I have at least another hundred more prompts in the middle of being written, so this is definitely not the last chapter.
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76. violence; pillage/plunder; extortion
"This is, what, the third time you've tried to get money from him?" Krillin's voice was dull, and he was grateful that this time Marron was safely at home. Master Roshi and Oolong had even consented to watching a tape that's woman were only of the stuffed, button eyed kind. He doubted Juuhachigou would ever get her money, but maybe afterward they could go out for a movie so this time alone wasn't a compete waste.
The short fighter could see them getting tickets to some dumb film playing in the middle of the day, maybe that one movie about the cop with split personalities, one was a hard cop a few months from retirement, the other personality a rooky from the streets with something to prove. Then making out with the desperate strength of those who constantly had either a parent or child always at their side.
They would get popcorn and candy, and take so much delight in not having a soon-to-be-sticky child grabbing it away from them that they wouldn't eat any of it. The option of having alcohol would drive them to drinking too much. Eventually the manager, either a young hurried teenager, or a balding middle-aged man would ask them to leave after the other patrons complained about them rolling around on the filthy isle floor.
"Second." her voice was tense. He was amazed she didn't simply jump up and race into the man's room. "You didn't need to come here."
"Look what happened last time."
She snorted. "That was the one time. What are the odds of it happening again?"
"I dunno, Juu. Even when the bad guys are supposedly beat, we still always seem to run into some problems."
"I suppose." She stretched out her legs and yawned.
"How come you aren't knocking down his door?" He leaned against her, resting his head on her shoulders, and realized how true it was that wealth did not equal taste. She immediately pushed him away.
"I want him to open that door, and see me waiting here."
To her credit, she did indeed wait there. So long that she eventually gave in and let Krillin rest against her until he fell asleep. When he awoke, she'd tucked her jacket under his head as a scant pillow, and there were scattered papers and broken figurines and cracked videos that led into Satan's room. Juuhachigou's voice was rising 'you think you can get away with not paying me?' Krillin settled back down to sleep, not awakening even when she finally threw Hercule into the hallway, quickly followed by a bust of the so-called 'world champion' hitting him in the head.
77. look over here
When his oldest friend stopped by for a friendly visit, Krillin nearly had a heart attack. It had been a long seven years, in his defense. During that time he'd mourned and moved on, like everyone else. Only to have the big guy around again. The relief was quickly followed by a disserting feeling that instead of him coming back to life, you'd just died as well.
"You didn't piss Chi-Chi off, did you? Because I don't think we have room for you to crash for very long."
"Ha-ha, no, she's fine."
Then they simply beamed at each other, old times again, wasn't it awesome they were both alive? Their hug was immediate, and involved lots of back slapping and laughter.
"Okay, okay, we're going to wake my wife up."
"Man," Goku laughed again. "I can't believe you got married."
"Thanks."
"No, I mean, to her. She tried to kill all of us. I mean, Bulma and Vegeta were one thing, but this is just crazy. And you two had a kid."
"Speaking of which," Krillin looked over his shoulder. "Wanna see her?"
The huge smile was a bigger confirmation than words.
When he led his daughter out, she hid behind his leg and stared almost scared at the much taller man. "This is Goku, Marron."
She waved a chubby hand at him. Then turned away shyly.
"Just pretend like she's not even here," Krillin whispered to him.
"Alright," He hid his old boyish smile, carefully stepped around Marron, and the shorter man couldn't resist grinning. He was back. Completely back, not a halo or technicality in sight.
They ended up sitting on the porch, looking out onto the ocean and unable to say a thing. Eventually, Marron ended up sitting between them, looking up at her father, then Goku.
"Do you remember," the spikier haired man started, for once. "When we had to find a girl for Master Roshi?"
Krillin looked down at his daughter with a cautious eye. "Yeah, but we only found Launch."
"She wasn't so bad."
"Half the time, anyway. Remember how afraid I was because those cops had guns?"
They went over what they could recall, feeling nostalgic and embarrassed with every memory.
"…Remember how short we were?"
"…I guess it's a good thing I didn't kill Dr. Gero, huh…?"
"…you really knocked down my ego…"
"…why exactly did Master Roshi want a girl anyway…"
"…I still have that damn stone…"
"Oh, you mean the one you stole? Does your wife know that she married a thief?" Krillin playfully punched Goku in the arm as hard as he could.
Marron was growing bored, even as she perked up when there was violence going on, but was reluctant to leave his side. She was looked too fascinated by Goku's hair to leave. Her mother wasn't up yet, as usual, and so far she was young enough to find her dad more entertaining than the TV set. Especially when Goku picked her up and bounced her on his knee. She applauded him in delight.
"You're so lucky," His infectious grin was oddly thoughtful. "You get to be here, with your wife and kid."
"Hey, so do you. Chi-Chi and your boys are back home."
"Yeah, but…I missed out on a lot. I didn't even know about Goten. You get to watch her grow up." Goku pulled a ridiculous face that sent Marron into peals of delighted giggles. The two watched Marron laugh for a minute.
"I can't wait until Juuhachigou sees you again. She's going to flip out and do her best to hide it. Don't be offended if she doesn't say anything. Or insults you."
The bigger man paled somewhat. "She doesn't like me very much, does she?"
"She was trained by a madman to kill you."
"Well, a lot of people tried to kill me. I'm sure we can bury that hatchet."
Krillin just grinned, with a hint of his old, juvenile, mean-hearted self. "You have to stay for breakfast. And this Sunday, do you wanna come over and come with us to see Juunanagou. You could really help take some of the tension off."
"Really? He wasn't part of the group at the tournament. Is he nice now?"
"When I said tension off, Goku, I meant off me."
78. Rain
"You're getting water on me." She couldn't be any older than him, or much bigger, but she looked at him like he was a baby with a nasty diaper.
Krillin fidgeted, playing with the umbrella that's handle was too large for his hand. But he didn't know where to put it down, so he hoped no one said anything mean about the turtles on the front of it. "Where's your parents." He tried to deepen his voice to make himself more adult-like, like the mysterious pigtailed girl dressed neatly in a denim dress.
She shrugged, then turning away as though bored with him. Which only made him want to play with her more. So he sat beside her, watching as she neatly turned another page in her book. She didn't lick the pages or ask him how to pronounce anything like his foster brother did, or even mouth the words aloud.
"My foster dad's over there." He pointed at the wizened martial artist, the shell strapped to his back making him stick out even more.
The girl looked even more disgusted from him than before. "The nasty old man flirting with the teacher?"
"What's flirting?"
She leaned in close to him, her hair nearly touching his face. Her blue eyes were narrowed, and her sharp nose was scrunched up, and that gave him a weird pang through his stomach like he missed a step on the stairs. Girls were weird. So...weird. "Like kissing. Adults do it."
"Kissing?"
"Yeah." She rolled her eyes. "You don't know what kissing is?"
"I do so." Krillin moved closer to her, and pressed his mouth against her cheek. Adults did this all the time in the shows that he and Goku sometimes watched, a bag of Oreos between them. He would lick the crème out before eating the dry cookies, while Goku would just shove them down without chewing. By the end of the movie or show, though, their teeth would both be stained black.
She shoved him into a mountain of Legos, plastic blocks, and Lincoln logs. Some of it struck a boy with huge hair that stuck straight up in the arm and caused him to start crying for his father, 'who would sue all of them', while the rest of the kids began yelling. At him, not her.
"You're gross!"
Tears gathered in Krillin's own eyes. "I'm going to tell my friend Goku on you."
"I'll just get my brother to beat you up!"
"Who's your brother?"
She pointed a finger at a small, dark-haired boy who looked like her and wore jeans. He was pouting. Besides him was a big kid with an orange Mohawk, speaking to him slowly and directly, about not hurting other children. It was not alright, the huge kid was telling the smaller one, to bite and scratch people. Especially their faces.
"Which one is your brother?"
Her arms crossed against her chest. "Both of 'em."
Krillin glanced over his shoulder, and watched as Goku finished another bottle of white, sticky glue that made a blue-haired girl gag and cry. A little girl with dark braids run to the teacher to tell on him. Then she went to pat him on the head like a puppy when Goku said he didn't feel good anymore.
Lies were bad, he knew, but that didn't mean that he couldn't say them. 'My friend Goku is a big kid, he goes to the big kid school.' The mean girl would never know.
But then the dark-haired girl told Goku that she would be his nurse, and he said that he hated needles. She told him solemnly that yes, she was going to give him a shot, and petted him more when he started to cry. "It's okay, baby."
The kid with the spiky hair ran up and punched the crying boy on the arm, yelling, "Cootie shots!" And Goku punched him back, in the stomach, making him fall into a tower of blocks and cars that the blue-haired girl who was still gagging, had been building.
"That's him! That kid over there."
She huffed. Then turned and walked back to her brothers. Immediately, she and the littler one started fighting over a doll.
At least I didn't get beat up, Krillin turned to the fallen blocks. He looked up to stare at her, at the scabs on her knees and the way she shoved her hair out of her face and yelled at the other kids. Girls were so so weird.
When craft time came, and the teacher found more glue, he made a card with lots of hearts on it in different sizes, a big turtle drawn on the front, and gave it to her.
She shoved his face into a pile of glitter in return.
79. Welcome
As soon as Juunanagou saw him, he took aim. It was easy to do, since he was busy gazing at the small, well -built cabin in wonder, and not noticing as the cyborg set his sights on him at thirty yards away.
He couldn't have killed him; but he could have made the midget jump a foot in the air.
Instead, he felt his sister narrow her eyes, staring at the human's back. So he just put his gun down and pouted when she greeted him. Thankfully, her way of greeting him was just a nod. For some reason though, the human lit up from that. He was wearing a stupid hat that made him look like that hunter on the cartoon show that sometimes came in on the TV.
"Why is the porch so high up? Is it supposed to be a balcony?"
"Get out."
80. Like a virgin touched for the thirty-first time
They were staring at the newly arrived person in something that was worse than the fear he'd expected. Which was strange, since all they'd done since Krillin had talked about Juuhachigou was warn him how dangerous she was, and to never approach her alone. Now that they'd seen her, however, they seemed to do a one eighty on their stance on having her around.
It was not, however, from her being willing to cook dinner. When he followed their gazes, Krillin immediately tenses up and felt heat spread to his face. His housemates might have appreciated the food, but what they really admired was the view as she bent over to check the oven.
Denim. Clinging.
His brains nearly melted out of his ears and eyes.
Master Roshi and Oolong leaned forward. Their hands were raised ominously. The old man made a pinching gesture. There was a twinkle in his eyes, and it would remain there even as she tore his head off and it rolled across the clean wooden floorboards. Every time they would grope a woman, they seemed to expect something different. As though this time, she wouldn't scream and take a swing at them.
Juuhachigou was no fainting maiden who gasped at foul language. She might have even had several boyfriends or even a marriage before she'd met Gero. She'd never told him about her past. It wasn't merely the act of touching her that would set her off. No, it would be that she hadn't given permission...and not that she was incapable of it.
He hoped anyway.
When she'd come here the first time while his housemates were inside, Juuhachigou had dismissed his warnings about them. 'If they did anything', she shrugged almost peacefully, 'I'll just break their fingers'. And she would.
'Don't you dare,' Krillin mouthed. He was met by a pair of devious grins.
'Let's see what you've learned, my favorite pupil.'
'Really? I'm your favorite?'
'…sometimes.'
When she turned around again, Krillin had his throat wrapped around his Master's throat, and his foot on the pig's. Juuhachigou stared at them, at their distressed and guilty faces.
"For god's sake," she mumbled, knowing who was to blame if not exactly what the problem was. "If you keep this up, I'll only give this to Krillin and the rest of you can go rot."
81. Damsel in Distress
Somehow, it was hearing Krillin's yell as he was almost certainly blasted aside that told her she was about to die.
Not only her, but also Juurokugou as well. Everyone on this mud ball of a planet was doomed.
No matter how stupid it was, but if one of the heroes, the good guys, was without any help from his friends and being beaten around, it was not a good sign for her.
Of course she'd known since her twin was absorbed that she almost certainly wasn't going to be able to get away. How could her headstrong, invincible, incredibly stupid brother die while she lived?
That all her fighting back was useless.
There is a split second before she threw herself at Cell, and she can see behind her blinded eyes the spastic sparks that rose from Juurokugou's damaged head, Krillin's scream of not being able to watch, the hateful face of the mysterious long-haired Saiyan circling around, the remote being smashed over and over again by her brother's hands or by a booted foot stepping down on it.
82. Heartbroken
This was not how he'd expected to finally reveal to another living human being how he felt about Juuhachigou. For starters, she wasn't even here. And he didn't exactly say the words. But they were completely acknowledged in his head.
But Goku just kept his arm around him, and looked at him with eyes that although were green instead of black, were still compassionate. He couldn't say the words, the apology to explain why he was doing this, why everything was his fault.
With Goku, blonde hair and all, he just understood. And instead of yelling at him, he just stayed quiet and let his best friend cry on his shoulder, never knowing that the man by his side had fallen in love with the woman who was supposed to be his assassin. And that he wept not for all the lives that Cell had taken, but for life lost for his friend's almost-murderer.
83. Isolation
She found her brother within the hour. Within the next she left him, infuriated.
After another, she decided to come back.
It lasted another nine, and then she was flying away from him and determined to never see his face again. Excepting when she looked in the mirror.
Two hundred more hours passed and she came to see how he was doing. It was not 'crawling back' like Juunanagou claimed. She was just worried about her little, immature, reckless brother. That made her the bigger, more responsible sibling. He should be grateful she cared so much.
Another two and fifteen minutes, and she'd burned down his newly built cabin after locking him uselessly inside.
They didn't see each other for another hundred, and when she came, they didn't do anything but point to what tools they needed as they rebuilt the small house. It was peaceful for six hours and thirty two minutes, then he inquired about her whereabouts when she'd left, and said something about hanging out with 'those people.'
She denied the accusations for three hours exactly, but already the damage was done, and after reburning down the cabin, Juuhachigou flew away. She didn't need him. And she swore to herself to never come back here.
She lived on her own for two thousand hours, twenty seven minutes, and her will began to slowly waver. Twenty more hours passed and after twenty minutes of the next hour, she felt herself crumbling, but couldn't stand to go anywhere near her brother again. His smug face and clothes that smelled of wood smoke only infuriated her.
Bouncing between empty apartments and houses, moving to another every few days, and she felt like an empty husk. No more could she simply take enjoyment out of insulting people's taste in dollies before tossing them into a fireplace. It lost its charm after the ninth house.
And the thought of being around other people, people who would never know who she was, what she was, had lost all novelty. Right now, all Juuhachigou wanted was to talk so someone who she could complain about her never-ending programming whose yelling never ceased if she didn't concentrate on pushing it back. She wanted someone to spar with, to actually laugh at and who would not think she was crazy if she talked any of her mechanical enhancements.
Her eyes fell shut. "I should have stayed with baldy and his friends."
Well, she thought grimly, I did say 'see you' to him.
84. Friend
Krillin held out a friendly pink hand. Perfectly harmless, she knew. With only the tiniest percent of her strength, she could drive this good-natured man to his knees pleading for mercy. And he knew it as well. The fact that he was still here facing her with a smile showed either stupidity, or a braveness she didn't know he had.
So probably stupidity.
"Let's be friends, alright?"
The short man must have caught a glimmer of her thoughts of him screaming, because his smile froze. "We can be friends, right? Friends? We can do harmless stuff together, just joke around, see movies, go shopping, hang out…"
And now his face was becoming that sad puppy dog one. "Right?"
"I don't want to be friends."
He was heartbroken. "You don't?"
"At least, not just friends." She corrected. "Friends who…What's the term…oh, yes, I'd prefer to be friends with benefits."
It was hard exactly how to describe the expression he was making, confusion and disbelief. His hand dropped back to his side. Then he pulled away until his back hit the wall. The muscle under his eye twitched. "Well, I…um. If that's what you want, Juuhachigou."
Her own hidden smile slid from her face. Every time she kept trying to turn his feelings towards her against him, it always ended up backfiring. Almost literally, this catastrophe was so bad. She almost expected to see smoke rising, and wanted to touch her eyebrows to know they were still there. For the first time in what life she could remember, Juuhachigou felt regret, and the urge to bite her fingernails. "What?"
He pressed his index fingers together. Pinkness was rising from his neck to his face. "That's sort of a big step, but if you feel comfortable with it…"
She should have just taken his hand and agreed to be friends.
85. Yesterday
"We should talk about what happened."
"No, we shouldn't," she growled.
"I think we should."
"Why should we?"
"Because if we don't," his hands were clenched heroically, determined, but his face was torn between embarrassment and sadness. "It will just fester and spill out somehow."
She turned to him. "Like how?"
Krillin laid out the scenario. "We'll be talking, and then one of us will make a comment about the other just a little too pointed. Maybe on purpose. And then we'll start to argue. First about the comment, then about groceries. Then," his voice lowered. "What happened yesterday will come out."
She looked down at her fingers, then his own. Then she looked away, feeling guilty and sick. Yes, what happened would indeed haunt them, no matter how they buried it deep inside themselves. Juuhachigou thought on that for awhile, and realized how many terrible double-entendres would enter into her mind from now on. Even the word 'enter' now held a sleazy ring to it. As did the few words following it.
The woman sat up gracefully, holding the sheet to her chest.
If there was one thing Juuhachigou was, it was logical. Her foster father had been a scientist, and had made sure she could not do a damn thing unless she had a plan and a list and a backup plan. Somehow, her brother miraculously managed to escape this anal attentiveness. But then half the time he seemed to be running from the cops or just locking himself away in the woods. One day, he would snap and mail bombs to some politician, so maybe it was better to be OCD?
So she listed out the facts of the situation:
…Krillin was her friend, and had made his friends sort of her friends or at least acquaintances. So he was wrapped into her life pretty fully.
…Even more so since they worked together at the same law office.
…She had been feeling a little down lately, as she watched her friends or at least acquaintances' gathering in two's to become couples. Not that she cared. But it made one aware of their empty apartment.
…Krillin felt the same way, but for probably longer.
…A long night at the office, a dinner together just talking, and him walking her to her apartment like a gentleman. Him lingering in the doorway, smiling at her sadly while wishing her goodnight, and she was very aware of the facts she'd collected of him right then. The good ones, even. How his short hair was perfectly dark without a strand of anything lighter, and the nice cheerful smile even when she threw things at him, his thoughtful nature, the square shoulders and big dark eyes.
…And later, after the clumsy, desperate grabbing of each other in the hallways, bouncing off the walls, and shoving the door shut with the weight of their bodies. Him telling her that he'd been desperate for her since they met, and that even when she called to ask him if he wanted to do something that weekend or if he had some paper she needed, he would think about her all day. Her telling him that ever since he'd fixed the copier machine, bending over to refill the ink, she'd been haunted by him and he was responsible for any work she'd screwed up.
She was getting the variables for the equation, but the answer was still not coming at to how this situation had occurred. Yes, that had happened, but how did it come to this?
Krillin was staring at her, and she realized she hadn't said anything in a long time.
But she still couldn't come up with anything to say, so she made another list of the consequences:
…Work would become uncomfortable, and their cases would suffer.
….Their friends would have to take sides if Krillin and her's friendship became unstable.
…this would only encourage that crush he had.
…they were very late for work.
Finally, Juuhachigou tried to think of solutions:
…just leave and never discuss it. Maybe we'll break apart like he said. Or maybe not.
…they could just forget everything including work, and just remain in bed all morning. Forget everything.
Maybe she would end up like Juunanagou, she thought as she rolled on top of the gasping man.
But she wouldn't actually mail the letter bombs out. She could just lick the stamps.
86. Hair
"My god!"
There was a desperate struggle for the clippers. One that Krillin fought his best for, although he had no idea why he was fighting, or better yet, why Juuhachigou was trying to pry them from his fingers.
"What is wrong with you?"
"What is wrong with you?"
"Nothing! I'm just trying to shave!"
"You were shaving your head!"
"So?"
She stared open mouthed at his head. Then her eyes fell on his jar of wax. Her face was twisted in disbelief and understanding. "My god, my god."
"What?"
"You shaved this entire time."
"Yes, of course I did."
Juuhachigou then pulled the clippers out of his grasp. "Are you insane?"
"Are you?"
She stared at the shaving instrument in his hands. Then she snapped it in two.
"Hey!"
"You shaved your head this entire time, and you have the audacity to question my sanity?"
Krillin shrugged helplessly. "I shave my head, what about it?"
"Don't ever do it again."
Just before he could argue, she ran a slim hand over the top of his head. "Yes, "she said in an ominous tone although no one has asked a question.
He swore she was whispering it to the tiny hairs sprouting from his scalp. Carefully, Krillin leaned away, trying to ignore the feeling of déjà vu he experienced when Juuhachigou leaned close to him. "You will be magnificent."
87. excessive chain
This was probably how orgies and swinger parties started, she realized morbidly.
They were not going to become like that. There would be no group sex, or shag carpeting and bad out of style furniture. She would not curl her hair, and Krillin would not grow out his sideburns.
Why did they have to be so competitive?
Why did the door have to be so far away?
It started after a particularly terrible round of truth or dare. She was the youngest person in the room, (and technically, would always be so physically) but seemed to be the only sane, mature one. Even the Saiyan prince seemed reduced to a thirteen-year-old when he discovered he could make Goku drink from the water that had gathered at bottom of the crisper in Bulma's kitchen.
It had started off so innocent. Telling each other embarrassing moments from their youth, then Goku dared Vegeta to comb his hair downward (not possible; he ended up destroying the brush instead), and then he had to take blowing up his training chamber as punishment for not answering the question about how he and Bulma had gotten together.
Goku kept getting dared to eat terrible things that he completely missed what was so bad about them; they all watched in horror when he ate from the cartoon of milk that had turned solid at about the same time Trunks had been born. "What's the problem? Sure, it's a little soggy, but it's alright."
"Goku," his best friend managed out, between his dry heaves. "That's not cheese."
Krillin got asked about his nose (no, he didn't know why he was missing it) and how he'd managed to get Juuhachigou to go out with him. He ran a hand through his hair with a self-satisfied expression and explained, "Animal magnetism." They all laughed at him while he pouted and finally just shrugged and looked at his wife-who remained silent and only shrugged as well.
Chi-Chi ended up taking her hair down and getting her nails painted, an activity she described as ridiculous. "I feel like a little kid." Then she blew on her drying nail and asked if Bulma thought the blue looked better, or if maybe the hot pink was nicer. Goku seemed dazzled, only taking his eyes off her stop shove something else down his throat. Which made Krillin and Bulma, the romantics of the group, smirk, and Juuhachigou and Vegeta, the relatively sane ones, roll their eyes.
Juuhachigou got asked the worst one, at least, until a few hours passed for Goku and the cheese began working: to run to an all night mini-mart and pick up more booze, and condoms. Which she did, feeling her dignity crumble on the walk there, and be completely destroyed by the stares she got in the market. Even the teenage shopkeeper had judged her as he finished another bottle of soda, looking up at her over his algebra book.
They all applauded her when she came into the room, and she threw cans from the six pack at their heads. And about then her past (no, she didn't remember a thing) which bummed the party out until Bulma dared the tallest man to run around the block naked.
Goku energetically began to undress, what was with that man and nudity, while Chi-Chi made scandalized noises and Krillin choked. Vegeta mumbled something about wishing he wasn't there, and Bulma just stared at the tall man. The blue-haired woman did not drool, but her eyes were a little too bright and a smile pulled at her lips.
Her husband gave her such a flat, dead, black look that spelled out 'really?'
She could not let it go, although it might have been better for her to do so. Even Juuhachigou, no expert when it came to such matters, knew so. Toxic air filled the room from jealousy, and the smell of nail polish. "What?"
"What do you mean, 'what'?"
"Now, Bulma," Chi-Chi's voice sounded so reasonable that they were all suspicious and not at all surprised when it became smug. "We all saw you looking at Goku."
The aforementioned man was trying to convince Krillin, (who was too busy staring at the others to take notice) to help remove his boots.
"I would never do that!"
Vegeta's voice grated on all their ears. "What if I looked at Kakkarrot's woman in the same manner as you did?"
"And how would you feel if I just…just started to look at Vegeta like that? Wanting to see him naked?" She brandished a hand at the Saiyan prince and they all cringed at the mental image.
"Oh my god," Krillin mumbled, started to scoot away.
Goku just gazed at them all, his shirt still off, hands on his belt. "Why would you stare at Vegeta? Because of the hair? The clothes?"
Bulma practically snorted sparks.
"You want to talk about clothes?"
"You guys, you guys, let's just move on. Whose turn was it again?"
The hatred turned on the ex-monk. "Oh yeah, says the guy who had a crush on Bulma for years."
Juuhachigou's eye narrowed and she watched Krillin sputter. Vegeta's face became even deader. "I did not!"
"Oh please. We all knew it."
"Look, let's just say that we don't find each other hideous. Can we agree on that?"
The other women looked each other over. Juuhachigou refilled her glass, and hoped that she could make it through this unscathed. She couldn't quite leave yet; curiosity and her husband locked her in place. So she just settled closer to Krillin and watched cerulean meeting obsidian.
They both glared at each other and said at the same time. "No."
"Says the woman who still dresses like a teenage floozy!"
"I've never even seen you in pants!"
"Where do you get off-"
"Hey guys, am I still running around the block?"
"You know," the blonde woman whispered to the short fighter who looked up her with hope. "We could just leave."
But he had to be the voice of a collective consciousness that only he in this room possessed. "Oh, we can't just leave them like this." So instead of fleeing, he twiddled his thumbs and she watched him do so, and they both listened to the rising accusations that filled that air.
"You know," she repeated, scooting over closer to him on the couch, the smooth expensive fabric like silk beneath them. A lamp was thrown and missed them by a scant foot. He jumped into the air, but she didn't even blink when it shattered. "There is a reason why I married you."
"What was that?" Krillin slouched and rested his face against his palm. "Pity?"
"No. That was why I kissed you."
Juuhachigou placed her hand on his face and made him look at her. "I married you because you make me happy, and I wanted to spent the rest of my life making you feel the same. And you're pretty cute."
A robot was thrown across the room, twilling even as it flew if they wanted more coffee.
"And you're becoming better and better by comparison."
His smile was brighter than the bulb that had come flying at them. "Oh, but you do. You make me happier than anyone else in the world." Krillin squeezed her hand and leaned against her. His voice was low. "You're pretty cute too."
They cuddled while Chi-Chi took a swung at Vegeta, while Bulma shoved a confused and half-naked Goku into a wall, shrieking, this is your fault, all your fault, always.
88. Sick
"I warned you," she said, looking at the huddled mess under the covers. Had it once been a man with a particularly charmingly manic grin only yesterday?
Shame.
"I warned you to not go out in the rain. Why did you do that? Why dance in it, and for so long? And spinning around a pole before that giant puddle that was so easy to fling yourself into? Why tempt fate like that, Krillin?"
"It's been a long summer draught." Krillin managed out.
"And so you decided to do a reverse rain dance in celebration?"
"Yes."
"Well. I guess that's how you got sick."
"Uh-huh." He looked at her with flat eyes.
"What, I told you not to do it. I didn't push you into that puddle." Her pale face went blank. "I was at least ten feet away the entire time." She poked his smooth forehead, noticing how warm it was. "Try and prove otherwise, shrimp."
"Aren't you going to make me feel better?"
Her expression went dead again. "What?"
"You know," he looked up at her with a pair of sad tearful eyes. Look at his misery, one and all, and despair. "Get me soup? Juice? Another blanket?"
She touched his forehead again. "You feel hot enough to me."
He sighed. "But I'm cold. And hungry. And thirsty."
"You're being a child."
He pulled out one of the only cards he had left when it came to her. "I took care of you when Cell spat you out."
Juuhachigou felt a temple beginning to throb. The right one. "I know."
"You were lying in a puddle of…I don't even know what to call it. It was disgusting. And disturbingly clear. But I picked you up and carried you to safety."
"Yes, you're a big hero! Picking up a woman who didn't even ask for your help out of some spit. That's your big contribution to the fight. Bravo."
"I destroyed the controller for you!"
"Oh, no, you didn't. You destroyed it for yourself. You thought you had a chance with me, that's why you crushed it. Because you thought it would help you get god knows where with me.
"No," Juuhachigou revised. "We both know where you thought it would get you. What's that charming phrase that old pervert used? 'Into my pants'?"
"…I want soup, damnit!" His fist slammed onto the mattress.
"Well, get your own!"
And then, he started to cry onto the comforter. Little shoulders shaking.
So she went downstairs and warmed some damn soup for him. It did sound unpleasant, after all, to have to pick someone up from a puddle of saliva.
89. Blue
As he looked up from his plate after someone kicked him underneath the table (probably Juunanagou), he finally noticed that he was the odd man out. Across from him, three pairs of the same blue eyes stared back at him. They immediately launched into a discussion about what types of jeans were the best.
Maybe this was fair, since they were around his dark-haired, dark-eyed friends so often? Fair, and not at all weird.
So he didn't say anything except for them to pass the peas.
90. Tales of manly perseverance.
Or the lack thereof.
"You know what we need?"
"Oh god," Piccolo mumbled, as the only designated sober one.
Vegeta just looked into his glass blurrily, as though the bottom of it contained the answer for why he was even here. For once, he did not even immediately dismiss Yamcha's remarks out of hand.
"What we need, are some girls."
They all just stared at him, in either disbelief or barely with-strained hostility.
"Okay, maybe not all of us." He waved a hand at Vegeta. "But the rest of us need women."
"Why did I come here?" The Saiyan asked into his liquor.
Piccolo just looked at Yamcha for a long time.
Tien shook his head. "I've got a woman back home."
"Chiaotzu?"
"No," The third eye was glaring at the scarred man as well. "Launch."
"Well, fine." His arm slid around Krillin's shoulder. "Just leave us bachelors alone here to go on the prowl."
"Actually, Yamcha…"
"No. No way!"
"I mean, I don't have a girlfriend or anything, but I'm not sure if I want to spend the evening barhopping. And," Krillin admired the amber glow of his drink in the dim light overhead. "I'm thinking of asking Juuhachigou out."
"I don't believe you."
"No, really. I am."
"Do you even know where she is?"
"Yes." He crossed his arms and looked away. "I ran into her earlier and we've seen each other a few times since."
"What do you two do?" Tien sounded morbidly curious. As though expected to hear of some terrible ritual that they were all partially aware of, but never spoke about. Like the others' relationships.
"We spar mostly. Sometimes we talk. Which usually leads to the sparring." He decided not to mention they did this miles from her home that she shared with her brother. His reaction was a wild card, but when Juuhachigou said maybe it was better if he didn't find out, her voice unusually cautious, Krillin believed her.
"Have you made a move on her?"
"I've had enough." The Namek finally stood up and began walking away. No one dared grab a hold of his cape. If they did, their hand would turn to ash.
"You have a duty Piccolo! What would Gohan say?"
He turned, his eyes dark and unreadable. It was dirty to bring Gohan into this.
"Just come with us."
Piccolo's voice was gravel on their ears. "Where?"
"To wherever the androids are," Yamcha's voice was crazily sane and understanding.
Krillin immediately felt like throwing up. "What?"
"No, it makes sense. We can watch Krillin ask the blonde one out-"
There was bile and blood gathering in the shorter fighter's throat.
"And maybe you can spar with the black haired one."
"Too bad the red haired one is dead. Poor guy."
They all stood up to leave. Except Vegeta, who continue to blink owlishly into his drink, and whispered to it, "How did I get here, on this planet, with these people?
"Was it because of all those people I killed?"
"Oh come on. We should be checking up on them. It's not like they really turned over a new leaf of their own will. They're only not evil because if they were, we'll destroy them."
"'We'? And so what are you going to do? Be their parole officer?"
"Well, maybe not me." A meaningful look was given to Krillin. Piccolo sighed, and agreed to go so long as they could leave this particular hell.
So Krillin took them to the cabin, which now suddenly reminded him of a story he'd heard as a young child, perhaps from his own mother. Of an evil witch in the woods, and a few abandoned children, and a cottage that looked warm and inviting. There was a layer of frost on the roof, and now it looked like icing, and the brown wood was chocolate.
His friends gave him encouraging looks and thumbs-up, then threw themselves or sauntered or managed drunkenly to stumble into the bushes outside the home. Poor Vegeta really didn't do well under alcohol. He wondered what their expression would be when she turned him down. Screaming at him to get out and away from her.
Krillin knocked politely, hoping that it would make up for his friends being here at maybe two in the morning. In a few hours, the sun would rise and the roof would turn from frosting back into its usual corrugated steel wire and pressed tin, and he wondered where he would be at that time. And how many pieces of him would be found.
When Juuhachigou answered the door, her hair was a mess and she was only wearing an overly large shirt that came her knees. She yawned and rubbed her eyes a few times before she completely realized who he was. Until then she just nodded at his nervous small talk of how nice a day it was.
She leaned against the side of the door, running a distracted hand through her hair. "What are you doing here?"
Her look towards him was almost kind. For a second, he allowed himself to think that she liked him, that she'd missed him and that they got along so well lately that they trusted each other and she was used to him, even at this late (or early) hour. It evaporated as soon as she focused behind him. The patient sleep look disappeared. "Is that Vegeta in those bushes?"
Krillin glanced behind him. Vegeta's hair was apparent from yards away.
Juuhachigou's eye was twitching. She was looking at him with huge eyes, scared and bewildered. For once, he could read her thoughts clearly: are they here to kill me?
"Uh, yeah." He looked down at his shoes, feeling guilty, and wondering which one of them was really the cannibalistic witch.
Her voice was rising, although she was not outright addressing the other arrivals. "Is that Piccolo? And Tien? And Yamcha?"
"Yes," Krillin's voice lowered, became tense. "They came with me."
Juuhachigou swallowed, then looked downward. And again he could read her thoughts: I wish I was wearing more than this.
"So," he forced his voice into cheerfulness, but instead it came out as slightly intimidating and angry. "Are you free this Saturday?"
"Why?" But her voice was toneless because they both knew the answer.
"Well, I like you a lot, and I want to go out with you?"
What was worse, her saying no, or saying nothing at all for a good two minutes? There was rustling behind him, and when he glanced at his friends, they were pulling themselves out of their bushes, irritated and scratched. They glared at the two on the porch. Juuhachigou froze even more at their pissed off faces. She stared at Krillin, seizing him up and sighing, before saying hurriedly. "Fine. Fine. Just call down your little friends."
Juunanagou bounded out onto the porch. He was wearing his black shirt, no white shirt under it, and his underwear. And his green socks. "Oh. Hello."
They all just looked at each other. Krillin wanted to take Juuhachigou's hand for safety, but doing so would guarantee his demise. If it came down to it, he would run for one of his friends. Maybe Vegeta, since his hair stood out the most (Piccolo in particular blended in, and his human friends had mud like war paint on their pale faces), plus the Saiyan could take a hit. Although, he was weaving a little on his feet, so maybe not too many.
But Juunanagou just looked at them. "I've got coffee going, and there's still some frozen deer left. At least, I think its deer. It might be that thing I found on the side of the road, and tried to bring back to life using the stove.
"It worked too. But only briefly."
"No, I, uh," his friends stood up and shuffled their feet. "It's late you know."
"You don't have to go through that for us."
"We're pretty tired."
They started to creep away, pulling Vegeta with them, who looked halfway interested in whatever was in the cyborg's freezer. Krillin took a few steps backwards. "So I'll see you this weekend."
Her hand reached out and tightened around his collar.
"Oh no." Her eyes were steely, and paler than the frost above them. A bad sign. "You're not going anywhere. You're going to explain to me what happened. When your friends aren't here."
91. Contest
What happened was, Krillin would later explain separately to a laughing, shocked but completely understanding Bulma and Chi-Chi, a horrified and lazy Master Roshi, a recently married Gohan and Videl to warn them, they got sick of cleaning.
Krillin had been a clean freak for as long as he could remember, even as a boy he'd made sure to put his toys in their proper place. But Juuhachigou was just as likely to leave a jacket on the bed as hanging it up on the rack.
Finally, he snapped, stammering, "You clean up! See how you like it."
"I'm not cleaning up," Juuhachigou said simply. "That's your job."
"Not anymore." Then Krillin stomped upstairs, pushing down a towering pile of dirty laundry onto the floor.
They both wanted to teach each other a lesson. And they would.
Thankfully, this was before Marron had been born. Otherwise, she would have gotten buried alive in a pile of clothes, lost among the discarded socks and shirt, and never seen again. Or eaten by some of the things that grew in the garbage that was never emptied. Or simply crushed by the stack of plates that was never cleaned, let alone dried. Or hit by a fallen chair that leaned against the wall, and was never placed properly into the living room, just lying on the stairs for everyone to trip on.
It was simple at first, when there were still clean things in the house. Who cared about mismatched socks, and there was always another plate to dig out. Eventually, they were reduced to eating food from napkins, using whatever utensils were left, or toothpicks. Bathtubs were never scrubbed clean, and things grew around the drain. Things that you didn't think could come off a human body and grow to resemble that.
As much of their will crumbled beneath the onslaught of wearing the same, semi clean clothes day in and out, tripping and barking shins on unmoved furniture and items that were never picked up, using soup spoons for salads and butter knives for eggs, as well as eating dry spaghetti from the box when things grew bad…still they refused to clean.
No matter how crowded and stained the wooden floorboards became, no matter how sticky the sheets and spotted the pillows became, how you couldn't touch anything in the bathroom unless you were wearing gloves, "I'm not cleaning this." And it was only easier when you looked around the house and saw how insurmountably filthy everything was.
Eventually, Krillin told the amazed group that look at him as though he'd revealed he'd been raised by wolves or once had a giant tumor growing from his face, they forgot that they'd been fighting. They forgot it had been anything but this way.
"What happened?" Videl asked, horrified, while Gohan just stared through Krillin, seeing the still clean walls of their home, imagining such a safe place turning into a disgusting hovel.
"Well," Krillin stretched casually, "I was looking for some socks, and stacked the shirts into one pile, and the pants into another."
"Then what?"
"Juuhachigou brought the dishes from the room into the kitchen."
"And then?"
"I brought more dishes down."
"Then?"
"I found more clothes in the rooms and stacked them too."
"And?"
"I helped Juuhachigou clean the dishes."
Bulma had laughed until she almost upset her cup of tea. "So you finally cleaned?"
"Did either of you actually win anything?" Chi-Chi asked, one hand touching her throat.
"Well," Krillin pulled in a breathe. "Juuhachigou didn't go shopping for clothes for awhile, since we forgot what we had. It was like we instantly tripled our wardrobe just by finally doing laundry."
Master Roshi shook his head. "Just don't ever do anything that insane, again, boy."
Krillin just nodded, deciding that it sounded braver and more dramatic if he left out the part about them burning down the house when their housemates were out, and just going out and buying a new Kami house capsule, which they had to pay for together since they both ruined the last house. Holding one another, and glad to be alive, "The next person who wrecks the place, they have to pay for it completely."
It wasn't like they hadn't learned a lesson. From now on, if so much as a penny dropped, they were there, scrambling and fighting each other to pick it up.
"I'll get it!"
"No, me!"
92. Every time you go away you take a piece of meat with you
"Why did you do it?"
The scream settled into his throat and came out a weak whimper. Although he could fly of course, he'd been hanging from a vine and looking out onto the upside down valley. There was supposedly an abundance of dinosaurs here that were terrorizing the village nearby and he and Gohan had decided to do their best as heroes to help them. That and to help Chi-Chi to reduce her butcher bills.
This was quite literally the last place he'd expected to see Juuhachigou. And he'd come up with several scenarios as to how he might see her again. They ranged from meeting each other in some classy bar or restaurant, to a new enemy coming to kill them while the gang gained the androids as two new additions to their ragtag group, to stuff like him puking up his guts outside some terrible place that served rotgut drinks and throwing up onto her shoes, to him dying in a fight right before she arrived on the scene.
The vine was growing slick in his grasp.
"Hi."
Her brows furrowed the tiniest bit. Had wrinkles ever been more attractive? He had an insane, suicidal urge to touch the spot between her eyebrows.
"Why are you staring at me?"
"No reason."
Krillin slipped a little down the vine.
He wished Gohan was here.
"So, are you free?"
She became even more suspicious.
"I mean, we're trying to get rid of this flock of dinosaurs (are they called a flock? What do you call a bunch of dinosaurs?) that are attacking this village."
"You need my help to do this?"
"Well, no," Krillin said carefully. "But it would be nice to have some help. So if you're free…"
Her eyes were focused on him, then darting away. "I only came to talk to you."
"We can talk while we help the village."
He slid down the vine onto the shallow cave he and Gohan playfully called their base. Right now, it was empty while they scouted around for any signs of their pray. He did his best not to stare at her, noticing the jeans and long-sleeved white shirt that matched her brother's, the new unscratched boots. Her shoes reminded him of her hard edges, but otherwise she looked younger and more innocent than usual. The fighter was reminded of the almost punkish outfit she'd worn when he met her, and the contrast of it with the more casual clothes she'd acquired later. He wasn't sure which one he preferred on her more.
To say she helped that afternoon would be a gross exaggeration. She mostly just looked at Krillin, tapping her foot and waiting. Gohan didn't seem to mind the extra person, but he would sometimes look up at his friend, asking what and why she was doing here. The short man didn't really have an answer. For him or her.
Krillin thought about what he would say, while a pale blue gaze tore through his back as he dodged an angry t-Rex. Why did I do it? Do what? Then he would run away.
No. She would catch him. And be angry. Angrier.
Why did I do it? Well, I love you. Ever since you kissed me, I've been obsessing on it, and you. I love you more than I've ever loved a person before, more than I ever thought I could. The thought of being near you at all makes me happy, and just the idea of you smiling and being happy would make me do anything. So, that's why I did it. Although I'm not sure what you mean by it. Do you mean the wish, or the controller? Or carrying you back to Kami's place. Or asking you and your brother, (sorry I didn't know he was your twin by the way, that was stupid of me since you look so much alike, which is actually kind of endearing in a weird way) to not kill Goku?
No. God no.
Why did I do it? I wanted you to have a normal life and find some happiness.
Yes. Simple and understandable.
You deserved better than what you'd gone through, and I wanted to help you. Said strongly, without pity.
Nor did she help clean the dinosaur bodies, or talk to the villagers that were so grateful for their help that they wanted to give them some of their food. And he and Gohan couldn't say no.
She came with them all the way back to Chi-Chi's, although she ducked behind a tree rather than meet the widow. Which was a shame, since Krillin wanted her to meet and spend time with his friends more. Chi-Chi was even in a good mood, hugging instead of berating Gohan for not studying, and she didn't yell at Krillin either. Just smiled and told him where to lug the giant drumsticks. He excused himself from the offer of dinner, not wanting to leave Juuhachigou outside and growing more and more irritated with him.
When he came back out again, and used the hose to wipe off the blood on his shoes, Juuhachigou came out to join him. She poked at the dinosaur, then his forehead. Which, sadly, almost made him fall in a cross-eyed swoon. "You have stalled enough."
"Alright."
But he walked further down, to the river. The grass was getting brown here, but still overgrown. He sat down, while Juuhachigou remained standing. Finally, he managed to talk her into sitting beside him. Crickets chirped nearby, and there was the smell of rain in the air.
"Goku," the name hung in the air. "And I…We came here when we were waiting for the tournament Cell set up, and he told me how important family and friends were. That nothing was more important. For all we knew, we had seven days left to live.
"So that's why I did it."
"What?" She gave a start, moving towards him as though to better make out his words.
"That's why I did it."
Her brow was furrowed. "You did what? I don't understand the point of what you just said."
Krillin sighed. "Life is worth living. Even if you only have seven days. You have to make those seven days count."
Juuhachigou looked even more outraged. "I don't want your sentimental bullshit. I want to know why you did what you did."
"Because I wanted you to have a chance at a happy life. With family and friends."
"Is it because you have a crush on me? Is that all this is?" Her eyes were narrowed in disdain and he could see in her shoulder and hear in her voice relief.
"No! I wanted you to be happy."
"With you?"
"No, just in general. Just happy in general. Everyone deserves happiness." Krillin made a motion with his hands, trying to indicate the entire world, everything. Then he gathered his courage, like ki for a blast, what do you have to lose, and managed out, "Especially you."
"And why's that?" Her voice was growing tighter, somewhere between anger and curiosity. He could nearly count the inches between them.
"Well," he was like one of those trapeze artists on the wire, balanced and without a net as a heavy breeze entered the circus tent. He tried to fill his lungs, and there was a weight pressing on his shoulders. The argument from before, all the arguments from before disappeared. "I…are you going to take any of this meat with you?"
"Why?"
Somehow, looking into her eyes, the angry face with the white teeth bared, he could bring himself to say the words he'd never said aloud to anyone. "Because I love you Juuhachigou."
There was a look on her face. He had not thought that disgust would be the least bad reaction. But then if her initial shock and horror turned out to not be the end of it, why couldn't her distaste for him not be the worst thing? This fear that settled was more terrible. It was the last thing he wanted to see on her exquisite, pale face look at him, scared. Coming behind her armed with a controller had been bad enough, but to frighten her because of how he felt, to hurt her with his emotion, was…
"So do you want…?"
She scrambled up, the grass she'd been sitting up around the edges rising, as though perking up. He could hear her breathing, raspy and wild. The she was powering up, white inhuman energy surrounding her, and she didn't look back.
And then all he could manage to her disappearing back was, breathless, "…do you want to take some dino with you?"
93. Scuse me while I kiss this guy
Juuhachigou was at a loss for words. She just stared at them, at the shivering, huddle weeping lump that had once been Krillin, and at her smug-faced brother. Once again, and then again, she replayed what she'd just seen over in her head. The blonde woman could remember with vivid clarity the huge, shocked and terrified eyes, the blush, the sounds, her brother looking so pleased with himself to be playing with his sister's toy.
Krillin was making choking, gagging noises, and Juunanagou looked down at him. "Oh come on, it wasn't that bad."
The short fighter reached out for her, pleading for what might have been Listerine. And then to keep her brother away from him. And then something about sexual assault. It was hard to make out his exact words through his crying.
Her twin gently prodded his shaking back. "What? Stop sobbing. I was just curious about why my sister kissed you. What she got out of it."
Krillin's voice rose and they had no trouble making out what he said. "She only kissed my cheek!
"And it didn't last anywhere near as long as that!"
94. The Man of My Nightmares
She never talked about what had happened exactly. She'd gone to Bulma once for x-rays and to take a look at her brother's blue prints (blue prints, as though he were one of Bulma's machinery rather than a young man, one that could possess his own thoughts and emotions) once and that had been enough. Juuhachigou had never told him what she'd seen that day.
Occasionally, when neither of he would wonder what exactly Gero had done. And how he'd managed to remove all traces of ki from them. And how he could have possibly hurt them in such a way. From what she had told him about her past, what she could remember of it, they hadn't had any parents. When Krillin imagined them before they'd become cyborgs, they were always, darker eyed and
Occasionally, she would awake them both from her dreams. Juuhachigou would kick out, gasping and sometimes have tears on her face.
She wouldn't speak to him about them.
But it was something he never asked her much about.
95. You've been outright offensive for so long now
His seemingly endless patience and understanding began to fray and snap like a rope holding a dinosaur over a cliff.
It was exactly what she wanted. She'd actually dreamed of this moment, when he would slam something down (in this case, a teacup that splashed out and burned his hand, although he still didn't seem to notice it), and screaming at her, telling her everything that had been pent up through a veneer of cracking kindness and what he considered gentlemanly behavior and she considered being a weakling, if not an outright liar.
When Krillin snapped and told her to get out, she would be safe. And she could trust him then, since she would understand him more, and could write him off as another human. He would scream and say something hateful, and she could mentally nod and then go back to her brother, to prove him wrong.
He said that the short, bald fighter was a masochist, but one with no spine, and that of course he would just take in all the shit she shoved at him.
She thought that everyone had a line in the sand, a button to push, and that Krillin was just some sad guy that had a crush on her and would eventually tell her to get the fuck out of his house.
Now the time had come.
She'd insulted his bald head and then slipped in a subtle remark about his friends having dates when he seemed to snap. Besides the tea, (which she informed him, was weak and bitter the way he brewed it) being thrown down, there was a throbbing of his veins nestled in his temple. "Are you saying," his voice was thick. "That you have a date as well?"
"Well, no," she looked at her fingernails, admiring how clean they were. "But I have options."
"Are you saying I don't?"
"I don't know. What exactly do you consider 'options'?"
The eyes staring back at her were bloodshot. "I don't understand."
"Does pity and coercion of desperate, slightly blind girls count as options?"
Krillin stared down at his reddened hand. Then he pointed with the other hand toward the calendar on the far wall. "What does it say on Wednesday?"
"That the perverts, not including you, have plans to go to some bikini contest."
"Ah, so your sight is intact. I think that disproves your earlier point."
She bristled, eyes widening, and her hand dropped to let the cup of tea fall onto the table with a clink of porcelain. "What are you suggesting?"
"Maybe pity was involved, but I did not coerce you."
Juuhachigou nearly slapped him. "Me? What about me?"
"I suppose you forgot about an earlier kiss you gave me."
She sucked in a breath. Anger she believed she was mostly above, at least when it came to humans. Announce, yes, but anger implied that what they said was at least close to the truth. "Oh yes, how could I forget since you took it and ran with it? And God knows that you remembered that, since it was probably the closest you've gotten to a girl."
"I was nearly engaged."
"Was the turtle her seeing eye dog?"
The sound of his grinding teeth was bone against bone. "But you don't deny that you were desperate, or that you count as an option."
"Option," the cyborg hissed out, feeling a strand of hair falling into her face. "Means that you have other choices."
"And once again, you agree that you're one of them."
"One! Where are these other girls?"
"Jealous?"
"Stop avoiding the topic. You have no other girls!"
"Other! You said other!" He pointed an accusing finger into her face. She nearly bit it.
"Maybe I am desperate! I'd have to be to like you, and your noseless face! And your bald head and shortness!"
"Well, someone would have to be a masochist to like you! You're awful to people! To everyone!"
"You aren't people! You are a silly, desperate puppy that rolls over for me in hopes that I'll rub your stomach!"
"And that's what you're into!"
"I am not!"
"You are an option!"
"You don't have anyone else!"
"What are you saying?" Krillin yelled, an arm lashing out to knock down the microwave and a stack of plates.
She slapped a toaster into the sink. "I'm saying that I'm the only person to actually stand your shortness and lack of a nose and your shitty clothes. You have no one else."
"You're a brat. You're mean and stuck up and rude to everyone. You think you're better than everyone, even though you snore and have an attitude and are moody and spend too much time at the mall." He had tears in his eyes, and she didn't think it was because of his burns.
Fire was spat out. "You don't have a real family. Your dad took off before you were born, and then your mom died. And even the monks that took you in hated you."
"Your brother scares me. He's weird, robotic, and has bad taste in clothes, and I worry that he'll go on a killing spree and someone talk you into joining him. And then my friends and I will have to kill you both."
She couldn't make out the pattern in the wallpaper that Krillin had put in the kitchen. Behind him, it swirled, and drifted out of focus. "This house is terrible. Every room is small, and why would you put a house full of electronic devices and books and magazines on tiny island that makes it so easy to flood the place out? I feel so cramped in here with all of you."
"You have nowhere else to really go. You and your brother have no purpose or place."
"You're thirty, at least, and you don't have a girlfriend, and I still think that you're a virgin."
"You don't even know whether or not you're a virgin, because you don't remember your past at all."
"I'm going to remember this," Her face was hot, and the tears coming from her eyes burned the enhanced skin. "And sometimes I hate you, a lot. You make things confusing, and you don't seem to realize that. Because you're too stupid."
His face was warm too, pressed into her forehead, and the arms wrapped around her torso felt stiff. "I hate you too sometimes. When you act like I'm nothing, and I was willing to sacrifice the whole planet for you. My best friend died because of that."
"I wish you hadn't done that. Or gotten rid of the bomb put inside of me. Sometimes I wish that was still in me, because…"
"If anything happened to you, I don't know what I'd do. I fell in love with you because of that pathetic kiss."
"I know," Juuhachigou managed, trying not to sob. Her arm went around his shoulder, pulling him close enough to feel dark hairs press against her skin. "And I was just trying to scare you."
96. Until the spell wears off
Juuhachigou was in the middle of doing all the research possible to find out what she was feeling. After determining that it was not exactly a physical ailment (but not exactly ruling that out) since every doctor she saw could find nothing wrong with her, exempting the metal that she would have to claim was shrapnel. What war was she in? Uh, the last one.
Finally, armed with a pair of gloves that went to her elbow, she sat before the computer screen that Bulma had sent over and only Master Roshi and Oolong had ever used. The chair beneath her was wrapped in clear elastic foil.
Personally, she wasn't very fond of the thing; it gave her not bad memories precisely, but a bad feeling she couldn't explain. Maybe it was because of what it was being used for? The desktop background of the topless woman was only another clue of its unfortunate purpose now in its digital life.
Krillin had never used it as far as she was aware. Probably because he didn't want his precious cleaning gloves that he bought being contaminated.
A search engine was found, and she tried not to make a face over its history. Nor did she click on them despite her curiosity. Finally, looking over her shoulder from time to time, she typed in, 'heart racing, breathlessness, inability to sleep, dry mouth, anxiety…'
There was one thing that they had in common.
And that common thread was named Krillin.
Maybe I'm allergic to him, she thought nonsensically.
Then she clicked on a link about brain chemistry and, Kami help her, attraction.
Somehow, this was even more humiliating. Her very body, the thing that had been dissected and improved to make her into the perfect fighter, had turned traitor on her. She read about experiments that had taken place, about how much attraction was buffeted by body language, and with a special kind of horror, recalled the large moments that had taken place without a word:
Leaning down to kiss his terrified cheek, the pheromones that gesture alone must have been exchanged-he didn't have a nose so what about that, but then, she wasn't exactly an average person to base these things off of.
Krillin, armed with a remote, letting it fall, and his boot coming down onto it.
Carrying her unconscious body to Kami's place.
It all made sense, the sudden aggression towards Cell because of his amygdale and the relative aggression it caused when it came to their possible partner, and the input to his cerebral cortex was being regulated to make him have more endurance.
Why did humans have to be so primitive, so animal-like? Better yet, why did she, a superior being, have to experience the same things they did?
It was her damn septal area, the hypothalamus. Because somehow Krillin was able to stimulate (what a word to use) this area of her brain. All the adrenaline, the dopamine…It was humiliating finding this out, if only to find out that Krillin's nasally voice was stimulating her auditory cortex that she wanted to rip out.
And oh god, the more she read, the more horrified she became. Phenylethylamine that her brain dumped out was because of childhood issues and what was lost growing up that she apparently thought Krillin could help her with. Which was completely unfair since by all means he was the immature one. And how and why did he think she could somehow fix his own childhood problems?
The oxytocin that made it so she didn't completely kill the two perverts and made it tolerable to be around his friends. He was the blame for that. And how it was released from his voice, his shy or perfectly friendly looks, or, just thinking about him—which in turn could be blamed on serotonin. Endorphins were why she didn't go upstairs and just murder him right now, because it made her attached to his whiny voice and jug ears.
She would conquer this emotion however. Armed with this knowledge, she would ignore those chemicals racing around in her head. They would not beat her.
Then he came down the stairs, and Juuhachigou immediately close the browser window and felt a bead of sweat run down her temple. Krillin was humming and she peeked around the corner into the kitchen at him. He smiled at her, and she completely forgot about what chemical was released when he did this because her stomach was too busy flip-flopping.
"Are those my gloves?"
"Yes," Juuhachigou looked at them for a moment, avoiding his face. "Sorry." Gingerly, the blonde woman began to peel them off.
He shrugged, drawing her attention back to his face. "It's okay, I don't mind when you use them," Krillin was smiling again.
And then she started to wonder about that vasopressin thing that long standing couples had.
97. Wedding Plans
Launch was screaming again, her curly blonde hair looking particularly frizzled, so he and Yamcha escaped to the roof. Below, Master Roshi's lecherous words were interspersed with pleases for mercy and chuckles that ended with a scream and a yelp. Gunfire sounded; a ten gun salute for what was left of the turtle hermit.
They were too tired to do anything but look upward.
"I wonder what Bulma's doing right now."
"Yamcha," Krillin asked quietly, wondering if he was overstepping bounds. "Do you think you and Bulma are going to get married one day?"
His new friend burst into manic, frightening laughter. "I dunno man; it's way too soon to talk about that. Why?"
"Oh, I was just curious." It was safer to not mention his own odd fantasies that suddenly came to him. Of women who instead of being clad in the scant things that the ladies in Master Roshi's magazines wore, were instead clad in white wedding dresses. Gentle, shy smiles or tremulous ones that quivered at the corner, all aimed at their soon-to-be husbands through delicate veils. White silk and white cake. Their friends behind them celebrating and cheering for their union.
He would probably never marry.
At his latest trip to the portion of the wall in his room that was marked uncharacteristically in dark line, he found himself easily below five feet. He continued to shave his head and despite his pinches and prays, no nose every made an appearance on his face. As much as he stared and thought about girls, they never returned the interest.
Not knowing that he was to be married almost thirteen years later, he and his fiancé would burst into identical absurd giggles at their own ceremony that made everyone behind them start to laugh as well. Or that his honeymoon would take place at Goku's small mountain home as they helped his own wife prepare for her new baby, and because of the noise none of them would get any sleep
98. Abstinence
She snapped, yelling at his disappearing back as he hurried to his own empty bedroom and leaving her alone and furious and frustrated more than she thought possible. At the moment, Juuhachigou was torn between chasing after him and either comforting him, or beating him into the walls. That, or just slamming her own head into the walls and mumbling curses. "You're not a monk anymore!"
Then she collapsed on the bed with gritted teeth, pants still unzipped, throwing a pillow at the door.
99. First Impression
What he saw: A beautiful young woman (how was it possible someone so evil could look so beautiful?) who was there to kill/beat up him and his friends, and would do so with little qualms.
What she saw: A ridiculous looking human, (where was his nose?) who she would gladly beat/kill up.
100. Concubine
"Do it for the money."
That was his only given sign of comfort. He wasn't even that hard up for money. But Yamcha had met a girl, and Tien it turned out had many mouths to feed, and didn't want Launch robbing banks for diaper money. Of course, because of these things, they of course couldn't go on stage. What would their girlfriend/wife/children think?
That was why he was behind the stage, curtains hiding him from view.
He got to be a cowboy.
"Go on out there, and make some spare cash."
Why they had even wanted him was a mystery. Sure, he was in as good a shape as the other men here, but they were taller, tanner, had sculpted and chiseled noses on their lean faces. He looked around, watching one of the fine gentleman plucking at his eyebrows. Somehow, he was still more attractive in every way than Krillin; even as he began working on his nostril hair.
Back here, it smelled of makeup and cologne and deodorant, and weirdly, corn chips. The short fighter longing stroked the velvet curtain. It wouldn't remain here for long, or rather, he wouldn't. But now, he clutched it like he must have held his mother as a small, innocent boy that he once was. A small innocent boy that would have dressed as a cowboy during Halloween, and wanted a pony, rather than dancing in just his chaps to a song about a different type of riding.
He stared at them, not seeing a single face clearly. They were all just circles, some different colored than others, but that was all.
There was chanting and cat-calling. Music howled and beat like a drum against his head.
There was only one thing to do.
So he danced. There was no thought process. His brain had turned off, and only animal instinct ruled. The only real thing that came into his head was after he'd pulled his vest off and thrown it into the heaving female crown, and it was: wow, its cold in here. Otherwise, he just moved senselessly, even as dollars and strangely, coins, pelted him and fell to the stage.
And then something began to shriek. The only words he could make out, as his legs slowed as his gyrations puttered out were: oh my god, it's her.
Juuhachigou, and her brother, looked at him from their seats in the audience. Good seats too, not too far from the stage, so there was no way they could miss anything. Now that he knew they were twins, Krillin could fully appreciate their matching expressions of a horror so deep seated they could probably not discuss it until years in the future, and would permanently scar them. This was one of those moments which you could only talk about with a therapist, clutching a tissue in one hand while you rocked back and forth, howling, 'he was wearing assless chaaapss near the end!' Which was unfair to them, to all of them really. They'd all be put through so much, especially the cybernetic pair that had turn so quickly and easy on their master.
No wonder why there were so many bottles on their table.
There was equal shame and accusations on both ends, though both were silent.
'What were you doing there, watching men dance around?'
'What were you doing there, on stage, dancing around?'
But because he was the one half-naked, he would be the one that truly had no defense.
Her brother was pale and thankfully silent besides her, locked in a state of horror so deep it was catatonic. He was nearly shaking; his eyes were of a man who'd seen too much. Juuhachigou was the one to say something, her leer only compounding the situation. What's more, the bill she shook that she would clearly make him work for. "Shake it! Show us your-"