Washed Away
By C.S. Hayden
All characters are the property of Akira Toriyama, DragonBall Z and Toei Animation.
Author's note: All names have their English spellings for continuity. The story will start taking a lemony turn towards the end of this chapter so you've been warned.....
Washed Away
Gulls screeched in the nearby surf, waking Krillin. He swallowed and grimaced at the sour taste in his mouth. "Bleah," he grumbled groggily. "Pirate breath."
He turned his head and got a faceful of blonde hair. In spite of his arm being totally numb, Krillin was thrilled - it was unusual for Eighteen to let her guard down enough to simply fall asleep with him. They'd only done so once or twice before while watching movies on TV. Her face was nestled against his neck and he could feel her breath on his skin. He brushed her hair back to see her face and froze.
Eighteen had her fist tucked under her chin like a little child. Her forehead was wrinkled and her mouth was twisted like she was going to cry. Her other hand was resting on Krillin's stomach and it was trembling ever so slightly. He carefully placed his hand over hers and her fingers were like ice. She gave an inarticulate whimper.
"Babe?" He could feel her whole body start to shake; he wasn't sure if she was having a nightmare or powering up. Neither possibility was very good. "Eighteen! Sweetheart, you need to wake up." He cupped her cheek, lightly slapping her face. "Come on, wake up!
Her response was to jerk violently away from him, tumbling down the sloping beach into the wet sand. She managed to get to her hands and feet only to be knocked down by a sudden wave. Krillin bolted to her side, helping her to her feet and holding her steady as they waded out of the surf.
"Eighteen?" he asked anxiously. "Are you all right?"
She tossed her hair back defiantly, glaring at him. "Do I look fine, dolt?"
"Well, I was worried. I thought you were having a nightmare."
"Who cares about that?" Eighteen shoved him away and started up to the house in angry, unladylike strides. "This dress was dry-clean only. It's ruined!"
Scratching his head, Krillin watched her stomp into the house and listened to the crashes of her procession through it. "Oh-kay," he said finally. "Note to self: Eighteen is not a morning person."
Steam billowed all around her as Eighteen stood in the shower, rinsing the shampoo from her hair. As an android, she never dreamed so when she had been freed from Dr. Gero's influence, she had no idea what was happening to her. She had been convinced that she was malfunctioning until Krillin had explained that all humans dreamed. All things considered, if humans had dreams like hers, Eighteen would rather be a robot.
The images were all muddled, thanks to her unexpected dip in the surf. Dr. Gero had been there, the laboratory, and Cell but somewhere in the midst of all that horror, a baby had been crying. She had been running and running, trying to find the baby when Krillin had woke her up and surprised her. Eighteen shook her head. She knew that he had been only looking out for her but she'd probably been too harsh to him again.
Eighteen finished the shower and dried off, returning to her room to put on a black tank top and denim shorts. Since the pig and the pervert were away, she didn't have to put up with their leering and could wear whatever she liked. She did admit to a certain satisfaction in seeing just how much she could make Krillin blush, however; judging his reaction by the intensity of the color, how much surface area the blush covered, whether he dropped anything, lost the ability to speak, or, best of all, had to leave the room in a kind of bow-legged shuffle. It was a most amusing diversion.
Krillin was puttering in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables as he stood on a small step stool. He had apparently gone for a quick dip while she had been in the shower, judging from his damp hair and the knee-length swim trunks he was wearing beneath the apron. It would have looked silly on any one else but it let Eighteen admire his physique. Despite his short stature, Krillin had lovely muscles, lean and sculpted. She came up behind him silently and stood as close as she could without actually touching him.
"What's cooking?"
"Vegetable omelet, miso, and rice," Krillin replied, barely missing a beat in his chopping. "Have a nice shower? I heard the water running."
Eighteen cursed his sharp ears for losing the element of surprise. "Yes. I feel much better." She regarded his bare sides and flexed her fingers.
"If you like, I can take your dress into town. I'm sure the cleaners will be able to fix it-TZ!!!" He jumped as her fingers found a sensitive spot along his ribs. "Hey!" he laughed. "That tickles!"
She let her arms encircle him under the apron in a rare hug, pressing her body into his back. The warm skin between his shoulder blades smelled of salt water and musk. "Just sorry I woke up in a bad mood."
The knife thumped on the cutting board as Krillin dropped it. Eighteen was pleased to see his blush travel all the way around to the back of his neck and mentally tallied up her points. She released him and commented, "Your pan's smoking."
Krillin yelped and quickly went to rescue his breakfast. Eighteen smirked and sauntered to the table to help herself to the tea that was waiting there. Krillin dropped the spatula into the pan with a loud clang. She smiled inwardly as she sat down and crossed her long legs.
"So," she said calmly, "you were going to the mainland today?"
"Thinking about it," he replied, tipping the beaten eggs into the pan. "I need to sign some papers and stuff."
"And buy a capsule house too, I suppose?"
The eggs sizzled in the pan while Krillin let out a heavy sigh. "You, ah, heard that, did you?" His shoulders drooped slightly.
"Yes." Eighteen sipped her tea quietly.
"I wanted to surprise you."
"So I gathered."
Krillin tossed his vegetables into the omelet pan. "Was that what made you mad?"
"Yes."
"For Kami's sake, why?" He shot an unhappy scowl over his shoulder at her that could rival Vegeta's. "I know I didn't talk to you about it. I wanted to find out if it was worth restoring the house before I made up my mind about living there."
"I thought you liked it here."
The food occupied Krillin for a few minutes while he finished the omelet and dished it up. He waited until he had breakfast on the table before continuing. "This is Master Roshi's house," he said as he picked at his food. "It was fine when I was training because I really didn't have any place else to go. I couldn't very well go back to the monastery and I really didn't have any family to speak of."
Eighteen let him eat a bit before speaking. "And now you have some place to go?" she asked, tactfully avoiding the subject of his estrangement with his father in much the same way Krillin avoided bringing up things in her checkered past.
"Yeah." He smiled wistfully. "It was a great place when my mother was alive. She loved to garden. There were dogwoods and cherry trees all around the house and flowers everywhere." He looked back up at her. "It could be a great place again, with a little work."
"It sounded--" Eighteen sighed, not looking at him. "When you were talking to Bulma - it sounded like you'd already decided that I was moving in with you, like I didn't have a choice in it." Her voice dropped. "Like you'd decided for me."
His fork dropped on the plate with a clang. "Of course, you have a choice! I'd never - I mean, I'd like to think that you'd want to be with me. I love you, Eighteen, and I'd never make you do anything you didn't want to do."
"Well, living with a dirty old man and a talking pig has not been my idea of paradise," she admitted. "It's been much nicer this past week with just the two of us."
"Yeah." Krillin blushed. "Me too. That's why I was thinking, since I actually do have someplace else to go now, why not? It's just up the coast from here, not even an hour's flight."
"And you want me to go with you?"
"Yes. If you want to." He took her hand from across the table. "I hope that you do."
A faint smile crossed her lips. "I'll think about it."
"Eighteen!"
After a long day, both Krillin and Eighteen decided to turn in early. Although he wouldn't admit it, Krillin had a stiff back from sleeping on the beach and for once, didn't cast wistful looks at her as Eighteen went down the hall to her room. She could hear his soft snores before she'd finished brushing her hair for the night. It was no wonder he was tired - Krillin had done his best to impress her with his childhood home. Even to Eighteen's jaded eye, the property had possibilities. The house did need its roof replaced and quite a lot of cleaning but the cool green tranquillity of its surroundings appealed to her. Eighteen could see quite easily why Krillin would want to live there.
It was a pleasant thought to go to sleep to, Eighteen mused, as she settled down for the night. No homicidal robots, no time-traveling warriors - just a to live a normal life with Krillin far away from everyone else. He was trying so hard to please her. One of the high points of the day was discovering that his home was near a town with decent shopping. She raised her left leg and admired the gold ankle bracelet that glittered there. Krillin had found it in a boutique while she had been trying on clothes and surprised her with it. It had a tiny number 18 hanging from it as a charm and she had to agree that it was the perfect memento of a perfect day.
"What could it hurt?" she mused sleepily, "I could be normal, if I tried."
"Lullaby and good night, mmm-mmm..."
The cooing bundle in her arms snuggled close to Eighteen as she walked with it in the moonlit nursery, humming a lullaby. The baby nestled against her and she felt strangely warm and content.
Leaves rustled against the windows. Eighteen gazed out at the cherry blossoms glowing in the darkness over the garden. Everything in her life was serene and tranquil, so unlike chaos she'd come from. Perfect.
The baby began to fuss. Eighteen raised it to her shoulder and started to pat it on the back but as she did, a sickly green tentacle snaked out from beneath the baby's blanket and lashed around her forearm. Instinctively, she shrieked and tried to hurl the baby away from her only to have more tentacles slash out at her to leave slimy trails across her skin. She had no choice - she blasted it at point blank range.
Wisps of pastel flannel filtered down like burning snowflakes.
"That wasn't very nice."
Eighteen took a step back as a dark shape rose from the scorch-marked floor.
"Not nice at all... mother."
"No." Her eyes narrowed as she tried to focus on its features. "I'm not your mother."
"Oh, aren't you?" Mocking laughter echoed in the dark. "Can't you see the family resemblance?" It suddenly rushed at her, its garish green face inches from hers.
"Cell!! No!"
Eighteen sat straight up in her bed, eyes wide, heart pounding, breath coming in short gasps. She raised her hands to her face and was shocked at the cold clamminess of her skin. Her breath shuddered as she tried to calm down.
The door burst open and she nearly blasted Krillin where he stood with his hair standing on end and his hastily-donned sweatpants nearly falling off his hips. She forced herself to absorb the energy bolt she'd started to form and took a deep breath to steady her nerves.
"Babe?" He approached her cautiously. "Are you all right? I heard you cry out."
She shook her head. "Just a bad dream, Krillin. Go back to bed."
The mattress creaked as he sat down next to her and put his arms around her. Eighteen was so emotionally drained that she didn't even have the strength to complain as he gently tucked her head on his shoulder.
"I'm fine," she said gruffly, to save face.
"I know," he answered.
"Really."
"Uh-huh." He nudged her over with his hip and stretched his legs out besides her.
"I'm not talking about it!"
"No one said you had to," Krillin replied, as he kissed her scowling forehead. "But I'm going to hold you until you go back to sleep and that's all there is to it."
"Krillin..."
"Sssh." His arms tightened around her. "Go to sleep now."
Eighteen bit her lip and suppressed the urge to pitch Krillin through the window. It wasn't his fault that her dreams were bothering her. He was just being himself, caring more for her than his own safety, the idiot. She sighed and let the rhythm of his heartbeat lull her to sleep.
"Hold still, Android Eighteen. I've nearly got you fully dilated."
She gritted her teeth as the cold metal devices Dr. Gero had inserted in her caused an uncomfortable stretching sensation. The top of his head was just visible over the sea green sheet tented over her stirruped legs. Her hands and feet clenched weakly in the restraints but the drugs he'd been giving her had left her as weak as a kitten.
"There they are..." A sharp pain made her gasp. "Perfect... absolutely perfect. How generous you are, Eighteen, to help me with my finest creation."
Eighteen's ice blue eyes flicked open at once and she let out a shaky breath. She'd thought she had buried those memories when she and her brother had totaled Gero's lab. As the heartbeat in her ears began to settle, she registered a soft rasping noise and turned her head towards the sound. Krillin was lying on his side next to her, mouth slightly open as he slept with one arm around her waist. Strangely, it didn't disturb her as much as it would have a few months ago.
She carefully freed herself from his grasp. Krillin merely muttered and rolled over, snuggling into the pillow. Eighteen gave him a half-smile and tucked the blanket over his shoulders, adding a light kiss on his cheek as an afterthought. Picking out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, she dressed quickly and quietly. It was still dark when she left the house.
The sky and the sea were almost the same shade of grayish-blue in the pre-dawn light. Kites and pelicans soared overhead in sweeping circles, looking for fish in the shallows. Eighteen lifted into the air to follow the shoreline to her private place on the island, a small lagoon hemmed in by mangroves and fruit trees. She snatched a ripe orange on her way down and began to peel it the second her feet touched the ground. There was a narrow crescent of white sand for a beach and she plopped down on it as she nibbled on her orange.
As the sky slowly changed colors with the rising sun, Eighteen tried to make sense of it all. When she'd first started dreaming, she'd approached it methodically. Books on the subject said that dreaming was merely an extension of the subconscious mind, making connections between events in real life and one's imagination. Master Roshi, oddly enough, noted that without dreams, life wouldn't be worth living. It was such a profound observation that Eighteen merely tipped the old fool's chair over instead of pitching him out to sea when she caught him looking down her shirt.
No one should have dreams like hers, however. She shivered, in spite of the tropical sun rising into the sky. "Maybe I'm malfunctioning," she mused to herself. "I am still a machine, after all."
"Nonsense - you're no more a machine than I am."
An irregular splashing out-of-rhythm to the waves drew Eighteen's attention to a large sea turtle heaving itself up on the shore. She nodded to it; next to Krillin, she found Turtle relatively easy to get along with. "Hello," she said blandly. "Catching breakfast?"
"Your lagoon is a good place to fish," Turtle commented. "I'm glad you let me come here from time to time."
She held out a piece of orange and waited patiently as the old reptile took it. "I don't mind. It's not like I own it or anything."
"Everyone needs a special place to be alone sometimes. It's good for you. That's why I like to go out to sea." Bits of fruit pith speckled his jaws as he spoke. "But it's also good to have someone special to come back home to."
Eighteen blushed, thinking of Krillin back at the house, still asleep in her bed. The warm feeling faded as she remembered how he came to be there. She sighed and tossed bits of peel out into the water like little orange boats.
"What's wrong, Eighteen?" Turtle asked. "I thought you were happy here."
"It's stupid." She pressed the heels of her hands to her head. "I think something's wrong with me. I keep dreaming about bad things in my past and I don't know why."
"Perhaps you need to make good dreams to chase the bad dreams away."
"I don't think that's how it works."
Turtle sat for a few minutes, silently working his jaws. "Then maybe you should talk to Bulma," he suggested. "She could certainly tell you if it's a mechanical problem and if it isn't, she's bound to think of something. She's very smart that way."
"That's not a bad idea." Eighteen chewed on her lip. It would take most of the day to travel to and from the Capsule Corporation, not to mention having to put up with Vegeta's insults once she was there. The possibility of knocking the arrogant Saiyan prince into orbit had its appeal as an alternate form of stress relief. She stood up decisively.
"Tell Krillin that I've gone to visit Bulma, will you, Turtle?" she said as she started to power up. "I'll be back late."
"I will!" the turtle called as she flew away. "I hope you find what you're looking for!"
"How embarrassing," Krillin muttered to himself as he stripped the sheets from Eighteen's bed. He hadn't meant to make a mess. Normally, he had more self-control but when he'd opened his bleary eyes to see Eighteen pulling her nightgown over her head, that had been it. She hadn't known he had been watching as she dressed; otherwise he was sure she wouldn't have spent so much time unclad. The shadows had only accentuated her pale skin, turning her into an ethereal and sensual vision. When she had bent down to pull on her jeans, the way her long legs curved up to her pert derriere nearly made him give himself away.
As it was, it had been necessary to take matters into his own hands. Before her footsteps had faded on the stairs, Krillin had rolled onto his back to relieve the pressure that been building long before Eighteen's unexpected strip show. Most of the time he managed to keep his hormones under control but lately it had been difficult, especially since Master Roshi and Oolong had been gone. The privacy had really helped Eighteen to relax her self-imposed barriers and to be more openly emotional but it also had brought out an increasing sexual tension between them. It was a lot of little things - the unexpected displays of affection, falling asleep in each other's arms - that made Krillin wish wistfully for more.
He sighed as he bundled up the sheets and took them to the washing machine. Krillin had watched over Eighteen long after she'd fallen back to sleep, marveling at the way her face softened as she relaxed. The way she'd put Goten to her shoulder and rocked him was still fresh in his mind; he had learned to appreciate the beautiful subtleties of Eighteen's rare displays of emotions and there had been something almost Madonna-like in the tender way she had treated the newborn child. It added to the mystery in her that attracted him the most.
The rest of the house was quiet save for the rush of the waves on the shore outside and the cries of the seabirds wheeling over the surf. Krillin went out on the porch and looked around, frowning.
"Eighteen?" He raised his voice. "EIGHTEEN!! Where are you, babe?"
Krillin dashed around to the deck to see if she was sunning in Master Roshi's favorite deck chair. Nothing. He glanced down to the mangroves at the far end of the island. Eighteen often went there to be alone - his ears turned pink - and to sunbathe away from prying eyes.
"Oh, you won't find her there, Krillin."
He jumped at Turtle's slow, easy voice. "What? Have you seen her?"
"Eighteen?" Turtle heaved himself a bit further up the beach. "Oh, yes. I was fishing in her lagoon early this morning. She said to tell you that she was going to see Bulma and that she'd be back later."
"Bulma?" Krillin sat down on the edge of the deck. "But why didn't she tell me? I would have gone with her."
"It was barely dawn then. Perhaps she thought you were still sleeping." Turtle cocked his head. "I wouldn't worry, Krillin. Eighteen can take care of herself."
"I know, but still--" He sighed and looked towards the mainland. If he chased after her, Eighteen would only get annoyed with him and without her, he felt like part of him was missing.
To be continued.....
