“….And that’s why I’m always so mean to you.” Tayhei was telling Trunks, mostly because the boy was dead asleep and she was bored out of her mind. She had given up struggling; there was no use, and she didn’t want to wear herself out just in case there was trouble to come. The ship had finally stopped shaking, but for some reason, she viewed that as more of a threat than when it was shaking before. She wondered why Bulma hadn’t flown away.

Something must have happened. I wonder if everyone’s still alive. She thought, almost losing her self control and feeling the bite of fear. What if the bad guys come in here? What am I supposed to do? I can’t even move!

She calmed down, reasoning that they’d probably kill Trunks first. After all, she had to admit he looked like more of a threat. Even when he was fast asleep with his tounge hanging out like a damn dog’s. If he drools on me, I swear I’ll rip his head off. This dress cost a fortune, and I am not about to be slobbered on by some narcoleptic bastard who can’t even keep his eyes open long enough to get the hell off of me..

“Trunks!” She tried again, pushing him back. He slumped over her further, sighing deeply in her ear and wrapping his arms tighter around her. She froze for a moment, her heart beating wildly against his. Then her common sense took over again, and washed away any tingles she might have felt. “Trunks, I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but maybe somewhere in your tiny little brain you might be comprehending this….So get off of me! Right now!”

“I’m serious!” She continued ranting. “I may have done a lot of awful things to you in the past, but this is borderline sexual harrassment! If you could just roll over or get up or….disintegrate or something, I would really appreciate it. I think you’re crushing my ribcage! Why the hell do you have to way so much anyway?! What do you do during those hours you’re supposedly ‘training’ every day?!”

He really was hurting her now. Something, probably a set of keys or a pocketknife was digging into her side, and her ribs felt as though they were about to snap. His hair smelled like lemons, and his cologne was making her light headed. Not to mention the fact that he was breathing quite heavily in her ear, which was driving her crazy. She needed him to get off of her before she actually started to enjoy this. “Get off of me!!!” She screamed, pushing against him with all her might. “Get the HELL off of me, right NOW!”

“Tayhei?” A voice called from a distance.

Tayhei froze and listened again.

“Tayhei?”

“In here!!” She screamed, trying to angle her head towards the door. Trunks’s hair fell over her face like a curtain, and she could barely see anything. “I’m in here!!!”

Through the curtain of lavendar locks, she saw Yamucha step through the door. Though she couldn’t see very well, she still made out the horrified look on his face. She held back her laughter, not wanting to cause herself any more pain than she was already in.

“Yamucha! Arigatou! I thought I was going to die like this!” She sighed, feeling so relieved that she could have kissed the man. “Trunks got knocked out and fell on me and I wasn’t strong enough to get him off. I can barely breathe, and I think if I stay here for another twenty seconds, all of my ribs are going to snap.”

He smiled at her, and grabbed Trunks by the back of his jacket, lifting him off of her. “Well, I’m glad I came to rescue you when I did.” His face fell serious after she had crawled out from underneath Trunks. “Tayhei, we have a major problem. Bulma is unconcious and we have no one to fly the ship.”

She met his eyes quickly. “Are we still under attack? Have we fired back at all?”

“We can fire back?” Yamucha asked, surprised.

“I guess not.” She answered herself. “Hai, when we were building the ship, Bulma insisted on putting a defense mechanism in. I guess something happened on her way to Namek and they were attacked. She thought it would be wise to put in missels and equip the ship with proper ammunition to protect ourselves in case anything similar happened.”

“Great!” Yamucha said, picking up Trunks and putting him over his shoulder. He stumbled a little, but regained his balance in no time. “And you know how to do all of this? Firing, flying and everything?”

Tayhei brushed the dust off of herself and gave Yamucha a smirk. “Hai. Of course I do! I was Bulma’s lab assistant after all. Anything she can do, I can do.”

Marron watched her enter the room, looking confident and beautiful as ever, chatting seriously with Yamucha. She took her seat in the pilot’s chair immediately and with ease, more professional than even Bulma herself had been. With delicate hand motions, Tayhei began flipping switches and turning dials. The ship began to rumble beneath them again, but Marron knew it was because the ship was starting up, not because they were being fired at.

Watching her at the controls, Marron was struck by jealousy. Tayhei was so sure of herself, so in command. Not only that, but she seemed to have earned everyone’s respect, simply by being herself. Even though they had both snuck on the ship, it was really only Marron that anyone seemed to worry about. Tayhei seemed perfectly capable and actaully very useful --- especially now that she was flying the ship. So that left Marron as the only reason why they were turning around. The only reason why they had to leave ChiChi. Marron sniffled and tried to hold back her tears, because crying would only make everything worse.

I didn’t want it to be like this. She thought while staring out the window. I just wanted to show papa that I was brave enough and strong enough to hold my own. I didn’t realize I was only going to cause trouble.

The enemy ships were still outside, and they could see them pretty clear through the large window at the front of the ship, which was cracked. Gokuu and Gohan seemed pretty confident that they were Saiya-jins, but Vejiita wouldn’t budge on the subject. Wearily, Marron looked over at the Saiya-jin prince.

She had always been frightened of him, ever since the beginning. Vejiita had a very commanding, very evil presense. He was a lot like Piccolo in that way, but with Piccolo, you at least knew where you stood. Vejiita was simply too unpredictable. He was rude, manipulative, malicious and completely untrustworthy.

Now that I think about it, he kind of reminds me of Tayhei. Marron thought, grinning despite herself. No wonder they hate each other so much. They’re a lot alike.

“What are you smiling about?” Someone asked her suddenly. She turned to her left and saw Goten sitting next to her, figeting with his seat belt. She immediately blushed. Not just because of her crush….that wasn’t it. She felt guilty about the whole ChiChi thing. Really guilty.

“I mean, I know you’re supposed to look at everything optimistically, but we’re in a lot of trouble here.” Goten continued. “And unless you’re one of those girls who lives for danger, and I don’t think you are, then it’s kind of odd that you’re grinning like that.”

She bit her lip. “Goten, I’m sorry.”

His face went blank, and she could actually see his mood darken. “It isn’t your fault, Marron. You didn’t make the decision.”

She couldn’t hold it in anymore. Tears started to roll down her rosy cheeks. “Oh, Goten. I still feel responsible. If I hadn’t of been so stupid, if I hadn’t of been so reckless, maybe we could have saved ChiChi. I just wanted to prove that I could take care of myself, but I never knew if would end up like this. I am so sorry. You know I would never do anything like this if I knew it would hurt you. I would never want to do anything to hurt you, really, I wouldn’t.”

“I know that, Marron.” Goten said, looking down at his hands. “I know, and it isn’t your fault. I know what if feels like to have to prove yourself. I don’t blame you for any of this, I promise. It’s Tousan’s fault. He could have made the decision to go, but instead he turned back, like….like Kaasan didn’t matter at all.”

“Goten, I’m sure he didn’t mean to….”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He said softly, and turned away from her. She bit her lip and pulled the sleeves of her sweater down over her hands. Even though he was upset and frowning harder than she had ever seen him frown, Marron still found him impossibly attractive. Briefly, she thought that it might be wrong to be thinking thoughts like this, especially when Goten was so upset, but he was just completely gorgeous.

There were his eyes of course, which could either be dark and deep or light and cheerful, so diverse, so amazing. And the way his brow wrinkled when he was puzzled or concerned. His mouth, which always looked as though he were just waiting for a kiss….She wouldn’t even start to think about his body. Trunks of course, would always be the beautiful one, but Goten was highly underrated. He was handsome in a very masculine way, not almost….pretty the way that Trunks was. Goten was pratical, classic, handsome.

“….Marron?”

She stared dreamily at Goten’s eyes, which were focused on the window. “Hmmm?”

“Marron.”

He closed his eyes and his brow wrinkled, showing a moment of pure emotion. Marron felt her heart swell. Could he be any more amazing? Is there anything more perfect than Son Goten?

“Marron!” The voice said again, this time accompanied by a shake of the arm.

Marron’s head snapped up. “Nani?”

Kuririn was watching her carefully, seated to her right. “I asked you if you were strapped in good and tight. The ship is going to start moving any minute now, and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

She didn’t know why, but that simple statement struck up such a fury inside of her that she would have gladly kicked her own father, right then and there. “Hai, I’m fine.” She said in a tight, edgy voice.

“Are you sure?” He asked. “Those seat belts can be kind of tricky.”

She glared at him so feircely that he shrunk back into his seat. “I said I was fine. It’s just a seat belt. It isn’t that hard to figure out.”

“Listen, Marron.” Kuririn began, looking uncomfortable. “We really need to talk. I know it’s not the right time, but I haven’t really seen you since the day your mother left, and there are a lot of things that we need to talk about. Maybe when we get back to Earth, we can get ice cream or something. Or go to the park, like we used to when you were little.”

She rolled her eyes. “I really don’t feel like talking to you. I can’t believe you did that to Gokuu-san. Making him decide something like that is completely unacceptable. That was his wife! And speaking of wives, I can’t believe you’d say about Mama being a machine, either. You know how she feels about being the way she is. That was really insensitive of you. I think you’re getting selfish in your old age.”

“Is everyone ready?” Tayhei asked from the pilot’s seat, turning her head around to face everyone.

“Iie.” Marron said, unbuckling her seatbelt and standing up. “I’m switching seats.”

Chapter 35
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