:: Hey all! All the feedback on chapter 20 was great!! No one said a mean thing to me at all!! I’m very happy. I was contemplating saying something, but I won’t. I’ve been talking for this entire fic!! >.< I know you all just want to read the epilogue and get it over with, right! Ok!! So… here it is, the epilogue to ‘Who Says We’re Too Young to Love?’.

Cherry blossoms twirled in the air and fell softly to the ground. The graduating class of 2002 had just dispersed amongst their family and friends.

The graduation ceremony had ended just ten minutes ago. Although a portion was left behind, many had graduated.

The ceremony was held atop a hill.

Just a little way down the hill stood a massive tree with a thick trunk. Surrounding it were six graduates.

"Oh…" Chichi sighed as she wiped at her eye again.

"You’ve got to stop crying, Chichi!!" 18 said as she grinned, but she was crying too.

"We’re finally out of here!" Goku said as he hugged his girlfriend tightly. Chichi squealed in surprise and hugged him back.

Vegeta and Bulma were leant up against the tree.

Vegeta had his left arm wrapped around Bulma’s shoulders because his right arm was in a sling.

They smirked at each other and shrugged.

"I’m not that anxious to leave you know?" Bulma said as she rested her head on Vegeta’s chest.

"What? Why not?" Krillin asked as he pushed himself up from his spot on the ground.

Bulma grinned and laughed.

"We’ve had too many good memories." She said.

"And too many bad ones…" Vegeta said darkly.

"Oh, come on, Vegeta." Chichi said, "Don’t be so absolutely morbid! Everything’s good and great. You’re arm is miraculously almost completely healed, Yamucha is absolutely on his way to juvy and Rae is moving to live with her cousins in South City in less than two weeks. You’ve got Bulma, you two are in love. What more do you want?"

Vegeta rolled his eyes and glanced down at the pile of graduation gowns. After the final diploma had been handed out, the six of them had sprinted to the tree and had thrown off their violet gowns. They had tossed their hats on the way over.

He looked up at all his friends who were standing around, joking with each other.

‘Like we always do.’ He thought to himself.

He noticed how happy everyone looked.

They all stood around in their graduation outfits.

Juuhachi-gou in her pink capris, and light pink peasant top. Chichi in her short red dress. Then there was Goku in his Chinos and his white and green Tommy top. Krillin was sporting black pants and a light grey muscle-tee.

He himself was wearing khakis (that he was sure Kakarot had copied off of him) and a tight black Polo t-shirt.

None of his friends seemed bothered, annoyed, or worried.

He was relieved.

For three days after his hospital admittance the group had done nothing but visit him, mope over him, worry about him, and sending him cards and the like. He didn’t like seeing such a strong group break down just by the thought of losing one of their members. Just by the thought of losing him…

He noticed Bulma. She was beautiful as always.

In a light blue, sheer summer dress. Her hair was let down in a wavy style around her shoulders. Her makeup although light was, as always, perfect. And she was smiling and laughing.

Goku saw how Vegeta was looking at Bulma. He wondered some of the things his friend had thought about after he had taken that shot for her.

He shuddered visibly.

He could have lost either one of his best friends to some psychotic maniac.

And what if Yamucha had started picking off others, too?

‘If he had gotten Chichi, or Juuhachi, or Krillin? All of my friends… What would it have been like to lose them?’ he asked himself seriously. Usually, he never thought about the bad side of things, he was always positive. But now, it seemed like everything had gotten disturbed.

A solid slap on the back tore him from his thoughts.

He turned around and grinned at his brother. He was surprised to see Vegeta’s cousin on his arm, again. He had assumed they just casually liked each other, but now it looked like they were dating.

"Hey, guys!" Goku said as he punched his brother lightly.

"Hey! What’s up?" Radditz asked.

"Nothing," 18 and Bulma said in unison, then they started giggling.

Emi smiled.

"We saw how you guys took off after the ceremony! Boy, it looked like you couldn’t wait to get out of high school and start your new lives…" Emi said as she rolled her eyes "It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. College sucks, but I guess you get over it after awhile. This is my last year, you know? But… I guess it’s so hard for me because I’m not as smart as some of you guys. Like, take Bulma for example. Ms. Valedictorian! Whoo! Loved your speech, girl."

Bulma grinned at the compliment.

"Oh, she’s blushing!" Chichi said teasingly.

"All joking aside, it was pretty great. Really meaningful and inspiring, you know?" 18 said.

Bulma rolled her eyes, but her face was still red.

"Come on guys, it was just a speech." Bulma said.

"Ok, ok… be modest. Whatever floats your boat. Let’s talk about something else." Emi offered.

"What are you guys planning to do now?" Radditz asked.

"Well…" Chichi said as she grinned mischievously.

"Oh! I know that look! What do you have planned now, Ms. Mau!" Bulma said in a scolding tone.

"I didn’t want to say anything… but, I want us all to go on a Road trip! Or… like someplace for summer vaction, you know? I’ve got this great idea for a beach resort we could stay at! It’ll be so much fun… Come on, we should go! We might not see each other on a regular basis after high school." Chichi pleaded.

The group exchanged skeptical looks.

"A vacation… all six of us together… for weeks??" Krillin asked.

"Well! When you put it that way, it sounds like so much fun!" 18 said.

"Yeah! That’ll be so great!!" Bulma said as she started to get excited.

"Whoa, whoa… hold on one goddamn minute!" Vegeta said as he finally detached himself from the tree.

"A road trip?" he asked

"Or a beach vacation!" Chichi interjected, gaining a glared from him.

"Whatever… we couldn’t do that." He said.

"Why not… it’s not like we can’t afford it! And we never go places with each other." Bulma said as she gave him a pout. He rolled his eyes.

She approached him and whispered something in his ear, winking afterwards.

He glanced at her skeptically.

"All right, then." He said. "We can talk about this stupid ‘vacation’ thing."

"Wow… I wonder what you said to make him change his mind?" Chichi said as she looked at Bulma.

"Oh… I have my ways." She said as she giggled.

"Whatever. So, Vegeta and Bulma are for it. How about you, Goku?" Chichi asked.

"Well… I dunno how much I’d be anxious to go a trip, Chichi." He said.

"Oh come on! You can try different types of exotic foods!" she offered.

He grinned.

"Oh, I know that… just I don’t travel a whole lot." He said.

"Oh, what are you scared or something, sweetheart?" she asked him.

"No!" he said, blushing.

"Then you’ll go. End of argument." Chichi said as she smirked.

"How about you guys." She said, addressing 18 and Krillin.

"We’re in." 18 said, before Krillin could utter a word.

Emi giggled at this.

"Don’t you guys think you should ask your parents about this?" Radditz offered.

"Oh, Grandpa would say yes." Goku said without hesitation.

"Probably." Radditz agreed.

"And my mom already knows about the idea." Chichi said.

"My parents are kind of clingy. So… I’ll have to kind of butter them up a bit." Bulma said.

"Yeah, same here. You guys know how my mom is." Vegeta explained.

"And especially now after this" he said as he held up his injured arm, "I don’t think she’ll be too anxious to let me go."

"Hmm… I forget to mention how strange your wound was, Veggie-chan." Emi said as she walked up to him.

He glared at her.

"What?" he asked.

"Yeah, it healed really fast. In a little less than a week no one will even know you had a shot! How could you heal so fast?" Emi asked. (A/n: This is important… you’ll hear about it in the sequel!)

"I don’t know. It’s only sore now. But… I guess I just have good genes." He said.

"I don’t care what made you heal! I’m just glad that you did!" Bulma said as she kissed him softly gaining ‘awws’ from their audience.

Vegeta grumbled and stepped away from her.

"Don’t get so embarrassed! You two are in love! Who cares if you have PDA’s?" Emi asked with a giggle.

"It’s ok… as long as it doesn’t get really mushy." Goku said, with a disgusted face.

"Oh, I can assure you it won’t." Vegeta said.

Radditz frowned as he noticed someone out of the corner of his eye.

He was surprised to see the senior standing near the masses of people further down the hill.

He noticed that a man in a suit and sunglasses was standing very near to a nervous looking Yamucha.

Radditz could care a whole lot less about security measures taken against the creep, he only wondered what he was doing at the graduation.

Yamucha had been expelled after the incident but he had all his credits and was allowed to graduate just not with the class.

Radditz coughed to gain the group’s attention.

Bulma looked up and gasped in surprise. She dug her nails into Vegeta’s flesh but he didn’t notice. He was too angry.

He started to stride over to him when Bulma and 18 grabbed on to his shoulders and tried to restrain him.

"What the hell?" Vegeta asked, trying to shake off the two girls and realizing, with frustration, that he couldn’t unless he wanted to suffer pain from his injury.

"Get off." He said calmly.

"No! Don’t go over there and make a scene!" Bulma said in worry. She just couldn't get over the fact that her former boyfriend had tried to kill her and had ended up shooting Vegeta.

"I’ll go. You’re worried that I’ll get ‘hurt’ aren’t you? Well, it’s obvious that the little prick is unarmed, woman, if it makes you happy to hear that. I’m just going to have a… talk with him." Vegeta said.

"No! You want to fight with him!" 18 said as she glared at him.

Vegeta rolled his eyes and walked away.

Bulma turned around and glared at her friends as if they could have stopped him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Yamucha tensed as he watched Vegeta approach him.

The guard at his side glanced at Vegeta, then at the sling on his arm, and assumed that this was the kid his charge had shot.

"Hey, kid." The guard said looking down on Vegeta. "Don’t start any trouble. Get out of here."

"I think I’d rather not. And I’m not ‘starting trouble’. I just want to talk to… him." Vegeta explained.

"It won’t be a private session." The guard warned.

"It doesn’t need to be. I don’t have much to say to him anyway." Vegeta said as he sent Yamucha a harsh glare.

Yamucha gulped and backed up.

"I don’t think I want to talk to him!" he said as he glanced at Vegeta.

Vegeta smirked.

"Oh really? I think I at least deserve an apology." He said.

Yamucha raised an eyebrow.

"You’re not mad?" he asked.

"Of course I’m pissed as hell." Vegeta said as he looked down at his arm. "But, what I really wanted to know is what’s going to happen to you."

Yamucha sighed.

"Well… I don’t think I’m going to jail. My lawyer wants to plead temporary-insanity. But, I don’t know how that’s going to work out…" he explained.

"Oh… really. Well, I don’t care what happens to you. I wouldn’t care if you were in lock down for five years or if you got off scot-free. But, let me warn you about something: If you ever come near me or my woman ever again I will make it my purpose to hunt you down and" Vegeta said as he glanced at the guard "deal with you."

Yamucha started.

"Can he say that to me?? Isn't that a threat?" Yamucha asked nervously.

"Sounded like a promise to me." The guard said with a smirk.

Yamucha glared at the two of them.

"Well… I won’t be coming around either one of you. You aren’t worth my time." Yamucha said.

"Glad to hear that." Vegeta said as he turned to go but he reconsidered and turned back to Yamucha.

"You know, I think after I broke your hand that maybe you were trying to get back at me… but it seems like I’m healing up pretty quickly and you’ve still got a bandage on yours. And… the ‘kill off the people that hate me’ plan kind of back-fired on you didn’t?" Vegeta asked with a smirk.

Yamucha was angry now and huffing with the exertion of trying to calm himself.

"What do you mean by that?" Yamucha asked.

"Well… supposedly the whole situation at the prom made Bulma realize that she loves me. And now she never wants to leave my side. You tried to destroy us and you only brought us closer together. That must suck." Vegeta said innocently.

Yamucha stared at him, speechless and Vegeta just turned and walked away.

"You know, you were pretty dumb to mess with that guy." The guard said after Vegeta was out of earshot. "I mean, for a little guy he looks really strong. I wouldn’t have been that stupid. The chick must have been really worth it."

Yamucha, however, was barely paying attention to what the guard was saying.

He was looking at Bulma standing around with her friends and wondering why he had ever wanted to kill her.

She was so… Perfect.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Well… what happened?" the group asked anxiously.

Vegeta smirked.

"Nothing, nothing at all. I just had to give him a message." Vegeta said with a smirk.

Bulma looked at him and noticed how… content he was, and as long as he was cool she was happy.

"That smirk makes me nervous, Vegeta." Bulma said.

"Oh, I thought it was sexy." He said to her.

"It is," she said as she blushed "but now you look evil!"

"So, it’s sexy and evil?" Chichi asked.

"Oh, who cares!" 18 said "Can you all believe we’re finally out of school!! Whoo hoo!"

The three girls started jumping up and down.

"It isn’t that exciting!" Krillin said.

"Uh huh! It so is! You just can’t see the big picture, Krillin." Chichi said as she rubbed his baldhead.

"Maybe if we rub it enough it can show us the future?" Bulma asked as she started rubbing his head, also.

18 was cracking up and Krillin was trying to get away.

Radditz chuckled and glanced down at Emi.

She was smirking at the six teens and had a proud look on her face.

"What’s with you? You look like a mother who’s watching her kid start its first day of school." He said.

"I feel like that." She said as she laughed but he saw tears forming in her eyes.

"I’m so happy for them! They’ve lived and learned so much." She said.

"Well… that’s good, right?" he asked.

"Yeah… they’re all meant for each other. I know that nothing, not miles, or anything will break up this friendship."

Emi was the first to hear her aunt’s loud voice as she came strolling towards them with her husband, and Dr. and Mrs. Briefs behind her.

"Hi dearies!" Mrs. Briefs said as she waved around her disposable camera.

"We’d like pictures." Mrs. Ouji said as she held up hers.

The kids all rolled their eyes but assembled into a large group.

Chichi, Bulma and 18 sat down in the middle with Goku, Krillin, and Vegeta leaning down over them and Radditz and Emi behind them.

"Oh! How cute!" Mrs. Briefs said!

"Ok, is everyone ready?" Mrs. Ouji asked as she glanced back at Dr. Briefs and her husband who had set up tripods to take more professional pictures.

"Everyone say ‘CHEESE’!" Dr. Briefs said.

The boys smirked and each leaned down and caught their girls in a kiss.

Radditz smirked and grabbed Emi, placing his lips on hers just before the flash went off.

"Oh! How adorable!" Mrs. Briefs cooed.

"One more, one more!" she said as she held up the camera to her eye.

The boys had their arms around their girls and the group of eight beamed at the camera.

They looked at each other quickly and grinned widely.

Then the flash went off.

~*~*~*~END~*~*~*~

Hey! Did I finish it funny? I really didn’t know how else to do this… For an epilogue this is REALLY long! Epilogues really shouldn’t be more than like… 2 pages or less. And this is more than ten pages… but do you guys really care?? I didn’t think so…

I am doing an interlude, which basically means a short 6-10 chapter interval between this and the sequel. The interlude will be the ‘summer vacation’. That I will start writing maybe a couple months from now… (June-July-ish?) The sequel will definitely not come out before next year. I really want to take some time off which really isn’t possible since I have so many other fics to finish writing but… you know what I mean!

I want to say thanks to Pan-chan, Lindsey, and Amber for BETA-ing for me and always giving their honest opinion. I LOVE you guys. Also for you know… just supporting me always! ^-^

I want to thank everyone who has read and given me positive feedback. You guys mean the most to me and I really could not have finished this story w/o your persistence.

And to those who gave me not-so-nice feedback, I want to say thank you to you all too! I mean, it helped me become conscious of mistakes I constantly make.

So… thanks to everyone. And thanks a great deal to all who have hosted my stories! You are so important because you basically make my stories popular! So, here’s Princess Panchii signing off!

Make sure to always check back to see if I ever update.

-Princess-