What If there was One More
Chapter 6
"Fighting With Love"
By Lady Yagami-Sama


Yakima woke slowly, coming out of a pleasant dream. She smiled to herself and rolled over to remind herself that it was real, but Trunks was not there. She frowned slightly, then remembered he was probably training again and laid her head back on the pillow, smiling.

****

For the first time in his life, Trunks could not concentrate on his morning workout. His mind was full of dangerous thoughts of the beautiful woman he had left asleep in the bed. His mother had always warned him never to fall in love; it would only bring heart ach and loneliness. But he found himself unable to deny his feelings for her. He was not like his father in this matter. His father could crush his feelings of love in an instant if he wanted to and break the heart of the only woman who had ever been bold enough to love him. But he could not.

He felt eyes on him and turned to see Yakima standing in the archway of their temporary home, grinning at him. Seeing her, he forgot his childish doubts and grinned back. She was dressed in her usual apparel for training and realized that she had been right last night not to let themselves go too far. They still had a duty to fulfill and he knew she intended to go through with it.

Yakima watched him as he watched her and saw that his eyes had retreated inward and were no longer seeing her. She wondered briefly what he could be thinking of, but then a thought struck her from the more playful side of her mind and she slipped craftily out of his line of sight and planted herself behind him, he did not seem to notice, as she intended. She grinned to her self and powered up.

Trunks snapped back to himself when he felt the sudden energy surge and swung around just in time to see a large kai blast coming strait at him. He barely had time to leap into the air as the energy wave rocketed under his feet. He looked astounded around him and saw Yakima below him literally rolling with laughter!

'Oh the look on his face!' she thought trying to control herself; it didn't work.

"Good morning to you as well, Yakima-chan," Trunks called down to her, "Next time I wish you'd warn me before you try to kill me!"

Yakima stood and stifled her laughter, "It should teach you a lesson, Mr. Son-of-the-Mighty-Vegeta!" she teased, "You should always be on your guard!"

"Ha!" Trunks teased back, in his best Vegeta impression, "Do you think I did not know what you were up to? I let you sneak up on me, you weakling girl, to make you think you had the upper hand when I was really planning to attack you all along!"

Yakima laughed, "Then come and get me, Oh Prince of all Saiyans!" And he did. They went at each other in mock anger and played their little game for as long as it pleased them.

At first they stood yards apart firing blast after blast at each other. But they soon tired of that and began hand-to-hand sparing. The punches and kicks were flying so fast that it would have been hard to see what was going on, but the two warriors blocked every one.

Yakima threw another punch at Trunks' face but he caught her hand and held it. She used her other hand to try to get free, but he caught that hand too; she could not move. For a moment the two saiyans were at a stand off; they gazed into each other's eyes, waiting for the next move. Neither of them expected what that next move became.

All at once their mock battle was forgotten and they threw themselves at each other with such force that they were both flung to the floor in a heap.

Neither Trunks nor Yakima were prepared for the intense longing they had for each other and neither were strong enough to stop it. They lay on that cold, white floor kissing with such a passion it hurt.

This time Trunks was the one to come to his senses. He pulled himself away from her and leapt to his feat, gasping for breath and wondering why he was saying no to this.

'Because your mother taught you morals,' he said to himself, 'and love should be tender and precious, not passionate and meaningless!'

But didn't he lover her? He had said so, hadn't he? No he had never actually said that, not even in his mind. But now he did. 'I lover her,' he told himself and was astonished at the words. He gazed down at the girl on the floor longingly. "We can't," he said at last, fighting down the urge to ignore himself.

Yakima nodded, not being able to look at him. "I know," she said, getting to her feet, "I just wish we did not have to fight it so much," and she didn't mean Cell.

Trunks watched as she ascended the steps and disappeared into the room. Oh, how he longed to follow her! But he didn't, and he was proud of himself for it. Even though his heart ached to be with her, not for kissing or anything else, just to be there with her and talk to her and unlock the secrets of those bright green eyes. But he didn't go after her, and he was proud that he at least had self-control on his side.

****

Yakima flung herself on the bed and wept. She wept for the love she could not have and the pain of fighting down her feelings. She wept for her dear master and her loving grandmother. She wept for the loneliness in her heart and prayed for the strength to carry on.

Why did she have to love him so much? Why had she let herself get flung into a love that she could do nothing about, neither for nor against? How could she get through the next ten months without letting herself give in?

She stopped crying and sat up as she felt Trunks' energy fade slowly away, as if getting further away. She ran to the archway and looked out, Trunks was not there, and Yakima knew that he had left. "Kakito protect him," she whispered to the vast empty whiteness, and turned to go back inside.

****

Trunks flew. He flew as fast and as far as he could, wondering where he was going. But where could you go in a place like that? It all looked the same to Trunks, but he didn't care one way or the other, he just had to get away. At least for a little while, to clear his head. To clear everything. To clear his heart.

****

It was two days before Yakima saw Trunks again. He came walking up the steps as if he had never been away. His clothes were torn and tattered and his face was set and emotionless.

She ran to him and threw her arms around him, embracing him. He encircled her with one strong arm and held her. "Oh, Trunks," she whispered, burying her face in his chest, "I was so worried! Where did you go? Are you hurt? You must be starving!"

He pulled away from her, "No," he said, not even looking at her, "I'm fine." And he walked past her to his bed and drew the curtains.

Something was not right. This was not the Trunks she had seen only two days ago. This was not the sweet, shy boy she had fallen in love with! No, he was different somehow, more distant, more like a man, more like... she gasped, more like... Vegeta!

****

It had been two agonizing months since Trunks had vanished for those two days and become a completely different person. They hardly spoke anymore, and when they did it was out of necessity.

They still trained, oh yes, they trained, harder than they had in the past. But that was not the only thing that was hard. Trunks pushed Yakima to the very limits of her strength, and he no longer cared if he hurt her, no longer showed concern when she did not pick herself up right away. He just stood there waiting, watching her struggle to her feet, then knocking her down again. There were times when Yakima could not rise at all, those times were the worst, she watched him watching her and pleaded him with her eyes to stop. But every time he would get frustrated with her weakness and fly off in a rage, leaving her to drag herself back into bed.

Many times Trunks did not show up for meals, and after a while, Yakima stopped looking for him. She just kept his meal hot and when he returned, usually in the small hours of the morning, he scarfed them down and went to bed. She never admitted this to anyone, but when he did not come back at night, she waited up for him, within the confines of her bed curtains. She was frightened of him now, now that he had become this cold replica of his father. But she never stopped loving him.

At first she had tried to bring him back, to make him remember how he used to be. But after a while she gave up. She thought that it might be better this way, to not have the temptations and to go on training as they were supposed to. But now Yakima was lonely, she needed human contact and love, and Trunks, in his current state, was not what she needed. She wanted him back with all her heart, she didn't care anymore about the temptations or the consequences, she just wanted her sweet, innocent Trunks back, she did not like living with his father.

****

She watched Trunks walk up the stairs and head for the kitchen; he no longer waited for her to cook for him, and made up her mind in an instant.

"Trunks!" she called, he stopped and half turned to acknowledge that he had heard her. "Trunks, talk to me," she pleaded, "Please talk to me!"

Trunks wanted to talk to her! He wanted to hold her in his arms and tell her he loved her! But he couldn't. The old Trunks was trapped inside the new Trunks, the zombie Trunks, the Trunks that reminded him too much of his father; and he could not get out.

"We have nothing to talk about," droned the new Trunks, and he hated himself for whatever he did to himself to make him sound so hard and unfeeling. For, in fact, he did not know, it was all a blur in his mind and he could not get it straight. He continued his walk to the kitchen.

Yakima marched right after him, determined to get her Trunks back. She grasped his shoulder and threw him against the wall, pinning him there. He looked back at her with calm indifference. She did not wait for him to recover.

"You listen to me, Trunks Vegeta Briefs, and you listen good! You are not like this! You are kind and gentle, you are not like your father, you are not hard and demanding! You are Trunks, my..." she trailed off, my Trunks, she thought, but did not say it aloud. "My best friend," she said instead, "why can't you come back to me?"

Her begging and pleading had not worked before, and now her demanding was having the same effect. Nothing. He looked at her with those cold eyes that she had gotten used to, and they were not convinced.

He pushed her aside and started to walk away, "I have no time for this foolishness," he said, "If you cannot leave me alone, I will go elsewhere."

"No," she begged, "Trunks, please don't go!" But he did not stop. She feared that if she did not reach him now, she never would, and that would be the end of their love, and the end of her. She ran after him, falling to her knees at the top of the stairs in defeat, calling out to him in desperation, "Don't leave me!" she screamed, then whispering as if it were a secret, "I love you." "I LOVE YOU!" she screamed, and Trunks stopped dead.

Yakima was breathing in raged, sobbing breathes as Trunks turned slowly to face her. His face was washed with confusion. Yakima saw this as a good sign and ran to him, taking his hands. "I love you, Trunks," she said again, searching his eyes pleadingly for any spark of remembrance, "I love you! I love you with all my heart and I want to be with you forever! Please, Trunks-kun, please come back to me."

And he did, slowly at first, as if those three words, uttered for the first time, had been the key to set him free. As she repeated it over and over again he felt himself become more alive, more like himself. He looked at Yakima as if seeing her for the first time, and smiled.

She knew she had him then. That smile could only come from one person in the entire world: her Trunks. And as if the words felt good in her heart she spoke them aloud, smiling as she did so, "My Trunks," she said, and she saw the recognition and spark in his eyes.

"Yes," he said, embracing her as if he would never let go, "your Trunks. I'm back now, and I'll never leave you again." He put his mouth next to her ear, "I love you too, Yakima-chan," he whispered, "with all my heart!"

She wept then, not in sadness or loneliness, but in joy and love! She buried her face in his chest and sobbed those two months of torture out of her mind, with Trunks comforting her the way she longed for him to do, just being there with her and holding her as if he cared. As if he loved her.