Krillen and 18 landed in front of Kame House and a very shocked Master Roshi. What shocked him even more was that they were holding hands.
Shyly, 18 let go of his hand. She went over and picked up the shopping bags Krillen had tossed aside earlier.
"I'll just head on up stairs to try on some of these clothes." she said. She turned and headed inside.
"Say, 18s' room doesn't have any locks on it does it?" Oolong said, devilishly.
Him and Roshi exchanged familiar grins.
"No. Don't even try it you two." Krillen warned. "I told you when she came here you were not to try to sneek a peek at her."
"Aww, darn it," Master Roshi said pouting. "and I just got a new camrea too."
Krillen glared at them. "If you two try to pull a fast one over em and 18 catches you, I won't stop her from what she might do to you."
Oolong and Roshi gulped at the thought of what 18 could do to them.
Krillen turned and walked on in to the house then up to his bedroom. He went over to his dresser and pulled out his training outfit. Taking 18 to the mall had set him back a whole day but he didn't really mind. As he put on his weighted boots he tried to figure out why he was training so much lately. With the whole Dr.Gero crisis over and no new evil on its way he should be living it up. Relax a bit.
But instead all he could think of was how much stronger he could get. He knew he wasn't the most powerful being on the planet but it had never bothered him before.
Goku . . . .
Goku was his very first friend. When he was beaten by the monks who raised him, Krillen thought that there was no real good in the world. Then when he was trained by the famous Master Roshi he met Goku. Goku taught him that you don't have to be the brightest to be the strongest. That you don't have to be the strongest to be happy.
Now he was gone.
Maybe if I was stronger, Krillen thought. I could have made a difference in Cell Game. If I hadn't allowed my emotions to get in the way. . .
Krillen sighed. Cell Game was over and done with. But he knew he wouldn't let something like that happen again. So he went down to train.
Later that week . . . .
18 sat up straight in bed. This time she knew what woke her up. It was the same thing that always woke her up. She reached for her light grey robe that matched her nightgown, and threw it on. She walked over to the window and opened it. She jumped out.
This has got to stop, she thought.
As she landed she saw Krillen right where she expected him to be. He moved about on the island sparing with an ivisable partner. He was practicing his fighting style as he had been for five days straight.
18 watched as he moved around dodging and blocking pretend hits and jumping to use his own attacks. He punched and swerved and kicked and ducked moving with increadable speed.
She had seen him do this a few times, unknown to him. She would watch for awhile and then went back to bed. But not tonight.
"Care to try the real thing?" 18 challanged.
Krillen spun around and had a feeling of de~ja vu. Well one thing was different, to his releif. She was no longer in that white see-through tee.
"B-b-beg pardon?" he stammered.
"Your clearly pissed off at something," she said. "so why don't you just fight me and get it out of your system?"
"M-me fight you?" Krillen said. He sweatdropped.
18 nodded. "So come on!" She discarded her robe and took a fighting stance.
"Look 18," Krillen tried to reason. But 18 wasn't in the mood to reason. She rushed straight to him and kicked him in the cheast. Hard.
Krillen soared back and skipped across the water like a stone. He skipped out a few times and finaly sunk. When he came up sputtering water and gasping for air, 18 was already above him. As she brought her fist up to strike him over his head with a energy blast, he ducked under the water. He began to swim as fast as he could under water towards Kame House, but 18 threw the blast anyway into the water. The under water waves pushed and pulled him in the water, forceing him to rise above the water in fear of drowning.
18 knew she could force him up and when she saw him surface again she was ready.
18 rushed Krillen from behind and grabbed him in a full nelson arm lock. He gasped in suprise and began to struggle although it was useless.
"You know what's the scarey thing?" 18 whispered in his ear. "I've been going easy on you."
She let go of his left arm and used his right, that was still in her grasp, to propel him into a palm tree on the island. The tree broke and fell over on to the roof of the house. Inside,18 saw lights go on.
Krillen leaded against the broken tree trunk. His chest ached and he was finding it hard to breathe.
18 walked up to him and leaned over him so their lips nearly touched.
"Training begins tomorrow at ten. I sugest that you get some sleep." 18 said. Her next word dropped down to a husky whisper. "You are going to need it, little man."
She calmly walked back into the house, only stopping to pick up her robe.
Roshi and Oolong , who were still in their pajamas, jumped out of her path as she passed. Then they rushed over to Krillen who was still staring at 18s departed form. As they helped him up, Krillen winced and grabed his ribs. Man, he thought , love hurts.
The next day Krillen stood outside the house waiting for 18. He was very confused about what happened the night before. He knew that she was powerful but he didn't expect her to offer to train with him.
Roshi didn't expect it either. When him and Oolong had gotten Krillen into the house they had both expressed their opinions of her fighting him.
"You're not sure how far she'd go." Roshi had said. "She might be useing you to get the others to put their gaurd down."
"And what about 17?" Oolong mentioned. "He could show up any minute and blow us all to smitherings!"
They both spent most of the night argueing so Krillen gave them some money this morning so they could go see a movie or something. Basicaly to get them out of the way.
Krillen was still in deep thought as 18 left the house. She wore pair of black bike shorts and a white tank top with wide shoulder straps. As she stared at Krillen she reminded herself that she must go easy on him. Her records said that he was indeed the strongest human, but that didn't make much of a difference to her.
She walked up behind him and cleared her throught to make her presence known to him.
He jumped a little and turned around. "You have got to learn to stop doing that!" he said.
18 giggled at him. "Sorry. Maybe you just need to be more aware of your surroundings."
"Yeah yeah." he mummbled.
"What?"
"Nothing." he said. "Let's move over to that island over there." He pointed to a landscape not too far away.
"Alright." she said. She rose up in the air and flew towards it.
When she landed she looked around to obserbe the terrain. Green grass covered the island with the rare tree here and there. Large rocks were piled on top one another, but they were out of the way enough for the two to battle. 18 relized it was like the place that Piccolo and her brother duked it out. Then again, she thought, it was in the same general area too.
Krillen landed shortly after she did. He was very anxious about what was about to happen. What are you doing here? he asked himself. Do you really think that you can fight her? Why can't I? Because you love her. You couldn't hurt her before and you can't do it now. Oh yeah? Yeah.
Krillen took a fighting stance. He couldn't let his emotions always get in his way. He needed to prove that to himself.
18 arched an eyebrow at Krillens sudden approach.
"Already?"she asked.
He nodded, not letting his gaurd down.
18 spread her legs and held her fists at her sides. "Let's start off with some simple blocking defence. Ready?"
Krillen didn't even bother to answer. He just rushed towards her at full speed. 18 gasped in shock and barely had time to raise her arm to block his punch. That didn't slow him down. He moved his leg up in a kick ment for her head but she managed to block that too. Krillen brought his other foot up and pushed it hard againt her cheast.
18 fell down and Krillen flipped back landing on his feet. 18 laied unmoving on the ground. Cautiously, he moved forward it where her body was. Her eyes were closed and her neck was twisted at an impossable angle. Had he broken her neck?
In a flash 18 opened her eyes and swung her knees around his neck. She then tossed him over her, heading in the dicerction of the rocks. Krillen tried to slow himself with his ki, but 18 jump kicked him from behind, forcing him to crash into the stone.
As he dug himself out 18 instantly engaged him in a hand to hand combat. The two exchanged blows and hits untill the sun began to set. The pair broke apart and landed back on the island.
18 smiled at him softly. "I think we've had enough practice for today."
"Yeah." Krillen said gasding a bit, sweat pouring down his face and back. He looked up and saw that she still breathing regularly without a scratch on her. Him on the other hand was covered in dirt, bruises and sore muscles.
Together they headed back to Kame House. When they walked in, Krillen saw That Master Roshi and Oolong were already back.
"Yeesh! You look like hell run over, boy." Roshi exclaimed.
Krillen just gave him a dirty look.
"I'm heading upstairs to take a shower." 18 said. "Thanks for the fun." She leaned over and pecked him on the cheek, like she did when they first met. "See you tomarrow bright and early."
Krillen was distracted by the kiss so her last words didn't regester right away.
"Huh? Wh-wh-what?" he said a little dazed.
"Bright and early." she repeated. "Maybe in a few weeks I'll stop going so soft on you."
Krillen fell over.
In case you didn't know I do not own Dragon Ball or Z and especialy GT! PLease do not sue.
More soon.