Chapter 3

"Good morning!" Cell scowled and opened his eyes to see that Joy was stood before him, grinning and pleased for some reason. She wore long yellow tracksuit trousers, baggy ones. This matched her yellow sunshine tracksuit top, with a large smiley-faced sun on her chest, and another on her back. "How are you feeling?" he raised a brow. Ready to kill you.

"Acceptable." He turned his back to her, and closed his eyes again.

"I've had my breakfast and everything is cleaner now. So if you want to come inside, you can."

"I will keep that in mind." He said curtly, and his eye twitched with frustration. She wasn't getting the hint to leave him alone.

"Oh, I found something you might like. It's a book that I haven't read yet, and it looks like your kind of thing."

"I hardly think you know what 'king of thing' I prefer in literature to make that sort of assumption, Joyce." He scowled.

"Well…I thought you might like it. You must get really bored just standing there all the time."

"I prefer my own company to others, as they are all humans like yourself."

"So I was right." He raised a brow, and looked over his shoulder at her.

"And why would you come up with that conclusion?"

"Why do you think?" she smiled, and turned to leave him alone. "I will leave you alone if that is what you want. But you should have just said, you know." She didn't even sound hurt by his ignorance of her. "But if you want me for anything, I will be inside. I have something I really need to be getting on with. Don't be a stranger." She cheered from her door, and then entered. He couldn't believe it.

She had just made him feel like a fool. Why do I think? If I knew how her mind worked, I would not be in this situation in the first place. She would be dead. He sighed, and then smirked. She didn't answer my question. That is one of my rules. He then folded his arms, and walked over to the house.

"Joyce." He called out, and she didn't answer. He scowled and stormed inside. He looked around, but couldn't see her. After a few moments, he growled and closed his eyes. Her Ki was upstairs, and it was…flaring? Is she angry? Cell walked up the stairs, and peered around the corner. To his right was the bedroom. It was yellow, like the rest of the house, and everything was perfectly neat. He was impressed. She appeared to be the kind of person who led a messy life. But her room was immaculate.

When he heard a noise from the left, he walked towards it. He silently pressed up against the wall, like he did in his imperfect form and stalking his pray. As he looked around, he saw Joy sniffling and shoving something in her washer.

The blanket.

Joy was pushing the blanket cover inside the washer, and sniffling.

"I'll just have to try harder." She sniffled, and shuck her head. "I need to focus." She folded the blanket, and put it on the dryer side. This was her washroom. Joy cleared her throat. "I bet he thinks I'm beastly now." At that, he recoiled. He expected her to be angry, or hurt, or at least sulk at him rejecting her act of futile false affection. Not beat herself up about it. This reaction just confused him even more. "If I just try harder, he'll like me. I hope." She shuck her head and wiped her tears on the back of her hands. "I better clean up. I wouldn't want him to see me like this. That isn't fair." She took a deep breath, and Cell decided to see what she would do. He stepped around the corner and stood in the doorway.

"Perhaps now is the time to tell you, that it is a fruitless effort to conceal anything from me." He smirked coldly and watched for her reaction. Joy jumped up and put her hands behind her back, holding the last corner of the blanket as it hung out of the washer.

"Oh! I didn't see you there." She had a huge of red blush over her cheeks, and her eyes closed. Probably so I can't see her tears. He thought. "I was just cleaning up." She smiled brightly, and tried to shove the blanket inside the dishwasher behind her back. "I'll be down in a minute. Or do you need something?" she opened her eyes now, looking like she was ready to serve him. He scowled and walked away. She had recovered from being caught, and turned it round to try and help him. Always putting the attention on him, never herself. But why? That is against human nature.

She is against human nature.

Surely enough, Cell heard her bound down the stairs only moments later, and with that big smile on her face. "Everything is clean now."

"Very well." He turned his back to her.

"Well everything is tidy, the day is young, so are we and I have some board games if you would like to play with me." Joy beamed up at him, her hands on her hips.

"…Play?…I do not play."

"Then you must get bored a lot. You like to be by yourself, don't like to play games with people, don't like talking to people…" she frowned. "…You must get very lonely…"

"Stop that right now!" he snapped, giving her a cold stare with his magenta eyes. "I will not accept any pity from a human. I am perfect, I do not need anything or anyone."

"…then I can't help but pity you." She sighed and turned away. Cell didn't know whether to pull her back and smack her, or shout at her. But somehow, he managed to stay quiet and contemplate this new side of her. Although he had already seen she was a merciful person, this was still another piece to his puzzle.

Joy knelt down at a cupboard in the living room, and almost crawled inside. "I have connect four, cards, frustration, monopoly, Jenga, Twister." She vanished into the cupboard. "Wow this thing is huge." She chuckled, and her head poked out. "I almost vanish inside it."

"Almost…" he said to himself. "What are you doing?" he folded his arms and leaned with his right hip against the futon. He looked down on her as he usually did, and looked like he was about to mock her again.

"Well." She smiled and crawled backwards into the cupboard. "I am waiting for you to tell me what game you want to play."

"I do not wish to play."

"Ok…then what else do you want to do?" Cell smirked and pulled away from the futon. His tail coiled out from his back, and lashed out at the cupboard. The doors snapped shut, and Cell relaxed back against the doors. His shins held them shut and he smirked. Scream and beg for freedom Joyce. I will break you. Let's see how long you can last trapped. We shall see how strong-minded you really are.

Cell smirked to himself and resembled the perfect cat who got the cream. That was…until he didn't hear anything. Then his smirk slid off his face and was replaced with a scowl, once more. He looked down behind him at the cupboard, and listened for her. There was no sound.

"Whatcha doing?" he almost had a heart attack when her calm voice spoke out of no where. He snapped his head in front of him, and saw her sat on the arm of the futon. Her hands were at either side of her bum, and her legs curved to one side. He looked sceptically at her when she smiled at him softly, but knowingly.

"I question you, not vice versa."

"And yet you haven't asked me anything yet." She smiled, knowing she had stunned him again, but without acting arrogant about it.

"Are you stupid?" he pulled away from the side swiftly and glared at her. "I could snap your neck before you could even blink, and you are rude to me? Do you wish to die?"

"What have I done that is rude?" she coked her head to one side.

"You constantly make comments to make me feel low about myself. You wouldn't want to be me, you pity me, I must be lonely." He listed, and his Ki flared dangerously. One thing this creature couldn't stand, was to be made a fool. And he had been made a fool over this little, pathetic mortal before him one too many times. "You make comments and then walk of without any explanation."

"But Cell." She still smiled calmly. "You didn't ask for one."

Silence.

Then he growled loudly and stared bloody murder at her.

"Explain." He seethed.

"That isn't a question. That is an order." A very Vegeta like angry tremble took over his body, and bore his fangs.

Then suddenly, he smirked and leaned back, as calm as day.

"I see what you are trying to do Joyce. You wanted to get me angry. To make me feel. Well, I do not feel. And I shall not be proven wrong by a mortal like yourself." He closed his eyes, thinking he had won.

"But Cell…do you think this is about who is wrong and who is right?" she sighed. "You still don't get it." She turned and started to fluff the futon cushion. "It was never about right or wrong."

"Then would you explain."

"Yes." She smiled over her shoulder at him, and he almost smirked back at her persistence.

"Then, explain why you would be stupid to try to incur my wrath. Surely you have at least heard of what I am capable off."

"Actually I have. The day before I came here, I was talking to a man on a roof top." She stretched off, and smiled at him. "His name was Pete. He seemed like a family man, thank goodness."

"Wait a moment." He quirked a brow. "Why were you conversing with this 'Pete' on a roof top, about me?"

"Because you killed his wife the day before their anniversary." She stated like it was the weather. "He wanted to jump."

"And?"

"I stopped him." She walked over to the window, and opened the curtains. "He had a daughter to think about." She looked up at the sky, and smiled. "It's nice today. Not a cloud in sight." Cell was just speechless. He had snapped at her, threatened her, all with this he tried to intimidate her…and she just…blows it off with something so serious, and yet treats it so lightly. To her kind, she should have shivered at what he has done. Especially her. She was in the presence of a mass murderer, and all she can do is smile and talk about the weather.

This was too confusing. Cell smirked. But he wouldn't be beaten by her. He would take her apart some way. Then he looked to the cupboard behind him, and back to Joy.

"How did you escape the cupboard?"

"Oh, I'll show you." She beamed and walked over to him. He stepped away from the cupboard, and she knelt down. Her soft hands pulled the doors open, and she crawled inside. Cell looked down and saw that the games were separated into two piles. And in the centre, she was sat. "See, loads of room."

"But how did you escape?" he persisted. Damn this child. I should just kill her already.

"Oh, look." She backed further into the cupboard and he rolled his eyes.. Trust there to be a damned passages in the walls."The whole house is interconnected like this. I can go through the walls up to the washroom, or the kitchen, or my bedroom, or the bathroom." He heard her feet scuttling, and then looked over to the kitchen. She pushed a lower cupboard open, and crawled out. "I don't know why they are here though. I used to play hide and seek in them with Tanya."

"And who is this Tanya?" he said boredly.

"A civil servant. She used to do Saturdays with me down at the main Samaritan centre. Ginger hair, blue eyes, a big freckled smile and only 3 years older than me." She chuckled fondly. "She used to drag me out of the office at the weekend, and make me 'have fun'. She said I didn't know how." She laughed again, and looked up in memory. "Took me cinema, to see Westlife if you can believe, a charity concert two years ago, bingo, and oh my God that nightclub." She blushed madly. "So, what were you saying?" she didn't like the interested smirk on his face.

"Nightclub, Joyce?"

"Oh…erm…" don't let him ask, please don't let him ask.

"What happened at the nightclub Joyce?" he smirked. He knew he had her. Cell could tell something embarrassing happened, and he wanted to see if he could annoy her with it.

"Well…it is a little personal."

"I asked you a question. You have to answer me truthfully. So answer me Joyce."

"Oh boy…" she chuckled weakly, and thought back. "It is hard to explain."

"Then don't." Joy jumped when he was suddenly next to her, and his hand covered her eyes. "I will see it through your eyes."

Flash Back.

Cell opened his eyes, and was stood outside a nightclub. There was two large, rotund body guards at the entrance, neon lights in the shapes of dancing bodies, and 'The Hot Pot' on the front. A long white Limousine pulled up, and he saw a girl eagerly step out, and talk to someone inside it. He got closer, as they wouldn't be able to see him. This was just a memory.

"Tanya! I really shouldn't be here! I'm only 18! I don't even have any ID!"

"Oh, yes you do." Tanya hooked her arm, and dragged her out of the white limo. At once, he recognised Joyce. She looked exactly the same as she did now. And his eyes were wide. "This is my birthday party. Come on Joy, let lose and have fun." Tanya was 21, old enough to own an ID card. She was shorter than Joy, just, and wore her curly ginger hair up in a bun, with some locks falling to frame her face. Her lips were a dark brown, matching her very short party brown dress, that came up to her mid thigh, and had a sequin butterfly on the v neck of her front. Joyce however, had a long black coat on. And her back was to Cell. "And I think you have all the ID you need girl."

"No way." She begged. "Please, I really don't want to go in there. I know it's your birthday and everything, and I got you a card and made you a cake and-"

"Lose the coat."

"…Kami Tanya no. Not after what you dressed me in! Please no!" Tanya grabbed the shoulders of her coat, and whipped it off her. With the force of it, Joy span round to face the unseen Cell.

"Now, is that so bad?" Cell couldn't believe his was madam sunshine herself.

Knee high black leather kinky boots, with laces clipped to the side with small silver buckles, black skin tight black lycra trousers tucked down her boots, and barely hugged her lower hips. A silver snake buckle rested on a black belt, and it was big. But her bellybutton and navel was still visible above it. Her body was bare, showing off the outline of a six pack. His eyes rose up, to see she wore a Xena like breast piece. It looked like a fashion bra, blood red with a chain attached to the underwire. And it was made of the same leather as her boots, and her red fingerless biker chick gloves. Her nails were painted red with black tips. Her face was still shocked, and he looked into her wide emerald eyes. They were outlined in black eyeliner, her eyelashes dark and curled long, red eyeshadow and her lips…a deep scarlet.

"Yes!" she whimpered. "I want to go home." she tried to art for the limo, but Tanya hooked her arm.

"You'll have fun. And if I try hard enough, you might go home with a nice piece of meat with you too."

"Tanya!" she panicked, as they got to the Bouncers. Cell followed, reserving judgment for now.

"The party of Ms Prom Queen."

"Prom Queen?"

"You don't give you name honey. Trust me, I come here often." Tanya winked at her, and then fluttered her eyes at the bouncer. She then started to walk them through the door, when.

"And you. I know Queen Bee here. But where is your ID." Tanya then whispered in her ear.

"No!" she looked shocked at what she had heard, and Cell wished he had heard it too. But she was forced to face the bouncer, and Tanya grabbed her hands. She held them behind her back, and made her arch her back. This gave him a good view of her cleavage, and he nodded.

"Hell yeah, you're 21. Go inside." Cell chuckled at the red colour of her cheeks, making a mental note to taunt her about that later.

There was fast club music on inside, retro lights flashing everywhere, pole littered on the stage…

"This is a strip club!"

"Come on. No girls pole dance here."

"Oh." She relaxed.

"Men do."

"What!" she squeaked, and Tanya dragged her over to the bar.

"Two straight vodka shots my good man. my friend looks like she could use one."

"No, I don't drink."

"Yeah, whatever."

"No really I don't." Tanya downed hers, and held the second up to her.

"Have it. Just one."

"No, I don't drink Tanya. Look, this may be your kind of thing. But-"

"But you prefer a little screaming kid and a good book. Right? Or almost dying in a lake, from wrestling with the reeds to free someone? And that was on your day off."

"I like what I do." She looked away.

"Why do you like to do that stuff, all day, every day?"

"I have my reasons." It was then Cell saw her hold her wrists, and saw her red gloves came above her elbows. For good reason.

"Well, now there is no one trying to sling themselves. So let lose and have fun. Have a drink."

"No."

"Why?

"I don't like alcohol."

"Past experiences?"

"You could say that…" She frowned, and Tanya wasn't looking. But Cell was.

"Fine, but I'm having yours." She downed it, and made the 'aa' sound afterwards. "Right, time to get some men."

"Oh no, you go. I', fine right here."

"No, you are going to dance. Come on!" Tanya dragged her deep into the dancing crowd, and giggled. "Oh I see two men over there, how do you like yours Joy?"

"Like mine?"

"You know? Guys? How do you like you man?"

"Oh, well, tall, intellectual, caring, strong minded, pure intentioned, serious person who means what they say and nothing else."

"…now I know why you have been single all your life. And I meant, how they look. Tall I guess is a start."

"Look? Oh erm…" she closed her eyes and thought hard. She put a hand on her chin, and the other on her bare hip. "I suppose masculine, not boyish. Older."

"Not a cradle snatcher then. Well, speak for yourself." Joy chuckled, and Tanya reached into the crowd. Joy was gob smacked when her friend just cupped a single man's groin, and certainly got his attention. The man was tall, had bleach blonde hair, and blue eyes. And he looked pleased with Tanya.

"No date?" he asked, in his Scottish accent.

"Nope. You?" she smirked at him, and he pulled her right against his body.

"I have now." And they were gone. Into the crowd, bumping and grinding.

Cell leaned against the bar, watching Joy. She made no move to go into the crowd, and looked down at her hands on her lap.

"Excuse me?" she looked up. He had light brown hair, and brown eyes. He was tall, and had a strong jaw. He looked older too. She looked over his shoulder, and saw Tanya give her a wink. So she had something to do with this…

"Hello."

"My Name is Calvin." He smiled and offered her his hand. "You aren't dancing." Cell scoffed.

"Not the most educated men. You can't dance, and sit at the same time. Human. Humph."

"No, I can't dance. Not really."

"You friend said you could. She said she taught you." Joy blushed.

"I fear my friend is very forthcoming with information. About me."

"Well, could you show me?" Joy looked over to Tanya, and she looked to the stage.

"Just this once." Joy bushed, and took his hand. But she let go of it near the stage, and climbed up it. She held onto one of the poles, and faced the crowd. Instantly, everyone jeered.

Cell was in denial.

This, was not, not in a million years, Joyce.

Britney Spears I love rock and roll started up, and she looked to Tanya. They had used the video from the movie as a dance routine when they were younger, at a festival, and she rolled her eyes at her. She held onto the pole with both hands, and stood with her legs at one side. She slid down, and leaned back. When she rose back up, her chest pushed outwards, and she got a few wolf whistles. It was then, she was thrown a mike. She caught it, and she mock glared at Tanya. Just in time, she brought the microphone to her lips.

"I saw him dancin' there by the record machine.
I knew he must a been about seventeen.
The beat was goin' strong.
Playin' my favorite song.
An' I could tell it wouldn't be long.
Till he was with me, yeah me, singin'."

She curved her hips to one side, and sand with umpf.

"I love rock n' roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n' roll
So come an' take your time an' dance with me"

Her fist beat at the air, as everyone jumped up and down in time to the music. She then stalked forward, and dropped to her knees, a sexy smirk on her face.

By this point, Cell had his mouth open, and almost fell off the chair.

"He smiled so I got up and' asked for his name." she sashayed forwards, now on her feet again.

"That don't matter, he said,
'Cause it's all the same.

Said can I take you home where we can be alone

She fluidly moved her stomach in and out like a snake or a belly dancer.

"An' next we were movin' on
He was with me, yeah me

Next we were movin' on
He was with me, yeah me, singin'

I love rock n' roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n' roll
So come an' take your time an' dance with me

Said can I take you home where we can be alone

An we'll be movin' on
An' singin' that same old song
Yeah with me, singin'

I love rock n' roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n' roll
So come an' take your time an' dance with me."

As the chorus repeated, she missed odd lines, to drop down and pull the splits and shake her hips at the audience. She almost looked like the celebrity herself. With the last line, she had one leg hooked around the pole, and leaned back.

The Audience clapped her enthusiastically, and upon getting down, she was attacked with most of the male population of the room.

"That was awesome!" the man Cell had taken a distaste to before, threw his arms around her, and twirled her in the air. "I want you number."

"I see subtlety is dead." Cell spat.

"I, well, I am quite busy with work. I don't think so. And I really should be going."

"Wait, at least let me give you a kiss!" He pulled her back into his arms, and Cell snarled.

"No, really, I don't want to. I need to go home. bye!" she pulled out of his arms, and walked over to Tanya. But he followed, and whipped her round.

"Yes, good bye." He leaned in, and before he knew it, Cell had swung out and punched him. But it was like punching a ghost. Because he wasn't there. He was shocked at first. He didn't even know why he had attacked him like that. And for a moment, he thought he had indeed attacked him, as the boy fell down to the floor. But in fact, after her squirming backwards, Tanya had intervenes and belted him between the legs.

"Yeah, good bye!" Tanya spat, hooked her arm, and ran off with her out of the night club.

End Flashback.

"Wow, that felt weird. It was like being asleep." Joy blinked, and shuck her head with a chuckle. She then blushed when she realised what Cell will have seen. "Tanya…she is certainly something huh?"

"So are you." He opened his eyes, and looked to her. He had seen a different person at that nightclub. She was sexy, she was provocative and she was the result of pent up boredom. She was still that person, beneath her goodie two shoes exterior…and he still wanted to know why he had attacked that boy, after knowing he wouldn't be able to affect a memory, because he tried to kiss her…

his comment had stunned her, and wondered just how much he saw.

"Cell…"

"You have quite a voice." He said curtly, before turning his back to her.

He had another piece to the puzzle now, and he needed time to process it. "And do not follow me."

"But-" she didn't finish, as he was already gone. "Cell…" she hung her head. Remembering what happened, and what she was wearing, and doing. "What do you think of me now…"