A/N:: *waves happily* Well, I'm not sure who won our little bet, so I just decided to give you guys a present, and Veggie and I will both get what we really want…
T-chan:: *smacks head* Oh gee, just proclaim it to the world why don't you!
Lexi:: ^_____^` *refuses to comment* Well – your Christmas present is to receive this next chapter really early! ^^ Woot!
Vegeta:: *rolls eyes* just get it over with woman. I'm waiting…
T-chan:: *smacks head again* Kami… let's just write the chapter, shall we Lexi-sama?
Lexi:: *has already started writing*
Disclaimer:: *singing* All I want for Christmas is DBZ, DBZ, DBZ//All I want for Christmas is DBZ – So I can own my Veggie-chan!!!
Vegeta:: =.=`
T-chan:: D
*
Videl listened to the older woman ranting, not precisely paying attention. In fact – she had no idea what was going on, really wanted to find out, had a source of information babbling at her elbow – but all she could think of was Son Gohan and how incredibly sweet it sounded when he was purring…
"…and you'll name your first child – a little girl of course! I've always wanted a little girl to dress up – you'll name her after my Frying Pan! Speaking of which, we'll need to talk to Bulma about getting you your very own Saiya-jin proof Frying Pan. It's the only weakness of our boys that we can exploit. That and Bulma also tells me that banning them from the bed is excellent punishment... I've never tried it though – it always seems to me that it puts just as much punishment on us as it does them! I've also always wanted more babies! When you have a little boy, you have to pick a name that follows our tradition! We've already got a Gohan, Goten, and a Goku – although knowing Gohan, he very well might want to name a child after his father… *sigh* he never has gotten over his father's death. It hit us all very hard. I'm convinced that he still blames himself for the death. You'll have to help him get through that – kami knows I've been trying for the past seven or so years, but to no avail… You will help him, right? Of course you will. And if he decides not to name your son that, then it'll have to be something else starting with 'Go'. It's really become a tradition for us! Maybe Golyn! That's a pretty name… Or what about Gokin? I've been thinking about …"
Videl sighed. No, there was no way to get any information out of this woman. In fact, she doubted that anything could be retrieved out of the pointless babbling besides the fact that Videl was going to need a frying pan of some sort. But that was no help! She already knew that it was going to take plenty of frying pans to keep her Go-chan fed! But maybe Mrs. Son was referring to the way she was hitting Gohan over the head with that Frying Pan… Yes, that must be what she was referring to – but Videl couldn't bring herself to do that! It was just… wrong!
And so the two continued through the halls of CC, one babbling a mile a minute, trying to impart all of her motherly knowledge to the other, whose thoughts kept straying back to a certain Saiya-jin teenager.
*
Launch suddenly stopped in her tracks, causing her husband and their friends to go crashing into her. Bulma turned to look at her inquiringly, wondering what the cause of her sudden panic might be.
"Oh no!!! I forgot my Spatula at the store! Tien, take me back right now! Thanks for everything Bulma – we'll come out to visit you again soon! I really want to talk more with you, okay?"
Bulma grinned, nodded, and waved as Tien scooped up his wife and pelted out the door with a hasty goodbye – not positive why he was in such a hurry, but wanting to appease his wife none-the-less. With a tiny smile, Bulma turned back towards Krillin and Roshi, who were both staring at the empty spot in the hall with something akin to shocked confusion.
"What… just happened here?"
Bulma's smile grew at their confusion. "Oh, nothing important – It's a woman thing."
"…is it about dinner?"
Bulma swatted Krillin with the back of her hand. "No baka! But I can't tell you – it's one of the secrets of womanhood."
Krillin and Roshi exchanged a frightened glance, silently agreeing that the whole thing reeked of an author who was simply trying to eliminate excess characters. Bulma, however, knew much more then they did – she knew that, while the author was cleaning up, this particular occurrence would spur the story on into greater depths…
*
Erasa turned slowly towards a group of blonde preps. With Gohan flown away, Videl spirited off by the crazy black-haired woman, and Sharpener presumably dead, there really was no one else she could hang out with! She might be a hell of a lot more intelligent then she generally let on, but she still held girlie gossip dear in her heart…
And gossip there was plenty of! In fact, the class was in such an uproar that nerds were gossiping with jocks, the preps were socializing with the skaters, and the Goths and loners were actually socializing outside of their own rings! Today was really a day to remember…
*
After exchanging another meaningful glance, Krillin and Roshi decided that they'd better part ways too. They still needed to find Marron – whose ki had disappeared, then recently reappeared some distance away from CC – and they were starting to get a bit scared of the blue haired woman's Cheshire grin.
"See ya later Bulma! We've still gotta find Marron."
"Yeah – as much as I'd love to watch you changing your clothes and trying on some other outfits…"
Bulma smacked Roshi with her Frying Pan, then turned to Krillin with a grin. "No problem Krillin – I'm sure she's around here somewhere. I should probably be getting back to the class myself… There's really no knowing what they might've gotten into while I've been wondering the halls. See you two around! Don't be strangers now!"
Waving cheerfully, the two men disappeared down the hall towards the exit.
*
Mirai Trunks stopped and frowned, carefully feeling around with his ki. Apparently Gohan wasn't around for a spar anymore, and Pan's was rather too far away at that point… He wanted to spar! He sighed as he felt Krillin and Roshi exiting the building, taking away yet another semi able sparring partner.
Speaking of Krillin - wait till the mother of his timeline heard about them and the Marron kid! That had been something he wasn't really expecting: one of the Z fighters had married his worst enemy, had a child with her, and that child was now Pan's friend. Some wonders never ceased, he thought to himself. Too bad Gohan wasn't still around to hear it…
Speaking of which – he could feel Sensei's mother and mate walking towards him right this minute! With a gulp, Mirai ducked out of sight. He'd already encountered the crazy Frying Pan wielding woman once today, and he didn't precisely want to repeat it. He wouldn't have minded talking with Videl – he'd grown rather fond of his "sister" over the years – but not at the price of running into Chichi.
Unfortunately for Mirai he'd ducked into an already occupied room for the second time that day. Turning around, he came face to face with Sensei's class. Now, normally he wouldn't have minded mingling and getting to know these friends of Sensei – but he wasn't exactly sure he liked the looks that most of the girls (and a few of the boys) were sending his way…
*
Pan blinked in shock as her father tumbled to the floor of the Lookout – down for the count. She remembered her father as being very strong – he wasn't supposed to faint at the drop of a hat! In fact, he'd been fainting repeatedly all day! She frowned slightly, debating whether she should go to him or not. Deciding that the little green thing that was currently trying to get away was her top priority, Pan returned to beating up on the helpless creature.
Marron, for her part, rushed forward to see what was wrong with Gohan. She'd always been terribly fond of the older boy, and had even gone so far as declaring that he was to be her honorary brother. He'd always thought she was a darling kid, and had gone out of the way to pamper her whenever he got a chance – much to her joy – after all, he didn't have to live with a spoiled child, did he? So, worried about her 'nii-chan', Marron rushed forward to make sure he was alright, though still cheering Pan on – after all, if Gohan was her honorary brother, that made Pan her honorary sister/neice!
Vegeta just watched them all with a smirk. Things were shaping up nicely… All that he needed now was to finish the corruption process with the eldest Kakabrat! As he was debating ways to accomplish this, another thought flashed across his mind: if he could corrupt the children so easily, would he be able to succeed with the father? Perplexed by this new idea, Vegeta sat back to meditate on whether the fool of a third class might just be corruptible material. So mystifying was this idea, in fact, the author even sat back to meditate the idea of writing a whole new story on the subject, wondering what her readers/reviewers might say… **hinthint**
*
Goku, meanwhile, was currently zooming towards his wife's ki with only one thought in his mind – food. Ah yes, to see his gorgeously wonderful wife making food again… Even the thought made him drool. In fact, so immersed in his wonderful imagination was he that he didn't even notice that his two charges were no longer following him. Indeed, they were now headed off into the woods again.
They still feared the almighty threats of the Gohan-sama.
*
Piccolo – still meditating by his waterfall – had the sudden urge to do something to help Gohan. Standing up abruptly, Piccolo closed his eyes, listening for the author's voice in his mind.
~Hey author-lady! I don't have all day. What the hell do you want me to do to help the kid?~
~Hmmm… I hereby give you the power to do the instant transmission twice – but only twice! Use it wisely, otherwise you'll end up stuck out in who knows where.~
Piccolo's eyes flew open and a small smirk crossed his features. He knew what to do to help the kid! Bringing his hand up to his forehead, the not-so-jolly green giant disappeared from earth – only to reappear almost instantaneously on Namek. It was time to collect the dragon balls and atone for failing his young friend.
*
Gohan awoke from his shock-induced faint and sat up. He regarded his smiling "sister" for a minute, then turned to watch his daughter beating up on Kami. He had the strangest desire to join in and help her… With an evil smirk that would have done Vegeta proud (had he not been busily pondering the corruptibility of the Son family), Gohan stood up and walked over to the huddled mass of green.
"Hey Pan-chan."
"Hey Daddy!"
"Can I help?"
"Absolutely!"
With that, the two began a serious session of father-daughter bonding – the Kill Kami way. In his heart of heart Gohan knew that this wasn't all Dende's fault – but he also knew that if Kami hadn't been foolish enough to send his class to CC in the first place… In Gohan's mind it was all the green teenager's fault, and thus he must be punished for his actions.
*
A/N:: *grins evilly* you probably noticed that I've started to clean up some of the looser edges in this story – I intend to wrap this up pretty soon, then start on the second section: "Of Moons and Tails". It will be the same story and everything, I'll just devide the story into two parts. There will be a sudden break in the next couple chapters after Piccolo makes his mover, then there will be a new chapter heading. The story will continue, and the only change you might notice is that the story will have come to a complete halt to allow me to gather the rest of the loose ends, then it will go barreling forward again. My plan is that this will help me write some more – and the change of parts will also be marked with something I'm sure you'll all appreciate – a single chapter devoted to recapping everything that's happened in this story so far. I know it will help me, and it might clear up a couple questions that people have been asking.
T-chan:: *grins* yeah, most helpful.
Lexi:: *swats her* hey watch it! I was on a roll up there! *continues* I also am pleased to announce that pretty soon it'll be the anniversary of this story! That's right folks, in February it's the Murphy's Law series' first birthday! *eyes brim with proud tears* I'm such a proud parent…
Vegeta:: *rolls eyes* stupid woman…
NOW I can say Merry X-Mas properly! ^________~