The night seemed to fall quickly and silently, dropping over the world like a thick black cloth. There was no moon out tonight, but the stars were bright enough to cast a slight glow across the earth. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to sleep, Mirai Trunks had opted to go outside instead, slowly walking around the grounds of Capsule Corporation. He moved in and out of the shadows on the grass, his feet making no sound as he moved. It was a silly, paranoid habit, but he kept his sword with him anyway. He knew that the jinzouningen weren’t a threat for the moment, but there was never really any certainty in anything. And with so many precious lives in that building, he just wanted to make sure that everything was secure. He paroled around the perimeter of Capsule Corporation, stopping for only a moment to pick up a discarded lawn chair and fold it up properly, setting it gently down in the grass. When he looked up at the building again, he saw that one of the lights had turned on.

He squinted, looking up towards the window just in time to see Tayhei’s shadow cross the room. He stared up at her for a moment, watching her shadow pace across the room restlessly. His throat suddenly felt very tight and very dry. He had missed her so much. He wasn’t proud to admit it, but when she died it had just about killed it. It felt so good just to be able to see her again, just to be able to look into those bright green eyes. Even if it wasn’t the same, even if things were different, it was still comforting. He wondered what it might be like to touch her again, to be able to hold her in his arms. With his eyes still trained on her window, he ran his hand through his hair and let out a shaky breath. He wondered if this was going to work, if he was going to get a second chance.

“Spying?”

Startled, Mirai Trunks whirled around to find Vejiita standing behind him, in the shadow of a tall oak tree. Trunks shook off the shock and shrugged casually, trying his best to act nonchalant. “I was just watching over everyone. Just making sure that they were all safe.”

“They are.” Vejiita moved his head slightly towards the house, and his features became a bit more visible in the darkness. Trunks wondered what he was doing out here; perhaps he hadn’t been able to sleep either. But his ready response towards Trunks’s precautions made him think that Vejiita had come out here for the simple purpose of keeping guard. That seemed like something that he would do. Vejiita was always in the background of things, watching everyone from a distance. It made sense that he wouldn’t want to stay in the house tonight. Trunks had a feeling that he wasn’t quite ready for that yet.

“They’re safe for now.” Trunks shrugged again, then crossed his arms, looking the Saiya-jin prince straight in the eye. He had some things that he wanted to discuss, and since they were alone, this was the perfect time for it. “You said some pretty harsh things to my mother.”

Vejiita turned his head back towards him and met him with cold black eyes. “Everything I said was true. Running out into the middle of a battle is a stupid thing to do. She could have been killed.” He paused, then nodded purposefully towards Tayhei’s window. “The brat would have died too.”

“You didn’t have to be so cruel about it.”

“It’s not my responsibility to wrap things up in cotton candy for people.” Vejiita snapped, crossing his arms tighter across his chest. The familiar vein began to pop out on his forehead. Trunks guessed that Vejiita was probably getting sick of lectures by now. The Saiya-jin no Ouji stared at him with fire in his eyes. “She was stupid, and I let her know about it. Besides, she can take it. I’ve said things like that to her for years. She should be used to it by now.”

Mirai Trunks uncrossed his arms and held his fists down tightly at his sides. He was angry with his mother at the moment, but that didn’t mean that he was just going to stand by and let Vejiita say things like that about her. He didn’t care who Vejiita thought he was --- no one got away with treating his mother like that. She had been through far too much. She didn’t deserve those kinds of comments. He glared at the man who was the closest thing he’d ever have to a father.

“Well, she isn’t used to it.” He snapped in reply. “It’s different with her. Either you start treating her with more respect, or you’re going to have to face me. She came here wanting to see you and you just shoved a barrage of insults right into her face. No one would appreciate something like that. She didn’t mean to put herself in danger, and certainly didn’t mean to put Tayhei in danger. She only did what she did because she wanted to prove that she was the same Bulma that you all knew and loved.”

“Fine.” Vejiita agreed in a tone that was dangerously angry. He turned and began to walk back into the shadows, away from Trunks. “But don’t expect too much out of me. It’s not like I give a damn anyway.”

The day had been almost unbearable.

After the jinzouningen’s temporary containment had been certain, Goten and Trunks had both headed off to bed. Despite the fact that they were both young teenage boys full of energy, they had looked positively dead when they left the laboratory. Mirai Bulma knew it was mean to think so, but she was glad that the two of them were gone. Young, rambunctious boys had no business being in a laboratory where a serious scientific experiment was taking place. After the first hour or so, she had decided that she would rather have had the devil in there with her than Goten and Trunks. She had forgotten what absolute terrors young boys could be. The last straw was when they had gotten into Tayhei’s hamster specimens and proceeded to let a whole convoy of rodents loose on the ground. It had taken every ounce of self-restraint that she possessed not to chase after them with a scalpel and kick them out of the lab.

At least it was quiet now. It was so quiet in fact that it was almost eerie. Staring at the unconscious bodies of the jinzouningen had disturbed her greatly, so she had long since wheeled the examining tables back into the storage room at the back of the laboratory. She knew that she wasn’t in danger of being hurt by them, but it was still creepy to look at them laying there like that. She was proud of herself for figuring out a way to keep the androids in check for now, but that was only the first step. They couldn’t live like that forever. She had to look through the compilation of Dr. Gero’s files and the files she had found in the lab, and try to find some sort of a permanent solution. This really wasn’t her area of expertise, but she was confident that she could at least come up with something. Whatever the solution was, she knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Dr. Gero was not a stupid man, and whatever he had done to the jinzouningen --- he meant it to be final. She doubted she would find any kind of reversal plans in those old files.

Bulma worked silently, cleaning off the familiar silver instruments that she had used with quick, fluid motions and laying them down gently on the tray next to the examination table. Her father used to be fanatical about how clean all of his instruments and tools were, and over the years, she had grown accustomed to scrubbing the shiny silver objects until they sparkled. She admired one of the tools, the smaller scalpel that she had used to make the tiny incisions on the jinzouningen. It had lost its luster, after many years of use and so many harsh chemicals.

Without knowing why, her eyes traveled to the mirror that hung on the far wall, and she stared at herself. She knew without even having to look at her reflection that she had lost a little bit of her own luster after all these years. Maybe that was why Vejiita had been so cruel to her earlier, why he had said something so harsh to her. She had to admit that she probably didn’t even come close to being the woman that he knew. She was still beautiful, of course; she had always been beautiful. But there was a certain sadness in her eyes now that just would disappear, and dark circles that she had acquired lately gave away her obvious lack of sleep. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about that. She could take a sedative and knock herself out for the night, but she really wasn’t comfortable taking medications like that.

No, the best way to get some sleep tonight would just be to get good and drunk.

That was her exact plan, and as soon as she finished cleaning up the laboratory, she flicked off the lights, locked the door, and headed for the kitchen. If things in the Capsule Corporation kitchen were as she remembered them, she knew where she was going to find the liquor. The Brief family had not been a family of heavy drinkers, but there was always alcohol available for special occasions. During those first few months of fighting with Yamucha and carrying on with Vejiita, she had had a “special occasion” almost every night.

Just as she thought, the liquor cabinet was still in the same place. And judging by the dust on the bottles, no one had been in there for quite some time. She didn’t really see why the other Bulma would have needed this stuff --- after all, it seemed as though the woman’s life had been perfect. No one else in the family appeared to be a heavy drinker, either. Trunks appeared to be fairly innocent when it came to that sort of thing --- he and Goten seemed more interested in boyish mischief than teenage escapades, and Bra was just far too young to drink. Vejiita had never really taken an interest in alcohol. He enjoyed a beer every now and then, but his system was far too strong to ever feel the effects of the stuff. She couldn’t even recall him drinking at their wedding, though she herself had gotten fairly tipsy. He had just sat across from her, wordlessly refilling her champagne glass and smirking at her.

She by no means considered herself to be an alcoholic --- but sometimes, it was necessary to escape once and awhile. And after a day like this, she definitely needed to escape. Reaching into the cabinet, she pulled the majority of the bottles into her arms and hauled them over to the table, spilling them out onto the smooth wood. She tipped open another cabinet, found a juice glass, and placed that on the table as well. Opening up one of the heavier bottles, she poured the glass about halfway full and took an impromptu swig. Then she eased herself into a chair and let her body finally relax leaning her neck on the headrest of the comfortable kitchen seat. Slowly, she brought the glass up to her lips, and drained every drop.

Despite the fact that she had had an amazingly rough day, Tayhei just couldn’t seem to force herself to sleep. She had lain in bed for about an hour before she just simply gave up, wrapped her white terry cloth robe around her, and headed downstairs. She would fix herself a big cup of tea and then retire back to her room and try to read a book or work on some computer work for the lab. There was no use just lying in bed when she could be up and doing things. The house was quiet as she walked through the long corridors on her way to the kitchen. The only sound she heard as she walked through the dark hallways was the gentle snoring of Goten, who was sleeping in Trunks’s room. Barefoot, she padded into the kitchen and flicked the light switch on, squinting her eyes to adjust to the light.

She paused when she saw someone sitting at the kitchen table, surrounding by a large array of liquor and an empty juice glass, turned on its side. There was no mistaking who it was --- the long turquoise locks gave it away immediately. “Mirai Bulma?”

The woman lifted up her hands and shielded her eyes from the harshness of the kitchen light, blinking sleepily and looking up at her from under heavy lids. Tayhei didn’t have to look twice to see that the woman was heavily intoxicated. She didn’t blame her. Mirai Bulma’s day had probably been hell on Earth in comparison to her own. Trunks and Goten’s antics in the lab earlier alone would have sent Tayhei over the edge. If she had been through half of the things that this woman had, she would probably be drinking too. The woman’s eyes were red and sloshing about in her head, and there was an awful, deep frown on her face. She leaned over and placed her head in one of her hands, burying her fingers in the turquoise strands.

Tayhei hesitated in the doorway, not certain of what she was supposed to do. “Are you okay?”

There was a pause, then Mirai Bulma spat out her response, her words slurring together as she spoke. “No, no I’m not okay. I just can’t seem to pull myself together. Everything is just falling apart; ever since I stepped into that time machine, I’ve been making one stupid mistake after the other. It was always that way, ever since I was a child. I’d do one little thing wrong and it would suddenly snowball into some huge, terrible fiasco. I wouldn’t even be telling you this if I weren’t so drunk. I probably won’t even remember telling you this. I guess that’s just one more mistake for me to write up on the board, one more thing that I’ve done wrong.”

“It will get better.” Tayhei assured her, taking a seat in the chair next to her at the table. Although she had this woman had had their difference earlier, her heart still went out to her. It was hard not to feel sorry for her, especially when she looked and sounded so much like the Bulma that Tayhei had known. And since no one was around to witness a display of kindness, Tayhei didn’t really care. Like Mirai Bulma said, she probably wasn’t going to remember a word of this anyway. She just needed to be comforted now --- at least enough so that she could get some rest. Tayhei had a feeling that the woman was going to have one hell of a hang over when she woke up.

“Change is always hard to deal with --- life is hard to deal with.” Tayhei continued, while casually moving all of the liquor bottles away. She didn’t want Bulma to be tempted to take another drink. She looked up into the woman’s eyes and smiled softly at her. “But you’ve got a strong heart, a good heart. I saw that in the Bulma that I knew, and I see it in you now. You’re floundering a bit, but it’s still there. I don’t think you should be so concerned about what everyone else is going to think; just start being yourself. That’s good enough.”

“Well, that’s fine, but I’ve already screwed up too many things to take back now.” Bulma slurred bitterly. Tears began to shine in her deep blue eyes. “I messed up with Vejiita, I nearly killed you, Bra is scared to death of me, and I just said the most awful things to Trunks….”

“Which Trunks?”

Mirai Bulma looked down and then buried her head in her hands, rocking back and forth in her chair. She looked up for a moment, miserable blue eyes peeking out between her fingers. “My own son. I said the most horrible things to him. I am so ashamed of myself. I can’t even believe I let those words fly out of my mouth. He had all of these hopes about coming here and I just crushed them, buried them. And lowest of all, I even insinuated that he was the reason you died.”

Tayhei felt her heart suddenly push up against her ribs. “What?”

Mirai Trunks had told her that she was dead in the future world, but he hadn’t said anything at all that would indicate he had had something to do with it. If he had, she wasn’t quite sure how she’d feel about that. She knew that she and the Trunks of this world did not always get along, but she felt certain that he would never do anything to hurt her (at least, not too badly). She didn’t think that Mirai Trunks would be capable of something like that either. Perhaps Mirai Bulma was too drunk to know what she was talking about, but the statement still sent shivers down her spine.

“I told him you died because he didn’t protect you. I didn’t mean it. I know he would never have let that happen….He always kept such a careful watch on you, held you so close. I just knew that saying that would hurt him, so I said it. The look on his face was horrible. I could have killed myself. That was the most terrible thing I’ve ever said to him. We’ve had our squabbles before, but nothing like this; I’ve never said anything so hurtful to him.” Bulma looked up towards Tayhei’s surprised face, gesturing towards her casually. Her face had the most miserable, horrible look, and the tears were flowing down her cheeks freely now. “You’ve always been kind of an off-limits topic, anyway. And I just let myself say it, just let myself accuse of him killing the woman that he loved.”

“….Loved?”

The one word was enough to make her heart stop. She stared at Mirai Bulma in disbelief, unconsciously clutching the edge of the kitchen table. Her mind was reeling. There were so many stray thoughts slamming through her brain that she could barely even remember to breathe. Loved?