The Unbroken Circle
By: Chocolate-chan
Warnings/Spoilers: Yaoi, Lemon!! (my favorite flavor) and lots of my unknown characters under the age of 15. ::Shrugs and grimaces:: Gomen nasai... slight redundance of day-to-day life, like getting sick, but I was out of caffeine and half asleep when I wrote it!!! (((Not the Mountain dew, not the Mountain Dew, must have...)))

"You see them five right there? Those are the Capsule Corp. kids."
"Who? Them?"
"The president's kids."
"All of 'em?"
"No, that dark-haired one there ain't his."
Son Ai glanced up as she heard the whispers from across the road. There was a group of rollerbladers there, gliding slowly at their pace, all on their way to school. Rei looked up at her with a little smirk.
"We get that a lot."
"I didn't realize how often," Ai murmured in return.
"You're not so insecure. You don't really care when other people talk about you." Rei stretched her arms above her head with a yawn. "I still feel tired," she complained.
Keisuke pulled on Ai's sleeve. "I want you to carry me," the seven-year-old boy insisted. He was adorable, still acting as if he was younger. Unlike other children who were a few years behind their elder siblings, he wasn't spoiled rotten, which Ai was often thankful for since he could get his way at any time. She bent down and let him climb onto her back and lock his little arms around her neck, head resting on her shoulder.
"Hi," one of the rollerbladers said, detaching himself from the group, skating across the street and executing a half turn to face them. Hikaru and Akira paused in the front and looked at him but continued to walk and he skated backwards and offered his hand to Ai.
"Those dweebs over there call me Shiro, and I'm in your class. I'm sorry I never got to introduce myself before. What's your name? I just know your family name is Son." He never lost his smile as Ai tilted her head to look at him. She reached out and took his hand briefly, then reached down to pick up Keisuke's dropped foot.
"Ai. It's a pleasure." She continued on her way without stopping, and Rei glanced at her and then him as she continued to walk.
"You won't introduce me to your friends?"
"Rei, Hikaru, Akira, Keisuke." She pointed at them in turn and they all looked at him a bit strangely.
"Nice to meet you all. Actually, I just came over here to apologize for their rude behavior. I don't know if you heard them but they were talking about you-"
"We heard them," Ai said. "Your apologies are accepted."
"Oh-kay, well, we gotta get to school early, so you have a nice day." He turned and skated along the sidewalk until he found a chance to cross the street.
"I see why you say he's popular," Ai said. "He radiates presence."
"I think he totally likes you, Ai-chan!" Rei said excitedly. The twins made faces at each other and Akira turned to say they would hurry ahead to school and they'd see everybody after school.
"Isn't their birthday coming up?" Ai asked as she mused on the blond-headed pair as they ran off making gagging faces.
"Yeah, they're going to be twelve. They're already arguing over what's for dinner that night."
"Hmm, we all don't feel that much different from when we first met."
"Only now you're fourteen, I'm thirteen, they're almost twelve-"
"And I'm this many!" Keisuke said, holding out seven small fingers in front of Ai's face.
Ai chuckled a bit. "It doesn't feel like it's a new school year is what I meant, I mean, the summer was so short..."
It had been a hot summer that year. The five kids passed endless days in summer lying around until one of them discovered the Capsule pool in a closet somewhere and popped it over Rei and Ai's practice mat in the back yard. Then they crawled all over it until they found the button that could close it up, and they moved it aside and spent countless days laying around in the pool. Ai had long ago chosen a summertime birthday for herself, so that year they held it at Capsule Corp. Ai shook her head into present thoughts as she climbed the steps of the school.
"I'll... seeya later, Rei-chan," Ai said as she turned and dropped Keisuke off at his class, heading up the stairs, taking them two at a time into the upperclassmen's hall, the seventh and eighth grade rooms, there to wait out the rest of her fairly boring day.

Ai came into Capsule Corp. alone, the twins having come home ahead and Keisuke walking with his older sister to go run an errand for their father in town. Ai sighed and dropped her bookbag, going upstairs and donning her gi. With any luck, Goten would bring home dinner so no one would call and ask her to start anything.
Ai sat on the edge of the mat by herself for a few minutes, then went out to the shed which housed everything from lawn equipment to water toys, and selected one of the two quarterstaffs shoved into the corner and brought it onto the mat.
She paused and watched the sky. The city would be hot today, where Rei was, and Ai felt as if she would bake as well. She wanted to take a flight, but she had had enough fun flying with Goten that they hadn't gotten around to establishing if she was allowed to go on her own or not. She decided that the evening would be as good a time as any to ask him.
Ai began a warm-up routine with her familiar old quarterstaff, practicing all of her favorite moves before she moved onto the ones she needed continual practice on. At the end of her practice she ended up with her quarterstaff pointed at the far fence, aimed at nothing, but when she lowered it she revealed a dark-colored head.
"You!" The boy from the morning was hanging over the fence with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Konnichiwa, I uh, don't hurt me with that thing!"
"What are _you_ doing here?" Ai asked mildly, lowering her staff as she approached the fence.
The boy continued his scramble over, landing on his rump in a heap in front of her laughing nervously.
"Well, ya see I do small jobs around this neighborhood sometimes, and I was doing their lawn, see.." he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "And the mower hit a little rubber ball. The kid wanted it back and he's crying, I expect you can hear him," he paused, and Ai did indeed hear a thin wail from somewhere.
"He's carrying on and everything, even though I told him it's probably all torn up he insists it came over here and I just wanna keep the peace. They're good customers."
Ai paused and watched him as he rose and dusted himself off, grass stains on his shorts and t-shirt.
"Okay, Shiro, I'll help you find it. What does it look like?"
"Hey, you remembered my name! Oh, uh.." he blushed and held out his palm. "He says it's about this big, and it's green with little silver sparkles on it."
"Green, of course. I'll start on the other side of the mat and you start by the fence."
"Okay, thanks." He moved over and got down in the grass to look close to the ground. "You know, that stuff you were doing is cool."
"It's nothing," she said disinterestedly and bent down towards the ground as she moved through the yard slowly. After a moment she stood and watched Shiro digging frantically through the grass, like he was on a time limit. //Maybe he is,// she said thoughtfully, for the lawn anyway.
One of his feet jerked as he said, "There- no, that's not it." His active foot kicked something that rolled across the practice mat and glittered nicely in the sun.
"Here it is, Shiro. You kicked it." Ai reached down and picked it up, and Shiro jumped up to get it from her.
"Arigatou gozaimasu, Ai-san. You saved my life!"
"You don't have to call me Ai-san, no one does. You'd better get back to that little boy."
Shiro's face brightened with every word she said. "Thanks again, Ai-chan!" he moved back to the fence and tried to jump up and grab the top.
"Uh... you can walk around, no da!" Shiro turned and blushed a bit as her verbal exclamation made him seem to feel pretty stupid. He laughed and moved off, saying something like he'd see her at school.
"Ai-chan!" Hikaru yelled out of the door. "Kore wa watashi no kare?"
//I'll murder you if you ever say that again.// "Iie!" She yelled.
"It was Shiro, right?" Hikaru shook her head as if it didn't matter, yelling that Goten was there with dinner.
"Kare?" Goten asked as she came to sit at the table, waiting as Rei and Keisuke came in the door. "You have a boyfriend and you didn't tell me about him?"
"Tou-chaan..." Ai sighed and accepted his hug, then shook her head. "Hikaru's being silly."
"Whenever he sees her he smiles, and he crossed through the traffic this morning to introduce himself just to her." Rei wiggled her eyebrows at Ai, laughing as she pulled the straw of her drink to her mouth.
"He's some guy in my class who knocked my books off my desk once," Ai amended, exasperated. "He was doing chores next door and came to look for something the little kid lost."
"That's what he _says_," Goten teased. "I know I used to go to lengths to get specific girls to notice me, when I was younger." Goten set the rest of the dinner on the table and smiled to himself.
"Iie, Tou-chan, Rei can tell you how popular he is, he could have any girl he wanted. He's not after _me_," Ai insisted as she took a bite of whatever her grasping hand found.
"Well, why not then? You're so pretty," Goten told her and laid a hand on her head.
"To you, you have to say that, 'cause I'm your daughter." Ai told him and took a drink.
"So?" //You really can't tell, can you?//
"He's right, Ai-chan, you can be downright lovely sometimes," Rei told her earnestly.
"Mm," Akira murmured. "A guy'd have to be crazy not to see how great you are." He then proceeded to receive hell from his sisters and mock dirty looks from Goten and Ai laughed pretty hard when she saw what colors he turned. "I didn't mean it like _I_-"
"Sure!" Rei said.
"It's okay, Akira-chan, thanks for the support," Ai said to quiet the murmurs since she knew he didn't like her that way. //Even if I don't need the support.//
"Well, all of this is irrelevant anyway since Ai-chan claims not to like him." Goten said with some finality.
"I like his hair," Rei said, squinting as she pulled up a mental image of him.
He had some of that loose hair, the kind that wanted to show off in even the simplest styles. It was dark to match his eyes, and his coloring was not unlike Ai's. He would be the 'traditional Japanese' coloring. He had a ready grin and was somewhat silly. Ai thought about some of the things he'd said in class that supported that. She glanced at Goten, comparing their coloring. Goten had dark hair and eyes like Shiro and like Ai, but his skin was fair, no matter what time he spent in the sun, and Ai tended to get duskier when she stayed outside.
Ai was distracted by a paper airplane made from some type of wrapper that Keisuke zoomed past her face.
Goten got up from the table suddenly, and they all knew that Trunks was arriving home. They had gotten used to giving the two a few moments, since Rei and Ai highly respected their privacy and the others just thought kissing was nasty.
Goten listened, and he could hear Trunks humming some strange version of a Masami Okui song as he came up the walk and opened the door. He smiled as he came in and pushed the door shut behind him. "Hey Chibi. Whatcha doin'?"
"Not a thing." Goten kissed him and led him into the dining room.
"Oi Tou-chan!" They called as he came in, and Ai waved since she had a mouth full of fries.
Trunks moved around giving hugs and messing up hairstyles, as it was amusing when he did it to most of his kids. Rei fixed hers quietly, Akira smoothed his discreetly and unconsciously, Hikaru protested as she fixed it, Ai and Keisuke didn't particularly care. He also stole whatever looked appealing from their plates and they all stole from each other until someone ended up with his.
Goten was the main school lecturer on that day, since Trunks only seemed interested in looking at them all with big eyes and stuffing his face. Goten shook his head and asked what Trunks had done at work that day, as he had asked the kids of their schooltime activities.
"Oh, I colored on little pink pieces of paper. Then I gave them to people. Some of them seemed really upset at first." Trunks shrugged.
"And how many people did you fire?"
"Fire? My secretary won't let me touch matches. I drew pictures 'cause I got bored and ran out of that yellow lined paper. People would gasp and then sigh when they saw nothing was on them." Trunks licked his fingers.
"I don't think we should have given you any medicine before you left the house this morning." Goten pronounced and went to relocate all of the medicine bottles. Trunks had been up all night, trying to get a sinus headache associated with a head cold. Goten had given him two pills before he left the house and Trunks now looked like he was dead on his feet.
"Go to bed."
"Okay, but I don't think I can climb that many stairs all at once."
"So stop and take a nap half way up," Goten told him and pushed him in that direction.
"Wait, I wanted to ask you something." Trunks said as he was pushed into the other room.
"What?"
"I dunno, I forget what it was, but I know I wanted to say something." Goten shook his head and told Ai that they would go home soon. He took Trunks up to his room, and halfway up the stairs, Trunks said suddenly, "I remember! No, wait..."
Upstairs, Goten had finally gotten Trunks, who now seemed out of his mind in exhaustion, into his sleep clothes and into bed. Then Trunks turned his head aside slightly, eyes widening.
"You might have to nix your plans to go home," he said suddenly.
"What?"
Trunks didn't respond, he simply got up rather quickly from his bed, went into the bathroom and proceeded to be sick.
"Wonderful," he said as he sat down on the floor. "Goten!"
"What?"
"Make it better," he demanded.
"No can do," Goten told him while offering him a cup of water. Trunks spit out half the cup and swallowed the rest. "You're really pale," Goten told Trunks, who half glared.
"Thanks. It makes me feel better. I feel like crap as it is." Trunks rubbed his eyes and headed back to his bed.
"Do you feel like you could eat something lighter?"
Trunks licked his lips and said, "Yeah, maybe I... no, not happening."
Goten sighed and shook his head with a grin. "It's always something with one of the seven of us, isn't it."
"You could say that." Trunks smiled a bit and laid his head back. "Go home. You and Ai shouldn't catch this." Trunks frowned. "Definitely not something you'd want."
"No, now I have to stay here."
"No you don't."
"Well, I will anyway, just because I love you _sooo_ much," Goten told him with a grin. "What if I brought you some soup, do you think you could try to eat it? Maybe the broth at least wouldn't bother you."
"It doesn't matter, I don't feel like I'll be doing much eating."
"Then sleep, you can't turn that down after last night." Goten brushed his hair back and kissed his forehead, then headed back downstairs. "Ai, we'll be staying here."
"But..." she screwed up her face in thought.
"Yeah, well... Trunks is sick."
"I thought he was just tired," Hikaru said.
"I thought he was just a zombie," Keisuke added.
"He's full-out sick."
"Alright then, that's fine." Ai stood and tightened her gi belt. "Rei, come spar with me?"
"No thanks, not right now."
"Oh, then I remembered something I wanted to ask you Tou-chan."
"What's that?" Goten asked as he moved to help Keisuke retrieve the plate of this week's batch of cookies.
"Can I go flying on my own? You said once I got good enough I could." She sat herself on the barstool at the counter and looked through the small shuttered window between the kitchen and the dining room, looked into the kitchen at Goten and accepted a cookie from Keisuke.
"Well..." Goten said in thought as he stole a cookie of his own. "You have to stay over the countryside in sight of the city."
"Okay." She hopped down and took off outside. Maybe later on she would press for a farther range, but this was good for today.

Ai woke and sat up, rubbing her face and feeling groggy. She looked at the clock- and her heart sank.
Rei woke her at school time whenever she stayed over at Capsule Corp., and then she was left to her own devices. She had apparently fallen back to sleep, because she only had fifteen minutes to get to school.
Ai threw her uniform on and brushed her teeth and brushed her hair at the same time. She pulled one sock on as she hopped down the stairs, where the others were finishing breakfast.
"Ai-chan?" Rei asked doubtfully.
"Fell back asleep," she explained, throwing whatever other stuff she needed that was downstairs into her bookbag. "Leave without me."
They did and Ai took a moment to eat a couple of graham crackers and run to the downstairs bathroom to check (straighten) her appearance. She got down and rummaged in a closet until she found a pair of Rei's rollerblades and yanked them on. She went back through the kitchen awkwardly, where her father only paused long enough to shake his head at her before kissing her on the cheek and giving her her lunch and a banana. "Eat this."
"Arigatou," she mumbled as she worked the peel with her teeth. She slung her lunch into her bookbag and pulled it on as she bent down to grab her shoes. She skated down the walk and turned sharply into the driveway, coasting down into the street. //Too bad flying would have looked weird. Tou-chan always told me not to show off.//
Ai tossed her peel into someone's open trash can, pulling her bookbag around by one strap to wedge her shoes in. She then set off full speed down the sidewalk, relying on all of her ice skating skills to keep herself on balance as she dodged people, some of whom classmates running past, and dodging from street to sidewalk to avoid pedestrians and cars, bike riders and baby carriages.
//This is fun! If only I wasn't late this morning.//
"Hey! Hey you! Son Ai!" Ai nearly bowled over a jogger and apologized as she turned her head. She recognized Shiro as he came to skate alongside her. Apparently he was late too, but he had been prepared for this, with a helmet on and his great dark locks trying to fly loose in the wind.
"Overslept," she muttered.
"But you're not late at all!" Shiro said, laughing. "Not at the speed you're going. I do this all the time, trust me. I have odd jobs after school and sometimes before it, and when it's before school I always blade. Do you always blade when you're late?"
"I'm hardly late," she admitted and ducked under the classic cliché, two movers carrying a couch. Shiro shifted to the street and met her at the other side. "Sometimes when I'm late for stuff Tou-chan lets me-"
"Oh, what, take a bike?"
"Not really. Lawns again?" She asked a bit breathlessly.
"Nah, different stuff today. You don't live at Capsule Corp., do you?"
"Nearly," she snorted. "No, I live in one of the apartment complexes on the east side of the city."
"Really? Me too! But the stuff I do takes me all around the city. Call me a jack-of-all-trades."
"The rest of that phrase is 'master-of-none.'"
"You've an acid tongue in that mouth, haven't you?" Shiro asked as he stuck his tongue out at her.
Ai pumped her arms and legs harder as she saw open sidewalk.
"Watch this corner!" Shiro warned her. "If you crash here you'll definitely be late." They shifted out to the street and slowed a bit in unison, then picked up speed again.
"If I crash here I'll probably smush my lunch."
"Dude, what, your lunch is that important to you?"
"I'm a Son. We love to eat. Tou-chan says I'm no exception, so it must have something to do with the name."
"Couldn't get it from your mom's side?" Shiro asked, with the air of someone testing the waters.
"Dunno, I never had a mom, I was adopted." Ai sideskated a woman walking her dog.
"I'm sorry you never had a mom... don't know what I'd do without mine."
"Haven't you got a dad?"
"No, he left us when I was young. My stepdad died a while back."
"I'm sorry..." Ai said. "My dad raised me ever since he found me in an alley, then he adopted me." She felt the need to share how she sympathized.
"Wow..."
The usually long trip seemed even longer, but school was now in sight. Ai tripped up the steps and landed in a heap. Shiro kept his balance on the way up and helped Ai, laughing, to her feet.
"Bell's gonna ring," he panted. They both stopped by the door and yanked off their skates, stomping into shoes.
"Ai-chan, we'd better run upstairs."
"Ai-chan!" Ai turned as she heard Rei's voice calling her. "Just in the nick of time. You look flushed."
"It's the effort," she explained.
"You did this morning too... well, nevermind. Why didn't you fly? Goten-san might have let you."
"Fly?" Shiro asked with a tilted eyebrow.
"I...uh..." Ai glanced from one to the other as Rei realized her mistake. "Didn't have time to ask him. Gotta go to the top hall." She pulled Shiro with her on the way up. //He's really easy to talk to. I wouldn't give Rei up for him, but he's really good-looking.//
"Wha's she talking about, 'fly?' You can fly?" He tilted an eyebrow at her.
"She's silly, her sister's a blond." Ai made excuses without answering. They hurried past the first- and second-year rooms. Keisuke ran out of a third-year room and handed Ai a cookie. "Saved it for you!" He said. She took it and flashed him a thumbs-up as she and Shiro burst into the stairwell.
"Don't we have gym today?" Shiro muttered. "I hate gym."
"I like the gymnastics part."
"I've seen you with a quarterstaff, you can't say anything." He huffed slightly. "Besides, I'm getting my workout now."
"At least we'll be able to rest in class." Ai desperately wanted to fly up but couldn't with the people around.
"I had fun with you this morning, Ai-chan!" Shiro smiled brightly at her. "I usually have to come late alone."
Ai smiled back breathlessly and shoved her skates into her locker before running into the classroom. Just as the bell rang, Ai and Shiro hit their seats.
"Nice of you to join us, Son, Takeuchi. Try not to be so risky next time."
"Hai sensei," they both panted.
As soon as Ai caught her breath she held one hand against her chest, willing her fluttering heart to stop and sank down into her chair. She paused and turned back to look down the next row to her right, and Shiro grinned when she caught his eye and flashed her a thumbs-up that drooped onto his desk. She returned his smile then turned back to the front, frowning in thought. After a moment she heard a thunk against the floor as Shiro apparently remembered to take off his helmet.

Goten climbed the stairs with Trunks' breakfast and set it on the table to his side. He was asleep, and Goten intended to leave him that way, but the soft sound of the tray evidently woke him, because he raised his eyes to Goten's face and smiled warmly.
"How ya feeling?" Goten asked as he perched on the edge of the bed.
"I'm doing better. I'm a little hungry too, what'd you bring me?"
Goten smiled at the good news that he was hungry, and he set the tray in front of him, climbing up to sit against the headboard next to him. "I'm glad you're better."
"I just hope you or the kids don't get it. I'm going to have fun missing work today."
"Oh, didn't I tell you? Your bedroom is being crane-lifted into your office."
Trunks gave him a sad puppy face and whimpered a bit. Goten patted his purple head. He then let that arm slide down around his neck and hugged him. "You're too cute."
Trunks ate what little he could and leaned into Goten with a sigh. "I love you."
"I love you too," Goten told him and closed his eyes.
"That's why I want you to marry me some day."
Goten was standing before he knew what hit him. "What'd you say?!"
"Unless of course you'd prefer to continue living in sin," Trunks said mildly. "Why are you freaking out? I didn't say right now, I didn't even ask you yet. I'm just telling you what I hope for some day."
"Trunks, that's totally unrealistic!"
"Okay," Trunks responded with a shrug. "Sin it is. But you're telling my parents."
Goten put his hands on his hips and tried to think of a response for that.
"Chill out, the world's not ending. Could be worse, I could be asking you now." Trunks held out his hands to Goten, who sighed at long last and let himself be pulled into Trunks' bed again. Even after Trunks had dropped back to sleep, though, Goten still gazed at his face and thought.

Ai sat between Shiro and Rei, and Shiro's guy friends sat across the group and whispered about him. The eighth and seventh grades got together for gym, and Rei and Ai always teamed up. Today Shiro had stayed with Ai since the morning, and Rei was to polite to ask (Shiro) why. But she pulled Ai aside for a long moment and the two argued in whispers.
At last Ai accused Rei of being ridiculous and pulled herself away.
Rei glanced after them as Ai and Shiro had gone to sit with the group, and at last she hurried after them and sat by her friend.
"Today will be the balance beam," the instructor announced, and gave them the particulars. Rei kept glancing over at Ai, who looked sleepy. Shiro occasionally glanced at her too, but hadn't known her long enough to tell.
"Takeuchi Shiro." Rei watched with interest as Shiro went up to try some of the moves the instructor gave him. Many people just fell off, but Shiro stayed in there and managed a couple of flips, and the instructor kept giving him tasks until he lost his balance and gave the class a sheepish grin as they clapped for him.
"You're pretty good," Rei told Shiro as he sat down.
"Thanks," said with a grin, and Ai seconded Rei's opinion.
"You're no match for me and Ai though, when Ai's feeling well."
"I swear I'm fine."
"C'mon, you know my dad's sick and I think you are too."
"Son Ai, if you'd care to halt your conversation and come give us a try?"
"I'll show you, I'm perfectly well." Ai said as she pulled at her shirt and stood. As she approached the beam, she tested herself out to see if she was feeling sick. She could feel a little stuffed up in her head, and she was a little warm. //So, when I get home I'll get Tou-chan to give me some sinus medicine.//
Ai stood up on the beam and waited. "Walk three steps and give me a forward cartwheel," was her first command. It was supposed to be a random review of everything they'd learned, and Ai knew this was far from the most difficult task. She performed it flawlessly and waited.
"Two running steps and a flip." Ai did this one as well, and turned to face her instructor. Was he swimming slightly? Nah, she passed it off.
"Backbend into a cartwheel." Ai placed her feet and bent her body at the waist until her sweaty hands gripped the bar, and then swung one leg into a high arc overhead, pushing off with the other at the same time and standing.
"Two steps backward." She did that and received the command, "Run the length of the balance beam and flip."
This was a difficult one. Ai got to the edge and took a deep breath that made her more dizzy than anything, and ran. When she reached the appropriate spot, she turned it into a flip and tried to land, ending up on the tiny edge of the beam with one foot. She slipped backward, and levitated as the other foot slipped off, saying, "That's not fair, I'm too dizzy for this..."
"Ai, get down!" Rei shouted, and the classes began to murmur as Ai stopped midair and turned to her.
"Huh?" The distraction brought her crashing down onto her back, and Rei ran to her.
"I told you you were sick! That's what I'll tell your father when he finds out you've taken leave of your senses!" Rei hissed as she came to help the instructor pick Ai up.
Ai looked up at her. "I feel a little..."
Rei took her to the grass away from the class and held her upright as she was sick behind a tree.
"Very well, you've proved you're sick, Son, go sit down in your spot for the gym period." He was still blinking at her, but refused to comment on the levitation thing, even though the class had no such restrictions.
"Simmer down," the instructor glared at them as Shiro turned to Rei, where Ai was leaning against her and said, "Isn't.... that cheating?"
"You act like it's normal."
Shiro leaned close to Rei. "My mother used to tell me that people could fly, when I was little, but I don't know. She stopped telling me that when I was old enough to know that ...normal... people can't fly."
"Well, the period's almost over, then we can go home."
When they were dismissed, Rei took Ai to the locker room and gathered her clothes into a bundle and put them in her bag.
"Your blades," Ai said, but Rei shook her head.
"Later." She took Ai out of the locker room by the arm. Ai was traipsing obediently alongside her but Rei could tell she was half asleep.
Shiro met them outside. "Is Ai-chan okay?"
"I guess." Rei sat her down on a bench and took her temperature. "She's really warm like my dad was...."
"Ai-chan?" Shiro asked.
"She's... unconscious," Rei said slowly, in disbelief.
"Riiight..." Shiro said. "Well, I don't guess you're strong enough to carry her to your house."
Rei shook her head slowly as her siblings found them and gathered around Ai.
"I'll do it, then, I'm strong enough." Shiro strapped on his rollerblades and leaned down on one knee, pulling Ai to hang over one shoulder. He rose to his feet and said, "I'll go on ahead. To Capsule Corp., right?"
Rei nodded as they rose and Rei grabbed Ai's bookbag. Shiro waved slightly and coasted carefully along to the steps, taking them carefully. He muttered to Ai, "That acid tongue of yours is weighing you down."
From those martial arts he'd seen her perform the other day, Shiro would wager that the greater part of her weight was muscle. He flew as fast over the pavement as he could without falling, which was slower with the extra person. He waved to his friends with a grin as he passed them.
"Where're ya going, Shiro-kun?" One of them asked.
"Capsule Corp." He answered, ignoring their odd looks and skating past them.
It seemed like forever until he got there, but he at last recognized the dome-shaped building in the distance and hurried his steps. He pulled Ai down to lean against him as he searched for the doorbell, and Ai's arms went around his neck. He found himself blushing and staring down at her until the door opened.
"Good lord, Ai!" The man at the door looked mildly horrified as he recognized her. At first Shiro wondered if this was her father, but then he remembered that she'd been adopted and asked to be sure.
"No, but he's here. Come on in," the man with the purple hair said as he took Ai. He brought her into the kitchen and set her up on the counter to Shiro's curious gaze, and slapped her lightly until she came around.
"Wake up, Ai-chan."
"Trunks-san? How'd I get here?" Ai held onto the glass he handed her with white knuckles and looked down where she was sitting.
"Your friend brought you." Trunks said with a gesture. Shiro smiled a bit as Ai blinked over at him.
"Shiro! But then... oh my, I did embarrass myself today, didn't I?" She seemed happy to recognize him at first.
"Looks like you have what I had. You can blame your father for that, I told him to go home last night."
"You know he wouldn't leave if you were sick."
"_Must_ we all get sick at the same time?" He asked with a sigh. "Now he' s upstairs, but I don't think he's sick. Yet, with our luck."
"Calm down, please." Ai told him and he chuckled at her. Trunks reached around in the cabinets and found a plastic packet of two pills which he broke open and gave to her.
"You _can_ fly." Shiro said. "When that other girl said it, Rei, this morning, I thought she was crazy, but I saw you do it." He looked at Ai in wonder and dared to draw a bit closer.
"You did _what_?" Trunks asked her, with a warning tone. "You know how Goten feels about that..."
"I didn't mean to," Ai insisted with a groan. "The whole class saw me, didn't they?"
"Yeah, but they'll all just forget about it when nobody believes them. And if you don't do it again, even they won't remember. Don't..." Shiro addressed Trunks. "Don't get mad at her, she wasn't thinking straight. She was falling off the balance beam, and..."
"Okay, we'll make sure Goten understands." Trunks patted Ai on the back. "It's not so bad; one time I went Super Saiyan in front of my entire class. People forget things in time."
"You went _Super Saiyan_ in front of _who_?"
"Everybody," Trunks replied. "At the time, Goten thought it was cool."
"You went _what_ in front of who?" Shiro asked, not understanding the term at all.
"Uhh... nothing," Ai said. She sneezed.
"Uh-oh, if you sneeze I can already hear Akira sneezing. Best get you to bed." Trunks picked Ai up as if she were still smaller and carried her up the stairs as she waved slightly over his shoulder.
"Bye Shiro..."
"Seeya in a couple days," he called back.
Just then Rei and the others came in. "Shiro, you're still here! Is Ai okay?"
"I'm fine, Rei, I told you." Ai called from the stair well.
"Yeah, before you passed out! Get some rest, Ai-chan." Rei pulled Shiro into the dining room.
"You can stay a while if you want," Rei told him, offering him a snack.
"M-maybe just for a bit, but then I have to go to work."
"You work at your age?" Goten asked as he came down the stairs.
"H-hai. My mother needs the money, and I.... have a little brother and sister..."
"Well, that's a good kid. I'm Ai's father. Thanks for bringing her home."
"No problem, it's just I didn't think they could lift her..."
"If Rei had her brains together she would have carried Ai on her back and flown here, but I don't think she's that strong yet, I don't know."
Shiro hesitated and reached for the cookie plate, which Keisuke raided and shoved toward him. Rei brought him some juice and sat across from him. After Shiro finished that, he stood. "I should go. Thank you for the hospitality."
"It's no problem. We'll probably be here for a while, so you can come see Ai-chan if you ever want to. Can't he Trunks?" Goten asked as the other made his way down the stairs.
"Of course."
Shiro bowed and thanked them and left.
"Hey Hikaru, is that the one you said-?"
"Uh-huh," Hikaru said with a nod.
"He's a nice boy." Goten said to himself and went along on his business, going upstairs to see if Ai was okay.

Ai was placed in Trunks' bed alongside Keisuke, making it the "sick bed." Keisuke had the sniffles along with the other symptoms, and their fathers just shook their heads. "They're always sick."
"I swear, if there's a germ within twenty miles you'll catch it, Ai-chan." Goten said as he took the thermometer from her, displaying a nearly normal temperature.
"I'm feeling a lot better now, Tou-chan." Ai said as she sat up. "I'm feeling cooped up. Can I train?"
"Not for a little bit, kay? We'll see how you feel later today. It's almost time for dinner now, so if you'd like to change you can come down and eat with us."
"Kay." Ai climbed out of the bed, and Keisuke made a face.
"Now I'm all alone."
"Not in this house; someone will be sick in no time, and they'll be alone, cause you need to get up and burn some excess energy too." Goten pulled back the covers and picked the boy up, arms and legs hanging awkwardly.
"How come it is that you can pick us all up, even Ai-chan?" Keisuke asked as Goten carried him down the hall.
"I guess it's all the training," Goten said as he let the boy down. "After your bath, come down to dinner."
"Kay, I'm hungry."
Just as they were sitting down to cartons of Chinese take-out (the kids were getting a thing for it,) the doorbell rang and after a moment a servant came into the room leading the visitor.
"Shiro-kun!" Ai said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"That line sounds familiar," he said with a little laughter. "Your father said I could come see you, so I wanted to know if you're alright." He was blushing a bit, and everyone at the table traded looks.
"Join us," Trunks said after a second.
"No, I couldn't."
"Really, it's okay." Trunks responded as tradition required, and Shiro seemed all too happy to comply.
"Thank you, then." He sat down in an empty seat brought into the room and Goten threw him a carton. "I just finished with work and was on my way home."
"Should you call?"
"No, it's okay." Shiro broke his chopsticks and dug in. Rei laughed and wrinkled her nose, saying "He eats like a Saiyan."
"Nani?" Shiro asked as he paused.
"Nothin'." She stabbed into her box with an amused look as Trunks laughed and looked at Goten.
"I think she's insulting us."
"Ya think?" Goten paid it no more heed, turning back to his box.
They had an interesting conversation, since they rarely had dinner with anyone but their families, and hardly any normal people. After dinner Trunks was complaining about having to do the lawn to Goten when Shiro popped up from where he'd insisted he'd help clean the kitchen. "I can do that." He popped a cookie into his mouth. "I do the lawns of half the people around here."
"Don't you have servants or something to do that?" Goten cracked while reaching through the window to the kitchen over the bar and grabbing a cookie of his own.
"I don't keep as many anymore. Ever since you came home last year, there's usually one of us around to help do everything. So I let all the servants except for a few go." Trunks leaned an elbow across the bar. "Okay, I'll pay you to mow the lawn and weed the gardens, and can you use a trimmer?"
"Sure thing."
"You can do that too. How's Saturday?"
"It's a deal," Shiro said, reaching a hand across the bar to shake his. "My family could always use the extra money, so this is great."
"Sou da ne," Trunks said.
Goten sighed. "I think we'd better get home, Ai-chan. Whaddaya say? You need to rest and we'll see about school and training tomorrow."
"Alright, but if you let me go to school, I get to train no questions asked."
Goten stuck his tongue out at her and she laughed at him. "I'll laugh if you get stuck that way."
"You can't get stuck that way!"
"Wanna bet?" Trunks teased and walked off laughing. Ai bounded up the stairs to get her stuff.
"Where do you live, Shiro-kun?" Goten asked, and when the boy described it, he said, "Oh, that's right by where we live. You need a ride?"
"Uh... I'd be grateful."
"No problem."
Rei was calling out the names of the dishes they had had from the kitchen. "Mu shuu pork!"
"What are you yelling about?" Goten asked.
"I'm trying to find out if anyone is interested in keeping anything. I don't guess they are."
"You must have kept that pork down at your end of the table," Shiro said. "There wouldn't have been a problem if I knew it was there." He grinned as Goten laughed.
"Saa, then why don't you take this stuff home? No one here will eat it. There's quite a bit though, I'll put it in a bag for you." Rei turned off before he could say anything.
"I hope you're not too late getting home," Goten told him as Rei handed Shiro the bag.
"Domo," he told her. "Iie," he said to Goten, "I'll be fine."
"Ai-chan," Rei said as she came down the stairs. "I brought my skates home. You can have them if you want, I can't really fit in them. And if they fit you keep them. You can wear everything I wear, no fair!"
"I'll let you raid my closet some time if you're interested," Ai said after thanking her.
Shiro and Ai chatted idly on the trip home, and Goten parked the car at home since they lived right next to Shiro's building. Shiro climbed out with his bag and thanked them, bowing to Goten as the man moved to the stairs.
"Oyasumi nasai, Shiro," Goten said as he climbed the staircase.
"Good night, Shiro-kun," Ai told the boy as he brushed back his bangs and smiled at her.
"I'm glad you're feeling better, Ai-chan. Thanks for dinner, I hope I didn't impose."
"It was no problem. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Ai climbed the stairs and waved at him from the balcony level in front of her door.
Shiro waved back to her and headed into the ground-level apartment a few buildings away that he called home, calling to his mom and his brother and sister as he came in.
"Shiro-chan!" His little brother came and bounded into him in a hug.
"Whoa, little guy!" Shiro patted him on the head.
"Something smells good!" His sister called.
"Shiro-chan?" His mother said his name and he went into the dining room with his brother tugging him along.
"Oi, mama. Sorry I'm late. I stopped to see a friend and they asked me to stay for dinner. But I brought the extras!" His siblings cheered and his mother smiled quietly at him.
"You're not that late," she said as the little kids broke open the bag on the table.
Shiro stood back and smiled as they grabbed up their chopsticks in delight, glad to see them smile. He watched as his mother took a few bites and paused as if not used to eating so much.
//I know everything's bad, even if you won't tell me, mama. I know you're sick, and I know we're poor, but you have so much pride... no one knows.// Shiro moved over and hugged his mother, who hugged him back, saying "What's this for?"
"Nothing mama. I got a job at Capsule Corp. Saturday, so I'll take the rugrats over here out for lunch."
"Are you sure it won't be a problem? I work that day."
"No way, I've been saving for a while, and Trunks-san-"
"Who?"
"The president of Capsule Corp., he has four kids and I bet the little one is close to their age. Ai-chan says he loves meeting new people."
"Ai-chan... that's your friend that was sick?"
"Hai." Shiro tugged his sister's pigtail affectionately. "You can meet her if you want sometime. She lives that way," he said pointing toward the far wall. "Two buildings over."
His mother smiled at him. "We're having good luck lately."
"Hai, Kaa-chan."
"Kaa-chan," Shiro's brother asked, "Do we have to save any of this?" He tried to say it without stopping his eating, and their mother frowned at him. He swallowed and tried again.
"Don't you know Chinese food's never any good reheated?" The woman said with a smile. //Let them have it now. They try so hard not to be trouble.//
Shiro bid them goodnight and went to take a shower, collapsing afterward on his bed and falling asleep immediately.
The Unbroken Circle, part 2