Disclaimer (and this goes for the entire fic, including any other sagas I may write): I don't own DBZ or any of it's characters.  Any of those not found in DBZ, but are in this fic are mine.  Thank you, enjoy the fic.)

DragonBall FT (Forgotten Times) The Black Thorn Saga

Chapter 1: The Routine
The blaring alarm clock was silenced by the slamming of a tired fist. The boy stared at the clock for a few seconds before it hit him that he had to get up for school. Cursing the world, he started to get out of bed when a voice was heard through the thin apartment walls:

"Xavier! Get up...NOW!!!"
Dragging his tired feet across the floor, Xavier walked out into the hall, past his mother's room, and to the bathroom. He would have said good-morning to his mom, but she had already fallen back asleep after yelling to him to wake up.

Working all that overtime is really taking a toll on mom, Xavier thought to himself. This thought also took him back to days when things were different...when his father was still alive and his family lived in their comfortable sub-urban home. It seemed so long ago, but it had only been a couple of years. Now, it took everything for them to afford to live in their apartment, just on the edge of the city.

As quickly as he had started reminiscing about the old days, Xavier snapped back to reality and remembered he had to get ready for school. fucking Monday...fucking school, Xavier thought as he hurriedly got ready. Xavier looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. He was relatively tall, about 6'. He had short, dark brown hair which was normally brushed forward, but was now a complete mess. He was of an average build, neither muscular nor fat. His height made him appear even thinner than he really was.

After he had gotten dressed, he walked into his sister's room to wake her up. Her room was barely classifiable as such...it was smaller than Xavier's room, but not by much, and, because of its small size, seemed better suited as a convict's cell than a little girl's room. Both of their rooms didn't even seem like they were meant to be used as bedrooms...maybe large storage closets or something.

"Hey, Lydia, wake up! Time to get ready for school!" Almost instantly after Xavier had spoke, the nine year old Lydia woke up, bright-eyed and eager to start the day. "Good-morning, bro!" she said. Xavier merely grunted a response; her "morning-person" attitude and the fact that, since she was only in third grade, Lydia didn't start class until an hour later than his school did, always got under his skin.

After waking up his sister, Xavier moved to his next task...waking up his mother. He hated doing this; she worked so hard to put food on the table and it seemed like all she did was work. He wanted to let her sleep, but knew that if he did, she would probably get fired. He walked into her room, it was the biggest of the three bedrooms, being the only one that seemed like it was meant to be a bedroom, but still, it was very small.

Xavier walked over to his mother's bedside and shook her gently. His mother responded to waking up with even less enthusiasm than Xavier did. Eventually, however, she did wake up. Xavier's mother knew that she had to get Lydia to school and get herself to work.

Upon making sure that his mother was fully awake and wouldn't fall back asleep again, Xavier glanced at the clock on the small table next to his mother's bed. OH SHIT!!! Xavier thought, I'm gonna miss the bus!! And with that, Xavier said goodbye to his mother, and ran out of her room. Hurrying through the one large room of the apartment, which served as kitchen, dining room, and living room, Xavier grabbed his backpack and sped out of the apartment. He ran down the hall to the elevators and stopped dead in his tracks as he saw the sign taped on the elevator doors which read:

"Out of order; please use the stairs.

Thank you

-Mr. Moggins"

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Xavier punched the sign as hard as he could, splitting two of his knuckles, and then ran to the stairs, not noticing the dent left in the metal doors. Jumping down the stairs four and five at a time, he thought: I had better get used to this...it'll be weeks before that lazy bastard gets off his ass and gets that elevator fixed.

When he had finally made it down the twenty-three floors of stairs, Xavier stepped out onto the street and ran full-sprint to the bus stop. He got to the stop just as the bus was pulling away. Cursing his luck and the public transportation system, Xavier found himself running again. If he wanted to catch his bus, he had to make it to the next stop, which was at the corner of the street, two blocks away, before the bus left there. He didn't think he would make it, but just as the bus was about to leave, the light at that intersection turned red. Xavier got to the idling bus and knocked on the door. The driver shot him an annoyed look and opened the doors. Xavier thanked the man as he hurriedly look for his bus pass. He checked his wallet, but it wasn't there. He checked his pockets, nothing. By this time, the driver was really getting annoyed, he had a schedule to stick to, and he didn't need some kid wasting his time. Xavier finally reached into his backpack, found his pass, showed it to the driver, and moved to the back of the bus where his friend, Jane was seated with a smirk on her face.

"Overslept again?" she asked.

Collapsing into the seat next to her, Xavier responded "No, the damn elevator wasn't
working."

Jane merely chuckled a bit; she knew how Xavier hated mornings, but she couldn't help letting out the slight laugh at his bad luck. Seeing Jane laugh at his expense didn't aggravate Xavier, as she thought it would have. Talking to her was the first good thing he had to look forward to each day and he just enjoyed being in the presence of his best friend.

Just at that moment, when Xavier was starting to think the day might not be as bad as he thought it would be, he heard a voice say "Sure, a likely excuse, you lazy son of a bitch."

Turning to his left and looking across the isle, Xavier saw the owner of that obnoxious voice. It was Mark. Xavier couldn't stand the sight of him, much less his voice, but Mark and Jane got along, so Xavier put up with him.

Jane knew what Xavier was thinking and quickly tried to change the subject. Jane quickly asked Xavier: "What did you do to your hand?"

Looking at his bloody knuckles for the first time with a puzzled look, Xavier muttered "I honestly don't know...it must've happened when I punched the elevator doors."

Jane didn't respond, but reached into her backpack and pulled out a tissue, which she gave to Xavier so he could clean off the small amount of blood that hadn't already dried.