As always, C&C, MSTs and all other comments are welcome to
"thark@hem2.passagen.se.se". Just two months late. so if you don't
remember what's happened, find previous episodes at
"http://nabiki.newberry.edu/thark/fanfic/index.html#notevenyou". Oh, and
if things seem clear-cut for Goten by the end of this episode, just wait
for the next one...
  
                         -------dragonball------
                        |                       |
                        |      NOT EVEN YOU     |
                        |                       |
                        |     Goten in love;    |
                        |  A princess spurned.  |
                        |                       |
                         -----------7-----------
  
  "I have you this time, Goten!" his old friend snarled viciously, his
fist flashing with energy as he flew towards his opponent, raising it
for what was supposed to be the final strike.
  
  Reacting just in time, the younger boy barely dodged to the side of
the impressive leap - somewhat less impressive when you knew that both
combatants were perfectly capable of unaided flight - and jumped upwards
to land what *was* the final strike, his elbow impacting Trunks' back
and throwing the blonde boy to the ground below, where he skidded slowly
before grinding to a halt, his face firmly planted into the concrete.
  
  Goten smiled as he dusted off his hands, looking down at the defeated
adversary. "'fraid not. Thanks for the workout, though." Nobody had told
him that his old friend's current behavior was somewhat more malicious
than the friendly rivalry of their youth, and in matters not related to
combat, the half-sayajin was pretty far from being the most perceptive
guy in town.
  
  Even he could not fail to notice the large crowd that had gathered to
watch the fight, however, and his smile widened slightly as he waved a
hand for their benefit. Luckily, both combatants had enough sense not go
super while still at school.
  
  Most of the girls (and a few at the boys, but that's another matter)
where delirious with joy at seeing the two top hunks in actions, even if
it meant having one of them beaten up, and those of the male students
not into martial arts were happy enough to see a certain overconfident
show-off get what he had coming.
  
  Goten scanned the audience. There was a short-haired girl, a grinning
boy who seemed to be shouting something at a friend further back in the
crowd, a tall, cute girl with long, blonde hair, a short guy who'd
barely managed to push himself to the front, a ...
  
  After a brief pause, Goten slowly turned his head back again a few
degrees, and let his eyes rest on the tall girl. She wore the standard
knee-long blue dress - they were not obligatory, but most students chose
to follow the dress-code anyway - and a thin summer jacket further
helped conceal her assets, but they were there, in a proportion fully
suitable for her height; she stood almost a full head above the boy next
to her. A red scarf covered her forehead and kept her long, blonde hair
from obscuring the somewhat angular features of her face that gave her
appearance some badly needed roughness.
  
  Had it not been so warm, the smile on the boy's lips would at this
time definitely been a maniacal one, and it was still a close call.
Noticing his stare, she drew her lips up into a slight smile, and then,
his smile *was* a maniacal one.
  
  A quiet, distant part of his mind tried to tell him that something had
just stuck against his right arm and was quite possibly cuddling up
against him. He managed to ignore it for a few moments, but as the smile
disappeared from the face of the tall girl, he could not help to notice
the exalted voice that shouted almost directly into his ear.
  
  "Goten-sama! You won!" Bra seemed oblivious to the fact that her
darling did not pay all that much attention to her. "I'm so glad you
fight for me!"
  
  With an irritated snort, the tall girl turned around and left with
brisk steps. Dismayed, Goten looked down into the ground, his brain not
registering the words of his supposed fiancee.
  
  "Let's go out tonight, allright?" she tried, hoping desperately for a
positive reaction.
  
  "Yeah, sure, whatever," the boy mumbled, wishing for the distraction
to go away.
  
  Overcome with joy, the small girl jumped up to kiss his cheek. "Pick
me up at seven!" she said as she ran off with small, happy leaps, a
cloud of joy obscuring her mind too thickly for his dry voice to pierce
through.
  
                                   ^_^
  
  Luckily for him, Goten had never learned that you were supposed to be
nervous around girls, and so, he felt only minor nervousity as he waited
outside the classroom he had seen the tall girl enter, and as she
appeared, he had no problem walking up to her and raise a hand in
greeting with a sunny smile on his lips.
  
  "Hi!" he began. "I'm Goten!"
  
  "I know," the girl giggled. "Pleased to meet you. Dinaa." She curtsied
slightly.
  
  "Huh? Already?" Confused, Goten scratched the back of his head.
  
  Sighing, she pushed her index finger against his nose, looking down at
the somewhat smaller boy. "No, it's my name."
  
  "Oh." Goten had the sense to smile embarassedly. "Wanna go to the
movies tonight?"
  
  _Forward, aren't we?_ Dinaa thought to herself. Well, better, at
least, than the stuttering fools, and of course, the envious girls
already starting to whisper in the corridor were an added bonus. "Sure,"
she said. "Meet you there?"
  
  "It's a date!" The half-sayajin boy walked off, his mind taken off the
dreary subject of schoolwork for the rest of the day.
  
                                   ^_^
  
  A depressed Bra shed a few tears as she waited patiently, sitting on
the last step of the stairs leading up to the Capsule Corp headquarters.
Goten-sama should have been there almost an hour ago, but he still
hadn't come.
  
  Well, he probably had a good reason. Most likely he was off to save
the earth or do some very important training, and she knew how selfish
it was of her to expect him to abandon his duties for her sake, but
still, she could not help but feel sad.
  
                                   ^_^
  
  "Goten?" the girl whispered in a somewhat tired tone.
  
  "Yeah?" he nodded, regretfully looking away from the on-screen action.
Though he was personally a lot better than most of the guys who appeared
in them, he just loved martial arts movies!
  
  "Couldn't you have chosen the other movie instead?"
  
  "But only girls like that stuff!" he protested, then paused for a few
seconds, realizing what he had just said. "Oh. Sorry."
  
                                   ^_^
  
  The first thing Goten noticed when he arrived at Satan High the
following Monday was a furious little dark-skinned brat with a mohawk
haircut running towards him, glowing with anger.
  
  Nothing unusal with that.
  
  Somewhat different from what he was used to, however, was a Uub's
warcry.
  
  "GOTEN! VILE DEMON!" The half-sayajin had thought the kid had given up
on the demon part. What surprised him, though, was what followed. "YOU
HAVE BROKEN BRA-SAMA'S HEART!" Uub punctured his statement with a fierce
uppercut that would probably have brought his point across nice and
clean, had it hit like it was intended to. Or perhaps not; during the
two weeks since his return to Chikyuu, Goten had been beaten up often
enough to increase his stamina more than in a whole year of training. No-
one would ever know, since the youngest Son easily evaded it.
  
  "What are you talking about?" he asked, slightly confused. "There's no
way she can know I went to the movies with Dinaa last Friday."
  
  Both boys were too caught up in the impending fight to notice the
sudden gasp uttered by a young girl somewhere behind Goten, or the sobs
that followed it, and they took no more heed of the footsteps running
away from them than the approaching ones that had preceeded them.
  
                                   ^_^
  
  It surprised Goten that Bra hadn't tried to glomp him even once during
the entire day. Around lunchtime, he'd been on the verge of visiting her
classroom to find out if there was something wrong, but eventually
decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
  
  Currently, he was outside Dinaa's homeroom, waiting for her to emerge,
but the trickle was started to slow down, and he still couldn't see her.
Somewhat irritated, he turned to a short, brown-haired girl that passed
him by.
  
  "Hey, you," he called out to her.
  
  "What do... Uh ... Yeah?" the girl answered nervously, her irritation
at the casual adressing fading quite quickly when she saw who the
offender was.
  
  "Isn't this Dinaa's class?"
  
  The girl nodded, a somewhat disappointed look on her face. "Yes, but
she isn't here today. She caught a slight cold and had to stay home."
  
  "A cold?" Goten thought aloud, not noticing the girl sigh and walk
away. "Why the heck would she have to stay home just because of a slight
cold?"
  
                                   ^_^
  
  "Bra?"
  
  Bulma carefully peeked into her daughter's room, finding the little
girl crying in her bed, as she knew she would when the sound of tears
had penetrated the walls of her workroom.
  
  Bra looked up at her, eyes slightly bloodshot. "Yes?"
  
  The mother stepped into the room, placing a warming hand on her
daughter's shoulder. "What's wrong?"
  
  "It's."
  
  But if she told her mother, it would mean her father would eventually
find out. And if he did. He'd be mad at Goten-sama. It wasn't Goten-
sama's fault, it couldn't be. Had be that tall witch.
  
  "It's nothing." A short sob betrayed her.
  
  "Don't cry, Bra," Bulma tried to comfort her. "You can tell me what it
is."
  
  But the girl didn't hear. Already, plans were forming inside her
little head. Goten-sama might not be attracted to her at the moment, but
she'd have to get rid of her rivals first. Bra might be a bit blind in
matters related to her supposed fiance, but she was far from stupid.
  
  The weak girl would be easy to scare off.
  
                                   ^_^
  
  The next morning, Goten decided to go earlier than usual and wait at
the entrance of the school building, just in case. He was rewarded when
he saw the tall blonde approaching in the distance.
  
  As she entered the gates, Dinaa noticed Goten waiting for her, and
smiled, raising a hand in greeting.
  
  At that moment, someone jumped out of a nearby bush, blocking her
path; more specifically, a short, blonde-haired girl, her hair tied into
a pony-tail. Bra had assumed a combat stance, but as usual, the effect
of her threathening stare was dampened somewhat by the cute blue dress
with white dots she wore. Despite it, though, hate was clear in her
voice as she called out somewhat too loudly.
  
  "WITCH!" the little half-sayajin cried, wiping away a stray tear in
determination. "How dare you try to steal away my Goten-sama?"
  
  "Bra-chan!" the object of her affection shouted, concerned. "Get away
from her!" The worry in his voice gradually turned to anger as he
quickened his pace ... only to be interrupted by a hand clamped firmly
on his shoulder. He turned his head around to stare into the eyes of a
furious Trunks.
  
  "How dare you even *think* of harming my little sister?" he said, Ki
flaring, and as Uub stepped up behind him, crackling his knuckles, Goten
had no choice but to focus his attention on the two. He could only hope
that Bra would have the sense not to hurt Dinaa too badly; a rather
faint hope, unfortunately.
  
                                   ^_^
  
  "WITCH!" the little girl cried out again, and struck out with a hook.
The tall girl let out a frightened shriek and tried to back off, barely
avoiding the blow. She was not as lucky the second time, and tears
welled up in her eyes milli-seconds before Bra-chan's clenched fist
impacted with her nose, as she realized it was too late to avoid being
hurt.
  
  Though it would be a few minutes before school started, a small crowd
had already started forming, and the onlookers looked away as the blow
struck home, blood spraying out from Dinaa's nose as her face was thrown
to the side.
  
  And then, to the surprise of all but a few, she turned it back, now
gazing down at the shorter girl through narrow slits as she held off as
much of the blood-flow as she could with her left hand. "That hurt, you
little bitch," she snarled angrily, raising her own fist to strike out
in retaliation.
  
  Believing the fight to be over, the younger girl did not expect the
blow, and it struck her with a force almost equalling what she had just
used herself, throwing her backwards.
  
  Bra somersaulted in the air and landed on her feet, now somewhat more
wary as the two combatants circled each other, both trying to find an
opening.
  
  Then, with a cry of  "HYA!", the half-sayajin struck out with a fist.
Taking a short step backwards, Dinaa avoided it, using her longer reach
to connect a quick kick to her opponent's gut in reprisal, and she
followed up with a roundhouse that Bra barely managed to block, using
the leg to throw the taller girl to the side.
  
  Regaining her footing, Dinaa throw her head to the side just in time
avoid a rapidly approaching fist, and with a quick front kick, she
bought herself some distance, sending out two fast, straight punches
that knocked the wind out of Bra before she had time to dodge them and
somersaulting forward over the flying kick her enraged opponent launched
at her.
  
  "FLASH!" Bra cried out, sending an energy blast towards the taller
girl as soon as she turned around, and despite a slightly panicked
attempt to dodge the attack, it struck Dinaa head on.
  
  Once again certain victory was hers, Bra did not react in time when
she saw the taller girl still standing as the explosion cleared, her
school uniform badly burned and blood dripping from several wounds. She
recognized the triangular symbol Dinaa's hands formed in front of the
scarf covering her forehead just before her opponent shouted the words
she knew would come.
  
  "TAIYOUKEN!" Taken by surprise, with no chance to cover her eyes, the
blinding light that struck out blinded the younger girl, and she was
powerless to avoid any of the dozen blows that followed in quick
succession, until finally, she dropped to the ground, unconcious.
  
  Her victory assured, Dinaa turned towards the stunned half-sayajin
boy. "Hey, you!" she yelled, her tone still furious.
  
  "Huh?" Though the flash had spared Goten from the combined wrath of
Trunks and Uub, it had the unfortunate side-effect of causing a
multitude of white points to dance inside his eyelids. Vainly, he tried
to figure out just where in this awfully white world the world came
from.
  
  "Weren't you supposed to *protect* me?" the girl snarled, an acidic
edge to her voice.
  
  Sensing her Ki, the half-sayajin boy reached out to take hold of her
shoulder, desperate for something solid to hang on to. A stone, however,
blocked his path, and he staggered, his hand striking her nose as he
attempted to regain his balance.
  
  Instantly, the mad glow disappeared from Dinaa's voice, as she tried
to stop the slight trickle of blood that once again resumed. "Sorry,"
she said.
  
  Goten sighed. "Just lead the way, OK?"
  
                                   ^_^
  
  Most young men would have thought twice about taking a girl home to
eat if they were staying at the house of their fiancee; in Goten's case,
it was just a simple coincidence that he'd invited her over the day when
Kuririn's family was away.
  
  Dinaa had a somewhat confused look on her face as she entered the
dining hall. When he'd asked her out to dinner, she'd thought he meant a
restaurant - it felt just a bit early to meet with parents already.
  
  The confused look soon disappeared, though, replaced by an interested
one, as she spotted something she liked on the opposite edge of the
table. Admittedly, the green fellow looked a bit odd, but with her
heritage, she knew better than to complain about something as minor as a
different tone of skin and a lack of hair; the large, friendly eyes and
warm smile made up for it.
  
  "What's your mother doing these days?" Gokuu asked in-between bites.
"Haven't seen her since before Radditz arrived."
  
  A slight blush briefly appeared on the girl's face. "She . mostly
tries to stay at home."
  
  Goten scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out just how
his father knew Dinaa, and decided he needed a toilet break.
  
  "Who's he?" the girl immediately whispered to Gokuu, nodding towards
the Namekian.
  
  "Oh, he's God," the Sayajin whispered back.
  
  _And I thought *my* dad was wierd._ Not expressing her thoughts, Dinaa
whispered again. "Does he have a girlfriend?"
  
  Gokuu laughed out loud. "Don't think so."
  
  A few moments later, Goten returned, his mouth forming a jealous scowl
every time the tall girl eyed the alien.
  
  Dende watched the silent exchange interestedly. "Your earthling
costums confuse me," he observed. "I thought you were supposed to have
only one fiancee?"
  
  The boy laughed forcedly, embarassed. "Who's your mother, anyway?" he
asked, desperate to change the the topic, but Dinaa ignored him.
  
  The alien grinned. "Sometimes I'm glad we Namekians have no gender."
  
                                   ^_^
  
  About to enter Dinaa's house, Goten was quite surprised to find a
familiar face blocking the doorway. Tenshinhan placed a hand on the
boy's shoulder, eyeing him suspiciously with all three eyes. "What of
the two girls I hear you're already engaged to?"
  
  The half-sayajin sweated. "They're just little girls," he protested.
"I don't care about them."
  
  Satisfied with the answer, the triclops stepped aside, letting him
enter, and surprise struck him once again as he saw the tall girl taking
of her scarf, revealing a third eye in her forehead, too. He scratched
the back of his head as he bent down to take of his shoes. "Just who
*is* your mother anyway?"
  
  He rose again to look straight into the large, long, dark and
generally quite threathening barrel of a really large shotgun, just
barely being able to see the woman behind it. "You better be nice to my
daughter, boy," Lunch snarled.
  
  Embarassed, Ten produced a feather from a pocket, tickling his wife's
nose. The resulting sneeze caused her to squeeze the trigger, and Goten
barely managed to get his head out the way, the blast tearing a large
chunk out of a wall that apparently had already been patched several
times.
  
                                   ^_^
  
  Marron lay down on her bed to think about the rumors she had just
heard. Sure, Goten was cute, but that didn't mean she actually *cared*
about the engagement; he was too much of a jerk for that, always
insulting her and totally lacking any semblance of manners.
  
  However, the fact that he'd been going out with that Dinaa girl seemed
to imply that the short girl wasn't good enough - and there was nothing
she hated as much as being told she wasn't good enough.
  
  No, Marron could be just as nice a girl as this Dinaa, and she'd prove
it.
  
                                   ^_^