“Not only has she succeeded in practically ruining my family life, but now she has also decided to take my friends away from me as well. I know that Goten is loyal to me, but I also know that he can’t help but be easily swayed. He’s only a man after all, and when faced with a temptation like Tayhei and a banquet of food, he can only hold onto his beliefs and values for so long before his caves in. The thing that I don’t understand is why she has chosen to be so obviously nice to him and hate me. I’m pretty much used to being the center of attention, especially with girls. I just don’t understand her at all.”

----Trunks's journal; Vol 1: Page 6

Goten did in fact help me with the painting, just as I had known that he would. We gave up after an hour or so, dropping the brushes to the floor, covered in white paint. Although Okaasan had warned us against it, we had made it more of a game. We took the opportunity to get a few rounds of sparring in, managing to get more paint on the wall then than we had while actually painting. Luckily, all of her belongings and furniture were covered with sheets anyway, so we didn’t have to worry about causing any damage. It was kind of a sloppy job, but I really didn’t care what the girl thought anyway. After we were finished with our sparring, we flopped down on Tayhei’s bedroom floor, huffing and wheezing from the exercise and barely even able to move, our faces buried in the plastic that protected the plush white carpet. I thought about what Okaasan would say if she came in and saw us like that, fainted on the floor. She probably would have been wondering how we might have gotten so tired from merely painting and most likely would be pretty suspicious. I pulled myself up with great concentration to a sitting position, then slid into the chair at Tayhei’s desk, still tired. Goten managed to pull himself up as well and sat on her bed, rubbing a sore arm.

“I think we’re doing a good job.” He observed. “It will look real nice when we’re done.”

He glanced over at me with hesitant dark eyes, a smile playing in the corners of his mouth. He had told me that he met Tayhei the other day while I was at a board meeting. As I suspected, she had acted sweet and innocent the entire time --- even cooked him a full course meal. I wasn’t surprised that she managed to gain Goten’s affection. I really believe that even if Majiin Buu had shoved some food in front of Goten’s face that he would have forgiven him for everything. The way to that boy’s heart was truly through his stomach, and it made me angry that Tayhei had managed to pinpoint that within the first few minutes of meeting him. Of course, when I tried to explain to him what the girl was really like, he had actually laughed at me in disbelief. It was really very frustrating for me that no one seemed to believe what I was trying to tell them about Tayhei. Everyone thought I was either just plain crazy or a huge liar.

“Hai.” I muttered a string of curse words under my breath, and glared around her room with newfound fury. “But she doesn’t deserve it.”

Goten didn’t pay any attention to that comment, or if he did, he didn’t show it. He merely sat there in contemplation, his eyebrows drawn together in pensiveness. He suddenly looked very serious and very unlike himself. For some reason, I felt that quite a confession was going to come, and I braced myself, hoping that I wouldn’t have to see my friend cry.

“Trunks, I’m worried about my mother.” He said suddenly, all in one quick sentence that dropped heavily around my shoulders the second that he said it. It seemed to thud off of the newly white walls, mixing in with the dizziness of the smell of paint and the brightness of the color.

“She is getting worse and worse….” He continued. “I’m afraid that she might….I don’t know. I don’t think she even wants to live anymore. I just really hate to see her like this. Your family always seems to get along….”

I thought for a moment, as deeply as my mind would allow me to, and then I closed my eyes. I didn’t know what to say. I had never been an emotional or thoughtful person, but Goten was my best friend and I wanted to at least try and help him. ChiChi was not exactly my favorite person on the Earth, but I didn’t want to see her depressed either. After all, she cared about Goten very much and was always there to help him if he needed something. I know how Goten must feel, if my mother wandered around the house crying all day long, I’d be concerned too, but I had my own problems, damn it. Otousan had barely ever said a kind word to me in all the years that I’d been alive, and he Okaasan fought constantly. Plus, I had Tayhei to deal with now, and that was very unsettling for me, considering that I was already in hot water to begin with. If Goten thought I had the perfect family life, he was dead wrong.

“Goten, my family never gets along. I think it’s kind a rule that families aren’t supposed to be happy together. In fact, I can’t think of a single family that I know of that doesn’t have at least one problem. That’s just the way that things work. Some problems are bigger than others, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not fixable.” I explained, then shot him a smile. “If your mom misses your dad, maybe you should just go and kidnap him, drag him back home and lock him up in a room with her for a few weeks.”

He smiled back, weakly, not looking at all like the boy that I knew so well. Goten had always been cheerful and optimistic; sweet, but pretty much clueless. I had no idea that deep feelings like these had been lying in his heart, but I suppose we all have our hidden secrets. As I stared at his frowning face, I began to feel very frightened that I just might lose my best friend. If he kept acting like this, I didn’t know what I was going to do with him. It was almost frightening the way that he acted sometimes. It had been hard enough to deal with him when he was completely clueless, but now that he was getting all emotional and sad, I had no idea what I was supposed to say.

Luckily, his mood shifted before I had to say anything. I was grateful for the fact that my friend was able to concentrate on the more positive things to cheer himself up. He was silent for only a minute, and then he looked up at me and smiled. “By the way, I just realized that you’re going to be living with Tayhei for a long while. You’re lucky, Trunks, to be living in the same house as her. She’s quite a sight.”

I groaned inwardly. “Yeah, I’m the most goddamn lucky boy on Earth.” My tone was dripping with sarcasm, but Goten didn’t seem to notice at all.

“Wow, she is such a great cook. I mean, it wasn’t quite as good as Okaasan’s but it was still amazing. And she is probably one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen.” Goten rambled about her, getting a far away look in his eyes.

He was probably picturing her rather stunning curves in his mind….I knew this because it was exactly what I was doing right then. That was another thing that pissed me off. Every time I tried to dwell on the girl and come up with interesting ways to sabotage her, all I could think about was how gorgeous she was. It only proved that she was purely evil; she was only beautiful so that she would be able to distract men from seeing things the way that they really were. I shook my head, trying to get the image of her out of my mind. When she had finally disappeared and my cruel thoughts of her resurfaced, I snapped a finger in front of Goten’s face.

“Wake up, Goten! Tayhei is not what she seems. She is one evil girl! She lies to everyone and is dead set on making my life miserable.” I informed him, crossing my arms across my chest. “She is a complete fraud and is only nice to people when she thinks she can get something from them.”

Goten frowned at me, and I could tell that he didn’t believe a word that I was saying to him. “I don’t understand why you’re saying that. She seemed perfectly nice to me. I don’t even know why you would want to make up stories like that. Tayhei is even sweeter than Marron, and that’s really an accomplishment!”

“I’m not making anything up!” I howled. “It’s the truth! I can’t believe everyone is so blind to how she really is!”

As if she had been listening, Tayhei suddenly poked her head in through the door, startling us both.

She was smiling brightly, her green eyes twinkling and she looked every bit as beautiful as she had the last time that I had seen her. I fell silent, and glared at her, but Goten quickly stood to his feet and walked over to her, grinning from ear to ear --- leave it to Goten to be swayed by a pretty face. It was simply disgusting.

“Hi, Tayhei!” He said happily. “Trunks and I were just talking about you.”

She stepped inside the room and admired the paint job, careful not to step in any of the paint spots on the plastic covered floor. She looked over at me, with a sweet smile on her face, gently brushing her long golden ponytail off of her shoulder. I absolutely hated the fact that she had to look so beautiful. It was completely frustrating to have a gorgeous girl living in your house anyway, but to make things worse --- she was completely evil. What also mad me mad was the fact that she knew she was gorgeous. She knew how to attract men, and she was able to do it without even any effort. And that was the problem. She knew that I found her attractive, and I honestly think she was dressing in these skimpy, skin-baring outfits just to make me sweat. She knew that I was determined to hate her, but she could also sense that I had a weak spot for a gorgeous female body. As she smiled at me, I got the feeling that she was highly enjoying the fact that she knew she was making me angry, and I didn’t like it at all. “You are both doing a very nice job painting the room. Thank you so much for doing this for me.”

“Like I actually had a choice.” I sneered, and then turned my back on her, crossing my arms tightly across my chest. I didn’t even want to look at her.

She hesitated before speaking again. “I just came up to see if you two wanted anything to drink."

I snorted in reply, but they both ignored me.

“That’s very nice of you, Tayhei. I’ll have something to drink!” Goten cried, then looked at me with a happy smile.

After all this time, Goten was betraying me over a pretty girl. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. And I simply didn’t understand why it had to be this particular girl. She had chosen to make my life miserable, but show an extreme amount of interest in Goten for some reason. It all just really pissed me off. I wanted her out of my house, I wanted my friend back, and I wanted things to get back to normal. I stood up from the chair at the desk, shoving it back towards the wall, and began stalked out of her room, not making eye contact with either of them.

I paused in the doorway, looking back over my shoulder at her. “Just stay out of my way, Tayhei. And leave my friends alone.”

Later that evening, Goten sat at his kitchen table across from his mother. He was a little upset about the fact that Trunks was mad at him, but knew that it would not last. He and Trunks were very loyal to each other and had been good friends for a long time. Nothing so silly as a girl would ever come between them, and they both knew it. Trunks had a bit of a temper, though, and he tended to overreact sometimes. He was certain by the next day, he and Trunks would be able to pick up right where they left off. He was glad that his friend was so loyal to him, too, because he really needed someone right now.

He looked up at his mother. She had cooked dinner for them, but again, it just didn’t seem as if she had put her heart into it. It made him feel bad to know that she was still cooking for him, even though he knew that she no longer wanted to. She had barely said a word to him while she was cooking, and when he asked her if she wanted his help, she had sternly said no. She was a strong woman, a stubborn woman, and she liked to do things on her own. But he also knew that inside she was very delicate and at the moment she was very hurt. He watched her as she lifted a big of noodles up to her mouth, twisting them around her fork. She blew on it lightly to cool it down. She hadn’t said anything at all since she served dinner, and the look on her face was almost too much for Goten to bear. He hated seeing him mother upset. She meant so much to him and was so important to him. And besides that, she was only other person besides Trunks who ever took the time to talk to him and love him. He just wanted her to be alright again. Happy like she used to be when his father was there with them.

He bit his lip. “Kaasan are you okay?”

She looked up from her food and met his eyes. The sad look was replaced by a more quizzically one, her dark brows drawing together. “I’m fine, Goten. Why wouldn’t I be fine?”

“You’re so quiet.” He told her.

“I’m sorry, Goten. I guess my mind was simply somewhere else.” She put a fake smile on her face; a smile that had way too much pain behind it to look real. It was the smile she always used when friends came over, the smile she used when he had caught her crying. “What would you like to talk about?”

“I want to talk about Tousan.” He told her bluntly. “I want to know why he left us.”

She looked surprised by the brashness of his question, blinking a couple of times before responding. “He didn’t leave us, Goten. He left to train Ubuu so that we would be safe. He left to protect us. He wants nothing more than to keep us safe. I’ve told you that before. And your father tells you that every time he comes for a visit.”

“Well, I’m just not so sure that I believe it anymore.”

“Goten.” She scolded. “I don’t want you talking like that about your father.”

He couldn’t believe it. After all this time, after all that he had put her through, she still stuck up for his father. She still thought that he was this amazing man, even after everything that she had been through. It was confusing; she was confusing. He couldn’t begin to delve into the mysteries of his mother’s heart, but it simply didn’t make sense that she would still defend him after all that had happened. After all that he had done to both of them.

“I don’t understand you at all.” Goten cried, looking at her with a worried look on his handsome face. “He’s hurting you and yet you’re still defending him!”

“He’s my husband.” She said stiffly. “I will always defend him. And as his son, you should have a little more respect for him, Goten. Gokuu is a good person; a kind man with a good heart. He cares about you very much and just wants to make sure that you are safe. Buu was a big threat to us all and he doesn’t want anything like that to ever happen again. He loves you. ”

He understood all of that. He understood it and knew it and had heard it about a million times. But that didn’t mean that his father couldn’t visit more often; it didn’t mean that he had to pretend like they didn’t exist. They were his family, and if he loved them so much, then why wasn’t he here?!

“I love him too.” He told her. “But I don’t think I can respect him anymore.”

Chapter 5
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