It was the first birthday I’d ever spent alone.  I didn’t mind it really, I could live without any presents or material things, but there was one thing I truly missed, and I knew I might never see her again.

            True, she had been there for my last birthday, but that seemed like such a long time ago.  I really didn’t want to take any trips back down the old haunted memory lane, but I did anyways.  We’d gone out for supper and then headed back to her house, I remembered.  I didn’t want to recall any more, but I couldn’t help it, I missed her too much, I needed her there, and she couldn’t comply.  I’d had, well I guess you could call them… plans, for that evening (I’ll leave the details to your imagination), but they were cut short when we found her parents home and awake upstairs.  Instead we just talked.  I loved her voice, the way she rolled her r’s and the way her small body could project such an amazing voice.  So I didn’t mind all that much that we could just talk.

We talked for several hours, well into the night.  Her parents eventually went to bed, but I didn’t notice, and by the time we were finished talking, we were both tired beyond belief.  She began nodding off, so I walked her up to her room and tucked her into her bed.  I considered helping her undress, but decided it wouldn’t seem right.   She rustled around in her bed for a while, but I knew I couldn’t stay around all night, so I went back to the hotel room I’d rented.

I couldn’t fall to sleep though; her face was already burned into my mind, keeping any hope of restful sleep a distant wish.  I worked out for three hours, but instead of tiring me out, it invigorated me.  I decided to run, rushing to the out-skirts of the city and then running around its circumference.  By the time I was finished, it was near noon.  I went back to the hotel and took a shower, changed and then headed back to her house.  When I arrived, I didn’t want to talk to her parents, so I went over to her window and jumped up to the sill, then lifted the frame easily and stepped in, closing it behind me afterwards.

            She was still sound asleep, her body twisted at an irregular position, her face pressed down against the pillow, but her torso facing upwards, while her legs were off to the side.  I just shrugged, went to her closet and pulled out a chair.  I dragged across her carpet, settled the chair at the foot of her bed and plopped myself down.

            I heard her parents pacing around downstairs and outside her room.  I just sat patiently (even tried meditating) waiting for her to awake.  Soon she began moving around, rolling onto her back, her slim body perfectly aligned.  I could feel her breathing becoming less and less constant, and I knew she was waking up.  Suddenly though she surprised me by saying “Hi.”

            I barely managed to stammer out a “H…hi.”  In reply.  I saw her chest rise slowly and then fall, before she sat up and stared at me.  I was more than content to stare right back at her, gazing into her eyes, and for the first time in a long while, I was truly at peace.  She smiled at me and I smiled back weakly, but the whole time I couldn’t think of anything other than how beautiful she was.

Finally her mom of all people broke the silence yelling from the main floor “Honey, are you awake?”

            We both jumped slightly as Seana turned to the door and yelled back “Uh, yeah mom.”

            Her mom shouted back “Ok, come down soon, breakfast is ready.”

            We both turned our attention back to each other, before I nodded and she nodded back.  I got up from my seat, grabbed the chair and pulled it back to its place in the closet.  As soon as I turned around I was greeted with a long and deep kiss.  I wasn’t really ready for it, so I didn’t kiss back, but I did manage to wrap my arms around her waist as she did the same to my neck.

            She finally pulled back, and then she bent her neck and rested her head against mine.  I whispered into her ear something meant only for her ears.  She just closed her eyes and squeezed my neck slightly, as I pulled her even closer.  We hung in each others arms for a few seconds before she said “I better get downstairs before my mom comes up here.”

            She brought her head back, but before she could leave, I kissed her again, and this time we both expected it.  Once we were done, she slipped out of my grasp and went to her dresser, brushing her hair.  I walked over to the window and slid it open.  She didn’t turn to me but asked in a patronizing voice “Did you come in here?”

            I didn’t know what to say, so I answered like a small child caught eating the cookies before supper “Yeah.”  I hung my head.

            She smiled, and just nodded towards me.  I slipped out the window onto the sill and pushed the window back down before I dropped down to the ground and walked off towards my hotel room.

            That was a year ago, and I’d changed so much since then, but one thing hadn’t changed, my love for Seana.  I’d had trouble putting my finger on the feeling, but eventually it hit me, the night I decided I needed to settle my dispute with Triono, and I saw Seana for the last time.

            I fell back into my bed, in my room, on Sky Tower.  It’d only been two weeks training up there, where the air was so thin you had to be in amazing shape just to walk around, much less exercise all out the way we did.  Kami’s weighted clothes helped a lot too; the extra weight on the wrists, and especially the feet made it a lot harder to do anything, therefore increasing the gain.

            I was nowhere near anyone else though, and I had a feeling I wouldn’t be for a while.  I’d been working my butt off, but so was everyone else, and they were all really powerful.  I’d taken a scouter from Master Roshi and used it one time when everyone was listening to Kami.  Gideon was the most powerful human, near 22,000, and Karnai was at 28,000.  I knew mine was at most about 1,700 and the closest to me was Nikita, at 8,000, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

            Phoenix (who I’d clocked at 10,000 only) had taken me under his wing, and often we would spend hours in The Arena, sparring the afternoon away.  He was not ruthless like Triono had been, he taught me where my mistakes were and helped me fix them.  Whenever I couldn’t keep up with him, he would slow down to my level, often going at only a quarter of his full speed to allow me to attack him.  Karnai had also apprenticed me, often teaching me moves that he himself had only begun to master.

            Still I couldn’t help but think about Seana.  No matter how hard I worked, her face flashed across my eyes throughout the day, and there was no way I could be with her.  I groaned in rage in the darkness of my room.  I was supposed to be meditating, but it was my birthday, and I allotted myself a few minutes of rest.  I tried to purge the thought of her from my mind, but that was impossible, she was in too deep.

            I grew angry, at myself, at her, at Kami, at Krillin, at Triono, at the whole freakin universe.  I always learnt though that it was better to vent your anger then just talk about it, so I got up, headed out into the sunlight of the afternoon, and went to find Phoenix.