Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Lost Love ❯ After the Namek Saga ( Chapter 3 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chaozu blinked as he glanced around himself. He was at Capsule Corp... he was on Earth!
He was alive!
"Welcome back, buddy!" Krillin clapped his hand on the young emperor’s shoulder as he received a hug from Bulma.
"Th... thank you!" said Chaozu, "And thanks for wishing me back!"
"Why wouldn't we?" Bulma winked.
The small warrior looked around himself and saw everyone; Chi-chi, Gohan, Yamcha, the Namekians…. but couldn’t find the certain someone he wanted to find.
“Where’s… where’s Tien? He got wished back too, right?”
“Of course… I’m right here.”
The mime-like fighter whipped around to see the triclops standing by him, smiling widely. The sight brought tears to his eyes. “T… TIEN!” he cried as he flew to his friend and hugged him tightly. “We’re together again!! Together and alive!”
Tien patted his back. “Yes, indeed…”
The third wish from the Namekian dragonballs were used to wish the survivors of Namek to a new planet. Once they were gone, everyone gathered together, celebrating the defeat of Freeza, and the resurrection of their friends.
During the party, Tien had enjoyed himself, getting reacquainted with old pals and hearing the stories of what happened while he, Chaozu, and Yamcha were in the Other World. He was a bit leery of Vegeta being on Earth, especially living with Bulma at Capsule Corp. but since he did help Krillin and Gohan at Namek, and as long as he didn’t try anything to harm him or his friends at this point, he put the situation aside.
There was one thing however that was bothering him that he couldn’t shrug off…. Lunch wasn’t there. Next to being with Chaozu again, Tien was looking forward to seeing his good friend, despite being angry with her before his death. After dying in the battle with Vegeta and Nappa, he felt a sense of remorse deep inside. He had wanted to tell Lunch that he was sorry for being upset with her and didn’t bother contacting her during his training with Kami. Mainly he thought if he trained with the guardian of Earth, he could forget all about her and not worry about her obsessive compulsion to rob whenever she was the “evil” Lunch.
The only problem was, he couldn’t stop thinking of her. He tried convincing himself that battling the Saiyans was more important and that he didn’t have time to deal with her. But once he was killed, he realized he would have given anything to speak with Lunch. He felt guilty about leaving her in the dust, even if she did anger him that day. Apparently, even if he did see the light through the Crane Hermit’s dark training, he still had some coldness in his soul.
One day on King Kai’s planet, he realized King Kai could speak to anybody telepathically as the deity demonstrated by speaking with Goku, who was on his way to Namek. Shortly after, after finishing a round of training, Tien approached King Kai and politely asked if he could use that telepathic ability of his to contact somebody. The kai agreed, only if the three-eyed warrior promised a double round of training when he was finished.
Tien placed his hand on the kai’s shoulder. “Lunch…” he spoke quietly, “Can you hear me…?” No response. “If you can… I just want to let you know that I’m all right. And so is Chaozu. I hope you’re doing okay… Just please take care of yourself, you hear me? And don’t worry… I will return one day. Also, I hope you can forgive me.”
He still didn’t receive a response. He looked at King Kai, who shrugged and said she was either asleep or there was stormy reception. Either way, Tien didn’t try again…
He was hoping Lunch would be there, at the very least to welcome him back, if not jump into his arms, cry like a child, and beg him never to leave her again. He wanted to make up for leaving her behind without writing a note to let her nice-girl self know what he was doing. He wanted to apologize for making her worry. But because of what he did, she wasn’t around. Was she angry? Did she move on? Or did she do something irrational…?
Finally, he decided to go straight to the horse’s mouth. “Bulma, where’s Lunch? Didn’t you invite her?”
“Of course I did,” the blue-haired woman responded, “I would’ve thought she’d want to see you again, except when I called, she wasn’t there anymore. I couldn’t contact her, or find out where she went off to.” She shrugged, “Almost as if she disappeared off the face of the earth.”
Tien sighed, disappointed. But he was just wished back to life and among his old friends. He decided to return home with Chaozu later, and hopefully find Lunch once they came back. Right now, he would just enjoy himself.

It was late at night when both Tien and Chaozu decided to head back home. After thanking everyone once again for wishing them back to life, they took off. A long time ago, they would just camp out anywhere that looked peaceful, but Tien was leading the way back to the house where they had lived with Lunch. Chaozu thought it was rather strange, since Tien had “broken up” with her, but then again, she wasn’t at the party. Perhaps he just wanted to see her again after being dead for so long. It was nice to know he wasn’t angry with her anymore.
Tien smiled as the location of their old house came to view, but blinked when he saw it was gone. “What..?” he murmured, “I would have figured she would’ve bought a new house! Or stolen one, whatever!”
“She probably moved away,” said Chaozu, “I mean, without us around anymore, why would she stay?”
“You’re… you’re probably right,” said Tien as the two touched ground.
“Did you tell her that we were gonna be wished back?”
Tien stared at the ground, “I did… but I don’t think she heard me…”
“Why didn’t you try again?”
Tien was silent for a moment, trying to think of an answer. Frankly, he didn’t know himself. He had wanted to, but another part of him criticized him for being a weak fool obsessed with a girl. “I… never got the chance,” he told his small friend, feeling a little guilty about lying to him, but shook it off moments later. “She’s probably at Master Roshi’s house,” he continued, “We’ll find her tomorrow. She couldn’t have gotten far.”
They laid their bags down and unraveled their blankets. “For now,” said Tien, “We’ll stay here. It’s been such a long day, I’m too tired to do anything else.”
“Wow, it’s been a long time since we slept under the stars, hasn’t it old friend?” said Chaozu.
“It has…” said Tien, “I kinda missed those days. Get some rest.” The warrior laid down and closed his eyes, and silently thought to himself, ‘I miss those days… but I miss being with Lunch more.’
Little did he know, Chaozu had heard him.


Tien woke up the next morning at the smell of frying eggs. He turned over to see Chaozu cooking some eggs on a heated rock using a stick to stir.
“Morning, Tien!” he chirped, “You like your eggs scrambled, right?”
“Er, yeah,” the taller fighter responded, “Thank you.”
“No problem. Though they won’t be as good as Lunch’s scrambled eggs,” Chaozu then looked up at Tien, “You know… I miss her too.”
Tien cringed and stared at the ground. “You heard me think that?”
“Sorry, but it can’t be helped, our minds being close and all…”
“Don’t worry about it…” said Tien, “I’m sure she’ll come back with us once we find her.” He sighed, ‘At least I hope so…’
‘Why wouldn’t she?’ Chaozu thought back, ‘She really does care about you.’
‘Damn! I keep forgetting you can hear my thoughts!’
Chaozu giggled, ‘Sorry, but like I said…’
‘Can’t be helped… I know.’
‘What makes you think she wouldn’t want to come back?’
‘Well, I was pretty upset with her,’ Tien thought, ‘I made her think she wasn’t even worthy of me, all while I was acting unworthy of her. I just want her to forgive me for my behavior, but since I tried to push her out of my mind, she probably thinks it’s over between us… and between you and me, I think it’s far from that.’
‘I’m sure things will turn out for the better, Tien.’
‘I hope you’re right.’
After breakfast, the first place the two warriors searched was the Kame House. Master Roshi, however, told them that he hadn’t seen Lunch since she left with them seven years ago. The others knew just as much as the turtle hermit did, if not less. They tried Kami’s lookout to ask the god if he could locate her, but Mr. Popo stood in their way, telling them that Kami was too busy with other issues to deal with them. So the two searched around the world for any trace of their friend but came up short. They figured some town would probably have search warrants for Blonde Lunch, since she robbed at least one bank from every city, but nothing was posted, and very few even remembered her. Bulma wasn’t kidding when she said it was like Lunch “had disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“Where could she have disappeared off to?” Chaozu wondered.
Tien shook his head. “If I knew, I’d gladly tell you… Unfortunately, she’s gone. Looks like it’s just you and me again.”
“You mean that’s it??” Chaozu glared up at Tien, “We’re going to just stop looking?? But--“
“This is her decision, Chaozu,” Tien commanded, furrowing his brow, “We’re just going to have to accept it. No use dragging it out.”
“You can’t just push it aside, Tien!” Chaozu pleaded, “You have to be more open with your feelings! That’s why she’s missing to begin with!”
“What happened has happened,” Tien murmured, closing his eyes, “She’s gone now… We can’t fix it anymore.”
“Tien!” Chaozu cried, “You may act like we can drop this and move on, but I know deep down you still really care for her! Don’t leave her behind like it’s nothing! I know you don’t really want to.”
The three-eyed man stood there in silence for a moment. “Chaozu,” he finally spoke.
“Yes?”
“Do me a favor…. Don’t read my thoughts without my permission anymore.”
Chaozu frowned. “Oh… okay.”
“Come on, let’s go. We’ve a world to explore, and a lot of training to cover.” He took off into the air, with his small friend following closely. As they soared through the sky, Tien closed his eyes and sighed to himself. ‘Lunch… I didn’t mean for it to get this bad… But now it looks like that it really is over between us…. I’m sorry.’
Chaozu didn’t say anything, but he heard what he was thinking.