Monkey Business in Gravesfield 8 - or 'A Tale of a Saiyan, a Basilisk, and a Human' (Post-DBZ Xenoverse x Pre-Finale The Owl House, Saiyan!OC)
Cafeteria, it was a regular day. To Masha, at least.
To say that there was tension between Vee and Jay was an understatement. For some reasons the two had been at odds with one another, exchanging glares and being relatively quiet when they were both around Masha. It wasn't just mere silence, these two were on the edge especially when they were around the two.
Masha wasn't truly certain on what may have led to this situation, but they had an idea on why that was a thing now more than before: with the exam month just over, more free time was available for all. Which meant something big happened with these two while Masha wasn't paying attention.
And that meant a lot since they paid attention to both of them equally and intensely!
It wasn't truly too bad since these two were clearly not hurling mean punches (not when Jay was both a diplomatic guy and also because he would probably obliterate Vee) but the tension was ruining the mood. Masha just didn't like it when her closest friends were at odds to such extent and, after thinking thoroughly about it, she decided to take some efforts to make sure they could get a reading on both.
A first effort came through school as she trailed, 'chased' and at times tagged along these two and... they behaved nicely around Masha. When the other element of 'dissonance' wasn't around to see, hear or interact with them. Weird- like, crazy weird.
Beyond this information, Masha failed to find anything else noteworthy, and the non-binary friend with quite the binary preoccupation was now facing a big dilemma: how were they meant to get their friends to patch things up?
Something like a fight had to have happened or something similar. Maybe they didn't like the same sports' team or maybe Vee said something silly about Yu-Gi-Oh or anything else that Jay weebed about. Anyway, this sort of 'Trench Warfare' attitude wasn't something Masha liked. Not just on their own sake, but also because they cared for their two lovely morons.
With that in mind, Masha shifted her plotting mind to something that made sense to her: an event that could see these two make amend to one another and... Masha had to be there to make sure things went as intended. Like heck they were going to let these two have a room for themselves and either screw things up more with one another, or even bounce off into a relationship.
Either options were super-bad. Masha did want them to be friendly with one another, but they weren't just going to let her friends get in a relationship since... Well, Masha was unsure about many things. They loved Jay, they loved Vee, but 'love' was such a difficult word to address either without debunking the similar affection she held for the other.
They were ecstatic for Jay's return, but they felt something for Vee too. How were they meant to handle this without causing a massive fallout leading to the equally massive destruction of their bonds?
The more Masha thought of this, the more the non-binary student thought of a single option that could work well for them. And one that they didn't hesitate to mention to both.
"A sleepover!"
The reaction was far from 'ideal' upon first contact, with Jay uneasy and Vee confused.
"Mash, aren't your parents-"
"Not at my place," Masha assured confidently, which led to a question from Vee.
"Then where?"
Fishing their phone out of their jacket, Masha showed them a section of Gravesfield's map. "This place. Abandoned house in the outskirts. I checked it three times and I can tell you both it's not haunted."
"That's a starter," Vee pointed out, frowning as she seemed to realize where it was. "Isn't that one of the houses with rotting floors?"
"The least wrecked one, yes. I checked and it's a place where we can have a spooky sleepover."
"It's not even Halloween yet-"
"But we can still have fun and... you two have been ghosting each other. That's not fine at all," Masha jumped, this time ready to go with their mental fists out. This additional line seemed to catch them both off-guard.
"We are not-" "It's not like-"
"I can see it, you idiots. And as your mutual friends, I want to make sure to get both of you out of whatever funk is giving you trouble. Gotcha?"
Vee and Jay shared a quick look and then sighed at the same time.
"Fine." "I suppose."
Masha grinned widely at this, already plotting on how to make it a memorable night for the three of them and... failing to realize things were bound to get quite interesting once these two were going to be stuck with the non-binary dummy for a while.
Feelings can, after all, evolve in the span of a few 'innocent' hours.
"Why are we not calling him back?"
Within her garden, the Supreme Kai of Time, Chronoa, was not having fun in keeping up with a most annoyed Prince of all Saiyans.
It's been just a week since some concerning events had floated up to her attention and three days since a new Time Patroller had tagged along the ever-growing list of agents. This one was special, he was similar to Jay in potential but... In a sense, Vegeta had a point in asking this question since this new threat may be actually stronger than Demigra himself.
Yet, that question already had an answer- a solution that should been in his mind for a long time since the last spar he had with Jay should have pressed it firmly on his thick skull.
"Because he retired," The pink Kai remarked flatly, trying to be supportive of Jay's desires on the topic. "And because we already have someone else to work with-"
"A brat that prefers to goof around with Kakarot rather than train," Vegeta interrupted, his snappish tone a bit different than most times he would get this irritated. "I need the brat back."
"He has a family-"
"Who hardly noticed his departure-"
"By my decision and effort, Vegeta," Chronoa interjected back, almost snapping at the sheer amount of airheadedness the man was showing. "Plus, he told you. He is not interested in going back."
"And I don't see how you decided to not have a proper chat with him after that mess. I know my son, but I have to give it to the brat that he was in the right- and that he should have been told this much."
The intense rebuttal made Chronoa hesitate momentarily as the Prince had raised a compelling point: she had not noticed that the last mission Jay was assigned to, a rather intense one, may have made him want to leave. Not much because of the fighting, but because the situation involved someone that was a friend and that had strayed from the right path.
Could she blame Trunks? Not entirely.
Not with the pain he was going through at seeing the institution he had supported so much now siding against him for the sake of the order of things. He strayed, got punished, but then used the pain to produce some vile words that kept by Jay to the point of the boy leaving.
She thought he would have remained. He liked the place, and Chronoa actually thought of him as a reliable agent and a good talker. Sadly, she failed to see the issue until it was too late and it was now too late to cry over the spilled milk.
"We are still not bringing him back. He asked for this to be permanent, and I see no reason yet to break that deal."
Her solid defense was meek at best, but while she expected a greater push from Vegeta, the Saiyan just stared at her, scoffed and then left. No words, no action, nothing that could have been seen as pure and utter spite. Which was odd since Vegeta would have reacted aggressively on the matter.
Maybe he finally got that done or-
"I am still not training that fool. Kakarot can keep him."
The response was quite souring, but Chronoa agreed on the fact that Ronnie wasn't like Jay at all. Too like Goku, yet just focused on learning from Goku and no one else. A shame for sure, but she could at least hope this was the end of troubles of all sorts.
What she didn't know was that Vegeta was smirking as he left. He had given another try to diplomacy but... maybe he will have to approach the brat himself.
AN
Hori Shyet, things are about to get spicy between a spooky but heartwarming sleepover, and the arrival of the most aggro-Saiyan after Broly.
Reminder that all of this is possible through the Pxtreon. Do give it a look, m'kay?