Dragon Ball © Akira Toriyama, Shuheisha, Inc.

Chapter 31: It Just Happened

"… Trunks?" He was startled by the feeling of Tenten's other palm on his other cheek. "Hey, are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, it's nothing." He held both of her wrists as if his life was depending on it, not expecting it to be so shaky. "It's nothing …"

Judging from his expression and situation, Tenten had a slight idea of what was going on. All Trunks hoped for when he was about to meet his father was Vegeta's acknowledgement but all he got was the otherwise and Vegeta clearly pushed his own son away. It had shown since the beginning, but if it was getting worse, she had an idea of why.

"He doesn't like us, does he?" Trunks widened his eyes. "Because I'm my father's daughter."

Trunks flabbergasted but he quickly pulled her arms. "Look, Tenten …"

"Do you want to end this for his sake then?" She drew a line with her forefingers.

"No, of course not!"

"Then why are you even bothered by it?" She shook her head. "You're so easily agitated over a small thing." She lightly slapped his cheeks several times.

"Ouch! Ouch! Stop it!" He held her wrists away from his face.

"Wake up! We have bigger things to deal with," she finally said with a smile.

This, Trunks finally sighed. "You're right. I can't let that bother me." He chuckled at how stupid it was to have wallowed in that for three days straight. "Thank you for reminding me, My Lady." After making sure no one was looking, he pulled her to kiss the side of her head. "Miss you, by the way."

"Me to you too, Tiger." She returned the affection by kissing his cheek.

It was strange how Vegeta despised Goku so much yet Goku always managed to convince him into something. Together, they went to God's Palace to use The Hyperbolic Time Chamber. No one but Goku ever saw or used the room.

Mr. Popo, who used to be God's servant, ushered them to the spiral staircase that led them to the bottom part of the palace. When they took a peek at the room, they were overwhelmed by how it was hard to normally breathe in the room as the temperature was hot and the air pressure was extraordinarily heavy. There was a room enough for two people but the only thing food resources provided inside were unlimited flour and water. Though the room seemed to be quite big, when they entered the training area, it looked like nothing but a gazebo compared to the unlimited expanse of white field they could use to train.

It was decided that Vegeta and Trunks would be the ones to use the room first.

"So, when I enter this room, I wouldn't be able to see you for a whole year?" Trunks was asking permission to have some conversation before entering the room.

"Just a day for me. No big deal," Tenten jokingly said, earning a scowl from Trunks.

"I'll be missing you, you know?"

"I know. I want you to bring this with you." Tenten took off one of her silver hairpins, pulling his hand and putting it into his palm. "This is a piece of me you can bring inside. It has been with me through the ups and downs of my life so you better return this to me."

Trunks scrutinised the silver bird hairpin Tenten had worn since she got it from Gohan for her eleventh birthday. It wasn't as shiny as it previously was with all the scrapes and damages it suffered following Tenten's battle throughout the years though it looked fine from afar. Now that he thought about it, the hairpin itself was the whole representation of herself and how she tried to survive so far, physically and mentally, as she fought not only the enemies but her own self through her depression. He gently wrapped his fingers around the hairpin before pulling her into his embrace.

"Tenten …"

"Hm?"

"I want you to know that I'm proud of you and for having someone as strong as you around." He kissed her forehead as he drew circles on her waist. "Thank you for surviving this far."

Her eyes widened as she never expected that she had longed to hear those words for so long. Something warm was pooling in her chest, exciting her so much that she tightened her hold around him. She laid her head on his chest, inhaling his scent so deeply that she could memorise his distinctive mixture of earthy lavender and leather scent.

"I'm strong because you're alive, so don't die."

He chuckled. "Like I said, I'll live forever if that's what you want."

"Stupid," she said as she pinched his nose.

Not a single word was muttered afterwards, only a pair of sapphire eyes staring into her onyx eyes, muttering a thousand things they had never been able to put into words. Slowly, he inclined his face towards her then kissed her softly at first, then with a swift gradation of intensity that made them hold onto each other for support. All the other sounds of the world went silent as they could only hear their own heartbeats, racing against each other.

"Trunks …" she breathily said in between their kiss.

"Hm?"

"Promise me you won't die on me …" She tightened her clutch on his jersey upon the memory of Cell's news regarding Trunks' death in the future. "Please stay alive for me …"

"Anything for my lady," he said before kissing her one last time.

"Get along with your father and don't kill each other, 'kay?" He answered with a chuckle. "And come out stronger than ever, Tiger."

"For you and our world, My Lady …"

And so he entered the room with his father.

Due to the situation in her world, Tenten never had the chance to see many of the historical buildings in the world as they got destroyed by the androids. The God's Palace has a strong resemblance to the South-Eastern style building and it made her wonder why God decided to build it that way in the first place.

"It just happened," was all her father could say when she asked him about it. Not that she expected much of his answer.

"By the way, Otō-san, didn't you say that the room is only set for two people? Does that mean that the three of us can't enter the room at the same time?" Gohan asked as they sat on the side of the palace, looking at the clouds.

"Don't worry. I will enter the room twice. I still have some time left for that because I couldn't even stand a day in that room during my previous training." Tenten couldn't imagine herself surviving the room if even her father couldn't make it. She glanced at her watch, seeing that it had been two hours since Trunks went into the room, which meant that he had spent a month inside. While thinking about how he got along with his father, Tenten mindlessly created a single hexagon with her barrier ability, startling both Goku and Gohan.

"Whoa! What did you do just now?!"

"Oh, this." She created a bigger barrier. "Actually, I wanted to ask you if it's normal for me to have this ability?" Goku shook his head. "Also, healing?" Again, he shook his head.

"You can create a barrier and heal?" Gohan asked. "How did you get it?"

"It just happened." She felt silly for repeating after her father. "I already had it since I was a kid. I have a hard time developing them though. Goten didn't have it though."

"So far I never saw any Saiyan could do it, nor did Vegeta ever mention Saiyan having this ability," Goku said, rubbing his chin. No matter how hard he thought about it, no answer popped into his mind. "Have you asked Piccolo about this?"

"He didn't know himself, but he told me to find him in this place. We didn't have the chance to talk about it back in Master Roshi's place."

"Well, wherever it came from it's going to be very useful in our upcoming battle."

"Maybe you did something when Tenten was still in Okā-san's belly." Tenten rolled her eyes in her father's direction.

"Not that I can remember anything different than when she was with you," Goku casually answered.

"How's baby happened in the first place?" Gohan asked.

"Oh that—"

Before her father could utter another word, Tenten quickly said, "It just happened."

An extra update for you readers! Happy weekend! =D