An hour later Diego walked out of the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around his waist and collided with Nicole, who was on her way downstairs. Diego was not ready for that encounter most definitely, his towel almost fell off of him, and fortunately he grabbed it just in time. Nicole looked at the state Diego was dressed, her eyes widened, and she averted her eyes.
“I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed, blushing. “I didn’t see you coming out.”
Diego blushed as well. “Y-yeah. It’s okay. I-I will just go to my room now.” He tried to laugh it off and then:
“NICOLE!”
“Oh no…” muttered Diego. Wrong timing for this.
Truce, Diego’s sister, saw Nicole and ran over to her and hugged her. “It’s been so long, sis!” she exclaimed.
Nicole nervously laughed and said, “So it has!”
Truce looked at Diego. She took note of the state he was in. “Where the hell are your clothes?” she inquired of him.
Diego’s blush deepened. “In my room…” he muttered.
“Have you no shame? You can’t just waltz around here in just a towel! We have guests!”
At that moment, Chiaki appeared beside Nicole. He looked at Diego and said, “You should go put some clothes on, saiyan.”
Diego narrowed his eyes at Chiaki. “I was headed that way, don’t worry,” he said through gritted teeth. He then walked away from the other three in utter embarrassment to his room and unintentionally slammed the door.
Chiaki looked at Nicole, who was still looking at the floor, her face red. “Are you alright, Princess?” he asked her.
Truce took notice of Chiaki and said, “Oh, hi! Are you Nicole’s boyfriend or something?”
Chiaki’s eyes went wide at that assumption and he quickly denied it, “No, no. I’m her body guard.”
“So Ashen has assigned a body guard to you now,” said Truce, giggling. “He really has trust issues with us now, huh.”
Nicole looked back up at Truce and said, “It isn’t him, to be honest. He wants me to visit here often. It’s just something our nation’s head counsel has decided among me, him, and our sister. I’m to be protected wherever I go, regardless if I’m safe there or not. Trust me; it has nothing to do with you guys.”
Truce smiled and hugged Nicole again. “Come on, guys,” she said, “Let’s go eat.”
Diego decided to go eat dinner elsewhere that night. He was too embarrassed to face Nicole after the previous incidents throughout the day. Not to mention, for some reason, barely even knowing the guy, he despised Chiaki already. He just couldn’t figure out why that was. He knew Bulma and Truce both would give him hell when they saw him for not eating dinner with the rest of them, but his pride made him act otherwise and go out into the city for his dinner.
He opened the window to his room, but before he flew out of it, he looked to his desk beside it. On it sat an old picture of him and Nicole when they were younger. She was probably about nine years old and he was fifteen, around the time the cell games happened. He sighed as he looked at the picture. They had always been so close since they had first met. He always had felt a need to protect her, and promised to continue to do so for as long as he could. If only he could find a way to make her happy with him again without things being so awkward between them.
Nicole was disappointed that Diego didn’t show for dinner, but at the same time relieved. She couldn’t get their earlier encounter out of her head, even as she lay in bed trying to sleep. She found herself admiring his perfectly chiseled abdominal muscles. How in that instance she wanted to touch them. The thought embarrassed her so much that she couldn’t look at Diego at all. She shook her head as she lay there. No, she thought, those thoughts need to just disappear. I don’t see him like that at all. I see him more as an older brother to me. Nothing more. It could never be anything more anyways. A tiny tear trickled down her cheek. Come on, Nicole, stop that nonsense.
The next day, Diego sneaked down to the kitchen with his son for breakfast. He didn’t want to be lectured by anybody so early. He sat Diego Jr. on the isle cabinet again and gave him a banana to munch on and a cup of milk. He then proceeded to make his own breakfast.
He was frying an egg when he heard somebody walk in. He recognized the footsteps from anywhere and almost died on the inside. Without turning around, he said, “Good morning, Nicole.”
Nicole was hoping to get breakfast early as well for almost the same reasons as Diego: she didn’t want to see anybody, especially Diego, right when she woke up. She had dreamed about him all night, and she hated herself for it. She stood beside Diego Jr. and said, “You always know it’s me, somehow. Good morning, Diego.”
“Do you want some eggs while I’m cooking mine?” Diego asked without looking at her.
“Okay,” said Nicole.
“If you want, you can take Junior there outside on the patio and we three can have breakfast together.”
Nicole smiled and said, “Okay.” She then picked up Diego Jr. with his cup of milk and banana and walked out the door to the patio to sit at the patio table.
Moments later Diego sat a plate of eggs and toast with apple jelly spread on it in front of Nicole. He then gave his son a plate of the same food and he himself had it too, except with a lot more eggs and toast on the plate, since he had a high metabolism due to his saiyan genes. He then walked back in and came back out with to mugs of coffee for himself and Nicole.
“Thank you,” said Nicole, “It looks amazing.”
Diego smiled and said, “It’ll taste even more amazing when you start eating it.”
Diego watched Nicole take a bite of her toast with fascination. For some reason, he found it oddly satisfying to watch her eat.
Nicole smiled, looked up at Diego, and said, “Yes. It is very good.”
Diego grinned and said, “I’m glad you like it.”
They then all continued eating their breakfast. When they were almost done Nicole looked at Diego and said, “We should do something today to have fun together like old times.”
Diego took a sip of his coffee and said, “Like what?”
“I was thinking just the two of us could go somewhere.”
Diego almost spit out his coffee. “What?” he said, “Just the two of us?”
“Yes, me and you could sneak off away from my guard and go places to have fun like old times. Even visit our old little hangout spot.”
“Are you asking me out on a date or something?”
This time it was Nicole’s turn to almost spit out her coffee. “I didn’t mean it like that, Diego,” she said, blushing. “I meant to just hang out and reacquaint ourselves with one another again. We seem so distant since I’ve been back. It makes me worry I’m losing my best friend somewhat.”
That’s right, thought Diego, friends. I have to remember that. “I didn’t mean to make you feel that way,” said Diego, “We’ll always be there for each other, you and I. Nothing will ever change that, regardless of time or distance.”
A tear slid down Nicole face. Diego reached over and quickly wiped it away.
“Why are you crying?” he said.
“I’m not crying,” said Nicole quietly, “Those words just made me so happy. Also, Diego, a lot has happened since I’ve been gone, I need to tell you, but I would rather it be you and me away from listening ears such as Bardy, for example.”
Diego laughed and said, “I understand. I’ll get my father to look after Junior and me and you will go hang out some.”
(I do not own any of the Dragonball Z characters or any of the story line directly linked to the series. All said content rights go to Akira Toriyama, the creator of DBZ)
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