| Feeding the Flames part 2 By: Juuchan When Bulma found Gohan, he was busily worrying and wondering about his student, sitting on the blasted and cracked concrete in front of what remained of the Capsule Corp. building. To distract himself from what seemed to be useless ruminations, he tried to use a meditation technique Piccolo had taught him. It had succeeded in the past in calming him during stressful situations, like Chichi's passing away a few years earlier. Carefully relaxing his body muscle by muscle, Gohan sank into the meditative state, leaning back against the sun-warmed building in the half lotus position. He personally thought the success of this technique was that one did not seek to clear their mind of all things, effectively forgetting or distancing themselves from their problems, but instead tried to calmly work through their own emotions and reach at the least a peace with the situation, if not a solution. First stage: Recognition of the problem. Trunks. Or, more precisely, whatever was -wrong- with Trunks. With several specific instances in mind. So.. it had begun, he supposed, while they were sparring. late in the day, just before they were about to stop, Trunks had simply dropped. Gohan had managed to catch him, but couldn't wake him. His brow furrowed, before the calm of the meditation reached him again. Come to think of it, Trunks' behavior had been a little off earlier that day, but nothing that he associated with any kind of illness. It had simply seemed that he'd been concentrating too much on Gohan's ki, and not his movements, or his own positioning. While a precise awareness of ki was useful in many sorts of battles and situations, the jinzouningen didn't have any, so he didn't want Trunks to concentrate overmuch on it. He'd mentioned it to him several times that day, and while Trunks would concentrate better for a time, it was always only temporary, and he shifted back to his previous pattern quickly. But, there was something else bothering him more than that, if he would admit it to himself: how Trunks had acted once he woke. That was what had really shaken him. He'd been in the medical room with Bulma, trying to help the worried woman discover what was wrong, when he realized that his attention kept wandering. He simply couldn't concentrate on any of the medical data in front of him. He shook his head, then noticed what had been tickling his senses for some time. There was a very.. unusual scent in the room. It was fairly light yet, but already it was tugging at his instincts, trying to force his thoughts onto little-trod paths. The scent itself was absolutely alluring, and if he stayed in the room much longer, it was going to cause an embarrassing reaction, not to mention what it was doing to his thought processes. Gohan stiffened as a sound froze his meandering mind in it's tracks. It was a.. purr? And coming from almost directly behind him, where Trunks lay. He couldn't connect the two until he'd turned around,still in a near daze, and was looking straight at him. Trunks was sitting upon the pallet, giving him a very.. disturbing look, and purring. The thought that Trunks was now awake and apparently healthy didn't even make it to the front of his mind. He barely heard Bulma's little gasp of surprise. Watching him with an amazingly predatory gleam in his eyes, Trunks nearly flowed onto the floor, silver tail (tail?!) twitching methodically behind him. The scent was stronger now, and growing with every step Trunks took in his direction, as was his purr. Gohan didn't have the faintest idea what to do in this situation, but his instincts and hormones were banding together to make him think some VERY inappropriate things, which he should -not- be thinking about his student! He was barely two feet away now, and Gohan was barely able to choke down the rumbling growl that threatened to erupt from his throat. The rational and innately human part of his mind was intensely grateful to Bulma when she shouted something about "restraining," and it was finally given a viable course of action. With great difficulty, he managed to shove down the hormones and instincts, as he'd been taught to through much of his life, so that they would not sabotage his endeavor. He stepped forward, placing his hands firmly on Trunks' shoulders, guiding him back to the bed, trying resolutely to ignore the way his purrs took on a new and wholly fascinating overtone at this contact, the heat beneath his hands, the way the scent was nearly overwhelming him now, or how Trunks' tail had darted forward and was leaving brushes of lightening along his chest and stomach. By the time he finally had Trunks in position, it was a great relief, as his control was ready to shatter. He pushed him down firmly against the mattress, ignoring everything possible except for positioning his limbs correctly, and managed to nod at Bulma. When the restraints clicked shut, Trunks' glance turned questioning, then pleading and desperate as he all but fled the room, the last thing he heard a distinctly inhuman wail of need. Gohan shivered, trying to remember that he was out in the sun, and that he -couldn't- smell it anymore. He'd showered thoroughly, in cold water, to calm himself and wash off the scent. The clothes he'd tossed into the laundry. But, he was still left with a problem. The things that whatever had happened in there had made him feel. He could dismiss it all he wanted, but had to hope that it wouldn't happen again. It would hurt his relationship with his student. His head popped up as Bulma stepped outside and turned toward him. He had the feeling that any little bits of peace he'd managed to get out of his meditation were going to be lost soon. |