a/n: Wow, another chapter. Bet ya'll thought that wasn't gonna happen. I
actually wrote all this in about a month and a half, but I'm a terrible
procrastinator. Eheh. Soooo, anyway, stuff in this chapter. . . Two
original characters are introduced, as well as one not-really-original one
I snuck in from a different anime. Bonus points for guessing which one!
Other than that, no action in this chapter, much. Just a lot of teasing and
moving things along a little.
Disclaimer: Yes, I totally own Dragonball Z.
. . .That was my sarcasm voice, by the way.
Chapter Five: Go on
Cesily drifted through the door of the third floor office she shared with her two co-workers and best friends, a dreamy smile on her face. Blue- haired Yukina appeared to be involved in her work, although it was just past eight o'clock, but Fujikora (known as Fuji, for everyday purposes) didn't bother to pretend disinterest in Cesily's mood. As her friend moved airily toward her desk in between the other two and settled into her chair, Fuji leaned back to watch her.
"Ooo," Cesily's black-haired friend commented. "What's up with you? Did you get laid or something?"
Fuji's blunt statement brought her friend down to earth with a thump, and she blushed redder than the strawberry plushie Yukina kept on top of her computer. Fuji watched in amusement.
"You're going to self-combust in a second, I swear. Jeez, Ces, it was just an innocent question!"
"Innocent??" Cesily spluttered. "You ask me if I got laid and you call that an innocent question?"
Fuji nodded vigorously. "Hai. A not-innocent question would be asking for details of how you got laid."
Cesily groaned, burying her face in her hands as it began to cool off. "Why? Why do I put up with this abuse? Why?"
Yukina, who had abandoned her pretense of work and was listening with interest from the desk to the right of Cesily's, thought this sounded like a nice opening. "Because you loooove us, Cesi-san!"
Fuji nodded sharply in agreement from Cesily's left. "Of course you do. Either that or you stick around to read second-rate sci-fi books day in and day out. So, did you get laid or what?"
Cesily sighed. "No, I did not, as you so crudely put it, 'get laid'."
"Well, then, did you get a date?" Yukina asked, leaping for the next best, and less dirty-minded, conclusion.
Cesily tried to keep a poker face, but the upturned corners of her mouth betrayed her. "Oh, you so did," Fuji grinned triumphantly. "Well? With who? Is he cute? Give us all the juicy details."
"It was actually my second date with him, thank you very much," Cesily replied, giving in at last to peer pressure and preparing to gossip. "Yes, he's cute, very cute in fact. And both of you know who he is."
"We do?" Fuji blinked. "Hmmm. . .well, I don't think Yuki, you, and I have that many guy friends in common. . .none that you'd date, I know that. . ."
"Ooo," the younger, more romantic Yukina broke in, "Maybe it's someone famous! Is it, Cesi-san?"
"C'mon," Fuji scoffed. "She wouldn't. . ." the oldest of the three trailed off as she saw Cesily's expression. "It is? You're going out with someone famous? Honestly?"
Cesily smirked a bit. "Not *that* famous. . ."
"Girl, how do you get so lucky all the time!" Fujika groaned. "I swear. . ." Then she grinned. "So, who is this not-that-famous famous guy you're dating that both of us know?"
"He's on the city baseball team," Cesily revealed, drawing out their suspense as long as she could.
"The Reapers?" Fuji scoffed. "They don't have more than two guys worth dating on the whole team! Well, there is that one. . .but he's dating Bulma Briefs, so. . ." Her eyes widened as she saw Cesily's expression. "You're going out with YAMCHA YOSHIMURA??"
Despite her attempt at a poker face, the corners of Cesily's mouth curved up in a smug grin. Oh yeah, she was good and she knew it.
Yukina sighed, almost theatrically. "He's sooo handsome. Cesi-san, you're soooo lucky!"
"So tell us about him!" Fuji pressed. "Personality-wise, I mean. We all know about his godlike good looks." She rolled her eyes at Yukina, who was sitting starry-eyed with her hands clasped in front of her chest.
"He's actually not what you'd expect," Cesily revealed, looking thoughtful. "I mean, he's an incredibly famous player, probably the only reason the Reapers won any games at all last season, but he's not stuck up or cocky or anything. He's really shy, actually."
"How so?" Fuji was content. Cesily was in full flow now; all she had to do was make appropriate noises and prod her every now and then.
"Well, when he realized he was actually talking to a girl, I thought he was going to freeze up right there. I mean, he went completely red. I still don't know how he managed to ask me out without passing out from all that blood rushing to his face! Honestly, he acts like someone who's used to being beaten at everything, not like someone who's the best in the province at what he does."
"Huh." This time, Yukina pitched in with her own encouraging sound, eager to hear more.
"Right, you know? Anyway, he's really sweet. I don't think he'd get all fresh with a girl or anything like that even when he gets over being shy. I really like him, he's not conceited at all, more like unsure of himself, like he's not confident about much." Cesily trailed off, absorbed in her thoughts, much to the disappointment of her two friends, who had been happily engaged in hanging on her every word.
"So, I guess we should start proofreading this, huh? Whose lovely work do we have today?" Fujikora sighed as Cesily shook off her contemplation and got into 'working' mode. Nothing would dissuade her now; they might as well go ahead and get busy.
"Erm, some guy called Terry something, I think," Yukina volunteered, and the three of them plunged into the grammatical nitpicking that was their daily way of life.
* * *
Unaware of Cesily's musings several blocks away, Yamcha waited patiently for his turn at bat. Daily practice might be boring as heck (for the semi-superheroes among the players, at least), but it was necessary and everyone was required to attend. The monotony of the hours in the sun was broken only occasionally, when he needed to actually focus on something, such as making a difficult catch, or when he was accosted by Jin.
Most people on the team wouldn't have even thought the words 'accosted' and 'Jin' in the same sentence. As far as they were concerned, Jin was a quiet, sedate kid who did his job and kept his head down, a little too far down even. But, for reasons known only to Jin and whatever Kaious decided to take an interest, the shy younger player had opened up to Yamcha. And when Jin opened up, he threw back the huge double doors, rolled out the red carpet, and partied 'til four in the morning. Possibly there were even drinks with slices of pineapple and fiddly little umbrellas involved.
At the moment, Jin was engaged in pestering Yamcha with care and devoted skill. "Soooo, whatcha been up to? Huh? Huh? Met any girls? Huh? I mean, not that you'd have anything to say to them, or anything, being the silent studmuffin that you are. . .*cough*not*cough*"
Yamcha couldn't help it; he blushed. Jin's eyes widened, and he pounced like an overenthusiastic kitten on a tricky ball of yarn.
"You did! Youdidyoudid! Soooo, is she nice? Pretty? C'mon, details, man!"
Yamcha attempted to pull himself together and shot Jin a level look. "Even if I did meet someone. . ." here he raised his voice to override Jin's affirmations that someone had definitely been met, ". . .what makes you think I would give you any details?"
"Cuz we're friends, Yami!" Jin turned up the big, puppy-dog eyes and injured air to the max and focused it on his teammate. Yamcha sighed, knowing that Jin would keep pestering him until something, at least, was revealed, and spilled. At least, a little bit.
"Yes, I met someone, okay?" he answered, cursing his infernal girl- shyness inwardly as he began to blush.
Jin leered at him. "HA! I knew it. So, who's the *lucky* girl?" Playful sarcasm dripped like honey off the "*lucky*" but Yamcha ignored it. In fact, he had gone back to ignoring Jin entirely in the hope that the younger player would just give up and leave him alone. He should have known better. Jin began to mock-pout.
"Come ON, Yami! Tell me, tell me!"
Yamcha gave a sigh that was more than half a growl of frustration, and rolled his eyes. "If I tell you, will you stop calling me Yami? You know I hate that."
"Okay. Give me all the juuuuicy details, and I'll stop calling you Yami for. . .two days." Jin gave him the pleading puppy eyes again. His teammate surrendered.
"Deal, I guess. Her name's Cesily, she's very pretty and nice, and I met her a few nights ago at a bar."
"Oooo, you met in a *bar*, huh?" Jin packed more innuendo into that sentence than Yamcha had thought humanly possible before actually hearing it. Thankfully, Yamcha's turn at bat had finally come, and he stepped up to the plate with an intense feeling of relief, his cheeks still red.
Jin sobered up briefly, at least through both their turns at bat, but practically skipped back to Yamcha's side when he was finished. "Well? That wasn't very much detail, *Yami*."
Yamcha growled again. "What do you want to know exactly?"
"Well, lessee," Jin marked off points on his fingers as he considered. "How many dates you've had, have you kissed, have you gotten laid, are you likely to get laid anytime in the near future, do you think she's thought about getting laid with you. . ."
Yamcha cut him off. "ENOUGH, already! Is that all you ever think about? Talk about having your mind in the gutter."
Jin leered up at Yamcha, who was the taller of the two by several inches. "My mind's not just in the gutter, it's in the SEWER. So, spill!"
Despite Yamcha's best efforts at ignoring his friend, he was blushing redder than a beet and feeling considerably flustered by the time his next turn at bat rolled around. Perhaps that was why, when he saw the ball coming towards him, he let himself react just a little too much. The next thing anyone knew, the ball was nowhere to be seen and the bat was an exploding cloud of splinters. Yamcha gulped and looked guiltily up at his teammates, who were all gaping at him, astonished. The only exception seemed to be Jin, who smirked widely and gave him a thumbs-up. Yamcha made a mental note to pound the younger player after practice. In the meantime, he put his hand behind his head and laughed sheepishly.
"Eheh. . .jee, guess the bat was faulty or something, huh?"
A few people still looked unconvinced, but most of the team and the coach seemed to accept that explanation. Yamcha grabbed a fresh bat and took his place in the line just as Jin finished his turn and trotted back.
"You seriously have to teach me how to do that, Yami. It's completely awesome."
Yamcha, spotting his opportunity, grinned. "Stop teasing me for the rest of practice, and I'll train you. A bit."
Jin's eyes went wide and starry. "Really? Awesome! Thanks, man!"
"Eh, no problem. As long as you stop teasing me!" Jin nodded vigorously, and Yamcha relaxed. However, the incident turned his train of thought down another track. What was he going to tell Cesily about his powers? Jin had found out by a complete accident a few months ago, and had taken it surprisingly well, in Yamcha's opinion. He suspected that Jin had spazzed more than a little in private, or at least internally, but when Yamcha had originally broken the news, his friend's reaction had been something along the lines of, "So, you have superpowers. Cool. Are you gonna eat that?" Part of the reason for this cool acceptance had probably been disbelief, and the rest was just Jin. He loved to pretend that he knew everything there was to know, and hated being seen at a disadvantage, even in front of Yamcha, his closest friend.
But Cesily was another story. Yamcha really didn't know enough about her yet to form any accurate conclusions about how she would react to his powers. He hoped and believed that she would think it was cool, or at least accept that it was real, but she could also easily denounce him as some kind of freak, or take it all to be some kind of trick or a stupid joke. He sighed and shook his head as the team spread out over the infield to continue practice. What *was* he going to tell Cesily? And when? To be frank, he had absolutely no idea.
* * *
"I have absolutely no idea."
Puar gave Dougan a skeptical look, but the Irish Wolfhound only frowned. "Seriously, I don't know how she'd react. I mean, flying through the air, zapping stuff with energy bolts. . .it sounds like a bad sci-fi novel. It all depends on if she believes it or not."
"She'll have to, after a point," Puar stated. "I mean, we know humans can be pretty stupid and stubborn at times, but there's only so much they can deny before they have to accept that something's going on."
"So say she accepts it," Dougan postulated, and Puar nodded encouragingly. "I think. . .she'd probably think it was cool. She likes stuff like that, I can barely pry her away from her science fiction stuff some days. Remember, that's IF she believes it. At the moment, I'm not even sure if *I* believe it."
Puar looked thoughtful, then grinned evilly. "I think I know just the thing to fix that. . ."
* * *
*BOOOOM!*
Although the training droid had been relatively small, it still made quite an impressive explosion in the enclosed space of Vegeta's gravity training room. Luckily, he was far to focused to look up at the small round window, which framed two furry faces peering in at him as he dodged a blast from an as-yet-undestroyed robot and shot a bolt of ki at another.
Puar sat back from the thick glass, looking smug. "Well? Convinced yet?"
Dougan's eyes were almost wide enough to be the metaphorical saucer- sized as he dropped back onto all fours. "He. . .just. . .I didn't imagine that, did I?"
Puar shook her head wordlessly, grinning at his discomfiture.
"Well." Dougan cleared his throat, regaining his composure. "And Yamcha can do that? Yeesh. I'm glad he's on our side."
"So, now that you're a believer, what do you think about Cesily's reaction to all this?"
"I. . ." Dougan sighed and shook his head. "I still don't know. I guess we'll just have to wait and find out."
* * *
"So, where are we going for lunch?"
Yamcha shook his head. "Sorry, Jin, we're not today. I promised I'd meet Cesily at Kaze no Kizu."
"Ooooo," Jin teased. "So this'll be what, your THIRD date?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
"Jin, do you want training, or not?" Yamcha hissed, blushing for the millionth time today. "Zip it, or you'll never get any."
Jin clutched at his chest and staggered around theatrically. "Oh, woe! To never GET ANY. . .How could I exist??"
Yamcha dragged his hand over his face and sighed a long-suffering sigh. "I didn't mean it that way, you pervert."
Jin grinned unrepentantly up at him. "I know you didn't, but I took it that way because I could, bro. So, training?"
Yamcha rolled his eyes. "All right, all right. Tomorrow, meet me here."
Jin looked skeptical. "You're going to train me here?"
"No, you doofus, we're going to MEET here, then go somewhere else. Just be there."
Jin snapped up to attention and threw off a mock-salute. "Yessir, Mr. Yamcha sir!" Yamcha sighed, Jin gave him one last grin, and then moved off to retrieve his bag from the dugout. The scarred player watched him go, marvelling at the way he seemed to shrink into a completely different person around the other members of the team. There were still hints of the bright, loud, bouncy kid in his quiet grin, but for the most part he melted into unobtrusive silence, listening rather than blaring out the way he did around Yamcha. For all that, what he listened to was obviously taken in, interpreted (probably in an extremely dirty way, if Yamcha knew anything about it), and found to be amusing. Jin was a puzzle, all right, but one Yamcha had all the pieces to and knew how to put together. Jin wasn't the problem. Right now, he was far more worried about Cesily. . .
* * *
Fuji glanced at the clock on the wall above her computer, and pushed back from her desk abrubtly. "Lunch. Now. Where?"
Yukina giggled, as she always did, and Cesily rolled her eyes with a grin, as she always did. Fuji had been announcing their lunch break in the same way, at more or less the same time, for as long as they had been working together. Today, however, was slightly different.
"Sorry, guys," Cesily apologized, locking her computer and standing up. "I've got other plans today. Go without me, OK?"
Fuji's expression instantly became a deeply suggestive leer. "Plans, eh? Might these plans involve the handsome and scarred Yamcha?"
Cesily's cheeks turned pink, and she fixed a long-suffering glare on Fuji. "They might, all right? I'll tell you about it after lunch."
"Really?" Yukina asked hopefully as Cesily walked to the door of their office. She paused in the doorway, smirked, and looked back over her shoulder.
"Maybe," she finished, and escaped.
Disclaimer: Yes, I totally own Dragonball Z.
. . .That was my sarcasm voice, by the way.
Chapter Five: Go on
Cesily drifted through the door of the third floor office she shared with her two co-workers and best friends, a dreamy smile on her face. Blue- haired Yukina appeared to be involved in her work, although it was just past eight o'clock, but Fujikora (known as Fuji, for everyday purposes) didn't bother to pretend disinterest in Cesily's mood. As her friend moved airily toward her desk in between the other two and settled into her chair, Fuji leaned back to watch her.
"Ooo," Cesily's black-haired friend commented. "What's up with you? Did you get laid or something?"
Fuji's blunt statement brought her friend down to earth with a thump, and she blushed redder than the strawberry plushie Yukina kept on top of her computer. Fuji watched in amusement.
"You're going to self-combust in a second, I swear. Jeez, Ces, it was just an innocent question!"
"Innocent??" Cesily spluttered. "You ask me if I got laid and you call that an innocent question?"
Fuji nodded vigorously. "Hai. A not-innocent question would be asking for details of how you got laid."
Cesily groaned, burying her face in her hands as it began to cool off. "Why? Why do I put up with this abuse? Why?"
Yukina, who had abandoned her pretense of work and was listening with interest from the desk to the right of Cesily's, thought this sounded like a nice opening. "Because you loooove us, Cesi-san!"
Fuji nodded sharply in agreement from Cesily's left. "Of course you do. Either that or you stick around to read second-rate sci-fi books day in and day out. So, did you get laid or what?"
Cesily sighed. "No, I did not, as you so crudely put it, 'get laid'."
"Well, then, did you get a date?" Yukina asked, leaping for the next best, and less dirty-minded, conclusion.
Cesily tried to keep a poker face, but the upturned corners of her mouth betrayed her. "Oh, you so did," Fuji grinned triumphantly. "Well? With who? Is he cute? Give us all the juicy details."
"It was actually my second date with him, thank you very much," Cesily replied, giving in at last to peer pressure and preparing to gossip. "Yes, he's cute, very cute in fact. And both of you know who he is."
"We do?" Fuji blinked. "Hmmm. . .well, I don't think Yuki, you, and I have that many guy friends in common. . .none that you'd date, I know that. . ."
"Ooo," the younger, more romantic Yukina broke in, "Maybe it's someone famous! Is it, Cesi-san?"
"C'mon," Fuji scoffed. "She wouldn't. . ." the oldest of the three trailed off as she saw Cesily's expression. "It is? You're going out with someone famous? Honestly?"
Cesily smirked a bit. "Not *that* famous. . ."
"Girl, how do you get so lucky all the time!" Fujika groaned. "I swear. . ." Then she grinned. "So, who is this not-that-famous famous guy you're dating that both of us know?"
"He's on the city baseball team," Cesily revealed, drawing out their suspense as long as she could.
"The Reapers?" Fuji scoffed. "They don't have more than two guys worth dating on the whole team! Well, there is that one. . .but he's dating Bulma Briefs, so. . ." Her eyes widened as she saw Cesily's expression. "You're going out with YAMCHA YOSHIMURA??"
Despite her attempt at a poker face, the corners of Cesily's mouth curved up in a smug grin. Oh yeah, she was good and she knew it.
Yukina sighed, almost theatrically. "He's sooo handsome. Cesi-san, you're soooo lucky!"
"So tell us about him!" Fuji pressed. "Personality-wise, I mean. We all know about his godlike good looks." She rolled her eyes at Yukina, who was sitting starry-eyed with her hands clasped in front of her chest.
"He's actually not what you'd expect," Cesily revealed, looking thoughtful. "I mean, he's an incredibly famous player, probably the only reason the Reapers won any games at all last season, but he's not stuck up or cocky or anything. He's really shy, actually."
"How so?" Fuji was content. Cesily was in full flow now; all she had to do was make appropriate noises and prod her every now and then.
"Well, when he realized he was actually talking to a girl, I thought he was going to freeze up right there. I mean, he went completely red. I still don't know how he managed to ask me out without passing out from all that blood rushing to his face! Honestly, he acts like someone who's used to being beaten at everything, not like someone who's the best in the province at what he does."
"Huh." This time, Yukina pitched in with her own encouraging sound, eager to hear more.
"Right, you know? Anyway, he's really sweet. I don't think he'd get all fresh with a girl or anything like that even when he gets over being shy. I really like him, he's not conceited at all, more like unsure of himself, like he's not confident about much." Cesily trailed off, absorbed in her thoughts, much to the disappointment of her two friends, who had been happily engaged in hanging on her every word.
"So, I guess we should start proofreading this, huh? Whose lovely work do we have today?" Fujikora sighed as Cesily shook off her contemplation and got into 'working' mode. Nothing would dissuade her now; they might as well go ahead and get busy.
"Erm, some guy called Terry something, I think," Yukina volunteered, and the three of them plunged into the grammatical nitpicking that was their daily way of life.
* * *
Unaware of Cesily's musings several blocks away, Yamcha waited patiently for his turn at bat. Daily practice might be boring as heck (for the semi-superheroes among the players, at least), but it was necessary and everyone was required to attend. The monotony of the hours in the sun was broken only occasionally, when he needed to actually focus on something, such as making a difficult catch, or when he was accosted by Jin.
Most people on the team wouldn't have even thought the words 'accosted' and 'Jin' in the same sentence. As far as they were concerned, Jin was a quiet, sedate kid who did his job and kept his head down, a little too far down even. But, for reasons known only to Jin and whatever Kaious decided to take an interest, the shy younger player had opened up to Yamcha. And when Jin opened up, he threw back the huge double doors, rolled out the red carpet, and partied 'til four in the morning. Possibly there were even drinks with slices of pineapple and fiddly little umbrellas involved.
At the moment, Jin was engaged in pestering Yamcha with care and devoted skill. "Soooo, whatcha been up to? Huh? Huh? Met any girls? Huh? I mean, not that you'd have anything to say to them, or anything, being the silent studmuffin that you are. . .*cough*not*cough*"
Yamcha couldn't help it; he blushed. Jin's eyes widened, and he pounced like an overenthusiastic kitten on a tricky ball of yarn.
"You did! Youdidyoudid! Soooo, is she nice? Pretty? C'mon, details, man!"
Yamcha attempted to pull himself together and shot Jin a level look. "Even if I did meet someone. . ." here he raised his voice to override Jin's affirmations that someone had definitely been met, ". . .what makes you think I would give you any details?"
"Cuz we're friends, Yami!" Jin turned up the big, puppy-dog eyes and injured air to the max and focused it on his teammate. Yamcha sighed, knowing that Jin would keep pestering him until something, at least, was revealed, and spilled. At least, a little bit.
"Yes, I met someone, okay?" he answered, cursing his infernal girl- shyness inwardly as he began to blush.
Jin leered at him. "HA! I knew it. So, who's the *lucky* girl?" Playful sarcasm dripped like honey off the "*lucky*" but Yamcha ignored it. In fact, he had gone back to ignoring Jin entirely in the hope that the younger player would just give up and leave him alone. He should have known better. Jin began to mock-pout.
"Come ON, Yami! Tell me, tell me!"
Yamcha gave a sigh that was more than half a growl of frustration, and rolled his eyes. "If I tell you, will you stop calling me Yami? You know I hate that."
"Okay. Give me all the juuuuicy details, and I'll stop calling you Yami for. . .two days." Jin gave him the pleading puppy eyes again. His teammate surrendered.
"Deal, I guess. Her name's Cesily, she's very pretty and nice, and I met her a few nights ago at a bar."
"Oooo, you met in a *bar*, huh?" Jin packed more innuendo into that sentence than Yamcha had thought humanly possible before actually hearing it. Thankfully, Yamcha's turn at bat had finally come, and he stepped up to the plate with an intense feeling of relief, his cheeks still red.
Jin sobered up briefly, at least through both their turns at bat, but practically skipped back to Yamcha's side when he was finished. "Well? That wasn't very much detail, *Yami*."
Yamcha growled again. "What do you want to know exactly?"
"Well, lessee," Jin marked off points on his fingers as he considered. "How many dates you've had, have you kissed, have you gotten laid, are you likely to get laid anytime in the near future, do you think she's thought about getting laid with you. . ."
Yamcha cut him off. "ENOUGH, already! Is that all you ever think about? Talk about having your mind in the gutter."
Jin leered up at Yamcha, who was the taller of the two by several inches. "My mind's not just in the gutter, it's in the SEWER. So, spill!"
Despite Yamcha's best efforts at ignoring his friend, he was blushing redder than a beet and feeling considerably flustered by the time his next turn at bat rolled around. Perhaps that was why, when he saw the ball coming towards him, he let himself react just a little too much. The next thing anyone knew, the ball was nowhere to be seen and the bat was an exploding cloud of splinters. Yamcha gulped and looked guiltily up at his teammates, who were all gaping at him, astonished. The only exception seemed to be Jin, who smirked widely and gave him a thumbs-up. Yamcha made a mental note to pound the younger player after practice. In the meantime, he put his hand behind his head and laughed sheepishly.
"Eheh. . .jee, guess the bat was faulty or something, huh?"
A few people still looked unconvinced, but most of the team and the coach seemed to accept that explanation. Yamcha grabbed a fresh bat and took his place in the line just as Jin finished his turn and trotted back.
"You seriously have to teach me how to do that, Yami. It's completely awesome."
Yamcha, spotting his opportunity, grinned. "Stop teasing me for the rest of practice, and I'll train you. A bit."
Jin's eyes went wide and starry. "Really? Awesome! Thanks, man!"
"Eh, no problem. As long as you stop teasing me!" Jin nodded vigorously, and Yamcha relaxed. However, the incident turned his train of thought down another track. What was he going to tell Cesily about his powers? Jin had found out by a complete accident a few months ago, and had taken it surprisingly well, in Yamcha's opinion. He suspected that Jin had spazzed more than a little in private, or at least internally, but when Yamcha had originally broken the news, his friend's reaction had been something along the lines of, "So, you have superpowers. Cool. Are you gonna eat that?" Part of the reason for this cool acceptance had probably been disbelief, and the rest was just Jin. He loved to pretend that he knew everything there was to know, and hated being seen at a disadvantage, even in front of Yamcha, his closest friend.
But Cesily was another story. Yamcha really didn't know enough about her yet to form any accurate conclusions about how she would react to his powers. He hoped and believed that she would think it was cool, or at least accept that it was real, but she could also easily denounce him as some kind of freak, or take it all to be some kind of trick or a stupid joke. He sighed and shook his head as the team spread out over the infield to continue practice. What *was* he going to tell Cesily? And when? To be frank, he had absolutely no idea.
* * *
"I have absolutely no idea."
Puar gave Dougan a skeptical look, but the Irish Wolfhound only frowned. "Seriously, I don't know how she'd react. I mean, flying through the air, zapping stuff with energy bolts. . .it sounds like a bad sci-fi novel. It all depends on if she believes it or not."
"She'll have to, after a point," Puar stated. "I mean, we know humans can be pretty stupid and stubborn at times, but there's only so much they can deny before they have to accept that something's going on."
"So say she accepts it," Dougan postulated, and Puar nodded encouragingly. "I think. . .she'd probably think it was cool. She likes stuff like that, I can barely pry her away from her science fiction stuff some days. Remember, that's IF she believes it. At the moment, I'm not even sure if *I* believe it."
Puar looked thoughtful, then grinned evilly. "I think I know just the thing to fix that. . ."
* * *
*BOOOOM!*
Although the training droid had been relatively small, it still made quite an impressive explosion in the enclosed space of Vegeta's gravity training room. Luckily, he was far to focused to look up at the small round window, which framed two furry faces peering in at him as he dodged a blast from an as-yet-undestroyed robot and shot a bolt of ki at another.
Puar sat back from the thick glass, looking smug. "Well? Convinced yet?"
Dougan's eyes were almost wide enough to be the metaphorical saucer- sized as he dropped back onto all fours. "He. . .just. . .I didn't imagine that, did I?"
Puar shook her head wordlessly, grinning at his discomfiture.
"Well." Dougan cleared his throat, regaining his composure. "And Yamcha can do that? Yeesh. I'm glad he's on our side."
"So, now that you're a believer, what do you think about Cesily's reaction to all this?"
"I. . ." Dougan sighed and shook his head. "I still don't know. I guess we'll just have to wait and find out."
* * *
"So, where are we going for lunch?"
Yamcha shook his head. "Sorry, Jin, we're not today. I promised I'd meet Cesily at Kaze no Kizu."
"Ooooo," Jin teased. "So this'll be what, your THIRD date?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
"Jin, do you want training, or not?" Yamcha hissed, blushing for the millionth time today. "Zip it, or you'll never get any."
Jin clutched at his chest and staggered around theatrically. "Oh, woe! To never GET ANY. . .How could I exist??"
Yamcha dragged his hand over his face and sighed a long-suffering sigh. "I didn't mean it that way, you pervert."
Jin grinned unrepentantly up at him. "I know you didn't, but I took it that way because I could, bro. So, training?"
Yamcha rolled his eyes. "All right, all right. Tomorrow, meet me here."
Jin looked skeptical. "You're going to train me here?"
"No, you doofus, we're going to MEET here, then go somewhere else. Just be there."
Jin snapped up to attention and threw off a mock-salute. "Yessir, Mr. Yamcha sir!" Yamcha sighed, Jin gave him one last grin, and then moved off to retrieve his bag from the dugout. The scarred player watched him go, marvelling at the way he seemed to shrink into a completely different person around the other members of the team. There were still hints of the bright, loud, bouncy kid in his quiet grin, but for the most part he melted into unobtrusive silence, listening rather than blaring out the way he did around Yamcha. For all that, what he listened to was obviously taken in, interpreted (probably in an extremely dirty way, if Yamcha knew anything about it), and found to be amusing. Jin was a puzzle, all right, but one Yamcha had all the pieces to and knew how to put together. Jin wasn't the problem. Right now, he was far more worried about Cesily. . .
* * *
Fuji glanced at the clock on the wall above her computer, and pushed back from her desk abrubtly. "Lunch. Now. Where?"
Yukina giggled, as she always did, and Cesily rolled her eyes with a grin, as she always did. Fuji had been announcing their lunch break in the same way, at more or less the same time, for as long as they had been working together. Today, however, was slightly different.
"Sorry, guys," Cesily apologized, locking her computer and standing up. "I've got other plans today. Go without me, OK?"
Fuji's expression instantly became a deeply suggestive leer. "Plans, eh? Might these plans involve the handsome and scarred Yamcha?"
Cesily's cheeks turned pink, and she fixed a long-suffering glare on Fuji. "They might, all right? I'll tell you about it after lunch."
"Really?" Yukina asked hopefully as Cesily walked to the door of their office. She paused in the doorway, smirked, and looked back over her shoulder.
"Maybe," she finished, and escaped.