A/N: No love triangle in this, I PROMISE. I just don't want Marron to be 1-dimensional. There's probs gonna be a lot of infidelity, though. I'm not sure if she'll actually start dating Goten or not. Maybe.
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or anything affiliated with it.
-MalRev
Spectre
05
Rain was still pattering against the windows when I woke the next morning.
I hopped out of bed and took a hurried shower, trying to make sure I was ready when Pan and Bulla came down to pick me up. Neither of them would be willing to wait the hour it usually took me to get dressed in the morning. I quickly blow-dried my hair to throw it in a ponytail and threw on jeans and a t-shirt; something simple for a day at the mall.
"Mom, dad, I'm going to the mall!" I yelled as I rushed down the stairs.
It took me a few minutes to realize they didn't answer—I was grabbing Poptarts for breakfast and jamming them in my mouth. When I sat down at the table and didn't smell dad's coffee, I finally furrowed my brow and called them again. The house was almost depressingly silent.
Odd. Mom usually made a big deal over leaving me alone during the day. She'd leave a checklist and leave whatever event they were at early to come home and check on me. Dad trusted me by myself but he went along with whatever mom told him. They hadn't even said goodbye when they left.
Uneasy, I nibbled on my Poptart as I walked around the house, checking all the rooms and the basement for signs of my parents. It must have been something really important. They'd come home later on and let me know what was up as they always did. Damn, I needed to stop worrying so much.
The doorbell rang and I made my way out to the foyer to greet my two friends. I could hear Pan arguing with Bulla as I pulled open the door and they kept on going while they walked inside out of the rain. Bulla closed her umbrella and shook it out, spraying Pan with water and inciting her rage. Bulla slapped a palm to Pan's forehead to keep her fists at bay and smiled at me.
"Someone looks nice today," she said. "Do you have to impress somebody?"
"Fight me!" Pan demanded.
"Panny, please. We're in the presence of a normal person, so can you at least act human? Honestly, your parents wonder why you have such a hard time making friends." Bulla yawned and shoved Pan backwards to daintily pat her mouth. "You're barely even Saiyan but you act like a brute."
"Alright you two, relax," I said. "My parents left earlier I guess so I'm all set to go out."
Pan turned to look at me, still pushing her forehead against Bulla's hand. "Really? Huh. My dad said 18 might not let you go. I wonder where they went?"
Something told me I didn't want to know.
I double-checked the windows in the house to make sure they were shut and locked, then scribbled a quick note telling my parents I was perfectly safe, just out with my friends. Bulla handed me an umbrella from my closet when I came back into the foyer and we headed out into the pouring rain. As I shut the door and checked the lock, a roll of thunder made Pan groan.
"If we have one more thunderstorm, I'm moving," she grumbled, "and all of you can deal with this terrible weather. I swear it's been worse than normal lately."
We got into Bulla's car and took off down the street toward the busy city. I desperately wished for sunshine so we could go outside and hike or go camping. Shopping was great, especially right after I got my allowance, but nothing beat being outside on a warm spring day. I listened a bit to the conversation the girls were having as I gazed out the window at the pouring rain.
My parents were MIA. Coupled with dad's strange behavior, I was getting concerned. Maybe they were planning something for my birthday? It wasn't for a few more months but mom liked to get stuff done early. I chewed my lower lip and followed a rain drop slithering down the window. My questions always seemed to be never-ending but the answers managed to avoid me no matter what.
Bulla pulled into a big parking lot and I finally turned to gawk at the gigantic building that loomed over us, menacing against the black sky. There were tons of people coming in and out despite the bad weather and we were no different. I prepped my umbrella as Bulla counted down from five for us to run out into the thunderstorm. It never rained where I used to live.
The three of us darted out into the cold rain, quickly throwing up our umbrellas. I ran behind the other girls blindly as we splashed through puddles in the huge parking lot. As soon as we got inside I was gonna high-tail it to the bathroom to dry myself off with the hand dryers.
It was boiling hot inside the mall. There were way too many people for it to come anywhere close to being comfortable and the three of us had to link hands to keep from getting lost. Bulla lead us to the bathroom that was even more crowded, where screaming kids made it hard for me to care about drying off my clothes for five minutes. I yelled to tell them I'd meet them in the hall and pushed through the throngs of people until I was free.
I squeezed through more people, becoming increasingly agitated by the thick volume of the crowd. Why were so many people hanging out at the same mall? Wasn't there somewhere else for them to go? Didn't they have jobs or go to school? I repeatedly apologized as I tried to find fresh air.
When I popped out of the group I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in a department store. I took out my phone and texted Bulla to let her know where I was then began browsing through the racks of clothes. Maybe I'd pick out a nice sweater for mom. Her circuits froze up sometimes when it rained.
I sourly felt the fabric of a few sweaters. Having a mother who was half robot made things complicated. She could be doused in water but not for very long, and she needed to dry off soon after. Her outside body would age but her inner workings would take forever to break down and corrode. I didn't like addressing the issue of death, but I imagined she'd want to go when dad did.
Ugh, that was way too sad to think about during a shopping trip. The venom must've broken something in my brain that kept me from being such a Debbie Downer.
As I finally caught my breath and started to enjoy myself, I heard familiar giggling from a few feet away. Curious, I peered around the edge of the rack of sweaters I was scrolling through and squinted to make sure I was seeing straight. It was hard to tell from a distance, but it looked like… Chi-Chi? There was a man standing behind her that I sort of remembered. His name started with a "Y."
Chi-Chi held up a shirt, murmuring something to the man. I watched his arms snake around her waist and suddenly wished I had picked a different store. He grinned and swiftly leaned down to kiss her on the cheek, only backing away when she giggled again and playfully smacked his arm.
I stared blankly. Wasn't she married to Goku? No. I had to be missing something. My stomach wrenched painfully and I quickly turned away to check out jewelry instead. I loved shiny stuff, so why the hell not? Maybe the light glancing off silver would blind me so I'd forget what I just saw.
Nope, I hadn't seen a damn thing.
Bulla and Pan found me again while I was trying on a simple silver band. I shrieked in fear when Pan decided to give me a bear hug and lift me a few feet off the ground, startling the woman running the counter in the process. It took a few minutes for me to convince her that we were all friends and it was just a stupid joke. I felt so bad that I bought the ring.
"Thanks guys," I said sarcastically as we left the department store. The crowd had thinned out quite a bit—now there was room to walk. "I really wanted to spend my entire allowance on a ring. One of you better buy me lunch to make up for it."
Pan raised her hand and waved it back and forth. "Oh, me, me, pick me!"
"If you're gonna be a sarcastic bitch, sure!" I grinned.
"I've been teaching her how to be better at that," Bulla said. "Gohan's making her into goody-two-shoes. Luckily she has me and my older brother—"
"For the last time, I do not have a crush on Trunks!"
A laugh interrupted Bulla's cheeky reply. "I don't need to hear this from my niece."
Goten and Trunks were sitting at a table near the elevator, each holding a cup of coffee. Both of them were wearing formal black suits and Trunks had glasses on. It looked like they were trying to unwind, probably from an important meeting at Capsule Corp. Goten winked at me.
Pan turned beet red and covered her mouth before hiding behind me. She had worse luck than I did. Bulla scowled at Goten and stuck her tongue out at him while Trunks awkwardly sipped his drink. They were both way older than us. It must've been weird for him to be around Pan.
"Still busy running grandpa's company into the ground?" Bulla asked, lazily taking Trunks's coffee and drinking from it. "You two are never there so I'd expect nothing less."
"We just sealed a deal with NASA. They'll be taking a couple million capsules to start colonizing Mars. It makes transporting both people and buildings much easier." Goten shrugged flippantly, loosening his tie a bit. "But I guess a few billion dollars is no big deal to a little girl."
Trunks snatched his coffee back. "Shouldn't all of you be in school? Dad never let me skip."
"I'm the princess, big brother. Daddy knows better than to question me and so should you. Anyway, we just wanted to show Marron around the city before she goes back to school. Doesn't she look pretty today? Ooh, Marron, show them the ring you just bought. It's gonna go great with your outfit."
"If you wanted a ring, I gladly would've bought one for you," Goten said, eyeing me with a smug grin. He sipped his coffee without taking his eyes off me as Bulla impatiently took my bag.
I blinked in surprise, stunned to silence yet again. Was… was Goten hitting on me? He was like ten years older than me and… ew. He had to be joking, just like Bulla was with Pan and Trunks. I smiled weakly and rubbed my arms as Bulla took out the small box, popping it open to reveal the ring I bought.
She offered it to Goten. "Here, why don't you put it on Marron? I'm sure she'd love that."
They were all out to get Pan and me. I hid my face with my hand and felt a bigger hand take my wrist to tug me forward. Bulla pried my fingers away from my eyes, laughing hysterically when she saw how intense my blush was. Goten gently lifted my hand up and slid the ring on my left hand, turning it a few times until it was in the position he wanted. He smirked when I looked away at the floor.
"You two are unbearable," Trunks said, shaking his head at Bulla and Goten. "Come on, we need to head back to the office. All of you need to go home and study or something."
"But we owe Marron an apology," Goten murmured. He finally tore his eyes from me to cast a charming smile toward his friend. "Let's bring them out for lunch. We are billionaires now. What do you think, Marron? Do you want to go out with a billionaire?"
"A big portion of that is reinvested in the company, you moron. Fine, we'll bring them to Chuck-E-Cheese or whatever it is kids like nowadays."
Bulla squealed with delight and hugged her brother. "Thank you, Trunks! I know I tell you you're an arrogant prick a lot but… well, sometimes you aren't."
They started squabbling and Goten rose to his feet, lifting my hand yet again to kiss the ring. It was getting hard to breathe—was it crowded again? He placed a hand gently on the small of my back to lead me through the mall with the other three at the head of our group, arguing amongst themselves. I kept my hands firmly at my sides as we walked. Goten smelled good.
Ugh, there was something seriously wrong with me.