Hey. Here's yet another chapter. Thanks a lot for the reviews everyone! I don't own DBZ.
Last time...
Hearing the flapping of giant wings outside the cave door, Videl rushed to the opening to find Icarus carrying a bloody, wet, seemingly unconscious Gohan on his back. Her heart jumped into her throat as tears poured down her face. His torn shirt hung uselessly off his frame exposing the deep gashes on his chest. She carefully dragged him off the large dragon and laid him down on the cave floor. He didn't respond to the movement which made her even more afraid.
Sobbing, she leaned her ear close to his face, hoping to feel him breathing and they soon turned to tears of joy as she felt his slow, even breaths. Stripping off his soaked shirt and pants she grabbed the wet cloth she had used to bathe the child, and wiped the blood off him tenderly. Come on, Gohan. Make a noise, a movement, anything to let me know you're alright. I can't afford to lose you now. You matter way too much to me. You hear me? You matter! She shook the boy gently and was shocked when he responded with a deafening snore.
Skeletons In The Closet...
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Videl pinched herself to make sure what she was seeing was real. Sure enough, it hurt. She looked back at Gohan and saw the boy snoring away, a little drool escaping his lips. In any other situation, she might have found it cute but right now, she was absolutely livid. It was then that she took a closer look at his wound and found it had stopped bleeding and was already beginning to heal. The Satan girl stared at the boy in confusion. How was that possible? She was sure that wound would have needed stitches! The evidence was on his shirt that he had been attacked by a T-Rex no more than twenty minutes before. How could his wounds be healing already?
Was he faking it? She froze as the possibility crossed her mind. However her logical side quickly stamped the thought away. In her embarrassingly detailed observations of Gohan's torso, she had never seen those marks before. The paradox nagged at the girl until she could take it no longer. She wanted answers and she wanted them now. Well, he's obviously fine so there's no harm in waking him up now is there? With that thought, Videl slapped the unsuspecting demi-Saiyan across his face as hard as she could, leaving a clearly defined hand print. You can call it a little revenge. He did not just make her cry over him when there was nothing wrong with him.
She soon regretted her action as pain laced up her arm. She cradled the injured appendage, ready to give Gohan a tongue lashing, only to find out that the teenage boy did not budge an inch, in fact, he merely turned to his other side and snored all the louder. What was this guy made of? Videl looked on blankly as Kiara yawned and toddled over to him, tucked herself under his arm, and joined him in slumber. Looking over at Icarus for support, she sweat dropped as she found the large dragon curled up in a deep sleep as well. Throwing up her hands in defeat, Videl nestled down next to Gohan for a short nap. After all, it had been a long day for them all.
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"NO!" a male voice screamed causing Erasa and Kero to jump up out of their slumber from their respective corners of their little hut.
With wide eyes Erasa rushed over to Sharpner's side shaking him in order to wake him up. She instantly knew what her blond friend was dreaming about once she saw the tears streaking down the sleeping boy's face. Only one thing would make the Sharpenator react in that way.
"Come on, Sharpie!" she urged, shaking the boy gently. "Wake up!"
At her action, Sharpner's eyes opened and the boy looked around in confusion before they locked on his blonde friend. "She…she…" he said, sounding very much like a lost child.
"I know babe," Erasa said, tears welling in her eyes for her friend. She drew him into a hug just as the boy broke down in tears. She held him tightly to her chest and stroked his hair as he cried, whispering soothing words in his ear. After a while, his shoulders stopped shaking and his sobs subsided.
"I'm s-sorry," he said brokenly. "I-it just seemed so real. Like I was back there again. I-I-"
"Don't apologize, Sharpner," Erasa said, cutting off his apologies. "Do you want to talk about it?" At school, the blond boy would act like he had not a care in the world except for who was going to be his next hot date but both he and Erasa knew that was bullshit.
A look of contemplation crossed the boy's face before he reluctantly conceded. At Erasa's prompt, he lay down on her lap and she played with his hair. He smiled distantly. Erasa was the only one who knew that playing with his hair relaxed him. She was the only one since her that he had even let touch his hair.
Inhaling deeply, the boy began his narration. "Well you know it happened ten years ago. You never met her. She was just so beautiful. She had blond hair, like mine, but other than that I didn't look anything like her. I guess that's maybe why I love my hair so much," he started.
Erasa giggled at his attempt at a joke. She twirled the long strands of hair around her finger, occasionally massaging his scalp. She never tried to push him; she only provided a listening ear and advice if he needed it. She believed that is why Sharpner had never been serious with Videl. She would continually badger him until he spilled his guts without caring that he might be sensitive to the matter. She listened as the boy continued his story, never once interrupting.
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"All strapped in, Sharpie?" a young blonde woman asked as she finished buckling her seat belt. She had beautiful green eyes and a warm smile.
The young boy bounced slightly in his booster seat wearing a 100-watt grin. "Sure thing, mommy!" he replied. They were on their way to Hiroshi Park, the biggest amusement park ever; and they got to stay there for a whole week! His dad was away on a business trip but rather than going home he was going to meet them at their hotel the next day before they went exploring.
The young boy felt safe and happy. He was with his mommy (after all who could touch him with her around); and they were going to have the time of their lives.
As the SUV pulled out of the driveway, Sharpner sat back and glued his eyes to the screen on the back of the front passenger's seat as his mom inserted his favorite DVD. He barely paid attention to the scenery outside as he was absorbed into the cartoon world displayed on the screen.
As the end credits rolled the boy looked outside for the first time since leaving home. The clouds now formed a dark, opaque seal over the expanse of the sky. Lightning flashed with enough intensity and frequency to cause an epileptic seizure. Angry forks of lightning preceded frightening crashes of thunder. Torrential rain poured mercilessly onto the earth below causing Mrs. Pencil to slow her speed to a mere crawl.
"I'm sorry Sharpie, but I don't think we're going anywhere in this weather," the young woman said apologetically. "We're going to have to find a motel and spend the night there.
Sharpner felt disappointed but understood his mother's decision. "We're still going to get to go tomorrow, right?" he asked hopefully.
His mother smiled back at him. "Sure!" she agreed.
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"It never happened," Sharpner lamented. "In the time it took for her to look back at me and utter that one syllable, some asshole driving a semi on the wrong side of the road comes crashing through the front of our car. All I remember seeing was headlights before it all went black."
Erasa covered her mouth in shock. She had known Sharpner's mother had died in a car accident but she had no idea that the boy was in the vehicle with her when it happened. She didn't have much time to ponder this as he continued his tale.
"I woke up two weeks later, hurting like hell," he said. "The first thing I remember asking was 'where was my mother?'" The boy shook his head in grief. "They told me that- that both she and driver died on impact and that I was lucky to be alive but all I could think was that I should have died too. I have to say, for a while after I tried to die."
Erasa could not suppress her gasp this time. She had never thought her friend had such morbid thoughts; and at eight years old? She knew the boy had problems, mostly economical, as neither he nor his dad was able to hold down a steady job. Nevertheless, the boy never mentioned suicide.
"My dad was there at my bedside the entire time. I feel terrible about it now, but at the time I didn't even acknowledge his presence. I know it hurt him bad. I was the only thing he had left and I pushed him away. I actually wanted to leave him, although he had been nothing but supportive.I think that's why he went downhill after she passed. And I only made it worse," Sharpner said, his voice full of self-loathing. "He refused to let them bury my mother until I woke up. He-he knew I didn't get the chance to say goodbye to her so-so he wanted to give me that opportunity."
Erasa's heart went out to the boy now more than ever. She now understood the depth of the bod Sharpner shared with his father. The two were like best friends and, with the exception of the hair looked like clones of each other. Sharpner had begun crying again and this time she joined him silently. He wrapped his arms around her waist from his position, hiding his face against her stomach.
"T-they cut off all my hair so that they could make an incision to relieve the pressure in my brain." Sharpner continued. "When I went back to school, kids teased me so much about my bald head that I swore I'd never cut my hair again. It was the only thing my mom passed down to me so I wanted to treasure it."
The two lay in silence for a while as they tried to sort out their whirling emotions. Sharpner was the first to break their silence. "So that's my story. Beautiful isn't it?" he said chuckling pathetically. He looked up at her for the first time since he began his story and was alarmed when he saw the tears streaming silently down her cheeks. He knew Erasa cried at every romantic or slightly sad scene on television but for some reason he had never thought that his real-life trauma would have this much of an effect on her. "Hey," he said softly wiping the tears from her eyes. "Don't cry, 'Rase. You're supposed to be my anchor."
Erasa giggled at his words. She was his anchor both euphemistically and literally. In the fourth grade, they had a school play in which Sharpner played a tugboat and Erasa played his anchor. It was that play that had sparked their friendship.
It was Sharpner's turn to chuckle as Kero landed on his nose. "Hey, buddy. Didn't mean to weigh you down with all my problems."
Kero just flew a circle around the boy's head and landed back in his corner. Clearly, he was ready to get back to bed.
"Thanks for listening, 'Rase," Sharpner said. "It really helped a lot."
"Any time Sharpie," Erasa responded.
"We should get back to bed," Sharpner said getting off Erasa's lap. He extended his hand to help his friend up. As Erasa took his hand, Sharpner yanked a little took hard, causing the blonde girl to fall against his hard chest.
"Sorry about that," Sharpner apologized.
Erasa took a step back and grinned. "It's ok. Looks like somebody's getting stronger. Those hard days with Gohan are really paying off aren't they?"
"Yeah," Sharpner responded, blushing slightly.
The two stood in an awkward silence for a minute before Erasa broke it. "So goodnight?" she said.
"Night," Sharpner responded, moving to kiss her cheek as he always did. What he didn't expect was that she would be doing the same. Their noses collided gently causing the two to giggle at their silliness. They were still nose to nose; close enough to feel the others' breath on their skin. It was then, as their laughter subsided, that blue met blue.
Sharpner blushed as he really studied Erasa's face for the first time. He had known her since the fourth grade and had always known she was beautiful; however it was then he began to notice just how stunning she was. She was beautiful both inside and out. He realized that, other than his father, she was the only one he could really trust with his deepest secrets and despite her reputation as the school gossip, knew she would take his secrets to her grave. She was the only person who he let see him cry. Not even his father had that privilege. She was loyal both to him and Videl; listening to whatever they had to say, yet she was never judgmental. She was a lot smarter than people gave her credit for. When they were younger and she'd said that she wanted to become a psychologist, he had laughed thinking she wasn't serious. Now, he could say she had been his free therapist for years now. How could he have had this beautiful, amazing woman right under his nose and fail to acknowledge her? The more he thought about Erasa, the more he realized he wanted, no, needed to have her in his life always. He was in love with her.
The boy inhaled sharply as he made that realization. He never thought he would fall in love and so, he never thought it would be while he was still this young. To his surprise, he found that he didn't care about getting all the girls he could into bed with him anymore. They were all just one night stands and he needed something stable. It was then he promised he would never again hit on another woman. Erasa was the one for him. Despite what many would think, Sharpner felt nothing for Videl anymore. When he had first moved to Orange Star City nine years ago, he had been smitten by her, now he saw her as nothing more than a friend. He hit on her more for tradition's sake than anything else.
Her lips were so close. He thought about kissing them but immediately, a shyness Sharpner had not felt since his first day of preschool crept up on him. The sensation surprised him so much that he ended up giving the blonde girl a quick hug instead, his cheeks flaming embarrassingly the entire time. Am I turning into Brains or something? Almost in a daze they went off to their corners and fell into a slumber, dreaming of their new-found crush.
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I think it was time I wrote a S/E centric chapter. Seems like nobody cares about them except for a few cheap laughs ne? Anyway, I hope you liked it. Thanks for visiting and drop a review on your way out!
