Disclaimer: I do not own db/z/gt/s or any of its characters.

Dude Where's My World:

Revised

Chapter 84: Sitting in a…grand arena?

"Come-on Val, it's only ten." Goten tried to reason with Valerie patiently; even though this was nearly the sixth time she'd paused the game to bite her nails and pace around the common area.

"Shouldn't they be back by now?" She asked him, her eyes perplexed and her gaze unfocused. She stopped her pacing at the familiar sounds of buttons being pressed and turned her attention to the vision of serenity and tranquility that was Son Goten, handling the joystick of both of their controllers that sat on each of his thighs, moving the little characters forward with the thumb and index finger of each hand. She looked over at the screen and saw both character simply walking forward into dangerous territory without any care to duck or avoid the danger that was obviously coming. "…You're not worried?" She asked him with some concern in her voice. The quiet and nervous sound of her question made him pause the game and he turned towards her and shook his head, his soft smile still in place.

"Not a bit." He assured her as he finally set both controllers off to the side. "Would it make you feel better if I tell you I can feel Trunks ki and that he's perfectly fine? " He got Valerie's attention with that, as she came back to the couches and sat across from him.

"But you can't feel her, right?"

He confirmed it with a nod, "Yeah, but you know it's never accurate with you two."

"But he's fine?" She persisted.

"Absolutely…It just feels like he's working out, but otherwise fine." Valerie frowned at that.

"Working out? Why would he be working out when he's with Josie?" Goten scratched his head, having no real answer for her, because he also didn't know.

"There's no danger," She assured. "The spikes are just the normal spikes we get from physical activity."

"…" Valerie stared blankly at him for another few silent moments, before she wordlessly got off the couch and went to the desk chair to grab her jacket off it and started to put it on hurriedly. "We're going, now." She said firmly walking past him to leave the room. Groaning, Goten got up and turned off the console, knowing that there was nothing he could say or do to convince Valerie to change her plans when her voice sounded like it did then. He went downstairs to the living room where Valerie had left the doors wide open and was out in the lawn, her arms crossed and her expression unhappy. Goten came outside and just stared at her with that infuriatingly patient smile and her resolve momentarily faltered at just how handsome he was. She shook her head and glared harder. "And don't bother to ask me if I'm sure about this, because I'm sure about this. Where are they?"

Goten only grinned at her, knowing how hard it was for her to not second guess herself constantly, and how, even now, she likely had thrice reconsidered going out without asking Bulma first. Finding her precious and adorable, he scooped her up comfortably into his arms. "It seems like they may be around Papaya Island. You ready?" She was confused by the name of the island, but nodded nonetheless, putting her arm around Goten and pressing her face to his chest like she normally did when they took off. Valerie was normally a very still flyer; she feared moving and being dropped, and rarely took a peak at the scenery below, but Goten could tell that this time was different, by how she almost immediately took her face out of his chest, and cupped her hands around her eyes protectively. He smiled at his brave girl, and let her enjoy it for a while, until they started to approach the island.

Valerie gasped when they approached. "You said something about Papaya's!" Valerie exclaimed as loudly as she could, the accusation of lies in her tone when she spotted the enormous tournament island. "If you think you're going to distract me from finding my idiot friend by taking me somewhere amazing, you are… so damn right." She groaned, burying her face back in his chest with embarrassment. "This is so friggin dope," He thought he heard her muffle into his shirt, making him laugh.

"The Tournament arena is IN Papaya Island." He explained loudly, beside her ear. Before Valerie could let out any of the obscenities that came to mind at the ridiculousness that was Josie's luck to have been brought here, Goten began their descent into the grounds. He set her down carefully beside him and gestured for her to follow quietly. "We have to be extra careful because not only will Trunks be able to sense me if we're not, but they probably have security to keep people out of this place during off season." Not having thought of that, Valerie's eyes widened, and she looked around, feeling paranoid, despite the darkness. Nearly yelping when Goten patted her shoulder to get her to follow him; she gulped as she nodded, and followed as closely behind Goten as possible, as he led them from the cover of a building to another.

Valerie wished so desperately that the lamplights around them were brighter, or that it were daytime, or that they didn't have to sneak around like thieves in the night…or that Josie at least had not gotten to do this first. "—OW," Valerie felt Goten's hand immediately go to her mouth to quiet her, after she ran nose first into his back. She reached up and smacked his hand away, gingerly pressing at her nose, whilst glaring at him.

"Sorry," Goten whispered sheepishly, rubbing comforting circles on her back, that she also quickly swatted away. "They're in there though." He explained the abrupt stop, pointing to the wooden structure they were standing next to. That caught Valerie's attention, she looked up, able to hear faint voices and saw small windows high above them. She gestured for Goten's shoulders and receiving a thumbs up, Valerie put a hand on Goten's shoulder and the second hand on the wall. He crouched down as low as he could and Valerie tentatively put a foot on each of his shoulders, already thinking that this had to be a stupid idea, because neither of the two were particularly coordinated.

But she could hear them inside more clearly now.

"Wow, I haven't done that for a while." She heard Trunks voice say contentedly, exhaling loudly.

"Psh, at least you've done it before and knew what to expect, I've NEVER actually done that before. Do you know how terrifying that was for me?"

"Really?" Valerie could hear the satisfaction and grin on Trunks face. "You have nothing to worry about, you were good; very good. You actually tired me out a bit."

"Psh, whatever! Don't condescend me—wait, is that even a thing?" Trunks laughed.

"No—patronize maybe?"

"Yeah that." A haughty, embarrassed and out of breath Josie said. "My heart is still kind of racing," She laughed. "I can't believe I did it… here, take your towel, you're all gross and sweaty. Honestly, we could both use a shower, but it feels good, and I don't know that I'm ready to stop. Do you…want to do it again?" Josie's shy voice asked.

"All night if you want me to." Trunks assured softly; the words almost too quiet for Valerie to hear, but she definitely heard them. With each word spoken, her eyes only grew gradually wider and wider, until her mind came to such a grinding halt that her body forgot to do the tasks that it normally did without her thinking, such as swallowing her own saliva. She accidentally choked and it sent her into a coughing fit and it struck her so forcefully that she lost her balance atop Goten, who did his best to keep her upright by power walking to the left, and quickly power walking to the right, but he failed and Valerie came down. He caught her a second later, bridal style.

"I promise it's not what it sounds like." Goten reassured her with amusement, having heard the whole thing from below.

"And pray tell, what do we sound like?" Trunks voice asked from behind them. Trunks watched with a smile as a sheepish Goten turned to face him. Trunks was leaning a bare shoulder against the side of the building of the tournaments locker room.

Josie and he had been grabbing some towels to wipe down after sparring and challenging each other to stupid feats of strength and stamina for hours now, by the looks of where the moon was now stationed in the sky, Trunks realized.

Josie stood beside him now under the street light with a raised brow and her bare arms crossed loosely, looking more at ease than Valerie had ever known her known her to be in a tank top. Valerie had the sudden and distasteful thought that the two looked like fighters. She knew who Trunks was and what he looked like without most of his clothes, so the sight of him dirty, sweaty and in blue wife beater didn't surprise her, but Josie…high pony tail disheveled, with grass poking out of her still new bangs that were plastered to her face with sweat; wearing a dirt covered black tank, her red and swollen knuckles resting on her exposed and well defined arms just did not register as the friend she had known now for years. This person was such a stranger…

"Why are you guys here?" Josie asked them curiously, unaware of the thoughts and longing Valerie was experiencing.

"Valerie wanted to see what you guys were up to." Goten explained.

Being ratted out was apparently enough of a wakeup call for Valerie to startle out of her reverie and she instantly lashed out, punching Goten's shoulder, earning a yelp. "It's true!" He defended. "You two have been gone for most of the day."

"Bulma said I could hang outside of CC today." Josie explained.

Goten tilted his head, an inquisitive smile on his face. "So why didn't you two call us so we could help you make a day of it?" Goten asked, not sounding offended, just very curious, and a little suspicious. Josie and Trunks looked at each other blankly, hoping the other had a good reason to give them, because the question he was asking was a reasonable one. The gang always hung out together, unless Valerie and Goten were on a date. But the answer in this case was a simple one, but just not one they could give to them:

They didn't want to hang out with them.

The words had come to both of their minds, but remained only there, because they didn't want to offend their friends, or weird each other out. They hadn't even thought to call up the group to hang out, but the question now was:

Why?

Trunks' eyes remained on Josie whose gaze had dropped to the side, distractedly, as she seemed to be trying to figure out the answer to the same question. Likely still feeling the eyes on her face, she looked back up at Trunks and gave him a sheepish smile, and light shrug back in response that made him smile back. He knew why…and he was pretty sure that maybe she did now too.

Possibly anyway. And that was enough.

Trunks turned back to their friends and shared the smile, and echoed Josie's shrug. "We didn't intend to end up here, we just went out for a stroll."

"Papaya Island is a bit of a far stroll, considering the water and all, Trunks." Goten pointed out reasonably, but none-the-less he grinned and nodded in acceptance of the response, turning back to Valerie. "Looks like they already got to spend some time in the stadium, you want to take a look before we go home?"

"You don't think it's too dark?" Valerie asked.

"We have it well lit." Josie assured her, gesturing with her arm for them to follow, which they did at a distance, as Valerie oooh'd and awwww'd at everything Josie had already seen and Goten walked beside her to point out things she was missing.

Trunks walked alongside Josie, and she could STILL feel his eyes on her. She looked over at him. "What?" She mumbled the question, still embarrassed and now apparently self-conscious by the sudden presence of their friends.

"Tonight's not over for us, you know." He told her, smiling at the surprised expression and blush that decorated her confused cheeks, which seemed to be torn between smiling and frowning at him.

"…I don't know what you're talking about." She murmured, stuffing her flexing fingers in her the pockets of her pants. He nodded, not seeming phased by the supposed lack of understanding her words tried to convince him of; her face said something else entirely, and apparently so did her flushing cheeks.

They entered the arena once more and Josie told the others about the play-fighting they'd been doing for a little while now. "Do you want to try?" Josie offered Valerie. "I'll cheer you on from the stands, I think I need a small break. I'm beat."

"Definitely not," Valerie said, not remotely in the mood to look like a fool in front of her friends anytime soon, traumatized from her last experience at Hercule's estate. "I'll join you in the stands. How about you two fight?" Valerie asked the two boys, Trunks scoffed and Goten groaned, rubbing the back of his head.

"Guys, that's a great idea!" Josie argued in Valerie's defense, excitedly. "If you don't want to fight that's fine but can you at least show us how you won your junior division match, Trunks? The last few seconds of the fight?" Trunks looked surprised at the suggestion and Goten immediately protested the word 'won' supplanting it — repeatedly — with words like, cheated, lied, manipulated. "Can you imagine seeing the last few seconds of that awesome fight?" Josie asked Valerie. "If not that…can you guys fuse for us?" She asked with a wide grin at the horror on their faces at the suggestion.

"Absolutely not." Trunks immediately turned down.

"No. No." Goten agreed fervently.

Trunks scolded the stubborn girl, "Fusion is not a toy, Josie—"

"-What are you talking about?" Josie argued. "You used it as a toy all the time—"

"—When I was a child!" He argued back.

"Then how about the ending to your epic fight eh?" Josie asked, raising her brows at him, hopeful. Trunks glowered for a few moments, but thinking it the lesser of two inconveniences, he nodded in acquiesce. "Goten, you in?" Goten started to refuse the idea once more but one tug at his sleeve from Valerie, and a look of something resembling a pout on her face was enough to get him to sigh in agreement. "YES! come-on, Val, let's find our seats." Josie squealed excitedly, grabbing onto Valerie's arm and running off with her to the stands.

The guys argued in the center of the ring the details of how the match went down longer than the actual exhibition match duplicating the ending to their fight of the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament went on for, but the girls didn't care. They were loving this. The guys shouted play by plays to the girl's and when one would disagree with the other's recollection, they'd hop on the other's back and a real fight would temporarily break out, and a pile of smoke and dust as fists flew would block their view, causing the girls to howl with laughter. They booed at the appropriate parts, heckled the fighters and threw imaginary popcorn at them, and even marveled in silence as Goten went up in the air and replicated the attack that he attempted to create with the help of speed, hooked as he explained why he'd chosen to do what he did and how he thought the play would pan out. Trunks stood below him with a smile, as he waited for him, knowing what he had done back then was not right, but remembering vividly how determined he had been not to lose.

Despite claiming not to remember, Trunks executed the final moves, even the blast that pitched Goten towards the audience; obviously the blast had a lot less juice than usual, but Goten played it up like a champ, pretending to do everything within his power to stop himself from hitting the bleachers, but unable to stop his feet from landing on a seat. Goten fists were clenched at his sides and eyes were screwed tight until a few seconds after his feet gently touching the bleachers, just like they had done that day, and finally, he opened his eyes and smiled at the girls beside sitting beside his feet. "…How was that?" He asked them, jokingly, placing his arms comfortably on his knees, even as he hovered in that weird position.

Seconds after his question both girls jumped to their feet and clapped and hollered, cheering the performance like it was the best piece of theater they had ever seen. Valerie grinned amidst her cheers and threw her arms around Goten, making his backside fall back into an actual seat, but still wrapping his arms around her to keep her upright.

Josie made her way down the stairs as Trunks stood in the center of the ring, smiling. Josie made sure the other two were preoccupied with each other before she jumped over the large blockade and landed neatly on the ground, clapping slowly as she finally approached the ring. "Very, very nicely done, sir Boxers." She joked.

"You think so?" He asked, a grin on his face as she climbed onto the ring. "Did you cheer for me then too?"

"Oh always," She said matter-of-factly, straightening with his help. "Since I was…" She gestured her hand to the level of her mid-section to indicate her height. "What? Eight maybe? Sometimes it was Mirai, sure, but I've always cheered for every version of you." He didn't say anything, just smiled at her, and she could only look at him for a few more minutes, before she started to get self-conscious and turned towards the sound of footsteps behind her.

"We're ready to call it a night, you guys good to go?" Josie look back at Trunks, who was already shaking his head.

"Nah, you guys head out, there's one more thing I wanted to show, Josie."

"But," Valerie grabbed Goten's wrist watch to verify and frowned at them. "Guys, its past midnight."

"We'll… be behind you soon enough." Josie said with a one shouldered shrug. "I'll be fine, Val. I'll see you at home."

Valerie nodded, still seeming unsure, but trusting Josie to make the call, they said their goodbyes and left the two alone again. Once Trunks was sure that they were gone completely, he asked Josie to come with him towards a fan entrance hall where there was a large pile of un-lit burning wood, tucked neatly against a wall; beside that, reclining against the wall for support, was a black a metal grate with a folded blanket atop it. "Whoa, where'd this come from?" Josie asked, surprised.

"I had asked the Announcer to make sure that this stuff was left for me before he left."

Josie threw a glare at him, momentarily distracted by the reminder of the announcer.

"You can't possibly be satisfied with that name." She argued, still dissatisfied with their lack of answer regarding his name.

Trunks smile was the only answer she got to her inquiry, "Give me a hand, will you, Tree Princess." Rolling her eyes, Josie took the grate for the wood and the blanket while Trunks brought over the firewood to the center of the ring. "Start setting this up, if you don't mind. I'm going to grab the last of the wood." Trunks requested, while he laid out what he had in his arms and made his way back towards the fan entrance. Josie shook out and laid down the warm but thin blue blanket on the ring, smiling at how unbelievable this was.

She was having a bonfire at the World Martial Arts Tournament ring, of all the crazy places in this world. Life could be so painful, but… "Sometimes life is the most wonderful thing" She murmured to herself, biting her bottom lip to stop the smile from spreading on her pinked cheeks. Josie blinked as most of the lights around her suddenly turned off, and only a handful remained on, but were drastically dimmed to near darkness. She looked back to where Trunks disappeared and saw his form coming back with the last of the wood. "Better for looking up." He explained, pointing a finger skyward.

Josie looked up and he was right. What a sight the sky made without the lights.

Josie watched his back quietly while he started the fire wondering why he was doing all of this when he knew that they all had an early day tomorrow. He knew that she didn't need sleep so this wouldn't do her any harm, but he had to be tired… "Need any help?" Josie asked him quietly and he shot her back a smile, shaking his head.

"It's done," he assured her, taking two steps back and sitting beside her.

"You sure you're not too sleepy?" She asked him, worried for him. "You worked today."

"I'm fine," He assured her.

He was staying up with her later and later these days, she noted thoughtfully, as she watched the tiny fire begin to grow. Ever since she'd broken down in front of him, he was more open with her and things just felt…different.

"You doing okay, after all that?" Trunks asked Josie casually, poking at the fire to adjust the logs with a steel poker, to give himself something to do with his hands while he asked the loaded question.

"…Yeah, I think so," She said honestly, sure that he was referring to the fight the two had earlier. She wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her chin there comfortably. "The music helped a bit." She added quietly.

"Can I ask you something?" Trunks asked, looking over at her and seeing a nod. "What made you tell me those things that day?"

That day was a week ago, Josie figured, and those things he was talking about, was her admitting to the stuff she'd been hiding from them. Of course, she didn't tell him everything, because the thought of every detail of her kidnapping, the brutal assault and battery of her mind and body, coupled with her horrendous murder was simply not possible for her to even process, let alone talk about now, or ever, to anyone; but she had been able to tell him easier things to admit, such as: meeting Babidi in other world, about her fondness for Cerean and how it had been partially due to the way he'd protected her, how she ate a fruit that made her strong and not need sleep, and how she had been kidnapped, again, when she'd been revived, after which she had been able to meet her fluffy cloud. And the worst of all the secrets? That she resented him personally for the promises he'd made and failed to keep, and how she had unintentionally been punishing him for letting her down.

What made her tell him at least those ugly truths? "The other you," She said honestly, looking over at him to study his face, knowing that the truth was likely to bother him.

Trunks looked a little surprised by that, but more so seemed to become guarded from the answer, rather than upset. "Why?"

"He pointed out that I was being a jerk for keeping secrets from you that I didn't seem to mind telling him and everyone that he knew—which I know, you'd already pointed out to me — except for that he said, point-blank, that it was hurting you." She explained, watching and waiting to see if he'd argue that last point.

"...Is that all he said?" He asked suspiciously, surprising her by his lack of denial.

"Yeah," She shrugged weakly, looking back at the growing fire with downcast eyes. "He… didn't need to say anything else." She murmured. "I don't want to hurt you."

His tension dissipated with those heartfelt words, and he took a slow and deep breath, that he slowly exhaled out past his gently smiling lips. He looked up at her after a moment when he noticed her curiously staring at him. "Thanks for telling me." He said simply but sincerely.

"Sure thing…can I ask you something too?" She asked him, her tone hopeful.

"Sure," He comfortably agreed, switching the hot poker to his right hand and reaching with his left for her sweater, before gently tossing it to her. The fire was warming them comfortably, but he knew that it wasn't doing anything for her back.

"Thanks," She put on the sweater over her head and once she had it all the way pulled down, she finally asked. "Where are we going tomorrow—or today, I guess." She corrected herself with a shake of her head, having a hard time keeping up with dates when she wasn't directly looking at a calendar now. Trunks made a noise, as if to indicate that the question was a hard one to answer, and Josie glared at him for it. "It's your mom's birthday you know, not mine. Both you and her have been keeping this trip a little too close to the chest."

He shrugged. "We're going to Mumbai," He said honestly. "She wanted to surprise everyone."

"Huh…why there?" Josie asked, curious.

"There's a holiday she's always wanted to experience there." Josie nodded in acceptance, her eyes trailing over to the marshmallows bag he had to the side and smiled at that.

"That seems like a tasty idea." She murmured with amusement. He offered to grab them for her via gesture, but she shook her head, lazily smiling at him. "Food tastes weird now."

He nodded, uninterested in the sweet for now, and looked back to the snapping fire. "Why did you eat the fruit?" She stared at him, her smile still in place, but not seeming willing to open her mouth. "Hey, it's my turn again," He reminded her, causing her to laugh quietly to herself.

"What, are we playing twenty-one questions now?" She asked him jokingly, but he shrugged in response.

"It's a nicer and easier question to all the other ones I would love to ask." He wasn't wrong, she realized; knowing him, he probably wanted to ask her more about Cerean and their friendship, because of his strange obsession with the guy, but he wasn't asking directly, which was nice. She pondered his question for a few silent moments: why had she eaten the fruit…what did she even remember about the incident? It hadn't been that long ago, had it? She'd been alive a little under twenty days now, but it felt like half a year ago or more.

"Cerean was hurt," She recalled aloud, as she stared off into the fire to better concentrate. "He was hurt defending me, and…" She cleared her throat, her mouth twitching at the corner, but refusing to smile or look at him. "One of the talking trees gave it to me." She said finally, knowing how ridiculous it sounded.

"Ah, the talking trees..." He nodded gravely.

"You're such a pest." She said, shoving at his arm once to show him her displeasure. He grinned at her but nodded for her to continue. "They did it so that I could carry him to safety. I was too weak otherwise."

Curiosity and a darker, more unpleasant emotion stirred within him at the thought of all the things that Josie and Cerean must have experienced together in the other world that he hadn't considered. This was the first time that Josie had ever mentioned Cerean doing something like rescuing her or putting himself in danger for her sake, and it made him feel…annoyed, for lack of any desire to use another word that he knew identified his emotion more accurately. "You never seem to want to talk about him." Trunks pointed out quietly, turning his attention to stirring the fire, hurting for anything else to keep himself looking occupied.

"I value his privacy," Josie said with a mild shrug, but still considering—for his sake—any other reason she may be keeping quiet about her friend. "We shared the craziest moment of my existence—it's…my friggin death, you know? It's personal, and it's confusing, and depressing to think of not ever seeing him again, so I keep a lid on our time together so that I can try to…you know, myself first try to process all that happened then." She looked over at him by the fire trying so desperately, and failing, to make himself look busy and she smiled. "Is that why you won't or wouldn't talk about Francis?"

He blinked, surprised by the question, and looked over at her questioningly. "Is that your question?"

"It sure is."

He scoffed at her wasted use of a question and stretched his arms above his head, folding them behind his head and neck and laying backward on the blanket. "I guess you can say some of my reasoning is similar to yours. I value her privacy, and believe it or not, I'm actually a very private person about my dating life. Careful is the word I'd use. I don't date much." Josie laughed at that, and he raised a brow over her. "Why is that funny?"

"Is that your question?"

"No." He glared harder, before turning his attention back up to the night sky. "It differs though, because, honestly? The relationship just didn't matter much to me. It was never worth mentioning. I wanted to like her…she was a nice girl after all, and certainly beautiful, but I just wasn't as into her as I wanted to be."

"You sure seemed to be into her on your couch in your office." She shot back, before grimacing at the slip-up she hadn't caught. Trunks was watching her now too with interest, before looking back up.

"That was probably at our highest point," He acknowledged. "But it didn't last long. Why did you go into the office that day anyway? You looked so excited, then confused…and deflated, then you just…stared at my computer word program. I remember how weird that moment felt."

"Honestly? I was going to tell you I had just spoken my first few words, since losing my voice, to your mom a few minutes before going to you." He sat up at that, looking at her more seriously, but Josie waved off the clear concern in his expression. "That was forever ago, don't worry about it." She assured him. "I had made my first noise and tested it out for three-days at the advice of my signing coach, and once I got the improving test results from your mom I wanted to show you my progress. It was silly."

"That was absolutely not—"

"—It really doesn't bother me anymore." She tried to assure him again.

He didn't look convinced but knowing that there was nothing he could do to turn back time and change what happened in his office that day, he finally nodded in agreement and slowly laid back down. "All right…your turn."

And that's how they spent the next few hours, taking turns asking each other silly questions, with serious ones in between. They asked each other about private stories, some Josie had heard before, some she hadn't. They talked about their lives before they met each other, about their families, more about their love lives (Or lack of), thoughts, dreams, other worlds, the very stars above them, anything, and everything that came to mind. Anytime Trunks would get up to grab a snack or add wood to the fire, the conversation would naturally lead them to lay back down to gaze up at that sky — a little closer than the last time — and there were times that Trunks would drift to sleep for a minute or two, but it would pass by so quickly while Josie was lost in thought, that she wouldn't even catch it most of the time; but she did catch it when the edge of his hand slightly grazed her own, and she figured he did too, because he cleared his throat and sat up to add more wood to the fire, when it absolutely did not need it anymore. He remained standing there for a moment, staring at the dancing flames longer than was necessary, before he finally came back and laid down, staring back up at the sky with a small sigh.

Josie didn't say anything, because what could she say? That this all felt so weird, yet so unbelievably nice? Had her heart always raced when he was around her or was this new? Why had he just sighed? Was that bad sign? A good sign? She didn't understand how talking to someone could feel so difficult, yet feel so desperately vital to her next breath? No wonder they said girls were complicated, she thought with amused derision. Was it this hard for guys too?

She turned her body to face his and pillowed her head with an arm. This seemed to surprise Trunks, who turned his head to look at her. "What?" He asked quietly.

"You mumbled something." She pointed out with a one shouldered shrug.

"Hm," He mumbled with a self-deprecating smile. "Did I?"

She ignored his joking tone and studied his slightly red eyes with concern. "You must be so tired…" She murmured, frown etching itself on her face. "You ready to go back?"

"No," He answered decisively and immediately, sounding so sure that she couldn't fight off the smile anymore, which he reciprocated. "…You?" She shook her head in response.

So, they stayed.

They stayed until the first rays of light started to illuminate the island's sky, first caught by Trunks, who stopped in the middle of a sentence to point out the bad news. Trunks sighed, not wanting to pull away from the position the two had found themselves in when Trunks had pointed out a constellation to Josie, who he truly in his heart of hearts thought to have the heart of an untapped scholar. His back was to the blanket when he had tried to point it out in the sky, but her eyes had a harder time making it out, so they drew closer until the sides of their heads were practically glued together to see. When their shoulders got in the way, Trunks had lifted Josie's head and placed it on his shoulder so that he could point straight up for her, startling her. Neither moved though when the conversationally naturally strayed to Josie's vision and when Trunks had made fun of her and she got up to glare down at him, he'd grinned at her and pressed her head by her forehead back to its spot on his shoulder. Josie smiled up at the stars and didn't try to move away again.

"We should go, Jo." Trunks said unenthusiastically when the first hints of sunlight started to make their way over the horizon.

Though he said the words, he waited until she sat up, before doing so himself. Both looked at the fire that was still burning steadily, but much less erratically than before, even without being fed any more wood in the last two hours. "What kind of super-powered fire is that?"

"Beats me," Trunks said lightly, though his voice sounded deeper with fatigue. Josie patted his shoulder, feeling sorry for the guy.

"Want me to call Dark Nim to give us a ride?" He shook his head and smiled at her. He stood up and helped her get back on her feet and between the two, they cleared up the mess they made as quickly as they could and left a thank you note for the announcer, before Trunks wrapped Josie in a blanket and tucked her against his body and blasted them back home as close to full speed as he dared. He could feel Josie squealing, more than he could hear her, and she felt his rumbling laughter in his chest in response, making her grin.

They arrived in almost no time at all, and Trunks flew them directly into Josie's open window. She checked the hallway for him and helped him sneak back into his room. Poor Trunks wasn't in his bed for more than ten minutes before the proverbial bell rang for a rushed breakfast. Josie met him downstairs, thirty minutes after she'd just left him, giving him an apologetic look to which he responded with a smile and a shrug. He went right for the coffee pot and sat down to where the dining table was abuzz with excitement over Bulma's birthday and their trip.

"India?!" Valerie exclaimed with surprise. "That's so cool."

Josie's eyes immediately went to Trunks who smirked at her and signed: (See) she knows.

Josie rolled her eyes but couldn't help but grin at the ribbing. She hadn't known exactly where Mumbai was when they'd been talking about it a few hours ago, and he'd gotten a quick laugh from her crummy geographic knowledge.

"You really don't mind flying out on your birthday?" Goten asked Bulma from beside Valerie.

Bulma shook her head and smiled at him. "Not at all — we're flying on a private plane and can reset and relax on the way over, be there by twelve and enjoy the city at its most vibrant. I'm more struck by how important this trip is for us! This is the last big trip we get to take together with the girls. For the rest of us it's the last one until next Spring at least and even then, everything will be different…Trunks will be out of school and taking over at CHQ2 officially." She looked at her tired son and stroked his shoulder sympathetically, mistaking his actual fatigue with apathy. "Don't worry son, it won't be so bad."

"Of course it won't be bad, he's a genius, he'll do great." Josie said before she realized it; blinking at the looks of surprise from everyone at the table, including Trunks. She wished she could slap her own mouth for being so treacherous, but she only smiled at the others with feigned confusion, desperately fighting off the warmth in her cheeks. "What?" She asked, clearing her throat and directing her attention to cutting up pieces of her uneaten food for distraction. "I know the future, remember? I'm just stating a fact."

"Hm…Genes can't fail him now with a mom like me, can they?" Bulma asked with a smile, giving her a small wink that only made Josie blush more. Bulma laughed, sighing happily, looking at all of her family members with love in her eyes, before raising her glass. "I want to just take a minute to thank you all for brightening my life with your presence. Despite the accolades, fame and fortune this life has given me, I know now that my life as it is, with all of you in it, finally give it all meaning. Thank you for helping me celebrate my birthday this weekend, and I can't wait to make more unforgettable memories with all of you on this trip."

Bra raised her glass and looked at Josie expectantly, "Daddy also promised to be on his best behavior for mom's birthday."

"HEAR, HEAR" Josie raised her glass enthusiastically and didn't look to the side, knowing that Vegeta would be glaring at her.

"To this new adventure, and the new ones in store for all of my precious kids! May they lead us where we were always meant to be." Everyone, except for Vegeta, toasted to that.

Thank you's:

To all of you, whether you read this or not, thank you all. A special thank you to SoulofAFangirl684.

Fun Facts!

-Upon original conception, this three-part chapter was supposed to follow the same sequence of events Goten and Valerie's first date chapters did, but be the polar opposite in mostly every way.

For example: First thing Valerie and Goten did on their date was go eat dinner at an incredibly fancy restaurant. Josie and Trunks went to a fairly poor marketplace with food vendors and had meat on sticks and had their sit-down meal at a very poor village. Second thing was Valerie and Goten went on a moonlit carriage ride; whereas Trunks and Josie rode a very humble wooden beamed palanquin. There's a few other smaller opposites sprinkled in there, and I had them written down when I wrote the chapter originally, but who knows where that paper is now.

Some similarities from the dates: As I mentioned before both part 1's are titled after songs. Then, of course, there's my inner childish/creeper who had Goten and Valerie go out to spy on Josie and Trunks, and they end up hearing a conversation without any context, which sounded terribly dirty, just like it happened when Josie and Trunks were listening in on Goten and Valerie during their date. That scene is almost identical to the original, minus the circumstances of location (Chapter: 26). Of course, it is also important to note that with Val and Goten it was an intended date, whereas at least one half of Josie and Trunks weren't thinking of their outing as a date.

Thoughts?

Also, don't worry guys, if any of you thought this was too mushy, the mush will lighten now. Again, thank you all for your patience and love throughout the years and I wish I could make you promises, but if any of you are looking at my tumblr page you'll see that I've been on hiatus. My decision to upload this chapter was somewhat impulsive, and I'm hoping I can come back soon, but for the time being, I can't promise anything due to things I'm working out in my real life, but I'm wishing you guys the best and hoping you'll come back from time to time and review when you can. Check my ffnet profile and/or tumblr for projected uploads and the like : )