disclaimer: *blink blink*

[Here's To The Night]=
                        X. Break Down What Little Is Left

***

She let out a frustrated groan as she was dragged along the cement walkway.

 "Trunks! Do you know how absolutely close I was to possibly getting a place in the city!?"

He let his eyes slide back momentarily before focusing them forward again.

"No, but does it really look like I care?"

Marron sighed as she jerked her arm out of his grasp and mumbled that she could walk by herself. They continued to walk in silence, side by side. The usual sound of children laughing in the park caused Marron's eyes dart up from the ground. She snorted.

"What is this? A stroll in the park on a sunny day? This hardly seems like you."

She cocked her head to the side as she thought about what she said. It didn't mean to come out as bitter as it sounded. The blonde truly, did want to help him, but it was so hard to get him to talk. And was she still angry about last night? No. Not very. Marron thought that she would be, but…there was just something…

He was in need of a friend, even if he didn't know.

Sighing inwardly, she stopped to look up at the sky, filled with fluffy clouds. Trunks had stopped a few steps ahead of her. Quietly, she stepped up to him.

"So, why are we here?"

Trunks turned his head and looked into the depths of her cool, blue eyes. Why had he dragged her off to…he looked around…well, here?

"I forget."

He opened his mouth to state that she could leave, when she took his hand in his. He watched shocked as she shrugged nonchalantly.

"Ehh…that's alright." She paused to look down at her watch, "I still have an hour left for lunch. We can…" Her blue eyes met his, searching for a word.

She smiled kindly.

"Actually, I don't know what we can do." A soft laugh escaped her lips. "We can…hang."

She held his gaze a while longer, before pulling him along the cement walkway that winded through the entire park.

***

It was nice. He decided. It was nice, holding her hand. Trunks followed her as she led him to a shaded spot in the park. He frowned when she took back her hand to sit cross-legged against the tree. He watched as she motioned for him to sit next to her.

Trunks hesitated and looked around him before sitting down beside her. He continued to study her as she reached her hand down to the ground searching for something. Not paying very much attention to what she was saying or what she was looking for. He just looked at her lips as they moved rapidly along with her words.

Then, she stopped talking. He noticed that her hand was outstretched towards him. Looking down at her open palm, he saw a small, white-brown rock. He quirked an eyebrow and raised his gaze to hers.

"A rock."

Marron smiled, "It's not just a rock. Weren't you listening to what I was saying?"

Her grin brightened as he blushed, taking the rock and mumbling a sorry.

"It's like cement chalk," she stated as she drew a circle in the ground.

Trunks watched as she added petals around the circle. A flower. He smirked. How Marron…right? Trunks frowned and shook his head. How can it be like Marron if he didn't even know her? It's just a flower. Maybe she doesn't even like flowers. Hell, he didn't like flowers. But it's Marron. So, of course she likes flowers. Flowers are a "Marron" sort of thing. Or not. Maybe he shouldn't dwell on this…

"…when I was younger, I would doodle on the ground with rocks 'cause I never had any cement chalk."

He looked down at what she was drawing and saw a butterfly now accompanied the flower. Looking at the small stone in his hand, he shrugged and quickly scribbled something on the side. Cocking his head to the left, he asked, "What do you think this looks like?"

Marron turned away from a picture and looked at the little scribble. She stared at a moment before answering.

"That through all the hardships in life…there will always be joy – no matter how small."

Trunks looked at her, confusion apparent on his face, "Joy?"

He looked down at his drawing again, "How'd you get joy."

She smiled and gestured toward his doodle, an oval with short lines sticking out around, "The sun."

Cocking his head to the side again, he replied with a short "oh" before stating, "I was aiming for a smashed insect."

Still smiling, she shook her head and stared straight into his eyes, "You. Are. Odd."

Trunks looked at her with a boyish grin and then colored in his sun/smashed insect.

Marron watched the man sitting next to him. So this was what he's like when he's not drinking. She smiled. Maybe her efforts to help him weren't all in vain. Here he was, sitting in the park with her on a beautiful day, scraping rock against cement to make funny pictures.

***

All he heard was the sound of birds twittering, children laughing, and the scraping of rocks. No more humming. It was better like this. No humming. No nothingness. Great. Absolutely perfect. Nothing wrong…at all. Everything was great. Marvelous. Just marvelous.

He looked at the smashed rock. He didn't even know he had tightened his grip. Doesn't matter. Marron didn't notice either. Trunks looked at her, she was staring at him. Her shiny blue eyes, just looking at him. It was a bit unnerving. Her face was thoughtful. She blushed and looked down, knowing she'd been caught.

She sighed contently, "I need to go visit the little girl's room," wink, "I'll be right back."

Trunks watched as she got up and jogged over to the restrooms. He, too, got up and walked towards the basketball court and watched as a couple of teenagers played. He watched the orange ball go through the hoop with a swish.

Basketball.

"Hey, you wanna play?"

He looked at the boy. Couldn't be over sixteen. Shaking his head he replied that he'd rather just watch. The boy shrugged and ran back towards his buddies.

Trunks looked around at his surroundings again. The last time he was here was thirteen years ago. He looked at the lamppost at his left. That sure was strong. And he entered the train, traveling down memory lane.

He remembered the bet his father made him. It was a rather stupid bet, but it didn't seem so stupid when he was eight. Punch your father in the face and he'll take you to the park! Right. So they went to the park.

~*~

 "Hey, can I play with you guys?" The little eight-year-old boy asked the ten year olds shooting baskets on the court.

The tallest looked towards the voice and saw short purple haired kid. He laughed at his question and walked towards the kid. He rested his hands on his knees and looked at the boy with mock kindness.

"This is a big boys game, and frankly you're just soooo small. I'm soo sorry."

The ten-year-old let out another chuckle and turned to walk away.

"Hey! Big-Head! Who're you calling SMALL?"

Pause. Turn.

"What did you just call me, RUNT?"

"Gee, you're DEAF too?"

"Don't mess with me, baby."

"Aww…are you getting you're feelings hurt, big-head?"

The older boy's friends soon came up from behind him.

"What's with the little runt?"

Trunks ground his teeth together. He was NOT a runt! A small punch from him to their stomachs would send them to the hospital and they called him the baby? But, no, he couldn't do that he promised his mother that he wouldn't hurt anyone, so…Trunks lowered his fists, unaware that he had raised them in the first place.

"Aww…baby don't wanna fight anymore?"

The ten-year-olds all laughed and made baby noises at him. Then, they did the STUPIDEST things, they PUSHED him down…

And Vegeta was on them in half a second. He held the frightened boy up by his t-shirt collar.

"You touch my son again, and you will regret it for the rest of your sorry, pathetic little life."

Trunks guessed it wouldn't have been so scary if his father hadn't said it so calm and nonchalantly. The Sayian dropped the boy roughly and he ran off along with his buddies. The eight-year-old got up and dusted himself off, embarrassed that his dad had to witness him being pushed to the ground by a ten-year-old HUMAN.

Trunks peered up at his father, who caught his gaze and stared back. For a while they just looked at each other, the younger one expecting to be scolded at for not fighting back or anything close to that.

After a while, the elder finally gave up and barked out a "What?!"

Surprised, the boy said nothing. Suddenly, they heard a faint yelling.

"Over there! There! That's the guy who threatened me, Father! Go beat
him up!"

Trunks blinked. Vegeta raised a brow. A large, very muscular man came into their view.

"Well? Did you threaten
my son?"

His voice was thick and deep. The Sayian prince glared at the man before slowly turning his back towards the large man and slowly walked off. That bulky man was too far beneath the PRINCE to even TALK to.

"Hey! I'm talkin' to you," the man lifted his hand to pull the shorter man back. Once his skin made contact to Vegeta's shoulder, he found himself flying across the basketball court and hitting a metal lamppost and falling unconscious.

~*~

Trunks blinked as the ball made it through the net again. And his mind drifted to the last time he came to the basketball court. Those same boys were there, older of course, but there playing b-ball nonetheless. And Trunks didn't even recognize them until they spoke.

~*~

He walked with his hands in his pockets. The sun was setting, mixing colors of yellow and red, creating an orange hue.

Trunks sighed softly as he walked along the walkway. He had just come out of training in the gravity room and was sticky with sweat. So the cool air was nice. The sound of a ball bouncing against the ground caught his attention as he looked sadly towards the court. Not paying much attention, he kept walking straight until he was right next to the court.

Pausing for a second, he shook his head, then continued to walk leisurely, trying to enjoy the evening as much as possible. He snorted,
'Yeah, right. Enjoy the evening…oh how lovely is…'

"Yo, man, you wanna shoot some hoops with us?"

Without looking up, Trunks declined and pushed everything out of his mind. He needed a clear head right now.

He stopped when a black striped orange ball rolled towards him and softly hit him in the ankle. Trunks looked up at the man who asked.

"You sure, runt?"

Trunks narrowed his eyes. It was that guy. Soon they were all standing in front of him as that guy kept talking.

"So where's your dad?"

He said it so casually. And Trunks didn't like it.

"Look, we're all sorry about what happened all those years ago. What is it? Seven years?"

His hand stuck out for a shake and Trunks just stared at his palm. The older man noticed that Trunks wasn't about to move…at all and quickly dropped his hand back at his sides.

"Okay, so no shake."

It was quiet.

"So, really, you wanna play?"

Trunks stared at the man. He was a constant reminder of that day. That day he was at the park with his father. His father. The man was a constant reminder of that day. That day. Trunks turned and walked away. He didn't need to be reminded of that day. The man yelled after him.

"Hey! Why you gotta be such a jerk?! I said I was sorry!" Trunks continued to walk.

The seventeen year old watched as the purple haired teenager got further away and muttered under his breath, "Asshole."

Trunks paused. Yes, he heard. Apparently, the older boy had no clue of his Sayian hearing. Asshole. Him. Trunks was an asshole. Okay. He accepted that. And he realized that he didn't care. He didn't care at all. In fact, he didn't care about anything. He didn't care about this park, the sun setting. He didn't care! He didn't care about his damned life! He just didn't care.

At all.

And the seventeen-year-old's question came back to him.

'So, where's you're dad?'

The question was so calm. So casual. So innocent. And he hated that it was. Just phrased so casual. So innocent. So calm. So aloof. He hated those words. Aloof. Calm. Innocent. Casual.

~*~

Trunks blinked. Through the net the ball goes again.

'So, where's your dad?'

Bounce. Bounce. Swish.

'Where's your dad?'

Bounce. Swish. Bounce. Bounce.

'You're dad?'

Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Swish.

Trunks grit his teeth. 'Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.'

Bounce. Swish. Bounce. Bounce.

His fists clenched together. 'Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce'

Bounce. Bounce.

He shut his eyes tightly. 'Bouncebouncebouncebounce'

Bounce. Swish.

'Bounce bounce bounce bounce…SHUT UP!'

Bounce. Swish. Bounce. BOOM! CREAK! BANG!

Glass shatters. Trunks breathes heavily and opens his eyes as his hands slowly loose the form of fists. The adolescent boys stopped shooting hoops. The ball drops from the hands of the shortest boy on the far right. They all stare in shock… "Dude!"

"Trunks?" she gasped quietly at the scene as she returned.

"Are you alright?"

He ignored her and took to the air. She watched as he disappeared in the distance.

"What's wrong?" She asked quietly to nothing.

Trunks was gone, leaving Marron behind to stare questionably at the fallen lamppost, wondering what had happened in the two minutes she was gone.