Diclaimers: I do *NOT* Own DBZ or Sailor Moon, this is being written because I like writing. Please don't sue me!!
Chapter Three: Awakening
It took an awful lot of effort to carry Trunks all the way back to Capsule Corp. It was definitely hard work considering how much he weighed, and by the time she did get back she was covered in a full layer of sweat, but somehow Mercury had managed it.
When inside, she went upstairs to the bedroom that she had decided should go to Trunks, and gently laid him down on the bed, she then took of the sword and leaned it up against the bedroom wall. That finished, she let out a sigh of pure relief.
Her mission was accomplished! Well, she completed half of her mission anyway. She had gone to another world, faced that horrible monster, *and* saved Trunks all by herself. All that was left now was to survive the twelve and a half days that were left. That should be easy enough. Right? As long as that monster didn't find them, they were fine.
Mercury then decided to change back into her normal form. She had used too much of her energy just going up against that thing, not to mention how much it physically drained her just carrying Trunks home. Mercury's body glowed a soft blue before she changed back into Ami.
Ami looked down at Trunks' unconscious form. Noting how much dried blood and dirt was on him, she decided that he needed to be cleaned up. Getting down on her knees, she pulled the nearby box of medical supplies closer to her, *very* glad that she was studying to become a doctor.
She opened the box and pulled out cotton swabs, needles, pain killers, peroxides, and bandages, placing them on the dresser next to the bed. Before putting the box away, Ami noticed something. At the bottom there was a small brown, leather bag. 'What's this?' She thought curiously once she saw it.
She reached in and grabbed the tiny bag, opening it, she poured the contents on to the palm of her awaiting hand, and found two small green beans. Ami frowned in confusion, wondering what they were. They were in a box of medical supplies, but she had never seen anything like them in a medical book. Were they a simple candy? Or perhaps a medicine for something?
Whatever they were, it was the most common sense anyone could have that you *never* take anything if you don't know what it is. Much less give it to someone else. Deciding to scan them later, when she found that she would be strong enough to turn back into Sailor Mercury, Ami merely sighed, put them back into the bag, and placed it into the top empty drawer next to the bed.
Deciding that Trunks needed to have his wounds cleaned up before any infections set in, she then got up and went next door into the bathroom where she grabbed a handtowel and a cloth. She ran the cloth under the cold water until it was soaked, quickly ringing it out and leaving the handtowel dry, she went back into the next room.
Ami put both towels on the dresser and walked over to the bed. He needed to be cleaned up, and needed a change of clothes. There was *NO* way she would remove his pants, despite the fact that he was probably wearing something underneath, but the jacket, tank top, boots and socks could go for now. Until she either found some clean clothes in his old room or at least until she got the ones he was wearing cleaned up.
First she removed his boots. 'They shouldn't be on when he's in bed anyway.' She nervously thought as she removed them as gently as possible. Then came the socks. Ami then preceded over to the front of the bed and took off his jacket. 'God, I hope he doesn't wake up for this!' The tank top underneath had many rips and blood stains on it from lesser wounds on his chest. There was no point in trying to clean it. It would be thrown away.
Ami tried hard not to gawk at his chest once it was revealed. Despite the small cuts, scrapes and bruises here and there, he was still gorgeously well built. She quickly shook herself out of the nice little trance she was getting into. 'Stop it already! You're here to help him!' She scolded herself before getting back to the task at hand.
She placed her hands under his back and lifted him up enough for her sit behind him, his back leaning against her. Ami reached for the wet cloth and began to wipe the dried blood and dirt from his face. Some of the cuts he had were newer than she thought, because some of them had started to bleed again when she did this.
Once his face was clean of the dirt and scabs, Ami reached over to the dresser and grabbed the peroxide and cotton swabs. She wet the cotton swabs with it and cleaned the newly opened cuts. Even in unconsciousness he flinched as the stuff touched his opened wounds, and made small sounds of pain in his sleep. "I'm sorry." She apologised, as if he could hear her. "But it has to be done."
That finished, Ami cleaned off the rest of the blood and bandaged his head and face. She then noticed all of the cuts along his arms. They were deeper, but nothing that needed stiches. Taking the wet cloth again she began to clean off the dried blood from his arms.
Thankfully, she had found that only the spots on his body that weren't originally covered, like his face and his lower arms, were covered in the small layer of dust. So she wouldn't need to give him a *full* cleaning. Ami blushed at the thought. Not that she would do it anyway! Studying to be a doctor or not, it wasn't proper, and what if woke up while she was doing that too! Ami shuddered at the thought of being so deeply embarrassed with a complete stranger.
When she was done cleaning and bandaging his arms she finally noticed his hands. She couldn't help but give a small gasp of horror when she saw them. They were a colour somewhere in-between blue and purple, with *severe* bruising around the wrists!
'How could I have not noticed this before! You would think I would've when I tried warming his hands from the freezing I had caused him!' She thought to herself in shock. She felt so terrible. Gently taking his hands into hers to look them over (She didn't notice that he flinched again at her touch), she found no cuts. It was just bruising caused by hanging in that position for so long, and the colour must've been due to lack of blood circulation in his hands.
There was nothing she could do about it but wait for the bruising to go down and his circulation to return to normal, but she still felt bad. She was once again very glad with the idea that she had caused that pink monster at least *some* pain in return for the suffering that it had caused. Putting that thought out of her head, she gently placed his hands at his sides and continued to work.
When finished with his bandages, Ami remembered about how he constantly flinched and gave soft cries of pain whenever she put the peroxide on his open cuts. So she grabbed one of the needles and gave him some pain killers with it. She then pulled the blanket over him to let him get some rest. Ami looked down at his sleeping form, feeling very proud of herself for what she had done today.
She gave out a big yawn and stretched out her back. Looking towards the window, she was shocked to see the sun almost completely set. Fatigue had finally set in after her long day. Ami yawned again and made her way downstairs to that big couch she had seen earlier. Darkness was almost all around her at this point. She plopped herself down on it and fell asleep immediately.
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Trunks woke up with a giant start, sometime in the middle of the night. It was so cold and yet, he was sweating from head to toe, as if it were the hottest day of the year. That dream had been so real. Was it even a dream? It was so real. That girl, she saved him? Where was he?
He tried to look around and let his eyes adjust to the darkness of the room. It hurt trying to focus them, and he could still see practically nothing but a huge blur. He was as dizzy as hell too. There was no way he could tell that he was lying on a bed in a guest bedroom of his own house, much less if he were still hanging by his hands in Majin Buu's stomach.
Trunks closed his eyes. It hurt too much to keep them open. He was about to pass out again, he could feel it. Laying back down on the pillow, he noticed something. He had laid *down*, and on a soft surface no less. He began to feel around with his hands. He was definitely on a bed. Bringing his hand up to the soreness on his temple, he felt a bandage wrapped around his head.
He could have cried right then and there with how happy he felt. It was no dream. He was free of Majin Buu, and someone, whoever she was, was with him. Taking care of him. It was still freezing though, so he pulled the covers over him to get warm just before passing out again. Only this time, he wasn't screaming in pain before it happened, but was smiling.
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Ami woke up a little later than normal this particular morning, even though she had important matters to attend too. She hadn't realized how cold it could it get around here at night. When the sun finally started to come up and warm her, she couldn't resist staying asleep for at least a couple more hours. Even after that she was still exhausted. The first thing she did was check on Trunks in his room. She was surprised to open the door and find that he had been moving around in his sleep.
She couldn't help but smile. This showed that he would be recovering fairly quick. She crept into the room as silently as possible so as not to wake him. If he was stirring in his sleep then he could probably wake up soon on his own. She went over to the bed and straightened out the sheets that were covering him and put his arm that was hanging over the bed, back under the blankets.
Ami leaned over him and gently brushed his lavender bangs out of his face. She frowned when she did that because of what she found. He had been sweating in his sleep. That couldn't be too good. She would deal with it as soon as she got cleaned up. After all it wasn't to good to be treating a patient when you weren't clean.
She stood up straight and looked him over. "Poor baby." She whispered sadly, he just looked so fragile with all those bandages on. Ami suddenly blushed a deep red with the realization of what she had just called him. She turned around and half ran out of the room and into the bathroom in complete embarrassment.
When she was done with her shower she changed back into Sailor Mercury. She still had no clean clothes aside from the fuku that she wore, so she had to try and change quietly. Mercury walked back into Trunks' room, trying hard to keep her mind on important matters instead of what she had said earlier. 'Thank Kami you were asleep!' Mercury thought nervously.
She then checked his bandages and temperature and was very pleased to see that he was healing as quickly she would if she were injured like that. 'He has fast healing powers too. This is great!' Mercury thought, unable to suppress the huge smile tugging on her lips. 'You will be up and about in no time at all!' She tiptoed back out of the room and closed the door gently behind her to let him rest.
After eating, she tried to clean up a bit again. At least until it was time to change Trunks' bandages, but she got tired of this fairly quickly. The last thing she felt like doing was cleaning. "I'm sure he won't mind too much as long as some of the place isn't a wreck." Mercury said aloud to herself. She was too tired to do anything right now anyway. She was still short on the energy she had used the day before, and with the worst nights sleep ever, she could fall asleep standing!
Mercury had to stay awake though. It wouldn't be good to leave Trunks alone for too long. She shouldn't have left him alone last night! While trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes, she headed back for Trunks' room where she had seen all of those books. Mercury liked to read, and not *all* of them could be ruined.
She was severely disappointed, however, to find that they actually all *were* ruined. "Great." She said bitterly. What was she supposed to do now? "Oh well." She said miserably while grabbing a stool and leaving the room. She headed back to the guest bedroom and placed it next to the bed before plopping down.
She looked over at Trunks' sleeping form. He hadn't moved. She rested her elbows on her knees and propped up her chin with her hands. She kept an eye on him for the next few hours. Getting up every now and then to stretch her legs. Trunks would stir in his sleep once in a while, but that was about it. "This is so stupid!" She said to herself, frowning.
Mercury definitely needed something to occupy her mind. She felt like she would go insane if she didn't get anything to do soon. Then an idea occurred to her. Her face lit up immediately. 'Why didn't I think of this sooner?' She thought while sitting back down on the stool.
"Mercury aqua rhapsody." She said in a not-so-loud voice, so she didn't disturb Trunks. The Mercury harp appeared in her hands in a flash of sparkling blue light. She looked over at Trunks to make sure that the light didn't wake him.....It didn't. Smiling to herself, Mercury started to play.
It was just a little something that she had written a few years ago. Before she even had the power to make the harp appear. It was a long song, about love and sadness at the same time. Most people who heard would tell her how beautiful it was. One woman even cried after she was done playing. She smiled proudly to herself. Proud that she had written this. She hadn't played this song in such a long time, and she had missed it.
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'What's that sound?' Trunks groggily thought. At first he could barely hear it, but after a minute of listening the song became clearer. He could now hear every note that was being played, and only one thing entered his mind: 'This is beautiful.'
He'd never heard anything quite like it before. It was strange for him to hear or see nice or beautiful things in his time. The song reminded him of the time he went to the past, and met his younger mother and sensei. And the time that he sat in a field with all of the squirrels and birds around without fear of the Androids for the first time.
Trunks slowly opened his sore eyes, trying to adjust to the light in the room. He blinked a few times before looking around, and his eyes went wide with what he saw. 'Hey, I know this room!' He thought excitedly. 'I'm home!' His smile was wide with tears threatening to spill over his eyes, but he blinked them back. After all it wasn't good for a saiyan to cry, much less a grown man.
Trunks looked over to where the sound was coming from next to his bed, and he was shocked with what he saw. It was that girl, the one who had saved him! She hadn't noticed he was awake yet. He kind of didn't want her to notice. If she did then she would most likely stop playing. He frowned at that thought. It didn't matter what she was doing. Curiosity eventually got the better of him and he just had to know who this angel was. 'Wait a minute. Angel? Oh no!' Trunks's face turned a deep shade of red at the memory of what he had called her. 'Great. She probably thinks I'm a nutcase, or really, *really* lonely!' He turned his head away and groaned in embarrassment, unaware that, that would get her attention.
Mercury stopped playing and looked over at where Trunks was laying. "Oh, you're awake!" She said somewhat surprised. It was true, she did think earlier that he was making good progress in such a short time, but she didn't think he would wake up at the soft sound of her harp.
Trunks didn't know he was holding his breath when he heard her speak. His face turned an even deeper shade of red. Due to both the embarrassment and the fact that he was holding his breath. He only started breathing again when she came up to the bed and placed her hand on his forehead. Thankfully he was able to release his breath as if he weren't holding it. Preventing him from embarrassing himself any further. He looked at her in the eye. 'Who are you?' He thought in both amazement and curiosity.
"You don't have a fever." She stated. Trunks realized that was referring to his blush. She must have thought he was sick or something. When Trunks didn't answer her, Mercury became worried. "Can you hear me?" She asked, fearful that being inside of Majin Buu had some long term effects on him.
'Answer her already, stupid!' He thought to himself, still trying to find the right answer for such and obvious question and make his mouth work at the same time. He merely nodded dumbly.
"Can you speak?" She asked. He thought for a moment. Could he speak? He didn't know. The last time he had spoken, it hurt to do so, and even then he could barely hear it himself. 'Might as well find out.' Trunks thought. "Y-yes." It came out as a hoarse sound just above a whisper, and it hurt his throat too.
He brought his hand up to his neck and began to feel around to make sure there was nothing wrong with it. Mercury noticed this. 'Must hurt for him to speak.' She thought. "Wait right there and I'll bring you some water." She turned to leave but before she theft the room there was a loud rumbling sound. Looking around in confusion, her eyes finally rested on Trunks' blushing face.
She smiled warmly, realizing what it was. "I'll bring you something to eat too, and when I get back, I suppose you'll want an explanation?"
His eyes widened slightly and he nodded. She turned for the door again but stopped before she hit the hallway. "By the way, my name is Mizuno, Ami." She said looking back at him. Trunks cleared his throat, his hand still on his neck. "B-briefs, Trunks." He croaked out. She smiled at him. "It's very good to meet you." She said. "I'll be right back."
She turned around and left him alone in the room and Trunks laid his head back and squeezed his eyes closed. 'That went well,' He thought sarcastically. 'and you only had to embarrass yourself a couple of times before learning her name too!'
Not ten minutes had passed before Ami returned with a tall glass of water and what looked like cold stew. "Um, I'm sorry but it's not hot." She apologized. "The stove isn't working. In fact, the only thing that does, for some reason, would be the cold water."
"W-well, thank Kami for small miracles," Trunks said with a smile, finding his voice now. "a-and it's fine that it's cold, I can heat it up." Mercury looked at him confused as he took the bowl and place his bruised index finger in the stew that she had brought him. A look of concentration appeared on his face and his hand started to glow. "What are you-?"
"Sshhh." Soon steam started to emerge from the bowl, and Trunks took his finger out and licked it clean before taking the spoon she had brought for him. "Thank you." he said.
"Hey, how did you do that, Trunks-san?" Mercury asked, pointing at the bowl in his hands.
"Well, you see, I can create Ki balls and other forms of heat energy using my own Ki. That's how I heated up the soup you brought for me." He explained while Mercury listened with great interest. "I can usually make small amounts of energy, like what you just saw, without concentrating very hard at all. I guess I'm still a little weak because of Majin Buu." He explained.
'Majin Buu? Oh, that's what that thing is called!' Then another thought hit her. "Ki? What's that?" Mercury asked somewhat confused.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Ami-san. Ki is a persons life force, and everyone and everything has it. With special training a person could control it to create attacks, fly, or even heat up cold soup." He quipped.
"Oh, I see." She said. Mercury decided that she should probably tell him about herself and how her powers worked later on. He was a fighter just like her and her friends after all. She was also very interested in what he said about flying.
She then watched in complete amazement, as Trunks practically inhaled the stew she had given him and then downed the water, all in less than sixty full seconds. "Wow, you sure are hungry. You could definitely give Usagi a run for her money on how fast you eat too." She practically laughed while saying this.
"Sorry, but I haven't eaten in a long time." Trunks said with a fresh blush on his cheeks. He put the bowl, spoon and glass down on the small dresser next to the bed. Mercury frowned at hearing this. "How long has it been since you have eaten?" She asked.
He thought for a moment. "I suppose it would have been... the morning when I was absorbed. " He was *really* Embarrassed now.
"WHAT!!" She screamed in disbelief. Trunks winced, his throat might be a little dead at the moment but his saiyan hearing was working just fine. "B-but how could you have survived for so long? You couldn't have been hanging there like that the whole time you were there!" She stated in shock.
"I was." He said simply, looking down to hide his embarrassment. "The whole time I was there I didn't move once." Trunks chanced a glance at her and saw the confused look on her face. He decided to explain. "You see, because I was hanging by some of Majin Buu's flesh, he was able to keep me alive by feeding me some of his own energy. He would almost never do it, though, and even then, keeping a person alive by Ki energy is different then actually eating."
"I think I understand now." She said, still unable to believe the cruelty of that creature. "When I was inside I was able to speak with that thing as if it were right beside me. Could you do that too?" She asked.
"Um... Hai." He said shyly. He then suddenly turned serious. "Hey, how did you get inside of him? I mean... I don't want to sound ungrateful or anything, but I know that there aren't any humans left. So where did you come from? And why did you help me?"
It was Mercury's turn to blush now. Would he even believe her if she told him? "Well, I might as well start from the beginning." She started, twiddling her fingers nervously. "You see in this form my name isn't Ami, it's Sailor Mercury."
"What do you mean "in this form"? You look like any normal human that I've met." He said while eyeing her curiously.
"Well, here, let me show you." Mercury closed her eyes and willed the sailor suit away. In a flash of sparkling blue light, she became her normal self again. "Oh jeez!" Trunks said quickly turning away, and putting his hands up to his face.
"What's the matter?" Ami asked, getting up from her chair. "Is something wrong?" She looked at his face to see that he was pinching his nose. "What's wrong with your nose?"
"Don't you know?" Trunks asked, still trying to conceal his nosebleed.
"Know what?" She asked in confusion.
'That answers *that* question.' He thought. "Your clothes melted off of you when you did that." He tried to sound serious so as not to embarrass her too much, but embarrassing or not she had to know this. Who knows how many times she had done that in public unaware that she would become nude for a few seconds?
"My clothes did what?" She asked in complete shock, unable to believe what she had just heard. 'No this must be some kind of joke, it must be!' The idea that she had just shown her body to someone she didn't even know made her feel completely ill.
"I'm sorry, but they did." He said in a low tone, feeling sorry for how embarrassed she must feel.
"And you saw me? With nothing on!?!" She asked still shocked. He nodded his head yes with his hand still holding his nose. "Oh my god!!" She practically ran to the other side of the room, hiding her face in her hands. "I'm sorry." Trunks said quickly. He wanted to help make things better for her. Showing yourself to a stranger wouldn't be something *anyone* would just do on a whim after all. "Look, it really isn't that big of a deal."
"Oh, and I suppose that this is something people do on a regular basis around here, huh?" She was getting angry now. Not at Trunks, but at herself for changing into Sailor Mercury hundreds of times over and never noticing something like this. She had done it so many times in public too! The only thing she was grateful for at the moment was the fact that being a sailor solder was a secret and she had always transformed when no-one else was around. The others would definitely need to know this!
Ami looked over at Trunks, and saw from the expression on his face that he thought all her anger was directed at him. She felt terrible now. At least he had the decency to tell her and not just let her continue to do that in front of him like an idiot. "I'm sorry, Trunks-san, I'm not angry at you. It's just that... well... I can't believe I never noticed before." She said, looking down to hide her shame.
Trunks relaxed now, glad that she wasn't angry with him. Being raised by Bulma and always being around Chi-Chi had turned him into a definite momma's boy. No matter how much he hated to admit it, and force of habit caused him to cringe at the sight of an hysterical woman. "It's ok Ami-san. I'd be upset too if that had happened to me." He said now smiling to show her that it wasn't a big deal to him, and also to show her that he wouldn't hold anything against her.
"We can just pretend that it never happened." He had now managed to stop the nosebleed. 'Thank kami!' He thought. He must've looked so stupid holding his nose like that.
She then walked hesitantly over to the bedside and sat down by his knees. She gave him a weak smile. "Um... Thank you for telling me Trunks- san." Ami said softly. Trunks just smiled at her reassuringly. "No problem. Oh, and you don't have to call me Trunks-san. No one I know does that, so you can just call me Trunks if you want." Her smile got bigger when she heard that. She knew now that he wasn't going to make her feel awkward over what just happened. "Well then you should call me Ami, and not Ami-san. Alright?"
He nodded his head cheerfully. "Alright."
Ami sighed. "And now I suppose I should tell you why I'm here?" She said looking at him. Trunks nodded his head. She couldn't help but sigh again. This would be a *long* story to tell. "Well it all started about a thousand years ago-"
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Trunks lay in bed that night thinking about what Ami had told him a few hours earlier. How she was from another dimension, and how she was a reincarnated princess, about her friends who were just like her, and about how her powers worked. But what really caught his attention was when she mentioned the one called Sailor Pluto, Guardian of the Gates of Time. He chuckled to himself at remembering *that* part of Ami's story.
*Flashback*
"I hope she's not mad at me. Because even if she is I would have gone back a thousand times over, with or without her permission to save them." He said getting defensive. "Pluto wasn't too happy when she found out about you, and how you had been going back and forth through time without her permission, but she did see your reasons and decided that you didn't deserve what Majin Buu was doing to you. And that's why I was sent." Ami half chuckled while explaining. "Well I'm glad she sent you." He said.
*End Flashback*
'You might as well have told her that your in love with her with the way you were acting!' Trunks thought sarcastically to himself while rolling his eyes. All in all he was very upset when Ami had told him that this world would be destroyed in a mere matter of days, but he was glad when she said that there was a place for him in her world.
He thought about her world for a minute. She had said that it was basically the same as his, only Capsule Corp didn't exist. He would have to work on that when he got there. Trunks knew perfectly well that his mother loved the family company too much to let it die, so he would try and start Capsule Corp up when he had the time.
He thought about Ami's story again. Her life was like one giant fairy tale. He had found it hard to believe what she was saying when she had mentioned Crystal Tokyo, and the little girl from that future, but all Ami had to do to make him believe her was mention that he had also in fact, gone to the past to tell others about the future. That shut him up almost immediately.
It was hard to believe that all of the dead planets of his world were once inhabited in hers, and that Vegeta-sei never existed at all there. The moon was still around too, so he would have to watch out for that.
Trunks hadn't shown anyone from the past this, but he *did* still have his tail. It was wrapped around his leg under his baggy pants, and he was very glad Ami didn't notice it when she was carrying him around town. He had to wonder if that Pluto lady had known that he had one. From what Ami had said, she and her friends would go off and fight all kinds of strange looking monsters and demons. 'Would she think that I'm a demon if she knew that I had this?' He thought to himself uncertainly.
Then an even scarier thought occurred to him. 'What would happen if I were to accidentally change into an Oozaru in her world? I could hurt a lot of people, and that girl Ami said was their leader and princess would probably destroy me, AND even if I were to survive that, I could never live a normal life if *that* were to happen.' Trunks groaned at his dilemma. He didn't want to have to cut off his tail just to go to a place where he could be happy.
He remembered how Gohan had told him about what it did to your balance, as well as the fact of how much it hurt. But those weren't the only reasons. He would always have people tell him about how much he looked like his father, but... his tail just proved it. Trunks' tail proved that he was Vegeta's son, and he was proud of it. "I'll just have to make sure that I never see the full moon." He decided out loud to himself.
As to whether or not he would tell Ami about his tail and what he would become, should he by accident, see the full moon........well... he would decide on what to do about that in the morning.
To Be Continued....................
A.N: Thanks to all who are reviewing me! I really appreaciate your thoughts and opinions! Keep em coming!
So what do you all think of this chapter? Did it suck? Did you like it? Please review! ^_^
Chapter Three: Awakening
It took an awful lot of effort to carry Trunks all the way back to Capsule Corp. It was definitely hard work considering how much he weighed, and by the time she did get back she was covered in a full layer of sweat, but somehow Mercury had managed it.
When inside, she went upstairs to the bedroom that she had decided should go to Trunks, and gently laid him down on the bed, she then took of the sword and leaned it up against the bedroom wall. That finished, she let out a sigh of pure relief.
Her mission was accomplished! Well, she completed half of her mission anyway. She had gone to another world, faced that horrible monster, *and* saved Trunks all by herself. All that was left now was to survive the twelve and a half days that were left. That should be easy enough. Right? As long as that monster didn't find them, they were fine.
Mercury then decided to change back into her normal form. She had used too much of her energy just going up against that thing, not to mention how much it physically drained her just carrying Trunks home. Mercury's body glowed a soft blue before she changed back into Ami.
Ami looked down at Trunks' unconscious form. Noting how much dried blood and dirt was on him, she decided that he needed to be cleaned up. Getting down on her knees, she pulled the nearby box of medical supplies closer to her, *very* glad that she was studying to become a doctor.
She opened the box and pulled out cotton swabs, needles, pain killers, peroxides, and bandages, placing them on the dresser next to the bed. Before putting the box away, Ami noticed something. At the bottom there was a small brown, leather bag. 'What's this?' She thought curiously once she saw it.
She reached in and grabbed the tiny bag, opening it, she poured the contents on to the palm of her awaiting hand, and found two small green beans. Ami frowned in confusion, wondering what they were. They were in a box of medical supplies, but she had never seen anything like them in a medical book. Were they a simple candy? Or perhaps a medicine for something?
Whatever they were, it was the most common sense anyone could have that you *never* take anything if you don't know what it is. Much less give it to someone else. Deciding to scan them later, when she found that she would be strong enough to turn back into Sailor Mercury, Ami merely sighed, put them back into the bag, and placed it into the top empty drawer next to the bed.
Deciding that Trunks needed to have his wounds cleaned up before any infections set in, she then got up and went next door into the bathroom where she grabbed a handtowel and a cloth. She ran the cloth under the cold water until it was soaked, quickly ringing it out and leaving the handtowel dry, she went back into the next room.
Ami put both towels on the dresser and walked over to the bed. He needed to be cleaned up, and needed a change of clothes. There was *NO* way she would remove his pants, despite the fact that he was probably wearing something underneath, but the jacket, tank top, boots and socks could go for now. Until she either found some clean clothes in his old room or at least until she got the ones he was wearing cleaned up.
First she removed his boots. 'They shouldn't be on when he's in bed anyway.' She nervously thought as she removed them as gently as possible. Then came the socks. Ami then preceded over to the front of the bed and took off his jacket. 'God, I hope he doesn't wake up for this!' The tank top underneath had many rips and blood stains on it from lesser wounds on his chest. There was no point in trying to clean it. It would be thrown away.
Ami tried hard not to gawk at his chest once it was revealed. Despite the small cuts, scrapes and bruises here and there, he was still gorgeously well built. She quickly shook herself out of the nice little trance she was getting into. 'Stop it already! You're here to help him!' She scolded herself before getting back to the task at hand.
She placed her hands under his back and lifted him up enough for her sit behind him, his back leaning against her. Ami reached for the wet cloth and began to wipe the dried blood and dirt from his face. Some of the cuts he had were newer than she thought, because some of them had started to bleed again when she did this.
Once his face was clean of the dirt and scabs, Ami reached over to the dresser and grabbed the peroxide and cotton swabs. She wet the cotton swabs with it and cleaned the newly opened cuts. Even in unconsciousness he flinched as the stuff touched his opened wounds, and made small sounds of pain in his sleep. "I'm sorry." She apologised, as if he could hear her. "But it has to be done."
That finished, Ami cleaned off the rest of the blood and bandaged his head and face. She then noticed all of the cuts along his arms. They were deeper, but nothing that needed stiches. Taking the wet cloth again she began to clean off the dried blood from his arms.
Thankfully, she had found that only the spots on his body that weren't originally covered, like his face and his lower arms, were covered in the small layer of dust. So she wouldn't need to give him a *full* cleaning. Ami blushed at the thought. Not that she would do it anyway! Studying to be a doctor or not, it wasn't proper, and what if woke up while she was doing that too! Ami shuddered at the thought of being so deeply embarrassed with a complete stranger.
When she was done cleaning and bandaging his arms she finally noticed his hands. She couldn't help but give a small gasp of horror when she saw them. They were a colour somewhere in-between blue and purple, with *severe* bruising around the wrists!
'How could I have not noticed this before! You would think I would've when I tried warming his hands from the freezing I had caused him!' She thought to herself in shock. She felt so terrible. Gently taking his hands into hers to look them over (She didn't notice that he flinched again at her touch), she found no cuts. It was just bruising caused by hanging in that position for so long, and the colour must've been due to lack of blood circulation in his hands.
There was nothing she could do about it but wait for the bruising to go down and his circulation to return to normal, but she still felt bad. She was once again very glad with the idea that she had caused that pink monster at least *some* pain in return for the suffering that it had caused. Putting that thought out of her head, she gently placed his hands at his sides and continued to work.
When finished with his bandages, Ami remembered about how he constantly flinched and gave soft cries of pain whenever she put the peroxide on his open cuts. So she grabbed one of the needles and gave him some pain killers with it. She then pulled the blanket over him to let him get some rest. Ami looked down at his sleeping form, feeling very proud of herself for what she had done today.
She gave out a big yawn and stretched out her back. Looking towards the window, she was shocked to see the sun almost completely set. Fatigue had finally set in after her long day. Ami yawned again and made her way downstairs to that big couch she had seen earlier. Darkness was almost all around her at this point. She plopped herself down on it and fell asleep immediately.
**********************************************************
Trunks woke up with a giant start, sometime in the middle of the night. It was so cold and yet, he was sweating from head to toe, as if it were the hottest day of the year. That dream had been so real. Was it even a dream? It was so real. That girl, she saved him? Where was he?
He tried to look around and let his eyes adjust to the darkness of the room. It hurt trying to focus them, and he could still see practically nothing but a huge blur. He was as dizzy as hell too. There was no way he could tell that he was lying on a bed in a guest bedroom of his own house, much less if he were still hanging by his hands in Majin Buu's stomach.
Trunks closed his eyes. It hurt too much to keep them open. He was about to pass out again, he could feel it. Laying back down on the pillow, he noticed something. He had laid *down*, and on a soft surface no less. He began to feel around with his hands. He was definitely on a bed. Bringing his hand up to the soreness on his temple, he felt a bandage wrapped around his head.
He could have cried right then and there with how happy he felt. It was no dream. He was free of Majin Buu, and someone, whoever she was, was with him. Taking care of him. It was still freezing though, so he pulled the covers over him to get warm just before passing out again. Only this time, he wasn't screaming in pain before it happened, but was smiling.
***************************************************************
Ami woke up a little later than normal this particular morning, even though she had important matters to attend too. She hadn't realized how cold it could it get around here at night. When the sun finally started to come up and warm her, she couldn't resist staying asleep for at least a couple more hours. Even after that she was still exhausted. The first thing she did was check on Trunks in his room. She was surprised to open the door and find that he had been moving around in his sleep.
She couldn't help but smile. This showed that he would be recovering fairly quick. She crept into the room as silently as possible so as not to wake him. If he was stirring in his sleep then he could probably wake up soon on his own. She went over to the bed and straightened out the sheets that were covering him and put his arm that was hanging over the bed, back under the blankets.
Ami leaned over him and gently brushed his lavender bangs out of his face. She frowned when she did that because of what she found. He had been sweating in his sleep. That couldn't be too good. She would deal with it as soon as she got cleaned up. After all it wasn't to good to be treating a patient when you weren't clean.
She stood up straight and looked him over. "Poor baby." She whispered sadly, he just looked so fragile with all those bandages on. Ami suddenly blushed a deep red with the realization of what she had just called him. She turned around and half ran out of the room and into the bathroom in complete embarrassment.
When she was done with her shower she changed back into Sailor Mercury. She still had no clean clothes aside from the fuku that she wore, so she had to try and change quietly. Mercury walked back into Trunks' room, trying hard to keep her mind on important matters instead of what she had said earlier. 'Thank Kami you were asleep!' Mercury thought nervously.
She then checked his bandages and temperature and was very pleased to see that he was healing as quickly she would if she were injured like that. 'He has fast healing powers too. This is great!' Mercury thought, unable to suppress the huge smile tugging on her lips. 'You will be up and about in no time at all!' She tiptoed back out of the room and closed the door gently behind her to let him rest.
After eating, she tried to clean up a bit again. At least until it was time to change Trunks' bandages, but she got tired of this fairly quickly. The last thing she felt like doing was cleaning. "I'm sure he won't mind too much as long as some of the place isn't a wreck." Mercury said aloud to herself. She was too tired to do anything right now anyway. She was still short on the energy she had used the day before, and with the worst nights sleep ever, she could fall asleep standing!
Mercury had to stay awake though. It wouldn't be good to leave Trunks alone for too long. She shouldn't have left him alone last night! While trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes, she headed back for Trunks' room where she had seen all of those books. Mercury liked to read, and not *all* of them could be ruined.
She was severely disappointed, however, to find that they actually all *were* ruined. "Great." She said bitterly. What was she supposed to do now? "Oh well." She said miserably while grabbing a stool and leaving the room. She headed back to the guest bedroom and placed it next to the bed before plopping down.
She looked over at Trunks' sleeping form. He hadn't moved. She rested her elbows on her knees and propped up her chin with her hands. She kept an eye on him for the next few hours. Getting up every now and then to stretch her legs. Trunks would stir in his sleep once in a while, but that was about it. "This is so stupid!" She said to herself, frowning.
Mercury definitely needed something to occupy her mind. She felt like she would go insane if she didn't get anything to do soon. Then an idea occurred to her. Her face lit up immediately. 'Why didn't I think of this sooner?' She thought while sitting back down on the stool.
"Mercury aqua rhapsody." She said in a not-so-loud voice, so she didn't disturb Trunks. The Mercury harp appeared in her hands in a flash of sparkling blue light. She looked over at Trunks to make sure that the light didn't wake him.....It didn't. Smiling to herself, Mercury started to play.
It was just a little something that she had written a few years ago. Before she even had the power to make the harp appear. It was a long song, about love and sadness at the same time. Most people who heard would tell her how beautiful it was. One woman even cried after she was done playing. She smiled proudly to herself. Proud that she had written this. She hadn't played this song in such a long time, and she had missed it.
*************************************************************
'What's that sound?' Trunks groggily thought. At first he could barely hear it, but after a minute of listening the song became clearer. He could now hear every note that was being played, and only one thing entered his mind: 'This is beautiful.'
He'd never heard anything quite like it before. It was strange for him to hear or see nice or beautiful things in his time. The song reminded him of the time he went to the past, and met his younger mother and sensei. And the time that he sat in a field with all of the squirrels and birds around without fear of the Androids for the first time.
Trunks slowly opened his sore eyes, trying to adjust to the light in the room. He blinked a few times before looking around, and his eyes went wide with what he saw. 'Hey, I know this room!' He thought excitedly. 'I'm home!' His smile was wide with tears threatening to spill over his eyes, but he blinked them back. After all it wasn't good for a saiyan to cry, much less a grown man.
Trunks looked over to where the sound was coming from next to his bed, and he was shocked with what he saw. It was that girl, the one who had saved him! She hadn't noticed he was awake yet. He kind of didn't want her to notice. If she did then she would most likely stop playing. He frowned at that thought. It didn't matter what she was doing. Curiosity eventually got the better of him and he just had to know who this angel was. 'Wait a minute. Angel? Oh no!' Trunks's face turned a deep shade of red at the memory of what he had called her. 'Great. She probably thinks I'm a nutcase, or really, *really* lonely!' He turned his head away and groaned in embarrassment, unaware that, that would get her attention.
Mercury stopped playing and looked over at where Trunks was laying. "Oh, you're awake!" She said somewhat surprised. It was true, she did think earlier that he was making good progress in such a short time, but she didn't think he would wake up at the soft sound of her harp.
Trunks didn't know he was holding his breath when he heard her speak. His face turned an even deeper shade of red. Due to both the embarrassment and the fact that he was holding his breath. He only started breathing again when she came up to the bed and placed her hand on his forehead. Thankfully he was able to release his breath as if he weren't holding it. Preventing him from embarrassing himself any further. He looked at her in the eye. 'Who are you?' He thought in both amazement and curiosity.
"You don't have a fever." She stated. Trunks realized that was referring to his blush. She must have thought he was sick or something. When Trunks didn't answer her, Mercury became worried. "Can you hear me?" She asked, fearful that being inside of Majin Buu had some long term effects on him.
'Answer her already, stupid!' He thought to himself, still trying to find the right answer for such and obvious question and make his mouth work at the same time. He merely nodded dumbly.
"Can you speak?" She asked. He thought for a moment. Could he speak? He didn't know. The last time he had spoken, it hurt to do so, and even then he could barely hear it himself. 'Might as well find out.' Trunks thought. "Y-yes." It came out as a hoarse sound just above a whisper, and it hurt his throat too.
He brought his hand up to his neck and began to feel around to make sure there was nothing wrong with it. Mercury noticed this. 'Must hurt for him to speak.' She thought. "Wait right there and I'll bring you some water." She turned to leave but before she theft the room there was a loud rumbling sound. Looking around in confusion, her eyes finally rested on Trunks' blushing face.
She smiled warmly, realizing what it was. "I'll bring you something to eat too, and when I get back, I suppose you'll want an explanation?"
His eyes widened slightly and he nodded. She turned for the door again but stopped before she hit the hallway. "By the way, my name is Mizuno, Ami." She said looking back at him. Trunks cleared his throat, his hand still on his neck. "B-briefs, Trunks." He croaked out. She smiled at him. "It's very good to meet you." She said. "I'll be right back."
She turned around and left him alone in the room and Trunks laid his head back and squeezed his eyes closed. 'That went well,' He thought sarcastically. 'and you only had to embarrass yourself a couple of times before learning her name too!'
Not ten minutes had passed before Ami returned with a tall glass of water and what looked like cold stew. "Um, I'm sorry but it's not hot." She apologized. "The stove isn't working. In fact, the only thing that does, for some reason, would be the cold water."
"W-well, thank Kami for small miracles," Trunks said with a smile, finding his voice now. "a-and it's fine that it's cold, I can heat it up." Mercury looked at him confused as he took the bowl and place his bruised index finger in the stew that she had brought him. A look of concentration appeared on his face and his hand started to glow. "What are you-?"
"Sshhh." Soon steam started to emerge from the bowl, and Trunks took his finger out and licked it clean before taking the spoon she had brought for him. "Thank you." he said.
"Hey, how did you do that, Trunks-san?" Mercury asked, pointing at the bowl in his hands.
"Well, you see, I can create Ki balls and other forms of heat energy using my own Ki. That's how I heated up the soup you brought for me." He explained while Mercury listened with great interest. "I can usually make small amounts of energy, like what you just saw, without concentrating very hard at all. I guess I'm still a little weak because of Majin Buu." He explained.
'Majin Buu? Oh, that's what that thing is called!' Then another thought hit her. "Ki? What's that?" Mercury asked somewhat confused.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Ami-san. Ki is a persons life force, and everyone and everything has it. With special training a person could control it to create attacks, fly, or even heat up cold soup." He quipped.
"Oh, I see." She said. Mercury decided that she should probably tell him about herself and how her powers worked later on. He was a fighter just like her and her friends after all. She was also very interested in what he said about flying.
She then watched in complete amazement, as Trunks practically inhaled the stew she had given him and then downed the water, all in less than sixty full seconds. "Wow, you sure are hungry. You could definitely give Usagi a run for her money on how fast you eat too." She practically laughed while saying this.
"Sorry, but I haven't eaten in a long time." Trunks said with a fresh blush on his cheeks. He put the bowl, spoon and glass down on the small dresser next to the bed. Mercury frowned at hearing this. "How long has it been since you have eaten?" She asked.
He thought for a moment. "I suppose it would have been... the morning when I was absorbed. " He was *really* Embarrassed now.
"WHAT!!" She screamed in disbelief. Trunks winced, his throat might be a little dead at the moment but his saiyan hearing was working just fine. "B-but how could you have survived for so long? You couldn't have been hanging there like that the whole time you were there!" She stated in shock.
"I was." He said simply, looking down to hide his embarrassment. "The whole time I was there I didn't move once." Trunks chanced a glance at her and saw the confused look on her face. He decided to explain. "You see, because I was hanging by some of Majin Buu's flesh, he was able to keep me alive by feeding me some of his own energy. He would almost never do it, though, and even then, keeping a person alive by Ki energy is different then actually eating."
"I think I understand now." She said, still unable to believe the cruelty of that creature. "When I was inside I was able to speak with that thing as if it were right beside me. Could you do that too?" She asked.
"Um... Hai." He said shyly. He then suddenly turned serious. "Hey, how did you get inside of him? I mean... I don't want to sound ungrateful or anything, but I know that there aren't any humans left. So where did you come from? And why did you help me?"
It was Mercury's turn to blush now. Would he even believe her if she told him? "Well, I might as well start from the beginning." She started, twiddling her fingers nervously. "You see in this form my name isn't Ami, it's Sailor Mercury."
"What do you mean "in this form"? You look like any normal human that I've met." He said while eyeing her curiously.
"Well, here, let me show you." Mercury closed her eyes and willed the sailor suit away. In a flash of sparkling blue light, she became her normal self again. "Oh jeez!" Trunks said quickly turning away, and putting his hands up to his face.
"What's the matter?" Ami asked, getting up from her chair. "Is something wrong?" She looked at his face to see that he was pinching his nose. "What's wrong with your nose?"
"Don't you know?" Trunks asked, still trying to conceal his nosebleed.
"Know what?" She asked in confusion.
'That answers *that* question.' He thought. "Your clothes melted off of you when you did that." He tried to sound serious so as not to embarrass her too much, but embarrassing or not she had to know this. Who knows how many times she had done that in public unaware that she would become nude for a few seconds?
"My clothes did what?" She asked in complete shock, unable to believe what she had just heard. 'No this must be some kind of joke, it must be!' The idea that she had just shown her body to someone she didn't even know made her feel completely ill.
"I'm sorry, but they did." He said in a low tone, feeling sorry for how embarrassed she must feel.
"And you saw me? With nothing on!?!" She asked still shocked. He nodded his head yes with his hand still holding his nose. "Oh my god!!" She practically ran to the other side of the room, hiding her face in her hands. "I'm sorry." Trunks said quickly. He wanted to help make things better for her. Showing yourself to a stranger wouldn't be something *anyone* would just do on a whim after all. "Look, it really isn't that big of a deal."
"Oh, and I suppose that this is something people do on a regular basis around here, huh?" She was getting angry now. Not at Trunks, but at herself for changing into Sailor Mercury hundreds of times over and never noticing something like this. She had done it so many times in public too! The only thing she was grateful for at the moment was the fact that being a sailor solder was a secret and she had always transformed when no-one else was around. The others would definitely need to know this!
Ami looked over at Trunks, and saw from the expression on his face that he thought all her anger was directed at him. She felt terrible now. At least he had the decency to tell her and not just let her continue to do that in front of him like an idiot. "I'm sorry, Trunks-san, I'm not angry at you. It's just that... well... I can't believe I never noticed before." She said, looking down to hide her shame.
Trunks relaxed now, glad that she wasn't angry with him. Being raised by Bulma and always being around Chi-Chi had turned him into a definite momma's boy. No matter how much he hated to admit it, and force of habit caused him to cringe at the sight of an hysterical woman. "It's ok Ami-san. I'd be upset too if that had happened to me." He said now smiling to show her that it wasn't a big deal to him, and also to show her that he wouldn't hold anything against her.
"We can just pretend that it never happened." He had now managed to stop the nosebleed. 'Thank kami!' He thought. He must've looked so stupid holding his nose like that.
She then walked hesitantly over to the bedside and sat down by his knees. She gave him a weak smile. "Um... Thank you for telling me Trunks- san." Ami said softly. Trunks just smiled at her reassuringly. "No problem. Oh, and you don't have to call me Trunks-san. No one I know does that, so you can just call me Trunks if you want." Her smile got bigger when she heard that. She knew now that he wasn't going to make her feel awkward over what just happened. "Well then you should call me Ami, and not Ami-san. Alright?"
He nodded his head cheerfully. "Alright."
Ami sighed. "And now I suppose I should tell you why I'm here?" She said looking at him. Trunks nodded his head. She couldn't help but sigh again. This would be a *long* story to tell. "Well it all started about a thousand years ago-"
*****************************************************************
Trunks lay in bed that night thinking about what Ami had told him a few hours earlier. How she was from another dimension, and how she was a reincarnated princess, about her friends who were just like her, and about how her powers worked. But what really caught his attention was when she mentioned the one called Sailor Pluto, Guardian of the Gates of Time. He chuckled to himself at remembering *that* part of Ami's story.
*Flashback*
"I hope she's not mad at me. Because even if she is I would have gone back a thousand times over, with or without her permission to save them." He said getting defensive. "Pluto wasn't too happy when she found out about you, and how you had been going back and forth through time without her permission, but she did see your reasons and decided that you didn't deserve what Majin Buu was doing to you. And that's why I was sent." Ami half chuckled while explaining. "Well I'm glad she sent you." He said.
*End Flashback*
'You might as well have told her that your in love with her with the way you were acting!' Trunks thought sarcastically to himself while rolling his eyes. All in all he was very upset when Ami had told him that this world would be destroyed in a mere matter of days, but he was glad when she said that there was a place for him in her world.
He thought about her world for a minute. She had said that it was basically the same as his, only Capsule Corp didn't exist. He would have to work on that when he got there. Trunks knew perfectly well that his mother loved the family company too much to let it die, so he would try and start Capsule Corp up when he had the time.
He thought about Ami's story again. Her life was like one giant fairy tale. He had found it hard to believe what she was saying when she had mentioned Crystal Tokyo, and the little girl from that future, but all Ami had to do to make him believe her was mention that he had also in fact, gone to the past to tell others about the future. That shut him up almost immediately.
It was hard to believe that all of the dead planets of his world were once inhabited in hers, and that Vegeta-sei never existed at all there. The moon was still around too, so he would have to watch out for that.
Trunks hadn't shown anyone from the past this, but he *did* still have his tail. It was wrapped around his leg under his baggy pants, and he was very glad Ami didn't notice it when she was carrying him around town. He had to wonder if that Pluto lady had known that he had one. From what Ami had said, she and her friends would go off and fight all kinds of strange looking monsters and demons. 'Would she think that I'm a demon if she knew that I had this?' He thought to himself uncertainly.
Then an even scarier thought occurred to him. 'What would happen if I were to accidentally change into an Oozaru in her world? I could hurt a lot of people, and that girl Ami said was their leader and princess would probably destroy me, AND even if I were to survive that, I could never live a normal life if *that* were to happen.' Trunks groaned at his dilemma. He didn't want to have to cut off his tail just to go to a place where he could be happy.
He remembered how Gohan had told him about what it did to your balance, as well as the fact of how much it hurt. But those weren't the only reasons. He would always have people tell him about how much he looked like his father, but... his tail just proved it. Trunks' tail proved that he was Vegeta's son, and he was proud of it. "I'll just have to make sure that I never see the full moon." He decided out loud to himself.
As to whether or not he would tell Ami about his tail and what he would become, should he by accident, see the full moon........well... he would decide on what to do about that in the morning.
To Be Continued....................
A.N: Thanks to all who are reviewing me! I really appreaciate your thoughts and opinions! Keep em coming!
So what do you all think of this chapter? Did it suck? Did you like it? Please review! ^_^