Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z is property of Akira Toriyama, Funimation, and associates of which I am not one.
Thanks/Authors Note/Etc.: Did you see "Brian's Song?" Wasn't that a good movie? Review, pleeze. P.S. "Breathing Water" will also be the title of my next fic. It's also, more importantly, a novel by T. Greenwood. But don't worry. My fic isn't like, or doesn't borrow from the novel in any way. It's still a good book, though.
~C
***WARNING: Angst. Angst. ANGST.
====================================================
Speak!
~A Dragonball Z Alternate Reality Fanfiction
====================================================
Part Four: Breathing Water
====================================================
***
Marron Kuririn officially died on February 1st, a cold, windy Saturday morning.
***
~{Bra}~
I saw her do it. She was visiting again. Well, she never really went home. I poked my head in every once in awhile, wanting badly to ask her if she wanted something to drink. Maybe a sandwich. Of course then I'd realize who I was talking to. And, even if she could eat, the ice in my throat would stop me.
She got up. Real graceful. Pretty blonde hair. Hair that looked like Marron's. She walked over. She grabbed the cord. She pulled it. The machine went 'BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEEEEEP!' And then shut down. Juuhachi went back to her seat.
The ice, it haunted me now. In my dreams, in my head. Even in my throat, stopping me so I couldn't talk. Sticking me with it's cold shards, freezing metal cutting into my skin, cutting into the tissue in my throat. Blocking the words, burying my words. Killing my words.
***
Everyone knew her favorite color was red. So, a red dress, red flowers, maybe even those red bows she used to wear. Everyone expected that.
But, it was like Juuhachi wasn't thinking. Or more like, overthinking. She was trying to hang on to every bit of her daughter that she could. All she could see was red.
***
~{Gohan}~
When she showed up at the wake in a red dress, most of us understood, save for the younger kids who never knew a Juuhachi that didn't think and Marron's friends. Her favorite color was red. So Juuhachi tied her hair up with a red ribbon, wore all red, picked out a (very expensive) chinese cherry wood red coffin, had only carnations and red roses, dressed her daughter from head to toes in her favorite red outfit, (a little halter top and tight jeans) and did her hair in two straight, smooth pigtails, held up by two raggedy red ribbons she'd had since childhood.
But nobody suspected what afterward- when we all met at Kame Island- she would have planned.
~{Bra}~
I felt terrible. So when we first touched foot to Kame Island, I ran inside immediately to puke. Then I saw the inside.
Streamers. Red streamers, balloons, flowers everywhere. I froze, and almost fell. It looked like a birthday party. For a very little kid- not a...a...a whatever they call that thing after a funeral- for a dead girl. Goten came into the house after me. He wanted to know what was wrong. I knew what was wrong. But I couldn't tell him there. I don't think I can tell him at all.
Me: [point]
Goten: [gasp].
He grabbed my shoulders. Squeezed real tight. Moved his hands down. I remember those hands. Hot hands. Cold night. Hot hands warming me up like cocoa. His arms were around my waist. He was trying to hug from behind. My stomach knotted up. I pulled away, and ran into the bathroom. Into the toilet went breakfast. All I had for breakfast was orange juice, it wasn't much. Then it knotted again. Up into my throat. Out went yesterday's dinner.
Goten: Bra?
The ice in my throat froze. Squeezed together. More puke broke it. Broke it like Marron. The ice had a whole in it.
Me: Mmm Hmm.
The ice froze up again. No more words! it said. It's me and the ice in my head. The ice, that coates my hands and face and just won't go away.
Bra: Tell him. You've got to tell him!
The Ice: No. I'm protecting you.
Bra: You killed my friend!
The Ice: No. Your friend killed you friend.
I knew it wasn't talking about Marron. Marron didn't kill herself. I opened the door, and went out. Goten warmed my shoulders with his hands. The ice closed up in my throat.
If I kicked them both out, who would be left?
~{Trunks}~
I had to poke my dad in the ribs to keep him from laughing. I guess I appealed to his, 'conscience'. Talk about your small targets.
My girlfriend's mother has gone crazy. She eyed me all throughout the funeral. Then she wouldn't look at me afterwards.This woman could've been my mother-in-law but I don't blame her. I killed her daughter.
~{Vegeta}~
The boy hit me in the chest today. I almost punched him, but, after all, I was 'being rude'. Or at least that's what she said, the woman. She has such a stupid name, but I suppose I should no longer refer to her as 'the woman'. So I say 'She', and 'Her'. She still isn't happy.
The boy's mate died. And something is wrong with the girl. She also has a stupid name, Bra. I did not pick it out. She would of had a strong, saiya-jin name. Lucian is a strong, regal name for a saiya-jin princess. She said it was a boy's name. I suggested Xerxes. She said it was a stupid name, and for a boy also, and then yelled at me for not being more interested in the boy, so I went into the gravity room to train.
At the passage cermony- wake, they call it- she handed me a little booklet. I handed it back to her. She squinted her exotic little eyes at me. (People on Vegita-sei all have black eyes. Her's are a perfect cerulean.) She's suspected I cannot read. I told her I could read, and I wasn't lying. I can read; in Saiya-go. Sure I can speak this Chikyuu-jin language, but why in the hell this silly woman expects me to read these alien symbols is beyond me.
~{Pan}~
Bra said her- Marron's- mother pulled the plug. Wait, that's not right. Bra doesn't *say* anything.
Miss Bulma found Bra all huddled under her bed the night Marron, well, the night Marron's body stopped working. It'd be wrong to say she died that night. That girl had been dead for a long time.
"Bra, hun, what's wrong?" Miss Bulma said she'd asked. Bra didn't say anything. She got up from under the bed, and showed Miss Bulma (I still don't remember her much, Miss B) Juuhachi in the room, with the plug to Marron's life supports strewn on the floor. When she went over to Marron, she was finally, really dead.
Juu-kun didn't come to the funeral. Mr. Gohan, dad, was there. He helped, but I wanted Juu-kun there. I told him about he dream.
"Really?" he'd said, and stuck up an eyebrow. I punched him lightly- what I thought was lightly- on the arm, and he fell out of the chair.
"I really have to train you to control your strength, Panny." he said, and pointed a slender mechanical finger at me. He didn't smile, though. I knew he was joking, but sometimes it creeped me out. When he did smile, it came out wicked, this evil little half smile.
"I keep dreaming of us, making love. Your long hair is tickling my face, because your nose it touching mine. And we're both sweating, the sheets are soaked." His face went pale then, and hard. He turned away from me then. I didn't get it.
~{Bra}~
Pan came to see me again today.
Pan: I had another dream.
Me: [cocks head to side]
Pan: Well, me and Juu-kun were, you know.
Me: [nod]
Pan: Well, I told him, we were having a lot of fun. The bed sounded as though it wouls fall apart, the sheets were soaked-
I guess all the color drained from my face then, because she stopped dead.
Pan: That was his reaction! What the hell is going on?
Bra: [Thinking] Um, Pan? Don't tell him about anymore of you dreams, kay? [Actually saying] Uh...
Pan: What are you keeping from me!
She grabbed the front of my shirt, and I jumped off the bed, and out of the room, and out of the house. Pan never chased me before the accident. Never threatened me with her strength. Now she does. She brushes her hair, and wears skirts. She doesn't know who she is. None of us do, anymore.
It's the dead of winter, but I don't mind. Cold air is easier to breathe. Maybe it's the moisture. The itty-bitty invisible drops of H-2-O. Breathing water. But you can't breathe water. I'm inhaling it. And somewhere, Go-kun is breathing it in, too. And Oniisan. And it's filling in our lungs, our thoats, stopping our words and sounds. Filling us up until we're flooded, full to the brim with the wicked water. Filling us up until we're finally dead.
~~~~
End Note: I know Bra sounds a little crazy. It's called post-traumatic stress. Don't worry, though.
Thanks/Authors Note/Etc.: Did you see "Brian's Song?" Wasn't that a good movie? Review, pleeze. P.S. "Breathing Water" will also be the title of my next fic. It's also, more importantly, a novel by T. Greenwood. But don't worry. My fic isn't like, or doesn't borrow from the novel in any way. It's still a good book, though.
~C
***WARNING: Angst. Angst. ANGST.
====================================================
Speak!
~A Dragonball Z Alternate Reality Fanfiction
====================================================
Part Four: Breathing Water
====================================================
***
Marron Kuririn officially died on February 1st, a cold, windy Saturday morning.
***
~{Bra}~
I saw her do it. She was visiting again. Well, she never really went home. I poked my head in every once in awhile, wanting badly to ask her if she wanted something to drink. Maybe a sandwich. Of course then I'd realize who I was talking to. And, even if she could eat, the ice in my throat would stop me.
She got up. Real graceful. Pretty blonde hair. Hair that looked like Marron's. She walked over. She grabbed the cord. She pulled it. The machine went 'BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEEEEEP!' And then shut down. Juuhachi went back to her seat.
The ice, it haunted me now. In my dreams, in my head. Even in my throat, stopping me so I couldn't talk. Sticking me with it's cold shards, freezing metal cutting into my skin, cutting into the tissue in my throat. Blocking the words, burying my words. Killing my words.
***
Everyone knew her favorite color was red. So, a red dress, red flowers, maybe even those red bows she used to wear. Everyone expected that.
But, it was like Juuhachi wasn't thinking. Or more like, overthinking. She was trying to hang on to every bit of her daughter that she could. All she could see was red.
***
~{Gohan}~
When she showed up at the wake in a red dress, most of us understood, save for the younger kids who never knew a Juuhachi that didn't think and Marron's friends. Her favorite color was red. So Juuhachi tied her hair up with a red ribbon, wore all red, picked out a (very expensive) chinese cherry wood red coffin, had only carnations and red roses, dressed her daughter from head to toes in her favorite red outfit, (a little halter top and tight jeans) and did her hair in two straight, smooth pigtails, held up by two raggedy red ribbons she'd had since childhood.
But nobody suspected what afterward- when we all met at Kame Island- she would have planned.
~{Bra}~
I felt terrible. So when we first touched foot to Kame Island, I ran inside immediately to puke. Then I saw the inside.
Streamers. Red streamers, balloons, flowers everywhere. I froze, and almost fell. It looked like a birthday party. For a very little kid- not a...a...a whatever they call that thing after a funeral- for a dead girl. Goten came into the house after me. He wanted to know what was wrong. I knew what was wrong. But I couldn't tell him there. I don't think I can tell him at all.
Me: [point]
Goten: [gasp].
He grabbed my shoulders. Squeezed real tight. Moved his hands down. I remember those hands. Hot hands. Cold night. Hot hands warming me up like cocoa. His arms were around my waist. He was trying to hug from behind. My stomach knotted up. I pulled away, and ran into the bathroom. Into the toilet went breakfast. All I had for breakfast was orange juice, it wasn't much. Then it knotted again. Up into my throat. Out went yesterday's dinner.
Goten: Bra?
The ice in my throat froze. Squeezed together. More puke broke it. Broke it like Marron. The ice had a whole in it.
Me: Mmm Hmm.
The ice froze up again. No more words! it said. It's me and the ice in my head. The ice, that coates my hands and face and just won't go away.
Bra: Tell him. You've got to tell him!
The Ice: No. I'm protecting you.
Bra: You killed my friend!
The Ice: No. Your friend killed you friend.
I knew it wasn't talking about Marron. Marron didn't kill herself. I opened the door, and went out. Goten warmed my shoulders with his hands. The ice closed up in my throat.
If I kicked them both out, who would be left?
~{Trunks}~
I had to poke my dad in the ribs to keep him from laughing. I guess I appealed to his, 'conscience'. Talk about your small targets.
My girlfriend's mother has gone crazy. She eyed me all throughout the funeral. Then she wouldn't look at me afterwards.This woman could've been my mother-in-law but I don't blame her. I killed her daughter.
~{Vegeta}~
The boy hit me in the chest today. I almost punched him, but, after all, I was 'being rude'. Or at least that's what she said, the woman. She has such a stupid name, but I suppose I should no longer refer to her as 'the woman'. So I say 'She', and 'Her'. She still isn't happy.
The boy's mate died. And something is wrong with the girl. She also has a stupid name, Bra. I did not pick it out. She would of had a strong, saiya-jin name. Lucian is a strong, regal name for a saiya-jin princess. She said it was a boy's name. I suggested Xerxes. She said it was a stupid name, and for a boy also, and then yelled at me for not being more interested in the boy, so I went into the gravity room to train.
At the passage cermony- wake, they call it- she handed me a little booklet. I handed it back to her. She squinted her exotic little eyes at me. (People on Vegita-sei all have black eyes. Her's are a perfect cerulean.) She's suspected I cannot read. I told her I could read, and I wasn't lying. I can read; in Saiya-go. Sure I can speak this Chikyuu-jin language, but why in the hell this silly woman expects me to read these alien symbols is beyond me.
~{Pan}~
Bra said her- Marron's- mother pulled the plug. Wait, that's not right. Bra doesn't *say* anything.
Miss Bulma found Bra all huddled under her bed the night Marron, well, the night Marron's body stopped working. It'd be wrong to say she died that night. That girl had been dead for a long time.
"Bra, hun, what's wrong?" Miss Bulma said she'd asked. Bra didn't say anything. She got up from under the bed, and showed Miss Bulma (I still don't remember her much, Miss B) Juuhachi in the room, with the plug to Marron's life supports strewn on the floor. When she went over to Marron, she was finally, really dead.
Juu-kun didn't come to the funeral. Mr. Gohan, dad, was there. He helped, but I wanted Juu-kun there. I told him about he dream.
"Really?" he'd said, and stuck up an eyebrow. I punched him lightly- what I thought was lightly- on the arm, and he fell out of the chair.
"I really have to train you to control your strength, Panny." he said, and pointed a slender mechanical finger at me. He didn't smile, though. I knew he was joking, but sometimes it creeped me out. When he did smile, it came out wicked, this evil little half smile.
"I keep dreaming of us, making love. Your long hair is tickling my face, because your nose it touching mine. And we're both sweating, the sheets are soaked." His face went pale then, and hard. He turned away from me then. I didn't get it.
~{Bra}~
Pan came to see me again today.
Pan: I had another dream.
Me: [cocks head to side]
Pan: Well, me and Juu-kun were, you know.
Me: [nod]
Pan: Well, I told him, we were having a lot of fun. The bed sounded as though it wouls fall apart, the sheets were soaked-
I guess all the color drained from my face then, because she stopped dead.
Pan: That was his reaction! What the hell is going on?
Bra: [Thinking] Um, Pan? Don't tell him about anymore of you dreams, kay? [Actually saying] Uh...
Pan: What are you keeping from me!
She grabbed the front of my shirt, and I jumped off the bed, and out of the room, and out of the house. Pan never chased me before the accident. Never threatened me with her strength. Now she does. She brushes her hair, and wears skirts. She doesn't know who she is. None of us do, anymore.
It's the dead of winter, but I don't mind. Cold air is easier to breathe. Maybe it's the moisture. The itty-bitty invisible drops of H-2-O. Breathing water. But you can't breathe water. I'm inhaling it. And somewhere, Go-kun is breathing it in, too. And Oniisan. And it's filling in our lungs, our thoats, stopping our words and sounds. Filling us up until we're flooded, full to the brim with the wicked water. Filling us up until we're finally dead.
~~~~
End Note: I know Bra sounds a little crazy. It's called post-traumatic stress. Don't worry, though.
