"Is it written in the stars? Are we paying for some crime?

Is that all that we are good for: some stretch of mortal time?

Or some gods' experiment in which we have no say,

In which we're given paradise, but only for a day?"

-"Written In The Stars" from Aida

xxx

CHAPTER 16

"It really is kind of you to help Trunks out with his training. All of this time-traveling business seems ridiculous to me, but it's a good thing that he's not alone right now." Chi Chi sighed and deposited a casserole dish into the oven. "Still…that Bulma can be so strange. I would never put my child in harm's way."

Ada closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Pick your battles.

"But at least Trunks turned out to be such a nice boy," her mother finished, pulling off her oven mitts and then wiping her brow.

Ada felt something tug at the pit of her stomach. The opening was perfect. She had to take it. She brushed the hair from her eyes, took another deep breath…and bit her lip. Chi Chi, taking a seat near her daughter on the couch, prepared to say something else.

"It'sinterestingyouwouldsaythat," Ada blurted. Somewhat startled, her mother raised an eyebrow.

"Come again?"

"It's…it's interesting that you would say that…about Trunks being such a nice…boy," she said. "He really is wonderful."

"Wonderful?" Chi Chi chuckled a little. "You sound like you're talking about Prince Charming, Ada."

"Well," Ada cleared her throat, "I mean it. And while we're on the subject, I need to tell you something."

"What's that, dear?" Chi Chi began flipping through a gardening book that she had been loath to put down lately.

"Trunks and I…" What can she possible say? "We've been…dating…for a few months now." Ada swallowed hard and then laughed nervously. "I mean, we haven't gone on any dates, but we've been together."

Chi Chi's eyes slowly moved from the book to her daughter. She blinked thrice, cocked her head slightly, and frowned. "What?" Ada, her jaw dangling a little, said nothing; she was fairly sure that she had made it quite clear.

"You've been telling me that you were training with him!"

"I am training with him!"

"Oh, Ada," Chi Chi pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "What were you thinking?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ada narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her mother, afraid that this spat was going to escalate very quickly.

"It's just that…" Chi Chi exhaled deeply, shoulders slumped. "Ada, you didn't know his father!"

"You're making absolutely no sense, Mom."

"He was insane!" Her voice became shrill, her speech slightly more desperate. "He killed thousands – no, millions – of innocent people!"

"What in Kami's name does that have to do with Trunks?" Ada asked bewilderedly.

"Well…" Chi Chi seemed to be struggling to transform her thoughts into cohesive sentences. "All I'm saying is that I didn't know Vegeta when he was Trunks' age…maybe he was normal then…and if that's the case, then who knows what that boy could be capable of if he goes off the deep end later on?"

Ada stared, dumbfounded, at her mother. As blood rushed to her head, all of the will to keep calm drained out of it. "Please don't tell me that you're comparing Trunks to his father, because we both know that that would be completely and utterly ridiculous," she half-shouted in reply.

"Don't you raise your voice to me! You clearly haven't thought this through, Ada!"

"Actually, Mother, I have–"

Chi Chi, palms toward Ada, shook her head. "No. You let me finish. It's not just that he's that maniac's son, Ada. I mean, his mother isn't exactly well-grounded, either!"

"Bulma's your friend! How could you say something like that?"

"Well," Chi Chi huffed, "she's just…she's flighty!"

"Are you just opposed to this whole concept because you got married to a man you didn't even know?"

It took Ada only half a second to regret the words that had come out of her mouth. Before she could try to repair the damages, her fuming mother lashed back, "I MARRIED THE MAN THAT I LOVED, ADA–"

"You know what?" the younger woman snapped. "This has nothing to do with marriage! Can't you see that you're overreacting? Are you blind, Mother?" With that, Ada did the only thing she could think to do: turned on her heel and walked swiftly out the door of the Son home, unintentionally slamming it behind her. Her eyes began to tear up as she made her way to her great-grandfather's shrine. Ada was amazed at the sheer ridiculousness of the conversation that had just taken place. She was with a guy. And a kind, intelligent, handsome one at that. It was nothing more or less than it sounded, nothing devious, nothing strange.

Ada sat against one of the posts that supported the entryway to the shrine and tried to slow her breathing. She was no longer fourteen; she was a grown woman. And she couldn't remember the last time she had made a bad mistake. Indeed, Ada could think of nothing she had done since before Gohan's death to warrant losing her mother's trust and confidence.

She stayed there for some time, sweater pulled tight around her as the spring breeze turned into wind. There would be storms that evening, almost certainly. Ada ran her fingers through the grass and kept to her thoughts until a battalion of dense, gray clouds from the east covered the whole of the great sky. Just before she rose to go back inside, she heard soft footsteps coming from behind.

"It's going to rain soon." Chi Chi's stern voice carried over the howling wind "You should come inside."

"I was getting ready to," Ada conceded, standing and turning to face her mother. The two women looked at one another in silence for some time.

"Trunks is a good boy, Ada," Chi Chi said finally as she watched her daughter blink away a raindrop that had caught her eyelash.

"I know, Mom." Ada was not sure why she remained looking at her mother when they should have been taking cover from the impending storm. She learned long ago not to expect apologies from Chi Chi; the woman was made of steel. She conceded nothing, took no fault. Whether she ever found it within herself was a matter of speculation.

"It's just that…" The older woman was visibly fighting to remain as composed as her daughter. "He wants to save the world, Ada. That's the kind of man I married. That's the kind of son I had." Chi Chi took a deep breath and folded her arms tightly across her chest. "And I'm alone."

"Mama–"

"And Bulma's alone," Chi Chi continued, voice rising, eyes wet. Ada's throat went dry at the sight of her mother's wall beginning to crumble. "Because as noble as they may be, they leave. And they don't come back, Ada.

"And you don't deserve that. Are you listening to me?"

"Yes…" her daughter whispered hoarsely.

"When you give your heart to someone and he dies, you don't get it back." Chi Chi struggled for the words. "You wake up every day, and you remember that everything you had is gone forever."

The rain by now was falling in droplets so heavy that the gusts of wind sweeping across the fields seemed powerless. Ada pushed the wet hair from her eyes and walked toward her mother.

"Did you ever think," she asked, taking Chi Chi's arm in her own, "that Trunks might defeat them?" Ada clung to her mother and began leading her back to their home.

Chi Chi said nothing. In fact, she did not speak again for the rest of the evening but to thank Ada for fetching her a towel and then, later, to tell her daughter goodnight.

xxx

Ada sighed at the memory of that evening. She buried her face in Trunks' neck, careful to avoid the wound, and thanked Kami that her mother had refrained from speaking of the relationship since. Indeed, she rarely asked about Trunks at all. Silent disapproval, Ada figured, was the best thing one could hope for from Chi Chi.

After Ada yawned for the third time in as many minutes, Trunks tilted his head away so as to better see her face. "How about going to bed early for a change?"

"Like that's going to happen. I still have to get home, and it's my turn to make dinner–"

"Or you could call Chi Chi and tell her that you're staying here tonight," he replied.

"Oh, absolutely. 'Mother? I'm just going to sleep at Trunks' tonight, alright?' You forget that that doesn't mean quite the same thing as it used to. At least not to her," said Ada. Trunks' face flushed pink, and Ada grinned. There were certain things about him that would never change, which she found incredibly comforting.

"I could talk to her…if you'd like," he offered, sincerity lacing his words.

"Always a gentleman. Thank you, but I wouldn't want you to have convince my mother that she won't have a grandchild in nine months just because her adult daughter isn't spending the night in her childhood home." Ada then reached for the telephone and began dialing.

"I'll be in my room. I've got to finish up the blueprints to the cooling system upgrade for the time machine," Trunks said as he stood. Ada nodded and winked at him, and he departed. She spent a few fleeting seconds appreciating his backside before her mother's voice filled the speaker.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mama."

"Hello, dear – what are you up to?"

"Actually, I was calling to tell you that I'm going to stay here at Tr – at Bulma's – because I'm absolutely exhausted tonight." Ada scrunched up her nose and bit her lip, waiting for the dragon to breathe its fire.

"Oh…well I suppose I understand." Chi Chi seemed slightly wary. "But I'd better not have a grandchild in nine months. Are you listening? Ada!"

"YES, I'm listening, Mother. I realize this is somewhat shocking to hear, but I haven't been sixteen for years. Therefore, if you'd like to stop speaking to me as such, you can. I know that you enjoy it, though, so–"

"That's enough with the attitude. There are just certain things that, as a mother, I'm obligated to say. It's for your own good, you know," Chi Chi snapped.

"Right. And I appreciate your looking out for me. I'll see you tomorrow night, Mom. Love you," Ada said.

"I love you, too," Chi Chi sighed. "Good night, dear."

xxx

Later that night, with the sun only a few hours from again peeking over the horizon, Trunks Brief found himself gazing at the beauty nestled against his chest. It had been several days, he reckoned, since he had last slept; at least tonight he had something to look at while he succumbed to the insomnia. And what a something she was. So frightened was he of waking Aida that he scarcely allowed himself to breathe. Rather, Trunks simply lay there, his eyes stopping to take in each curve of her face, each wisp of ebony hair that fell across her eyes.

He could, he thought with a smile, get used to this. To opening his eyes and finding Ada there beside him. To feeling the warmth of her body pressed against his own, and not just every once in a great while but every night. He certainly could get used to it. But, he knew, he shouldn't. In one of the darker corners of his mind, Trunks kept the nagging reminder that their relationship was only temporary, that the future of everything they had made together over the last half-year was contingent on his safe return from the past. Ada gave him no less than a heart of stone in that regard; she always reassured him, with the utmost confidence, that the androids would be easily defeated. Indeed, she never stopped reminding Trunks that he was going to save the world.

Trunks wanted more than anything for Ada to be right. He desperately prayed that he would not disappoint, that his growing strength combined with that of Goku…of Vegeta, even…would eliminate any threat to the Earth in their time and in his own. Prayers, though, were only words, and he was only made of flesh and blood. Trunks could not let his imagination run amok or his dreams grow too vivid. For the same reason he had not yet made love to Ada, he now pushed from his mind any thoughts about the future. Nothing was certain, and acting as though it was could only end in hurt, anger, and grief.

As he lay beside Ada, Trunks wondered whether Gohan had approached the androids knowing that he would die that day. Had his father gone to fight them, aware that he would not walk away? Before Goku fell ill, did he, too, have the same sense of foreboding that Trunks now felt? When Death comes for you, does He trail far enough behind to go unnoticed? Or does He delight in the fear of the damned?

Trunks squeezed his eyes shut. He tightened his arms around Ada and tried to steady his own jagged breathing by listening to hers.

He had never felt so alone.

xxx

Postscript: Whew! That chapter was rather emotional to write. Thank you so, so much for all of the reviews I've gotten! When I first published this story, I never dreamed that it would have one reader, let alone many. I really do feel honored by your readership and loyalty. Stay tuned for more!