Disclaimer: I still don't own it.
A/N: Hey! I'm back! The trip to Berlin was great, but pretty exhausting and stressful. As you maybe know, we students don't get that much sleep on field trips. *lol* Whatever, now I'm finally back and I think that's all you want, right? I want to thank you for the reviews you've left during my absence and I'm glad that you've waited so patiently and didn't flame me for letting you wait a week! Special thanks at Kali for defending me! *dodges the vegetables person throws at her*
Mmh… I've just read the reviews again and found no real questions at me or nothing I could say to you without giving too much away of the end of the story or about what will happen in Takeo's timeline. But I can tell you one thing! You will get to know what will happen to Takeo's parents in this and the next chapter! And you will finally get to know, whom I've been talking about in the last a/n. Some of you already guessed, but I won't say now if you were right or not.
Oh, I just found a question I can answer! *grins* Aaaaaand, it's from Demon Dancing, also known as Lexi-sama, the author of the great story "The Field Trip; or Murphy's Law"! And here is my answer: You're right, I'm from Germany, so my mother language is German. I've had English in school for seven years, but was never that good in it and dropped it two years ago. I just 're-learned' first through reading fanfics and then through starting to write. BTW thanks for the compliment! J
Congrats at JenTrunks for being the 900th reviewer! I slowly start to wonder who'll be the 1000th…
But now, let's start with the chapter!
Chapter 26: Bulma's idea
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Bulma nipped at her cup of tea, while Takeo was telling her everything that had happened in the last few days, while he had been in the past. She occasionally dropped an 'oh' or 'I see' or asked a question, when something was unclear, but she was mostly quiet, letting her grandson do the talking. That was something pretty unlikely for her, but she was way too eager to find out, if the trip to the past had been successful, so that she didn't want to interrupt the young man more than necessary. Her former frown, she had on her face, as Takeo told her that Pan had run away like in this time, was replaced by a smile, when he had finished his tale.
It had worked! Takeo had been able to help his parents getting together and spare both of them a lot of pain! And he was mostly just able to do it because… "So, that was the reason, why you said that there fortunately had been problems with the time machine," she said. "If they hadn't been there, you would've returned here and wouldn't have been able to lead Trunks to LA, after Pan run off, even though you talked to her."
Takeo nodded smiling and took a sip of his tea. "Who would've thought that she would do this? She seemed quite confident after we talked, but I had no idea that the fight the two had could be that bad. Mom never told me exactly, what dad had said to her, but it must've hurt her much more than I've ever imagined," he added thoughtfully. He sighed. "But now that I know how it could've been, I'm afraid to face them. I'm afraid to return home and see mom hurt. I'm afraid to go to work and see d-Trunks just living for the company."
Bulma put a comforting hand on his shoulder and flashed him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry Takeo. I'm quite sure that everything will also work out in our timeline. We just need a plan to get them back together, that's all, now that we know that they don't hate each other. And I also think that Trunks deserves to know that he has a great son like you."
Takeo smiled back. "That's almost exactly the same, what your other self had said to me. By the way your other self…" He reached into the pocked of his denim jacket and took out the envelope. "She told me to give you this. She said that it's really important."
"Really?" Bulma asked confused, taking the envelope out of her grandson's hand. She opened it and started to read the letter. A smirk crept on her face and it grew larger, the more of the letter she read. Finally she put the letter on the table and looked at Takeo. "Takeo, there are a few things that I have to do before you go home. Why don't you go to Junior until I'm finished? I'm sure he'll be happy to see you, now that you're back."
"Sure…" Takeo said confused and got up, but winced again, as a sharp pain shot through his whole body. "Uhm… Bulma… You don't have any senzu beans lying around, do you?" he asked hopefully, wearing the typical Son-grinTM.
"Sorry, Vegeta used the last up yesterday…" Bulma answered absently, rereading the letter once again. As Takeo groaned, she looked up again. "But I think that Junior might still have some for you."
The young man's face lightened up immediately. "Thanks Bulma! See ya later!" One second later, he was gone.
Bulma looked at the place, where her grandson had been standing a second ago and smiled. She then turned her gaze back to the letter, a gleam of hope appearing in her eyes. Yes, she thought, that might actually work.
~*~
A young well-built man with spiky black hair that was going in all directions, wearing a pair of blue jeans and an orange T-shirt, was lying on his bed, listening to music through his headphones. His black eyes were closed and his foot rocked to the rhythm of the song he was listening to. Being completely oblivious to what was happening around him, he didn't notice how the door to his room was opened and someone stepped inside. First as the sun that had been shining through the window on the face of the young man, was blocked, he opened his eyes startled. Because of the glaring light, he had to blink a few times, before he recognized the person in front of him. A huge grin spread over his face. "Takeo! It's you! You're back!" he said excitedly and jumped out of his bed, pulling the headphones from his head.
Takeo just smirked. With the way his friend was acting, the resemblance between him and his father was uncanny, and that not just because they looked exactly alike, but also because of the character, now that he had the chance to get to know his friend's father better. In this time he never had much to do with him, just saw him occasionally, when he had been secretly visiting his friend in the last years. "You're stating again the obvious, Junior." He pulled him into a brotherly hug. "Good to see you again."
"Good to see me again? Hey, grandma and I had been worried sick about you. What took you so long to come back? Shouldn't you just go to the past, say: 'Hi mom! Don't do the same mistake like your other self did in my time, otherwise you all will be hurt.'?"
Takeo laughed at his best friend's statement. "You know as well as I do that it wouldn't have been that easy. The last thing I wanted was her and the others knowing, who I am. But thanks to some problems of the time machine, my identity had been blown…"
Junior raised an eyebrow at his best friend. "Really? But they got together, right?"
Takeo nodded smiling. "Yeah, after a few more complications, they did."
"Great, but now I want to know everything. And I mean everything!" Junior demanded and plopped down on the bed.
"Okay… But first I have a question. You don't have by any chance a senzu lying around?" Takeo asked.
"Sure… In the drawer of my desk…" the other young man laughed. "Sparring match with Vegeta?"
His friend grinned, as he got the senzu out of the drawer. "Worse. Sparring match with my mom. And just one senzu for her." He ate the senzu, immediately not feeling the pain anymore, and sat down on the windowsill, so that he could face his friend. "So, and you really want to know everything?" Junior nodded and after Takeo took a deep breath, he started again to tell everything that had happened to him in the past few days, as he had been in the past.
A few hours later, at the end of the tale, Junior was lying on his bed, holding his sides, because he was laughing so hard. "Oh my Dende… Trunks, as in my uncle Trunks, as great Saiyaman?" He broke into another laughing fit. "That's just hilarious! I wished I could have seen that! Dad really got him to do that?"
Takeo grinned, fiercely nodding his head. "First, yes, my father, that means your uncle, as the great Saiyaman. Your father and Gohan put him into the costume and showed him the right moves, while I had been telling my mom about the plan. You really should have seen him. He was so embarrassed and mom enjoyed it. Well, as hard as it may sound, but I think it served him right. I wouldn't wonder if your father still remembers it and does the same with him in case everything would work out between my parents in this timeline."
The last part he said not as excitedly as the first. As much as he liked being back and being able to talk to his best friend, there was still this thing with his parents. He knew he had thought about it about a thousand times, if not more, before and every time someone had told him that everything would work out. But there was still this nagging in the back of his mind, telling him that they could be wrong. That in this time his parents didn't love, but hated each other. He would see his mother, see the pain in her eyes, and then think about how it could have been.
He would have to lie to her longer. He could never tell her where he was working, or even that he knew, who his father was. His mother never told him and he just found out about it through Vegeta and Junior. And then there was still the fact that he was best friend with the one his mother had forbidden to ever see again, after they had first met. She had told him that Junior was a bad influence on him. How many years had it been? He had been eight and Junior seven. They had been secretly friends for sixteen years, using every possibility to meet, carefully that she didn't find out.
In the last year he had been around his family so much, but just three of them knew who he was. Junior, Bulma and Vegeta. And of course Dende and Piccolo, but they didn't count. The rest was totally oblivious to who he was. Well, how could they know? He was constantly wearing the ki-shield and his sunglasses. Without the sunglasses they would at once see the obvious resemblance between him and Vegeta, his grandfather. But until now they hadn't found out, even though he wasn't so sure about his aunt Bra. He would often catch her looking at him strangely, when they met, but as far as he knew she never said anything about that.
"Stop brooding young man!" Bulma's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked up and saw her beaming at him.
"Hey grandma, what's up?" Junior asked, saying something for the first time since his best friend fell again in one of his thoughtful moments. He had known him long enough to know not to disturb him, when he got this distant look in his eyes. In their past those moments had been very rare, but they came more often, the closer the time for him to go to the past came.
"Well," Bulma smirked, "Let's say that I, or better, my other self, found a way to get Takeo's parents to meet, without them knowing until it's too late and they face each other. That way they have to talk."
"Really?" Takeo asked, his voice filled with new hope. "How will you do this?"
"That's easy! I don't even know why I hadn't thought of it sooner. A party!" Bulma stated proudly. "Listen… I planned it like this…"
~*~
Takeo had a huge smile on his face, as he was on his way home, having the setting sun in his back. The flight from Japan to LA shouldn't take him longer than a few minutes at top speed without turning Super, but he took his time. This thing that Bulma, err, the two Bulmas had planned could actually work. Now the only problems could be his parents. Well, Bulma would find a way to get his father to LA, where they would hold the party in one of the most luxurious hotels in Beverly Hills, the Regent Beverly Whilshire [A/N: I needed a huge and expensive hotel and after surfing a bit in the internet, I finally found this one!]. Takeo chuckled. Leave it to Bulma to choose something extravagant. And she had even had an idea of how he could get his mother there. His grandmother had been right. The plan was so simple. The only thing they had to do was getting his parents to actually talk to each other. This had worked in the other time, so why shouldn't it also work in this time?
Just a few minutes later he could see the coast of LA. He sped up and soon landed in the garden of the small house he and his mother were living in, carefully so that no one could have seen him flying. The house was a bit in the outskirt of LA and it was a small house, surrounded with a white fence, with just enough space for both of them, but it was enough and quite cozy. The house did belong to Angela's grandparents, but as they became too old and moved in with Angela's parents, they sold it to Pan for a price she could afford. Okay, a few things needed to be repaired, or renovated, but nothing they couldn't handle. The house even had a small garden and the neighbors were all really nice and helpful.
Takeo walked to the backdoor and opened it. It wasn't locked; a sign that his mother was home. "Mom?" he shouted through the house, as he closed the door behind him. "I'm home!" He put his jacket over the counter in the kitchen and walked through the hallway to the living room, where he found his mother sitting cross-legged on the floor, meditating.
He leaned with his shoulder at the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest, and watched his mother, studying her carefully. It almost seemed as if she hadn't changed at all. She looked almost exactly as she had in the past. Her long black hair that was still (or again) going down to her waist was tied back into a ponytail and she was wearing a white tank top and black pants. Her face still held the youth in it, even though you could see that she had been through a lot in her life. Not that he could see them now, but he knew that her eyes were sadder as the ones of her younger counterpart. But no one would think that she is already almost 50 years old. Everyone thought that she was thirty, if at all. And especially not that she was already the mother of a grown up son. Most people, who didn't know that Pan was his mother, would think that they were brother and sister, or a couple. A quite disturbing thought, as Takeo decided. But it had its advantages being part Saiyajin and age slower than normal people. It would take a long time until the first gray hair would appear on his mother's head.
"How long are you planning to stand there like this and watch me?" Pan suddenly asked, as she cracked an eye open. "Don't you want to greet your mother?"
Takeo smiled at her. Even though she had been through a lot, her character hadn't changed that much. He walked over to her and gave her a small peck on her cheek. "Hi mom…"
"See?" she said, as she got up, wiping a few drops of sweat from her forehead with a towel that had been lying next to her. "It's that easy." She walked past her son into the kitchen and took a bottle of water out of the fridge. She drank almost half of it, before she turned her attention back to her son, who had followed her. She smiled at him. "And now tell me… How went your first business trip? You've been gone longer than I thought. You could've at least called me."
The young man scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, sorry about that… But there had been a lot of stress and I didn't have the chance to call you. There had been a few problems. That was also the reason why it took longer than planned," he explained. Like, you running away, even though I told you not to.
"I see… But don't think I forgive you that easily. I'm your mother, after all and I worry about you…" she scolded him.
"I already told you that I'm sorry…" he whined. "But at least the trip had been successful. Even that successful that my boss, well, she's not my real boss, more like the head of the lab, plans a party for tomorrow night. In the Regent Beverly Whilshire to be precise."
Pan almost spit out the water that had currently been in her mouth. "But… that one's a real expensive hotel… And she just decided it?"
"Well… you see, she has a lot of influence on my real boss," Takeo explained. "But that's not everything… I'm also invited and she told me that I need a date. And… well… since I don't have one, I wanted to ask you to come with me…"
His mother just stared at him. "Let me get this straight… You want me, your old mother, to be your date?"
"You're not old mom. You know as well as I do that you still look like a young woman. Please, say yes. This means a lot to me and I also want you to meet my boss. She also can't wait to meet you, since I already told her that you would be my date," he nearly begged. She just had to come with him. Otherwise the whole plan would be blown.
Pan sighed. "Okay… I come with you…" Suddenly her head jerked up. "Wait a minute! I know why you want me to come with you!" Takeo raised an eyebrow. "You have a girlfriend, who is working with you and want me to meet her, right?"
Takeo first looked at her confused and then smiled. More like the other way around, he thought, you won't meet my non-existent girlfriend, but the father of your child. But let her think what she wants, as long as she wouldn't ask further questions.
"I think that I'm right!" Pan grinned triumphantly, thinking that she had seen through his motives. "But how do we get there?"
"My boss had arranged a limo that will get us at 7 pm and then bring us to the hotel," Takeo told her. He then walked up to his mother and hugged her. "Thank you for coming with me. You have no idea how much it means to me. I love you and it's good to be back…"
Pan, totally puzzled by her son's sudden strange behavior, just hugged him back. "I love you, too," she simply mumbled. She had this strange feeling that her son was keeping something from her, but she couldn't tell what.
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I know it had taken me 9 days to post this chapter, but as you already know, I had been in Berlin and then there had been a few other things I had to do. But I promise that the next chapter won't take 9 days! Please tell me what you think of this one, okay? Thanks a lot!
Eternally yours
ChibiChibi