Hidden Memories
Chapter 2: Too close
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball/Z/GT. Or the characters. Like all fan-antics, I just make up my own imaginary world based off Akira Toriyama's world and characters. I just want to write...-sniff sniff-
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Recap of Chapter 1:
"Biideru..?" They both chorused...while she only stood there, with a renowned smirk on her face just to taunt both of them.
"Yes?" She simply asked, just to play with Gohan's mind, as Torankusu tried to warn her with a simple cock of his lavender eyebrow, making Biideru almost lose her face and giggle.
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Chapter 2:
Her inner conscience had screamed at her with curses of its own, at how incredibly stupid she was acting. She was deliberately taunting Son Gohan for what? To see him mad was one thought, but she knew deep down it wasn't that. She blinked a bit; startled with something to why she was acting like this. She was hungry for a fight. Craving the violent dance between two enemies, till each of them were covered with blood, and bruises. She eyes brightened with an evil glint, startling Torankusu from his spot, till they became wide with surprise. She bit down on her tongue hard, and she could feel the blood slowly spill atop of her tastes buds after she pierced soft pinkness of her tongue. She could taste metallic flavor of her own blood, as she felt herself swallow a large lump in her throat already feeling doubt in this. She was scared. Not of Gohan, but herself. Fear of her own violent thoughts of a brutal battle that lay only a few steps in front of her. She could see it vividly and instantly shook her from reality and to an emotionless stare off into nowhere.
Torankusu watched all of her reactions, soon becoming concerned of his female friend. Watching, as her emotions had drastically turned from confident, to deadly, and then to fear. His eyebrows connected together, feeling the anger within him over concern of Biideru. His shoulders tensed as he looked into those lost orbs of blue, and could feel the fear radiating off her.
"Biideru..?" Torankusu spoke again softly, as he felt the annoyed, raspy breath from Gohan just behind him. He took his eyes off of Biideru for a moment, and redirected them to the side as if he could see his teacher from the corner of his eye. 'Why must you tempt him, Biideru?' He spoke only in his mind as he shook his head slightly, and walked towards her. Bringing his hands up and setting them down gently on her small shoulders, and knocking her out of her trance. He gave a weak smile, as he saw those heavy, black eyelashes blink several times, and those haunting eyes, spilling with fear, focused on his face.
"Do you feel well, Biideru?" Concern hung in his voice, which he was trying to leave out and found that he had failed. Thus, earning an impatient sigh from his teacher, and caused Torankusu to roll his eyes.
Their fights had gotten worse over the last two weeks, and he wondered why. Usually Gohan would just sit there and take it, with a frown plastered on his now older face, but lately he was trying to fight back. Using the same hurtful words Biideru was using towards his direction. Torankusu figured he was probably sick of it already. Some of the fights didn't even make sense. He knew the approach Gohan was taking wouldn't last long, probably make Biideru go over the edge. Her pride would interfere soon and they would engage in combat. He frowned, wondering what he do if that ever happened. He would hate to see Biideru hurt, especially from his teacher.
His gaze returned back towards hers, as soon as she made a small noise that she was okay. He believed that was an answer to his question, and he didn't quite take it as one. In trying to find an actually answer, he hunched over leaning his face with hers, level, leaving only an inch apart from their noses. Startling Biideru more than it startled him. His short locks of lavender tickled the pale of her cheeks, which she didn't even but wince at the acknowledgment of those tresses, as she seemed to be busy looking into his face, his eyes, searching for something. His lashes fell into a blink, only once, as he was studying her face, and then her eyes with such gentleness. He squeezed her shoulder only a moment, which had made her blink in response. His face seemed to get closer to hers, she had thought, the more he kept studying her so closely, she wondered if she should back away or not.
She felt the warmth of his breath upon her skin, and noticed a change in his facial features. His warm, blue eyes had brightened in a matter of seconds, which caused a confused look on hers. Lips of the demi-Saiya-jin curved up into a smile. His soft tongue came into view and slowly licked the pink of his lips to moisten them before he spoke. This action almost made Biideru shudder, but instead she controlled herself and only left a chill to run down her spine. She frowned at how devilishly evil that was to do that to her so close. A rough cough was heard behind Torankusu, which had brought both her and his attention to the frowning demi-saiya-jin behind them.
Biideru was confused mostly, but was relieved somehow because of the little disturbance Gohan had made, and silently thanked him for that, despite the hate she had for him. It gave her time to collect herself, and noticed Torankusu's gentle grasp on her shoulders was still there. She felt light-headed and confused all at the same time, wondering what the heck was going on in her thoughts. She felt the beats of her heart in her throat, as she felt the cold stare coming from Gohan's direction, causing her to look that way to see his reaction.
Torankusu narrowed his eyes at his teacher, mostly blaming him for how he was acting. But mostly he was relieved for interrupting him. He didn't know what he would do if Gohan hadn't got something in his throat, and giving them a disruption that was needed. His teacher sent him a warning look towards him, which made him jump suddenly and open his eyes wider. His thoughts became more puzzling, as soon as he had Gohan's stare on him. He ignored it for that moment, knowing that shouldn't bother him now. He wanted to know what had gotten into Biideru. He wiped his face clean from the surprise that was there, and turned back to Biideru with worriment. He noticed that he had shocked Biideru from turning his head back towards her, she obviously distracted by something else. His lips parted for him to speak but were stopped when he noticed the air that stuck on her tongue like she had words of her own. She stopped and licked her lips also, and somehow made Torankusu forget what he was going to say and had clouded his thoughts. All that came out was a small whimper that had woke him up, and caused a studious look from Biideru.
"I'm just fine, Torankusu." Her voice had hit the silence first, that had made Torankusu frown and doubt that she was 'fine'. She was too scared to find out what would happen next if this silence had kept on and they both stared into each other's eyes. She fled as soon as she felt Torankusu's grasp cease no more on her shoulders, and he nodded to her of his approval. She quickly went back inside, placing her pale hands across her heated face, thinking of how childish she was.
He sat back up, straight, frowning at her retreating form, still concerned with the way she was acting. Then again he should be questioning the way he was acting too. Whatever came over him sure sent him for a loop. He brought back his right hand, to lay behind his head and began to scratch childishly at the back of his head, ruffling his short tresses of lavender. Keeping his pondering state, he returned his attention towards Son Gohan and blinked asking him with his eyes if he may have known what had happened.
This may have been a bad choice. Gohan glared back down at the teen with absolute shame in the way he looked at him. His arms had now appeared folded across his chest in such an arrogant manner. This caused the lavender-haired teen to question Gohan in his thoughts. Did he really care for her now, like he had a long time ago? He remembered hearing some stages of the story that he was in love with someone much younger than himself, but he didn't really mind that fact all. Until now. But that all seemed unlikely, seeing the way they treated each other now.
"You two seem to be getting closer, as the world seems to falling down around us." He lifted an eyebrow, just to make the statement last longer and make it more shameful on the boy. The words really hit Torankusu hard. His shoulders slumped, like a boy would do when his mother scolded him. But did he really do something wrong? He repeated the words of Gohan in his head and something clicked. He was accusing him of having a 'relationship' with Biideru and making him feel guilty for his happiness while everyone else was sorrowful. This caused anger to build up, and dared Gohan with is own unique stare, that he undoubtly had gotten from his father. His fists clenched together at his sides as he tried to hold back from striking his teacher. Gohan knew of his trembling and just looked down on him, his eyebrows forked down, daring him to go ahead and try.
Torankusu knew what Gohan was asking for so he calmed down, but still having his shoulders tensed up, still effected by the comment. Gohan was just as angry with him because of Biideru. Of course, only she was the only one to get under Gohan's nerves like that, except for the Jinzou-jin.
"When did it seem to be your business to care about Biideru?" He added a soft growl along with that question, shocking both him and Gohan, but he kept going not really getting the meaning behind what he had just said. "For the past few days, you have been tempting her to fight you. Thus, making these little verbal fights of yours, allot worse than they have ever been." He blinked with a bit of frustration, and took a small breath before he spoke again. "And I won't allow you to hurt Biideru over such nonsense."
Gohan had tried to keep his calm yet anger look, as he open his ears to listen to the complaints of the younger man, but he couldn't help but to break his look after he heard the last part. Quite honestly, he had noticed the changes between his student and the girl. They had been buddy-buddy around. Torankusu would help her train, talk over Kami knows what for hours, and he would follow her around like a lost puppy. He never really figured that Torankusu would be the first to express how he had felt about her, since he figured he was to quiet and embarrassed about the subject all together. Now, now that he looked at the flustered teenager in front him, trying to protect her from himself, even though he wouldn't dare dream of hitting Biideru. Unless, it was completely necessary, a voice rang in his head making him take a minute to recollect and answer the boy.
"You never really answered me, kid." He flatly said in a calm voice.
Torankusu had winced at the short nickname; he knew that Gohan wasn't in a good mood when he had referred to him as 'kid'. He rarely ever called them that, unless in the stress of waiting for the Jinzou-jin to attack in the privacy of the dead world outside. He then became confused; Gohan hadn't asked a question from him.
"You didn't ask anything from me."
"There is not always a question to be asked, to get an answer from someone." This statement had confused Torankusu even more, and Gohan had noticed the look. He took a sigh and restated what he said earlier into a question to help Torankusu.
"Have you gotten closer with Biideru?" Again another confused look appeared on the teen's face, which almost made Gohan smile at his innocence, almost. He saw Torankusu's mouth open to answer him and was quickly there to cut him off.
"I don't kn-"
"Don't play dumb with me, kid. You know damn well what I'm asking you." His voice had showed anger in his voice. Torankusu had believed that it was caused by impatience, or maybe the fact that his answer might be yes. Or maybe it was both.
He took a sigh, as he tried not to make eye contact with the one before him. His eyes found a place to study as he took Gohan's question into consideration. He never really asked that question himself, nor had he realized that he did, until now. Biideru's image came to mind, and he gulped as his mind had made that for him to study over. His throat went tight; having the feeling that Gohan was maybe right. And he had only ignored this because he didn't want to believe it either. He didn't think that Biideru had thought of him as he did her. He lifted his head and looked to Gohan, giving off looks of fear and confusion.
Gohan had noticed this, and this was all that he needed to know. His looks and reactions told everything, Torankusu had feelings for Biideru. He just kept his silence for more approval of his theory, and he becoming more surprised by the fear that he saw in the young man's blue eyes. A Fear of what?
"Gohan...I-" He hesitated, as he took his eyes off of Gohan and let them wander around, as if he were searching for words to help him speak. He finally gave up and let those words hang in the air.
"What were you going to say, kid?" Gohan's impatience had seemly melted away with the answer to his earlier question. He was now on the hunt for the reason that Torankusu got all upset about, at the moment.
The teenager glanced over to Gohan as a reaction to the question. There must have been some painful look in his eyes, because it had made Gohan wince as he stared at the boy. Torankusu's mouth was dry, and his throat was tight. He couldn't speak even if he tried. He was scared of what he might say. He was scared because he had felt this way about Biideru, and scared of Gohan was going to do to him. He knew Gohan still loved Biideru. He never did stop loving her, when she had. That was only because she had lost her memory, and had no idea what she was talking about, about when she had said that he had left her. But in all light of this, there was a little warmth in knowing this, being that he had cared for Biideru. He had discovered that there were feelings for Biideru that he had never acknowledged, and now that he knew of this there was only one other step to know if she did. And that was Gohan.
Torankusu's fists tightened at his side as he looked to the man in front of him. Here goes nothing; he encouraged himself in his thoughts. "I...I...yes, Gohan, I have been getting closer to her...."
Torankusu was in complete surprise, when he wasn't receiving the kind of reaction he dreading for. Instead of seeing Gohan go completely insane, he just stood their arms crossed, his eyes closed as he nodded towards the teen and just satisfied with the answer. This, however, didn't give Torankusu the satisfaction of being safe; he knew surely this was a sign that things weren't good.
"You care for her?" His voice wasn't as hard, and demanding as it was before, instead it was an almost whisper, and Torankusu could only hear it since he was only but a few feet away.
Torankusu was about to answer, 'yes', as his response, but he stopped himself and really had to think it over. Again, he hadn't really thought about this, and made him give off that studious look as he glanced to something just a few centimeters from his foot. He was just simply scared of what Gohan would do. In an effort to speak...he only came out with, "I...I-"
Gohan opened his eyes, and they weren't surprisingly cold, they were neutral. A look of really nothing that can be shown. There was no anger, no sadness, nothing just neutral.
"Do you truly care for her, Torankusu?" He repeated the question again, earning a small surprise from the boy, when his name was mentioned and causing him to look up at the older man. "Would you keep her safe? Would you protect her, nay-even die for her? Do you love her?" He hesitated to take a breath. Torankusu automatically thinking it was because he had said the L-word. He was still in shock, only giving him wide eyes as his only response at the moment, and realized that Gohan wasn't finished; he just needed a few seconds to think clearly. ".... Do you care for her, Torankusu? Do you truly care for her? If you had answered all those questions with yes, than you will know to yourself that you do." Gohan's voice shuddered, but was soon smoothed out as he looked to the boy, who seemed be frozen with shock than anything else.
Torankusu just couldn't believe his ears. The way Gohan was speaking was like that of a father questioning his daughter's boyfriend into thinking he was worthy enough. It was simply amazing to Torankusu that Gohan possessed this much courage and not seriously go insane about the whole thing. He remembered a long while ago, when he first mentioned Biideru, whom he didn't know at the time, that he was clearly possessive of her, almost addictive. He would rant on about her, when there was time for it. And his eyes would burn when Torankusu would speak ill of the whole love nonsense, since he was just a child at the time. He didn't think love existed because of the world he was living in. But now he had thought wrong, as he repeated the questions in his head thinking of his answers for each one. His face calmed as he thought about the questions, then his eyes brightened with happiness and soon switched to fear, catching an eye from Gohan.
"Yes...yes I do." He spoke in a whisper, surprising even himself, as looked to the ground and the lump that had vanished awhile ago appeared back in his throat as he looked to the ground once again. He nearly jumped out of his skin as he felt the hard grasp on his shoulder, and found it was Gohan.
He smiled at him, and it was real. It was a real smile that held happiness in it, but he caught the look of defeat deep in his eyes and gulped. The grasp didn't get tighter; it didn't seem to vanish either. Gohan had given Biideru to him, in that one squeeze of his shoulder and that weak smile. It was sort of congratulation to him, as if he had won and Gohan was defeated. They didn't even exchange blows, like a true fight over a girl would be. It was just a few simple questions being answered and he gave up just like that. And he felt the need to cry at the weakness that he saw in his teacher's eyes. That same look that has been there after a fight between the Jinzou-jin, the same look that looked like he had failed everyone. He didn't want to see that at the moment, and silently regretted the feelings he had for Biideru. He closed his eyes, wishing to not see those cold, obsidian eyes anymore.
The grip was soon gone, and sound of footsteps was heard behind him. Gohan probably got the hint, which he needed to be left alone, or at least he, himself, did anyway. He heard the small click of the door to the inside of the Capsule Corps, and left Torankusu to think of his knew found feelings, as he just looked to the ground for answers to everything.
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She hadn't even gotten far from the backdoor of the Capsule Corps that lead to the outside Gravity Room. She had gotten about as far as fifteen steps at the most, in a rather small room that held nothing but a small white cushioned chair, that could have seen better days, and a round table that was seated next to it. Biideru hadn't even bothered to even think of making herself comfortable in the off-white chair. She was too overworked with her own thoughts, her own feelings about what had just happened since she had walked through that door. She was now hugging her body, like she would if it was cold, but it wasn't. It was about normal temperature but she was acting like she hiding herself, her body from everything around her. That common paranoia sparked in her, like every time when she truly felt alone, which was almost always, sending chills down her spine and goose bumps to appear on her bare arms.
She was wearing black, like she had always had since she had first lived in this dome like structure. A black tank top she had gotten from Buruma a while back, which didn't hug her body to much, seemingly because she didn't quite posses a big chest, like Buruma. Also, black, baggy gi pants that she had stolen from Torankusu, once she had begun training with him. Of course she needed a belt, which was also black as well, black leather to be more precise. Her feet were bare anyhow, which didn't quite bother her, she had said before that it was much more comfortable than bothering to put socks and shoes on to just wander around the house. She was hoping on training today, but the way things were going it didn't look like she was going to get her way. Her ebony hair, which was the length of the middle of her back, had been held back in a white headband, which was probably the only color on her that showed brightly, instead of her blue eyes. She was indeed in comfortable attire and it looked attractive on her, black on black. But that wasn't the reaction she was really going for. In fact she wasn't going for anything; she just put clothes on because it would have been inappropriate to go around nude.
She didn't remember how long she was standing there ten-fifteen minutes? It seemed like seconds as soon as she came back from her thoughtful world and looked on to the objects of the room. Her nose was raised in the air, as she smelt the welcoming scent of food being made in the kitchen that was three rooms away. Buruma was a good cook, and could never wait till she had made meals, which wasn't very often nowadays, since she had been too preoccupied with her 'project' downstairs in the lab. Her stomach reacted to the warm scent in the air, by grumbling, which could of caused Biideru to blush if anyone was around.
The doorknob on the door to the outside had jiggled, which made Biideru jump from her position and caught her before she had given a feminine yelp. She froze in her position towards the door, as it swung open, letting a cool breeze to brush past a body that was in the door way, and escape towards her body, giving her a chill, causing a small gasp come from her mouth. She didn't know if that was caused by the coolness of the breeze or the identity of the body in the doorway.
Gohan had walked through the door, almost disturbed from his thoughts, not really paying attention that there was somebody else in the room, until he lifted his head to fall upon Biideru's surprised face. He almost smiled knowing the effect that he had on Biideru, every time he walked through a door and she was there. She acted as if he would attack her, and causing her to freeze into place every time. He would usually snicker about it and that would lead into their daily fights. That was the reason why he didn't react to her expression this time, to avoid that. They had now stood in front of each other, once lost in the gaze the other to fear-stricken to even more, to even breathe.
Biideru finally let out the breath she had held in, and just looked curiously over to the demi-Saiya-jin. She glanced over his features. From the top his head, his unruly hair that had defied gravity on one area on top of his head. His eyes told nothing to her about what he was thinking his mouth showed any emotion of any kind, just parted for him to breathe. The one scar that he had gotten quite sometime ago, that went over his left eye, a painful reminder of the earlier fights with the Jinzou-jin. He wore a white tank-top, seeing that t-shirts had gotten in his way whenever he was training, and he preferred something that clung to him rather than flapping about, and being a distraction. Pants was a different story to him, he also had gi pants as well, his being a navy blue. His scars that were scattered across his body only showed on some parts that his clothes had allowed. One cut across his right shoulder, and one peaking out the collar of his tank top. Only Biideru knew where the rest where, from her memories that flashed, whenever they wanted to, in her mind. She groaned inwardly, knowing that a headache was about to make its appearance. Her memories of times she didn't even remember will be the death of her soon.
Gohan's features as soon turned into a surprising smile, which Biideru thought of as a little eerie. It was that well-known Son grin that was probably genetic. She rarely saw it on him, and when he did this he was either truly happy or just plotting revenge. Whatever the cause of it, it scared Biideru half to death. She took a step back, as he came towards her, and clasped a hand down on her shoulder. She froze under his touch, and lifted her head back to look up at him. He continued to smile and nodded something towards her that she didn't quite get.
"Be careful, Biideru, be careful." Those words were all he said, as he squeezed her shoulder lightly and released it from her shoulder and continued out of the small room, she thought was probably to follow the scent of food.
Her head still turned towards the doorway that he had left from, still oblivious to what he meant by, 'be careful'. Why would care about her anyway? It wasn't like he had cared for her in any way possible, right? She just shook her head still not knowing what he had meant, as thoughts circled her head that could be answers. The breeze from the outside had disturbed her; her arms hugged her tightly as it began to get all of a sudden chilly in the small room. With one quick turn, she headed towards the door, as the sound of flesh on tile was made as stepped to the door. With two hands on the door, she slowly went to close the door until it stopped. She hadn't heard a click, telling her that the door was closed, so she pushed harder. She felt the door make contact with something other than the click of the door, and a familiar voice yelped behind it.
"Hey, what the hell!?"
"Torankusu?" She recognized the voice and let the door open past her. Torankusu stood there, one eye open and one hand over left side of his head rubbing the spot where he had been impelled by the door. Biideru couldn't help but chuckle at the scene. "I'm sorry, Torankusu. I thought the door was stuck."
"You don't seem as sorry as you look." A grumble escaped his lips as he rubbed the spot upon his head again. This seemed to help Biideru get control of herself as he noticed his fowl mood.
"Oh come on, Torankusu. That couldn't have hurt that bad anyway. You could have pushed the door back on me."
He raised his eyebrow at her. "It's not every day that door attacks you when you're walking through the doorway, so I wasn't quite ready for that."
"True." She felt embarrassed and looked to the ground, a small flush of her cheeks showed of pink. "Again, I'm sorry."
He still had his hand placed on the side of his head, little surprised that it actually stung. It made him think about how strong this girl actually was, but that could be questioned later. He caught Biideru's embarrass look which only surprised him more. Kami, how many surprises were there going to be? He sighed. His thoughts then directed to the conversation he had with Gohan just moments before, and he almost couldn't contain the blush that was about to spread across his cheeks as he looked over Biideru's figure. He shook his head, and placed a smile upon his lips and tucked his fingers under the girl's chin and lifted her face to meet his, giving her his smile.
"Apology accepted." She had returned the favor by smiling herself, making Torankusu's heart beat even faster when he couldn't stop staring at her, and he felt his face drift closer to her face, like he had done earlier to see what the matter with her was.
She felt confused why the distance between their faces had gotten shorter and Torankusu's face had gotten closer. She felt her heart beat loudly in her ears, as silence filled the room, and she felt fear and surprise consume her. She noticed that she couldn't stop herself from closing the gap between their faces and before she knew it they were only inches apart and Torankusu was still staring into her eyes with that same smile, and she was trying hard to focus in on his face. She felt his warm breath and she started to shake, wondering what the hell was going on at the moment. Feeling the movement of Torankusu's eyes close, she had done the same following his sweet breath as they closed in.
"TORANKUSU!? BIIDERU!? DINNER IS READY!!" Buruma's screams could be heard on every floor of the Capsule Corps, announcing that their meal was ready. As soon as they reached the ears of the two teenagers, they both jolted back from their position. Biideru's face was completely pink with her blush, and Torankusu nervously rubbed the back of his head as he also blushed with embarrassment. Biideru gave a glance of almost fear and almost apologetic before she turned and walked out of the room. Torankusu stared at her retreated form and cursed at himself lowly, before he dug his hands in his pockets and followed after.
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Author's Notes: Um, don't flame me over the Torankusu and Biideru thing, trust me I am not much of a Torankusu fan gets flamed even more x.x; Heh. Anyway don't worry I do not hate Gohan, but his relationship with Biideru will not get better, trust me.sigh poor Gohan. If there are any problems, please e-mail me. Maybe I will shorten the chapter lengths. Criticize me. I'm up for anything.
I will start updating every two weeks...Although the next update will be earlier.
Next update: 5/31/04
-Umbrella-chan-
