Whew, chapter 5 is finally done! I wish I'd gotten it done sooner, but I've had a lot to keep me busy with graduation coming up…lol, there was never this much stress for the 8th graders in my old school. Anyways, this chapter didn't come out half badly. Chapter 6 might not be out for a week or so, since I have to write a fic for someone else and change my webpage layout…plus the inspiration fairy hasn't paid me a visit in a while, so I'm feeling a bit mentally drained for fic writing nowadays. I'm sure I'll get with it eventually, but until then I'll have to keep turning out crap…*sighs* BTW, read B-chan's new fic Dirty Dancing. It's the sequel to Claimed, and IMHO, it's even better than the first! I love that fic! *squeals with girlish delight*
"So dad, what happened?" Gohan asked as his father walked in through the door. "What was that power we felt?"
Goku smiled at his son and ruffled his hair a little. "Don't worry about it Gohan. It was just Vegeta showing off again."
"Oh. Um…ok." He didn't really believe his father, but he knew his dad must have a good reason for not telling the truth, so he didn't bring it up again.
" Mom's cooking the fish we caught for dinner. She's marinating it in that new Emeril sauce she got…it's gonna be really good!"
"Is she now? Well, that's just great! Why don't we go get washed up for dinner, and you tell your mother that I'm home. I know she hates it when I fly off like that."
"Kay!" Forgetting the earlier incident, he skipped merrily off to find his mother and tell her father was home.
Goku shook his head at his son and smiled. He was turning out to be a fine boy it was true. Even despite his mother's watchful eye Gohan would become a great fighter some day.
Yawning, he looked up at the wall clock. Even though it was still early, he was a bit tired. Bulma going super saiyan, Vegeta in a coma…way too much for his brain to handle before dinnertime. He decided that after he took a bath he would take a quick nap before dinner.
After his bath, he felt incredibly refreshed. No longer sleepy, he went into his room to get some clothes and saw his wife sitting on the bed. Her face flushed when she realized he was naked, but quickly recovered and turned to one of slight annoyance. She crossed her arms and watched him as he walked over to the closet and grabbed a gi to put on.
"Goku-saa, where were you all day? Gohan said you flew off to capsule corp for something, and then when you came back you said nothing happened! Not to mention you spiriting off Gohan to go fishing. What about his studies? He's behind in his work now! Honestly, what am I going to do with you to? I mean really, I-"
He leaned forward and pressed his lips against her forehead. She blushed at the action and looked up into his eyes. Oh, what was the use? It was impossible to stay mad at Goku for too long.
"Aw, come on Chi-Chi! Gohan will be fine if he misses a few days of work. It's not like he's stupid or anything, and normal children do just fine without studying 24/7.
"But I don't WANT Gohan to be a normal child. He's going to be the BEST child in the whole world."
Goku sighed. "If you say so Chi-Chi-chan. I suppose you know best."
"Of course I know best! I'm his mother! Now hurry and get dressed so we can eat dinner!"
With that she got up and marched out of the room. Goku rolled his eyes a little and smiled lovingly at the space his wife had just occupied. He adored Chi-Chi, he really did, but sometimes she was so difficult to talk to. Not that he was much better of course, but when people think about others they rarely take time to look at themselves. So he finished tying the belt to his Gi and sat down to dinner with his family.
*****************
It had been nearly a week since the Capsule Corp. Incident. Goku had advised his friends to stay away from the place for a while; there'd been an accident and Bulma was very busy cleaning up the mess.
This was in part true. Since the accident she'd been busy planting new trees in the lawn, replacing the fence, and working with her father to make a new Gravitron. He'd stopped by to check and see if there was anything he could do to help and see if Vegeta was OK, but she'd shooed him away claming to be busy. It was obvious she was worried about him; Goku could tell that by the harried expression she wore whenever someone mentioned his name.
He went back again on the following Saturday, and much to his surprise Vegeta was in the gravitron busily training. He knocked politely on the door, wanting to see if he would answer. When none came, Goku shrugged and simply teleported inside.
"GOD DAMN IT KAKKAROT, DON'T DO THAT! YOU SCARED ME HALF TO DEATH!" Vegeta balled up his fists and glared at his rival as Goku stared innocently at him.
"Aw gee, I'm sorry Vegeta! I didn't mean to, but you weren't answering the door so I just let myself in. Say, when did you wake up? Shouldn't you be resting?"
Vegeta turned and stomped toward the other side of the room. He leapt easily into the air and began a series of complicated flips and punches, one of his many training techniques. He glared at Goku out of the corner of his eye and snarled.
"You're just as bad as that woman, always bossing me around and telling me what to do. I'm fine damnit, and I don't need you or her to tell me to freakin rest. Now if all you came here to do was to bother me about that little incident a few days ago, well then I bid you adieu. Oh, and to answer your other question I woke up yesterday afternoon."
Goku blinked. "Oh."
There was a pause for a moment. Then Goku resumed his cheerful demeanor and rested a hand sheepishly behind his head.
"Oi, sorry Vegeta! I didn't mean to upset you. Say, why don't we go out for lunch today? We can bring both our families-"
Goku clamped a hand to his mouth and stared nervously at the prince. He hadn't meant to let that slip. If Vegeta found out Trunks' secret, who knew what would happen?
"What was that Kakkarot?" Vegeta asked frowning. He paused briefly and floated in mid-air, awaiting an answer.
"I er…I said I can invite my family, and you can ask Bulma! She must get tired cooking lunch everyday, and it'd be a nice chance for her and Chi-Chi to catch up on things! Come on, it'll be fun!"
Vegeta sighed. True, he was pretty hungry, and he'd do just about anything to avoid eating Bulma's cooking…even if he did have to put up with that hellcat Goku called a wife. Sighing with defeat he nodded. "Hai Kakkarot…I'll go."
"Yay! I'll go tell Chi-Chi-chan and you go ask Bulma! Let's meet at my house around say…noon?"
Vegeta waved his hand. "Whatever Kakkarot…it doesn't matter to me."
"K. Bye vegeta!"
Flashing the prince a peace sign, Goku phased out and disappeared.
"Oi…what have I gotten myself into…"
***********************
"A picnic? At Son-kun's house? Sure, I'd love to!" Bulma clapped her hands. "For once I don't have to cook!"
Thank God. Vegeta thought to himself.
"When do we leave?"
"Noon."
"Noon? That's in half an hour! I have to do my hair, my makeup, pick an outfit, take a shower, wash my hair…why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"Um, maybe because he just asked me ten minutes ago."
"Yeah well, hurry up and get ready. We've got to be out of this house in 20 minutes if we want to get there in time; Chi-Chi's very strict when it comes to being punctual."
"I'm going the way I am. What about you? You'll never get all that stuff done in 20 minutes."
"I have my ways." Bulma said mysteriously. And then she whirled around dramatically and floated out of them room.
Foolish woman, Vegeta thought. Why so much work for a picnic?
He waited patiently for her to return. About fifteen minutes later Bulma sauntered in decked out in a short black sundress, sandals, and a wide brimmed hat.
"Ready veggie-chan?" Bulma asked smiling.
Vegeta was shocked. "But how did you…how could you…"
Bulma put her finger to her lip. "Shhh. It's a secret."
When Vegeta didn't respond she walked over to the saiyan prince and laughing pulled him alongside her as they walked to her air car.
**************
"Yum!" Goku said licking his lips. "There's nothing better than your pineapple upside down cake Chi-Chi!"
"Thank you Son-kun." Chi-Chi said smiling. So what if she'd bought the cake from the grocery store? It was the thought that counts.
"Tastes like store bought to me." Vegeta muttered under his breath. Bulma slammed her heel onto his foot making him wince slightly. They might have started a fight right there and then if a look from Goku hadn't stopped them.
"Well Chi-Chi, I think this whole lunch has been excellent. It's great that we got together like this…we haven't spoken in ages!" Bulma said cheerfully.
"Hai Hai!" Chi-Chi said excitedly. "We've got a lot to catch up on! For example, the other day I was talking to Cherry from Ginger town and he told me this really funny story…"
"Oi, I think we've outworn our welcome Kakkarot." Vegeta said heaving himself up from the picnic table.
"Want to spar Vegeta?" Goku asked cheerfully.
Vegeta shrugged. "Why not? Not like there's anything better to do out here."
The two men started walking toward the large open field behind the Son house. Bulma waved to Vegeta and called after him. "Try not to get TOO badly hurt, K veggie-chan?"
He glared at her, which only bought giggles from the taunting woman. Snorting he turned and walked after Goku, who was already at the field.
"Ready Vegeta?"
"Hai."
Both took on a fighting stance. Goku rocked on his toes, a cat about to pounce. Vegeta remained still, eyeing Goku warily.
Suddenly they both leapt into action, meeting in midair and instantly going into a whirlwind of punches and kicks. To the untrained eye it would have looked like a dust storm in the middle of the woods; to anyone else it was the most incredible thing ever seen.
Vegeta twisted his torso slightly to the right to avoid a kick from Goku, and at the same raised his foot as if to kick him back. And then unexpectedly he swung out with a left punch, clocking Goku in the chin and sending him back a few inches. The prince took the opportunity to float back and catch a quick breath before Goku started up again.
Goku let out a snarl and ran forward, hand clasped and raised above his head to hammer the shorter man to the ground. Vegeta just laughed and backed up some more, then did a little midair jump and delivered a roundhouse kick. Goku twisted from side to side as Vegeta came at him, his eyes completely glued to his opponent.
"Come on Kakkarot, you can do better than that!" Laughed Vegeta as he continued to push him back. Goku smirked and then without warning brought both his knees up and connected with Vegeta's ribs. The wind knocked out of him, Vegeta fell slightly and Goku promptly jumped and slammed both of his feet onto Vegeta's head, sending him to the earth below. Vegeta struggled to get up and watched Goku float down, the smirk still on his face.
"Not bad Vegeta! Although next time you should pay more attention to what you're doing; you could easily have back flipped and pushed me away."
Vegeta growled and ran forward, but Goku just dodged and tripped him as he ran. Vegeta fell forward and his chin scraped the ground, causing a low growl to erupt from him. (LOL, that happened to me at school…I was running bases and I slid on a base and scraped my chin…it hurt.) He got up again and turned to face his opponent, wiping some of the blood off his chin. Goku laughed good naturedly and patted him on the back.
"Oi Vegeta, you've got to be more careful next time! That was fun though; we should do it again!"
"I HATE you." Vegeta said his lips curling into a snarl.
Goku laughed again and jumped over Vegeta's head, pushing down on it with his hands as he did so. Vegeta let out a growl and ran his fingers through his dust filled-hair. Goku just continued to jog down the path, followed not too closely by the filthy prince. When they returned Bulma and Chi-Chi were busy cleaning up the leftovers, chattering all the while. Chi-Chi took one look at the bleeding prince and then looked back down to the table.
"Band-Aids are in the house. If you need antiseptic it's in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, but try not to make a mess; I just cleaned."
Vegeta humphed and licked some of the blood off his chin. Bulma winced and shook herself mentally. How could you drink your own blood like that? Gross! Of course this was the same guy she'd caught eating raw steak from the fridge a couple of weeks ago, so blood probably didn't bother him.
"I don't need any Band-Aids. It'll heal." Vegeta said simply.
"Well you're sure as not sleeping on any of MY pillows with blood dribbling down your face. I suggest you at least wipe it off a little, otherwise you're washing the pillowcases when you wake up."
Vegeta grumbled something, but obediently went into the house. A few minutes later he walked out, the wound cleaned and not bleeding that much.
"I'm NOT wearing a Band-Aid like some toddler, onna."
Bulma shrugged. "Suit yourself princey. It's YOUR infected chin."
Laughing, she walked off toward the aircar. Vegeta briefly considered throwing a blast at her, but that fool Kakkarot would most likely try and block it. Grumbling he was obliged to follow her.
