Ahem. I am alive. *waves* Hello! Disappointing as it is, this does not mean I am over my writer's block. This means I decided to get off my lazy ass and write. Oh yes, you didn't think someone could write with writer's block, did you? Well, I can. It's complete crap of course, but it's a chapter! Apparently, the quality of my story doesn't matter to anyone. How do I know this? My only reviewer. Here is the review, in its entirety:

"pretty good but i want them to get mad and go ssj"

I'll get right on that.

On to other things. This chapter is meant to just get the damn thing over with. I'm not in the best of moods right now, can you tell? I can't promise a long chapter, but it will explain Ranu's origin. Sort of anyway. I thought about this for awhile, and decided to stick with my original plans for the character. Live with it.

Chapter 10: Torn Memories

Kris opened her eyes slightly as she felt someone lift her up. She looked up sleepily and blinked at Goku's face as he carried both her and Ranu into the house and to Ranu's room, tucking them into bed, all without loosening Kris and Ranu's grip on each other.
She yawned, unconcerned, and snuggled closer to the still-sleeping Ranu, closing her eyes. She slowly drifted back to sleep.

* * Dream * *

An infant Konora blinked open her eyes and her tail twitched in annoyance as sounds from the next room wake her from her nap. She yawns widely and rolls over onto her stomach and, with some difficulty, gets up onto all fours and crawls over to the side of the playpen-like thing she is trapped inside.
She watches, interested, as her mother and father walk in, followed by a man with unruly-looking spiky hair and a scar across his face.
"It's been awhile, hasn't it Bardock?" her father asks. "What's kept you from visiting? Your mate been pestering you again?" He grinned and elbowed the man, Bardock, in the side playfully. Bardock smiled and shook his head.
"Nah," he replied. "I've been busy with my crew. In fact, I can't stay here very long, I have to get ready for the next mission."
"Really?" Konora's mother asked. "Which planet are you and your crew going to?"
He grinned.
"Planet Kanassa." He replied, looking very proud of himself.
"Well, best of luck to you," her father said. "Don't get yourself killed though. After all, if you die, who'll be left to bring our daughter's future mate over?"
"Speaking of which," Konora's mother said, walking over to her. She leaned over and tapped her daughter on the nose with the tip of her tail and smiled as Konora giggled and lifted on arm unsteadily to try and grab the furry brown appendage.
"Hey, Bardock," her father said. "Why don't you put him in the pen with her? You know, just to see how well they get along at first."
Bardock looked uncertain for a moment, but eventually nodded and unwrapped the infant that he had in his arms from the blanket that had efficiently pinned the babe's limbs and kept it quiet. He placed the infant into the pen, in the opposite corner from Konora.
"He doesn't look half-bad Bardock. I heard he's got a decent power level too," Konora's father said, stepping up to be next to the pen, watching both of the small Saiyans blink at each other. "Is he going to stay on planet?"
Bardock shook his head.
"Nah," he said. "His mother is sending him on a mission sometime soon. Says it'll be good for him, might toughen him up a little. I'm inclined to agree. He ain't exactly tough."
"Say, why exactly are you taking care of the kid anyway? You're only his grandfather, shouldn't Raditz be looking after him?"
"Heh," Bardock replied. "Raditz let me borrow him. My mate's pregnant again, and she wouldn't let me back in the house until I 'learned how to take care of a young child properly'. I guess she wants me to take better care of this next one than I did with Raditz." He shrugged.
Konora stared at the new person who had intruded her territory. He stared back, undaunted. Both were waiting for the other one to make a move.
"Oh, come on already!" Konora's mother exclaimed, exasperated. "Here!" she threw some random toys into the pen between them.
The little boy's face lit up with delight at the sight of all the toys and he quickly set to work playing with them. Konora made a tiny sound of shock. Those were her toys! Not his! She crawled over to him and snatched the toy from his grip. He squeaked in surprise, and then snatched it back. Konora did the same. It went back and forth for awhile, until they both hung on and pulled. With their teeth.
RI-IIPP!
Both fell backwards, half of the plush toy in each of their mouths. They both blinked slowly, staring at the half they had. Konora let her half drop out of her mouth. She moved herself into a sitting position and clumsily picked up the half she had. She whimpered a little. That had been one of her favorites! Now it was gone. Tears started to well up in her eyes and she sniffled and whimpered louder.
The adults had left the room for a moment to discuss something, so none of them could hear Konora's whimpering. The little boy let go of his half and looked confusedly at her.
"M'yeh?" he squeaked out. As a general rule, most Saiyan infants learned how to speak a few basic words if they were to remain on the planet. It made life a lot easier for everyone when the parents could have their infant tell them what was wrong with them. The little boy had just made the sound for a question. In essence, he asked her what was wrong.
Konora hiccupped a couple times before she started all-out bawling. Not at the top of her lungs, but enough that it disturbed the boy. He started whimpering as well, before he was crying too. The adults came back in.
"Oh great," Konora's mother groaned, plucking the halved toy from the pen and tossing it side. She picked Konora up and patted her back comfortingly.
"Shh, it's okay Konora. I can get you another one."
Bardock watched her and imitated what she did with his own grandson. He may as well try and learn how to handle children, if his mate was going to have another one.
"Hey," he said softly to the little boy. "Quiet down. Be quiet Ranu."
Eventually, both stopped crying and wanted to crawl around again. They put the infants back into the pen and Konora's mother left to prepare some formula in feeding bottles for both of them. She hoped they would both calm down a little with some food in their stomachs.
"Whew," Bardock said, slumping down into a chair nearby. "I don't know if I can handle another brat running around. I thought it was bad enough with Raditz, but if I have to hang around this next brat all the time. maybe I'll just have it sent on a purging mission. It can come back when it's full grown,"
Konora's father chuckled, and her mother came back with two bottles.
"There you go little ones," she said, making sure both little Saiyans were situated and happily sucking down their lunch before she sat down next to her mate. They were quickly engaged in a conversation with Bardock.
Konora quickly finished the bottle and dropped it. She felt something hit her leg and she looked down at it to discover it was another bottle! What luck! It was half-empty, but that didn't matter. She hurriedly picked it up and. she looked at the boy whom she had just noticed was directly in front of her, large black eyes innocently looking at her, the bottle, her, then the bottle.
"Ne'da." he said. He was asking for the milk back. Konora frowned and thought for a moment. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a small whimper and a growl. She looked up again and saw that the boy was looking at her with pleading eyes and his stomach was growling. There was something about the eyes that just made up her mind for her. She rolled the bottle to him.
He squeaked in happiness and sucked down the contents of the bottle as fast as he could. Konora watched, interested, as he discarded the now- empty bottle. He smiled a little at her and Konora noticed that his eyes sparkled when he did that. Abruptly, she yawned. That warm milk in her stomach was making her drowsy, and being only an infant, she couldn't fight the sleepiness. She lay down on her side and curled up, her eyelids shutting slowly. She weakly fluttered them open for a moment when she felt something warm and soft snuggle up against her. It was Ranu, who was also futilely struggling to stay awake for a few seconds longer. With a small sigh, Konora fell asleep, unconsciously snuggling closer to him for warmth.

* * End Dream * *

"Kris?" A soft voice filtered into her mind, disturbing her sleep. She made a small sound of protest and clung more tightly to the warm, soft thing she had in her arms.
"Ack! Kris, don't choke me! You're gonna crush my ribs!" the voice hissed, breath rushing into her ear. She scrunched up her face, but loosened her grip a little. She sucked contentedly at the furry thing in her mouth and purred. She felt like she had done this before… bits and pieces of the dream floated into her mind. She groggily opened her eyes, blinking away the sleep. She was greeted by the wide-awake face of Ranu. He grinned a little sheepishly at her.
"Hullo." he said. He glanced at something. "Um, Kris-chan? Could you maybe. let go of my tail? It's time to get up, and we'll miss breakfast if you don't get up soon."
Kris blinked and looked at the thing that was in her mouth. It was…
"Ewww!"
She shoved the saliva covered tip of Ranu's tail away from her and her mouth, which had apparently betrayed her in her sleep. Ranu frowned.
"Well, I didn't ask you to start sucking on my tail!" he protested, slightly offended at her disgust.
"Bleh," Kris responded, sticking her tongue out.
"Whadda ya mean, 'bleh'?" he asked, scowling at her. She made a face
at him.
"I mean 'bleh, you had your tail in my mouth'!"
"That wasn't my fault! You're the one who put your slobbery mouth all over my tail!"
"Did not!"
"Did to!"
"Not!"
"To!"
"Not infinity!" Kris finished with a smug smirk that was reminiscent of Vegeta's. Ranu grinned mischievously in response and Kris gave him a wary look. His hands abruptly shot out from his sides and mercilessly tickled Kris. She squealed helplessly and thrashed around on the bed, throwing the sheets everywhere.
Ranu grinned and pinned her down, still tickling. When she started to turn blue he stopped, but kept her pinned, lest she try to obtain revenge. She panted for a minute.
"You… you..." she panted, trying to think up a good insult while getting her breath back.
"Ah, come on Kris-chan," Ranu said, looking disappointed. "Can't you just have some fun for once? You're always so angry all the time... can't ya just relax and play?"
Kris looked away, having caught her breath already. Ranu couldn't help but notice that she looked sad all of a sudden, and he mentally berated himself about it.
'Great!' he thought to himself. 'Look what you did now! You made her sad! Way to go, she was happy just a second ago, but you just had to bring up something to make her sad again!'
Kris pushed against Ranu, wanting to curl up into a ball again, but he wouldn't let her. He looked concerned, but she told herself she wouldn't care.
"Sorry," he whispered. She wanted to tell him he had nothing to be sorry about, that it was her fault she was being so stubborn, but she couldn't get it past her throat. She just attempted to curl up again.
"K-kris?" Ranu mumbled. She glanced at him. "Why… why don't you like to play with anybody? I mean, sometimes you'll play tag and stuff with me, but… why are you so sad all the time Kris? Why..." he trailed off and his grip on her loosened. She didn't make any attempt at escape however. She felt tears start to form in her eyes. Why couldn't she just make Ranu happy? Why did she have to be this way, and make Ranu sad along with her? He shouldn't be dragged in this, only she should have to be sad. He didn't deserve to be sad, he hadn't done anything wrong… he should be happy. That's the only way he should be. Kris let her thoughts become more forceful. She turned back to look him in the face.
"…sorry..." she whispered. Ranu smiled a little at her and she gave him a slight smile of reassurance back. His head abruptly jerked towards the door.
"Pancakes!" he shouted, and leapt off of her. She rolled her eyes and sniffed the air. Pancakes were being made downstairs along with… bacon? Kris jumped out of bed and raced after Ranu, who was currently halfway down the stairs and chanting "pancakes!".

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

After breakfast and about three hours of playing, both little Saiyans decided to take a rest break in front of the television. Ranu decided to go get some drinks while Kris lay upside down on the couch. He walked into the kitchen and saw Chichi washing some dishes and humming to herself. He paused and wrinkled his cute little nose in deep thought. After a moment, his face relaxed, his mind made up. He changed course and headed for Chichi instead of the refrigerator. He tugged on the hem of her shirt.
"Hm?" she asked, looking down from the dishes. "Oh, it's you Ranu!
What is it?"
He looked thoughtful again and fidgeted nervously.
"Well..." he started. "Aunt Chi… um... w-what's a 'mate'?"
Chichi blinked a couple times then closed her eyes and put the dish she was cleaning down. She stayed that way for a couple seconds and Ranu was getting worried. She sighed and opened her eyes finally. Ranu looked at her warily.
"Come on," she said, grabbing Ranu's little hand and leading him over to the table. He sat down in a chair across from her once she let go of his hand.
"Now, what do you already know about 'mates'?" she asked. She had to get a good idea of what he had already been told, if anything.
"Nothin'. 'Cept you and Bulma-san keep saying me an' Kris'll be good
ones."
Chichi mentally groaned. He really shouldn't have overheard that conversation, of all things… she sighed again and folded her hands on top of the table.
"Mates are…" she started and trailed off. How to explain this and not damage his fragile little mind…
"Mates are two people who like each other a lot. But not like your friends, it's kind of. more than friends. Understand?"
Ranu scrunched up his face again, then nodded. That kind of made sense.
"Like me and Goku. We're mates. And Bulma and Vegeta." She offered examples.
"And Gohan-san and Videl-san?" he asked. Chichi nodded. Good, he understood now.
He made a disgusted face.
"Does that mean me an' Kris'll have to kiss? 'Cause that's icky!" he exclaimed, sticking his tongue out to better express his disgust at the idea. Chichi chuckled.
"I'm sure you'll get used to the idea," she said. "Speaking of Kris, where is she?" Knowing that the Saiyan girl was related to Vegeta, and therefore too mischievous for her own good, she was probably in trouble this very second.
"She was watching TV last time I saw her. I was supposed to bring back drinks."
"Well, go and get the drinks. Kris has to go back home in a few
hours."
"Awwww...."

And there ya go. For people who are confused, I'll make what was just
revealed simple: Ranu is the son of Raditz, and Konora and Ranu were
going to be in an arranged marriage to each other. There. You didn't
think I'd throw in that whole "Uncle Goku" thing for no reason, now did
you? Heh, of course, Kris doesn't really remember any of that, except for
a foggy memory of some Goku-ish looking person introducing her to Ranu
when she was an infant.
The whole "what's a mate" thing has something to do with the story too,
but you'll have to wait. As of late, I said to myself: "To HELL with
plot!" so, as you can see, there is none. Deal with it or give me one.
Again, if ANYONE has any ideas on what to do next with this story,
leave a review or e-mail me. Heck, just leave a review anyway.