Thank you for continuing to read this story! :D I hope you enjoy chapter 2!

Chapter 2: Gaining (Some) Trust

We soon made it to a hospital where I was being dropped off at. The chauffeur-man opened the door, and I slowly began to crawl out of the limo. Before I was fully out of the vehicle, I looked back at Videl, who hadn't moved a bit.

"You're not even going to walk me in?" I asked her.

She furrowed her brows. "Why would I? You're a big boy. You can take care of yourself."

"Well, it's just that I'm a little disoriented, and I don't exactly know...anything. I was kind of hoping that you would at least walk me in. That's all!"

Videl rolled her eyes and scooted toward me. I fully stepped out of the limo, and she followed. Before we walked in, she turned to the chauffeur and said, "Wait for me here, Jeff. This should only take a second."

I let her take the lead and followed her closely behind into the building. We walked down the hallway until we found the receptionist desk where I could get checked in. A woman in her early thirties sat at the desk in front of a computer.

"Hello," she greeted us friendly. "Oh! You're Videl Satan! I can't believe it! My daughter's a big fan. She wants to be just like you when she grows up! I'm sorry, I should just get you the clipboard with all the paper work."

She handed a wooden clipboard over to Videl when she noticed me. "I see you've brought a young man along too. Is he your boyfriend?"

"Yes," she answered curtly, taking the clipboard from the receptionist. Then Videl handed the clipboard over to me and gestured for me to go sit down in one of the chairs in the waiting room.

I smiled at her shyly. "Do you think you can wait with me too? It shouldn't take too long, and I don't want to be all alone..."

After meeting my eyes, she let out a quick puff of air and crossed her arms. "Fine. I can wait with you until they call you in for your examination, okay? Just as long as you promise to quit using those darn puppy dog eyes..."

"You told that lady that I was your boyfriend," I said as I took a seat in one of the chairs.

Videl rolled her eyes. "Don't get too excited. I just thought it would make things easier and go quicker. I didn't want to have to give some useless explanation."

"And that lady, she said something about her daughter being a fan of yours. Are you famous?" I asked without trying to show any disrespect.

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess. I'm a fighter, just like my dad, but I haven't come anywhere near close to his level of expertise."

"I think I knew that you're a fighter," I commented.

Videl gave me a strange look. "It's not like that's top secret information. A lot of people know who I am and what I do, so you haven't exactly persuaded me yet that you really 'know who I am.'"

"What's something that a lot of people might not know then?" I asked slowly.

She smirked. "How about I ask you? What is my favorite color?"

A word tugged in the back of my mind. I decided that maybe I should say that word. "Chartreuse."

Videl's jaw dropped. "How did you- You're right. It's chartreuse, but how-"

"I'm not really sure," I told her with honesty. "It was just kind of there in the back of my mind. The same place that I get this weird feeling that I know you somehow. But to be honest, I don't really know what color chartreuse even is!"

She slowly reached down inside of her shirt, and I felt my face heat up a little. "Videl! What are you doing?!"

"Relax," she told me as she pulled out a silver-chained necklace. "I don't usually like to show it off to people, but this necklace is from my mother. She died when I was a little girl."

"Oh."

"But this color is chartreuse." She pointed to a greenish-yellow flower attached to the chain.

"Oh." I examined her necklace some more. "It's kind of an ugly color to be honest..."

After how tense I had seen her earlier, I prepared myself for an outburst and lecture about why chartreuse was not an ugly color. Instead, Videl just laughed. And she laughed pretty loudly too, but to me it sounded a little forced, as if she were suppressing some sort of painful memory. "Yeah, I guess you could say that it is pretty ugly."

Once she stopped laughing, we had a brief moment of awkward eye contact. I cleared my throat. "So, um, I need to fill out this thing." I gestured down at my clipboard.

"Right," she agreed.

"But I don't exactly know any of this information."

"What is it asking for?"

"My, uh, name...and some other stuff."

Videl stared at me blankly for a moment. "You don't know your name, but you know that my favorite color is chartreuse?"

"I guess so," I stated as I looked down at the clipboard. Slowly, I looked back up at her to meet her eyes.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "And you swear that it wasn't just some random guess?"

"I swear it," I answered. "I heard it in the back of my mind. I knew it before. I promise you. Just like how I knew you before today too. I can't explain it, but you have to trust me."

Videl's eyes looked up at the ceiling. "Call me crazy, but I guess I do. I really have no reason to either. " She sighed and looked back toward me. "I must be losing my mind. Come on, Mystery Man. I think it's pretty clear that this isn't going to work."

"What?" I questioned. "Are you talking about-"

She stood up and gestured wildly for me to do the same. I struggled to get to my feet, but somehow I slowly managed to stand up. She rolled her eyes once again, and grabbed my hand. I tried to control my blush, but I couldn't help it. She dragged me along as we darted over to the receptionist.

Videl handed my clipboard over to the lady and continued to drag me along. We ran down the hallway together until we reached the limousine outside. The chauffeur opened the door for her once again and looked at me hesitantly.

"Miss Satan, are you sure that you want him to come along? I thought that we were only dropping him off." I got the impression that the chauffeur-man didn't like me very much.

"I changed my mind about leaving him alone, okay? If you have a problem with that feel free to take it up with my father," she explained with a threatening tone.

The man swallowed nervously. "No ma'am. No problem. Everything is perfectly fine. Where to now?"

"Take us home," she demanded.

We arrived at Videl's house fairly quickly. The place was huge! Several stories high, it made me feel like an ant. When we walked inside, I was not surprised to find that the interior was just as classy as the exterior. I wasn't sure how anyone could navigate their way through this house! I felt like I needed a map.

"Follow me," Videl said, walking through the grand entryway and down some careening halls. "I hope you don't mind eating here tonight. It's almost dinner time, so I figured that you might want to eat too. I promise that our chef is one of the best in the business."

"Oh wow!" I said, sniffing the air. "It smells delicious!"

As if on cue, my stomach let out a small grumbling noise. I looked away out of embarrassment, but Videl just smiled and told me that I should go meet the cook. So we walked in the kitchen together and found a tall, slim man yelling at a petite lady in another language.

The man yelled something apparently very brutal because the small woman burst into tears. He then shooed her out of the kitchen with a few last words, most of which I'm assuming were not very nice.

Videl cleared her throat to get the man's attention. "Chef! We, um, have a visitor for tonight."

Chef looked away and blushed slightly. "I'm sorry, Miss. I let my temper get the best of me. That maid was helping me out in the kitchen today, and she dropped one of the glasses and broke it."

She shrugged it off. "Don't worry about it. We have plenty of other glasses to use. Are the broken shards picked up though?"

He nodded quickly. "Yes. I had the maid clean up the mess that she made."

"Good," Videl said. "Now as I was saying, we have a visitor for the night. He will be joining us for dinner, and I was telling him that your dishes are delicious!"

"They are!" Chef exclaimed, nodding enthusiastically. "I always make all the meals one hundred percent in this kitchen, so you can only expect the best!"

"Well, I'm starving and it smells great!" I said with a laugh.

Chef smiled at my compliment. "Just wait until you have eaten it! Speaking of which, the food is almost ready. There are just a few minutes left. Would the lovely couple like to have a seat in the dining room?"

"We're not a couple," Videl explained as we walked out one of the doors that let into the dining area.

Just as we entered the room from one area, an older gentleman came in from another door. He greeted both of us politely. I was pretty sure he was a butler so, not knowing the proper way to greet a butler, I waved at him.

"Good evening, Patrick. Is something wrong?" Videl asked.

"No ma'am," the butler answered. "Nothing's wrong. Your father, however, did just call and said to let you know that he will not be joining you for supper tonight. He said he has another business dinner."

Patrick bowed his head and left the room just as Videl rolled her eyes and sighed. "Great. A 'business dinner' again."

"You don't sound so excited about that," I commented as I noticed her reaction.

She took a seat at the table and, unsure of what else to do, I just took the other seat across from her. "A 'business dinner' is my dad's code for 'date'. He's been going on a lot of those lately, and I'm getting a little bit annoyed by it. On the bright side, it means that we have an empty spot at the table for you to sit at."

I wasn't sure what to say next. "Thank you for letting me eat at your house tonight. Without you, I would have no idea where to go."

Videl shrugged her shoulders as if it were no big deal. "Whatever. It's nothing really. It means I won't be eating by myself again tonight."

"Your dinner is served," the chef said as he walked in with a tray. "I didn't know that we would be having a guest tonight otherwise I would have made something more grand, but I do hope that you'll enjoy my-"

"Oh yes!" I exclaimed, grabbing my bowl of whatever with great vigor. Immediately after, I started slurping it down and enjoying its savoriness until there was no more. Videl and the butler stared at me with widened eyes. She hadn't even gotten her soup stuff yet.

"Can I have another?" I asked. "It was great!"

The chef blinked twice and looked over at Videl. "Your friend has quite the appetite! But I'll be sure to come right back with seconds!" He began to exit the room, but swiftly spun around before he had left. "I almost forgot! Here is yours, Miss Satan!"

After the chef dropped off the food, and as I waited for him to come back with seconds, I attempted small talk with Videl. "So I was a little worried about your chef when I saw him yell at that maid, but I changed my mind! This has been great!"

She held her spoon in a firm grip, but made no move to even eat anything. "You do realize you ate that in, like, three seconds..."

I analyzed the confusion on her face. "Is- Is that bad?"

"I don't know. I've just never seen anyone eat something that quickly," she said, still a little bit in shock.

I shrugged, and the chef came in with seconds. He smiled at me as he set the bowl down, but I could tell he was a little annoyed with my appetite. "I filled it almost to the brim so that you'll surely have more time to enjoy it. I made sure that it also-"

"Done!" I exclaimed. "Can I have another? And maybe another after that? And maybe-"

Chef stared at me long and hard as he interrupted me with somewhat sarcastic words. "I'm sorry. I only prepared a meal for Miss Satan and her father, not Miss Satan and a herd of elephants. I might have enough for two more rounds, but after that, I doubt it."

I locked eyes with Videl. "Oh, um, do you want any more? Or-"

"No. Help yourself," she said, still not touching her food.

"Great!" I exclaimed. "Well, in that case, just bring out the rest!"

Chef grabbed my bowl and left the room as he shook his head. Soon enough, he entered and placed two full bowls of soup in front of me. I gobbled them up without any hesitation too. I respectfully waited on Videl to finish her meal and decided not to ask for any more even though I was still hungry.

"You eat kind of slow," I commented as she carefully dished out her soup, one spoonful at a time.

After swallowing, she commented, "No. You just eat ridiculously fast. And a lot."

I laughed a little. "You should see my dad eat!"

Videl's spoon suddenly thudded on the table. "Wait. Did you-" She stopped short.

I blinked. "Did I what?"

"Your dad!" she cheered, excitedly. "You just mentioned your dad! Does this mean you remember him?!"

After a second, I realized that I did mention my dad. I furrowed my brows and closed my eyes. Why did I say that? Why would I mention my dad? Who even is my dad? I opened my eyes and stared down at the table. I had no recollection of my father whatsoever, but for some reason saying that flowed so naturally out of my mouth.

I looked back up and met Videl's eyes. "I don't remember my dad, but for some reason I was prompted to make that statement."

The excitement visibly drained out of her face. "Oh. Well, I thought- Maybe-" She slurped another spoonful. "I'm full. Let's go figure out what to do with you now."

Following her lead, I stood up from the table and left the dining room. We walked down one of the halls to an area with a staircase and climbed up the stairs. We walked down yet another hallway until she stopped in front of a door.

"This is my room," Videl told me. "Immediately to your right is one of our guest rooms. I guess you can stay here. But only for tonight!"

"Thank you," I said softly. I stared at her momentarily as I waited for some more directions.

"Um, yeah," she said. "Don't mention it. Normally I would tell you to go unpack, but since you don't have anything...I guess you can just chill out until you're ready for bed."

I nodded slowly. "Is your father going to mind me staying here for the night?"

Videl shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I doubt he'll even notice, but if he does, he probably won't care. On the off chance that he does care, good luck. He's the World Martial Arts Champion, and he doesn't take that title lightly."

We stood in the hallway awkwardly, neither of us sure what to do next. I cleared my throat and spoke up first. "Even though I don't have anything to unpack, I think I'll go look at my room."

"I'll come with you," she offered. At first, I raised an eyebrow, but then I shrugged. I didn't have a problem with her tagging along.

I entered the guest room that I would be sleeping in and was once again taken aback at how large everything was. There was a bed, a TV, a closet, some shelves, a large mirror, and plenty of open space. There was even a door that led to a balcony outside!

Videl noticed me staring at the balcony. "You can go out there, you know."

Listening to what she said, I strolled over to the door and opened it. I enjoyed the fresh air I was now offered. In the background, there were mountains, and the sun was setting in the distance. It was a spectacular view really.

She casually walked over to the railing and placed her arms on top of it. I did just as she did. Neither of us said a word for quite some time as we were both enjoying the peaceful, beautiful setting of the sun. I stole a glance at Videl and couldn't help but notice how pretty she was, especially in this lighting.

"My mother was an artist," she said, continuing to stare into the distance.

I looked back at the mountains. "Really? Was she good?"

She looked over at me and nodded. "She was extraordinary. Before my dad became really rich and famous, she would sell her paintings to help us make a living. She loved to paint landscapes and gorgeous sunsets, just like tonight's sky."

"Can I see one of her paintings?" I asked, perhaps a little too eagerly.

I was shocked when Videl shook her head. "You can't."

"But why not?"

"She always sold them all and left nothing for us. Then she died."

Great. It was this awkward subject again. It's probably really easy to make her uncomfortable when she's talking about her dead mother, so I shouldn't say anything stupid...

"How'd she die?" Well, there goes not saying anything stupid.

Videl didn't say anything. Just as I thought she might have been warming up to me, I went and screwed it all up. I wasn't sure if I should apologize or just let the question eerily hang in the air unanswered. Someone had to speak up soon though, or the silence was going to get even more uncomfortable.

She reached down her shirt and pulled out her necklace again. "My mom actually was the one who painted this flower."

"Oh," was all I said this time. I guess it was better than another stupid question.

She let out a long and loud sigh. "When I was eight years old, my mother was killed in a drunk driving accident. It's as simple as that. I loved her very much, and I still miss her. It just isn't fair! It wasn't her fault! She did nothing wrong, yet a stupid drunk driver hit her!"

I didn't realize that she was softly crying until I looked over at her again. She wiped her tears and took a moment to pause. "So even though chartreuse is an ugly color, and I agree that it's an ugly color too, it's still my favorite. It reminds me of my mom."

Her dramatic story was over, and I did what I thought was necessary. I gave her a big hug. It helped that she smelled really nice too, which I honestly wasn't expecting because she was a fighter, but who was I kidding? Girls always smell nice!

I dropped my arms, but she still held on to me tightly. After a few more moments, she backed away, and I could see a faint glow of red brushing her cheeks. She smiled at me, and I could tell she was still a little embarrassed.

"I don't know why I told you that," she said softly. "I don't usually tell anyone that, but today I've told a complete stranger."

"Well, I did kind of ask."

"I know, but that doesn't mean I had to answer."

"To be honest, I was pretty sure you weren't going to either."

Videl shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I did. And now I've made a complete fool out of myself by crying like a little baby too. Anyway, that's the story of my mom. Some random mystery man knows my saddest memory. But the more that I think about it, I feel like I maybe have seen your face before. I guess that means I can trust you."

I smiled and felt myself grow warm. "I'm glad you do because I trust you too. I trusted you from the very first instance I heard your name. Somehow, I know you."

She made a face. "I don't get it. You keep saying that you know me and stuff, but I don't understand how. I'll admit that your face looks familiar, as if I've seen it in a picture somewhere, but I'm almost positive we haven't met."

It was getting dark and a little chilly, so I shivered in the wind. "I've said it a million times, but I just can't explain it. I think- I think I might know you from school or something." My temples ached as I tried to reach for a memory that wasn't there.

Videl suddenly straightened where she stood. "Impossible! If you went to my school, I definitely would have recognized you!"

"Really?" I asked, trying to ignore the pain in my head. "Is it a small school or something?"

She bit her lip. "Well...not exactly. But I know I would remember someone as...someone like...someone-" She stopped and started over. "I probably would have known if you went to my school because I would have seen you in the hallway or something."

"Yeah," I agreed. "You probably would recognize me. But in that same place in my mind that always prompts the few memories and things that I can remember, I was prompted to say that!"

Videl sat down on the wooden balcony floor, and I looked at the way her hair shimmered in the moonlight. "What things can you remember anyway, Mystery Man? Tell me everything that you know. About your life, I mean."

I sat down, closed my eyes, and tried to pull out my memories from that one spot in my mind, but it caused my temples to ache some more when I thought about it on my own. "Well, I woke up in a squished, dark space. It turned out that I was behind door three, but at first I had no idea where I was. Then two people started arguing behind me. There was some sort of technical difficulty that caused the show's filming to stop or something."

"What?!" she exclaimed, interrupting my story.

"Oh yeah," I told her. "So...that happened. The woman said she didn't want to deal with your father at the moment, so she was just going to call him and tell him they lost the footage later. Be prepared for that fun phone call.

"Anyway, I then heard the host guy talk to you, and I knew that I recognized your voice. At one point he said your name, and I recognized it too. I had no idea what was going on, other than I thought I was backstage during a game show, but I knew I had a strong connection to you, and I was determined to speak with you at all costs. I had to wait until after the show was over, of course, and for some reason I suspected that I was hiding. Once the show was over, I tried to get answers from you, but you had none."

She looked me dead in the eyes. "And that's it? That's everything that happened? What about from before that? What from your life prior to the show do you remember?"

I looked down at my empty hands. Empty like most of my memories of life before a few hours ago. "I don't know much. I have some sort of connection to you. I thought it was school, but you don't think so. I know that your favorite color is chartreuse. I know that you're a fighter like your dad. I know that my dad eats a lot. I don't know who my dad is or what he looks like. I don't know anything else, actually."

"This is so bizarre," Videl commented. "I thought my day was going pretty rough, but you reminded me that life can suck even more. I was just upset that I couldn't get a car, but you don't know anything about your very own life. You don't even know your name!"

"Do you think I'll ever be able to gain my memories back?" I asked her, wanting an honest opinion.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. But if you do happen to remember anything else, let me know of it immediately. You can trust me. I may not know you like you claim to know me, but I do feel somewhat inclined to help, and I will do just that. I am determined to help you find your lost memories."

...

(Once again...Somewhere else, in a dark room)

"It's been a while, sir."

"And?"

"And you've given no orders to search for him yet!"

"I wanted to see if he would manage to make his way back here on his own. It's clear that that will not be happening."

"Would you like us to put up the posters again?"

"Those old things? From the first time? Ehh...I'd rather not deal with it."

"So what would you like us to do?"

"For now? Nothing. It's getting late, don't you think? I'll just deal with it tomorrow."

There you have it! Chapter two! Thanks for reading! And thanks in advance for following/favoriting/reviewing! ;)

-TOW