She loves me…
A pale pink petal fluttered to the ground, falling at Kuririn’s feet. He watched it fall, then rose his hand to pluck another petal off of the flower.
She loves me not….He stared at that petal in disgust, and then picked another off.
She loves me….He had been sitting in this exact spot on the floor, with his back up against the wall for at least a few hours. Juuhachi-gou obviously didn’t want him in the room that Bulma had assigned to him, so he was going to have to get used to the floor. After all, that was probably where he would be sleeping from now on.
There was only one more petal left on the flower. It taunted him, glaring pink against the white of the space ship walls. He wanted to grab it in his hands and crush the color and life out of it. He wanted to stomp on it until his feet ached. But instead, he reached up and plucked it off, practically throwing at his feet.
She loves me not. He sighed, and looked down at the pile of petals on the floor. A large blue ceramic vase sat next to him. Earlier, it had been full of the pink flowers, looking beautiful and calming in the stark white room, but now all of the blooms were missing and only stems remained in the vase. All of those flowers and not a damn one came out to say that she loved me. Not one! What are the odds of that?!
Bulma strolled into the room with Trunks then, looking extremely pissed. Long streaks of mascara were running down her cheeks, which looked flushed and hot with anger. Her perfect turquoise hair, hair that Kuririn had never seen messed up, was in her eyes and looked as though a comb hadn’t touched it in days. He didn’t know what was wrong with her, but he was very worried. Bulma never, ever looked like that.
He stood up, brushing petals off of him and put his hand on the back of his head. “Bulma? Are you okay? You look awful.”
She paused and eyed him slowly. At first, her expression softened at his question, as if she could tell how much he was worried. Then her eyes narrowed into a glare as she saw the floor around his feet full of pale pink petals. It wasn’t until that moment that he realized just how big of a mess he had made. He giggled nervously and tried to step on some of them as if to hide them from her angry eyes.
“No!! I am not okay!” She screeched, and then her voice took on a darker, more threatening tone. "And you had better pick all of that up!”
She placed her hands on her hips, glaring at him so hard that he winced and turned away. Trunks winced also, and looked extremely embarrassed. His cheeks were flushed bright pink, and if Kuririn didn’t know better, he would have sworn that the young boy looked actually scared. He stood near the door to the hallway, tugging on the end of his jacket sleeves with shaking hands. The boy was acting the way that Marron acted when she knew she was about to get into trouble for something.
Bulma gave Kuririn a death look. “I worked for hours to get this ship looking good, and you just mess it up like that? Do you know how expensive those flowers were?!”
He opened his mouth to reply, but she kept on talking, stepping closer and closer to him with a menacing look on her face. “Why do you have to be so damn senseless!? Can’t you do anything useful?”
“I can be useful….” He whined, and he cringed slightly, lowering himself away from Bulma. “I didn’t mean to make a mess, Bulma. I was just playing that game, you know? She loves me---”
Juuhachi-gou chose that moment to enter the room, looking absolutely amazing and so beautiful that it almost took Kuririn’s breath away. Unfortunately, she also looked furious. Her delicate were drawn together in a scowl and her mouth formed a straight thin line. She cast a withering glance at him and Kuririn drew back even further. He had seen Juuhachi-gou like this before. When she got that infuriated look on her perfect face, one would be wise to get out of her field of vision as soon as possible.
“She loves me not.” He continued, speaking barely above a whisper.
If she had heard his comment, she didn’t show it. Without so much as another glance at him, Juuhachi-gou stalked over to wear Trunks was slouched in the doorway. When she reached him, he looked up guiltily.
“Gomen nasi, Juuhachi-gou. I didn’t mean to….I wasn’t expecting anything like this. It really isn’t my fault.” He told her softly, then looked over at his mother. “Kaasan, it really wasn’t. I had no way of knowing. I didn’t think that Tayhei would actually….I’m sorry. I know how much trouble this is going to cause and I probably should have watched more closely, but with Bra missing and everything….”
Bulma’s enraged face suddenly softened a bit, as she glanced at her son, who looked so guilty that it was almost painful. Kuririn felt a happy calm settle over him. Bulma may be wild, but she had a soft spot for her kids. He could have kissed Trunks, he was so happy that the boy had diverted Bulma’s anger. Instead, he just shoved his hands into his pockets and wondered what was going on.
“Hai, Trunks.” She gently agreed. “It was not your fault. Why don’t you take Juuhachi-gou to the kitchen while I explain things to Kuririn?”
“Hai.” He nodded. Juuhachi-gou pushed past him and stalked down the hallway, her hands tightly clenched at her sides. As Kuririn watched them leave the room, a bad feeling began to sink in. Something serious had happened, and Juuhachi-gou was really upset about it. He wondered what it could be as he looked up into Bulma’s eyes.
“Kuririn, it’s about your daughter.” Bulma informed him gently.
Kuririn froze and felt his heart jump against his rib cage. “Daughter??”
Marron? Panic spread through his small body like fire. The worst possible thing you could do to a father was tell him that something had happened to his daughter. The thought of Marron being hurt, or….worse, made him absolutely sick to his stomach.
Bulma placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and he jumped around to face her, afraid of what she was going to say --- not sure that he wanted to hear it. She looked down at him with sympathy. “Apparently, Marron and Tayhei are aboard.”
“What?” He said in a bewildered voice. “How could they….Why? I thought….”
I don’t know the whole story yet.” Bulma explained shortly. “Trunks just told us a minute ago that Piccolo found the two girls down in the cargo hold. I….I’m not sure what we’re going to have to do yet.”
He was in shock. He knew full well that there was no possible way to return to Earth now and keep the girls safe without ruining the mission and possible putting ChiChi’s life in danger. He thought that Marron had enough sense and enough morals to do what she was told and stay at home, but obviously he was wrong. That was so out of Marron’s character that it was almost unbelievable. Sure, she had her bratty moments in life, but for the most part, Marron was a sweet, understanding girl that always followed the rules. “Where….Where are they now?”
Bulma nodded and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She continued down the hallway the way that Juuhachi-gou and Trunks had gone. “Follow me.”
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