There was something incredible about Piccolo, what it was no one knew for certain. Perhaps it was the tough green skin, or the sleek white fangs; or maybe it was the way someone could feel so insignificant in his eight-foot shadow, or feel so violated by a look of his dark eyes. It could have been his uncanny way of deciphering the danger of situations, or his ability to always know what was on someone’s mind. Maybe it was all of these and more, thrown all together to form the enigmatic, yet charismatic Demon King.
Marron wasn’t sure about any of that, but she did know that Piccolo scared the hell out of her. She cowered slightly as he stared down at her from his full eight-foot glory. She and Tayhei stood up from the carton they had been sitting on when he entered, Marron looking sheepish. She tugged helplessly on her big pink sweater; feeling small and helpless. She had never felt so guilty in her entire life. She wished she could just disappear. There was nothing worse than doing something bad and getting caught.
He hadn’t said anything yet, just kept staring at them with his arms crossed, one long nail clicking against his arm. He looked perhaps even more angry than usual, which made Marron uneasier about the situation. His flicked over to glance at Tayhei, who was looking up at his with an expression that could only be described as “disgust”.
“What the hell are you? You look like a farming experiment gone bad.” Tayhei said, finally breaking the silence of the room. “God! You’re freaking green.”
Marron gasped, bringing her hands up to her mouth. You just don’t say things like that to Piccolo-san! That is like signing your own death warrant! Why did she say that?! Frightened, she looked up at Piccolo with wide eyes, her hands shaking slightly against her cheeks. To her surprise, his eyes were narrowed, but he looked more surprised than angry. He looked from Tayhei to Marron, as if silently asking what was going on.
“Tayhei, this is Piccolo-san....” Marron said timidly, beginning to chew on one of her nails. “Piccolo-san, this is Tayhei.”
“I didn’t think you were invited on this trip.” He said calmly, ignoring the introduction that Marron had given and took another step towards them, his cape blowing back lightly in the breeze that was floating around the large cargo room.
She gulped. “We....uh....weren’t. We kind of....became stowaways on board.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Kind of?”
Marron sighed. “Okay, so we did sneak on board. But you have to understand, Piccolo! My dad was being unfair! Kaasan even said I could come, and she even wanted me to, but when Papa found out he just got all freaked out and wouldn’t let me go! I just wanted to be a part of this, honest! I didn’t want to betray his trust or Kaasan’s trust or be a bad girl or anything, I was just---!”
“Shut up!” Tayhei cried, putting her hands on her hips. “You’re giving me a migraine, brat. I’m sure Pickle doesn’t even care.”
“Piccolo.” Marron corrected sternly, glaring at Tayhei. “His name is Piccolo. Piccolo-san.”
Tayhei folded her arms and glared back. “Whatever, Muffin.”
She turned around and stomped her foot at the ground. “Marron! My name is Marron!”
Marron just wanted to hit her. The girl had absolutely no respect for anyone! I guess what Trunks said about her before was true. She really is just a terrible, terrible, girl. I can’t believe that Bulma-san even lets her stay in their house. Marron had been brought up to be an upstanding young girl who (well, for the most of time) obeyed her parents, and was polite to adults. To meet someone that was as rude and manipulative as Tayhei was almost shocking. Perhaps worse, was the fact that around her, Marron just didn’t feel worthy anymore. It was almost as if Tayhei made everyone and everything around her turn worthless.
And now! It didn’t even seem like Tayhei was the least bit perturbed that they were going to get in trouble. It was almost as if she could handle anything, that nothing could pull her down.
Tayhei rolled her eyes and gave an indignant snort. “I could care less what the hell your name was. Listen, if we’ve been discovered, can we just leave this god forsaken cargo hold with green-bean here, and eat?”
“How can you think of eating at a time like this?!” Marron wailed. “Do you have any idea what we’ve just gotten ourselves into?! When my dad finds out that I’m on this ship, he is going to have a heart attack! I’m never going to be able to do anything, ever again! He is going to lock me up in my room without a phone and I’ll never get to do anything with my friends or buy new clothes or even go outside!” Tears began streaming down her rosy cheeks and wiped them away with her sweatshirt sleeve. “I might as well just forget my life!”
The older girl gave her a completely unsympathetic look. “Well you should of thought of that before you decided to copy me and sneak on the ship.”
Marron sniffled and looked up, glaring. “You don’t have any room to talk, Tayhei! When Vejiita finds out you’re on this ship, he is going to kill you. You’re not fooling me! I know he didn’t want you to come. It wasn’t just a matter of miscommunication! He gave you a direct order to stay at home!”
“Since when do I care what Vejiita orders me to do? He doesn’t have jurisdiction over me.” Tayhei said calmly, which made Marron even angrier. The fact that she could stay so calm in the middle of an argument was just annoying!
“Besides, Vejiita will probably want to kill Trunks, not me. After all, he gave Trunks a direct order to make sure that I didn’t get on this ship.” Tayhei continued, sitting down on a nearby carton. A smile spread across her pretty face. “And that make it all worth it.. Trunks deserves to get a good beating. You should have heard what he said to me earlier today.”
“I wouldn’t care! You just treat people horribly, you know that? You’re mean!” Marron cried, and she put her hands on her hips and bent over to look in her face. “You are an absolute witch!”
“Whatever, Marion.”
“MARRON!”
She screamed out a few incoherent noises and kicked at the crate that Tayhei was sitting on, which hurt her toe very badly, but she wasn’t about to start wailing about that. Besides, the absolute fury she was feeling inside made the pain in her foot seem more like a tickle. Though the crate jarred around a bit, Tayhei showed no sign that she recognized Marron’s anger. She simply crossed her long legs at the ankles and gave her a disapproving look with those bright green eyes of hers.
I am acting like a child. Marron finally realized, noting Tayhei’s expression.
Finally, Marron exhausted herself kicking the crate and fell to a seat on in, panting heavily. Tayhei still didn’t move, even though Marron was a little too close for comfort, and just stared at her. Marron stared back sheepishly. She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling cold and helpless, and sniffled softly. “I’m sorry.”
Tayhei didn’t say anything to her at first, then sighed. “I think you failed to notice during your frantic, childish hissy fit that Pickle disappeared.”
Marron sat up straight. “Nani?!”
“He’s gone.” Tayhei gestured around the empty room, as if to prove her point. “He left quite a while ago.”
Marron sank down again and held her hands tightly against her temples. “We are so screwed.”
| Thinking of You Index | [ Chi Chi's fanfic ] | E mail Me |
