Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Slumber Party! ❯ The Dragonballs ( Chapter 15 )

Bulma and Chi Chi were talking in the livingroom while Chi Chi folded clothes and Bulma was painting her fingernails a pretty shade of medium blue that matched her hair and eyes. She paused, the nail polish brush held in midair, and said; "I know what you're saying, Chich, and it's a wonderful idea, but the way she'll been feeling about the whole thing, I don't think that will stop her from killing who-ever was resonsible in the first place…"

"But, it's the best idea!" Chi Chi exclaimed, "I don't know why none of us thought of it before, after all, we'll all brought loved ones back…"

Maybe none of us mentioned it was because we don't like to think about those times, losing someone close to you, even for a moment, is painful, Bulma thought, and felt like a complete selfish moron for not telling Tori about the dragonballs in the first place! What the hell was in her head? Rocks? She screwed the brush-lid back into the nail polish bottle and placed it on the coffee table along with her other make-up and hair styling products.

"I'm going to tell her about them right now!" She annouced, leaving the room to go find Tori.

As it was; the girl was outside, with Piccolo, training. As she'd been doing every day for awhile now. She was getting stronger and using her ki to control her fire-powers had become easier and easier the more she practiced. The area she had the most trouble in was flying. She'd been working on that for a bit, only being able to lift herself a few inches off the ground before she'll begin to lose control and fall, once more, back to earth.

She'd get it, Piccolo was certain, eventually. He saw movement from the corner of his eye and the flash of blue told him Bulma was approuching. She called out to Tori, interrupting her just as she was forming a ki ball. Letting it fade out along her palm, she spun around, her golden hair held back in a tight braid down her back, shimmering in the afternoon sunlight.

"Bulma." She greeted without smiling. Tori rarely smiled these days. The fact cut Bulma like a knife. She could have put have put a stop to this, a long time ago, and felt guilty. She wouldn't blame the girl for hating her after what she told her.

"Tori, I have something to tell you." Bulma said and Tori did not miss the look of shame which flashed across her friend's face, "Can we go someplace…to…to talk?"

Piccolo watched them depart. He knew what Bulma was about to tell her and fought with his own self over it. He'd known about the dragonballs and what they could do. Why, then, had he kept his mouth shut on the subject? Why didn't he just tell her, right away, that they could bring her family back? Was it because, then, she'd have no reason to be his student? She'd have no reason to spend any time at all with him?

He blanched a lighter shade of green as he realized what he'd done and the reason he'd done it, however unintentonally. He'd not mentioned the dragonballs to her because he had begun to enjoy their time together…he'd began to having feelings for the girl. He growled deep in his throat and called himself ten times the fool. How would he ever explain himself to her?

"Bulma?" Tori asked, brushing dirt from her staind gi, "Just what, exactly, are you saying?"

"I'm saying that there are these magical balls, called dragonballs," Bulma said, not meeting Tori's light blue stare, "And that if you can find all seven, a dragon will apear and grant you any wish you desire…"

"All I want is to avenge my family's death…" Tori folded her arms across her chest and in a gesture she'd picked up from Piccolo, her face falling into a semblence of one of his expressions as well, "That is all."

Bulma shook her head, ignoring Tori's rage-filled glare, "You don't understand, Tori!" She cried, taking hold of the younger woman's shoulders and shaking her gently, "We can use the dragonballs to wish your family back! They can be alive and with you again!"

Tori was taken aback, her whole world seemed to fall apart as the meaning of Bulma's words sunk in. Her family…alive again? No! It's not possible! She shook her head, shoving away from Bulma, who yelped in surprise.

"I never thought of you as cruel, Bulma." She said slowly, shivering, her back to the blue-haired woman, "But this is the meanest thing anyone's ever said to me. How can you tease me like this?"

"Tease you?" Bulma asked, "Tease you? Tori, I would never…I'm serious! They really do work that way! As long as whoever you are wishing for to come back hasn't already been brought back once before."

Tori turned around, the disbelief in her eyes clear for Bulma to read, "You…you're not kidding, are you?" She asked, "Your telling me the truth…"

"Of course I am!" Bulma sighed, "I…I'm your friend, Tori…"

Sudden anger flashed across Tori's normally angelic-looking face; "If you're my friend, as you say, Bulma, then why didn't you say anything about these so-called `magical balls' earlier?"

Tori's words felt like a blade ripping into her heart. She shook her head, unable to answer. She felt the tears behind her eyes and said, her voice ragged; "I'm sorry, Tori. I…don't know why I never mentioned them. Please, please forgive me…!"

Sighing, Tori took the other woman in her arms and held her, telling her without words that she was forgiven. After all, Tori thought, I need all the friends I can get…

She did not know why Bulma had not told her, but she thought if anyone would have told her something so vital it would have been Piccolo, and yet, he'd kept as silent as Bulma. Why?

She wondered if there really were such things.

"We'll all start looking for them right away!" Bulma said, "I have my dragon radar someplace around here…"

Tori wasn't listening, she turned and saw Piccolo floating in the air behind them, watching them, watching her. She did not understand the look in his eyes and something deep in her gut moved, like butterflies on the wing and she had to look away.