'Yes, I'm back with this story. I had thought that I was finished with it, but I just got back from my parents' house in Iowa (oh fun) and of course when I'm not near my computer, I get a ton of ideas for my stories. So yes, here I am again, with yet another chapter for "Tid Bits." I think that I'll only have this chapter and one or two more and then it's done. Thanks for reading and reviewing.'

Chapter 8

Chi-Chi smiled as she looked out her window as her youngest son flew at his best friend with a confident and eager grin on his young face. Goten looked so much like his father and yet he'd never meet him face to face. She sighed as the aching sadness covered her heart again, but shook her head. No, she told herself to not let it affect her. She told herself that it was Goku's choice and he knew what he was doing. She would have to respect his wishes.

But she couldn't help but feel a heavy regret settle within her as her happy, playful son sparred with the one-year-older boy of Vegeta and Bulma's. It had been many years after Goku's death, yet she still felt bitterness toward the arrogant saiyajin prince whenever she saw him. Believing that it was Vegeta's fault for letting Cell absorb Eighteen that made her husband die, she always resented and hated him for it, and knew that it was unfair that she felt uneasy around his young son Trunks.

The two boys were inseparable, though. Chi-Chi knew that Trunks was a nice child, though bit of a troublemaker with a wild attitude, and it was great that the arrogant boy befriended her somewhat sheltered and sometimes, not too bright son. After Goku died, Chi-Chi decided to ease up on her youngest son and give him a bit more freedom than she would have with Gohan. The death of her husband disturbed her greatly and she no longer felt the need to protect her son from fighting or his saiyajin instincts. So she let him train, she let him fight, she let him have a friend, but that still didn't mean he never needed to study.

Unfortunately, studying with the child and home-schooling him was much more difficult than she had ever imagined. Unlike Gohan, who was naturally a smart, clever, and extremely intelligent boy, Goten obviously got much of his "smarts" from his father, which would include the ability to eat, train, and sleep. At the age of five, he was proving to be a hopeless case when it came to educational studies. Perhaps that was the other reason that she let Goten have more freedoms than Gohan ever had.

Leaning her head out the window Chi-Chi called out to the two sweaty boys and called them in for lunch. In a flash both boys were sitting at the table and panting from their recent spar.

The dark haired woman smiled and shook her head. She would never understand saiyajins. Placing more than a dozen sandwiches on a plate, Chi-Chi put the food on the table along with two pitchers of lemonade and three bowls of potato chips. Without hesitating both demi-saiyajins dug in.

Goten looked up, his large brown eyes blinking some sweat from his face as he watched his mom sit.

"Hey Mom, where's Gohan?"

"Yeah," Trunks piped in, "I haven't seen him in forever."

She laughed lightly and handed the two some napkins.

"Swallow first, then speak."

The boys looked at each other, gulped and then turned back to the dark haired woman before them.

"Well," she began, "as you know, Gohan is planning on going to high school in about two years. He's so smart he's been applying to schools like crazy. He got accepted to a very high-class, well-known school in Satan City so he is at a meeting right now with the administrators. It's very exciting." Chi-Chi's large brown eyes began to glisten with gleeful tears as she beamed. "Oh Gohan, I'm so proud of him! He's going to be the smartest student there!"

Goten turned his head to the side, his mouth twisted in confusion. "But he'll be so busy in school, he won't have time help me study."

Chi-Chi's smile faded and she looked at her youngest with a sweet smile. After she attempted to help the child learn the basics in education, she almost lost her mind with him so she sent Gohan in to do the job. Unfortunately, the powerful super-saiyajin ran from the room screaming within ten minutes. With the way things were going, it looked as if a tutor might be needed.

"Well, you can take a break from your studies for while," she replied.

The childish face of her son lit up and he grinned. "Really? Cool! Trunks did you hear that? Now we can hang out all the time."

The blue eyes of the older boy narrowed slightly but he forced a small smile. "Well, Goten I go to school, though."

The black-haired boy shot a glance at his mom. "Oh! Can I go to school, too? Mom, can I?"

A familiar stern glare appeared on the woman's face and both boys cringed. They knew what was coming next.

"No, Goten. I've explained it several times. Schools are for ruffians and misfits. The teachers don't know anything and the administration brainwashes students. Besides, who knows how mean they are at public schools. You could be teased, humiliated, not learn anything new, or worse, bullied! So again, no."

A sideways smirk appeared on Trunks face, but he knew better than to upset the woman. His mother had explained time and time again how hysterical and dangerous Chi-Chi could be. And coming from Bulma Briefs, a woman who had quite the attitude herself, he heeded her warning.

"But Gohan is going to school," Goten mumbled.

Chi-Chi stood and slapped her hands on the table startling the two half-saiyajins.

"Gohan has been home-schooled for the majority of his life. He's proven that he can handle social life. You are too young Goten, and you need one on one studying that you can't get at any old school. Now this conversation is over!"

With an angry huff the fiery woman plopped down in her chair and grabbed a sandwich. Goten pouted but remained silent as he slowly chewed on his snack. Trunks however was quite amused by the whole show. Bullied? Ha! At his school no one messed with him. In fact, almost every day…sometimes every other day the school called Capsule Corporation, either with news that he had shoved yet another kid into a locker or through a wall, or that he played some prank on his teacher or faculty, or that he blasted a toilet with his ki energy, or he had hit on yet another girl, or…well…the list went on and on from there. Besides, he actually did learn a lot, even though most of his knowledge did come from home.

Goku's widow was calming down enough to turn to the lavender-haired boy and smile. "So, Trunks, what's new in your life?"

Blue eyes blinked and he shrugged. "Not much really. I just started training in the gravity room with my dad and my mom has been letting me help her with some experiments in one of her labs."

Chi-Chi's eyebrow twitched at the mention of the certain saiyajin prince, but she was intrigued that a child at the age of six was allowed to be in such a dangerous place as a Bulma Briefs lab, especially a child with energy like Trunks's.

"What are you doing in the lab? Are they just simple projects like testing out molds and rusts and plant life and such?"

Trunks couldn't help but let out a condescending chuckle, sounding much like his father. "Oh, no. It originally started out as a project to test outer earth atmosphere," he said as he ate a salty chip. "But after some time it became more of a planetary travel project that concerned different dimensions of space into other parts of the universe," he explained simply sipping at his lemonade. Goten sat to his side humming and pulling something off his shoe.

Chi-Chi stared at the boy dumbstruck as he calmly explained the different dimensions of travel through space that no six year old could possibly understand. She leaned forward in awe of the once seemingly simplistic boy. A smirk appeared on his face and he, too, leaned over.

"And how does someone travel through different dimensions of the galaxy?"

The cold, calculating blue eyes of the child prince pierced her brown ones. "When a mode of transportation, lets say, a spaceship, picks up enough speed it breaks through barrier after barrier after barrier. Now, lets say that it is traveling so fast that it starts breaking through wave after wave after wave of different walls that keep a universe and such together. You take a speed that cannot be reached on a planet due to the fact that a planet would be destroyed because of it and it starts breaking through these different layers and walls of the galaxy." Trunks reached behind him and grabbed a pen and paper. Chi-Chi watched in total disbelief as the young boy rapidly drew a detailed, dimensional drawing covered with mind-blowing equations that explained and showed the different perspectives and angles within this universe. He explained in great detail how it worked, why it worked, and how it had happened already.

Glancing up at her a sly grin appeared on his face as Chi-Chi's shaking hand took the paper. It was such a busy piece of art she could barely follow anything on it. The equations were so intense and impossible, yet this six-year-old explained it all too clearly. Trunks stood up and pushed his chair in.

"It's quite beneficial to have Bulma as a mother, yes?" Chi-Chi stammered.

The purple hair stopped swinging as Trunks moved about and he slowly turned, the same sly grin on his young face. "Oh yes, having her as a mom is really great. She's super smart. But…she wasn't the one who figured this whole thing out." He made his way to the door and his smile widened. "It was my dad. Well, thanks for the lunch Ms. Chi-Chi. See you later. Bye Goten."

And with that the small fighter slowly rose into the sky and flew away. Goten ran to the window, oblivious to his mother's shock. "Bye Trunks! See you tomorrow!"

………….

The phone rang at Capsule Corp and naturally, no one picked it up. Almost to the answering machine a loud voice screeched in annoyance and loud feet rushed up the stairs.

"I know you are in this house, Vegeta!" Bulma yelled as she placed her hand over the phone. "Someday a call might actually be for you and then you'll be sorry!"

Picking up, the beautiful blue haired woman brought the phone to her mouth in annoyance.

"Hello?" She snapped. The line was quiet on the other end and Bulma felt her fiery temper rising. If this was another prank call she would-

"Hi, Bulma?" A timid voice on the other end asked.

Large blue eyes blinked and she smiled slightly.

"Chi-Chi?"

"Yeah."

It had been so long since the two had talked on the phone. Ever since Chi-Chi had slapped Vegeta in the face, the two had been on quite negative terms. Over the years things had gotten better, but there was always a cold distance between the two. Having an actual conversation on the phone was almost an extinct occurrence.

"Hey, what's up?" Bulma chirped happily. "I haven't talked to you in forever."

The dark-haired woman forced a laugh and twirled the telephone cord around her finger anxiously.

"Oh, not much. Gohan got accepted to Orange Star high school and Goten is playing with Trunks practically everyday."

Bulma laughed loudly. "You got that right. Well, hopefully they're staying out of trouble."

There was silence again and Bulma could definitely feel the uncomfortable tension on the other end. Chi-Chi let out another nervous laugh and sighed.

"Bulma, I actually didn't all here to chat. I…I was wondering if I could to talk to…Vegeta?"

Blue eyes widened, and then narrowed. Bulma's hand tightened on the phone and she was silent for a moment.

"May I ask why?"

"I have something to ask him."

Fearing that the dark-haired woman was planning another screaming, blame session for Vegeta, Bulma cleared her throat. Not caring if she was rude, she blurted the next question.

"What is it?"

Chi-Chi felt an embarrassed grin appear on her face and she sighed. "Well, you see…."

………………..

Long, spiked hair blew in the breeze, as Vegeta lay on his bed with the window open. He'd been training a lot in the morning and decided to call it quits early that day. The phone was ringing off the hook about hour ago and he grinned as his loudmouth harpy screamed at him from downstairs. Sure, he had a phone in his room and Bulma had not one in the lab so there were no distractions, but he wasn't about to answer it. Like she said, the phone was never for him so why should he go out of his way to answer it for someone else?

Relaxing on his stomach after his shower, he heard angry footsteps leading toward his room. He smiled again, waiting for the fuming woman to appear in his doorway and start a fight with him. He always found her so hot when she got pissed.

His door creaked open and the attractive, blue-haired goddess leaned against the frame and gave him a cool stare. Looking up, he returned the gaze to her. His dark eyes trailed up and down her body and he took in her red tube top, blue jean capris, and chin-length blue hair. Where was her anger? He wondered, and gave her an arrogant smirk.

"Guess what?" She said. He shrugged. "That call was for you."

He barked out a laugh and turned over on his side so his back was facing her. "Whatever. What do you really want? Come to tell me food is ready?"

The spoiled girl walked into the room and slowly sat on her prince's bed. He made no motion to stop her so she leaned over and draped herself over his shoulder, feeling his hard muscles under his blue wife-beater.

"No, the call was really for you," she giggled in his ear.

He shifted suddenly and wrapped his arms around her. Pressing his face into her deep cleavage he sighed and she laughed.

"Oh?" He said, his voice muffled and his lips tickling her chest. "And pray tell, who was it? Kakerotto, Piccolo, Frieza, a prank call from the brat and his dolt of a friend?"

"Nope," Bulma teased, running her hand through his feathery hair. "You got a job."

He pulled his face from her breasts and sat up quickly. "A job?"

She nodded. Standing she walked to the door. "Starting tomorrow, you're Goten's new tutor."

…………..

He could have been training. No, he should have been training. Dammit, that blue-haired bitch and her useful little tools. Oh sure, disable the gravity room. He could go train in the mountains. Oh cool, don't cook food for him. He could go blast a freakin deer and live easily. Oh nice, no sex. Yep…that threat was what led him to the rounded dojo of Kakerotto's house. Vegeta could feel the squirming little energies of the brat Gohan, the bitch Chi-Chi, and the even bigger brat Goten. Feeling utterly ridiculous and absolutely used and pissed, he knocked on the door and stood seething.

He had to jump out of the way as an anxious and frazzled looking Chi-Chi threw the door open. Without hesitating she grabbed his strong arm and pulled him inside. Blinking in surprise he saw a tired Gohan sitting at the table drinking some coffee. He looked liked-

"Shit," Vegeta scoffed. "You both look like shit. What has happened here?"

Gohan smiled and brushed a long stand of black hair from his dark eyes. The sixteen-year-old fighter was much older-looking since his fight with Cell, but still had the intense strength of power churning through his veins. He still had a wild mess of short hair and he looked even more frazzled with dark rings under his eyes. Chi-Chi plopped down at the table and ran a hand through the falling bun on her head.

"We tried to tutor Goten last night," Gohan spoke almost fearfully, like this was one of the hardest missions of a lifetime. "But he-he is not teachable. It was like a nightmare. Oh sure he has the sweet looks, innocent smiles, and childish attitude…but…but-"

Chi-Chi reached over and patted her son's knee. Vegeta lowered an eyebrow, amazed at seeing how distraught the powerful saiyajin was. Surely Kakerotto's youngest was not this nightmarish? He felt his stomach drop as the hard eyes of Chi-Chi glanced at him.

"I guess I should lead you to his room. I was hoping that maybe a little bit of math would be good for him today."

Standing, Chi-Chi slipped passed the sour prince and walked down the hall to Goten's room. He kept his distance from the woman, not wanting any fears or problems to occur. The last thing he wanted was to have her start screaming or lashing out and then getting his ass beat by Gohan.

It was certainly bizarre talking to the high-strung bitch on the phone the following night. The last time he had ever spoken to her was while he was receiving some well-thrown punches in the face from her. Plus, she was Kakerotto's wife. And here he was, in his archrival's home about to tutor his youngest son. The day was just too strange.

Chi-Chi came to a closed door and reluctantly pushed it open. By the way she was acting, Vegeta half expected some wild animal to come flying from the room and maul both of them to death. But upon entrance, all the prince saw a smiling little, midget identical to Kakerotto sitting in a pile of papers and school supplies. As soon as the flame-haired saiyajin appeared Goten's face brightened and his smile became a gargantuan grin.

"Cool, Mom!" He cried. "I didn't know you were serious about having Mr. Vegeta come over."

Mr. Vegeta's face twitched in annoyance and he crossed his arms. Feeling even more ridiculous he glanced around the small room and scowled. How they lived in such small confines was a mystery to him. Chi-Chi gave her son a small smile and knelt down by his ear. Although she whispered, Vegeta's superior hearing could pick up every word.

"Now, you be good, and I mean it. He's very…well…very impatient, so try not to be a nuisance and listen to everything he says. Though, not everything, honey. Remember, you know right from wrong. If anything happens, call me or Gohan in immediately."

Vegeta rolled his eyes and sighed. What, did she think he was going to teach her son how to become some mindless murderer in two hours time? That only happens over years.

Chi-Chi kissed her son's forehead and stood. Scurrying past Vegeta she pulled the door open and told them that it should stay open. Then she left. Cold, dark eyes swept down and Vegeta felt his stomach jump as the miniature version of Kakerotto grinned up at him excitedly. Growling lightly Vegeta moved over to the small boy and sat down amongst all the paper, pencils, erasers, and markers. His eyes narrowed as he saw a sketchy, awful drawing of his son and Goten holding hands and running through flowers. This was not what he wanted to see. Pushing the drawing and other five-year-old sketches away he snatched the large math book from the demi-saiyajin's small hands.

"Humph. If your dolt of a brother and flake of a mother can't teach you simple mathematics like this, then I can see why you're not seen as that intelligent."

Vegeta was merely rewarded with an absent-minded grin and giggle. His eyes widened and he set the book down quickly.

"Do you have worksheets or anything? Are you writing these problems on paper?"

The small boy gazed around the floor and let out a relieved noise. Picking up some lined paper he waved them back and forth.

"My mom and Gohan worked with me a little last night. I was assigned sixty problems to do…but, I only got three done."

Scowling deeper, Vegeta snatched those papers from the boy's hands as well. He had to hold in a gasp as he saw that only one problem had been answered and the other two ended with the answer of –6 plus two equals gerund and the other, divide 7u by 98 and you get adjective. Goten saw Vegeta's twitching eyebrow and cocked his spiky head to the side.

"Not right?"

Feeling his annoyance rise at the utter stupidity of the child, the prince managed to hand the papers back to him calmly. Vegeta laced his ungloved fingers together and took a breath.

"You do understand what subject this is, yes?"

Goten nodded eagerly.

"Well," Vegeta spoke slowly, "if you are doing a math problem, you cannot answer the question with a non-mathematical answer." Goten merely stared at him, and then grinned. Clearly he didn't understand. "Look," Vegeta snapped. "Two of your answers are gerund and adjective. A gerund is a verb ending in ING and an adjective is something that describes something else."

"Oh, I knew that," Goten replied.

"Then why did you put them as a math problem!"

Again, Goten cocked his head to the side and smiled sweetly. Vegeta could only stare in awe. Was Kakerotto this dumb when it came to subjects like this?

"Moving on."

He had Goten put his papers on the floor and open up his textbook. Looking for an easy math problem Vegeta pointed at it and told Goten to solve it. Watching closely, he observed as the little boy hummed and quickly wrote some numbers. A few minutes passed and the five-year-old pushed the paper over to Vegeta. Goten watched, as the cold face grew colder and twitched in annoyance.

"No," Vegeta whispered. "Think brat. A negative plus a negative is always positive. And how the hell did you get it as a decimal? There aren't even any decimals in this problem or even in this entire chapter."

Angry eyes looked up to see a shocked Goten holding his hands over his mouth. "What?"

Goten shook his head and lowered his hands. "You said…hell."

Vegeta's jaw dropped to the floor. He looked at the ceiling and muttered a few choice words under his breath, one asking how he ended up in this position. Taking a few deep breaths, Vegeta pointed at two more questions in the book.

"Remember, a negative plus a negative equals a positive. And you should not be getting a decimal answer in any these."

Goten got busy and started to write his answers again. Humming and shaking his head to his own song, his pencil busily scratched on the paper. Vegeta sat on the floor and gazed around the room. He'd rarely been to Kakerotto's house and he wasn't even sure he had ever been in it before. He was positive the dumb saiyajin would have a cow now if he could see the position the prince was in.

"Um, Mr. Vegeta-"

"Just Vegeta, kid."

"Oh…um, Vegeta, if I took twenty four and subtracted two, what would be the answer?"

Staring at the boy a moment at the sheer idiocy he leaned forward and looked at the two problems Goten was supposed to be working on. Both were blank and looking at the book, there wasn't even a question about that.

"That's not one of the problems," Vegeta said. "And how do you not know that? You just take away two from twenty four."

Goten reached over and pulled a pack of colored pencils from under the mountains of paper surrounding him.

"Well, I have this pack of twenty four colored pencils, but I've just been counting them for the past five minutes and I only counted eighteen. That means I'm missing two right?"

Vegeta smacked his hands to his own cheeks and tried to calm his raging annoyance at the incredibly flaky child. Feeling himself start to shake he reached out and snatched the pencils away. Quickly throwing them over his shoulder he leaned over and glared into the eyes that were in every way just like Goku's.

"Listen kid," he growled. "This isn't play time and I sure as hell don't want to be here." He ignored Goten's gasp and continued. "Now, you need to pay attention to what I'm saying and what I'm teaching you, so I can get out of here and go back home. Forget the colored pencils, forget the drawings, and just do your homework."

"Hey, you fought with my dad, right?" Goten asked, completely ignoring Vegeta's anger. "I only get to hear fighting stories about him from Gohan, but he said that you fought him a lot, too. Are you stronger than he was?"

Vegeta blinked, completely caught off guard by the question. He was about to answer, "Of course, brat. Your father was a weak third-class with no talent." But something held him back. There was gnawing sense of guilt as the innocent, smiling child looked up at him. If he had tail it was be wagging with excitement. After all the years of regret and guilt and hurt after Goku had died, Vegeta felt that he could not lie to the being before him who was just like the deceased fighter. He even felt that by telling the truth to the hopeful lad, it would ease his conscience in some way.

"Your father," Vegeta began. He hesitated and swallowed, finding it hard to talk about it suddenly. "Your father loved to fight, like any normal saiyajin. And, as much as I hated it, he was really good. And often times, we were equal in strength and power. Many times I could beat him and would often try. But…" he stopped, finding his voice wavering suddenly and he looked out into the setting sun outside Goten's window. Looking back he gave the boy a small smile. "Having more power and smarts doesn't make one stronger. Having someone to fight for and care for is…is sometimes what makes a person stronger than others. So, in many ways, I was stronger….in most ways, your father was stronger. So, I guess, in answer to your question, since your dad has always and will always care for everyone and everything, even though he used to let the stupidest and most evil people go free, he is…more powerful than-"

"Than a lot of people," Gohan said, stepping into the room suddenly. He gave Vegeta a quick smile and leaned against the doorframe. "Vegeta and Dad were always really close in power, Goten. But it doesn't really matter now, does it?"

Goten gave his older brother a sad smile and bowed his head. "I guess not."

Vegeta leaned over and put a finger under Goten's small chin, making him look at his face. "It does matter, though, because your father did matter. And he was one of the strongest fighters I've ever met."

The usually arrogant saiyajin looked over to Gohan who stood with a proud smile on his face. Vegeta never acted this way, but he had obviously changed since Goku's death as well. That was clear.

"Do you get it, Goten?"

The spiky-haired boy nodded. "Yeah. If you care for people and have loved ones to fight for, then that's all the power you need to be powerful. But even with power, if you're alone or mean, you still won't be happy or strong enough to win."

Vegeta sensed Gohan tense up but the prince smiled and nodded. "That's about it, kid. It looks like you're able to learn after all. And since we know that…do question thirty three."

Gohan turned to leave the room, still gazing at Vegeta as he left. It was amazing that the prince had changed so much. He thought for sure that the usually angry fighter was going to snap and hit his little brother or storm off in a rage, but he didn't. It seemed that he had figured out a little bit of life. Sure Vegeta was an amazingly genius strategic fighter and planner, but it was rarely seen. His arrogance and pride had always gotten in the way, which almost always landed Vegeta in trouble. In many ways, the older fighter was a very ignorant and childish being, but he learned new things every day. The saiyajin prince's life was out of control and he was used in so many ways, but here, on earth, it seemed that he was finally figuring life out and managing quite well.

Walking past his mother's room, he stopped as he saw her sitting on the edge of her bed. Her face was turned away, but he could see her barely suppressing her tears. Moving forward he sat down next to her. Not even speaking he placed a hand on her shoulder and she placed her delicate hand on his.

"I made a mistake," she whispered miserably.

"Why? What is it, Mom?" Gohan asked, rubbing his hand on her back. He knew that she had been listening to the conversation in Goten's room.

"I hit him."

"Who, Goten?"

"No…I hit Vegeta. All those years ago. I blamed it all on him. I blamed him for Goku's death and I hurt him. I can tell he's been living with it all these years and it's my fault."

Gohan hushed her and chuckled lightly. "Mom, you think he's never received a slap to the face before? He understands, I understand, everyone understands that you were angry and needed something or someone to blame. Ever since the battle with Cell everyone has had the guilt. You think I didn't? I KNOW it was my fault Dad died."

"Gohan no."

Gohan still smiled and raised a hand to quiet her. "People make mistakes in battle, Mom. I made mine, Vegeta made his, Krillen made his, and it's all over now. Dad is not gone for good and this was his choice. I know….I can feel it in my heart that he will return to us someday somehow. So it's time to stop. Stop feeling bad, stop feeling angry, stop feeling guilty or miserable. As someone told me once…a long time ago…just let it go, just let go."

Chi-Chi began to sob and threw herself into her son's arms. Gohan smiled, knowing that this was probably the last time his mother would cry for a while. He felt her finally accepting everything. He felt her open up and let go, just like he had done when Android Sixteen told him to not worry and just let it happen. Let everything just go.

It was 9:00 when Chi-Chi came to check on the two in Goten's room. Her stomach sank as Vegeta sat rubbing his forehead and Goten babbled on and on about some frog he and Trunks had found in the creek near the house.

"How much did he get done?" She asked, startling both saiyajins.

Vegeta sighed and shook his head, then yanked the paper that lay in front of Goten and tossed it to the dark-haired woman. Her brown eyes skimmed over the paper and her hand tightened around it. Everything on the sheet was wrong. It was the same assignment she had given the boy the previous night and there was still nothing done on it. Some the answers weren't even answers! She crumpled it up and tossed it over her shoulder.

"You're hopeless, Goten!"

The childish saiyajin's hair practically dropped with is face. "I'm sorry, Mom."

A small smile escaped her and she crossed her arms. "It's ok, Goten. You try. I guess you're just like your father. Food, fight, and fun. Well, go get ready for bed and then I'll bring you in some food."

He grinned again and stood up quickly, sending papers and school supplies flying. Running to the door, he skidded to a stop and bowed.

"Thank you, Vegeta for the tutoring and help."

Before the full-blooded saiyajin could answer the wild child sped from the room toward the bathroom. Vegeta stood and brushed himself off. He'd been sitting in the kneeling position for a long time and his knees ached. Chi-Chi watched him, seeing that he actually looked quite normal in human clothing as opposed to his usual blue spandex and armor. In fact, he was quite the handsome person, just not someone she wanted near her family for extended periods of time.

"So, how was it?" she asked stiffly.

"Impossible," he said simply as he stretched. "I've never met one with so little ability to learn basic math, science, and language. Well, besides your mate."

He expected a slap to the face or screaming for that one, but surprisingly the high-strung woman chuckled and kicked a pencil away from her feet.

"Yep. Just like Goku. Can't teach him anything, doesn't have the patience to learn."

Vegeta's face remained blank and his stoic expression set Chi-Chi on edge. "Oh, they're capable of learning, Kakerotto and the brat. They just learn differently. They know more about life and have more heart than any other I know. With those two, education isn't needed in their life. They can get along perfectly on their own."

Chi-Chi moved aside as the surly fighter exited the room and headed for the front door. She grabbed some money from her wallet and rushed up next to him. Before he reached the door he stopped and faced her, the stony mask still on his face.

"I don't need that," he spat.

Chi-Chi looked at the cash in her hand and handed it to him, but his arms remained crossed.

"The fact that your son learned nothing and I have plenty of money at Capsule Corp., I don't need it."

Chi-Chi hesitated for a moment and then tossed the money onto the table.

"Then, accept this." She reached her hand out and waited for him to shake it. With a lowered eyebrow he gazed down at the outstretched fingers and then at her. "It's an apology. I'm…I'm saying sorry for five year ago when I hit you and blamed everything on you and hated you and just….I'm sorry."

Dark eyes gazed into hers and slowly his hands clasped her small hand. She was surprised and shocked at the softness of it. Goku's hands were much larger and callused over years of fighting; yet Vegeta's were thin and soft and smooth from wearing gloves his whole life. Vegeta kept his face blank and then drew his hand back.

"Apology accepted."

He opened the door and prepared to launch into the sky.

"He did learn something, you know." Chi-Chi called out to him. Vegeta turned and looked at her, the light from the kitchen casting an eerie glow on his face. "Goten. He did learn a great deal from you. So, thanks."

Knowing now that she had overheard the conversation he simply nodded and powered up. Chi-Chi watched as the blue glow lit up the sky and then faded in the distance. She sighed and leaned against the doorway. Her heart felt lighter than it had in years and an immense happiness suddenly filled her. Gohan was right. She just had to let go. There was tug at the end of her violet dress and she looked down.

"Did you know that if two dogs are screwing, they can't finish until the boy dog has accomplished his task and they're stuck like that until it happens? The girl dog can't even run away!"

Chi-Chi's eyebrow twitched as Goten's huge grin flashed at her. Oh yes. Vegeta taught her son something, indeed.

'Wow, ok, I just wrote this chapter in like four hours. It's a bit longer than other chapters, but I was on a role. I've never really written much on Goten before so I thought that this would be a cute chapter. Well, the next chapter might be the last, so please read and review and I'll try to get it done as soon as possible.'