Embarrassed by the one I love.

My eyes opened and I rolled over to look at my clock. It was 10:30. Oh, shit, I really overslept! I jumped up, pulled on my clothes, used the facilities and ran out of my room, down the hall and to the kitchen. “Guys, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to oversleep!”
They were both sitting at the kitchen table and they looked up when I burst through. Gohan looked rather embarrassed, but excited, and Goten looked amused. I couldn’t figure out why, but I didn’t guess it mattered. “What do you mean?”
“I was supposed to be up hours ago! Jesus, I’m so sorry!” I went to work making dinner. “I’ll be you’re starved!”
“Well,” Gohan’s voice drawled lazily, “we won’t turn down some food, but we aren’t starving. Slightly hungry, yeah.”
“A snack will do.”
I turned to look at them, glaring at Gohan in particular. “I’ve seen the show. I know you can’t cook.”
A small smile graced his lips—which I just realized had a small, still slightly bleeding cut in the middle of the bottom lip. “No, you cooked for us. Don’t you remember anything?”
That confused me. “What would I possibly rem—oh, my God, Gohan, what happened to your neck?!”
His eyes widened, he and Goten exchanged a glance and they both burst out laughing. “Ch-check yours before you complain about mine!” he gasped out.
I reached up to feel my neck. Nothing. “What are you talking about?”
“Other side.”
I checked the other side and my eyes widened. “Wh-?” I ran to the bathroom to check the mirror and checked. A bite mark. What the hell?
Gohan and Goten were just suddenly behind me. “Look similar to you?”
I studied his, then mine. They were the same—mine was bigger, of course, but other than that, and being on different people, they were the same. In the same spots, the same depth—the same everything. What the hell? I gave wide eyes to Gohan. This . . . no, wait. I dreamt that. . . .
Didn’t I?
He smiled gently at me. “I know it’s strange, Story. I know you were exhausted when it happened. But I also know that you know what happened. You think it was a dream, don’t you?”
“What was a dream?”
He smiled again. “You know.”
My eyes closed and I steadied myself. “What I did in that dream is not possible for a human to do.”
“But you did it, didn’t you?”
I reached my hand out for the wall, but Gohan took the hand, pulling me against him. “It was a dream,” I whispered. I hated how my voice sounded so broken, so terrified.
“Who are you trying to convince, Story? Me? Or yourself?”
I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. “No wonder I never fit in anywhere. No wonder I was in love with your show.”
His arms tightened around me. “I guess it’s time for you to meet the family.”
“Your family?” This cheered me up. “Piccolo? Goku?” I looked up at him, eyes bright.
“Interesting how Piccolo is who you think of first.” He chuckled. “Yeah, all of them.”
“Chichi?”
“Yeah.”
I bit my lip, afraid but excited. “When?”
“I guess as soon as you learn to fly, we can go.”
My eyes went huge at this and I pushed away. “I don’t know how to fly and don’t want to.”
“Why?”
“I’m terrified of heights.”
He laughed. “You’re kidding, right? You faced down that thing and you’re afraid of heights? Why don’t you take a look at your back?” He walked out, closing the door behind him. “And hurry it up.”
I stripped the shirt off and turned to look at my back, but couldn’t get that great a look in the mirror. It looked like I had two scars down my back, about six inches long in a V shape. “How do you know about those?”
“I saw your wings.”
“My what?!”
“You have wings.”
“No, I don’t, do I?”
“Yeah, you do. Really.”
I pulled my shirt back on. “Come back in.”
He walked in, smiling. “I saw your wings. They’re huge, black and feathered. And really soft.”
“Soft?”
“When I caught you, your wings were still out. I had a devilish time trying not to hurt your wings, by the way.” He grinned. “Speaking of devilish, nice attack. Where did you learn that?”
I shrugged. “It’s been something I’ve always done—in my dreams. I’ve always known it.”
“Really?”
I nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“It was really powerful. I think if it had hit him, he would’ve really been hurt.”
“You and Goten couldn’t hurt him. How could I?”
He shrugged. “We could’ve hurt him, if we could’ve hit him. He was too fast. When you were attacking him, remember, he was too stunned to protect himself.”
I nodded again. “Yeah, true.”
“Have you ever seen yourself doing the attack?”
“Yeah. I have others, too, but that’s my finishing move.”
“Ah, I can see that. It’s powerful enough for that. When you do that attack, by the way, you have a really interesting dance that goes with it. It’s kind of . . . I don’t know. Kind of exotic.”
I raised eyebrows at that, face darkening with the beginnings of a blush. “Wh-what do you mean by that?”
“I mean it’s like something I’ve never seen before, something I’d like to watch over and over.”
I smiled. “That’s nice, I think.”
“Now . . . I think we need to get busy on your training!”