Finding Hope

Christmas Special: A Gift Just For you!

Trunks's pov

Christmas was a bit harder to deal with this year, Tsubaki had become extremely depressed as we were not going to visit everyone in the present timeline. We didn't have enough of the fuel for the time machine to go see them, Mom had been running low on places that we could find the minerals for it. She had been so excited to go see Gohan and Goku, she was even excited to go see my father, who she loves to bother all the time. It was also a bit harder this year because Ox King had passed away and both Chi-Chi and Tsubaki were still coping with his death, Mom and I had to be the shoulders for them to cry on. It took a while, but eventually Chi-Chi got better over time while Tsubaki only declined. And then, Mom broke the news that we couldn't go see them at all. Not for a while in fact, which completely broke Tsubaki's heart. Chi-Chi had done everything she could in order to comfort Tsubaki but it didn't work, even my comforting didn't help. So I had to figure out what I could do in order for her to cheer up, which was going to be a hard thing to do. Mai would often bring Oliver over to see if he could cheer her up, but not even that worked. At some point during one of the visits, Tsubaki got into a huge argument with Asher and she nearly beat the shit out of him. I had never seen her act like this towards anyone and it was beginning to worry me, her mental state was not ideal.After the fight had broken out, I had to lock Tsubaki in her room with me so that she wouldn't break down the door and go after him. After all of that, she wouldn't even get out of bed to eat my mother's famous Christmas pancakes, which she never turns down no matter how sad she is. "What can we do to get her out of bed? I can't even contact them because the communicator broke down and I can't repair it without the proper part." Mom sighed, running her fingers through her long hair.

"Is there a way we could find the part that you are missing?" Mai asked. She had been living with us for some time now.

"I suppose so," Mom started, "But the part was really hard to find the first time I built that communicator." She finished, looking down in her journal. She then scooted to notebook over, showing us what the part looked like. "Well, you may not know this.. But I have something that can help you guys." A voice spoke up, causing all of us to look to our left. Standing there in the entrance to the dining room was Asher, I had taken notice that he no longer had long hair. It was now cut nicely, which I guess Mai also noticed because she was slightly blushing.

"What are you doing here Asher?"

"I came to apologize to Tsubaki about our fight. And I wanted to check up on her." He explained.

"She won't get out of bed, so I don't think there will be a way for her to even say something to you. She's been like since this morning." I explained, "So what did you mean that you could help?" Mom asked, looking to him in curiosity. "Well, I know what part you need for the communicator. And I'm telling you that I can help fix it." He said, making my eyes go wide.

"You would help rebuild the communicator?" I asked, "Yes. Tsubaki might hate me right now, but I know that she is still reeling from Ox King's passing and not being able to see her Dad and Gohan." He explained, "I wanna help her feel better. It is Christmas after all." He shrugged with a large smile on his face, Chi-Chi stood up from her chair and walked over to him. We all thought that she would slap him due to some of the harsh things he had said to Tsubaki, but instead, she wrapped him a large hug and started to cry a bit.

"Miss Chi-Chi, what's the matter? Why are you crying?" He asked, looking nervous. She pulled back from him, smiling to him as she stepped back. "I'm just grateful that you do this for her, even when you two are not happy with one another."

"It's no problem. Tsubaki is my best friend." He smiled, then turned his attention to Mom. "Where do I start?"

~~

It's been a few hours since Mom and Asher got started on the communicator, during that time Chi-Chi had brought Tsubaki a bowl of her famous soup. This was the soup that Chi-Chi made when Tsubaki got sick years ago and suddenly got depressed because she couldn't do what she wanted. So she made that soup and fed it to her, which seemed to work in both making her feel better physically but in mood too. "I really hope she eats the soup." Chi-Chi sighed as we walked down the hallway, "I'm sure she will, Chi-Chi. She loves that soup. Moreover, she loves your food. It always seems to cheer her up." I smiled, patting her shoulder. We reached her room and stopped, taking a breath before knocking. "Come in." I was shocked to hear Tsubaki speak for the first time in four days, both of us walked in. Tsubaki was staring out of the window, watching as the snow fell. "Tsu, sweetheart, I made you some soup." Chi-Chi placed the bowl of soup on the small table beside Tsubaki, without saying a word, she looked over at the bowl. For a moment, she stood there like she was contemplating on eating it. My breath caught in my throat when she picked up the spoon, she lightly placed it in the soup and brought some up to her lips. For the first time in four days, she had finally eaten something. After taking a bit of the soup, Tsubaki started to cry. Most likely due to the fact that she had been through so much, "Oh sweetheart. I know you're sad that you can't see Gohan and Goku." Chi-Chi comforted her, lightly rubbing circles around her back. "It's not that.. I'm not sad about that."

"Then what are you sad about?"

"I miss Grandpa Ox." Chi-Chi sighed heavily, bringing Tsubaki into a hug. After an hour of crying and comforting, Tsubaki was now willing to leave the room in general. Mai came rushing over to us as we were walking down the hallway, she looked incredibly excited. "Mai, what's up?" Tsubaki asked, wondering why she was so happy. "Come on, we have a surprise for you!" She took Tsubaki's hand, pulling her along with her and led her into the lab. I smiled when I saw Vegeta, Gohan and Goku all on the screen talking to Asher and Mom.

"Tsu, I heard what happened about Grandpa." Tsubaki let out a gasp, tearing up as she saw Gohan standing there. "Gohan, Dad." For the first time in over two months, she smiled. And this smile was genuine, she looked genuinely happy. A bright smile made it's way onto all of our faces, as we watched Tsubaki talk with the three of them. My eyes wandered over to Asher, who was talking with Mai while Mom and Chi-Chi were also talking with Gohan, Dad and Goku. He caught me looking at him and smiled, "Thank you." I mouthed, "No problem." He smiled back. I then walked over to Chi-Chi, Tsu and Mom and started talking to the group on the screen.