does feel like a date,' she thought to herself. 'It's kind of weird to think of it like that, though…'
The two eventually stood in front of the Capsule Corp house. Trunks noticed Charisma's smile as she stopped at the edge of the street to cross over to her house.
"What's with that smile?" he asked curiously. "You're not plotting anything, are you?"
Charisma turned around to face him and shook her head. "Don't be silly. Of course not. I'm just glad that out of everyone, you showed up today. It seems we barely get to hang out together. It's really nice."
"That's true," Trunks agreed and came closer to her. Charisma's eyes fell to the ground and she watched as their shadows merged. Her eyes lifted back up to him. "I actually had a good time, too. I was thinking you'd spend all day trying to convince me to go to prom."
"I wouldn't do that," Charisma protested as she clutched her bear tighter. "If you want to go, then I'll be happy. Everyone will be happy. But I can't make you do anything you don't want to do. I know it would be futile to convince you otherwise sometimes."
"You know me very well," he chuckled. He took her by surprise when he patted her head. "I've thought about it. I think I want to go."
Charisma stared up at him wordlessly and simply blinked for a few seconds. "…You mean it?"
Trunks smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah…"
"Kyah!" Charisma squealed and instantly hugged him tight, dropping her bear in the process. She squealed again when she saw her bear hit the dirty ground and picked it up. She dusted it off frantically and smiled back up at Trunks. "I'm so happy! I'm glad you're coming."
"Don't expect me to dance or anything," he added right away. "I'm just going to hang out with you guys."
"Fair enough!" Charisma replied as she composed herself. "Well, then I'll see you later. Thanks for everything, Trunks."
Charisma ran across the street towards her house. She turned back once she reached her door and waved before opening the door and disappearing inside. Trunks smiled back and began walking towards his house. He chuckled to himself as he opened the door and went inside.
I hope you enjoyed! This chapter was a ton of random thoughts thrown together, so I hope it made some sense. Next chapter will be their prom, and something really BIG is gonna happen. I've been plotting it from the beginning. It'll be a real turning point for the story. So please stay tuned and I'll do my best to get it out very soon! Please leave me feedback :) Thanks!