A/N: Another short for the collection. Not much more to say other than that. It's about Krillin confronting 18 with the idea that he wants to join the police force and move to the city, and what that would mean for their family. Hope you like!


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Changes
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"You want to do what?!"

"Hear me out, babe." Krillin gingerly reached across to her side of the bed and rested his hand on 18's thigh, hoping against hope that she was in a reasonable mood. "Please?"

She wasn't.

"What's there to hear, Krillin?" 18 huffed, and turned away from him. She swung her legs out of their bed, resting her feet on the cool floorboards below, and did her best to ignore the feeling of Krillin's sad eyes boring into her soul from behind. "I don't think it's a good idea."

Krillin, never one to give up, stood and gently padded around the bed, much to 18's disdain. She hated it when he was kind and patient when she was trying to be annoyed at him. "Why not?" he asked, "seems to make a lot of sense to me."

"Oh," 18 moaned. "So I can see you've already put a lot of thought into this. It would have been nice if you could have consulted your wife before you went ahead and made plans that effect your entire family." She mumbled something under her breath before again turning her head away from Krillin and staring directly at the wall.

"Babe…" Krillin faltered, this was going much worse than he had expected. "I haven't made any plans. I promise you, if you really and truly think this is a bad idea, then it's over." Again he gave her thigh a reassuring squeeze before walking back to his side of the bed. "Forget I ever mentioned it."

A thick and uncomfortable silence hung between the pair for a painfully long few minutes. 18 stood up and opened the window, letting the cool ocean breeze into their bedroom. She hoped the salty air would help to clear her head. Eventually, she turned back to face her husband, and Krillin was surprised to see the torment on her face. "A police officer?" she asked, with a long sigh, and her hands on her hips. "Really?"

"Sure," Krillin patted the empty spot beside him, hoping to coax his wife back to his side. It worked, and 18 slid back into the warm bed. "Why not?"

"Why not?" 18 turned to look at her husband, totally baffled by his words. "Why not?!" she repeated, trying her best to keep her voice down, so as not to wake Marron, who was sleeping in the next room. "Because it's dangerous, Krillin! That's why not!"

Again, silence fell between them. While 18 brooded, Krillin tried desperately to come up with the correct words to say next. He had not expected this, of all things, to be the catalyst of his wife's concern.

"Like I said, I've been thinking about this a lot, recently. We both know we can't live here on the island forever. Marron is meant to start school next year, and how's that gonna work?" He paused for a moment to give 18 the opportunity to weigh in, but when she remained silent, he pushed on. "We need to be where ever we can give her the best future, and to do that, I'll need a job, a real job, not just the odd handyman gig or tournament win. I want to be able to provide for you both, to give you the life you deserve. Joining the Police Force really feels like the logical next step for me. I have the right skillset, and it would be a great way for me to be able to help the people of our community."

18 sighed, and pushed her hair back behind her ear as she thought. Why did she have to pick Krillin, the most giving, and noble man in the universe, as her husband? Why did he have to have an altruistic, non-selfish answer for every question she ever posed to him?

"Marron," she began, looking for any reason that might convince Krillin this was a bad idea, "She loves it here. The island is the only home she's ever known."

"I know, I get that," Krillin responded. "Kame Island has been my home too, for pretty much all of my life. It's certainly the only place that's ever felt like home, at the very least, and believe me, any decision we made to leave, would not be made lightly. But I'm thinking about her. This island is a great place to be a kid, but I lived here as a teenager and I can tell you, being out here in the middle of nowhere, no friends, nothing to do, no one to talk to, it was lonely. I don't want that for her, and I don't think you do either, right?"

"Right," 18 nodded, hoping that her reluctance to admit Krillin was right wasn't as evident in her voice as it felt in her chest. He was right, of course. This was a topic that 18 had been burying her head in the sand about for a long time. She knew, deep down, that Krillin was speaking the truth, that they couldn't stymie their child by keeping her locked up out here, in the middle of nowhere, forever. But the fact of the matter was, the world was a scary, dangerous place, and 18 was able to keep Marron safe from all the bad things the world had to offer when they were safely tucked away on this little pile of sand.

"I know the thought of her growing up is scary," Krillin wrapped an arm around 18's shoulders and pulled her in close against him as she spoke. "Believe me, I don't want her out of my sight for a second any more than you do. But, she needs to go to a real school, and have real friends. She needs to go to birthday parties, and sleepovers, and take ballet and pony riding lessons. She's growing up, babe. Imagine all the things she could grow up to be, if she's given the right opportunities now, while she's young. All the good she might add to the world."

Marron, just by way of her mere existence, added good to the world. She was perfection in blonde pigtails. But 18 understood where Krillin was coming from. This was the part of being a parent that 18 had not been prepared for – having to make decisions that you didn't like, that weren't in your best interest, for the good of your child. It never, ever, got any easier. "Mmm," she reluctantly agreed.

"Plus," Krillin leaned in and placed a soft kiss on his wife's cheek. "Think of all the things we could do while she was at school, if we didn't have to worry about Roshi and Oolong being around every corner." He waggled an eyebrow, "and all the places we could do those thing. The bedroom. With the door open," he kissed 18's cheek again. "The shower," he reached up and tilted her chin towards him. "The kitchen," his lips found 18's in a slow, lingering kiss.

18 was unable to stop herself from falling for Krillin's charms, and she kissed him back. The thought of not having to worry about someone spying on her through the lock every time she hopped in or out of the shower was enticing, she admitted. Feeling Krillin's hand slip down her shoulder, towards her waist, 18 reluctantly pulled away from him, breaking their kiss before she lost her train of thought all together. She wasn't done with this conversation yet. "Slow down, hot shot," she smiled, and smoothed back Krillin's unruly hair with her hand. "Can't you be an accountant or something? I don't know if I'm comfortable with the idea of you being a police officer…" she trailed off. Even after five years of marriage, 18 still sometimes shied away from expressing her true emotions to Krillin. "If something happened to you," she forced the words over her lips, "I'd never recover."

"Babe…" Words failed Krillin at that moment. Sure, he knew that 18 loved him, but she was not the type of person too just come right out and say it like that. Krillin felt his heart swell, and tears prickle at the corners of his eyes. He had spent his whole life, from the time he was a small boy, wondering if anyone would ever truly love him, and now, to have someone who he loved and cared for so deeply, to have her reciprocate that feeling? Krillin knew he truly was the luckiest guy in the world.

"Babe," he tried again. "You know I would be okay. You every day, run of the mill bank-robber's got nothing on me," he elbowed 18 in the ribs in an effort to lighten the mood, but it didn't seem to work.

"All it would take is one stray bullet, Krillin. Or one badly timed car and it could be over. Don't you care about that? About what that would mean for Marron and me?"

"18," Krillin's voice took on a darker tone at the suggestion that he might not be thinking about his family. 18 noticed the change and turned to face him. For the first time since this conversation started, she really paid attention to her husband's face, and she could see how seriously he was taking this. "I could get shot walking home from being an accountant too. Or hit by a car. Being a cop wouldn't change that. But y'know, I really think I could make a difference to people lives, like I've always wanted to, and we both know I can't do math, I'd be a rubbish accountant."

"You already make a difference to people's lives."

"Whose?" Krillin asked.

"Mine. And Marron's. You make our lives better every day."

Krillin felt the love swelling up and overfilling his heart, and again, he wondered how the hell he ever managed to get this lucky.

"Plus," 18 continued, "You've already helped so many people. You've saved the world so many times."

"That's not true," Krillin's shoulders slumped and he sighed. "Sure, I've been in the nearby vicinity while Goku and Gohan and Vegeta saved the world, but we both know I've never truly made a difference when it comes to those apocalyptic bad guys. I've mostly just gotten in the way, really,"

18 furrowed her brow, displeased with what she was hearing. She really hated it when Krillin spoke badly of himself like that. "Nonsense," she laced her fingers with Krillin's and smiled at him. "Don't be ridiculous."

"I'm not though," Krillin perked up again. "And I'm not even saying that in a bad way, really. I'm not a Sayian and I never will be. My opportunity to be anything other than moral support in world-ending fights passed by long ago, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It is what it is and I've made my peace with that. What I am saying though, is that I'm still a hell of a lot stronger than all the run-of-the-mill thugs roaming the streets and I really could make a difference there."

"You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

"I am," Krillin replied with a nod. "I know it would be a huge change for us all though. And I really meant it when I said that if you're not okay with it, the entire idea dies in this room, right now. You, and Marron, you're the only things in this entire world that matter to me, and I'll spend every day for the rest of my life doing every single thing I can to make you happy."

Silently, 18 rested her head on Krillin's shoulder. She closed her eyes, and enjoyed the feeling of her husband idly running his finger up and down her bicep. "You could always follow in Gohan's footsteps and become a masked superhero." She eventually said, as a wide grin spread across her face.

The boisterous laughter that exploded from Krillin at that suggestion was almost enough to wake everyone else in the house. "Are you kidding me?" Tears streamed down his cheeks. With the mood suddenly 10 times lighter, Krillin wrapped his arms around 18 and pulled them both down the bed, until her head was resting on the pillow and he was propped up on his elbows beside her. "Have you seen how ridiculous he looks in that 'costume' of his? I want you to be proud of me babe, not mortified by my very existence!"

"I'm always proud of you." 18 smiled. She reached up and snaked her arm around Krillin's neck, pulling him down for a long, passionate kiss. "Okay," she whispered against his lips as they parted

"Okay?" Krillin's eyes sparkled with hope.

"Okay," 18 nodded, and kissed Krillin's forehead. "You'll make an excellent Police Officer, there's no doubt about that."

"Babe…" Unsure how to complete that sentence, Krillin instead opted to lean back in for another kiss. 18 didn't object and wrapped both her arms around his neck, keeping him close. "I love you, and I promise you, only good things are going to happen for us from here on out."

"Just promise me one thing, officer" 18 reached over and flicked off the lamp on her bedside table, plunging the room into almost total darkness. She found his mouth again in the dark and pried his lips open with her tongue. There was no question where this night was headed.

"What's that?" Krillin's hand slipped below 18's pyjama shorts.

"You'll remember to bring home your handcuffs."


A/N: If you liked this (or if you didn't) come follow me on my Tumblr (link in my bio) where we can chat DBZ, K/18 and life in general all day, and you can submit your own prompts to me.

As always, if you enjoyed this addition to the collection (or again, if you didn't) reviews are always warmly welcomed and much appreciated.

Big Love
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