They walked up the stairs from Bulma’s workshop slowly --- Tayhei because she was slightly in pain from the beating that she took from Juunana-gou, and Mirai Trunks because he was deep in thought about something. She cast a glance back at him and found that his sky blue eyes were distant and unfocused, and had just a tinge of sadness edging them. It was something that she had grown to recognize lately; that was the look he got when he was thinking of something in his past. Flitting past the blue of his eyes were visions of the cold future world that he had described and the pain that he must have gone through. It was almost as if she could see his entire life running through those eyes, and the pain of it reached out and touched her deeply. As much as she had struggled herself, it was nothing compared to the battles that this future warrior had been through. She felt nothing for him but friendship --- if even that, but it was still enough to make her heart ache, knowing that he still felt such a horrible pain inside.

“Did you have something against that girl?” He asked her suddenly, and she was torn out of her thoughts about him. She paused in her steps for a moment, thinking about Marron. Yes, the girl was annoying, but there was a small part of her that couldn’t help but view Marron fondly. She was such a little fighter, always putting up with anything that Tayhei dished at her. Tayhei would love to see her lose the pigtails and the big sweaters one day, and become the woman that she knew was just bubbling beneath that innocent, gullible exterior. And the sooner that happened, the sooner Marron would stop annoying all of them and get on with her life.

“There is a bit of a grudge.” Tayhei admitted with a fond smile, remembering the scene when they had first met. That had been one of Muffin’s more annoying moments. “She gets stronger every time I attack her like that though, did you notice? You should have seen the way she cowered the first time that I gave her a verbal whipping. She’s grown up a lot since then, though I suppose that certain circumstances in life can only make a person mature faster. I gave up a lot of my childhood as well, because life wouldn’t allow me to be a child anymore. There are certain things that you just can’t make it through without being able to look at the world with a darker, more pessimistic view.”

They finally reached the top step and Mirai Trunks moved around her to open the door and hold it for her. As she brushed past him and into the hallway, he shook his head vigorously at her, his eyes lighting up with the same idealistic look that she had seen in them before. His voice was nice and smooth as always, but there was a childish tinge of wonder attached to it. “I disagree. The only thing that made me push myself through the most horrible times in life was hope. No matter how bad it got or how terrible I felt, I was always able to hope for something better.”

She pushed the door shut behind her and placed her hands on her hips. “And what did that vibrant hope of yours give you in return?”

“I suppose you could say that it hasn’t given me anything yet. Getting to see your face again after all these years was wonderful, but at the same time it was a bit disheartening as well. I didn’t want to admit it, but I had placed an awful lot of hope in this trip. I had wanted to find you so badly and be able to hold you in my arms again. I couldn’t help but be filled with hope when I arrived here, and especially when I saw you again.” He smiled at her then and his eyes scanned over her in a gentle manner, as if he had just remember how nice it was to be able to look at her. Then he looked down and studied the floor. “But I am not so blind that I can’t see who your heart truly belongs to. It hurts --- I can’t lie. But it hurts in a different way than I thought it would. I’m not hurt that your heart belongs to someone else. It’s just painful to know that I will never be able to be with my Tayhei ever again. I spent all these years hoping for it with my every breath, praying for it every time I closed my eyes. And I just now realized that it’s impossible.”

Tayhei raised her eyebrows at the last comment and then raised her chin a bit, in the haughty manner of someone giving a lecture. “Nothing is impossible. As a scientist, I can tell you with confidence that nothing is ever straight out unreachable. There may be barriers that we have to stumble over before we get there, but nothing is ever impossible. If you think something is impossible, it’s just because your mind does not have the capacity to view the other possibilities.”

“And I suppose your mind does have the capacity to think of all these different possibilities?”

She smirked. “Perhaps.”

He stared at her for a long moment, taking in every angle of her face and every glint of light in her hair, then shrugged dramatically. “It doesn’t make a difference anyway. I think fate has purposely set out to make my life miserable. I might as well just give up the fight. What’s the use anyway? Every time I try to make things better, I just end up getting hurt. Maybe you’re right, Tayhei. Maybe it’s best to protect your heart and never let anyone or anything into your life. Love and happiness just leave open gateways for things like pain and suffering to leak in through. It’s best just to keep yourself at a distance and never let yourself feel.”

That was what she had always told herself. Even before Yakosoku had died, she had still kept herself apart from everyone. Her little sister had been the only person that she had ever let into her life. And it had hurt like hell when she died. Hurt so bad that she had never quite recovered from that wound. She would never want to put herself through something like that again. Despite Mirai Trunks’s speech, she found it a bit hard to imagine that he had changed his mind about life so quickly. She gazed at his face and saw that his sky blue eyes were still full of thought. Although he had supposedly just agreed with her, she couldn’t help but feel as though he wasn’t done speaking. She stared at him with unblinking green eyes, simply waiting for him to say whatever else he was going to say to her.

Just as she suspected, he spoke up after a moment, placing his hand on his chin thoughtfully as he tilted his head. “Of course….because I know how both beautiful both love and happiness can feel, I can’t help but search for it again. Because what would life be like if I had nothing to reach for? If I ruled out all of the possibilities and told myself that love was completely unattainable, I would only be lying to myself. Because as you said, nothing is impossible. Not even crazy ideas such as love and joy.”

Tayhei frowned deeply. It wasn’t often that she backed herself into a corner during an argument. In fact, she couldn’t remember that ever happening before. But Mirai Trunks was right. If nothing was impossible, then why did she kept telling herself that she would never be truly happy again, or that she would never allow herself to love anyone? If she was miserable and lonely --- it was her fault. She had done this all to herself. She had pushed out anyone that wanted to make a real connection, fought with all her heart to keep people away from her. And all this time, she had just been shoving away all of her chances for real happiness. It was enough to make her want to burst into tears, but she would never do that in front of Mirai Trunks. Besides, it would be a long while before she would ever allow herself to change. Maybe if she went someplace new and got away from all of these people who seemed to know so much about her, she would be able to start over. She would be able to get a second chance.

Just as she was mulling over that thought in her mind, Trunks came around the corner, with Goten walking obediently behind him. She drew her breath in sharply when she saw him; the fire in his eyes was so intense and so beautiful that she found it difficult to gaze at them for too long. He was obviously mad about something again, and that was one of the things that she had grown to like the most about Trunks. There was never a dull moment in his life --- never anything that she would classify as boring. There was always fury and danger and fear. Tayhei had seen enough in her lifetime not to be affected by the excitement of the kind of aura that Trunks had surrounding him, but there was something else about him that made it hard for her to keep herself steady. As he walked towards her with his face set into a darkly attractive scowl, she began to wonder if she wanted a second chance.

Trunks glared angrily at the future warrior and Tayhei. His heart gave a slight thump when he saw all the bandages and bruises that were covering her body. Although part of him thought that she had deserved to be battered around by Juunana-gou, most of him hated to see that perfect skin flawed. She and Mirai Trunks had been having a conversation before he walked up, and he had obviously interrupted it, but he could care less. After talking to Goten about the situation for the last half hour, he had decided that he wanted some answers. He was tired of being kept in the dark and tired of them telling him that he didn’t understand. The only reason he didn’t understand was because they weren’t telling him anything. He could have expected this kind of thing from Mirai Trunks; the future warrior seemed to be pretty secretive. But Tayhei was usually very open with things, especially if they were things that could quite possibly make him miserable.

Tayhei made the first move of course, plastering that gorgeous smile on her face and clasping her hands onto Goten’s shoulders. “Goten! I just handed the dragon radar off to Marron, along with some items that will help you along your journey. The two of us made a bit of an agreement, so you’ll have to be sure to make her keep her word.”

Goten chuckled lightly at her last comment and shook his head at her, looking completely enchanted already. Trunks didn’t know why he had to fall for Tayhei’s act so easily, but he did, every single time. Goten grinned again, a smile that practically lit up the entire room. “Marron is a very trustworthy girl, Tayhei. You won’t have to worry about her keeping a promise. If the two of you made an agreement, I won’t even have to make sure that she keeps her end of the deal. Just out of curiosity though, what was the agreement?”

She gave everyone a smug look. “I get the second wish.”

“I forgot about the second wish….” Goten admitted, rubbing the back of his head thoughtfully. Then he gave her a charming grin and punched her lightly and playfully on the side of her arm. “What are you going to wish for? There can’t be many things that you need. You already have more money in the bank than I could ever hope for, you’re probably the smartest person in this room, and you’re the most beautiful girl that I’ve ever seen.” He flashed another charming smile. “What could a girl like you possibly need from the dragon?”

Trunks was not amused.

And judging by the fierce glint in Mirai Trunks’s eyes, their future visitor wasn’t that pleased with Goten’s behavior either. The two of them stood across from each other like perfect reflections; both of their arms were crossed and their lavender hair hung into their eyes, giving off the image of danger and fury. If Trunks weren’t so disgusted with his best friend, he might find it comical that he and the future warrior had finally agreed on something: they might not know which one of them Tayhei belonged to, but they sure as hell didn’t want Goten anywhere near her. Trunks was a little frustrated by the fact that his friend wasn’t standing at his side and glaring as well --- after all, wasn’t Goten supposed to be on his side? They were supposed to face off with Tayhei and Mirai Trunks and demand some answers, not idly chitchat in the hallway.

He cleared his throat and spoke to his friend between clenched teeth. “Goten, I didn’t bring you here so that you could flirt with the enemy. I brought you here to back me up.”

The smile immediately fell off of Tayhei’s beautiful face and she rolled her eyes at him, obviously frustrated. “Are you actually still upset over all this?”

“You’re damn right I’m still upset!” Trunks exclaimed furiously, suddenly unleashing all of the anger and hurt that he had been holding in all day. “You two may think that everything is settled and everything is just peachy, but I am still in the dark. I don’t know what went on or what still might be going on, and I demand to know. And I’m not budging from this spot until you give me some answers. And since you seem to like keeping the most important aspects of this situation a secret, I will simply ask you the easy questions first, until you’re ready to tell me whatever the hell it is you’re hiding from me.”

Tayhei rolled her eyes again, but Mirai Trunks simply stared at him, obviously at little shocked at the sudden outburst. He didn’t blame him. Mirai Trunks seemed a little more capable of holding in his anger and his feelings, but Trunks was more than willing to let it all come out at once. He was like his mother that way --- if she even felt the slightest bit of anger, everyone in the entire Capsule Corporation building was going to know about it. Her outbursts were infamous among family, friends, and even co-workers. Trunks had been hoping to take after his father when it came to holding in feelings and acting detached and calm most of the time, but he didn’t appear to be that lucky. At least outbursts produced results. After all, Mirai Trunks and Tayhei were standing there waiting for him to ask his questions. If he had gone about it in more of a calm and sensible manner, they probably would have already left.

“Why have you hated me from the very first moment I met you?” Trunks demanded suddenly, directing the question at the future warrior. It was true; ever since the very first evening the Mirai Trunks and his mother showed up, his future counterpart had been mean to him. He could understand if the act had been provoked, but Trunks had never even done anything to warrant any kind of cruelty. If was almost childish the way that Mirai Trunks insisted on hating him --- without even giving him a reason why. If Trunks had actually known what had offended Mirai Trunks, he might have been able to remedy the situation. But instead, his future counterpart had decided to simply act mean and spiteful without even giving him hint as to why. Trunks had a strong feeling that it had something to do with Tayhei, but he’d never know unless Mirai Trunks came out and said it. It wasn’t like he was a mind reader.

“I suppose I was jealous.” Mirai Trunks admitted casually, shrugging his broad shoulders. “And a little angry as well. First of all, you live in this perfect world and don’t even know what it’s like to suffer. Everything in your life has simply been handed to you. You grew up knowing both of your parents, without food shortages, and without the threat of two evil beings bent on destroying the planet. And you didn’t seem to realize any of this. You are far too arrogant and far too ungrateful to deserve any of the things that you have. Including Tayhei. For someone who supposedly cares so much about her --- and I’m guessing that’s why you’re so upset right now, you certainly don’t treat her with very much respect or kindness.”

Trunks was so offended by the last statement that he couldn’t even move his mouth at first. It took him a full five seconds to recover before he could raise his hand up and point at Tayhei, keeping his wild eyes on Mirai Trunks. “I don’t treat her with respect because she hasn’t treated me with respect. Ever. She may act sweet and innocent around you, but trust me; the girl is about as warm and friendly as a spider. She lures you in and manages to wrap you into this huge web of lies that she has created….And then she simply eats you alive.”

Tayhei sighed. “Don’t be melodramatic, Trunks.”

“Melodramatic, am I?” Trunks asked her in a dangerous tone, then flicked his eyes back towards Mirai Trunks. “Let me ask you this, Mirai Trunks: have you ever been caught wandering around the Capsule Corporation grounds wearing nothing but a watering can?” He asked pointedly and the future warrior stared back at him as though he had lost his mind. “I didn’t think so. That was the end result of just one of her many unpleasant little stunts. And believe me --- she had to weave quite the evil little web in order to get me into that mess.”

Mirai Trunks shook his head slowly and drew his mouth down into a frown. “Look, you’re never going to know exactly how I feel or what I tried to find in Tayhei. You’re never going to know because someone like you just isn’t capable of understanding it.”

“What am I not capable of understanding?” Trunks asked in exasperation.