Act II, scene i –in which winter is mentioned

When she landed on the mountain, snow crunched and she slid several feet.

Her first reaction was to raise her energy again, but her better judgment won out over instinct. Too much of a power surge would cause an avalanche, and the last thing she wanted was to crush the people below her. The view was beautiful; settled between the many mountains was a lake –frozen solid, she assumed—which was bordered by frosted pine-trees. Nowhere was there a patch of earth uncovered by snow; nowhere was the snow less than a foot deep. Far below, bundled in winter garb, Kuririn was playing with Trunks and Goten, the latter two who were toddling through the snow unsteadily.

Juuhachigou found it baffling that Kuririn, a man of neither wing, who was neither tempestuous nor apathetic, whose sense of equity was so keen that a decision whether to wear blue or red socks often resulted in him wearing both, could almost always be found in either one extreme or the other. If he was not at the Kame house, sunburned and barefoot, he was in another place she would least think to look for him—usually, she found, far, far up north.

After watching for several minutes, Juuhachigou decided to make her presence known. She pushed off lightly and went into a controlled fall, landing gracefully at the foot of the mountain. As she touched down Kuririn looked up, and she was gratified to see genuine delight flicker across his face. "Look who's here!" he exclaimed.

Goten and Trunks were laboring on a nondescript pile of snow. At the greeting Goten turned, a crumbling snowball in his arms. Kuririn stooped to pick up him up, swinging him up onto his shoulders. "Trunks, Goten, have you met Miss Juuhachigou? Come on, say hello."

"Heyhey," said Goten.

Juuhachigou looked at Trunks. He stared back up at her fearlessly, chubby hand grasping at his green and blue striped scarf. "I don't want to intrude," she said.

"What? You're never intruding! Goten, buddy, that's my hair." Kuririn shrugged his shoulders up and down, causing Goten to squeal in delight, and grinned up at Juuhachigou. His cheeks and ears were pink. "So, what brings you here? Come to join in on the fun?"

Trunks, growing disinterested, waddled off toward a half-finished snowman. Goten began to struggle. Kuririn lifted him from his shoulders and set him carefully on the ground so he could follow. "Not really," she said. "I just didn't have anywhere better to go."

"Oh. Well, that's okay too." Kuririn cupped mittened hands together and blew, then rubbed them together fiercely. "It's nice out here today. Yesterday I hear it was storming like crazy—I probably would have gotten swallowed up if I'd tried to come out. Aren't you cold?"

She shook her head. "What's the story with those two?" she asked. "Are you babysitting?"

"Goten and Trunks? Sort of. I mean, I am, but no one really asked me to. Bulma and Chichi are raising those kids by themselves. They deserve a break once in a while." He was watching Goten and Trunks as he spoke. He smiled gently as an attempt to push the bottom half of the snowman resulted in both of them getting buried by the midsection. "Besides, I love having these two. They can be terrors, but they really are good kids."

She nodded. The wind picked up, stirring the mounds of snow up into clouds. "I haven't seen you recently," said Kuririn.

"I haven't been around," she responded neutrally.

"Where have you been?"

"None of your business."

Kuririn nodded in acquiescence, resuming clapping his hands together. She watched him, from the way his way his eyes kept re-focusing and the way his teeth occasionally found his lower lip, fretful. "You're tired," she observed.

Kuririn glanced at her, surprised. "Yeah, a little, I guess," he said. "I'm working right now so I can pay off the new aircar Yamcha convinced me to get, not that I really needed it. In addition, I had to cover a couple of birthdays recently, including Master Roshi's three hundred such-and-such… yeah, it'll be nice when that stuff is finally taken care of. At the very least, it'll be a relief to stop hemorrhaging money. Woah, Trunks, not by the lake, buddy! Would you excuse me for a second?"

He sprinted off, scarf trailing behind him like a banner. Juuhachigou bent, ignoring the dampness that seeped through the material at the knee, and trailed her fingers through the snow. When she lifted them back out it stuck to her fingers like dandelion fluff. She touched a tongue to it experimentally. She was not sure what she expected to taste. She had once heard someone say it was supposed to taste like sugar –others said the taste differed according to the month. Her tongue lifted to brush the rapidly melting crystals to the roof of her mouth, and she swished the resulting water. To her disappointment, but not her surprise, she found it to be little more than that.

"We built a couple of snow forts back there a ways," said Kuririn. Trunks and Goten were traipsing behind him doggedly, tripping every other step. "We were about to have a war. Want to join us?"

"A war?" she said.

"Snowar!" Goten cheered. He toddled around in a circle, throwing up his arms. "Snowar, snowar, snowar!"

"You know, a snowball fight?" Kuririn exchanged thumb-ups with Goten. "You form a snowball, toss it, hit somebody, try and take their fort? And, of course, you spend your time making strategies that don't work. It's great! I'm serious, please take my coat, it's painful watching you run around in short sleeves."

"I've already told you that I don't get—"

He took it off and handed it to her. "So, what do you say? Will you play?"

She stared at the coat as if she did not know quite what to do with it. "I don't know."

"Come on, please? It'll be fun! Tell her, Goten." The toddler dutifully echoed 'Fun!' and he added, "You don't have anything better to do, do you?"

"You be on my team," said Trunks.

Juuhachigou looked down. Trunks had grabbed a hold and was tugging the leg of her pants, face solemn. "My team," he said again.

She stared at him intently. It was the first time she had heard him speak.

"So?" Kuririn coaxed. "How about it?"

She tore her eyes away and looked at him again. His expression was hopeful. Beside him, Goten had abandoned his dance and was now regarding her, scratching at his ear. Their expressions were hilariously similar. "Fine," she said.

"Woo hoo!" Kuririn grabbed Goten's hand and the two began scrambling for the nearest fort. "This's gonna be so cool, ne, Goten?"

"Saa!"

"Ride," said Trunks.

She nodded. She bent to pick him up, then remembered the coat in her hands. She hesitated, then slowly put it on.

Kuririn crouched behind the hastily constructed snow ridge. Goten stopped in front of it, placing his fists on his hips imperiously. "Stan' guard," he announced.

"No, no, buddy." Chuckling, Kuririn pulled him back. "Nobody needs to stand guard. Here, help me beef up the fort a bit, okay? We gotta make sure we beat these guys."

"Ride," Trunks repeated.

Juuhachigou picked him up and flew toward the fort. The instant she set him down he began scooping up snow and plastering it against the sides. "We'll win," he said.

She looked over at Kuririn. He was leaning over the side to fortify the base on the outside. As she watched, he suddenly lost his balance and fell, mashing part of the wall to the ground. Goten howled in dismay, trying to tug him up and in the process knocking down most the rest of the fort. "Yes," she said, "we will."

A stiff wind swept across the lake. Trunks, appearing satisfied with their fort, stepped back and began to build his arsenal. "Help," he ordered.

Juuhachigou squatted and picked up a handful of snow. After watching the toddler for a minute, she carefully began to roll it into a ball.

Kuririn was scrambling around in circles to get more snow. "Goten, hurry, we gotta rebuild!" he cried.

The two-year-old stumbled along at his heels, throwing up handfuls of snow. "R'bill! R'bill!"

Trunks said something to her and she turned. "What?"

He said it again, placing a second snowball next to his first. She set her own down and began on another. "I don't understand you," she said.

He did not respond. After a moment the programming clicked; 'hurry', he had said, according to the tone/context analysis, or something akin to it ('run!' it also suggested, and 'your mom!' and 'release my sock/brother/appendage!') and it had not been, as far as she could tell, in the standard tongue. "Hurry?"

Trunks nodded. She had a sudden flash of comprehension. Saiya-go. Of course Vegeta's offspring would have some knowledge of the language, though she could hardly imagine Vegeta spending enough time with him for him to be able to pick it up. "How many more do we need?"

"A billion," he said matter-of-factly. "Or two. Two trillion billion."

"All right," she said, and looked up.

Kuririn had just about gotten his and Goten's fort remade. Goten rushed about, piling clumsily-made snowballs to the right of the structure. As if sensing her gaze Kuririn looked up. "Hey, we're ready when you are," he called.

Juuhachigou looked at Trunks. "Are we ready?"

Trunks set his last snowball onto the pile. "One," he said, and continued, "two, three, four, five, a billion. Two billion. Two trillion billion. Ready."

"We're ready," she said.

Goten immediately dove behind the wall and peeked over the top. Kuririn removed his scarf and tied it around his forehead. "I'm afraid the enemy is about to suffer horrific casualties, Goten," he said grimly. After a properly enthusiastic 'Hai!' he said, "I'm about to give the signal. You guys ready?"

Trunks crouched down, snowball in hand. "Set," he reported.

A kiwork shot to the sky; an instant later the air was filled with flying snow. Juuhachigou watched as Trunks half-stood to hurl a snowball. On the other side, Goten's shriek revealed that Trunks' aim was true. "Help!" Trunks growled.

Juuhachigou picked up a snowball and fingered it. Something tingled at her senses. She ducked just in time to avoid an attack. "Better be careful, Miss Juuhachigou," Kuririn called. "I almost nailed you!"

She drew her arm back and let hers fly. He yelped, diving away just in time. "She's fast!"

Goten began screaming war cries at the top of his lungs. Trunks failed to respond, though a feral grin sprang to his face. Juuhachigou found herself hastily remaking a snowball, dodging another attempt by Kuririn. Following Trunks' example, she raised from her crouch slightly, aimed, and fired. This time the snowball grazed the top of Kuririn's head, leaving white specks in the wild black locks. Beside him, Goten increased his pace, pelting the base of their fort. Juuhachigou shoved more snow up to reinforce it from the inside. "Watch for th''tack!" Trunks said tersely, attempting to rebuild their arsenal.

Juuhachigou looked up in time to see Goten bearing down on them, fists raised in preparation. Without thinking she borrowed a large chunk from the side and flung it at him. It hit him squarely, knocking him out of the air. Half an instant later Trunks was over the wall, making a beeline for the other fort. Kuririn kicked at the ground, hard, throwing up a snow wall, and dove through it to tackle him to the ground. Trunks shrieked with laughter as Kuririn began tickling him. "Goten, hurry!" Kuririn yelled.

Goten picked himself up and dashed back to safety. Not quite sure what to do, Juuhachigou launched three snowballs in quick succession in hopes of getting Kuririn off of Trunks. He responded with uncanny speed, moving both him and Trunks out of their paths. He then promptly proceeded to give Trunks a wedgie before scrambling back to his fort. Trunks waddled back to his own. "Kill 'um," he said darkly.

Juuhachigou finished rebuilding the right side of their wall, then half-twisted to avoid a snowball aimed for her shoulder. "Why did I get myself into this?" she asked herself aloud, and surprised herself by not feeling the need to answer.

At the other fort, Goten leapt to the top of the wall, wavering only slightly, and threw his fists in the air. "Masenko!" he bellowed, and launched a snowball the size of his head. "Masenk'spoo! Keeznan!"

Juuhachigou was taken aback when Trunks leapt to his feet. "Gallic gun!" he hollered back. "Burning attack! Wolf Fang Fist! BIG BANG ATTACK!"

On the last attack he aimed a ki blast at the ground. A deluge of snow slammed down on Kuririn and Goten. By the time they managed to claw their way to the top, Goten was sputtering and Kuririn was laughing so hard he could not stand. Juuhachigou took the opportunity to peg him in the face. "Get 'em!" Goten yelled. He put his wrists together. "Ka-a-a-ame-e-e-e-e ha-a-a-a-ame-e-e-e-e…"

Uttering a familiar curse that sounded completely foreign coming from such a young boy, Trunks dove to the ground and covered his head. Juuhachigou followed suit just before a mountain of snow exploded upwards, crashing back down with enough force to make the valley shudder. She fought her way back upwards, coughing, and fished around in the snow for her partner. After a moment her fingers brushed hair. She yanked and hauled him to the surface. Across the way, Goten was flat on his back, laughing uproariously. Kuririn, still unable to rise, was in no better shape. "Y-you should've seen your f-f-faces!" he gasped, giggling helplessly. "BOOM!"

"SPLAT!"

Juuhachigou drew herself to her feet gracefully, intent on destroying them, and discovered that she actually had no desire to do so. Beside her, Trunks managed to crawl over to the enemy fort and dove onto Goten, wrestling him to the ground. Both were giggling. "My partner seems to have decided the war is over," Juuhachigou said tonelessly.

Wiping his eyes, Kuririn dragged himself to his knees. His sleeves had been pushed to his elbows; his forearms had grown as pink as his cheeks. "Are you all right, Miss Juuhachigou?" he asked, grinning.

Juuhachigou nodded. "So that was a snow war," she said.

"Yeah. Pretty fun, huh? Wow." He got to his feet, shaking his head vigorously. Bits of snow flew off into the ragged banks. He reached up to pull his scarf back down around his neck, saying, "They always get a little rough when you add these two, but then, what can you except from demi-Saiyajins?"

Now that her exhilaration had faded, she felt the familiar surge of anxiety that always seemed to plague her when she was with anyone else. She settled for a noncommittal pseudo-syllable. Not seeming to notice her sudden discomfort, Kuririn clapped his hands together, knocking snow to the ground. "So, where've you been staying these last couple of months?" he asked. At her scowl he blanched and added hurriedly, "I'm not trying to be intrusive, I just… I'm concerned, that's all. It's kind of cold, even down south."

"It's none of your business," she said reflexively. Then she added, "With my brother."

"Oh." For some reason this seemed to give him cause to frown slightly. "I see."

She did not let it slide. "What was that face for?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing, I'm sorry. I just… sorry. It's nothing."

Goten and Trunks had broken apart and were now running about in the snow, making up names for new attacks and throwing snow into the air. Juuhachigou examined Kuririn's profile, taking in everything from the scar at his temple to the bruise at his chin to the way he nibbled his lip, pensive. "Why do you stay at the Kame hut?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You heard me."

"I dunno," he said. He looked up at her, and she realized it was the first time she had gotten a good look at his eyes. They were narrow, slightly unfocused to give room for thought, and were confused; nowhere did she find fear. "Nowhere else to go, I guess. I can't move in with Bulma –she's already adopted one drifter, and look where that got her. I could move in with Yamcha, but I'm afraid some of his habits would rub off on me. Not that they're all bad, necessarily, but just, the way he talks. He has some of the strangest expressions I've… have you ever heard of anyone actually crapping a brick?"

"Son's," she said.

"Yeah." Kuririn rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. Out of all the options, that one's probably the most beneficial… but. Even though I would enjoy hanging out with the kids and helping with the housework and stuff, ultimately it's really unethical. Besides, I have a feeling that Chichi would eventually find cause to claw my head off. I need it, sometimes."

"She's a harpy," said Juuhachigou.

"She's a nice lady," he protested, frowning. "She's just stressed out all the time. Really, she's a good person. You just have to make sure you don't stay in the room with her for any extended period of time if you want to keep your genitals intact, that's all."

She startled herself by having to forestall a smile. "Here's a thought," she said. "Why not move into a place of your own?"

Discomfort flickered across his face. "I don't know. I'm not sure I… want to be alone. That is…" He sighed, folding his arms behind his head. "Both Master Roshi and I tend to be lonely people. He tries not to show it, but it's really obvious if you've known him for as long as I have. I figure, why not? I give him company, he gives me his, and his food, and his house, and both of us benefit. Especially me, I've just noticed."

Goten and Trunks raced by, laughing, and snow flew up into the air with renewed vigor. "Why are you lonely?" she asked.

He looked to her then, and there was an intensity in his eyes that she had not noticed before. "I dunno," he said. His voice was mild. "Why are any of us?"

She opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by a sudden shout of 'snow!' She looked up. The heavens had darkened during their conversation, creating a striking contrast with the white peaks of the mountains. As she watched, fat snowflakes began swirling down. She blinked as one dotted her eyelashes; the next, the tip of her nose. Goten and Trunks let out simultaneous whoops of joy and began chasing the flakes, trying to catch them on their tongue. Eyes shining, Kuririn danced after them, throwing out his arms and spinning around and around. "Snow," he said. His laugh was breathless and wild. "Snow, snow, snow!"

Goten and Trunks skipped around him, then grabbed each other's hands and began to whirl in circles. The snowfall thickened rapidly, obscuring the view of the mountains. Juuhachigou had a sudden vision of something she had seen in a store once, Before or After she could not remember, of a small dome on the shelf above a sales rack. The image was absurdly sharp in her memory; the rip at the bottom of the sales tag, the lurid colors of the tacky imperial-style dresses, the feel of the dome as she ran her fingers over the dusty top. The inside had been an apologetic mix of letters and dusted pine trees, in front of which had sat a elf wearing a green tunic and a pained smile. What had struck her, though, was the fact that, no matter how despondent the figures, or how many times she turned the dome over and set it on its base again, the snow kept coming, glittering and beautiful, untainted by the number of rotations of its world and the condition of its surroundings. Here, surrounded by trees and sheltered by the mountains, she felt like she was in a snow dome, sheltered from time, while children fell to the snow in frenzied attempts to create snow angels and pawprints; and under the heavens Kuririn still spun, dancing, scarf flying, face flushed, breathless with laughter; time again, and again.

Act II, scene ii, kame house

"Have you decided to kill him yet?"

She swung her leg idly, dangling her arm off of the cloud that was not supporting her. "No."

"Mm." Juunanagou dug her gently in the ribs with his toe and settled cross-legged in the air. Down below, the Kame hut sported a nightmarish mix of salmon and melon; Kuririn determinedly hunted around the grounds for the paintbrush that was in his back pocket. "I think I might."

"You've been saying that for months," she said. She did not sound bored—rather, preoccupied, and distant. "Either kill him or leave him be."

"I could kill you."

"Just don't miss."

"I can hear your gears working from here," said Juunanagou. "What for?"

"Everything." A thumb rubbed along a smooth nail absently. "Nothing."

"Anything you need to… you know…?"

She almost smiled. "No thanks."

"Good." Juunanagou yawned expansively, then reclined. "I hate hearing about other people's problems."

Juuhachigou rolled over to face the sky. Below, Kuririn's irritated yell was drowned out by a swell of rock-music. "Actually," she said.

Juunanagou's eyes were closed. "Great."

"I was thinking," she finished, unperturbed. "Where do you want to go?"

"Besides home? Home. Maybe to the city to frighten a small dog. Important stuff."

"In your life, I mean."

"What life?"

"Juunana," she said, "be serious."

"Look, what do you want me to say? That I've got some incredible plan? That I'm looking forward to conforming, to reforming, to devoting myself to hours and hours of pointless community service?"

"I just want to know if you had anything in mind."

"No, I don't."

"I see," she said.

The pause was brief, but poignant, and when Juunanagou turned to her his black brows were drawn together with annoyance. "Well? Are you going to just sit there until time winds to a halt or are you actually going to finish whatever the hell it is you're thinking?"

"There's nothing else to tell you. I was just curious."

"It doesn't become you."

"You're an ass," she said dutifully.

Juunanagou's pale eyes turned to her. "Have you started hating him enough to love him yet?"

She finally felt a surge of annoyance. "I thought you scrapped that argument."

"Why would I do that?"

"Several months ago, in fact."

"But it's genius," he said. "Mostly because it's right. A brilliant theory is always helped out by the fact that it's right."

"It doesn't make any sense."

"It makes perfect sense. I've said it before, he's making you love him, and you hate him for it."

Her eyes closed briefly. "Go away."

"In any case," he said, ignoring her, "everything's going to come to a head pretty soon. To be honest, I think I've decided to leave it in your hands. The drama is always so much better if you can sit back and watch it, and I do enjoy a good drama."

"This isn't a drama," she said, "and I neither hate him nor love him."

"You hate him," he said flatly. "You hate everything. You're addicted. You're addicted, and so even if you hadn't have found him you would have latched onto somebody else to hate." And he smiled, and it held a surprising lack of cruelty. "I think you'll kill him. I really do. You can't stand having a weakness, and he would be your weakness. You'll kill him within the month."

"Thank you for your expert opinion," she said coldly, "but the last time I checked you had a similar addiction to hatred."

"That's true.  … But then, I'm not the one in love, now, am I?"

Below them, Kuririn located the brush in the exact place he had left it and whistled to himself as he continued his task, anger abruptly and completely forgotten. Juuhachigou suddenly felt tired. "So the point of all this is…?"

"That I could try and forbid you from continuing something so ridiculous, but the fact is, it's just going to be too much fun watching how it all turns out to stop it." Juunanagou made a show of stretching, then folded his arms behind his head and focused off into the sky, jiggling his leg restlessly. "At any rate, you be careful with that wise-ass. Not only is he not as smart as you're making him out to be, he's human. Pure-blood, no half and half or two percent about it. Even if you do end up loving him, he'll die of old age before you age a month."

She looked up at him. His expression was bored, and slightly contemptuous, and she knew from experience that he was no longer even thinking about the current situation—rather, something that had happened to him, or had not happened.  "At least I'll be able to say that I lived in a way I could be proud of," she said quietly.

This time Juunanagou's smile was grim. "Whatever makes you happy, dear sister."

He tapped into his power source and faced the sky.

"Juunana."

He turned.

"Don't follow me here again."

He didn't.