Just One Week

XVIII.

The years seemed to fly by after that…not that they didn't before. Before I knew it, Bra and Pan's first birthdays came and went, followed by the second. Trunks, Goten, Bra, and Pan all got along terrifically and depended on each other equally. Actually, and I say this very lightly, Bra was a little bit of the odd one out in the group. It's just that Bra took after me in the sense of being the "adorably cute little girl" while Pan took after her parents of being a fighter and always rough-housing with the boys. Bra never seemed to have a problem with it, however, for she did enjoy watching the shows they put on.

Not only that, but other things changed also. A lot of my old friends began visiting every now and then, such as Yamcha and Krillin. A funny thing about Krillin is the fact that he married Android 18 about three years ago and had a little girl with her. I've heard things going around about it, but I was a little weary on the subject. I mean…really. Krillin and 18? Who would have seen that one coming? Anyway, their daughter, Marron, is just two years older than Bra and Pan. Because of that, they bring her over sometimes to play with the others. Marron's not a fighter either, so Bra took a bigger liking to her.

Things began to spice up again a little over a month before Bra turned three years old. Gohan announced to all of us (including non-Capsule Corp. people) that there was another Tenkaichi Budoukai. He seemed…I don't know how to explain it…more overjoyed that he should have ever been? I mean, I understood perfectly when Trunks, Goten, and Pan were ecstatic; after all, it would be there first tournament. But Gohan? Since when was he one to get all worked up over something so trivial? I didn't ask, however, no matter how much my curiosity got to me. I just let them all do their thing.

This therefore brings me to the training chapter. Gohan, needless to say, was everyone's "master" so-to-speak. Videl stated that she didn't know whether to enter or not, but the discipline Gohan put her through was enough to get her back in shape to the way she was before she got pregnant. The girl looked fine to me.

A lot of times, Bra and I would watch the five of them train, seeing how they each progressed in their own little way each day, even Gohan. Every now and then, someone would drop by for a little "preview match" but during these times, people usually don't see each other until the day of the tournament.

And well…you know how it is. Before you know it, the big day is only one day away…

It was about ten at night on the day before the tournament and Bulma was no where else except curled up on the couch with a good book in hand. Bra was sleeping peacefully with her head on her lap, her shoulder-length bright blue hair tickling her nose every now and then. Of course, though it made her nose twitch a lot, she was too tired to reach a hand up to brush her hair away from her face. Her little body was well hidden under the flowery hand-made afghan.

A small, side lamp was on medium for Bulma to be able to see the words, the tick, tick, ticking noise that sounded every second from the clock not bothersome, but rather comforting.

Everyone else in the house was getting ready for bed, or already in bed. Even from downstairs, Bulma could hear a small commotion from Goten and Trunks, but figured that she shouldn't even bother going upstairs and telling them to calm down. That was the worst way of handling the situation, she thought. She knew they were excited, and the only way they would ever fall asleep is if they simply wore themselves out.

Videl put Pan down to rest about a half-an-hour ago and she fell asleep almost immediately, followed by Videl. Gohan, Bulma noticed, put a little more extra pressure on the two girls on the last day of training than he did on the boys.

Gohan…well, Gohan has his ways to stay up just a little later than anyone else does and talk to Bulma for a few minutes. This night was no exception. The man came tiptoeing down the stairs and sneaked up behind the couch. He glanced over Bulma's shoulder to see what she could possibly be reading now, only to automatically guess it was a romance.

With his lightning fast speed, he reached down and pulled the book up out of her grasp, "You know, you shouldn't be reading these kind of books this time of night," he flipped through some of the pages, but making sure to keep the page she was on intact. He glanced down at her now looking up at him. He showed a mocking smirk, "It could give you ideas."

Bulma gave a small chuckle and took the book back when he handed it to her, "Oh yes, it's just gonna drive me crazy enough to go out looking for some lovin' tonight."

"You never know," Gohan teased, coming around the couch and sitting down beside her. He happened to glance at the sleeping girl on her lap and finally did Bra the honor of brushing her hair out of her face.

Bulma smiled but pretended not to notice the gesture, "So why aren't you in bed?"

He shrugged and took a quick look at the clock, "I still have some time, just decided to come down and see what you were up to," He paused for a moment, watching as Bulma put her book marker in her place. A devious smirk crossed his lips at that moment, "You excited?"

Stifling a yawn behind her hand, her eyes traveled over to him, watery and tired, "About what?"

"Tomorrow, of course."

Her hand came down gently to rest on Bra's head, her fingers caressing through the silky locks of her daughter's hair, "Why would I be excited, you're the one that's going to be doing all the fighting."

When she didn't hear a response from him after a moment, she looked back over to him. He was smirking at her…a smirk that covered his whole face. It seemed like one of those grins that becomes extremely painful, but you still can't make it go away.

She raised one eyebrow in curiosity, "What?"

Gohan could do nothing but shrug as though nothing was out of the ordinary, but his grin still never left.

Out of fun, and some annoyance, she smacked him on his arm, "What!"

He did nothing but put his finger to his lips to tell her to quiet down before pointing to Bra, who shifted in her sleep. Bulma watched her for a moment to make sure she didn't wake up before turning her attention back to Gohan. That mysterious grin he wore was really beginning to irk her nerves. Really, she figured it was one thing to smile, and then another to smile like a complete maniac looking as though he wanted to begin singing "I know something you don't know, I know something you don't know!"

Clenching her teeth together, she hissed out his name warningly. She was going to make him tell one way or the other, because she just couldn't take not knowing a secret.

Gohan opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was, "You'll see tomorrow sometime." With that, he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and stood up from the couch. His arms stretched high above him as he made his way to and up the stairs, "Well, as you said, I should be in bed. Goodnight, Bulma."

Bulma watched all the moves he made, doing nothing but letting her mouth hang open. How dare he do that to her! She was sure he did that on purpose…to come down, get her curious, and then leave. How so…well, unlike him actually. It's not exactly Gohan-like to keep a secret from her.

Sighing in deep frustration, she banged her head against the back of the couch. Her fingers began to run through Bra's hair again, her own blue eyes closing shut, "I'm never gonna be able to sleep now…" she paused for a moment and brought her head up, "I wonder what it is…"

Alas, it was the day of the tournament and, needless to say, things were hectic around the Capsule Corp. premises. Bulma woke up first, at about eight-thirty, to get a good breakfast ready for everyone so they wouldn't have to wait until they got there. She made everything she could possibly think of, going from cereal, to pancakes, to egg rolls.

Only when she was all done with this food making did she realize that no one came downstairs yet. By this time, it was almost ten and they arranged it so they would leave somewhere between eleven and eleven-thirty.

"Guess I get the duty of being the cook and the alarm clock today," Bulma huffed, taking one last look at the full table before exiting the kitchen and heading upstairs.

She reached the hallway that was between all the rooms and wondered how to go about it. Should she go from room to room, such as in a hotel, and knock on their doors, or should she just…

She sucked in a deep breath and let it out with a: "Everyone get up!" Bulma screamed frantically, "We're already late! Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

The method worked just as well as giving them all a hard kick in the butt. Not two seconds after she gave them this warning, she heard the rustling and busy moving in each of the occupied rooms. She put on a humorous smirk and crossed her arms under her breasts. And that's how everyone got presented to her when they came out of their rooms at once.

"Just don't stand there, Mom, we gotta go!" This was Trunks, who was still jumping up and down trying to put his right shoe on.

Goten had his fists clenched in anticipation, "Yeah, I don't wanna lose before we even get there!"

Gohan stepped forward now, his eyes a bit worried. He grabbed her by her shoulders and gave her a firm look, "Do you got the air-car ready? We put our entire luggage in there last night, right? So we don't have to do that. What about—."

He was cut off when the loud rumbling sound coming from Goten's stomach grumbled, the "talking" lasting for a good thirty seconds. Bulma had to hold back a laugh when Trunks looked at Goten's stomach with wonderment.

"…Food." Gohan finally finished when he heard it was his turn to talk again.

Bulma finally let out the giggle she was trying to suppress and shook her head, "I'm sorry guys, I just had to do it to you. We still have about another hour before we have to leave," she took a quick glance down at Goten, "And I made a large breakfast."

The last statement made the youngest boy forget that he had been tricked into getting out of bed in a cruel way. His face brightened instantly as he ran past Bulma and flew down the stairs. Pan also heard this and wanted to go get first digs on the food, but as soon as she was about to run after Goten, Videl grabbed her arm.

"Pan, you have all your clothes on backwards," her mother pointed out, pulling lightly on the tag that was sticking out beneath Pan's chin.

The little girl didn't seem to care, however, as she tried her hardest to get out of the grasp she was set in, "I don't care! I'll fix it later if you want."

Videl shook her head and opened her mouth to deny the request, when Pan was suddenly ripped from her grasp. As it turned out, Trunks grabbed Pan's other hand and slipped her away from the clutches of the "backward-clothes worrying mom".

The three adults watched as Trunks and Pan ran down the stairs as fast as they could, hoping against hope that in that small interval of time, Goten didn't already eat all the food.

Bulma felt a light tug on her pants and looked down to see Bra, dressed in her polka-dotted dress and shoes to match. Bulma felt proud that Bra picked her clothes out herself and put them on correctly. That meant she would have a great fashion sense when she got older.

"Can you do my hair, Mama?" Bra asked, holding up two ponytail holders to indicate that she wanted her hair to be put in pigtails like Marron always wore her hair.

Bulma smiled and ran her hair through Bra's matted down hair that desperately needed that oomph, "Sure, go into my room and I'll be there in a sec, okay?"

She watched as Bra nodded and went into her room before turning back to Videl and Gohan, "Well, I'm sure you two will need something to eat, too, so go ahead. There's plenty down there."

"I'll meet you downstairs," Gohan informed his wife, giving her a small kiss on the side of her mouth. Videl agreed and headed in the same direction as everyone else. Bulma and Gohan's eyes met. She smirked again.

"That was cruel," he stated simply.

Bulma rolled her eyes teasingly, "Yeah well…what you did last night was cruel. I was just getting you back…so you gonna tell me now?"

"Hm…" Gohan put his index finger to his chin in a moment of thought before shaking his head, "Nah…now is not the right time."

Her shoulders slumped in defeat, "Awww, how will I know when the right time is?"

Gohan chuckled and walked past her, "Believe me, Bulma…you'll know when the right time is."

Bulma watched as he descended the stairs and knew, once again, she wasn't going to get the answer from him at the moment. She sighed, her stomach tightening in a pulled knot as she walked towards her room. She didn't know why she felt so excited about wanting to know what Gohan was hiding, but something in the back of her mind told her it was good.

She walked into her room, "You ready, Bra?"

Bra turned around with Bulma's make-up in hand, putting eye shadow on her cheeks. The girl gave a large grin and nodded firmly, "Yep!"

Arrival time: twelve-fifteen.

Sign-in time: one-oh-five.

As it turned out, there were a lot more people competing in this year tournament than in all the others and they had to wait in a long line. Not only that, but they got split up right away when they learned that the Tenkaichi Budoukai had a new rule: kids were to only enter the children's division. That got Goten, Trunks, and Pan steamed right off the bat.

"I knew the grown-ups would be easy to beat, but kids? That's pathetic," that was Trunks speaking, of course. His arms were crossed and he looked like he wanted to obliterate the next person that dared speak to him.

Bulma silently agreed with him, but changed her mind when she saw the herd of kids fourteen and under doing warm-ups. The human kids would never be able to beat the adults; she understood why they enforced the rule now.

All seven of them finally came together again and decided to look around and see the sights. The tournament was not due to start until two, so they still had about fifty minutes to blow off. Some point in time, Bulma made her way to walk beside Gohan, her hand clutched firmly onto Bra's.

"Now the right time?"

Gohan looked away when a large smile came to his lips, trying to make it go away. When it didn't work, he turned back to her anyway, "You know, Bulma…you're beginning to sound like a little kid."

Bulma narrowed her eyes at him and stuck her nose up in the air, "Am not!"

Gohan laughed at the sarcasm in her voice, but stopped abruptly, even halting his walking. Because Videl was on his other side, who was holding Pan's hand, and Trunks and Goten were walking behind them, they all stopped with him.

His eyes were wide with amazement, his smile growing larger by the second.

Videl looked at him almost worriedly, "Gohan, what's the matter?"

When Gohan didn't answer, Bulma waved her hand in front of his face, but he didn't waver. Frustrated, she pushed his closest shoulder back so he had to turn sideways and face her. His eyes seemed to come back down to Earth, but his smile never ceased.

"What is going on with you?" she asked inquisitively, an eyebrow raised.

She was shocked when Gohan grabbed her by the sides of her face and made her look directly into his eyes. Gohan put on a look that said he was serious just because he couldn't stop grinning, "I can tell you now…" he paused, just to let the intensity get to her, then began speaking slowly again, "My dad is going to be here."

Bulma blinked three times in confusion, "Wh-what…? Gohan, what are you—."

"Look," Gohan proportioned his hands to make Bulma's head turn to the side. As if in slow motion, she saw the hot dog stand pass before her eyes, followed by a big group of people taking a picture, then a person trying to sell pins, pursued by someone handing out balloons, and then…

She saw him, standing out from all the rest of the crowd; there was no mistaking him. His big, spiked hair flared in all directions, his orange and blue outfit as fitting as ever. His eyes were wide and welcoming, his lips formed into a contagious smile. His rough, strong hands were clenched and on his hips, that is, until he raised his right for a wave.

"Hi, everyone!"

Her heart jumped into her throat and took her breath away. She suddenly felt dizzy and was grateful Gohan had a hold on her. Bulma blinked hard once, just to make sure he wasn't a dream or an hallucination. Alas, he continued to be there.

"Goku…"

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Eh heh….Eh? What can I say…umm…I am so, so, so, so, so, so, SO sorry that I took SO long to update! Geez…quite truthfully, I have been really busy with this and that and I just happened to get a free weekend on my hands and decided to update when I hope none of you forgot about. So…if you still like and still want me to finish, I'm on it!