Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Drummer's March ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: srusse87 
In which we have a showdown...
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.19.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 238 | Status: Work In Progress
In which we have a showdown...
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.19.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 238 | Status: Work In Progress
“The Drummer’s March”
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of DragonBall Z. Unless owning all the episodes counts.
Chapter 3
Maggie Ford had worked in the publishing industry since she graduated from college. After ten years in the business she prided herself on her ability to spot a good author. She had not been around when Sam Maxwell first started writing. Her predecessor had signed the contract and the contract had then been passed down to Maggie when he retired four years ago. But she knew of Mr. Maxwell and she knew that this young man sitting in front of her could not possibly be the Sam Maxwell. He just wasn’t old enough.
“That’s not possible.”
The young man in question looked at her with a raised eyebrow and smirked. “Oh?”
“Yes. You can’t be Sam Maxwell. You’re not old enough.”
“I see. And how old would you be?”
Maggie was startled by the question, “How is that any of your business?”
“You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
She had always thought that the idea of an evil grin was something only coined by authors for their novels. She was discovering that this young man had obviously read those stories and mastered the look.
“That’s so . . . ” She fumbled for an appropriate response and finally settled with, “Childish.”
He snorted. “Well you did accuse me of being all but a child.”
“I did not!” She realized she was close to shrieking and sighed. “Fine. I’m thirty-three.”
He looked at her appreciatively and nodded. “Ah, and here I would have pegged you for being at least forty. Appearances can be deceiving.”
There was a choking sound and the boy Goten reached over and smacked the purple-haired boy on the back. Coughing and spluttering he looked up in shock. “Gohan! That’s terrible!”
Goten looked as if he wanted to laugh but didn’t dare.
The young man closed his eyes and sighed, running a hand threw his hair. “Look. I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. I’m twenty-seven by the way. And my real name, not the name I write under, is Gohan Son.”
He held up a hand to still any further arguments on her part. “I’ll go get the paperwork.” He stood up and started to head out of the room when Goten, snickered.
“Better get your ID too, Dad.”
That earned him a glare but he just waggled his fingers and grinned.
She stared at the retreating back for a moment and then turned to stare at Goten. Dad? She sank back down into her chair and rubbed her temples. She could feel a headache coming on. Dad? Oh Maggie, I think you missed the rabbit hole when you fell down it.
The boy with the purple hair watched her with sympathy and then spoke up. “Don’t worry. He’s not really that bad once you get to know him.”
She grimaced and didn’t look up. “I’ve been his editor for six years.”
“Yeah but you didn’t really know him. You just knew his work. And I’ll admit you didn’t exactly get off to a great start. He’s a bit touchy about his age.”
Goten appeared to be making another sandwich. She glanced around suddenly in surprise, trying to figure out where the first one had disappeared to.
The purple haired boy smirked, “Touchy? I’ve seen bears with nicer personalities.”
“I heard that Trunks.”
The boy grinned, apparently not feeling the least bit guilty and shrugged. “But there are worse people out there.”
The young man, Gohan, tossed some paperwork onto the table in front of her and then scowling for a moment at the two other boys, he dug a wallet out of his back pocket and threw a drivers license down as well.
She picked up the license first and examined it. It showed a picture of Gohan, not smiling but not scowling either. In fact, without the grouchy aura he seemed to project, he was actually very attractive. The licensed declared him to be one Gohan Son, residing at the current address which matched the one she had on file. He was apparently who he said to be. Looking at the paperwork in front of her she realized it was the original contract her predecessor signed, yet with some extra papers as well. The extra documents basically stated that Gohan Son was in fact the author using the pseudonym, Sam Maxwell.
“But if this is true then you would have had to start writing when you were . . . ”
“Thirteen.” She looked up at him and then back down at the license in front of her.
“Right.” She repeated rather weakly. “Thirteen.”
“I was a precocious thirteen year old.” He glanced over at the boy Goten, and for the first time smiled. “Very precocious.”
She gaped at the man in shock, forgetting to breathe for a moment. Oh my. She swallowed. When he stopped scowling and actually smiled he was absolutely gorgeous. She watched the younger boy grin back and shook her head.
Why did she suddenly feel happier?
“It’s heady stuff isn’t it?” She looked over to where Trunks was watching her. “A fearsome thing, the Son smile. It’s impossible to stay angry in the face of it.”
Gohan put the ID back in his wallet and gave the boy a strange look. “You make it sound as if it’s a lethal weapon.”
Trunks threw a pickle slice at Goten, who just smirked and caught it in his open mouth. “Ah, but it is. You have no idea how many arguments I’ve lost due to that smile.”
Gohan seemed to ponder this for a moment and then grinned. “I see. Sticks and stones may break your bones but a smile will melt your heart? I’ll have to try that on Vegeta the next time I see him.”
Trunks and Goten burst out laughing. “It would probably freak my dad out if you just walked up to him and grinned.” Trunks shook his head. “I gotta be there to see that.”
“Speaking of which, you staying for the weekend?” Gohan asked the younger boy.
Trunks nodded and Goten threw an arm around his shoulder before grinning. “Yep. It’ll just be us three hombres bumming around.”
Gohan chuckled. “Right. Well you can start your weekend bumming after you clear the table. Then I’ll make dinner.” He gathered up the paperwork and then beckoned to Maggie to come with him. “We can go to the study to sign whatever papers you needed.”
He headed out of the kitchen and Maggie stood up to follow.
Goten and Trunks each popped a pickle slice in their mouths before waving to her with matching smiles of innocence.
She blinked and glanced at the table. Hadn’t there been another sandwich? Where’d they go?
Confused she shook her head and followed Gohan through the door.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Did you see her expression?” Trunks was laughing so hard he was bent over clutching his side. “That’s going to bother her for ages. You could practically see her trying to figure out what we did with the sandwiches.”
I smirked and grabbed some stuff off the table to put back in the fridge. “Yeah I was worried we were going to have to split that first one. Good thing dad got her going so bad she never even noticed you eat it.”
While I suppose I could have shared the sandwich with Trunks it wouldn’t have been nearly enough to qualify as an after school snack. And trying to blend in at school meant we had to eat the normal high school lunch. Normal meaning small. By the time we got home we were always starving.
“I wonder what we’re having for dinner?”
“Fish don’t you think?” Trunks passed me the mustard and I put it away before closing and leaning against the fridge door.
“Not necessarily, he doesn’t always go out fishing to catch anything. Usually it means he’s thinking about something.”
“Thinking? As in good thinking or bad thinking?”
I shrugged. “Not sure. But possibly the Piccolo kind of thinking.”
“Ah.” We both looked outside toward the sky, as if expecting him to suddenly show up at the mere mention of his name.
Trunks squirmed a little, “The Professor was joking about painting the lookout right?”
I laughed. “No, but I think we’re good. Come on, I’ll go a round with you in the gravity room. You need to release your pent up energy and anger.”
Trunks blinked and stared at me as if I’d gone mad. “And what pent up energy and anger would that be?”
“The ones you’re gonna be feeling come Monday after P.E.” I smacked him slightly behind the head. “Tag. You’re it.”
The gravity room isn’t obvious to those who don’t know where to look for it. Actually, it really just looks like another closet in the hall off dad’s study. That is if closets normally have a security box requiring you to tap in a code to open the door.
The security box is there to prevent people from just randomly opening the door and screwing with the gravity levels inside, not to mention hurting themselves. I nearly gave dad a heart attack the first time I ran in unannounced. The gravity knocked me flat on my ass and for a second I couldn’t breathe until I powered up. Even then it was all I could do to keep myself from asphyxiating to death before dad lowered the gravity and came rushing over.
Man was he pissed off. Mostly though because I’d scared him. Next day, the security lock appeared on the door.
Trunks stays over enough that he has half my closet and dresser for his own stuff. This probably doesn’t indicate good things about his home life. I mean, it’s not horrific or anything, he’s not abused unless you count the times he spars with Vegeta and comes out worse for wear. It’s just, stressful I guess. Vegeta is an arrogant bastard; there’s no doubt about that and Bulma’s a very strong minded woman. I suppose you’d have to be to take Vegeta on. Their relationship seems to work but it’s based on a lot of arguing. Dad says he finds it all together too exhausting.
A lot of times it gets to be a bit much for Trunks I think. Sometimes he’d show up at my window in the middle of the night. I’d just toss him an extra pillow and go back to sleep. Dad never really said anything either. When the second bed appeared in my room, Trunks tried to thank him. Explain maybe. But dad just ruffled his hair and told him not to worry about it.
Trunks and I didn’t spar every day. If he was home, his dad always made him train. And Vegeta isn’t a lot of fun to spar with. He takes it too seriously. I spar with dad and sometimes Piccolo. Though Piccolo fights dirty. Just when you least expect it he’ll attack with those eye lasers of his and scorch you in the ass. Dad’s great to spar with. He always makes you think about what he’s going to do next because you’re never quite sure. The best thing though, is watching him fight Goku. Once a year, he’ll come and visit and then they’ll spar hand to hand without energy blasts or powering up. Sometimes they go out over the ocean to do it and it’s like a dance across the waves.
We passed the editor as she was leaving, some paper work in her hand. She eyed our clothes and smiled. “Teenage boys. Don’t tell me you two are lifting weights to impress the girls. My brother was always out in the garage, pumping iron, he called it.”
Giving us a final smile she walked past and we heard the door shut as she left. Trunks stared at the spot she’d been standing, a pole-axed expression on his face. “Pumping iron?”
I shrugged and grabbed his arm, dragging him down the hall with me toward the gravity room. “Who knows man, women are weird.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“So what’s he like? The Dragon?” It was Monday and Maggie’s secretary was standing over her desk, obviously desperate to get the latest scoop on their most notorious author.
Maggie leaned back and thought about her visit to meet the elusive Sam Maxwell. “Well, he’s a lot younger then I was expecting.”
She smiled slightly. “And very rude.”
“So is he as mysterious as everyone thinks?”
Maggie tapped her pencil against the desk and thought about what she’d seen. A writer since he was thirteen. A father. She shook her head. She still couldn’t get over that one. Wish I’d had the courage to ask him about that. Finally she nodded. “Yes, he’s definitely as mysterious as everyone thinks.”
TBC . . .
(And that completes chapter three. Sorry the previous one was so short, hopefully this one is a bit longer. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and offered encouragement. Generally I email back if I can find an email address, so in case you’re wondering where my list of replies is-that’s where. See you all next week.)Converting /tmp/phpFIwzNW to /dev/stdout
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of DragonBall Z. Unless owning all the episodes counts.
Chapter 3
Maggie Ford had worked in the publishing industry since she graduated from college. After ten years in the business she prided herself on her ability to spot a good author. She had not been around when Sam Maxwell first started writing. Her predecessor had signed the contract and the contract had then been passed down to Maggie when he retired four years ago. But she knew of Mr. Maxwell and she knew that this young man sitting in front of her could not possibly be the Sam Maxwell. He just wasn’t old enough.
“That’s not possible.”
The young man in question looked at her with a raised eyebrow and smirked. “Oh?”
“Yes. You can’t be Sam Maxwell. You’re not old enough.”
“I see. And how old would you be?”
Maggie was startled by the question, “How is that any of your business?”
“You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
She had always thought that the idea of an evil grin was something only coined by authors for their novels. She was discovering that this young man had obviously read those stories and mastered the look.
“That’s so . . . ” She fumbled for an appropriate response and finally settled with, “Childish.”
He snorted. “Well you did accuse me of being all but a child.”
“I did not!” She realized she was close to shrieking and sighed. “Fine. I’m thirty-three.”
He looked at her appreciatively and nodded. “Ah, and here I would have pegged you for being at least forty. Appearances can be deceiving.”
There was a choking sound and the boy Goten reached over and smacked the purple-haired boy on the back. Coughing and spluttering he looked up in shock. “Gohan! That’s terrible!”
Goten looked as if he wanted to laugh but didn’t dare.
The young man closed his eyes and sighed, running a hand threw his hair. “Look. I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. I’m twenty-seven by the way. And my real name, not the name I write under, is Gohan Son.”
He held up a hand to still any further arguments on her part. “I’ll go get the paperwork.” He stood up and started to head out of the room when Goten, snickered.
“Better get your ID too, Dad.”
That earned him a glare but he just waggled his fingers and grinned.
She stared at the retreating back for a moment and then turned to stare at Goten. Dad? She sank back down into her chair and rubbed her temples. She could feel a headache coming on. Dad? Oh Maggie, I think you missed the rabbit hole when you fell down it.
The boy with the purple hair watched her with sympathy and then spoke up. “Don’t worry. He’s not really that bad once you get to know him.”
She grimaced and didn’t look up. “I’ve been his editor for six years.”
“Yeah but you didn’t really know him. You just knew his work. And I’ll admit you didn’t exactly get off to a great start. He’s a bit touchy about his age.”
Goten appeared to be making another sandwich. She glanced around suddenly in surprise, trying to figure out where the first one had disappeared to.
The purple haired boy smirked, “Touchy? I’ve seen bears with nicer personalities.”
“I heard that Trunks.”
The boy grinned, apparently not feeling the least bit guilty and shrugged. “But there are worse people out there.”
The young man, Gohan, tossed some paperwork onto the table in front of her and then scowling for a moment at the two other boys, he dug a wallet out of his back pocket and threw a drivers license down as well.
She picked up the license first and examined it. It showed a picture of Gohan, not smiling but not scowling either. In fact, without the grouchy aura he seemed to project, he was actually very attractive. The licensed declared him to be one Gohan Son, residing at the current address which matched the one she had on file. He was apparently who he said to be. Looking at the paperwork in front of her she realized it was the original contract her predecessor signed, yet with some extra papers as well. The extra documents basically stated that Gohan Son was in fact the author using the pseudonym, Sam Maxwell.
“But if this is true then you would have had to start writing when you were . . . ”
“Thirteen.” She looked up at him and then back down at the license in front of her.
“Right.” She repeated rather weakly. “Thirteen.”
“I was a precocious thirteen year old.” He glanced over at the boy Goten, and for the first time smiled. “Very precocious.”
She gaped at the man in shock, forgetting to breathe for a moment. Oh my. She swallowed. When he stopped scowling and actually smiled he was absolutely gorgeous. She watched the younger boy grin back and shook her head.
Why did she suddenly feel happier?
“It’s heady stuff isn’t it?” She looked over to where Trunks was watching her. “A fearsome thing, the Son smile. It’s impossible to stay angry in the face of it.”
Gohan put the ID back in his wallet and gave the boy a strange look. “You make it sound as if it’s a lethal weapon.”
Trunks threw a pickle slice at Goten, who just smirked and caught it in his open mouth. “Ah, but it is. You have no idea how many arguments I’ve lost due to that smile.”
Gohan seemed to ponder this for a moment and then grinned. “I see. Sticks and stones may break your bones but a smile will melt your heart? I’ll have to try that on Vegeta the next time I see him.”
Trunks and Goten burst out laughing. “It would probably freak my dad out if you just walked up to him and grinned.” Trunks shook his head. “I gotta be there to see that.”
“Speaking of which, you staying for the weekend?” Gohan asked the younger boy.
Trunks nodded and Goten threw an arm around his shoulder before grinning. “Yep. It’ll just be us three hombres bumming around.”
Gohan chuckled. “Right. Well you can start your weekend bumming after you clear the table. Then I’ll make dinner.” He gathered up the paperwork and then beckoned to Maggie to come with him. “We can go to the study to sign whatever papers you needed.”
He headed out of the kitchen and Maggie stood up to follow.
Goten and Trunks each popped a pickle slice in their mouths before waving to her with matching smiles of innocence.
She blinked and glanced at the table. Hadn’t there been another sandwich? Where’d they go?
Confused she shook her head and followed Gohan through the door.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Did you see her expression?” Trunks was laughing so hard he was bent over clutching his side. “That’s going to bother her for ages. You could practically see her trying to figure out what we did with the sandwiches.”
I smirked and grabbed some stuff off the table to put back in the fridge. “Yeah I was worried we were going to have to split that first one. Good thing dad got her going so bad she never even noticed you eat it.”
While I suppose I could have shared the sandwich with Trunks it wouldn’t have been nearly enough to qualify as an after school snack. And trying to blend in at school meant we had to eat the normal high school lunch. Normal meaning small. By the time we got home we were always starving.
“I wonder what we’re having for dinner?”
“Fish don’t you think?” Trunks passed me the mustard and I put it away before closing and leaning against the fridge door.
“Not necessarily, he doesn’t always go out fishing to catch anything. Usually it means he’s thinking about something.”
“Thinking? As in good thinking or bad thinking?”
I shrugged. “Not sure. But possibly the Piccolo kind of thinking.”
“Ah.” We both looked outside toward the sky, as if expecting him to suddenly show up at the mere mention of his name.
Trunks squirmed a little, “The Professor was joking about painting the lookout right?”
I laughed. “No, but I think we’re good. Come on, I’ll go a round with you in the gravity room. You need to release your pent up energy and anger.”
Trunks blinked and stared at me as if I’d gone mad. “And what pent up energy and anger would that be?”
“The ones you’re gonna be feeling come Monday after P.E.” I smacked him slightly behind the head. “Tag. You’re it.”
The gravity room isn’t obvious to those who don’t know where to look for it. Actually, it really just looks like another closet in the hall off dad’s study. That is if closets normally have a security box requiring you to tap in a code to open the door.
The security box is there to prevent people from just randomly opening the door and screwing with the gravity levels inside, not to mention hurting themselves. I nearly gave dad a heart attack the first time I ran in unannounced. The gravity knocked me flat on my ass and for a second I couldn’t breathe until I powered up. Even then it was all I could do to keep myself from asphyxiating to death before dad lowered the gravity and came rushing over.
Man was he pissed off. Mostly though because I’d scared him. Next day, the security lock appeared on the door.
Trunks stays over enough that he has half my closet and dresser for his own stuff. This probably doesn’t indicate good things about his home life. I mean, it’s not horrific or anything, he’s not abused unless you count the times he spars with Vegeta and comes out worse for wear. It’s just, stressful I guess. Vegeta is an arrogant bastard; there’s no doubt about that and Bulma’s a very strong minded woman. I suppose you’d have to be to take Vegeta on. Their relationship seems to work but it’s based on a lot of arguing. Dad says he finds it all together too exhausting.
A lot of times it gets to be a bit much for Trunks I think. Sometimes he’d show up at my window in the middle of the night. I’d just toss him an extra pillow and go back to sleep. Dad never really said anything either. When the second bed appeared in my room, Trunks tried to thank him. Explain maybe. But dad just ruffled his hair and told him not to worry about it.
Trunks and I didn’t spar every day. If he was home, his dad always made him train. And Vegeta isn’t a lot of fun to spar with. He takes it too seriously. I spar with dad and sometimes Piccolo. Though Piccolo fights dirty. Just when you least expect it he’ll attack with those eye lasers of his and scorch you in the ass. Dad’s great to spar with. He always makes you think about what he’s going to do next because you’re never quite sure. The best thing though, is watching him fight Goku. Once a year, he’ll come and visit and then they’ll spar hand to hand without energy blasts or powering up. Sometimes they go out over the ocean to do it and it’s like a dance across the waves.
We passed the editor as she was leaving, some paper work in her hand. She eyed our clothes and smiled. “Teenage boys. Don’t tell me you two are lifting weights to impress the girls. My brother was always out in the garage, pumping iron, he called it.”
Giving us a final smile she walked past and we heard the door shut as she left. Trunks stared at the spot she’d been standing, a pole-axed expression on his face. “Pumping iron?”
I shrugged and grabbed his arm, dragging him down the hall with me toward the gravity room. “Who knows man, women are weird.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“So what’s he like? The Dragon?” It was Monday and Maggie’s secretary was standing over her desk, obviously desperate to get the latest scoop on their most notorious author.
Maggie leaned back and thought about her visit to meet the elusive Sam Maxwell. “Well, he’s a lot younger then I was expecting.”
She smiled slightly. “And very rude.”
“So is he as mysterious as everyone thinks?”
Maggie tapped her pencil against the desk and thought about what she’d seen. A writer since he was thirteen. A father. She shook her head. She still couldn’t get over that one. Wish I’d had the courage to ask him about that. Finally she nodded. “Yes, he’s definitely as mysterious as everyone thinks.”
TBC . . .
(And that completes chapter three. Sorry the previous one was so short, hopefully this one is a bit longer. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and offered encouragement. Generally I email back if I can find an email address, so in case you’re wondering where my list of replies is-that’s where. See you all next week.)Converting /tmp/phpFIwzNW to /dev/stdout