Raditz watched Sloane toddle after Pan as the older child climbed onto the wood pile, chastised at a distance by Ellysse. His mate cradled their infant son, Rhuba, as she tried to balance a shopping bag on one hip while she yelled. Meave came out of the back door of the finished house, and immediately darted after her daughter, her red hair billowing behind her as she moved.
Radtiz chose to remove himself from the actual disciplining of the children, not only because he was in the process of dressing a deer, but also on the general grounds that discipline was not so much a punishment for the individual child but an argument between the adults.
Raditz thoroughly approved of a good hiding and twenty or so laps around the house, but the argument from his mate, his sister in law, his father's girlfriend, and Videl – amongst themselves, after they'd ganged up on him and quieted him into submission – would reach decibel levels he could no longer handle. So he stayed out of it.
Now that they all had their own rooms, and the girls had worked out a chore rotation, things were starting to settle down. Gohan had ploughed up a few miles for crops, and Bardock was researching animal husbandry now that Raditz had taken over Pan's training. There was no way that one tiny town could support five hungry Saiyajin, so they'd converted the surrounding property into a ranch and farm that would put a dent in the costs.
"You need help with that?" Goku asked his brother, materializing next to the long-haired Saiyajin just as Meave hauled a screaming Sloane off the wood pile.
"Nah," Raditz shook his head. "I'm almost done. Did you finish building the dressers?"
"Yeah, four big ones for all the couples, and one for Pan, plus three others. And we still have all the furniture from the old house." Goku crouched down next to his brother, idly watching the deer carcass being dressed. "Except most of that is in the nursery."
"I still say we should have put it on the bottom floor. It'll be a long walk for sis in the middle of the night, and all the kids are gonna have to share a room when they get bigger." Raditz said.
"You can smell Chi Chi already?" Goku looked surprised.
"Yeah, just barely. At least we got lucky – they wont all be pregnant at once." Goku laughed, and sobered quickly at the horrible thought. He shuddered violently to dispel the thought, but when he looked up, it was to the site of Chi Chi collapsing in the yard.
Goku left a residual image next to Raditz as he moved to his wife.
"Chi Chi! Wake up, Chi Chi, c'mon!" He shook her gently, and Chi Chi sat up clutching her head.
"Oh, god, that hurt," Chi Chi muttered, and looked up at Goku slowly. "Hey, Goku, will you help me inside?" She let her husband haul her to her feet and get her turned around, and looked at the enormous house now in front of her.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HOUSE?!?"
Videl peeled off her dirty jeans and dumped them in the dirty laundry pile as Gohan settled into their bed.
"I still cant decide if it's a good thing your mother's got her memories back or not." Videl sighed.
"I know." Gohan shuddered at the memory of his mother's fury. "I mean, as soon as she remembered making the decision to tear down the old house, and the whole year and a half we spent building this place, it wasn't so bad…" Gohan grimaced as his wife pulled her shirt and underwear off and stepped into her pajamas.
"Speak for yourself." Videl crawled into bed, and snuggled close to her husband. "Pan is doing really well, though. I'm surprised."
"All things considered? Yeah, she's just like every other girl her age, I guess. Not many kids running around destined to be the dark minions of the gods of death, though. She's not talking as much about that pink monster, even. That's a good sign."
"Maybe," Videl hedged, narrowing her eyes. "She's still making creepy comments. You know? Like last week, she told that old man in the street that he didn't need to be afraid of dark places, even though he'd die in one. She talks about our deaths in the present tense, not the past or future. She knows something more than we ever will, Gohan."
"I know," Gohan wrapped both arms around Videl, staring blankly at the ceiling.
The mark of two gods and a demon, plus the piece of bark around her neck…Gohan didn't even want to think about training his daughter. And the power of her sword alone…not to mention the prophecies about Sloane that had been made.
"And what about that king dude? I mean, I'm all for repopulating the earth and everything, but he seems so cold-hearted about it," Videl sneered from Gohan's chest, her own face half-buried in the masculine torso.
"Don't worry about that, hon. King Vegeta wouldn't admit to an emotional connection with anyone if he could help it. As it is, he doesn't know what the hell to do with either Vegeta or Jardin. Or Trunks, for that matter. Five bucks says he's panicked out of his mind. Not to mention Bulma."
Videl sniggered.
"Bulma, remembering everything within the past year!" Videl rolled away from her husband and into a full-out laughing fit. "And pregnant!" Videl laughed until she was out of breath, before rolling back to face her husband. "I feel a little sorry for her, though, you know? She fell in love with Vegeta twice, bore him a child each time, and has to remember holding him in her arms while he died?" Videl choked on her words for a moment. "I couldn't have lived through that, not even once, Gohan."
"I know," they both let his unspoken, unrecorded death pass between them like some kind of ghost in the silence.
Bardock looked up from the book he was reading as Meave came into their bedroom, looking tired.
"Sloane giving you trouble?" he asked, as she stripped down.
"Yeah," the red-headed woman sighed. "It wouldn't be nearly so bad if she didn't follow Pan around all the time."
"Its good for both of them," Bardock shrugged. "Sloane will learn better being taught from such a young age, and Pan will learn better by showing someone else how to do it."
"My three year old daughter knows how to throw a punch!" Meave snarled, standing at the foot of the bed and staring at the man sprawled over it.
"She'd be considered retarded if she were Saiyajin," Bardock marked his place in the book and set it down. "So when are you going to give me a daughter?" his smirk was wicked enough that Meave couldn't help but smile back.
"We should throw a party!" Ellysse set a piping hot cup of tea in front of her sister in law, trying to be cheerful. "To celebrate the house being finished, and you having your memories back! We could invite the Vegetas, it'll be great!"
"And Master Roshi, too!" Goku wrapped an arm around Chi Chi as she cradled the cup in her hands. "It's a great idea!"
"Yeah," Piccolo chimed in from the kitchen sink, "We'll call it the Screaming Harpy Festival, and have all the women compete for who has the shrillest voice."
"We could have our own tournament!" Goku looked excited, "And we can set up games for the kids and stuff! C'mon, Chi Chi, can we? Please? Pretty, pretty please, please please please please?"
Chi Chi looked around the room, her scowl lifting slightly as she let Piccolo's comment pass, and shrugged.
"I'll call Bulma in the morning."
"Guys, Chi Chi had this great idea!" Bulma came blustering into the kitchen, hanging up the cordless phone as she descended on the table of Saiyajin. "The Sons are throwing a party to celebrate the house being finished and our memories being wished back! We're going to have a cooking competition, and a tournament, and games for the kids!"
"Kill me now," Prince Vegeta stabbed a blameless potato on his plate. Bulma's face went from excited to scowling in an instant.
"You're coming." Vegeta snarled wordlessly at his plate. Bulma's smile switched back on like a light bulb. "We all are. It'll be next week."
Bulma practically skipped out of the kitchen, humming tunelessly to herself as she went.
"Do we get to choose between the cooking competition and the tournament, or do we have to participate in both?" Cabbage asked, her own fork paused halfway to her mouth.
"Both is a safe bet." Trunks drained the last of the contents of his cup, set it on his cleared plate with his fork, and took his dirty dishes to the sink. "Although mom might do better in the tournament than in the cooking thing."
"I HEARD THAT!" Bulma's voice echoed from the depths of the house, and her son flinched visibly.
AN: To celebrate finals week, I post. To apologize like hell for not updating in so long, I post four chapters in one go. Also, my wireless internet LIVES!!!!! Mwahaha. Again, many apologies.