* cries * Thank you SO much for reviewing Falling Star, and especially you Mirrorwind! I was getting kind of depressed about no one reviewing after… what was it? An entire 12 days after posting a new chapter? * pouts * My poor wittle ego was starving… * pats Ego comfortingly * But no more!
Mirrorwind: Don't worry, Kris won't turn out like Goku. It's just that she resembles him in some ways. After all, Goku does act like a little kid! Actually, I'm thinking Ranu will be more like Goku than Kris will. But that'll be explained later. ^_^
Chapter 7: Vaccination Terror
"So, how was your first day?" Bulma asked when they got home. She had somehow managed to get Vegeta to agree to pick them up. Kris grunted and stomped up to her room.
"It was great!" Ranu chattered excitedly. "Except for the snacks. They were too small. And naptime was boring. Oh, but recess was really fun! Me and Kris played tag, but then we started sparring and Ms. V got upset and sent us to the 'office'. I think she was mad or somethin'. Maybe we aren't supposed to spar in school? Anyway, the prin-ci-pal gave me this note and said to give it to my parents. I tried to tell him I don't have any parents, but he wouldn't listen! Oh, and Kris got one too, but I think she tore it up."
Bulma sighed. Kris was definitely related to Vegeta. They were both stubborn, angry, and anti-social.
"Here," Bulma said. "Let me read the note." Ranu fished the paper out of his pants pocket and handed it to Bulma.
"Dear Parent or Guardian of Ranu (no last name given):
We regret to inform you that your son was caught fighting with another child today. We do not tolerate this kind of behavior at our school and we are requesting a parent/teacher conference to discuss your son's behavior and what can be done to correct it. The conference is scheduled for Tuesday at 3 pm. The staff and I hope to see you there with your son."
It was signed by the principal. Bulma sighed again and glanced over at Ranu, who was currently eating straight out of the refrigerator. She leaned back in her chair and took a large gulp of coffee from her cup. It had been hard enough convincing the school that both children had been vaccinated without papers from the doctor, but after all, who was going to call Bulma Briefs a liar and force her to turn over some non-existent paperwork? But now someone had to pose as their parents! Two some ones actually. Kris was easy enough; Bulma would go if she wasn't too busy. But Ranu was a different matter. Speaking of vaccinations….
"Ranu? Would you go get Kris out of her room?" Bulma asked.
"'Kay!" Ranu said and padded up the stairs to fetch Kris.
"Make sure she has her shoes on! We're going somewhere!" Bulma shouted after him. She waited until she heard a muffled "'Kay!" and then left to drag Vegeta out of the GR. She had a feeling she'd need his help for this.
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"Here we are!" Bulma announced. (A/N: She seems to do that a lot huh?)
Ranu looked around curiously to see where "here" was. He couldn't tell. As all four of them got out of the car (yes, Vegeta rode in the car) and walked across the parking lot into the entrance of a huge building Kris began to felt uneasy. She pushed it to the back of her mind, but nonetheless grabbed Vegeta's hand for comfort. He glanced at her, but did not remove her hand, and they continued into the building.
As the automatic glass doors slid open the air conditioning system created a small artificial wind that blew back a few strands of Kris's hair. The scent hit her and she froze. Her hand tightened its grip unconsciously.
"What is it brat?"
Kris shook herself out of it and looked up at Vegeta.
"N-nothin'" she stuttered, and they kept walking. Kris's hand didn't relax its hold.
"Eventually, they got to a waiting room and sat down. Kris had let go of his hand while Bulma explained that they were at a hospital. Then, after explaining to Ranu what a hospital was and assuring him that no one was sick, it was just to make sure no one was, everyone sort of settled down. Sort of.
Vegeta was sitting next to Bulma, who was flipping through magazines and complaining about how out-of-date they were, Ranu was playing with a few little toys that were left out by the staff for that exact purpose, and Kris was… well, she was sitting as far away from everyone else as she could. A nurse walked into the room.
"The doctor will see you now!" she cheerfully announced, then left again. Kris started shaking slightly and Ranu looked at her with concern, but didn't say anything.
Both adults led them into a small brightly colored room. The doctor's office, presumably. While Ranu looked around in wonder, Kris stared straight ahead and tried not to panic.
'They wouldn't let me get hurt, right?' Kris thought, glancing briefly at the adults. 'No, they're nice. They wouldn't ever let me get hurt. I'm safe. I'm safe. I'm-' Her inner dialogue was interrupted by the arrival of the doctor.
"Hello Mrs. Briefs! It's wonderful to see you again, and without another severely wounded person being brought in!" They both laughed a little at the thought. It did seem as if the only time Bulma ever came there was when one of her friends, or her mate, were injured too badly for the first-aid kit and no senzu beans were available.
"It says here," the doctor said, glancing at the clipboard in his hands, "that these two little ones need to be vaccinated?"
Bulma nodded. "Yep. That's why we're here." She said. She suddenly got a look of deep concentration on her face.
"Dr. Ashitaka?" she said.
"Yes?"
"I was wondering… do you think it's okay if both are here at the same time? I mean, it might scare them, wouldn't it? I was thinking one of us could wait outside with either of them while the other one gets their shot."
"No, that's quite alright Mrs. Briefs. I find it's a lot easier if you explain it to them, then let them see that it's relatively pain-free by watching someone else get an injection,"
Kris twitched violently. She made a strangling noise from deep in her throat. She wondered idly if the room was supposed to spin like that… was it another test? No, the tests were over… but why did it smell like they weren't? She swayed on her feet and her tail unwrapped from its usual position around her waist to help her keep her balance.
Ranu ran forward toward the doctor and smiled and greeted him with a "Hi!"
Dr. Ashitaka smiled back and ruffled Ranu's hair affectionately.
"You're certainly a friendly little kid! What about you over there?" he said and looked at Kris.
She didn't move a single muscle. She wanted to scream at Ranu for being so naïve, for letting this man get anywhere near him, scream at him to run far away, but she couldn't get anything past her throat. All the words lodged there and turned watery. She felt panic roil around in her stomach and she felt sick. Her eyes were glazed over and the swaying continued.
The room was too small, it looked too much like a cage and a laboratory, the disinfectant smell brought back memories that should have been buried and gone, the white coat the doctor wore… she was shaking so badly now that her knees gave out and she collapsed on the floor.
"Kris!" Bulma exclaimed, half suspecting that this was a repeat of earlier that day when Kris refused to cooperate with the whole school thing.
Kris's tail was stretched out stiff behind her and every single hair on it was fluffed up, giving the tail a very different appearance than before. The only one in the room who knew anything about Saiyan body language was Vegeta, and the widened eyes, dilated pupils, and stretched out, fluffed up tail was a silent siren that screamed out that Konora was a very terrified little Saiyan.
"Kris-chan!" cried Ranu, rushing over to her. "What's wrong?" Dr. Ashitaka moved forward to see if there was something physically wrong with her.
She wasn't responding verbally, though tears had started to form in her eyes.
Vegeta growled in frustration, grabbed Kris by the back of her shirt, and was out of there faster than you could say "teleport".
Next thing Kris knew, she was on the roof of the hospital, being held at arm's length by her uncle, who was looking at her quizzically, silently demanding an explanation for her behavior.
She felt the tears build up in her eyes and the lump in her throat felt like it was choking her. Her bottom lip trembled as she tried her hardest not to cry. But the stress of the day, all the old painful memories piling up in her head… she burst out sobbing and clung to Vegeta like her life depended on it.
Vegeta sighed in exasperation. This was getting ridiculous! She already cried at least three times a week, and you'd think she would have gotten it all out of her system by now! He was getting rather suspicious of what his niece had been through at this laboratory, and he didn't think he'd like the answer at all. Nevertheless, he held Kris and let her cry into his shirt. Once she was done crying for the most part, he held her away from his now-soaked shirt and put on his most serious face.
Kris sniffled and wiped her eyes. She looked up at Vegeta and winced at his face. She bowed her head and stared at her feet that were currently dangling a few feet off the ground. She knew that face too well.
"Konora," he started. Kris winced again. He hardly ever used her Saiyan name, he usually just called her brat.
"What. Is it?" he growled out. Kris squirmed a little.
"Konora," he growled louder, warning her.
"I…" Kris started. "I got… scared…." She whispered.
"Scared of what?"
Kris fidgeted and bit her lip again.
"Of… getting sick again…" she whispered in an even softer voice.
Vegeta's eyes narrowed. He knew he wouldn't like the answer.
"Sick?" he asked. He had to be sure. "Sick from what?"
Kris shivered and felt a headache starting to form.
"Gettin' a injection." She replied. A few more tears rolled down her face and she refused to look at her uncle. She sniffled again and held her arms out, silently asking to be held again. Vegeta complied and watched her as she curled up against his chest and slowly fell asleep. It had been a stressful day, and she hadn't even gotten a good nap in, so it was entirely natural for her to fall asleep in the first safe place she found herself in.
Vegeta stood on the roof for a few more minutes, looking at his niece and turning this new information around in his brain, putting the pieces of Konora's past together. Scene I: She witnesses her mother die and the planet blow up at the tender age of one and is frozen alive shortly afterwards. Scene II: Lands on Earth. Captured by scientists. Experimented on until she somehow escaped at the age of five. Scene III… well, there was still a piece missing. How the heck had she escaped?
Vegeta shook his head slightly. They were going to have one screwed up little Saiyan female on their hands. He shuddered to think what she would be like as a teenager. He hadn't dealt with teenage girls before, but he had heard the horror stories, and if what he was like as a teen was any indication of what all teenage Saiyans were like… oh yeah. There were going to be several problems later on. He didn't think that the planet would be able to survive three female Saiyans in their teens. His mind wandered a bit.
Kris was resembling Kakarot more and more. First there was the way she ate (although he had been teaching her how to eat properly and she was improving) and now this fear of needles had appeared! Although she apparently had a halfway decent reason for the phobia, while Kakarot did not.
He glanced at the little Saiyan who was now snoring softly and his face relaxed a fraction. He felt a twinge of sympathy towards her. The poor thing went through almost as much as he had, and he couldn't really blame her for the way she acted.
Vegeta flew back into the doctor's office via the window. Ranu was sucking contentedly on some candy and examining a green band-aid on his arm. Apparently he had gotten through his shot without much trouble.
Bulma looked at Vegeta, silently asking if everything was all right. Vegeta nodded once and handed Kris to her. She held Kris's arm while Dr. Ashitaka gave her the shot while she was still unconscious. They all left and headed home after that.
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Kris yawned and sleepily opened her eyes. She was on the couch in the living room and the television was on. She sat up and looked around.
"Well, good morning sleepy-head!" a cheerful voice greeted her. She drowsily turned her head and saw Ranu sitting next to her, a grin plastered on his face. Kris grunted at him and fell back onto the seat cushions.
"Aw, come on! You can't go back to sleep!" Ranu whined. "You've been asleep for an entire hour already!"
Kris grunted again and opened her eyes to watch the television.
"Say somethin'!" Ranu pleaded.
"Go 'way," Kris responded.
"But I wanna play and there's no one else to play with! Bra and Trunks are doing homework and Uncle Goku won't come to take me home until tomorrow!" Ranu had taken to calling Goku his uncle after hearing Kris call Vegeta that. He figured if Kris had an uncle, he should have one too. No one had complained.
Kris sighed and pushed herself up.
"What do ya wanna play?" she groaned.
"I dunno…"
Kris rolled her eyes.
"Then how 'bout we stay here and watch TV until you think of something," she suggested.
"Oh, all right," Ranu agreed.
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Kris was getting bored with the shows that were on that channel. She turned to Ranu to demand the remote control when she caught a glimpse of the bandage on his arm. She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her to get a better look.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Ranu exclaimed in protest.
"Hold still!" Kris commanded. She fingered the neon green band-aid and felt worry worm its way into her stomach. Ranu saw her curiosity of the bandage and smiled reassuringly at her.
"It doesn't hurt," he explained. "I think it's just there to look pretty." Kris's expression turned blank. Taking this as a sign of confusion Ranu explained further.
"When we went to the hospital, and after you and Vegeta left, the doctor put this sharp thing in my arm. He said it was a shot, and it would keep me from getting sick. It hurt a little, but your punches hurt worse."
Kris's eyes grew wide.
"You got stuck with it too," he added as an afterthought. She let go of his arm and hurriedly inspected her own. She found the telltale blue band-aid covering up the point of injection. The color drained from her face and she let her arms drop limply to her side.
Ranu leaned so that he could look at her face. When he saw the pale complexion and wide eyes he knew something was wrong.
"Kris?" he asked. She turned to look at him, fear still evident in her eyes.
"Kris-chan? What's wrong?"
She ignored him as she desperately tried to calm down and not start screaming and crying.
As she slowly convinced herself that her uncle and Bulma wouldn't let them hurt her in any way, and that the shots must be safe, it was her turn to smile reassuringly at Ranu. He still looked concerned, but her simply gave her a look that said she would have to explain eventually and turned back to watching cartoons.
So, how'd you like? It's a little short, and the plot is advancing at the speed ice cream melts in winter. I'm not even sure if I have what you would call a plot. Oh well. I have a couple more chapters to upload, but I'm tired right now. You'll have to wait.
Next chapter: Parent Teacher Conference! A fun little chapter that seems to be turning depressing near the end. Ah well.
REVIEW!!!