Disclaimer: I don't own Mr. Handy, or any of the Db/z/gt characters

Dude Where's My World:

Revised

Chapter 29: Shadows that Follow

Valerie had gotten up to find that Josie had snuck out to go to Saturday school, and Valerie wasn't sure whether she was angry about being left home alone, or happy that Josie hadn't been there to see her react like an idiot when she was surprised to find Goten at the breakfast table that morning. She supposed she was more grateful than annoyed, but she still was quite irked at not having her trusty buffer for uncomfortable social moments, like this one was proving to be for her.

"It's weird that she went to school without you guys, isn't it?" Bra asked her brother and Valerie curiously, thankfully unaware of Valerie's discomfort with Goten.

"A little," Trunks agreed, not commenting any further than that, apparently too busy with his food.

"I'll go get her afterward. When is she normally done?" Goten offered helpfully, causing both Trunks and Valerie to look over at him. He blinked at them, a little confused by the stares.

"A little after twelve should work," Bra agreed, nodding, apparently not having noticed.

It had been two weekends ago that Goten hadn't showed up — for the first time — on a weekend but the two weekends after that, he'd been there like nothing had happened, friendly and happy as always. Valerie was sure now that the playfulness had been in her head and she eventually quit berating herself over it, choosing to focus on the wonderful friendship that she had with him and the others, and to stop worrying about it…or at least that's what she tried to tell herself to do. She still felt a little awkward, but she was doing her best to overcome it, and Goten's casualness was certainly helping in cooling her jets down.

"Did you guys have anything specific you wanted to do today?" Bulma asked the kids, glad to receive a negative reply. "Do you mind if I offer up a suggestion? We've been collecting books at Capsule Corp to donate for libraries around rural school in the countryside and we've got quite a few donations accrued now and want to disperse them. It would look good to have the next CEO participating — and even some of our interns — in some volunteer work like this."

"That sounds kind of cool actually," Valerie agreed, noting that the other C gang seemed to agree with her.

Bulma smiled at them happily. "That's wonderful, guys! Thank you for this." Bulma wished she had more time to do this kind of thing and thought to herself she'd try to finish up early to see if she could catch up to them later on.

The kids had gone out to the arcade to play for a few hours while they waited for their meet up time to arrive. Goten and Trunks had gone off to check the newest game additions and Bra had dragged Valerie off to partake in a few rounds of crane game — which they obviously always lost— and kept occupied for a solid half hour on with the interactive photo-booth. When they were done doing that, Valerie convinced Bra that it was her turn for fun and took her to DDR.

Bra watched between her fingers in embarrassment, as Valerie demonstrated how the interactive dancing game worked. Valerie didn't notice when Trunks and Goten had come over to watch.

"…You're pretty good, Val!" Goten complimented — completely throwing her off her rhythm and making her fall to the ground. He helped her up after a moment, asking if she was okay and she laughed and nodded sheepishly, because it was embarrassing, sure, but this was a common occurrence at times for people who played this game as much as she did. She smiled at the two newcomers, as she worked to catch her breath again, pointing a thumb back at the machine.

"Do you guys play?" She asked them with a grin at their unsure looks.

Valerie had ended up talking all of them —except Bra, of course — into trying at least a couple rounds of the game but the two boys were just not coordinated, their steps were fast —faster than they needed to be actually — and they'd gotten tangled by their own legs and fallen over the railing behind them more than once.

Tired from the bumps they were getting, the boys asked Bra what she wanted to try next and she insisted on going back to get a specific stuffed animal she's seen on the crane —for Josie, of course, because she was too big for that kind of thing. Trunks urged Goten and Valerie to go play another game while he got this toy for his little sister. The two Brief kids made their way back to the impudent row of purple glowing crane games and he followed his sister to the one that she pointed at. He tried it once and failed to get the toy she wanted. Trunks looked left and right and not seeing anyone that could rat him out, he leaned on another machine with his shoulder casually.

"Bra," Trunks called. "Four machine lengths down you'll see an old camera security system at your eleven — it doesn't pick up audio, so don't worry — Walk past me and take this stick note, come at it from underneath and put note on the lens, but make sure you look casual and that you do it quickly." Bra didn't react to anything he said, and did exactly as he asked without missing a beat. Trunks looked over at her work and smiled, giving her a thumbs up. "Good work, now just help me keep a look out." Bra nodded and perched herself atop the machine that was under the camera, ready to take off the cover whenever he was.

Trunks went behind the machine and popped open the panel, taking out a capsule with small tools and a small flashlight. "Now then…" He grinned. "This'll be the most rewarding claw crane on this little strip here once I've tightened the claw grip." Once he was finished, he closed it all back up and gave his sister the okay to take off the camera cover before he inserted a coin into the machine and played the game, easily enough acquiring the stuffed Yoshi that Bra had her eyes on. He reached down to take it and pulled it out, presenting it to his sister who was just walking back over to him. "Tadaa" He grinned.

Valerie and Goten had decided to go on a motorcycle simulator and Valerie joked as she got on hers, "You sure this thing can handle your weight?" Goten shot her an offended look.

"I only weigh seventy to seventy-five kilos, thank you!" Valerie stopped fidgeting with the buttons to look over at him with an amused smile. "…What?" Goten asked, noticing.

"Josie and I talked your possible weight the next day after we struggled to put a pillow under your head and she said that you're supposed to weigh something like a hundred and twenty something pounds or at most one hundred and thirty-five pounds, which I think translates to like… sixty kilos or something?" She shrugged, only somewhat of exchange between pounds to kilos. "She said she was pretty sure that wasn't right even though that was an official answer so—its just fun to see the small changes here and there. You're heavy for such a small guy."

Goten scoffed at that. "I'm not heavy, or small!"

Valerie shrugged in agreement, "Maybe you just really do have a fat head…?" At his more indignant look, she quickly covered. "Josie was the one who said that!"

"Yeah, you're definitely going down Oga-chan." Goten assured, turning his attention back to the game and putting in a coin, determined to beat her now.

After a while Goten went to go pick up Josie from school and met the others at CCHQ2 in the sandwich shop on the first floor of the building. Trunks and the others had already grabbed the capsules they needed and were already seated in their own room with food coming out in droves. "You two are just in time." Trunks commended Goten and Josie as they came in. Goten rubbed his hands eagerly and took a seat across from Trunks, the two boys quickly saying thanks for their food before digging in.

Josie waved in greeting at Bra, Valerie and Francis, who she heard would be joining them on this endeavor. She took a seat in-between Valerie and Francis and across from Bra who stared at Francis, who noticed, and stared back for a moment. Valerie saw it too but didn't want to bring attention to it and instead turned her attention to Josie with a smile. "Hey," She greeted. "Dig in," She offered, saying a quick thanks for the food, before doing so herself.

The table was mostly filled with silence as all they all focused on eating. Once Trunks started to slow down, he took a look at the notes for locations beside him and started to summarize for everyone the places they would be hitting.

Valerie elbowed Josie lightly, who mostly seemed to have been stirring her soup. "You left before breakfast this morning, aren't you hungry?" Valerie asked her quietly, so as not to interrupt Trunks. Josie smiled at her and shrugged that she apparently guessed not. She knew that Josie could speak a bit now, but she seemed to have gotten used to not speaking —or it still caused her some pain— because she mostly stayed silent still; despite that, she never seemed to be in a depressed mood about it, so it was unusual to see her be so…subdued.

Valerie turned her attention back to Trunks who was telling them that they'd be using a heli-van to get to their first location and figure out as the evening continued whether they needed to consider…faster alternatives.

When they got into the van, Bra had called the front seat up alongside Trunks so Goten and Valerie took the next row and Josie sat in the back with Francis. When they took off and Trunks played music, Francis finally turned to Josie and poked her on the arm, requesting her tablet. Josie blinked at her a little surprised and reached into her satchel for it and gave it to her. Francis wrote on there:

What's up with you? You look like your pet died.

Josie frowned down at the message and replied:

I'm okay, I'm just kind of in my head today. I'm glad you're coming with us though, I could use good company.

Francis nodded down at the message and studied the girl sitting at the front alongside Trunks and typed up:

Any idea why diaper-soc over there hates my guts? If she wasn't Trunks kid sister, I'd have thumped her already.

Josie snickered at the insane things that came out of this girl's mind and especially at the thought of this human girl trying to teach Bra a physical lesson. After she recovered herself enough, she erased the message and prepared herself to lie, replying:

She doesn't like new people, much like someone else I know.

Josie had been sure now for some time that Bra knew about Francis and Trunks dating but the young girl hadn't asked Josie anything, and only seemed to have temporarily given her brother a little bit of attitude before looking like she got over it. She'd apparently decided it was Francis' fault, based on how frosty she was behaving towards the girl, and looked like she wasn't planning no getting over it quite as quickly. Josie didn't mind if the two didn't talk as long as she did, in fact, keep the secret that she stole from Josie's phone without permission. When Francis read the message Josie wrote up, she gave Josie a look that Josie copied and gave right back to her, unable to hold the expression though, Josie's eyes dropped down to tablet, staring at it for a moment before she turned it off, and leaned her head to rest against Francis shoulder. Francis complained with disgust at the physical contact, but Josie only faintly smiled and snuggled closer, unbothered by the reaction and wanting the physical comfort.

Francis sighed dramatically and looked over at the top of Josie's head. "…Your voice feeling okay?" She asked her, resigning herself to her fate as a pillow. Josie nodded softly, not looking up at her. Francis continued to stare down at her and after ensuring that no one was looking at them, she gave Josie's hair a stroke. "…Whatever it is, it'll be okay." She reassured softly. Josie wrapped her arm around Francis arm that she was borrowing anyway and squeezed it gently in a thank you.

When they got to one of the villages, they were greeted warmly, and Valerie and Josie stood back to watch the magic that were their friends. Trunks and Francis had immediately gone into work mode and talked to the head of the village and one other person who helped run the one-classroom school they had; Bra and Goten had immediately began interacting with the people from the village and allowed the kids to pull and tug at them for attention.

Those four are pretty spectacular huh?" Valerie asked Josie from the van with a smile and Josie nodded, in complete agreement. "Should we grab the stuff and bring it out?" Josie gave her a thumbs up and the two started unloading a few boxes of supplies they would be leaving here.

By the time they were at their seventh and last village in a mountain side, the gang had decided to take a girl under each arm and just fly there; Francis had —reasonably— been completely opposed to the idea but they wanted to get to every place before it got dark. Josie had wrapped her arms around the frightened Francis tightly, and kept the girl's face ducked down on her own shoulder with her free hand over her head protectively the way Trunks sometimes did for her. Trunks had grinned at the sight and reinforced his arms around Josie, using his ki to keep a protective shield around the two so they felt the ride as little as possible. When they landed, Josie had immediately loosened her hold to check on the taller Francis with concern, who took a shaky breath in but gave Josie a smile and thumbs up.

They got into the same routine they'd established of Trunks and Francis greeting the heads of the village while the others began distributing and interacting with the locals. This time, however, when they had been invited to eat with the village, they decided to go ahead and stay, provided that they allow them to contribute to the meal. Goten and Trunks had gone off to hunt while Francis interacted with the women of the village. Valerie helped with preparing the foods they already had, and Bra and Josie interacted with the kids. It didn't take long for Trunks and Goten to come back with plenty of meat for everyone, much to the amazement of the villagers.

Francis was a vegetarian, so she only ate some porridge and Josie had lost a bit of her appetite at the sight of some of the animals being bled out, so she went off to sit on her own for a while. She found the perfect spot by the beautiful mountain side that let her setting sun, and after a few minutes, a washed-up Trunks came to join her. The two had seemed to settle down after the strange irritable mood that seemed to linger whenever they were around each other and Trunks had chalked it all up to the ups and downs that come from living with a person and being around them all the time.

"Here," Trunks pulled out a capsule and pressed it, tossing it at Josie's lap as it poofed and materialized into a sandwich. "It's as plain as I could think to request it from the sandwich shop at CCHQ2 before we left. I noticed you didn't eat much and figured —correctly apparently—that you wouldn't be down to eat whatever was offered to us in the villages." Josie gave him a small smile and thanked him in ASL before taking a small bite of her sandwich. Trunks smiled at that. "I kind of thought you were buying yourself a sandwich to go when you went up to the counter at the cafe and deli, but I guess not huh? Anyway, enjoy it, I'm going to go make sure that Francis hasn't lost her lunch after seeing all those animal carcas—sorry." He laughed, forgetting for a moment that she was eating, but Josie nodded and distractedly waved him off to go ahead. "Oh yeah! Mom will be dropping in, in a few minutes, just in case you see the copter and wonder what's going on." Josie gave him a thumbs up and Trunks jogged off to Francis who stood at an edge of the village, looking suspiciously like she was going to lose her lunch.

Josie smiled quietly as she saw Trunks patting Francis back and happened to see Bra watching the same thing that she was, reminding herself to talk to the littlest Brief soon about what she knew, hoping she could convince her that there was more to Francis that met the eye. She seemed cold and rude, but Francis was a big ole softie inside, just like she and Vegeta were, but she didn't think she could muster the strength or clarity of mind to formulate that kind of conversation with a log, much or less the smallest little person she knew. No, right now, the only thing she felt she was capable of doing at this moment was existing, so with that in mind, she placed her sandwich at her side and hugged her knees to her chest, watching the sun continue to set.

When Bulma came over they had all feasted with the happy villagers who had gotten a whole new one-story library and a few new capsuled small houses as well. After they'd all finished eating, Bulma had given everyone a tour of their new library and sat all the children down to read their very first book to them in their very own native language, which only Trunks could understand amongst the teens. Francis was used to having to maintain face when bored out of her mind, so she kept back and kept her expression politely blank. Goten didn't know what was being said but he enjoyed watching the expressions on the kid's faces, as Bulma would change her pitch and tone to emphasize certain points of the story. Valerie had settled off to the side and drew as much of this as she could and Bra settled against Josie's side and listened in alongside the quiet girl, who rested her own cheek atop Bra's head and listened to Bulma's soothing voice speak in strange —yet beautiful— foreign language, thinking to herself how fortunate Bra and Trunks must feel to have such a beautiful, intelligent and warm-hearted mother to call their own.

When they'd all gone back home to Capsule Corp, the kids had been pretty tired from the day and decided to call it night instead of staying up and all went to bed. Bulma had noticed Josie's unusual silence throughout the evening and how she mostly looked out the window on the way back home and when the kids had all gone upstairs, she couldn't help but ask with some concern. "Are you okay, sweetheart?" Josie looked over at her and smiled, nodding at her. Bulma touched Josie's forehead with the back of her hand and didn't feel anything that resembled a fever, but wasn't too surprised because Josie didn't look sick, she just looked…sad.

Josie —reflexively — signed instead of spoke: Thank you for today, it was very cool.

Bulma nodded and squeezed Josie's shoulder for a moment before bidding her goodnight, knowing that she had an early morning the next day. Josie went upstairs as well and changed into her pajamas, sitting at the edge of her bed with a sigh. She waited half an hour, now laying on her stomach on her bed, staring at her barely open door, waiting to see if she heard noise in the hall, but not hearing anything, she got up and grabbed a capsule she'd left on the table. She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out something, putting it into her pajama pants pocket and quietly made her way out into the hall. Passing by all the bedrooms, she went down the halls, and crept down the stairs and into the dining room, going to the windows and opening the curtains just enough to let moonlight in, to the otherwise mostly dark room. Once she was satisfied that she'd have enough light, she pulled out a chair that was closest to the window — and furthest from the living room doors — scooting it close behind her knee and resting the shin of her other leg on the cushion. She put a capsule on the tablet and clicked it open, a tiny fridge appearing atop the table. She opened the mini fridge and carefully took out the noisy CCHQ2 Deli bag she had in there, reaching inside of it with her other hand for the small foam to-go box. When she had it, she took it out and slid the bag to the side and opened the to-go box and brought out a small chocolate cupcake.

Centering the cupcake on the table in front of her finally took a seat upon her leg and chair; reaching into her pants pocket, Josie took out two items placing them on the table beside the cupcake. She grabbed one of the items and put her arms on the table, leaning her chin atop them, as she fiddled with the wheel of her flint lighter she was holding, inattentively. After a few times of flicking it on and off, she finally shifted her eyes over to the cupcake and sighed, reaching her other hand for the candle she'd placed beside the cupcake and placing it now in the center of the cupcake, she carefully lit the little sign that read 'Happy birthday!'.

"Happy Birthday, Mama" Josie murmured, her voice a little muffled by her chin being pressed against her forearm. "I'm sorry. I love you. I miss you." Feeling incapable of saying anything more than that because of the knot in her throat, she quietly absorbed the persistent dull pangs to her chest that she had been feeling all day ,that she felt she more than deserved. Sighing, she finally blew out the candle, and leaned her cheek on her arm to look out the window, thinking about her mother's kind and smiling face back home, wondering if she was okay, and letting her mind freely go down into the guilt and pain that she normally smothered down when her thoughts managed to make their way back to her real home and all the good and bad things that awaited her there.


Note: A VERY small chapter but still, I was thinking of this at work, thinking of how hard it would be to be sixteen and miss your mother's birthday for the first time after not seeing her for a few months and to try to keep it to yourself a WHOLE day. Could she have told the others? Yes, but Josie is overtly paranoid about ever making it seem like she's not happy in this realm, so she stifles her sadness over missing aspects of it and quietly handles the guilt she feels from enjoying being away from home as much as she is. Its a complicated topic when it comes to these girls and what their individual home lives are like but its not something that I was ever sure any of you would like me to explore, hence why I don't let the girls go too much into it, but it doesn't mean they don't experience anything regarding it. I've thrown hints up to this point that I'm curious as to whether anyone has caught onto? Anyway, leave a review if you can!