It was late afternoon in the future world, a beautiful day full of sunshine with not a cloud in the sky. Mirai Bulma simply watched the world from outside the hall window for awhile, holding a large box in her arms. She could see the lawn below her, and watched as several of Trunks’s martial arts students sparred and played on the grass. There would be a lesson later on today, the last one he would give before they left for the past tomorrow. The class had grown since he first started it. It was mostly students, though there were a few adults who had come to learn as well. She always enjoyed watching Trunks teach his classes. He was good with children. It made her very sad to know that he would probably never marry and have children of his own now.

She shifted the box in her arms and continued on down the hallway, into her bedroom. With a grunt, she lifted the box up and placed it on the dresser next to the bed and opened it gingerly. It was her box of memories, the box that she kept all of her photos and videos from the past in. Once every few years, her and ChiChi would go through its contents and watch some of the movies, but it had been a long while since she had opened it now. The first picture that she pulled out was Kamesennin. She smiled and fought back a laugh as she looked at his familiar bearded face. She couldn’t even count the number of times that old man had made a pass at her. As annoying as it had been back then, it was a fond memory now. She often thought that Kamesennin must have been the bravest man in the universe; even after she had been married to Vejiita, the old man still had no qualms about trying to feel her up. Vejiita had never shown that much jealousy, but she had a feeling that if he ever saw Kamesennin mischievously trying to touch her breasts, he would have blasted that perverted grin right off the old man’s face.

The next picture was of Yamucha. She smiled fondly. No matter what had happened between them in the recent years before Trunks was born, she still considered him one of her dearest friends. Sure, it hadn’t ended well, but they had a few good years together. He was another person that she was looking forward to seeing again.

A picture of her and ChiChi caught her eye, and she picked it up, staring. They both looked so young and vibrant in that picture, so happy. They had been through a lot together; after all, they were the wives of the most powerful beings in the universe and it was quite an exclusive club. Back then though, things were much more competitive. Instead of banding together against their unruly husbands and sons, they used them more as weapons. They gloated casually over their families’ victories, always trying to one up the other with a new great story. They fought a lot back then, but it was always harmless. Even then, Bulma would have done anything for her. In more recent years, the friendship had grown stronger. They were the only ones left now, and it had brought them closer. And now that their ‘weapons of choice’ were gone, there wasn’t really anything to be competitive about. Besides, they had already come to a conclusion about which husband was better. Really, it was kind of a tie. Vejiita would never be the kind and caring person that Gokuu was, but when it came to attraction and sheer sexiness, Vejiita won hands down.

Speaking of Son-Kun….Bulma searched through the stack until she found a picture of him, and her heart grew warm. Just seeing his face in a photograph was enough to give her that feeling. There was no one quite like Gokuu. She guessed that he was probably the one person on Earth that it was impossible to stay mad at. Every time you turned around to snap at him, he would simply give a happy smile and say he was sorry in such a way that the anger couldn’t possibly stay. She was sad that she would not be able to see Gokuu on this trip. As hard as it was for her to admit, his soul was probably gone forever. Trunks had told her about his noble decision to not be wished back by the dragonballs; it sounded just like something that Gokuu would do.

She picked up another photo from the stack, and held it tightly in her hands, her eyes misting over. It was one of the few pictures that she had of him, and the only picture which she could get him to smile for. The smile, of course, was more of a smirk, but she accepted it just the same. That was the way that things had been with them. She recognized that there were many things about him that she would never manage to change, and she accepted that. There was no forcing a Saiya-jin warrior to calm down and be a normal husband. It just wasn’t possible. That was one thing she had learned from watching Gokuu and ChiChi’s marriage. ChiChi was tough; she had to be. The only way to control her husband and get the respect from him that she deserved was to overpower him with strength of mind. At the same time though, she had to give in a little as well. Things would have never worked if ChiChi had been stern and mean all the time. The woman had learned to accept her husband’s Saiya-jin ways, and knew she could let up and when she had to be firm. So Bulma had applied that in her own marriage. Vejiita was stronger than her, obviously, but if she couldn’t overpower him with physical strength, she could certainly overpower him with mental strength. She managed to boss around one of the most powerful men in the universe, but at the same time earned his respect and maybe, hopefully, his love. It was just too bad that she didn’t have enough to time to make the relationship grow. The jinzouningen killed him before she even had a chance to tell him how she felt, or to let him tell her. It had always left her with an empty feeling and unbelievable curiosity. She would never get the chance to know what Vejiita had been thinking and feeling. She had not yet spent enough time with him to be able to gain his trust.

Bulma sighed.

As foolish as it seemed, she had packed all of her best outfits to take along with her; the kind of things that she hadn’t worn in years. What better way to show up in front of Vejiita and her younger self than looking fabulous in a tight red mini skirt and low cut shirt, looking just as she had years ago? Of course, the clothes didn’t fit her nearly as well as they used to, but it was still an improvement. Normally she wore simple jeans and tee shirts, but that wasn’t the kind of clothing one dressed in when they had a Saiya-jin Prince to impress. She had thought about getting her long turquoise hair done, but that seemed like it was going a little too far. Besides, Trunks assured her that her hair looked wonderful the way it was. All in all, she had not aged that badly, which was something that she was very proud of.

She was going to be seeing a lot of people from her past, a lot of people that had meant a great deal to her, and she just wanted to impress them. She just wanted to show up looking exactly like the Bulma they knew and loved.

Outside the Capsule Corporation walls, ChiChi and Trunks were walking beside each other down the busy street. The sidewalks had been newly rebuilt; it was Bulma’s idea to pave the city streets using the gravel from the wreckage of the destroyed cities. It was beginning to look quite nice, but ChiChi knew that it would never live up to the great city that it used to be. She adjusted the strap on her purse and looked ahead to a clear area where they could use a capsule to get a vehicle. Although she wouldn’t have minded the walk home, she wasn’t so sure about her companion. Trunks was holding several armfuls of grocery bags and appeared to be struggling just to see over the tops of them.

A group of kids ran by and one of them knocked into him, causing him to lose his balance slightly. He wavered for a moment, a scared look on his face as he jumbled the grocery bags in his arms, then he straightened up and let out a sigh of relief.

“You and your mother are leaving tomorrow morning, right?” She asked, raising her eyebrows at him in question.

“Hai. Tomorrow morning.” He said brightly. A smile let up his handsome face like nothing she had ever seen. As she peered at him, she saw a flicker of something strange in his eye, as if he held some deep secret in his heart. Normally Trunks was so mature and calm, but it seemed to her as if he were almost acting like a teenager again. Of course, she had no problem with this. It was nice to see him smile once and awhile.

“You seem awfully excited.” She observed.

“I am. It will be nice to see everyone again.” He answered her. He looked at her sideways, adjusting one of the bags so that she could see his face better. “My only regret is that I won’t be able to see Gokuu again. He was an amazing man.”

“Yes he was, wasn’t he?” ChiChi said wistfully. “Interesting, isn’t? These timelines are an exact mirror of each other except for the fact that their timeline is much better than ours. Of course, some things are still the same. The other ChiChi and I both lost Gokuu….I guess it must have been destined to happen. It would have been nice to know that at least one of us was happy with him.”

“It’s still puzzling to think about it.” She continued. “There is an exact copy of each and every one of us in this other world. Another me, another Bulma, another you….Everyone in this future world has an exact, albeit happier replica of themselves. It’s frightening to think about another Engin lurking around out there, isn’t it?” She watched him closely for his reaction, but his face was covered up by one of the grocery bags again. She could only see his hands twitch slightly and his step slow a little as she spoke.

“Hai.” He said softly, from behind the mound of grocery bags.

ChiChi smirked. It was time to move in for the kill. “That wouldn’t happen to be the reason for this trip, would it?” She asked, forcing her voice to sound innocent.

“Engin?” He asked, genuinely puzzled. He rearranged the bags again and looked down at her. She narrowed her eyes.

“No!” She snapped. “I’m talking about the fact that there is a chance in the past timeline that everyone killed by the jinzouningen still lives. The fact that the people that we loved in this world are still living on in the other.”

He turned slightly red, just barely enough color on his cheeks for her to notice. What she was talking about, of course, was Tayhei. She had been thinking about it ever since her talk with Bulma. Both mother and son were missing their significant others. And since both mother and son thought alike, she was certain that Trunks had thought of the possibility of finding Tayhei in the other timeline. For some reason though, he had chosen to keep it a secret. ChiChi wasn’t sure why he would do this; she couldn’t think of any reason why it would be bad to let Bulma know that he wanted to find Tayhei again. After all, Tayhei had been like a daughter to her.

Trunks was silent for a moment, as if gathering his composure, then spoke in a careful voice. “Why would that have anything to do with it? I just wanted to visit the other timeline.”

ChiChi narrowed her eyes at him. “Trunks. There is really no need to hide anything from me.”

“I….I’m not hiding anything.” He stammered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, ChiChi-san, really.”

Angry, she put her hands on her hips and bent forward, glaring at him. “Now you’re just flat out lying to me. Bulma told me that you had some sort of secret plan up your sleeve, and I can practically see what you’re trying to do. Don’t even try to tell me that I’m not right.”

He looked at her for awhile, then spoke quietly. “Well, I’m not going to say that you’re wrong, but I’m not going to say that you’re right either. I will say this: if my plan works out, I’ll come back to the future as a very happy man.” He finished up with a smile.

ChiChi rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “Fine, don’t admit it. I already know that I’m right anyway.”

They approached the clear area and ChiChi fished a capsule out of her purse, digging around her keys wallet. “I just don’t understand why it all has to be a big secret. It’s not like it would kill you to admit that I was right. And your mom would understand, Trunks. Don’t you think she thought the same thing about the Vejiita of the other timeline?”

She threw the capsule lightly to the ground in front of her and it exploded into a small vehicle, the same one she had kept for years. She opened the back for Trunks and he began tucking the grocery bags away safely in the car. She watched him work silently and felt immediately sorry for snapping at him. Trunks had grown into a good man these past years, and he had shown her a lot of kindness and respect. The older and older he grew, it seemed to ChiChi that he became more and more like Gohan. Both of them cared so much about the world and the people around them. Unfortunately, Gohan never got a chance to fall in love before he was killed by the jinzouningen, but if he had, ChiChi would have wanted him to be happy. She would have wanted him to keep that love and never let it go. And if it were Gohan instead of Trunks, going back to find his love in another timeline, she would have been happy for him. At the same time though, she wouldn’t want him to get his heartbroken. And she knew that if Trunks went back to the future timeline and found Tayhei in someone else’s arms, he would be devastated.

“Okaasan has enough to worry about already. She doesn’t need to be worried about protecting me and my heart.” Trunks told her softly, as if he had been reading her thoughts. “If it works out, it works out. But if it doesn’t, Okaasan will never have to know. I don’t think she could take seeing me so disappointed again.”

“Are you sure that you can take being disappointed again?” She asked him.

“Hai, I can. If it means having even a chance, I can.” He answered. He put the last grocery bag away in the car and pulled back to look at her, tucking a strand of lavender hair behind his ears. “Besides, like what you said about Gokuu: if the other Trunks is already with Tayhei, then that’s fine with me. It would be nice to know that at least one of us was happy with her.”

“Good boy.” ChiChi said happily and patted him on the head. “I was afraid that I was going to have to lecture you too.”

“What do you think is going to happen?” He asked her hesitantly as he helped her into the car.

She thought about this for a long moment. “I think there is no way to know what destiny has in store for us. I have been surprised too many times in this life to be able to say that I know what’s coming next. I do think however, that love has a special way of pulling through for us in the end. If you love someone enough, it’s kind of like having some extra ammunition on your side. No matter how terrible it seems in this world, I still think that fate is not cruel. If there is a chance and you love each other enough, then it could very well happen.” She paused. “But if it doesn’t happen, don’t take it too hard. I’ve been without my Gokuu for years and years, and I can tell you right now that the pain never goes away. After all awhile though, it begins to get easier. Grief can only hold power over a strong heart for so long.”