Chapter 4

Chichi

The Briefs household was as clean and modern as ever, exactly as you'd expect of the wealthiest family on Earth. For years Chichi had longed for a home like theirs – a life like theirs – but she'd finally conceded that it was never going to happen. She might have been a princess, but she was never going to live a life of luxury and ease like Bunny Briefs.

It had been almost two weeks since that ridiculous tournament and she still couldn't understand just what had driven Bulma to throw this party. It wasn't as if Bulma ever really needed an excuse to throw a party but wasn't her friend as sick of all this fighting as she was? Bulma had never been a fighter, unlike Chichi herself, and Chichi couldn't understand why Bulma included herself as much as she did in any fight that was going on. Nor why she let Vegeta leave constantly; he was as bad as Goku, and this party was just encouragement to the lot of them to keep on with their nonsense.

Chichi had only just gotten her husband to stop wasting his hours training and to act a bit more responsible: the last thing she needed was this.

Never mind that Chichi had seen the other universe's fighters at the previous tournament and couldn't imagine that any of them had any interest in coming here. The small saiyan aside – finally a saiyan who was polite and well spoken! – they'd been an odd lot. Chichi knew that Bulma's curiosity was insatiable, but to invite an assassin into your home? Or a giant rubber bear and his lava-spewing metal friend? Wasn't it bad enough that Bulma insisted on inviting Whis and Beerus back again and again? That was what had started all this recent mess. And Kami forbid the heiress had invited that awful Frost.

Despite her disapproval she felt for this whole affair, for once Chichi had actually managed to get all of her family here on time. She'd had to lie and tell her hyperactive husband that the party started hours before it actually had, but they'd made it on time for once. It always amazed her how he could appear just in time for a fight but be late to absolutely everything else.

She'd tried, really tried, to get him to wear some more appropriate clothes than his usual garish gi: she didn't want her family to look like a bunch of hooligans in front of all their friends. But of course, this was Goku - the most passively stubborn man she'd ever known; as such he was still wearing his training clothes, albeit clean ones. And, seeing Vegeta dressed similarly in his typical saiyan armour, she supposed she was truly fighting a losing battle on that front.

Chichi had just sat down in the shade of an umbrella, drink in hand, when the by-now familiar flash of light shot from the sky, hitting the ground in the large, clear space between the tables. It was larger than usual and faded to reveal another of those travelling cubes, Whis standing on top once more, Vados beside him.

It was a matter of moments before all of the passengers had stepped out onto the Capsule Corp. grounds and the cube vanished.

Chichi had somewhat expected the two enormous creatures, and the stoic-faced purple assassin. Frost fortunately wasn't there, but the small saiyan man, still in his usual blue clothing, was. Saiyans…

She looked appraisingly at a small red boar dressed in dark robes and glasses. He didn't look like a fighter at all.

What she hadn't expected was two more namekians, their faces as stern and unreadable as her own former house guest. Chichi might not admit it out loud but she had a little bit of a soft spot for the namekians. For all that Piccolo certainly wasn't typical for his species, he'd been a support during the years that Goku had been dead that she couldn't have done without. The other namekians were a kind and sympathetic people who didn't fight or antagonise, instead going out of their way to perform small acts of kindness for those around them. Altruistic was perhaps the best way to describe them. Out of all of the strange "friends" they'd made over the years, the namekians were the ones she liked the most.

Perhaps these two would be the same, despite having been caught up in the nonsense of the tournament?

But the most unexpected of all were the two small, spiky-haired women standing at the edge of the group. Despite the distance between them, Chichi could see the similarities to the small saiyan soldier: the eyes, the stature. Were those saiyan women?

They were tiny – genuinely tiny! And although one of them looked as arrogant as Vegeta, the other, the taller of the two, her hair in a ponytail atop her head, was practically hiding.

"Yo! Hit!" Goku was the first one to talk, typically at ease no matter the situation. The assassin – an assassin for crying out loud – looked in her husband's direction and nodded and apparently it was enough to set the group into motion.

Cabba moved to bow to Bulma before rushing to Vegeta, repeating his bow and talking respectfully to the uninterested Prince for a short moment before returning to the group. Following brief introductions by the small soldier, Mr Briefs wandered over to talk to the small, bespectacled boar and the two namekians moved quietly out of the way, content to observe for now.

The taller of the two saiyans cowered further, clearly uncomfortable at the prospect of socialising. But –

"Hey! Old dude!" The smaller saiyan woman had a rough voice and an equally coarse way of talking. What kind of woman spoke like that?

"Hey Caulifa!" Goku answered. Chichi wasn't impressed to see the smile on his face. Of course he'd be friends with that one, not the polite one. "How's it going?"

"When are you gonna teach me that Blue thing?" The miniscule woman snapped back, eyes narrowed.

Goku, scratching at the back of his head simply responded with "You haven't learnt it yet?"

The saiyan woman looked like she was about to snarl as her eye twitched. "What's that? Are you mocking me again?!"

Chichi watched as her husband chuckled. "Well, you learned so quick in the tournament... I guess I'm interested in how much you've learnt since." He waved his hands disarmingly in front of him at the sight of her angry face, "But you're not ready for Blue yet." As her eye began to twitch once more he grinned and added with an awkward chuckle, "Even if it won't take you long!"

Caulifla stalked up to him, jabbing him in the chest with a finger. "Don't belittle me." It was a growl.

"'Be-little'? I don't know what that means... But you are pretty small." He'd barely had time to laugh before the small woman must have punched him, turned and left, but it all happened too fast for Chichi to see. She was sure she was right though from the way her husband was rubbing at his jaw and the angry woman, her back now to them as she made her way back to her companion, repeatedly clenched and unclenched her fist. The timid woman was shooting Goku a hooded glare which didn't go unnoticed.

"Hey Kale!" Goku waved to the hunched woman whose eyes widened for an instant before she sharpened her glare and turned away, letting her friend steer her in the opposite direction.

Just why had Bulma thrown this party?

Why had she invited even more fighters into their lives?

Why?

Vegeta

The party was in full swing and Vegeta was stuck here whether he liked it or not. Not only had Bulma threatened to disable the gravity room if he didn't attend, but Bulla was being passed around like nobody's business and, though he'd never admit it to anyone, he wasn't going to let anyone – anyone – touch his daughter while he wasn't around.

And so, despite the noise and the people, the stupid music and the fact that he was missing out on training, Vegeta was here. He'd already had to endure Cabba. Perhaps there wasn't anything wrong with the young soldier but Vegeta simply wanted to be left alone. Kakarot at least understood that and usually left him to his solitude. It made the clown tolerable at least, but Cabba, despite being far more intelligent than the earthling saiyan, seemed utterly oblivious to the fact that his company and admiration was utterly unwanted.

Unfortunately the smaller man seemed utterly taken with Bulla, and she with him. So Vegeta had to stay nearby. He wasn't hovering – he was a prince and didn't do such things – but he wasn't going to leave his infant daughter alone with all these alien fighters from another universe.

He'd be keeping watch as long as his wife was excitedly questioning Magetta, the great pile of junk, about his people. Vegeta neither knew nor cared how the metal-man's species functioned but for his wife this was the opportunity of a lifetime. She seemed equally interested in Botamo and the way that he was impervious to damage. She'd been engrossed in conversation with them both for nearly half an hour now.

The namekian, as solitary as Vegeta himself, was holding up the wall on the opposite side of the party. He'd been subtly eyeing the other namekians but had not engaged them in conversation beyond polite greetings. Their culture was very similar to the namekians of this universe it seemed and the young Guardian seemed to enjoy their company and had drawn them into the party proper, but the caped man, silent and aloof as he was, had never fit amongst his own species anyway and didn't seem inclined to try with these new slugs.

Seated at the same table as the cooing young saiyan were the other saiyans at the party. There had been some kind of disagreement between Caulifla and the clown at the start of the party, something Vegeta himself understood only far too well, but whatever it was had seemingly blown over and now Kakarot was eating, surrounded by plates. The tall saiyan was utterly relaxed in these situations, when he remembered to turn up, at least. He seemed to be enjoying the company and was totally at ease stealing food off the plate of the tiny woman beside him who would elbow him and then proceed to steal his food in return.

Kale on the other hand seemed ready to curl in on herself and disappear, surrounded as she was by people. She certainly didn't have the confidence of her 'anesan', nor the bearing fitting of a true saiyan. She was the larger of the two women, though still considerably smaller than the saiyan women he remembered from his childhood, but she was making a concerted effort to take up as little space as possible.

Caulifla was the exact opposite: despite her diminutive size she had confidence and presence. Looking at her he would have thought it impossible for her to fight on par with either himself or Kakarot but, despite needing more training, she had enough raw power that she could match either of them in super saiyan one or two. Even though she looked as if she didn't have an ounce of muscle on her.

She also looked completely oblivious to the dagger-sharp looks Kakarot's harpy wife was sending her way. That was normal behaviour for the human woman: she had done the same with the android and that fool Satan's daughter. She was insecure and judgmental enough that she treated all new women with the same harsh disdain.

Vegeta knew that Caulifla had noticed though.

He'd seen the twitching of her eye when she'd first noticed the looks she was receiving, had seen as her protégé had put a gentle but restraining hand on her arm. Just the threat of an argument had the girl shrinking in on herself and Vegeta suspected it was only her nervous presence that had the fiery smaller woman acting so blasé, despite the continuing looks.

Kakarot was as oblivious as ever. Of course.

Vegeta wondered though, if the clown had even noticed how he'd instantly gravitated towards the other saiyans, almost the moment they'd arrived. If he was aware of how his face had split in a grin that was somehow more earnest and more excited than usual, as he spoke to the fierce woman.

Vegeta knew he was hardly a good example of interpersonal skills himself, but he'd never seen Kakarot act like that even once with a woman, not even his wife, in the years that he'd known him. The clown was relaxed and easy-going with everyone, but this was different. This was how he acted with his sons or Krillin or, Vegeta found himself realising, with Vegeta himself.

This was the side of Kakarot reserved for those he was closest with.

And, as Chichi continued shooting sharp looks at the rowdy group, Vegeta came to the conclusion that she wasn't on that list.

Thinking about it now, Kakarot and his wife had a more cordial relationship than Vegeta thought he himself could ever have with the Harpy, but their relationship seemed formal at best.

He'd questioned many times over the years just why Kakarot - the strongest warrior he'd ever known - would endure such treatment as he received from his wife, and each time he'd come up short. He never questioned it aloud, of course, and never would. Even if the question resurfaced each time he saw them together.

It hadn't really been a point of interest to him until after they fused while fighting Buu. That was an event that he tried not to think about, but he couldn't truly deny that it had happened and in those minutes... He didn't know how to describe it, even to himself. Vegito had been a person all his own, a being meant to last the rest of their mortal lives. It had been different to what the boys described when they spoke about the fusion, had had none of the sense of impermanence. Vegito had been neither Vegeta nor Kakarot but a new being comprised of everything that they were and had been.

Though he hadn't noticed at first, caught up in the search for the boys and the fight as he had been, he'd retained most of Vegito's memories – Kakarot's memories. And though they weren't his memories and he could always tell the difference, for a short while they had been Vegito's memories and he had been Vegito.

The short and simple of it was that he had plenty of memories of Kakarot's life with the human woman, had even more from the second fusion, and none of them gave Vegeta the sense of a happy marriage.

The two were practically strangers living under the same roof – when she allowed him to sleep under that roof at all. The clown was fond of her but there was no love lost between them. And Vegeta, as a more objective observer, could see very little love on her part either.

Still, to see him reacting so openly to these new saiyans... It threw that difference into stark relief, and Vegeta found himself intrigued.

Caulifla

She'd noticed those looks. Of course she had.

Just what was that woman's problem?

Her vision had barely cleared after the flash of light in which they'd arrived before the old human woman was looking at her as if she'd somehow mortally offended her. At first Caulifla had wondered if it was because their universes had been opponents in the tournament, but none of the others had reacted in any way similarly: Vegeta's blue haired mate had been friendly and welcoming; the black haired woman with Gohan, too, for all that she'd been a little more reserved. Caulifla thought her name had been given as Videl.

There were a number of others whom she hadn't seen at the tournament and none of them had treated her, or any of them, with anything less than respect, though some were clearly a little wary or nervous.

Well, except for Goku who seemed to treat everyone like a friend, and Vegeta who acted like he thought they were all beneath him.

But not that one.

Chichi, blue haired Bulma had introduced her as, but Caulifla couldn't place her within the group. It was clear from their scents that Bulma and Vegeta were partners and that the little purple haired pre-teen was their son, the baby he held their daughter. The slender woman, Videl, and Gohan were clearly also an item It was the little black haired pre-teen that threw her. He could have been Goku's clone and was unquestionably his son. He carried both his scent and the scent of the foul tempered woman who must have been his mother. But there was no trace, not even a hint, of Goku's scent on her, nor hers on him. They could have been strangers.

Frankly this universe's namekians carried more of the woman's scent than Goku did.

It wasn't really any of her business though, so she hadn't asked and had instead decided, after Kale's timely interruption, to simply ignore the miserable hag. That had definitely had quite the effect: the other woman's glares had gained in intensity throughout the party and it was only a matter of time until she exploded. In fact, Caulifla was surprised that she hadn't already.

Ignoring the woman further, Caulifla turned her attention to her surroundings.

The little of the planet that they'd seen, really just this enormous compound, was pretty and tranquil. They were clearly in the middle of a city and it didn't take a genius to see that the Briefs family – the human family that Vegeta was now a part of – was wealthy. Whether they had picked this area for its good weather was impossible to tell but the bright blue sky and small white clouds; this planet's single, small sun; they all made for a pleasant afternoon. If the planet was generally like this she could see why the two saiyans had made their home here.

Honestly, she'd been excited to receive the invitation to come here. Son Goku had been an opponent worth fighting. Most participants had been strong: some enough to provide a genuine challenge, but no one else, Jiren aside, had dominated the ring like Son Goku and his fellow Universe Seven saiyan. Even his son hadn't been able to match up to the two of them, nor had any of their other teammates.

It bothered her that these saiyans were just so much bigger than her, or saiyans of her universe. They weren't just taller: they were broader, more muscular, more aggressive and had such strong personalities. On Sadala people like her were politely viewed as oddities. The majority had left their savage natures behind and had become much calmer, much less bloodthirsty. They still liked fighting but it was different to how Caulifla felt about it.

Sitting at the table with the large man she thought that maybe, just maybe, she'd found a kindred spirit – someone else who fought for the sheer joy of it, for the thrill.

And now he was pinching food from her plate. Well, two could play at that game.

It was daft and childish but in no time she was holding back a smile, determined not to show just how much fun she was having.

She was glad she'd come.

A/N:Thank you again for reading, and for your reviews!

So, universe 6 has made it to universe 7 for Bulma's party, and so it begins.

What's next for our favourite saiyans?

I'll warn you now: I've got shed loads of this ready but I'm still missing linking scenes for some parts. That's why I keep asking for your input and why I appreciate it when you give it. But because of that I can't really promise you any kind of posting schedule…