Chapter Twenty-Two

Bardock sat in a clearing in a calm meditative position. He was tracking the energy signatures that had been fluctuating all day. All in all there was only one of them that he didn't recognize but considering who the others were, the answer was obvious.

Based on the patterns of increase and decrease of power levels, the children were in the middle of a tournament, and, from the residual stationary increase from the parents ki, they didn't want their parents involved.

Bardock shook his head with a smirk on his face. Some things never changed. It really was too bad he didn't have a spouse to distract him as well, just to the circle complete.

He abandoned his meditation and went into his house. If they didn't want anyone to know than he wouldn't keep track of them. He needed to have a talk with Goten anyway, he could find out then.

Bra's heart thudded beneath her breast bone and her blood thrummed pleasantly in her ear. All reactions which could be explained to the pending fight that was about to begin but, she wasn't going to deceive herself. She was excited, things were falling into place so neatly as if it was always meant to be.

Goten wiped his sweaty palms onto his pants before flexing his hands to loosen is wrists. He blew his bangs out his eyes, annoyed with the straight do, and wondered how he could get his spikes back.

"Ready?" Her lips curled around the word.

"Huh?" Goten blinked at her.

"Set."

"Oh," Goten panicked, "Wait-!"

"Go," she phased from sight.

Goten was forced to phase as well to stay ahead of her but without the proper preparation. Usually, when two people are fighting and they phase, they have been tracking the other's ki and are able to attack and counterattack. This was not the case here. Goten blindly moved to his left as he sent out a probe to find Bra but, by the time he located her, it was too late.

They collided in midair at almost incalculable speeds.

Some members of the audience winced in sympathy while others shook their heads. Only Goten . . .

Bra shook her head to clear it of stars. How had he predicted where she was going to attack? He hadn't seemed like he was ready, which, she would admit she had tried to take advantage of. It took a lot of training and luck for her to beat Trunks and she was going to need everything edge she could find to conquer Goten. Though, Trunks had been slacking and she had not.

Goten tittered on one foot before planting the other behind him so he wouldn't fall. One look confirmed that Bra had to pull some more fancy maneuvers to stay on her feet.

"Can we try that again?"

Bra lifted a brow, had his ingenious move been accidental? A smirk curled her lips, it figures.

"No more accidents, Goten."

"I'll try," Goten smiled, more sure of himself then he had been in a long time.

"Good."

Then it was on.

Vegeta was grinding his teeth.

"I am only going to ask you one more time, Bulma, what is wrong?"

She was in a panic. She hadn't thought this far ahead, she had thought the tournament would be over by now.

"You forgot our anniversary." She whimpered, the tears were drying up. She was going to need hit herself on something again.

"Wrong," Vegeta narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously, "That isn't for another two months."

"No," she tried not to be charmed by his memory. "The anniversary of our first kiss."

"Wrong," he rolled his eyes, "Not only have we never celebrated that before but it already passed."

Bulma blinked at him, "The first time we kissed under the stars?"

"That was . . . Exactly four months from now."

"The first time we laid eyes on each other?"

"That was on Namek," Vegeta's brows furrowed as he reclined on the bed, "Corresponding with Earth days was . . . Yesterday."

"We missed it," her lower lip trembled.

His glare revealed he was unaffected by her show of remorse.

"What has gotten into you?"

His frown deepened.

"Are you pregnant?"

"What?!"

Chichi was now slacking together sandwiches as quickly as possible. Sweat was pouring down the sides of her face as she returned to the stove to check on the pot roast, ribs, and fish.

"Chichi," Goku set down his chop sticks, "This was great but I have to-"

"Here you go, Goku, your favorite." She slammed the grilled fish on the table, nearly breaking her plate. She dashed to the stove and grabbed her fourth pot of rice and set that on the table as well. "Give me a moment and the pot roast will be done."

Goku searched for his son's ki and found it easily enough. I'm sure he's fine. He sat down to continue eating.

Bra's defense was perfect, but, Goten had discovered, when she attacked she left herself slightly open on her left side. The only problem with attacking her on that side was she was unbelievably fast and would be next to impossible to hit. Unless, he could make her angry . . . No, she became cold when she was angry. It would only sharpen her fighting techniques instead of blinding her. Hmm, could he fluster her?

Bra kept her senses trained on him as they circled each other. He was good, but then, she had always known that from watching him spar with Trunks. The only difference now was that she was experiencing it firsthand. But point for her, she was sure that she matched him in strength and his defense wasn't very solid. He tended to leave his lower body open to attack.

She feinted left and attacked with her left leg, she swept the legs out from under him. He went down but not before he landed a punch across her cheek bone.

The force of the blow made her skid back a few feet. She slowly turned her head back to him, a dangerous look in her eye.

He grinned and hurriedly used his legs to flip back to his feet. "You're pretty when you're angry."

Her face went blank.

"Why do you think I waited so long to confront you about the grudge?"

He was trying to fluster her, came the surprising conclusion, so she would lose her focus. Sneaky bastard, she allowed a blush to cover her cheeks, two can play this game.

"Bra?" Goten gulped when she came closer to him with her hips swinging.

"Why, Goten." She fluttered her eyelashes, "I had no idea."

The audience was confused.

"What are they talking about?" Pan asked out loud.

Everyone shrugged.

However, underneath the tree . . . "What are they doing?" Zarah's brow was creased.

"I don't know." Trunks answered.

"You know, Goten, I didn't want to say this in front of everyone else, but I think you look really hot with your hair like that," Bra purred, still slowly making her way towards him.

"You do," he squeaked.

She nodded and lifted a hand to touch his hair. He felt chills run up his back. He realized his mistake when her hand tightened on his locks.

Bra used her convenient handhold to slam Goten face first into the ground. She would have succeeded if he hadn't braced himself at the last second with his hands and flipped over forward on top of her.

The impact knocked the air from her lungs.

Goten blinked at his new position. He was sitting on her lower back, facing her legs.

Not waiting for his next attack, Bra kicked at him with all her might.

I should have held her legs down, was his only thought as he received a kick in the face and just let himself fall back.

His back hit the back of Bra's head and her face hit the floor of the ring with a loud thwack.

Goten continued the movement and rolled off of Bra and onto his feet.

Bra leaped onto him, knocking him flat on his back. They both had to blink black spots from their eyes. Bra stuck her hand in his hair and slammed his head into the ground. She was happy to note that this attempt was successful.

Goten reeled but planted his hands on the ground and his feet flat on the ground. He bridged as forcefully as he could and sent Bra flying from her perch on his stomach.

Bra twisted her body in midair and used her ki to jet right back to the ground with her fists leading the way.

Goten saw her coming and quickly collapsed his bridge to roll out of the way.

Bra adjusted her ki to follow his movement, he would not escape her so easily!

Goten made it to his feet only for Bra to slam into his stomach at full speed. They skidded across the ring when he regained his senses and grabbed her hips, lifted, and started to slam her headfirst into the ring.

Realizing her mistake as she began her downward descent, she braced herself on her arms, and successfully halted her body. Without another thought, she locked her ankles around his head and contracted her body into a ball.

He went headfirst into the ring but managed to keep a firm grip on her hips which changed as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She thrashed violently, to break his hold on her. She strained the muscles in her arms trying to pry his hands apart to no avail.

That's when they started to roll.

Goten was desperately trying to keep his hold while Bra did everything in her power to break it. The roll had started in an attempt to take her attention away from his hands. The ploy had worked to well.

Bra was forced to protect her head though that didn't stop her from kicking his shins when she was on top or from trying to yank out handfuls of hair when the opportunity presented itself.

They both gasped in surprise as they went over the edge of the ring. They had been so engrossed in the other, they hadn't been paying attention to their surroundings. With a yelp, he released his death grip on her and threw himself backwards to avoid the ground only to hit the wall of ring.

Bra, having been on the bottom of the time, thrust her power beneath her and only just managed to stop before touching the ground.

Goten bounced of the ring and collided with Bra, they hit the ground with a nasty crunch.

It was over, he had won.

He winced, imagining how angry she was going to be with him. Considering she had held a grudge for most of their lives for refusing to fight her, how long would she hold one for losing to him?

A muffled sound interrupted his thoughts. Frowning, he realized it was coming from Bra, and he noted with a sinking feeling, her shoulders were shaking.

"Bra?"

She turned her face to the side and suddenly the sound was clear. She was laughing…

"What Goten?" She had the silliest grin on her face.

"Why are you laughing?"

"I haven't had this much fun fighting in a long time," her eyes closed and he noticed her long eye lashes. "We should have done this a long time ago."

A slow smile took over his face in relief and delight.

"Ahem."

Goten and Bra glanced up to find everyone starring at them.

"Would you mind getting off my sister?" Trunks arched an eyebrow in a mildly disapproving manner.

Goten flushed as he realized he was indeed on top of Bra and hurriedly corrected the problem. Zarah and Trunks shared a good natured chuckle at the poor Son's expense.

Sasoli extended a hand to her cousin and mildly surprised when the scientist took it. "So… what happens now?"

Bra eyed her as she fixed her pony tail, "We go home and then back to work. Oh, and Sasoli?"

"Yes?"

"If I find you dancing with Goten again, other than in training or in a mission, you will deal with me."

Sasoli scoffed lightly, "As if I would be interested in him."

"Just so you know," Bra gave her a level look, "and tell no one."

"Of course.

Sasoli smiled.

End of Chapter Twenty-Two