Disclaimer: I own the plot, and you can't have it.

A/N: I would say I'm sorry for the slow update, but I'm not really, I've had a lot of schoolwork and junk to do. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this chapter; I put lots of hard work into it. Thank you to everyone who read the first chapter, it means a lot to me that you all continue to read my work time after time after time. So thank you all, and I hope you enjoy this one.

Deadly Beauty

Serendipity

Chapter Two

Krillen wandered around the streets of Nikki Town, as the sun began to fade. Illuminating peoples faces and casting long shadows over everything. He was dressed casually, in a pair of sweats and a tee shirt. But he was carrying a sports bag by his side and in it was his orange gi, which had Master Roshi's insignia scrawled across the back of it, along with various other training devices, suitable for teaching a martial arts class. He mainly taught basic and intermediate karate, but he knew so many styles like the back of his hand that he sometimes threw in something different, not so much for the benefit of his students, but to keep himself amused.

His students weren't exactly the brightest bunch; they were mostly brawn and had very little brain. They thought that they knew everything that there was to know about fighting, and for Krillen, trying to get through to them enough to actually teach them sometimes proved to be more trouble then it was worth.

He had so many years of experience behind him, but they just didn't want to learn, as far as they were concerned, they were only there to refine their skills. Krillen had to snigger, it was funny.

He arrived at the community centre, where his class was held and walked inside. After stopping to talk with the receptionist for a few minutes, he made his way down the hall and began to set up for the class.

"18!" she heard him scream her name, but she didn't move from her spot in the bathroom. "18! Move your ass, you're going to make me late again"

She rolled her eyes, as far as she knew, she had never made him late, not once. The next thing she knew however, Dai was standing right behind her, she looked at his reflection in the mirror, one glance told her that he was mad, infuriated. He didn't scare her though, he was only human.

"Alright" she sighed and shook her head, replacing the cap back on her lipstick as she did so. "I'm ready"

She watched all the scenery roll by and the car chugged down the street. The further away she got from the crap hole she called her house, the better she felt, and by the time they were in the heart of Nikki Town, her mind was so far away from the facts of her life that she actually had something that slightly resembled a smile on her face. As the car pulled up to a stop, she blinked; they had stopped right outside a cute little clothing boutique. She didn't even bother giving it a second thought though, they had no money, and normal people didn't steal things.

She climbed out the car and followed Dai down the street. She didn't want to walk beside him. Apparently though, he had other ideas, because he stopped and turned to face her.

"Are you going to walk beside me?" he asked

"Do I have to?" 18 raised an eyebrow folding her arms across her chest

Dai snorted and forcefully snatched 18's hand up in his. She had to resist the urge to crush his bones to a fine pulp. She took big deep breaths as she allowed herself to be dragged down the street by him.

All men were jerks.

Krillen laughed as he talked with some of his pupils, it wasn't true that they were all muscle bound thugs, of the 23 men in his class, there were four who were decent guys who where actually there to learn some self defence, and as Krillen stood to the side of the room, talking to them, he was happy. These were his friends and he felt like he could laugh and smile around them.

The room began to fill as the other men arrived for the class, and Krillen took up his place in the front of the room, his pupils before him, ready to go.

He looked to the back of the room, often, people came to watch the class, whether they be a friend of one of the pupils or simply sitting in to see if they might like to join, and Krillen was more than happy to have an audience.

"Alright guys, you ready to start or do you wanna give it a couple more minutes?" he asked

They voted that it was time to start the class, and so Krillen began to take them through their all important warm ups.

"One, two, three" he chanted as he demonstrated a calf stretch and the men followed. "Ok, and release and shake it out"

He opened his mouth to speak, but the door to the studio creaked open, and being the polite man that he was, he quickly decided to wait for the latecomer to join the class before he continued. What, or rather who he saw however, was not what he expected to see, and he had to rub his eyes and blink to make sure.

Sure enough, Dai, the most obnoxious, rude man on the face of the Earth had walked into the studio, he was late every week, but this time he had brought someone with him. Someone he had never expected to see ever again until his dying day. Someone who it had taken him five long months to get over.

She was still as beautiful as he ever remembered her to be. Her shoulder length blonde hair blew across her face with the breeze of the ceiling fan, and shimmered under the bright lights of the studio. He watched her, captivated by her every movement, as she sat down and began to rummage though her bag.

"Hey, you still in there?" Krillen heard one of his student calling him, and he blinked, tearing his eyes away from 18, whose image he had only just managed to shove to the back of his mind.

"Alright!" he shook his head and resumed his stretch position, "One, two, three…"

18 looked up, she knew that voice! It was Krillen. She hadn't seen him since that day on the tower all those months ago; she hadn't even really given him a second thought since then. But here he was. Of all the people in all the world to be instructing the same class that Dai happened to take, it was him. It made sense though, 18 supposed. Krillen obviously knew what he was doing when it came to fighting. It was in his blood. She had seen him fight before, he was good. Excellent even. For a human, the skills he possessed were incredible.

In fact, the more she thought about it, the more it seemed that Krillen was wasting his time teaching a crappy little inner city martial arts class. He could be out earning millions in tournaments and the likes. He would even clean up in the street fights you could always find in dark little alleys around the town.

Shifting her gaze, 18 glanced at Dai. He was standing in the corner of the room with two of his buddies, and they were all looking in her direction. No doubt he was talking about her, as far as he was concerned, she was nothing more than a piece of ass.

She looked back to Krillen, who was focusing intently on explaining some sort of a kick to his class. He had training pads strapped to his arms, and there was a certain sparkle in his eye. She could tell that he was happy. He had everything she didn't, and it only made her even more miserable.

It seemed like hours passed while she sat at the back of the room, watching Krillen walk around the class helping people, he even laughed with some of them. 18 didn't laugh; there was nothing funny in her life, except maybe how pathetic it was. Not that she would ever tell anyone else that. She was relieved when the class broke up for the night. Surprisingly though, no one left. Instead, they scatted and began to chat amongst themselves.

Quickly, Krillen made a beeline towards her and sat down.

"Hi" he said, fidgeting with his hands.

"Hello Krillen," She looked across to him, she wasn't sure what to say next though.

"How have you been?" he asked, running his hands though his hair

"Good," she lied, "I like your hair. Suits you"

His eyes lit up, a compliment from 18! "Really? You think? I wasn't to sure at first, but then I though, 'what the hey, it's only hair' You really think it's ok?"

18 couldn't help laughing; his sudden change in mood had been stupidly fast, "Yeah, makes you look younger"

"That what Master Roshi said, although, coming from him, I'm not sure if it's a compliment or an insult"

18 laughed again. Twice in one night, a record. Dai had never made her laugh; he didn't even make her smile.

"What are you doing here?" she asked

"Teaching"

"I can see that. What I meant was, why are you teaching?"

Krillen shrugged his shoulders, "Gotta do something to fill in the time. As much as I love the island, I can't spend all my time there, I think I'd go crazy"

"The island?" 18 asked. She remembered visiting with an island once, while looking for Goku. "The one with the pink house? You live there?"

"Sure do" he paused, "What about you, I didn't know you were living around here" Krillen couldn't believe how smoothly this was all going, 10 months ago he probably would have vomited with nerves by now.

"Well I-"

"Hey!" A voice boomed, interrupting 18 mid sentence "What in the hell do you think your doing?"

"Dai, don't" 18 muttered, not so much mad, as she was about to be embarrassed.

"What the hell are you doing talking to my woman Krillen?" he snarled, spit went flying everywhere

Krillen gulped, Dai was scary, this wasn't the guy you wanted to make mad, "18 and I were just talking, we're old friends" he used the term very loosely.

"Yeah, well, 18 doesn't talk to other guys ok" Dai poked Krillen in the chest.

"I think 18 is able to decide who she does and does not talk to"

"Krillen, don't" 18 butted in, and Krillen stopped. "Dai, cut it out" she snapped, looking up into his dark eyes with nothing but the most absolute contempt.

Dai growled deep in his throat, everyone in the room was looking at the trio now. He grabbed hold of 18's arm and yanked her up out of her chair, "We're leaving," he hissed.

As 18 got dragged from the room, her eyes met with Krillen's and he felt his heart sink. She looked so sad, and there was nothing he could do to help her. As 18 and Dai walked through out the door, Ami walked in and the smile returned to Krillen's face.

"What was going on back at the hall, with that couple?" Ami asked as she leaned back in her seat.

"I dunno," Krillen sighed and draped his arm across Ami's shoulders, "Dai has somewhat of a short temper, and 18, well I'm not really sure what she was doing there…" he trailed off, he hadn't been able to get his mind off 18 ever since she left the room. Mentally, he cursed himself, he thought he'd moved on from that part of his life, after tonight though, he wasn't so sure.

"18?" Ami raised an eyebrow, "You know her?"

"Yeah," Krillen nodded and tilted his head back to look up at the stars. They were sitting at a little bar, which had lovely booth seats out the front, "We met about a year ago"

"She's pretty. Don't you think?" commented Ami as she took a sip of her drink

"Gorgeous" Krillen agreed, the words came flying out of his mouth before they had a chance to rendezvous with his brain. Ami giggled as she watched the varied shocked expressions fleet across Krillen's face. She leaned over and pecked him on the cheek, "you're cute, Krillen"

He smiled, then his gaze drifted off into the distance. While his expression may have been blank, behind his eyes, his mind was going a mile a minute. He loved to hang out with Ami, he was really considering asked her if she would like to be his real 'official' girlfriend. He knew she would say yes. But then, every time he opened his mouth to ask her that question, 18's image popped right up at the very front of his mind and he couldn't do it.

That last look he had seen in her eyes, it had torn him up. His mind was thrust back to those weeks and months right after Cell, he had been so infatuated with 18, he was head over heels in love with her and it felt like his heart was soaring. As much as he didn't like to admit it, Ami didn't give him that feeling. But tonight, when he got the chance to speak with 18, that feeling, it came back stronger than ever. He thought again, of that look in her eyes, she looked so miserable, like her entire life was crumbling around her, and Krillen suspected that if she involved with Dai, that it probably was.

What if 18 really was the one for him, what if she was the only person in the whole entire galaxy who could make him feel like he was floating with no more than a glance. He couldn't throw that chance away. Could he? As much as he was sure he loved Ami, after seeing 18 again tonight, he was sure that he couldn't let her slip though his fingers. He felt like he could rip his hair out as he sat there, not having any idea what to do.

Well, whatever he decided, he wasn't going to come to a decision tonight; he had a lot of thinking to do.

18 slammed the bedroom door shut and locked it just in time for Dai not to be able to open it; instead he pounded on it and swore at her as loud as he could.

"Let me in!" he bellowed, the fury in his voice echoing off the walls "Now!"

18 didn't reply. She stomped across the small room and plonked herself down on the mattress. She shouldn't have to put up with his crap, and she certainly wasn't in the mood for it.

She swore as he heard the jangling of keys on the other side of the door, he had the key, and sure enough, a few seconds later, the door was forcefully pushed open.

"What the hell do you think you were doing back there?" he towered over her in such a way that anyone else on the planet would have found horrifically intimidating, she however, didn't even bat an eyelash.

"Answer me!"

18 looked up at him, his face was flushed, and she noticed a rather large vein protruding from the side of his head

"I was talking with an old acquaintance" she stood up and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Bullshit" he hissed, 18 could smell the whiskey on his breath, "you're nothing more than a hussy. A filthy whore"

"Excuse me?" 18 blinked, the tone in her voice deadly.

"You heard me" he snapped back, and raised her hand to slap her. In an instant though, 18 grabbed hold of his wrist holding just enough pressure as not to snap the bone, but to cause an excruciating and lasting pain.

"How dare you speak to me like that" she snarled, and shoved him down onto the hard ground. She had to let go of him before she did any more damage to his pathetic body.

She walked out of the house and into the backyard. The air was cool, and smelled of pollution. In the distance she could hear the squall of police sirens. She sat down on the steps of the small back porch and rested her head in her hands. Sighing, she closed her eyes.

A smile came to her face as she thought about seeing Krillen. He seemed happy. He looked healthy. He had a kind of shimmer in his eyes that 18 had never seen in anyone around here before. Here, everyone's eyes were hollow, looking for some kind of escape, pleading to be freed from the poverty and abuse around them.

He had mentioned that he lived on the Island with the pink house, she remembered something being scrawled in sloppy red paint on the front of the house, but she couldn't remember what. She remembered, she went there looking for Goku with her brother and 16, and she liked it there. The waves lapping up against the shore soothed her troubled mind and the warm sun shone down on her skin, making it tingle with a pleasant sensation.

Standing up, 18 wiped her hands on her jeans and walked back into the house. She stood in the dimly lit kitchen and decided that she would go back to Krillen's class again next week. She didn't care what Dai said about it either. Sighing again, she decided that she better go and talk to Dai, she had to sleep in the same bed as him after all, or else she would be on the couch, and that was something she was not going to subject herself to that kind of unnecessary torture.

A/N: Poor 18, she just not having any luck. Maybe things will start to go her way in chapter 3? Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and hope you'll all be back for chapter 3 when I get it out. Thoughts and comments are always appreciated!

D.B