Trunks made it safely back to his room and was busy angrily tidying things up when she slammed through his door. She stomped into the room without even so much as knocking, and squared off with him, placing her fists on her hips. He noticed with anger that her hair had nearly come loose from her ponytail, and small golden strands were falling to her shoulders. He hated the fact that it made her look even more beautiful, and he hated the fact that she was glaring at him with those piercing green eyes, as if she could burn holes straight through him. He looked up from his unnecessary cleaning and glared back at her, crossing his arms in challenge. If she thought she could intimidate him and crack him with that long golden hair and those beautiful green eyes, she was wrong. He was way past the point of fury and rational thought --- her looks didn’t mean anything to him anymore.

“What the hell was that all about?!” She cried out through clenched teeth.

“I thought I made it perfectly clear.” He replied in an even voice. He raised his eyebrows and looked down at her condescendingly. “He was stealing my food, and it pissed me off.”

“I highly doubt the argument was actually about a piece of toast, Trunks.”

“Well, you’re wrong.” He snarled. Actually, of course she was right, but he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of knowing that. This was one argument that she was not going to win. This time she was going to be the one to walk away in defeat. And he was going to do everything in his power to hurt her --- just as much as she had hurt him. If she thought that she could just run around with Mirai Trunks and suffer no consequences, then she was an idiot. It was wrong of her to play with people’s feelings like that, and he was going to make sure that she paid for it. He was determined to make her feel like she was nothing, like she was less than nothing. She had done it to him too many times to count, and now he was going to return the favor.

“I think everyone was aware that the argument was about more than that.” She informed him haughtily. She took another step towards him and threw her hands up in the air, raising her eyebrows and giving him a frustrated look. “I don’t really see why you insist on continuing the charade. Toast or not toast, you’re not fooling anyone at all. I know what that argument was really about, and I am not going to let you try and fool me into thinking that it was something else. I want to know what’s going on, and I want to know now. I deserve to know.”

“You don’t deserve anything.” He snarled viciously, clenching his teeth and giving her a glare that would have made any normal person fall to their knees. “I just don’t get you, okay? I don’t understand anything you do. Just when I think I’m finally beginning to get a grasp on your personality, you go and do something like this.”

“Like what?!” Tayhei exclaimed in exasperation. “What have I done?”

“Well, for one thing, I had no idea you were such a slut.”

“Excuse me?!” She screeched. She immediately crossed her arms tightly over chest, most likely in attempt to keep herself from slapping him. He had to admit that he was a little disappointed at that. He had been looking for the slap, aching for it. If she got so upset that she hit him, it would only make things quicker and easier. But instead, she kept her cool and kept her arms in place, even though he could see that she was shaking. He glared at her, only feeling angrier that she just wouldn’t cooperate with him and do what he wanted her to do. That meant he would have to reach deeper into the depths of his anger and hurt her even more badly.

He held up a hand to count them off. “First Goten, then Mirai Trunks….”

She gaped at him. “Are you suffering from some kind of brain aneurysm? How many times do I have to tell you that Goten and I are just friends?” She asked angrily. Then she stepped back and curled her fists at her sides, giving him a deadly glare that seemed to pierce right through his soul. “And as for Mirai Trunks….There are just a lot of things there that you wouldn’t be able to understand.”

“What wouldn’t I be able to understand?!” He demanded.

“It’s just a lot more complicated than you think.”

“Complicated, eh? I imagine it would be.” Trunks snapped sarcastically. He leered down at her, bringing his fist up to shake it in her face. He wanted to scare her, wanted her to see how much she had hurt him. His voice came out dripping with hatred and sarcasm, just shaking with an edge of bitterness. “And how in the world would someone as simple as me ever be able to understand something as complicated as a lonely, sword-wielding, pedophilic bastard swooping in on some ridiculous time machine and claiming the first slut he sees as his souvenir to take back with him to the future world?”

“I am not a slut.” She shouted, and angrily jabbed a finger into his chest. “And you know nothing about Mirai Trunks, the future world, or this situation. You have no right to say things like that.”

“I don’t know anything about the situation because you aren’t telling me anything! Do you honestly think it’s funny to stand there and give me ambiguous answers? To make your pathetic romance with that asshole seem like some big mystery?” He asked her condescendingly, then prepared himself to say the words that he knew were going to hurt her --- words he didn’t mean but knew would kill her. He glared at her and crossed his arms again, giving her a slight, disgusted smirk. “Do you really think it’s going to make things any better? If you go back with him to the future world, he is just going to use you and then drop as soon as he gets what he wants. You don’t really think he cares about you, do you? Because if you do, I can tell you this for sure: no man in his right man would even consider the possibility of loving you. You’re poison.”

Instantly, the angry look fell off her face, replaced by something that he had never seen before: hurt.

The look came as such a surprise to him that he faltered for a second, staring at those injured green eyes. He made himself ignore the slight hint of tears that he saw there, and desperately made himself look away from her shaking hands and trembling chin. He had obviously achieved his goal. After all of their arguments and all of the things that he had said and done to her, he had finally gotten through. He had finally busted through that icy, impenetrable exterior and stabbed her in the heart. He just wondered why it didn’t make him feel better. He wondered why it made him feel as though he had been stabbed in the heart as well; as if he had just been kicked in the stomach. The sickness quickly swept over him and he glared at her again, furious for making him feel this way --- For making him feel guilty.

“Don’t even attempt to act hurt, you heartless bitch.” He threatened evenly. People like Tayhei didn’t get hurt. People like Tayhei weren’t supposed to allow themselves to cry and feel bad. They were supposed to be machines, unbreakable and untouchable. He ignored the hurt on her face and told himself that he had no reason to be guilty. She deserved everything that he had said to her --- even if he hadn’t meant it. “I know you better than that. You can’t honestly expect me to believe that you’re upset.”

The hurt expression quickly disappeared from her face. She stared at him with absolutely no expression at all; her eyes devoid of any emotion and her mouth set in a straight, small line. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t expect you to care if I were upset or not. I think you’ve clearly proven that you don’t care about me at all.”

“You’re right --- I don’t.” He informed her simply.

“And if I do go back to the future world with Mirai Trunks?”

The words stabbed him even harder than the look that she had given him earlier. He had certainly expected to hear it from her, but it still gave him a little bit of shock. His stomach churned again, and he began to feel numb all over. His body shut down almost completely, and he began to wonder if he would even be able to continue standing. But he overcame the dizziness and stared back at her with a callous, smirking expression. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “Bra would be hurt for awhile. Goten would eat less. That’s about it.”

“And you?”

“I think it just might possibly be the best day of my life.” Trunks told her in the most convincing, hateful voice that he could manage. He narrowed his sky blue eyes at her and curled his lip up into a snarl. “I’ve put up with you for far too long already.”

It took her a long moment, and then she nodded slightly. “I’ll be sure to take that into consideration.” She told him quietly, then slowly turned and walked away from him, out his door and into the hallway.

Trunks stared after her with the same heated glare for a moment, then slammed his door with such force that a long, thin crack appeared in the wall next to it. He wavered on his feet for a moment, feeling nauseous and heartbroken. The door in front of him warped and faded in and out of vision, tilting up and back and slightly sideways. He stared at it dully, trying to gain his balance, trying to make his head stop spinning and his heart stop aching so hard in his chest. He took a deep breath and released it, intent on calming himself down, but all that came out was a half-hearted sob. Then before he could stop himself, he crumpled to the floor, landing hard in a sitting position with his knees bent up towards his chest. He brought his hand up to clutch his head, only to realize that he was shaking so viciously that he couldn’t even keep a grip.

Tayhei.

He had just sent her away. Told her to leave. Forced her to get out of his life. Had practically thrown her into Mirai Trunks’s arms, sealed up the time machine, and shot them into the future.

And he had done it all because he was angry, because he was jealous. Because he couldn’t allow himself to admit everything to her --- to tell her how he felt. Instead of holding her close and asking her not to go, he had called her a heartless bitch and told her that she was poison. The look on her face had killed him, had hurt him deep inside, in some place that he had no idea even existed. But he didn’t let it show; he refused to give her any indication of what that look had done to him. Instead of letting go of his pride and opening his heart, he had only shut himself up tighter and pushed her away. There was no apologizing for something like that, no going back on the words that he had spoke. Nothing he could ever do would make up for it; she would never accept him now. His last chances with her had just disappeared, just flitted away into the stormy night.

He hadn’t just lost her, he had lost everything. He had been wrong before --- Tayhei wasn’t poison, he was. Everyone around him left. Everyone around him died. He couldn’t keep anyone and he couldn’t protect anything. Sooner or later, they all left him. She wasn’t the one incapable of love, he was. He was the one who couldn’t admit things, couldn’t accept things. He was the one who was so damn afraid of getting hurt again that he couldn’t open up his heart. He was the one who had told the woman he loved to get out of his life. Anything that he was feeling right now; all of the sickness and the pain and the heartbreak --- it was his fault. It was all his fault.

Still on the floor, he brought his legs up tighter to his chest and threw his arms on his knees. Burying his face there, he bent his head down and cried.

The warm yellow walls of Capsule Corporation were a blur to her as Tayhei walked down the hallway, slightly dizzy and feeling sick. She was acutely aware of the fact that something inside of her had just been killed, but she tried desperately to push it away as she walked. When she passed the large picture windows, she didn’t even look outside, didn’t even hear the steady drumming of rain lashing against the windows. None of that mattered. Nothing else mattered except for the furious battle that was going on inside of her heart. With every step she consoled herself with an angry thought about him, and told herself that she was much better than him. She reminded herself of all of the mean things that he had said or done to her in the past --- reminded herself of the fact that the two of them could never be compatible. They could never get along. An argument like that --- those harsh words that had come out of his mouth, they meant nothing. Absolutely nothing.

She told herself that her life here was over. There was nothing left for her here. Bulma was gone, Bra would grow up, Goten would find a new friend, Vejiita would find a new enemy. They did not need her here. This was not where she was supposed to be. Why would she want to stay here? Why would she want to be constantly hurt, to be constantly told that she wasn’t welcome? Why would she want to stand around and wait for something that was never going to happen? It would be better for her to leave, to start a new life again.

Mirai Trunks was a good man. She could see it in his eyes; could read his heart more clearly than she’d ever been able to read anyone. He was lonely and sad and frustrated, but he was still a good person. And she knew she he would take care of her. He would give every part of himself to her, and do everything and anything to make her happy.

But she didn’t want him.

She didn’t love him.

She didn’t even know him.

Tayhei paused for a moment, and leaned a hand up against the wall for support, bending down and breathing deep. Her heart was aching, her stomach was churning. It just didn’t feel right. None of it felt right. Her whole entire world had just been turned upside down, shook around, crushed. Everything was simply falling down around her, and she didn’t know where to run. She didn’t know how to escape from this, didn’t know how she was supposed to feel or what she was supposed to do. All she could do was picture Trunks’s face in her mind; so full of hate, so full of anger. Those sky blue eyes had looked at her as if she were nothing, as if she absolutely didn’t matter. He looked at her with so much hatred and disgust that she would never be able to believe that there was anything else for her in his heart. Fate had been cruel to her before; it had taken away one of the only people that she had ever loved.