LEAPING MOUNTAINS
written by State Hopper

CHAPTER FOUR
(Flash backs written in Italics)


Today was the day to push the talk of battle aside and to put a piece of cake in your hand, for today was Bulma's birthday - and her age had been sworn to secrecy. It was a glorious afternoon, almost too glorious. Sun cut its way through the palm trees, across the yard and onto the array of picnic tables with bright red table cloths. Guests had started to arrive around noon, Goku and family, Roshi and company, Yamcha and his new girlfriend plus a few random others. And yet Bulma looked agitated, even in her new green blouse.

"This is so depressing. I'm withering up." she moaned.

"Oh whatever, no body ever ages here."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"Nothing."

"... I can't believe he even showed up with her."

"Who?"

"Yamcha, it's been barely a month." she hissed.

"But you dumped him."

"So! Ugh, I'm going to go and see what presents I got." Though Bulma had said she'd forgiven me for the Vegeta debacle, our relationship continued to hold a certain level of suspicion and mistrust. Shifting away from the house, Goku waved out from across the yard, and it was hard to take him seriously. Though large and muscular as he was, Goku looked like such a dork, honestly his dress sense was ridiculous. To my right children were swimming, children I didn't recognize. Gohan wasn't participating. It was baffling, though he was animated Gohan held all the social inequalities of an only child. Strolling across the garden my bare feet dug into the yielding grass. I smiled up at Goku, while Master Roshi remained unfailing in his effort to hinder my sociable side through thick dark glasses.

"Hi Ardin. Master Roshi and I were just discussing Vegeta's disappearance, do you know where he is?" Cringing from the inside, I smiled. Vegeta and I weren't an 'item' but as Chichi would have said 'it was all scandalous enough'.

"No, no I don't... so Goku, where's Chichi? I haven't seen her yet."

"Oh she's at home. Well she said might come later, she had some housework to do."He took a sip of his fizzy drink.

"You left her at home? Goku, that's horrible. Why didn't you help her with the work then it would have been done twice as fast."

"Gee, I didn't think of that" he rubbed his neck "But she hates it when I help, she just yells at me. I don't really know where everything goes."

"Man that's lame."

"And how is your training going?" Roshi lowered his glasses "I hear you're not too fast"

"Yeah well..." I answered warily. The man unnerved me, his movements would jump from peculiarly slow to erratically fast in the blink of an eye, I found it a little disturbing. He left before I could respond with an adequate reply; Yamcha's girlfriend was in the pool. Smiling down at me Goku took another drink, his figure monstrous and shadow long.

"Do you think Vegeta will come back?" I asked him.

"Sure! If I know Vegeta, he'd never pass up the chance for a good battle."

"Yeah... yeah I know you're right."

Resting my cheek within the hollow of his neck, I thought perhaps he might never come back. Looking over his shoulder, I spied another face within the shadows, two blue eyes which studied us intently. It was Trunks and he was smiling. Through the house glass he just smiled at me and I smiled back, in a way that I hoped he understood how happy I was.

"I love you." I heard Vegeta's voice" I love you Bulma."

Bolting up from beneath the bed covers, I stared out into the darkness; images muddling throughout my head. Slipping back under the duvet I stared at the clock, 2am before beginning an arduous chew at my fingernails. Three months had passed and I hadn't heard a word, not a single transmission. I'd tried on numerous occasions to contact his ship but no body ever answered and I was at a point of not knowing what to do. Was he gone for good, hurt or just being Vegeta? I honestly hadn't a clue and it was beginning to drive me crazy. "You can't have expected anything more." Bulma told me. I hated myself for the wariness I felt toward her; but I knew, I knew that in two weeks time I might just die again... just the way it was meant to be.


May 3rd 11:20am - North East of Capital City


"Was that what happened to Yamcha?" Bulma asked.

"Yeah, they steal your energy through those disks in their palms. It's awful." Krillian continued.

Rubbing at my head I looked toward the back of the huddle "Hey, hey Trunks. Trunks you're here."

"Of course." He spoke, and Bulma stepped aside."I said I would."

"When did you get here?"

"When they were looking for you..."

"Yeah, Trunks was the one who found you. Lucky we had those senzu beans."

"Heck, cut the banter!" Vegeta shouted "Is the android still alive?"

"Better, faster, stronger I'd presume... now anyway."

"No, no he's not the one your after, I've never seen that android before." Trunks affirmed.

"Even so, he's going to help us find Dr. Gero's lab" Piccolo explained.

"Well... he fled west, toward the mountains, but besides that I can't be sure."

"It's a start."

"Let him do his worst, I'd never be so cowardly as to destroy those creatures while at their weakest."

"Don't be an idiot Vegeta" Bulma spat "they'd kill you for sure. You heard Trunks."

"Bah! You've no idea just how powerful I've become."

"You've no idea just how powerful the androids are."

Vegeta shifted "I didn't ask for your opinion boy!" He clenched his fists, "And for your information, this battle is already won!" Shattering the earth from beneath his boots, we watched as Vegeta ripped up toward the stratosphere and on toward the western ranges, where moments later, Trunks fled hot on his father's trail.

"Unbelievable! He's going to get us all killed."

"… did he just call Vegeta 'Father'?" Bulma looked at me "Anybody? Anybody else?"


EIGHT YEARS LATER; FRIDAY 3:50PM


It was late in the afternoon and work was slow. It always was when the lunch crowed dispersed. Leaning on the counter, Cherry sipped her coffee, rambling off things I had no interest in. She was one of those people that I considered my friend, even though I did not recollect her last-name or wonder if she knew mine. Rounding the face of my doodle, she pulled away my pad.

"Are you even listening to me?" I nodded "Well, I best get going anyway if I want to pick up those gorgeous shoes before the boutique closes." Leaving the last of her coffee in the cup, Cherry fixed her hair. "Tah..." she waved, almost bumping into Gohan outside the door. It was a funny thing to observe how personality categories were arranged in the animated world. It was rather infrequently that someone would be thrown into the grey area.

"Guess what, I've some great news..." Gohan placed a couple of coins on the bench. "Mom said that I can enter the tournament! Isn't that great!"

Back home, I left the living room lamp off, I found it pretty to observe how the starlight caught condensation on the window. You would be correct in assuming that I still resided at Capsule Corp, yet in an alternate sector divided by a high wooden fence. It was because of the Briefs generosity that I had such a lovely house. Bulma, like myself, still lived on site, in a beautiful complex with her husband and three year old daughter, Bra. For people who lived so close, we saw very little of one and other. In fact I saw very little of everybody. Track and I had eaten alone, like we had for most of June. So on draping a tea towel over the dish rack, I decided to retire..

I was woken at 01:00 am, hearing the door slide across and blast of light from the hall. "What happened to you?" I asked.

"Nothing..." he threw his pajamas to the bed, where for a moment I watched him.

"Turn off the lamp before you get into bed... and where were you? You know it's Friday"

"Busy" I waited, but that seemed to be his answer.

"Well I put your dinner in the oven, have you eaten?"

"Yes." He replied. "I was training." I don't recall him lying down, though at 03:30 I was woken again. Vegeta lay facing the window, with his right shoulder rising steadily. Sighing a little I rolled onto my back, following the vehicle lights across the ceiling, and the sound of a dog in the distance. Grunting deep in his chest, Vegeta kicked back the blankets, rough and briskly. Frowning into the back of his head, I wound my way toward his groin. I use to feel bitter about it, but as of now this scene had become a fairly regular thing.

Sighing I rested my chin upon his shoulder, blowing light against his ear. He stopped moving and I thought he'd woken, but no. Undoing the drawstring to his pajamas, I slipped my hand along his leg to clasp at the clammy skin of his inner thigh.

"Hey..." I whispered, with his cheek firm into the mattress and a resounding note climbing his throat. Gripping a little tighter he pushed himself further into me, coughing out a breath of air. Vegeta was rather beautiful when in weaker more docile state; he thought less of himself when lying on his back. Closing my eyes, I could feel the contractions running across his abdomen, the muscles fluctuating with arousal. Pulling him closer I kissed the hollow of his neck, when unexpectedly and with little warning, he awoke.

"Dammit woman" he lurched to a sitting position "I've warned you not to do that, I don't like waking up to that." He glanced over his shoulder, once, twice, and then sighed out loud. "What?"

"Nothing, I'm sorry... I just thought..." I watched him rise "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to train," things had not always been like this, I remember when he would at least put up a fight, when he had enough respect to at least state his case. I remember when he use to yell.


EIGHT YEARS EARLIER


Standing in the archway to our bedroom, Vegeta just looked at me, then to my stomach. "What do you want me to say?" he turned toward the window.

"I want you to say something. We're going to have a child." I closed the door "Look, I don't want this child either, I care for you but we both know this wasn't meant to happen."

"Then what was?" he spat. "It's not as easy as just saying your going to bare a child.'

"And you think for me it is?"

"I've killed a lot of people and had a lot of people I've known killed. But I didn't care about them; they knew what they were getting into. They knew that they were throwing their lives on the line and in some way I was glad when they died, it gave me a moment to deduce their weaknesses... why they had died at all… hmph, I suppose insuring that I would never repeat their mistakes. Something as small as what's in you can change a person, and in my case change them for the worse. The boy died because you shouldn't have been there and barely five years ago, I would have killed you myself, it was stupid behavior. I sometimes wonder what stopped me." he turned back to the dresser. "I couldn't move, I couldn't think fast enough. I have experienced things in the last year that I can't justify to you, or myself. My Father often said that compassion was the lowest emotion, an emotion that could end you in a way that an enemy never could... we had to be stronger than that. I did all he'd ever taught, and for that remained uninhibited, the perfect Saiya-jin… but you, you ruined me and I damn well hated you for it. "

"What do you want me to say?" I felt my chest welling up.

"I'm saying woman that at the end of it, even against my father... I'm glad. After everything it happened anyway. You're going to bare my child, and I am glad that you're standing here."


The room was dull and sultry when I awoke, and according to the clock it was presently 08:20. Yet add five minutes for a permanently faulty timer and it was 08:25. Buttoning up my blouse, I entered the living room, only to find the television on, curtains drawn and breakfast dishes on the coffee table. Flicking on the jug, removed a note from the fridge;

'Mom I am at Gotens house we r ganna fite,
Dad sed u sed fine.'

Waiting in front of the Son household, I clasped both hands behind my back. Promptly the door swung back for a dark eyed figure to look back at me with a whisk in hand. She turned around, expecting me to follow. I guess it was a little early for visiting. The house smelled wonderful, thick cooking scents, sweet and savory. It was far more homely than my own, though I could never put my finger on why. Entering the kitchen I stopped in surprise to the bounty of faces that stared back at me. Amusing themselves beneath the window were Goten and Track, while sitting at the kitchen table were Goku, Gohan and Vegeta.

"Morning" I waved stupidly - they were only two feet away. The boys waved back, Goku grinned like a Cheshire cat, while Gohan laughed for no reason. Sometimes they were the strangest characters, as expected Vegeta didn't say a thing. Sitting myself down at the table, Chichi issued a cup of tea.

"Are you going to enter the tournament Ardin?" Goku looked across at me. "It sure would be fun if you did" Glancing toward the window I tick-tocked my head. Predictably I received a jibe, kudos to you for guessing who had spoken. Stirring the milk through out my cup, Chichi exited the room.

"So" I directed to Goku "Are you nervous, I mean about being in front of all those people. You will have to make a speech you know."

"What?"

"I already told you that Dad."

"I'm not too good at remembering things." I know many of you would say it was stupidity and not sweetness in Goku; well if that was stupidity then I wished Vegeta was an idiot.

"Its gonna be so cool." Gohan spoke excitedly "I have never been to one before, besides entered."

"Child's play" Vegeta scoffed. "I'm only participating in this circus to battle Kakarott, everything else is trivial" We talked for at least an hour further. Notably, Chichi, Gohan and the boys left at around half nine, she was meeting with her father. At least that was what I think she said. Either way, Track was due home mid afternoon. Breaking up my second slice of raspberry-square. Goku brushed away the crumbs of his sixth. The man's head nodding along politely to whatever Vegeta was complaining about. I wasn't taking much notice.

"Hah, you will be in for a surprise Kakarott" Goku shrugged and smiled

TO BE CONTINUED...