A/N: Oh God I love this story. I just wrote this in an hour. Whee!

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or anything affiliated with it.

-MalRev

The Ties That Bind

2

The street was quiet when I walked out to my car. A thin veil of fog hung over the pavement and the sun hadn't quite raised in the sky, giving the illusion that I was trapped in another dream. My key crunched in the lock and I slipped inside my cold Hyundai, quickly starting up the engine and turning on the heat. September had hit hard and fast this year—I was given no time to prepare for the cold with cozy blankets and a new space heater. I shivered for a few seconds before pulling away from the curb in my quiet little suburb and heading down the street toward Erin's apartment.

Kennebunk, Maine was a quiet town most days of the year. During the summer we were overloaded with excited tourists from down south who couldn't wait to see the beautiful beaches and feel the freezing water. I was a ten minute drive from the beach and I couldn't have been happier with that. My parents lived back in Pennsylvania with my sixteen year old sister, Sophie, and my fourteen year old brother, Oliver. They tried to visit every weekend but it was becoming difficult with my siblings getting older so I tried not to pressure them too much with it. I had miles of nature trails and huge fields filled with wildflowers to keep me company, along with my friends.

Soon I pulled up to Erin's apartment and she dashed out the door to get into my car before the cold got to her bones. Once inside, she cranked up the heat and put her skinny fingers in front of it like she'd been frozen into a popsicle. A lot of people commented that she and I acted a lot alike, to the point where we could have been mistaken for relatives. But she had dirty blonde hair that was never up and I normally didn't go a day without my hair in a ponytail. She heaved a sigh when I took off down the street again to the Starbucks near our office.

"Ed left for work an hour ago," Erin said as she put on lipstick in the mirror. "He's converted me to his sleep and wake cycles. Soon I'm gonna be like you. I followed you here when you said 'hey, let's move out of boring Pennsylvania!' and now I'll be deprived of sleep. Just like you."

"You should be thanking me. You'd still be a receptionist dating some backwoods hick but I brought you to the good life, with good guys like Ed. You're welcome."

"Now I'm an office worker for a computer company, which wasn't much of an improvement. It certainly pays much better. With Ed practically moved in and his raise at the construction company we should be able to get a house and buy a car." Erin sighed dreamily. "No more dirty bus, no more creepy men hitting on me when I'm exhausted from work. Can you imagine it, Nome?"

"I can imagine how much better my life would be if you stopped calling me that. I'm not a town in Alaska."

We bickered about the nickname she had bestowed upon me as a child until we arrived at Starbucks. I parked the car and we hurried inside the warm building to get some coffee and donuts to hold us over at work. Erin escorted me to a chair by the window and told me about how she thought Ed was going to propose—they had been dating for a few years now, after all—and demanded I be her maid of honor in the chance that it happened any time soon. I did what was best for my own health and agreed.

When six o' clock hit we drove a few blocks downtown to our job, where a few people were already filing inside. My manager, Vic, was really flexible with hours and allowed us to show up and leave whenever we wanted. It was technically against company policy but he was a laid-back boss and Erin had her suspicions that he was harboring a secret crush on me. I didn't mind. He was awfully nice and as far as I knew, unattached. Maine was full of people like him.

Erin carried up one of the boxes of donuts we bought and kicked the door open to our floor dramatically, rousing the sleepy people from their monotonous work. We only worked with five others: Ron, Gina, Amy, Walter, and Keith. The two women were middle-aged and the guys were also older than us but not by much. They all brightened upon seeing us with donuts and hustled over to ask what they owed, where we got them, and whether or not it was a special occasion. I smiled at their thank-yous and shook my head when they offered me money.

Life was pretty good. Not perfect, but close.

Soon I made my way to my cubicle to start a spread sheet for computer sales that month. When I settled down with a donut hanging attractively out of my mouth, someone knocked casually on the edge of my cubicle. I turned, expecting to see Erin and was instead confronted with Vic's curious expression. Embarrassed, I stuffed the donut down my throat and smiled without showing my teeth. He had gotten a haircut. Normally his blonde hair was kind of shaggy. And he smelled good, kind of like Axe. He was only a bit older than me so something between us could work.

"Just wanted to say thanks for breakfast," Vic said. "You're in early again today. Couldn't sleep?"

"You know me, the weird girl who has waking nightmares! So uh how are things going on your end? I see you got a haircut and you… smell good?"

"Oh, thanks." He fingered the handle on his coffee mug, looking as awkward as I felt. "You look good, too. Well you always look good but… ok, I'm gonna let you get to work so you can be out of here by noon or whatever. Just call me if you need anything."

Then he was gone, leaving behind the faint scent of body spray and coffee. I exhaled with relief and Erin peered over the top of her cubicle to check me out, her brown eyes drilling my blue ones. When I tried to wave her off she brandished her cell phone in one hand and made a texting motion, signaling for me to break the rules and use my phone during work. I shook my head furiously and put up nine fingers to signal for her to meet me in the break room around that time. She stuck out her tongue but got the hint and disappeared back into her cubicle.

The only problem I had with my job was that it got incredibly boring after an hour. There was always something to do, but it never went by fast enough. I'd be typing the same report for half my shift and feel as though I had nothing accomplished at the end of the day. I guessed that was why it paid so well. Not many people could tolerate the monotony involved in a desk job so if you could grin and bear it you were reimbursed very well. I finished up my spread sheet at nine on the dot and headed to the break room to tell Erin that absolutely nothing had happened between Vic and me.

On the way, I felt a weird tug. It wasn't an actual pull that I could sense outside my body. Something deep within me was dragging me away from work to the cold outdoors, toward an alley by my house. It seemed to yank desperately on my insides for a few seconds before fading away. Unnerved, I pushed inside the break room and was instantly greeted by a very annoyed Erin. She started yipping at me for not texting her and the feeling surfaced briefly before vanished altogether. It was almost like someone needed me and was calling for help…

"When I tell you to spill about Vic, you say 'sure, Erin!' instead of blowing me off like some slutty college girl." Erin noticed my vacant look and snapped her fingers in front of my face. "Earth to Nome, I'm talking to you! You just chatted it up with our boss; you can't ignore me. How long did you sleep last night? It looks like an hour. Maybe you should go home for a while. I'm sure he'll let you go."

"I'm fine," I lied. "When do I not look tired? Vic and I had the same awkward conversation we always do. I don't know why you freak out about these things."

Erin watched in disbelief as I poured myself a cup of water from the dispenser. My body was shaking a little bit from the tugging and I really wanted to figure out what it could be from. Vic and work were officially the last two things on my mind, besides Peter and his damn claws that I needed to clip. I took a sip of water to calm myself, hoping it was just jitters from the coffee. Caffeine was another constant companion of mine. If it weren't for that wonderful drug, I would never get out of bed.

"Nome, you haven't dated anyone in a year! Forget about Craig. Your very attractive, very smart, very nice, very single boss is interested and you're turning up your nose to him! He manages this whole joint. You two could be a power couple, y'know? You run this floor and he's the tyrant ruling over everything else. That'd be a movie I'd pay to see."

"Craig and I dated for a few months. I'm over him, trust me. I don't think Vic and I can even legally date since he's my boss. I'm not really into finding a long-term commitment right now, anyway. Come back to me when I'm thirty and we'll see how desperate I'm getting."

"All I'm saying is that he was made it perfectly clear he's interested. He's probably afraid to take the next step because he doesn't want you taking it the wrong way. I should just pull something to get the two of you together because the suspense it absolutely killing me. Then you'll get married and we can have play dates with our kids and dress them up the same and… it'll be great."

The tugging returned with a vengeance, pulling so hard I dropped my Dixie cup on the linoleum floor. Erin came out of her fantasy world to hold out her arms in case I passed out, which wasn't really an uncommon thing. When you never slept your body just lost control of itself sometimes. I slumped against the microwave, grimacing when the sensation became so intense I couldn't deny it any more. After I acknowledge its power over me it was gone in an instant.

Erin looked at me worriedly. "Is it a bad one? Go ask Vic if you can take the day off. You need to relax before you die."

"That's comforting," I said. "Come by the house later tonight. Hopefully I'll still be breathing."

Exhausted beyond belief, I made my way to Vic's office and knocked on the door. He opened it and barely caught me as I lost my balance, unable to stand on my own two feet. Whatever disease I had been cursed with was absolutely humiliating. I couldn't really go anywhere on my own, not when I ran the risk of falling asleep for no apparent reason. Erin followed me around to help if that did happen and I had a feeling it was one of the things that drove Craig away.

"I'm sorry," I said, "but I can't stay."

"I figured. You need to see a doctor, Naomi. Do you want me to bring you home?"

"No I should be okay to drive. It's not that far. I'll definitely be in tomorrow so don't write me off or worry about it. Some days are just hard."

Vic nodded and helped me to my feet again, then watched as I walked off down the hall.

My body was a trembling mess when I finally got to my cubicle to get my keys. I gave Erin a quick hug and headed back out into the mildly busy Monday morning, desperate to get home and lie down. Nothing as severe as tremors had happened before. Sleep deprivation really was killing me.

Somehow I made it back home and stumbled up to my apartment, slamming the door shut behind me. Peter hung back to watch me throw my keys on the table and make a crash landing on my bed. It felt like my eyelids were being pulled together by magnets and the annoying tugging returned. Maybe it was my brain usurping against the dumb human it had been paired with. A small smile graced my face before I fell into a blissfully deep sleep.