A/N: Here is the next installment in the prompt series for you! The prompt for this one was "I miss you." Hope you like what I came up with!
Also to the reviewer 'Rhadamir' who left such a next review for me on prompt two, I just wanted to say thank you! I wanted to reply personally, but you are on anon so I couldn't, but your kind words really really meant a lot to me! So thank you!
POLICE ACADEMY
Argh! Where was that damn phone?!
Frantically, 18 pushed her way through boxes and piles of unorganised chaos. She scrambled on her hands and feet, crawling through a maze of displaced belongings, trying to follow the high pitched ringing that was echoing obnoxiously through the cavernous room.
At last, she uncovered her mobile, "Hello?!"
"Babe? It's me. Are you there?" The voice on the other end was crackly and distorted.
"I'm here," 18 breathed a long sigh of exhaustion and relief. "Your line is very faint. Where are you?"
"Hiding in a broom closet."
"Krillin!" 18 tried to hide her amusement behind a stern tone of voice, but it was useless. Krillin could read her like a book, even from the other side of the country.
"I don't have long, there's fifteen guys in line behind me to use this phone. I just…" he trailed off for a moment, "I just wanted to hear your voice. How's the move going?"
"Great." Repositioning herself on the floor so she could rest against the wall, 18 looked around at the stacks of boxes and flat pack furniture, all of which had been hastily dumped in what would eventually become their living room. Everything they owned, the entire life they had built together – was contained inside these boxes. It was a strange feeling to just pack up your whole life and move it somewhere else; everything was going to be different now. "I hope you'll like it."
This had all happened so hastily. To 18, it seemed as if one minute they were quietly living out their life in tropical island bliss, and the next, Krillin was away at police academy. And somehow she'd found herself tasked with the enormous, no pressure job of finding them a new home in Satan City - which was where Krillin would be posted once he graduated, and getting them all moved and settled in. She'd never even been to Satan City! It had been stressful to say the least.
"Babe, we could be living on the moon for all I care." 18 had to listen in as closely as possible to make out her husband's voice through the bad reception of the broom closet. "As long as you and Marron are there, it will be perfect. Is she with you?"
"No, she's spending the night with Chichi. She was so excited to see Goten."
Krillin listened with fascination as 18 took him on an imaginary tour of their new home, the sound of her voice was music to his lonely ears. She described to him the hardwood floors and the light, airy kitchen. The big backyard complete with cubby house for Marron to play in and the spare bedroom that might be perfect for the baby sister she'd been pining for. He was especially interested to hear about the ensuite bathroom they now had, and the fact that it came with both a spa bath and a double sized shower.
Trailing off, 18 closed her eyes and listened to Krillin breathing down the line. She knew the he was doing the same, and for that brief moment he didn't feel quite so far away. "Do you miss me?" he eventually asked, somewhat timidly, because he knew either way the answer was going to break his heart.
18 hesitated before she answered the question, not because she had to ask herself if she missed him or not, but because she needed to take a moment to think about how to actually translate her feelings into words. She wasn't even sure there were words that could adequately express how she felt right now. "You have no idea," she muttered. "It's been 7 weeks, 4 days, 9 hours, 34 minutes and 12 seconds since I last saw you. Not that I've been counting."
There were no family visits allowed during training, and official phone calls were only allowed on Sundays, it was something to do with building up mental toughness or some such nonsense. But someone had managed to smuggle in a mobile phone, and it had taken the cadets all of an hour to organise a roster of carefully planned illegal phone time that ensured everyone got a short, weekly turn before they had to try and sneakily recharge the battery.
"Is that all?" Krillin asked, "It feels like forever. I miss you too. So much."
Behind his voice, 18 heard a dull thudding. She knew what it was and it made her heart lurch up into her throat. She wasn't ready yet. Once this phone call was over she was going to be all alone in this strange house that didn't yet feel like home. Without her husband or her daughter, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. The last time she had spent the night without either of them beside her, she had been an entirely different person to who she was now; a person who she did not want to be ever again.
"Time's up. I gotta go."
"No," 18 gripped her phone a little tighter, she was desperate to hold on to Krillin for just a minute longer. "Not yet." Her eyes started to sting. This house was so cold and empty, the thought of spending the night here alone was frightening.
"Give Marron a kiss for me," said Krillin, hoping that the crappy reception was masking the quivering in his voice. He could say goodbye a billion times and it would never get any easier. "I love you."
"I love you too," 18 sniffed, and Krillin knew he had to get off the line before he broke down completely. It was already taking every ounce of restraint in his body to keep from sneaking out at night to fly home, so that he could crawl into bed beside his wife. Hearing her cry would be his undoing and he knew that if he went to her, he would never be able to leave. They had both sacrificed so much already for him to be here, hiding in this closet, talking on this contraband phone, and right now, Krillin was only half a heartbeat away from throwing all that hard work away and rushing to 18's side. The pain of missing her was too real and he wasn't sure how much more he could stand.
"I have to go." If he didn't hang up right now, he would be defeated, and all the torture they had endured for the past seven weeks would be for nothing. "I love you so much," he said and quickly ended the call, knowing that so much as hearing 18's voice again would push him over the edge.
"Wait!" yelped 18, but it was too late, Krillin had already hung up. All that was left now was the lonely ringing of the dial tone and a big, Krillin shaped hole in her heart.
A/N: So thats the end of that prompt. I'd really love to know what you thought of it in a review. Compliments are awesome and constructive criticisim helps me improve my craft! If you'd like to leave me a prompt, head on over to my tumblr where you can find the rules for submitting!
Until next time,
Big Love
D.B
