Meadow

I was surprisingly happy when Locke showed up to school the next day. He hadn't returned any of my messages the day before, so I'd been worried. It may sound strange, but I was kind of lonely without him.

When we sat down to lunch, I only then noticed that something seemed to be bothering him. "What's wrong?" I asked.

He looked around, then leaned in. "Promise not to tell Goten or Trunks?" I nodded. "I kinda used the Dragon Balls and wished for someone who could train me to my full potential."

"Huh?!"

He nodded, smiling awkwardly. "I didn't get what I was expecting, but he agreed to teach me under a few conditions."

"Like what?"

"Not telling anyone about him, for one." He noticed Goten and Trunks approaching. "That's all I can say."

The two Saiyans sat down and looked between us. "Are we interrupting something?" Trunks asked.

"Nope," I responded. Locke sighed in relief.

Locke

After school, I tried to hurry home for training, but Goten and Trunks confronted me outside the gate.

"What's up, guys?" I asked, somewhat worried. They didn't look like they meant harm, but Goten looked pretty stern.

He took a deep breath. "Locke," he said carefully, "I have a question for you." I waited for him to continue. "Do you... like Meadow?"

"Well, yeah," I said, causing him to stiffen. "She's really cool and we have a lot in common."

Goten started to say something, but Trunks stopped him. "We mean: do you like her?" he said again. "As in, do you want to put your baby in her?"

"The hell?!" me and Goten yelled in sync.

Trunks shrugged. "You get the point. Do you like her that way?"

My face was bright red as I searched for a response, but his wording had thrown me off. "I, ah, eh, wha, huh?" That was probably the least intelligent sentence I'd spoken since I was a baby. "Why- why do you want to know?"

Trunks thumped Goten on the back of his head. "'Cause this guy's been after her since day one, and thinks he's actually making headway."

Goten rubbed his read. "Um, what he said."

"That still didn't answer my question."

They both looked at each other, then Trunks continued. "Well, you two have been getting pretty close lately, and she didn't really seem up for Goten's antics yesterday when you were gone." I waited for more. "Pretty much, lay off until Goten makes his move. Otherwise you might end up stealing her."

I put up my hands defensively. "Hey, guys, we're seriously just friends. If she'll take you, she's all your's, Goten."

Goten sighed. "Thanks." They let me go and I hurried home.

Goten

It was a huge weight off my shoulders, hearing that from him. Now all I had to do was ask her out. Conveniently, she was just walking out of the school. "Hey, Doe!" I called, running toward her. She stopped and waited for me.

"Yeah?" she asked patiently.

I grinned, but inside, I was forcing my mouth to move. "I was wondering if you wanted to go see the new Xenowars movie at the theater."

"With everyone else?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No, you and me. You know, a date," I clarified.

She looked alarmed for some reason. "Um, like a friendly date, or..."

"A real date." I smiled again. "I've really liked you for a while now." I waited for her response, but the look on her face wasn't very encouraging.

"Um..." she averted her eyes, blushing slightly. "Normally I'd love to as friends, but..." The "friends" bit killed my smile. And it only got worse. "... I actually... like someone else already."

I felt my heart drop. "Who?" I asked, dreading the answer.

Locke

I looked around at the pocket space Cell made with a spell he learned in Hell.

"This room will condense the time of an hour into one minute on the outside," he explained. "We'll go for three to start, then build from there." He stood straight. "Now attack me with your full power so I can judge you." I nodded and readied myself, raising my stength to its peak, then lunged, attacking in a frenzy. He didn't budge, but he seemed interested. "You seem exceptionaly powerful, as well as versed in what points to strike. If you were fighting someone who was on your level, you'd have a clear advantage." Then something connected with my face and sent me flying. "But I am not at your level. You'll need another sparring partner." He turned his back to me, then the spike on his lower back opened and shot out a blue ball. It unfolded into a mini Cell. "Meet Cell Jr.; I made him with the same level of power and skill as you. Don't worry about killing him; I didn't give this one any other intelligence, and I am unable to craft souls for my creations."

I got back to my feet and nodded. "Alright, Junior. Give me your best shot."

Goten

"I'll kill him!"

"Goten, calm down," Trunks said. "He said he just saw her as a friend, right? Give it a little while, and she'll get that, too."

I ground my teeth. "And if he was lying, and she makes the first move?" Trunks tried to answer, but couldn't.

"What are you worrying about?" Vegeta said as he entered the room. "If this girl doesn't have feelings for you, then don't bother with her. Do you think I jumped on the first-" He stopped and took a deep breath. "Bad example."

I sighed and hung my head. "I should have seen it coming. They've been together almost every day since we met him." My fist clenched. "How can I win her back? I know she loves fighting, but we've shown her ev-" I stopped. "Not Fusion," I realized. "We can show her Gotenks!"
Trunks frowned. "I don't think that'll work. What's attractive about two of your friends combining?"

"It's my last shot!"
"Not really..." But I wasn't listening. After all, I was my father's son. "Goten, this won't work."

Vegeta grimaced. "There's no reasoning with him. He's too much like Kakarot."

I pulled out my phone and texted Meadow to come to CC as soon as she could. I waited, and finally got a response.

Sorry, already made plans.

I sighed and put my phone away again. "I'll try again tomorrow."

Cell

I left the room while the two fought, deciding to see what else was going on. The boy's mother was sitting in front of the television, watching an odd program about naggy housewives.

"Where is the appeal in this?" I asked, announcing my presence. She jumped and turned her head. "Relax; as long as I live here, you and that boy are safe."

She seemed skeptical, but looked back at the screen. "A martial arts tournament on the other side of the world is going to air in a few minutes. I'm just passing time."

I nodded, though I still questioned her choice. "You and your son really enjoy martial arts. Why is that?"

She muted the TV and tilted her head in thought. "Dunno. I've loved it as long as I can remember, but my parents would never pay for lessons, for me or Locke. I can't hold a job, so I couldn't pay for it, so we just made due with watching."

I crossed my arms. "About your parents: you were a mother at a very young age, correct?"

She nodded. "Fourteen."

"It's my understanding that parents usually aren't very supportive of that sort of thing. Why do they support you?"

She sighed. "Truth be told, the moment they found out, they wanted me to back out of it, but the doctors couldn't do it without my consent, and I wasn't about to kill my unborn baby. And since I'm an only child, they didn't want anything to happen to me, so..." She gestured to the room around us.

I couldn't tell why, but the story gave me some respect for the young woman. "One final question: I don't believe I've caught your name."

She seemed confused by my question, but answered anyway. "Rachel. Rachel Brangwen."

I nodded. "It suits you." Then I smirked. "Perfectly."

She sighed. "Is it my imagination, or did the man who almost destroyed the Earth just make a horrible pun?"

My smirk faded. "Um, I should check on Locke." This was the first time I'd ever been embarassed by something so trivial. It disturbed me.

I stepped back into the pocket space, seeing the two still fighting. The only difference now was that Junior was beaten and bloody, and Locke was perfectly fine, although seemingly winded. Locke went in for a head-on attack, and I withheld the urge to scold him, then something odd happened. Junior crossed his arms to block it, but his fist passed right through. Locke slowly faded away, causing Junior to blink in confusion, then Locke reappeared behind him and swept his leg through the air, cleaving Junior in half.

I stared, shocked by what I'd seen. That was clearly an afterimage, I thought to myself, but how did he manage to maintain it for so long this early into his training? "How did you do that?" I asked him.

He turned to me, panting. "I... don't really know. I just acted on instinct, I guess."

I brought my hand to my chin. There is something strange about this boy. "Well done, I suppose. You've already been here longer than I said, and I believe you had plans tonight."

His face turned red. "H-how did you know about that?!"

I crossed my arms. "I was merely monitoring your day to make sure that nothing would conflict with your schedule."

He still seemed annoyed, but nodded. "Yeah, I said I'd take Meadow to the movies-" He stopped. "Oh, crap! I told Goten I'd avoid her until he made his move!"
"Which he did," I informed him. "I took the liberty of placing spycams from my father's laboratory on you and the Saiyan boys. He asked her, and she rejected him."

He looked confused. "Why? I thought he was making headway."

"That's not for me to tell." I was evil, but I did have some respect for others. Especially now that I was so far down the pecking order. "You'd better get showered; you wouldn't want to go on your date like that."

"I-it's not a date!"

Locke

Half an hour later, I was standing in front of Meadow's house, preparing to ring the doorbell. "It's not a date, it's not a date..." I kept telling myself, but the fact that she turned down Goten and not me kept coming back. "It's just because I asked first; that's it." I rung the bell and steeled myself.

The door opened, and I had to clench my jaw to keep it from dropping; she was stunning. Meadow had her brown hair in a small ponytail held by a pink flower clip, while still leaving some free. Her normal blue, cropped t-shirt had been replaced with a frillier red one that still showed off her stomach, but a little less. She still wore jeans, but they were beige instead of grey, and her high-tops were replaced with pink slip-ons.

I gulped. Okay, so maybe I was lying to Goten and Trunks earlier.

She smiled as she saw me. "You look ready for our date."

… and myself just now. "Date?" I asked, smiling as well. "Is, uh... is that what this is?"

She giggled and took my hand in hers. "I should hope so, or I'll look like an idiot."

"Can't have that," I said, my smile becoming less strained.

Meadow

My first date with Locke was great. We went to see Xenowars 3, then went out for dinner before he walked me home. He seemed tired the whole time, but it wasn't too noticable, and he avoided the question when I asked.

We stopped at my door and turned to face each other. "You didn't plan for this to be a date, did you?" I asked. He shook his head. "Do you want me to stop thinking of it like one?"

"No," he responded. "I kinda like the idea of dating you."

I smiled. "That's good." I got up on my tip-toes and kissed his cheek, then pulled back. "Because I've liked you for a little while now."

His face suddenly heated up. "H-huh?" I smiled and nodded. "Why are you so nonchalant about it?"

"This is the first time I've felt it this strongly, and I don't want you to slip through my fingers."

"Is that why you turned down Goten?"

My smile vanished. "How did you know about that?"

His eyes darted from left to right. "Um..." He sighed in defeat. "My teacher was eavesdropping. He had good intentions, but ended up abusing it."

Locke

*Quick note: I'm changing POV here because I f*cked it up and wrote the rest in Locke's.

Her smile returned. "Well, at least you weren't spying on us." Her eyes drifted away and she reddened slightly. "So, are we... you know, or should we wait a little while?"

"H-huh?!" I stammered. "This is our first date, though!"

She nodded. "Yeah, but I like you, you like me, and tonight didn't ruin that. Why wait?"

I scratched my head. "Um, I guess I'll leave it up to you."

Meadow smiled and got back on her tip-toes, getting as close to my face as possible without making contact. "Then you've got yourself a girlfriend."

I smiled back. "Awesome. And now I can say that you look amazing."

"Why couldn't you say that before?"

"Because I didn't want you to know I liked you yet."

She giggled again, then lowered down from her toes. "So then, how about we do that thing only couples are supposed do?" I raised an eyebrow, that being a wide range. She said the next word slowly, almost playfully. "Kiiiiisssss?"

I turned red again. "U-um, I think we've already done a lot for our first date. Let's wait a while for that."

"Fiiiiine." The way she said it sent my heart racing. "Well, tomorrow's Saturday. Wanna plan something?"

"Sure. I'll think of something; keep an eye out for a text." I looked at my phone for the time. "I should be getting home. See you."

She grinned and, to my shock, threw her arms around me. "See you." She pulled away and waved as she walked down her sidewalk.

I grinned all the way home, happy as I could be. When I got there, I was surprised to see Cell helping Mom with the dishes, but didn't question it and went straight to bed.

Rachel

"A-Are you sure you don't mind helping?" My mind and heart were racing as the Android calmly cleaned the plates and handed them to me to dry.

He nodded, not taking his eyes off his work. "The only thing I've ever done that wasn't violent was when I built my arena. This is a nice change of pace; much calmer." I gulped and just went with it.

Locke returned a few minutes later and silently retreated to his room while we continued in silence.

"So..." Cell broke the silence. "Locke seems pretty emotionally stable for a bastard."

"We don't use that word here," I scolded before I could think better of it. I nervously glanced at him, but he seemed unphased. "I mean, we say it, but not in the real definition. It's a sensitive subject."

"I guess that makes sense." We continued on silence.

When everything was put away, I nervously held my hand out to Cell. "Um, thanks for helping," I said quietly, still intimidated by the creature.

He looked at my hand questioningly. "I don't think that's the proper response. Don't women usually offer a hug or a kiss, or, on the rare occasion, sexual favors?" My face turned beet-red. "Or was my data off?"

"N-no, you're right... except that last one is more than rare in this kind of neighborhood." I gulped and hesitantly stepped forward, putting my arms around him, but making sure to barely touch him.

"... what is this?"

"Um, a hug... kinda."

He seemed intrigued. "My father's data mentioned the act, but never actually explained what it entailed. Is there a reason people enjoy it?"

I was utterly shocked at what he was saying, but tried to answer. "Well, um... M-maybe you'll get it if I actually go through with it." I steeled myself and pressed myself against him, putting my arms around him tighter. Then something strange happened. The grooves of his muscles suddenly seemed almost welcoming, and I felt myself ease up. Something about it was... nice.

I heard Cell's breath stop, then he slowly returned the hug, though the height difference made it difficult. "This is... strange," he commented. "My pulse is moving so fast, you'd think I was in a fight for my life, but at the same time, I feel at ease with the world."

A small smile crept onto my face. "There's the appeal," I stated. "It can be comforting and exciting when it's with the right person."

"Is a kiss the same way?"

My face flushed again. "W-well, yeah, but that's more of a romantic thing."

"So you won't be able to demonstrate that," he noted.

I felt myself heat up even more. "Y-yeah, sorry." We stood there for a few moments, then I pulled back. "Well, I hope I helped with your data."

He nodded, smiling. "Tremendously." He turned and started to go to the room now designated as his. "I hope you'll help me further add to it while Locke is at school."

"S-sure." I looked down at my arms, wondering why that one hug had felt more, well, right than anything I'd done with any of my ex-boyfriends.