THE WAY WE WERE

Chapter 4: Let's Try That Again

"What do you mean you're not going to tell me anything about your plan?!" Trunks demanded over the phone.

Marron held the receiver away from her ear in anticipation of his expected outburst.

"There's no need to shout, Trunks. I heard you," she replied calmly, knowing that would REALLY annoy him. After what he had put her through over the past week, he deserved it. Not even 24 hours had past since that unfortunate incident in the bedroom, and already the phone had rung non-stop, mainly from the tabloids and other disreputable newspapers wanting to get the latest scoop. She actually had to unplug the phone to get some peace and quiet.

Krillen had taken the news very hard. She could remember how shocked he had been when he found out that she had "slept" with Trunks. Shocked wasn't really the word for it. Passed out was more like it. Okay, she slept with Trunks, but she didn't SLEEP with him. The worst part of the situation was that neither of them even realized what had happened before it was too late. The matter had been completely taken out of their hands.

"I meant just what I said. It's strictly on a need to know basis, and believe me, you don't need to know."

"I don't know if I want to," he muttered under his breath.

Marron smirked evilly. Now it was HIS turn to sweat.

"Come on Marron, just a little hint? After all, you wouldn't begrudge your 'fiancé' one last request?" he asked in his most coaxing voice. She wasn't buying it.

"Sorry. You'll just have to find out like everyone else. And don't bother grilling your sister, because I didn't tell her either. I'm not making that mistake again."

"You probably don't even have a plan. You're just making it up," he scoffed derisively.

"Oh yeah? I'll have you know that..." Marron stopped talking abruptly. She caught herself just in time before spilling the beans.

"Oh, no you don't. I'm on to your little game. Nice try Trunks, but I'm still not going to tell you anything."

"Aaaaarrrghh!!!" he yelled in frustration, "Why are you doing this to me? What have I ever done to you?"

"Let's just call it payback for all those times you got me into trouble when we were kids."

"Don't tell me you've been holding a grudge against me all this time?" Trunks asked in disbelief. "That was over ten years ago."

"Who was the one always ended up taking the rap for you and Goten whenever you got into trouble?"

"Well as long as we're bringing up the past, what about the time YOU put that frog in my soup? It's a good thing I spit it out before swallowing it. It took weeks before I got that awful taste out of my mouth."

"It was only a tadpole. And besides you asked for it. I only did that because YOU wouldn't give me back my teddy bear and threatened to pull its eyes out."

"Uh, Marron?"

"What?"

"This is getting us no where."

"Oh, right," she replied, slightly embarrassed. "Look Trunks, if I tell you now, it'll just ruin everything. You'll just have to trust me on this."

"I don't have any choice, do I?"

"Nope, not at all."

"I was afraid of that."

"Do we have anymore ice Juuhachigou?" Krillen asked his wife, while holding an ice pack on his forehead.

He was lying on the sofa, still recovering from the initial shock of finding out that Bulma had found her son and his daughter in bed together.

"Sorry, we're all out. You took whatever was left in the freezer for your ice pack, remember?"

"This is all some sort of bad dream. It's gotta be."

"Snap out of it, Krillen. You've been moping around the house like this since yesterday."

"I can't believe it. I just can't believe that Marron and Trunks were...were...you know," he said with difficulty.

"Sleeping together?" his wife supplied easily. Juuhachigou never had trouble getting directly to the point.

"Don't be so melodramatic. It's not the end of the world."

"It might as well be for me. My little girl isn't a little girl anymore," he replied sadly. He had always had a special relationship with Marron.

"You're being ridiculous. Marron will always be your little girl, but if you haven't already noticed, she's a woman now."

"How can you be so calm and relaxed, Juuhachigou? Don't you even care?"

"I care about our daughter as much as you do Krillen, but we can't hold on to her forever," she reminded him.

"I know that." He could always count on his wife to bring him back to reality again.

"Then stop moping and come on. We're going to Bulma's house."

"What, again? Haven't I been through enough?"

"Marron wants to talk to all of us together. For her sake, will you try to look happy?"

"Okay, I'll try."

"Hi Goten!" Bra greeted cheerfully over the phone.

"Hey, Bra. What's up?"

"Do you know anything about this get together with Marron's parents and mine?" the younger girl asked inquisitively.

"She's having another get together? That's the first I've heard about it."

"You mean she didn't tell you either? Rats! I'm dying of curiosity."

"I'll just bet. After what you did to her, I'm surprised that she's even speaking to you."

"I was just trying to help. Anything wrong with that?"

"You weren't by any chance trying to get them together for real, were you?" Goten asked suspiciously.

On the other end of the phone, Bra twirled a strand of aqua-marine hair guiltily.

"I don't know what you're talking about. And anyway, I didn't hear Trunks or Marron complaining."

"They didn't have a chance to."

"Why are you picking on me? What's wrong with trying to get them together?" she asked defensively.

"Nothing, but it usually helps when at least one of the two parties is interested in the other."

"What if BOTH of them are interested in each other?"

"Do you know something I don't?"

He suspected that Trunks felt something a little more than friendship, but he was too dense and stubborn to even realize it. Marron, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. She had always been good at hiding her feelings. Was it possible that she felt the same way about Trunks? If she really was interested in him, she was probably to shy to admit it.

"I have my suspicions," she replied vaguely.

"Well if there IS something between them, and I'm not saying that there is, don't interfere all right? They've got enough problems with this wedding fiasco."

"You're not the boss of me, Goten."

"So, you WANT me to tell Trunks that you maxed out on your credit cards again and forged his signature to increase your credit limit?"

"You wouldn't..."

"Oh, wouldn't I?"

"It was only that one time, and I promised that I wouldn't ever do it again," she explained in a flustered voice.

Finally, Bra sighed in defeat. She knew when she was beaten.

"Okay, I promise not to interfere."

"And you better not be crossing your fingers, Bra," Goten warned.

The 12 year old demi-saiyajin princess unlaced her entwined middle and index finger.

"I never have any fun around here."

"I suppose you're wondering why I asked you all to come here today," Marron began nervously.

Trunks was standing next to her as they were facing both of their respective parents. He was still clueless on what she had planned up her sleeve. And the thought of not knowing was driving him up the wall, which was probably her intention in the first place, he thought ruefully.

Marron took a deep breath before continuing.

"First of all, I want to apologize to everyone for the way Trunks and I behaved the other night, both at dinner...and um...afterward," she finished awkwardly.

"You don't have to apologize Marron. We're all adults here. The important thing is that you two are back together and that the wedding is still on," Bulma replied, obviously thrilled at the change of events.

"Thank you for understanding. Actually, I'm glad you brought up the wedding, because there are several things that we'd like to discuss with all of you. Right, Trunks?"

He was silent until Marron elbowed him in the ribs.

"Oh yeah...right," he answered automatically.

"What things?" Krillen asked warily.

"Well, we were really thinking of a small wedding with just the immediate family and of course, our friends. But no TV reporters or the press. I don't want the wedding ceremony to turn into a media circus again."

Bulma's grin disappeared.

"Trunks is a very influential and powerful executive of a multi-million dollar corporation now. You can't really expect him not to have a big affair."

Trunks and Marron looked at each other and immediately turned red in embarrassment. It was then that Bulma realized that she put her foot in her mouth again.

"Maybe 'affair' wasn't exactly the word I was looking for. Marron, I understand your apprehension about having a big ceremony, but everyone will be expecting it. You're going to have to get used to all the fame and notoriety, if you're going to marry the president of Capsule Corporation. It comes with the territory."

"I'm afraid that is something we are going to have to disagree on," Marron replied, still holding her position. "I'm not going to change my mind."

Trunks stared at her in disbelief. Didn't Marron realize that she was treading on thin ice by going against his mother's wishes? Even his father knew when to back off, and that was no easy task.

"So have you two decided where you'll be living?" Krillen interceded, sensing Bulma's rising displeasure.

"Don't be silly Krillen. They'll be staying here, of course," Bulma answered as a matter of fact.

"Um, no we won't," Marron corrected.

"We won't?" Trunks asked in surprise.

Marron gave him a look of annoyance. "NO, we won't."

"Why not?" Bulma demanded. "There's plenty of room and this IS Trunks' home."

"No offense intended, but with all due respect, we can't start our marriage living with our parents. Especially since we plan to live on our own income. We're not going to use one penny of Trunks' money."

"What?!" both Juuhachigou and Bulma asked simultaneously.

Juuhachigou was expecting that her only child would be financially secure and not have to worry about living frugally and being dependent on every paycheck. As for Bulma, she would not stand idly by and allow her son to live with an uncertain future looming over his head.

"You wanna run that by me again, Marron?" Trunks asked.

"DARLING, you know that we don't want to have to rely on your family's money," she replied sweetly.

"You want me to give up everything?"

"Of course. Don't you want to be independent?"

"I think that's wonderful," Krillen interjected. He was proud that Marron and Trunks wanted to make it on their own, without having to depend on anyone. His wife shot him and icy glare, making him amend his previous statement.

"Uh...but of course, that's not practical."

It suddenly dawned on Trunks what Marron was trying to do. Why didn't he think of it before? He had been approaching the situation from the wrong angle. Of course their parents would be in favor of a wedding if they were going to be passive and accept whatever they wanted. He decided to get in on the fun.

"Don't worry Krillen, it'll be great! We'll live like free spirits, not caring where we go or what we'll do next. And then once I leave Capsule Corps, I'll be able to do what I've always wanted," he added dramatically.

"What's that, I'm afraid to ask," his mother asked, with a sinking feeling of impending doom.

"Become a conceptual artist!"

"Over my dead body!" an angry voice roared from across the room.

Everyone turned to look at Vegeta, who had been listening in complete silence until his unexpected outburst.

"No brat of mine is going to embarrass me by becoming a conceptual artist."

Vegeta didn't know a conceptual artist from a con-artist, but he didn't care. It sounded low class and below his station. But then again, everything else did as well.

"But Dad," Trunks pretended to protest.

"For once, I agree with your father. I will not allow you to throw away your future like this, Trunks."

"I'm beginning to think that you two haven't given much thought to this marriage after all," Juuhachigou added.

"Mama, we know what we're doing."

"That's right," Trunks agreed. "After all, we've been engaged for 7 whole days."

Marron had to hand to Trunks. When he put on act, he really went over the top. She was just glad that he caught on to her plan and decided to help her out.

"Why don't we all just calm down? This is getting us nowhere," Krillen said, trying to play the peacemaker.

"SHUT UP KRILLEN!" the other three parents yelled simultaneously, as tempers and emotions were flaring. He shrank back in his seat.

"Marron, Trunks, I don't know if you two are really ready to make a commitment like this. One minute you're calling off the wedding because of one fight, and then the next minute you're back together again."

"That wasn't MY fault," Marron muttered under her breath, and felt Trunks' hand on her shoulder pulling her roughly against him, in retribution.

"And now you want to throw everything away because of some fanciful whim. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to put my foot down on this."

"What are you trying to say, Mom?"

"I think that you should call off the wedding and consider your options before making any future commitments. There's no need to rush into anything."

Trunks and Marron were jumping for joy on the inside, but they didn't betray their emotions.

"Marron, how do you feel about this?" Krillen asked his daughter concernedly.

"Well, to be honest, I did want to finish getting my degree. I guess we kind of got carried away with the moment. Trunks can be so convincing," she replied pinching his cheek really hard.

"What can I say? It's a gift," he replied, through his gritted teeth and pulled his face away from her fingers, and rubbed the sore spot gingerly.

"It wouldn't be for long. What do you think Trunks?"

He turned her to face him and gently took her hands in his.

"Is this what you really want?"

She nodded her head affirmatively.

"If that's what you want, I'll support you all the way."

"Thank you." She turned to face their parents again. "I guess there won't be a wedding after all."

Marron bowed respectfully. "I'm sorry we put you through all of this. Please accept our sincerest apologies."

Bulma went over and hugged Marron warmly, her anger already gone.

"There's no need to apologize Marron. And who knows, maybe next time, it'll be the real thing."

"Mama? Papa? Are you mad?" she asked nervously.

Krillen walked over to them and touched his daughter's cheek lovingly.

"I could never be mad at you. As hard as it is for me to say this Marron, I have to admit that you're old enough to make your own decisions now. It's your life, and I should let you live it the you way you want."

Juuhachigou nodded her head in agreement.

"We'd better go Krillen."

Marron turned around to face Trunks and reached up on tip-toe to brush her lips against his cheek, lingering slightly. It wasn't just for the benefit of their parents either.

"Goodbye Trunks," she said in a soft voice.

"Bye Marron." He bent down to whisper into her ear. "Does this mean the honeymoon's over?" he asked, and winked knowingly at her.

For the first time in days since this ridiculous farce had begun, she smiled.

Marron leaned back on her elbows as she stared up into the diamond studded sky later that night. She had always loved to come up onto the roof, when everyone was asleep and look at the stars. She had worn a simple pink tank top and white colored jean shorts that reached to the middle of her thighs, and left her hair flowing free of its usual pigtails.

The past few days had been like an episode from a soap opera. She was still reeling from the fact that her plan worked and both she and Trunks came out of it relatively unscathed. If she hadn't lived through it herself, she would never have believed it.

Marron let out a sigh of relief and closed her eyes as she felt the night breeze dance across her face.

"At least it's all over now," she muttered.

"I certainly hope so," an all too familiar voice came from behind. "I don't ever want to go through THAT again."

Marron's eyes shot wide open as she sat up and turned around to find Trunks hovering in mid-air.

"Don't you ever knock?" she asked.

"It's more fun this way," he answered, perching himself next to her on the roof of Kame House. "One of the perks of being a Saiya-jin."

So that's where Bra got that attitude from. It must have been hereditary.

"I see the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"What?"

"Oh nothing. What are you doing here at this time of the night? I didn't figure you to be a night owl too."

"I never got to thank you for what you did today. Your plan was pure genius, Marron."

"This is true," she quipped jokingly. "But truthfully, I'm glad things worked out the way they did. At least your mother didn't murder us on the spot when we told her that you were going to leave Capsule Corps."

"Speaking of my mother, how did you know that she would react that way?"

"Woman's intuition. I figured that your Mom wasn't going to give up her only son so easily if she knew that you were going to 'throw away your future'. So I just made sure that she had something she could object to."

"You do realize that the whole thing could've blown up in our faces, right?"

"It could have, but it didn't. Don't tell me you're complaining?"

"Hell, no. I just wish I had a camera so I could capture the priceless expressions on their faces when I said that my life long dream was to become a conceptual artist."

The corners of her mouth curled upward as she remembered his impromptu, exaggerated speech.

"I swear that one of them was going to faint on the spot from the shock."

"I almost lost it when my Dad said, 'Over my dead body!' Trunks replied, mimicking Vegeta's voice and doing his best imitation of his father in his usual stoic stance and unreadable scowl.

Marron laughed uncontrollably, clutching her stomach.

"Stop it! You're killing me!" she managed to croak out between fits of laughter.

"Call me crazy, but I think that I'm actually going to miss this."

"Okay, you ARE crazy."

"What I meant was that I'm going to miss being able to do wild and crazy things like this. It sure beats work, that's for sure."

"Hey, college is no picnic in the park either. I guess that's why I like looking at the stars. When I was a little girl, I would come up here on the roof and spend hours on end whenever I was feeling blue."

"I didn't know that," he replied in genuine surprise.

Marron turned her head upwards to gaze at the glittering heavens.

"You know, looking at the stars like this, I can almost imagine reaching out and touching them. That sounds dumb, huh?"

"Doesn't sound dumb to me."

"I guess it doesn't matter. I'll never be able to do anything like that anyway," she replied wistfully.

Trunks smirked confidently. "Never say never.'

He got up to his feet and scooped Marron up into his arms as though she were no more than a feather.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, trying to wriggle out of his grasp.

"You wanted to see if you could touch the stars. We're about to find out."

He began to power up his ki and started to levitate above the house and up towards the sky.

"Wait a minute, I didn't mean it literally," she protested.

"Well I'm taking it literally. Hold on tight. We're going for a little ride."

"Trunks, put me down right now!"

"Are you sure you really want me to do that?" he asked silkily, and pointed his gaze towards the earth below them. Her eyes bulged as she realized just how high they were, and automatically wrapped her arms around his neck tightly.

"On second thought, DON'T put me down."

He chuckled softly and proceeded to soar through the sky, carrying a somewhat reluctant passenger with him. There was nothing in the world like flying. Trunks was enjoying himself so much that he didn't realize that Marron was tightening her grip in sheer terror.

"Um, Trunks?" Marron asked.

"Like the view so far?"

"It's gorgeous, but there something I forgot to tell you."

"What's that?"

"I'm terrified of heights!" she yelled.

"There's nothing to be afraid of. Just relax and enjoy the view. You won't fall. Trust me."

Little by little, Marron relaxed her death grip on Trunks and soon found herself overcoming her fear and embracing the wind as it whipped through her blond tresses. She didn't even mind the cold, especially since she was snuggled so closely against Trunks. ^_-

Marron never wanted the moment to end. If she could have stopped time, she would. When they finally returned to Kame House, she was reluctant to let go of Trunks, knowing that like everything else, the wonderful time they had spent together, no matter how crazy it got, was about to end. After tonight, they would probably never be this close ever again, and the thought of it broke her heart.

"Thanks for the ride," she said quietly. "I'll never forget it."

"Are you okay Marron?" he asked when he noticed the change that had come over her.

"I'm fine. Goodnight Trunks. I guess I'll see you when I see you," she replied quickly and kept her eyes down as she passed him to climb back into her room from the open window. The sooner she left, the sooner she could deal with the reality that he would never reciprocate her feelings.

To her surprise, she felt a warm hand on her arm, pulling her back. Trunks put his arms around her and brought her close enough so that she could feel his breath wafting gently across her face. Marron could feel the electricity in the air as they stared deeply into each other eyes. Their lips were just inches apart.

"This can't be happening," she thought to herself. Did she dare hope for the impossible?

The last the thing she saw was Trunks smiling down at her before leaning down to kiss her trembling lips. His arms held her even closer until their bodies were molded against each other, every curve fitting in perfect harmony.

Marron linked her arms around his broad shoulders, pulling him even closer. His lips molded hers gently and teasingly, making her want more of this sweet torture. She had never been kissed so thoroughly before.

When they finally separated, they were both breathing in shallow breaths.

"Were you going to leave just like that?" he asked tipping her chin up with this thumb and forefinger.

"I...I didn't know how you felt about me," she replied in all honesty.

"I've wanted to do that ever since I saw you that night at your birthday party," he admitted ruefully.

Marron placed her hands on his chest.

"I wouldn't have stopped you. Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"You were so eager to get out of this engagement. I thought that you weren't interested."

"Baka," she replied teasingly. "I've always wanted to be closer to you. I just never had the guts to come out and say it. And besides, you were always busy with work and your friends too. I could never compete with that."

"It was never a contest Marron. So, where do we go from here?"

"I don't know. This is all so new to me."

"Me too. It's not like we're total strangers."

Marron began to giggle.

"What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking. We went through all that trouble to get out of being married and now look at us. It's back to square one."

He laughed out loud. "I guess that's par for the course. By the way, were you really serious about all those things you told our parents?"

"What things?"

"You know, like me quitting Capsule Corps and living on our own income."

"Oh, that. Of course not."

Trunks breathed a sigh of relief. He had grown too accustomed to living a wealthy lifestyle to change now.

"Just the part about you giving up your family's money," she said with a straight face.

A look of sheer panic crossed his face immediately.

"Got'cha," Marron added playfully, touching the tip of his nose with her finger.

He tightened his hold on her in mock anger.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you can be evil when you want to be?"

"Not that I know of."

"Well, you are."

"There is one problem we still have to deal with."

"The parents," he guessed astutely.

"I'd hate to have to try to explain this to them after all we went through."

"Not to mention that blabber mouth Goten and my meddling sister."

He could imagine what they would say if they ever knew. They would never hear the end of it.

"We don't have to tell anyone."

"You want to keep our relationship a secret?"

"Don't get me wrong Trunks. I'm not ashamed or anything. It's just that I don't want the press to constantly hound us all the time. They would never give us a moment's peace, plus we've already seen how they can twist the truth."

"And we've already seen how our families reacted," he added.

"We would never be happy living like that."

"Okay then. It will be our little secret."

She hugged him tightly. "I can't believe this is really happening Trunks. I never dreamed, but I always hoped."

He pulled her back to look into her blue eyes.

"This is just the beginning Marron," he promised.

Under the pale moonlight, they kissed each other again. This was going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

"It's about time," a crackly old voice came from below. "I was getting tired of hearing you talk."

Trunks and Marron pulled away immediately and found that they were being watched by Roshi with his binoculars.

"How long were you eavesdropping?" Marron demanded angrily. She had totally forgotten about Roshi.

"Long enough," the dirty old man cackled.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"I don't know about that. My silence has a price, you know."

Trunks swooped down and picked him up by the collar and suspended him in mid air, threatening to drop him.

"You want to rephrase that?" Trunks asked.

"Did I say that? What I meant to say was that your secret is safe with me," Roshi amended quickly.

Trunks then put him back on the ground and released him.

"That's what I thought you said," he replied and then flew back up to Marron.

"You have an uncanny ability to negotiate," she teased.

"When you got it, you got it," he replied as a matter of fact. "I'm not the president of Capsule Corps for nothing."

End of Chapter 4

Can Trunks and Marron keep their new found relationship a secret from their friends and family?

To be continued....

Written by,

Babboo

7/1/01