If there was one thing that Rebecca did not expect was two men in black suits and dark sunglasses showing up on her front door. It had been a few days since Jonathan had killed Sam with his Kamehameha wave, and she was still trying to figure out how to explain it as far as legality goes. The fact that he was dead was one thing that people would have believed, but without a body, it would be harder. "Can I help you?" she asked.
"Ma'am, you're going to have to come with us." That was it. He offered no explanation, just stood there, tall and stoic.
"Who the heck are you guys?" she asked. It was a fair enough question.
The man reached into his pocket and retrieved a black wallet which he flipped open to reveal a badge of some kind. "United States Secret Servicemen. We've been sent to bring you into protective custody."
"What? Why?"
"We just have some questions for you regarding the Golden Warrior."
"Who?"
"Ma'am, please don't try to act dumb. We know that you've interacted with him."
"You mean Jonathan?"
"You know his identity?" The man was surprised to hear this. "Ma'am, you have to come with me now." The man grabbed Rebecca's arm, somewhat forcefully, and began to pull her towards the car.
"What? No!" Rebecca started to dig her feet into the dirt ground as she struggled against the man's grip. "Why are you taking me?!"
"Ma'am, if you don't come now, he might find us." The man's face didn't change, remaining as stoic as ever as he pulled her to his partner at the car. "We know he has a connection to you, and he's already killed your stepfather. We need to get you someplace he won't find you."
"What do you think that he'll just give up if you take me someplace away from here? He'll find me."
"We can protect you from him."
"I don't need protecting from him, he's the one who protects me! He killed my stepfather because he was about to rape me!"
"Ma'am please, if you don't come with me willingly, I will have no choice but to take you by force."
"Trust me, that is the last thing you want to do. You remember how I said he'd find me? He doesn't have to see me. He just has to sense me."
Rebecca heard the slight hiss denoting the use of Instant Transmission before she saw Jonathan appear behind the Secret Serviceman. "Sup?" The man barely had time to turn before he was sent flying from the shin he took to the face. His fellow serviceman tried to draw his side arm on Jonathan, but didn't get the chance to before Jonathan teleported behind him to knock him out with a blow to the back of the head.
"How quickly can you pack the things you absolutely can't live without?" That was all Jonathan asked. No "Hello", no "Are you alright". One look into Jonathan's eyes and she could see how serious he was. She was leaving this place. It was the only thing that was going to work now.
"About five minutes. Maybe ten."
"Do it. Quickly." Jonathan walked forward and placed his hand on the small of her back as he ushered her into the house, following her up into her room. Jonathan took a quick look around at the room, noticing that she still had a few stuffed animals on a shelf, and that the wall was a faded pink, probably from when she was a little girl. She had a couple small bookshelves that were half full, but the books were pretty decent sized. A laptop was sitting plugged into the wall atop a desk, but Rebecca grabbed it with its charger and put it in a backpack along with one of the stuffed animals and a few of the books from the shelf.
Reaching under her bed, she pulled out an empty suitcase that she opened to start throwing clothes in. In just under eight minutes, Rebecca had finished packing and zipped up the suitcase. "Done," she declared, turning to look at Jonathan, who reached out and pulled her close. Making sure she had her bag and her suitcase, he pressed his two fingers to his forehead again and teleported out of the house.
When Rebecca looked around, she found herself in a nice, but still kind of old house. It had hardwood floors, cream walls, hand made furniture. The domed ceiling and rounded walls made her kind of feel like she was in a bubble of some sort. "Where are we?"
"My home. This is the house I inherited from my Grandpa Goku on Mount Poazu. It's got all the amenities of your typical home. Bathroom. Kitchen. Cable. Untraceable high speed wifi."
"Wait, what?"
"Yeah. That's why I brought you here. They found you at your house, but they won't find you here. Even if, by some remote chance they do, they'll have to deal with me." Jonathan released Rebecca and took the suitcase from her hand, taking her up the stairs to her room. It was mostly bare, but it was a bit larger than her old room. It had a couple of bookshelves for her to stack her things on, a desk, and a bed, so it wasn't very different from her preferred setup.
Setting her suitcase on the bed, she began to set her clothes in the dresser next to the wall. Her stuffed bear was set on the pillow, and her back pack remained at the floor. Looking around the room, the reality of what had happened in the past hour finally hit her, and she sank onto the bed. "Why?" was all she managed to whisper. Jonathan sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"Because they were trying to get to me through you. I don't know how, but they figured out that you and I have some kind of relationship and they wanted to use you as some kind of bargaining tool to bring me in."
"But why? What's going on?"
"Because they fear me. They fear my power because of what I did to Kronos, and they fear I might do it to them because of what I did to your stepfather." His words were kind and quiet, not accusatory or vindictive.
"But you wouldn't!"
"You know that, and I know that, but they don't. That's the problem. For now, we're just going to lay low, alright. Give this some time to blow over."
"For how long?"
"I don't know. Given the situation, the government wants me, but they don't know how to find me, and now that they can't get you, they'll have to try something else. My money is on a presidential press conference in the next week that will invite me to explain my side of things."
"So they're all just afraid?"
"Pretty much. Think about it, Becks. When Kronos showed up, the combined might of earth's military couldn't do anything to him, but I killed him. That kind of power is something many governments would want in their employ, so the US is going to either try to bring me in under their control, or kill me."
Rebecca could only gulp in reaction to that news.
"It's ok, though, Becks," Jonathan continued. "You've got to remember who you're talking to." He pulled her closer against him. "I'm not that easy to get rid of. Kronos is testament to that."
"You have a point," she admitted with a nod and a grin.
"Anyway, enough of the doom and gloom." Jonathan spread his free arm out. "Welcome to my place."
"Thanks. It's really nice."
"You like it? Good. I inherited it from my Grandpa Goku. When he and Grandma Chi-Chi got married, her father the Ox King added more to the house that Goku grew up in with his Grandpa Gohan. About fifty miles or so away is my Grandpa Ox King's land that, technically, I own too."
"This is all yours?" Rebecca was surprised that he would own that much real estate.
"Yeah. It's how I stay off of people's radar. It's secluded, nobody comes near enough to the property for it to matter, and the only way to the area is by boat or plane as land travel is pretty difficult, which is perfect for me. I can fly, use my grandfather's Nimbus Cloud, or use Instant Transmission."
"Nice. You're pretty much all set, then. And this has been in your family for a long time?"
"Oh yeah. Grandpa Ox was my Grandpa Goku's father-in-law."
Rebecca stood and walked over to the window to look out into the mountain range. "It's beautiful up here. I like it."
"Good, I'm glad. I like it too." Jonathan stood and put a hand behind his head, similar to how his grandfather used to. "But... I think it's an even better view with you here."
Rebecca couldn't find any words to respond to what he said, causing her to simply blush and smile shyly, praying silently that he wouldn't see that.
"Come on, let's go... hang on. What is it?" Jonathan turned his back to Rebecca for a minute and seemingly began to talk to thin air. But what she couldn't see or hear was the other side of the conversation.
"Jonathan," King Kai transmitted to Jonathan's mind, "your grandmother wishes for me to inform you that you and Rebecca are invited to my planet for dinner."
"Come on, King Kai, with all she's been through?"
"I brought that up to her, but she's insistent."
"Well then just tell Grandma Chi-Chi..."
"Jonathan, let me put it to you this way. She is currently standing behind me with one of her frying pans and is going to have me teleport her to earth to whack you upside the head with it, and if I refuse, I will be the one who gets whacked."
"Ok, fine, I'll ask." Jonathan turned back to Rebecca. "Would you be interested in joining my so many greats back grandparents and my sort of aunt and uncle for dinner this evening? Bear in mind that two of them are the original Super Saiyans, so the evening will more than likely involve sparring, foul language, and bad table manners, but lots of delicious food."
"Um... alright then." Rebecca was slightly lost as to how the whole thing went, but dinner did sound pretty good.
"Alright, King Kai, tell my grandma we'll be there."
"Ok. Thank you."
"Now, who's King Kai again?" Rebecca asked.
"Eh, basically, he's an alien who was at one point worshiped as a god and trained my grandpa for a while."
"Oh. Ok then."
Jonathan pulled her close to him again and pressed his first and middle finger to his brow once more, and with a hiss, they disappeared, only to reappear on the world of the North King Kai. "Woah, that's a trip," Rebecca muttered, referring to the experience of Instant Transmission.
"Don't worry. You'll get used to it." Placing his hand on the small of her back, Jonathan lead Rebecca towards the two small houses that were less than a stone's throw away. Before they could reach the open doorway of the one on the left, though, Jonathan froze and tensed. Shoving Rebecca forward, he leapt in the air, transforming into a Super Saiyan as he did so. Bringing his leg up into a backwards kick, he intercepted the extended fist of the now Super Saiyan Vegeta.
"Darn you, spawn of Kakkarot," the Saiyan Prince growled. "I was on the other side of the continent when Kakkarot threw me so I could avoid using any energy for you to detect me until the last second, so how did you know I was coming?!"
"Easy. I could sense Grandpa Goku powering up. I couldn't figure it out at first, but then I thought about it from your perspective. No devices that let you fly without energy around, so next best thing, you get thrown at high speeds." Both Saiyans dropped to the ground, powering down from their transformations.
Rebecca got up off the ground where she had landed when Jonathan shoved her to get a better look at Vegeta. She had heard Jonathan talk about him, but had never gotten the chance to meet him. He stood about five and a half feet tall, unless Rebecca counted his hair, which was stuck straight up and behind him, almost as though he had once stuck his finger in an electrical socket. What made that unique about him was that his hair barely changed between his base and Super Saiyan forms. Brushing the dust off of the front of her clothes, she stood next to Jonathan with her arms folded. "Aren't you going to introduce me?" she asked.
"Oh, yeah, sorry. Vegeta, this is Rebecca, the girl we talked about."
"Ah, yes, I remember. It's very good to meet you." The elder Saiyan extended a hand out to Rebecca, who shook it as firmly as she could, but her hand seemed week and feeble in the hand of the warrior. "My apologies for you being shoved into the dirt. Had I known Jonathan was bringing you here, Kakkarot and I wouldn't have tried this like we did. Jonathan sensed what we were up to and pushed you out of the way so you wouldn't be harmed."
"That makes sense, I suppose." With a hiss, another Saiyan, this one much taller than Vegeta at about six feet tall and hair that seemed to defy the laws of physics, appeared with Instant Transmission.
"So did it work, Vegeta?" he asked expectantly.
"No, Kakkarot, it didn't. He sensed you powering up and put together our plan fairly quickly."
"Oh, bummer." The taller Saiyan scratched the back of his head with closed eyes and a smile. "I thought for sure we had you there, Jonathan."
"If you can figure out how to throw Vegeta far enough without using any energy, you might. Rebecca, this is my Grandpa Goku. Grandpa, this is Rebecca."
"Oh, so this is the girl that you're in love with?
"As a matter of fact, it is," Jonathan said with pride in his voice.
"Oh there you all are," they heard a woman's voice come from the house. They all turned to see a raven haired woman of about thirty-five standing in the doorway, wiping her hands on the apron she wore over her floral pattern kimono style robe. "Dinner is ready. Oh, is this Rebecca?"
"Yeah. Grandma Chi-Chi, this is Rebecca. Becks, this is my Grandma Chi-Chi."
"It's very nice to meet you," Rebecca said, shaking the older woman's hand, and she meant it. From what Jonathan said, Chi-Chi was a very nice woman, and very important to him.
"Likewise. Jonathan's told me a lot about you."
"All good, I hope."
"I'm not sure he can think of anything bad to say about you. Come on in while the food's still hot." With that, the five of them went inside to sit at the long table that was piled high with food of all kind, and Rebecca was pleasantly surprised to meet Bulma, the wife of Vegeta. The three Saiyans looked at the food with lust in their eyes and saliva dripping from their mouths. Finally, with a look from Chi-Chi, the three of them dove into what was in front of them, not even bothering to use utensils, preferring to simply shovel it in their mouths with their hands until they were full before they bothered even chewing.
Bulma and Chi-Chi calmly ate what was on their plates, chatting about this and that, while Rebecca could only watch in horror at the spectacle before her. "Does this happen all the time?" she asked the older women, afraid of what the answer would be.
"Unfortunately, yes," Chi-Chi said. "Bulma and I got used to it pretty quickly, though. Besides, I like cooking, so I never really minded. Goku always did love food. In fact, when we were kids, he thought that a bride and marriage was something to eat." All three tried to suppress the giggles that erupted at the thought.
"Jonathan is the same way, though," Chi-Chi continued. "Saiyans have to regain their energy through the calories in food, that's why they can and do eat so much. But since he lived among normal people his whole life, he learned to keep his appetite under control. If you're worrying about cooking on this scale, don't."
"Why would I worry about cooking for him?" Rebecca asked the question as innocently as she could, but she couldn't stop the blush that grew warmly on her cheeks. She knew full well what Chi-Chi was talking about, though she didn't want to admit it. Jonathan's grandmother seemed to pick up on this, and didn't press the matter any further, opting to instead sip her tea.
"So you're living with him now?"
"Yeah. Apparently people think that Jonathan is a threat. I can't believe anybody would think that."
"Well look at it from their perspective. He has the power to destroy entire worlds, and they don't have a way to stop him. Their fear isn't entirely unfounded."
"I guess. Still, if they knew him the way I know him, they wouldn't think that way."
"The way you know him?" Bulma asked with a cheeky grin. Rebecca blushed again.
"No, it's not like that."
"Yes, well, his eyes say differently, don't they?"
"Seriously, it's not like that, Aunt Bulma," Jonathan said, his mouth still full of food.
"Thank you, as disgusting as that sight was." Rebecca couldn't help but shudder as she turned back to look at her plate, still untouched from the time she sat down in front of it. As hungry as her stomach said it was, she just couldn't bring herself to eat with the image of Jonathan and his family scarfing down whatever was in front of them in her mind.
Finally, when the feeding frenzy was over, all six of them moved to the average sized living room to sit on the various couches and chairs for coffee and cake. Jonathan sat on the right side of one of the couches, and Rebecca immediately sat next to him and slid close enough to lay her head down on his shoulder. While Jonathan certainly hadn't expected this public display of affection, especially given their company and what had happened earlier, he welcomed it, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. Since Bulma sat in a chair, and Goku and Chi-Chi had taken the love seat across from the couch, Vegeta sat on the opposite end of the couch from Jonathan, the end closest to his wife. Almost as if for revenge for earlier, Rebecca shifted her position so that instead of laying on Jonathan's shoulder, her head was on his lap and her feet were on Vegeta's.
Jonathan was scared Vegeta was going to explode into a rant about the pride of a Saiyan Prince, but he calmly looked at Rebecca's feet, and then to Jonathan, and gave him a look that said, "Just this once, boy. Just this once." Jonathan let out a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding when he looked down at Rebecca's smiling face. She knew it was bugging Vegeta, but for whatever reason, he wasn't reacting. She was ok with that.
Soon enough, despite the chatter, the weight of all that had transpired in the day finally caught up with Rebecca, and she found herself unable to keep her eyes open, ultimately falling asleep on the couch, Jonathan's legs as her pillow. Jonathan began to gently, absentmindedly, stroke Rebecca's hair, content with her position. Eventually, Vegeta excused himself under the pretense that he himself was getting somewhat tired and wanted to go to bed. Bulma followed soon after, leaving Jonathan to chat alone with his grandparents.
"So are you two just going to stay here tonight?" Chi-Chi asked.
"Probably. Unless she wakes up and wants to go home, then I'll take her."
"Alright. You're room is still ready upstairs all the same. Just in case."
"Thanks, Grandma." With that, Chi-Chi and Goku both went to bed themselves. Jonathan continued to stroke Rebecca's hair, enjoying how silky and smooth the strands felt under his fingers. About an hour later, Rebecca's eyes slowly opened, looking up into Jonathan's.
"How long was I out?" she asked.
"About an hour and a half. We can stay here for the night if you want, or we can go back to my place."
"I'm actually pretty comfortable right here." For emphasis, she squirmed a little bit, settling into a better position.
"You look pretty comfortable," Jonathan replied. He honestly didn't mind Rebecca laying on him like that. If she was comfortable, that was all that really mattered to him. "Marry me," he blurted out. Instantly, he regretted the decision to say that, but there was no turning back now.
Rebecca shifted up onto her knees next to Jonathan. "What did you say?" she asked in hushed tones.
"You heard me." Nowhere to go but forward, Jonathan thought. "I love you so much Rebecca, and you heard what Vegeta and Goku said earlier. No other girl in the world does or ever will make me feel the way you do. Just you. We may be young, but I don't have the hesitation that you might not be the right girl for me because I know you are. So, yeah, I want you to marry me. The only question is..."
Rebecca surged forward and pinned Jonathan to the arm of the couch, slamming her lips into his. They sat there for a while, their kiss full of passion, yet serene at the same time. It was deep but calm, full of all the love that the both of them felt towards each other. When they finally pulled apart, Rebecca's eyes were closed, but she had the most fulfilled look on her face. Jonathan, on the other hand, had a look on his face somewhere between excitement and confusion. "So... is that a yes?"
"Of course it's a yes," Rebecca practically squealed, kissing him again. This time, Jonathan started to really kiss back, shifting so that he and Rebecca were both laying on the couch, with her on top of him, her hands on his chest, his on her waist. They lost track of time as they laid there, just kissing each other, until they finally both went to sleep.
What neither of them knew, though, was that both Bulma and Chi-Chi had been watching them make out on the couch, barely containing their own squeals of joy. "Oh, Bulma isn't it so cute?" Chi-Chi whispered loudly.
"I know," Bulma replied, also in a whisper. When the two of them finally went to sleep, the two women quietly snuck out from their hiding place and carefully draped a blanket over the pair, silently slinking off to join their husbands in bed.