Chapter Nineteen

Sasoli arrived with Maron and put a hand to her hair self-consciously. Her blond cousin had decided to experiment with her hair and try to iron it straight, much like a person with curly hair would. The results were surprisingly the same and, for the first time in her life, Sasoli had straight hair that was more limp than spiky.

It was like shaving your head bald or at least that what it felt like to Sasoli.

"You look fine," Maron reassured her with a smile, "You almost look like a different person."

"Do I?" A crafty gleam entered Sasoli's eyes, "Could I pass for a different person?"

Startled, Maron reexamined her cousin's features with the drastically different hair, "I guess. You're features seem softer and layered. You cut your hair yourself didn't you?"

"Yes," Sasoli chewed her lip thoughtfully. "It seems longer now that it isn't sticky out everywhere. I can use this . . ."

"What do you mean?" Maron tilted her head to the side.

"When I'm undercover," Sasoli examined a lock of her hair critically, "Do you think I could use my ki and achieve the same effects?"

"I'm not sure," Maron shrugged, "I guess you'll have to experiment and be careful not to fry your hair."

Sasoli rolled her eyes, "My hair is as durable as I am."

Maron lifted a brow but didn't say anything in response to the rather odd statement.

"Maron!"

The blond looked up in response and saw Goten waving excitedly at her while Trunks gave a more dignified nod and smile.

"This shall be the first test," Sasoli linked arms with her and smiled sweetly.

Maron's lips quirked as she turned her eyes to see the boys' surprise at Sasoli's appearance.

"Hey Maron," Goten was as friendly as usual, "Whose your friend?"

"Are you sure it's wise to bring . . . An outsider?" Trunks studied the newcomer when a wave of familiarity washed over him. He knew this woman but where . . . ?

The two girls burst into laughter.

The brunette shook her head when the laughter subsided, "This will come to my advantage in the field."

"Sasoli!" Both males exclaimed loudly, "What happened to your hair?!"

"Maron," Sasoli smirked and went to Goten. "Come over here, I want to try something."

Trunks and Maron watched them walk away, one with amusement and the other confused. "What does she want with Goten?"

"To experiment with his hair," Maron rolled her eyes.

They just watched as Sasoli's hands started glowing and she ran them through Goten's hair. Nobody really noticed Bra cross her arms with distaste at the situation. Having just arrived, she had missed the explanation and wasn't very happy about it. She turned to her brother only to find them in a suddenly deep conversation that she was loathe to interrupt so she decided to interrupt Sasoli and Goten.

"It worked!" Sasoli was ecstatic and hugged Goten in celebration.

"What worked?"

Sasoli smirked and turned to her cousin, as always everything worked to her advantage, "His hair."

Bra's brows went up as she suddenly saw Sasoli's new hairdo and couldn't believe she recognized her cousin right off the bat. Curious now, she looked at Goten and saw him, for the first time, without his trademark spikes. His hair fell in soft waves on his head, the strands longer now that they were no longer spiked, and with bangs that framed his forehead and eyes. He looked hot.

"What did you do?" Bra touched his hair and watched Sasoli for an explanation.

"Well you see . . ."

Zarah and Pan landed to find a very intriguing sight. Trunks and Maron were huddled off to one corner discussing something heatedly or something heated since Trunks would randomly blush and Maron would laugh. Bra, on the other hand, was either checking Goten for lice or something flew into his hair that she was trying to find while talking to . . . Who was that?

Sasoli?

"What happened to your hair?"

"Maron ironed it," Bra gave a short explanation and released Goten's hair.

"Uncle Goten!" Pan hugged him, "That's a good look for you."

"You think so?" Goten smiled uncertainly, he hadn't exactly seen the results of Sasoli's experiment.

"You want to try it, Zarah?" Sasoli lifted glowing hands.

"Um no," Zarah took a step back in caution.

"Thanks anyway," Pan hugged her hubby's waist, "I like him the way he is."

"So are we going to start this tournament or what?" Trunks' voice demanded their attention.

"Yeah, the sooner the better," Goten agreed, "When I left my mom was cooking a feast."

Zarah exchanged looks with everyone except Goten, very hard to keep the other groups from noticing but somehow he managed.

"Shall we do the drawing?" Bra suggested when everyone went quiet.

"I already did it," Zarah announced, "I thought it would save time."

Everyone except Maron and Pan glared at him.

"Drawing is half the fun," Trunks grumbled.

Zarah rolled his eyes and threw a capsule. With a poof a large chart with their names appeared with stand to hold it.

Still miffed, the group went over to the chart to see where they stood. Bra and Sasoli narrowed their eyes at each other when they realized they fought in the last match. Goten was confused about why his name wasn't on a bracket while Trunks rubbed his eyes, what he read couldn't be right, he couldn't be fighting Maron.

"You're fighting?" Trunks turned to the blond.

"Sasoli asked me to," Maron had her arms crossed self-consciously. "I probably won't last very long."

Trunks nodded his agreement, not noticing Maron narrow her eyes at him.

"Why aren't I on the chart?" Goten tried to keep the hurt tone out of his voice.

"It wasn't even," Zarah went to the chart, "So what we're going to do, is the winners of the first two fights will fight in a three for all to fight the winner of the last match."

"So I will fight against . . ." Goten was puzzled.

"Me and Zarah," Trunks supplied, "Or me and Pan."

"Oh ok," Goten was pacified.

"What we probably should do is make my match against Goten instead," Trunks patted Maron on the shoulder, "It's not like we're going to miss anything."

"Are you saying I can't win?" Maron's words were short and clipped.

Trunks glanced at her startled but responded arrogantly, "You're not a fighter."

"Are you sure about that?" Maron responded coolly and went into the ring.

"I think you made her mad," Zarah grinned at Trunks while clapping him on the back.

The President of Capsule Corporation shrugged and stepped into the ring provided by Pan's Grandfather.

Maron wasn't mad, no not at all, it was more like seething. Of all the nerve . . . Just because she didn't know all the damn tricks they did, didn't mean she was helpless. She was going to kick his ass.

Trunks lifted a brow as she slid into a martial arts stance, "I didn't know you knew proper technique."

"Is that such a stretch?"

Trunks smirked at her, "Only since you're doing it wrong. You need to tuck your arm in more."

Maron dropped the stance and straightened her spine. She didn't know this person, this wasn't the Trunks she knew. The Trunks she knew was sweet, kind, and would never make fun of her but this one . . .

"Come on, Maron, we all know you can't beat me," Trunks cocked a hip, "We're wasting everyone's time. Just give up and I won't have to humiliate you."

"Get him, Maron!" Sasoli gave a war cry.

Goten glanced at her amused, "Go Trunks!"

Pan was bored while Zarah and Bra watched intently.

Maron forced a pleasant smile and held out a hand.

Amused, Trunks took it in his and shook it. "You came to your senses-"

With a quick twist of the wrist and pull, she had successfully taken the saiyan off guard and flipped him to the ground. The only reason she was able to pull off the simple trick was because he was not powered up and by the time he realized her intention she had already finished the maneuver. It was for the same reason and the fact that he was shocked that she was able to kick him in the head, not hard but enough to stun.

More than one person gasped at the sight of the blond jumping on Trunks' stomach.

Trunks was no longer amused but then having someone jump on you did that. He sat up in one smooth movement, grabbed his assailant ankle, and pulled.

Maron went down with a startled yelp, she had not expected him to recover so quickly, faster than normal men maybe but not that quickly.

Trunks kept a grip of her ankle and used it to pull her under him. He dragged both of them to their feet, careful to keep any thrashing limbs subdued.

"What's wrong?" Maron asked him frostily, "Did I hurt someone's ego?"

He lifted her off her feet by her lapels and walked to the edge of the ring.

"Trunks?" Maron kicked her feet but was unable to reach him, "What are you doing?"

"I am tired of playing with you," his eyes were narrowed as he dangled her over the edge.

Her heart pounded as she struggled to get away but it was no use, he was too strong.

"You will not beat me so easily," she warmed him breathlessly.

"I am not giving you a choice," Trunks replied firmly and dropped her.

He didn't even wait to see her hit the ground and turned on his heel to face their audience. It proved to be a fatal mistake.

"Zarah and Pan are next, right?" Trunks arched a brow when his sixth sense went off with a vengeance.

With a scream of pure rage, Maron executed a perfect tornado kick and booted him in the ass.

Trunks fell out of the ring and the only thing that saved him from losing to Maron was his ability to fly. He stopped himself a scant five inches from the ground only to have his opponent jump on his back, trying to force him the rest of his way.

He pushed his ki against the ring and propelled himself back into the ring where Maron waited cautiously.

"How . . ."

"I can fly," Maron smoothed her shirt he had wrinkled.

"I didn't know . . . I assumed . . ."

"Then you're an ass," Maron glared at him again but was strangely expressionless at the same time.

Trunks chuckled at her, he actually chuckled at her! He had seemed so mad when she had brought him down but so he was amused again.

"I fail to see what's so amusing," she stated blandly.

"You surprise me," Trunks leisurely looked at his opponent up and down, "I am not that easy to surprise."

Maron's brows lowered a millimeter as she noticed the way Trunks was looking at her. Something in his eyes had changed, there was a different light now and she only had a glimpse of it before he let his bangs cover his eyes.

She's mine, Trunks couldn't help the smirk on his face, she doesn't know it yet but she's mine. All previous arguments crumbled in the surety of this statement and he realized the awesome power of knowing exactly what he wanted.

He attacked.

The Briefs' saiyans watched with a keen interest and they realized, had Trunks still had his tail, it would be waving behind him.

"She almost had him," Sasoli remarked absently.

"Yeah, she's giving him a run for his money," Goten answered with his head cocked to the side. He was aware that something had changed, that something in Trunks' demeanor was different . . . But he wasn't sure.

Bra smiled at the couple in the ring, she was going to have a sister in no time.

"Great idea, Pan," Zarah placed a hand on her shoulder though he didn't take his eyes away from the ring.

"I told you so," she covered it with hers.

Trunks chuckled again as he stopped his assault. He had gone at her with a simple punch-kick-punch combo he'd learned in childhood and she had defended beautifully.

"Maron, I think it's time we stop this little charade," Trunks made his way to her slowly, "You may have some skills but in the end, I will always be stronger."

"I will not give up without a fight," Maron backed away step for step, not willing to come within grabbing range.

Trunks placed his hands on his hips, he really did not want to continue this fight unless it was to end with them bonded. She wasn't going to be happy with him but he was going to end it now.

He phased from sight, grabbed her, and set her on the ground before she had even realized he had moved in the first place.

"You're out, Maron," Sasoli remarked sadly, "You're touching the ground."

"But how . . ." Maron glanced up at Trunks who was still inside the ring. She wanted to be mad at him, to rip out his beautiful blue eyes but as the bloodlust waned so did her unnatural, calculating calm. Her eyes widened as she remembered how she had kicked him in the head to stun him. How could she have done that?! She could have seriously hurt him! Though, he deserved it for the comments he had made . . .and now . . . it was over.

Trunks hopped lightly out of the ring, smiled sweetly at her, and left to remove her name from the chart.

"You were so close," Sasoli sighed with resignation.

"I'll say she was," Goten grinned, "Where did you learn those moves?"

"Who cares?" Pan lifted her chin, "Now Trunks know not to mess with her."

Their voices droned in the background as Maron tried to understand what in the world had just happened. They had both become different people in the ring and something had changed . . . Now, it was over but what would the change mean now? How would it affect the less aggressive people they usually were?

Maron met Trunks' eyes across the way and she felt a shiver of apprehension run down her spine.

Whatever it was . . .she knew she was going to face repercussions.

"Alright next! Pan and Zarah!" Sasoli announced with enthusiasm.

They all might.

End Chapter Nineteen