Krillin and 18: One Stupid Kiss

Part 6: Heart to Heart

The former monk was awakened by light pokes on his cheek. He groggily opened his eyes to see the Android 18 looming over him. The luminescence of dusk bathed her in warm hues. Almost as warm as Krillin could feel his cheeks turning. He sat up and rubbed the sand out of his eyes.

"What happened here?" 18 asked, referring to the debris scattered around the island and his ruffled appearance. Either Krillin was still not fully awake, or she actually sounded worried.

"Gohan and I had a quick sparring session," he shakily chuckled while scratching the back of his head. The android gaped at him as if she were considering taking him to a neurologist.

"For what reason?"

"Hey it was his idea. Not mine."

"I guess that makes sense considering his heritage," 18 plopped next to him and stretched her legs out in front of her. They turned to each other simultaneously, both ready to interrogate.

"You first," she let an amused smile spread faintly on her face.

"Alright. What're you doing here?"

"I was out and could feel the ground tremoring from miles away. Then I found you here lying on the ground not moving." Though Krillin felt she was not the type to appreciate teasing, he couldn't help but smirk and ask, "Were you worried about me?"

"No," she responded a little too quickly and ceased to look him the eyes. He gave her a wise guy side eye that clearly annoyed her.

"Anyway," she changed the subject even faster, "I was gonna say before... Just considering the way you live now, I didn't think you still spent time with Gohan." At that Krillin placed his elbows on his knees, dropping his gaze while 18 tensed and tucked some hair behind her ear.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"No, it's okay," he responded quietly. "I just so happened to run into him. I hadn't seem him awhile." She regarded him intently for a moment. Finally, as if she were treading water, 18 asked, "What about the rest of your friends?" Still not looking at her, he took a deep breath before he spoke.

"I haven't seen them either."

"Do you wanna talk about it?" That caught him off guard. Less than a week ago he never would have thought he would find himself confiding in a former enemy who once terrified him (and kind of still did), but here he was deciding there was no harm in it. He gave her the rundown of what plagued him for ages, from the guilt that surfaced after the battle for the fate of the Earth all the way to his escape from Kame House. The air felt thicker when he finished, as if weighed down by the fear that filled him when he turned toward the cyborg. What would she think of him now? Her expression was plastered with her orthodox illegibility.

"I'm sorry."

He blinked.

"Huh?"

"It really wasn't my place to ask," she fiddled with her hair once more. Krillin wondered if she actually felt sorry for him. It did not quite strike him as pity, so he was fine with whatever it was.

"No, no, it's really okay," he assured her. "It kinda feels better to finally talk about it."

"Well, in that case you're welcome," and they both laughed as their bodies relaxed.

"What's on your mind, now?" he at least could now tell when she looked like she wanted to interrogate him.

"Last thing... I promise," she added when he sent a playfully skeptical stare her way. "Are you ever gonna go back?" Krillin paused.

"Honestly, I'd rather go back in time," he scratched the back of his head.

"I know how that feels," 18 peered at the sky's reflected soft pinks and yellows swimming across the pond. "I still wonder what my life would've been like had Gero not taken me and my brother."

"Wait what?" Krillin asked, surprised. 18 winced and pursed her lips. She had quite obviously not meant to let that slip from her lips, but Krillin could not help himself.

"I thought it was your choice to become an android," he gently wondered aloud.

"You thought very wrong," her tone turned grim, but she continued, figuring she owed the little guy.

Flashback

Red Ribbon Army soldiers burst through the doors of one of Gero's secret labs with 17 and 18 struggling in their grasp.

18 (narrator): That psychopath kidnapped me and Seventeen.

Dr. Gero stalks over to 17 first with two syringes in his hand. The teen spits on him, prompting a soldier to strike him in the back on the scientist's command. He crumples to the ground as Dr. Gero injects him, ignoring 18's screams. Then he turns toward her with a pompous, icy smile.

She wakes up and finds herself gagged and strapped to a lab table. 17 is in the same predicament, only he is unconscious with the doctor looming over him.

18 (narrator): I don't remember everything, but I recall experiments here and there. Painful ones. He tampered with us as if we were machines...

When Dr. Gero finishes with 17, he walks over to her, tools in hand, as she stares in horror.

Flashback end

"He took our lives to make us his puppets," she almost growled.

18 could practically feel how heartbroken the little guy looked, which made her feel like facing him even less.

"I," he stammered. "I'm so sorry that happened to you. I would've killed that monster too."

"It is what is," she sighed. "You can't change the past." And then she stood up.

"I'm gonna head back now. I'll see you later."

"Hey, wait," he called after her. She turned midair to face him again.

"Uh, thanks." She smiled at him, winked, and took her leave. He sank deeper into the grass when he could no longer see her. The former fighter could never have imagined she endured such horror. His experiences probably paled in comparison to hers, and he wished there was something he could do. If only the android was not miserably correct about being unable to change the past...

And suddenly a lightbulb went off above his head.

***

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