Today was a girls day, at least for Poppy and 18. 18 was her best friend, that tense day on Mita's first birthday only a humorous story to tell. 18 was stoic and calm. Almost aloof, but Poppy knew under it all was a kind woman and a true friend.
Not to say she was not close with Videl, Chi-Chi, and Bulma too. But 18 had interests similar to hers. Fashion, music, things like that.
Currently, 18 was regaling the tale of Majin Buu to her. "And then he turned me into chocolate."
Poppy rested her cheek on her fist, looking at 18. "He… he turned you into chocolate?"
"Yep… And Marron." 18 sipped on her ice tea, "You probably died too, now that I think about it."
Poppy stiffened. "Wait, I… I died?"
"Oh yeah. Piccolo said something to him, and so he just killed everyone left on earth. So you probably died. Pretty sure you can't remember it, though."
"I definitely don't remember dying." Poppy put her drink down, "Glad Buu is on our side now. I guess Mr. Satan did do something for everyone then, huh?"
"Feel free to relay that information to Cell by the way, I'm sure he would love it." 18 smirked slightly leaning back in her chair and watching as Marron and Mita built a castle out of a large pile of sand Cell had brought them.
18 still didn't like Cell, but Poppy didn't hold it against her. He had done a lot to hurt her, and their shared creator was a sore spot for her. "I guess if I die again I can't be wished back."
"Well… I mean… It was a pretty general wish. Wish back everyone good that died. Maybe you could be wished back still." 18 rubbed her chin, "I don't know, I've never used them personally."
She smiled as Mita picked Marron up and flew her to the top of the castle. She cast Poppy a look out of the corner of her eye. "You ever think of having more kids?"
Poppy watched Mita lift Marron easily. He was only four, but he was like an eight year old now. He was quickly reaching a biological and mental age closer to Trunks and Goten. He was also almost too big to carry, but Poppy still did it. "I don't know. It has… not happened again despite a few mishaps."
"Oh wow… You live dangerously." 18 cast Poppy a sly grin.
Poppy went red in the face. "I forget to take the pill is all. Nothing ever happens though. I don't know if it's me or… Well if I ever really want to have another baby Cell can just do that… Thing he says he can do."
"He's got like, seven of them already." 18 sipped her drink and took note of Poppy's surprised face, "You didn't know about the Juniors?"
"I did but… I thought they were gone."
"Wow. Cell never told you?" 18 put her drink down, "My brother has them watching over his island. Nasty little things…"
Poppy inhaled, her brows rising. With a huff she stood up, stomping off to the edge of the garden. He just let them run around without ever seeing them? Just flat out abandoned them? The absolute nerve of him… She inhaled and screamed shrilly.
Almost instantly Cell appeared, his impeccable hearing picking her scream up from who knew how far away. "Poppy are you okay? I heard you... " He frowned as Poppy looked up at him angrily, "What?"
"Why did you neglect to tell me you have seven kids running around on an island?"
Cell blinked. "Wh… Oh yes. The Juniors. I didn't think it was important. They failed to-"
Poppy promptly turned away from him and stomped back to 18.
"Poppy, don't be angry."
Poppy whirled around to Cell again. "Don't talk to me and go follow Goku around for a bit. I don't wanna see you. Calling your kids failures... I can't believe you."
Cell's hands clenched into fists, frowning. "I didn't call them failures. I was saying they failed to live up to my-"
"That's the same thing! I can't believe this, they are your children!" Poppy went back to 18, who was fighting back snickering, "I want to see them."
18 ceased giggling with a small cough and nodded. "Sure. I'll call my brother and we can go see them." She cast Cell a smirk, and Cell scowled at her.
"18, do not try and pit my paramour against me like some petty teenage-"
Poppy turned on him again as 18 got up to get Marron. "You did that all on your own by neglecting your own children!"
"They can take care of themselves. They are not helpless infants that-"
Poppy cut him off. "Oh and you let them get nearly killed by Gohan too so there is that. Do you have a heart at all?"
"Oh don't act so high and mighty. Who gave birth to my child even though she knew I absorbed and killed thousands of people?" Cell snapped back, getting clearly agitated by her.
Poppy scowled at him. "Mita come on we are going to meet your brothers."
Mita who had been looking embarrassed perked up. "I have brothers?"
"You have seven of them." Poppy held open her arms and Mita flew into them, "Say bye to your daddy."
"Bye dad." Mita waved at Cell who looked annoyed.
"Poppy, don't give me the cold shoulder."
Poppy ignored him, walking to 18's car and getting in.
18 smiled condescendingly to Cell. "Enjoy the dog house, Mr. Perfect."
Cell scowled at her, and vanished. 18 buckled Marron and Mita in the back seat, before getting in the driver's seat. She was silent a moment, looking guilty for causing a fight. She looked at Poppy after a moment. "Sorry, I didn't mean to start a fight. Are you gonna be okay? I hate the guy but I know you love him."
Poppy looked out the window, chin in her palm. "How do you guys do it? Just… Accept everything?"
18 rose a brow. "What do you mean?"
"Vegeta… Piccolo… Buu. How do you guys just move on from what they did?"
18 thought for a long moment. "They changed. That's why. Cell is changing, Poppy. Don't worry."
Poppy frowned. "I don't think he is, 18… I dont think he really is. He doesn't regret anything he's done. He still wants to fight Gohan and Goku. No matter what I say nothing sways him. He's… Stagnated. He isn't growing any more, and more and more I think one day he's going to go back to being that monster that wiped out Ginger Town."
"He's going to have to change if he wants to keep you. So I know for a fact he will change." 18 was not the best at being comforting when it came to Poppy's 'cell troubles', but Poppy knew she was trying, "The guy is a jerk. Nothing will change that but he will get better. Look at Vegeta for example, he's a total softy now. A little more time on Cell and he will stop worrying about fighting against Goku and Gohan and just obsess over being better than them."
Poppy snorted. "Yeah… Yeah you are right."
Seemingly satisfied that she had cheered Poppy up, 18 turned on the radio and they listened to some kid friendly tunes until they hit the ocean. She dialed her brother on the built in phone.
"Hey sis. Thought you forgot about me."
18 ignored his opening statement. "You still have those gremlins helping you out?"
"Wow. No 'of course I would never forget you'? Not even a hello? I'm hurt, 18."
"Hi, Uncle!" Marron called out.
"Hello Mr. 17." Mita joined in, both of them lifting their fists and smiling.
"Hey Marron… Hey other kid. Alright so you want to know about the little blue gremlins? Why?"
Poppy spoke up then. "They are blue?"
17 was silent a moment. "Who's that?"
"Poppy." 18 said simply.
"... Wait you… You mean Cell's girl?" He paused a moment, then laughed, "Ohhh. I get it. Yeah they are still around. I can gather them up to meet you guys. Is uh… Is he going to be there?"
"No. Poppy kicked him into the dog house."
17 sounded pleased by Cell's misery. "Oh man… That sucks. Alright, see you guys soon. Knowing my sister she wants it to happen now. Can't wait to meet you Poppy. 18 tells me a lot about you."
17 hung up and Poppy looked at 18 with a smug smile. "Awww. You tell your brother about me? You really are my best friend."
18 rolled her eyes. "Don't let it get to your head or it will be as big as Cell's."
The arrived at the island a while later, about mid day. 17 lifted his hand to them, a ways behind him were the Juniors. All of them looking at Poppy curiously.
They looked just like Cell, but younger. Hell, they looked no older than toddlers. Were they really strong enough to at one time go head to head with Goku, Vegeta, and the others? It seemed impossible.
"Welcome Poppy. Just as fashionable as 18 said you were." 17 bent over a bit to get on level with Mita, who was in his mother's arms, "Hey, you must be Mita. You are pretty big for someone who is four."
"Daddy says I grow fast." Mita said, looking past him and waving at the Juniors.
"We think he's going to be an adult by the time he's ten." Poppy added, bowing to 17.
"Better then these guys. It's been over ten years and they have not grown an inch past two and a half feet, let alone stopped acting like little kids." 17 put his hands on his hips, looking behind them, "Alright guys. This girl here is Cell's girlfriend."
All the Juniors were suddenly around them, wings vibrating as they looked up at Poppy. One of them reached up and tried to grab at Mita's tail, but he quickly flicked it out of their reach and curled up against Poppy, frowning down at them.
"What's a girlfriend?" one of them finally asked.
"Is dad here too?" another piped up.
"Yeah where is dad?" a few more asked.
"So they still like Cell?" 18 asked, Marron on her shoulders.
"Yeah I could not get that out of them, unfortunately." 17 sighed, "But they like me enough to not go looking for him so it's fine."
Poppy crouched down to their level, setting Mita on the sand. "Your daddy is skulking somewhere right now. But if you want to see him we can arrange that." she smiled at the one in front of her, "Girlfriends are very important people. Your daddy loves me very much. Enough so that he lives with me and had a baby with me."
They all looked at one another, then back at Poppy. "So are you our mom then?"
"If you want me to be." Poppy said.
The Juniors all moved away from her and huddled up, their wings twitching as they mumbled. She noticed they didn't have Cell's stinger. Finally they parted, swarming around Poppy and Mita. "We want you to be our mommy."
"Then I am." Poppy said, yelping as they all jumped on her, Mita darting away before he was caught in hoard of blue Juniors running to get a hug in.
"Aww that's cute." 17 said, "But they will have to stay here. They have a job after all. And the little monsters love it."
"Yeah, we get to beat people up when they come here to hurt the animals." A junior exclaimed, "And no one gets mad when we do it either!"
"Sounds like the perfect job for you guys. And a very important one too." Poppy stood up, Mita now getting surrounded by his brothers, who were all firing questions at him in rapid succession. They were shorter then Mita was.
She was sure to keep an eye on them all. "Can we arrange for me to come by here once a week maybe?"
"Sure. Don't see why not." 17 held out his hand to Poppy, "They need social interaction anyway. All kids do."
As they shook hands, Goku appeared on the beach. "Poppy is Cell here? Oh! 17 hey! Good I can tell you this too."
"Tell us what?" 17 asked.
"Your interrupting a family reunion, Goku." 18 scolded, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"It's really important guys. King Kai said something really bad is heading this way, so be on your toes."
Poppy raised her hand a moment. "Who is King Kai?"
Goku smiled. "Oh right you never spoken to him!" he reached out his hand, grabbing her shoulder. "Hey King Kai, say hi to Poppy."
Poppy opened her mouth about to ask what Goku was doing but a voice suddenly rang in her head. "Your boyfriend is a real jackass. He killed me and destroyed my car. It was a red 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Hardtop! That's a five million zeni car by the way."
Poppy looked at Goku with her brows up. "I… I'm sorry?"
"Be sure the next time he comes to hell that he pays me back."
Goku pulled his hand away smiling. "He's still mad about that I guess. It was my fault really, don't worry about it."
"Well thanks for the warning." 17 said, watching as the Juniors and Mita started playing tag. "If you are looking for Cell you will need to look elsewhere. He is not part of this little get together."
"Alright. He's hiding his energy right now… I'll keep looking for him. Tell him when you see him just in case I don't find him." with that Goku flew away, one of the Juniors watching him leave.
He pointed to him and looked at Poppy. "I beat him up, mommy."
Poppy smiled, laughing nervously. "Wow. How strong you are." She put her hand on his head and he smiled cutely up at her.
Poppy was soon on a towel, trapped by one of the Juniors who was using her lap as a chair.
The Juniors were just like young children, pulling faces, teasing, and they were so curious, asking her all sorts of questions. But while they had the mentality of children, she could already tell they were incredibly smart and rather well spoken.
She supposed having the minds of actual toddlers was no good for fighting. So they were smarter than they looked.
They also had their own little personalities. For example, one was shyer than the others, and another had an ego to rival his father. Which made the fact they all had the same name rather appalling.
They needed their own names. She looked down at the 'clingy' one. He was much more comfortable with being coddled than the others were. In fact, he seemed to love getting affection. "Hey. Have you ever wanted a different name?"
He looked up at her, his pink eyes blinking. "A different name?"
'Yeah, something more you and not… Cell Jr."
He looked down, his feet rocking side to side as he thought for a bit. "What is your name, mom?"
God she hoped he would not want to be named after her. "Poppy."
"So you are a flower?" He put his finger to his mouth, thinking a moment. "What is a flower that is blue?"
Poppy chewed her lip thinking it over. God there were no blue flowers were there? "Cornflowers are kinda blue… No. That's not a good one… Uh… Globe Thistle is considered blue."
"I like that. I wanna be Thistle."
"Okay, then your name is Thistle from now on." Poppy gave him a squeeze, his wings twitching against her torso. How funny the most cuddly of the bunch wanted to be named after a plant that was known for being quite painful to touch.
Poppy was already thinking of a list of names for the others. Maybe some that went with Cell's own theme of genetics and cells. Maybe color themed names. Or even more flowers.
She looked up at 17 who was sitting quietly with his sister, the two of them looking out over the water. Poppy lifted a hand. "Um… Hey 17? Can you come here?"
17 glanced over at her, getting up and dusting the sand off his pants. He joined her, looking at her with the same rather impassive stare his sister had. "Yeah? What's up?"
"Do you have a dictionary? I want to help them all pick names."
17 looked at her a moment before he broke into a smirk. "Yeah I got one somewhere. I used it to teach them to read."
"I want to thank you by the way for watching them so long. They look very happy."
17 nodded. "I like kids. Even little bio-android gremlins." he reached out and put his hand on Thistle's head, giving it a rub, "They didn't really get to choose what their life was going to be. You know? So I figured, why not give them a choice? So I did. And they like it."
He pulled his hand away. "And now they have a good mom. I can't say a lot for dad though. Bit of a deadbeat."
Poppy laughed nervously. "Uh yeah. I gave him a big chewing out when I found out he doesn't even see them."
17 got up. "I'll go get the dictionary. Better think some up yourself in the meantime. You won't have a lot of light left."
